DF Whiterock Session 96: Koborth

Date:

2020-05-22

Weather:

Cool, session entirely underground

Player Characters:

Elias (Wiggles), Wood Elf Cleric, 431 points
Garreth (Zuljita), Half-Orc Fighter, 490 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 490 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 484 points
Seépravir (Archon Shiva), High Elf Wizard, 494 points

Significant NPCs:

Rolf, Possessed Human Cultist
7 Duergar Guards
Armored Owlbear
Koborth, Skeleton Warrior



The PCs resumed their exploration, still in the duergar fortress of Narborg, after having taken out another guard post.  There was some discussion as to whether Garreth could carry one of the ballistas that the duergar had just tried using against the party, but this idea was eventually deemed impractical.  Zaber scouted east, and spotted an enlarged duergar to the north.  The duergar spotted him too (he was, unusually, visible), and yelled taunts, but did not approach.  Zaber retreated around the corner.

Seépravir cast some spells to replace the ones she had dropped before throwing a Mass Daze.  Zaber, now invisible, snuck up a bit to check out the duergar, and spotted another one hiding in an alcove.  The enlarged duergar pulled a barricade into position across the hallway, making it slightly more annoying to reach his position.  Still observing, Zaber spotted a third duergar in the alcove on the other side of the hallway.  The duergar stayed behind their barricade, waiting for the PCs to approach.  Garreth did so, then attempted to kick the barricade using Power Blow, but rolled an 18.  He used Luck to correct that before I could think of an appropriate punishment for critically failing with that much strength, and the barricade shattered.

Garreth closed.  Seépravir (inside Rolf) yelled to watch out for ambush.  At that point Polly came around the corner and started shooting arrows.  Unfortunately for her, while trying to plug a duergar, she accidentally shot invisible Zaber in the back.  He used Luck to make her reroll, but she managed to roll 9 or less twice more to confirm the hit and leave a nasty mark.  Elias charged forward to join the battle.

Surprisingly, a door opened behind the PCs.  Fortunately for them, Seépravir rolled a 4 on her Hearing check.  Four more duergar and an armored owlbear were trying to sneak up.  Elias charged backwards to join the new battle.  Seépravir dropped a Mass Daze on the new swarm of opponents, and dazed three of the duergar.  On the northern front, Garreth threw a smoke pellet and blocked line of sight between the PCs and the duergar in that direction.

The owlbear reached Polly with a Move and Attack, and tried a claw and a bite, but she evaded.  Zaber, having managed to snag the wineskin of healing potions from Garreth, started drinking to try to fix his arrow wound.  Polly shot the undazed duergar in the brain, knocking him out, then tried shooting the owlbear but it dodged.

The owlbear all-out attacked Polly for extra attacks, and rolled a critical hit, but she averted it with Luck and dodged everything.  She thanked it with arrows in both eyes, the second one fatal.  That took care of all the non-dazed opponents not blocked by the smoke.

Seépravir cast a couple more buff spells.   Polly finished off the dazed duergar.  The PCs crept forward and waited for the smoke to clear.  When it did, Polly just missed plugging an invisible duergar peeking around the corner in the eye, hitting the wall instead.  Elias ran forward again, but remained out of reach of opponents.  Garreth and Zaber bravely advanced, as duergar around the corner tried ambushing them.  Polly shot more arrows, but they were blocked and dodged.  Garreth tried Rapier Wit, which failed, then critically failed an attack, but the combat had been going so long that his Luck was back, so he avoided it.

One duergar yelled to the other to fall back, and they retreated.  Polly shot one multiple times, knocking him out.  Seépravir cast Death Vision on the remaining duergar, stunning him.  And then the final invisible duergar that they hadn't spotted yet decided he was out of time, and pulled a hidden lever, dropping the ceiling on the two knocked out duergar and Polly.  (He wanted more targets, but better one than none.)

Polly was buried under falling rock for 50 crushing damage.  After armor, and with her rather stout HP, this was not quite enough for a death check.  She made her self-control roll against Impulsiveness to sit still, while Garreth and Zaber dug her out, which took several minutes with a pickaxe.  She heard the duergar who sprung the trap run away to the east, opening and closing a door.  Zaber passed her the wineskin, and she needed three doses of healing potion to get back to fighting shape.

After continuing the path through the rubble to the east, Zaber picked the lock on a door, and the group reached a room containing a huge bearskin rug and a short, wide armored skeleton with a sword and shield.   The skeleton saluted Polly with his sword, at which point she decided to try to solo duel it with her rapier.  Garreth asked if he was a normal skeleton.  Surprisingly, the skeleton replied "I don't think of myself as a skeleton, but I guess I am.  I used to be fatter."  This caused Polly to ask if he was an enemy.  The skeleton replied "It is my duty to stop you from going through that dorr.  I'm sorry you'll all have to die."  Polly then asked if he was Koborth.  He said "I used to be."

Koborth said "ooh, a cleric" and slashed Elias in the face for 35 cutting.  Elias wasn't stunned, but was in bad shape, and started retreating.  Koborth smashed Elias in the face again for what would have been a death check, but Elias's Bless intervened and turned it into a miss.  Polly dropped her bow and readied the small magical shield that she keeps in reserve for sword fights.  Garreth tried Kiai, but Koborth easily resisted.  At that point Koborth's fear aura kicked in, and everyone needed to make a Will-2 roll to avoid fleeing.  Everyone succeeded except Elias, who already had a good reason to flee.  (Seépravir rolled an 18, but used Luck; she remembered that her real body was safely entombed a few hundred yards away and if Rolf died it wasn't that big a deal.)  Seépravir cast Great Haste on herself.  Koborth noticed and said to Rolf that he didn't look like a wizard.

