1st Day of Brewfest, CY 580 - The Party Divides

While the party was in Verbobonc, each of the player characters went about taking care of separate business. The next two days in the city were played online so that we could have a more productive session in person. A summary of events over these two days were:

Jarrus

• Jarrus accepted knighthood and lands granted by Lord Wilfrick. He specifically requested the lands surrounding the Temple of Elemental Evil and Nulb so that he could build a keep and convert the once evil place into a prosperous town
• Jarrus also met with the high priests at the Temple of Trithereon and managed to convince them to restore an ancient order of knighthood associated with the church called the Guardians. Jarrus was named First Guardian and committed to recruiting others to the cause. The church, in return, agreed to shift its focus to take a more active role in combating the growing threat of Iuz. Additionally, he gave the church enough gold to arrange the transportation of Janziduur, the High Priestess of Trithereon in Greyhawk (with whom Jarrus had developed an intimate relationship) and the refugees that were under Janziduur's care. The church agreed to send a replacement priest to take over Jaziduur's position in Greyhawk, and to send four clerics with him to his new lands to help get the keep established and spread the word of Trithereon.
•  Jarrus asked some dwarven builders to build his keep and that required doing a land survey so that a proposal could be put together. Jarrus was now responsible for escorting 4 dwarven surveyors and 6 assistants to his lands, in addition to the refugees that arrive from Greyhawk
• Jarrus also commissioned the building of a boat that would allow travel from Verbobonc, along the Velverdyva, and south down Imeryd's Run to Nulb (or what used to be Nulb)

Sarril

• Sarril turned over the names of all of the Temple of Elemental Evil agents that were operating in Verbobonc to the Viscount through Otis (a document previously uncovered in the temple had this information)



Prince Jimm

• Additionally, Sarril met with Prince Jimm, the gnomish ambassador and showed him the gnome friendship ring that was given to him by the gnome merchant. The prince invited him to dinner and Sarril was able to ask about why so many agents of Iuz and the Temple were asking about a gnome named Lysander. Prince Jimm was able to tell the story of Lysander - a gnomish adventurer who made bold claims about the discovery of mythical places and things. Some time ago, Lysander took an expedition party to some ruins or dungeon somewhere in Perrenland and when he returned, he wasn't the same - unable to speak or care for himself. The gnomes of the Kron Hills took him in, until agents of the temple started showing up looking for him. When no answers were given, gnomes started getting kidnapped and tortured. Prince Jimm took it upon himself to hide Lysander somewhere in Verbobonc where he could be cared for in secret. This is something that very few people know, and that was only shared with Sarril due to the trust instilled by the ring.

Pontus

Callista Thornheart - Seer

• Pontus went in search of a seer that he was told may be able to scry on his people and show him what is happening in his homeland. He was shown many things, one of which was a heavily tattooed man handing over what looked like a black shard to men in black robes. The man accepting the shard had tattoo of a fang with a teardrop under it on his forearm. The black robed man handed something back to the heavily tattooed man, but when Pontus tried to look closer at it, a black spider leaped toward him, and the water in the scrying pool was disturbed. The seer then said “There are powerful forces at play. Someone does not want you to see something. You should not have come here. Leave my home. NOW!" as thousands of black spiders began filling the room. Pontus ran from the hut, deeply disturbed by the experience.

Cadwin

• Cadwin went in search of druids of the Gnarley Forest, which led him to Oakvein (technically in the Welkwood) where he met the sylvan elf protectors of the great tree. They told him the story of the black shard that once poisoned the trees nearby and how the Enchantress Alyndra and her apprentice, Athan, once took the shard to Jaroo in Hommlet. Interested in learning more, Cadwin then flew toward Hommlet.
• On his way to Hommlet, an extremely large, ancient green dragon named Chausticlorinus intercepted Cadwin. The great dragon was prepared to consume Cadwin, who was trying to talk his way out of the situation. Eventually, the dragon realized that Cadwin could be useful in delivering a message, and so gave a message to Cadwin to give to the Lords Rufus and Burne. It turns out that the green dragon that the two supposedly slew to that earned them their titles and lands was never actually slain. Rufus and Burne had been paying off the dragon to keep it satiated, but recently have been missing payments, and the dragon was planning retribution if payments were not caught up soon.
• In Hommlet, Cadwin met with Jaroo and learned that most of the village had been rebuilt. He also asked about the black shards and was told about the large black bubble in Istivin that Delvin and Kella were sent to investigate, believing it to be related.

