Last Wednesday the group played the second session in Dragora's Dungeon. We picked up where we had left off, in the inverted-ziggurat room where the party had defeated the skeletons and several Biteysaurs contained in stay-fresh packaging. It had been a fairly tough fight, so we stayed the night in the room to recover. The warlock Varin used this time to complete a powerful ritual that swapped him for Rurik, as Matt was back in town and Marc was out celebrating his anniversary.
The party searched the room during the night, and broke open another stay-fresh box containing 8 potions of Short Rest, which grant the drinker the benefits of resting even if drunk during combat (i.e., encounter powers refresh, surges can be spent).
These "Potions of Refreshment" are my attempt to start messing with the game mechanics. Recharging Encounter Powers mid-fight is a huge change, but I like big, long fights, so I'm seeing it as more game-tailoring than game-breaking. We'll see how it goes.
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Freshly healed and refreshed, Mendas tied a rope around his waist and jumped down into the last section of the ziggurat to check out the sealed portal at the bottom. Halflings make a nutritious breakfast, so the transparent gelatinous cube which was filling the entire section promptly chowed down on Mendas. The party managed to haul him back up before the rope dissolved, and chopped, froze, and shattered the cube to bits while Mendas, now somewhat less fresh, scraped bits of acid goo off his clothes.
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Once cleared, the portal opened onto a corridor that led to a narrow stone bridge over a rushing underground river. While the party was crossing, an invisible imp tried to shove Bartix into the water, but failed as Bartix kept his balance. The imp paid the price, too, as Hermiad, Erik, and Bartix managed to target him with arrows and spells despite his invisibility. The imp escaped, but lost some blood in the process.
The corridor then dead-ended in a round room, lit by a glowing sphere in the ceiling, suspended above a pyramid on the floor. There didn't seem to be any markings or triggers on these, so the party instead checked out the stone altar to Tiamat on the far side of the room. Close examination of this altar revealed that it was a mechanism that might cause doors in the sides of the room to open, perhaps by rotating the room, but it needed a key. This key would have to be fairly unusual, though, in that it would have five protrusions instead of one, and they would be shaped as dragon heads - definitely a reference to Tiamat.
Where was the key, though? Despite very good perception checks, it was not to be found in the altar room, the bridge room, or the ziggurat room. The party even went so far as to lower Rurik over the side of the bridge onto the river below. (Yes, 'onto', he was wearing the Wavestrider Boots.) Unless there was a secret niche at the bottom of the raging river (which even Rurik was unwilling to check for) the key was nowhere to be found.
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Finally the party decided to check out the far side of the chasm they'd originally climbed down, where another tunnel was visible, although it was choked by a landslide. Mendas, game as always, tied on the rope again and leaped across the chasm in a single mighty bound, landing on the far side and securing the rope to a huge rock. The rest of the party crossed safely, though Erik lost his balance and hung precariously until Mendas could go out and help him up.
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The party examined the rockslide and determined that it would be impossible to dig through, but perhaps not impossible to climb over. Mendas attempted to climb up the unstable slope, only to trigger another mini-landslide which sent a cloud of rocks bouncing through the party. Battered and bruised, the party glared at Mendas; but there was one good result, as the bouncing rocks had smashed open one of the floor tiles and revealed a secret compartment. Inside were a mummified hand, and a pouch, containing a five-sided dragon key! Hurray!
Wait, a mummified hand? Odd, with this much moisture in the air, a severed hand should have rotted away to a skeleton, not been mummified. Clearly there was something mystical and possibly dangerous about it, so Edgar turned the pouch inside-out, and picked up the hand doggie-poo style, for later examination.
The Vikings made their way back across the chasm, down through the ziggurat room, and across the bridge to the altar room. Hermiad placed the key into the altar lock and twisted, and the room rotated, opening up two new doors! One a magical green portal, which the party eyed dubiously, and one opening onto a large vertical lava tube, spanned by a thin bridge. At the far end of the bridge, an ornate silver coffer was clearly visible. Can you say "trap"?
Mendas, who you'd think would have learned better by now, volunteered to go out onto the bridge and check out the silver coffer. Tying another rope around his waist, he ventured out carefully, looking for threats ahead, both above and below. Edgar held the far end of the rope, and Hermiad covered him with a nocked arrow against any flying enemies that might strike.
