Letting the Cat out of the Bag
Apr. 22nd, 2004 01:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight was Jeff's Dragonlance game, temporarily moved to Wednesdays to accomodate... somebody. To tell the truth, it's really even better for me, at least until Workaholics start up again and make it impossible.
We did a lot of stupid stuff, mostly advancing the cause of evil. I considered becoming evil to more easily use an unholy item, but stopped when I realized that that's just what the item *wanted*. And Sonnet, once again, almost got herself killed.
The party cut down the cocooned victims of the spiders, finding a ring of wizardry, then continued on to the graveyard. There they saw, as Kelwick had reported, an army of skeletons battling to the... well, to the destruction. They also saw a death knight watching the skeletons battle, and choosing the most powerful for his personal guard. He didn't seem to notice and/or care about the party, though.
At dusk, the skeletons fell quiet, and the party scuttled through the ruins searching for loot. They found quiet a bit of magic scattered about, and took it to save for later identification.
Then they checked out the crypts. The small stone huts were sealed with arcane locks, but that didn't stop Kijj from bashing down the doors with the admantium trap-blades they were still carrying around. The first crypt was full of traps, but with Kelwick's help they disarmed the symbols on the chest in the back, and recovered some rainbow-colored potions.
The second crypt didn't have any magical traps, but did have a pit trap that Kijj cleverly discovered trying to remove the coffins. Ouch! The room below the pit had two inches of water, and another trap door in the floor. Opening the second trap door was difficult, but Kijj, Thor, and Morgan cooperated to pull it open against water pressure.
Below that trapdoor was a long shaft, and at the bottom, a vampire. He didn't *say* he was a vampire, but he looked human, and Dominated Kijj and had him hold the door open while he spider-climbed up. And hissed in pain as Mike used Disrupt Undead on him.
Thor and Morgan wrestled the trapdoor back closed despite Kijj's interference, but the vampire just turned to gas and floated out. That bought a couple rounds of stabbing at him before he was ready to do anything, though, and in the meantime Mike dispelled the domination.
Sonnet cried out, "Why are you attacking him! Stop! We should talk!"
"Yes, we should talk!" the vampire replied, summoning swarms of bats to viciously bite the party. "I don't want to fight you!"
"We'll let you go if you just run away," Mike offered.
This halfhearted attempt at a parley confused the party enough that the vampire got clean away. They explored his crypt and found some more treasure, though, locked inside a silver box he apparently hadn't been able to open.
They needed a full day, now, to identify the items and set up the alchemy lab to use on the potions. Of course, there was a probably pissed off vampire on the loose, so they set up camp in the clearing, where there would at least be sunlight during the day (during the night they could use Rope Tricks). Of course, the death knight might come back, so they built a little wall to camoflage the camp, just in case... but he didn't.
Most of the items from the graveyard were sort of cursed, but the party ended up using most of them anyway. Thor took some magic elven chain (with extra bonuses to evil critters) and an unholy ghost touch two-handed sword and a belt of +6 STR and -2 CON. Sonnet got a belt of +4 STR and Thor's hand-me-down mithril chain shirt. Kijj got a +3 unholy longsword (which he couldn't wield without taking a negative level, but might be useful anyway) and some gauntlets of vampiric touch. Other people got stuff they liked less well. No one wanted the demon armor.
The potions were also all cursed, although the rainbow ones might be worth keeping in a bag and tossing down some large creature's throat.
So they headed to the tower. They had Kelwick make a 'trap' that locked all their hands in place so that they could all touch the one tiny Night Jewel and walk through the grove. It got them to the door of the tower, which they Knocked open... but the guardians wouldn't let them inside until they showed the contract they had with Dalamar, that clearly told them to deliver the Night Jewel to him in 'The Tower of High Sorcery'. That counted as an invitation, so they were allowed into the guest quarters. Dalamar himself was expected to arrive in a week or so, now that the tower was unsealed.
There, Morgan and Murphy found a library full of spells to scribe into their books, and decided to spend the week doing that. The others had less to occupy themselves with, and Sonnet in particular was downright suicidal, trying to get the rest to join with her and attack the guardians. She finally sent an animal from the bag of tricks after them, but they just turned it to dust and chuckled at her.
"It's too bad we can't get word to Jenna about this," someone mused, "If only the cleric was with us, she could do a Sending." Nerilka had refused to come with them to the tower, but was waiting for them outside the forest in the nearest village. After a bunch of planning, the party wrote out a message summarizing the situation, and Sonnet and Kijj were escorted through the grove ("I'm not entrusting the Night Jewel to the 'tard and the airhead," Mike insisted) and hustled to the village, making it in a single day. The cleric was happy to send the message on, although the price was double because it'd need to be relayed through a cleric that knew Jenna Justarius.
Jenna sent her reply to Murphy, back in the tower: I'm not going to come personally to help, or send anyone. Try to take advantage of the situation to best promote the interests of the Red Robes. If you die or vanish, I'll get revenge. Joy.
On the way back, Sonnet asked Kijj to take her to the stat-altering fountain so that she could take a second drink. She managed not to actually die from it, but it did only bad things to her.
Even with that detour, they got back to the tower on schedule, and were escorted back in to finish waiting for Dalamar.
last session next session
Afterwards I stopped and got some 'skinny cow' ice cream. GOD, it was TERRIBLE. For some reason, when I eat it at my sister's, it tastes okay, but the same brand when I but it is downright inedible.
