Glory Hole Delvers

Originally published July 21st 2023

I have been running the 1981 Judge’s Guild published module Glory Hole Dwarven Mine for some friends using DCC, it’s a perfectly fine module that became a running gag in the group due to the name and so we had to run it eventually.

The Characters

Bobos the Fool, a former jester turned sorceress, hopeful to return to jestering.

Dungifer Scoobs, former gongfarmer turned High Priest of Ildavir

Grillbar Lungskin, a goblin nobleman

Radcliff Four Fingers, the thief with 10 fingers.

Session 1

Day 1

It is a beautiful spring morning in Punjar: City of the Invincible Overlord. The team had heard tell of rumors surrounding the profitable glory hole dwarven mine and hope to strike it rich. There are two groups they know of, a party of adventurers hired by Shantra of Alantia, and a group of disgruntled former non dwarven miners that were all fired at once.

First they went to the She-Devil tavern on royal street, the tavern run by Shantra. Brief conversations are had about joining forces as Radcliff steals a few pickled eggs. Despite the adventurer’s of Shantra seeming competent the team decides a 9 way split for each person isn’t worth it. As they leave they get a look at a map marked with an X and covered in a few round brown stains.

Dissatisfied with how the first meeting went the team made their way across the city to the guild hall of the non dwarven miners. Back there they encountered Gunlu the Foyster, ring leader of the miners, and talked with Slasher Redhand. The miners tell tales of a catacomb they dug into filled with strange mechanical devices they know not how to use but suspect are extremely valuable.

Dunginer at the behest of Radcliff suggested that the team get two shares for every share the miners received. This annoyed Both Gnulu and the up until that point silent Butcher Dargan. Tensions raised as Dungifer suggested that it is better that they get single shares compared to no shares if the team gets to the loot riched catacombs first. Butcher pulled his axe out and was held in line by Gnulu. The team left quickly.

Soon the team trekked the hour outside of the city to arrive at the mine. They found the central entrance entirely unguarded and entered. The room they enter into is a natural cave filled with two dozen minecarts in various states of disrepair. The team hears a small sound coming from an overturned card. Suspicious of the sound, Radcliff and Grillbar go to overturn the cart and find a two foot tall blue humanoid with pointed ears and a very wide nose.

Suddenly Bobos the Fool the Sorceress is stabbed in the back by a yet unseen blue thing that jumps upon her back. The thing under the cart ushers in a wave of darkness surrounding it and Dungifer has a dagger thrown into his side.

Bobos tries to use her size and weight advantage to drop down directly onto the attacker and crushes it with a crunch. Radcliff swings wildly in the dark and misses. Grillbar lunges for the cretin using his infravision and misses as it laughs manically. Suddenly the sound of insects fills the room.

The darkness summoner lunges forth, and crits upon Grillbar with their tiny knife. Radcliff retaliates by stabbing it in the back, killing it instantly. Bobos turns to the insect swarm and let’s forth a barrage of flaming hands, and summons forth Bobos the Wise, Bobos the Halfling, and Bobos the Lefthanded from alternate realms in the process. The bugs are greatly harmed but not defeated.

Finally another yet unseen blue beast lunges out of the dark of the cave and bites on to the arm of Dungifer staying well attached. Dunginfer calls upon Ildavir to turn the unholy and succeeds causing the blue fiends to flee in terror, the insect swarm dematerializes, the hear two sets of footsteps go southwest deeper into the mine.

As the party licks their wounds, Bobos the Wise, Halfling, and Lefhanded let out a frightened yelp as they disappear to their homeworld in a flash of fire and smoke. The team decides to take a tunnel leading to the southeast to avoid running into the blue things once again. As they go deeper they take out their torch. Eventually they encounter a slightly raised stone in a crossing of the tunnels. Radcliff is worried it may be a trap and tells everyone to stop. Grillbar gently licks the stone to determine if it is magical. It is not. Radcliff attempts to disarm the suspicious stone but a close inspection reveals it was not trapped and he was simply paranoid.

They keep going straight down the tunnel until they hear heavy footsteps. They snuff the lights and Grillbar goes forth and sees a large bigfoot holding a sack. He reports back and the team decides to greet the bigfoot in good faith.

The bigfoot speaks ferret just like Grillbar and as such they are able to learn that the bigfoot is distraught after his most beautiful and lovely wife was killed by a member of the black lotus assassin group. The team decides to help Grrunnarr avenge his wife.