Dyson’s Delve - Session 11

I’ve been thinking a lot about how to tackle the upcoming challenges in Dyson’s Delve. At this point, the group has pretty much run into the limits of their capabilities. To progress further, they need to prepare carefully. (Side note, Lone Horizons is still playing through this dungeon with Dungeon Crawl Classics, so if you’re interested by the adventure itself, check out his videos!)

Downtime

The Downtime in Zyan supplement (affiliate link) is really going to be helpful here, as it will help the adventurers understand what’s going on.

Rather than return to his martial training, Khnar wants a better understanding of what they are facing. There are several sets of enemies that they expect to confront again:

• Manticores on Level 4, where the lizardfolk otherwise dominate thanks to their alliance with the adventurers
• Living Statues on Level 5, made of iron; the adventurers have relatively friendly relationships with the kobolds on this level
• Gargoyles on Level 6 (and potentially level 5?), where the adventurers have a friendly-ish relationship with the wererats
• Rival Adventurers on Level 5 and below, some of whom had arcane abilities and seemed to belong to a larger faction

When I list it out this way, it seems like they have several potential allies in the dungeon itself. Working with them and establishing more concrete alliances would happen during the adventuring, though, rather than during downtime. But those adventurers are enemies that would likely have some reputation in town.

Khnar

As the most heavily-armored member of the group, he knows he will likely stay in the front line. He needs a more defensive fighting style. He’’ll therefore work on mastering a new technique, the Shield Bash. This will give him a +1 to his AC with his shield and allow him to use it as a weapon dealing 1d8 damage on a hit. I decide that will require a 4-step martial tracker.

This time, he’s getting the hang of it. The tracker advances one step (to 1/4).

Krimkol

The dwarven priest is pursuing a similar process involving his staff of healing and hopefully getting better results with it. I already established that will be a 3-step tracker using spiritual exercises. Again, however, he finds himself at a spiritual impass and makes no progress. He ponders this: perhaps his gods are telling him that this is not, in fact, the way they have laid before him.

Chuckles

The barbarian does’t really have much gold for revelry this time, and in any case he’s at the core of the enmity with this rival group. He has built up enough of a reputation on his own that I don’t think he needs to pull on a specific NPC, making the roll with no modifier (positive or negative). Really, he wants to know who these people are and what they’re after.

But nobody wants to talk to him, because they’re afraid of the other group, and thus he gets no intel on them. However, he does hear a rumor that there’s another entrance to the dungeon somewhere! They don’t know exactly where, but perhaps he can keep an eye out for that.

Parouz

The elfblade also has had trouble with this group. She doesn’t have as many connections as the others do, so rather than gathering intelligence, she’ll work on her fighting form. She’s in good shape and gets +1 to hit and +1 to damage with her longsword during the next delve.

Illuin

The group’s thief has lots of connections in town and has previously engaged in all sorts of illicit activities. She will also gather intelligence, although I will give her a +1 situational modifier due to her role. That doesn’t help, though, as she gets no intel on the rival group. Instead, she hears that there are more goblins attacking farms from a different location about a day away. If needed, the group might venture out to help with that.

Preparation

After all that, what specific supplies or retainers do they want to procure?

Regarding the manticores, they’ll plan to visit the lizardfolk with gifts in the interest of gaining their assistance. In fact, they don’t really want to fight the manticores at all, but rather to get their treasure. They’ll take some food to the lizardfolk and suggest that they create a diversion.

The living statues are a tough nut to crack. That said, it’s not clear that there’s any benefit to going for them. The group didn’t immediately see any treasure in the room with the statues, nor any information (writing, runes, etc.), so perhaps they can just continue to ignore them. If they need to get help from the kobolds at any point, that may come back up.

The gargoyles are a different story entirely. As previously noted, they can only be damaged by magic (whether spells or weapons). Right now, only Krimkol has a magic weapon and Parouz can do a little bit with magic missile. No amount of defensive improvements can help with this. Unless the wererats have some way to deal with these stone creatures, the group will need to avoid them for now, even more so than with the living statues.

The rival adventurers are simultaneously the biggest concern and the one they’re most prepared to deal with. So far, the group has been able to handle them just fine, and they have a decent idea of their capabilities. They’ll continue to bring sufficient soldiers to back them up in their dealings.

