James McMurray
First Post
Sorry folks, it wasn't from a dragon. 
My party (from the Dragon Mountain thread) has completed that phase of their adventuring careers and went on to complete their jury duty. They had been requested by a member of the Stargazers to try to prove a fellow member innocent of murder. For those who remember the origianl adventure, its called Ravager of Time. Here's what happened:
The party, following a lead, entered a decrepit home deep in the swamps. The entire place was empty, except for a doorway in the basement that lead to a fairly well-furnished dwelling. They entered (after hearing stealthy footsteps) and were trapped when the walls began collapsing and finally disappeared, leaving them in a shimmering cage of force. The dwelling had been a modified Mordekainen's Mansion, and had deposited them in a Forcecage, centered in a mirrored room.
A beautiful lady steps up, and four of the mirrored images of the group also step forward. The party feels a wrenching sensation, and a moment later realize that they are incredibly old and the images that had moved up were flesh and blood. The beautiful lady bids them farewell, and leaves with their doubles.
They talk quite a bit, which is only hindered by the cleric's mumbling and short temper, the sorceror's forgetfulness and indifference, the rogue's indifference, and the Paladin's know-it-allness. Then, 2 creatures made of living slime (slime golems) carry in another old man and deposit him in the cage before they can react (time inside the cage is at a one round to ten ratio to outside the cage). The party talks more, and decides they should try to escape by putting someone in a bag of holding and then sliding it through the bars. Feeling that the sorceror can deal the most damage the fastest, they send him through. Of course, he forgets how to cast the spell he wanted to hit the golems with, and then fails his save vs. paralysis when he himself gets hit. The golems dump him back in.
The party tries again, this time feeding the cleric a potion of polymorph self so he can turn into an average human (negating the -6 to all physical stats from age). He manages to kill the golems and free the remaining characters. They head upstairs, to meet up with their guide who had hidden as the party (he thought) left with the "Witch of Lorge Isle" and their horses. They follow on foot and fight 12 shadow trolls who had been ordered to cover the path, and then teleport to their base to regroup, having realized its gonna take some serious thought to track themselves down and get their bodies back.
Well, over the course of resting and regaining spels, the sorceror forgets at least 4 times where he's supposed to be teleporting (once even sending himself into his old room in the swamp-city, and nearly being captured by his double).
The party decides to scry for themselves the next day, and manages to find noone (as they kept trying to scry for the witch, who was in a Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum). The next day, they decide to just travel to the city, teleporting into the sorceror's room hoping to be able to ambush his double. The double isn't there, but the cleric's double and the paladin's double are in the next two rooms. A battle ensues, and the party manages to kill the cleric double, returning the party cleric to youth. Unfortunately, soon after he's made young, he's no longer needed alive and the paladin double stops striking with subdual damage, killing the cleric, before dying himself. The paladin double gets hurt pretty bad, and leaps out the window to flee. He can't because of a tanglefoot bag from the party rogue, and turns to try to kill someone before he dies. He fails, and the party paladin is young again, just in time for the sorceror double to show up and kill him. The party almost all dies to the sorceror double, flying, and using one action to blast people, and the other to turn invisible and move. They do succeed in escaping finally, but without killing the sorceror double. In all the battles, they never realized that their doubles were acting under a permanent haste effect.
The battle with the sorceror double and the rogue is much shorter though, due to the party cleric thinking to memorize 2 Power word (Stun)s, thus rendering them inactive after scrying and teleporting in.
The party leaves again, and then decides to scry on nd ambush the witch. They see her, standing on a balcony, and she notices she's being watched. She casts some defensive spells while the party tries to decide what to do, then one round later, the party leaps in. A moment after they leap in, the witch (an 18th level Necromancer) teleports out, using her belt of teleportation (i.e. helm of teleportation in a different form). They don't notice that's she's gone to another balcony on a different building, and she begins buffing herself. the sorceror does manage to see her casting spell-turning though, and warns the party not to cast spells at her.
Meanwhile, the witch has managed to cast the following spells on herself: Shield, blazing shield (+6 AC, +7 vs. missiles), stoneskin, Resist Elements (electricty and fire), spectral Hand (which gets dispelled by the sorceror), absobsion, spell turning, life shield (sucks half her hitpoints, then absorbs twice that in dmage), dragonskin (+4 natural AC, and acid resistance), shadow images (like mirror images, but fewer and partially real), haste, and improved Invisibility. Needless to say, she's pretty buffed, and she has the added benefit of knowing everything about the party, since she dealt with their duplicates for so long.
Although I can't remember the entire 25+ round battle, a few highlights are:
- The party cleric throwing his short sowrd at her and disrupting a spell.
- 2 Leech fields (9d6 damage, 10' radius, she gains the hit points) hitting the cleric and rogue
- The sorceror using three Greater Dispels in area mode to try to dispel her spell Turning, and finally succeeding.
- The cleric getting hit with 3 Vmpiric Touches in one round.
- The witch getting surrounded by three flying party members, then teleporting away and trapping them all in a spherical wall of force. she then Power Word Stunned the Sorceror and finished him off.
After killing the sorceror, she left, and brought in a bunch of undead and duplicate commoners who dragged off the sorceror and then got killed by the party once the wall of force faded.
The party did manage to find the sorceror's corpse on a desecrated altar to St. Cuthbert, but he was stark naked. Now when they go back to fight the witch, she'll be even etter equipped with the sorceror's items.
My question to you folks is, what spells should she pick up with the money she'll get from selling some of the sorceror's items that are useless to her?
Also, for those keeping score, the party no longer has access to True Resurrection, because the guy they were going to was assasinated by a hireling of the dragon about a month before they managed to kill him. He was tired of them giving so much of "his" gold to the temple, so he hired assassins to make a permanent hit on the priest in charge.
