Savage Vinland: Thunderspire Labyrinth: Session 8

Last week we played the ninth night of the Thunderspire Labyrinth arc. With all four magical items recovered, our party was ready to unleash the Proving Grounds.

The vikings had explored nearly all of the Proving Grounds complex by now, and they took some time to fill in the gaps of the exploration. They found a gallery of statues, an altar with minotaur statues, a chamber of chained skeletons, and a bottomless pit in the center. In four points (not quite corners) were glowing magic circles. From speaking to the ghosts, they remembered that the items had to be placed on the circles simultaneously. And that meant splitting the party!

They decided to station Rurik the warlord and Mendas the rogue by the mutli-colored pools. Edgar and Hermiad took up position near the statues. Erik and Oddny readied next to the altar with the minotaur statues (their mouths suspiciously open). Finally, Bartix and Varin were next to the rows of skeletons. They used Bartix's Ghost Sound to produce a central countdown, and on 3, they all placed their items.

The roar out of the central pit surprised no-one: the vikings had been warned about the dragon and were expecting it. An adult green dragon swooped through the halls and bit Rurik in a fly-by attack! The jaws snapped just short, though, and I had the dragon finish up a few squares down the hallway.

At the same time, a magical ball of force formed in the corner of the inner track. It rolled 12 squares clockwise.

The divine characters heard the ball roll nearby, but also saw those minotaur statues swivelling to target them. Both cleric and paladin sent divine bolts into the nearest one, giving it significant damage.

In the Southwest room, a tentacle of elemental water lashed out and attacked Mendas! There was no damage done, but the rogue now knew to move!

To the North, Edgar and Hermiad were all ready to react to those statues. But then crossbows descended from the ceiling and trained on them! Edgar tried to deal with them, but the firing mechanism was too receded to attack directly. It would take a Thievery roll to disarm the trap, and these weren’t the right horses for that race. Edgar moved up into the corridor to try and lock-down the dragon.

And the dragon accommodated! It charged in, hitting with two claws and earning the right to bite as well. This bloodied the fighter in one go! But the Flyby Attack didn't recharge, and the dragon was stuck in place.

Meanwhile, the crossbows fired from the room. Bolts were sent into the backs of Edgar and Hermiad... leaving the fighter in bad shape.

And no one could aid them! Bartix and Varin determined that they could get out of their skeleton-zone before facing a threat, but now they were stuck just outside of the inner track, knowing they would be rolled over if they proceeded. The ball did indeed move on, but it only covered half the distance to the dragon. Now Mendas, Rurik, Bartix and Varin were all just one square behind it, waiting to capitalize.

Erik and Oddny took the North track, hoping to brave the ball or duck into a corridor to avoid it. But with their 5 moves, they only made the halfway point.

The dragon needed to get out of here, before the force ball came around, and before the vikings closed. He used his Frightful Presence to try to stun Edgar and Hermiad, which would allow him to escape. Edgar sucuumbed to the will-based attack, but Hermiad saved. Well, that took the potential damages down to one opportunity attack, and the dragon risked it. He squeezed by and tried to get to the passageways to the North.

Hermiad took his opportunity attack, but also took the chance to use the daily power on his Force Sword +2. And he hit! As the sword hit the dragon, the physical wound was a mere scratch against its scaly hide. But from the weapon shot shimemring planes of force, reaching around and surrounding the beast. Hermiad slid the giant dragon back one square to its original location and restrained it until the end of the ranger's next turn.
Bah! And that's where I knew the PCs had won. I fought this tooth and nail, but Anthony had the rules right... With the way this triggered, almost all of the PCs would have two chances to attack this dragon before it could move again.

But even if the dragon's momentum was shattered, it was only lightly wounded, and Edgar was past bloodied. Erik moved around the corner and came adjacent to the fighter, using his Cure Major Wounds to give two healing surges at once! This was pretty brave... the great thing about Hermiad's Force Sword attack was that the dragon was held in place to be hit by the ball. But now Erik was next in line for the force ball as well.

And at the bottom of the round, the force ball did just that. Both the dragon and the cleric were hit and damaged... Erik was knocked prone, but the dragon stood on its feet.

