Rappan Athuk #10 - The Shrine of Heironeous

I stopped awhile ago keeping track of 4E information leaked out to us players.

It was more of a chore trying to figure out what was real and what wasn’t, so I pay little attention to anything that isn’t directly released by WotC. Even then I just look at it enough to get the idea.

I just don’t have the time anymore.

Writing blog posts takes more than an hour to do (at least for my longwinded style), that’s why I’ve been getting behind a bit.

But I make sure to set aside the time to do it.

Last session we ended with the group having returned to town from another near-TPK, but most of them having made sixth level.

We fast-forwarded to the next morning as the party had nothing to take care of other than getting the magic ring they got off the babau demon identified (a simple Ring of Protection +1).

Ok, while I’m thinking about it:

Saver worships Farlanghn, a neutral deity.

Javier worships Corellon, a good deity.

Gehei worships Nerull, an evil deity.

Spot worships St. Cuthbert, a neutral deity (with good leanings).

I wrote that down wrong last week.

That comes in to play later, and I wrote it down wrong in last session’s write-up.

Last session (yesterday on the timeline) they had set out to find a shrine to Heironeous somewhere out in the hills to the north, but had not made it.

This morning they’re going to try again.

They were ambushed by a pair of ettins along the way, each attack from the sides while the party was traveling between a pair of hills.

The party seemed confused the first few rounds, with no communication going on, but after that the ettins were toast.

Justin did whine because he thought it was unrealistic for a two-headed creature to get more attacks than a head one-headed creature. I pointed out that he’s playing a game where dragons and magic exists, so don’t worry too much about realism.

Justin to Brian: “Since you took out an ettin, you get a cookie.” (Hands Brian a cookie.)

Sean: “So I get a cookie if I take a PC down?”

Justin: “Hell no! Well…unless it’s Brian.”

After healing up and the usual treasure grabbing, they started moving again, eventually coming to a rivulet whose water was cold and moving fast thanks to the still melting snow.

There had once been a bridge, but it had collapsed recently.

That left the party with option of jumping the bridge or finding another option.

Since the skill system makes jumping 15’ not too hard, they go for the long jump option.

Spot makes it with no problem, as does Javier.

Saver falls quite short of the needed 15 on the roll (he totaled a 5), and belly-flops into the 40 degree water.

Spot and Javier are holding a rope that is tied to Saver, but they botch their strength checks three times in a row and lose grasp of the rope.

At this point Saver is feeling some good hypothermia, and is possibly lost had GI not drunk a Potion of Fly (he got off the boss ogre Ambro) and flown down stream and saved Saver.

Once everyone is safely on the other side of the river they make a fire and set up a temporary camp so Saver can dry off and warm up.

An hour into it and Saver is feeling a bit better, so they prep up to move, and that’s when the random encounter roll comes up as 1, meaning a pair of scrags burst from the frigid water and attack.

The scrags’ rending ability tore the party up, and the regeneration just made the encounter that much riskier.

To add a little something to it, I gave Dale a 50/50 chance that his spell component pouch was still too waterlogged to use successfully each time. Saver’s first attempt at casting Fireball ended in a fizzle.

Saver proceeded to blast the scrags with the non-component fire spell Scorching Ray.

This combat was an uphill fight, but it does end eventually when both trolls are dropped within a couple rounds of each other (back into the water too) followed by GI pulling them out of the water with his scythe to be delivered a coup de grace right afterwards.

After that they spend another hour to make sure that Saver’s spell component pouch is nice and dry.

Rather than rest for the night (it’s only around 4pm) they move on, and in a couple of hours they spot an indent in one of the hills that turns out to be the shrine they’re looking for (the symbol of Heironeous and two carvings in the stone of the hill of full-plated warriors was the give-away).

Being paranoid they enter the place with buff spells cast, weapons out, and GI leading the way (he has an AC of 25).

First thing to happen is a Blade Barrier popping up in front of them, hitting GI, then a deep booming voice demands to know what they’re doing.

Long story short, inside the shrine are a pair of hound archons (Aurell and Duvrin) who had taken up temporary residence in the shrine to their god until they felt guided somewhere else. And it was revealed that the Blade Barrier trap was only triggered and only damages evil beings.

Everyone now knows that GI is evil, but everyone in the party still likes him and can vouch for him. But since neither archon can control the trap, GI has to spend the night outside (and luckily has no encounters).

The shrine itself was down quite a ways and was lit brightly by hidden sources, with a marble floor inlaid with gems and the symbol of Heironeous. Next to the altar was a set of bright shining full-plate armor on a stand. Of course there was an offering box, which the party lightened up on copper with.

The party left everything alone just in case it was animated or otherwise protected.

Everyone except GI rested in the shrine and the next morning they left, and for the heck of it they continued north along the faded trail until the hills ended and was replaced by plains.

At that end was another ruined guardhouse. This time it was completely abandoned, and they aren’t sure if it’s a stable building or not, though they certainly searched it inside and out.

So their next destination was the village of Lhend along the familiar to them faded road, then back to the dungeon.

They had to kill the two ettins again, but this time the ettins were skeletons. It was hardly a fight.

Back in Lhend they rested, restocked on supplies, and left.

Campaign Day #32

They decided that they were going to look for the ruined tower once again, which they expected to be quick, but poor rolling turned it into an all day affair.

When they finally found it, they found that a group of bugbears led by an ogre had moved in.

Thanks to fully functional Fireball spells, the fight was not exactly what you would call a challenge. Even giving them all maximum hit points didn’t do much, maybe just an extra round of combat for the DM to miss rolls on.

The party once again rested since it was late thanks to them getting lost.

The next morning they found the trail, had no encounters, and we stopped once they had made it to the precipice of the dungeon of Rappan Athuk.

Next week I believe should be level 3.