Finally, after a nigh endless run of Monte Cook's Banewarrens, we finally wrapped up and got to start the Age of Worms! I've been looking forward to this for 6 months!
My party, when everyone is present (which is rare), has seven members total. Our first session almost got derailed because two of our members decided to watch the Medium 3D episode. One of those two was supposed to run the cleric and that caused some serious problems later on. Another player wasn't able to show up at all.
Party composition is as follows:
Jasmeela Samira, a CG sorceress who performs at the Emporium. A Baklunish noble by birth, her father (an emissary to the Free City) sent her to Diamond Lake as a child for her own safety from the dangers of politics. Her show is very popular, especially when she dances with monsters that she summons with her magic. Sultry and beautiful, she remains inviolate due to her friendship with Ki'Goa, a goliath barbarian who works at the Emporium as a bouncer under Kurlag.
Ki'Goa Bravewrestler Gau'umuth'thak, a CN goliath barbarian with the 1st level goliath barbarian substitution level. I can't pronounce his family name and neither can his player, so we all just call him Ki. He was cast out of his tribe in the Abbor-Alz for accidentally triggering a landslide that wiped out much of an important mountain goat flock, endangering its survival and thus that of the goliath clan. He wound up in Diamond Lake and then the Emporium where he met Jasmeela, the first human to treat him as a person instead of a freak. Now he protects the vivacious sorceress from unwanted advances.
Yikes! More to come (the rest of the party, etc.) but I've gotta go to work.
To continue, we also have:
Boris Greenwood, CG male human rogue. If smartass was a prestige class, Boris would be able to take substitution levels in it. He's young, cocky, and reckless but also clever and resourceful and loyal to his friends. He challenges authority but believes in doing the right thing (what that means is sometimes murky). A little light fingered, he's good at getting in and out of trouble.
Dwendoleena, CG female dwarf fighter using the dwarf fighter substitution level from Races of Stone. A master of the axe (any axe), Dwen is a rebel sent to work for the Graysmere Covenant to get her out of the clan's hair. Bitris Ruthek is her aunt by marriage and not very happy to be saddled with her unruly niece.
Zane Cooper, NG male human ranger of the Bronzewood Lodge. A maverick of sorts, Zane hardly gets along well with his own woodsy types at the Lodge. Nogwier and the lot frown on his frequent trips to town to drink and carouse. No one faults his bravery or his combat skills, however. In a fight, it's good to have him by your side.
I'm not going to bother posting the other two characters, yet. The cleric's player went home early and never played and one of our other players couldn't even come.
I'll summarize a few of our house rules. I used the 32 point buy for character generation and gave them maximum starting gold for their class and level. I'm using the action point system from Unearthed Arcana. I'm using the disabled and dying rules from Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed (i.e; it's based on your CON score). I also use Death Rrom Massive Damage Based On Size and Instant Kill from the DMG. I use the Half-Humans and Humanlike Races variant from Races of Destiny.
After the results of our first session, the player of Zane the ranger and the player of the cleric will be switching characters/identities to ensure that the party cleric is always present (being played by one of my "core" gamers).
Moving right along, I made Boris and Jasmeela the plot instigators for the Whispering Cairn. It seems that Boris was involved in some sort of larceny ("I was never there! No one saw me! You can't prove anything!") and was taken to the garrison for questioning. While being detained in the Chief Cartographer's office, he happened to spot the map showing the location of the cairn's entrance and purloined it. Everyone in town has caught a little treasure hunting fever due to the tales of the adventurers exploring the Stirgenest Cairn.
After being rudely ejected from the garrison compound, Boris sets out to gather a group of fellow rogues...er..adventurers. He know he's going to need muscle and magical might so he heads to the Emporium and approaches Jasmeela with his idea to explore the cairn. Jasmeela hates the Emporium and leaps at the idea. She decides to bring along her awesome friend, the goliath Ki'Goa.
