Items from the Umber Hulks

[Dead Greyhawk]

From the Umber Hulks you got:

5000 GP in mixed Dark Elf Coinage (prism, mushroom, puffball, ingots, mace, and spiral rings)
3000 PP in mixed Dark Elf Coinage (prism, mushroom, puffball, ingots, mace, and spiral rings)
2 scrolls
9 purple amethysts (500 GP each)
a pouch with a ring in it
a bag containing a small leather box mounted on adjustable leather straps.

I'm sorting through the encumbrance charts to see what you can carry, since leaving things behind is so painful to some of you.

[Dead Greyhawk]

Pfiffwin's archers lost one man, shot the hulk once, and allowed Pfiffwin to get a killing backstab in on it while it was attacking the illusory archers. Adler, once he came out of the confusion, levitated Jasper's corpse and his stuff back up.

[Ginger]

admin said:

Adler, once he came out of the confusion, levitated Jasper's corpse and his stuff back up.

It went that well, huh?

[venger]

arrowguy said:

It went that well, huh?

The recap is long. And fraught with disaster. Read it at your own peril.

[Wolfgar]

Here is my take on how it went.

It was not one of the better sorties for the Company. We left the bugbear rooms and headed for the stables. Along the way we came across another door. The gnolls had no idea what was behind it. Winthrop opened the door while Otto was trying to arrange the party into a better strategic position. The door lead into a passageway that split three ways.

Winthrop, Adrienne on statue of war, Otto, Al, and Raven entered and went left. Everyone else waited at the door trying to get the gnolls to enter. The passage ended in a tunnel going up. Otto flew up to the ceiling to take a look and found an umber hulk. This is where is started going bad. Otto got two big hacks at it. Winthrop decided there is no reason to help since Otto will likely kill it next round. Adrienne advanced but missed it. Al moved forward but then decided against throwing his hammer at. Raven decided it would be better to stow his bow.

Otto is confused looking into its gaze. It grabs him and hauls him up the tunnel. Winthrop polymorphs into a drider and Al hops on. Raven drinks the rest of his potion of polymorph and becomes a drider. Adrienne runs back to get help and yells at the gnolls to get in there. The gnolls break for it when Dell has his bone statue kill one of the gnolls. Dell and the bone statue chase after them for a couple of rounds.

Antonus motions for people to go in to help. Florin and Jasper go in but for some reason go down the middle passage. A pit opens under them and they drop 100 feet and are knocked unconscious.

Meanwhile Al and the two driders climb the tunnel and reach the umber hulk's lair where he has started eating Otto. Al is able to kill it before he himself is confused.

The rest of party starts filing into the passage. Pfiffwin approaches the pit and sees another umber hulk menacing the unconscious bodies. Pfiffwin creates an illusion of a boulder that drops down the pit which unfortunately it disbelieves and instead grabs Jasper. No one else seems to have anyway to help Jasper.

Back up the tunnel another umber hulk arrives but retreats after seeing the two driders. Raven decides to follow it down a hole and drops on it from above. The two end up plummeting 100 feet, Raven taking half of the 29 points of falling damage. Raven recovers first as is able to kill it.

Meanwhile Samantha has taken the third passage and is assaulted by yet another umber hulk and is dragged off. Hugh attempts to come to her aid but is also struck dumb.

Back at the top of the pit Pfiffwin decides that since no one else helping he will do what he can and turns into a wraith allowing him to descend to the cave below. It takes him a couple of rounds to track the umber hulk to its lair. Unfortunately he is unable to stop it from rending Jasper.

Winthrop has decided it is time to collect parts instead of binding Otto's wounds. This continues until Dell and his bone statue climb up. Dell has Winthrop follow him after Raven; leaving the bone statue to guard the confused Otto and Al.

Adrienne rides her bone statue after Samantha and Hugh. She manages to kill the umber hulk by charging it with the lance. Samantha and Hugh are only slightly trampled.

