Session #25

Wow, #25
We started playing this on October 1, 2004.
Last night's game date was May 28, 2005.
Almost 8 months for 25 sessions later, and last night was possibly the ...well you'll just have to read and form your own opinion.

Everyone save Brian was in attendance. Brian was at a cottage off with his wife for the weekend.

Next week, Brian is having his last day of school (he's a teacher). So he's out once again. Jeff will be on vacation in Florida. And Joe will be late again, which will most likely be a permanent thing, thanks to his new job.

No new areas were explored last night, as a few intentional and unintentional loose ends were tied up.

So we get to reuse an old map

We last left the party in the vicinity of room J27. They had just rested up in the master bedroom suite inside the troll's lairs.

Now they want to return to the fire giant queen to give her the "home" of the demon (efreeti) and get their weapon back. Well not really. They actually intend to go to her and remove her evil from the region.

Side note: Krieg, being an exalted cleric, was on the verge of losing his exalted status when he let the azer slaves get punished by the fire giant in room J25. That basically means that the exalted feats he is using, would become useless until he properly atoned. This DM contemplated making it worse on him at the time, but let it slide for the time being. Of course, the DM didn't say anything of this to anyone, letting patience and curiosity hold sway.

First the party decides to stop off and talk to the free azers that are mining away in room J39. They asked the azers for help. A less than stellar Diplomacy roll later didn't improve the azers' dwarf-like attitudes. The azers refused to help the party, but told them that the enslaved azers were welcome to return here if they were freed.

The party's response was "Don't you want to help your own kind get freed from their enslavement?"

"If they can't survive, then they don't deserve to be with us here."

So the party moves back to J27 and casts any buff spells with a minute or more duration.

Area J22: The last time the party moved through this region, they had to avoid some falling rocks that a fire giant had warned them about. This time the giant was bracing up the same region. What the players didn't know is that he had caused the first set of falling rocks as a kind of redneck joking around. This time he intended to do it, but the party looked a little too badass. So nothing happened here.

Yet.

Area J19: This area had 3 fire giants working away on crafting some weapons or armor. They remembered the party as they walked through the region. Plenty of hateful stares came from them too. The party paid no attention.

Room J20: The party had the intention of bursting into the room with a level of surprise. That plan was spoiled as one of the fire giant generals spotted them coming down the hallway.
"...Let us see what the adventurer's achieved", he said.
"Do you have the troll leader's home as I had asked? I have your weapon right here."
"Yes queen. We have found the home. But you will not be getting it back and we'll be getting the sword back from your corpse."

Round 1:
Thunderclease steps forward and takes a chunk out of one of the 3 fire giant generals.
Zorak casts Greater Invisibility on himself and maneuvers himself into position to cast Cone of Cold next round.
Krieg casts Prayer.
The 6 chained up azer slaves step back away, and cower near the lava pool.
Dalron gets closer to melee.
The fire giant generals move into position to attack an enlarged Thunderclease. 3 hits later leaves him with 40% hp remaining - including the bonus hp from Enlarge & raging.
The robed fire giant queen stands up from her throne and begins a speach about peace through warfare. It is actually an Enthrall spell with a DC17 save (with a +4 bonus to saves thanks to combat). The azers, Torin, and an invisibile Zorak fail the save and stop in their tracks to listen to the queen speak.
Valden casts Righteous Might on himself and moved into melee.
Torin listens.

Round 2:
Thunderclease downs a giant.
Zorak listens.
Krieg casts Silence on the floor in front of the Queen, ruining the Enthrall spell.
Azers listen.
Dalron tumbles behind a general to for a backstab attempt.
The fire giant generals swing at Thunderclease, both with their full attack action (+20/+15/+10). The first one hits twice bringing Thunderclease down to less than 10hp. The second one hits for nearly 30hp. He then cleaves into Valden, bringing Valden to about 60% hp.
With Thunderclease now dead, the tactics of the entire party fall into disarray.
The fire giant queen moves and attacks Dalron (she is still in the Silence area of effect though).
Valden casts Sanctuary on himself, believing he's the last line of defense for a retreating group.
Torin stays under the effects of the Enthrall spell for this round.

