Retro Story Hour: (Contact's) Temple of Elemental Evil 2!
- Thread starter Piratecat
- Start date
Greybar
No Trouble at All
Let's see if I have this hero eating list right:
Greybar's List'o'Heroes
1. Aelniir of the Sheildlands - Ep0 thru Ep2 - 2pts
2. Esril - Ep0 thru Ep2 - 2 pts
3. Gnomishic - Ep0 thru Ep5 - 5 pts
4. Heydricus - Ep0 thru
5. Reysnole - Ep0 thru Ep2 - 2 pts
6. Whistlin' Pippin Jumpscreek - Ep0 thru Ep1 - 1 pt
7. Ahlana - Ep2 thru Ep3 - 1 pt
8. Sweet Pea - Ep3 thru Ep5, Ep10 thru
9. Little Leaf - Ep3 thru Ep5, Ep10 thru Ep10 - 3 pts
10.Suhi - Ep3 thru Ep7 - 4 pts
11.Rose - Ep3 thru
12.Tisha - Ep3 thru Ep7 - 4 pts
13.Lucius Maturin - Ep4 thru Ep10 - 6 pts
14.Keriann Croller - Ep6 thru Ep10 - 4 pts
15.Ren Qi - Ep8 thru
16.Lady Amyryth - Ep8 thru Ep8 - 0 pts
17.Daniere - Ep9 thru Ep10 - 1 pt
18.Prisantha - Ep11 thru
19.Egil - Ep11 thru
20.Jespo Crim (and Fräs) - Ep11 thru
Party at this moment
Heydricus (12pts)
Rose (9pts)
Sweet Pea (5 pts)
Ren Qi (4pts)
Prisantha (1pt)
Egil (1pt)
Jespo (1pt)
Good Score, but dead
Lucius (6 pts)
Gnomishic (5 pts)
So 20 up and 13 down...
John
Greybar's List'o'Heroes
1. Aelniir of the Sheildlands - Ep0 thru Ep2 - 2pts
2. Esril - Ep0 thru Ep2 - 2 pts
3. Gnomishic - Ep0 thru Ep5 - 5 pts
4. Heydricus - Ep0 thru
5. Reysnole - Ep0 thru Ep2 - 2 pts
6. Whistlin' Pippin Jumpscreek - Ep0 thru Ep1 - 1 pt
7. Ahlana - Ep2 thru Ep3 - 1 pt
8. Sweet Pea - Ep3 thru Ep5, Ep10 thru
9. Little Leaf - Ep3 thru Ep5, Ep10 thru Ep10 - 3 pts
10.Suhi - Ep3 thru Ep7 - 4 pts
11.Rose - Ep3 thru
12.Tisha - Ep3 thru Ep7 - 4 pts
13.Lucius Maturin - Ep4 thru Ep10 - 6 pts
14.Keriann Croller - Ep6 thru Ep10 - 4 pts
15.Ren Qi - Ep8 thru
16.Lady Amyryth - Ep8 thru Ep8 - 0 pts
17.Daniere - Ep9 thru Ep10 - 1 pt
18.Prisantha - Ep11 thru
19.Egil - Ep11 thru
20.Jespo Crim (and Fräs) - Ep11 thru
Party at this moment
Heydricus (12pts)
Rose (9pts)
Sweet Pea (5 pts)
Ren Qi (4pts)
Prisantha (1pt)
Egil (1pt)
Jespo (1pt)
Good Score, but dead
Lucius (6 pts)
Gnomishic (5 pts)
So 20 up and 13 down...
John
(contact)
Explorer
Every dog has his day, but most of them sleep through it.
Twelve: Strange and Sinister Stirrings in Supernatural Subterranean Settings
(or, “I think Lassie’s trying to tell us something. What’s that girl? The yarn is on fire?”)
Over the still-warm bodies of the drake, displacer beasts and trolls, the party explores further, only to find that they have gone a level deeper underground without ever realizing it! Thanks to their careful mapping, they are able to return to Egil’s plan: stay on the first level, kill everything, then move on.
They sneak into an area they know to be occupied by the tough-looking orcs spotted by Gnomishic and Lucius after the gnoll fight. Egil uses his elven cloak and boots to scout ahead, and finds four of the beefy orcs guarding a nexus chamber with several exits. The party attacks, and this time, the PCs are the ones charming their foes, and causing mayhem in the enemy’s ranks. The orcs are tough, however, and heavily reinforced. They overwhelm Egil in the nexus chamber, and several of their blows tell true. A slow spell, along with Heydricus’ fighting skill put an end to the struggle, and the party loots the orog’s quarters.
A careful search reveals a secret door, and the map seems to indicate that the door would lead into the quarters of the ogres who killed Tisha and Suhi. Seizing their chance for revenge (and with two charmed orogs for club-fodder), the PCs burst in upon the stupid pair, and thanks to a devastating critical hit from Heydricus, cut them both down before they can say “revivification is unlikely at this point, as the subject’s head has gone missing”.
Not that ogres could pronounce ‘revivification’ in any case.
Marching across the way, and pushing their wounded, spell-less luck, the party attacks the ogre’s leader. A truly intimidating brute, this ogre has a certain, shall we say, Barbaric quality about him, and upon sighting the cheeky PCs, flies into a Rage.
Fortunately, Heydricus, as a sorcerer, has enough mirror images for a whole tribe of barbarian ogres. The hulking reprobate howls his frustration as he is killed without managing an answering blow.
Hearing shouts coming from behind a closed door, the party decides to exercise the better part of valor, and show the dungeon their heels. Not having enough time to search the ogre’s chest, Heydricus and Egil carry it between them as the party runs for the surface.
Upon exiting the Temple, the group is set upon by the now ubiquitous mixed group of ghasts and ghouls. Egil is paralyzed, and so the chest is dropped, the fighter picked up instead, and the PCs flee the Temple, some 140 gp richer.
