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ArdentAnimal
A cup of coffee
(5/30/03 6:00 pm)
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Ardent's Campaign Log
Ok, here is a recount of my experience thus far with the RttToEE. The early stuff will be a bit sketchy, it’s been a while, but the later stuff will have more details. I am looking for feedback and constructive criticisms so feel free to comment away.
As I said in a previous thread, we started this as a secondary campaign that could run while my batteries recharged for the primary campaign. It’s turning into something a bit more involved, and more fun than I thought it would be.
We started with a reduced party because several players where away. The party included:
Homarg Human Cleric 4. Follows Hieronius
Mikey Halfling rogue 4
Lavesh elven fighter 3/wizard 1
I started them in Hommlet, investigating rumours that an evil cult was operating out of the area, and so naturally people believe that it must be the infamous Temple of Elemental Evil, up to its old tricks again. The party spoke to the local authority (Elmo), but he was more interested in fighting hobgoblins than looking for a cult that he has seen no sign of. (I played him as strongly influenced by the fake Jaroo, and so he seemed a bit ignorant.)
Because the party has a priest of Hieronious in the party I had Xaod be the tie in to the moathouse. He saw it as a divine sign to serve and follow this priest (since he prefers to follow than take the initiative) and told the party that he has sense evil in the moathouse when he first arrived here, but was unable to find the cause. This was enough for my party, they recruited one more NPC, the bard Redithidoor, stuffed their packs with potions and scrolls from the shops in town, and headed for the moathouse.
The Moathouse
On the way to the moathouse the party met Questin Himmble. Or should I say almost met him. With his low charisma Questin doesn’t really know how to approach people. Mixed with his ugliness, the party thought that he was a goblin when he jumped out of the ditch at the road side and the elf shot him with an arrow. Luckily for Questin he was wearing his armour, so he was able to flee from his aggressors and hide in the wilderness while he licked his wound.
Utreshimon at the moathouse was the first real battle the party had for this adventure, and they actually had a pretty easy time of it. Mikey was the first to creep up to the beasts lair while the rest of the party searched around in the rubble of the courtyard. Once the dragon was stirred, Mikey came running out and the party quickly spread out, everyone drawing out throwing weapons. After a few quick passes with the lightning breath were completely avoided by mikey, the dragon circled and dropped down on him. Homarg charged the beast from behind after it missed Mikey inflicting severe damage, and Mikey scored a critical hit/sneak attack. Not liking these odds, the dragon quickly took off again, raking its claws along Mikey as it went. This allowed, Homarg to hit again from an AoO, and while it was in the air, circling for another pass with the lightning breath, Lavesh, Xaod, and Mikey hit it with missile fire, Mikey with another critical. The dragon retreated after that, never to be seen again by the party.
Now, the party was wounded after that, and decided to camp in the courtyard, and descend into the dungeons tomorrow. During the night gnolls from the cultist party test to see if the dragon is still there, only to find a small armed camp occupying the moathouse now. A bow fight across the courtyard breaks out, gnolls and PC’s hiding behind rubble for cover, until the gnolls, who are obviously outmatched, fall back into the dungeons. Redithidoor on the party’s side took an arrow in the gut that was healed, but left him in no condition to fight. (We use a 2E leftover rule for hovering on deaths door).
The next day the party was approached by Nierethi, a dwarven illusionist, and outcast from his clan. (In the module he is a gnome, but I have an irrational hatred of gnomes so they are extinct in my campaigns, sorry gnome lovers…) After a short parley the party decided he was trustworthy enough to look after Redithidoor while they went to deal with the gnolls below. Unbeknownst to the party Nierethi’s idea of taking care of Redithidoor was to ignore his moans while he searched through the rubble of the moathouse for a specific marking on one of the walls that would yield a historical relic. Karma was against the dwarf, for he never found his relic.
(Continuation will be comming soon)
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ArdentAnimal
A cup of coffee
(5/30/03 7:49 pm)
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Ardent's Campaign Log
The Moathouse Dungeons
Meanwhile the party made short work of the two gnolls who were laying in wait for them at the bottom of the stair. A quick search of the area revealed a middle aged man hiding in one of the storage rooms nearby. Once he discovered the party was not going to slay him, he introduced himself as Spugnoir, and asked if they could spare a few clean bandages. After being healed by Homarg, he agreed to assist the party in any way that he could, and right now that would be as a guide to the dungeon. He also warned them that strange people in reddish-brown robes have been exploring the area as well, and that the gnolls are working with them. So with Spungnoir in tow the party moved on.
The ghast that lunged out from behind a pillar surprised them, but didn’t last long enough to harm them. They discovered the secret ladder in the pillar and guessed from the stench of corruption that the undead creature came from there. Not eager to fight more ghouls they explored elsewhere. (In my other campaign the party had recently just escaped from a very large ghoul warren where they had been trapped without food or water for weeks)
Gren had just finished rearranging the artifacts yet again when the party kicked open the door to her room. Her gnoll bodyguards reacted slowly, but managed to draw the attackers’ attention long enough for her to pull open the door to her burgeoning skeleton army. The attackers made short work of them as well as her, no mercy for the wicked is the war priests call, and soon found themselves in possession of some very strange artifacts, tantalizingly magical, yet very likely evil. They decided to wrap them in a blanket and hide them under some bodies for now, until they could deal with them later. Spungnoir showed the party the secret doors leading out of this room, and they decided to press onward.
