Trollopulous Adjusted Session 148 (Machodor #99): The Return of Za'rathul

            

Introduction

After an unexpected detour to Minas Mandalf, the heroes return to the Lair of Lord Inferno to cash in, if they can.

Timekeeping

This session began on February 26th, with the player characters adventuring until the 28th. Downtime for these characters begins on the 1st of March.

Player Characters Present

Sever the Wrathful (Level 10 Pegasus Corps Ranger Lord of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and the Rod of Lordly Might, wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength, rider of Mustang) with henchman Thomas (C7), Poindexter (M6), and Rabbit (FMT556)

Fluid the Druid (Level 9 Druid, "Scourge of Trollopulous", former wearer of the Ring of Kings, current wearer of the Cloak of Druidish Awesomeness)

Giuseppe (Level 8 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of Sanctus Draconis Interfector and the Shield of Protection from Missiles, rider of Bonecrusher) with henchmen Bishoy (F6), Tawadros (F6), Steelvein (F6), Rhoikos (M6)

Donny (Level 5 Monk of Machodor)

Downtime

Downtime, which began a few hours after session 98 ended, saw Connor pull another card from the Deck of Many Things they had retrieved from the treasure cavern. Having drawn two very bad options previously, he clearly felt his luck had changed; it had. The Moon card gave him one Wish (it could have been up to four).

"I wish to safely transport the treasure, party, and rescued prisoners to Minas Mandalf."

Arriving in the middle of a Valentines Day crowd was not appreciated by everyone in the party.

Gurt now claimed the Deck for "safekeeping," but then declared he would draw three cards. One of those was the Void, which sent his soul to some unknown outer plane and also caused the deck to disappear. His empty shell of a body is now being looked after by his henchman Cedric in the halls of the Machodor Planarcorps.

The Wish had interpreted "rescued prisoners" broadly, which meant everyone from Echellet to the four firenewts, Thalrek, Ssethkar, Vesthra, and Zharuuk, had been brought along with them. These were promptly arrested and placed in a secure location in the city.

This new situation meant the adventurers could cash in their loot, which turned out to be a bit less than hoped. The treasure was protected by an illusion ensuring that, no matter how careful, coins were brought out in a ratio of 1000 copper, 100 silver, 10 electrum, 5 gold, and 1 platinum piece (see the end of session 98 for details).

The remainder of downtime was used for training and to get PCs into position for the next session. Giuseppe, who as a paladin has an enormous XP requirement, instead visited his family in Rome, Brovenloft, with Echellet. 

Session Report

Staging at Fort Wrath, the party prepared to retrace their steps: flying to a hidden cave about a mile from the entrance to King Snurre's halls, then travelling along a 3-mile lava tube back to Cthugarak and on to Lord Inferno's Lair.

News came in that a favourite son of Fort Wrath, Harold Wolfshead, had been ambushed and killed by dragons in an attempt to approach Castle Irish. Sever did not shed a tear. 

Many thanks to Bradford C. Walker for playing Harold all this time.

The trip back to Cthugarak was relatively uneventful. They had one problem, because of being teleported out they had not exchanged their heat cloaks for pendants, which in return they would be expected to trade in again at the Basalt-Gate Tower. Sever blustered that they had, in fact, forgotten something, and were therefore aborting their plans to leave the city; somehow the bailif bought it.

They entered the city and spent the night at the same inn as their last visit, the Drake's Ember Rest, an opulent four-storey caravansary on Westflame Boulevard. Fluid was recognised by the barkeep, Vsskara, but they had moved on again before he could make his move on her.

The next day, after a walk through the bustling streets, they used invisibility and Sever's Wings of Flying to get over the wall and onto the causeway to the Island of Sacrifice, and were soon back in the Lair of Lord Inferno. His illusion on the throne, previously disbelieved, had returned. The players were ignoring it and moving on when the head turned to face them and delivered an involved speech. They were courteous enough not to interrupt, though I had prepared for that possibility with multiple magic mouth spells. The apparition forewarned them that it had taken the "dragon orb" for their own safety (!) and challenged them to find a certain similar looking item among the treasure that would give them the ability to challenge him in his current location: a quasi-plane of existence, one that combined properties of the Positive Material Plane and the Plane of Fire.

"You broke into my house, stole my property, murdered my servants,
and my PETS! And that is what grieves me the most! You killed my dragon."

They discussed the ramifications of this information as they moved through their former bedroom area and discovered that the "Soul Gem" was gone; presumably Za'rathul or one of his agents had been through and collected it, as he had also done with the "draconic sphere" they had found previously.

They then re-entered the treasure cavern. This consisted of 6 sub-caverns, two of which, 1 and 4, they had cleared previously.

As soon as they stepped into sub-cavern 2, they had the familiar sensation of something "alive" within the heaped coins: coin golems.