As the PCs rest for the night back in town, they hear that ghoul bands have been terrorizing the countryside, including two attacks on Hommlet over the last few days. Their numbers are inestimable, but surely beyond the capacity of a few priests to raise. What darker magic is at work is anyone’s guess, but something unusually Evil is going on beneath the Temple.
The party is overjoyed by the return of Sweet Pea. Greetings are exchanged, and introductions made. Fräs and Sasha both take a shine to Sweet Pea, and Fräs compares Jespo Crim rather unfavorably with the charismatic Elf.
The party determines that with all the undead roaming about, the best entrance strategy to the 1st level is the secret passage leading to the 3rd level. (Although all PCs can now read and write, it seems the subtleties of irony are still lost on them.) The decision is made to enter the back door, travel to the verbeeg’s room, and take the stairs to the 2nd level, looking for a means to reach level one.
They discover that something has partially devoured the bodies of the giants, including the poisoned stew, cast iron container and all. The only remains are half of the giant leader (the waist down), and part of the stew-pot. They appear to have been dissolved by acid. A careful search of the giant’s lair turns up nothing. Literally. The room is free of bloodstains, dust or giants. What monstrosity is at work here, the party can only guess.
Near the top of the stairs, Ren Qi and Egil discover a small, winged fiend, frantically searching through a stack of papers in a bed chamber. Surprising the barb-tailed anti-cherub, Ren Qi stuns it, and Egil separates head from body. Heydricus recognizes the thing as Romag’s quasit familiar, from the Well Fiasco (chapter 4). While leafing through the books and papers on the desk, Jespo Crim discovers a folded sheet of parchment. It is the contract binding the quasit to Romag and, by extension, to Iuz, for one hundred and one days. It seems the little bastard was looking for a way to weasel out of its terms of service. Glad to oblige ya, little guy.
The PCs discover the Air temple nearby. It is familiar to only Heydricus, as he is the last surviving member of the party that originally fell down the well. Proceeding north through the second level, the group soon arrives in the room where they battled with the displacer beasts and the fire drake. The orogs, and their cruel leader Thag, are just around the corner.
The party finds their way to a corridor with doors at either end. Opening door #1 does not reveal the “Brand! New! Car!”, just a group of pissed-off and ready orogs. They have been waiting for the PCs arrival, and greet Egil at the door with a surly attitude, and a round of crossbow fire. Ren Qi delivers a really spectacular beat-down, using his stun ability in conjunction with his sneak attack to render an orog helpless, and make him eat 9d6 over the course of three rounds.
The door opposite crashes open, and four human fighters emerge, weapons at the ready. From behind the party, further down the corridor, another group of well-drilled orogs emerge, and take up ranks firing crossbows. Jespo Crim is summoning monsters like there’s no tomorrow, and it seems that one of the gnolls he summons is very familiar, in a hateful way, with the orogs.
Both of the mages are left exposed in the hallway, with the fighting-arm of the party (in the persons of Heydricus, Egil and Ren Qi) in a room. The mages drop monster summonings and scare spells on the orog elites, neutralizing them, while Heydricus casts sleep on the humans threatening him. The four human fighters are reduced to three by the [sleep spell, and Heydricus teaches the remainder a thing or two about a thing or two, in a really unfriendly way. Things are looking up for the group.
That’s when a sepulchral voice from behind the human fighters intones, “Wretched mortals. Must I do every little thing myself?” A fiend (a rutterkin demon) emerges, and his fear cone sends Heydricus, Sweet Pea and Egil running away as fast as their respective movement rates will allow them to. Hello, losers, my name is Eeevil.
Ren Qi, unnoticed by the fiend, sips an invisibility potion, and hides. Jespo Crim and Prisantha make like a dog and flea. Flee. Make like a rat and . . . well, they run like hell. Pris is blind-sided by a orog, and lapses into unconsciousness.
Jespo conjures a phalanx of summoned associates, and binds Pris’ wounds. The unseen Ren Qi follows the mages as they backtrack to the exit. Halfway there, pursued by the orogs and humans shaking off any spell effects disabling them, the fleeing group runs into the feared group, who are by now, back to their right minds and spoiling for an excuse to kill.
The group engages the fiend that feared them, as well as the infamous Thag, a black-skinned, white-haired, fang-mouthed rogue and fighter. A rousing melee ensues, with summoned monsters, orogs, PCs and fiends battling for supremacy in the Depths of the Temple of Elemental Evil.
The PCs win handily, using their summoned allies to distract the orogs and then gang-banging the fiends. The rutterkin is slain, but Thag escapes in the confusion.
Twelve: Strange and Sinister Stirrings in Supernatural Subterranean Settings
(or, “I think Lassie’s trying to tell us something. What’s that girl? The yarn is on fire?”)
Over the still-warm bodies of the drake, displacer beasts and trolls, the party explores further, only to find that they have gone a level deeper underground without ever realizing it! Thanks to their careful mapping, they are able to return to Egil’s plan: stay on the first level, kill everything, then move on.
They sneak into an area they know to be occupied by the tough-looking orcs spotted by Gnomishic and Lucius after the gnoll fight. Egil uses his elven cloak and boots to scout ahead, and finds four of the beefy orcs guarding a nexus chamber with several exits. The party attacks, and this time, the PCs are the ones charming their foes, and causing mayhem in the enemy’s ranks. The orcs are tough, however, and heavily reinforced. They overwhelm Egil in the nexus chamber, and several of their blows tell true. A slow spell, along with Heydricus’ fighting skill put an end to the struggle, and the party loots the orog’s quarters.
