One month has passed since your party returned from the Isle of Fury. Gaermund, your earl, welcomed you warmly and held a private audience to hear a recount of your exploits. At the end, he congratulated you all, and gathered the clan together for a feast in your honor. At the climax of the feast Gaermund announced that the clan would all be relocating to the Isle, which was met with cheers from everyone. Your characters learn that a group of older, more experienced warriors was sent at the same time to secure an inland keep in Hyboria. Two days before you arrived back, they returned in defeat. Your success was unexpected and is highly praised.
The next game opens one month later. You have taken up residence with your clan on the Isle. Fishing is plentiful, farming plots have been set up, and some of the island lumber has been harvested to begin building a second dragon ship. You now live in the caves you helped clear.
Ingjald, the ranking Wizard, has examined both the door to the Underdark and the Runestones. Both have been pronounced safe. There has been a cursory attempt to unlock the door, but Gaermund devoted resources elsewhere and stationed a light guard. The clan has all practiced calling on the Runestone blessings, discovering that the effect wears off after one week of reading the script. Everyone keeps themselves refreshed with the blessings as part of a weekly (sometimes daily) ritual.
A longboat can get you to Hyboria in six hours, and a Dragonship can make the journey in two hours with the wind. You have had ample time to trade and purchase with your newly acquired gold. The conditions on Hyboria lower prices by 20 percent, as the sieged vikings need liquid assets for food more than anything else. However, traded items net 20 percent less gold than normal.
Before we begin playing, think about what you would want to buy. My notes put your total wealth in coin at 2415 gold pieces.
Showing posts with label Isle of Fury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Isle of Fury. Show all posts
Monday, November 3, 2008
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Isle of Fury part 8
Last week we played Part 8 of the Isle of Fury! It all came down to this: in game 1, four 1st level characters landed on the island, and were warned by friendly fish-people to stay away from the barrows. Now there were 7 characters, everyone was at least 2nd level, and they were armed with the weapons of their ancestors. We were ready to finish this thing!
A well-defined path led from the crossroads in the center of the island to the barrows in the northeast. The vikings approached the barrows through the woods to stay hidden. The clanky fighters stayed back, while Hermiad the Ranger and Mendas the Rogue went ahead to scout. They saw that the path opened to a clearing some 50 feet before the first barrow. And in that clearing was zombies!
As they crouched in the woods, they saw 12 zombies, from a mix of human, orc, and goblin corpses, softly moaning and shuffling in place. Around their perimeter was strung a light rope, which terminated in some kind of device. Through the scout's eyes (using One Heart, One Mind), Bartix the wizard determined that the rope and device were not mechanical. Another examination by Mendas seemed to determine the purpose: when the rope was triggered by zombies walking over it, a loud bell would ring.
This determined, Hermiad and Mendas scouted further down the map to look at the barrows. There were four barrows, some 40 feet across and twenty feet of sharply-sloping earth. One had thoroughly collapsed and could not be entered, but the other three seemed to have wooden doors of recent construction. Against one of the doors, a large boulder had been dragged into place.
Rurik the warlord suggested that this boulder-secured cave might be where the Jesus monster was kept. Jesus does, in fact, hate vikings... but everyone knew that WOTC wouldn't get to Jesus until at least Monster Manual III. Rurik's next idea was to open this crypt first: as it seemed to be secured by the goblins, it might contain allies. This was a fucking terrible idea and I could not keep a straight face, so I apologize to the group for lending undue aid.
After getting a feel for the whole area, the vikings hatched a plan. Hermiad would try to sever the rope with an arrow, solving the alarm problem. Then, Bartix would run some 200 feet down the path and use Ghost Sound to replicate a moaning zombie. Since we've all read our Max Brooks, we knew that this would draw the zombies away. Mendas stayed in place in the eastern woods, behind the zombies, ready to react to whatever happened.
First, Hermiad aimed his arrow, aided by four of his allies. With 1H1M still running, this ended up giving him a +12 to an already good roll, and his arrow severed the rope and then buried itself in the ground, unnoticed by the undead.
Then Bartix moaned in the distance. The zombies took the bait and shuffled to the south. This plan was gangbusters so far, except for one thing... predatory zombies made a noticeable moan themselves. Not as loud as the alarm bell, but still noticeable. And I rolled a monster Perception of a natural 20.
So, at this point, Grimmur, the boss of the goblin horde, came running out of his northern barrow to see what the commotion was. Grimmur was an Elite Demonic Acolyte Ogre Savage, with nearly 300 HP. We all rolled initiative and got to it. Everyone beat the monsters, with Hermiad going first.
The ranger stood in the woods and sent two arrows at the ogre, one of which hit. Varin the warlock got out of the woods and began firing Bolts of Radiance at the backs of the zombies, doing decent damage to one of them. Oddny did the same with her crossbow. Bartix made a desperate zombie howl, trying to keep the attention of his quarries. Everyone else started to work their way out of the woods. Grimmur, meanwhile, took shelter against one of the barrows, taking out a scroll! Mendas relayed this to the rest of the party, as the ogre could no longer be seen by most of them. Only 9 of the zombies were still on the map, having shuffled off towards Bartix for several rounds. But now they saw fresh meat behind them. The horde reversed direction and began to shuffle towards the players!
Determined to stop that scroll from being read, the vikings went into action. Hermiad moved and fired again at the ogre, even though the zombies were getting close. Rurik charged across the battlefield, hitting the ogre with a Critical with his greataxe! This was his first crit with a magic weapon, and the damage was obscene for an action without even a power behind it. Mendas leapt from his hidey hole and took position at the ogre's back, hitting but rolling low on his d8s. Edgar also charged, connecting for around 15. I think the ogre was down by about a sixth of his hit points, and he hadn't struck yet!
Back at the zombies, Oddny wanted to use her Turn Undead, but it was a close Burst 1 and these guys weren't close yet. It was actually beneficial to wait and get mobbed (ah, the defender's lot in life). She fired off a lightning burst from her crossbow, taking out two zombies and injuring two more. Varin also fired into the horde: by now it was clear that some of these zombies were going down fast and some were not. It looked like the goblin corpses just didn't hold up to undeadification real well.
Meanwhile, Grimmur was mobbed, but if he could get that scroll off, he could add another 700 points of forces to his side. He ignored the consequences and tried to read it. But then his curse struck! As a result of reading the Rune Stone of Sorrow, Grimmur could only act each turn if a die came up 4,5, or 6. So he froze, scroll in hand, while Edgar, Mendas, and Rurik administered free whacks!
The zombies inched across the map. Hermiad and Varin got slammed (why do zombies slam, Monster Manual? They should bite), and Oddny was now surrounded, but protected by her plate and shield.
