Post by Admin on Nov 18, 2005 15:46:09 GMT -5
Picture this...Onwal, May 25 616...
After the party defeated the floating brains, Grell, the party went about reinforcing the Inn as their base of operations. During the clean-up, it was discovered that the Grell had been feeding on not only townfolk, but dead Slaadi as well. The group spent the day burning bodies and using “Rest Eternal” spells on the Slaadi corpses. All those still capable of working hard were doing their part to rid the town of the Slaadi parasites.
Meanwhile, the trussed up body of Ulaanbaatar, and her Grell counterpart, were the last things on anybody's mind. That is until the mage, trapped in the Grell's body, got everyone's attention. She used a stick to crudely etch in the sand her thoughts. She was afraid that she would not be able to remain in control of the Grell body, she asked the party to tie both bodies up…soon. Almost immediately after being tied up, Ulaanbaatar forced her way back into her own body…the party sprang into action, slaying the last Grell. Afterwards, the party burned that body and went to bed.
The next morning, rested and (mostly) healed...mostly...the heroes gathered themselves together and trekked back to the Circle of Stones. With many of their party still critically injured, they were joined by the sole survivor of the massacre perpetrated by the Grell and Slaadi, a simple-minded warrior named Gil. They worked their way down the long, narrow stairwell and entered the dungeon, as they had so many times before. Hagar, once more attempted to unlock the door decorated with a gaping dragon’s mouth to no avail.
Charging ahead, through what appeared to be a barren dungeon, the party was surprised by a group of Chitney who attacked from the rear. Nerumi and Raj fought valiantly, but were no match for the creatures, a psionic blast from Raj only brought one of the creatures down. A “sleep” spell from Mikos saved the two party members. The group healed up as much as possible and proceeded through the dungeon. Within minutes they ran across five web birds which were dispatched very quickly between Livak and Cindari. A quick search of nearby cocoons led to the discovery of two scrolls and two potions. Not wanting to risk a curse like their last attempt, the party picked up the magic items, but left them unchecked.
Following the hallway, the group explored some small rooms to the side…while Cindari, Livak and Raj went in to destroy some nests in one room, the rest of the party was swarmed by a group of fifteen birds from another room. Cindari was able to quickly kill the marauding birds in the room, but not before Raj was cocooned and paralyzed by the beasties. In the hallway, the web-birds cocooned Tessa while the rest of the party fought on. A well-timed sleep spell from Nerumi dropped almost all of the birds and the fighters were able to quickly slay all the creatures.
Nearly out of healing, the party pressed on. The found another narrow stairwell leading further into the bowels of the dungeon. Several minutes of climbing brought them to a rough hewn room…while the group tentatively progressed, three large raptors, complete with feathered bodies, erupted from a side room. Livak and Mikos stepped up to defend the hall. One creature was veered away from combat by the Evil Eye from Mikos. The cowering raptor was fodder for Gil’s arrows. Cindari joined Livak in fighting the other two creatures and then moved in to finish off the third. A small, rubble filled passage from the room led to the chamber housing the Chitine City. Exiting quickly, the team regrouped and realized that, if they weren’t careful, they would once again be in danger from dozens of swarming Chitine.
Down a passage leading AWAY from the Chitine city, the heroes saw a green glow coming from behind a damaged web obstruction. Working furiously to fix the damage in the webs were eight more Chitine and four spiders. The party understood that if these Chitine were able to shout a warning, the group would be surrounded very quickly, so Ulaanbaatar lobbed a sleep spell into their midst and took out the majority of the threat. The creatures did have a chance to attack; a Chitine dropped Hagar into a coma while a spider attacked Mikos and injured him. More importantly however, it injected him with a deadly poison. With no way to slow or neutralize the poison and with Hagar unconscious from his wounds, the party decided that discretion was the better part of valor and made their way back up to the previous level of the dungeon.
In the short time they were away, the dungeon had once again re-populated itself…this time with four xill…solidified molten lava creatures with four arms…who attacked from surprise. Each creature had two arms wielding swords and two arms attacking with claws that had the ability to paralyze their victims. The first attacked were Autumn and Livak who both fell from this paralyzing agent. The creatures then defeated Mikos and critically injured Tessa, who would surely die without intervention.