But now the path to the dragon was free! Mendas had the first initiative, and he tumbled forward and Swept the Leg! Yeah, that works with giant quadreped dragons. He did sneak attack damage to the restrained beast, and layered on another disadvantage.

The warlord was next. Rurik ran up, unleashed an encounter, and bloodied the dragon! I had taken out a fifth of the hitpoints on this thing to synch it with the changes from Monster Manual 2. You know, with five or less players, I bet solo monsters are a real drag. With eight players? They're just fine as written.

And now I finally remembered to use Bloodied Breath. As an immediate action, the dragon expelled a stinking cloud of poison! Hit and ongoing damage!

The dragon had the next initiative. He stood up, though he was still restrained. But he could still unleash his breath, and I had two non-defenders in range. The rogue and the warlord took another blast of poison. Spending an action point, the dragon then clawed up the rogue. He only hit with one claw, which meant no corresponding bite. Boo!

Now it was time for the party to pile on. Varin and Bartix fired above their friend's heads sent arcane blasts into the dragon's head. From behind, Edgar and Hermiad took adjacent squares, while Oddny and Erik supported them. In response, the dragon wasted it's remaining action point on a series of botches. It was very rapidly dead!

The ball continued its path around the inner circuit. The vikings felt pretty safe, with at least two rounds to clear the circuit before they were in danger again. But we were still in combat... what would be the next shoe to drop?

Mendas ducked into the statue gallery, keeping himself low and dodging automatic crossbow fire from the ceiling. He then noticed that the statues had changed: the figures were still stone, but their armor and weapons were now metal! The rogue reached up and undid the clasps and was rewarded with a suit of plate mail! It'll probably go to somebody else...
The vikings looted these statues, despite being under fire. Magic plate, two sets of magic chainmail, and a magic greatsword, all +3! This treasure was a long time in coming, and the defenders/leaders were anxious for the upgrade.

The PCs knew where they needed to go, but the way was blocked with grasping skeletons. The undead had been sluggish when the complex was triggered, but now they were active, clawing at the air. Erik and Oddny laid some raidiant damage, though, and while they were not destroyed, they were slowed to the point that they would not be a threat.

Mendas took the lead, leaping over the groggy skeletons and running through the now-open stone doors. He ran into a dense fog, which he immediately realized was masking all sound. Without the ability to scout, the whole party charged ahead!
And with that, they broke into the Inner Sanctum:
This chamber is dominated by a leering idol. Before this idol is an iron cauldron filled with a bubbling liquid that gives off a thick mist. A short staircase leads to a raised area that overlooks the idol. Three more cauldrons are set on this upper area, along with a stone altar. To the east of the altar, a series of green, ghostly runes have been scribed into the floor. Two dragonborn stand within the glowing runes. They appear to be in some kind of trance.

A gnoll with large bat wings stands behind the altar. He grasps a mace in one hand and a sheaf of parchment in the other. A massive apelike demon stands beside him, while a small pack of carnage demons snarls at you from atop the raised platform.

This gnoll was chanting, its eyes locked on the cauldrons and the dragonborn in the circle. It stole a quick glance over its shoulder, and quickly pointed at one of the demons. The evistro shuffled forward and, through an ill-formed mouth, intoned a warning:

"My master commands you leave! He too once fought the guardian, and knows that it has depleted your power. My master offers you mercy. He commands that if you leave this room, you will leave with your lives."
The vikings scoffed at this, like good D&D characters. "Mercy?" someone said, "Well, now we've got to kill them!"

And combat was on. The first initiative was the zombie minotaur up on the platform. It charged across the room and engaged Mendas right in the doorway!

There wasn't a lot of room for the PCs to manuever, but they spread out as much as they could. Mendas, Edgar, and Rurik approached and attacked hand to hand, and everyone else tried to hit him from the second rank.

Bartix found the one space open to the left, leaving him uncomfortably adjacent to the undead minotaur. But his Thunderwave hit, knocking the zombie back towards the cauldron.

This allowed the party a bit of breathing room, but not much. They spread out a few squares before the demons charged in! The Balguras took center stage, with four evistros on the flanks.