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Session #18: How to hurt a dwarven battlerager, in 6 seconds or less.....
RL evening of Oct 1, 2003
Forming up into their usual marching order, the adventurers continued around the bending corridor, towards where their kobold guide told them was the kobold lair’s secret door.
"Just around this bend here?" Riva asked Kytum-up, practicing his recently acquired draconic language skills.
"Yes. My people used the rubble of this place to cover it, so it is undetectable to you surface dwellers," the kobold holy warrior nodded sagely. "Even those despicable goblins could not have found it. As you see....waaahhh!" <Crash!>
Kytum-up and Riva lay sprawled on the floor, unable to keep their footing on the rubble covered floor.
Rowan helped them up. "Be careful! That was louder than most of those dwarvish battle-cries you use, Riva!" Rowan made a mental note to learn the dwarvish oaths Riva was using as he stood.
"What’s going on up there?" asked Garret, at the back of the party. Even mounted on his faithful war-dog Bavic, he couldn’t see what was going on, what with the spacing of the others, the curving of the passage, and the lack of bright light.. Lissia turned to him, torch in hand, and shrugged.
Grumbling, and moving a bit more slowly, Riva crept along, with the rest of the party in tow. The stonework block passage opened into a room. Riva looked within, using his darkvision; it was a small rectangular room, much like the one they had just left, with rubble piled high against the right and the left walls. Another curving passage led out the other side.
Well behind Riva, Kytum-up had stopped, and had started gesticulated wildly and sputtering in draconic: "It was here! Right here! There’s supposed to be the pile of rubble here, blocking the passage! ......That’s not possible....they didn’t know it was here....they moved it! How could they find it?....We had covered it when we fled from the strange light....But we covered it well! Filikik-yip helped! How can this be?......"
Rowan and Thaile, behind the kobold, looked on in awe. They had never seen the stoic kobold lose his composure so completely. Rowan whispered to Thaile, "Looks like the ‘secret door’ isn’t as secret as someone thought, huh?"
"What’s going on?" shouted Garret from the back of the party.
***
Within the room they found the stone block that served as the trap door into the kobold’s lair. It may have once been cleverly hidden and covered in rubble.......but now it was bare, poorly fit over the hole, and painfully obvious. The conclusion was unmistakable: the goblins had taken the kobold’s lair as their own, and now they lived down below.
Unwilling to leave any unexplored passages behind them, the party decided to explore the rest of this level of Alderslook, before descending to the next. (Rule #1 from the Temple of Elemental Evil: "NEVER adventure beneath a level you haven't cleared." (Psssssst! The un-initiated may want to look here.) The hall beyond this room narrowed, choked with rubble. Riva, given his large, imposing dwarvish stature, deferred to Kytum-up and the halfling paladin. Kytum-up became stuck several times, but eventually the pair of (size Small!) heroes made it past the blockage. As they expected, the hall curved for a short while, then opened again into another rectangular room, with the curved passage continuing on the other side. (That passage turned out to be blocked, presumably because of the collapsed tower that was above it.) To the pair’s right was an empty alcove, perhaps for some statuary, while to their left rose a stair, now completely sealed with ancient collapsed blocks. When they listened carefully at the blocked stair, they could hear birds chirping, far off above them.
The two holy warriors returned to the party, and shared what they saw.
"Not much in this level, eh?" asked Riva. "Well, then, down we go!" Riva wrenched open the stone serving as a trap door. Below it was a shaft, perhaps 5’ long, that opened into the ceiling of an 8 foot tall hallway that passed below them. Crude hand- and foot-holds had been carved into the rock; the climb would not be difficult. Riva took the lead and climbed down.
At the bottom was a straight hall, 5 foot wide. They had climbed through a poorly carved hole in it’s ceiling, 8 feet above. In one direction, the hall ended after 10 feet in a smooth stone wall, with a mound of stone rubble in front of it. In the other direction, the hall ran for 10 feet or so, then descended a steep stair. Riva walked to the edge of the stair as Kytum-up climbed down the ladder behind him. The stair was only 12 feet long, or so, and at the bottom Riva could make out three passages: straight, right, and left. The halls to the right and left were narrower, and filled with stone rubble, the passage straight ahead was clear, but had a shallow pool of water filling it.
Riva and Kytum-up walked down the stairs. And if their companions called on them to wait until everyone had climbed down, the dwarf and the kobold did not hear them.
"Eh. We’ll just explore a bit while they lower that halfling’s dog down," said Riva. "Just to see what else there is......"
Standing on the last step of the stairs, the dwarf could now see the length of the hall straight ahead. It was only 20 feet long, and ended in.....the dwarf scowled with uncertainty....the hall ended in a thin, red silk curtain! Small white flowers dotted its surface. As the light from his companions torch began to filter down behind him, Riva could see the silk cloth was stained and tattered, with large patches of mud along its bottom edge.
