Life and Death Beneath the Needle
A few sessions have passed since the last update on the Tuesday group. Let's have a look at how they're going.
not. not well. not well at alllll.
anyway. After the business with the needlemen corpses and the secret demon-cult hideout in Tor, the party decided to finally go deal with the needle. With two and a half months to go before the Autumn Equinox, they had plenty of time to address the issue. A few weeks passed in Tor, where Caractacos procured a henchman, another fighter, and some magic items got bought. To reintroduce the party:
AETHELWYNN, Paladin 4. +2 Bardiche, +2 chainmail, and sundry gear. CARACTACOS, Fighter 4. +2 spear, +2 shield, bow, and sundry gear. NISSA, Magic-User 6. Not a lot of magic items but good spells, including Fireball and Web. CELEBRINDEL, Elf Magic-User/Thief 3/4. +1 longsword of trap detection. Nissa's henchman. RELIMI, Cleric 6. +1 Footman's Mace. MERCE, Cleric 4. No magic items after his hammer got stolen. Relimi's hench.
EXPEDITION 1
Asking around in the camp of the Bare Pines nomads, they found out that there were many-headed gnolls and spiders down beneath the needle, and some previous adventurers had died down there. With some trepidation, they climbed the mountain for the first expedition. A long shaft down was descended with ropes and pitons, then it turned to a curving passageway which went deep into the mountain. At the bottom was a dead end, with one passage off to the right, a dead end beyond it, and another passage far down to the left. They went to the first passage, to the right.
The passage continued a little way forward, with a side passage and a short set of rough-cut stairs at the end blocked by giant spiderwebs. The party ignited the webs, and Celebrindel the elf thief/M-U went up the passageway. Her sword detected a pit and she slipped around past it - but was attacked by a grey ooze, hiding in the covered pit! It was dispatched by a Magic Missile pretty quickly and the party continued on, finding a t-intersection. To the left was a caved-in passage connecting back to the way they came in, and to the right was a corner - and they could see light from beyond it. Celebrindel stuck her head around and saw a large force of men and gnolls, with a gnoll officer in command. The remainder of the party stacked up, and the fighters prepared to charge.
Caractacos the fighter, his henchman that had been hired back in Tor, and Aethelwynn the paladin charged to contact - but, just after they rounded the corner, Aethelwynn fell in a spiked pit! The damage was serious, and they withdrew up the passage while Nissa and Celebrindel Webbed the room. Caractacos jumped over the pit (i.e. made his save,) got caught in a bear trap, and fought the gnoll officer and his immediate bodyguard, slaying both. The remainder of the enemy force were killed without major incident. The party looted the bodies, taking a very fine and expensive helm from the gnoll officer as well as some silver and cheap jewelry, then began to look at the three doors around. One was to a storeroom, which wasn't very interesting. Another was blocked by a cabinet, which the party moved aside to reveal an area for sorting gems out from mining debris; nine animate skeletons attacked the party and Relimi obliterated them. There was an exit from this room, but it went back toward where the spider was and the party decided to ignore it until later. They didn't collect the gems. On the other side, there was a small gravel-floored room, which hid some bear traps; the party avoided them deftly and proceeded, exploring a few more rooms, slaying a shadow, and gaining a couple of potions (Invisibility and Growth, iirc.)
As soon as they opened the next door leading deeper into the place, they were met with a long passageway and a gnoll sorcerer on the far side, who cast a Stinking Cloud against them. Much of the party was knocked unconscious, but Celebrindel, Aethelwynn, and the clerics escaped, and Aethelwynn advanced to block the sorcerer's bodyguards. Despite the unconsciousness caused by the stinking cloud, the party overcame their foemen; and as they began to advance into the storeroom beyond, were charged by a Gargoyle! Aethelwynn held at the door as the gargoyle came, and Nissa cast a fireball into the storeroom and the great room beyond, blasting the gargoyle to pieces as it came. A stock of oil in that room caught fire, and the rations and other dried goods did likewise, filling the area with smoke.
The party advanced through the haze, seeing the room beyond, which was enormous and dominated by a great lift-shaft fully forty feet across at the center. Crossbowmen, on the far side of the room, opened up on the party and they withdrew into a side passage - but it was a dead end. Reinforcements were coming into the shaft-room now, many dozens of people and once-people shouting and running in the great chamber, and the party entered the one door they could see. This was a meat-locker, large as those things go but small compared to many of the rooms in the dungeon, and they could smell the hogs on the other side of the last door. Much debate ensued about what to do next, when out of the fog came a group of gnolls and men! Aethelwynn, Caractacos, and his henchman attacked the gnolls, who, suffering casualties in the charge, began to retreat half-at-a-time into the great chamber. The fighters were then exposed to the marksmanship of more than thirty archers and crossbowmen, but the arrows smashed off the walls and their breast-plates to little avail. Under that fire they retreated, but steeled themselves and advanced again as Nissa prepared a second Fireball. A great conflagration engulfed the room - the enemy was dead, or routed for their lives, and offered only a token resistance as the fighters came to wipe out the remainder. The lift-platform, its ropes destroyed by the fireball, crashed to the earth below.
