Escape from Mimmarudla

Continued From Attempt to Close the Gate

The DM: As the party rushes across the lake, which is heaving beneath their feet, it soon becomes evident that there is more going on than that ice is melting. The sound of cracking can be heard, and all at once the players can look down and see that the ice has entirely lost its frosty surface. Not only water can be seen beneath a thickness of what seems to be about six inches, but faces as well - the faces of the trapped souls in the lake, who are now pressing against the underside of the ice, their hands flattened on the underlying bottom, pushing the ice upwards. It is over this grisly scene that the players hurry.

Pandred: Then let's keep hurrying!

Embla: Indeed!

The DM: A crack opens in the ice under Pandred's feet. She'll have to leap across the gap. Could I have a dexterity check, please.

Pandred: 20. Not ideal.

The DM: Pandred loses her balance, feeling her legs go out as she topples forward ... but before she plunges into the lake, she feels hands catch her and roll her across the gap. She tumbles, ends up facing the open crack. A ghostly old man and a young woman are drifting upward very slowly. "Thank you," the man whispers at Pandred. "Yes, thank you," adds the woman.

Pandred: I'll scramble up and keep moving, huffing a surprised breath. "No problem."

The DM: Soon there are cracks beginning to emerge all over the lake. You can see the other side now; it is about three hundred yards away. Spectres are climbing onto the edge of the ice around you, whereupon they begin to rise, just a few inches a second. You can see dozens of them. No, scores. And as they rise, they smile at members of the party, eyes full of gratitude.

Engelhart: Not much to add, except that we keep hustling. Even if things take a turn for the worse regarding the ice, these grateful spirits seem amenable to aid our escape.

The DM: And so they do. The ice has almost entirely broken up by the time you reach just a hundred feet from the shore; by then, hands are holding onto your legs, your bodies... at the last, you're floating more than you're moving, until at last you arrive safely on the shore.

The DM: There, a group of Svirfneblin meet you. Prugg is not among them, but most of them are familiar to you. One named Grikk speaks to you, saying, "We give you thanks for risking yourselves, and for your success."

Character	hp. caused	hp. taken	X.P. gained (pending)
Embla	0	21	633
Engelhart	13	7	532
Lothar	3	0	150
Pandred	8	6	455
Vafrandir	16	14	719

The DM: Showing is the experience for the battle; before adding experience to your character, can you all please confirm your damage caused and taken?

Vafrandir: Those numbers look correct to me.

Embla: and I

Engelhart: I confirm my portion, for sure.

The DM: Have you any business with the svirfneblin before taking your leave?

Pandred: Do we? I don't know much of anything about them, and defer to Embla and Engelhart. If they'd like to give me and Vafrandir the benefit of imparting their experience we'd be eternally grateful, but Oddsdrakken is waiting in Stavanger and I'm fairly certain a few of us are nearly dead. Speaking of, Vafrandir, enjoy 3 hit points from my iron bottle. For surviving your first scuffle.

Vafrandir: "Thank you! I'm not sure what I expected to find, but it sure as hell wasn't that!"

The DM: Grikk says, "You are welcome for any help we could give. You have a long journey ahead of you. I suggest you each take a draught of this before you start on your way." He offers a large stone flagon, opaque, about two feet tall and with a wide brim. It would hold about two quarts.

Pandred: I'll be sure to take a swig, after the rest of the party has had their go. They are sorer than I.

Embla: I take a deep drink of the flagon and thank the svirfneblin for their support.

The DM: Please, each of you roll 2d6 +2 and count that towards healing yourselves.

Pandred: Full up. Nice!

Vafrandir: I will as well. roll 7, 9 adj. "Invigorating!"

Embla: 10! I'm positive again!

Engelhart: I too sip heartily. The roll comes up a 6, wich means I'm at +8 Hp.

The DM: Are you ready to head up through the tunnels to the surface?

Vafrandir: I am. I'm grateful to the svirneblin for their assistance but I will follow Pandred's lead and defer to Embla and Engelhart if there is any unfinished business.

