The temple of the dark elves

[Dead Greyhawk]

The Company succeeded in looting the first nine dark elves. You recover 145 PP (female headed spider/blank) and jewelry and trinkets containing 48 50 GP gems (5 bloodstone; 4 carnelian; 6 chalcedony; 2 chrysoprase; 11 citrine; 2 jasper; 7 peridot; 4 rose quartz; 4 smoky quartz, and 3 zircon). The value of the jewelry and trinkets is in the gemstones. Each of the female dark elves (and all of them are women) carry a large brooch, similar to the ones seen on other dark elves. All of the dark elves here wear the same sigil, that of a golden spider.

More dark elves come, drawn by the sound of the alarm. One of the dark elves is grappled and knocked unconscious.

The Company heads up the right staircase and fights waves of dark elves. Down below, a smaller contingent is fought. Priestesses eventually join in battle. Otto is held and bludgeoned into submission. Al is held and brought low. Antonus and Grizela are held and knocked unconscious. Otto and Al lose potions to a dispel magic.

Raven, seeing the Company rallying, but doubting success, pulls forth the ring of purported wishes, and says, "I wish we were back through the gate in the Demon Web Pits where we entered here, sealing the gate behind us in the process."

Everything freezes in place, and then melts like nightmares in wax.

[Ginger]

Also, I had Adrienne augur to see if "we should stay here to search for the Great Druid." She said "The way has been lost." I took that to mean he's not in the Underdark.
So, yeah, things weren't too good. When formulating the wish, I had several concerns. I didn't want to wish us to the surface, since we would have no way to get back to the Abyss from there. I assume that we need to find the druid through some gate in the demonweb pits. I didn't want to just wish us through the gate, since we would be followed.
Here's how I think the wish might work out, with the requisite evil twist. The "we" could be interpreted as everyone in combat, including the drow. I also presume the gate will only be inoperable for a short while, until a more powerful cleric can re-enchant it.

[Dead Greyhawk]

You killed 47 dark elves. Nine when you first entered and a subsequent 38, both on the first and second floors.

[Dead Greyhawk]

I forgot to mention that Raven nearly died, drank a potion of healing, nearly died again, drank a potion of polymorph, became a raven, and flew up to Antonus, who was on the ceiling in the shape of a drider.

Antonus then grabbed Raven the raven, polymorphed into himself, fell head first towards the floor, dimension doored back under the Lolth image, and landed in the pool of water, bird in hand.

[venger]

admin said:

I forgot to mention that Raven nearly died, drank a potion of healing, nearly died again, drank a potion of polymorph, became a raven, and flew up to Antonus, who was on the ceiling in the shape of a drider.

Antonus then grabbed Raven the raven, polymorphed into himself, fell head first towards the floor, dimension doored back under the Lolth image, and landed in the pool of water, bird in hand.

We had rehearsed that plan hundreds of times and it went off without a hitch......


** the dimension door thing, not the ill-conceived "i wish we were sealed forever in the demon web pits" wish.

[Wolfgar]

admin said:

Raven, seeing the Company rallying, but doubting success, pulls forth the ring of purported wishes, and says, "I wish we were back through the gate in the Demon Web Pits where we entered here, sealing the gate behind us in the process."

Everything freezes in place, and then melts like nightmares in wax.

Couldn't "back through the gate in the Demon Web Pits" be interpreted as coming back from Demon Web Pits through the gate to the current temple? Shouldn't you have wished us back into the Demon Web Pits through the gate in the temple?

[Mr. Trommer]

Yup, it may be something like that. Dana mentioned the thought of posting it on Dragonsfoot to see how other's would interpret it. We may end up someplace totally different. We didn't want to be near the temple lest they come after us in force. Otto was unconcious and still held and liekly to be stabbed a couple more times when the choice was made.

[Ginger]

Well, yeah, the wording could be improved retroactively, but we were kind of in a pinch. I basically wanted to specify "demonweb pits" because merely stating "Abyss" could sent us anywhere in there. I guess it should have been something more like "back through the interplanar gate we just entered into the level of the plane we just left infront of that gate we just went into" but Raven was in melee with 4 double-specialized Drow fighters, who didn't respond well when he asked them to hold on for a sec while he edited his wish text.

