Drow Disaster
Apr. 23rd, 2003 02:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight was my underdark-themed D+D game... which went on about 2 hours longer than planned, because the party *did* decide to do a frontal assault, eventually.
The party's initial reaction to the lizards' eagerness to fight was to be skeptical of the drow's intentions... sure enough, the lizards couldn't prove that the drow were out to attack them, but it was obvious that they were setting up shop nearby -- they were building a fortress and everything. The lizards agreed to (a) send a messenger to the myconids asking for help, and (b) scout the drow ahead of time, possibly trying to talk to them.
While the lizards summoned their 'village guardian' (a massive dire weasel, 20 feet long) and got really wasted on hallucinogenic mushrooms, the party decided to send an animal messenger to the Driders informing them of the drow presence. They also interrogated a stoned by somewhat coherent lizard to try to see if the lizards were playing them false, but while the old lizard was sure the assault was doomed, as far as she knew the chief was telling the truth.
The driders didn't respond, at least not before the war party set out, but the messenger sent to the myconids returned with news that the mushroom people refused to get involved unless and until the drow invaded their territory, which had not yet happened.
So the war party set out to find the drow. Abbey went ahead, with a lizard as a guide, and after a bit of excitement with a large hungry animal (which they hid from) they reached the 'holy shrine' where the drow had set up camp.
The drow camp was on the top ledge where the tunnel the party had originally entered this large cavern through opened. A short, 5 foot tall makeshift wall surrounded it, a pair of chaos orbs were set to guard the only path up, and the bottom positive energy chamber seemed to be... missing... the top one was presumably inside the wall. Half a dozen drow stood guard.
Abbey tried to sneak up the cliff to spy on the drow from close range, but was spotted when she was only halfway up and pelted with crossbow bolts, which fortunately missed her. She screamed in mock agony and sent debris tumbling down the cliff, pretending that she'd been hit, then squeezed into a crevice to hide while the drow watched the distraction. The drow sent out a party of seven or so, plus two giant spiders, which combed the cliff base and (in the spiders' case) the cliff itself for her, but they didn't find her... eventually they gave up and went back inside.
So Abbey decided to try to get even closer. She was spotted again, and this time she decided to run away down the cliff (it wasn't really a cliff cliff, only about a 45 degree angle) at full speed... she got pegged by a sleep arrow and tumbled the last hundred feet or so unconscious, and was rescued by her lizard companion, waiting in the bushes, who carried her off to safety before the drow could come out and capture her.
So the party had the lizards set up an ambush in the forest, leaving an obvious trail for them to follow right into their entire party. A few more drow came looking than they expected, and Steve was spotted from a ways off due to his crap hiding, but while trying to sneak up on Steve the drow stumbled across one of the lizard flanking parties, and a general melee started.
The drow recon-in-force was badly outnumbered, and surrounded almost from the start... and Erelthrae's Sunlight spell dispelled the darkness that was the drow's best chance of escape, as well as blinding them for one critical round while the encirclement was completed. Two lizards were killed, but none of the drow escaped.
Abbey went forwards once again to see how the fortress was faring minus its patrols... she was spotted from the wall again, but this time retreated defensively and got out of easy crossbow range before getting hit. However, she drew the attention of an invisible flying wizard, who tried to charm her (but she wasn't a person), then pelted her with magic missiles while she fired arrows in response, until she finally got within range of Steve, who'd come along to back Abbey up this time. Steve proved ridiculously lucky with his arrows, and drove the wizard away before he could kill Abbey.
Mulling over the lack of a serious patrol of soldiers responding to Abbey's probe this time, the party and the lizards decided that they should attack immediately, before the mage could regain spells or more drow could come to reinforce.
The beginning of the battle went poorly for the party. Ssethra's companion was put to sleep on the first round, then a fireball took out five lizards as well as the 'civilians' who'd stayed in the back of the party to be 'safe', and almost took down Ssethra as well. Then Steve, in the forefront, charged right into a nearly invisible web trap right in range of the pair of chaos orbs flanking the path, which had refused to be drawn into melee range by missile weapons -- which couldn't hurt them because of their damage resistance.