As the initiative order reset, Hermiad cuisinarted his zombie foe, while Varin shifted and burned his. Oddny got her Turn Undead off, taking the total number in the horde down to four. I think all the minions were off the table now. Rurik and Edgar got their Daily Powers off against the ogre, doing quite a lot of damage, thank you very much. Mendas also hit with his Dazing Strike, limiting the monster's actions. Grimmur, now, had another chance to get that scroll off, but he froze up under the curse again! Bah! He was now bloodied, meaning that over 140 points of damage had been dealt to him. Also, the zombies continued their assault, but generally the vikings were okay.
On the next turn, Hermiad, Varin, and Oddny worked on cleaning up the zombies, while Edgar, Mendas, and Rurik whittled away at Grimmur. Bartix finally made it back on the battlefield, and magic-missiled the ogre chief.
The monster wasn't looking so hot, but his curse subsided for the turn, so he tried to hit Edgar with his club. No dice (literally, he rolled a 4). The battle was over in the next two turns. Hermiad killed Grimmur with an arrow shot, and the remaining two zombies were easy pickings once the group realigned to deal with them.
With the immediate threat taken care of, there were still two barrows unopened. Edgar and Rurik had spent the end of the battle proper at the door of the closest, waiting to react to anything that might come out. But nothing happened... as the last zombie collapsed, the battlefield fell silent.
After a five minute rest, the party gathered at the barrow doorway. The door was kicked open, and Bartix lit it up. They peered in and saw... nothing! Nothing moving, anyway... the floor was covered by three softly glowing magic circles, and in each were two aged human skeletons. With Mage Hands, Batix extracted three swords, six skulls, and anything else he could take to disable this necromantic hoo-hah. When it seemed safe, Mendas went in. He kicked apart the sand defining the magic circles, then searched the room. On a desk was a scroll that seemed to be identical to the one that Grimmur carried. Written in gobbish, it was defintely magical, but appeared to be designed for a layman to cast, not an experienced mage. The party correctly deduced that this was the raising mechanism for the six skeletons. Other than that, the room was bare.
Next they went to the barrow that Grimmur had come from. The smell was awful: it was apparent he had been living in the small room for at least a month. Inside was the Runestone of Sorrow, a coffin with the sides kicked out (to accommodate an ogre), and his stash of over 1000 gold! But nothing moving.
Finally the party came to the last barrow, with a boulder in front of it. Working together, they pushed aside the rock, opened the door, and looked inside. The barrow was in ill repair, with rocks from collapse and coffins askew across the floor. Something stirred inside, but the monsters had burrowed into boltholes as the crypt was lit up. Cautiously, Mendas, then the rest of the party entered.
Six ghouls jumped out, but it wasn't like they really surprised anyone. We rolled initiative, but several players still had Daily Powers left, including our most successful implementation of the wizard's Freezing Cloud yet! The ghouls were dispatched, and since is was nearly 11:00, I called the game.
Everyone hit Third level this game, and has some kind of bonus from weapon and armor besides. They had proven that they could take out a level 8 monster without breaking a sweat. They handled an encounter that could have been four encounters in one without it going pear-shaped. Thanks to everyone for playing!
Casualties:
6 Zombies
6 Zombie Rotters (minions)
3 Blazing Skeletons (never triggered)
2 Skeleton Warriors (never triggered)
6 Ghouls (Downgraded from level 5 to level 3)
Grimmur, Elite Demonic Acolyte Ogre Savage
25 beers
A well-defined path led from the crossroads in the center of the island to the barrows in the northeast. The vikings approached the barrows through the woods to stay hidden. The clanky fighters stayed back, while Hermiad the Ranger and Mendas the Rogue went ahead to scout. They saw that the path opened to a clearing some 50 feet before the first barrow. And in that clearing was zombies!
As they crouched in the woods, they saw 12 zombies, from a mix of human, orc, and goblin corpses, softly moaning and shuffling in place. Around their perimeter was strung a light rope, which terminated in some kind of device. Through the scout's eyes (using One Heart, One Mind), Bartix the wizard determined that the rope and device were not mechanical. Another examination by Mendas seemed to determine the purpose: when the rope was triggered by zombies walking over it, a loud bell would ring.
This determined, Hermiad and Mendas scouted further down the map to look at the barrows. There were four barrows, some 40 feet across and twenty feet of sharply-sloping earth. One had thoroughly collapsed and could not be entered, but the other three seemed to have wooden doors of recent construction. Against one of the doors, a large boulder had been dragged into place.
Rurik the warlord suggested that this boulder-secured cave might be where the Jesus monster was kept. Jesus does, in fact, hate vikings... but everyone knew that WOTC wouldn't get to Jesus until at least Monster Manual III. Rurik's next idea was to open this crypt first: as it seemed to be secured by the goblins, it might contain allies. This was a fucking terrible idea and I could not keep a straight face, so I apologize to the group for lending undue aid.
After getting a feel for the whole area, the vikings hatched a plan. Hermiad would try to sever the rope with an arrow, solving the alarm problem. Then, Bartix would run some 200 feet down the path and use Ghost Sound to replicate a moaning zombie. Since we've all read our Max Brooks, we knew that this would draw the zombies away. Mendas stayed in place in the eastern woods, behind the zombies, ready to react to whatever happened.
First, Hermiad aimed his arrow, aided by four of his allies. With 1H1M still running, this ended up giving him a +12 to an already good roll, and his arrow severed the rope and then buried itself in the ground, unnoticed by the undead.
Then Bartix moaned in the distance. The zombies took the bait and shuffled to the south. This plan was gangbusters so far, except for one thing... predatory zombies made a noticeable moan themselves. Not as loud as the alarm bell, but still noticeable. And I rolled a monster Perception of a natural 20.
So, at this point, Grimmur, the boss of the goblin horde, came running out of his northern barrow to see what the commotion was. Grimmur was an Elite Demonic Acolyte Ogre Savage, with nearly 300 HP. We all rolled initiative and got to it. Everyone beat the monsters, with Hermiad going first.
The ranger stood in the woods and sent two arrows at the ogre, one of which hit. Varin the warlock got out of the woods and began firing Bolts of Radiance at the backs of the zombies, doing decent damage to one of them. Oddny did the same with her crossbow. Bartix made a desperate zombie howl, trying to keep the attention of his quarries. Everyone else started to work their way out of the woods. Grimmur, meanwhile, took shelter against one of the barrows, taking out a scroll! Mendas relayed this to the rest of the party, as the ogre could no longer be seen by most of them. Only 9 of the zombies were still on the map, having shuffled off towards Bartix for several rounds. But now they saw fresh meat behind them. The horde reversed direction and began to shuffle towards the players!