Engelhart: Steady as she goes. I warmly thank the Svirfneblin for their assistance, decisive as it was, as we get on our way.

The DM: So, you head off, saying your goodbyes. You have a long cavern to wend your way up into. You climb to the cliff, cross past the old ruin, make your way up the stairs to the passage and tramp onwards. About 600 yards later, you all realize you are intensely exhausted, having fought two battles, endured a long time in the cold and suffered all sorts of trials and tribulations. You must eat and rest before you can go any farther.

Pandred: Once upon a time I bought a bunch of food before Lothar took over quartermaster. I don't know what or where the food is now, and I don't have any on me for that reason. The unusual circumstances of our reunion have left me without any idea how we got here, what we came with, or what our plans were.

The DM: You will need to mooch.

Vafrandir: I have a few meager supplies left - 2 rest rations (2 lb ea) and 1 travel ration (4 lb).

The DM: As this is a day of battle, each person will need to eat 3 pounds of food. Those who do not or cannot will need to make a malady check when you begin moving again. [malady checks are on the wiki]

Engelhart: Where exactly were our supplies located? I recall we had a couple of porters in circulation tasked with stocking a field depot for our explorations down here.

The DM: The field depot is about 2 miles up the tunnel. I'm afraid I don't have numbers on how much is there. Do you?

Pandred: I'm seeing Embla as carrying 20lbs of food. With Vafrandir's 8 that enough for the four of us with some to spare. Obviously Embla should confirm she wants to share, but I think we're in the clear here. I'll be the one to eat the malady check if the quartermasters here want to keep their stores.

Embla: Of course. The food is for everyone.

Vafrandir: Are you counting Rob, Lothar and Mikael? Are they with us?

The DM: Good. Do you have blankets?

Pandred: Does a 16lb Fur Coat do anything for me there?

Embla: I don't have a coat or anything beyond my armor, unfortunately. We probably should have asked to rest the night in the village before returning to the surface. Crud.

The DM: I only want to know because you'll need a comfortable surface if you want to rest at all. No rest, no regained spells, no healing (though you're probably not going to hang around long enough to do the latter anyway.

The DM: You catch some sleep and wake up sore and stiff. It will take you a little time to feel sorted out as you walk towards the depot.

Embla: I press onward.

The DM: It is one of those tasks, where you keep at it though after a time, it seems to be neverending. It is bend after bend, a much longer distance this day than it seemed to have been in your memory, when first you came this way. You run across some of the features, cracks in the floor, large rooms, the ledge next to the crevice ... but though it feels like you've gotten past them, and that the next corner ought to at last be a reprieve, it ends up being just another turn, just another short climb to yet another long passage.

The DM: [trying to set a mood; rather than jump you ahead in time, conveying the process of describing this as I would if you were sitting at a table with me. If you see a passage like this, and you have no character action to give, just write "Aye" with your stamp, and I'll know I can add the next piece; otherwise, I'm writing four paragraphs with the effort to mark the passage of time, just to have the players read it at one sitting.]

Vafrandir: Understood. One of the difficulties of running a game through text, I guess

The DM: You hear a hail up ahead. The shouts of two people, one that sounds like a woman and the other that sounds vaguely familiar, but like that of a boy.

Embla: "Hullo?"

The DM: You get a return hail. "IS... THAT... EMBLA...?"

Embla: "Yes! Willa? Odds?"

The DM: Their voices are getting louder as you continue to walk forward. "Yes! Yes!" you hear. "Are you ALONE?"

Embla: I stop. Can I make out any more details about the two?

Engelhart: I immediately bristle upon hearing this and motion for Embla to answer "yes". I get the maul out.

Pandred: I'll head forward. These are either my friends or they aren't. I'm not afraid of either.

The DM: Sorry about losing the day. You hear the woman's voice again, shouting. It does sound like Willa. "EMBLA?"

Embla: "We've returned! And I can't wait for a good night's rest!"

The DM: This begins a back and forth that should relax Engelhart's worries. You do reach the depot, where you find Willa and Oddsdrakken. Sorry Pandred, but as far as you knew, Oddsdrakken had gone back to Stavanger, but he hung around on his own. So here he is now.

