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terryclothWith the holidays over, we played some more of City of the Spider Queen. The party started invading the Final Dungeon (more or less) and tore through everything like a hot knife through butter, until I started just going and doubling the number of enemies they had to face. Which meant they had to use their *big* spells to easily win the fights.
Wind walk let the party flee the burning city and rest in the wilds of the underdark. Nothing bothered them 15 miles from the city, but the army there noticed the many corpses they'd left behind, and were waiting for their return.
So as they tried to breeze through the gates, they set off a Symbol of Persuasion that charmed Abbey, who tried [very very badly] to convince the party that the army of demons and goblins was their friend and that they should join it. To keep her out of trouble, May put her to sleep and stashed her in a rope trick.
Then, without Abbey, they traveled to the castle to clear out enough space so that they could spend 10 minutes casting 'Stone Tell' to get the password to the Forbiddance, if there was one. The three Vrock and now a Balor were flitting about around the castle, but the party ran past and in the door before they could react.
But first they had to clear out the drow. Two drow survived the initial fireball barrage, and Erdann trapped one of them in a six-inch-thick stone box. The other ran off to get his buddies, some vampires, who got Sunrayed into oblivion. Not content to wait for trouble to come to them, Erdann and May and Conner assaulted the main guard barracks and slaughtered everyone inside, as they scrambled for their weapons.
They then tried to question the drow they'd captured in the wall of stone. He was charmed, but knew nothing of great use. A couple drow clerics snuck up and attacked, but were nothing even resembling a threat -- so they were put to sleep with subdual for later questioning.
About this time, Conner (who had Status up on the whole party) noted that Erdann's bear, who'd had to wait outside the Forbiddance until they got the password, was starting to wander away. Very fast, since he was Flying. Erdann rushed out to stop him, right into the Balor's trap!
It didn't work very well. The vrocks spored and screeched (ineffectually), and the Balor tried to stun the party (ineffectually) and firestorm the party (mostly ineffectually), and was then Held by May (on the second try) and out of the fight.
Seeing their boss paralyzed, one of the Vrock ran to get help from the army camped nearby. They arrived just in time to get blown up by the Balor's death throes -- the party, being much tougher than the average bugbear, was only a little singed. Conner and Erdann and May went back inside the Forbiddance, where the army couldn't follow, and started casting Stone Tell.
May decided to go get Abbey, since he didn't feel right leaving her there all on her own, even if she was Charmed. After a little talking, Abbey agreed to loot the castle first and go talk to the big bad boss after.
He also rescued Erdann's charmed bear (who the goblins had been trying to poison, without success, thanks to an early morning Heroes' Feast) by fireballing it.
The Stone Tell worked, and with the password the bear and Abbey were brought inside. All together once again (the stupid half orc fighter having run off in the night or something), they went looking for trouble.
The first door they tried had little trouble -- just some animated objects (all killed in one round) and a wraith/demon undead creature that didn't last long enough to do anything cool. The second door was a bit worse, though revealing 12 abyssal ghouls.
When a flamestrike failed to do much to weaken the critters, and turning proved futile, May blocked off the doorway with a wall of force (except for a big enough gap to cast spells through). Then cursed as the ghouls opened the other door to their room and started running around to the other door. Well, one ghoul tried to squeeze through the gap, but got stuck.
The party was ready for the other ghouls, though, Conner blocking the door. "You shall not pass!" The ghouls laughed at him, and tumbled past into the room (well, 7 of 11 did, the others ended up sprawled on the ground at his feet), surrounding May and clawing at him, ruining the summon spell he was casting.
The ghouls were able to take a lot of punishment, but so was the party, and one by one the ghouls started to fall. May was in trouble, though, unable to point his shield in all directions at once -- especially since the ghouls could sneak attack!
But the combat was cut short (although not THAT short) by Erdann's Creeping Doom, which horribly devoured the last six ghouls. Not wanting to waste it, the party led it around the first floor of the castle, devouring any drow they encountered. They also looted everything of value, completely filling their bags of holding with magical drow equipment. 600 pounds of it had to be stored in a normal sack!
