TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

[(un)reason]

5/6 players present. This one also started slowly, as the players asked about the city of L'trel and got a feel for what areas still remained undestroyed, with a focus on ones that might have good treasure to loot. After a bit of discussion, they noticed that all three temples on the left side of the map were still untouched, with the priests holed up prepared for if the kaiju came their way, which definitely seemed promising. They decided to go straight for the toughest nut, the temple of Heironeous. (using the map for the temple of Tempus from Polyhedron 115) There they saw three of the toughest clerics patrolling around the perimeter while more manned the ramparts. Of course, while they might have been high level for a gritty, low magic area, they were no match for the combo of invisibility and blasting power that the PC's have now and they were gone in a couple of rounds. This did not go unnoticed by the other guards on the ramparts though, and they sounded the alarm & sent a volley of crossbow bolts in the direction of the non-sneaky PC's. The binder & winged kobold were able to fly straight up to them to continue the fight, while the sniper blinked invisibly up onto the roofs to see what was happening further into the compound, but the priestess and the drow were left behind on the ground with no-one to fight. To make up for that, the drow used telekinesis to push one of the guards off into whipping range, then summoned an air elemental to carry the two of them up once that guy was thoroughly flayed.

Higher up, the binder continued to average one dead guard per round, while the others noticed that on the grounds, the clerics were scrambling to action and hurriedly assemble their attack dogs & mount their griffons. Since those might be more valuable resources if they could take control of them, the sniper unleashed his Wings of Flurry to selectively take out the griffon riders while leaving the griffons unharmed. The griffons still panicked and took off, but being well-trained, they'd probably wander back eventually once the havoc died down. The other inhabitants of the temple continued to die at a high rate, it all seemed like this would be another cakewalk, when they discovered I'd merely been lulling them into a false sense of security. From across the city they heard the sound of a massive foghorn like voice giving an indistinct command (think train station tannoys) and saw a colossal metallic humanoid shape emerging from the sea, towering over the buildings. It's time to pit the kaiju from Beast of Burden against the giant mecha from Heart of the Iron God and see how they really compare in a stand-up fight, which is a match-up I've wanted to do ever since I read the two adventures and have worked quite hard behind the scenes to set up. Let's see just what kind of havoc ensues next week.

 

[(un)reason]

The action continued straight on from last time and kept going all the way through this session. 5 players were present, including the return of one from the Hijinx sessions who jumped in and promoted Zhamthrul the beholder to PC status. This was extra handy because the githyanki player was still on holiday, so at least someone was on top of the Kadtanach to take charge when the Colossus appeared on the horizon. He dispatched three of the werewolves to head towards it, as their movement rate is quite a bit faster than the Kadtanach's, to scout out what was going on. But since it was still half a mile away it was obvious that it would be several minutes before any actual combat could take place on this front, which gave the other PC's a chance to wrap things up at the temple. The binder shredded enemies on the ramparts, the sniper used his AoE powers to fry the clerics coming from the barracks, the priestess and winged kobold fought the clerics and war dogs in the central courtyard head-on, while the drow hid behind them and spammed summons. A mere 30 seconds later, there were no enemy combatants remaining within line of sight. They spent another minute shovelling anything that pinged as magical into their extradimensional spaces, then the drow summoned another air elemental to carry everyone except the binder (who had wandered off into one of the buildings and could fly under her own power anyway, albeit at a slower pace) back at high speed.

Back in the city at large, things had not been static. While the colossus lumbered towards the kadtanach at a pace barely faster than regular walking speed, half a dozen hang gliders had launched from a hatch in its back and were headed towards it considerably faster. They passed over the werewolves, shooting them as they went, but since the bolts weren't silver they didn't actually do any damage and the werewolves couldn't attack back. They then reached the kadtanach and started shooting down at the PC's on there. However, this took some of them within range of Zhamthrul's eye rays, which did not go well for them. One was put to sleep and started veering off course dramatically, another was disintegrated and a third hit by finger of death, also sending their glider out of control on an imminent crash course. The remaining three curved around the Kadtanach and tried to ascend, shooting as they went and doing mild damage to the now returned priestess & drow. The werewolves remaining on the kadtanach tried to fire ballistas at the colossus, but the combination of range and untrained penalties (give them a break, they've only been driving this thing for a month now) meant they had no chance of hitting unless they rolled natural 20's. The colossus revealed it had balistas mounted in its hands and fired back, but since they were also eating a 600' range penalty they also missed despite a higher attack bonus. Most of the players also didn't have anything with enough range to contribute to this fight so they're holding actions on the kadtanaches back until the colossus gets closer. The only ones still actively doing stuff are the winged kobold, who's flown down to get a closer look at the colossuses feet, and the binder, trying to catch up as fast as she can. Just before we ran out of time, the colossus did reveal another of the tricks up its sleeve as its massive eye glinted, and the wizard inside cast an ice storm to rain down upon the beholder & priestess. So far, it's looking like I've done the math right so the PC's will probably win eventually, but this will be a massive multi-session fight as the two gigantic creatures finally get within melee range with the distinct possibility that there will be some PC deaths if the squishier party members don't watch their positioning.

