Sunday, April 16, 2006

April 11th Session 17

April 11th Session 17
Diamond Lake
Under the Dourstone Mines

Septimius Flavius Perfectus (Mike) Human Fighter-4
Crag Skullbugger (Greg) Dwarf Barbarian-4
Rollo Mojo (Josh) Human Warlock-4
Sandreus III (Ben) Human Bard-4
Appius Umbrius Laurentius (Michael) Human Cleric-4
Tiberius (Jeff) Scout-2 Fighter-1
Shamus (Steve) Ranger-3

Agustus (Michael) Human Cleric-1 (Deceased)
Drake (Jeff) Human Rogue-2 (Deceased)
Primus Ironius Perfectus (Steve) Human Cleric-2 (Deceased)
Kioska (Lewis) Human Druid-2 (Retired)
Slyver (Mark) Human Rouge-2 (Retired)

Enjoying another restful evening the group encouraged by the easy defeat of the Demogrogon followers decided it was high time to beat down the last group behind the Vecna door. Traveling back to the elevator room the group tried the metal key they had found with the grimlock spellcaster. The key opened the door and the group moved down the dark hallway before them. The group lined up single file and headed in. Septimius, Crag, Sandreus, Appius, Rollo, Tiberius followed up by Shamus came to a four-way intersection and choose to go right. They continued on and came to another four-way intersection again the choose to go right. From out of nowhere two bird-like humanoids attacked Shamus from behind. They apparently were rouges because they inflicted a lot of damage. The rest of the group reacted quickly Shamus moved past Tiberius and began looking for the cleric. Crag moved and helped block the hallway so that the bird creatures would have to go through him to get to the rest of the party. From the open corridor north of Septimius a secret door opened and out flew a an orb down the hallway towards the rest of the party followed shortly by a explosion. When the fire and smoke cleared most of the party was severely wound and poor Shamus lay dead in the center of the explosion along with one of the bird-men. To prevent another such incident the group scattered in all directions. Septimius moved to the center of the hallway, Rollo and Tiberius launched all they could at the fireball launching bird-men. Crag ran to engage the fireball launching bird-men. Appius began healing the party and Sandreus began singing to boost the group’s morale. The fire-singed bird-men ran through a secret door and the door shut behind him. Coming from the north end of the first intersection were to dire weasels. Septimius chose to charge the weasels before they could charge the rest of the party. Appius while healing up everyone spotted a light coming from the west where they had not been to before. While Crag was engaged on the right the fire-singed bird-men appeared south of Crag and began firing on him with a crossbow. At the same time two weasels appear to the north of Crag and charged him. Septimius attacked the weasel that had attached itself to him with the help of Rollo and Tiberius. When suddenly two bird-men appear behind Septimius from out of a secret door. Also behind the two weasels that were on Crag appear two more bird-men with crossbows and began to shot at Crag slowly wearing him down. Appius and Sandreus were busy healing everyone they could get to, except for Septimius who was cut off from the party. Septimius killed his first weasel and was working on his second weasel, but was struggling after having taken hits from both the bird-men and bleeding wound from the first weasel. Knowing that he couldn’t take very much more damage before he would drop made the decision to take one for the team and kill as much as he could before they finished him. Rollo and Tiberius continued to fire on any and every target they figured they could kill. Up to this point they had killed one of the two bird-men who had launched the fireball. One of the bird-men who was attacking Septimius and damaging several more. Unfortunately two more bird-men appear to the south of Crag. This now left Crag holding off single-handedly two bird-men from the north with crossbows, the now dead weasels from the north, although not without taking some damage. Crag further held off two bird-men from the east and now two bird-men from the south. The second bird-man from the east of Crag was not like the other bird-men he cast several spells mostly targeted on Rollo. Rollo had taken sever damage twice and fell dying only to be revived by his good friend Appius. The two bird-man archers from the far west continued to harass Appius, Rollo and Tiberius. The battle took a turn for the better as Septimius was able to out last the weasels and finish off the last of the bird-men on him. Appius charged the two bird-men in the west corridor and Tiberius and Rollo gave help whenever they could. And they it happened, two of the archers charged Crag with clubs as the other two archers shot at Crag and they all hit the same round. Crag dropped dead instantly and the group was over run by bird-men. The group made a decision to try and make a run for the elevator room to get away. The only problem was there was still one bird-men between the adventures and freedom. Septimius still severly wound charged and dropped the bird-man as the rest of the party ran past him heading for the exits. Only Sandreus stayed right behind Septimius to continue to healing him as Septimius tanked for the freedom of the party. Rollo and Tiberius continued to assault the bird-men from the elevator room, but the bird-men continued to fire on the missile users and again dropped Rollo. Appius being close by again revived Rollo. Septimius engaged the main bird-man warrior, the two combatants fought well, but neither could land the finishing blow. Every time the bird-man landed a blow Sandreus used the wand to heal Septimius. The bird-man continued to attack and pull back so that Septimius had to move further into the hallway. Septimus eventually came to the intersection and saw the bird-man spellcaster and chose to charge and try to kill him before he could inflict any more damage. Sandreus, Tiberius and Rollo were able to finish off the lead warrior that Septimus left behind. Finally with their leader down the last bird-man warrior and bird-man spellcaster made a run for it. The group came back in gather up all treasure that radiated magic and grabbed the bodies for their to fallen comrades and made for their secure room for the night.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