Antonus eventually enlarges a rope, ties it to the stone horse and then encourages everyone else to go down. Adler eventually takes the lead recalling that he can feather fall. Adler meets Pfiffwin at the top of the entrance to the umber hulk's lair.

After the umber hulk is finished with Jasper it heads back for another meal. Pfiffwin drops a stinking cloud chromatic orb on it and it drops 40 feets and begins retching up parts of Jasper.

Meanwhile Antonus and Clift have made it down the rope. Antonus starts binding Florin's wounds. Clift takes his light stone. They argue for a while ignoring Pfiffwin's calls for reinforcements. Antonus attacks Clift with the wand of paralyzation. A question of alignment shift is discussed. Eventually Clift gives back the stone. Antonus continues binding Florin.

Pfiffwin hides in shadows while Adler prepares to draw the returning umber hulk away so Pfiffwin can back stab it. Instead it confuses Adler and starts to carry him towards its lair. At this point Pfiffwin use an illusion of archers to keep it from taking Adler down the hole.

I left at this point but it appears the archers worked to save Adler.

[venger]

otto said:

Antonus eventually enlarges a rope, ties it to the stone horse and then encourages everyone else to go down. Adler eventually takes the lead recalling that he can feather fall. Adler meets Pfiffwin at the top of the entrance to the umber hulk's lair.

After the umber hulk is finished with Jasper it heads back for another meal. Pfiffwin drops a stinking cloud chromatic orb on it and it drops 40 feets and begins retching up parts of Jasper.

Meanwhile Antonus and Clift have made it down the rope. Antonus starts binding Florin's wounds. Clift takes his light stone. They argue for a while ignoring Pfiffwin's calls for reinforcements. Antonus attacks Clift with the wand of paralyzation. A question of alignment shift is discussed. Eventually Clift gives back the stone. Antonus continues binding Florin.

He's lucky he didn't get polymorphed. Even a Lawful and Good person can be pushed too far. He put the lightstone in his mouth!

Clift was hindering the rescue effort! It's a high stress situation! Lives were at stake!

[Dead Greyhawk]

I've looked at the encumbrance for everyone except Team Dell, and it looks like some people are quite over what would allow you to move at a 12 or even for some a 9. On the whole, with Otto and Grizela up at 18/00 STR, the net difference is +4195 GP (The Company can carry that much more.). This doesn't count Grizela picking up the dark elf PP.

Moving the demon weapons and the coins off the stone horse and stripping the dead of everything but their magical gear allows for 5705 GP to be piled on the Stone Horse.

Each of the four banners weighs 500 GP. If you want to swap some items around on the Horse, now that I have a better notion of the encumbrance, feel free.

[Dell]

apprentice said:

He's lucky he didn't get polymorphed. Even a Lawful and Good person can be pushed too far. He put the lightstone in his mouth!

Both Antonus and Dell should have learned that threatening to kill someone is unlikely to make them more obedient.

[venger]

admin said:

Moving the demon weapons and the coins off the stone horse and stripping the dead of everything but their magical gear allows for 5705 GP to be piled on the Stone Horse.

Each of the four banners weighs 500 GP. If you want to swap some items around on the Horse, now that I have a better notion of the encumbrance, feel free.

We really should take the banners. At least the Sterich and Knights of the Watch. It would inspire the demoralized peoples. And it's way heroic.

dell said:

Both Antonus and Dell should have learned that threatening to kill someone is unlikely to make them more obedient.

Yeah. Sorry, Clift. The Abyss makes people go a little crazy.

[Wolfgar]

You know what they say - "What Happens In The Abyss Stays In The Abyss."

[Dell]

apprentice said:

We really should take the banners. At least the Sterich and Knights of the Watch. It would inspire the demoralized peoples. And it's way heroic.

The people of Sterich Ravenland need real solutions, not some symbolic balm retrieved from the Abyss! They don't need a banner, they need an army to follow a banner. Weren't we going to retrieve a magically inspiring banner after we get out of the Abyss?

