Previously, in Nightwick Abbey...
Session 76 - 30th of November, 1397
This week's adventurers:
Mayfly (Magician 5)
Mechtilde (Fighter 4)
Ulf (Magician 4)
Verinka (Changeling 3)
Liminal Space (Changeling 3)
Krupe (Cleric 2)
Poppy (Fighter 1)
Voorhis (Cleric 1)
Hirelings: Niklaus (Fighter 1), Helusch (Magician 1)
This session was such a blunder for us that Warren D., of I Cast Light, gave us an Expert analysis of the adventure over at his blog: I SHOULD HAVE CAST LIGHT: And Other Lessons From the 4th Level of Hell
Downtime in the Village
During the week, Ulf and Liminal go searching for rumors and information on the being known as Plutus, who we failed to meet last week. We learn that someone named Plutus was venerated by the Sword Brothers and opposed by someone known as the Master, though apparently not the one we know. Plutus also has the ability to enrich and impoverish: he can turn copper into gold and gold into copper. Finally, we discover that he may only be harmed by magical weapons.
Three local woodsmen offer up their services to us: Rütsch/Rütschel, Schimko, and Wynant, but no one hires them this week.
Back to Level 4
We return to level 4 of Nightwick Abbey this week in search of treasure after uneventfully passing through level 3.
Arriving on the landing with the baptismal font depicting the boiling alive of the first emperor, we he the strange sound of a settling house that we associate with the dungeon shifting!
We were quick to assume the other party did something to shift the abbey, but in fact, the DM just changed the layout of this level in response to some playtesting.
A New Passageway
The way north out of this room previously ended in a black void, but now there is 10' of hallway and then a door.
In order to reach this new door, however, we have to pass in between two alcoves with carved faces on either side of the hallway. We know that the carved faces are trapped, but not how...and we have no rogue this week to help deal with the traps.
Dealing With Traps Improperly
Our fighter Mechtilde decides to just yolo it by jumping past the alcoves. As she does so, she is briefly overcome with an extreme melancholy, but overcomes it (she made her save).
Poppy pokes the faces in the eye with a 10' pole, to which the carved feature responds by shutting its eye and crying out loudly.
New "Friends"
In response to the sounds, two 7' tall bull-headed humanoids open the door before us. They are belching smoke and blood runs down their eyes and mouth. Each one of them holds a bronze ax of strange design. Oh shit.
Liminal Space, our precious charismatic boy, introduces himself to the beings, and asks their names.
"I am The Bane of Mothers," one replies.
"I am The Death of Children," from the other.
Voorhis realizes that these two are knights of the Demon Moloch - and not minotaurs like we first assumed.
"The Negotiations Were Short"
"Nice to meet you..." Liminal continues, but he is cut off as Mayfly takes the opportunity to cast Fireball directly behind the knights.
The explosion lights up something writhing in the room behind them but the knights appear unharmed by the fire. They were already belching smoke, that should have been a clue...
The Bane of Mothers swings its ax at Mechtilde, we hear the sound of children screaming as the ax is swung, and she is hit for 2 damage.
Never Send a Fighter to do a Rogue's Job
Mechtilde, who is alone on the frontline, decides to back up, but as she passes the carved faces again, she is overcome with the weight of all of man's inhumanity to man and breaks down crying.
This renders her unable to fight, and we don't know how long the effect lasts, so the party launches a barrage of spells against the bull-men.
In retrospect, dealing with a trap by trying to tank its effects rather than disarming it first is pretty much the worst way to go about old-school D&D, survival-wise.
Spell Assault!
Ulf casts Light on Bane of Mothers, Mayfly casts Web on the pair, and Verinka casts Wall of Fog between us and them.
The fog rises to conceal them, the web instantly bursts into flame upon contact with the knights, and Bane goes blind from the Light spell (Light is the MVP spell of Basic D&D).
GTFO
We hear the sound of stone grinding on stone coming from the room behind us - something has been attracted to the sounds of battle.
And so we pull Mechtilde out of the gaze of the carved faces and retreat up the stairs back to level 3.
As we retreat, we hear something call out from the darkness: "feeeeeeeeed meeeeeeeee"
A Brief Respite
Once on level 3, we rest in one of the sigil rooms and patch up Mechtilde's wounds. While we do so, one of the hideous ratmen who haunts level 3 appears out of the darkness, throws a spear at Mayfly, and runs away.
We brace for an attack, but it never comes.
With Mechtilde in a weakened state, Dhinron, her magic sword who hate undead with a passion, takes control of her consciousness and leads us back down to confront the beasts of Level 4.
Boldly Back to Level 4
Mayfly casts ESP as we descend and senses around. He doesn't detect the demons to the north anymore and so we decide to go west.
Mechtilde/Dhinron kicks open the door to reveal 5 figures in black plate armor.
A Messy Combat
The entranced fighter rips into one, tearing through its armor and blood begins to pour out of the wound.
Mayfly blinds another one with Light and the injured one turns it helmed gaze at Mechtilde/Dhinron and spews blood out of its helmet in a great fan and blinds her.
We Cast Light!
On the next round, Ulf blinds another one with Light and then Mechtilde/Dhinron kills the undead that blinded her.
The creatures respond by spewing more blood and blind the front two ranks of our party - for multiple rounds this time!
Voorhis steps up and hits one with a great flail.
"Two Blinded Creatures May Attack Each Other, But There Is A 50% Change They Kiss On Accident"
With several of us blinded and three them blinded, both parties flail around for a couple of rounds, unable to attack each other.
Our group regains their vision first, and Mechtilde/Dhinron quickly leads the charge to slaughtering the remaining undead.
Sam Rami Says There Wasn't Enough Vomit
We discover that the creatures are withered corpses, locked in armor spiked on the inside, like an iron maiden.
The evening grows late and so we gather up the broken armor as our prize and safely leave the dungeon for the week.
We each receive 95xp - a quite poor amount for a level 4 adventure, but no one died and no one contracted a tape worm. If we can find the right buyer for the armor, we might make a profit off of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment