Thunderspire Labyrinth: Session 4

Last night we played the fourth segment in our Thunderspire Labyrinth campaign. The vikings are now firmly entrenched in the Well of Demons. We had six players in attendance: Marcus, Marc, Rebecca, Matt, Andrew, and Zach. This reduced party went really smoothly, and also Matt brought us hamburgers for grilling! Thanks, Matt!

All indented text is from Wizards of the Coast, the Thunderspire Labyrinth adventure.

We left off in the Chamber of the Well, the first room in the complex. Group scout Mendas investigated the westward passage, a short hallway leading to a door. The rough smell of animals emanated from the door, and the halfling heard muffled yips and the padding of feet. Deciding to be cautious, the party investigated the other passage. They wound north and came to a huge complex!

Blood stains the floor here. Crimson trails run from a set of double doors in the east down the corridor and into a door to the west. A sudden chill washes over you. The cold seems to penetrate your body, causing an involuntary shiver. Three spectral figures appear faintly before you, rising out of the bloodstains. The ghostly figures raise their hands in greeting.

The ghosts sent Mendas running, but Erik the Green strode forward brandishing his hammer and brooking no ghost hooh-hah. As the cleric entered the room, the spectral lights formed into three ghosts:

Valdrog the Brute: Valdrog appears as a male goliath who has a thick, black beard and is clad in chainmail. His spectral armor is ripped apart because the Guardian killed him by tearing him in half. Valdrog was a cleric of Kord, and he speaks with a
booming voice.

Sir Terris: This lizardfolk was a paladin of Pelor and served as the group’s valiant defender. Terris wears plate armor and keeps his helm’s faceplate closed. He was slain when the Guardian crushed his skull with a single bite.

Mendara the Mystic: The group’s wizard, Mendara is a dragonborn who died by the dragon’s breath. She wears green robes and carries a staff.

Mendara introduced herself and started a spiel, but she quickly interrupted herself. She looked at the strange-looking party and determined they were allied with the gnolls... after all, they were of unknown species and lacked good honest scales. The party prodded her into revealing that the ghosts had died here in the complex, and were tasked with aiding other adventurers where they had failed. But she was not sure that the vikings were a positive force in the dungeon; or if the ghosts' aid would lure them to their deaths if they were insufficiently mighty. The party buckled down for a skill challenge!

And it happened... I tried to introduce drama into this, but it didn't work too well. The players very quickly racked up four failures out of the six allowed. And these were failures on sure things, like Bartix the wizard rolling Arcana. The party couldn't really buckle down and try to correct, as they had already been trying their A-game. But luck improved, and the party slowly got back on course and completed the challenge.

Satisfied, Melora told them the following:

This place is the Proving Grounds, a testing place for worshipers of the demon lord Baphomet. You must find four items: a knife, a mask, a bell, and a book. You must place each of these items on one of four circles of runes found in this complex. The items must be placed on the runes at the exact same time.

Three of the items are held within chambers built to test Baphomet’s worshipers. You can find these chambers to the north, west, and south of where we now stand, through these eastern double doors and then through another set of double doors that leads to the west.

The fourth item, the book, is on an altar in a small shrine to the east.

To the east of the Proving Grounds is the inner sanctum. Its door opens only when the proper ceremony is completed. The items used for the ceremony disappear if you try to remove them from the Well of Demons, and upon completion of the ceremony, they return to their former locations.

Completing this ceremony summons the terrible Guardian and activates several traps in the area. The Guardian is a green dragon imprisoned here. It can swoop past its prey and attack. It emerges from a great pit in the center of the complex.

Each of the chambers in this complex has a magical trap designed to harass intruders. The central corridor is the fastest way to move around, but it also has its own trap: a crushing sphere of magical force that rolls along its length.

Oh, and by the way, there is a treasure hidden in the complex. It is hidden beneath the altar in the chamber south of here.

The ghosts faded from view, but had warned the vikings of the gnolls, their worship of Yeenoghu (SP?), and their general evilness. This spurned the party to return to the opening of the Well and putting some effort into killing gnolls!

They went back to the smelly door. Mendas oiled the hinges and cautiously krept in. He found a hallway leading to several other rooms. In one, three gnolls lounged around, unaware of his presence. In another, he found, well, we never got to that, because an arrow came out of the darkness in front of him. We rolled initiative!

The vikings rushed in, but the gnolls were going first. Mendas took another arrow, but then dropped back from the passage and took on a defensive position next to the doorway.

Next, four hyenas! They are fast and could cross the whole hallway. They tried to bite and scratch, and I think one of them connected! I ran hyenas out of the Monster Manual, which are Level 2 monsters, and I was surprised when they did anything but die.

