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Adventures in the Eastern Provinces
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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 5153387" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p>All around our heroes, dead rats float in the water. Many of them are partially eaten. Colorless fish, many eyeless, swim through the water. Karl recognizes some of them as a dangerous species related to the piranha called quippers. He warns his companions; all of them stay wary as they trudge along the bottom of the submerged canal. This is the first time breathing water for any of them, and the experience is both unnerving and exhilarating. The environment is almost completely alien. The water makes their movements sluggish, and Cavemouth cannot help wondering how well they could fight under the circumstances.</p><p></p><p>Above the canal, the cave ceiling gives way. To the heroes’ left extends a long flooded plaza that vanishes in the darkness outside of the party’s light. The canal is recessed about 10’ deep along one edge; it continues past the plaza into some kind of basin, but the party decides to examine the duergar plaza first. They swim-clamber up and over it; now their light illuminates the whole thing. Several passages extend from it.</p><p></p><p>Shar glances down one: a hallway leading as far as she can see. Sepia looks down the two passages on the other side of the room. “These both lead into the same giant chamber,” she informs the others. “It looks interesting- there’s some kind of, I don’t know, machinery in there.”</p><p></p><p>This piques the interest of the others, who all come and crowd around the two paths that lead into the chamber. There is no immediate sign of movement save for the slowing floating rat corpses, nor does any sound emerge. With a shrug, Cavemouth enters the chamber. </p><p></p><p>A row of large metal crucibles stands beneath some kind of automated crane mechanism. Beyond it is some kind of beltway leading into a squat metal thing.</p><p></p><p>“It’s a smelter,” Karl tells the party.</p><p></p><p>Behind the smelter, a large pile of tailings is mounded high on the floor. Three doors lead out of the room; one of them is ajar. Shifty moves over and peers within, then pushes the door open wide. The chamber seems to be an old office of some kind. Two desks sit in the chamber, and a pair of inanimate skeletons lie on the ground.</p><p></p><p>No exits. The party opens the next door to the right and looks into an antechamber. A large pair of stone double doors exits from the left side of the chamber; to the right a row of stools is mounted into the floor. The walls are graven with images of internecine dwarf warfare. The party pauses to look them over.</p><p></p><p>The wars seem to have clear sides, and one side wins a clear victory. The gravings show the losers being driven out by their triumphant kinfolk- out, and deep into the ground. The next images show this group growing strong through their subterranean toils, eventually re-emerging in a mountain with a storm of fire at its peak. </p><p></p><p>Shifty brushes a dead rat out of the way and says, “Those double doors look inviting.”</p><p></p><p>Cavemouth nods and moves to stand before them. He pushes upon them, and though they are large and heavy, they slowly swing open.*</p><p></p><p>A huge great hall stretches out before our heroes. Four rows of thick pillars give it support; a large throne of stone sits at one end, flanked by a pair of strange statues that seem to be almost like humanoid crossbows. Another set of double doors, larger and thicker than the ones that Cavemouth pushed open, is in the center of the wall opposite the throne. </p><p></p><p>The water in here seems thick with grease and foulness, and our heroes spy the reason immediately. A pair of foul, undead dwarves with matted hair floating in tangled ropes from their beards snarls at the party’s approach. Their tongues are long and black; their teeth are strong and sharp, as if for cracking bones and sucking marrow. And the greasy stench that fills that water around them threatens to make our heroes gag.</p><p></p><p>“Lacedons!” cries Karl.</p><p></p><p>Cavemouth starts swimming towards them, whipping out the poisoned longspear that the party found in Thrushton. But as the goliath enters the chamber, the two crossbow-man statues near the throne animate. </p><p></p><p>“Watch out!” Karl warns. “Those are dangerous! They’re called arbalesters, and they-”</p><p></p><p><strong>TWANG!