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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James McMurray" data-source="post: 60127" data-attributes="member: 743">Well, we had an extremely eventful game this week. Of course, there was hardly any fighting giants going on, but that's ok.The party teleported into the keep rather than flying up, so the boulder nets didn't get used. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> The giants knew which room they'd be appearing in and generally at what time, so they had one exit to it covered, and the other exit was used by the Osyluth to lure the party towards the para-elemental. The party opened one door and dropped a blade barrier, hurting 3 giants and forcing them to flee (except for the poor giant that got hit with Tasha's Hideous Laughter and had to laugh himself to death in the quesinart of doom.The illusions then drew the party into the room and they set off the para-elemental, who did some serious damage to the group, but didn't kill anyone. A couple party members did get Dimensional Anchored, and a Wall of Ice kept people out of the fight between the paladin and the para-elemental for a while.The party started to head up to the giants, and then wonder-of-wonders decided to parlay!!! The giants knew they had a good defense set up, and the deal finally ended up being that the party would raise the giants they had previously killed, with the party covering half the materials cost and the giants the other half. The end result was that the party managed to get the info they needed, without anyone getting grabbed and dragged of the cliff.The info led them to the city of Necromancers (Skull City). After a brief scouting mission, the rogue met one of the Dark Nagas that patrols the walls, and found out that the gate can see invisible. He also correctly guessed the password, so the next day the party walked straight into town. It was early morning, so the only things the party saw on the streets until they reached the Academy were 3 zombies, one continually trying to walk through a wall, and 2 milling about aimlessly.As they approached the academy, they saw 4 black-robed people walking out and towards the big black tent (where spare undead are kept). At that point, we realized that the paladin had at least three symbols to Heironious in plain sight, so the necromancers saw them and fled back into the academy, shouting an alarm.The party followed, and when they got inside, they fought Leon (a troll Fighter 7) and a few low-level necromancers for a few rounds, while some necromancers fled shouting for instructors. The cleric had a flame strike cancelled by two readied magic missiles, while the sorcerer killed several necromancers and the rogue and paladin engaged the troll (who they couldn't tell was a troll due to his fully encompassing armor.)The cleric put a wall of stone at the entry to the academy, preventing anyone in the city from coming in. He counted on the sorcerer’s teleports to evacuate if needed. He also placed a blade barrier at one entrance to keep the area secure while they fought. The sorcerer placed a wall of force at the other entrance. Unfortunately, they didn't know that those weren't the only exits.A few rounds later, the troll was dead, and academician Drake (a 10th level Cleric of Evil / 6th level Contemplative was warned. As were the Dim Triad (Vampire 12th level Weapon Master, 12th level Wujen, and 12th level Shugenja). It would take them a while to reach the area, as they wanted to buff themselves with spells first, but that's ok, the party had other problems. The Rogue had picked up a book without saying the command word first, and been attacked by a Minor Death (as per the eck of Many Things). The paladin had tried to help, and gotten a death of his own. A round later, the cleric arrived to help, and not having seen the paladin's error, also got a death of his own. No one was killed, but a few cure spells were wasted. While that was going on, the cleric heard spell casting behind him, as Drake had stepped through the blade barrier and then cast heal (a Madness score of 8 will make you do things like that <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ).The sorcerer made his save against the destruction, and so he "only" took 30 points from the 10d6. The paladin charged the cleric and nicked him. But the cleric then (using smite, power critical, strength domain, Assassin's Senses, improved crit, and a +5 Dagger of frost*, flaming burst*, keen*, brilliant energy, unholy, and shock*) dealt well over 200 points to him in a single round, dropping him like a rock. This was right after he had used his haste action for a maddening scream on the paladin, dropping his AC and ensuring he wouldn't be fighting back. First party member killed. The sorcerer, upon seeing the cleric with Avatar (from R&R) cast, failed his save and was fleeing for 16 rounds due to fear.The cleric ran over, and slathered a Resurrection salve on him (single use wondrous item, acts as Resurrection). when he stood back up, he dropped the cleric of evil in one round with his own smiting holy avenger critical action. Unfortunately, he only dropped the guy to -5. On the evil cleric's action, he cast Revive the Fallen. Its a subconscious, 6th level cure light wounds that we created for this campaign. It replaces harm, which was removed from the game altogether. That got him to 6 or so hit points, and with his haste action he stood up and cast Heal. Shortly thereafter, the Dim Triad arrives.The paladin manages to hurt but not kill the cleric, and then gets killed by the Weapon Master in the Dim Triad (second party death, second for the same guy even). The party cleric successfully tuns two of the vampires (because I forgot the turn resistance and the effects of the Dark Intrusion). However, he didn't manage to do it before the Rogue got turned to Stone by the wujen vampire. Third party death (kind of).the cleric fled, following the sorcerer, in the hopes that he could get them out of there. He found him, with the evil cleric hot on his heels and the remaining Dim triad wujen also chasing. He casts remove fear on the sorcerer, who readies an action to blast the first thing coming through the door. The cleric also readies a turn attempt, knowing there's another vampire coming. The turn succeeds (again because I forgot the dark intrusion and turn resistance). The evil cleric summons a bebilith, which fails to destroy the good cleric's armor and then gets blasted back to the abyss.The evil cleric moves in, and gets blinded by a Holy Smite, but responds with a symbol of hopelessness, effectively removing the sorcerer from the battle. The two clerics fight for a bit, and when the evil cleric runs out of heals, he word of recalls back to his sanctuary (right down the hall). He heals a bit, while the party cleric drags the sorcerer towards the paladin's corpse. Of course, during this time, the poor hopeless sorcerer had also been blinded by a cloak of righteousness the evil cleric had cast. The two clerics end up fighting again, as Drake's sanctuary is right around the corner from where they are, and the cleric gets dropped to 2 hits before killing Drake. The troll then comes back (having regenerated partially, but been ordered to guard the front door.) His charge attack misses the cleric, who then drops him again. The cleric and blind sorcerer move to the paladin and teleport out.End result:Between True Resurrection, Resurrection, and xp, the paladin stayed the same level, but lost about 5,000xp.The True res means the party accepted a quest to wipe out the Academy, so the sneaky approach to just get through to the Tomb of Acererak is out of the question.Academician Drake will be raised, but down a level.The party rogue gets returned to flesh and made into a vampire thrall of the Dim Triad.The Black academy is aware of the party and will be more ready for them next time. The leader of the Black Academy (Nuala from the Ravager of Time that I ran previously) knows the party in and out, and can have them scryed for so that a beefed up duplicate of a couple of the instructors can teleport into the party's location for an ambush.The odds are very good that the party will suffer at least one more death before they even make it back to the Academy.</blockquote>

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