Don't touch it! It's evil!
May. 6th, 2003 11:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight went really well until the players touched the wrong trap, and everybody died. Well, not EVERYBODY. But enough people that they had to flee from the main planned encounter and run right into stuff I had vaguely sketched out ('it'll be this module...') but wasn't really ready for. Plus, people were dead and couldn't be replaced for a while.
Abbey was phoning it in (literally at first, but then over netmeeting) which was remarkably non-disruptive. At least compared to the rest of the fiasco.
So the party was getting ready to finish burning their way into the bank vault. They covered most of the windows and posted guards on the others, since they suspected a duergar raiding party was prowling around the area and didn't want to be ambushed -- they also didn't want the duergar to know that they'd successfully broken into the vault, hoping to scum another night's rest before facing them.
They never realized that the duergar were watching them the whole time, and had been for days, via a centipede familiar. The eventual vault invasion ended up being noisy enough to satisfy plausible deniability.
So, they burned into the vault, ready to fight the wraiths... who hid in the smaller vault closets and drawers, refusing the face the cleric. Erelthrae turned them anyway, and the wizard (on guard, watching outside the building) verified seeing them run off. Abbey rushed in and started picking locks... and set off a trap that slammed bars down over all the wall, guarding the lockers and (accidentally) blocking the exit. It also pumped in sleep gas, which failed to render her unconscious.
With some quick searching Abbey found the button to disable the trap, and proceeded to open all the large lockers. The wraiths came back while she worked on the locks, but were turned again. In the lockers were many and varied treasures, as well as the skeletons of three dwarves, probably the source of the wraiths. Scrawled on the wall were the words 'beware of Haven'; they also had the key to the smaller lockers.
Not wanting to face the wraiths lashing out from inside the walls, the party used a mage hand to tediously unlock and empty all the small lockers. There wasn't much valuable inside (although there were some spell component gems and thousands of gold in not-so-valuable trinkets), so they decided they'd have to turn the wraiths again to carry out the truly valuable ingots and magical items.
The cleric failed to turn the wraiths, however, using up the rest of her turning attempts. Emboldened, one wraith came out and attacked her, but failed to connect. Steve got himself powered up with anti-touch-attack spells and waded in to fight all three wraiths solo.
The wraiths seemed to consider this a good opportunity, and by the time all three were destroyed, Steve was nearly dead from constitution drain. "I'll cast lesser restoration on you tomorrow," Erelthrae told him.
"Um," noted the wizard, "Wraiths drain constitution permanently. You need to use greater restoration."
"#$%^&! Why didn't anyone tell me!" complained Steve.
Next, the party decided to loot the magical mace and shield from the dwarven statue. Upon touching the mace, Erelthrae was reduced to near death from a Harm glyph. Undaunted and suicidally curious, she healed herself up and touched the shield.
*POOF!* A 20-foot long, 10-foot high celestial dire bear appeared in the vault! It could barely move or fit, but it shrugged off the party's attacks and devoured Erelthrae in short order, while the mage's lightning crackled off it harmlessly. Slee's fire worked, and physical attacks were *somewhat* effective, but the cleric was torn to bloody shreds in seconds. (12 seconds, to be precise)
At this point, Steve attempted to flee, but was caught in a large paw and given the same treatement. He breathed fire all over the creature, while Abbey and Slee plinked away at it from behind, but it wasn't enough, and soon he as well was scattered about the vault.
Abbey, the last person inside the vault, managed to slip out while the bear was eating, and then it was killed by Slee's flaming sphere. But it was too late for the small, gooey bits of Erelthrae and Steve.
The party frantically gathered what loot they could and tried to plan a way out of the bank and past the duergar that the people on watch had heard sneaking around -- without Steve and Erelthrae, they had no one who could stand toe to toe with the enemy. They decided that Slee would load himself up and wild shape into something that could fly, while the wizard and Abbey spider climbed up a pillar to escape along the roof, out of sight of the ground -- hopefully enough to evade pursuit.
They got greedy, though, and tried to take the ingots with them. Specifically, the long adamantium ingot, which turned out to be a tiny adamantium golem in disguise. It bit each of them once, covering them in a persistent faerie fire-like effect which left a persistent trail of light behind them.
At that moment, the duergar finally decided to move into the bank, since with the deaths and preparations the whole party was inside the vault. The party heard them moving around, but saw nothing...
So they decided to make a run for it. Slee turned into a bat and flew out a window like a bat out of hell -- but since he was such a nice glowing target the duergar globecasters who could aim at that window fired massive lead orbs at him, nearly (but not quite) knocking him out of the air.