The party kicked into high and killed the hyenas in short succession. But another gnoll had come out of the darkness to set up a firing position, and were peppering the party with arrows.


Oddny wondered what the soldier gnolls in the middle room were up to: they didn't seem to be moving! She charged into the hallway, and realized that the gnolls had moved, had been hiding in the hallway, and were holding action to attack! Oddny hit one with her sword, and two more stabbed at her with their spears. No one got through the plate armor, though.


Varin got to the midway point in the hallway and began laying down curses on the gnolls, supported by Bartix. Zach had left for the night, so Marc was rolling for the wizard. And he couldn't get above a four. This led to a lot of stray magic missiles.

Erik, Mendas, and Rurik rolled in to the hallway to help Oddny with the newly discovered soldier gnolls. This was a 10-foot corridor, and there wasn't a lot of room for combatants, but Mendas helped this by switching places with one of the gnolls and moving him out into the hallway. Then it was the ol' mace'n'axe to take care of him.

As the melee fighters were freed to advance down the hallway, the gnoll archers retreated under some cover. They ran forward and then behind the pen walls. They took some fire from Varin, and the fence's additional defense kept them safe! Meanwhile one of their arrows hit. My dice were pretty cold all night, so I was happy to do some minimal damage to the party. Still, I think I bloodied someone. Speaking of cold dice, Bartix tried to attack! It didn't work!

Erik, Mendas, Oddny, and Rurik crashed into the pens to finish the archers off. And it worked. Done!


One of the gnoll archers had a special magical longbow, which would be handed to Hermiad the ranger whenever he was able to show. There was also 500 gold hidden in one of the beds. Hmm, five beds for 4 gnolls, I guess one of them slept at the feet of someone else, like a dog. That's my no-prize attempt to maintain dungeon ecology.

The search complete, the vikings moved down the corridor. They encountered a door to their left, and Mendas's fine halfing ears revealed a soft base moaning. He cautiously opened the door, and saw a macetail behemoth, imprisoned behind a short fence, arrows protruding from the gaps in its armor plates. Around the fence stalked four hyenas. One of them rolled a 20 as its perception, so they barked and lept at the intruders!

And that's where we left off. Next game begins in situ!

Casualties:
4 Hyenas
2 Gnoll Huntmasters
3 Gnoll Marauders
15 beers

Thunderspire Labyrinth: Session 3

Last night we played the third session of our Thunderspire Labyrinth arc. I was finally able to cajole my players into the Well of Demons! Actually they were cool with going, they know how D&D works. You get a note, this leads to someone trying to kill you, you go kill them in return. Makes sense! Italicized text comes from Thunderspire Labyrinth by Wizards of the Coast.

We began in the Seven-Pillared hall. It had been two days since they received a mysterious note in the Hall:

Your actions against the crew of the Ashardalon are commendable. I was in a position to observe the proceedings, and I believe I noticed some secrets of the ship that you may have missed. I cannot move in concert with my brothers, due to attitudes that you must have noticed by now. Follow the attached map so that we can meet in secret.

Well, this seemed suspicious, but also a good (lone?) avenue to explore. The vikings followed the map into the Road of Shadows, then a mile into the Labyrinth. Half the party had low-light vision: Hermiad, Varin, and Rurik. Their demi-human eyes scouted ahead, while Bartix, Erik, Mendas, and Oddny stayed back with a sunrod. The scouts followed the map and came to the cascading light of a campfire, set in an opening in the caverns. Rurik poked around and saw the fire-light glint off something bronze. Something bronze and lurching towards him! We rolled initiative!



The two creatures on the map were Bronze Warders, big construct-type things. They were presented in the adventure as minotaur-shaped statues, but I had different miniatures I wanted to get out. I reskinned them as hulking gold giants using the Sun Titan from, uh, Dreamscape? Nightbane? Sandman-Fight? Whatever that WOTC collectible miniatures line was that no longer exists and is being sold cheap (note: it was Dreamblade). They functioned as written in the adventure, though, a Level 7 Elite Soldier.

Varin had the high initiative, and he hit one of the Bronze Warders with his new Far Realm Phantasm spell that damaged him and caused him to spend his next attack going after an illusion. Cool!

Erik, Mendas, Oddny rushed onto the battlefield, but couldn't make it far enough to attack. The Warders moved up... one finished fighting his pantasm and based Rurik, and the other charged Oddny and missed.

