Session #33
The hiatus is over.
Sorry for the extended delay. Life has been busy with family related fun. And it didn't help that the local casino-riverboats added Texas Hold'em tables. Goodbye $50.
This session was pretty interesting. The DM played Civilization III while the party was dealing with a puzzle, mostly so he wouldn't give away any secrets by accident. Well it's happened before...
Brian could not make it this week. He told us why, but I forgot what it was. Joe could not make it either. He had a bridal-shower or something like that to go to. So Torin was played by Justin and Zorak was played by Aaron.
Map
Ok, going through entirety of the what the party did this session in-depth would be madness.
Most of the evening consisted of them lighting braziers, putting out braziers, relighting braziers, taking trap damage, healing trap damage, and trying to open doors. Not necessarily in that order.
First the party had to rest from their previous session. They returned to their fort. Which, by the way, Aaron will be working on outside of the game. But since Krieg has 0 skill points put into Knowledge: Engineering, Aaron is limited to creating DC10 items on the fort.
Well the fort currently just has 3 walls, a doorless opening, some basic parapets, and a set of stairs leading to the parapets.
First up for watch was Senmonious. He saw an interesting sight. At the edge of his angelic vision he was able to make out a skirmish between 2 apparition forces. Senmonious took no action, but paid attention. Once one side won, the scene faded.
Then for 2nd watch, a skeletal figure approached Thunderclease. It was dressed in rotted, but rich robes. And its eye-sockets each held a pin-point of strong red light.
The lich spoke to him in a calm and elegant fashion, "Pardon me, but you wouldn't happen to have any diamond dust would you?"
"Uh...no..."
"Hmmm. That is a shame. If you happen to come by some, would you please let me know?"
"Uh...yeah..."
"Thank you."
Well before either Senmonious or Cleez could inform the rest of the party, they were attacked.
It was a well planned attack too.
Seven greater shadows rushed the party, through the walls of their fort. And they did it just as the party was doing their morning preparations. This meant that although everyone had their standard equipment on, the casters didn't have a chance to cast their breakfast spells and still had their spells from the previous day. And the shadows were able to rush in unnoticed because of the change in activities in the group (think of it as a shift change).
Surprise Round: The shadows just rush into the fort at their max speed.
Round 1: Shadows get their attacks, most hit. Zorak is hit twice, bringing him to 4 strength. Thunderclease is hit twice, with one as a crit. Without any buffs or raging, he is reduced to 9 strength. Senmonious takes a single hit for a few points.
Zorak is faced with a decision; Haste and help the party, but then face 3 attacks from the shadows, or Greater Invisibility and leave the rest of the party hosed. Direct instructions from Joe were to always cast Haste first. So that's what he did.
Valden turns 2 of the shadows nearest to him.
Krieg, in a rare feat of double digits initiative, uses his greater turning and destroys 2 shadows.
Senmonious fails in his attempt to turn.
Torin does some forgettable damage, hoping to get a shadow's attention off of Zorak.
The 50% miss chance on shadows works the best on Thunderclease. Out of 4 attacks, he only gets 1 to connect.
Round 2:
The 2 turned shadows flee. Three shadows remain. One swings on Zorak and misses. One hits Torin for a minor strength drain. Thunderclease is hit again, 4 more strength loss effectively negates his barbarian rage.
Zorak casts Greater Invis and runs up the stairs of the fort.
Valden rolls low for his turn attempt, so he uses his Luck domain reroll and gets a natural 1. Afterwards Jeff realizes that his original roll would have worked. He files that under "Live and learn."
Krieg sends 2 more shadows running.
Senmonious rolls poorly for his 2nd turn attempt.
Torin and Thunderclease repeat their actions from the previous round.
The remainder of the combat is easy. Only 2 or 3 of the shadows get away.
The party clerics then pray for spells and spend their entire alotment of 2nd level spells on Lesser Restoration.
The party does not attempt to rest again. They still have most of their "resources" usable. So they decide to take on the guardian of...
Area N2: This door had a large judge-aspect of Death on it. It held scales in one hand and a large gavel in the other.
The party spent half an hour buffing up and casting other spells. The meleers were all Enlarged and Bull's Strengthed. Cleez had half a dozen other spells on him.
Valden cast Blade Barrier, and placed it over the party heads, but around head-level for the suspected guardian.
Then an invisible Thunderclease touched the door.
They were expecting another powered up Shield Guardian with some heavy hit points and damage dealing potential. But they got an Iron Golem with better programming.
It attempted to discern exactly where Cleez was with its poisonous breath. When that didn't work it chose another target. Valden.
