There and Back Again
Apr. 16th, 2003 12:17 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight was my underdark themed D+D game... I wasn't really prepared with anything especially interesting, so the PCs mostly fought off random encounters while wandering across hostile territory. Then retraced their steps and fought them all over again.
The party grilled the lizards about the hazards they'd find searching the underground cavern for the gnomes, and were warned, basically, not to go anywhere. The spider people were driders, which the party knew enough to be afraid of even without the lizards telling them 'if you go there you will die'. To the east of them was a colony of myconids, which the party wanted to avoid having heard stories of mind-control spores, and to the north was the tower of undead, around which patrols of undead roamed the desertlike expanse beyond the mushroom forest.
The party decided to face the undead. The party's cleric in particular was enthusiastic about the prospect. So, hugging the cavern wall so as not to get lost, they tromped through the rest of the glowing mushrooms and found themselves in an area where the fungus did *not* glow -- still lit, but with shadows everywhere.
Out of those shadows sprung a quartet of black wolf/hyena/cat things (Vorrs) which appeared out of nowhere to outflank the party and deal hideous damage by striking at vital areas. They were fought off, not without some amount of difficulty -- two tried to escape by shadow-stepping away a bit, but they were spotted at their destination and run down.
But the shadowed band was only a short distance, and soon the party emerged into the black desert of the undead. The tower loomed over them from six miles away, and undead crawled like ants around and into and out of it.
A few hours travel on, as the party tried to skirt the tower, they were spotted by an undead patrol and attacked. They saw the patrol first, though, and managed to get into a reasonably defensive posture. When the enemy approached -- tiny gnome skeletons firing arrows from the back of a giant lizard skeleton, with ghouls and a pair of Vorr scouts, led by a ghast -- they were annihilated by a combination of Steve's fire breath and Erelthrae's turning, which dusted the remainder. The Vorr by themselves were not a threat, but one escaped by turning itself into a 2-dimensional shadow which seemed impervious to even +1 weapons.
The escaping Vorr called down more undead, and the party was harried by their Vorr scouts until they decided to go back to the area they'd consecrated for the first fight and take care of the new patrols. It wasn't quite as trivial to fight off two patrols simultaneously... it took the cleric *three* turn attempts to dust everything. This time a pair of ghasts got away.
So the party pressed onwards, hoping to find somewhere to hide and rest before more undead found them. The started to climb the ridge on which the tower was set (far from the tower, of course) and after some searching (prompted by the Nazgul-like flight of zombie giant bats from the tower) found a cave.
Abbey: "Okay, I'm sneaking into the cave. 32 hide, 41 move silently."
[luck die rolls: 1, worst bad thing. The party's level 6, so I roll up an EL 8 encounter. Table says, EL 5, x5. EL 5 result: 1 young blue dragon.]
DM: "As you sneak into the cave, silent as the wind, five pairs of eyes snap to focus on you, instantly. The young blue dragons begin to advance..."
Abbey retreated to warn the party, which set up a bottleneck at the cave entrance, figuring that they couldn't outrun this enemy, or outfight them in the open. Sure enough, only one of the dragons could fight at a time, without drawing AoOs, but that one dragon decided to use its lightning breath, nearly killing two of the party outright. It, meanwhile, took only light damage from a few readied strikes.
So the party surrendered. K'van managed to talk the dragons down to letting the party leave with their lives and most of their stuff (the dragons being far too young to be able to detect magic, and not deigning to strip-search the party for hidden gold -- the party gave them gold until they were satisfied, about 650 in total). The dragons would *not* allow the party to spend the night, even after they'd paid, although they offered to let them sleep in the 'pit' into which they threw the bones of their prey so that they wouldn't be bothered if they turned into undead.
Moving on, the party passed a few other caves, but were leery of going inside. Eventually they bit the bullet and scouted another cave, and were rewarded when this cave contained only a trio of man-sized spiders, which were squished before they knew what was happening. With the spiderwebs for cover, the party spent the night.
In the morning, they decided first to try to explore deeper into the spiders' cave, but they almost immediately ran into a trap set by a colony of Formians. [random encounter: 3 formian workers, 1 el 6 trap] Abbey nimbly dodged the 100 foot fall onto sharp, poisoned spikes, and the workers fled.
K'van decided to try diplomacy once again, when the workers were replaced with a patrol of warriors, who could at least speak. They said that they would take the party to the surface in return for three years' service from all of them, or supply a guide to help them avoid the hazards of the underdark in return for three years' service from one of them. Alternatively, they'd help the party if they'd wipe out the undead, or the driders, or if they could convince the Myconids to join them. The Formians stubbornly refused to divulge any useful information about anything without being paid first.
So the party turned around and left.
A bit later, just as they approached a creepy but promising area of giant pillars (like the Balrog hall from Lord of the Rings), the silver raven figurine from Ssethra approached, bearing a message of bad tidings -- Drow were pouring out of the sacred shrine, and setting up a camp from which to explore the jungle! The party was requested to come back and help the lizards end the threat.
They agreed, and hustled all the way back. The dragons let them pass by unmolested (only two of the dragons were present, so they didn't feel quite as confident -- Steve's single swipe had taken off a fifth of the eldest's hit points), the undead patrols were still in disarray, but the Vorr were waiting for them, and attacked in force. Eight of the creatures ambushed the party... and accomplished less that the original four had. Only one escaped with its life.
In the small stretch of forest proper between the Vorr area and the lizard village, they were assaulted by a Grell whose fearsome paralytic tentacles were useless against the party's armor.
And then they were back, albeit a bit tired from the long run. The lizards were building a stockade, and Abbey volunteered to help seed the area with traps.
Of course, immediately they were going to do nothing but rest, but soon it would be time to move against the drow expedition.
last week next week
Well, at least now I know what they're planning to take on next, so I know what to prepare, and I can avoid a repeat of this week next week. I hope.
