Friday 1/16/2015 Session Report and XP/GOLD

DM EDIT: XP AND GOLD BELOW: Total party XP: 127,419xp Total party Loot: 97,700gp XP per person: 10,618xp Gold per person: 8,142gp Notable Loot: 1x Potion of Giant Control 1x Unidentified potion (Ka'Gron is hiding it) 2x Potions of Healing (1d6+1) 1x Scrying Amulet 1x Scrying Helmet 1x Spell Book containing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd level spells. 3x Unidentified Potions that appear a pulpy orange. 1x Ring of Delusion 1x Scroll of Undead Protection 1x Unidentified Potion of golden almost honey-like consistency You need to decide whether to keep or sell the spell books for levels 1-3. They are quite valuable. **************************************************************************************** Participants: Ondraedon/Fred (Cleric), Ramkus/Rich (Cleric), Gorg/Kevin (Fighter), Lucien/Chris (Mage), Violet/Amanda (Fighter), Curtis/John (Mage), Ka'Gron/Jesse (Fighter), Emery/Blaze (Thief), Lorielle/James (Mage), Par/Alex (Thief), Lilium/Dean (Mage), Drugo/DrPastah (Thief), Malifoi/Norm (Mage) - 13 members The group hastily made way for the palace. We were determined to reach Nekros' room on this trip! Upon entering the door on the left, we encountered 4 (4HD) Werewolves. A combination of melee and magic was used to defeat these creatures. No one in the party was bit by any of them. We continued through the password locked doors to the kitchen where we encountered 3 (2HD) Zombies. These creatures were immediately turned to goo by the clerics. We passed through that room and made it to the second floor. Our first move south initiated an encounter with 2 (4HD) Tarantellas** (they were in the hallway that goes to the teleport room, but spotted us as we passed the entrance). Due to the proximity, these creatures were taken out with melee. We decided to head east through the double doors instead of the usual southern route, and we were quickly met with a (3+1HD) Carrion Crawler*. This monster slid down from the 20ft ceiling and was able to grasp Ka'Gron. Not willing to let their party member go, the group set in on the creature and it was quickly dispatched. We then took the hallway to the south, the shortest route to Nekros lair. We paused to check out a room to the west. Seeing no imminent danger in the room, and a cage with some vials in the corner, Curtis opted to step into the room. Suddenly a liquid dripped from the ceiling and burned the floor. Curtis cast mirror image and one of his images had a drip fall on it and was destroyed. That is when the slug was noticed on the ceiling. The group, being wise about these things, decided to leave the room and possibly return to deal with the monster on the way out. Unfortunately the creature burst through the door and came after us. The group took separate actions at this time. Some members ran to the south, others took the first hallway to the left. Violet used the teleport option from her sword and placed herself behind the (12HD) Giant Slug***. The plan was the people who went west down the hall would allow the creature to pass the hall, then they too would be behind the creature and able to make attacks. Unfortunately the creature decided to turn down that hall instead of pursuing the party to the south. Our team was split! Knowing out party members were in grave peril from the acid spitting beast, the party laid into it. The killing blow was delivered by Violet, she decided to try out the Mind Blast ability that she had earned the week before. It was lethal to this creature. The group opted to return to the slug room. We found a potion of Giant Control, 2 (1d6) healing potions and there was another potion that seemed to have disappeared from the group... The party decided to rest/heal and reset spells, so we went to the room to the south with the secret passage (where the floor caved in and Ramkus and Ka'Gron swam in the slime). We rested and dreams of riches/rewards and all-powerful weapons danced in our heads as we imagined what we would find. We then pushed on. We went north, then turned west. The first room we searched had 4 (2HD) Zombies, these were destroyed by the clerics. In the goo, we did manage to find an amulet with a mirror on it. The mirror was just like the one on Ondraedon's head (the helmet he took from Nekros). Looking into the mirrors we were able to see a room with a dais. Moving on the group came to a room that housed four cells. Inside the cells were decomposing bodies, when we killed Nekros there was no one left to keep these beings alive and they died by dehydration/starvation. Nothing significant was found in this room other than some common swords, shields and a bow with arrows (none magical). The next room we came upon had body parts strewn about the floor, blood all over the walls and there were 2 fresh naked corpses in the corners. Lucien stepped in to check the status of the corpses and was surprised to find that they were actually 2 (2HD) Zombies. These were the newest (freshest?) zombies we had ever seen. They were put down by the clerics. We moved on to the next room, opened the door and found 3 (2HD) Zombies. These were put down by the clerics, but one of them had a helmet exactly like the one Nekros had. The party gathered it up. It was at this time that we heard a noise coming from the hall we had just come in through. Something was between us and the exit, and whatever it was made a stone on stone sound as it approached. When they turned the corner we were face to face with 3 (4HD) Gargoyles***. Ondraedon cast Protection from Chaos and was able to help block the hall, the fighters and mages (near the rear of the party) changed places so we could combat the creatures, but the biggest help came from the magic missile that were shooting past my head. These beasts were no match for our teams magic! We turned the final corner and came to a hall that was unlike any we had seen before. Curtis opted to cast detect magic, but none was found. We stepped forward and some of the group were blinded by the dancing lights of our torches and lanterns being reflected around. We pushed on towards the door at the end anyway. We entered the room and waited a couple turns for the blindness to pass. This enabled Curtis to see that each wall in the room was magic, and there we saw the dais that we had seen through the mirrors on the helmets and amulets of scrying. The walls were covered with runes, there was a very large mirror and stygian glyphs. The dais itself was securely set in the room, but on one arm there was a dial and on another there was a gem. Emery bravely stepped up and sat in the dais. He placed his hand on the gem and was able to see in the mirror that someone (or something) was walking around in the palace. We were able to recognize locations we had already passed through on the 1st floor. Remembering that there had been numbers on each of the scrying devices, we asked Emery to try turning the dial to see if the image in the mirror changed, and it did. It was pointed out to us that Nekros was using the helmet to control creatures from afar, so a helmet was passed to Emery... except the person trying to give it to him couldn't reach him. It was as if the person sitting on the dais was protected by a field of force. Emery touched the gem again and the field went away. He then put the helmet on and ordered the being we were seeing in the mirror to dance. At this time we noticed the image shuffling around much like a dance. Curtis then took a seat on the dais and ordered all the beings we saw in the mirror to gather all of their zombie/skeleton friends and gather in a wing of the first floor so we would not have to encounter any of them on the way out. Lucien cast dispel magic on the room and the deadly runes were disabled. We had made it to Nekros lair. Other than some potions and a few (now trinkets) we had nothing other than a little XP to show for this mission. We were bummed! Monsters: 4 4HD Werewolves 3 2HD Zombies 2 4HD Tarantellas** 1 3+1HD Carrion Crawler* 1 12HD Giant Slug*** 4 2HD Zombies 2 2HD Zombies 3 2HD Zombies 3 4HD Gargoyles*** Loot: 1 potion of Giant Control 2 1d6 healing potions 1 Scrying Amulet 1 Scrying helmet and 1 potion of something that someone in our party has taken and kept for themselves