My party (from the Dragon Mountain thread) has completed that phase of their adventuring careers and went on to complete their jury duty. They had been requested by a member of the Stargazers to try to prove a fellow member innocent of murder. For those who remember the origianl adventure, its called Ravager of Time. Here's what happened:
The party, following a lead, entered a decrepit home deep in the swamps. The entire place was empty, except for a doorway in the basement that lead to a fairly well-furnished dwelling. They entered (after hearing stealthy footsteps) and were trapped when the walls began collapsing and finally disappeared, leaving them in a shimmering cage of force. The dwelling had been a modified Mordekainen's Mansion, and had deposited them in a Forcecage, centered in a mirrored room.
A beautiful lady steps up, and four of the mirrored images of the group also step forward. The party feels a wrenching sensation, and a moment later realize that they are incredibly old and the images that had moved up were flesh and blood. The beautiful lady bids them farewell, and leaves with their doubles.
They talk quite a bit, which is only hindered by the cleric's mumbling and short temper, the sorceror's forgetfulness and indifference, the rogue's indifference, and the Paladin's know-it-allness. Then, 2 creatures made of living slime (slime golems) carry in another old man and deposit him in the cage before they can react (time inside the cage is at a one round to ten ratio to outside the cage). The party talks more, and decides they should try to escape by putting someone in a bag of holding and then sliding it through the bars. Feeling that the sorceror can deal the most damage the fastest, they send him through. Of course, he forgets how to cast the spell he wanted to hit the golems with, and then fails his save vs. paralysis when he himself gets hit. The golems dump him back in.
The party tries again, this time feeding the cleric a potion of polymorph self so he can turn into an average human (negating the -6 to all physical stats from age). He manages to kill the golems and free the remaining characters. They head upstairs, to meet up with their guide who had hidden as the party (he thought) left with the "Witch of Lorge Isle" and their horses. They follow on foot and fight 12 shadow trolls who had been ordered to cover the path, and then teleport to their base to regroup, having realized its gonna take some serious thought to track themselves down and get their bodies back.
Well, over the course of resting and regaining spels, the sorceror forgets at least 4 times where he's supposed to be teleporting (once even sending himself into his old room in the swamp-city, and nearly being captured by his double).
The party decides to scry for themselves the next day, and manages to find noone (as they kept trying to scry for the witch, who was in a Mordenkainen's Private Sanctum). The next day, they decide to just travel to the city, teleporting into the sorceror's room hoping to be able to ambush his double. The double isn't there, but the cleric's double and the paladin's double are in the next two rooms. A battle ensues, and the party manages to kill the cleric double, returning the party cleric to youth. Unfortunately, soon after he's made young, he's no longer needed alive and the paladin double stops striking with subdual damage, killing the cleric, before dying himself. The paladin double gets hurt pretty bad, and leaps out the window to flee. He can't because of a tanglefoot bag from the party rogue, and turns to try to kill someone before he dies. He fails, and the party paladin is young again, just in time for the sorceror double to show up and kill him. The party almost all dies to the sorceror double, flying, and using one action to blast people, and the other to turn invisible and move. They do succeed in escaping finally, but without killing the sorceror double. In all the battles, they never realized that their doubles were acting under a permanent haste effect.
The battle with the sorceror double and the rogue is much shorter though, due to the party cleric thinking to memorize 2 Power word (Stun)s, thus rendering them inactive after scrying and teleporting in.
The party leaves again, and then decides to scry on nd ambush the witch. They see her, standing on a balcony, and she notices she's being watched. She casts some defensive spells while the party tries to decide what to do, then one round later, the party leaps in. A moment after they leap in, the witch (an 18th level Necromancer) teleports out, using her belt of teleportation (i.e. helm of teleportation in a different form). They don't notice that's she's gone to another balcony on a different building, and she begins buffing herself. the sorceror does manage to see her casting spell-turning though, and warns the party not to cast spells at her.
Meanwhile, the witch has managed to cast the following spells on herself: Shield, blazing shield (+6 AC, +7 vs. missiles), stoneskin, Resist Elements (electricty and fire), spectral Hand (which gets dispelled by the sorceror), absobsion, spell turning, life shield (sucks half her hitpoints, then absorbs twice that in dmage), dragonskin (+4 natural AC, and acid resistance), shadow images (like mirror images, but fewer and partially real), haste, and improved Invisibility. Needless to say, she's pretty buffed, and she has the added benefit of knowing everything about the party, since she dealt with their duplicates for so long.
Although I can't remember the entire 25+ round battle, a few highlights are:
- The party cleric throwing his short sowrd at her and disrupting a spell.
- 2 Leech fields (9d6 damage, 10' radius, she gains the hit points) hitting the cleric and rogue
- The sorceror using three Greater Dispels in area mode to try to dispel her spell Turning, and finally succeeding.
- The cleric getting hit with 3 Vmpiric Touches in one round.
- The witch getting surrounded by three flying party members, then teleporting away and trapping them all in a spherical wall of force. she then Power Word Stunned the Sorceror and finished him off.
After killing the sorceror, she left, and brought in a bunch of undead and duplicate commoners who dragged off the sorceror and then got killed by the party once the wall of force faded.
The party did manage to find the sorceror's corpse on a desecrated altar to St. Cuthbert, but he was stark naked. Now when they go back to fight the witch, she'll be even etter equipped with the sorceror's items.
My question to you folks is, what spells should she pick up with the money she'll get from selling some of the sorceror's items that are useless to her?
Also, for those keeping score, the party no longer has access to True Resurrection, because the guy they were going to was assasinated by a hireling of the dragon about a month before they managed to kill him. He was tired of them giving so much of "his" gold to the temple, so he hired assassins to make a permanent hit on the priest in charge.
