new teams!

[venger]

perrin said:

Alternatively, the arrogant Drow, who did get their behinds kicked enough to fall back and summon stuff with gongs (or so I think if I heard the recap right) might become very upset at the "upstart surfacers" who would dare challenge them and slay their demons. They were willing to summon said demons in the first time. It's unlikely they'll sit back the next time without making preparations to punish us for our "impudence," if we do a full-on retreat.

But I like Dell's idea to camp in the complex and have someone retrieve the henchmen, so I agree resting isn't a bad idea.

"Alternatively?"

I assume they're pretty much always willing to summon demons. They didn't build that elaborate Summoning Room just because they saw us coming.

And yeah.. we aren't trying to make friends with them, we're trying to kill them. The point is for them not to like us.

Camping inside of their evil spider temple strikes me as a monumentally bad idea.

[Ginger]

Having bad guys attack us in the woods would be great. All of the cool drow stuff they have would break when they went outside. It also means they'll leave their fortified positions.

A few days ago we invaded their caverns, got beat up, and fled. Now they'll come out to see that we got beat up again and fled a second time. I think they'll be too busy laughing at us to do much of anything else.

[Wolfgar]

I don't think there are that many drow left. The first time we fought them it seemed like we were meeting their heavy hitters. It is not like the glacier where we went through waves of frost giant guards before getting to the jarl. I think the spiders, giant and troglodytes were their waves of defense. We only faced the demons because we retreated. There is probably not another higher level drow priest or mage that is waiting in the wings. I think it would be better to find out more about the remaining defenses and retreat if overwhelmed rather than let them continue to prepare for us.

[venger]

How many of us did they hold, charm, poison and knock unconscious during our encounter? I think at one point it was everyone but Pffifwin and Antonus. Some of us being afflicted multiple times.

If we get "overwhelmed" its quite possible the unstoppable regenerating juggernaut Otto with his magical boots of fleeing and handy feather fall will get away. But some others of the party certainly will not.

It is foolhardy to press on without the full strength of the party.

[Dell]

Clearly what we need to do is have the invisible brownie scout ahead and see where the bad guys are. Once we see what kind of defenses they have, then we can determine whether they're too much for us or not.

[Ginger]

If we press on immediately and there are no creatures down there that we haven't seen already, will we win?
They've got a 9th level priestess with AC -9 when fully loaded, which she will be. She's got a staff that casts insect swarm which does 12 HP of damage and immobilizes you for several rounds.
They've got a 7/7 F/MU who has an AC deep in the negatives as well. His channeling roll was a 17, which means he's going to have a lot of HP.
They've got a 4+4 huge spider which is very poisonous, a 3rd level drow fighter, and a troglodyte.
Even assuming no cloud demons, we could be in real trouble.

If we do go, though, will Otto swap swords with Raven in exchange for a ring of fire resistance?

[Ginger]

dell said:

Clearly what we need to do is have the invisible brownie scout ahead and see where the bad guys are. Once we see what kind of defenses they have, then we can determine whether they're too much for us or not.

Perhaps Fido? He has 90' infravision and can shout a warning before getting taken down.

[Wolfgar]

arrowguy said:

If we press on immediately and there are no creatures down there that we haven't seen already, will we win?
They've got a 9th level priestess with AC -9 when fully loaded, which she will be. She's got a staff that casts insect swarm which does 12 HP of damage and immobilizes you for several rounds.
They've got a 7/7 F/MU who has an AC deep in the negatives as well. His channeling roll was a 17, which means he's going to have a lot of HP.
They've got a 4+4 huge spider which is very poisonous, a 3rd level drow fighter, and a troglodyte.
Even assuming no cloud demons, we could be in real trouble.

If we do go, though, will Otto swap swords with Raven in exchange for a ring of fire resistance?

If there are so few opponents then I say we can overwhelm them with numbers. We could just have everyone try to grapple them.

Switch out some first level spells for Run. Cast them on teams 2 and 3. Have Otto and Raven attack from the front. Everyone else runs around and tries to grapple from behind - no shield, no dexterity. That gives at best AC 5 with +2 for rear/flank attack and +2 for charge. Do rings of protection count against touch attacks? I would think no.

Yes Otto will swap Raven. Any good rings around that no one is using?

[Ginger]

otto said:

Any good rings around that no one is using?

Don't tell Cedrus, but there is one ring right now that no one's using. It's a ring of shocking grasp. There was some reason that no one was using it, but I can't remember anymore... Just put it on and we'll figure it out.

