Dwimmer Deep

Session 8

September 19, 2013. Talk like a pirate day. Ahrrr!

Bear, feeling crispy from the creeping wound left by the wight's sickly attack, begged a rest from the party. Holing up in the corridor between the long-abandoned secret doors, the party held up for 8 hours licking wounds and plotting strategy, to the mumblings of Milo memorizing his spells in the corner.

Healed up and ready as best they could be, with Bear still feeling a bit off (like butter, spread too thinly over bread), the group opened the secret door and headed back north down the creepy crypt corridor.

Slink discovered a silver door to his right down a short passageway. The door had writing on it, in an ancient common tongue. He had some trouble reading it, but best he could tell, it said "Here lies Sir John Hawkins, he was the best of us."

Slink opted to attempt to unlock the door, and after a few tries managed to pop the lock open before the party could discuss the matter in full. Hearing the concerns of the others, Slink agreed that perhaps it would be safer to deal with whatever evil might lay to the open left-hand passageway before venturing to the right-hand one, as cloth-wrapped corpses were visible to the darkvision of the bugbears in that direction.

Slink, hoping he didn't just release something from behind the silver door, tried and succeeded at re-locking the door. Father Rivers speculated that, perhaps, the door was made of silver and locked to keep something from getting out.

Venturing down the right hand passageway, a tad incautiously, the group awoke the previously-still corpses of a rather large number of zombies. The zombies tore through their aged wrappings, and looked ready to consume the living.

Father Rivers, prepared for such an eventuality, brought forth his holy symbol of the sacred deity of Life, and commanded with a supernaturally booming voice that the foul creatures return from whence they came.

This worked rather wonderfully, as four of the eight zombies disintegrated in terror, their shadows permanently emblazoned on the walls behind them as their tortured cries lingered in the air. Three of the others clawed and scrambled over the broken funerary wrappings to get away from the cleric, as only one zombie remained fearless of the commanding clerics clarion call.

[Editorial Comment: It should be noted here that each of the zombies had names. Their names were those of real life pirates, in honor of Talk like a Pirate Day. Their names were: Nicholas Alvel, Samuel Axe, Abraham Blauvelt, Hendrik (Enrique) Brower, Thomas Cavendish, Jacob Collaart, Baltazar de Cordes, and Jan Jacobsen.)

The party made short work thereafter of the remaining four pirate-zombies, though they did frequently get back up after being knocked down. It took the fortuitous critical head-severing skewering of Bear [Wherein Jason rolled TWO NATURAL TWENTIES IN A ROW!] to truly help put these zombies down for the count. But after some time, down they did go. Only Luther received a wound, which Father Rivers healed for him.

Having dealt handily with the mass of zombie horrors, the party looted their remains, and pulled forth numerous bags of coins, jewels, a silvered hand-mirror, an ancient carved jade deity totem, and various other and sundry items of some worth.

But the treasure was not enough, so a-tomb-robbing they shall go!

Returning to the silvered door, which Slink could barely contain himself before opening once again, the party moved on.

Behind the door lay a short passageway, with a large opening into an even larger chamber at least 75 feet long or more. Two short sets of stairs, separated by a small landing, were between the party and a very large sarcophagus. Atop the sarcophagus lay a gleaming polearm of some kind. Along the walls stood a series of funerary urns. And, as Slink was to see later as he entered the room and peered further with his half-elven eyes, the back of the room contained a large chest, along with some more urns, and a ruined portion of the chamber strewn with rubble and a broken urn.

Slink made his way towards the sarcophagus, but didn't get very far. Almost his first step into the large chamber triggered two darts to fire at him, one from each side of the chamber, apparently fired from the urns that lined those sides.

"I found a trap guys!" he called back.

Moving to inspect the urns, Slink determined that they each contained more darts, possibly poisoned, possibly not, but definitely aimed in multiple directions and trigerable from multiple angles and areas of the room.

Making his way down one side of the chamber and then the other, Slink eventually managed to disarm them all. He did however get hit one to many times, and once by a poisoned dart, causing the cleric to have to call on his God's power to rejuvenate his health.

After disarming the traps, slink inspected first the sarcophagus, and then the chest behind it. Both appeared to contain a trap, either of which seemed linked to the sarcophagus itself. Father Rivers speculated that likely either or both could cause something to rise from the tomb if disturbed.

The party made ready, as Slink prepared to attempt to disarm the trap connecting the chest to the sarcophagus. Meanwhile, Milo detected magic in the room, and found that the tomb radiated necromancy, the weapon atop it was magical but drowned out by that same necromancy, and perhaps something was magical within the chest in the rear of the chamber.

He carefully used one tool to hold to portions of the wire together as he snipped between those portions, hoping to then nail the taut end of the wire connected to the sarcophagus to the ground to prevent it from being triggered, thus freeing up the chest-side of the wire to be opened without concern.

