Post by Dungeon Master on Nov 2, 2016 11:21:32 GMT -8
Session 11 -- The Mouth of Doom.
The new guys are 'Deadmeat' (same player as Karzak > Schurke > Silk > Essen), who is a: (Fighter 01 / Aegis 03 || Rogue 01 / Soulknife 03) and Sigrunin (Rommel's replacement), who is a: (Druid 04 || Rogue 04, built as a Finesse/Wildshape character).
They join:
Ramirez (Oracle (Life) 04 || Paladin 04)
Thor (Ranger 04 || Monk (Zen Archer) 03 / Inquisitor 01)
Ulric (Psychic Warrior 04 || Cleric 04)
The party rescues a disturbed Paladin (made him the religion that is shared by 2 of the 5 regular players), who lost most of his group on their own expedition this way. His name is Gelver. His group entered the same way, but took an alternate path to end up where the group is now. They were losing a fight against things one room to the west, and retreated to this room... he doesn't go into details, but has been cannibalizing his companion who made the escape with him, but died in this room.
They party came from the west, defeated the 'Giant Leeches' (that Gelver's group lost to) and are now exploring in the direction that Gelver's group came from.
They discover a room with numerous statues, each depicing a god/godess of chance/gambling (from numerous different pantheons). Along the back wall are three hand impressions and a bowl. The party guesses that this is a slot machine gambling room. Placing something within the bowl has a chance to return more coins or to eat the coins instead. More often than not, coins are merely eaten. They play in this room for a while, with Deadmeat wanting to play a couple of copper coins at a time (party has about a thousand) but Ulric takes a turn with 100 GP, saying if you win only a few coppers what's the point... They resolve to return to this room (at the end of each session, to do a little gambling)... so far have not come back.
Deadmeat and Sigrunin both detect a secret room, that Gelver's party had not found. The room contains a chest, which Deadmeat ascertains is trapped in the form of a pressure plate... which could trigger if too much weight or too little weight is placed upon the plate. He estimates (via an Appraise check) that the coins within the chest might weight 200 lbs (approximately, for that volume of metal). He announces that he will get a 200 lb block of stone from rubble a few rooms back, empty the chest completely and then place the rock into the chest. Sigrunin convinces him to get a whole bunch of 2-3 lb rocks instead, and to remove the coins (and replace the weight) in much smaller increments. Amidst the coins, was a buried dagger.
Once the coins have been replaced by rocks, Deadmeat buries (adjusts rocks positioning) a few grappling hooks in the pile, and pulls rocks out of the chest, to 'see what would happen'. The result is that the entire ceiling (a single massive block of stone) falls and obliterates everything within the room.
From the room that the Bandits (Rogues) were using as a base of operations, they find a doorway to the east which circles about via a long path... North than West in a NW/SW/NW/SW zig-zag, placing them further west (in their estimation, via number of tact tiles removed from the east and replaced with new tiles on the western edge... as the new stuff is drawn) than their initial entrance.
They find a few fairly clear rooms and then run into a Gelatinous Cube that was almost invisible, until it lurched at (but just missed) their scout. No one could identify what it was, but it appeared to be acidic.. eating away at things it touched. No weapons were destroyed, but they were steaming as the acid was working on them. Mending was applied after the battle, to ensure everything was repaired properly.
A room, with a sawed off halfling foot was discovered. Deadmeat was tapping the floor (with his 2H Soulblade) but the blade became stuck to the floor instantly on the slightest touch. He was able to dismiss it and summon another (standard action). On the far side of the room was a treasure chest. Some wanted to get rubble or corpses and use them as stepping stones to get to the chest without touching the floor. Deadmeat decided it would be a better idea to smash through the wall from the far side (10 feet of rock). It took quite a while, and they attracted the attention of wandering monsters several time in the process. The chest wasn't anything special...
The passage continued East or South. East ended up in their initial room, but from one of the two doors they had not taken initially. South led to a room with two metallic snakes (King Cobras, and made of Iron). The fight wasn't overly difficult, but they had psyched themselves into thinking it would be very hard so had done almost every buff possible (after baracading within a safer room) and camping a day to get full resources.
There were stairs downwards (a total of 2x Stairs and 1x Pit Trap (with a ladder at the bottom) and 1x Illusionary Well (with a ladder descending downwards... where Silk had died) far enough, that it was clear to them to be a new and deeper level. Four methods to go down...