Determined to stop that scroll from being read, the vikings went into action. Hermiad moved and fired again at the ogre, even though the zombies were getting close. Rurik charged across the battlefield, hitting the ogre with a Critical with his greataxe! This was his first crit with a magic weapon, and the damage was obscene for an action without even a power behind it. Mendas leapt from his hidey hole and took position at the ogre's back, hitting but rolling low on his d8s. Edgar also charged, connecting for around 15. I think the ogre was down by about a sixth of his hit points, and he hadn't struck yet!
Back at the zombies, Oddny wanted to use her Turn Undead, but it was a close Burst 1 and these guys weren't close yet. It was actually beneficial to wait and get mobbed (ah, the defender's lot in life). She fired off a lightning burst from her crossbow, taking out two zombies and injuring two more. Varin also fired into the horde: by now it was clear that some of these zombies were going down fast and some were not. It looked like the goblin corpses just didn't hold up to undeadification real well.
Meanwhile, Grimmur was mobbed, but if he could get that scroll off, he could add another 700 points of forces to his side. He ignored the consequences and tried to read it. But then his curse struck! As a result of reading the Rune Stone of Sorrow, Grimmur could only act each turn if a die came up 4,5, or 6. So he froze, scroll in hand, while Edgar, Mendas, and Rurik administered free whacks!
The zombies inched across the map. Hermiad and Varin got slammed (why do zombies slam, Monster Manual? They should bite), and Oddny was now surrounded, but protected by her plate and shield.
As the initiative order reset, Hermiad cuisinarted his zombie foe, while Varin shifted and burned his. Oddny got her Turn Undead off, taking the total number in the horde down to four. I think all the minions were off the table now. Rurik and Edgar got their Daily Powers off against the ogre, doing quite a lot of damage, thank you very much. Mendas also hit with his Dazing Strike, limiting the monster's actions. Grimmur, now, had another chance to get that scroll off, but he froze up under the curse again! Bah! He was now bloodied, meaning that over 140 points of damage had been dealt to him. Also, the zombies continued their assault, but generally the vikings were okay.
On the next turn, Hermiad, Varin, and Oddny worked on cleaning up the zombies, while Edgar, Mendas, and Rurik whittled away at Grimmur. Bartix finally made it back on the battlefield, and magic-missiled the ogre chief.
The monster wasn't looking so hot, but his curse subsided for the turn, so he tried to hit Edgar with his club. No dice (literally, he rolled a 4). The battle was over in the next two turns. Hermiad killed Grimmur with an arrow shot, and the remaining two zombies were easy pickings once the group realigned to deal with them.
With the immediate threat taken care of, there were still two barrows unopened. Edgar and Rurik had spent the end of the battle proper at the door of the closest, waiting to react to anything that might come out. But nothing happened... as the last zombie collapsed, the battlefield fell silent.
After a five minute rest, the party gathered at the barrow doorway. The door was kicked open, and Bartix lit it up. They peered in and saw... nothing! Nothing moving, anyway... the floor was covered by three softly glowing magic circles, and in each were two aged human skeletons. With Mage Hands, Batix extracted three swords, six skulls, and anything else he could take to disable this necromantic hoo-hah. When it seemed safe, Mendas went in. He kicked apart the sand defining the magic circles, then searched the room. On a desk was a scroll that seemed to be identical to the one that Grimmur carried. Written in gobbish, it was defintely magical, but appeared to be designed for a layman to cast, not an experienced mage. The party correctly deduced that this was the raising mechanism for the six skeletons. Other than that, the room was bare.
Next they went to the barrow that Grimmur had come from. The smell was awful: it was apparent he had been living in the small room for at least a month. Inside was the Runestone of Sorrow, a coffin with the sides kicked out (to accommodate an ogre), and his stash of over 1000 gold! But nothing moving.
Finally the party came to the last barrow, with a boulder in front of it. Working together, they pushed aside the rock, opened the door, and looked inside. The barrow was in ill repair, with rocks from collapse and coffins askew across the floor. Something stirred inside, but the monsters had burrowed into boltholes as the crypt was lit up. Cautiously, Mendas, then the rest of the party entered.
Six ghouls jumped out, but it wasn't like they really surprised anyone. We rolled initiative, but several players still had Daily Powers left, including our most successful implementation of the wizard's Freezing Cloud yet! The ghouls were dispatched, and since is was nearly 11:00, I called the game.
Everyone hit Third level this game, and has some kind of bonus from weapon and armor besides. They had proven that they could take out a level 8 monster without breaking a sweat. They handled an encounter that could have been four encounters in one without it going pear-shaped. Thanks to everyone for playing!
Casualties:
6 Zombies
6 Zombie Rotters (minions)
3 Blazing Skeletons (never triggered)
2 Skeleton Warriors (never triggered)
6 Ghouls (Downgraded from level 5 to level 3)
Grimmur, Elite Demonic Acolyte Ogre Savage
25 beers
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
A Week of Adventuring
From Marcus:
So, I was messing around with a timeline and guessed/calculated some stuff out:
Moon Day we got our briefing. Moon Day morning status meetings, bleh.
Tyr’s Day we landed on the island and messed with runestones.
Woden’s Day we fought a bear, spiders and goblins.
Thor’s Day we found the Arsenal of Thor! Naturally.
Freya’s Day we freed some ghosts.
That makes today… um… well, given that we’re fleeing the invaders, we’re not likely to have given their god Saturn a day of the week yet, are we? So I figure it’s Loki’s Day. Hmm, I bet some people regard Loki’s Day as bad luck. Or maybe people tend to go crazy more often on Loki’s Day.
And tomorrow would be Sun Day, of course. Good day to rest, depending on how Loki’s Day goes.
So, I was messing around with a timeline and guessed/calculated some stuff out:
Moon Day we got our briefing. Moon Day morning status meetings, bleh.
Tyr’s Day we landed on the island and messed with runestones.
Woden’s Day we fought a bear, spiders and goblins.
Thor’s Day we found the Arsenal of Thor! Naturally.
Freya’s Day we freed some ghosts.
That makes today… um… well, given that we’re fleeing the invaders, we’re not likely to have given their god Saturn a day of the week yet, are we? So I figure it’s Loki’s Day. Hmm, I bet some people regard Loki’s Day as bad luck. Or maybe people tend to go crazy more often on Loki’s Day.
And tomorrow would be Sun Day, of course. Good day to rest, depending on how Loki’s Day goes.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Isle of Fury part 7
The other night we played the seventh game of the Isle of Fury cycle. Yeah, it started as an adventure, but now it's a cycle! First we rewound the clock a bit. Once I published the Journal of Bogrunn, Studious Goblin, I interrupted continuity and we realized that the players had acted without knowing information that they now should have had. Maybe they didn't want to go into the pit full of angry ghosts after all!