Abbey, and the 'village protector' (weasel from hell), and the village chief, and three lizards climbed up the side of the wall, ignoring the path, and while Abbey had a missile duel with a ranger on the walls, the weasel charged the walls, dragging the lizards behind it. It was immediately mobbed by three drow, including a mage and cleric both, and the other drow cleric then set a pair of chaos orbs on it.
But then things started to turn around. The chaos orbs killed the three lizards and nearly killed the village chief, and along with the drow rangers took the weasel down in a couple rounds, but they also blinded the cleric nearby and killed one of the drow with a negative energy burst... and pissed off the wizard, who swore at the priestesses and went to get his stuff and leave. (the negative levels he took got rid of all his remaining spells, so what was he going to stick around for?)
Also, Ssethra and Slee cast 'obscuring mist' obscuring the path and keeping the surviving lizards safe from further ranged attacks. Steve freed himself from the web and climbed up the wall near the orbs, charging up to the wall and positioning himself to wreak flaming death on the drow inside.
Just then, the drow cleric inside the walls politely suggested that Steve should surrender, so of course he dropped his weapon and allowed them to take him inside the fortress. The attackers were disheartened, especially since at about this time the village protector weasel finally fell under the assault of drow and orbs. One of the orbs started chasing Abbey, the other headed down to go after a lizard who'd unwisely thrown a javelin at it, putting most of the party inside its burst radius.
Five lizards were taken out of the fight in an instant as the orb's chaos burst blinded them, and fled down the side of the mountain, leading that orb away, at least, but taking more damage and dying one by one... Slee tried to pass through the gauntlet of the two original orbs guarding the path, only to run into more web. He and his lizard endured many more blasts of random damage and, well, chaos, and eventually he was blinded as well.
But by this time, Abbey had found the rope ladder the drow used to get inside their own fortress, and threw it down to the rest of the party, then moved to attack the last four drow manning the walls. The weasel, slowly regenerating from one of its master's spells, arose from the seeming dead and killed the orb that was menacing her. And Erelthrae threw the chaos orb they'd been saving for a while at the drow Abbey was fighting.
Abbey was surrounded and poked with pointy things, and Erelthrae's orb was dispatched relatively quickly, but not before it did some damage. Abbey fled back towards where most of the party was now infiltrating the fortress (thanks to the ladder), and helped finish off the drow who'd been trying to escape with the surrendered Steve. The wizard escaped down the tunnel, but the two clerics and one warrior were cut off and killed.
However, this left NO ONE guarding the outside of the fortress, so the last four drow on the wall hopped over it and started fleeing down the ladder. The village protector was sent after them, but was dropped by sleep bolts before it got close, and those drow got away as well, albeit not in the direction they'd probably have preferred.
The battle would have been over at that point, but Abbey woke up a chaos orb keeping guard on a quiet corner of the fortress, and the party had to destroy it. Abbey got a negative level for her trouble.
Final tally: 11 lizard warriors KIA, 4 MIA, 5 active, both lizard druids active (all 3 if you count the party's), both pets asleep but alive. 2 civilians fried to a crisp, along with one rat, 5 party members and 1 druid pet still alive.
Steve stopped trying to surrender when there were no more drow in the area. The only exit from the fortress was guarded by more chaos orbs, although hopping the wall worked fine. The healing chamber was available, and MUCH APPRECIATED since most of the party had one or more negative levels from various chaos bursts. A wand of wall of stone was recovered, and the tunnel from the former lair of the shadow thoqqua was sealed over at the far end, so that additional drow explorers would think the thoqqua cave had no exits. This would only work if the wizard was too disgraced by losing his clerics to rejoin drow society, of course.
The party worried about the drow coming back, about the drow that had escaped into the forest, about the remaining chaos orbs, and about the party of driders who might be incoming at any time in response to their message.
last week next week
Everyone seemed to enjoy the game this time... well, except maybe me. SIX CHAOS ORBS == BAD IDEA, especially when they're rolling SR each round against the drow in their area of effect. Bard song + bless on one side, bless + prayer on the other, negative levels scattered around, slow regeneration on the weasel (it actually fell about four times and got up each time from the regen... the only people who could have coup-de-graced it were the orbs, though, and they were too mindless to do that), and more than twenty critters on each side! Aaaaiiieee! What was I thinking?
