Idiotic Antics

Idiotic Antics

Our amber ensconced rest ended with me feeling more powerful. I had attained the status of Thaumaturgist thanks to the protection and nurturing of the ring given to us by the Mage of the Great Plains. Eldras and Barakor looked perky too.

We headed south from the room, Ripven seeming particularly distracted, Barakor leading, possibly to avoid Magdalene who had clear ambitions in his direction. The next room we tackled simultaneously from the north and west, finding six ghouls awaiting us.

Zionestes led the northern attack and Barakor the west, the dwarf managing to turn his three opponents easily, but there was a harder fought contest to the north which left Zionestes and Holly paralysed. Fortunately they recovered swiftly after the battle ended.

Heading south again we burst into the south western room to be confronted by an amber lion, a form of golem. It proved invulnerable to my magic missiles but we swarmed it and smashed it though Barakor was badly wounded and Roscoe failed to damage it thanks to his lack of magic weaponry. It was cleaved largely by Eldras with his backstabbing and shattered. A number of us scooped up quantities of amber chunks, Grom in particular scavenging claws.

The most notable development in this engagement though was Holly collapsing on the floor and changing form into, you guessed it, a weretiger, although it happened too late for her to engage the guardian. Luckily the transformation does not affect her personality wise and she seems well in control of it.* Barakor had blown his horn again but this time there was no effect of any sort discernable.

*Famous last words

The golem had protected a great silver gate which was clearly designed to receive the triple key we had collected along our way. Despite this we decided to ignore it and check further rooms in the labyrinth.*We tried the double team technique again and again attacked from the north and west of the adjacent room.

*Objective achieved? Ignore it and wander off in another direction, that’s our motto.

This one contained four fire breathing hellhounds which we took out at the cost of a few scalds. Barakor blew his horn* again but this time with no effect whatever including a lack of noise. We found a spear which I determined to be magic plus some gold and gems. We decided that we had fired off a lot of spells and needed to rest and returned to the daemon room to recover.

*Not a euphemism.

Unfortunately we had not rested an hour when the eastern doors burst open and a number of ogres attacked. Eldras and Grom were guarding that door and were quickly forced back by four of the giant humanoids. Holly rushed across in tiger form followed more cautiously by Roscoe, and five more ogres burst through the western door that they had been guarding.

Eldras fell back quickly to try and protect me whilst Holly tore into the eastern ogres and I and the other spell casters and Magdalene roused ourselves. Roscoe engaged an ogre to the east but fell quickly whilst Magdalene produced a dagger from somewhere and fought with surprising skill, absorbing several powerful hits in the course of the fight.

Roscoe was suddenly up again, the battle having passed over his body and he killed Grom’s opponent at the third backstab attempt. Holly was meanwhile showing how effective an opponent a were tiger can be, taking out a couple of the ogres and I managed to kill one fighting Eldras with some backstabbing of my own.

Once all nine were dead we decided that we needed to move out of here and took the silver gate route. When the key was used it glowed gold and we passed out. When we recovered we found ourselves on a plain on which stood a building with the name Stevan D’Amberville emblazoned on it. The good news was that the amber mist had done its work and we had recovered fully again.

Magdalene declined to enter what looked like her brother’s tomb and we left her outside. Opening the door we beheld a remarkable sight: A blue dragon asleep on a great treasure pile. Eldras decided to scout to the left where we could see an exit. Another lay to the right, but for some reason our deranged wannabe orc strode straight up to the dragon and tried to climb onto it.

*An act of irrationality that makes an episode of TOWIE look like a University Challenge QI special

Well of course that went really well. The dragon awoke at once and tossed its head, hurling Prince Dingbat almost to the eastern exit. He and Eldras both went through their respective doors, and Holly, Barakor, Zionestes and Roscoe took off after Eldras. I hesitated, possibly saving me. The dragon, attracted by the noise of four characters scuttling through the room turned and breathed lightning at them, hitting Barakor, Zionestes and the halfling.*

*Here we see out strategising at its most devastating: Meet one of the most powerful and feared creatures in existence, tackle it by splitting up and sending in a lone character to climb on to it. Brilliant. Fantastic. Incredibly astute tactics. All these are adjectives that I mention here as clearly they are unlikely ever to appear anywhere else in these accounts. Still, no harm done eh? Oh, wait…

Zionestes and Roscoe both emitted heart rending screams and fell, Barakor was gravely injured but made it to the door. Holly with her monk speed had already disappeared after Eldras when the lightning struck. I raced in the other direction after Grom whilst the dragon was distracted and made it to the other side, emerging onto a path made of clouds.

