Region 'I' has claimed its first victim!
I feel a little bad about it as the character did nothing wrong... it was just bad luck and more my 'fault' then his.
The characters have been talking the Dark Naga. She is making a deal with them to retrieve Malhir's (sp?) Spell book and notes and she will give them background information and knowledge about what is going on in the Region. The players reluctantly agree and, as the result of a very good Diplomacy roll, she gives them some of the background information right then.
She tells them of the drider, drow and the experiments being done and the magic mishap that took place. She says she wants the book and notes so that she might be able to undo the damage that took place. She also tells them that she will give them something that they will want/need (the Ritual of Undoing) but she doesn't tell them what it is.
The party heads off though the ruined lab. They have been though here once already with no problems. THIS time there is something waiting for them.
A Shrieking Terror (MMIII) (but each of the 5 heads was black and elvish looking) lets loose its shriek and drops on the party, kissing two of them. After a fierce fight they drop the creature but one of the characters fails most of his Fort saves against the poison bites so his HP's don't come back even with Cure spells. The party pushes on and gets the door to the lair open but can't answer the question so they head back to the Dark Naga ( as a side note: the questions asked could only have been setup AFTER the disaster happened! That seems... odd).
Till now the party has been playing it very safe. Go into I, get into a fight and pull back to E to rest and heal. THIS time I hit them with two back to back very hard encounters... after the Terror they have their first encounter with Madness!
The main reason I wanted them to met Madness is so that the offer of the Ritual has some meaning.
So, on their way back they hear 'bubbling, dragging, popping noises. And they sound... eager." This is just North of the 4 way Burning Hands trap. The party dithers around not sure what to do as the sound comes closer. Finally it enters the range of the dwarves darkvision.
I show them the MM picture of the Gibbering Mouther and say it looks sort of like this. But bigger. And ALL the teeth are big and sharp and pointy. And there is one set of teeth that show up now and then that are 4-5 inches long. And there are these two big claws that from and drag it forward. And spider legs that keep forming and waving about.
The party decides they are going to pull back and let it take some damage from the Burning Hands trap. So they all start to move South... and mostly get lined up in the hallway. One of the characters says "I hope it doesn't have a lighting bolt".![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
So Madness moves forward and steps up his gibbering. Everyone in range fails their saves. Then it lets loose a lightning bolt ( I should have said that the big set of teeth appear and open and the bolt shoots out of it. I'll have to do that next time). Everyone in range fails their save.
I roll for damage... 35 points. Hmm... the halfling sorcerer only has 30 points. "25 points of damage" I tell the party. "Oh man, I only have 5 left" says the Halfling.
Well... the character that had lost all the HP's from the Terror was standing in the hallway with his 'max' HP's of 15. 25 put him at -10 and he drops to the floor dead.
In a bit of grim humor the halfling Cleric (of war no less) rolls for confusion and gets 'attack nearest creature'. He's standing right in front of the fallen character. So he turns around and buries is axe into the poor guys head (rolled a 20 but didn't confirm the crit).
To finish the story the party pulls back. The groups Gnome Bard hits it with a Glitter Dust. One of the few spells that has 'No' next to SR and it fails its save and is blinded. It rolls forward anyway. The Dwarven Fighter hits it with his non-magical axe and does no lasting damage. Every spell the Sorcerer throws at it fizzles. Cleric casts a Holy Smite... fizzles. Madness rolls though the fire trap with no apparent damage.
At this point the party decides its time to run. Madness has moved up a few times (slowly...) and bit the Fighter with those large teeth. Madness somehow seems to know exactly where he is standing even though his eyes are glazed and staring off in all directions (Tremorsense, though I still gave him a 50/50 miss chance).
They scoop up the fallen body and run back to I chased by Madness the whole way.
There is once again talk of avoiding this whole area and going to check out the Minitors to the E.
BTW, Bards are an excellent counter to the Gibbering of Madness. He was able to roll a Perform check and characters could either use it or roll their own save. Since he rolled a 31 there was not much point. Characters already under the influence of the Confusion got another save and so came out if it. Though he had to keep this up for the whole fight as Madness Gibbers the whole time. Once the Bard stopped (to run away) they had 5 rounds till the effect wore off. They made it to I on round 5.
rv
I feel a little bad about it as the character did nothing wrong... it was just bad luck and more my 'fault' then his.
