Mysteries of Mystara 006

Our intrepid adventurers try to return a magical mace, meet a new companion, return to the Sunken Citadel, are unable to pass a door, meet a crying Kobold that lost his dragon, agree to help recover it, and find a bunch of Goblins to fight. The on-going GURPS saga of five unlikely companions attempting to unravel the mysteries of Mystara.

Mysteries of Mystara
Session 006

Kobolds and Goblins

220108

The morning after returning from the Sunken Citadel, the group plans to head up the mountain to return the recovered Mace of St. Yuric to its rightful home in the monastery, also named for St. Yuric, an ancient Traladaran warrior famous for fighting off Frost Giants with the mace. Malachai tries to persuade the group to hold on to the mace just a little bit longer, but Panya and Talyn are steadfast in their plan to return the mace. 

The trip up the rocky mountain trail is uneventful and the party is received graciously by the Abbot of the Monastery. He is happy to see Panya and overjoyed to have the religious artifact back home. He awards everyone two healing potions for their good work. He invites everyone to a nice lunch and then gives permission to hold on to the mace for a while longer while adventuring and battling evil in the area. 

Finally, goodbyes are said and the group heads back down the rocky trail to Novaci. While hiking and performing at the same time, Lucky takes a horrible misstep and severely twists his ankle. He has to be helped down the rest of the way.

Once back in town, the party is approached by a tall, slender young Thyatian man. He introduces himself as Stephen of Asterius, a wandering cleric of the Church of Karameikos. He had heard some tales of the party’s previous adventures when he arrived in Novaci and was interested in joining the band of adventurers. He is filled in on the current expedition and told to meet early the next morning.

Lucky’s ankle seemed much better in the morning and the party set out once again for the Sunken Citadel. Along the way, it is determined that Lucky’s ankle is NOT much better and the Traladran Bard has to limp on the injured limb. Stephen takes a look at at and does his best to tend to it, but states that an injury of that nature is beyond his humble means as a cleric and that only high members of his order are capable of channeling that measure of divine power. Lucky grits his teeth and vows to go on, only slowing the pace by a little. 

Better prepared for the climb this time, the group makes it down into the ravine with no mishaps, and the hearty explorers made their way down into the earth. As if on a mission, Talyn leads the group back through previously explored areas to the stone dragon door that was not able to be opened previously. He and Panya go at the door with a crowbar and Panya even channels her inner strength to try to force the door open, but it does not budge. Stephen suggests that there is no doubt magic holding the door closed and that finding the right key may break the spell.

Disheartened, the group heads off in another direction to explore. While checking out a long corridor with several doors, the party angered an elemental beast, a tiny water mephit that managed to hit Stephen in the face with a glob of acid spit! It proved to be difficult to hit and made a rapid escape after a few moments. 

Moving on, Talyn takes out some frustration carried over from the mephit fight by kicking down the door at the end of the hallway. This large room is lit by a campfire and contains a destroyed cage and a tattered tent which contained a crying Kobol. After some conversation, the Kobold, a pathetic creature named Meepo, claims that some Goblins stole his “dragon” and gave some information about the proximity of a dark druid allied with the Goblins. Thinking this is exactly what they have been after, the group agrees to let Meepo introduce them to his leader, Yusdrayl.

Meepo leads them through some chambers, all decorated in the dragon motif common to this place, and past numerous Kobold guardians. They all watch the party with wide-eyed caution. Yusdrayl was found seated on a throne carved in the likeness of a Dragon’s head. A deal was made for the party to recover the Dragon for the Kobolds in exchange for a reward from the special items that the clan had accumulated, one of which appeared to be a dragon shaped key believed to open the difficult door elsewhere in the Citadel. Yusdrayl was also able to indicate that the name of the dark druid was Sernay and that he inhabited the “grove below.”

Meepo is chosen to lead the party to the Goblin’s back entrance, as the front entrance is more heavily guarded and trapped. Quickly Meepo leads the group through some familiar halls to an area he has not been to before, but is positive he knows the way. The group stops to examine an interesting dragon-themed fountain. Meepo is able to read the inscription on the front of the basin which triggered a brief flow of red, magical fluid into the basin. Talyn quickly scooped the liquid into his canteen for later.

Opposite the fountain is another stone door with carvings of skeletal dragons on it. A closer examination reveals that this door and the air around it are freezing cold. Talyn comments that it is probably a trap with undead behind it. The others agree and move on. Meepo then leads the group past a long corridor with many other passages off of it. It truly looks like an ancient dungeon. Meepo steers the group away as this is rumored to be the realm of Guthash, the Bloated One, a giant dire rat that lords over all the other rats in the place. Talyn takes note of this, wanting to return and see what sort of treasures the rats have accumulated over the years.

Finally, Meepo stops at a wooden door, “Quiet, Goblins behind that door,” he explains. The group prepared for battle. Malachai carefully and slowly opened the door only to be surprised by the ringing of a small bell that was attached to the top of the door. Realizing their attempt at surprise was foiled, the Feytouched slams the door open revealing a short passage with a 3’ defensive wall built across the far end. The floor between the door and wall was covered in pointy caltrops. Suddenly several Goblin heads appear beyond the wall and javelins fly through the air. Talyn tosses one of his smoke bombs donw the hallway then he and Malachai use their shields to sweep as many of the caltrops away as possible. Finally, the Goblins, two of them, were engaged and dispatched. Another door right around the corner was quickly blocked as more Goblins attempted to enter the area. 

The group paused for a moment then charged through the next door, finding several more Goblins laying in wait. A second battle was engaged in a similar room with another 3’ wall at the far end. Talyn once again used a smoke bomb to good use. This group of Goblins proved more difficult and one of them retreated and ran through a door at the far end of the room. Chasing him across a hallway and into another room which turned out to be another small Goblin camp. A third battle was joined and, having no place to fall back to, the Goblins fought hard. The adventurers, already exhausted from two prior battles, were hard pressed but finally they prevailed. During the battle, Lucky had examined one of the doors they passed, interesting because of the crude chain and padlock that was holding it closed. He noted it to come check out again after the fighting was done. 

In the end, many Goblin’s lay dead or dying, though one of the green-skinned guards had thrown down his weapons and thrown up his hands in surrender, speaking quite broken Traladaran. After a short argument regarding the continued breathing of the Goblin prisoner, the room was secured and everyone nearly collapsed from exhaustion. Some wounds were quickly healed and the group decided to take a short rest.

Session Notes

Another great session. Seems our fifth player will no longer be joining us virtually. He hopes to rejoin the group once we are back in person again, though. This session had a good amount of exploration, social interactions, and combat, in equal parts, I think. The best kind of session!

During the combat, the PCs made good use of their combat options that required FP, though this quickly tired them out. Three short fights back to back to back really takes its toll on new characters!

Cast of Characters:

Malachai, Feytouched, Wilderness Defender - played by JeCorey H
Talyn Dilectus Vanyilam, teenage Celestial warrior on the run - played by Don K
Panya Masika, a bronze skinned Nithian monke stranded out of time - played by Carol C
Vlajic Savago, the Lucky Savage, a Traladaran bard - played by Dan E

and GMJasonGURPS as the DM