Session 47 - Scene 3 (of 7)

Yet another hour or so passes in the tense environment of the armory when Sage and Scrag both hear the alarm go off again.  This time, Scrag spots two battle wights coming up the stairs.

Scrag remains hidden back in the shadows as the wights walk nearby and head towards the illuminated room.  As one passes him, he strikes into its back with his axe.  The two wights respond by slicing into the half-orc with their swords, further draining his life force.

Sensing the danger, Scrag changes into his panther form, strikes out at one of the wights, and then retreats back to safety.

Sage yells out loudly to wake the group then strikes into the wight nearest her using her strength of the faithful.

Everyone but Sa'lid and Snarg hear the commotion and awaken.  Krolec stands up and moves himself into a position to fire with his bow.  Leigh similarly positions herself, ready to fire off a spell.

As one of the wights collapses from the gaping wound left by Scrag's axe, the other attempts to attack Sage.  Reacting quickly, Scrag uses his warden's grasp to push the creature back.

Scrag stays back to let the others handle the wight from range.  

Durmindin uses his spirit companion to slam the wight with a spirit renewal strike while Krolec uses a hawk's talon maneuver to fire an arrow into the creature.  Sage follows up the assault with her sacred flame.

Pinned back, the battle wight strikes out at the spirit companion, vaporizing it.  Durmindin shudders in pain at the forced dispel.

Leigh then blasts the wight with her magic missile.  Scrag then moves up and finishes the wight off with an earthgrasp strike.

Everyone heads back to bed, wondering if staying in the room is the best plan.

Session 47 - Scene 4 (of 7)

After another couple of hours pass uneventfully, Leigh, Durmindin, and Krolec are all recovered.  Sage elects to stay up with them while Scrag goes to rest.

Nearly another hour passes after the changing of the guard when the group hears more disturbances of their rusty metal alarm.

Krolec decides to take the scout position this time.  He moves up into the shadows of the hallway, where he spots two more battle wights coming up the stairs.

Everyone stays back and prepares to attack the wights when they come into view.  Durmindin with a wrath of winter, Sage with a charge, and Krolec with his arrows.

Leigh, however, wants to get into position before anyone else can get in her way.  She moves over and blasts the two wights with a fireburst.

The wights begin moving towards Leigh.  Krolec misses with his hawk's talon shot as does Durmindin with his wrath of winter spell.  Sage likewise finds her charge blocked by a wight's shield.

Striking at Leigh with their swords, the wights score a hit.  Leigh responds by blasting the creatures with a burning hands spell.

Durmindin tries to assist using a thunder bear's warning, but his spell is no more successful than his wrath of winter attempt.  Sage likewise is fended off when she attempts to hit one of them with a healing strike.

Krolec has better luck, hitting one of the creatures with his shadow wasp strike.

The wights attack again, hitting both Leigh and Sage.

Durmindin attempts to attack back, but his wrath of winter spell again proves ineffective.  Sage fares better with her strengthen the faithful attack.

Leigh blasts one of the wights with a magic missile while Krolec shifts into position.  The ranger attempts to hit one of the wights with his ranger's recovery attack, but misses.

The wights press their attack, missing Leigh but hitting Sage.  Durmindin tries to strike back, but his wrath of winter spell continues to fail him.

Taking matters into her own hands, Sage smashes through the skull of the wight in front of her.  Leigh blasts the remaining wight with her magic missile.

Krolec tries to follow up the assault with an evasive strike, but misses.

The remaining wight turns and attacks Sage, cutting into her with its sword.  Sage is forced to forgo a counterattack in favor of using a cure serious wounds spell on herself.

Durmindin tries to finish off the wight with a protecting strike from his spirit companion, but fails.  Leigh, however, performs the kill with a magic missile.

Badly injured from the attacks, Sage announces her intention to go rest; something she had hoped to avoid.  Sa'lid and Snarg, however, are recovered enough to help the others stand guard.

Session 47 - Scene 5 (of 7)

Several hours pass before there are any more disturbances.  When new noises are heard, Krolec once again goes to investigate.

He spots two wights coming up the stairs, but can hear another coming behind them.  He runs back and alerts the others there are three wights this time.

Scrag moves up into position while Krolec prepares an evasive strike.  Durmindin readies himself to summon forth his spirit companion, while Sa'lid prepares a blazing starfall spell.