Boris notices Zane drinking at a table and decides another blade might come in handy. He knows the ranger from an incident involving an unfortunate altercation with two half-orc brothers. Zane saved his bacon and became a friend (of sorts). Zane readily agrees to Boris' plan. Neither man notices a female dwarf drinking at the next table over and listening to their excited overloud whisperings.
Early the next day, Jasmeela and Ki meet with Boris and Zane at the old abandoned mining office. Zane reveals a paranoid streak by insisting on checking the environs for signs of anyone else moving in on the action. All he finds are day old wolf tracks around the building coming from and going in the general direction of the cairn. Boris scoffs at Zane's caution regarding the presence of wolves.
Without much ado, the party arrives at the area where the cairn entrance is supposed to be. There follows an amusing interlude where Zane, who had tracked the wolves all they way there, is unable to locate the entrance to the cairn (it's kind of an Order of the Stick "I think I failed a Spot check!" moment). The goliath barbarian Ki likewise fails to show any woodcraft or exploring skill and it falls upon the savvy cityslicker Boris to finally locate the tomb entrance.
Boris is unable to resist ribbing the embarrassed ranger and a brief escalation of insults ensues (with much arm waving and threatened dice throwing around the game table). At last the party enters the cairn itself.
Zane immediately notes that wolf tracks are present in some profusion and points this out with grim satisfaction to Boris. Unfamiliar with wild critters, the city boy is thus far unimpressed (hehhehh). They all spot the bedroll in the west alcove and the paranoid Zane displays extreme caution while approaching it, making several Spot checks on the way. I finally figure out that he's expecting a monstrous centipede or a viper or something. Hah! Nothing so commonplace in this adventure!
After briefly checking out the east alcove, the party moves on to the next intersection. Boris immediately spots the "possibly valuable artifact" in the Transport Alcove and makes a beeline for it, showing his recklessness by making no attempt to check for traps. He quickly finds the strange glasslike shards around the base of the artifact and pockets them. We spend quite a bit of time here and no one is able to figure out what the device is or interpret the glyph and the inscriptions. They aren't making much noise for the time being, so the wolves don't know they are there. Several party members have spotted the strange green light at this point.
While the group is engaged with the device, Dwen finally tramps up and into the cairn. She was going to surprise the party at the mine office, but had to sleep off her hangover (read: her player decided to watch Medium 3D). She'd also planned to bring a cleric of St. Cuthbert she'd met, but found out that the cleric was serving a penance and couldn't leave the church (read: the cleric's player watched Medium 3D and then decided she was "too tired" and went home).
The party is surprised by Dwen's appearance and Boris realized he let his mouth get away from him. He uneasily wonders who else knows about the cairn and what they are doing there. The dwarf's armored stamping and the brief but loud arguement over including her in the party serve to alert the wolves at this point.
Glossing over the obviously blocked Collapsed Passage, the party proceeds towards the strange green light and reaches the Hall of Honor. Zane moves towards the west, drawn by the Gallery of Seven Lanterns. Dwen starts to follow him. Ki and Jasmeela hang back in the entrance to the hall, looking towards the web-choked archway and the green light beyond it. Without a light source, Boris foolishly moves eastwards alone, unknowingly headed for the Wolf Den.
The whole group is surprised when three vicious wolves charged out of the darkness of the eastern wing. Boris goes down immediately under their savage fangs. A huge black wolf charges towards Zane while two half-starved wolves-one gray and one brown-move towards Ki and Jasmeela. The big black wolf tears savagely into Zane and manages to pull him off his feet. The ranger's return swordthrust falters and fails to score a hit. The other two wolves attack Ki in tandem and rip him up a bit, but they can't trip the massive goliath. Jasmeela wisely casts Mage Armor. Ki rages at this point and becomes even more massive. He smashes the gray wolf to a furry pulp with one mighty blow of his goliath greathammer (3d6+12 while raging!). Dwen scores a hit on the brown wolf.
