Dark Squad in the Sunless Citadel
Session #010 Ashardalon.
Dark Squad (in alphabetical order, no egos here).
Buggles (played by Stu) Male Wood Elf Fighter Lvl 1/Rogue Lvl 2
New Tricks (played by Bear) Male Tabaxi Warlock Lvl 3
Ramshambo (played by Kev) Male Half-Elf Rogue Lvl 3
Vincenzo (played by Haggis) Male Shifter (Wildhunt) Druid Lvl 3
NPCs
Garumn Male Mountain Dwarf Paladin of Moradin Lvl 3
Left back with the Kobolds
Erky Timbers Male Gnome Priest of Tymora
So, session #10 of the Sunless Citadel, the Outcast et al is dead, the evil druid’s former supplicants- Kerowyn Hucrele and Sir Braford have been rescued, and thanks to the magic apple from the Gulthias Tree- returned to some semblance of humanity. All is well with the world, although…
The PCs after a short video presentation (maybe, see last session) have got their hands on the dragon key, and soon after have opened the dragon door to spy what lies beyond. This after their pursuit of a nine foot tall robed, and spectral, elf/dragon guy led them to this spot.
Now, inside…
But just a reminder, Gwen- is the name, of course, of Buggles’ new friend, a skeleton summoned via night caller, a strange black crystal whistle the wood elf found in the previous session. Just a reminder before we go on.
Oh, and strap in- this is a lengthy instalment, quite a lot 'came up', as it were, in this session.
The chamber beyond the dragon door, as described in the last session is large, with three alcoves to the north- each holding a pedestal with a fist-sized dull rock atop (in all three alcoves). There’s another alcove to the south- the same set up except the rock atop the pedestal here is glowing- with a soft blue-white light. It’s also emitting a very hard to make out noise- it could be music, most odd.
Other than this strange set up there’s a door opposite, and clear indication from the thick layer of dust on everything that this chamber has been sealed for many (many) years.
The PCs are cautious, well- except for Newt, because as you know curiosity never did any harm to a feline of any ilk. The tabaxi rushes over to investigate the glowing orb- it’s very pretty, meow.
"Me-Wow! This looks purrrfect for my collection!"
Alas, as soon as he gets close the tinny sound that was issuing from the orb suddenly gets much much louder, I send the PCs the following link-
This is the noise coming out of the glowing orb, and the effect of it is… well, to force all of the PCs to make a DC 15 wisdom save, I’ll be honest- I thought half of them would fail this, but no- not a bloody one of 'em.
So, the PCs stand statue staring at the orb, and shrugging or tapping along to the tune, while the clutch of kobolds that followed the adventurers here, and were hanging around the door, suddenly race off yapping furiously, clearly affected by the audio.
More shrugs from the PCs, particularly the two rogues in the party who are using thieves’ cant to chat and signal their umbrage-
“Is puss-in-boots going to turn it off, or what?” Buggles enquires testily.
However the tabaxi decides on a different plan, and instead grabs the orb up into his hands- this act causes the music to suddenly increase again in volume- it’s ear-splitting. The effect however lasts but a moment more as Newt, in ire, drops the sphere hard onto the stone-flagged floor.
It cracks, the light goes off… and the music comes to a very sudden halt.
[Turn the music off 60 XP]
Then, after much checking and rechecking of the door, the only exit- they head on, or at least open the portal to spy into a short passage, just ten feet wide and about twenty long which ends in yet another door, again- the place is thick with undisturbed dust.
"It's just a dusty corridor", Buggles decrees as he and Gwen head out for their constitutional. A beautiful sight- a young wood elf and his rictus grinning undead skeleton paramour. Lovely.
It’s Buggles’ turn to rush on in, this after only a cursory check ahead, the rogue/fighter and his skeleton companion- Gwen, stride forward- seconds later, after the trap is triggered, Buggles is gut shot (a Crit) by a crossbow bolt (for 13 damage) and bloodied in an instant.
That went well.
The badly wounded wood elf holds position, it becomes apparent that there are series of pressure plates in the corridor, this conclusion reached after Gwen is ordered to stride about a bit to try and find the triggers. The skeleton gets shot at three times, all misses, while Buggles continues to groan and gripe clutching at his wound.
Don’t worry, a short while later he’ll get his second wind and will be back to mischief soon after.