Blah.
The party grilled the lizards about the hazards they'd find searching the underground cavern for the gnomes, and were warned, basically, not to go anywhere. The spider people were driders, which the party knew enough to be afraid of even without the lizards telling them 'if you go there you will die'. To the east of them was a colony of myconids, which the party wanted to avoid having heard stories of mind-control spores, and to the north was the tower of undead, around which patrols of undead roamed the desertlike expanse beyond the mushroom forest.
The party decided to face the undead. The party's cleric in particular was enthusiastic about the prospect. So, hugging the cavern wall so as not to get lost, they tromped through the rest of the glowing mushrooms and found themselves in an area where the fungus did *not* glow -- still lit, but with shadows everywhere.
Out of those shadows sprung a quartet of black wolf/hyena/cat things (Vorrs) which appeared out of nowhere to outflank the party and deal hideous damage by striking at vital areas. They were fought off, not without some amount of difficulty -- two tried to escape by shadow-stepping away a bit, but they were spotted at their destination and run down.
But the shadowed band was only a short distance, and soon the party emerged into the black desert of the undead. The tower loomed over them from six miles away, and undead crawled like ants around and into and out of it.
A few hours travel on, as the party tried to skirt the tower, they were spotted by an undead patrol and attacked. They saw the patrol first, though, and managed to get into a reasonably defensive posture. When the enemy approached -- tiny gnome skeletons firing arrows from the back of a giant lizard skeleton, with ghouls and a pair of Vorr scouts, led by a ghast -- they were annihilated by a combination of Steve's fire breath and Erelthrae's turning, which dusted the remainder. The Vorr by themselves were not a threat, but one escaped by turning itself into a 2-dimensional shadow which seemed impervious to even +1 weapons.
The escaping Vorr called down more undead, and the party was harried by their Vorr scouts until they decided to go back to the area they'd consecrated for the first fight and take care of the new patrols. It wasn't quite as trivial to fight off two patrols simultaneously... it took the cleric *three* turn attempts to dust everything. This time a pair of ghasts got away.
So the party pressed onwards, hoping to find somewhere to hide and rest before more undead found them. The started to climb the ridge on which the tower was set (far from the tower, of course) and after some searching (prompted by the Nazgul-like flight of zombie giant bats from the tower) found a cave.
Abbey: "Okay, I'm sneaking into the cave. 32 hide, 41 move silently."
[luck die rolls: 1, worst bad thing. The party's level 6, so I roll up an EL 8 encounter. Table says, EL 5, x5. EL 5 result: 1 young blue dragon.]
DM: "As you sneak into the cave, silent as the wind, five pairs of eyes snap to focus on you, instantly. The young blue dragons begin to advance..."
Abbey retreated to warn the party, which set up a bottleneck at the cave entrance, figuring that they couldn't outrun this enemy, or outfight them in the open. Sure enough, only one of the dragons could fight at a time, without drawing AoOs, but that one dragon decided to use its lightning breath, nearly killing two of the party outright. It, meanwhile, took only light damage from a few readied strikes.
So the party surrendered. K'van managed to talk the dragons down to letting the party leave with their lives and most of their stuff (the dragons being far too young to be able to detect magic, and not deigning to strip-search the party for hidden gold -- the party gave them gold until they were satisfied, about 650 in total). The dragons would *not* allow the party to spend the night, even after they'd paid, although they offered to let them sleep in the 'pit' into which they threw the bones of their prey so that they wouldn't be bothered if they turned into undead.
Moving on, the party passed a few other caves, but were leery of going inside. Eventually they bit the bullet and scouted another cave, and were rewarded when this cave contained only a trio of man-sized spiders, which were squished before they knew what was happening. With the spiderwebs for cover, the party spent the night.
In the morning, they decided first to try to explore deeper into the spiders' cave, but they almost immediately ran into a trap set by a colony of Formians. [random encounter: 3 formian workers, 1 el 6 trap] Abbey nimbly dodged the 100 foot fall onto sharp, poisoned spikes, and the workers fled.
K'van decided to try diplomacy once again, when the workers were replaced with a patrol of warriors, who could at least speak. They said that they would take the party to the surface in return for three years' service from all of them, or supply a guide to help them avoid the hazards of the underdark in return for three years' service from one of them. Alternatively, they'd help the party if they'd wipe out the undead, or the driders, or if they could convince the Myconids to join them. The Formians stubbornly refused to divulge any useful information about anything without being paid first.
So the party turned around and left.
A bit later, just as they approached a creepy but promising area of giant pillars (like the Balrog hall from Lord of the Rings), the silver raven figurine from Ssethra approached, bearing a message of bad tidings -- Drow were pouring out of the sacred shrine, and setting up a camp from which to explore the jungle! The party was requested to come back and help the lizards end the threat.
They agreed, and hustled all the way back. The dragons let them pass by unmolested (only two of the dragons were present, so they didn't feel quite as confident -- Steve's single swipe had taken off a fifth of the eldest's hit points), the undead patrols were still in disarray, but the Vorr were waiting for them, and attacked in force. Eight of the creatures ambushed the party... and accomplished less that the original four had. Only one escaped with its life.
In the small stretch of forest proper between the Vorr area and the lizard village, they were assaulted by a Grell whose fearsome paralytic tentacles were useless against the party's armor.
And then they were back, albeit a bit tired from the long run. The lizards were building a stockade, and Abbey volunteered to help seed the area with traps.
Of course, immediately they were going to do nothing but rest, but soon it would be time to move against the drow expedition.
last week next week
Well, at least now I know what they're planning to take on next, so I know what to prepare, and I can avoid a repeat of this week next week. I hope.
Blah.
