- The Mighty Xyzzifax played by Alex
- Minion Samson played by William
- Minion Jaric played by Dave
- Minion Lantor played by Brandon
- Minion Sir Kentor (Human Paladin) played by Paladin Steve
- Minion Braedon played by Terry
Continuing in their quest to explore the second level of the temple, the group proceeds down a hallway branching off from the main hall.
After scouting with Bubo, they proceed to the first, door which opens into a room with a large cistern.
Activating his arcane sense, Xyzzifax senses a magic item deep in the pool, casts mage hand, and pulls up a +2 shield emblazoned with a symbol of the Knights of Veluna. As the resident knight, Minion Kentor takes possession of it, passing his current +2 shield to minion Jaric.
Bubo is sent on another scouting mission, as 4 hallways branch off in various directions.
Moving to the next door, it opens to a room filled with mismatched furniture and various junk. Xyzzifax senses nothing magical, the paladin moves aside a drape on the south walls, revealing a door. Minions Lantor and Jaric promptly smash the door open, revealing a small L shaped side chamber with a curtain and another door. A stool sits in this room, along with some scattered supplies, and a barrel of crossbow bolts.
Through the next room lies a crooked corridor. It is lined with 10 bunks. A single sconce lights the room.
A beam with sharp spikes and some sort of trap is rigged up, with a not so secret door in the western wall. Minion Samson disables the trap, while the paladin and cleric light the remaining sconces. Minion Jaric notices that one of the sconces seems to move, after activating it, another secret door opens into the room in which the party eradicated bandits the day before. After searching the bunks, the party scrounges up some gold.
Samson opens the not so secret door, which opens into a large reception hall revealing a horde of bandits which loose a volley of crossbows at little Samson! 12 bolts fly, 11 plink off of Samson’s mighty magical armor, with one finding a home in a small chink. Samson returns fire with his returning javelins, slaying the bandit who landed his shot. Lantor fires his crossbow, wounding one.
The all powerful Xyzzifax fireballs the room and kills all 12 of them. This is the fate of all those who oppose him.
It helps if you imagine him screaming this - as he throws the fireball - in a voice very much like The Monarch from Venture Brothers.
In the room is a single door, and a passageway to the North, which Braedon investigates and finds that it contains a spiral staircase going upward. The door connects to a previously explored long passageway which appears to ring around this level of the dungeon.
The party proceeds to hallway #3 with the room with wood and sacks. A large oaken door secured by a well oiled padlock stands in the eastern wall. Samson picks it open easily, and inside finds what appears to be a stash of armor and supplies taken from intruders. Several sets of armor, flasks of holy water, and a valuable mirror are commandeered by the adventures. Satisfied, the party proceeds to hallway #4.
While exploring, Bubo is intercepted, and destroyed. Moving down a diagonal hallway to investigate, the party moves into a room occupied by 4 Minotaurs!
Braeden moves forward, firing a pair of arrows, Lantor moves forward and sets to receive a charge, of which he does, as two of the Minotaurs charge, baring their horns and swinging greataxes. Slowly but surely, the minotarus are no match for the party, and fall to the mighty Xyzzifax and his minions,
Amongst the wreckage from the fight, several shattered jars and junk litter the floor. The room has scattered bunches of supplies and a stash of hand weapons in an alcove. The group takes a 10 minute break to bind wounds, replenish arrows, and remove the Minotaur horns to turn them into signal horns.
The next room discovered appears to be a room filled with refuse and other garbage. Xyzzifax Senses nothing magical, and the party moves on down the hall.
Minion Samson unlocks the next door, which opens into a small room containing 4 bugbears. Braedon fells one instantly with two well placed arrows, Lantor cleaves through another with his great sword. The remaining two gang up on Lantor, wielding spiked clubs, one misses to which Lantor ripostes and slays. The remaining bugbear flees in terror as his 3 allies have been felled in mere seconds. The door through which the lone bugbear retreats contains 13 more bugbears.
After a fireball from the great and powerful Xyzzifax, most of the bugbears are dead or close, and are quickly dispatched by the minions.
The group retreats back to the tower for another night of rest.
DM Notes:
They are roaming all over the northern half of level 2 this session and I am trying to keep it interesting. Room 234 by the book contains one su-monster. This is one of those encounters I mentioned previously where it's not particularly interesting, doesn't tie in to or set up anything else, and all it's going to do is activate the combat sequence for one round and expend almost no resources. So I changed it to a group of minotaurs which have some interesting abilities for the DM at least and actually make the combat potentially consequential for the party.
As far as the bandits (240's) with all of the fireballs going off, plus battle cries and general armed smashing of things they figure out what's coming and retreat into the one room. It doesn't help them but it is understandable. This party is absolutely not stealthy in any way. They don't sneak, they don't use invisibility - the one thing they do is use the wizard's familiar to scout out everything in advance until it hits a door or gets blasted by somethings that's alert enough to see it coming and has an attack that can hurt it. Occasionally this frontal assault approach hurts them but it works pretty well most of the time.
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