Newt attempts to manipulate a mage hand to poke an arrow into a small hole above the far door, through which the crossbow bolts are being fired- this works, but only once, the next time the mechanism fires it clears the unbraced obstruction.
Eventually, after a bit more very cautious checking and testing, and by using the stone pedestals from the previous chamber to weigh down all of the pressure plates on one side of the passage, the adventurers safely make it to the door opposite.
There are a lot of verbal high fives from the players for just making it down a twenty foot passage (fairly) safely.
If you think that's bad...
[Get through the trapped corridor 125 XP]
Then after another comprehensive series of checks for noise, traps et al Ram opens the door into the next chamber, scratch that- the last chamber, there are no other exits from here.
Here being a high ceilinged space, again thick with dust, and with a fifteen foot tall statue of a rearing dragon constructed from red-veined marble, to the north.
The dragon statue’s mouth is agape, as if to release it’s (wintery/fiery?) breath. This last fact ensures that the PCs remain on edge for a little while longer. That is until Ram gets close to the dragon statue which swiftly animates and turns to stare at the rogue, and then delivers it’s speech/riddle-
“We come at night without being fetched; we disappear by day without being stolen. What are we?”
The end of the road- a big dragon statue, nice- but not entirely what the dark Squad were expecting/wanting to find.
Which foxes the PCs for just less than three seconds, Vincenzo mutters- “Stars?”, and the animated dragon turns to stare at the shifter, and then nods solemnly. Then a grinding noise as a previously secret door on the west side of the chamber pivots open.
There’s more…
We break briefly for a chunk of back slapping for Vincenzo and his big brain.
[Solve the dragon’s riddle 100 XP]
And so we go on again, into another large chamber with three alcoves either side (north and south) each home to a life-size statue of an armoured (and armed) eleven(-like) guard. These folk look a lot like the guards seen in the PCs vision earlier (last session), when they recovered the dragon key. This is all fitting together, somehow.
The chamber has a ten foot wide pit to the west, the bottom of the depression is filled with a carpet of very sharp looking spikes, and across the pit- just a ten foot jump away, is an archway into yet another chamber. There’s a greenish light visible through the archway, and when the adventurers get close they can see a massive sarcophagi within the newly revealed room.
The PCs cautiously nose around, Newt’s mage hand confirming that there’s nothing (seemingly) from preventing them leaping across the pit- nothing unseen/illusion blocking the way ahead.
All clear.
[Preliminary investigations 75 XP]
That done, release the danger man- Ramshambow leaps across (just, thanks to Vinnie’s guidance cantrip) the spiked pit and into the green-lit chamber beyond, which contains a ten foot long massive stone, dragon-head, and dragon-engraved, sarcophagi. The massive lump of ancient stone has six metal hasps keeping the thing sealed shut.
That’s a clue- right there.
At which point however, Jot swoops in and claws at Ram’s neck, and scores a hit- as usual the rogue is back to being bloodied.
Release the ever-bloodied danger man- Ramshambow!
Jot is glimpsed but briefly, Ram thinks it’s a stirge… although the creature is making strange noises- actually speaking in abyssal, which alas none of the PCs understand.
There’s a scramble into action- Buggles, seconds later, leaps and lands in the sarcophagi chamber next to Ram, and spots the tiny flying thing and shoots it with his bow, a hit.
Note the wood elf confirms that they are fighting but a single stirge.
Also note, the pair’s monster ID check rolls (as a free action) are… well, an adjusted ‘3’ is the highest.
Jot, the quasit, yelps in the common tongue- “You broke my binding- you fools... the end is nigh”, and then with a theatrical poof of smoke disappears from sight.
Buggles and Ram recalibrate their opinion, they’re now certain that it definitely wasn’t a stirge.
A moment later Newt leaps across to join the rogues, Garumn (over 350lbs with equipment) and Vincenzo (not built for leaping) continue to try and assess the situation from a distance.
The trio in the sarcophagi chamber start their search, keeping an eye out for what they now believe to be a tiny demon/devil, which is very probably still sat somewhere close by (invisible) and watching them.
Correctamundo, as Fonzie used to say.
It becomes very obvious to the PCs that they have a choice- do they open the sarcophagi or not? There’s nothing on the outside of the container beyond the myriad dragon engravings to indicate what lies within.