With that in mind, they’ll bring a few more soldiers with them this time. Krimkol will hire a total of three dwarves-at-arms:

• Dwarves (3): HD 1 (3, 3, 7 hp); AC 15; Atk war hammer (1d4+1); Move 6; Save 15; Morale 10; Special: +1 to attack rolls (+2 total), +2 to saves and morale (included), darkvision 60’, detects attributes of stonework. Speaks Dwarven and Common.

Because I assume they must hire their retainers for the entire week leading up to the delve, I always multiply their wages by 7. They have brought back their survivors with enough frequency that they no longer need to pay the 2x penalty rate, though. So that’s 3 dwarves x 7 days x 5 gp/day/dwarf = 105 gp.

Khnar will also hire four retainers: two crossbowmen and two pikemen.

• Crossbowmen (2): HD 1 (8, 8 hp); Atk heavy crossbow (d6+1), short sword (d6); Move 12; Save 17; Morale 9; Special: missile rate of fire 1/2
• Pikemen (2): HD 1 (4, 5 hp); Atk polearm (d8+1); Move 12; Save 17; Morale 9

The morale listed for the humans includes the modifications from Khnar’s charisma score. The total cost for these four is 4 x 7 x 5 = 140 gp.

Chuckles will buy 20 dried rations for the lizardfolk, costing a total of 20 gp. (I will try to recall that he gets a +1 bonus to damage when wielding his bastard sword two-handed.) He will also hire two lantern carriers and equip them with the existing lanterns the group owns (one bullseye and one hooded) as well as a total of 10 pints of oil to split between them, which is a total cost of 15 gp. He will also buy three rations each for the entire party (including retainers), so that’s 5 + 3 + 4 + 2 = 14 people x 3 rations = 42 rations, costing 42 gp. This gives them the ability to rest as many as three times (using the Underclock mechanics).

Krimkol will purchase another 20 pints of lamp oil for use by Parouz, his retainers, and himself. Even when it doesn’t do damage, I have been playing it as helping with battlefield control (a miss blocks the targeted creature from attacking for one round, assuming it could actually be harmed by the fire). Plus, oil is cheap (10 pints to a gold piece), so that’s 2 gp. For this expedition, he will prepare two spells: detect magic and protection from evil. (Praying to cure wounds is less useful when you have a staff of healing.)

Parouz thoughtfully exchanges her weapon. She had been carrying a longsword, but with a bastard sword she can gain a +1 damage bonus on any round she isn’t casting a spell. (She’s leaving the magical candles back in town until they can figure out what to do with them.) She can prepare three spells. They haven’t seen any undead in a while, so she will not bother taking that. Since she still has a scroll of protection from evil, she will prepare two “copies” of magic missile and one read magic.

Illuin will bring some of the miscellaneous equipment: crowbar, rope, grappling hook, signal whistle, etc. She doesn’t have a lot to prepare, but she’ll hold onto the helm of alignment change for now. In theory, she could sneak up behind a human(oid) and use it as a sort of “charm person” effect (albeit potentially not necessarily friendly). While the book doesn’t list any costs for caltrops or ball bearings, I’ll have her bring two bags of each so I can finally just round down her fractional gold piece.

As before, the lantern carriers are also responsible for carrying any excess treasure, then the various retainers will carry the rest. This mostly just means I don’t have to track weight too closely.

The Delve

The Underclock starts out at 20 and the Underworld die has stepped back down to a d6. They’re going to traverse Levels 1-3 via this “fast exploration” method (Underclock rolls ), then try to go visit the lizardfolk on Level 4 to talk about the manticores.

The marching order is as follows, assuming two abreast in the corridors:

• Rank 1: Khnar, Krimkol
• Rank 2: Pikemen x2 (they can attack with polearms from here)
• Rank 3: Chuckles, Parouz
• Rank 4: Dwarf, Lantern Carrier
• Rank 5: Crossbowmen x2
• Rank 6: Illuin, Dwarf
• Rank 7: Lantern Carrier, Dwarf

Come to think of it, that’s a long column.

