Barrowmaze IV: Delving for Power and Glory

[sastaz]

Gerdal immediately reacts, showing her nerves of steel.

Save vs. spell (12): [1d20]=19

"Drew, be on your guard! Get out of that chamber so we can fight it together!"

She throws one of her daggers at the unholy construct, not hoping for much (and she was right not to).

Thrown dagger, to hit: [1d20]=8 dmg: [1d4]=4

[OGRE MAGE]

Sven steps aside so he isn’t accidentally hit in the melee, shooting his magic missiles at the stony monster to see if it has any effect upon it.

Magic Missile [2d4+2]=8+2=10

1st Level Spell Retention (INT 15) [4d6+1]=14+1=15

[Spearmint]

Exploring the Corridors.

The stone quasit.

Drew screams in fear, rooted to the spot. He sees the emerging gargoyle and the decapitated head talking to him. It overwhelms his senses and he flails with his sword to swat the critters away from assailing him. He finds himself repeating the head's mantra, "Help, help, don't touch me! aaaarrrggh!" Swatting blindly he actually impales the head on the end of his sword.

Orgoth swats just as blindly with lesser effect. A dagger and stone splinters shatter on the gargoyle as the Boomerang clips the animated statue's horn and inner shards erupt from the impaling of Sven's arcane energy.

Treyvor and Truro have little magic to injure the creature but join in the fray to add extra bodies to the cause.

Down the western passage, Amos and Gnimish hear the hullabaloo. They are not the only ones. Glancing around the corner, the scouting cleric sees a long hallway with many side naves. At the southern end a huge statue and before it, brightly pulsating, a broadsword in the floor. Three figures, dark and grim kneel in front of the statue intoning unholy utterances. As the noise is heard, two of them, seemingly minor thralls to a higher priest of darkness are waved away to go investigate.

The humanoid sized figures, decrepit, fetid grotesques of life, hot coals for eyes and feral of visage stand, bow to the statue and chief and turn to lope up the hallway

"Barrow wights." whispers the cleric, urging Gnimish to warn the others as he guards faithfully. "Though shalt not pass!" he cries, raising Arcantryl's holy symbol.

The gargoyle enters the room from the smaller chamber, nimbly jumping over the deadfall and parrying the spear and dagger blades. He stops momentarily, staggered by the magic implements then focuses on a victim to attack. It picks the man frozen in fear and rakes Drew across the chest, sharp claws ripping through his chainmail with ease. -3hp

Drew saves vs Fear [1d20]=9 broadsword [1d20]=20[2d4]=4Gargoyle, claw, claw, bite. [1d20]=18[1d3]=3[1d20]=3[1d3]=2[1d20]=3[1d6]=3

"Hooman. You got this." howls a lupine voice in Sven's head. In the mayhem, you can't tell if it is a question or statement.

next actions please

perhaps one can also roll a d20 vs 19 for Amos Turn Undead attempt.

[OGRE MAGE]

Amos Turn: Random D20 [1d20]=16

Sven takes the comment from his wolf as making the right decision, so he fires off a second array of magic energy bolts at the stony monster trying to kill Drew.

Magic Missile [2d4+2]=3+2=5 feast or famine

He loses the spell from his memory after this attempt and starts to get very nervous for some reason.

1st Level Spell Retention (INT 15) [4d6+1]=16+1=17

"Smokie! If you know anything about these creatures, now would be a good time to spill the proverbial beans!"

Now I am wondering if smashing the hooded statue in the room would do anything to this monster? Hmmmmm......

[Rex]

Orgoth

Orgoth attempts to strike the gargoyle.

Magic Silver Spear [1d20+2]=4+2=6 to hit [1d6+4]=5+4=9 damage

[redwarrior]

Isvand casts his boomerang underhand as it comes back, maneuvering for a good angle. It sounds like there are more coming. We can't fight on two fronts for long, we need to drop this thing! , he handily snags the boomerang out of the air as it returns to him.


Boomerang attack [1d20+2]=12+2=14 Damage [1d4+1]=2+1=3
Dex target 16 [3d6]=8

[sastaz]

Gerdal, now completely out of magical means of attack, tries to make good of that idea. She circles the stone monster if she can stay out of its attack range to enter the room where the hooded statues is, and will try to smash it.

Did the stone monster just nimbly side step the pressure plate while stepping out into the larger room?

[Spearmint]

sure you can grab the pick from someone and go chip away at the statue.

[Spearmint]

Exploring the Corridors.

The quasit gargoyle.

Truro lays hands upon the fear stricken Drew. He prays peace and courage into his frenzied heart and through his memorized Remove Fear blessing, draws the man back to lucidity.

Treyvor grabs into a pouch, digging out a long woolly sock that leaks a thick black gluey gel. He strikes a wick on the end and whirls it above his head before loosing it at the gargoyle. The hit goes 'splat' and sticks onto the statues torso. The burning wick fizzles down and the gnome shout out, "Five, four, three, duck everyone ..." and he dives for a corner of the room.

Treyvor 'sticky sock' explosives [1d20]=19 [2d4+1]=4+1=5

Isvand chips away more of the creature, Sven shatters more internals causing fractures to appear in the gargoyle.

In melee, the creature rakes Orgoth -2hp, digging into his arm as he lunges with the spear.

Gargoyle, claw, claw, bite. [1d20]=5[1d3]=1[1d20]=15[1d3]=2[1d20]=3[1d6]=4

Drew goes to help Gerdal and ankle deep in skulls, they begin to bash the motionless statue of the shrouded figure.

