Session #47

What a session!

This was one that we will probably remember for a long time.

And since this was our first session for almost a month, we were ready to game!
Ok, that’s a bit of a lie. But by 9pm, we ready to game!

We start sometime between 6 and 7pm. But as a Christmas gift to the group, Dale buys everyone pizza. So thanks to the question decisions, spell planning, and the usual bs’ing we do, we weren’t really into the groove of gaming until about 10pm.

Next week won’t be like that. You’ll see why later.

For a good part of the last week I’ve been trying to find a counter for Antimagic Field. I got a lead on a spell called Create Magic Field or something similar. But I couldn’t find it in the book I allow the players or myself to use for this campaign.

Then I thought that if they were hiding in the field, then the dread wraiths could come in and teach them a lesson. Nope. Someone online pointed out the folly there (incorporeal undead poof out while in the field).

Why was I bothering with that?
It’s because the party was still planning on finding Invistis and his phylactery prior to entering the final battle.
Now since I can’t quite railroad the party (that’s rarely any fun for players), I had to “guide” them the best I could.
I simply stated that a lich who didn’t want to be found, probably would not be able to be found.
I hoped that would be enough.

“What if they still wanted to hunt him down?”
Then they could do that all they wanted. Heck, I’d even wish them luck. Then we’d spend the night mapping out areas they hadn’t been to yet. No combats would happen, some traps would spring, and they would occasionally get a blip of evil on Senmonious’s evil radar.

Note: The party has been attributing these blips to Invistis’s scrying. They were wrong. Invistis had cut a deal with several of the wraiths left in the region. When Sen would get one of these blips, it wasn’t scrying; it was just a wraith spying on them from a safe distance. The wraiths were constantly reporting to Invistis the party’s whereabouts. Thus he could ambush the party when they were weak and avoid them at all other times.

Now had the party found a way to find him and could execute it properly to find Invistis, then I would let that happen. But any ideas they had for that, they kept to themselves.

But anyway, we stopped the last session after Invistis retreated away and placed his third key into one of the bronze doors.

They did a quick job of healing wounds and retreated 50’ to the prophecy room.

If you think about it, they were in that room not even 5 minutes before.

Next the party went about planning what spells to ask Krieg’s deity with a Commune spell.
The DM also made it clear that this would be the last such spell they would be casting anytime soon. For reasons why, see last session’s write-up for that.

They did a very thorough job planning their questions. And it seemed that the DM would get his wish of them just opening the door and get to the big fight, as their questions were asking for information about it and strengths and weakness.

Commune questions:
(As before “it” or “demon” refers the great unknown evil in the center of the region.)

1) Is it undead?
Yes
2) Is it immune to cold?
Yes
3) Electricity?
No
4) Fire?
No
5) Can it fly?
Yes
6) Can it see invisible?
Yes
7) Will is escape in 3 days without us using our key?
Yes
Ok, confession time on that one. The DM rolled some dice for when it would escape, just prior to the session (1d4 days + 1d24 hours + 2d30 minutes). Just something I though was funny.
8) Will it escape in 1 day without us using our key?
No
9) Is it more vulnerable to cold iron?
No
10) Is it more vulnerable to good-aligned weapons?
No
11) Blessed weapons?
No
12) Can it swallow us whole?
Yes.
13) Will acid resistance help us if swallowed?
Yes.
14) Is it an undead dragon?
No
15) Is it alone?
Yes.
16) Are the scrolls intended to be used inside the chamber?
Maybe
(The scrolls are the Imprisonment and Freedom divine scrolls they found a couple sessions ago.)
17) Do we have Invistis’s phylactery?
No.
I guess they thought that might have it with knowing it.
18) Does it have a breath weapon?
No
They were pretty pleased with that answer.

Then the room went dark and shadowy and the Candle of Invocation Krieg had in his backpack floated to the center of the room and lit up.
The smoke of it created an illusion of a dark place with a dimensional gate and large, but unseen, creature move through it.
The land on the other side of the gate was a beautiful farming land. He was contentedly plowing away at his land in the late evening.
Then a dark grey wall that party recognized as a negative energy field blasted him. It knocked him to the ground and few moments later he rose again. But he was dead, his skin ashen and the light of life was gone from his eyes.

