In Fair Cuccagna (Session 2)

The Missing Wizard

The Death of a Cyclops - A Decision Made - Arrows - A Secret Door - Meeting with "Monopods" - Searching for Treasure - A Trap - Good Boys - The Chamber of Slimes - Treasure at Last

Characters
Cristobert 1st Level Karslish Mountebank
Cruart Staig 1st Level Karslish Fighter
Jules Mozarin 1st Level Averois Magician
Maglor 1st Level Changeling
Emmelot, 1st level Averois Magician

Hirelings
Homobon - linkboy, bestowed with a new nickname
Catelano - linkman who is very particular about the verbiage
Maria and Marco - One armed porters missing complementary arms
Giulia - Peasantwoman somehow trained in arms (deceased)
Jaco the Cruel - Hook armed man of violence (deceased)

Events

• Returning to the Lapis Vaults with a number of new hirelings and a new primary member in tow, the party was again costed by the mysterious giant of the second story.
• Cruart, in the mood for violence, denied the giant's suzerainty over the vaults. In a rage the creature ran from his window and momentarily burst through the verdigrised doors which act as the primary entrance.
• Unfortunately for the "giant" - actually an ogre-sized cyclops* - Maglor was ready with a fairy enchantment similar to the spell men of the World know as sleep. The raging monster entered an enchanted slumber and was soon slain in his sleep by the party.
• Again the party entered through the bronze doors, though Emmelot's initial attempts at mapping meant the party became strung out over a long area as she lagged behind, making notes, and Cruart forged ahead with wild abandon and suicidal ideation. 
• Cruart again triggered the magic mouth's message ("I can't come to the door right now") but the voice of the mouth seemed to summon no monsters.
• It was agreed that the party should move more carefully and a new method for going about the dungeon was developed (we started using a token to represent the party as a whole outside the battle, a thing that probably should've occurred to us before).
• Traveling up one of the corridors, a scant number of chambers were explored, netting the party a few arrows and little more. 
• The sound of a large number of creatures from behind one of the doors deterred further investigation and the party returned to the main hallway which springs from the magic mouth room.
• Travelling north they were briefly confronted by a strange set of creatures - much like dogheads but only a little over knee high to a man. Their heads the adorable yet malformed bugeyed visage of pugs. These barked a bit but soon backed off in apparent fright.
• Beyond the toy dogheads they found a long passage which led to a secret door to the outside. This could provide a potential future aperture for covert entrance should something be guarding they main one.
• They also found evidence that this secret door had been used by one-legged beings, though the feet were too small to be the famous monopods of Cuccagna.
• Returning inside, a failed listen check meant that they entered a room containing a number of "monopod" guards. The guards were pleasantly disposed towards the characters due to the ineffable charisma of its foremost members.
• They revealed that several of them possessed the same name, and indeed possessed faces remarkably similar - though still oddly different - from their counterparts. Further discussion revealed that they were ashamed of their tiny feet and at least currently refused to leave the vaults for neither the world of men would have them nor would the tribes of true monopods.
• When it was pointed out that there were a number of one legged men - in this case meaning the disabled - one of the Niccolo group of "monopods" immediately said he must leave but would return shortly. When he returned it was with the self-proclaimed "king of the Monopods."
• The party entreated with his majesty, but when the imprecise nature of their claim - i.e. that the one legged men in the Great Wen were not, in fact, grown in the vats of Prospero the Blue, the king became irritated. He sent the party away demanding that they only return when they had "something of value to offer the monopods."
• They spent some time in the corridor discussing what could be of value - including at least one suggestion of "clown shoes."
• Maglor suggested that the cyclops killed earlier may have heaped up a store of treasure in his lair and that they should return to stairs they had seen earlier since the enormous eye of the dead-thing had been seen on the second floor. This was agreed upon by all as a sound plan.
• They found the area above the stairs to be a similar gallery of arrow slits - one easily being noted as the one which the cyclops used to accost the characters. Unfrotunately, no treasure could be found in this space.
• Attempting to make the full circuit of its roundness, the party was surprised when a set of steel cylinders - eacy about 6 inches in diameter - sudden thrust up from the floor at such a speed that two of the main party were injured - Cruart receiving a concussion and Maglor breaking an arm - and the two men at arms the party had hired were both slain.
• The party retreated back for a moment to bind their wounds. Maglor was ready to continue on but could not use his shield arm, and Cruart was roused but unfortunately still seemed like he would do poorly in combat.
• They managed to locate the various cylinders in their niches and thread there way through the trap. Beyond was a great hall dominated by two pools choked with algae. Jules experimented with this for some time but found that the algae neither concealed treasure nor was itself magical. The party withdrew without revealing the full dimensions of the room.
• They then began to search for secret doors in the gallery. They found none, but just as they were about to finish they were interrupted by a group of toy dogheads.
• Emmelot tossed the dogheads a ration quickly followed by other party members and soon the little guys were very well disposed towards our adventurers.
• One of the members of the party demonstrated a coin and the way it glittered in the mix of torchlight and sunlight pouring in through the arrow slits. They hoped the dogheads would then know they sought a room filled with treasure.
• And the dogheads seemed to get the idea. Yipping excitedly and motioning for them to follow, the group of dogheads led them by a number of corridors - including another set of stairs down ot the ground floor.
• At last they came to a section where a great amount of strange, slimy material had gathered about the floor and the west wall. Two of the dogheads led the party ahead, the rest staying behind, and began to bark at a point in the wall which seemed to be seeping the slime.
• Maglor soon noticed a secret door and, with the help of one of the dogheads - lifted it above his head - as it seemed to work like a portcullis with no locking mechanism. Beyond they found a similar door - which was soon opened by a number of strange, gelatinous creatures!
• These jellies had a number of items in their bodies. They would exude long pseudopods that contained the item within it in order to attack. So if one had a knife inside it would protrude an arm ending in the knifes tip and attempt to stab you.
• A melee ensued, with Maglor almost losing his sword twice and with one of the dog heads being smacked in the head with a brick and another fleeing towards his waiting friends. Still, the party was triumphant without further casualties.
• The room beyond indeed contained treasure - several loose coins and a number of magic items. Some time was taken to gather these materials and then the party left the dungeon without incident.
• Back in the Great Wen the party had the items identified for a fee. They are listed in the treasure below.

Monsters Slain

1 Minor Cyclops, 8 Slimes

Treasure Gained

1 Helm of Alignment Changing, a treasure map, a Sword +1 (+2 vs Magic Users) that the runes name "Witchslayer," a Sword +1 that the runes name "Sharp," a ring of control animals, 175gp, 2000sp, 2 book covers of scitalis leather (300gp each), and 7 blood stones (50gp each)

XP Per Player

515

*The estimate the party had made of the creature's size was based on the appearance of his eye in the window. Since it was disproportionately large due to his being a cyclops, they had added an additional 5-10 feet to its size in their mental calculations.