Silver Moon
Adventurer
Chapter Thirty-eight, “Tunnel Battle“ , August 9th, 1018, 8:00 A,M.
Back at the peninsula by the harbor, Immy investigates the tower, hearing two male voices in the room at the top. He decides to return to the tavern, the hike back taking him nearly two hours due to the weather.
At Fiona’s house, the group of Aradyn, Blake, Blip, Cassie, Fiona, Fiona Sea Castle, Freyland, Guice, Isaiah, Jaime, Jerry, Kharole, Kruk, Lannon, Lono, Luekia, Mark, Mojo, Narg, Razou, Timothy & Vincenzo decide to head to the cave tunnel to the city, to set up an ambush for the enemies. They head off, traveling on foot to the cave entrance, and make their way to a central point in the tunnel.
Luekia is given one of each of the blue, red, turquoise, and pink colored flares, and continues on towards the city. Upon reaching the city she starts moving around the city, launching flares from different spots. She sends up the four flares, included both the turquoise and red squadrons. Unfortunately this does not occur until after the enemies have already entered the cave, who therefore are unaware that their teams have now officially surrendered. One positive consequence of this action, is that it gets Serita's attention, who flies out into the city to find out what is going on (still in Faerie Dragon form). She soon runs into Luekia, and the two of them exchange information (which goes by really fast, as both characters belong to the same player so the DM does not require her to talk to herself).
The monsters begin moving through the cave in six groups of approximately ten-to-twelve per group; each group spaced about 100 feet apart from the next. The party waits until the first group has passed a cave where most of the thieves are hiding, and are between two caves with groups of primarily fighters before they let lose with a pair of fireballs into the first set of monsters.
The fireballs drop all of the hobgoblins with this group, and the group's leader, the armored centaur, rides back to the next group of monsters, which is comprised of bugbears. Again, a party fireball hits part of this group, dropping most of them. The armored centaur survives, but is seriously wounded. The only surviving bugbear, apparently this group's leader, starts to help the centaur back. Blake moves forward with his Boots of Speed, and backstabs the centaur, killing him. The bugbear starts to retreat, but Blake manages to drop him.
Lannon then sees the next group of monsters, comprised of the elephant footed giants and the enemy female mage Gina, who all start to rush forward. Lannon decides that taking them on alone probably is not the best strategy, and lets loose one of his lime green signal flares into them. This has the desired effect, striking one giant in the center of his chest and dropping him, with the fireworks raining down upon all of the rest. Lannon and Blake manage to dodge a few stray fireworks that make their way back to where he is standing. The party moves forward, seeing that the group of giants is retreating, with two helping the severely wounded one along.
The monsters are soon out of sight. Narg curses that the ambush did not work as expected, as the others are getting away. It is pointed out that the party could still teleport, and meet them at the cave mouth. "Great, hurry up" says Narg, as they fill the two bags of holding with those closest to him, comprised of primarily of fighters and mages of the party, namely Aradyn, Cassie, Fiona, Fiona Sea Castle, Freyland, Guice, Jaime, Jerry, Kharole, Kruk, Mark, Mojo, Narg, & Timothy. They leave behind most of the clerics and thieves to "clean up", namely Blake, Blip, Isaiah, Lannon, Lono, Razou, & Vincenzo. Luekia and Serita soon join the "clean up" crew.
The forward group sets up by a turn in the cave about two hundred feet into the cave, and wait. They do not have to wait long until the first group of retreating enemies arrive, consisting of bugbears. Rather than attack at a distance, the party hides and wait for the enemy to reach them and engage in melee, which takes longer than anyone would have anticipated, but proves successful, without any party casualties. As the last bugbears fall, the next enemy group, comprised of elephant-footed giants, reaches them. The fighters again enter into melee, with only minor spell-caster support, as they are saving their main spells for the enemy adventurers.
Aradyn and Mojo both discover the hard way that being kicked by elephant-style feet is not pleasant, as they are sent sailing back into the tunnel wall. The others intensify their attacks, being careful to avoid being kicked or stepped on. It takes a while, but the giants fall, and no more enemies are encountered. The party realizes that they still have not engaged the enemy adventurers, or encountered the other group of giants that Lannon wounded with the flare, and that these enemies are sandwiched between the two groups. They cautiously proceed forward through the caves.
