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terryclothToday the party initiated a new member, then continued on their journey. The new guy played a fighter, who *did* manage to pass the 'job interview' on his own merits, but was then munchkified by the combined powers of the rest of the party and made into a true force to be reckoned with.
Several days before they were due to leave the city once again, they were approached by a half orc warrior who wanted to join their band, in search of treasure and blood. They decided to give him a 'job interview' in the form of a huge earth elemental for him to kill, to prove he was worthy.
The duel took place in the park. The elemental was instructed to use nonlethal damage only, and was, indeed, vanquished by Wendall. However, during the fight, Abbey noticed someone watching the party, and warned May... and sure enough, just as the elemental fell, the party was hit by a Slow spell, which everyone resisted.
Conner spotted the now-visible giant ape demon lurking in the distance, and telported to him with Wendall. "This one's for real." The rest of the party were kept busy by a quartet of summoned vrock, all of whom were mirror imaged.
"Suddenly, 32 vrock teleport in."
The vrock weren't much of a problem, at least not after Conner blinded them with a massive holy spell cast at the price of a few points of strength damage, although they did keep most of the party occupied through the whole fight.
The boss demon tried to turn back invisible, but Conner had an Invisibility Purge up. Then he tried to cast Deeper Darkness, but Conner pulled out his ultra-bright mega-daylight magnet, negating it. Finally, the demon cast a web on Conner and Wendall, but Conner used Free Action and Fly to send the already hasted Wendall up to deal with him... and in three quick swings, which hit the real demon instead of his mirror images by pure luck, the fiend was no more.
The party was asked not to sleep inside the city anymore. They were also told about a spreading area of necromantic magic and risen undead in the Dalelands, directly above the city of Maermidra where the party's enemy was said to reside.
After the last few days of upgrading their equipment, they set out once more. A wind walk took them back to the entrance to the underdark, and then through the underdark itself, past any and all obstacles, until they reached the city.
The city gates were wrecked, but guarded by four fire giants. The party blew past them without stopping, and THEN realized they'd reached the city, as the smoky haze filling the massive cavern parted briefly to reveal a ruined, flaming wasteland.
They took shelter in a ruined building, and Erdann cast a spell to let him see through smoke. He spotted an encampment of giants and ogres and goblins, and Abbey set out stealthily to try to capture one. She snuck within view of them, but there were dozens of them -- too many for her to face alone. So she waited for fifteen minutes hoping for one to set out on his own, but they seemed too frightened to wander out of sight of the fire.
While she waited, the party was attacked by a pair of fire giants from the front gate, who shouted an alarm and rushed to attack. They were quickly killed, although one of them very, very badly wounded Erdann's dire bear companion. After the fight, Conner tried to heal him, and managed to pull it off, although a strange necromantic field seemed to resist his efforts. They moved to another building to wait for Abbey, evading a patrol.
Erdann intercepted Abbey as she returned, and the reunited party, using Erdann's superior smoke-sight, set an ambush for the patrol -- killing most of it (including two fire giants) with a creeping doom, except for one froglike demon which teleported away. Frustrated in their efforts to take a prisoner to interrogate, the party headed to the camp Abbey had observed, letting the creeping doom lead the way.
Unfortunately, the smoke cleared a little too much for comfort, and the monsters saw the creeping doom approach in time to react -- quite efficiently, as one of their ogre mages used a cone of cold to wipe it out. Then May, hovering overhead invisibly, blasted the camp with a prismatic spray, killing nearly everything, except for two bugbears, an ogre, one of the ogre mages, and one fire giant, who were outside the area of effect. Oh, and a gaggle of goblins who immediately fled.
The ogre mages were incapacitated and then tossed in the fire. The ogre, who turned out to be the leader of the camp, a powerful barbarian, was backstabbed by Abbey and front-stabbed by Wendall. The fire giant was beaten on with subdual, then put to sleep with May's eyebite. After the dust cleared, the giant was woken up and charmed, and interrogated.
He told the party about the army he was a part of, and that they were besieging the last drow stronghold in the castle. The party decided that the castle was where their enemy must live, and asked the giant to lead them there. He agreed, as a favor for his 'friend'.
The besieging army seemed relatively apathetic about the party, escorted by one of their own, making an assault on the castle they'd been trying to crack for three months, except for some Vrocks who laughed at them, but let them pass, although one flew to inform higher authorities of the situation.
The castle was largish, and the walls and doors were enchanted. The party eventually decided to assault the front gate. Erdann came under (badly aimed) fire as he flew up, but his rusting grasp essentially destroyed the gate, and his bear... roared in agony as a Forbiddance zapped him as he tried to enter.
A revenant mage on the inside fireballed the party to basically no effect, but Conner and Erdann made their saves and took him out before he could do anything else... the drow, meanwhile, having been rendered blind by the sudden revelation of Conner's super-bright magnet of doom, then burned to cinders by May's empowered fireball.
Wendall and the bear were both stuck outside the Forbiddance, though. The party decided that it would be a good idea to find somewhere to rest so that they could memorize spells to try and find a way through -- perhaps a password? It obviously wasn't guarding against alignment, or *someone* in either the party or the invading army would have been able to get in.
last week next week
We're probably skipping next week, on account of people going home for Thanksgiving.
