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victory
Jul 19, 2007 10:15:03 GMT -5
Post by venger on Jul 19, 2007 10:15:03 GMT -5
While surveying the carnage in the altar room, we decided what to drag back out. Since there was a lot of weight, we couldn't bring everything. We grabbed all of the swords, crossbows, bucklers and one drow with his armor. I'll assume this was all forgotten on Sunday, but we could have questioned him. It does raise the interesting question of whether innate magic resistance would apply for a dead creature. Our rapid descent from the mountain, under hail of spiders, precluded our hauling the Drow corpse. Somewhat unsurprisingly the fine arms and armor of the dark elves began to disintegrate upon exposure to sunlight. Clift, expert bowyer that he is, began diagramming the hand crossbows for future production.
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victory
Jul 19, 2007 11:27:09 GMT -5
Post by Wolfgar on Jul 19, 2007 11:27:09 GMT -5
Our rapid descent from the mountain, under hail of spiders, precluded our hauling the Drow corpse. Somewhat unsurprisingly the fine arms and armor of the dark elves began to disintegrate upon exposure to sunlight. That is surprising to me. I think in FF or MM2 it says that their cloaks and boots (and maybe the poison they use) lose their abilities if taken away from the homeland of the drow but this takes weeks or months. I thought the armor was mithril or some other special metal that was especially light and strong but was unaffected by removing it from the homeland.
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victory
Jul 19, 2007 11:56:42 GMT -5
Post by venger on Jul 19, 2007 11:56:42 GMT -5
That is surprising to me. I think in FF or MM2 it says that their cloaks and boots (and maybe the poison they use) lose their abilities if taken away from the homeland of the drow but this takes weeks or months. I thought the armor was mithril or some other special metal that was especially light and strong but was unaffected by removing it from the homeland. Dark elves are listed in the Fiend Folio. No items of Drow manufacture can exist for long in the sunlit realms. They automatically lose their magical pluses because they are no longer exposed to the special "underground radiations." And the materials themselves decay rapidly unless special pains are taken to store them in darkness. Even then they can only last those "weeks or months."
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victory
Jul 19, 2007 12:25:00 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Jul 19, 2007 12:25:00 GMT -5
Why, it's almost as if some powerful being knows we have access to those books and so modifies the world in order to confound our expectations!
Maybe the magical pulsing in the mountain which blocks scrying has the same effect as those "underground radiations." Alternatively, maybe the drow have only been in the mountain for weeks or months because they beefed up their fortifications recently. Perhaps we told the wrong person that we're searching for the great druid?
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victory
Jul 19, 2007 12:38:11 GMT -5
Post by venger on Jul 19, 2007 12:38:11 GMT -5
Alternatively, maybe the drow have only been in the mountain for weeks or months because they beefed up their fortifications recently. Perhaps we told the wrong person that we're searching for the great druid? I gather they've been here for a long while now. You know, building a spider-temple... A second is a letter, apparently from the druid of the tree, Aaron, to the Earl of Sterich, signed and sealed, asking the Earl to watch for large outbreaks of spiders, or anything similarly mysterious, in the Jotens and report such information to the elves of the Oytwood. It appears the letter was never sent. Rhiannon says that the correspondence she and her compatriots recovered from the gnolls said the Druid was with the spiders. The third are documents relating to the defense of the Oytwood and the grove, a scroll and a ledger. Both show a decision by the druids to repel the humanoid intruders and active defense until roughly 8 months ago, according to the lunar cycles referred to in the documents.
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victory
Jul 19, 2007 13:21:37 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Jul 19, 2007 13:21:37 GMT -5
The whole place seems to me more like an ancient temple rehabilitated by the drow. It's a pretty vast complex for only a dozen drow and two dozen troglodytes.
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victory
Jul 19, 2007 13:42:11 GMT -5
Post by venger on Jul 19, 2007 13:42:11 GMT -5
The whole place seems to me more like an ancient temple rehabilitated by the drow. It's a pretty vast complex for only a dozen drow and two dozen troglodytes. Regardless, sculpting all those giant spider statues and carving all the doors with spider motifs that only open when they press the special eye-combination probably took a long time. Though what a fortunate coincidence they found this vast complex full of eight-sided rooms. Praise Lloth. And presumably there are more bad guys in the temple than just the ones we've seen.
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victory
Jul 19, 2007 13:58:39 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Jul 19, 2007 13:58:39 GMT -5
Sure, but the spiders all have spider heads and not a human head like Lolth. Maybe it was a temple for a cult of spider worshipers which was a front for the dark elves, and now that they're making their play to dominate the surface world they've occupied it directly. That thesis is very underdetermined, but it's my hunch.