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But before Mendas could reach the coffer, a pressure plate in the bridge clicked, and a huge, round boulder, suspended in the darkness above and *behind* him, came crashing down onto the bridge, smashing the safety rope, and rolling rapidly toward the now-trapped halfling. Mendas leapt to the edge of the bridge and dangled by his fingertips above the abyss as the rock thundered past, crushing the coffer and destroying the far end of the bridge. Mendas managed to get back up onto the bridge, but it collapsed beneath him. Unwilling to trust the now-crushed rope, he cried out "Shoot me!" to Hermiad, as boulder, bridge, coffer, and halfling began to fall. Hermiad quick-shot his nocked arrow and winged Mendas, who activated his Teleportation Collar and appeared safely back in the room beside Hermiad. Hurray! Bridge, boulder, and coffer disappeared into the bottomless void.
I actually had a fight planned for the spider-web below, but the arrow-shot-teleport-to-safety move was awesome.
Well, not that bottomless, apparently. Just out of sight in the darkness below was a great web, stretched across the lava tube, and housing a family of giant spiders, who boiled up toward the invaders, clicking and hissing. The Vikings paused briefly, contemplating escape, until they saw that the entire family consisted of just 4 Large spiders and 2 Huge spiders. Peh! Nothing Earl Gaermund's Warriors can't handle!
Thus began our one major combat of the night. All of the following text is from Brian:
The PCs looked down from the ruined ledge to see forms approaching up towards them. To most of the party, these figures were only visible as small clouds of glinting red. Others with low-light vision saw spiders; two huge and four medium-sized (which is still pretty huge). The spiders had laid web up the entire side of the cavern and were rapidly climbing up to get at the adventurers. But they were still climbing, and that meant a surprise round! Oddny sent down a daily prayer, Hermiad used an arrow, Erik conjured a holy weapon and a Daunting Light blast, and Mendas threw a dagger. All of the fire was concentrated on one of the huge spiders, and it took nearly everything sent out at it. But all of this effort had failed to bloody it! Level 16 Elite Soldiers, that's why.
We started the first round, and some of the players won the initiative... but nobody with a ranged weapon. Well, Bartix was doing well, but he decided to delay, along with Edgar and Rurik. The vikings waited nervous seconds while the giant spiders rushed upwards.
The huge bristleback spiders charged up the wall and arrived adjacent to the viking front line. They had a power that let them deliver two bites (against separate targets) with a basic attack, so they bit Edgar, Oddny, Mendas, and Eric. The later two were bloodied immediately, and could feel their flesh necrotizing (vulnerable 10 to necrotic damage).
Edgar and Rurik hit with their two-handed weapons, and Bartix hit with his Shock Sphere, which slid them both back over the edge. Given their positioning, the spiders fell down some 20 feet before catching the webs and recovering on the walls. One of the spiders, the one that had received the most hits, was now bloodied!
There were four smaller (Medium-sized) spiders, and they sprang up from the webs and into combat! They were able to shift up a total of 18 squares, including up walls, so they skirted the defender front line and sprang from the ceiling! Two landed by Bartix, and two by Hermiad... aka the soft chewy center of the party. They bit with less force than their parents, but it was still painful to people in cloth armor.
Oddny, Mendas, and Erik continued to harry the larger spider, including maintaining a magical clerical floating hammer. Everything hit, and the spider was now down to less than 100 hit points. Which is more than the max for any character... Hermiad protected himself by Two-Wolf-Pouncing the little spiders around him, and bloodied one nearly to death. He was still adjacent to the monsters, though.
The Huge spiders regrouped and regained even ground with the party... there ended up being too much three-dimensional movement in this fight! We dealt with it fine, but the perfectionist in me wishes I had been able to model it. The four bite attacks missed Edgar, but hit Oddny, Rurik, and Erik. That's two hits so far on the Paladin's AC, which never happens! Each time a spider bite connected, the target gained 10 vulnerability to to necrotic damage, making future bites hurt that much more. The party was doing a decent job of saving, but anyone that stayed in the front ranks was in for trouble. The vikings battened down the hatches and got to some serious healing. Lots of people were bloodied, and one might have dropped!
Rurik used a Daily power and hit the unbloodied giant spider with his great-axe. This allowed the rest of the party breathing room to take healing surges. Bartix got off his Odin's Ball on both the huge spiders, killing one and bloodying the other!
Edgar then shifted back and used his Daily to call all possible creatures towards him, getting Bartix and Hermiad out of the fire. The giant spiders didn't have room to approach, but the smaller young spiders were all rearranged. Edgar then used his lightning greatsword to shock all four. One of the little spiders was killed, two were bloodied, and one was... just fine, really, but he was now outnumbered!
In response, the three remaining spiders all bit the fighter! But they missed and he was fine.
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And then my parents arrived, having driven all day from Florida! We had to call the session, but I asked the group whether they would like to freeze time and pick up next week, or to handwave the rest of the fight as a victory at the cost of a healing surge apiece. People were cool with that, and we called it a night!
Next week: the mysterious portal!