When the wights emerge, everyone attacks.  Krolec misses with his shot, as does Sa'lid.  Durmindin is able to summon his spirit companion, but the wights immediately cut it down.

Scrag rushes ahead and attempts to attack with a thunder ram assault, but misses.  Krolec has no better luck with his hawk's talon, and Durmindin once again fails with his protecting strike.  Keeping consistent with the rest of the group, Sa'lid fails with his explosive pyre spell.

Luckily for the group, the wights are not able to make an effective assault either.

Scrag decides to attack with his thornburst power, hitting the wights.  Krolec tries to follow up with a shadow wasp strike, but misses.

Durmindin uses a thunder bear's warning spell, but fails.  As does Sa'lid misses with his blazing starfall spell.

The wights cut into Scrag.  He attacks back with an earthgrasp strike.  Krolec follows up the assault by hitting the wight with one of his twin strike shots.

Durmindin calls for his spirit companion to make another protecting strike.  To his surprise, the spirit actually hits the wight.  Sa'lid, however, misses with his energy strobe spell.

The wights press their attacks against Scrag, but he fends them off.  Scrag strikes one of them back with an earthshield strike.

Krolec tries to follow up the assault with a twin strike, but neither shot finds it mark.  Durmindin, however, kills one of the wights with another protecting strike.

Sa'lid blasts one of the remaining wights with a fiery energy strobe.  The wights respond by cutting deeply into Scrag with their swords.

Scrag strikes back with his axe, cutting down another of the wights.

Krolec misses with another couple of shots as Durmindin's spirit companion connects again.  Sa'lid follows up with a lightning blast from his energy strobe.

The remaining wight attacks at Scrag, but the warden fends him off.  Scrag's counterattack also misses.

Durmindin presses with his attack on the wight, as Krolec misses with yet another pair of shots.  Sa'lid's energy strobe hits as well, blasting the creature with a thunderous hit.

Scrag and the wight continue to trade attacks, each parrying the other.  

With Krolec and Durmindin both missing with their attacks again, Sa'lid blasts the wight into a pile of ashes with another fiery energy strobe.

Everyone moves back into position, hoping no more wights appear.  Krolec is not happy that the wights appear to be increasing in number.

Session 47 - Scene 6 (of 7)

Against all expectations, no more wights appear before Sage has a chance to finish resting.

The decision is made to head out now rather than risk waiting any longer.  Leigh suggests the only way out may be to advance room by room.  Krolec is hopeful they’ve eliminated a fair amount of the wights in the temple.

Heading down the passageway, Krolec is very careful to make sure they don’t encounter any more traps.  They reach an area where there is a small alcove off to one side and a room on the other.  Leigh’s map identifies the room as the Tomb of Kings.

Sage and Krolec examine the alcove carefully.  There appear to be some bodies of warrior guardians missing from crypts in it, but nothing dangerous.  Krolec believes the missing bodies were some of the wights that attacked them during their resting.

After Leigh confirms there is nothing magical about the alcove area and Sage finds nothing hidden there, the group turns its attention to the room.

Krolec examines the room carefully from the doorway.  He can see that the doorway has a slot in the top where a door could fall down from.  He also notices the floor could have pressure plates inside.

Inside the room appears to be filled with three fancy crypts – each for a king.  The tombs appear to have different markings – one with a diamond, one with a heart, and one with a club.

As Sage looks around for a hidden panel outside the room that would contain any kind of switch, Krolec slowly advances into the room to find exactly where the pressure plates are.

Once he finds them, and Sage fails to find any switches, the group decides to set off the trap from outside the room.  Scrag grabs a large chunk of stone from one of the broken crypts in the alcove and throws it inside.

As soon as the stone hits the pressure plate in the floor, a large stone door slams down.  The door has writing on it saying, “Beware the Wrath of Kings”.

Session 47 - Scene 7 (of 7)

With the room sealed off and presumably safe, the group continues on.  After making sure the intersection is clear, Leigh and Krolec decide to head south towards the Altar of Darkness room to clear it out and rest.

As the group heads down the hallway, Sa'lid questions the group's decision to head towards the altar of darkness, believing it would have been safer to head to the exit out the Chamber of Twilight.  

