The adventure began with our intrepid adventurers apparently trapped/surrounded in a large chamber. When we played last time, we had discovered a large group of kobolds (and possibly some other threats) down the long corridor. We had dealt with them efficiently and then we slammed the door.
A - Garron the Paladin has charged down the corridor to engage with the kobold lieutenants. There's also a large kobold who apparently uses PEDs here too.
B -- A horde of kobolds (possibly some other foes) is puking their guts out from Tharquinn's Stinking Cloud.
C -- Greek fire has been employed (quite effectively) and will be again. These are the templates.
D -- Odo the Monk has sprinted down the corridor and is taking cover behind the door preparing to back Garron up.
E -- Ceril the Elf has taken up position in the doorway and is picking off kobolds.
F -- Tharkquinn has cast Animate Dead on the 8 dead kobolds from last week. He now has a small, short horde of recycled humanoids at his disposal.
G -- A portal has opened in the back of the room, revealing the location of the evil elf priestess. Two lesser evil elf priestesses move through the portal accompanied by a horde of zombies.
The battle continued for a few rounds, some kobolds were slain in the hall, but reinforcements moved up on Garron. Gorsen moved to aid Ceril at the door (B), hurling more Greek Fire onto the dog men. Eventually, Garron retreated into the nearby room with Odo (A), waiting for an opportune time to retreat back to the larger room. The Stinking Cloud (at C) ended and the kobolds retreated around the corner.
Meanwhile, back in the large room --
A -- Gorsen moves to the doorway to allow Ceril to move back.
B -- Tharquinn kneels behind his undead kobold minions, hoping to protect himself from the incoming assault.
C -- The zombies and evil elf priestesses are entrapped within Tharquinn's Web spell. Some of the zombies manage to leap free (they are fast zombies) others are strong enough to wriggle their way out, foot by foot... Torn, Balin and Nigel coordinate their attacks on the zombies.
D -- Spitz reinforces the party with Strength on Gorsen and Enlarge on Torn.
The battle has now fallen back into the room...
A -- Odo and Garron have retreated from the corridor. The door has been slammed shut. The adventurers are hearing cries of "For the lady!" and excited barks from the corridor beyond.
B -- Spitz, Balin and Nigel are dealing with the zombies as they escape from the Webs.
C -- Torn and Tharkquinn's undead minions are also dealing with escaping zombies.
D -- Using his Armband of Free Action, Gorsen enters the Webs, avoiding the zombies, and focuses on smashing the first of two evil elf priestesses.
Having recovered from their bout of Stinking Cloud retching, the kobolds, led by their PED pumped lieutenants mass in the hallway for assault. One kobold appears to be enchanted with Fear! He races to attack the party.
The fear-enhanced kobold manages to charge the party. Simply looking at him necessitates a saving throw. Several party members fail and end up running away. Eventually the fear is dispelled.
Now, a lot of things started happening very quickly --
A -- After Gorsen dispatched the second evil elf priestess, the extra-dimensional portal opens again releasing more zombies into the room. Being exceptionally stupid, the zombies charge right into the Webs and get stuck. Gorsen spies two more evil elf priestesses (this time they don't accompany the zombies into the room) and another much more intimidating (and beautiful -- isn't pure evil ALWAYS beautiful?) elf high priestess through the portal. (The Lady?) He drops the Rod of Healing (the item card in the pic) in the webs, leaving it behind for the party, (he may not survive this) and charges through the portal to attack the evil priestesses!
At this point, JS, our DM, says, "Wow. I've never seen a cleric commit suicide before..." I said, "Its not suicide... yet..." :)Tharkquinn casts Hold Portal on the extra-dimensional gate in an attempt to hold it open. JS says "roll a d20; roll low" as a gauge of the spell's effectiveness. He rolls a 2. The portal closes somewhat, but stays open!
This turns out to be a VERY GOOD thing. JS was going to roll to see if the closing portal cuts Gorsen in half!B -- Either Tharquinn or Spitz casts Grease near the door. This slows the incoming kobolds tremendously.
C -- Ceril spends a lot of time hiding in the corner. JJ just couldn't catch a break with his saving throws. He failed, round after round after round...
D -- Odo makes his way over to the webs. He does his best to get through them, but he gets stuck. Eventually he is able to get past them, once Torn burns them away with a torch!
On the other side of the portal, Gorsen finds the three evil priestesses.
Two are lesser and I believe one to be "The Lady."
Initiative is rolled and I begin by casting Hold Person on the two lesser priestesses. One saves, one fails.
One down.
The Lady casts Heat Metal on me. The lesser priestess casts Hold Person. I don't need to save due to the Armband of Free Action. I shrug it off. :)
Initiative is rolled. The Lady casts Hold Person. Nope. I cast my final Hold Person spell on the other priestess. She fails her save.
Two down.
Initiative. The Lady attacks with her mace. Hit. I take damage. I attack. I hit. I use my Mace of Striking and I hit for a lot. She's hurt.