Alas, the wire slipped from his tools, and disaster struck!

The lid to the sarcophagus, along with the weapon atop it, exploded up and out. A giant mummy rose from the tomb, waves of terror and anguish radiating from it's tortured visage!

Milo and Hollin froze in fright, paralyzed by their fear of this gigantic horrid creature from the netherworld. Fortunately, the rest of the party held their wits, and attacked.

Bear charged the thing, and though both his weapons struck, neither seemed to do as much damage as he hoped they would. Meanwhile Father Rivers called forth a sacred flame, lighting the mummy aflame with the light of his God. It screamed in anger, clearly more harmed by the flames than normal creatures might be, as its wrappings turned to cinders.

Slink tried to open the chest, hoping some magical weapon inside could avail them. Luther and bear continued to hack at the thing, as Father Rivers rained sacred flames across the creature's path.

Alas for Bear, he got close one too many times, and though he struck the beast a sound blow as it came charging at him, using the magical polearm that he had picked up from where it has flown off the sarcophagus, the creature struck him back even harder. Bear reeled from the blows, fighting off the rotting filth disease that radiated from the creature as he fled the reach of the beast.

Fortunately, the continuing onslaught from Luther and Slink managed to bring the beast down, just as Hollin and Milo managed to regain their senses and were prepared to join the fight. The giant beast had fallen.

Licking their wounds, the party eyed the chest in the rear of the chamber, and the treasures it contained.

[Loot and XP to follow. Matthew A and Noah are not available next week, however John and Max may be, and Jason said he will attempt to make the session if possible from his away-location]

Session 9

September 26, 2013

Present: Jason, John, Max, each playing two characters.

The Glaive recovered from the Mummy chamber turned out to be magical. It bore Elvish design, with a variety of leaf-like patterns along the blade. It seemed lighter than expected, and a bit more flexible than a normal glaive. Along the hilt was the symbol of a known Elvish mage known as Marian Darksbane. Luther also discovered a small word carved into the weapon, "Áre". When spoken, the glaive would light up, with bright light for a 10' radius and an addition 20' of dim light.

Having collected the remaining treasure from the chest of the Mummy formerly known as Sir John Hawkins, the party rested for a bit and then returned to the main pain and headed to the unexplored areas to the north. There they found a short set of steps leading upwards.

Slink scouted ahead, and with the aid of a copper piece alighted magically by Milo, he spied a 50' x 50' sunken chamber with a balcony path formerly an L shape on the south and east side, leading to more steps back down to the chamber in the north east. Within the chamber stood five sarcophagus, numerous funerary niches, and some randomly scattered wrapped bodies.

Moving cautiously, the party threw the glowing coin at a body. Finding it unmoving, they started to enter the chamber as Slink inspected the first niche.

Shockingly, the thing came alive and lunged at Slink, as Slink hurriedly backed away and tried to take a swipe at it! The thing had rotting flesh, was raw pale and discolored from necrosis. It's lips and eyelids were absent, and noses was completely rotted off. It appeared feral in nature, and hunched over. It's claws and teeth were disgusting, and sharp.

The party responded with missile weapons, as Luther tried out his new magical Glaive.

As Hollins stepped forward, he was surprised to find a second of the creatures had suddenly come out from hiding just beneath his step on the stairs. The thing struck at him with claws and teeth, doing some damage but fortunately not paralyzing him.

Bear was not so lucky. As tradition would have it, he was quickly paralyzed by the bite of an additional beast, as three more of them charged into the chamber from various hiding places within some niches around the room.

Father Rivers stepped forth in response to this dire predicament, and called forth the power of his God to banish these foul creatures. One of them fled in terror, but the remainder held their ground and responded with more attacks.

Several party members were injured in the ensuing battle, and Hollin required a timely cure wounds spell from Father Rivers at one point, as the front line held their ground on the stairs with melee weapons while those on the balcony continued with their missile weapons and spells...except for Luther, who was able to strike at the creatures from the second rank using his new polearm.

Bear finally managed to shrug off the effects of the paralysis, as the party shot arrows and spells into the last of the beasts cowering in the corner away from the Cleric.

But the battle was rough, and about half the members of the party bore nasty wounds. The party opted to rest and search the room while Milo began his hour long Identification ritual. Luther stood on watch.

And watch he did, as about a half hour into their rest and recuperation, a patrol of skeletons marched into the room from the only entrance!

Still wounded from their battle with the Ghouls, this unexpected company was most unwelcome. As the skeletons attacked with short bows and long swords, Father Rivers and Hollin held the front line against them as missile weapons and cantrip spells were cast from the back ranks along the narrow balcony.

The skeletons started to go down, only to replaced by those behind them, as they marched on. The front ranks began to get overwhelmed, as bloody was splashed from numerous wounds. Rivers and Hollin had to make a strategic withdraw as Bear and Luther took up the role of front liners. Even Slink took a pair of nasty arrows from his position near the back, and what should have been an easy fight turned into a tough matchup for the previously wounded and exhausted party.