April 4th Session 16

April 4th Session 16
Diamond Lake
Under the Dourstone Mines

Septimius Flavius Perfectus (Mike) Human Fighter-3
Crag Skullbugger (Greg) Dwarf Barbarian-3
Rollo Mojo (Josh) Human Warlock-3
Sandreus III (Ben) Human Bard-3
Appius Umbrius Laurentius (Michael) Human Cleric-3
Tiberius (Jeff) Scout-2 Fighter-1
Shamus (Steve) Ranger-3

Agustus (Michael) Human Cleric-1 (Deceased)
Drake (Jeff) Human Rogue-2 (Deceased)
Primus Ironius Perfectus (Steve) Human Cleric-2 (Deceased)
Kioska (Lewis) Human Druid-2 (Retired)
Slyver (Mark) Human Rouge-2 (Retired)

Sleeping safely for another night the group decided to push on into the cave system of Demogorgon. They hiked all the way back to the ledge and climbed down the spike staircase. At the bottom of the cavern they climbed back up to the cave where they encountered the female barbarian. They searched her lair and found a preserved head of a shadow elf, 200 gold, and a wand. Continuing through the winding tunnel they came out the other side at the bottom of a rope bridge that spanned about 20 feet over a dark chasm and climbed upward at a angle to a ledge about 10 feet above their current position. Rollo chose to use his spider-like ability and travel across via the side walls. Appius chose to go across first, second across was Septimius. Just as Appius reached the other side three warriors leaped to attack, two with javelins and one with a morningstar. Appius held his own as Septimius moved as quickly across the bridge as Rollo fired from his position on the walls. Crag was next to cross as Septimius dropped two of the sightless warriors with his mighty attacks. The third warrior ran up the tunnel as fast as he could. Tiberius crossed the bridge and along with Rollo began take pop shots at the retreating warrior. Luckily the tunnel was long and steep and the screaming warrior didn’t get very far before he was shot down. The adventures gathered up the valuables and Septimius, Crag, Sandreus, Appius, Rollo, Tiberius, and Shamus headed up the steep tunnel. About halfway up two more warriors appeared at the top of the tunnel and began hurling javelins at the single file line of adventures. Septimius arrived first and with one attack dropped both sightless grimlock warriors. The rest of the group came out of the tunnel and got their first view of the large chamber about 60 feet across and about 20 feet deep. The other strange fact about the room was the 10 foot ledges. There was one right in front of the group and one in front of the tunnel going to the left and two separate ten foot ledges in front of the tunnel in the back of the room going right. The tunnel on their right and behind the group didn’t have a ledge, but it sloped downward very steeply into the darkness. Rollo spider-climbed up the first ledge with a rope and tied it off so other members of the party could pull themselves up the ledge. Septimius and Appius were the first up when the party heard some noises coming from the tunnel off to their left. Septimius and Appius took up defensive positions, as Crag and Sandreus were the next up the rope. Emerging from out of the tunnel were six grimlock warriors. They engaged Septimius and Appius, but not before Septimius dispatched the closest one. Sandreus began singing and Rollo, Shamus and Tiberius began raining down damage upon the grimlocks from the lower portion of the room. Septimius