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| Spoiler alert |
Timekeeping
Player Characters Present
Downtime
Session Report
The early consensus was to do more over ground exploration, to try and find a route north to the active volcano. Unfortunately, reports were that no over land passage was possible, and that the mountains in that direction were the home of griffons.
Rags and vinegar were collected as a precaution against the fear gas, should they try to explore the depths underneath the fortress; but in the end they decided to return to the extinct volcano and retrace the route that they had not returned to for some weeks.
Rain was pouring, cutting visibility, but the autumn day still held warmth and they were able to reach the gap in the side of the volcano made by the Sky City, fly over it, and down into the remains of the cyclopean city, down the shafts in which previous they had seen the living fire; and into the huge cave below. The rain actually improved visibility within the cave by cooling the air and reducing the steam.
They could see that much had changed since they were last here; now there was no more glowing fungus, and the number of giant cave worms had been reduced to just one; the biggest and strongest had apparently killed the others in order to get at the last source of glowing fungus within their stomachs, and was now aggressively patrolling the area. It was still easy to avoid, and they chose not to get any closer to check it out (dang); but instead to proceed down the spiralling passages that descended from the floor of this cave, into the lava tube below that goes in their desired direction of the active volcano to the north east.
In a few hours they had reached the entrance to the old dwarf mine.
Here they retraced their steps east and found two mutilated bodies of Nork-ers; they had left a trail of blood that led them back to the bedroom of the 7 Ghasts. Sure enough, the spike had been removed from the door, which was open, and the undead were nowhere to be found.
As they were getting ready to back out the Rocket Cycle into the corridor and continue, they heard the sound of something approaching. Giuseppe detected evil just as 9 bugbears passed ahead of them, they were dragging the glass coffin that had belonged to Snow Wight, otherwise they would not have been heard at all.
Surprise was a 3 to 3 tie (with Sever's Ranger bonus); but, Slippery Pete and Giuseppe had a Dexterity reaction bonus of +2 and +1 respectively, which meant they were less surprised and so could act. Unfortunately their actions were not decisive but at least they achieved first blood. Speaking of blood, next round the party tied initiative and Bumblebore ordered O'Malfoy to fly out and use his breath weapon attack. The narrow corridor was the perfect place for this since he could fly over the enemy and not hit his own side when spitting out his boiling blood. The result was devastating, and the follow up attacks from the PCs caused the Bugbears to drop left and right. Rod threw in a flask of oil for good measure. Morale failure followed and soon the only thing to be done was to go through their pockets and look for loose change.
From here they went north, to the room where they had been jumped by a Rust Monster that nearly ate the Rocket Cycle. They chose to ignore the spiked door still shut to the east, and proceeded north into a 40 by 40' room. The room was filled with a visible gas; notably not the fear gas, which they had been told was colourless and odourless when found in the confines of a room. Never the less, Sever chose to try the cloth & vinegar trick and bravely strode into the room and inhaled. An acrid taste hit the back of his throat as the precaution proved useless, but the results were not dangerous. He felt a power in his muscles as his body processed whatever was in the gas, and his strength increased.
This worked for each of the Fighter type characters, except for Shaemus as the gas effect did not stack with that of his sword; but the other classes only had the bad taste in their mouths. I allowed that both the Firedrake and the Pegasus also benefited from this bonus. It also did not work on Godleve, who had been unintentionally keeping a vow of silence after getting muted, which we rectified at this time.
Through a heavy curtain to the north they found a passage leading to the wide open cavern and abyss they had briefly seen on their first visit to this area; when they had pursued Nork-ers that were chasing Convess. Since the Nork-ers then had fled in this direction, it was possible perhaps that they had gone through the strength gas room, and gotten stronger, before fighting with the Stirges in the next room. Who knows?
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| Ahead they saw a black chasm. |
Ahead they saw a black chasm. At the end of a protruding ledge the floor vanished and fell to an unknown depth. The other side, which the Lava people had told them of, could only be reached by a slender bridge of stone, without kerb of rail, that spanned the chasm with one curving spring of over fifty feet.
They were reminded too that the Lava people had previously taken them through a similar area; and they had bid them extinguish their light sources and proceed with utmost silence, lest they attract the attention of unspoken denizens of the dark.