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victory
Jul 19, 2007 14:22:56 GMT -5
Post by venger on Jul 19, 2007 14:22:56 GMT -5
Sure, but the spiders all have spider heads and not a human head like Lolth. Maybe it was a temple for a cult of spider worshipers which was a front for the dark elves, and now that they're making their play to dominate the surface world they've occupied it directly. That thesis is very underdetermined, but it's my hunch. Does it matter? Maybe it was an ancient abandoned temple that the Drow took it over. A crabman temple. They converted the crab-doors into spider-doors and all the giant crab statues into giant spider spider statues by shearing off their claws. We can come up with all sorts of silly theories...
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victory
Jul 19, 2007 15:00:18 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Jul 19, 2007 15:00:18 GMT -5
We can come up with all sorts of silly theories... Sweet! Maybe these are actually sea spiders and the caverns extend all the way across the country to the shark-men temple. Raven would love to get revenge on that priestess who poisoned him.
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victory
Jul 20, 2007 9:04:08 GMT -5
Post by venger on Jul 20, 2007 9:04:08 GMT -5
So, we'll have Otto, Antonus and Cedrus in the lead. 30 feet behind them we'll have Raven, Winthrop and Hugh. 30 feet behind them we'll have Dell and Adrienne. 30 feet behind them will be everyone else. Is that the plan? I think the teams should be more spread out. Like 60 feet. A half move brings you to the next team, and that way you can still perform an action.
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victory
Jul 20, 2007 9:39:30 GMT -5
Post by Wolfgar on Jul 20, 2007 9:39:30 GMT -5
That seems a little long for communication purposes. Also if we make it 4" then Raven can still move up and get off two shots.
What is our procedure for opening doors and moving into rooms? First team opens door and everyone else holds back at regular distances?
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victory
Jul 20, 2007 9:42:37 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Jul 20, 2007 9:42:37 GMT -5
So, we'll have Otto, Antonus and Cedrus in the lead. 30 feet behind them we'll have Raven, Winthrop and Hugh. 30 feet behind them we'll have Dell and Adrienne. 30 feet behind them will be everyone else. Is that the plan? I think the teams should be more spread out. Like 60 feet. A half move brings you to the next team, and that way you can still perform an action. 60' seems awfully far apart. That'll have our whole group sprawling over 200'. In many situations we'd be spread into different rooms.
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victory
Jul 20, 2007 10:17:32 GMT -5
Post by venger on Jul 20, 2007 10:17:32 GMT -5
Should we send ahead a scout or something?
* and yeah, 60' is kind of far.. but I was picturing more of a SWAT style approach, where Team A advances 60', then Team B advances to their location and then Team A moves an additional 60' feet, etc.
Instead of a long 300' chain.
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victory
Jul 20, 2007 11:58:50 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Jul 20, 2007 11:58:50 GMT -5
Regarding spacing, as I see it the big benefit to bigger spacing is that fewer people get caught in area effect spells. The big drawback is that it takes more time for people to engage the enemy. A fireball has a 4" diameter. That's probably our biggest fear, so 4" spacing seems optimal.
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victory
Jul 20, 2007 11:59:38 GMT -5
Post by Dell on Jul 20, 2007 11:59:38 GMT -5
Should we send ahead a scout or something? Animal friends and familiars are excellent scouts.
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victory
Jul 20, 2007 12:17:21 GMT -5
Post by Wolfgar on Jul 20, 2007 12:17:21 GMT -5
We should break out Fido more often. He should stay with the first team but he would certainly be helpful with his hear noise and smelling capability.
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victory
Jul 20, 2007 12:56:59 GMT -5
Post by venger on Jul 20, 2007 12:56:59 GMT -5
Regarding spacing, as I see it the big benefit to bigger spacing is that fewer people get caught in area effect spells. The big drawback is that it takes more time for people to engage the enemy. A fireball has a 4" diameter. That's probably our biggest fear, so 4" spacing seems optimal. I thought it was the 80' long lightning bolt down the narrow corridor we were worrying about. Fido would be useful up front... But one of the mages polymorphed into a spider could probably penetrate deeply into the enemy territory.
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victory
Jul 20, 2007 14:39:38 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Jul 20, 2007 14:39:38 GMT -5
Probably better to polymorph into a bird or something faster.
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victory
Jul 20, 2007 15:35:11 GMT -5
Post by Wolfgar on Jul 20, 2007 15:35:11 GMT -5
If you polymorph into a bat do you get echo location? Does this allow you to navigate in the complete dark?
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victory
Jul 20, 2007 15:47:59 GMT -5
Post by venger on Jul 20, 2007 15:47:59 GMT -5
If you don't get the vision of an owl I am assuming you don't get the echo location of a bat.
