die_kluge's story hour - The Lost Continent

[der_kluge]

DM's note: It becomes clear to me at this point that the party is going to rely on Valgo FAR too much. I don't like that. In retrospect, I should have had Valgo killed on the boat, then then PCs would be leaderless - with 50 some-odd crewmembers to have to deal with. But, that might not have been that much fun. I find a way to *deal* with Valgo in game #3.

 

[der_kluge]

Quickly the hall grows into darkness. Down and down, and then the stairway turns - it becomes obvious to the adventurers that they are descending into the depths. Suddenly, Dzintra pauses, "there is a gap here.", she says, standing aside to allow the others to see that a 5-foot section of the stairway is missing, and opens up into a seemingly bottomless pit below. Rath flicks out a copper coin and tosses it. Swish.... ding! Comes the reply after a few seconds' worth of drop. "Well, that's reassuring", he says, smuggly. "Stand aside", Mournax says, easily jumping over the hole, "come on, it's not hard, just jump over it. "Take this rope", Dzintra says, passing a rope over to Mournax, "we can use it to cross." Everyone is able to get across easily, except for Rath, who misjudges the hole. Reacting quickly - Mournax reaches out and grabs Rath before he falls into the depths below. "Gotcha!", Mournax shouts, with a laugh. "Thanks, Mournax", replies Rath.

Continuing on, Dzintra carefully examines the walls and floor, looking for anything suspicious. As they descend the stairs, she screams out, "Ouch!", as her foot falls through a thin veneer of stone revealing some spikes beneath the fake step. Getting her bearings straight, she sees a small hole in the wall quickly dousing her leg in oil. Reacting quickly, she jerks her foot out of the hole and falls backwards - just missing an arc of flame that shoots out of the hole. "Aaargh!", she cries, as the pain of removing her foot from the trap rips through her leg. "This place is madness!", shouts Mournax. Concerned, Nytor asks, "Are you ok, Dzintra?" "I'll be fine - it hurt my pride more than anything else. Be sure to watch your step."

Eventually, the party reaches a landing. In this room, dark and musty, Bax and Rath begin examining ancient writing all along the walls. Two large, stone doors beckon at them on the other side. "What does the writing say?", asks Dzintra. "It's Draconic", Bax replies, reading the wall. "Mind sharing it with us", Mournax asks. "Certainly", Bax replies, who begins reading out loud the writing on the wall.

In this tomb lies our leader, our king – Siluth, the Conqueror. The vanquisher of all those who would oppose us the great liberator. He who by which we are not worthy to share in his presence. He who has led us to greatness, the destroyer of our enemies, and the savior to our people. Whose mere presence is awe, and to witness him is a treasured gift, and to be slain by him is eternal peace. He who would unite, and the father of our children, and our children’s children. We who shall not be named are his keepers, his minions, and his loyal servants, who are honored and humbled to serve him both in life, and in death. Forever and ever and ever and ever. Eternity.

Bax pauses, "that part about serving in death is what concerns me the most."

 

[der_kluge]

Anyone still following along? I'll try to get another post up today. Was too busy last few days. We just had game #4, so I need to start catching up. But, looks like we have a 1 month hiatus due to conflicts, so that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[The Freak]

I eagerly await the next update.

 

[GreyShadow]

Still following along and enjoying.

 

[der_kluge]

The party stood in this small room, wondering what might await them behind the doors, and further into this complex. "This place is already bigger than I imagined it to be", Rath admitted.

Hesitantly, Dzintra approaches the double doors. Let me check these out. "I think I can offer a better, safer solution, Dzintra", Rath says, "I can go through those doors without opening them, and come back to report what is on the other side." Casting a Blink spell, Rath stands at the edge of the doors, and appears, and then disappears as he walks through the doors.

On the other side, Rath peers into the darkness with his darkvision (which he cast earlier), and sees two large statues. Immediately, when Rath appears in the material world, the statues eyes brighten, and they peer on him with unrelenting anger. Just as quickly as he came in, Rath pushes himself backwards, back through the doors during his ethereal state.

"There are...", Rath states, while in the material, his voice trailing off into nothingness as he vanishes into the ethereal.
"two gole..."
"golems..."
"on the..."
"other side."
"stone go..."
"golems..."
"big on..."
"ones."
With that, the party turns to the doors, as they can now hear the sound of stone footsteps landing on the floor. "Thud!" "Thud!"

The party makes preparations. Mournax says, "let Ivo and myself in front. Get behind us!"

"BOOM!" goes the door, as a large stone fist slams into it from the other side. "BOOM! BOOM!" again, with a thunderous slam. The doors are visibly jolted this time. "It won't take long for them to bust through that door at this rate.", Nytor observes, casting a Prayer spell.

