Session 40 - Scene 6 (of 7)

The elf falls nearly twenty feet down into a dark room below.  Using his natural acrobatic ability, he manages to roll with the fall and avoids injuring himself.

Krolec finds himself on a stone floor, inside some kind of room.  He calls up to the others and explains.  

Tiberius takes the sunrod from Sa'lid and tosses it down so Krolec can see where he is.  He finds himself in a tall, long room with murals painted to either side of him.

One side shows scenes of birth, childhood, and young adulthood with a glowing sun in the background.  The other side shows scenes of middle age, old age, and death with a sliver of a moon in the background.

Once Krolec has yelled up his description to the others, Leigh believes she can identify his location as an area known as the Chamber of Twilight inside the Temple of Light and Darkness.

As the eladrin explains what she knows to Krolec down below, he spots something else strange – two holes in the center of either mural that appear to be settings for some kind of stone.  He tells Leigh about them.

Up above, Leigh recalls the legend of two magical stones known as the stone of light and the stone of darkness.  They were said to be the keys to revealing a source of ancient, hidden knowledge.

Because of the partial collapse of the passageway, it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the group to continue down to the lower catacombs using it.  They decide instead to head down to the underground temple, as Leigh's map shows an entrance from it down into the catacombs.

Tiberius goes to use his rope to lower everyone down, realizing quickly there is nothing to attach it to and that no one in the group carries pitons or other climbing gear.

Leigh and Sa'lid, however, point out they each possess abilities to easily head down to the ground magically.  After everyone else uses the rope they are holding to climb down, Leigh teleports herself to the room below while Sa'lid uses his sorcery to float himself and Snarg down.

The wizard begins looking around the room for the stones that go inside the settings on the mural walls, but does not find them in the room.  Meanwhile, Krolec carefully clears the room and the steps beyond of any traps.

The room exits into a set of stairs that go up to a short landing then back down again.  Krolec wonders to himself if the purpose is to keep light out of the room.

As he reaches the bottom of the stairs and heads into the intersecting chamber beyond, the ranger is horrified to discover, too late, that he has failed to notice a large pit trap.

Krolec falls hard into the pit below, skewering himself on poisoned spikes.  Tiberius also notices too late, and falls in after him.  Worse, the fall breaks the warlord's vials of alchemical fire – filling the pit with a fiery explosion.

Session 40 - Scene 7 (of 7)

Down in the pit, Krolec tries to catch his breath as he fails to put out the flames engulfing him and fails to fight off the poison surging through his veins.

Things go from bad to worse very quickly.  Two gargoyles appear from one of the side passages and fly down into the pit.  They tear into Tiberius then fly back out, leaving his heavily bleeding body lying on the pit floor.

From her vantage point, Leigh can see the two gargoyles.  She blasts them with a fireball.

Sage moves up towards the pit.  She attempts to attack the creatures with a beacon of hope, but fails to affect them.  She does manage to heal Krolec and Tiberius, however, even giving Krolec extra health with her healing word.

The minor healing spell on Tiberius is not enough to keep him up as flames and poison continue to affect him.  He falls back onto the spikes, unconscious, injuring himself further.

As the warlord slips towards death, Durmindin advances closer to the pit and calls forth his spirit companion.  Using a healing spirit, he stabilizes Tiberius.

Sa'lid then uses his magic to allow Tiberius to fly a short distance.  To the sorcerer's horror, the warlord elects to charge at the gargoyles rather than fly to a safe position.  The gargoyles respond by tearing into him again, once again sending his bloodied body to the floor.

Down in the pit, Krolec manages to put out the flames on himself and recovers from the poison.  Leigh then uses a jump spell to allow him to leap out of the pit.  The wizard then activates her fire shield for protection, and blasts into the gargoyles with an acid arrow.

Sage uses a healing word to stabilize Tiberius yet again.  She then attempts to jump across the pit to charge at the gargoyles.  But because she does not get enough of a running start, her jump falls short and she falls into the pit, becoming impaled on the spikes.

