seasong's Light Against The Dark II (May 13)

[seasong]

An Ancient Mine

It was nearing winter, and the three youths sat in the tower library, surrounding a map Greppa had hastily sketched from memory. Greppa was talking, Athan was listening, and Merideth was zoning out in fields of heroism and glory.

"Okay, so here is Theralis, and here's Aglaonis. Aglaonis used to have a mining colony 'sixteen days by ox cart', which I think translates into three days by foot, or one day with Chatham. The mining colony was lost to 'the Enemy, foul and unseen' about five centuries ago, and was footnoted out of existence by hasty scholars."

Athan pointed at a narrow valley, "So it would be about here? Why would it have been left alone?"

Greppa grinned... he was rather proud of his scholarship on this matter, "Because no one knows about it. The 'Enemy' was attacking all over Aglaonis, opening weirdling gates and stuff, and the colony was just one of several. Most of the Aglaonis stuff dismisses the colony as a tidbit added by over-eager historians, but I checked the one place a historian would never look... merchant's records."

Athan leaned back, knowing Greppa was baiting him, "And those said....?"

"If the mine doesn't exist, there's about 20,000 argur worth of fortune that was coming out of nowhere 600 years ago. Even then, though, there's no reference to an exact placement, so I had to check scouting maps of the area. The little valley you're pointing at was described as a 'hidden vale' and hard to find... the placement's my best guess, but I think that's where the mine is."

Merideth, yawning beatifically, blinked and looked at the two boys, "Hm? Do we know where it is?"

A pained look was Greppa's only response.

 

[incognito]

Even with non standard character advanccement.
Even with a marvelous story line.


that was the quintisential adventuring Party.

the doubtful fighter
the exited Mage
the cleric with her head in the clouds.

(sighs contentedley)

 

[seasong]

Babes in the Wood II

Greppa wanted to check out some things in the Aglaonis library before marching into unknown wilderness (and Athan and Merideth decided that trying some new beers wouldn't be so bad), so that was the first destination.

After careful examination of all supplies, Greppa pronounced the group ready. Athan had gone recruiting some extra muscle, and two Keraunesti soldiers with too much free time had agreed to accompany the group. They were Arkos and Kyliados, and about as alike as could be - both were new recruits into the Keraunesti ranks, like Athan, and had been "re-blooded" on the bones of the giants.

They agreed to a 1/4th share, since the heroes had already done the legwork of finding the adventure, and the five set out. The trip through the wilderness was marvelously trouble-free, right up to being a mere six hours out of Aglaonis...

They were walking through the woods, and passed through an are that was familiar... except for the new, heavy growth of vines covering the trees. They noticed, but chalked it up to seasonal differences, until the vines fell from the trees, gathering into human-thickness ropes, and grabbed Merideth, while a lump of vine-covered earth ten feet from her opened into a dripping maw.

Greppa, as he instinctively summoned a flame servant to harass the flank, tried to draw on all the books in Hurath's collection... and came up blank. He didn't know what it was, it was just monstrous. We're going to die was his only thought as the thing swallowed Merideth.

 

[incognito]

Greppa is right.

They are pretty hosed. CR 6 with a fighter heavy party, and starting off with Meredith swallowed = ugly. There are some that say the Tendricoulus in not really CR 6 either. And there are poeple like me who agree. Without a Sorcerer who took Melf's Acid Arrow (and made a wand of it at L6), we would have been toasty (and our NPCS ranger GOT toasty)

I forget, what's your stance on Character death seasong?

 

[Capellan]

Incognito - have another read of the Tendriculous' special abilities, then go check Meredith's stats in the Rogue's Gallery.

If she got out of this alive, then either (1) seasongalongsong altered the monster more than he said; or (2) there were some really lucky dice rolls that day.

Of course, Greppa should be OK, as long as he's careful. He has fly, after all.

 

[seasong]

With this post, I'm caught up until we play again this weekend .

Babes in the Wood II

The four remaining outside of the thing reacted swiftly, if a bit late for Merideth. Athan, Arkos and Kyliados all hurled secondary spears into the monster, then pulled their primary spears and moved in. Greppa's flame servant lept onto the plant-like fibres and tried to burn them... but while the fibres retreated from the heat, did not burn well.

And within moments, the holes and rents from the spears, as grievous looking as they were, began to seal. As it began to heal, two tendrils grabbed Greppa and pulled him into the maw. He screamed, then went limp... both spell casters were paralyzed and the stomach acids began to go to work.

