12th Day of Patchwall, CY 580 - Chasing Down King Snurr Ironbelly - Part 4

Having said farewell to Cadwin, the party decided the best thing to do next would be to go down to the third level of the Hall of the Fire Giant King, where they heard there is a red dragon somewhere. It would be best to take care of this problem while they have the benefit of Cadwin's Protection from Fire spell.

The third level of the dungeon was a natural cavern, which everyone knows is where the real danger, and treasure, lies. The passage sloped down steeply, taking the party deep below ground, into the cool darkness. Down here, passages twist an branch in many directions. The party decided to stick to right turns until they found something.

The first thing they found were grey oozes. The thing about oozes, jellies and puddings is that it is easy to get them confused. Is this the one that requires fire, or does that make it multiply? Can I hit this one with my weapons? It turns out that these particular flavor of oozes could be struck with normal weapons, as Sarril remembered from dealing with them in the Caves of Chaos. But it also turns out that they corrode metal. Regular metal corrodes and breaks in the same round in which it comes in contact, and magical items corrode and break one round later for each "+" of enchantment. This was a small detail the party was unaware of, as Luapan decided to throw a +3 hammer at the ooze and Pontus ran in, swinging his own +3 hammer (maul) in melee. The ooze responded by covering Pontus with part of itself. After killing the oozes, which didn't take long, Pontus immediately began washing off the ooze, consuming the available water supply of the party, but saving his equipment from destruction. Luapan was one round too late, however, in picking up his hammer, as it shattered upon retrieval (no big deal as he still has a +5 spear that he his happy he didn't use for this fight).

Continuing through the tunnels, the party next came to an area where a very familiar stench was wafting down the hall. Trolls. As Sarril had a few fire-based spells prepared, the party decided that killing some trolls would make for some quick and easy experience, and they followed the stench into the troll's nest. They encountered not just a few trolls, but dozens, maybe more. The good news is that the trolls were in a large cavern and the party was in a tunnel leading to the cavern. They merely had to wait for the trolls to come to them, where they could create a bottleneck. Sarril cast Boccob's Rolling Thunder and, much to the DMs surprise, all but two of the trolls failed their saves (the DM would be rolling terribly for the rest of the day). This means the trolls in the tunnel were stunned for a round, and the rest of the trolls couldn't advance, making them sitting ducks. The melee fighters up front began making short work of them and started burning the bodies of the incapacitated trolls.

Sebastian, having used his Ring of Invisibility to go stealthy, hung back at the last intersection to keep an eye on anything that might come at the party from behind. He failed to notice the dozen or so trolls that came down a side corridor. The party now had trolls in front and behind them. If that wasn't bad enough, smoke from the fire was beginning to fill the corridor, cutting off visibility and making it hard to breathe. At this rate, the party had only a few rounds before they would start inhaling smoke.

Sarril cast a Wall of Fire in the shape on an "L" to cut-off the trolls in front of them and those coming from the side tunnel. The melee fighters had to spend another couple of rounds finishing off those directly on them, and tossing the bodies into the Wall of Fire, which caused the tunnel to be completely engulfed in smoke. Sarril then cast Gust of Wind to clear the tunnel of smoke and give the party an escape, which they were happy to take. Unfortunately, their escape path led them to a drow patrol that were waiting for them. The leader of the patrol was hoping the trolls would kill or severely hurt the party and he could easily pick off whoever was left. Unfortunately for this drow, he faced a strong and fully ready party. Being clearly outmatched, he was, nonetheless, arrogant, and stated to the party that he was glad the trolls didn't kill them because he was going to enjoy doing it himself. Things didn't work out so well for this drow patrol leader. This must be how the drow cull the weak. As a fighter/mage of not insignificant level, he did get off a lightning bolt, and had the protection of a Shield Spell and Protection from Normal Missiles. But it wasn't enough, as his 1 HD guards can't hit any party members with their crazy low ACs and couldn't buy the leader the time he needed to do anything significant. The party searched the bodies, donned the drow cloaks and broaches, and got the brilliant idea that these broaches might be the answer to penetrating the tentacle wall upstairs, and so up they went.

When they got upstairs, they noticed a couple of things that have happened. First, all of the wall sconces that were lit from natural gas jets were out. It was pitch black upstairs. Second, they heard a loud rumbling coming from upstairs, and cracks began forming in the ceiling as small bits of debris fell. The ground shook as a series of loud booms were heard all around. The party surmised that gas must be leaking and this floor would be next if an open flame or spark were to set it off. Still, they bravely pushed forward to the tentacle room, and the tentacles moved aside to let them through.

Using Detect Magic, they quickly scoured the room to try and get anything magical they could find as fast as possible, before the floor exploded and took them with it. There were some magical candles lit, which they quickly put out, and a brazier that was still hot. They quickly put that out, too. They found some wardrobe items and gems and clerical scroll of Word of Recall, as well as a trapped coffer. Sebastian tried to disarm the trapped coffer, accidentally setting off a poison gas trap. Pontus failed his save, but Sebastian quickly cast Neutralize Poison to prevent death as the party ran from the room and back downstairs. It was not a severe loss, as most of the highly valuable items had already been taken.

