Muleteers: Joy's Return

The Muleteers on Sunday had a surprise visit from dwarf Joy and henchman Little Pig Man, eager to follow up rumors of an adventurer's republic being established in Garyburgh. They had picked up a wandering hermit, Freya (possibly pictured in the transplanar daguerrotype to the right, or in any event, a representative of that type). This mystic of St. Sylvain, carrying a rope made out of her own hair, seemed more inclined to stick around with the Muleteers in the end than the former members of the party. Perhaps they found the small scale of the "republic" unimpressive, with fewer than 200 civilian souls and a score of adventurers to defend it, and the only fortification a waits-high barricade around the town square.

In any case, the arrivals found the Muleteers coming back from the Castle around noon and persuaded them, uninjured, to turn around for a second chance at adventure! Grimnir, however, declined, citing a splitting headache, perhaps brought on by cognitive dissonance at the sight of a young hermit of the Church named after one of the holiest gods of his religious tradition.

The others quickly traced their steps back to the sinister temple they had been exploring on the second level, defeated the lone baboon ("Ugly Boy") who had been guarding the place and proceeded to  loot, smash, and defile (re-file?) with holy water the altar and great statues of Demogorgon. Tracing a circuitous corridor, they completed what appeared to be the southwest corner of the dungeon map. Along the way they encountered a puzzle that defeated their powers of deduction and dealt out harsh shocks that turned Mantog into a twitching wreck tied to a mule, and if not for luck would have made Freya's adventuring career very short indeed. Some storerooms, a pair of shriekers guarding the corpse of a rabbit adventurer clad in remorhaz-hide armor, abandoned orc barracks (not surprising given the recent depopulation) and a room with a dismantled blade mechanism.

At the end, the party decided to make their own adventure, and assailed a nest of giant ants with the aid of a gnome-summoned lizardman, truly a champion of his kind with near-maximum hit points. Alas, the ants were lucky too, and a series of high damage rolls soon had the Muleteers in full retreat, leaving the reptile to perish in involuntary bravery.

And so, the megadungeon, where boredom and clearing-out can always be remedied by taking a tilt at the nearest unsolved mystery or unconquered redoubt.