On either side was nothing but void with the ground visible thousands of feet below. More to the point though I could see a wyvern attacking Grom ahead of me. He was hit a couple of times and then it came towards me. I hit it with a ray of enfeeblement and Grom chased after it and was hit again in an exchange of blows, however the enfeeblement definitely reduced the damage he took, and the wyvern’s stinger missed this time, Grom having saved the first poison attack.

I then hit it with three magic missiles which was enough to kill the already injured beast and it plummeted to the dizzying depths below leaving me unhurt and Grom badly hurt. We followed the path around for some distance, finally reaching an exit. Peering through we could see a giant, who was not surprised as we had had to force the door and hadn’t exactly been quick about it.

The good news though was that we spotted our comrades* opening a door opposite. The giant was focussed on us; stony in appearance he hurled a boulder at me which took me out heavily. I awoke with Eldras bending over me having administered some healing potion. I was a little dazed but the stone giant was slain by our combined efforts and we looted a treasure chest forced by Grom after Eldras proved useless with his lockpicks.

*Those that were left

The chest contained gold, a talking sword called Shanty that Grom took, two potions and a scroll. We learned that the others had fought a salamander in a corridor of fire, with Eldras badly injured after being coiled and badly crushed by it and Holly almost killed too. Barakor had saved the day after joining the combat having healed himself and cast resist fire, but it had been a close run thing. Eldras had saved me with the potion whilst the others fought the huge humanoid.

I checked the scroll, and blacked out again. When I recovered, I discovered that I had been changed into a fly trapped in amber. Barakor had learned the spell remove curse and administered it to restore me.

In those intervening hours the rash prince of don’t care had drunk one of the two potions, discovering that it was a potion of invisibility. He had then checked the next room, discovering a manticore, one sadly that could detect invisible somehow. He had been peppered by its tail spikes and barely escaped with his life.*

* Well no one can see he hasn’t learned the inadvisability of acting alone without any thought or logic. Mainly because we were all just speechless.

After more rest and healing, we attacked and killed the manticore without more ado, and Barakor discovered its treasure, concealed ironically by an invisibility spell which I dispelled. Grom remains invisible; we have two more doors to check. We sense that we are close to our ultimate goal: Is Steven friend or foe? Is he even alive? What has happened to our slain comrades? Who cares about Roscoe anyway? What creature sucked out Saladin’s brain when we weren’t paying attention?

Kravaine
Characterisation & Roleplay 40
Ghouls 50
Amber Golem 200
Hellhounds 700
Ogres 250
Wyvern 500
Ray of enfeeblement 250
Stone Giant 1710
Manticore 750

Total 4450

Eldras
Characterisation & Roleplay 40
Ghouls 50
Amber Golem 200
Hellhounds 700
Ogres 250
Stone Giant 1710
Saving Kravaine 250
Salamander 380
Manticore 750

Total 4330

Barakor
Characterisation & Roleplay 40
Ghouls 270
Healing 100
Suspecting Holly’s condition 75
Amber Golem 200
Hellhounds 700
Laughing at DM’s Return of the Jedi Joke* 50
Ogres 250
Stone Giant 1710
Remove Curse 250
Resist Fire 75
Salamander 380
Manticore 750

Total 4850

*It’s a trap!

Holly
Characterisation & Roleplay 125
Ghouls 50
Amber Golem 200
Hellhounds 700
Ogres 250
Stone Giant 1710
Salamander 380
Manticore 750

Total 4165

Saladin/ Grom
Characterisation & Roleplay 50
Ghouls 50
Amber Golem 200
Hellhounds 700
‘More Doors’ Joke* 50
Suggesting proceed through the silver gate**50
Ogres 250
Wyvern 700
Stone Giant 1710
Manticore 750

Total 4510***

*Not with ten thousand men…

** A sensible suggestion? – obviously a lapse in concentration occurred at this point

***A 5000 point penalty for waking the dragon was considered but rejected. This time.

Roscoe
Ghouls 50
Amber Golem 200
Hellhounds 700
Ogres 250

Total 1200

Zionestes
Healing 50
Ghouls 50
Amber Golem 200
Hellhounds 700
Ogres 250

Total 1250
Name Class 2nd Class B/F Cumulative Target Current Level
Kravaine MU*
4,895 22,069 26,964 32,500
(6) 5
Eldras T*
4,763 20,745 25,508 42,500
(7) 6
Barakor F*
2,668 C*
2,668 13,613/
13,613 16,281
16,281 18,000/
27,500
(5/6) 4/5
Holly M
4,165 19,505 23,670 47,500
(6) 5
Grom/ Saladin F*
4,961 21,568 26,529 35,000
(6) 5
Roscoe** T*
1,320 16,474 17,794 20,000
(6) 5
Zionestes** C*
1,375 17,825 19,200 27,500
(6) 5
Ripven*** C*
0 14,559 14,559 27,500
(6) 5
*EP Bonus applied
**Missing believed killed
*** Just missing

8.3.14