• Level 1: 2d6!=(6+1)+4=11 => 20-11=9
• Level 2: 2d6!=3+4=7 => 9-7=2
• Level 3: d6!=(6+1)=7 => 2-7=-5 (encounter, reset clock to 20 before second roll)

They run into six giant rats, but the rats are surprised. In the past, I’ve sometimes interpreted that as the party being able to avoid the encounter altogether, but with the column this long, I don’t think that’s really feasible. Instead, the ranged attackers will get a free round of shots before the rats can react.

• Giant Rat (6): HD 1d4 (2, 3, 2, 2, 3, 4); AC 12; Atk 1 bite (d3); MV 12; Save 18; Morale 8

The rats are only 10 feet in front of the front rank.

Round 1: The crossbowmen, and Illuin all get shots. All of them miss, then the first three ranks advance. Khnar and Krimkol can each make attacks against three of the rats, and Khnar’s minimum damage is 3, so any that he hits will die: he kills two of them. Krimkol similarly kills the last one. There are three left, and the pikemen chop down, killing two of them. The last one fails its morale check and flees.

• Level 3b: d6!=2 => 20-2=18

Turn 1

The group can begin its delve properly now, entering the fourth level in the vestibule. There’s a door on the east side of it, as before; it has fresh gouges and marks on it (unsurprisingly since it’s been a few weeks). Chuckles listens at the door but hears nothing. Illuin and Krimkol open it, revealing the corridor that goes east.

• Underclock: d6!=(6+3)=9 => 18-9=9

Turn 2

On their right sits a door they haven’t previously opened. This seems like the right time to do so, since they have a general idea of the level layout (and in fact they have already mapped out a door that they suspect to be on the other side of this room). However, the door is locked and will require Illuin’s efforts before they can even try to force it open. Unfortunately, it seems that the lock is either too complex or perhaps just too rusty. She could try again at the cost of an additional turn.

• Underclock: d6!=3 => 9-3=6

Turn 3

The atmosphere is getting tense; rather than risk getting attacked when they’re out of their order, they decide to move on. This gets them down to the doors in front of the warrens previously inhabited by goblins. They’ll knock first, then force it open if there’s no response. I decide it’s likely that the lizardfolk are present and roll an oracle die: indeed, they respond in their raspy voices. Khnar requests an audience with the Big Lizard. I’ll give them a +2 to the reaction roll for the existing relationship and Khnar’s charisma: they’re happy to cooperate.

• Underclock: d6!=5 => 6-5=1

Turn 4

The lizardfolk escort Khnar, Chuckles, and Parouz to visit the Big Lizard. Krimkol and Illuin will remain with the retainers, partly for space reasons and partly to guard their line of retreat just in case.

Chuckles presents the food he brought for them, and Khnar makes a show of this as a gift accompanied by a request: join forces against the manticores, reducing the threat to their own inhabitation of this portion of the dungeon. In return, the adventurers want the treasure from the manticore hoard. Again, I’ll make a reaction roll with a +2 modifier: the Big Lizard agrees, but he wants a share of the treasure. After some negotiation, they agree that the adventurers can have any magic items and half of the monetary treasure.

• Underclock: d6!=(6+6+4)=14 => 1-14=-13 (encounter and reset clock)

Turn 5

So here’s the thing: the only creatures left in this level are the manticores and the lizardfolk. (I specifically decided not to restock this level with additional monsters due to the dynamics, instead assuming more lizardfolk would have arrived from nearby swamps.) And while the Underclock mechanic doesn’t make use of how “negative” it goes, uh… I feel like the dice were saying something by having two explosions.

• Joannes Jonstonus, 1678

That means that a manticore attacks. The group isn’t prepared for this! In one room, we have Krimkol and Illuin, three dwarves, four human soldiers, a couple of porters, and let’s say d6=5 lizardfolk. There’s a chance that they are surprised, and I’ll roll separately for the adventuring party and the lizardfolk”: thanks to Chuckles’ awareness ability, they aren’t surprised, but the lizardfolk are. That means the manticore gets the drop on at least some of them.

I think the two adventurers themselves would be closest to the throne room to listen to the negotiations, and that would include the lantern carriers (one with each human, since they don’t have darkvision). That leaves the dwarves and the crossbowmen in the back, along with the pikemen.

