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msherman
Crimson Coil Cultist
(1/18/04 6:41 am)
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A Death in the family
We had our second death in yesterday's session... the first one since leaving hommlet. It was completely avoidable, and rather depressing.
The party has received a letter from Varachan urging them to enter the Outer Fane (for the first time) via the Air Bridge, then turn right to reach him. They make their way through the CRM to the air bridge complex, which they'd cleared months ago. Much to their surprise, the complex looks completely different, now. The preists of the Water temple have excavated out the rooms, tearing down walls and digging out the floor down to below the level of the Stalagos, flooding the entire complex. They've also populated it with a Fiendish Giant Squid, at the orders of the Outer Fane, to protect the bridge from attack in the face of Oamarthis' defeat. Finally, the bridge-head itself collapsed in the excavation -- the bridge dead-ends Dukes of Hazard style fifty feet out into the Stalagos.
The party spends quite a lot of time examining the complex from both doors, each of which has a steep shore where the excavation ended. They're not particularly subtle, and the squid knows exactly where they are. Suddenly, they're surprised by a stirring behind them; Moolowik has been watching them. He throws his hands in the air, and says in a gurgly voice that he comes in peace. He begs the party to let him join them on their quest to extract vengeance against the outer fane. He explains to the party that the water temple was completely slaughtered by the Beast (Infinitus, whom the party recognizes from his description) at the command of the masters of the Fane. Moolowik was the only survivor. Cyr, the party rogue (ah, who am I kidding, he's a Thief in the grand ol' 1ed tradition) under the influence of his Ring of Invisibility, robs Moolowik of his gold, and they send him on his way, after he informs them about what lurks in the water. They then return to their shrine to rest for the day, because they have crafted a plan to cross the cave and the stalagos that will require Hamish the Cleric to be fully rested.
The next morning, they return to the bridge complex. Again, they're not subtle, calling out Moolowik's name repeatedly looking for him. The squid knows where they are. Hamish casts Wind Walk (!) on the party, using his only non-domain 6th level spell. The party then floats leisurely through the caverns of the air-bridge complex, at ground level (20' above the water level -- I asked twice for confirmation). Note that at this point the party already knows that the cieling is another 20' up (which would put them outside the squid's reach), as Cyr had previously levitated up to the ceiling to examine the area. Up until this point, I was fully prepared to give the party a CR11 worth of XP without a fight, for completely avoiding the squid. Alas.
As they float forward into the squid's reach, it takes a surprise round attack, lashing a tentacle at the Barbarian Shalathal. The fiendish squid gets through the DR 10/magic granted by the Wind Walk, and the tentacle easily hits by virtue of Wind Walk's AC reductions. Initiative is rolled, and Shalathal rolls a 1, putting her just behind the squid. The remaining party members use the fast-move option of Wind Walk, zipping across the caverns to the cave-mouth opening onto the Stalagos; the first one to move (Sir Chase the Brave, Knight of the Hart (Furyondy), Redeemer of Fragarach, Friend to King Belvor IV), draws an AOO from the Squid, which hits again. By the time the Squid's turn comes around, no-one's there but the Barbarian... with her current depressed AC, she's only missed on a one. I pull out my five d20s, roll them twice in the open; all of them hit. I grab my Champions bag of d6's, and roll damage -- something on the order of 110hp; the Barbarian is unconscious (though stable, thanks to the Periapt of Wound Closure which the King of Furyondy gave her not two days before) and 3hp away from death.
Sir Chase valiantly zips back across the cave, taking an AOO, trying to draw the squid away from Shalathal's floating body. The squid throws a single tentacle at Shalathal, and then moves towards Chase. I roll it in the open, and it comes up a 1 -- the party exclaims in delight. Meanwhile, the spell casters (Hamish and Cyr, who has a few levels of Wizard and a wand of Lightning), have started the long 5 round process of re-materializing from Wind Walk form, so that they can blast the squid. Sadly, I can't roll 1's 5 rounds in a row, and the next round Shalathal's windy form is dissipated, and her corpse rematerializes and plunges into the water below. Depressed, the party mops up the squid (nearly destroying Shalathal's corpse and now-unattended gear with a poorly placed Blade Barrier, but I give Hamish a spot check to notice where her body fell), and drives it off at ~20hp. I give them half XP at this point, because they still have to face the squid again tomorrow if they want to cross the air bridge. Chase swims into the water and retrieves Shalathal's corpse, and they put it in their Portable Hole and return to their shrine in the Dwarven temple.
With a tear in his eye, Hamish pulls out his prized possession, a Scroll of True Resurrection which had been given to him by the Patriarch of Pelor, Bishop Loridian of Verbobonc, when they told him about the impending threat of Tharizdun. An 11th level cleric, Hamish needs to roll a 7 to successfully use this scroll. Needless to say, he rolls a 6.  Cursing the gods, he withdraws his only remaining means of restoring Shalathal this day, the scroll of Raise Dead he took from Tessimon (I think that's where he got it). Conveniently, Shalthal's player still has her level 10 character sheet handy. 
The session wasn't a total loss, though -- the next morning, the party returns to the air bridge complex, and tries the same plan, only this time, they float up to the ceiling before crossing the cavern. The squid thrusts one tentacle up in to the air clenched into a fist, gurgles "You meddling kids!" in Abyssal, and I make a big show of crossing a CR9 off their XP tally and replacing it with a CR11.
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Thrommel
Runechild (mod)
Council of Magisters
(1/18/04 8:43 am)
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Re: A Death in the family
Bummer. Wind walk is powerful, but you need to be careful not to get into a fight because materializing takes SO long.