A third of a mile further back in the tunnel, the others are less-cautiously making their way towards through the caves, trying to catch up with the others, with Lono and Lannon making disparaging remarks about being left behind. This makes them "sitting ducks" for a fifty-four-point fireball, which strikes and cuts down several of them, including Blip, Lannon, Isaiah, Lono and Razou.
Most make their saves, with Lono reduced to the negatives, but soon brought back up by Vincenzo, who comments about having missed a fireball for a change. Serita and Blip managed to keep the enemy mage at bay, with him retreating down a side passageway. Vincenzo checks Razou, reporting the sad news to the party that he is dead.
Meanwhile, outside on the mountain around a quarter mile to the east, a pair of enemies choose not to enter the cave with the others. They instead had reach what they hope to be a place of safety to wait out the storm in, namely a cave entrance into the side of the mountain. This cave turns out to be Lannon's home, and he had trapped it against intrusion prior to heading off to the Cantage Lordholding the previous week.
The two enemy fighters make their way in, encountering traps at each doorway along the way. By the time they reach the first large room, which is actually only his front hallway, they have each taken about twenty points of damage. Although this room has doors going further into the building, the two evaluate that since they are now out of the direct path of storm and now in a room with chairs, a fireplace and pile of dry firewood that this is as far as they are willing to go.
Back in the tunnel, the forward party reaches a group of fourteen bugbears. They are armed with twelve-foot long spears, and use the narrow confines of the tunnel to their advantage by establishing tight formation projecting outward a wall of spears. Rather than letting one of the spellcasters take care of this. Narg further exhibits his low wisdom by mounting a charge, with several of his fighter comrades following right behind. A rather lengthy battle follows, as the spear wall is not easily penetrated, and whenever a break in the wall appears it is quickly filled in by the bugbear behind. Lannon’s player, a highland games participant, makes a comment "where did bugbears learn Scottish battle tactics?". The DM replies "Some of them must have listened to your demo at the last highland games."
Only about half of the bugbears have been defeated when the next group of enemies arrive, comprised of the wounded group of giants and two enemy adventurers. The party spellcasters let loose multiple fireballs into the giants once they are in range, as Narg organizes his fighters into a screaming charge. The first of the giants reach the remaining bugbears, who all move aside, willing to oblige in moving out of the way to the side wall to let the giants pass.
The fighters engage the giants in hand-to-hand combat, supported by arrow fire from Aradyn and Jaime. Mojo and Kruk discover that the giants make great targets for their hammers. One enemy adventurer and the most wounded giants are brought down by the next fireball, a twelve-dice blast from Cassie's crown. The forward human enemy, apparently a cleric, casts a hold person spell that freezes Timothy and Fiona Sea Castle, but the others soon break them free. Narg reaches the cleric, and knocks him unconscious. The six bugbears along the wall do not hesitate to surrender.
A quarter-of a mile away in the tunnel, the other group is ambushed by the other high-level enemy mage, who tosses a lightning bolt that strikes Lannon and Vincenzo, who both make their saves. Lannon, Lono and Serita charge at him, running into a Wall of Force that had been thrown up by a wand held by the enemy low-level mage Gina (who, in spite of being only fourth level, is now engaging the party in battle for the third time). Blake is the only member of the party trapped on the enemy side of the Wall of Force, as he had been invisibly scouting ahead. He moves towards the Mage.
Having just seen two previously invisible enemies appear after casting magic at them, Blip decides to use her Detect Invisibility spell to check for more. This move immediately earns her the "Most Valuable Player" award for the night, as the other invisible mage had made his way past Vincenzo, and was moving into position to throw another fourteen-dice fireball into the group comprised of Blip, Isaiah, Lannon, Lono, Luekia and Serita. This would have probably killed at least three of them. Blip lets loose missiles into this mage, striking him, and giving Vincenzo a general direction in which to cast a Dispel Magic spell. The enemy mage has a Haste spell going, and is able to get out the range of Vincenzo's spell, and heads back down the side passageway he had come out from.
