Rappan Athuk #16 - The Cold Crypts
We’re nearing the end of our Third Edition gaming.
That, of course, assumes that Fourth Edition delivers what was promised.
I expect it to for the most part. There are too many people on ENWorld who have played it and like it, or even love it.
It still has its detractors, but 3E had those too, and still do.
For this session Brian was out, and probably will be for a little while.
As expected, Aaron brought back Dargotu for the night(s).
So of 8 possible classes, 3 of them are sorcerers and two are favored souls.
I’ve stopped keeping track of levels, because let’s face it, I’m ready for 4E and I’m just going through the motions until then.
But at least I remember enough to give a decent accounting of what happened.
Since we stopped right as the fight ended last week, this week we started up with them searching around the temple for treasure and secret doors.
They dumped all of the bodies into the lava one they’d been thoroughly searched.
Other than regaining some magic items and a few new ones, the party didn’t find much.
Granted there was the large golden statue of Orcus with emerald eyes, but fearing a curse, they let it go for now.
They found the secret door the vrock came out of and checked that room out.
Inside were four sarcophagi of ancient knights and 3 spectres hiding in the walls.
Had the PC’s not had enough spells to use for Death Ward, it probably would have hurt a lot more.
Only Dargotu received a negative level, and later he was able to remove it with a save.
Once they robbed the sarcophagi (of many nice magical weapons), the left that room and checked out the only remaining, unsearched door from the temple.
It was a small room with stairs leading down.
With a Rope Trick spell, they rested right there in the tiny room.
It was almost a repeat of the 15 minute adventuring days they did back in Region N of the WLD.
The next level was very cold, with the usual visible breath and chilling aura that only undead dungeons exhume.
The stairs deposited them in a room full of ruined coffins and five wights.
The wights were lucky enough to last 3 rounds.
After searching the room and finding nothing, they left the room using the only passage available.
Halfway through the hallway they noticed a 10’ plate of metal blended in with wall.
Sensing a trap, they searched every inch of the hallway and wall before moving past the plate.
Once everyone was past it, Skwee decided to tap on the metal and heard a bong as if there was nothing behind the wall.
Noting that for later, they still moved on to the next room – another room full of ruined coffins.
There were no wights this time around.
They next explored a series of foggy rooms, with the only thing interesting about them being a large green slime on the ceiling that missed them and was summarily burned out of existence.
The next room was yet another large room full of ruined coffins, this time there were a dozen wights and a special wight wearing plate-mail armor.
Other than Dargotu getting confused by the gaze of the special wight, the combat was pretty easy and lasted maybe 6 rounds and sadly no one lost a level.
The next room was a soot-filled room with two large, magically heated cauldrons filled with glowing molten rock or metal.
Sensing another killer death trap they searched every inch of the wall and floor.
The only exit out of the room was one that was blocked by a set of portcullis that Brad (Aaron’s fighter/rogue) lifted easily and made sure wouldn’t fall back down.
Beyond was yet another set of stairs leading down to a new level.
Something in the air was making their heads a little fuzzy (-2 to concentration checks).
I had warned the group of this level, but didn’t realize they’d get to it already.
It’s a level full of mazes, and at the bottom of the stairs the hallway ended with a T-intersection. No matter which direction the party chose, east or west, they would be entering a maze.
Of course the party was unaware of this as of yet, and headed east.
Quickly a mustard jelly attacked them, but multiple Scorching Rays ended its reign of terror before the end of round 2.
The party was un-phased by the jelly, but they were not happy with the 5’ passages they were seeing, so they back tracked before they were even actually in the maze.
So they turned around and went west, to a different maze.
They had to scorch away another mustard jelly, and were about 60’ deep into the maze before they finally figured out that it was a maze and turned around.
But it was too late. They hadn’t been paying attention to their steps coming into the maze, and made a wrong choice on the way out.
They spent at least an hour (game time, not real) in the maze before they escaped from the maze.
And rather than me just constantly ask “left or right?” to the party, I just asked them “left or right” when it came to an intersection that might have an outcome that may not end in a dead-end.
Once they got out of the maze they were relieved for about 10 seconds, that’s when a squad of 4 hellhounds jumped them, with a mind flayer holding their reigns.
They were expecting a minotaur.
Three of the hellhounds died from a Coldball. The fourth died on round 2.
Brad and Skwee failed the save versus the mind blast from the mind flayer, and were effectively stunned out of the combat.
But in spite of half the party being down, the mind flayer was in trouble and Plane Shifted when he determined that he could do nothing to these adventurers, yet.
With that the party headed back upstairs to the metal plate they suspected might be a door.
Skwee cast a couple of Dispel Magic spells, and eventually the plate twisted open, revealing a turn-style type door.
