TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

[(un)reason]

Some lateness and general confusion due to daylight saving shifts, but everyone eventually turned up. This was another session full of combat, although the action economy was definitely more in favour of the players this time. The winged kobold, being extremely low on hit points, killed the monk in front of him and headed up the stairs to the library where the others were finishing off the jann & fleeing monks. There he got some healing from the priestess and got ready to head back to the fight. The drow summoned an elder earth elemental, which was not the wisest of tactical choices because it's too big to fit through the doors, trapping it in the library until it did some smashing. Having cleared all the obvious threats on this level, the group split up again and headed downstairs, except for one of the summoned barbazu, which explored the rest of the top floor while telepathically relaying info back to the gthyanki. It encountered the mephits in the bathhouse and the prisoners in area 26, but since neither attacked it, it simply completed an exploration of all the open rooms, before trying to smash it's way into the heavily sealed room 28.

Downstairs, things were rather more interesting. The other barbazu met a logjam on the stairs, as Argharot the yak-folk, the brass golem and the two ogre mages all tried to follow the kobold upstairs, but kept getting in each other's way and not being able to move their full rate. The binder headed down the stairs and attacked as well, but this turned out to be another instance where her massive flurries of small attacks with fire damage added on were not only ineffective, but would actually have healed the golem if it had taken any damage. Growing impatient, the ogre mages used gaseous form to get around the yak-folk and flank the binder, but this only gave her targets she could actually hurt.

In another thread, our githyanki disguised as a yak-folk headed down the stairs and to the north door of the library, out through the guard room and to room 11, where Xotkil the master librarian beholder was continuing to work, uninterested in the intruders as long as the books were fine. When the door was opened, it was very fortunate only a side eye saw him, otherwise the jig would have been up very quickly. The githyanki made a hasty bluff check to say that yes, there were intruders, but it was all under control. When it looked like the beholder was about to turn back to it's writings, he cast cloudkill and closed the door, before moving out of the line of sight of the doorway ready for when it opened it again. Our orc arrived a round later and seeing his ally in a position by the door, also readied an action for whatever trouble might be coming out of that door. When the beholder used its main eye to suppress the cloudkill and opened the door from the side with its telekinesis eye, very angry, he leapt into action and sliced it apart with his mighty battleaxe. The two of them then joined in the fight on the main stairway, the orc taking some damage, but able to penetrate the golem's DR in a way that the binder could not, while the priestess also managed to squeeze down the stairs to finish Argharot off.

At this point, the combat would have been over. However, the drow, being suspicious of the statue in room 14 even though it hadn't moved in several rounds of observation, cast magic missile on it. This meant the brain in a jar inside it could no longer lay low in hopes of surviving by avoiding their notice and attacked him back with mind thrust. This failed against his SR and he called out to the others. The binder was first up there and between her and the summoned earth elemental, the statue was quickly smashed, revealing the flying brain within. Looks like there's still a few more challenges to deal with at the start of next session before they can properly loot this place and get the next bit of exposition.

 

[(un)reason]

A relatively short session, with only one person late. The flying brain was easily dispatched with a single round of Binder full attack, dropping most of the group out of combat. The flying kobold killed the fleeing monk in his way a round later, giving them free rein to move around the map. The only thing still running on strict time was the barbazu trying to smash its way into room 28, which succeeded just before the duration of its summon wore off. It was telepathically relaying information back to the githyanki, which abruptly cut off as the fungus-infected abomination in room 28 annihilated it with claws and tentacles. This became another slightly tricky fight because only half the group could contribute in the small room, but after a few rounds and a moderate amount of damage, including the binder being infected with fungus again they managed to drop it to negative hp, with the sniper finishing it off with the usual scintilating sphere.

