Session #19

Alrighty!

First, soon I'll be removing the "Body Count" entries, and replace them with a link to a bare bones web page for it. In case you don't know I keep updating the body count blog entries, but it those entries remain where they are in the blog order, so I'll just create my own simple html pages for them. AND I figured out how to create permanent links on the blog main page. They are now in the bottom right of the page. I'm going to try to move them to the top right some day. But not today. Because...

Last night was possibly the most productive night for this group in a long time. And it wasn't just the "no pizza" rule and me being a militaristic evil DM...but that helped. :)

This is gonna be a looong blog entry.

Everyone got to do a little something tonight. And everyone showed as well.

To make things even better, the DM rolled an absurd number of naturals 1's the whole evening.

We usually stop at 11:30pm, but this night we pushed on until 1am. And it was well worth it. Last week the players got a 5% bonus XP gain. This week they fully earned the 10% bonus. Almost everyone was exhausted when the game was over.

There will be no game next week (Good Friday). We've played several sessions in a row, so it's time for a break anyway.

Now let us begin.

Map #1

The group had just left the combat with the drow and are still desperately searching for Eight Strikes Fang, the 2-bladed sword that they've been told can truly hurt Madness and Anguish. Their list of areas to explore is small. So they returned to the screaming skin room, I59. And from there they move on to...

Room I62: A cube-shaped room blackened with soot and stinking of a foul chemical. Krieg attempts to identify the substance, but fails. Searching turns up nothing of interest.

Room I33: This room was slime free. But it did have lumps of charred and dried flesh. It also had a stone door with a 3 ringed symbols on the door eerily similar to the 3 ringed symbols on the southern wall of room I30.
Dalron & Torin entered the room. When he began searching the symbols he triggered a trap on the floor. An Evard's Black Tentacles spell was triggered and grabbed both of them.

Only some damage was dealt to the two before they finally were able to disable that trap.

Next they searched the rings. Dalron found a trap and was able to disable it with Torin's help after a couple of Dispel Magics failed.
Then he searched again and found another trap. He was unable to remove the trap the first time, or the 2nd. Ok, I've lost count, but with Torin aiding him and Valden casting a Guidance spell.
Then he searched again and found another trap. This time he botched the removal and ended up triggering it upon himself. The spell was Touch of Idiocy and I rolled good on the damage. Dalron lost over 12 points combined of intelligence, wisdom, and charisma. The effect wore off in an hour, just in time for their next situation.

While Dalron and Torin were playing games in the room, the rest of the party watched the entertainment from the hallway. When Dalron got his eldritch lobotomy, the rest of the group heard a voice from the shadows.

"Why are you investigating Siglinde's fake door so heavily? You do realize it is fake do you not?"

That woke the party up. The voice claimed to be a drow told them that he could assist them in finding Eight Strikes Fang if they did something for him. There's a drider that he wants them to kill. Simple as that. BUT they must be blindfolded while he leads them to the location. At first they really don't like the idea, but they find out that the drow is not bluffing. So they reluctantly agree.

Torin, making his Survival check, is able to estimate that they walked a little over 1000 feet overall, directions north, then west, then south.

Map #2

When they were told to take their blindfolds off, they heard a noise in the distance and they were surrounded by drow that were blocking all avenues of escape other than a door to the south.

The voice spoke again, "Now quickly, go through the door and kill the drider. Our distraction will not last."

The party opens the door and enters the room.

Room I68: This room was full of 2 things. Thick green mosslike foliage, and lots of webs. The moment they were all in the room, combat began, in spite of them not being able to see their opponent. This was the DM's favorite fight of the evening.

