Thunderspire Labyrinth #7 & #8
Ok, let’s fit two sessions into one entry so I can be nice and caught up for a day.
Our lineup for session #7 (full house):
Aaron, playing Valenae, the level 7 eladrin rogue
Scott, playing Earl, the level 6 dragonborn paladin
Mike, playing Ander, the level 6 elf cleric with some ranger multi-classing
Justin, playing Stout, the level 6 dwarf fighter
Brian, playing Hadarai, the level 5 eladrin wizard
Dale, playing Brom, the level 5 tiefling warlock
Last we stopped with some runt of a kobold giving the party a message from someone in the organization that the party is taking on.
He needs their help, and wants to help them if they help him and he would like to meet them in a cavern in the labyrinth.
Additionally, the party has been tasked to find the missing Mage of Saruun, Paldemar. The party predicts that the person who wrote the note is also Paldemar.
They also predict the meeting with him will be an ambush. They are right of course. I could have done something more to make this coincidence less expected, but I’ve been to busy to try.
Their ambushers were a pair of tieflings and a large bronze minotaur construct called a bronze warder.
Expecting a trap and being prepared for a trap is two different things.
Combat began the moment the party started entering the room as the tieflings blasted them with ranged attacks and the bronze warder pushed boulder into the entrance trapping some of the party in the cavern, some out of the cavern, and some crushed a bit by the boulder (for 2d8+5 damage).
“Hooray! It feels great to be bloodied and I haven’t even done anything yet.”
- Justin, whining like a little girl
Poor Stout missed half the combat thanks to that boulder, but the party still won the fight without much of an issue.
On one of the tieflings were three scrolls. In the first, Paldemar instructed his agents to kill the party and deliver them to the Blackfang gnolls. The second scroll offered the bodies of the party as tribute to Maldrick Scarmaker, priest of Yeenoghu and chief of the Blackfang tribe. The third scroll was a map to a place in the labyrinth known as the Well of Demons.
They discussed lugging the giant bronze warder statue back to the hall, but chose to find the Well of Demons as their next clue to finding Paldemar (because these modules are nothing if not predictable.)
Their knowledge skills gave them simple information about the Well of Demons; a place where the demon prince Baphomet’s priests went to train and gain his blessings.
After nearly a mile of traveling the labyrinth, a random encounter with some gnolls (which showed the party how nasty gnolls can be), they find the first room of the Well.
It’s a very disappointing square room full of cracks. The only interesting things are a pair of pillars with minotaur heads, and humanoid creature trying to hide behind another pillar in the back of the room.
Playing like they didn’t notice the creature, the party began to head to another part of the room to investigate some other feature. That’s when all hell broke loose.
First, the minotaur heads spoke in deep and loud voices:
Greetings, seekers of Baphomet’s boundless glory
Those who prove unworthy of his attention
Shall be claimed forever as his slaves
Those who prove worthy
Shall be granted power beyond mortal reckoning
Mask, bell, blade, and tome
Second, mouth-covered tentacles erupted from below them, two chokers popped out of their hiding places near the ceiling on those same pillars, and the humanoid creature, a ghoul, charged at the party.
The tentacle creature had a threatening reach of 4, making it very hard (and irritating) to fight. This thing could grab and hold onto anyone that came within reach of it, and if they escaped they’d probably get grabbed again in another round.
The chokers just made the bad situation worse doing pretty much the same as the tentacle creature, but they were more mobile and out of reach of the party’s melee types.
The ghoul steered clear of the party members dealing with the other monsters and chose to charge into the casters of the party. It would have worked better for him had they not had a cleric in that group, but he did delay them helping out…
Stout and Valenae had the hardest time dealing with the kill the tentacle thing. But once they took it out (a long and slow process) and the casters took out the ghoul, the rest of the combat was a wash.
And we ended that session there.
Our lineup for session #8 is the same as session #7, just without Scott (Earl):
After that last grabbing and groping fight, the party moves on to a section of the dungeon that reeks of filth and sweat and interrupt some gnolls playing a game of dice. They also hear several frantic hyenas in the background.
The poor hyenas were half-starved. If only some food would conveniently walk into their lair.
The barks from the hyenas alerted the gnolls to the party’s presence, which gave one of them time to free the hyenas.
They also tried to lure the party to an intersection to dual-flank them, but that didn’t quite work.
Had hyenas had a better AC and more hit points this fight would have been more interesting. But since they don’t, the fight was over pretty quick.
As the party was resting up from this fight an apparition of a quasit (demon) appeared before the party as an emissary of Demogorgon (a foe of Yeenoghu) and offered to give them information at the cost of 100gp per question or a small bit of their life force (1 healing surge).
He lived up to his end of the bargain, but only gave very simple answers.
The Q&A:
Where is Paldemar? (Brom paid a healing surge)
He is in the Shrine of Vecna.