And we stopped there.
That, of course, assumes that Fourth Edition delivers what was promised.
I expect it to for the most part. There are too many people on ENWorld who have played it and like it, or even love it.
It still has its detractors, but 3E had those too, and still do.
For this session Brian was out, and probably will be for a little while.
As expected, Aaron brought back Dargotu for the night(s).
So of 8 possible classes, 3 of them are sorcerers and two are favored souls.
I’ve stopped keeping track of levels, because let’s face it, I’m ready for 4E and I’m just going through the motions until then.
But at least I remember enough to give a decent accounting of what happened.
Since we stopped right as the fight ended last week, this week we started up with them searching around the temple for treasure and secret doors.
They dumped all of the bodies into the lava one they’d been thoroughly searched.
Other than regaining some magic items and a few new ones, the party didn’t find much.
Granted there was the large golden statue of Orcus with emerald eyes, but fearing a curse, they let it go for now.
They found the secret door the vrock came out of and checked that room out.
Inside were four sarcophagi of ancient knights and 3 spectres hiding in the walls.
Had the PC’s not had enough spells to use for Death Ward, it probably would have hurt a lot more.
Only Dargotu received a negative level, and later he was able to remove it with a save.
Once they robbed the sarcophagi (of many nice magical weapons), the left that room and checked out the only remaining, unsearched door from the temple.
It was a small room with stairs leading down.
With a Rope Trick spell, they rested right there in the tiny room.
It was almost a repeat of the 15 minute adventuring days they did back in Region N of the WLD.
The next level was very cold, with the usual visible breath and chilling aura that only undead dungeons exhume.
The stairs deposited them in a room full of ruined coffins and five wights.
The wights were lucky enough to last 3 rounds.
After searching the room and finding nothing, they left the room using the only passage available.
Halfway through the hallway they noticed a 10’ plate of metal blended in with wall.
Sensing a trap, they searched every inch of the hallway and wall before moving past the plate.
Once everyone was past it, Skwee decided to tap on the metal and heard a bong as if there was nothing behind the wall.
Noting that for later, they still moved on to the next room – another room full of ruined coffins.
There were no wights this time around.
They next explored a series of foggy rooms, with the only thing interesting about them being a large green slime on the ceiling that missed them and was summarily burned out of existence.
The next room was yet another large room full of ruined coffins, this time there were a dozen wights and a special wight wearing plate-mail armor.
Other than Dargotu getting confused by the gaze of the special wight, the combat was pretty easy and lasted maybe 6 rounds and sadly no one lost a level.
The next room was a soot-filled room with two large, magically heated cauldrons filled with glowing molten rock or metal.
Sensing another killer death trap they searched every inch of the wall and floor.
The only exit out of the room was one that was blocked by a set of portcullis that Brad (Aaron’s fighter/rogue) lifted easily and made sure wouldn’t fall back down.
Beyond was yet another set of stairs leading down to a new level.
Something in the air was making their heads a little fuzzy (-2 to concentration checks).
I had warned the group of this level, but didn’t realize they’d get to it already.
It’s a level full of mazes, and at the bottom of the stairs the hallway ended with a T-intersection. No matter which direction the party chose, east or west, they would be entering a maze.
Of course the party was unaware of this as of yet, and headed east.
Quickly a mustard jelly attacked them, but multiple Scorching Rays ended its reign of terror before the end of round 2.
The party was un-phased by the jelly, but they were not happy with the 5’ passages they were seeing, so they back tracked before they were even actually in the maze.
So they turned around and went west, to a different maze.
They had to scorch away another mustard jelly, and were about 60’ deep into the maze before they finally figured out that it was a maze and turned around.
But it was too late. They hadn’t been paying attention to their steps coming into the maze, and made a wrong choice on the way out.
They spent at least an hour (game time, not real) in the maze before they escaped from the maze.
And rather than me just constantly ask “left or right?” to the party, I just asked them “left or right” when it came to an intersection that might have an outcome that may not end in a dead-end.
Once they got out of the maze they were relieved for about 10 seconds, that’s when a squad of 4 hellhounds jumped them, with a mind flayer holding their reigns.
They were expecting a minotaur.
Three of the hellhounds died from a Coldball. The fourth died on round 2.
Brad and Skwee failed the save versus the mind blast from the mind flayer, and were effectively stunned out of the combat.
But in spite of half the party being down, the mind flayer was in trouble and Plane Shifted when he determined that he could do nothing to these adventurers, yet.
With that the party headed back upstairs to the metal plate they suspected might be a door.
Skwee cast a couple of Dispel Magic spells, and eventually the plate twisted open, revealing a turn-style type door.
And we stopped there.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 7:37 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home