drnuncheon
Explorer
Session Two, Part Two - Snakes...why did it have to be snakes?
Dru and Di'Fier head to the house - it's a ramshackle place with the windows bricked up. The lock on the door is of suspiciously high quality for such a run-down house, though, and it easily defeats Dru's fumbling attempts with a lockpick.
She and Di'Fier both bounce off of it separately, trying to knock it open, and apparently trusting their guard badges to make people mind their own damn business. Only by working together does the duo manage to knock the door in to find...
...a trashed, crummy house. What a hole! They can't believe that any self-respecting mysterious brotherhood would meet in a place like this. On the other hand, there is a trapdoor in the back. Opening it reveals a staircase down to a wine cellar, where nine enormous casks of wine line the walls. Some have liquid, others are hollow, and Dru discerns a secret catch along the side of one.
(Remember that bell and the silver wire? Well if you've scoured your Player's Handbook you know that they're the material components for the Alarm spell. Dru and Di'Fier didn't, and they didn't realize that the spell had been placed on the secret entrance...)
"I hate going underground," Dru sighs.
"It could be worse. it could be the sewers."
"...thank you, Di'Fier."
Meanwhile, back at the inn, Tas shows up and begins waiting for Dru and Di'Fier.
Anyway, it's into the secret passage, down deeper below Freeport, and the corridor turns a corner to reveal that they are at the base of a 'T' intersection. There's a door right across from them, in the middle of the crossbar of the "T", and Dru heads for it...then suddenly vanishes! There's a thump and plenty of cursing, and Di'Fier approaches the pit more cautiously.
He lays down on the ground, and extends the scabbard of his bastard sword down to reach Dru. From her vantage point, she gets a great view of the creature looming behind her partner, and she shouts a warning. Di'Fier manages to roll to the side just quickly enough to avoid the spear thrust!
The creature is man-tall, but it is no man. It's covered in scales, with a serpentine head and a narrow tail lashing in the dust behind it. It raises its spear for another strike, and this time Di'Fier is not fast enough - it clips him. Di'Fier rolls to his feet and swings wildly at the creature, but the glancing blow is deflected by the thing's scales...and now he can see that it is not alone. Four more are emerging from a secret door in the wall behind it. Fortunately, they all miss the guardsman. Dru drinks her potion of spider climb and heads up the wall to get in a better sniping position.
Again the serpent-men attack Di'Fier, and again only the first one is able to hit him. Di'Fier tries to cast a mage armor spell as he ducks and weaves, but his dodging causes the spell to go awry, and his primary protection is gone. Maybe he'll learn to cast it before a fight next time...
Again the first serpentman's spear strikes Di'Fier, and he's looking pretty ragged. He spins and tries to leap across the pit. Unfortunately, he falls far short of the far side, and lands with a thump. Still, he's away from the enemy (for now), so he's able to pull out a potion of cure light wounds and heal himself for a bit. One of the serpentmen tries to follow him into the pit, but it lands even more poorly than Di'Fier did, and winds up breaking its neck. Two of its comrades run around the edges of the pit to go after Dru, and the last just chucks its spear at Di'Fier, missing. Dru responds by running along the ceiling to hang above the pit, where the serpentmen can't get her, and then picks another off with her bow.
The first serpentman proves that his good luck only seems to extend to melee combat, as his spear misses Di'Fier. Di'Fier pulls out his trusty wand of magic missiles and sends an energy bolt into one of the creatures, blasting a smoking hole in its chest. Another of the serpentmen goes into the pit after Di'Fier, this time climbing down, and then lunging forward to bite the guardsman. He fails his save and begins to hallucinate just a bit as his Wisdom is drained. Dru's shot goes awry.
The first snakeman picks up a fallen spear and lobs it at Dru, but she easily dodges. Di'Fier takes a swing with his sword and misses, the serpentman bites him again, and again he fails his save.