So we started this session in the morning as they woke up in the Temple of Thor. In attendance was Anthony playing Hermiad the ranger, Marc playing Varin the warlock, Marcus playing Mendas the rogue, Martin playing Edgar the fighter, and Rebecca playing Oddny the paladin. The players of Bartix and Rurik couldn't make it, so we made a group decision to leave them unplayed in the back of the scene. We've tried to put two characters on one player, and it got us through some early games when people couldn't show, but it's not what we like.
So the party went out and marched directly to the mysterious pit!
Mendas secured himself with a rope and let Edgar be in charge of rescuing/hoisting him if things went wrong. He carefully descended two levels down while above him, on the platform above, the rest of the party readied missile support. As Mendas landed on the second level, two spirits materialized in front of him! The party could see swirling forms of vapor floating just feet from the rogue. Hermiad, who rolled the high initiative, took the first action and tried Diplomacy instead of Arrow. He called out to the ghosts, telling them that the party were brave Viking sons here to liberate the island from the invaders, and that they meant no harm.
The ghosts responded by backing away from Mendas, although two more appeared lower in the pit. That was still a good sign, so Mendas tried Diplomacy as well, and rolled really high. He tried to explain to the ghosts that they had secured the Temple of Thor and the runestones, and were close to clearing the island of non-Norse filth. He backed it up with a really high Diplomacy roll, especially for his character. The ghost liked the cut of their collective jibs, and opened up, telling Mendas that they were the last defenders of the island, killed years ago defending against an Underdark incursion from the doorway at the bottom of the pit. Mendas acted as spokesman throughout, and the part used "One Heart, One Mind" from the runestone blessings to effortlessly trade ideas. Finally, the specters asked the party to give their remains a proper Viking burial (as everyone knows, you put the body on a boat, and then you shoot the boat with a flaming arrow). If they could perform the burial before the sun set, they could help themselves to the magical armor the corpses still wore!
Well, you don't turn down a chance at magic armor, or the chance to start a fire. So the party descended and gathered up the bones, then retraced their steps through the dungeon and exited out of the bear cave. Making their way over to the beach, they tried to decide on how to make a boat. It wouldn't work to burn their own boat, so they quickly chopped down a tree and started creating a dugout canoe. We ran a skill challenge using Athletics or Nature as the mechanism, and got 10 out of 10 successes. That's how you make a boat! Of course, at that point, someone remembered that Bartix had a specific plan for this kind of issue... he had been carrying around miscellaneous junk so that he could use Make Whole to create a bridge or a house or a boat! Oh well. The party laid out the bodies, towed the canoe out in their longboat, and set it aflame. Then they went back on the beach to admire their new armor.
The party made their way back to the caves, stopping by the runestones first to refresh their blessings. They went to the opening of the cave they had first discovered (all those weeks ago, to us) and cautiously worked their way in. The opening room was empty, and some exploration of one of the surrounding passages revealed a place they had already been to. Now able to place themselves on the dungeon map, they proceeded to the east and found themselves at a mysterious doorway. They thought they recognized this as a heavily-trapped room from the journal, so they peered in the door and examined it carefully.
They noticed good stuff in there, a shiny medallion and at least a hundred gold coins. Peering in, they noticed grooves cut across the floor at regular intervals, but probing the grooves did nothing. At this point everyone in the party knew that the room was going to attack them, but what was there to do? Mendas cautiously leapt in to see what would happen, with Edgar close behind.
The doorway of the room immediately shut as a stone block swung down from the ceiling. In the room, Mendas and Edgar saw the door ahead of them close. Then two bladed pendulums swung through the room (though they were nowhere near the characters. Finally, from the debris, two small serpentine humanoids rose up and rushed the heroes.
In the hallway, the three remaining characters attempted to break down the door. Meanwhile Edgar and Mendas were grappling with the monsters, revealed at some point to be Cavern Chokers. Mendas had the high initiative, but he held his action to react to the creatures. The chokers charged across the room and grabed the two vikings, but Mendas got a simultaneous hit in. The pendulum axes swung again, but they only went through the back of the room.
The rest of the party launched an attack on the door, and Varin's blast was able to get through! Varin hopped in through the hole he had made and helped Mendas with his Choker. Edgar had been grabbed, but he broke away. Mendas's foe missed; so far, these creatures weren't performing well. Then one of the axe blades swung at Varin, doing one million damage! Or 18 something, but we established that the axes were serious business.
The rest of the party charged into the room, and the chokers lasted only a round or two. However, the axes were still swinging. At this point, everyone was frantically rolling Perception checks to see where the next axe would be. Hermiad figured out that he could damage an axe that swung through the middle of the room in a row next to him. But it required doing a lot of damage to a moving target. Then a pendulum went through Row 2, where most of the party was clustered. Everyone unloosed either sword or spell, and the axe was stopped. Now they had a safe place to stand!
From row 2, it might be possible to clear the rest of the room, as most of the party had some ability to attack at a distance. But everyone knew that this would take forever. Oddny assisted Mendas with a perception check, and they got to 25! That was enough to see the control panel hidden in the corner of the room.
Mendas crossed the room and began to try to disarm the trap. This turned out to be a really tough skill challenge! Hermiad went a few rows away and tried to clear some heat by attacking nearby pendulums with his axes. He and the rest of the party were able to stop another axe on row 10, but Mendas got more faliures than successes, and the number of axes increased! He had to start again, and this time, worked his way through the trap.
Searching the room revealed an Amulet of Health, a pair of Acrobat Boots, and 900 pieces of gold. Everyone had to spend some healing surges to replenish the several axe trap hits, but they were okay. Now it was 10:30, so I quickly rolled them through the rest of the dungeon. A room to the east was a water cave where the goblins had fished: Edgar found some Wavestrider boots (which are useless, as far as we can tell). In the middle of the dungeon was a newly consecrated shrine to Loki, but the priest was absent, possibly killed in a previous attack. They checked the pit as well, and the spirits were absent. Everything else had been explored and killed. Done and done!
The party agreed to sleep for the night, then assault the barrows. Important game next time, everyone totally has to come!
Casualties:
4 Specters (not killed, but released)
2 Cavern Chokers
2 Pendulum traps
8 beers (I blame myself)
So we started this session in the morning as they woke up in the Temple of Thor. In attendance was Anthony playing Hermiad the ranger, Marc playing Varin the warlock, Marcus playing Mendas the rogue, Martin playing Edgar the fighter, and Rebecca playing Oddny the paladin. The players of Bartix and Rurik couldn't make it, so we made a group decision to leave them unplayed in the back of the scene. We've tried to put two characters on one player, and it got us through some early games when people couldn't show, but it's not what we like.
So the party went out and marched directly to the mysterious pit!
The floor in this large circular room spirals downward into darkness. A five-foot-wide path is easily walked to the bottom of the dark bowllike depression.