"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!", the door is compromised, and the party can see the large construct on the other side. Mournax bears his full weight down on the creature, chipping away a goodly chunk of the creature. Ivo, seeing Mournax's damage, adds his own, cleaving away at the lower torso with his axe. In turn, the golem's respond by unleashing a magical effect on Mournax, who begins acting very s-l-o-w-l-y, despite this, his swings his axe around for full force again on the first golem. Rath, acting quickly, encapsulates the first golem in a globe of force*. "That golem can not harm us now, take care of the first one!" Nytor slides up and calls upon his deity for the blessings of strength, and unleashes a horrible fury into the creature with his mace, though it seems his mace just isn't hard enough to penetrate the enhanced stone of the creature, though his now considerable strength does manage to chip away a chunk of the beast.
Soon, the creature is reduced to a pile of rubble. It crumbles down to a pile of rock and dust into the floor. The second golem, unscathed, pounds on the walls of the bubble encasing him. "It won't hold him forever, but we can regroup and bear down on him when I drop the sphere." Mournax waits a bit, and the slowness that was affecting him earlier goes away. "That's better. I didn't like that one bit." "Let's get ready", Rath advises. The party moves in, around the encapsulated golem. "On my mark, when I drop this, everyone attack. - Now!" With that, Rath drops the sphere, and everyone lays into the golem. It responds with an attack on Mournax, who faces it, who takes the blows in stride, and the party responds in full again, reducing this creature to a pile of mere rocks like his brother.

On the other side of the room, a doorway leads into an adjoining dark chamber.


* There was much debate about whether or not Otiluke's resilient sphere would affect a golem - who have magic immunity. I decided to allow it. I ruled that it was not directly affecting the golem, much like a wall of force could be used to stop a golem, a resilient sphere could work in much the same way.

 

[der_kluge]

"How is everyone?", Nytor asks. "Unscathed", bax replies smuggly. "Aye, I am not too bad, but that rock beast hits pretty hard." "Let me provide some healing for you", Nytor replies. "I'll never refuse healing", Mournax says, as Nytor heals him. "Thank you", replies Mournax. "Don't thank me, thank the great provider." "Why, he didn't heal me - you did", Mournax argues. "I am but a vessel for the Great Provider", Nytor says. "Good", Mournax says, abruptly cutting off the cleric, "I'll thank you, and then you can thank your god for me." "Very well", Nytor says, understandingly.

"Shall we continue on then", Rath suggests, heading cautiously to the next area. Ivo moves to the doorway. "It's full of bones." Indeed. As the party stands near the doorway, what light they have reveals to them an enourmous room - one in which their light does not illuminate the other side, is full of rows and rows of old bones. Each row is a jumbled pile of bones strewn about such that there are pathways between the stacks. Each pile of bones is some three to four feet tall. "Look at all these bones!", Ivo shouts. Nytor, cautious replies, "where there are bones, there could be undead. Allow me to divine their presence". *Nytor casts Detect Undead, which reveals no undead* "I do not find any undead, but I advise caution just the same." Bax suggests, "let's add some light to it." Bax casts Light on several arrows and sends them to the four corners of the room. The room itself is large - some 200' square or so. The entire room is full of rows of bones of various sizes. Dzintra, curious enters the room to pick up some bone. She pauses, noticing that the room itself is engulfed in a Silence effect. She picks up some bones, studies them, and then drops them where she found them. The others observe that they do not hear any of this. Returning to the doorway she says, "The room is silent, and I don't think those bones are human - some of them have reptilian features." "Curious", replies Rath. Nytor enters the room and pauses briefly before exiting - "this room is evil, I'm getting a bad feeling here." Rath casts Detect Magic into the room - "Egads! The entire room glows in Necromantic magic." Nytor nods, "this room is Unhallowed!"

"Maybe someone should scout the room out.", suggests Ivo. "That could be risky", Rath replies, "but I could cast a fly spell on someone if they wanted to do that - they could hug the ceiling, and get out quickly if something happened." "I can do that", Ivo replies. As Ivo enters the room, he observes numerous piles of bones littered about the floor. He then spies a stairwell leading down against the same wall, on the other side of the room. Flying towards it, towards the center of the room, around two dozen skeletons appear - silently, and begin grabbing up at him. Surprised, Ivo flies back towards the entrance. "Those skeletons have tails", Dzintra says, pointing. "I told you those bones didn't look human. They look more reptilian to me."

