Sunday, September 18th, 2011 aka 619/3/16

[David]

The heroes (Mikhail, Jamal, Maedhros, Daj, Helga, Saanau, Cliffy, Jyolli, and Black Robe) continued to battle the demons on the slopes of the frozen mountain after having momentarily regrouped. Two vrocks flew in and Helga used a protection from evil 10'r to keep them at a distance while Maedhros and Jyolli patched up Daj and Black Robe began a thunder drum. Alas, things didn't last because Helga was telekinesised away and Cliffy spied a succubus creeping up on the group. The elven mage used two volleys of magic missiles (both of which bypassed her nature magical resistance) to send the fiend back to the Abyss. Helga tried to hurl rock but couldn't hit her vrock captors...which is when the babau, hezrou, and two glabrezu arrived...

Black Robe finished his thunder drum and drove off half the demons. Working together, the heroes took the offensive, although Black Robe's magical dog and Jamal were feared -- Jyolli did manage to save the green Zakharan, but the beast was lost. Mikhail takes a page from his mentor's book and uses sticks to snakes, but more fear affects blunts the number of serpents. That said, several of the demons are ultimately slain by either Mikhail's minions or Black Robe's python-staff.

Just as the heroes get a handle on the battle again, the feared demons return. The babau proves particularly difficult, lobbing a dispel magic on the heroes and later being joined by ANOTHER babau which does the same! That's also about when several of the heroes noticed the feeling of being watched...

Daj invoked the power of Vertigo, but wound up calling up an inverted prayer spell until she tried again and fixed things. Jyolli backstabbed one demon, killing it and Cliffy bravely tried to do the same. Maedhros nearly died and then first one, then three spectres arrived. One of the undead struck Cliffy, nearly killing him outright, but Maedhros turned it and one of it's allies. Daj hit the draining undead with a chain lightning off a scroll and used a magic missile to finish it off. Maedhros then turned the remaining undead.

A fear from a glabrezu sent Jamal, Helga, and Mikhail running up the frosty mountain side. Jyolli rescued them while Daj went after Minosti (dropped by the earlier thunder drum). The heroes regroup just as Iuz and a retinue of demons appear. Jyolli casts plane shift -- Mikhail tells her to go to Eon, but she chooses Maneä. Through bad luck, she grabbed the tuning fork for Torsh by accident...where the heroes arrive amid feeding dinosaurs...!

Status:
Jamal: 14 of 62, 1/2 dex, bleeding wound
Helga: 48 of 87, cast remove, weighty / hurl x5/ / prot e 10'r x2/ flame strike
Black Robe: 24 of 93, used eagle, cast CLW x4, prot spirit, r.cold x3 / hold, d.invis / prayer x2, call, ddoor, mud x2 / thunder, CSWx3 / hold monsterx2 / heal
Jyolli: 22 of 43, cast all 1st / aidx3, alter / dispel, NPP, random / confusion x2, mental
Mikhail: 49 of 75, used lizard & otter, 1 PSP, cast FFx2 / / / sticks x2, CSW
Maedhros: 15 of 34, cast all 1st / aidx2 / prayer, emotion, ddoor / mental, prot e 10'r AND reduce, MMx3 / Melfx3 / LB x2 / stone + adder
Cliffy: 14 of 65, cast everything, drained TWO levels
Daj: 25+10 of 56, cast everything
Moonlight: 11 of 84, used owl & rat, cast EC x5 / sun x3 / / CSW, sticks
Minosti: -7 of and drained TWO levels
Saanau: 39 of 59, cast MMx3 / Melf's x3 / fire, item / WWx2, and drained TWO levels

Eeps are: 7750 xps each

[Andy]

Heh - the NPP will serve me well on Torsh... =:-o Awesome game, and fantastic ending.

And I thought it was a mating ground? The most positive of the possible bad luck options?

[Andy]

And I'm pretty sure Jyoli will be my 1st 9th level thief in this world after only 20+ years of trying. Assuming we can find a place to hunker down and spend the night with out getting eaten or mated to death or something.

[aaronthecow]

Well unfortunately Cliffy, Sanauu, and Minosti wil all be a level down unless we can get somewhere with 4th level cleric spells and a death sphere, so at least Sanauu will be fighting for us hunkering down on another world.

[Andy]

Hm - that is a problem too. Jyoli knows that there is a plateau someplace on the planet where a bunch of people live...but no saying how far away that is...given Vertigo's influence, probably about 12500 miles, assuming an earth-like diameter.

Time to call out resources here - does anyone have a way to contact people, like sending, massive clairvoyance, or some other way of getting around? Or some sort of dinosaur-proof shelter?

David, can we get a reading on how many worlds away we are?