The Great Chaustichlorinus - ancient green dragon

Luapan

• Luapan left the group for a few days to visit with the Temple of Celestian in the nearby Kron Hills (his player has out doing fun summer things).

The party also met three new players characters - Othmar the magic user, apprentice of Juehlim who also has some sort of association with Drawmij, Dalron Sharpe, the ranger, and Dardac Kosk, the other ranger. Both rangers were part of Gareth's party back in the day, but had broken up after Gareth's disappearance. Having heard that the party rescued Gareth and adventured with him for a while (before he was eventually killed), they wanted to meet the group.

During this time, Jarrus also confronted Rufus and Burne about their scam related to the dragon. They insisted they had no choice, as the dragon proved far too powerful to be slain, and any attempts to do so now would only enrage it and it would take vengeance out on the people of Verbobonc. They did agree that it was wrong of them to keep this information from Lord Wilfrick and that they were now in over their heads. They agreed to come clean with the Viscount and accept whatever he decides. Cadwin spied on the meeting in the form of a bat. It was certainly uncomfortable for the two petty nobles, but in the end, Lord Wilfrick agreed to make the payments to the dragon while sending Rufus and Burne on a mission to discover a weakness so that it may eventually be slain.

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Sarril was not interested in helping Jarrus establish his keep and felt the mission to Istivin was too important and could no longer be delayed. Pontus, after having experienced the vision with the seer, agreed to go with Sarril, as did Luapan, for reasons provided by his temple. After speaking with Jaroo and learning about the black shards, Cadwin expressed interest in going with Sarril, as did one of the new rangers, Dalron Sharpe. Sarril turned in his favor with Lord Wilfrick to have the archmage Juehlim teleport Sarril, Cadwin, Pontus, Luapan and Dalron to Hochoch on the border between the Dutchy of Geoff and the Gran March, where they could take the Javan River south to Istivin.

This left Jarrus, Othmar and Dardac to escort the surveyors and clerics down to Nulb. So this brings us to the 1st Day of Brewfest, the day after the ship building was complete. Janziduur and the refugees had arrived a week earlier and were being sheltered at the Temple of Trithereon. One of the refugees turned out to be a ship captain, and was able to help oversee the completion of the boat and help coordinate the ordering of supplies.

Jaziduur (an NPC, but I left her in control of the player characters so they could have four PCs) decided to accompany Jarrus on his first trip, which Jarrus characterized as a scouting and surveying mission. That brought the total to three party members, Janziduur, the boat captain and crew, four clerics, four surveyors and six assistants. The trip was two days down the Velverdyva, then four days upriver on Imeryd's Run to Nulb.

Imeryd's Run goes through a nasty swamp called the Fens of Tor. One reason pirates were able to establish Nulb and keep it as a hideaway is because no one wants to navigate through that extremely dangerous area. During a place on the river where the water was low on a shelf, the boat got stuck.

Eight people had to get out and attach ropes and use a pulley system to dislodge the boat and pull it over the low shelf and back into the deep water. Of course this made for a perfect ambush opportunity. Lizardmen surrounded the boat, staying back just far enough to keep cover with the trees, and started throwing spears. While these lizardmen were no problem for the party members, they were able to pick off quite a few of the crew. Thanks to the clerics, most people were able to be brought back from the brink of death, but one of the surveyors died, which wasn't a great outcome.

Eventually, they got the boat to Nulb and saw that it was still mostly destroyed and uninhabited. Dardac was able to determine that lizardmen and other humanoids had been through the area and ransacked the remaining buildings that still stood. Jarrus decided to lead the group directly to the Temple of Elemental Evil - something that the surveyors and assistants started to protest, as they did not expect to actually be building there. Still, the area was mostly swamp, and the temple was built on solid ground, so it makes some sense. The state of the area around the temple was still how it has been since the temple was operating. Everything within a quarter mile is gray and dead-looking. The skies over the temple are permanently cloudy, and an ominous feeling seeps into everyone. The surveyors and crew were unable to further approach the place, so the party went on ahead to scout. They found that where the temple once stood, there was now only rubble. Still, the presence of evil was not gone.

