Thanks. I'm looking forward to running the next session. It was scheduled for this Friday, but with the holidays approaching and staff Christmas parties in full swing it looks like it's not going to happen : (
Yeppers, 'tis a tough time of year to get your game on for those who have lives. ;)
Sesssion #39, part #1, Lost Caverns of Tsojanth- Area #20
Characters: Gimpy (barbarian/oracle 12), Clive (human, wizard 12), Gorman (dwarf, alchemist 12), Sir Nat (human, paladin 12).
The heroes venture into the spherical chamber (the infamous area #20 of the Greater Caverns), containing the beautiful, “sleeping” armored woman on the stone plinth. Clive uses his telekinesis spell to levitate a crystal bowl full of gems sitting on a low table in front of the woman’s plinth up to the balcony he is standing on. As he does this, she awakens, sits up, looks towards Clive and says, “Thank you my rescuer.”
Clive promptly responds, “Silence woman, we know you’re evil!” (Sir Nat had previously used detect evil and noted that she had a very strong evil aura). She drops the façade and glares at him, her eyes seething with hatred. Suddenly, Clive feels her trying to dominate his mind; he manages to keep her out of his head and shouts out a warning to his companions. The heroes attack.
Gimpy casts a spiritual weapon against her and leaps into the room first, sliding down the spherical wall to halt before the flat stone dais at the bottom of the room. He ends his movement sitting on his butt in front her, which proves nearly deadly for him when she steps forwards and unleashes a deadly barrage of attacks on him with her bastard sword (A 14th level vampire fighter, attacking two-handed with power attack, a speed weapon, and a crit threat range of 17-20 tends to do that- 150+ damage), leaving him a hair’s breath away from death. To make matters worse two shadow demons emerge from a pair of urns sitting on the dais. Gorman offers his support with a barrage of firebombs that causes her some pain (though she seems resistant- thanks to a magical ring), and Clive successfully hinders the shadow demons with a slow spell. Sir Nat leaps down to engage the vampire and turn her attention away from Gimpy. He hammers her with a smiting power of Saint Cuthbert. His tactic works, for although it would be smarter to finish the grievously wounded half orc, her hatred for paladins draws her focus to Sir Nat. Sir Nat has never faced such a skilled swordswoman before, and though his armor offers some protection, her deadly flurry of attacks leaves him horribly wounded.
Suddenly a force bomb from Gorman knocks her off her feet, and Clive conjures black tentacles, but they fail to grapple the woman. Gimpy calls upon his spirit guide to heal himself (though he is still badly hurt), and then attacks her. Her defenses are strong (AC 33) and only one of his attacks gets through. Things are do or die at this point. She is now badly hurt as are the demons (thanks to the splash damage from Gorman’s bombs); unfortunately Gimpy and Sir Nat are also injured enough that one round of hits from her could drop either of them, but before she can land her killing blows, Gorman hits her with a final force bomb that causes her body to assume gaseous form and disappear through the top of her plinth. However, one of the remaining Shadow Demons attacks Sir Nat. It’s incorporeal claw goes through his armor as if it weren’t there (attacks touch AC), and inflicts enough damage to slay the paladin. Clive then blasts a demon with a magic missile barrage, and then Gimpy finishes the pair off, avenging Sir Nat’s death and sending them back to the Abyss.
Session #39, part #1, GM notes
GMs Notes:
This fight proved a bit controversial. The front line fighters were starting to feel frustrated with facing foes that could take them from full to death in a single round of attacks. I can see their point here. It’s a lot more fun to get worn down over a few rounds, so you have some time to decide whether to keep fighting or retreat instead of getting completing hammered in a single round.
I admit that I might have overdone it a little with Drelzna (she was a well equipped 14th level vampire fighter going against 12th level characters). However, given that she was guarding not one but three artifacts and the largest treasure horde the heroes have yet encountered, I felt that making her a bad ass was well warranted.
The problem is that if the heroes focus their fire they can easily mow a single opponent down in a round or two, so unless a villain can dish out a lot of damage fairly fast they risk being steam rolled before they offer any threat to a party. Furthermore the way the rules in pathfinder work (i.e, monsters being built much like PCs with access to the same tactics, feats and tricks) ensures that anything with a decent strength, power attack and a two-handed weapon will have the potential to deal a lot of damage, and that’s not even considering some of the nasty spells that players can run into. High-level play amplifies this aspect of the game all the more, and we're only just getting into high level play at this point.
When we were playing 4e I noticed that this wasn’t as much of an issue. The PCs and monsters could hit fairly hard, but they generally took a few rounds to wear each other down, and you wouldn’t see a front line fighter reduced from full hp to next nothing from a round of attacks by a single monster. However, this was a tradeoff because it was quite difficult to build an encounter that would threaten the PCs and not take at least an hour to run.
It will be interesting to see how this works out going forward. I want to keep the campaign fun for the players, but I also want it to be challenging, which can be a tough balancing act when the system is as swingy as Pathfinder can be.
Session #39, part #2, Aftermath and Artifacts
The battle is over, but Sir Nat is dead, having sacrificed himself to aid his half orc companion. In the aftermath Clive explains that she is likely a vampire and that they need to find her body and kill her permanently before she regenerates. To this end Gimpy hurls the lid off her plinth, triggering an energy drain spell trap that saps his life force (5 negative levels- ouch, luckily he had done some healing first. It should be noted that this is the second time Gimpy’s been nailed with an energy drain trap). To their surprise there is no body inside the plinth. Instead they see a leather sack, a brass birdcage, a lead box, and a small wooden box. Clive takes over the investigation. With detect magic, he determines that the bird cage and the sack are both magical. The lead box is also warded with magic of a necromantic sort, and the wooden box appears to be mundane.
He removes the sack, the cage, and smaller wood box, but he doesn’t want to touch the lead box, and his telekinesis spell has expired so he leaves it alone. Underneath the sack, he finds a tiny hole in the stone floor of the plinth, and knocking on the stone he notes that it sounds like it is hollow underneath. Gimpy takes over and uses Sir Nat’s adamantine sword to chip away at the stone until it eventually shatters into several large pieces. They remove the slab with the lead box sitting on it, which allows them to get the warded box out without touching it. Beneath the rubble they find the regenerating corpse of the armored vampire woman (and her gear). She hasn’t yet regained consciousness, so Clive quickly sharpens his mundane wooden quarterstaff into a wooden stake. He hands it to Gimpy and the rage prophet drives it through her chest. He next cuts off her head, and then Gorman sets fire to the body (after removing her gear of course). From her corpse they acquire a: +2 speed bastard sword, +2 black dragonscale plate mail, a ring of protection +3, a belt of giant strength +4, and ring of fire resistance (20) (she was very well equipped).
With Gorman’s help Clive manages to get the trapped lead box into a burlap sack- all without touching it. Clive also determines that the leather sack they recovered is a bag of holding, and they load the vampire and Sir Nat’s gear into it. Clive then casts a shrink item spell on Sir Nat’s corpse and carefully wraps it up and puts it in the sack as well.
After this they decide to remain in the entry hall of the room for the next twenty-four or so hours, so that they can recover from the fight. During this time Clive spends more time examining the items. He suspects that bird cage might actually be a Prison of Zagig- an artifact created by the archmage Zagig Yagrene, said to capable of shrinking and imprisoning an individual inside of it. The smaller box he found holds several strange lenses. Four appear to be made from crystal and the other four are made from coloured gems (ruby, diamond, sapphire and emerald). The lenses fit the magical lantern that was hanging above the vampire’s plinth (which they also took). Clive discovers that the openings on the sides of the lantern have a slot sized to hold one of the lenses. When he inserts the diamond coloured lenses and closes the shutters on the remaining three sides of the lantern, a beam of light emerges and a command word forms in his mind. He can tell that the word will trigger a spell effect that he believes will grant an individual targeted by the light of the lens the equivalent to a stoneskin spell. Investigating the other lenses, he learns that he can trigger hold monster, fear and haste effects depending on which lens he inserts.
After their extended rest, they set out. Their goal is to get out of the caves and return to Greyhawk so that they can get Sir Nat raised from the dead and Gimpy’s life force restored. Clive uses arcane eye to scout the tunnels and he finds the way back to the laboratory cave that they had found when they first entered the complex. He then casts fly on his companions as well as invisibility. They fly through the caves following Clive’s directions. Soon they pass the lair of the behir and head up the chute that leads to the outside world. Once out on the mountainside Clive teleports them back to Greyhawk.
At the temple of Saint Cuthbert they have Sir Nat brought back from the dead. Unfortunately, due to the death of High Sheppard Dunhill there is currently no priest at the temple capable of performing such miracles. Thus, they are forced to rely on the temple’s emergency supply of scrolls. Luckily their expedition was lucrative enough that they can reimburse the temple for the scrolls. Of course it doesn’t help that Sir Nat is a great hero to the faithful in Greyhawk, so they are willing to help in any way they can. The resurrection succeeds; Sir Nat is restored to life and Gimpy’s life force is also healed.
Over the course of the next several weeks the heroes set about counting and dividing their loot. Gimpy and Sir Nat commission magical upgrades to their weapons and armor, though Gimpy takes the ring of protection and the vampire’s sword, which cuts into his treasure share.
Clive spends a great deal of time researching the artifacts they recovred and trying to figure out how to open the lead box. He attempts to dispel its magical ward, but fails, and finally his curiosity gets the better of him and he decides to grab the box and open it by hand. This triggers the ward protecting it, which much to his horror results in his hand rotting away and virtually disintegrating into nothingness. The silver lining is that ward is now dispelled. Yet he still finds it impossible to open.
Clive makes a large donation to the temple of Saint Cuthbert and has a regenerate scroll cast on his hand that restores it.
After his event he decides to bring the box to Tenser. The heroes travel to Mage Point and garner an audience with archmage, who is eager to hear of their exploits in the legendary caverns of Tsojanth. They share their story, and show him the artifacts they uncovered. He confirms that birdcage is indeed the Prison of Zagig and the lantern is a potent artifact known as Daoud’s Wondrous Lanthorn. Tenser then casts a disjunction spell on the lead box and that allows it to be opened. Inside they find a copy of the profane text known as Iggwilv’s Demonicon. Tenser is most interested in the artifacts and he offers the heroes 120,000 gp for any one of the artifacts. They decide to entrust him with the Demonicon and keep the Prison of Zagig and Daoud’s Lanthorn.
The heroes discuss their next steps, and decide that they will return to the caverns of Tsojanth to continue their search for the missing dragon slayer- Helgrim the Red.
Session #39, GMs Notes, Part #2
The players were pretty happy with the ending of the session. They had the biggest pay day of their adventuring careers and are now caught up on their treasure in terms of wealth per level. They also have 2 artifacts that could have some interesting repercussions on the campaign, and I forgot to mention that Clive managed to use his share of the loot to acquire an Instant Fortress.
Session #40, Part #1, A brief visit to Alhastar, Second Foray in the Lost Caverns of Tsojanth
Note: Maggie's former player returned after a several month hiatus, due to becoming a father. Thus a new PC has joined the group.
Characters: Gimpy (barbarian/oracle 12), Clive (human, wizard 12), Gorman (dwarf, alchemist 12), Sir Nat (human, paladin 12), Rak (samsaran, magus 12)
The session begins with a meeting with Tenser in Magepoint. Tenser has returned from his trip to convene with Mordenkenain. He claims that the archmage agrees that the signs and portents indicating the approach to the Age of Worms cannot be ignored and that action must be taken. However, he feels that for the moment this action should remain subtle. In his esteemed opinion more information about their enemies and their plans must be gathered before direct measures are warranted. For the most part Tenser is in agreement.
Tenser introduces them to an associate of his known as Rak, who he feels can help them. Rak is a member of a strange race not common in this part of Oreth. They are known as Samsaran, and they are beings that are continuously reincarnated over numerous lifespans. Rak is a magus with formal training from Gray Malkin academy in the city of Gradsul in the Grand Duchy of Keoland. The Gray Malkin academy is something of a legend in the Flaness. It is the only school known that is specifically geared towards teaching the combination of arcane and martial arts, and it has produced a number of famous graduates, the most legendary being the gensai known as Argent, who was instrumental in thwarting the events known to the Circle of Eight as the Savage Tide. Tenser has spent much time briefing Rak on the activities of the heroes, and Rak is ready to help them with their cause, for somewhere in the hazy memories of his distant past lives he recalls the evils Kyuss wrought upon the lands as mortal priest and knows the threat he poses.
Tenser also apologizes to Clive, and explains to him that his associate Bucknarde, who had been investigating the Age of Worms, is in fact his father Tomen. Bucknarde had merely been an alias he had assumed so as not to draw attention to himself during his investigations. It seems that Tomen felt partially responsible for initiating what he referred to as the final countdown to the Age of Worms. There are many portents and events that are said to point to the coming of the Age of Worms, but the foremost of them is the fall of the Prince of Demons and the Rise of the Demon Prince of the Undead. This event came to pass in a large part thanks to the efforts of Tomen and his companions during the events of the Savage Tide, and as a result Tomen felt personally responsible. This led him to become obsessed with the Age of Worms and investigating ways to stop it. Unfortunately, by this time his former companions had grown apart, and he was left to investigate these events primarily on his own.
With these revelations in mind, Clive decides that it is high time he pays a visit to his ship, Procan’s Mistress, which should have arrived in Alhastar, the last place that Tomen was known to have visited before he went missing. The heroes teleport to the deck of the ship, and find that it is in fact in the harbor. They meet with Captain Egil and discover that the ship was off-loaded, and Egil is now in the process of procuring new goods to bring back to Greyhawk. Egil has no love for Alhastar; he tells them that it is ruled by a despot named Prince Zeech, who is a follower of Hextor (one of the three gods associated with the Ebon Triad). Prince Zeech must be highly favored by his dark god, for he has a secret police force made up of black-feathered “angels.” Clive suspects these angels are actually fallen angels- devils called Furies. Zeech also has some sort of massive public works project underway. It is a red, stone, stepped pyramid that now dominates the city skyline. It is not yet complete, but it is getting close. The locals call it the “Great Project”, and they say it is being built to honor Hextor. All this is disconcerting to the heroes, and Clive urges them to tread carefully. He teleports most of his companions back to Greyhawk, but he decides to return to Alhastar with Gimpy and rent a room at an Inn near the docks for a few days. His plan is to familiarize himself with the room, so that he can easily teleport back to the place at a later date. Gimpy stays with him as a bodyguard, and they keep a low profile, never leaving the Inn.
