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Post by venger on Sept 9, 2007 17:56:24 GMT -5
We are totally in the Abyss. It's a vast network of overpasses and underpasses with random free-standing doors that lead to other corridors and rooms that don't appear to be connected. Mapping is going great. Also there's visibility reducing demonic fog everywhere. And all our magical weapons and armor appear to be working at a -2 to whatever their usual + is...
Protection From Evil 10' Radius doesn't seem to function.
But on the bright side, Florin is back!
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Post by Mr. Trommer on Sept 9, 2007 19:18:14 GMT -5
More to the point Al is back and Otto has a couple of new followers that decided to come along.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 9, 2007 20:07:04 GMT -5
Fortunately, a +3 bow is not a magical weapon. Did we bring along any of the Type V demon's weapons to see if they have bonuses in the Abyss? And what about the egg?
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Post by Dead Greyhawk on Sept 9, 2007 20:16:55 GMT -5
The Company finishes up some last minute shopping. Otto meets some Farvalers who travel with him. Dell has to take a loan against himself to cover the shortfall of all the goods, as Winthrop's chest is essentially depleted. They finish with scrolls, potions, and spells and then head for the Hall.
Winthrop and friends survive the teleport to the Hall. Hugh is chastised by Arthurus and penalized. Only through heavy tithing does he meet Arthurus's approval. Grizela purchases pearls while the mage and wizard scribe. Cedrus also scribes, though less successfully.
The Company meets up at the Hall, where Florin has tracked Otto and Hugh to. Al is much better, having regenerated his withered leg to some degree. Al has a cousin that expresses interest in joining, but Antonus strikes up a friendship with Florin. One of the three Farvalers and Al's cousin stay at the Hall.
At the gate, the Company gets a moment of cold feet and decides to identify the silver egg found in the dark elf's body. This leads to Hugh removing it of curses. Hugh is, of course, cursed. He scoops up the egg, which is now open, and the objects that were within it and sprints for the gate. Otto stops him and everyone piles on until Cedrus can memorize remove curse on Hugh.
The egg disgorged four strangely shaped items, an iron pyramid, an eight pointed bronze star, a silver sphere, and a pale blue crystal cube. Each is identified, but seem to be keys of some magical sort.
The Company makes it through the gate finally into a strange passageway surrounded by fog. The passageway seems to be on a freestanding platform, likely supported from below. The surface of the platform occasionally shows tormented creatures in it. Antonus verifies the gate goes in two directions, but he and Samantha both see that the gate shrinks slightly when used, and even a little, lesser amount over time.
The Company hikes about, occasionally finding over and underpasses as well as what appear to be closed gates, which Otto kicks in. One leads to a passage that brings the Company back to where they started. Large whip-spiders, like those fought by Raven near Gador's lair, climb first over the side of the platform, then descend like feathers floating from above. They are quickly slain. Each of the whip-spiders has a silver medallion to the spider goddess mounted in the chitin on the underside of their abodomen.
The Company opens another closed gate and is faced with two trolls who try to grab Otto. They fail and Otto and Raven quickly kill them. The space in the now open gate is dark, so the Company spreads out to look down the passage, not realizing that more trolls lurk beyond the gate. A minute later, trolls boil out of the dark. Eight trolls range through the party, raking Jasper into unconsciousness and gutting Raven often. Winthrop lightning bolts through the dark doorway while the rest of the Company whittle down their opponents.
After Jasper's near-death and Raven's near-disembowlment, the Company tosses the troll bodies over the edge of the platform, except for one Antonus retains for blood and a possible friend, and files into the troll's room. Otto searches the room for goods of value or import and finds three jpieces of jewelry, a platinum and onyx tiara (5000 gp), a gold brooch (2000 gp), and a diamond and gold necklace (4000 gp), as well as another 900 EP of dark elven coin. The walls give the appearance of bricks or masonry, but probing them with Flewingham's spear yields the same effect as on the platform without. Dell and Cedrus stare at the walls and find that eventually the screaming, writhing souls that make up the floorway outside this room appear in the masonry itself. The walls seem to take the form they do for unknown reasons.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 9, 2007 20:54:06 GMT -5
I'm sorry I missed Hugh's near catastrophe.
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Post by Mr. Trommer on Sept 9, 2007 20:56:54 GMT -5
No one mentioned the Demon weapons so I don't know if we have them. Grizela is wearing the the drow cloak and boots.
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Post by Mr. Trommer on Sept 9, 2007 20:57:38 GMT -5
Hugh would have been fine. Trithereon told him it was the right thing to do.
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Post by Mr. Trommer on Sept 9, 2007 21:01:54 GMT -5
Oh, the gate we came through appear to get smaller after Antonis went back through it and returned. I would guess that the blood sacrifices were needed to keep it open on the other side.