Levesh was leading the party, as his keen eyes could see further into the darkness than any of the others. He spotted a pair of gnolls up ahead at a junction in the hallway, and he could see they had spotted him. His warning shout immediately sent Homarg running to met the foe, with Xaod right behind him. The gnolls rushed partway down the hall towards the party, then stopped and raised their weapons in defense. As the two Heironious worshippers engaged them they called out in a loud dog-like howl, alerting their allies behind them to trigger the trap. A metal portcullis came crashing down right in front of where the gnolls stopped, and right where Homarg and Xaod where standing. Homarg pushed the beasts out of the way, but Xaod was struck by the gate and pinned by it as it pinched his breastplate close around him. Mikey wriggled his way through the bars while Levesh and Xoad tried to lift the gate. In a spectacular battle Homarg and Mikey felled a half dozen gnolls including a brutish beast of a gnoll that nearly took Mikey’s head off when he attacked from the shadows. Finally the gate was lifted and Xaod was free. The battle was loud and violent, and the party felt sure any other denizens of this dungeon would have heard it, so they rushed down the halls as fast as they could, in the hopes to catch possible foes before defenses could be set up.
The party found no further defenders. The room they decided was the gnoll barracks was tossed, with disappointing results. Then again, the beastmen probably didn’t trust each other enough to leave treasure untended. Soon after they found another room that looked like a barracks, only better taken care of, and with an obvious strongbox. While Levesh and Homarg secured the area, Mikey fiddled with the box, setting of a rather nasty magical ward. After reading the notes they found within, they decided that Hommlet could be in considerable danger, and that they would return as soon as they ensured that the clerics presence here was removed.
The party explored further into the moathouse, they took a wrong turn and found themselves in a crypt that stank of death. Retreating quickly out of that area they tied another passage and found it sealed up with a stone wall. Getting a bit frustrated the party tried one last passageway, and were jumped again by a ghast. This time they had a tougher fight on their hands. Assuming it was just a ghoul the elf went into melee with it, and was paralysed. Mikey went down soon after, leaving it up to Homarg to save the day. After a brief rest the party descended the stair the ghast was guarding, Mikey sneaking up front when they saw lamp light coming through a open doorway. Mikey dove into the room, surprising the two clerics who were preparing to go and see who had just killed their ghast. In two quick surprise attacks one of the unholy men was dead, and Homarg and Levesh slew the other before he could do much harm.
(I'll continue this later, right now I've got to prepare for the next step in the campaign tomorrow)
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Offgall Fizziwigg
A song from the sixties
(5/31/03 5:43 am)
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Re: Ardent's Campaign Log
I have a question. What happened to Spugnoir?
It's interesting to see how different events go. IMC, the party took Chatrilon with them to the dungeon. He backstabbed them in the first fight with the gnolls. So when they found Spugnoir, they treated him rudely. They didn't trust anyone. They tried to take him prisoner, but he just walked away, shrugging off the charm spells as he left. They almost pushed him too far. e would have been a tough foe.
Another difference imc: The fight with Gren and her lackeys turned out interesting. One of the PCs opened the door and peeped in the room. This was noticed by the gnolls. It gave them time to set up defenses when the PC shut the door and relayed what he saw to the group. Anyway, a battle took place using the door as no man's land. Finally, the skeletons led a charge. Gren and the gnolls followed themto the other side of the door. The paladin was in this room. When his first turn attampt failed, Gren casted random action on him  , and he hit himself in the head with his maul! The fight ended with the skeletons turned. One retreated through the hallway to where the gnolls were. The group didn't chase. Then they heard a loud bang ahead. That was the potcullis. They tried to lift it, but it was too heavy for them. So they had to enter through the secret passage.
Different. I like the way you slammed the portcullis on their heads!
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ArdentAnimal
A cup of coffee
(5/31/03 6:46 am)
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Re: What happened to Spugnoir?
Offgall, thanks for the comment!
The party was suspicious of Spungnoir, but then one player remembered that the potion maker's daughter said her father was missing, so they asked him a few questions that the potion maker should know.
They healed him, but didn't feel like resting again so soon, so Spungnoir had very few spells. He mostly just stayed out of the way, and gave the PC's a rough map of the dungeon. (Everything but the obelisk room and the crypts)
He got a bit more involved after the party rested, which I'll detail in a bit.
As for the portcullis, I was suprised that it actually worked, I was expecting the PC's to kill the two gnolls in the hall quickly and overrun them. Then the portcullis would slam shut behind the fighters, effectively spliting the party in two. It worked out so much better than I hoped!
btw Gren casted random action on him , and he hit himself in the head with his maul! = lol
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ArdentAnimal
A cup of coffee
(5/31/03 7:54 am)
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Ardent's Campaign Log
The Moathouse Dungeon, Day 2
The party, including NPCs:
Homarg Cleric level 4, of Hieronius – Always clanging his axe on his shield. All sentences are punctuated with “CLANG”
Mikey Halfling rogue level 4 – Now called “Lil Mikey” by Xaod
Levesh Elven fighter 3/wizard 1 – Has a toad familiar, that speaks slowly and to the point “Looook ouuuut”, “Smeeeells liiiike deeeeaaaath” “Mooooore fliiiiies”
Xoad the Slayer Paladin 4, of Heironius - I played Xoad as a rude, loud, lout, who rushes into battle because his leader, Homarg does.
Spungnoir Wizard 7 - I played spungnoir a bit conservatively, all he really wants is to return to his daughter in Hommlet.
The party decided to rest in the clerics chamber, luckily my party is paranoid and always sets up watches, other wise they would have been slain by the ghast that wandered into the room around midnight, as it was it was a tough with people out of their armour and out of spells. After winning they decided to empty out a closet and camp in there, with the door shut and barred. When they emerged the body of the ghast they had slain the night before was gone, as where the other ghast bodies. This creeped them out.
