7-7-99: Game calendar 4-29-6/8.
Among the treasures was a stone - no, gem dragonette. This small
statuette was instantly recognized by Raynald and Jour'Nell, and they began
insisting that it belonged to the elves beyond the dragon, and it should
be returned immediately. They convinced the group to do this first. So,
they folded to the place where the pair of them were abducted, and they
were met by these elves. They introduced themselves as the Rockseers and
immediately demanded the dragonette. They quickly handed it over, as well
as a Tome of Understanding, which was full of insights into elves
and their race. In return for both of these, the rockseers gave the party
a bag of gems, and they gave Raynald a very powerful Robe of the Rockseers.
They also offered to teach the mages of the party how to use the flux points
and teleport flawlessly with them. Since the tutilage would take over a
month, the lightbringers promised to return after making sure that the
derro threat was eliminated.
The party decked
out in protection magics, and then assaulted the caves, only to find them
deserted. The mages returned and got trained while Jour'Nell made a few
potions
of healing. The lightbringers then proceeded on into the caves. They
found a passage blocked by an apparant cave-in, and rested for the night.
They were attacked by a group of derro in the night, who were fought off.
These also did not have the brooches, and the party began to wonder if
there was another clan of derro in these caves.
6-26-99: Gamecalendar
4/16-4/29. The group folded back down, a bit more prepared. They folded
near the derro caves, planning to nap to refill some spell slots.
When they were about to go, a force of derro attacked - but these lacked
the silvered brooches as the rest. The Lightbringers decided that these
were new recruits and continued their strike.
They found a
big pit trap dug in the main corridor; this proved to be a small problem
and they pressed on. The reinforced guards above them had only the summoned
creatures to attack, since the whoel party was invisible. The group
made it to the back room, where they faced teh spellcasting force led by
an illithid. The party's preparation paid off, as the force fell quickly.
Raynald flew out to the mouth of the cavern, only to find the 20+ guards
the group skipped over waiting for him. He was pincushioned by the assault,
and fell before he could get back out. With wall of fog and sanctuary
cast upon him Sax flew in and grabbed Raynald's body as the group gathered
the treasure chests and prepared to fold. They all managed to make
it.
With the treasure
and experience, Jour'Nell trained to aquire 12th level. He cast uplift
with Allister and was able to ressurect Raynald. The sesison ended
with identifying magic items and training for levels.
6-19-99:Game
calendar 4/14-4/16. The Lightbringers used rock to mud and wall
of stone to destroy and wall up the cave used as a barracks for the
watch post. A note was left on the wall: "This Post is hereby Closed, by
order of the Lightbringers." The group then folded out to rest for the
night and prepare to assault the garrison of derro to the north.
They snuck up
to the cavern, and Sax went ahead invisible. He reported back to the party,
then webbed up the initial guard. Deedlict then went in and fireballed
the crossbow trap that was behind the guard, almost destroying it. The
rest of the party then came in. The crossbow machine fired, but only half
of the bolts made it through the web. Rocks and flaming oil flasks started
falling from the ceiling, landing on Jour'Nell and ruining his cloak
of dispacement. Another one hit Ahri, bruning the straps of his armor
off, reducing him to the half-suit of chain mail underneath his plate mail.
Sax checked the ceiling, but saw noone there. About this time, though,
reinforcements arrived, and one of them started casting spells. Deedlict
webbed
up
most of them, and Sax sent a cloudkill to wipe them up. Sax also
threw a web into a side passage blocking any reincorcements from there.
Jour'Nell airwalked up to melee with the derro spellcaster, only
to be hit by a poisoned arrow and weakened so much by it that he collapsed
under the weight of his own equipment.
In the mean
time, Raynald and Ahri were busy dispatching a group of derro who came
out of a secret door, almost at the party's back. The rocks continued to
fall, and Sax finally cast a lance of disruption along the ceiling.
It created a huge noise, deafening Ahri, and several pebbles and rubble
fell from the ceiling - but looking at it, the cave wall was undamaged.
Sax shouted "It's an illusion!" as he cast a wall of fire along
the ceiling, trying to smoke out anyone up there. Allister dispelled
both
the illusion and Sax's wall, revealing three holes in the ceiling from
which the stones and flaming oil were being thrown. Sax went up into the
small cave and cast another cloudkill into the room, killing two
of the four assailants.
Back on the
ground floor, Deedlict lowered the spellcaster's resistance, and
then finally killed him with magic missiles. Sax came back down
and grabbed Raynald, flying him up to the cavern to finish off the remaining
dwarves. Ahri finished off the rest on the ground and started to tie up
two dwarves that were held by Jour'Nell at the beginning of combat.
That's when things got intersting.
The second group
of reinforcements arrived, announcing themselves with a fireball
right on top of Ahri. Jour'Nell looked out from behind the ruined crossbow
trap to find six derro riding giant spiders - some of them flying - accompanied
by an illithid. The party scrambled to escape. Deedlict brought Allister
up to the cave, to prepare to cast dimensional folding. Sax flew
down to pick up Jour'Nell, and shoved the weakened priest into the cave
where the group was preparing to flee from. Sax got nailed by a lightning
bolt as he tried to climb into the hole, knocking him out. With the
whole party there, Allister began casting. Deedlict popped her head down
the hole and threw a few spells at the approaching entourage, but they
were not slowed. The illithid threw a mind blast into the cavern, knocking
out Ahri. A derro popped his head up into the hole, and nailed Allister
with magic missiles, ruining his spell. He immediately ran to Jour'Nell,
searching for his scroll of dimensional folding. He found it quickly
and began casting again, while Raynald began hacking away at the intruder's
mirror
images. The derro filled the room with fog, obscuring vision. This
ended up helping the party, as the illithid who popped into another hole
couldn't see the party.