While this is going on, Blake attempts to backstab the mage, and misses, becoming visible. He manages to get invisible again, and apparently neither mage have Detect Invisibility with them, so don't know exactly where the halfling went to. They move in close, using the wall of force to protect their backs.
Blake moves in again to attack. Blake manages to strike the mage, becoming visible again. Blip looks back over, and yells out a warning to Blake of an invisible swordsman who is about to attack him, the warning being enough for him to duck and miss the attack, Blake moves back. The lead mage gathers his allies around, and the three then teleport away. Blip cannot detect any more foes, so the party decides to set up guard by the passageway that the other mage had gone down until the others arrive, as the distant battle noises have ceased.
The others soon arrive, for a reunited party. Narg and Mojo lead a group down this passageway after the mage. They see him in the distance, and start to charge at him, becoming recipients to another massive fireball of his. As this does not stop them, the mage panics and teleports away.
A debate ensues as to whether or not to resurrect Razou. The group has significant concerns that, since his religion considers death final, he would be opposed to this, and might commit suicide if they did bring him back. Lannon suggests that “We should just do it, he probably won’t know anyway.” Narg interjects “Of course he won’t, he’s human, they’re dumb as bricks…” then noticing the looks angry looks he is getting from the humans around him, amends the comment to “I mean only the humans who are high on drugs, really, I did.” Serita adds “Narg, your eight wisdom is showing again.”
They suggest maybe asking Razou Sea Castle what they should do about Razou. Fiona Sea Castle expresses her desire for the party to not tell her Razou anything. She goes on to explain how her Razou has a theory, that by them being present on the world it will bring about the death of their counterparts, as the same person cannot exist somewhere twice. She points out that since their arrival both the Flashis and Milo of this world had each once died, and now Razou, so this would further support his theory, which she does not necessarily agree with.
The group heads through the tunnels towards the city. The lake and marsh have overflowed their banks, with several inches of water now covering the eastern third of the city. The group realizes that if the rising water hits Alton’s house, with its permanent electric lines to the planet’s core, the electricity would probably electrocute those in the city. They head immediately to the southern building where Alton, Dennismore and Vallessa are being held.
The group undertakes negotiations with the enemy leader Barthrock. First they try to convince him to let all hostages go, referencing all of the flares that were sent up. Barthrock points out that the White team's flare still has not gone up yet. Narg and Serita tell him of defeating most of the White team in the cave on Southpoint Island. "Most isn't all. Until that while flare goes up, we still hold the hostages." They then make an appeal for him to at least release Alton, by explaining the danger from the electricity at Alton’s home, which only he knows how to shut down.
After conferring with his colleagues, Barthrock agrees to a prisoner exchange, with Jerry agreeing to take Alton’s place. Alton is carried out, and given a Neutralize Poison to bring him back to consciousness. After being unconscious for four days, he is rather incoherent. Narg says, “Let me talk to him, I speak hangover.”. Cassie points out that Alton's problem is actually the exact opposite, as he has had no booze or drugs in his system in four days, and that spell would have negated any remaining effects from before. His system is therefore "clean" for the first time in decades, which is throwing him off. Fortunately, they know where a fridge full of cold beer is to soon solve this problem.
Once back at Alton’s home, and after he gets some food and beverage into him, they explain the situation. He says he has actually never bothered to figure out where the electricity power source was but should be able to figure it out. He boots up the computer, and begins to look for information about the power supply for his building. [Editors Note: You can tell that we’re now in the “information age” when one of the main action points for the climax of an epic module involves medieval fantasy characters using a computer search engine to solve their problems.]
The search results in blueprints of his house, showing the power junction box located below a floorboard near the central support beam. A quick search reveals the specific board, which has been nailed down. Using their thieves' tools, Blake and Lannon soon have the nails out and remove the board. Alton identifies four labeled power switches. Two are labeled 110 and 220, and are in the “on” position. He accurately concludes that the 110 powers the computer and small appliances, with the 220 powering the fridge. He shuts them off, and then shuts down the main power switch circuit leading to the junction box.
Cassie asks Alton about the other two switches that were in the “off” position. He tells her that one is labeled “440”, probably to power some futuristic appliance of Vaughn, and that the final was labeled “816,000”, most likely for powering Vaughn’s space ship. Alton advises the party to “Never touch that one.”