(I ruled that since the ghasts where spawned by utter corruption, to utter corruption they returned. I played them kind of like solidified negative energy that breaks down when slain)
The party first explored the excavation pit at the bottom of the dungeon. They lowered themselves to the “bottom” and shuddered as the stone shifted and pulsed under foot. They quickly dashed to the opposite lift and began lowering themselves again. This is when a bizarre monster descended from the ceiling to attack them. The platform was filled with writhing tentacles twisting and grasping at everyone, trying to get a hold. Above them a beak-like maw emerged from the darkness, snapping and drooling yellow mucus over the platform. The party hacked and slashed at the tentacles, sending them over the edge one at a time as they cut them off, until the nameless horror (the grell) had enough and rose again into the darkness. After a long and paranoid descent the party finally hit the true bottom of the cave, and where awed and horrified by what they saw.
The side of the cavern they descended through turned out to be a massive column of prehistoric dimensions, unbelievably balanced on a pinpoint of stone. Strange glyphs and icons that seemed to soak up the light covered parts of the floor, and the party wisely agreed to give them wide breath. Then Mikey heard something like a strange rasping breathing coming from the other side of the obelisk. As they circled the obelisk a ragged, wide eyed madman jumped out of the darkness, screaming, and threw a glass vial at Homarg, hitting him but with no affect. The battle was short and though the madman careened wildly through the air thanks to his fly potion, the parties missile capabilities are great, and he went down thanks to a concentrated effort by Xaod’s nasty bow, Levesh’s less nasty but still potent bow, and Spungnoir’s lightning bolt.
The party explored the rest of the cavern, The black portal was touched by Mikey, and he was nearly grabbed by the squirming mass of tentacles that boiled forth. He avoided the thing, and as the party began to attack the grell, Mikey touched the portal AGAIN! Another mass of tentacles boils forth and Mikey takes a severe lashing this time. Thankfully Spungnoir had some potent spells memorized today and unleashed on the two horrors, killing one and driving the other off. The party was not impressed with Mikey and he was told not to touch anything else. Little did they know it was not him they had to worry about.
(I had changed Spungnoirs spell list to be a bit more direct damage oriented, and a good thing I did when those two grell came out of the portal back to back, he definitely saved the parties butts!)
So the party felt they had wasted enough time here and were preparing to go, when Levesh noticed there was a type of ladder that lead up to the pin point of the obelisk. I could tell that he was very curious about this obelisk since the moment he came in, and the ladder was irresistible. He climbed up, despite the condemnations of both Hieronius worshipers, and started examining the pin point. On a tactile search he found the gem and pop, he was gone. (I had assumed the gem could be found by a tactile search, but if I were running it again I would make it so that only a Torch of Revealing could make the gem appear. It encourages the party to experiment with evil artifacts and proves that not all such artifacts are harmful, well not directly anyways)
Levesh appeared moments later, white as a sheet and holding a luscious plum coloured apple. He spoke of strange things, a great void and a voice that threatened sanity, and the heart of the moons, he didn’t really make much sense. He said that the apple was a gift. Homarg smacked the apple out of his hand, fearing that it had possessed, but Levesh calmly walked over, picked it up, and took a bite of it. He was given insight unto the workings of the universe (+1 int), and decided that if one apple was good, two would be better. Everyone watched dumbfounded as he climbed the ladder again, and vanished again, and reappeared with another apple, which he promptly took a bite of. Levesh was punished for his greed by being shown a glimpse of the workings of the universe not even the immortal elves should know. His mind broke that day (-2 wis), but nobody was aware of how truly mad he went at that time until it was too late.
The party left the strange cavern, and returned to their camp site. Homarg and Xoad took turns watching Levesh, under the guise of watching for ghouls, but Levesh seemed fine. The party debated the merits of exploring the rest of the dungeon, and decided that leaving even one of these cultists hiding in here somewhere would be dangerous. They decided to explore the crypts tomorrow. Spungnoir said he would not be accompanying them into the crypts. He will wait here for their return, but he will not follow them into the house of the dead.
(to be continued)
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ArdentAnimal
A cup of coffee
(6/1/03 9:37 am)
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Ardent's Campaign log
The Moathouse Dungeon, Day 3
When the party emerged from their camp, they were set upon by another ghast, which they quickly dispatched. But the noise of the battle seemed to attract something from above and they prepared for another fight. (they were camping in the armoury, off of the great hall). A dwarf emerged from the stair who was wielding a crossbow, and draped in all manner of mechanical gadgetry. He said that he was seeking the brewer Spungnoir for his daughter, and tracked his trail here. After the party took him to Spungnoir and he found out he was safe the Dwarf, Dalwin, offered to join the party since he was already came al the way out here. He was accepted.
New player started Today.
Dalwin, dwarven wizard 4. He also had a toad familiar, and Levesh’s player was a bit miffed about this.
So the band had their wizard, despite Spungnoir’s reluctance, and they traveled to the crypt in order to do battle with the undead they were sure they would find there. They were right. A soon as they started poking around the crypt they were set upon by a group of ghasts. Four of the beasts came at the party, who withdrew to a skirmish line, with the wizard in back. Xoad tried to turn the fiends but the corruption of the place nearly made him ill for his efforts. Homarg resorted to what he knew best, buffing himself and smashing things. Dalwin threw weird gadgetry* at their foes, some of which exploded, others threw off sparks, and all hurt the ghouls. Mikey and Levesh were paralysed, and a ghoul got into a tug of war with Homarg over Mikey as it tried to drag him away. Thankfully no-one was lost and the wounded began to recover once the last ghast was dead.
