Valiant Swords of Greyhawk: Session 15 - Down the Hatch!

 

Our Heroes:

• Braeden (Human Ranger)played by Battletech Terry
• Sir Kentor (Human Paladin) played by Paladin Steve
• Sir Lantor (Human Fighter) played by Boom Gun Brandon
• Samson (Halfling Mechanist) played by Shootist Will
• Jaric (Human Cleric) played by Variable David
• Malice (Human Bard) played by Grognard Mike

Everyone is level 3/4-ish at this point. We begin on Day 43 of the campaign (in game time).

Before the Valiant Swords head down into the secret passage, we share some old stories and Sir Kentor’s chili. Jaric returned to camp, having gone to collect the elven cloak that Inigo had left for us. Having our cleric with a possibility of sneaking is not an entirely bad thing. And then the waiting is over! Back into the tower, and down thirty feet into the darkness we find a small room with several boxes in it. Samson checks them out, sees that they’re untrapped, and is able to pick their locks to find a small stash of treasure. And, a trio of potions. We can also see that there is only a single passage out of the room, a 5’ wide tunnel hewn into the stone beneath the temple, following what looks like once a natural fissure that had been widened.

They were a bit annoyed with Inigo's player bailing on so many sessions so they went and got the one magic item his character had acquired. He was OK with it.

We have a brief discussion about how best to test the potions, and given that there is a chance that it is a poison, or, mystical urine, we - somewhere between a joke and bullying - get Samson to dip a tiny finger into each bottle. They are a potion of greater healing, speed, and water breathing. Malice recommends, with a fair amount of dripping disdain, that Sir Lantor should carry the potion of healing. With much less acrimony, Braedon takes the potion of water breathing, and Sir Kentor takes the potion of speed.

Verminax glows, and Sir Kentor takes the lead. Malice casts the light spell on Sir Lantor’s greatsword, and it glows as well. The more targets, the better. Then, single file, we progress down the tunnel. It goes about five hundred before it opens into a natural cave, where there is an opening on the north side to continue on. We move slowly through the cave, checking the walls as we go. Braedon and Samson find a secret door on the East side of the room! Before we continue to the north, Braedon pivots the secret passageway open.

We change directions, following the secret tunnel. It travels a long way, sloping deeply, and then the passage doubles back on itself and widens up. We form up to two abreast for the first time, and then make our way into a larger room. The knights, Sir Lantor and Sir Kentor are the first around the corner, and they are horrified to discover that there is a basilisk staring right at them. Sir Kentor is petrified – standing still as if he was turning to stone! And, flames ignite, and trough channels of what might have been well soaked wicks, or perhaps even clear oil, the dancing fire lights the room well.

The basilisk shuffles around the room, getting to where it can gaze at Jaric and Braedon as well – though like Sir Lantor they remain mobile. Malice calls out quick, but obvious advice, lacing it with words of magic for Sir Kentor. Jaric and Sir Lantor to rush the Basilisk. Braedon is fast to react as well, moving into a position on its flank, and puts an arrow into the six legged beast – but it doesn’t look like it caused much damage at all. And this is even with his bow enchanted by Samson. Jaric slams into it with the staff of striking, and it crackles with power. It should do an amazing amount of damage, but instead, the beast is unharmed. Jaric isn’t sure that its really there, this could be an illusion! But then, what happened to Sir Kentor? Sir Lantor waves his hand through it, and confirms that its just an illusion. As we shout back and forth, Sir Kentor is finally able to move.

Malice calls out to stay on our guard, we’ve made only slightly less noise than a small army. She asks Samson to listen at one door in the small room, Braedon to listen at the other, and then everybody else to shush so we might hear what would be coming. Appearing in our midst is a blur, and a shortsword stabs into Sir Lantor, and the wound is deep and bloody. Only after the attack does a half orc female become clear to our sight. She snarls in a bloodlust.