Mendas secured himself with a rope and let Edgar be in charge of rescuing/hoisting him if things went wrong. He carefully descended two levels down while above him, on the platform above, the rest of the party readied missile support. As Mendas landed on the second level, two spirits materialized in front of him! The party could see swirling forms of vapor floating just feet from the rogue. Hermiad, who rolled the high initiative, took the first action and tried Diplomacy instead of Arrow. He called out to the ghosts, telling them that the party were brave Viking sons here to liberate the island from the invaders, and that they meant no harm.
The ghosts responded by backing away from Mendas, although two more appeared lower in the pit. That was still a good sign, so Mendas tried Diplomacy as well, and rolled really high. He tried to explain to the ghosts that they had secured the Temple of Thor and the runestones, and were close to clearing the island of non-Norse filth. He backed it up with a really high Diplomacy roll, especially for his character. The ghost liked the cut of their collective jibs, and opened up, telling Mendas that they were the last defenders of the island, killed years ago defending against an Underdark incursion from the doorway at the bottom of the pit. Mendas acted as spokesman throughout, and the part used "One Heart, One Mind" from the runestone blessings to effortlessly trade ideas. Finally, the specters asked the party to give their remains a proper Viking burial (as everyone knows, you put the body on a boat, and then you shoot the boat with a flaming arrow). If they could perform the burial before the sun set, they could help themselves to the magical armor the corpses still wore!
Well, you don't turn down a chance at magic armor, or the chance to start a fire. So the party descended and gathered up the bones, then retraced their steps through the dungeon and exited out of the bear cave. Making their way over to the beach, they tried to decide on how to make a boat. It wouldn't work to burn their own boat, so they quickly chopped down a tree and started creating a dugout canoe. We ran a skill challenge using Athletics or Nature as the mechanism, and got 10 out of 10 successes. That's how you make a boat! Of course, at that point, someone remembered that Bartix had a specific plan for this kind of issue... he had been carrying around miscellaneous junk so that he could use Make Whole to create a bridge or a house or a boat! Oh well. The party laid out the bodies, towed the canoe out in their longboat, and set it aflame. Then they went back on the beach to admire their new armor.
The party made their way back to the caves, stopping by the runestones first to refresh their blessings. They went to the opening of the cave they had first discovered (all those weeks ago, to us) and cautiously worked their way in. The opening room was empty, and some exploration of one of the surrounding passages revealed a place they had already been to. Now able to place themselves on the dungeon map, they proceeded to the east and found themselves at a mysterious doorway. They thought they recognized this as a heavily-trapped room from the journal, so they peered in the door and examined it carefully.
The corridor widens into a roughhewn cavern strewn with debris and an eclectic collection of bizarre belongings. Pocket knives, handkerchiefs, assorted knick-knacks, a small pile of cutlery and broken pottery, a candle, flint and steel, and a rusty old grappling hook cover the floor.
They noticed good stuff in there, a shiny medallion and at least a hundred gold coins. Peering in, they noticed grooves cut across the floor at regular intervals, but probing the grooves did nothing. At this point everyone in the party knew that the room was going to attack them, but what was there to do? Mendas cautiously leapt in to see what would happen, with Edgar close behind.
The doorway of the room immediately shut as a stone block swung down from the ceiling. In the room, Mendas and Edgar saw the door ahead of them close. Then two bladed pendulums swung through the room (though they were nowhere near the characters. Finally, from the debris, two small serpentine humanoids rose up and rushed the heroes.
In the hallway, the three remaining characters attempted to break down the door. Meanwhile Edgar and Mendas were grappling with the monsters, revealed at some point to be Cavern Chokers. Mendas had the high initiative, but he held his action to react to the creatures. The chokers charged across the room and grabed the two vikings, but Mendas got a simultaneous hit in. The pendulum axes swung again, but they only went through the back of the room.
The rest of the party launched an attack on the door, and Varin's blast was able to get through! Varin hopped in through the hole he had made and helped Mendas with his Choker. Edgar had been grabbed, but he broke away. Mendas's foe missed; so far, these creatures weren't performing well. Then one of the axe blades swung at Varin, doing one million damage! Or 18 something, but we established that the axes were serious business.
The rest of the party charged into the room, and the chokers lasted only a round or two. However, the axes were still swinging. At this point, everyone was frantically rolling Perception checks to see where the next axe would be. Hermiad figured out that he could damage an axe that swung through the middle of the room in a row next to him. But it required doing a lot of damage to a moving target. Then a pendulum went through Row 2, where most of the party was clustered. Everyone unloosed either sword or spell, and the axe was stopped. Now they had a safe place to stand!
From row 2, it might be possible to clear the rest of the room, as most of the party had some ability to attack at a distance. But everyone knew that this would take forever. Oddny assisted Mendas with a perception check, and they got to 25! That was enough to see the control panel hidden in the corner of the room.
Mendas crossed the room and began to try to disarm the trap. This turned out to be a really tough skill challenge! Hermiad went a few rows away and tried to clear some heat by attacking nearby pendulums with his axes. He and the rest of the party were able to stop another axe on row 10, but Mendas got more faliures than successes, and the number of axes increased! He had to start again, and this time, worked his way through the trap.
Searching the room revealed an Amulet of Health, a pair of Acrobat Boots, and 900 pieces of gold. Everyone had to spend some healing surges to replenish the several axe trap hits, but they were okay. Now it was 10:30, so I quickly rolled them through the rest of the dungeon. A room to the east was a water cave where the goblins had fished: Edgar found some Wavestrider boots (which are useless, as far as we can tell). In the middle of the dungeon was a newly consecrated shrine to Loki, but the priest was absent, possibly killed in a previous attack. They checked the pit as well, and the spirits were absent. Everything else had been explored and killed. Done and done!
The party agreed to sleep for the night, then assault the barrows. Important game next time, everyone totally has to come!
Casualties:
4 Specters (not killed, but released)
2 Cavern Chokers
2 Pendulum traps
8 beers (I blame myself)
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
The Journal of Boggrun, Studious Goblin
In Week 4, the vikings busted in on the study of a goblin warcaster. After he was knocked into a pit and missiled to death, the crew ransacked his study and found his journal. After Week 6, we finally took a rest, and Bartix (with his Comprehend Languages still in effect) finally got a chance to sit down and read it. The following are the most relevant excerpts:
36:
We just returned from the raid, and there are now more of the Pus Hogs than there are of us. Another misstep by Grimmur, who thankfully will never decode this! And where's our loot? We ended up carrying so much of our wounded that we had no food, no metal, no slaves... and the Hogs will want revenge. Some of the few we did kill was their chief's two sons.
I'll be gone in two days... either with my tribe or without it.
