Session #10
I really thought I'd kill a PC this night.
But nooooo. We got a new player. And he just had to play a cleric.
I guess that means I'll have to up the difficulty settings on this module.
Because E-Tools has not been fully updated, I could not make the html version of the character sheet for our new player Jeff.
So here's his PC:
Valden Glitterlode the 5th level gold dwarf cleric of Haela Brightaxe (War & Luck)
S: 14 D: 10 C: 12 I: 10 W: 17 Ch: 12
Notable equipment: Full plate armor, masterwork greataxe, Wand of Cure Light Wounds (25 charges), 3 potions of Cure Light Wounds, a potion of Invisibility, and a Cloak of Resistance +1.
His story: Valden was part of an adventuring group that had heard of some ancient ruins from a captured Zhentarim member. When his group reached the entrance to the WLD, they found a group of Zhent's in the final stages of clearing out a rockslide. The group made quick work of the Zhents and then proceeded into the mouth of the cave.
That over 2 days ago, and the information they had received from the captured Zhent was not enough to warn them of the full danger. Most importantly, the inability to leave the way you came in. The group had not expected this and eventually it cost them.
At first they met little resistance, and handful of goblinoids and such. But then the "minor" earthquake came. Shortly afterwards various manners of fiendish creatures found them and came for them in near countless waves. The group retreated and all eventually fell save for Valden.
When he was able to catch his breath, he drank a potion of invisibility and began to search alone for a way out. What he found was a path of destruction, but not one left by the fiendish beasts that killed his friends. This path had been cut by blade and spell, not of tooth and nail. So he followed this path as best he could. But the nature of the dungeon alone caused him to lose his bearings.
He would have remained lost until some fell beast claimed him had it not been for a light that appeared just around the corner.
He followed the light as best he could for it was always just outside his vision; either around a corner or behind a door.
Until finally he opened a door to find a surprised elf, human, and 3 dwarves...
(I'd like to thank the Wizards of the Coast Player Classifieds forum for helping us find yet another new player - er vice versa rather.)
Justin did not attend this night. As punishment I let Dale play Thunderclease. But Dale did not want that burden, so Brian played him.
Now on to the meat of this thing!
Map
Room E20 (again): The party believes this to be a safe room. So imagine their surprise when an armed & armored gold dwarf appeared before them. But after some quick speaking on both sides (and a Detect Evil), the 2 gold dwarves in the party were quick to accept the allegiance of another gold dwarf, especially one who bears the holy symbol of a dwarf god of battle, Haela Brightaxe (there sure are a lot of dwarf gods of battle).
Valden told his story to the group, and they told theirs to him with apologies for the loss of his comrades.
Half an hour of role-playing (and some pizza) later, Valden was accepted into the group.
Room E22: The party returns to the room where they fought the 8 shadows and moves on.
Rooms E23-E30: Each room appeared pretty much the same; a hive-like barracks for some large ant/man creatures, all now dead. Some searching of the rooms turned up a potion and a ring.
Room E31: This room was made for only a single ant-man creature. And it lay dead amongst 8 other dead humanoids, with its magical bastard sword still impaled in one of the humanoids. Of course the party took the sword.
Room E32 (the hallway west of room E31): The party never made it into this room. It was barred from the inside. They decided to try to break down the door after Dalron could not open it with his abilities. Because the hallway was too narrow for 2 people, Thunderclease was handed the battering ram and set to work. With a run, he attempted to batter the door down. He was given a +4 to his roll for the ram and the run. But it was not enough. He slammed into the door with a great force, doing 10 points of damage to himself and breaking the battering ram. The door remained intact and sturdy.
The party moved on and did much exploring, finding empty room after empty room. Until...
Room E35: This room was full of rotted robes that were once once great quality. Over the western door were words in the celestial language. Krieg translated them to "Seek only the charter". This picqued their curiosity so they traveled on through to...
Room E36: This room was featureless except for a door on the easy, a door on the west, and a silver, gold, and platinum sword sticking out of the ground and it hummed with power.
The party investigated the sword thoroughly, but without touching it. The words "Seek only the charter" made them think this was a test of temptation. When they moved on to the western door, the sword disappeared and a word in celestial appeared over the western door.
"Temptation"
Room E37: This room had 2 doors and a man covered in blood begging for help. After a quick Detect Evil by Dugan, Dugan layed hands upon the man. The man then disappeared and a word in celestial appeared over the western door.
"Charity"
As far as the party was concerned, this was a test.
But for and of what?
"Seek only the charter" Dugan kept repeating.
Room E38: This room had 2 doors and giant spider-creature with cleavers at the end of its arms. With some hesitation, most of the party charged the beast, believing this to be another illusion as part of this test.
