There was a portion of the road that narrowed between some rocks, forcing the party to stop and guide the lizards through one at a time. The wererats, which had been hiding among the rocks, sprang and ambush. One dozen wererats, to the sides, and fourteen giant rats behind. It may have seemed like a lot, but Sarril was able to quickly take out the 1/2 HD rats with an area of effect spell, allowing the melee fighters to finish off the were rats, which didn't take long at all. The party debated for some time whether or not to explore the side tunnels to look for their nest, but in the end, decided to keep moving, and thus ended their first encounter.
Three days passed. It is now the 9th day of Redy'reat, and the party came across an enormous cavern. 300 ft. across, at least, with ceilings almost as high. Everything was slightly illuminated phosphorescent lichen, and the party could see that there were multiple ways out of the cavern. About halfway across the middle, they were shot at by longbows from archers far away on a shelf. The attackers were bugbears, and while they were too far away to throw daggers, Dalron pulled out a longbow of his own and was able to take them out. Two more began shooting from another shelf, so Sarril cast Fly on Dalron so he can fly up and finish them off with thrown daggers. That's when the drow mage showed up. Sarril spotted him up on the shelf beginning to cast a spell, and, using a held action, he activated Minor Globe of Invulnerability from his staff, which has a 10 ft. radius, protecting everyone around the cart from the incoming fireball. Everyone except one of the lizards, that is. Dalron was able to fly over to the wizard and kill him before he got off another spell.
With only one lizard to pull the cart, things were moving slower. The party decided to allow Dalron to fly ahead, carrying Sebastian with him as a look-out (using Sebastian's infravision). Entering a cavern to the northwest, they smelled a horrible smell of death that caused Dalron to begin retching. In the cavern below were no less than 40 ghouls and ghasts. Dalron turn and flew back toward the party, with the undead horde chasing. Sarril cast a Wall of Force across a narrow portion of the tunnel, causing the horde to crash into it like a scene out of World War Z. Sarril then tossed a fireball over the wall, destroying the entire horde. Dalron, still flying, then searched the remaining side caverns, throwing daggers at any remaining ghouls.
The next encounter was more difficult. Up on high shelves on either side of the next cavern were 24 gargoyles, 12 per side. The gargoyles were not reacting to the party, but that just made things suspicious, so Dalron and Sebastian flew up to one of the shelves and Dalron pushed one of the gargoyles off the ledge. The gargoyle, and the other 11 on the shelf, all came to life and attacked.
Gargoyles are fairly low HD creatures and they don't do a lot of damage, but they get four attacks each, and when a lot of them are swarming, the damage starts to add up. Soon, the other 12 gargoyles were awake and joined the fight, causing the party to be swarmed by more than 20 at a time. Sebastian blew the Iron Horn of Valhalla, summoning two berserk warriors to the shelf he was on while Dalron flew down to join the rest of the party. It took some time to kill all of the gargoyles, and a lot of damage was taken due to the sheer number of attacks, but the party survived. As it turns out, the gargoyles knew better than to attack drow, and had no interest in attacking the party that were dressed like drow, so this was an encounter that could have been avoided, but hey, they got some EXP.
The party decided not to search the area, preferring instead to make use the of the limited time they had with the Fly spell to explore as much as possible. Heading around to the west and then south, they found a small, humanoid sized tunnel with terraced steps leading down. Dalron decided to explore, flying just above the floor to avoid traps. The tunnel was dark ahead, and tossing a Continual Light coin into the darkness did not change that. Realizing this was magical darkness, he asked Sarril to dispel it, but the dispel failed. Pressing forward into the darkness, Dalron triggered a magic mouth warning declaring that the tunnel up ahead has collapsed and is unsafe. Dalron took that to mean that there must be something interesting up ahead that someone doesn't want the party to stumble into, and therefore they should all move forward. He asked Sarril to try a second time to dispel the darkness. He did and it worked the second time.
There was then an argument that took place between the party members, led by Dalron on one side and Sarril on the other. Sarril believed that some very powerful magic-user must be located inside the tunnel (a lich, Sebastian postulated) and should be left alone. Dalron believed that such a powerful being would not need to issue such basic warnings, and that this was likely something trying to appear powerful. In the end, the entire party, except for Sarril, decided to go into the tunnel. They emerged in a cavern where almost everywhere they stepped, they tripped a Magic Mouth warning. At one end of the cavern were three illithids, but the illithids didn't attack. They were shackled to columns, and each one had a small spike driven into its forehead. They looked to be writhing in pain.
The party realized that whatever could do that to illithids was definitely too much for them to handle, so they ran out of the cavern as fast as they could.
Continuing to explore the cavern, they eventually came across a pen containing pack lizards, which must belong to the drow who use them. Casting Animal Friendship, Sebastian took one of the lizards and connected it to the cart, making it fully functional again.
The final encounter of the session came shortly thereafter. In a nearby sub-cavern was a contingent of drow. Four male fighters with a male commander, and eight female fighters with a female commander. The female commander was riding a nightmare and holding a wicked looking magical lance. Recognizing that the odds were a bit overwhelming, Sarril summoned two, five-headed hydras while Sebastian summoned a fire elemental. These summoned creatures would buy the team the time they needed to squeeze out a victory.
While the male fighters were quickly dispatched, the female fighters proved to be tougher and more capable. Using atlatls, they hurled poisoned spears at Dalron and Shan-Ju, knocking them unconscious pretty early in the battle. Sebastian and Sarril, using the additional time bought by the summoned creatures, were able to cast Neutralize Poison to bring them back up just as the female fighters brought down the hydras. In the meantime, the new dwarf fighter, Tyril, along with the fire elemental, decimated the male troops, including the commander. A now awake Shan-Ju began tearing into the female fighters and Dalron started throwing daggers with terrifying effect at female commander, as Sebastian followed up, throwing a javelin of lightning, nearly killing her.