41:
We have been in the Underwilds for four days now. Grimmur has made the first good decision in a wyrm's age to flea instead of staying. But where are we going to go now? Grimmur says he has a map for me to decode, something he stole long ago and was saving as a last-ditch effort. He says it shows some forgotten passage leading to a Norse island long abandoned. I think I am through the cryptics, but this map must be hundreds of years old, and the caverns change every year. And what happens when the Norse island is full of Norsemen?
53:
We made it! We are half starved from lean tunnel-hunting, but the map led us to a doorway in the upper tunnels. Grimmur chanted something to open the door, then stood back and let Burcha and Fastur go out first, Orcus save them. I peered around his waist to watch, and saw the ground glittering with treasure! There were six, possibly seven skeletons, too big to be goblins, and clad in shining armor! The two fools leapt at the treasure, trying to work the armor free. I struggled to join them, but Grimmur held us all back at the doorway. Then ghostly forms descended from somewhere, leaping on them, tearing them apart! Grimmur broke through the doorway, yelling at us to run for our lives! The warband made it up and out of the pit while the specters were distracted, but that treasure was left untouched.
I have to admit, Grimmur was right about this island. The place is deserted, including a very livable cave, and has been for decades. The boys found some very edible meat above ground and some Under-quality blooms below. We might make it here.
54:
The room near the cave mouth is off-limits. I hear Malker wandered in this morning and the door shut immediately after him. I hurried across the island to see and made it just in time to see the door open again. Malker was nowhere to be seen, although the floor was smeared with blood. I threw in a torch and caught the glitter of polished steel, so perhaps Grimmur will organize an assault on the room. Could this be related to the specters at the pit floor? Regardless, we can make our way around the room by taking back passages.
57:
I woke last night as Grimmur shook me violently, telling me to do nothing until the curse was lifted. I plead with him that I would do nothing else, and he dropped me to the cave ground and stalked off, his leg dragging behind.
Grimmur never came out of his crypt today. That's for the best: ever since he read the stone, his speech has been impossible to understand. He cannot intimidate, he cannot lead, if he talks like he has an axe in his skull. We both agree that he has been cursed.
We found the stone he read wrenched from the ground today, with tracks leading to his crypt. Now none of us will fall under the curse. I wonder what Grimmur needs the stone for. I think I can work without it.
Life is good here on the island. I eat fish from the caves and deer from the woods. Most of the caves are safe, and we all have more room than the Underdark ever offered.
72:
I went to see Grimmur to get a rubbing of his stone for study. The stench from his crypt was overpowering, he hadn't moved in days. He sat staring at the stone, intoning the human syllables over and over again. He growled at me as I entered, and I think the curse saved me from being attacked. I backed out and returned to my quarters. I think I have this Balder stone decrypted. I set Tolfa to bring the Ygdrassil stone back to me, and I think this will bring it all together.
73:
Where the hell is my stone? I would rather die of freezing Odin breath or whatever those idiots think is happening with the stone than by being eaten by Grimmur.
I have some ideas of getting through that pit and past the ghosts, but I would need the help of at least ten goblins. And that would not get us through the door. I believe it is still sealed without the chant Grimmur has. We are all doomed to die on this island.
36:
We just returned from the raid, and there are now more of the Pus Hogs than there are of us. Another misstep by Grimmur, who thankfully will never decode this! And where's our loot? We ended up carrying so much of our wounded that we had no food, no metal, no slaves... and the Hogs will want revenge. Some of the few we did kill was their chief's two sons.
I'll be gone in two days... either with my tribe or without it.
41:
We have been in the Underwilds for four days now. Grimmur has made the first good decision in a wyrm's age to flea instead of staying. But where are we going to go now? Grimmur says he has a map for me to decode, something he stole long ago and was saving as a last-ditch effort. He says it shows some forgotten passage leading to a Norse island long abandoned. I think I am through the cryptics, but this map must be hundreds of years old, and the caverns change every year. And what happens when the Norse island is full of Norsemen?
53:
We made it! We are half starved from lean tunnel-hunting, but the map led us to a doorway in the upper tunnels. Grimmur chanted something to open the door, then stood back and let Burcha and Fastur go out first, Orcus save them. I peered around his waist to watch, and saw the ground glittering with treasure! There were six, possibly seven skeletons, too big to be goblins, and clad in shining armor! The two fools leapt at the treasure, trying to work the armor free. I struggled to join them, but Grimmur held us all back at the doorway. Then ghostly forms descended from somewhere, leaping on them, tearing them apart! Grimmur broke through the doorway, yelling at us to run for our lives! The warband made it up and out of the pit while the specters were distracted, but that treasure was left untouched.
I have to admit, Grimmur was right about this island. The place is deserted, including a very livable cave, and has been for decades. The boys found some very edible meat above ground and some Under-quality blooms below. We might make it here.
54:
The room near the cave mouth is off-limits. I hear Malker wandered in this morning and the door shut immediately after him. I hurried across the island to see and made it just in time to see the door open again. Malker was nowhere to be seen, although the floor was smeared with blood. I threw in a torch and caught the glitter of polished steel, so perhaps Grimmur will organize an assault on the room. Could this be related to the specters at the pit floor? Regardless, we can make our way around the room by taking back passages.
57:
I woke last night as Grimmur shook me violently, telling me to do nothing until the curse was lifted. I plead with him that I would do nothing else, and he dropped me to the cave ground and stalked off, his leg dragging behind.
Grimmur never came out of his crypt today. That's for the best: ever since he read the stone, his speech has been impossible to understand. He cannot intimidate, he cannot lead, if he talks like he has an axe in his skull. We both agree that he has been cursed.
We found the stone he read wrenched from the ground today, with tracks leading to his crypt. Now none of us will fall under the curse. I wonder what Grimmur needs the stone for. I think I can work without it.
Life is good here on the island. I eat fish from the caves and deer from the woods. Most of the caves are safe, and we all have more room than the Underdark ever offered.
72:
I went to see Grimmur to get a rubbing of his stone for study. The stench from his crypt was overpowering, he hadn't moved in days. He sat staring at the stone, intoning the human syllables over and over again. He growled at me as I entered, and I think the curse saved me from being attacked. I backed out and returned to my quarters. I think I have this Balder stone decrypted. I set Tolfa to bring the Ygdrassil stone back to me, and I think this will bring it all together.
73:
Where the hell is my stone? I would rather die of freezing Odin breath or whatever those idiots think is happening with the stone than by being eaten by Grimmur.
I have some ideas of getting through that pit and past the ghosts, but I would need the help of at least ten goblins. And that would not get us through the door. I believe it is still sealed without the chant Grimmur has. We are all doomed to die on this island.
Isle of Fury part 6
Last night we played Part 6 of the Isle of Fury! We've settled into a solid "one giant encounter per night" model, and it seems to be working pretty well. It makes a dungeon last months, but it does result in a satisfying gaming session.