Then the scene changed to that of a large scale battle, but still the creature was never seen.
They saw many soldiers of many races fighting along side heavenly beings against this thing and its hordes of undead swarming everywhere.
An elf yells out, “We can’t hope to defeat it! It’s too strong for us.”
The angel responds, “Then we must try to contain and imprison it!”
A new angel appears, “I know where...”

The scene changed once again, this time to a large, dark room. In the center was a writhing blackness whose writhing was slowing down as spellcasters finished their chanting from the edges of the room.

Then they heard the voice of Krieg’s deity, “You can defeat it.”

Then the last of the candle was consumed and the room returned to its normal state.

Dale: “So this is the purple worm from hell.”

Then the DM read a sentence from the book about if the PCs fail to defeat the worm and it makes its way to the surface, then the will be able to use the “World’s Largest Graveyard”; a module that will take the PCs from levels 21 to 40.

With that they discuss anything they might need equipment-wise before they stir this pot.
The only thing they can come up with is a Cloak of Resistance +5 for Thunderclease, mainly because they want him to make any Will saves versus mind control. A Thundercat under the control of a lich doesn’t strike them as very lovely thought.

Whiners.

But there’s a problem with going shopping at the garrison. The ruby star and the scrolls can’t leave the region. And the party certainly can’t just drop them in a convenient little hiding place while they all leave. So they give Senmonious some trade items and gold, give him some protective spells, cast Wind Walk (or whatever it is), and he flies to the garrison while the party waits for him at the region’s protective wall.

When Sen returns, he has some not so good news; the garrison is packing up and moving to the elven garrison area. Apparently, thanks to the party and the garrison, this section of the dungeon was pretty well cleared out, at least enough to not be as much of a problem as before. But the elven garrison was having some troubles, so the decision was made to the heavenly forces to the elven garrison.

That meant that the “store” was closing up shop as well. So Sen only had a limited selection of things to buy. So he bought a Cloak of Resistance +3, a Ring of Counterspells, and some various potions.

Sen wanted to find Kelara and possibly use the garrison’s library to research information about the World Eater, but he never seemed to find her.

(Read that all as “The DM feels the party has everything they need from this point on. No further help will be given.”)

Afterwards the party did a lot of planning and researching of various spells. They couldn’t find a spell that removes or reduces spell resistance, but they struck gold with Sublime Revelry.

The DM is having second thoughts about this spell though. It’s a ninth level divine spell that protects several people from mind-affecting spells and cuts melee and ranged weapon damage in half. But that is a live and learn kind of thing. There have been a lot of those in this campaign.

It’s a good thing for the party that we have had that many exceptions. Things like resting and getting your spells back after only a couple hours of activity.

So the party rested, memorized spells, and buffed up with their minute per level or better spells, and then left the prophecy room. And as expected, the paranoid party, save Krieg – but through no choice of his own, cowered under the protection of Valden’s Antimagic Field.

Since they had rested, a blanket of fear had filled the region. It was probably the result of the World Eater’s power and its weakening bonds. Sen’s Detect Evil received a blanket of faint evil everywhere.

And it was no big surprise when everyone made their fear saving throw.

They marched to the western bronze door (N158). As expected, nothing obstructed them.

Then Valden drops the Antimagic Field and the rounds per level buff spells are cast. By the time the spells are done being thrown around, everyone is large-sized except for Dariel.

When Thunderclease is about to place they into place, a negative energy wave blasts from within the room. Whether or not the wave is intentional or random is unknown, but Cleez finishes placing the star.

Small map.

The see a 200’ diameter domed room, 150’ tall at the edges, 200’ tall at its vaulted center. The outer ring is merely 3’ high with several thick 20’ tall columns with softly glowing white sphere on the tops. The inner, segmented ring is 5’ tall. The glowing red circles disappear once the door is opened, the last bit of containing magic

And on the 5’ dais in the center is a large coiling mass of translucent black flesh. It raises its great head and telepathically says “Thanks” to the party.

His appreciation didn’t last long.
Initiative was rolled.

The special qualities of the room are: intense heat, intense cold, powerful desecration that basically eliminates turning undead as an option (-14 to the turn roll, -12 to charisma when trying), and simply casting a spell requires the caster to beat a spell resistance of 20.

Round 1

(Yeah, I did a real bad job of drawing the map on the board. So sue me. I’ll try to do it better next time, ok?)

