The Second D&D Tarak Campaign - The Fungus Garden and a Laboratory

14 days ago

Welcome to the ongoing saga of a Dungeons & Dragons campaign I ran a little while back, using The Sunken Citadel module from the Tales From The Yawning Portal source book.

In the last post, our heroes were joined by a new member, the bard Fartacus, who replaced the recently deceased Reaswe, and then started to climb down vines to reach the lower level of the Sunken Citadel.

I hope you enjoy my D&D campaign write-ups, and the commentary I add to them. Questions, comments and feedback are welcome !

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Griff was the first down the vines, landing in a fungus garden and being viciously attacked by two skeletal gardeners and some of their more ambulatory plants. Fighting defensively, he was soon joined by Erioch the battle priest.

The timing was good, because the noise of battle had attracted attention. From a previously unnoticed cavern to the north charged the Great Hunter and his "hounds". The hunter himself was a particularly large and ferocious bugbear, and his hounds were actually giant rats.

For a couple of rounds things looked dicey for Griff and Erioch, but once Garnet arrived to add magical firepower followed by Fartacus a round or so later, things changed. A few rounds of frantic combat later and the party were standing victorious among the bodies of their foes.

After a short rest, the party continued on, picking one of the two doors leading out of the fungus garden at random.

This opened out into a long hall filled with tables covered in the kind of clutter left behind by an alchemist or scientist of some kind. There were half a dozen part-open doors leading off to side chambers, and it soon became apparent that there were goblins lurking.

The characters didn't know (or particularly care) that these were not part of the tribe they'd defeated upstairs. They were actually laboratory assistants for Belak the Outcast, the mad druid who ran things down on this level.

What followed was a massacre. The goblins didn't want to fight, they were non-combatant commoners who just wanted to survive, but the party didn't give them that option. Working out that one of the furthest chambers held the exit to the laboratory, Erioch moved to block the route. The rest of the party then hunted the poor goblins from room to room, slaughtering all that they found.

There then followed a brief interlude while the party congratulated themselves on dealing with "the goblin threat", oblivious to the idea that if they'd captured one or two they might have been able to gather information on what came next. This was definitely a party who liked to blunder their way through an adventure and hope for the best !

Next time: the Garden Galleries....