Valiant Swords of Greyhawk: Session 18 - The Water Temple

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
• The Mighty Xyzzifax (Human-ish Wizard) played by Blaster
• Jaric (Human Cleric) played by Variable David
• Malice (Human Bard) played by Grognard Mike

 All are level 4 at this point. Samson stays in the tower this week - another victim of bad chili. This account is mainly written by Malice.

Malice completes reading the Tome of Understanding by the time that the party had gathered back in the Tower. Xyzzifax had grabbed some hair from the giant, or perhaps the wolf, before they left the dungeon. All of us are expecting that they’re waiting for us, so he attempts to scry – but the ability to scry seems to be blocked. It looks like the Temple of Elemental Evil is enchanted against those kinds of magics. We fortify ourselves with camaraderie and Sir Kentor’s chili, making sure that he didn’t add any bugbear meat into it beforehand. Samson grinds gold to powder for Xyzzifax before we venture into the dungeon. Malice asks Braedon and Xyzzifax if they have any knowledge of poisons. They don’t, which is something she’ll remember going forward, but she’s going to be stuck experimenting with what she took from the half orc’s assassin.

I don't think it explicitly states anywhere that the temple is shielded from scrying but at least part of one level is (if you know you know) and with Bubo the recon drone already removing a lot of the tension of exploring a dungeon there was no way I was going to let them sit back in Hommlet and draw out maps of the levels and track anything they had encountered. 

And yes, they've watered down poisons so much in modern versions of the game that I am not terribly concerned about a player exploring it's use. They also removed alignment in ToV, which so many of today's players seem to hate, so that eliminates that particular problem with poison use as well.

The party retraces their steps to the triangularly shaped room that had what were likely the quite dangerous guards to this level of the Temple, being cautious to see what the Giant may have done to reinforce. There are just enough doors in our way to keep us from just making this a simple investigation by Bubo, so we have to put ourselves in harm’s way. Past the rooms where we fought the wizard and the half orc assassin, we hear the sounds of dripping water. Bubo flies south, to the round room with the carved monster statue. The flowing water sounds are coming from that direction, and seem to be carrying a long way.

This was just a random encounter that was the sound of dripping water in the distance. A proper level of paranoia has been achieved when your players get distracted with it like this.

We reach the door to the Triangle room, and Xyzzifax begins a ritual to arcane lock the door. Xyzzifax tells the party the password, “Minion Door, Open!”, but otherwise the door will be sealed. We prepare ourselves, and Sir Lantor gives the command, and throws the door open. There are a pair of trolls in the room, waiting for us! Malice calls out the pair of trolls, magic in her words to fortify her companions – allowing them speed, luck, and fortitude. Sir Kentor, Sir Lantor, and Braedon each advance.

Sir Kentor then breaks into a charge towards the troll on the left, slashing it, but not gravely. Braedon shoots at the some one, and though it lifts a wooden shield, and it is just a stroke of luck that the arrow finds the beast’s shoulder. Xyzzifax moves into the hallway to where he can see the trolls, and speaks a sphere of fire into existence. It rolls into the same Troll, whose grunt sounds more frustrated by the fire than pained. The troll swipes at the Paladin, whose own shield is enough to keep the long claws at bay. The troll even bends down to bite, and it gets to taste of metal. The Paladin works his positioning to keep one troll between him and the other, so while the second strains to hit him, he never even really gets close. Sir Lantor charges that second troll, and slashes. The gash is long, but not as deep as Sir Lantor has done in the past.

Malice moves forward, launching a trio of searing rays into the green troll. His skin blackens and cracks, and he is showing signs of the damage he has taken. Sir Kentor drives his sword deep into the burned troll, and in short order thereafter Braedon puts an arrow into that same troll’s face. Xyzzifax keeps the sphere engaged, and hits it with a firebolt, but the troll endures! In a screaming rage, the troll swipes out with a a dizzying number of swings, but the Paladin is perfect with his shield. The other troll manages to rake Sir Lantor with his claw, and then he backs away from the fire and the fight, retreating to the stairs. Jaric pushes forward, wading into combat with the green troll, and with slays it with the Staff of Striking! Just the skill of his swing and the strength of his arms, he did not even need to expend any of the great staff’s powers.

Malice briefly rushes to the front of the party, flinging a bolt of fire as she runs, just barely scorching the brownish troll. Sir Kentor charges past, and is in melee once more, and his slash is certainly more impressive than the firebolt. Then, Braedon moves to show us how it is done, and puts an arrow into its neck. Blood spurts, but the wound heals. Still, the troll’s breathing is now labored, with a loud wheeze. Xyzzifax attacks with a firebolt and the sphere of flame. The troll is large enough, though that he stops the flaming sphere from being able to push behind him, and he takes the burning pain. The troll roars as rage overtakes him. His cascade of blows is enough to finally draw blood from Sir Kentor, and then he backs up the stairs. Sir Lantor runs across the room, shooting his arm mounted crossbow at the troll. But, at a full run, keeping the crossbow on target is tough, and the bolt goes wide. Jaric gives a quick prayer of the sacred flame, but the Troll continues to retreat back out of the way.

Malice gives chase, hitting with a well placed firebolt, and Sir Kentor charges after the troll once more. With the multitude of burns, Verminax’s slash is not being regenerated by the troll’s legendary healing. Braedon puts an arrow through the troll’s thigh, trying to slow it down. The flaming sphere bounces up the stairs under the command of Xyzzifax, and more of the monster’s flesh is seared. The troll, his rage persisting, claws and bites at Sir Kentor, but the Paladin is far too skilled – and none of the blows land. Sir Lantor reloads his crossbow, and fires again. The crossbow bolt isn’t large, so it doesn’t do much, but Jaric’s sacred flame is sufficient to kill the Troll.

