Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9642863" data-attributes="member: 27780">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 <a href="https://forum.rpg.net/index.php?threads/polyhedron-dungeon.861315/post-24835969" target="_blank">The Akriloth</a>. 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.</blockquote>

Verification