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smetzger Pie (10/28/02 6:17 am) Reply	Crusader's Adventure Log The Cast: Whitefire Human Druid 5 (with Dire Bat and Dire Rat) Sir Polealot Human Paladin 5 Luc Monet Human Paladin 5 Furio Human Cleric 5 They are a members of a highly independant martial order of the Church of the One True God. Alternate Earth, in the year of our Lord 1110. Verona, Italy. Thurgon Proudblade a Paladin of a martial order has been having disturbing dreams lately. He was the sole surviving member of the group of adventurers who laid low the Temple of Elemental Evil 9 years ago. He is the head of a martial order of knights and has sent 4 of his students to check up on Homlet and make sure the Evil that was once there is in fact still down for the count. Session 1: The players don't ask Thurgon any questions before the 90 mile trek north into the foothills of the Alps where Homlet is located. They arrive in Homlet on the evening of April 21st. They wander around a bit and find Terrigan's, go in and chat up Rudoulf about the history of the old ToEE. Elmo stops by and gives them the speach about being good in town. While he is giving the speach Renne burst in with her story about her missing father Spugnoir, saying he has never been gone this long and he went to the moathouse. Elmo doesn't pay it much attention and brushes her off, however, the PCs agree to check out the moathouse in the morning. Elmo, seeing the shiny armour and coats of arms on the Paladins suggest in a whisper that they may be more comfortable at the Inn of the Welcome Wench. They stay the night at the Inn of the Welcome Wench. Whitefire charms Vesta so that she will let him bring his Large Dire Bat and Dire Rat into the room with him. The party heads off to the Moathouse in the morning. They meet up with Ol' Dell, a mangy old guy remminiscent of Jed from the Beverly Hillbillies. He warns them about the blue dragon but they don't pay him much heed. Luc Monet leaves his wagon and warhorse and standards and hireling, Hobart, on a hill about 1/2 mile from the moathouse. Utreshimon gets the drop on the crusaders, who just boldly strode into the courtyard, he only slightly injures the Druid. The blindness causes everyone to retreat just outside of the moathouse. Utreshimon really puts a hurting on Luc due to a +6 Power attack. But the brave Druid saves him with a Cure spell. Luc has the good sense to tear a piece of his silk shirt and tie it over his eyes, thus allowing him to see. The battle starts to turn as our heroes lay some good hits in for a total of 50 hp damage. Utreshimon retreats taking another 35hp damage from AoOs and breaths lightning on Luc, Furio, and the Dire Rat. The Dire Rat dies but no one else goes down. With the heroes advancing and U injured badly, he decides to flee the scene. The hero's make a cursory search of the upper level rooms and avoid the Gray Ooze. The heroes then make there way into the dungeon. They make short work of the two gnoll guards. The Ghast and Ghouls don't fare much better. Although, the Ghast does counter trip Whitefire who tried to pull him off his feet with a whip attack. They then head towards Gren (the evil female Cleric) and the Excavated relics. Luc shrugs off a command from Gren and smites her down with one blow. Interesting enough the two gnolls last a few rounds. The last gnoll tries to surrender, but they catch him in a lie during negotiations for his life, and he is sumararily executed. Luc opens the door to the skeleton room. They attack and do him minor wounds. He channels divine energy from the one true God and blows the medium sized skeletons to peices. Sir Pol Alot steps in and severs the spine of the large skeleton. The party doesn't know what to make of the relics, but they can't be good. Session 1 ends, its about midday on April 22nd and the party is in the dungeon of the moathouse. Items retrieved: Dragon - Scroll of Cure Light Wounds, 37 gp, lilac-colored stone mask (200 gp), 3 jade gems (100 gp each), symbol of the Elder Elemental Eye (black iron triangle with an upside-down yellow Y) White Blanket - Iron torch and 3 black cones; black sceptor with violet gems (1000 gp), small black sphere, black metal scroll case holding a worm ridden scroll in an undecipherable language. Note: no detect magics have been cast and many bodies have not been thoroughly searched. DM Notes: They brushed off Chat and the only people who know they went to the moathouse are Elmo and Renne. So I am going to keep the cultists in town clueless (at least until the wagon comes). Whitefire charmed the Mrs. of the Inn at the Welcome Wench. So, I am going to have Elmo confront him and demand compensation. How much do you think is good? 100gp? Utreshimon lost 85 hp before he fled. I think I'll have him come back after 7 days, he'll only be down 1 hp. The party skipped the room Spugnoir is in. If they find find the secret doors on their own I am going to have him sneak out without meeting the party.
Infiniti2000 Pie (10/28/02 10:45 am) Reply	Re: Crusader's Adventure Log "He warns them about the blue dragon but they don't pay him much heed." My party did the same thing! Maybe I played up the "crazy old coot" aspect as well as you did, because the party kept saying, "Nah, he can't really mean dragon! He must mean a big lizard or something." Unbelievable. They even asked what color and Ol' Del replied quite confidently that it was blue. They were surprisingly quite surprised! Charm person: I don't rule that the victim is aware of the charm person (after it expires) unless they force the victim to do specific acts that require a charisma check. However, in that case or if you rule otherwise, I think 100gp/level of the victim would be reasonable, plus another flat 100gp or community service of some type as a fine imposed by the "government" of Hommlet (perhaps donated to one of the churches, hopefully to Jaroo, heh heh). Spugnoir: did he fail his listen check in the battle with the gnolls? If not, he might already be in the process of retreating, never even having encountered the PC's.
smetzger Pie (10/28/02 11:57 am) Reply	Re: Crusader's Adventure Log The Dragon - well there is one player who has the adventure and knows the overall plot. He was the main one that convinced the others to not worry about it. I think he was playing anti OOC knowledge. Charm Person - well there were others in the room that would have noticed the spell. Spug - The PCs are only in the next room and have been moving from room to room quickly, not checking for treasure or traps. I expect that Spug has heard the battle and is quite scared. I don't think he will peek out of hiding until its been quiet for awhile, after all he doesn't know these are the good guys sent to rescue him.