This fight (lasting all of 4 rounds) was where I started to realize a few things:

• Troll regeneration means pretty much nothing. When every wizard has fire bolt as a cantrip a group can tag at least one troll every round. In this party the bard is an arcane caster as well so she has it too. There is so much fire damage available right from level 1 that troll regeneration might as well not exist since the rule is "no regen if the troll took any fire or acid damage since its last turn". 
• The ToV Bard is a 4E Warlord in disguise. Our bard in any big fight starts by dishing out a mass buff to the whole team and then can follow that up with some extra movement and save boosts almost as needed. It was pretty cool to see that kind of thing return to the game even if it's going to make them that much more effective in combat.
• Flaming sphere is still a decent spell even against tougher creatures. Well, trolls at least.

We close the door that has been Arcane Locked, and do a quick check over the rooms – confirming that nothing else has moved in overnight. Then, we head upstairs. Malice asks about the giant, and there was no where near enough wounds inflicted on him that there might be a dried blood trail. The hallway on the floor above has a gargoyle fountain spurting milky water into a stone basin. Before we reach it, Braedon checks an alcove for a secret door – we were sure there’d be one there, but surprisingly, there isn’t. Xyzzifax comes behind him, and finds the latch that Braedon missed. Meanwhile, Jaric ritually casts a detect poison – and determines that the liquid appears to be potable. At the end of the hall, we can see that there is some debris piled up, but we can see a door behind it.

While keeping an eye on the concealed door, Malice hands Xyzzifax a piece of her chalk so he can mark the opening mechanism. and then he backs a few steps down the stairs, and we reposition ourselves so that the knights are at the front. There is a moment of levity as Xyzzifax tells Sir Lantor the order of latches to get it open, but the pall of the temple is soon on us once more. The secret door leads us into a what is huge passage, maybe even leading to a bigger passage. Or possibly a massive room. For situations like this, it is a good thing we can send Bubo to scout. We take up defensive positions as the mechanical owl flies.

The walls are painted with murals of vile scenes with great doors of brass, and there is a huge hall that is littered with bones, and the furniture you’d expect is a feast hall, ruined with age, fighting, and having been raided for firewood. Bubo posts up where he can keep watch on our backs, as we go through the nearest pair of brass doors. Though the hallway beyond is wide, it is, all things considered, not that long before a second pair of doors confront us. Small inset symbols of bronze are adorned on the images of priests in the murals on the walls. Red robed with an eight pointed star, grey robes with a circle, and a green robed priest with a square.

These doors lead to a huge room with an arched ceiling. The floors and walls are covered in polished stone, and a soft greenish light permeates the area, giving the illusion that everything here is underwater. On the west room is a sheet of bronze, with a bas relief of an underwater basin, with the head of a hideous fish thing that spews water into series of a four tiered basin. There is a bronze altar, with a shallow basin filled with water, coins, gems, and seashells. South of the altar is a statue of marine monsters, a horde thing vaguely globed shaped. The four corners of the room have a column in each of them, topped by a bronze gargoyle.

Malice and Jaric start on the doors. Between unpinning their hinges and pennying them open, we are doing our best to make sure that these doors won’t be able to trap us in the room. Xyzzifax and Sir Kentor open their senses to the room, and the whole of the place detects evil and magic. Mighty Xyzzifax crosses the room and carefully examines the stone globe, and sees that it is finely made. The knights enter the room, taking up a defensive posture behind Xyzzifax as he moves to the curtain, pulls it aside. It reveals a concealed room, with two more huge doors, and a smaller door off to each side of the room.

Xyzzifax moves away from that, and goes to investigate the fountain. It is sort of a blessing, or un-blessing kind of religious font. His idea is that one prepares something here, and then takes it over to the altar and puts it into the basin. Malice suggests that the prepared thing might be halflings, but the existing coins and gems suggests even more that it may be coinage. “Do not summon the water demon…” Malice says wearily. So, Xyzzifax, having a gold earing and a battered silver plate, opts to see what will happen. After placing the earring on the plate, he gets water from the fountain in the depression on the plate, and submerges it in the basin. One of the mouths on the ball of sea creatures makes a hooting noise, like a summons to worship.

Everyone gets nervous when the crazy wizard starts poking the obviously magical fountain.

The globe of sea creatures animates, as do the four gargoyles (to none of our surprise). a pair of plate armored clerics – one in blue and another in black – armed with maces come out of one door from the concealed room, and a high priest wearing even deeper blue and green robes over his armor enters the room from the other. Braedon magically examines the statue, and draws his bow, threateningly aiming at the high priest. Sir Lantor moves up to the statue, menacing with the greatsword. While we were preparing to possibly parley, the gargoyles have no such desires.

The gargoyles swoop in, and start by lacerating Sir Lantor and knocking him over. The gargoyle attempts to hit Xyzzifax, but his magical defenses activate, and it wards the blow. One swoops down on malice, knocking her over and taking a deep bite out of her. She’s nearly unconscious from just that one combinations of blows. The high priest intones that we will make excellent sacrifices, and casts hold person on the Paladin. Sir Kentor’s devotion is pure, and the evil spell does not paralize him. Braedon puts an arrow into the priest. Malice scrambles to her feet, and gives voice to her words of power. She is able to scamper away from the gargoyle, and Xyzzifax falls back to Malice, Jaric, and Braedon. Her inspiration is even enough that Sir Lantor gets back to his feet. The evil priests continue their master’s plan, casting hold on Sir Lantor… and this one succeeds. The other casts a silence spell on the cluster of Malice, Xyzzifax, Braedon, and Jaric near the door, and even manages to catch Sir Kentor in it as well. The sea creature statue begins whipping out with eels and other vicious monsters of the depths. Sir Lantor is hit, and hit, and hit, and collapses bloodily.

Xyzzifax flies back into the hallway out of the magical silence, and calls to Sir Lantor that his service as a minion has been commendable. He casts a shatter at the high priest and the priest in blue who was concentrating on the silence. Blood runs out of that cleric’s ears, nose, and the corners of his eyes. Jaric pulls to the edge of the silence in the hall, and casts a silence of his own, capturing all of the evil clerics in its number, and quieting the rumble of the animated statue.

