[These posts are compiled as they were originally written with minimal changes]
BEYOND THE STYX SESSION #1 REPORT:
[The session at first started pretty slow, but the pace picked up, even if I'm sure I got stuff wrong when running the combats using the Man-to-Man system from Chainmail. Hopefully, this is the start of something great.]
After gaining their newfound freedom Hasan, Sumac and Shak-amen wander the winding corridors of the strange ruin they find themselves in, encountering other freed captives: a Vanir man named Agnarr, a Aquilonian named Firmin and a Hyborian woman named Lina, as well as their benefactor, a mysterious figure going by the alias Quill the Quick, a strange man who has the countenance of a marauder but bears an amulet of the god Ibis.
Though the primary goal is to escape and get to the city of Luxur, the lust for treasure and combat saw them intimidating apemen into handing over ill gotten gains, hacking through a small army of pygmies, and braving a strange pool of water that disolves metal. However, not all were fortunate. Hasan met his doom by drinking from a blessed fountain one to many times-- striking him down where he stood, suffocating in a heap on the ground.
Though they've barely started to gain their bearings, things have turned out to be fruitful. Fortune granting them platinum, electrum, a scroll and a potion-- even an ally in the form of a spitting cobra for Shak-amen!
Will our heroes escape back to civilization? Will the slavers catch up to them? Will there be troop type combat involved? Stay tuned to find out!
BEYOND THE STYX SESSION #2 REPORT:
Continuing on their journey to escape the underground complex-- Our heroes discover the tombs of some servants-- plain, undecorated and mostly containing mundane items, but also one of them containing Giant Fire Beetles hard at work building a nest in the chest cavity of some dried out dead guy in a tattered linen loincloth. These bugs managed to get the jump on Agnaar and Sumac-- leading to the former's demise.
After just barely beating them away, clever use of a jar of flaming oil was what was needed to drive away these tenacious creatures, killing only one in the process, but scaring off the others.
after recuperating after a (fortunately) uneventful night, the party heads up to the room wherein they found the skull on the table-- Shak-amen uses it commune with a wandering spirit that possess the body of Agnaar, telling them the way out lies in the center, and to be wary of screaming fungus. After the spirit leaves the skull crumbles into jagged pieces. They also stumbling across a room with a cryptic message: *"The Warrior will face The Serpent, thus glory may be found."* Eventually, they find their way out, greeted by the Stygian Sunrise and a sucky lookout, whom kept watch over the captors that brought the party here in the first place-- The Temple of Khnem. After Shak-Anem threatens him with his cobra, everyone hops in and Quill grabs the reins, riding triumphantly off to Luxur, with a handsome sum of cash and magic items in tow.
BEYOND THE STYX SESSION #3 REPORT:
[DM COMMENTARY This and the other two posts will be posted as a compilation on the blog. To summarize this session in two words: Growing Pains. My improv skills were put to the test here as the players had braved exactly the area of the previous undiscovered floor of this place that I had NOT prepped, but they seemed to have a decent time anyway, despite that and me having some dumb hangups and "getting lost in the sauce" when it came to certain rules in chainmail's man-to-man system, which in turn made me rather foolishly question my own judgement.
Fortunately I had the wisdom to go and print out the reference sheets in the back of the rules, which helped make things somewhat faster.]
Our heroes (and evil power-mad sorcerer) return to the Temple of Khnem, aided by a company of a rowdy bunch of Shemite mercenaries-- Heavy footmen and a separate unit of pikemen, coordinated by two sergeants and a lieutenant, they plumb further into the mysterious temple. They slay the mysterious creature they encounter last time (which turned out to be a wight) with shockingly easy deftness. Then as they explored the winding passages, came across two rooms, one featuring a statue of a warrior wielding a spear, the other, a statue of a snake.
Shak-Amen recalls seeing an inscription in another room, about making them face each other-- fortunately, the bases of the statues rotate, allowing for them to do so, revealing a secret passage. This parallel tunnel lead to the tomb of Khnem himself, who in his current state is a mummy with a head plated in electrum and a silk robe, making him equally as dripped out as the sarcophagus he resided in. The new member, a Hyborian ranger named Ihnteram, eagerly cracked it open, finding him to be very much alive, if disoriented from a millennia long powernap. Surprisingly, he is rather okay with these strangers being in his resting place, with Quill the Quick sweetening the deal by flashing his necklace with the symbol of the cult of Ibis on it, as him and Shak-Amen say their business is that of seeking revenge upon their oppressors (A half-truth, at least for the Sorcerer), and Khnem warns them of various tricks and traps guarding the place, though his hazy memory only remember a few in any real detail. They then move to the opposite side of the place, and get inside an elevator, and go to the second floor, beneath the earth. They spend lots of time probing the place, trying to get some bearings, coming across some people they recognize as a part of the slaver group holed up and desperate in a makeshift camp. They do not aggress, as they rather wisely know they are outnumbered/outclassed down there.
The party discovers a room with a large chasm and a rickety bridge spanning it, investigation revealing it to actually be the source of the sound of rushing water that echoes throughout this floor, and not just a bottomless pit. Not long after the party discovers a body that was laying on top of some phat loot (but not before Shak Amen gets nibbled on by a rot grub).
After that, they do battle with a fearsome Subterranean Lizard, a few of the troops psyched up by the promise of a bonus for whomever can pierce it's skin first (happens to be one of the guys they had chucking spears at it). Despite the beast being a mighty 6 HD, the only casualty had on the player's side was one of the sergeants. They find out that the lizard also had been lying on top of some phat loot too and had a luck stone stashed away in the corner, under some apeman bones.
Some rats come and try to harass the party, but are dealt with swiftly after some uninteresting troop-type back and fourth before they ran like little bitches. Not quite the monty haul that preceded it, but a decent share of treasure for three guys was won.
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