Day eight of the Mountain of the Mad Marquis. This time, two adventurers showed up to give it a try.
- Laguna Tempest, Level 2 Warcaster
- Wakefield, Level 2 Burglar
The pair of robbers decided they needed some muscle, and hired a pair of mercenaries from Ishizaka's enterprise. They worked for Cortez, but hadn't seen him lately. Laguna bought magical reagents and scribed a scroll of Fireball for emergency use. Then they set off for the keep of the Mad Marquis.
The first thing they noticed is that a group of people had come through the surface castle before them. At least three visitors, some time between the previous day of adventuring and this morning. The duo proceeded cautiously with Wakefield in the lead scouting the path, following the footprints down to the next level.
At the bottom of the stairs was a dead Orc. One of the tribe that lived in the ruins before the Berserkers fucked everything up a week ago. He had been killed by a knife to the weapon hand, followed by a knife to the throat. His right ear was missing, cut off. Reginald and Adonis the Orc mercenaries patiently explained that the dead man had obviously been killed by scalphunters, seeking the 25 silver piece bounty on Orc ears offered by the Trade Wardens in Brazenkragg. This clearly wasn't their first time explaining this.
The group followed the footprints of the scalphunters to the Necropolis entrance. Wakefield sneaked down to see what was going on. He dodged a swarm of bats that came bursting out of the hatch, apparently disturbed by something on the level below. Down below, the previous party had entered the ruins of the Dragon Cult stronghold, and he could hear a sound like pumpkins being split open from down the hall. The adventurers didn't want to deal with that, and decided to explore the floor below. They stuck the Duck Signet Ring in the melted basalt facade of the entry-tomb. The stone cracked and fell away, splitting like a chocolate orange. Inside was an empty tomb, with a hole in the floor leading down.
The pumpkin chopping sound stopped. Whoever it was heard the rocks breaking. The adventurers hooded their lantern and waited in the darkness. Whoever came to investigate didn't bring any light, but they must have reported the opening of the tomb back to whoever was making the chopping noise, because it started up again. The adventurers decided to risk it, and went down the hole inside the tomb. There were iron rungs that let them climb fifty feet to the next floor.
The chamber at the bottom was made of huge stone blocks, fitted without mortar. The chamber beyond had been reclaimed by the underworld, worked stone floor barely visible beneath huge limestone deposits of dripping stalactites and stalagmites that joined together in places to form enormous columns. Wakefield spotted a corpse on a bare patch of floor and went to loot the body, ducking away when he realized the dead man had been crushed to death and narrowly avoiding a pair of plummeting Piercers. The molluscs, on missing the adventurer, slowly trundled away to reattach themselves to the ceiling, leaving Wakefield to loot the body for valuables and an unidentified magic buckler.
One of the connecting chambers was full of snottites, cave microbes that covered everything in layers of goo. The ooze dissolved a coin that Laguna dropped into it, and they decided to go a different direction rather than risk being melted. The next room was made of the same huge blocks as the others, and had an enormous bas relief covering one wall, carven from a boulder split in two. It was a relief image of a giant sea scorpion, carven from the rock. Laguna realized it was actually an impression of a fossil, though the fossilized tissue itself was missing.
A light shone from one of the adjoining passages.
Wakefield poked his head into the lit passage and found a carven stone bridge over a chasm. A light shone a hundred feet over his head, which Laguna realized was the lantern of clarity the Librarians used to ward off Draconic madness. Water thrashed the stone somewhere below, beating like a drum at a depth the light didn't reach.
The adventurers decided to wait on crossing the bridge, and investigated another passage from the fossil room. They found a temple, filled with limestone rock formations but still recognizable as a grand place of worship. At the end of the room was an altar heaped with treasure. Behind that was a giant stone statue, face so worn the deity it represented was obscure.
The adventurers and their two mercenary friends contemplated the theft of the treasure. A grinding sound from the bridge area interrupted them. Wakefield went to see what it was, and a twelve foot long fossil sea scorpion swam into the room, beating its paddles against thin air and reaching out with its chelicerae in search of prey.
Wakefield ran back into the room ahead of the beast to warn the group. The Hunter swam into the room and snatched Adonis off the ground. Wakefield shot his crossbow at the creature, but the magic bolt skipped off its stone carapace. Laguna tossed a fireball, careful to avoid roasting the captured mercenary. The beast swam out of the room, not even turning around to reach for the Orc again when he miraculously slipped from its grasp.