Next, three figures came out of magically-created shadows on the ledges surrounding the battlefield. These Lizardfolk Warlocks lit up the battlefield with their Balefire, focusing on the armored characters to support the Warders.


Hermiad couldn't let that stand, and he quickly climbed the nearest ledge and went after the lizard-lock. He hit with one of his two strikes and drew blood, but the warlock teleported away immediately afterwards!

Now, as written, these magic users (Tiefling Heretics in the adventure) get to teleport away as an immediate interrupt when hit by a melee attack. Cool, several of the players can do that as well, once a day. But these guys do it at will! That's total crap; overpowered, and as far as I can tell, complete immunity from melee attacks! I met them halfway, making them take damage from the attack and then teleporting. That's also annoying, it doesn't let melee types lock down their foes, but it also lets the party do something besides ranged. So, this lizardfolk warlock teleported to another ledge near his buddy, and Hermiad was left alone on his rock.

Rurik finished up the round, dishing out a daily power... and critting! Matt has calculated crit damage incorrectly in the past, so we dug into the math for this one. I think his 3W came out to 49 damage. But the Bronze Warder wasn't bloodied!

This set the scene for the rest of the battle. Rurik and Erik worked on one Warder, Oddny and Mendas on the other. Hermiad chased two of the lizardfolk warlocks, and Bartix worked on the other. Here are the highlights:

Hermiad made his Athletics roll to vault over to the next ledge. He charged the warlock he had harried, hit him, and forced him to slide a square. I had the lizard teleport away, then be slid... which put him off the ledge! Bam, falling damage, though the guy was safe. Sadly, Hermiad had hit him with his axe's daily power, and the ongoing damage would kill him as soon as his next turn rolled around.

Rurik had hit the Bronze Warder with an attack that gave the party +4 to hit it for a turn. So he was lit up by Varin and Erik and Bartix and went down before causing too much havoc.

Bartix used Dimension Door to pop across the battlefield and come up right behind the mostly-unmolested lizardfolk warlock. He then Thunderwaved the guy off the cliff! And with minor falling damage, the guy was dead.


The Bronze Warders were pretty cool. Their Fist Sweep power, burst 2, made them a well-designed elite monster, able to fight three or four characters at once.

Hermiad was up on the ledge, facing the last lizardfolk warlock. He had backed the guy up against the edge... and on the other side, a bottomless cavern! "Use Bullrush!" Marcus yelled out. Hermiad tried it, and success! The warlock was pushed over the edge! He tried to teleport away, but blew his roll. Insta-kill!

We ended the combat with one surviving Bronze Warder, and everyone gathering around and whacking it. My die rolls took a turn south and I couldn't hit anyone. The vikings were triumphant!

Among the lizardfolk bodies they found a +2 leather armor suit (taken by Hermiad) and a +3 orb (for Bartix). The Warders contained about 1000 gold worth of residuum. Additionally they found two letters and a scroll. The letter read:

I don't care how you do it, but deal with these aliens. Take some of the Iron Warders if you must. If they remain in the Labyrinth, they could disrupt my plans. Once you've dealt with them, deliver their bodies to our gnoll friends, along with the enclosed scoll.
- Paldemar

One scroll was a map of the underdark, leading to this Well of Demons. The other scroll was sealed with a "P" in wax... not a Draconic "P," a Common "P." Mendas jimmied it open with his blade, and read the following:

To Maldrick Scarmaker, Exalted Chieftain of the Blackfangs and
Chosen of Yeenoghu: Paldemar offers you the corpses of these
champions as a gift of ongoing friendship, that our arrangement
might continue to be mutually beneficial. May you savor their
blood.
Your friend and ally, Paldemar

Intriguing. The vikings had some ideas about following the map immediately, but decided to return to the Seven-Pillared Hall with their new information. They went to the Customhouse and spoke to Orontor, still on duty for the Mages of Saruun. He perked at the mention of Paldemar. "That asshole!" he exclaimed, "no one has seen him for weeks, and now he tries to have our guests assassinated!" Orontor asked the vikings to follow the map, poke these gnolls, and try to recover the silver keys that might allow them to teleport to Paldemar. This was actually a matter for the Hall and the Mages, he explained, but the Ordinator Arcanis was still in Rivershard, and the town's forces were all busy guarding their citizens as they returned to their homes. The Mages of Saruun wanted to police their own, but they were left without the resources to do so. This was probably why Paldemar felt safe to act.

Orontor also mentioned that the Blackfang gnolls were a threat to both of their communities. Rivershard was protected by the mountains, but the coast and the underdark beneath was a constant source of threats from the east. The Blackfangs were probably behind a few of the dragonborn disappearances during the madness, and could doubtlessly work through the tunnels and reach the viking clan on the shore.