Having finally dropped out of combat time for good, they interrogated the prisoners. They did not make the sense motive check to spot one was a melded yak-folk and took their stories about being mountaineers who climbed the wrong mountain and cleric from a far land kidnapped by genies at face value. After a little talk, they decided to release them, with the Binder doing so in dramatic style by picking them up one by one and flying them out the window to the ground below. There was a short speedbump as she had to deal with a trio of Dao gardeners trying to retake the place, but that took a mere 2 full attacks before they were paste. They then thoroughly searched the whole place for treasure, tripping the chain lightning trap on the main treasure room but avoiding the contact poison protecting the beholder's stash. They found the diary of the master, which gave them full exposition on the fungus and the things he had been doing with it over the past month (see next post) This meant the rest of the session turned into a combination of bookkeeping and discussing their next move. Eventually, consensus was that even though Xhagevoxhab might break out soon, they still had enough time to go back, report and do some shopping, particularly making sure people had more weapons that dealt with the Scarlet Children's regeneration. Looks like they're finally about to get back to the main plotline of saving the world at least once in the process of conquering it.

 

[(un)reason]

Diary of Master Xiang Ru: Highest enlightened one of the dread pagoda.


(28 days ago): We have lost contact with our agent in the kuo-toa community below. I’m dispatching a team of several Jann to investigate the situation.

(24 days ago): The Jann have returned bearing news of a curious fungus that infects all it touches and takes control of the bodies of those it kills. Even their partly elemental flesh is not immune. Fortunately, the fungus appears to be unable to abide the touch of sunlight, to their relief when they returned to the surface, so it is of no great concern to the enlightened ones.

(23 days ago): It seems I spoke too soon. While the fungus perishes at the touch of sunlight, once it has penetrated the flesh of a living creature, it remains dormant within during the daylight hours, only to resume its growth at night. Several Jann turned during the night, and killed several more of our supplicants before they were banished. Even I was briefly infected, but this was easy to solve with the use of Jin Niu's wishes. Still, this fungus is far more intriguing than I first thought. I have retained one of the jann as a prisoner for further examination.

(22 days ago): Lost contact with the Svirfneblin settlement. This does not appear to be connected to the fungus, but what wiped them out so savagely and then simply left remains a mystery.

(21 days ago): Lost contact with the Grimlock settlement. This one is rather easier to solve, thanks to our mole among the frost giants. Agents of the lich-queen have come to the mountain in their eternal war against the illithid. Fortunately, they appear willing to negotiate with those not allied with the brain-eaters so it is unlikely they will be an immediate problem for us. Still, increasing the number of genie guards summoned does seem a wise move in the immediate future.

19 days ago: I have grown weary of trying to unravel the mystery of the fungus by conventional means and resorted to using the wishes of Jin Niu. Through them, I have discovered that it is the creation of an ancient druid named Xhagevoxhab, who became one with his creation and grew into a massive beast that sought to incorporate the entire world into its bulk. After a fierce battle thousands of years ago, it was banished to another realm, but the bindings keeping it imprisoned are weakening and it is beginning to once again spread it's tendrils across this plane. Fortunately, electricity, acid and sunlight all effectively destroy it, so it is only a threat to the denizens of the underdark even if it were to get loose. I believe we can still turn this to our advantage despite the loss of some valuable assets.

(14 days ago): The fungus continues to spread throughout the northeastern tunnels of the mountain. The goblins have fallen and the dwarves are under siege. I have permitted my agents to leak the knowledge of its weakneses to them. I shall watch with great interest to see how well they can hold it off with their discipline and crafting skill.

(12 days ago): Manzessine prison and the neighbouring illithid town have fallen. There were still several scarlet children picking over the ruins of the prison, but the town was sealed off by rockfall. My servants had to summon a Dao to get through it, which reported that it was abandoned, but with the bodies destroyed in a massive pile, as if they’d managed to defeat the scarlet children, but left anyway. Still, if the illithid are spooked enough to abandon the area, that removes one of our largest obstacles to controlling the mountain.

(9 days ago): My attempt to cultivate the fungus under my own control are hitting a wall, for it loses all it’s virulence when the connection to Xhagevoxhab is severed. I must somehow create a new focus, one under my control. Yet even the powers of a single wish are not enough to completely rewrite the complex magical underpinning of this pestilence. I shall have to word my next attempts carefully.

