Dragon Dinner
Mar. 30th, 2003 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothToday was Tom's RttToEE game. After a bit of waiting around, Shawn showed up, which meant that we had enough people to play. Tom, annoyed at Onrie failing to show up three times in a row, killed her character Bella. He insists it was just the natural course of events, even though he not only had to have one of the two big monsters in the one combat single her out, but an offscreen baddie he pulled out of his... later encounters show up to coup-de-grace her with a flamestrike.
The party fought hard against waves and waves of undead, and as they began to retreat back through the secret door, their spells depleted, they suddenly noticed that they'd killed them all.
Still, it wasn't wise to attack the tower without spells, so they rested the night and attacked in the morning. No undead were left to bar their way in the blasting yard, and they cautiously approached the bridge into the tower.
As the only 'thief' in the party, Guinsette was sent to check for traps, with Thanos backing her up with a rope. As she crossed the bridge, she heard a voice in her mind which asked her her purpose. She tried to bluff it by saying she was there to 'fix what was wrong in the tower' (since we knew from the Oracle of Incomprehensibility that the tower had troubles), but it didn't buy it, and lightning bolted her. And several other people who happened to be in the line of fire.
As the party scattered further, a bunch of Evard's Black Tentacles shot up attacking Guinsette as well. Marcus moved up and scorched them to death while Guinsette searched for a mechanism to open the door, to no avail. She fled up the wall using her spider climb, to be out of the line of fire, shouting "The door's attacking me!"
Mepechu used an ethereal jaunt to pop into the tower to see if there was, say, a lever on the inside. She found no lever, but she did find a pair of dragons. Huge dragons, with metal wings -- obviously enhanced by the infernal machine! They didn't see her, at least, so after a quick check of the level above (glowing crystal, amber portals, check) she returned to the party and screamed, "Two huge dragons in there! Ahhh!"
This was just as the party was making some headway chopping through the door. It was made of adamantium, but there seemed to be no other way to get through it than to destroy it. It kept casting nasty spells -- feebleminding Thanos, trying and failing to feeblemind Guinsette, and creating a few walls of fire on the bridge -- until Mepechu managed to dispel it, suppressing it for a few rounds, which was all the fighters needed to chop their way in. With a CLANG, half the door fell off its hinges into the room beyond, waking the dragons.
And out they came! The blue in the lead blasted several people with lightining, then swallowed the NPC Bard whole even as swords and spells rained at it. Bella, Xaod, the NPC fighter, and Mepechu's animal companions rushed it, while Guinsette leaped onto its back, sticking with spider climb.
The black in second place glomped onto Guinsette with huge nasty teeth, and started trying to swallow her -- but ha ha! She was in troll form, too large to swallow! So it settled for chewing on her.
Many of the party, unconcerned about the ingested bard, switched to trying to take out the black, and managed to kill it before it could bite Guinsette in half. But while they were distracted, the blue brutally mauled Bella with all its attacks (for 72 damage) and then swallowed her whole. Mepechu desperately cast a circle of healing, which kept Bella from dying until the blue could be actually killed and cut open, and proper healing applied... although it was too late for the bard.
...but just as the cure critical wounds hit, a massive flamestrike from an unseen foe killed Bella and nearly took out Mepechu and a couple of the NPCs who were standing close, also trying to help the formerly eaten.
Players: "Where the hell did that come from?"
GM: [Plunks mini on the mat inside the tower.]
Players: "So... how did he know to flamestrike the cleric getting healed when two walls of fire were obscuring his vision?"
GM: "Oh, those went away during the combat, so he just aimed at the big concentration of people." [wipes walls of fire off the mat]
Apparently, the walls of fire had been cast at precisely 7th caster level. I guess that's not technically impossible, considering they were from an item. (the door)
Darien's Proxy: "Should I use a wall of force?"
Marcus: "Good idea! Do it!"
Xaod: "AAARGH! YOU KILLED BELLA!" [smacks into wall of force]
Enemy: [buffs himself]
Marcus: "You idiot, why did you put up a wall of force? Everyone knows clerics are buff-monsters! Now he'll be impossible to kill! I told you not to put up the wall of force."
He was not, however, impossible to kill. Merely very difficult. The (somewhat reduced) party managed it by using the wand of silence on the fighters hemming him in, over and over until he ran out of silent dispels, while the fighters hit him a lot with swords. He had 20 points of DR from... something... they never found out what, even after the battle... but was only 9th caster level, which made the *18* spells cast on him fairly easy to dispel. 3 dispel magics cleared most of them (all but three), leaving him vulnerable enough.
He did manage to get off a blade barrier between the second and third silences, which would have made it very hard to keep fighting him, but two of the fighters were flying and kept at him after taking five foot steps straight up to be out of the whirling disk of death. The last hit went to Marcus, who after three fizzles finally managed to penetrate his 25 SR with a volley of magic missiles.
At that point, the party was mostly at about 25% hit points, except for the people who were dead, so after shoving the bodies of the dead dragon-things (on closer inspection, not actually dragons), the door, and the doom-dreamer down the chasm, they retreated for about ten minutes to raise the dead and heal.
