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| Is this the Ranger they are looking for? |
Timekeeping
Player Characters Present
Introduction
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| not just a time saver |
Session Report
The prospect of navigating the watery areas in the dungeon focussed the players minds, and they hit upon the idea of bringing canoes with them. Sever's incredible strength made this a physical possibility; but, of course, there was not much call for canoes at Castle Irish in the middle of the mountains. Instead the party readied their one remaining orc battle wagon and made a detour to Eigermatt, where the wandering mountain river was accessible. Here they found canoes of good quality for sale. With this done they returned to the extinct volcano.
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| A suddenly and inexplicably popular item |
The Irish camp at the entrance to the Pizza Slice of Doom reported no unusual occurrences, so the party retraced their steps from last session into the maintenance level. As usual, they easily made it as far as the broken elevator room without any trouble, but then saw that something drastic had happened to the dungeon at this point.
The way ahead was filled with tall grasses and enough water to create a localised swamp. Though it appeared to be navigable, the party were not about to just jump in; so they sent McScales (Lizardman henchman to Sheamus) forward with a rope tied to him. Being able to swim well, he was uniquely suited to this assignment and soon made it well into the area ahead. It was the lair of a large group of 8' tall bird creatures.
Combat #1: 10 Eblis (MM2)
Rounds 6: Monsters Surprise, Monsters win, Monsters win, Monsters win, Party win, Party win
Result: Party victory
Highlights: I had a major issue adjudicating this fight, as I couldn't really believe the Eblis had 4 attacks with their beaks, since their description did nothing to confirm the stat block. The normal pattern for this is that No. Of Attacks reflects the number of distinct methods of attack; Claw, Claw, Bite for example. I didn't think 4 attacks with the beak was correct, not without it being mentioned in the details which it was not. However, 1-4 damage seemed to also argue in favour of multiple attacks, so I would do that next time. McScales earns his pay.
This group had one special member possessed illusionist spells (as per the MM2 entry) with Change Self and Hypnotic Pattern. My original idea was that he may impersonate a party member as they passed through, and exploit the ensuing confusion, however the party were reticent to even get their feet wet, and so tied a rope to McScales and sent him forward. The lizardman was uniquely suited to this role, and he swam forward without any idea of the danger. The tricksy Eblis transformed himself into a likeness of McScales, cut the rope and the followed it back to the party. The PCs got one look at what they thought was McScales returning, and then were hit with Hypnotic Pattern. Tragically, Sheamus in the front rank failed his save along with Comfort Rod and Tawardros; all were mesmerised. The other Eblis rushed forward to attack.
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| DMG p70 |
With this settled the battle, still chaotic, stabilised somewhat and the two sides were able to inflict steady damage on each other as rounds went by. The turning point came when McScales, wondering where his rope went and hearing the sound of combat, returned to find the duplicate of himself and Sheamus nearly dead. The hitherto non-combatant former slave took decisive action, killing the Eblis shaman and thereby ending his spell.
Afterwards the party got in their canoes and paddled forward, carefully examining the swamp-like territory ahead, and found some hidden treasure consisting of two magical daggers.Clear of the Eblis lair, they continued on and rowed their way into a new section of the dungeon. The area was like a big bowl; through which a lot water had washed through recently, leaving debris of all kinds everywhere and a trickle of water remaining. When they had last seen the area it was full of water and had mobile islands floating about, it was deemed by the party then to be too dangerous to explore, but now things were very different. In the middle of the bowl was an accumulation of flotsam, like the plug hole in a bath tub, and they coasted to this spot, stopped, and took their bearings. Nearby was the remains of a tree creature that had been hacked to pieces (this was the source of the vine attacks from an earlier session). There were also a number of crudely carved canoes gathered together by the water. It appeared that someone had been very active in the area recently. The ceiling high above was a mess of huge tree roots; it was impossible to tell what, if anything, was up there.
Combat #2: 8 Diakk (MM2)
Rounds 5(9): Monsters win, Monsters win, Party win, Monsters win, Monsters win
Result: Party victory
Highlights: Comfort Rod immediately set out to cast Chant as soon as the party stopped in the centre of the bowl, this allowed the spell to take effect in the middle of the battle and on a least one round saved Sheamus from being hit twice.
From all around started up strange hooting and cawing sounds, and here and there could be seen the weirdest bird-like creatures yet encountered in this place. They had the look of something at once a mockery of nature and demonic. Was their presence at all related to the actions of the Eldritch Horrors in residence that the party had long sought to defeat? Who knows. There creatures were of two kinds, one resembled a huge stork with a human-like head and face and thin, human-like arms. The other resembled huge squat pelicans with foreshortened bills on human-like heads. The sounds the creatures made were not just disconcerting...
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| they were deadly |
I didn't expect the party to sit there and let this build up, but as Comfort Rod had immediately launched into, "The Lord is my shepherd", they were waiting for his Chant spell to take effect. So, 4 rounds later Sever and others failed their saves and became weakened, greatly reducing their damage potential. They did benefit from the overlapping protection from evil zones of Giuseppe and Gurt. The evil birds bounded in and out, causing much damage, but then some bounded away and did not return, leaving a smaller number behind that appeared ready to fight to the end. Battle continued.
Then, there was something new; enchanting pipe music, not at all like the sounds made by the monsters. They could hear it all around them, but its source seemed to be in the direction of the roots in the ceiling above. Some of the party failed their saves versus bard charm, but all stood back and watched as green clad men rappelled down. One of them, a dashing looking man with a moustache, blasted the last remaining bird with a Hawkman hand crossbow. It was the Ranger Sever had hoped to find, Prince Barin he was called, and, after a short discussion, the two parties decided to leave the dungeon together and later travel to Minas Mandalf.
Session Statistics:
Wilderness travel: 20 Miles
Mapped Dungeon area traversed: 1400 ft
New Dungeon corridor mapped: 180 ft
New rooms mapped: 1
Combats: 2
Combat rounds: 6
Total time in the Dungeon (approx): 11 Turns
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