Shadow Madness
Apr. 2nd, 2003 12:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight was my Tuesday D+D game. I turned up the heat a little... a little too hot. Had to do some fudging to avoid killing people through no *real* fault of their own. Just a little fudging.
Also discovered that ECL racial immunity can have bizarre effects when taken to extremes.
Also, the aasimar paladin/cleric ripped off his mask and revealed that, aha! He was really a drow cleric all along! Well, actually, the player decided he didn't want to be an aasimar or a paladin anymore, and I allowed it since it was first session.
During the night, drow patrols passed the party's hidie-hole by several times, but they remained quiet and out of sight. Still, in the morning they decided it was safer to move on, even though one of the civilians was still unconscious. A little further on they saw a familiar shimmering light of a guardian orb, and Abbey popped her head up to see what was going on...
What was going on, past the orb, was another sacrifice. Abbey popped back down to tell the party about it, and with an earthshaking roar -- it was too late. The ritual was finished -- this time summoning a section of forest complete with matching lizardman and humanoid figure covered head to toe in robes, including his face.
The drow ordered the new victims to surrender and drop their weapons, but they refused. Things finally came to a head when Abbey got impatient and shouted threats at the drow...
The lizardman, a druid, name of Slee, cast an obscuring mist and used it to obscure himself. This frustrated the drow, who spread out around it looking for targets, planning to wait out the spell.
They got a target soon enough, as the cloaked figure -- a sentient skeleton bard, name of K'van -- waded out of the mist to attack the cleric, drawing many slashes and stabs, which he mostly ignored, although they were slowly chipping away at him.
Meanwhile, the half dragon ('Steve'), the now-drow cleric ('Elethe-something'), Abbey, and the NPC drow ranger ('Yaefin') tried to hack their way past the guardian orb, with much, much less success this time, while several drow attempted to fire crossbow bolts past the orb at them with even less success. The orb again mostly did useless sonic bursts, but it also turned one of the enemy drow into a satyr -- raising his constitution. And giving him furry legs.
K'van was eventually fairly badly wounded, and retreated back into the mist, where Slee and his pet snake and the drow were all missing each other (even without the miss chance). The mist proved very effective at stopping the drow from concentrating their force, although eventually they got their act together...
Meanwhile, though, the guardian orb had been nearly destroyed, leading the cleric to recall it and shout to the surface dwellers to stop their attack! The drow and party paused long enough to hear her offer -- a glorious death in the arena as valued gladiators rather than a life as menial slaves -- then got right back to hacking each other to bits. With the orb gone, though, it was once again a slaughter, and soon all the drow were dead, their darkness spells little help since the only real exit was well guarded.
There were some tensions between the newcomers and the party -- the undead hated all drow, and the lizardman wanted to eat the dead -- but they eventually agreed to band together. Steve picked up the sacrificial dagger from this altar as well, and refused to let anyone else carry them or use them since they were obviously evil.
At the back of this chamber was an opening into a large, hot, lava-filled chamber miles across. Yaefin and Ele-whatever recognized it as an entryway to the realm of fire... which also abutted the gnomish realm. Since there were signs of artificial construction in the distance, he recommended checking it out...
...the path down was long and narrow, and the air and heat oppressive and draining, at least for those not immune to heat. Abbey and Steve were fine. Scouting ahead, they saw that the outpost was a lair of salamanders.
The salamanders were willing to negotiate a trade, however -- in return for gold, which they claimed was a favorite beverage of theirs, they'd be willing to sell 'healing potions' of 'living fire'. This was intended as a cruel prank, of course, but Steve actually *was* immune to fire and could use them as advertised, and bought several.
In return for his business, they gave him the information he requested, sort of. The gnomish realm was 'beyond the pyramid of shadows', which was known to be in an area frequented by thoqqua, who were attracted to it.
The party left, one of the civilians passing out from heat stroke, and ran into some carrion crawlers back at the site of the previous battle -- easy kills for the paralyzation-immune Steve and K'van. The party tracked them back to their lair, which was well hidden and contained a source of clean water, and rested there for the night, without incident. Baby carrion crawlers were gathered up in a bag for lizardman/snake snacks, and the downed civilian was finally healed.
The next day, they ran across a tunnel carved by a thoqqua. A large thoqqua. They decided to follow it, hoping it would lead to the pyramid... and were attacked! By a thoqqua! A large thoqqua.