The answer to the question- are we going to open the thing, however, is best summed up by Ram- “I didn’t come all this way not to open it… that’d be stupid.” Although, in truth, there were no dissenters, all of the adventurers want to see who or what lies within.
Real world- the players are obviously fearful that some large, maybe nine foot tall (see last session) dragon/elf combo creature, may be at rest within.
See Fonzie, as above.
Let’s see how stupid opening it turns out to be shall we, sit tight.
Oh, and if you hadn’t figure it out yet, this- my friends, is the finale.
It quickly also becomes apparent however that strength is needed to actually get the hasps off the sarcophagi, and so Garumn is instructed to leap across the pit- alas even with a bit of Vinnie magic (more guidance) that doesn’t work out well for the hefty dwarf (although he has the highest athletics bonus in the group, I think).
A minute or so later and a very heavily wounded Garumn clambers out of the spiked pit, with a lot of help from his friends. The paladin has to use up a potential divine smite to access a cure wounds spell, he’s no longer bloodied- we go on.
Although next up- after a fair amount of jeering from the adventurers in the sarcophagi chamber, Vincenzo is also cowed into crossing the pit.
It doesn’t help the druid’s concentration any with Ram clapping and chanting “Vinnie! Vinnie!”, the rogue it seems is no longer the strong silent type.
Vinnie runs up to the pit’s edge and then… wildshapes into Vincen G. Spider, the arachnid druid scurries up the wall and across- to boos from some quarters.
Sorry about that James.
[All across the pit 50 XP, mostly given because I just feel sorry for them, you figure once one of them gets across there’d be a rope in play somewhere, but no- dare devil’s to the last]
So, the Dark Squad get to work on opening the dragon sarcophagi, although at least three of the adventurers are very quickly distracted from the operation.
Also only Garumn is having any success getting the hasps off (DC 12 strength check required x6).
Ram hears again the flapping wings of the invisible devil/demon that is quite definitely still in the chamber watching them at work, the rogue tries to surreptitiously tempt the creature to reveal itself with a saucer of healing potion.
It doesn’t work.
Meantime, Newt has also found something that requires further enquiry- he decides to investigate the walls of the chamber thoroughly, and what’s this- a hollow space, a secret compartment- perhaps. The spot is low on the wall to the south- a three foot by three foot tunnel is revealed, which continues south and then turns east- back towards the other side of the pit.
The tabaxi snoops briefly, the passageway heads east for some considerable distance, what’s down there?
While this is going on Vincen G. Spider begins to spin a thick web across the spiked pit. Yes, the web is sticky- but at least no-one’s going to be falling in the pit again any time soon.
[Continued investigations, and great RP 75 XP]
After a lot of strength checks (like, a lot- a lot) four of the great metal hasps have been released- and Garumn has accounted for three of them, he’s the only tough guy in this mob.
Then suddenly, nothing… or else everything stops (and after a series of mostly low insight checks) Ram and Garumn conclude- the ground just moved, just a shiver but very definite- something just happened.
There follows a short debate, started by Garumn, regarding the danger of mixing earth tremors with underground chambers. Everyone looks at the ceiling for a while, and then… well, they all start to fret, or else to doubt themselves.
At some point during the debate Vincen G. Spider, who cannot communicate except in mime while wildshaped as he is, decides he really does need to have his say. Vincenzo is back to shifter form, and that’s all his wildshaping done for a while.
Shame, he could have done with a bit of wildshaping later.
Vincenzo is the first, I think, to verbalise the so far unspoken thought- “Should we really be doing zis? Opening zer sarchophagiz?” There follows a lot more chatter on the subject, and the consensus is, well… there is no consensus, as there are now doubters in their midst, and again it’s Vince that states the obvious.
“Mes amis, I don’t sink we should open eet.”
To which there comes a very forceful reply- “Open it now!”
The reply however comes courtesy of Yusdrayl, the kobold queen. She, and a few of her friends- say, about a dozen other kobolds, are now positioned in the chamber on the other side of the pit.
Yusdrayl takes the time to explain further, and in the common tongue- “We have waited generations for the Dragon Lord to be released, you will do so- now!” More snarling weapon-wielding kobolds back up her statement.
The Dark Squad are not at all happy, and for a variety of reasons.