Once Clive feels he knows the place well enough, he and Gimpy teleport back to Greyhawk to rejoin his companions. They then teleport back to Iggwilv’s Horn near the far off Perrenland, which Gimpy has dubbed “Mount Treasure,” to continue their quest to find the lost dragonslayer, Helgrim the Red.
They arrive on the inbound teleportation circle in the Greater Caverns and from there they make their way to the great laboratory cavern. It was here that they had previously found a wall of iron sealing off a set of stairs. Sir Nat had damaged the wall enough with his adamantine sword that they can send an arcane eye through to scout out what is beyond. Arcane eyes are summoned for scouting and they begin to explore areas of the caves that they have yet to investigate.
Beyond the wall of iron they find a set of stairs leading down to a series of chambers that appear to have been summoning chambers. The biggest of them still has a summoning circle on the floor. Glowing silver, runes set into the floor seem to be adding additional strength to the circle. This strength is enough that the circle has been successfully containing a fiend that Clive recognizes as a Balor demon. How long it has been there, they aren’t sure, but the fact that it has not escaped is a testament to Iggwilv’s power. There is some discussion about venturing in and trying to destroy the demon. Sir Nat is all for this course of action, but Clive advises against it, explaining that balor demons are among the most powerful of their kind, creatures that should give even the mightiest heroes pause.
In another part of the caverns their arcane eye finds another pack of carnage demons (they had faced some in their previous foray) fighting amongst themselves while being overseen by a pair of hulking ape demons (Bar-Igura). They decide to head for this cave and kill some demons that are more manageable than a balor (despite my efforts to convince them that taking on a balor at level 12 would be much more fun). Clive initiates combat by summoning forth Evard’s Black Tentacles to crush the demons. Sadly the tentacles are rather lifeless at first and make no real effort to crush anything (natural 1 on CM check). The demons escape them with ease, and a dozen carnage demons come surging at the heroes. Gimpy and Sir Nat hold the front line, keeping them at bay and hacking them down. Rak lends support with a fireball, and Gorman hurls force bombs among them. The two bar-igura demons vanish as they leave the tentacles, and Gimpy suspects they might have turned invisible. The carnage demons prove no match for the powerful adventurers; things seem well in hand when Clive and Gorman are attacked from behind by a pair of invisible babau demons. The attacks on Clive would be enough to kill him, but Sir Nat triggers a spell that causes Saint Cuthbert to transfer the wounds from Clive to himself, leaving the wizard unscathed. Around this time Gimpy casts a see invisibility spell. He completes it just in time to see the two bar-igura demons bounding towards himself and Sir Nat. One pounces on each of them, clawing and biting with savage ferocity. The demons instantly turn visible as they attack. Both the half orc and the paladin suffer some wounds, but they have both survived much, much worse. They respond with their enchanted great swords, slashing into the thick, furry demon hides. Gorman, Rak and Clive focus on the two babau demons. Clive uses a slow spell, Gorman hurls force bombs, and Rak attacks with spell and sword. Soon they have destroyed the two babau. The bar-igura are all that remain, and they see that the fight has turned against them so they teleport away to lick their wounds. Clive knows that due to the wards in the complex their teleporting should take them to the inbound teleportation circle, so he teleports the heroes after them. His prediction is correct, and the heroes find them and finish slay them with ease.
Session #40, Part #2, More exploring the Greater Caverns of the Lost Caverns of Tsojanth
They continue their explorations of the caverns, and soon they come to chamber containing walls lined with burial niches. The room has an unnatural cold about it, and Sir Nat suspects that undead might lurk within. His companions watch from the tunnel as he strides confidently to the middle of the cave, calls upon the power of Saint Cuthbert and channels divine power and unleashes a blast of positive energy. Suddenly a half dozen wailing specters come flying out of the burial niches. They have been damaged by Nat’s holy power, and are filled with hatred for the paladin. They swarm around him and their incorporeal arms pass right through his armor into his flesh where they drain his life force (10 negative levels, nasty!).
Seeing Sir Nat is in trouble, Clive casts a wall of fire around him, directing the heat outward. The ghostly nature of the specters gives them some protection against the magical flames, but they still cause some damage to the undead. Gorman then hurls bombs, Rak contributes his magic, and Gimpy runs in with his sword. In seconds the specters have been dispatched before they can finish off the paladin.
After this encounter, they return to the hall beyond the great doors where they had been making camp. They take an extended rest and use restoration magic to cure Sir Nat of the energy drain he’s suffered. The next day they cast arcane eye spells and use the eyes to scout some more of the caves. During their recon they find a few more caves that are seemingly empty, but they also find a large cave that is the lair of a draconic creature that Clive identifies as a dracolisk. They suspect this could be the creature that turned Helgrim the Red to stone, so they decide to go after it, but they decide to first check some of the other caves in person and search them for potential secret doors and treasure.
In one of the caves they visit they find two rows of large stalagmites that are reminiscent of a rows of columns. As they approach, two long sinewy tendrils spew out of two of the “stalagmites,” revealing them to be ropers. Gimpy and Sir Nat are grappled by the tendrils and feel their strength being sucked from them. The tendrils then start to retract, pulling them towards the horrific, toothy maws of the ropers. Clive tries to burn the tendrils by putting up a wall of fire; unfortunately Gimpy is pulled right through it. Sir Nat cuts himself free with his dagger. Gorman hurls firebombs that blast the ropers and reveal they are vulnerable to fire. Rak follows this up with a fireball spell, searing them all the more. The ropers flail and attack with their tendrils trying to grab at the spell casters, but it is to no avail; the barrage of fire magic continues and soon the ropers are no more than smoking, charred ruin.
Sadly the cave holds no loot, and with Gimpy and Sir Nat so weak they can barely walk in their armor, they see no choice by to once again return to their “lair” and rest.
Session #41, GM Notes
This was a pretty good session. The specters came pretty close to doing Sir Nat in. I like ropers, but I didn't really run them properly. The way their ability to reel in opponents isn't really that well explained in their stats, and I didn't have a good handle on it when I ran them. I reread it after the encounter and realized I should have been able to pull the PCs further in a round than I did, but oh well. If I ever get to use ropers again, I'll do it right.
Session #42, Lost Caverns of Tsjoanth continued (and likely completed)
I got a bit behind in my journals, so I had to do this one in point form to catch up. Boo.
Characters: Sir Nat (human, paladin 13), Rak (samsaran, magus 13), Gimpy (half orc, barbarian/oracle/rage prophet 13), Gorman (dwarf, alchemist 13), Clive (half elf, wizard 13)
• They decide to go to the “birthing room”- a room with a steep upward slope at its far end that has a strange looking seat shaped into the stone at the slope’s top. A channel runs from the chair down the slope to a pool of black sludge at the bottom. Sir Nat and Gimpy enter room and are assaulted by visions of Iggwilv giving birth to Iuz. Baba Yaga is the midwife and slices open her stomach with an iron like fingernail. She removes baby Iuz and gives him to Iggwilv. She also removes a creature that is even more monstrous. She hands it off to a mysterious cloaked figure and that figure takes it to her legendary dancing hut. Sir Nat and Gimpy are dazed from the horrible visions.
• Three hezrou demons rise up out of pool cast cloudkill and unholy blight spells, causing the heroes pain and harm. Seeros hurls bombs, Rak launches a fireball, but Sir Nat and Gimpy are vulnerable as they are dazed in a cloudkill spell.
• Clive teleports Gorman, Gimpy and Sir Nat, and they are shunted to the incoming teleport circle on the level.
• Rak joins them by teleporting and being shunted to the same spot
• They heal, regroup and return to the birthing room. This time Sir Nat and Gimpy don’t have the visions when they enter. Gimpy uses ghost sound to alert the hezrous and they again rise out of the sludge.
• Gimpy charges forward. Gorman hurls bombs from an adjoining tunnel, and Clive casts haste from tunnel. Rak enters room and is hit by visions, which daze him for the remainder of the fight.
• Hezrous engage Gimpy in melee.
• Sir Nat joins Gimpy having prepared holy smite.
• Heroes slay the demons with relative ease.
• Next they go pay a visit to the Dracolisk in its lair. Sir Nat senses it is evil, so after hasting the party and buffing with a couple of other spells they charge in.
• Gimpy is turned to stone while approaching.
• Sir Nat uses his smite and does terrible amounts of damage to the creature.
• Dracolisk blasts the paladin with electricity, but doesn’t come close to bringing him down.
• Rak hits it with a ray of acid causing much harm
• Clive restores Gimpy with a stone to flesh spell
• Gorman hurls bombs, causing more agony to the beast
• Their high damage output soon brings down the dracolisk while they are barely scathed.
• They claim its horde of treasure. They find there is an exit tunnel in its lair that leads out of the mountain.
• Using arcane eyes they finish scouting the caves on the level they are on. They find a cave with an altar and a stone demon statue. The other few caves they discover are empty, but they do find a crude staircase that leads up to another level
• They go to the cave with the altar and Sir Nat is assaulted by visions of Iggwilv and Graz’zt f%%@ing on the altar. He hacks the altar apart with his sword, and when no magic is detected on the statue or gems, they destroy the statue and claim the gems in the eyes. Clive estimates that the large orange jacinths are worth 10,000 gp each.
• The remaining couple of caves they explore contain nothing of interest. The stairs leading up are blocked by rocks.
• In a final cave they find that it is a place of peace and solace. Here they rest, and Sir Nat bathes in a pure spring, trying to get the images of Graz’zt and Iggwilv from his mind.
• Using the dracolisk’s exit tunnel they leave the mountain and teleport back to Greyhawk.
• They spend some 18 days in Greyhawk selling off loot and acquiring/commissioning/upgrading magic items.
• Gorman brews a powerful contact other plane extract, and he finds him in communication with a deity. They learn that Helgrim the Red is in the mountain on the level at the top of the stairs and that he is guarded.
• They return to the Horn with magic and enter back through the Dracolisk’s tunnel. They then use gaseous form extracts to pass through the rocks blocking access to the upper level.
• They resume their human forms on the other side
• Gimpy prepares and arcane eye to scout, but it promptly spots an incoming chimera like creature that heard him casting.
• The creature has a gorgon head that breathes petrifying gas. Rak and Clive are turned to stone.
• Gimpy, Nat and Gorman destroy the Gorgimera, suffering only some minor injuries
• Rak and Clive recover from their petrification before it can become permanent.
• They find the bodies of Helgrim the Red and a female warrior. Both are petrified and missing their heads.
• They also recover the treasure of the Gorgimera, which includes Helgrim’s sword Wyrm Killer.
• In their search they find the petrified heads of the two statues. They decide to do the good thing and put the heads on the statues. Clive then casts flesh to stone and restores them to life. The woman doesn’t survive this process, but Helgrim does.
• They spend some time questioning Helgrim. As a show of gratitude he offers to help them slay Ilthane. He also offers the gear of his lady warrior friend, which consists of magical mithril plate mail and a holy sword.
• They teleport back Greyhawk and return Helgrim to his son in Magepoint. Mission accomplished.
Session #41, GM Notes
Another fairly easy session for the heroes, but they were happy to accomplish their mission and score some more loot. They have dubbed this place, Treasure Mountain.
Journal caught up
Session #42, Part #1 (Drinking in the Halls of the Valiant, A return to the Wind Duke Tomb)
Characters: Sir Nat (human, paladin 13), Clive Taskerhill (half elf, wizard 13), Gimpy (half orc, barbarian/oracle/rage prophet 13), Gorman (dwarf, alchemist 13), Rak (samsaran, magus 13), guest starring- Helgrim the Red (human, ranger/fighter 14).
A few days have passed since the heroes of Greyhawk rescued renowned dragon slayer Helgrim the Red from the Lost Caverns of Tsojanth. Having been petrified for the past five years, Helgrim feels the need to celebrate his return to life. He insists on a night of drinking with his rescuers at the Halls of the Valiant (The temple of Kord) in Greyhawk. The heroes agree and drinking and merriment are had.
There is currently a challenge at the hall, which involves pressing a 120 lb stone kettlebell above one’s head and chugging tankards of ale, whilst holding the kettlebell above the head. As the characters arrive a powerful looking dwarf sets a new record when he manages to hold the kettlebell for about a minute and a half and consume four tankards of ale before dropping the bell. Upon seeing this feat Gimpy’s competitive nature stirs him to action and he pushes his way to the front of the line to take the challenge.
There is much applause from the followers of Kord at the big trestle tables when Gimpy takes the stage to attempt the feat. Through his victories in the Champions’ Games and his role in purging the city of undead, he has gained a reputation as powerful follower of Kord. He presses the bell without difficulty, though his form isn’t practiced or particularly good. As he gets through the first tankard and goes for the second the arm holding the bell drifts out to the side. He struggles to get it back above his head as he drinks, but he can’t quite make it happen, and he loses the bell after consuming another half tankard. The crowd seems a little disappointed, as is Gimpy. After this Sir Nat is encouraged, pressured into partaking in the contest. Though, Sir Nat isn’t any stronger than Gimpy, his form proves a little better, and he manages to keep the bell up for quite a bit longer. Furthermore, the paladin’s divine immunity to poison prevents alcohol from affecting him. Thus, chugging a tankard of ale is no different than chugging a tankard of water. That being said, chugging vast amounts of any liquid in a short span of time can be difficult. In the end he finishes around 3 tankards before his arm gives out and he’s forced to drop the bell. Given that Sir Nat is openly a follower of Saint Cuthbert in a temple of Kord, his success is not widely celebrated.