A careful search reveals a secret door, and the map seems to indicate that the door would lead into the quarters of the ogres who killed Tisha and Suhi. Seizing their chance for revenge (and with two charmed orogs for club-fodder), the PCs burst in upon the stupid pair, and thanks to a devastating critical hit from Heydricus, cut them both down before they can say “revivification is unlikely at this point, as the subject’s head has gone missing”.
Not that ogres could pronounce ‘revivification’ in any case.
Marching across the way, and pushing their wounded, spell-less luck, the party attacks the ogre’s leader. A truly intimidating brute, this ogre has a certain, shall we say, Barbaric quality about him, and upon sighting the cheeky PCs, flies into a Rage.
Fortunately, Heydricus, as a sorcerer, has enough mirror images for a whole tribe of barbarian ogres. The hulking reprobate howls his frustration as he is killed without managing an answering blow.
Hearing shouts coming from behind a closed door, the party decides to exercise the better part of valor, and show the dungeon their heels. Not having enough time to search the ogre’s chest, Heydricus and Egil carry it between them as the party runs for the surface.
Upon exiting the Temple, the group is set upon by the now ubiquitous mixed group of ghasts and ghouls. Egil is paralyzed, and so the chest is dropped, the fighter picked up instead, and the PCs flee the Temple, some 140 gp richer.
As the PCs rest for the night back in town, they hear that ghoul bands have been terrorizing the countryside, including two attacks on Hommlet over the last few days. Their numbers are inestimable, but surely beyond the capacity of a few priests to raise. What darker magic is at work is anyone’s guess, but something unusually Evil is going on beneath the Temple.
The party is overjoyed by the return of Sweet Pea. Greetings are exchanged, and introductions made. Fräs and Sasha both take a shine to Sweet Pea, and Fräs compares Jespo Crim rather unfavorably with the charismatic Elf.
The party determines that with all the undead roaming about, the best entrance strategy to the 1st level is the secret passage leading to the 3rd level. (Although all PCs can now read and write, it seems the subtleties of irony are still lost on them.) The decision is made to enter the back door, travel to the verbeeg’s room, and take the stairs to the 2nd level, looking for a means to reach level one.
They discover that something has partially devoured the bodies of the giants, including the poisoned stew, cast iron container and all. The only remains are half of the giant leader (the waist down), and part of the stew-pot. They appear to have been dissolved by acid. A careful search of the giant’s lair turns up nothing. Literally. The room is free of bloodstains, dust or giants. What monstrosity is at work here, the party can only guess.
Near the top of the stairs, Ren Qi and Egil discover a small, winged fiend, frantically searching through a stack of papers in a bed chamber. Surprising the barb-tailed anti-cherub, Ren Qi stuns it, and Egil separates head from body. Heydricus recognizes the thing as Romag’s quasit familiar, from the Well Fiasco (chapter 4). While leafing through the books and papers on the desk, Jespo Crim discovers a folded sheet of parchment. It is the contract binding the quasit to Romag and, by extension, to Iuz, for one hundred and one days. It seems the little bastard was looking for a way to weasel out of its terms of service. Glad to oblige ya, little guy.
The PCs discover the Air temple nearby. It is familiar to only Heydricus, as he is the last surviving member of the party that originally fell down the well. Proceeding north through the second level, the group soon arrives in the room where they battled with the displacer beasts and the fire drake. The orogs, and their cruel leader Thag, are just around the corner.
The party finds their way to a corridor with doors at either end. Opening door #1 does not reveal the “Brand! New! Car!”, just a group of pissed-off and ready orogs. They have been waiting for the PCs arrival, and greet Egil at the door with a surly attitude, and a round of crossbow fire. Ren Qi delivers a really spectacular beat-down, using his stun ability in conjunction with his sneak attack to render an orog helpless, and make him eat 9d6 over the course of three rounds.
The door opposite crashes open, and four human fighters emerge, weapons at the ready. From behind the party, further down the corridor, another group of well-drilled orogs emerge, and take up ranks firing crossbows. Jespo Crim is summoning monsters like there’s no tomorrow, and it seems that one of the gnolls he summons is very familiar, in a hateful way, with the orogs.
Both of the mages are left exposed in the hallway, with the fighting-arm of the party (in the persons of Heydricus, Egil and Ren Qi) in a room. The mages drop monster summonings and scare spells on the orog elites, neutralizing them, while Heydricus casts sleep on the humans threatening him. The four human fighters are reduced to three by the [sleep spell, and Heydricus teaches the remainder a thing or two about a thing or two, in a really unfriendly way. Things are looking up for the group.
That’s when a sepulchral voice from behind the human fighters intones, “Wretched mortals. Must I do every little thing myself?” A fiend (a rutterkin demon) emerges, and his fear cone sends Heydricus, Sweet Pea and Egil running away as fast as their respective movement rates will allow them to. Hello, losers, my name is Eeevil.
Ren Qi, unnoticed by the fiend, sips an invisibility potion, and hides. Jespo Crim and Prisantha make like a dog and flea. Flee. Make like a rat and . . . well, they run like hell. Pris is blind-sided by a orog, and lapses into unconsciousness.
Jespo conjures a phalanx of summoned associates, and binds Pris’ wounds. The unseen Ren Qi follows the mages as they backtrack to the exit. Halfway there, pursued by the orogs and humans shaking off any spell effects disabling them, the fleeing group runs into the feared group, who are by now, back to their right minds and spoiling for an excuse to kill.
The group engages the fiend that feared them, as well as the infamous Thag, a black-skinned, white-haired, fang-mouthed rogue and fighter. A rousing melee ensues, with summoned monsters, orogs, PCs and fiends battling for supremacy in the Depths of the Temple of Elemental Evil.
The PCs win handily, using their summoned allies to distract the orogs and then gang-banging the fiends. The rutterkin is slain, but Thag escapes in the confusion.
Last edited by a moderator:
Mathew_Freeman
Adventurer
*raises a glass to the wittiest story hour on the boards*
More congratulations! And bumps.