Jarrus then led the entire group north, just outside the radius of the ominous feeling, and made camp in a field. During the night, something surrounded the camp, remaining just outside of the campfire light. Othmar, who was on watch at the time, did not see it, but Dardac, when he was woken up for his turn at watch, immediately asked why Othmar did not sound the alarm for the dozen or so bugbears that were obviously present. Dardac then shouted for everyone to wake up, starting the fight.

These were no normal bugbears. They moved slowly and made strange sounds. Othmar, removed the leather cover from the orb tip on his staff, bathing the area in continual light, and revealing the zombified nature of the bugbears closing in on the camp. Dardac started shooting his bow, but quickly realized these things were tougher in death than they ever were in life. Othmar struck a whole

line of them with a lightning bolt, injuring many, but killing none. They both quickly realized this was going to be a long fight and the problem was not whether or not they could kill these things, it was whether they could kill them fast enough. It was only three rounds total before Janziduur was able to wake up, get out of her tent and turn undead, but those three rounds were enough for the undead bugbears to slaughter several more people - another of the surveyors and some more assistants. Once turned, however, the party was able to chase them down and kill them all.

The next morning, the party decided to have Dardac track the zombie bugbears back to where they came from. The tracks led to a cave in a nearby hill. Leaving Janziduur behind to protect the remaining survey team, Jarrus, Othmar and Dardac proceeded into the cave. The cave had several passages, but the tracks led a clear path to one of the side tunnels that came up to a large crack in a wall. On the other side of the large crack was what looked like a carved hallway. The party made their way through and began to walk around. Jarrus was soon able to recognize that they were in the Temple of Elemental Evil.

Pushing through a door, the party entered a room called The Room of Eyes, which is where the previous party had once fought a hill giant, several ogres and some bugbears. There was no sign of those bodies, though not because they were reanimated, but because Pontus had unleashed the black pudding he was keeping in order that it consume the bodies and hide the evidence of their presence. It worked, and the bodies were gone, but unfortunately, the now enormous black pudding was still here, clinging to the ceiling. Dardac noticed it as they were going to leave the room. Othmar decided the best thing to do would be to hit it with a fireball, which he did. The fireball did some damage, but not enough, as the pudding dropped to the floor in front of the party, blocking their exit.

Jarrus charged forward and hit the pudding twice with his +5 defender sword, doing no damage, but dividing the pudding twice. Now there were three. Soon, Jarrus was covered in pudding, which was beginning to dissolve his magic sword and armor. Dardac threw some flaming oil on one of the puddings and then struck with a flaming arrow, lighting it on fire. Othmar tried a lightning bolt which had no affect, and he soon had a pudding on him, trapping him in the corner. Jarrus, in a futile attempt, punched the pudding for no damage as his armor and sword continued to dissolve. Dardac then doused Jarrus with flaming oil and lit him on fire. This seemed to stop the black stuff from dissolving his equipment, though Jarrus was still helpless to do any damage to the thing. Back in the corner, Othmar began to hurl magic missiles at the pudding that was now covering his body and which just dissolved his own staff (this killed the continual light, but the fire still provided light). The magic missiles did damage, but not enough to kill the pudding.

The party realized this was about to be a TPK (and, honestly, the DM thought it was about to be as well). Dardac decided to make a running leap for the door, smashing another bottle of flaming oil on the pudding on his way out. Jarrus, still on fire, ran after him, lighting some more of the pudding on fire as he did. Othmar felt his backpack straps dissolve away, and in a desperate attempt to save the valuable spellbooks inside, he reached in and threw the spellbooks in the air as the pudding lashed out at him again, then caught the spellbooks on their way back down as the rest of his backpack and its contents dissolved away. He then immediately cast Dimension Door and stepped through to join Dardac and Jarrus in the hallway.

It is now morning on the 7th Day of Brewfest (for this branch of the Badass Motherfuckers). Jarrus, Othmar and Dardac are now in a dark hallway inside the ruins of the ToEE. Next session will either be a continuation of this adventure, or picking up with Sarril and party at Hochoch.

