The Mirror of Opposition

Some rulings for the sake of balance.

The Mirror of Opposition is an incredibly powerful item that can create a duplicate of any living creature that is capable of seeing itself in a mirror. This power has effectively no limits, and can completely duplicate any enemy with all magical powers and abilities: archmages, ancient dragons, demon princes, etc.

However, the Mirror of Opposition is still a mirror, making it difficult to use on the battlefield.

1. A Mirror of Opposition is several feet tall and very fragile. It can be attacked as any human target with AC0, and any amount of damage (even a single sling-stone) will shatter it.
2. Duplicates created by the Mirror of Opposition appear in the same way as any other image, on the far side of the mirror from the viewer. They must "step out" of the mirror on their initiative during the next round. If they lose initiative, it is possible that the mirror might be destroyed before they can emerge.
3. Mirrors (of full-length vanity size) take a full round to position properly -- especially when one is trying to carefully aim them away from oneself and one's friends! They can't simply be pulled out of a backpack with a free action, like a sword from a scabbard.
4. Most inhabitants of a fantasy world are aware of the dreadful enchantments associated with magical mirrors, and will immediately regard anyone carrying one onto a battlefield with extreme prejudice.

Art: Barry Linck

Timberlands Campaign, Session 2: Dead vs Dead

December 21-31, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

The trolls had throughly mangled the bodies of everyone slain by the hags, and the various gnawed arms and legs and viscera were unceremoniously scooped up by Herrobin's skeletal company and shuttled back to the city of Hemmelmark. The chapel attendants were already overburdened by sick townsfolk suffering from malnutrition and disease. The priest on duty was able to offer a single resurrection in exchange for a generous donation, and then the rest of the party needed to rely on restore life and limb and hope for minimal complications. The resurrection was applied to the dragon Viserion, who returned to full vigor in a burst of holy light. The others returned in worse condition. Sir Robin would never be the same again, and Zelmar decided to take a break from adventuring.

The party split up to attend to multiple tasks. First, they reported to the Duke, who was consumed by worry about the insufficient number of city guards (lost to giants, hags, and conscription for the war up north) and the fact that grain reserves (also requisitioned for the Durnovaric war effort up north) were running too low to last the winter. He confessed that he was on the verge of locking down the castle, declaring martial law, and leaving the rest of Hemmelmark to fend for itself.

Herrobin's disguised skeletons resumed patrolling the city in tireless squads, while their master watched them remotely using his crystal ball for any signs of trouble. Viserion briefly considered hunting food for the city, but quickly realized that the amount of food required to supply a Class II market is well in excess of a single hunter's capabilities.

Meanwhile, Frigodria and a few others hit the taverns to look for information and assistance. The Bleeding Cockatrice was populated by a motley crew of the usual weirdos and ne'er-do-wells, several of whom seemed interested in work, swelling the depleted ranks of the party. A rumor at the bar indicated that someone "large and intimidating" had been terrifying townspeople after dark, demanding information on the whereabouts of adventurers fitting the party's general description.

The barkeeper passed along a sealed envelope addressed to "the gnomish librarian" (presumably the long-departed Conan), which prompted immediate suspicion. The party debated between letting a skeleton open it at a safe distance and simply discarding it, and eventually decided to simply order a skeleton to carry it "south". (Since Hemmelmark is at a rather northern latitude, there's quite a bit of south available...)

Herrobin's skeletons only required another couple days to confirm the rumor of the interrogating stranger, and the party quickly converged on his location with any skeleton groups within range. The cowled intruder quickly surmised that he was being surrounded, and let out an eldritch screech for aid. Skeletons converged toward him from every direction, preventing his escape, but the party soon had to deal with the arrival of his own -- far more formidable -- undead thralls. Fortunately, dragon breath was more than enough to winnow and weaken them, leaving just a few survivors to mop up.