Later on in the evening the high priest of Kord takes the stage. He insists that the strength of Saint Cuthbert and the strength of Kord be tested against one another, and he proposes that Gimpy and Sir Nat face each other in a bout of wrestling. At first Sir Nat refuses, claiming that to do so would be to partake in the worship of Kord, which is something he cannot do as a follower of Saint Cuthbert. However when someone suggests that they do it in the street outside the temple, he reasons that this wouldn’t violate any oaths, so he agrees.
The entire “congregation” empties out into the square in front of the hall and gathers around Sir Nat and Gimpy. It is winter, and the air is cold, but Gimpy and Sir Nat remove their armor and strip down to their breeches. The crowd cheers and watches on as they face off. Unfortunately, for Gimpy he has had many drinks by this time and is quite intoxicated. Sir Nat is not. The half orc proves to be a happy drunk and forgets to rage, which gives Sir Nat the edge he needs, and soon the paladin has the half orc on the ground in arm bar. Score one for Saint Cuthbert. The followers of Kord are disappointed, but at this point Helgrim the Red steps into the ring to redeem Kord’s honor. He challenges Sir Nat. Sir Nat wearily accepts, more because he knows that Helgrim needs to enjoy himself than because he has any interest in proving himself in such a way. Helgrim proves a strong wrestler, and this time it is the follower of Kord that claims victory.
The dragon slayer and the heroes leave the hall late that night in high spirits. Even Gimpy is in a good mood despite his lack of success in Kord’s challenges. He and Sir Nat have grown close, having fought beside each other at the front of the party through many horrific/glorious battles, and the half orc can think of no one he’d rather have best him in a wrestling match than Sir Nat.
The next day Clive teleports the party back into the tomb of the Wind Dukes. Helgrim does not join them for this venture, though he promises that when they are ready to hunt down Ilthane, he will be at their side. They spend some time investigating the areas of the tomb that they had previously explored, and they find evidence to suggest someone has been there since their last foray. For instance the large silver and mithril chandeliers that they had placed near the portal, but had not been able to move out of the tomb before having to flee from the giant spider, were no longer there.
Gimpy does some scouting with an arcane eye and finds a tunnel with a ramp leading down towards a lower level. The first chamber in the room is laced with shadowy spider webs that don’t seem to be entirely tangible. They decide to head for this room, hoping to find the giant spider and exact their vengeance upon it. However, before they can reach this room, six figures suddenly appear before them, having just arrived in the tomb via teleportation magic. The heroes recognize some of the party. Khellek the Seeker wizard is there, as well as Amri a barbarian woman they fought in the Champions Games (and Gimpy had a quick fling with). They also spot the dwarf that had managed to drink four tankards while holding up the heavy kettlebell in the Halls of the Valiant. They don’t recognize the remaining three. One of the strangers introduces himself as Eli Tomorast. Clive has heard his name and recalls that Eli is said to be a powerful member of the Seekers with a dangerous reputation. He is also known as a highly competent wizard, capable of wielding the most powerful spells. Eli has heard of the heroes, and explains that he has a charter from the Directors of the city of Greyhawk that gives him exclusive rights to explore and loot this particular site, which also means that the heroes are trespassing. Sir Nat demands to see the charter. Eli hands it over and Clive inspects it. Clive believes the charter to be legitimate. Sir Nat senses great evil in Eli, but since the wizard currently has the law on his side and is not wanted for any crimes that the paladin knows of the heroes decide not to contest him. Though, Eli is clearly tempted to attack them and try to take all their valuables, he claims to be in a good mood, and he gives them a chance to leave and never return. They agree and Clive teleports them back to Greyhawk.
Session #42, Part #2 (Hunting Ilthane)
PCs: Gimpy (half orc, barbarian/oracle/rage prophet 13), Sir Nat (human, paladin 13), Clive (half elf, wizard 13), Gorman (dwarf, alchemist 13), Rak (samsaran, magus 13). Guest Staring: Helgrim the Red (human, ranger/fighter 14)
With their window for exploring the tomb seemingly closed for now, they decide to pursue the matter of hunting down Ilthane and claiming the bounty for her attack against Greyhawk during the Champions Games (an event that at this point took place several months ago). They don’t know the exact location of her lair, though they have learned through research that it is believed to be somewhere in the moors and marshes to the south of White Plume Mountain. There is some discussion about how best to proceed. Clive attempts to scry on her, but this fails. He then recalls that Tenser had a magical painting of White Plume Mountain in his study, so they decide they will see about using it to teleport to the mountain and then start exploring the wilderness to the south the old fashioned way.
Tenser grants their request and a couple of days after leaving the Wind Duke tomb, they find themselves hundreds of miles to the north, standing on the cold, windy slopes of White Plume Mountain. Looking to the south, they can see hundreds of square miles of low flat land covered with swamps, lakes, steams thickets and tangled copses of trees. It is winter; lakes and streams are frozen and most everything is blanketed with a layer of ice and snow. Near the base of the mountain they can see cooking fire smoke coming from a cluster of huts that form a tiny village.
They decide to check it out, and they hike down the mountain to the village. The place proves to be a pathetic little goblin settlement. The creatures are hostile, but they prove no threat to the heroes, and the adventurers walk right into the heart of the village. Some brave goblin guards briefly oppose them but are utterly overmatched and very quickly back off. Clive speaks goblin and acts as the translator. This particular tribe of goblins is so isolated that it doesn’t seem like they have every seen proper weapons and armor or even humans, and they are both terrified and in awe of the adventurers at the same time. Clive bribes a goblin with beef jerky, and after the goblins spend some time fighting over the morsel, one leads the adventurers straight to the chief’s hut. They discover that he is by far the largest and fattest goblin in the tribe, though he still poses no real danger to the heroes. He is surrounded with a small harem of goblin females and though he tries to act confident and in charge, he is clearly just as scared of the adventurers as the rest of the tribe. Clive sees no reason to threaten the pathetic creatures, so he decides to be kind, and he offers more jerky in exchange for information.
The chief doesn’t know the location of Ilthan’s lair, but he does say that he has seen dragon activity in the swamps to the south and that occasionally a dragon representing “Queen Ilthane” comes to their village to demand tribute. This is always a terrifying experience for the goblins since they have little of value to offer, and a few goblins inevitably get eaten or melted by dragon acid. None of this is overly helpful to the would be dragon hunters, but perhaps the most interesting thing the chief tells them is that a couple of moons ago he saw a massive dragon made of bone flying north from the swamps. It soared past White Plume Mountain and disappeared. Luckily it showed no interest in their village. The heroes figure this could be only one creature- Dragotha. After this revelation, the chief proves to have nothing more of interest to tell them, so they head south.
Using snowshoes, they spend several days trudging about in the wilderness searching for any signs that might point them towards Ilthane’s lair. At night Clive uses his Instant Fortress to create a secure tower for them to rest in. One evening, while Clive is reading Sir Nat his favorite bedtime story, “Saint Cuthbert, A Primary Reader,” there is thunderous crash against the side of the tower. They hurry to the top and look out to see a pair of hulking 15-20’ tall giants. One is male and one is female, but both are hideous and deformed- fomorians. It seems that the crash had been made by a large rock that the male had hurled. Clive, Rak and Helgrim are the only ones that speak giant, so they end up doing much of the talking. Actually it is Clive really ends up doing the talking, as Rak is a very quiet fellow and Helgrim understands that the wizard is the better diplomat. The female giant seems quite interested in learning who the heroes are and how they ended up in the middle of this desolate wilderness with a wondrous, magical stone tower. The male giant is far more preoccupied with smashing and killing, and he spends time looking for more rocks to throw. The female suggests that she might be able to provide information about the location of Ilthane’s lair in exchange for a sufficient reward. Her attempts to negotiate are stymied by her mate, who throws another rock. This one is way off target and sails harmlessly over the tower, but Gimpy, Helgrim, Gorman, Rak and Nat ready themselves for battle none-the-less. Gimpy in particular is spoiling for a fight, having not killed anything in several days. Despite the interruptions, Clive continues his negotiations with the giantess; they are nearing an agreement when the parlay comes to an abrupt end as the male throws another rock. This one connects with Clive and sends him reeling. He winces in pain, pops his shoulder back in its socket and gives Gimpy the nod the half orc had been waiting for. The heroes burst into action. Gorman and Helgrim both activate winged boots and take to the air. Rak uses a fly spell to get air borne, and Sir Nat and Gimpy leap off the top of the tower, float to the ground with rings of feather falling and then charge forward. Fighting is fierce but brief. The female is revealed to be a spellcaster when she temporarily dispels the magic on Gorman’s boots and sends him floating down to the ground where the male can attack him with his massive club. Fortunately, Helgrim runs interference for Gorman and keeps the giant’s attention divided between the two of them while Gorman hurls a barrage of firebombs at the fomorian. It bellows in pain, strides forward and clubs both the dragonslayer and the alchemist. As expected, it hits hard, leaving Gorman injured and keenly aware that they must bring the thing down quick or be hammered to paste. Clive comes to their rescue by using a telekinesis spell to pull the giant’s club out of his hands and hurl it away. Without a weapon it is less deadly, but still very dangerous. Helgrim gets himself in front of it, while Gorman scrambles back and hurls more bombs. Its giant fists slam into the dragonslayer, but he rolls with the hits and strikes back with his great sword. Soon the pair have brought it down, though they have suffered their share of injuries in doing so.
While Helgrim and Gorman are battling the male, Gimpy, Sir Nat and Rak take on the female. Rak flies up in the air and blasts her with a deadly ray of acid, which he follows with a second ray of acid a moment later. Sir Nat and Gimpy engage her in melee, and though she is a spellcaster, she wields her battle flail with ferocity and skill. Again Clive’s telekinesis spell is brought to bear, and the wizard wrests the weapon from her grip, tossing it away. Gimpy and Nat press the attack, cutting into her with their great swords. One of her eyes is much larger than the other and swirls with arcane energy. She directs its power towards Gimpy, and he suddenly feels the strength sapped from his body (bestow greater curse). Though, he is weakened, it isn’t enough to stop him, and he and Sir Nat fell her acid scorched body seconds later. They find nothing of value on the pair, so they return to the tower and rest the night in peace. Clive finishes reading to Nat about Saint Cuthbert helping the poor and smiting evil with his mace, and all is well.
They spend several more days trudging about the frozen wilderness. Finally, they spot a hill in the distance and catch a glimpse of a draconic form fly down onto its top and vanish from sight. They make their way to the hill and discover that it stands beside a frozen lake. There are several large holes in the lake’s ice, and Helgrim suspects that Ilthane and her brood have their lair within or below the hill and may be using the holes to come and go. Black dragons normally have an aquatic entrance to their lairs, and he figures this is likely the case here.
The adventurers scale up the hill and find that the top of it is covered with a thick ring of brambly bushes and small tangled trees. It is very difficult to cut through the briar, but eventually they make their way to the center of the hilltop where they find a clearing. In the middle of the clearing is a deep pit/well that is around 70’ in diameter. A crude, narrow, downward spiraling stair is carved into the side of the well, which drops at least 100’. Gimpy sends an arcane eye down to scout. He finds the stairs end about halfway down the well and from there one can enter into what might be a series of smaller caves. Gimpy avoids these and instead sends the eye to the bottom of the well where he finds it to be filled with icy water, the eye goes into the water, and he discovers a network of large, submerged caves. He decides they look like they might lead to the dragon’s lair, so he uses the remaining time left on the spell to scout them. Eventually, he locates a place where the caves are above the water level. Here he spots a black dragon watching the water entrance to this area. It seems to see Gimpy’s arcane eye as it hisses and snarls at it. This dragon appears too small to likely be Ilthane, and Gimpy presumes it is one her brood. The eye continues to explore and enters into another cave that has four 7’ tall humanoids that look like a cross between a man and a black dragon. They are also ridden with green worms and it is clear they are now undead. This cave is a hub of sorts with various tunnels branching off of it. Two of them are filled with sickly yellow mist. Gimpy send the eye through one of the mist filled tunnels and it eventually exits the mist and enters into an area of total darkness that even Gimpy’s darkvision doesn’t penetrate. At that point the spell winks out.
With scouting complete for the moment, they spend a few moments discussing their options. As of yet, they have not confirmed that Ilthane is even here, but Helgrim explains that though, black dragons aren’t vulnerable to cold, they don’t particularly like it either. Consequently, they tend to go into a state of low activity during the winter months, holing up in their lairs and waiting for spring. Thus, he thinks it is safe to assume that Ilthane and her entire brood are likely somewhere below. This realization is rife with pros and cons, and it causes Gimpy to gulp slightly, for though he is not exactly afraid, the enormity of their task suddenly hits him- kill a five hundred year old dragon and her entire brood. He wonders if they are ready for such a challenge. He looks around at his companions and sees they seem to be thinking the same thing, except for Nat. The stupid paladin is utterly fearless, brimming with confidence and eager to smite some evil. Gimpy smiles and draws his sword. It’s go time.
Next session should be pretty intense.
I had kind of been hoping that they would have started some shit with Eli Tomorast and his gang in the Wind Duke Tomb, but that would have been a very tough fight for the party that could easily have resulted in multiple deaths or even a TPK, so it was probably best that they showed some restraint.
I'm Gimpy's player and even though I would like him to live through this (for the Glory!) I have a second character ready to go.
Let's do this.
FOR KORD!
Tonight the PCs will be facing some dragons and there will be a few surprises to keep things interesting because fighting multiple dragons (probably at the same time) just isn't interesting enough.