Enraged, the female commander charged at Dalron, striking him with lance for double damage. The physical damage from the lance was minimal, but the secondary magical damage was severe. Dalron made a save vs. poison and avoided the most devastating effects, then flew into the air and threw more daggers. At this point, the commander was almost dead, and had only one round to do something. She threw the lance at Dalron, rolling a critical and striking him in the chest. Although he took a severe amount of damage, he made his save vs. poison, and avoided the worst secondary effects of the lance, and thus lives another day. After that, with only a couple of hit points left, the party was able to bring the commander down. At that point, the remaining fight with the few female fighters that stood was easy.
We left off here, having overrun our scheduled session by an hour. It is late afternoon (or so is the party can guess) on the 9th Day of Ready'reat, CY 580.
The next encounter was more difficult. Up on high shelves on either side of the next cavern were 24 gargoyles, 12 per side. The gargoyles were not reacting to the party, but that just made things suspicious, so Dalron and Sebastian flew up to one of the shelves and Dalron pushed one of the gargoyles off the ledge. The gargoyle, and the other 11 on the shelf, all came to life and attacked.
Gargoyles are fairly low HD creatures and they don't do a lot of damage, but they get four attacks each, and when a lot of them are swarming, the damage starts to add up. Soon, the other 12 gargoyles were awake and joined the fight, causing the party to be swarmed by more than 20 at a time. Sebastian blew the Iron Horn of Valhalla, summoning two berserk warriors to the shelf he was on while Dalron flew down to join the rest of the party. It took some time to kill all of the gargoyles, and a lot of damage was taken due to the sheer number of attacks, but the party survived. As it turns out, the gargoyles knew better than to attack drow, and had no interest in attacking the party that were dressed like drow, so this was an encounter that could have been avoided, but hey, they got some EXP.
The party decided not to search the area, preferring instead to make use the of the limited time they had with the Fly spell to explore as much as possible. Heading around to the west and then south, they found a small, humanoid sized tunnel with terraced steps leading down. Dalron decided to explore, flying just above the floor to avoid traps. The tunnel was dark ahead, and tossing a Continual Light coin into the darkness did not change that. Realizing this was magical darkness, he asked Sarril to dispel it, but the dispel failed. Pressing forward into the darkness, Dalron triggered a magic mouth warning declaring that the tunnel up ahead has collapsed and is unsafe. Dalron took that to mean that there must be something interesting up ahead that someone doesn't want the party to stumble into, and therefore they should all move forward. He asked Sarril to try a second time to dispel the darkness. He did and it worked the second time.
There was then an argument that took place between the party members, led by Dalron on one side and Sarril on the other. Sarril believed that some very powerful magic-user must be located inside the tunnel (a lich, Sebastian postulated) and should be left alone. Dalron believed that such a powerful being would not need to issue such basic warnings, and that this was likely something trying to appear powerful. In the end, the entire party, except for Sarril, decided to go into the tunnel. They emerged in a cavern where almost everywhere they stepped, they tripped a Magic Mouth warning. At one end of the cavern were three illithids, but the illithids didn't attack. They were shackled to columns, and each one had a small spike driven into its forehead. They looked to be writhing in pain.
The party realized that whatever could do that to illithids was definitely too much for them to handle, so they ran out of the cavern as fast as they could.
Continuing to explore the cavern, they eventually came across a pen containing pack lizards, which must belong to the drow who use them. Casting Animal Friendship, Sebastian took one of the lizards and connected it to the cart, making it fully functional again.
The final encounter of the session came shortly thereafter. In a nearby sub-cavern was a contingent of drow. Four male fighters with a male commander, and eight female fighters with a female commander. The female commander was riding a nightmare and holding a wicked looking magical lance. Recognizing that the odds were a bit overwhelming, Sarril summoned two, five-headed hydras while Sebastian summoned a fire elemental. These summoned creatures would buy the team the time they needed to squeeze out a victory.
While the male fighters were quickly dispatched, the female fighters proved to be tougher and more capable. Using atlatls, they hurled poisoned spears at Dalron and Shan-Ju, knocking them unconscious pretty early in the battle. Sebastian and Sarril, using the additional time bought by the summoned creatures, were able to cast Neutralize Poison to bring them back up just as the female fighters brought down the hydras. In the meantime, the new dwarf fighter, Tyril, along with the fire elemental, decimated the male troops, including the commander. A now awake Shan-Ju began tearing into the female fighters and Dalron started throwing daggers with terrifying effect at female commander, as Sebastian followed up, throwing a javelin of lightning, nearly killing her.
Enraged, the female commander charged at Dalron, striking him with lance for double damage. The physical damage from the lance was minimal, but the secondary magical damage was severe. Dalron made a save vs. poison and avoided the most devastating effects, then flew into the air and threw more daggers. At this point, the commander was almost dead, and had only one round to do something. She threw the lance at Dalron, rolling a critical and striking him in the chest. Although he took a severe amount of damage, he made his save vs. poison, and avoided the worst secondary effects of the lance, and thus lives another day. After that, with only a couple of hit points left, the party was able to bring the commander down. At that point, the remaining fight with the few female fighters that stood was easy.
We left off here, having overrun our scheduled session by an hour. It is late afternoon (or so is the party can guess) on the 9th Day of Ready'reat, CY 580.
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