Vapourware RPGCodex plays Dungeon Crawl Classics

[Don Peste]

Samuel Stuart throws another dart. He's confident he is the only one who can save this people. 1d20, 1d4 → ([8], [2])
Little Timmy tries another shot with his sling. 1d20, 1d4 → ([17], [4])
Rosario prays for his life. No, please, no. I STILL WANT TO LIVE!!

 

[Siveon]

Barry stares as Samuel is slain before his very eyes. "Damn, damn, DAMMIT!" Barry shouts, and without a moment's notice he swings at another crystal-man.
1d20+2, 1d6 → ([12, 2], [4])

What's with the lad? Pobbin thinks to himself as he attempts to bash the other crystal man. It doesn't turn too well in his favor.
1d20-1,1d4 → ([8, -1], [1])

Wesker is still holding the armor in front of his face and upper body area to protect himself from the monument. He runs to northern room, while thinking to himself, Please don't see me, please in the name of any god that may see me now, don't let it see me.

 

[Monstrous Bat]

The halfling on fire rushed towards the pool in the center of the hall and dived right in, ignoring the melee going on. Meanwhile, pressing their numerical advantage, the rest of the party continued to rain attacks on the remaining crystal-men. Though most of them failed to strike true, Arbin managed to damage a crystal-man with his walking stick again. Only moments later, Timmy's slingstone struck the same creature with great power, shattering its forehead. The statue too stopped moving.

Crystal-man attacks Aug (1d20+2=13, 1d4=3)

Only one crystal-man remain now. Barry, Poul and Hep completely destroyed the creature with three ferocious blows, but not before it delivered a mortal blow to Aug's chest. The jeweler gasped as he was knocked on the ground, slowly losing all consciousness.

Monument shoots Cepheus (1d20+6=18, 1d6=2)

Cepheus ran towards the nearby door as fast as he could manage and almost managed to make it before he tripped over Slolth's corpse. The unfortunate woodcutter cursed as he tried to regain balance, only to have his attempt cut short by another firebolt to his back. In but a few seconds, Cepheus was consumed by the flame. The monument then turned its attention to Wesker, but the elf was able to escape into the northern room before the monument could do anything nasty.

All is quiet. The crystal statues lie on ground before you. The air is filled with the smell of seared flesh. To your south, you heard the noise of the gigantic monument pivoting once again.

Hob

Spoiler

The halfling's decision to jump into the pool was wise, as water extinguished the fire immediately. Once Hob has calmed down, he looked around him and saw a truly stunning scenery. The bottom of the 3' deep pool is painted pitch black, and yet a strange light shines throught hundreds, nay, thousands of small, translucent crystals encrusted on the bottom of the pool.

 

[nikolokolus]

Hob's feet barely touch the bottom of the pool as he's forced to constantly push off every few seconds to come up for air, "Ziggy..." *sploosh* "Throw me..." *splunk* "a rope."

Siegbert looks around for something to throw to his friend and remembers the grappling hook in the room with the massive statue, he starts to run into the room but pulls up short, taking the time to peek around the corner to see if the statue is truly still. If the statue is inert, he'll dart in and retrieve the grapple and rope and quickly take it to the pool and help his friend.

Nicomedes surveys the death and destruction around him. He glances back through the doorway as Siegbert goes past him and spots the still, smoldering form of Cepheus, face down on the dusty plinth. He reaches out and pulls Cepheus' body through the doorway, pats out the flames and begins rifling through his clothes, snatching up a small coin purse, Cepheus' 10' length of chain, his handaxe and the ancient spear.

Siegbert sneers at the sight of Nicomedes looting Cepheus' corpse, "Yer a right bastert Nico. We ne'er shoulda listent tae yer wild tales o' treasure and riches. Look what ye done fer yer mate Cepho. Come tae think o' it, where in the nine circles o' hell were ye, when all this were goin' on?"

Nicomedes flashes an exaggerated look of hurt, "Where was I?! I was doing my best to make sure we could all get out safely. That's what! I was worried the door may shut and trap us all in here with these horrors, so I stayed back to make sure it wouldn't. User the brain the gods gave you my stout friend."

Siegbert grumbles, spits and waves his hand dismissively, then goes back to his task of helping Hob out of the pool.