Koborth went after Polly next, but she managed to dodge his massively deceptive attack.  Zaber, knowing he was outclassed, All-Out Defended and watched the bearskin rug for surprises.  Polly tried a few rapier slashes, but Koborth parried one and she missed the other.

Seépravir tried casting Slow on Koborth, and he mockingly pretended to be affected, but was not.  Koborth attacked Polly again, and she couldn't retreat because of friends in both hexes that would make her farther away from Koborth, and a ceiling too low to retreat upward.  She was hit for 29 cutting, which wasn't enough to break her Bless.  While bleeding, Polly tried asking Koborth about Elweiss, and mentioned that they had his spear, but this merely annoyed Koborth worse.  Garreth tried hitting Koborth but got parried.  Elias used Luck to avoid passing out.  Seépravir Great Hasted Polly.

With Polly staggered, Koborth turned his attention to Garreth.  He made three very deceptive attacks, and managed to miss all three.  Zaber managed to grab the wineskin of healing.  Polly, still fighting despite her wounds, managed to land a critical hit on Koborth for a bit of damage.  Koborth congratulated her for hitting him, but mentioned that he was really good at fighting and they really all should run away before he had to kill them.

Seépravir was also in favor of fleeing.  Koborth landed a blow on Garreth, but his Luck was back again, so he parried it.  Then Koborth's final attack rolled an 18, for a dropped weapon, and the fight turned.  The sword flew a couple of hexes away from him, and he didn't have a backup weapon.  He tried hitting Polly (the only one within shield reach) in the face with his shield, but she dodged.

Zaber flew over to the sword, and tried kicking it out of reach.  This moved it another couple of hexes away from Koborth.  Garreth, now Great Hasted, went for an All-Out Attack (Double) on his first maneuver, and managed to injure Koborth's hand, then cripple his shield arm.  He followed up with another attack, which severed Koborth's leg, and killed him.

We stopped there for the evening, with Koborth down, but the PCs having received quite a scare.

GM's Comments:

The duergar with the ceiling collapse trap really tried to lure multiple PCs into the trap area, but somehow it never happened.  It did 14d6 crushing, which could have been fatal against someone squishy, but wasn't enough to get a death check on Polly.  HP and DR are good.

I forgot to use Koborth's fear aura when the PCs first entered the room, so I had him activate it as soon as I remembered it existed.  Enemies with too many abilities can get tricky to run.

I ruled that DB doesn't count for parry skill for purposes of critically succeeding on a parry and inducing your attacker to fumble.  (If you only make your active defense by the margin of your DB, then the attack passively hit your shield rather than being actively parried, and passively hitting a shield doesn't seem like it should be conducive to causing fumbles.)

I initially forgot Koborth's Magic Resistance versus Slow, so I claimed it worked, but then I quickly realized it didn't work, and decided Koborth was faking being slowed, but gave Seépravir a Thaumatology roll to figure this out, which she made.

The fight against Koborth totally turned on one fumble.  He didn't have a lanyard or a backup weapon, so dropping his sword was very bad for him.  This was either really bad monster design if you wanted Koborth to win, or an overconfident oversight by the Thane in equipping his undead minion if you didn't.

DF Whiterock Session 95: A Deeper Duergar Guard Post

Date:

2020-05-15

Weather:

Cool, session entirely underground

Player Characters:

Elias (Wiggles), Wood Elf Cleric, 428 points
Garreth (Zuljita), Half-Orc Fighter, 488 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 488 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 482 points
Seépravir (Archon Shiva), High Elf Wizard, 493 points

Significant NPCs:

Rolf, possessed human cultist
Duergar craftsmen
Duergar guards



The PCs resumed their quest in the duergar fortress of Narborg, still looking for the Thane of Narborg.  Seépravir had possessed Rolf, a member of the Cult of the Forgotten Word, who had been searching Castle Whiterock for the fabled library of the Order of the Dawning Sun.  Rolf and his colleagues had been searching the Thane's much smaller library for information, when rudely interrupted by the PCs killing all of them but Rolf. 

After realizing that a Bless on Rolf would not affect spellcasting, Seépravir un-Entombed her body, had Elias Bless it, and then re-Entombed it.  Meanwhile, Zaber searched the library and found a few books in Common that the cultists had unshelved: one about pirates, one about dread artefacts, one about battles, and one about illicit guilds.  He started flipping through the pirate book and found it was just an adventure story, but the map in the back had been torn out.

While Zaber was reading, Garreth noticed one of the fungi in the room to the north had gone mobile, and was moving down the hall.  He didn't recognize it, so he threw a sai at it, stapling it to the floor.  Another round of asking Rolf questions ensued, but he didn't know anything about fungus, just the cult's mission.  Zaber went back into the fungus farm to search again, but didn't find anything particularly useful.  Seépravir, looking through Rolf's eyes, also checked out the fungus, but only recognized about half the varieties.

