Barrowmaze IV: Delving for Power and Glory

[sastaz]

Gerdal unleashes one of her mystic bolts against the skeleton she has already hit:

Eldritch blast damage [1d4+1]=1+1=2

Retain lv 1 spell vs 15 [4d6+1]=16+1=17

[Spearmint]

Between the group and the hirelings, the fossilized skeletons are smashed to pieces. They are all dead even discounting Isvand's melee attack.

Drew damage [2d4]=6 Amos Q-staff [1d20]=7 [1d6]=2 Gnim pick [1d20]=15 [1d4+1]=1+1=2Treyvor pick melee [1d20]=20 [1d4+1]=3+1=4

Up the corridor you hear the wolf growling. Approaching the door wondering what lies beyond, you see the reason behind Truro's shock and wavering faith. Smokie is underneath a trestle table, biting at the ankle bones of two more fossilised skeletons. Above the table on the ceiling, escaping the dire fangs of the wolf is a demonic faced being. The visage is of a burnished Efreeti type demon, a fiery red and dull gold. The figure looks at you as you enter and Amos is immediately assailed by a nightmarish divine unction that promotes a banishment to his presence. He turns to run down the corridor and join the cleric of Ygg in fleeing the barrow.

Amos gets Turned [1d20]=13

Actions and initiative please.

[Rex]

Orgoth

Orgoth advances, attacking the first thing to block his path on his way to attack the demon.

Magic Spear [1d20+2]=10+2=12 to hit [1d6+4]=4+4=8 damage

[redwarrior]

Isvand braces himself, as he hopes that these skeletons aren't the exploding kind and swings his magical mace is a wide arc, connecting with the thing's rib cage....


Magic Mace THAC0 20 [1d20+1]=19+1=20 damage [1d6+2]=3+2=5

[Spearmint]

Exploring the Corridors

With no clerics to utter divine wrath of their own and Gerdal fresh out of magic missiles, the party have to resort to brute force to lay waste to these denizens of evil.

The three hirelings and Isvand rush to assault the skeletons having seen how cold iron is effective against them. Under a hail of blows and the fangs of Smokie, the bones are torn asunder.

Orgoth hopes to pin the demon to the ceiling, throwing his enhanced spear but his aim goes awry and the shaft clatters to the floor at the end of the room.

The carrot-haired figure levitating out of harm's and arms way can descend to the floor.

Drew melee broadsword [1d20]=6 [2d4]=3 Gnimish melee pick [1d20]=17[1d4+1]=3+1=4 Treyvor melee pick [1d20]=17 [1d4+1]=4+1=5

the room is 30 feet wide with the entrance door in the middle and forty feet long. At the bottom of the eastern wall is a door and fifteen feet further up the wall a breach has been made, a 5'ft side passage. Rubble and stones pile on the floor, a pick leans against the wall.

actions everyone, Sven included please.

[Rex]

Orgoth

Orgoth moves to retrieve his spear, if able to attack with it once he has it he will.

Magic Spear [1d20+2]=7+2=9 to hit [1d6+4]=1+4=5 damage

[OGRE MAGE]

Sven starts floating back down from the safety of the ceiling.

“Orgoth! It’s ME! What the hells are you doing? Are you blind, man? And what’s wrong with Amos and Truro?”

“Has everyone lost their mind or what?”

If he isn’t killed by friendly fire before he gets to the ground, he rushes over to Smokie, rubbing and nuzzling awkwardly with his life saving hound. “Who’s a good boy? Huh? Who’s such a good boy?”

[Rex]

Orgoth

Can Orgoth tell it is Sven once he starts talking?

[Spearmint]

Yes, though I was hoping the description of 'carrot haired' and 'levitating' was all the description folk would need.

Good job you missed him twice ....

[Rex]

Orgoth

"Sven! Your alive! Thank Cromm!"


I read Demon and went with it I guess. I saw the comment about Sven going but didn't connect it to the Demon.

[redwarrior]

Isvand picks up his boomerang and grins. Sven! You MUST show me how you did that trick! I wonder if there’s any loot in here…

[sastaz]

Gerdal plucks her dagger out from deep within the skeleton's skull, and picks up the other one as well.

"You are quite full of surprises yourself Sven. Turns out your were right about that coat, I take it?" she smiles.

Then her eyes widen.

"Crap."

She turns around,

"Quickly, hold the hugs, we most stop the clerics before they are eaten by lizardmen or scorched by fire. Drew, come on!"

She urges everyone to rush back and look for Amos and Truro, if they aren't in Helix already....

[OGRE MAGE]

The second thing the group notices about Sven, after his frightening new shiny demonic Efreeti visage, is that he jerks his head back and forth while he speaks now, as if he is having trouble seeing well peripherally.

He looks sideways at Isvand. “What do you mean? The levitation? I have been able to do that for a while now, and I’d be happy to show you how, anytime. Though it isn’t easy.”

Hearing the urgency in Gerdals voice jerks his head in her direction. “YES! We need to get those two back! What’s gotten into them anyway? Suddenly our clergymen are frightened away by run-of-the-mill skeletons?”