3rd Day of Harvester, CY 580 - The Conclusion of Dieg Manor

We had some players absent this week (World Cup Final) and one of those player's had a character die. I don't like it when a PC dies and their player wasn't present for it, but this was a tough situation that was unavoidable. As the players are starting to learn, priests of Iuz don't seem to conform to the cleric rules they are used to, and they have some unique and terrible spells. I have the advantage of running this campaign more than 20 years after the publication of all first and second (and some third) edition Greyhawk material was produced, and recombining it as needed. So the Iuz the Evil supplement has been helpful in retrofitting the priests of Iuz with some interesting stuff. Some of that was used in the battle with the Falcon. Some more got used today, much to the detriment of a certain barbarian.

Starting where we left off, Luapan was out of spells, and Sarril was also starting to get low. Pontus had some unhealed damage, but otherwise, the party was reasonably ready for action. They followed a short hallway beyond the secret door from the treasure room to find a door. Pontus opened the door to find a large cavern. Inside the cavern were some long crates, some barrels, and a pentagram on the floor. The long crates were being used as tables and had books and papers splayed out across them. At the far end of the cavern, behind one of the crates, was an old man reading some books.

Being a barbarian, Pontus decided the best course of action was to make a full run at the old man, then use his barbarian leaping ability to jump over the crate and bring his sword crashing down on the man's head in proper Cold Crow fashion. Initiatives were rolled because, despite that the man appeared to be busy reading books, he was fully aware of the party approaching and was prepared to act if they didn't want to speak. He was ready to cast Blade Barrier on the entire party as his first combat action, but since the rest of the party was still in the hallway and Pontus was rushing in full barbarian rage, he used it to surround Pontus as soon as he came through the door. This had the dual effect of both forcing Pontus to run through the Blade Barrier for full damage, while also blocking the door so the rest of the party couldn't get through. A bloodied Pontus took a massive amount of damage from the spinning blades, but in his rage he hardly noticed and leapt, screaming, over the crates and connected with the man, who, at this point, had shapeshifted back into his original form - that of Hellthrax, high priest of Iuz (the same man depicted in a statue the party encountered earlier). While the blow did not kill him, it was, nonetheless, significant.

The next significant move came from Sarril, who cast Dimension Door, grabbed Jarrus, and stepped through to appear immediately behind Hellthrax with Jarrus in tow. Jarrus, who had held his action, immediately attacked Hellthrax, laying on more significant damage. Generally, at this point, most enemies drop, and the toughest ones know they have only one more round to live, and the choice of which one of a long list of prepared spells to use becomes crucial. Escape is generally contemplated, if possible, but Hellthrax had a panic button already prepared in the form of a Type IV demon (a nalfeshnee) whom he seemed to have some kind of relationship with. He called its name and it stepped through a gateway formed over the pentagram, and immediately closed in on Jarrus.

The first thing everyone who encounters a Type IV demon must do is roll a save vs. wand or succumb to fear (unless they are immune). Everyone saved except Luapan, who immediately ran back up the hallway and was now out of the fight. The demon used Levitate to attempt to levitate Jarrus to the ceiling, and thus out of the fight, but Jarrus managed to make his saving throw and hold fast to the ground, forcing the demon to resort to old fashioned melee attacks (I skipped the psionics, as I figured making Luapan run away was good enough). Jarrus, used to not being hit with his superior magic armor and defender sword, found himself starting to take damage. The fight had returned to even.

Though Cadwin was still stuck behind the Blade Barrier, he wasn't completely helpless. He has a Lightning Bolt at the demon, but unfortunately, failed to penetrate its magic resistance. It looks like it would be up to Jarrus to take this demon down, which he was willing to do, but he wanted to kill Hellthrax first. Hellthrax, however, was focused on Pontus, and unleashed a devastating spell - Lifebane. This spell, unique to clerics of Iuz, drains the victim of 1-4 points of constitution and heals the cleric in return. Unfortunately for Pontus, the attack hit and I rolled a 4. The devastation of this spell is only truly realized on a barbarian. Pontus has a natural 18 constitution, and gets double HP bonuses every level. At level 7, he has 54 extra hit points that come solely from his constitution score, and he just lost them all. He found his altered body suddenly unable to handle all of the damage it had sustained, and he dropped completely and utterly dead.