Round 1: Every single PC rolls horribly for initiative. A spell of Solid Fog fills the center of the corridor with a radius of 20 feet. The spell prevents the PC's from moving more than 5 feet in a round (and prevents use of the 5' step tactical move), and limits vision to no more than 5'. So the PC's are now blinded to any opponents or allies who are not standing next to them. But the drider is not. He is hanging upside down in the eastern alcove and is able to "feel" where the PC's are through the webs in the room. The drider was also prepared prior to combat (frequently using the clairaudience/clairvoyance spell to aid it in its hunting). It had already cast shield, mage armor, displacement, and greater invisibility. Zorak was able to cast Haste on Krieg, Torin, & Dalron because he could see them. The party moved further into the room with the hasted individuals able to move a whole 10' now.
Round 2: Thunderclease, obviously the heavy hitter of the group from his weight, fails his saving throw versus a hold monster spell. The party still sees no sign of their foe. Zorak Hastes the remainder of the party. At the end of his movement, Torin sees a drider at the southern edge of the fog and lets the party know.
Round 3: Valden, the 2nd heaviest, succeeds in his saving throw versus another Hold Monster spell. Thunderclease breaks free of his Hold Monster spell. The rest of the party moves towards the southern edge to get to the drider and light small fire items to begin setting fire to the webs (thus blinding the drider). Torin attacks the drider and it disappears, only being an illusion.
Round 4: The drider has really moved to the northern end of the hallway and casts a lightning bolt down the hall. It severely wounds Valden and Zorak, leaving them very low on hit points. Torin is able to dodge the spell successfully, taking no damage.
Round 5: The drider casts another Hold Monster spell on Thunderclease, but Thunderclease saves, so it prepares to climb back up the wall. The party does a 180 and head back to the northern area of the hall. Valden has to spend the round healing himself.
Round 6: The drider attempts to physically attack Thunderclease, but misses on all attacks. This spells the doom for the drider, because now the party can make out an area of displacement in the fog. Although it is harder for them to hit it, it only has 61 hit points. That may seem like a lot, but average damage from 1 of Thunderclease's hits to and evil creature is about 30. Then add a hasted party, and all of the protective spells in the world are only going to delay the inevitable. (There is a funny part of the combat where Zorak casts Scorching Ray at the drider and first has to roll a ranged touch attack and hit, then has to break through the spell resistance of the drider, and then has to make a 50% roll to break through the displacement spell - and somehow he still hit once.)
Two rounds later and the party is arguing over who gets to cut off the things head.

The party emerges from the room with the head of the drider. The voice, still in the shadow and sounding pleased, tells them to put the blindfolds back on.

The party is then led away somewhere less than 500' to the north.

Room I????: When they are told to remove their blindfolds, the party sees themselves in a meticulously clean 20'x20' room. Standing before them are 2 drow elves. One is an incredible old and blind drow male. The other is a big male drow elf with a 2nd left arm.

The old & blind elf querries the party about their aims. "You seek Eight-Strikes Fang to defeat the abominative twins, do you not? I will help you. It his hidden in a secret cache that lies at the dead-end of a northern hallway in the southern area of the Halls of Flesh. But first you will need a key."

At this point, I swear that Dalron actually holds up the iron key and said to the old blind elf "This key?"

"Is this the idiot you warned me of Lorath?"
"Yes.", in a familiar voice coming from the 3-armed drow.

"No. You need this key.", the blind elf holds out a small onyx statue cut into the shape of a drider.

"Take this key and leave now. You do not have time to stand around and chat."

With that the party puts back on their blindfolds and is led over 500' to the south and are left alone back where they started.

The party returns to region E (the dead-end to region I) to rest and prepare.

During their rest, while Dalron was on watch, the inevitable Dubar reinforced the ward near the group. He then informed Dalron that the party should return to the Garrison soon. Something very interesting is about to happen.

The party now plans their day for secret door and trap finding.

Map #3

Room I4: The party had previously searched the dead-end and did not find a secret door, but did find 8 small impressions in the wall. Dalron compared the legs of the drider key to the impressions in the wall and found them to match. So he placed the 8 legs of the drider key into the holes. He heard the sounds of a beginning to open and then the 8 legs of the key reach around and grasps Dalron's hand and the mouth bites into his hand injects a venom. He fails his saving throw and takes 1d8 points of constitution damage. The 2 clerics attempt to aid him in removing the venom before the secondary damage hits. But they fail and Dalron fails to save again, so he takes 1d6 in dexterity damage. But with 2 clerics around, the damage is temporary at best.