But this combat was a let down. Valden took 40+ points damage total.
In spite of the golem's immunity to the party's spells, some good rolling with maxxed out Power Attacks took the thing down before the end of round 2.
It was kind of sad really.
But oh well. All three guardians now lay in ruins.
Now it's time for the puzzle.
Rooms N7, N10, & N12 were all very similar. Each had a door with an aspect of death on it (Judge, Execution, or Guide). And in each of those rooms were 2 statues, also showing the other 2 aspects that weren't on the door. And in front of each statue was an unlit brazier.
This part of the puzzle involved lighting the braziers in a particular fashion to unlock the doors (which were immune to Knock spells and had no locks for a rogue to pick).
The party found out the hard way that lighting both of the braziers in the room would cause a trap. Well actually, Torin found it out the hard way.
The trap in N12 the party knew about. A powered up Lightning Bolt. Something easy for Torin to dodge.
The trap in N10 was a lot of blades springing throughout the entirety of the room. Something the clerics could easily fix if Torin chose not to screw around in the room (he chose not to).
But worst of them all was the trap in room N7. When it triggered, a poisonous gas filled the air. The gas was a powered up Burnt Othur fumes. Torin had to make a DC26 fortitude save or permanently lose 3 points of constitution, with another save 1 minute later or take 5d6 more, non-permanent damage. That will kill just about anything.
And like clockwork, Torin failed his save. He made his next one, but was most definitely worse for wear.
Krieg can cure it later, at the cost of 500XP or finding some diamond dust. Do you think he'll want to fight a lich for it?
But anyway, there are 2 ways to open all of the doors. The first is solving the puzzle and avoiding all of the traps. Or you can choose the second route, like our heroes did.
Just light them all and hope for the best.
They didn't come to this conclusion at first. They tried and tried for an hour, but just couldn't quite figure out the pattern. They were able to open 1 door, but not all of them.
After an hour of this, they threw caution to the wind. This time Torin made his save. (Note to Brian: Torin takes less abuse when you're around...hint, hint.)
;)
Well the party gets all of the doors open, only to find that rooms N13, N14, & N15 each are rooms with another door with a Death aspect, 1 lit brazier, and 2 unlit braziers in front of 2 more Death statues.
After some more trying the party is able to get one door open while only triggering the trap in room N15. It was a Mordenkainen's Sword spell that was modified to attack as a gavel. Torin took some damage, but made it out of the room alive.
Fifteen minutes later the spell wore off and the door was able to be opened.
Room 45: This was you classic Indiana Jones style ancient crypt; gothic, musty, ancient, and huge.
The party relieved that they had made some progress, turned around and left.
But they weren't about to rest in their fort at the moment. Who knows when the shadows will return with friends? Or worse, the lich may need a beating dwarf heart.
So Krieg cast Wind Walk. Dale refers to it as a dustoff spell. I think it is more appropriate to a Diablo style town portal. (I've told the party that it is relatively safe, but 100% safe, to use the spell to move to and from areas they've explored. But using it to scout is a DM-put-the-screws-to-you offense.)
So the party returned to the Garrison in region E.
On their way to E, they found that region I was in the process of being changed. The sounds of battle were gone. And the walls were almost clean. The unnatural evil pervading the area was slowly being scoured away.
When they returned to the region, they received a DM gift...
The newest of the lantern archons were given the ability to teleport into and out of the World's Largest Dungeon, and could bring 50 pounds of non-living material with them.
Up until this point, the Garrison has needed it for their efforts to cleanse the dungeon. But the demand on the lantern archons has lessened. So Mythlyrian, seeing the party's plight of having to use whatever they can find, is letting the party have limited use of the lantern archon gatherers.
Additionally, the Garrison now has suitable crafting areas. This will allow the party to craft and create their own items if need be.
Rules for using the lantern archons:
- 10% fee on all items
- 50 pound daily weight limit
- Even though this is the Forgotten Realms, not every single item is readily available upon deman. For every 1000gp of an item's value, it takes 1d4 hours for the archon to return. This can be modified on a case-by-case basis.
Why did I do this? Because I needed to.
A party of 15th level character without proper equipment is effectively 14th level or less.
While the group's teamwork has saved them more often than their luck, there's a point where teamwork won't be able to do as much. Such as the many "save-or-die" spells out there.
Besides I think the party "gets it" as to how rough this dungeon is now.
I had been wanting to add something like this for a while, but needed a good way to introduce the whole thing into the group.
Now Aaron is working on a shopping list.
Good thing the party doesn't have a dragon's hoard of treasure.
