Valiant Swords of Greyhawk: Session 30 - All Ghouls Must be Smited ... Smitten ... Smote!

 

Our Heroes:

• Sir Kentor (Human Paladin) played by Paladin Steve
• Sir Lantor (Human Fighter) played by Boom Gun Brandon
• The Mighty Xyzzifax (Human-ish Wizard) played by Blaster
• Braeden (Human Ranger) played by Battletech Terry
• Malice (Human Bard) played by Grognard Mike
• Jaric (Human Cleric) played by Variable David

 The party is level 5-6 at this point. This account is mainly written by Malice. The mechanist was out of action for this session. We begin on Day 76 of the campaign.

On the way back to the tower, we encounter a pair of fire giants. With quick thinking, Xyzzifax intercepts them, and talks to them as if he is the master of the fire temple. He is able to give them directions to the temple, and they leave without there being a battle. We do make it back to the tower after that.

He did have the robes ... and the arrogance ...

We reset, prepare, and then make our way back into the temple, having given them another eight hours to deal with the aftermath of what has gone on here. We make our way to our normal entrance, and then up to the top floor of the dungeon. The very first room of the dungeon on this floor that we encounter is a cell, filled with a dozen chained prisoners.

Malice, with a heavy sigh, and grumpily because they can not say if there are more prisoners than the ones that are just in this room. She begins to unlock the prisoners. The door just twenty feet further down the tunnel is thrown open. A half dozen undead lizard men hungrily rushed into the hall, where Braeden had been keeping watch, and Xyzzifax had been lurking.

Lizard men? I'm pretty sure I didn't say lizard men. I even used Warhammer ghouls for the minis! Ah well ...

Braeden casts protection from good and evil on himself as the ghouls charge, and in the blink of an eye the undead creatures are on Xyzzifax and Braeden. Both are able to defend themselves well, though Xyzzifax has cast both a warding and shielding spell to do so. One manages to get past the two of them, and Malice takes a swing at it, but the room is too close quarters for her to work the glaive well.

Sir Kentor is similarly constrained, but is luckier than the bard. That ghoul that charged into the room is undone by the Paladin, who continues to the doorway and announces that “These people are under my protection!” Sir Lantor rushes to the doorway, and cleaves into the ghoul that is directly attacking Xyzzifax. It is certainly showing the damage, but it is still in the fight. Xyzzifax pulls a scroll from his bag, and engulfs all of the ghouls with burning hands. The one that had been wounded by Sir Lantor is destroyed by the flame, but the rest are merely damaged. Xyzzifax leaps and flies over the pack, and his magical ward continues to protect him from their claws. Jaric steps into the hallway and locks eyes with the first of them, and it begins to flee from him

Braedon pulls his daggers, and engages the next ghoul in line, who is looking even worse than the rest when the Ranger is done. Then, it tries to claw Sir Lantor, and connects with its long, vicious nails. It’s not a fight unless Sir Lantor is bleeding. But, in response the knight takes the ghoul’s head clean off. Another pair of ghouls attempt to mob Xyzzifax, who holds up a single hand to keep them at bay.

Malice steps into the hallway, and yells, “Are these the only prisoners!?” and firebolts one of them. Though heavily damaged by the flame, it doesn’t fall over, destroyed. But that doesn’t last long. Sir Kentor steps up to close with one of the two fighting Xyzzifax, and neatly slices it in half. Then, Sir Lantor is only a step behind and powerfully swings his massive sword through the one Malice had hit. Xyzzifax flies to the door that the ghoul that’s running from Jaric fled through, and he can see that it leads to a long hallway leading North, and then he puts a firebolt into the ghoul’s back. Jaric goes back into the room of prisoners, and provides some medical services on the worst damaged of the prisoners.

Braden moves into the room that the ghoul fled through, preparing his bow, and ready for anything to come through the other – and its ghouls! Another half dozen of them. And, once again, Braeden and Xyzzifax are surrounded. Xyzzifax does have to reactivate his magical shields, but it keeps ghouls at bay. And, Braeden’s protection has been maintained, only one ghoul claw is able to find his flesh. The wound isn’t deep, and the only thing keeping him from being paralyzed is his ring of free action. But it is enough to allow that same ghoul to bite him as well.

Malice rushes to the doorway, and holds out a hand to spray the ghouls with tongues of flame. Sir Kentor charges past her, and swings his flaming sword at their crisped, rotten flesh. One is felled, and another gravely injured by the Paladin. Sir Lantor presses the opening made by the other knight, and the ghoul only had moments to be injured before its unlife was ended. Then, he takes another step, slashing into another of the crisped ghouls. Xyzzifax says, “This is all so tiresome. Where is the real challenge?” And then he blasts the area with a fireball. Two of the ghouls are burned to a crisp, two fall over, their bodies blacked, and one ghoul remains up on its feet. Jaric comes out into the hall, and attempts a sacred flame on the last of them, but it still stands! Only for Braeden to show what he can do with a pair of arrows at him. And the ghoul is still standing! We’re all amazed, really.

