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So with preparations as complete as they can get I finally am introduced to my new group. They have elected to enter via the Eastern Gate, and their group leader is the first to enter the vicinity of the dungeon camp.
She is called Seraphim…a dainty and demure half elf with ivory skin and flowing golden hair. Her voice is musical and she is bundled head to toe in snow fox furs. She hails from a remote tribe of elves in a frozen country and as she moves from stall to stall she enthralls and entices just about every merchant with her grace and beauty. She is well versed in diplomacy and actively engages most of the magistrates official’s and vendors to her favor. Her player (previously Kemen) hands me her character sheet.
DM: So your flirty and entrancing half elf is a NE witch focused on poisons and evocation spells huh? And I see that she has several undead minions from Command Undead?
Seraphim: Yep. She took trustworthy as a trait so she could have Diplomacy as a class skill.
Waiting for her outside the camp are the rest of her party. Most noticeable are the nearly 7 foot tall skeletally thin twins. Both wear long black robes with hoods, their waists adorned with simple rope sashes. Across their backs are matching scythes with bony handles. They are pasty to the point of nearly looking undead, and while they are extremely slender, there is corded muscle underneath, and if you had the fortitude to really focus under the hood you would see elongated canines that could easily pass for fangs. They are introduced as Hades and Pluto. Both have this glazed over, far away look in their eyes, and they each have constant half smile that seems vacant and forced, the effect is unsettling and very bizarre.
DM: You made matching dhampir undead lords?
Twins: Yes, we worship the literal incarnation of death and this hallowed place is surely his one and true domain. We come to apply our unique brand of worship in this holiest of his temples. To him we shall render many offerings.
In their wake is a powerfully built spectre in full plate armor, heavily ensconced with skulls and reliefs of utter anguish and depravity. The figure in the armor is vaguely humanoid, like a serpent given limbs and stocked with muscle. His visage is grim beyond mortality and there is an odor of the grave that emanates from his center. A shield and scimitar hang at his sides like very old friends. Emblazoned on his shield is a sigil, that of an open crypt. In Yuan Ti runes is a motif “The grave is a resting place only for those who lack the conviction to rise”
DM: And this grim warrior’s name? A: Dis Pater
Dis Pater: Yes, I serve the God as well.
By serving the God he means that he is a literal servant of death, Dis Pater is a knight of the sepulcher (cause anti paladin wasn’t extreme enough) and he serves the twins cause.
In control of their goods and handling their mounts and tack is a Hobogoblin with a naginata strapped across his back. An assemblage of strange mounts dot the pack mules and horses. The surly and constantly stalking goblinoid is moving and forth and seemingly controls the animals with the barest motion of his hand or even the slightest movement of his head.
DM:So…Cavalier, Barbarian, and you are going to add Ranger
Skalagrim: Controlling animals is what I was born to, every path has it’s own quirks. I just looked at them all.
Skalagrim’s goal is to take Horse Master at level 6. With the ability Expert Trainer he can take the feat at level six and treat his character level as his effective druid level for his Cavalier mount, his barbarian mount, and his ranger mount. He will basically have three fully scaled druid animal companions. It seems a bit unusual, and perhaps unbalanced (certainly not as intended) but we run with it for the time being.
Lastly, almost hidden amidst the chaos of their mounts is a tiny cloaked figure virtually invisible on the back of a spinosaur, it is of all things a goblin and he looks like MacGuyver if MacGuyver had a severe speed and cocaine addiction. Various pieces of disassembled traps and artifice litter the saddlebags on his mount and he has a constant unnerving shake to him.
Skalagrim shakes his head at the goblin and names him Chomper.
Chomper is a Horse Lord/Trapper Ranger who has a spinosaur as his companion and is heavily invested in Stealth and Traps.
So I have a pair of undead lord clerics, a socially gifted witch, a lunatic antipaladin, an animal companion obsessed warrior, and a twitchy goblin Macguyver on a dinosaur.
They are like a self-contained gothic circus and once the rest of the group hits the main camp they are sure to raise considerable eyebrows. The last time I had evil characters they pretty much all backstabbed and murdered each other, but they assure me that everyone is on the same page and they will play nice (with each other anyway).