Braedon shoots the priest in blue, hitting him in the eye, and he drops wetly. A pair of gargoyles attempt to double team Sir Kentor, and his defensive prowess is enough to fend off both of them. Another continues to chase Xyzzifax, but the mage’s wards remain strong. The last goes after Braedon, and manages to draw blood. The high priest moves with the statue, and Sir Kentor is completely surrounded. Malice sees the grouping around the Paladin, and it is just too perfect. She calls out some words of inspiration to the Paladin, that perhaps sound just a little bit like “sorry about this” and then casts a shatter on that cluster of enemies. Both gargoyles are damaged, one more than the other, as is the animated statue. The High Priest, though, takes it poorly, and is in bad shape. As she causes so many wounds, her own wounds close.

Sir Kentor growls that the High Priest’s atrocities will be judged this day. He empowers Verminax with holy energy, and cleaves the High Priest’s head clean off. The cleric in black sprints to get out of the silence, but the distance he needed to run meant that there was little else that he was able to do but get himself clear. The animated statue once again sends tendril after tendril into a knight, Sir Kentor this time. And, as skilled as the Paladin is, the swarming stone sea creatures overwhelm him, and he falls. Xyzzifax flies into the air, and reads a scroll – and a bolt of lightning streaks across the battlefield, hitting the gargoyle on Braedon, one of the two that was attacking Sir Kentor, and the animated statue. The gargoyle nearest to the Paladin is forced to the ground as its wings pop and crackle. Jaric closes, a little, and summons a a sacred hammer, and enflames another gargoyle.

Braedon shoots the gargoyle right above him, but the accurate blow is blunted by its stone form. Sir Lantor’s wounds close as Malice’s healing finally binds them. He is still in terrible shape, so he scrambles behind the altar from the animated statue, and drinks a potion of greater healing. The gargoyles swoop and dive, but none of them are able to connect. Malice casts Hold on the gargoyle that was on her, and retreats to the rear of the combat. Sir Kentor’s wounds are closed by the lingering bardic magic, and he climbs to his feet in the face of the animated statue. Withdrawing from it, he moves to help protect the other knight, defending him from the gargoyle, where the two might face the juggernaut of a statue together. The cleric in black calls forth an unholy steam, but the Paladin is too pure for such an attack. The animated statue rumbles over to Sir Lantor, and even with protection of Sir Kentor, the relentless series of attacks is enough to fell Sir Lantor again. Xyzzifax forms his sword of red lightning, and slays the first of the gargoyles. Then, he flies towards the cleric in black, but one of the gargoyles that he flew too near was able to get a claw into him as he zipped by. Jaric’s spiritual hammer kills a second gargoyle. Then, he speeds to Sir Kentor’s side, and speaks a healing word. But it is Sir Lantor who has some injuries soothed, and his eyes open again.

Braedon draws a pair of shortswords, and drives them both into the gargoyle that was harrying him. Sir Lantor finally is able to swing his greatsword in anger, and the blow is enough to cause visible damage the the animated statue. Small stone fish fall to the ground off of it, shattering. The gargoyle tries to claw at Braedon, and though it doesn’t connect, it does stay out of the way of Malice’s glaive. She calls out words of encouragement to Braedon – one of us has to take it down. Sir Kentor moves once again to protect Sir Lantor, and this time the Paladin’s skills are enough. The animated statue’s attacks are all defected from the fighter, but Sir Kentor is hit once himself, and again he is bleeding from his wounds. The cleric in black closes with Xyzzifax, but can not manage to get past the Wizard’s wards with his mace. The Knights both drive their weapons into the statue, while simultaneously Xyzzifax swings with the red lightning sword, and with a combination of skill, luck, and dark magic he shocks the cleric in black. Jaric closes on the animated statue with the spiritual hammer, and then he follows it up on his own with the staff of striking, a nimbus of crackling energy around it. The blow from the cleric is enough! The animated statue shatters!

Braedon dives in with both of his shortswords. Though the gargoyle survives the pair of stabs, it is driven to the ground. It snaps at the ranger, but Braedon keeps out of its reach. Sir Lantor charges the gargoyle that Malice has held. He drives the sword through the gargoyle, but the elemental being remains “"alive”. Malice swings her glaive at the gargoyle she and Braedon are fighting, but she is not able to get through its stony hide. Sir Kentor closes his wounds, and then trudges to the cleric in black. Tired as the knight is, the cleric is able to parry Verminax. The cleric keeps attacking Xyzzifax, and this gives Sir Kentor the opening he wanted. He steps in, blocks with the shield, and drives the sword into a joint in the armor, and it comes out bloody. Xyzzifax lunges with the red lightning sword, and the cleric gives ground, keeping himself safe. Jaric sends the spiritual hammer to kill the held gargoyle, and then moves to back up the fight against the evil cleric.

Braedon stabs the gargoyle again, and Sir Lantor closes and cleaves into it as well. The gargoyle snaps at both, but isn’t able to connect with either of them. Malice leaves the gargoyle to the pair of then, and finally re-enters the water temple from the hallway. She tells the cleric that he is going to die, and see his temple fall before him, lacing the words with a curse. In a fury, the cleric is able to parry the blow from Sir Kentor, but his wild follow up swing is easily deflected by the stalwart Paladin. Xyzzifax, done toying with the man, says the short word of magic to call forth magic missiles. The trio of bolts slam into the cleric, the last piercing straight through the plate. The last of the priests falls. It is as if the evil of the temple wanes as Jaric’s spiritual hammer, and his own wielding of the staff of power, put a bloody end to the last gargoyle.

Sir Kentor takes a knee, and prays to the the gods of law and good. The rest of us check the clerics for treasure, and loot the alter – we’re not expecting it to have any further guardians. In the basin is 42 copper, 37 silver, 60 electrium, 51, gold, 23 platinum, 2000 gp worth of gems, 170 gold worth of agates, 500 gold worth of semi precious stones, and 1300 gold worth of small pieces of jewelry, mostly of an aquatic theme. The high priest has +1 plate, a ring of free action, and a mace of smiting (a bonus vs constructs). There’s not much discussion to be had – Sir Lantor will take the ring of free action, and Jaric the magical plate. As for the mace, well, that is enough, along with the treasure of the last two forays, for us to consider a return to Hommlet, and maybe even Verbobonc. Braedon could use a magical bow, and Sir Lantor a magical heavy weapon. Surely a city as large as Verbobonc could provide. Even before we leave, Malice recommends that Braedon take the cloak of elvenkind, or perhaps Jaric take it back.

