Session #43

Ah, finally things in this region get a little bit more interesting.

The party has been walking virtually problem free through this region. Well until they irritated Mr. Lich. That woke them up a little bit.

But it's not like they weren't on edge already.

No philosophical chatting this session either, just the usual BS'ing.

We even got started on time. A rarity it seems.

So down to business...

Map

The party landed in room N193, cast their 10 minutes/level buffs, and set off exploring.

Room N198: The door to this room was full of happy fun traps.
First the door had a Flame Strike on it (and an Undeath to Death spell, but that didn't matter now did it?).
Then on the inside were a couple of columns with many runes. On each of them, many of the runes were trapped.
After the party discovered that little fact (by triggering it of course), they set about dispelling what they could, then buffing up and triggering the rest.

When that was said and done they deciphered the runes as best they could.
But thanks to their intelligences of 10 or so, and very few skill points spent in the right places, they only got a bare-bones reading of the stories on the columns.

One story was that of an ancient warrior woman name Vinnara who was so powerful that even her follower's joined her in undeath.

The other story was more interesting. It was that of a man named Invistis. He was the first being in the realms to discover the secrets of becoming a lich. Therefore he is the first lich, or rather, the prime lich. But his crime was discovered and he was placed in this dungeons.

Obviously, not before he leaked the secrets of becoming a lich.

I betcha he's pretty ticked about that too. He'd be a demi-lich by now.
And Vecna's a god even.
That'd put a damper on my mood.

Room N197: The party detected a pretty powerful evil behind this door, so they buffed up for it.
But it didn't matter.
A 40HD large mohrg stood behind the door. Combat began and lasted 2 rounds.
And the 2 not-so-large mohrgs in room N196 joined in to add another 2 rounds of combat.
But the poor, pathetic mohrgs were but a speed bump to the party.

Room N199: This room was basically a large closet containing only a 4' long lever.
The party, not having fond memories of levers, closed the door and left.

Room N192: This room was once a barracks, but is now rotted and left in ruins. Otherwise the room is empty.

Room N186: This room only gave the lingering effect of evil. It's inhabitants fled when it heard the party coming.

Hallway N188: Thanks to Krieg using Miracle to emulate arcane spells, he was able to stop the party from stepping on a couple of symbol traps. He led everyone around the symbols and moved on.

Room N190: Four strong points of evil are behind this door, so the party preps again. (They usually have enough power to prep 2 1/2 times per day.)

But the 4 large mohrgs only serve as targets for spells and sword points.

Hallway N189: Another set of symbols are on this door. They are summarily dispelled.

Senmonious detects evil behind the door and finds 5 strong points of evil, and a lingering overwhelming residual evil.

So they prep what they can and open the door...

Room N191: In this large room are 6 allips, half-hiding in statues, 2 invisible shield guardians (that the party can see...), and an ancient figure standing at the far end of the room.

It is Kasteoficiss, one of the warlords of the region.
There is no witty banter and no evil speech.

Combat begins immediately.

"Let's not waste the spells. This isn't big battle yet" - Jeff, right before entering this room.

Well the party had many buffs of their own, that I have pretty much stopped keeping heavy track of. Things like Haste, Death Ward (grrr), stat buff spells (Owl's Wisdom, et al.), energy protection spells, Heroism, etc.

But I can list what Kasteoficiss had on her: Death Watch, Sanctuary (just in case), Bull's Strength, Eagle's Splendor, Greater Spell Immunity (Flame Strike, Heal, Disintegrate, & Magic Missile), Shield of Law, True Seeing, Protection from Energy (lightning), Protection from Energy (cold), Invisibility Purge, and Freedom of Movement.
She was also wielding a Rod of Greater Maximize Spell.
Thanks to her incorporeal spies, and the sounds of combat from room N190, gave her plenty of time to prepare.

Round 1:
Thunderclease charges the allips on the north side of the room. Thanks to their hiding in the statues and their non-corporeal status, Cleez can't hit squat.
Valden steps into the room and uses Miracle to cast Reverse Gravity on Kasteoficiss (Kasty). But the room is 120' high, so instead of hitting the ceiling, she ends up floating 80' from the ground.
Kasty responds with a Hold Monster spell at Valden. Valden's Spell Turning kicks in and turns it back on her, but she's undead, so nothing happens.
Krieg enters the room and targets Kasty with a Greater Dispel Magic, ruining her Bull's Strength, Shield of Law, Invisibility Purge, & Freedom of Purge.
Dariel enters the room and hits Kasty with a Disintegrate. But she saves and only takes 5d6 damage.
The allips act with 3 of them babbling, 2 of them attacking Cleez, and one casting Prayer. Three of the allips are in a Silence zone because one of the clerics cast it on his helm.
Dariel fails his save versus the allip babbling. Now he stands in his square, fascinated.
One shield guardian swings at Valden. The DM thought they were invisible, but apparently everyone had See Invisible. Ruined that plan.
The other shield guardian released its stored spell; Dispel Magic. It cast it as the general dispel. This took out a few spells, notably Haste and Valden's Protection from Fire.
Senmonious takes on one of the shield guardians, protecting one of the party's flanks.