madfox Orc (10/29/02 1:16 am) Reply	Re: Crusader's Adventure Log *Quote:* "He warns them about the blue dragon but they don't pay him much heed." My party did the same thing! Maybe I played up the "crazy old coot" aspect as well as you did, because the party kept saying, "Nah, he can't really mean dragon! He must mean a big lizard or something." Unbelievable. They even asked what color and Ol' Del replied quite confidently that it was blue. They were surprisingly quite surprised! I think that has to do with the fact that this encounter is break with traditional adventures. First of all, it is a dragon. Which is not a creature that is often used in my adventures, though after Forge of Fury it should not have sounded that unbelievable. Second of all, it is a big and deadly battle at the start of a dungeon instead of at the end. My players also did not believe much of Del's story, though they did treat Del respectfully and boasted that they already had defeated a dragon so that a blue one should not be too difficult to defeat. How wrong they were *Quote:* Charm Person - well there were others in the room that would have noticed the spell. Did they observe the actual casting and if so would they regocnize the spell for what it was? It requires a sense motive check of a rather high DC to notice somebody is charmed and I agree that the victim itself should not realize the spell has been cast upon her unless she has done totally out of character actions. Else you will make the spell rather useless in most situations and this use was hardly power abuse (especially when the druid did the cleaning of the rooms himself). If somebody did observe the actual casting I tend to let the NPC react with suspision or even out-right hostility unless permission for the casting has been asked beforehand. It looks too much like drawing a gun in my eyes where the NPCs do not know if it a water pistol or a real one. The PCs in my games are quite careful when to cast a spell in public even the selfish ones. If the observers actually regocnize the spell an instant reaction would have been better in my opinion, but since that cannot be done, I would do three things. First of all, Vesta more then likely would never accept the druid as a guest again in her inn. Secondly, within no time the whole village knows about it. They will treat the druid with suspiscion and if they even hear about a merchant giving the PCs a good deal they would cry havoc. Thirdly, Elmo would indeed ask a fine. The amount is dependend on the economics of your campaign. 100 gp sounds fine to me. He will also give a warning that if he sees them charming another person he will kick them out of town. Your millage might vary though. I don't like it when people start wandering around casting spells without considering the consequences. You on the other hand might prefer a more light hearted game Edited by: madfox at: 10/29/02 1:18:19 am
Siobharek Orc (10/29/02 1:45 am) Reply	Re: Crusader's Adventure Log Sounds like a good session. The idea of using an alternative Europe sounds very intriguing. Not much to add to the charm issue, other than it's really a violation of Vesta. With respect to the Dragon, there's an old idea that's been floating around about Utreshimon flying to the hobgoblins at the old temple. "Utreshimon the General", as the ploy is generally called, makes Big U the new leader of the gobs, giving them the courage and aerial support to launch larger-scale assaults that they would otherwise be able to. It may give your campaign a more dynamic feel if, 1 week later, Elmo gets reports about hobgoblins with a blue dragon on their shields attacking caravans. Let me repeat that it sounds like a good game. I look forward to reading more. Siobharek ...it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
smetzger Pie (11/12/02 9:04 am) Reply	Session 2 Detect magic is cast on Relics (Iron Torch and 3 black cones are magic, small black sphere is magic, and heavy mace from top level is magic) Go back to 1st room in the Dungeon and open the two remaining doors. Find Spugnoir Spugnoir tells them of the two secret doors and the portcullis trap They tell Spugnoir to wait outside with Hobart Party proceeds thru the two secret doors and takes the left passage. Fight with 6 gnolls proceeds without much problem. Sir Polalot pairs up with a Gnoll and the pair miss each other continually. Party backtracts and takes the left passage. Encounter the Gnoll leader, who doesn't last long. Open the south doors; follow the east passage to a mysteriously constructed stone wall Proceed further down the south passage encountering a Ghast and then a Troglydite and an evil cleric. Invesitgate the Ghouls warrens, the six ghouls don't last long. Navigate the ghoul warrens and find a 4 sided column with figures carved into it and an altar Whitefire casts soften earth and stone below the altar and Luc pounds the altar into the earth; making saving throws all the while Party finds the hole with the wooden platform and decides to call it a day and head back to Hommlet. Hobart and the Dire Bat stay to keep an eye on the moathouse. Everyone else goes back to Hommlet, Whitefire confronted by Elmo and pays 100 gp penalty for charming of Vesta, Whitefire buys a War Dog from the O'Dell's Kennel. Whitefire decides to open the iron boxes and gets a face full of acid, but finds some treasure and a Journal of a Geynor ton?? Spugnoir sells the party some potions and identifies the 3 potions that they had found Whitefire and Luc buy a couple of potions Chat tries talking to Luc that evening and Luc brushes hum off and detects evil on him. They part ways giving each other knowing glances. Party heads off to the Moathouse at first light on the 23rd. Hobart informs them that he saw Chat ride in to the Moathouse late in the afternoon and then leave a couple of hours later with a large bag of stuff Party goes into the Moathouse dungeon and proceeds down via the platform. Grell attacks Furio, who is holding the light paralyzing him. Whitefire jumps of the platform onto the top of the Obelisk (ring of feather falling). Sir Polalaot strikes the Grell but loses his balance in the process and falls of the platform. Luc manacals himself to the paralyzed Furio. Whitefire and Sir scramble across to the other platform. The Grell tries to pull the Furio off the platform but the combined weight is too much for it and all 3 fall 20 ft to the top of the obelisk. Sir manages to pull both Luc and Fto saftey, all 3 take some strength damage. Whitefire has distracted the Grell with a summoned hawk. The Grell has been injured but has capture a hawk and decides to retreat. Party decends using the 2nd platform. At the bottom they encounter a crazed Cleric in plate mail. Sir Polealot finds his groove and makes short work of this guy. Whitefire decides to throw a copper coin at the ominous black archway and another Grell comes out. Sir Pole rushes forwad into melee Whitefire retreats, Luc and Furio use crossbows. The Grell paralyzes Sir and starts lifting him up. Whitefire tosses a potion of Levitate to Luc who levitates after the Grell. Sir is dieing now and the grell is flying faster than Luc. Luc manages one last shot with his crossbow and sleighs the Grell. Sir falls and Luc catches him thus saving the day. DM Notes: Great heroics when fighting the Grells. I played them a bit wrong but I think it evened out. I forgot to have Festrath fly up and attack them while they where coming down , so he didn't last long on the ground. I will have Utreshimon hide out in the forrest untill he has healed up (7 days). The he will approach the Hobgoblins with a proposition... I think I will have Chat, Chenashi, Grune, Maridosen, Dunrat, Toridan, and Vacra ambush the party as they come up the stairs from the dungeon level. However, the party will have knowledge of the impending ambush, the Paladin's warhorses are outside and will send a mental message to the Paladins about 7 people arriving at the moathouse. Dunrat will hold onto his bead of force as a last resort.
smetzger Here for a while (2/19/03 5:55 am) Reply	bump Dang conflicting schedules have prevented us from playing. Hopefully we'll play again soon.
smetzger Here for a while (3/19/03 2:29 pm) Reply	Session 3 We finally played again. Session 3 - The Axis of Good Luc Monet - Human Paladin 5 Sir Polealot - Human Paladin 5 Whitefire - Human Druid 5 Furio - Human Cleric 5 So, our heroes find themselves in the Obelisk room of the moathouse having defeated a crazy cleric and 2 grells. They are nearly out of spells and a bit wounded. On the way up, Luc and Sir Polalot get mental messages from their horses. The warhorses are on a small hill overlooking the moathouse. The message is: "There are 6 people coming into the moathouse. One is Chatrilon, whom Luc detected evil on earlier at the Inn of the Welcom Wench. The people have gone in the main entrance to the moathouse." Our heroes move through the dungeon, leaving the statue above the Obelisk room behind. They move carefully through the dungeon wary of any oncoming threats. When they get near the last bend of the dungeon, before the double secret doors, they hear someone say "No, no, this way you stupid lug.". Luc calls "Show yourself, and be quick about it". The voice from around the corner says "Kill them". 