Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wulf Ratbane" data-source="post: 68920" data-attributes="member: 94">DM's TWELFTH SESSION SUMMARY-- tis better to receive than to GiffWith the dragon out of the way, the party returned to her lair under the lake. Exploring further, they found another set of complex valve-doors, leading to an as-yet unexplored area.Opening the door revealed a narrow passage, about 5 feet wide and 15 feet long, with another valve door at the other end. The party crammed themselves into the passage and closed the door behind them, waiting while the water ran through a grate in the floor.It was extremely cramped. Rod looked around nervously at their tightly packed formation. "Before we open that door..."A little too late-- the door was opened. Looming before them was a hippo-headed warrior of some kind, and a towering umber hulk. The folks in the front flinched and tried to run, while the group packed into the back tried to see what all the commotion was about. It took them all a moment to realize that they were merely statues, so menacing and lifelike were their poses.Unfortunately, on the wall across from them, spider climbing near the ceiling, they spotted a kobold sorceress. By her dress and demeanor, she was clearly the overseer of the kobolds, if not the entire operation. They had scant time to notice any other details of the room, however, as the sorceress pointed a jagged wand at them and fired a lightning bolt right into their ranks.The party scattered as best they could, spilling out into the room. There was plenty of cover, most notably the large, solid stone  tables jutting up from the floor. Jaag crossed into the room first, staying low near the laboratory tables, nervously eyeing the bizarre creatures preserved in tanks along the walls. Some vestigal Eye-kin, some kobolds, some kind of spider creature with a head like an eel.Kobolds poured out of alcoves on the far wall, firing into the party. There were too many for Rodrigo to handle all at once, and in any case he had retreated back into the hallway to engage in a fire-fight with the opposing sorceress.Kellan and Tanthril moved into the room to tackle the kobolds... until the gauths rose out of a hole on the south end of the room, their eyes blasting away. The three fighters were caught with blasts of electricity and red rays of inflict wounds-- but Jaag, curiously, was unharmed by the red rays. Thus emboldened, he charged the far end of the room, where something peeked out from behind a door, waiting.Jaag guessed that it must be the leader, and charged full tilt for the door, expecting to smash it aside and cleave into the "evil scientist" behind this whole mess. Instead, he was surprised as the door was flung wide ahead of his approach and he was staring down the barrel of two flintlock pistols. They went off with a truly legendary explosion, and Jaag's charge was stopped cold. He barely had time to recover before the hippo-like gunman had dropped his pistols and grabbed a long musket from beside the door, discharging that into his face as well, before spinning it around and smashing him across the chops with the wooden butt.In a matter of seconds, Jaag was nearly dead. Rodrigo was barely hanging on from the first lightning bolt, and the others hadn't fared well against the gauths. They were already shouting the retreat.Rodrigo held them firm. "We're all going to die if we run now... Besides, I'm not out of smack yet!" And with that, he launched a fireball to the south end of the room, smashing the tanks and other equipment, killing the kobolds, and sending the gauths back down the hole for cover.Tanthril was plinking away at the sorceress with his bow, but she crouched at the corner of ceiling and wall behind her shield spell, untouchable. Spiteful, she turned to Jaag, who was trying to limp away, dropping him with magic missiles. It was enough of a delay for Rod to turn and fireball her as well. Overkill: flakes of kobold ash drifted to the ground.Kellan ran forward and healed Jaag, then dragged him to his feet and hustled him towards the door. "Now can we leave?"Rod eyed the doorway where the giff was, no doubt, frantically reloading. "No point leaving the leader alive!"Tanthril, Nik, and Kellan sighed. Though they were all near death, they drew their weapons and charged the giff's bolt-hole. Unlike the stubby-legged dwarf, they made the full charge before the giff could really regain his composure. He swung his musket at Tanthril and landed a vicious head-butt on Nik, but they held on, clearly resigned to death. Whether by inspiration or desperation, they fought until the giff dropped lifeless to the floor.The room was quiet, until the barest whisper of noise floated up from the hole where the gauths retreated. And with that, their adrenaline rush extinguished, the party fled.</blockquote>

Verification