COD 1: Session 26: Jasper's Room

 Pre-scene Notes

That was a very long hiatus, but I’d thought I would come back considering the new DND 5.5e kind of supersedes my rules here… I’d at least want to finish off this cave dive as otherwise I would feel a sense of incompletion. I had played solo a bit through the hiatus, but just didn’t really organise it until now. If this is read in the far future, I guess let’s just continue!

Scene setup/conflict: 

The party attempts to sneak into Jasper’s room.

No altered/interrupted scene

Scene:

The party stalked towards Jasper’s villa after collecting their equipment from their rooms, exchanging greetings with any stray passer-bys they met on the estate to avoid suspicions. Once they arrived outside the one-storey villa though, they knew they would be out of place if found inside the building. Jasper, building an outward appearance of being lenient, shared his multi-room villa with other gladiators. As they were mostly higher level gladiators, they acted as free guards for his own quarters. A few of them were at the feast, but many old experienced gladiators had enough of them during their careers, and had better things to do on their own. 

“Well? Are we going to sneak in?” Yankovic asked.

“We can make up an excuse to say Jasper asked us to get something for him?” Zar offered.

“If we knock the guards unconscious fast enough before they alert others in the villa, we can get into Jasper’s room undetected?” Filli proposed. 

Yankovic understood all too well Filli was trying to compensate from his fall to Solomon’s Fear spell earlier today to prove himself. Although not sure what nightmares the little one had seen from the spell, Filli not having mentioned it probably meant the boy had only blamed himself too harshly. Yankovic made a note to prevent Filli from any possible hotheadedness and said, “No, we’ve had three hard fights today already with just a short rest. We really should try and do this tactically.”

I’d used the actual monster stat blocks for gladiators for once, but reduced HP to 80. I’m going into this fine if the party gets captured as I have in my mind another story route.  

I’d wanted to use this map for a while now from Tactical Map https://www.patreon.com/tacticalmap

I’d seeded the map with gladiators by rolling a dx+1, with x being the number of rooms that were connected. Rolling a 1 meant no enemies in the room. Then added a patrol of d10 number of rooms in the main corridor, but then I’d thought it was strange to have a patrol. So I’d just added the floater gladiators where less people are in the rooms.

The ultimate question though is deciding which room was Jasper’s? I decide to roll Mythic for it, starting with a choas factor of 1, working its way up every time the party enters a different room. 

I’m going to also show the PCs the whole map, considering they may even have been in the villa during their previous three-day rest. Also as solo play, no point in having a fog of war on. It helps the PCs strategize I guess, especially as I’d noticed for the initial long corridor, the party will probably trigger line of sight from others if a fight breaks out at one end.

I’m also planning to have the whole scenario play out in turn order, which means I can randomly see if gladiators move about the villa/go from room to room. Each character’s action (eg checking the room, examining a painting, trying a lock etc.) will take just that action’s time. 

The first question though is whether someone thinks to check whether a gladiator is standing right by the front door, or the party should try another entrance. As I’d rolled initiative, and the three PCs were going first (rolling each gladiator is too much hassle), it was Filli who would go first each turn, so it’s his check… He rolled a flat 22.

Despite wanting to prove himself, Filli knew his best asset was his intelligence and he held a hand out to the others to wait. He crept up to the front window of the villa, and saw a gladiator actually standing right there by the entrance. He silently signalled the others to the next window along to see if they could crawl through into the villa from the dinning room instead. 

Yankovic followed right behind and tried the window, finding it unlocked (rolled Mythic 50/50, yes/no, at current chaos factor of 6). He opened the window and beckoned Zar to follow. 

The half orc slid through the open window as quietly as he could with heavy armour, and miraculously landed softly on his feet. 

To minimise amount of rolls, I think I’ll just roll for gladiators that are adjacent to a PC’s room at the end of any one full initiative round to represent their random movement, rolling a d4 to see whether they move N/W/E/S. If a PC’s stealth check at end of turn is less than a 12 (ie Gladiator’s passive perception) the d4 don’t need to be rolled and they go towards the source of the noise. If PC goes across line of sight, I’ll make an extra roll. 

Filli instructed Fido to hide in one of the bushes before climbing in as well. He made his way across the dinning room to the fireplace. It was obvious this was not a bed room. The problem was, Filli was wearing a scale mail, which although was not heavy armour, still cranked as he traversed across the dinning room. Filli was quiet alright, but managed to knock over a fire poker. He was almost sure anyone in adjacent rooms would hear the clang, even in the corridors. 