Gil was nearly dropped, but he drank the manaberry wine which kept him from succumbing to the Xill poison. Cindari, killed one and stunned another, while even more party members were falling. Ulaanbaatar and Nerumi were using their spells to help the party. Although, a surge by Nerumi whil casting Magic Missile caused a wave of fragile gems to splinter around the room, injuring friend and foe alike. While Raj was assisting Cindari in killing the xill until he too was taken down by the paralyzing effects of the poison. With one xill remaining, it seemed that no one could touch it…the party was finding the last xill to be the most difficult to kill. Cindari insisted her lovers’ Flaming Sword was cursed in her hands, while Draco finally realized that the bastard sword the party had found really WAS cursed (a -1 sword)!! Cindari, Draco and Gil worked together. Cindari was the focus of its attacks as she was responsible for killing most of his friends. She finally struck a killing blow, but within moments she too was felled by the xill poison coursing through her system.
Several minutes after the battle ended Autumn got back to her feet, only to realize that Mikos’ condition had quickly deteriorated. The poison from the spider bite was killing him. Tessa, meanwhile, had bled to near death. The party pulled their injured out of the hallway and into the side room. Autumn, hoping to find something useful, took the new scrolls and potions into the hallway and began checking them. The potions turned out to be healing and flight; one scroll was clerical with very simple spells that would not help in the situation and the other was a scroll of lightning bolt. Autumn gave the potion of healing to Mikos and the other party potion of healing to Tessa….putting them both in steady comas.
On guard, in the hallway, were Ulaanbaatar, Draco, Gil and Livak; meanwhile Autumn tended to those who were still unconscious and poisoned. Completely out of all healing, the party could only wait for the paralyzed people to get back to their feet. Because of their diligence, the party saw the Chitine attack coming up the hallway. With very few hit points among them and NO healing left, Ulaanbaatar took the scroll of lightning bolt. Risking surges and spell failure, she read the words and a powerful bolt of lightning rocketed down the hallway leaving all but two of the Chitine smouldering. The watchful heroes were able to slay the remaining foes.
Time crept on, but finally all the members who had merely been paralyzed were freed and the party was able to leave the dungeon carrying their battered, unconscious compatriots. They spend several days healing…but Tessa has broken ribs and must be left behind.
On May 28th, they prepare to enter the dungeon again. For Cindari, she believes they are getting closer to their goal, since the EEG’s dreams are becoming fiercer (“Those Xill nearly killed us all!!). She also wonders just what the Chitine are trying to protect behind that wall of webs…or are they trying to protect themselves from it? At any rate, it seems that the party now has a goal…to find out what lies behind the curtain of webs…
After the party defeated the floating brains, Grell, the party went about reinforcing the Inn as their base of operations. During the clean-up, it was discovered that the Grell had been feeding on not only townfolk, but dead Slaadi as well. The group spent the day burning bodies and using “Rest Eternal” spells on the Slaadi corpses. All those still capable of working hard were doing their part to rid the town of the Slaadi parasites.
Meanwhile, the trussed up body of Ulaanbaatar, and her Grell counterpart, were the last things on anybody's mind. That is until the mage, trapped in the Grell's body, got everyone's attention. She used a stick to crudely etch in the sand her thoughts. She was afraid that she would not be able to remain in control of the Grell body, she asked the party to tie both bodies up…soon. Almost immediately after being tied up, Ulaanbaatar forced her way back into her own body…the party sprang into action, slaying the last Grell. Afterwards, the party burned that body and went to bed.
The next morning, rested and (mostly) healed...mostly...the heroes gathered themselves together and trekked back to the Circle of Stones. With many of their party still critically injured, they were joined by the sole survivor of the massacre perpetrated by the Grell and Slaadi, a simple-minded warrior named Gil. They worked their way down the long, narrow stairwell and entered the dungeon, as they had so many times before. Hagar, once more attempted to unlock the door decorated with a gaping dragon’s mouth to no avail.
Charging ahead, through what appeared to be a barren dungeon, the party was surprised by a group of Chitney who attacked from the rear. Nerumi and Raj fought valiantly, but were no match for the creatures, a psionic blast from Raj only brought one of the creatures down. A “sleep” spell from Mikos saved the two party members. The group healed up as much as possible and proceeded through the dungeon. Within minutes they ran across five web birds which were dispatched very quickly between Livak and Cindari. A quick search of nearby cocoons led to the discovery of two scrolls and two potions. Not wanting to risk a curse like their last attempt, the party picked up the magic items, but left them unchecked.
Following the hallway, the group explored some small rooms to the side…while Cindari, Livak and Raj went in to destroy some nests in one room, the rest of the party was swarmed by a group of fifteen birds from another room. Cindari was able to quickly kill the marauding birds in the room, but not before Raj was cocooned and paralyzed by the beasties. In the hallway, the web-birds cocooned Tessa while the rest of the party fought on. A well-timed sleep spell from Nerumi dropped almost all of the birds and the fighters were able to quickly slay all the creatures.
