SessionTwenty

January 25, 2009

Resting up from yet another bout of undead, the party discusses the possibility of going back to fight the deadly spiders. They decide there is not nearly enough webbing to try tossing in a torch to burn them (or a flaming shoe, for that matter), so hatch a plan that will make the spiders only able to come at the party one at a time in the doorway. This will also prevent them from jumping around and leapfrogging over the party. Alecsa and Cinoi decide they will piton and rope up anything that will need to be in order to keep the spiders in the room from coming out more than one at a time.

So, the party tromps right back down to the western door, where the three deathjump spiders lurk. Well, to be fair, they can't get out, so they have no choice but to lurk. Lining up in front of the door, Osrik will be the first attacker, flanked by Dex, who should be ready to switch places with Osrik when needed. Gloriana and Alecsa stand behind Osrik and Dex respectively, thinking it best to have the cleric near the sure-to-be-wounded fighter. Chaedi and Cinoi stand five feet and ten feet, respectively, behind the cleric and rogue.

Dex swings open the door, using the rope and piton system rigged by Alecsa and Cinoi to not only open the door, but prevent it opening wider than they would like. A spider leaps into the doorway and bites at Osrik, missing him. This spider we will call #1. Chaedi fires off a couple of rays of frost and hits the spider standing 20 feet behind #1, which is now designated as #2, immobilizing it. Then, the bastard #2 performs a healing surge! Dex attempts to attack #1 with his sword but misses. Osrik performs a spinning sweep that knocks #1 down! Alecsa can only manage to throw a shuriken at #1, but it misses. Gloriana's crossbow bolt also misses #1. Cinoi curses #1 and throws eldritch rain on spiders #1 and 2, hitting #1.

Spider #1 stands up and bites Osrik. Chaedi casts freezing cloud into the room, hitting spiders #1 and #2. Spider #2, still in the freezing cloud, is hit again by Chaedi when it runs off to the northwest corner to get away from the ice . Dex takes a swing at #1 and misses. Osrik pounds #1 with his axe, using a sweeping strike technique. He also manages to fight off the effects of the spider venom. Alecsa pops #1 with a shuriken, killing it! [Note the striker kill.]

While the rapidly disintegrating spider oozes everywhere, Gloriana heals up Osrik, and the party waits for the next spider to come to the door. They think the #2 has most likely climbed up a wall. Finally, Dex agrees to pop into the room to lure one out.

That plan doesn't really pan out, since he's hit by another spider, #3, who was standing right beside the door hidden from the hallway, when he steps into the room. Dex swings back and misses the spider. Osrik tries to help him out by stomping into the room and having a go at #3, but he misses, too. He also spends an action point to slide back into the hall, since he's not fully healed. Since the spiders aren't coming out and Osrik needs to be shielded, Alecsa goes into the room and performs a trick strike that fails to hit the spider. #2 skitters down and stops near Dex and tries to bite him but misses. Gloriana moves into the room to stand beside Alecsa and north of Dex, so the spiders can't flank him. Her blazing beacon also fails to hit. This is the time Dex becomes a smartass, harassing Gloriana about being "a warlord" and "getting all tactical." She tells him she's a defender, but she can leave in there by himself. Then, the idiot asks if he'll get a kiss first, to which she replies it will be with a mace! In the meantime, Cinoi is cursing #2 and slays it with dire radiance. [Note the second striker!]

Chaedi moves to the doorway and casts cloud of daggers, and hits #3. Dex attacks the spider and misses. The spider takes a five-foot step to the side (using eight feet!) and bites Dex. That's karma! Osrik heaves a big sigh, mumbling about idiots and feeling it's too bad he can't get a certain party member with a cleave, and stomps into the room to chop the spider with a reaping strike. Alecsa moves to stand on the other side of Osrik, but her attempted torturous strike barely misses. Gloriana moves down to stand south of Dex and beside the spider, missing with a healing strike. [Sorry, Os.] Then, Dex has to shoot his mouth off with a snide "Nice shot." Osrik yells at him to "Pay attention!" Cinoi moves to the door, curses #3, and hits it with dire radiance.

