New year, new session and new level for all of us (of course the DM levels up when the other players do! What did you think?)
This journal will be shorter than usual (at least I’ll try to make it short, We had a long session, with a lot of stuff going on in it), since (finally!) one of our magnificent players, Efim, has taken up the challenge and written a diary of the events as his character, Diadora, sees them. For these heroic efforts he will receive a place in posterity, and 300 XP. Don’t forget – you could get the bonus too – just write up a journal as your character sees it (forget about grammar and yes, it can be funny), and you’ll receive unending respect from me, and your character will feel much more experienced… (songs and original prayers to deities will also be rewarded, but please keep those serious – otherwise the bolt of DM might fall from above…)
Session Date: 4.1.08
Game Date: 385 TME (to The Modern Era) Spring
Day 29 in the Maze.
Time: ~14:00
NPCs Met: None.
Rooms Explored:
- You finished off the “Trolls” (it would be a good idea to name them amongst yourselves, for future reference. And also to remember their emblem – a blood colored hawk, spread-winged). One was turned into stone and left in the corridor. The other was transported by Verena (using dimension door twice) to the room with the dusty, sickening undead in it (going to clear it up some time?), and left there to rot. Diadora and Verena used a lot of spells (mostly Acid spells) in some very original ways there. Kudos!
- Next up you opened a door (in that same corridor) to a scene of carnage. Two male humans, a male elf, and a female dwarf lay in drying pools of their blood. While Tristan made sure the cost was clear, Felix examined the bodies. He discovered that they all died about 48 hours ago (hence the smell), from slashing and piercing weapons, and that they might once have been wearing armor, except for the elf, who remained dressed in a blue robe. Clearly they lost some battle and the victors stripped them of their valuables (all but a holy symbol of Shaundakul, god of travel, exploration, portals, miners and caravans).
- You sent Tristan to open up the next room in the corridor. The door looked pretty sturdy – made from thick-looking stone and all – and so Tristan braced his muscles to open it, pulling at its handle with all his might (the door seemingly stuck, and not locked). On his first pull, the handle pulled back harder into the door. Angry and amazed Tristan gave a few more tugs, until at last he pulled so hard you thought his eyes would pop out. Instead – the handle released itself and the floor disappeared beneath Tristan’s legs. Diadora, who was trying to help him (BTW – you could help him. You needed to make a DC 10 strength check to give him a +2 to his strength checks), leapt deftly aside, leaving Tristan to crash 75 ft. into 30 ft. of piranha infested stinking water (what can I say, I love the classics. And you’ve got to admit – it *was* funny…). Tristan sank beneath the water, in the midst of the piranha swarm, while Diadora peered at the swirling waters, worried from above (Verena stayed well away from the edge, once she saw how deep it was). Tristan finally pulled his head out of the water (who said taking swim isn’t important?), and continued to slash at the piranhas, consumed with rage. Once he finished them off, he looked around him, and finally up, in search for a new foe. Seeing Diadora he produced his trident and heaved it on her. It traveled 60 ft. up in the air, and then returned to Tristan, after its momentum was lost. Meanwhile, Diadora, Verena and Felix were trying to come up with a plan how to get Tristan out, without falling in themselves, and without getting hit by the raging Tristan. Finally, they constructed the first improvised magic elevator ever, using only a rope, two truly terrible Use Rope checks (I pitied you there – I really did. Having Tristan fall in again and start raging again was just too much to suffer) and Verena’s heirloom flying broom. Diadora peered once again with the broom in her hands at the raging, swimming Tristan, just in time to see him prepare another lunge at her… and then stop in mid throw, calling out pathetically instead: “Di! Di, I want to get out of here! Get me out of here, Di!” She duly pulled him out using the broom and rope combo, and then Felix healed him, while he rested.
- You decided to leave that room for now, and go to the next room, which had “In this room lies a great treasure – and death” carved on its stone door. You sent Tristan to open the door, to reveal a room with a stone pedestal on its other end, and on top of it, a chest. Felix used detect magic and Verena used Arcane Sight, and all they saw was faint abjuration on the chest (the chest itself was in-laid with lead, to prevent detection of its contents, you later learned, when you opened it). Felix dispelled the magic on the chest, and entered the room, only to have its sliding stone door crash shut. Felix rushed back to the door, bashing his hands on it and crying out, only to hear (and then see), the ceiling starting to come down, spikes starting to jut out of it, and nowhere to hide. Tristan in the meanwhile, tried opening the door, and once that failed, crushing it. Felix was racing all the spells he knew in his mind (BTW – you had one round to act in – why didn’t you teleport yourself out? You had the spell…), but couldn’t find one he could use. Panicking was inevitable, even more so when suddenly Felix starting to compulsively dance (whilst a mysterious voice laughed at him, coldly and cruelly), unable to do anything else, while Tristan was having a hell of a time with the door. The ceiling crushed Felix (whom Tymora did favour, else he would be dead by now – those were my low rolls for the evening – only one spike out of four, and below average damage for the ceiling), and just as it was beginning to raise itself, Tristan crashed through the door – to see a bleeding, bruised Felix, dancing and floating in the air (he cast fly before entering the room, so he wouldn’t touch the floor. Little did he guess that he’d be meeting it so intimately…). Felix cured himself whilst Diadora rushed into the room for the treasure chest, and Verena regrouped them at her side, before the trap could reset itself. (A lot of questions should arise in your minds about this encounter – especially about the laughing voice). The treasure included a nice sum of platinum, 20 assorted gems, a scroll made of feathery moldering papyrus, bound and folded and a quarterstaff inside a bag of holding (he turned out to be intelligent. I won’t dwell on it.)
- You then tried your luck with the riddle door, and gave up after half an hour, trying your luck at the opposite door, which had “”A wise man and a fool entered a room, and found himself alone” carved on it. It turned out to be a room with an extremely powerful polished-mithral mirror – one side with a rusty-red frame set with bloodstones, and the other side greyish-blue with moonstones on it. Tristan was the first to be brave enough to stand in front of the mirror, and he chose the blue side of it. He could choose a gift, and wsa randomly bestowed with a permanent curse. Felix then chose the red side, and could chose a curse, and received a random gift. Then Verena and Diadora stood in front of the mirror, both choosing gifts, and randomly receiving not that nasty curses (Tymora smiled on you that day).
- Finally, you arrived at a dark room, with dark shadows, and even darker creatures, which attacked Tristan and Felix. We left of here in mid battle, it being very late. We’ll continue next time.
Enemies fought: See above description.
Things found: The staff, the treasure, and who is the owner of the laughing voice? And what’s behind the bloody hawk?
One liners/Character interaction: Tristan’s elevator; “I’ve had it with these trolls!”, Tristan fighting a door (and loosing), Tristan swimming around in a stinking pool of dead piranha looking for something to kill; Felix dancing, floating and bleeding in the trapped room, Diadora fighting with “a stick”.
End Point: In mid-battle. See rooms explored.