The only way up seemed to be a levitation column that the party didn't trust, so they went down first, into several empty levels of dungeon and seige store. Out of spells, and with their medium duration buffs expiring, the party decided to pick a random spot in the dungeon and rope trick there for the night. Surely no one in the castle would miss anyone on the first floor before morning.
last session next week
Wind walk let the party flee the burning city and rest in the wilds of the underdark. Nothing bothered them 15 miles from the city, but the army there noticed the many corpses they'd left behind, and were waiting for their return.
So as they tried to breeze through the gates, they set off a Symbol of Persuasion that charmed Abbey, who tried [very very badly] to convince the party that the army of demons and goblins was their friend and that they should join it. To keep her out of trouble, May put her to sleep and stashed her in a rope trick.
Then, without Abbey, they traveled to the castle to clear out enough space so that they could spend 10 minutes casting 'Stone Tell' to get the password to the Forbiddance, if there was one. The three Vrock and now a Balor were flitting about around the castle, but the party ran past and in the door before they could react.
But first they had to clear out the drow. Two drow survived the initial fireball barrage, and Erdann trapped one of them in a six-inch-thick stone box. The other ran off to get his buddies, some vampires, who got Sunrayed into oblivion. Not content to wait for trouble to come to them, Erdann and May and Conner assaulted the main guard barracks and slaughtered everyone inside, as they scrambled for their weapons.
They then tried to question the drow they'd captured in the wall of stone. He was charmed, but knew nothing of great use. A couple drow clerics snuck up and attacked, but were nothing even resembling a threat -- so they were put to sleep with subdual for later questioning.
About this time, Conner (who had Status up on the whole party) noted that Erdann's bear, who'd had to wait outside the Forbiddance until they got the password, was starting to wander away. Very fast, since he was Flying. Erdann rushed out to stop him, right into the Balor's trap!
It didn't work very well. The vrocks spored and screeched (ineffectually), and the Balor tried to stun the party (ineffectually) and firestorm the party (mostly ineffectually), and was then Held by May (on the second try) and out of the fight.
Seeing their boss paralyzed, one of the Vrock ran to get help from the army camped nearby. They arrived just in time to get blown up by the Balor's death throes -- the party, being much tougher than the average bugbear, was only a little singed. Conner and Erdann and May went back inside the Forbiddance, where the army couldn't follow, and started casting Stone Tell.
May decided to go get Abbey, since he didn't feel right leaving her there all on her own, even if she was Charmed. After a little talking, Abbey agreed to loot the castle first and go talk to the big bad boss after.
He also rescued Erdann's charmed bear (who the goblins had been trying to poison, without success, thanks to an early morning Heroes' Feast) by fireballing it.
The Stone Tell worked, and with the password the bear and Abbey were brought inside. All together once again (the stupid half orc fighter having run off in the night or something), they went looking for trouble.
The first door they tried had little trouble -- just some animated objects (all killed in one round) and a wraith/demon undead creature that didn't last long enough to do anything cool. The second door was a bit worse, though revealing 12 abyssal ghouls.
When a flamestrike failed to do much to weaken the critters, and turning proved futile, May blocked off the doorway with a wall of force (except for a big enough gap to cast spells through). Then cursed as the ghouls opened the other door to their room and started running around to the other door. Well, one ghoul tried to squeeze through the gap, but got stuck.
The party was ready for the other ghouls, though, Conner blocking the door. "You shall not pass!" The ghouls laughed at him, and tumbled past into the room (well, 7 of 11 did, the others ended up sprawled on the ground at his feet), surrounding May and clawing at him, ruining the summon spell he was casting.
The ghouls were able to take a lot of punishment, but so was the party, and one by one the ghouls started to fall. May was in trouble, though, unable to point his shield in all directions at once -- especially since the ghouls could sneak attack!
But the combat was cut short (although not THAT short) by Erdann's Creeping Doom, which horribly devoured the last six ghouls. Not wanting to waste it, the party led it around the first floor of the castle, devouring any drow they encountered. They also looted everything of value, completely filling their bags of holding with magical drow equipment. 600 pounds of it had to be stored in a normal sack!
The only way up seemed to be a levitation column that the party didn't trust, so they went down first, into several empty levels of dungeon and seige store. Out of spells, and with their medium duration buffs expiring, the party decided to pick a random spot in the dungeon and rope trick there for the night. Surely no one in the castle would miss anyone on the first floor before morning.
last session next week