Back at the peninsula by the harbor, Immy investigates the tower, hearing two male voices in the room at the top. He decides to return to the tavern, the hike back taking him nearly two hours due to the weather.
At Fiona’s house, the group of Aradyn, Blake, Blip, Cassie, Fiona, Fiona Sea Castle, Freyland, Guice, Isaiah, Jaime, Jerry, Kharole, Kruk, Lannon, Lono, Luekia, Mark, Mojo, Narg, Razou, Timothy & Vincenzo decide to head to the cave tunnel to the city, to set up an ambush for the enemies. They head off, traveling on foot to the cave entrance, and make their way to a central point in the tunnel.
Luekia is given one of each of the blue, red, turquoise, and pink colored flares, and continues on towards the city. Upon reaching the city she starts moving around the city, launching flares from different spots. She sends up the four flares, included both the turquoise and red squadrons. Unfortunately this does not occur until after the enemies have already entered the cave, who therefore are unaware that their teams have now officially surrendered. One positive consequence of this action, is that it gets Serita's attention, who flies out into the city to find out what is going on (still in Faerie Dragon form). She soon runs into Luekia, and the two of them exchange information (which goes by really fast, as both characters belong to the same player so the DM does not require her to talk to herself).
The monsters begin moving through the cave in six groups of approximately ten-to-twelve per group; each group spaced about 100 feet apart from the next. The party waits until the first group has passed a cave where most of the thieves are hiding, and are between two caves with groups of primarily fighters before they let lose with a pair of fireballs into the first set of monsters.
The fireballs drop all of the hobgoblins with this group, and the group's leader, the armored centaur, rides back to the next group of monsters, which is comprised of bugbears. Again, a party fireball hits part of this group, dropping most of them. The armored centaur survives, but is seriously wounded. The only surviving bugbear, apparently this group's leader, starts to help the centaur back. Blake moves forward with his Boots of Speed, and backstabs the centaur, killing him. The bugbear starts to retreat, but Blake manages to drop him.
Lannon then sees the next group of monsters, comprised of the elephant footed giants and the enemy female mage Gina, who all start to rush forward. Lannon decides that taking them on alone probably is not the best strategy, and lets loose one of his lime green signal flares into them. This has the desired effect, striking one giant in the center of his chest and dropping him, with the fireworks raining down upon all of the rest. Lannon and Blake manage to dodge a few stray fireworks that make their way back to where he is standing. The party moves forward, seeing that the group of giants is retreating, with two helping the severely wounded one along.
The monsters are soon out of sight. Narg curses that the ambush did not work as expected, as the others are getting away. It is pointed out that the party could still teleport, and meet them at the cave mouth. "Great, hurry up" says Narg, as they fill the two bags of holding with those closest to him, comprised of primarily of fighters and mages of the party, namely Aradyn, Cassie, Fiona, Fiona Sea Castle, Freyland, Guice, Jaime, Jerry, Kharole, Kruk, Mark, Mojo, Narg, & Timothy. They leave behind most of the clerics and thieves to "clean up", namely Blake, Blip, Isaiah, Lannon, Lono, Razou, & Vincenzo. Luekia and Serita soon join the "clean up" crew.
The forward group sets up by a turn in the cave about two hundred feet into the cave, and wait. They do not have to wait long until the first group of retreating enemies arrive, consisting of bugbears. Rather than attack at a distance, the party hides and wait for the enemy to reach them and engage in melee, which takes longer than anyone would have anticipated, but proves successful, without any party casualties. As the last bugbears fall, the next enemy group, comprised of elephant-footed giants, reaches them. The fighters again enter into melee, with only minor spell-caster support, as they are saving their main spells for the enemy adventurers.
Aradyn and Mojo both discover the hard way that being kicked by elephant-style feet is not pleasant, as they are sent sailing back into the tunnel wall. The others intensify their attacks, being careful to avoid being kicked or stepped on. It takes a while, but the giants fall, and no more enemies are encountered. The party realizes that they still have not engaged the enemy adventurers, or encountered the other group of giants that Lannon wounded with the flare, and that these enemies are sandwiched between the two groups. They cautiously proceed forward through the caves.