Round 3:
Zorak remains under the effects of the Enthrall spell for this round and the next.
Krieg casts Greater Command on all of the fire giants. "Disrobe". The generals save. The queen does not (and guess what line of humor this led to...ugh). Krieg then begins backing out of the combat.
The azer slaves remain under the effects of the Enthrall spell for this round.
Dalron tumbles back to where he was a round ago.
One fire giant general fails to save against Valden's Sanctuary spell, having no one else to attack, he moves forward to attack the rear echelon of the party - starting with Dalron. The other general does save but only hits once thanks to Valden's ridiculously high through buffing AC. It's 30.
The fire giant queen takes off her robe. (And so it begins...)
Valden casts Divine Power.
Torin moves into a combat flanking position near a fire giant.

Round 4:
Zorak goes through his final round of being charmed.
Krieg, not being sure if the party is fleeing or not, decides to move back to the party.
The azer slaves dive into the pool of lava for safety.
Dalron takes a several swings at the giant near him. Thanks to Torin's flanking, Dalron does about 40% of the giant's hp in damage.
The fire giant general attacking Dalron rolls pathetically (4,2,& 3). The other does some heavy damage to Valden.
The fire giant queen fails her new chance at freedom from the Greater Command spell. She proceeds to take off her weapon belt. (Cue music!)
Valden takes a few swings at the fire giant he is taking on. 25% damage.
Torin gets some nice damage in on the general he and Dalron are double-teaming.

Round 5:
Zorak, now free to act, casts Cone of Cold and strikes the general Valden is facing and the queen. Both fail their save.
Krieg heals Valden.
Dalron finishes off the flanked fire giant he & Valden are double teaming.
The last fire giant general takes another chunk out of Valden, but does not drop him.
The fire giant queen fails another save.
Valden casts a healing spell on himself, defensively of course.
Torin moves to protect Zorak. Just in case.

Round 6:
Zorak casts another Cone of Cold. The general fails his save, but he's so low on hp that it doesn't matter. The queen fails her save and drops.

The party collects their thoughts and prepares for reinforcements.

Note: The queen would have yelled for reinforcements, but never had the opportunity thanks to her being silenced. She was also not a spellcaster, just dressed like one. She also would have discussed terms of surrender with the party, but also, never had the opportunity.

The party was able to talk to the azers. They asked the azers if they knew a back way out of the room. Nope. But the azers did promise them that they knew someone that would tell them where the queen kept her treasure if the party led the azers to safety.

The party healed up the best they could, looted the giant bodies, and Krieg (now Enlarged) picked up Thunderclease's corpse and headed back to...

Area J19: The 3 working fire giants had not heard the last combat as they were too busy working. When the party returned they paused and the party spoke.

"We've slain your queen. Let us pass and none of you shall be hurt."

One botched intimidate roll later and the 3 fire giants picked up one of the new greatwords from their pile and readied themselves for a fight.

What they weren't ready for was an invisible Dalron.
The combat went quite quickly. Zorak nailed all 3 with a Cone of Cold (barely).
Dalron moved to fight the center giant and it didn't last long against an invisible attacker.
The giant on the left tossed a boulder at Torin and then fled for reinforcements. The party was unable to pursue.
The giant on the right tossed a boulder at Valden and moved into melee with him while shouting for help.

The middle giant was finished quickly and the right giant didn't last much longer. They got a few hits in though, draining the party of more spells spells for healing.

The party rushed to get back to the safety of the stairwell that leads to region I. As they approach the bridge to the lava river they notice that is seems to be writhing and undulating more than you would expect. And in fact, the writhing seems to follow the party.

They noticed it, but hoped it was nothing more than an aspect of the lava flow that was new to them.

HA!
Right. Like they'd get off that easily.

They were close to the bridges when hundreds, possibly even thousands, of small winged beings burst from the lava river. They hovered above the river and stated in near unison to the party that they could not corss without paying the price.