We opened with the room stretched out before the Vikings. They crept up to a doorway, but found themselves discovered and prepared for. In a giant room stood an altar to Thor Odinson, god of thunder! But it was inhabited by goblins, including an axe-wielding berserker. Four archers had set themselves up on the raised portion of the altar, ready to pepper adventurers with bolts. Behind each archer was an assistant: a minion aiding the sharpshooters to give them +2s to hit.
They were led by a Elite Savage Berserker Skullspliter goblin, who enraged the vikings by humping the Thor statue. That can't stand!
Hermiad took the first action by firing his longbow at the Berserker, hitting and doing some decent damage. Then everyone rolled initiative. The goblins took the low end of the order, allowing Bartix, Rurik, and Hermiad to get more missile fire in. This Berserker was being taken down fast, but he needed to draw them into the range of his archer support.
The archers triggered their obvious trap (that everyone tried, unsuccessfully, to detect) by firing flaming arrows at charges in the ceiling. Two rockslide traps sprung on Hermiad, Rurik, and Varin, doing some minor damage. The other two fired directly at the adventurers with minor success. Next the Berserker leapt from the altar and charged Hermiad, whacking for 8 or so.
Mendas and Rurik responded to the Berserker, bloodying him. But this played into his hand: his damage output doubled, and he started responding to melee attacks with another attack! He may have done 50 damage in a round, including 25 to Rurik with a maxed damage roll. Bartix magic-missiled him, and Hermiad shifted away to nearly finish him with a longbow. With only one hit point left, Edgar did the honors.
Oddny, Edgar, and Rurik moved up to the altar to take out the archers.
Meanwhile, Bartix had heard sounds echoing through the dungeon. He could still understand Goblish, so he could understand them saying, "We've got them now, boys! We're the last chance!" Bartix positioned himself by the door, and readied his spells. Meanwhile Hermiad and Mendas set themselves up on the other side, ready to capitalize. Rurik used his Knight's Move to help Mendas get in position, which was cool.
The goblins charged in: five Skullcleavers and one Warcaster. Bartix let them into the room and released a Freezing Cloud. Three of them went down. Bartix them spent an action point and pulled a Thunderwave, sending another group of three back into the Ranger-Rogue blender (I think only one guy was iced and thundered). This generated four attacks of opportunity, killing the Warcaster and wounding the others. Ah, my warcaster!
Well, he had had another job besides casting spells or whatever, he was supposed to throw a snake! From his corpse, a small snake slithered from a bag on his belt. Once released, it instantly grew into a Deathrattle Viper which now threatened Hermiad!
Meanwhile two remaining untouched Skullsplitters went after Bartix. One rolled low, the other did serious damage. Everybody in the back of the room needed help. A fifth Skullsplitter escaped into the middle of the room, charging Varin!
Bartix was in the most trouble, as he couldn't take the heat he was facing. Rurik left the archer he was facing and shot across the battlefield in an action-point-fueled blur, charging one and hitting. These guys were pretty easy to hit, AC and all other defenses around 16, but they could dish out damage on par with the toughest PCs. As the goblins responded to the hits, Rurik was overwhelmed and fell down, at -3 hit points!
Oddny killed her archer but left the minion behind, crossing the battlefield to aid Rurik. Bartix kept backing up and firing, but he was threatened. Meanwhile, Hermiad and Mendas locked up the snake. This monster was hard to hit, but was cursed with terrible luck. I realized at some point that it was bloodied but that I had no idea what his attack power was, because he had yet to hit! With combat advantage established, the snake went down, and the two strikers went on to help with the remaining Skullsplitters.
Oddny switched from Medic to Hacker/Slasher, and Edgar killed the last of the goblin archers. The warforged then crossed the room to engage the Skullsplitters. Bartix was severly injured tried to gain some distance from the fray and used Expeditious Retreat to move back to the front of the room, apparently safe. But now the heavy fighters had ignored the goblin minions. A good tactical choice, but the wizard and the warlock were somewhat vulnerable. A minion charged Bartix, hit, and killed him! I informed Zach that this was the weakest enemy in the game, and for shame. Varin cleared the minion off the fallen wizard, and Oddny helped get him stable.
With multiple fighters and combat advantage aplenty, the goblins were falling fast. Mendas was sneak-attacking every which way, and Hermiad benefitted from his third crit of the night. At last, the only enemy left standing was one goblin minion, still rooted in fear at his original spot on the altar. Everyone's eyes fell on him, and he pleaded fervently for his life! Unfortunately, he was standing right next to a statue of Thor, who doesn't go in for that shit at all. What killed him, an arrow, a Dire Radiance, a Magic Missile? I can't quite remember; point is, dude is dead.
The vikings collapsed from the epic battle that had seen two characters below zero hit points and hundreds of points of damage dealt out. They had gone into it knowing that this was the last act of the adventuring day, and most of them had spend all remaining powers. A quick search of the room found some healing potions, gold, and a suit of Sylvan Leather Armor on one of the Skullspliters. Most interesting, however, was the inscription on the base of the Thor statue:
Everyone's religion and arcana rolls indicated that the words were incongruent with Thor, and that the shrine was magical in some way. Bartix studied the inscription closely and noticed that a letter came away with his finger and dragged across the surface of the stone. Everyone realized that this was an anagram puzzle, and sat down to figure it out. "THOR" was easy to find, but the rest took some doing. Finally, Mendas intoned "Armory of Thor!"
The stone split and opened, leading to a small room underneath the statue. Here everyone found cool stuff!
The vikings barricaded the room with loose rocks and bedded down for the night. There had been five encounters in the day, four of them combined into two encounters, so it was pretty tough day. For dinner? Roast snake!
All through the night the dungeon was silent. As far as anyone could tell, the goblin threat had been depopulated. In the morning the crew cleared the doorway and set out. They immediately came to a great opening to the north of the shrine. The pit was easily 90 feet across and fifty feet deep. A footpath traced the exterior, spiraling down to a small platform. Lighting the pit with spells revealed a doorway, along with several corpses. The adventurers could see two goblin bodies along with some ancient armored humanoid skeletons. This armor gleamed despite its age, perhaps it was magic! In the DM game, that's what we call Baiting the Hook.
Speaking of baits and hooks, Mendas volunteered to descend into the pit, secured by a line to Edgar. He carefully transversed the footpath with Edgar following above, ready to yank him up at any moment. When suddenly...
Casualties:
1 Elite Savage Berserker Goblin Skullplitter
4 Goblin Sharpshooters
4 Goblin Minions
5 Goblin Skullsplitters
1 Elite Frostborn Goblin Warcaster
1 Deathrattle Viper
24 beers! A new record for the campaign! Celebrating drunkenness is crass and at least eight years behind me, but USA! USA!
