TarionzCousin
Second Most Angelic Devil Ever
After chasing the tiefling's supposed brother all the way across the Astral Sea and into the Divine Domain of Shar (Evil Goddess of Darkness and Secrets), the PC's finally made it to the bottom level of the mini-dungeon in expectation of confronting the evil "brother."
Since they had taken a six-hour break immediately prior, he had already escaped. But they didn't know that and he left behind plenty of his friends.
The first picture shows the general layout of the room. It was an entire sheet of large graph paper. In the center was a glowing purple chasm broached by a single stone bridge. At the far right of the picture you can see a blue teleport circle and a red/orange/yellow forge. The gray circles are pillars.
The PC's are offscreen at the entrance, their way marred by a shardstorm elemental. Twenty undead are ready to jump them as soon as they enter. Note that one PC, marked by an orange star, is directly behind the bridge. I'll explain how he got there after the picture.
Picture #1
Upon opening the door and seeing all the forces arrayed against them, the PC's executed a clever tactical maneuver. The wizard opened a teleport gate (a Utility 10 power, I think) from the entrance to behind the bridge--the orange star PC is standing on it in the above picture. As their turns came up, all the PC's went through the gate, bypassing the horde of undead, and getting behind the archers with full cover, the rhino golem, and the duergar in the guard houses with the nasty cannons ready to blast a serious killing field on and across the bridge. They sidestepped the whole defensive array.
Much combat ensued. Picture #2 is from at least an hour later. The orange line is fire from the PC's Nightmare. The bright green square is the location of one endpoint of their gate. Everybody is tied up in some manner. The dwarf PC has managed (with help) to knock out the Rhino Golem and is now smashing his way into the guard shack through the wall with his 2-handed frost maul. The elven cleric (flanked by white and black play pieces) has been ambushed by a Shadow Demon.
Picture #2
About an hour later, nearly all of the monster minions are dead. Frosty the snowman represents the wizard's ongoing cold spell. Blurry in the forefront is the drow sorcerer on his nightmare mount. It's too bad it's so blurry because the mini is actually standing on a tiny chair stuck over the horse's back (the saddle cost the PC 25,000 gold pieces, so it got its own miniature representation
).
Picture #3
Red circles looped over minis represent "bloodied." The colored pieces in the center (yellow, white, and a broken red one) are the surviviing fire imps that came down the chimney when the PC's got close to the forge. The round blobs are gaming stones that represent marked and cursed enemies. In the upper left the dwarf has slain the duergar in the guard shack and smashed through the other wall to slay the last Archer--he could have gone out the door, but as the dwarf's player said "Doors are for wimps!"
There is a lot more going on, and another couple hours of fighting, but this is the last picture.
The game was a blast. I really enjoyed the fact that the PC's bypassed the defensive set-up. It made things easier for them (they would have had to wade through the undead horde while getting peppered by arrows (that stole a healing surge with each hit) and other ranged attacks from the Cambion demon (the guy by the teleport circle and forge).
They were tactically smart to start the fight and it made a big difference.
Since they had taken a six-hour break immediately prior, he had already escaped. But they didn't know that and he left behind plenty of his friends.
The first picture shows the general layout of the room. It was an entire sheet of large graph paper. In the center was a glowing purple chasm broached by a single stone bridge. At the far right of the picture you can see a blue teleport circle and a red/orange/yellow forge. The gray circles are pillars.
The PC's are offscreen at the entrance, their way marred by a shardstorm elemental. Twenty undead are ready to jump them as soon as they enter. Note that one PC, marked by an orange star, is directly behind the bridge. I'll explain how he got there after the picture.
Picture #1
Upon opening the door and seeing all the forces arrayed against them, the PC's executed a clever tactical maneuver. The wizard opened a teleport gate (a Utility 10 power, I think) from the entrance to behind the bridge--the orange star PC is standing on it in the above picture. As their turns came up, all the PC's went through the gate, bypassing the horde of undead, and getting behind the archers with full cover, the rhino golem, and the duergar in the guard houses with the nasty cannons ready to blast a serious killing field on and across the bridge. They sidestepped the whole defensive array.
Much combat ensued. Picture #2 is from at least an hour later. The orange line is fire from the PC's Nightmare. The bright green square is the location of one endpoint of their gate. Everybody is tied up in some manner. The dwarf PC has managed (with help) to knock out the Rhino Golem and is now smashing his way into the guard shack through the wall with his 2-handed frost maul. The elven cleric (flanked by white and black play pieces) has been ambushed by a Shadow Demon.
Picture #2
About an hour later, nearly all of the monster minions are dead. Frosty the snowman represents the wizard's ongoing cold spell. Blurry in the forefront is the drow sorcerer on his nightmare mount. It's too bad it's so blurry because the mini is actually standing on a tiny chair stuck over the horse's back (the saddle cost the PC 25,000 gold pieces, so it got its own miniature representation
).Picture #3
Red circles looped over minis represent "bloodied." The colored pieces in the center (yellow, white, and a broken red one) are the surviviing fire imps that came down the chimney when the PC's got close to the forge. The round blobs are gaming stones that represent marked and cursed enemies. In the upper left the dwarf has slain the duergar in the guard shack and smashed through the other wall to slay the last Archer--he could have gone out the door, but as the dwarf's player said "Doors are for wimps!"
There is a lot more going on, and another couple hours of fighting, but this is the last picture.
The game was a blast. I really enjoyed the fact that the PC's bypassed the defensive set-up. It made things easier for them (they would have had to wade through the undead horde while getting peppered by arrows (that stole a healing surge with each hit) and other ranged attacks from the Cambion demon (the guy by the teleport circle and forge).
They were tactically smart to start the fight and it made a big difference.