More congratulations! And bumps.
(contact)
Explorer
At last, the turn is tabled!
Fourteen: The Vital Process - -Neutralize, Distract, and Disable.
(or, “Les hommes saints d'armée, Batman! Nous sommes tous qui vont mourir!”)
When the party returns to the surface, suprisingly enough, they find a companion waiting for them. (Surprising because this is the first time their numbers have been bolstered without immediately preceding casualties.) And who should it be but Anton Flamehair, a brash, foul-mouthed, loud-talking-soldier of a wizard with a love for horses (platonic, of course), strong drink and evocations. An old adventuring companion of Egil, Jespo Crim and Esril, Anton Flamehair of Almor has come looking for his Countrywoman. He takes an immediate shine to Pris, and this seems to ruffle Jespo’s feathers. Of course, it could be a manifestation of Jespo’s fireball envy, or simply an old wizards’ rivalry resurfacing . . .
The party doesn’t have long to get acquainted before Andras (Hommlet’s resident mage) tells the PCs that he and his crystal ball have discerned that Willam of Willip has returned, and is flogging a dead horse into a bloodthirsty frenzy; or more specifically, is once again readying the Shieldlanders for an assault on Heydricus and the Forces of Evil. (Egil comments, “Hey, Heydricus! You’re famous!”) Sir Willam is marching on Hommlet in one day’s time, with 200 Shieldlanders, and they have fire in their eyes. It seems the fiend impersonating Lady Marie has wormed its way back to Hommlet.
The PCs wrangle and debate about what course of action to take, and in the end, devise this devious plan:
Hommlet’s civilian population is led by the druid Jeru Ashstaff to the nearby Kron Hills, where they seek sanctuary with the gnomes there. The PCs, and any remaining classed NPCs (Andras, the new Canon Calmiir, The stonemason, etc.), lead a small band of 40 well-armed skirmishers into hiding in the woods.
Then the PCs poison all the ale at the brewery.
Egil and Ren Qi observe from a hidden vantage point as the Shieldlanders arrive in the deserted village, and begin sacking the town. Egil and Ren Qi watch with malign glee as Shieldlanders begin to choke and die, and none of them can tell why. After a chaotic struggle, Sir Willam and his knightly cronies manage to restore order to the panicked Shieldlanders, and organize a thorough (albeit fearfully sober) razing of Hommlet.
The PCs, meanwhile, have set up their small force in an ambush. As the shadows of twilight lengthen, the Shieldlanders are marching back to Knulb. Sir Willam is, of course, in the rear, surrounded by his knights and archers. The PCs surprise the villains with a fireball (or two), destroying Willam’s archers, and decimating his knights. Ren Qi and Egil sneak around both flanks, while Heydricus and Rose attack Willam directly, with arrows and magic missile spells.
Egil is mobbed by wererats, but soon discovers that by rolling enough critical hits and using the Cleave feat, any obstacle can be overcome. Ren Qi remains hidden and tails a group of rogues who are also attempting to remain out of sight. Andras calls a wall of fire into being, and cleanly divides the opposing forces into bite-sized chunks. The Shieldlanders’ already shaky morale begins to waver, then break, and a full-scale rout is underway. Sir Willam attempts to flee by shapechanging into a wren, but a pair of dispel magics from Jespo Crim and Anton return the wren to its true form, 40 feet in the air, dropping the black-skinned, white haired demon head-first to its death. It’s Thag, after all!
As a parting insult, one of the assassins travelling with the Temple retinue fires a crossbow bolt into Andras, killing the old mage instantly. Unfortunately for him, his assassination attempt reveals his presence to Ren Qi, who closes the distance using blinding speed, and performs a Sneak Attack assassination of his own, sending the wretch to the Abyss with one well-placed blow.
Meanwhile, Heydricus and Rose have convinced one of the fleeing “knights” that he can’t hope to outrun their missile range before he runs out of hit points, and he surrenders.
Prisantha the Enchantress steps to the fore, and one missed Willpower save later, this ‘knight’ is spilling his guts to his new best friend, and counseling her to flee before Heydricus the Wicked sacrifices her to the Old One.
It seems that, according to Shieldlander belief, Sir Willam was “resurrected” and returned to his faithful, to help them fight against Heydricus, and his demonic associates. The Evil forces had wisely disguised their lies with truth - - they blamed the failure of the military attack on Veluna, the burning of Knulb and the recent proliferation of undead on the presence of the Temple of Elemental Evil. True enough, but they held forward the Temple’s chief agents as Heydricus and his adventuring companions.
You can tell some of the people some of the truth, some of the time . . . but refugees are stupid. The Shieldlanders have incessantly harried and assaulted the party, thinking of course, that they were fighting evil the whole time.
Prisantha develops a devious plan. Using a change self and philter of persuasion, and with the aid of her new Shieldlander friend, she travels to Knulb and begins her own recruiting in the refugee camp.
Fourteen: The Vital Process - -Neutralize, Distract, and Disable.
(or, “Les hommes saints d'armée, Batman! Nous sommes tous qui vont mourir!”)
When the party returns to the surface, suprisingly enough, they find a companion waiting for them. (Surprising because this is the first time their numbers have been bolstered without immediately preceding casualties.) And who should it be but Anton Flamehair, a brash, foul-mouthed, loud-talking-soldier of a wizard with a love for horses (platonic, of course), strong drink and evocations. An old adventuring companion of Egil, Jespo Crim and Esril, Anton Flamehair of Almor has come looking for his Countrywoman. He takes an immediate shine to Pris, and this seems to ruffle Jespo’s feathers. Of course, it could be a manifestation of Jespo’s fireball envy, or simply an old wizards’ rivalry resurfacing . . .