We opened with the room stretched out before the Vikings. They crept up to a doorway, but found themselves discovered and prepared for. In a giant room stood an altar to Thor Odinson, god of thunder! But it was inhabited by goblins, including an axe-wielding berserker. Four archers had set themselves up on the raised portion of the altar, ready to pepper adventurers with bolts. Behind each archer was an assistant: a minion aiding the sharpshooters to give them +2s to hit.
They were led by a Elite Savage Berserker Skullspliter goblin, who enraged the vikings by humping the Thor statue. That can't stand!
Hermiad took the first action by firing his longbow at the Berserker, hitting and doing some decent damage. Then everyone rolled initiative. The goblins took the low end of the order, allowing Bartix, Rurik, and Hermiad to get more missile fire in. This Berserker was being taken down fast, but he needed to draw them into the range of his archer support.
The archers triggered their obvious trap (that everyone tried, unsuccessfully, to detect) by firing flaming arrows at charges in the ceiling. Two rockslide traps sprung on Hermiad, Rurik, and Varin, doing some minor damage. The other two fired directly at the adventurers with minor success. Next the Berserker leapt from the altar and charged Hermiad, whacking for 8 or so.
Mendas and Rurik responded to the Berserker, bloodying him. But this played into his hand: his damage output doubled, and he started responding to melee attacks with another attack! He may have done 50 damage in a round, including 25 to Rurik with a maxed damage roll. Bartix magic-missiled him, and Hermiad shifted away to nearly finish him with a longbow. With only one hit point left, Edgar did the honors.
Oddny, Edgar, and Rurik moved up to the altar to take out the archers.
Meanwhile, Bartix had heard sounds echoing through the dungeon. He could still understand Goblish, so he could understand them saying, "We've got them now, boys! We're the last chance!" Bartix positioned himself by the door, and readied his spells. Meanwhile Hermiad and Mendas set themselves up on the other side, ready to capitalize. Rurik used his Knight's Move to help Mendas get in position, which was cool.
The goblins charged in: five Skullcleavers and one Warcaster. Bartix let them into the room and released a Freezing Cloud. Three of them went down. Bartix them spent an action point and pulled a Thunderwave, sending another group of three back into the Ranger-Rogue blender (I think only one guy was iced and thundered). This generated four attacks of opportunity, killing the Warcaster and wounding the others. Ah, my warcaster!
Well, he had had another job besides casting spells or whatever, he was supposed to throw a snake! From his corpse, a small snake slithered from a bag on his belt. Once released, it instantly grew into a Deathrattle Viper which now threatened Hermiad!
Meanwhile two remaining untouched Skullsplitters went after Bartix. One rolled low, the other did serious damage. Everybody in the back of the room needed help. A fifth Skullsplitter escaped into the middle of the room, charging Varin!
Bartix was in the most trouble, as he couldn't take the heat he was facing. Rurik left the archer he was facing and shot across the battlefield in an action-point-fueled blur, charging one and hitting. These guys were pretty easy to hit, AC and all other defenses around 16, but they could dish out damage on par with the toughest PCs. As the goblins responded to the hits, Rurik was overwhelmed and fell down, at -3 hit points!
Oddny killed her archer but left the minion behind, crossing the battlefield to aid Rurik. Bartix kept backing up and firing, but he was threatened. Meanwhile, Hermiad and Mendas locked up the snake. This monster was hard to hit, but was cursed with terrible luck. I realized at some point that it was bloodied but that I had no idea what his attack power was, because he had yet to hit! With combat advantage established, the snake went down, and the two strikers went on to help with the remaining Skullsplitters.
Oddny switched from Medic to Hacker/Slasher, and Edgar killed the last of the goblin archers. The warforged then crossed the room to engage the Skullsplitters. Bartix was severly injured tried to gain some distance from the fray and used Expeditious Retreat to move back to the front of the room, apparently safe. But now the heavy fighters had ignored the goblin minions. A good tactical choice, but the wizard and the warlock were somewhat vulnerable. A minion charged Bartix, hit, and killed him! I informed Zach that this was the weakest enemy in the game, and for shame. Varin cleared the minion off the fallen wizard, and Oddny helped get him stable.
With multiple fighters and combat advantage aplenty, the goblins were falling fast. Mendas was sneak-attacking every which way, and Hermiad benefitted from his third crit of the night. At last, the only enemy left standing was one goblin minion, still rooted in fear at his original spot on the altar. Everyone's eyes fell on him, and he pleaded fervently for his life! Unfortunately, he was standing right next to a statue of Thor, who doesn't go in for that shit at all. What killed him, an arrow, a Dire Radiance, a Magic Missile? I can't quite remember; point is, dude is dead.
The vikings collapsed from the epic battle that had seen two characters below zero hit points and hundreds of points of damage dealt out. They had gone into it knowing that this was the last act of the adventuring day, and most of them had spend all remaining powers. A quick search of the room found some healing potions, gold, and a suit of Sylvan Leather Armor on one of the Skullspliters. Most interesting, however, was the inscription on the base of the Thor statue:
Everyone's religion and arcana rolls indicated that the words were incongruent with Thor, and that the shrine was magical in some way. Bartix studied the inscription closely and noticed that a letter came away with his finger and dragged across the surface of the stone. Everyone realized that this was an anagram puzzle, and sat down to figure it out. "THOR" was easy to find, but the rest took some doing. Finally, Mendas intoned "Armory of Thor!"
The stone split and opened, leading to a small room underneath the statue. Here everyone found cool stuff!
The vikings barricaded the room with loose rocks and bedded down for the night. There had been five encounters in the day, four of them combined into two encounters, so it was pretty tough day. For dinner? Roast snake!
All through the night the dungeon was silent. As far as anyone could tell, the goblin threat had been depopulated. In the morning the crew cleared the doorway and set out. They immediately came to a great opening to the north of the shrine. The pit was easily 90 feet across and fifty feet deep. A footpath traced the exterior, spiraling down to a small platform. Lighting the pit with spells revealed a doorway, along with several corpses. The adventurers could see two goblin bodies along with some ancient armored humanoid skeletons. This armor gleamed despite its age, perhaps it was magic! In the DM game, that's what we call Baiting the Hook.
Speaking of baits and hooks, Mendas volunteered to descend into the pit, secured by a line to Edgar. He carefully transversed the footpath with Edgar following above, ready to yank him up at any moment. When suddenly...
Casualties:
1 Elite Savage Berserker Goblin Skullplitter
4 Goblin Sharpshooters
4 Goblin Minions
5 Goblin Skullsplitters
1 Elite Frostborn Goblin Warcaster
1 Deathrattle Viper
24 beers! A new record for the campaign! Celebrating drunkenness is crass and at least eight years behind me, but USA! USA!
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