</strong></p><p></p><p>Cavemouth howls in pain as the bolt hits him in the shoulder, but he grits his teeth and continues his headlong advance on the ghouls. They swim to meet him. Sepia, Shar and Shifty pour after him, while Karl turns his attention on the arbalesters. </p><p></p><p>As the combatants close, blood starts to cloud the water. The aquatic ghouls smack their lips and suck it out of the water even as they try to bite chunks of flesh from their foes; meanwhile, Karl unleashes <em>magic missiles</em> at the arbalesters while they begin a punishing barrage of fire at the others. </p><p></p><p>Although they are taking plenty of damage, our heroes seem to generally have the upper hand. But then things grow complicated, as the blood in the water attracts a swarm of quippers** which quickly move in and start biting at everything around them. Karl <em>fey steps</em> away from them, but they fall upon Sepia with a vengeance. She has already been bloodied by the aquatic ghouls, so the fish are attracted to her. She barely makes it away from them.</p><p></p><p>But she’s not the only one that is leaking tasty-smelling blood. When Cavemouth’s magic spear opens the belly of the first ghoul, the gory remains of its last meal are exposed. Suddenly the quippers are helping our heroes as much as they are hindering them!</p><p></p><p>Cavemouth and the quippers take a ghoul down in short order. Shifty and Sepia dart over to flank one of the arbalesters and quickly cut it down, leaving Karl free to focus his magical attacks on the swarm of fish and Shar and Cavemouth in battle against the remaining lacedon. With the right attackers on each enemy, the fight is soon over. </p><p></p><p>The party takes a moment or two to catch their breath, bind wounds and employ Shar’s magical healing. Then all of them turn their eyes to those large, inviting-looking double doors. </p><p></p><p>“More double doors? Something good has to be behind them,” Shar opines.</p><p></p><p>“Loot,” Shifty elaborates, making sure that his comb-over is in place.*** </p><p></p><p>The party draws weapons and takes their positions near the door and then Cavemouth throws it open. </p><p></p><p>A set of wide stairs leads upwards. </p><p></p><p>“Interesting,” says Sepia. “Stay here. I’ll sneak forward and check it out.” </p><p></p><p>“Be careful,” replies Shar. </p><p></p><p>The tiefling creeps slowly up the stairs, slinking along one wall. After about 20’, the stairs break the surface of the water! <em>I wonder how much of what is ahead is dry,</em> she thinks. The stairs seems to end about another 15’ up, but Sepia can see flickering firelight coming from somewhere ahead. </p><p></p><p>More telling, there is a barrier at the top of the stairs. </p><p></p><p>Holding her breath, she listens carefully. There are voices, speaking in a language that sounds like Dwarven. <em>A guard post,</em> she thinks. <em>Duergar? Maybe. I’d best get the others.</em> </p><p></p><p>Sepia retreats below the water and reports what she saw and heard. </p><p></p><p>“I think you’re right,” says Shar. “It sounds like a group of guards. But if they’re duergar, maybe we can negotiate.”</p><p></p><p>Shifty snorts. “Parlay! We parlay with <em>everything!</em> We should just go kill them.”</p><p></p><p>“If we can get the <em>Bell of Salash</em> without bloodshed, shouldn’t we?” she counters.</p><p></p><p>“No. If these duergar are devil worshipers, we should kill them so they don’t cause us further problems.”</p><p></p><p>They argue for a moment before Cavemouth sighs and says, “Why don’t we go see what happens?”</p><p></p><p>“All right,” the governors say together.</p><p></p><p><em><strong>Next Time:</strong></em> Battle or parlay? Or both?</p><p></p><p></p><p>*These are “standard action to open” doors, rather than your standard “minor action to open” doors.</p><p></p><p>**Here are some stats for your amusement.</p><p></p><p><strong>QUIPPER SWARM--- Level 3 Brute</strong></p><p>Medium natural beast (fish)--- XP 150</p><p>---</p><p>Initiative +5; Senses Perception +3</p><p>Swarm Attack aura 1; any enemy that starts its turn in the aura that is not bloodied takes 5 points of damage; any bloodied creature that starts its turn in the aura instead takes 7 points of damage</p><p>HP 53; Bloodied 26</p><p>AC 15; Fortitude 15; Reflex 16; Will 15</p><p>Resist half damage from melee and ranged attacks; Vulnerable 10 to close and area attacks</p><p>Speed swim 8</p><p>---</p><p>[Melee basic] Swarm of Bites (standard; at will): +6 vs. AC; 1d12+3 damage. </p><p></p><p>Blood Crazy: If one or more bloodied creatures are within 10 squares of it, the quipper swarm must attack the closest one. The quipper swarm gets +1 to attack rolls and +3 to damage against bloodied creatures with its swarm of bites. </p><p>---</p><p>Alignment unaligned; Languages -</p><p>Str 8; Dex 18; Wis 14</p><p>Con 13; Int 2; Cha 10</p><p></p><p>***Just a quick reminder- Shifty looks pretty much like an older Herb Tarlick from WKRP in Cincinnati.