:)
Sorry for the extended delay. Life has been busy with family related fun. And it didn't help that the local casino-riverboats added Texas Hold'em tables. Goodbye $50.
This session was pretty interesting. The DM played Civilization III while the party was dealing with a puzzle, mostly so he wouldn't give away any secrets by accident. Well it's happened before...
Brian could not make it this week. He told us why, but I forgot what it was. Joe could not make it either. He had a bridal-shower or something like that to go to. So Torin was played by Justin and Zorak was played by Aaron.
Map
Ok, going through entirety of the what the party did this session in-depth would be madness.
Most of the evening consisted of them lighting braziers, putting out braziers, relighting braziers, taking trap damage, healing trap damage, and trying to open doors. Not necessarily in that order.
First the party had to rest from their previous session. They returned to their fort. Which, by the way, Aaron will be working on outside of the game. But since Krieg has 0 skill points put into Knowledge: Engineering, Aaron is limited to creating DC10 items on the fort.
Well the fort currently just has 3 walls, a doorless opening, some basic parapets, and a set of stairs leading to the parapets.
First up for watch was Senmonious. He saw an interesting sight. At the edge of his angelic vision he was able to make out a skirmish between 2 apparition forces. Senmonious took no action, but paid attention. Once one side won, the scene faded.
Then for 2nd watch, a skeletal figure approached Thunderclease. It was dressed in rotted, but rich robes. And its eye-sockets each held a pin-point of strong red light.
The lich spoke to him in a calm and elegant fashion, "Pardon me, but you wouldn't happen to have any diamond dust would you?"
"Uh...no..."
"Hmmm. That is a shame. If you happen to come by some, would you please let me know?"
"Uh...yeah..."
"Thank you."
Well before either Senmonious or Cleez could inform the rest of the party, they were attacked.
It was a well planned attack too.
Seven greater shadows rushed the party, through the walls of their fort. And they did it just as the party was doing their morning preparations. This meant that although everyone had their standard equipment on, the casters didn't have a chance to cast their breakfast spells and still had their spells from the previous day. And the shadows were able to rush in unnoticed because of the change in activities in the group (think of it as a shift change).
Surprise Round: The shadows just rush into the fort at their max speed.
Round 1: Shadows get their attacks, most hit. Zorak is hit twice, bringing him to 4 strength. Thunderclease is hit twice, with one as a crit. Without any buffs or raging, he is reduced to 9 strength. Senmonious takes a single hit for a few points.
Zorak is faced with a decision; Haste and help the party, but then face 3 attacks from the shadows, or Greater Invisibility and leave the rest of the party hosed. Direct instructions from Joe were to always cast Haste first. So that's what he did.
Valden turns 2 of the shadows nearest to him.
Krieg, in a rare feat of double digits initiative, uses his greater turning and destroys 2 shadows.
Senmonious fails in his attempt to turn.
Torin does some forgettable damage, hoping to get a shadow's attention off of Zorak.
The 50% miss chance on shadows works the best on Thunderclease. Out of 4 attacks, he only gets 1 to connect.
Round 2:
The 2 turned shadows flee. Three shadows remain. One swings on Zorak and misses. One hits Torin for a minor strength drain. Thunderclease is hit again, 4 more strength loss effectively negates his barbarian rage.
Zorak casts Greater Invis and runs up the stairs of the fort.
Valden rolls low for his turn attempt, so he uses his Luck domain reroll and gets a natural 1. Afterwards Jeff realizes that his original roll would have worked. He files that under "Live and learn."
Krieg sends 2 more shadows running.
Senmonious rolls poorly for his 2nd turn attempt.
Torin and Thunderclease repeat their actions from the previous round.
The remainder of the combat is easy. Only 2 or 3 of the shadows get away.
The party clerics then pray for spells and spend their entire alotment of 2nd level spells on Lesser Restoration.
The party does not attempt to rest again. They still have most of their "resources" usable. So they decide to take on the guardian of...
Area N2: This door had a large judge-aspect of Death on it. It held scales in one hand and a large gavel in the other.
The party spent half an hour buffing up and casting other spells. The meleers were all Enlarged and Bull's Strengthed. Cleez had half a dozen other spells on him.
Valden cast Blade Barrier, and placed it over the party heads, but around head-level for the suspected guardian.
Then an invisible Thunderclease touched the door.
They were expecting another powered up Shield Guardian with some heavy hit points and damage dealing potential. But they got an Iron Golem with better programming.
It attempted to discern exactly where Cleez was with its poisonous breath. When that didn't work it chose another target. Valden.
But this combat was a let down. Valden took 40+ points damage total.