It is at this point that Di'Fier's player (hi John) got fed up with his d20. He walked over to the front door, opened it, stepped out on the porch, and lobbed it into the darkness. It's still out there somewhere. Poor little die, alone and cold...
Anyway, Dru puts the spear-lobbing serpentman out of commission, and a moment later, Di'Fier actually connects with his opponent, sending it to the ground as well. Dru climbs down and offers her partner some antitoxin, which he drinks...and promptly misses a Fort save of DC 12...with a +9 bonus. I thought my die was going to follow his!
At least he was lucky in the damage rolls. All told, he only lost 3 points of temporary Wisdom from that debacle. For the rest of the adventure, though, he was constantly seeing...things on the edge of his vision...crawling or swimming there...Dru mistakes this for simple alertness, and after helping him out of the pit, the pair proceeds down the secret tunnel.
Another secret door is found in the right-hand side of the tunnel. Opening it reveals a purple curtain, which Di'Fier pushes aside with his sword. It reveals a room with 4 large chests and a number of skeletons. They decide to leave it alone, and close the door.
Meanwhile, Tas still waits for Dru and Di'Fier, back at the inn.
Farther down, the corridor opens up into a cave, with a black subterranean lake lapping at one end of it. Refuse and bones are scattered about, and Dru once again finds a secret door. This one is considerably more interesting. It looks on a pillared temple, and standing there are two acolytes...and Milos!
"The degenerates haven't reported back yet," Milos says. "Go see what's happening." One of the acolytes heads out of the room.
Reasoning that there's no time like the present, they prepare an assault. Dru takes aim with her bow as Di'Fier readies his wand, and as one they loose their missiles. Dru's takes Milos in the gut (hooray sneak attack), while Di'Fier's wand seems to be losing its kick as it merely scorches the acolyte lightly. Combat begins in earnest.
Di'Fier launches another missile - this time at Milos - to slightly greater effect, but the acolyte has spotted where the barrage is coming from now, and he fires his crossbow - a miss - while shouting for the other acolyte. Dru looses another arrow at the stunned Milos, and it too sinks deep into his flesh. He's still up, which surprises our heroes. Milos screeches out some words in a language that neither watchman recognizes, and the arrows are forced out of his flesh to clatter on the floor as the wounds heal.
Di'Fier sends a third bolt of energy at Milos, while dodging crossbow fire from the acolyte. His partner bursts back through the door, looking about wildly. Dru's luck with the bow runs out now that she's not making sneak attacks, and she misses.
Milos spits another incantation, and Dru feels her limbs start to freeze - but she fights off the spell thanks to her elven blood.
Di'Fier abandons the magic missile-ing and charges Milos with his sword, slashing the man. The acolyte abandons his crossbow and pulls a mace, rattling Di'Fier with a blow to the shoulder. The other attendant shoots at Dru, but misses...as does Dru's return shot. Milos attempts to cause fear on Di'Fier, but the combat raging around him distracts the man, and the spell dissipates harmlessly.
Di'Fier's next blow slices only empty air, and the acolyte shouts out: "In the name of the Unspeakable One!" Some force seems to guide his hand and lend power to his arm, because the mace smashes into Di'Fier with great force, staggering the guardsman. The other acolyte fires again at Dru, and misses. Dru drops her bow and draws her sword as she tumbles past the combat, coming up behind Milos to slash his kidneys deeply. Milos turns, and calls on the Unspeakable One...and the blow he deals is far more severe than that of a mere acolyte.
Di'Fier adopts a different stance, trading accuracy for defense. Somehow this translates into an ability to actually hit what he is aiming at, and Milos takes another swordblow. The first acolyte's mace is parried, and the second smashes bodily into Dru, knocking her back and away from her flanking position on Milos. Dru doesn't even manage to land a blow on him. Milos begs the Unspeakable One to lay a doom on Di'Fier, but the guardsman resists.