Going back to the library, Polly started pulling on books and shelves, trying to find secret doors.  This failed.  She did find a two-book series in dwarvish about how axes are superior to maces, including lots of pictures.  Giving up on the library, Zaber led the group south, back to the room with the note on the door that had triggered his Danger Sense.  Polly shot the note, which accomplished nothing.  Seépravir cast Wizard Eye, and everyone (eventually) took cover.  The eye flew over, and Seépravir read the note through it.  The note then exploded, destroying the wizard eye, but the explosion wasn't big enough to hurt anyone else.  The glimpse of the Explosive Dwarven Runes that Seépravir had gotten said something like "Stay the female drow out!", an idiom that nobody really recognized.

Zaber picked the lock on the door, revealing a small storeroom with lots of random weird junk on shelves.  Animal parts, monster parts, various powders, etc.  There was another locked door, which Zaber picked, which led to a second storeroom, full of similar oddities.  There was another door, with another note on it.  They repeated the drill with Wizard Eye and hiding around the corner.  This time, the note was in Explosive Elvish Script and said  "Bort, I've told you to stay out of my stuff.  This is your last" and that was as much as Seépravir would read before it exploded and destroyed the eye.

Zaber picked another lock, which led to a third storeroom, with more random weird junk, but some of it valuable-looking this time.  He grabbed 7 colors of powdered gems, and a tiny platinum sword.  There was also a glass jar of what appeared to be green slime.  They discussed using it as a one-time weapon.  Then Seépravir cast Seek Magic to see if there was anything of interest left on this level, and detected some magic about 50 yards to the south-southwest.

The group headed that way.  Zaber found a room with desks and papers, and started reading books of castle records.  They were very boring, but did reveal that all the women and children had been moved to another fortress, a few months ago.  Continuing to explore, they found a couple of storerooms featuring several casks of what turned out to be rye beer.  Then Zaber unlocked another door, and found four duergar staring back at him.

The duergar asked Rolf who the elves were, as they readied their axes.  Not in the mood to make up excuses, Polly said that they were the duergar's imminent deaths, as Seépravir said "prisoners" in Rolf's voice.  These duergar didn't fall for that, especially since the "prisoners" were armed and not tied up, and a fight started.  The duergar all enlarged themselves.  Polly tried putting three arrows in one, but he blocked one, his comrade blocked one, and he dodged the last.  Garreth fast-drew a sai and threw it at the same one, but he dodged.  This caused some fist bumps and a demand for the "surface scum" to surrender.  Garreth laughed, so the duergar in charge said "fine, kill all but the cultist, who we will take to the Thane."

Seépravir Great Hasted herself.  Zaber flew up invisibly and eye-stabbed a duergar, who acquired the One Eye disadvantage, followed immediately by the No Life disadvantage.  The duergar had left a hole in their flank, which Polly flew through, then started shooting arrows at the unshielded side of the surviving duergar.  They managed to dodge the first two, but the third one hit a duergar in the skull and stunned him.  Garreth rapidly struck with his katana, but his attacks were blocked and parried.  Elias unleashed two attacks with his flail, missing once, and clobbering a duergar with the other for enough damage to slow him but not stun him.

At that point Seépravir cast Mass Daze, affecting all three surviving duergar, and the fun was over.  The group decided they didn't need any prisoners, and killed the three defenseless duergar.  There were also a bunch of monster heads on the wall.  A search of the room's furniture found no treasure, just some cobwebs and clothing and a sausage.  Zaber found a secret door, leading to a room containing weapons and armor, none of it magic.  Garreth shoved the bodies into the secret room and closed the door.

They resumed exploring.  Zaber heard a deep voice behind another door.  Everyone formed up for battle, then Zaber opened the door, finding a room with a shallow pool in the center of the floor, and a bunch of niches containing tiny helmets on the walls, some intact, some badly damaged.  Each helmet had a name inscribed on it in dwarven runes, and the voice was reading a list of dwarven-sounding names.

At that point, the group decided to follow a passage east that they hadn't explored yet.  It led to a large room, with some large vats, and stairs down on the far side.  Before they could explore much, a duergar head popped into view at the top of a stairway on the other side of the room.  The duergar immediately ran back down the stairs, yelling.  Polly got one shot off before the duergar left her line of sight, but the duergar blocked it.

Polly decided to give chase at high speed.  Everyone else paused a couple of seconds to check out the room.  One of the vats was atop a fire, and probably contained boiling oil or pitch.  There were several tiny trap doors in the floor.  Zaber opened one, and it turned out to be a murder hole over a cavern below.  That was enough information, and everyone flew after Polly.

Polly flew down the stairs, firing a Cornucopia arrow as she flew to look for No Mana Zones.  The arrow made it all the way to the wall without disappearing.  When Polly reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw four duergar with crossbows, waiting to shoot her.  She tried acrobatically dodging the first bolt, critically failed her Acrobatics roll, but made her dodge anyway, accidentally pulling off the fabled "fall down the stairs dodge" taught by some Drunken Masters.  The second duergar missed her.  The third and fourth shot accurately, but she dodged both bolts.  They yelled something in Dwarvish that Polly didn't understand, while she fired three arrows and killed two duergar.

