Summary LXV: The Pit
For the sake of my sleep schedule, I'll just throw in a quick summary so as
not to leave everyone in suspense. Full summary hopefully tomorrow!
And thanks to Chris playing Theo!
The party meandered around the Pit area of the Southern Wilderness without
realizing how close we were. First the party was surprised by a giant
slug. Rangorn took massive damage and had some equipment destroyed by acid
spittle. Again.
Then we spotted an owlbear. Being extremely bloodthirsty, we trashed it
with the help of _Slow_ spell and everyone just generally raining damage
down on it.
Then we entered the Pit. Ominous terrain, full of undergrowth. The party
hacked its way through to a torn path. We followed the gigantic tracks,
guessing that a huge bear thing (roughly 40 feet tall) had made the trail.
We spotted the creature-- Monster ID revealed it as a "dragonbear"-- result
of experiments to combine dragons and owlbears. After waiting for bad
weather, Alegra began the attack with _Call Lightning_. What followed was
about a thousand points of damage and dozens of single wounds. The
creature finally dropped, but with a dead Ceydric nearby. In addition, the
unfortunate Runt had been incinerated by an earlier blast of fire (it had a
7 segment breath weapon-- full details on this later). Ceydric was rescued
by Mordrick and Theo, who dragged his body away from the suddenly rumbling
body of the dragonbear. About a minute later, the body exploded into huge
flames, but the body was shielded by the two valiant fighters. Now wasn't
that fun?
Next we threw divinations everywhere, and decided to head east toward
"powerful enemies, moderate treasure-- though relatively inaccesible, low
chance of invoking the ire of supernatural evil." (that was a rough
paraphrase)
We left with the party having just downed a Potion of Treasure Finding,
ready to seek out the treasure!
In addition we recovered several magic items, which have not been
identified officially-- though we strongly suspect that the colored paper
is origami paper.
But of course no adventure would complete without finding yet another
totally useless weapon (to the Stone Soules). Joining the ranks of such
weapons as the +4 intelligent spear, the +3 battleaxe, and many other fine
weapons is the recovered magic glaive!
Also, there was a magic clasp with a strange smiley face on it, a silver
walnut (high magic), and several tokens. I know I've forgotten some
items-- hopefully the full list will be out soon!
Goodnight, everyone!
Joel/Rangorn
Ok, here it is! The gruesome details! Cringe if you will!
In the usual fashion the adventure began with Rangorn being surprised by a
giant slug, who spat acid at him. Deja vu. His bow disentegrated, and he
was scooped up in its mouth. The party quickly dispatched the beast, and
no further harm was done.
Next we beat up an owlbear. General strategy-- _Slow_ spell, hit with
arrows and range spells, annoy it, then retreat to the edge of the _Prayer_
and engage it. After only 4 segments of melee combat, the owlbear dropped
without even touching anyone. Quite a contrast to previous encounters with
the things...
Next we tracked it back to its layer. Tossing in a continual light bead,
we drew out... a baby owlbear! Little tyke, about 3 feet high. We
questioned it telepathically after tying it up firmly. "Kill, kill, eat,
eat. Where food?" was the response. So we _Reduce_d it, and stored it in
a glass jar! Eli teleported back to Cromwell and sold it to Fish and
Critters, along with an owlbear egg. We also found a token. The two
tokens turned out to be Dimension Door and Flight, and we kept the Dim.
Door after salvage tax.
We encountered another owlbear, but let it go in search of bigger game. We
encountered four ogres. At least we got to test out Gruntender,
ogre-slaying falchion!
Finally, we entered the Pit. There was interesting local wildlife like
rather large flying squirrel things, and scinilating blue-green lizards, of
animal intelligence. We came to an obvious torn-up trail. Apparently the
dragonbear followed a very regular root. Deciding that the huge monster
was the challenge we needed, Xavier did a quick astrology. The result was
something like: "The Scythe approaches the sign of the Wanderer." Without
a doubt the LEAST subtle astrology I've ever heard. We were gutsy and went
for it!
We waited for the weather to get bad enough for _Call Lightning_ to work.