2 zombies shamble around the corner "Brains...", Luc rushes through the Zombies to try and find the source of the mysterious voice but sees no-one, a few rounds later as the 2nd Zombie falls, Luc feels a sudden pain in his kidney and sees a rapier being pulled from his side, Chatrilon has appeared out of thin air and is on the other side of the rapier. Luc makes his sv vs. Death Attack but still takes significant damage. Chatrilon manages to flee up the stairs yelling and warning his commrads, Whitefire catches the now invisible Chatrilon in a Faerie Fire just as Chatrilon opens the door to the ground level. Our heroes are right on Chatrilon heals and see Grun and Dunrat crouching behind one barrier and Maridosen and Vacra behind another, while the 1/2 orc Toridan is preparing to charge. Dunrat casts Shield which fizzles due to arcane failure, the Prot/Good, T's Touch fails twice on Sir Polealot, Hold Person also fails, Chat finally falls and Dunrat uses the opportunity to cast Death Knell on him and then casts Rage on Grun. Toriden charges but doesn't last long against Luc. Vacra casts MM, shoots a crossbow a couple of times and then goes invisible, eventually being killed by Luc. Grun stays next to Dunrat the entire time, hits Whitefire once, lasts the longest. Dunrat and Maridosen are stabilized. Everyone pings up to Level 6 at this point and has fun sorting through the treasure. Our heroes take Dunrat and Maridosen to Elmo and tell him of the Evil cult in the Moathouse. Elmo takes them into custody making sure the Clerics are gagged, manacled, and don't have any holy symbols. The party retires to the Welcome Wench to decide on their next course of action. Elmo stops by in the evening and says that he hasn't gotten any information out of the prisoners and asks to go over all the evidence. The party relates the full story and shows the journal to Elmo, Elmo says ''... hmmm Flour mill, need to check that one out" and then says "I am going to talk to my Druidic friend Jaroo to see what he thinks of all this." Heroes, decide to take a look at the flour mill in the morning. They find the cellar is deserted and they find a note about "obtaining a wagon from Tal Chamish in Rastor". They immediately head off to Rastor. DM Note: Jaroo warned Chenashi and she is hiding out with him. The wagon arrives this day and Chanashi meets it and they form a plan to break Dunrat out. Jaroo convinces Elmo to let him 'interrogate' Dunrat, during which he slips him keys to manacles and a holy symbol. Later that night, when Elmo isn't around, Chanashi uses rope and a horse to pull the bars off the window of the jail. Dunrat and Maridosen escape. Jaroo stays in the grove and the rest of the cultists head to the moathouse to gather what few artifacts were left behind, most notably the small 4 sided statue. Dunrat tries to catch up with the heroes on the road, but he is a couple of days behind and the heroes never stop for an extended amount of time. The next major town on the way to Rastor is the gnomish town of Kron. This is the biggest settlement of gnomes in this region (southern alps). Lots of leiderhosen wearing gnomes and a very impressive Glockenspiel. The party manages to sell a few items and buy a few minor things. The party moves on to Little Burrow, an idealic community of halflings and Centaurs. From there they turn off the main road onto a rutted small path to Rastor. Orcs, Bugbears, and Trolls ... oh my... On the way to Rastor the party crosses paths with some Orcs who are out hunting, but leave them alone. A few days later bugbears are encountered and sumerarily defeated. A pair of Trolls are encountered next. Highlights of this battle include Luc's charge with his lance and Whitefire finishing things up with a Produce Flame. 21 days since setting off from Hommlet our heroes find themselves entering Rastor, a small town right out of an old western. Complete with Saloon, General Store, Stables, Blacksmith, and Wainright(? maker of Wagons). They ask around and find out that there used to be a dwarven mine about 3 miles away called the Crater Ridge Mines. They also talk to Tal Chamish: Luc "Were here for the wagon" Tal "What wagon, what are you talking about?" Luc "Were here to pick up the wagon to go to the Crater Ridge Mines" Tal "eh... that wagon was picked up about 6 weeks ago." Luc "Ok then we'll need another wagon and an extra wheel" Tal "Why didn't you just say so in the first place, that'll be 40 gp" Our intrepid heroes head to the Crater Ridge Mines. On the way they go by an orc encampment. They then see that a little used trail goes off to the side. The heroes investigate the road less travelled... They follow the trail to the upper entrance and see a wide cave mouth with two heavy doors and a skull on one door. They also see the arrow slits. Some careful investigation indicates that there are some inattentive Gnolls behind the arrow slits. The party decides to try the more frequently travelled path. At the end of the path they find another wide cave mouth and two heavy doors, this time there is a demon head on one of the doors. Whitefire investigates with his newly acquired Dire Wolverine and finds that the arrow slits here are not manned. Sir Polealot starts looking in an arrow slit while Whitefire knocks loudly on the door and Luc and Furion hold back at the edge of the cave entrance. After about a minute of pounding on the door an Ogre answers the knocking. Whitefire says "I need to get to the Crater is this the way?". The Ogre looks puzzled and then says "Go away little man and take your smelly animal with you." The ogre then shuts the door and heads back to the main room. Whitefire opens the door and yells "Come back here I am not done asking questions." The sniper in the platform hits Whitefire with a crossbow, and then the Dire Wolverine charges and kills the Ogre in one fell swoop. The double doors to the Barbican open. Kellial sends a warrior to get Fachish. Luc questions Kellial again asking about the 'Crater'. Kellial stalls for a few rounds and then Facish, an air elemental, Choranth and the cave bear skeletons show up. Upon seeing the Ochre robes of the priests the heroes know they are in the right place. Highlights of the fight: Sir Polealot - climbs the rungs to the platform, but the Air Elemental flys up to engage him. Later in the fight Sir Polealot makes good use of Great Cleave to take down multiple mooks coming from the right passage. Whitefire - uses Summon Swarm to good effect and shuts down the priests. He also captures the priests in a bead of force. Whitefire also makes good use of his ring of feather falling by jumping off the platform. Luc Monet - goes toe to toe with Kelial and eventually takes him down. But is then caught in a bead of force thrown by Furio. Furio - turns the skeletons multiple times, they keep coming back after 1 minute, and everyone is waiting for the walls of force to wear off. Furio also has some timely cures on Luc and Sir Polealot. After searching the bodies the following treasure is found: Magical: Wand #1 (Fachish), Wand #2 (Fachish) scroll of raise dead and cure critical wounds full plate (Fachish), Large Steel shield (Fachish) key - (Fachish), key (Choranth) identical - radiates faint transmutation magic, made of iron 5" across, silver finish in the shape of a circle Dust - (Choranth), divine scroll of bless, magic weapon, doom and cure mod divine scroll of endurance, augury and darkness potions x11 (found on the mooks, all the same, with symbol of a bandage on the cork) half-plate (Kelial), large steel shield radiates darkness 1 inch from surface (Kelial), longsword glowing blue (Kelial) Cloak of Resisitance +1 potion (Kelial) MW and mundain items of interest Key (Kelial), MW morningstar, MW light crossbow, MW heavy mace, full plate armor, MW banded mail (x11), MW bastard sword(x10), MW heavy crossbow, holy symbols x2 (black triangle with inverted yellow Y, and small white circle attached by a chain to the bottom) 153 gp, 23 sp, gold ring(150 gp), Additional DM Notes: By this time Utreshimon has healed up and approached the Hobgoblins. A mutual agreement has been reached between the two.
Ulthwithian Here for a while (3/19/03 6:52 pm) Reply	One thing... 'Dunrat casts Death Knell on Chatrilon'... OUCH. Lots of fun this sounds to be. Ulthwithian Gamer-at-large
Infiniti2000 Still here? Wow. (3/19/03 9:28 pm) Reply ezSupporter	Re: One thing... "Lots of leiderhosen wearing gnomes and a very impressive Glockenspiel." Oh my God! I laughed so hard on this I nearly ruptured my spleen!