One quick question: Molowik is a Kuo-Toa. Unless something particularly tricky happened, he should have been able to see the invisible thief.
-Thrommel, who hates to see a good kuo-toa get kicked when he's down.
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msherman
Crimson Coil Cultist
(1/18/04 8:32 pm)
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Re: A Death in the family
Yup, you're right, I completely missed that part of the Kuo-Toa description. I wish it had just said "See Invisibility" instead of "Keen Sight", which means something completely different (and much less powerful) on Dragons and other creatures. Oh well, it's a good thing that it wasn't a significant encounter, and all the other Kuo-Toa's have been eaten by Infinitus already.
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 Infiniti2000
Brother of Venom
(1/18/04 8:48 pm)
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ezSupporter
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Re: A Death in the family
They should just be glad you didn't kill Chase. With the improved grab ability, the attacks of opportunity surely should have caught him. It's possible to fail, I suppose, but the odds were against Chase.
One question, though, is the squid smart enough to recognize the clouds as enemies?
On the other hand, why didn't the cleric just dismiss the spell? That would be an instantaneous spell. You only spend the 5 rounds if you wish to maintain the spell. I figure they were in such dire straights that dismissal would be called for.
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msherman
Crimson Coil Cultist
(1/18/04 8:56 pm)
Reply
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Re: A Death in the family
I initially did have the squid grab them, but then ruled that their gaseous forms rendered the grab unusable against them; the squid could damage them ignoring their DR due to it's fiendish nature, but they could just seep out of it's tentacles when it tried to grab them.
As for dismissing the spell, I wish I knew. He certainly knew he could do it before hand. I think they were too married to the plan to use the Wind Walk to get across the bridge "safely". It really isn't a Tactical spell, but they seem intent on trying to use it that way. Hopefully they'll live and learn.
As for recognizing the clouds as enemies, it was commanded to attack anything in the complex, and fiendish creatures have dog-like intelligence so I think it would be worked into an attacking fit by a ghost-like presence, personally.
Edited by: msherman at: 1/23/04 3:28 am
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msherman
Crimson Coil Cultist
(1/21/04 8:12 am)
Reply
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Re: A Death in the family
I almost forgot the funniest/saddest part of this story... after rolling a 6 and destroying the True Resurrection scroll, Hamish rolled a _2_ on the Wisdom check vs. backlash. Thankfully, with his 20 wisdom, 2 was enough.
I don't know what I would have done if he'd hit that 1, though... perhaps this.
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Cordo Crowfoot
Deathmantle Cultist
(1/22/04 3:09 am)
Reply
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Re: A Death in the family
I was under the impression that if you failed to activate and there wasn't a mishap then the scroll wasn't expended. I could be very wrong though.
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msherman
Crimson Coil Cultist
(1/22/04 4:10 pm)
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Re: A Death in the family
Really? That'd make a _big_ difference to the party; this scroll was their single most expensive item of treasure to date, and Shalathal's lost level hurts.
So, if failing to activate doesn't consume the scroll, then when not under time pressure you can just keep retrying until you either activate successfully, or mishap?
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Infiniti2000
Brother of Venom
(1/22/04 6:52 pm)
Reply
ezSupporter
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Re: A Death in the family
Yup, just like disabling a trap. Or, is it picking pockets?
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Cordo Crowfoot
Deathmantle Cultist
(1/23/04 2:10 am)
Reply
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Re: A Death in the family
I think you can try as many times as you want. Oh and I did locate the specific reference on this rule. The 3.5 FAQ under "Scrolls".
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msherman
Crimson Coil Cultist
(1/23/04 3:05 am)
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Re: A Death in the family
I'm pretty sure that St. Cordo the Crowfooted will go down in history as one of Pelor's most venerated Guardinals, if Hamish has anything to say about it.
Sorry, I2k, but Infinitus' place in history is already decided...
I'm going to send the link to this thread to my players, so no more spoilers in this thread please...
Edited by: msherman at: 1/23/04 3:10 am
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Cordo Crowfoot
Deathmantle Cultist
(1/23/04 3:21 am)
Reply
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Re: A Death in the family
My pleasure!  No cash, just burned offerings of jiaozi/gyoza/pot stickers, please!
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msherman
Crimson Coil Cultist
(1/23/04 5:05 am)
Reply
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Re: A Death in the family
Gordon, it looks like we'll be ordering from Ichiban again next weekend, in that case!
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Infiniti2000
Brother of Venom
(1/23/04 7:24 am)
Reply
ezSupporter
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Re: A Death in the family
"Sorry, I2k, but Infinitus' place in history is already decided... "
LOL! No problem! Btw, for any of msherman's players who are reading this, Infinitus kicked the crap out of my players (3/6 dead), so consider yourselves fortunate! 
"Gordon, it looks like we'll be ordering from Ichiban again next weekend, in that case!"
I didn't realize Ichiban was a chain. We have one in downtown Orlando. The best Japanese food around.
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msherman
Crimson Coil Cultist
(1/23/04 2:46 pm)
Reply
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Re: A Death in the family
Heh. Nope, not a chain, just a common name for a Japanese restaurant. It means "best", I think.
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Cordo Crowfoot
Deathmantle Cultist
(1/23/04 2:55 pm)
Reply
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Re: A Death in the family
Ichiban specifically means "number one", most often "the best" but not always. I remember once visiting Himeji Castle and a souvenier vendor in the town outside lit onto me and my friend Chinese-style (Japanese usually aren't that agressive) trying to sell us "Ichiban" t-shirts. He kept saying "Ichiban! Number One!" over and over to us, and finally I turned to him and said, "Yeah, I'll be 'Ichiban baka' (the number one fool) if I buy that shirt from you after you harassed us so much."
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