[Jeff]

I dunno about you guys, but I'm down to first and second level spells.

On a completely unrelated note, who wants to see a druid cast Animal Friendship on a T-Rex?? ;D

[David]

Daj's reaction to all of this is, "oooh! How exciting! I've never been to another world before!" as she claps her hands joyously. "This will be fun!"
"What a pretty shade of green the sky is...!"
"Is this *REALLY* where lizard men come from? Can we go meet some?"
"What are those fat dragon things over there?"

Mikhail's reaction is, well, a bit different..."CLEARLY we have different definitions of safety! Plane shifting to Torsh is like exploring the Underdark; if you're LUCKY nothing will happen, but probably you'll find something lethal and realize it a split second AFTER it's too late! My god-father has lived on this world for many years, as did my mother when I was small. I've heard ALL about it. It is NOT a safe place! And unless you worship the Nereganti sun god, NO ONE is going to get ANY of their spells granted, ESPECIALLY not elves or other non-humans!"
"And do NOT tell me to 'empathically contact Borlon'; it doesn't work like that. And it's a VERY big AND UNEXPLORED world! By all the gods of Olympus and Asgard, I can't think of a less safe place to go. Maybe we should try a quick jaunt to the Abyss or visiting the Bone Throne of Dorakaa (Iuz' capitol)...!"
"Those dinosauroiduses are going to eat us...! And none of us have higher level spells to do hold monster...!"

That last line is to point out that to the PCs -- ALL the PCs -- these dinosaurs are MONSTERS and NOT animals. All of the "wisdom" of the druids Moonlight and Mikhail as well as spiritual skills of Black Robe and even swamp knowledge of Dajamira AGREES that there are no such ANIMALS as dinosaurs...

[David]

The DM has a comment too, although this is aimed mostly at FUTURE games.

First, yes, I especially loved the ending of last game. I truly wish I had more time for role-play...

Most important, however, is that possibly as soon as the next game, THE PARTY WILL ACTUALLY ENTER THE VALLEY OF SPIRITS. Yes, I'm being optimistic about how you handle Torsh and all, but that said, there's a good chance that you could begin the journey into the Valley. ONCE THAT HAPPENS, THE GAME CANNOT CONTINUE TO SUPPORT MISSING PLAYERS. I can't stress that enough and I'm not trying to be an ogre. As anyone who's been on the previous games can tell you, it's supposed to be a serious test of the WHOLE party -- having members come and go does NOT work for the scenario and CERTAINLY not for the DM (I already HAVE a full-time job!). After an encounter or two, it'll become clear, I'm sure...

My point, however, is once the party reaches that point, Entry into the Valley of Spirits, I need anyone ON the game to STAY on the game -OR- if someone misses a game, they have to drop off and CAN'T COME BACK (yes, there are a couple of wild scenarios where this would work, but in the general case, it's a VERY bad idea).

Okay? Thanks...

[minosti]

This coming Sunday is Folsom, and Rob's mom will be in town next weekend so I'm not going to be able to attend for the next few sessions. I do however have a mini cabin that may come in handy given this new location and lack of shelter. I don't know how to use it, but I'll gladly put it into use.

[Andy]

Re: missing players - just FYI - Jyoli didn't really have any intention to enter the VoS - her main motivation is to A. Learn the location of the VoS for future reference, B. Get cash or items she can use to put toward a new house she's building, and C. have fun. If she ended up in someone's pants or something funny happened, even the better.

So, as such, my (Andy's) plan was to have Jyoli either drop off at the Valley's entrance (perhaps even hang with the titan that hangs there (Turomos?) until the group comes back out...even if that meant missing a few games. Anyhow - for the record.

[Andy]

Re: arrival reactions -

Er - Daj - from what I hear, we should stay away from the Lizard men here, they aren't anything like the Sleemen - they ate all the mammals a long time ago, and wouldn't stop now. I'm not sure what those things are either, but if they get along with the locals, then they're probably hungry and would enjoy eating us too…

Mikhail - yeah - well, this wasn't the last place I wanted to go but it was pretty freaking far down on the list. Nice unluck effect - pity I didn't get to know Vertigo better, she sounds like fun to hang out with. And funny about there being Lizard men here and on Manea - I bet there's a portal around somewhere between the two. And no, I wasn't suggesting you summon Borlon I was curious what means we do have - I'm assuming you need rest to do any psyching right? Anyone have any sending spells, or any way to get someone's attention who's very far away? Any scrying? Any intra-planar ways of getting around?

We either need to contact the people that do live here for help, or we need to hide and rest for some period of time. Anyone have anything that can help? The log cabin might be a good start - it's probably not dinosauroiduses-proof, but it should shelter us and make us less obvious to predators.