Session #28

This was another one of those nights where not much happened in an action kind of way. Most of the night was spent by the party trying to figure out what to do next. (Read that as filling in the map.)

Map

The DM goofed; he thought the party had returned to the efreeti bedroom to get some rest. When really, they had no such ability at the time. Moving forward meant facing the wyvern. Moving back was impossible because the door was barred shut.
The DM did not realize this until sometime Monday.
Oh well...it happens.

So the party magically was back in the efreeti room resting. And when that was done...

Room J62: Another prison room holding a wyvern. But instead of an angry one, there was a sleepy one. He was half awake and grasping hold of a golden coffer.

The party smelled a trap and left.

Room J63: This was another prison that had been broken out of, as 2 of the large bars were missing.
But there was a large lever on the center of the back wall.
Torin investigated the lever in attempt to determine its exact use. Not having the same skills as Dalron had, he could not determine a thing.

Thunderclease and Senmonious attempted to pull the lever down, but could not budge it before Krieg and Valden advised them to stop.

Room J65: Another prison room, this time it contained another wyvern (all wyverns being the same gargantuan fiendish versions). The wyvern was feasting on the fleshy thigh-bone of some unfortunate beast.
It looked at the party, howled evilly...and the party left.

Room J67: The northern area of this room was actually a large pit. Torin and Sen investigated towards its edge. But the edge collapsed and Sen came down with it.

He fell 100' for some damage, and then landed on some jagged bones for more damage (about 70 overall).

Sen had to remove his armor, and the party had to use their Immovable Rod and 3 ropes to get Sen back up.

Next the party had to use their Wand of Detect Secret Doors to find one of the many secret doors that seem to dominate this prison.

Room J74: After using their Wand of Knock the party found a hallway with alcoves containing statues of angels. On the floor near the statues were several gems worth 10-50gp.

Room J73: A set of angels with diamonds for eyes guarded this end of the hallway with their traps. The traps were actually quite cruel for something that angels were supposed to have designed. Trap #1 was a Hold Monster spell. Trap #2 was a Delayed Blast Fireball spell.
That means that the unfortunate shmuck who failed their save versus the Hold Monster spell would most likely see a small ruby drop to the floor and 30 seconds later it would explode in their face.

Sadly Torin made his save and returned to the party...which then got to some surprising fireworks.

The party then dispelled the trap and moved past it.

Room J58: This was an almost-fight. The party found the door to this room, but could not find a handle. Without searching, they just used their Wand of Knock.

Inside they found a web-filled room and several rasts protecting their queen and her eggs.

The rasts quickly swarmed the party but worked mostly at pushing the party out rather than attacking them.

The party got the hint and moved on.

Room J59: When the party listened at the door to this room, all they heard was the "gentle sounds of the breeze". Since the DM said this in a bored tone, the party thought he was being sarcastic.

He wasn't.

The party moved into the room, until Sen was hit by something he couldn't see.

So the party backed up and Torin scouted out the room, starting with the northern alcove. Then something hit him in the back for 10 points of damage. When he spun around to find to see what hit him, something hit him in the back again for 19 points of damage.

Torin got the hell out of there.

Valden solved this part of the riddle with an Invisibility Purge.

A large iron pendulum with a greataxe on the end lazily swung back and forth across the room.

Krieg prevented further problems by trapping the trap in the southern alcove with a Wall of Stone spell.

The pendulum clanged against it once, bounced a couple of times, then stopped.

The party moved on.

Room J82: Another pair of angels stood here. Each held a spear and a shield, both could be easily taken from the statues.
As always, the party smelled a trap.

Perhaps it was the flavor text.

Detect Magic showed the each statue as magic, but there was no distinction between the items or the statues.

Well Krieg needed a shield, and Thunderclease felt like getting him one. So he said something to the angel about him being part of the garrison.
And then he took the shield.

The response was a small bright ruby that fell from the now empty hand of the angel.

Zorak shouted that it was a Delayed Blast Fireball spell, so Cleez ran for it.

Boom. No damage to anyone.

And the shield wasn't magical either. So Cleez put it back.

Room J57: We ignored these rooms. There was originally a bunch of small spiders in the hallway, with rasts in the rooms. But since the rasts were only 25hp, and their only tactic was to swarm to "whittle down" the party, it would have been a fruitless combat. I could have thrown 50 rasts at them and they would have cleaned up.

