Session #18
Ok, where to begin?
Number 1 - Brian could not make. Then Dale could not make it because he has no immune system. Then Jeff had to leave half an hour into the game. He was sick too. This left Joe, Justin, & Aaron to play 2 characters apiece. Joe played Dalron. Justin played Torin. And Aaron played Valden.
Number 2 - The past week I went insane. We are supposed to get started between 6 & 7. But as time went along, the game got started shortly after 7. Then when we started consistently getting pizza, that time became 8 o'clock. Then add in the amount of time we bs in the evening and we stop around 11:30, that leaves 3 hours, maybe, of gaming. When 5 of 7 of our group have only 1 day to game, this matters.
So I started thinking about, and then sent an e-mail to the group that was a tad shy of a tirade, but worded better. As the week went on feedback from the group came in, and I cooled off, the following are now in effect (they're not hard rules, just a kick in the butt) :
- No more pizza. Bring your own dinner and have it done by 7.
- At 7pm, bs'ing stops and dinner had better be done. All books not directly related to the game are to be put away and out of arms reach.
- At 7pm, the game begins.
- XP rewards will be given to the group as a whole. Up to a 10% bonus XP will be granted for the night. The amount will be based on how well the group acted as a whole to keep the game going. This is probably better than the 10% for everyone or -25% for one. Usually this would be a roleplaying bonus, but we all know that roleplaying in the WLD is limited.
Everyone in the group accepts this. It reads much worse than it actually is.
Map
Day 20, 5am
The party had retured to region E to rest and investigate the large book.
A conversation with Kelara led them to believe that the book as a whole was evil and should be destroyed. Further investigation of the book showed that only one section of the book was evil. Zorak and Krieg combined their efforts to understand this part of the book.
They discovered that it was a dark ritual that was to "unmake" something and required an arcane caster of at least 9th level. It explained nothing more except for the quote in Undercommon on the first page: "Do not call up that which cannot be put down again."
The group decided to take the book to the Charter Room and leave it until they better understood the tome. But when the glyphs on the door attempted to destroy the book, the consensus was to destroy the ritual. Thunderclease (& Torin - both played by Justin) objected, but was outvoted 4-2.
After a few spells to remake the spellbook and repair the damage, the ritual was removed. Attempts to destroy the pages by fire failed. Torin then was volunteered to destroy the pages physically. The DM made a secret roll for Torin to make it appear he was destroying the pages while he was actually hiding them and destroying regular paper.
Afterwards the party rested and then returned to region I.
Room I57: The party was returning to room I56 to continue their search of the chaotic muscle-walled region. In the hallway to that room, they were in for a nasty surprise. The chaotic movement off the area distracted half of them from looking up and seeing a flying ball of flesh, goo, eyes, and mouths descend upon them.
When it landed, it split the party up to prevent buffing. And since it was the same gibbering mouther they fought before, it knew them and was ready. They were not.
Surprise round: It lands and is able knock Dalron into negative hp and engulfs Krieg.
Round 1: Torin's attacks prove useless when compared to its damage resistance. Zorak cast Haste. Valden runs to heal Thunderclease. Its main attacks now focus on Valden. Thunderclease begins his usual cuisinarte activity. Krieg tries to free himself from the thing (it gets 12 attacks per round that deal 1-2 damage - and he can't act).
Round 2: Thunderclease misses on all 3 of his attacks. Dalron and Torin can do nothing but protect Zorak and be his meat shields. Zorak tosses a Scorching Ray into the beast, hitting with each of his 2 rays. But it has fire resistance 10, so the damage was small. Valden runs to buff and heal Thunderclease, but it gives the beast an attack of opportunity which is enough to knock him into negatives. Krieg almost escapes, but still fails.
Round 3: Thunderclease is now the sole target for the mouther's external attacks. They take chunkcs out of each other. Krieg fails again to escape. Zorak casts Enlarge on Thunderclease (it's a ranged spell). The mouther uses its gibbering attack. It only effects Dalron.
Round 4: Krieg finally escapes and tries to heal Valden, but he failed to "cast on the defensive". Dalron stares blankly and gibbers during the round. Torin runs up to the mouther to offer a flanking bonus to Thunderclease. But Thunderclease is then engulfed by the mouther and has to spend his regular action breaking free, only giving him a single attack. Zorak casts Magic Missile doing some minor damage.