Nearly out of healing, the party pressed on. The found another narrow stairwell leading further into the bowels of the dungeon. Several minutes of climbing brought them to a rough hewn room…while the group tentatively progressed, three large raptors, complete with feathered bodies, erupted from a side room. Livak and Mikos stepped up to defend the hall. One creature was veered away from combat by the Evil Eye from Mikos. The cowering raptor was fodder for Gil’s arrows. Cindari joined Livak in fighting the other two creatures and then moved in to finish off the third. A small, rubble filled passage from the room led to the chamber housing the Chitine City. Exiting quickly, the team regrouped and realized that, if they weren’t careful, they would once again be in danger from dozens of swarming Chitine.
Down a passage leading AWAY from the Chitine city, the heroes saw a green glow coming from behind a damaged web obstruction. Working furiously to fix the damage in the webs were eight more Chitine and four spiders. The party understood that if these Chitine were able to shout a warning, the group would be surrounded very quickly, so Ulaanbaatar lobbed a sleep spell into their midst and took out the majority of the threat. The creatures did have a chance to attack; a Chitine dropped Hagar into a coma while a spider attacked Mikos and injured him. More importantly however, it injected him with a deadly poison. With no way to slow or neutralize the poison and with Hagar unconscious from his wounds, the party decided that discretion was the better part of valor and made their way back up to the previous level of the dungeon.
In the short time they were away, the dungeon had once again re-populated itself…this time with four xill…solidified molten lava creatures with four arms…who attacked from surprise. Each creature had two arms wielding swords and two arms attacking with claws that had the ability to paralyze their victims. The first attacked were Autumn and Livak who both fell from this paralyzing agent. The creatures then defeated Mikos and critically injured Tessa, who would surely die without intervention.
Gil was nearly dropped, but he drank the manaberry wine which kept him from succumbing to the Xill poison. Cindari, killed one and stunned another, while even more party members were falling. Ulaanbaatar and Nerumi were using their spells to help the party. Although, a surge by Nerumi whil casting Magic Missile caused a wave of fragile gems to splinter around the room, injuring friend and foe alike. While Raj was assisting Cindari in killing the xill until he too was taken down by the paralyzing effects of the poison. With one xill remaining, it seemed that no one could touch it…the party was finding the last xill to be the most difficult to kill. Cindari insisted her lovers’ Flaming Sword was cursed in her hands, while Draco finally realized that the bastard sword the party had found really WAS cursed (a -1 sword)!! Cindari, Draco and Gil worked together. Cindari was the focus of its attacks as she was responsible for killing most of his friends. She finally struck a killing blow, but within moments she too was felled by the xill poison coursing through her system.
Several minutes after the battle ended Autumn got back to her feet, only to realize that Mikos’ condition had quickly deteriorated. The poison from the spider bite was killing him. Tessa, meanwhile, had bled to near death. The party pulled their injured out of the hallway and into the side room. Autumn, hoping to find something useful, took the new scrolls and potions into the hallway and began checking them. The potions turned out to be healing and flight; one scroll was clerical with very simple spells that would not help in the situation and the other was a scroll of lightning bolt. Autumn gave the potion of healing to Mikos and the other party potion of healing to Tessa….putting them both in steady comas.
On guard, in the hallway, were Ulaanbaatar, Draco, Gil and Livak; meanwhile Autumn tended to those who were still unconscious and poisoned. Completely out of all healing, the party could only wait for the paralyzed people to get back to their feet. Because of their diligence, the party saw the Chitine attack coming up the hallway. With very few hit points among them and NO healing left, Ulaanbaatar took the scroll of lightning bolt. Risking surges and spell failure, she read the words and a powerful bolt of lightning rocketed down the hallway leaving all but two of the Chitine smouldering. The watchful heroes were able to slay the remaining foes.
Time crept on, but finally all the members who had merely been paralyzed were freed and the party was able to leave the dungeon carrying their battered, unconscious compatriots. They spend several days healing…but Tessa has broken ribs and must be left behind.
On May 28th, they prepare to enter the dungeon again. For Cindari, she believes they are getting closer to their goal, since the EEG’s dreams are becoming fiercer (“Those Xill nearly killed us all!!). She also wonders just what the Chitine are trying to protect behind that wall of webs…or are they trying to protect themselves from it? At any rate, it seems that the party now has a goal…to find out what lies behind the curtain of webs…