So we just said the rooms were relatively empty. Of course any treasure in the room was removed as well.

Room J50: Another secret door that the party had to use their Wand of Knock on.

Once inside the party found a room smelling of sulfur, a statue in the corner, and 4 closed doors.

Sen did a quick but thorough scan for evil, and found nothing.

Once the frontline of the party stepped into the center of the room all 4 doors opened, and behind 3 of them was a very large rast.

Round 1: The rasts went last, and the entire party prepped up for combat. Thunderclease got the first hit in for maybe 30 points of damage, but the rast didn't even notice. It had 184hp to start with.
When rast's action occurred, the party realized in how bad of a shape they were in. One rast almost grappled Cleez, and the other 2 ripped into Valden pretty good.
Round 2: The party discussed retreat, and even blamed Cleez for their situation because he swung first. But none of that mattered. The rasts move twice as fast as anyone in the party, and Cleez's swinging first meant nothing to a triggered trap.

Well this DM was ready for a TPK. These rasts were specially modified by the original garrison and they were powerful.

The only thing that could have saved them was something incredibly clever.
Or something simple.

Senmonious spoke in the language of celestials and stated that they were members of the garrison. The rasts, being smarter than an animal (barely), understood the language and since their smite evils did not work, returned to their rooms.

But they eyed the party closely until the party left.

Room J80: Another pair of trapped angel statues. This time they find a dead azer. Dead from burning apparently.

Torin able to determine that there is a trap, and it's from a pressure plate. But he is unable to disable it.

Dispels don't work this time either.

Last option...Torin makes a run for it, hoping that his evasion will protect him from harm. Usually it would, but a natural 2 isn't enough.
16d6 points of divine fire damage later, Torin has triggered the trap and the party rushes through...and then heals Torin.

Room J55: This room is as hot as the area near the lava river. Steam rises constantly from the floor. Then the steam swirls and forms a shape of a beautiful, longhaired woman.
She says "I am Starsha of Iscandar"...oh no wait...that's not right.
She says "I have no time. I am trapped. You must restore the balance."

Then she disappears, leaving a room with 2 alcoves and a statue in one of them.

Torin investigates the statue and finds out that it can swivel on its base, and that the statue can be moved if great strength is used. The party attempts to move it, but only gets it 5' before they say "screw this" and give up.

Room J81: Another pair of trapped angels. The party turns around.

Room J79: Another trapped angel. But this one just emits an Alarm spell. But the party has killed most of the critters that would come...

Room J75: More statues with gems scattered at their bases. The party collects the gems and leave.

Room J78(both): Statues that are now in ruins.

Room J44: This room contains a small and active volcano. Torin investigates the room and finds nothing but smoke. A small blast of magma fills the room with fire, but the party doesn't notice thanks to all of their protection spells.

Room J76: This is not the statue of an angel, but rather a statue of an ogre. This statue also has some gems on its base.

Room J40: This room holds 4 statues, a boar charging, a boar sleeping, a pheonix at rest, and a pheonix preparing for flight. All are on swivelling bases.

Once the party enters the room cools and the apparition of the beautiful, longhaired woman returns and says...
"To be in love can be the greatest feeling that a girl can feel."

Gah! Dammit! Why does this keep happening?

Ok, she really says, "Help! There is not much time left. You must direct the boar's advance to stop the flight of the pheonix."

So the party turns the charging boar to face the pheonix preparing for flight.

The door to the north clicks and opens.

Room J46: This small room has nothing but lichen and a statue of the woman.

Torin searched the statue and found a small switch on the back.
Krieg decided to flip the switch and got smacked with a Harm spell.
End result, Krieg had 1hp left. Temporary at best with this healing-heavy force.

But also there was some singing coming from somewhere west in the region.

The party searches again, but finds nothing.

Room J28: This room is identical to J29 that the party had found several session ago. Whenever someone nears one of the statues an Incendiary Cloud fills the room. So the party just rushes through the room, letting their protection spells deal with this any damage.

That ended the session.
Not much actually happened, but a lot of the map was filled in.

Next session...I don't know...but whatever it is, it will be interesting.

And now I need to go find so more bad anime quotes.