What allies does he have? (Stout paid a healing surge)
He has with him a force of norkers.
Where is the Shrine of Vecna? (100gp from the group treasure)
It is in the Tower of Mysteries.
They gave up after that. The trades weren’t worth the information.
Prior to entering the next room they heard the terrified screams of a large pig.
Inside they found a dire boar chained to the floor and in a cage, with several arrows sticking out of it, and 4 hyenas circling the cage and several gnoll archers taking shots at it from behind a wall of hay.
This fight was another minor one that drained the party of healing surges.
And now, thanks to a minor skill challenge, they have befriended a new pet, kind of.
Ander remembered reading a “Missing” sign in the Seven Pillared Hall about some dwarf missing his pet dire boar (because dwarves are weird), so they figured it was time to head back to the Hall, collect a reward, and rest up.
This time on their travels in the labyrinth they had two random encounters.
The second one was barely noticeable; 7 hyenas.
The first one was a very tough fight, but only because of where they put their cleric.
It was simply a gelatinous cube followed by 3 wraiths gliding along a 10’ wide corridor.
Up front were Ander and Stout, followed by the dire boar. The gelatinous cube had surprise and for the next several rounds both spent their time inside and out of the cube, unable to do much of anything more.
That left the rest of the party royally hosed by 3 wraiths.
First, wraiths regenerate 5hp each round unless hit by radiant damage. Next they’re insubstantial, so they take half damage automatically. And finally, when they hit, you deal half damage until you make a save. So effectively a hit will deal one-fourth damage that is probably going to get healed back unless you have someone doing holy damage.
Man did all of this irritate everyone.
It didn’t help that gelatinous cubes aren’t as easy to kill as they were in 3E. But that’s ok; this group needs to learn that 4E is not 3E. (I’ve had to give a few metagaming smack downs).
When they finally were able to kill the cube, the wraiths fell soon after.
The damage had been done though. The party was far from a safe resting point, and Stout had 0 healing surges remaining and most of the party had no daily powers left.
But they got lucky and made it back to the Hall, after slaughtering those poor hyenas. Valenae even one-shotted one in the first round of combat.
When they returned the dire boar to one Ulthand Deepgem, owner of the Deepgem Company and one-time priest of Moradin, they were rewarded with another lifelong friend, a 100gp garnet, and the promise of guard work if they ever needed employment.
“Does he love this boar the way some farmers love their sheep?”
- Justin (he has issues)
With that we stopped.
Our lineup for session #7 (full house):
Aaron, playing Valenae, the level 7 eladrin rogue
Scott, playing Earl, the level 6 dragonborn paladin
Mike, playing Ander, the level 6 elf cleric with some ranger multi-classing
Justin, playing Stout, the level 6 dwarf fighter
Brian, playing Hadarai, the level 5 eladrin wizard
Dale, playing Brom, the level 5 tiefling warlock
Last we stopped with some runt of a kobold giving the party a message from someone in the organization that the party is taking on.
He needs their help, and wants to help them if they help him and he would like to meet them in a cavern in the labyrinth.
Additionally, the party has been tasked to find the missing Mage of Saruun, Paldemar. The party predicts that the person who wrote the note is also Paldemar.
They also predict the meeting with him will be an ambush. They are right of course. I could have done something more to make this coincidence less expected, but I’ve been to busy to try.
Their ambushers were a pair of tieflings and a large bronze minotaur construct called a bronze warder.
Expecting a trap and being prepared for a trap is two different things.
Combat began the moment the party started entering the room as the tieflings blasted them with ranged attacks and the bronze warder pushed boulder into the entrance trapping some of the party in the cavern, some out of the cavern, and some crushed a bit by the boulder (for 2d8+5 damage).
“Hooray! It feels great to be bloodied and I haven’t even done anything yet.”
- Justin, whining like a little girl
Poor Stout missed half the combat thanks to that boulder, but the party still won the fight without much of an issue.
On one of the tieflings were three scrolls. In the first, Paldemar instructed his agents to kill the party and deliver them to the Blackfang gnolls. The second scroll offered the bodies of the party as tribute to Maldrick Scarmaker, priest of Yeenoghu and chief of the Blackfang tribe. The third scroll was a map to a place in the labyrinth known as the Well of Demons.
They discussed lugging the giant bronze warder statue back to the hall, but chose to find the Well of Demons as their next clue to finding Paldemar (because these modules are nothing if not predictable.)
Their knowledge skills gave them simple information about the Well of Demons; a place where the demon prince Baphomet’s priests went to train and gain his blessings.
After nearly a mile of traveling the labyrinth, a random encounter with some gnolls (which showed the party how nasty gnolls can be), they find the first room of the Well.
It’s a very disappointing square room full of cracks. The only interesting things are a pair of pillars with minotaur heads, and humanoid creature trying to hide behind another pillar in the back of the room.