Finally, the last skeleton fell to the flames of the Cleric and the twin weapons of Bear, and the party was able to withdraw back into the chamber to plot their next move. Wounded and exhausted, it was clear a retreat to the safe area behind the secret door was now in order.

[All six members of the party are now at 625 XP. Treasure still to be listed. All three of Jason, John, and Max said they should be available next week to game.]

Session 10

October 3, 2013
Present: John, Jason, Matt A, Noah, Max

After retreating from the arduous battle with the ghouls and skeletons, the party rested for about 8 hours or so in the ancient hallway between the two secret doors they had discovered nearby, and planned their next move.

Feeling refreshed after some sleep and a meal, the group headed back to the sarcophagus room, and gave it a thorough search. Some bits of treasure and other valuable art objects and gemstones were found, but nothing magical or particularly noteworthy.

The group then traveled south, up a short set of stairs in an unexplored section of the crypts. The stairs let to a small chamber with numerous secluded niches, and one door exiting the area further to the south. Searching the niches and sarcophagus therein, the party did not find anything worth writing home about, and moved on

Through the exit, a small chapel was revealed. Father Rivers sense that the oppressive necromantic energy that had infested the remained of the crypts did not seem present here. The chapel was otherwise empty, aside from benches and an empty altar.

Moving on down the last remaining unexplored hallway, the party found that it ended on the other side of the unusual door they had first seen on entering the first room of the entire dungeon. While it was locked with a complex lock from the other side, Slink was easily able to open it from this side, and the party re-entered the beginning chamber once again, breathing in the fresh air that wafted down from the nearby stairwell out to the wilderness of the mountain.

Seeing that the door they had just existed was about to close on it's own, Father Rivers moved a bed into the doorway, propping it open for now, in case use of the chapel was needed later.

The final unexplored door from the first chamber was a plain wooden door. Slink listened at the door, and could again hear some faith chanting in the background, which had apparently been going on for some days.

The group arranged themselves for a raid, and Slink quietly slipped the door open and stepped inside. There he found a short hallway leading to another door, with obvious chanting coming from behind it. The party then charged in!

As the door went crashing open, three Kobold shamans were found, chanting around a triangular shape carved into the floor which contained a huge shadowy creature!

Fortunately, the foes were surprised, and unprepared for the devastatingly effective attack that was about to commence. Arrows flew as combatants danced amongst their foes with flashing swords. The Shamans went down quickly to the barrage, as the shadowy creature fell to the magical sword and polearm of Hollin and Luther. It was all over within a matter of seconds.

The group briefly retreated to catch their breath, and then moved back in. Hollin was surprised by a pack of kobold warriors on re-entering the room, but he suffered only a minor scratch as he and the others dispatched the warriors quickly.

Some wounded surviving kobolds remained, and the group put them to the question. After a short and heated interrogation, one Kobold was intimidated into revealing their devilish plan. The Kobolds, finding themselves prisoners of the dungeon and trapped by The Thing Within The Walls, and hatched a diabolic plan.

One Shaman had a pact with a small demon. Joining forces with the demon, the Shaman enacted a horrid ritual wherein the souls of a kobold could be ripped from the corpus, assuming a shadowy form. The shadow was then placed within the living body of a captured adventurer. Assuming control of that body, the kobold was then able to leave the dungeon and escape.

The plan, which had been somewhat successful to date, was to have the demon and it's fellows lure adventurers down to the kobolds lair, where they would be captures and further bodily occupations commenced. The captured Shaman could not recall how many had been successful, but he was sure a number of his compatriots had escaped this way, and more shadows were waiting nearby for new adventurers to control.

Disgusted by the vile acts of the kobolds, the party slew the remaining prisoners quickly, and moved on, intent on putting an end to the remaining shadows.

And end them they did, though not without a tough fight. The next room contained quick a number of the foul entities, which flew about and tore into the party. Though a seemingly effective battle line was drawn up, the creatures took advantage of their flighty powers, and flew right over the assembled party. Five of the creatures initially attacked, doing some damage to Bear as Hollin defended him from behind. They fell back into the Kobold ritural room, as the creatures poured in after them. In response to a nasty Ray of Frost, two creatures came after Milo, damaging him badly as he fell back seeking refuge behind the rest of the party. Meanwhile, three more of the shadow creatures arrived, and it was all the party could do to try and keep them all at bay.

Finding that only magical attacks damaged the things properly, though all attacks seemed to take something out of them, Milo in desperation Thunder Waved a large group of the things, hitting three of them, putting one down and knocking two more.

Bear then went into what he deemed "beast mode", taking down two in one turn, and a third the next moment.