Tiberius, on his own, stands up before the gargoyles and uses his stand the fallen maneuver.  He attempts to follow it up with a bastion of defense, but fails.  Finally, he calls out an inspiring word to Sage.

Back across the pit, Durmindin casts his spirit of the healing wind spell to get Tiberius healed further, and blinds one of the gargoyles.

Sa'lid and Krolec, however, elect to stay on the offense.  Sa'lid misses with his explosive pyre spell, but Krolec's hawk's talon shot on the blinded gargoyle kills it.

The remaining gargoyle grabs onto Tiberius, flies over to the pit, and hurls him down on to the spikes again.  Leigh responds by blasting the creature with a fire burst.

Sage uses the uplifting winds created by the shaman's spell to get out of the pit.  She moves over to the gargoyle and attacks with a hallowed advance, but fails to penetrate the creature's armor.  Her magic also allows Tiberius to teleport to the creature and attack with his axe, but he has no better luck.

Enraged, Tiberius grabs on to the gargoyle.  He tries to drag the creature over to the pit, but fails to move it.  The monster then crumbles to dust in his arms as Durmindin finishes it off with another of his spells.

Badly bloodied and bruised, the group elects to head back up to the sewers and go home to rest, using the reverse of the technique they used to get down into the temple.  

Krolec notes that yet again the wight will have to wait, as they will need to clear out the temple first.

Session 40 - Session Notes

This session got in a good mix of character interaction and exploration.

I'll start with the Tiberius situation.  I presented the problem (Tiberius could be in trouble with the law) and left it open to see what Tiberius would do.  I was somewhat surprised he went for the "throw myself on the mercy of the court" route.  I was kind of hoping for a more Vic Mackey type solution to the problem.  But hope springs eternal, as the player has indicated Tiberius is quite bitter about his punishment and says he's still considering an "Anakin Skywalker" character arc (hopefully with less petulent whining ).

For the interaction scenes, I let the Challa player play out Challa again.  I figured it made the most sense.  Much laughter was had over Tiberius' punishments (though those were my ideas to the Challa player as "appropriate punishments" when she consulted the case law, as it were).

I was also kind of hoping someone in the group would follow up on Tiberius' obvious discomfort, but no one did.  The closest it came was when the Krolec player started whining when he found out he wasn't paying attention when it was decided Tiberius and Sa'lid headed off by themselves.

Next came the exploration.  Krolec's original journey didn't include the Temple of Light and Darkness because I hadn't invented it yet then.  So, this time, I had them go there first - in due to no small part that I hadn't yet gotten around to planning the lower catacombs out (silly me - I expected the PCs to be semi-rational and go one dungeon layer at a time instead of obsessively focusing on a single creature several layers down for no motivational reason whatsoever).

The alchemical fire explosion in the pit was a nice touch that was not my idea.  Once Tiberius fell in, his player asked, "what about the fire?"  So I let him make a saving throw.  He failed.  Hilarity ensued (at least, for me).

The gargoyles weren't orginally scheduled to show up at that point, but I figured the explosion should produce some activity.  Besides, I knew the group would wuss out again and run back home the second they encountered any injury so I figured I'd at least make it challenging.  All I'll say again is that despite doubling the damage from everything, I still barely made a dent in the group's ability to keep fighting.

Unfortunately, there was one incident during the battle that marred the fun a little, and frankly I'm still annoyed by it.  When Sage fell into the pit, the Krolec player started whining again, this time about how she should have been able to make a running start (even though she didn't).  Even the Sage player didn't know what he was on about.  

I lost my temper a little at the point where he started making a big deal about looking up the precise rules for jumping and informed him that it didn't matter because whatever happened already happened.  He started arguing about being able to disagree so I told him when he runs a game he can do it any way he likes.  I won't stand for any rule arguments when I run a game.  When he runs games he lets players argue every little rule and you end up with our 3e campaign where an entire session was wasted arguing about the wall of force spell.