(7 days ago): I have willingly reinfected myself with the fungus in an attempt to understand it further. With the aid of the perpetual daylight spell in my private garden I can carefully control it's progress and banish it at any time. I am the master of the Yikaria. No mere mold will defy me!

(4 days ago): I have managed to keep the fungus alive, while using it to infect one of the monks while within the dimensionally locked chamber. He even managed to infect and command the rats I introduced. However, as soon as it was released, the power of the stronger hive-mind reasserted itself, and I had to destroy them again. As long as Xhagevoxhab touches this plane, I cannot become the true master of the fungus. Nor have I yet managed to remove the funguses vulnerability to sunlight that would keep it from spreading across the surface lands under my dominion. Perhaps introducing a symbiotic photosynthetic exostructure to draw off the light and convert it into a useful form might be fruitful. I have dispatched some Jann to Cair Pahor’an to seek out suitable test subjects for cultivation.

(2 days ago): The dwarven siege lasted longer than I expected, but they too have proven no match for the relentless power of the scarlet children! A few refugees have survived and fled on the surface, seeking adventurers to aid them. The rest are now one with the fungus. And so Xhagevoxhab's touch grows a little stronger.

(1 day ago): My dreams intermingle with those of Xhagevoxhab, but my waking mind remains my own. If nothing is done, His coming will be in a matter of months, not years. I must find a way to slow His advance without cutting the tie completely, so I have more time to grow to match His power. The Enlightened ones shall be triumphant!

 

[(un)reason]

Another fairly short session where everyone turned up punctually. Having finally learned the source of the fungus taking over the mountain and the name of its master, the group's next objective was clear. They still spent several days heading back to Tu'narath, making sure their superiors were briefed on the problem, getting a reassurance that if Xhagevoxhab turned out to be too powerful for the group to handle they could planeshift out and call in backup, then shopping for some more weapons that dealt with the scarlet children's regeneration. Then it was back down into the depths of the mountain for several miles of twisty tunnels and wandering monster encounters. In chronological order, this consisted of: Yellow mold, which was easily spotted and bypassed without incident. A pair of giant slugs mating, ripped into tiny chunks by the Binder. Some fungus-infected darkmantles as they grew closer to the source, which did manage to infect the drow before falling and required them to break out the healing magic for the first time. Some equally fungus-infected Digesters, which broke out their acid attacks straight away and managed to do some real damage before dying. Some fungus-infected Phantom Fungus (yo dawg, I heard you like fungus, so I infected your fungus with a different kind of fungus) which were easily spotted by the Binder's blindsight, which meant it seemed like she was slashing at air to the other PC's when they caught up with her. Of course, at their level of experience, guessing it was invisible enemies was no stretch at all, so the sniper simply dropped a scintilating sphere far enough behind her that she was just out of its radius and zapped the rest of them.

This pattern continued when they crossed the river and entered the city of J'bhulgolboth, slowly exploring along the north side, facing two more gangs of kuo-toa along the way, but neither of them were any challenge. Admittedly they are overlevelled for this adventure even using the scaling guidelines and are no longer struggling to deal with the disease & regeneration puzzles the fungus presented at first, but this is almost too easy. I find myself sorely tempted to find out if 7 12-13th level PC's could actually take down a CR 18 monster like Xhagevoxhab in a fight. Still, I should be able to string the adventure out another session or two before being forced to make that decision. I do particularly want to make sure they have the cloaks that let them go underwater before they leave the area, so I can run Death of Lashmire/Seekers of the Silver Forge later, as they're a pair of connected underwater adventures involving gith that I'm particularly interested in running from the githyanki perspective.

 

[(un)reason]

Well, it's the 5th anniversary of the thread. So much for any hope that I'd get through this journey quicker than the Dragon run. Prepping and running a game takes up quite a bit of the time I would be using for writing this thread, but I am still getting through around 2-3 issues per month and my buffer is currently up to mid 2009, so I'm still on course to eventually finish this gargantuan project. The Knights of the Lich-Queen campaign has gone from level 6 to 13 over the past 7 months, so it'll definitely be finished one way or another by this time next year. But will I be back to regular daily posting, or will Iron Lords of Jupiter turn out to be similarly long-running? Let's keep on going and find out just how epic and convoluted this journey is by the end.