Probably the biggest fight of this early part of the campaign this one went 6 rounds and saw every party member taking significant damage and the whole group feeling like they were in serious danger at various points. The fighter and the paladin in particular took a serious battering in this one as the juggernaut - the stone statue - spent most of its time ramming into one or both of them while the priests and gargoyles kept everyone else busy. The wizard was ready to bail at one point but there was no way the paladin was going to leave the fighter behind. The jugger really was a menace and the gargoyles put in more work in this fight than I think I have ever seen gargoyles do. Our heroes did win in the end but they really had to work for it this time. This one was a lot of fun.

Campaign Interlude: Azin the Flying Merchant

 

From our summary of Session 16:

This is the first appearance of Azin in this campaign. he is an NPC that first turned up in my 3rd edition Greyhawk campaign featuring Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and it seemed appropriate that he reappear here. He is partly here to provide a source of outside news and possibly rumors but he is mainly here to be a trading post for magical items and truly exotic things. Operating out the village means there is not a great way to do anything with excess magic items and super-expensive stuff without a trip to Verbobonc at least. In 3rd edition there was a need to be able to trade out and upgrade magic and I thought it would be interesting to try that option here and see how much the players would use it. Short version: They like it a lot ...

So in 3E (and subsequently Pathfinder) it was handy to have a way for characters to be able to craft, modify, and trade magic items as a lot of the system's math assumed magic items were present, especially in combat. Now in a big enough city or maybe an extraplanar setting this would be easier to justify but I was running Return with the PC's hanging around Hommlet and running around out in the wilderness much of the time so I needed a way to work in this option - enter Azin.

He appears to be human (he is not, not that the players know this) and uses a flying carpet and presumably a bag of holding or three to transport magical items and occasional exotic goods. No he is not going to bring you a ballista but he can manage a sword or a suit of armor. I have him making the rounds on a pretty set schedule so my players know when he will show up and this gives them one more reason to care about the passage of time in-game, so he's a nice little enhancer there as well.

When we decided to play this campaign using Tales of the Valiant I realized it would be a good opportunity to bring him back. ToV has prices and rarity levels on all of its magic items and crafting rules for them as well so now we have a hard value on everything and several ways to compare one thing to another. It has been 20-odd years since that prior campaign but a few of my players were around back then and they did remember him and were pretty happy when they realized what that meant.

So here's how Azin works in this campaign:

• He comes through Hommlet once a month (adding it to his usual Greyhawk - Dyvers -Verbobonc route)
• If they are interested then I roll up "What does Azin Have?" for that visit and the haggling begins:
• 4x Common items 
• 2x Uncommon items
• 1x Rare item
• He doesn't do potions & scrolls - just hard items
• Azin starts at double the book price to buy something but he is willing to trade item (or items) directly as well and he will even occasionally offer to buy something if it catches his eye but that's not really his main interest.

ToV has random tables for all categories of magic item so that's the universe of what could be available and I moderate it a bit if something really stupid comes up. 

That's really it - he's turned up 4 or 5 times in the 40-ish sessions so far and some visits are more productive than others. It gives the party another reason to head back to the village or to wait longer in it which breaks up the dungeon crawling a little more. It also lets them tune up their characters a little and try out the occasional odd item they might not otherwise find or know or care about. Attunement requirements keep a lid on the "real" magic items so a lot of what they end up trying out are the lesser items like lucky dice or anklets of alacrity. Most of what they have comes from the temple and if they want something custom or to pick and choose from more sellers they have to go to Verbobonc - which they do!

As far as magic items in this campaign I tend to run Greyhawk as less heavy on the magic than the Forgotten Realms, but while people may think the old school stuff had less magic in it if you look at the old modules they are absolutely stuffed with magic items. From Keep on the Borderlands to this one to Against the Giants and beyond there are a ton of magic items in there and (even if you consider the larger party sizes we tended towards in the old days) any party that makes it most of the way through will be absolutely decked out in magic gear. So there is quite a bit of magic to be found, despite my preferred take on Greyhawk. Oddly enough the modern 5E-type games' attunement rules keep this under control pretty well as even at say 9th level you're only allowed to attune 4 items. Most of the "good stuff" requires attunement, then there's a bunch of "OK" stuff that does not, and there is a very narrow range of "very good and does not require attunement" and my players pounce on those hard when they encounter one.

So there it is - Azin and magic items in our campaign in general!

40K Friday - Slow Motion & Kings of War 4th

 

The miniatures side of things is fairly slow here right now.  I'm still working mainly on the Blood Angels stuff I mentioned before but it's not a super-high priority as we aren't playing  much and there are a lot of other things going on. My online interests have been fairly intensive lately with constant events in Star Trek Online, a big long event in World of Warships, and now WoW Legion Remix coming out (it's a lot of fun, like the remix for Pandaria last year). I'm also having to do more prep for the Temple campaign as big things are happening and it's more than just easy monster swap-outs at this point. I have friends painting Space Wolves and Votann so progress does continue.

Beyond the direct 40K work I've been watching the Kings of War 4th Edition updates as they have come out and it all seems positive in general but I'm just not motivated to dive back in. Edition changes are seen by companies as a way to draw new players in but it's also a reason for existing players to just stop. If all of the books I've picked up in recent years are now not valid, well, I can just not worry about the new stuff and when we get the very infrequent itch to play KoW we can just play one of the versions we already have. 

Also this: "We also have the chance now going forwards to make some armies more “Mantic” and less generic ..." yeah, that's the problem. I came to the game looking for ways to use some old school Warhammer armies and maybe some old Hordes of the Things armies and so the more world-specific you make it the less useful it is for me. I get it from a company perspective, how it benefits you, but it's not what I'm looking for. Having a mix of generic and Mantic-specific factions is great - it means someone can bring their fantasy human army in as Kingdoms of Men while someone else could play Trident Realms or Nightstalkers which are two Mantic-specific very cool armies. The more they drive to phase out the generic part the more it damages their game in my opinion. 

