Rusty Dagger - the Cult of Dagon.

After recovering from multiple doses of spider venom in the last adventure. Arzag decides he has had enough of the Jungle and sets off for the coast. He finally makes it to the coast and looks out at the vista of blue ocean stretching to the horizon.

While camping on the beech he is suddenly aware of the stench of rotting fish. Three figures are approaching from further down the beach. Arzag is momentarily overcome with a wave of nausea due to the stench.

Round 1

The disgusting figures move forwards. They are draped in seaweed

Arzag shakes off the nausea and enraged by his momentary weakness activates Primal Rage.

Arzag charges the lead figure, trying to pin them between the rocks so their numbers work against them. His first stab opens a wound in the lead figure. 15-8 A double 6 to start the fight!

The Zombie misses Arzag 5-7

The last zombie shambles forward

Round 2

Arzag lands a Heavy Blow on the lead zombie 11-8. This zombie is wearing a long black cloak so was probably an undertaker.

The Zombie misses Arzag 6-11

Nonplussed that the zombie has more than 3 health Arzags next swing misses 8-10 going up to 10-10 with the primal rage reroll.

A second zombie manages to flank Arzag but misses 5-6

Arzag winds up and swings on the undertaker zombie and misses 8-11 but then rerolls into a 12-11 hit. Primal Rage is finally doing some work.

The zombie moves in and Arzag just parries at the last second 11-11, These zombies are dangerous.

Round 3

The lead zombie crumples into a puddle of stinking slime leaking water everywhere.

Arzag then pivots and uses heavy blow on the zombie flanking him. This misses 6-6 but the primal rage reroll changes it to a 13-6 hit. (where has this ability been in previous adventures?)

The zombie misses 5-11

The other zombie claws Arzag 10-8, this cancels Primal Rage.

The third zombie activation misses 6-12

Arzag's next two attacks are ineffective 9-10 and 9-9. The zombies are good at defence rolls

Round 4

The zombie misses 4-10

Arzag hits with a heavy blow 6-5 its terrible technique but whatever works.

Arzag hits 13-10 taking the head off the second zombie

The last zombie misses 6-8

Arzag lands a heavy blow 9-4

The zombie strikes back but misses 10-12

Round 5

Arzag hits the zombie with a heavy blow 12-8

The zombie gets its claws into Arzag 10-8

Arzag heavy blows the zombie 13-7 causing it collapse into a puddle of slime.

These drowned waterlogged zombies were a bit spicier than I thought. I took 2 damage from the narrative challenge and then two from the combat. Thats more than I took in total in other adventures.

Arzag tracks the zombies back to their source and arrives at a coastal village. There are heaps of rotting fish everywhere and all the people seem to be hiding. At last the village leader staggers over and explains that the village is cursed and the only cure is available from a pool of water found in a cave up in the hills behind the coast. They ask Arzag to get some of the water so the village can be cleansed. Not wanting to hang around near the village in case the curse is something he can catch by association.

Arzag finds his way to the cave. Just past the entrance he hears a faint click and hurls himself partially out of the way of a block of stone that seals the entrance. Takes 2 damage. What is this failing all the narrative challenges? I'm not Raskin the Reptile.

Suspecting a trap, Arzag limps down the corridor and into a cave that has been carved into a temple. The carvings feature weird inhuman creatures with lots of tentacles and not much mercy.

A voice calls out from the other end of the temple, "The village elder promised us a strong man tongiht and he has delivered! Collect the sacrifice my bretheren!""take him to the altar stone"

Crap, another human sacrifice cult. Why are they never therapeutic massage cults?

Round 1

A cultist moves up

Arzag moves up and drinks his Ironskin potion

Arzag activates Primal Rage

More cultists move up.

Round 2

Arzag is assuming that the head priest is some sort of sorcerer and so he will try and stay as far away as possible and kill off the cultists and stay out of line of sight to avoid being ensorcelled.

A cultist moves up to get at Arzag hiding behind the column but misses 5-11.

This is great now Arzag can use heavy blow and promptly rolls a double 6 that's an automatic success, whats more those two wounds are all the cultists have, and it collapses.

Another cultist moves up (they might be a bit rubbish, but they have plenty of zeal)

Arzag sneaks down to the other pillar, a cultist was sneaking around the other side of the pillar and Arzag just twists out of the way of the cultists sword thrust 10-13.