…So much for all the guard rules I’d thought up with an abysmal Stealth roll…

Even Yankovic heard the ruckus from outside, and he swiftly flipped through the window and followed his own personal mantra for infiltrations. If no one lived to tell you’d sneaked into somewhere, it was a success. He readied his warhammer above his head and positioned himself in front of the nearest door for an ambush of anyone who came in. He could do little else from his tiredness, let alone spellcasting, from his fights during the day. 

Zar did similar, but seeing the door on the other side of the room, instead rushed to Filli’s side and readied an Eldritch Blast for anyone that would blunder in.

A gladiator came in from each door, and both held up their shields to defend and attack when spotting the intruders. Although Yankovic’s warhammer landed, the gladiator also pushed him onto the ground. Zar’s blast was deftly dodged and countered, but Zar’s Hellish Rebuked part of his damage back to the gladiator. Two more gladiators came in from the corridors, and seeing the fight, also joined the fray. 

“Not sure if it’s lucky or not they didn’t go get their friends,”Filli gasped out, as well as the incantation for Faerie Fire at the three gladiators Zar and him would deal with. He mentally beckoned Fido to come through the window as well to see if it could help Weird Elf, now that stealth had failed. Considering he was not mounted, the dual lances just hung on Fido’s sides, but Fido could still perform a Force-Empowered Rend at the gladiator. Yankovic saw the gladiator distracted and landed a critical hit, but the seasoned gladiator did not even look bloodied.

Filli had one last flask of acid left from his previously enchanted Alchemy Jug, and he gauged his throw so the ground where the three gladiators are standing would be splashed with the corrosive liquid. Their legs would be charred by the corrosion unless they moved. 

Kinda giving the party a helping hand with the improvised action, as maybe 80HP each is looking far too much when the PCs had hardly any spell slot as they did not have a long rest after the coliseum. This is also why I allowed Fido to come into the fight and decided not the whole Villa would come for them just because of one failed stealth roll.

As Fido and Weird Elf teamed up to damage the gladiator behind them, Zar drew more of his Hexblade’s Curse and landed a strong blow at this enemy, but another slashed him from the side. However, all three guards screamed in agony as the acid brunt their feet. Seeing the tough situation, Fido sustained a heavy blow on his back to rush over to support Zar and Filli. Both Filli and Fido took a respite to heal, and Zar coincidentally downed the gladiator he cursed, the lost soul giving his health a small rebate. Despite this, the other two gladiators were strong and struck with an opportunity attack that would clearly have killed Zar.

Fido at the last minute Deflected the Attack and one of the gladiators made a critical fumble to down the other, causing his ally to fall prone. 

Initially I’d thought both gladiators rolled high, but then remembered Fido’s ability and I’d thought the Nat1 would explain and help Zar, who would otherwise have died right after being healed.

Now with Fido here, Filli mounted and with a flash of his blue glowing hands, took control of his dual lances. Two fast strikes came around Zar as if he had three arms, with Zar himself bringing down the materialised hexbalde greatsword down over their enemy. The gladiators fought back, Zar barely staying standing from their shield bashes, his health finally close to empty from the toil of the day. Filli got into close range to take the load off him. A shield immediately went for his face, and although it left him bloodied, his arm muscles flexed to grasp onto his seat on top of Fido. With a roar, he commanded Fido to counter with his lances and although one missed, the last one struck true, decapitating the second gladiator. 

The last remaining gladiator ignored the searing pain in his legs still from the corrosive acid, and Shield Bashed Filli again, this time knocking the wind out of the artificer’s chest. Filli finally failed to hang onto Fido and banged his knee on the dinning room floor despite his mounted capabilities. Filli gritted his teeth and immediately got up onto Fido again and struck. With Zar’s attack in unison, they finally downed the third gladiator in his defiant last roar. 

Weird Elf had been trading blows with the gladiator behind them ever since Fido tactically switched battlefronts, and was now covered from head to toe in blood. The gladiator he was fighting against was just as worst for wear, both fighter’s blows starting to lose its sharpness as their owner’s minds dulled. The gladiator, on fresher form in comparison, finally landed a lucky strike that downed the Weird Elf.

Zar and Filli immediately rushed over, Filli spearing down the final enemy while Zar used Lay on Hands to revive the perilous Yankovic. 

Staring dully at the four gladiators’ bodies about them, all three of them panting against Fido, slipping to sit on the floor to gather their breaths. Filli said, “Okay… We’re definitely not made for stealth missions.”

“Well? What’s the plan? We’re completely drained magically now, not to mention totally beaten up and battered. We’re in no shape for even one more fight with a rabbit.” Zar gasped between breaths.