Round 5: Dalron's confusion from the mouther causes him to attack Torin for some minor damage. Krieg is at 5 hit points. Thunderclease has 22 hp including the rage hp. The beast does 19 hp in damage to Thunderclease using all of its attacks. Thunderclease is able to put it down. (Aaron then gives a huge sigh of relief.)
A rapid succession of healing spells is cast on Valden & Thunderclease. The party then cleared out of the room so Zorak could drop 2 Fireballs on it and then cast Magic Missile on anything large enough to be targeted.
The party spend less than 1/2 hour in region I before having to retreat to region E again.
On the trek back to region E, Thunderclease is receiving the weird automatic healing the region gives everyone. But this healing comes at a cost. For Thunderclease the cost is his brain to get bigger. He gets a +2 to intelligence and wisdom. That doesn't sound bad does it? Nah. But he also gets a -6 to charisma. His charisma is normally 6. He collapses onto the floor into a coma. The party has to drag him now.
It takes a full day for the effects to wear off.
(This has happened before to the party, but the effects were minor and left out of the blog.)
Room I57: The party returns to the room to verify their suspicions that the beast would only return to life if it was in it's own room. They were wrong. It saw the party. The party saw it. They ran for their lives and got away.
Room I52: Dalron found no traps on the door, but he noted that the door was quite warm to the touch. Inside was a pyromaniac's dream. Twelve casks of flammable oil and 6 vials of alchemist's fire all neatly labelled in Undercommon.
Room I59: The walls of this room were made of a translucent crystal that was coated by a thin layer of flesh. Dalron investigated the room and determined that the skin was able to make noise and that faster you moved, the louder its noise would be. The party lightly tread through this room to move on.
Room I58: This room was thick with vegetation and fallen rock. The opening to the other side was so overgrown that it would be a tight fit for the party. The party thought that this screamed "assassin vine" and turned around.
Room I30: This hallway intersection had at a door at 3 of its ends and a weird symbol at the southern end. The party chose to ignore the symbol because nothing good could come from that.
But when they investigated the door to the west their Detect Evil spell detected a source of moderate evil. The door was also locked. Before Dalron was able to open the lock, a raspy voice came from the other side.
It gave them much information:
- It had been watching them. For how long it did not say.
- The gibbering mouther's name was Madness.
- It had a chimera twin name Anguish.
- They were created by the sorcerer Mahir.
- They can not be killed unless Mahir's caches is found and something known as "Eight Strikes Fang" is also found.
The party told the voice that they had found Mahir's cache. It wanted to know if they found the "Ritual of Unmaking". When they told it what they did, it responded with a tirade of insults and told them to fix what they had done.
And when they were ready, the voice would arrange for a diversion. Diversion? One of the requirements for the ritual is a fresh bit of flesh from the twin to be unmade, and once the ritual is started the targetted twin is helpless but the other will come rushing to destroy the ritualmaker. That is was the diversion will be for.
Before leaving the party asked what was beyond the door to the north. It responded "Entertainment."
"Entertainment for whom?"
"Me. Now goodbye."
Room I117: The party ended up having to use the Wand on Knock on this door because the lock was beyond Dalron's abilities, and they were dangerously close to Madness's home.
Inside the room were 4 drow and a cloaker. Combat was quick and sad.
Thunderclease kills the cloaker on round 1 with 2 hits (leaving it with -39 hp on a crit).
One drow fled to the north, another to the west. The two that remained didn't last long. Then 2 more tried to sneak through to get Thunderclease, only to be spotted by him and then summarily slaughtered.
Then a voice from the corridors spoke to them in a pleasant tone, asking them to cease their aggression and leave or they will be forced to use their own mages. They know the party can kill many of them, but it will gain them nothing. The drow will be the diversion that the voice, Siglinde, talked about.
Then the voice changed and became darker and more forceful, telling the party to leave now!
So the party left.
More unfolds next week. They believe that Anguish lies behind the burnt doors that they found early in their exploration of the region.
And now they have a goal.
We stopped a little early because we were all tired, and were about to start something kind of big. Plus playing 2 characters can be a little rough if one of them is not yours.
Number 1 - Brian could not make. Then Dale could not make it because he has no immune system. Then Jeff had to leave half an hour into the game. He was sick too. This left Joe, Justin, & Aaron to play 2 characters apiece. Joe played Dalron. Justin played Torin. And Aaron played Valden.