We did a lot of stupid stuff, mostly advancing the cause of evil. I considered becoming evil to more easily use an unholy item, but stopped when I realized that that's just what the item *wanted*. And Sonnet, once again, almost got herself killed.
The party cut down the cocooned victims of the spiders, finding a ring of wizardry, then continued on to the graveyard. There they saw, as Kelwick had reported, an army of skeletons battling to the... well, to the destruction. They also saw a death knight watching the skeletons battle, and choosing the most powerful for his personal guard. He didn't seem to notice and/or care about the party, though.
At dusk, the skeletons fell quiet, and the party scuttled through the ruins searching for loot. They found quiet a bit of magic scattered about, and took it to save for later identification.
Then they checked out the crypts. The small stone huts were sealed with arcane locks, but that didn't stop Kijj from bashing down the doors with the admantium trap-blades they were still carrying around. The first crypt was full of traps, but with Kelwick's help they disarmed the symbols on the chest in the back, and recovered some rainbow-colored potions.
The second crypt didn't have any magical traps, but did have a pit trap that Kijj cleverly discovered trying to remove the coffins. Ouch! The room below the pit had two inches of water, and another trap door in the floor. Opening the second trap door was difficult, but Kijj, Thor, and Morgan cooperated to pull it open against water pressure.
Below that trapdoor was a long shaft, and at the bottom, a vampire. He didn't *say* he was a vampire, but he looked human, and Dominated Kijj and had him hold the door open while he spider-climbed up. And hissed in pain as Mike used Disrupt Undead on him.
Thor and Morgan wrestled the trapdoor back closed despite Kijj's interference, but the vampire just turned to gas and floated out. That bought a couple rounds of stabbing at him before he was ready to do anything, though, and in the meantime Mike dispelled the domination.
Sonnet cried out, "Why are you attacking him! Stop! We should talk!"
"Yes, we should talk!" the vampire replied, summoning swarms of bats to viciously bite the party. "I don't want to fight you!"
"We'll let you go if you just run away," Mike offered.
This halfhearted attempt at a parley confused the party enough that the vampire got clean away. They explored his crypt and found some more treasure, though, locked inside a silver box he apparently hadn't been able to open.
They needed a full day, now, to identify the items and set up the alchemy lab to use on the potions. Of course, there was a probably pissed off vampire on the loose, so they set up camp in the clearing, where there would at least be sunlight during the day (during the night they could use Rope Tricks). Of course, the death knight might come back, so they built a little wall to camoflage the camp, just in case... but he didn't.
Most of the items from the graveyard were sort of cursed, but the party ended up using most of them anyway. Thor took some magic elven chain (with extra bonuses to evil critters) and an unholy ghost touch two-handed sword and a belt of +6 STR and -2 CON. Sonnet got a belt of +4 STR and Thor's hand-me-down mithril chain shirt. Kijj got a +3 unholy longsword (which he couldn't wield without taking a negative level, but might be useful anyway) and some gauntlets of vampiric touch. Other people got stuff they liked less well. No one wanted the demon armor.
The potions were also all cursed, although the rainbow ones might be worth keeping in a bag and tossing down some large creature's throat.
So they headed to the tower. They had Kelwick make a 'trap' that locked all their hands in place so that they could all touch the one tiny Night Jewel and walk through the grove. It got them to the door of the tower, which they Knocked open... but the guardians wouldn't let them inside until they showed the contract they had with Dalamar, that clearly told them to deliver the Night Jewel to him in 'The Tower of High Sorcery'. That counted as an invitation, so they were allowed into the guest quarters. Dalamar himself was expected to arrive in a week or so, now that the tower was unsealed.
There, Morgan and Murphy found a library full of spells to scribe into their books, and decided to spend the week doing that. The others had less to occupy themselves with, and Sonnet in particular was downright suicidal, trying to get the rest to join with her and attack the guardians. She finally sent an animal from the bag of tricks after them, but they just turned it to dust and chuckled at her.
"It's too bad we can't get word to Jenna about this," someone mused, "If only the cleric was with us, she could do a Sending." Nerilka had refused to come with them to the tower, but was waiting for them outside the forest in the nearest village. After a bunch of planning, the party wrote out a message summarizing the situation, and Sonnet and Kijj were escorted through the grove ("I'm not entrusting the Night Jewel to the 'tard and the airhead," Mike insisted) and hustled to the village, making it in a single day. The cleric was happy to send the message on, although the price was double because it'd need to be relayed through a cleric that knew Jenna Justarius.
Jenna sent her reply to Murphy, back in the tower: I'm not going to come personally to help, or send anyone. Try to take advantage of the situation to best promote the interests of the Red Robes. If you die or vanish, I'll get revenge. Joy.
On the way back, Sonnet asked Kijj to take her to the stat-altering fountain so that she could take a second drink. She managed not to actually die from it, but it did only bad things to her.
Even with that detour, they got back to the tower on schedule, and were escorted back in to finish waiting for Dalamar.
last session next session
Afterwards I stopped and got some 'skinny cow' ice cream. GOD, it was TERRIBLE. For some reason, when I eat it at my sister's, it tastes okay, but the same brand when I but it is downright inedible.