“Speak for yourself, I can go all day,” Weird Elf muttered. “But I must say, never thought about what to do with these bodies now that we’ve made them. Jasper isn’t going to let the random deaths of four of his finest gladiator go unexplained.” 

“I know this doesn’t seem like something that good people do, but hear me out.” Filli said as he pulled out a flask that the Alchemy Jug had filled before it had been disenchanted in way of his lances. “And really, it’s more of a cremation…”

#

“Help! Help!” the party burst through the villa’s front door with no subtlety this time. In fact, they were wanting to make as much noise as possible to get every gladiator’s attention from within the villa. Two gladiators came out from their room to their right while a number of others rushed down the long corridor to them with more coming.

“What is the matter boy? Why the commotion?” An old gladiator asked.

“A fire!” Zar took care of the acting, he had the most experience in it after all at his time with the fake order. “In the forest to the North East, we’d heard fighting from some gladiators on our way past, but then a fire broke out.”

Weird Elf gestured outside, where the gladiators can faintly see something like the glow of fire, and the wind carried the smell of smoke to their noses. This was thanked to a series of overlooked stones on the ground, which if upon closer inspection, one would find to have undergone Filli’s Magical Tinkering to emit those senses. 

This had given enough advantage together with Zar’s performance and a gladiator was already rushing out of the villa with a bucket shouting, “Come on! Let’s get whatever you can to the well and put out the fire!”

Filli had emptied all seven flasks of the oil reserves he had built up previously from the Alchemy Jug, but at least it would take the gladiators a bit of time to find them all. It would also notably frame the dead gladiators, that would be charred too much to be recognised, of the fires that they had started during their argument. It was unlikely a master sleuth or any effort would be expended to question the apparent gladiators’ death.

Zar rolled a 14 on deception with advantage from Filli’s help. I would consider then this gives the party 14 minutes to search the villa. As a DM, I would likely allow the PCs to roam the villa and pillage if they had wanted, but they might miss the objective of finding the hexblade if they did, not to mention bring more heat onto them later if they still wanted to stay as Jasper’s gladiators. 

The party decided it was not worth rummaging through the gladiators’ belongings but instead did a fast search of the villa to see if they could find Jasper’s room quickly. 

Filli rolled highest at 18 on Investigation with advantage for concentrating.

Although at the other side of the villa, Filli targetted the bigger rooms and found an unusual spot underneath a big bed. Finding a secret switch at the blanket chest at the foot of the bed, the bed moved to reveal a staircase down to a small dungeon.

The party was in no shape for a fight but had no time to rest. If they did not venture down now, this operation would be for nought. Fido was actually in the best state compared to the three adventurers, and led the way down the cool stone steps. 

The dudgeon was just a minimalistic small stone room, where just hanging on one wall amongst an intricate network of metal chains and runic symbols was a sword. The sword was not dissimilar to the one Zar carried around before it cracked into tiny pieces.

“Who goes there?” The hexblade spoke to the adventurers in all their minds.

“Jasper’s hexblade, I presume?” Weird Elf shook it off and asked a question in return.

“Yes, Jasper, that retched betrayer damned for eternal hell!" The hexblade rattled the chains as Filli took a step back at the venomous bellow despite no voice in the room. ”Are you his lackeys?“

“I’ll take that as a yes. You can say we’re betraying him so to say, if that makes you happier to talk.” Yankovic shrugged. “We know he’s a warlock, so I take it he managed to just steal your powers and imprisoned you here?”

“Steal my power!? Absurdities!” The hexblade hissed. “No one can steal power from a hexblade! That sorry excuse of a fouling only sealed me here with these chains that whore of his found for him. If it wasn’t for these, I would cut him in a hundred pieces myself. Or scream in his mind until he goes insane. Or drain his life force till his last breath, and make him rasp on it for seven centuries!”

Seeing Zar’s paling face at what a hexblade could do as a patron, Filli took over the questioning, “But he still wields the powers you gave him?”

“He abuses it and sneaks power from me, much less often now and nowhere near as strong as he could have in his prime when I was his master. He knows the more power he draws from me, the more chance I can break free! Now heed me mortals! Break free these chains!”

“Not so fast,” Filli put up a hand. “What did you do to Jasper that made him keep you locked up?”

“What have I not done to him? For him!?” The hexblade’s psychic scream was deafening. “I didn’t just simply give him power! I bred his want for destruction! I nurtured his bloodlust! I sculpted his need for chaos! But instead of reigning above others with our power, instead he is nothing but a slave for that Empress!”

“Chaos…” Filli murmured in thought. “The Empress is trying to overthrow the Emperor?”