The party decided to gather all their stashes of loot and coins, and head to the surface... to return to Zelkor's Ferry to sell and re-equip prior to moving down. The consensus was to investigate the Giant Red Bear, the Stirge Cavern, the Ogress in the Woods, and to explore in general prior to hitting over surface level dungeons. They had heard of a Frog Temple to the north of Zelkor's Ferry and of another first level (one level down, adjacent to the ground) near a 'Sunken Graveyard'.
Upon exiting 'The Mouth of Doom' an Ogre was planted in their path (immediately outside of the dungeon). Sigrunin was in the lead, with others 40 feet back (still down the stairs and out of sight). The Ogre was flanked by six kobolds (with short bows), three on either side.
He called out (in broken common): "Me Vorlak very smart. You drop weapons and bags but keep armor and shield. Then you go and live. Steal sword and club from dummer hummy and come back to hole in ground. Vorlak steal from you next time too. Drop stuff now or we kill." Sigrunin proved to be quicker on the reactions, and managed to retreat down the stairs before the Ogre could attack or the Kobolds fire their arrows.
The party ascended the stairs to just the point where they could barely see the opposition, but where they essentially had 9/10s cover. A bit of a discussion occurs, and Deadmeat gets tired of standing around doing nothing, so decides to double move (around the Ogre and one flank of three Kobolds). He notices that there are many (maybe 60-80) additional Kobolds on each side of the Mouth, but out of view from the stairway descending into the Mouth; one player asks him what he's going to make next.
The Ogre calls to Deadmeat... Drop stuff now and live, go to hummy town or me kill and eat you. Deadmeat moves in an angle back towards the group (the stairs) as he takes off some of his gear slowly. He tosses his Soulblade to the ground (it disappears once he's a square away from it) and acts like he's taking his gear off. At the point where he'd have to drop stuff, he breaks for the stairs.
The six Kobolds (three on either flank) each take a shot at him, with two arrows connecting. He takes marginal damage but his shoulder is sore.
In Goblin, not the Common tongue, the Ogre calls out for ten kobolds to watch the entrance carefully at all times, the hummies have to come out sometime. We make camp and wait, they run out of food and water then give us stuff. Unbenowst to him, Sigrunin speaks Goblin and understands.
They decide to go down the stairway, in the room with the Metal Snakes. Deadmeat discovers the stairs are trapped and temporarily disables the trap. There is a passageway to the North with a branch to the East, almost immediately. They head north, without even checking the eastern passageway.
There is a room to the West off of that Northern passage. It has a pool of fetid water and a statue of a humanoid, but with a goat's head and rams' horn in the place of a normal head. The bat emblem on the shield animates when the water is touched. The bat is defeated and all they find in the water (after a very cursory search) is a moldy boot. Unexamined, it is discarded.
Continuing north, there is a door to the east or the passage continues North before curving to the NorthEast and breaking line of sight.
Within the east room are bones and piles of crap (feces). There are two visible doors on the east side of the room and a grate against the eastern wall (as far North as you can go within the room). One room is empty but the next contains Five Gnolls with Five Hyenas. They hear the lock open and surprise the scouts... only one clear charge path (miss), but the others move towards the scouts. Sigrunin backs off, and Deadmeat advances. The rest of the party (outside of the room) did not act in the surprise round.
Ulric enlarges and block the doorway. Everyone else gets ranged weaponry out, except Sigrunin and Deadmeat. One of the gnolls moves to the grate and barks in its' alien tongue. Deadmeat is surrounded and attacked, with only one connecting for a nasty blow (Greataxe, 2-handed, decent STR). The puppies (Hyenas) follow their masters into the room. Sigrunin pounces (Wildshaped into a Deinonychus) and connects a few blows.
As the five gnolls and five hyenas enter the room (taking up a good chunk of the floorspace) Sigrunin backs away behind Ulric. Deadmeat moves into cleaving position and starts to trade blows (he's moved out of line of effect/sight from the healer). More gnolls come through the grate and approach him from the north too.
Deadmeat hits them very easily, but cannot drop them in single hits. He essentially hits two with a Cleave. Next round hits two again (dropping them, and hitting a third when Cleaving Finish kicks in).
At this point the archers (one archer build, two with abyssmal archery skills... but safe behind the 'Great Wall of Ulric') are dealing a little damage (one hits hard, two mostly miss or hit for little).
More Gnolls come from the North. Sigrunin drops her Wildshape (cannot cast in that form yet) and does an Entangle in the hallway. Deadmeat continues to play 'Whack a Gnoll', but is at the point where two successful hits will drop him (one hit did a little over 1/3rd his health). Gelver is knocked unconscious at this point, and later perishes; so much for their second henchman...