*(I allow a great deal of variety when it comes to my wizards describing their spells, practically giving everyone the Spell Thematics feat from MoF)
The party hesitated on the brink of the ghoul warrens. The tunnels were all carved out of soft earth that didn’t look very stable. As Dwalin put it, “these things don’t care if the tunnel collapses on them, they’re already dead…” Nevertheless they entered, hoping to find and destroy the source to these ghasts. After a long time struggling through the narrow tunnels they came across a stone chamber.
The evil of the place was obvious. It was dominated by a four sided column with a distinct figure carved into each side, and a porous altar before it. Levesh entered the chamber in an effort to learn more about the horrid place. He touched the altar and it began to shift into a large purple gem, with a pulsing black heart. Deciding to leave that alone for now, he moved to examine the column. Meanwhile the rest of the party had entered the room and were watching Levesh with a mixture of curiosity and disbelief. Homarg was the only one getting upset that Levesh was disturbing a thing that lay quiet. As Levesh began to find secret compartments in the statue, and remove the artifacts found there, Homarg decides to deal with this situation in the only way he knows how. To smash it. He runs up with his axe drawn and swings with all his might into the altar, the altar is unharmed, but Homarg is hit by a shock of black and violet energy and is thrown back, limbs and face locked in an expression of horror! While the rest of the party check on Homarg to see if he is dead, no one is watching Levesh. He proceeds to assemble all of the artifacts he found in the column and light the incense. As he does so the mass in the altar begins to become agitated. Next he rings the silver chimes, and when nothing new happens he beats on the drum as well. The party looks around to see why he is making that noise, and meet the gaze of a large golden eye that opens out of the squirming mass. This is too much for the parties fragile minds and everyone fails the will save except Homarg, who was paralysed and cannot look at the eye.
(To this day I’m not fully sure why this player did all this. I have since come to the conclusion that is a genuine CN person and simply does what ever suits his fancy at the time. Maybe he was just playing up the fact that his character now had a 6 wisdom, but whenever I ask him, he just shrugs. I had to teach the party to be more careful if they were to survive this adventure to it’s end, so I decided to let each PC roll a percentile die and take whatever came up.)
This was more than the poor dwarf’s heart could take, and he died of an immediate system shock. Mikey’ mind cracks permanently under the visions the eye shows him, and goes permanently insane. Xaod is made of sterner stuff than Dalwin, but still takes 6 con damage as it feels like his heart is going to burst. Levesh, already crack brained due to the apple and a diminished capacity to start with, loses 3 wisdom, and is deemed by the player to be a barely functional madman. As if this wasn’t bad enough, Mikey’s insanity causes him to see ghouls all around him, and he begins to attack the closest creature, who in this case is Xoad. The sneak attack nearly killed him, and I might have had a TPK if the next roll wasn’t for him to wander away for a minute. This gave the party the time to run away that they needed. Homarg was dragged, and Levesh was lead out by Xaod. Dalwin was left dead at the evil altar, and Mikey could not be found in the maze of tunnels, so the party had to leave him behind too. They returned to Spungnoir, and the surface, and made their way back to Hommlet, running all the way.
(What happens to a party who asks too many questions about the cult around Hommlet? Find out next entry…)
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ArdentAnimal
A cup of coffee
(6/2/03 12:28 pm)
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The Return to Hommlet, Questions, but No Answers
The group returned to Hommlet shattered, Homarg and Xaod were the only members of the party both alive and sane. Levesh was clearly mad, symptoms visible now that if they were caught earlier may have saved several lives. Mikey was lost in the warrens, no doubt food for a hungry ghoul, and Dalwin was dead.
(Levesh’s player decided to “retire” Levesh after that because he now had a wisdom of 3. He decided that he was irrecoverably insane, and was locked up in an asylum that the cult of Cuthbert ran in the area… for some reason the Hommlet area has more than it’s share of madmen…)
So when the party got back to town Homarg went to the various prominent figures of the town, trying to recruit more warriors, and Xaod went to Inn to get drunk. The new players, as recruited by Hommarg were:
Tallis elven Fighter3 /Rogue 2 (played by Levesh’s player)
Morris cleric 5 of Boccob (played by Mikey’s player)
Durag dwarven wizard 5 (played by Dalwin’s player and almost and exact clone of Dalwin)
Still in the group are:
Homarg Cleric 5 of Hieronius. Current “Sole Survivor” title holder
Xaod Paladin 5 of Hieronius NPC, slowly feeling better as his Con of 4 begins to heal.
The first thing that the party does is meet at the Welcome Wench to fill in the new party members as to the happenings at the moathouse. They rent a private room, so they are not overheard. However, as soon as they are done there Tallis decides to do some information gathering about the cult. Ok, no problem. Tallis goes right up to the bartender, Maridosen, and begins asking about an evil cult in the area, and how he is on a quest to destroy it... Now normally this guy is a good roleplayer, and really careful about how he goes about collecting information, but I get the impression that he is just not taking this seriously yet, so I have Maridosen tell him that she does know something about some strangers in town, but that she doesn’t feel comfortable talking about it here. Could he meet her after midnight underneath the so and so bridge? Tallis rolls sense motive, fails to beat MAridosen’s bluff, and agrees.
