A Surfeit of Lampreys, session 10

So this week's D&D session found the characters back in the dungeons below the ruins of St. Gaxyg.  Having cleared James Maliszewski's "Ruined Monastery" (Fight On! #1) they focused most of the night on the level below, where I have placed Gabor Lux's "Tomb Complex of Ymmu M'Kursa" (also FO! #1).  I made a few changes to the Tomb Complex.  I think I previously mentioned using google translate to render most of the tomb engravings into Latin.  I also changed some of the monsters from standard types to uniques: some zombie were given a coffer corpse style choke attack, a wight was changed to this weirdo with transparent flesh that revealed the black necromantic blood oozing through its veins, and the stone golem like minor godling became a sumo wrestler made out of poop.

That last one was a big hit with the players.  They set it on fire, stinking up the dungeon like nobody's business.  When the sumoturd didn't burn properly Sir Jean Claude dropped a vial of mysterious Yellow Essence on him.  It melted the monster and part of the floor under him, granting the PCs access to a chamber below.  They decided to try to clear the level before exploring any further down into the dungeon.

They left at least one other part of the dungeon for their next expedition, a door labeled as leading to "Yliaster the Accursed Sorcerer".  Some of the players wanted to try cracking it open as soon as they found it, but they were down on spells and wiser heads argued for a better planned entry.

Two other notable events.  The Evans brothers, a pair of Welsh thieves, reached tenth and eleventh level respectively.  That's a direct result of my linear XP charts as well as the faster progression for thief types. Carl decided to retire these two fellows, as they have a big piles of gold and swanky houses back in London.  Reflecting on this decision, I announced that tenth level would now be the mandatory retirement age for the campaign.  There's nothing wrong with higher level play, it's simply beyond the scope what I want do in Wessex.

Besides, higher levels aren't really that necessary given my house rules.  Case in point: Alvis the Pardoner deciphered part of Adonis Tigerblood's spellbook.  Because of my overcasting rules, he could immediately begin attempting to cast the second, third, fourth and fifth level spells contained therein.  He didn't start throwing these spells around, though.  I think the fact that almost all of them are my own weirdly-named homebrew spells put him off.  Dane really wanted him to throw the Zenumic Conjuration, which summons a single demon, the same one each time.  So if you get it killed or piss it off further uses of the spell make for prickly situations.  The other spell that the players seemed to like was Beard of Uzza.  It functions pretty much like a cloudkill, except that the spell works by growing the caster's beard superfast, smothering everyone in the area of effect.

Too bad Alvis didn't try any of those spells Wednesday night, as it will be a while before we come back to Wessex.  I pitched to the players the idea of taking a little break from the D and the other D for some Wild West action.  So for the next couple three months we'll be kicking it Boot Hill style.  In two weeks my players will stick their noses into the Newton Massacre, an infamous Kansas gunfight.

No steampunk.  No zombies.  No magic playing cards.  Just rat bastard gunslingers.