They were right. The beast vanished and a word written in celestial appeared over the western door.
"Bravery"
Room E39: This room contained a table and chairs. Inside the table, as if it had grown into the table, was a crystal with thousands of pin pricks of light shining out of it (like a disco-ball :) ). A word in celestial was already over the northern door, and above it was a symbol of the god Tyr. The word was "Knowledge". Runes of glowing silver wrought into the iron on the door said "To Serve" in magic.
Taking another chance, the party sat down.
The crystal drew them in and put them in a dreamlike state. It showed them demons, devils, and undead fighting angels of all sorts. Then the fell beasts were placed into this dungeon as their prison for eternity. The last vision being one of a giant beast of flame with eyes of burning hatred being locked up in the darkness.
When it was over, the party was blessed with an Aid spell and an Owl's Wisdom spell that would last the remainder of the day.
The party believed this to be the reward and discussed at great length whether or not to continue through the north door. Eventually the consensus was to go through the door.
Room E40: This room had a globe in the ceiling that emitted the light of a noonday sun. And set on a waist high steel pillar, was a very large scroll (5 pounds). Once again Krieg translated the celestial language.
Boiled down: Those who sign the charter take an oath to always do what is right, defend the weak, help your brothers in arms, and never relent to evil. And those who ever break those oaths are struck with a vengeance should they ever touch the charter again.
These reasons seemed noble to the ears of Krieg and Dugan, and attempted to sign it. But the pen burned into ruin and the ink never even touched the page. They searched the room in hopes of finding the key to signing the charter. But nothing was found.
Room E41: Their hopes of signing the charter dashed, they moved into this room. Inside they find a peaceful room meant for meditation. They also find the corpse of dog headed creature, barely more than dust and bones now. But they do find a silver/platinum quill and some dried ink. Mixing some fresh water into the inkwell Dugan signs the charter with the quill.
It fills him with a new sense of purpose and duty. Krieeg and Valden then sign the charter. All three are now bound to the tenets of the charter. They now have a +2 to Will saves and their alignment shifts one step towards good, if already good in alignment, it shifts one step towards lawful.
Thunderclease, Dalron, & Zorak decline.
Room E42: This room is full of tiny alcoves, each containing a candle. Many candles have not been lit. Many candles have lost their flame. Three candles have recently been lit.
Room E43: Thick rugs, worn bare in many places, cover this room. On the eastern wall lays an ancient, but ordinary longsword. On the western wall, a book sits alone on a small shelf. Dugan opens the book to find it to be a holy text of his god Moradin. Later when Zorak examines it, it reads to be a holy book of Mystra.
Although I should have not let it work, Zorak and Dalron then return to sign the charter.
Room E45: The door to this room was open and Dugan's radar popped up 4 moderate blips. So a couple buff spells were cast prior to entering. But the casting of spells let the barghests inside prep as well.
The combat lasted more than a few rounds, but the barghests could not overcome the power of 6 PCs (2 being clerics). If anything, this combat taught the group how to deal with barghests.
Room E47: The door to this room was closed. Dugans radar showed 4 blibs; 3 moderate and 1 greater. So the party turned around, cast many prep spells, and then the party pushed through the door and caught 1 greater barghest and 3 standard barghests unprepared.
Now simply, I thought that this combat would have taken forever because of the greater barghest and its abilities...
Round 1: The barghests would have won initiative, but the party got this round as a surprise round. One barghest was hurt pretty bad by the majority of the party and the greater barghest took 33 points of damage in one hit from Thunderclease (wielding a +2 holy greatsword, raging, the Power Attack feat, and the spell Aid & Bull's Strength).
Round 2: The barghests use a combination of attacks and their Crushing Despair spell-like abilities. The party does in the hurt barghest and severely hurts another. Thunderclease does 37 more points to the greater barghest.
Round 3: Thunderclease has now done 70 points to greather barghest who only had 89 hp to begin with. It's looking bad for the barghests. So the greater barghest uses it's Charm Monster spell on Thunderclease. It works and Thunderclease stands blankly for this round. When the 2nd barghest falls, it clears Dugan to attack the greater barghest. Using his Smite Evil ability, he does 12 more to the greater.
Round 4: The greater attempts to break for the door and fails to make in a flurry of free attacks.
The last barghest turns into a goblin and pleads for mercy, stating that it was only doing what it was ordered to do. It pleaded and pleaded and rolled a 29 on its bluff. The 3 puritan gold dwarves fell for it and told it to go try to pass the test that they just took. The group rolled nothing better than a 16 on their sense motive. So it got away.
