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terryclothToday, we continued our trek through Erik's coverted 1st edition module. This time, there were at least monsters in some of the rooms. Also, my druid earned his nancing badge by escaping unharmed from a lethal trap without even having to make a saving throw.
So, after wandering for... well, for fifteen minutes or so through the misty maze, the party finally found a door that was made out of mist instead of wood. After checking for traps, they opened it...
GM: "You see a square room with a domed ceiling, filled with bodies scattered across the floor."
Tachi: "Are they dead?"
GM: "Well, they leap up as you open the door, and draw their weapons..."
Tachi: "Eek! Undead! I attack!"
Tachi did indeed win initiative, and lept into the room with his pet weasel, and dropped one of the enemies. Discovering in the process that instead of being dead, they were alive... but they were hostile *now* even if they hadn't been before, and the party slaughtered them all without much trouble. One prisoner was kept alive, and lashed to Tachi's back (he was still a bear) to be interrogated whenever he woke up.
A short trip through the maze revealed another wooden door. This one opened to an identical room, only empty.
Tachi: "I rush in and attack!"
GM: "Attack WHAT?"
Tachi: "I'll pretend there's an invisible creature in the middle of the room and attack it."
GM: "The doors slam closed, and you see the walls start to close in to crush you..."
The party watched in horror as the door slammed shut behind their druid, and horrible grinding and wet crushing noises ensued. Sierra tried to Knock the door, but it was blocked by solid blocks of stone and could not open, until the trap had retracted -- revealing a bloody smear across the floor, and on either side wall.
Then Tachi, now in Dire Hawk form, flew down to rejoin the party from where he'd been hiding in the domed ceiling, above the crushers.
Tachi: "SCREECH!"
Sierra: "My raven said he claims he meant to do that."
Diego: "Hey, look! There's a trap in that room. The whole floor is one big pressure plate."
Cyrus (formerly known as Al): "I guess we're not going to interrogate the prisoner."
After passing another empty room, this one without a trap, they finally found a room with *four* doors and a trapdoor in the ceiling. And some minotaurs. Who weren't much of a challenge.
Up the trapdoor -- which proved to be an actual trap from the top side -- was a complicated labyrinth of crypts and passageways, full of undead. The first fight was against a bunch of ghasts, and had some excitement as Tachi fought fiercely to save his animal companion, and the rest of the party fought fiercely to save Felinne. The second was against a trio of wraiths, and Cyrus' health was badly drained. Sierra thought she might be able to do a ritual to cure it, if anyone had 100gp of diamond dust.
Nope.
After fighting off the undead, they found a trio of rooms that seemed to look down into the maze they'd just escaped from -- apparently, there were concealed doors in the domes of the square rooms, thirty feet up from where they'd been searching. One of the maze rooms had some platinum that they recovered, though.
Working their way around, they found a glowy room with a lush jungle growing around a flowing stream. And some altars with runes to read and handprints to place your hands on, although this time there were no takers. They also found what looked like a way up to the next level, but decided they wanted to clear out the undead on this level, and maybe rest the night in a secret niche they'd found near the former ghast lair, so they returned to the font hall with the trapdoor they'd come up, this time reading the inscriptions carefully.
Oh. Apparently, Amon Re, whose tomb they were there to loot, was guarded by a lich. Not that they knew what a lich was. But the inscriptions described a powerful undead wizard who 'could not be killed, for his life is elsewhere'.
The far side of the dungeon didn't have nearly as much undead presence, although the layout was roughly (but not exactly) symmetrical. They did eventually find a pack of ghouls assaulting a paladin of Lathander, and 'rescued' her from the ludicrously weak monsters.
Was she really a good paladin? Would she aid them in their quest? Should they perhaps not mention that they were there to loot the tomb, this time?
last session next session
So, after wandering for... well, for fifteen minutes or so through the misty maze, the party finally found a door that was made out of mist instead of wood. After checking for traps, they opened it...
GM: "You see a square room with a domed ceiling, filled with bodies scattered across the floor."
Tachi: "Are they dead?"
GM: "Well, they leap up as you open the door, and draw their weapons..."
Tachi: "Eek! Undead! I attack!"
Tachi did indeed win initiative, and lept into the room with his pet weasel, and dropped one of the enemies. Discovering in the process that instead of being dead, they were alive... but they were hostile *now* even if they hadn't been before, and the party slaughtered them all without much trouble. One prisoner was kept alive, and lashed to Tachi's back (he was still a bear) to be interrogated whenever he woke up.
A short trip through the maze revealed another wooden door. This one opened to an identical room, only empty.
Tachi: "I rush in and attack!"
GM: "Attack WHAT?"
Tachi: "I'll pretend there's an invisible creature in the middle of the room and attack it."
GM: "The doors slam closed, and you see the walls start to close in to crush you..."
The party watched in horror as the door slammed shut behind their druid, and horrible grinding and wet crushing noises ensued. Sierra tried to Knock the door, but it was blocked by solid blocks of stone and could not open, until the trap had retracted -- revealing a bloody smear across the floor, and on either side wall.
Then Tachi, now in Dire Hawk form, flew down to rejoin the party from where he'd been hiding in the domed ceiling, above the crushers.
Tachi: "SCREECH!"
Sierra: "My raven said he claims he meant to do that."
Diego: "Hey, look! There's a trap in that room. The whole floor is one big pressure plate."
Cyrus (formerly known as Al): "I guess we're not going to interrogate the prisoner."
After passing another empty room, this one without a trap, they finally found a room with *four* doors and a trapdoor in the ceiling. And some minotaurs. Who weren't much of a challenge.
Up the trapdoor -- which proved to be an actual trap from the top side -- was a complicated labyrinth of crypts and passageways, full of undead. The first fight was against a bunch of ghasts, and had some excitement as Tachi fought fiercely to save his animal companion, and the rest of the party fought fiercely to save Felinne. The second was against a trio of wraiths, and Cyrus' health was badly drained. Sierra thought she might be able to do a ritual to cure it, if anyone had 100gp of diamond dust.
Nope.
After fighting off the undead, they found a trio of rooms that seemed to look down into the maze they'd just escaped from -- apparently, there were concealed doors in the domes of the square rooms, thirty feet up from where they'd been searching. One of the maze rooms had some platinum that they recovered, though.
Working their way around, they found a glowy room with a lush jungle growing around a flowing stream. And some altars with runes to read and handprints to place your hands on, although this time there were no takers. They also found what looked like a way up to the next level, but decided they wanted to clear out the undead on this level, and maybe rest the night in a secret niche they'd found near the former ghast lair, so they returned to the font hall with the trapdoor they'd come up, this time reading the inscriptions carefully.
Oh. Apparently, Amon Re, whose tomb they were there to loot, was guarded by a lich. Not that they knew what a lich was. But the inscriptions described a powerful undead wizard who 'could not be killed, for his life is elsewhere'.
The far side of the dungeon didn't have nearly as much undead presence, although the layout was roughly (but not exactly) symmetrical. They did eventually find a pack of ghouls assaulting a paladin of Lathander, and 'rescued' her from the ludicrously weak monsters.
Was she really a good paladin? Would she aid them in their quest? Should they perhaps not mention that they were there to loot the tomb, this time?
last session next session