Now I know he’s suspicious, because he asks Homarg to come with him, but Homarg refuses. (I don’t think Tallis did a good job of explaining what he was going to do, so Homarg thought he was just going to talk to some people, and didn’t want to intimidate them with his brutish manners)
The other two characters aren’t asked, but they decide to follow him anyways, keeping a discrete distance away. The appointed hour comes, and Tallis goes to meet Maridosen under the bridge, while Morris and Durag wait on top of the bridge, out of sight. Now, Maridosen is a member of the cult, and as such told Chatrillon what was going on, who told the rest of the cult. Dunrat, Vacra and Grune were hiding over the rise of the hill when Tallis got there and Chat was under the bridge invisible. Maridosen was the only cultist visible, and that is pretty much just what Tallis expected. Tallsi began to speak to Maridosen, while Chat moved into position, invisible. Tallis failed a spot check to notice Chat, and a sense motive check to suspect something was up. Chat fired his bow at Tallis, who died instantly from the assassin’s arrow.
The PC’s on the bridge noticed this and jump over the edge of the bridge to try to save Tallis. They land near him, taking a bit of subdual damage from the fall, and surprise Chat and Maridosen. They do serious damage to Chat, Morris with his buffed mace blows, and Durag with magic missiles. Chat begins to climb the hillside to get away from the duo and calls for help from Dunrat. The PC’s both cast spells at Chat, searing light and magic missile, which finish him off. Maridosen ensures Tallis is dead (he is). And Dunrat comes over the top of the hill just in time to see the PC’s kill Chat. He decides not to take any chances and tosses his bead of force the party’s way, entrapping them both! The cultists decide to roll the trapped PC’s down the hill into the river and hightail it while the PC’s float down stream. By the time the PC’s manage to hamster ball the sphere to the shore, and wait for it to dispel, the cult has stripped all of Tallis’s gear, and disappeared.
This incident probably scared the PC’s off the cult in Hommlet, for they never did goto the Mill, even though they had the cultist’s notes about it. So I had to come up with another way of directing them to the CRM. It was several months between this game and our next, so a lot of the details were foggy anyway.
Next entry will detail the party’s exploration of the ToEE, and my take on the hobgoblin battle.
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ArdentAnimal
A cup of coffee
(6/3/03 3:52 pm)
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Approaching the Temple
The party now decided to head to the Temple of Elemental Evil, to determine if that was the source of the threat to the area. Another PC joined ranks today, and Tallis’ player made a new character. The roles where:
Homarg Cleric 5 of Hieronius, now defacto leader of the party.
Xaod the Slayer Paladin 5, (NPC) Homarg’s right hand man, follows faithfully.
Durag Dwarven Wizard 5, from the wizard’s guild in Verbobonc and interested in becoming a Guild Mage soon.
Morris Cleric 5 of Boccob, Played by Mikey’s player
Corbic Monk 5 of Pelor, played by Tallis’ player
Morgan Fighter 5, Specializes in Guisarm, interested in taking the Lancer prestige class
The party heads out for the ghost town of Nulb, despite being warned of it’s evil. It takes them 2 days to reach it, camping just on the edge of the perpetual storm the hovers over the place. As they were looking for a good place to camp a giant spider lunges out of the underbrush, startling their mule who takes off at a run. The party deals with the spider while Corbic goes to catch the mule. Unfortunately the mule runs headlong into a web that was set up across the road further ahead and becomes stuck. As three more giant spiders descend on the hapless beast Corbic calls for help and charges the largest one, knocking it to the ground. The spiders try to nab the mule and run, but Corbic keeps them at bay until the rest of the party can arrive to slay the beasts. It is decided that the camp site should be made a mile or so back up the road, incase more dangers lurk nearby.
The next day the party enters Nulb, a cold sleet begins to fall and the party becomes wet and miserable. They see ghostly wisps of smoke rising from overgrown hovels and decide to take shelter from the bizarre weather in an abandoned hut. They wait hours for the sleet to stop, and were very lucky that the only thing that took notice of them was a pack of wild dogs. Around mid afternoon the party emerged from the hovel. The sky looked dangerously dark and high winds whipped through the evil place, the party was very nervous. They didn’t know exactly were the temple was, and found the road forked in the middle of town. They decided to try to get higher to see if they could spot the temple from here, and the only two story building in Nulb was the old inn, so in they go.
They search around inside for a bit, noticing the chill in the air, but not finding the source. Then, from nowhere Morris is attacked by the ghost of the old innkeep. The ghosts blade goes for Morris’ heart, but Morris is made of stern stuff and fends off the Ghosts attack. (made fort save). The party begins to panic, Corbic heads upstairs to try to accomplish the reason for coming in here, and Morgan, and Durag flee the inn. Morris is attacked by the ghosts again, suffering another vicious wound, as Homarg tries to cleave the ghost, to no effect. Morris raises his holy eye of Boccob and banishes the restless spirit back to the ether. The party is safe, for now…
Upstairs Morris joins Corbic as he examines the only locked door in the inn. They look at each other, and decide to kick the door down. Corbic takes a running jump at the door and it’s flimsy latch snaps, sending Corbic tumbling into the room. He and Morris see a woman looking out the window, and hear her mumbling quietly to herself. “excuse me” says Corbic, not believing a living woman could possibly be living in a haunted inn. The mumbling stops, and the woman turns to face the party. She is a hollow shade of her former self, and long white hair spills out of her dark bonnet. Morris and Corbic begin to back away as the woman lets out a maddening scream and her hair stretches outward towards the duo. Corbic is scared stiff by the apparition (failed save), but Morris was not, and he grabbed Corbic and pulled him out of the room. The white hair grabs the door and slams it shut, leaving the two in silence once again.