Round 3

The cultist misses Arzag 6-8

Arzag Heavy Blows the Cultist 11-4, The cultist drops in a heap and the high priest yells some inspirational words.

Arzag moves to the pillar at the top.

The Cultist moves up and Arzag slides around the pillar and stabs another Cultist 10-8 

The Cultist misses 3-7, startled by the sword wielding barbarian that has just emerged from behind the pillar.

Round 4

Arzag stabs the cultist and moves back behind the pillar

Arzag moves down and then leaps out from behind the pillar stabbing the cultist 10-8

The Cultist misses 8-9

The High Priest was a sorcerer and zaps Arzag 12-7 with a blast of energy.

Round 5

The cultist in combat with Arzag misses 6-10

The last cultist moves closer

Arzag finishes the cultist 13-3 and moves into combat with the last cultist

Arzag mighty blows the last cultist 11-8

The High Priest misses Arzag 10-11

In return Arzag charges the Priest and stabs 10-3. "Does a sword in your body impede your magic?"

Round 6

Arzag misses the wizard 9-11

Arzag then parries the wizards attack 7-7

The wizard then bonks Arzag with his staff 11-7 ouch

Arzag Heavy Blows the wizard and hits 11-8

The Wizard hits 12-9 double ouch

Arzag Heavy Blows 12-7 the Wizard is down to 1 wound left

Round 7

The Priest misses Arzag 9-13 and Arzag strikes the killing blow 9-8

The dying priest slumps over a leaver sticking out of the wall and sluices open, allowing water to poor into the temple cave. "The gods will come to collect their sacrifices!" a real Hells Heart death scene.

Looking around Arzag dives into the pool at the back of the room reasoning that it must be part of an underground river or lake.

One his way out he grabs some temple treasures worth 5 wealth.

After swimming underwater for what seems like ages Arzag makes it to the surface near a small lake. Passing the Brawn Check with an 11 against a target score of 9.

Dragging himself from the water Arzag takes stock of his surroundings, there are some supplies that looks like they could have come from wrecked ships.

While coming back from relieving himself behind a bush he finds his makeshift camp invaded by several tentacle monsters that match the carvings from the temple.

"This must be the daemon gods coming to collect their own sacrifices."

Round 1

Arzag activates Primal Rage

The largest beast moves closer

Arzag drinks his last Ironskin potion and moves closer.

Two of the smaller tentacle beasts move closer.

Arzag then moves forwards and stabs the first beast 12-8

Round 2

The tentacle spawn flails ineffectually missing 5-10

Arzag then dispatches the creature with a Heavy Blow 11-9

Arzag then moves around the boxes to engage the tentacle beast from the side, his stab hits 13-10.

The big beast move up but can't get into position to attack

Arzag then strikes with a Heavy Blow hitting 14-10 finishing the second tentacle beast.

The last smaller beast moves up

Round 3

The Large beast moves up and hits 12-7.  There goes his Ironskin potion.

Arzag hits back with a series of heavy blows to try and finish this large beast quickly. 

The first attack is a hit 14-11 after a reroll

The second hits 9-7 after a reroll

The third misses 11-12 after a reroll, close but no cigar.

The last smaller beast moves in and strikes 9-8 and then getting the last activation hits 13-7 (there goes Primal Rage)

Round 4

Arzag Heavy Blows the large beast twice 13-6 and 11-8. Chopped into bits the large beast collapses.

The Spawn misses three times 9-10, 9-13 and 4-8 interspersed with a miss from Arzag 8-12.

Round 5

Time to get this done

The last beast hits 11-9 and then misses 5-9

Arzag the hits with a heavy blow 12-5 and then stabs the beast 8-4 to finish it.

At this point Arzag is at half health with 7 remaining. Thats way more damage than he has taken before.

Arzag got 5 gold and 1Skill Point for that adventure. Thats the second adventure with not much return on investment.

Arzag loots the contents of the boxes from the ships and forswears eating fish. Although maybe some fried Calamari??

The description in the module implies that the smaller tentacle beasts are part of the larger creature kind of like a Sarlaac. But it doesn't say what happens if you kill the large maw. Maybe it's some symbiotic life form where each limb has its own independent life. To suit my figure collection, I went this way.