Meanwhile, Father Rivers bravely held off numerous attacks, as the things had trouble getting past his armor and natural protections. Aside from a scratch, he remained mostly unharmed.

Slink continued to shoot his arrows at the creatures, scoring several precise hits at them that did as much damage as non-magical arrows could do. All the while, Bear kept chipping away at the shadows.

Eventually, after what seemed an eternity, all the foul beings went down.

Afterwards, Slink snuck into the lair of the shadows, and there he found a small cave system. In the caves, he located a small rickety chest which contained some valuables worth taking back to the group.

With just one more door remaining in the Kobold series of rooms, the party fell back to rest a bit and contemplate their next move.

Session 11

October 17, 2013
Present: Matt A., John, Max, and Noah (except for end of night)

Summary:

Kobold Lair
12 Kobolds
Slink picked lock, and with coordination between him, Milo (casting light spell on Hollin's shield) and Hollin (charging in), lifted the bar on the other side of the door and Hollin burst in, surprising the kobolds.

Took three Kobolds down before they could react, including sleep spell on two more (though you didn't see the second guy hit by the sleep until your light radius reached that far).

The Kobolds then formed up, with the guy to the right always imposing his shield to protect the guy to his left, and all of them feeding off the pack mentality of those next to their prey.

The battle was far more difficult than expected, as the formation of shields made hitting them very difficult, while the frenzy had them hitting Hollin, Bear, and Father Rivers repeatedly, requiring healing to Bear and Hollin and retreat by Rivers.

Only once their battle lines were broken down, by clever tactics of the party having weaker attacks go first, and always on the Kobold at the end of the line, and then stronger attacks, only then did the Kobolds really begin to fall.

After a long and difficult battler, which was a fairly close call all around requiring multiple heals, the Kobolds were finally defeated.

A chest was in the room, and though it was trapped and a poison dart went off, the poison on the dart was very weak and easily resisted by Slink.

After a long rest, the remainder of the area was searched, and it was found that the door leading out led around to the Bullywug lair. The level was now clear.

Heading back to the ancient stairway leading down to the darkness of the level below, the party found the opposite end of another secret door. Hollin burst in, glowing shield in hand, an orc guard at the end of a corridor.

The guard went down fairly quick, but not without enough noise to alert others nearby. Suddenly Slink was struck a nearly killing blow by the wicked great axe of a huge orc who burst in from the door to the south.

The party formed ranks near Slink, with blow after blow finally taking down his assailant as Father Rivers healed Slink's still and bleeding form.

Alas, three more orcs were in the room, and they attacked. The first was another brute, while the second wielded a wicked barbed whip, and the third had curious blood red painting all over his body, and wore a small skull on a necklace. The third orc screamed "For the boneskull tribe!", seemingly inspiring his allies forward....

Session 12

October 24, 2013
Present: Noah, Jason, John, Max


The tough looking orcs, for all their bravado, went down quickly. With keen aim and deadly brute force, the party cut through them like hot knives through butter. With barely an opportunity to retaliate, the three remaining orcs were dead.

Milo then detected magic in the room, and found that the belt the chief orc was wearing, which bore a small skull as a buckle, glowed with magic. As did two potions, one in each chest in the room, which appeared to be red goopy liquids of the evocation school. He presumed the potions were healing potions, and focused on the belt.

But before he could fully identify the belt, some additional orcs came by outside the room, and knocked on the door. The party took up battle positions but did not reply. After a short while, the orcs wandered off rather than try the door, and Slink overheard their conversation, which was mostly composed of arguing over who was going to open the door.

The party waited, and the orcs left of their own accord. Slink then snuck out and examined the long hallway, finding two doors. The first, the door the orcs exited from, was to the west. The second, in the eastern portion of the hallway, was to the north. He then listened to each door and confirmed there was orc-sounding noises behind the door to the west, and not much behind the door to the north.

The rest of the party caught up, and planned to assault the orcs to the west. Unfortnately, Hollin made a bit too much noise in his clunky by effective armor, and the orcs were altered to the presence of the party.

A pitched battle ensued in the halway. Bear was shocked to find that the door to the north did not lead to an unoccupied room, as a guard on the other side of that door slammed it open and attacked - the door knocking Bear to the ground in the process. Hollin intervened with his shield, just in time as the orc's wicked looking battle axe came crashing down just shy of Bear's intimidatingly handsome Bugbearish head!

More orcs poured into the hallway, as Hollin, Slink, and Luther knocked them door. One orc with a crossbow went for an alarm drum, but Milo was able to put him to sleep before he could raise the alarm. Between that spell and a second dose of sleep, Milo took down four orcs, and 6 more eventually fell to the coordinated attacks of the party, and Father Rivers healed Bear, giving him chance to regain his feet and rejoin the battle.

Before long it was over, and 10 orcs laid in heaps across the hallway, leaving quite the bloody mess.