To manage searching, I had broken each sub-cavern up into 20 sections. The treasure was overlaid with several kinds of magic: one hid the true nature of any coins collected, as detailed above, while another allowed the coins to shift and hide special items. When this was in play, each section required 6 turns to search before a roll could be made on the table to find something. There was a table of items that could appear in any sub-cavern, and items specific to the each. If any of these special objects were found and moved from the sub-cavern, a guardian golem would manifest from the coins; if the golem was defeated, the sub-cavern could then be searched in 1-turn increments.

Thus began a long search of the sub-cavern. After some hours, Fluid discovered a wooden staff and Rabbit found a fine cloth robe. Later, Giuseppe found two linked golden skulls, an item reputed to open the sealed doors under Castle von Necro. When the paladin tried to move them out of the sub-cavern, a great mass of gold "dust" suddenly flew up from the coins, blinding anyone who failed their save (a version of the 2e spell glitterdust). Those who were not blinded saw a golem take shape from the gold coins.

Combat#1: Gold Coin Golem

Rounds: 2

Result: Party win

Highlights: After winning initiative and dealing a flurry of damage all around it, the fearsome construct's magic resistance let it down in the first round: it was slowed while prayer went up, followed by a barrage of magic missiles. As well as the casters, enough of the party's big hitters had made their save against the blinding dust to cause significant damage. Though only a few of the fighter types had +3 weapons and could hit the thing, the melee damage, combined with the spell damage, was significant. The golem was soon reduced to broken rubble of precious metal.

The party pulled back out of the treasure caverns to the bedroom area to regroup and heal up. Once they had done so, they returned to sub-cavern 2, where Bishoy was rewarded with the discovery of a fancy longsword. After more searching turned up nothing interesting, they moved on.

Sub-cavern 3 immediately posed a quandary. As well as the "feeling" of something in the coins, there was a sphere apparently hovering over the treasure:

a 2' diameter sphere of absolute blackness.

After a little discussion, they decided not to mess with this ominous item (shame!) and moved on to sub-cavern 5. Searching here turned up much treasure: a saddle made of red dragon leather was found by Sever, Donny found a bit of polished agate that took his fancy, and some potions were also recovered. At the sixth hour, Giuseppe found a clearly magical tome of some kind, sitting among the coins, open to a page of writing he could not read. He closed the book, and it disappeared at once, leaving its true nature a mystery.

Finally, Sever uncovered something large buried in the coin. When he stood it up to see what it was, a mirror, his reflection took form and emerged to attack!

Combat #2: Sever Clone

Rounds: 2

Result: Party win

Highlights: With a copy of the most powerful player character under my control, I gave an evil laugh and tried to do as much damage as possible. I went immediately to the charged powers of Sever's Rod of Lordly Might and used the fear effect. Sadly, everyone but Bishoy made their save. 

 

Instead of blindly charging in, the players were clever: they manoeuvred around the mirror, attempting to tip it over before more images could emerge, all while helping Sever deal with his evil twin. A well-placed dispel magic from Rhoikos sent me pulling out the DMG, where I found this: 

If this spell is cast upon a magic item it most certainly will have the effect of causing it to be non-operational for 1 round thereafter if the item does not make a saving throw — if the item is not in the possession of any creature, then the item gets no saving throw, and it is non-operational for 1 round. Note that artifacts and relics are NOT subject to this effect. Any dispel magic spell must be cast directly at the object, not anything or anyone else, to be so effective.

— DMG, p. 41

I decided to split the difference here and treat the item as being in the possession of a creature (the as-yet-unformed body of the golem in this area). The percentage roll went the party's way, and this prevented an evil Giuseppe from stepping forth. Before it could return to operation, Rabbit knocked the mirror face down. Then the party used their magic weapons to smash it to bits.

Bishoy returned later after shaking off the fear spell and sheepishly joined the search for more treasure. By now the heroes had noticed that certain magic items were somehow tied directly to the defences in each cavern, and that trying to remove them would cause a golem to attack. This knowledge allowed them to take precautions to keep the weaker party members safe.

Combat #3: Silver Coin Golem 

Rounds: 4

Result: Party win

Highlights: The party had organised their formation to limit the chances of the henchmen magic-users getting killed, and that was just as well, since this enemy had 4 long, chain-like appendages that could reach as far as 40' to strike. Both sides exchanged blows in the first round, and Bishoy was disappointed to find that his newly found blade was not strong enough to damage the enemy. On the next round, the golem split fully into four cloud-like zones of sharp, spinning coins that inflicted damage on anything they hit, without apparently being able to take any damage in return, including from magic missiles. However, Rhoikos brought out his new spell, wall of ice, which he dropped horizontally on the swarms; they collapsed under the pressure, proving that wide-area spells did affect them (which was my idea all along, and it was good to see the players catch on quickly). The golem was forced to reform its body to get out from under the ice and found itself taking damage from the big hitters, Sever and Giuseppe, who could not seem to miss (his trip to Rome with Echellet in downtime having done the paladin a world of good). This plus magic missiles saw the golem destroyed in 4 rounds.