The big black wolf goes for Zane's throat, but the ranger somehow dodges his fate. Unfortunately, when Zane tries to stand up, the wolf lunges in at him and tears him up badly. He falls to the floor, critically wounded and unconcious. Jasmeela moves to the fallen Boris, but fails to staunch his wounds and he continues to bleed his life away. Ki fetches the brown wolf a mighty buffet that ends its life. Dwen steps towards the big black wolf and cuts it with her waraxe.
Distracted from tearing into the fallen Zane, the black wolf bites at Dwen but can't fully penetrate her scale armor. Jasmeela manages to bind up Boris' wounds and stop the bleeding. Ki steps up behind Dwen and finishes the fight by pulverizing the black wolf with his greathammer.
Lamenting their lack of a cleric, the party somehow stabilizes Zane and prepares to head back into town to seeking magical healing at one of the temples. My players so far have refused to use their action points and their frugalness surprises me. Granted, using the Arcana Unearthed disabled and dying rules gives them more leeway before they're dead, but one more good bite from the black wolf would've finished Zane off.
At the tomb entrance, the party are startled when they run into a strangely dressed, oddly gaunt young woman. They note that she has a Wee Jas holy symbol and when they ask who she is, she introduces herself as Tiralandi, a cleric of Wee Jas. Lonely and out wandering by herself, she stumbled upon the cairn by accident. She asks them why two of the party are so badly injured and offers to heal them for a hefty 40 gold apiece (I'm using the 4th level Tiralandi for now. Maybe she'll become a cohort later).
Brought back to a semblance of health, Zane and Boris are still pretty roughed up and Tiralandi mentions that she has more healing available to them. Neither one can afford another spell at her rate. Eyeing the boyishly handsome Boris, Tiralandi suggests that they "negotiate terms" for healing him more. They adjourn to some nearby shrubs to "discuss payment". Time passes and Boris emerges looking healthier and Tiralandi looking smugly satisfied. Batting her eyes, Tiralandi asks Zane if he'd like the same deal (Apologies to James Jacobs. In my campaign, Tiralandi is a bit of a trollop). Appalled, Zane declines and huffily heads for town, muttering about "going second". Tiralandi lets Boris know he can find her at the graveyard (which alarms him a bit).
Back in Diamond Lake, Zane is disgruntled when he can't affored to procure healing from any of the clerics of St. Cuthbert or Heironeous. In a high dudgeon, he sets out for the Bronzewood Lodge and is lucky enought to straitaway encounter a yound (1st level) druid on his way to town for a drink or three. The druid is all to happy to provide healing for drinking money and Zane is back up to par.
The session ended with the party back at the Emporium preparing to rest up. They want to try and get a healing potion or two. Boris sold the glass shards to Tidwoad and it turns out that Jasmeela has a noble past and some of the gold that goes with it. They also plan to have a cleric with them next time. They're going to need one. Harharr!
Okey dokey, before we start a brief update. Some changes in the party lineup. Zane Cooper the ranger is now Zane Cooper the cleric of St. Cuthbert. Turns out that the player of the cleric who didn't play last session didn't want to play a cleric. Period. So our modified Zane and two other characters are:
Zane Cooper, LN male human cleric of St. Cuthbert. Zane is an odd type for the conservative Cuthbertines. He thoroughly despises the "lost" of Diamond Lake and his presence there. He spends his nights drowning his misery in spirits of the type his faith does commune with. In the morning, he flogs himself (literally and figuratively) for his sins and laments his weakness. Gruff, overbearing, and sometimes brash, he is nonetheless a staunch companion and a reliable shieldmate. Not afraid to step up and trade blows with enemies, he harbors a deep hatred of undead creatures.
Winter, NG female human ranger. Hailing from the Bronzewood Lodge, Winter loathes the encroachment of civilization on the remaining wild places of the Oerth. Young and restless, she thirsts for adventure and longs to test her own mettle and prove her worth to her self. Competant with both blade and bow, she met Boris when he was losing a fight with a couple of half-orc brothers out for blood. She saved his life and earned his trust on that day and it was her blade that he called upon in need. Note: the Winter character is taking over the old Zane Cooper ranger background.