The group thought about it, and agreed to help, on the condition that the Hall provide thier people with shelter for 10 winters. Orontor agreed. I have to say, this was awesome on the part of the players; this is the campaign structure working, that the characters are taking responsibility for something larger than adventurer's treasure. So thanks to everyone for rolling with this stuff.

The vikings set out again, taking the Road of Shadows into the Labyrinth. They had a map, but the twists and turns required a skill challenge to get through. Two Dungeoneers would get them through a test, and others could assist, but an unsuccessful assist would bring the primary skill roll down by 2. This was an idea on the WOTC site this week, and it really worked.

Mid way through their trip, Mendas was scouting ahead and smelled smoke. The passageways were filling up with it! The tunnels opened up into a wide area where someone had stacked lumber, probably stalks from giant mushrooms! But the lumber had been set on fire by a flock of fire bats! The group sprang into action to defeat the firebats and, uh, conserve their oxygen, I guess. You see a bat, you kill it. We ran this combat as part of the skill challenge, Tiny Adventures style, and it worked pretty good. I allowed the players to pick any power for one roll and make an attack roll: I then compared it to a DC a bit higher than the Skill Challenge norm. This was a random encounter out of the adventure book, and keeping it abstract was a great way to handle it.

A bit later, Mendas, still the scout, was surprised to come around a turn in a tunnel to see the ghostly form of a minotaur! It disappeared immediately, but as Mendas contemplated the event, his mind clouded. He snuck back to the party and made a sudden stab at, we'll say, Rurik. Strange! The vikings restrained their rogue, but quickly puzzled out the possession and kept moving. Hmm, looking back on the adventure text, I didn't run that right at all. Oh well, my players didn't seem to mind.

One more Dungeoneering roll, and the vikings found themselves at the entrance to the Well of Demons!

You see a large, square chamber. Five columns, three set near the
room’s corners and two in the middle of the chamber, rise up 15
feet to the ceiling. Each column has the face of a leering, fanged
minotaur carved onto it. You notice a well in the southeastern
corner of the room, and two passages lead away, one to the east,
the other to the south.

Mendas, Rurik, Hermiad, and Erik cautiously made their way into the chamber. Suddenly, the faces on the pillars came to life, speaking in unison!

Greetings, seekers of Baphomet’s boundless glory.
Those who prove unworthy of his attention
Shall be claimed forever as his slaves.
Those who prove worthy
Shall be granted power beyond mortal reckoning.
Mask, bell, blade, and tome

And then the ghouls ran at them! Two ghouls leapt from behind the pillars, surprising the vikings and taking a swing. No one was hit, but ghouls! We rolled for initiative.

The creatures went first... but not the ghouls. Three cavern chokers crawled along the ceiling and dropped behind the adventurers! All three hit with their Reach 2 grab, pulling Rurik, Hermiad, and Mendas towards them and away from the melee. Now they were all grabbed, one step from being strangled, and Erik was alone facing the two ghouls!


The ghouls went again, and Erik survived. The cleric then pulled out one of his implement powers, doing crazy radiant damage to both of them. As an action point, Erik them Turned Undead, hurting them and pushing them back. This killed one and put another near death. Awesome!

Oddny moved up and took out the other ghoul with her radiant attack. Mendas and Rurik broke free of their cavern chokers and struck back. But Hermiad was still stuck.

Varin and Bartix spread some fire around, and then, out of the well, came a flurry of tentacles. A phalagar extended its tentacles up through the pavement and worked towards the players... just close enough to hit most of them with its Reach 4 attack. Now more of them were grabbed!

Oh, and a note for Wizards... there's no such thing as a phalagar miniature. I made one, but why did I have to? I run a WYSIWYG game, and believe me, WOTC is benefiting. I mean, I love how in an RPG you can create something new, like a monster, with just a picture and a half-page of text. But what I love about D&D is the bells and whistles, the extra stuff. It's the plastic, man, the plastic!

This set the stage for the battle. The vikings sped through this combat, taking out the cavern chokers and then ganging up on the phalagar. If anyone did anything really cool that I missed, let me know. But this combat was over really fast, given that it was XP-balanced at the party level. I think everyone's getting plenty efficient at the killing.

We ended here. There's a passage to the right, a passage in front of them. Where shall we crawl?

Casualties:
Three Lizardfolk Heretics
2 Bronze Warders
5 Firebats
2 Ghouls
3 Cavern Chokers (level 7)
1 Phalagar
20 beers, therabouts. I already cleaned up.