Malice takes a few steps and is right behind Jaric, lunging with her glaive, but the nimble half orc dodges the blow. Braedon, though, is able to find his mark with his bow. The arrow sticking out of her does not seem to slow her down much at all. Sir Lantor spins, swinging his greatsword in a wide arc, and it is only through a stroke of luck that his blow lands. Still, any time the powerful knight is able to connect the blow is going to be of significance, and she finally shows signs of the wound. Samson darts from the door, attempting to punch with his magical gauntlets – but there is no way for his short reach to land on the fast moving half orc. Sir Kentor turns, shouting that stabbing from behind is a cowardly move, and he judges her unworthy! Verminax’s glow becomes more blessed in nature, filled with the Paladin’s fury, and he drives it into the would be assassin. The wound is deep, but the half orc still stands.

The door that Samson had been looking at is opened just a crack, a finger points into the room, and a single magical word is uttered. Lightning cracks, blasting through Malice, Jaric, and Samson. Malice and Samson, at least, are able to avoid the worst of it, but Jaric takes the full force of the blow. The Assassin attempts to move away from the mass of melee, and only Sir Kentor is able to get a swing at her, but she is quick enough to avoid even his skilled blow. Malice flings a firebolt at the fleeing half orc, burning her slightly, but Braedon gives chase and hits her from nearly point blank, and the assassin woman finally falls. Sir Lantor takes a few steps, and tries the door that the wizard is behind, and discovers it was locked. With a mighty boot, he kicks the door open.

The room behind the locked door is obviously the chamber of a wizard, with a thaumaturgic triangle, and shelves with many stuffed creatures, and magical accoutrement throughout the room. Sir Lantor attempts to jump over the triangle, but his foot crossed the threshold of the triangle. Nothing happens, yet, but the wizard is given the time to stay away the knight’s bloodsoaked blade. Samson is fast to follow Sir Lantor, and punches the wizard square in the knee. Ooh, that has to hurt, but there isn’t a satisfying crack of a broken bone. Sir Kentor charges into the wizard’s room, and only with a well timed flash of light as a distraction does the wizard keep mighty Verminax from hitting its mark.

A terrifying bat creature appears flying next to the wizard. It screeches, and a lock of Sir Lantor’s hair turns white. His teeth chattering and his hands shaking, the Knight tries to slice the wizard as he repositions himself in the room, and blasts again with lightning. Samson is out of the way again, and manages to catch the wizard with another quick punch. Both knights and Samson are all caught with his electrical attack, and both knights are in bad shape after the blast.

Malice warns Jaric that there is going to be something coming through the other door, and then rushes into the room. She has to quickly decide whether to heal or to attack – and her longer term healing magic is still empowered, so she chooses to stab the wizard. Braedon darts to where he can see the bat thing, and shoots it – and it responds with an exclamation in some infernal tongue. Jaric is quick on Malice’s heels, and the staff of striking crackles with energy, and the thrust of the long pole blasts clear through the wizard, who is thrown back against the wall, and slumps down unmoving. The bat thing screeches again!

Sir Lantor, still in the grips of the magical fear, swings weakly at the bat-thing, but is nowhere near connecting. Samson jumps on the bed, then leaps at the bat-thing, punching it midair, giving the creature nearly a full body bruise. Sir Kentor, his skin scorched by the lightning, still closes with the evil bat thing and slashes it with Verminax. It proves its strength by remaining in the air. It curses once more, and then disappears from sight.

Malice watched its move, and calls out that the creature is still here, but is just invisible. She steps up and grabs the blanket and swings it in a wide arc, hoping to possibly to reveal where it might be – but doesn’t manage to actually catch it at all. Braedon tries to spot it, and while he heard it flying by him, he has no idea where it is now. Jaric gives a quick word of healing, and the knights, though still wounded, are neither at death’s door. Sir Lantor pulls his crossbow, and stands at the ready. Samson pulls the sheet off the wizard’s bed, and runs past Braedon swinging it wildly. Then, much more calmly Sir Kentor walks to beside Braedon, and reaches out with divine senses. To his holy eyes, the demonic bat comes into sight, and he is able to charge it! Bats are sometimes known as flying rats, Malice thinks, as Verminax bisects the evil thing.

A rare exception to the rule in this fight

We break into groups and search. The wizard was carrying Bracers of Defense and has a magical scroll. The assassin has a short sword +1, leather armor +1, a shield +2, and a ring of spell storing, with two invisibility spells. Braedon takes ownership of the short sword. As a group we decide to sell the magical leather armor. Sir Kentor takes ownership of the half orc’s round shield. and then Jaric takes his kite shield. Malice takes the ring of spell storing. We decide to hold the Bracers of Defense for Xyzzifax. Malice takes the scroll of wall of force.