The DM: What do you want to do with all the stuff that is here?

Pandred: "Odds! Could have used you back there. Now hold this, will ya?" I'm redistributing my gear and...guys what IS here?

The DM: Oddsdrakken is unable to keep a slight smile from his lips, but he asks graciously, "10 c.p. more a month?"

Embla: Let's start packing it up. We've no further need of this base camp, I don't think.

The DM: You have listed what's here?

Engelhart: I... have no proper idea of what is to be found here. I've an inkling that it was more than just rations, including torches and maybe rope, though the quantities are quite beyond me.

Engelhart: In any event, none of it came from our coin, being tabbed by some authority up above (again, memory does not serve beyond this) that we dealt with when we brokered our access to the lower levels of the Mimmarudla complex.

The DM: Then we can rule there's 120 lbs. of food here, 100 ft. of rope, 6 blankets, grapple, two short axes, two pottle-jugs of water, two lanterns, 5 large sacks, 5 small sacks, a tinder box with steel, 12 torches, 12 iron spikes and 16 tallow candles.

Engelhart: More than enough that we'll have trouble moving it all back to the surface without expending some effort. Let us take what we need from the pile and erect a makeshift camp, we need food and proper sleep.

Vafrandir: That sounds good to me! Much needed.

Embla: Agreed. Let's rest here, then break camp and haul stuff to the surface tomorrow.

The DM: That's a consensus.

The DM: I'm introducing Marcule, gnome Illusionist/Assassin to the game.

Marcule: Hello.

Pandred: "The Svirfs didn't say they were sending a man over. Kind of them to think of us. Hold this, will ya?" We're moving the camp to the surface, right? What does the layout look like from hither to thither? Are there a lot of unexplored branches, or is it more of a straight-shot tunnel? Right now this underground place might as well be floating in space for all I understand about where we are.

The DM: The dungeon is literally cleaned out end to end; so you may assume that you can shift the stuff here to the surface, perhaps in stages if you can't haul it all at once.

The DM: Regarding Marcule's entrance, he won't have come from the Svirf's below; he will have met Oddsdrakken (Marcule, that's the party's pet halfling servant) and will have been invited along to help.

Vafrandir: "Hello, Marcule! Nice to have willing hands for the work."

Marcule: "Hello and a pleasure, Happy to provide hands, but at my small stature” (stretching my fingers as far as they will go to express my small hand span) “I will not change much”

Engelhart: "Well met, Marcule! Much like Holy relics, great things are often laid on small frames. Whether you're looking for coin or seeking to push back the pressing darkness you are surely welcome to join us."

Embla: "Welcome, Marcule! Another pair of hands is always helpful."

The DM: You can rest first, but you did wake up just a few hours ago so you can't sleep much. Your 3 lb. of food eaten was technically yesterday, so I will need you to eat another 2 lbs. today.

Vafrandir: How shall we divide up the stockpile for tomorrow's journey? There are now 10 of us, correct? I would also like to double-check the food stocks to see how much we have left.

The DM: Don't count Rob, Lothar or Mikael. Assume they've got their own food and that they've started out ahead of you. If any of them rejoins the campaign, I'll handwave them back into a logical return.

Pandred: We eat 14 pounds of food if there are 7 of us. Odds and I can maintain 2AP, which seems reasonable enough, if we carry 60 pounds between the two of us. That leaves 46 lbs of food after our 60 is hauled up. How about the rest of you strapping lads and lasses?

Engelhart: My loadout needs to be updated and I'm away from the laptop. As a very conservative estimate, assume I can take at least 20 pounds and keep the pace at 2 AP.

Vafrandir: Understood. I ate 3 lb of my own food, gave another 3 away (someone please claim it), and so it looks like I can handle about 40 lb for 2 AP remaining. Slow but doable. How much does the rest weigh?

Embla: I can handle another 100lbs and be at 2AP, so I'll take the remaining 46lbs food, the two hand axes, 50ft rope, all 6 blankets, 10 of the candles, the two lanterns, and 1 of the small sacks to organize the food. I do love being big and stronk.