Wights in the west:

Wight B & Wight C: [1d20]=3[1d4]=3[1d20]=5[1d4]=3

Scornful of the divine rebuke, the two wights advance relentlessly but neither can land a fell touch upon the cleric. Amos fends them off but they push past him, drawn by the encounter in the room. The pair resort to last ditch weapons, breaking open flasks of holy water and acid to rain divine wrath and artisan meltwater upon one of the wights.

Amos throws Holy H2O [1d20]=17 [1d6+1]=2+1=3 Gnimish throws vial of acid [1d20]=20 [1d6+1]=2+1=3 Wights holy water vulnerability [2d4]=7-17hp.

The Wight, baptised in holy fires, burns and writhes. Its screams echo loudly. The holy water affects it with extra admonishment (wights take 2d4 Dam from holy H2O not the standard amount.. The Gnomish acid, used to meld irons penetrates it like a greedy ooze. The Wight's skin spits and burn, steam arising from charred flesh and bone. The half-strength Wight, newly corrupted from an adventurer's corpse withers on the floor.

Smokie ducks out of the room. It seems a wise action as the sock wick burns down ...

actions please.

[redwarrior]

Isvand throws his boomerang, going wide. Listening to all the chatter, he decides that it's time to join with the rest of the party and runs to jump over the deadfall, barely catching the boomerang on its return flight.


Boomerang attack [1d20+2]=6+2=8 Damage [1d4+1]=3+1=4
dex target 16 [3d6]=16

outta there dex target 16 [3d6]=9

[OGRE MAGE]

Wasn’t the deadfall trap already deactivated by the thieves?

Sven gets as far away from wights and exploding gargoyles as he can, trying to reassess the situation, unsure how they got in this mess in the first place.

He gets out his last vial of holy water, watching to see how the bomb works out before putting it to use.

“Can we try to regroup at some point everyone? This looks pretty bad!”

[Rex]

Orgoth

Orgoth tries to strike again.

Magic Silver Spear [1d20+2]=10+2=12 to hit [1d6+4]=2+4=6 damage

"Where are we falling back too?"

[Spearmint]

Wasn’t the deadfall trap already deactivated by the thieves?

yes it was.

[sastaz]

did the the door B close immediately as door A was opened using the right combination of lever pulling?

If that's the case:

Gerdal

"We must fall back and try to close the doors on these things, lest we'll be walking dead ourselves right soon!"

will await GM answer before deciding on definite action

[OGRE MAGE]

Only one of the iron doors could be opened and locked into place at a time, so the door leading back to the lever room is still open.

I thought Gerdal and Drew were trying to smash the statue in the small room?

I wouldn't suggest a trip through the main room until after Treyvor's bomb explodes. (or did that already happen?)

[Spearmint]

Exploring the Corridors

Isvand catches the return flight of the boomerang as it clips two walls and homes back in in him. He dives into the small chamber at the feet of Drew and Gerdal who are busy vandalising the statue on the plinth. Treyvor follows Smokie and Sven out through the locked open metal door which leaves Orgith continuing his melee with the fractured gargoyle. He is joined in the room by the barrow Wight that has pushed past Gnimish and Amos in the western corridor. They ready further flasks though the second Wight is ashen and burnt on the floor.

"fizzle, fizzle ... boom." the diatomaceous earth compound, mixed with a little nitrogen and chalk fertiliser (gnomic artifice designs at their best), ignites and sends a shock wave through the torso of the gargoyle. The fractures spread and as in the case of the black hand skeletons, explode to send shards around the room.

Orgoth caught in the blast radius takes -4hp damage (or save 4d6-1 vs Dex 5 for half damage)

the damage from the sticky sock was rolled last time, -5hp but I house rule a saving throw bonus and damage reduction vs explosion, crushing blows, so it is -4 or -2hp if you make the Dex save.

The quasit statue splits into shards, the second Wight staggers under the shock, the dust clears.

next actions please.

[sastaz]

Only one of the iron doors could be opened and locked into place at a time, so the door leading back to the lever room is still open.

I was thinking that if things go south we can flee and close the door behind us. Then I got unsure whether the doors closed upon the other opening, of if we'd have to wait a minute for it to close (and us to die).

[OGRE MAGE]

Orgoth’s Dex is only 5?

Sven quickly dons his black cultist robe then returns to the room once the explosion is over, looking around with wide eyes.

Staying a good distance away from the only remaining wight, he tries something completely different, pulling the hood of the robe up tightly around his freaky mask, trying to look important.

“Stop this assault before you end up as your friend melting on the floor in there! Who are you and what are you doing in this place?”

If a parlay isn’t in the proverbial cards, and the wight continues its attack, Sven throws his open flask of holy water onto the horrid monster.

Thrown Item [1d20+1]=14+1=15

Looks like +1 weapons are the key here folks.

Maybe Amos could toss a second holy water too if the NPC’s are out of tricks? We need to save some resources in case the big daddy in the other room gets involved.

[Spearmint]

Orgoth’s Dex is only 5?

a consequence of Big Bad John, the haunt drained him -2 Dex with each touch and he covers +1 dex per hour.

[Rex]

Orgoth

Orgoth turns on the Wight and attacks.

Magic Silver Spear [1d20+2]=19+2=21 to hit [1d6+4]=2+4=6 damage
Shield Bash [1d20+1]=15+1=16 to hit

His Dex was why I was trying to get us to rest before we got into more combat.