September 18th, 2016

Why We Don't Split The Party

 

The party today from my left to my right:

Chris playing Valandil the bloodthirsty elven spellsword
Scout/Sabre/Sarai playing the feckless half-elven witch
Nick playing Merrick the half-crazed-with-frustration human fighter 
Nilo (before the headache got too bad) playing Arden the halfling cleric who was handed off to Nick so maybe with two characters to control he could make a successful attack someday
Hunter playing Dorni the very skittish gnome thief 
Zack playing Ahri the front line hand to hand combat magic-user

The party started off where they had magically appeared, in the entry chamber of the complex with its muck encrusted walls and somewhat slimy floor after they had all gone through the angel faced door. Well, except for the spellsword, but he was there with them too. He was fine. Just fine. No worries. Just fine.

The party had a brief bickering session as they tried to decide where they should go next. They were all fully healed and had gained back some spellpoints at least during their time . . . wherever they had been. Though some of the party wanted to climb up to the upper level, in the end they descended to the lower level so they could make sure the orcs they had fought before (two of whom they had befriended thanks to Ahri's charm spells and pumped for information about the downstairs level where they had come from) were not going to come up behind them again. Proceeding through the dungeon as they had before they returned to the cave where they had fought the eleven orcs. The bodies of the nine they had killed were still there, though they appeared to have been nibbled on by rats and such. Following the southern passageway out of this cave, they found their way quickly to another cave that had three other passages out of it in more or less the cardinal directions. A faint nose was heard from the south, so the party headed south. As they continued down the hall the sound became identifiable as rushing water.

Entering this room they were struck by the sight of quite a few bodies lying limp on the ground near the river that flowed through the room. Closer investigations showed that the corpses were those of orcs, including an orc shaman. All of these creatures seemed to have died by the same manner; their heads appeared to have been cracked open and their brains removed. A search of the bodies turned up a little bit of loot, and hidden under the shaman's leather bracers was a rough map and a cleric scroll of heal wounds and bless. There were two orc boats pulled up on the far side of the fast flowing river, 20 feet away. After no luck was had in making a crossing by using a grappling hook, the spellsword stripped down and swam across the river. He managed to get one of the boats back across to the other side and the party crossed over. A single orc corpse was found on the far side of the river, but it had died in the same manner as its fellows. A passage led further south into darkness, and with some resistance from some of their members the party continued on.

After some time following the hallway the party came to a four way intersection. The main passage continued west while a second passage branched off to the northwest and through an opening in the south wall was a cave. The party, following the left hand rule today, entered the cave to explore. Inside they found a juvenile mind flayer, still badly wounded from the battle with the orcs a couple of days previously. Combat began, though several players were wondering WTF for. Luckily, as badly damaged as it was, they were able to hurt it worse causing it to plane shift and leave the area. The magic-user had a nasty wound on her forehead from where the mind flayer's tentacle tried to burrow into her brain, but the party survived and found some minor loot the flayer had left behind.

After this the party crossed to the northwest passage which quickly led into a cavern where the floor sloped steeply down to the side of a river. A far shore was faintly visible across the river with something on it. The fighter and spellsword went back for one of the orc boats and, after spending some time and a lot of effort bringing it down the hallway, they used it to cross to the far shore while the rest of the party waited on the other side. There was a great heap of refuse washed up on the far shore, and a smell of rot among it. The spellsword used his bendy staff (his long bow which was good for nothing else since its bowstring had broken) to stir it up, aggravating the rot grubs within the mess. After some seriously fast torch applications later which caused the foul things to pop as the flame touched them, the duo managed to discover a necklace made of coins and a dagger that in spite of seeming to be covered in filth was still as bright and shiny as the day it was forged. The spellsword took the dagger and added the necklace to the treasure bag.

Following the only remaining passage through its twists and turns finally brought the party to a fork in the passage with another passage heading off to the left while the original continued ahead. A short way down the left passage they found a cave with a sloped floor running downhill from their right to their left and at the far left wall there was a large hole in the floor. A quick look down the hole showed that it dropped down to a rapidly rushing river. Considering this a dead end, they returned to the intersection and continued on.

