Session 9 took place on a Saturday and would turn out to be the last session of the year. There were 5 players for session 9.

The characters for this session were:
Valcius
Turwin
Shamos
Tiny Tracy
Berta
Tarkus (forcibly recruited)

Whilst standing at the gates of Castle Torrog​, the PCs decided to return to the south and to continue exploring the snake-infested underground ruin.
After walking down into the valley, the PCs spotted movement at the top of the the damaged old tower at the crossroad.

The party ignored the tower and headed south. After 4 hours walking they managed to arrive at the ruin un-harassed by the vicious population of this region.

• They may have ignored it, but there's been talk of taking the tower and occupying it with guards as an outpost. To be continued....

Then the party went back into the edge of the forest, back into the old ruins by the clearing and descended into dungeon below.

• Onward to adventure.

The party followed their footsteps for a while until they reached a crossroads. On their first visit here the party took the left junction. This time they decided to take the right junction.
This led into a room filled with junk... and a chest.
The party were suspicious of the chest and examined it. The party did not see anything unusual about it and opened it. This triggered a poison trap.

• It doesn't seem to have crossed anyone's mind to prepare any kind of dealing with poison. Tsk.

After the poison was dealt with the party searched the area and found potions, a wand and a ring. The party also found a key.
The party returned to the crossroad and took the junction that they had previously taken the last time they were here and pressed on.

Eventually the passageway led to an unexplored chamber; peeking through the door, all Tracy (who was on point) could see were piles of detritus. Cautiously after trying to scope out the detritus, the party entered.

• Whilst the party were trying to search, I made an encounter roll and got an encounter result, an ambush to boot.

Upon entering the room, amongst the detritus something stirred, emerging from its concealed spot was a giant centipede-like creature.
At the same time, coming in from the entrance on the other side of the chamber were swarms of snakes.

• The centipede-like creature was a carrion crawler that had been lurking in the room.
• But the snake swarms were the result of the encounter roll.

A battle ensued.
​
The giant centipede-like creature moved and attacked - twice in a round! Once with its swaying tentacles and once with it's bite. During the fight, the creatures manages to land bite attacks on the characters several times. But its mysterious tentacle attack never connects.

• The carrion crawler has +8 to hit with its paralysing stinger, it's the highest attack score in the battle.
• Needless to say, the stinger attack misses every time!

The snake swarms prove quite dangerous, as their poisonous bites can inflict a lot of damage. Eventually, all the monsters are defeated.

The party searched the area and found a small bag containing some precious stones. After recovering from their encounter, the party pressed on.

Upon exiting the they came to a junction. They followed one passage way until they came across a door.

Cautiously the party opened the door, beyond they found a 'fog-filled' area. The fog stank and obscured the room and the party could not see past it. 

All they could see was a weird substance piled in across what they could see of the floor.

Worried that the fog might prove hazardous, it was decided to send in Berta alone.

• The party are right to be suspicious of the fog - it is poisonous.

As the party predicted, the fog was poisonous and Berta was forced to make a saving throw. Luckily Berta is a dwarf and has resistance against poison and made the save.
However, there was a small colony of stirges, when Berta entered the room, they dropped from the ceiling to attack.

• Whilst sending in Berta was prudent, sending her in alone, not so much.

​4 of the stirges swooped in to attack Berta - since she's the only person in the room, the others move to attack the remaining party members.
Berta gets hit pretty hard, not only does she take damage, she also has a couple of stirges attached to her, sucking her blood. Most of the other party members are hesitant to enter the poisonous fog.
Melee ensues, Berta is reduced to 0 hp and a stirge, fully engorged flaps off!

• Told ya!

At some point during the fight Tarkus realises he has the spell 'Create Or Destroy Water', this also allows him to destroy a large amount of... or fog!

• ​Useful! But not as timely as it could have been!

After the fog was cleared, the remaining stirges are dealt with the party, then they search the room: They discover a lot of stirge guano! After digging through the mess they find some gold and precious gems.

Moving on, the party decide to explore the other way down the T-junction. It leads to a corner, just beyond the corner - a door. As the party approach the door a trap is triggered; a lightning bolt zaps half the party!
After this, they found the door was locked - but this proved no obstacle and the lock was handily picked. Inside a scroll and some potions were discovered.
By now, there was only one way left for the characters to go, that was to continue on past the trap and down the long corridor ahead.