[Dell]

otto said:

Do rings of protection count against touch attacks? I would think no.

All magical bonuses count towards touch AC.

[venger]

Antonus could peer through the twisting veils of time and space with his most incredible Wizard's Eye... for 7 rounds at a movement rate of 30' a round.

Grapple my.. "I disagree!"

[venger]

arrowguy said:

If we press on immediately and there are no creatures down there that we haven't seen already, will we win?
They've got a 9th level priestess with AC -9 when fully loaded, which she will be. She's got a staff that casts insect swarm which does 12 HP of damage and immobilizes you for several rounds.
They've got a 7/7 F/MU who has an AC deep in the negatives as well. His channeling roll was a 17, which means he's going to have a lot of HP.
They've got a 4+4 huge spider which is very poisonous, a 3rd level drow fighter, and a troglodyte.
Even assuming no cloud demons, we could be in real trouble.

Who is to say there aren't a couple more deadly poisonous spiders? Or 10 more Drow fighters? Or 30 more troglodytes?
Or another drider. It's a pretty big complex for just 15 guys to hang out in.

We don't actually know what is down there and the fact that they aren't behaving like Frost Giants shouldn't really influence our decision.

[Dell]

apprentice said:

Who is to say there aren't a couple more deadly poisonous spiders? Or 10 more Drow fighters? Or 30 more troglodytes?
Or another drider.

That's why we're going to scout ahead - to see what the hell is down there. Once we know what's there, we can decide whether to run away or not.

[Ginger]

Are we going to do a reconnaissance in force or just send a lone, invisible scout? I don't think the brownie will go alone. I vote for Fido. He has 9" infravision and has a good chance of spotting invisible stuff. He's also fairly fast. And, of course, if he gets killed he's easily recoverable.

Alternatively, Dell, Winthrop and Antonus can go as bats or spiders or something.

[venger]

I'd volunteer to go polymorphed.

If I'm healed.

Hopefully one of the senior mages would accompany me.

[Dell]

apprentice said:

I'd volunteer to go polymorphed.

If I'm healed.

Hopefully one of the senior mages would accompany me.

You wouldn't want to send two battle-class mages on a mission like that. Advance scouting is a job for Animal Friends, Elves, Familiars, Monks, Rangers and Thieves. With the assets we have in place, I'd recommend Otto, Dell and Clift. We sneak around, see what's going on, and if we get into trouble we pop smoke and run.

[Ginger]

Scouting question:
If we peer into the altar room we fought in and find it empty, what then? Do we set a guard for that room and rest in the golden room where we fought the demons?

I think there's a big difference between checking to see if a room we presume to be occupied is empty and exploring a new area.

[Dell]

arrowguy said:

Scouting question:
If we peer into the altar room we fought in and find it empty, what then?

We open up the smoke bottle so that room has no visibility. Then we place some rudimentary "traps" and set up a listening post so we have advanced warning if anyone leaves that room to attack us.

[Ginger]

We should have some glass shards left over from the summoning room. We could fill a corridor with them, which would make the bad guys extra noisy. Unless they fly over them or levitate themselves or something.

[Mr. Trommer]

I have a bag of marbles.

[Dell]

Oil is good - they may be immune to magic, but regular fire burns them like normal.

[Ginger]

The following is the plan, right?

Dell, Otto, Clift (and Fido?) sneak into the altar room where we fought the drow. If they don't see anything, we cover the passageways leading to us with marbles (and smoke?) and rest. That'll give us a good warning if they attack.

[Dell]

arrowguy said:

The following is the plan, right?

Dell, Otto, Clift (and Fido?) sneak into the altar room where we fought the drow. If they don't see anything, we cover the passageways leading to us with marbles (and smoke?) and rest. That'll give us a good warning if they attack.

You're the leader, so the plan is whatever you say the plan is. But we can also have caltrops, broken glass, and tripwires.

[Mr. Trommer]

Maybe a Wyvern Watch or two is possible.

[Ginger]

dell said:

You're the leader, so the plan is whatever you say the plan is.

You say that now, but it never quite works out that way. :-/

I'll delegate the particulars of the traps and warnings to Dell and Clift. How does Wyvern Watch work against magic resistance? Does the spell just not go off or does the spell go off but just not hit?

[Mr. Trommer]

I expect that Drow would get a save against their magic resistance since it is a spell. I don't know if that would trip it.