Interlude - Cast of Characters

Vector - Human Wizard
Brandis - Human Paladin
Ragdar - Human Warlock
Berend - Dwarf Cleric
Saxton - Dwarf Fighter
Goldar the Mighty - Goliath Barbarian
Medrash - Dragonborn Warlord

and introducing...

Aaron - Deva Invoker

Interlude - Scene 1 (of 10)

Two months ago...

With the Riverdown slaves rescued from the evil duergar, Vector spends the next few days leading his group back to the Harkenwold area where they claim their 500 gold in rewards; all except for Medrash, who elects to stay behind in Thunderspire.  

They quickly find, however, that the reward is exceeded by the cost to resurrect Berend.  After some brief negotiation, the clergy in Harkenwold agree to perform the ritual in exchange for the 500 gold so the whole adventure has more or less broken even for them.

Once Berend has been raised from the dead, he spends some time in prayer and communion.  The rest of the group are more inclined for rest and relaxation.  Saxton decides he'll spend his time in one of the local taverns.

Inside the bar, Saxton is shocked to see Ragdar, who disappeared a week previously while out scouting inside the Thunderspire labyrinths.  Ragdar explains that he could not find the group once he returned from scouting, so headed back home to Harkenwold to wait for them.

As Saxton is explaining about what happened with the duergar and their new search for the Well of Demons, another patron overhears the conversation.  A male deva approaches them and introduces himself as Aaron.  He is interested in joining them on their quest for treasure and glory and Saxton invites him to join along.

Interlude - Scene 2 (of 10)

After a few more days of resting and gathering supplies, the group heads back out to Thunderspire.  Saxton wishes to return to the Horned Hold to claim it as their own, but Vector is more concerned with finding the duergar chieftain, Murkelmor, and the Well of Demons, so they stop at the Seven-Pillar Hall first.

Vector spends half a day traveling around the underground city asking around about the Well of Demons, but has no luck.  Goldar has no better as he hangs around the local bars.

Brandis, however, fares better.  He is met by the kobold informant, Charrak.  Charrak explains that he has been paid to deliver a note to them.  After he hands over the scroll, the kobold puts out his hand to suggest a tip is desired.  Brandis tips him a few gold coins.

One Charrak leaves, Brandis opens the letter and reads it.  It is unsigned, but the sender says he has information for the group about finding the Well of Demons and asks them to meet him at a secret location.  A small map accompanies the message, detailing where the meet location is.

When the paladin returns to the group, he reads the note to the others.  Ragdar sarcastically suggests he believes this may be the lead they were looking for.

Interlude - Scene 3 (of 10)

The map takes the group along one of the many labyrinth paths heading out of the Seven Pillar Hall, eventually leading to a large cavern area.  The cavern is dark and has a high ledge all around it.  There are also several large boulders.  The group does not, however, see anyone waiting for them.

Despite being assigned to be the rear guard, Goldar decides he will move ahead of the group and step into the cavern.  Vector, meanwhile, stays back, wanting to get a better look around first.

The wizard casts a light spell to illuminate the cavern.  As he does so, a large bronze statue of a minotaur can be seen hiding behind one of the large boulders.

The statue begins to move, heading straight over to Goldar.  With a wide swing of its mighty axe, it cuts into Goldar and Brandis, knocking them both to the ground.

Aaron immediately uses his divine powers to rebuke the creature then blasts it with lightning.  Berend tries to assist with his sacred flame, but misses.

From the rear of the group, left unprotected by Goldar, two tieflings emerge carrying swords.  They immediately attack Berend.

On the ledge surrounding the cavern, two more tieflings emerge out of the shadows at different spots.  They use wands to fire off bolts of balefire, striking Vector.

Ragdar decides to help Berend fend off the tieflings from the rear.  He uses his warlock's curse then tries to blast them with one of his spells, but misses.

Saxton decides to head back to the rear as well.  He lashes out at one of the tieflings with brute force.  He misses with his first strike, but cuts into the creature with a second one.

Brandis, meanwhile, stays focused on the bronze minotaur in front of him.  He stands himself up, challenges the minotaur, but misses with his martyr's retribution.

