Last week we played the fifth part of the Talons of the Horned King. We had nearly a full house, which allowed the party to bring a lot of power to bear! Only Hermiad the elf ranger was absent this week.
We started out minutes from the last game. The party ventured out of the Sword chamber and back to the hallways. The party voted to go to the "Beware - Death Here" room, but on the way there they found a mysterious door. It seemed empty, and Mendas ventured in.
This circular room measures 40 feet in diameter. More humming, strange metal cabinets line the northern and southern walls. In the room’s center are many shelves which reach from floor to ceiling – nearly a dozen in all. The shelves contain several silver-colored boxes.
The boxes were not actually silver, but not steel either. They were unlocked, though. The vikings uncovered eight strange items, mainly in the vein of defensive force fields. The nature of these items was sussed out through a process of putting them on Thargdar the Lizardfolk, turning it on, then attempting to punch him.
Newly outfitted, they ventured down the hall and peered into the Death room. And death indeed...
As you enter this vast circular chamber, you immediately notice something that sends chills down your spine. Sitting on a raised dais in the center of the room is a gigantic white dragon. Mighty chains bind the dragon to the dais. The creature appears to be asleep or unconscious.
The dragon was chained, but the players couldn't tell if it was a guard or a prisoner. The discussion veered towards "prisoner," as it was difficult to imagine a, intelligent elder dragon agreeing to the role of guard dog. Still, no one wanted to wake or possibly confront the dragon unless they had to. They backed off and went to explore the northern corridors.
They found four doors, probably leading to two or three rooms. Picking one, they barged into what appeared to be a lab.
Unlike other rooms in this strange cave, this one is filled with clutter. Amidst all the whirring metal cabinets are several metal tables, located in a circle near the center of the room. Each table is covered with strange objects and scraps of parchment. An octagonal console stands out amidst the clutter near the north wall.
Standing over one of the tables is another of the dragonborn-like creatures. This one does not seem hostile – in fact, it seems startled and scared by your very presence. “Stay back!” says the creature in the Draconic tongue. “I don’t want to hurt you!” It slowly starts moving towards a table at the southern end of the room.
Edgar rushed this dragonborn scientist and intimidated him quite successfully. The vikings forced him on his knees and began to interrogate him. It didn't go on very long... the scientist began to talk excitedly about the ship, how they had been crashed for around 3000 years, etc. Bartix gave him permission to stand, and he made a mid-conversation lunge for his table! Both Rurik and Bartix had an action at the ready... Bartix used Mage Hands to scoop up the scattered papers, revealing a strange hand-crossbow thing. But Rurik flashed out his greataxe, hit for 18 damage, and killed the scientist.
That done, the party searched the room. There were some liquids in vials that could be potions, maybe... no one could tell. There were also some scraps of hide: one sample from a red dragon, and one from a carrion crawler. Intriguing!
The party cautiously went to the next room... crouching as they went, as their sharp ears detected movement in the background. The samples they had found were top of mind, and it was not impossible that the multi-leg-dragging sound could be a carrion crawler!
This gleaming white room is approximately 50 feet wide and 100 feet long. Along one of the far walls are several steel tables and tall, whirring metal cabinets with bright blinking lights. One of the tables is significantly larger than the others, measuring almost 10 feet in height and 20 feet in length. While the rest of the room is immaculately clean, the largest table and a few of the surrounding ones are spattered with fresh blood.
Pacing in the corner of the room is a hideous, insect-like creature with a green hide, measuring nearly 10 feet long. Strange metal boxes appear to have been grafted onto the creature’s back; blood still seeps from the wounds. Hissing and groaning, the creature appears to be in pain.
The vikings set themselves up, and the strange beast charged in from the right!
And from the left, a red dragon!
At the far end of the room is a red dragon! A silver mask appears to be crudely grafted to its head around its horns 30 and its eyes. As it notices you, it roars angrily, and starts to back into one of the far corners of the room. The scarred dragon appears to be quite enraged, and looks ready to attack at any moment.
The dragon charged in, but was hindered by all the laboratory crap and couldn't quite make it. The carrion crawler, however, had other options, and fired a missile from its back into the crowd of adventurers! No one saw that coming! Well, the miniature had a missile launcher on it, so maybe they did, but everyone roleplayed being surprised.
Edgar charged the dragon, and Rurik charged the carrion crawler. These two fighters would stay locked with their monstrous opponents for most of the fight. The rest of the party supported both targets with missile fire, but most quickly determined that the dragon was the greater threat.
Eric cast Shield of Faith on the party (well, everyone but Rurik, who had charged out of range). This was a huge help throughout the rest of the encounter. Mendas circled 'round back of the dragon to start stabbing!