Of course, while Riva stood admiring the curtain, all sorts of things began to happen.
A thin goblin arm snaked out of the curtain, and drew it aside. Standing behind it were two goblins, crossbows loaded and aimed at the dwarf. One of them fired at Riva, scoring a hit....a sneaky hit, one that did far more damage to the battlerager than he expected! But if that’s all there was....well, the dwarf could take it. Sneaky or no, it would take far more than a few well-aimed crossbow bolts to take down Riva!
That’s when Riva’s eyes lit upon what was squatting behind the two goblin archers: one heck of a really big crossbow. Wow, was this sucker big. And it was loaded. And it was aimed squarely at him. And yes, the tip of the ballista bolt was dripping with some sort of black icky stuff.
"Yep," thought Riva, as he gritted his teeth, "this is gonna hurt."
It did. The ballista bolt slammed into the battleragers side. Riva was still standing, and he had shaken off the poison, but still, no doubt about it: it hurt.
At that moment the other goblin crossbow man shot. He must have been laughing a bit at the dwarf’s obvious pain, as his bolt sailed wide. No matter; the goblin reached out, and shut the curtain.
"Hey now!" shouted the dwarf to the blank curtain wall in front of him, "You don’t get away that easily!"
The dwarf raged, hoisted his axe, and stepped forward to charge.
Then all sorts of other things began to happen.
While their brethren proceeded to cut Riva to ribbons, the two goblins behind the curtain drew it back again and, to add insult to injury, threw tanglefoot bags at the dwarf, alchemically pinning him to the spot. Riva could see two other goblins quickly reloading the ballista. It would be ready to fire soon. The curtain closed again.
*************
Anyone want to volunteer for dwarf duty?
More of Session #18 to come!
Session #18: How to hurt a dwarven battlerager, in 6 seconds or less.....
RL evening of Oct 1, 2003
Forming up into their usual marching order, the adventurers continued around the bending corridor, towards where their kobold guide told them was the kobold lair’s secret door.
"Just around this bend here?" Riva asked Kytum-up, practicing his recently acquired draconic language skills.
"Yes. My people used the rubble of this place to cover it, so it is undetectable to you surface dwellers," the kobold holy warrior nodded sagely. "Even those despicable goblins could not have found it. As you see....waaahhh!" <Crash!>
Kytum-up and Riva lay sprawled on the floor, unable to keep their footing on the rubble covered floor.
Rowan helped them up. "Be careful! That was louder than most of those dwarvish battle-cries you use, Riva!" Rowan made a mental note to learn the dwarvish oaths Riva was using as he stood.
"What’s going on up there?" asked Garret, at the back of the party. Even mounted on his faithful war-dog Bavic, he couldn’t see what was going on, what with the spacing of the others, the curving of the passage, and the lack of bright light.. Lissia turned to him, torch in hand, and shrugged.
Grumbling, and moving a bit more slowly, Riva crept along, with the rest of the party in tow. The stonework block passage opened into a room. Riva looked within, using his darkvision; it was a small rectangular room, much like the one they had just left, with rubble piled high against the right and the left walls. Another curving passage led out the other side.
Well behind Riva, Kytum-up had stopped, and had started gesticulated wildly and sputtering in draconic: "It was here! Right here! There’s supposed to be the pile of rubble here, blocking the passage! ......That’s not possible....they didn’t know it was here....they moved it! How could they find it?....We had covered it when we fled from the strange light....But we covered it well! Filikik-yip helped! How can this be?......"
Rowan and Thaile, behind the kobold, looked on in awe. They had never seen the stoic kobold lose his composure so completely. Rowan whispered to Thaile, "Looks like the ‘secret door’ isn’t as secret as someone thought, huh?"
"What’s going on?" shouted Garret from the back of the party.
***
Within the room they found the stone block that served as the trap door into the kobold’s lair. It may have once been cleverly hidden and covered in rubble.......but now it was bare, poorly fit over the hole, and painfully obvious. The conclusion was unmistakable: the goblins had taken the kobold’s lair as their own, and now they lived down below.
Unwilling to leave any unexplored passages behind them, the party decided to explore the rest of this level of Alderslook, before descending to the next. (Rule #1 from the Temple of Elemental Evil: "NEVER adventure beneath a level you haven't cleared." (Psssssst! The un-initiated may want to look here.) The hall beyond this room narrowed, choked with rubble. Riva, given his large, imposing dwarvish stature, deferred to Kytum-up and the halfling paladin. Kytum-up became stuck several times, but eventually the pair of (size Small!) heroes made it past the blockage. As they expected, the hall curved for a short while, then opened again into another rectangular room, with the curved passage continuing on the other side. (That passage turned out to be blocked, presumably because of the collapsed tower that was above it.) To the pair’s right was an empty alcove, perhaps for some statuary, while to their left rose a stair, now completely sealed with ancient collapsed blocks. When they listened carefully at the blocked stair, they could hear birds chirping, far off above them.