Goldar also picks himself up and summons forth his thunder hooves rage.  He charges into the beast, chopping into it while growling savagely.  He follows it up with another attack, sending a chunk of bronze flying across the room.

Vector, still on fire, becomes enraged as well.  Using his wizard's fury spell, he blasts one of the tieflings on the ledge twice with his magic missile.

The statue strikes back at the two men, sending them both to the ground as well.  Aaron uses his memory of a thousand lifetimes to call down a crown of retaliation.  He then blasts the monster with blades of astral fire.

In the back, Berend steps away from the tieflings attacking him so he can get within healing range.  He then uses a beacon of hope to allow everyone to recover.  He also takes a moment to recover himself and then casts his healing word on Brandis.

With Berend out of reach, the tieflings strike out at Saxton, cutting into him with their swords.  The other tieflings on the ledge blast Vector again with more fire.

Ragdar tries to help out Saxton with his shared agony curse, but fails.  Saxton himself doesn't have any better luck, failing to overcome the tiefling's defenses.  Angered by his failure, he works himself up to become an unstoppable force.

Nearby, Brandis stands himself up and lays hands on Goldar to heal him.  He then attempts to attack the bronze monster, but his attacks cannot cut through the creature's thick armor.  Goldar has better luck, striking into the statue again.

Turning away from the tieflings blasting him, Vector uses horror whispers to knock the minotaur down.  He then turns back and blasts a tiefling with his magic missile.

Getting up, the statue strikes out and knocks Goldar and Brandis to the ground again.

Aaron then uses a divine favor to call down a star fall, blasting the creature and sending it to the ground again.  A cloud of smoke emerges from the scarred ground.

Berend uses his healing powers to allow Goldar and Brandis to recover.  

Nearby, Vector is hit again by the tieflings.  His charred body falls to the ground, still on fire.  In the back, Saxton fends off the tieflings attacking him.

Ragdar's attempts to curse the tieflings fails again.  Saxton has better luck, cutting deep into one of them.

Back in the front of the group, Brandis moves over to lay hands on Vector.  He then strikes deep into the bronze statue.  The creature collapses to the ground, dead.

Goldar, disappointed he could not make the kill, rushes back towards the tiefling fighters.  Using the power of his rage, he strikes hard into one of them.

Vector gets up off the ground and blasts out with his magic missile at the tieflings, but misses.  Aaron, however, hits one with his sunhammer spell, killing it.  The other one blasts Vector again, sending him back to the ground unconscious.  Ragdar tries to counter attack with an eldritch blast but misses.

Berend attempts to assist against the tieflings at the cavern entrance with an exacting utterance, but fails.  Nearby, the tieflings cut into Goldar and Saxton.

Saxton strikes back with a crack the shell maneuver.  Goldar follows it up with a move that chops both tieflings in half, killing them instantly.

Brandis lays hands on Vector again, allowing him to recover.  He gets up and finishes off the remaining tiefling with another of his magic missiles.

Interlude - Scene 4 (of 10)

With the battle over, Goldar begins searching through the bodies of the dead tieflings.  He finds an amulet and a pouch.  Berend searches the cavern itself, but finds nothing.

Vector takes a closer look at the amulet, deducing it was a control device for the minotaur statue.  He then looks inside the pouch and finds three scrolls.  

After making sure they are not magical, the wizard opens the first scroll.  It appears to be a message from someone named Paldemar to their would-be assassins.  It warns the tieflings that Vector's group may cause trouble for Paldemar and must be eliminated.  He wants the bodies taken to the Well of Demons and presented to the gnolls there along with one of the other scrolls.

The second scroll appears to be the message from Paldemar to the gnolls, giving them the dead bodies of Vector's group as an offering to their demon god, Yeenoghu.  The last scroll is a map leading to the location of the Well of Demons.

After a brief discussion, the group decides to leave the dead tiefling bodies in the cavern and head back to town.  Berend and Brandis pause to give prayers before leaving.

When they get back to the Seven Pillar Hall, Vector believes there first order of business is to get cash so they can get a room to rest.  Looking around for a shop, Vector tries to sell the demon idol statue they found in the Horned Hold.