Session #43, Assault on Ilthane's lair
Player Characters: Gimpy (half orc, barbarian/oracle/rage prophet 13), Clive (half elf, wizard 13), Gorman (dwarf, alchemist 13), Rak (samsaran, magus 13). Guest Starring: Helgrim the Red (human, ranger/fighter 14)
The adventures stand near the edge of a great sinkhole (70’ diameter) that descends some 100’ down to cold, water filled caverns where Ilthane presumably makes her lair. As they contemplate their next move, screeching sounds erupt from above, and four black dragons soar up into their line of sight. None of them appear large enough to be Ilthane, but the body of each one is still easily as a big as a horse. Communicating through their telepathic bond, Clive calls for a retreat, for only Gimpy is currently protected from acid, and they don’t want to be caught out in the open against four dragons without protection from their breath weapons. Sir Nat and Gorman hurry over to Clive and he teleports them back to Greyhawk. Rak moves for Gimpy, but before the magus can get to the half orc one of the dragons conjures a cloud of obscuring mist around the pair, while the others breath down deadly lines of searing acid. Gimpy is warded against acid and takes very little damage, Rak is not so protected and is subjected to some horrific burns. Gimpy fumbles through the mist to the samsaran, and they find eachother before the dragons can close. The pair teleport back to Greyhawk where they rendezvous with the rest of the party. Healing magic is applied to Rak’s nasty acid burns, and he is restored to health with minimal scarring.
Clive decides to add a darkvision and mass fly spell to his spell book before they return to Ilthane’s lair, so they spend a few days in Greyhawk, so that he can pay a visit to the Wizard’s Guild. When they are ready they teleport back to the top of the hill. Clive does some scouting with an arcane eye and explores the areas that Gimpy had previously discovered (see last session). With this knowledge, he is able to teleport the party into the heart of Ilthane’s lair.
They choose to appear in a cave guarded by reptilian humanoids with horns and black scales- a cross between a black dragon and a man. There are four of them, and they each wield large falchions. In addition, each one is ridden with green worms and is clearly undead. The heroes engage them and quickly discover they are very strong, hardy and skilled with their weapons- not the typical shambling zombie type undead. They also breath lines of acid much like a black dragon. Fortunately the heroes have all protected themselves with some form of acid resistance, making such attacks largely ineffective. The same cannot be said about the falchions that they wield and Rak in particular feels their sting. The fighting quickly gets fierce, all the more so when five black dragons come swarming in at them from connecting tunnels. Clive quickly seals the tunnels off with a wall of force, which holds the dragons and a couple of the undead at bay while they dispatch the dragonspawn that are left near them. Helgrim, Sir Nat, Gimpy and Rak all contribute their share of damage in melee, while Gorman is ever effective with his bombs. It doesn’t take the heroes long to bring down the dragonspawn, cast some healing spells and ready themselves for the dragons.
Clive notes that one of the dragons casts a message spell, and though several party members would benefit from some more healing, they decide that time is of the essence. Thus, Clive brings down the wall of force and the real fighting begins. There is much, chaos confusion and bloodshed. Sir Nat is an avenging angel, smiting dragons with his holy greatsword; Gimpy moves about the battlefield shoring up defenses where needed and finding opportunities to land blows when possible. Helgrim equals Sir Nat in his destructive fury due to his training in fighting dragons and his enchanted dragonbane sword. Gorman provides his usual artillery support, bombarding the dragons with firebombs, while an injured Rak withdraws from melee and hammers them with spells like fireball and cone of cold. Clive conjures walls of fire and otherwise tries to be useful, though he shys away from other blatantly destructive magics. The dragons are forced to switch tactics. With their breath weapons rendered fairly ineffective by acid resistance spells, they instead engage the heroes in melee. They are dangerous foes, but they have never faced “men” who are so hardy and skilled in battle, and they greatly underestimate the soft skins. Here and there they land strikes with claw and fang, but Kord and Saint Cuthbert protect.
After several moments of intense combat, only one dragon remains. All the heroes still stand, though none have managed to remain unscathed. It is then that Ilthane appears from a tunnel that has thus far been avoided by both the heroes and their enemies, as it is filled with some kind of magical toxic mist. She has undergone a significant transformation since her attack on the city of Greyhawk. She is now some sort of undead dragon, possibly a dracolich. To make matters worse she has support. Her support comes in the form of three kobolds. These are no ordinary kobolds- two are skilled alchemists, decked out with bandoliers holding vials for making extracts and bombs. The third one is a sorcerer. Draconic blood flows strong in the little creature’s veins, which is demonstrated by the wings growing from its back and the potent magic it wields. Ilthane opens with her breath weapon. Her acid is much stronger than that of her brood, and it penetrates the acid resistance of those it hits.
Fighting quickly divides between two fronts. Sir Nat, Gimpy and Clive find themselves forced to hold Ilthane at bay, hoping that the remainder of the party can quickly dispatch the remaining dragon and the kobolds so that they can focus on their real enemy. Clive conjures a wall of fire around Ilthane while Nat heroically hurls himself into melee with her, hammering her with a powerful smite. Gimpy uncharacteristically pulls back and attacks her at range with a searing light spell. Unfortunately it doesn’t bypass her spell resistance. At the same time Helgrim, Rak and Gorman deal with the kobolds and the remaining member of Ilthane’s brood. The kobolds had appeared from nowhere and caught the three clustered together. This bodes poorly for the heroes, as the scaly, little alchemists hurl a barrage of firebombs that cause extensive injuries while the sorcerer hits them with a prismatic spray spell. Gorman manages to avoid being turned to stone by the spray, while Helgrim suffers fire damage and Rak barely resists being transported to the astral plane. Helgrim then finishes off the remaining member of her brood while Gorman and Rak tries to take down the sorcerer and alchemists. Gorman discovers that some sort of displacement magic protects the sorcerer, for several of his bombs miss when they looked as though they should have hit. Rak’s fireball is less discriminant., though the kobolds seems to have some active fire resistance.
Clive sees that Ilthane is well protected with magical abjurations, making it difficult for the paladin to land a hit on her, even when smiting. He attempts to bring down her mage armor, but fails to dispel it. He then watches in horror as Ilthane unleashes her full fury on Sir Nat. She catches him with a glancing bite that opens up his defenses, and he is then slashed and smacked by claw, wing and tail. The paladin rolls with the hits; the divine power coursing through him keeps him alive, but the wounds cause a vile paralysis to assault him. His limbs seize up leaving him paralyzed and helpless before his enemy. Clive and Gimpy rush to his aid. Gimpy throws himself in front of the dragon’s bite taking a painful wound but allowing Clive to reach Nat safely and teleport the three of them back to Greyhawk, as he does, so Clive telepathically calls for a retreat.
Rak, Helgrim and Gorman are all severely injured. Gorman has just been hit by a disintegrate spell, which he made he survived, and Rak and Helgrim have suffered more bomb damage. They heed Clive’s advice. Gorman and Helgrim fly to Rak, and he follows Clive’s lead and teleports the other half of the party back to their rendezvous point in Greyhawk.
Though they were forced to retreat, they managed to slay five of Ilthane’s brood and several undead abominations. They are in no shape to face her again just yet, so they begin the divine healing process and the search for a good inn to rest and prepare for their next assault. At the same time, Ilthane makes preparations for their return.
Session #43, GM Notes
Anyone familiar with this AP will probably realize that the material from this session is all home-brew content, but I've been making pretty extensive modifications to this adventure path to make it my own and make it less linear.
This session ended up being a bit short since a couple of players were pretty late, as they were held up by work. When we finally got going I tried to get the action started right away, but they didn't want to fight on my terms, so they retreated. When they came back it was pretty much one big long fight for the rest of the session.
The heroes all survived, mainly because they knew when to teleport away. If they had stayed in combat 1 more round I think that Sir Nat, Gorman, Helgrim and possibly Rak would have all be taken out. Rak had to spend a hero chip to avoid being plane shifted, so it was fortunate he had one on hand.
Combat moved a little slower than I had wanted it too. Some of that was because the dragons could make 6 attacks in a round while doing a full attack, but it was also because there was basically 6 PCs and a lot of opponents. Despite this I think it ended up being a good session; the challenge level was certainly high.
Thought I'd de-lurk here and say how much I enjoy reading your campaign journals. I thought your Savage Tide Campaign was great and am digging AOW and RotRL.
I ran some friends through Spire of Long Shadows and plan to head back to Greyhawk sometime this summer after my 2nd daughter is born.
I expect that the last part of the campaign will follow the adventures much more closely.
@PH Dungeon
So I had a pretty nasty oven fire in my house a few weeks ago, and I've basically been homeless for the past three weeks while my home was being cleaned and repainted (though one week I was fortunate to be in an all-inclusive in Mexico for my brother's wedding). Consequently, all my gaming has been on a hiatus for the past few weeks. I'm back in my house now, though still unpacking, and gaming should resume to a regular schedule again this coming Friday.
Session #44, PCs vrs Ilthane, round #2
Player Characters: Gimpy (half orc, barbarian/oracle/rage prophet 13), Clive (half elf, wizard 13), Gorman (dwarf, alchemist 13), Rak (samsaran, magus 13), Sir Nat (human, paladin 13). Guest Starring: Helgrim the Red (human, ranger/fighter 14)
The heroes spend a day in Greyhawk recovering from their first fight against Ilthane. They then cast defensive spells and teleport back to her lair. All the heroes have protected themselves with acid resistance/protection and Gimpy and Sir Nat have death ward and freedom of movement spells cast on them. They appear in the same area of the lair where they had battled her brood and ultimately Ilthane herself. There is no sign of Ilthane when they arrive, but they do encounter three of her brood that they had slain the day before. They are now animated as zombie dragons. Luckily for the heroes the zombie dragons are less dangerous than they were in life, and these guardians offer little resistance to the mighty adventurers. The zombified dragons are slow to take action, giving Clive time to cast an extended haste spell on the party. The heroes then burst into action, moving with uncanny speed to cleave t the undead; in less than a minute they have cut the dragons down once more.
They proceed to search the immediate area and find a large cave with several alcoves in it that were clearly the nesting sites for Ilthane’s brood. Any treasure the dragons might have has been removed, leaving little more than bones and the like for the heroes to pick over. They make their search a quick one and then proceed towards one of the two tunnels filled with toxic mist that exit the area. Clive selects the tunnel that Ilthane had come out of when they first fought her. He casts a wind wall spell that cuts a path through the mist and one by one the adventurers move through the tunnel. The toxic, acidic gas swirls around them, but Clive’s spell protects. Ilthane’s lair lies at the end of the tunnel, but it is warded with an arcane sanctum spell, making it so that the heroes can’t see into it or hear anything coming out of it until they step inside. Gimpy and Sir Nat are among the first to enter. Before them is a large cave with a steep slope at the back leading up to flat plateau. Ilthane’s treasure horde rests up on the plateau, and she is there waiting. As they approach, she unleashes her breath weapon. The adventurers are in a nice line allowing her to hit them all with a stream of acid charged with negative energy. Even with their magical defenses several heroes suffer extensive acid damage including Clive and Helgrim and Sir Nat. Ilthane is not alone in her lair. Another dragon zombie and one of her wyrmspawn zombies help defend her, and they shamble forward to engage the adventurers as they enter the lair.
Clive is quick to notice that Ilthane is protected with at least one magical ward (mage armor), and he casts a greater dispel magic, which dispels her mage armor and fire resistance. She still has a potent deflection aura that Clive is certain is the result of some sort of supernatural ability as opposed to a spell. Sir Nat and Gimpy each bellow prayers to their respective gods and rush in with their great swords. With her defenses weakened they land a couple of blows, but she strikes back hard rending Gimpy with her claws and spinning her bulk to hammer him with a lash of her boney tail. The half orc is significantly injured, but he rolls with the hits and otherwise defends himself from strikes that would have decimated a lesser man. His freedom of movement spell protects him from their paralyzing effects, and her eyes flare with rage as she sees that he is still in fighting form.
Gorman takes cover behind a stalacemite and readies his bombs. The zombie dragon moves in on him, and he hurls a firebomb at it to try to drive it away. He preps another one to throw at it, but Rak shouts at him to focus on Ilthane as the magus blasts her with a fireball spell that sadly fails to penetrate her spell resistance. Gorman takes heed and hurls the next bomb at the dracolich. It explodes and scorches her decaying hide. The samsaran hurries over to engage the zombie dragon, so that Gorman dedicate his efforts to bombarding Ilthane with his devastating firebombs. Gorman focuses his full attention on Ilthane and starts hurling bomb after bomb at the dracolich. She howls with rage, and Gimpy and Sir Nat press the offensive while Clive uses another dispel magic to suppress her deflection aura.
Meanwhile Helgrim faces off against her wyrm-spawn minion and promptly slaughters it with a series of mighty sword slashes before the thing can take any action against him. He then rushes forward to aid Gimpy and Nat, but Ilthane bites at him as he enters her reach inflicting a nasty wound to his shoulder. Helgrim has no protection against her paralyzing bite, and he falls to the ground unable to move.
In an effort to get at the alchemist, who is well out of her reach, Ilthane lets loose another blast of acid that catches Gorman and Sir Nat. Nat dives to the side avoiding the worst of the stream, leaving his acid resistance spell absorbs the remainder of the damage. Gorman’s powerful acid ward leaves him unscathed, though the breath weapon nearly uses up the rest of the spell’s power. Ilthane’s ire rises ever higher, as she sees her most potent attack to virtually nothing to her enemies.
All things considered the heroes are fairing well against the dracolich. Then reinforcements arrive. Ilthane’s three kobold minions teleport into the cave, and the two kobold alchemists hurl readied bombs at Gimpy and Nat in an effort to protect their mistress. Both heroes are warded against fire as well as acid, and the initial bombs do nothing to harm them. The kobolds adjust their tactics and switch to force bombs, which prove more effective. Clive sees their threat and targets them with a black tentacles spell, which grapples the three kobolds and starts crushing them. More importantly it prevents the alchemists from mixing their bombs. Rak continues his fight against the zombie dragon, slashing away at it with his sentient bastard sword. Then it happens. Gimpy and Sir Nat fell Ilthane. Her decaying, scorched undead form crumbles to the ground with a thunderous crash.