I mean who wouldn't want units of frog-men with frog-cavalry? That's a cool army!

I'm sure I'll play around with it at some point but right now the interest meter is low.

Valiant Swords of Greyhawk: Session 17 - Ambush!

 

"According to Mighty and Illustrious, Xyzzifax"

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
• The Mighty Xyzzifax (Human-ish Wizard) played by Blaster
• Samson (Halfling Mechanist) played by Shootist Will
• Jaric (Human Cleric) played by Variable David

 All are level 4 at this point. We begin on Day 51 of the campaign.

The party sleeps, telling stories, with Minion Kentor cooking more of his disastrous chili, which once again incapacitates minion Malice.

This has become the accepted cover story when a player is absent - bad chili renders them out of action. Inigo misses most sessions so he doesn't get a specific cover story. It's just assumed he's lurking somewhere nearby with his own agenda and just pops up now and then.

In the morning, Xyzzifax attempts to utilize his new artifact, the crystal ball of true sight! Attempting to scry their old foe, the hobgoblin (or was it a bugbear?) chief from the moathouse, and finds that he has been killed. Good, such fate befalls all who dare cross the mighty Xyzzifax.

As the group reenters the tower, they proceed through the trapdoor, and continue exploring. A secret door opens into a small passageway with an ascending staircase.

The party finds a broom.

Minion Samson touches it.

The party holds their breath but nothing bad happens.

The party proceeds through the passage and up another trapdoor which opens into a circular shaft, covered in very old spider webs. The room is searched, but no spiders are found.

A singular passageway leads off. Minion Bubo surveils the passage, finding a door, and another passage to a room with statues of monsters.

The party moves up to investigate the door. The door opens into a triangular room, with eyes depicting various negative emotions of hate and fear painted on the wall.

A stairwell, and 4 doors are present, with a fire pit and large gong dominating the center of this strange room.

Party approaches from the south. The gong is in 314, giant is in 318, and the rest are scattered about the other rooms.

Minion Kentor hears deep voices behind one of the doors, but fails to recognize the language. Minions Lantor, Braedon and Samson move up to quietly cut down the gong, wrapping it in Xyzzifax’s cloak. More low voices are heard at 2 more doors, although Minion Braedon listens at the final door; and hears snoring. Xyzzifax advises his minions to quietly enter this door first, and dispatch the evil that no doubt lies within.

Xyzzifax unlocks the door, and upon opening it, the party sees a hill giant sleeping in the corner, and a dire wolf that is awake and alert, gnawing on a bone! The wolf howls, immediately waking the giant and alerting the forces of evil to their presence. The party retreats back into the triangular room, with Xyzzifax loosing a fire bolt at the dire wolf.

In short order, all hell breaks loose.

In mere seconds, all 4 doors are sprung open, the giant and his wolf being joined by 2 bugbear chieftans, 6 bugbears, and 4 ogres, the shortest of which is some sort of shaman.

Minion Samson is struck down by a mighty blow from an ogre, but is quickly healed by the cleric, and thrown behind the frontline of fighters. Blows are exchanged as the party retreats further to a bottleneck hallway. Xyzzifax reads a scroll of stinking cloud, causing many of the misters to begin retching and reeling, while proving cover for Xyzzifax and his minions.

The ogre shaman summons a spiritual weapon to beat on minion Jaric. Who in turn sends his spiritual weapon after a retreating bugbear chief.

I do love the idea of two spiritual weapons being summoned by opposing casters the zooming around a room beating on things ...

The stinking cloud allows the party to focus their efforts, with the 2 ogres and their shaman, as well as the giant and the wolf retreating as they retch from the noxious fumes. In short order, all but the ogre shaman, a single ogre, the giant, and his wolf are left.

Minions Kentor and Lantor sprint through the cloud, having consumed potions of speed, ambushing the shaman, felling him in seconds with a flurry of blows.

The cowardly giant, his wolf, and the remaining ogre flee from the might of the mighty Xyzzifax (and his minions).

The party elects not to pursue, and falls back to the tower.

This session was mostly one big fight but it started with some cautious exploration and then escalated dramatically from there. A lot of the fun I am having is watching the guys poke around an old school dungeon waiting for death to leap out from behind something. 

Stinking could is remarkably effective in this version of the game. I will need to pay more attention to that in the future. In fact a lot of this campaign is the DM re-learning how 5E-type spells work - often at the expense of that session's monsters. I am making notes for my own lurking spellcasters though so there will be payback one day.

Another thing I am being reminded of is that one of the biggest brakes on combat resolution time is when the DM has to run a bunch of different monsters. In this case I was running:

• A hill giant
• A worg
• An ogre shaman
• Some ogres
• A bugbear chief
• Some bugbears

Numbers-wise it's about 15 critters but there are six different statblocks in there and while I've gotten pretty good at tracking things I was feeling it a bit here with a big, lingering spell effect going off and then having to check saves every round while running all the normal parts of a fight. Templates for AoE spells are a big help here as is the usual benefit of a battlemat where we can just draw things out, and then we also use condition rings to mark individuals as conditions go flying around during a battle. That said as I started adjusting the opposition going forward this was one of the things I looked over - how many different statblocks and how many spellcasters did I want to manage in combat?

I'll put up a post about how we manage this next week.

Valiant Swords of Greyhawk: Session 16 - Dangerous Explorations

 

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
• The Mighty Xyzzifax (Human-ish Wizard) played by Blaster
• Samson (Halfling Mechanist) played by Shootist Will
• Jaric (Human Cleric) played by Variable David
• Malice (Human Bard) played by Grognard Mike
• Inigo Vulnstack (Elven Rogue) played by Invisible Paddy

 All are level 4 at this point except for Inigo. This account is mainly written by Malice. We begin on Day 44 of the campaign.