Polly saw a bunch more duergar to the west, some charging at her, others readying a ballista.  She also saw Garreth appear at the top of the stairs.  Polly looked for targets without shields and found three: the ballista loader and the two surviving duergar who'd just fired crossbows at her.  She fired three arrows, of which one was dodged, one stunned a duergar, and the third knocked a duergar unconscious.  Garreth flew down the stairs while All-Out Dodging and fast-drawing his katana.  Polly noticed a second ballista being wheeled up behind the first.  One of the charging duergar tried a Move and Attack on Polly with his axe, but Garreth, who had just arrived, parried it for her.  Elias and Zaber and Rolf reached the top of the stairs

Polly fired a cutting arrow at a ballista string, but missed it.  She tried again, and hit the string but failed to snap it.  Giving up on that idea, she shot the stunned duergar in the eye, knocking him out.  Garreth used Rapier Wit on the brave duergar who'd charged, stunning him, then hit him twice with his katana, slowing him.

The front ballista launched a huge spear at Polly, with Garreth, Zaber, and Elias lined up behind her.  It was a great tactical achievement for the duergar: 4 chances to kill an invading PC with one mighty shot:

Lining up like this when facing a ballista is Not Recommended Tactics

The shot was on target to hit Polly.  Garreth asked if it looked safe to parry, but the ballista bolt looked heavy enough to break weapons that attempted that.  He held his parry, not wanting to lose his katana, and let Polly dodge for herself.  Polly dodged it.  The ballista spear missed Garreth, but was on target for Zaber, who also dodged it.  It was also right on target for Elias, who considered blocking it, but didn't want to risk his shield, and dodged instead, successfully.  The ballista spear then punched a large hole in the wall behind the PCs.  Meanwhile, the second ballista crew had their weapon set up and was aiming it.

Polly fired at the ballista loader with no shield, but his buddy blocked for him.  She tried again, and managed to knock one of them out.  She then shot another duergar in the skull and knocked him out too.  Garreth went for two neck chops on the wounded and stunned brave little duergar in front of him.  The first one re-stunned him, and the second was fatal.  Rolf yelled advice at Polly: "Look out for the other ballista!"

Just then, the second ballista rolled a critical hit on Polly.  She used Luck to force a reroll, then acrobatically dodged the regular hit.  Zaber silently and invisibly flew up to a duergar and stabbed him in the eye, knocking him out.  Polly quite visibly flew up behind some duergar and shot them in the back of the head, knocking two out.  Elias shield rushed the last duergar still standing, winning the slam contest 10 to 1, knocking him prone and bouncing him off a wall.  Rolf yelled advice: "Maybe save one for questioning."  Garreth made his Bloodlust check, but Polly failed hers, and decided all the duergar needed to die.  Zaber walked up to the duergar that Elias had just knocked down, and stabbed him in the eye.  He failed to parry, and was knocked out.

With the fight over, Polly ran around filling the survivors with arrows.  Nobody tried to stop her, so there was no prisoners to question this time.  We stopped there for the evening, with another duergar guard post defeated.

GM's Comments:

The Possession spell needs so many rulings.  Today's ruling: if you cast Bless on a Possessed person, you only get the Bless bonus on physical rolls (since those go with the body), not on mental rolls (since those follow the mind).  And the converse: if you Bless the spellcaster but not the Possessed body, rolls against the Possessed body's stats and skills don't get the bonus.  If you want to get the bonus for everything, Bless both.  If your god lets you...

Lining up 4 out of 5 PCs with a ballista shot was the high point of the session for me, but of course they all dodged it.  Didn't even make them use Luck or Bless.  The second ballista did slightly better, forcing Polly to burn her Luck.

DF Whiterock Session 94: Owlbears, Stalkers, Mushrooms, and Cultists

Date:

2020-05-08

Weather:

Cool, session entirely underground

Player Characters:

Elias (Wiggles), Wood Elf Cleric, 427 points
Garreth (Zuljita), Half-Orc Fighter, 486 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 486 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 472 points
Seépravir (Archon Shiva), High Elf Wizard, 491 points

Significant NPCs:

Spiked Dire Owlbear
Invisible Stalker?
Shrieker Mushroom
6 Cultists of the Forgotten Word


Sticking to their plan not to return to Cillamar until the Thane of Narborg was dead, the PCs started yet another session inside the Duergar fortress of Narborg.  They resumed methodically looting.  Zaber picked a lock to enter a closet, finding some coins and gems and a magic helmet.  He then picked a door on the other side of the hallway -- and got jumped by a huge owlbear, wearing some kind of amateurishly-welded spiked armor, who had been hiding behind the door.

Zaber dodged the owlbear's first attack, and noticed something dripping off its claws.  He failed to dodge its followup attack, but made his HT check to resist the poison.  Elias stepped up and slammed the owlbear with his flail, stunning it.  Zaber managed to stay conscious and retreated, as Garreth moved into position and prepared to stab it.  But there was no need, as Elias connected with the owlbear's skull and knocked it unconscious.  Zaber drank a couple of doses of healing potion, and then resumed picking locks and searching mostly empty apartments.

Reaching the north end of that hallway, the group headed back south and then east.  They found a room with some large vats that smelled strongly of urine.  Moving on, they found a room full of casks.  Zaber sampled the contents of one, which turned out to be horrible-tasting rye wort, possibly destined to someday mature into horrible-tasting rye beer.  At least he didn't appear to be poisoned.

