New system. The game session begins with a
big set-piece encounter. I had already set the stage for this during two
previous (and smaller) sessions, and now everything comes to a head in a
complex / deadly three-tiered chamber.
Also, the party is not at full HP, and
certainly not at full spell capability.
At the end of our last big game (see The
Great Halloween Dungeon Dive in the archives: November 2016), the party was
sucked into an untethered Shadow Door and split in two small groups of four and
three. The Shadow Door then “spewed out” both groups in a new, unexplored level
of the same dungeon, but in different spots.
I ran those two smaller games last winter,
but didn’t post about them. Group “A” had to battle a whole lot of very special
skeletons, and escape a succession of “living” murals à la Tegel Manor,
while group “B” fought a female ghost and squared off several times against an
entire subterranean village of Duergars – the widely reviled “Gray Dwarves”.
This megadungeon is increasingly confusing
for the PCs, since so many contrastive powers seem to be at play. Each level
appears to have a boss, sure – but then there’s this uncanny Shadow Door that’s
literally all over the place, and there is a Crypt Thing who once before helped
the party, and a Kloistergeist that keeps warning them about the biggest
threats. First time they saw it, the Kloistergeist said, “Beware the Crypt
Thing”. Second time they saw it – in the labyrinth of the Duergars – it said,
“Beware the Dark Pillar”.
I knew it was going to be a “close shave”,
but it wasn’t level inappropriate: 3 grells and 5 gargoyles against 7 fourth or
fifth level PCs. Plus, they got two very useful items up their sleeve: a Potion
of Heroism, and a Figurine of Wondrous Power.
Group “A” (bard, thief, Dwarf) arrive via
that wide staircase visible on the picture above. They begin on the second
tier: a vast brownstone floor with a huge square pit in its center – and the
most humongous pile of gold pieces any of them has ever seen! Looking ahead,
they see a transparent wall with an unpropitious row of five gargoyles on top
of it, and crooked stone stairs to the left. Oh, and the giant pile of gold
seems to be moving just a little bit...
Group “B” (cleric, ranger, 2 magic-users)
came tumbling down a long dark slide. They begin on the bottom tier: a
rectangular floor with heavy pavestones, a rough brownstone wall with two holes and
two levers, and a fascinating transparent ceiling. They lit their last torch.
Through the glassy section of the wall they could make out their friends on the
second tier. If they looked all the way up, they could also see the third tier –
gargoyles, wooden winch with rust-pitted chain, old granite throne, and perfect
round trapdoor in the ceiling!
The ranger immediately puts the Rope of
Climbing to good use and climbs. Then, down the slide comes a blazing flow of
molten iron – a parting gift from angry Duergars. The cleric decides to pull
one of the levers, thinking that if water comes pouring in from those holes in
the wall, it’ll quickly cool the pool of molten metal, and the party might be
able to resume its climb, because that’s the only exit, really.
He pulls down a lever. First, nothing but a
funny gurgling sound. Then, two grells are expelled from a hole. Roll initiative
everyone!
Meanwhile on the second tier, Dwarf and
thief came too close to that pit full of gold, and a xorn appears out of the
floor – just the arms, eyes, and mouth (for now). “Leave my food supply alone,
ugly trespassers,” says the xorn in his own language, but of course nobody can
understand. Roll initiative everyone!
All the characters went down at one
point or another in this big encounter. All seven of them. One magic-user went
down first, followed by the cleric who had a grell tied neatly round his neck.
Luckily, the cleric was immediately brought back up to 1 HP by that mysterious
Shadow Door – but where did he end up? He wasn’t in the same room anymore, and
didn’t see nor hear his friends who were (most certainly) still battling those
grells...
This is where the cleric met with a very
polite spectre who introduced himself as Prince Lamah Khan – and eagerly asked
several arcane questions. But he didn’t threaten or attack in any way. Prince
Lamah Khan exclaimed, “I know what’s happening! I figured it out!” The cleric
is groggy, barely managing to stand on his feet at 1 HP. What is it you
think you have figured out, mild-mannered spirit? he seems to think. And
then, the spectre says, “If you ever need to come back in through my own
level, I can hold back the revenants and even my undead dragon, granting you
safe passage all the way to the Gate – but you and your friends are gonna have
to bring me something in exchange.”
The poor cleric doesn’t like the next thing
he hears.
Then, the spectre says his good-bye and
leaves through a wall, as spectres are wont to do. The cleric is left alone in
a very long corridor, with empty cells lining the right wall as far as the eye
can see.
Back in the glass chamber, the fight
continues. Dwarf and bard are still impeded by slow shadows – shapeless, dark
parasites attached to their clothes and skin, slowing them down to half their
normal movement. The thief also has these all over him, but his DEX 18 still
provides him with somewhat decent speed. The Dwarf painstakingly made his way
up the crooked stairs, destroying gargoyle #1 in the process. He finally
reached the topmost floor – or glass ceiling to the lower room, if you prefer.
The thief climbed the transparent wall, and also gained that top floor. The
bard removed his cape, stepped into the huge pile of gold pieces, and filled
the cape with as much gold as he could carry. His timing was impeccable: the
xorn didn’t see a thing, being down into the lower half of the room, where one
grell still lingered.
The ranger hauls the two unconscious
magic-users towards the Rope of Climbing and ties them both together, lifting
them out of there three rounds later. After the last grell is destroyed – and seeing
how three gargoyles haven’t yet moved at all, the party takes a short break
(less than half an hour). During that time, the cleric returns, having walked a
long prison corridor, and seen only two live prisoners – a lizardman, and a
monk.
Reunited with his fellow adventurers, the
cleric manages to cure one light wound, but the group is hit with a
second wave of monsters: a gravewailer is discharged from the second hole in
the wall, and an albino grell – my favorite monster of the game – enters
through the third tier.
The albino grell is a mean fucker, because he has been bullied all his life by the other grells... There was one young female grell who thought the albino grell was kinda cute, but then she was brutally murdered by a group of Human paladins and clerics. This is why the albino grell wants to kill all Humans, and especially clerics and everything that resembles a paladin!
Having experienced eldritch visions while
sitting in the old throne, the thief regains full consciousness just in time to
see that the albino grell is upon him. Eleven attacks – ouch! From
across the room, the ranger fires his last arrows, but the poor thief is down
and out by the end of round two.
Trying to hit the climbing gravewailer, the
Dwarf falls down the round trapdoor and takes 3 points of damage. The
gravewailer diligently spits acid phlegm on both ranger and Dwarf. The two
tanks go down in rounds 4 and 5. Both magic-users were already at -1 and -3 HP.
So, yeah, it’s up to the bookworms: the bard and the cleric!
Bard fends off that acid-spewing abomination
for three more rounds, and then falls. Cleric runs back into the “prison
corridor”. With 1 HP left, and his 6 comrades all under zero HP, he’s not
risking anything. He finds those cells in which a Human monk and a lizardman
warrior still await his return, and successfully frees the monk with his Wand
of Opening. First time he’s used it in three games!
They’re all down
except the cleric.
The good monk Dalmas – currently with 17 HP out
of his 30 – agreed to help, and swiftly got the cleric’s unconscious buddies out of
that room, and then out of the dungeon altogether. He moved silently and only had to tackle two
gargoyles. Talk about divine (or at least monastic) intervention!
They’ll be back in there, for sure. This
dungeon is rather large, and they still haven’t seen any “Dark Pillar” anywhere.
Plus, they’ve got a map, now.
