OSRIC Session Journal: Trippin' at Camp

I’ve been meaning to put up a session report from our OSRIC game (where I’m not the DM) for more than a week now…

In this last short session, the two clerics and the illusionist drank the addicting, vision producing substance we had in our possession in the hopes that it would convey (as purported) some of our enemy’s tactics. We were pretty certain that the enemy was also drinking it, desiring to see what we were doing.

We knew the "Midnight Eye” often merely produced hallucinations, but still hoped to learn something useful. This wasn’t the first time we’d had some party members drink the stuff, and had prepared accordingly - we wanted the imbibers to be well rested and battle worthy again as soon as possible.

Vadco, Gladric, and the ranger were on watch outside of the cave entrance - they heard something coming down the tunnel, scraping sounds, and then they saw a handful of goblins with bows, all of them slow and obviously under the influence of the amber ooze. Too late we realized that we might have had the others drink one at a time instead of all at once.

The goblins were at some distance, and Gladric shouted to Demurarg to cast her fireball. She was hesitant to use the spell on mere goblins, but Gladric talked her into it. Vadco nearly killed Gladric by misfiring his bow, but Demurarg wiped the goblins out. Vadco perhaps somewhat drunkenly considered skinning the goblins of their faces for masks, but as they were burned up pretty badly it was not worth pursuing or discussing.

Now the party turned its attention more fully to those who had imbibed the magic elixir. Ouze the cleric sat cross-legged with his hands outstretched and an ecstatic look on his face. Dennis the gnome stood staring blankly ahead. Benedict (the lawful good cleric) was curled up in a fetal position shivering and moaning. They threw a blanket over him and went to sleep. Three hours later everyone checked back in with the imbibers.

Ouze said “I had a feeling of unity with all things. It almost makes no sense to talk about it now.” “Yes, yes,” said Gladric impatiently. “I’ve been there. But did you see anything of value with regard to our opponents' future actions?” Ouze’s further responses were too Moody Blues to be of any real use, so the group moved on to the next imbiber.

Dennis the gnome said “I was amongst a vanguard of warriors. They were perhaps insects of tremendous stature. They rode great steeds made of minerals into a mist of many colors.” He chuckled to himself. The group tried to interrogate him further, but it was quickly obvious that anything else he said was indecipherable. Gladric surmised that their opponents might be riding giant ants as steeds. Vadco felt that it was a good omen.

They went to Benedict next. “I felt so cold and alone and sick. Please! Give me wine! Trouble awaits! Dire trouble!” was pretty much all they could glean from him. It was fun role-playing interacting with these three fools tripping in our campground, trying to discern anything that might be of value in their visions. Kudos to Nick the newbie DM.

They asked the druid with them if he knew of any race or creatures that might fit the description of insects riding steeds, to which he replied that he wasn’t aware of anything like that and that Dennis might simply be relating some heroic story of the gnomes that had bubbled up from the depths of his brain. This seemed as likely as anything.

Their captive claimed to be starving, and Gladric was a little cruel in testing whether or not this was true - he was concerned that their rations might be running low and reluctant to give them up to someone he didn’t trust. Vadco helpfully suggested that there was some roasted goblin nearby if he got desperate.

Everyone ate and rested for another day and then they went underground again, back to the sole tunnel which they hadn’t yet explored. This passageway was very narrow. Anrid and the druid entered and proceeded a short ways when they saw three pairs of eyes which became war dogs running towards them and growling. Dennis fumbled some oil at their feet and yelled a warning to not drop any torches. Vadco was able to attack from behind with a spear and he and the druid managed to dispatch the beasts. The druid thought he heard something ahead though.

They proceeded carefully, coming out into a chamber of indeterminate size. Emerging slowly from the darkness they saw several naked women… Slobbering amber ooze from their mouths. One of them seemed to awkwardly wield a cat o’ nine tails. Another feebly brandished a noose, and another a piece of wood. These were defeated fairly quickly, but the druid was knocked to the ground unconscious and the session ended.