It popped out of the wall and rammed into Steve twice before he could react. He was immune to its heat, but it was large and strong and knocked him to the ground... then started rooting through his pack, devouring all the masterwork swords he'd been saving to sell. Abbey got the idea that it might be looking for the evil daggers, and took some nasty burns -- despite her resistance -- retrieving them from the pack and feeding them to it. She turned out to be correct, however, and it trundled off, leaving Steve badly hurt but alive, thanks to his rage and the 'living fire' potion that got poured over his wounds. He lost most of his gold and all the swords he'd been planning to sell, however, as well as the evil magical daggers.
After that, though... the tunnel *did* lead to the pyramid of shadows, or at least to a silvery pyramid sitting in the middle of an open hemisphere riddled with thoqqua tunnels and lit by the reddish glow of dozens of thoqqua, just sitting there watching it.
Abbey was terrified and unable to move into the chamber, and told everyone that it was hopeless, and to turn back. They didn't trust her assessment, and, not being outsiders, were able to enter the chamber without any problem. The pyramid was elfed, and a secret door was located, and they all went inside, leaving Abbey alone with the civilians in the thoqqua tunnel.
In the center of an octagonal walkway around an octagonal pit, a hovering sphere of some unknown metal showed signs of having been mined recently, presumably by drow, as it appeared to be the same metal as the evil daggers. In each corner of the pyramid, door-shaped rectangles glowed blue, except for one that was black.
The blue doors -- which opened instantly at a touch -- led to creepy glowing blue rooms, which the party was leery of entering. The black door did not open when touched, and when several of the party tried cooperating to force it open, one of them -- Ele-something -- fell back with a cry of pain as a chill touch drained his strength.
Figuring the drain was from negative energy, Ele tried turning the door, three times -- the third time using his domain power to raise his charisma. He succeeded! The black glow was replaced with a veeerry faint blue...
Steve was able to open the door in this state, it not being nearly as tightly closed, and revealed a trio of turned shadows cowering in the corner, and a sword on the floor. Trusting in serendipity, he picked up the sword from the floor and began wailing on the helpless shadows, and sure enough it was magical. Yaevin also had a magical weapon, and assisted him in destroying the shadows before they recovered.
With the shadows gone, the black room was reactivated, and five minutes later, when it was at full power, the 'benches' on the walkway lit up with blue glowing handprints. The people still waiting in the reactivated room also felt positive energy flow into their bodies, healing their wounds and even giving them temporary hit points.
By this point, Abbey was worried enough about the fate of the rest of the party to test the ward again, and this time managed to steel herself to step through it. Civilians in tow, she entered the pyramid just as the consoles came online. Curious, she touched one, and FOOOSH! Floor appeared filling in the pit, and the sphere in the center began to glow and pulse. Ele touched the sphere, and vanished... and Abbey cried out as a level was drained from her! (or more accurately, as a negative level was bestowed)
Ele did not return. Eventually, the party decided to send down Yaefin. Abbey had discovered that sitting in the blue chambers removed her negative level, so Steve, flush with positive energy, activated the console and sent Yaefin down. Yaefin did not return either, but instead of a negative level Steve merely lost some of his extra positive energy.
Aha! The party had figured it out! The others all say in the chambers until they were full up on energy, touched the console in turn, then on the count of three placed their hands on the sphere simultaneously...
...instantly killing the last person to touch a console, a hapless civilian. Eight negative levels reduced him to dry skin and bones in an instant, but at least the party had all been transported...
...to a large, dark chamber in which the shadow thoqqua who'd eaten Yaefin and chased away Ele-something was waiting for them. Along with Yaefin's shadow.
In a remarkable display of good sense (and lack of magical weapons) the party bolted for the exit. The shadows attacked, taking down another civilian and ineffectually doing nothing to K'van, who was utterly immune to them, but then they were past. The party regrouped in a safe area out of the thoqqua's territory, and sent K'van back alone with their only magical weapon to slowly but surely hack all three shadows (the thoqqua, Yaefin, and the civilian) to nothingness.
Yaefin's magical sword was unfortunately nowhere to be found, but other treasure was scattered about the large chamber -- gold, gems, and some scrolls.
The safe area was a very long tunnel with a protective ward, which ended at another huge cavern, this one dozens of miles across, filled with a mushroom forest and rivers of lava and water both. Far in the distance were the lights of an unknown city -- could that be the gnomes, at last?
last session next session
I... don't know how well this session went. The drow cleric had a lot of fun, and I think Lance and Luis were okay, but the lizard was pretty ineffectual (he mostly tried to do melee combat with druid base attack and his 10 strength). Also, one of the players who'd been expected to be there never showed up.
The impression I got was that the battle with the drow was about right -- and I was gratified at the laughter when the cleric made her peace offer. }:) The salamander trap was too obvious (healing potions made of fire?), the thoqqua attack was too restricted tactically, and the shadow thoqqua...
