D&D Weblog
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18th June 2003 Cohen levelled up to Level 11 |
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4th June 2003 Suddenly, a large, leopard-like creature assailed the party…
The party found there was a circular set of rooms
surrounding the whole complex. A total of 8 web ladders leading upwards were
found. The two remaining Quiths encountered earlier were dispatched during
the exploration. The
party determined that the next doors lead to a temple occupied by vampire
driders and a drow vampire. Whilst debating on what to do, the driders
appeared at the other entrance and attacked. One drider was turned into gas
and the other retreated after Blade Barrier was thrown across the entrance. Eventually the party opened the temple doors and
attacked. The vampire and a drider both managed to drain levels from party
members and the drider latched onto one person. The battle eventually swung
in the groups favour, with all the vamps being dispatched. Barak staked the
drider bodies and cast Forbiddance on the remaining exit, preventing a
gaseous vampire getting away. It finally dissipated after a couple of hours.
The party then retreated and rested. On return to the temple, both drider
bodies were gone. It seems both hearts must be staked to kill them
completely. Down the south passageway the group went. Three
bedrooms were found. Two were occupied by twin Drow females and 4 Quiths.
These were defeated and some treasure was found. Two (un)holy symbols of
Kiaransalee(sp) were found on the bodies. The third largest bedroom was in a
trashed condition with nothing of value found. Dessa informed the group that the next room housed
'the most favoured male' and the other lead to the main temple. The party
dreaded what was to come. |
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21st May 2003 The party
waited expectantly outside the door and after a short while heard the sound
of combat disappear. Cohen opened the door and saw no movement inside the
room. There was no sign of the second salamander but a lot of ochre jelly
bits were spotted everywhere. The jellies were definitely dead. Inspection of
the rooms revealed a glowing icon at the bottom of the slime pit. It was a
symbol of a lidless eye, which Barak recognised as belonging to a god of evil
- a non-Lolth one at that. The party found that whenever they stepped out of
the room, the symbol would turn itself off, and then on again when they
entered. At the back
of the room a bloodied altar and two large urns were discovered. The urns
were very heavy and full of coins. Cohen and Kai dragged them into the
warehouse area and smashed them. Over 4000 silver pieces were discovered,
approximately 250 gold pieces and 20 platinum pieces. A small pouch was found
which held some low value gems. Straynjer blasted the altar into a million
pieces using a wand of lightning from outside the door. The party
then spent about two hours searching the 5 other warehouse areas and the
accompanying living quarters at the back of each. Large numbers of small and
tiny monstrous spiders were killed in the process. Nothing of value was
found. The group
then formed up and marched into the tunnel where the duegar had fled and
found a watch station and a long tunnel sloping downwards. The watch post was
searched without effect. Kai swung his large axe about in case the duegar
dwarves were invisibly waiting to ambush the group. The tunnel
turned several times and then slanted steeply downwards. After traveling
several hundred feet the group emerged into a very large cavern. A trail was
spotted heading east and west. Looking westwards could be seen two further
entrances into the rock. Over to the east, a large drow encampment was seen
complete with mushroom farms, slave workers, multi- storey fungi houses and
bands of drow moving about in the darkness. The party crept closer. At the
ledge, Otto and Aragorn made their way to the northern most dwelling. An
invisible Otto crept inside whilst maintaining constant telepathic contact
with Straynjer. There were
about 9 drow inside the residence including children. In addition to living
quarters there was a large cheese manufacturing workshop and small shrines.
Some of the drow were seen praying silently. Otto managed to avoid getting
run into and silently left the building. The second fungi house proved very
similar. After some
debate, the party decided to check the tunnels leading westwards. It was
discovered that both exited, once again, at the chasm with spider web running
down one side. After further debate, the group decided to descend the web
into the bottom most entrance. On
entering the first walled room, most of the group were catapulted back out of
the entrance and were struck hard by an unknown force. Barak's knowledge of
spells lead to him realising that a 'forbiddance' spell was in operation.