I don't think the lizards will be fighting with the party again any time soon. Or at least, not so many of them. %.%
The party's initial reaction to the lizards' eagerness to fight was to be skeptical of the drow's intentions... sure enough, the lizards couldn't prove that the drow were out to attack them, but it was obvious that they were setting up shop nearby -- they were building a fortress and everything. The lizards agreed to (a) send a messenger to the myconids asking for help, and (b) scout the drow ahead of time, possibly trying to talk to them.
While the lizards summoned their 'village guardian' (a massive dire weasel, 20 feet long) and got really wasted on hallucinogenic mushrooms, the party decided to send an animal messenger to the Driders informing them of the drow presence. They also interrogated a stoned by somewhat coherent lizard to try to see if the lizards were playing them false, but while the old lizard was sure the assault was doomed, as far as she knew the chief was telling the truth.
The driders didn't respond, at least not before the war party set out, but the messenger sent to the myconids returned with news that the mushroom people refused to get involved unless and until the drow invaded their territory, which had not yet happened.
So the war party set out to find the drow. Abbey went ahead, with a lizard as a guide, and after a bit of excitement with a large hungry animal (which they hid from) they reached the 'holy shrine' where the drow had set up camp.
The drow camp was on the top ledge where the tunnel the party had originally entered this large cavern through opened. A short, 5 foot tall makeshift wall surrounded it, a pair of chaos orbs were set to guard the only path up, and the bottom positive energy chamber seemed to be... missing... the top one was presumably inside the wall. Half a dozen drow stood guard.
Abbey tried to sneak up the cliff to spy on the drow from close range, but was spotted when she was only halfway up and pelted with crossbow bolts, which fortunately missed her. She screamed in mock agony and sent debris tumbling down the cliff, pretending that she'd been hit, then squeezed into a crevice to hide while the drow watched the distraction. The drow sent out a party of seven or so, plus two giant spiders, which combed the cliff base and (in the spiders' case) the cliff itself for her, but they didn't find her... eventually they gave up and went back inside.
So Abbey decided to try to get even closer. She was spotted again, and this time she decided to run away down the cliff (it wasn't really a cliff cliff, only about a 45 degree angle) at full speed... she got pegged by a sleep arrow and tumbled the last hundred feet or so unconscious, and was rescued by her lizard companion, waiting in the bushes, who carried her off to safety before the drow could come out and capture her.
So the party had the lizards set up an ambush in the forest, leaving an obvious trail for them to follow right into their entire party. A few more drow came looking than they expected, and Steve was spotted from a ways off due to his crap hiding, but while trying to sneak up on Steve the drow stumbled across one of the lizard flanking parties, and a general melee started.
The drow recon-in-force was badly outnumbered, and surrounded almost from the start... and Erelthrae's Sunlight spell dispelled the darkness that was the drow's best chance of escape, as well as blinding them for one critical round while the encirclement was completed. Two lizards were killed, but none of the drow escaped.
Abbey went forwards once again to see how the fortress was faring minus its patrols... she was spotted from the wall again, but this time retreated defensively and got out of easy crossbow range before getting hit. However, she drew the attention of an invisible flying wizard, who tried to charm her (but she wasn't a person), then pelted her with magic missiles while she fired arrows in response, until she finally got within range of Steve, who'd come along to back Abbey up this time. Steve proved ridiculously lucky with his arrows, and drove the wizard away before he could kill Abbey.
Mulling over the lack of a serious patrol of soldiers responding to Abbey's probe this time, the party and the lizards decided that they should attack immediately, before the mage could regain spells or more drow could come to reinforce.
The beginning of the battle went poorly for the party. Ssethra's companion was put to sleep on the first round, then a fireball took out five lizards as well as the 'civilians' who'd stayed in the back of the party to be 'safe', and almost took down Ssethra as well. Then Steve, in the forefront, charged right into a nearly invisible web trap right in range of the pair of chaos orbs flanking the path, which had refused to be drawn into melee range by missile weapons -- which couldn't hurt them because of their damage resistance.
Abbey, and the 'village protector' (weasel from hell), and the village chief, and three lizards climbed up the side of the wall, ignoring the path, and while Abbey had a missile duel with a ranger on the walls, the weasel charged the walls, dragging the lizards behind it. It was immediately mobbed by three drow, including a mage and cleric both, and the other drow cleric then set a pair of chaos orbs on it.