whacked a couple more grimlocks and Crag drop one of his own when a huge grimlock emerged from the elevated tunnel of to the right. The grimlock charged Sandreus as he was the closest target. Sandreus tried unsuccessfully to avoid the attacks and attention of the huge warrior. Septimius disengaged the small grimlocks to engage the huge warrior. Crag and Appius finished the last of the regular grimlocks, but this new warrior was a lot tougher. Septimius took a few hits and the ranged warriors inflicted enough damage to finally drop the warrior. The group explored the two rooms the grimlocks exited and gather all valuables found. This left the one remaining option, the tunnel that sloped steeply downward. The tunnel curved downward for about 100 feet and opened into a huge natural cavern about 80 feet narrowing down to only 20 feet across about 80 feet from the room entrance. Halfway across the room was a 10-foot drop and the last ten feet of the room was raised and covered with a fire and lots of smoke. Around the smoke there was something chanting and throwing something into the fire making even more smoke. Septimius, Crag charged forward. Rollo climbed the wall up to the roof and approached from the ceiling. Sandreus and Appius cautiously moved forward and Tiberius and Shamus followed closely behind. As Septimius and Crag jumped down six grimlocks emerged from the shadows. Tiberius began firing on the enemies and Septimius and Crag began frantically attacking the new enemies. As Rollo looked from the roof he spotted the creature next to the fire and fired his eldritch blast as the target. The target responded by cast a Spiritual Weapon at Rollo. Tiberius was also able to spot the mysterious spellcaster and also began firing at the new target. The groups two front-line warriors dropped about one grimlock around each. They quickly dispatched the grimlock guards and ran forward to fight the grimlock spellcaster. In the meantime, Rollo was beginning to show the wear of a spiritual weapon constantly pounding him. Appius was just able to get to Rollo before the spiritual weapon could finish the job. At the base of the cliff the group found a rope to climb up. First to act was Crag. He climbed up the rope to engage the spellcaster. Before he could reach the spellcaster he had to make a saving throw. Luckily he had no problems and was able to make his attack. Septimius was second up the rope, but before he could reach the top of the cliff the spellcaster blocked his progress by standing at the top of the rope. Crag was alone in combat with the spellcaster and found that it was difficult to hit to grimlock regularly. Finally he was able to get in a couple of solid hit and the grimlock had to pull back from the edge and allow Septimius up the rope. Once Septimius and Crag engaged the spellcaster together the battle end very quickly. Finding lots of treasure the group once again decided it might be best to go back to their sleeping room now that they had finished off the followers of Demogorgon.

Friday, April 14, 2006

March 28th Session 15

March 28th Session 15
Diamond Lake
Under the Dourstone Mines

Septimius Flavius Perfectus (Mike) Human Fighter-3
Crag Skullbugger (Greg) Dwarf Barbarian-3
Rollo Mojo (Josh) Human Warlock-3
Sandreus III (Ben) Human Bard-3
Appius Umbrius Laurentius (Michael) Human Cleric-2
Tiberius (Jeff) Scout-2
Shamus (Steve) Ranger-2

