Sewer Trial
Oct. 25th, 2005 12:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothHad a session of Patrick's D+D game tonight. This time, Ed was the one who was missing, being off in California.
It took several days for the damage from the shadows and allip to heal, even with Marriss' help. During that time, Marris recovered from her strange ailment, only for Seldon to fall victim to it in her place. Mariss and Vryce wanted to return to town to leave the children and Nigel and Seldon there, but Rrann was obstinate, complaining that it would cost too much and they'd probably end up breaking some unknown laws.
With Mariss active again, they had some excavation options open to them that they hadn't previously considered, as far as getting to the plenary malachite was concerned. Eventually, they pried up the flagstones by hand, then had Mariss turn into a dire badger and dig down to the sewers in the location they'd been led to, instead of trying to work their way there through a half mile of tunnels. It was much, much farther down than they expected -- almost 400 feet. A couple hours' work for a dire badger, but almost impossible by any lesser method.
There was some trouble getting from 'hole in the roof of the sewers' to 'rickety wooden platforms to either side', but they eventually managed it -- a quarterstaff embedded several feet into each wall of the tunnel, supporting a knotted rope which Vryce tied off after swimming through the leech-infested water. Consultation with Uei (the name their piece of the malachite used for itself) led them to a secret door over an overly rickety bit of platform, but it held long enough for them to force the door open.
They were immediately faced with an obvious trap -- a pressure plate that, after examining it for a bit, Rrann was able to predict would make the walls of the corridor slam together, squishing everyone inside. tossed rocks revealed a further trap beyond -- an illusionary floor over a deep pit. That meant a 10-foot standing long jump to get across, which no one could manage.
The walls were brick, though, and after taking off his armor Rrann was able to safely climb to the far side, anchoring a rope which Vryce and Mariss climbed across. The dog anchoring the far side of the rope skidded onto the pressure plate while Mariss was climbing, but managed to jump over the pit before the walls finished closing. That left them all safely on the far side, but the way behind them was blocked.
Soon, they came to a door bearing the seal of the Black Griffons, weathered from age. This was kind of creepy, as their band of adventurers was only a few weeks old. Beyond was a dusty old table setting with nametags for each of them (including Seldon, who wasn't present) at each seat. They took the plates with them, since they were emblazoned with what was now their official seal, and moved on.
They passed another pressure plate which they figured would re-open the exit (as it was positioned on the far side of the sliding stone block), but left it triggered for the moment, in case it blocked this hallway in its other position. The next room held three weaponed, armored skeletons sitting on thrones, staring them down from the far side. Needless to say, they proceeded with caution.
"Who are you, and why are you here?" a voice asked.
Vryce: "[insert overly long paladin name and title here]. To find the plenary malachite."
Rrann: "Rrann Blackrtacker. Same reason as him, we're here for the malachite."
Mariss: "I am called Marris."
"Why do you seek it?"
Vryce: "To break the curse of the earthbound, and aid the forces of good against the creatures from mist crater."
Rrann: "It's powerful, isn't it? We need to get all the pieces to keep them out of the hands of the cursed orcs and goblins."
Mariss: "Oh, it's Vryce's quest, mostly."
"Why are you worthy?"
Vryce: "Because I walk with the justice of Tyr!"
Rrann: "Because I'm a dwarf!" ("Being a dwarf makes you worthy?" "Of course!")
Mariss: "Like I said, it's Vryce's quest." ("...that's your reason?" "Yeah.")
The skeletons conferred amongst themselves, and asked the party to make a choice. Rrann wanted to choose the mage, as he figured (correctly) that they were going to have to fight the skeletons, and guessed (incorrectly) that the choice was which one they would fight. "Mages go down easy." He was outvoted, though, and they ended up choosing the priest.
They were given a minute to prepare, while the skeletons buffed each other up, and then were forced to face the fighter. It was a difficult fight, but a straightforward one -- Mariss used a flame blade after summoning a thoqqua, while Vryce took most of the damage from the creature after it discovered it couldn't hit Rrann while he was fighting defensively, or vice versa. Most of the damage came from Vryce's paladin-mount, strangely enough -- fear the hooves of justice!
Eventually it yielded, conceding that the party had passed the test, and they were given the priest's gift, 'The Paradox Enabler' or something like that. It was a watch which, when activated, would remove the user from the time-stream for a random period of time, then bring them back as a duplicate for the same amount of time. The party conceded that it might be somewhat useful, although it was definately going to be hard to use... the skeletons insisted that they'd need it for the battles ahead.
Mariss: "Seldon is *so* going to want to sell this."
They pressed onwards, after being told that they were near the malachite, but another guardian remained. In the next room, they were almost eaten by bugs -- three carrion crawlers and eight spiders, which swarmed out into the hallway as the door was opened. Vryce held off the crawlers for a long time before finally being paralyzed by the last survivor, while Rrann and Mariss and her dog fought a desperate battle against the spiders. Rrann tumbled under the crawler and past the spiders into the room, trying to get away from it before it paralyzed him too, and so instead it went after Mariss, paralyzing her and forcing her to watch while 'Charlotte', a spider she and her dog had been unable to kill despite many many attempts, killed her dog and then started in on her.
