Session VIII, Part IV

Leaving Lieutenant Trần outside Hatha with Aleena, Lorenzo and Nausicaä ride up to the outskirts of the rebuilding city with Brock Samson.  As they approach, the PCs are met by the Capitaine of the Garde, who halts his horse at such a distance that the party needs to ride within his archers' bowshot in order to converse.

Undeterred, the PCs move ahead and ask if the Capitaine has seen anyone fitting the descriptions of the possessed magic-user, the hand servant or the Baroness.  The leader of the Garde abruptly says, "No."  The PCs are  unconvinced so they ask if they can enter Hatha.  The Capitaine opens his mouth, looks at Brock Samson, pauses, looks at Brock Samson again, pauses again, and finally says, "Okay."

Inside Hatha, the party sees that, in addition to the militia keeping watch, fixing the walls and training, there are also hundreds of hungry looking and raggedly dressed Cham refugees, who look at the approaching outsiders with suspicion.   The PCs ask to see the Caped Crusader and the Capitaine says he will put in a request and leaves the party to their own devices, albeit under the intense watch of everyone else in the city.

After a couple hours of awkward silence from the Cham, Lorenzo notices a young boy eying his bear meat and offers some.  After the thief rolls a success on his Charisma check, the boy scampers forward and takes the meat, quickly turning and disappearing.  However, soon after, more and more famished refugees come forward and the party readily shares their food.

The PCs hear from their new friends that the Caped Crusader singlehandedly cleared the ruins of Hatha from the hordes of undead by punching them.   Later, the place became an open secret among the Cham as a safe haven and, by ones and twos, they began congregating here.

The next morning, the Capitaine leads the party up the hill to the keep and tells them to wait in the great hall.  It is pitch black.  In the darkness, Brock Samson starts to twitch and then, moments later he starts sweating profusely.

[As Brock Samson] I say, "Umm… I'm not feeling so good."

[As Lorenzo] D asks, "It's okay, you can wait outside, buddy."

After Brock Samson leaves, a growling, barely intelligible voice echoes out from the darkness above the PCs.

[As the Caped Crusader] I say, "SO, YOU ARE THE OUTSIDERS WHO'VE ASKED TO SEE ME?"

[As Lorenzo] D asks, "So, um, is that your natural voice?"

[As the Caped Crusader] I say, "UHHHHH… I'M THE ONE ASKING THE QUESTIONS HERE!"

[After a few moments, as Nausicaä] S says, "Do you know that most of your people are starving?"

[As the Caped Crusader] I say, "THEIR SACRIFICE IS DULY NOTED, BUT OUR TOP PRIORITY IS PREPARING FOR THE COMING CONFLICT!"

[OOC] D says, "I don't think this guy is entirely sane."

[OOC] S says, "That seems to be a running theme for possessors of powerful magic artifacts in this campaign."

The Caped Crusader claims to have no knowledge of the possessed magic-user, the hand servant or the Baroness.  Nausicaä tries to guilt trip him, but he's manically focused on preparing his army.

As the party is leaving the keep, they spot their friend and former translator Mary.  She says that she was the hand servant who betrayed the Baroness out of revenge since Trần's mother, the current Gouverneur of the Central Highlands, killed Mary's parents whilst putting down an minor uprising of the Cham, turning Mary into an orphan.  They also find out that the revenant took the Baroness into the ruins of a nearby archmagus' tower.


With this set up, I had to go with the Tower of Zenopus, the sample dungeon from the Holmes Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set:

Written by Dr. J. Eric Holmes, the first Dungeons & Dragons Basic Set is an interesting document.  It's the last hurrah of OD&D, while also presaging the arrival of AD&D, but it's also its own complete game.  As a teaching tool for the time (1977), the Tower of Zenopus has some useful information for rookie DMs and it's a good introduction to dungeon crawling.


Going into the dark, dusty ruins, the party finds a suspiciously brightly lit, clean and richly appointed library with an open spell book on the desk.  Ignoring the warnings, the PCs rush in to loot the place! Nausicaä fails her Save versus Magic and is cursed with magical blindness whilst trying to read the spell book!

[OOC] S says, "Great, so I'm blind?  Can I use a healing potion?"

[As DM] I say, "No, you're on full hit points and the blindness is magical in nature."

The PCs decide to press on since the Baroness will certainly be dead by the time they can remove the curse on Nausicaä.  With Lieutenant Trần leading the greedy but blind sorceress, the party later stumbles into a death trap.  While Lorenzo is trying to figure out the trap, Nausicaä impatiently uses the last charge of the Wand of Passwall to escape.

Eventually, they find the possessed magic-user, who cackles, "It's too late!" right before blind Nausicaä manages to hit him in the face with a jar of Greek Fire!

The possessed magic-user is slain!