Number 2 - The past week I went insane. We are supposed to get started between 6 & 7. But as time went along, the game got started shortly after 7. Then when we started consistently getting pizza, that time became 8 o'clock. Then add in the amount of time we bs in the evening and we stop around 11:30, that leaves 3 hours, maybe, of gaming. When 5 of 7 of our group have only 1 day to game, this matters.
So I started thinking about, and then sent an e-mail to the group that was a tad shy of a tirade, but worded better. As the week went on feedback from the group came in, and I cooled off, the following are now in effect (they're not hard rules, just a kick in the butt) :
- No more pizza. Bring your own dinner and have it done by 7.
- At 7pm, bs'ing stops and dinner had better be done. All books not directly related to the game are to be put away and out of arms reach.
- At 7pm, the game begins.
- XP rewards will be given to the group as a whole. Up to a 10% bonus XP will be granted for the night. The amount will be based on how well the group acted as a whole to keep the game going. This is probably better than the 10% for everyone or -25% for one. Usually this would be a roleplaying bonus, but we all know that roleplaying in the WLD is limited.
Everyone in the group accepts this. It reads much worse than it actually is.
Map
Day 20, 5am
The party had retured to region E to rest and investigate the large book.
A conversation with Kelara led them to believe that the book as a whole was evil and should be destroyed. Further investigation of the book showed that only one section of the book was evil. Zorak and Krieg combined their efforts to understand this part of the book.
They discovered that it was a dark ritual that was to "unmake" something and required an arcane caster of at least 9th level. It explained nothing more except for the quote in Undercommon on the first page: "Do not call up that which cannot be put down again."
The group decided to take the book to the Charter Room and leave it until they better understood the tome. But when the glyphs on the door attempted to destroy the book, the consensus was to destroy the ritual. Thunderclease (& Torin - both played by Justin) objected, but was outvoted 4-2.
After a few spells to remake the spellbook and repair the damage, the ritual was removed. Attempts to destroy the pages by fire failed. Torin then was volunteered to destroy the pages physically. The DM made a secret roll for Torin to make it appear he was destroying the pages while he was actually hiding them and destroying regular paper.
Afterwards the party rested and then returned to region I.
Room I57: The party was returning to room I56 to continue their search of the chaotic muscle-walled region. In the hallway to that room, they were in for a nasty surprise. The chaotic movement off the area distracted half of them from looking up and seeing a flying ball of flesh, goo, eyes, and mouths descend upon them.
When it landed, it split the party up to prevent buffing. And since it was the same gibbering mouther they fought before, it knew them and was ready. They were not.
Surprise round: It lands and is able knock Dalron into negative hp and engulfs Krieg.
Round 1: Torin's attacks prove useless when compared to its damage resistance. Zorak cast Haste. Valden runs to heal Thunderclease. Its main attacks now focus on Valden. Thunderclease begins his usual cuisinarte activity. Krieg tries to free himself from the thing (it gets 12 attacks per round that deal 1-2 damage - and he can't act).
Round 2: Thunderclease misses on all 3 of his attacks. Dalron and Torin can do nothing but protect Zorak and be his meat shields. Zorak tosses a Scorching Ray into the beast, hitting with each of his 2 rays. But it has fire resistance 10, so the damage was small. Valden runs to buff and heal Thunderclease, but it gives the beast an attack of opportunity which is enough to knock him into negatives. Krieg almost escapes, but still fails.
Round 3: Thunderclease is now the sole target for the mouther's external attacks. They take chunkcs out of each other. Krieg fails again to escape. Zorak casts Enlarge on Thunderclease (it's a ranged spell). The mouther uses its gibbering attack. It only effects Dalron.
Round 4: Krieg finally escapes and tries to heal Valden, but he failed to "cast on the defensive". Dalron stares blankly and gibbers during the round. Torin runs up to the mouther to offer a flanking bonus to Thunderclease. But Thunderclease is then engulfed by the mouther and has to spend his regular action breaking free, only giving him a single attack. Zorak casts Magic Missile doing some minor damage.
Round 5: Dalron's confusion from the mouther causes him to attack Torin for some minor damage. Krieg is at 5 hit points. Thunderclease has 22 hp including the rage hp. The beast does 19 hp in damage to Thunderclease using all of its attacks. Thunderclease is able to put it down. (Aaron then gives a huge sigh of relief.)
