So I'm busy busy busy prepping for a party, but you know, procrastination.
So we played again a few nights ago...
The cast of pcs varies widely from game to game, as you can probably gather. This is because there's a small business running out of the house we play at, and whoever is there at the end of the day will often stay for gaming if they know I'm coming...
Anyway, that means we had two new pcs last time: a neutral human ranger who was a noble from House Ilmixie (which name might be familiar to long-time readers of my various story hours) whose main job in the house is helping to maintain good relations with the Collegium (the wizards and scholars from whom Mileen, the missing wizard that some of the pcs are seeking in the depths of the dungeon). After a number of thoughtless insults from one of the other pcs, our noble scion joined the party for their next expedition.
The other new pc was a Chaotic Evil warlock devoted to Graz'zt. He was a member of the Society of Sensation. He meets the party- oh heck, let me just back up to the start.
At the end of the last game, the pcs were in the dungeon, having gone fairly deep via a side entrance they are aware of. They'd fought some vargouilles, and the dwarf wizard pc (Dzedz Orcslayer) had been kissed by one of them. He was already feeling horrible, and the pcs decided to leave immediately and seek aid.
However, it was the middle of the night, and the gates of Fandelose (the city) are sealed after dark. Fortunately, the pc in the army was with them, and again managed to talk them into making an exception. The soldiers on guard let our heroes in, and they hustled through the dark streets, moving toward the Black Temple, where they had connected previously with the high priest.
Along the way, they met the warlock.
Middle of the night, CE demon-following warlock encounters a wounded party that seems to be easy prey... looks like a disaster for party-building, right? Well, the warlock had just left a Sensate party wherein he'd taken a drug that temporarily turned him LG, so he was actually quite helpful! By the time they'd reached the temple, then left, gone to the party's new house and hung out a bit, the drug was starting to wear off- but he'd also begun to gather that our 'heroes' (more like protagonists) were actually his kinda people.
Anyhow: the High Sword of Vandreu (the high priest's title) recognized the problem thanks to the pcs' descriptions and saved the poor dwarf. He'd already removed a nasty curse from 3 pcs, so they owe him big time.
The pcs went back to their house and collapsed into sleep, exhausted. The next day, Flint got a message from his superior, Lazarus, who hooked the noble kid into the pcs. Flint inadvertently insulted the noble about eight times by the time the group headed out for adventure, while the insane warlock and the slaver lured a guy back to the house to help try to dig a basement, then murdered him when he seemed intent on sacrificing their goats and then performing horrible acts on their bodies. They found a symbol of Froth, god of rape, necrophilia and cowardice, in his pocket, so no great loss, right?
The pcs eventually went back into the dungeon. They entered through that pesky side entrance that lets them avoid paying the dwarves who hold the main entrance, but it took 'em deeper than they might have wanted. However, they stumbled into another party of adventurers who they parlayed cautiously with before heading up a level via an elevator room. Then another parlay, this time with orcs, who the pcs paid off for previously killing a few of their number in exchange for directions to a sublevel where they believe the mysterious Mileen to be, perhaps imprisoned, perhaps working with a tiefling that they keep hearing about.
Then disaster struck.
The pc in the lead- the dragonborn slaver paladin- has a crap passive Perception. He missed spotting the trap until it was too late. Suddenly the floor dropped away, and he and the warlock slipped away down a long slide. The others followed cautiously, tying together a bunch of ropes to do so.
The slide led to a one-way metal door. Crap. Go through- and it was a ways down, too- go through and there's no easy escape.
They followed the other pcs, reluctantly.
Who had explored a little, cautiously, before returning to the room at the bottom of the slide.
For clarity, the pcs present are:
A dragonborn paladin of vengeance 3
A dwarven evoker 3
A halfling bard of the college of valor 3
A human ranger 1
A half-elf warlock of the fiend 1
In too deep, they stumbled into an encounter with three gricks.
It was brutal. By the time it was over, it was nail-bitingly close to a TPK. Only the wizard and ranger were still conscious; only his repeated thunderwaves prevented the gricks from chewing the paladin to death, like they did the bard and the warlock.
That's right: two pcs dead, one at 2 failed death saves, two more in single-digit hps... yikes!
The three survivors ended the game huddled together in a secret primping room within a boudoir devoted to that same god, Froth, praying desperately that they can complete a long rest. On the bright side, the ranger is now 2nd level.