Leigh and Krolec, however, argue that they have no idea how dangerous it will be to fight out through the rest of the temple to get to the exit and need another safe area to rest as well as not wanting to have any potential threats from the rear.   Besides, Krolec points out, their goal is to clear the temple.

As they head down the hall, symbols of the Raven Queen adorn the walls.  Leigh confirms, however, they are not magical in nature.

Up ahead, the group approaches the large antechamber before the altar of darkness.  Inside, the group sees a group of four deathlock wights.

Krolec knows this fight will be very dangerous, and that's not even including the threats at the actual altar that lies in the room beyond.  As they ready for battle, everyone wonders if Sa'lid was right after all...

Session 47 - Session Notes

This session went pretty well overall, even if I wasn't sure they were ever going to leave that first room.  I didn't want to give them a free pass to rest, but I didn't want to railroad them out of it either, so I basically came up with a quick system on the fly to keep up the tension.  I'd make a d60 roll and count that as the number of minutes that had passed, then make a d6 roll and have wights appear if a 5-6 was rolled.

After trying this out, I remain convinced that small battles against 1-2 creatures are essentially useless.  The only reason things got more dangerous in this case is the ability of the wights to suck down healing surges.

The biggest thing I noted in the session was basically that the group seems to have gotten worse, not better, over time with regard to combat tactics and using their abilities.  They managed to build up 2, 3, or even more action points, but never used them.  The healers kept on the offensive instead of actually healing.  I pretty much had to remind them to use encounter powers as they would refresh each time.

As for their overall strategy, I was with the Sa'lid PC - I have no idea why they think heading down to the altar of darkness makes better sense than heading for the escape route.  Oh well, that will prove to be an interesting fight next time.

The only other thing of note I guess is my Tomb of the Kings trap - which used some Resident Evil-inspired card symbol imagery.  I've noticed traps are their own are becoming more and more of a moot point as the super-high perception rolls make not detecting the traps ahead of time pretty rare.  Granted, they did miss out on some treasure by not entering the room.

Session 48 - Cast of Characters

Scrag Graveborn - Half-Orc Warden
Sir Krolec Jar'Bin - Elven Ranger
Dame Leigh - Eladrin Wizard
Sage - Longtooth Shifter Cleric
Sir Durmindin - Wilden Shaman
Sa'lid Dra'lah - Human Sorcerer

Session 48 - Scene 1 (of

To everyone's chagrin, Scrag charges right at the closest deathlock wight, but fails to his with his earthshield strike.  From back in the doorway, Krolec has no better luck with his hawk's talon shot at the far wight.

Not messing around, Leigh casts her fireball spell, blasting all four of the creatures.  Sa'lid follows it up with a blazing starfall.

The wights closest to Scrag transform into a horrific visage, frightening him, while the other two fire grave bolts at Krolec.  The ranger manages to dodge one but is hit by the other.

Durmindin moves up in the hall to get a look at the wights.  Summoning his spirit companion, he strikes into one of the wights with a protecting strike.  Sage tries to assist with a sacred flame, but misses.

Scrag strikes out at the wight next to him with his axe, cutting into the creature with his strength of stone.

Krolec again fires at the far wight, hitting it with his shadow wasp strike.  Leigh assists by blasting the wights with a fireburst, sending one to the ground in a flaming heap.  

Sa'lid tries to take out the wights on the other side of the room, but his swirling stars spell fails to activate.  The wights respond by blasting at him with gravebolts, but miss him.  The other wight on Scrag lashes out with his claws, but the warden fends him off.

Durmindin uses his spirit companion to attack a wight with a thunder bear's warning.  Sage steps up and attacks another with her sacred flame.

Just then, five evistro carnage demons emerge from the far room.  They immediately rush at Sage, Scrag, and Krolec.  Krolec manages to slip away before they can attack him, but Scrag and Sage both suffer horrendous claw attacks.

Everyone realizes the battle has just gotten much more deadly...

Session 48 - Scene 2 (of

Scrag finishes off the wight in front of him with a thunder ram assault.  The resulting blast also knocks back a couple of the demons.

From back in the hallway, Krolec launches two arrows at one of the demons.  One strikes the target.

Unable to see past the demons blocking the hallway, Leigh elects to knock Sa'lid, Sage, and Scrag to the ground, blasting the demons with her firescythe spell.