Over the strenuous objections of Sir Kentor, the party returns to Hommlet. Malice suggested we turn some of the treasure into scrolls of Raise Dead. It takes us the better part of a day to make the journey. When we get to town, Sir Kentor goes to see to the village girl he is courting, and Malice heads to the temple of St. Cuthbert. Jaric heads to the inn, and Xyzzifax and Inigo are there! The base price for a scroll of Revivify is 500, and a scroll of raise dead is 1150. Terjon haggles with Malice, its going to take him five days to create the Revivify scroll for 800 gold, and 7 weeks to create the scroll of Raise Dead for 2000 gold.

Azin is a travelling sky merchant, a dealer in unusual items and rare artifacts that is talking with Inigo at the Inn. He travels between Dyvers and Greyhawk, and he is now adding a stop at Hommlet, as doing business with us interests him. At present time, he has anklets of alacrity, a returning charm, a reciprocating pole arm, and a ring of swimming. We purchase the anklets of alacrity and give them to Xyzzifax. We also purchase the returning charm and Sir Kentor uses on his hammer. After those purchases, Azin lets us know he has a bag of tricks, and boots of striding and springing, and wings of flying. We trade the +1 leather armor to him, and Xyzzifax trades a pair of magical daggers and a magical mace, as well. We purchase the Wings of Flying, and it goes to Jaric. And, Malice ends up with the Cloak of Elvenkind. Finally we purchase the boots of Striding and Springing for Sir Kentor.

This is the first appearance of Azin in this campaign. he is an NPC that first turned up in my 3rd edition Greyhawk campaign featuring Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil and it seemed appropriate that he reappear here. He is partly here to provide a source of outside news and possibly rumors but he is mainly here to be a trading post for magical items and truly exotic things. Operating out the village means there is not a great way to do anything with excess magic items and super-expensive stuff without a trip to Verbobonc at least. In 3rd edition there was a need to be able to trade out and upgrade magic and I thought it would be interesting to try that option here and see how much the players would use it. Short version: They like it a lot. I'll post a separate entry on how I make it work in this campaign.

While we’re in town, Malice turns over the books we found to Xyzzifax, expecting that they were the spellbooks of the wizard that we killed. He prepares comprehend languages, and learns that the books are gibberish, not actually spellbooks. We return to the temple, and once again we use the trap door in the temple, and take the secret door to deep within the dungeon once more, after sharing stores and a meal.

Our explorations begin in the wizard’s room. Samson begins by checking over the secret door to the south, making sure its not trapped. Sir Kentor opens his awareness to supernatural forces, and he still feels a jawdropping evil. Samson presses forward, looking for the next secret door that must obviously be there. Then, Xyzzifax follows the pair of them. Sir Kentor finds the expected secret door, and Samson confirms that it is free of traps. Then, he opens the door, and reveals another partial hallway – or at least a room the size and shape of hallway.

This long room is full of all manner of magical apparatuses, a long workbench and a fireplace, barrels full of gear. Bookstands and unopened tomes, a green cup, an iron box, several . A cabinet holds a set of various treasures, and magical accoutrements. Sir Kentor moves into the room, towards his feeling of great evil. Xyzzifax sends Bubo forward as well, and he lands on the desk.

Xyzzifax steps into the long room, and activates his magical sense. The cabinet glows, as do the books. An iron box glows. The bottles of potion glow. There’s a glow coming from a leather case. A crystal ball is magical as well, and a statue as well. But, he doesn’t note any creatures with spellcasting ability. A quick discussion between Xyzzifax and Sir Kentor says that both the desk and the iron box detect both magic and evil. Bubo is scampering on the desk that is detecting evil, and nothing seems to be happening. Then, he hops down to the chair.

Sir Kentor pours some acid on the desk, and again nothing happens. Malice prods Samson, and he finally goes into the room, a little bit reluctantly, and touches the desk. He can tell it is enchanted. Sir Kentor pulls out his hammer, and smites the iron box. Xyzzifax pulls Bubo back as the empowered hammer smashes down, but the blow glances off and impacts on the desk. Part of the desk is sheared off, and one of the books falls over, and there is a flash! A massive devil appears!

He is a tall, red, spikey devil. In a reflexive action, Samson swings his armor clad fist at the devil. He hits! And it looks like he managed to actually cause some pain! But, striking the spikey creature manages to puncture his hand, though the wound isn’t terrible. Xyzzifax steps into sight of it just long enough to send some magic missiles down range, and then pull back around the corner. Malice shouts Lantor forwards, and for Samson to retreat, and Inigo needs to get into a shooting position. Lantor swings with the mighty greatsword, but it is unfortunately non magical, so the wound is not as bad as it could be. It is like the spines move to react, and Sir Lantor is barely injured by it.

The devil claws at Sir Lantor, and slaps at Sir Kentor with his spiked tail. Sir Lantor parries with the greatsword, but is still impaled by a number of spines. Sir Kentor reacts with a slash of his own, but the devil avoids the blow. But, that was enough to keep the devil’s tail from finding its mark, but instead slamming into the paladin’s shield. Braedon rushes to behind Sir Lantor, and places his hand on the fighter’s shoulder. He is now protected against the devil! Jaric calls forth a Spiritual Hammer, and it slams into the devil, sparking with radiant energy. Then, he hurls his own and axe towards the devil, but the throw is off balance, and it thunks loudly into the cabinetry. Inigo shoots the devil with a non magical bow, still, his aim is true.

Sir Kentor calls out loudly, judging the devil, and calls that he will be send back to hell. Then, he slashes at the devil with the Mighty Verminax, as holy energy rings around it. And that blow is enough that the devil is obviously wounded by the blow. Samson fires his crossbow at the devil, but the non magical bolt doesn’t look like it does that much. Xyzzifax once again steps into sigh, and sends a trio of magic missiles into the devil. Malice calls out in the black tongue, trying to lock the devil in place. But, its infernal power is too great, and it resists the spell.