Key:
The red/brown thing at the door is Cleez.
The silvery thing on the 2”x2” base is Senmonious.
The Ral-Partha fire giant is Valden.
The barely visible human-sized thing in the red toga is Dariel.
The Ral-Partha stone giant is Krieg.
The blue-black serpentine thing is the World Eater.

(Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures, I’m running out of web space and the original pictures take up 1.25MB. I only have 5MB web space total. If anyone knows of a way I can get more for free, or if you would like me to e-mail the originals to you, just e-mail me.)

The World Eater lets out a loud rumbling howl.
As if on cue, nearly 2 dozen dread wraiths and a over dozen wraiths burst through the walls.
Krieg: Since the magical weapon he has, a scythe with an energy blade, doesn’t hurt undead, he decides to use it as a staff and casts Greater Magic Weapon on it. He then flies into the room (Fly is one of many spells that everyone has on them.)
Cleez: Sees a target and attacks it. With a single swing he hurts a dread wraith nicely. It doesn’t seem to notice.
Valden: Takes Cleez’s cue and attacks a dread wraith on the opposite side of the door entrance. He misses.
Dariel: Moves to the edge of the room and casts Firebrand. He does over 50 fire damage to half of the wraiths in the room, but nothing dies.
Senmonious: Moves to Valden’s side and helps him. He hits, but does his usual nothing damage.

Round 2

Sean (about the glass beads): “It’s like Christmas.”
Justin: “No, it’s like Heineken.”
Sean: “No, it’s like Christmas lights.”
Justin: “Christmas reminds me of Heineken.”

Key:
Red glass beads are dread wraiths.
Green glass beads are regular wraiths.

Dread Wraiths: Those not near the party fly to the center of the room. Those that are near the party attack the party and then fly to the center of the room. The damage they do is negligible thanks to Sublime Revelry and Death Ward.
Then another pack of over 2 dozen dread wraiths appear through the wall, taking the place of the originals.
Wraiths: Swarm the party and attack. Their damage is minor, but damage isn’t their job. Over another dozen appear through the walls.

Jeff: “Probably every bit of undead left in the region is coming back to get us.”

World Eater: “Die flesh beasts!” It casts Mass Hold Monster at everyone but Cleez, but it does nothing thanks to their Freedom (or Freedom of Movement, whichever) and Sublime Revelry spells.
Krieg: Does a full attack at a nearby wraith. It takes over 100 damage before it dies.

Jeff: “We’re wasting our time. Killing all of these things is pointless. We need to move here and take this thing out (the World Eater).”

Cleez, Valden, and Senmonious: Abandon their attacks on the nearest wraiths and dread wraiths and flies their full distance to get as close as possible to the World Eater.
Dariel: Thinking that standing alone in a hallway is a bad idea, casts Greater Invisibility on himself and then flies up and out of the hallway.

Round 3

Key:
Blue glass beads are dread wraiths as I was running out of red ones.

Dread wraiths: The inner ring of them get right next to the World Eater and change into a swirling black cloud of protection completely around the World Eater. They are still wraiths, but the party now must get past them before they can hurt the World Eater.
The newest dread wraiths get closer to the center of the room. And they are replaced by the last wave of dread wraiths to come.
Wraiths: They continue to swarm the nearest party member to harass and attack. And even more of them appear through the walls.

That is the last wave to come of all of the wraiths. In total there are 40 wraiths and 72 dread wraiths.

Aaron: “You’re not bringing in the stuff we decided not to kill are you?”
Sean (smiling) “Now would make you think that?”

World Eater: Casts Haste on all of the nearest undead. It then flies up 30’ and its shell of dread wraiths follow.
Krieg: Casts Ray of Light (or whatever the spell it is that makes a lightning bolt of light) at the World Eater and its mass of dread wraiths.
In doing so he receives 6 attacks of opportunity from nearby wraiths. And what proves to be the theme for the night, the DM can’t even roll a double digit in all 6 rolls.
So Krieg gets the spell off but does not manage to beat the 35 spell resistance the World Eater has, so only several dread wraiths take the damage.
Krieg then casts a quickened Searing Light at the World Eater and successfully beats it spell resistance for 35 points of damage.
Cleez: Attacks at a nearby dread wraith, and misses 4 out of 5 attacks.

Jeff: “Ok, well I might regret this...”
Justin: “Look at me; I don’t regret anything I’ve done.”
We all laugh.