Rrann was able to kill and distract the other spiders before they quite killed Vryce, and then Vryce's paralyzation wore off and the two of them started working their way towards Mariss. They ended up killing off 'Charlotte' last, just after Mariss fell... saving her life, if just barely.
Once again, it took two days to recover from that horrible fight, and this time they were stuck deep underground in a mildewy spider's nest of a room. Mariss stone-shaped the holes the bugs had come in through closed, though, and with the main entrance still blocked by the trap, they were not disturbed. They did hope that Nigel and Seldon hadn't given them up for dead, though.
Eventually, they were recovered, and decided to press on. It was obvious that the vermin they'd fought were unintentional interlopers, and that the true guardian remained -- a slip of paper on a table in the room they rested in said as much. So they prepared for a fight as best they could not knowing what they'd face, and advanced to the next door.
the guardian was a Bearded Devil, who immediately teleported out to menace Mariss and Rrann. It failed to disrupt Mariss's casting, though, and the dire wolf she summoned quickly tripped it, at which point it was axed and smitten to death quite quickly... but not before it was able to summon a friend to help it out.
The friend teleported away, but the party suspected it would be back, so Mariss and Rrann kept guard while Vryce tried to open the chest in the demon's room by using his mace as a lockpick. Two hits damaged the chest, but each set off a powerful fireball, and when the demon reappeared, Vryce decided to quit frying himself for the moment and fight it instead. They were able to take this demon out too, and heal Vryce enough to finish smashing open the chest despite the additional fireballs.
Inside the chest was a bunch of money and, as they'd hoped, the second piece of the malachite. Uei reappeared and claimed to be feeling much better, but refused to tell them what new powers she had.
Before splitting up the cash and leaving the dungeon, Rrann figured out what taxes they owed. "Okay, 10% of the coin is 425... how much is the piece of the plenary malachite worth?"
Vryce: "It's a major artifact. It's priceless."
Rrann: "Okay. 0gp is 10% of 'priceless', then. How about the paradox thingie? It's a really weird effect, no way of really estimating the value. Hmm... the materials are worth about 500gp, so we'll add 50 for it and declare it as decorative jewelry. I know Seldon has a bunch of scrolls of nystul's magic aura."
Mariss, staring incredulously: "You're actually planning on paying taxes?"
Vryce and Rrann: "Well, it's the law!"
last session | next session
It took several days for the damage from the shadows and allip to heal, even with Marriss' help. During that time, Marris recovered from her strange ailment, only for Seldon to fall victim to it in her place. Mariss and Vryce wanted to return to town to leave the children and Nigel and Seldon there, but Rrann was obstinate, complaining that it would cost too much and they'd probably end up breaking some unknown laws.
With Mariss active again, they had some excavation options open to them that they hadn't previously considered, as far as getting to the plenary malachite was concerned. Eventually, they pried up the flagstones by hand, then had Mariss turn into a dire badger and dig down to the sewers in the location they'd been led to, instead of trying to work their way there through a half mile of tunnels. It was much, much farther down than they expected -- almost 400 feet. A couple hours' work for a dire badger, but almost impossible by any lesser method.
There was some trouble getting from 'hole in the roof of the sewers' to 'rickety wooden platforms to either side', but they eventually managed it -- a quarterstaff embedded several feet into each wall of the tunnel, supporting a knotted rope which Vryce tied off after swimming through the leech-infested water. Consultation with Uei (the name their piece of the malachite used for itself) led them to a secret door over an overly rickety bit of platform, but it held long enough for them to force the door open.
They were immediately faced with an obvious trap -- a pressure plate that, after examining it for a bit, Rrann was able to predict would make the walls of the corridor slam together, squishing everyone inside. tossed rocks revealed a further trap beyond -- an illusionary floor over a deep pit. That meant a 10-foot standing long jump to get across, which no one could manage.
The walls were brick, though, and after taking off his armor Rrann was able to safely climb to the far side, anchoring a rope which Vryce and Mariss climbed across. The dog anchoring the far side of the rope skidded onto the pressure plate while Mariss was climbing, but managed to jump over the pit before the walls finished closing. That left them all safely on the far side, but the way behind them was blocked.
Soon, they came to a door bearing the seal of the Black Griffons, weathered from age. This was kind of creepy, as their band of adventurers was only a few weeks old. Beyond was a dusty old table setting with nametags for each of them (including Seldon, who wasn't present) at each seat. They took the plates with them, since they were emblazoned with what was now their official seal, and moved on.
They passed another pressure plate which they figured would re-open the exit (as it was positioned on the far side of the sliding stone block), but left it triggered for the moment, in case it blocked this hallway in its other position. The next room held three weaponed, armored skeletons sitting on thrones, staring them down from the far side. Needless to say, they proceeded with caution.
