The newcomer introduced himself as Mr P and offered
to join the team, although he was somewhat vague as to how he had ended up in
this unfortunate situation. At first, several of the group were sceptical, until
they discovered he was capable of teleporting to Sasserine, at which point all
doubt vanished, and they decided to explore the other half of the
level.
Returning to their entry point, they turned right
toward the pit of smelliness. Analesia moved to a position to look into the pit
and saw a disgusting gigantic blobby oozy monster thing. She communicated this
to the party, at which point Sancho loudly proclaimed it to be undead and looked
to Laureli, who seemed dubious of this swift tactical analysis, strangely
enough. As Sancho moved forward, the ooze monster started to climb out of the
pit, at which point it got nuked from orbit by pretty well everything the party
had. Still it kept coming. As the monstrosity bore down on the gnome, it was
felled by something, but I haven't got a clue what, just before it annihilated
Sancho big time.
Moving on, they set off a rolloing boulder trap
which achieved nothing at all, apart from blocking off the water source for the
area. The rest of the level was very boring, apart from an exciting secret door
leading to stars that the party went down. On finding that these lead to a large
room of foetid watery goodness flooded to a depth of eight feet, they went back
upstairs and tried a different route down, only to find that it lead to the same
area, but via a dry landing with a passage leading off. Down the passage we
go.
This lead to another flooded area, but only to a
depth of a couple of feet, containing giant oysters. They waded through, and
into an area with several exit tunnels. More importantly, there were also
several Kopru, which caught the parties attention rather more than the exits. A
short fight ensued, with the Kopru failing miserably to dominate anyone and so
not lasting overly long. On we go, into a massive cavern, again flooded but with
several strategically placed land bridges. As they moved down the side of the
cave, one of them shook off a feeling of not being in control (to be honest, who
is) and rightly surmised that there was a Kopru submerged in the water on the
caverns floor. They scanned the water and swiftly saw the Koprus head. As they
attacked at range, two more Kopru flew up and engaged them rather more directly
(big mistake by those Kopru). Again, a short combat later (and some powerful
spells), they were victorious.
He wasn't there again today, now
he is, please go away
Moving out of the cavern into a side chamber, they
found themselves in a room carpeted with skulls (not very sensible floor
covering, bit of a wotsit to dust and a little hard on the feet), through which
was an alchemical lab. They moved on, through a short passage to a massive cave.
Sancho took a quick look and reported that there was a big bad dude in there.
Analesia shuffled forward and agreed with him. As the big bad spat acid at
Analesia, battle was joined. Arry ran down the side of the cave to engage him in
combat as Mr P, Laureli and Analesia commenced using ranged weapons and spells
to get his attention. Sancho began to recite an epic poem and Keth asked
Analesia to move five feet to her left. Confused, she did so as the barbarian
jumped forty feet to the central platform, just in time to see Arry getting in
deepest doodoos against the two headed demonic monstrosity. As Keth landed, he
discovered that there were six skulvyn demons in the water, which was not quite
what he had hoped for. Sancho flew to the top of a status as the party began to
realise that this was not going to be their day. Laureli cast holy word at the
demon as it teleported in front of them, which had a couple of unfortunate side
effects - it rendered Analesia and Sancho deaf, but also caused
Analesia to become blind and she staggered away down the wall, into a Maurehzi
demon which was pottering out to ask everyone to keep the noise down, it had a
migraine, what is it with the youth of today, I don't know, when I was younger
we had respect for our elders - or something like that. Confronted with a blind
rogue, it decided its day had improved and attacked. Panicked, Analesia moved back and summoned hurricane force winds using
the nimbus bow.
Meanwhile, Mr P transported himself and Laureli to
behind the statue where they were joined by Keth. Pausing only to cast major
image (a wall of iron with a door in it for Sancho) Mr P teleported them back to
their campsite. Sancho got out under his own steam, and, after much effort, Arry
managed to stagger out of the complex. Alive, but barely.
Realising how close they had come to disaster, they
decided to sleep on it, buff themselves to the Nth degree and have another go.
This time round, the tactics were a little more considered, since whack it and
scarper had failed. A blade barrier kept the skulvyn and maurezhi at bay and a
very brutal combat ensued. Even buffed and prepared, they found the going hard,
as the demon called the skulvyn through the barrier (much to their annoyance)
and proved he was no soft option. Even so, they were winning when suddenly, he
vanished, to be replaced by a Wastrilith. Being aquatic by nature it was not in
the best of moods when it appeared. Sancho immediately advised retreat, but Keth
and Mr P were by now in no mood to retire, particularly since they realised that
this was the door guardian. Despite its brutal attacks, the wastrilith was soon
dispatched (if I remember correctly, by the might of Sanchos rapier) and a sigh
of relief released by all.
Confusion
Days
As they recovered from the combat, they realised
that more than the big bad had escaped - there was a ghoulish enemy that had
been seen at the far end of the ledge. Wisely waiting till Laureli dropped the
blade barrier, they headed for the last room on the right, pausing only to
search the side rooms. As Arry and Keth approached the entrance, four ghouls
came out and basically fell over - there may have been some combat in there, but
that was fundamentally it. Sancho moved passed the brief contretemps and was a
little irritated to be attacked by a fifth ghoul, which had been invisible
behind the others. He tried attacking it to little avail, as Laureli failed to
turn it - she then realised it was no ghoul, but a maurezhi demon!. Arry, Keth
and Analesia moved to help Sancho and a brief skirmish left them low on spells,
breath and, in some cases, skin. Sancho built a pleasant second home with his
magic and they retired inside to rest, recuperate and heal.