...er, they never had a chance. It was utterly overpowering, especially without the magic daggers. Except that one of their number was completely immune, which they exploited to the hilt. Yay undead. }:P
Also discovered that ECL racial immunity can have bizarre effects when taken to extremes.
Also, the aasimar paladin/cleric ripped off his mask and revealed that, aha! He was really a drow cleric all along! Well, actually, the player decided he didn't want to be an aasimar or a paladin anymore, and I allowed it since it was first session.
During the night, drow patrols passed the party's hidie-hole by several times, but they remained quiet and out of sight. Still, in the morning they decided it was safer to move on, even though one of the civilians was still unconscious. A little further on they saw a familiar shimmering light of a guardian orb, and Abbey popped her head up to see what was going on...
What was going on, past the orb, was another sacrifice. Abbey popped back down to tell the party about it, and with an earthshaking roar -- it was too late. The ritual was finished -- this time summoning a section of forest complete with matching lizardman and humanoid figure covered head to toe in robes, including his face.
The drow ordered the new victims to surrender and drop their weapons, but they refused. Things finally came to a head when Abbey got impatient and shouted threats at the drow...
The lizardman, a druid, name of Slee, cast an obscuring mist and used it to obscure himself. This frustrated the drow, who spread out around it looking for targets, planning to wait out the spell.
They got a target soon enough, as the cloaked figure -- a sentient skeleton bard, name of K'van -- waded out of the mist to attack the cleric, drawing many slashes and stabs, which he mostly ignored, although they were slowly chipping away at him.
Meanwhile, the half dragon ('Steve'), the now-drow cleric ('Elethe-something'), Abbey, and the NPC drow ranger ('Yaefin') tried to hack their way past the guardian orb, with much, much less success this time, while several drow attempted to fire crossbow bolts past the orb at them with even less success. The orb again mostly did useless sonic bursts, but it also turned one of the enemy drow into a satyr -- raising his constitution. And giving him furry legs.
K'van was eventually fairly badly wounded, and retreated back into the mist, where Slee and his pet snake and the drow were all missing each other (even without the miss chance). The mist proved very effective at stopping the drow from concentrating their force, although eventually they got their act together...
Meanwhile, though, the guardian orb had been nearly destroyed, leading the cleric to recall it and shout to the surface dwellers to stop their attack! The drow and party paused long enough to hear her offer -- a glorious death in the arena as valued gladiators rather than a life as menial slaves -- then got right back to hacking each other to bits. With the orb gone, though, it was once again a slaughter, and soon all the drow were dead, their darkness spells little help since the only real exit was well guarded.
There were some tensions between the newcomers and the party -- the undead hated all drow, and the lizardman wanted to eat the dead -- but they eventually agreed to band together. Steve picked up the sacrificial dagger from this altar as well, and refused to let anyone else carry them or use them since they were obviously evil.
At the back of this chamber was an opening into a large, hot, lava-filled chamber miles across. Yaefin and Ele-whatever recognized it as an entryway to the realm of fire... which also abutted the gnomish realm. Since there were signs of artificial construction in the distance, he recommended checking it out...
...the path down was long and narrow, and the air and heat oppressive and draining, at least for those not immune to heat. Abbey and Steve were fine. Scouting ahead, they saw that the outpost was a lair of salamanders.
The salamanders were willing to negotiate a trade, however -- in return for gold, which they claimed was a favorite beverage of theirs, they'd be willing to sell 'healing potions' of 'living fire'. This was intended as a cruel prank, of course, but Steve actually *was* immune to fire and could use them as advertised, and bought several.
In return for his business, they gave him the information he requested, sort of. The gnomish realm was 'beyond the pyramid of shadows', which was known to be in an area frequented by thoqqua, who were attracted to it.
The party left, one of the civilians passing out from heat stroke, and ran into some carrion crawlers back at the site of the previous battle -- easy kills for the paralyzation-immune Steve and K'van. The party tracked them back to their lair, which was well hidden and contained a source of clean water, and rested there for the night, without incident. Baby carrion crawlers were gathered up in a bag for lizardman/snake snacks, and the downed civilian was finally healed.
The next day, they ran across a tunnel carved by a thoqqua. A large thoqqua. They decided to follow it, hoping it would lead to the pyramid... and were attacked! By a thoqqua! A large thoqqua.
It popped out of the wall and rammed into Steve twice before he could react. He was immune to its heat, but it was large and strong and knocked him to the ground... then started rooting through his pack, devouring all the masterwork swords he'd been saving to sell. Abbey got the idea that it might be looking for the evil daggers, and took some nasty burns -- despite her resistance -- retrieving them from the pack and feeding them to it. She turned out to be correct, however, and it trundled off, leaving Steve badly hurt but alive, thanks to his rage and the 'living fire' potion that got poured over his wounds. He lost most of his gold and all the swords he'd been planning to sell, however, as well as the evil magical daggers.