The adventurers waited until they were sure the monster wasn't coming back soon, and went back to the temple. Wakefield realized that some of the stalagmites were actually juvenile Ropers. He could sneak past them, but if he needed to leave in a hurry there would be trouble. He decided to sneak past them. There was an enormous emerald on the altar, and he made sure the platform wasn't trapped before swiping it.
The emerald on the altar was a loadstone - a cursed superheavy gem that slowed Wakefield's movement down. When he picked it up the giant statue came to life and attacked him. He waddled away as fast as he could with the cursed rock on his person, and was immediately grabbed by one of the little Ropers' tentacles. The Orc mercenaries rushed in and dragged Wakefield free. The giant statue ran after them and tripped over the Ropers' tentacles as they grabbed its legs. Laguna ran back into the room to steal the remaining treasure while the statue thrashed around and threw the Ropers across the room, sending masonry everywhere. He was able to grab the remaining wealth off the altar and get out without getting squashed.
When he got back out, the pair of Orcs were lying on the ground, shielding the unconscious Wakefield from a swarm of Giant Bats flying around the chamber in confusion. Laguna dove prone, and in the moment before he shut his lantern he spotted a woman with bat wings and a fucked up nosferatu face, wearing nothing but a ton of expensive jewelry, flapping around with the bats.
The group waited for the bats to filter back out into the vertical shaft with the lantern of clarity, then stood to leave. They had made a lot of money, and Wakefield wasn't feeling 100 percent. They went back to the room with the ladder before the giant scorpion thing could show up again, and began to climb.
Reginald was the first to reach the top. He ducked back down as a crossbow bolt narrowly missed his head. He shouted angrily, and that got a response from the attacker, who didn't expect to be addressed in common. The mysterious shooter invited the adventurers to come out if they were human. Wakefield obliged and emerged first.
There were four adventurers. They fired the crossbow because they thought Reginald was one of the Orcs living on the Mountain, and they wanted to cut off his ear for the bounty. They were scalphunters, they heard there were various fantasy creatures that the government would pay them to kill in the Marquis' estate, and so far they had heard right. Not only had they picked up a bunch of green ears and a bunch of treasure, they had taken a bunch of Lizardman heads, which the Trade Wardens of Brazenkragg had an even higher bounty on.
Valeria, Al-Zahir, Klee, Emicho
There were three scalphunters. Al-Zahir the Fighter, Klee the Gnome Illusionist, and Valeria the Cleric of the Grain Goddess. Wakefield spotted a fourth adventurer hiding behind a tomb, observing the scene. It looked like the guy was just a floating head and pair of hands. He would later learn this was Emicho the Thief, who wore a chameleonic gambeson that hid his torso and arms from view.
The two Orc mercenaries didn't seem overly bothered by the scalphunters hunting their species for money. They were more incensed about being mistaken for "tribals". The sclphunters basically ignord them, and suggested accompanying Wakefield and Laguna back to the surface. They had found a bunch of money and Klee was out of spells for the day. The adventurers had also found a bunch of money, and Wakefield wasn't feeling great after being clobbered by the living statue.
Back on the surface, the scalphunters got in a big argument with Ishizaka the Genie. As a merchant licensed by the Trade Wardens of the Commonwealth, they expected him to take the Orc ears and Lizard heads and pay out the approved bounty rate. Ishizaka responded that his contract did not give him any obligation to pay out government bounties, and if the scalphunters wanted to dispute it they were welcome to sue him. The Scalphunters offered to accept a lower rate, allowing Ishizaka to take the pieces and claim the bounty himself for a profit, but he held firm. The pissed off mercenaries sold all the dungeon treasure they found and went to gamble.
Jacob Duck
Sensing an opportunity to make money, Wakefield and Laguna sat down to play cards with the scalphunters. Over a night of gambling, Wakefield cheated just enough to win without getting caught, walking away with most of their money. The dejected scalphunters decided to pack up their operation and go back to Brazenkragg to claim the bounty on body parts. Wakefield suggested they work together on another dungeon delve. He only got a few rooms into the Ancient City on level 3 and made a bunch of money. There was still a bunch of loot down there, more than enough for a six way split.
Adonis and Reginald reported that Cortez had definitely gone into the dungeon that morning, and hadn't come back out.
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