To his dismay, Vector finds the old man dismisses the statue as an "imitation reproduction" and offers only 10 copper pieces.  Vector leaves in disgust and tosses the statue away.

Berend, believing the man simply was trying to barter, takes the statue and heads back into the shop with Goldar.  After briefly haggling, the man offers 30 silver pieces.  But Berend can tell he is still holding out.  After having Goldar intimidate the man and demand the fair value for the statue, they finally receive 50 gold.

Vector, however, isn't exactly thrilled at the sale.  Not only does he believe they were still cheated, he's certain that rooms at the local inn will cost far in excess of that.  Berend disagrees.

However, once the group actually locates the inn, they find the prices to be quite reasonable.  Vector's mood is not improved by Berend proving him wrong again.

Interlude - Scene 5 (of 10)

The group heads out early the next morning, using the new map to locate the Well of Demons.  Along the way, they bump into their old companion Medrash, who decides to accompany them to the gnoll lair.

Arriving at the entrance to the underground palace, the group finds the doorway open into an entrance chamber.  The room appears to be a large hall with several columns.  Some distance inside appears to be a large well.  The group wonders if that well is the titular "Well of Demons".  Several passages head off from the main chamber.

Ragdar decides to move ahead, but only a little, to get a better look.  Aaron steps into the hall and begins looking around carefully but does not spot anything dangerous.  Berend cautiously holds back, sensing imminent danger.

Just then, two cavern chokers drop down from the ceiling and a ghoul comes out from behind a nearby column.  They all attack Aaron, wounding him viciously.

Goldar immediately sprints into action.  Charging forward, he cuts the ghoul's head off.  Berend follows behind him, using a healing spell to allow Aaron to recover.

Remembering the folly of their last battle, Saxton stays firmly in his position at rear guard.  Medrash moves forward to assist in the battle.

Vector then casts an icy terrain spell, causing one of the cavern chokers to fall over and take Aaron with him.

Brandis, standing next to Goldar, strikes one of the chokers with an invigorating smite.  Ragdar follows it up with an eldritch blast, killing the creature.

As Aaron breaks free of the immobilizing effect of the ghoul's claws and being grabbed by the choker, the remaining choker begins to run.

Goldar immediately charges after the creature.  After running the monster through with his massive sword, Goldar finds himself suddenly grabbed by large tentacles emerging from the well.

Berend moves up and attempts to blast the tentacles with his daunting light, but fails.  Vector has better luck with a scorching burst.

Medrash advances to help along with Brandis.  Brandis attempts to chop at the tentacles with his divine strength, but misses.  Ragdar and Aaron have no better luck, each missing with their own attacks.

Suddenly, two more ghouls emerge from behind pillars at the far edge of the room.

Goldar manages to throw off the tentacles grasping him, using his mighty strength.  They instead move over and grab Brandis.

Berend moves closer to Brandis.  He attempts to assist with a lance of faith spell, but misses.  With the rear safe, Saxton moves in closer as well.

Another scorching burst spell from Vector hits the tentacles, blasting the nearby ghoul and well.  Medrash moves into flanking position on the ghoul and cuts into it with his viper's strike.

As Brandis fails to get out of the tentacles holding him, Ragdar fails with another of his curses.  

Aaron moves up into position to assault the ghouls.  He calls forth his power to rebuke undead, but cannot overcome the evil power of the undead creatures.

Instead, the ghouls claw and bite into Brandis, causing him to fall unconscious.  As Goldar moves in and strikes one of the ghouls, the tentacles draw Brandis down into the well.  A sickening crunching sound can be heard echoing throughout the room as the paladin is devoured by an unseen monster.

Pressing on, Berend tries to blast a ghoul with his lance of faith, but misses yet again.  Vector's magic missile attack fares no better.  

Saxton has better luck as he charges into one with his axe.  Medrash follows up with a blast of his dragon breath, hitting both creatures.