In the wizard’s chambers, there is a map on the south wall, and a parchment on the east wall. The room also has an oddly branched candle holder of forged electrum worth 1500 gold pieces. Samson starts to examine the map, and realizes that it is trapped with explosive runes. Malice notes that makes it a trap we can bring with us. Then Samson examines the other parchment, and finds a second glyph of explosive runes. Samson is the one to carry both of those.

So close ... the Artificer is already ruining my fun ...

Surprising nobody, a short hallway that lead to nowhere has a secret door at the end of it that was Braedon was able to suss out. So, we have four choices before us – a door from the room with the illusory basilisk, a door from the wizard’s chambers, the secret door in the short hall, or back the way we came to the cave with a passage north. And, additional searching reveals a hidden door in the Wizard’s room as well – a fifth option! As we discuss things, no spellbook was found in the wizard’s room, or on his body. Sir Kentor is sensing something unsettling on the door on the Wizard’s room. Before we press on, Malice casts a healing spell on Sir Lantor, completely healing him, and both Malice and Sir Kentor have their wounds dressed by Jaric, and they too are fully healed.

Braedon suggests we look into what is almost certainly the assassin’s lair. We agree, and he finds that the door is not locked. A plainly furnished room, with unusual weapons on the walls. But only a narrow cot to sleep, a table with full set of chairs, a wardrobe and chest. Samson follows Braedon into the room, and is quick to the chest to check it for traps. He finds the poison needle, and quickly disables it. The tray in the top of the chest has 1500 gold pieces worth of gems and a pair of gold rings, both worth 2000 gold. And, there is a belt with a pouch with fifty pieces of platinum. In the wardrobe we find six bottles of poison, which Malice takes. And there is a second potion of speed, which is taken by Sir Lantor.

We discuss once again which direction we should go, and finally decide to use the standard door out . Inside is a simple work room, with even additional magical gear, and a chest with a large lock. Samson goes to the chest, and Malice casts detect magic and can see that there are 9 wands that glow, and three bottles on the shelf that glow. Samson can see the trap has been sealed with wax all the way around the chest. Whatever this is, it will be tricky to disable. We decide to look at the wands and potions before Samson does anything more with it.

The potions are Diminution, Healing, and a potion of Poison. Malice takes the potion of poison. Braedon takes the potion of Healing. Samson takes the potion of Diminution, to the snickers of the rest of the party. Samson’s examination of the wands are all magic, but he is not determining a type from them. They perhaps have a magic aura cast on them, or they may be blank slates, ready to be turned into a real wand. We clear out of the room, and Samson is able to disable the chlorine gas trap. Inside he sees books, and a blank scroll. The books are written in an alphabet we do not immediately recognize.

Malice is building quite the collection of these

We gather our treasure, and pull back to the surface to prepare to face the evil that Sir Kentor had sensed. Malice and Jaric work together, and the ring of spell storing is now prepared with an Invisibility, a See Invisibility, and a 1st level circle Heal.

So much fun this session! I managed to get two lightning bolts off with a wizard, a familiar contributed something useful, lots of good intra-party interaction, an illusion actually worked, an assassin actually got to strike ... it was a lot of fun to DM this one. Also, a proper level of paranoia has been instilled as they carefully check everything this time. They know they are in the real temple now and they are cautious. 

One thing to keep in mind with these recaps is that they are written in real time by my players - often Malice, sometimes Xyzzifax (you can tell when it's him, trust me) so you get blow-by-blow combat moves, treasure numbers, magic item ID's , etc. I do light some editing when I post them here but I decided to leave most of this kind of thing in as this is what a real game session can look like so why not?

When someone mentions "luck" or "lucky" that's usually a flag that Luck was used on the relevant roll. It's a great mechanic that is in constant use and as time goes on I start using the DM version of it - Doom - to help keep the opposition in the game too.

Also after this session they started to realize they did not come in the normal "front door" of the dungeon. They don't know it but the trap door + tunnel leads down to level 3 - of 4. So the opposition here is a definite step up from the Moathouse and Nulb.