The Assault Continues

[Dead Greyhawk]

A recap:

Reinforcements for the defenders arrive, first a mixed force of goblins and kobolds led by the Executioner, then an assault group of hobgoblins and a spell caster attacking from over the roof. Luckily, their timing was slightly off, and each group could be dealt with in turn. Ironhand was swarmed over and stabbed nearly to death, but Cash had a field day with the Executioner, following Dell's taunting.

Icar apparently locked a woman in his treasure room. She was freed, but turned out to be a medusa. Cedrus was turned to stone. No deal was able to be brokered with the medusa, and she was slain.

Several of the rooms off of the kitchen were investigated, but no stairwell downwards was located. A nearly hysterical orc cook was found, but, after leading him through the carnage of the battles, he degenerated into sobs and hysteria providing little useful information.

A half-orc armorer, his wife and children were found and slain. Several unoccupied rooms were found as well, one containing a slain halfling and a live badger in an impromptu arena.

A room with 25 slaves, including 7 females, and one hobgoblin wearing a blue cloak was discovered. All were immobile. The hobgoblin was slain. The slaves stared blankly off into space, and the room seemed to suck up light within it. The room contained a creature who seemed to have an ability to induce fear, nausea, and unease with sound. The creature draped itself around Alouicious and consumed him. It successfully feared all but Ebenezer, Jerry and Dell. After it slayed Alouicious, it attacked Jerry, but only brought him into unconsciousness before Ben and Dell finally killed it.

The creature feared all of the Company during the battle, but Otto and Raven ran further into the stockade instead of out onto the roof and into the courtyard. The fear was long-lasting, but finally ebbed. Ten minutes after the last of the Saltmarsh men have returned to the kitchen area, Otto and Raven are still missing.



Treasure:
Blue Cloak - Otto
Unopened Iron Box from Armorer - Ben
Bastard Sword with Odd, Twined Hilt from Executioner
High-tension Composite Longbow
31 Pomarj SP
50 Pomarj CP
Folded Paper from Pouch in Unoccupied Room - Otto
Bear Fur from Icar's Bed
2000 Pomarj GP from Icar's chest - Dell and Cash
Bag of Unknown Gems - Dell
Bag of 10 Silver and Opal Bracelets (200 GP each) - Dell
Unopened Brass Coffer from Icar's chest - Dell

[Ginger]

So I'm not there and Al dies, Cedrus is turned to stone and Raven and Otto run off screaming like little girls?

[Dell]

arrowguy said:

So I'm not there and Al dies, Cedrus is turned to stone and Raven and Otto run off screaming like little girls?

Yes, but on the bright side... wait, there is no bright side.

[Wolfgar]

Yeah, not our most shining moment. There are a number of things that we could do better next time.

1. Fighting in narrow corridors. When the reinforcements arrived we kepted getting stuck in these combat sequences where only one or two people could attack. In the future it might help not to crowd together so much. No need for all of us to rush into a narrow space with no room for maneuvering. If we had kept a couple of the Saltmarsh guys guarding the top of the trapdoor until we had secured the area then we wouldn't have had the hobgoblins coming at us from behind. We should try to keep the stronger fighters in the front since they have the better AC and can inflict more damage.

2. Better communication among party members to get a handle on the situation. For instance, I completely misinterrupted the hobgoblin attack. I assumed Markessa was leading the reinforcements, however, when thinking about it after the fact it was probably just a hobgoblin shaman. Of course since I don't understand hobgoblin the whole thing about their god was lost on me. And with Cedrus and the medusa. If Winthrop had some misgiving about opening the door he should have relayed them on. When the darkness spell hit, no one inside the area attempted to communicate what was going on. I couldn't tell if I should try to come in and help or hang back and wait for the hobgoblins to come forward.

I am still trying to think of how we could have handled the slave room better. The only thing I can think of is to have the guys with the high perception at the front trying to figure out what was causing the effect. Is there a better way to attack something that has engulfed someone? Do blunt weapons do better or worse?

Well hopefully next week will go better, assuming we can recover Otto and Raven. I will be out but Otto should continue to take a frontline position in fights. We may want to consider a retreat with whatever slaves we have found without exploring the underground part of the stockade. I am not sure where in the Pomarj we are going to find a cleric to raise Al and unpetrify Cedrus. We may be able to head north along the coast to where Diego is from. He may have contacts that can help us. Of course this may all be moot if Otto and Raven have run down some stairs right into Markessa.

[Dell]

Clearly, we need to revise our SOP's a little bit. Here's what I'm thinking:

First of all, no one should be opening unknown doors, gates, chests, portcullises, strongboxes, windows, drawers, wardrobes, bags, pouches, pockets, or backpacks while we're in combat. It doesn't ever help.

Second, we should do more retreating. Ironhand would have been fine if he had withdrawn, instead he rounded the corner, making himself a perfect target to be tackled, shot, and stabbed (in roughly that order). We have a lot of low level fighters in the party that can take hits, so instead of one of them fighting until he goes down, have him fight some, then rotate back to let someone fresher have a shot.

Third, make your saving throws, dammit. What is wrong with you people? Do I get petrified when I see medusas? No, I look at them and I'm all like "Go bring me a gemstone, pregnant dog!" And then I slap them. Do I run when some glorified overgarment starts screeching at me? No, I peel it off of Al's dead body and have it made into a throw rug for my guest room.

Also, I need to work on making my orders clearer, because people are having difficulty following them.

