Actual play adapted from module B4: The Lost City. Will contain spoilers.
Lost in the desert, four foreigners (Luke, Kostas, Romulus and Xavi) found refuge in the mysterious city of Cynidicea, joined the Brotherhood of Gorm and have been leading a recce into the pyramid in the hope of capturing agents of the fellowship of Usamigaras, teaming up with a party of prospecting gnomes. However, bruising encounters with spectres and gargoyles have left the party and their gnomish allies injured, and possibly trapped on the fifth tier of the pyramid... read part five here.
Day Three - Goodbye Cicadia
When the party awoke, one of the injured gnomes was already looking fit and healthy. Xavi, too: though he was grateful for Luke's healing miracles. Romulus rubbed his eyes:
"Is it morning already? No blasted sun in this place."
"I would have though sun-up'll not be upon us fer another three hours at the very least son!"
After just two nights in the pyramid, the party's body clocks were beginning to get a little off kilter.
The gnomes elected to stand guard while the party hauled their treasure back to Gorm's cloisters, using the last of the dirty machine oil to light their lanterns. It took nearly an hour: not only were they dragging the chest behind them, they also had to contend with the enormous boulder blocking their path on tier 4, and avoid two humanoid guards they had heard marching through the corridors.
Once back at the cloisters, they added their enormous treasure haul to the amassed wealth of the Brotherhood of Gorm. In total, they had procured
- 2,440 gold pieces
- 1,200 electrum pieces
- 3,135 silver pieces
- A bejewelled necklace worth 700 gp
- Various gems worth 2,360 gp
It was wealth beyond their wildest dreams, but they as yet had no way to spend it. The party accosted Brother Theodosius, a warrior of Gorm, requesting passage to the city. After some equivocation, he lead them back to the altar on the third tier where two days previously they had been initiated. Two sentries hoisted back the altar, revealing a gaping shaft descending some fifty feet into blackness.
Xavi, newly initiated as a Holy Knight, uttered the invocations necessary to produce divine light, and the party descended the rope ladder, emerging in a large storeroom on the fifth tier: the base of the pyramid.
A bronze door in the storeroom opened into a vast chamber, nearly 200 feet in length and with a thirty foot ceiling. Three huge bronze statues of the holy family (Gorm, Madarua, Usamigaras) stood on a dais at the rear of the hall. The room was lit by braziers at regular intervals along the walls, and the air was redolent with incense. Stone pews lined either side of the wide aisle, facing the statues. All were reminded of the churches of their home, so far away now.
Two red-haired Cynidiceans genuflected before the statue of Madarua, evidently in prayer. Luke noticed that each statue housed a small door.
"Is there a password for the door?"
"Yes," said Theodosius, "but let us wait until the worshippers have moved on. They could be spies."
On cue, the couple rose, turning to face the party. They both wore bronze fox masks, similar (but not identical) to the mask of Helena and the body on the second tier.
"Welcome, friend!" said the woman, extending an elegant arm in friendship to Ser Luke, who was immediately struck by her beauty, in spite of her mask, "what brings you here?"
The woman spoke on, her words sweet like honey, enticing to the point of being hypnotic. Already Luke realised that the woman was weaving a curious charm upon her, but had managed to resist. He elected to play along.
"So, perhaps you can come with my brother and I to talk, in private?"
"Your brother? Okay... perhaps he can stay with these men and we can talk alone?"
Though masked, Luke felt her smile drop as she realised her charm was not fully effective, but almost immediately the rich warmth returned to her voice:
"What about the young master? Perhaps he would like to join us?"
Xavi narrowed his eyes but said nothing. He turned to Theodosius, who placed his hand upon his sword:
"Thou art a witch!"
To be continued... here...
* * *
MECHANICS
So the party are going to be in Cynidicea for some time. That being the case, I have decided to treat the cloisters of Gorm as their home base. Any treasure brought back to the Brotherhood's treasury earns them experience. Any treasure they keep for themselves only counts towards XP once they have returned to civilisation.
The party have kept a tidy some for themselves, but the total value they have added to the treasury is as follows:
2,000 (2,000 GP) + 600 (1,200 ep) + 300 (3,000 sp) + 3,060 (gems & jewels
= 5,960 XP
The total is 1,490 XP each.
Next, monsters:
Killed by the party:
- Fire beetle (15), vampire bat (25), two pit vipers (50), draco lizard (175), nine skeletons (90), giant centipede (5), 2 rock pythons (600), lunatic false lycanthrope (10),
- 970 XP divided by 4
- 243 XP each
Killed with the gnomes' help:
- Carrion crawler (75), divided by 11
- Polymar (1,750) divided by 10
- 7 + 175
- 182 xp each
XP allocation:
- Kontantinos earns (1,490 + 243 + 182 = 1,915 xp) + 5 % = 2011 XP bringing his total to 4,011
- Ser Luke earns 1,915 xp + 5 % = 2011 XP bringing his total to 3,511
- Romulus earns 1,915 xp bringing his total to 1,915
- Xavi does not keep his XP but he gains a class level (Holy Knight)
All the party gain a level! Ser Luke and Kostas are level 3, Romulus is level 2, and Xavi is now 1st level.
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