The dragon was my opportunity to remember that solo and elite monsters have Action Points! He blasted the party with his fire breath, modified by the silver mask into untyped energy. It was targeted at five of them, but hit only Edgar. The dragon then put two claws into Edgar. He wasn't bloodied, but I had come close.
Bartix and Varin spread their Magic Missiles and Dreadful Words around the lab, while Oddny charged up next to Edgar versus the dragon. The carrion crawler hit Rurik with a tentacle, slowing him. It then shifted back and used it's action point to blast the viking with its strange metal box.
The party kept trying against the dragon, but not hitting. AC 25, yeah, that's right. They kept playing around at the other defenses, but they were high too. The dragon kept blasting (his breath weapon recharged every time I checked), and took some time to swat Mendas away with its tail.
Rurik had been whacking away at the carrion crawler, but now critted... critting with a magic greataxe is insane. This left the crawler-cyborg with just a few hit points. It could still attack, though, and hit the warlord again, immobilizing him! Rurik killed it the next turn, but how was he going to get across the battlefield?
Well, he needed to save, and Oddny was able to buff that save to get him through two instances. He spent the next round slowly getting across. The rest of the party needed a way to get past this dragon's armor. Finally, Mendas remembered his whetstone! A +2 bonus to everyone that used it! I have been surprised several times now that everyone had decided to save their whetstones, but they had always managed to hit their targets... the dragon was the opponent to break that dam. Nearly everyone magically sharpened up their weapons (or implements, house ruled, natch) and started to hit!
Rurik connected his charge, doing decent damage, but he got bit on the way in. As often as he could, Edgar was making attacks back at the dragon for not obeying the Mark. It's against the solo monsters that the fighter's ability to lock the fight down really shines. The dragon was now bloodied.
At this point we were pretty committed; several party members had used their dailies. Bartix committed with his new Bigby's Icy Grasp for big damage... Mendas followed up with his Blinding Barrage, which blinded it all the way to the grave! Also the dead dragon was still grasped.
Bartix immediately went to town "disguising" their presence by hauling the dragon up on the operating table and removing all of its organs. Good for you, Bartix! Mendas tried to figure out why these experimental beasts were running around loose, and found a depression around a raised area in the back room. The pattern corresponded to a similar depression in the ceiling, suggesting retracted bars, or a magic field of some sort.
The party found some more gear, but it didn't help their bleeding bodies. They knew they needed to bed down for the night, but a few of the party were uncomfortable about letting their guard down in this freaky place. In the end, though, the outside was found to be potentially just as hostile. They retreated to the laboratory, barricaded the two doors with lab crap, and decided on a watch list.
Six hours into their night, a knock came at the door. Some of the party was fully rested, but the two vikings with the first watch were not. "Open up in there!" a dragonborn voice said, "What the hell happened in the lab!" Varin tried to bluff by graveling up his voice, but whomever was outside wasn't buying it. Edgar then tried an intimidation tact, by yelling, "Come in here and I will kill you." This resulted in the normal "god damn primitive" type of thing that we normally hear from these guys. A series of small explosions rocked the doorway, and the door fell down.
We ran the encounter like a skill challenge, trying to get 10 successes before 5 failures. Edgar went first, as he was standing right in the doorway when it went down. The dragonborn had planned to throw grenades into the room, then charge... they weren't expecting someone to rush out! I interpreted this as a difference between modern and medieval tactics, with the filthy primitives winning out this time.
Edgar rushed out into the hallway, swept his blade through two of them, then discharged his lightning sword to all four!
Next, Bartix darted out and cast Sleep on the lot (including Edgar). It was a hit, and a missed save. So now they were shocked, sleepy, and getting sleepier. The rest of the party followed suit, attacking or restraining with rope. At the end of the challenge, we had 10 successes and only 2 failures, with two of the Dragonborn dead and two asleep.
The vikings woke up their two bound captives and began to question them, but flubbed their intimidation roll. One of the guards spit in Edgar's face, so he was stabbed... earning them another intimidation roll! Well, that's why you take two prisoners. This guy talked, and the most pressing information he gave was that a squad of 20 robots would be following their squad if they failed to report in within 20 minutes.
The vikings quickly packed up and ran towards the entrance, with their captive in tow. They heard the metal footsteps of a robot squad, but were now near the ladder. They popped out and disappeared into the jungle, finding their original camp site and bedding down again.
The party had lots of ideas on how to re-enter the dungeon, which we said we'd build out over e-mail. The first action would be an in-depth interrogation of the prisoner.