Pluto:
Dhampir Undead Lord 5: Str 14 Dex 14 Con 12 Int 11 Wis 17 Cha 18
Feats:BF:Command Undead, Spell Focus:Necromancy,Selective Channeling,Undead Master
Hades:
Dhampir Undead Lord 5:Str 14 Dex 14 Con 12 Int 11 Wis 17 Cha 18
Feats:Spell Focus Necromancy,Selective Channeling,Undead Master
Dis Pater:
Nagaji Knight of the Sepulcher 5:Str 18 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 13 Cha 18
Feats:Channel Smite,Extra Lay of Hands,Extra Lay of Hands
Skalagrim
Hobgoblin Mounted Fury1/Cavalier4:Str19 Dex 14 Con18 Int12 Wis14 Cha 7
Feats:Calvary Formation,Power Attack,CleaveMounted Combat
Seraphim
Half Elf Gravewalker (Patron-Elements)5:Str10 Dex14 Con12 Int20 Wis12 Cha 16
Feats: Skill Focus Diplomacy, Brew Potion,Extra Hex (Cackle),Ability Focus (Hex),Extra Hex (Cauldron)
Hexes: Evil Eye, Cackle, Cauldron
Chomper
Goblin Horse Lord/Trapsmith Level 5:Str 12 Dex 22 Con15 Int14 Wis15 10 Cha 5
Feats:Calvary Formation,Mounted Combat,Two Weapon Fighting,Weapon Finesse
Undead Minions:
Witch:
Via Bonethrall (5HD): Skeletal Unicorn
Via Command Undead (5HD):Skeletal Grizzly Bear
Undead Lord 1:
Corpse Companion (5HD):Skeletal Centaur
Command Undead (9HD):
Via Animate Dead (20HD-8 open): Zombie Hill Giant
Undead Lord 2:
Corpse Companion (5HD):Skeletal Centaur
Command Undead (9HD):
Via Animate Dead (20HD-8 open):Zombie Hill Giant
Animal Companions:
Skalagrim:Heavy Horse (via Mounted Fury)+Anklosaur from Cavalier
Chomper: Spinosaur via Horse Lord
Every character has equipped themselves with masterwork weapons and armor along with spare/range weapons and masterwork tools where relevant. The dinosaurs and horse are all armored, and they have outfitted most of their undead with various saddlebags, backpacks and provisions. Seraphim has built a good stockpile of potions mostly cure and inflict spells but also some such as hold person,blindness/deafness, and alter self.
All told they still have over 40,000 in liquid resources. The majority of which they are hoping to use and acquire extra dimensional storage or magic weapons.
Amidst the outside bazaar atmosphere she skips and moves from vendor to vendor and from cart to cart, and comes up with only one bag of holding for sale. A type one for 35,000. Magical arms are scantly available from outside, and only for trade. Before they can take their first step into the dungeon they all have to confer on how they will spend remaining funds, or if they stand pat and and wait until their next exit to spend their money.
Seraphim: My instinct is to believe that coin and gem bare little value in this vicinity. At least not for the goods we seek. Best served in soaking all the money we have into poison, and further scrolls/potions.
Dis Pater: We should maintain a reserve for bribes, otherwise sure.
Twins: Agreed.
Chomper: Need more parts…but that won’t run more than a few hundred.
Skalagrim: Did they have any cheap horses? True nags or run down workhorses? The ones that look one step from the grave?
Seraphim: Not that they were advertising, but they were all certainly amidst the stables and corrals.
Skalagrim: Buy as many as you can. Preferably broken down oxen or old oxen.
Pluto: What need for broken down horses that will leech our supplies?
Skalagrim *grinning*: Three Fold. First: A stampede has immense value, Second: It’s supplies that walk, Third: Once we get our supplies from their flesh, we have fresh bones for skeletons. Should come cheap too.
Add to their list of minions 25 head of cattle and 8 badly aged or injured light horse. Their last piece of business before actually entering the dungeon is to arrange entry into the dungeon. For this camp everything is based on two factors:
1st: Time spent waiting for entry-I.E. first to arrive gain vouchers for their place in line, and are then free to move about, and if you were passed over from the previous month then you get higher priority for the following month.
2nd: Donations to the monarchy can escalate your priority for entry. Yeah it’s basically a bribe in a tuxedo, but morally they are fine with that. Entry is limited to 10 “parties” each with a six minute window to get inside, anyone or anything not inside within those six minutes is not allowed access.
Seraphim inquires about the current “reservation” status and logistics for her party. She is politely informed there are currently 23 parties with priority ahead of her own, and that with three days until entry the best that could be arranged is a donation that would bump them to 11th, so first crack to entry the following month.
