FrankenFourth: Deep One Dungeon Crawl, Part 2

Cast

• Arras (2nd-level human wizard)
• Jovan (2nd-level human fighter)
• Rosalind (2nd-level human fighter)

Summary

The previous session ended with a shoggoth bashing its way through a nearby door.

Since Rosalind and Arras had exhausted themselves during the last fight, the party decided that discretion was the better part of valor and legged it.

The characters fled through a few doors, and once they were out of the shoggoth's sight ducked into a small chamber and hoped it wouldn't find them.

They waited long enough to take a short rest (ie, about 30 minutes): partially because Arras needed to regain her magic, and partially because they wanted to be really sure the shoggoth was gone before they emerged.

To their relief, when they finally came out of the closet the shoggoth was nowhere to be found...but a quartet of deep ones did get the drop on them while they were preparing to smash open a door. It was then that they realized that all pools they'd seen throughout the dungeon were connected...

...just in time for the shoggoth to make another appearance.

They again fled and ducked into another room, but the shoggoth still managed to find them. They tried barricading the door with a stone sarcophagus, but to their dismay it was still able to force its way through.

The shoggoth got a few hits in before the characters were able to wriggle their way past and find a place to hide. The party was able to evade its notice for a time thanks to a hidden passage that linked a pair of rooms...

...but it found them soon after they'd made their way into what they could only assume was some kind of deep one treasury.

This time they didn't stop running, even when it seemed as though the shoggoth had finally given up...

...because of course it hadn't, ambushing them in the cavern near the portal. Fortunately, they were all able to escape through the portal before Arras sealed it behind them.

Behind the Scenes

There wasn't really any objective for this dungeon crawl: it was basically them trying to nab as much treasure as they dared to. They were aware that they could die, and were surprisingly cool with it (if nothing else, the kids looked at it as a chance to get a new mini).

With Melissa's prompting, the kids were smart enough to run from the shoggoth, which was five levels higher than them. The whole session reminded me of playing Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and Amnesia, with the shoggoth randomly popping out of pools or bashing in doors to try and devour them.

All things consider it went really well: they got a bunch of money, and even a magic amulet that lets them breathe underwater, but only underwater since it causes whoever wears it to grow gills. Here's a screenshot of Melissa's character sheet, so you can see how she records XP and loot (and how little space characters take up):

In other news, the public alpha is nearly ready to go. I'm hoping by the end of this week, or during next week at some point. Juggling this, new classes for Mythic Mortals, and adding our stuff to Tabletop Library (and other places).

Announcements

A Sundered World is out (and also available in dead-tree format)! If you for some reason don't want the entire setting, you can just snag the races and classes.

The Ghost has manifested!

By fan demand, we've mashed all of our 10+ Treasure volumes into one big magic item book, making it cheaper and more convenient to buy in print (which you can now do).

Lichfield is available for public consumption. If you want a concise adventure with a Silent Hill feel, be sure to check it out! Primordial Machine is also out, so if you want to catch a glimpse of A Sundered World, now's your chance! Finally, we've updated If These Stones Could Scream.