Which is a far cry from helpless, at least for these two in particular. Greppa had long since learned the lesson of being tied up, knocked over the head, gagged and poisoned... and had mastered one spell that he could cast with merest thought. Three long, lean shadow servants pulled themselves out of the darkness around him and attacked the monstrous creature, withering its fibres and rending its structure.

As for Merideth... she was a healer. After healing herself enough to survive the acids, she simply cut loose with the most powerful inflict she could, damaging the very life force of the groundmouth. It shuddered where it touched her, and she got some grim satisfaction out of the fact that she wasn't tired - she was going to take it with her.

The fight lasted for several more seconds before it was subdued into a vegetative state approximating unconsciousness, and the three warriors pulled the badly acid-burned casters out of its mouth. Merideth began healing immediately, but Greppa had to suffer silently until she could move... and even then, the backs of his hands, exposed after he covered his face, bore scar patterns similar to shattered glass.

When Merideth noticed that the creature was healing itself, she screamed in frustration and began kicking it. The others chuckled and prepared to leave the area, until Greppa noticed that where Merideth had kicked it, the bruises remained.

"Spear butts!"

"What?"

"Spear butts! Use it like a quarterstaff! Bruises don't heal!"

It was short work thereafter, and they beat the poor, unconscious thing until it stopped healing entirely. Perhaps they had damaged the local ecology, and perhaps not. But they were damned if this thing was going to wander anywhere near a city and live.

When they were safe in Aglaonis, Greppa purchased a few sheets of paper and wrote down everything he'd observed about the groundmouth... others would need to know what it was, and how to kill it.

Then he began looking for maps to the mine.

 

[seasong]

Warning: Game System Ahead

So, a few words as to why this fight was fair .

1. The party had earth's skin and earth's strength active on everyone. They finally learned that lesson with the armorcat.

2. The groundmouth did 8 (tendril) and 12 (bite) to Merideth in the first attack. Drop 4 off of each of those for earth's skin and she's only halfway dead. Those stomach acids were next, of course, and she is paralyzed, but...

3. Healers can cast regardless of paralysis. Check 'em out closely on the website - the only component for their spells is concentration (and/or XP for certain spells). So Merideth was just as useful inside the beast as out of it... and had a massive bonus to hit with her 3d8+5 no save touch attack.

4. The groundmouth had 176 hp. The party was dishing out about 50 hp per round (mostly subdual), not counting criticals (the first round they dished out 99 hp). The groundmouth only lasted 3 rounds; Merideth took a total of 40 hp, minus 26 hp of healing, staggered over the three rounds. Even with regeneration/10, they can really dish it out.

So, in summary, it was a very, very tough fight. A slip on anyone's part and the party would have suffered grievous losses. But no one slipped, and they won through.

 

[seasong]

I forget, what's your stance on Character death seasong?

If it happens, it happens. One of the giants very nearly flattened Greppa, for example, and it would have stood. With that said, PC deaths are pretty rare in my campaigns. I play with smart people, and I'm pretty good at knowing what they can and can't handle.

Originally posted by Capellan
If she got out of this alive, then either (1) seasongalongsong altered the monster more than he said; or (2) there were some really lucky dice rolls that day.

The only change to the monster was to give it 176 HP instead of 94 HP. They got one lucky round (99 HP), but really that just countered the increased HP.

However, the real reason she got out alive, and I think this gets forgotten by non-Merideths (), is that she can still cast while paralyzed, and she's the healer.

 

[Peskara]

I've been reading this thread for a little while (I read all of the first thread first, I hate starting in the middle of a story) and I wanted to chime in about how cool it is.

Seasong, you don't need an Iron DM title to prove you are truly an iron DM, just your insane gaming schedule and posting updates like a machine more than qualifies you for that. I count myself lucky if I get to game once a week!

Love this story! Love the orcs! I guess you can count me as an orc sympathizer (although I still like the heroes too). I will be very sad if Chatham's been killed by that Akeros guy. In fact, I'd like to read more of Chatham's story if you're taking requests.

I also dig the customized flavor you've got going on (I prefer a good homebrew world over any of the published settings and I really don't like the standard D&D version of orcs at all). And you've got great players as well!

Thanks for the great read!

 

[seasong]

Hi Peskara! Welcome to the readership . And thank you for the kind words - they help keep me going, and stroke my unconscionably weighty ego.

Oh... and don't tell my players, but I'm secretly an orc sympathizer myself .