The kobold sorcerer is furious, but focuses his concentration and manages to cast a chain lightning spell and a quickened fireball. The chain lightning spell nearly kills Helgrim who can do nothing to defend himself while paralyzed. It badly wounds other members of the party who have no abjurations to protect them from electricity active. In fact, the spell would have killed Clive were it not for Nat calling upon Saint Cuthbert to transfer the damage to himself and thus save his friend. The fireball that follows up the lightning bolt incinerates Helgrim and leaves Clive badly burned. Sir Nat and Gimpy turn their attentions on the kobolds and rush into the tentacles. Their freedom of movement spells allow them to move unimpeded, and they close on the sorcerer. A displacement spell protects the little kobold allowing it to escape what would be deadly smite from Sir Nat, and it promptly casts a dimension door spell and teleports itself and the two alchemists out of the tentacles. They appear nearby, and the alchemists hurl more bombs at Gimpy and Sir Nat in an attempt to avenge Ilthane’s destruction. Rak and Gorman then finish off the zombie dragon, while Clive casts a second black tentacles spell on the kobolds. This time the tentacles disrupt the quickened casting of an offensive spell, but the sorcerer manages to use teleportation magic a final time to remove himself and his allies from the tentacles and Ilthane’s lair.
With the kobolds gone, the fight comes to a close. Ilthane has been destroyed, but Helgrim the Red is dead, and the remainder of the party has suffered extensive wounds. Clive notes that since it seems that Ilthane had become a dracolich; it is likely that she has not been permanently destroyed. He explains that as a form of lich she would have a phylactery that her essence would be transferred to, and until the phylactery is destroyed she remains a threat. They search her immediate lair for any sign of such an object, but they find no sign of it. They do loot her horde, and in addition to thousands of gold worth of coins, gems and other treasure they find a magical gem that allows one to look through it and see through illusions and other magical disguises (gem of seeing). They also find that she is wearing an amulet that protects her from magical scrying and detection, though neither of these magical items appears to be her phylactery.
Once they have healed their wounds and filled their bags of holding with treasure, they teleport to the village of Mage Point. They spend the night at the Inn of the All Seeing Eye, and the next day they pay a visit to Helgrim’s home where they return his body and offer up his magical gear to his son. However they implore the lad to allow them to make use of his magical ring, sword and winged boots for the time being, as the items will prove most helpful in their future quests. He reluctantly agrees in exchange for the 50,000 gp bounty that the city of Greyhawk had put out on Ilthane’s head.
That day Gorman brews a special magical extract that allows him to contact and question a powerful extra-planar entity. He dares to seek answers from the gods themselves, and the heroes learn that Dragotha is in possession of Ilthane’s phylactery. The following day he uses a second extract to help Clive learn more about the fate of his father. They discover that Tomen found what he was looking for in Alhaster and then moved on, but something happened. He no longer lives, but it doesn’t seem that his spirit has passed on to the outer planes. His fate is unclear. This round of communing with the gods is taxing on Gorman, and he is left with his mental faculties vastly reduced, and it will take significant time for them to recover.
They return to Greyhawk where they bring the heads of the dead dragons to the directors, so that they can collect the bounties. It is early winter, and they decide that will remain in Greyhawk for the next while. When Gorman has recovered they decide they will venture south to the Amedio jungle and investigate the ruined city of Kuluth Mar where they hope to find out more about what Tommen discovered there.
Awesome session and looking forward to what awaits them in Kuluth Mar.
::wink wink::
Also, glad to see your life is slowly getting back to normal. That sounded like a pain in the a$$. At least you are all safe though.
Things are more or less back to normal. I'm still dealing with wrangling money out of the insurance company and I'm moving at the end of the month, so things won't fully stabilize for a little while yet, but at least I should be able to game regularly again.
Session #44, GMs Notes
This session was proof that a well prepared party working together as a team can take on some pretty nasty stuff and come out on top.
In the first fight they weren't ready for Ilthane to be a dracolich, but in this second battle the front line fighters were prepared and the death ward and freedom of movement spells spared them much trouble. Clive's dispel magics reduced her AC from 41 to 32, which made her much more hittable. Had that not happened there were would have been a lot more whiffing from Sir Nat and Gimpy. Dispelling her fire resistance was also helpful since Gorman could hit with fire bombs instead of force bombs, which do more damage.
The alchemist is really the party's heavy hitter in many ways. His bombs do decent damage that is hard for enemies to resist (especially when he throws force bombs), and when he's hasted he can unload 3 per round against the target's touch AC, making him a real threat to pretty much every opponent. To be honest I think the alchemist class is a bit broken. At least with spellcasters a lot of enemies have spell resistance or the the option of making saving throws. Alchemist force bombs are nearly guaranteed damage each round. The other issue is that I think his player is getting a little bored of running him. Despite the utility of his extracts he's become kind of a one trick pony that basically just spends each fight throwing bombs and trying to stay out of trouble. I know I'd get bored playing a character like that pretty fast.
Session #45, The Spire of Longshadows
Characters: Rak (samsaran, magus 14), Gimpy (half orc, barbarian/oracle/rage prophet 14), Clive (half elf, wizard 14), Sir Nat (human, paladin 14), Gorman (dwarf, alchemist 14).
The heroes spend about a month in the city of Greyhawk recovering from their fight against Ilthane. Winter has fully set in; the city is cold and gray, death stalks the land. During this time they report to the council of oligarchs, debrief about their fight with Ilthane and collect their bounty. There is discussion about Ilthane’s connection to Dragotha and the threat of the Age of Worms. The council is growing increasingly concerned about the reality of this threat. Undead still plague the lands outside the city and a general sense of doom hangs in the air that is growing increasingly difficult to ignore. Unfortunately, they feel rather helpless. Their army is stretched thin, and has suffered many losses over the past year and half due to the undead, particularly dealing with the infestation in the city, but at least they can make some effort to combat such creatures. The prophesy of the Age of Worms is a different thing entirely. How does one stop the advent of an age of writhing death that appears destined to arrive? Dragotha may be the key. According to Tenser, Clive’s father Tommen seemed to think it could be halted, and it’s possible that he learned what must be done. Thus the heroes decide that they must do everything they can to learn what happened to Tommen and find out what he discovered before he disappeared. They decide to start by taking a trip to ruins of Kuluth-Mar in the steaming jungles to the south. Tommen went there in search of more information about the Age of Worms, and in the ruins he found something. What he discovered is unclear, but if it what he discovered might provide clues to stopping an impending apocalypse then the heroes can’t afford not to follow in his footsteps.
The dark conversations about dracolichs, death gods and impending doom happen behind closed doors. The general public is given a different story. They are told only of a great victory against the dragons that attacked their home. The oligarchs have a parade in honor of the heroes, and the heads of the dead dragons are carried through the streets to the arena, which has since been repaired from the rampaging Ulgurstasta. Here the city gathers and cheers as Lord Mayor Gasgul honors the adventurers with medals of bravery. The parade lifts the morale of the commoners, giving them hope in a bleak time when crazed doomsayers scream in the markets about arrival of the Age of Worms.
During the month in Greyhawk, Clive makes several trips with teleportation magic to the semi-ruined tower he purchased many miles north of the city. It sits on a hilltop, overlooking the Nyr Dyv on the edge of the Cairn Hills. The tower belonged to a fairly well known wizard some two hundred years ago, but that wizard vanished long ago, and the tower has fallen into disrepair. It was plundered many times over by adventurers, and, other than being occasionally occupied by humanoids and other brigands, it has been mainly empty for the past century. Several months ago Clive paid the city for the land, and hired a talented dwarven stonemason from Karakast to head up the task of repairing the tower. Work has been progressing, but the tower is not situated along any maintained trails or roads. This makes moving supplies to the tower difficult. To help with this problem Clive has been using the party’s bags of holding along with teleportation spells to bring supplies to the workers. Consequently progress is being maintained, and it is expected to be complete in the spring.
On the 10th of Readying in the year 597, they return to Tenser’s tower and use his magical painting of the ruins of Kuluth Mar to teleport to the cursed city. It is said that this is the place where Kyuss, once a mortal priest of Nerull, achieved divinity, and it may hold the clues to the origin of the Age of Worms.
They arrive at the top of an escarpment. From their vantage point they have a clear view down into a valley that houses what remains of the Kuluth-Mar. Over the past two thousand or so years the jungle has reclaimed most of the city. However, in the middle of the valley is a massive plaza that is untouched by vegetation. Sitting in the center of this great plaza is a stone stepped pyramid. Emerging from the top of the pyramid is a secondary stone structure with a central trunk and oddly angled branches emerging from it. It is obvious that such construction could only be held aloft through magic. Presumably this is the so-called Spire of Longshadows- the temple that Kyuss founded in the heart of his city while he still walked the earth as a mortal. As the heroes look out at the sight, they notice three creatures climbing about on the sides of the pyramid. They are far away and can’t be seen in detail, but from a distance they resemble massive beetles. They also notice that there is thrashing and howling coming from the tree canopy in one section of the ruins.
Another site that catches their attention is a ring of blue energy that encloses the plaza. This wall of energy rises up some thirty feet in the air, and is clearly magical. Vegetation grows up to the ring, but inside of it, where the pyramid is, nothing grows.
Gimpy decides to summon his arcane eye, and he sends it on a scouting mission. They invisible sensor floats down into the valley and through the ruins of the city. There is very little left. As he travels he sees signs of trees that have been brutally clawed and damaged. Here and there are splatters of blood, tufts of fur, feathers, and bits of bone. Then, near where they had seen the thrashing in the canopy, two creatures suddenly fall to the ground from the trees, landing in front of the sensor. The beasts are hulking simians with four arms, white fur and lizard like tails. They are engaged in a brutal fight with one another and each one is suffering from extensive wounds. Gimpy watches for a moment, and even he is a little taken aback by their savagery. He sends the sensor forward before seeing the conclusion of the fight. It reaches the wall of blue magical energy, and he sends it flying up over the wall. He directs it to one of the entrances at the base of the temple. The doorway opens into a large entry room. At the far end of the room is a set of stone double doors. They are closed, and standing guard in front of them is an ancient, unmoving knight in well-maintained but archaic armor. It bears a shield and bastard sword. Time is running out on his spell, so Gimpy sends it out of the pyramid and tries to pass it through the wall of magic. Doing this disrupts the eye, causing it to vanish.
The adventurers discuss their next move. They decide to avoid, moving through the ruined city and head straight for the pyramid. Clive casts a mass fly spell on them, and they take to the air. They land at the western entrance to the temple. Sir Nat goes in first. The glowing light of his sword illuminates the guardian ahead of him, and he sees the ancient knight appears to be some sort of undead. Green worms with lamprey like mouths occupy its eye sockets, making it especially disturbing. It radiates evil, but before he can gage the strength of the corruption, it rushes forward. Sir Nat doesn’t get his blade up in time to parry the attack, and the worm knight’s unholy blade cuts into him.
Gimpy and Rak step up to help Sir Nat engage the worm knight. Gorman sees the beetles moving skittering down the sides of the pyramid to investigate. He’s confident that they are hostiles, so he flies up in the air and hurls alchemist bombs at the beetle that is closing fastest, blackening its carapace with flame. Clive puts a resilient sphere around all the heroes but Gorman as well as the worm knight. He hopes to let them focus on destroying the undead guardian without having to worry about being chomped by one of the beetles.
In response to being scorched by a fire bomb the beetle begins a hypnotic chittering that results in Rak and Gorman temporarily unable to do anything more than stand (or hover in Gorman’s case) and listen to the sound. The worm knight is a highly skilled warrior. It lands some telling blows with its unholy blade, but it can’t stand against both Gimpy and Sir Nat, and it soon falls to the might of the servants of Kord and Saint Cuthbert. The three giant beetles leap down from the lowest step of the pyramid to land near the heroes. Clive uses a dimensional step to teleport Gimpy and Sir Nat out of the sphere, leaving Rak behind for the moment since he is hypnotized. Gorman maintains his flight, shakes off the hypnosis and starts throwing bombs down at the beetles, searing them with alchemical fire. The beetles’ mandibles do horrific amounts of damage, much of it to Gimpy, yet the heroes hold their own, and soon Rak recovers to join the battle. It isn’t long before only charred and hacked beetle carcasses remain.
After defeating these initial guardians and tending their wounds, they move into the foyer room of the pyramid. Here they notice extensive, stylized relief sculptures carved into the walls. The images depict a figure that Rak and Clive believe is Kyuss. He is leading an army of his followers in the slaughter and destruction of an unknown city. A large set of stone doors leads deeper into the temple. These doors are carved with skulls and writhing worms. Clive casts a detect magic spell and notices no sign of magic on the doors, so Gimpy pushes them open. Beyond the doors is a very large, square room. 5’ wide square based columns rise up to support the stone ceiling. The main feature of the room is a big hole in the floor in its center. The floor surrounding the hole is covered with rubble, suggesting an explosion that burst up out of the ground. A couple of other chambers exit this big, central room.
The heroes move up towards the edge of the pit and look down. Even with darkvision, Gorman and Gimpy can’t see the bottom. Clive casts darkvision, followed by arcane eye. He sends his own sensor down into the pit scout. Part way down the shaft he finds several opens that lead into a warren of tunnels. For now he ignores them and sends the sensor further down. The Shaft narrows as it decends, and at the bottom he finds more chambers and more rubble. Green Kyuss worms cover the floor down here, numbering in at least the thousands. He scouts the area. The room he has entered has exits in the west, south and east walls. To the west he finds two large rooms, side by side. Each of these rooms has rows and rows of human corpses. There are no worms in here. In one room the corpses are well persevered. In the other they are only crumbling skeletons. To the south he discovers an expansive, natural cavern, the floor of which is occupied by a writhing lake of green worms. To the east he finds a hall that leads to a set of stone double doors similar to the ones they passed through to enter the temple.