The scarf-masked visitor slaughtered dozens of skeletons with his greatsword, and at one point demonstrated the ability to release a powerful lightning bolt. When he was finally buried under an avalanche of magical rock, the party was dismayed to discovery that his corpse had dissipated into vapor -- not simply a ruinguard, but one who had progressed beyond the flesh into vampiric immortality.

Herrobin attempted to scry his location, but lacking an unobscured look at his face made this difficult and the image was dark and blurry -- a closed coffin in some dark place. The use of ESP, however, revealed his first priority upon reconstitution into corporeal form: calling his superiors for more capable reinforcements.

Shayna, a shaman who had been observing the party from a nearby rooftop, offered the party her services as a medium and entered into a trance...

Roster

• Edward Sir Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic (Andrew)
• Jeeves, 0th-level gentleman's gentleman
• Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
• Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
• Thorvald, 6th-level spy (Zac's Mom's PC, not a henchman)
• Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
• Togast, 6th-level skinscribe (Juston)
• Herrobin, 5th-level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons (Kyle)
• Jarrus Velt, 5th-level thief (Trefor Gowing)
• John-Paul Satre, 5th-level priest of... nihilist existentialism? (Lucas)
• Aureon Thallanir, ??? (Sion Gowing)
• Merda Strega, 6th-level witch (Will)
• Shayna, shaman (Kim)

=> The number of survivors is uncertain, need to wait until we roll Tampering with Mortality

Not appearing in this adventure:

• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Zelmar (injured, retiring maybe?)
• Anatolia (at chapel with Zelmar)
• Sir Robin (badly injured)
• Zalgesh
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

Lots of skeletons (hopefully Kyle was counting)

Treasure

None

Total gold per member: 0

Experience

Killed: Disguised vampire ruinguard [6600],  2 necropedes [2x820=1640], 5 ghasts [5x190=950], 8 gargoyles [8x135=1080]
Total: 10270 xp

Total experience from treasure: 0 xp
Total experience from kills: 10270 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 10270 xp
Total experience per member: 934 xp

Timberlands Campaign, Session 1: The Crones of Greenforest Lawn

December 10-December 19, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

After defeating the giants and tracking them back to their lair, the party decided to return to civilization and search for additional magical resources. A shopping delegation left Hemmelmark and passed through Hainburg on the way to the White Tower, a magical research school in the coastal mountains. The party asked for directions from a callow apprentice, and were directed to go around the village and enter through the loading dock behind the tower. The dock was full of specialized facilities for the handling of large magical creatures. The party promised a substantial collection of frost-giant components in exchange for credit toward magical items.

Inside, the party was directed first to meet the academy's headmaster, a scatterbrained gnome who wanted them to test his "dehydrated catapult" (just add water). After realizing that the reconstituted catapult would automatically fire flaming missiles in random directions without anything resembling an off-switch, the party offered to meet him at the glacial rift of the frost giants so that he could test it out himself.

After climbing up the spiral staircase in the center of the tower, the party reached a floor dedicated to elemental magic projects, in search of more practical aid against the giants and their dragon. Here they found a group of graduate student mages working on an experimental design for a Cube of Frost Resistance, which they offered to provide for field testing. ("Just don't overload it.")

Upon returning to Hemmelmark, the party discovered that the villagers were acting very suspicious and shifty, and seemed on the verge of fomenting some kind of rebellion. After a little investigation, they determined that the villagers regarded the town guard as having been cursed or mentally controlled by a coven of ancient witches. The Duke had sent a platoon of soldiers into the woods to deal with them, but none of the soldiers had returned. An old peasant women was more than thrilled to share her ancient lore about the witches, and indicated that the forest could only be passed by those who were "pure and innocent of heart". (Witches love children. They're delicious!) In practical terms, that meant concealing any weapons in a cart underneath a blanket treated with herbs, and also not bringing along anything chaotic. Herrobin and his skeletons were not pure and innocent, and found that the forest actively closed to bar their passage.