On the encounter with the cloaker, I don't see how it could have gone much better than it did - with the HP our group had, and the saving throws they were making, almost anyone that had become enveloped by the thing would have died, either from the creature or from us trying to get it off. We're lucky to have had only one casualty from it. I mean, look:

www.planetadnd.com/interactive_books/mm00036.php
www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG36.jpg
Now, those are 2nd edition stats, and a 3.5 edition illustration, but you get the idea. Nasty thing, isn't it?

As for what happens next - we collect the slaves, the goodies, and the missing party members. Based on our strength at that point, we'll see if we should do a full retreat, continue clearing this place, rest to recover spells and HP, or some other option.

After that, we'll need to go back to Highport and that bar that has all the evil adventurers in it. It's the only place nearby that is likely to have powerful spellcasters available. With any luck, they'll accept magic items in trade for spellcasting, because our cash position is... leveraged. Bring the cloaker and medusa bodies along as well - I'm sure that evil spellcasters can find a use for those.

[Mr. Trommer]

Considering how far the rest of ran in the ten minutes the fear lasted on us finding Raven and Otto will be most interesting.

[Wolfgar]

dell said:

arrowguy said:

So I'm not there and Al dies, Cedrus is turned to stone and Raven and Otto run off screaming like little girls?

Yes, but on the bright side... wait, there is no bright side.

Well we don't need to worry about Cedrus turning into a wereboar now.

[Dell]

So, our plans for the next session are what?

What I'm thinking is this: we retrieve Otto and Raven first of all. Then, we take all the slaves back to the cave and rest, to recover HP and spells. Because frankly, if we go any further, we're going to get spanked. We're beat to hell, we've lost our healing, and we have a total of four spells left - Invisibility, Web, Charm, and Minor Globe. As much as I hate to kill and run, we don't have any better options.

It might be wise to leave a couple of people behind to monitor the activity in the fortress - Pavel can resume his hobgoblin disguise and pose as one of the wounded. Someone else like Raven or Dell should stay behind too, to keep an eye on things - if only because it's nice to have a PC around to do things. If someone stays, they can raise the gate and make sure that the bad guys don't escape out the front door.

The only "flaw" with this plan is that it means Markessa will with all her goodies, if she hasn't already. But we're no match for a magic user with full spell capability backed up by a horde of wierd blue things and goodness knows what else. We've already had two casualties, and we can't afford to bring anyone else back from the dead.

DM question: How much would a scroll of raise dead cost? A scroll of reincarnate?

After we're re-spelled, we can go back in and take the downstairs level. That's an hour to get back to the cave, 8 hours of rest to regain HP, 6 hours to memorize spells, another hour to get back to the stockade.

That's not including the time it will take to find Raven & Otto. Essentially, if I have my timing right, we'll end up going back to the stockade about the same time we went in the first time - sunrise or shortly afterward.

Anyone have any questions about this plan?

[Wolfgar]

So we are leaving Diego, Ironhand and Jerry with Al's body and the slaves back in the cave. We should check the stables to see if there is a cart we can use for Cedrus. No point in leaving him in the stockade for a kobold to deface. Is there anyone else under 5 hp?

Also there are still some unopened doors on the ground level. Do you want to leave those for after we are rested?

[Ginger]

8 hours of rest to regain HP? 1 HP per person is pretty trivial. Also, why are we retreating to the cave? We have a fortress here to defend. I'd love to stand on the towers and rain death on those below. Additionally, I think that if we're spending all that time to rest and recouperate, we should open all of the boxes and detect magic on everything. Even if we don't want to waste the full day to identify them, some people might want to grab magical weapons.

[Dell]

Why rest for 8 hours to gain HP?:

Winthrop and I need to rest at least 6 hours to regain spells, and we need to study for even longer than that. So that's at least 12 hours right there, probably more. Also, 8 hours of rest will let at least two of our NPCs level up to 4th - where they can double specialize, gain HP and all that sort of thing. Addy might even get a character class (I've decided I want him to be a bow-specialized fighter.) So the resting for 8 hours is going to happen anyway.

Why go back to the cave?

It's a lot more secure than any of the rooms I can think of around here. If they launch a counter attack on us while we're sleeping we could end up surrounded. The rooms are all very small, and so we'd be fireball bait staying in one. There could be secret doors in the rooms that we're in, and waking up to all sorts of nasty creatures in our face is never a good thing. The 25 slaves are going to want to leave ASAP as well, and 25 zero-level shmucks wandering around during a battle would be a tremendous pain in the ass. And if we don't get back to Diego soon, he'll assume we're all dead and leave with all our stuff.

We'll be taking their horses and carts and whatever else they have in the stable, too.

[Mr. Trommer]

Can we put a wizard lock on the porcullis on the way out?

[Ginger]

winthrop said:

Can we put a wizard lock on the porcullis on the way out?

If Markessa is a 10th level wizard, that won't really matter. Also, I think the spell specifically says you can't wizard lock portcullises (or maybe it's Knock that mentions them).

[Ginger]

Resting for spells and leveling up is good. I'm just reminding everyone that those of us who won't get a level will get virtually nothing. For those who are down 21 or more, that's 3 weeks of rest before they get better.

[Dell]

arrowguy said:

Resting for spells and leveling up is good. I'm just reminding everyone that those of us who won't get a level will get virtually nothing.

We're running on fumes right now - we need every point we can get. But essentially, all this discussion is moot - first we need to find where Otto and Raven ran off to. That may change all our plans...

[Ginger]

dell said:

arrowguy said:

Resting for spells and leveling up is good. I'm just reminding everyone that those of us who won't get a level will get virtually nothing.

We're running on fumes right now - we need every point we can get. But essentially, all this discussion is moot - first we need to find where Otto and Raven ran off to. That may change all our plans...

I'm sure that we ran off and killed Markessa, don't worry.