Right as the golem was destroyed, Bishoy's sword leapt from his fingers to "dance" in the air for several rounds before returning to the surprised henchman. Giuseppe would later compensate Bishoy and give the sword to Steelvein, since the latter's mutation forces him to eat food in the 5th round of combat; it is the perfect weapon for him.

The golems have been a lot of fun to play, and the attentive reader might guess there are still more to come in this location. I generally don't make up monsters that are so different from anything in the Monster Manual, but this lair seemed to call for something out of the ordinary. Their base abilities are all sourced from iron golems, which is interesting, since a single one of those constructs gave the whole party a big scare not so long back.

With another day over, and another two dead golems and some treasure to show for it, the heroes retreated again to rest, recuperate, and plot their downtime actions. 

Session Statistics: 

Wilderness travel:  33 Miles

Downtime begins on: 03/01/26
Combats: 3
Rooms mapped: 2
Combat rounds: 8
Losses: none

Treasure & Items

Many sacks of coins transported out of the treasure cavern for later processing

Staff

Gold Skulls

Sword of Dancing

Feathered wings

Monsters

Gold coin golem 14,550xp

Silver coin golem 14,550xp

XP & GP Assignment N/A, carried into session #101

Sever (E) 

and Thomas (E)

and Poindexter (E)

and Rabbit (E)

Fluid  (E) 

Giuseppe (E)

and Bishoy (E) 

and Tawadros (E)

and Steelvein (E) 

and Rhoikos (E)

Graveyard

Gurt the Green (Paladin Level 7), drew the Void card from the Deck of Many Things in downtime after session #147

Rhoikos (Henchman Magic-User Level 6), caught in the explosion of the dying gem coin golem in session #147

Marco Valtieri (Fighter Level 4), immolated and burnt to a crisp by Vyrathax in Lord Inferno's Lair in session #146

Oblate (Illusionist Level 3), killed and eaten by the Nathruk in the Skalrath in session #140

Eniac (Magic-User level 1), killed by a poisoned Grothak spear in session #137 

Rhoikos (Henchman Magic-User level 4), smashed by a Mummy fist in session #126. RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Thomas (Henchman Cleric level 6), Killed by a Symbol of Death in session #126. RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Josef Ironbeard (Dwarf Fighter level 1), Killed by a Symbol of Death in session #126.

Matthias Steelvein (Henchman Fighter level 4), Killed by a Symbol of Death in session #126. RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Sever the Wrathful (Ranger level 9), Killed by two pains in the Annis in session #122. RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Anri (Henchman Magic-User level 4), found dead with a ghastly chest wound in the Ice Castle, with her heart missing she was unable to be revived, in downtime after session #122 

Symeon (Henchman Cleric level 2), Only strong enough to wear studded leather, he was torn to shreds by Troglodytes in session #121

Paul (Henchman Paladin level 3) Effected by the Imprisonment spell touch attack from a Styx Devil in session #117. Might not be dead, but is definitely at least six feet under for all intents and purposes.

Gurt the Green (Paladin level 6) killed by a poison needle trap in session #114 RAISED FROM THE DEAD (with a roll of 94!)

Solaire the Fallen (Henchman Fighter (paladin) level 3) killed by Stone Giants acting as catapults in session #114

Paul (Henchman Paladin level 1), reduced to 0 hit points by white dragon breath when climbing down a rope ladder in session #108. Killed not by the fall; but by the sudden stop at the bottom. RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Ignatius the Smiter (Cleric level 1), horrifically mutilated and killed by double hit from a Shoggoth in session #106

Domby (Henchman with Dex 5), double surprised and turned into a pin cushion in session #87

Luke (Half elf Fighter/Cleric level 1), tragically killed by a normal hydra while trying to cauterise one of its neck stumps in session  #86

Gurt the Green (Paladin level 3), killed by a hydra bite in session  #86 RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Pleasance (Footman level 0), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81

Siegward (Henchman Fighter level 1), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81

Tawadros (Henchman Fighter level 4),  killed by a phase spider bite in session #81 RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Patria (Footman level 0), killed by a two headed snake bite in session #81

Deltacron (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 1/1), threw his last flask of oil at, and was level drained to death by, a Vampire in session #76

Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), wrong place, wrong time; killed by Sever the Ranger in session #72 RAISED FROM THE DEAD

Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), killed again by the toxic gas of an Achaierai in session #72

Red (Paladin Level 1), always popular with the ladies, he was eaten up by a female Roc in the Pizza Slice of Doom during session #67

Jacques Ocular (Magic User level 1), a fat green worm burrowed into his head and turned him into a Son Of Kyuss in Brovenloft in Session #43

Pino (Dwarf Footman level 0), Killed by a Frost Giant axe to the head in session #39

Paro (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 2/2)  Killed by Winter Wolves and frozen in session #39

Zabib (1/2 Elf Fighter/Magic User level 1/1), Killed by Frost Giant rocks in downtime prior to session #39