 

[(un)reason]

Another full 4 hour session with 5/7 players present that only covered a single minute of game time. The githyanki's player finally returned from his holiday, which meant his character also came through the teleportation circle on the back of the kadtanach (with a bunch of new gear and summons he'd been working up during the break) and saw the mess they'd managed to get into without him. The team were all in different places on the map doing their own things, so it was going to take some work to get them co-ordinated again. Meanwhile, the colossus continued its slow but inexorable stride towards the kadtanach and a second wave of gliders came out from the hatch on it's back, these ones slightly heavier and with bombs rather than crossbows. The binder activated some new tricks to further increase her speed and got a lead on reaching the colossus. The winged kobold and trio of scouting werewolves were already close enough to get a more detailed look and saw the portcullises on the feet of the colossus with the gnomes inside to operate them. The kobold sniper teleported close next and the two of them had a brief moment of commiseration about their shared hatred of gnomes before taking different directions, with the sniper blasting at the foot portcullises and directing the werewolves to do likewise while the winged one flew round the back to see where the gliders had come from. He saw the hangar doors slowly closing shut again, put on a burst of speed and managed to squeeze in just in time, unsheathe his mind blade and one-shot the gnome at the controls. He then spent a round recovering his focus and changing the controls to leave the back entrance open just in case any other PC's wanted to come in that way before opening the door to room 14, where he saw another gnome and Torax the minotaur doing their parts in keeping the colossus going. The gnome was once again no trouble at all, but Torax managed to do half his HP in a single full attack, reminding us once again that splitting the party is rarely a good idea. He tumbled out of attack range and round the corner into room 17 to re-establish stealth, which won't save him for long in such confined quarters, but may at least let him get another sneak attack in.

Meanwhile, the sniper continued to focus upon the gates in the feet from a distance while the werewolves harried them closer up. Two of the werewolves got stomped upon in the process, but their DR is high enough that this did less than half their hp, leaving them squashed in little indents in the ground after the colossus moved on. After three rounds of blasting, they managed to break one of the portcullises and the werewolves headed in, where they found that the cramped quarters of the feet were too small for their wolf forms, so they had to return to human and use the lift to get up the leg, which only fit one at a time and was a three round trip, which meant it'd be a while before they could reach the torso of the robot and all get in on the fighting again.

Also meanwhile, the binder flew straight for the head of the colossus and landed on the left eye. Inside, she saw Xentarich the wizard, the guy originally in charge in this adventure, and their old adversary the H'Jyord, now thoroughly upgraded with a bunch of prestige classes and magic items (most importantly, abjurant champion and the helm of Warduke) in the hope that I could make him an adversary able to survive at least a few rounds without cheating. The githyanki teleported in shortly afterwards, using spider climb to stick to the colossus. The H'Jyord tried to turn one of their own tricks against them by glitterdusting the pair before teleporting away to warn people in the lower levels, but they managed to save against that one. Xentarich tried the more conventional approach of lots of AoE blasting spells, but the githyanki climbed to the side to get out of view so he was mostly unharmed and looked for other ways in and he only managed to get three out before the binder managed to successfully smash through the glass in the eye and eviscerate him. Seeing that they had a good way in, the sniper also gave up on the feet and teleported up to the head, joined another round later by the drow who had summoned a bunch of invisible stalkers to carry him over. They were somewhat slowed down by the narrow stairs into the lower level of the head, where they found the H'Jyord and Khrull the cleric casting buff spells on themselves as fast as they could. The H'Jyord hit the githyanki with a dispel magic as he approached, but that only removed 5 out of his 18(!) buff spells and revealed that he was currently polymorphed into a barbazu with a disguise spell to make him look like himself, and had invested in a powerful maul with a bar-lugura bound in it so he could operate as a hand to hand combatant as well as a spellcaster. The H'Jyord tried to disarm him, but the maul teleported back into his hands and started smashing, while the invisible stalkers went around them and took out the gnomes. Khrull tried to fight back, but was hit by a grease spell, which kept him from doing anything useful for another round. A couple of rounds later and the H'Jyord was reduced to negative hit points. It looked as if the PC's had triumphed.

However, they'd reckoned without another of his contingencies as one of the gems in his magical helmet stopped glowing, expending a stored Heal to bring him back up to full hp. Since it was obvious he once again couldn't win the battle by conventional means, he ordered the colossus to grapple the kadtanach and engage self-destruct, then tried to teleport away. However, he rolled extremely poorly on his defensive casting check, which meant the githyanki got in an attack of opportunity that did enough damage to lock him down for another round. It's now obvious that the PC's are going to win the fight, but the big question is if they'll figure out some way to stop the self destruct and have two giant things under their control, keep their kaiju clear of the blast and keep just the one, or lose both of them and a whole bunch of their resources in the ensuing explosion and whether the H'Jyord will get away for a third try or this will be his final hurrah. I'm slightly annoyed that this is all going to be resolved without any actual kaiju fight, but they still seem to be having fun and I can still think of several more opportunities to arrange that kind of thing before this campaign is over.

