Moai's Molnhem Campaign - Session 3: The Lair of the Ma'amticore

     In his downtime through the week, Bill the Ranger decided to get in good with the local jeweler, acutely aware of the limitation of rangers having to carry all of their wealth on their persons at all times. He exchanged his gold coinage for a few precious jewels, and in the process managed to get a lead on some wealthy strapping young knights who recently went missing up in the mountains.

The group set out following landmarks towards a northern lake, around which rumors warned of flying beasts stalking and abducting travelers. Along the way the rangers spotted a procession of pilgrims heading north, led by a group of sinister looking priests. Numbering around 90 men, the party opted to skirt around them and avoid any sort of confrontation. May be worth checking into in the future what these sinister folks were up to.

They found the lake and the party tracked a howling cry to a ruined tower up in the adjacent mountains. They boldly entered the tower, and came face to face with two mind-controlled and exceptionally muscular men who tried to wrassle them into submission. Not ones to shrink from a challenge, Young Guts took it a step further and doused himself with oil for some wrassling. The party took the two men down non-lethally, pummeling them into submission before moving on to the growling beast on the floor above.

The group was met with the beautiful visage of the ma'amticore. Her hypnotic gaze beguiled them long enough for her to unleash a vicious volley of tail-spines into their ranks. Most party members took glancing blows, but Galaxy Brain the cleric got the worst of it. Two spines pierced his chest for monstrous damage, and floored cleric, critically wounded and bleeding out.

The remaining party members charged with their large weapons. Turns out two-handed swords and polearms can to absolutely disgusting damage against large foes, so with some particularly nice rolls the group was able to take the monster down with minimal further injury to themselves. Between the bountiful bosom of the ma'amticore, now headless, the party found a platinum bejewelled necklace worth a whopping 7000GP. In amongst the litter of her nest they also scrounged up a couple of cleric spell scrolls, and a magical shield +1!

Galaxy Brain was stabilized by Bill the Ranger, who applied timely first aid to tie up his wounds with some spare clothes he had in his bag. He survived, but wouldn't be in a position to do much for the next week while his wounds healed up. When the party returned to the lower floor, they found Sir William Herrington and his foreign companion Baron Van Darkholme from the far east, waiting for them. They thanked the party for saving them from the clutches of the beguiling beast, and pledged their services to the party as knights errant. Young Guts accepted both of them into his service, the beginnings of his warband.

Selling the platinum necklace led to enough experience points for everyone to qualify for levelling up. The group has adhered to their class roles well for each session so far, so I ruled that they will all need 1 week and 1500gp for training costs to reach the next level. Because the expedition to the tower took 3 days, the entire group will be out of commission until Feb.1st for training, except for Galaxy Brain who needs an additional week to recover from his near-death experience.

I was surprised to see the party of 1st level adventurers handle something as dangerous as a manticore so handily. The threat was real- the spines outright murdered one of their numbers of the first volley, but their large weapons made short work of the beast. I've been somewhat hedging my bets on power levels, but the fact that they took down a 6HD monster makes me realize I can take off the gloves and get into some really gonzo concepts for dungeons. Its up to them to determine if something is too deadly, so its time to ramp things up. With the main party out of commission next week for training purposes, it'll force everyone to play their B team characters, so we'll see what comes of that in the session to follow.

This Session's Players:

Shirzgird: Bill the Ranger, attained LEVEL 2

ManOrManatee: Alistair the Cleric, attained LEVEL 2

AngryTiki: Tyranno-Thompson the Ranger, attained LEVEL 2

Powuhlahn: Galaxy Brain the Cleric, attained LEVEL 2

Seven Nights: Young Guts The Fighter, attained LEVEL 2

Take-home: 1400GP & 1565XP each.