Agustus (Michael)Human Cleric-1 (Deceased)
Drake (Jeff) Human Rogue-2 (Deceased)
Primus Ironius Perfectus (Steve) Human Cleric-2 (Deceased)
Kioska (Lewis) Human Druid-2 (Retired)
Slyver (Mark) Human Rouge-2 (Retired)

Rollo held his position on the wall and used his eldritch blast on the two eyeless archers. Sandreus climbed back up the stairs to the top of the cliff. Tiberius and Shamus fired at the archers, but found it difficult to hit the shooters because of the rocks they were hiding behind. Since Crag and Septimius couldn’t pass anyone on the stairs they chose to try and fire their weapons from the stairs at the archers. The archers switched tactics. This time one threw a tanglefoot bag at Rollo hoping to stick Rollo in place so he couldn’t keep shooting the archers and the second archer took shots at Tiberius. The battle continued for one more round when Septimius trying to fire his crossbow slipped and fell 35 feet to the hard rocks below. Rollo continued firing on the archers was hitting fairly consistently Shamus and Tiberius had a harder time hitting the archers. Sandreus was inspirationally singing motivating the adventurers. Septimius stood up, but couldn’t see anything without a light source, but could hear something large slither towards him. The attack was just as much of a surprise as the tentacled arm that smashed Septimius. Crag began to climb down the makeshift stairs as quickly and safely as possible. Rollo, Tiberius and Shamus continued to fire on the archers. Appius put his weapon away and tried to throw his continual flame torch up to the three archers. Unfortunately, he came up a little short as the torch clipped the edge of the cliff and fell down to the happy Septimius, who now saw a bloated ovoid covered creature with rocklike skin with two stalks about 3 feet long rising from the top of its disgusting body that contained two large eyes. Its mouth little more than a wide gaping hole was filled with razor-sharp teeth. The battle was on, Septimius vs. the Otyugh. Meanwhile, Rollo, Tiberius, Sandreus and Shamus finally finished off one of the archers as the other continued firing mostly at Tiberius. Appius cracked a sunrod and this time successfully tossed the sunrod up to his comrades, jumped off the stairs and floated down with his ring of feather fall behind Crag and Septimius, who were now in combat with the Otyugh and two more Otyughs that were rapidly approaching. The adventures continued to pelt the remaining archer who was force to gulp down a couple of potions to try and stay alive. Crag and Septimius with healing support from Appius were able to annihilate the three Otyughs without sustaining any major injuries. As for the poor archer seeing that his situation appear hopeless tried to make a “run” for as he climbed out from his cover and tried to climb down an unseen spike staircase. No sooner than he stuck his head out Tiberius nailed him with a nasty shot and the poor dying archer fell to a permanent dead just missing Appius as he landed hard.
Rollo continued to spider-walk over to the ledge and inventory everything that was worth a damn. He followed a set of stairs down to a cave opening and invited his fellow adventures to come on up and check it out. The three adventures at the top of the cliff climbed down to meet with the slayers of the Otyughs. Luckily, one of the things Rollo found was a coil of rope, which he tired off and lowered down to his comrades. Crag was up first, followed by Septimius, and Appius. Unfortunately Rollo never heard the massive female warrior who slashed Rollo several with her two daggers nearly killing him. Rollo did his best to fight the wild woman off as his allies climbed the 30 foot of rope as quick as the could. Rollo dropped, not dead, but dying rapidly, as the raging woman proceeded to cut the rope holding the rescuers. With the rope cut, Crag through sheer will caught hold of the cliff edge while for the second time Septimius fell hard on the rocks below and Appius gently floated safely back to the ground. Crag pulled himself up the cliff and the sightless female barbarian slashed viciously and successfully at Crag. Crag landed in a few good shots of his own, but was unable to defeat the female and fell to her quick and deadly attacks. Meanwhile for a brief moment the stranded companions got a couple of shots off at the female barbarian while she battle Crag, she eventually move away from the edge so they couldn’t see her. Thinking quickly Appius started climbing the staircase once again trying to get as high up the spikes as he could. Appius, seeing Crag fall, and not being as high as would have preferred leaped from the staircase and cast an area healing spell that healed and stabilized Crag and raised Rollo back to consciousness, but only barely (1 hp). Appius once again gently floated safely back down to the cavern floor. Rollo bravely waited as the female barbarian reached over to search and chuck Crags limp body over the edge and blasted her with his eldritch blast hoping it would kill her. She took the hit and turned to Rollo and with her last action of her life stabbed Rollo again leaving him to die as she collapsed and began dying herself. With no way to reach Rollo and Crag and with Rollo breeding out it looked like Rollo gave up his life to save Crag and possibly others. It was at this time a miracle occurred Rollo actually stabilized on his own and didn’t die. Appius was finally able to climb to the top of the cliff and leap across the span and gently land nest to Rollo and Crag, whom he healed and helped down to the cavern floor. Spent and wounded the party decided maybe they should go back to the room in the temple of Orcus they spent the previous night and heal up as best they can and rest. And so they did.