Resists? You wouldn't know it, though, the way his next strike went awry. Still, his defense keeps the acolyte from braining him with a mace, and the other acolyte has no better luck in slipping past Dru's defense. On the other hand, Dru's strike skitters off of the acolyte's scale mail. Milos concentrates, and his form swells as he takes on the semblance of a massive ogre.
Di'Fier moves away from the nice big ogre, putting the acolyte between him and it, and even manages to land a blow on the cleric in training - which is better than his opponent can say. In fact, it's better than anyone else can say, as everyone else misses (including Milos the Ogre, who reaches over his acolyte to try to stab Di'Fier).
Now that he's realized the ogre's reach, Di'Fier gets nervous. He dodges and incants, and casts his disappear spell. This spell makes you invisible...for 2 rounds. After casting he gets the heck out of the way, lining up for a desperate charge at the Milos-ogre. Meanwhile, the acolyte swings through empty air where Di'Fier was before he vanished, the other acolyte misses Dru, and Dru chugs a healing potion, nimbly evading the attacks of both Milos and acolyte. Until Milos takes a second try, and whacks her a good one with his spear, that is.
Suddenly, Milos staggers, and Di'Fier fades back into visibility with his sword impaled through the ogre-cleric-whatever. As the ex-Milos slumps off of his blade, the shape changes...but not back into Milos. No, the shape the corpse assumes is altogether more serpentine than that. Di'Fier stares a bit too long, and one of the acolytes smacks him upside the head, sending him bleeding into unconsciousness. Dru runs him through just a moment too late.
Still, Dru makes short work of the one remaining acolyte, and pours a healing potion down Di'Fier's throat, bringing him coughing and spluttering back to the land of the living. They grab Milos' corpse and stagger back into the secret passage, heading for the stairs out.
In the inn, Tas tries to get the bartender to put his drinks on Dru and Di'Fier's tab.
Later, at the Temple of Knowledge, Dru dumps the serpentine corpse in front of poor Norton, and demands to see the high priest.
"He-he's not in," stammers Norton.
"Well, who's in charge?" snaps Dru.
Di'Fier has a stroke of inspiration. "Is Milos here?"
"No..."
"Think again," mutters Dru, kicking the corpse.
Just then Egil shows up. "What's happened?" he asks. They explain what they found, and he's distraught. "You didn't find Lucius? He must be there, we've got to go back, he may still be in danger!" He heals the pair before they return to the underground temple, though.
This time they explore some of the other doors. One leads to an octagonal room with a circular depression, and a table containing candelabras, incense, and a gong. They leave it alone.
The next is the skeleton room they saw earlier...only this time, the skeletons come after the trio. A skeleton claws at Di'Fier, who opened the door, but misses. Di'Fier slams the door in its face, and backs away. A second skeleton opens the door again, just in time to be doused with holy water by Dru. More begin to crowd out, one missing Dru, and then Egil fumbles his holy symbol into the light and cries out, "In the name of Kherarditinos, return to your graves!" The wave of holy energy that sweeps over the skeletons blasts them to blackened bits of bone. Egil looks stunned. "I've never done that before..." he says.
"Have you considered joining the guard?" Dru asks dryly.
They drag the chests out into the open and explore one more door - a library, it seems, which is the perfect place to confine a librarian. And indeed, Lucius is there. After freeing him and his tearful reunion with Egil, the foursome heads to the surface dragging the chests of treasure. Di'Fier's raven is sent to fetch his father and a wagon, and they have a seat on the treasure chests to talk.
Lucius, apparently, was possessed by a creature from another plane. While that creature was in his body, Lucius wandered its home plane - the source of his bizarre dreams. Milos found out about the situation, and wanted to wring whatever secrets of the planes he could from the librarian, but his memories were faded and blurred. Even torture did not sharpen them, and if the guardsmen hadn't found him when they did, Milos would surely have killed Lucius out of sheer frustration.
But Di'Fier has an even more important question:
"Did you ever get the turnips?"
