Date:
Weather:
Warm, session entirely underground
Player Characters:
Elias (Wiggles), Wood Elf Cleric, 436 points
Garreth (Zuljita), Half-Orc Fighter, 494 points
Ibizaber (Demented Avenger), Human Thief, 494 points
Polly (Kalzazz), Wood Elf Archer, 488 points
Seépravir (Archon Shiva), High Elf Wizard, 498 points
Significant NPCs:
Rolf, Possessed Human Cultist
4 Duergar Warriors
Gibbering Mouther
Derro Decanter
Derro Potion Master
Moruut, Minotaur Bodyguard
Duergar Gate Guard
Huge Black Animated Gate
We resumed in the duergar fortress of Narborg, with Thane Hrolad having escaped through a wall using some kind of magic. Elias described what he'd seen to the others. Zaber had never heard of such a spell, and didn't see a secret door. Seépravir though it might be Dimension Door, a spell she'd heard rumors about but never actually seen. She cast Seeker, looking for the Thane, and saw a vision of him walking quickly through a natural cave with a pool of water, a bit to the west of their current position.
Garreth decided that they didn't have time to dig through the wall here, and should instead double back to the south. Unfortunately going that way required digging through some rubble from the collapsed ceiling trap that the duergar had dropped on Polly. While Garreth dug, Zaber checked out some doors in the vicinity. One let to a room, empty but for an amateurish picture of a dwarf smashing an elf low on one wall. Another led to a room with a table and chairs and an empty cabinet, with round marks in the dust showing that it used to hold bottles but they were gone. This greatly saddened Zaber.
Heading south and west, the group reached the arrow slits they'd seen recently, which had what looked like natural caves on the other side. Polly and Zaber managed to squeeze through an arrow slit (an Escape-6 roll) to check them out, but found no sign of the Thane, or any water. They squeezed back through the arrow slits to rejoin the others, then headed west.
Seépravir needed rest, so Polly and Zaber scouted ahead. They went up a flight of stairs, through a No Mana Zone. There were several closed doors there, but Zaber decided not to open them with only Polly for backup. They found a second set of stairs down further north, and Polly verified with a Cornucopia arrow that the No Mana Zone between floors extended to this stairway as well.
Seépravir had rested enough to cast Seek Magic. The nearest unknown magic was about 50 to 100 yards to the northeast, but it was almost drowned out by really strong magic further north. Garreth was pretty sure that was the cavern on the other side of the arrow slits, and the strong magic might be the Thane's crown. Zaber and Polly eventually found their way back, and the group went back to the arrow slits. This time Zaber, Polly, and Garreth all squeezed through. Seépravir stayed behind to recover FP, and Elias took the pickaxe and started trying to enlarge an arrow slit for easier passage.
Heading north, Zaber noticed some green sea salt on the floor of the cavern. He then heard some heavy footsteps to the northeast, around a corner. Polly went to investigate, and saw four duergar, carrying a large jar and what appeared to be the corpse of a fifth duergar. The duergar saw her, and put down their burdens, while she started shooting arrows. The first batch were blocked or dodged.
Garreth and Zaber, both invisible, starting flying toward the fight, as Polly ran and shot. She noticed the clay pot had a crack in it, where the duergar had dropped it. She also noticed the duergar had their ears plugged with cloth. She shot three duergar in the skull, knocking all three out, leaving only one still active. Garreth fast-drew his katana and rolled a critical success, generating a cool Schwing! noise that the duergar couldn't hear because of his earplugs.
The remaining duergar all-out attacked Polly in a rage, and she critically failed her acrobatics roll, resulting in a faceplant. However, Garreth was in range to sacrificially parry for her, and critically succeeded, resulting in the surprised duergar dropping his mace. Polly gave thanks to the Great Tree. The duergar started cursing about elves and wizards. From the ground, Polly shot the duergar in the eye, knocking him out. Garreth dropped his sword so it was hanging by the lanyard, and grabbed Polly, to help her get away from the jar, which was visibly cracking open.
The jar burst open, and a hideous creature emerged from it, and made a horrible sound. Everyone had to make a Fright Check, but they all succeeded. Polly, carried by Garreth, fired more arrows, and wounded the creature. Carrying a violent archer caused Garreth's Invisibility spell to be dispelled. Garreth and Zaber flew northeast away from the monster, while Polly kept shooting it. Eventually it died, with 6 cutting arrows sticking out of its corpse.
Zaber looked for tracks, but didn't find any that he didn't think belonged to the duergar they'd just met. However, while looking for tracks, he did accidentally find a pouch, which contained a ring and some yellowish gems. The ring vibrated when he put it on. Further east, they found some kind of crevasse. Garreth's underground survival skill told him that they should avoid falling into it as they might get stuck.
Meanwhile, far to the south, Elias finished breaking through an arrow slit, having created a new way into the cave that didn't require an Escape roll. But the three in front didn't go back to rejoin the two in back. Instead, they continued north, looking for the Thane. Instead, they found a small building, with a counter out front. On the counter were some potions, and behind the counter were a derro and a minotaur. Polly asked if they had seen the Thane. The derro said "No, you want to buy some healing potions? They are good for not dying." Surprisingly, the party did want to buy some healing potions. They were disappointed at the rather high price, and the fact that they were only sold in batches of 5, but bought a bunch of Minor Healing and Major Healing potions anyway.