After this, much loot was taken and a small room was found with a kidnapped merchant of gems hiding beneath a table, who offered a few of the subjects of his trade to the party, one of which was of extraordinary value. The party were pleased with their victory and withdrew up the way they had come; but met another gnoll sorcerer, who began to cast from a scroll as two of the many-headed gnolls attacked the party under a Haste spell. Nissa or Celebrindel interrupted the sorcerer with a Magic Missile spell and the gnolls were slain, though some injuries were suffered. Either this delve or next, they went back into the room with the troughs and skeletons, emerged through the door into a cave with the giant spider and her young, slew the young and routed the mother with burning oil, and found a scroll of Neutralize Poison and Heal.
EXPEDITION 2
Some more hanging around in Tor. The party sold their items, I think some of the henches leveled up, and they bought some more stuff. Beneath the Needle, all was not idle. The passageway the party had used was collapsed, the bear traps were rearranged, a small communicating crawlspace was added between the remaining defensive position and the caves, and two priests were set to work Animating the dead and sending them to reinforce the now-abandoned forward area. The zombie packs, to protect against clerics, were then augmented with a Manes demon each.
The party returned to the place, deciding to go off to the left this time. They went up a long passage, seeing and investigating a gravelly spot on the floor. A pack of zombies came down the passage and were Turned. Down a side passage, they saw a heap of nomad bodies with jewelry on them - with instant suspicion, the party ignored the room, went up the passage, saw a bunch of giant rats, captured them, and threw them back into the room. They also pretty easily killed some many-headed gnolls, and saw a long passageway heading up to a room full of crossbow traps.
When the rats ran to the outside of the room and started fighting some zombies, the party tried to Turn Undead, but found it blocked - Aethelwynn detected evil and found an evil creature near the back of the room. The fighters slew the zombies easily while flasks of oil were hurled at the creature. They advanced confidently into the cave, but when turning failed because of the presence of the Manes demon, they worried. However, Aethelwynn's +2 bardiche told, and the zombies were cleaned up easily. They proceeded down a narrow passage, slew two more gnoll zombies, found a trap that had been set up on a crawlspace communicating with the rooms on the left side that they had been through, and went through another crawlspace, outflanking the remaining defensive position. When they entered the remaining defensive position, they routed the crossbowmen instantly, who ran through their own traps and died.
After this, the party did a little looting and advanced down a corridor from this position. The corridor terminated in a door, and had a door on the right side. Celebrindel could hear nothing behind the terminal door, but could hear some people behind the one on the right, and Aethelwynn kicked it open, emerging into a butcher's shop full of berserkers. The lead one had a magic broadsword, but they still all died pretty easy. The party exited the butcher's shop, not into the pigpen, but into a passageway. There was a little confusion about the length of the passageway, but it was abated when the party realized that it was the same one they had hidden in on the first expedition but with the cave-in cleared. They advanced up the corridor, listening at the door to the storeroom, and kicking it in. Aethelwynn, Caractacos, and the hench-fighter advanced into the storeroom and began fighting against a group of berserkers, a Sacred Ape of Demogorgon, and two clerics. The berserkers and the ape met the charge while the priests hung back. At that moment, a group of a half-dozen gnolls with morning stars and a dozen human archers, led by a gnoll officer, rounded the corner behind the party and let off a volley. Relimi and one of the clerics began to cast Hold Person; Celebrindel cast Web, to block the gnolls' charge; and the other cleric joined the grinding melee. The Web did indeed prevent the gnolls from reaching contact and the Hold Person spells got Aethelwynn, Relimi, the other cleric, and some other characters I don't remember. After that, the human archers advanced and burned down the web, hurling burning oil on the party's back line, the dogs slew the ape, and Caractacos finished up with the free cleric. Meanwhile, the gnolls inflicted hideous injuries on the party's back line. Caractacos turned and fought off the gnolls and men. Celebrindel used the Sleep spell, and the battle was won.
The party proceeded to loot the bodies and scout out the area around. They had gotten some treasure from this expedition, and were bothered no further except to fireball the Giant Spider on their way out. They were sorely disappointed that no easier route than the now-defunct elevator shaft existed to access the second level.
EXPEDITION 3.
This is the point at which things began to break down for our heroes. They returned to the dungeon, moved through the first level which was by this time silent as a tomb, and prepared to descend the shaft. Relimi and Merce remained at the top with the dogs, a plan which we will soon see the wisdom of.
The party were menaced by gnoll archery from the bottom as they descended, suffering wounds but no losses. As soon as they were finished climbing, Aethelwynn, Caractacos, and the hench-fighter engaged the enemy at once, and a general melee ensued. Meanwhile, up the top, a group of manes demons had teleported to try and cut the ropes while the party were climbing the 200' shaft; fortunately Relimi was there, and she slew most of them with her magic mace. There was a bit of confusion over positioning, which ended with Merce pushed down the shaft because Relimi's player thought that the room was in the middle and the pit around the edge rather than vice versa; but this was clarified and we agreed that Merce would not die but be reduced to 0 HP. anyway. The party wins, but suffers pretty badly from wounds.
They then go through one door off the area at the bottom of the elevator shaft; this room was vacated by a group of bugbears, which are now hiding. The party goes through to an adjacent room, destroys some wight-spawn with turning and turns a pack of wights, then get ambushed by bugbears - but the bugbears are blocked by Relimi, who has great dexterity, and decide to break off the ambush. The party advances out of the little tomb area and through some caves, discovering some giant spiders in a room full of gunpowder, igniting the webs anyway, and taking a bunch of damage; they find some giant centipedes and kill them; and they find a shrieker in a cave. There's a session break here, and between this session and the next one Caractacos's player moved to Aussie.
At the start of the next session, Celebrindel thoughtlessly alerts the shrieker. The party kills the shrieker despite getting attacked by rats and then advances through a narrow passage, which widens out into a mineshaft. The mineshaft continues for a little way, then there's a T-intersection, and directly opposite the passage the party is coming from is a portcullis.
Beyond the portcullis is a surgical chamber, with a group of four bugbears and six many-headed gnolls. The party decides to cast fireball, assuming that there is plenty of space - but, in fact, the right side of the t-junction is a dead end after only 10', so the fireball blows back and hits the party. Merce and Nissa are killed instantly, as are the many-headed gnolls, and the bugbears survive but flee from combat. The party debates what to do, abandons Merce's body by throwing it down a deep pit, and retreats from the dungeon with their dead sorceress.
Upon reaching the shaft, Aethelwynn feels suspicious and Detects Evil. She sees an invisible bugbear, which attacks the party; at the same time, from the other side of the main shaft, the rest of the bugbears attack. The bugbears inflict a serious beating on the surviving party members, who retreat up the shaft. So ends Expedition #3.
EXPEDITION #4
With Nissa resurrected, the party waits a little while. Aethelwynn picks up a henchman, Hildewyn, and Relimi picks up a replacement goldfish for Merce, named Benoit. The party returned to the dungeon. They noticed a body of human soldiers at the bottom of the shaft; using the invisibility potion from expedition 1, they descend the shaft and slaughter the soldiers. Going a different way from last time, they find a kitchen with slaves and a single guard, who they kill. One of the prisoners is a gnoll deserter, who the party have a brief conversation to, learning about some of the layout of the place. They go into a storeroom/barracks and fight some gnolls, then exit through a passageway. The passage opens to a t-junction. Aethelwynn Detects Evil and finds a half-dozen enemies off to the right. Looking to the left, they see a bunch of people and a side passage. Celebrindel drinks the last dregs of her invisibility potion, does a brief bit of exploring, finding a couple of crossbow traps with her face and seeing that the side passage is a dead end. She tries to peek into the last room, eats a crossbow trap, and then her sword detects a pit ahead - some gnolls hear the crossbow go off and come up to shoot at her, but they can't hit her because she's invisible, and she runs away and rejoins the party.
Celebrindel returns and tells the party what she saw, and they decide to full-attack up the left side. Aethelwynn and Hilda advance, jump over the pit trap, and then realize that there's a huge number of humans, gnolls, manes demons, and a huge demonic thing, like an eight-foot tall vulture-like humanoid. They kill one of the gnoll archers and bravely run away, while Nissa fireballs the chamber. A group of berserkers pursue Aethelwynn and Hilda, and Aethelwynn stays behind to head them off; while she does this, a group of Manes demons teleport onto the party's spellcasters. Aethelwynn is caught in the splash zone of the fireball, which kills all the gnolls and humans (27 damage on 5d6!) in the chamber, except Aethelwynn. The demon (a Vrock, or Type I) stands and mocks the paladin as she returns to protect her friends, since it can't approach through Aethelwynn's Protection from Evil. It offers to spare their lives in exchange for hers - I didn't think much of this at the time, because I thought the party were going to escape on their own!
The Manes demons attack with claws for one round, then use their Darkness powers to disable everyone's lanterns, then attack with claws for another round except one who casts a sphere of Darkness on the melee. Six shadows approach up from the other side, and the party takes a lot of damage and gets very, very close to death. Hildewyn dies and becomes a shadow, and at this point Aethelwynn decides to trade her life for the rest of the party.
Relimi, Nissa, Celebrindel, and Benoit retreat out of the passageway into the main shaft chamber, and are betrayed. They are set upon by berserkers, a third-level berserk fighter, a sacred ape, and a shaven gnoll sorcerer - Nissa fireballs most of the berserkers and the shave-backed gnoll. Benoit is knocked out by the ape, Celebrindel had some trouble killing the berserkers. Everyone is pretty low when the battle turns - Nissa finally manages to get a spell off without being hit with a battleaxe, Sleeps the berserkers and Magic Missiles the ape, and Relimi bashes the berserk leader's head in. The party withdraws to Tor to lick their wounds.
There is only a little over a month before the Autumn Equinox. They will have great trouble getting Aethelwynn's replacement up to level to try and push through the rest of the dungeon. The Bare Pines are afraid.