The party rested and healed from their ordeal at the hands of the Dao. Delmar discovered that his Wish granted by the surviving dao was twisted: He indeed had permanent darkvision, but like that of a drow: Excellent, but now bright light is painful!

Waiting for them was the unsettling rainbow cavern.

What we’re playing:

The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (S4)

1982 … Two 32-page booklets + 3-panel cover … Gary Gygax … TSR 9061 … ISBN 0935696725

This is our group’s session report / walkthrough / playthrough of Tsojcanth, one of the all-time classic Advanced Dungeons & Dragons modules.

One of my favorite dungeon crawls. Not only do you get a clever adventure written by Gygax himself, but the second booklet is entirely devoted to new monsters and magical items.

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Gorgimerae in the Rainbow Cavern

This high-domed cavern displays a rainbow of colors on its walls and floor. Even the many stalactites above hang like colored icicles. Various mineral deposits in the rock have seeped into frozen curtains, cascades, and many fantastic shapes. The floor has numbers of humps and stalagmites of varied hue and strange form. In the center of the chamber is a heap of coins and metal bars.

The PCs pushed into the room, expecting something horrible, and they found it.

The Gorgimera is one of Gygax’s new monsters in module S4:

Although similar in appearance to a chimera, the gorgimera is a far worse monster. This sterile cross-bred has the hindquarters and head of a gorgon, metallic blue in color; the forequarters and head of a lion; and the mid-body, wings, and head of a red dragon. Gorgimerae speak a very limited dialect of Red Dragon.
The gorgimera can slash with its claws, bite with its lion head, bite with its dragon head, and butt with its gorgon head. The lion parts are AC 5, the rest is AC 2. The chance of striking at the lion part is 40% per blow attempted.
The gorgimera has two breath weapons. The gorgimera’s gorgon breath is 3″ long x 1″ wide base cone. Victims must save vs. Petrification or be turned to stone. The effect extends to the Astral and Ethereal Planes, and the gorgon head can see into those planes. The gorgon breath is usable twice per day. The dragon breath is 5″ long x 2″ wide base cone. The breath causes 3d8 points of damage, half if the victim saves vs. Breath Weapon. The dragon breath is usable twice per day.
A gorgimera will always use a breath weapon against opponents at a range of 10′ or longer. When the gorgimera is in melee, a d6 is rolled, with the following results: 1: attack with dragon breath, 2: attack with gorgon breath, 3-6: standard attacks.

The gorgimera – like many creatures in Tsojcanth – would later appear in the AD&D Monster Manual II (1983) [shop link].

The gorgimera slashed and ripped up Tagren, dropping him under half hit points in one round.

And another gorgimera appeared – “Oh hai!” – this was a mated pair!

The new arrival belched gas on the characters nearby, and Del-Li turned to stone.

Tagren and Yebarinscrud tag-teamed the first gorgimera, throwing everything they had at it, even a spiritual hammer from the Dwarf cleric/fighter. They brought down their foe!

Rolen got sliced and diced by the other gorgimera. Only a quick cast of a Shield spell saved his life!

And finally it too was defeated, with fireballs and mighty blows.

Del-Li the doughty gnome was returned to flesh using the party’s only Greater Restoration scroll.

There was a big heap of treasure: 7,000 sp, 9,000 gp, 800 pp, 21 gems, 2 pieces of jewelry, 1 potion of green dragon control, scroll of protection from elementals, a bag of holding (2,500 gp weight maximum), and a magical horn of some sort.

They also found the stairs down, behind a stack of boulders. Whoever said murderhoboes don’t do manual work? This crew rolled up their sleeves, and hefted the rocks to the side.

In moving the boulders, the party will notice that one has a odd blue-green cast to it, and is definitely lighter than the rest. The odd boulder can be smashed open with a hammer, mace, or similar instrument. It is hollow inside and contains a tablet. The tablet is the Graven Glyphs, a magical warning to those bold enough to enter the lower area of caverns. It is found in a different part of the caverns each time a party enters the caverns, but it can always be found. With the tablet is a ring of protection +1.

The party pondered these clues, and headed down the 900 steps to the level below. They have left the Lesser Caverns, and now entered the Greater Caverns.

Troglodytes

Arriving at the lower dungeon level, the party stirred up a nest of stinking Troglodytes!

Compared with other encounters, this was an easier fight for the PCs. They worked together, and made short work of the trogs.

NEXT:

TSOJCANTH: Session 9 – Exploring the Perimeter of the Center

See Also:

THARIZDUN: Session 1 – Brawl at the Entrance of the Black Temple
The “New” Creatures introduced in the AD&D Monster Cards (1982)