They are more than three days distance from the next nearest camp, and have no desire to wait an additional month. She actually offers nearly their entire remaining reserve (close to 30,000) and is still told 11th is the best they can offer. She accepts the initial donation (5,000) and takes her voucher back to the party. They are hardly pleased with this outcome.
Skalagrim: Why settle for 11th? If you couldn’t manipulate a toady, then you should have gotten us and we would have intimidated him.
Seraphim: No need for that. If we want to work from this camp in the future we can’t go murdering all the administrators.
Dis Pater: Then what are you suggesting? That we wait a month?
Seraphim: No…simply that we murder the party that is tenth in line. Or at least disrupt them enough to cause them to give up their place. Killing someone out here is murder and could lead to execution. Killing people inside is status quo.
The whole market is crowded and there are small camps of would be adventurers all over the place. It is an easy enough matter to locate party #10, but a whole different matter to attack them. Party #10 consists of two elf archers, a gnome bard, a dwarf cleric and a human shield fighter. They are all well equipped and apparently well supplied. Ambushing them in an open market is ill advised, so they decide to have Seraphim do a drive by. The alluring witch parades past most of the group camps to a mix of cat calls and whistles while Chomper watches from obscurity for reactions from the party. The gnome definitely takes a second glance, the elves look a bit disgusted and the fighter’s jaw is hanging open.
She circles back to the group outside the camp and they compare notes. The goal is to pull at least one of the party to the forest where he can be ambushed and killed. Then use him as bait for some or the rest of the group to come get him. The ruse they are going with is straight forward seduction with a bluff check from Seraphim to convince the fighter to follow her back to her camp for some privacy. Once loverboy is toes up, she will return and ask for help carrying their friend back as he got a little carried away with the wine and can’t walk.
The first part of that plan goes off without a hitch. Fighter boy dopily walks into the mass of undead and is quickly dispatched. The second part hits a bit of a snag. They are smart enough to send Chomper as Sera’s shadow in case something is amiss otherwise this could have been severe. When she returns to inform the party of their warrior’s inebriation she is met with very questioning stares.
Gnome: Colin never drinks wine, not a drop. Can’t stand the taste of grapes.
Dwarf: I am thinking you are not telling us the truth strumpet, and that the guards would be best suited to sorting this out.
Sera immediately puts on a great performance, great sobbing tears , total meltdown.
Seraphim: Please don’t! My pimp will kill me as soon as he finds out. If I delay too long in returning he will come looking for me and if I am with the guards he will kill your friend and then me. He is a savage hobogoblin with no remorse, I am just trying to survive. Please! Follow me back you will see what a brute he is. I was supposed to drag one or two of you back to a trap, but you are strong and number four, together you can beat him.
Elf: We have no reason to believe you. But our friend is in jeporady, for your sake pray he still lives. Reggie…you and Tanks follow the whore. Siblin and I will cover you from the trees by bow. If everything looks as she says then we will pepper the hobogoblin with arrows, and should we get Colin back then we make a case for supporting her with the guards. If he is dead, we kill them both and leave them to rot. Everyone got it?
Chomper: Heh Heh Heh. Yeah I got it.
As Seraphim meanders them through a winding path back to the group’s base, Chomper rushes back to warn everyone of what is going on and to set up a welcoming committee. They tie and bind the dead fighter after animating him as a zombie…just so he moves around a bit. Then Skalagrim plants himself with his horse near Colin while everyone else moves the mass of animals and skeletons back and away. Chomper sets himself up in well hidden spot near enough Skalagrim to help. Everyone else moves off quite a distance so as not to spook the incoming rescuers. Once Skalagrim makes contact he is going to stall for time to allow everyone to work their way back in.
Seraphim brings the gnome and dwarf in and cheerfully tries to finish her original ruse.
Sera: Alright boss, his friends are here to help carry him. You can untie him know…I’m sure he won’t try to fight you anymore.
There is the slightest hesitation when she sees him actually moving.
Skala: Your friend can’t hold his wine, and he is rude enough not to pay up front. I take you are also going to pick up the tab for his entertainment?
Tanks (dwarf):We are going to pick up your carcass from the dirt once we get our friend back you thug. See thing is, you are the one about to get rolled.
From the trees the two elves burst in with bows drawn and trained on the hobogoblin.
Elf 1: Drop the dagger, and maybe you can explain this away to the guards.
Seraphim falls to her knees clutching Elf 2 and begins sobbing.