Next week I up the danger.
But nooooo. We got a new player. And he just had to play a cleric.
I guess that means I'll have to up the difficulty settings on this module.
Because E-Tools has not been fully updated, I could not make the html version of the character sheet for our new player Jeff.
So here's his PC:
Valden Glitterlode the 5th level gold dwarf cleric of Haela Brightaxe (War & Luck)
S: 14 D: 10 C: 12 I: 10 W: 17 Ch: 12
Notable equipment: Full plate armor, masterwork greataxe, Wand of Cure Light Wounds (25 charges), 3 potions of Cure Light Wounds, a potion of Invisibility, and a Cloak of Resistance +1.
His story: Valden was part of an adventuring group that had heard of some ancient ruins from a captured Zhentarim member. When his group reached the entrance to the WLD, they found a group of Zhent's in the final stages of clearing out a rockslide. The group made quick work of the Zhents and then proceeded into the mouth of the cave.
That over 2 days ago, and the information they had received from the captured Zhent was not enough to warn them of the full danger. Most importantly, the inability to leave the way you came in. The group had not expected this and eventually it cost them.
At first they met little resistance, and handful of goblinoids and such. But then the "minor" earthquake came. Shortly afterwards various manners of fiendish creatures found them and came for them in near countless waves. The group retreated and all eventually fell save for Valden.
When he was able to catch his breath, he drank a potion of invisibility and began to search alone for a way out. What he found was a path of destruction, but not one left by the fiendish beasts that killed his friends. This path had been cut by blade and spell, not of tooth and nail. So he followed this path as best he could. But the nature of the dungeon alone caused him to lose his bearings.
He would have remained lost until some fell beast claimed him had it not been for a light that appeared just around the corner.
He followed the light as best he could for it was always just outside his vision; either around a corner or behind a door.
Until finally he opened a door to find a surprised elf, human, and 3 dwarves...
(I'd like to thank the Wizards of the Coast Player Classifieds forum for helping us find yet another new player - er vice versa rather.)
Justin did not attend this night. As punishment I let Dale play Thunderclease. But Dale did not want that burden, so Brian played him.
Now on to the meat of this thing!
Map
Room E20 (again): The party believes this to be a safe room. So imagine their surprise when an armed & armored gold dwarf appeared before them. But after some quick speaking on both sides (and a Detect Evil), the 2 gold dwarves in the party were quick to accept the allegiance of another gold dwarf, especially one who bears the holy symbol of a dwarf god of battle, Haela Brightaxe (there sure are a lot of dwarf gods of battle).
Valden told his story to the group, and they told theirs to him with apologies for the loss of his comrades.
Half an hour of role-playing (and some pizza) later, Valden was accepted into the group.
Room E22: The party returns to the room where they fought the 8 shadows and moves on.
Rooms E23-E30: Each room appeared pretty much the same; a hive-like barracks for some large ant/man creatures, all now dead. Some searching of the rooms turned up a potion and a ring.
Room E31: This room was made for only a single ant-man creature. And it lay dead amongst 8 other dead humanoids, with its magical bastard sword still impaled in one of the humanoids. Of course the party took the sword.
Room E32 (the hallway west of room E31): The party never made it into this room. It was barred from the inside. They decided to try to break down the door after Dalron could not open it with his abilities. Because the hallway was too narrow for 2 people, Thunderclease was handed the battering ram and set to work. With a run, he attempted to batter the door down. He was given a +4 to his roll for the ram and the run. But it was not enough. He slammed into the door with a great force, doing 10 points of damage to himself and breaking the battering ram. The door remained intact and sturdy.
The party moved on and did much exploring, finding empty room after empty room. Until...
Room E35: This room was full of rotted robes that were once once great quality. Over the western door were words in the celestial language. Krieg translated them to "Seek only the charter". This picqued their curiosity so they traveled on through to...
Room E36: This room was featureless except for a door on the easy, a door on the west, and a silver, gold, and platinum sword sticking out of the ground and it hummed with power.
The party investigated the sword thoroughly, but without touching it. The words "Seek only the charter" made them think this was a test of temptation. When they moved on to the western door, the sword disappeared and a word in celestial appeared over the western door.
"Temptation"
Room E37: This room had 2 doors and a man covered in blood begging for help. After a quick Detect Evil by Dugan, Dugan layed hands upon the man. The man then disappeared and a word in celestial appeared over the western door.
"Charity"
As far as the party was concerned, this was a test.
But for and of what?
"Seek only the charter" Dugan kept repeating.
Room E38: This room had 2 doors and giant spider-creature with cleavers at the end of its arms. With some hesitation, most of the party charged the beast, believing this to be another illusion as part of this test.