Dalron then searches the door and finds no trap. But there is one and it creates the effects of a Repulsion spell. Everyone in the group fails the DC21 will save. A little over a minute later the spell expires and the party tries again. This time everyone except Valden and Dalron fail their saves. So those 2 enter the room and begin searching around. The room is totally bare (except the standard evil goo everywhere), but Dalron's searching (a nat 20) turns up a hidden compartment.

He checks the compartment for traps, and finds one. He attempts to remove it. He fails horribly and the acid fog trap goes off. It only does 2d6 damage but lasts for over a minute. Dalron leaves the spell's radius and waits. By the time it ends, the rest of the party is able to make it through the repulsion trap.

Then the pathetic hilarity ensued. Follow by pathetic sadness because a joke is only funny for so long.

With Torin aiding (usually), and many spells improving chances, it took Dalron 16 times to remove the trap. Thirteen of times he failed and set off the trap. Approximate damage was around 70 (lower than average, but the DM was on a low rolling streak). Yet again, 2 clerics helps...

Finally the cache is untrapped and the door to it is unlocked. Inside, lying on its side, is a clean and bright two-bladed sword forged from cold steel. It's 2 blades are so sharp it seems as if they were cut from ice.

Zorak then does a complete identification of the sword. One blade is a +1, the other blade is a +2 axiomatic shapeshifterbane.
Axiomatic = It does 2d6 additional damage against a chaotic creature. Anyone chaotic wielding the sword gains a negative level for the duration.
Shapeshifterbane = the blade's bonus becomes +4 when attacking shapeshifters and deals an additional 2d6.
So if the wielder were using Eight Strikes Fang against a chaotic shapeshifter it would be a +1/+4 attack bonus and deal 1d8+1 (avg 5.5)/1d8+4+2d6+2d6 (avg 22.5) not counting other bonuses.
But it is an exotic sword, and no one has the feat to use it. After much discussion the group decides that the weapon is best in Valden's hands for now.

The group now needs to find and fix the shredded pages of the Ritual of Unmaking. This is when Torin lets them know that he hid them (the word we used was "keistered" for humor purposes).

Since it's also confession time, Dalron informs the group of his cryptic conversation with Dubar.

That makes the group happy (ok, fake happy because they already knew about it).

So now the group changes plans to return to region E to rest and prepare for the ritual. They also intend to investigate what Dubar was talking about.

The first thing the group does when they return is to find Kelara, leader of the Garrison. In her quarters they do not find her, but they do find her mate/2nd-in-command, Morkor. A quick conversation points out that Kelara left but an our ago to investigate some new insanity that the inevitables doing with The Redeemed.

The PCs never met The Redeemed, so Morkor fills them in. Dubar, like all of the inevitables, has become more and more "off" over the centuries. And he has a recent experiment in finding a way to replenish the ranks of the Garrison. Recently a group of various humanoids were captured and "reformed" by Dubar when they fled from region A. He calls these captured humanoids The Redeemed. As far as Morkor is concerned, they are no more reformed now than the day they were captured. Kelara chose to let Dubar continue with the experiment.

The PCs were split over what to do. The DM informed them that they could only take 1 path right now. So they were put to a secret vote. They had to choose region E or region I.

The votes were tallied, and here are the results:
1 vote region I.
1 vote region E.
That's 1 vote region I & 1 vote region E.

Ok, ok. The players thought it was corny too.

Final tally: 4 votes for I, 2 votes for E.