 

[(un)reason]

No session this week. Two people cancelled in advance, one person showed up an hour after the game was supposed to start to apologise about a sudden emergency and the last one turned up an hour and a half late after everyone had already given up, leaving just 3 out of 7 waiting around for an hour. The daylight saving shift contributed a little to the chaos, but yeah, this is a little disappointing after nearly 6 months without missing a session. Hopefully we'll be back to business as usual next week.

 

[(un)reason]

Back into action this week, although one person called off in advance and another no-showed, leaving 5/7 of the group present. Having hit a lull in the fighting, the sniper skittered around on the outside wall of the prison and looked inside. He rolled pretty well on his spot check and caught a glimpse of the similarly skittery and climby Plugoo wandering around the ceilings inside gecko style. One even better diplomacy roll later and they managed to get through Plugoo's insanity enough to get some exposition (punctuated by lots of praise to Blibdoolpoolp) about the layout of the city and the timeline of the funguses takeover. This was then interrupted by another wave of fungus-infected kuo-toa from the south. Most of the party took them on, but several looked at the fungus-covered water to the east, worried attacks might come from that. Another good spot check later and they were aware that there were indeed fungus sharks lurking in the water, ready to chomp anyone who tried swimming across. The priestess laid into them with her shiny new new acidic whip and they tried to infect her back with their fungus tendrils, but the combination of glitterdust induced blindness and her high fort save meant nothing got through. Before long, the sharks, kuo-toa and the chuul lurking in area 12 had all been reduced to negative HP and shocked or corroded into oblivion. Having reached another lull and impressed their latest hanger-on that they might actually have a chance of pulling this off, the binder sent her bird familiar up to scout around the cavern and figure out their next move. Noting that there were plenty more Kuo-toa on their way, but the temple of Blibdoolpoolp was the only place untouched by the fungus, they decided to investigate there rather than just sit around and fight everything in the city the long way.

And so, after popping all the nonfliers into their extradimensional space and making sure they stayed well above the water on the jaunt over, they headed into the temple. They let Plugoo lead the way, and upon hearing the voices of the ghosts whispering in the walls, were suitably conciliatory. This meant they managed to get through the first three levels of the temple without incident, letting him go past the shell golem to explore the second floor while they stayed on the stairs and pass through the electrically warded doors to the balcony on the third floor while they explored the rest. (except the Binder who followed and tanked the damage knowing she could now regenerate it trivially out of combat time) Their luck ran out on the top floor when they encountered the gibbering mouther in the pool of area C21. They could see the closet beyond the pool that presumably contained something valuable, but didn't want to do anything desecrationey while Plugoo was present. So they bustled him (and the priestess, who was the only one who failed the will save against its confusion power) out the door and shut it behind them to investigate the other rooms. But the hungry mouther wouldn't take no for an answer and started oozing under the bottom of the door. To keep the charade up, they asked Plugoo to go back down the stairs and ask the spirits for guidance, then shredded the mouther once he was out of sight. Now the party wants to rest up here and consider their next move, since they seem to be in no immediate danger from the fungus-infested hordes, but with the main thing keeping the ghosts from attacking temporarily out of the picture, it's not going to be that simple for them. Will they think to put on the water-breathing cloaks and go down the central tube to the underlevels to get the sealing macguffins like the adventure intended, or is this adventure going to be resolved more messily in a big battle? Still plenty of room for this game to surprise me even now.