Finally, the
fold opened, and Allister began throwing unconscious PCs through the portal.
Another derro, as a last ditch effort, tossed a fireball into the cave,
dropping both Jour'Nell and Ahri to negative hit points. Raynald and Deedlict
managed to pull them into the portal, with Allister right behind. The session
ended with the party adding to their trophy wall: The silver platter on
which their asses were handed to them.
6-12-99: Game
calendar 4/9-4/14. The party decided to break through the collapsed tunnel,
to find out where the lone derro escaped to. While digging and moving rock,
they heard a disturbance out in the cave. Investigating, they found another
group of slavers who had come to turn over goods to the watch post. Upon
finding the PCs, they attacked. Thanks to rock to mud and other
spells, the Lightbringers made short work of the slavers. Two were captured
for interrogation.
Upon investigating
the cart the slavers had brought, they found a human who was tied up and
held.
They untied him and, as the magic wore off, found out that his name was
Allister, a priest of Mystra, god of magic. He had been on his way to the
adventurer's guild to seek a contract when he was abducted. He decided
to join the party. They marched an hour away from the guard post, had Jour'Nell
nap
the new priest, who then cast a memory read on Sax and opened a
fold
to
the Keep of Light. They rested and identified, finding plate mail +1
which they gave to Allister. After three days of refitting the armor, the
Lightbringers returned to the caves.
Deedlict scouted
out the outpost, only to find it restocked and rebuilt. The party attacked,
facing against a dozen derro, one of which was throwing spells as powerful
as Sax's. Raynald broke into the shack and surprised the waiting illithid,
but it simply blasted his mind and began to feast. Lightning bolts from
both Sax and Deedlict disturbed his eating, so it dropped Raynald and turned
to the party, charming Ahri. He went after Allister, who managed
to dispel the charm.
In the mean
time, Deedlict successfully cast lower resistance on the mind flayer,
who then quickly fell to spells. The spell casting derro was keeping Jour'Nell,
his fire elemental, and Ahri at bay with some kind of repulsion magic
- until Jour'Nell dispelled it.
With these reinforcements
eliminated, the party continued to dig up the escape tunnel, and after
a little exploring once it was opened, found that it lead in part to another
garrison of derro as well as into caverns that are not shown on the map
the Lightbringers got from the gnomes. The session ended with the party
planing to assault the caves of derro to the north.
6-5-99: Game
calendar 4/1-4/9. Raynald, Sax, Ahri, Jour'Nell and Deedlict marched back
into the caves (the only folds available were on a scroll, and voted
"emergency use only"). After six or seven days of marching (including a
narrow miss with a purple worm), they came across a large group of kuo-toa,
led by an illithid and a fighter that escaped from the group of slavers
the Lightbringers killed on 3/22. Cloudkills (yes, multiple) made
short work of the gogglers, although the illithid almost got Deedlict's
brain out before being cut down by Raynald. The party then searched the
bodies, finding an odd, nonmagical brooch on the illithid.
Deedlict then
did some scouting with her cloak of the bat and polymorph self,
and found the watchpost which the captured elf spoke of. Unfortunately,
an invisibility surged, making her an invisible shrieker. After
barely missing two mind blasts, she returned to the party. They made preparations
en
masse, including having Jour'Nell summon a fire elemental and
stoneskins
all around. Upon asaulting the small shack of a watchpost, things started
to get ugly. Two dwarves in sight were held, while another ran from
the elemental into the shack. Raynald follwed it, only to find that the
tiny shack against the wall was just a cover for the small cave behind
it. He ran headlong into two illithids and more dark dwarves. At the same
time, Jour'Nell realized that he no longer had control of the elemental,
as it reached out and attacked an invisible Sax. A quick dispel magic
solved that threat. Sax ran into the back of the small cave and hit two
dwarves with a Darson's firey cube, only to find that they have
magic resistance. Deedlict, in the mean time, was busy throwing lighning
bolts around, one of which burst into the "shack" and zapped Sax.
The forces were
dispatched, but one illithid teleported away and one dwarf snuck out through
a secret tunnel, which he collapsed behind him. Upon searching the remains
of the forces, they found that the dead illithid was wearing the same brooch
as the one before, and the dwarves were also wearing a different piece
of jewelry. The session ended with cleaning up dead bodies and planning
the next strike.
5-15-99: Game
calendar 3/22-4/1. Took another trip to the Exchange, and left Ahri there
to train for his bastard sword mastery. While the Lightbringers waited
a month, they interregated the elven fighter-mage. Raynald got out of her
that she was part of a mercenary group who was selling slaves to the mind
flayers. He also found important information about the illithid defenses
below, namely the guard station not too far from where they met the slavers.
The group discussed attack plans, and then retrieved Ahri from the Exchange,
now a full bastard sword master. The session ended with more strategy discussions.