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terryclothTonight, after almost a month, we *finally* had another session of City of the Spider Queen. Somewhat to my surprise, we didn't finish the module -- partly because I may have gone a *tad* overboard in adjusting the end battle for the party's strength, and partly because they did something really really stupid.
The corridor of flames contained what looked like an iron golem. What harm could one golem do? The answer was, 'greivous, bodily harm', to Erdann and Abbey and Conner -- the last two of which were brought to the brink of death by the golem and wall of fire combined. But without support, it was defeated.
Past it was a well-like chamber in which the Undying Temple stood -- half material, half ethereal. The party decided that they didn't feel like tackling it just yet, and retreated to rest.
They retreated all of ONE ROOM.
The first wave of enemy attacks was a swarm of ghosts. The beholder ghost, now rejuvenated, dumped them out of their rope trick, then the other ghosts closed in to horrify them while the beholder used its eye rays... or at least, that was the plan. The beholder was turned, and the other ghosts were beaten off -- one of them was destroyed (at least temporarily). No party member took damage of any sort.
The party decided to rest again in the same room, although this time without the wall of stone that had only served to hedge them in. May made himself a special rope trick near the ceiling, out of the line of antimagic, and Abbey and Erdann decided to just stay awake, on guard.
The second wave was the beholder ghost, along with a sneaking rogue with a pair of greater fire elemental gems. The rogue was seen by Abbey, who chased her off, back into the tower, but not until after she'd tossed her gems. The fire elementals couldn't enter the antimagic, so the beholder used its eye-rays instead, zapping Conner while an elemental tried to kill Erdann (and another tried to kill Abbey). Abbey and Erdann were pretty badly hurt, and Conner took some serious ability damage, but the beholder was wounded badly enough that it retreated to heal, and the elementals were killed in melee. May slept through the whole fight.
After this, the party yelled to wake up May and have him lower the rope, and joined him in the high rope trick, except for Erdann who stayed on guard. Erdann watched a pair of drow push a wooden construction -- a field of poisoned spikes -- under the rope trick, and blinded them with a sunray. Another sunray the next round sent them fleeing back to the tower, but the beholder was still able to antimagic the rope trick and drop the sleeping party members onto the poisoned spikes. May was worst hit by this, the deadly poison coursing through his veins and damaging his health, but still, no one was killed.
But the party decided enough was enough, and used their Wind Walk (which was STILL up) to retreat an hour back into the underdark and rest out of reach of Irae's minions. Finally.
They came back the next day to assault the tower. The golem was repaired, but they just flew past it, and up into the air, looking for one of the doors they'd seen open earlier -- but no such door was evident. Inspection with Detect Magic and tossed items revealed the black sphere in the middle to be made of negative energy instead of annihilation or anything of the sort -- still not something they wanted to fly through.
So Erdann stone-shaped a hole in the wall, and flew inside. It closed behind him, and drow attacked!
The drow didn't attack very effectively, though, and the party managed to all get inside by one means or other, and soon all the drow were dead... but some unseen force was enervating the party, one at a time, once a round, seeming to come out of the walls of the tower itself! May decided that the tower must be a construct, and he had just the spell to disjunct it. By sheer luck, he managed to catch the key bit of the tower in his disjuction, and 'stripped it of its sentience' and, more importantly, its spell-like abilities.
Up a few flights of stairs was a portal to the ethereal plane, where a keening spirit waited to fail to have any effect on the deathwarded party and was killed in one round. The next level up was... Irae herself!
But she was waiting. As soon as Erdann showed his face through the hole, she cast her Gate spell, and summoned a fiendish great wyrm red dragon, which (while making futile protests about how much it was going to kill the fool who summoned it) breathed fire on the party! Erdann was unharmed, being protected from all elements, but May was toasted, and Abbey and Conner were at the brink of death.
So they ran! They mass healed the living party members, then flew away at top speed -- but the dragon was right behind them, polymorphed and flying. They managed to keep just ahead of it through the twisting corridors of the castle, but it got a straight shot on them just before they escaped, and its Horrid Wilting killed Abbey (and wounded Conner really badly).
But then they were in the mist. A fire-eyes revealed that it seemed to still be following them somehow. So Conner teleported them a quarter mile or so, which gave them enough time to shift back into wind form and wind-walk to the surface.
On the way, they saw a shadow dragon lurking in the area-which-used-to-have-stone-giants. Mystery solved (kinda).
In town, while they got May and Abbey true ressed, Irae contacted Erdann and offered a truce -- if they would just stop attacking her, she would make him ruler of the Dales, once her army conquered the world. Erdann was unable to conceal his disgust at the thought of working with an undead-mongering cleric of Kiransilee.
last session next session
Is it my imagination, or is Gate ludicrously broken? I guess it's not the only broken 9th level spell...