 

[(un)reason]

Once again 5/7 were present, more than enough to keep things going. They started by investigating the closet from last time. They detected the trap, but let the Binder tank it as usual rather than going through all the effort of disarming. Inside, they of course found seven gray shimmering robes, precisely one for each PC. Knowing an obvious plot device when they saw it, the Githyanki broke out his identify magic. After a bit of bickering and a brief interruption from the ghosts in the walls angry about the vandalism, which was easily solved by the priestesses rebuke powers, they decided to follow the obvious path for a change, put on the cloaks and swim down the big central pipe to the basement levels. They spent quite a while exploring the catacombs of the first basement level, finding that just sticking to a single wall and tracing around soon led back to the big central room, facing lots of zombies & skeletons that were speedbumps even with the penalties for underwater fighting. Eventually they encountered the ghost of the Hidden Claw, who doesn't realise he's dead. This led to another somewhat comical roleplaying scene, but since the (increasingly freaked out) Plugoo was there, it once again didn't lead to violence, and they got some more exposition about the 5 tablets that contained the ritual needed to reseal the gate Xhagevoxhab is trying to break through. They persuaded him to show them the way through the maze to the (very long) tunnel down to the next level. The increasing water pressure meant they had to leave Plugoo and the undead they'd taken control of rather than destroyed here. The ghost floated through the crystal caverns, leaving the PC's behind to fight the near invisible water elemental in the water, which once again involved the Binder using her blindsight to attack first and the others having to go by her directions because they all rolled poorly on their spot checks. Its damage resistance soaked her many small attacks, which meant it was the orc's turn to shine again. Once that had been thoroughly pounded with his martial maneuvers, they continued down into the corridor filled with Blibdoolpoolp statues, which they watched carefully just in case they all came to life or started shooting lasers from their eyes. They reached the air-filled room right at the bottom with the ghost of the high priest, but unfortunately completely botched the diplomacy roll this time, which turned both the high priest and hidden claw against them. Fortunately, even the two of them were easily dispatched within a couple of rounds even with all the miss chances due to incorporeality, like everything else in this adventure so far. Since they were now way underground in a completely sealed area, they decided that this was probably a good time to take a rest without worrying about wandering monster attacks. But since they destroyed the ghosts, the chance of them rebinding Xhagevoxhab successfully is now even lower. Still, at least they'll be doing the big boss fight with full HP & spells, plus a few extra NPC minions to keep the pressing fungal hordes from ganging up on any one character too much.

 

[(un)reason]

Once again, 5 players were present. The session started slowly, as they explored the final reliquary level of the temple. They found the buttons that opened the gates to the rooms containing the fake chains and tablets, and examined them carefully before proceeding. Using read magic first on the fake tablets and getting nothing made them suspicious, and a good spellcraft roll on the fake chains confirmed that these were just a weak decoy. They rolled poorly on their initial search rolls to find the secret room though, forcing them to take 20 and delaying their progress for a few hours more. Getting into the sarcophagus in there was similarly slow, as they not only had to deal with the trap, but also the sheer weight of lifting it simultaneously, taking several attempts before they got the right configuration of one person rolling and the others using aid another. Once they did finally decipher the tablets, it was obvious they had two choices. They could go down to the bottom of the lake and perform a ritual resealing Xhagevoxhab. Or they could do a somewhat quicker & easier one that released it so they could fight it and end the threat for good. Either way, they'd have to fight their way through the pressing fungal hordes, now even greater in number since they'd had another day to gather at the edges of the temple's barrier. (now including the ex-PC they left behind all the way back in Spiral of Manzessine, because a sadistic DM never misses an opportunity to have any loose ends come back to bite the PC's) This was further complicated by the lake being big and dark beneath the crust of fungus, so they were worried about not being able to find the gate until (after several hints on my part which had them bemused for quite a while) they remembered the lich-queen had given two of them macguffins for precisely this purpose back in February. This part resolved, they decided to split the party, have half of them dimension door straight in the direction indicated by the magical compass while the others mowed down the fungal creatures above the water to keep them distracted so they might be able to pull off the sealing ritual.

