Rhenny
Adventurer
Travensburg Campaign – Part 9 - 12/6/13 session
WARNING - This part of the campaign is a modified Mines of Madness adventure (There are spoilers and modifications to the adventure in this post)
We played for 3 hours…3 players and 1 DM controlled PCs – 3rd level PCs – Continuing our Adventure
T’rissril Eilsndar the Drow Rogue/assassin
Fid (the Dwarven Fighter who transformed into a Warforge Fighter)
Fawnsworth the Gnome Illusionist ex-jester
Nalcon the Lightbringer Cleric, noble who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty
As the group came to a bend in the tunnel, they heard moaning, and T’riss could see a small hole in the southern wall. Looking into it, she could see a large skull shaped room with a black portal in the middle of it. The portal had a purple haze with snowy shapes swirling within it….and the moaning was coming from the portal.
Tris inspected the area for traps and when she deemed it safe, Fid took out the diamond tipped pick axe he had acquired from PAX, the undead Dwarven mine owner, and he spent about 30 minutes widening the hole in the wall so the party members could squeeze through.
Inside, Tris blended into the shadows and inspected the area. Sensing nothing except the portal, she awaited the others, who entered very cautiously. Fawnsworth could tell that the moaning was coming from the portal and the portal seemed to be a gateway to another plane of existence. He casted light upon a small stone, and tossed it closer to the portal as Tris hid in the darkness. A voice from inside the portal intoned, “Your light is not welcome here.” Immediately, Fawnsworth extinguished the light and tried to parlay, to no avail. Then, Fid asked to be lit up, so Fawnsworth used his light spell on the warforged, attuning the light to the purple hue of the light emanating from the portal. As Fid stepped closer the voice in the portal rebuked him. “We told you that your light is not welcome.” The party, uncertain what to do, decided to try one more time to approach the portal, this time with white light. “Leave now,” the voice screamed, and four pig skinned zombies carrying golden longswords emerged from the shimmering portal to attack Fid. The fight with the zombies was more difficult that it seemed, even after Nalcon opened up with a burning hands that injured 3 of them. Fid, Fawnsworth and Nalcon attacked the zombies and even when they hacked off arms, some of the zombies kept attacking, one scoring a vicious blow upon Fid (crit). Tris, remaining in the shadows, circled around the back of the portal to see strange runes on the stone device. Unable to decipher them, she traced some onto parchment so she could show them to the Fawnsworth, the illusionist. With 3 zombies still attacking the party, 4 new figures stepped out of the portal. Strange humanoid figures with no arms and 4 legs, vacant eye sockets and horrible grins (Deathstalkers), moved in toward Fid and the others. One of them moved within 5’ of Nalcon and Fawnsworth and the other moved next to Fid, then they exploded and a wave of necrotic energy bathed the adventurers damaging them pretty badly (both Fawnsworth and Fid were now near single digits in hit points). Luckily for the party, the blast also killed two of the zombies, so only 1 zombie remained.
Fearing these creatures, Nalcon channeled divinity and blasted a number of them. Then, the rest of the group attacked to neutralize the threat. Tris moved up to show Fawnsworth the etching she made, and then she attacked two of the Deathstalkers, but only took one down. All the while, Fawnsworth could not decipher the runes on the parchment, and his icy ray fired off the mark as he cursed his aim. Nalcon stepped up to one of the others and slammed it with his mace, crumpling it to the ground, and finally Fid’s attack dropped the remaining zombie with a critical hit (I ruled that the zombie died automatically on a crit). After these threats were vanquished, Nalcon healed Fid and Fawnsworth, and Fawnsworth conjured a flaming sphere to block the front of the portal in case other monsters pushed through. Then he moved to the back of the portal to inspect the runes. As he was deciphering them, 4 more Deathstalkers emerged…two from the front of the portal and two from the rear. The two in front burned instantly in the flaming sphere, but the two from the rear advanced on Fid and Tris. One exploded and damaged them both, but the rogue and the fighter were able to cut them down, just as Fawnsworth began chanting the words he learned examining the portal runes. A few seconds later, the purple glow of the portal and the swirling shapes within it converged to a single point and disappeared. The portal was deactivated. Before resting, Fid picked up 4 golden longswords, nearly encumbering himself.
The party tried to take a long rest, but the magic of the mines interrupted their attempts to sleep. The Warforged was the only one who was able to revive after 4 hours (I ruled that he could do the rest since he didn’t dream), somehow the magic of the mines did not interfere with Warforged regeneration.
