Session #6

This was a shorter night than usual because Dale couldn't make it and Justin usually gets a ride from him. We didn't start until over an hour later than usual because of confusion getting Justin.

But that's ok; although the map doesn't show it, much was achieved this night.

Joe played Dale's rogue Dalron for the evening.

Also I'd like to introduce our mascot Adventure Cat! (aka Pugsly)

He is a fearless adventurer and a remorseless eating machine. He will dive under the cushions of the couch to grab at dice and has learned how to open a pizza box to retrieve the precious crust.

Session #6 map

Room A43: This room showed a nightmare of bodies and blood. Dozens of kobold and orc bodies lay dead from combat with dozens of darkmantle bodies. The blood was so thick that stepping into the room required careful for fear of falling into the muck. Thunderclease and Dugan did a half-hearted attempt at searching the room but the amount of gore involved made them move on.

Room A44: I asked the players if they were sick and tired of fighting rats, rat swarms, and darkmantles. They unanimously said "YES!". So I made them regret that. Upon opening the door, instead if being attacked by a few fiendish dire rats, the group was attacked by a fiendish dire wolverine. The group can deal out some good damage but so can a normal dire wolverine. Add a fiendish template and this thing becomes a potential TPK. The party dealt some good damage, but it had damage resistance and magic resistance. That gave it an extra round of survival.
Round 1: It smites good against Dugan and only hits once. Thunderclease deals a little back, enought to put the wolverine into a rage frenzy (identical to a barbarian rage, but it can't be ended voluntarily).
Round 2: The wolverine rips Dugan a new one, dealing 20 points of damage and sending him to -9 hp. Luckily for him Krieg was able to heal him before Dugan had to make the scary stabilize roll.
Round 3: Thunderclease deals 22 points of damage to the wolverine.Dalron is able to tumble past the wolverine and put it into negatives. It responds by dealing 30 to Thunderclease (I gave the ability to act while in negative hp).
Round 4: Krieg heals Thunderclease. Thunderclease does enough damage to put it at -9. On its next action it loses 1 hp.

A CR2 challenge changed to a CR6 challenge. I threw in some extra treasure and let the players roll. Justin was on fire for that. Nothing under 90% for the probability of items. In addition to the minor treasure in the room they found a over 2000gp in coins and items plus a couple of potions and a wand.

Room A41: A couple of orc bodies and a single fiendish dire rat. We glazed over the combat (a single rat is not a challenge to the group).

The party then headed found the secret door to room A103. Dugan's Detect Evil detected "Strong Evil". Well that scared the crap out of the party. They also then realized that they had not healed up from the last combat (the DM wonders how these guys made it this far in life...)

They head back to room A41 to rest up. On the way back they meet a group of orcs and kobolds who had no problem looting the bloodfilled room A43. A few rounds later the orcs and kobolds are dead. The NPC Deltin even participated in the combat (he usually guards the rear). The party then gets the little bit of loot the orcs had no trouble grabbing.

They then rested up and had a discussion about whether or not to enter the room. The duo of goody two-shoes won out.

Room A103: Prior to entering this room the party made sure the evil was still there and then buffed up for a big combat. When they entered the room they found the source of the evil; a swirling vortex of black and red. Dugan's detect evil determined that there were hundreds of points of evil inside the vortex. Each trying to get out. The party could see hands, heads, and other things trying push its way through to this side of the portal. Zorak tried to determine more about the portal but it beyons his knowledge.

What the party did not see was the guardian of the portal. Longtail's imp. It ran off and told its master about the party. Longtail (the wererat) cast a few prep spells and casually walked into the room with the party and parlayed with them. It told them that he was going to rule this dungeon and that all of the beings from the portal would obey him. It offered to Thunderclease to turn on his comrades and join him and he would become Longtail's 2nd in command. Thunderclease declined.

Note: Justin did want to turn on the group just for the experience of it. After explaining to him that it would probably be a TPK if he did, and that I would be pissed, and I would make him buy the WLD from me for killing the campaign, he let it go. Now I don't like doing that kind of thing, but honestly actions like that are meant for campaigns played by munchkins and morons. Campaigns that have many people being evil usually won't last more than 5 sessions. The last session being a total party collapse where everyone turns on everyone. Some fun.