Maldoth Ahali (used a name generator), CG Elf Scout. A budding bowman with aspirations towards the Order of the Bow, Maldoth is well known to some of the traders in town and to the dwarves of the Greysmere covenant, having regularly worked with caravans running between the town and the dwarven community in the Abbor-Alz. His trustworthy service caused Dwen to approach him and invite him to explore the Whispering Cairn with her companions.
Also, I have been taken to task for mispelling Dwen's name. It is correctly spelled Dwendaleena (with no "o"). Oh.
Moving right along, we really had a blast in our next session and covered a lot of ground in the Whispering Cairn. We had a full party of seven tonight. I'm not sure what modifications I'm going to make in light of that because I don't know how many times I'm going to get this kind of turnout. I thought about adding an extra slasher or a larger swarm or buffing up their hit points, but in retro I'm glad I didn't. You'll see why.
We started out by introducing the new characters to the group. While everyone was making nice, Boris decided that the party (meaning him) could use some kind of healing potion. He didn't want to try the Heironeans because he wasn't sure if they'd missed the cairn map yet or if they had connected him to its disappearance. He also was a little leery of the overzealous proselytizing of the Cuthbertines. So he got it into his head to track down Tiralandi and see if she made potions.
Remembering that he could find the morbid death priestess in the Boneyard, he headed that way. When he got there he ran into a couple of acolytes of the Green Lady, who suspiciously demanded to know why he was there. Finding out who Boris was searching for revealed that Tiralandi was in no way connected with the cult across the lake and was looked upon with some distaste as being a bit of a rogue. Feeling that was right up his alley, Boris talked with the acolytes until he learned that Tiralandi moved around the Boneyard and slept during the day.
After looking around for an hour or so, Boris spotted a small mausoleum with a door slightly ajar. Moving quietly, unsure of the wisdom of his actions, Boris entered the tomb and immediately spotted an open sarcophagus with a shattered lid to one side. Looking in with a bit of trepidation, he saw Tiralandi was indeed sleeping in the sarcophagus. Lying in repose, her hands were folded over her breasts and she was clutching an unsheated dagger. Boris also noted that she was sleeping atop moldering bones. A little unnerved, he decided that discretion was the better part of valor and decided to leave a note asking Tiralandi to seek him out later.
Mustering up a little moxy, Boris at last talked himself into approaching the church of St. Cuthbert. Entering the sanctuary, he was a little relieved to see that old Hamaneezer (the geezer) was on duty, polishing the bare wooden pews of the chapel. He had no desire to encounter the fanatical high priest, Wierus.
Amazed to see the young scoundrel Boris, the cantankerous Hameneezer asked the rogue if he had come to repent of his larcenous ways. With a truly roguish smile, Boris admitted that he needed to purchase a potion for healing wounds. Hameneezer said that some were available and named the price. Boris agreed and the old cleric asked where he'd stolen the money from. After some more banter along this vein, Hameneezer fetched the potion and accepted payment for it. The elderly cleric made a half-hearted offer for the rogue to join the church and mend his ways and received the expected flippant answer to the contrary. In a display of mock crotchety ire, Hameneezer shooed to smiling Boris from the church.
Eventually, the entire party reassembled at the abandoned mining office and set out for the Whispering Cairn. No one thus far had managed to identify the purpose of the object in the Transport Alcove and Zane's knowledge of religious lore and the planes of existence likewise proved insufficient (read: no one has made their Knowledge (Arcana) checks and no one has put ranks in Decipher Script or cast Comprehend Languages).
A brief rant is in order here. My players have a little trouble working together in character creation to create a well-balanced party. I've praised the virtues of a good diviner in the party (who only has to give up one school, probably Necromancy) but so far I'm not reaching them. The concept of a utility mage is foreign to them. I love my girlfriend, the player of Jasmeela, but her sorceress is too specialized (Monster Summoning being her thing). My ideal party would be (with the 7 people I have) a diviner, a sorcerer, a cleric, a rogue, and three fighter types. Guess we all have a dream.