The group bandaged themselves (using HD of healing) and continued to explore. They avoided the murder ball trap that they had seen earlier and went down to the 2nd level of the mines. Tris scouted ahead and found a gargoyle in an alcove although it looked a lot like a statue. The others moved up and decided to search the area. They found a secret door across from the gargoyle and another door to the east. Remembering the clue they received from the Dwarven statue earlier, they asked the gargoyle for the command word to open the secret door and it told them. Tris checked the east door for traps, found one, and eventually disabled it. Fid took the spear that was behind the door to add to his weapon collection…could he carry anything else?
Through the secret door the party found a ritual chamber with an alter and a ritual dagger resting atop the alter. They inspected the area and saw a smooth obsidian block of stone on the far side of the room, which seemed to block their path. Fawnsworth with prompting from the others, cut his own finger with his dagger, and dropped a small drop of blood on to the ritual dagger. Then he felt the overwhelming urge to pick up the dagger and use it against Tris. He tried to attack Tris, but missed. The others tried to grapple him, but miraculously he avoided them and took another stab at Tris, but missed. Nalcon and Fid were able to grapple him this time, and eventually Fid pushed Fawnsworth into the corner as Tris grabbed the dagger from Fawnsworth. With dagger in hand, Tris felt the urge to sacrifice Fawnsworth so she deceived the others and told them to look at the strange rune she saw on the alter. As Fawnsworth bent over to inspect the alter, Tris plunged the dagger into the illusionist’s neck, and blood spurted out on to the alter. The others grappled Tris, and eventually restrained her, knocking the dagger to the ground. After a quick heal from Nalcon, Fawnsworth recovered and the party found that the obsidian wall had receded to the north so that they could continue.
In the next cavern area, the party saw a huge Iron Golem (9’ tall and wide construct that looked like a Dwarf) pulverizing red crystals. The group walked up to the Golem and Fid (who looked like a miniature version of the golem) tried to speak with it. The Iron Golem seemed to notice the diamond pick axe Fid had at his belt. Meanwhile, Fawnsworth found that he could slip through a crack in a passage that was sealed by a huge boulder. He decided to drink an invisibility potion and scout ahead. In another cavern, Fawnsworth used his illusions and light spell, seeing a large mound of bat guano with a dozen or so cave crickets upon it. Small bats flapped throughout the cavern and one really large bat hung upside down over the center of the cavern. Fawnsworth was almost noticed by one of the cave crickets who came over to check out a noise that the illusionist made, but then Fawnsworth moved the noise to another part of the cavern and the cricket followed. Fawnsworth was able to find another corridor to the east, so he decided to go back to the group to tell them that this seemed to be a viable route.
Finally, after trying a few tricks that were not successful (trying to get the Iron Golem to smash the boulder by making it look like the red crystal), Fid decided to just ask the Golem to move the boulder for them. That’s all it took. The Golem walked over to the boulder and rolled it into the next cavern.
That’s were we ended our session.
Comments
For anyone who knows the Mines of Madness adventure, you’ll notice how I modified it. I didn’t like the idea that someone had to voluntarily sacrifice himself on the alter to move the obsidian slab, so I invented the magic dagger that dominated people. The players really enjoyed this part of the game. It was really awesome when the Drow took the dagger from the Gnome because the Drow was actually more proficient with the weapon. I had each hit from the dagger do 3d4 damage plus a DC 15 con check to avoid dropping to 0 hp. Fawnsworth made his save.
Again, the grappling rules were a little awkward. We played it so that the first success was a grapple…the 2nd was restrain, which allowed Fid to pin Tris and knock the dagger from her hand. We figured that 2 successes warranted a pretty favorable result.
The first encounter of the night, the moaning portal, took a longer time than I had anticipated. It took about 1 hour. Part of it was because the PCs were being careful, and they interacted with the portal for a good 10-15 minutes. Part of it was because the zombies kept making their DC 10 death checks to keep on ticking. That was really scary. Part of it was because the party had to face 3 waves of monsters before they disable the portal.
I think it is getting easier and easier to challenge the PCs with different situations be it problem solving with checks or puzzles, combat with melee or area attacks, spell conditions (like the dominate the dagger used), etc. Although none of the PCs were reduced to 0 hp, all the players were frightened enough at most of the times during the adventure.
