seasong's Light Against The Dark (FEB 06)

Just wanted to apologize for the lack of an update this weekend. I'll try to have something by Tuesday, particularly concerning Hurath's Tower .

Its cool seasong. The story hour still rocks.

So when you updating that website?

I've actually got a website update ready to go, I'm just doing some last minute edits, and then I have to get home to upload it (no FTP from work). The update includes a batch of finished feats (including some class abilities, an orc drumming feat, and metamagic), and the background stuff I've been posting to this group.

Der Map

I'm writing up the PC's entry into Hurath's Tower. In the meantime, I thought you might like a map. I used Excel to construct it (cell width 5, cell height 35, autoshapes), so it's not gorgeous, but it should give a reasonable idea of where things are.

The PCs were familiar with the map going in, they just didn't know anything lurked inside...

edit: One square is 5 ft. Forgot to mention that.

edit: I originally wrote this as a kind of blow-by-blow. On re-reading it, it didn't work so good. Chalk it up to a learning experience. I've included the original text (in fine print) at the end, for historical purposes. The rewrite is the canon version, however.

Hurath's Tower

After returning to Theralis and confirming that their term of Service was over (and that the orcs had disappeared back into the wilderness, seemingly not to return), the three young adventurers-to-be planned their next steps.

Greppa was insistent that they visit his former master's tower, to (a) check if Hurath had returned or might have something that could be used to track him, and (b) grab as many spell books as the diminutive ellini could carry, so he could continue to study while adventuring. The others agreed, and they hiked a bit out of the city to the farms where the tower was.

Greppa checked with a few locals first, just to make sure they hadn't seen Hurath. They hadn't, but they seemed queasy about the tower in general, and muttered something about 'weirdling arcanists'. Greppa ignored their peasant superstitions, and the party marched on to the tower.

There was no smoke coming from the chimney.

-----

As soon as Greppa shifted the bolt back and opened the tower, he knew something was wrong. A faint scent of recently decayed meat wafted out, and the interior was almost completely dark. He swung the door open wider to let sun in, and Greppa's and Athan's eyes immediately fell upon the partially eaten sheep lying in the middle of the floor. A trail of cold, crusted blood from the door showed where it had been dragged.

Merideth's eyes didn't go to the sheep. They were attracted to eight red dots reflecting the outside light, glowing dimly beneath a table in the far left corner of the room. Silently, she pointed, and as Greppa and Athan spotted the eyes, it moved.

A man-sized spider, upside-down and mostly concealed beneath Hurath's thick oaken dining table, dropped to the floor and scurried across the room at the heroes.

Greppa responded the quickest, drawing an arcane circle and sigil, and practically shouting, "uil gan pothos mar!". The space in front of him seemed to snap into place as a weak extradimensional shield came into existence between Greppa and the spider.

The spider smacked into the shield, as more spiders scurried or dropped out of shadowed doors, corners and walls. Greppa's shield caused some to miss, but the majority managed to bite the heroes, and the doorway became an instant battle zone between fat spiders ranging from baby- to full man-sized, and the three youths.

One twenty pound bundle of malice, in particular, had managed to land on Greppa's neck, and he freaked out, running screaming out of the tower and trying to shake it off. Merideth, calm and professional, focused healing energy into him as he ran past her, although she could do nothing about the poison in his veins.

Then another one dropped on her neck, and all professionalism was lost, as she began to focus her life energies more malevolently... green energy crackled from her fingers, as she inflicted on the evil things.

Athan, meanwhile, was methodically killing spiders left and right, sweeping the business end of his spear through their organ-filled abdomens. Standing together, Athan and Merideth began killing.

Meanwhile, Greppa was trying everything short of setting himself on fire to get the baby-sized spider off his back. He evoked a candle-sized flame from the elemental plane of fire to scare the spider. It tried to bite his burning finger, and missed. He jumped around, trying to shake it off. It clung grimly on, and tried to bite, but missed. He tried to grab its fat, hairy body to fling it from himself. It tried to bite his hands, and missed.