The battle continues, with the Gnolls and Ulric rolling very poorly; Deadmeat is the hero of the show, dropping most of the Gnolls. Sigrunin summons an Earth Elemental (just a baby one) but it helps blockage the Gnolls to the north as Ulric continues to plug the doorway to the east. No monsters are attracted by the noise of the ongoing 15 round combat. (It would have been fun to have 'adds' come from the southern hallway (possibly the east passage they had not checked).
The party explores further, finding a couple of trapped rooms, which they decide to use as their new 'stash' room for the level. There is a room with strange writing on every surface. The words are in common, but seemingly very random. Trying to understand them makes Deadmeat dizzy and he almost falls over from the effect, he manages an autohypnosis check and memorizes a small section from one square. He continues to examine the walls and falls over unconscious and drooling.
Meanwhile Sigrunin moves into a doorway to the north. Inside is an easily spotted open pit and a door to the east. Touching the door teleports the offender 20 ft. above the 20 ft. deep pit. Sigrunin falls but lands easily taking minimal damage (1,1,2,4=8). There is a small depression within the pit, a gargoyle like face about 4 inches across set into a slight depression. They party gets her out, via a rope. She tries to shoot the gargoyle head and connects only once out of several rounds of shots. The head moves into the depression slightly, but does not trigger.
Someone or something can be heard screaming about the voices and a companion. Entering the southern area (where Deadmeat was investigating) there are drag marks leading to the door, but no Deadmeat. The party moves in and attempts the door, but it proves beyond Sigrunin's ability to pick the lock. Ulric (enlarges) and smashes the door down in a few rounds.
Deadmeat has been dragged to a corner and propped up. He wears a holy symbol of Orcus and has blood smeared on his forehead. As Ulric enters he is attacked from the side by a half-orc who easily Feints a strike at one place and then attacks another. Both Ulric and the Half-Orc cannot hit each other (a string of 1-4s on the D20, from each of them for several rounds).
Thor moves into place and starts to shoot, but the Half-Orc has partial cover from the wall to the side of the door. Thor cannot connect so uses an Inquisitor spell for True Strike. His next shot would have connected, but the Half-Orc uses its' shield to swat the arrow away (he had never encountered anything like that in game to date, so was annoyed a little).
Sigrunin uses some of her last spells to summon critters and swarm the guy. Deadmeat eventually wakes up and as a group they drop the Half-Orc.
That's about where they got to.
The new guys are 'Deadmeat' (same player as Karzak > Schurke > Silk > Essen), who is a: (Fighter 01 / Aegis 03 || Rogue 01 / Soulknife 03) and Sigrunin (Rommel's replacement), who is a: (Druid 04 || Rogue 04, built as a Finesse/Wildshape character).
They join:
Ramirez (Oracle (Life) 04 || Paladin 04)
Thor (Ranger 04 || Monk (Zen Archer) 03 / Inquisitor 01)
Ulric (Psychic Warrior 04 || Cleric 04)
The party rescues a disturbed Paladin (made him the religion that is shared by 2 of the 5 regular players), who lost most of his group on their own expedition this way. His name is Gelver. His group entered the same way, but took an alternate path to end up where the group is now. They were losing a fight against things one room to the west, and retreated to this room... he doesn't go into details, but has been cannibalizing his companion who made the escape with him, but died in this room.
They party came from the west, defeated the 'Giant Leeches' (that Gelver's group lost to) and are now exploring in the direction that Gelver's group came from.
They discover a room with numerous statues, each depicing a god/godess of chance/gambling (from numerous different pantheons). Along the back wall are three hand impressions and a bowl. The party guesses that this is a slot machine gambling room. Placing something within the bowl has a chance to return more coins or to eat the coins instead. More often than not, coins are merely eaten. They play in this room for a while, with Deadmeat wanting to play a couple of copper coins at a time (party has about a thousand) but Ulric takes a turn with 100 GP, saying if you win only a few coppers what's the point... They resolve to return to this room (at the end of each session, to do a little gambling)... so far have not come back.
Deadmeat and Sigrunin both detect a secret room, that Gelver's party had not found. The room contains a chest, which Deadmeat ascertains is trapped in the form of a pressure plate... which could trigger if too much weight or too little weight is placed upon the plate. He estimates (via an Appraise check) that the coins within the chest might weight 200 lbs (approximately, for that volume of metal). He announces that he will get a 200 lb block of stone from rubble a few rooms back, empty the chest completely and then place the rock into the chest. Sigrunin convinces him to get a whole bunch of 2-3 lb rocks instead, and to remove the coins (and replace the weight) in much smaller increments. Amidst the coins, was a buried dagger.