Sa'lid picks himself up and blasts the closest demon with his blazing starfall spell.  From behind the demons, the wights respond by blasting at the sorcerer with their grave bolts, hitting him once.

Durmindin moves his spirit companion in front of him for protection.  It lashes out at a demon with a spirit renewal strike, but the creature fends it off.  The spirit has much better luck hitting with a protecting strike.

Greatly concerned about the demons in front of her, Sage calls forth a beacon of hope.  Unfortunately, her faith is only strong enough to affect the two demons on Scrag.  The demons in front of her respond by ripping into her flesh with their claws.  She falls to the ground in a pool of blood.  Scrag likewise takes some injuries, but has the advantage of the demons being weakened from the cleric's prayer.

Scrag picks himself up off the ground and goes into a berserker fury against the demons cutting him off.  He attacks using his manticore shield, blasting several of the demons with its darts.

Krolec fires on the demons blocking the hallway, hitting once.  Leigh decides to avoid them all together by leaping over them using her jump spell.  From behind, she blasts three of the demons and the two wights with a shocking sphere then activates her flame shield.

Sa'lid administers a healing potion to Sage then blasts the nearest demon with his explosive pyre.  Unfortunately, Sage's recovery is short-lived when the demons tear into her and begin eating her entrails.

Things go from bad to worse as the other demons surrounding Scrag cut deeply into him with their claws, sending him into unconsciousness.

Session 48 - Scene 3 (of

With their hopes fading fast, Durmindin calls forth his spirit of autumn reaping spell, blasting one of the demons and healing Scrag.

The demons respond by rending Durmindin's spirit companion apart, injuring Sa'lid, and sending Scrag back into unconsciousness.  But Scrag's superhuman resilience allows him to immediately recover.

Behind the half-orc, Leigh blasts the wights and several demons with her burning hands spell.  She follows it up with an acid arrow that transforms one of the demons into a pile of goo.

Back in the hall, Krolec fires off two more arrows, killing another of the demons.  Sa'lid blasts back another of them with a blast of cold from his rimestorm.

The demons on Scrag turn and rush at Leigh, clawing deeply into her.

With the hall no longer blocked, Durmindin moves up and casts his spirit of the healing flood.  While ineffective against their enemies, it does allow his allies to recover.  He follows it up with a healing spirit for Scrag.

Just as the tide seems to be turning, the wights have other ideas.  Using their death magic, they raise two of the demons from the dead.  Scrag immediately attacks the creatures with his thornburst.  Krolec also attacks the newly-risen demons, hitting once with his arrows.

Trying to get away from the demons, Leigh fey steps over to Scrag.  She then casts a scorching burst on several of the creatures, killing one of the wights.  The remaining wight counterattacks with a grave bolt, but misses.

Sa'lid uses an energy strobe spell at one of the demons, killing it in a fiery blast.  Durmindin tries to follow up by re-summoning his spirit companion and attacking with a spirit of the hawk's wind spell, but the demons resist.

The demons press the attack.  In the hallway, one of the demons claws into Sa'lid.  Next to the hall, Scrag fends off an attack by another.  Near him, the two demons rush across the room and claw into Leigh.  The wizard collapses from the assault.

Scrag summons forth his wilden strength then crushes a demon into a spray of black blood using his earthgrasp strike.  He then moves in to assist Leigh, striking into another of the demons with his axe.  Leigh manages to hold on as she continues to bleed out.

Back n the hall, Krolec uses his elven accuracy to take out the remaining wight with a boar assault.  Sa'lid follows it up by killing a demon with a blast of thunder from his energy strobe.

The hall once again clear, Durmindin moves up and sees Leigh dying.  He helps her by calling a healing spirit to her aid.

The remaining demons focus on Scrag, but he deftly blocks their attacks with his shield then counterstrikes with his axe.  Next to him, Leigh stands up and blasts the demon in front of her with a magic missile.

Using another thunderous blast, Sa'lid blows a demon apart.  Durmindin crushes the other with his spirit companion's attack.

Session 48 - Scene 4 (of

Badly fatigued from battle, everyone takes a moment to rest.  Krolec is worried about the room containing the altar of darkness that lies beyond, but nothing more comes out.

