| Session Date | April 24, 2021 |
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| Base XP Gained | 2000 |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
The party found themselves on a great chess board with 5' squares of black and white, enclosed by stone walls rising beyond sight. From the blackness far above came the periodic voices of the two ogres talking like old men. Besides the randomly placed party (on the black side), the other pieces looked like normal humans, but with corresponding liveries of black and white. Suddenly, a knight from the opposing side moved forward. The game began, and the party began to move their own, eit4her moving themselves or ordering other pieces on their side to move. The first time two pieces entered the same square, rather than simply take out the piece, the two fought to the death,the losing piece disappearing upon being destroyed. (I don't do chess recaps, so this is gonna be far shorter than it actually was). The rules were rather vague to the players, and they did some experimentation; attacking the opposing King, for instance, resulted in a bolt of lightning from above. The white side (with many conversations and arguments from the ogres out of sight above) was aggressive, seemingly interested in punching a hole in the black line to get at the king. In this they failed and the party soon turned the tide. Some of the enemy had surprises; the queen, for instance, possessed a poisoned spear, while the King had a poisoned sword and a wand of magic missiles. That did not save him, and the black side was eventually victorious. It seemed that whoever had created all this was pleased, as each member of the party was granted a boon of some sort (Iban gained 1 point of DX; Mordecai gained the ability to fly; Knar to grow; ZZ to speed up; Bel gained permanent HP; Thunderfist's infravision doubled in range; Beldon gained 250 gold pieces AND 5000 XP; Dimbul was presented a shortsword of dancing; and Amadin the strength of a frost giant for a time each day. Very lucrative!
Their explorations now continued. One room proved to be an ancient torture chamber. one skeleton in rusted manacles seemed to be trying to escape feebly; the party freed it and it told them in whispers that it was an Imperial Lormyrrian, a Centurion, taken in battle and tortured for both information and out of sheer malice. It was lucky though, in that he was left to die and not taken with others to "Alkar-az, the Shrine fo the Gatherer to be fed to the "Gatherer in the Cairn." A short benediction put it to rest forever. The party then ran into some human-looking, and quite arrogant, warriors. A few harsh words led to more (from both sides), but the party opted to retreat from their room and spike them in! However, this didn't hold and a fight ensued. When the first enemy was slain, however, it split into two identical warriors who kept fighting. The party had no interest in such a fight. Two were hit and held by hold person from Mordecai while another was overborne and held by Iban. A truce ensued and a less ornery parley. The warriors were, when asked, willing to fight the Giant King (they had never heard of him, but seemed eager to fight, anyone and everyone). They told the party that they'd come up "the Long Road," apparently a long and dangerous cave descending further into the earth.
Moving onwards, the party saw more ghost lights moving along a passageway, but they did not follow. They now came to a room with a group fo the folk collectively known as Zarabel. They were immediately hostile, threatening that the Hand of Tanit would be reaching out for them and other religious nonsense. It was a slog of a fight,a s the party was now weary, but in the end five were slain. The party now fell back, returning whence they'd come and exiting the dungeon altogether. They decided to rest with the Halflings for two nights to fully recover before returning to the dungeon.
(I must've been worn out from my earlier game...I can't recall much detail this week!)