Now the rest of the party, feeling the ghost is gone, returns to the inn and go upstairs. Morgan and Corbic goto a window and try to spot the temple (It’s covered a bit by the forest and both roll very poorly), as they are doing this the rest of the party feels the chill that is associated with the ghost Wat. Just as Homarg warns that they have company, Wat manifests and tries to assassinate Homarg, failing, but inflicting a serious blow. Battle rages in the hall as Durag throws volleys of magical missiles at the ghost, but Homarg can’t seem to hurt it and the ghost is wearing him down. Morris fails to turn the spirit this time and, sensing a losing battle, Corbic jumps out the inn’s window. This causes a chain reaction of people scrambling, and literally pushing to try to jump out the window. As he jumps out Durag decides to cast Levitate in order to get the vantage on the temple that is needed. Despite the high winds, he spots it, and lowers himself only a few hundred feet away.
Now the party knows where to go, so they leave Nulb quickly, and make way for the temple. On the way they spot a pair of ogres around the bend in the road, through some scrub. Quickly half the party hides in the woods to the right of the road, and half stay on the road with the mule. As the ogres round the corner and see those on the road, they decide to try to avoid the party by entering the woods. The party in the woods rushed the ogres, who stood back to back to try to defend themselves. Morris decided now was a good time to try to use his Improved Trip technique that he was boasting about, but only ended up losing his guisarme, twice. The Ogres were defeated by Homarg and Durag, with a few blows landed by everyone else. Once victorious the party opened the two large sacks the ogres carried, and found a load of food in one, and water skins in the other. They were somewhat confused by this, but decided to keep the food and continue for the temple. (In my campaign, I had the hobgoblins subservient to Lareth, and these sacks were their weekly delivery of food and water. The ogres are paid by the hobs to deliver it because they don’t like going into town. The PC’s knew none of this)
Finally the Party reached the Temple. It was a massive structure made of black stone, hate and fear. As they closed they noticed movement atop the walls. As they neared a volley of javelins let them know trespassers were not welcome. So what does a band of hotheaded adventurers do? Charge the gate. Javelins flew as the party charged the walls, a few hit, but did hardly any damage. As they ran up to the 10 foot crumbling walls Corbic decided to jump it. And jump it he did, landing right next to two surprised hobgoblins, his foot knocking the first one off the wall as he landed. Not to be out done, Morgan jumped up the other side of the gate, grabbed the top with his arms and pulled himself the rest of the way. The rest of the party took cover behind some large stones in front of the gate. The Hobgoblins tried to counter attack, but they were taking too many casualties, the temple door guards ran halfway out, threw their javelins, and then retreated before the party closed with them. The massive doors of the temple came crashing closed, and the party did not pursue.
The band of adventurers decided to scout out the yard of the temple before testing the main gates, besides, the battles of the day were beginning to wear them down. They climbed on the wall to bypass the thorn bushes (yarpick in my campaign, and boy do my players fear the Yarpick patches), and arrived at the tower. They briefly skirmished with the tower forces before one of the hobgoblins inside called a truce. The hobgoblins explained that they were not allied with the infidels in the temple and would like nothing more than for the party to kill them all. The party was only interested in these hobs to see if they knew of a secret entrance to the temple, and when they didn’t, the party left them in peace.
Next the party searched for a place to hide and rest. They wanted somewhere close so they could keep the hobs from going to far, and they wanted someplace secure. They decided on a ruined building within the walls of the temple. This building had a perfect cellar for fortifying, and, oddly had a second basement accessed via a secret hatch. This subbasement had the renegade hobgoblin adept in it with her two cronies. Who surprised the party as soon as they opened the trap door. A short and brutal battle later the PC’s were throwing the bodies of these three hobs into the yaprick patch, and settling in for the night.
Next update, The Hobgoblin temple battle, and meeting Lareth…
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ArdentAnimal
A cup of coffee
(6/5/03 3:31 pm)
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The Temple Breached
This game session Durag and Morris are out of action due to player’s being away. A new PC joins today, Arlen the Halfling War-Priest.
Arlen Halfling Cleric 5, of (Halfling protector who’s name I can’t remember right now)
The party awakens today and heads out to check on the front gates of the temple. As they emerge from their shelter a flurry of javelins assail Corbic, who catches one and is nicked by another. The hobgoblins where laying in wait for the unsuspecting party to emerge and now release their dogs to harry the party while they continue an assault with javelins. The surprised party take a few more javelin hits, but manage to eliminate the dogs quickly and the 5 hobgoblins fall soon after.
The party moves around to the front of the temple, where they see a Halfling walking purposefully towards the temple. He is Arlen, and wishes to deal a blow against the forces of darkness that have made the Kron Hills such a dangerous place in years past. The party quickly accepts him.
Next they approach the temple, and see it’s massive doors slightly ajar. As Corbick approaches javelins come flying out of the darkness and a crossbow bolt hits him in the hand. The party breaches the temple and move into it’s massive hall. They hear the hobgoblins within moving around in the dark and barking orders, but no one can understand them. Somewhere in the dark heavy chains rattle and a large beast roars in anger. The javelins begin again as the party moves ahead. Arlen lights a bolt with a spell and fires a bolt towards the direction of the javelineers, and a section of hobs using the pillars as cover is revealed. The party surges forth, revealing other bands of hobs as they do so, and split up to deal with the multiple threats. That was nearly folly. The hobgoblin leader, Rarkus and his elite soldiers engage the closest character, and the dire ape is released on the next closest. Kebbich is invisible and begins to heal some of the wounded.