Once he has caught his breath, Krolec slowly approaches the altar room.  Seeing inside, the room appears to be empty and contains an altar to the Raven Queen.

Carefully checking for traps, Krolec makes his way into the adjoining hallway.  Leigh follows behind while the others remain resting in the antechamber.

However, once Krolec actually steps into the altar room itself, a wraith materializes from the altar, heading straight for him.  

The ranger makes a tactical retreat before it can touch him then fires a hawk's talon arrow into it from back in the hall.  Next to him, Leigh uses a fireburst spell to blast the dark spirit.

Hearing the commotion, Durmindin heads over to investigate.  Sa'lid follows him.  Spotting the wraith, the sorcerer casts a cosmos call spell, but it fails to affect the shadow creature.  He then uses a deep shroud to conceal himself and the shaman.

Scrag prefers a more direct approach.  Changing into his panther form, he charges at the wraith.  Unfortunately, the lack of a physical body proves to be difficult for him and his attack is ineffective.  The wraith responds by touching the half-orc; he can feel his soul being drained.

Krolec fires off a flurry of arrows, hitting the creature twice with his adaptive assault and again with a shadow wasp strike.  Leigh assists with a shocking sphere, as does Sa'lid with an explosive pyre.

Durmindin goes on the defensive, using a healing spirit to recover some of Scrag's lost vitality.  Recovered, the warden strikes into the wraith with a furious assault of his thunder step, his magic axe cutting deeply into the ether of the wraith's form.  The wraith responds with another chilling touch to Scrag.  

Krolec decides his arrows may not be effective enough and tosses a vial of holy water at the wraith.  Unfortunately, his aim is off.

Leigh has better luck hitting the creature with her scorching burst.  Durmindin follows it up by summoning his spirit companion, which attacks the wraith with a spirit renewal strike.

Sa'lid calls forth his swirling stars spell.  A flash of light and fire engulfs the area around the wraith, destroying both it and Durmindin's spirit companion.

Session 48 - Scene 5 (of

Glad the battle was not nearly as deadly as the one against the demons and wights, the group takes another moment to recover then looks around the room.

Krolec spots a strange black stone on the altar.  Leigh identifies it as magic; it appears to be the triggering stone meant to be placed inside one of the two slots in the Chamber of Twilight.

Thinking about the map, the wizard surmises the other stone is likely to be found at the Altar of Light, on the far side of the temple.

Behind the altar, Krolec discovers a black axe.  Leigh identifies it as a Lifedrinker Greataxe.  While Scrag is the logical choice to wield the axe, he isn't so sure he wants it as he likes his Battleaxe of Wounding and using his shield.

The magic axe is put into the bag of holding and the rest of the room examined.  Nothing else of interest is found.  The group is particularly disappointed there are no secret exits back to the surface from the room.

As badly injured and fatigued as they are, the group knows they have no choice but to try and rest for the night in the altar room.  The best plan they come up with for protection is Leigh's idea to stack the bodies (except for Sage's) in front of the doorway hall at the far end of the antechamber.

Regarding Sage, the group isn't sure what to do.  Some discussion occurs about placing her on the altar of darkness to see if the Raven Queen will return her, but the prevailing concern is that the altar may be corrupted and could have undesirable effects.

Instead, they keep the body on the floor of the altar room and everyone agrees to make prayers to the Raven Queen during their shift on guard duty.

The night passes uneventfully with no more wight attacks.  In the morning, Sage is still a corpse.

Krolec looks over the map of the temple carefully to plan the group's escape.  In order to get to the Chamber of Twilight, they will have to pass though an area called the Guardian Chamber, which is flanked on either side by rooms called the Crypt of the Great Warrior and The Rotunda.

The ranger is concerned about the group's ability to get through the remaining rooms.  Hoping against the odds, they elect to go back to the main entrance and see if the spell locking them in is still in effect.  It is.

With no other choice, the group heads to the Guardian Chamber.  Krolec takes the lead, with Scrag slightly behind him, carrying Sage's body.  The plan is to rush through the chamber as quickly as possible, so Leigh and Scrag have their ropes ready for using once they get to the Chamber of Twilight.  Krolec makes sure to carefully instruct Scrag not to engage in combat unless he absolutely has to.