The characters have been talking the Dark Naga. She is making a deal with them to retrieve Malhir's (sp?) Spell book and notes and she will give them background information and knowledge about what is going on in the Region. The players reluctantly agree and, as the result of a very good Diplomacy roll, she gives them some of the background information right then.
She tells them of the drider, drow and the experiments being done and the magic mishap that took place. She says she wants the book and notes so that she might be able to undo the damage that took place. She also tells them that she will give them something that they will want/need (the Ritual of Undoing) but she doesn't tell them what it is.
The party heads off though the ruined lab. They have been though here once already with no problems. THIS time there is something waiting for them.
A Shrieking Terror (MMIII) (but each of the 5 heads was black and elvish looking) lets loose its shriek and drops on the party, kissing two of them. After a fierce fight they drop the creature but one of the characters fails most of his Fort saves against the poison bites so his HP's don't come back even with Cure spells. The party pushes on and gets the door to the lair open but can't answer the question so they head back to the Dark Naga ( as a side note: the questions asked could only have been setup AFTER the disaster happened! That seems... odd).
Till now the party has been playing it very safe. Go into I, get into a fight and pull back to E to rest and heal. THIS time I hit them with two back to back very hard encounters... after the Terror they have their first encounter with Madness!
The main reason I wanted them to met Madness is so that the offer of the Ritual has some meaning.
So, on their way back they hear 'bubbling, dragging, popping noises. And they sound... eager." This is just North of the 4 way Burning Hands trap. The party dithers around not sure what to do as the sound comes closer. Finally it enters the range of the dwarves darkvision.
I show them the MM picture of the Gibbering Mouther and say it looks sort of like this. But bigger. And ALL the teeth are big and sharp and pointy. And there is one set of teeth that show up now and then that are 4-5 inches long. And there are these two big claws that from and drag it forward. And spider legs that keep forming and waving about.
The party decides they are going to pull back and let it take some damage from the Burning Hands trap. So they all start to move South... and mostly get lined up in the hallway. One of the characters says "I hope it doesn't have a lighting bolt".
So Madness moves forward and steps up his gibbering. Everyone in range fails their saves. Then it lets loose a lightning bolt ( I should have said that the big set of teeth appear and open and the bolt shoots out of it. I'll have to do that next time). Everyone in range fails their save.
I roll for damage... 35 points. Hmm... the halfling sorcerer only has 30 points. "25 points of damage" I tell the party. "Oh man, I only have 5 left" says the Halfling.
Well... the character that had lost all the HP's from the Terror was standing in the hallway with his 'max' HP's of 15. 25 put him at -10 and he drops to the floor dead.
In a bit of grim humor the halfling Cleric (of war no less) rolls for confusion and gets 'attack nearest creature'. He's standing right in front of the fallen character. So he turns around and buries is axe into the poor guys head (rolled a 20 but didn't confirm the crit).
To finish the story the party pulls back. The groups Gnome Bard hits it with a Glitter Dust. One of the few spells that has 'No' next to SR and it fails its save and is blinded. It rolls forward anyway. The Dwarven Fighter hits it with his non-magical axe and does no lasting damage. Every spell the Sorcerer throws at it fizzles. Cleric casts a Holy Smite... fizzles. Madness rolls though the fire trap with no apparent damage.
At this point the party decides its time to run. Madness has moved up a few times (slowly...) and bit the Fighter with those large teeth. Madness somehow seems to know exactly where he is standing even though his eyes are glazed and staring off in all directions (Tremorsense, though I still gave him a 50/50 miss chance).
They scoop up the fallen body and run back to I chased by Madness the whole way.
There is once again talk of avoiding this whole area and going to check out the Minitors to the E.
BTW, Bards are an excellent counter to the Gibbering of Madness. He was able to roll a Perform check and characters could either use it or roll their own save. Since he rolled a 31 there was not much point. Characters already under the influence of the Confusion got another save and so came out if it. Though he had to keep this up for the whole fight as Madness Gibbers the whole time. Once the Bard stopped (to run away) they had 5 rounds till the effect wore off. They made it to I on round 5.
rv