Spoiler

Taking stock of new stats, equipment, hit points, etc. (stat blocks for all of my survivors)

Nicomedes: Init +0; Atk (Spear) +1 melee (1d8+1) (spear) +0 thrown (1d8+1); AC: 14; HP (5)/5; MV 25'; Armored check penalty -4; SV Fort +1, Ref +0, Will+0
STR - 13, AGL - 12, STM - 15, PER - 10, INT - 15, LCK - 10
Equipment: 79 CP, 1 day of rations, 10' chain, handaxe, spear, black enameled scalemail, (throws his club aside).

Siegbert Init +0; Atk (Pick) +0 melee (1d4) (Pick) +0 thrown (1d4); AC 10; HP (6)/3; MV 20'; SV Fort +2, Ref+0, Will +0
STR - 12, AGL - 10, STM - 16, PER - 12, INT - 11, LCK - (11)8
Equipment: 39 CP, Lantern, Waterskin, Pick.

Hob: Init +1; Atk (Handaxe) +0 melee (1d6) (Handaxe) +1 thrown (1d6); AC: 11; HP (5)/3; MV 20'; SV, Fort+1, Ref+1, Will+0
STR - 9, AGL - 13, STM - 15, PER 8, INT - 15, LCK - (15)13
Equipment: 22 CP, 5 lbs. chicken meat, candle
Special: Lucky Sign: Warrior's Arm (+2 on critical hit tables)

 

[Alchemist]

Ogin props himself up on the handle of his pitchfork and gets back to his feet. "What strange, uncanny creatures those were! Must be some dark sorcery at work in this place", he says as he surveys the room and the status of his comrades. "You did well little one!" Ogin says to Arbin, who smiles smugly at his success in the battle. Arbin chuckles "Beginners luck I'm sure... I've been in nary a fistfight or any sort of brawl my whole life! To be quite honest I was terrified the whole time - maybe that helped".

Gylan collects what usable arrows he can from the floor. While collecting arrows from near the crystal men he takes a closer look at the creatures - seeing if there is anything noteworthy or useful in their structure. (Crystal shards that could be removed?) He'll use his crowbar to pry them apart a bit.

If Hob needs further assistance getting out the pool, Ogin will lend a hand by extending his pitchfork for him to grab onto.

 

[Monstrous Bat]

Siegbert peeked through the doorway and saw that the monument is standing still, its index finger once again pointing towards the statues room to the south. However, as soon as Siegbert and Nicomedes set their feet in the monument hall, the monument also started pivoting again. Not wanting to expose themselves to the monument's attack, the duo quickly pulled Cepheus' corpse into the northern room. Since the fire was put out relatively quickly, the spears carried by Cepheus remained usable. Meanwhile, with the help of Gylan and Siegbert, Hob was able to climb out of the pool without much trouble.

Under 50 = arrow broke (1d100=93, 1d100=86, 1d100=53)

Gylan was delighted to find out that none of the arrows he used to shoot the crystal man has broken. He found no valuable items on the crystal-men other than the crystal bodies of the creature themselves.

 

[Siveon]

Pobbin stretches his arms for a bit, "I have a feeling it's not gonna get any easier, eh Barry?" Pobbin chuckles as he walks up to Barry, who at this point was sitting on the floor a few feet away from Samuel.

Barry says to Pobbin, "I suppose, but uh, what about him?" he looks towards Samuel's corpse.

Pobbin walks up to Samuel's body and removes his gold, tools, and dagger. "Well, he's not bringing this along." Barry replies, "Right."

Wesker approaches the two, armor in both hands and tosses the scale mail towards Barry. Barry barely manages to catch the scale mail. Wesker catches his breath for a moment "A bit of thanks" *huff* "would be nice." Barry looks up at Wesker, "Thanks." The elf nods, and then walks to Samuel and takes the Grimoire. "This might prove to be useful."

Barry dons the armor. He proceeds to walk up to the pool of water and refill his waterskin. Wesker comments out loud, "This room seems safer than normal. I say we settle down for a bit and prepare for the next room."

 

[nikolokolus]

Siegbert wipes his hands after helping Hob out of the pool and he surveys the room, holding his lantern aloft. His eyes alight with greed when he sees the glittering gemstones and crystals covering the bottom of the pool and kneels down to get a better look, "Gods' balls, we're rich!" He sets the lantern next to the pool, jumps in and plunges below the water seeing if he can grasp a crystal/gem and pry it loose.