The rest of the party passed into the clearly-enchanted forest, along a narrow path. The path led to a series of clearings designed to test the courage and cleverness of any visitors: a set of fountains that promised power if consumed ("uh, no thanks!"), a death's-head tree that shrieked and bit with its cursed head-fruit, and a riddling imp.

At the center of the forest the trail ended in a small cottage dripping with disgustingly honeyed walls. Several placid men in white tunics answered the door, and greeted the party warmly, offering them a taste of the honey and an audience with the good-hearted ladies below. A charm person spell left them more than willing to share their deep love of their benefactors. The middle of the cottage was an open pit with a staircase descending into an underground cave. There the party encountered the three hags, glamored into their preferred appearances of crone, huntress, and dancer.

Hags by Brian LeBlanc

A short attempt at parlay erupted into violence when the crone expressed her deep love for the taste of little girls, and offered to share some of the meat from her cooking pot with the guests. The horrified party sprang into action with steel and resolve. The hags dropped their glamors, cackling horribly, and called for their children both natural (three dire trolls) and adopted (little boys cursed into ghouls). The four honey-addled consorts shook off the fresher enchantment and rushed to the defense of their beloved ladies.

The fight was fierce and dreadful, and at several moments the party seemed on the verge of victory. The hags had bound their souls to the troll-children with runestones, and would not suffer the effects of damage until the trolls themselves had fallen. The ghoul-children rushed about in the back of the party, paralyzing spellcasters. A silence spell caught the eldest crone, but this merely turned her into a frenzied flurry of horrid claws.

When the last member of the party (Robin Silverfall) finally went down, the slain trolls slowly regenerated their damage and happily feasted on the scattered bones of their foes, siblings, and mothers alike. Fortunately the hags themselves did not recover, and with the spells enchanting the forest broken, Herrobin's skeleton army was able to arrive and rip them apart in the middle of their after-dinner naps.

Roster

• Zelmar Krackiss, 5th-level fright knight
• Anatolia, 4th-level bladedancer
• Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin
• Viserion, young white dragon
• Sir Robin Silverfall, 5th-level spellsword
• Thorvald, spy
• Herrobin, 5th-level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
• Zhalgesh, not entirely sure, ask Jacob
• Was Will here? What did he play? Help!

=> The number of survivors is uncertain, need to wait until we roll Tampering with Mortality

Not appearing in this adventure:

• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Anatolia, maybe? I don't think she was in the final battle, at least
• Thorvald, 5th level spy
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

Everyone got eaten by dire trolls in a horrible TPK, except for Herrobin (who loves his skeletons too much to ever leave them) and Frigodria

Treasure

During the weeks of bed rest after restore life and limb, the party will have plenty of time to hire a sage to analyze the substantial hoard of the three sisters:

• 3 crates of armor and weapons, worth 225 gp each and weighing 10 stone each,
• 1 crates of giant weasel parts, worth 300 gp each and weighing 5 stone each,
• 2000 electrum pieces [1000 gp],
• 4000 GP facet cut imperial topaz,
• 2000 GP crystal geode,
• 500 GP aquamarine,
• 500 GP alexandrite,
• Oil of Slipperiness,
• 2x Oil of Heroism,
• Oil of Invulnerability,
• Oil of Animal Control,
• Arcane scroll with the following spells: Detect Magic,
• Arcane scroll with the following spell: Summon Hero,
• A scroll of Ward against Magic,
• A scroll of Ward against Undead,
• Sword +1, +3 vs Regenerating Monsters,
• Sword +1, Light 30' radius,
• Sword -1, Cursed,
• Axe +,
• Suit of Leather armor +1,
• Bolt case containing 1 crossbow bolts +2,
• Bolt case containing 7 crossbow bolts +1,
• Staff of Healing with 27 charges,
• Wand of Detecting Enemies with 7 charges,
• Staff of the Serpent,
• Rope of Climbing,
• ... and a Horn of Blasting bearing the House Zaiser coat of arms (2d6 sonic damage and deafened for 2d6 turns, 100' x 20' cone, usable once per turn). The Duke might be interested in this.