Vafrandir: I will take a large sack (not sure its own weight) with the spikes, remaining candles, remaining rope, tinderbox, and grapple. I have a few pounds to spare but that leaves 42.08 for Engelhart and Marcule to split.

Engelhart: I'll take the remaining eight sacks, (8 x 1.48 = 11.84 lbs), leaving the rest for Marcule to pull along.

Vafrandir: Note below: I needed an extra sack, so that leaves 7. Marcule may need one as well for the rest.

Vafrandir: Very good. May I assume I gave Lothar back his sword?

The DM: Yes please.

Marcule: I can take another 80lbs or so to be at 2AP

Marcule: Given that the dungeon is empty (stripped to the screws by my understanding) I imagine we will have little trouble pulling things out.

Engelhart: (I need a couple of hours to get my spells back, don't know if you're willing to wait)

The DM: Up to the party, but I doubt anyone is in a hurry.

Vafrandir: I would be willing to wait.

Embla: I'm happy to wait as well.

The DM: Marcule, you get full proficiencies for being an assassin, but as an illusionist you can't wear any armour. You may have 13 hit points, but you're still a pin-cushion.

Marcule: I prefer conductive meat sponge

The DM: I've sent a copy of the Stavanger Market for you to check the weights on the other equipment. If you don't want to check the weights yourself, you can just leave it here, that's no problem. Let me know if there's something here for which you don't have a weight on the table.

Vafrandir: Just a couple of questions: hooded or bullseye lanterns, and I am not sure the difference between a large and small sack on the table.

The DM: small sack, hemp, 1.48 lb. each, triple-knit for strength. Please scotch the large sacks and call them small; I don't have numbers for them either, apparently.

The DM: There seems to be some trouble with all the weight numbers associated with cloth goods. I must have been sleeping, and somehow it has skipped my attention for years now. I'll need to upgrade the numbers and send you a new list for tomorrow.

Vafrandir: I cannot imagine how, with a list of over 1600 items, any could have escaped notice ;)

The DM: I know!

The DM: bullseye lantern: 38.4 oz.; hooded lantern: 25.6 oz.

Vafrandir: Which ones are in our pile?

The DM: I do not understand that question: they are all belonging to the party.

Embla: You mentioned there are two lanterns in our pile, but you did not indicate which type of lanterns are in our pile. I think that's the clarification Vafrandir (and I) are looking for.

The DM: Ah. Didn't specify. Got it. They're hooded.

Moving On

The DM: Are we loaded?

Embla: I'm ready. 2AP at present.

The DM: Since no one has called out what they're carrying, I'm a little worried some of you are carrying the same things as other people. Are we safe on that account?

Embla: Vaf and I don't overlap.

Vafrandir: There is some discussion above of who has what. But for clarity, I have: 1 sack containing 10 spikes, 1 sack containing 2 candles, the grapple, the tinderbox, and 50 ft of rope. Embla has 46lbs food, the two hand axes, 50ft rope, all 6 blankets, 10 of the candles, the two lanterns, and 1 of the small sacks to organize the food. Pandred and Oddsdrakken have claimed 60 lb of food. There are 7 sacks, 2 pottle jugs, and 12 torches left to claim.

Engelhart: Englehart claims the 7 sacks.

The DM: Marcule?

Marcule: I can take the rest this will make my AP 3

Engelhart: Alexis, what are the sacks made of? Hemp sacks apparently come at a hefty 15 lbs. each, though I don't quite see how.

The DM: I found that was in error and upgraded the pricing table, Engelhart. You should find a second upload for the Stavanger market. The hemp sacks are 1.48 lb., not 15. I don't know where that error came from.

Engelhart: I've looked at the upload logs but found none for a market. Where should I look for it?

Engelhart: (Well, this was a slog, going up and down trying to see who had claimed what). I cast Cure Light Wounds for our troubles, 4 on the die means 8 Hp to share around. 3 for Vafrandir, 5 for Embla.

Vafrandir: I'm up full now, thanks! This is more or less true to reality packing up a camp.

This game is continued on Reaching the Surface