"Who are you, and why are you here?" a voice asked.
Vryce: "[insert overly long paladin name and title here]. To find the plenary malachite."
Rrann: "Rrann Blackrtacker. Same reason as him, we're here for the malachite."
Mariss: "I am called Marris."
"Why do you seek it?"
Vryce: "To break the curse of the earthbound, and aid the forces of good against the creatures from mist crater."
Rrann: "It's powerful, isn't it? We need to get all the pieces to keep them out of the hands of the cursed orcs and goblins."
Mariss: "Oh, it's Vryce's quest, mostly."
"Why are you worthy?"
Vryce: "Because I walk with the justice of Tyr!"
Rrann: "Because I'm a dwarf!" ("Being a dwarf makes you worthy?" "Of course!")
Mariss: "Like I said, it's Vryce's quest." ("...that's your reason?" "Yeah.")
The skeletons conferred amongst themselves, and asked the party to make a choice. Rrann wanted to choose the mage, as he figured (correctly) that they were going to have to fight the skeletons, and guessed (incorrectly) that the choice was which one they would fight. "Mages go down easy." He was outvoted, though, and they ended up choosing the priest.
They were given a minute to prepare, while the skeletons buffed each other up, and then were forced to face the fighter. It was a difficult fight, but a straightforward one -- Mariss used a flame blade after summoning a thoqqua, while Vryce took most of the damage from the creature after it discovered it couldn't hit Rrann while he was fighting defensively, or vice versa. Most of the damage came from Vryce's paladin-mount, strangely enough -- fear the hooves of justice!
Eventually it yielded, conceding that the party had passed the test, and they were given the priest's gift, 'The Paradox Enabler' or something like that. It was a watch which, when activated, would remove the user from the time-stream for a random period of time, then bring them back as a duplicate for the same amount of time. The party conceded that it might be somewhat useful, although it was definately going to be hard to use... the skeletons insisted that they'd need it for the battles ahead.
Mariss: "Seldon is *so* going to want to sell this."
They pressed onwards, after being told that they were near the malachite, but another guardian remained. In the next room, they were almost eaten by bugs -- three carrion crawlers and eight spiders, which swarmed out into the hallway as the door was opened. Vryce held off the crawlers for a long time before finally being paralyzed by the last survivor, while Rrann and Mariss and her dog fought a desperate battle against the spiders. Rrann tumbled under the crawler and past the spiders into the room, trying to get away from it before it paralyzed him too, and so instead it went after Mariss, paralyzing her and forcing her to watch while 'Charlotte', a spider she and her dog had been unable to kill despite many many attempts, killed her dog and then started in on her.
Rrann was able to kill and distract the other spiders before they quite killed Vryce, and then Vryce's paralyzation wore off and the two of them started working their way towards Mariss. They ended up killing off 'Charlotte' last, just after Mariss fell... saving her life, if just barely.
Once again, it took two days to recover from that horrible fight, and this time they were stuck deep underground in a mildewy spider's nest of a room. Mariss stone-shaped the holes the bugs had come in through closed, though, and with the main entrance still blocked by the trap, they were not disturbed. They did hope that Nigel and Seldon hadn't given them up for dead, though.
Eventually, they were recovered, and decided to press on. It was obvious that the vermin they'd fought were unintentional interlopers, and that the true guardian remained -- a slip of paper on a table in the room they rested in said as much. So they prepared for a fight as best they could not knowing what they'd face, and advanced to the next door.
the guardian was a Bearded Devil, who immediately teleported out to menace Mariss and Rrann. It failed to disrupt Mariss's casting, though, and the dire wolf she summoned quickly tripped it, at which point it was axed and smitten to death quite quickly... but not before it was able to summon a friend to help it out.
The friend teleported away, but the party suspected it would be back, so Mariss and Rrann kept guard while Vryce tried to open the chest in the demon's room by using his mace as a lockpick. Two hits damaged the chest, but each set off a powerful fireball, and when the demon reappeared, Vryce decided to quit frying himself for the moment and fight it instead. They were able to take this demon out too, and heal Vryce enough to finish smashing open the chest despite the additional fireballs.
Inside the chest was a bunch of money and, as they'd hoped, the second piece of the malachite. Uei reappeared and claimed to be feeling much better, but refused to tell them what new powers she had.
Before splitting up the cash and leaving the dungeon, Rrann figured out what taxes they owed. "Okay, 10% of the coin is 425... how much is the piece of the plenary malachite worth?"
Vryce: "It's a major artifact. It's priceless."
Rrann: "Okay. 0gp is 10% of 'priceless', then. How about the paradox thingie? It's a really weird effect, no way of really estimating the value. Hmm... the materials are worth about 500gp, so we'll add 50 for it and declare it as decorative jewelry. I know Seldon has a bunch of scrolls of nystul's magic aura."
Mariss, staring incredulously: "You're actually planning on paying taxes?"
Vryce and Rrann: "Well, it's the law!"
last session | next session