Sir Lantor crashes down with his powerful greatsword, and once again, even though the blade is not magical, it still is a notable blow. The devil swipes at Sir Lantor, but Braedon’s protections are effective. Both of the knights react, blades scything through the devil. The devil splatters, showering the area in viscera and spikes. It begins dissolving slowly. Sir Kentor gives a brief prayer of thanks. He can tell that the desk is no longer radiating evil, and Xyzzifax notes that it doesn’t radiate magic any more, either.

As an example of where ToV characters are at power-wise this fight with the barbed devil (Ac15, 100 hp, various devil defenses) lasted all of two rounds. Granted there are 8 PC's but they tend to blast through the opposition even when there are only 5 or 6 of them. This will continue to be an issue going forward.

Jaric has his spiritual hammer slam into the iron box. It rings loudly at the blow, but it manages to hold. No new devils immediately appear, either. We give it enough time for the spikes to dissolve, and Inigo parkours over the far side of the room. Jaric treats the wounds of both of the Knights and Samson. Then, Samson touches the box – the box is just a box. Xyzzifax tells people to just calm down, and there are lots of magical items we need to collect before we begin further messing with the box.

Samson moves to the cabinet and opens a set of coffers first. The crystal ball is a crystal ball of true seeing – a legendary item of magic that will allow us to scry, and the scrying user will have true sight (taken by Xyzzifax). The pointed hat has cryptic runes, but is itself non magical. Xyzzifax takes it for himself. The ceramic statue is of a frog eating an insect, and the insect itself is a figurine of wondrous power, the ebony fly. The reddish wood box is an unfolding shrine inlaid with gold, and a black interior with an ebony statue of a spider thing, standing before webbing. We discuss what to do – Jaric may need to consecrate it, and then Samson may be able to disassemble it, and then we would have access to the valuables. Or, Sir Kentor can just smash it. Well, that works, too.

The crystal ball of true seeing - an immensely powerful item to most. My party will end up selling it not too far down the road. Sigh.

There are a number of books that we take a moment looking through, as well as a trio of ivory scroll tubes. Inigo gives them a once over, and assures us that they’re not trapped. There are six spells between them. The books are bound in strange leather, bound in iron, and locked. Xyzzifax makes quick work of the locks, and finds that each of the five are spellbooks. Finally, a long brass wand is not magical, but it has an odd notch on one end. Samson takes that one. And carefully considers it, while looking over the cabinet itself.

As Samson inserts the tip of the wand into just the right indentation, the side of the cabinet opens and there is a magic mirror within. It is a mirror of mental prowess – a legendary wondrous item that requires attunement. We plan to take that back to Hommlet, because adventuring with a mirror is dangerous for said mirror. And maybe us. There are potions of clairvoyance (taken by Malice), mind reading (taken by Malice), speed (taken by Braedon), and an elixir of health (taken by Malice). In the leather case, there is a wand of binding (taken by Malice). The two books that were near the desk are both magical, bound in leather and bronze. One effects your Charisma, and the other your Wisdom. Jaric takes the Tome of Understanding, and Malice takes the Tome of Leadership and Influence.

The mirror of mental prowess - an immensely powerful item to most. My party will actually realize this and use it regularly.

Sir Kentor is suggesting that we not open the iron box – he is concerned that it is a prison. The box is a foot and a half squared. Between the two knights, they can carry it. We have a good amount of discussion about the box, and what we should do with it. After a good bit of discussion, we decide to pull out of the temple, and it is quickly discover that Sir Kentor isn’t even able to touch the iron box. Neither can Jaric. But, Sir Lantor can lug it with him. Malice quickly asks him to try putting it down – which he can, which is great! And then, we leave with it, taking it up out of the tower, and up out of the ruins. We search for a good place to bury it. We’re able to dig down ten feet, and then sink, and then Braedon does all he can to hide it.

Alright, so the tower-trap-door-side-entrance puts characters right into the lair of Falrinth, one of the more powerful wizards in the temple and part of its leadership. So yes, he has a bunch of powerful items waiting to be looted by a 4th-ish level party - if they can beat him, and mine did. The box contains the ORB OF GOLDEN DEATH (!) which if you have run this adventure before you know is tremendously important to actually destroying the temple for good. They are 3-4 rooms into the dungeon and they have this in their possession although they don't know it, have no idea what it represents, are a little bit scared of it, and won't even take it out of the box! So they end up burying it. I can tell you we just played Session #44 and they haven't even thought about it in months but they will probably discover it's purpose and power in the very next session. Then they will likely try to remember where they buried it!

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. 

Valiant Swords of Greyhawk: Session 14 - The Bandit Tower

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 41 of the campaign (in game time).

There was some discussion of how things should be approached and they settled on the one intact (ish) tower as the starting point. Our sessions now always start with "chili and stories" as the ToV backgrounds give various small abilities and the Paladin has the ability to make some food and the Ranger can tell stories to raise morale. The game effect is to grant a few temporary hit points which becomes less important as they level up but the ritual is important. Kentor makes chili - typically out of whatever creature they have fought most recently. Spider chili was much discussed during the moathouse run. Braedon is not a great storyteller and constantly re-tells the story of how his brother was killed by a werewolf to quiet groans from the party. It was funny to see how quickly this became a thing for the group.

Sir Kentor catches up the party as we come into the clearing, and look upon the Temple. We look upon the complex, and the only thing standing besides the temple itself is a ruined tower. It is chained and barred from the outside, as if somebody is trying to keep something trapped within. Samson picks the locks on the chains and pull them off, and leaves it to Sir Kentor to slide off the bar and open the door as Jaeric casts light on his shield. Kentor draws Verminax, and throws the door open.

The tower in question is in the upper right corner

There were archers and crossbowmen waiting inside, who loosed their weapons immediately, filling both Sirs Kentor and Lantor with hits. Still, they are hardy warriors, and keep their feet. They charge inside, followed by the rest of the party. Malice provides magical support to them with a dripping with sarcasm “Watch out, there could be archers.” Samson is close on their heels, but the first of us to get a shot at the enemy is Sir Lantor with his forearm crossbow.