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 5153387, member: 1210"] All around our heroes, dead rats float in the water. Many of them are partially eaten. Colorless fish, many eyeless, swim through the water. Karl recognizes some of them as a dangerous species related to the piranha called quippers. He warns his companions; all of them stay wary as they trudge along the bottom of the submerged canal. This is the first time breathing water for any of them, and the experience is both unnerving and exhilarating. The environment is almost completely alien. The water makes their movements sluggish, and Cavemouth cannot help wondering how well they could fight under the circumstances. Above the canal, the cave ceiling gives way. To the heroes’ left extends a long flooded plaza that vanishes in the darkness outside of the party’s light. The canal is recessed about 10’ deep along one edge; it continues past the plaza into some kind of basin, but the party decides to examine the duergar plaza first. They swim-clamber up and over it; now their light illuminates the whole thing. Several passages extend from it. Shar glances down one: a hallway leading as far as she can see. Sepia looks down the two passages on the other side of the room. “These both lead into the same giant chamber,” she informs the others. “It looks interesting- there’s some kind of, I don’t know, machinery in there.” This piques the interest of the others, who all come and crowd around the two paths that lead into the chamber. There is no immediate sign of movement save for the slowing floating rat corpses, nor does any sound emerge. With a shrug, Cavemouth enters the chamber. A row of large metal crucibles stands beneath some kind of automated crane mechanism. Beyond it is some kind of beltway leading into a squat metal thing. “It’s a smelter,” Karl tells the party. Behind the smelter, a large pile of tailings is mounded high on the floor. Three doors lead out of the room; one of them is ajar. Shifty moves over and peers within, then pushes the door open wide. The chamber seems to be an old office of some kind. Two desks sit in the chamber, and a pair of inanimate skeletons lie on the ground. No exits. The party opens the next door to the right and looks into an antechamber. A large pair of stone double doors exits from the left side of the chamber; to the right a row of stools is mounted into the floor. The walls are graven with images of internecine dwarf warfare. The party pauses to look them over. The wars seem to have clear sides, and one side wins a clear victory. The gravings show the losers being driven out by their triumphant kinfolk- out, and deep into the ground. The next images show this group growing strong through their subterranean toils, eventually re-emerging in a mountain with a storm of fire at its peak. Shifty brushes a dead rat out of the way and says, “Those double doors look inviting.” Cavemouth nods and moves to stand before them. He pushes upon them, and though they are large and heavy, they slowly swing open.* A huge great hall stretches out before our heroes. Four rows of thick pillars give it support; a large throne of stone sits at one end, flanked by a pair of strange statues that seem to be almost like humanoid crossbows. Another set of double doors, larger and thicker than the ones that Cavemouth pushed open, is in the center of the wall opposite the throne. The water in here seems thick with grease and foulness, and our heroes spy the reason immediately. A pair of foul, undead dwarves with matted hair floating in tangled ropes from their beards snarls at the party’s approach. Their tongues are long and black; their teeth are strong and sharp, as if for cracking bones and sucking marrow. And the greasy stench that fills that water around them threatens to make our heroes gag. “Lacedons!” cries Karl. Cavemouth starts swimming towards them, whipping out the poisoned longspear that the party found in Thrushton. But as the goliath enters the chamber, the two crossbow-man statues near the throne animate. “Watch out!” Karl warns. “Those are dangerous! They’re called arbalesters, and