He follows the lead of Gerdal and Drew rushing back towards the exit to retrieve the duo, still looking a bit disoriented. “I’m sorry guys, but I’m having trouble with my vision ever since coming in here. Are any of you experiencing anything strange? It seems like I’m looking through a tunnel or something.”

[sastaz]

Btw is Sven still wearing his coat? The coat believed to be of fire protection?

Gerdal brings at least Drew to search for Amos and Truro, hopefully the four melee guys and the wolf will tag along. She does not seem to be that bothered by Sven's appearance.

"I....it's the...you did not?....you know what, let me speak to Amos and Truro, just tell me if you see them and.... stay back. What do you mean tunnel vision by the way? Can't you see properly? I think you have to walk us through what just happened. By the way, beware, there's a metal eating big monster nibbling away on the staircase."

Phew, that's a lot of events going on

[OGRE MAGE]

Sven is still wearing his usual gear, and doesn’t seem to have been affected by the fireball in the least.

“Ya, my vision seems distorted ever since I looked through the peephole into that room with the crusty skeletons.”

Remembering that he also saw the rust monster during his fall through the flames, Sven goes back to look for the creature again.

“So, none of you were injured by the explosion either? Was it some kind of illusion or what? And set up by who? That was a powerful spell! And dangerous!”

[sastaz]

Gerdal

"Either you absorbed most of the blast, or we were out of range in the other chamber. Anyway, we were lucky I guess. Which reminds me, we really ought to be more careful from now on. I know I have been as reckless as the other man, or woman, but let's try to remember this together from now on, okay?"

"Okay, so that might explain the tunnel vision then. Good, at least we know that, so let's stay away from that peephole and hope it will wear off. Speaking of wearing off, you didn't notice any changes to your appearance? You look a little...special?"

Don't want to jump ahead in the action, waiting to let everybody have their turn, but Gerdal will continue the chatting while travelling with Sven, Drew, Smokie (and hopefully the rest of the team) towards the "metal eater's lair" and keep eyes and ears open to see if there's any trace of the terror-laden clerics.

"Oh, and while you were gone I ordered Isvand and Amos to form a vanguard for our group, so that not all of us will get caught in future blasts, literally and metaphorically speaking."

[OGRE MAGE]

Sven cocks his head towards Gerdal.

“My appearance? What are you talking about?”

The mage touches his face with his hands for the first time and you can see his eyes widen with concern under the metal mask.

“WHAT THE HELLS??? What is this thing?? What’s on my face?”

He knocks at the metal face covering with his knuckles anxiously, his concern quickly turning to fear.”

“What does it look like? Anyone have a mirror? How did this happen?”

He starts to pry at the mask with his fingers.

“WHY ISNT IT COMING OFF?!?!?!?!”

[sastaz]

will wait for rest of the players to pitch in

[Spearmint]

just to give a description.

Sven wears a carved mask. A grim Efreeti design made from a strange and wondrous rare alloy. It has an adjustable strap to secure it over the head which Sven has opened but still the mask does not come off his face.

It feels like it is glued in place though no sticky glue is present and no amount of pulling, twisting, washing the skin with oil, alcohol, water dilutes any substance to be able to pull the mask off.

Sven can see clearly through the eye holes but only forward and a little bit of eye movement, his periphery vision is blocked by the mask so that to look at the extremities if vision to the right or left, he has to turn his head.

Upon seeing the visage, Amos and Truro were subject to some magical effect but no one else suffers anything looking at the mask.

It looks something like this:

[Spearmint]

This is an edited description of the room you are in:

It is a large hall, the sodden entrance door is in the middle of a 30'ft wide southern wall. You can see the hall goes north 40'ft. The bottom of the eastern wall has a door that stands half open and you also note a small breach in the eastern wall twenty feet along, a portion hammered through. A pick leans against the wall.

There are bits of old furniture in the room. A large picnic like table with side benches was being moved about the room for the skeletons to stand on as they tried to grab at the levitating mage.

Scattered on the floor are pieces of old crockery and metal utensils, tin plates and cups. A bottle of corked wine. A little tripod with a dangling pot, overflowing now after a time of catching a water leak dripping from the roof. The stove cold. No one seems to be feasting here, at least not in a long time.

The water seepage trickling mostly comes from the northern half of the hall, where water drips in several yellowish teardrops and runs in steady trickles down the northern wall to pool in little erosion ruts in the flagstones. The southern end of the floor is comparatively dry. The western wall looks to have burial alcoves set into it. These are circular in shape and several contain skeletons, placed in feet first with the head of the figure resting face up on a ledge, poking out. Some are covered with cloths like face veils, a couple are helmeted.

Looking up, the ceiling has a small curved arch, the stones are well fit and solidly built so that it doesn't appear liable to collapse despite the many leaky points.

So: water - north wall, alcoves - west, one door and one breach - east.

The seven skeletons have fossilized over time from soaking the the mineral water deposits which has given them the strange, hardened flaky lumps.