The party progressed down the corridor and very quickly encountered a part of the corridor that was filled with fungi and other strange vegetation.

Remembering the first time that they encountered this vegetation in this dungeon in their first visit: That walking into it caused hidden, poisonous spores to erupt, they decided to try and trigger the spores.

• The players remembered that the fungus may contain hidden, un-spottable poison spores - good.
• In the future I plan to create at least 3 other 'poison dungeons' and the fungus and spores will feature in all of them.
• These traps require the players to remember what they have learned. 

Success! The party did manage to do this and after waiting a while for the spores to settle, they advanced.​

The long corridor ended in a sturdy door. Examination revealed it was locked. They tried the key they found earlier in this session. The key fitted and the door opened.

​The party entered the room.The party found a room of moderate size. Along the north wall was a large alcove and within was a statue of man.  A strange, unsettling, somehow weird looking looking man, with 2 snakes entwined around him.
The party members were immediately suspicious and one of the magic-users cast 'Detect Magic'​ and found conjuration magic in the room.
With that, emerging from behind the statue came another snake swarm, this one larger looking than any they had seen before. 2 giant snakes emerged from the sides of the room as well.

Battle ensued.
The party split there efforts up between the giant swarm and the giant swarm. After the 1st round, more giant snakes appeared and would do so every round.

• At the end of every round I rolled a d6:
  
• 1; a giant snake appears.
  
• 2-5; 2 giant snakes appear.
  
• 6; 3 giant snakes appear.
• The players split their efforts between the swarm and the giant snakes. After the 1st round and seeing more giant snakes appear, it probably would have been better to concentrate on the swarm.

They battered the swarm and in return the swarm does not deal much damage to the party. But things did not go well for the party, the giant snakes appeared quicker than the party can dispatch them. Slowly they began overwhelming the party as one-by-one the characters succumbed to the poison.

• Poison is nasty, even the dwarves succumbed! 

After a few rounds 4 members of the party out of the fight, only the 2 magic-users remain standing and are desperately trying to stay alive - and every round they don't deal with the situation, more giant snakes appear. Things look grim.
But then, they manage to dispatch the swarm and at the end of the round, no new giant snakes appear. But then Shamos is taken down, only 1 character is still standing.

• The game got very tense around now!

Valcius makes the decision to spend an action reviving a party member, he can only revive Shamos - who is the closest ally. The 2 of them perform a withdrawing action, fighting the remaining giant snakes as they do so.

• Valcius and Shamos could have fled, but that would have meant sacrificing the 4 unconscious characters, even those who had successfully made all 3 death saves.

After a few rounds it works and the final giant snakes are dealt with.

• Phew!

In the aftermath, they take stock: 2 characters are unconscious, but stable and 2 characters have perished - Tiny Tracy and Turwin.

• I can't remember if I've explained death saves previously.
• When a character is reduced to 0 hp - they are dying. in 5e there are no negative hit points
• Every round, on their action the afflicted character rolls a d20.
• 1-9 is a failure, 10+ is a success.
• 3 accumulated failures and the character is dead. 3 accumulated success and the character is unconscious but stable.

The survivors search the room: At the feet of the statue sits a large plate, it is piled high with gold and precious stones.

• One player commented on this and said they should have just stolen the loot and ran.

There is also a large serpent's tooth within the pile of the loot with strange writing on it.

• These teeth will feature as part of these 'poison dungeons' in some way, I haven't figured out how yet.

Shamos collects the loot and is struck with a contact poison and nearly killed.

• Running and grabbing the loot, probably wouldn't have been a good idea.
• Lets hope they remember this for the next 'poison dungeon'.

After taking their spoils they took their dead and returned to civilisation Luckily, the wealth that the party acquired is enough to resurrect the dead characters (500 gp each).

• I'm not sure how I feel about resurrection, it almost feels like a cop out for it to be so 'easy'. On the other hand it does cost cash. However the characters will be getting a lot more cash from now on. So I guess, we'll see?

​End of session nine.