The party doesn’t have long to get acquainted before Andras (Hommlet’s resident mage) tells the PCs that he and his crystal ball have discerned that Willam of Willip has returned, and is flogging a dead horse into a bloodthirsty frenzy; or more specifically, is once again readying the Shieldlanders for an assault on Heydricus and the Forces of Evil. (Egil comments, “Hey, Heydricus! You’re famous!”) Sir Willam is marching on Hommlet in one day’s time, with 200 Shieldlanders, and they have fire in their eyes. It seems the fiend impersonating Lady Marie has wormed its way back to Hommlet.
The PCs wrangle and debate about what course of action to take, and in the end, devise this devious plan:
Hommlet’s civilian population is led by the druid Jeru Ashstaff to the nearby Kron Hills, where they seek sanctuary with the gnomes there. The PCs, and any remaining classed NPCs (Andras, the new Canon Calmiir, The stonemason, etc.), lead a small band of 40 well-armed skirmishers into hiding in the woods.
Then the PCs poison all the ale at the brewery.
Egil and Ren Qi observe from a hidden vantage point as the Shieldlanders arrive in the deserted village, and begin sacking the town. Egil and Ren Qi watch with malign glee as Shieldlanders begin to choke and die, and none of them can tell why. After a chaotic struggle, Sir Willam and his knightly cronies manage to restore order to the panicked Shieldlanders, and organize a thorough (albeit fearfully sober) razing of Hommlet.
The PCs, meanwhile, have set up their small force in an ambush. As the shadows of twilight lengthen, the Shieldlanders are marching back to Knulb. Sir Willam is, of course, in the rear, surrounded by his knights and archers. The PCs surprise the villains with a fireball (or two), destroying Willam’s archers, and decimating his knights. Ren Qi and Egil sneak around both flanks, while Heydricus and Rose attack Willam directly, with arrows and magic missile spells.
Egil is mobbed by wererats, but soon discovers that by rolling enough critical hits and using the Cleave feat, any obstacle can be overcome. Ren Qi remains hidden and tails a group of rogues who are also attempting to remain out of sight. Andras calls a wall of fire into being, and cleanly divides the opposing forces into bite-sized chunks. The Shieldlanders’ already shaky morale begins to waver, then break, and a full-scale rout is underway. Sir Willam attempts to flee by shapechanging into a wren, but a pair of dispel magics from Jespo Crim and Anton return the wren to its true form, 40 feet in the air, dropping the black-skinned, white haired demon head-first to its death. It’s Thag, after all!
As a parting insult, one of the assassins travelling with the Temple retinue fires a crossbow bolt into Andras, killing the old mage instantly. Unfortunately for him, his assassination attempt reveals his presence to Ren Qi, who closes the distance using blinding speed, and performs a Sneak Attack assassination of his own, sending the wretch to the Abyss with one well-placed blow.
Meanwhile, Heydricus and Rose have convinced one of the fleeing “knights” that he can’t hope to outrun their missile range before he runs out of hit points, and he surrenders.
Prisantha the Enchantress steps to the fore, and one missed Willpower save later, this ‘knight’ is spilling his guts to his new best friend, and counseling her to flee before Heydricus the Wicked sacrifices her to the Old One.
It seems that, according to Shieldlander belief, Sir Willam was “resurrected” and returned to his faithful, to help them fight against Heydricus, and his demonic associates. The Evil forces had wisely disguised their lies with truth - - they blamed the failure of the military attack on Veluna, the burning of Knulb and the recent proliferation of undead on the presence of the Temple of Elemental Evil. True enough, but they held forward the Temple’s chief agents as Heydricus and his adventuring companions.
You can tell some of the people some of the truth, some of the time . . . but refugees are stupid. The Shieldlanders have incessantly harried and assaulted the party, thinking of course, that they were fighting evil the whole time.
Prisantha develops a devious plan. Using a change self and philter of persuasion, and with the aid of her new Shieldlander friend, she travels to Knulb and begins her own recruiting in the refugee camp.
Joshua Randall
Legend
(contact) said:
Oh man, that is brilliant. I wish I could think of stuff like that. Too bad more of the Shieldlanders didn't drink the poisoned ale. Was it a fast-acting poison so that they noticed the effects immediately?
(contact)
Explorer
Curiosity should have killed the cat.
Fifteen: “Ah, why / Should life all labour be?” (Alfred Tennyson, The Lotus-Eaters.)
(or, “But, Mooooom! I don’t want to go to the sacrifice! I want to stay inside and torture the prisoners!”)
It should have been you Fräs. . .
Prisantha and Jespo Crim put their heads (and their Diplomacy skills) together and craft a moving, stirring oratory, that soundly denounces the idea that Heydricus is evil, and rationally champions the need for Shieldlanders to rise up and attack the actual Temple of Elemental Evil itself. They are wildly successful (did I mention the once-a-turn suggestion at DC 17?), and within a few hours, the PCs find themselves at the head of a very angry mob, storming the Temple Grounds.
Unfortunately, the Temple Grounds is as far as they get. With the rag-tag refugee army ready to charge into the Temple and put to the pitchfork any evil humanoids or priests they find, the PCs set about opening the barred doors giving entrance to the Temple proper. Ren Qi climbs up to one of the high windows, intending to sneak in, and open the way
Given time, he surely would have warned our heroes what was awaiting them, but as he was drawing breath to shout for a general retreat, all Abyss breaks loose.
The doors are thrown open from the inside, and out charge a half-dozen fiends: Centaur-like creatures with an undead pallor, 10 feet tall, armored in spiky plates of metal forged in the netherworld, their war-shod hooves giving off unholy sparks. With a fearsome battle-cry they charge into the ranks of the Shieldlanders and begin to lay waste with a blood-thirsty zeal.
Armanites, for the love of Pelor. Freakin’ armanites!