Heading northeast, the group found a bunch more boring and mostly empty apartments.  After leaving one, Polly felt a heavy thump in the back.  Something invisible had slammed her, and then not become visible.  Zaber made obscene gestures at it.  Polly drew her rapier and started trying to skewer it, but it dodged.  Garreth and Elias didn't have See Invisible so couldn't help much.  Seépravir started buffing them to make them useful, while Polly and the invisible creature chased each other around.  Eventually Polly and Garreth and Elias cornered the invisible creature in a room.  It managed to slam Garreth, but not hard enough to hurt him.  Polly switched back to her bow and tried shooting the invisible creature, but it kept dodging and forcing Garreth, on the other side of it, to parry arrows.

Finally, Polly landed a critical hit with an arrow, which caused the creature to let loose an ear-splitting scream that made everyone roll against HT to keep their hearing.  (Polly failed, but used Luck to reroll and succeed.)  The arrow wound was enough to slow the creature and reduce its dodge, at which point Garreth was able to hit it twice with his katana, almost killing it.  Polly then shot three more arrows into it, finishing it off.  Even in death, the creature stayed invisible.  Seépravir thought it was probably an Invisible Stalker, though she'd never seen one before.  Though Garreth thought this creature somewhat resembled Aeraelith, the air elemental they'd freed from the organ on the troglodyte level, long ago.  Are air elementals related to invisible stalkers, or was that air elemental actually an invisible stalker, or was this invisible stalker actually an air elemental?

Moving on, Zaber unlocked a door to the north, and found a room full of all kinds of colorful growing fungus.  Garreth was able to identify some of them with his Underground Survival skill.  While they were poking around, one mushroom decided to start screaming, until Garreth silenced it with a thrown sai.

Further south was a very stout, very locked door.  Zaber wouldn't find a lock to pick, and Garreth slamming into the door didn't open it.  Eventually Polly suggested breaking out the pickaxe and chopping the door to bits.  While they were working on that, Zaber and Elias decided to scout south and see if they could find another way in.  Zaber found a locked door with a note on it.  Something about the note set off his Danger Sense, and he decided to back off and not read it, and they went back to the others.

Garreth finally finished smashing the extremely stout door, but behind it was a wall of opaque greenish smoke.  Polly stepped into the smoke to see how far it went.  After a couple of steps, she reached the other side, and saw a lit room, containing several humans with swords who were waiting for intruders.  Three different bastard swords tried chopping her in half, but she managed to dodge them all (needing Luck once) and retreat back into the smoke.  She wasn't followed through the smoke, so she informed the others of what she had seen, then started shooting arrows through the smoke hoping for a lucky hit.

Meanwhile, Garreth closed his eyes and stepped into the smoke, using his Blind Fighting to try to locate an enemy in reach.  While he was doing that, Seépravir cast Purify Air and got rid of the smoke, which revealed a room with tables, bookshelves, and 6 armed and hostile humans, wearing robes over armor.  Elias started praying for Heroic Might and Heroic Grace.  A couple of the swordsmen tried attacking Garreth, who still had his eyes closed, but he managed to parry and dodge.  He opened his eyes and guarded the doorway.  Meanwhile, a human with a staff activated a long Flame Jet and tried using his reach advantage to torch Garreth from behind a shield wall, but Garreth dodged.

Zaber invisibly flew over the shield wall to try to eyestab the wizard, but the wizard saw him coming and yelled commands to stop him.  Polly flew around the shield wall, looking to shoot enemies on their unshielded sides, and managed to achieve three hits, the final one a direct hit to the heart for a fatality.  Garreth used Rapier Wit to insult one of the guards, stunning him.  Seépravir topped this by casting Mass Daze on the five surviving foes, and successfully dazing three of them.  She tried Rapier Wit on the wizard, who ignored it, and then offered to parley.

Polly and Garreth weren't really in a negotiating mood, and kept fighting.  Elias smashed the guard who was still fighting in the nose with his shield for a critical hit.  The wizard tried casting some kind of heart-stopping spell on Seépravir, who failed to resist, but was saved by her Bless.  The wizard then disappeared.  Zaber couldn't find it even with See Invisible, so they assumed he Blinked or Teleported.  Polly ran out into the hallway to look for the wizard, but failed to find him.  Meanwhile, Zaber tried eye-stabbing the last undazed guard, but failed to kill him.  Garreth hit the guard, and then Elias crushed him in the skull for massive brain damage.

Meanwhile, before her allies were even done fighting, Seépravir cast Hold Breath on herself, then Possession on one of the dazed guards, then used Entomb to stow her own body underground.  She was now inside Rolf, one of the guards, a cleric of the Cult of the Forgotten Word.  Once Polly returned from failing to find the wizard, the interrogation began.  The cultists were looking for the library of the Order of the Dawning Sun, which they believed was somewhere under Castle Whiterock.  They wanted to destroy it.  They had paid the Thane of Narborg to be allowed to search his records for clues, and also his territory for secret doors.  So far, they hadn't found anything...

It was getting late, so we stopped there for the night.

GM's Comments:

Single opponents don't have much of a chance against a group of 5 PCs.  Both the owlbear and the invisible creature were merely slight annoyances.

The cultists, on the other hand, were a pretty big threat.  They were prepared, they were highly skilled, and they had a wizard of their own.  Sadly for them, they did not have good enough resistance to Mass Daze.

The PCs have been in Narborg for quite a few sessions now, and still haven't sniffed the Thane.  Maybe next time.