It turned out the two doors connected into one larger area, which itself contained four doors. One to the south had additional orc sounds behind it. The door to the west sounded something like wind. The doors to the north and east (in the northerly portion of the room) did not have any sounds.

The group contemplated resting, but opted to press on instead, hoping to catch the orcs by surprise.

And they did! Opening the door to the south, the group found four orcs hiding behind a barrier facing the west, and two more orcs guarding a door to the west. They orcs seemed shocked to see foes entering from the north, and were caught quite off-guard.

Luther charged in and took down one guard, and then the other. Meanwhile Hollin and Bear went to climb the barrier, as Slink and Milo hit the remaining orcs with ranged attacks and Father Rivers backed people up with healing.

Hollin and Bear made it over the barrier as Luther got caught-up in it for a time. Most of the orcs behind the barrier fell fairly quickly, but one did get away by running through a door to the east. As bear pursued, he was shocked to find that the orc was not fleeing, but was instead summoning the help of first one, and then a second rather beefy looking orc! The two were dressed in chainmail, well equipped with greataxes, and looked mean.

Hollin charged in to accompany Bear, but Bear went down to their blows anyway. Father Rivers quickly revived him with a spell, as Hollin started to take a beating. Meanwhile, the escaping orc reached the end of the hallway behind the door, perhaps gaining more aid. The situation started to look a bit grim, as the two nasty looking orcs wailed on Hollin and Bear with their greataxes....

[left off at the top of initiative]

[Assuming the party survives this battle, you will all have achieved 3rd level]

Session 13

November 7, 2013
Present: Jason (half evening), Noah, Max, John
Table Discussion: Proposed moving game night to Monday night, starting November 18. Jason will send out an email to discuss further.

Picking up in the desperate situation where we left off, our valiant adventurers found themselves a bit overextended. With two leaders of the orc tribe beside Hollin, and Bear nearly dead, the predicament looked grim.

Hollin held the front line, as Father Rivers aided Bear in a temporary retreat. Milo and Slink continued to assail one of the two leaders with ranged attacks, as Luther and Hollin harried the same fellow with their melee weapons. While damage was dealt, Hollin started to wear down as well.

Meanwhile, one of the orcish archers that had escaped earlier summoned yet another tougher lieutenant orc, who charged down the corridor to join the battle. With three stalwart orcish ruffians on him, Hollin's impressive defenses started to fail. Though he was able to withstand the onslaught for a time, eventually he too fell, and Father Rivers was forced to revive and withdraw with Hollin as well, as Luther held the doorway.

A few lucky shots from Milo and Slink finally brought down one of the two orc leaders from afar, but the third thug took a chunk out of Luther, and it seemed even the last doorway defender would need to withdraw along with the party. Luther continued to cover the exit as best he could, as Hollin and Bear jumped the barrier to join Milo and Slink on the other side (as Bear drank the one potion Milo thought might be a healing potion, which fortunately it was), leaving just Father Rivers and the wounded Luther on the side with their foes.

Praying for a miracle from the God of Life, Father Rivers summoned all his courage and might, stared the remaining orc leader in the eye, and boomed out in a commanding voice with all his Thaumaturgical might, "Stand down, or we shall slay you all!"

The orc paused.

[Max rolled a 15 on intimidate, with a +2 bonus from the Thaumaturgy spell to make it a 17, and the orc rolled a 17 - a tie]

The party held their collective breaths, delaying action to see what the response would be.

With nary a sound, the leader stared Father Rivers down, and then slammed the door shut, leaving the party in temporary peace.

The party heaved a sigh of relief, and started to retreat north with their wounded. As the left, Slink quickly devised a plan to mislead the orcs into thinking the group was retreating in a different direction. He listened at a nearby barred door, and hearing only wind on the other side, he opened the bar, and picked the lock to open the door. On the other side he briefly glanced a chasm, with a narrow bridge crossing it, and darkness beyond. Leaving that door wide open, he followed the rest of the party in their retreat.

As the group slipped back behind the secret door from which they had initially entered the orc lair, Luther tried to cover their tracks quickly.

Retreating back up the hidden stairs to the passageway between the two secret doors upstairs (between the necromantically infested area, and the Bullywug temple), the party settled down for a rest, though worried that the orcs would find their lair and seek revenge.

No sudden attack followed, and rest was had by all. Milo was able to identify one of their remaining potions as a potion of Spider Climb. In addition, he found the belt from one of the prior orc leaders was a Belt of Orcish leadership (+2 bonus to all interactions with orcs).

[The party at this point gained a level, to level 3. Various choices were made, and hit points rolled. Some would be left to be dealt with off-line this upcoming week. Jason took his departure at this point].

After recuperating, the party returned to where they had left off, in the orc lair. However, apparently 8 hours brought some changes to the orcs. Slink slinked around to check out the situation, and found the remaining orcs were now all dead, and their lair was completely ransacked.