Combat begins. Longtail casts a spell. Dugan, Dalron, Krieg, and Thunderclease charge towards Longtail. Longtail reveals two secrets. One is that he is no wererat, that is just an illusion. His image changes to a half-orc sorcerer/barbarian named Pwok. His other secret, he wasn't alone. On that note Deltin, who was left alone with Zorak shoved his dagger into Zorak.

This caused the party to split up. Dalron turned back around and made a B-line straight to Deltin. Pwok was fighting a losing battle, and eventually would fall. But not before Deltin dropped Zorak. Krieg went to help Dalron with Deltin once he felt that the others had a good handle on Pwok and his imp.

While Krieg ran to help Dalron, something chitinous and red made it out of the portal. Krieg initially ignored it until it attacked him and his armor turned to rust.

End result: Krieg healed up Zorak who then coup de graced Deltin. Pwok went down but the imp got away.

Then the portal got bigger. The party grabbed what loot they could off of Pwok and Deltin then ran out of the room.

This session ended on that note.

Next session: The portal, the loot, and levels.

Session #5

Sorry for the delay in the update.
I had a Vegas vacation to deal with.
Oh it sure is hell to be me.

Ok, working from 1 1/2 week old memory on this one...

Session #5 map

Rooms A60 through A66: These rooms are empty save for the rubble.

Room A67: Dalron, the rogue, had to squeeze through some tight quarters to get to the chests in this room. But upon discovering that all of the chests are open and empty, and that the rubble blocking the room was fake and trapped, he squeezed back out carefully.

Room A57: Yet another empty room. (As a side note, Region A of the WLD has been consistently reported as the worst region of the WLD. There are many reasons for this, but our group is having fun in spite of that. Plus I'll be adding a few more new things to this region.)

Room A58: A heavily rubbled room. Dugan, the paladin, detected a couple sources of evil in the room. The group rooted out, and made quick work of, a couple of fiendish darkmantles.

Room A59: Another empty room, but it had a trap over the door. It was detected and avoided. Nothing else was found.

Room A25: This room had a large pillar and several bodies. Feeding on those bodies were some fiendish dire rats. After a quick combat, the group looted everything in site. One thing they looted was a magical feather.

Room A26: Another empty room.

Room A28: They found an allie of sorts in this room. A cowardly orc named Torag. He talked his way into the group. Dugan and Krieg saw this as an opportunity to reform the born-evil orc.

Room A27: Yet another empty room.

At this point the group travelled down a hallway that would lead to Region E. The group turned around once a whispered voice let them know that.

Room A30: Another empty room! But the hallway through this room smelled horrible.

Room A31: A couple of dead troglodytes were being sucked dry by 8 fiendish stirges. This combat was challenging, especially since both southern doors were open allowing the stirges some options. But in the end, the party survived.

The group then searched through a maze of corridors and empty rooms. When they reached "A" on the map, they turned around. Mainly because Dugan detected several points of evil and "A" on the map is actually a pile of flayed and shredded darkmantles lying in a slick pool of blood.

The group decided to rest. They returned to where Turag was hiding and rested there. At some point in the night Torag was killed in his sleep. No one saw it happen during their watch. But Dalron's punching dagger was covered in orc blood. The group blamed it on the "ghosts" in the dungeon.

Room A37: This appeared to be a large workshop containing many smithing tools and a single stirge. The party made quick work of the stirge and the room.

Room A38: Another smithy shop, but otherwise empty.

Room A40: This is a destroyed workshop. Some kind of explosion ruined whatever was inside the room.

Room A39: Another workshop that had been intentionally destroyed with a blunt object. But 6 dire rats had just made this place their home. Another quick combat later...(boring? yeah, I know.)

Room A45: This is a large hallway that was otherwise empty.

Room A44: Some dead felinoid bodies were in this room. When the group neared them the bodies exploded with a couple of fiendish rat swarms.

Next week we liven things up >:)