Friday, October 1, 2021

ASE: Session 16 (Tomb of the Serpent Kings Part 2)

Date: Aries 23
Weather: Sunny

Party:
Korbin (Elementalist / Warrior 1)
Mia (Vowed / High Mage 1)

Cohorts:


Summary:
Retreating back to the entrance, the party decides to rest outside. Korbin meets up with the party and introduces himself to Mia, the pair deciding to explore together as the rest of the party was currently preoccupied.

Gruff, tuff, and all around no-nonsense fluff.

Mia leads Korbin to where they were last, going down the corridor where they met a strange jellied skeleton. After a short tussle where everything they did left skeleton jelly unfazed, Mia decided to kick the skull out of the goop and Korbin took the skull and ran. Skeleton-less Jelly gave chase, but the party quickly lost it.

Soon, the duo found themselves in a large room with pillars. Mia scouted ahead, going invisible to get a good look at a basilisk that was resting in the room. They decided to double back instead, Korbin falling right into a pit trap. Thankfully the loud noises didn't seem to alert anything. Passing along a furnace room the pair wandered around until they found a seeming dungeon. Mia got caught in an animated manacle, the delay in freeing her allowing several goblins to catch up and ambush them! With questions!

With a few quick negotiations, the pair learned that there was a Basil and a Thingy in the dungeon, and the Basil protected the Thingy that could point at things and kill them. A lot of wordplay about basil (the herb) and basil (the basilisk) was exchanged, and that ended up with Korbin being crowned the Goblin King. As King, he was accepted in all goblin territories as long as he remembered the full moon.

With this newfound sovereignty, Korbin and Mia were able to explore the goblin warrens. They saw the goblin farms (where various items were being planted in hopes they'd grow), the goblin throne (the stuffing was taken out of the cushion and replaced with rocks), and the goblin spawning hole (where more were created by the minute). Korbin found a wall that rotated, activating a spear trap on accident. Four goblins attempted to protect their king, rushing valiantly into the trap, ending with the trap, and subsequently, the door, being held stuck by goblin bodies.

Heading up north, the pair found a strange door made of carved snakes and what seemed to be the abode of a powerful wizard. Attempting to ambush him, the wizard shrugged off their attacks, introducing himself as the great Xiximanter, and ordering the pair to be his lab assistants in creating an immortality potion. The pair went with it while Xiximanter worked fervently, trying to figure out a way out of the situation. Eventually, Xiximanter handed Mia a ritual dagger and ordered her to stab herself.

Mia complied. It hurt.

Perhaps that snapped her out of things, and the pair ended up tricking Xiximanter and running away. Korbin patched Mia up, and they decided to get out of the dungeon before the wizard realized their trick and tracked them down. They run out of the dungeon and into the light. Now that Elias has his information, the party is now free to set their sights on the rest of the lands surrounding Denethix, including that dungeon sitting at the base of Mt. Rendon...

Monsters Defeated:
-Skeleton (Statue) Jelly (20 xp)

Treasure:
-Snakeman Clothes (4 sp)
-Goblin Sovereignty (Korbin)

XP Banked: 4

Rumors:
-A new goblin king has appeared! Goblins all around Denethix are chattering about this. Wait, how do they all know?!
-That place called Broken Huts seems to have changed its name to Pumpkin Hills...

Crafting:
-Quick-Draw Mechanism for Aria's Sword (Progress: 14/14) (Complete!)
-Hurlant Repair (Progress: 7/7) (Complete!)

Experience:
Arduunal (lv 1, 148 xp)
Aria (lv 3, 9000 xp)
Cedar (lv 4, 14000 xp)
Celica (lv 3, 8000 xp)
Cloud Nine (lv 3, 6148 xp)
Firion (lv 2, 4000 xp)
Korbin (lv 1, 12 xp)
Laguna (lv 3, 10,148 xp)
Mia (lv 1, 2150 xp)
Nanashi (lv 1, 1000 xp)

My Thoughts:
Honestly, I don't know if I think this dungeon worked out too well as a teaching dungeon. There were several lessons in boxed text, but conveying those lessons ended up falling flat. This may have just been my style of refereeing, as I'm already somewhat experienced as one, but there was a big lack of dynamism or tension that I could convey to the players. As far as tutorial dungeons go, I feel like Prison of the Hated Pretender teaches its lessons in a more digestible format for the players.

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