All that aside, the group quickly moves on and reaches the Hall of Honor. Winter and Maldoth confirm that the wolves' bodies are undisturbed and that no one else appears to have entered the hall but the party. Some of the group go back to examining the Gallery of Seven Lanterns while others check out the Wolf Den. Working together, Boris and Dwen find the backpack with the indigo lantern, the carved armband, and the marble index finger.
Boris also checks the Gallery to see if he can find any secret doors. He also tries lighting the indigo lantern with a torch to see if it reveals anything. I tell him that it casts a pretty indigo light over the walls. A moment of silence and he realizes thats it.
Meanwhile, someone (I forget) walks up to the web-choked archway to try and look through at the weird green light. They spot the steps going down and use their torch to burn away the webs. The party gathers and enters the False Tomb.
After I've drawn out the floor plan and described the humongous room to them, they scatter to the winds (heh, ironic in a Wind Duke tomb). They avoid the sarcophagus at first, except to note that the "arrow" points toward the orange alcove. They spend a lot of time (I mean a whole lot) trying and failing to climb the chain there only to find that there's nothing to find.
Somebody suggests lighting all the lanterns in the alcoves and they do, only to find that there is no red lantern. Hmmm. In all the hurlyburly, Jasmeela notes that she can't see the top of the shaft in the blue alcove. Hmmm. Ki climbs to the top and finds the passage leading to the northeast, but doesn't have a torch and can't see down it (goliaths have no darkvision or low-light acuity). At this point, I sheepishly remember to mention the squash-looking skeleton lying at the base of the shaft. Oops. They immediately conclude that it fell down the shaft, but at this point they assume it was due to poor climbing skills. Hehh.
Finally venturing to examine the sarcophagus, they discover that it can be rotated clockwise. They venture to do so and a few bad rolls later finally get it to move. Up comes the elevator. There's much excitement and speculation at this, but before they hare off they decide to keep rotating the "dial" and see what else happens.
One click later and up comes the elevator in the green alcove. They note the tortured shriek of abused metal and grinding of stone on stone and don't trust this one and decide to keep rotating the sarcophagus.
The party members make enough failed STR checks at this point for the elevator to give up the ghost and down it goes with part of the alcove floor. Boris moves over to look down the elevator. As he approaches the shaft, he hears the rustling and clicking and chittering of a multitude of insects. Quickly metagaming, he backs off and warns the party that a swarm is coming up the shaft and that they should light torches and get out any flasks of alchemist's fire or vials of acid (heh)they might have. The chittering grows closer.....
I've read posts that describe the Whispering Cairn as a meatgrinder. The wolves took down 2 party members in my group and they fared a little better here, but it could easily have gone worse.
The party took a couple of rounds to prepare but revealed their inexperience-Jasmeela didn't cast Mage Armor and a couple of them didn't light torches. Then the shaft seemed to spew a torrent of clicking beetles that washed towards the group like an acidic wave. Even worse, a many-legged one-eyed monster leaped out and rushed towards them. Even with preparation, the party was taken aback by the speed of the attack (I rolled ungawdly high on the initiative rolls for both the slasher and the swarm. The slasher went first and then the swarm. No one had prepared any actions. Too bad for them.).
Ki was holding the line at the front of the group and the mad slasher scampered up beside him and delivered a vicious blow. Ki absorbed the pain without trouble, but the next moment, the voracious beetles were all over him. He went down without delivering a blow (this really freaked out his player and the rest of the group-Ki has 15 hp and they rely on him to stay the distance). The brave scout Maldoth was also overrun by insects and grievously wounded (down to 0 hp and disabled). Maldoth was not overcome by the revulsion common to those covered in such things (mainly because I clean forgot to have him make a save to avoid being nauseated).
