DF Whiterock Session 79: Attacking the Bleak Theater Guard Room, Again

Date:

2019-12-27

Weather:

Unseasonably warm, overcast

Player Characters:

Garreth, Half-Orc Fighter, 456 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 456 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 450 points
Seépravir (Archon Shiva), High Elf Wizard, 461 points

Significant NPCs:

Chauntessa, Innkeeper and Historian

Alrux, Dwarf Armorer

Vulgaris, Minyad Druid and Mushroom Farmer

2 Stone Giant Brewery Helpers

Ettin Zombie

6 Duergar Warriors

Gora-Khan, Hobgoblin Vampire

5 Bat Swarms

After finding a large haul of silver coins from Nimboltin Softstep's tomb, the PCs returned to Cillamar.  There, the family of Toos, a woman they rescued from the duergar, rewarded them with baked goods.  Brandis, the bard they rescued, was hanging out at the Inn of the Slumbering Drake and sometimes busking outside.  All five of them got invitations to Lady Chauntessa's New Year's party.

Seépravir decided to buy Lord Flitwick's vacant town house, which had been seized by the town.  The house's contents were included, so she also became the owner of several of Flitwick's paintings (including the one of the cloud giant tower inside Castle Whiterock that started their feud) and some of his clothing.  She tried making a copy of that one using the Copy spell (which failed because that spell only copies text), then gave the original to Chauntessa.  Now that she owned a house in the Noble Quarter, she researched whether titles of nobility could be purchased.  The Kingdom of Morrain was not quite so corrupt as to allow that, however.

Garreth went to Alrux to see if his sword was done yet (it was not), and to place another order for a face mask.  Since he was flush with cash, he paid off the remainder of the sword without waiting for delivery.  Polly ordered a silver coating for her rapier, but since Alrux was already working on Garreth's sword, it had to wait.  Zaber found a fine rapier for sale at Bao's Blades and purchased it for Vulgaris.  Zaber also bought ten barrels of good beer for the stone giants.

Elias got stuck in church.  The rest of the group flew to Castle Whiterock, then headed to Vulgaris's mushroom farm, where Zaber gave her the rapier and gave the giants the beer.  There was a new giant they hadn't met before working for Vulgaris, named Thkirk.

Thkirk had been working for the duergar until he left, based on their general cruelty and poor working conditions.  Garreth asked him questions about the duergar.  He then asked Vulgaris if she knew of any enchanters who needed work.  She didn't, but Thkirk volunteered that the duergar Thane had an enchanter prisoner.

The group continued to the Immense Cavern.  They flew up to the drow stalactite, which was still unoccupied.  They considered stashing some loot there, as it was a pretty good hiding place, but then decided not to.  They then continued to the southwest corner of the cavern, and Zaber and Polly took the passage toward the Bleak Theater.  Listening to a door, they heard heavy footsteps and conversation from the trapped room.  After some discussion, they kicked the door open, and inside was an ettin zombie, with the trap arcing lightning to the zombie, but the zombie apparently unaffected by it.

The ettin zombie charged, as Polly filled it with arrows.  First she crippled one hand, and it dropped one club.  Then she crippled the other hand, and it dropped its other club.  Then she crippled a foot, and it kept coming, slower, with a limp.  Then it got within range of Garreth's katana, and he chopped a leg off.  As the ettin came out the door, the lightning trap stopped zapping it.  Garreth slashed its neck, and the zombie went down for good.

With no Resist Lightning and the trap too far away to disable, the group decided to tunnel around the trapped room again.  Seépravir needed about 40 Shape Earth spells to dig an east-west passage south of the trapped room to intersect the existing north-south passage from the other side of the trapped room to the duergar guard room.  When they broke through the other side, there were no enemies waiting.  Seépravir cast See Invisible on Zaber to check for invisible duergar, and Polly fired a bunch of arrows down the passage, just in case.

Zaber scouted ahead, and found a tripwire.  He disabled it.  As he approached the stairs, he saw a mirror on the ceiling, and an invisible duergar at the bottom of the stairs watching the hallway using two mirrors as a periscope.  Zaber reported back, and Seépravir cast See Invisible on Polly as well.  Zaber tried taunting the duergar into charging up the stairs to his death, but he resisted.

As the group reached the top of the stairs, they heard conversation below, in Undercommon.  The duergar were talking about Zaber and Polly, and waiting for someone named Gora.  Then Zaber heard a door open and close and lock.  Apparently Gora had arrived.  Seépravir cast Magic Resistance on Polly, just in case the vampire tried any more charms.  Then, swarms of bats started coming up the stairs.

Garreth used Elweiss's spear to Great Haste himself.  Seépravir used Create Fire to make a ring around herself, to try to scare bats away.  Everyone waited for the bats to get in range.  When they did, there was much rapid striking and many bats died.  Polly was too armored for the swarms to hurt her.  Zaber took a tiny bit of damage.  And then invisible, enlarged duergar came around the corner and started charging up the stairs.  Polly tried three rapier strikes at the one in front, but he managed to parry, block, and parry them.  Garreth critically failed his Blind Fighting and was sure an invisible duergar was southwest of him, though there wasn't really.  Garreth tried Rapier Wit on the hex, to no avail.  Garreth then tried targeting another duergar, that was actually there, and chopped his shield arm off.  Zaber kept thinning bat swarms.  

Meanwhile Seépravir remarked on how the mass of duergar was a nice target for Mass Daze.  She stopped maintaining a few non-essential spells, then cast See Invisible, then cast Mass Daze on all the duergar she could see.  She rolled pretty well, and only one of the six duergar resisted.

At that point, the fight became not very interesting.  The one duergar that wasn't dazed got stunned with Rapier Wit, then stabbed a lot and killed.  Then all the bat swarms were finished off.  Then two of the five Dazed duergar were Entombed for whatever nefarious future use Seépravir had, while the other three were executed.  Gora-Khan the vampire was nowhere to be seen; he apparently decided to leave after the duergar failed.  There was some quick searching for him, to no avail.  

We stopped at that point due to time.  The group chose to pause in the guard room rather than returning to town and letting the duergar reinforce the guard room again.

GM's Comments:

We spent more time in town than usual, because it had been so long since the last visit.  The battle against the duergar in the guard room wasn't so interesting this time, because Seépravir rolled well on Mass Daze and the duergar failed to resist.  Gora-Khan lived to fight another day, though.

Next time we'll find out what other preparations the duergar made in the week between assaults on the Bleak Theater.