(At this point, I don't remember all of the details of what happened in each round, so I'll cover what each character did, which may not be in exact order)

Both Sarril and Cadwin attempted to dispel the Blade Barrier and failed.

The demon gated in another demon - luckily for the party, it was only a Type I (a vrock), which are fairly weak as far as demons go. Nonetheless, with Pontus dead and Luapan still out of the fight, it was a distraction for Jarrus and Sarril.

Sarril cast Boccob's Rolling Thunder on Hellthrax and the vrock, but both were kept safe by magic resistance.

Hellthrax cast a spell that seemed to enhance both himself and the nalfeshnee demon, though its unclear what, exactly, it was.

Cadwin decided to unleash another lightning bolt, this time at Hellthrax. It was enough damage that it triggered a Word of Recall that he somehow had setup as a contingency. Hellthrax was teleported away to somewhere to recover (or suffer punishment for failure, who knows). Having no more ranged spells available, Cadwin decided the best option would be to turn into a bat and fly through the blade barrier, taking the damage, and then healing himself upon transforming on the other side. Since the barrier was in a circular column, he took damage once going in, and once coming out, leave him with only 4 hit points, but still alive. He was able to transform back to human form, healing another 24 damage.

Pontus' dead body re-animated as a juju zombie, and joined the fight (a direct result of the Lifebane spell, so this is one of the higher HD Iuz juju zombies)

The nalfeshnee demon used telekinesis to grab Jarrus and send him over into the still-spinning blade barrier and hold him in it until dead. Telekinesis can only move him at 20 ft. per round, and the blade barrier was 45 feet away. This gave everyone two rounds to kill the demon before Jarrus was turned into a smoothie. The good news was, the demon could do nothing else while focused on the telekinesis, so everyone who was able to attack the demon, did so. The bad news was that Sarril was the only one able to do anything at this time.

One round before reaching the blade barrier, Sarril managed to kill the demon, releasing Jarrus, who immediately rushed at the vrock and cut it down. That same round, an earth elemental that Cadwin had previously summoned, managed to appear, but was no longer needed. Luapan also returned that round and, with the demon gone, was able turn the Juju-Pontus. Once turned, the party decided to have the earth elemental pick up the juju zombie while the party experimented with it by poking it, slicing it, and hitting it with spells. They learned that it takes half damage from blunt and piercing weapons, half damage from fire, and is completely immune to magic missiles. They then killed it and kept the body in the hopes that Pontus could still be raised.


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A search of the cavern revealed a lot of interesting details. First, many of the books Hellthrax was reading were books related to the Isles of Woe and related mythology and history. Some of the books Sarril recognized from his own research into that place. There was also a short letter which read:

Hellthrax,
The Falcon has been freed and no doubt is going to attack the Temple of Cuthbert in Greyhawk. I am going there to make sure she doesn’t make a mess of our plans. It is up to you to finish what Hedrack failed to do.
- Maskaleyne

The party guessed that Maskaleyne must be the vampire they encountered in the fight with the Falcon.

Finally, they discovered that the entire southern wall of the cavern was actually freshly mortared rock. Cadwin had the earth elemental smash through the wall to reveal a crypt and a long hallway. The long hallway was lined with hundreds of weapons and armor - enough for a small invading force. In the crypt was a man who looked like the form Hellthrax had taken when the party first encountered him. This must be Carlan Dieg, the party determined. The man was in stasis inside what looked like a Forcecage. Sarril determined that if it was a forcecage, as per the spell of the same name, it has a limited duration and should wear off soon. The party decided to wait two hours, but the cage did not dissipate. At this point, the party decided it was best to go get help, and left the dungeon to go to the Temple of Trithereon.

Jarrus grabbed the body of the dead Juju-Pontus and everyone headed to the temple. It was morning now, and the temple compound was open for visitors. Based on the magnitude of their story, the party was able to get the attention of the one of the high-priests, a patriarch named Balthazar. After confirming their story had merit, Balthazar agreed to bring some of his priests into the manor to examine it for themselves. As for Pontus, the priests took the body to another room to study it and learn what they can. It was not clear whether or not he could be resurrected from such a state, but they would try to find out.