Playing like they didn’t notice the creature, the party began to head to another part of the room to investigate some other feature. That’s when all hell broke loose.
First, the minotaur heads spoke in deep and loud voices:
Greetings, seekers of Baphomet’s boundless glory
Those who prove unworthy of his attention
Shall be claimed forever as his slaves
Those who prove worthy
Shall be granted power beyond mortal reckoning
Mask, bell, blade, and tome
Second, mouth-covered tentacles erupted from below them, two chokers popped out of their hiding places near the ceiling on those same pillars, and the humanoid creature, a ghoul, charged at the party.
The tentacle creature had a threatening reach of 4, making it very hard (and irritating) to fight. This thing could grab and hold onto anyone that came within reach of it, and if they escaped they’d probably get grabbed again in another round.
The chokers just made the bad situation worse doing pretty much the same as the tentacle creature, but they were more mobile and out of reach of the party’s melee types.
The ghoul steered clear of the party members dealing with the other monsters and chose to charge into the casters of the party. It would have worked better for him had they not had a cleric in that group, but he did delay them helping out…
Stout and Valenae had the hardest time dealing with the kill the tentacle thing. But once they took it out (a long and slow process) and the casters took out the ghoul, the rest of the combat was a wash.
And we ended that session there.
Our lineup for session #8 is the same as session #7, just without Scott (Earl):
After that last grabbing and groping fight, the party moves on to a section of the dungeon that reeks of filth and sweat and interrupt some gnolls playing a game of dice. They also hear several frantic hyenas in the background.
The poor hyenas were half-starved. If only some food would conveniently walk into their lair.
The barks from the hyenas alerted the gnolls to the party’s presence, which gave one of them time to free the hyenas.
They also tried to lure the party to an intersection to dual-flank them, but that didn’t quite work.
Had hyenas had a better AC and more hit points this fight would have been more interesting. But since they don’t, the fight was over pretty quick.
As the party was resting up from this fight an apparition of a quasit (demon) appeared before the party as an emissary of Demogorgon (a foe of Yeenoghu) and offered to give them information at the cost of 100gp per question or a small bit of their life force (1 healing surge).
He lived up to his end of the bargain, but only gave very simple answers.
The Q&A:
Where is Paldemar? (Brom paid a healing surge)
He is in the Shrine of Vecna.
What allies does he have? (Stout paid a healing surge)
He has with him a force of norkers.
Where is the Shrine of Vecna? (100gp from the group treasure)
It is in the Tower of Mysteries.
They gave up after that. The trades weren’t worth the information.
Prior to entering the next room they heard the terrified screams of a large pig.
Inside they found a dire boar chained to the floor and in a cage, with several arrows sticking out of it, and 4 hyenas circling the cage and several gnoll archers taking shots at it from behind a wall of hay.
This fight was another minor one that drained the party of healing surges.
And now, thanks to a minor skill challenge, they have befriended a new pet, kind of.
Ander remembered reading a “Missing” sign in the Seven Pillared Hall about some dwarf missing his pet dire boar (because dwarves are weird), so they figured it was time to head back to the Hall, collect a reward, and rest up.
This time on their travels in the labyrinth they had two random encounters.
The second one was barely noticeable; 7 hyenas.
The first one was a very tough fight, but only because of where they put their cleric.
It was simply a gelatinous cube followed by 3 wraiths gliding along a 10’ wide corridor.
Up front were Ander and Stout, followed by the dire boar. The gelatinous cube had surprise and for the next several rounds both spent their time inside and out of the cube, unable to do much of anything more.
That left the rest of the party royally hosed by 3 wraiths.
First, wraiths regenerate 5hp each round unless hit by radiant damage. Next they’re insubstantial, so they take half damage automatically. And finally, when they hit, you deal half damage until you make a save. So effectively a hit will deal one-fourth damage that is probably going to get healed back unless you have someone doing holy damage.
Man did all of this irritate everyone.
It didn’t help that gelatinous cubes aren’t as easy to kill as they were in 3E. But that’s ok; this group needs to learn that 4E is not 3E. (I’ve had to give a few metagaming smack downs).
When they finally were able to kill the cube, the wraiths fell soon after.
The damage had been done though. The party was far from a safe resting point, and Stout had 0 healing surges remaining and most of the party had no daily powers left.
But they got lucky and made it back to the Hall, after slaughtering those poor hyenas. Valenae even one-shotted one in the first round of combat.
When they returned the dire boar to one Ulthand Deepgem, owner of the Deepgem Company and one-time priest of Moradin, they were rewarded with another lifelong friend, a 100gp garnet, and the promise of guard work if they ever needed employment.
“Does he love this boar the way some farmers love their sheep?”
- Justin (he has issues)
With that we stopped.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 9:16 PM
1 Comments:
What happens in the privacy of a man's barn is no one's business but his. And the sheep. And the dire pig.
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