Abbey and the wizard squeezed out of the vault and were assaulted by five duergar with crossbows. The wizard was wounded, but spider climb saw them past the threat and back out the door, where they clambered up a nearby pillar (under globecaster fire) and fled along the ceiling, quickly outdistancing the duergar (who were slowed in the pursuit by their own caltrops).
The faerie fire refused to go away quickly, however. The party regrouped at the sunlit temple, but it was still going, leaving a brightly lit, impossible to miss trail for the evil dwarflike creatures, who were only a few minutes behind. So the party fled around them in a circle, and were chased all the way out into the main cavern, where at least they could slow the pace, as the strange bouncing armor of the duergar didn't work well on the sandy terrain near the undead area. Finally, ten hours later, the spell finally ended, and the party, or what was left of it, pressed on for a short while and found a hidden place to camp.
The cleric was dead, and the druid was not powerful enough yet to cast Reincarnation, so the three remaining voyagers could only hope that nothing powerful would devour them before they reached the possible sanctuary of the gnomish settlement rumored to be somewhere in the land of mist.
So they pressed on, and eventually made their way to a road, which they followed to a small farm, which was under attack by four-armed red creatures! They quickly rushed to the attack, and managed to drive off two of the creatures and kill the third. They killed half the gnomes they were trying to rescue with a poorly aimed lightning bolt, but the gnomes hadn't actually *seen* the wizard cast the spell, so they blamed it on the horrible 'red demons'.
The gnomish mushroom farmers led the party to the nearby village, which was in terrible shape -- half the buildings were burnt, the other half boarded up. What was left of the population looked at the voyagers with a faint hope...
...and perhaps now that they've reached something approaching civilization, they can find others to travel with to replace their sadly shredded companions.
last week next week
The dead players were not at all happy to be dead, and they're making new characters with standard races instead of anything with ECL, just to get higher level spells or (in the case of Erelthrae's player) into a prestige class right off.
I probably should have looked more closely at the potential dire consequences of trapping the party in a steel cage with a celestial dire bear whose damage resistance they couldn't get through... although to be fair, that was a +3 mace that harmed the cleric. Of disruption. The shield was +5 equivalent as well.
I did the vault basically as a 'dungeon in a box', and it worked okay, except for the whole 'trapped in a steel cage with a celestial dire bear and nowhere to run' bit.
Abbey was phoning it in (literally at first, but then over netmeeting) which was remarkably non-disruptive. At least compared to the rest of the fiasco.
So the party was getting ready to finish burning their way into the bank vault. They covered most of the windows and posted guards on the others, since they suspected a duergar raiding party was prowling around the area and didn't want to be ambushed -- they also didn't want the duergar to know that they'd successfully broken into the vault, hoping to scum another night's rest before facing them.
They never realized that the duergar were watching them the whole time, and had been for days, via a centipede familiar. The eventual vault invasion ended up being noisy enough to satisfy plausible deniability.
So, they burned into the vault, ready to fight the wraiths... who hid in the smaller vault closets and drawers, refusing the face the cleric. Erelthrae turned them anyway, and the wizard (on guard, watching outside the building) verified seeing them run off. Abbey rushed in and started picking locks... and set off a trap that slammed bars down over all the wall, guarding the lockers and (accidentally) blocking the exit. It also pumped in sleep gas, which failed to render her unconscious.
With some quick searching Abbey found the button to disable the trap, and proceeded to open all the large lockers. The wraiths came back while she worked on the locks, but were turned again. In the lockers were many and varied treasures, as well as the skeletons of three dwarves, probably the source of the wraiths. Scrawled on the wall were the words 'beware of Haven'; they also had the key to the smaller lockers.
Not wanting to face the wraiths lashing out from inside the walls, the party used a mage hand to tediously unlock and empty all the small lockers. There wasn't much valuable inside (although there were some spell component gems and thousands of gold in not-so-valuable trinkets), so they decided they'd have to turn the wraiths again to carry out the truly valuable ingots and magical items.
The cleric failed to turn the wraiths, however, using up the rest of her turning attempts. Emboldened, one wraith came out and attacked her, but failed to connect. Steve got himself powered up with anti-touch-attack spells and waded in to fight all three wraiths solo.
The wraiths seemed to consider this a good opportunity, and by the time all three were destroyed, Steve was nearly dead from constitution drain. "I'll cast lesser restoration on you tomorrow," Erelthrae told him.