Seraphim: Please don’t let him hurt me! Please…I …Inflict Serious Wounds on the elf.
Chomper:Leaping from the tree to make an attack against the dwarf.
Skalagrim: Hefting Naginata mid charge against elf 1.
The gnome is the only person that doesn’t suddenly have a face full of trouble and he tries to yank a whip free and trip Skalagrim, but Skala is already on the elf and swinging.
There is a bit of back forth the next round, but then the animals and faster skeletons hit the clearing and from there it’s curtains for the elves and dwarf. Somehow the gnome managed to avoid hostility and he is cowering against a tree trying to inch away.
Chomper is ready for his spinosaur to eat the gnome when Skalagrim stops him.
Skalagrim: What is your name little whipping boy?
Bard: Reggie..Reggie Burrows.
Skalagrim: You have a choice Reggie. We always have room for more zombies, or you can join us. Join us and we will not harm you out of spite or malice. Betray us and your bones will stay with us for eternity, dancing to whatever tune I see fit.
Bard: Why would you want me?
Skalagrim: Gnomes amuse me. And you survived. While they died you lived. Some call that cowardice, I call it pragmatism. Just like when that gate opens and everyone lines up, you are going to be pragmatic when you say your group had a falling out and you decided to merge your party with ours.
So…we haven’t even set foot in the dungeon yet and they have successfully rolled a john, murdered a straggler in cold blood, ambushed his comrades who were attempting to ambush them in a double cross and blackmailed an NPC to join their party. My what a heroic start.
Final supplies are gathered and Reggie amends some paperwork to bump the group to 10th on the list.*
When the morning arrives for them to enter everyone is fully assembled and eager for the doors to pop open, support teams await their heroes exits like boxing trainers between rounds, and several vendors who have established stands at the nearest rooms inside await their resupply orders. The gate itself is cordoned into two separate paths, an exit path and an entry path.
Skala and company are one of 10 groups gaining entry today, while an unknown amount of traffic will spill out, as the exiters clear out the vendors will take over the exit path and restock inside. There is a festive excitement to the whole process and the other nine groups are assembled early and chomping at the bit to get in.
Seraphim and Reggie hold the team’s place in line by themselves and survey the other teams. Most are well provisioned and multiple have mounts, but none has the over the top insane entourage like the PC’s. Several administrators question the bard and witch and ask about the rest of their comrades.
Seraphim: They are running a bit late, but nothing to be concerned about.
The instant the doors come open three bands of heroes come spilling out, all are haggard and clearly exhausted. But they are sharp enough to clutch precious items close to their bodies as they exit with their spoils. A few stragglers from splintered or broken groups make their way out over the next 30 minutes, and the vendors are moving at full steam. Team six is already inside when the rest of the PC’s show up. The Dhampir twins are at the head of the procession, they are chanting songs proclaiming the glory and majesty of death with full hearted enthusiasm. In their wake comes a graveyard’s circus of skeletons and zombies all in full black robes to make their undeath a bit more discrete. The robes pretty much fail miserably in this regard.
Everything becomes deafening silent except for the chanting. Skalagrim comes behind the twins…his anklosaur leading him, the stocky dinosaur has a black skull painted on his head and a tombstone painted on the mace end of it’s tail. Dis Pater follows them, helm up to reveal his reptilian ancestry, as he oozes arrogance from the back of a skeletal grizzly bear. Bringing up their rear is Chomper astride his Spinosaur, who is driving the cattle and horses before him.
Seraphim: Ahhh yes here they are.
Administrator: Reggie are you sure these are the folks you trust more than Tanks and Colin?
Reggie sneaks a furtive look at Skala, who somehow gets the anklosaur to start smashing the ground with his tail without a word.
Reggie: Yep…salt of the earth these fine folks are. Trust them with my life. *probably salt the earth behind them would be more accurate*
The last part is whispered under his breath, but Seraphim manages to hear it.
Seraphim: We are more concerned with reaping than sowing.
As she says this, she delicately mounts her skeletal unicorn, a truly macabre mount that is barded with the finest blue silk emblazed with snowflakes. The undead unicorn’s name is Snowflake I am told.
Me: Of course it is.
The entire gruesome caravan piles in during their six minutes and Chomper’s mount is the last thing through. The door closes behind them soon after and they are left to the mercies of the dungeon from this point forward. Inside it is surprisingly well lit, continual lights are evenly spaced down the entire corridor an apparent enterprise of those who enter. Some of the people in line commented on this very fact. If you find a place with no lights, then you can be confident it is new territory. Of the ten groups entering none are repeaters.