Next he sends the sensor part way back up the shaft and navigates it into the one of the openings in the side of the shaft. He discovers a warren of tunnels. At first he thinks the tunnels might be carved by more of the beetles, but he soon discovers this is not the case. The inhabitants of the warren are several, oversized maggots with hideous, human like heads. He takes to calling them worm nagas, and they are not a type of creature he is familiar with.
After making his report, they decide to explore down the shaft. First Clive uses his staff of fire to cast two fireballs into the bottom in order to obliterate the worm swarms. They then fly or feather fall to the bottom. They decide to go east first, heading down the hall to the double doors. After checking for magical traps with detect magic they push the doors open.
They discover a room with a fountain standing in the middle of a circular pool of pristine water. At the far end of the room carved in relief into the wall is a large skull with worms falling out of its orifices. Three figures stand around the fountain. They are hunched, skeletal humanoids clad in the tattered remains of robes and armor, presumably former servants of the Kyuss. These undead don’t hesitate to attack the living mortals that violate their sanctum. All three cast quickened hold person spells, which results in Clive being temporarily paralyzed. One of them calls down a column of unholy fire on the heroes, while the other two blast Gimpy with rays of necrotic energy. A brutal combat erupts; Gorman hurls bombs in support, while Rak hangs back and casts a fireball amongst the undead. Then Sir Nat and Gimpy rush into the room to try to cut down the undead. The fiends survive the initial attacks of the heroes and call down more columns of fire and hurl more necrotic rays. This results in Sir Nat using his divine magic to absorb a flame strike that might have otherwise killed Clive. Luckily, the threat of being incinerated gives Clive the will to shake off the hold person spell, and he then casts haste on his companions, giving the melee fighters the edge they need to do serious damage to the undead.
It is about this point in the fight that a trio of worm nagas slither down from above to investigate the smoke wafting into their tunnels from the thousands of scorched worms. Strangely they slither through the air itself as through it were solid. They arrive behind the adventurers and unleash enervation rays on the intruders. Clive and Gorman both take hits from the rays and feel their life force being sucked from their bodies (Gorman gets it the worst- 4 negative levels, ouch). Gimpy and Sir Nat heal some of their wounds, cast deathward spells and make ready to help against the worm nagas. As the party finishes the undead and turns their attention towards these new foes they discover the danger of their supernatural gaze. Initially the strong will of the heroes shrugs off the effects, and Rak and Clive cast fireball spells into the room, while Gorman hurls his bombs. The chamber is awash with fire, and the nagas aren’t protected against it. They wail in pain as their maggoty flesh bubbles and blisters. Yet they are hearty aberrations, and they survive the onslaught. Gimpy and Sir Nat soon join the action, but they find that the nagas are well protected with magical wards, and difficult to land attacks on.
It is then that things take a significant turn for the worse. The south wall of the room where Sir Nat and Gimpy are fighting opens to a lake of the writhing, green kyuss worms, and suddenly, a massive green worm, nearly the size of a dread purple worm, bursts out of the worm covered waters. Its attention first sets on Gimpy, and its head strikes down at the half orc like a snake. It grabs him up in its jaws; his ribs crack from the force of the worm’s bite and he feels his blood staining the ridiculous looking, ruffled “quick runner shirt” he wears under his armor.
Clive gets off a slow spell that affects the giant worm and one of the nagas, but this is the wizard’s last useful contribution to the fight, for a moment later he succumbs to the gaze of one of the nagas. He is stripped of his mental faculties and can do little more than babble incoherently. Rak, Gorman and Nat concentrate on finishing off the wounded nagas, while Gimpy is left to struggle in the mouth of the great worm. It soon swallows him down its gullet. Inside its stomach, Gimpy manages to mantain his grip on his greatsword with one hand and draw his dagger with another. He immediately starts working to slash his way out of its stomach. Then Gorman succumbs to a feeblemind gaze from one of the last surviving nagas. Suddenly, like Clive, he is a babbling idiot with no clue how to brew his bombs.
The situation is really grim now. Clive and Gorman are useless; Gimpy is caught in the worm’s stomach, and Rak and Sir Nat are the only ones in much position to fight, but they are both suffering from extensive wounds. Nat snarls and moves in on the giant worm, but it grabs him up in its jaws. The paladin is already badly wounded from all the fighting, and the powerful bite of the worm nearly kills him. He drops his sword and manages to use his healing touch on himself. He then draws his dagger and stabs it in the mouth, hoping it will drop him. Sadly it maintains its grasp and continues to chew on poor Nat. Meanwhile, Gimpy viciously cuts his way out of the worm’s gullet. He rolls out onto the floor covered in the small, green kyuss worms, which seem to infest the giant worm. They have been steadily chewing at him ever since he entered the worm’s mouth, but his amulet of natural armor gives him an unnaturally hardened hide that the worms can’t quickly penetrate. Still, it is only a matter of seconds before they get through and start burrowing into his flesh. There are too many of them for him to scrape off, and in desperation he screams for Rak to drop a fireball in the room. The samsaran uses his spell recall ability to summon a final fireball. It detonates, scalding Gimpy, the giant worm and Sir Nat. Gimpy is ready for the flames and shields himself as best he can. Sir Nat has divine fire resistance and cover from the worm, which spares him from significant damage. The fireball does its job, burning away the worms. The big green worm writhes in pain from the fire, and Sir Nat takes advantage of this, managing to free himself. He falls to the ground and fumbles for his sword.
In desperation, Gimpy resorts to slashing at the worm from prone, cutting deep gashes into its thick, rubbery hide. Sir Nat, does some quick healing, gets up and cleaves the thing, but it snaps him up again. This bite is enough to cause him to lose consciousness, and he is on the verge of death. Rak has managed to herd Clive and Gorman back towards the room with the fountain, but he sees that Nat and Gimpy are in deep trouble. He sheaths his blade, and bravely runs towards the worm. He leaps into the air and catches onto Nat’s leg. Nat is still trapped in its jaws, now with Rak hanging by one arm from his leg. The samsaran enters into a state of deep concentration and manages to cast a teleport spell that takes him and Sir Nat back into the fountain room. The wounded half orc gets up and runs for the room as well. The worm is still slowed and can’t stop Gimpy from escaping, but it starts slithering after the half orc. Gimpy is still hasted and quickly reaches his companions. He casts a healing spell on the unconscious paladin, saving him from death and reviving him to consciousness. Rak only has a dimension door spell left, but it is enough to get the party back up into the upper level of the temple and away from the giant worm. He regrets that he had used his teleport and not the dimension door to save Nat, but sometimes in the heat of battle, even highly intelligent individuals make mistakes. Everyone is somehow still alive, and that’s what is most important.
There is nothing they can do at the moment to help Gorman and Clive, but they cast healing magic and start looking for a place to hole up. If Rak can have chance to rest and recover his spells he can teleport them back to Greyhawk where he believes he can find a way to cure the pair of their retardation.
Session #45, GMs Notes
Welcome to the Spire of Longshadows b~$&~es! Enjoy your visit!
I forgot a couple of details about this session. While exploring the library on the first floor, Gorman found the jars of knowledge worms and after using some notes he had found in Ilthane's Mist Marsh lair, he identified them and decided to swallow a couple. They burrowed up into his brain and imparted some knowledge on him, but presumably they are still up there.
Rak had another vision when he entered the torture room on the first floor. In his vision he saw himself on one of the tables with Kyuss as a mortal priest standing over him. He then saw the spell-weaver give kyuss a gold box with a worm inside it, which Kyuss then looked like he was about to insert into his mouth.
I skipped the encounter with the corrupted archons and eladrin, as I wanted to give the PCs a bit of a breather and exploration time after entering the temple.
Clive did not shake off the Hold Person on his own. Gimpy used his last 4th level spell to cast Freedom of Movement on him before engaging the Servants of Kyuss. That's why Gimpy was able to be grabbed and held by the Giant Worm later on and was also not able to cast Deathward before entering battle.
It grabs him up in its jaws; his ribs crack from the force of the worm’s bite and he feels his blood staining the ridiculous looking, ruffled “quick runner shirt” he wears under his armor.
NO!!! Not my Quickrunner's Shirt!!! At least my Jingasa of the Fortunate Soldier survived unmarrred. I think the worms even buffed it up. It's what all the fashionable adventurers are wearing this year.
Thanks for the correction. It's hard to remember all the details of those big fights. Everything becomes a bit of blur.
Good stuff. The worm nagas are definitely no joke with their gaze. They gave my guys fits.
Yeah, Spire of Longshadows is rather nasty. From what I've read of postings on these boards it is widely considered one of the most challenging adventures in the AP, and as we know it has some pretty stiff competition.
PH Dungeon:
Edit: Changed spoiler tag.
@kaiserDM. I PMed you because I didn't want to post all my tactical plans on this thread, even with a spoiler tag.
I ran another session of this campaign this past weekend, and we wrapped up the adventure. I still have to do the journal. However, I have decided to put this campaign on hold for a while, as I'm burning out a little running AoW and RotRL. In the meantime I've convinced one of my players to GM for a while. It looks like he'll be running some Edge of the Empire, which I may or may not write a journal for.
Look forward to the wrap up. Our group is trying to finish book 4 of RoRL before we take a brief hiatus in June. I have to say that so far, FoSG has been my favorite module. In July I resume our AOW campaign starting with Prince of Redhand. I will probably post my first campaign journal for that one.
Since my group is not the most rp savy and we have 1 new player, I will probably have to make some changes.
I'm looking forward to running the next part of our campaign as it will be very open for the PCs to tackle, but the place we are at is a good temporary stopping place.
Session #46, Spire of Longshadows, Foray #2
Characters: Rak (samsaran, magus 14), Gimpy (half orc, barbarian/oracle/rage prophet 14), Clive (half elf, wizard 14), Sir Nat (human, paladin 14), Gorman (dwarf, alchemist 14)
The wounded heroes withdraw into the jungle and camp for the night in one of the ruined buildings outside the arcane wall that surrounds the ziggurat. The night passes uneventfully, and the next morning Rak teleports the group back to Greyhawk. In Greyhawk they immediately set out to find a way to have Gorman and Clive cured of their feeblemindedness.
They first pay a visit to the cathedral of Saint Cuthbert. There they find that a priest named brother Cahill is leading the service, and after talking to an acolyte they discover that High Shepherd Walter Manfred Preston III (now referred to as WMP3 by the players) has been frequently absent or otherwise indisposed, so brother Cahill has been covering for him. Sir Nathanial isn’t a great fan of brother Cahill, for he sees him as an evangelical zealot, and his style of preaching reminds the paladin far too much of the one espoused by the high shepherd in Diamond Lake. He decides to confront Cahill and inquire about WMPIII. Cahill is most pleased to see Sir Nat, and asks for his help. Cahill explains that WMPIII has been venturing into the city frequently and returning late in the night or early in the morning in a state of inebriation. He has refused to perform many of his sacred duties, and Cahill has been forced to take them on. The flock is suffering and losing faith as a result of the behavior of their high shepherd. At Cahill’s request Sir Nat agrees to look into the matter. Unfortunately, Cahill is not a powerful enough cleric to cast the potent healing miracles needed to restore Gorman and Clive, so the heroes head for the Halls of the Valiant.
At the halls they meet with Bromal Roaringhorn the high priest of Kord. They explain their situation, and although tending to those who have been afflicted with sorcerous curses is not his specialty, he agrees to attempt his most powerful healing magic on them in exchange for an ample donation to the temple. The heroes offer him a set of the magical armor and one of the shields that was in the possession of the undead worm knights, and he performs his miracles. Kord is with them, and the healing magic works; Gorman and Clive are returned to their former selves.
While they are speaking with Roaringhorn Rak notices an individual at one of the large trestle tables that seems to be intentionally trying not to be noticed by the characters. The man adjusts the hood of his cloak to better hide his face and glances away from the heroes, even though he clearly has an interest in them. Rak and Nat approach him, while Gimpy talks with Bromal. It doesn’t take the pair long to discover that the man is in fact WMPIII, and he is clearly quite intoxicated even though it is still before noon. A lengthy conversation ensues, and the heroes learn that WMPIII’s home village was decimated by a roving pack of undead a couple of months earlier. He has since lost faith in his god, as Saint Cuthbert seemingly did nothing to protect his family or village even though all the folk of the village were faithful followers. The High Shepherd believes Saint Cuthbert has forsaken him, and he has started to consider following Kord instead- hence his frequent visits to the Halls of the Valiant. He tells Sir Nat that he is no longer fit to carry out his duties as High Shepherd, and he asks that Sir Nat take over as head of the church in Greyhawk. The paladin’s head spins for a minute, for he had always considered himself a holy warrior who would serve Saint Cuthbert by smiting enemies of the faith not a man who would lead the faith’s most influential church. The task seems overwhelming to him, more so than dealing with dracolichs and hordes of undead. He immediately declines the offer, and he spews out some parables that he thinks will be inspirational and appropriate. They provide the lost priest with some comfort, and Nat and his companions escort WMPIII back to the temple.
The heroes spend several days in Greyhawk, as Sir Nat helps out around the temple by inspiring the flock and working to restore the faith of the High Shepherd, so that he can once again perform his duties. During this time they learn of another tragic event. Word has reached Greyhawk that the esteemed Graymalkin Academy in Gradsul has been destroyed by a dragonstrike. This is particularly disconcerting to Rak since he was trained and raised in the academy. They decide to investigate, and Rak teleports them to the school. The place is in utter ruin, and much of the surrounding city was burned to the ground as well. In fact the only reason the city wasn’t destroyed was that Gradsul is home to a temple of Procan where dwell a number of potent priests who were followers of the legendary Breca Angsparr. The clerics used their divine powers to conjure storms that put out the fires and saved the city from annihilation.
As the heroes look around at the devastation they see Tenser, Eliagos and Cymria (Tenser’s elven consort) flying up above, analyzing the situation. Clive casts mass fly and they venture up to meet with archmage. Their conversation with Tenser yields a few details about the attack. It seems that multiple dragons assaulted the school. They were chromatics, and a very large red dragon led them. The dragons seemed interested purely in destroying the academy and then moving on. They slaughtered as many of its teachers and students as possible but made no effort to loot the place. When they were done they flew north. The adventurers speculate that the dragons may be in league with Dragotha and are carrying out preemptive strikes against those they feel might pose a threat to them in the future, but at this point there is little more the heroes can learn or do.
