Silver Hollow Adventures - Session 2, "Tomb Raider"

This was the second session of the episodic game. The plan is to level up every three sessions or so. The episodic nature allows a lot more room for failure than the sweeping narrative outdoor campaign we ran previously. Learning from the previous campaigns that players often forgot to track gold, I gave them a ledger book, complete with 360 gold paid by Karl (of Karl's Exotic Meat Procurement, the specialty butcher shop) for clearing his basement of giant ants. Players Cathe's Longtooth Shifter Ranger with pet cat, Scratch Fury. Nick's Human Fighter, a slightly odd fellow with a giant sword. Lisa's Elf Druid. Terribly mysterious. Tyler's Tiefling Monk. Hi-yah! Linda's Dwarf Cleric. Finally, in the 3rd campaign, a shorty! Summary The group goes looking for work, but opportunity knocks. An old Tiefling noble comes to them, robed and with many recent burns, with a job offer. It seems that his family has been trying to kill him - and that they have recently 'succeeded', and are getting ready to entomb what they think is his body. Unfortunately, they have put with the body something that the noble rather wants... After picking his brain on the layout of the manor, mauseleum, and the guard, the adventurers form a plan - distraction! The two sneakiest of the group - the monk and the ranger - head around the back of the house to sneak into the mauseleum and steal the item before the body is put into the tomb. Meanwhile, the rest of the group heads to the front door to provide a distraction. The distraction goes of with hilarious results - an officious and pompous cleric, a clueless fighter, and a druid diguised as a gift in the form of a peacock end up running madcap through the house, squacking and feathers and all, before being forcibly removed by the house guards. This leaves the rear garden and mauseleum with only one set of eyes on it - which unfortunately see the two thieving adventurers. Despite the continuous tackling of the guard by the ranger, he eventually rings the alarm bell, and the adventurers are chased off - without the item. After a breather and some regrouping, they decide to bribe one of the guards - and do so quite successfully after learning of his gambling debt. In a not-so-shocking twist, the body has been moved into the tomb ahead of schedule - the fully party heads down below the mauseleum to brave the defenses. The defenses prove to be an undead tiefling and a horde of vengeful wraiths who fly through the walls and attack. The cleric's turn undead and radiant powers destroy the minions and leader with the help of the rest of the party, quite quickly. They proceed to the bottom of the tomb and retrieve the item that they need. However, the door behind them has sealed; the only way out is a crack in a wall which leads to a dark tunnel. The tunnel eventually drops into the city's large storm drains. As the party slogs along in the sewer, they are assaulted by mutant abberant beasts! The tentacled monsters fall quickly, but continued assault by a bat-thing from the rear, a mind-destroying flying abberant from the front, and a puss-spitting pile of goo from below take their toll. Still, with teamwork and lots of healing, the party pulls through and climbs a handy ladder up to the surface. They return the item to the noble and collect their reward! Thoughts I railroaded pretty heavily here - their first plan should have worked. It was well thought out and hilariously pulled off, with the druid shrieking and running around, the fighter playing dumb and ineffectively chasing the faux-bird around, and the cleric glaring down her nose and refusing to see what was wrong. Of course, right after they came up with their second attempt, I realized I could have had them chased by the guard into a dead-end alley, where they escape into the sewers and come up through another family tomb. Learning, always learning.