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terryclothTonight was my Monday D+D game, in which (in order to challenge a party a couple levels ahead of the game) I threw together three or four encounters at once, and they *still* slaughtered everything... although there were at least a few moments of doubt.
Resting in a rope trick in the dungeon proved to be a poor choice. The drow sent a party of abyssal ghouls to open all the doors, leaving their ghostly beholder with his antimagic ray to scan for hidden people - dumping the party, magicless, onto the floor, surrounded by undead.
If Abbey hadn't managed to tumble out of the trap and out of the antimagic and backstab the ghost for most of his hitpoints, it might have gone badly... but she did, and when the beholder turned to refocus on her the rest of the party pelted it to death with their remaining shreds of magic, and then it was just a matter of cleaning up all the ghouls. Erdann's bear was badly hurt, but survived, thanks to Conner Healing it again.
They rested the night behind a wall of stone, made to resemble the natural cavern under the castle they chose as their backup rest spot. Not that the drow had another ghostly beholder to send down after them. Instead, they piled four dozen zombies and two dozen drow - many of them mid-level (7-10) spellcasters - to ambush the party as they left the dungeons, with a Glyph of Warding (sonic) to act as a motion sensor.
It was a slaughter. With all those undead and drow, they had no choice but to bunch up, and Erdann's firestorm and May's prismatic spray wiped them out by the dozen. The magic spells they tossed back did some damage -- and a wall of force kept the bear mostly out of the fight -- but in less than 30 seconds it was over, and all the drow were dead.
After looting all the dead, and storing the treasure in a rope trick in the vampire's old room to retrieve on the way out, they decided to examine the shaft. Abbey rose up, invisible, to investigate the grate 160 feet up. It was locked from the other side, and there were guards... although they were all out of sight from below the grate.
So the plan was to knock the gate and rush past. This was done. The enemies included four ineffectual undead who tried to hit the party with crossbow bolts, two ineffectual ghosts who... er... spring attacked for 1d4 damage, and made the party make easy fort saves to avoid a little more damage, two relatively effective undead who cast spells on themselves and the party, and one living drow who was blinded by Conner's Light of Doom, but still managed to summon a fire elemental to distract Erdann for a couple rounds.
May, with his Mantle of Egregious Might on top of all his other buffs (chiefly, polymorph other), was a very effective melee fighter against the drow -- he didn't want to waste actual magic, and the battle was going very well for the party until the reinforcements arrived. Four simultaneous ice storms can do some appreciable damage. Combined with a few strikes from a halberd, Erdann's bear was brought down and killed.
Conner decided enough was enough, and Mass Healed the party and the enemies - which brought them to the brink of death, since they were undead. May split a magic missile between them and pushed them over. The ghosts, who'd been mostly ignored the whole time, were eventually picked off.
last week next week
What's up with ghosts? When the only attack a CR 11 creature can make is to touch for 1d4 damage, Something Is Wrong.
Resting in a rope trick in the dungeon proved to be a poor choice. The drow sent a party of abyssal ghouls to open all the doors, leaving their ghostly beholder with his antimagic ray to scan for hidden people - dumping the party, magicless, onto the floor, surrounded by undead.
If Abbey hadn't managed to tumble out of the trap and out of the antimagic and backstab the ghost for most of his hitpoints, it might have gone badly... but she did, and when the beholder turned to refocus on her the rest of the party pelted it to death with their remaining shreds of magic, and then it was just a matter of cleaning up all the ghouls. Erdann's bear was badly hurt, but survived, thanks to Conner Healing it again.
They rested the night behind a wall of stone, made to resemble the natural cavern under the castle they chose as their backup rest spot. Not that the drow had another ghostly beholder to send down after them. Instead, they piled four dozen zombies and two dozen drow - many of them mid-level (7-10) spellcasters - to ambush the party as they left the dungeons, with a Glyph of Warding (sonic) to act as a motion sensor.
It was a slaughter. With all those undead and drow, they had no choice but to bunch up, and Erdann's firestorm and May's prismatic spray wiped them out by the dozen. The magic spells they tossed back did some damage -- and a wall of force kept the bear mostly out of the fight -- but in less than 30 seconds it was over, and all the drow were dead.
After looting all the dead, and storing the treasure in a rope trick in the vampire's old room to retrieve on the way out, they decided to examine the shaft. Abbey rose up, invisible, to investigate the grate 160 feet up. It was locked from the other side, and there were guards... although they were all out of sight from below the grate.
So the plan was to knock the gate and rush past. This was done. The enemies included four ineffectual undead who tried to hit the party with crossbow bolts, two ineffectual ghosts who... er... spring attacked for 1d4 damage, and made the party make easy fort saves to avoid a little more damage, two relatively effective undead who cast spells on themselves and the party, and one living drow who was blinded by Conner's Light of Doom, but still managed to summon a fire elemental to distract Erdann for a couple rounds.
May, with his Mantle of Egregious Might on top of all his other buffs (chiefly, polymorph other), was a very effective melee fighter against the drow -- he didn't want to waste actual magic, and the battle was going very well for the party until the reinforcements arrived. Four simultaneous ice storms can do some appreciable damage. Combined with a few strikes from a halberd, Erdann's bear was brought down and killed.
Conner decided enough was enough, and Mass Healed the party and the enemies - which brought them to the brink of death, since they were undead. May split a magic missile between them and pushed them over. The ghosts, who'd been mostly ignored the whole time, were eventually picked off.
last week next week
What's up with ghosts? When the only attack a CR 11 creature can make is to touch for 1d4 damage, Something Is Wrong.