DF Whiterock Session 93: The Unundeath of Gora-khan

Date:

2020-05-01

Weather:

Cool, session entirely underground

Player Characters:

Garreth (Zuljita), Half-Orc Fighter, 484 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 484 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 478 points
Seépravir (Archon Shiva), High Elf Wizard, 489 points

Significant NPCs:

Elias (player not present), Wood Elf Cleric
Gora-khan, Hobgoblin Vampire
Duergar Guards
Duergar Wizard
Giant Flesh Golem


We started just after the PCs broke into a new level of the duergar fortress of Narborg, and defeated a large group of guards.  Gora-khan the hobgoblin vampire had escaped in gaseous form, but Seépravir had cast a Soul Rider spell on him, so was able to track his movements.

After a few minutes of rest, the group headed east, then found a room to the north, with a door leaving to the north and a secret door (easily found using See Secrets) to the east, but they bypassed those and continued east, to another secret door on the south side of the passage.  That looked like it might be the right way, so Zaber tried opening it, but it was tricky enough that he couldn't quite get it.  Seépravir helped, and together they were able to get it open.

Beyond the secret door was a room containing an armor dummy, a statue of a woman with fangs, and a stone sarcophagus on a raised platform.  Polly was suspicious of the statue, so shot an arrow into it.  Seépravir looked through the vampire's eyes, and saw the bottom of a stone coffin lid, and a greatsword in the vampire's hands, ready to attack whoever opened that lid.

Despite the threat, Garreth used Power Blow to increase his strength, and then he and Elias knocked the lid off the coffin.  The vampire tried chopping off Elias's head, but Elias blocked.  Polly ran around Elias to get a clear shot, then shot three arrows, all of which were dodged.  Garreth fast-drew his katana then managed to land one cut, for enough damage to slow Gora.  Elias followed up with a heavy flail smash for serious damage, and then Seépravir with a Slow spell.

With the vampire's dodge reduced, Polly hit him with two arrows.  Garreth followed up with a cut to the leg and another to the neck.  As Gora prepared to assume gaseous form and flee, Elias clouted him with his blessed flail, and the damage caused the vampire to dissolve.

After enjoying their victory for about a second, Garreth asked if the greatsword was cursed.  Elias thought it just looked magic, not cursed, but Garreth picked it up to test it and got burned.  Seépravir said "You have to be evil.  Lemme try." but it burned her too.  After some discussion of the best way to carry the sword, Seépravir just cast Apportation and flew it behind her.  The vampire also had enchanted studded leather armor and a necklace, shaped like a muscular dwarf, with "Gora-khan the Indominatable [sic],  Bleak Theater Fall Champion,  8-0, 3 One-Shot Kills" engraved in Undercommon.

After they finished whining about the cursed sword, Polly and Zaber resumed looting.  Polly found some bumps in the coffin, which turned out to be gems sewn under the lining.  Elias wanted to destroy the evil coffin and exorcise the evil room, after everyone was done taking stuff.  Zaber said they were done, so Elias bashed the coffin repeatedly with his flail, and found some more gems that Polly and Zaber had missed.  He then exorcised the dais until the aura of vampire was gone.

The group continued down a hallway and went through a couple of doors, after Zaber listened didn't hear anything.  They found a hall full of crafts rooms: a tannery, a glassblower, a forge, and a trap factory.  After pocketing any tools that looked light and valuable, they doubled back to the secret door they'd ignored before.  It turned out to open to a small room with a trap door in the floor, right above the Thane's dining room table.  They decided not to drop down, and continued exploring north.

At the end of the hallway was a door, and behind it was some yelling in Dwarven.  Everyone formed up, and then Zaber unlocked and opened the door.  Inside were a huge flesh golem and a bunch of duergar, in a tall room with a vaulted ceiling and a balcony leading to another level above.  The PCs achieved surprise, so which Polly took advantage of to shoot a duergar in the eye.  Garreth tried throwing a sai, but he fumbled and it turned in his hand and he decided to just drop it.  Seépravir Great Hasted Elias and yelled "Use your Heroic Feats!"

All the duergar, and even the golem, recovered from surprise quickly.  Polly ran around behind one and shot him in the skull for the knockout.  She then tried shooting the duergar with the staff and no shield in the vitals, but he Blinked away, with a critical success.  Elias shield rushed the duergar with the pick, rolled an 18, used Luck, and bounced off his shield.  He followed that up with two flail blows, which were parried.  Seépravir got mad at Elias for not using Heroic Might and Heroic Grace.

The duergar with the pick told Elias, in Common, that it was time to open up the tin can.  Then he did it, smashing Elias with a pick hard enough to go through his plate armor and do some solid damage.  However, his pick was stuck in Elias.  The golem punched Elias, for some damage and some knockback.  The knockback caused a tug-of-war over the pick, and Elias won, so the duergar was disarmed.  Zaber flew invisibly behind the wizard.

Polly flew behind a duergar, shot him in the skull, and knocked him out.  She then flew behind the duergar with no pick, and shot him in the head too.  He used Luck to make his first dodge, but failed his second, and then fell down, stunned.  Garreth rapid-struck a duergar with his katana, connecting once, hard enough to slow his target but not stun him.

Elias made his consciousness check and then activated Heroic Might (+10 ST) and Heroic Grace (+7 DX), then All-Out Defended.  Seépravir used Rapier Wit to stun a duergar.  The duergar wizard cast a couple of spells and cackled.  The huge golem tried punching Polly, but Elias sacrificially blocked for her.  Zaber eye-stabbed the wizard for a one-shot fatality, but the wizard managed to get a scream off as he died, alerting the others to the now-visible thief behind them. 