“How many years had it been since I had been locked up here? They might have succeeded with their ritual by now. I see now you certainly won’t be in league with him and his puppet master.” The hexblade seemed to turn to Zar. “You there, the green one. I can feel it. Unlike the other two, the little one is all sunshine and the weird elf has great capacity for violence, but you have a much more need for it. The need for power. The crave for power. The greed for power! Take these chains off me and I shall grant you the power you seek!”

“Do not command me!” Zar with a slash of his arm materialised his green greatsword, trying to ignore what his own hexblade must be doing to him. “Tell me! Is there a way to break a hexblade’s pact?”

“I see, it is of little wonder. You are already a warlock, shame.” The rattling of the chains settled a bit in disappointment. “You are useless to me then. You can’t have more than one pact, like how you can only have one soul. Unless both parties voluntarily removes a pact, only the most powerful magic can nullify one… Now tell your master to come out and speak with me.”

“He’s not my master,” Zar said through gritted teeth, but Yankovic held him back as none of them would likely be able to take even a hexblade without its patron nearby.

“Listen,”Yankovic explained, making Zar show his materialised greatsword, “We’re far-travellers from another realm, but you obviously aren’t Zar’s hexblade. However, do you at least recognise his patron?”

“You think I keep some social network of all hexblades in the multiverse? Foolish!” Despite suggesting this, it was clear the hexblade was appraising Zar.

“What is his name?” Zar demanded, now holding the greatsword up to the hexblade as if he had a throat to be threatened with.

“It… It can’t be! But it had been destroyed many centuries ago! With Xanthia!”

“Wait, what? What’s this about Xanthia?” Yankovic yelped.

Considering they rolled relatively well and foregoing looting the other gladiators’ rooms to find this room in good time, although I had determined they had lost already with the infiltration, as a DM, I would’ve allowed the PCs ten questions, including the last one. I won’t expect one question to last a minute, so if they had even shown an inkling of being aware of the time for escape, I might have thrown them a bone. But as they had asked so many questions, and considering the time I’ve got in my head their deception had earned them, they won’t have time to escape...

“Well, well, well, I see you’ve met my hexblade. Nice chat?” Jasper’s voice and figure appeared menacingly to the fright of all in the chamber. Behind him was also Empress Celes, an easy but pitiful smile on her face.

“My attendants said Nero had spoken to your allies Yankovic, but I never would’ve thought all of you just found your way into Jasper’s chambers so rudely at the slightest bait. Maybe you all don’t even have enough brains to be allies after all.” The Empress shook her head as if she was a school girl with a maths problem, “On the other hand, Nero probably just wanted to eliminate any more men that could turn into my people, so killing you all will fall right into his plans, that old goat. What do you think Jasper?”

“I think -" Weird Elf did not let Jasper respond as he assertively brought his warhammer down on the wall section next to one of the shackles holding Jasper’s patron in place. ”NO!“

In an actual game, this could either have been a result of a good few minutes of discussing how the PCs would get out of this one or one player around the table having an escape idea. As a DM, I would’ve allowed it, or letting him destroy the chains without even an attack roll. 

“YES!” Filli could feel the ascent of evil magic even without looking back from Jasper’s horrified face, and the Empress astutely fled back up the stairs holding her ears at the evil hexblade’s roar. 

At this point, I could’ve asked PCs to roll another initiative and fight, but it was clear what their plan was and as they had so little resources, as a DM I would just skip past this to streamline player experience I think. 

Zar and Yankovic made quick work freeing the devious hexblade out of the rest of his chains and Filli drove Fido to clear a way past the petrified Jasper and other guards the Empress had summoned. The three escaped to Jasper’s and others’ screams behind them, burst out the window, and escaped into the night.

Scene close-out:

• Chaos factor up to 7 for letting the hexblade loose at the Estate and more than likely wanted by the Empress.
• ! Zar thread: Updated from finding out his hexblade identity to how it connects with Xanthia.
• - Zar thread: Find identity of Jasper’s hexblade. At this point, it isn’t important so I didn’t bother thinking up a name. 

Post-scene Notes

I’d initially wanted the party to remain Jasper’s gladiators for another coliseum fight, but things didn’t work out considering the PCs had no chance getting through my elaborate villa scenario. I think the lesson learned for next time is to have less powerful minions... 

And because it’s been a long hiatus, per Mythic, here is a reminder of the open threads I can tug on to progress the story. I split it between party and characters, and also it naturally (kinda) gets sorted into what are the highest level threads/motivations at the top. I use a spreadsheet to keep a list of these threads because if there were threads related to each other, I could colour code them the same. 

Thanks again for reading.