Several days before they were due to leave the city once again, they were approached by a half orc warrior who wanted to join their band, in search of treasure and blood. They decided to give him a 'job interview' in the form of a huge earth elemental for him to kill, to prove he was worthy.
The duel took place in the park. The elemental was instructed to use nonlethal damage only, and was, indeed, vanquished by Wendall. However, during the fight, Abbey noticed someone watching the party, and warned May... and sure enough, just as the elemental fell, the party was hit by a Slow spell, which everyone resisted.
Conner spotted the now-visible giant ape demon lurking in the distance, and telported to him with Wendall. "This one's for real." The rest of the party were kept busy by a quartet of summoned vrock, all of whom were mirror imaged.
"Suddenly, 32 vrock teleport in."
The vrock weren't much of a problem, at least not after Conner blinded them with a massive holy spell cast at the price of a few points of strength damage, although they did keep most of the party occupied through the whole fight.
The boss demon tried to turn back invisible, but Conner had an Invisibility Purge up. Then he tried to cast Deeper Darkness, but Conner pulled out his ultra-bright mega-daylight magnet, negating it. Finally, the demon cast a web on Conner and Wendall, but Conner used Free Action and Fly to send the already hasted Wendall up to deal with him... and in three quick swings, which hit the real demon instead of his mirror images by pure luck, the fiend was no more.
The party was asked not to sleep inside the city anymore. They were also told about a spreading area of necromantic magic and risen undead in the Dalelands, directly above the city of Maermidra where the party's enemy was said to reside.
After the last few days of upgrading their equipment, they set out once more. A wind walk took them back to the entrance to the underdark, and then through the underdark itself, past any and all obstacles, until they reached the city.
The city gates were wrecked, but guarded by four fire giants. The party blew past them without stopping, and THEN realized they'd reached the city, as the smoky haze filling the massive cavern parted briefly to reveal a ruined, flaming wasteland.
They took shelter in a ruined building, and Erdann cast a spell to let him see through smoke. He spotted an encampment of giants and ogres and goblins, and Abbey set out stealthily to try to capture one. She snuck within view of them, but there were dozens of them -- too many for her to face alone. So she waited for fifteen minutes hoping for one to set out on his own, but they seemed too frightened to wander out of sight of the fire.
While she waited, the party was attacked by a pair of fire giants from the front gate, who shouted an alarm and rushed to attack. They were quickly killed, although one of them very, very badly wounded Erdann's dire bear companion. After the fight, Conner tried to heal him, and managed to pull it off, although a strange necromantic field seemed to resist his efforts. They moved to another building to wait for Abbey, evading a patrol.
Erdann intercepted Abbey as she returned, and the reunited party, using Erdann's superior smoke-sight, set an ambush for the patrol -- killing most of it (including two fire giants) with a creeping doom, except for one froglike demon which teleported away. Frustrated in their efforts to take a prisoner to interrogate, the party headed to the camp Abbey had observed, letting the creeping doom lead the way.
Unfortunately, the smoke cleared a little too much for comfort, and the monsters saw the creeping doom approach in time to react -- quite efficiently, as one of their ogre mages used a cone of cold to wipe it out. Then May, hovering overhead invisibly, blasted the camp with a prismatic spray, killing nearly everything, except for two bugbears, an ogre, one of the ogre mages, and one fire giant, who were outside the area of effect. Oh, and a gaggle of goblins who immediately fled.
The ogre mages were incapacitated and then tossed in the fire. The ogre, who turned out to be the leader of the camp, a powerful barbarian, was backstabbed by Abbey and front-stabbed by Wendall. The fire giant was beaten on with subdual, then put to sleep with May's eyebite. After the dust cleared, the giant was woken up and charmed, and interrogated.
He told the party about the army he was a part of, and that they were besieging the last drow stronghold in the castle. The party decided that the castle was where their enemy must live, and asked the giant to lead them there. He agreed, as a favor for his 'friend'.
The besieging army seemed relatively apathetic about the party, escorted by one of their own, making an assault on the castle they'd been trying to crack for three months, except for some Vrocks who laughed at them, but let them pass, although one flew to inform higher authorities of the situation.
The castle was largish, and the walls and doors were enchanted. The party eventually decided to assault the front gate. Erdann came under (badly aimed) fire as he flew up, but his rusting grasp essentially destroyed the gate, and his bear... roared in agony as a Forbiddance zapped him as he tried to enter.
A revenant mage on the inside fireballed the party to basically no effect, but Conner and Erdann made their saves and took him out before he could do anything else... the drow, meanwhile, having been rendered blind by the sudden revelation of Conner's super-bright magnet of doom, then burned to cinders by May's empowered fireball.
Wendall and the bear were both stuck outside the Forbiddance, though. The party decided that it would be a good idea to find somewhere to rest so that they could memorize spells to try and find a way through -- perhaps a password? It obviously wasn't guarding against alignment, or *someone* in either the party or the invading army would have been able to get in.
last week next week
We're probably skipping next week, on account of people going home for Thanksgiving.