Their only concession to this was to send Sever and Convess to scout ahead first, but they did so with a Continual Light gem held aloft, challenging the darkness to do what it would. The darkness obliged.
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| The darkness obliged. |
From above, two giant bat creatures descended in a dive and attacked. Unlike normal bats these had long, barbed tails, with which they could lash out in any direction. Neither side was surprised but the bats won initiative. They screeched out a powerful sonic attack that left Sever reeling; as they approached he had the presence of mind to observe that their eyes sockets were empty, as though their eyes had been gouged out in some unnatural manner. Then their tails lashed at him, in a deliberate attempt to unseat him and topple the ranger into the abyss below; but, he was strapped in too well for that and replied with strong hit from his lance.
The bats of doom continued on past Sever and were then seen by the rest of the party; who then took off on the Rocket Cycle to engage them.
Sever and Convess circled around to attack; it was again tied initiative, which made all the manoeuvring and missile weapons attacks difficult to adjudicate, but there were so many misses that it didn't make much difference. The bats attacked the humans on the Rocket Cycle, latching on when they reached it and lashing out with their barbed tails. The Pegasus borne ranger dived down and attacked, the follow through taking him deep into the abyssal chasm. They then struggled to climb back up to the fight; noticing as they did so, that there was some sort of giant spider web laying horizontally across the chasm, some 500 feet below the bridge.
Giuseppe and Slippery Pete withstood their enemy's attacks and the party inflicted more damage, with Godleve getting a solid hit in; but, the next round, with another tied initiative, a dying Doombat's tail lashed out at Bumblebore; doing 1 point of damage and drawing a saving throw to see if he could maintain his place on the Rocket Cycle. He failed.
Possibly the magic user had been distracted by the voice, definitely not O'Malfoy's, which at that moment - thanks to the magic of discord DMs - spoke into this mind: "BRING ME A PALADIN!"
The tumbling mage had responded, "Do you need healing, or a blessing?"
"I WISH FOR A PALADIN'S SOUL!" was the reply.
As Bumblebore plummeted into darkness, Slippery Pete declared he was leaning over the edge of the Rocket Cycle and opening his mouth to allow the light from his gem with Continual Light, which he inexplicably likes to keep there, to shine down in order to keep the magic user in sight.
Somebody was silly enough to mention something about an "O-face", which set off a chain reaction of jokes for the new few minutes.
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| Oh I see you Bumblebore! |
Sever dived after the mage but could not prevent him from falling into the webs below; they gave way like a springy trapeze safety net before returning to the horizontal; with Bumblebore stuck fast to them. Both PC's could see that, beyond the net like web, the chasm continued into the fathomless depths below; however, on a nearby wall, level with the web, a ledge jutted out providing an anchor for it. The ledge was a narrow ended trapezoid about 50' wide where it met the chasm wall, where too could be seen a huge stone arched door. The ledge also had a number of stone monoliths, standing at weird angles, covered with indecipherable hieroglyphs. Here the shadows gathered in odd clumps that seemed to resist the encroachment of the holy light they carried.
Some sense in Bumblebore told him that the voice in his head was emanating from something on that ledge. Sever too could feel the danger. Indeed, something was there, from Appendix N. I reached for my bookshelf;
"Something is there in the darkness: like a great shadow, in the middle of which you perceive a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater; and a power and terror seems to be in it and to go before it."
A sudden plan was hatched; Sever would engage whatever was on the ledge while the others dropped down to save Bumblebore. For this Slippery Pete would use a vial of Oil of Slipperiness he had been saving for such an occasion. Everyone stopped to consider whether pouring it all over himself before diving onto a web, thereby negating its stickiness, when it was the only thing between him and an endless drop below, might not be quite the great idea it appeared. The plan was then refined so he would jump onto the web feet first and then use the oil; so he could free them both and get back on the Rocket Cycle.
It was a good plan but the enemy won initiative. Two giant spiders appeared on the web at the edge of the light, and ran straight for Bumblebore.
