Our Intrepid Heroes
- Merisiel, Whisper Elf Rogue
- Valera, Skilled Human Fighter
- Feiya, Versatile Human Witch
- Jirelle, Half-Elf Swashbuckler
- Lini, Gnome Druid
After leaving the Necropolis, the group decided to head to Delver’s Square to see about getting the runes they’d found applied to their weapons and armor. While they found, to their dismay, that they didn’t have enough money for even one application, let alone several, both Rastor’s Weapons and the Bull & Bear Armory were willing to advance them some credit. They left their gear overnight and grabbed dinner at the Ghostly Minstrel. While there, a boy came in selling special editions of The Courier.
While news of the Iron Mage’s return was interesting, as well as the information about a city-wide vote regarding the relocation of Ptolus from the Astral Plane, what drew their attention most was the apparent need of the Delver’s Guild for people to retrieve members’ bodies from The Dungeon. They resolved to go to the Delvers’ Guild office first thing after getting their armor and weapons back.
At the Delver’s Guild office, the woman in charge, Gorti Jurgen, seemed skeptical of them at first, but they were able to convince her they were experienced enough delvers to do a few corpse runs to help out the guild as subcontractors. She gave them a set of directions to find their first deceased delver: Dorn Grue.
Following the directions, they found themselves in a section of The Dungeon called Ghul’s Labyrinth. At that point, their directions provided no further guidance, so they began to explore. They avoided a few traps, failed to avoid a few others, and found themselves in a wide corridor surrounded a large central column. From around the column slithered an abhorrent monstrosity resembling an unholy cross between a giant slug and a man.
They eventually defeated the grothlut and took time to tend to their wounds before continuing their search…
We didn’t get quite as much done as I’d hoped this session, due to some tech issues. At least we got them solved and now I know how to deal with that particular issue should it arise again.
Of course, the group latched on to something in the Broadsheet that was almost a sort of throwaway reference. I didn’t have anything at all prepared for them to go in that direction. But I did have a plug-in for Foundry called DunGen. This app randomly generates dungeon or cavern layout maps based on parameters you set. The Foundry add-on will create the map right in Foundry in just a few seconds. Saved my butt. While the players were talking and planning their next move, I was able to create the map and throw in a few challenges. Then, after the sessions, I was able to go back and fill in the walls and such so it’ll be better prepared for the next session (joining the Patreon will apparently add functionality to automatically set up walls and such in Foundry).
When players go off in an unexpected direction in a face-to-face game, especially if you have stacks and stacks of maps and other props, it’s usually not that big of a deal. But if you’re playing on a virtual table top, creating those resources and getting them into the VTT is not trivial. DunGen is a game-changer for me. Unfortunately, I can’t really use the dungeon layout in anything but fantasy since it only have stone textures. I can probably use the caves in a Fallout game a bit.
Speaking of which, I’m anticipating the next session will be the final session of this Ptolus interlude, after which we will likely switch to a different game for a new campaign, most likely Fallout.
Note: I don’t get any royalties or kickbacks from HeroForge or DunGen. I don’t even get kickbacks anymore if you go to Amazon to buy my novels (I used to be able to use Amazon Affiliate links for that, but I never actually made money from it, so they closed my account after several years of nothing).
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