After casting dispel magic twice, the effect was removed and the other party
members were able to enter the area. The end of
the room appeared partly octagonal in shape with two side exits and a ladder,
looking like it's made out of spiders web, leading through the ceiling at the
centre rear. Before the party could approach the back section of the room,
movement was spotted at the exits. 'Quith alert' shouted Aragorn before
drawing back his bow. Otto was the quickest to react and threw down a flask
of 'faerie dust' (I think) creating a concealing cloud of mist. Behind the
Quith, two drow pushed forward and rushed up to Barak and Cohen. A few
moments later, it was realised that these were no ordinary drow, but 'vampire
drow.' Cohen thanked the effects of the mist with one of the vampires
narrowly missing him with its hand. Barak fared not much better but was not drained
of life energy. Then, it was discovered that there were 4 Quith Maren and not
two. The 4 monsters moved forwards and struck at Barak and Cohen as well. Two
of them spat acid at Otto but he easily dodged the acidic missiles. The party
moved forward with Kai, Enjo and Otto engaging in hand to hand whilst
Straynjer prepared his spells and Aragorn fired his arrows. Straynjer added concealment
to Cohen with an interposing illusionary hand, which saved his skin more than
once. However, the vampires shrugged off many of Straynjer's attempts to
either control them or change their shape whilst Aragorn regretted the
effects of the mist during the battle as many of his arrows missed their
target. Cohen had to struggle against the effect of a vampires domination
attack and would have delivered a killing blow to Enjo except he was able to
stay his hand. Barak was
able to successfully turn two of the Quith Marens and the other two fell not
long after. Straynjer cast Suggestion on Cohen who now fought both the
vampires influence and the commands of his friend. One of the vampires then
found himself turned into a small animal. Both vampires realising they were
about to be defeated turned into clouds of gas and were able to flee, especially
since they were very difficult to spot with Otto's mist still clogging the
air thickly. The other two 'turned' Quiths disappeared as well. (Had to
change this slightly as they would have run away down the passages ages ago.
Still awarding xp for defeating them though.) Straynjer
levels up to level 12. |
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14th May 2003 The session commenced with the party looting the lizards and bodies from the previous fight. Straynjer picked up his 4th wand of lightning. The best prize was a Bag of Holding from the mind-flayer, which contained a couple of thousand silver pieces, some platinum pieces, gems, scrolls and potions. The mind-flayer also had a magic great-axe. The party then investigated the 6 doors on top of the surrounding ledge. They all had boards across them, but Cohen and Kai made short work of those. Most of the large rooms behind the doors contained webs and cobwebs crawling with large numbers of spiders - up to dog size. One large room appeared completely empty before movement was spotted on the far side. Two large black puddings rushed the party. The elves started firing their arrows, which didn't slow the advancing monsters and then watched as their arrows dissolved in the putrid masses. A fireball arrow and a lightning bolt burned and scorched the oozes respectively. Cohen leapt onto the ceiling, swung his mace and MISSED. Kai stepped forward and hit with his magical battleaxe and watched in horror as the acidic nature of the beast dissolved the steel and then split into two smaller halves. Barak cast Searing light and also MISSED. (Monsters had AC3.) Otto threw oil on an ooze and Aragorn set it alight with a flare arrow. A fire elemental was summoned and further damaged the burning ooze. One ooze smashed into Kai and engulfed him. Cohen raced across to rescue him before the acid killed his fighting friend but was unsuccessful in the first attempt. Kai screamed in pain as his armour dissolved and the acid ate into his flesh. Cohen managed to pull him free and Barak cast a Blade Barrier across the floor, which started chopping the oozes into smaller pieces. Some more oil and flare arrows saw the end of the small oozes. Out came the healing and Kai donned some ex-drow garments and armour. Straynjer cast Prestidigitation to remove the bloodstains. As no shield was available, he hefted the mind-flayers great-axe. Two doors at the back of the room looked interesting and Otto checked them for traps. His search failed and a blast of fire burst around the door. His lightning reflexes saved him and he jumped out of the way. When the door was opened, a large pit of glowing slime in the centre of the room was spotted. 3 large 12' long yellow amoeba shaped objects oozed towards the door. An altar and two large urns were seen at the back of the room. The door was quickly closed. Barak cast Divination and heard something like: Fire on the jelly, steel vs. the tower. Beware the slime. The door was opened again and Straynjer let loose with a fireball. The yellow oozes took heavy scorching, but advanced nonetheless. Arrows once again were dissolved. Barak summoned some Salamanders and these started to seriously hurt the ugly jelly masses despite them splitting several times. Two tentacles lashed out at Straynjer from the Roper at the back of the room, which stood unscathed from the fireball. Straynjer was dragged forward to the edge of the slime. A salamander was also grabbed and dragged into the slime. Despite the salamander’s flames burning the tentacles, he died as the deep pit of slime burned his flaming flesh away. Otto targeted the Roper with arrows and hit. One arrow went straight threw the Ropers eye, killing it instantly. Straynjer fell to the floor in a severely weakened state and was quickly dragged out of the room. The door was closed again with one remaining Salamander battling the yellow oozes. Otto, Aragorn levelled up to level 12 |
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7th April 2003 Cohen levelled up to level 10
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9th Dec 2002 The party decided to leave Enjo and the snow owl outside the complex, since the window entrance was found to be too small for the wolf to enter. The party climbed down into the ditch under cover of darkness and found a knotted rope of rags and blanket pieces. Otto climbed the rope discovering an empty room above with but a single set of human footprints in the dust. The rope led to the rooms below the wall top where patrolling hobgoblins stand watch. The party climbed the rope and left the room by the only door. They discovered a guardroom with another door and stairs going down. The footsteps followed the stairs. Otto had a look at the stairs and discovered 3 trip wires and it looked like the escaped slave had missed them all.