March 21st Session 14

March 21st Session 14
Diamond Lake
Under the Dourstone Mines

Septimius Flavius Perfectus (Mike) Human Fighter-3
Crag Skullbugger (Greg) Dwarf Barbarian-3
Rollo Mojo (Josh) Human Warlock-3
Sandreus III (Ben) Human Bard-3
Appius Umbrius Laurentius (Michael) Human Cleric-2
Tiberius (Jeff) Scout-2
Shamus (Steve) Ranger-2

Agustus (Michael)Human Cleric-1 (Deceased)
Drake (Jeff) Human Rogue-2 (Deceased)
Primus Ironius Perfectus (Steve) Human Cleric-2 (Deceased)
Kioska (Lewis) Human Druid-2 (Retired)
Slyver (Mark) Human Rouge-2 (Retired)

Having survived the night with no attacks and having healed their wounds as best they could the adventures decided it was time to finish exploring the rest of the temple of Orcus. Their first stop was the scene of the battle this time they took more time to explore the room. The second stop was beyond the door into the Chapel of Orcus. The night before all they had time to do was quickly explore the room and destroy the alter to Orcus. This time they found a door behind the tapestry they hadn’t seen the night before. The room they found was the bedchamber of the leader of the cleric of Orcus. Gathering all items of value they continued on through the door to a new area. The new area was the upstairs balcony looking down upon the room with the statue and sandy floor. They realized that this room was designed as a trap for anyone who entered into the room through the double doors on the ground level; the one they chose to bypass. The far end of the room also linked up with the staircase they had passed the day before. Feeling certain they had secured and eliminated the threat of the followers of Orcus they chose to head back to the elevator room.
Arriving at the elevator room they decided to explore the door with the symbol of Demogorgon. The door was locked and seemed to be made of stone. Remembering that they found a stone key, they opened the door and peered though. The winding natural tunnel before them led down onto the darkness. They pulled out their everburning torch and popped a sunrod and headed into the unknown. After traveling about 80 feet, they entered into a chamber filled with numerous stalactites and stalagmites. The ground was rough and difficult to cross. About half way across the room three muscular humanoids about as tall as a human with thick, gray, scaly skin and blank eyeless eye sockets leaped from their hiding positions and began throwing javelins. Crag and Septimius moved quickly and dispatched their enemies. After examining the bodies they also found a tunnel heading out the other side of the room. Continuing to drop further into the unknown they found another larger room. Again the room was filled with stalactites and stalagmites and lots of rubble on the ground making the ability to walk across the room difficult. This time several members heard the creatures before they saw them. Two creatures sprang to action and quickly moved into combat. These creatures seemed to combine the worst features of a wolf and a hyena; it had a shaggy coat, a bristling mane along its spine, and a long, bushy tail. Behind the two dog-like creatures was their master, another eyeless warrior. The battle was fierce, but the adventures prevailed over the two beast and engaged the beast’s master. He proved to be a better warrior and the first humanoids they met, but the adventures overwhelmed him with their pure numbers. Unlike the last chamber this room didn’t have a tunnel leading out of the room, it end at a cliff that dropped away into the darkness below. Upon further inspection the group found spikes hammered into the cliff face in the form of a makeshift staircase. Septimius, Crag, Appius and Sandreus started heading down and Rollo chose to use his spider climb ability and explore a small ledge across the chasm by scuttling around the side of the chasm. At the top of the cliff Shamus and Tiberius continued to look for anything out of the ordinary. What none of the adventures saw was two more or the eyeless humanoids pop-up from the ledge, one fired a bow at Tiberius and the other threw a bag a Sandreus just missing him at the top of the spike staircase. The adventure prepared themselves for combat and readied their attacks …