As it currently stands: Temple of Elemental Evil 5, Shieldlanders 0. The mob’s morale fails, and the would-be assaulters flee headlong in every direction from the Demonic assault.
The PCs fare no better. As they are near the doors, they see what is behind the Armanites. A horde of monsters, bugbears, ogres and evil humans up front, backed up by giants and worse. Ren Qi has an eye-to-eye encounter with one of the giants standing guard near his vantage point, and notices a dozen powerful-looking priests orchestrating the whole affair. He is sent flying from his perch as a giant’s boulder crashes into his window, and he falls to the ground outside the Temple.
Egil and Sweet Pea scoop up the unconscious monk, and meeting up with Rose, run for their lives. Jespo Crim makes himself invisible, and runs faster than an old mage should be able to, Fräs in tow. Heydricus flees with Anton, and Prisantha runs off in an entirely different direction.
The night Knulb burned begins to be remembered as a comparatively benign happening, as the forces of Iuz, all subtlety thrown to the wind, begin to ravish the countryside in earnest. Teams of evil humans and humanoids work in concert with giants and fiends, destroying everything worth cherishing within a five-mile radius. No doubt, the priests are kept quite busy attempting to reign in the wanton destruction, and force the monsters back into their lairs beneath the temple.
For their part, the PCs spend a sleepless night, hidden in various hiding places, without a proper camp, and with no place to call home. The gods of luck favor them, however, and by two days time the group has re-composed itself in Hommlet. Rather, in the burned-out rubble that used to be known as Hommlet. Fräs is quick to blame Jespo’s shoddy thinking for the whole ordeal, and some inter-party accusations are leveled, but in the end, the group decides to renew their fight against Elemental Evil and take stock of what forces they are up against. Judging by what Ren Qi and Anton saw in the Temple: armanites, trolls, ogres, bugbears, giants, humans, formorians, evil priests and a handful of unidentified winged creatures. Just another day at the Office of Elemental Evil.
It is now seventeen days until the Sacrifice. The PCs have lost all of their treasure and adventuring equipment (as it was hidden in Hommlet’s Church of St. Cuthbert, which has since been sacked). Worse yet, the absolute safest place for the party to gather and rest seems to be the secret area in the third dungeon level. Sweet Pea is sent on a desperate errand South to acquire new gear, and the rest of the party plans a counterstrike.
During previous forays into the dungeon, the party has noticed several sets of huge bronze doors, heavily warded with powerful antipathy spells. Temple lore tells the heroes that these wards were originally put into place to imprison Zuggtomoy, a disgusting Goddess of fungi and mold. Prisantha points out that the adventuring band that last cleared out the Temple, led by her father twenty years ago, defeated Zuggtomoy’s incarnation and banished her from Greyhawk. The party reasons that no-one expects the unexpected, and decide to break through one of these warded portals and explore what lies beyond.
With the aid of Jespo’s summoned monsters, and a lightning bolt from Anton, the wards on one of the sets of doors are broken. The chains keeping the giant-sized doors closed are soon destroyed, and the party moves in to a strange room:
A throne room of malign appearance, frightening and disorienting even by the Temple’s standards. Several exits give off from the main area. Most disturbingly, a set of stairs that lead downward into some wretched place, giving off pulsing, multi-hued light. The throne room itself is done in stonework and painted horrifically - - putrid pinks clashing with greens that seem to decompose before the heroes’ very eyes. Bas-relief carvings depict human sacrifice on an epic scale; in every instance, the corpses becoming fertile ground for hideous fungal growths to emerge. Not suprisingly, the air is ripe with the stench of mildew and rot.
An examination of one of the corridors leading off from the throne room reveals a fearsome sight: Four elementals, one each of the four main types, congregate in a room nearby. As the heroes spot them, the elementals spot the heroes, and move to close ranks. Pris quickly ensconces the party in a magic circle against evil. Heydricus gulps a potion of heroism and charges to the front. The fire elemental is the first to reach the corridor the party is in, but as it is hedged out by Pris’ spell, it is impotent. The other three elementals are equally powerless, bottlenecked behind the fire elemental in the hallway. Anton is quick to make them pay for not being hot, as he ruthlessly fireballs them again and again.
The situation seems well in hand, when the party hears soft chanting from the room they just left. Suddenly, Pris’ protection spell, as well as all of the party’s enhancement magic is dispelled! Suddenly becoming visible is a rather disreputable looking priest, wearing moldy leather armor, and bearing a holy symbol of Zuggtomoy. Meat, meet Anschel. Anschel, this is Meat.
The battle begins in earnest. The fire elemental attacks Heydricus, and despite his potion, and all his attendant gains in toughness, Heydricus re-discovers the dubious joys of single-digit hit point totals within one round. The others fare no better, for although they are able to wound the priest, and disrupt his casting, he has enough magic items to compensate. His first line of defense is a magically summoned wind wall, foiling the PCs deadly missile fire. A blazing wall of fire soon follows, and were it not for Egil’s gung-ho charge through the inferno, all would probably be lost. Jespo Crim and Prisantha summon allies to aid the cause, but these are soon immolated by the flame strikes and walls of ice the wicked priest calls forth from his magical staff.
Jespo attempts to make the suggestion that this fighting is pointless, the PCs are favored by Zuggtomoy, and must not come to harm. Anschel laughs at the idea, making his DC 19 save with a 3 on the die. This is when Jespo decides to cast all of his remaining spells from the doorway he came in, and with one foot out the door. Jespo focuses a dispel magic on the priest’s staff, rendering it temporarily inert, and Pris summons some more aid, in the form of giant frogs.
