We’re back from our first trip of the season at our cabin. Just in time to catch some morels too! Weather was good at first but got rainy afterward – no matter, I had brought something to entertain me and the boys…

Short session: 1 1/2 hours

Player Characters (PCs):

• Aracyne (Isaac), Elf Hunter, Guild Leader
• Forka (Edmond), Dogman Knight
• Ghardeet (me) Hobgoblin Mage/Shaman
• Expendable & Nameless Goblin (me)

Level 2

• We start inside the dungeon, in the southern part of Level 2 (which is about 80% natural caverns), in a large cavern lit by a sofly-glowing green moss.
• Checking his map, Aracyne first leads the group to an unexplored, low-ceilinged area nearby where they find a message scribbled on a wall: « Find the Floating Level. Nym ». Their second reference to the « Floating Level » to date.
• Otherwise it’s a cul-de-sac and they go back at the large-boulders cavern (where they fought the Vilstraks) and check the door they found earlier, see that it’s locked and decide to go explore another area instead.
• They go into a long, twisting and ascending passage and get into new territory in the south-west corner of Level 2.
• There’s a chasm to their right with Giant Ants on the other side, with some bigger ones too but they don’t seem too agressive for the moment (good reaction roll).
• Further on they get at the entrance of a room covered by mist that reeks of rot and decay and Forka can also smell the presence of some unknown predatory beasts lurking nearby. They don’t enter the room and prefer to go in another area.
• In a smaller cavern they find broken crates and searching them they find 2 quivers full of arrows. Five of the arrows are rather deadly-looking and Aracyne is happy to take them all.
• In the next cavern they find an obelisk with writings on it (dwarven?) but unfortunately nobody can translate it in the group.
• Thence, they get at the entrance of a warm cavern obscured by steam. Mud covers the floor and there’s several bubbling pools that let out jets of steam interminently. And Forka detects a faint odor of rotting flesh. The PCs get inside to investigate and immediately find what is obviously a gravestone.
• A rotting hand emerges from the mud! Several corpses, dwarf-sized, with dead flesh half-boiled half-rotten, slowly extirpate themselves from the ground – enough to send the PCs running for their lives.
• They get back to the broken crates area where they decide to make a stand against the incoming Living Dead. Aracyne shoots an arrow and manages to miss. Forka is charged by a Living Dead and almost get his heart torn out, he takes big damage! The PCs are now gueninely worried and start to flee again with Expendable & Nameless Goblin, already scared (a condition in DB), going first and Aracyne taking the back and shooting his bow when he can.
• They near the chasm but E&N Goblin get assaulted by a Soldier Ant, is severely wounded and trapped under it. 2 Worker Ants are also blocking the way and threaten the adventurers.
• With the Living Dead coming behind (they’re typical zombie-slow fortunately), the PCs do an all-out attack against the Ants. Ghardeet wound a Worker Ant with his magic-augmented Iron Fist Staff.

• Aracyne wounds the Soldier Ant with an arrow and Forka finishes it with a big blow of his 2H hammer. Aracyne then kills the wounded Worker Ant, Ghardeet shove the other one down the chasm. E&N Goblin is still stuck under the corpse of the Soldier Ant and pleads for his life, Ghardeet reminds his companions of his E&N status but Forka takes upon himself of saving him and pulls him out of his predicament.
• Aracyne takes a parting shot at one Living Dead and has aimed well but his target doesn’t seem to care much that he’s supposed to be dead. The PCs then hurry away because several other Giant Ants are coming from the walls and ceiling to cross the chasm. Some go at the Living Dead and some others at the adventurers.
• The PCs interrupt a moment their flight to throw food at the Giant Ants, some rations and fish they had caught earlier (but not all), and that seems to distract the insects out of their pursuit.
• They reach once again the big cavern with large boulders and unite their efforts to move one of the boulder to block the way they came (there’s another way to the north-east and a door to the south-west). Ghardeet then heal Forka and reluctantly, after being convinced to, also E&N Goblin.

Closing Comments:

• My nephew Olivier was supposed to come along with us at the cabin but couldn’t make it unfortunately. I’ve found the solution to still have a decent group of PCs with the addition of the hobgoblin shaman and expendable goblin, putting their prior efforts to the forefront in this manner.
• I try as much as I can to feed inputs for Forka’ superior sense of smell and telegraph things to the players accordingly. I’m quite amazed in fact at how a great sense of smell could be even better than darkvision in a dungeon environment and more appropriate to nuances in many cases. Quite the revelation to me.
• They truly got themselves between a rock and a hard place with the Living Dead and Giant Ants. Pushing forward with enemies at your flank wasn’t a sound exploration strategy and I think the boys learned that.
• I think the Living Dead in Dragonbane are a lot more dangerous than classical D&D zombie meatbags, maybe a bit too much even. They’re not unbeatable either, I think I’ll keep them as is, the players just have to be careful about it.