The other party members reacted quickly. Boris stepped up and waved his torch at the hideous swarm of beetles, but to no effect. Dwen did the same and fared better, scorching many beetles and perhaps weakening the unity of the insects. Jasmeela cast Mage Armor on herself. Winter realized that her sword would be useless against the beetles, and being unable to reach the slasher, took the time to light a torch.
Moving with alarming speed, the mad slasher scuttled around the swarm and headed to where Boris, Zane, and Winter were standing. Boris was able to take a swipe at it with his blade but the vicious abomination was too quick. Part of the swarm flowed over poor Dwen next, doing her harm. She was not overcome by nausea for dwarves are hardier than that. Ki fared poorly as the insects continued to bite him (he went all they way down to -16 and would've died except we use Arcana Evolved disabled and dying rules and he used 2 action points to stabalize-one for the first attack and one on this round).Boris tried to hit the slasher again after it had positioned itself in their midst but was still unable to capitolize on its vulnerable flanked postition. Maldoth wisely escaped the beetle swarm, but put himself perilously close to the slasher (I almost salivated when I saw that I had no less that 4 characters in range for a Whirlwind Attack). Jasmeela missed her Ray of Frost attack on the mad slasher. Zane scored a minor hit upon the aberration. Winter swung her torch at the roiling mass of beetles and scorched it. The stolid Dwen once again swung her torch into the beetle swarm besetting her and it abruptly dispersed.
Suddenly, the slasher spun in place, its bladed limbs slashing the foes around it! You should've seen my players' eyes bug out when I announced a Whirlwind Attack. It was glorious! It was also all for nought, as my damned traitorous dice never rolled above single digits on each of the four attacks. Sigh. There followed a frenzied beatdown of the mad slasher that left it quite dead.
My party reeled on their feet, but they had overcome the foe and lived to fight another day. Zane immediately exhausted his entire store of spells to heal Ki partially heal Maldoth and Dwen (except for his domain spell, which I've ruled can't be converted). Mustering themselves, they prepared to move on, discussing whether they should return to town for more healing.
Guru? Thanks for that. I found it very entertaining. Please keep it up. I'm going to be bookmarking it as well.
Very sweet! Please post more. By the way, hurlyburly (which I had never heard before) is an awesome word.
Alrighty, I am currently experiencing technical difficulties with my home computer. Ironically, I think it has a worm (of Kyuss?!). Even worse, the evil force that is my ex-wife absconded with all my backup discs. I'd love to update my log. We've finished with the Whispering Cairn and are in the midst of the Three Faces of Evil. The party has wiped out the Hextor temple but is having trouble with the Vecnans. They haven't even gone near the grimlock caverns.
Zane the cleric of St. Cuthbert got whacked in the temple of Hextor. Taking my cue from Erik Mona's campaingn, Theldrick challenged him to single combat and whupped him right well and then stunned the party by coup-de-gracing him on the spot. Boris got killed in a ambush outside the maze but got the benefit of a true ressurection scroll (don't ask me where it came from-I was feeling like a buttercup). Maldoth got killed in a big fight right outside the sanctum of Vecna. I also had fun with the Grease spell and liberated Ki of his Goliath greathammer. I can't wait for them to go back in and find Maldoth's now-animated body on the altar of Vecna!
In the aftermath of the acid beetle brouhaha, my group had no real desire to go down the yawning orifce from which they had vomited forth. Nevertheless, the intrepid Boris went down the shaft to take a gander at the environs. Upon reaching the bottom, he rolled so high on his Listen check that I ruled he could clearly hear more beetle in an adjacent room. Back up the shaft he went, shooting forth in an ecstasy of aversion.
The group farted around a while wondering what to do next. They decided to try turning the sarcophagus some more to see what else they could see. They raised up the False Elevator, but both Boris and the stone-cunnning Dwen noticed the trap and thus avoided being mashed. They went full circle back to the original elvator and decided to check out where it might lead. They were a little nervous about going down one at a time and even more paranoid about being mashed in together and unable to act (read:denied Dex bonus-they're so paranoid).