The point of being a spider is that if they notice a spider in their spider temple they are likely not to attack it.
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victory
Jul 20, 2007 16:16:48 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Jul 20, 2007 16:16:48 GMT -5
They can talk with spiders. You won't answer and they'll know something is wrong. Maybe turning into a giant ant or a beetle will work?
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victory
Jul 20, 2007 22:57:53 GMT -5
Post by venger on Jul 20, 2007 22:57:53 GMT -5
They can talk with spiders. You won't answer and they'll know something is wrong. Maybe turning into a giant ant or a beetle will work? There's like a bazillion spiders swarming every which way, all over the mountain. I don't think they'll stop to interrogate one. And if they do, turn into a human-headed spider and really freak them out.
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victory
Jul 23, 2007 8:34:26 GMT -5
Post by Wolfgar on Jul 23, 2007 8:34:26 GMT -5
How did things go?
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victory
Jul 23, 2007 8:55:34 GMT -5
Post by venger on Jul 23, 2007 8:55:34 GMT -5
There were a lot more demons than last week. A Type V took Perrin and Otto to places unknown (and probably bad). Also Dell has Otto's sword... We're going to have to reassign the teams.
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victory
Jul 23, 2007 9:36:41 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Jul 23, 2007 9:36:41 GMT -5
We pressed on into the main room with the secret door leading to the drow altar room. A Type V demon appeared on the altar, which we killed. In addition, there was a spider on the wall. Otto, Raven, Adrienne and Grizella slew the demon with melee weapons. Hugh attacked but missed the spider and Antonus magic missiled it but didn't beat the magic resistance. It dissappeared. We decided to go to the summoning room to stop the demons at the source. A Type IV was in there, who we almost killed, but he teleported away. The glass underneath the 5 names had turned weird, so we started smashing them, while others started disturbing the summoning circle. We were successful in doing that, but Adrienne augured and was told "Misplaced effort has little reward."
We went back into the previous room and there were a dozen demons squeezed inside. A type IV, 10 type I, and we discovered that the spider was a polymorphed type V. At this point everyone was covered by a circle of protection, so we started attacking them in a controlled manner. The Type V (which has AC -7) was using 4 swords and a two handed weapon which disarmed an opponent on a successful hit. Otto's sword was flung away, so he drew his hammer, which was also flung away. He drew his +1 dagger and defended with it for a round, then he successfully it with it. At that point, the creature dropped every weapon and grappled Otto and teleported. It came back, with no Otto. Perrin was then grappled and vanished. At this point, Dell activated the evil bone statue we found in Castle Crag. The creature was a 16HD Bone Demon with 96 HP. Since we're all within circles of protection, we're fairly confident it was a good idea, since it's very powerful.
At some point, Winthrop cast Monster summoning 3 and brought 2 ocher jellies. Unfortunately, they cannot enter a circle of protection so were summoned in a densely packed horde of demons and immediately slain.
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victory
Jul 23, 2007 9:50:39 GMT -5
Post by venger on Jul 23, 2007 9:50:39 GMT -5
A Type IV has not reappeared since the Summoning Room.
There was a Type III in the main room, along with the approximately 10 Type I's and the polymorphed Type V.
They have gated in probably an additional half-dozen Type I's, a couple Type II's that are hopping around somewhere and another Type III.
Otto had retrieved his hammer before he was taken.
I believe the standing count killed was:
10 Type I's 1 Type III 1 Type V
a badly wounded Type II a wounded Type V that heals itself with the polymorph ability.
**In melee with us right now are I think 6 Type I's, a Type II, a Type III, and a Type V.
Dell's bone demon is a particularly vicious specimen with 5 attacks per round.
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victory
Jul 23, 2007 10:07:08 GMT -5
Post by Ginger on Jul 23, 2007 10:07:08 GMT -5
Since the Type Vs can cast polymorph at will, they get a free d12 hp back each round. Otto's Fly spell was still up when he was teleported, so he should be ok if the demon tried to teleport him over a pit. From the wikipedia entry on Type V demons: Mariliths favor their weapons highly-- if one should ever be lost or stolen, they go to great lengths to see that the weapon is retrieved. Someone picked up it's polearm. Was that Perrin?
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victory
Jul 23, 2007 10:15:24 GMT -5
Post by venger on Jul 23, 2007 10:15:24 GMT -5
Someone picked up it's polearm. Was that Perrin? Indeed.
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victory
Jul 23, 2007 11:51:25 GMT -5
Post by Wolfgar on Jul 23, 2007 11:51:25 GMT -5
So the bone demon is fighting on our side?
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