In spite of the golem's immunity to the party's spells, some good rolling with maxxed out Power Attacks took the thing down before the end of round 2.
It was kind of sad really.
But oh well. All three guardians now lay in ruins.
Now it's time for the puzzle.
Rooms N7, N10, & N12 were all very similar. Each had a door with an aspect of death on it (Judge, Execution, or Guide). And in each of those rooms were 2 statues, also showing the other 2 aspects that weren't on the door. And in front of each statue was an unlit brazier.
This part of the puzzle involved lighting the braziers in a particular fashion to unlock the doors (which were immune to Knock spells and had no locks for a rogue to pick).
The party found out the hard way that lighting both of the braziers in the room would cause a trap. Well actually, Torin found it out the hard way.
The trap in N12 the party knew about. A powered up Lightning Bolt. Something easy for Torin to dodge.
The trap in N10 was a lot of blades springing throughout the entirety of the room. Something the clerics could easily fix if Torin chose not to screw around in the room (he chose not to).
But worst of them all was the trap in room N7. When it triggered, a poisonous gas filled the air. The gas was a powered up Burnt Othur fumes. Torin had to make a DC26 fortitude save or permanently lose 3 points of constitution, with another save 1 minute later or take 5d6 more, non-permanent damage. That will kill just about anything.
And like clockwork, Torin failed his save. He made his next one, but was most definitely worse for wear.
Krieg can cure it later, at the cost of 500XP or finding some diamond dust. Do you think he'll want to fight a lich for it?
But anyway, there are 2 ways to open all of the doors. The first is solving the puzzle and avoiding all of the traps. Or you can choose the second route, like our heroes did.
Just light them all and hope for the best.
They didn't come to this conclusion at first. They tried and tried for an hour, but just couldn't quite figure out the pattern. They were able to open 1 door, but not all of them.
After an hour of this, they threw caution to the wind. This time Torin made his save. (Note to Brian: Torin takes less abuse when you're around...hint, hint.)
;)
Well the party gets all of the doors open, only to find that rooms N13, N14, & N15 each are rooms with another door with a Death aspect, 1 lit brazier, and 2 unlit braziers in front of 2 more Death statues.
After some more trying the party is able to get one door open while only triggering the trap in room N15. It was a Mordenkainen's Sword spell that was modified to attack as a gavel. Torin took some damage, but made it out of the room alive.
Fifteen minutes later the spell wore off and the door was able to be opened.
Room 45: This was you classic Indiana Jones style ancient crypt; gothic, musty, ancient, and huge.
The party relieved that they had made some progress, turned around and left.
But they weren't about to rest in their fort at the moment. Who knows when the shadows will return with friends? Or worse, the lich may need a beating dwarf heart.
So Krieg cast Wind Walk. Dale refers to it as a dustoff spell. I think it is more appropriate to a Diablo style town portal. (I've told the party that it is relatively safe, but 100% safe, to use the spell to move to and from areas they've explored. But using it to scout is a DM-put-the-screws-to-you offense.)
So the party returned to the Garrison in region E.
On their way to E, they found that region I was in the process of being changed. The sounds of battle were gone. And the walls were almost clean. The unnatural evil pervading the area was slowly being scoured away.
When they returned to the region, they received a DM gift...
The newest of the lantern archons were given the ability to teleport into and out of the World's Largest Dungeon, and could bring 50 pounds of non-living material with them.
Up until this point, the Garrison has needed it for their efforts to cleanse the dungeon. But the demand on the lantern archons has lessened. So Mythlyrian, seeing the party's plight of having to use whatever they can find, is letting the party have limited use of the lantern archon gatherers.
Additionally, the Garrison now has suitable crafting areas. This will allow the party to craft and create their own items if need be.
Rules for using the lantern archons:
- 10% fee on all items
- 50 pound daily weight limit
- Even though this is the Forgotten Realms, not every single item is readily available upon deman. For every 1000gp of an item's value, it takes 1d4 hours for the archon to return. This can be modified on a case-by-case basis.
Why did I do this? Because I needed to.
A party of 15th level character without proper equipment is effectively 14th level or less.
While the group's teamwork has saved them more often than their luck, there's a point where teamwork won't be able to do as much. Such as the many "save-or-die" spells out there.
Besides I think the party "gets it" as to how rough this dungeon is now.
I had been wanting to add something like this for a while, but needed a good way to introduce the whole thing into the group.
Now Aaron is working on a shopping list.
Good thing the party doesn't have a dragon's hoard of treasure.
:)
posted by BlueBlackRed at 9:49 AM
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