The mood isn’t helped when the invisible (still) Jot (the quasit) also starts laughing and generally pointing out the obvious.
“Moradin’s big fat arse, you guyz are so [Very Naughty Word] right now- earth tremors, uppity kobolds tellin’ ya what-ta-do, do we open the box- don’t we open the box. I’m havin’ a hoot fellers, just watchin’ ya work.” Jot giggles on for a good long while.
As I say, the mood of the adventurers is improved dramatically.
There’s an almost silent vote as the PCs continue to mutter to each other, the summary belongs however, once again, to Ram.
The rogue grabs out his bow and fires an arrow at the nearest kobold- it’s a miss, but the situation has quite definitely evolved. To confirm matters Ram makes it clear- “I’m opening that thing!” He points at the sarcophagi, “but I ain’t being told to do it by a bunch of stinkin’ kobolds.”
And Ram was Yusdrayl’s favourite, so sad.
And the kobolds were so nice...
There’s a scramble to action, Buggles shoots a kobold dead with his bow, an instant later and two kobolds (easily) leap across the pit.
“Here’s company.” Jot calls out, and continues giggling.
Gwen, Buggles’ skeleton 'special friend' cuts another kobold down.
Then a third kobold leaps across the spiked pit and into the room- three out of three, it’s easy.
Alas the first of the new kobold arrivals is skewered through the throat by Ram, it’s dead Jim.
Then Garumn gets hit by a sling stone.
Then a fourth kobold leaps into the sarcophagi chamber.
Note the kobolds mostly have to use double moves to get a run up and leap the pit, so their out of actions by the time they arrive on the PCs side of the fracas.
They also miss quite a lot with their attacks, so there's that.
Gwen gets hit with a sling stone- bludgeoning damage counts double, so- she loses an arm, Buggles is not at all happy about this.
I think we even had a “Gwennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!” moment.
Newt, the curious cat/tabaxi, ignores the present contretemps and tries to get another one of the hasps on the sarcophagi off, he fails.
Newt’s colleagues take a short moment to remind the tabaxi of the present situation vis-a-vis the kobolds trying desperately to kill them, I think he gets it.
Vincenzo settles a swathe of faerie fire over the mess of kobolds. The shifter also shifts to his snarling bestial form.
Then several bad things happen at once-
Gwen’s skull is shattered into a thousand pieces by another kobold sling stone. The skeleton is destroyed.
Garumn gets hit by a fiery orb flung by Yusdrayl (chromatic orb, for 14 fire damage), the paladin is on 2 HP.
Garumn runs, and attracts AoO’s from the kobold invaders, and seconds later is stabbed into unconsciousness.
Things, it seems, have taken a turn for the worse.
[The mess they’re in 125 XP]
Jot also takes a moment to remind the PCs of his presence.
“Should I put your bodies in the pit or the sarcophagus when they’re done with you? Any preferences? Guys? Guys? Come on!”
Buggles backs up a way and then shoots one of the kobolds on this side of the pit, it doesn’t die, it’s only wounded.
Two kobolds take it in turns to stab Ram, and the rogue is down to 3 HP.
Ram kills both of his attackers dead.
Vincenzo takes a moment to applaud the rogue- “he iz zer killing machine, n’est pas?”
Sling stones fly- and miss.
A kobold fails to jump the pit and lands in the sticky webs, there it remains mostly ignored- unable to get out until… well, until it gets very nasty indeed- you’ll see.
Newt misses Yusdrayl with a hex enhanced eldritch blast, Vincenzo goes one better- he misses Yusdrayl with his ice knife spell, and then after an inspiration point- he misses again. Although the subsequent explosion of the ice knife does cause a little hurt to the kobold queen, and also kills a nearby kobold.
Garumn makes his first death save, see- things are picking up.
Then, inevitably, it gets worse- the entire chamber suddenly lurches hard left, and then as swiftly back again- Buggles and Newt are knocked to the floor, as are several of the kobolds.
What the… the PCs, what with all the other good stuff going on, had momentarily forgotten about the earth tremor thing.
There’s suddenly a lot of shouting going on from the PCs, and a lot of questions with no answers from the players- “are we staying here?”, and/or, “are we really opening this thing?”