Aaron and Ragdar, however, still have issues attacking and cannot get their spells to work on the undead monsters.  Goldar decides to take the direct approach, cutting down the two ghouls in quick succession with his sword.

But just as he celebrates his victory, the tentacles re-emerge and grab Goldar again.

Saxton tries to cut at the tentacles with his axe, but can't penetrate their thick scales.  Medrash moves in as well, striking into the monster with a diabolic stratagem.

From a ways back, Vector blasts one with his magic missile.  Ragdar follows it up with his eldritch blast.

Goldar then frees himself by cutting the tentacle in half.  The remaining part of the tentacle heads back down into the well.

Interlude - Scene 6 (of 10)

Saxton heads over to the well to check it out.  The hole is 30 feet deep and some sort of creature appears to sit below, having bled to death.

Upset about the loss of Brandis, Saxton chastises Goldar yet again for using bad tactics and endangering the group.

The goliath decides he is fed up with being insulted and charges at Saxton, intending to push him over the ledge into the well.  Aaron, however, quickly casts a spell to give off a flash of light distracting Goldar, and he crashes down into the well himself instead.

Feeling the barbarian got what he deserved, Saxton makes a point of urinating on him.  Berend shakes his head in disgust at the whole situation.

Down below, Goldar ignores Saxton's further insults and focuses on trying to recover something of Brandis from the creature's stomach.  Cutting the monster open, he finds himself splashed with acid.

Gold continues exposing his skin to burning acid as he digs through the creature's stomach contents.  He finally finds something that looks like it could be a human jawbone.  Using his awesome leaping abilities, he jumps himself out of the pit.

Rather than congratulating him for finding part of Brandis (or what is assumed to be), the group admonishes the barbarian for his behavior.  Berend in particular warns the warrior that he cannot behave that way and remain part of the group.

Rather than head further in to danger, the group elects to go back to the Seven Pillar Hall and have Brandis resurrected.

Interlude - Scene 7 (of 10)

Back in the main city area under Thunderspire, the group eventually locates a place called the Temple of Hidden Light where a priestess of Erathis named Phalledra, agrees to raise Brandis from the dead for 500 gold.  

To pay the fee, Vector gives her 600 gold worth of gems.  While Vector believes that gaining favor with the temple could be important, Saxton insults the wizard for wasting money.

The ritual to raise Brandis is long and difficult, but eventually the paladin is returned to life.  Because all of his equipment was lost, more gems must be sold to re-equip him for battle.

Saxton wants to take the opportunity to look for their "good friend" Charrak, but Vector suggests they stay focused on the task at hand.

Interlude - Scene 8 (of 10)

Once again, the group find themselves at the Well of Demons.  They decide to head down one of the side passages, passing through a set of double doors.  They find a long hall with a kennel of jackals sitting at the end, with a couple of side passages along the way.  The kennel appears open.

Goldar decides to move ahead first.  Aaron moves up behind him.  Vector and Brandis carefully move up as well.

Just then, a gnoll emerges from the farther of the side passages.  Yelling out, he draws his bow and fires a shot into Goldar.  Another gnoll huntmaster emerges behind him.

Saxton charges ahead, cutting into the gnoll with his axe.  Medrash follows behind him but does not reach an enemy.  Berend moves over to Goldar, ready to assist with healing.

From the other side passage, two gnoll soldiers move into the hall and stab at Berend and Goldar with their spears.

The jackals spring into action as well.  Quickly running down the hall, they charge into Saxton and begin biting at him.

Aaron uses his magic to create a flash of light, allowing Saxton to step back out of danger.

From the rear, Ragdar places a warlock's curse on one of the gnolls then hits it with an eldritch blast.  Vector follows with a magic missile.

Goldar becomes enraged, charging past the two soldier with his thunderhooves rage.  From behind them, he cuts into the back of one of the gnolls, killing it.  Brandis strikes into the other with his sword.

Aaron shouts at Saxton and Medrash to move out of the main hall as he prepares his mighty trumpet spell.  They follow his orders.  The invoker's spell then blasts a number of hyenas and the gnoll archers, killing one of them.