The first thing the high priest did was dispell the forcecage around Carlan Dieg, which also removed the stasis around him. Carlan Dieg was able to tell the party that he had been captured about three months ago, and Hellthrax was keeping him prisoner and pulling him out of the cage to question, and sometimes torture him. Most of the questions were mundane, asking about his daily routine and what he likes to eat, where he likes to go and who he associates with. Other questions were more obscure, such as asking if he knows a gnome named Lysander (DMs note: its been a long time, but the party last heard about Lysander from a gnome prisoner during the Temple of Elemental Evil adventure, as the TOEE inhabitants were asking the same question). Dieg also revealed that his business is real-estate in the city, and he owns several properties that he rents out. This led the party to determine that he was targeted by Hellthrax for this very reason, and it was possible that the renters of his other properties could now be agents of Iuz as well, or planned to be replaced by agents (who seem to be able to shapeshift). After a thorough search of the place, Balthazar took the party to see the Viscount, Lord Wilfrick.

Although the party already had an appointment for an audience with Lord Wilfrick in a few days, the urgency of the current situation demanded an immediate visit. Balthazar, being one of the high-priests of Trithereon, is an important enough figure that he was able to get an emergency audience with the Viscount. The party met with Lord Wilfrick briefly in private chambers and recounted their story. Wilfrick, in turn, ordered his city watch, along with clerics of Trithereon (armed with Detect Lie spells), to investigate each of the properties owned by Dieg. The party also handed over the staff they found so that Lord Wilfrick's mages can attempt to identify it.

On a brief side expedition, Cadwin decided to spend a few days investigating a cult of Pholtus worshipers who have both been harassing people in the city, and, apparently, healing people who were suffering from the Red Death plague. This cult has been showing up in other cities and have been little more than a nuisance, but their ability to heal the plague when no other clerics are able, was something worth investigating. There wasn't enough time to go thoroughly undercover (as that would be another side quest the party was not prepared to undertake), but Cadwin was able to determine that they were, in fact, healing people - for a price. Everyone who agreed to be healed were themselves converted to become members of the cult. They would disappearing for a few days, and then emerge, fully plague free, but wearing the plain tunic the cultists were known for, and having the symbol of Pholtus branded into their foreheads. Every member of the cult, regardless of their previous lot in life, now espoused absolute fanatical devotion to the pale one. They even went so far as to take on new names and, in many cases, shaving their heads to blend in and remove all traces of their former life. To the best of Cadwin's knowledge, these were the only known cases of anyone being able to cure the disease.

A few days later, the party was invited to the castle for a ceremony to honor their good deeds for the city. Present were many people of importance in the city, as well as several of the petty nobles from around the countryside. Those in attendance included Rufus and Burne (nobles from Hommlet) and Otis (brother of Elmo from Hommlet and agent of Lord Wilfrick). Lord Wilfrick proclaimed the great deeds that the party had performed, including the destruction of the Temple of Elemental Evil, and, most recently, exposing a cult of Iuz in the city and foiling their plans for an invasion. As thanks for their service, Lord Wilfrick has offered a gift to each of the surviving party (which the players are still contemplating). Additionally, the priests of Trithereon brought forth a living, breathing Pontus, stating that it was no simple resurrection, but they were able to bring him back after applying a number of rituals to cleanse the body and undo the curse that was laid upon him. Because this was not a normal resurrection, and possibly due to some strange effects of divine magic recently, rather than lose a point of Constitution, as is normal, Pontus instead lost two points of Wisdom.

Wilfrick was able to confirm that several co-conspirators of Hellthrax have been found and brought to justice thanks to the party's efforts. He also confirmed that sages studying the staff have determined that it is a unique Staff of Curing that they believe can be used to cure the Red Death, but that its power seems limited based on location, and that location seems tied to the lands surrounding Dorakaa. Nonetheless, having it is useful, as they will continue to study it in the hopes of making their own version of it that will work elsewhere.