Once the coins have been replaced by rocks, Deadmeat buries (adjusts rocks positioning) a few grappling hooks in the pile, and pulls rocks out of the chest, to 'see what would happen'. The result is that the entire ceiling (a single massive block of stone) falls and obliterates everything within the room.
From the room that the Bandits (Rogues) were using as a base of operations, they find a doorway to the east which circles about via a long path... North than West in a NW/SW/NW/SW zig-zag, placing them further west (in their estimation, via number of tact tiles removed from the east and replaced with new tiles on the western edge... as the new stuff is drawn) than their initial entrance.
They find a few fairly clear rooms and then run into a Gelatinous Cube that was almost invisible, until it lurched at (but just missed) their scout. No one could identify what it was, but it appeared to be acidic.. eating away at things it touched. No weapons were destroyed, but they were steaming as the acid was working on them. Mending was applied after the battle, to ensure everything was repaired properly.
A room, with a sawed off halfling foot was discovered. Deadmeat was tapping the floor (with his 2H Soulblade) but the blade became stuck to the floor instantly on the slightest touch. He was able to dismiss it and summon another (standard action). On the far side of the room was a treasure chest. Some wanted to get rubble or corpses and use them as stepping stones to get to the chest without touching the floor. Deadmeat decided it would be a better idea to smash through the wall from the far side (10 feet of rock). It took quite a while, and they attracted the attention of wandering monsters several time in the process. The chest wasn't anything special...
The passage continued East or South. East ended up in their initial room, but from one of the two doors they had not taken initially. South led to a room with two metallic snakes (King Cobras, and made of Iron). The fight wasn't overly difficult, but they had psyched themselves into thinking it would be very hard so had done almost every buff possible (after baracading within a safer room) and camping a day to get full resources.
There were stairs downwards (a total of 2x Stairs and 1x Pit Trap (with a ladder at the bottom) and 1x Illusionary Well (with a ladder descending downwards... where Silk had died) far enough, that it was clear to them to be a new and deeper level. Four methods to go down...
The party decided to gather all their stashes of loot and coins, and head to the surface... to return to Zelkor's Ferry to sell and re-equip prior to moving down. The consensus was to investigate the Giant Red Bear, the Stirge Cavern, the Ogress in the Woods, and to explore in general prior to hitting over surface level dungeons. They had heard of a Frog Temple to the north of Zelkor's Ferry and of another first level (one level down, adjacent to the ground) near a 'Sunken Graveyard'.
Upon exiting 'The Mouth of Doom' an Ogre was planted in their path (immediately outside of the dungeon). Sigrunin was in the lead, with others 40 feet back (still down the stairs and out of sight). The Ogre was flanked by six kobolds (with short bows), three on either side.
He called out (in broken common): "Me Vorlak very smart. You drop weapons and bags but keep armor and shield. Then you go and live. Steal sword and club from dummer hummy and come back to hole in ground. Vorlak steal from you next time too. Drop stuff now or we kill." Sigrunin proved to be quicker on the reactions, and managed to retreat down the stairs before the Ogre could attack or the Kobolds fire their arrows.
The party ascended the stairs to just the point where they could barely see the opposition, but where they essentially had 9/10s cover. A bit of a discussion occurs, and Deadmeat gets tired of standing around doing nothing, so decides to double move (around the Ogre and one flank of three Kobolds). He notices that there are many (maybe 60-80) additional Kobolds on each side of the Mouth, but out of view from the stairway descending into the Mouth; one player asks him what he's going to make next.
The Ogre calls to Deadmeat... Drop stuff now and live, go to hummy town or me kill and eat you. Deadmeat moves in an angle back towards the group (the stairs) as he takes off some of his gear slowly. He tosses his Soulblade to the ground (it disappears once he's a square away from it) and acts like he's taking his gear off. At the point where he'd have to drop stuff, he breaks for the stairs.
The six Kobolds (three on either flank) each take a shot at him, with two arrows connecting. He takes marginal damage but his shoulder is sore.
In Goblin, not the Common tongue, the Ogre calls out for ten kobolds to watch the entrance carefully at all times, the hummies have to come out sometime. We make camp and wait, they run out of food and water then give us stuff. Unbenowst to him, Sigrunin speaks Goblin and understands.
They decide to go down the stairway, in the room with the Metal Snakes. Deadmeat discovers the stairs are trapped and temporarily disables the trap. There is a passageway to the North with a branch to the East, almost immediately. They head north, without even checking the eastern passageway.