The remaining gnoll soldier stabs Goldar again.  Berend uses a healing spell to allow the barbarian to recover.

The pack of hyenas disperses towards their targets.  Goldar fends one off while others bite into Medrash and Saxton.

Ragdar tries to take out the gnoll soldier with an eldritch blast, but the creature ducks out of the way.  It cannot, however, avoid Goldar's blade, which cuts through its neck, spraying the hall with blood.

Vector and Aaron use a pair of spells to blast away at the hyenas, killing all of them.  Brandis then charges the remaining archer and stabs it in the heart with his sword.

Interlude - Scene 9 (of 10)

With the battle over, Vector checks the gnoll bodies for treasure, but finds nothing.  Nor do the dogs have any luck.

Medrash, however, decides to look through the kennel area.  Under some straw, he finds an old cloak that appears to be in strangely good condition.  Vector identifies it as a cloak of resistance.

The closer of the two halls appears to be a small mess hall.  Berend doesn't think its worth looking at, but Vector heads in anyway.  On one of the tables he finds some dice and a small amount of gold the soldiers were gambling over.

The other passageway out of the hall appears to be the bunk room for the gnolls.  Brandis elects to check it, but finds nothing.

The group decides to press on, going back down one of the other halls.  They follow a large curving hallway that splits off into a couple of doors and another hall.

Saxton quietly checks the first door.  Inside he spots some gnoll soldiers and a dire boar.  He quietly closes the door.

The fighter tries to convince the others that he should go in alone, but they feel it would be suicide.  Instead, they come up with a plan to kick at the door and try to lure the gnolls out.

Interlude - Scene 10 (of 10)

Saxton kicks at the door and one of the gnolls emerges.  He quickly yells to the others and stabs at Saxton with his spear.  Goldar responds by flying into a rage and attacking back.

Brandis moves up to assist, stabbing at the gnolls.  Saxton then strikes back himself, hitting with a brash strike.

Aaron follows it up with a spell that blasts three of them.  Vector hits two of them, as well as the boar, with a shock sphere.

At the far end of the hall, some gnoll archers emerge and fire their arrows into Brandis.

Just then, a gnoll demon scourge emerges from the side hall passage wielding a massive flail.  He firmly strikes into Ragdar, sending the warlock crashing to the ground.

Berend moves to quickly heal his companion.  He then tries to slow down the demon warrior with a lance of faith, but misses.

Recovered, Ragdar gets to his feet and curses the scourge.  He then attempts to use a cursebite spell on the monster, but the gnoll is too powerful.

The gnoll soldiers press the attack, stabbing Brandis multiple times and injuring Saxton to the point of falling unconscious.  As the dwarf lies in a pool of his own blood, Medrash moves up to the demon scourge, but fails to get past his defenses.

Goldar lets loose with a mighty avalanche strike, cleaving one of the gnolls in half.  Brandis misses with his attack, but is able to heal Saxton by laying hands of the dwarf.

To the fighter's horror, a large barluga demon emerges from the hall behind the group, cutting off their escape.  The adventurers are now surrounded.  With a mighty strike, the demon crushes Saxton into a bloody smear on the floor.

Aaron reacts quickly, casting a crown of retaliation on the demon and moving Ragdar back out of danger.  He then attacks the gnolls with a sunhammer spell that crushes one of their skulls.

Vector decides to step back from the approaching barluga, summons his wizard's fury, and blasts the creature.

Meanwhile, on the far end of the hall, the demon scourge gnoll lashes into Medrash.

Berend takes a moment to recover his own breath then tries to slow the demon scourge down, but his spell fails.

Ragdar focuses his attention on the large demon.  He misses with his fury spell, but hits with his flames.

Arrows fly from the far end of the hall, impaling Medrash.  The dragonborn collapses to the ground.

The gnoll warriors continue to attack Goldar, stabbing him again.  Goldar strikes back at one of them with his mighty sword.  Aaron follows it up with a blast of astral fire.

Brandis tries to slow the assault of the barluga, hitting it once with a powerful attack from his sword but failing with a second attack.  The demon strikes him back with a powerful blow of his own.

