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Wizard Mountain Summary #3: Banzai!
The Wizard Mountain Party flirts with death once again!
Party Roster:
Halacar, 3rd level fighter, 33 hp, played by Joel
Standish, 3rd level fighter, 32 hp, played by Katherine
Alain, 3rd level fighter, 27 hp, played by Alex
Brigling, 4th level thief, 24 hp, played by Katherine
Browork, 3rd level cleric, 22 hp, played by Joel
El Guapo, 3rd level fighter, 23 hp, played by Jeff
Duran, 3rd level woodsman, 21 hp, played by Kyle
Jefe, 3rd level woodsman, 19 hp, played by Jeff
Lissar, 3rd level mage, 15 hp, played by Alex
Zero, 3rd level fighter, 14 hp, played by Kyle
Katrina, 3rd level cleric, 12 hp, played by Jeff
Megan, 3rd level mage, 12 hp, played by Alex
Nass, 3rd level illusionist, 6 hp, played by Alex
Our party had returned to the city, running from a group of many
lizardmen, with our options in the cave exhausted by the vampires and such.
In addition to the old members Halacar, Standish, Alain, Brigling,
Browork, and Lissar, the new party assembled with additions Jefe, thrown
dart specialist, El Guapo, double dagger specialist, Duran, thrown dagger
specialist, and Zero, blinder helmet/ blind-fighting short sword specialist.
We set off for Wizard Mountain, uneventfully. We discovered a cave with
wagon ruts and avoided it. We found another cave and explored. There
were numerous holes on the right side of the cave floor, and so Brigling
went down one to check it out.
She was just turning back from a four-way intersection when something
tried to garrote her, and stole her magnifying lens. Standish dropped
down but found nothing there.
We moved on. There was a large pool of water along the side of the cave
now. Suddenly, a weird sonic shriek hit the party, paralyzing all but
Browork, Halacar, Standish, and Lissar. Some kind of bat creature was
attacking the party!
Standish went to work putting wax in his ears, while Halacar and Browork
plugged their ears. Lissar wrapped the cloak around his head like a
turban. Unfortunately, because of the continuous noise, spellcasting was
impossible. Just before Standish could finish the wax, he and Halacar froze.
That left the cleric and the mage. Browork distracted the creature by
being its target while Lissar ran back and threw a Sleep spell at the bat.
Halacar dropped instead.
This was lousy. Browork turned and ran toward Lissar, bringing the bat
with him. Lissar ran ahead and reached the cave entrance,
Spider-Climbing down to safety.
Browork ran out the mouth of the cave with creature still trying to kill
him. He yelled for Lissar to do something and began casting a spell.
Unfortunately, there was nothing Lissar could do, so Browork was attacked
again. Fortunately, the thing missed him, and he completed his Silence
spell, cutting off the attack with shocking suddenness.
Browork ran inside with the Silence stone, and covered the party. They
quickly regained their senses, and Halacar was kicked awake. We ran out
of the cave and back to town. There we purchased a net, and plotted our
revenge.
We draped the net at the entrance to the cave and marched up the corridor
with a Silence spell. The bat charged and we totally pasted it, though
it did have about 40 hp. The creature was identified as a mobat.
The rest of the corridor consisted of a pool filling from a small
waterfall. There was nothing behind the waterfall.
Disappointed, we decided to check out the wagon rut place. Inside were
many unnatural corridors. We discovered a sack of bones spilled on one
intersection.
We could hear weird clicking noises thanks to local sonar buoy, Zero.
They appeared to be all around us. We kept moving and charged straight
into the thing.
A giant insectoid creature with sword-like arms approached the front of
the party. Standish and his wardog Cromwell attacked the creature. It
was extremely armored and really mangled the guard dog Weatherby. The
party decided that this was too much and tried to retreat
Right into another one of the things.
The party realized it was in trouble. Zero and El Guapo were at the back
of the party and were at extreme disadvantages to the creature. We were
about to write ourselves off when Lissar hurled the net at the creature,
snagging it!
The party ran past as the creature struggled to rip free. It took a
swipe at Standish but missed, and we ran all the way out again.
We identified the creatures as hook horrors, colonial creatures that
dwell in groups of a few dozen.
We returned to town, healed, and decided that was the wrong way to go.
We went back into the cave and tried another corridor.
We were attacked by five goblins with slings. Lissar Slept them and we
killed all but one and took their silver pieces. We asked the goblins
what was behind some doors and such. We discovered a larder, and
Brigling picked the lock. Behind the door was a large amount of rations,
and some brandy in a crate labeled "Rat Poison."
We took the brandy. There was also a huge double door with a pull chain
doorbell. Our goblin captive informed us that there was a giant behind
the door. To ring the doorbell without "business" was very bad.
We decided that we needed money and that we would return and attack the
goblin fortress. Some bloodthirsty party members wanted to kill the
goblin, but no one wanted to free him to tell them about us.