There is a room to the West off of that Northern passage. It has a pool of fetid water and a statue of a humanoid, but with a goat's head and rams' horn in the place of a normal head. The bat emblem on the shield animates when the water is touched. The bat is defeated and all they find in the water (after a very cursory search) is a moldy boot. Unexamined, it is discarded.
Continuing north, there is a door to the east or the passage continues North before curving to the NorthEast and breaking line of sight.
Within the east room are bones and piles of crap (feces). There are two visible doors on the east side of the room and a grate against the eastern wall (as far North as you can go within the room). One room is empty but the next contains Five Gnolls with Five Hyenas. They hear the lock open and surprise the scouts... only one clear charge path (miss), but the others move towards the scouts. Sigrunin backs off, and Deadmeat advances. The rest of the party (outside of the room) did not act in the surprise round.
Ulric enlarges and block the doorway. Everyone else gets ranged weaponry out, except Sigrunin and Deadmeat. One of the gnolls moves to the grate and barks in its' alien tongue. Deadmeat is surrounded and attacked, with only one connecting for a nasty blow (Greataxe, 2-handed, decent STR). The puppies (Hyenas) follow their masters into the room. Sigrunin pounces (Wildshaped into a Deinonychus) and connects a few blows.
As the five gnolls and five hyenas enter the room (taking up a good chunk of the floorspace) Sigrunin backs away behind Ulric. Deadmeat moves into cleaving position and starts to trade blows (he's moved out of line of effect/sight from the healer). More gnolls come through the grate and approach him from the north too.
Deadmeat hits them very easily, but cannot drop them in single hits. He essentially hits two with a Cleave. Next round hits two again (dropping them, and hitting a third when Cleaving Finish kicks in).
At this point the archers (one archer build, two with abyssmal archery skills... but safe behind the 'Great Wall of Ulric') are dealing a little damage (one hits hard, two mostly miss or hit for little).
More Gnolls come from the North. Sigrunin drops her Wildshape (cannot cast in that form yet) and does an Entangle in the hallway. Deadmeat continues to play 'Whack a Gnoll', but is at the point where two successful hits will drop him (one hit did a little over 1/3rd his health). Gelver is knocked unconscious at this point, and later perishes; so much for their second henchman...
The battle continues, with the Gnolls and Ulric rolling very poorly; Deadmeat is the hero of the show, dropping most of the Gnolls. Sigrunin summons an Earth Elemental (just a baby one) but it helps blockage the Gnolls to the north as Ulric continues to plug the doorway to the east. No monsters are attracted by the noise of the ongoing 15 round combat. (It would have been fun to have 'adds' come from the southern hallway (possibly the east passage they had not checked).
The party explores further, finding a couple of trapped rooms, which they decide to use as their new 'stash' room for the level. There is a room with strange writing on every surface. The words are in common, but seemingly very random. Trying to understand them makes Deadmeat dizzy and he almost falls over from the effect, he manages an autohypnosis check and memorizes a small section from one square. He continues to examine the walls and falls over unconscious and drooling.
Meanwhile Sigrunin moves into a doorway to the north. Inside is an easily spotted open pit and a door to the east. Touching the door teleports the offender 20 ft. above the 20 ft. deep pit. Sigrunin falls but lands easily taking minimal damage (1,1,2,4=8). There is a small depression within the pit, a gargoyle like face about 4 inches across set into a slight depression. They party gets her out, via a rope. She tries to shoot the gargoyle head and connects only once out of several rounds of shots. The head moves into the depression slightly, but does not trigger.
Someone or something can be heard screaming about the voices and a companion. Entering the southern area (where Deadmeat was investigating) there are drag marks leading to the door, but no Deadmeat. The party moves in and attempts the door, but it proves beyond Sigrunin's ability to pick the lock. Ulric (enlarges) and smashes the door down in a few rounds.
Deadmeat has been dragged to a corner and propped up. He wears a holy symbol of Orcus and has blood smeared on his forehead. As Ulric enters he is attacked from the side by a half-orc who easily Feints a strike at one place and then attacks another. Both Ulric and the Half-Orc cannot hit each other (a string of 1-4s on the D20, from each of them for several rounds).
Thor moves into place and starts to shoot, but the Half-Orc has partial cover from the wall to the side of the door. Thor cannot connect so uses an Inquisitor spell for True Strike. His next shot would have connected, but the Half-Orc uses its' shield to swat the arrow away (he had never encountered anything like that in game to date, so was annoyed a little).
Sigrunin uses some of her last spells to summon critters and swarm the guy. Deadmeat eventually wakes up and as a group they drop the Half-Orc.
That's about where they got to.