WARNING - This part of the campaign is a modified Mines of Madness adventure (There are spoilers and modifications to the adventure in this post)
We played for 3 hours…3 players and 1 DM controlled PCs – 3rd level PCs – Continuing our Adventure
T’rissril Eilsndar the Drow Rogue/assassin
Fid (the Dwarven Fighter who transformed into a Warforge Fighter)
Fawnsworth the Gnome Illusionist ex-jester
Nalcon the Lightbringer Cleric, noble who doesn’t like to get his hands dirty
As the group came to a bend in the tunnel, they heard moaning, and T’riss could see a small hole in the southern wall. Looking into it, she could see a large skull shaped room with a black portal in the middle of it. The portal had a purple haze with snowy shapes swirling within it….and the moaning was coming from the portal.
Tris inspected the area for traps and when she deemed it safe, Fid took out the diamond tipped pick axe he had acquired from PAX, the undead Dwarven mine owner, and he spent about 30 minutes widening the hole in the wall so the party members could squeeze through.
Inside, Tris blended into the shadows and inspected the area. Sensing nothing except the portal, she awaited the others, who entered very cautiously. Fawnsworth could tell that the moaning was coming from the portal and the portal seemed to be a gateway to another plane of existence. He casted light upon a small stone, and tossed it closer to the portal as Tris hid in the darkness. A voice from inside the portal intoned, “Your light is not welcome here.” Immediately, Fawnsworth extinguished the light and tried to parlay, to no avail. Then, Fid asked to be lit up, so Fawnsworth used his light spell on the warforged, attuning the light to the purple hue of the light emanating from the portal. As Fid stepped closer the voice in the portal rebuked him. “We told you that your light is not welcome.” The party, uncertain what to do, decided to try one more time to approach the portal, this time with white light. “Leave now,” the voice screamed, and four pig skinned zombies carrying golden longswords emerged from the shimmering portal to attack Fid. The fight with the zombies was more difficult that it seemed, even after Nalcon opened up with a burning hands that injured 3 of them. Fid, Fawnsworth and Nalcon attacked the zombies and even when they hacked off arms, some of the zombies kept attacking, one scoring a vicious blow upon Fid (crit). Tris, remaining in the shadows, circled around the back of the portal to see strange runes on the stone device. Unable to decipher them, she traced some onto parchment so she could show them to the Fawnsworth, the illusionist. With 3 zombies still attacking the party, 4 new figures stepped out of the portal. Strange humanoid figures with no arms and 4 legs, vacant eye sockets and horrible grins (Deathstalkers), moved in toward Fid and the others. One of them moved within 5’ of Nalcon and Fawnsworth and the other moved next to Fid, then they exploded and a wave of necrotic energy bathed the adventurers damaging them pretty badly (both Fawnsworth and Fid were now near single digits in hit points). Luckily for the party, the blast also killed two of the zombies, so only 1 zombie remained.
Fearing these creatures, Nalcon channeled divinity and blasted a number of them. Then, the rest of the group attacked to neutralize the threat. Tris moved up to show Fawnsworth the etching she made, and then she attacked two of the Deathstalkers, but only took one down. All the while, Fawnsworth could not decipher the runes on the parchment, and his icy ray fired off the mark as he cursed his aim. Nalcon stepped up to one of the others and slammed it with his mace, crumpling it to the ground, and finally Fid’s attack dropped the remaining zombie with a critical hit (I ruled that the zombie died automatically on a crit). After these threats were vanquished, Nalcon healed Fid and Fawnsworth, and Fawnsworth conjured a flaming sphere to block the front of the portal in case other monsters pushed through. Then he moved to the back of the portal to inspect the runes. As he was deciphering them, 4 more Deathstalkers emerged…two from the front of the portal and two from the rear. The two in front burned instantly in the flaming sphere, but the two from the rear advanced on Fid and Tris. One exploded and damaged them both, but the rogue and the fighter were able to cut them down, just as Fawnsworth began chanting the words he learned examining the portal runes. A few seconds later, the purple glow of the portal and the swirling shapes within it converged to a single point and disappeared. The portal was deactivated. Before resting, Fid picked up 4 golden longswords, nearly encumbering himself.
The party tried to take a long rest, but the magic of the mines interrupted their attempts to sleep. The Warforged was the only one who was able to revive after 4 hours (I ruled that he could do the rest since he didn’t dream), somehow the magic of the mines did not interfere with Warforged regeneration.