smetzger A song from the sixties (6/10/03 9:45 am) Reply	Re: One thing... Session 4 Furio - Human Cleric 6 PoleAlot - Human Paladin 6 WhiteFire - Human Druid 6 Luc Monet - Human Paladin 6 - Player absent this session Mr. X - Human Monk 6 - new player Our heroes have just defeated a large number of Humans, Gnolls, 2 Ogres, an Air elemental, and a couple of Ochre robed priests. Shortly after sifting through the magic items a Mr.X arrives at the main gate and says that Thurgeon Proudblade(this is the groups sponsor in the church) has sent him to help out. Our heroes aren't sure what to make of this, but at least he isn't wearing ochre robes or sporting the inverted triangle holy symbol. Luc Monet detects evil and it comes up false, "Well at least he isn't evil, lets give him the benefit of the doubt." The group interogates Choranth, the female Cleric captive, and quickly discovers that threats of violence will not work on her, because she's some sort of masocist that enjoys the pain. However, Choranth seems to be quite talkative. She goes on and on about the power of the Elder Elemental Eye and how Air is the supreme element. Since the group is injured and low on spells they decide to retreat and make camp outside about a mile down the path. Right about sunset they see four orcs carying the carcass of a bear up the path. Whitefire entangles the orcs and one orc is slain from a crossbow bolt. The orcs promptly surrender and ask for mercy. Upon questioning the orcs, its discovered that there is a standing order to deliver bear meat to the mine entrance, evidently the Ogres really enjoy the bear meat. The orcs are able to give a little information about the less travelled path, they said that rumor has it that a large beast lives up that way and every now and then you can even hear the terrible cackling and howl of the beast all the way down in the orc encampment. The orcs seem to be netruel in this conflict so the crusaders give the orcs 2 gp for the bear, 2 gp for their dead commrad and tell them to consider all future orders for bear meat cancelled. The orcs take their commrads body and retreat back down the path without further incident. Sir PoleAlot decides he'll try the new magic full plate mail, while Furio will take the steel shield that 'glows' darkness about 1 inch from the surface. Tasty bear steaks are had that night. In the morning its decided that Luc will stay behind with the prisoner while everyone else makes another foray into the mine. Mr. X sneaks up and discovers that Gnolls are manning the arrow slits. Mr. X sneaks back and a plan is formulated... everyone else stays out of site while Mr. X drags the bear carcass up to the door. Mr. X knocks on the door: "I've got some bear meat for you." Gnolls, who seem a bit skittish: "We don't want any bear meat" Mr. X: "I was told at the orc encampment that I could get a decent price for bear meat here" Gnolls: "We don't need it any more, leave now or we'll shoot you." Mr. X leaves the carcass and walks down the path. Everyone watches the door for a couple of hours to see if anyone will open it to get the bear, but no-one does. Plan B. Whitefire shapechanges into a medium sized Viper and sneaks up the rock wall and into one of the arrow slits. Unfortunately he is unable to kill the Gnoll, which retreats into the main room screaming about a big snake in Gnollish. At this point the rest of the party rushes the door, Whitefire shapechanges back to human and runs to open the mine entrance. The group quickly gets inside. Mr. X heads for the other Gnoll manning the arrow slit. Arrows shoot out of the slits in Bronze door ahead. Whitefire casts Summon swarm and is able to keep one slit from being manned. Although Mr. X seems to be quite adept at tripping the Gnoll he is having trouble actually hurting the dog-man. After a couple of rounds Sir Polealot plods up to the Gnoll and cleaves him in two. Meanwhile Furio has remembered the keys they have, he rushes forward and unlocks the door and throws it open, only to be met by a hail of arrows, fortunately his new shield blocks most of them. But alas, the door is closed by a nasty looking Half-Orc. Furio next opens the door and rushes in. Quickly followed by Sir PoleAlot and Mr. X. Furio is quickly surrounded by several humans and gnolls and is injured. Sir PoleAlot squares off against the Half-Orc and 3 Humans. The Half-Orc starts foaming at the mouth and is weilding a dull-red glowing battleaxe. Furio tries casting defensivly and fails. Sir PoleAlot Great Cleaves throught 2 mooks and seriously hurts the Half-Orc. Mr. X trips one of the mooks. Sir PoleAlot finishes off the Half-Orc and then Great Cleaves a few more mooks. The 3 remaining mooks surrender. At this time a large Air Elemental attacks Whitefire in the main entrance hall, it then flys up out of reach. Furio, promptly uses his domain power to turn the Air Elemental. <ping>Everyone except Luc goes up a level<\ping> Interrogation of the mooks gives a general layout of the section controlled by the Air Temple, and an ominous warning about a large Gargoyle named Claagingred. They claim to be hired thugs and not to have any real interest in the goings on in the mines. The mooks are released out the entrance. The party further investigates and finds 4 rooms of interest: 1) Choranth's chamber has some sort of glowing sphere. She is brought in and she claims it enhances her powers and begs them not to destroy it. Whitefire tries breaking it with his scimitar but it has no effect. Furio channels positive energy at it and although the glow fades for a moment the 'Spirit Sphere', as Choranth calls it, is only momentarily effected. 2) The Air Temple altar area: a defninant place of evil, with air brushed paintings of destructive winds (tornadoes, hurricanes, etc) killing people and tapestries of demons killing people. Choranth says the demons are in league with the forces of air. The artwork is very much like Sadam's artwork. Also a censor and trumpt are found on top of the altar. Mr. X surmises that this is what summons or calls the Air Elementals. Choranth says that they are used to manifest divine representations of the Elder Elemental Eye. Luc Monet is given charge of the censor and trumpet for the time being untill it is decided what to do with them. Sir PoleAlot is convinced that the Altar needs to be destroyed but is not sure how to go about doing it. 3) Fachish, the head priests chambers. Some interesting papers are found. 4) A room with a balcony and small table overlooking (the outside) a stagnant black colored lake. There are three bridges going out to an 'island' in the middle of the lake. On the table is found a scroll tube with references a large gem called Tulian's Eye. Party is currently in Fachish's quarters. Day is May 15.
smetzger A song from the sixties (6/10/03 11:59 am) Reply	Session 4 Thoughts from Furio Thoughts From Furio ----------- * I think we really need to find/buy something that will account for our lack of a thief. I'm thinking something like Goggles of Minute Seeing or a Lens of Detection and possibly something that duplicates the Find Traps spell (a wand of Find Traps would cost 3,750gp and if we got a charged item that could only be used 3 times per day, it would cost 2,250gp). Also, a Chime of Opening, or magic Lock Picks or something. I can't remember... did we find a city where we can buy magic items? Combat --------- * Whitefire wasn't just unable to kill the Gnoll, he only hit him once, and his poison was completely ineffective. * Furio was not just injured by the mooks... No, he was a freakin' idiot and got surrounded by eight of them, all wielding b@stard swords, no less. He got hit twice, one of which was a very-close-to-max-damage-critical, and dropped down to 9 HPs in the first round of combat. Then he failed miserably in casting a Cure Critical Wounds on himself defensively. Thank goodness Sir Polealot was a cleavin' fool! Maybe that'll show him to trust in his good luck. But probably not... * Whitefire's dog, which we determined was a miniature poodle (complete with horrible poofy haircut), succeeded in finishing off the last of the mooks. It was very intimidating, and I think the reason the other three surrendered. grin * The Monk with No Name assures me that he did succeed in killing one of the mooks before they were all cleaved, but I remember him dropping the mook and the poodle finishing him off. Info ----- * We learned that the Temple of Fire is physically connected to the Temple of Air by means of one of the passageways out of the bronze-doored room. However, we would have to go through the gargoyles to get there. * The gargoyles run a fighting/slave pit inside the mines, between the Temples of Air and Fire. Other than that, they are nice guys... * We know that the black lake we found is inside the crater of the volcano. A group of people called The Masters live on the island in the middle of it. Fachish periodically went to the island to meet with the Masters, but Choranth has not. We don't know where the other two bridges going to the island originate from, although the Fire Temple seems like an obvious answer for one of them. Didn't we hear/read about some people called the Masters of All Consumption? Maybe from that same letter that said about the Doomdreamers? * We learned that the rough hewn passages from the main Temple room lead off to more of the mines. Choranth told the party that a tribe of orcs lived there, but I seem to remember we later learned something that called that into question. Gear ----- We have quite a bit of gear that we know is magical, but is as of yet unidentified: * dust from Choranth * Kelial's half-plate * Kelial's darkness radiating shield * Kelial's blue glowing longsword * Kelial's potion * We don't know exactly what the keys do, although one of them did open the bronze doors, so maybe that is all they do. I don't think we tried them on any other doors. * We recovered a magic Greataxe from the Half-Orc barbarian, but have not yet used it in battle. It glows a dull red. We did ID and hand out some gear: * The Monk with No Name is wearing Kelial's +1 Cloak of Resistance. * We identified the wands we recovered as a Wand of Divine Favor (24 charges) and a Wand of Inflict Light Wounds (19 charges). Furio is currently carrying them. * Furio didn't think he was using Kelial's shield that "glowed" black, he thought he was using the shield recovered from Fachish. The shield he is using, whichever one the DM thinks that might be, is a +1 Large Steel Shield. * The Full Plate that Sir Polealot is using is +1 Full Plate.
smetzger Faen (6/12/03 12:17 pm) Reply	Re: Session 4 Thoughts from Furio Dunrat and Chanashi arrive in Rastor on May 15th. They have the 4 sided statue from the Moathouse. They talk to Tal Chamish and find out that 'The Do-Gooders' went to the mines. Dunrat casts Augery at the trail split and decides to go to the Main Entrance instead of the usual South Entrance. Although Dunrat doesn't know Mereclaw he rests much better that night since he is in the CRM, feals at home, and has almost completed his mission.