A third of a mile further back in the tunnel, the others are less-cautiously making their way towards through the caves, trying to catch up with the others, with Lono and Lannon making disparaging remarks about being left behind. This makes them "sitting ducks" for a fifty-four-point fireball, which strikes and cuts down several of them, including Blip, Lannon, Isaiah, Lono and Razou.
Most make their saves, with Lono reduced to the negatives, but soon brought back up by Vincenzo, who comments about having missed a fireball for a change. Serita and Blip managed to keep the enemy mage at bay, with him retreating down a side passageway. Vincenzo checks Razou, reporting the sad news to the party that he is dead.
Meanwhile, outside on the mountain around a quarter mile to the east, a pair of enemies choose not to enter the cave with the others. They instead had reach what they hope to be a place of safety to wait out the storm in, namely a cave entrance into the side of the mountain. This cave turns out to be Lannon's home, and he had trapped it against intrusion prior to heading off to the Cantage Lordholding the previous week.
The two enemy fighters make their way in, encountering traps at each doorway along the way. By the time they reach the first large room, which is actually only his front hallway, they have each taken about twenty points of damage. Although this room has doors going further into the building, the two evaluate that since they are now out of the direct path of storm and now in a room with chairs, a fireplace and pile of dry firewood that this is as far as they are willing to go.
Back in the tunnel, the forward party reaches a group of fourteen bugbears. They are armed with twelve-foot long spears, and use the narrow confines of the tunnel to their advantage by establishing tight formation projecting outward a wall of spears. Rather than letting one of the spellcasters take care of this. Narg further exhibits his low wisdom by mounting a charge, with several of his fighter comrades following right behind. A rather lengthy battle follows, as the spear wall is not easily penetrated, and whenever a break in the wall appears it is quickly filled in by the bugbear behind. Lannon’s player, a highland games participant, makes a comment "where did bugbears learn Scottish battle tactics?". The DM replies "Some of them must have listened to your demo at the last highland games."
Only about half of the bugbears have been defeated when the next group of enemies arrive, comprised of the wounded group of giants and two enemy adventurers. The party spellcasters let loose multiple fireballs into the giants once they are in range, as Narg organizes his fighters into a screaming charge. The first of the giants reach the remaining bugbears, who all move aside, willing to oblige in moving out of the way to the side wall to let the giants pass.
The fighters engage the giants in hand-to-hand combat, supported by arrow fire from Aradyn and Jaime. Mojo and Kruk discover that the giants make great targets for their hammers. One enemy adventurer and the most wounded giants are brought down by the next fireball, a twelve-dice blast from Cassie's crown. The forward human enemy, apparently a cleric, casts a hold person spell that freezes Timothy and Fiona Sea Castle, but the others soon break them free. Narg reaches the cleric, and knocks him unconscious. The six bugbears along the wall do not hesitate to surrender.
A quarter-of a mile away in the tunnel, the other group is ambushed by the other high-level enemy mage, who tosses a lightning bolt that strikes Lannon and Vincenzo, who both make their saves. Lannon, Lono and Serita charge at him, running into a Wall of Force that had been thrown up by a wand held by the enemy low-level mage Gina (who, in spite of being only fourth level, is now engaging the party in battle for the third time). Blake is the only member of the party trapped on the enemy side of the Wall of Force, as he had been invisibly scouting ahead. He moves towards the Mage.
Having just seen two previously invisible enemies appear after casting magic at them, Blip decides to use her Detect Invisibility spell to check for more. This move immediately earns her the "Most Valuable Player" award for the night, as the other invisible mage had made his way past Vincenzo, and was moving into position to throw another fourteen-dice fireball into the group comprised of Blip, Isaiah, Lannon, Lono, Luekia and Serita. This would have probably killed at least three of them. Blip lets loose missiles into this mage, striking him, and giving Vincenzo a general direction in which to cast a Dispel Magic spell. The enemy mage has a Haste spell going, and is able to get out the range of Vincenzo's spell, and heads back down the side passageway he had come out from.
While this is going on, Blake attempts to backstab the mage, and misses, becoming visible. He manages to get invisible again, and apparently neither mage have Detect Invisibility with them, so don't know exactly where the halfling went to. They move in close, using the wall of force to protect their backs.