They were right. The beast vanished and a word written in celestial appeared over the western door.
"Bravery"
Room E39: This room contained a table and chairs. Inside the table, as if it had grown into the table, was a crystal with thousands of pin pricks of light shining out of it (like a disco-ball :) ). A word in celestial was already over the northern door, and above it was a symbol of the god Tyr. The word was "Knowledge". Runes of glowing silver wrought into the iron on the door said "To Serve" in magic.
Taking another chance, the party sat down.
The crystal drew them in and put them in a dreamlike state. It showed them demons, devils, and undead fighting angels of all sorts. Then the fell beasts were placed into this dungeon as their prison for eternity. The last vision being one of a giant beast of flame with eyes of burning hatred being locked up in the darkness.
When it was over, the party was blessed with an Aid spell and an Owl's Wisdom spell that would last the remainder of the day.
The party believed this to be the reward and discussed at great length whether or not to continue through the north door. Eventually the consensus was to go through the door.
Room E40: This room had a globe in the ceiling that emitted the light of a noonday sun. And set on a waist high steel pillar, was a very large scroll (5 pounds). Once again Krieg translated the celestial language.
Boiled down: Those who sign the charter take an oath to always do what is right, defend the weak, help your brothers in arms, and never relent to evil. And those who ever break those oaths are struck with a vengeance should they ever touch the charter again.
These reasons seemed noble to the ears of Krieg and Dugan, and attempted to sign it. But the pen burned into ruin and the ink never even touched the page. They searched the room in hopes of finding the key to signing the charter. But nothing was found.
Room E41: Their hopes of signing the charter dashed, they moved into this room. Inside they find a peaceful room meant for meditation. They also find the corpse of dog headed creature, barely more than dust and bones now. But they do find a silver/platinum quill and some dried ink. Mixing some fresh water into the inkwell Dugan signs the charter with the quill.
It fills him with a new sense of purpose and duty. Krieeg and Valden then sign the charter. All three are now bound to the tenets of the charter. They now have a +2 to Will saves and their alignment shifts one step towards good, if already good in alignment, it shifts one step towards lawful.
Thunderclease, Dalron, & Zorak decline.
Room E42: This room is full of tiny alcoves, each containing a candle. Many candles have not been lit. Many candles have lost their flame. Three candles have recently been lit.
Room E43: Thick rugs, worn bare in many places, cover this room. On the eastern wall lays an ancient, but ordinary longsword. On the western wall, a book sits alone on a small shelf. Dugan opens the book to find it to be a holy text of his god Moradin. Later when Zorak examines it, it reads to be a holy book of Mystra.
Although I should have not let it work, Zorak and Dalron then return to sign the charter.
Room E45: The door to this room was open and Dugan's radar popped up 4 moderate blips. So a couple buff spells were cast prior to entering. But the casting of spells let the barghests inside prep as well.
The combat lasted more than a few rounds, but the barghests could not overcome the power of 6 PCs (2 being clerics). If anything, this combat taught the group how to deal with barghests.
Room E47: The door to this room was closed. Dugans radar showed 4 blibs; 3 moderate and 1 greater. So the party turned around, cast many prep spells, and then the party pushed through the door and caught 1 greater barghest and 3 standard barghests unprepared.
Now simply, I thought that this combat would have taken forever because of the greater barghest and its abilities...
Round 1: The barghests would have won initiative, but the party got this round as a surprise round. One barghest was hurt pretty bad by the majority of the party and the greater barghest took 33 points of damage in one hit from Thunderclease (wielding a +2 holy greatsword, raging, the Power Attack feat, and the spell Aid & Bull's Strength).
Round 2: The barghests use a combination of attacks and their Crushing Despair spell-like abilities. The party does in the hurt barghest and severely hurts another. Thunderclease does 37 more points to the greater barghest.
Round 3: Thunderclease has now done 70 points to greather barghest who only had 89 hp to begin with. It's looking bad for the barghests. So the greater barghest uses it's Charm Monster spell on Thunderclease. It works and Thunderclease stands blankly for this round. When the 2nd barghest falls, it clears Dugan to attack the greater barghest. Using his Smite Evil ability, he does 12 more to the greater.
Round 4: The greater attempts to break for the door and fails to make in a flurry of free attacks.
The last barghest turns into a goblin and pleads for mercy, stating that it was only doing what it was ordered to do. It pleaded and pleaded and rolled a 29 on its bluff. The 3 puritan gold dwarves fell for it and told it to go try to pass the test that they just took. The group rolled nothing better than a 16 on their sense motive. So it got away.
Next week I up the danger.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 2:39 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home