The answer, sadly, was "no."
Dru and Di'Fier head to the house - it's a ramshackle place with the windows bricked up. The lock on the door is of suspiciously high quality for such a run-down house, though, and it easily defeats Dru's fumbling attempts with a lockpick.
She and Di'Fier both bounce off of it separately, trying to knock it open, and apparently trusting their guard badges to make people mind their own damn business. Only by working together does the duo manage to knock the door in to find...
...a trashed, crummy house. What a hole! They can't believe that any self-respecting mysterious brotherhood would meet in a place like this. On the other hand, there is a trapdoor in the back. Opening it reveals a staircase down to a wine cellar, where nine enormous casks of wine line the walls. Some have liquid, others are hollow, and Dru discerns a secret catch along the side of one.
(Remember that bell and the silver wire? Well if you've scoured your Player's Handbook you know that they're the material components for the Alarm spell. Dru and Di'Fier didn't, and they didn't realize that the spell had been placed on the secret entrance...)
"I hate going underground," Dru sighs.
"It could be worse. it could be the sewers."
"...thank you, Di'Fier."
Meanwhile, back at the inn, Tas shows up and begins waiting for Dru and Di'Fier.
Anyway, it's into the secret passage, down deeper below Freeport, and the corridor turns a corner to reveal that they are at the base of a 'T' intersection. There's a door right across from them, in the middle of the crossbar of the "T", and Dru heads for it...then suddenly vanishes! There's a thump and plenty of cursing, and Di'Fier approaches the pit more cautiously.
He lays down on the ground, and extends the scabbard of his bastard sword down to reach Dru. From her vantage point, she gets a great view of the creature looming behind her partner, and she shouts a warning. Di'Fier manages to roll to the side just quickly enough to avoid the spear thrust!
The creature is man-tall, but it is no man. It's covered in scales, with a serpentine head and a narrow tail lashing in the dust behind it. It raises its spear for another strike, and this time Di'Fier is not fast enough - it clips him. Di'Fier rolls to his feet and swings wildly at the creature, but the glancing blow is deflected by the thing's scales...and now he can see that it is not alone. Four more are emerging from a secret door in the wall behind it. Fortunately, they all miss the guardsman. Dru drinks her potion of spider climb and heads up the wall to get in a better sniping position.
Again the serpent-men attack Di'Fier, and again only the first one is able to hit him. Di'Fier tries to cast a mage armor spell as he ducks and weaves, but his dodging causes the spell to go awry, and his primary protection is gone. Maybe he'll learn to cast it before a fight next time...
Again the first serpentman's spear strikes Di'Fier, and he's looking pretty ragged. He spins and tries to leap across the pit. Unfortunately, he falls far short of the far side, and lands with a thump. Still, he's away from the enemy (for now), so he's able to pull out a potion of cure light wounds and heal himself for a bit. One of the serpentmen tries to follow him into the pit, but it lands even more poorly than Di'Fier did, and winds up breaking its neck. Two of its comrades run around the edges of the pit to go after Dru, and the last just chucks its spear at Di'Fier, missing. Dru responds by running along the ceiling to hang above the pit, where the serpentmen can't get her, and then picks another off with her bow.
The first serpentman proves that his good luck only seems to extend to melee combat, as his spear misses Di'Fier. Di'Fier pulls out his trusty wand of magic missiles and sends an energy bolt into one of the creatures, blasting a smoking hole in its chest. Another of the serpentmen goes into the pit after Di'Fier, this time climbing down, and then lunging forward to bite the guardsman. He fails his save and begins to hallucinate just a bit as his Wisdom is drained. Dru's shot goes awry.
The first snakeman picks up a fallen spear and lobs it at Dru, but she easily dodges. Di'Fier takes a swing with his sword and misses, the serpentman bites him again, and again he fails his save.