It would have been amusing, if Greppa wasn't fighting for his life with a spider one fifth his mass.

Athan and Merideth, finished with the spiders at the door, finally ran up to him; Merideth knocked it off his back while Athan stabbed it. Greppa looked a bit embarrassed, but no one said anything.

Greppa and Merideth were both winded from spell casting, and Greppa was barely standing from the onslaught of the spiders' poisons. Athan had a few bites, but there was no swelling, and they looked fairly superficial.

They took a long look at the tower door, and the deep shadows within. "We're going to need torches," Greppa stated flatly.

And now... the original text.
After returning to Theralis and confirming that their term of Service was over (and that the orcs had disappeared back into the wilderness, seemingly not to return), the three young adventurers-to-be planned their next steps.

Greppa was insistent that they visit his former master's tower, to (a) check if Hurath had returned or might have something that could be used to track him, and (b) grab as many spell books as the diminutive ellini could carry, so he could continue to study while adventuring. The others agreed, and they hiked a bit out of the city to the farms where the tower was.

Greppa checked with a few locals first, just to make sure they hadn't seen Hurath. They hadn't, but they seemed queasy about the tower in general, and muttered something about 'weirdling arcanists'. Greppa ignored their peasant superstitions, and the party marched on to the tower.

There was no smoke coming from the chimney.

-----

As soon as Greppa shifted the bolt back and opened the tower, he knew something was wrong. A faint scent of recently decayed meat wafted out, and the interior was almost completely dark. He swung the door open wider to let sun in, and Greppa's and Athan's eyes immediately fell upon the partially eaten sheep lying in the middle of the floor. A trail of cold, crusted blood from the door showed where it had been dragged.

Merideth's eyes didn't go to the sheep. They were attracted to eight red dots reflecting the outside light, glowing dimly beneath a table in the far left corner of the room. Silently, she pointed, and as Greppa and Athan spotted the eyes, it moved.

A man-sized spider, upside-down and mostly concealed beneath Hurath's thick oaken dining table, dropped to the floor and scurried across the room at the heroes.

Greppa responded the quickest, drawing an arcane circle and sigil, and practically shouting, "uil gan pothos mar!". The space in front of him seemed to snap into place as a weak extradimensional shield came into existence between Greppa and the spider.

The spider smacked into the shield, as two smaller, twenty-pound spiders dropped from just above the door jamb onto Greppa and Athan's necks, biting and clinging. Athan grunted, but seemed unaffected; Greppa's limbs began to tingle and weaken, but he managed to remain standing.

Meanwhile, more spiders were pouring into the room. Two more man-sized spiders, one from the laboratory and one from the darkened ceiling, attacked. The lab spider bit Greppa (weakening him further) and the ceiling spider missed Merideth by a hair, dropping on the ground next to her and hissing ferociously. And a pair of the 20 pound spiders ran out of the toilet room, but did not get close enough to bite anyone immediately. Greppa was

Athan, only slightly freaked out, grabbed the spider on his neck and flung it across the room, snapping its thorax as he did so. Unfortunately, it survived the whipping motion, and caught itself handily on the wall.

Merideth, calmly and professionally focused her energies and healed Greppa of the vicious bite wounds, although she could do nothing about the poison.

Greppa, a lot freaked out, ran from the tower, flailing and trying to get the baby-sized spider off his back. It ran beneath his clothes, attempting to keep away from his flailing arms, and began attempting to bite him again, but was unable to keep still long enough with all of his jumping and dancing.

The small spider that Athan had flung retreated into the laboratory. The other two small spiders attempted to bite Athan, but failed to get his flesh. The man-sized spider from beneath the table also failed to bite Athan, as he swept his spear about to keep them at bay, and looked for a good shot.

The ceiling spider finally bit Merideth, gaining her immediate attention. No poison was injected, but her professional demeanor began to crack.

And the man-sized laboratory spider failed to bite anything, as it tripped over its comrades.