Hob shakes his head miserably, doffing his soaking wet cloak and wringing it out over the pool. "Fah! I already had my yearly bath six months ago. I'll probably catch cold now! And just look at my lovely chicken, tt's probably ruined by that nasty, stale water" He frets.

Nicomedes barely hears the complaining halfling, his eyes are fixated firmly on the pool as Siegbert goes under.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Poul asks, "Great! We've got some treasure. How about we now try on figuring out how we are getting passed the statue with the fire flinging finger."

Hep retorts, "No way we are getting out the way we came. That thing pivots pretty fast, and even if we run opposite of where it is turning, someone's liable to get blasted.

"Hmph," Poul says. "Maybe we best look at other passageways, then." Thus saying he examines the door at the far side of the chamber.

 

[Monstrous Bat]

It took Siegbert about two minutes to pry out one of the many crystals encrusted on the bottom of the pool. Fortunately, no searing energy bolts of death sprung out this time. After the crystal had been pried out, some air bubbles begun to rise from where the crystal originally was.

The door at the far side of the chamber seems pretty normal.

 

[nikolokolus]

Siegbert comes up for air and quickly swims over to the edge of the pool and his burning lantern to get a good look at the crystal. He rolls it between his thumb and forefinger, letting the light play over its facets. (A trained "mining" check to identify the stone and it's approximate value I assume?)

Nicomedes' eyes go wide at the sight of Seigbert and the crystal in his hand, "Whatchya got there old friend?" He asks in a sly, oily tone. Seigbert sneers, "I aint yer fookin friend, ya conninving ne'er do well and it aint none a yer fookin' bidness. Why doon ya git off yer arse and git yer own." Nicomedes waves his hand noncommittally, "Oh, I was just curious, besides I don't really want to ruin this shiny suit of armor."

Hob continues to wring out his clothes and complain about the damp, seemingly oblivious to the exchange between Nicomedes and Siegbert. "Did anybody bring a towel?"

 

[Monstrous Bat]

Siegbert's mineralogy check (1d10+2=3)

Siegbert couldn't even begin to guess how much the crystal is worth. Perhaps he should have spent his spare time studying mineralogy instead of dentistry.

 

[Alchemist]

Arbin approaches Hob and offers a section of his fabric stash to dry off with. "I normally wouldn't want this used for such a base purpose - but I can't very well let a fellow halfling stand around soaking wet! One must get comfort where one can in these circumstances."

Gylan says, "More crystals in that pool eh? I don't trust 'em. More traps and trickery I'm sure!" as he rubs his still sorely burned shoulder.

Ogin says "I wonder what purpose this pool serves..." as he kneels beside it and cups some water into his hand - sniffing at it for any peculiar scent it might have.

 

[Monstrous Bat]

Though Ogin sees nowhere for the water to flow, the water seems clean and clear, without any weird scents.

 

[nikolokolus]

Hob grins weakly at Arbin and takes the swatch of cloth and blows his nose into it, long and hard. "Thank ye cousin, if we get out of here alive I owe you a meal of my special marinated chicken livers. Oh what I wouldn't give for a hot toddy and a some roasted gizzards right about now."

Siegbert shouts out to no one in particular, "Oy. Any o' ye blokes ken anyfin' aboot fancy stones? What do ye' make o' this?" He holds out the crystal in the palm of his hand. "Anyways. We've lost a lot o' folk today, we came 'ere fer treasure and way to a better life, so I says we make the best o' a shite sitchiation and grab as many o' these stones as we can and get the fook ootae 'ere."

Nicomedes looks into the pool and the array of crystals along the bottom. "Very pretty" he mumbles softly to himself.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

"Well then let's gather what we can and head on out of here," Hep suggests before walking up to the far door.

Poul is already at the door, and is ready to open it with weapon prepared. "Ready when you are."

 

[Alchemist]

Ogin says, "well it seems safe enough - Gylan, hand me that crowbar". And then Ogin will enter the pool and pry several crystals out with the crowbar, placing them into his sack. He'll spend about ten minutes harvesting crystals, if nothing strange or dangerous happens.

