Descending the narrow stairs, the group finds a chamber ahead filled with stinking, murky water. Along the walls of the chamber are various torture devices. Using detection spells, Salla determines that something "evil" is in the water. The general location is noted and Morgan and Snake approach the area. Sure enough, out of the water leaps a fish-man whose skin has turned a mixture of gray and white with scales dangling or missing. The creatures stench is nauseating and Morgan and Snake find themselves retching uncontrollably while they attempt to melee with it. After eating quite a few hits from the group the creature manages to paralyze Snake with claw attacks. But it is too little too late and the rest of the group quickly finishes off the disgusting creature.
Salla and the other dwarves search through the skank water for anything valuable, but only have the stink soaked into them as a reward.
They continue to follow the hallway until it dead ends. Salla uses a handy wand to determine that a hidden door is before them. Jonl check its out and can hear rhythmic croaking from the other side. Using a silence spell on Jonl's arrow, Jonl leads the way through the door and into a vast chamber with double balconies, and a platform to a huge statue of some perverse lobster-headed goddess. Standing before the platform are four fish-men chanting. Jonl wastes no time in sneaking to position and firing his silenced arrow into the gut of one of the fish-men. Snake follows with a charge into the line of fish-men, and uses his magical shield to bring forth a bright flash of light blinding them all. The rest of the party follows into the chamber and begins to make short work of the deaf and blind fish-men. As the battle begins, on the top balcony four more fish-men poke their heads over the railing and being to fire bolts at the party. A couple of sleep spells takes care of them before they can do much damage.
As the last fish-man falls the party takes a minute to investigate their surroundings, and finds an odd spiraling column of red smoke on the platform in front of the giant statue. The group quickly prepares for a surprise visitor. The smoke thickens on the platform then suddenly peels away to reveal a beautiful woman with feathered wings, red-glowing eyes, and a flaming bow. She greets them as infidels and suggests that death is their punishment. Morgan, not letting this chance pass him up, grapples the voluptuous woman attempting to "hold her down". While the winged lady is definitely quick, she has trouble escaping from the larger and stronger Morgan. What was an inanimate rope at her side comes to life and attempts to wrap itself around Morgan and entangle him, but his strength prevails. While Morgan keeps her in a hold, the rest of the party begins to take shots at her, Chul getting in the most effective shots (breaking bones and such). Modisto shoots a continuous stream of acid arrows at her, but they seem to not have the full effect he was hoping for. But the damage accumulates and finally she goes limp in Morgan's arms.
As the party attempts to catch their breath, one of the back doors on the platform opens. Standing in the doorway is another fish-man, this one dressed in plate armor and carrying a long pole with a claw-like device on the end of it. The creature croaks out a short chant and gestures at Morgan with his webbed claws. Morgan feels his body tense up and finds himself paralyzed. Snake charges at the creature blocking him into the room on the other side of the door. The fish-man and Snake trade blows, Snake dodging a number of attempts by the creature to catch him in the claw. The fish-man finally succeeds and begins to pull Snake into the room. But during the battle between the two, the rest of the party has managed to knock down the other door on the platform leading to this room, and they press the battle from this side as well. Outnumbered, and seriously injured, the fish-man makes one last feeble attempt to stall the inevitable with a sound burst catching Modisto and Salla, but they both remain unstunned from the loud bang. With a snicker, Modisto shoots one last magic missile into the creature, killing it.
Finally able to catch their breath, the party searches the back room the last fish-man came out of. They discover small side rooms with moldy scrolls and books on shelves, and a large cistern with a four foot tall clay pot next to it. Morgan opens one of the clay pots and eats a glyph trap. Modisto uses an open spell on the other clay pot to detonate the glyph from a distance. They find some shinies amidst the rubble of the pots, only losing what appears to have been a valuable mirror to the destructive glyphs.
Now the party must decide to press on, or attempt to rest in this dangerous shrine...
Monday, October 22, 2007
Monday, October 8, 2007
Musical Canoe
The group rests the night at Jared's...dealing with the burden of Anduria's greatest gifts to its new heroes. Jared provides them with directions to Bhal-Hamatugn and speaks of the Pit of Seven Jaws which leads to an underground fissure that will take them to Bhaul-Hamatugn.
The group travels further north for another day and a half when they arrive at a hole in the ground...presumably the Pit of Seven Jaws. An invisible Jonl sneaks down the stairs of the pit and finds the pit's namesake, a seven-headed hydra waiting in the fissure below.
With a mountain of prayers and spells to strengthen the group, they descend on the hydra. In response, the creature lets loose with blasts of freezing cold from each head, almost killing Morgan outright. As Morgan scrambles back up the stairs, Snake and Chul melee with the creature. Snake manages to dodge two seperate blasts of cold from the hydra before he is forced to retreat as well. Chul stands all alone, but Modisto manages to get a straight line of fire on the hydra and lets loose with a lightning bolt, blowing apart the hydra. Modisto looks about at his awed comrades and simply says "Can we please stop goofing around and get this done."
Due to the large amounts of damage suffered and the lack of spells left, the group decides to rest for a few days in the wilds, regaining their strength. Salla does the healing bitch routine.
Following the fissure for miles, they finally arrive at a vast cavern. A half mile away on the other side of the cavern is a huge stone structure shaped like some giant prehistoric fish, covered with phosphorescent fungus. Stairs from the floor of the cavern ascend into its wide open mouth. The rest of the mist filled cavern is covered in water. A trail switches back and forth down to the water's edge from the ledge they stand on.
Shortly after proceeding down to the water's edge a large canoe approaches out of the mist, a fish-man standing on the stern with a paddle in one hand and a spear in the other. The canoe comes to rest on the water's edge. The boatman lays his spear on the ground and croaks out something unintelligible to the party, beckoning them into the canoe with its webbed hand.