smetzger Faen (6/17/03 12:02 pm) Reply	Session 5 Session 5 - 6/13/03 Furio - Human Cleric 7 PoleAlot - Human Paladin 7 WhiteFire - Human Druid 7 Bardol - Human Monk 7 Our heroes have just cleared out and explored the Air Temple and are currently reviewing there options in the luxery of the now-dead high priests quarters. They are quite curios about the black lake and the island in the middle. Whitefire determines that the lake is capable of supporting life. "I wonder how deep the lake is?" "I wonder if anything lives in it?" "Maybe someone should scout out the island and those blue towers?" Whitefire: "I could wildshape into a Maco Shark and explore the lake or I could wildshape into an eagle and check out the island." Bardol: "Who really cares how deep the lake is." Furio: "I guess you could scout the island out." Whitfire promptly wildshapes into an Eagle and flies out over the balcony towards the island. When he gets about 140 or so feet away from one of the towers a loud crackle and pop is heard from the tower and a lightning bolt shoots out from the tower. As the rest of the party looks on in horror, Whitefire falls to into the lake [failed save, straight to -1 hp]. After a few moments of quick debate and an Augery spell from Furio Bardol is convinced to swim out and recover whats left of Whitefire. Since Whitefire is several hundreds of feet away it takes awhile Bardol to reach him. By the time Whitefire is reached he is quite dead. Bardol brings back his body and fortunately the group has a Raise Dead scroll which has been recently liberated from the Air Temple. Several minutes later Whitefire is alive and well but short several 1000 XP. Its decided that they wont try that again. Some more debate follows about the Sword of Air and wondering if thats the same as the blue sword that one of the fighters (Kelial had). From Fachish's papers its determined that the Fire Temple is more powerful than the Air Temple (and they had some trouble defeating the Air Temple). It is also determined that there is a small tribe of orcs in the other direction that are not aligned with any temples. The group decides to head in the direction of the orcs "Perhaps they can be bargained with ... perhaps allies can be found." Our heroes trudge into the large and dark caverns with Bardol leading the way with a torch. They seem to be travelling for ages when the dog starts to growl at something in the darkness ahead. A moment later they hear something large coming towards them fast. Bardol gets his heavy crossbow loaded just in time to see a 7 headed dragon-like monstrousity come into the light [I actually have an appropriately sized Spectral Dragon with 5 heads that was put to good use hear]. Bardol reacts first firing his crossbow, getting a critical ... for 3hp , and then moving to engage the Hydra. The Hydra then attacks Bardol 7 times, hitting him 4 times and doing considerable damage. Furio casts Recitation and then Whitefire casts Flamestrike, PoleAlot charges and hits. The dog also hits. Bardol then lands a good kick [doing decent damage for the first time] and then withdraws. The Hydra splits attacks between the vicious attack poodle[we tried out some of the new 3.5 Druid rules so the dog has +4 HD] and Sir PoleAlot. Sir PoleAlot then finishes it off. Sir PoleAlot: "I think I'll keep this new greataxe". After some discussion its decided that Whitefire will shapechange into a small viper and scout ahead. It is hoped that he will fair better this time. Whitefire slithers down a long (about 200 ft or so) dark passageway eventually coming to a small cavern that has a light and he hears some orcish voices. He decides to sneak up closer and despite rolling a 3 on his Hide check he manages to get close enough to see 6 orcs (that do _not_ have the typical black cloaks of the denizens so far encountered in the mines also no inverted triangle holy symbols were noticed) and notice a small circular stairway going up into a hole in the ceiling. Wisely (perhaps the first wise thing Whitefire has done) Whitefire decides to go back to his companions. Its quickly decided that they will try and talk with the orcs. Furio casts a couple of protective spells on himself that have visual elements to them and Whitefire casts Faerie fire on himself for an impressive effect [I am kicking myself for not having him roll a save against blindness, that would have been funny]. The group then approaches the Orcs.... Furioin in Common and throwing one of the heads of the Hydra on the floor: "Is this yours?" Orcs look at each other quisically and one speaks haltingly: "We not understand" They then talk amongst themselves for a moment and one Orc starts moving to the exit of the chamber. Bardol yelling in Common: "STOP, don't move." Orc: "Don't hurt... he go get leader... leader talk humans talk." Bardol nods and waves the orc to go on. Several tense minutes later a muscular orc carrying a double axe and wearing hide armor with glowing symbols enters from the far side of the chamber. He has a retinue of 6 orcs with him. The heroes soon find out that the leaders name is Murant. Murant takes the heroes back to his quarters for some swill. Sir PoleAlot and Bardol trust in their abilities to eat just about anything without getting sick while Furio cast Purify Food and Water for himself and Whitefire. The vegetables are mostly mushrooms and fungus but the meat is 'unknown' even the Whitefire. Murant tells a sad tale of his tribe being lured to the mine with a promise of gold and glory in combat. He says it started out that way, but they were betrayed in battle and 1/2 the tribe was killed. Although he tries to hide it he seems more sad than angry. He says they have been holding this section of the mines for 6 months, but their numbers are growing smaller and smaller. Furio: "What is further down the passageway? Have you been to the entrance further down, or just the one where the Air Temple is? Murant: "The bridge accross the Stalagos, the black lake, is ahead. It has many guards and they are lead by a large blue skinned demon with wings." Our heroes decide to help the Orcs and at the same time secure the entrance to the Air Temple. The heroes and the orcs move back to the Air Temple area. A week is spent fortifying the area with firetraps and softening of the earth. An earthen rampart is errected (in the direction of the 'demon') and a winding single file path is the only way to the Air Temple. The heroes then decide to go to Verona and sell some things. Its a long and arduous journey but they make it in the end, arriving in Verona on June 6. Thurgoun Proudblade his glad to see his charges. Thurgoun is able to provide some church resources that help identify some of the magic items. Thurgoun also supplies a writ that exempts the group from taxes on the purchase of new magic items. This doesn't seem like a big deal until they start shopping, it looks like this writ will save them between 15 and 25%. Bardol adds flaming to his +1 Ki Straps, Thurgoun also has some bad news. He just received a letter via Lantern Archon Express, that Dunrat escaped from jail, a few days after the party left Hommlet, and hasn't been seen since. Evidently someone broke him out; the guard was found dead, along with Maridosen, and the bars to the cell were pulled out.
Infiniti2000 Verrik (6/17/03 2:12 pm) Reply ezSupporter	Re: Session 5 Sounds like a great time! I love the quotes: "Who cares how deep the lake is?" My group talks like that, too. What did the party do with Choranth? Surely, they didn't let her go with the mooks?
smetzger Faen (6/18/03 5:33 am) Reply	Re: Session 5 Oh I forgot about her. They turned her over to The Church in Verona.
smetzger Faen (6/26/03 9:49 am) Reply	Session 6 Session 6 - Where a DM learns the importance of bringing the module to the game session. Furio - Human Cleric 6/Auspician 1 Sir PoleAlot - Human Paladin 7 WhiteFire - Human Druid 7 -- NPC Bardol - Human Monk 7 Hem Dazon - Human Rogue 7 -- NPC Best Quote for the Session: "I touch myself." - Bardol Our heroes are recouperating in Verona from an assult on the Air Temple. They have purchased some magic items and learned some information. They have learned that the Censor and Trumpet are pieces to a magic item that summons air elementals. They have also learned that Dunrat has escaped from the prison in Hommlet. While in Verona there is some debate about if they need a 'grease man/rogue/ and all around sneaky guy'. Their sponsor, Thurguon Proudblade suggests a certain Hem Dazon. After talking to Hem and finding him to be a little cocky but an upright and seemingly honest fellow that only wants an equal share of all treasure, our Holy Warriors decide that it would be safest to take Hem along. They leave for Rastor on June 13. The two week trek back to Rastor is boring and uneventful. Arrive in Rastor on June 27th. However, upon a short distance up the well beaten path to the entrance to the CRM the heroes come upon a grisly scene. There are three humans who have been recently crucified, still hanging from the crosses. The group pauses, and then notices to their horror, that these are the same 3 humans that were captured mercenaries of the Air Temple that the group let go. They start to take down the bodies to give them a decent burial. However, once they get them down they here a large crash and many shouts of triumph coming from up the path. Listening closely, Hem Dazon says "There is a battle up ahead." Our heroes rush up the path to the entrance of the mines. There they see that the great doors have been broken in and several humans and gnoll bodies are at the entrance. The bodies are all dressed in black with the symbol of the Elder Elemental Eye. Running into the mine entrance more human, gnoll, and not a few orc bodies are seen as well as a the body of an Ogre. At the entrance to the bronze doors an Ogre is bashing the doors with a tree, there are also 8 human warriors and 4 gnolls as well as a priest. Whitefire opens up with a Flamestrike that takes out most of the humans and gnolls and seriously injures the priest. Furio casts <prayer?