 

[(un)reason]

Once again, 5/7 were present and the entire session encapsulated precisely a minute of game time, although it only took 3 hours to play out as there were now fewer enemies on the board. The binder and githyanki continued to try to finish off the H'Jyord for good before he could teleport away, while the drow bounced a lightning bolt off the side of the colossusses head to hit as many of the enemies as possible even if it meant going through some of his own invisible stalkers along the way. But the H'Jyord had enough hp to survive another round of regular attacks and his SR worked just fine against the lightning bolt, so he once again got away with an ominous quip that hinted at the next way he'd try to destroy them. ("watch out for demodragons", because having already referenced the D&D cartoon once, I might as well embrace the bit) Since time was now of the essence, they threw the bodies in the Binder's enveloping pit for later looting. The sniper teleported straight back to the kadtanach to warn the other characters still onboard. The drow & binder then went up to the top floor of the head and did the same for the shelves of books in there, while the githyanki cast forcecage on the central rainbow, reasoning that if that was crucial to the operation of the colossus, immobilising it would also prevent the rest of the colossus from moving around. This turned into an argument about newtonian vs einsteinian mechanics and whether being fixed to a certain point in space would be relative to the ground or their current velocity, but eventually I decided to allow it. He then went down to the 6th floor to see if there was anything else to grab in the remaining 30 seconds, but all he saw was the ballista operators coming from the robot's arms heading for the escape teleporter. Not wanting to waste further time fighting them when they were only lackeys and probably didn't have any interesting treasure, he then teleported away, leaving the drow and binder to make their own escape. The drow decided to use plane shift rather than teleport to get away, aiming for their astral ship parked by the color portal to needlespire. Of course, being a prime material native, he forgot that this was a bad idea because it has an error margin of 5d% miles and extradimensional spaces don't work in the astral plane, so all their gear and minions dumped unceremoniously out as soon as they arrived, forcing them to chain everything together and tow it the rest of the way. They're out of immediate danger, but that blunder will mean it'll take at least several days of in game time before they can reunite the party.

Things get even more complicated, as we flip viewpoint to that of the winged kobold in the middle of the colossus. Upon hearing the start of the countdown, Torax the minotaur decided his own survival was more important than pursuing the intruder and headed straight for the teleportation device in area 16. Our kobold watched this from around the crack in the door, then went to look closer after the minotaur disappeared. He examined the controls, but with no ranks in knowledge skills, couldn't make heads or tails of them. A couple of rounds later he heard the elevator going, and a group of fighters & gnomes from lower down in the colossus came rushing in to escape. He decided to do the classic ninja move of clinging to the ceiling, hoping they'd be too busy to look up. Thankfully, his stealth rolls were good this time, and he managed to get a good look at exactly what buttons they pressed to operate the teleporter in the process. He then heard someone else approaching, but it turned out to be one of the winter werewolves, finally having reached the top of their elevator and not quite sure what all these sudden flashing lights meant, but sure it wasn't anything good. The kobold quickly filled him in on what had happened from his perspective and the two of them decided to take the teleporter out, sending them on a solo mission which will have to be resolved outside the usual session time. Shortly afterwards, the fighters from two floors up that the githyanki encountered earlier came down the elevator to use the teleporter, but not all of them managed to make it out before the countdown hit zero. Even so, the kobold and werewolf are definitely going to have a rough time on their own, surrounded, in enemy territory, with more enemies just a few rounds behind them on the other end and are most likely to survive if they use stealth and running away rather than trying to fight everything.

Rewinding the clock again, our third point of view is obviously that of the PC's still on the kadtanaches back. The priestess & orc egged the beast on while the beholder took cover from the gliders that were now flying too high to shoot back at. The colossus had also broken into a run and the two collided in spectacular style with the kadatanch spearing the colossus in the groin with its horns. They traded blows for several rounds, from which it became apparent that because the colossus has considerably better DR, it would probably win a static fight where the two just stood still and hit each other, but because the kadtanach has fast healing but the colossus doesn't, a more mobile method of fighting would favour the living kaiju. However, the countdown was clearly audible even outside the colossus and with the arrival of the other PC's, it was obvious that sticking around here was a bad idea. The priestess also got hit by three rounds of napalm from the heavy bombers, reducing her to negative hp. The sniper had to act fast, using levitation to keep her from being shaken off the kadtanaches back, then expending a couple of charges from his own healing belt to bring her back to positive. The githyanki arrived a few rounds after the sniper and cast haste on the Kadtanach, giving them just under 30 seconds to get clear at an accelerated full run, followed by the remaining two werewolves who had taken the time to get out of the colossuses foot when it stopped moving. The sniper used the last of those few rounds to cast Superior Resistance on as many people as possible to increase their odds of surviving the blast. Fortunately, according to the original adventure, the explosion only has 100' radius, which may sound impressive in D&D terms but is actually pretty pitiful when put on a realistic sized city map, so after all the precautions they'd taken, it actually seemed somewhat anticlimactic. But even though they've won the day, now the party is split between three different locations with a fair bit of their resources expended, with no idea where the missing PC's have gone, so it's going to take a fair bit more work before they can resume their main objective. I look forward to seeing what wacky ways they try to resolve this situation.