The two holy warriors returned to the party, and shared what they saw.
"Not much in this level, eh?" asked Riva. "Well, then, down we go!" Riva wrenched open the stone serving as a trap door. Below it was a shaft, perhaps 5’ long, that opened into the ceiling of an 8 foot tall hallway that passed below them. Crude hand- and foot-holds had been carved into the rock; the climb would not be difficult. Riva took the lead and climbed down.
At the bottom was a straight hall, 5 foot wide. They had climbed through a poorly carved hole in it’s ceiling, 8 feet above. In one direction, the hall ended after 10 feet in a smooth stone wall, with a mound of stone rubble in front of it. In the other direction, the hall ran for 10 feet or so, then descended a steep stair. Riva walked to the edge of the stair as Kytum-up climbed down the ladder behind him. The stair was only 12 feet long, or so, and at the bottom Riva could make out three passages: straight, right, and left. The halls to the right and left were narrower, and filled with stone rubble, the passage straight ahead was clear, but had a shallow pool of water filling it.
Riva and Kytum-up walked down the stairs. And if their companions called on them to wait until everyone had climbed down, the dwarf and the kobold did not hear them.
"Eh. We’ll just explore a bit while they lower that halfling’s dog down," said Riva. "Just to see what else there is......"
Standing on the last step of the stairs, the dwarf could now see the length of the hall straight ahead. It was only 20 feet long, and ended in.....the dwarf scowled with uncertainty....the hall ended in a thin, red silk curtain! Small white flowers dotted its surface. As the light from his companions torch began to filter down behind him, Riva could see the silk cloth was stained and tattered, with large patches of mud along its bottom edge.
Of course, while Riva stood admiring the curtain, all sorts of things began to happen.
A thin goblin arm snaked out of the curtain, and drew it aside. Standing behind it were two goblins, crossbows loaded and aimed at the dwarf. One of them fired at Riva, scoring a hit....a sneaky hit, one that did far more damage to the battlerager than he expected! But if that’s all there was....well, the dwarf could take it. Sneaky or no, it would take far more than a few well-aimed crossbow bolts to take down Riva!
That’s when Riva’s eyes lit upon what was squatting behind the two goblin archers: one heck of a really big crossbow. Wow, was this sucker big. And it was loaded. And it was aimed squarely at him. And yes, the tip of the ballista bolt was dripping with some sort of black icky stuff.
"Yep," thought Riva, as he gritted his teeth, "this is gonna hurt."
It did. The ballista bolt slammed into the battleragers side. Riva was still standing, and he had shaken off the poison, but still, no doubt about it: it hurt.
At that moment the other goblin crossbow man shot. He must have been laughing a bit at the dwarf’s obvious pain, as his bolt sailed wide. No matter; the goblin reached out, and shut the curtain.
"Hey now!" shouted the dwarf to the blank curtain wall in front of him, "You don’t get away that easily!"
The dwarf raged, hoisted his axe, and stepped forward to charge.
Then all sorts of other things began to happen.
- Below the inch pool of water, caltrops had been cleverly hidden. Riva stepped on one, instantly cutting his move in half.
- The bottom of the floor was covered with some sort of grease. Riva nearly, but not quite, lost his balance. ....And his move was halved again.
- The walls to his right and left, the supposedly rubble blocked passages, burst open, to reveal a goblin to either side, wielding viciously barbed morning stars and well-crafted armor and shields. They stood higher than Riva, and had a solid 'half wall' between themselves and the dwarf.
- Behind the goblins with morning stars, standing on even higher ground (a stairs) were two other goblins, wielding long spears. They seemed well trained in the art of fighting from the second rank.
- .....and as if that wasn’t bad enough, all four (flanking) goblins seemed quite proficient in the art of the sneak attack.
While their brethren proceeded to cut Riva to ribbons, the two goblins behind the curtain drew it back again and, to add insult to injury, threw tanglefoot bags at the dwarf, alchemically pinning him to the spot. Riva could see two other goblins quickly reloading the ballista. It would be ready to fire soon. The curtain closed again.
*************
Anyone want to volunteer for dwarf duty?
More of Session #18 to come!
Game on, man! 
A group comprised of Neutral Evil individuals I can see organizing an ambush like this, but as soon as the tide of battle turns against them, I see them scattering. Those backed into corners I expect to scatter much earlier (perhaps as soon as their leader steps away).
Next time I'll ask Capellan! 