So we took the goblin to town with us, and ended up selling him to a
weird guy who made the goblin into "Crusher the Goblin," gladiator
extraordinaire. Jefe attended his first fight, against a death-sentenced
halfling. The halfling had a dagger and tried to stab Crusher, but
damaged the dagger. Crusher leaped on him and ripped his jugular. He
stood, triumphant, was pelted with nuts, and took the halfling's head!
Jefe cheered!
We returned to the goblin fortress to wreak havoc. Halacar was turned
Invisible prior ot the combat. The combat began with a Sleep spell from
Lissar that took out the five goblin sentries. They were quickly
eliminated and the party moved forward. The party advanced to the doors
of the complex and opened them.
The party was attacked from both sides. In front were five scrub goblins
with short swords and such. On a partially concealed ledge behind and
above us were four goblins with slings.
The fighters in front-Standish, Alain, Zero, and El Guapo-began fighting
the scrub goblins while Jefe, Duran, and Brigling fired at the goblins
with slings. We quickly finished off the five goblins and only two sling
people remained when the double doors at the far end of the corridor
burst open and armed and armored goblins poured out.
About twenty spears were launched at the party wounding Alain and
Brigling and injuring Lissar badly. Browork began a Cure Light while the
sling people pelted us from below. Halacar stood Invisibly in front of
Browork as a shield.
The front line of goblins with spears crashed into the party's front
line. Party members were injured, but each hit killed a goblin. The
last sling people went down, and Browork dropped a Cure Light on Lissar,
who had been dropped in the combat. Lissar stood and dropped a Sleep
spell that took out about 15 goblins in the middle. The goblins were
divided into four distinct groups-spear and light armor, flail and
moderate armor, spear and moderate armor, and then actual heavily armored
goblins.
At one point, a line of goblins with spears were approaching. Zero
activated his ring of blinking, and Blinked-into the line of goblins!
Their formation was completely disrupted as Zero stabbed one and
escaped. Zero seemed unhittable, despite being in light armor.
We had run through most of the light armored goblins when disaster
struck. Alain sustained too many wounds and dropped, as did El Guapo.
Brigling and Standish were rapidly bleeding to death as well. Browork
Cured Brigling and Standish as Alain and El Guapo were lost under the
press of goblins. Halacar moved forward to break up a second spear
charge by appearing in the middle of their ranks. Instead he fumbled and
damaged his weapon.
About 30 goblins were dead, and only about twenty remained, but the party
was starting to look sad. We had already lost two people and were out of
curative magic.
It was then that five bugbears appeared behind the party and attacked.
Lissar went down from a spear hit and died almost instantly. The party
realized it was doomed and attempted to wheel around and get past the
bugbears.
Browork scooped up Lissar's magical quarterstaff. Halacar, Zero, and
Standish faced off against the bugbears while Jefe, Duran, and the two
dogs held off the goblins by killing them faster than they could
approach. Soon the war dog, Cromwell, was surrounded by goblins, while
the guard dog fought desperately against one.
The fighters were faring poorly against the bugbears (Halacar had already
damaged and dropped a falchion) until Zero blinked and appeared behind
them. Zero rammed his sword through one, but didn't kill it. Browork
yelled "Die" in goblin to attempt to clear an escape path, but the
bugbear didn't fall. Standish dropped his, but Zero was suddenly facing
two bugbears on his last legs. It looked as if his luck had run out.
Browork through his last offensive spell, a Hold Person that caught three
bugbears! That left only Halacar's remaining, and it was triple teamed
as fast as possible.
The guard dog was killed by goblins, but amazingly the war dog was still
alive. It had taken down two goblins and Jefe and Duran were making the
bodies pile up.
The gap that opened needed to be plugged, and Browork stepped up. He
immediately took a wound and was sent running to heal himself.
By this time the bugbear had been slain and Standish and Halacar stood in
the path of the goblins. All the goblins were dead but the two leader
types (ranseur, and longsword/shortsword). Then a rush of fifty
non-combatant goblins poured out of the fortress. We ducked to the side
as they flooded by.
The uninjured Halacar moved to engage the ranseur man while Standish took
out the longsword man. The ranseur man immediately flipped Halacar's
falchion on the floor. While the halfling struggled to hold a weapon,
Duran, Jefe, and Brigling killed the ranseur man from a distance, and
Standish finished off the final goblin as the rush went by.
We checked out the outpost and took what we could find, which turned to
be a Bag of Holding 150/5000 (no, that is not a typo). All the money we
gained was promptly lost as Browork gained a level. The dwarven cleric
became the first Wizard Mountain party member to train. He gained 7 hp
to stand at 29.
We set out once again, with some new party members. Replacing the fallen
El Guapo , Alain, and Lissar were the cleric Katrina, the illusionist
Nass, and the mage Megan. The illusionist has some nifty spells and
defensive magic items in particular. Standish's newest guard dog was
named Hampton. The war dog, Cromwell, had miraculously survived despite
being surrounded by goblins.
