Time and Effort Wasted
Apr. 29th, 2004 01:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight we had a session of Jeff's Dragonlance campaign, in which we spent a month in Dalamar's tower playing with his toys, after which he erased our memory. Then Sonnet got her dog advanced a couple hit dice and awakened by some nice druids, then got it killed by some less-nice ogres.
At the end of the day, though, we're all still fabulously wealthy, so it's okay.
Fire wreathed the tower of high sorcery to herald Dalamar's arrival -- the party ran outside and waited until it died down, then requested an audience with the evil mage.
Dalamar took the night jewel, and made good on his promises of money and upgrades to their prized items -- significantly better than they expected, in fact. He also gave them access to the second floor of the tower, where the magical workshops allowed them to create magic items without the requisite feats, and vending machines dispensed all the components they could eat for a suitable donation of steel. Kijj and Mike spent 24 days enchanting things, for themselves and for others.
Then they decided it was time to leave, but -- oh wait -- they didn't have the night jewel anymore. Dalamar offered to let them stay on as his apprentices, or else they could leave if they agreed to let him wipe their memory. OR they could brave the horrors of the grove, but that would mean certain death as the spirits there dragged them down to hell.
After some discussion (Kijj: "What's Hell like? Is that a nice place?" Dalamar: "It means you are dead.") they let Dalamar wipe their memories. He didn't just leave a blank, though -- he teleported them back to Palanthas with the memory of never having found the tower, meeting Dalamar back in the city with the scamming draconian, then spending a month making items in a magical workshop in a completely different city that they'd have no reason to ever go to to verify its nonexistance.
There was nothing to do in Palanthas except sell the stuff no one wanted and buy some more useful things. One big ticket item for Sonnet was finally awakening her riding dog -- she also paid a druid to temporarily take it as a companion and meditate and increase its hit dice. This left it much larger and stronger than it had been before, and able to talk, although it rarely bothered.
Eventually -- actually, quite quickly, since they were sick of item creation and bought items new instead -- their cash supply started to run low, it was time to get back to work. So they headed to Wayreth, using the standard 'wander around at random until Wayreth finds you' technique.
At Wayreth, after being assigned the rooms they'd been promised (only Murphy seemed excited by having a room in the tower -- but then, only Murphy got a really good room) there was indeed work to be found. Wayreth's 'bring them all to me' device was malfunctioning, and only bringing those who were already members of the order to it (or at least, those who'd already passed the test, which included the entire party). This would normally be a minor inconvenience, but hordes of ogres and orcs and trolls were camped out in the forest around it, ambushing everyone who walked by and generally making a nuisance of themselves.
That sounded right up the party's alley, so they signed on and were teleported to an Elvish fortress. The elves didn't know much of any use, except that the enemy tended to ambush people walking along a certain road leading to the pirate town of Alsip. But they didn't ambush counter-ambushes, and a traitor was suspected...
Murphy's boots could Find the Path, so he had a cleric of the fortress scry on one of the elves who'd been taken prisoner, and got a direction and distance -- which was enough to tell him that the enemy's dungeon was not in the forest at all, but on an island off the coast. They'd need to go to Alsip after all.
So the headed off down the road. On the way, they found the signs of a recent combat, and Sonnet and Sawyer (her dog) tracked it to a camp of ogres and orcs, with a giant. Murphy was heard when he tried to creep closer to interpret their speech, though, and ran back to warn the others that the enemy was coming! They had enough time to prepare most of their combat spells, and Morgan hid behind a tree, planning to leap out and stab someone as they rushed towards Kijj and Thor, who set themselves up as obvious targets.
The giant was the first to come into view, so he got enervated by Mike. And Murphy. And Mike again. The orcs rushed out next, swarming Thor and Sonnet and Kijj, then getting fireballed by Murphy to clear them out of the way. Last were the ogres, the first one drawing Morgan out of hiding just in time to get jumped by the other two -- it looked bad for a second, but Kijj charged and decapitated one of them with his spear [power attack for 5 plus arcane strike lvl 3 plus bard song plus +11 STR mod plus +2 shocking longspear plus critical hit for x3 with a two-handed weapon equals >100 damage] and cleaved into the other, which Morgan finished off with his sonic acid firey rapier.