Milo speculated that perhaps the enemies of the orcs, seeing the door that Slink had opened as a sign of something, had finished off the orcs after the party left. But, confirmation of that theory was not to be had...at least not at the moment.

Heading north, the group briefly checked another door in the northern portion of the lair that faced west, and fond it had traps, but the traps on the door were aimed towards the other side of the door. Something, it seemed, was a threat to the orcs from that other side. They group moved on.

To the north, the listened to a great iron door, and heard noised but were unable to identify what they were. Bear and Hollin together opened the door, though it made quite a bit of noise in the process and was rough to open. On the other side stood a large chamber with a raised platform, and two lizard-like creatures - one with fangs and claws, the other dressed in shamanic robes and wielding a staff. The party attacked!

The first lizard warrior was quick to drop to the onslaught, while the shaman managed to get off a silence spell and tried to run to an exit, before the group attacked him with a combination of ranged and melee attacks, until Luther severed his head in one foul slash of his polearm (crit for 23 damage). The party had successfully prevented the lizardmen from seeking aid, but for how long?

[next session scheduled for next Thursday, possibly our last Thursday session]

Session 14

November 14, 2013
Present: Max, Noah (and then Jason briefly)
Game called due to lack of quorum

We did discuss the following:
1) The room we left off in, with the two lizardmen, also contained a table with some magical ingredients. It also had about 2000 copper pieces, about 110 Electrum pieces, and about 130 gold pieces. In addition, there were two scrolls. They have not been examined yet.

We discussed future dates for gaming. Noah made it clear he is NOT available for Monday's. Both he and Max are available for Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.

We'll talk in emails about date planning, but for now we will plan on playing next Thrusday as normal, until we decide otherwise.

As for Jason, he will choose for his spells for third level Cure Wounds, and also either Hail of Thorns or Hunter's Mark (unsure which of those last two).

Session 15

December 5, 2013
Present: Matt A., Max, John, Noah

After a brief negotiation over the possibility of traps on the scrolls, Milo dove in and opened them. No traps, but one Arcane Lock scroll, and one divine scroll. Father Rivers determined the later to be a Remove Curse spell.

Though the lizardfolk had tried to flee east, the party heard something hitting the ground to the northwest, and decided to head that way. Opening the door, they surprised a troop of lizardfolk soldiers at rest, playing dice with some rather large stone dice, and copper coins.

The party ripped into the soldier lizardpeople with wild abandon. Slink assassinated one of their two leaders with a single deadly arrow to the neck. As the rest swept into the room, the soldiers had little chance to retaliate or run for help, though two of them did manage to mildly wound Hollin.

But as the last one dropped another door opened to the south, and more lizard soldiers moved in. Father Rivers healed Hollin, which was fortuitous as he took yet another wound from the incoming new creatures. Meanwhile Milo cast sleep, dropping two of the things. Bear, Luther, and Hollin swept through the soldier lizards, as slink and Milo hung back with ranged attacks and Father Rivers made sure to keep everyone standing. Their tactics sound, the party prevailed without much concern.

After briefly checking for secret doors in this new room, the party found nothing of much interest aside from another door to the south. Slink listened at it and determined that the windy sound he heard surely led to the cavern he had seen earlier from the other side, or something near it. Hollin argued that the party should fall back and rest before continuing, but he was outvoted, and Bear slammed the door open to finish the debate.

That....was unfortunate. In their haste to overrule Hollins reluctance, they group was out of position. On the other side of the door they did find a cavernous room, with a flimsy rope bridge crossing it. But on their side of that bridge were some more lizardmen.

But this group was different. Their skin was purplish-violet, and had a slight glow to it. As they moved to attack it was obvious this was a much tougher breed of the lizard creatures.

Bear went down almost immediately, taking five separate blows from three creatures that swarmed him. Slink followed him quickly, taking a nasty couple of attacks from some thrown tridents. Before they knew what had happened, a third of the party had already dropped.

Desperation made for a quick plan. Milo cast a web spell on the creatures, hitting them all...but without knowing which would be able to break free and which would be stuck in the web. Meanwhile, Hollin ran in and grabbed the prone and limp body of Slink, pulling him out of the way. Then Father Rivers followed, grabbing the body of Bear and pulling him from the cavern room. Finally, Luther slammed the door shut, and with Father Rivers they put their shoulder to the door to keep it shut until Milo could cast his newly acquired Arcane Lock on the door, praying that they would win the contest with the lizardmen over the door.

The door briefly slammed open again but Luther desperately put everything he had into it and was able to keep it shut, all as the arcane words of Milo flowed forth, and the door was finally magically sealed.

Father Rivers then revived the two downed party members, and healed them both, as the party fled. As they were leaving, they could hear the sounds of wood chunks being ripped from the door as the lizardman tried to break it down.