Marcus insisted that was it was essential that they retain the initiative by pressing the attack immediately. Celeste, the other mage, who also had most of her spells, concurred. Bella and Mepechu, the clerics, one of whom was very recently dead and both of whom were nearly (but not entirely) drained of spells, weren't so sure. The half-digested body of the bard, awaiting a decision on whether to use the last scroll of raise dead on him now, or wait until tomorrow when Bella or Mepechu could just cast it, had no opinion.
last session
The party fought hard against waves and waves of undead, and as they began to retreat back through the secret door, their spells depleted, they suddenly noticed that they'd killed them all.
Still, it wasn't wise to attack the tower without spells, so they rested the night and attacked in the morning. No undead were left to bar their way in the blasting yard, and they cautiously approached the bridge into the tower.
As the only 'thief' in the party, Guinsette was sent to check for traps, with Thanos backing her up with a rope. As she crossed the bridge, she heard a voice in her mind which asked her her purpose. She tried to bluff it by saying she was there to 'fix what was wrong in the tower' (since we knew from the Oracle of Incomprehensibility that the tower had troubles), but it didn't buy it, and lightning bolted her. And several other people who happened to be in the line of fire.
As the party scattered further, a bunch of Evard's Black Tentacles shot up attacking Guinsette as well. Marcus moved up and scorched them to death while Guinsette searched for a mechanism to open the door, to no avail. She fled up the wall using her spider climb, to be out of the line of fire, shouting "The door's attacking me!"
Mepechu used an ethereal jaunt to pop into the tower to see if there was, say, a lever on the inside. She found no lever, but she did find a pair of dragons. Huge dragons, with metal wings -- obviously enhanced by the infernal machine! They didn't see her, at least, so after a quick check of the level above (glowing crystal, amber portals, check) she returned to the party and screamed, "Two huge dragons in there! Ahhh!"
This was just as the party was making some headway chopping through the door. It was made of adamantium, but there seemed to be no other way to get through it than to destroy it. It kept casting nasty spells -- feebleminding Thanos, trying and failing to feeblemind Guinsette, and creating a few walls of fire on the bridge -- until Mepechu managed to dispel it, suppressing it for a few rounds, which was all the fighters needed to chop their way in. With a CLANG, half the door fell off its hinges into the room beyond, waking the dragons.
And out they came! The blue in the lead blasted several people with lightining, then swallowed the NPC Bard whole even as swords and spells rained at it. Bella, Xaod, the NPC fighter, and Mepechu's animal companions rushed it, while Guinsette leaped onto its back, sticking with spider climb.
The black in second place glomped onto Guinsette with huge nasty teeth, and started trying to swallow her -- but ha ha! She was in troll form, too large to swallow! So it settled for chewing on her.
Many of the party, unconcerned about the ingested bard, switched to trying to take out the black, and managed to kill it before it could bite Guinsette in half. But while they were distracted, the blue brutally mauled Bella with all its attacks (for 72 damage) and then swallowed her whole. Mepechu desperately cast a circle of healing, which kept Bella from dying until the blue could be actually killed and cut open, and proper healing applied... although it was too late for the bard.
...but just as the cure critical wounds hit, a massive flamestrike from an unseen foe killed Bella and nearly took out Mepechu and a couple of the NPCs who were standing close, also trying to help the formerly eaten.
Players: "Where the hell did that come from?"
GM: [Plunks mini on the mat inside the tower.]
Players: "So... how did he know to flamestrike the cleric getting healed when two walls of fire were obscuring his vision?"
GM: "Oh, those went away during the combat, so he just aimed at the big concentration of people." [wipes walls of fire off the mat]
Apparently, the walls of fire had been cast at precisely 7th caster level. I guess that's not technically impossible, considering they were from an item. (the door)
Darien's Proxy: "Should I use a wall of force?"
Marcus: "Good idea! Do it!"
Xaod: "AAARGH! YOU KILLED BELLA!" [smacks into wall of force]
Enemy: [buffs himself]
Marcus: "You idiot, why did you put up a wall of force? Everyone knows clerics are buff-monsters! Now he'll be impossible to kill! I told you not to put up the wall of force."
He was not, however, impossible to kill. Merely very difficult. The (somewhat reduced) party managed it by using the wand of silence on the fighters hemming him in, over and over until he ran out of silent dispels, while the fighters hit him a lot with swords. He had 20 points of DR from... something... they never found out what, even after the battle... but was only 9th caster level, which made the *18* spells cast on him fairly easy to dispel. 3 dispel magics cleared most of them (all but three), leaving him vulnerable enough.
He did manage to get off a blade barrier between the second and third silences, which would have made it very hard to keep fighting him, but two of the fighters were flying and kept at him after taking five foot steps straight up to be out of the whirling disk of death. The last hit went to Marcus, who after three fizzles finally managed to penetrate his 25 SR with a volley of magic missiles.
At that point, the party was mostly at about 25% hit points, except for the people who were dead, so after shoving the bodies of the dead dragon-things (on closer inspection, not actually dragons), the door, and the doom-dreamer down the chasm, they retreated for about ten minutes to raise the dead and heal.
Marcus insisted that was it was essential that they retain the initiative by pressing the attack immediately. Celeste, the other mage, who also had most of her spells, concurred. Bella and Mepechu, the clerics, one of whom was very recently dead and both of whom were nearly (but not entirely) drained of spells, weren't so sure. The half-digested body of the bard, awaiting a decision on whether to use the last scroll of raise dead on him now, or wait until tomorrow when Bella or Mepechu could just cast it, had no opinion.
last session