Before leaving, we saw Crusher the goblin's second fight, vs. a kobold.
Crusher was given his sword for this combat.
The kobold closed and tried to rip Crusher to shreds. Crusher struck
back and killed the kobold in one swing! We cheered.
Finally, we set out for a few more adventures. We traveled up the
hillside to find a stand of trees. We traveled further up the mountain,
having been tired of goblins, and we found an empty but well-used hut
next to a well. We went down the well and discovered a series of
passages that led us back to the goblin fortress by way of the bugbears'
entrance.
Farther up the hillside was a cave entrance. We entered, and were
attacked almost immediately by another mobat. This time we had the wax
ready, and only Jefe fell pray to the sonic attack. The creature was
wounded by a nasty strike by Zero and plummeted to the ground fifteen
feet below. Duran threw knives at it, but it was running away when
Brigling and Halacar arrived with bows to shoot it.
BOTH of them tumbled over the ledge, dropping their bows and landing in a
heap on the ground. Halacar was trashed by the impact, but Brigling was
only scratched. The creature was then taken out by Duran.
We fled back home for healing purposes and returned the next day to find
that the body of the mobat had weird eggs in it. We decided to look for
the creature that had laid the eggs. First off, Halacar was attacked by
a 2 foot long spider which barely scratched him.
In an attempt to get the spider off Halacar, Browork swung his hammer,
and connected with Halacar for maximum damage, and broke the handle of
his quality hammer. It was later Mended, but the ignominy still remained.
Moments later Halacar nearly died from the poison, but recovered nicely
(thanks to a 19 constitution). In another room, we discovered decrepit
furniture, and in the chest of drawers found a eight-pointed star pin
under some rotting cloaks. We moved on, and found a temple. It was
identified by Duran as a temple to the god of merchants, a chaotic
neutral to evil deity. Brigling decided to mess with the altar and
tripped a catch that opened up a section of wall in the back.
As we went into the next room, we were attacked by six skeletons that
formed from the piles of bones on the ground. It was clear that we were
on unholy ground as the clerics experienced difficulty Turning them, but
they were dispatched easily enough by Standish and Zero.
Finally the party went through another series of caverns and discovered
some garbage piles. Standish decided to wade through it, and was
promptly attacked by some tentacles, paralyzed, and dragged in. There
was a mass charge by Halacar and Zero, who were promptly paralyzed by two
more of the things. Browork realized that it was a poison attack and
Slowed Halacar, who stood up and began to kill the things.
Halacar was struck by numerous paralysis attacks but was unaffected, and
killed four of the things with the help of the knife and dart throwers.
Treasure was collected from the piles of debris, and an amazing 1600 gp
was found! The creatures were identified as carrion crawlers.
Duran found a minotaur skull in the murk, and cleaned it. In the
process, a crawler larva nailed him and paralzyed Duran for several
minutes. Undaunted, he finished the job.
We checked Halacar to see if anything weird would happen to him, but
didn't worry much when Zero and Standish recovered a half hour later,
though they were still a bit wobbly. We waited three hours for the Slow
Poison to wear off.
Halacar immediately collapsed into respiratory arrest and was saved only
by his constitution once again, and finally recovered several days later
after the party carried him out (Browork had badly blown a healing check).
The party returned, wealthier, and with Standish and Halacar closing in
somewhat on 4th level to join Browork and Brigling.
Crusher the goblin returned for an encore against an orc. The battle
immediately turned sour as Crusher damaged his sword and was forced to
melee range. Crusher was at one hp, but fought back desperately and
defeated the orc in dramatic fashion! We bought some nuts and threw them
at him. Crusher took the orc's head and retired to his corner cave.
Hope you enjoyed reading about our weekend of gaming. Until next time!
Joel/Halacar/Browork
Wizard Mountain Summary #4: Feeding the Dragon
It's an ED&D weekend doubleheader!
Party Roster:
Halacar, 3rd level fighter, 33 hp, played by Joel
Browork, 3rd level cleric, 29 hp, played by Joel
Squibb, 3rd level fighter, 28 hp, played by Alan
Thudd, 3rd level fighter, 22 hp, played by Alan
Jefe, 3rd level woodsman, 19 hp, played by Jeff
Karnash, 3rd level fighter, 19 hp, played by Mark
Flit, 4th level thief, 17 hp, played by Matt
Katrina, 3rd level cleric, 12 hp, played by Jeff
Megan, 3rd level mage, 12 hp, played by Alex
Nass, 3rd level illusionist, 6 hp, played by Alex
Returning from last time were Halacar the halfling fighter, Browork the
dwarven cleric, Jefe the half-elven fighter, Katrina the half-elven
cleric, Megan the human mage, and Nass the human illusionist. Joining us
were Karnash the half-orc fighter, Flit the elven thief, and Thudd the
dwarven fighter.