Zorak studied the Ritual of Unmaking for more information. He found that required a 9th level arcane caster or any arcane caster that held Eight Strikes Fang (8SF from now on). Multiple spell components were required as well, but could be obtained from Mahir's cache. A chunk of flesh from the twin to be unmade is required as well. Once the ritual begins, it will take an hour to complete, 10 minutes less for each caster that aids and has 5 ranks of spellcraft. When the incantation begins, the primary caster would require a DC15 spellcraft check. Then another check at +5DC was required every 10 minutes, to a maximum of DC30.

Once the ritual has begun, the targeted twin is helpless, but the other twin will come rushing to his aid at full speed.

And finally, if the primary caster fails to maintain concentration or fails to roll a spellcraft check, something horrid will befall him.

Note: the module states that the ritual should work only once, but I ignored that. I'm ready to move on to another region.

The party spent much time deciding on which Twin to start with, what spell to take, what tactics to use, and other minutae.

It took much real time for them to plan it out, but they decided to enter the area they avoided last time, room I98. They strongly felt that Anguish was in this room. But weren't 100% sure.

Here is the list of buff spells they had cast just prior to entering the room.

Dalron:
- Darkvision (now a breakfast spell* from Zorak)

Torin:
- Darkvision

*Breakfast spell: any spell consistently cast in the morning that usually will last all day. Such spells usually have a duration of 1 hour per caster level.

Krieg:
Owl's Wisdom

Zorak:
- Mage Armor
- Darkvision
- Spell Immunity: Confusion & Touch of Idiocy
- Resist Energy: Fire

Valden:
- Freedom of Movement
- Magic Vestment
- Aid
- Enlarge
- Align Weapon: Lawful (on his greatsword)
- Bear's Endurance
- Protection from Fire (96 points)

Thunderclease:
- Spell Immunity: Confusion & Touch of Idiocy
- Freedom of Movement
- Magic Vestment
- Magic Circle vs. Evil
- Protection from Fire (96 points)
- Aid
- Enlarge
- Align Weapon: Lawful (on his +2 holy greatsword)
- Bull's Strength

With that they enter...

Room I98: A very long (380') and wide hall, once possibly a great feast hall now lays in utter ruin. Walking along the edge of the room will cause half movement, but the hall itself is at least 50' high.

Dalron and Torin split from the group and hide along the side walls. The party, led by the 2 giant combat freaks, creaps down the hallway, keeping an eye out for anything.

Torin and Dalron see a 3 headed creature gliding silently down the hallway on a direct path to the lead party members. Torin, seeing that the party does not see Anguish, gives up his hiding to warn the party.
The combat begins:
Round 1: The main party is warned. Thunderclease and Valden ready their actions for the approach of Anguish. Zorak casts Haste on everyone except Dalron (who he can't see). Krieg casts prayer. Anguish knows that he's been spotted, so his tactics change. Instead of a direct flyby attack, he nears the party and his bronze dragon head emits a cone of repulsion gas targeting Valden and Thunderclease. Valden saves, but Thunderclease does not. He is now effectively out of combat because has no ranged weapons and cannot get within 30' of the chimera. After breathing, he flies straight up and grabs onto the ceiling.
Round 2: Anguish breathes lightning directly onto Valden, hurting him, but not heavily. Zorak tosses a Fireball at Anguish, but barely scratches the beast. Torin attempts to shoot an arrow at Anguish, only to have it bounce off the beast's tough fiendish hide.
Round 3: Zorak casts another Fireball at Anguish, doing a whole 1 point of damage. Anguish begins to fly towards the other end of the hallway. The party gives chase, but in a spread out fashion.
Round 4: Torin is the farthest out of the group, so the chaotic & insane Anguish sees an easy mark. He lands almost on top of Torin. The rest of the party, save Dalron and Thunderclease, swarm to the location.
Round 5: Valden hits Anguish with 8SF. That got Anguish's attention. Valden takes much damage from that. Krieg heals Valden. Dalron sneaks behind the beast and gets a sneak attack, hurting it. Torin and Dalron now flank the beast and both are able to use their full sneak attack abilities.
Round 6: Another round of frenetic combat ends with Valden finishing the beast off.