Looking out the door at the bottom of the stairs revealed an open
courtyard. Invisibility was cast on Otto and he went for a scout around. The
only way into the complex was through the second wall which also had
patrolling hobgoblins on top. Otto found a large mud patch in front of the
main entrance. Straynjer cast a spell bringing into existence the image of a
large bat, complete with wing noises, which immediately attracted a lot of
missile fire from the hobgoblins. Barak cast a silence spell and altogether
this was a successful diversion allowing the party to run across the
courtyard unobserved. Whilst crossing near the mud, the ground erupted and an
ankheg grabbed for Barak and missed. Before it could shoot acid at the group,
it was brought down and the party ran into the second entrance. Here, Barak
summoned a celestial Pegasus to once again keep all eyes away from the party
as they crossed an open parade ground to get into the keep itself. Passing through a large archway revealed an inner courtyard with a
fountain, 2 large trees and gardens. Around the perimeter on 3 sides was a
small roofed area. Otto got Cohen to hoist him up onto the roof and he
immediately noticed 12 hobgoblins around the perimeter waiting to attack. He
waited for Straynjer to make contact again but before the alarm could be
raised, the hobgoblins stood up and commenced firing at the remaining party
members. Otto struck invisibly at the nearest. Aragorn cast Entangle, tying
some of them up. Barak cast Spiritual Weapon and got his sling out. Straynjer
decided to go invisible after suffering a couple of crossbow bolts. Cohen and
Kai climbed up onto the roof and engaged in hand to hand. Kai was himself
entangled but was eventually able to move forward. Cohen was a whirling
rampage of death that was constantly annoyed when the hobgoblin he was about
to smash dropped from arrow fire from the rest of the group. A short fight
later and the hobgoblins were defeated. |
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11th Nov 2002 The party journeyed away from Highport heading roughly southwestwards.
Grok the halforc guide is managing to find the trail the caravan took some
weeks ago. During the first nights camp, Enjo woke up and started growling into
the darkness. Cohen wondered what was happening and then heard the baying and
barking of hounds in the distance. He quickly woke the others whereby
Straynjer sent his owl up for a look-see. A large pack of hounds was seen to be in pursuit of one large
blacklike dog. The dog got closer to the campsite whereby Barak cast detect evil
revealing the black beast to be free from evil. Enjo didn't react badly
either. Seconds later the pack came within 60 feet. There were 13 black dogs
with 2 heads each and 4 white large dog beasts. Most of the party managed to
get the drop on them and rained arrows and a fireball on them. A handful of
the black dogs were taken down and several others were singed. When the dogs
attacked, both Barak and Aragorn were bitten and dropped. They were both
lucky and neither of them contracted a nasty disease from any of the bites. The original black hound with the human face and prehensile front paws
let loose with a loud bay, causing some of the enemy dogs to attack with
lesser effect. The fight eventually turned in the party’s favour, and ended
when Barak finally dropped the last two dogs. The remaining good dog (Rover) thanked the party profusely and agreed
to accompany them for a short way. Barak healed the party, including the half
orc guide who had waded into combat without hesitation. Rover was found to
possess magic abilities in addition to some telepathy. The next day saw the party move onwards. Then the ground started to shake
and the owl spotted a large herd of antelope. The party ran to get out of the
way. Then something large snatched up Otto and carried him away. It was a
large pterosaur, which was probably what had scared the antelopes. Straynjer
took to the sky after it whilst Barak summoned a Pegasus to pursue. Cohen
fired at it with his crossbow and missed dismally whilst Aragorn’s arrows
found their mark. The beast was brought down. Before Straynjer could reach
Otto to try and save him, Otto's ring of feather fall activated and he
floated gently to the ground. Barak healed him afterwards. That night
passed peacefully. The next day saw the party stumble across some stake
markers adorned with coloured feathers and skulls. Grok identified the stakes
as turf markers for the 'Gifted of Gruumsh' orc tribe. The party would have
to tread warily through the area. That night the party heard drums start up
roughly 2-3 miles from their location. Straynjer cast invisibility on the owl
who went and had a look. There was a large encampment of approx 300 orcs
nearby. The party discretely moved away from them. Whilst doing so, a group
of gnolls was spotted in the darkness moving towards the orc camp. Most of
the party tried to hide whilst Straynjer would try and bluff it out.