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

March 14th Session 13

March 14th Session 13
Diamond Lake
Under the Dourstone Mines

Septimius Flavius Perfectus (Mike) Human Fighter-2
Crag Skullbugger (Greg) Dwarf Barbarian-2
Rollo Mojo (Josh) Human Warlock-2
Sandreus III (Ben) Human Bard-2
Appius Umbrius Laurentius (Michael) Human Cleric-2
Tiberius (Jeff) Scout-2
Shamus (Steve) Ranger-2

Agustus (Michael)Human Cleric-1 (Deceased)
Drake (Jeff) Human Rogue-2 (Deceased)
Primus Ironius Perfectus (Steve) Human Cleric-2 (Deceased)
Kioska (Lewis) Human Druid-2 (Retired)
Slyver (Mark) Human Rouge-2 (Retired)

After peering through the door, the group decided it might be best to secure the area behind them by checking some of the room and passageway that they had passed by. The first room they investigated was the lair of the dire boar they killed it was nothing more than a smelly, dirty animal den. The other area they choose to investigate was the corridor across from the den. They went through the first door and walked down the corridor and found another door. This door upon further investigation appeared to be barred from the inside. Crag looking to swing his great axe at something grew impatient and began attacking the barred door. Not to be left out several other members joined in and soon the door was showing large amounts of damage. Much to the surprise of everyone several arrows flew through the hole in the door and hit the wall behind the party immediately followed by sudden darkness in the hallway. Septimius reached through the door and removed the bar. Counting to three the group choose to rush their attackers and were met by two men armed with bows. One was on the stairs and the other was in small room ten feet further up the hallway. The group quickly dispatched the two warriors and passed the staircase in favor of the room and corridor beyond. The group preceded up the hallway into a bed chamber occupied by two zombies, a half orc in light plate using a light shield, a female human wear half plate using a heavy steel shield and a human male in full plate using a heavy steel shield. Appius immediately turned all the undead and the rest of the party moved into a defensive line with the undead between the living enemies and the group. The group quickly realized the armored clad warrior were actually cleric who proceeded to cast a series of spells. The undead retreated to the back of the room and the clerics kept stepping back to continue to cast spells. Finally the clerics and adventures engaged in combat. Crag and the half-orc squared off, Septimius pressed the female and Rollo and Tiberius harassed the human man. Appius helped heal and make periphery attacks on the female with Shamus and Sandreus sang songs that inspired the whole group. The three clerics were difficult to hit but the group slowly damaged the cleric and finally dropped the female first. The human male attacked was attacking the party and inflict heavy damage to several party members. He finally succumbed to both Rollo eldritch blast and the continued harassment by Septimius, Shamus and Appius. The last battle between Crag and the half-orc was close, but Crag outlasted his opponent and dropped the half-orc one round after the human male. The group having taken some heavy damage decided it might be a good time to hold up somewhere and camp for the night. They quick gathered all the valuable and magic items they could see and headed back to the barracks room they had explored earlier. They pushed the remaining furniture in front of the door and set a watch for the night.