Polly then lined up three more duergar, shot them all in the brain, and knocked them all out.  At that point only the golem remained.  Elias smashed it in the foot for major damage, which failed to knock the golem over, but did make it go Berserk.  It chose Zaber as the recipient of three deadly punches, all of which he dodged.  Polly shot the golem in the back of the head three times, but unlike the duergar it didn't have any brains there to take quadruple damage and cause knockouts.   Garreth chopped its leg, hard, but it didn't fall down.  Finally, Elias smashed the huge golem for 39 points of damage plus 2 points of bonus Flaming Weapon damage, which was just enough to put the golem at -HP, which was enough to automatically finish it.

Elias slurped down several healing potions.  Zaber flew up to check out the level above, hit a No Mana Zone, lost his Flight spell, and crashed back down into the ground.  He made his Acrobatics roll to reduce falling damage, but still hit hard.  After recovering, he started looting the duergar and got some magic bracers and a magic staff from the wizard.

Polly thought the platform that the golem had been standing on might be important, so tried dancing on it.  This did nothing useful, but she didn't slip in the golem guts either, so that was good.  Next she convinced Garreth to help her try to move the platform in case there was something under it, but there was not.

The group decided to keep exploring.  They went through some doors to the west, and found a butcher shop.  They then turned right and started up a hallway with lots of doors on both sides.  They found a couple of apartments with nothing useful inside, and a couple of storerooms with a few minor valuables (a few coins in a sack, and a silvered mirror).  At that point we were out of time, so we stopped for the evening, with the PCs staying in the dungeon again.

GM's Comments:

The fourth time was the charm for Gora-khan, who finally stuck around long enough to die.  Gora-khan's misspelled arena champion necklace was an homage to Brad Marchand's "Stanley Cup Champians" tattoo.

The golem was very strong and very tough but didn't have a weapon, so his attacks were merely massively damaging rather than instantly lethal.  The rest of the duergar made the mistake of having brains and eyes, which were targets for Polly and Zaber to one-shot them.

I thought the funniest moment of the night was Zaber flying right into a No Fly Zone.  These players are usually pretty cautious, but once in a while...

Next time, we'll see if the group manages to find the Thane of Narborg, so Garreth lets them go back to town.

DF Whiterock Session 92: Gora-khan Again

Date:

2020-04-24

Weather:

Cold, session entirely underground

Player Characters:

Elias (Wiggles), Wood Elf Cleric, 424 points
Garreth (Zuljita), Half-Orc Fighter, 482 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 482 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 476 points
Seépravir (Archon Shiva), High Elf Wizard, 487 points

Significant NPCs:

Wolfrik, Charmed Duergar guard
Many Duergar guards
Gora-khan, Hobgoblin Vampire
Many Bat Swarms


The party started on the lower level of the duergar fortress of Narborg, about to ascend the stairs to the level where they hope they can find the Thane.  They know there was a No Mana Zone between levels that would cancel all their wizard spells.  This caused a lot of discussion about the right tactics to use to go upstairs.  Garreth was afraid they might have to retreat, so wanted to spend time moving loot out of Narborg back to the Bleak Theater first, to make it harder for the duergar to take it back.  He and Elias did that, while Seépravir magically monitored them.

The final conclusion was to Entomb Wolfrik (because they didn't trust him not to cause trouble when his Charm was dispelled), and then go up in a tight group, hoping not to alert any defenders until they had their magic back.  Garreth and Zaber each activated a non-magical glow stick, since they wouldn't have Dark Vision.  Garreth also palmed a flash pellet, and told everyone a code word (in Orcish) that meant to close their eyes because he was throwing it.  Elias's Flaming Flail also still worked, since it was powered by faith rather than magic.

At the top of the stairs, the mana level was low rather than zero, and there was a brass sigil on the wall opposite the stairs.  Seépravir cast See Invisible and See Secrets on Zaber.  He didn't find anything, and his Danger Sense didn't trip either, but as he approached the sigil, a stunning trap went off, and also a loud alarm.  He resisted the stun, and his Ring of Invisibility started working, showing that he had left the low mana zone.  The others scooted forward, and also Garreth and Elias managed to avoid stunning, though Elias needed to use Luck.  Seépravir cast Great Haste on herself, then Infravision on Polly and Garreth and Elias, then Invisibility on herself.  Zaber disabled the alarm, and heard the sound of footsteps outside the door.

Zaber opened the door.  Garreth ran around the corner, spotted a couple of duergar, and held the flash pellet he was holding, waiting for more targets.  The lead duergar yelled information about Garreth to the ones behind them, and also yelled for Gora.  Seépravir tried Charming a duergar, but failed, even with Luck.  Polly ran out and started shooting arrows, but the duergar blocked one and dodged the other two.

Elias moved up.  Seépravir tried Charming another duergar, and this time it worked.  She forgot to give him any orders though, so he continued charging at Garreth (who was not Seépravir, and might have been a threat to his new best friend).  Polly shot more arrows, which again failed to do any damage.  Garreth all-out defended.  Elias, not paying attention to Seépravir's casting, attacked the charmed duergar, who blocked it.  Seépravir then instructed the charmed duergar to rush the other duergar and push them back, and gave him a Shield spell and an Armor spell.  The charmed duergar turned around and shield rushed one of the other duergar, resulting in no damage but a nice obstruction.

