Chivalry is dead (RttToEE spoilers!!!)
The party:
9th lvl NG Dwarven Druid: Kelec the Mossbeard (Cha. 4); Kelec was an ugly piece of *%#%. His Cha = a dretch demon.
6th/1st/1st lvl TN Human Rogue/Aristocrat/Ranger: Garreth Steele
7th/1st lvl LN Human Diviner/Loremaster: Astaldo (had a pseudodragon familiar)
5th lvl LG Azer Fighter: Izerack (NPC) -- considered a PC by the group. He became part of the group as the other two players left.
The adventure: a modified Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil
Well the party had shrunken due to the departure of our sorcerer and witch/rogue. The remnant party had entered the Temple of All-Consumption with two other fairly capable NPCs which were both immediately killed by the dragon lairing south of the Gate guard post.
Well as the party was engaging the dungeon chambers south of the Gate guard post (having opted to leave the Earth Temple for later), the party finally manages to rescue Astaldo and his familiar (Astaldo was acutally a mid-adventure replacement for our party's other rogue) who had been used by D'Gran for divining the movements of the other forces of the ToAC. IMC D'Gran was a much more political figure than the book presented. In fact, thanks to his enslavement of Astaldo, he realized that the party had enough potential to unravel the current players in the Crater Ridge Mines. He didn't think they were a match for his cunning however. His long term goal was to become a favorite of the doomdreamers. He wanted to use the PCs to eliminate the Earth Temple without the other Temples or the doomdreamers knowing his part. The female halfling barbarian (unlike the module's entry) was still very loyal to this fiendish oni.
D'Gran had only allowed Astaldo to scry for him under the watchful eyes of his half-orc and human female wizards (the names escape me since I don't have the RttToEE in front of me). Astaldo only knew that D'Gran looked somewhat like a gaunt ogre with blue skin, horns, and large fiendish wings.
Anyway, the party rescues Astaldo with the help of Astaldo's previously escaped dragon familiar, and the group procedes into D'Gran's lair. D'Gran had ordered his more powerful minions to areas away from the party's path, and the ogre mage left only a handful of low level human and gnoll guards to torture a pair of prisoners: a beautiful human woman name Tesla and a rather crude halfling barbarian. Tesla was none other than D'Gran in disguise (I had just finished reading Journey to the West, and I loved how the demons always seemed to trick the 4 travellers with stupid disguies.......anyway it worked this time too).
The party quickly defeated the cannon fodder D'Gran had left for them, and they freed Tesla and the halfling. The party grew to grow tired of the halfling woman, but they stayed their hand because Tesla convincingly played the part of the victimized damsel, all the while saying that the halfling had had it even worse than she. She alluded to a few graphic abuses that I'm sure you all can get the gist of without me relaying them here.....
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The party fell for it. They were a canny group mind you, but D'Gran was even able to fool Garreth, who was usually more than a capable judge of a person's character. I really played the half-fiend for all he was worth, and the party eventually ended up taking the two freed "prisoners" northward with the plan of helping Tesla right a certain wrong. She told the party that the reason she was given to D'Gran was that she had recently discovered that her father was an Earth Temple cleric who helped run a front in a city near the ToAC (my campaign wasn't on Greyahwk.....). Anyway, the story was much more complex than that, but needless to say the PCs believed her enough to bring her along. The halfling barbarian actually pretended to hate Tesla and the party's suspicion was turned to the halfling most of the time......D'Gran had planned that as well.
Well, Astaldo, being a diviner, suggested that the party rest and prepar for the assault on the Earth Temple. The other PCs readily agreed, and Kelec used a stone shape spell to seal them into a previously "conquered" room where in they could rest safely. They had used this tactic numerous times over the course of the campaign, and the party considered this a habit. As the (weakened) PCs rested, Astaldo began casting a scry spell with the wording "I want to see the monster D'Gran." Now this got me nervous....the party trapped in a sealed off chamber (which was not airtight.......hence D'Gran knew he could escape using gaseous form if necessary). To make matters worse, the sealed off area was only 10' by 20.'
I called a time out, saying that since I've never used a scry spell during gameplay before (the truth actually), that I needed to consult the books. Well I knew what was going to happen....I was stalling thinking of a way for D'Gran to counter a scry spell, so that the party would have a less tense showdown with the demon-ogre. At the time I couldn't think of any. When D'Gran realized what was happening, he immediately began preparing his tactics and secretly motioned to the halfling to be ready at a moment's notice.
Well as Astaldo's scry spell began to take effect, he just saw an aerial picture picture of the party (with Tesla sitting demurely against a wall not too far off). He refocused, and was greeted with the same image. He began to realize something was wrong all the while Garreth saw Tesla with an annoyed look on her face, slowly rise and simply shrug in exasperation saying "I guess this won't work" (upon which time the halfling barbarian drew her weapon).
Tesla transformed into D'Gran and the battle began. The outcome of which, I'm sorry to say, I as the DM fudged a few dice rolls (namely the damage Izerack, an azer, took from a cone of cold spell) and D'Gran's final concentration check that he needed to make in order to cast gaseous form to escape. It was the most tense D&D battle I'd ever run......the entire party was almost wiped out, and with it a few great characters. I usually don't pull punches, but I knew that our group only had a few more days to play together given that we probably wouldn't see each other much less be on the same continent again. We were all playing the campaign in Beijing, China (all of us American college students studying Chinese).
D'Gran, missing his concentration check, was killed from a blow fired from Garreth's sneak attack (improved invisibility wand), and Izerack lived for that day at least (he died at the hands of one of D'Gran's hill giant minions. His grave being a sealed off cyst within the ToAC itself thanks to Kelec's stone shape spell). The campaign ended a session after killing D'Gran (pretty much after the party laid their companion Izearack to rest), due to my imminent departure from Beijing to return to the States. That campaign ended up being the longest and most high level campaign I've ever run.
Anyway, I thought I'd share......
Cheers,
C.I.D. (Cyronax the Ice Devil)
"Look, listen that's a perfectly fine place for one's familiar to be stored......"