Once back downstairs, the party started to explore areas previously unexplored, far away from the trolls and the smoke. They found a fire beetle nest and a secret door leading upstairs to level 2, which looks like it might have been an escape path for someone. In a large cavern to the north they encountered two young red dragons whose fire breath barely made a dent in the massive Fire Protection they all still had left over from Cadwin. They were fairly easily defeated. In another smaller cavern they encountered four hell hounds, who were also no match, but their primary purpose was to bark an alarm, and that worked because in the next large cavern was waiting King Snurr, four fire giants and a contingent of drow led by female cleric. When the party entered the cavern, the female cleric, Viconia, spoke to them:

Viconia

"You must be the terrible anuses who have sex with their mothers. Congratulations on defeating the giants. But you are too late. They have already served their purpose. As we stand here now, Lolth's

demonic armies are flooding into your world and enslaving your people. We are done here."

And with that, she and her contingent turned and left the cavern, leaving an enraged King Snurr and his giants to slaughter, or be slaughtered by, the party. As usual, the fire giants were very little match for Sarril's multiple Cone of Cold attacks. Still, it was a difficult fight. The party retreated into the mouth of the tunnel they just emerged from in order to limit the number of giants that could melee with them at one time. But the giants in the back ranks began throwing boulders, and with the high ceilings in the cavern, were able to lob boulders to hit the party members in the rear. Although the damage wasn't significant, it forced the party forward into the cavern and cut off their retreat.

King Snurr Ironbelly

After a Boccob's Rolling Thunder and another Cone of Cold from Sarril, some Javelin of Lightning throws from Sebastian, healing and prayers from Luapan and a ridiculous amount of damage from the melee fighters, the 8 giants were dead, leaving only the king. The enraged king charged at Dalron and hit him twice, knocking him unconscious and very near death (only saved due to the "Death Save" house rule we have in place). Although the king had been previously damaged by spellpower, he still had a lot of hit points remaining, and the party realized they were close to a TPK. Some very fast adjustments would be necessary. Sebastian suddenly remembered the Iron Horn of Valhalla he had tucked away, and pulled it out and blew hard. Eight berserk warriors were summoned into being and rushed at the giant king. They were no match for him, of course, but it bought the party another much needed round in which to try to kill him. It worked. As the king started slaying two berserkers per round, the rest of the party threw everything they had at him. After 150 hit points of hard fought damage, the king dropped to the ground, dead. Interestingly, he didn't seem to have any healing potions on him like previous giant chiefs had.

And this is where we left off. It is the afternoon of the 12th Day of Patchwall, CY 580. King Snurr and (hopefully) the last of his giants are dead. The party is likely trapped underground and the drow who seem to be manipulating everything have casually walked away from it all.

11th Day of Patchwall, CY 580 - Chasing Down King Snurr Ironbelly - Part 3

Realizing they were having no luck against the tentacle wall, the party decided to move on. Little did they know that their shenanigans had attracted the attention of some drow, who were sneaking up on them from both sides of the hallway. More on that in a bit. . .

Having an old-school 1st edition barbarian in the party has its merits. In this case, Pontus was able to detect an illusion on the north wall, and convince the party to walk through it "Platform 9 and 3/4" style. They found themselves walking down a wide flight of stairs, through a room illuminated with a purple, swirling haze. Distances were distorted and shifting, making it hard to judge where the steps were. Even the blind druid's senses were affected. Luapan ended up tumbling down the stairs, right into Dalron. When everyone got up, they decided to look around.

They were in an area that appeared to be segregated from a much larger room by a series of pillars that were a few feet apart. Along the wall to the east was a large mural depicting humans, elves and other species worshiping a large creature with tentacles for a mouth which appeared to be feasting on the very creatures worshiping it. Pontus tried to walk between two of the pillars and purple tendrils of energy reached out and gave him a shock and so he backed off. The Dalron tried to do the same thing and received a shock, then ran screaming out of the room. The party chased after him, stumbling on the stairs a few times.

Remember those drow I talked about? Dalron ran right into them. Four drow with small crossbows and a drow male cleric behind them. The drow cleric cast Hold Person, fixing Dalron in place.

I may have mentioned this before, but in this game, we treat "Hold Person" as a root in place spell. The victim can make no forward, backward, sideways, up or down movements using any physical or magical means that they control. But they are not defenseless and can still move their arms. For Dalron, were he not focused on trying to run out of complete fear, that would mean he can still throw daggers at enemies to the front and side of him. But alas, he could do nothing but scream and try to run, and now was unable to. What a nightmare.