Not happy with this as the end of our quest... Curtis consulted our map. He then cast Pass Wall on the southern wall of the room and we were able to see another room on the other side of the hole. Upon entering the room, we noticed nothing but a large silver chest waiting for us in the middle. Having no dwarves present, the party was on their own to either try the chest or leave it. Curtis bravely stepped up to open the chest... and was crushed by a 6x6ft rock that fell from the ceiling. He was dead, dead, dead! We forgot about the chest for a moment and focused on our now liquidated party member. Our limited party with a great feat of strength by Violet were able to lift the stone off of what was once Curtis. Violet was able to find a foot. But that foot was just enough for Ondraedon to be able to cast raise dead. Through a very painful process, we saw Curtis return to life before our eyes. Being of strong character he endured the process. His Staff of Wizardry was safe, as he had set it aside when he tried the chest, and his ring of protection had actually damaged the falling stone. Naked and having lost some coin, Curtis was back with us. We decided to not chance another stone and tied a rope around the chest and pull it out. As we did we revealed a pressure plate and another stone fell from the ceiling and crushed the silver chest, destroying everything inside... or so our GM told us. It was fortunately a joke. We opened the chest and claimed the following loot: 1,2,3 level spell books 3 flasks of an unknown substance A green felt bag which contained a ring engraved with symbols of flames (see the explanation below) A scroll of undead protection Flask with a liquid of golden color 26 (non-magical) jewels and of course a large silver chest went into Curtis' bag of holding. Curious about the ring, Curtis put it on. He felt nothing. The group decided it was a Ring of Resist Fire, so we asked Curtis to place his hand in a torch. He refused as he was still low in HP from the giant stone. Violet took the ring and tested it. Leaving her hand in the torch for approximately 2 turns, she felt nothing. Score! She then took the ring off and placed it back in the green felt bag, and her hand immediately blistered and the skin was falling off. She quickly put the ring back on, but it had no impact on the damage done to her hand. We were then able to identify that the reason the ring was hidden in a bag was that it is actually a Ring of Delusion. At this time the party was able to return to Stilt Town with no other encounters.

Dangit, I got pretyped, well, so as not to have it all stated twice, and since you are better at summerizing, I get too verbose, I'll only include the things that weren't stated. You forgot to mention Lorielle dying in round 2 against the Gargoyles. In the last section, Drugo was the first one to sit on the throne before Curtis, Emery was the one who brought him a helmet to find the force field around the throne.

Dude... you like to critique others work. So I just won't be the one to do this anymore. Congrats on your new assignment!

I was just editing my post because I didn't know you were gonna add the end details. I can cover it from now on if you want, but I am pretty bad at summerizing, I go into great detail about things too much, I'm sure most of the group doesn't want to read every detail of what happened, just a summery. I took longer to write up the last part than you because I included every detail, then tried to reduce it to a more summerized version and failed miserably. Also, I thought it was right to critique and tell about missed important details? I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I've done this sort of thing before, and I'm quite good at editing, finding mistakes, adding a little detail, but not as good at writing a whole story/summery on my own. I only attempted to add so much detail because the end was a really interesting part.

