Wizard Mountain Summary #16: The Lightning Waveguide
Wizard Mountain Summary: The Lightning Waveguide
Party Roster:
Halacar, 6th level halfling fighter, 65 hp, played by Joel
Standish, 6th level human fighter, 63 hp, played by Katherine
Browork, 6th level dwarven cleric, 41 hp, played by Joel
Brigling, 7th level halfling thief, 39 hp, played by Katherine
Isacar, 3rd level dwarven fighter, 36 hp, played by Alex
Flechette, 3rd level halfling fighter, 28 hp, played by Aaron
Megan, 4th level human mage, 15 hp, played by Alex
Filo, 1st level half-elven cleric/3rd level mage, 15 hp, played by Aaron
Milo, 1st level half-elven cleric/3rd level mage, 14 hp, played by Aaron
Sevrid, 3rd level illusionist, 10 hp, played by Alex
The Larry Consortium reassembled to continue the depopulation of Wizard Mountain.
Joining us were old timers Halacar, Standish, Browork, Brigling, Flechette and Megan, and newcomers Milo and Sevrid. We decided to tackle our very first enemy in the history of the Consortium—the goblin fortress. We had approached it on our first trek into the mountain, and been driven back by hurled rocks.
This time we had a plan. And it worked just well enough to hang us.
The party advanced forward toward the cliff face, and as we reached the point where we could spot the cliff, a trap deployed from the ceiling, dropping boulders on the front of the party. Fortunately Halacar and Standish were hardly injured by the impact, and the attack continued. Sevrid stepped forward and dropped a Wall of Fog that hid the combatants from view of the goblins—and vice versa. In fact, we were unaware of our surroundings. But knowing that the cliff face was up ahead, and with Standish and Halacar Spider Climbed by Milo, the party charged.
The two fighters and the thief began shimmying up the cliff face and heard shouts from above. Boulders were rolled down the cliff, covering it in rocks, but only Brigling was dislodged, taking minimal damage, and began climbing back up. The rest of the party heard a drawbridge being lowered… and all the boulders from the cliff rolled down the center of the room, nearly crushing the party. Fortunately we evaded the worst of the rocks (Milo and Sevrid were missed entirely). The fighters crested the top and heard goblins running, but couldn’t figure out where they were going due to strange echoes. The remainder of the party clambered up the cliff, and we advanced into what turned out to be a corridor, stepping on some pressure plate that set off a ringing noise, incessantly.
We could hear some shouting up ahead, and we advanced—and then a Lightning Bolt came screaming down the corridor, bouncing perfectly off the walls, and striking the party. Milo and Sevrid were killed, and Brigling had to be saved by a Death’s Door. When a second bolt came at us, we decided that discretion was the better part of valor and turned and ran away, dragging our wounded and discarding our pride on the floor of the corridor.
Having failed to kill even a single goblin, and down two party members, we decided that the goblins should be left alone for awhile.
Various other options were discussed, and finally the party decided to finish off the hook horror lair. The plan was simple—get into a corridor where we could fight one at each end of the party. We recruited an incredible defensive fighter (dart and shield specialist) named Isacar, and Milo’s younger brother Filo showed up, with one additional hitpoint.
The party charged into the hook horror area, and unsurprisingly failed to achieve the desired tactical position. We thought we were fine as we faced an unknown line of hook horrors on both sides, until the roof where we had been herded turned out to contain a chimney allowing access for a third hook horror in the middle of the party. This would have been disastrous, but fortunately Standish dispatched his opponent with such speed that the party was able to clamber over the corpse and move out of the way of danger.
The front of the party was Standish and Halacar. Standish turned into his usual wrecking machine, inflicting horrifying damage and slaying over a dozen hook horrors with occasional healing aid. Halacar was completely uninjured, and completely ineffectual as he stabbed at hook horrors Standish had already killed, or missed four out of five times. With ten hook horrors down in the front, and Browork having outdamaged Halacar, things looked grim. Standish was beaten up, and they were still coming. Isacar was fighting with incredible finesse at the back, but his darts could not penetrate the hide of the hook horrors and so he merely bought time, with Browork taking an occasional swipe with his hammer or his spiritual hammer. Filo kept both sides up and healthy. Flechette continued to peg hook horrors as best he could through the armored shell.
Finally the front line fighting the party began to thin. Halacar began to hit his target. Standish downed a potion of healing, and destroyed the last ones in the front. The party wheeled around and eliminated the few in the rear, leaving a total of seventeen dead hook horrors (combined with the ones killed by our other fights, that totaled nearly 30 hook horrors). The lair depopulated, we were able to finish looting it and got some decent treasure (much of it we had stolen in our previous encounter, so we weren’t expecting too much).
Feeling triumphant, the party returned to town. Filo leveled to second level cleric, gaining 2 hp to stand at 17. Isacar gained 4th level fighter and stands at 41 hp.
The party decided to tackle a new cave (in back of the hook horrors?). The result was a wholesale slaughter of xvarts. Over 120 xvarts died in a massive sweep with Standish cutting off the exit and the party pegging them with ranged weapons. After killing the main lair, we advanced and discovered the army (25 or so armored xvarts) recovering from some kind of battle (we think with the nearby kobolds). We killed them without taking a scratch, and found some minor treasure, including some armor from the Coral Star (+2 bronze plate, if I recall).
There were kobold caves nearby, but unfortunately only the Halflings could fit in comfortably (the dwarves without armor, maybe). This meant that only part of the party could go on the slaughter, and so for the moment we called it off and withdrew.
Joel/Halacar/Browork