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Post by venger on Sept 9, 2007 22:03:27 GMT -5
You know the Oytwood sounds really nice this time of year...
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Post by Dell on Sept 9, 2007 22:38:39 GMT -5
No one mentioned the Demon weapons so I don't know if we have them. Clift has two demonic broadswords in Dell's Chest.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 10, 2007 7:58:29 GMT -5
Will the Leomund's Chest work in the Abyss? Maybe the Ethereal is less well connected to this plane as it is to the Prime Material?
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Post by Dell on Sept 10, 2007 10:03:49 GMT -5
Will the Leomund's Chest work in the Abyss? Dell gives you a 3 minute oral presentation on the topic of spell interactions in outer planes. The executive summary - nobody knows, but it will be interesting to see how all of our spells work. Our plan is for Antonus to Charm the troll and question him - then we have a native guide. Dell is still trying to figure out a way to leave a trail so we can get back to the gate, although it may be too late for that. We're resting in the troll room for now, binding wounds and such. We'll put a darkness stone near the doorway so it looks like it did before.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 10, 2007 10:54:02 GMT -5
Thanks for the info about spells across the planes. I'm glad our experts are so knowledgeable. In other news, I'll assume that none of the following happened, since no one mentioned it: We didn't figure out how to use the ewer. We didn't use Speak with Dead on the troglodytes to see if they knew the command words for the ewer that was found in their living quarters. We didn't cast speak with dead on the corpses that were found in the webbing to see if they had information about how the drow operate.
Raven's leadership will save the day on Sunday.
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Post by Wolfgar on Sept 10, 2007 10:58:33 GMT -5
If only Otto was evil then we could keep the troll as a hit point source for his vampiric regeneration. Would keeping just a leg be considered evil?
We can just close the door while we are in the room and post a guard.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 10, 2007 11:03:05 GMT -5
So when you say that we're "resting" does that mean sleeping or just that we're hanging out here for a minute while we bind wounds and such?
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Post by Wolfgar on Sept 10, 2007 11:12:52 GMT -5
I think the first thing to do is to try and waylay some drow and take their stuff to replace our depleted magic items. I am worried that we are going to come across some creatures that require magic weapons to hit and almost no one will be able to hit them. I hate to think what Lolth will need to hit.
Does Raven want to do the sword/ring for sword swap again?
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Post by Wolfgar on Sept 10, 2007 11:15:37 GMT -5
So when you say that we're "resting" does that mean sleeping or just that we're hanging out here for a minute while we bind wounds and such? Just hanging out for a minute. It was a good breaking point. We need to heal up Raven and Jasper before we continue on. BTW, the Phantom Armor was the only thing keeping Jasper from being -8 right now. You may want to have Pfiffwin switch out a first level spell for some new Phantom Armor.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 10, 2007 11:23:28 GMT -5
So when you say that we're "resting" does that mean sleeping or just that we're hanging out here for a minute while we bind wounds and such? Just hanging out for a minute. It was a good breaking point. We need to heal up Raven and Jasper before we continue on. BTW, the Phantom Armor was the only thing keeping Jasper from being -8 right now. You may want to have Pfiffwin switch out a first level spell for some new Phantom Armor. Yes for the sword swap. And to the extent that I have any control over what spells Pfiffwin uses, I highly recommend restoring Jasper's Phantom Armor.
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Post by Wolfgar on Sept 10, 2007 11:37:58 GMT -5
I'll be out the next two weekends so Pfiffwin will follow the Company decisions. He has plenty of mithril plates on his sheet so we don't need to go into the Chest to get them.
Pfiffwin tried to work with the Company on withstanding his illusions. He figured this might be an effective way of taking out a lot of low level monsters that were fighting in amongst the party members like last week with the warg riders. So one night around the camp he warned everyone he was about to do a fireball and then cast Spectral Force. People weren't as prepared for it as they should have been and he managed to knock several people unconscious. We'll have to practice that some more.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 10, 2007 12:34:19 GMT -5
That would be extremely fun. Have everyone put magic items at a safe distance, and let Winthrop and Pfiffwin pretend to cast at the same time! You'd have to guess which one is faking.
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Post by venger on Sept 10, 2007 12:51:21 GMT -5
I think the first thing to do is to try and waylay some drow and take their stuff to replace our depleted magic items. I am worried that we are going to come across some creatures that require magic weapons to hit and almost no one will be able to hit them. I hate to think what Lolth will need to hit. Does Raven want to do the sword/ring for sword swap again? Presently we've got the +4 defender mace, the +3 frostbrand and Otto's +3 hammer and the dwarven throwing hammer which is, in Al's hands, +3? Flame Arrow should make Raven effective against most anything. That would be extremely fun. Have everyone put magic items at a safe distance, and let Winthrop and Pfiffwin pretend to cast at the same time! You'd have to guess which one is faking. We have Polymorph Other now! If Pfiffwin fireballs the party in the middle of combat I will turn him into a goblin.