Finally, Lord Wilfrick informed that party that a little more than a year ago, a newly freed Prince Thrommel came through Verbobonc and paid him a visit. Lord Wilfrick gave him a meal, a fresh horse, and a contingent of guards to accompany him on his trip to Chendyl. Prince Thrommel was riding a strange Ebony Fly, which he left with Wilfrick, should he be able to return it to its owner. He was pleased to hand it back to Sarril (DMs Note: The party now has two Ebony Flies. It is their goal to eventually have five of them and paint them in a matching color scheme so they can ride into town on them like a biker gang. They are now one step closer to this goal).

It is now the evening of the 6th Day of Harvester, CY 580. The party is in the company of Lord Wilfrick, Viscount of Verbobonc, figuring out what they want to request of him as their gift.

3rd Day of Harvester, CY 580 - Continuing the Investigation of Dieg Manor

After having skipped the last two sessions, and a month and half between playing, we finally managed to get back together (well, enough of us that we were able to form a quorum, anyway). The meantime, my D&D miniature collection has exploded. I bought several bricks of the newer D&D and Pathfinder miniatures, a ton of singles, and I've started painting my own in earnest. Playing with miniatures really makes it so much easier. There's no question about who is in line of sight, what gets caught in the fireball, or whether or not the fighter can manipulate himself into melee position.

But it also means I've had to adjust maps to 5 ft. squares instead of 10 ft., and the maps are much bigger now. The good news is that the table is big. I'll post a picture of it for one of these posts at some point, but not today. Today, I need to catch us up on the story so far.

We left off with Pontus staring down a vicious guard dog, which immediately started barking and attacking. It bit down on Pontus' leg, but its hard to do any serious damage to the huge barbarian. He retaliated with a blow from his sword, killing the dog and silencing it. The dog had already done its job, however, in alerting the guard behind the door, who ran away to alert the brigands holed up further down in the dungeon. By the time the party reached the room with the brigands, they were ready, with 9 archers, arrows drawn, prepared to fire on whoever walked through the door. Around the corner were another 6 archers, 7 spearmen, and four high-level fighter.

The archers unleashed their arrows on Pontus as soon as he opened the door, but only a couple of arrows could hit him with his ridiculously low armor class. He endured two full rounds of that before Sarril was able to launch a fireball into the room, wiping out all of the low-level brigands.

After some geometry and group discussions (that involved much beer) concerning how to calculate the volume of an irregular room, we determined that Pontus would indeed be hit by the fireball. Still, the barbarian could take it, and made his saving throw so I didn't try to destroy his items. This inspired what may become a future tactic for the party, which is to cast Spell Immunity: Fireball on the barbarian, and send him running into the middle of a room in order to get as many creatures around him as possible before the wizard drops a fireball right on him. Ideally, if they could figure out a way to get the barbarian to trigger the fireball himself, it would be even better. (There are some creature from the lower planes who employ this same tactic. . . it does make me wonder sometimes).

The only living things left in the room were the four higher level fighters who, while on fire, rushed at the party. They did a good amount of damage to both Pontus and Jarrus before being killed, but the party has three healers, and were back up to par immediately after the encounter.

The party continued to search through the dungeon and eventually came into a room where a man in yellow robes immediately disappeared as the room went dark. Drawing another Continual Light coin from his pocket, Sarril immediately restored light before casting Detect Invisibility, and seeing the invisible cleric that Cadwin already sensed. Cadwin cast Faerie Fire at the cleric, outlining him in a glow that allowed Jarrus and Pontus to close in on him and quickly finish him off before he could cast anything really nasty. The most he was able to effectively do was a Cause Serious Wounds on Jarrus, which didn't do much to the fully healed fighter.

The group decided to search this room and found a staff with demonic carvings on it (not magical that anyone could tell) and a secret door that led down a twisting hallway. At the first turn in the hallway, they encountered a statue that was clearly of Iuz, and another of a man with reptilian features wearing a crown of Furyondy, in a subservient position. This was definitely a clue as to what they were up against, and Jarrus immediately realized that they needed to alert the Church of Trithereon and thus earn some favor with Lord Wilfrick. Continuing down the hall, they party came across some pools of water that cast no reflection. They avoided the pools. Then they came to another pool - this one dark and acrid smelling. Pontus decided the best way to investigate the pool would be to spit in it. A moment after he spit in the pool, a splash of water shot back out at him, striking him in the chest, withering it and paralyzing him. The clerics and druid immediately cast Remove Paralyzation, Cure Disease and Neutralize Poison. It was a good attempt, but none of those things worked. Lucky for Pontus, the DM rolled very low, and the paralyzation only lasted 1 round, which prevented his death. The affect also aged him 6 years, which, raised his biological age from 18 to 24, which everyone agreed suited him better.