Ram kills another kobold dead, there are no more of the creatures on this side of the pit, the PCs duck into cover- no longer visible through the archway.
Jot makes another smart arse comment, he repeats this attack every time the initiative counter comes around to him. The quasit (and the DM) seem to be in excellent moods, clearly enjoying their work.
Another kobold leaps across the pit and through the archway, and then scurries into cover behind the sarcophagi, which is where Newt is hiding.
The tabaxi tries to get away, he gets stabbed, but then reduces the offending creature to atoms with a hex enhanced eldritch blast.
Vincenzo rushes to Garumn’s side, alas the druid has no healing left, or indeed any spell slots at all- he therefore tries to drag the dwarf into cover. At present Garumn is kinda just lying in the archway- he’s the only target visible to the kobolds on the other side of the pit. Explanation over.
Vinnie can’t shift the dwarf- see above, he weighs over 350lbs in his armour- DC 10 strength check, fail big time.
It gets worse, streams of dirt begin to cascade down from between the stone flags in the ceiling and on the walls.
If Garumn wasn’t dying I’m certain he’d have something to say about the Dark Squad’s present situation.
Another tremor strikes and Buggles (again) is sent sprawling.
Ram, meantime grabs out his last healing potion and glugs it down (2d4+2 = 5 HP back, at least they weren’t both ‘1’s).
Seconds later Newt gets to Garumn with a healing potion, the tabaxi’s last, and the dwarf blinks opens his eyes.
Note, the latter came about when the PCs suddenly realised that Garumn is the only other source of healing they possess. In truth the paladin has one first level spell slot remaining, that’s it- and he’s used all of his lay on hands already.
The players were alas not aware of this before they woke him.
Which probably saved the paladin's life, at least for a while.
The rest of the Dark Squad hoped he had more healing, much more…
While all of the above is going on, and with the constant rumble and growl of stone, Vincenzo gets back to the sarcophagi and starts reapplying the hasps- he rolls a ‘20’, and so the generous DM allows him to re-seal one side of the sarcophagi completely- three hasps. There’s only one of the hasps left unsealed.
The druid is certain (well, about 50% certain- and I know that certain can’t be 50%, that’s the humour) that somehow sealing the sarcophagi will make it all stop.
Just to note the kobolds have not been attacking much here because they are either prone and clutching onto the floor, or else cowering behind the elven statues in the alcoves, or… they’ve already run away.
Garumn gets back to his feet, staggers over to Ram and spends his last spell slot on a cure wounds for the still badly wounded rogue (1d8+2 = 3 HP recovered, I swear to you this happens every time with Ram).
There are groans, and a fair amount of laughter- sorry about that fellers.
As Buggles stated at the time- “goodly healing does not work on Ram, I wonder why?”
The tremors continue apace, and are getting more severe, the flagstones on the floor begin to pop and dance.
There’s a screamed debate, of sorts, basically- “what the F for Freddie should we do?”
The best answer again comes courtesy of the wood elf, Buggles- “the safest place is inside the sarcophagus.”
But that’s enough, one by one the PCs succumb and dash across the chamber and into the three foot square passage that Newt discovered earlier, they don’t know where it goes, but anywhere is better than here.
At which point, when the last of the guys has dived into the crawlspace, there’s a stone rending sound followed by several more substantial THUNKs- the noise above and beyond the terror of the tremors.
Newt, wouldn’t you guess it, is curious. The tabaxi wriggles past one of his companions (he really is lithe) in the crawlspace and then scurries back to see what’s going on within the sarcophagi chamber.
Dark Squad Sunless Citadel secret meeting- location a three foot crawlspace wracked with earth tremors, Vincenzo struggles to get the minutes of the last meeting read.
The answer being the lid of the sarcophagi has been flung up and off its base, the hasps have likewise sprung from their settings- leaving a trail a smashed metal and stone fragments that ricochet about a bit for a while. Worst of all sitting up in the sarcophagi is a (tatty) robed wearing emaciated creature whose face and upper body (all that can be seen) best resemble some combination of dragon and elf.
The creature gets to its feet.
It’s about nine feet tall.
Funny that, who woulda guessed it.
Then, as Newt reports back what he’s seeing to his colleagues, who are now having a mother’s meeting crammed together in a shuddering three foot crawlspace, while reality explodes around them, anyway- Newt reports back, the creature speaks.