We set off for the mountain o' death with high hopes. We tracked around
some corridors and heard weird clicking sounds that we thought might be
the returning hook horrors, which are hideously dangerous monsters. We
backed off and found another cave. Coming up the corridor was a
two-headed giant thing, an ettin!
It demanded that we had over all silver (which we had none of). When we
asked for an alternative, the ettin said that we could hand over our two
shortest morsels. Realizing that an attack was imminent, Halacar and
Thudd stepped forward, weapons out. The ettin protested that we had
sharp weapons, but when Thudd said that his was blunt and the ettin tried
to crush him and Halacar, a large club in each hand.
Thudd took damage and a wound, but Halacar was missed and struck back,
stabbing the creature with his falchion. Browork advanced and began a
Cure Light. Nass threw a Light spell that missed the creature's head.
Thudd withdrew from the formation to get to Browork, and was replaced by
the halberd-wielding Karnash. Karnash and the ettin had the same length
weapons and began bashing each other senseless.
Browork healed Thudd, and Katrina zoomed past in attempt to Command the
ettin. Karnash was suddenly badly wounded and near death, but Katrina
could not help him before he would be attacked again.
Megan cast an Invisibility spell on Karnash, who winked out, leaving a
surprised Katrina to take the hit from the ettin's club. Halacar struck
a second time but was finally hit, wounded and held at bay. Fortunately,
Jefe's throwing darts were devastatingly effective and creature went down
moments later.
We healed up and searched for the thing's lair. We found a huge area
with dung heaps and refuse and a huge chamber blocked by a large rock.
We tried to move the boulder, but Katrina forgot to carry the one (blew
an engineering check) and the rock rolled over Thudd, injuring him further.
Behind the rock was a large chamber with nearly 2000 silver pieces. A
real weirdo, this ettin. There was also a magical silver quarterstaff.
Halacar unhappily searched through the dung heap and discovered 400 gp
and about 5000 gp in gems!
We returned to town and Identified the staff as a Staff of Striking (one
charge, +3 damage, becomes a +3 to hit staff, up to three charges
expended for a total of +3/+9).
Halacar trained to 4th level, gaining 10 hp to stand at 43, and picked up
a second Single Weapon Combat proficiency with the falchion.
We set out again and bumped into the dragon. (Yup, I rolled it again)
And in normal fashion, the dragon was hungry and went after Al's
character, Thudd. The hapless dwarf was snatched up, took a final hammer
swing and missed, and was gulped down.
Burp.
But the dragon was still hungry. Nass dropped a Wall of Fog on the area,
confusing the dragon!
Still, it smelled out Halacar, who had taken refuge inside a log. It
couldn't see him, but the dragon picked up the log and dumped Halacar
out, who spilled onto the ground and took off, sprinting. The creature
attempted to kill him and missed!
Halacar dodged through the mists and successfully evaded. But the dragon
made its save vs. boredom and searched for another target.
Katrina was running for her life from the ravenous dragon. The thing
dashed forward, but she failed to evade completely. The dragon bit a
piece of her shoulder, inflicting only minor damage and allowing her to
continue running. Finally, she managed to evade!
The dragon was finally bored to tears and fled.
We returned to town whereupon Karnash pointed out that we should probably
buy a cow and bring it with us to reduce the risk of this happening. We
did so.
And Al's new character appeared as Squibb, a half-orc fighter.
We killed some giant ants in a fun little encounter, notable in my
opinion because the two clerics killed two of the four ants on their own,
in melee!
We set out once again and went back into the same cave. We turned down a
different corridor and found a large expanse of chamber. We heard
nothing and decided to head back out, but as the last of the party turned
to leave they were attacked by two giant ticks!
Squibb was latched onto by one and another was crawling about on his
shoulder. Browork attempted to knock one off, but missed. Pretty soon
the whole party was getting into it.
Then Megan threw a Sleep spell, which to our surprise caught both Squibb
and one tick!
The tick latched onto Squibb was still sucking blood, but no one could
seem to hit it. Finally, Browork managed to clock Squibb, waking him up
and prompting Squibb to stab the creature, killing it. Squibb glared at
Browork, and we limped back to town.
Katrina trained to 4th level, gaining 8 hp to stand at 20!
Treasure division: Each party member got 500 gp. Halacar and Browork
paid off their debts (including those to Brigling, Standish, Zero, and
Duran-50 gp each).
Another, um successful (yeah, that's the ticket) Wizard Mountain adventure!
Joel/Halacar/Browork
Wizard Mountain #5: Mystery Adventure with Sean and Jack
Can't remember what happened here....We didn't know where this went, and there isn't much to it anyway. Call it a random memory, or perhaps a dream....
This adventure occurs with the presence of characters played by Jack and Sean.