Standing in front of the door, in silence, Ivo awaits for the skeletons to approach. While he waits, another two dozen skeletons animate from the piles. "This is craziness!", shouts Dzintra from the hallway. Mournax says, "Let me in behind Ivo, we'll kill those skeletons when they get to the door." Nytor approaches, "allow me - I can destroy them with the power of my god." Raising his holy symbol, he obliterates several skeletons. At this point, the skeletons have made it to the doorway. Ivo flies up near the ceiling to get out the skeletons' reach. Mournax and Ivo easily smash up several skeletons with their axes, and Rath unleashes a powerful Force Burst* smashing up over a dozen skeletons. But - they keep coming. Every few seconds, a couple of dozen skeletons arise again from the piles and begin moving towards the doorway. "This is ridiculous!", Rath shouts, we'll be here all day at this rate. Mournax grabs at Ivo and pulls him back down through the door. Curiously, the skeletons do not follow - they stand, silently in the room waiting. "We kill them, but they keep animating again. The only way I can see to get rid of them is to remove all those bones from that room.", Ivo suggests, brushing off skeleton dust from his clothes. "That would take far too long", Rath says, "Nytor, do you have a way to make us invisible to them." "Yes", replies Nytor, I can hide us from the undead. Give me a few minutes, and I can prayer for just such a spell."

*Like Fireball, but [Force] based.

 

[der_kluge]

Nytor prays for Hide from Undead. "Now, I can make the party invisible to these creatures, but be careful not to interact with them, or it will nullify the magic's effects." Casting the spell, the party begins moving into the room, walking around the skeletons, and between the piles and piles of bones.

*click* goes a floor panel, as an arrow flies by Ivo's head, and crashes into the wall behind him. "This place is trapped, too! Dzintra, would you like to help me find these panels?" "Certainly", Dzintra replies. Walking carefully through the room, Ivo and Dzintra search the floor, noting trapped floor tiles, and marking them so that the rest can avoid them.

"This would not make a good place for the crew. This room is filled with undead, and traps, and has the taint of evil about it", Mournax complains, "I don't know why we are down here."
"You're observations are valid, Mournax", Rath replies, "I think with some time we could clean this room of evil, and it would make a suitable place for the crew. It would take some time, obviously. We need to continue looking to see what other dangers await us in this place"

Moving to the other side, the party begins to make their way down another set of stairs.

Moving down the stairs, with Ivo and Mournax in the front, their light reveals to them a room as large as the room upstairs - nearly 200' square, filled with row upon row of stone sarcophagi. "Great, More undeath", Bax opines. As they descend the staircase, several of the nearby stone lids begin to move. "SCREEE!", as the sound of the lids move off their respective bases. Shortly, several mummies begin to emerge from their eternal slumber. The mummies have non-human features - a lizardlike head, and a tail. With a slight groan, they emerge and clambor towards the staircase.

 

[der_kluge]

Ivo and Mournax roll their proverbial sleeves up, and descend the staircase to meet the mummies face on. Hacking and cleaving their way, the more mummies they kill, and they further they move into the room, the mummies sense their presence and come out of their sarcophagi. First five mummies, then six and seven. The group, working in tandem, kills them as fast as they come. Nytor moves down into the frey with his mace of disruption, ripping into as many mummies as he can. Bax remains on the stairwell, hitting mummies with his accurate arrows. Rath pelts mummies from this position with his magic, and Dzintra uses her dagger of returning to good advantage from this spot as well.
Time passes, and as well as the party is able to determine they are able to defeat all the mummies - some 40 or more in this room alone. With the stone lids lying thrown about the room, they search the empty shells, and find a few odd trinkets - copper and bronze bits of jewelry, nothing of any real value.

"Well, that was crazy", Rath comments.
"Indeed", Mournax replies, "I think this place is not safe for the crew. We are insane to continue any further from this point."
"Well, there has to be a reason for this place", Bax says, "I would like to explore it in its entirety."
"That is ridiculous. First we fight skeletons, and then mummies. It's just a haven for undead, and who knows how much stronger they might get.", Mournax replies.

[end of game 2]

 

[der_kluge]

Game #3 [November 2, 2003]

As the party discusses what to do, from the dark corner opposite them they hear a noise - the sound of one of the stone lids being moved. This time, it's not moving off a sarcophagi, but rather across the floor. A huge mass of writhing, sickly-grey ooze emerges from the stairs from the room below. It slowly envelops the sarcophagi around it as it enters the room.

Acting quickly, the party responds, and approaches the ooze. Bax unleashes an arrow with a shocking grasp effect* into it. *plop* - *fizz*, and Rath pelts it with spheres of force. Mournax and Ivo begin cleaving into the ooze with mixed results. It seems as if the ooze is more or less resistant to the physical damage of their blades, but the magical damage does harm it. A large pseudopod emerges and engulfs Ivo - "mmfmphm", he shouts as it pulls him in. Mournax reacts quickly, and severs the pseudopod with his axe, freeing Ivo from the cold clutches of the ooze. The pseudopod responds by quivering, and ejecting a large skeleton from its fold. Nytor reacts, and obliterates the skeleton with his mace. Shortly thereafter, Nytor is also engulfed by a large flow of ooze and covered with the cold, vile substance. Rath and bax follow up with magical attacks, and Ivo and Mournax continue to eat away at it with their axes, and soon the ooze's movement subsides. Nytor rubs the ooze off his body.

"This place is insane", Mournax says.
"Agreed", Rath replies, "shall we go downstairs?"
"Might as well".