The words are hard to make out, and seemingly of no language at all- that is until Ram puts his brain in gear, the creature is speaking a mess of elven mixed in with draconic.
I say the creature is speaking, at this point it is screaming the words- allowing everyone to hear what it has to say.
Which is, and in this order-
“I am.”
“I AM!”
“I AM ASHARDALON!”
Which has the desired effect, the PCs en masse hot-scurry-it down the crawlspace and away from Ashardalon as fast as they can go, not even stopping when the tunnel ends in solid stone. Buggles kicks open the secret stone panel, and exits into another small (empty) chamber.
Note, for those not keeping up- the name Ashardalon appears earlier in the Dark Squad’s adventure into the Sunless Citadel, they have collectively worked out that Ashardalon was an ancient (perhaps, now) dragon (possibly red) that was somehow worshipped here by the dragon cultists that inhabited/built (maybe) the Sunless Citadel.
The Dark Squad are not keen to meet Ashardalon, even if only a small fragment of the above is true.
There are no exits, and squiggly writing on one of the walls, of the newly discovered chamber. Buggles doesn’t understand it- it’s written in draconic, seconds later however and Ram is at his side.
“It says- never let it out.” Ram helpfully states, while polishing up his nervous giggle.
There are more groans from the chorus back in the crawlspace.
The rogue however has bigger fish to fry, he searches and finds a secret door to the north, the tremors are now so bad that the PCs and the kobolds have to make a DC 10 Dex check or else all movement is halved (as per difficult terrain) for their turn.
The rest of the Dark Squad scramble through the crawlspace and into the room, did I say all of them, actually one of them doesn’t quite make it.
You know I said that none of the PCs wanted to meet Ashardalon, well…
Newt exits the crawlspace back into the sarcophagi chamber, and there he crouches- stays on his feet, as best he can- and watches
The nine foot tall dragon/elf abomination leaps across the webbed spiked pit with ease, and then grabs the nearest prone kobold up and bites its head off.
Yusdrayl falls prone at the terrifying creature’s feet and jabbers praise (probably) in draconic, the creature ignores her and strides on- towards the exit, which is too small, it begins tearing at the former secret door- enlarging the opening, or else trying to squeeze through the gap.
Newt with a little extra feline agility follows the abomination over the pit, the few kobolds left in the chamber there mostly ignore the tabaxi- there’s plenty else going on to hold their attention.
DM aside, oddly, if Newt had looked in the sarcophagi he would have seen, but no… that would be too cruel, let’s just say there were a lot of very nice shiny things in there, and magic. There, that wasn’t cruel at all.
Follow that abomination!
Back in the secret room the other four members of the Dark Squad huddle up, Buggles swigs down a potion of healing- that’s the last healing that any of them possess- spell, scroll, power, or… anything.
Good luck with what follows guys.
There follows a noise like the end of the world, and then the ceiling of the sarcophagi chamber collapses, the crawlspace very swiftly follows suit- a cloud of grit and dust engulfs the Dark Squad huddle.
Back in the chamber with Newt, the Abomination, Yusdrayl and several other screaming kobolds- the pit and a little way beyond, well… the floor, walls, and ceiling suddenly become as one.
There is screaming- courtesy of more or less everyone except for the superbly sanguine dragon/elf abomination.
Oh, and…
“It’s okay guys, whew- that was a close one…” Jot’s still alive, everyone is really glad of that.
Ram kicks open the secret door and reveals a screaming kobold clutching at the legs of a swaying elf statue, they have emerged in one of the southern alcoves in the room. The rogue cuts the poor kobold’s throat and then strides into the swaying chamber, almost bumping into a grinning Newt.
At which point the abomination finally ducks and squeezes through the former secret door and heads on.
Seconds later the adventurers hear the crossbow trap in action, but no other sound- save the continuing titanic end of world collapse.
DM aside, on the map in Fantasy Grounds is a red line- everything to the left of it is gone- crushed by tons of rock, to the right- well, we'll see about that. Newt is about five feet ahead of the red line, he flirts with danger beautifully at times.
Also note the DC to move unimpeded by the tremorous doom is increasing every turn, basically it’s getting harder to go anywhere fast, or indeed safely.