Valden: Afraid the World Eater will escape, flies up and gets as close to the World Eater as the dread wraith cloud/shell will allow and casts Antimagic Field. This causes Valden and the World Eater to fall to the ground as both of their Fly spells are suppressed.
Additionally the area of the wraith shell covered by the Antimagic Field is open.
Valden is only slight dinged from the fall, but is otherwise fine.
For now.
Dariel: Flies higher and closer to the combat and casts Delayed Blast Fireball (no delay) to an area outside of the Antimagic Field. The World Eater and several dread wraiths take 15d6 fire damage.
Kavilljor Ur-wrathi: Mohrgs riding wyvern zombie mounts, 3 from the west and 2 from the south, fly into the room. Then the powerful dark magic of the World Eater converts them into ghostly knights on horseback called Kavilljor Ur-wrathi.
(A thanks goes out to Quillion for these guys...too bad I didn't do them justice.)
Senmonious: Does a full attack on a dread wraith and kills it.

Round 4

Key:
White squares of paper are Kavilljor Ur-wrathi.
The upside-down 5” mirror is the Antimagic Field.

Dread wraiths: The second wave of dread wraiths joins the cloud. Eight of the dread wraiths within the cloud join together to create a nightwalker that appears near Sen.
Nightwalker: Moves to and attacks Senmonious, but the DM rolls a 2 and misses.
Wraiths: Continue their objective to harass the party. The most damage they seem to do is 1-3 points. It seems almost not worth to roll their attacks.
World Eater: Valden is now an unprotected-by-magic and scrumptious looking meal. He bites at Valden and easily hits doing 8d8+25 damage. He then gets a free grapple and handily wins. On its next round it gets to swallow Valden for free.

Jeff: “I didn’t quite think this through.”
Justin: “That’s why I’m not a spellcaster. You never make the mistake of saying, ‘Oh shit, I killed the enemy!’”

Krieg: Casts Acid Fog above the World Eater. The intent is deal a little acid damage and use the movement slowing aspect of the spell to ruin any further attempts by the World Eater to escape by flying away.
Cleez: He’s surrounded by 5 damaged regular wraiths, and by the end of his full attack action, he’s only surrounded by 1.
Valden: Dismisses the Antimagic Field. No longer suppressed, his Freedom of Movement spell kicks in and frees him from the World Eater’s maw. He gets as far away as his little giant dwarf legs let him.
Dariel: Casts Firebrand again. He also modifies it with his Purify Spell feat (does no damage to good-aligned creatures, does extra damage to evil-aligned creatures). And he also has a Rod of Greater Maximize Spell, which he also adds to the spell. So just about everything evil in the room takes 120 points of fire damage (DC23 Reflex save for a mere 60), while the party is immune to it.
Many regular wraiths go poof.
A couple dread wraiths in the cloud do the same.
Even a Kavilljor Ur-wrathi and its mount bite it. It never hurt anyone. It never had the opportunity to.
(At this point it is almost not worth talking about damage, just whether something dies or not.)

Dale (as Senmonious): “I love my little elven buddy.”

Kavilljor Ur-wrathi: Three charge Valden and one charges Cleez. As they approach, the whole party (not Sen, the paladin) has to make 4 DC24 saves versus fear or face the cumulative effects of it. Out of 16 rolls, 14 saves are made. Only Cleez and Dariel are shaken. Three miss, but one crits Sen, but the damage just rolls off of him thanks to the magic buffing everyone has.
Senmonious: Smites the nearby nightwalker and hits it with his other attacks. But the DR15 it has reduces all of the damage to a minor scratch.

Round 5

Big black nightwalker mini is actually a nightwalker. Go figure.

Dread Wraiths: The last of them join the cloud while 8 join to make another nightwalker and 4 join to make a nightwing.
Nightwing: Flies away from the Acid Fog and up out of melee.
Nightwalkers: The newest one goes after Cleez. The other one attempts to disarm Senmonious. It almost succeeds. Had it succeeded, next round it would broken Sen’s sword. Oh boy did he not like that.
Wraiths: Only 6 of them left, and they’re really low on hp.
World Eater: Low on options at the moment, it casts Haste again to the newest undead.
Krieg: Shoots another ray of light (lightning bolt thing) through the mass of undead. It does some nice damage, but nothing drops.
Skeleton Horde: from the southern hallway emerges a skeleton horde.
Cleez: Not liking the idea of losing his +2 holy greatsword, exclusively attacks the nightwalker. He once again misses 4 out of 5 attacks.
Valden: Feeling a bit trigger happy, casts Mass Heal. He places it where it will heal 180 damage to Senmonious and himself and will do 180 points of damage to undead within range (90 if they make a will save). This drops 10 dread wraiths, 1 Kavilljor Ur-wrathi and mount, and one mount of a Kavilljor Ur-wrathi.