A bit later the passage opened into a large cave with another passage exiting it opposite where they entered. The party began to search for secret doors around the walls of the cavern, spreading out to do the most exploring in the least time. While they were spread out, four bizarre monsters that looked to be made out of rock stepped out of the walls and attacked. When injured they would step back into the walls again so they were out of reach. More appeared and the battle went badly for the party for a while with many characters taking damage and the magic-user being dropped to zero at one point. In the end the party was victorious and they continued searching. Three places that sounded hollow were found, but the party could find no ways to open them. In the end the cleric's footman's flail was pressed into service and holes were smashed in the walls revealing several small treasure hoards which the party was quick to acquire with several bricks worth of coins, a ring and a wand.

Having had more than enough to occupy them for one adventure, the party began to head back to the previous level and the old students' barracks so they could rest up. The spellsword insisted that he was just fine and wanted more things to kill. The gnome thief chose to follow along with him, and in spite of the human fighter's insistence that the party should stay together, the party split and the spellsword and thief took the unexplored western passage out of the cavern with four exits.

A short time later the two found an intersection with one passage heading west and a second continuing north. They took the west passage and came into a room with three human sized birdlike creatures which the spellsword entered combat with while the terrified gnome ran. Unfortunately, without any light, the gnome was running more or less blind. One wrong turn at the first intersection had her charging into another room where another of these bird-like creatures was. It moved to attack and the gnome ran again, managing to find her way back to the room where the spellsword was trying to overcome his three, opponents. In a panic, the gnome threw a dagger hitting the thing chasing her, and then when it closed she attacked it with her short sword in a near panic. She managed to kill it after taking some damage and being near to collapse. Fear getting the better of her, she ran again, turning different directions until she finally stumbled, skidded and fell, and found her head and shoulders hanging over a drop off with her arms dangling down. Carefully she backed away and lit a candle for some light. The candle and her low-light vision allowed her to see that she was in a previously unexplored cavern with a spiraling passageway that descended into the depths she had almost fallen into. Terrified and alone, she backed up against the wall, tried to hide herself, and blew out the candle, hoping that someone friendly would find her before monsters did.

Meanwhile, safely ensconced in the old barracks, the four settled down for the night. Ahri the magic-user cast two identify spells on the wand and the ring discovering that the wand was a wand of magic missiles and the ring was a ring of shielding. The party rested eight hours and regained their spell points where the magic-user again cast identify and learned that there was a potion of extra healing in the mind flayer's treasure along with a as-of-yet unidentified potion. Further castings showed that the wand had 17 charges and its command word was Castigore. Then, concerned over the missing party members, the four went in search of the others after providing a bit of clerical healing to the party so no one was at 1 hit point anymore.

The gnome had spent a horrifyingly long night, but when she heard noises and saw some light down the corridor she peeked around the corner to see it was her friends. She hurried down to join them and told of what she knew of the spellsword's battle with the bird-things. The party explored the direction the two had gone and found a room with the corpses of the four bird-men, all of whom had obviously been hacked to death, apparently with the spellsword's weapon. No sign of the spellsword was found, though there were marks in the blood of the bird-things that showed that someone wearing boots had been dragged through the blood and down the hallway, though the bloody trail disappeared quickly.

Returning back to the cavern with four exits, the party chose the only unexplored passage, the eastern one. The passage went in about twenty feet before it branched; one branch going north at the 30' mark and the other south at the 40' mark. The right hand rule was in effect as always, so the party went south, coming into a small cave with a webbed cocoon in the NE corner. As they moved to investigate, fearing the worst, the giant spider on the ceiling dropped on the witch, biting her. She failed her save versus poison and felt her body begin to stiffen. The magic-user used a charge from the wand and the party attacked with wild abandon, killing the thing quickly. The fighter then moved to cut through the cocoon, revealing the desiccated corpse of an orc. After taking any coins on its body, the party tried to figure what to do next to find their missing friend and ally.

There the adventure ended for the night, and the party will continue its hunt next week.

Side Notes: The characters do not know, but the players do, that the battle between the spellsword and the bird-men ended with mutually assured destruction as the last round of battle was a tied initiative and the spellsword struck a killing blow at the same time the bird thing dropped him to zero.

Also, my wandering monster encounter rolls for the night should have been used for rolling character stats as I couldn't get a 1 on a d6, which was probably just fine with Hunter. Still...