Let’s get some stat blocks here:

• Manticore: HD 6+4 (27 hp); AC 15; Atk 2 claws (d3), bite (d8), 6 tail spikes (d6); Move 12 (Fly 18)
• Lizardfolk (5): HD 2+1 (5, 9, 17, 17, 10 hp); AC 14; Attack 2 claws (d3), bite (d6); Move 6; Save 16; Morale 12

The lizardfolk are probably also close to the door, since they might be suspicious of the adventurers. That explains why they’re surprised: they think they’re safe in their own warrens, while the adventurers have been increasingly on edge. I’m not rolling for distance because they’re in a closed room and therefore the manticore comes tearing through the door. (This combat brought to you with the soundtrack of “Hermano Cayó la Ley” by Los Tigres de Santa Clara.)

Round 1: Fortunately, the adventurers win initiative. The crossbowmen and Illuin get shots off; one of the retainers hits for 6 damage (down to 21 hp). The manticore fires its tail spikes, one at each of the lizardfolk and one at the crossbowman that hit it. Three lizardfolk are hit, all of them for 5 damage each, so they’re now at 5, 4, 12, 12, and 10 hp, respectively. In melee, the three dwarves and two pikemen will attack, along with Krimkol. Two dwarves hit for a total of 5 damage (down to 16 hp), but the pikemen and Krimkol are unable to hit it. Illuin fires her second arrow, missing again. Does the manticore attack the lizardfolk (3 in 6 chance), the retainers (2 in 6), or the adventurers (1 in 6)? The lizardfolk. It claws one lizardfolk for 1 damage (from 12 to 11 hp), another for 3 damage (from 4 to 1 hp), and bites a third for 3 damage (from 12 to 9 hp).

Round 2: This time, the other adventurers will be able to participate. (The lizardfolk not in the room hang back to protect the Big Lizard.) The manticore loses initiative, and the other two groups go simultaneously. The crossbowmen are reloading, but Illuin continues to launch arrows at it (and missing again). For its tail spikes, the manticore has a total of 5 (lizardfolk) + 4 (human soldiers) + 3 (dwarf soldiers) + 5 (adventurers) + 2 (lantern carriers) = 19 targets. Therefore, I can roll randomly this time to see who gets the spikes: the first two miss anyway, the third hits Krimkol in his armor (thus doing no damage), the fourth just misses Chuckles, but the fifth impales itself into Illuin for 6 damage! This kills her outright. Chuckles takes 6 damage as well from the last spike, dropping him to 20 hp. The four surviving adventurers make melee attacks; I decide Khnar is the one facing it, giving the others bonuses for attacking from behind. Krimkol and Parouz both hit, dealing 7 and 4 damage, respectively, so it is down to 5 hit points. One of the pikemen chops into it for 4 damage, and it’s down to 1 hit point. The dwarves-at-arms finish it off.

At what cost, though? The newest and least experienced member of the group was cut down in her prime; with her weak constitution, she was never going to survive a solid hit. The group is determined now: they are hunting down the other manticore in its lair. The lizardfolk recognize the bloodust in their eyes and agree to stay out of the way, providing only a reserve force of six of their own, armed with spears.

• Underclock: d6!=2 => 20-2=18

Turn 6

The Big Lizard tells them a bit about the manticore’s area: there are three rooms. The first has a door on the corridor, and that leads directly to the hoard. There’s a northern room where the manticores keep their food supply (goblin corpses, principally). In between is their actual lair.

The adventurers’ plan is to force open the door; when the manticore comes to respond, Khnar and Krimkol will face it head on, with the human soldiers (and a lantern carrier) to their side, flanking it for shots and polearm attacks. Parouz, Chuckles, and the other retainers will rush through the food supply and lair to attack it from behind.

They make their way to the door to the hoard. It’s stuck, of course, but the two adventurers have no trouble forcing it open. The distance from the manticore itself to the group is just enough for them to recover their footing, since it’s caught by surprise.

• Manticore: HD 6+4 (22 hp); AC 15; Atk 2 claws (d3), bite (d8), 6 tail spikes (d6); Move 12 (Fly 18)

Round 1: The manticore wins initiative, and (once it realizes what’s happening) immediately launches its tail spikes: three at Krimkol, three at Khnar. Two hit the dwarf for 6 damage total (reducing him to 9 hp). Khnar takes three hits, taking 10 damage, which takes him down to 10 hit points. The crossbowmen return fire, and one hits for 7 damage (reducing the monster to 15 hp). The other squad waits for the signal.