Buggles follows Ram out into the chamber, there amidst the fury he spies a still prostrate Yusdrayl and attempts to hack the sprawled kobold’s head off- he cuts hard, but not hard enough, and so Ram dashes over and makes certain.
[The end of the line for the kobolds 500 XP]
At which point all five members of the Dark Squad are reunited, and there’s a consensus.
“Flee fer yer lives!” And that’s coming from Garumn, you know things are bad when the dwarven paladin is screeching like a nine year old.
Then… well, there’s a lot more of the same, or not a lot more- maybe two or three more turns, but it’s not worth repeating here, great at the time. However, all you need to know (dear reader) is the DM keeps the collapse going, and even starts rolling 1d4 damage for every creature at the start of their turn as the stones continue to rain down.
"RUN! Run ferr yer lives!" The dwarven paladin is a beacon of calm within the rocky storm.
The dragon/elf abomination keeps steadfastly heading for the exit, and the Dark Squad fail some checks, struggle, fall over a bit, and… follow after.
Although there is one slightly funny bit in all of this mess- obviously Jot keeps up his commentary track, generally offering (I think) very constructive advice, or else just trying to encourage the PCs at their task.
“Yer gonna die here if ya don’t speed up fatty.” That kinda thing.
As I say, helpful.
Anyway, the guys start talking back to the quasit as they stagger forward while avoiding further ceiling collapses, and that’s what I’ve been wanting for them to do all along. After a bit of banter Jot even offers to reveal himself, which comes to pass, obviously the moment he does so Newt forgoes a fleeing action to shoot the quasit with an eldritch blast.
Jot is less happy at this, but he turns invisible- offers much less helpful comments, and he survives.
And so…
The collapse is still tailing the Dark Squad as they burst into and then through the now violently swaying tower, and then back out onto the battlements- back to where they started their adventure in the Sunless Citadel.
What a sight it is to see here.
Although there are no more pictures, I think (I hope) it got a little tense and none of the players had the time or the inclination to take any more screen shots, so the rest requires the use of your imaginarium.
Just for info, first on the scene are Buggles and Ram with their triple move rogue action, although Newt isn’t too far behind.
On the battlements to the right of the yawning pit trap there are Kerowyn Hucrele and Sir Braford- both still stumbling automatons being herded and protected by Erky Timbers, the gnome priest of Tymora (Lady Luck).
Over the far side of the pit is the elf/dragon abomination.
The really odd thing is this… the entire citadel is rising, from the basement level of the ravine it is racing up the cavern walls to the top floor- to the surface.
The Sunless Citadel gets to see the sun, one last time.
The abomination, still sprightly, steps off the ruined citadel shaped elevator and then rushes off in a north easterly direction, possibly late for an appointment elsewhere.
It doesn't look back or even acknowledge the presence of the Dark Squad and the other survivors- at any point.
[Survive the Sunless Citadel (and other stuff) 700 XP]
The PCs and the three other survivors (actually four)- Sharwyn, Sir Braford and Erky, likewise breach and then race to get clear as the ravine heaves and clashes, and then closes shut, as if it never were.
[Rescue Sharwyn, Sir Braford & Erky 300 XP]
Except, of course, for the thousands of tons of roiling broken rubble that piles up, totters, and continues to collapse for a good while after. The remains of the Sunless Citadel.
Note, in the chat window on FG the following appears as I am describing the action-
Buggles: [SKILL] Musical Instrument Flute [MOD
EX] [PROF] [EFFECTS 1d4-2] [1d20+1p4+3 = 22]Basically the wood elf trills along as tumult rages and spews rocky chaos.
And with a ‘22’ on the check, that’s a poignant melody right there.
Nice touch Buggles/Stu, there’s the extra inspiration point for next time.
The adventure, save the recounting of the tale, is done.
Just to note, when the Dark Squad eventually got up/out/free Vincenzo and Newt were just about bloodied, while Ram, Buggles and Garumn had maybe ten hit points shared between the three of 'em.
That was close.
Phew.
“See ya later, ass hats!”
The only other survivor, Jot, flaps off.
Back to Thundertree next session, see you there.
That was a stone cold cracker, I got to play a sweary and terrified (in places) Scottish/dwarven paladin, and a wise-ass, wise-guy quasit. Loved it.
Stay safe and well.
Cheers goonalan.
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