Session 48 - Scene 6 (of

As Krolec approaches the guardian room, he can see two stands for statues in the corners of the room, but no statues on them.  Remembering the gargoyles from the first time the group entered the temple, Krolec gets nervous.

Leigh moves up to investigate.  Using her knowledge of the arcane, she can tell gargoyles definitely were on the stands at some point.

Krolec decides to advance further into the room, slowly making his way across while checking for traps, Leigh following him a bit behind.

As he makes his way to the center of the room, he is spotted and two gargoyles emerge from the room to his left.

Krolec rushes to the other side of the room and positions himself in the doorway.  He fires off an arrow shot, hitting one of the gargoyles.

Scrag, completely forgetting he is supposed to be avoiding fighting, drops Sage and charges the closest gargoyle.  He knocks them both back with the blast from his thunder ram assault.

The gargoyles respond by rushing back at him and tearing into his flesh with their stone claws.

Sa'lid, focused on their task of escape, summons his sorcerer's shroud and grabs Sage's body.  He starts heading for the other side of the room, masking Leigh with his shadows.  Durmindin follows.

Leigh, however, doesn't like the idea of leaving Scrag by himself to fend off the gargoyles while they escape.  She fires off a lightning serpent spell, hitting one of the gargoyles.  Once that fails to kill it, she runs to the other side of the room.

Krolec steps over in front of Leigh to protect her.  He fires two arrows into the gargoyle nearest him.

All of the commotion seems to have attracted creatures from the opposite room.  Streaming out of the Rotunda come five wights.  Three of them head for Krolec and Leigh, while two move towards Sa'lid.

Session 48 - Scene 7 (of

Both Sa'lid and Krolec fall victim to the wights' claws.  Leigh's situation is even worse, as the wight cuts into her deeply.

Off to the side, Scrag transforms into his panther form and attacks.  He and the gargoyles exchange blows.

Nearby, Krolec steps back and fires an arrow into one of the wights.  Leigh follows it up with a blast from her burning hands that hits all of the wights.

Back in the center of the room, Sa'lid drops Sage's corpse and tries to blast the wights in front of him with his moon and stars spell.  When that fails, he attacks them with swirling stars.  Durmindin tries to assist by casting his spirit of the healing flood.

Krolec attacks again, firing two more arrows into the wights.  The wights attempt to strike back at him and Leigh, but they fend them off.  Sa'lid, however, is less lucky, and the two wights claw into him.

Using a thornburst, Scrag destroys one of the gargoyles.  The other one counter attacks, cutting his face with its claws.

Back in the center, Sa'lid's phase of the sun aura of fire and radiance causes one of the wights to crumble into dust.  He destroys the other with a flaming energy strobe.

Durmindin moves his spirit companion over to assist with the gargoyle, but it fails to penetrate the creature's stony form.

Back in the far hallway, Leigh steps back from the wights and blasts them all with a fireburst.  Krolec tries to follow up with a pair of arrows, but misses his mark.  The wights respond by clawing into Leigh, causing her to collapse.

Off in the side hall, Scrag finishes off the remaining gargoyle with his earthgrasp strike.  He then uses his thunderstep to teleport over to the wights, striking one of them with his axe.  Sa'lid follows up the attack by blasting the wight apart with his explosive pyre.

Durmindin moves his spirit companion in to assist.  It strikes one of the creatures with a thunder bear's warning.

Krolec focuses on helping Leigh.  He stabilizes her bleeding and applies first aid to allow her to recover.  One of the wights responds by clawing into him.

The other wight attacks Scrag, but he fends the creature off.  He counterattacks with an earthshield strike, killing the undead monster.

Sa'lid tries to finish off the remaining wight with his energy strobe, but misses.  Durmindin has better luck with his spirit companion, crushing the creature with a protecting strike.

Session 48 - Scene 8 (of

As the group catches their breath, Krolec wonders if they should investigate the two side rooms.  Leigh is adamant that they do not; she wants them to get out now.

The group heads into the next chamber, seeing the pit trap still open in front of the hall to the Chamber of Twilight.  Krolec jumps across first, positioning himself to help the others.  Everyone follows without incident, except for Snarg who requires some assistance from Krolec.

As they get into the chamber, Krolec looks up at the ceiling.  As he somewhat expected, the hole has been filled in.  They are still trapped...