It's not suicide yet...
Back in the big room, the battle wages on.
The zombies are burnt but are now out of the webs. Many of the kobolds are still in the grease. Others have escaped and are attacking. Spitz is seriously hurt and Garron has to save him by laying on hands.
Spitz is casting Magic Missiles on The Lady through the portal!
Torn assists Odo by pushing him through the portal, into the room with Gorsen.
Tharkquinn tries to cast Ray of Enfeeblement on The Lady, but the portal slams shut!
Ceril finally makes a save and is back in the fight!
Someone recovers the Rod of Healing and gives it to Tharkquinn (MU/C).
Someone recovers the Rod of Healing and gives it to Tharkquinn (MU/C).
Before Odo can join the fight, The Lady, sensing that her end is near, takes the time to Cure Wounds on herself. Gorsen casts Endure Heat on himself.
Initiative. Odo attacks The Lady and misses. The Lady swings at Gorsen and hits. Ouch. He now has only 9 HPs left. Gorsen casts Heat Metal on The Lady. (Two can play at this game...)
The odds have gone from 3:1 to 2:1 to 1:1 to 1:2. Better and better for the good guys!
Back in the big room, the party is basically in mop up mode. The kobolds and the zombies don't present much of a threat. They have some clues -- some sounds, a doorway -- that might lead them to the room where Gorsen and Odo are battling the evil priestesses.
Initiative. The Lady starts grabbing at something in a pouch. Odo tries to grapple and tangle her up so she can't do whatever she is trying to do. He is unsuccessful.
The Lady pulls a handful of small skulls out of the pouch and throws them into the room!
Skeletons! 20 of them! Yikes!
Gorsen invokes the powers of Lathander and turns 11 of them to dust!
Odds now: 5:1 for evil. :(
Back in the big room, the party gathers itself and starts running down the corridor toward where the kobolds came from. They are going to fast to accurately map, but they are listening and looking for ornate doors.
There are twists and turns, but eventually they come upon a scene of evil! Seven cultists chanting and performing some kind of group summoning spell in the shadow of some giant spider statuary.
The party is repulsed. They know they have to put a stop to this.
Torn lets fly a spear. Tharkquinn casts his final Stinking Cloud. (It is extremely hard to chant in unison while puking. Who knew?)
Spitz casts Enlarge on Balin. He's now human sized!
The search for Gorsen and Odo continues!!
Initiative. Odo attacks and misses. The Lady hits Gorsen for 6 points. I'm down to 3. The skeletons attack. 4 misses on Gorsen. 2 of 5 hit Odo for 11 points (I think).
Initiative. Odo attacks and misses. The Lady attacks Gorsen and misses.
Gorsen attacks The Lady. A HIT! I put 3 charges through my Mace of Striking (just to make sure) for about 29 points and he sends her to the Abyss to meet her spider demon queen.
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| Beware! Gorsen is coming! |
Back in the big room, the fight with the priestesses/cultists continues. Balin and Tharkquinn are now invisible and are scouting for Gorsen and Odo. The rest of the party is putting the wood to the retching cultists.
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| In the interest of speed, we just repurposed the old room to be the new room. I did have to go find a spider. I just couldn't help myself. |
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| Choke on that you evildoers! |
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| You can just barely see the invisible Balin and Tharkquinn near the "A" in this picture. |
The skeletons continue to attack Odo and he continues to pray to Lathander for help with the fallen Gorsen.
Eventually, Odo finds a scroll of Cure Critical Wounds in Gorsen's pack. Being a monk, he gets a chance to read it, if he survives the round with the skeletons.
Three skeletons hit Odo. One scores a critical hit.
Odo is reduced to 0 HPs and doesn't get a chance to read the scroll. :(
Because he still seems "alive" at 0 HPs, the skeletons take another round to wail on poor Odo, reducing him to -15 HPs.
He is dead.
He is dead.
Gorsen is counting down, losing one HP each round. He's at -7 now.
Time is running out, but Tharkquinn finds a room filled with zombies. That matches the sounds he thought he heard through the portal. The door on the other side of the room looks similar... This might be it!
He turns 9 zombies, leaving 5. Gorsen is at -8.
He casts Spider Climb and climbs over the zombie horde. He makes it into the other room to find Gorsen and Odo -- dead? -- on the floor surrounded by skeletons. He drops into the fray. Gorsen is at -9.
He uses the Rod of Healing to heal Gorsen for 18 points!
Gorsen turns the remaining zombies! Tharkquinn turns the remaining skeletons!
They gather up poor Odo and return to the party.
Epilog:
The party finds some impressive treasures, a magical library with powerful tomes, and they appear to have defeated the infamous Lady.
They have heard sounds of pursuit in the distance. Bugbears? So they hunker down and prepare their escape.
The next day, using Invisibility, the party escapes past the bugbears and orcs and returns to Waterdeep via the Yawning Portal.
Now we need to see if we can get Odo Raised from the dead!