After that, though... the tunnel *did* lead to the pyramid of shadows, or at least to a silvery pyramid sitting in the middle of an open hemisphere riddled with thoqqua tunnels and lit by the reddish glow of dozens of thoqqua, just sitting there watching it.
Abbey was terrified and unable to move into the chamber, and told everyone that it was hopeless, and to turn back. They didn't trust her assessment, and, not being outsiders, were able to enter the chamber without any problem. The pyramid was elfed, and a secret door was located, and they all went inside, leaving Abbey alone with the civilians in the thoqqua tunnel.
In the center of an octagonal walkway around an octagonal pit, a hovering sphere of some unknown metal showed signs of having been mined recently, presumably by drow, as it appeared to be the same metal as the evil daggers. In each corner of the pyramid, door-shaped rectangles glowed blue, except for one that was black.
The blue doors -- which opened instantly at a touch -- led to creepy glowing blue rooms, which the party was leery of entering. The black door did not open when touched, and when several of the party tried cooperating to force it open, one of them -- Ele-something -- fell back with a cry of pain as a chill touch drained his strength.
Figuring the drain was from negative energy, Ele tried turning the door, three times -- the third time using his domain power to raise his charisma. He succeeded! The black glow was replaced with a veeerry faint blue...
Steve was able to open the door in this state, it not being nearly as tightly closed, and revealed a trio of turned shadows cowering in the corner, and a sword on the floor. Trusting in serendipity, he picked up the sword from the floor and began wailing on the helpless shadows, and sure enough it was magical. Yaevin also had a magical weapon, and assisted him in destroying the shadows before they recovered.
With the shadows gone, the black room was reactivated, and five minutes later, when it was at full power, the 'benches' on the walkway lit up with blue glowing handprints. The people still waiting in the reactivated room also felt positive energy flow into their bodies, healing their wounds and even giving them temporary hit points.
By this point, Abbey was worried enough about the fate of the rest of the party to test the ward again, and this time managed to steel herself to step through it. Civilians in tow, she entered the pyramid just as the consoles came online. Curious, she touched one, and FOOOSH! Floor appeared filling in the pit, and the sphere in the center began to glow and pulse. Ele touched the sphere, and vanished... and Abbey cried out as a level was drained from her! (or more accurately, as a negative level was bestowed)
Ele did not return. Eventually, the party decided to send down Yaefin. Abbey had discovered that sitting in the blue chambers removed her negative level, so Steve, flush with positive energy, activated the console and sent Yaefin down. Yaefin did not return either, but instead of a negative level Steve merely lost some of his extra positive energy.
Aha! The party had figured it out! The others all say in the chambers until they were full up on energy, touched the console in turn, then on the count of three placed their hands on the sphere simultaneously...
...instantly killing the last person to touch a console, a hapless civilian. Eight negative levels reduced him to dry skin and bones in an instant, but at least the party had all been transported...
...to a large, dark chamber in which the shadow thoqqua who'd eaten Yaefin and chased away Ele-something was waiting for them. Along with Yaefin's shadow.
In a remarkable display of good sense (and lack of magical weapons) the party bolted for the exit. The shadows attacked, taking down another civilian and ineffectually doing nothing to K'van, who was utterly immune to them, but then they were past. The party regrouped in a safe area out of the thoqqua's territory, and sent K'van back alone with their only magical weapon to slowly but surely hack all three shadows (the thoqqua, Yaefin, and the civilian) to nothingness.
Yaefin's magical sword was unfortunately nowhere to be found, but other treasure was scattered about the large chamber -- gold, gems, and some scrolls.
The safe area was a very long tunnel with a protective ward, which ended at another huge cavern, this one dozens of miles across, filled with a mushroom forest and rivers of lava and water both. Far in the distance were the lights of an unknown city -- could that be the gnomes, at last?
last session next session
I... don't know how well this session went. The drow cleric had a lot of fun, and I think Lance and Luis were okay, but the lizard was pretty ineffectual (he mostly tried to do melee combat with druid base attack and his 10 strength). Also, one of the players who'd been expected to be there never showed up.
The impression I got was that the battle with the drow was about right -- and I was gratified at the laughter when the cleric made her peace offer. }:) The salamander trap was too obvious (healing potions made of fire?), the thoqqua attack was too restricted tactically, and the shadow thoqqua...
...er, they never had a chance. It was utterly overpowering, especially without the magic daggers. Except that one of their number was completely immune, which they exploited to the hilt. Yay undead. }:P