[Ginger]

admin said:

I forgot to mention that Raven nearly died, drank a potion of healing, nearly died again, drank a potion of polymorph, became a raven, and flew up to Antonus, who was on the ceiling in the shape of a drider.

Antonus then grabbed Raven the raven, polymorphed into himself, fell head first towards the floor, dimension doored back under the Lolth image, and landed in the pool of water, bird in hand.

In case you're wondering how Antonus did all that in a round, it was the brownie who dimension doored.

[Dell]

Moving the party to a safe place is one of the canonical usages of a wish. Assuming you consider the Abyssal Weave a safe place, that part should be fine. Sealing the gate... that may cause a problem.

[venger]

admin said:

The Company heads up the right staircase and fights waves of dark elves. Down below, a smaller contingent is fought. Priestesses eventually join in battle. Otto is held and bludgeoned into submission. Al is held and brought low. Antonus and Grizela are held and knocked unconscious. Otto and Al lose potions to a dispel magic.

Some more details:

The dark elves made liberal use of their innate ability to Dispel Magic. Our priestly buff spells didn't hold up too well under the onslaught. Nor did Antonus' polymorph, minor globe or protection from normal missiles.

The Horn of Valhalla was sounded and 3 barbarian warriors arrived. They were slain.

Al lost Potions of Healing and Stone Giant Strength.

Otto lost the Oil of Impact applied to his hammer, but none of his other potions.

Someone (Hugh?) lost a Fire Elemental resistance potion.

Grizela, Otto and Al had their Strength spells removed.

Al and Grizela were held and struck down in melee. Death's door was cast on Al. Al was healed to consciousness. Grizela was healed to consciousness. Cedrus cast Remove Paralysis encompassing Al, Grizela and Otto.

Otto is unconscious and still held. He took 40 points from a round of attacks and then they subdued him. He rolled another one and failed his Remove Paralysis re-save.

Clift is (slow) poisoned.

Antonus was held, struck down in melee. He was healed back to consciousness, paralysis was removed by Perrin.

[Mr. Trommer]

One of the dark elves cast tongues to offer us the chance to be enslave for life. They hadn't gotten around to calling in some flamestrikes when the wish was uttered.

[Ginger]

apprentice said:

Otto is unconscious and still held. He took 40 points from a round of attacks and then they subdued him. He rolled another one and failed his Remove Paralysis re-save.

There's a funny story behind this. Otto had 4 Hold Person spells cast on him in one round. Since there were four players, I suggested we each roll a save. I rolled a 1, but everyone else saved. To try to redeem myself, I rolled the Remove Paralysis, and rolled another 1. Adler even used the 11th level scroll of the snake god to dispel it, but that failed also.

[Ginger]

winthrop said:

One of the dark elves cast tongues to offer us the chance to be enslave for life. They hadn't gotten around to calling in some flamestrikes when the wish was uttered.

There's no reason to believe that she cast Tongues. All we were told was that one of the elves shouted in perfect common for us to surrender. It's not implausible that one of the drow would know common, since they need to communicate with their slaves somehow. Also, if the Tongues spell were cast, we would understand everything they were saying, and I don't think that's the case.

[Wolfgar]

arrowguy said:

apprentice said:

Otto is unconscious and still held. He took 40 points from a round of attacks and then they subdued him. He rolled another one and failed his Remove Paralysis re-save.

There's a funny story behind this. Otto had 4 Hold Person spells cast on him in one round. Since there were four players, I suggested we each roll a save. I rolled a 1, but everyone else saved. To try to redeem myself, I rolled the Remove Paralysis, and rolled another 1. Adler even used the 11th level scroll of the snake god to dispel it, but that failed also.

Why are there never any "funny" stories about Dell?

[Dell]

otto said:

Why are there never any "funny" stories about Dell?

Because it's only funny when it happens to you?

[Ginger]

otto said:

arrowguy said:

There's a funny story behind this. Otto had 4 Hold Person spells cast on him in one round. Since there were four players, I suggested we each roll a save. I rolled a 1, but everyone else saved. To try to redeem myself, I rolled the Remove Paralysis, and rolled another 1. Adler even used the 11th level scroll of the snake god to dispel it, but that failed also.

Why are there never any "funny" stories about Dell?

There's a pair of boots that disagrees. And a helmet.

[Wolfgar]

You are correct. Those were definitely funny. The distinction is that Dell does these things to himself while Otto has them done to him.