The next day started with a pleasant surprise, as
Laureli rewarded all with a heroes feast, and, satiated, they ambled back up to
the flooded chamber that they had shied away from earlier. Analesia set off to
swim across and was not best pleased when a hezrou demon burst from the waters
and attacked her. She swiftly swam back and a consultation exercise was
undertaken to decide the next approach. After a public vote, several committee
meetings and a whist drive, it was decided that Keth would swim into danger
while the others covered him. Predictably, he was attacked by two hezrou. Less
expected was the third hezrou which popped up in front of the rest of the party.
As the hezrou attacked Keth and basically had a bit of demonic fun, the rest of
the party took it in turns to shuffle to the back and take pot shots. The hezrou
in the water grappled Keth and soon found out why you don't grapple barbarians
carrying sun-blades. The second used unholy blight to wing the party up still
further, while the third just did what hezrou do and tried to rip them apart.
After quite a lot of this, the hezrou began to flag in the last quarter of the
game and soon were behind on points. Soon after, the party kicked them in to
touch
As they were just congratulating themselves on
a job well done when big bad appeared in the water and a retriever (not the
golden variety) appeared behind them. Deciding this was a bad thing, they made
concerted attacks on all fronts, until a confusion effect caused Arry and
Laureli to malfunction. As they morphed into friends of little weed and stood
saying flibble to each other, the rest began to get a little wary. Although they
were making headway against the horror, it was soon apparent that their attacks
were just not getting through and a tactical retreat was called for while Arry
and Laureli became themselves once
more.
The Apes Of
Wrath
Our heroes regrouped, more than a little irritated
that Mr Big Bad had routed them a second time. As they commenced their recovery,
Mr P ambled out of the grey, where he had been taking part in a survey to
determine satisfaction levels amongst magic using adventurers with the new
realms of magic released by the compendium. Refreshed (possibly rested, although
I don't think so), they returned to the fray, having buffed themselves to a
healthy glow. This time round, things were a little easier and, after a
considerable battle, Mr Big Bad was returned to the hells.
After resting in Sanchos handy little house
overnight, they continued on their merry way, to the only corridor not yet
explored. At the end of it was a room full of statues, made of clay. As Analesia
flew into the room, Sancho followed her, triggering a pressure plate on the
floor which caused a portcullis to fall behind him. As four clay golems animated
amongst the status, Analesia flew up through a trapdoor in the roof, leaving
Sancho alone, with an unreceptive audience. As Keth smashed his way through the
portcullis, the clay golems attacked, injuring Sancho. He immediately cast
gaseous form and joined Analesia, who shut the trapdoor. Keth and Arry started
beating the wetsuits (you just have to leave the spell checker to its job
sometimes) out of the golems, with the help of Laureli and Mr P. Realising
that they were cut off from events downstairs and had abandoned their friends,
Analesia opened the trapdoor and her and Sancho joined in, Sancho actually going
into combat! The golems had no chance.
Once the battle was over, Analesia searched the
area and found a secret door concealed behind the back wall. She opened it and
moved forward cautiously, checking every inch of the corridor beyond for traps.
It wasn't long till the novelty of this wore off and more traditional means were
utilised, known as the 'take it on the barbarians/fighters/bards hit points'
method. This lead to the discovery of several rather painful glyphs, before the
rogue remembered improved evasion and moved to the front, again checking for
traps. A large cavern opened ahead, a split level residence suitable for the
upwardly mobile troglodyte. Our group of happy heroes reached the stairs without
incident, where they set off yet another glyph, this time without incident.
Upstairs, the corridor continued to an intersection with a well in the centre of
it.
Moving up, they were startled when several baboons
attacked them, together with an octopus that lived in the well. This minor
distraction was short lived (in all senses) and Sancho moved to investigate a
side passage. This proved an unhealthy life style choice, as several large
baboon like creatures charged the party. This proved much more of a challenge,
especially when the troglodyte priests joined in. After several tense minutes
(well, 24 seconds in game time) the natural order of things was restored and the
remaining two troglodytes legged it into their cave up the passage. The party
moved to take them down big time, and nearly managed it before they melded into
stone and refused to come out to play any more.
Bored of waiting for the spell to end, they moved
on, encountering two awakened dire apes. One of these was a twelfth level
fighter - like that did him any good! The troglodyte priests in the next room,
with their invisible rogue ally faired a little better, although the rogues
wisdom was called in to question when she attacked Analesia in the back and
found herself flanked by a rogue and a barbarian. The priests retreated
and the party moved to take them down big
time, nearly managing it before they melded into stone and refused to come out
to play any more.
The next few rooms were empty and tedious, apart
from Analesia unfortunate discovery that harm could be tied to a glyph spell.
This left her a little less interested in continuing until Laureli had worked
some healing magic.
Moving to the double doors at the end of the
corridor, Analesia opened them, only to see a fist the size of her coming
towards her. The party moved to deal with the threat, only to find themselves
caught in Evards Black Tentacles. The giant ape moved toward them and, rather
sensibly, they made a tactical retreat to reconsider their choices in
life.
Our heroes regrouped - they were getting rather
good at this by now. After careful consideration, a plan was hatched - they
would teleport in and beat the snot out of the ape, whilst ignoring everything
else. The plan was followed to the letter, meaning that the ape had only 12
seconds before it fell crashing to the ground. A blade barrier kept most of the
other occupants of the room out of the way, apart from a sorcerer who kept
casting through it. As Mr. P and the troglodyte high priest went toe to toe, the
rest of the party mopped up on their side of the barrier, until it was dispelled
and the final conflict could be completed with the death knight. This was over
rather more swiftly than anticipated, with team teleport
victorious.