Sean plays a woodsman named Ronilab which had recently had a debt partially forgiven.
Highlights included Sean's woodsman Ronilab getting poisoned by a spider,
his monk getting killed by a blow to the head from his own hammer... and,
uh...
That's it for now. If you remember more, please chime in. It's a bit hard to fill in the details as the cobwebs invade our mental spaces....
Joel and Kyle
Wizard Mountain #6: Orcs and Stuff
Roster:
Halacar, 4th level halfling fighter, played by Joel
Browork, 4th level dwarven cleric, played by Joel
Standish, 4th level half-orc fighter, played by Katherine
Brigling, 4th level halfling thief, played by Katherine
Megan, 3rd level mage, played by Alex
Nass, 3rd level illusionist, played by Alex
Jefe, 3rd level woodsman, played by Jeff
Katrina, 3rd level cleric, played by Jeff
Another raid of death for the unsubtle adventurers!
Although the minor encounters were lost to time (I believe we fought some
rats, but it's just gone from my memory now), there was a major battle
fought against a tribe of about 30 orcs.
Fortunately, the orcs had no spell support. For a while, the front-line
fighters were able to face off against many opponents. Nass dropped a
Wall of Fog which heavily obscured all vision in the room. Browork
created a Silence stone, hurled it somewhere, and it had no actual impact
on the battle except to block our hearing of the reinforcements coming
through the non-visible back door.
We fought bravely, but soon the fighters could not hold back the throng,
and we degenerated into several individual battles. Brigling was
effective by sneaking around the mist and backstabbing. Megan Slept a few
orcs and deftly avoided being surrounded, as did Nass.
Jefe was less fortunate, and was eventually buried under a pile of orcs,
though he slew many. Katrina found herself surrounded and fell down for
lack of a better action, though she Commanded a lieutenant.
Browork engaged in melee with four orcs, dropped a command on the leader,
and fell with one hit point remaining.
The orcs believed him dead, and moved away. Promptly Browork stood up and
began a hold Person, his final offensive spell. Halacar and Standish
continued to trash the orcs, particularly Standish. Still, the fighters
were wearing down.
The chief and his two bodyguards charged Browork. His Hold went off, and
the chief and one bodyguard froze in place! The other attacked, missed,
and was taken out by timely aid from Brigling, Standish, and Halacar.
The orcs were defeated, and the treasure was significant, though
unremarkable (at least not enough to stay in my memory).
In any event, the only actual casualty was poor Jefe, a veteran of several
previous battles and the last of the Two Amigos (El Guapo and Jefe).
Perhaps some of this can be further reconstructed from Edwin's adventure
record.
Joel/Halacar/Browork
Wizard Mountain #7
And now, a brief Wizard Mountain Adventure:
Halacar, 4th level halfling fighter, 43 hp, played by Joel Green
Standish, 4th level human fighter, 42 hp (?), played by Katherine Anderson
Browork, 4th level dwarf cleric, 29 hp, played by Joel Green
Brigling, 4th level halfling thief, 24 hp, played by Katherine Anderson
A small section of the various Cornell Wizard Mountain team (otherwise
known as the Larry Consortium), decided to get some revenge on the
impertinent troglodytes who had thrown spears at us while we were mucking
about one of the dungeons.
So the four of us set out, and arrived without incident. Traveling through
the caves by the use of the INTERESTING maps provided by various other
members, we reached the large cavern where the troglodytes had
attacked. There was a bridge of some sort going across the underground
river, wide enough to fit two people abreast.
The guard dog remained back at the entrance to protect against a possible
back attack by hobgoblins from their nearby fortress, and the party moved
up the ramp. Browork had taken Slow Poison spells, but had cast one on the
war dog, and one on Standish, relying on the legendary constitution of the
halflings and dwarf in the party to conserve spell power. Before we had
crossed the bridge, a line of troglodytes appeared and began throwing
spears at us. Our gamble with the Slow Poisons worked, and we engaged.
The melee was extremely one sidedone side of our front line, Standish, was
successful, the other, Halacar, couldn't hit the broadside of a
barn. Nonetheless they both held for quite a while, Halacar taking more
damage from rogue swings by Standish than from the troglodytes who engaged.
The primitive things eventually ran out of spears, as they were having a
terrible time hitting us, particularly Browork, who used his large shield
to good effect. In melee they used their claws and teeth, and occasionally
weapons. However, it was becoming clear that we could not win as more and
more troglodytes piled up behind the others to face the slaughter. At one
point, there were 45 troglodytes within sight, and Standish and Halacar
were tiring. Also having good success was the thief Brigling, who was
nailing them with his bow and helping Halacar actually kill a few.
A few nasty hits changed the situation, however. Browork patched up some
of the damage, but it was clear that we would lose. So when Standish fell
to dangerously low health, Browork cast a Light spell on his opponent,
blinding him and effectively blocking half of the bridge. Standish
withdrew, followed by Halacar, while the war dog covered. We then dashed
out to a nearby cavern, seeing if we needed to flee.