A few days later they decide to make their return to the Kuluth Mar and the Spire of Long Shadows. Clive teleports the party into the chapel room on the lower level. There is a fountain in the middle of this room that the heroes had previously seen, but as they examine it more closely their mouths suddenly become parched, and a great thirst comes over them, making them want to drink from the fountain. Most of the party manages to muster the will to resist this temptation, but Gimpy plunges his head into the fountain and drinks a mouthful of its crystal clear water. He immediately begins to choke and sputter, as he realizes that it is not water he is drinking but a mouthful of kyuss worms. Luckily, he spits them out before they can start burrowing into his insides. Clive pulls out the gem of true seeing and looks closely at the fountain. He can see that it is in fact filled with kyuss worms, and the water is merely an illusion. Gorman hurls a firebomb into the pool and fries the worms.
Looking out into the hall they see no sign of enemies lurking about, so they continue their exploration of the lower level. They first stop at the “worm lake.” They decide to see what happens when an acid fog spell is conjured overtop of the lake. Worms begin to blister and burn, and then suddenly the mighty overworm bursts out of the lake and fog and surges towards the heroes. Gorman unloads a barrage of bombs on the thing, while Rak hits it with a fireball. Sir Nat and Gimpy wait for it to close on them and once it gets close they engage it melee. It manages to take a good bite out of Gimpy, but he is protected by a freedom of movement spell, and it is unable to scoop him up to swallow him whole. With the adventurers focusing all their attention on the great worm, it doesn’t take them long to slay the horror.
They continue exploring and soon come to a sealed pair of stone double doors with images of writhing worms carved into them. Sir Nat pushes the heavy doors open, and beyond they find a room with troughs carved into the floor to form an odd spiral like design. The troughs themselves are filled with the remains of ancient bones, scraps of fabric, tomes, scrolls, and tablets. Lurking in the chamber is a foul worm naga. Sir Nat senses its evil nature and moves forward to smite it. Before he can close in a bolt of black energy streaks from the naga’s forehead and hits the paladin in the chest (finger of death spell). Saint Cuthbert protects his faithful follower, and he survives (he had to spend a hero point to re-roll his save and avoid taking 140 damage- otherwise he likely would have been killed). Then Gimpy and Nat close in and go to work, while Gorman, Clive and Rak provide artillery spell/bomb support. The naga manages to fire another death ray (this one at Clive, who survives), but that is about all it accomplishes before having its bloated maggot body cut to pieces.
The adventurers start searching through the books, scrolls and tablet remains to see if they can find anything valuable or informative. They don’t get far with this task before Rak sees trouble. Three worm knights accompanying a multi-armed, robed figure with a desiccated insect-like head approach. The strange robed creature is the same figure that Rak recalls from his past life. It was also the same thing that gave the mortal kyuss the first insidious green worms. It doesn’t seem to remember Rak, but it introduces itself as the Harbinger of Worms, and accuses the heroes of defiling the holy sanctuary of Kyuss. Unsurprisingly combat ensues.
I'm having trouble writing the last part of this journal. The fight with the harbinger was intense with a lot of magic being flung around, and it's really hard for me to get the details straight. Hopefully I'll get it done to my satisfaction sometime soon.
So it looks like the player who was going to run some Edge of the Empire and give me a GMing break needs some more prep time. Consequently, I'm going to start Prince of Redhand tonight. I'll run that adventure through to completion, and then we'll go from there.
I'll post the last part of last sessions journal this weekend.
Session #46, Part #2, The Spire of Longshadows, PCs versus the Harbinger of Worms
The fight against the harbinger is a brutal one. Gorman opens with a barrage of firebombs, but the harbinger is protected by a displacement spell, causing a couple of the bombs to miss. Yet one hits the harbinger, and strangely it does not seem to have any fire protection. It promptly responds to Gorman’s attack by casting a maze spell that sends the dwarf to an extra-dimensional labyrinth. Sir Nat sees his companion vanish and fearlessly charges forward to smite the alien, undead sorcerer. The Kyuss knights move to intercept Nat and prevent the paladin from reaching their master. Clive conjures a zone of black tentacles, but it only slows one of them down. After casting a buff spell on himself, Gimpy hurries to join Sir Nat, but before he reaches the paladin, the harbinger summons a wall of force that seals off the hall and cuts Nat off from his companions. At the same time it casts a magic missile spell, and force missiles hammer the paladin. Nat finds himself alone with all the enemies. Two of the worm knights close in to attack him while the third struggles to free itself from the tentacles. Outnumbered, Sir Nat does what he can to fend off the worm knights, and using his holy smite powers he destroys one of the fiends with his greatsword, but not before it can inflict serious damage on him with its unholy blade. Its companion wields a similar sword and cleaves deeply into Sir Nat. Sir Nat falls to the second knight’s attacks and is on the verge of death (with only one hero point keeping him alive). Clive and Rak move up to Gimpy and Clive teleports them to other side of the force wall. Gimpy and Rak rush to the paladin’s aid attacking the remaining worms knights. The harbinger dispels Clive’s black tentacle spell. Around this time, Gorman finally escapes the maze, but he finds himself trapped behind a wall of force with no enemies to target and no easy way to reach or help his friends. Being a resourceful fellow, he drinks an extract that allows him to assume an elemental form. He turns into an earth elemental and sinks into the floor.
Meanwhile the harbinger launches a magic missile barrage at Rak and conjures another wall of force not far in front of the first one, which leaves the heroes trapped between two walls of force with the remaining worm knights. Rak teleports himself Gimpy and Sir Nat out from between the two force walls so that they can administer healing to Nat. Clive soon joins them, as he does not want to face a worm knight alone. After Gimpy and Rak get Nat back on his feet, Clive dispels the closest wall of force, and the remaining worm knights come at them. He uses a telekinesis spell to disarm them, while Gimpy, Nat and Rak move forward to destroy them.
Gorman, in his elemental form, bursts out of the floor in front of the harbinger. One wall of force still stands between the two of them and the party, and in perhaps the alchemists bravest or most stupid move, he goes one on one with the harbinger, attacking him with the rocky fists of his elemental body. He lands a hit or two, but the damage from the attacks pales compared to what he can do with his bombs. The harbinger is amused but unconcerned. The six arm insect creature responds by stepping back and blasting him with prismatic spray. Luckily Gorman only sustains poison damage from the spray, and his immunity to poisons saves him. It occurs to the dwarf that he might be over matched, and after surviving another blast of prismatic spray, he retreats back into the earth to join his companions
By this time they have finished the worm knights. Gorman resumes his true form, and then Clive teleports them all to the far side of the wall of force, where they engage the harbinger. The harbinger gets off another spell or two, but fails to take any more heroes down before their combined onslaught destroys him.
The destruction of the harbinger has a number of effects. Firstly the magic support the Spire of Longshadows suddenly fails, and the entire spire comes crashing down, creating a massive tremor that results in large chunks from the dungeon ceiling falling in and destroy many of the worm naga tunnels. Secondly the kyuss worms infesting the soil and the underground lake all shrivel up and die. Finally, the Rak is over come with a final vision:
You find yourself in the great plaza looking at the zigguarat and spire of Long Shadows. Up on top of the Spire of Long Shadows is a black obelisk. All the citizens of the city have gathered in the plaza. You are among them, but you are nailed to a wooden post, as are several other fellow heretics. Your mind is cloudy, and you feel as though there is something burrowing around inside your head. At the top of the pyramid, standing in the shadow of the great, tree-like, stone spire and the obelisk, is Kyuss- still a mortal priest. He along with several of his fellow clerics chant and pray. Gradually the obelisk begins to pulse with dark energy, and that energy spreads outward into the crowd. One by one the citizens fall dead to the ground, and the obelisk pulsates with more power, as though it is somehow absorbing their very souls. Then Kyuss raises his arms into the air and energy streams from the monolith to him. He begins to transform, growing taller and larger. His body alters its composition, becoming a writhing mass of worms. More citizens die, as the monolith hungrily devours more souls. You know that in seconds you will be among them. You see Kyuss’s power increasing exponentially, as he changes from a mortal to a god. Then something unexpected happens. The energy pouring into him from the monolith suddenly starts to pull his new form back to the obelisk. Kyuss fights against it, but seems powerless against it. More citizens die as the obelisk devours their souls. You know that you are about to perish, and you also know that if your soul is drawn into the obelisk it will likely be the end of your reincarnation cycle. In desperation you call upon all your will and strength, and you rip your hands free of pole. You fall to the ground. Your legs are numb, and you can’t make them move to get you to your feet. All you can do is try to take your own life before the dark energy consumes you. One of the great nails that affixed you to the pole still protrudes through your hand. You use the last of your strength to drive the nail through your throat and pull it back out.
The last thing you see is Kyuss being pulled into the monolith. Then everything melts darkness, and the air fills with whispers. It sounds as if a hundred different voices speak in a hundred different languages, but an instant later, the voices have joined into one and the language resolves into familiar words. These words speak of the prophecies of the Age of Worms, and as they speak, visions of the prophecies coming true manifest before you, allowing you to observe the events as if you were a god looking down upon a troubled world. The visions are violent and horrific. Legions of worm-eaten dead rise from soggy graves. An immense and demonic tree explodes into destructive life from the heart of an unfamiliar city. A burning comet lances down from the heavens to strike the earth in a tremendous, mushroom-shaped cloud of devastation. A cackling man attaches a clawed and withered hand to the bleeding stump of his arm, and the hand writhes into unholy life. Demogorgon the prince of demons falls to a band of mighty heroes in the Abyss, and Orcus the demon prince of the undead becomes the new prince of demons. As each of these scenes flash by, they are accompanied by a crushing sense of certainty— these events have already come to pass. Yet finally, the whispering voices speak of two more prophecies, and these are accompanied by blackness. “A tripartite spirit once again becomes one, and at its advice are the mighty undone,” the voices whisper. And then, “On the eve of the Age of Worms, a hero of the pit shall use his fame to gift a city to the dead.” Afer this, there is only silence. It would seem that two prophecies have yet to be realized.
With the place falling in around their heads, the heroes hastily loot the harbinger of some powerful magical items, and do a quick search of the remainder of the dungeon. They then teleport back to Greyhawk.
Session #47, Part #1, Prince of Redhand, Knocking About Alhastar
Characters: Rak (samsaran, magus 14, Mythic Archmage 1), Gimpy (half orc, barbarian/oracle/rage prophet 14, Mythic Defender 1), Clive (half elf, wizard 14, Mythic Archmage 1), Sir Nat (human, paladin 14, Mythic Champion 1), Gorman (dwarf, alchemist 14, Mythic ? 1).
About a month passes back in Greyhawk as the heroes recover from their expedition to the south. Treasure is sold off, and new magic items are commissioned and purchased. Eventually Clive, Sir Nat, Gimpy and Rak decide to teleport back to Alhastar to follow up some old leads regarding the Age of Worms, which still seems to be approaching. For the moment, Gorman remains behind in Greyhawk to engage in some involved alchemical research. Their main lead is a note found in a book on the History of Alhastar that they had discovered some time ago in Tenser’s library. The note was written by Clive’s father Tommen.
“Alhastar could be the key
Missing heretics never captured… Possible site of Ebon Triad foundation? Did they turn to the cult of Erythnul for aid and then more recently to that of Vecna? Are the new triad leaders trained somewhere in Alhastar and then sent out to start their own cult cells in other cities?
To Do:
- Consult with Lashona (helped defeat heretics, may know more about them)
- Rhosk (may still be in Alhaster. Likely dead, but maybe he left some sort of legacy)
- Ebon Triad (are they still active in Alhaster? Find out if their original shrine/base of operations still exists)”
It is near dusk when they appear in Alhastar. Nat decides to first see if anyone has heard of Rhosk. Rhosk was the author of the History of Alhastar and said to have been a scholar and cleric of Saint Cuthbert, which is of interest to the paladin. Alhastar is ruled by known follower of Hextor named Prince Zeech and not particularly welcoming towards followers of Saint Cuthbert. Despite this fact, Sir Nat makes no effort to conceal his status as a paladin of the god. He proudly wears his polished mithril plate mail, holy symbol and tabard displaying Saint Cuthbert’s symbol. Clive and Rak consider suggesting that Nat be a bit more subtle but then decide to let him do as he pleases. Heads certainly turn as the heroes confidently walk the streets. It’s not everyday that the downtrodden people of Alhastar see such obviously mighty heroes roaming their town so brazenly.
Up ahead on the street they spot a local baker closing up shop. Nat figures that bakers are normally good honest sorts, and he introduces himself, and promptly starts inquiring if there is a temple of good Saint Cuthbert in the city. The baker is clearly a little disturbed by this line of inquiry. He is obviously not comfortable with talking about such matters, but he does say that there was once such a temple, though these days it is a condemned ruin, and there are no more priests of the god living in the town. Nat insists on getting directions and then buys some croissants from the baker, which he pays several gold for, leaving the baker dumbfounded.
They head for whatever is left of the temple. As they travel walk the streets they note that the citizens are clearing the streets and making their way to their homes as dark approaches. Members of the town watch encourage them to move along. The only part of town that doesn’t seem concerned about a curfew is the area closest to the docks where rough looking sailors, merchants and other riff raff fill seedy taverns.