Then the giant ambled forwards to fail to connect with Morgan, and Kijj put it out of its heavily-enervated misery [it was one hit die away from dying from negative levels]. Thor and Sonnet and Sawyer had taken care of the other ogre and the surviving orcs in the meantime.
They looted the bodies, and moved on to the camp, where they rescued the elvish prisoners and escorted them back to the road. The elves assured them that they could hide well enough to make it back to their fortress unharmed.
However, they found something else in the camp besides the elves -- a set of directions for ogres to follow to tell them how to find 'Grick's Cave'. It was apparently on this side of the water, but still worth checking out, since the ogre slavers seemed to be under orders to take elves there first.
It was more than a day's travel to Grick's cave, so they were fresh when they reached the hill on which the cave was supposed to be located. Morgan scouted it out, and saw a pair of ogres on guard duty, but close enough to converse at a shout with others inside. So the party's plan was... well, a frontal assault. Using fireballs and dimension door.
The fireballs worked very well, but the dimension door was less of a success. Thor and Kijj teleported up next to the ogres, but not in front of the tunnel mouth in case the wizards wanted to let loose with more fireballs. The ogres they'd popped up next to died before they could act, and their position meant they weren't able to stop the flood of ogres that poured out of the cave, swarming Sonnet, who'd charged forwards conventionally on Sawyer's back, firing her bow.
Morgan moved up to try to help Sonnet and Sawyer, but the ogres were tough (raging barbarian ogres!), and Kijj and Thor were trapped in a corner behind a wall of other ogres who'd gone after them. There was also a very nasty troll that Mike and Murphy tried to engage at range with fireballs (also hitting the ogres) and other spells like ray of enfeeblement and enervation.
The end result was that in a few short seconds, Sawyer was very dead, and Sonnet badly wounded, and the Troll (presumably Grick) had leaped right over Sonnet's head and was enthusiastically ripping Mike a new pie-hole. But those few seconds were enough time for Thor and Kijj to take out their opponents and run to the rescue, slicing into the rear of the already weakened ogres and troll and taking them down.
It took Morgan about two minutes to successfully coup-de-grace the troll with his flaming acid rapier. Troll ranger/barbarian/fighters have ungodly fort saves.
last session next session
At the end of the day, though, we're all still fabulously wealthy, so it's okay.
Fire wreathed the tower of high sorcery to herald Dalamar's arrival -- the party ran outside and waited until it died down, then requested an audience with the evil mage.
Dalamar took the night jewel, and made good on his promises of money and upgrades to their prized items -- significantly better than they expected, in fact. He also gave them access to the second floor of the tower, where the magical workshops allowed them to create magic items without the requisite feats, and vending machines dispensed all the components they could eat for a suitable donation of steel. Kijj and Mike spent 24 days enchanting things, for themselves and for others.
Then they decided it was time to leave, but -- oh wait -- they didn't have the night jewel anymore. Dalamar offered to let them stay on as his apprentices, or else they could leave if they agreed to let him wipe their memory. OR they could brave the horrors of the grove, but that would mean certain death as the spirits there dragged them down to hell.
After some discussion (Kijj: "What's Hell like? Is that a nice place?" Dalamar: "It means you are dead.") they let Dalamar wipe their memories. He didn't just leave a blank, though -- he teleported them back to Palanthas with the memory of never having found the tower, meeting Dalamar back in the city with the scamming draconian, then spending a month making items in a magical workshop in a completely different city that they'd have no reason to ever go to to verify its nonexistance.
There was nothing to do in Palanthas except sell the stuff no one wanted and buy some more useful things. One big ticket item for Sonnet was finally awakening her riding dog -- she also paid a druid to temporarily take it as a companion and meditate and increase its hit dice. This left it much larger and stronger than it had been before, and able to talk, although it rarely bothered.
Eventually -- actually, quite quickly, since they were sick of item creation and bought items new instead -- their cash supply started to run low, it was time to get back to work. So they headed to Wayreth, using the standard 'wander around at random until Wayreth finds you' technique.