Fortunately, the troglodytes had suffered a severe morale failure, as over
20 of them lay dead on the bridge, and did not pursue. Following an
astounding series of Cure Light Wounds, the party was actually healed to
full health within three shifts and charged once again. We met and
engaged, and Halacar was almost immediately trashed by some sort of
troglodyte hero. He and Standish switched off, and Standish fared somewhat
better, eventually defeating the monster with help from another successful
blinding Light spell from Browork. Brigling fired nearly every arrow he
had, at about the same time that Halacar and Standish had been worn down
once again. With only about 10 troglodytes remaining in sight, the party
was forced to flee once again.
This time we took a very abbreviated round of healing, and then charged
right back eight hours later. There was no one blocking the bridge, and
we advanced cautiously forward. We entered some sort of primitive throne
room. Brigling searched and found a secret passage behind the throne...
And we nearly crumpled from the smell of troglodytes. At us came all the
women, old men, and children of the tribe. The battle was long and over
before it began, as Standish methodically killed the entire group.
Inside we discovered a room full of eggs and a small number of gems. As it
turned out, Brigling massively undervalued the gems, but we caught the
mistake. It turned out to be almost irrelevant as the 73 eggs we picked up
were valued at 20 gp each! So we ended up with about 2000 gp in cash and
gems, and paid off remaining debts. Brigling then trained to 5th level!
Just some random extra notes for those in Telvar withdrawal (such as myself)!
Joel/Rangorn/Halacar/Browork
Wizard Mountain #8
A brief Wizard Mountain Interlude: (events of 12/30/00)
Halacar, 4th level halfling fighter, played by Joel
Standish, 4th level half-orc fighter, played by Katherine
Brigling, 5th level halfling thief, played by Katherine
Browork, 4th level dwarven cleric, played by Joel
Continuing our exploration of the Wizard's Mountain, we decided to fill in
some passageways in the dungeon containing the sarcophagi that we had
shied away from (this was also the troglodyte dungeon, and had a nasty
bugbear fortification in it as well).
We headed up some stairs, and found a new passage. We continued forward
when without warning a bolt shot from a nearly invisible hole in the wall
and nailed Standish in the back.
Though it glistened of poison, the potency had long since faded. We
discovered a small niche with the mechanical trap, but no one had been
operating it for some time.
We continued forward and realized our mistake too late. Brigling plunged
through the floor when it suddenly opened up beneath him, and he landed in
a pit, trapped as the floor swung shut. It took a great deal of effort,
but eventually we held it open with a crowbar long enough for Brigling to
escape. Continuing down the passageway, Brigling was suddenly slammed
against the ceiling and back down again as an area of reverse gravity
suddenly activated.
The thief was agile enough to spring out of the trap without full damage,
but we were left with a small puzzle of crossing this trap. As it turned
out, the solution was simple. Standish sprang across as fast as he could
with a rope attached, and hammered a spike in on the other side, and the
rest of the party crossed safely.
Next we found a room with most of the floor gone, and bubbling black ooze
in the pit 40 feet below. Brigling swung across and nearly fell, but made
it to the other side. We all crossed again.
Finally, we came up against a weird hazelike door, or wall. With little
choice, Halacar decided to step through.
A huge sharp metal key swung violently over his head, at the perfect
height to decapitate a human, but ineffective against a two and a half
feet tall halfling. Brigling disarmed the trap and removed the key. We
were in a small room, containing only a small archway made out of various
blocks.
We tried to crawl through it, and nothing happened. We tried rearranging
the blocks. Finally we gave up and Browork decided to use a Detect Magic.
We discovered that only the top block was magical.
We tried a number of things with the key and block, to no avail. Finally
we decided to leave.
But when we got back to the reverse gravity area, there was a door there
instead of a corridor. In fact the door was in a different wall than the
way we had come in.
And the key fit into the door perfectly. The area began to shift into a
round room and we swiveled strangely, and came out into a different area
of the dungeon.
We quickly reached a balcony to the outside, a courtyard of some sort with
a raised gate. There was a switch to lower the portcullis beside the gate
itself, some 40 feet distant from the balcony.
We followed the stairs down back into the complex, and discovered two
other passages. In one we found a room with a number of crates... and two
kobolds! They attacked!
We skewered one, but the other ran for help down a small hole. Brigling
and Halacar leaped after it.
And ran into a half-dozen reinforcements. Halacar made quick work of them
and we charged through another hole after the last few kobolds...
And ran into the entire clan.
25 kobolds attacked Halacar who at first stood fast at the corridor in
front of Brigling. He slew the leader messily and the other kobolds
backed off... and Halacar leapt forward to continue the battle!