Chaedi's cloud of daggers misses #3. Dex, who has yet to shake of the venom effects, misses the spider when he attacks. The spider takes off to the northwest corner of the room (apparently, that's a popular spot) and performs a healing surge. Osrik stomps right up to it and chops the spider with a reaping strike, putting his annoyance at Dex into the swing. Alecsa heads up to hit the spider with a topple over exploit, knocking it prone. Gloriana does the final boxing in of the spider and misses it with a righteous brand. Cinoi finishes it off with dire radiance! [Note the strikers made all three kills! The rest of the party should throw them a party!] Cinoi dusts his hands and gives the bodies a paranoid look-over.

Gloriana uses the remaining healing word on Osrik. She informs Dex she can't do anything with poison, and he's on his own to fight it off. He finally does. Alecsa retrieves her shurikens, then she and Cinoi set about searching the place. Discovering the dust is a form of knockout powder, Alecsa scoops a bunch up into a spare, empty container she's started to carry around after the discovery of the dust in the zombie house. If touched to bare skin, it will knock the recipient out. She tells the others not to kick up the dust! Osrik then kicks the dust, leaving himself, Alecsa, and Cinoi a bit woozy. They both glare at him. [That's was the DM taking over control of Osrik.] Apparently, this was part of the shoeless trap.

Cinoi runs someone's sword (probably Dex, so he won't have to bend over and work too much), and searches in a grid pattern while Alecsa deals with the dust collection. He comes across what appears to be a body in a web cocoon suspended from the ceiling. He turns the discovery over to the fighters, but it is Alecsa who slices the cocoon down with shurikens and begins to open it with her shortsword. Dex was being a dumbass, calling everyone "amateurs" and asking for a "10-foot pole." [Alecsa can tell him where he can stick that pole!] Peeved at Dex again, Osrik stomps past him, grumbling, and heard to say "...smartass. Who was the prisoner...", and aids Alecsa with the cocoon.

They uncover a dead half-orc in rusty plate armor. He looks rather ... desiccated and is not wearing any shoes. They also find a belt pouch and a backpack. Embossed on the pouch is "Property of Lugruk Treebasher." With a "Treebasher, give me your money," Alecsa opens the pouch to find old Dwarvish coins worth 50 gp (Osrik helpfully points out that they look old-fashioned. Thanks...) and a gem worth 100 gp. Among the useless junk in the backpack, Alecsa finds a pair of gloves of fine quality and what looks like a scroll tube with arcane symbols embroidered on it. Cinoi reads the symbols and tells Alecsa they are a way to improve thieving abilities - by wearing the gloves. She puts them on.

Inside the case, which was meant for the gloves, is a map and pages of notes. The map seems to talk about going to Alcon, but the geography is all wrong. There is a drawing of a room behind a statue and what looks like another room behind it with a notation that looks like a coffin. Then, there are directions from there to get to someplace overland.

The party does a thorough search of the rooms and hallway, in case of a secret door, before heading to the "elevator." Finding none, they gather at the base of the stairs. Alecsa looks over the door again, very carefully. Seeing nothing new, and trying to decide which gem to use, they discover their notes say "Don't push the gem. It's a trap!" In an effort to get Dex to go push the plate, Cinoi tries to put on the charm, but it doesn't work. However, Gloriana gets him to concede, since she, in his words, had rescued him.

First, they have him just push on the plate. When that doesn't do anything, Dex opts to put the green gem in the opening under the plate. Once seated, the stone begins to glow. After waiting for a few minutes with nothing happening, Dex pushes the plate over the spot that say "Push here." Part of the wall rises up to reveal a set of double doors.

When Dex doesn't die (he never moved away from the wall), Alecsa goes to check out the doors. The section of the raised wall looks pretty secure. The double doors are actually ajar. She can't really see r hear anything through the opening, but she can smell a faint odor of decay. This convinces Cinoi mummies might be waiting for them inside.