Sarril and Luapan were on the scene first, and immediately started casting spells at the drow (whose magic resistances were limiting the effects, but at least they were no longer focused on Dalron). Next up the stairs were Pontus, Sebastian and Cadwin. Cadwin's superior hearing noticed that more drow were coming up the hallway to east, which effectively trapped the party. Pontus decided to confront these new drow directly, and rushed down the hall. It was the same situation. Four shooters, one cleric.

For the first couple of rounds, the drow shot at the party and missed horribly. Even with the drow using Faerie Fire and having bonuses to hit, they just could compete with everyone having such low ACs. A few bolts would have hit Sarril, had he not cast Protection from Normal Missiles on himself. He remembered from his time with Bukro that the drow liked to use sleeping poison on their bolts. A few bolts hit Cadwin, who saved against the sleeping poison. Pontus, unfortunately, was not so lucky, and down he went. The party now had both of their melee fighters taken out of the fight, and the spell casters were not very effective against such magic resistance. They thought for certain it would be a TPK.

But then Cadwin started bouncing lightning bolts around. Some bad resistance rolls on the part of the drow took out a large number of them, and suddenly the fight turned around just like that. At this point, both of the clerics had done all they could do, and it was down to the fighters, who dropped their crossbows and engaged in melee with great effectiveness. These dual-wielding drow were quite deadly opponents. Cadwin cast Neutralize Poison on Pontus to wake him up and soon he was back in the fight, ready to finish off the last of the drow along the eastern hall.

Along the southern hall, Luapan engaged in melee and started to show what his +5 spear can do. But unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse when two trolls emerged from an opening to the west. One of the trolls hit Luapan with enough damage to knock him unconscious, but luckily not kill him. Sarril cast Wall of Fire hoping to kill the trolls. They made their saves and were able to jump away, but one was on one side of the wall and the other on the other side. It made a difference, especially since Dalron had finally shaken the fear that took hold of him. He was still held in place, but he could throw his daggers and soon finished off all of the drow near him as well as the troll he could see. Sarril, suddenly remembering that everyone was protected from fire, gave instructions to toss the troll into the fire, which Dalron did as soon as the Hold Person wore off.

And it wore off just in time, as the Fire Giant blacksmith emerged from the same place the trolls just came from. This would have been the end of the party if Dalron was not mobile, but he was not only mobile, he was angry. After rolling two natural 20s, Dalron dropped the fire giant in a single round, leaving only one troll for Pontus and crew to deal with. They dealt with it quickly and then threw it into the wall of fire as well. Everyone took an inventory of their status and checked up on Luapan. It seems everyone survived, and now they had drow armor and weapons. How nice. But of course they needed to recuperate, and so they headed upstairs.

Strangely enough, nothing came looking for them upstairs. They were able to rest for the evening and recover hit points and spells. It was at this point that Cadwin told the group he needed to leave. His original mission that brought him in touch with the party was to find the source of the Red Death, in the hopes that might lead to a cure. Information Sebastian had provided needed to be followed up on. He asked Sebastian to stay with the party and help them on their quest while he goes to see the druid circle in the Dim Forest and follow-up on the clues Sebastian had found. He said his goodbyes and left.

The remaining party headed back downstairs. Using a Knock spell, Sarril opened the remaining cell doors that Sebastian was unable to pick earlier. They ended up rescuing a group of elves, one of whom claimed to be a sylvan princess of the Hornwood. They claimed that several of their number had been taken as sacrifice into the temple down the hall. They assume sacrifice because they could hear the screams, and no one taken ever came back. The party fed the elves and gave them water and equipped them as best they could so they could return home, then they went on their way to explore the rest of the level.

From the room where the trolls and fire giant emerged, they found the blackmith's area where a large pool of lava acts as a forge for weapons and armor. The giant was in the middle of repairing a large mace, but nothing of value was found here. Heading further up northeast the party came to a hallway where a filthy stench overwhelmed them. A troll's den. Pontus stepped forward to investigate and was immediately overrun by trolls. There were 18 trolls total, which could have quickly overwhelmed the party, but they were smart and the trolls were not. Pontus, Luapan and Dalron stood side-by-side to form a wall, preventing the trolls from getting past them. Then, after doing some quick math in his head, Sarril dropped a fireball a ways behind the line, engulfing all of the trolls. Many were consumed, but some were still standing, so he tossed another one. And thus ended the lives of 18 trolls.

The trolls were keeping about 60 gnoll slaves captive in some nearby rooms. The party decided to free the gnolls as they were clearly no threat and then search the rest of the area. Some empty guest chambers, one of which was clearly setup for Frost Giants, but nothing else interesting. Anything valuable had already been taken when the rest of the inhabitants of this level fled.

So that leaves the party with three unexplored options.

1. Whatever is behind the Tentacle Wall
2. The temple that sent Dalron screaming and
3. The double-doors that they know lead down into the underdark (and past a large red dragon)

But none of that will be explored today. The drow fight consumed most of the entire session and so we had to call it quits for the day. It is the morning of the 12th Day of Patchwall, CY 580 and the party is still alive. That's something.