Other duergar surged around their traitorous comrade, followed by some bat swarms.  Polly fired more arrows, managing to perforate a duergar skull and knock him unconscious.  Garreth started killing bats.  Elias tried flailing a duergar, who blocked it.  Seépravir, not a fan of bat swarms, started casting Create Fire in hexes around herself.  The charmed duergar rammed into another duergar.  Elias was critically hit by a duergar sword, but his Luck was back, so he forced a reroll then defended.  The duergar then rolled another crit, which could not be stopped, but failed to penetrate Elias's massive armor.  A bat swarm also failed to hurt Elias, while another failed to hurt Polly.

Zaber, who had been running around invisibly, took a flash pellet from Garreth, who let him.  Meanwhile, a duergar with a flail and shield suddenly appeared behind the party.  (Luckily for them, someone was facing that way, so he didn't manage to surprise them.)  Polly shot some more duergar in the skulls and knocked two more out.  The charmed duergar kept ramming into his former friends.  Garreth tried Rapier Wit on the duergar with a flail, and thought he achieved a Stun, but the duergar was faking and wasn't stunned after all, and managed to block the followup attack easily.  Polly shot some arrows at the same duergar since his block was used up, but he managed to critically succeed on a dodge, and backflipped over the incoming arrow.  (Sadly for Team Duergar, a crit on a dodge against a ranged attack does not cause the attacker to fumble.)  Garreth went after the guy with the flail again, and this time managed to completely sever his shield arm, which flew 3 hexes east.  The duergar yelled "I can fix that after I kill you!" but Garreth yelled back "You don't have a shield...I've got an archer."

Seépravir, still terrified of bat swarms, cast Create Fire and Shape Fire, improving her anti-bat zone.  The charmed duergar tried tackling another duergar, but messed with the wrong one, and got knocked unconscious with a halberd to the head.  The duergar with the flail tried hitting Polly, and Garreth failed to sacrificially parry for her, but she dodged.  Garreth parried the followup.  The duergar yelled for Gora to hurry up.  A duergar with See Invisible tried chopping Zaber's neck, but he rolled a 3 on his dodge for a maximum critical success, and the duergar lost his balance.  The leader with the halberd then smiled at Zaber, showing that he also had See Invisible.  Meanwhile, a cloud of gas that had drifted up near Seépravir without anyone noticing it reformed into Gora-khan the hobgoblin vampire.

Zaber closed his eyes, yelled "Flash!" and threw the flash pellet, hitting the floor.  Garreth and Elias made their hearing check and closed their eyes in time.  Polly and Gora-khan were facing the other way, and were not affected.  The three duergar in front of Zaber, who didn't know what were coming, were badly affected by the bright light.  One was totally blinded for the short remainder of his lifespan.  The other duergar took -3 to DX.

Polly, again lucky to be facing the right way, saw Gora-khan appear next to Seépravir, and started shooting at his feet.  (Most of his body was concealed behind a door, but it didn't go all the way to the floor.)  She put two arrows in one foot and one in the other, annoying him.  Garreth also attacked the vampire, who turned back into gas to avoid the attack, but didn't re-materalize afterward, having decided his attempt to backstab the wizard had failed, and now he was in a one-on-three fight.  Seépravir cast Slow on his gaseous form.  She then tried Apportation, which didn't do anything.

The one-armed duergar with the flail resumed attacking Polly, but she dodged.  The remaining duergar all ganged up on Elias, but the combination of his armor, defenses, and their -3 to DX for exposure to very bright light meant they kept failing to hurt him.  Meanwhile Polly shot a duergar in the eye knocked him out.  Garreth Kiaied the gaseous vampire, but failed to stun him.  Seépravir cast Soul Rider on the vampire, so she could track him to wherever he flew away to.

The duergar commander with the halberd failed to hit Elias again, and then Polly managed to shoot him in the eye (that will teach him not to have a shield) and he rolled a 16 on his death check.  Gora-khan, wounded, managed to seep away through some holes in the floor.

We stopped there for lack of time.  All the duergar had been defeated, and Gora-khan had retreated in gaseous form for the third time ... but this time Seépravir could follow.  We'll see next week if the PCs finally manage to corner him.

GM's Comments:

My ruling on Invisibility and carrying a light source: if you're invisible, then any light that you emit is also invisible.  So if you have See Invisible, you can use it to see.  If you don't, you can't see it any better than anyone else can, so you either need to become visible or set your light source down so that it's no longer invisible.

Bat swarms do 1d cutting damage, as large area damage, meaning that the target gets the average of its torso DR and its worst DR (not including its eyes).  Most of the PCs now have DR 6 or better on most of their body, so swarms are no longer the bother that they used to be.  Seépravir still hates them though.

The charmed duergar never actually managed to hurt the other duergar, but he slowed down several of them with his slams, and caused the commander to finally waste a turn knocking him out.

Figuring out what can and cannot affect a vampire in Gaseous Form is tricky.  I decided yes for Slow and Kiai and Soul Rider, no for Apportation.  I also decided that Gora-khan had lots of air holes in the floor to retreat through, because he's that kind of vampire.  This annoyed the PCs a bit, but thanks to Soul Rider, they have a chance to see where he goes when he flies away.