[venger]

dell said:

Weren't we going to retrieve a magically inspiring banner after we get out of the Abyss?

Obviously banners are items of importance.

These banners could be magic too.

We shouldn't leave them.

[Mr. Trommer]

What was the conversion rate for spider gold? 10%. The weight/value of the gold may not be the equal to the weight/value of a banner. I know the the majority of the Company is more interested in $$$ but the value of returning the banners probably is worth more in terms of fame an PR. Even if we don't 'give' them back and trade sell them for more valuable currency. It would bolster our issue of the outstanding warrants ans prove us to be loyal citizens. They also may be worth enough in the same way the quest to retrieve the banner in the south. So I guess I leaning more towards keeping the banners just because it sounds like it would be more fun. We are going to be overloaded before we leave the abyss anyway.

[Mr. Trommer]

I also expect that if we returned the banners we would be rewarded more money than what we could have carried them back for the equal weight.

They would also be a great boon to the establishment of 'Ravenland' with the resulting fame and probable support of some nobility.

[Dell]

If we ever get out of the Abyss, we can find a seamstress that can sew a new banner.

Besides, after we leave the next room, we'll have more treasure and more dead comrades to carry. It's a shame we didn't go to the stables first...

[Ginger]

I think we'll have to readjust constantly. For now, let's just dump it all on the ground next to this door we're about to kick in. If we get more valuable stuff, we'll leave our less valuable stuff in the room. Hopefully we'll be able to get it on the way back. Maybe we can get back in there, grossly encumber ourselves, and planeshift out.

[Mr. Trommer]

If we plane shifted out could we return to the same spot since we know the location?

[sam]

That doesn't seem likely considering that nothing here stays the same. It always changes, so if we try and return to a place we've been or "know" we could end up in somewhere we dont expect...ie...summoning mounts....

[Wolfgar]

If you really don't want to leave anything behind we could use a Reduce spell to shrink the gold and platinum to 1/20 of its actual weight. For Winthrop the spell would last almost 2 hours. By then we should have found a room to rest in or a way off this plane. Just make sure we know exactly when it is going to end so no one is buried under it. And avoid Dispal Magic.

[Ginger]

1/2 its weight, right? Not 1/20? We're low on spells, so I'd rather not sacrifice a Magic Missile to carry a bit more loot.

[Wolfgar]

As I read the spell you can enlarge/reduce objects 10% per level. The max you can enlarge an object is 100% so the max you can reduce is also 100%. Of course 100% reduction does not make sense. I used the limit from the potion of diminution as the maximum reduction.

[venger]

otto said:

As I read the spell you can enlarge/reduce objects 10% per level. The max you can enlarge an object is 100% so the max you can reduce is also 100%. Of course 100% reduction does not make sense. I used the limit from the potion of diminution as the maximum reduction.

Maybe we could enlarge the stone horse instead?

If it counts as a creature in its "living" state we could make it 200% larger. It would carry a ton.

[Ginger]

otto said:

As I read the spell you can enlarge/reduce objects 10% per level. The max you can enlarge an object is 100% so the max you can reduce is also 100%. Of course 100% reduction does not make sense. I used the limit from the potion of diminution as the maximum reduction.

Since 100% reduction doesn't make sense, I thought the way we ruled it was that since you can double an item with enlarge you can halve it with reduce. Likewise, since you can make a person three times his size, you can reduce him to 1/3. If you reread the discussions we had on the glacier that seems to be how we did it.

[Dell]

Enlarge/Reduce are short term solutions that will help us little. We need to either discard everything that doesn't have a weight/value ratio better than 1/1, (that includes all coins except for platinum) or find a way out of here and leave the stuff in a safe place.

[Ginger]

DM Question: Does Cedrus know how plane shift works? Once a priest reaches name level he learns spells directly from his god, right? Did Ehlonna tell him whether he can choose where on the PMP we'll appear? Presumably we won't appear in mid-air, outside the mountain, will we? Could we rest and plane shift back to this spot?

