Grou 73's fourth quest experience

Derian getting stuck in the swamp due to bad weather.

Saphiel surrounded by 3 cave crawlers during the session.

Derian and Sir John fighting for the adamant greataxe.

TLDR: The experience of the fourth quest of Group 73, see my other posts for the other sessions. Derian made some lego builds to commemmorate the adventures during the quest.

This is it, the quest which will make Group 73 both famous and rich. The Wise Old Man himself has asked them to recover the treasure from the Sunken Ruins in the Lumbridge Swamps. How hard can it be! The group sets out right away for these ruins and upon entering find themselves underground in a cave-like system. To the left, a steep rocky slope which seems to enter some old ruins, on the right a underground river, overgrown with roots from the trees above the surface. In the darkness it is hard to see if there is something in the water, so Sir John's first course of action is try to catch some fish. After his training session in Draynor Village he is able to throw his line almost to the otherside of the river. But as soon as he reels the line in it seems to get stuck on something. Better check it out! Upon closer inspection there seems to be something big on the bottom of the river, but Sir John is easily able to bring it back onto the rivershore. “That is a dead Cave Crawler!” exclaim both Derian and Saphiel! “The ruins are probably crawling with them, we better get back to Lumbridge to get some Antipoison”. So not even more than 10 steps into the Sunken Ruins the group decides to turn around already. Unfortunately the weather gets worse on the way back and the rain caused the roads to turn into a muddy mess. Both Derian and Sir John get stuck and need to unequip and drop a piece of equipment to free themselves. Derian quickly lets go of his spear, however Sir John has another plan. “Just leave me here, once you guys get the antipoison in Lumbridge the weather should be better. Then, you can free me on the way back!”. While scratching their heads if this will really work the group leaves Sir John behind while they continue on to Lumbridge to buy some antipoison from Dorbideex, the druid they delivered some herbs to for a previous quest. Once they arrive Dorbideex offers them a place to stay for the night, since the weather transformed into a full blown storm. Everyone is happy to agree. Meanwhile Sir John also notices the drastic worsening of the weather and also decides to leave his platelegs behind to join the group for the night.

The next day the group feels refreshed except for Sir John, he unfortunately got the flu. After returning to the entrance the group decides to scale the slippy slope to the left to enter the old ruins. As soon as they reach the top something feels off, the architecture looks very old, easily third age, maybe even older. But the group can't quite put their finger on what is off. They cautiously follow the hallway and turn the corner into the next room. This room is even more worn down than the first room, half the walls have come down and the room is full of rocks and rumble. No sounds can be heard except for Simel whispering: “Better throw some rocks into the next room to see if anything reacts.”  After throwing the rock and holding their breath no other sounds are heard except from the echo of the rock crashing onto the floor. “We better keep using this trick to check future rooms.” Sir John tells the rest while entering the room to pick up the rock. As soon as he crouches down he feels a sharp pain in the back of his right shoulder. Before he has time to register what happened Sunsgrey shouts: “Ambush!”. As soon as he turns around he is looking into the empty eye sockets of a skeleton with a sword hefted high above his head ready to strike again! Luckily the corridor leading into the room is small enough to create a choke point. Sir John braces for the second hit and quickly runs back to the rest of the group taking a defensive position in the corridor blocking the entrance from the three skeletons that he didn't see when he entered the room for the first time. While blocking the skeletons and taking hit after hit, Sunsgrey and Simel are able to pick the skeletons off with their magic and arrows. And just in time, because when the last bones hit the ground Sir John is left with less than 10 lifepoints. “No wonder you are a breeze away from death, look at this”. Saphiel says while holding one of the greatswords from the skeletons. “It is adamant!”. That had to be the boss of this place. After finding two more iron greatswords from the other skeletons the group moves on looking for the rumoured treasure to complete the quest.

After moving on from two more empty rooms they enter what seems to be a ceremonial room. Two large brazier, one blue and one red, stand in the middle of the room. While inspecting the braziers a riddle they find a riddle. No matter in which shadows of the fire they hide or how deep in the water they throw it, we will find it. “That is easy, we just need to use some water and fire on the braziers.” Sunsgrey says. “But I used up my last fire runes in the battle with the skeletons. Maybe we can get some wood from the tree roots around the river to make a fire”. The group quickly hurries to the river to find a place to get some wood to make the fire. As soon as Saphiel enters the river he feels something moving around him. Three lizard-like heads arise above the water, Cave Crawlers! Lucky the group prepared for this and easily takes out the two of the three cave crawlers before the third 1 runs away. After drinking some antipoison to make sure no side effect remains from the cave crawler bites they make a great discovery, one of the cave crawlers was carrying some fire runes! The group quickly runs back to the braziers and Sunsgrey casts water strike on the blue brazier and fire strike on the reed brazier. As soon as the fire strike hits the brazier a wall opens up revealing a pedestal with an Orb on top of it. “That Orb radiates ancient magic, it has to be the treasure.” Simel carefully removes the orb from the pedestal while checking for traps and just as he is about to remove the orb he hears a click! The bottom from the pedestal opens up revealing a steam magic staff embedded in an intricate magic system. Better take that too! The group quickly returns with both the orb and the staff to the entrance of the dungeon and back to Lumbridge. That was enough adventuring for the day, tomorrow it is time to ask the Wise Old Man what he needs this Orb for.

In this link you can find my DM notes for the Dungeoneering quest: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yXWJqt7V49pKY1sJnjA32xhCXu_1jUv0?usp=sharing