The ravens at the top of the tower croak out a warning to the bandits inside but they have no reason to join the fight as it develops. I think this: "An illusion at the Tower's top renders all creatures thereon to appear smaller." is a stupid thing to have at the top of a ruined tower and it punishes players for paying attention when you have what appear to be normal ravens suddenly turn into giant ravens. As a random encounter they are fine but as this weird magical ambush thing ... I am not running that in my game.

Braedon moves in, and shoots a piercing shot at what is apparently the leader of the the bandit gang. Malice fires a trio of scorching rays, mostly missing, but one does hit one of the enemies now in melee with the Paladin. The enemies continue to pour fire on, with only Sir Lantor taking a hit. Sir Kentor’s shield of faith keeps him well protected, and he follows it up with a slash from mighty Verminax against the leader of this troupe of n’er do wells, cleanly beheading him. More enemies charge Sir Lantor out of the darkness, but he is able to parry their blows. Jaric rushes to Sir Lantor’s side, but they are able block with their shields. Samson swings at another with has magical gauntlets, a blow powerful enough to kill. Shortly afterwards, Sir Lantor swings his greatword in a wide arc, hitting a pair of the assailants.

Breadon shoots and kills one of the enemy crossbowmen. Malice finally gets into the swirling melee, and leads with an arc of burning hands, killing a footman and wounding half on the enemies. An enemy crossbowman is able to hit Sir Lantor, but fail to find their mark on Sir Kentor, who a blink of eye later runs an enemy swordsman through with Verminax. In a clash of arms, the heroes get the upper hand, with Jaric killing an enemy swordsman. Samson once more jobs with his tiny but mighty fists, killing an unfortunate enemy. Sir Lantor’s foe manages to keep his blade in the way of the greatsword, but leaves himself open to Braedon’s shot. An arrow to the eye is a heck of a way to go.

Malice thrusts with her glaive, slaying the last of the enemies on her side of the battlefield, then moves to cover behind the table that the now dead enemy bowmen were taking behind. Sir Kentor closes with an archer, who attempts to flee – but it is futile. Verminax claims another life. But, that just means that the crossbow men take their shots at the Paladin, now the nearest of the Valiant swords to them. But he is not done, charging them, and wounding the same crossbowman who shot him.

One of the enemies has a heavy crossbow, but Sir Kentor is quick with his shield. A second with a heavy crossbow does manage to hit Jaric – not a bad hit, but Jaric dashes towards the enemies. On the other side of the room Samson mimics Jaric’s advance, and then Sir Lantor follows as well. Braedon moves out of cover, and takes a clean shot at one of the men with heavy crossbows, and in a rare moment misses. Malice fares no better, throwing a firebolt that slams into their makeshift mantlet.

The evil crossbowmen who’d been charged drop their ranged weapons and come out with axes. Only Jaric is hit, but he weathers the blow. Sir Kentor makes a quick tactical move, and with a spirit filled with justice, swings at one of the men with a heavy crossbow, but he keeps his distance and Verminax doesn’t connect. Then, he draws a morning star, but has no luck with it. Similarly, the other heavy crossbowman tries to hit Jaric, who then closes and connects with the Staff of Striking. With a blow that echos through the tower, he staggers the man, but surprisingly enough he is still standing. Samson makes a powerful uppertcut, killing a man with his gauntlets of power. And Sir Lantor gives a mighty yell as he thrusts at an enemy, but his powerful blow is parried.

Braedon is back on his groove, hitting his target, neatly killing his mark. Malace moves up one of the bandits and drives her glaive through his chest. The last of the crossbowmen takes a shot at Jaric, and once again the cleric is struck, and he continues to just keep powering through the blows. Sir Kentor gets a lucky blow in on the morning star wielding bandit, but he empowers it with a smite killing his foe. From off in the distance, a voice calls out to the few remaining bandits to fight on, and then we hear a door slamming shut, and the really perceptive of us can hear that the door is quickly locked. Jaric, tired of being shot, closes with the crossbowman and jabs him in the throat with the staff, dropping the foe. Samson takes just a few steps to the last of the still standing bandits, but he is able to stay clear of the halfling’s fists. But Sir Lantor closes as well, and that is all that is left of the enemies of the fight, the last one being split from crown to crotch.

As Jaric crosses the room to the door, he illuminates a second one with his glowing shield. A flight of stairs winds up the side as well. We search the room and see where there are torches that the enemies doused, and we relight them. It quickly becomes clear that the stairs don’t really go anywhere as the upper level is collapsed. The main tower room is well lived in, and there is plenty of food around. Jaric moves to patch up the knights, and then we press on. Samson checks the locked door, and finds that the lock is well built. At Malice’s suggestion, Samson turns his magical crystal into a prybar. The knights put their backs into it, and the door pops open.

Sir Kentor is the first into the room, and it looks like the room is obviously a leader’s – with the only comfortable bed in the tower. But, the leader himself is long gone. Obviously there is a secret way out of the room, and it is Kentor himself is the one that finds it. There is a loose flagstone in the floor, once covered by a rug that was hastily thrown aside. It lifts silently, revealing a bronze ring set into the floor. There is a three foot square passage leading down into the darkness.

We close the trap door, and drag the chest of drawers on top of it. And then we take to searching. We find a few valuables – a jeweled sword and fur lined finery. Checking the chest, and Samson disarms the poison needle that he was expecting, and then find that its full of coinage. It turns out the best way to carry it all is the chest its already stored in. The other room looks like a barracks, and it too has strong box. Malice checks over the dead, and finds keys on a few of the them, so the strong box is no trouble. It contains a potion of healing, coinage, a jeweled dagger, and four bolts of silk. Sir Kentor reveals that he is in a courtship, and wants to keep the silk. We talk about the treasure, and decide that returning to Hommlet is a better idea than to try going back to Nulb. Before we go into tunnel, Jaric performs a prayer of healing for himself and Sir Lantor, and both are ready to venture forth.

All the times I have run this adventure and no one has ever found the trapdoor in the tower! They didn't realize it, heck, I didn't realize it - this has a huge impact on how the exploration of the dungeon flows as we will see in future installments.