Meanwhile, Heydricus has gulped a potion of cure serious wounds, and is giving as good as he gets in the hallway, When Egil and Rose both combine attacks on the evil priest, his cause looks lost. But zealous worshippers of Infernal Fungal Powers don’t give up easily (would you, if you were going to the Abyss when you die?), and he lays Rose low with a flame strike. He is in the last chapter of his mortal life, however, and Egil strikes a critical blow to hammer home the point. Finally, after ending Rose’s life, Anschel sends Egil into the murky depths of unconsciousness, the fighter’s precarious hold on life further unsteadied by the fact he is still on fire. A well-placed magic missile (aren’t they all?) from Anton finishes off the mildew-loving priest, and Egil is attended to.
Jespo is able to restore Heydricus’ protection from evil, and hedging out the elementals, the PCs use spells and magic attacks to slay them.
The immediate threat defeated, our heroes are able to search the surrounding areas for treasure. After running from a horrible room where fungi grow human faces, Prisantha announces that she has pushed her luck as far as it will go, and wishes to return to the base camp.
Jespo and Ren Qi desire to further explore the area, however, and strip Egil’s unconscious form of his elven cloak and boots. Using darkvision spells, they sneak into a secondary throne room, and ducking behind a tapestry, they find themselves in a corridor with a shelf set into it at eye-level. There are four unremarkable purple-hued stones on the shelf. Curiosity killed the cat, and apparently a familiar’s traits do rub off on a mage, because Jespo Crim touches one of the stones.
He is instantly covered in a spray of green slime, covering a 20 by 10 foot area directly in front of the shelf. Ren Qi and Fräs both nimbly evade the slime, but Jespo is hideously saturated. The rest of the party, waiting in the throne room, is startled by his hideous shriek of terror and pain. They arrive to find Jespo writhing in agony, frantically stripping off his clothes and begging Ren Qi to help scrape the stuff off before all is lost. Finally, they manage to remove the onerous gel from Jespo, at the cost of his spellbooks, clothing and magic items. Jespo is forced to stand naked ( -- impressively naked, nudge nudge, wink wink) and watch in horror as all of his worldly possessions are slowly transmuted into green slime.
The whole party surrounds him in mute sympathy, when Jespo’s pitiful cry echoes through the dungeon as he watches his spellbooks melt:
“It should have been you Fräs!”
Fifteen: “Ah, why / Should life all labour be?” (Alfred Tennyson, The Lotus-Eaters.)
(or, “But, Mooooom! I don’t want to go to the sacrifice! I want to stay inside and torture the prisoners!”)
It should have been you Fräs. . .
Prisantha and Jespo Crim put their heads (and their Diplomacy skills) together and craft a moving, stirring oratory, that soundly denounces the idea that Heydricus is evil, and rationally champions the need for Shieldlanders to rise up and attack the actual Temple of Elemental Evil itself. They are wildly successful (did I mention the once-a-turn suggestion at DC 17?), and within a few hours, the PCs find themselves at the head of a very angry mob, storming the Temple Grounds.
Unfortunately, the Temple Grounds is as far as they get. With the rag-tag refugee army ready to charge into the Temple and put to the pitchfork any evil humanoids or priests they find, the PCs set about opening the barred doors giving entrance to the Temple proper. Ren Qi climbs up to one of the high windows, intending to sneak in, and open the way
Given time, he surely would have warned our heroes what was awaiting them, but as he was drawing breath to shout for a general retreat, all Abyss breaks loose.
The doors are thrown open from the inside, and out charge a half-dozen fiends: Centaur-like creatures with an undead pallor, 10 feet tall, armored in spiky plates of metal forged in the netherworld, their war-shod hooves giving off unholy sparks. With a fearsome battle-cry they charge into the ranks of the Shieldlanders and begin to lay waste with a blood-thirsty zeal.
Armanites, for the love of Pelor. Freakin’ armanites!
As it currently stands: Temple of Elemental Evil 5, Shieldlanders 0. The mob’s morale fails, and the would-be assaulters flee headlong in every direction from the Demonic assault.
The PCs fare no better. As they are near the doors, they see what is behind the Armanites. A horde of monsters, bugbears, ogres and evil humans up front, backed up by giants and worse. Ren Qi has an eye-to-eye encounter with one of the giants standing guard near his vantage point, and notices a dozen powerful-looking priests orchestrating the whole affair. He is sent flying from his perch as a giant’s boulder crashes into his window, and he falls to the ground outside the Temple.
Egil and Sweet Pea scoop up the unconscious monk, and meeting up with Rose, run for their lives. Jespo Crim makes himself invisible, and runs faster than an old mage should be able to, Fräs in tow. Heydricus flees with Anton, and Prisantha runs off in an entirely different direction.
The night Knulb burned begins to be remembered as a comparatively benign happening, as the forces of Iuz, all subtlety thrown to the wind, begin to ravish the countryside in earnest. Teams of evil humans and humanoids work in concert with giants and fiends, destroying everything worth cherishing within a five-mile radius. No doubt, the priests are kept quite busy attempting to reign in the wanton destruction, and force the monsters back into their lairs beneath the temple.
For their part, the PCs spend a sleepless night, hidden in various hiding places, without a proper camp, and with no place to call home. The gods of luck favor them, however, and by two days time the group has re-composed itself in Hommlet. Rather, in the burned-out rubble that used to be known as Hommlet. Fräs is quick to blame Jespo’s shoddy thinking for the whole ordeal, and some inter-party accusations are leveled, but in the end, the group decides to renew their fight against Elemental Evil and take stock of what forces they are up against. Judging by what Ren Qi and Anton saw in the Temple: armanites, trolls, ogres, bugbears, giants, humans, formorians, evil priests and a handful of unidentified winged creatures. Just another day at the Office of Elemental Evil.
It is now seventeen days until the Sacrifice. The PCs have lost all of their treasure and adventuring equipment (as it was hidden in Hommlet’s Church of St. Cuthbert, which has since been sacked). Worse yet, the absolute safest place for the party to gather and rest seems to be the secret area in the third dungeon level. Sweet Pea is sent on a desperate errand South to acquire new gear, and the rest of the party plans a counterstrike.
