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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 6305011" data-attributes="member: 2525">Session 5August 29, 2013Hardest Day Yet!Two tough battles, where the party barely scrapped by.  Well OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but it was rough going there.The party heard the telepathic angry cry of something (presumably the Demon, but perhaps something else), commanding his minions to capture "the bodies we need". The Kobolds and Demon attacked at once.  Luther went down quick, helpless to defend against his foes overwhelming numbers.  Fortunately for him, the final blow appeared to be intentionally aimed to knock him out, rather than kill him.  If not for that, perhaps he would have perished.Hearing his cries of distress, the rest of the party moved in.  As the black flying demon hovered above the prone Luther, the party took down the smaller Kobolds, in an exchange of blows.  One of the shadowy flying Kobolds tried to drop a glob of black-something on the party, which fortunately missed and dissipated on contact with the ground.Suddenly, a shamanic-like Kobold threw a glass vial of some sort into the room, exploding in a yellow mist throughout.  Milo, drawing on his knowledge of arcane lore, determined that it was protective in nature.  He let loose with his magic missiles, and combined with the swordplay of Bear, Hollin and Slink, felled the Demon and his remaining allies.  As each of the two shadowy kobolds fell, their bodies disappeared.  The other three kobolds, however, left behind perfectly normal corpses, as did the Demon.Leaving the stabilized and unconscious Luther under guard, they searched the room.  The group found some gold (including a platinum piece) and three potions.  One was black, one light blue, and one brown.  Milo was able to read the black one, which had been on one of the Kobolds, and he thought the Draconic text on it implied poison or death.  He could not read the infernal tongue on the other two, which had been found on the Demon.  Another small golden trident was also found on the body of the Demon, along with a map.The map appeared to display a path through the cavern levels the party was currently on, back down the stairs, and all the way back to the original dungeon entrance, and then through the ordinary door to the west, that the party had not tried yet.  It was unclear who drew the map, though the handwriting was fairly crude.  And it was unclear what it led to, as there was no indication of what might lay in that direction.To the south Slink found some more coin-based treasure hidden amongst some rubble, including some valuable common precious stones.Deciding to rest for some hours, Bear and Hollin discovered two barriers had been erected to the east and north.  Each appeared to have been built from the other side, to seemingly prevent things from leaving, but the smell of fresh air was detected from somewhere behind each.Meanwhile Milo checked out the two pillar-like structures in the room.  Each was movable, and reached to about waist height.  He cast detect magic on the pillars and other objects in the room. First, he found that the black potion was not magic.  The Light Blue potion glowed with the glow of Conjuration, and the party speculated it could be a healing potion (or perhaps not).  The other glowed with the glow of Transmutation.  The pillars themselves were not magical, but Milo detected the faint aura of necromantic energy atop them, as if some evil ritual or rite had transpired there at some time in the not too distant past.Luther came too after several hours, with a headache but otherwise none the worse for wear.  The group decided to spend the night in this area, and built a barrier on the one otherwise-unobstructed passage out of the room.  The barrier consisted of the altars, the rubble from the south, and an old overturned mining cart.Refreshed and rested, the party found their sleep had gone undisturbed.  Taking some additional time to rip down the barrier to the east, the part followed along a gradually lightening winding corridor, and finally came to an exit from the dungeons.  Looking out over the valley below, they found themselves in the left eye socket of the great Skull Mountain, and speculated that perhaps the other barrier they had not tried earlier to the north led to the right eye socket.  Below, they spied a grey rocky trail that led precariously back down to the valley, which would otherwise be fairly difficult to spot from below.Returning to the dungeon the way they had just come, the party decided to follow the mining car tracks rather than retrace their steps to the south through the former spider web and carrion crawler regions.  The tracks led on a twisting and turning path until it finally reached a large cavern.Though they tried to approach with stealth, Bear gave away their presence when he slipped on a loose stone, and the party could hear the screeching of something in the distance.  They knew they had been discovered, perhaps by the vile Harpies they had previously fought!Slink took cover behind a cavern wall, but Bear, Luther, and Hollin charged in to the cavern.  There, they found Harpies laying in wait.  Luther became charmed by their alluring song, and strode off after one of the, with a hypnotic loving gave on his face. Soon thereafter a queen Harpy revealed herself, perched on a rocky area in the middle of the room.  The Queen charmed Bear as well, and it seemed things were not going well for the party.Some further blows were exchanged, as Milo discharged his magic missiles while Slink, deciding that stealth was no longer useful, moved on in and made some sneak attacks on the nearest Harpy.As Luther stared enthralled at one of the Harpies, Bear managed to break the charm and pursue the queen.  Meanwhile, Hollin too fell under their charm, as Milo and Slink continued to battle with the lesser Harpies.Bear pursued the Queen across the rocky cavern floor, dodging screeching attacks, claws and clubbings alike.  Luther broke the charm as well, as dark Harpies took advantage of Hollin's enthralled state to assault him ruthlessly.  To no avail! Despite 4 attacks with clubs and claws [8 actual rolls, as they had advantage] only one minor hit was struck with a club.  Hollin was able to retreat out of there mostly unharmed, thanks to his armor.But all was still not well.  Slink went down to the onthrust of Harpy attacks, and started to bleed out.  Milo struck down two Harpies with another flurry of magic missiles, and then rushed to Slink's aid, stabilizing his bleeding.  Meanwhile the renewed attacks from Hollin and Luther brought down more Harpies, as Bear continued his dogged pursuit of the Queen Harpy.Finally, it came down to two foes left.  Hollin tried to strike at one of the dark harpies that had retreated to a perch on the higher rocky central area, while Bear tried to locate the Queen who had retreated into darkness.Hollin was able to finally strike down the remaining dark harpy on it's perch, with some help from Luther's sling shots.  Milo then cast a Light spell on a copper piece, and successfully tossed it into an area of the room that revealed the hiding place of the Queen Harpy, who had burrowed herself into a huge nest to the northwest of the cavern.Bear renewed his pursuit, and with Hollins help the two took the Queen down finally, to screech no more.Exhausted and bleeding, the party gathered to assess the situation.  Nothing else is heard, except the quiet of the cavern, and the echoed hard breathing of the party.  Surely treasure awaits a search, once Slink is back on his feet.[I have the treasure lists from the last few sessions ready, along with this one.  The only non-coin/jewels treasure found are the three potions, so far, plus another golden trident off the Demon.  John, Noah, and Max all said they would likely be able to make next Thursday's game, and Matt A said he would as well (by text).  Matt B, who had intended to play tonight, had his car stuck and was unable to make the game, but hopefully can make next weeks as well.  Max wants to create a Cleric, or play the existing pre-built Cleric (Father Rivers), for next session.  He may invite his friend Robert to play Jason's character for next week.][ATTACH]61811[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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