Homarg is having trouble with Rarkus as he keeps Homarg flanked, and scores several solid hits on the war priest. Xoad is battling three hobs and can’t seem to land a blow to save his life. Morgan is cutting through hobs at a steady pace and is almost in position to help Homarg, and Arlen is tossing daggers at any foe who opens himself up. As soon as Morris is clear he spins around and plants his guisarme between Rarkus’s shoulder blades, killing him. The dire Ape jumps after Morgan, and viciously rends him. But Homarg and Morgan flank the beast and kill it before it can do any more harm. Kebbich, seeing his leader is dead, flees invisibly out the doors of the temple. The rest of the hobs are either dispatched or chased off.
The party thoroughly explores the rest of the temple. The free a few slaves, including a bunch of goblins, and examine several of the strange altars that they find. Finally they arrive at Kebbich’s room, and search the chamber, finding a letter from a man named Lareth to Kebbich, instructing him on what supplies will be required over the next month and that they should be brought to the herb shop as they are collected. The name Lareth is somewhat familiar to some of the PC’s, and they decide to check him out, after resting the night in the woods.
The night passes quietly, and the party heads for Nulb again. When they arrive at the old herb shop they debate on the best means of dealing with this Lareth fellow. Homarg wants to kick in the door and beat him down, asking questions only after subduing him. Others want to try to deliver the goods they took off of the ogres a couple days ago to him, and try to talk with him rationally. Xaod wants nothing to do with talking to evil beings and decided to walk down the street and shoo away some wild dogs that have been following the party. The party agrees to deliver the goods and knock on the door, someone calls out “we have your food here, come out!” A voice, weak and muffled replies after a few moments “leave it there, and go…”
Undaunted the party knocks again telling the man that if he wants the supplies he needs to answer the door. After a long time, and many muffled sounds of banging and rustling, the door opens, revealing a man in a long black cloak, hood draped low over his face. “Leave the goods and go” He breathes, then begins to slam the door. Corbic sticks his foot in the door and pushes it open threateningly, and Lareth leaps back across the room, shadowy images dancing across the room that resemble giant spider legs a little too closely… This makes the party think twice before threatening violence, and they quickly try to defuse the situation with words. (diplomacy check success)
Lareth speaks to them, guarding every word like a precious treasure, he is calm and quiet until they mention the name Lareth the Beautiful. At this he flies into a rage, ripping off his hood and revealing his hideous visage. He rants about the price of following fools and their worshipers, and how one day soon the witch who did this to him would pay. The party asks about the Temple and the cultists of the EEE. Lareth quiets down at this, and says he can help them answer their questions, but they must pay a price, the first of many that they will have to pay before the end. The party agrees to pay Lareth with a box of ten bloodstones that they found in the temple. He agrees and tells them that the answers they seek can be found at the Temple of All Consumption, an evil and twisted place found in the mountains south of Rastor. With that he went silent, save for his eyes, which seemed to dare the party to ask more. They did not.
After returning to Hommlet the party discreetly asked for directions to Rastor. Homarg sent a messenger to Verbobonc, telling of all they have found, and requesting additional aid be sent to Rastor. (a means to recruit new party members?) With that done the party spent their gold on scrolls and potions, and set out for Rastor.
Next time the party seeks out the CRM
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 Infiniti2000
A guitar
(6/5/03 4:20 pm)
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ezSupporter
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Re: The Temple Breached
Very cool! Love the logs, please keep them up! I like what you did with Lareth and the hobs; it certainly seems like you guys are having fun. 
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ArdentAnimal
A cup of coffee
(6/6/03 4:03 pm)
Reply
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Re: The Breach of the CRM
I am having a lot of fun running this campaign. It’s the best module I have ever run, and also has a lot of room for customization. I’ll post another log now, but if I keep up at this pace, I’ll run out of logs soon!!
The Breach of The CRM was a short session, and we were down a lot of players. The party consisted of:
Homarg Cleric 6 of Hieronius. With his massive AC and to hit numbers he is the tank of the party, nearly unstoppable!
Xaod Paladin 6 of Hieronius (NPC) This level I gave him Divine Might from the DotF, his damage was just pathetic without it.
Morgan Fighter 6, Uses Improved Trip with his guisarme, unfortunately it fails as often as it succeeds.
Corbic Monk 6, Uses spring attack to stay very mobile during a fight, quite annoying 
The party had arrived in Rastor after a 10 day hike through the hills. They immediately began asking for a place called Mt. Stagalos, recalling the name from Lareth. They were greeted by a severe looking dwarf who told them he could guide them through the mountains and get them to Stagalos. “Only an igit would wander around up there without a guide, you aint igits are ya?” asked the dwarf. The party agreed to pay the dwarf 10 gold now and 20 more once they reached Stagalos, and the dwarf accepted. They never bothered to get his name.
(I missed the fact that Stagalos was only six miles from Rastor, I measured it out to a 2 ˝ day hike through the mountains).
During the trip the dwarf was very surly, to the edge of being insulting. He always had a black mood and would criticize and belittle for the slightest errors. After the first day of this the party became annoyed with the dwarf and had some nasty words with him to the tune of “Shut up until we reach Stagalos or we will shut you up”. The dwarf shut up, but devised a plan to kill the party. On the last day, as they were heading out, the party noticed the dwarf was constantly looking at the sky, as if searching for something. After another hour he began to make strange bird-like calls. The party asked him to stop it, but he ignored them and called again. Morgan threatened him with violence, daring him to make the noise again, but the damage was already done, Cobric shouted in alarm as a large winged gryphon descended from a ledge, diving right for the mule. Morgan and Homarg went to defend the mule, fortunately the gryphon was only hungry and when challenged with steel and bloodied it flew away. By this time the dwarf had begun to run away, but Corbick easily caught him and knocked him down. Morgan ran over and was about to finish him when Xaod stepped in and said that the dwarf was beaten, it was not right to kill him. So they tied the dwarf to mule, and crested the hill they were on, and beheld Stagalos.