Communication with the gnolls revealed they were of to attack the orcs.
Straynjer replied they were enemies of the orcs too. The gnolls seemed to
believe this and didn't want to mess with an obviously powerful person since
he was hovering off the ground and moved round past the group. Seconds later
the elves spotted another group of gnolls passing them on the other side. A
combat with several groups of gnolls in the dark wasn't exactly a good idea
so the party moved further afield getting some distance from everyone. Later
a large light could be seen on the horizon in the direction of the orc camp. The next day Otto spotted a movement near the trail. The owl went up
again and spotted a human hiding under a bush. The party closed in and Straynjer
telepathised with the human. Turns out he was Thaddeus, the son of a rich
noble who had been taken by the Slavers from Dame Gold's residence many
months ago. The party interrogated the half mad Thaddeus and found he had
escaped from the stockade over a week ago. He was half delirious with madness
until Straynjer cast Suggestion on him to get him to calm down. The elves
then scouted about to find a suitable campsite whereby they got information
from Thaddeus as to who might be held there. Straynjer then used his crystal
ball and made contact with 'The Great Sage' from Dame Gold's who was also
being held at the stockade. They learned the place is being run by an elven
female spellcaster. The garrison commander is blind and there are also ogres
and maybe ogre magi. The group continued onwards avoiding the many humanoids who live in
the Drachensgrab hills. They then encountered another escaped slave who told
them he let a rope down over one of the walls and it should still be there if
they wanted to get in that way. |
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30th Sep 2002 Accomplishment:
Some of the temple interior cleaned of living entities. The night began with the invisible elves slipping
around the side of the complex to search for the secret door at the back. One
was found and Otto just failed to spot the rope, which was holding a
spring-loaded bar in place on the other side. Luckily he is ever so nimble
and when the lever hit the door knocking it back, he managed to avoid getting
hit. Meanwhile the others meandered around slowly heading
for the back when an orc patrol was encountered. The elves had spotted them
first and the message was relayed to Straynjer. Straynjer and
Cohen with Enjo decided to encounter the orcs with an invisible Barak hanging
about nearby. Cohen wanted to use 'just testing the security
measures' excuse. Showing them the eye symbol lead to the orcs eventually
'escorting' the visiting 'guests' towards the main portcullis entrance.
Before the group got there, the party attacked. Barak threw an invisible
silenced dagger into the back of an orc killing it. Cohen took on the leader
who turned out to be rather tough (40hps) and Straynjer fought with a
Rogue/Cleric who was unable to cast spells due to the silenced dagger
sticking out of his dead compatriot. The elves arrived quickly and the seven
orcs went down without a sound. The bodies were hidden and the party moved on down
to the secret door. Narrow 5-foot passages were discovered throughout. The
party first found a burned out room with a reinforced east wall. Someone had
gone to great lengths to seal up that side. The second room has a collapsed
ceiling. Barak was ingenuous by casting Mending on the hinges of the jammed
door allowing easy access. Unfortunately there were 6 ghouls and 2 Ghasts
hidden in the ceiling, which jumped down surprising the party. Several hits
were inflicted on the group and everyone except Straynjer avoided
paralyzation. Otto finished the ghoul attacking him and leapt over one of the
ghouls about to decapitate the helpless Straynjer whilst Enjo dropped the
second one on him. The ghoul had second thoughts about delivering a coup de
grace and just slashed him instead. Aragorn rained arrows on the enemy from
the doorway whilst Cohen and Barak hacked away with abandon. Barak forgot he
was a Cleric and could have turned them with ease, or was it because he
wanted to see how his new magic undead killing maul worked! After the enemy was defeated, Barak conducted some
minor healing whilst Otto scaled the wall and searched the ghoul living area.
It was alleged that he found 2 gems and a potion bottle. After the paralysis
wore off, the party moved on. The next room showed a collapsed floor with ledges
on both sides and a bridge of wooden planks across the middle. Appraise
checks showed the left side was extremely dangerous, the right side and
planks looked ok. Otto was roped and set off across the right side. He hoped
his ring of feather falling would actually work if it came to the crunch.