>, Bardol shoots his heavy crossbow and moves quickly into the fray, Sir PoleAlot clambers up. The priest reads a scroll, healing himself, then moves down the side passageway, away from the main battle, and then yells to his troops to get the 'humans'. The orcs, from behind the arrow slits in the door, hit the ogre with several crossbow bolts injuring it significantly. Bardol finishes the Ogre off, while Sir PoleAlot and Furio move forward to deal with the mooks and try and get a line on the priest. The priest casts 'confusion' on Sir PoleAlot who then starts wandering around aimlessly. Whitefire casts Harrier on the priest. The mooks have been dealt with at this point and everyone starts to close in on the priest. The priest turns into gaseous form and rises 10 ft above the floor. But, Bardol is able to do a standing high jump of 4+ feet and head buts the priest killing him. Murant and 12 of his Orc warriors emerge from the badly damaged bronze door at this point. Murant yells "All hale to the Liberators, the Saviors of the Gemhadar!". The Orcs all give a knee to the heroes. Furio: "No, need for formalities Murant. Come lets have some food and drink while we discuss whats been happening." After sitting down to some surprisingly good food. Much better than the last time they broke bread together. Murant: "Much has happend since you have been away, M'Lords. About 3 weeks ago a very large dragonfly, it must have been 40 ft long, with a rider and a cargo net landed on the balcony overlooking the Stalagos. The rider dismounted and came in asking for Fachish. We killed him and waited for the dragonfly to leave, before investigating what was in the cargo net. It ended up being supplies mostly food, drink, torches, lantern oil, some black cloaks, and some EEE holy symbols." Murant: "Also, about a week ago a gargoyle knocked on the eastern bronze door. He was asking for Kelial and wondering why the torches hadn't been lit in so long. I told him Kelial was dead and for him to go away. He left but came back with a very large Gargoyle. This guy said he didn't care about the torches, Kelial's death, or our apparent takeover of the Air Temple. However, he wanted to get out and stretch his wings and said if we didn't let him through he would break the door down and kill us all. I let him and the other 2 'normal' gargoyles through. He came back later that night and had a sniveling dwarf in his talons. My warriors laughed at the dwarf and made fun of him. The gargoyle said, 'My name is Claagingred, I guess you guys don't like dwarves eh. Well I run a little galdiator pit, if you want to see him fight to the death it'll cost you 1sp each. I'll have the fight on June 30th.' All my warriors seem pretty psyched up for this. But even though I like to see a good fight, this is no way for anyone to die, even a dwarf." The party and the orcs then proceed to clean up the mess. The orcs strip the humans and gnolls of useful items and pile the bodies in one of the side rooms with arrow slits overlooking the entrance. The party does get +1 full plate, a +1 large steel shield, and two wands off of the priest. Murant then says I have something to show you. I think you'll be pleased. He takes our heroes into the Air Temple proper and on the altar are two wooden statues, one is unmistakeably Furio while the other is Whitefire. Murant: "We worship the gods of Earth and Fire." It is then that everyone notices a some new fetishes on Murant's outfit. He has a small white symbol of an open palm (reference to Bardol) and a red axe (reference to Sir PoleAlot). Furio quickly takes Murant aside and explains that they are mere mortals and not gods. The ultimate power and authority comes from the One True God. At first Murant doesn't understand, but eventually Furio gets through. Murant indicates that his group of warriors have suffered too much losses and they have decided to leave the mines for good. Our heroes decide to make a concerted effort to destroy the Altar of the Air Temple. Using some picks and shovels they beat on it for about an hour, making lots of noise in the process. Eventually the altar breaks apart and is reduced to rubble. Shortly after the altar is destroyed the room begins to shake, our heroes quickly leave, and a cave in occurs. In the mean time Hem has been searching through all the rooms, he finds the following items: small box made of iron inlaid with ivory and silver(85 gp), silver and pearl necklace(350 gp), silver and pearl bracelet(200 gp), pearl earings(150 gp each) [all of this found in a secret compartment in a dresser in Choranth's room] sword pommel with silver circle on it (no aparrent value) [In the rubble near where the altar was] Our heroes rest the night in the bronze doored room. The night is uneventful. Its now June 28th and our heroes investigate the East passageways.... Heading East through the bronze doors our heroes notice the stairs heading up to the platform in the entrance hall and a cluster of three rooms off to the left. One room is a latrine, another has 10 beds and seems to have been the barracks for the human warriors of the Air Temple, while the third is probably Kellial's chamber. A chest in Kellial's chamber is opened with the key found on his body. The chest contains 8 smokesticks and a flask of alchemist's fire. Heading further East there is a side passageway going to the right. Its has dusty steps leading up to a door. Our heroes open the door to the chamber and see a small window about 60 ft in. Our heroes move cautiously to investigate, but half-way into the room a ghostlike visage steps out of the wall and hits Sir PoleAlot draining him 2 levels. Sir PoleAlot attempts to strike the creature but his weapon passes right through it. Bardol has a bit more luck and lands a blow. But the creature continues forward and strikes Furio draining him 2 levels. Furio attempts to turn the creature but his faith wavers and he is unable to. Sir PoleAlot strikes the creature and starts to withdraw. Bardol stands up to the creature and does some more minor damage. Furio flees in terror and the unholy creature strikes him and drains him for another 2 levels. The creature then sinks into the floor. At this point everyone flees, the creature makes one last grab out of the floor at Bardol, but Bardol deftly dodges the blow. Our heroes decide to retreat to the relative safety of the bronze doored room. The night is uneventful. In the morning Furio prepares all the Con and Fort save boosting spells that he can, not much considering his effective level is only 3 currently. Fortunately Sir PoleAlot makes both his saves and Furio makes all 4 of his saves. Feeling much refreshed our heroes are about to go through the East bronze doors when they hear a screaching sound in the main hallway. Looking out the arrow slits they see a vulture like bird with 4 wings and no feet. They shoot a couple of crossbow bolts at it and injure it, it flies up through the rubble that was the Air Temple. Our heroes give chase but it is flying quite fast and they let it go. The group goes through the East bronze doors and skips the room with the incorporeal undead. About 160 ft East of the Bronze door there is a small door on the left, some larger double doors can be seen about 40 ft further down the passageway. The heroes open the smaller door and find a small hallway the runs parallel to the other hallway, it has a door opposite this door and one at the end of the hall. The group opens the first door and sees crates and supplies. Moving quickly to the other door they open it and see: Three statues stand upon pedastals in this room, forming a triangle with two in the east and one in the west. Each is a life-size representation of a dwarf done in a peculiar dark blue stone. The first nearest the door, is a warrior: a male dwarf in plate armor, with a very large shield and a dwarven urgrosh. The second, near the northwest corner, is a dwarven woman in regal robes with a crown upon her head. The third, in the east part of the room, is another male dwarf, carring a pick and dressed like a miner. Going through the room and about 50 ft down the passageway, it dead ends with a door. Opening this door yields a small room with two other doors. The door on the western wall is another storeroom, but it appears to not have been used in some time, due to the think dust and the dank musty odor. The East door yields another passageway going East which ends in a door. Hem listens at this door and hears a large creature shuffling around. Opening the door the heroes see a 10 ft tall crustacean like creature with claws and some sort of tentacles in its maw. The heroes rush in to attack and notice that there is a fish-like humanoid in a side room to the left and 6 more of the black lagoon creatures in another room on the right. Sir PoleAlot faces off against the 6 kua-toa to the right. He has trouble cleaving them but in the end is victorious. Hem and Bardol take on the Chuul. Hem gets caught in the pincers and goes down, Furio heals him, thus saving his life. Bardol tries several times to stun the creature so that it will drop Hem but is unsuccessful. Bardol does do most of the damage to the Chull though. Furio and Whitefire concentrate most of their efforts of the kua-toa priest. Although the priest wasn't very deadly he proved difficult to kill due to drinking a potion of stoneskin, healing himself, and a protection from good spell. Yes, I really did DM this session without the module. I had the maps and the Word Docs with maps and statblocks for the encounters but no module. Thats why the Chuul was inside instead of waiting in the water. Edited by: smetzger at: 6/26/03 9:53 am