At Wayreth, after being assigned the rooms they'd been promised (only Murphy seemed excited by having a room in the tower -- but then, only Murphy got a really good room) there was indeed work to be found. Wayreth's 'bring them all to me' device was malfunctioning, and only bringing those who were already members of the order to it (or at least, those who'd already passed the test, which included the entire party). This would normally be a minor inconvenience, but hordes of ogres and orcs and trolls were camped out in the forest around it, ambushing everyone who walked by and generally making a nuisance of themselves.
That sounded right up the party's alley, so they signed on and were teleported to an Elvish fortress. The elves didn't know much of any use, except that the enemy tended to ambush people walking along a certain road leading to the pirate town of Alsip. But they didn't ambush counter-ambushes, and a traitor was suspected...
Murphy's boots could Find the Path, so he had a cleric of the fortress scry on one of the elves who'd been taken prisoner, and got a direction and distance -- which was enough to tell him that the enemy's dungeon was not in the forest at all, but on an island off the coast. They'd need to go to Alsip after all.
So the headed off down the road. On the way, they found the signs of a recent combat, and Sonnet and Sawyer (her dog) tracked it to a camp of ogres and orcs, with a giant. Murphy was heard when he tried to creep closer to interpret their speech, though, and ran back to warn the others that the enemy was coming! They had enough time to prepare most of their combat spells, and Morgan hid behind a tree, planning to leap out and stab someone as they rushed towards Kijj and Thor, who set themselves up as obvious targets.
The giant was the first to come into view, so he got enervated by Mike. And Murphy. And Mike again. The orcs rushed out next, swarming Thor and Sonnet and Kijj, then getting fireballed by Murphy to clear them out of the way. Last were the ogres, the first one drawing Morgan out of hiding just in time to get jumped by the other two -- it looked bad for a second, but Kijj charged and decapitated one of them with his spear [power attack for 5 plus arcane strike lvl 3 plus bard song plus +11 STR mod plus +2 shocking longspear plus critical hit for x3 with a two-handed weapon equals >100 damage] and cleaved into the other, which Morgan finished off with his sonic acid firey rapier.
Then the giant ambled forwards to fail to connect with Morgan, and Kijj put it out of its heavily-enervated misery [it was one hit die away from dying from negative levels]. Thor and Sonnet and Sawyer had taken care of the other ogre and the surviving orcs in the meantime.
They looted the bodies, and moved on to the camp, where they rescued the elvish prisoners and escorted them back to the road. The elves assured them that they could hide well enough to make it back to their fortress unharmed.
However, they found something else in the camp besides the elves -- a set of directions for ogres to follow to tell them how to find 'Grick's Cave'. It was apparently on this side of the water, but still worth checking out, since the ogre slavers seemed to be under orders to take elves there first.
It was more than a day's travel to Grick's cave, so they were fresh when they reached the hill on which the cave was supposed to be located. Morgan scouted it out, and saw a pair of ogres on guard duty, but close enough to converse at a shout with others inside. So the party's plan was... well, a frontal assault. Using fireballs and dimension door.
The fireballs worked very well, but the dimension door was less of a success. Thor and Kijj teleported up next to the ogres, but not in front of the tunnel mouth in case the wizards wanted to let loose with more fireballs. The ogres they'd popped up next to died before they could act, and their position meant they weren't able to stop the flood of ogres that poured out of the cave, swarming Sonnet, who'd charged forwards conventionally on Sawyer's back, firing her bow.
Morgan moved up to try to help Sonnet and Sawyer, but the ogres were tough (raging barbarian ogres!), and Kijj and Thor were trapped in a corner behind a wall of other ogres who'd gone after them. There was also a very nasty troll that Mike and Murphy tried to engage at range with fireballs (also hitting the ogres) and other spells like ray of enfeeblement and enervation.
The end result was that in a few short seconds, Sawyer was very dead, and Sonnet badly wounded, and the Troll (presumably Grick) had leaped right over Sonnet's head and was enthusiastically ripping Mike a new pie-hole. But those few seconds were enough time for Thor and Kijj to take out their opponents and run to the rescue, slicing into the rear of the already weakened ogres and troll and taking them down.
It took Morgan about two minutes to successfully coup-de-grace the troll with his flaming acid rapier. Troll ranger/barbarian/fighters have ungodly fort saves.
last session next session