Halfway across he spotted a loose board, which would tilt the wall over and
knock someone into the 30-foot drop. He marked the board and continued
across. A few minutes later everyone was across. Moving onwards the party came across a small alcove
with 3 barrels inside. Breaching a barrel revealed sour stale vinegary wine
inside. It was later realised that Straynjer could have cast
Prestigitation(sp?) to make it better but that would have lead to the dwarf
and barbarian not wanting to leave, haha. The next room along had a large
pile of tarry moldy ropes and rags surrounded by flies with a sweet honey
smell in the air. Barak approached and 6 tendrils leapt at him grabbing him.
The party immediately rushed to his aid. The large plant proved particularly
vicious with 6 tendrils trying to grab everyone close by. Straynjer wisely
hung back and Aragorn tried to pepper it with arrows. The plant (Giant
Sundew) was especially resilient to missile fire (DR5) and its tendrils
exuded an acidy type sap that burned Barak, Enjo, and Cohen. Otto the Nimble
managed to avoid getting held. Enjo suffered badly and was knocked
unconscious (-8hp) but luckily the plant was killed in time enabling Barak to
do his stuff. Healing spells were flying as the sap continued to burn and
water had no effect on trying to wash it off. Then Otto remembered the
barrels and the party barreled (hee hee) up the stairs to the alcove. The
vinegary substance was successful in stopping the burning. Some
coins, gems and a gold ring were found under the Sundew. The party decided to
rest in the room. A few hours later, the door opened and a Wight entered.
Cohen moved to attack it and Otto was ready with his bow whilst the others
woke up and grabbed weapons. The Wight struck first and missed (rolled a 3
two rounds in a row.) This Wight was a tougher relative than its kin, and
took a fair bit of punishment before it went down. Luckily no one was drained
of life energy. After a rest, the party moved on and walked into
some stables where 4 humans/half orcs were lounging about. A short scuffle
and 3 well placed arrows saw them quickly defeated. The bodies were hidden in
the hay. In the loft, Otto found a hidden human with beard and loincloth. He stated he is an escaped slave trying to get out
of the complex. He was just waiting for the stable hands to leave before
trying to make a break for it. He was formerly a stevedore working on the
docks in Highport and was captured by the slavers 4 weeks ago. His wrists
show manacle marks. Barak leveled up to Level 9 |
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Through spell use, the 10 rays (Axylotol thingys???)
and the large man-swallowing fish were disposed of. Cohen bravely acted as
bait for the big beggar and whacked it with his waddy. Then through the use
of water breathing spells, the hatch on the reef was opened and the party
eventually managed to squeeze through and climb the rungs found to yet
another hatch. Gravity had reversed itself back to normal at this time. Poking his head through the hatch, Cohen saw a large
gem floating in a large empty room. The gem then blasted a section of the room
with white light. The party equipped up and 4 members charged the gem in
order to smash the invisible shield around it. Before Cohen could swing, the
gem blasted him in blinding white light. Unable to resist the effect (failing
his Willpower save) his soul was sucked from his body into the gem in a very
painful fashion. His body and all his equipment was bleached white in the
process. The shield was brought down quickly, zapping people in the process
as they struck it, and Aragorn grabbed the gem, whereupon it stopped
blasting. Straynjer activated the Amulet of Recall and everyone found
themselves back in the Seer's laboratory. After some research, the Seer was
able to locate Cohen's soul and return it to his body. He said his normal
skin and hair colour would return over time but his equipment would remain
white. The Seer gave a pile of stuff back. A few items were missing (which
there was much complaining about.) The Seer gave the group some info about a location
of a slaver stronghold in an old temple in Highport and that Dame Gold may be
there. There is a secret entrance into the temple itself at the back. After
some rest and identification of new magic items, the party divined some info
about the temple. It was protected by all manner of creatures and the orc god
Gruumsh was worshipped there. The temple and walls were patrolled by undead
and orcs constantly. Early in an evening, Straynjer and Cohen approached the
gate posing as prospective slave purchasers. Barak, Aragorn and Otto were
invisible and silenced following close behind. 10 orcs were guarding the main
gate. Through the use of a minor bribe and suggestion ability, the gate was
opened and the party entered the courtyard in front of the temple. Straynjer
was given a rock with an eye carved on it (symbol of Gruumsh) which he was
informed would keep the undead at bay. The party is currently deciding
whether to proceed up to the main entrance where more orcs can be seen or to
try and get around the back to look for the secret entrance. |
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19th
Aug 2002 Barak leveled up to Level 8 |