A rapid succession of healing spells is cast on Valden & Thunderclease. The party then cleared out of the room so Zorak could drop 2 Fireballs on it and then cast Magic Missile on anything large enough to be targeted.
The party spend less than 1/2 hour in region I before having to retreat to region E again.
On the trek back to region E, Thunderclease is receiving the weird automatic healing the region gives everyone. But this healing comes at a cost. For Thunderclease the cost is his brain to get bigger. He gets a +2 to intelligence and wisdom. That doesn't sound bad does it? Nah. But he also gets a -6 to charisma. His charisma is normally 6. He collapses onto the floor into a coma. The party has to drag him now.
It takes a full day for the effects to wear off.
(This has happened before to the party, but the effects were minor and left out of the blog.)
Room I57: The party returns to the room to verify their suspicions that the beast would only return to life if it was in it's own room. They were wrong. It saw the party. The party saw it. They ran for their lives and got away.
Room I52: Dalron found no traps on the door, but he noted that the door was quite warm to the touch. Inside was a pyromaniac's dream. Twelve casks of flammable oil and 6 vials of alchemist's fire all neatly labelled in Undercommon.
Room I59: The walls of this room were made of a translucent crystal that was coated by a thin layer of flesh. Dalron investigated the room and determined that the skin was able to make noise and that faster you moved, the louder its noise would be. The party lightly tread through this room to move on.
Room I58: This room was thick with vegetation and fallen rock. The opening to the other side was so overgrown that it would be a tight fit for the party. The party thought that this screamed "assassin vine" and turned around.
Room I30: This hallway intersection had at a door at 3 of its ends and a weird symbol at the southern end. The party chose to ignore the symbol because nothing good could come from that.
But when they investigated the door to the west their Detect Evil spell detected a source of moderate evil. The door was also locked. Before Dalron was able to open the lock, a raspy voice came from the other side.
It gave them much information:
- It had been watching them. For how long it did not say.
- The gibbering mouther's name was Madness.
- It had a chimera twin name Anguish.
- They were created by the sorcerer Mahir.
- They can not be killed unless Mahir's caches is found and something known as "Eight Strikes Fang" is also found.
The party told the voice that they had found Mahir's cache. It wanted to know if they found the "Ritual of Unmaking". When they told it what they did, it responded with a tirade of insults and told them to fix what they had done.
And when they were ready, the voice would arrange for a diversion. Diversion? One of the requirements for the ritual is a fresh bit of flesh from the twin to be unmade, and once the ritual is started the targetted twin is helpless but the other will come rushing to destroy the ritualmaker. That is was the diversion will be for.
Before leaving the party asked what was beyond the door to the north. It responded "Entertainment."
"Entertainment for whom?"
"Me. Now goodbye."
Room I117: The party ended up having to use the Wand on Knock on this door because the lock was beyond Dalron's abilities, and they were dangerously close to Madness's home.
Inside the room were 4 drow and a cloaker. Combat was quick and sad.
Thunderclease kills the cloaker on round 1 with 2 hits (leaving it with -39 hp on a crit).
One drow fled to the north, another to the west. The two that remained didn't last long. Then 2 more tried to sneak through to get Thunderclease, only to be spotted by him and then summarily slaughtered.
Then a voice from the corridors spoke to them in a pleasant tone, asking them to cease their aggression and leave or they will be forced to use their own mages. They know the party can kill many of them, but it will gain them nothing. The drow will be the diversion that the voice, Siglinde, talked about.
Then the voice changed and became darker and more forceful, telling the party to leave now!
So the party left.
More unfolds next week. They believe that Anguish lies behind the burnt doors that they found early in their exploration of the region.
And now they have a goal.
We stopped a little early because we were all tired, and were about to start something kind of big. Plus playing 2 characters can be a little rough if one of them is not yours.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 9:25 PM
1 Comments:
Well, we might not have gotten much ground covered or had many combats, or at least no more than usual. But we did find more out about the region than we have thus far.
Before we were informed otherwise, I had suspected the 'tainted regeneration' of this area was what had brought the gibering mouther back. Turns out it is part of a separate curse, of which we destroyed the ritual to undo. I remain confident that there is a way to undo this evil without resorting to evil means. The double bladed sword may be part of this solution. I wonder if one of the two weapon rogues can master it in time.
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