Round 2: The manticore again wins initiative and leaps into melee. At this, Khnar blows the signal whistle and the second squad rushes in behind the monster. It then claws Krimkol for only 1 damage, so he’s at 8 hp. The adventurers know they have it penned in. Khnar can’t get through its tough hide, but Krimkol does for 9 damage (down to 6 hp). Parouz and Chuckles both attack from behind, and Chuckles hits it for 5 damage (1 hp remaining on it). The retainers finish it off.

With this victory, the group informs the lizardfolk that they will be keeping the entire hoard. Recognizing the anger in the adventurers’ eyes, they do not interfere (positive reaction roll).

• Underclock: d6!=2 => 18-2=16

Turn 7

It’ll take an entire turn to gather up the treasure that’s scattered loose on the floor: 11000 sp plus a chest with another 4000 gp, a sword +1 / +3 vs spell users, a potion of invisibility, and a wand of paralysis (6 charges).

• Underclock: d6!=3 => 16-3=13

Turn 8

This will conclude their delve; it was short, but rather than try to deal with the gargoyles and rival adventurers while they’re upset, they’ll return to town and decide whether to recruit another thief or not. The surviving party make their way back to the vestibule. Krimkol uses 1 charge from his staff of healing to heal himself (2 hp, up to 10 hp) and another on Khnar for 4 hp, so that he’s at 14 hp. This will leave him with 198 charges.

• Underclock: d6!=(6+1)=7 => 13-7=6

Return Rolls

As before:

• Level 3: d6!=(6+4)=10 => 6-10=-4 (encounter, reset clock to 20 before second roll)

On the crypt level, they see a small herd of six fire beetles rushing to attack them from 40 feet away.

• Fire Beetle (4): HD 1+3 (8, 5, 9, 11); AC 15; Atk bite (1d4+2); Move 12; Save 17; Morale 7

Nobody is taken by surprise.

Round 1: The adventurers win the initiative roll. Two crossbowmen take shots without hitting anything. Chuckles throws a spear and hits for 2 damage (8 down to 6 hp). The fire beetles rush up into melee. (Those with multiple attacks can’t use them here, since these monsters have more than 1 hit die at 1HD+4.) Khnar attacks one without effect, but Krimkol kills the one Chuckles speared. Parouz doesn’t succeed in her attack, but the pikemen do for 6 damage (killing another) and 2 damage (9 down to 7 hp). The dwarves-at-arms don’t hit, either. The remaining two beetles succeed in their morale check and attack, hitting only Krimkol for 5 damage (down to 5 hp).

Round 2: Initiative will occur simultaneously here. The two beetles fail in their attacks, while the crossbowmen reload. Khnar doesn’t hit, but Krimkol does for 3 damage (11 down to 8 hp). Parouz and Chuckles miss, even from behind. The pikemen kill one of the beetles, and the dwarves-at-arms kill the other.

• Level 3b: d6!=(6+2)=8 => 20-8=12
• Level 2: 2d6!=5+4=9 => 12-9=3

This leads to a shadowing event, and they smell undeath.

• Level 1: d6!=(6+6+5)=17 => 3-17=-14 (encounter and reset clock)

This time they encounter 8 of the feral undead cats. There’s no surprise, but the cats seem uninterested in the intruders’ presence. Cats gonna cat.

• Level 1b: d6!=2 => 20-2=18

Finally, the group exits, carrying Illuin’s corpse.

Rewards and Experience

• Monsters: 6 giant rats; 2 manticores; 4 fire beetles
• Treasure: 11000 sp (worth 1100 gp), 4000 gp, magic items
• Feats of Exploration: 0

The rats are worth 5 XP each (30 total), the manticores are worth 900 XP each (1800 total), and the fire beetles are worth 15 XP each (60 total), for a total of 1890 XP from monsters. The group also earns 5100 XP from the treasure, for a total of 6990 XP. Divided among the four surviving members, that’s 1748 XP each.

Next time, they’ll have to figure out whether they can afford a raise dead; if not, or if Illuin doesn’t survive that, they will then have to decide whether to recruit a new party member. The perils of dungeoneering!