A dozen seconds had passed, and the spiders were rapidly losing the advantage of surprise.

Athan and Merideth stood together, and began killing. Athan stabbed the laboratory spider, beheading and flinging it across the room in a single blow, and Merideth used her healing energies to attack the life energies of the spider that bit her. Green lightning crawled into its body from her touch, but did not quite kill it. Then Athan pierced the body of the dinner table spider, killing it, and managed to sweep the point of his spear across Merideth's spider, right before she attacked it again with violent, roiling life energies, killing it. The smaller spiders fled.

Meanwhile, Greppa was trying everything short of setting himself on fire to get the baby-sized spider off his back. He evoked a candle-sized flame from the elemental plane of fire to scare the spider. It tried to bite his burning finger, and missed. He jumped around, trying to shake it off. It clung grimly on, and tried to bite, but missed. He tried to grab its fat, hairy body to fling it from himself. It tried to bite his hands, and missed.

Athan and Merideth finally ran up to him and Merideth knocked it off his back while Athan stabbed it. Greppa looked a bit embarrassed, but no one said anything.

The party looked at the tower. Greppa and Merideth were winded, and Greppa was barely standing from the onslaught of the spiders' poisons. Athan had a few bites, but there was no swelling, and they looked fairly superficial.

"We're going to need torches," Greppa stated flatly.

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They have to pass through the Summoning Room to get to the Libary. I love it!

He he he! The players wanted to avoid that room so badly it hurt...

A few things the players told me I have to post:

1. I maintained a very strong front of "Killer DM" on the surface for this adventure. I wanted the players to know that the spiders were really and honestly trying to kill them. I cussed Athan's lucky dice, laughed when someone got bitten, and gave my best 'curses, foiled again' when someone would make their poison Fort save. It was great fun although, of course, I knew that the PCs would be little killing machines once I wound them up.

2. Greppa's player is phobic about spiders. When I update the 'With Torches' part, tomorrow, you'll see why that's a bad thing.

Also, purely on my own: The players get their first treasure! Well, that is, it's not much, but they got it.

seasong!

Another fine update. this time, though, I worry that you want to give us the round by round of how the comabt went, rather than give us the feel of how the fight went.

If you omit stuff like "The spider attacked X times, and missed X times, you could go with the more general "The smaller spiders swarmed over the young aventurers aggresively, their poisioned fangs filing to find purchase..."

It's a fine line to walk, because of course the readers want to know what spells were cast, etc. So, I like to focus on pivotal points of the battle, and leave the rest to the readers imagination.

And you're a naaasty DM! 5 spiders are unnerving for unarmored, lightly armed PCs. (granted the small ones are CR 1/2, and the large ones are CR 1)

Hey speaking of, how hard ARE our heroes to hit?

Congrats to Greppa, for superior role-play! My players never freak out, and barely acknowledge when they have been charmed, or suggested to do something.

incognito said:

Another fine update. this time, though, I worry that you want to give us the round by round of how the comabt went, rather than give us the feel of how the fight went.

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Good point! Although I think it was okay for this time, at least partly because it was their first fight as a party, instead of as a part of a massive fight scene.

The next one will be very slightly less round-by-round .

And thanks for the quick critique!

And you're a naaasty DM! 5 spiders are unnerving for unarmored, lightly armed PCs. (granted the small ones are CR 1/2, and the large ones are CR 1)

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Naw, this was just to blood them. In round two, 'With Torches', the spiders put up a much better fight.

Hey speaking of, how hard ARE our heroes to hit?

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I don't have the sheets in front of me, but I think it's:
Athan AC 15
Greppa AC 13
Merideth AC 11

The spiders had +3 to +4 to attack, but generally rolled very poorly.

Congrats to Greppa, for superior role-play! My players never freak out, and barely acknowledge when they have been charmed, or suggested to do something.

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I love my players. Can't say much more than that.

I love my players. Can't say much more than that.

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...good thing they aren't orcs!