The group bandaged themselves (using HD of healing) and continued to explore. They avoided the murder ball trap that they had seen earlier and went down to the 2nd level of the mines. Tris scouted ahead and found a gargoyle in an alcove although it looked a lot like a statue. The others moved up and decided to search the area. They found a secret door across from the gargoyle and another door to the east. Remembering the clue they received from the Dwarven statue earlier, they asked the gargoyle for the command word to open the secret door and it told them. Tris checked the east door for traps, found one, and eventually disabled it. Fid took the spear that was behind the door to add to his weapon collection…could he carry anything else?
Through the secret door the party found a ritual chamber with an alter and a ritual dagger resting atop the alter. They inspected the area and saw a smooth obsidian block of stone on the far side of the room, which seemed to block their path. Fawnsworth with prompting from the others, cut his own finger with his dagger, and dropped a small drop of blood on to the ritual dagger. Then he felt the overwhelming urge to pick up the dagger and use it against Tris. He tried to attack Tris, but missed. The others tried to grapple him, but miraculously he avoided them and took another stab at Tris, but missed. Nalcon and Fid were able to grapple him this time, and eventually Fid pushed Fawnsworth into the corner as Tris grabbed the dagger from Fawnsworth. With dagger in hand, Tris felt the urge to sacrifice Fawnsworth so she deceived the others and told them to look at the strange rune she saw on the alter. As Fawnsworth bent over to inspect the alter, Tris plunged the dagger into the illusionist’s neck, and blood spurted out on to the alter. The others grappled Tris, and eventually restrained her, knocking the dagger to the ground. After a quick heal from Nalcon, Fawnsworth recovered and the party found that the obsidian wall had receded to the north so that they could continue.
In the next cavern area, the party saw a huge Iron Golem (9’ tall and wide construct that looked like a Dwarf) pulverizing red crystals. The group walked up to the Golem and Fid (who looked like a miniature version of the golem) tried to speak with it. The Iron Golem seemed to notice the diamond pick axe Fid had at his belt. Meanwhile, Fawnsworth found that he could slip through a crack in a passage that was sealed by a huge boulder. He decided to drink an invisibility potion and scout ahead. In another cavern, Fawnsworth used his illusions and light spell, seeing a large mound of bat guano with a dozen or so cave crickets upon it. Small bats flapped throughout the cavern and one really large bat hung upside down over the center of the cavern. Fawnsworth was almost noticed by one of the cave crickets who came over to check out a noise that the illusionist made, but then Fawnsworth moved the noise to another part of the cavern and the cricket followed. Fawnsworth was able to find another corridor to the east, so he decided to go back to the group to tell them that this seemed to be a viable route.
Finally, after trying a few tricks that were not successful (trying to get the Iron Golem to smash the boulder by making it look like the red crystal), Fid decided to just ask the Golem to move the boulder for them. That’s all it took. The Golem walked over to the boulder and rolled it into the next cavern.
That’s were we ended our session.
Comments
For anyone who knows the Mines of Madness adventure, you’ll notice how I modified it. I didn’t like the idea that someone had to voluntarily sacrifice himself on the alter to move the obsidian slab, so I invented the magic dagger that dominated people. The players really enjoyed this part of the game. It was really awesome when the Drow took the dagger from the Gnome because the Drow was actually more proficient with the weapon. I had each hit from the dagger do 3d4 damage plus a DC 15 con check to avoid dropping to 0 hp. Fawnsworth made his save.
Again, the grappling rules were a little awkward. We played it so that the first success was a grapple…the 2nd was restrain, which allowed Fid to pin Tris and knock the dagger from her hand. We figured that 2 successes warranted a pretty favorable result.
The first encounter of the night, the moaning portal, took a longer time than I had anticipated. It took about 1 hour. Part of it was because the PCs were being careful, and they interacted with the portal for a good 10-15 minutes. Part of it was because the zombies kept making their DC 10 death checks to keep on ticking. That was really scary. Part of it was because the party had to face 3 waves of monsters before they disable the portal.
I think it is getting easier and easier to challenge the PCs with different situations be it problem solving with checks or puzzles, combat with melee or area attacks, spell conditions (like the dominate the dagger used), etc. Although none of the PCs were reduced to 0 hp, all the players were frightened enough at most of the times during the adventure.
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