It is at this point that Di'Fier's player (hi John) got fed up with his d20. He walked over to the front door, opened it, stepped out on the porch, and lobbed it into the darkness. It's still out there somewhere. Poor little die, alone and cold...
Anyway, Dru puts the spear-lobbing serpentman out of commission, and a moment later, Di'Fier actually connects with his opponent, sending it to the ground as well. Dru climbs down and offers her partner some antitoxin, which he drinks...and promptly misses a Fort save of DC 12...with a +9 bonus. I thought my die was going to follow his!
At least he was lucky in the damage rolls. All told, he only lost 3 points of temporary Wisdom from that debacle. For the rest of the adventure, though, he was constantly seeing...things on the edge of his vision...crawling or swimming there...Dru mistakes this for simple alertness, and after helping him out of the pit, the pair proceeds down the secret tunnel.
Another secret door is found in the right-hand side of the tunnel. Opening it reveals a purple curtain, which Di'Fier pushes aside with his sword. It reveals a room with 4 large chests and a number of skeletons. They decide to leave it alone, and close the door.
Meanwhile, Tas still waits for Dru and Di'Fier, back at the inn.
Farther down, the corridor opens up into a cave, with a black subterranean lake lapping at one end of it. Refuse and bones are scattered about, and Dru once again finds a secret door. This one is considerably more interesting. It looks on a pillared temple, and standing there are two acolytes...and Milos!
"The degenerates haven't reported back yet," Milos says. "Go see what's happening." One of the acolytes heads out of the room.
Reasoning that there's no time like the present, they prepare an assault. Dru takes aim with her bow as Di'Fier readies his wand, and as one they loose their missiles. Dru's takes Milos in the gut (hooray sneak attack), while Di'Fier's wand seems to be losing its kick as it merely scorches the acolyte lightly. Combat begins in earnest.
Di'Fier launches another missile - this time at Milos - to slightly greater effect, but the acolyte has spotted where the barrage is coming from now, and he fires his crossbow - a miss - while shouting for the other acolyte. Dru looses another arrow at the stunned Milos, and it too sinks deep into his flesh. He's still up, which surprises our heroes. Milos screeches out some words in a language that neither watchman recognizes, and the arrows are forced out of his flesh to clatter on the floor as the wounds heal.
Di'Fier sends a third bolt of energy at Milos, while dodging crossbow fire from the acolyte. His partner bursts back through the door, looking about wildly. Dru's luck with the bow runs out now that she's not making sneak attacks, and she misses.
Milos spits another incantation, and Dru feels her limbs start to freeze - but she fights off the spell thanks to her elven blood.
Di'Fier abandons the magic missile-ing and charges Milos with his sword, slashing the man. The acolyte abandons his crossbow and pulls a mace, rattling Di'Fier with a blow to the shoulder. The other attendant shoots at Dru, but misses...as does Dru's return shot. Milos attempts to cause fear on Di'Fier, but the combat raging around him distracts the man, and the spell dissipates harmlessly.
Di'Fier's next blow slices only empty air, and the acolyte shouts out: "In the name of the Unspeakable One!" Some force seems to guide his hand and lend power to his arm, because the mace smashes into Di'Fier with great force, staggering the guardsman. The other acolyte fires again at Dru, and misses. Dru drops her bow and draws her sword as she tumbles past the combat, coming up behind Milos to slash his kidneys deeply. Milos turns, and calls on the Unspeakable One...and the blow he deals is far more severe than that of a mere acolyte.
Di'Fier adopts a different stance, trading accuracy for defense. Somehow this translates into an ability to actually hit what he is aiming at, and Milos takes another swordblow. The first acolyte's mace is parried, and the second smashes bodily into Dru, knocking her back and away from her flanking position on Milos. Dru doesn't even manage to land a blow on him. Milos begs the Unspeakable One to lay a doom on Di'Fier, but the guardsman resists.