they-” [b]TWANG![/B] Cavemouth howls in pain as the bolt hits him in the shoulder, but he grits his teeth and continues his headlong advance on the ghouls. They swim to meet him. Sepia, Shar and Shifty pour after him, while Karl turns his attention on the arbalesters. As the combatants close, blood starts to cloud the water. The aquatic ghouls smack their lips and suck it out of the water even as they try to bite chunks of flesh from their foes; meanwhile, Karl unleashes [i]magic missiles[/i] at the arbalesters while they begin a punishing barrage of fire at the others. Although they are taking plenty of damage, our heroes seem to generally have the upper hand. But then things grow complicated, as the blood in the water attracts a swarm of quippers** which quickly move in and start biting at everything around them. Karl [i]fey steps[/i] away from them, but they fall upon Sepia with a vengeance. She has already been bloodied by the aquatic ghouls, so the fish are attracted to her. She barely makes it away from them. But she’s not the only one that is leaking tasty-smelling blood. When Cavemouth’s magic spear opens the belly of the first ghoul, the gory remains of its last meal are exposed. Suddenly the quippers are helping our heroes as much as they are hindering them! Cavemouth and the quippers take a ghoul down in short order. Shifty and Sepia dart over to flank one of the arbalesters and quickly cut it down, leaving Karl free to focus his magical attacks on the swarm of fish and Shar and Cavemouth in battle against the remaining lacedon. With the right attackers on each enemy, the fight is soon over. The party takes a moment or two to catch their breath, bind wounds and employ Shar’s magical healing. Then all of them turn their eyes to those large, inviting-looking double doors. “More double doors? Something good has to be behind them,” Shar opines. “Loot,” Shifty elaborates, making sure that his comb-over is in place.*** The party draws weapons and takes their positions near the door and then Cavemouth throws it open. A set of wide stairs leads upwards. “Interesting,” says Sepia. “Stay here. I’ll sneak forward and check it out.” “Be careful,” replies Shar. The tiefling creeps slowly up the stairs, slinking along one wall. After about 20’, the stairs break the surface of the water! [i]I wonder how much of what is ahead is dry,[/i] she thinks. The stairs seems to end about another 15’ up, but Sepia can see flickering firelight coming from somewhere ahead. More telling, there is a barrier at the top of the stairs. Holding her breath, she listens carefully. There are voices, speaking in a language that sounds like Dwarven. [i]A guard post,[/i] she thinks. [i]Duergar? Maybe. I’d best get the others.[/i] Sepia retreats below the water and reports what she saw and heard. “I think you’re right,” says Shar. “It sounds like a group of guards. But if they’re duergar, maybe we can negotiate.” Shifty snorts. “Parlay! We parlay with [i]everything![/i] We should just go kill them.” “If we can get the [i]Bell of Salash[/i] without bloodshed, shouldn’t we?” she counters. “No. If these duergar are devil worshipers, we should kill them so they don’t cause us further problems.” They argue for a moment before Cavemouth sighs and says, “Why don’t we go see what happens?” “All right,” the governors say together. [i][b]Next Time:[/b][/i][b][/b] Battle or parlay? Or both? *These are “standard action to open” doors, rather than your standard “minor action to open” doors. **Here are some stats for your amusement. [b]QUIPPER SWARM--- Level 3 Brute[/b] Medium natural beast (fish)--- XP 150 --- Initiative +5; Senses Perception +3 Swarm Attack aura 1; any enemy that starts its turn in the aura that is not bloodied takes 5 points of damage; any bloodied creature that starts its turn in the aura instead takes 7 points of damage HP 53; Bloodied 26 AC 15; Fortitude 15; Reflex 16; Will 15 Resist half damage from melee and ranged attacks; Vulnerable 10 to close and area attacks Speed swim 8 --- [Melee basic] Swarm of Bites (standard; at will): +6 vs. AC; 1d12+3 damage. Blood Crazy: If one or more bloodied creatures are within 10 squares of it, the quipper swarm must attack the closest one. The quipper swarm gets +1 to attack rolls and +3 to damage against bloodied creatures with its swarm of bites. --- Alignment unaligned; Languages - Str 8; Dex 18; Wis 14 Con 13; Int 2; Cha 10 ***Just a quick reminder- Shifty looks pretty much like an older Herb Tarlick from WKRP in Cincinnati. [/QUOTE]
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