[venger]

arrowguy said:

DM Question: Does Cedrus know how plane shift works? Once a priest reaches name level he learns spells directly from his god, right? Did Ehlonna tell him whether he can choose where on the PMP we'll appear? Presumably we won't appear in mid-air, outside the mountain, will we? Could we rest and plane shift back to this spot?

Isn't our plane-shifting a one shot thing? Cedrus can only do 7 people and then we have the 2 scrolls. That accounts for the entire party, for a one-way trip.

Besides, an attempt to planeshift back would most likely land us on the 1st of the 666 layers of the Abyss.

The Webgate is still open though.



Enlarging the stone horse is the answer to all our problems-

Drow: "whats that big stone horse you got there"
Us: "it's a gift for Lloth, let us through your gates"
Drow: "ok"

[Perrin]

apprentice said:

Enlarging the stone horse is the answer to all our problems-

Drow: "whats that big stone horse you got there"
Us: "it's a gift for Lloth, let us through your gates"
Drow: "ok"

Brilliant!

[Ginger]

Regarding the banners, I don't think their too high of a priority. Sterich and the Knights of the Watch are not exactly important allies. Why would I want to rescue the banner of the ruler I'm trying to overthrow? And we've never met the KotW and won't try to seek them out, so who cares?

I'd much prefer a ton of platinum coins.

[Dell]

arrowguy said:

Regarding the banners, I don't think their too high of a priority... I'd much prefer a ton of platinum coins.

Okay guys... call off the mutiny.

[Dead Greyhawk]

arrowguy said:

DM Question: Does Cedrus know how plane shift works? Once a priest reaches name level he learns spells directly from his god, right? Did Ehlonna tell him whether he can choose where on the PMP we'll appear? Presumably we won't appear in mid-air, outside the mountain, will we? Could we rest and plane shift back to this spot?

Cedrus sorrowfully informs you that you are mistaken. "Cleric spells of third, fourth, and fifth level are obtained through the aid of supernatural servants of the cleric's deity. That is, through meditation and prayer, the cleric's needs are understood and the proper spells are given to him or her by the minions of the deity." Not until he needs to learn cleric spells of the sixth level will he commune directly with Ehlonna.

Cedrus has never plane shifted, so his knowledge is somewhat academic.

"Explanation/Description: When the plane shift spell is cost, the cleric moves himself or herself or some other creature to another plane of existence. The recipient of the spell will remain in the new plane until sent forth by some like means. If several persons link hands in a circle, up to seven can be affected by the plane shift at the same time. The material component of this spell is o small, forked metal rod - the exact size and metal type dictating to which plane of existence the spell will send the affected creature(s) to. (Your referee will determine specifics regarding how and what planes are reached.) An unwilling victim must be touched in order to be sent thusly; and in addition, the creature also is allowed a saving throw, and if the latter is successful the effect of the spell is negated."

"Plane Shift: The material component is similar to a tuning fork, of course, and striking it at the proper time allows the energy vibrations of the person or persons or creature or creatures involved to match those of the desired plane. All you need to do is determine which notes, if you will, attune to which planes, and then when the caster has a metal rod, inform him or her of the note it sounds- an A sharp, far instance, might take one to the Astral Plane, while an A flat will move one to the Elemental Plane of Air, and an A to the Ethereal Plane. Naturally, you can include the octave and even have chords to move a creature to some sub plane, i.e., F sharp
minor might move the caster or the subject to the 9th Plane of Hell."

Cedrus has a collection of tuning forks that he expects will take him, or those casting his plane shift spell, home. But its not a done deal, especially since he's trying to plane shift from some other place. He also carries a bunch that he's certain would send a caster from Oerth to the Ethereal Plane. He assumes they'll take the Company there as well.

As to whether you arrive at the same place you depart from, he doubts it. He's also not at all certain that he could bring the Company directly to this place from Oerth. It would probably take some experimenting.