smetzger Faen (7/3/03 8:16 pm) Reply	Session 7 Session 7 Furio - Human Cleric 6/Auspician 1 Sir PoleAlot - Human Paladin 7 WhiteFire - Human Druid 7 -- NPC Bardol - Human Monk 7 Hem Dazon - Human Rogue 7 -- NPC Some quotes ; "Whoa... that water is deep." "Maybe I should cast heat metal on PoleAlot to get the Cloaker off of him." "I cure disease on the rabid dog". Previous session ended on June 28 (game time) and our heroes have just defeated a Chuul and some Kua-Toa Water Temple forces. Everyone figures that the double doors head to the Water Temple altar, but when they are opened there is only two boats and the lake. Thinking that the Water Temple may be below the surface of the lake, several Buff spells are cast on Whitefire and he wildshapes into a Carp and swims straight down at full speed for several minutes and never reaches the bottom. People are injured and they are low on spells. So the party retreats to the bronze doored room and rests. In the early evening 4 gnolls come from the outside carrying a deer. Furio tells the gnolls that they are now in control of the Air Temple and the gnolls must leave know or die. The gnolls hesitate for a moment but leave. Unfortunately the gnolls took the deer with them so there is no fresh meat for the heroes. Later that evening everyone gets a vision from St. Moradin. The vision tells them that they are doing great good and to not give up hope. The vision also gives each person a Holy Blessing from the One True God. [This will allow for one saving throw to be a natural 20 or an automatic stabilization] June 29 Furio casts Augery [Party already knows there will be a gladiator fight on June 3 Augery 1: "Would it be good to go to the gladiator fight in disguise and try to get some information?" -- Weal and Woe Augery 2: "Would it be good to ask the gargoyles for information?" -- Woe Augery 3: "In the parties present state, how would we fair in an attack on the Water Temple" -- Weal Divination: "Where is the water Temple?" -- 'Its on the far side of the lake' Party goes back to the same way to the room with the Chuul. They open the doors out onto the lake. Whitefire wildshapes into a medium sized Carp and swims across the lake to the other side and finds a large cavern with a platform in the middle and several dry passages leading in. He immediately swims back. Heroes go West out of the Kua-Toa Water Temple area (heading back towards the Bronze doored room). They encounter 2 Cloakers in a chamber. One engulfs Sir PoleAlot, although PoleAlot can't seem to break free the Cloaker is unable to bite him. All of the damage PoleAlot takes during this fight is from his companions trying to kill the Cloaker engulfing him. At one point Whitefire was considering casting Heat Metal on PoleAlot to make the creature let go. The other Cloaker moans allot but everyone makes there saves every round. After the Cloakers are defeated the band heads further west and comes upon some large double doors. Figuring these to be the doors to the gargoyle chamber they don some black cloaks and cover their holy symbols. Furio also makes a DC 20 religion check and he therefore knows that gargoyles are Earth creature (he has the Earth domain). They then knock on the door. A deep booming voice can be heard... Claagingred: "Red, answer the door". Red in a whiny voice: "Awe I just got comfortable in my freeze." A reddish stony creature answers the door: "What do you want" Furio: "Were here for the fight." Red: "Go away the fight is tomorrow." Furio: "Well could we see the combatants, were quite excited about the fight and just want to see what to expect." Red: "Ok, right this way" Red lets everyone in. "So are you new Air Temple guys?" Sir PoleAlot: "Were not associated with any temple" Claagingred: "What? Your not with any temple! Well that would mean your fair game.... Get ehm boys" Furio successfully commands Red. Sir PoleAlot stands toe to toe with Claagingred and does considerable damage. The battle rages around the border of the pit. With Claag dead, Red under Furio's control and Claagingred injured Claagingred tries to flee by flying over the pit. But just as he takes to flight Bardol strikes him down and he falls into the pit. With Red's reluctant help the group finds the gargoyles treasure and frees the Dwarf. Sir PoleAlot uses his cure disease ability on the rabid dog and the Dwarf and dog are released and given directions out of the mines. The groups turns around and heads east. They find a dead gnoll in front of a door, he has slash marks all over him. Hem listens to the door but doesn't hear anything. As they open the door and step in incorporeal disembodied dwarven head appears before them and then weapons start flying at the group. The group is having trouble injuring the creature. But the creature hasn't been able to hurt the characters much either.
smetzger Faen (7/11/03 5:20 am) Reply	Session 8 Furio - Human Cleric 6/Auspician 1 Sir PoleRepeatedly - Human Paladin 7 WhiteFire - Human Druid 7 -- NPC Bardol - Human Monk 7 Hem Dazon - Human Rogue 7 -- NPC June 29. Our heroes are presently in battle with a Blade Spirit. The Blade Spirit only lasts a few more rounds, since all of its available weapons have been sundered. After the battle our heroes take stock of the different masterwork items in this room (3 large shields, 1 small shield, 1 buckler, 3 Med. breastplates, 2 Med half-plate, 1 Med full plate, 1 med. chain mail, 1 med banded mail). It is decided to leave these items in the room and come back for them at a later time. Our heroes exit the Blade Spirit room heading north and come into a large chamber with 'ripples' on the walls. They then take the North exit out (leaving the West exit for a later time). Our group finds an exit out of the mines that leads to a ledge overlooking the lake, about 30 ft below. Travelling west our heroes come upon a spherical shaped chamber with one exit on the far side. Then a creature looking similare to a Velociraptor (except it has no eyes or jaw bone, more like a maw) hits everyone with some sort of sonic burst. Most everyone gets a shot off with crossbows and then retreats, but Sir PoleRepeatedly dropped his magic axe and leaves it behind. Fortunatly the axe makes some saves and is not destroyed by subsequent sound bursts. The heroes then decide to cast silence on a stone for the Bardol to hold and then everyone can shoot at the creature safely. Bardol breifly toys with the idea of jumping to the platform, but decideds to play it safe and just use his crossbow. Everyone moves up and shoots the beast, it tries to run away but it doesn't get far. Heading further west the group takes the right passageway and ends up in a cave with a rather large bear and a human druid. A fight quickly ensues. The bear grapples Sir PoleRepeatedly but he manages to escape and be healed. The bear succumbs to numerous blows shortly thereafter. However, the large carcass blocks easy access (DC 10 balance check for moving more than 5 ft) to the Druid. This allows the Druid a few more rounds of recpite, but he eventually falls. The druid (Tarren) has several potions, 3 non-magical concoctions, +2 Hide Armor (which Furio claims), and a magical periapt. The group then backtracts and takes the left passageway, going further west into the mines. Some man-sized giant ants are encountered and quickly dispatched. Seeing some light up ahead the goroup elects Furio to do some scouting in snake form. He scouts further west finding a room with a red marble floor in the shape of a diamond with red glowing orb in the center and four black obelisks surrounding the marble inlay. He also notices the torches are real i.e. not continual flame and retreats to report his findings to the group. Our heroes decide to back track and explore the one passageway behind them they haven't seen yet. They encounter two more of the Destrachan (sound creatures). Out of silence spells they use a Mass Resist Elements(Sonic) to protect themselves. But it doesn't protect them from falling into a pit with a powdery quicksand like floor. Sir PoleAlot is the first to fall in. He is in danger of drowning due to his platemail. Bardol is grappling one of the creatures at the edge of the pit when the other creature blasts the stone below both of them. Although Bardol makes his save the creature does not and grabs onto Bardol as he falls (Bardol failed opposed grapple check). Bardol finshes the creature off and is able to stand on its body and help Sir PoleRepeatedly. Everyone except Furio have gone up a level at this point; Hem has got religion and has taken a level of Druid.