Arbin looks slightly taken aback as Hob's snot is expelled onto his fine fabric... "You can... eh... keep this for later use" he says through a strained smile, as he tears a yard of cloth away and gives it to Hob. "And yes... indeed a fine gourmet dinner would be a nice way to celebrate getting out of here alive."

Gylan and Arbin approach near the door, preparing to leave when the way is clear.

 

[Monstrous Bat]

The adventurers gathered together to see the crystal Siegbert just pried out. Unfortunately, none of you are very good at identifying gemstones. You have wildly diffrent ideas as to the crystal's value; some think it's worth a gold, some think it's only worth about five silvers. Ogin eventually got bored of arguing and took Gylan's crowbar to start prying more crystals out. With the help of the crowbar, this process is a lot faster, and Ogin only needed one minutes to pry a crystal out. No traps sprung from Ogin's actions, but the farmer soon realized that water in the pool was being drained into the holes left by prying out the gems. When a crystal is pried out, air bubbles rise, then a current starts. After 10 crystals were pried out, the draining was becoming increasingly obvious.

 

[Alchemist]

Ogin surfaces with the bag of 10 crystals - and says to the others "Uh... guys? The water - it seems to be draining away... I think these gems were keeping the water in. There's some kind of space under the pool I reckon. Probably gonna flood some other room in this place... underneath."

Gylan perks up "A space huh? Maybe a hidden treasure chamber!".

 

[nikolokolus]

Siegbert looks around him as the water level starts to drop. "Well lads, this should make our work a bit easier." He uses his pick to pry out ten crystals of his own, or whatever he can get in a turn (ten minutes) of work.

Nicomedes edges along the side of the pool towards the far door. when he gets there he starts examining, in detail, the surface of the door for any anomalies (strange carvings, runes, etc.) and carefully looks over the crack between the door and the jamb, seeing if there are any small triggers, wires or any other mechanisms he suspects might be a trap.

Hob trundles over to the side of the pool by Siegbert's lantern, "Hey Ziggy, I'll help you as best I can." He dumps out his precious chicken meat into the pool. "Here, you can use my sack to hold them crystal thingies. You chip 'em out and I'll hold 'em for ya." Siegbert's eyes momentarily narrow and he gives Hob a long sideways glance, before drawling, "Ahreeet ... ye can 'elp, but ken this. If'n ye tries tae double-cross me ..." He lets his voice trail off. A look of confusion and then hurt crosses the halfling's face, "Double cro ...What? Oh no Ziggy, we're friends, I would never ... Wow. I mean, I can't believe you said that."

 

[Don Peste]

Are you sure you want to go down there? Said Timmy. It could be Hell down there. Or, eh, AN OCEAN! Guys? Guys?

Shouldn't we go back home already? We've got some treasures, and enough casualties, I think... Rosario added, visibly sad.

 

[Alchemist]

Gylan rubs his hands together and says "Lets drain the whole thing out - and make it easier to get at that secret chamber below!", as he jumps in the pool and will use an arrow-head to assist in collecting crystals.

Ogin shrugs - "Alright then - I'll pry out some more..." and spend another 10 minutes collecting crystals with the crowbar.

 

[Siveon]

Pobbin looks at Barry. "I think we're missing out on some potential funds here, kid."

"Agreed." The two proceed to proceed to clamor into the pool and dig out crystals with their weapons. Pobbin uses the back end of his club and Barry uses the hilt of his ax. The two collect crystals for around the same time as the others, 10 minutes.

"Hold on," Wesker interrupts, "You're probably gonna need this." Wesker tosses the two a backpack to store their share of crystals. After that Wesker studies the grimoire as he waits for the others.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Poul comes by the pool and says, "Gents, you think there's a chamber below just because the water's draining? Maybe it just drains into a drain..."

Hep adds, "Need some extra elbow grease? I can take a crack if those ol' arms are getting tired."

 

[Monstrous Bat]

Nicomedes searches the door in pool room (1d20=12)

While the rest of the party is busy prying out crystals, Nicomedes was carefully studying the door for any traps. After ten minutes of intensive inspection, Nicomedes deduced that there isn't any traps on the door, at least not any he could spot.

Meanwhile, more and more people joined Gylan the mining operation. Everyone was suddenly frozen, however, when they heard a loud crackle from under their feet. The miners looked down and found that the floor has buckled; a long crevice has appeared in the middle of the bottom of the pool, and small clods of dirt seems to be falling off.