We left off with the party recovering from clearing out a metric ton of goblins. While several characters had used their daily powers, everyone had a decent amount of healing surges. Additionally the party was buffered by the arrival of Hermiad (Elf Ranger, now 2nd level like everyone else) and Edgar (Warforged Fighter, completely new). Bartix grabbed some of the goblin warcaster's (RIP) journals, and the party pressed on. They decided to ignore a door just north of the goblin's study, but instead forged north-east, following the passage that had led to the barracks.
Despite vowing to play it safe this game, Mendas took the lead. He jumped back suddenly as he sensed a weakness in the floor below him. Edgar was called up to push with his sword, and yes, a pit trap opened up in the floor. Peering down, the party saw freshly poisoned spikes at the bottom of a 10-foot drop. They skirted the exterior and pressed on.
In a few feet more, the vikings reached a crossroads. The caverns branched to the left, and the passage emanated a foul smell. Ahead of them, they could see a further branch. Mendas and Hermiad strained their senses and decided that the smell was not rotting meat, not death, but probably refuse. In fact, Hermiad's epic Perception and Nature skills told him that the goblins were eating vegetarian and fish, meaning that they had run through all the game on the island. Everyone decided to leave the goblin toilet alone... everyone but Bartix! Knowing that neatly every room in a dungeon could contain valuable treasure, Bartix trudged down the reaking hallway to investigate. Edgar volunteered to play bodyguard and followed... actually, I think they reversed this order once they got to the room.
The passage opened up into a mammoth cavern, 50 feet across and nearly twice as deep. Giant mushrooms bloomed throughout the room, along with dense piles of mold and filth. Pools of thick stinking liquid stood in varying places along the floor, especially across the exterior border. Tracks leading to sitting spots indicated that, yes, this was an active goblin latrine... perhaps a larder as well!
Bartix looked about and didn't see any traditional treasure, but identified at least 20 gold worth of material components. The two walked forward to check out the valuable mushrooms, but then the filth in the back stirred as two giant beetles charged out!
Bartix got the high initiative and jumped back to the doorway, firing a magic missile at the beetles from safety. The beetles charged into combat with Edgar, but both failed to hit. Edgar was now stuck, and did a Reaping strike to hit both. But this ruined Bartix's plan to retreat, and he called the rest of the part for backup.
The five other vikings ran in, covering the fifty feet to the room pretty quickly. Bartix, Hermiad, and Varin lit up the beetles with missile fire, but Rurik and Oddny could only make it to the doorway of the room. In the meantime the beetles chewed up Edgar, criting once and doing near maximum damage on the other bite. The warforged was now bloodied, but the beetles had also taken a lot of shots.
At this point I played the rest of my hand. The floor bubbled, and two Ochre Jellies rose out from the filth. I didn't announce the name of the monster, and the players naturally assumed this was animated goblin shit. Well, maybe it was; by the time we played this room, the impulses that drove me to select this monster are lost.
Anyway, the Jellies could teleport from liquid square to liquid square effortlessly, and they charged across the room to attack the Wizard and the Warlock in the back (but not doing much damage in the process).
Meanwhile, the beetles retreated from the fight, drawing free hits from Edgar. They responded by shooting entangling spittle out at Edgar and Rurik, immobilizing them both. Ooh, not just beetles but Tangler Beetles!
The Ochre Jellies were now the major threat, and the party started whacking them in grand style. This combat was a really good showcase of how everyone's improved at 2nd level: for every hit the jellies landed, the vikings landed four. I think the jellies are designed like that too: their defenses are low, but their hit points are legion.
Then we hit the point that I had been waiting for: One of the jellies was bloodied, and he split in two! Awesome... that freaked everybody out and made them realize it was time for the encounter powers. Each monster only has one chance at freaking people out with their crazy power, and this one was good.
Edgar and Rurik broke out of their immobilization and joined the rest of the party on the Jellies, who were going down fast now. Hermiad killed one beetle with his bow, then tried to move on to the jelly, but he swung a wide arc into the room to hop between the pools of standing filth. This triggered a Doomspore Mushroom! But he was fine... Varin started to roast the second beetle. Under assault from Mendas, Hermiad, and Bartix, the second original jelly split at the same time that the first two clones expired. I think the remaining monsters went down at about the same time.
We wrapped up by scouting the room. Hermiad determined that there was one more Doomspore mushroom in the room, and everyone avoided that. Bartix got some material components (I'll say 40 gp, some great mushrooms indeed), but there was no treasure to be found. Everyone was in decent shape: in fact, Mendas didn't get hit! The party decided to keep going and to wind their way to a new room in the dungeon. We'll start immediately next game by revealing that room.
So Gencon was last month, and a lot of material, interviews and podcasts, came out of it trying to clarify what 4th Edition is supposed to look like. This game was my attempt to reflect these maxims: big open room, lots of defining scenery, combination of traps and monsters. I've mentioned in the past that this adventure was based on the published Isle of Fury from Goodman Games, but at this point I'm using only the skeleton of the adventure. The design of rooms, monsters, etc. always demands a radical Something Else.
Everyone got 274 experience points for the traps and the monsters.
Casualties:
1 Elite Pit Floor trap
2 Doomspore Mushroom traps
2 Tangler Beetles
2 Ochre Jellies
19 Beers (counting the giant Wegmans novelty beers as 2 each)
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