smetzger Faen (7/25/03 11:20 am) Reply	Session 9 Session 9 Furio - Human Cleric 7/Auspician 1 Sir PoleRepeatedly - Human Paladin 8 WhiteFire - Human Druid 8 -- NPC Bardol - Human Monk 8 Hem Dazon - Human Rogue 7/Druid 1 -- NPC June 29. Our Heroes are licking their wounds after defeating 2 Destrachan. Since, they have defeated everything from the Air Temple all the way to what appears to be the Fire Temple area. They decide its time to have a look for that Tulian's Eye Diamond. Furio casts Locate Object(cursed diamond). This leads him to a store room that they had initially just glanced in. Hem searches for Secret doors and finds one. Hem also searches for traps but does not find any. Its decided that they should rest before tackling the recovery of the diamond. Furio casts Augury and asks "Would be successful/victorious if we set a trap for people coming to the gladiator match tomorrow?" Answer - "Weal" The group rests in Fachish's room and the night passes without any interruptions. June 30. Just after everyone finishes their morning prayers a loud buzzing and a thump is heard from across the hall from behind the door that leads onto a balcony overlooking the lake. Bardol dons an Ochre robe and takes a peak out the door. He sees a crate with a cargo net around it and a 40 ft long dragonfly with a rider flying away. A few moments later and he realizes that the whole lake complex is abuzz with activity. There are several of these gigantic dragonfly creatures and they appear to be delivering crates at various points around the crater. The group decides to set an ambush in the gargoyle room. Everyone dresses in Ochre robes and PoleRepeatedly gets a pinch of Dust of Illusion. Hem is to be the advance notice and so he hides in the Cloaker room. The heroes wait the entire morning but nothing happens. Finally about 1pm 6 men dressed in black uniforms (look like the officers in Star Wars, except the have an obex sewn over the right breast, these are the same uniforms of the guys riding the gigantic dragonflies) and an Ogre approach from the Air Temple area. Fortunately they seem pretty relaxed, moving slowly, and talking loudly. This allows Hem to run and beat them to the door, thus Sir PoleRepeatedly is able to use the dust of illusion and disguise himself as a gargoyle. After some initial dialog a fight ensues. Our heroes quickly vanquish their foes. Nothing happens again until about 6pm when another 6 guys and a Troll show up. These guys have a red lozenge type thing dangling below their EE holy symbol, presumably from the Fire Temple. Bardol makes good use of flaming fists and this group also is defeated rather quickly. After waiting a couple of hours its determined that that's going to be it for the night. Furio casts Divination and asks "What forces are against us at the bridge with the blue winged demon?" Response: "Large, ever living, and ferocious" Furio casts Divination again and asks "What particular vulnerability can we exploit?" Response: "Decapitation wins the day." July 1: The group decides to go after Tulian's eye. Hem checks the door for traps and doesn't find any. He cautiously opens the door and checks for traps and finds a two stage trap which he quickly disarms. Everyone moves in to see the Eye of Tulian on a pedestal. However, the pedestal is actually a Mimic which attacks Sir PoleRepeatedly. The close quarters and the improved grab feature of the Mimic prove to be a challenge but in the end our heroes win the day. Furio is elected to hold the eye for safe keeping. That night they rest in Fachish's room. The rest is interrupted by a Cleric and his entourage, but these guys don't last long. July 2: Upon waking Furio doesn't feel so good (1 point temp con damage) and has welts all over him that look like hammers and anvils. "Well at least we know what the curse is". Furio finds that Lesser Restoration is able to get his temp Con damage back but he still has the nasty welts. Our group decides to put the Spectre to rest. Since they are prepared for an incorporeal undead this fight goes quite well for our heroes. Note: XP has already been awarded for this session.
smetzger Faen (8/7/03 10:44 am) Reply	Session 10 Session 10 Furio - Human Cleric 7/Auspician 1 Sir PoleRepeatedly - Human Paladin 8 WhiteFire - Human Druid 8 -- NPC Bardol - Human Monk 8 Hem Dazon - Human Rogue 7/Druid 1 -- NPC July 2 After defeating the Spectre our heroes decide to scout the caves past the Orc territory. They quickly find the stone door to the old dwarven temple. Hem finds and disables the trap and is also able to unlock the door. The next room in the dwarven temple has a font made from what appears to be a single emerald. Going further into the temple our heroes find the reliquary which is shaped like a cross and has a pedestal with 6 jeweled silver spheres. They disable the glyph of warding on the floor but when Furio picks up one of the spheres he makes his fort save(to avoid being polymorphed into a dwarf) and fails his will save. Furio then uses his luck domain power and rerolls his will save(again failing). Furio then decides to use his Divine Blessing(Hero Point) to automatically make the save. They decide to leave the rest of the spheres alone for now. The next room in the temple has an altar. But when they enter a Stone Golem slowly rises out of the floor. Its decided that retreat is a good plan of action. Our heroes spend the night above the spiral staircase in the 'orc caves'. Before setting down for rest Furio casts Divination: Q: "St. Moradin, Do you wish us to leave your temple alone?" A: "Return my temple to its former glory." That night they feel the uncomfortable effect of someone trying to scry on them, but the attempt is thwarted by successful saves. July 3 The group is quite keen on doing the right thing about the temple to St. Moradin. They want to return it to its former glory but aren't sure what that means. Several Auguries and a couple of Divinations later they have a plan... Furio casts several Auguries. Q1: "Weal or woe to keep the sphere?" A: Weal Q2: "Should we get the remaining spheres?" A: Weal Q3: "Weal or woe to move through the anvil and altar room?": A: Weal and woe Q4: "Should we go through the door at the back of the golem?" A: Weal Furio then casts Divination Twice Q: "St. Moradin, In order to restore your temple to its former glory, is it enough to recover the artifacts?" A: "No, this temple can be restored through my people" Q: "St. Moradin, how do we safely bypass the golem?" A: "Dwarven priest" Its decided to go back to Rastor to find a Dwarven priest. Bumping into a Dwarven blacksmith they find that they should talk to the ruling elder of the town, a dwarf named Rerrid Hammersong. Upon reaching the town hall its seen that Rerrid is arbitrating a dispute between a Dwarf and an Orc. After this is done our heroes get a chance to talk privately with Rerrid. Rerrid is skeptical of the dirty strangers at first. But once they show him Tulain's Eye he opens up a bit and is most helpful. He recommends a colleague of his to accompany the adventurers to the mines, a one Magnus Hallgrimson. Since Tulian's Eye doesn't curse dwarves, its decided to let Rerrid hold it for awhile, at least until the group can get it to the Theneus (an influential dwarven priest in Verona). The group also makes a visit to Tymerian and she identifies a few different magic items in return for an arcane wand. She also warns them about flying to the island in the center of the volcano. Our heroes spend the night at the Gray Lodge. July 4 Our heroes set out for the mines with Magnus Hallgrimson in the morning. The party heads straight for the mines and the temple to St. Moradin. Once everyone is at the mines Magnus is able to pick up the Hammer Spheres. Each person gets a Hammer Sphere, including Magnus. Magnus also is able to command the golem to leave the rest of the party alone. Going through the rest of the temple the group leaves the emerald hanging from a chain alone and then finds the treasure. Its decided that everyone will get an equal share of what is in the treasure room, including Magnus. At this point Magnus decides to head back to Rastor. His plans are to find as many Dwarves as he can that are interested in worshiping in the temple to St. Moradin, he even talks of eventually retaking the mines. Furio cautions that there are a great number of powerful creatures in the mines and its very dangerous. The mines pretty much chewed up a whole orc tribe and spat out a few refugees. But Magnus says "Well those were filthy orcs and not mighty Dwarves." The party decides to recon the area beyond the wooden doors, where they rightly suspect the blue skinned winged demon resides. Hem examines the door and finds that it is barred from the inside, they'll have to bash their way in. Whitefire, however, comes up with a plan to use stone shape to 'melt' away the stone surrounding the door. Beyond the door are 6 gnolls which are dispatched quickly, but not before one of them rings a gong. The party quickly pulls the gnoll bodies around the corner and waits for the reinforcements. 8 humans and 6 gnolls show up several rounds later. These are also dispatched relatively easily, but one runs further down the hallway. Bardol gives chase, but when he catches up to the human, he stops in his tracks because there is a hill giant off to the side that throws a rock at him. The hill giant lumbers across the passageway and bangs on the door. A few rounds later a troll wielding a greatsword emerges from the door and 8 more humans emerge from where the hill giant came. The party continues to pepper the hill giant and the troll with missile weapons. A few rounds later female human wizard and a half-orc wizard come out of a side passage further down. Then another troll comes out of the door at the far end of the corridor. Things look grim, but survivable. The party is able to kill the humans, do some significant damage to the troll, and finally drop the hill giant. Things are starting to look better until the large sized blue skinned winged demon comes out from invisibility and blasts the party with a cone of cold. Its a fight for their very lives know and a full retreat is called. Unfortunately Sir PoleRepeatedly is heavily injured as moves quite slow. He falls at the exit doorway. Bardol makes a valiant effort to save him by racing back with a healing potion. But it is for naught, because although he is able to heal him, Sir Pole falls again. The last words heard from Sir PoleRepeatedly are "Save yourselves..." As the party races back to the temple of St. Moradin the last thing they hear is the cat calls of the Trolls and the gruesome laughter of the demon ...