Resists? You wouldn't know it, though, the way his next strike went awry. Still, his defense keeps the acolyte from braining him with a mace, and the other acolyte has no better luck in slipping past Dru's defense. On the other hand, Dru's strike skitters off of the acolyte's scale mail. Milos concentrates, and his form swells as he takes on the semblance of a massive ogre.
Di'Fier moves away from the nice big ogre, putting the acolyte between him and it, and even manages to land a blow on the cleric in training - which is better than his opponent can say. In fact, it's better than anyone else can say, as everyone else misses (including Milos the Ogre, who reaches over his acolyte to try to stab Di'Fier).
Now that he's realized the ogre's reach, Di'Fier gets nervous. He dodges and incants, and casts his disappear spell. This spell makes you invisible...for 2 rounds. After casting he gets the heck out of the way, lining up for a desperate charge at the Milos-ogre. Meanwhile, the acolyte swings through empty air where Di'Fier was before he vanished, the other acolyte misses Dru, and Dru chugs a healing potion, nimbly evading the attacks of both Milos and acolyte. Until Milos takes a second try, and whacks her a good one with his spear, that is.
Suddenly, Milos staggers, and Di'Fier fades back into visibility with his sword impaled through the ogre-cleric-whatever. As the ex-Milos slumps off of his blade, the shape changes...but not back into Milos. No, the shape the corpse assumes is altogether more serpentine than that. Di'Fier stares a bit too long, and one of the acolytes smacks him upside the head, sending him bleeding into unconsciousness. Dru runs him through just a moment too late.
Still, Dru makes short work of the one remaining acolyte, and pours a healing potion down Di'Fier's throat, bringing him coughing and spluttering back to the land of the living. They grab Milos' corpse and stagger back into the secret passage, heading for the stairs out.
In the inn, Tas tries to get the bartender to put his drinks on Dru and Di'Fier's tab.
Later, at the Temple of Knowledge, Dru dumps the serpentine corpse in front of poor Norton, and demands to see the high priest.
"He-he's not in," stammers Norton.
"Well, who's in charge?" snaps Dru.
Di'Fier has a stroke of inspiration. "Is Milos here?"
"No..."
"Think again," mutters Dru, kicking the corpse.
Just then Egil shows up. "What's happened?" he asks. They explain what they found, and he's distraught. "You didn't find Lucius? He must be there, we've got to go back, he may still be in danger!" He heals the pair before they return to the underground temple, though.
This time they explore some of the other doors. One leads to an octagonal room with a circular depression, and a table containing candelabras, incense, and a gong. They leave it alone.
The next is the skeleton room they saw earlier...only this time, the skeletons come after the trio. A skeleton claws at Di'Fier, who opened the door, but misses. Di'Fier slams the door in its face, and backs away. A second skeleton opens the door again, just in time to be doused with holy water by Dru. More begin to crowd out, one missing Dru, and then Egil fumbles his holy symbol into the light and cries out, "In the name of Kherarditinos, return to your graves!" The wave of holy energy that sweeps over the skeletons blasts them to blackened bits of bone. Egil looks stunned. "I've never done that before..." he says.
"Have you considered joining the guard?" Dru asks dryly.
They drag the chests out into the open and explore one more door - a library, it seems, which is the perfect place to confine a librarian. And indeed, Lucius is there. After freeing him and his tearful reunion with Egil, the foursome heads to the surface dragging the chests of treasure. Di'Fier's raven is sent to fetch his father and a wagon, and they have a seat on the treasure chests to talk.
Lucius, apparently, was possessed by a creature from another plane. While that creature was in his body, Lucius wandered its home plane - the source of his bizarre dreams. Milos found out about the situation, and wanted to wring whatever secrets of the planes he could from the librarian, but his memories were faded and blurred. Even torture did not sharpen them, and if the guardsmen hadn't found him when they did, Milos would surely have killed Lucius out of sheer frustration.
But Di'Fier has an even more important question:
"Did you ever get the turnips?"
The answer, sadly, was "no."