AtG: Chapter Three: The Hall of the Fire Giant King (ICC Game thread)

[Midnight]

I misjudged one thing: The gap between the 1st and 2nd levels is about 40', but as most of the chambers are 30' high, the actual amount of stone between them is only about 10' in places. You might be able to break into the smithy on the 2nd level--it's a natural cavern with a river of lava running through it. In short, your most likely entry point is the left side of the volcano, towards the back of the 1st level. It so happens that this area is also almost directly ABOVE the smithy. So, from the same spot you can A) tunnel through to the rear part of the 1st level and B) from there, tunnel down into the cavern in the 2nd level.

Tunneling into the 2nd or 3rd levels below will be very difficult--so far as you can tell, the nearest clefts in the stone that would get you sufficiently deep to approach the 2nd/3rd levels will require tunneling through at least 200' of solid rock.

What are your next steps? Do you want Sabriel and/or Gramblin to do more scouting inside the fortress? What do you plan in terms of studying/approaching your tunneling area? As soon as you tell me your initial actions, we can start talking about the actual approach.

[nijineko]

I think it would be wise to have someone scouting the outside and the inside.... upon reflection, it would be valuable for the inside person to be able to get through closed doors without opening them, which would point to Sabriel. however, it would also be valuable for the insider person to have a see invisible effect going, and only Gramblin and Arielle could 'umd' a scroll. Tala only has one such scroll left. The inside person needs to be silent and scentless. The latter of which we can do for anyone, but the former is either Gramblin or Sabriel in wind walk. Does anyone have a hat of disguise, or some other method of disguising themselves in case of an enemy see-invisible? anyone else have some in-character advice about whom should be chosen for inside and outside scouting?

[Midnight]

Gramblin: "I'm your best scout for mapping and finding hidden areas, but I don't move as fast and I may have trouble with doors. Give me a Bull's Strength, though, and I can manage. Sabriel is probably the best choice overall--with Wind Walk and Invisibility she's practically undetectable and very fast, and she can use True Seeing if necessary. HOWEVER"--he pauses to emphasize this--"those magic traps in the temple caught her and me even when she was in that form! We all know what happens when our only healer is out of action! So, if she must go, she's got to stay well away from the Drow temple area--don't even come close.

"I don't like her scouting, but it may be the best."

Sabriel scoffs: "Do you really think I'd have that much trouble? You know how fast and quiet I am in that form!"

Gramblin: "Yes, I do--but you also can't cast spells in that form. One good spell cast on you and you could be in trouble. Plus, those Drow might expect it--you've Wind Walked once before."

Arielle: "With my new spell abilities, I think I'm your best choice, my lord." {That last to Gramblin.} "I can read Tala's scroll without even trying hard, I can Alter Self to look like any occupant I need to, I can turn myself invisible, and I can use Gaseous Form to fly or get through doors if I need to. A Bull's Strength for the door might be nice, though."

They turn towards the other three. Sabriel raises a questioning eyebrow.

ADDENDUM: The DM forgot to give you XP! Since you had to run away from the fight, you only get partial XP for that, but you do get RPing XP for dealing with your prisoner, etc. Make it 1100 XP each.

[Midnight]

To summarize the results of an off-board session (quoting from Tala's notes):
We find another entrance into the mountain via the dragon's entrance. Gramblin scouts ahead, and then we buff a bit. we move to the entrance, and then use a scroll to summon an elder earth elemental. the elemental takes a big hunk of rock off the ceiling that had a symbol of pain trap, and smashed the dragon sleeping on the pile of treasure with it. we then drop the ceiling on top of the dragon and elemental, figuring the elemental won't be bothered. the "dragon" promptly dies a couple of arrow shots later, and we figure something is wrong. a trueseeing reveals that the cavern is actually twice as large and the real dragon is watching us and prepping behind the illusionary wall. a couple of attempts at dispelling and interrupting casting fail, the elemental and Ahanna get to the dragon first, but Gramblin, pitched by Pik, gets first blood, managing to land on the dragon despite the mirror image spell the dragon got off. some of us are shaken by the dragon presence. we are pounding on the dragon doing some serious damage. we take some fire damage from the breath weapon.


The party had to stop in the middle of the fight. The dragon has taken quite a bit of damage from the mighty storm giantess but is still strong. He has breathed, but the protections on the party protected them from the worst of it. We stopped with the dragon about to take his turn...

[nijineko]

{{{summary of off-line game session. (our 62nd session, to be exact.) }}}

{{{Nadem saves, Pik fails. Tala out of range. Dragon attacks, Gramblin attacks weakly, Pik strings a series of criticals and drops the dragon. Elemental moves dragon corpse off ledge, digs pit to dump treasure in, smooths out mounds of sand for easy walking. We snag the obvious and different and portable, the rest goes into the pit. Tala casts wall of sand on top of it, burying it, and then transmutes the sand to stone to seal it. Nadem hears some light footfalls from one corridor over, and runs over and launches a bolt of flame, missing, but seriously startling two drow, who promptly retreat. Pik seeing and hearing Nadem shoot flame, runs over and catches up to him. The two drow are running down the corridor, casting something and angling towards a particular fork in the corridor. There turns out to be around 6 to 8 drow, a patrol squad. Not all of the party is there yet, but they are scrambling to catch up. Pik and Nadem are in the thick of it, Tala is rushing to catch up, with the party close behind. Bit of a bottle neck forms, and Tala fires off a rod to boost everyone's attack for the next round. Only some are able to take advantage of it. Session stops in the middle of combat, again. }}}

[nijineko]

{{{SIXTY-THIRD SESSION - off-line game session.

Drow drop darkness on us. Gramblin manages to take out two drow, there are a lot of exchanges in the dark. Nadem uses nimbus and tries to burn some, without luck so far, but he takes a few bolts for his troubles. Pik flails around in the dark, thankfully no one else can see his massive string of misses. Ahanna gets stuck briefly moving down the, for her, narrow corridor, but then squeezes through, and smashes one drow who unfortunately blundered into her. Tala erects wall of sand trying to trap, but then has to dispell the darkness which also takes down the sand. There are a lot of enemies to the north, called by two of the patrol who had previously promptly fled to the north. Sabriel is the one to find all of them, and she gets nailed by a -4 level enervation, plus some crossbow bolts, and faerie fire. (OUCH!) Saved map has details. }}}

[nijineko]

{{{SIXTY-FOURTH SESSION - offline

Group focuses on removing the remaining drow in the smaller room (mostly successful), and hindering the large number of drow in the large room (effectiveness currently unknown). Short session. }}}

[nijineko]

{{{SIXTY-FIFTH SESSION - offline

Continue fight against drow, do some decent damage. some of the drow flee including the wizard. a female leader is left with a couple of guards. fire giants are approaching, three from the northwest, and more from our entry route from the south. pik and sabriel are very low and we are needing to think about hiding and/or retreating. Tala is out of 5th and 4th level spells. }}}