"Well what is your price?"

The lava & steam mephits turned their hate-filled towards Zorak and screamed, "Give us the murderer!"
"Murderer! Bring us the murderer!"

Note: Lost? Don't know why they don't like Zorak? Re-read the first fight of session #23 where Zorak cast Cone of Cold into the lava river. The river is nothing but a flow of steam and lava mephits. He killed many of them and their only fault was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And why did the mephits act this time instead of when the party last crossed the bridge? The party had protection from the fire giants. The mephits saw the fight and concluded that the party's deal with the giants was off. And the mephits were happy to assist the giants.

Well the party was not about to pay that toll, so they turned an ran back to area J19. The mephits did not follow.

Area/Hallway J22: The party began running down this hallway and met the fire giant again...but he was with the giant that ran away from the last fight. The party thought they had enough resources to deal with 2 giants...barely.

Round 1:
Krieg rushes forward, thinking that he will be joined by Valden.
Valden moves forward, but not into melee. Instead he casts a combat buff spell on himself.
Dalron moves forward to as close as he can get into melee. He increases his AC by going on full defense.
Zorak hits the giants with an Ice Storm spell. He is unable to use a Cone of Cold because of space. And he only has 1 such spell slot open.
Torin moves forward, but will not move directly into melee if it could cost him his life.
One giant takes a 5' step forward to get his full attack action on Krieg. The other must move more than that, so he only gets a single swing. But none-the-less, Krieg has only 10hp by the end of it.

Round 2:
Krieg dismisses his Shield Other spell on Dalron, casts a healing spell on himself on the defensive.
Valden moves forward and heals Krieg some.
Dalron moves forward and goes on full defense once again, hoping to save Krieg's life (think of it as returning one of many favors).
Zorak casts Haste.
Torin moves to just a couple steps out of melee.
The giants attack, but cannot target Krieg without losing their full attack action (he's 15' away). So they go for Dalron, their only other target available. The first giant leaves Dalron with under 20hp. The second giant rolls a natural 20 on his first attack, and then confirms the critical. Damage is 6d6+30. The damage die rolls are pathetic; 3,2,2,1,1,& 1 for a total of 40. But that is more than enough to do him in. Dalron falls into a heap at the giants' feet.

Round 3:
Krieg casts Flame Strike. Only the holy damage of the spell does anything. The giants must save to take 6, failure meaning 11. In other words "not much".
Valden takes a couple chunks out of a giant.
Zorak drops another Ice Storm on the giants. This is enough to barely drop one giant.
Torin moves forward and does some damage to the other.

Round 4:
The second giant falls to the combined attacks of the remaining party members.

Justin: "Haha! You guys suck. Everybody knows that only losers live."

The party quickly heals up. And heads back to the only room they have been to that doesn't get too hot; the luxurious room in the troll area.

The DM let the party know that they were done fighting for the evening.
Jeff (to the DM): "Thanks for the favor."
DM: "Oh don't thank me for that. You've killed everything that could have gotten in your path."

The next morning, Krieg prepared a single Raise Dead spell (they only have enough diamonds for one use). But who will he use it on? The party discussed this for all of 15 minutes while they were...

Leveling!
Krieg is now a level 11 cleric.
Valden is now a level 10 cleric.
Zorak is now a level 11 sorcerer.
Torin leveled, but we will have to wait for Brian to decide what class Torin will level up. (Either ranger or rogue probably.)
And when Thunderclease was raised, he regained his level 10.

Humor note: Thunderclease began the evening with 50,000xp. After being raised, he ended the evening with 50,000xp.

Zorak identified the equipment they looted from the giants. They found a giant-sized suit of chainmail +1, a giant-sized short sword +2, a giant sized dagger +2, a pair of Gauntlets of Ogre Power, a Ring of Greater Energy Resistance (fire), and a great Circlet of Persuasion (+5 to charisma skills and Enthrall 1/day).

Next week, Dale brings in his new PC.