A watch patrol takes note of the adventurers and hails them. The sergeant of the patrol introduces himself as Sergeant Pontz. The guards look a bit flustered, for they are used to dealing with folk that they can easily bully and intimidate. The heroes don’t appear the least bit cowed by them, and this makes them uneasy. Sergeant Pontz wisely decides to go with a relatively tactful approach. He asks them basic questions about who they are and where they are from, which Sir Nat answers with honesty and pride. He even explains to Pontz that he is on his way to the temple of Saint Cuthbert to pay his respects. Pontz informs them that Alhastar is a very law abiding town and rabble-rousers are not welcome. Followers of Saint Cuthbert are, according to Pontz, rabble-rousers. Nat finds this most shocking and such an accusation is offensive to the noble paladin. Pontz also explains that visitors aren’t permitted on the streets after dark. He tells them that the temple of Saint Cuthbert is condemned and no one is allowed on its grounds. He suggests they head back to their inn, lest they draw the attention of the Blessed Angels. At this point, Clive pulls out a small purse of bribe money from his haversack and suggests that maybe Pontz and his men have somewhere else they should be. The sergeant looks in the sack and sees it contains about fifty gold. His eyes light up, though he seems suspicious that Clive is actually wealthy enough to hand over fifty gold as if it were nothing. Still the guards understand that they are in over their heads, so they take the money and leave. As they go Pontz advises the adventurers to stay out of trouble or else they will most certainly run afoul with the Blessed Angels. Gimpy and Nat scoff at this. Over the past few months they have bested some truly horrific enemies, and they are not easily scared. In fact, Sir Nat is eager to cleanse the city of its taint and sending some devil b~&*&es back to the Nine Hells seems like a good place to start.
They continue on to the Temple of Saint Cuthbert. Upon arriving Nat is sad to see that the place has nearly burned to the ground and is beyond repair. Several signs clearly state that the place is condemned and off limits by decree of Prince Zeech. Gimpy notices that there is a temple of Kord close by, and although it is also in disrepair, it is in much better condition than the Temple of Saint Cuthbert. While Nat, Rak and Clive search the rubble of the temple, Gimpy decides to pay a quick visit to the temple of Kord. He strides up to the sturdy wooden doors and knocks. A couple of minutes later a metal slide window opens up in the door, and a cleric of Kord demands to know who Gimpy is and what he wants. Gimpy explains that he is here to pay his respects to his god. He shows his holy symbol and the scarification of Kord’s symbol on his arms. The man recognizes Gimpy’s name, and asks if he is the same Gimpy who is said to have participated in the Champions Games in Greyhawk. Gimpy confirms that he is the same individual. The doors open and Gimpy is welcomed inside. He spends some time talking to the few priests that make the temple their home. From them he learns that since Prince Zeech took control of the city the faith of Hextor is the only prominent religion. The followers of Kord have virtually no congregation and very little money. They spend most of their time trying to maintain the temple. Gimpy asks about Lashona and if they know where to find her. Of course they have heard of her, and they give him directions to Mistwall Manor, though they do wonder why he’d want to meet with her. According to the clerics she is an elf, and a close advisor of Prince Zeech. They even mention that they have heard rumours that she is his lover.
Rak, Clive and Sir Nat rummage about in the ruins of Saint Cuthbert’s temple. It doesn’t take Rak long to find a spiral staircase leading down into the temple’s basement. Access is blocked by several fallen beams, but Sir Nat uses his prodigious strength, aided by a telekinesis spell from Clive, to move the beams. As they clear the rubble they are interrupted by the arrival of one of the Blessed Angels. She glides in on black-feathered wings and lands on the top of a still standing section of wall. She is armed with a composite longbow and has a flaming arrow knocked on its string. She glares at the heroes with hateful crimson eyes, and accuses them of trespassing. She tells them that they are under arrest, and that they must surrender themselves immediately. Sir Nat doesn’t take kindly to this. He doesn’t see how he can be arrested for visiting a temple of his god. His lack of compliance doesn’t go over well, and she launches an arrow at him. It misses its mark, but spurs the heroes into action. Rak blasts her with a ray of acid. Sir Nat draws his sword and prepares to smite the devil. Clive casts a fly spell on Nat, and Gimpy swoops in to rejoin and aid his companions with his own flight magic. She fires a barrage of arrows at the paladin, but Nat’s armor and divine power protects him; he sustains only a minor wound. He then flies up and slashes her with his blade. Seeing that her enemies are truly dangerous heroes and have her outnumbered and overmatched, she teleports away before they can send her back to the Nine Hells.
Rak is concerned that she will soon return with reinforcements. He encourages his allies to hurry down the stairs into the basement. They heed his warning and find themselves in a simple crypt. Several crude, cramped tunnels have recently been dug into the crypt. They find the remains of a number of priests, and Clive notes that many of the bones look like they have been chewed upon. From one of the tunnels Clive hears a faint and distant muttering voice. Sir Nat insists they burn the bones of the priests since in his opinion they have been desecrated, and he fears that they might somehow be animated as undead. He piles them all in the middle of the crypt. Rak and Gimpy keep watch, expecting that any second a flock of Blessed Angels will teleport into the room. Once the bones are gathered up Clive encloses them with a conjured wall of fire and burns them. Using a wind wall spell he directs the smoke into the tunnels.
It isn’t long before a strange creature comes to investigate. The thing is clearly a ghoulish undead, and Sir Nat senses that it is corrupt and evil. Strangely it bears a simple holy symbol of Saint Cuthbert and still wears the robes of the clergy, though they are tattered and soiled. It doesn’t immediately attack, but it does tell them to be gone. Clive manages some effective diplomacy and quickly deduces that the creature doesn’t understand that it is actually an undead monstrosity. He and Sir Nat prove this to the creature by showing it its reflection in the breastplate of Nat’s armor. The realization is difficult for its broken mind to handle, but Sir Nat promises to help it if it can try to give them some information. Clive asks it what it knows of the cult of Ebon Triad in Alhastar and whether the cult is still active. Its memories are hazy, but
it explains that Lady Lashona led a purge against the cult many years ago, and the cult heretics were destroyed. Rhosk also recalls that the cultists were rumoured to have met time to time with a mysterious woman named Mother Maggot beneath an old building in the southeastern part of the town. These days the building is a sick house known as Sinners Sanctum. According to the ghoul it was mother maggot that gave the cultists the green worms they used to create foul undead that plagued the town in the months leading up to the purge.
Next Sir Nat offers to help heal the ghoul of its affliction. His healing amounts to a lay on hands that causes the creature’s flesh to blister and burn. It yowls in pain and leaps forward to attack, but the heroes hack it down before it can pose a threat. They throw the body into the wall of fire, and then teleport back to Greyhawk.
Session #47, Part #2, Prince of Redhand, A visit to Mistwall Manor and Trouble with the Blessed Angels
They rest for the night in Greyhawk, and the next day they teleport to Mage Point and visit the Inn of the All Seeing Eye. They connect with Cymeria and ask for an audience with Tenser. A couple of days later they find themselves in Tenser’s tower. They haven’t spoken with the archmage in some time, so they fill him in on their exploits to the south and their recent discoveries in Alhastar. He encourages them to follow up those leads, though he doesn’t have any advice on what order they should do that in.
The heroes return to Alhastar the night after their meeting with Tenser. They teleport onto the street near the Temple of Saint Cuthbert and walk to Mistwall Manor, which isn’t far away. A twelve-foot high stonewall surrounds the luxurious home, and they see two guards lit by torchlight standing guard in front of the gate. They decide to duck into a nearby alley, and Clive sends his pseudodragon familiar Oswald to do some scouting. Oswald flies to the manor. It is a stone structure with a second floor. The upper level has shuttered windows, but the ground floor is more fortified and has arrows slits instead of windows. In the grounds outside there are lavish gardens as well as a life-sized, stone statue of a wyvern standing on a ten foot square, cube shaped, stone plinth. There is no sign of any guards patrolling the grounds, so Oswald flies to one of the upper windows and pries open a shutter. He peers in the window and finds himself looking into a dark but opulent bedroom. There is no sign that the room is occupied or has been recently. Suddenly, he detects the presence of something invisible approaching in the air with his blind-sense. He darts up to the soffit of the roof and hides in its shadows. The invisible entity flies to the window and hovers there for a moment before moving on. This is enough to convince Oswald to fly back to Clive and make a brief report.
Gimpy decides to cast a see invisibility spell and an arcane eye, and he sends his eye out to scout. He discovers that there are several invisible stalkers patrolling the grounds of the manor. Next, he sends his eye down a chimney but despite his darkvision, it sees only blackness when it enters the home. The effect is very much like the one that he encountered when he attempted to scout the heart of Ilthane’s lair with an arcane eye. The half orc attempts to navigate the invisible eye out of the room but fails to do so before it expires.
The adventurers decide to stop skulking about, and they walk up to the guards and introduce themselves. The two guards are polite enough, and the heroes tell them that they wish to speak with Lashona regarding important matters related to the purge of the Cult of the Ebon Triad and the Age of Worms. The two guards are a little taken aback by this, as they rarely have folk approach in the night who are so forthcoming with their business. The guards promise that after their shift is over they will speak to Lashona’s steward Emilio and he can pass on the message to Lashona. They make it clear that Lashona doesn’t normally grant audiences to strangers, but they can come back in a couple of days and the guards should be able to tell them if she has wishes to speak with them. Finally, the guards mention that the heroes shouldn’t be out in this part of town at night lest they attract unwanted attention from the watch or the Blessed Angels.
They teleport back to Greyhawk, and the next day they return to Alhastar and head for Sinners Sanctum in the southeast part of town. The neighbourhood is much more impoverished than the area where the temples and manors of the nobility are located .The streets are bustling with the downtrodden locals who are going about their day to day business. As the heroes march down the street, six Blessed Angels manifest in the air above them. All six have bows knocked with flaming arrows at the ready. One of them announces that the heroes have been sentenced to death for assaulting a Blessed Angel. They draw their bows and a hail of flaming arrows rains down from the sky. The devils are skilled archers and several arrows strike home. Clive, who is the least armored and hearty of the four heroes is badly wounded, though none of them escape injury. Panic erupts in the streets; citizens scream and run in terror for the cover of their homes and businesses.
Despite his injuries, Clive finds the strength to put up a windwall spell that encloses the party like a dome. Nat and Gimpy heal themselves and prepare for the devils to be forced to close in on them. Rak casts a ray of acid, but its trajectory is thrown off when it passes through the windwall, and it misses its target (natural 1 on ranged touch attack). One of the angels fires another barrage of arrows, but when the arrows deflect off the windwall the angels switch tactics. They remaining five bombard the heroes with unholy blight spells, and given that all the adventurers are good alignment, the spells take a nasty toll. Clive fails to withstand the barrage of unholy energy, and he falls to the ground unconscious. The rest of the party is also badly injured. Only Gimpy thinks he has the strength to handle another bombardment. Rak sees that they are overmatched, and he orders his companions to reach for him. The magus then teleports the heroes back to Greyhawk.
Session #47, Part #3, The Prince of Redhand (Sinners' Sanctum)
Back in Greyhawk they heal the wounds inflicted on them by the Blessed Angels. Clive and Rak suggest that if they going to make progress in Alhastar they will need to be a little more discreet. Although they do toss around the idea of making a full assault on Angels’ Aerie in an attempt to send the Blessed Angels back to the Nine Hells. However, without the artillery support of Gorman, their bomb-hurling alchemist, they aren’t quite ready to commit to such an offensive. They teleport back to the streets of Alhastar the next night and walk to Sinners’ Sanctum. The streets in this part of town are deserted and there don’t seem to be any Blessed Angels about. Sinners’ Sanctum is a simple structure of wood and plaster. It has a couple of windows cut in the walls that are protected only by sheets of velum. Clive peaks through a window, and inside he sees the interior of the building consists of a single, large, dark room with about a score folk sleeping on the floor. A few moan in pain, and as far as he can tell it is nothing more than a humble sick house. Nat kicks in the flimsy front door and strides into the middle of the room and channels the healing powers of Saint Cuthbert. Folk bolt up from their sleeping palettes as positive energy washes over them. A man calls out, “My broken arm- it has healed!” There is much rejoicing from the sickly folk. The heroes are soon introduced to a woman named Furpotia who runs the place and tends to the sick. She is grateful for the help, especially after Sir Nat uses a lay on hands to heal a girl with a terrible flesh eating disease. Rak and Nat inquire about the Cult of the Ebon Triad but Furpotia knows nothing about such things. They suspect their might be a hidden trap door in the floor, but the floor is made from hard packed earth, so if one exists it would have to be hidden beneath the earth, which would involve digging up the floor. Clive decides on a different approach. He steps outside and casts an elemental body spell on himself. He takes the form of an earth elemental and melts into the ground. He glides through the earth and searches beneath the building. It doesn’t take long for him to discover a shaft leading down into a hidden subterranean complex below the sick house. Clive returns to the street and assumes his true form. He then tells his friends to leave the sick house. Next he casts another teleportation spell and transports them to into the hidden dungeon.
They find themselves in a room with a number of decaying sleeping mats on the floor, as well as a big pile of old rope. A hallway leads to a fifteen-foot diameter shaft that drops even deeper into the earth. At first they suspect that the pile of rope was once used for lowering cultists down the shaft, but then the rope suddenly animates and forms into a massive humanoid construct- some sort of weird rope golem. A quick skirmish with this strange guardian ensues. It lashes at them with its ropey arms inflicting minor wounds. Then its tendrils wrap around Rak and Clive. The constricting ropes start choking the pair, but the heroes manage to destroy the thing before it can inflict any significant damage.
The adventurers move down the hall to the wide shaft. It descends well below the range of Gimpy’s darkvision. He decides to investigate, and he leaps down the well relying on his ring of featherfalling to float down to the bottom. He drifts into a large, cavernous room with a high, vaulted ceiling. At the far end of the room is a massive black statue that stands 30’ in height. It depicts a monstrous creature with a bestial face and six arms, three of which are missing their hands. Gimpy recognizes facets of Hextor, Erythnul and Vecna in the effigy- the three gods that make up the cult of the Ebon Triad. This must be some sort of depiction of the Overgod that cult is rumored to wish to create. The statue suddenly starts to move, and Gimpy calls on his winged boots to fly up the shaft and rejoin the party.
The session ends here.