Various attempts are made to communicate with the boatman, but none are successful. After much debate in front of the canoe about if the boatman should die or not, and people hopping in and out of the canoe, the entire party gets into the canoe. The boatman takes the canoe across the cavern to the large fish structure.
Once the group is off the canoe, they begin to proceed up the stairs. They are met by a group of four fish-men, brandishing spears and shields. The fish men croak more unintelligible words at them, and start to become frustrated at the group's lack of an appropriate response. Jonl decides to get things moving along and attempts to stick a blade in the guts of a fish-man, but finds their rubbery hide a bit tougher then he had imagined. Battle erupts, only to be quickly stalled by Modisto throwing a charm on the assumed leader. But this proves to only help Modisto, as the fish-men continue to attempt to kill Jonl. From the eyes of the fish structure above, crossbow bolts rain down on the party. Snake jumps into left eye and quickly dispatches the two fish-men he finds in the small guard room. Then quickly moves to the right eye to dispatch a sleeping fish-men, courtesy of Modisto. Down below, Salla starts off the fight with a sound burst, stunning two of the fish-men, while Morgan cuts them apart. Jonl and Chul tag team the last fish-man.
Continuing up the stairs and into the giant fish-shaped structure, the group arrives at the entry chamber. A pair of stone doors stand opposite the main entrance, and a lowered portcullis to their right. Frescoes adorn the walls. A frog-creature holding a strange two-tined staff is drawn to the left of the door, while a squat male humanoid in plate is drawn to the right. Spread across the remaining wall space are drawn hundreds of red, spear-wielding fish-men marching through caverns. What proves to be large egg shells are scattered across the floor.
Investigating the portcullis, they find a lever just inside hallway that Jonl believes opens the gate. Modisto uses a mage hand spell to pull the lever, and as the portcullis rises it creates loud screeching and clanging noises. Inside this new room they find four prison cells. Two of them are occupied. A halfling is found in one, who claims to be a wizard that was captured by the fish-men when he came below to study and write about them, but he was made prisoner instead. The other prisoner, a skinny tall human, claims to have been here after the fish-mens treasure. Both prisoners tell the party that the other is a spy for the fish-men and not to be trusted. After quite some time of attempting to get more information out of the prisoners the party decides to leave them in the cells, they are afraid of betrayal and complications.
The group travels further north for another day and a half when they arrive at a hole in the ground...presumably the Pit of Seven Jaws. An invisible Jonl sneaks down the stairs of the pit and finds the pit's namesake, a seven-headed hydra waiting in the fissure below.
With a mountain of prayers and spells to strengthen the group, they descend on the hydra. In response, the creature lets loose with blasts of freezing cold from each head, almost killing Morgan outright. As Morgan scrambles back up the stairs, Snake and Chul melee with the creature. Snake manages to dodge two seperate blasts of cold from the hydra before he is forced to retreat as well. Chul stands all alone, but Modisto manages to get a straight line of fire on the hydra and lets loose with a lightning bolt, blowing apart the hydra. Modisto looks about at his awed comrades and simply says "Can we please stop goofing around and get this done."
Due to the large amounts of damage suffered and the lack of spells left, the group decides to rest for a few days in the wilds, regaining their strength. Salla does the healing bitch routine.
Following the fissure for miles, they finally arrive at a vast cavern. A half mile away on the other side of the cavern is a huge stone structure shaped like some giant prehistoric fish, covered with phosphorescent fungus. Stairs from the floor of the cavern ascend into its wide open mouth. The rest of the mist filled cavern is covered in water. A trail switches back and forth down to the water's edge from the ledge they stand on.
Shortly after proceeding down to the water's edge a large canoe approaches out of the mist, a fish-man standing on the stern with a paddle in one hand and a spear in the other. The canoe comes to rest on the water's edge. The boatman lays his spear on the ground and croaks out something unintelligible to the party, beckoning them into the canoe with its webbed hand.
Various attempts are made to communicate with the boatman, but none are successful. After much debate in front of the canoe about if the boatman should die or not, and people hopping in and out of the canoe, the entire party gets into the canoe. The boatman takes the canoe across the cavern to the large fish structure.
Once the group is off the canoe, they begin to proceed up the stairs. They are met by a group of four fish-men, brandishing spears and shields. The fish men croak more unintelligible words at them, and start to become frustrated at the group's lack of an appropriate response. Jonl decides to get things moving along and attempts to stick a blade in the guts of a fish-man, but finds their rubbery hide a bit tougher then he had imagined. Battle erupts, only to be quickly stalled by Modisto throwing a charm on the assumed leader. But this proves to only help Modisto, as the fish-men continue to attempt to kill Jonl. From the eyes of the fish structure above, crossbow bolts rain down on the party. Snake jumps into left eye and quickly dispatches the two fish-men he finds in the small guard room. Then quickly moves to the right eye to dispatch a sleeping fish-men, courtesy of Modisto. Down below, Salla starts off the fight with a sound burst, stunning two of the fish-men, while Morgan cuts them apart. Jonl and Chul tag team the last fish-man.
Investigating the portcullis, they find a lever just inside hallway that Jonl believes opens the gate. Modisto uses a mage hand spell to pull the lever, and as the portcullis rises it creates loud screeching and clanging noises. Inside this new room they find four prison cells. Two of them are occupied. A halfling is found in one, who claims to be a wizard that was captured by the fish-men when he came below to study and write about them, but he was made prisoner instead. The other prisoner, a skinny tall human, claims to have been here after the fish-mens treasure. Both prisoners tell the party that the other is a spy for the fish-men and not to be trusted. After quite some time of attempting to get more information out of the prisoners the party decides to leave them in the cells, they are afraid of betrayal and complications.
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