Soloplay CotMA III - Of Ghosts and Vision

Cast
Myrphines - scion of the Heraclidae
Midymnoios Moncheri - Paladin of Athena, called One Hand after losing his left to a carnivorous fly
Thekitor - dwarven delver
Segestes - Barbarian warrior of the Harii.  Came south along the Amber Road.

NPCs
The Egyptian - Landlord of the 'Old Fish', cheapest lodgings in Scodra

They remained in the noisome inn while the paladin recovered from his maiming and while they considered their options.  Myrphines decided to sell the ring they had discovered in the dungeon in order to finance a move to more salubrious quarters and to purchase a weapon Midmymnoios could wield one handed.  Afterwards they would enter the dungeon following Myrphine's map.

Chaos 5.  Rolled a 1 Altered scene - the party goes to sell the ring and re-equip as originally planned but they encounter a pickpocket along the way.  the first level thief rolled an 18 on the pickpocket check and the target was randomly determined to be Segestes the barbarian.  He never felt it as the Silver Wrist band was slipped from his arm.

 Thekitor took them to a jeweler in Fire Beetle Lane, who he said his cousin had recommended.  Selling the ring put 67 gold in Myrphine's purse (Thekitor lost his Bargain roll resulting in a 10% loss in value).  Then they went to the smithies by Bridgegate to purchase a spear and shield for the paladin.  When they returned Segestes gave an oath - one of the silver bracelets he had won on his journey had been stolen from his arm.  Perhaps it had been the Epriot barmaid while they were listening to the Scordisci tell the tale of the Grand Druid in Gaul whose daughter is a tree, or man who had tripped and bumped into him outside the jewelers.



The next morning they departed for the castle, this time no one was encountered in the courtyard.  Scouting through two more abandoned stables, they descended via the stairs in the northwest tower.  They quickly walked back to the scene of the demise of Myrphines previous companions.  Openeing the door, they found the box was closed and the room was empty except for a jumble of bones and scraps of rotting flesh.  As they stood over the remains, a ghastly apparition of a man with his throat torn out rose from the bones! Shrieking, the dwarf, paladin and barbarian ran from the room, back to the fresh air above.

Myrphines stood shaking as the sahde reached for him, but said "Hail Trinor, my comrade of old."

The ghost snarled "No comrade leaves his fellows to die!  Now it's time for you to join our unquiet rest."

 Myrphines plead for his life, finally swearing not only to remove the bodies for burial, but to hire mourners and hold a funeral banquet for Trinor to allow him to reach the after life.
(CotMA states that bodies of PCs left in the dungeon have a 25% chance of coming back as undead, I rolled a 7.  Since a ghost could easily take out a bunch of first levels without breaking an ectoplasmic sweat; I decided the ghost needed a proper funeral to be laid to rest.  That's 30 gold they won't see again.  However, since it's spent with a purpose it won't add to an experience point reserve.)

Following Trinor's funeral banquet, they once again went into the dungeon with the intention to explore past the weasel room.  But as the light from the torch washed in front of the cross corrridor, they heard and excited yipping break out from the other corridor.  They turned and braced for the attack as a flight of javelins came out, hitting Thekidor and glancing off of Segestes' armor.  The javelins were followed by another giant weasel.  Myrphines heart quailed at the sight of another such beast, but the barbarian calmly laid into it with his zwiehander as the beast's jaws snapped impotently at his throat.  Myrphines cast his Magic Missile into the beast as well.  The following round, two kobolds ran up and attacked Midymnoios.  The weasel managed to lock it's jaws on the barbarian, but that simply made it easier for him to run his great sword through the beast killing it.  Thekitor with his crossbow and Myrphines with a thrown axe, slew two more of the kobolds pressing up past the dead weasel. The third round Midymnoios and Segestes slew all four kobolds in the front rank, but not before one of the viscous little humanoids had hit Segestes with a spiked club.  Myrphines called upon his divine heritage and felt healing energy pulse from his arms and hands into the beleaguered barbarian.  Despite their losses the kobolds pressed forward trying to swamp the party.  The four remaining kobolds swarmed up to the paladin and barbarian; the paladin swept one away with his spear, but the barbarian was hit again and slumped down.  The following round the paladin killed another, but the last two kobolds hit both paladin and the barbarian with their final desperate attacks before they turned to flee.  The barbarian collapsed to the ground, Myrphines and Thekitor swept past the paladin and chopped into the kobolds backs killing them.  the paladin bent over the fallen Segestes, divine energy flowing through him into the vacant eye socket.
(Random encounter, kobolds of course it was the maximum number and they had a weasel.  I thought this might be the end of the party, but they held their own.   Fortunately, the weasel missed it's first attack and they were able to dispatch it before any of the party died.  After that it was a slugfest between the front line fighters and the scaly assailants, whose morale didn't break until 80% were dead.  Luckily for the barbarian, his Savage Resilience gave him a second roll on the Mortal Wounds table, he went from an adjusted 5 - completely blind, to an adjusted 7 - only lost one eye.)
Before carrying the barbarian out of the dungeon, Midymnoios carefully removed the pelt of the weasel, with the comment "We'll need the money for his care." (Mythic - Did he remove the pelt without damaging it?  Difficult task, High [17] Dexterity - rolled 25, success)  They made their way uneventfully back to town and the Old Fish.  Leaving Myrphines to watch over the barbarian, Thekitor and Midymnoios made their way to a furrier in Shade Alley, who was happy to purchase such a fine pelt at such a good price. (The dwarf keeps losing opposed Bargaining rolls, he's beginning to remind me of Glod in Terry Prachett's Soul Music.)  With 540 gold, they took a room at the Unhappy Banker in Bridgegate and sent a litter back to fetch the barbarian.

(Despite everything, they kept it together and nobody died.  I'm reducing the Chaos factor to 4)