This of course exposed Brigling and Standish's dogs to attack. Cromwell
the war dog and Hampton (?) the guard dog leapt to Brigling's defense, and
she held them off, killing several. Halacar continued to wade through
kobolds, eventually slaying women and children as well.
With only four remaining, Brigling was forced to retreat, and they
followed her desperately, hoping for escape. Halacar skewered one from
behind. Brigling turned and stabbed one, then continued to run, leaving
only two.
Brigling sprang through the hole and one followed. The second crashed
into Browork's strategically placed shield.
Standish leaped on one and fell over, missing. He scrambled back up, and
Brigling was on it, killing it messily.
The last was trapped, and Browork tried to shield bash it, but fumbled and
the kobold slipped out... until Standish socked it, taking it out.
We tried to talk to it, but it was hopeless. Finally named it Crusher the
Kobold (to go with Slasher the Goblin) and sold it to the Arena in the
City, after we slipped out of the complex.
The kobold leader's armor was magical, which turned out to be chainmail +1
sized for a halfling, and so Halacar got it.
We also recovered a cloak +1, which Megan purchased with her money for
1750 gp. (Alex, if you object horribly, let us know)
Having done well, we decided to push our luck and explore the other
passage in that dungeon.
We headed into a domed room, huge in extent, and began to wander around
the outside of it. We then ran into to some sort of NASTY worm creature.
It immediately ate Standish whole, but he continued to stab it from the
inside. Halacar, Browork and Brigling pelted it as well, and we brought
it down through sheer force, with Halacar dodging its attacks (and getting
mighty lucky).
As we pulled Standish out of the wreckage of the worm, several arrows
struck the party. We pulled out of the lighted area (a failed Light spell
from Browork), and turned on infravision. We spotted four men with bows,
in metallic armor.
One ran off to the other end of the cave and vanished. The other three
advanced slowly on our position, and firing blindly in the dark at us.
They were obviously human.
We waited until the approached, and Browork Held one of them. The other
two suddenly opened Continual Light pouches and forced some of us to shut
our eyes momentarily. Then they shot up Browork and Standish. Halacar
was attempting to save the guard dog, who had been trashed in the worm
attack.
We closed and when forced into hand to hand combat, these guys weren't so
dangerous. Brigling backstabbed one, and even Browork clonked one a few
times, and Standish tore the other to shreds. Brigling sliced the Held
one's throat.
Unfortunately, Halacar was unable to save the guard dog.
We looted the bodies of gear, and then ran away when we noticed a troupe
of armored men coming for us, at least half a dozen.
Where to run? We decided to pull a cool trick on them, and ran up the
stairs to the trap area and switched the door so they couldn't follow (it
was possible to shift the door back and forth by picking up the key and
block which magically returned to the same spot after each attempt).
We spell-shifted for 4 hours and healed up a bit. Halacar and Brigling
were keeping watch from the courtyard, when they noticed a number of
bushes advancing on the open gate.
Uh oh.
We realized that we were trapped here, and that maybe our clever plan was
a little lacking, since it appeared our opponents knew this location.
Still, perhaps they didn't know we were here?
A voice boomed out, "Those who kill my men will pay in blood!"
So much for being hidden.
We decided at first to try a defense at the top of the stairs to the
balcony, and retreat over the pit.
This was made foolish when Halacar and Brigling, sitting haplessly on the
balcony and in the courtyard, were suddely nailed by an Ice Storm.
Halacar quickly shut the gate and made a run for the balcony. He downed
half a potion of climbing and sprang up the wall to the balcony, making it
inside with all haste. This turned out to be very good when some sort of
billowy cloud appeared where Halacar would have been had he simply run
normally.
We hid inside. There were noises. We realized that we were doomed.
Then a plan sprang to mind.
We looked outside, and discovered that they were taking the portcullis out
to let over 20 men inside, all in metallic armor. A crazy obvious wizard
type with red hair and robe packed with half moons, green clovers, purple
horseshoes, etc. was standing outside.
We set oil on the top of the stairs, ready to light, and stacked the
crates nearby to hinder movement.
We waited until the moment of distraction when the men all charged through
the broken gate.
Browork, who had downed the other half of the potion of climbing, dashed
up the wall and up the cliff face. Brigling, who had attached a rope in
secret up there, shimmied up, followed by Standish, the only non-climber
at the moment.
Poor Standish was of course visible, and they spotted him partway up,
shooting arrows at him and missing.
The wizard began a spell. Standish realized that he had to disrupt it,
and he dropped down to the balcony again and threw the Silence stone from
Browork at the wizard, messing him up!
(As this was a paralyzation spell, that was VERY GOOD)
Standish lit the top of the stairs on fire and climbed up once again. As
he crested the top, the wizard let a Lightning Bolt loose at us and it
glanced away from Halacar and Standish, who managed to avoid the worst of
it. The wizard yelled, "I never give up, I'll hunt you down!"
