All indented text is property, copyright, Wizards of the Coast, from their Thunderspire Labyrinth adventure.
The PCs had just shattered the whipping minotaur trap, but not before it knocked Oddny the human paladin and Mendas the halfling rogue into the boiling blood.
From there, three evistros, or carnage demons, popped up and took claw swipes at the fallen vikings! We took up from there, although Erik the human cleric stepped aside, and Bartix the human wizard and Edgar the warforged fighter woke up from the hallway.
As we began combat, Mendas tried to shift back up to the platform and get out of the poison blood. But the platform was a step up, a bit more than a shift could allow. I let Mendas tumble up after a successful Acrobatics check... beating my totally high DC of 30. Oddny, though, had no chance, and had to stick it out.
There were three carnage demons showing, and everyone unloaded on them. Rurik, Hermiad, and Mendas were able to attack hand-to-hand, with Oddny doing the same in the blood. Bartix and Varin fired off spells from the doorway platform.
In the back of the room, another form emerged. A blood demon, holding a staff and snarling, moved up and targeted Oddny with his ranged attack. He conjured up a splash of the boiling blood and hit her. This demon was a level 9 controller, my addition to an encounter that was otherwise just brutes. He worked out pretty well, but I knew I had to keep controllers out of the firing line. This kept some of his buffs from being maximized... he would have been able to aid his comrades, but he would have been lit up by the mages.
My other card was two more carnage demons. I deployed them around the two sides of the platform, where they charged Oddny and Mendas.
Edgar's initiative came up: the fighter was starting back in the doorway because Martin missed last session. He vaulted over the blood and drove his greatsword into one of the demons.
Next, Bartix stepped up from the hallway (same deal) and created a Bigby's Icy Grasp! And I have a mini for that, thanks to my 90s X-Men figure collection. The wizard sent the icy hand over and restrained the blood demon.
The party on the platform took whacks at the carnage demons that surrounded them. Most notably, Rurik critted. He probably wasn't the only viking that rolled a critical hit for the night, but he wields a greataxe, and always seems to pair his 20s with encounter powers, so it's always very memorable.
Now Rurik and Hermiad had a plan: with his Wavestrider Boots, Hermiad could run with impunity all around the room, collecting the fabulous treasure at the far platforms. Rurik could use his Knight's Move to give the run an extra oomph. But right now, Hermiad was locked in combat, unable to run. He shifted back and fired his bow into the blood to hit the submerged demons.
The carnage demons got another round of hits in. They're pretty basic brutes until they bloody their foe, then they can snap at the players as a minor action. Sadly, no one was bloodied yet. Both Oddny and Edgar were using their combat challenges to lock things down, and despite upping my game on these demons from level 6 to level 7, I couldn't get through their AC reliably.
Hermiad was now free to get going. He ran across the boiling blood, skirted the blood
demon, and made it to the far platform. There he found the hilt of a dagger, but no blade.
The blood demon decided not to chase the ranger, as the stone minotaur trap was now creaking into motion. Instead, the demon broke free of his icy assailant, moved across the central rampart, and took up a position behind the evistros. There his
very presence could buff his fellow monsters! He also fired off a bloody splash.
But it didn't really work. At this point the carnage demons had taken too much damage to recover. The vikings laid into the demons from the platform and the doorway, quickly taking them out. Hermiad, meanwhile, dodged the mechanical flail and dashed over to the other platform. A blade, who knew! He picked it up (not assembling it, he noted) and returned back to the safe half of the room.
All the demons defeated, the vikings looked for treasure... but demons don't have pockets. Mendas put the dagger together and played with it... it appeared to be a +3 weapon. Score!
The PCs returned to the main complex and explored some more, finding just one unexplored area. They cautiously worked their way in, to find:
A hot blast of damp air washes over you as the double doors to this chamber open. The room ahead is carved from black rock. Here and there, pillars formed of piled bodies stretch from floor to ceiling. Gibbering mouths, darting eyes, and squirming arms which end in taloned hands move within the strange columns of flesh. As one, the forms within the pillars let loose a mournful howl.
The vikings were cautious around these columns, which blossomed with arms, bayed mornfully, you know, the Dante thing. But aside from the general creepiness, there didn't seem to be any hostile creatures.
I made these columns by taking a scan of the illustrations from WOTC's Thunderspire Labyrinth adventure and placing portions of it onto the sides of a column design from WorldWorksGames. They turned out pretty well, although I don't know if I'll use them again.
The PCs slowly spread out to search the room. Hermiad and Varin took up positions looking into the East portion of the room, reserving their actions should something pop out. Mendas and Edgar moved out into the portion of the room they had come into.
The new lines of sight revealed deeper chambers, more columns, but no immediate threats. From around the doorway, Bartix used Arcana to try to discern anything about the columns: he sensed that they were just biding their time, but for what he didn't know. To protect himself and the party he threw up a Wall of Fog.
Finally, the vikings were far enough into the room to be surprised! From each of the four visible columns emerged an evistro carnage demon! The demons could apparently merge themselves with the undulating columns, remaining hidden until they desired otherwise. The party was rushed by all four!
At the bottom of the round, I rolled for a random column action. From around each column blossomed grabbing arms, which tried to snare the PCs and drag them in! Bartix
was grabbed, but the others avoided the attack or were too far away.
Mendas circled about his room to get a better angle (but not quite combat advantage).
But then, from the back of the room, another demon emerged. We were up to five evistros!
And I had more demons. Two evistros were facing Oddny, Hermiad, Rurik, and Varin. After getting their attacks in, the two shifted away. This signalled a bellow from back in the room, and a great Balgura moved up to take their place!
A second balgura emerged on the other side to menace Edgar, Mendas, and Bartix. No one had any lack of targets!
At the end of another round, I rolled a d6 to see what the columns would do. It came
up with a simple acid burst. Everyone but Oddny was in range of one of the columns, and 7 damage was dealt around.
Mendas was nearly surrounded, and he generally likes to do the surrounding. Luckily, he still was able to gain combat advantage by knocking someone prone! He hit the
balgura with just such an attack. Edgar and Bartix piled on to end the demon quickly.
The party had kept up their damage dealt, and only two evistros were left at the end of the third round. My third effect was teleportation! Everyone but Oddny (again, the paladin stood between two columns but near neither was grabbed and sent deeper into the room in a flash of light!
The remaining evistros, however, could not capitalize on their advantage. The vikings charged back into the fray to mop up.
With the creatures gone, the columns went inactive. Varin searched an altar in the rear sub-room and recovered the Bell of Fury's calling! But nobody wanted to ring it, it was too spikey. Now with bell, book, blade, and mask, they proceeded to the main room, the Proving Grounds! That would be for next time.
Casualties:
10 Evistros
2 Balguras
1 Minotaur Statue trap
1 Blood Demon
Several beers
1 comment:
Love your stuff, ever since I found this blog and realized, like me you were using mostly DDM minis and worldworksgames terrain I've been religiously pillaging it for ideas.
But I cannot find those 7x7 blood floors that you use here. Did you make them yourself or does worldworksgames produce them somewhere?
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