Next session *has* to be the last for this module. Not sure what we'll do after that, although I do have another module lined up. I haven't read it yet, though, so I'm not sure whether it's any good.
The corridor of flames contained what looked like an iron golem. What harm could one golem do? The answer was, 'greivous, bodily harm', to Erdann and Abbey and Conner -- the last two of which were brought to the brink of death by the golem and wall of fire combined. But without support, it was defeated.
Past it was a well-like chamber in which the Undying Temple stood -- half material, half ethereal. The party decided that they didn't feel like tackling it just yet, and retreated to rest.
They retreated all of ONE ROOM.
The first wave of enemy attacks was a swarm of ghosts. The beholder ghost, now rejuvenated, dumped them out of their rope trick, then the other ghosts closed in to horrify them while the beholder used its eye rays... or at least, that was the plan. The beholder was turned, and the other ghosts were beaten off -- one of them was destroyed (at least temporarily). No party member took damage of any sort.
The party decided to rest again in the same room, although this time without the wall of stone that had only served to hedge them in. May made himself a special rope trick near the ceiling, out of the line of antimagic, and Abbey and Erdann decided to just stay awake, on guard.
The second wave was the beholder ghost, along with a sneaking rogue with a pair of greater fire elemental gems. The rogue was seen by Abbey, who chased her off, back into the tower, but not until after she'd tossed her gems. The fire elementals couldn't enter the antimagic, so the beholder used its eye-rays instead, zapping Conner while an elemental tried to kill Erdann (and another tried to kill Abbey). Abbey and Erdann were pretty badly hurt, and Conner took some serious ability damage, but the beholder was wounded badly enough that it retreated to heal, and the elementals were killed in melee. May slept through the whole fight.
After this, the party yelled to wake up May and have him lower the rope, and joined him in the high rope trick, except for Erdann who stayed on guard. Erdann watched a pair of drow push a wooden construction -- a field of poisoned spikes -- under the rope trick, and blinded them with a sunray. Another sunray the next round sent them fleeing back to the tower, but the beholder was still able to antimagic the rope trick and drop the sleeping party members onto the poisoned spikes. May was worst hit by this, the deadly poison coursing through his veins and damaging his health, but still, no one was killed.
But the party decided enough was enough, and used their Wind Walk (which was STILL up) to retreat an hour back into the underdark and rest out of reach of Irae's minions. Finally.
They came back the next day to assault the tower. The golem was repaired, but they just flew past it, and up into the air, looking for one of the doors they'd seen open earlier -- but no such door was evident. Inspection with Detect Magic and tossed items revealed the black sphere in the middle to be made of negative energy instead of annihilation or anything of the sort -- still not something they wanted to fly through.
So Erdann stone-shaped a hole in the wall, and flew inside. It closed behind him, and drow attacked!
The drow didn't attack very effectively, though, and the party managed to all get inside by one means or other, and soon all the drow were dead... but some unseen force was enervating the party, one at a time, once a round, seeming to come out of the walls of the tower itself! May decided that the tower must be a construct, and he had just the spell to disjunct it. By sheer luck, he managed to catch the key bit of the tower in his disjuction, and 'stripped it of its sentience' and, more importantly, its spell-like abilities.
Up a few flights of stairs was a portal to the ethereal plane, where a keening spirit waited to fail to have any effect on the deathwarded party and was killed in one round. The next level up was... Irae herself!
But she was waiting. As soon as Erdann showed his face through the hole, she cast her Gate spell, and summoned a fiendish great wyrm red dragon, which (while making futile protests about how much it was going to kill the fool who summoned it) breathed fire on the party! Erdann was unharmed, being protected from all elements, but May was toasted, and Abbey and Conner were at the brink of death.
So they ran! They mass healed the living party members, then flew away at top speed -- but the dragon was right behind them, polymorphed and flying. They managed to keep just ahead of it through the twisting corridors of the castle, but it got a straight shot on them just before they escaped, and its Horrid Wilting killed Abbey (and wounded Conner really badly).
But then they were in the mist. A fire-eyes revealed that it seemed to still be following them somehow. So Conner teleported them a quarter mile or so, which gave them enough time to shift back into wind form and wind-walk to the surface.
On the way, they saw a shadow dragon lurking in the area-which-used-to-have-stone-giants. Mystery solved (kinda).
In town, while they got May and Abbey true ressed, Irae contacted Erdann and offered a truce -- if they would just stop attacking her, she would make him ruler of the Dales, once her army conquered the world. Erdann was unable to conceal his disgust at the thought of working with an undead-mongering cleric of Kiransilee.
last session next session
Is it my imagination, or is Gate ludicrously broken? I guess it's not the only broken 9th level spell...
Next session *has* to be the last for this module. Not sure what we'll do after that, although I do have another module lined up. I haven't read it yet, though, so I'm not sure whether it's any good.