We all ran away down the cliffside, the troupe in hot pursuit about
10 minutes behind. Then, luck of luck...
... the dragon swooped down at us.
With a cry of frustration and terror, realizing that our escape was for
naught, the four of us searched for cover while the war dog ran into the
open on Standish's command, hopefully providing bait.
Suddenly we realized that we could reach the cave to the dungeon we had
just left! Boy, they wouldn't expect us to do something THAT stupid,
would they?
We shrugged and ran inside, jumping off the cliff 15 feet, landing and
dashing into a side room, beaten but alive, including the war dog
Cromwell.
Suddenly we heard the dragon leave. Waiting a few moments, Brigling went
to check it out...
The dragon was killing the men pursuing us!
We waited a few moments and then ran away back toward town.
We encountered so hobgoblins, and in our weakened state just decided to
run away. Which we did.
We arrived back in town, frightened but alive.
Standish and Halacar trained to 5th level, moving to 56 hp each.
Slasher the goblin (maybe I have the names switched?) had another fight,
this time againt a hobgoblin. Halacar bet against him, Standish bet for
him, and somehow Slasher won anyway. And he won handily.
Crusher the Kobold faced off against a giant rat, and after a close
battle, he killed it!
We decided on a final foray to a completely different dungeon.
After discovering a few interesting links, including a direct path from
the outside to that elemental air thing that we chatted with on our first
adventure, and another to the shambling mound area, we found a new cave.
We explored this one, and found a small hole in the ceiling almost
immediately.
We climbed up and discovered that there were about 20 "bats" on the
ceiling. With a Silence spell, we realized they were stirges, and
Standish killed them all without a battle.
There were about 3000 gp on the floor of that room.
We continued forward and passed a huge number of passageways, and
proceeded along the right is wrong, south is Ralph so always go right
philosophy.
We found the body of an apparent wizard, with his skull bashed in. There
was no sign of what had killed him.
We put the body in the bag of holding.
This led us to a weird room with a natural column and a pool of water. We
decided to spell-shift at the entrance for a Detect Magic. This was not
to be.
As we passed by the first passage we had left unexplored, a small owlbear
came out and jumped at us.
It tried to engulf Browork, but failed, and we hacked at it desperately.
A light spell failed to blind it, but we were trouncing it when a SECOND
one appeared behind it, waiting to kill us.
Still we pressed on, and although the battle was close, we killed both
creatures. Behind them was some cool treasure.
One of the odd things about the owlbears was that they had collars that
appeared to be strangling them. On the collar it said, "Guardian of the
City. Do not attack."
There were a few stirges here, and they attacked us. We eliminated them
with minor cuts and bruises, just in time to face a hydra.
Yes, a hydra. Eight heads and all.
It came at Halacar primarily, and he battled four heads (incompetently)
while Standish turned into a wrecking machine (his sword is +3 vs.
reptiles, and this counted), and even Brigling shot down the creature
quite a bit.
Halacar was barely surviving with Browork hurling Cures at him
continuously, and it looked bad, but at last the heads were dying, and
Standish was bursting on Halacar's heads. Halacar and Brigling eliminated
one, and the heads made a grab for Halacar, bringing hm to his knees, but
still alive.
Then the creature finally collapsed under the weight of the blows we had
dealt it.
Breathing sighs of relief, we explored past it. There we discovered the
body of a gnome in full plate armor. He was apparently a member of the
Coral Star, the old adventuring party that had battled the wizard of
Wizard Mountain.
We also found a ton of treasure in a very well locked box that Brigling
nonetheless picked handily. We continued to check out passages until we
had eliminated all but a few, and then decided to head back to town for
some rest and research.
We brought the wizard's body back, and as it turned out, we had to gamble
on the speak with dead. The wizard council didnt trust that he was an
actual wizard, but rather someone dressed up like one. It turned out that
he was in fact a council member! And they gave us a nice big reward! And
he even owes us a small favor.
We identified the items and found we had full plate +1 with 42 hp!
Insane, and of course, it's halfling sized... so Halacar got it again.
We traded in the chainmail +1 for a dagger+2 and a potion of levitation,
which was a slight ripoff, but a necessary one for the party to have a
floating magic weapon of use.
We also picked up about 20,000 gp of treasure!
There were other items as well, that I can't remember. But we are on
quite financially stable ground now! Yay, Larry Consortium!
We set a 10% sort of salvage tax to be given to the consortium on
completion of a mission, so that the group would be benefitting some from
our expeditions as well.
Also, Brigling gained 6th level, and Browork gained 5th level, both moving
to 36 hp, so the party now looks like this:
Halacar, 5th level halfling fighter, 56 hp
Standish, 5th level half-orc fighter, 56 hp
Brigling 6th level halfling thief, 36 hp
Browork, 5th level dwarven cleric, 36 hp
Pretty cool game! See you all again soon!
Joel |