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Post by Dell on Sept 10, 2007 14:18:26 GMT -5
Pfiffwin tried to work with the Company on withstanding his illusions. He figured this might be an effective way of taking out a lot of low level monsters that were fighting in amongst the party members like last week with the warg riders. As much as I am loath to concur with my former apprentice, if Pfiffwin does that again it will be considered an attack with a potentially deadly spell. And like all such assaults upon the Company, it will be responded to with equal or greater lethality.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 10, 2007 15:22:23 GMT -5
I'm going to overrule you two with an executive decision and declare that attacking the company in a way which amuses Raven is both acceptable and appropriate.
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Post by Dell on Sept 10, 2007 15:58:44 GMT -5
I'm going to overrule you two with an executive decision and declare that attacking the company in a way which amuses Raven is both acceptable and appropriate. Polymorph Other is potentially the funniest spell there is.
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Post by venger on Sept 10, 2007 16:00:14 GMT -5
Polymorph Other is potentially the funniest spell there is. I was thinking the exact same thing. Raven would look awesome as a shambling mound.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 10, 2007 16:24:48 GMT -5
I'm going to overrule you two with an executive decision and declare that attacking the company in a way which amuses Raven is both acceptable and appropriate. Polymorph Other is potentially the funniest spell there is. Spells which hurt other party members = ;D Spells which hurt Raven = >:( Spells which hurt Raven's henchmen = :-/ That's your pocket guide to what spells are appropriate.
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Post by Wolfgar on Sept 10, 2007 18:03:54 GMT -5
I think the first thing to do is to try and waylay some drow and take their stuff to replace our depleted magic items. I am worried that we are going to come across some creatures that require magic weapons to hit and almost no one will be able to hit them. I hate to think what Lolth will need to hit. Does Raven want to do the sword/ring for sword swap again? Presently we've got the +4 defender mace, the +3 frostbrand and Otto's +3 hammer and the dwarven throwing hammer which is, in Al's hands, +3? Flame Arrow should make Raven effective against most anything. Since everything is acting at -2 of its normal bonus that means we have only one +2 or better weapon. The demons we have faced have been hit by any magic weapon. But I would not be surprised if there are things in the Abyss that require +2 or better. I guess we can always use the bone statue of woe.
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Post by Dell on Sept 10, 2007 19:02:19 GMT -5
Spells which hurt other party members = ;D Spells which hurt Raven = >:( Spells which hurt Raven's henchmen = :-/ That's your pocket guide to what spells are appropriate. Since the shock to your system is potentially fatal, I'd bet that being polymorphed hurts. Jasper's not intelligent enough to be polymorphed into anything interesting, but everyone else is fair game. Since everything is acting at -2 of its normal bonus that means we have only one +2 or better weapon. The demons we have faced have been hit by any magic weapon. But I would not be surprised if there are things in the Abyss that require +2 or better. I guess we can always use the bone statue of woe. If Otto hits something with a +1 sword and it isn't hurt at all, my first thought won't be "use the bone statuette" it will be "let me slow this thing down long enough to let us escape."
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Post by Dead Greyhawk on Sept 10, 2007 19:56:49 GMT -5
We didn't figure out how to use the ewer. The Company tried to get the dark elf to answer some questions. It turns out the dead can't really see, and the dark elf seemed rather reluctant to help. He chanted a bunch of words quickly in some language, but you have no idea what he said. With tongues going, you don't hear the dark elven language; asking in common means you don't know what he said. Even so, you wouldn't necessarily know if he was saying "murder", "execute", or "slay". We didn't use Speak with Dead on the troglodytes to see if they knew the command words for the ewer that was found in their living quarters. Yup, you didn't. The ones up above you tossed into the crevasse. The ones below you just walked past. We didn't cast speak with dead on the corpses that were found in the webbing to see if they had information about how the drow operate. Yup, you didn't.
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Post by venger on Sept 10, 2007 20:48:31 GMT -5
We didn't cast speak with dead on the corpses that were found in the webbing to see if they had information about how the drow operate. Clearly the Drow operate by abducting people, dragging them into the depths of their evil Spider Temple and ritually sacrificing them/cocooning them in webs. People in this case being great druids, foxwomen and large.. dwarves. We are just here looking for the Great Druid right? Let's not get all caught up in the magic of Q1 and lose sight of our objectives. There's giants yet to be... gone against...
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