Blake moves in again to attack. Blake manages to strike the mage, becoming visible again. Blip looks back over, and yells out a warning to Blake of an invisible swordsman who is about to attack him, the warning being enough for him to duck and miss the attack, Blake moves back. The lead mage gathers his allies around, and the three then teleport away. Blip cannot detect any more foes, so the party decides to set up guard by the passageway that the other mage had gone down until the others arrive, as the distant battle noises have ceased.
The others soon arrive, for a reunited party. Narg and Mojo lead a group down this passageway after the mage. They see him in the distance, and start to charge at him, becoming recipients to another massive fireball of his. As this does not stop them, the mage panics and teleports away.
A debate ensues as to whether or not to resurrect Razou. The group has significant concerns that, since his religion considers death final, he would be opposed to this, and might commit suicide if they did bring him back. Lannon suggests that “We should just do it, he probably won’t know anyway.” Narg interjects “Of course he won’t, he’s human, they’re dumb as bricks…” then noticing the looks angry looks he is getting from the humans around him, amends the comment to “I mean only the humans who are high on drugs, really, I did.” Serita adds “Narg, your eight wisdom is showing again.”
They suggest maybe asking Razou Sea Castle what they should do about Razou. Fiona Sea Castle expresses her desire for the party to not tell her Razou anything. She goes on to explain how her Razou has a theory, that by them being present on the world it will bring about the death of their counterparts, as the same person cannot exist somewhere twice. She points out that since their arrival both the Flashis and Milo of this world had each once died, and now Razou, so this would further support his theory, which she does not necessarily agree with.
The group heads through the tunnels towards the city. The lake and marsh have overflowed their banks, with several inches of water now covering the eastern third of the city. The group realizes that if the rising water hits Alton’s house, with its permanent electric lines to the planet’s core, the electricity would probably electrocute those in the city. They head immediately to the southern building where Alton, Dennismore and Vallessa are being held.
The group undertakes negotiations with the enemy leader Barthrock. First they try to convince him to let all hostages go, referencing all of the flares that were sent up. Barthrock points out that the White team's flare still has not gone up yet. Narg and Serita tell him of defeating most of the White team in the cave on Southpoint Island. "Most isn't all. Until that while flare goes up, we still hold the hostages." They then make an appeal for him to at least release Alton, by explaining the danger from the electricity at Alton’s home, which only he knows how to shut down.
After conferring with his colleagues, Barthrock agrees to a prisoner exchange, with Jerry agreeing to take Alton’s place. Alton is carried out, and given a Neutralize Poison to bring him back to consciousness. After being unconscious for four days, he is rather incoherent. Narg says, “Let me talk to him, I speak hangover.”. Cassie points out that Alton's problem is actually the exact opposite, as he has had no booze or drugs in his system in four days, and that spell would have negated any remaining effects from before. His system is therefore "clean" for the first time in decades, which is throwing him off. Fortunately, they know where a fridge full of cold beer is to soon solve this problem.
Once back at Alton’s home, and after he gets some food and beverage into him, they explain the situation. He says he has actually never bothered to figure out where the electricity power source was but should be able to figure it out. He boots up the computer, and begins to look for information about the power supply for his building. [Editors Note: You can tell that we’re now in the “information age” when one of the main action points for the climax of an epic module involves medieval fantasy characters using a computer search engine to solve their problems.]
The search results in blueprints of his house, showing the power junction box located below a floorboard near the central support beam. A quick search reveals the specific board, which has been nailed down. Using their thieves' tools, Blake and Lannon soon have the nails out and remove the board. Alton identifies four labeled power switches. Two are labeled 110 and 220, and are in the “on” position. He accurately concludes that the 110 powers the computer and small appliances, with the 220 powering the fridge. He shuts them off, and then shuts down the main power switch circuit leading to the junction box.
Cassie asks Alton about the other two switches that were in the “off” position. He tells her that one is labeled “440”, probably to power some futuristic appliance of Vaughn, and that the final was labeled “816,000”, most likely for powering Vaughn’s space ship. Alton advises the party to “Never touch that one.”