Sounds like you gotta job!

Sorry I flaked/passed out last night guys, sounds like you could have used another cleric there towards the end. Wont happen again, I'm switching back to 6 packs.

It's fine Rich, we all care about you and hope you'll take care of yourself for the betterment of the group. We don't care about your familly as they aren't a high level cleric who can heal and resurrect us. Also that was a really silly way to die. I should have known better, evil wizards ALWAYS want the last word when it comes to the treasure.

You did what had to be done to get the loot John. It was late and we didn't have many options available. It worked out in the end, we're getting more XP and loot because you stepped up for the group. Just glad there was enough of you to restore!

if indeed that is what it was. ring of delusion, well played steve. I doff my DM hat to you.

Steve - I left in the middle of the slug fight.

Steve - I found this interesting write-up on the spell Confusion - it talks about is genesis from Chainmail through 3.5. In the part about OD&D, one of the things that you roll for is for the confused creatures to attack the Magic User's party, so it doesn't seem to make sense that the spell would affect the party. Just something to think about as I poke things with a dagger or slash things with a sword - no finger wiggling for me!

So any moment now our GM/DM is going to post our gold and xp from the last session so we know what we are working with tomorrow... And for my commune... please consider the following: - May I please know the remaining layout of the palace (preferably in map form so I can use it to guide my party)? - Please bestow upon me the location of the kidnapped princess - In your infinite wisdom, please identify what the javelins we have in our possession are

I would like to know the remaining layout of the palace (preferably in map form so I can use it to guide my party) That was a yes or no, ftfy Also, we can get the javelins ID'd in Strongmoor

No we can't get the javelins ID'd in Strongmoor, he specifically told us we would need an oracle for that. We don't know where to find one right now. And if we could get it done in Strongmoor, I would have taken them with me last week when I went to perform my temple duties. Don't you think if it were that easy the party would have had that done by now? I mean we're not the kind to let mystical items just sit around not used! We have to find out what they can do and if they are magical, is there a limited number of shots with them. Which reminds me, we need to get back there to find out about the statuette that was thrown at Ramkus(?) that we left at the Wizard's Tower. Here it is one more time: Commune: A spell which puts the Cleric in touch with the powers "above" and asks for help in the form of answers to three questions. Communing is allowed but once each week maximum; referee’s option as to making less frequent (Stephen has decided once a month). Veracity and knowledge should be near total. Once per year a special communing should be allowed wherein the Cleric can ask double the number of questions. And the gods aren't supposed to be dicks on these questions. I only get to use this once a month and I am supposed to gain details in "veracity". There is no "speaks in rhyme/riddle". This is me connecting with the gods through meditation. It's not like I am waking them up in the middle of the night to ask them for a glass of water. No this is hours of stroking their egos, a little hand play walking through the garden, a little tickle of the beard over afternoon tea. So if the question is unacceptable (as in too much to answer), the DM will rule and let me either re-phrase or alter the question to something that will work. This is a 5th level cleric spell, this is as high as our spells go outside some of the special modules (like Greyhawk where we can get 6th and 7th level). Ondraedon is on the cusp of becoming an Archbishop, surely the gods have noticed his deeds by now and will reward him with knowledge.

Actually, "The Wizard" might be able to do it through careful testing and research, but it is a better idea to use an oracle.

XP and gold amounts have been calculated. Check the original post.

We should probably keep the 2nd and 3rd level spellbooks for up and coming Wizards. If Wizard's start with the 1st level one, we can sell that I would think.

How about we sell them and give the gold to the next new wizard?

That really makes no sense - they can do something with a spellbook. You can't do squat with gold unless you travel somewhere to buy a book. The party is not hurting for gold - we can hold onto the spellbooks for 2nd and 3rd level.

Or we sell them all and benefit from the gold and xp! I only need 2 more scrolls and my 5th spell book will be complete, but I am thinking about buying some extra scrolls of certain spells, I'll carry the scrolls so I can memorize different spells and just use/burn the scrolls if we need them.

We get XP for their value, unless I'm mistaken. So we don't have to liquidate them just for that. Removing down time from magic users who are leveling up and otherwise need to take time off to sail to strongmoor seems like a fine idea. Plus, spread around, the cost to the group as a whole isn't that great.

Do we have mu's who need them?

Malifoi needs 3rd level spell book

If Malifoi is the only one that can get immediate use out of it, he should have claim to it. But if anyone else can use it, roll it out! We also need to decide who will have the 2 javelins (now that we know what they are). Needs to be someone that will only use them in dire need since we only get to use them once each.

Violet and Thea both have a plus to Dex. Violet is more the front lines person though.

I may act crazy sometimes, but Ka'Gron would save the spear, if he is given one, for very desperate times.

Gorg would like to have use of one of the javelins.