So after that lengthy bit of debating & planning we finally started actual combat well over halfway into the session. The githyanki, priestess, two kobolds & Plugoo were the advance force, as they were the ones with the knowledge skills needed to perform the ritual & sneakiness that made them more likely to get through without fighting everything, while the orc, drow, binder & a bunch of summoned minions stayed back to cause the carnage. Everyone was buffed up to the gills before they made their move. We spent a few rounds focussing on the guys at the surface, but once the orc took out the fungally infested ex-PC with a giant leap and three high power strikes that sent her splatting into the lake, it was obvious that there weren't going to be any serious challenges on this front and we could spend most of the spotlight time on the underwater adventures. But those aren't going to be a cakewalk for them, as rather than just have Xhagevoxhab chained in a crater on the lake bottom like the original adventure, he's now sealed behind a magical gate at the bottom of a whole temple complex based on The Akriloth. The PC's still have a direct pointer to his location so they won't be wandering aimlessly, but as it's behind 4 levels of dungeon and a moderate amount of monsters, (with more approaching from the rear as the hivemind realises what they're doing and diverting the kuo-toa & sharks from outside to help) there's a decent chance they'll have to expend some more resources & have buffs expire, before arriving just as the Scarlet Lord dramatically breaks free anyway. They've already spent a couple of rounds dealing with the fungus infested snapping turtles in area 1. Let's see if I can actually make them sweat next session and make this feel like an actual climax to this section of the campaign, or they'll continue to mow through the opposition quickly and easily whenever they get into a straightforward fight.

 

[(un)reason]

Back in action after after a week's absence due to me having to work on Sunday. 6 out of 7 players were present, including the Drow who hadn't shown up for a full month now. (and we were starting to wonder if he was gone for good, but turns out he was just busy moving house) In sharp contrast to last time, this was pretty much pure action, as I tried to keep flipping perspectives back and forth to keep people from feeling left out despite the party being split. First up, some time spent on the surface where the fungus sharks had a pretty poor time against the damage resistance and disease immunity of the drow's summoned water elementals. After a couple of rounds of that which made it clear the PC's were in no real danger despite the sheer number of opponents they had to fight, we flipped back down to the underwater temple entrance, where the high hp of the turtles meant they took a good 4 rounds to finish off. While this was taking place, our sniper was skittering ahead as usual, using a combination of invisibility and blink to get through the walls and make sure he explored every nook and cranny while avoiding notice. He soon became aware that there were multiple places where the wall into the temple had crumbled that were being guarded by more sharks, which were aware of the PC's due to the hivemind and trying to set up ambushes themselves. But having no real stealth skills, he could easily spot them and report back to the others, who headed that way and laid into them, with the summons going first and absorbing most of the damage. The sniper once again stayed out of combat and kept on checking his compass, finding that they were close enough that even small movements now changed the direction it was pointing. He soon found the precise spot above the gate and tried phasing down, but weirdly enough, there's no open space between levels 1 & 4 where the gate is (and I had to carefully measure the maps from the stairways to figure that out, as the levels aren't all in neat squares one above the other) so after going 30' down he had to head back up again to avoid ending his move inside the rock and taking damage. Since it didn't look like they'd be able to short-circuit the adventure that way it was time to go back to the entrance and do a bit more exploring for the proper way down.

Meanwhile, up above, most of the monsters had stopped fighting and dived for the temple to defend it. This was the players cue that it was time to reunite the party. So the Drow, Binder & Orc hitched a ride on a couple of the water elementals and chased them down, leaving just 5 summoned monsters up top to keep that front of the fight going. They arrived at the bottom just as the others meandered back to the main gates, leading to another fairly brief battle against the wave of kuo-toa that had made it down before them. While the other 6 were busy, the sniper once again snuck off, this time heading down the ramp to the north. He easily spotted the secret door to the east and explored that, finding the tunnel down to level 2 and the other secret door leading into the altar room. Once the battle was over, he once again apprised the other PC's of the situation and they followed him, leaving the elementals behind at the gates to slow down the next load of kuo-toa and sharks from behind. The sniper headed down to the next level while several of the others investigated the altar, spotting and dispelling the trap activating the water elemental before it could cause them any trouble. But time ran out on us once again, so they didn't get to pick up the treasure in there and there's still three levels to this dungeon to go. Will they get to the big boss next time, or will the tricks of the eyes of the deep & morkoth keep them diverted all next week? It's amazing how slowly the plot can go when you're juggling lots of characters, rolling for every action and never drop out of combat time.