Continuing north rather than waiting for the others, they saw a huge wall ahead, blocking the entire cavern. The wall was black, and featured some metal bands and gems carved into the shape of skulls. There was a single duergar with a spear standing in front of the wall. Polly's immediate response was to prepare to attack, but Garreth tried talking first, to get information about the Thane. The duergar was skeptical that they were permitted, and eventually asked for a password. Garreth drew a bastard sword and threw it at the duergar. But the duergar critically succeeded on his parry, and flicked the flying sword back over his head toward the wall, which absorbed and apparently destroyed it. The duergar then yelled for reinforcements in Dwarven.
Polly, having managed to hold her fire for several seconds while Garreth unsuccessfully talked to the duergar, started shooting. A black tentacle came out of the wall and parried her first arrow, and the duergar dodged the others. The duergar flicked his wrist, and a wand popped out of his bracer into his hand. He pointed it at Garreth, and rolled a critical success. Garreth was affected by a Darkness spell, which extinguished his glow vial.
The wall activated some kind of fear effect, but all three heroes resisted it. Zaber could no longer see without Garreth's light, so he took off his Invisibility Ring, which caused his own glow vial's light to become visible. Polly launched another volley of arrows at the duergar, but once again he dodged two and the wall tentacle-parried the other for him. Garreth stepped out of the darkness, but his glow vial was still out. However, he could now see using Zaber's light.
The duergar yelled "You should have run away" in Undercommon, then dropped his spear, flicked his other bracer, and had a wand pop into his other hand. He critically hit with this one too, but this time Garreth used Luck to force a reroll, then dodged the pink beam that came out of the wand.
Polly shot the duergar in the vitals, and this time rolled a crit. No defense for that shot, and the duergar rolled a 17 on this stun check, falling unconscious. She launched her other arrows at the wall, which parried one, but was struck by the other, which made a small dent. Garreth wanted to retreat, as he didn't want to lose any more swords. But Polly wanted to keep shooting the wall.
There were some steps up to the west, leading to a door. Zaber flew up to check it out. Meanwhile Polly shot more arrows at the wall, and achieved another critical hit. This time, instead of telling Polly to run away, the wall tried compelling her to come closer. She resisted, barely, needing the help of her Cloak of Resistance. But discovering the wall could do that made Garreth and Zaber want to leave. Polly rolled to see if she could resist her Bloodlust and rolled an 18, a clear indication that she needed to stand her ground and keep shooting the wall. She landed a third critical hit.
The wall tried its repulsion attack again, trying to make them all run away. Everyone resisted. Polly continued firing arrows, but she rolled an 18 for a maximum critical failure, and dropped her bow. The wall saw an unattended bow, and tried zapping it with some kind of beam. The bow initially failed its resistance roll, but Polly used her Luck to reroll, and managed to kick it out of the way. That was enough to convince Polly that running away was the best option, for now, and they could come back and destroy the wall later, preferably bringing a ballista.
The wall did not pursue. The group made it back to the derro potion seller. Garreth asked if he could buy a glow vial. The derro said that he'd check with the potion master. Returning a minute later, he said that selling glow vials was banned by order of the Thane. Garreth offered 50 times the usual price for a glow vial. The decanter excused himself to use the bathroom, and came back a few minutes later with a bottle labeled "DARKNESS NOT LIGHT no sun here" which Garreth paid the ridiculous markup for. They also bought a few more Major Healing potions, and Polly asked the minotaur's name, which was Moruut.
The group headed back south. On the way they searched the dead duergar, and took a bottle of green salt, but decided not to take their gross used earplugs. Continuing south, they reunited with Seépravir and Elias, who had enlarged an arrow slit to door size.
Deciding this was the wrong way, the heroes went all the way back to where they'd seen the Thane, and Garreth started digging a hole through the wall. While he dug, Zaber searched some more rooms. On a desk in a study, he found a paper in Dwarven, labeled "Murder options." It gave details of their group and the order in which they should be killed, along with amounts of bounties for each, some tactical hints, and which should be taken dead versus alive. (All the elves and Zaber were to be killed; "Gor-Ath" and the duergar traitor Wolfrik were to be taken alive.) It also listed three groups: The Order of the Ashen Heart, the Soulgrave Slayers, and the Pack of the Night Wolf. The first two were crossed out.
Zaber returned to the others and told them about the note. But his Danger Sense gave him a bad feeling about the hole Garreth was digging. They decided to go get a ballista and finish the hole from a distance. This actually worked, though Zaber had to use Luck on his penalized crossbow roll to figure out how to work the ballista, and then it took two shots to punch through.
The hole was big enough any of them to fit through, but only in prone position. Garreth flew through. He briefly spotted an area with an altar, a bunch of statues of evil dwarf gods, a bunch of huge bats, and some kind of half-duergar half-bat hybrid, casting a spell on him.
We were out of time, so we stopped for the evening on that cliff-hanger.
GM's Comments:
The group explored a whole lot of places they bypassed earlier, but didn't manage to find the Thane, which was all they really wanted.
After this session, Seépravir hit 500 points. (Though spending points requires going back to town, which they haven't done in forever.) That's twice what a stock DFRPG character starts with. This game started at 150 points, so these characters have come a long way.
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