The party also found maps leading to treasure chests full of gold (18,000 gp and 15,000 gp), buried under each of the clearings they had previous visited. Herrobin's skeletons returned them to Hemmelmark along with the other treasure.

The total value of this hoard (excluding any magic) is 41,975 gp and its total weight is 70 stone.

Total gold per member: 6996 gp

Experience

Killed: 3 hags (Gentle Mother, the Lady of Grace, and Zephyr) [3x3100=9300], 1 8th-level fighter consort-thrall [1100], 2 7th-level fighter consort-thralls [2x790=1580], 1 9th-level mage consort-thrall [1700], 3 dire trolls [3x1300=3900], 12 ghoul children [12x29=348]
Total: 17,928 xp

Total experience from treasure: 41,975 xp
Total experience from kills: 17,928 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 59903 xp
Total experience per member: 9984 xp

Saberstrath Campaign, Session 8: Nuclear Option

November 28-December 9, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

While elaborate base preparations began at the base of the mountain, the party dispatched high altitude dragon-bombing runs with magically miniaturized blocks from the mountain dig-out. A handful of the blocks, enchanted to return to full size during descent, soon created a cratered lanscape in the glacial rift, smashing ice and a couple giants and destroying the peculiar ice dome at the sound end.

This strategy wasn't without risks, as the giants soon learned to anticipate aerial assault and to use their great horns as a general alarm to summon a dragon of their own -- a huge creature that dwarfed Viserion in size. Still, the annoyance of a local threat was at least good for setting bait into the trap being constructed several thousand feet below.

Within a few days the giants were ready to retaliate. Scouts witness a massive column of giants ascending out of the rift, primarily frost but with a few allied giants from stone and fire clans, a squad of ogre-mages with ogre guards, and even a cloud giant (head and shoulders above the rest). Huntmasters among the frost giants were leading teams of winter wolves, snow leopards, and huge white cave bears. The ancient white dragon circled them from the air, to ward off bombing runs. In principle, the force could probably have leveled a small city.

In practice, the giants really would have been better off facing a city. Instead, they first met a host of Herrohnin's skeleton suicide bombers carrying miniature blocks from the hollowed tunnels, activiated with magical proximity fuses. As the insane skeletons hit the front of the line, the blocks (several dozen of them) all returned to full 10'-cube size, erupting into a massive cascade of stone ejecta comparable to an orbital asteroid strike. The front of the column was buried by highly accelerated multi-ton stone projectiles, and a fountain of launched blocks rained down over the next few seconds, slamming down on the majority of the ogre mages and squashing them flat. (A stroke of good luck, as it turned out, given their potent lightning bolts.)

Still, over two dozen giants remained, and they crashed angrily into the outer walls of the party's makeshift stronghold, smashing past the gate and occupying the courtyard. The party had long since retreated through the tunnels (or a secret back entrance) into the panic room at the end of their newly-excavated tunnel complex behind the battlements.

Giants began pounding into the tunnels in single file. The first batch of giants walked directly between a skeletal pike ambush screen, taking modest damage, and then charged forward to engage them... directly through the trapped far entrance.

After clearing away the ambush and licking their wounds, the giants advanced to the first tunnel intersection, where the next portion of the trap was already in motion. Skeletons from all three sides, this time in heavy armor, began charging down the halls bristling with polearms. Even smashing them as fast as possible was little use, as additional ranks stepped forward to replace them.

Meanwhile, Zelmar and Oin advanced through the rubble from the rear, having circled around from out of the hidden back entrance (and narrowly dodged the dragon) -- right into the collection of oversized beasts. The winter wolves unleashed a volley of frost breath, badly injuring the attackers and forcing them back into the tunnel. Oin was knocked unconscious, and one of the ogres (fleeing the disaster in the tunnels ahead) stuffed him into a sack on the way out. Unforunately, the ogre plowed right through a trap, injuring himself but brutally maiming the unconscious Oin.