It is Vector, however, who ultimately slays the large beast with his magic missiles.

Meanwhile, the demon scourge gnoll strikes Brandis again.  Berend tries to assist with an exacting utterance, but fails.  Just then, three arrows strike into him, sending his dead body to the ground.

Ragdar is able to blast the scourge with his eldritch blast as Medrash's unconscious body holds on to life nearby.  

At the other part of the hallway, the remaining gnoll soldiers strike out at Goldar, piercing him once.  He responds by cutting off one of their heads.

Brandis is forced to lay hands on himself to stay in battle then strikes back at the monster in front of him.  Aaron tries to help with an avenging light spell, but fails to cast it.

Finally getting a clear shot, Vector advances and casts his grasp of grave spell on the gnoll archers, pinning them in place.  It does little to help Brandis, however, as he is pierced by a flurry of arrows and falls unconscious.

Ragdar lets loose another eldritch blast as the demonic scourge works his way towards Aaron.  The creature smashes into the invoker's head with his mighty flail.  Aaron is forced to take a second to recover his senses and steps back.

As Medrash starts to bleed out, Goldar and the remaining gnoll exchange another series of blows.

Vector has more luck with his magic missile, blasting straight through the demon scourge's eye, killing the creature instantly.  He then moves up and blasts two of the archers with a scorching burst.  The archers respond by impaling him with arrows.

Ragdar presses the attack on the archers, blasting away with his eldritch blast as Medrash continues to cover the floor in his blood.

Back on the far end of the hall, Goldar is stabbed once more before he runs the gnoll through with his sword.  He then rushes up and closes the door before the dire boar can approach them.

Meanwhile, Brandis has begun to bleed heavily as Aaron continues to attack the archers.  But Vector is the one to finish them off, knocking them down with his icy terrain and blasting them with magic missiles.  The undead hands of the grave grasp spell ultimately finish the creatures off.

Vector quickly stabilizes the nearby Brandis.  It is too late, however, for Medrash.  He dies from blood loss before anyone can get to him.

With three of their party dead, the group grabs the bodies (or in Saxton's case, what's left of it) and rushes out as they hear more gnolls approaching the area.

Interlude - Session Notes

After several months, I finally got a chance to run another extended session for the alternate group (we ran from around 4 pm to 1 am).  There were several planned sessions before this, but they all fell through at the last minute.

As a consequence, the other group is now about 2 months behind the primary group in the timeline.  But that's not a problem since their stories tend not to overlap anyhow.

As always, I had a blast playing with this group.  A few random observations:

* This is the first session where I went back and changed the monster stats to be in line with the new MM3 scale.  It made the combat much more deadly.

* These players play so rarely they don't really utilize their characters to much advantage.

* Myself and the Goldar player (the kid) both rolled a lot of good rolls.  Everyone else, not so much.

Finally, everyone gave the Goldar player a hard time for abandoning the rear guard position (an incredibly stupid position for the barbarian to be in, BTW) and yet nearly had a TPK in the last battle because they knowingly placed themselves in a hall where enemies could (and did) come at them from four different directions.


The barbarian thing reminds me that sometimes players can be rather dense about the whole "class role" thing.  Even though the book explicitly explains Defender, Striker, etc - they still don't really get it.

For example, both the Vector player here, and the Leigh player in the main group, as often as not try to be a striker rather than focusing on AoE spells.  I constantly get complaints that they don't think they do enough damage - while failing to get that they aren't supposed to be the heavy damage dealers.

For some reason, most strikers with melee weapons are played like defenders.  Or anyone with a melee weapon and halfway decent armor.  For example, it took quite a while for the Krolec player to understand a ranger shouldn't be a front-line fighter, and the other group seems intent to shove Goldar into that role, despite him being a striker.  

Tiberius in the main group is another one - he's a leader but for some reason the group doesn't get that.  Meanwhile, they don't consider Scrag a defender because he "only wears hide".

And then they wonder why some battles really don't go their way.