Moving fast, the party was able to make it back to their secret staircase and back up to the safety of their hidden corridor. There, they would lick their wounds, and contemplate the near disaster they had just escaped.

[Next game scheduled for next Thursday, Dec 12, 2013]

Session 16

January 16, 2014
Present: Noah, Max, John
[Did not play on Dec 12 as planned, due to various holiday festivities]
[Matt A says he is out of the game for the foreseeable future [DM Later Note - he returns]]

OOC: Discussed what to do with Slink and Luther. Decided that, as the party was well honed including those two characters, they should be played as NPCs for now, and we would try and recruit some new players for the game. Mark said he would contact Robin, JD, and Todd W. and see if they are interested.

IC:

The party, having fled to their bolthole, rested for 8 hours and recovered from their ordeal. Milo and Father Rivers prepared their spells once more, and the group ventured forth to seek revenge on the weird purple toned lizard men.

Slink scouted ahead, and found little had changed from their last expedition through the formerly-orc region. However the entry door to the Lizard region was now closed. Slink also listened to a door to the east, and heard a great deal of chatter there in at least two different languages.

Opting to leave that new area alone for now, the party opened the door to the known lizard area.

Immediately Slink heard a hiss from the northwest, as apparently a lizardman guard was on duty there. Bear charged in, and could see with his nigh vision that there was indeed a guard, who was retreating through a door. The party moved up to attack, but the lizardmen closed the door behind them.

Hollin bravely opened the door and found quite a pack of purple-toned lizardmen there, their mutated muscles bulging. Milo cast a web spell on them, blocking their retreat, as first Luther and then Hollin took up the front ranks.

Luther took quite a beating, but Father Rivers poured on the healing and kept him on his feet. Milo cast a devastating flaming ray at three of the creatures, both damaging them directly and then indirectly as the web they were stuck in caught fire and started to spread across the rest of the webbing.

Slink and Bear laid down the ranged attacks, until finally Luther had taken enough of a beating and stepped back for Bear to fill his place in the front line. Meanwhile Hollin withstood blow after blow, his heavy armor and shield able to deflect most attacks.

Though they mutated lizardmen had started the battle thinking they had lured the party into a trap, things went quite differently for them than the first encounter, and they slowly started to drop from the oncoming barrage of attacks, most benefiting from the blessing of Father Rivers. It took a long time to drop them, but other than Luther, no party member was in serious fear of being knocked unconscious this time. Instead, between the repeated thunder-waves from Milo, missile attacks from Slink and Bear (and later polearm attacks from Luther), and sword/scimitar attacks from Hollin and Bear, the party slowly but surely cut through the ranks of the lizardmen until the last one fell.

After the battle, Milo cast detect magic on the bodies, and found they had been subjected to some sort of transmutative magic, likely responsible for their overly muscular physic and purplish hue.

Meanwhile, Slink and Hollin found a treasure chest, and hauled the coins and treasure out for examination later in the bolthole.

Which is exactly where the party returned to, after having cast almost all their spells, for some well earned money-counting and recovery.

[Next session planned for next Thursday, Jan 23, 2014 at 7:30pm. Max may not be able to make it, depending on the health of his fellow thesbian]

Session 17

January 23, 2014
Present: John, Noah, Jason, and eventually Max.

Earlier in the day, this Treasure So Far table was sent:



The party returned to their hidey-hole behind the ancient secret door and rested, and then made their way to the front entrance of the dungeon to await the Adventurer's Guild escort back to town.

The return to town was uneventful, despite rumors of bandits in the area, and everyone made it safely back to East Gantrick, entering the walled town through the south gate, known as Squallgate by most residents (being located in the part of town known as The Squall, a poorer part of town).

Traveling quickly to an area that might buy some of the lesser items from the party, everyone walked to the part of town known as The Odie (for the Odium theater located near there) and sold a variety of items to a fair merchant in used light and medium armor. Bear sold his Hide armor (5gp), Hollin gave his Scale armor to Bear (for a fee), Luther sold his Leather armor (12gp), River's his chainmail (37.50), and the party sold some miscellaneous valuable items they had found along with their precious gems.

Splitting some gold between them fairly, with a few loans to a couple of people to upgrade to more expensive armor, the party then briefly split, agreeing to meet back at the Dirty Hippogriff Lodge for dinner and further discussion, which is a tavern the group all knew was located across from the Adventurer's Guild within the Foreigner's District of town.

Hollin, Bear, Luther and Father Rivers left for the northern part of town to purchase more expensive armor (traveling from The Odie, through the Foreigner's District, briefly through The Bowl (known for it's Arena), and into the border between Sanctuary and North Gate, skirting The Palace and it's inner walled keep). Hollin and Father Rivers each bought expensive Splint Mail (500gp) using all their gold and a small amount of the party's as well, while Bear and Luther bought/acquired Scale Mail (50gp).