Jeff: “I should have memmed more than one of those.”

Dariel: Repeats the nuclear blast from last round. Ten more dread wraiths in the cloud die, a Kavilljor Ur-wrathi and mount dies, and the Kavilljor Ur-wrathi that lived through the Mass Heal didn’t live through the nuke.
Senmonious: Attacks and finishes off the nightwalker. He did very little damage to it really, but it was low on hp thanks to the Mass Heal and Firebrand.

Round 6

Key:
The unpainted Ral Partha griffin is a Nightwing.
The orange square of paper is a skeleton horde.

Dread wraiths: Give birth to another nightwing.
Nightwings: The new one flies up to its brother. The first one attempts a Greater Dispel Magic on the Acid Fog spell. It fails horribly.
Nightwalker: It attempts to disarm Cleez and fails.
Because the DM can’t roll for smurf!
World Eater: Its skin shudders as it releases a negative energy wave. The wave heals 8d8 damage to the undead in the room. The party’s Death Wards reduce the damage to 0, but they still have to make a saving throw. On a natural 1, the Death Ward is ripped away. It once again Hastes any new nearby undead.
Krieg: Sick of everyone else dropping undead throws another Ray of Light into the mass of undead, but none drop. He follows it up with a quickened maximized (from a lesser rod) Searing Light. He rolls a natural 1 on his attack roll.
Skeleton Hordes: A new one enters the room the east. The other moves towards the center of the room.
Skeletal Pyrohydra (12 heads): Enters the room. The party notices that its vertebrae are connected by iron. Something they’ve seen before.

Aaron: “No more being nice to the DM’s environment. We’re killing everything we come across from now on.”

Cleez: Attacks his nightwalker and hits with 3 attacks, doing 191 points of damage (146 of DR15). It doesn’t die.
Valden: Joins Sen’s side in attacking the nightwalker.
Dariel: Drops his last nuke (no more components for the spell, and he’s used all 3 daily charges from the rod). He drops one of the Kavilljor Ur-wrathi and a Nightwing.
Senmonious: Attacks the nightwalker but doesn’t drop it.

Round 7

Key:
The light blue square is the skeletal pyrohydra.
The treant is nothing. It’s just in an inconvenient spot.

(If you're wondering why I'm using squares of paper instead using a different but similar figure, it's because this combat is confusing enough, paper helps.)

Dread wraiths: Give birth to another nightwalker.
Nightwing: Another attempt at dispelling the Acid Fog. Another natural 1 by the DM.
Nightwalkers: The new one goes after Sen and scratches him. The other attempts to disarm Cleez and fails again.
World Eater: Casts Deeper Darkness around itself.
Krieg: Throws another ray of light at the nightwalker before it can destroy Cleez’s sword. The nightwalker dies. Krieg rejoices because he finally got something.
Skeleton Horde: One attacks Sen and can only miss on a natural 1. Surprising the DM doesn’t roll that and does a whole 8 points of damage after all spells are taken into account.
The other horde moves closer to the combat.
Cleez: Free of nearby combatants, he attacks into the wraith cloud. He hits several times and does a lot of damage, but none drop.
Young Adult Red Dragon Skeleton: Walks in through the western hallway.
Valden: Attacks the last Kavilljor Ur-wrathi and drops it.
Dariel: Casts another no delay Delayed Blast Fireball into the mass around the World Eater. Nothing dies.
Sen: Flies away from the melee and casts Divine Sacrifice and fails to beat the spell resistance of the room. He lost 10hp and a spell and gained nothing.

It was then 2am.
It seemed like a good point to stop, so we did.
Although the DM and Dale wanted to continue on, we were in the minority.

Next session we start where we left off.
Invistis makes an appearance.
And the DM redraws the battle map so that the representation of the circular room looks like a circle.

Until then!