Adventures In Rhymargg Session 3, Ruins Of Zenopus

  Descending once again into the catacombs,  our brave adventurers came to a room filled nearly four feet high with accumulated trash and debris.  They heard something making scratching noises, but couldn't locate where the noise was coming from.  Attempting to dash across the chamber, no one failed their dexterity check to see if they tripped, but halfway across the five giant rats proceeded to attack.

  The rats apparently had an appetite for hirelings, as Thodric and Gilgard the torch bearers were the randomly chosen focus of the attack.  Thodric almost shuffled off this mortal coil, but Valerius came to his rescue, and the rats were quickly dispatched.  Fearing that more of their kind might arrive or be hidden in the debris, the party decided not to search through the rubbish, and thus missed some treasure.

 Discovering a room containing an old forge and an anvil with strange runes carved into it, Valerius was keen on trying to start a fire to see what would happen.  With only a torch to use, nothing significant occurred, but firewood is on his shopping list once they get back to town.

  Coming across a chamber that had apparently been undisturbed for a long time,  four hidden skeletons assaulted the party, focusing on Valerius at first.  Saren surmised that it was the sword Valerius was wielding from the looted tombs, but who's to say for sure.  Springing to the offense, poor Indel (true to his D&D comic roots) was severely skewered by a skeleton's blade, a natural 20 causing double damage.  Having only four hit points, the thief was reduced to -8, and even after some healing potion was only up to -3.

  With one hireling dead, a PC incapacitated, no healing potions left, and running out of torches, the PC's wisely decided to return to town to recuperate and restock, and try and hire some more help.

  We changed from hand-written character sheets to Dyson's folder-style BX sheets, a definite improvement.  I also made an insert explaining what rolls needed to be higher numbers to succeed, and so on, something the players greatly appreciated.

  More to come...