But then things started to turn around. The chaos orbs killed the three lizards and nearly killed the village chief, and along with the drow rangers took the weasel down in a couple rounds, but they also blinded the cleric nearby and killed one of the drow with a negative energy burst... and pissed off the wizard, who swore at the priestesses and went to get his stuff and leave. (the negative levels he took got rid of all his remaining spells, so what was he going to stick around for?)
Also, Ssethra and Slee cast 'obscuring mist' obscuring the path and keeping the surviving lizards safe from further ranged attacks. Steve freed himself from the web and climbed up the wall near the orbs, charging up to the wall and positioning himself to wreak flaming death on the drow inside.
Just then, the drow cleric inside the walls politely suggested that Steve should surrender, so of course he dropped his weapon and allowed them to take him inside the fortress. The attackers were disheartened, especially since at about this time the village protector weasel finally fell under the assault of drow and orbs. One of the orbs started chasing Abbey, the other headed down to go after a lizard who'd unwisely thrown a javelin at it, putting most of the party inside its burst radius.
Five lizards were taken out of the fight in an instant as the orb's chaos burst blinded them, and fled down the side of the mountain, leading that orb away, at least, but taking more damage and dying one by one... Slee tried to pass through the gauntlet of the two original orbs guarding the path, only to run into more web. He and his lizard endured many more blasts of random damage and, well, chaos, and eventually he was blinded as well.
But by this time, Abbey had found the rope ladder the drow used to get inside their own fortress, and threw it down to the rest of the party, then moved to attack the last four drow manning the walls. The weasel, slowly regenerating from one of its master's spells, arose from the seeming dead and killed the orb that was menacing her. And Erelthrae threw the chaos orb they'd been saving for a while at the drow Abbey was fighting.
Abbey was surrounded and poked with pointy things, and Erelthrae's orb was dispatched relatively quickly, but not before it did some damage. Abbey fled back towards where most of the party was now infiltrating the fortress (thanks to the ladder), and helped finish off the drow who'd been trying to escape with the surrendered Steve. The wizard escaped down the tunnel, but the two clerics and one warrior were cut off and killed.
However, this left NO ONE guarding the outside of the fortress, so the last four drow on the wall hopped over it and started fleeing down the ladder. The village protector was sent after them, but was dropped by sleep bolts before it got close, and those drow got away as well, albeit not in the direction they'd probably have preferred.
The battle would have been over at that point, but Abbey woke up a chaos orb keeping guard on a quiet corner of the fortress, and the party had to destroy it. Abbey got a negative level for her trouble.
Final tally: 11 lizard warriors KIA, 4 MIA, 5 active, both lizard druids active (all 3 if you count the party's), both pets asleep but alive. 2 civilians fried to a crisp, along with one rat, 5 party members and 1 druid pet still alive.
Steve stopped trying to surrender when there were no more drow in the area. The only exit from the fortress was guarded by more chaos orbs, although hopping the wall worked fine. The healing chamber was available, and MUCH APPRECIATED since most of the party had one or more negative levels from various chaos bursts. A wand of wall of stone was recovered, and the tunnel from the former lair of the shadow thoqqua was sealed over at the far end, so that additional drow explorers would think the thoqqua cave had no exits. This would only work if the wizard was too disgraced by losing his clerics to rejoin drow society, of course.
The party worried about the drow coming back, about the drow that had escaped into the forest, about the remaining chaos orbs, and about the party of driders who might be incoming at any time in response to their message.
last week next week
Everyone seemed to enjoy the game this time... well, except maybe me. SIX CHAOS ORBS == BAD IDEA, especially when they're rolling SR each round against the drow in their area of effect. Bard song + bless on one side, bless + prayer on the other, negative levels scattered around, slow regeneration on the weasel (it actually fell about four times and got up each time from the regen... the only people who could have coup-de-graced it were the orbs, though, and they were too mindless to do that), and more than twenty critters on each side! Aaaaiiieee! What was I thinking?
I don't think the lizards will be fighting with the party again any time soon. Or at least, not so many of them. %.%