"Um," noted the wizard, "Wraiths drain constitution permanently. You need to use greater restoration."
"#$%^&! Why didn't anyone tell me!" complained Steve.
Next, the party decided to loot the magical mace and shield from the dwarven statue. Upon touching the mace, Erelthrae was reduced to near death from a Harm glyph. Undaunted and suicidally curious, she healed herself up and touched the shield.
*POOF!* A 20-foot long, 10-foot high celestial dire bear appeared in the vault! It could barely move or fit, but it shrugged off the party's attacks and devoured Erelthrae in short order, while the mage's lightning crackled off it harmlessly. Slee's fire worked, and physical attacks were *somewhat* effective, but the cleric was torn to bloody shreds in seconds. (12 seconds, to be precise)
At this point, Steve attempted to flee, but was caught in a large paw and given the same treatement. He breathed fire all over the creature, while Abbey and Slee plinked away at it from behind, but it wasn't enough, and soon he as well was scattered about the vault.
Abbey, the last person inside the vault, managed to slip out while the bear was eating, and then it was killed by Slee's flaming sphere. But it was too late for the small, gooey bits of Erelthrae and Steve.
The party frantically gathered what loot they could and tried to plan a way out of the bank and past the duergar that the people on watch had heard sneaking around -- without Steve and Erelthrae, they had no one who could stand toe to toe with the enemy. They decided that Slee would load himself up and wild shape into something that could fly, while the wizard and Abbey spider climbed up a pillar to escape along the roof, out of sight of the ground -- hopefully enough to evade pursuit.
They got greedy, though, and tried to take the ingots with them. Specifically, the long adamantium ingot, which turned out to be a tiny adamantium golem in disguise. It bit each of them once, covering them in a persistent faerie fire-like effect which left a persistent trail of light behind them.
At that moment, the duergar finally decided to move into the bank, since with the deaths and preparations the whole party was inside the vault. The party heard them moving around, but saw nothing...
So they decided to make a run for it. Slee turned into a bat and flew out a window like a bat out of hell -- but since he was such a nice glowing target the duergar globecasters who could aim at that window fired massive lead orbs at him, nearly (but not quite) knocking him out of the air.
Abbey and the wizard squeezed out of the vault and were assaulted by five duergar with crossbows. The wizard was wounded, but spider climb saw them past the threat and back out the door, where they clambered up a nearby pillar (under globecaster fire) and fled along the ceiling, quickly outdistancing the duergar (who were slowed in the pursuit by their own caltrops).
The faerie fire refused to go away quickly, however. The party regrouped at the sunlit temple, but it was still going, leaving a brightly lit, impossible to miss trail for the evil dwarflike creatures, who were only a few minutes behind. So the party fled around them in a circle, and were chased all the way out into the main cavern, where at least they could slow the pace, as the strange bouncing armor of the duergar didn't work well on the sandy terrain near the undead area. Finally, ten hours later, the spell finally ended, and the party, or what was left of it, pressed on for a short while and found a hidden place to camp.
The cleric was dead, and the druid was not powerful enough yet to cast Reincarnation, so the three remaining voyagers could only hope that nothing powerful would devour them before they reached the possible sanctuary of the gnomish settlement rumored to be somewhere in the land of mist.
So they pressed on, and eventually made their way to a road, which they followed to a small farm, which was under attack by four-armed red creatures! They quickly rushed to the attack, and managed to drive off two of the creatures and kill the third. They killed half the gnomes they were trying to rescue with a poorly aimed lightning bolt, but the gnomes hadn't actually *seen* the wizard cast the spell, so they blamed it on the horrible 'red demons'.
The gnomish mushroom farmers led the party to the nearby village, which was in terrible shape -- half the buildings were burnt, the other half boarded up. What was left of the population looked at the voyagers with a faint hope...
...and perhaps now that they've reached something approaching civilization, they can find others to travel with to replace their sadly shredded companions.
last week next week
The dead players were not at all happy to be dead, and they're making new characters with standard races instead of anything with ECL, just to get higher level spells or (in the case of Erelthrae's player) into a prestige class right off.
I probably should have looked more closely at the potential dire consequences of trapping the party in a steel cage with a celestial dire bear whose damage resistance they couldn't get through... although to be fair, that was a +3 mace that harmed the cleric. Of disruption. The shield was +5 equivalent as well.
I did the vault basically as a 'dungeon in a box', and it worked okay, except for the whole 'trapped in a steel cage with a celestial dire bear and nowhere to run' bit.