Theo and Ceydric received _Fly_ spells, and we initiated the attack with a
_Call Lightning_ by Alegra. Rangorn, Ludo, Raven, Sahrak, Runt, Aria,
Sean, and Star all fired bows and crossbows at the beast. Mordrick used
his sling. Famu cast _Magic Missile_, but it reflected back and slammed
him. Arabica wisely stayed out of the fight. Alegra and Xavier both cast
_Prayer_, which helped greatly. The thing began to turn around, and then
Ceydric and Theo were upon it like buzzing flies, hacking away.
Unfortunately the creature was slowly regenerating wounds during the battle
which made it difficult to assess exactly how much damage was being done.
Missing Theo repeatedly, the dragonbear eventually decided to unleash its
breath weapon. Fortunately Ceydric saved and was in fine shape to
continue. Everyone kept pounding it, but our look couldn't hold. It
ripped Theo with its claws, inflicting a quadruple wound! Theo fled back
to be healed by the clerics. The next blast was unleashed at Rangorn, who
also saved (first time ever). Meanwhile Sahrak had illusionary adventurers
flying around hacking and missing the beast. It fooled him several times!
Dragonbears are right up there with their owlbear cousins on the
intelligence scale.
Next it hit Ceydric and scooped him up in its arms, slowly crushing him to
death. Ceydric slashed at it valiantly, inflicting major damage, but the
result was inevitable as he was slowly squeezed through his negative function.
Finally, it let loose a blast at Runt, Raven, and Mordrick. Mordrick
didn't seem to notice the damage really, Raven was barely standing, but
unfortunately Runt failed her save and was totally wiped out. In shock
Raven returned fire more viciously. Mordrick said to heck with it and
charged forward, attacking for his usual huge damage. Moments later,
Alegra dropped it with a crossbow shot. Immediately a rumbling sound
emanated from the dead dragonbear. Theo flew to help Mordrick and the two
dragged Ceydric quickly from the body. They got a significant distance
away before it exploded violently. Fortunately Theo and Mordrick were fine.
Next we held a small funeral for Runt, and cremated her remains. Raven
became extremely depressed. Ceydric was raised and healed. Two days later
we set off for the dragonbear's cave. We tracked it back to its lair and
found several items of interest mentioned in the shorter summary-- a clasp,
origami paper, money (Realmish and Lurten), gems, an extremely fine belt
with a huge diamond in it (non-magical), and a (you guessed it) magic glaive.
Next we threw divinations in every direction with the newfound money, and
finally decided for east, using the powerful monsters, chance of incurring
the wrath of evil is very low, moderate treasure. South was clearly the
most deadly though-- Monsters there are frightful, moderate treasure,
chance of incurring the wrath of supernatural evil is... inevitable. Nasty.
Next we prepared to down the Treasure Finding Potion and see if we can find
anything!
Joel/Rangorn
Let us not forget the Lamassu servant of Nevron who happened come through
the Leomond's Chest when Eli opened it up -- which healing Ceydric and went
on its way.... (though unfortunately we had already raised him; perhaps he
would have raised him. Whatever).
Let us not forget:
1. The HIGHLY magical, non-detectable aura Silver Walnut!!
2. The magical Brass Bell!
3. The "Do Not Open" potion!
4. The mithril bars and other cash.
Also: The belt came from the owl bear cave.
Yeah, and SE even had "Moderate Better-left-Undisturbed Treasure." But it
was only "probably inevitable that we distrub supernatural evil forces."
Other things encountered:
A megalith where the participants had imprisoned a great evil (probably a
demon from the early time of Telvar) and become the stones of the place.
A cloud giant trading post ("the brothers approach the sign of the camel.")
In the direction of the pit: "To the east is forces of Aurora, to the
south, death and anguish. The number 9 is important."
And where we are now... "A sect of hordling-summoning wizards once hunted in
this area." "Moderate but relatively inaccessible treasure." "Chance of
incurring wrath of evil is very low but possible." "Weak to Moderate
creatures."
Next (and probably Final) Game: 5/9.
Kyle