As for the other nine…they have all scattered further in. Something Skala and company are taking their time in doing. Their hesitation stems from the person limping his way down the hallway. A human man in once fine robes, now badly torn and burned. He is covered in blood and leaning heavily on his quarterstaff. He whimpers upon seeing the closed doors. So distraught over his plight he barely noticed the unseemly nature of those awaiting him.
Serpahim greets him warmly and asks his name.
Stratix: I am called Stratix, a sorcerer from the east. My group was mauled by dire tigers and then harried by gnolls. I am the lone survivor. We were so close to finding the third set of stairs down when they hit us. I was so close to getting out.
Reggie: Surely you have the means to stay near the entrance, you can make it a month at the front.
Stratix: How? I have nothing left to barter with, nothing left to sell. The vendors are hard pressed to feed themselves, they won’t spare anything for a poor vagabond broken by the deep.
Seraphim: Rest easy my friend. We will shelter you, we have plenty to eat and share. With your permission, I can administer healing.
Me: He has spellcraft on par with your own, any attempts at deception will be noticed, and while murder here it not exactly illegal there is certainly enough firepower within screaming distance to create complication.
Seraphim: No deception, true and honest healing.
Sera heals the wounds of the sorcerer and they give him both bread and water.
Seraphim: Join us friend. Share with us your knowledge of this place and we will see you through to the next opening. Once we make camp and get an adequate fire I am sure we can cook more filling fare.
Stratix is a bit more focused and less addled with his injuries dissipated and nourishment fulfilling it’s duty and his attention is a bit distracted by the appearance of his rescuers. However they did rescue him from the brink and with no other option he joins in with them.
Seraphim: Tell me good sir Stratix, what magics do you call your own. I confess to having knowledge of the arcane, but I am also curious to learn more about other’s domains.
Stratix: A bit of this, a bit of that.
She makes a decent enough diplomacy check and he is forthright enough to share his capabilities given the need to potentially employ them in the near to immediate future. The entourage drives forward down a long hallway that opens up the vendor’s hub. Four merchants have established footholds in the first set of rooms. Heavily guarded is each, with crates reaching the ceiling packed with various goods and stuffs. There is a branch that veers to the north, and branches that lead to the NW and NE, along with narrower passages to the West and East.
They learn that merchants have check points set up at the NW and NE passages, while the north is mostly unexplored. Too many people went missing searching the north for it be to properly tamed. So in total six merchants have wares, two of each basically charge tolls to pass through their sections. Two passages are open but more tightly confined. Not to be overly scientific they roll a d6, 1 W, 2 NW, 3 N 4 NE, 5 E and 6 roll again.
The dice decree that they head W. Stratix is quick to point out that he came from that direction and is not in a hurry to return.
Chomper: If you came from the West and have familiarity with the territory then safety is increased. There is strength in numbers and we have numbers. Perhaps we could even rescue your lost partners, and failing that find some peace for their afterlife.
Stratix: You are oddly considerate for one of your kind.
Chomper: My kind? You mean a ranger?
Dis Pater: I think he meant Goblin.
Stratix: No insult intended, simply expressing my surprise.
Chomper *shrugs his shoulders and grins*:No insult taken, thing is partner…down here race don’t matter. IF you are green, white, black, big or small you got one thing in common.
Stratix: What is that?
Chomper: You are always going to be something’s next meal.
They begin the journey west from inhabited turf, to previously fatal grounds. Room after room shows signs of occupation, battle and abandonment. Ashes from hasty fires, broken tools and pieces of armor the only evidence of those who came before. Several rooms bear the scorch marks of fireballs and the gnawed upon bones of the devoured dead. The tighter corridors force a single file march and their default March order becomes:
Chomper at the front on Spinosaur
The Twins to his flanks
Seraphim, Reggie and Stratix in the center
Dis Pater to their rear
Skalagrim with his anklo on the rear
The Centaur zombies clog up the space behind them as they act as stoppers to corral the cattle and horses.
Then they meet their first encounter.**A trio of large zombies (previously ogres) come shuffling down the hall with clubs. The clerics grin like it is Christmas…and Santa DM just gave them presents. The first encounter does nothing more than bolster their ranks with additional undead fodder, fodder they gleefully put on the more than front lines as disposable bodies.
