DF Whiterock Session 18: The Net

Date:

2018-08-31

Weather:

Warm, Overcast

Player Characters:

Elias (Wiggles), Wood Elf Cleric, 189 points
Garreth (Zuljita), Half-Orc Fighter, 234 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 222 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 210 points
Seépravir (Archon Shiva), High-Elf Wizard, 244 points

Significant NPCs:

10 Troglodyte warriors

One Troglodyte leader

Some kind of cave eel

The group spent a week in town, resting and training and looking for information and equipment.  Garreth found a very fine knife for Ibizaber.  Seépravir went looking for more dirt on Lord Granger Flitwick, and found that his uncle had fathered a child with an unidentified elf from Mystenmere.  Ibizaber heard a rumor about goblins on the move, trespassing on a farmer's property.  Garreth heard that giving Ixnay the shoulder dragon your first drink of the night was good luck.  Elias once again tried to find clerics interesting in exorcising the tainted altar to Justicia, and once again failed.

They met up at the Inn of the Slumbering Drake to compare notes, then decided to hike to Castle Whiterock to try to exorcise that altar themselves, then explore more of the troglodyte level.

Seépravir decided to only cast Dark Vision on herself and Ibizaber and Polly this time, making Garreth and Elias rely on Continual Light.   Zaber also got Alertness, Keen Vision, Keen Hearing, Invisibility, and Mage Stealth.  He scouted the path to the altar, and found no enemies.

Elias used his newly learned Exorcism on the altar to Justicia, using his high holy symbol and a couple of vials of holy water to try to improve the odds.   It appeared to work.  He thought he saw a glow and heard a voice asking him to smite orcs and demons, but wasn't sure.

The group then headed downstairs to the room with the flowstone organ, where Elias cast Gift of Tongues to be able to communicate with whatever was trapped inside the organ.  It turned out to be some kind of air elemental named Aeraelith, who had been imprisoned there by an elf named Lyria, and wanted out.  To break the spell required finding some music inside the organ's bench, then having three musicians play it correctly on the three jade Sorrowsong Instruments: a flute, a drum, and a harp.  Elias asked about the door to the east, and the creature said he thought it was the entrance to the Clockwork Academy, and a lot of gnomes used to go that way, but not in many many years.

With this hint, the group started trying to open the bench.  Ibizaber found a secret compartment, but couldn't figure out how to open it.  Seépravir tried Apportation, which failed.  Zaber eventually found a tiny hair inside the crack of the compartment, and managed to wedge his knife in there and open it.  Inside were three stone tablets, with some inlaid jade musical notes in Elvish notation.  Seépravir tried playing one of the songs on the jade flute, but it had no effect.

After some Lend Energy and some resting, Ibizaber started scouting ahead again.  Polly followed him, despite not being invisible or silent.  When Polly entered the big troglodyte cave, some noncombatant troglodytes saw her and ran away.  Zaber took the passage to the south, then the west, and found a room containing a troglodyte, a pile of mushrooms, and a bunch of spells.  He decided to go back for the others rather than start a fight.

Meanwhile, Garreth tried to bash down the door to the Clockwork Academy, using Elias's flail, but it had no effect.  The door wasn't budging and he didn't appear to do any damage to it.  Seépravir said there was some magic on the door.  They decided to try again some other time, maybe with a gnome.

Polly went wandering off to the south, through some twisty little passages, and got ambushed by some kind of large cave eel, sticking its head out of a hole in the rock.  She acrobatically dodged, and then filled it with a couple of arrows.  It retreated back into a hole in the rock, where they couldn't get it.  At that point Zaber and Polly went back to rejoin the group.

The group snuck over to the lone troglodyte that Zaber had found.  They tried to ambush him, but failed.  He had leather armor and a big club and a javelin and a bad smell.  Polly shot him with an arrow, and he threw his javelin at Polly but she dodged it (needing Luck).  Polly shot him several more times and he fell over, and then Garreth stabbed him in the eye.  The club had shiny purple studs on it, which looked valuable.  The skulls and mushrooms turned out to not be very interesting, but Zaber found a secret compartment, containing a spellbook and a (magical) Elven mail shirt and a fine bastard sword.  And the troglodyte's (very stinky) leather armor was also magical.  Quite a haul for a troglodyte.

After some rest, the group continued to the south, with still-Invisible Ibizaber a bit ahead.  And then a giant net, that he'd somehow missed, fell on their heads.  Ibizaber in front and Seépravir in back were at the edges of the net and both managed to dodge out of the way, but the other three were trapped.  And then ten troglodytes with clubs and javelins attacked from ambush.

Zaber started trying to find a good ambush position.  Garreth pulled out a knife and started sawing at the net.   Polly pulled out a cutting arrow and started sawing, but it didn't work very well.  Seépravir was nauseated by the troglodytes' stench, but still managed to throw up a Smoke spell to block the troglodytes' line of sight while her allies tried to get out of the net.  Elias used his Divine Grace to improve his dexterity before trying to wiggle out of the net.

Polly figured out that wiggling out of the net was more effective for her than cutting it.  Elias, who didn't carry a sharp weapon, did that too.  Garreth, after cutting up the net for a while, eventually decided to stop doing that and just wiggle out.  It took a few seconds, but eventually all of them were free, and Polly started moving around the smoke to try to shoot some troglodytes.

Then Seépravir dropped the Smoke, intending to cast another Smoke in a better place.  But all the troglodytes were waiting for any sign of a visible enemy, and ten javelins flew.  Fortunately for the PCs, there's a penalty for Opportunity Fire, and the troglodytes were not great marks, er, beings, so they all missed.  (One rolled a critical hit on Polly, but she spoiled it with Luck.)  Seépravir needed Luck as well go get her new Smoke where she wanted it, blocking line of sight to the troglodytes to the west while allowing seeing the ones to the south.

Polly tried shooting a troglodyte, which dodged, but then the arrow hit and killed the one behind him.  Garreth ran up and killed one with his katana.  Elias ran through the smoke to attack one-on-four against the western troglodytes, and shield rushed one to the ground.  The other three ganged up on him for a second, but he blocked and parried and dodged and then flailed them in the skull.  Meanwhile, Polly and Garreth started rapidly killing the others.  Without the net, ten troglodytes versus five PCs turned out to be not enough troglodytes.

We were out of time, so the group looted the troglodyte bodies and headed back to town.

GM's Comments:

Boss monsters should stay close to their troops.  The boss troglodyte enjoyed his private cave with his mushroom bed and skull decor a bit too much, and so had to fight separately from his minions, which got him killed.  If those two battles could have been combined, it would have been a bit harder for the PCs.

Smoke was a very effective fight-slower to give 3 PCs time to get out of the net.

Gift of Tongues is a really great spell, when you need to speak to someone who only speaks some silly language that no PC would ever take.  Now the PCs think they need to find two more jade instruments to free Aeraelith, and they think they need a gnome to open the door to the Clockwork Academy.