At the bottom, the mighty goliath Ki had no problem moving the stone block and triggering the gas trap. Most of the group made resisted the Str-damaging gas, except for Jasmeela (who doesn't need it anyway).
Boris led the way down the Passage of Honor and promptly got bushwacked by the lurking strangler. I didn't fully utilize the strangler. Instead of using its eye rays on the whole party, it only got Boris in the surprise round with the sleep ray and then lashed him and started the suffocate attack. All for naught as the powerful Ki easily bested its puny -grapple mod and torn it off of Boris. Dwen subsequently sliced it in half. Battle over.
We spent an incredible amount of time in the Gallery and after Jasmeela wiped out the brown mold with rays of frost, I got to say "it looks like vomit but smells kind of like gravy" so many times that I thought about putting it on a placard to hold up when needed. I also fubared when the party explored the tool closet. They party found the +1 chainmail, but I forgot totally about the statuettes, the wands, and the goggles. Oops! I think I'll have Demon Boy find them and bring them to the party.
In the Workshop, the metagaming Boris immediately zoomed in on the staff-like rod with its suggested seven sections. Amusingly to me, the chaotics in the party wouldn't go anywhere near the egg thing after the glyph was identified as that of Ogremoch. Nope, it was the lawful neutral Zane (and his chaotic brash player) who couldn't stand it and walked up, touched it and woke up the earth elemental. We didn't even go a full round with this fight. Ki rolled high and smashed them elemental into a thousand pieces. I really hate his goliath greathammer. I hope his player never discovers the fullblade (he couldn't use it normally, but could when he rages since his becomes Large and retains the powerful build trait and thus could use a Huge weapon). I get him pretty good later on in the maze of Vecna (grease is a great spell).
In the end, they find everything there is to find (except the aforementioned stuff I forgot) and decide to camp out and heal and recall spells. Blah blah blah. Ki gets second watch, which is when a spring another lurking strangler on them. Its sleep ray takes out Ki handily, but Boris hears him fall to the ground and gets up and hides by the door. When the strangler floats in, he sneak attacks the crap out of it and kills it in one blow. Then he wakes up Ki and goes back to sleep.
So then we're off to the lair of the laborers. Everybody's feeling antsy about the bugs and they ready torches and alchemists fire. Heh. At the bottom, as they are arguing over a plan of action, Dwen gets imaptient and simply trundles around the corner towards the Food Room/Hive. She's wearing lots of armor and make a lot of noise. A mad, chittering insectoid stampede ensues. Dwen gets swarmed. She also spots the giant bombadier beetle. Amazingly, her dwarven hardiness fails her and she becomes nauseated. She uses her single move action to retreat. The swarm uses a double move action to catch up and also swarm someone else (can't remember who got it here).
Because I've got a big group (7), I have both giant bombadier beetles attack the group. My whole party is bottled up in the Laborer's Foyer, except Dwen, who is lying still beneath a blanket of beetles. The bombadiers start hosing down the party. They try some ineffective torch swings and fire dousing. Jasmeela decides to summon a fire beetle next to one of the bombadiers (the male).
The swarm abandons Dwen body. She not quite dead, but they're drawn to the profusion of warm-blooded creatures around the corner. They swarm over the front-liners (Ki and Maldoth, I think-it's hazy now and I can't find my notes). The bombadiers continue to hoze the whole group.
I can't remember all the details now. The party managed to do for the swarm with torches and alchemist's fire, but they were getting hurt badly. If I'd had the bombadiers continue to spray acid each round, I would've killed them all. Instead, I had them move up to bite. That quickly they went down under a hail of frenzied blows. Then Zane got to use up all his spells for healing.
The party decided to climb back up the shaft and rest before moving on. I don't blame them. I really whupped them in this spot. Yar!
Cool journal, have been enjoying reading it so far.
I have been thinking about starting an Age of Worms campaign.
Reading this journal makes me want to even more.LOL