During previous forays into the dungeon, the party has noticed several sets of huge bronze doors, heavily warded with powerful antipathy spells. Temple lore tells the heroes that these wards were originally put into place to imprison Zuggtomoy, a disgusting Goddess of fungi and mold. Prisantha points out that the adventuring band that last cleared out the Temple, led by her father twenty years ago, defeated Zuggtomoy’s incarnation and banished her from Greyhawk. The party reasons that no-one expects the unexpected, and decide to break through one of these warded portals and explore what lies beyond.
With the aid of Jespo’s summoned monsters, and a lightning bolt from Anton, the wards on one of the sets of doors are broken. The chains keeping the giant-sized doors closed are soon destroyed, and the party moves in to a strange room:
A throne room of malign appearance, frightening and disorienting even by the Temple’s standards. Several exits give off from the main area. Most disturbingly, a set of stairs that lead downward into some wretched place, giving off pulsing, multi-hued light. The throne room itself is done in stonework and painted horrifically - - putrid pinks clashing with greens that seem to decompose before the heroes’ very eyes. Bas-relief carvings depict human sacrifice on an epic scale; in every instance, the corpses becoming fertile ground for hideous fungal growths to emerge. Not suprisingly, the air is ripe with the stench of mildew and rot.
An examination of one of the corridors leading off from the throne room reveals a fearsome sight: Four elementals, one each of the four main types, congregate in a room nearby. As the heroes spot them, the elementals spot the heroes, and move to close ranks. Pris quickly ensconces the party in a magic circle against evil. Heydricus gulps a potion of heroism and charges to the front. The fire elemental is the first to reach the corridor the party is in, but as it is hedged out by Pris’ spell, it is impotent. The other three elementals are equally powerless, bottlenecked behind the fire elemental in the hallway. Anton is quick to make them pay for not being hot, as he ruthlessly fireballs them again and again.
The situation seems well in hand, when the party hears soft chanting from the room they just left. Suddenly, Pris’ protection spell, as well as all of the party’s enhancement magic is dispelled! Suddenly becoming visible is a rather disreputable looking priest, wearing moldy leather armor, and bearing a holy symbol of Zuggtomoy. Meat, meet Anschel. Anschel, this is Meat.
The battle begins in earnest. The fire elemental attacks Heydricus, and despite his potion, and all his attendant gains in toughness, Heydricus re-discovers the dubious joys of single-digit hit point totals within one round. The others fare no better, for although they are able to wound the priest, and disrupt his casting, he has enough magic items to compensate. His first line of defense is a magically summoned wind wall, foiling the PCs deadly missile fire. A blazing wall of fire soon follows, and were it not for Egil’s gung-ho charge through the inferno, all would probably be lost. Jespo Crim and Prisantha summon allies to aid the cause, but these are soon immolated by the flame strikes and walls of ice the wicked priest calls forth from his magical staff.
Jespo attempts to make the suggestion that this fighting is pointless, the PCs are favored by Zuggtomoy, and must not come to harm. Anschel laughs at the idea, making his DC 19 save with a 3 on the die. This is when Jespo decides to cast all of his remaining spells from the doorway he came in, and with one foot out the door. Jespo focuses a dispel magic on the priest’s staff, rendering it temporarily inert, and Pris summons some more aid, in the form of giant frogs.
Meanwhile, Heydricus has gulped a potion of cure serious wounds, and is giving as good as he gets in the hallway, When Egil and Rose both combine attacks on the evil priest, his cause looks lost. But zealous worshippers of Infernal Fungal Powers don’t give up easily (would you, if you were going to the Abyss when you die?), and he lays Rose low with a flame strike. He is in the last chapter of his mortal life, however, and Egil strikes a critical blow to hammer home the point. Finally, after ending Rose’s life, Anschel sends Egil into the murky depths of unconsciousness, the fighter’s precarious hold on life further unsteadied by the fact he is still on fire. A well-placed magic missile (aren’t they all?) from Anton finishes off the mildew-loving priest, and Egil is attended to.
Jespo is able to restore Heydricus’ protection from evil, and hedging out the elementals, the PCs use spells and magic attacks to slay them.
The immediate threat defeated, our heroes are able to search the surrounding areas for treasure. After running from a horrible room where fungi grow human faces, Prisantha announces that she has pushed her luck as far as it will go, and wishes to return to the base camp.
Jespo and Ren Qi desire to further explore the area, however, and strip Egil’s unconscious form of his elven cloak and boots. Using darkvision spells, they sneak into a secondary throne room, and ducking behind a tapestry, they find themselves in a corridor with a shelf set into it at eye-level. There are four unremarkable purple-hued stones on the shelf. Curiosity killed the cat, and apparently a familiar’s traits do rub off on a mage, because Jespo Crim touches one of the stones.
He is instantly covered in a spray of green slime, covering a 20 by 10 foot area directly in front of the shelf. Ren Qi and Fräs both nimbly evade the slime, but Jespo is hideously saturated. The rest of the party, waiting in the throne room, is startled by his hideous shriek of terror and pain. They arrive to find Jespo writhing in agony, frantically stripping off his clothes and begging Ren Qi to help scrape the stuff off before all is lost. Finally, they manage to remove the onerous gel from Jespo, at the cost of his spellbooks, clothing and magic items. Jespo is forced to stand naked ( -- impressively naked, nudge nudge, wink wink) and watch in horror as all of his worldly possessions are slowly transmuted into green slime.
The whole party surrounds him in mute sympathy, when Jespo’s pitiful cry echoes through the dungeon as he watches his spellbooks melt:
“It should have been you Fräs!”
Kid Charlemagne
I am the Very Model of a Modern Moderator
I can't decide if I love Jespo or Fras more...
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