Archery-based attempts to stop the escaping ogres by Sir Robin merely alerted the dragon, who swept down to seize the elf in his talons. Only some last-minute heroics with a remaining miniaturized block prevented him from escaping with his prey.

Roster

• Zelmar Krackiss, 5th-level fright knight
• Anatolia, 4th-level bladedancer
• Adoniram Hewer, 3rd-level mage
• Frigodria, 5th-level paladin
• Viserion, 4th-level white dragon
• Oin "Dirtface" Orinson, 5th-level dwarven sapper
• Sir Robin Silverfall, 5th-level spellsword
• Herrohnin, 5th-level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner

=> 6 surviving PCs + 2 henchmen = 7 shares

Not appearing in this adventure:

• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Thorvald, 5th level spy
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

Oin Orinson, stuffed into a sack by a giant and then dragged through his own lethal trap. When you're a sapper, it's only a matter of time before you end up hoist on your own petard.

Treasure

None. That's the drawback of letting the giants come to you.

Total gold per member: 0 gp

Experience

Killed: 1 cloud giant [1200], 4 fire giants [4x1000=4000], 10 frost giants [10x850=8500], 4 stone giants [4x700=2800], 4 hill giants [4x600=2400], 6 ogre magi [6x570=3420], 14 ogres [14x140=1960], 4 cave bears [4x320=1280], 6 winter wolves [6x570=3420], 13 snow leopards [13x80=1040]
Total:  30020 xp

Total experience from treasure: 0 xp
Total experience from kills: 30020 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 30020 xp
Total experience per member: 4289 xp

Saberstrath Campaign, Session 7: Cold War Escalation

November 11-27, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

The delivery from Durnovar took a couple weeks to arrive. In the meantime, the party divided attention between multiple projects. Herrohnin devoted several dozen disguised skeletons to housing construction, hoping to curry favor with the peasantry. Viserion and Sir Robin waited outside the city in the wilderness.

After a week or so, another patrol of giants arrived. This time there were four of them and they came with a company of dwarves. The party lured them to the location of several newly constructed huts and shelters -- full of traps and hidden skeletons! Two of the giants went down quickly, toppling into pits created with sapper magic. The other two pounded forward toward a fortified rampart atop one of the buildings, and began slamming the skeleton archers at the top. Meanwhile, the dwarves picked their way through the other buildings, discovering traps and skeleton ambushes led by heavily armored skeletons with darkness-enchanted helms.

Ice Giant (by chevsky)

After the fall of the giants, the dwarves quickly found themselves surrounded and badly handled by the skeleton horde. With their numbers reduced to only a couple dozen, their officers elected to surrender, ending what might otherwise have been a lengthy standoff between opposing lines of heavily armored foes shrouded in fields of magical darkness.

The dwarves agreed to accompany the party on an expedition to the frost giant stronghold, in exchange for being allowed to live. After arming more skeletons with the new shipments of gear, the party advanced to within 20 miles of the mountain spur and created a base camp in the temperate foothills below, using more sapper tunneling spells to create an underground complex of their own.

Roster

• Zelmar Krackiss, 5th-level fright knight
• Anatolia, 4th-level bladedancer
• Adoniram Hewer, 3rd-level mage
• Frigodria, 5th-level paladin
• Viserion, 4th-level white dragon
• Oin "Dirtface" Orinson, 5th-level dwarven sapper
• Sir Robin Silverfall, 5th-level spellsword
• Herrohnin, 5th-level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner

=> 6 PCs + 2 henchmen = 7 shares

Not appearing in this adventure:

• The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
• Thorvald, 5th level spy
• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan

Casualties

A few skeletons that will be back in a day

Treasure

None (unless you count surrendered dwarves as treasure)

Total gold per member: 0 gp

Note: I'm still giving experience credit for the gold the dwarves were carrying, as though you "won" it by defeating them and then immediately paid it back to them to "hire" them.