The party then continued to trek through the dungeon until they came across an earth elemental stomping around in a room. It tried to attack Pontus but missed. Rather than fight it, they backed out of the room and sent Cadwin in. The elemental saw Cadwin and calmed down, and then started making gestures - a form of sign-language. Cadwin, who is completely blind, was oblivious as to this attempt at communication, and left the room. The party moved on, skipping the traditional searches for secret doors, trying to make time before the Detect Traps spell wears off.

The room to room searching eventually led to three clerics in yellow robes (much like that other guy they killed). These clerics had a funny trick up their sleeves. Each of them changed shape to resemble one of the party members, hoping to cause confusion. But such a trick was useless on the blind druid, who responded with Faerie Fire to make each of the enemies glow. A Silence 15' radius in the middle of the room shut down anything else these three might have been able to do, and Pontus and Jarrus quickly cleaned up. It turned out these clerics weren't quite so invested in their work, and tried to surrender, but being silenced limited them hand gestures, which Jarrus interpreted as attempts to cast spells. Luckily, one of the party members caught on before the last cleric was killed, and they managed to keep him alive for questioning. The cleric was willing to trade information in exchange for his life, but suspected the party may kill him anyway, so he revealed just enough to pique their interest, offering the rest of the information to Lord Wilfrick directly in exchange for immunity. The information he revealed so far was that they were recruited by a priest named Margus (described as the man the party already killed earlier), who was preparing Verbobonc for an invasion by Iuz's forces. Seeing the power of Iuz directly, and not wanting to be caught on the wrong side, they reluctantly agreed to go along. But now that he sees the power of the heroes, there is hope, and he would be more than happy to renounce Iuz and cooperate with the party and give details of the plans to Lord Wilfrick. Sarril responded with a couple of magic missiles, killing the cleric and proclaiming that the party has learned all that they are going to learn from this man.

And so the party determined that they have already killed the "boss," and now they just need to finish searching the dungeon and tie up any loose ends. They eventually charged down a wide hallway that led into a room containing this fun beast.

Dracolisk

The Dracolisk was hiding in the corner of a large room at the end of the wide hallway. As soon as Pontus burst through, it took the air, centered itself in front of the group, and spewed acid on everyone. The acid wasn't so bad, but the gaze attack that went with it was a little rough as Jarrus turned to stone (everyone else made their save - Rings of Protection are no joke). The Dracolisk was not prepared for Pontus, who could jump high enough to reach it with his two-handed sword. It did take Pontus a couple of rounds and some more saving throws to realize that he should probably avert his gaze, which he joined the rest of the party in doing.

The next round, however, the dracolisk's keeper, a 6 HD troll came charging into the room, leading a hoard of really pumped up JuJu zombies. Juju zombies are normally really nasty 3 HD zombies with fire resistance, immunities and other special properties, but these were Iuz's special Juju zombies inside his own temple (6 HD, with attack bonuses). Eight of them came flooding into the room. Cadwin cast Summon Elemental, and rolled randomly for a 16 HD fire elemental (very lucky), which made short work of the troll as Pontus finished off the dracolisk. Unfortunately, the fire elemental couldn't do very much damage to the juju zombies, which are resistant to fire. Luapan attempted to turn the juju zombies without any success. They had to be finished off by the fighters. The good news is that Sarril had one extra Stone to Flesh spell tucked away, and was able to burn it to bring Jarrus back into the fight. It was a tough battle, but the party was victorious.

We were at the end of the session but the party wanted to first search the room where the zombies and trolls came from. They found a room with 20 regular zombies in it. Luapan brandished the holy symbol of Celestian and bellowed something apocalyptic and they were all turned to dust. They did find a secret door with a room filled with treasure, and another secret door beyond that which led to another part of the dungeon, which is where we will pick up next session.

It is approaching dawn on the morning of the 3rd Day of Harvester, CY 580.