Let me start with a big thank you to all the people who told me what "NSA" meant in my last post. "No Special Abilities". I didn't find a typo. The sword and armor were taken by Jude.
The party was in hiding, trying to get their hit points up. Since they are quiet, I decided to only roll 4 times for wander monsters. Three Galvan Magen stumbled upon the party, but Parker and Warren played dress-up and convinced their former brethren to leave.
Second, fate knocked on the Study door. 12 rakasta stood in the hallway. Gabby and Nononn were able to negotiate with them and solved a couple of problems. At the end of the last session, the party laid the dead respectfully outside for burial. The new rakasta took over and buried them for the party. They were encouraged to do this as the party turned over all of the dead rakasta's weapons and the herbs Gabby had collected. Catnip was highly desired by them. The newcomers then left through the Indoor Forest. As the rakasta wandered the area, the party completed the burial of their dead.
Searching through the rakasta's gear, they found all kinds of useful things, most of which were only good for role-play. They found needles and thread, tents, clothing, rope, bedding, food, and a few flasks of oil, plus a few casks of water, wine, and brandy.
They also searched the study itself. The Magic-Users and Cleric found some interesting books, while the Bard found a map and a book of musical instruments.
The party equitably distributed the equipment of the dead, since there was no escape from this place. They are in possession of 3 bags of holding. They can literally carry more than 2 fully loaded wagons. They took 3 of the smallest tents and the casks.
As they sat out the next day, they modified the clothing they found the best they could. Each party member has 50 feet of rope, one flask of oil, a small lamp, a bedroll, and an extra set of clothes. Most of this was packed away in the bags of holding.
They found one barrel of beef jerky, which everyone liked, and 6 barrels of dried fish, which almost no one liked. Warren and Parker found it acceptable, mostly because they have little experience with real food. When the time comes, they will convert to actual character classes to make up for party losses and have real opinions and tastes.
After 48 hours, the party got itchy feet. Nononn, Jude, and Rety continued the military-like sweep of the west wing, despite Gabby warning them against that. She was able to steer them away from the room with the wraiths. At this point, I realized I had made a mistake of omission. The whole area 5 was described as a giant, blinding trap. Since I haven't mentioned it until now, it will continue to be ignored.
Some things can't be fixed.
Rather than go through each serving, I will pause only on the negative results. The tossed salad affects everyone in small ways, but really impacts Sybil. Her Charisma goes up by two while her Wisdom, which was already pretty low, dropped by one. Being chaotic, this is dangerously close to the funniest Thief I have ever rolled.
This is an odd trick for B/X based rules because of how the ability score modifiers work. You are unlikely to change enough to be mechanically affected, unless you lose points in your prime requisite ability. In AD&D, the effects are more dramatic.
Khouri and Jude suffer from the bread. Since Khouri is a post-human with both heavily modified genes and nanites, she gets hot instead of suffering from the starvation-like hunger that Jude will experience. It doesn't harm her, but it does prevent her from eating any more food. She wandered the room, fanning herself and swearing.
Gronk was less than helpful, advising the party on what should and should not be eaten. As a rabbit, he warns them about the bread, mushrooms, and beef, which was a confusing mixed bag of advice. Jude and Bel laugh off the warnings as "Rabbit-Talk" and immediately run afoul of poisoned mushrooms. Only the forward thinking and quick action by Gabby saved their lives. Since the whole party sat, there were extra glasses of amber wine to cancel the poison.
Bel is not the smartest guy and rejoined the meal to the finish. As a bit of meta-humor, Jude eats Nononn's bread and undoes the curse of the bread, but then stops participating. Nononn and Rety grew wary of the meal and stopped, too.
Gabby was relieved; she was convinced the party would make it through unscathed. Bel, Sybil, and Alexei drank the brandy, and Alexei paid the price. His playing took on a haunted sound as he faded away with the other guest.
In the next session, there will be combat and immortal creatures.
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