Session 34: Shrooms & Skeletons

The adventurers interact with a stone face and find a room full of shrieking fungus that attracts a bunch of skeletons. Afterwards the party goes back to the castle and village to recover.

This write up is from Kay's notes from our July 10, 2024 session. Since our group is scattered around the country, we used Discord for our voice communication and Roll20 for our virtual tabletop. Thanks to JoJo and Kay for the screen shots.

Continued from: Zombies, a Gargoyle and Blaze is Shrunk

Date: May 21, 3517

Level 2: The Demon’s Gullet

2:20 PM

Artie and Parahelia left for the castle. Elron, Breena, Rocky, Blaze, and Lark were together on the second level. Elron had his sling and Breena had her crossbow ready. Lark walked into the room that had a statue of a 10-ft-high face; there’s a large, 5-ft-diameter, circular flagstone in front of it. When Lark entered the room, the statue’s mouth moved, opened, and said, “What do you wish for, experience or re-awakening?”

Lark stepped onto the flagstone and it said again, “What do you wish for, experience or re-awakening?”

Lark replied, “Experience.”  He suddenly felt more experienced. He said, “Thank you very much,” stepped off the flagstone and examined the walls for hidden doors.

Breena stepped on the flagstone.

The statue said, “Experience or re-awakening?”

Breena answered, “Experience,” but nothing happened.

Elron suggested that Lark and Breena step out of the room. Elron then got on the stone. The statue said, “What do you wish for, experience or re-awakening?” He chose re-awakening, just to see what would happen; apparently nothing.

He stepped off the platform and started searching the room.

Breena stepped back on the flagstone. Again, nothing happened. Lark went back out to the outer room and opened the other door on the west side; it was an empty room with an empty niche on the south wall. Lark looked in the niche, nothing there.

Blaze, still one-foot-high, stepped on the flagstone. The statue said, “What do you wish for, experience or re-awakening?” She chose experience, and felt more experienced. Meanwhile, Lark searched for secret doors in the other room. Elron stepped on the flagstone again; nothing happened. Blaze searched the statue, but found nothing else, then went into the western room. Lark came out to the common room with the pillar and heard gurgling coming from within it.

The group went back out into the hallway and continued east around a corner to the south. There was a door on the west wall and Elron tried his hand at lockpicking.

It was very moist in the hall and there were mushrooms to the south. Breena’s nature knowledge identified some of the shrooms as edible, equivalent to one day’s rations; others were hallucinogenic.

After successfully picking the lock, Elron opened the door. Rocky entered and saw an empty room. We started looking for secret doors but found none.

Another door was farther south down the hallway on the west wall. Elron got it open as well. It was even damper here; the lock was corroded and the floor had mildew and mushrooms. There was water dripping from the ceiling. Several different kinds of shrooms were in the room. Breena identified them, some were edible, some were hallucinogenic, and three really big ones, 4-5 ft tall, were shriekers. They started shrieking when Breena entered the room; she stepped out, but they continued making noise.

From the south, we heard someone stepping through water, apparently attracted by the sound of the shriekers. From the north there were more footsteps, and Sinis came down the hallway.

He said, “Why is Blaze one foot tall?”

A chorus of voices replied, “Long story.”

Breena moved behind Elron and waited with Lark. Blaze heard feet splashing in water, but couldn’t see down the darkened hallway, so she waited.

Elron heard no more splashing, just boney feet on the hall floor approaching and got his sling ready. As they walked into view, he aimed at one of the two targets he could see, the one on the east side. The slingshot shattered rusty armor, and scattered bones everywhere.

The skeletons moved north in the hallway. There were five more altogether. The ones in front pulled out bows and aimed at Elron.

Breena shot one with her crossbow, damaging it. Two of them shot at Elron with short bows; one arrow bounced off the wall, the other went over his head. The others were in range of the rest of the party.

Lark aimed his crossbow at the nearest one and missed.

Elron yelled, “Retreat!” stepped back and used his sling, but missed. Breena moved back with Rocky.

One skeleton swung a sword at Blaze, who cast blade ward, and it missed. Another shot at Elron, and hit, slightly wounding him. Blaze ran to the north and into the empty room as a skeleton’s sword missed her.

Elron disengaged and moved toward the door as we retreated for defense. The skeletons moved toward Sinis and three attacked him. The first and third hit him with their swords as he retreated into the room, next to Lark.

Breena cast thunderwave on them. It shattered one skeleton and damaged three more.

Elron’s sling took out one skeleton and then he went through the door.

Breena moved forward and cast thunderwave again. This time all of the skeletons were in range; two took half-damage, one took full damage and was blown back 10 feet. Breena then moved back and took Rocky with her into the room.

The skeletons moved forward and came to the doorway. The first one swung at Lark with its short sword and missed. The second attacked Sinis and also missed. Sinis cast burning hands on both skeletons; one died, and the other was damaged. Lark’s sword blow shattered one. At this point there was one skeleton left.

The skeleton moved up, Lark swung his Bastard Sword of Crushing, and smashed it into bone shards.

Elron started looting the remains. All he got were ratty short bows and 69 arrows; the weapons were mostly just good for scrap metal. Lark suggested to Breena that she take some of the hallucinogenic mushrooms back to the town, the necromancer might want to buy them.

Sinis was severely hurt, and Blaze pointed out her healing kits were now the size of postage stamps, and Parahelia had gone back to the castle. We may have to fight our way out of the dungeon if we leave now, so we should leave now.

Luckily, there were no more encounters all the way out of the Mouth of Doom.

3:40 PM
We were outside of the cavern’s mouth.

Before we got to the bottom of the hill outside the cavern’s mouth, Blaze re-grew to her normal size. She healed Sinis there, so he’d have enough health to get back to the castle if there was a fight. Our luck, such as it was, held, and we had no more encounters all the way back to the castle.

Lark and Breena decided to go straight back to the village inn, instead of the castle.

6 PM
Back at the castle we had dinner. Sinis cast detect magic on the items we found. Oddly enough, the only magical item was the spork. It had a divination enchantment on it.

He identified it as a Spork of Good Health, a wondrous item, it detects poison and disease; it has a +1 bonus on attack rolls with piercing damage. It could do 1D2 + 1 damage. Blaze carries it now.

To our surprise, the earring with “Rappan Athuk” on it wasn’t magic.

Breena had about 5 gp worth of hallucinogenic mushrooms to sell to the necromancer.

Breena and Lark had dinner with Beneddar. He was in Zelcor’s Ferry waiting for the next boat. He was going to Bard’s Gate to tell his family about the library at Castle Calaelen. The library contains records and family histories that have been lost for generations going back thousands of years.

May 22, 7 AM
Breena wanted a mirror to look around corners, so she picked up a steel one at Rasmus Pye’s for 5gp. She had originally wanted to keep the silver one that we had found, but it could be sold for 200gp and was a bit too fragile to use in the dungeon. She also picked up some empty collection bags and a cloth mask. Lark bought a scarf while he was there.

They considered visiting Kalgor, the gemcrafter. He had gems for sale and gems would be considerably lighter than carrying around bags of gold.

Continued in Session 35: Pits and Clerics