Descending the hill they found a track that lead around the mountain, and eventually lead to a mountain cave. The cave had narrow arrow slits carved from it, and a large pair of iron bound doors with a large metal knocker. After a brief discussion the party knocked on the door. After a moment it slid open a crack, and the shaggy face of a gnoll stared out. The party began to try to speak to the creature, but it had none of that and slammed the door shut. After exchanging a glance and a shrug, the party knocked again. This time a human answered the door. The party began to explain to him that their “friend” (the dwarf), had had an accident and needed a healer. The door guard told them that they were not a hospital and didn’t look after the injured. The party asked if they could just come in to seek shelter. The guard was about to let them in (successful diplomacy check), and just asked the parties names. Each in turn told their name, until they reached Homarg, who said “I am Homarg, and I am on a quest for Hieronius to smite evil!” The guard balked at this, and tried to excuse himself to “check on something”. Cobric felt the jig was up and shouted “Get him!!” ( Later the joke that went around the table was right out of Ghostbusters “Get him? Your plan was Get Him!?”)
The party yanked the guard out through the doors and barged into the main hall. Several other guards were loitering in the hall and were surprised by the parties sudden action. In a lightning blitz the party slew the guards, beginning to make their way for the bronzewood doors at the end of the hall. Gnolls began to pour out of the side halls next, and the party turned to deal with them. A loud bell was rung in alarm and the party girded themselves for a pitched battle. Soon Morgan and Xaod were handling one flank, while Homarg and Corbic were dealing with the other. Archers began to fill in behind the gnolls and the party tried to push past the gnolls to get at the archers. The battle was turning the party’s way when the bronzewood doors opened and a monstrous beast came howling down the hall. (I neglected the fact that Mereclar was supposed to be riding it, oh well) Morgan turned to face the beast and was surprised by it’s ferocity. Teeth and spines dug into his flesh and he called for help. Corbic jumped on the beasts back, and then off again as he realized the quills of the beast made unarmed attacks difficult (house rule). Homarg was dealing with a mixed group of 6 troops and couldn’t disengage, and Xaod was holding the hall to the north. Next out of the doors came an ogre and a squad of gnolls, and the party began to consider retreating. They pulled back to form a unified line against the attackers, but Corbic was caught by Wormspikes huge club as he crossed infront of the brute. In one hit, Corbic’s skull was cracked, and he lay dead at the Ogre’s feet. (One critical hit by Wormsike and that was the end of him)
More guards came out of the Bronze wood doors, this time they were archers and began to set up two rows of bows behind the gnolls, waiting for an opening. Homarg charged the ogre, to get vengeance for his fallen comrade, and nearly cut the beast in half with his axe (Another critical hit!). Morgan battled the Howler and wounded it viciously, but was wounded severely in turn. Xaod fell back to Morgan, saying that the hallway he was defending was beginning to fill with zombies. Arrows and gnolls flew at Homarg, most of which were turned aside, and Homarg began cleaving through 2 gnolls a round. Morgan finally dropped the Howler and then crouched behind it’s corpse for cover from the archers. Xoad turned the Zombies as they piled into the Hall and they began to get jammed into the hall, as some tried to flee and others tried to advance. The front row of archers drew swords and shields and protected the rest from attack. Homarg rushed to turn the zombies properly, under a hail of arrows, and destroyed most of them, catching a glimpse of a cloaked figure directing them from the back. Morgan ran at the soldiers guarding the archers and tried to break them, but the soldiers defensive stance held (Full Defense), Morgan winced as arrows tore his flesh. Xaod rushed up to heal Morgan, taking arrow fire for his trouble.
Morgan altered his tactics and used the hook on his guisame to pull one of the soldiers out of position (trip), and slay him as he fell. Xoad joined the fray, trying to push himself into the holes that Morgan made, to slay the archers. Homarg turned the remaining Zombies as evil magic began to assail him, he had found his target!. Now that Morgan had found a weakness in the Archers line the order was given for the archers to draw steel and surround the attackers. Surprised by the competency of the archers in melee, Morgan and Xoad had a their hands full while Homarg battled Terrenygit. Homarg rushed the cleric and found his protections too strong to breach, fortunately the foe had a similar problem. As the soldiers in the main hall slowly dwindled, and Morgan dealt what he thought was mortal blow to their leader, he broke off to help Homarg, and Terrenygit fell back to an archway to avoid being flanked. Homarg bull rushed Terrenygit into the room, so they could surround him, and after a few moments of tense fighting, Morgan tripped Terrenygit and Homarg dealt him two killing blows. Meanwhile Xoad has put down or chased off the remaining soldiers, and Mereclar (who had feigned death after a massive blow from Morgan) had snuck away. The battle was won.
Next the party is joined by the rest of their comrades and the Earth temple is attacked.
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Infiniti2000
A guitar
(6/6/03 9:10 pm)
Reply
ezSupporter
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Re: The Breach of the CRM
"In one hit, Corbic’s skull was cracked, and he lay dead at the Ogre’s feet. (One critical hit by Wormsike and that was the end of him)"
I don't mean to poke fun at your player, but I'm betting his last words were, "Don't worry about the attack of opportunity, I have mobility."
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