Date:
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.
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