The second “big encounter” is a larger habitat type room with some fresher dead bodies, it is the biggest chamber they have found yet, with one entrance and one exit. The room dips to a valley with rock formations and a pool of fetid water. Prowling the habitat are four sleek dire lions. They are certainly hungry and they both smell and hear cattle. To a starving predator “moo” is a welcome sound.
And thus was I introduced to the diamond offense of Pathfinder. Dis Pater becomes the point of the triangle and the two clerics takes up position on either side of him. In their center goes Skalagrim with his anklo covering his rear.Roaming around them is Chomper and his Spino. Forming a thirty foot circle around them and surrounding anything attacking them are the undead minions. Just beyond the cordon is Seraphim on Snowflake tossing hexes and spells. The lions try to swarm the point man, Dis Pater, and they are met with stiff and coordinated resistance. With reach from the center of the diamond Skalagrim is able to slash and stab at multiple targets. With minions providing flanking buddies Chomper is getting attack bonuses for his kukri’s and Dis himself is sturdy enough even without smite good being a factor.
Then the channeling begins. The twins can exclude four targets (Read: Chomper, Spino,Skala,Anklo) and their negative channeling heals Dis Pater, themselves and all the undead. Seraphim barely lifts a finger as she Reggie and Stratix watch on.
They stop short of re-animating the slain lions and instead, Chomper begins field dressing the animals for food. Dis Pater and Skalagrim start a cursory search for any other obvious dangers, and the twins redirect the undead to stop up the entrance and exit to the room after herding all the cattle inside.
With the room preliminarily secured they get down to real business.
Skalagrim: This is good enough for base camp I guess.
Seraphim: Dis Pater would you be a dear and check on Stratix, I am out of healing spells for the day and I want to make sure none of his injuries was more severe than I anticipated.
Stratix: I feel fine. It hardly is required.
Dis Pater: No worries. Only take a second. Charging channel smite with scimitar in two hands…
Reggie: you rescued him and now you are killing him???
Seraphim: Yes dear, he knows lightning bolt and I do wish to learn that particular spell.
Reggie: How can you learn it if he is dead?!?
Seraphim: The blood remembers. The blood always remembers.
As Chomper strips the bones of the lions he also salvages the bones from the lions den and begins erecting a crude throne from the remains. Stratix is murdered in cold blood and his blood drawn for Seraphim to use Blood Transcription, stealing his lightning bolt spell and teaching it to her spell poppet.
Sera is performing the ritual to teach her familiar, and Skalagrim shudders.
Skalagrim: Playing with her doll again…always creeps me out.
Reggie: You have performed cold blooded murder, reanimated the dead, blackmailed and coerced people for nothing other than wanting to avoid waiting in a line, you openly communication and associate with aberrant horrors and yet her familiar creeps you out?
Skalagrim: It’s not natural is all I’m saying.
The dire lion meat becomes their provisions for the day, and in a subversion of it’s intended use Purify Food and Water is used to alter the meat into a form edible for the cattle and horses. They literally feed the lions to their cows.
The lion habitat becomes “base camp”, the centaurs are left behind as guards for some of their supplies and provisions and they are instructed to not allow entry or exit to anyone except the group. It is their intention to act as a central hub and work their way out from there, and once they are confident that a better area is ready, they plan to move the herd (or what is left of it) to the new location. Not wanting to be wasteful…Chomper sets about butchering the deceased Stratix.
Reggie: Are you seriously adding cannibalism to the list of crimes you have already commited?
Everyone looks at each other at the table when I say that through Reggie and the clerics give me their in character grins in real life…
Hades+Pluto: Technically none of us are human, so it’s not cannibalism. More like eating a steak that used to talk back.
Reggie: I am thinking I might be better served just running and taking my chances in the dungeon.
Skalagrim: Now now Reggie. Things could be far worse. At least you are on our side. Much better to be with us, than against us.
Chomper takes the human leg that was cooking on the spit and laughs as sorcerer grease dribbles down his chin…
Chomper: I did warn him.
Sera: Oh?
Chomper: I told him we are always someone else’s next meal.
This is certainly the most bizarre first session to a game I can ever recall running.
*My original intention was to create a bit of drama with regards to them immediately entering and see if they bribed any other groups to hold off, and failing that they would have been grabbed with scant time remaining as another group withdrew their position. They obviously took a more direct approach.
**I had pre-planned the first several encounters as “breaking in” the party type stuff to fill the first several mostly empty sections. Little did I know Team Necromancer was in store.