More undead charge from down a hallway, more ghouls, and even more dangerous looking ghouls. The first of them are able to close with Sir Lantor, and one does manage to draw blood. And, that last ghoul standing manages to even get through Xyzzifax’s warding magic with a claw.

Malice throws the Shatter spell into the room of undead nearest to Sir Lantor. The spell is underwhelming in effect, all things considered. She then takes a few steps back, so she can keep an eye on Jaric. Sir Kentor steps to the doorway, and cuts down the first of the ghouls with his burning sword. And, Sir Kentor judges the ghast nearest to him. Sir Lantor, still having a pair of ghouls in melee with him, attacks with abandon. Zyzzifax repeats, “I say this is tiresome!” and blasts with another fireball, catching the ghoul on him, and the half dozen undead charging down the hall. The one that was next to the wizard was blown away. The four ghouls and two ghasts are all damaged by the blast, but none are pleasingly incinerated.

Jaric moves into the room, and lets loose a Guiding Bolt on the leading Ghast. Then, Braeden puts an arrow into the same one, and that ends its existence. Then, he puts an arrow into the most damaged looking ghoul, and takes it off of its feet as well. A pair of ghouls and the remaining ghast from that group all surround Sir Kentor. Even the knight’s magnificent defense isn’t perfect, and one of the claws manages to find a joint in his armor and draws blood. Though a ghoul manages to close with Jaric, he is able to fend it off. As has become usual, Sir Lantor is slashed by one of the ghouls. And, finally, the last of the ghasts attacks Sir Kentor, but still it is not enough to get through his defenses.

Malice casts a much better Shatter spell this time, and four ghouls and two of the ghasts are all in terrible shape. Sir Kentor feels a little bit queasy from the stench of the ghasts, but he is able to fight through it. The Ghast that had engaged him can not stand against the flaming, smite empowered blade, and the foul undead is destroyed. There are an abundance of ghouls, so Sir Lantor continues scything with his giant blade. With a trio of blows, including a pommel strike, that ghoul he chose as his target is still standing. These can be tough to fell! Xyzzifax, more frustrated than enraged, throws a third fireball into the crowd. None of the ghouls or ghasts survive the inferno.

Do those look like lizard men?

Xyzzifax sends Bubo down the hallway that was revealed by at least one group of ghouls. Malice goes to the room of prisoners, and continues to unhook them. The rooms in this area are designed with reliefs of demons and monsters. We do find a wooden box near the door of one of them, containing an old frayed cloak, 263 copper, and a finely crafted ivory statuette worth 85 gold. The next room is covered with rotting tapestries, and we found a sack full of clothes – which the prisoners claim as their own. And then a moldy growth covers the walls of a third nearby room. We find an iron box, with a silver scroll tube with a scroll of protection against undead, which Jaric takes.

We make a plan for the prisoners, we are going to clasp them in irons, and lead them out. If we run into anything, we will say that they are prisoners of Archmage Xyzzifax. We retrace our steps back to the down ramp. But wait, there are relatively nearby stairs that lead up to the temple on the surface. Braedon sneaks up the stairs, after Xyzzifax casts invisibility on him. With the door open, Bubo can join him. While Braedon leaves the large, bronze doors alone. There are side doors, but they are locked, barred, and spiked with bronze.

As Braeden gets close to the largest door, he finds he can’t approach it at all. He can’t even bring himself to look at it. The rest of us make our way up to the temple, but we keep our distance from the warded door. Xyzzifax attempts a dispel magic on it. He activates his arcane sense to see if he can find the source of the magic. The runes are something like an Antipathy spell, which is eighth circle. Undeterred, Xyzzifax attempts his dispel magic. And, he breaks the seal! Or… it didn’t. There is more to these wards than even an eighth circle spell! So, we are going to have to lead the prisoners back down through the temple, to the secret door, so we can get them up and out through the Tower.

As we are moving, leading the prisoners, we encounter a pair of ettins. One of them asks where we’re taking them, and Xyzziafax claims to be Alrim’s second in command, Lord Xyzzifax. As they question him, he threatens them convincingly, and we walk by. Sir Kentor does his best to keep the prisoners calm as we move within easy club’s distance of the ettins.

We head to Nulb with the prisoners, and let them go with the copper that we’d found near their clothes. Malice is pretty sure its actually their copper. And, Sir Kentor gives each of them five gold.

DM Notes

Well this ended up being a lot of ghouls, a lot of fireballs, and a lot of prisoners. This was a good exercise in "what do we do with non-combatants in the middle of a huge fight"? Also the first real encounter with the magically sealed doors that play a big part in the adventure. They managed to talk their way past two different sets of guard monsters which was also quite a bit of fun. And even Malice showed some generosity at the end ...