Part Two: The Descent

[cailano]

Part Two of our adventure began when you descended the stairs from the Tower of the Beastmen and began the journey underground.

The first thing you encountered was the Trail of Gold. This was quite literally just a trail of coins, which I thought was kind of ominous, especially in a DCC game. I think if I'd been a player in this scenario, I would have felt like I was following a trail of bait. In this case, however, it was really just a trail of coins. The beastmen were sloppy in bringing the treasure from the Empty Vault down to the Dragon Ship.

The Empty Vault was where most of the loose gold came from (the rest was from the Beastman Tower.) Molly nearly lost a couple of fingers investigating the false bottom of a chest here, but he spent a bunch of Luck and left with all his digits still attached. Since he ended up taking the Thief class, he'll actually get all that Luck back! Plus, he picked up some sweet loot. You didn't miss anything in this room.

The Entrance to the Summoning Pits was interesting. That was the pit you found in the floor that had the bodies hanging from chains. It's also where Eli cashed in. If you recall, when you looked down into the pit, I told you it looked like there was an entire chamber down there. Just the way in looked lethal, however, and since the villagers you came to rescue weren't likely to be down there, you moved on.

And that's where the whole risk/reward thing kicks in, guys. The Summoning Pits were a large section of the module that probably would have taken a few weeks to explore in PbP. It was an extraordinarily dangerous area that had some nice treasure inside. Would it have been worth the risk? That's not for me to, well, judge. It's entirely possible that you would have lost some more characters in the Summoning Pits, and, obviously, you didn't need to venture down there to successfully complete the adventure.

As a point of trivia, the Summoning Pits weren't originally part of Sailors on the Starless Sea. It was a section they added to later printings of the adventure, which is something Goodman Games often does.

At any rate, you opted to skip that section of the module, and so the wheels of destiny turn.

Next, you came to the Dread Halls, which is where you found the murals depicting Molan and Felan, and some foreshadowing of the Chaos Leviathan. It's also where you found that pool with the skulls. Helge adopted one of the skulls, which I thought was a fantastically macabre treasure item. It contained the spirit of an evil being that had once been a rival of Molan, and it desired nothing more than revenge. The fact that the skull fell into the hands of a character as pious as Helge made it even better.

There was another powerful treasure you missed in the Dread Halls, but I bet only a handful of parties have ever found it. It would take an adventurer both reckless and lucky to do so, and such a character probably wouldn't survive long in DCC. With your torches burning low, you opted to continue your journey rather than stay to explore every nook of this room.

You did, however, take the time to investigate the murals. That was smart, as it clued you into the existence of the Chaos Leviathan and the importance of the menhir.

But we'll talk about all that in part three!