Meanwhile Milo and Slink entered negotiations with a friendly gnome named Bonkris Sprywhistle. Bonkris is a fellow adventurer, and member of the Adventurer's Guild who lived near the Guild. He was willing to sell Milo two scrolls, one of Find Familiar (100 gp), and the other of Flaming Sphere (200gp). He also sold Slink a vial of Alchemists Fire (50gp), and Milo some components necessary to scribe the scroll into his spellbook (100gp). Bonkris made it clear the prices for the scrolls were not the norm, and he was being generous as he had recently acquired the scrolls and did not have any immediate use for them. Milo then obtained a room at The Galleon, and Inn near the Adventurer's Guild known for it's reasonable rates and clear but minimal rooms, where he got to work scribing the Flaming Sphere spell into his spellbook, while Slink went off to unknown parts of town.

On their way back to meet at the Dirty Hippogriff Lodge, Father Rivers made a stop in the Sanctuary neighborhood and visited the temple of his God. There he purchased on behalf of the party four potions of healing (200gp total), bringing the party to a total of six such potions, one for each member of the group.

Meeting back at the Dirty Hipp, Milo informs the party that he has successfully identified the remaining potions they had found. They are: Resistance, Speak with Animals, Climbing, Healing, and Disguise Self (one Healing potion had been used by Bear). These are added to the known potions of Healing, Poison and Climbing which were previously identified, along with the scroll that was previously identified as Remove Curse, and the Belt of Orcish leadership (+2 bonus to all interactions with orcs).

After gold is re-divided and debts are noted, the party agreed to split the remaining items (for now) as follows:
Bear takes the poison potion for his blowgun (adding to his existing 3 doses, for a total of 7 doses);
Slink takes the potion of climbing (and now also has a vial of alchemist fire, and whatever else he secretly bought/acquired in town);
Milo takes the potion of Disguise Self, the Belt, and the Speak with Animals potion (and holds on to the two golden tridents for now);
Father Rivers takes the potion of Resistance, and the Scroll of Remove Curse;
Luther keeps the magical Glaive;
Hollin keeps the magical Sword.

Each party member now also has a potion of healing.

Business dispensed with, the party sleeps the night at The Galleon, and returns the next day (along with escort) to the Dwimmer Deep dungeons.

The Dungeon's entry level remains empty, and the group has no trouble returning to their hidey-hole and down the stairs through the secret door in the now-cleared Orcish lair. They find the Orcish lair remains as before, but the doors to the Lizardman area are again closed, and bodies from their previous battles have been removed.

The group decides to enter a new door, to the west of the entry-room where they first found the Lizardmen. That entry-room (as a reminder) appears to be an altar-like platform room complete with a table of magical elements and components, along with a treasure chest, all of which the party previously looted.

Bear carefully moved up to the door to listen, and found a new gash in the door revealed some light from the other side, and could be peered through with little difficulty. He put his eye to the gash in the door, and was shocked to see an eye starring back at him!

[OOC: Initiative rolled]

Shouts could be heard from the other side of the door, as Hollin stepped in and yanked the door open. Lizardmen immediately poured into the doorway as spells went off from within. Before the party knew what hit them, Luther had been struck with a necromantic Ray of Enfeeblement, wounding him mightily and nearly sapping his strength. Then silence fell on the party, as another spellcasting Lizardman dropped a Silence spell on them, while a third blessed his allies. Their two leaders also fell back, one running for a rack of weapons as the other disappeared somewhere to the south.

That Blessing was indeed useful, as the Lizardman warriors pouring into the doorway began to strike Hollin and Bear with accuracy, wounding them both. Both tried to hit back but were unable to maneuver well, and fell back away from the door. Meanwhile Rivers and Milo stepped back out of the Silence aura, and each concentrated on longer lasting magical attacks. Milo sent in a Flaming Sphere, while Rivers sent a Spiritual Hammer. But with half the party already wounded, and tough foes ahead including a spellcaster, would they be enough? And what had happened to one Leader-looking Lizardman who disappeared to the south, was he circling around to strike from behind, or bringing more allies, or himself fleeing?

Find out next week, in our exciting adventures in the Dwimmer Deep!

[OOC: Top of initiative order starting next Thursday at 7:30-8:00ish]
[Also, Max sent this spell list for Father Rivers, in case he does not make it next week

Spell How USED

Spare the Dying Cantrip
Sacred Flame Cantrip
Thaumaturgy Cantrip
Turn Undead Channel Divinity
Restore Health Channel Divinity
Bless Domain Spell
Cure Wounds Domain Spell
Cure Wounds 1st Level Spell
Cure Wounds 1st Level Spell
Cure Wounds 1st Level Spell
Detect Magic 1st Level Spell
Prayer of Healing 2nd Level Spell
Spiritual Weapon 2nd Level Spell X
items
scroll - remove curse
restoration
healing potion