I thought this might be our final session in the Clacking Caverns on Level 3, with the adventurers dealing with the beetles once and for all, but I was wrong. Maybe next time!
You can read earlier posts here. This post contains spoilers for Scarlet Citadel.
As the adventurers take a short rest in one of the dwarven tombs, Tunde’s familiar Mab, who has remained outside in the guise of a beetle husk, warns her master that a clacker beetle is approaching.
When the characters advance into the corridor to investigate, they find themselves under attack from two directions by soldier beetles and swarms. Maya is surrounded, but Tricksy is much braver than usual and rushes to help her out. Meanwhile, Clairmont holds off the beetles attacking from the side passage and Tunde attacks with her eldritch blasts. The beetle corpses pile up, but eventually the final wave is defeated and the party can heal their wounds.
Deciding they need a clever plan – or any plan – to deal with the beetles once and for all, the party head towards the nest. Tricksy casts fog cloud into the cavern, then turns into a bat. He’s about to fly in, but the beetles have stopped clacking so he pauses for a moment.
When a couple of beetles appear from the tunnels to investigate, the characters decide the game is up and they’ve lost the element of surprise. They return to Redtower, locking the door of the tomb they rested in before they go.
Back in the village, the characters have a good night’s sleep and purchase potions of healing and thunder resistance from Zula.
On their return to the Clacking Caverns, the party decide to try fishing in the mysterious pools. Tricksy uses mage hand to thread 150 feet of rope with the bronze hook they found tied to the end through the pulley in the ceiling above the dark pool, then they lower it into the water. When they run out of rope, the group try the same thing in the other pool, again without success. The adventurers discuss whether someone should go swimming, but Tricksy points out the fish they can see in the water are carnivorous quippers so they decide against it.
Next, they return to the Clockwork Tomb and plunder its grave goods. Maya and Tricksy open up one of the sarcophagi, and discover an inanimate construct inside. When they open the other one, the construct – a clockwork myrmidon – attacks, searing the characters with its flame jet. Tricksy casts fog cloud and the group beats a hasty retreat to the entrance tunnel.
Tricksy sends Professor Yaffle to find out what the myrmidon is up to and he succeeds, but at a cost. The construct has returned to the tomb and roasts the owl with its flame jet as soon as it appears.
Clairmont casts a glyph of warding (4th level, fire damage) on the door to the locked tomb, set to trigger if anyone attempts to open the door and he is more than 10 feet away.
We ended the session with the group considering their next move…..
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Main image by David Auden Nash
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Richard Green | Game Designer 