Alecsa backs off and allows Osrik to push open the doors. They open into a rather large, circular room. In the center of the floor is an arcane circle carved into the floor and inlaid with silvery metal. To the west is a large statue of a squatting form, carved with foul runes and whose mouth is open. The mouth appears to have a small opening within it. To the west is a statue identical to east, even down to the opening in the mouth. The statue to the west seems to have a door behind it. To the south is yet another identical statue, but this one has a red gem in the slot in the mouth, hinging the jaw open. Chaedi and Cinoi look over the circle carved into the floor. Chaedi thinks it might have something to do with necromancy, the possible place from whence the undead keep coming.

Cinoi and Alecsa carefully move to inspect the statues, while the others wait near the door. Checking the west statue first, they recall the notes saying, "I fed gem to the statue. Door behind." Trying to determine how the statue works, they discover that the jaw is hinged. The gems seem to hold the jaws open. They then inspect the channel that runs from the statue to the circle; there are similar channels running between the other two statues and the circle. The channel is one foot deep and two feet wide. There is no remnant of liquid in the channels, but Alecsa determines that any liquid would flow from the statue to the circle. They see two small black objects in the channel and discover them to be the molted husks of beetles.

At this point Cinoi and Alecsa discuss if hinging open a statue's mouth would result in blood flowing from the statues or the release of an untold amount of beetles. They carefully move over to inspect the east statue, not stepping onto any part of the carved circle. Cinoi tapes on the statue and determines it is solid and not hollow. They find one beetle husk in the channel.

Being long legged, they carefully cross the channel without touching anything to look at the southern statue. Nothing is found in that channel, and they can see the mouth is more opened with the gem blocking up the "throat." They note scrape marks on the floor in front of the statue, indications of something heavy being dragged across the floor. Alecsa thinks the statue might move to reveal an opening somewhere.

Neither Alecsa nor Cinoi likes the implications of their finds. They return to the party to discuss any options they have. The major questions are should they desecrate the circle and leave or put a gem in the eastern frog's mouth and deal with what nastiness might happen. The statues and circle or durable, but the party would be able to deface them. When Alecsa asks if destroying the circle would destroy any future use of the entire thing, the magic users mull it over. Cinoi thinks the circle is used to call upon some power, but he doesn't know what. Gloriana agrees that it is a higher or lower power but can't tell which. Alecsa also suggests popping out the red gem and leaving the complex with all three of them for Osrik to bash to bits later, believing that not having the gems might make the whole setup unusable. Cinoi suggests that whatever they do, they block the exit doors open with pitons. Alecsa wholeheartedly agrees.

(The role of Chaedi was played by Nate, and the role of Osrik was played by Tara in the absence of Gillian. I think we did a good job for not really knowing all of their abilities, thank you very much!)+I apologize for not being there! I will try not to lapse again. You did fine with Osrik, but where was Chaedi's sparkling but useless repartee?+

At this point, several transcripts are missing. Eventually, we opened a tunnel behind one of the statues, went through, rested in a small chamber at the far end of the tunnel, and emerged into a very strange forest. We met an old lady and her pet boar (named Fergus). We had a nice visit with her, and she gave us some good advice. We'd love to meet her again, someday.

Eventually we went on, following a path that she told us would lead to Alcon if we went far enough(!). Supposedly it was a short cut from an overland trip (Some shortcut it turned out to be!).

On the way, we ran into lizard men off the road in a swamp. Plant creatures attacked, too. And crocodiles. Dex and Chaedi nearly got swallowed whole. We were lured off the road by dragon bones, which might have been worth money!

Our next encounter on the road was at a bridge over a river. Here we had intense negotiations with a goblin and a bugbear (who had a pet croc). Osrik tried to arm wrestle the bugbear and lost.Then everyone vanished, and we were able to cross the bridge.

We eventually ended up in a fairy market. Here, we met Zorba the fortuntelling gypsy again. She reassures Chaedi that Dudley is her truelove. Osrik buys charcoal, and Alecsa buys flour. We all resupplied with basics here, too. Osrik got Razor armor and Gloriana bought some magical armor as well. Everyone bought some alchemical supplies. We're gearing up! Gloriana met a weird priest of Lir who told her she was there to begin a quest, and asked to see "the holy altar stone". We had no idea what he was talking about. This priest referred to Lir repeatedly as a female. We finally did show him the gold gem we found at the temple of Golnath Haud. But this isn't what he was looking for, apparently.

SessionTwentytwo