BEYOND THE STYX [OD&D +CHAINMAIL, AGE OF CONAN] Play Reports 4: Trying Alternate Combat

[DM Commentary: After a delay due to the original date of this game falling on Election Night, the game is finally back! This week, we made use of the Alternate Combat System in Book 3: Secrets of the Black Circle. This session also seemed more low-key than the last, given that we're down a player temporarily. The mercenaries weren't used because I wasn't sure if Shak-Amen's player would be okay with it (It turns out that he was). Lastly, I made sure to get the preparation for the second floor done as that made me sweat bullets last time-- only to not go there. #JustDMThings.]


Interahm and Sumac venture into the Temple of Khnem once again, exploring the first floor, seeing what lies in the areas they have not yet been too. They discover a thief stuffing his pockets in a room east of the entrance. Sumac interrogates the man, though he is happy to go along. The thief, named Merric was looking for money to pay for a way out of Stygia. He tells the party of a chamber with a strange looking plaque written in hieroglyphics to the northeast. Along the way, they encounter a mosaic depicting a bird flying over the Stygian landscape. The party decides to take the smash and grab approach to stealing the glass pieces (turns out they contained platinum, which ultimately ended up being the bulk of the treasure earned).

They also found a strange stone in the floor that turned out to be a sort of stone trapdoor that leads to the second floor. Lowering a torch down, they see a corridor, in which they make out a reptilian humanoid, staring at them from the edge of the torch. The creature quickly dashed back into the blackness below. They keep pressing on until they find the chamber in question: just as Merric described, double doors, a plaque in ancient writing, and a 10x10 alcove with a lever in it. Interahm pulled the lever down using a ten foot pole, which causes a stone door to slam down abruptly-- cutting off the alcove and snapping the pole.

The double doors swing open, confusingly, there is another 10x10 space, with nothing inside. In a stroke of sheer luck, Sumac noticed some distortion in the empty space-- A gelatinous cube! Had he not noticed it, the fight would've likely gone very differently, as the party basically had a clean sweep with the thing. After fighting the cube, they went on to a room which had an altar and an orangutan apeman wearing holy vestments and holding a caduceus staff. after some negotiation (and interpreting its gestures and symbols), they discovered it to be a servant of Khnem, helping to guard his treasure.


After this, the party probes to the north again, discovering a room with chalk sigils a cauldron, and a treasure chest. Three blob-y homunculi creatures jump out of the cauldron and attack. The party's first push was successful-- though it would not last, the creatures slowly regenerate over time. The creatures killed Merric and nearly killed Interahm (though I was perhaps being too nice and let him get a chance to stabilize because he's had such rotten luck this campaign). On the way out, they encounter Khnem wandering around, but he didn't seem too focused on the party.


All and all, they did not get a whole lot of treasure, but, seeing as  there was just two players, and the characters  were already close to leveling up anyway, I would consider it to be a successful session.