Round 2:
Thunderclease misses each and every attack thanks to the protections of the allips.
Valden, thinking that Kasty isn't dangerous at the moment, moves to attack the other shield guardian.
Kasty, who is a lot more dangerous than the party believed, sees 3 of the party standing close together. And each of them has personally assaulted her with spells. So she casts her Empowered Flame Strike, and uses her Greater Rod of Maximize. The Flame Strike does 120 points of fire damage with a reflex save DC of 22 to take 60.
Valden makes his save, and half of that is sent to Krieg thanks to Shield of Faith spell.
Krieg makes his save, but is pretty low on hp now.
Dariel rolls a too low on his save. Since he's just over 60hp, he's now a charred pile of elf.
Krieg has to cast Heal or he's dead.
The allips begin to attack the party. Their attacks are relatively futile since they only deal 1 point of damage, and that's only because of Prayer.
One shield guardian and Senmonious begin to trade blows.
The other shield guardian releases its own Dispel Magic. While it does remove some spells, nothing of importance comes to memory.

Round 3:
Thunderclease ignores the harmless allips and moves to one of the shield guardians.
Valden finishes off the guardian that Cleez hurt.
Kasty follows up with a weaker Flame Strike for 15d6 damage. By comparison to her last one, it's not as impressive.
Krieg uses his full round to move closer to Kasty.
The allips continue their fruitless attacks.
The last shield guardian and Senmonious continue to bash one another.

Round 4:
Thunderclease finally gets some hits in one the allips. He sends 2 of them running home to their mommas.
Valden joins Cleez in some allip smacking.
Kasty tries to push herself against the wall to get out of the Reverse Gravity effect. She fails.
Krieg steps within 5' of Kasty's location (she's still 80' up) and casts Prismatic Sphere, a domain spell for him.
The allips do...eh who cares.
The last shield guardian and Senmonious continue to bash one another.

Round 5: (Cool player tactic alert!)
Thunderclease finishes off the allips.
Valden dismisses his Reverse Gravity. This causes Kasteoficiss to drop 80' right into and through the Prismatic Sphere and slams into the ground. She makes every single save against the sphere, so only takes 70 damage from that. And she takes 8d6 points of damage from the sudden stop at the bottom of her fall.
Kasty uses her move action to stand up. Krieg gets a free swing and misses. She slams Krieg for 1d6+10 damage plus he hast to save versus mummy rot. He saves.
Krieg, suddenly not liking his location for mysterious reasons, casts Blade Barrier inside the sphere, in a circular pattern with a 5' radius.
This leaves Kasty with a whole 16 hit points, even though she saved.
Krieg then leaves the sphere and takes damage from his own Blade Barrier. It's probably safer that way.
Plus this party seems to be doing more damage to themselves than their opposition in this region.
The last shield guardian and Senmonious continue to bash one another. Both are low on hp.

Round 6:
Thunderclease moves to help Senmonious with his shield guardian opponent and steals Sen's kill.
Valden moves to join Krieg with taking on Kasty while rebuffing.
Kasty takes a 5' step into the center of both spell effects, casts Harm on herself and is back to max hp. She now in a nice protective cocoon.
Krieg heals himself.
Senmonious heals himself.

Round 7:
Thunderclease gets closer to Kasty while the clerics prepare.
Valden delays his action until Krieg is done with his.
Kasty, knowing she's about to be in trouble, casts Repulsion. But the spell is currently contained in the sphere. But that's ok.
Krieg uses his full round to dismiss both the Prismatic Sphere and the Blade Barrier.
This releases the Repulsion spell.
Thunderclease and Senmonious both fail their saves and are now not allowed to get close to Kasty. They are effectively out of combat now.
Valden casts Blade Barrier and puts in on top of Kasty.

Round 8:
Kasty steps out of the Blade Barrier and casts one of her own around herself.
Krieg casts Sunburst. All three combatants are now blind.
Valden blindly drops a Flame Strike where he thought Kasty would be.

Round 9:
Kasty steps out of the Blade Barriers and uses Miracle to cast a Mass Inflict Critical Wounds. The results are less than spectacular. (The DM was tired at this point, and probably should have made a better decision.)
Krieg casts Heal and blindly swings at Valden, hitting him and healing him. This removes his blindness.
Valden drops yet another Blade Barrier on top of Kasty.

Round 10:
Kasty once again steps out of the Blade Barrier and heals herself again with Harm.
Krieg uses Miracle to cure his blindness.
Valden moves to and attacks Kasty.

Round 11:
Kasty, thinking she's done for, cries out a prayer to her god and casts Firestorm and augmenting it with the Rod of Greater Maximize Spell. She lives through the spell, but the Krieg and Valden have to save versus the spell.
Both do.
Krieg heals himself.
Valden rips into her with his full attack.
She drops to the ground, finally at rest.

"Well done adventurer's!. Now stand aside!", bellowed out the voice of Invistis.

Three large iron golems are now noticed walking down the hallway to this room.

And we stopped the session on that cliffhanger.