The party quickly cuts off a chunk of his flesh and flee to their safe room.

Room I9: This was among the first rooms the party found. It was store room that had some sacks with some poison and such, but it only has 1 way in (and only 1 way out if you're a pessimist). The party spikes the door shut, knowing that Madness will make his appearance to the party soon.

8SF is handed over to Zorak, and he begins the ritual alone, with the rest of the party forming a protective circle around him.

Side Note: Zorak has maxxed out his spellcraft and taken the feat focus: spellcraft simply to aid in the identification of magic items (see one of the earliest blog entries for the mechanics of it). It just happened to work out really well for this event.

Round 1: Zorak begins, and easily makes his spellcraft check. Two loud screams can be heard. One not even 200' away, the other over 500' away. The flesh from Anguish coats 8SF in a creepy "Poltergeist pork chop" manner.
Round 2: The fleshy walls begin vibrate and pulse, in a resonant manner with Zorak's chanting.
Round 3: The flesh on the walls develops eyes.
Round 4: Madness appears, not through the door, but manifests through the slime on the wall.
Round 5: The party moves to protect Zorak and engage Madness.
Round 6: Madness breathes out a lightning bolt targeting Zorak, dealing 27 to him and all in the path. Zorak gets no dexterity bonus to his save and fails. Needing a natural 20 to succeed in the casting, he fails his concentration check and the Ritual of Unmaking is disrupted. The ritual backlashes on Zorak causing a mere 1 damage to wisdom and 2 to intelligence.
Round 7: Madness is now free of his blind rage, and remembers these targest he's fought against before. So he knocks Krieg into negative hp. But when Valden grabs 8SF and strikes Madness with it, Madness focuses solely on Valden.

Aaron: "We're driving Madness crazy!"

Zorak is now free to cast spells and his choice is Haste. He then joins Torin at the back of the room while Torin begins removing the 5 spikes from the door.
Round 8: Thunderclease and Valden begin wailing on Madness, but most of their buffs had worn off long ago, thus ruining some of their effectiveness. Dalron pulls Krieg from combat and dumps a potion of Cure Moderate Wounds down his throat. Madness severely wounds Valden, but thanks to Valden's Freedom of Movement spell, he cannot be engulfed.
Round 9: Valden is dropped. Thunderclease's Freedom of Movement spell protects him from being engulfed as well. Krieg rushes to Valden's aid with one of his last healing spells. Dalron rushes into combat simply to be a distraction. Torin removes a 3rd spike. Zorak casts a Magic Missile spell.
Round 10: Thunderclease puts down Madness for the 3rd time in his short career.

The flesh from Anguish was ruined during the fight, but there's plenty of Madness flesh to go around.

So the ritual is begun anew. This time Krieg and Valden aid Zorak, reducing the required time to 40 minutes.

Ritual 0-10 minutes: DC15. Easily made.
Ritual 11-20 minutes: DC20. Close roll, but he made it.
Ritual 21-30 minutes: DC25. A failed roll, but he succeeds in regaining his concentration and gets a 2nd chance, making it this time.
Ritual 31-40 minutes: DC30. A failed roll, and a failed concentration check. The DM allows him to use his only "re-roll point" to try again. He succeeds.

Anguish's body seems to writhe, and then it separates into its base components, and finally it disappears altogether.

The party cheers, but do not waste any time running back to Anguishes body to grab another chunk of his flesh.

Ritual #2 0-10 minutes: DC15. Easily made.
Ritual #2 11-20 minutes: DC20. Easily made.
Ritual #2 21-30 minutes: DC25. Close, but successful.
Ritual #2 31-40 minutes: DC30. Failed, but he retains his concentration and makes another spellcraft roll. It is successful.

The small chunk of Anguish's flesh repeats the same series of unmaking that occured with Madness.

That ends the session.

Next session...the fallout and the Garrison.