Proving Grounds Session #5?
Cast:
Michael the Elf, 1st level wizard (me)
Norman the Hungry Fist, 2nd level blackbelt
My'kall'tea'allph, 1st level elf
Friar Ignatius Bodkin, 2nd level cleric
Geaucoux Cacarot, 3rd level fighter (late-joining)
Capslok, 4HD hippopotamus
Report:
Our party returned to the Proving Grounds for our latest endeavour to allow the (late) Schotz Jaegar and successor Chris to become an ogre. For context, the Proving Grounds are located next to Yorktown and its Church of Muscle, and are/were inhabited by an ogre cult that had the ability to turn people into ogres. On this delve we descended in search of dung from a great bear that inhabited the dungeon, one necessary component of the ritual.
Retreading previous ground, space we returned to a bloodstained hallway with suspicious slits in the walls that matched a previous set of swinging blade traps we had seen. My'kall stepped forward and discovered the pressure plate, which was then spiked down to allow us safe passage. A further search forward for mechanisms resulted in the transformation of My'kall's 10ft pole into two 5ft poles. After gumming up the last slit with the pole halves, we continued onwards, Ignatius getting swiped by a blade for his trouble as we passed.
For our effort, space we encountered a large statue made of gold, not dissimilar from one we had seen previously that had shot lasers at us from its eyes. Out of an abundance of caution My'kall proceeded forward behind the protection of a mirror. With nothing happening we proceeded to search the room and its weird shape for secret doorways. We discovered one only after we were attacked by 3 stirges, which were quickly caught by My'kall's sleep and then summarily dispatched/fed to Capslok. It was at this point, now joined by Geaucoux, we left the statue for a bad-smelling room with decaying carcasses, literal shit, and a quantity of stirges "less than 50"—all-in-all apparently not dissimilar from Michael's mages guild dorm room.
Checking one of the carcasses to see if it was chewed upon, Ignatius found himself accosted by a giant rat that was chewing upon it. Further rats emerged from the shadows, each one kind of gross. They were temporarily distracted with a day's rations and we snuck on by. While musing on the presence of dung in the room being related to our search for dung (as well as our ability to recognize different types of dung so we don't grab the wrong kind) we ended up moving on after hearing the roars of (what could have been) a bear from the north as the rats finished their provided food.
Heading west, away from the hypothetical bear, we find a treasure chest in a suspiciously open room, which Geaucoux opted to investigate alone due to his hardiness. Opening the chest, a portcullis dropped separating Geaucoux from the rest of the group as the ceiling began to lower. To add insult to injury, the chest was practically empty. Michael cast Rust to weaken the portcullis as Geaucoux attempted to use his massive bulk to bend the bars apart, in good old fashioned grit and determination allowed Ignatius to pull him through in short order.
Continuing further, we stumbled into the training room of the sumo beetles we had previously met, but this time they were engaged in combat with giant tiger beetles. Considering our previous interaction kama we sided with the sumo beetles and together we were able to easily mop up the tiger beetles. My'kall, knowing the language of the sumo beetles, engaged in pleasant discussion and translation with them, whereby we learned that the trapped room we had went to was in fact trapped, and that the bear did in fact reside in the rooms we had heard it roar from previously. They also confirmed that the bear has a presence outside of the dungeon and by where the bear was there is an additional exit to the dungeon. We informed of the ogres' deaths (at our group's hands), which led to them deciding that they would be leaving the dungeon, though they agreed that if any of us became an ogre they would be hanging out at a grotto to the north for a few weeks, and that they would be willing to train them.
With the information from the sumo beetles kama we decided that we would come back another time and try to follow the bear from this dungeon exit to wherever it ends up sleeping and then ambush it while it sleeps. For now instead we would grab what loot we could (such as the golden statue) and head out. We started with a previously discovered statue that shot laser beams from its eyes, which My'kall approached using the same strategy as the previous statue. The mirror shield was effective at protecting My'kall, but they we're unable to deflect the laser accurately into the statue and were given a major head wound from knockback for their trouble. Geaucoux gave the same strategy a shot and found more success, with the deflective laser blowing the statue into smithereens.
Continuing onwards through the room we ended up in a previously explored drawing room that held a sizable quantity of stirges and their nest. The door was closed on them, but not before 5 of them got through, with them seizing the initiative. Ignatius found the time to Muscularize himself before we were truly beset, but the situation went south quickly. My'kall fell, and with them control of Capslok ended. The gargantuan friend it used their newfound freedom to panic and thrash wildly, knocking out Norman and a stirge in the process. With a stirge attached to Norman and spelling certain death unless removed, Ignatius tried to knock the hanger-on off but instead accidentally killed Norman in the process. Michael and Capslok opted to flee as Geaucoux went for the ring that compelled Capslok. With Ignatius and Geaucoux remaining, the stirges number was soon reduced to the point they routed, fleeing the room using the high ceilings. As Capslok returned to the site of our loss, they wept. With two of our number dead, we opted to leave instead of trying to grab that golden statue. It will have to wait for another time.
Treasure Recovered: 0GP