When whatever was on the ledge perceived the arrival of the Rocket Cycle, with Giuseppe the Paladin on board, it was elated and said to Bumblebore:
"YOU HAVE DONE WELL, I WILL CONSUME YOUR SOUL LAST!"
He replied as best he could to try and help the situation, "I challenge you for their souls to a battle of riddles! Sam and Janet lie dead on the wet ground surrounded by glass shards, how did they die?"
Sever landed on the ledge ready to attack, and saw what he was facing;
"As it approaches its streaming mane kindles, and blazes behind it. In its right hand is a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it holds a whip of many thongs. The dark figure streaming with fire races towards you."
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| maybe they need a certain Wizard's help? |
In the first round the Type VI Demon chose not to immolate and use its whip, preferring to test this new opponent with its sword alone. The blazing sword connected; but Sever gave as good as he had got, better even.
Meanwhile the mental battle in Bumblebore's head continued: "I , TER-SOTH, WILL DESTROY YOU ALL"
Bumblebore replied: "I see, no good at riddles, huh? I understand, if I had the inferior intellect, I would resort to violence too."
The giant spiders reached Bumblebore; but, as if impelled by a will other than their own, kept scuttling right on past him. They ran all the way off the web onto the ledge to attack Sever and Convess; but, and I think I forgot to mention this, they too had been blinded and, finding it hard to fight when not on their familiar web, their attacks missed.
Ter-Soth: "THIS RANGER IS TOUGH, erm never mind, that wasn't meant for you"
Bumblebore: "Hard to keep your focus?"
By this point Slippery Pete was ready to help Bumblebore; but now there was a heated discussion about the need of a change in plan to support Sever. They would drop Pete off then go help Sever until he could disengage, then return to pick up the magic user and the thief.
The next round saw Sever delivered another mighty blow to the demon, while Convess tried to stamp on the spiders without connecting. Ter-soth replied with a sword attack and then used his special attack; his whip reached out and actually dragged both the Ranger and his mount into its immolating fire. Fortunately for Sever, this was the smallest kind of Type VI Demon, and this attack only did 2d6 damage.
Now things took a Appendix N turn; from Lord of the Rings, to Hiero's Journey. The Cleric, Comfort Rod, was born blessed with Psionic power, he declared that he would Psionic Blast whatever was on the ledge when the Rocket Cycle reached the ledge. Now, things were getting pretty late, and I had not at all expected to have to adjudicate this sort of combat today; but, fortunately, I have learned the Psionics rules and was soon ready to go, even if I did need four books open at once!
First of all, Rod did not have a high enough Psionic strength to attack non-psionic creatures (100 is needed, DMG pg. 78). Second, Sever would have been in the area of effect, so this was just as well. However, the Psionic Blast could effect the Type VI Demon, so the next round put the conventional attacks on hold while a true Psionic battle (as apposed to what ever you'd call what Bumblebore was doing) began.
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| DMG page 79 |
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ReplyDeleteWhen I ran into lawful neutral clerics, I knew I wanted to play one named Comfort Rod. During that magical time between the releases of the Players Handbook and Dungeon Masters Guide, Gygax must have been pissed off that 1 out of a couple hundred characters were Psionic Blasting their foes into submission, instead of dismembering them with knives and hammers. I would like to thank Dorrinal for allowing me to target the Balrog when I had already declared otherwise, or I would not have been able to help my lawful comrades against this daunting chaotic enemy. I have had the pleasure of playing module I3, Pharaoh, twice. Both times I got to the hanging with the picture of the boat, inferred that it was a portal, stepped into it and was teleported a thousand feet over the pyramid. The restriction on targeting non-psionic creatures, added in the DMG is the same thing to me: a trip-up for headstrong players. This is also the second time I've tried to use Psionic Blast with a psionic strength under 100. Both times, the Dungeon Master informed me that this thing I thought I could do all along, wouldn't work. The first time I played Pharaoh, I was wearing a Ring of Feather Falling. Hopefully it won't take Comfort Rod dying for me to remember this rule! I have autistic friends and advocate for them to play D & D. This game would be difficult for anyone who has trouble with logic. What kind of a game says you can do something in one book, then contradicts it in another? I'm not sure I'm smart enough to play AD&D.
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