Experience

Killed: 4 frost giants [4x850=3400], 81 fire dwarves [81x10=810]
Captured: Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord [1300], 4 5th-level vaultguards [4x350=1400], 3 4th-level vaultguards [3x135=405], 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds [2x65=130], 2nd-level vaultguard [29], 18 fire dwarves [18x10=180]
Total:  7654 xp

Total experience from treasure: 9600 xp (captured dwarves)
Total experience from kills: 7654 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 17,254 xp
Total experience per member: 2465 xp

Saberstrath Campaign, Session 6: Not In My House!

November 8-10, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

Returning triumphantly to Hemmelmark the following day with a fine collection of ancient crypt treasures, the party quickly realized that the whole city of Hemmemark was in a state of disarray. Guards had left their posts, and the crowds that had previous lined the streets to gawk at the adventurers were instead hurrying along in a state of anxious panic. Accosting a random passerby revealed that the central keep had been invaded by assassins making an attempt on Duke Johann's life!

The party arrived in the bailey courtyard to find a ring of guards surrounding the keep. The assassins were holed up inside with hostages, after blowing their cover. Scrying on the visitor's hall revealed several ruffians threatening a group of captured keep staff, including a young girl at knifepoint. Duke Johann, arriving in animated conference with the court magician, revealed that his own daughter was a prisoner of the invaders, and implored the party to do whatever they could to spare her life. Meanwhile, Sir Robin and Viserion peaked through the upper windows to try to identify the location of other assassins.

Zelmar and Thorvald teleported directly into the chamber to catch the hostage-takers by surprise. The rest of the party flew up to the roof and battered down the access door to the upper floor. Fortunately the guards by the hostages were weaker, allowing the room to be secured before the leaders could return from patrolling the hall outside.

The actual fight itself ended quickly once reinforcements arrived to support the initial strike team -- though just in the nick of time, as Zelmar had been paralyzed and Thorvald was surrounded. Fighting went man-to-man, and then vicious dragon attacks from Viserion cleaned out the survivors.


The Duke expressed his gratitude, and gave the party full permission to seek out the source of the assassins -- he suspect the Burrgrave of Hochgrube, Ristovarius of House Wittigis, one of his longtime rivals. He warned the party that Hochgrube was a slaver city that had taken prisoner many of the citizens of the northern Timberlands, so that it would not do to merely burn the place to the ground.

After that, the party continued preparations for an assault on the frost giant fortress in the high saddle glaciers of Mount Isigbar to the southwest. A few party members traveled to neighboring Hainburg to look for magical items, but with little success beyond a few minor trinkets. They did hire a single mage, Adoniram Hewer, a graduate of the nearby Hedgecliff, a tower of high sorcery several leagues southwest along the coast. The tower is tall enough to be visible from Hainburg, shining in the seeing sun; here, many wizards have pooled their apprentices to create an enhanced educational environment. (Adoniram describes himself as "Grifflepaw prefect three-year nonconsecutive with honors", which sounds like it's probably a good thing to be, at least so far as anyone can tell.)

"A tower of high sorcery several leagues southwest along the coast" (Art by Andreas Rocha)

Roster

• Zelmar Krackiss, 5th level fright knight
• Anatolia, 4th level bladedancer
• Frigodria, 5th level paladin
• Viserion, 4th level white dragon
• Oin "Dirtface" Orinson, 5th level dwarven sapper
• Sir Robin Silverfall, 5th level spellsword
• Herrohnin, 5th level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th level summoner
• Thorvald, 5th level spy

=> 7 PCs + 2 henchmen = 8 shares

Not appearing in this adventure:

• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan
• The very young white dragon, Namazu, who is off monitoring the frost giants

Casualties

Lots of skeletons and spirit dwarves

Treasure

Coins: 12,400 gp

Magical items:

• cloak of protection +1
• 9 bolts +1 
• 3 arrows +1
• Nightblade spellbook: read magic, choking grip, stinking cloud

Total gold per member: 1550 gp

Experience

Killed: 8th level nightblade [1600 xp], 8th level witch [1100 xp], 8th level thief [1100 xp], 7th level gladiator [790 xp], 5th level thief [350 xp], 5th level ruinguard [350 xp], 4th level thief [135 xp], 2nd level barbarian [29 xp], 1st level antipaladin [13 xp]
Total:  5467 xp

Total experience from treasure: 12,400 xp
Total experience from kills: 5467 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 17867 xp
Total experience per member: 2233 xp

Saberstrath Campaign, Session 5: Pay No Attention To The Mummy Behind The Curtain

November 7-8, Caudex Annales, 70 AUP

Anatolia, mystic oracle

The party overheard a tavern rumor about a hidden tomb in a great chasm somewhere in the forest. After paying a nominal fee for the exact location, a few interested members of the party formed up into a small group of the living (and a larger group of the dead) to investigate. Zelmar had been hunting for a henchman, and after he turned up an oracle from the Niobraran deserts to the southwest, the party waited an extra day to allow her to complete a prophetic vision before setting out. The chasm was incredibly narrow, more like a rift that had opened during some sort of cataclysm, rather than a canyon formed by natural erosion.

The hidden mummy lord

The location proved to be the site of a tomb that had been carved into the cliff wall centuries in the past. Descending down the wall on ropes (several hundred feet of joined rope!), the found a pillared terrace with a single entrance. The entrance led into a twisting passage with unnaturally cut walls, warded by eternal silence. The passage was deserted as it led past ancient tableaux showing the preparation of corpses for preservation. Disturbingly, the corpses did not appear to be very human, but instead looked like hunched and neckless creatures with broad mouths and no noses -- not human, and not any of the more common sorts of beastmen either. The party progressed in the middle of a long column of skeletons and dwarves.

In the next room, the party encountered walls of skeleton sentries that clattered into action, barring further passage. As the first waves of skeletons clashed with one another, the party heard the report of scraping sarcophagus lids in the room beyond. The battle was soon joined by four mummies and the foul chanting of an unseen fifth. As the battle with the mummies progressed, strange magics began to emerge from the doorway: a cloudkill spell, a summoned cave kraken, and a massive earth golem that scraped huge gouges in the ceiling.

After clearing a path to the burial chamber, the mummy lord was discovered and dispatched. The chamber was mostly empty, but a bit of searching turned up a door hidden in the corner -- a secret treasure hoard!

Roster

• Zelmar Krackiss, 5th level fright knight
• Anatolia, 4th level bladedancer
• Viserion, 4th level white dragon
• Oin "Dirtface" Orinson, 5th level dwarven sapper
• Sir Robin Silverfall, 5th level spellsword
• Herrohnin, 5th level summoner, and his scads of spooky scary skeletons
• Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th level summoner

Not appearing in this adventure:

• Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan
• Frigodria, 5th level paladin
• The very young white dragon, Namazu, who is off monitoring the frost giants

Casualties

Lots of skeletons and spirit dwarves

Treasure
4000 ep
4000 gp
1000 pp

Crown: 30,000 gp
Mask: 8000 gp
Fan: 6000 gp
Ceremonial dagger: 6000 gp

Total value: 66,000 gp

Note: This stuff is hard to sell, so you don't actually have this much gold until you find a buyer. This value is just a claim against the share of treasure.

Magical items: sword +1, flametongue, short sword +2, short sword +1, sword +1

Total gold per member: 11,000 gp

Experience

Killed: mummy lord [5400 xp], earth elemental [3300 xp], cave kraken [1560 xp], 4 mummies [4x460 = 1840 xp], 14 skeletons [14x13 = 182 xp]
Total: 12282 xp

Total experience from treasure: 66,000 xp
Total experience from kills: 12,282 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 78,282 xp
Total experience per member: 13,047 xp