Meet 160, Adv 13, 3/3/12

Got a chance to use displacer beasts against the party for the first time, and I have to say, being forced to miss 50% of the time regardless if the target is "hit" really dragged the battle out. The group watched their hit points fly away and as a party had to struggle against the beasts. I had the druid try to faerie fire the beasts and for the life of me, I had to rule on whether it stops their displacement - I opted for no. Hate to arbitrarily go against the party, but it was the decision made and I'll make sure it is kept like that for now on.


Write up follows:

After getting back to sleep we rested, with Draugmor eventually taking over most of the watch. Many hours passed and then Detheron woke up suddenly, shaking, as the power of Frey flowed through him and we knew that it was “sun on” for a new day. We broke our fast and prayed until it was time to break our camp and march onward.

We decided to take apart the sled that had served us well and cannibalize it, spreading out the food and wood and reshuffling the use of the travois to stretchers so that we can carry much of our draggble gear. Guyus even summoned his war steed and we placed almost 90 lbs of foodstuffs on it. Detheron then cast Greater magic fang on Smokey and even asked Frey for a detect snares and pits spell.

From there we drew ourselves into marching order, relying on the fact that the corridors seemed wide, we walked three abreast, with Aleron acting as scout. It wasn’t much of a walk before the ranger felt something ahead of us. He asked for silence. We heard nothing, but he was still convinced something was there. Gwyn had the party douse the lanterns and the dwarf peered ahead with his darksight – and saw at least two wavering heat signatures of 10’ long broad chested cats at the limit of sight. Crouched low on either side of the wall and creeping closer.

He instructed us what was coming, and Draugmor used his Illumination wand, firing off a bolt of light to hit the wall roughly where the cats were on the left – revealing THREE dark shadowy 600 lb Bengalese tigers – each one with a 15’ pair of whip like tentacles coming from their shoulders. The party fired their bows and crossbows – and we were dismayed to find 3 of the 4 bolts just flat out missed the beasts; passing through their forms. Damn it.

The beasts surged forward, leaping on the group and barreling into the party. And then we realized that we were in trouble. Unlike normal cats/tigers, these beasts just weren’t there for most of the blows, our swords and blows passing to the right, left, and over the beasts. An attempt was made to hit them with Faerie Fire but it did not fix their position in place.

Smokey was biting wildly but the taste of blood made the bear berserk, the grizzly picking up the closest beast and whipping it sideways into the melee. We tried to give the bear some room but Smokey tripped, bashed his head on the ground, and was knocked out. One beast was down but we were having a rough time with the last two, especially with every other blow just missing. Hit points were fading and then finally the death blows were given and the displacer beasts collapsed.

However, the fighting was so long and loud that we attracted the attention of some 8’ tall ice toads! They froze the air and ground around them and fell into the party. Their bites and cold aura were having a small effect on the party, their impact lessened due to Detheron raising the temperature in the area around him by over 70 degree higher. The ice toads tried to turn back and escape but the group fell upon them and finished them off as well.

We waited, nothing new was coming. So taking Thurin’s advice we dissected the ice toads for their “cold sack” gland behind their throats and we did learn that Displacer Beast brains, if devoured early upon the animal’s death, can potentially either gift the devourer with special skills, make him ill, or kill him. Mebali wanted to eat a brain, and Thurin did as well, with Guyus opting for the third. Most of the group thought this was god damned stupid.

But we hacked out the brains (thanks Detheron!) and Guyus went first – choking it down and gaining permanent Constitution! Mebali went next, got very sick, but gained a level! And then Thurin went – and dropped dead! No save, no do over, just dead! Holy crap!!

We spent almost an hour stripping the elf of his belongings, dividing up his gear, and then taking him out to the exterior of the cave and burying him as far down in the snow as we could. From there we went back into the caves and consulted the map, knowing we had to go north east (for many miles!) to come to the other cave exit.

We once more walked carefully, passing where we had just been until we arrived at long last to a larger area of the cave. It was almost 60’ oval, with 5 other potential exits from the chamber ranging in a spoke arcing north and east from due west. West was a downward slope, North west and north were featureless, and east and north east had a slight breeze blowing down it that came to the chamber we were in.

We opted for east first, walking a short distance in until we noted that the breeze that blew towards up was vaguely damp, as the smell of the cave. Detheron ordered us out and back to the main chamber where we decided on North east this time. After a short walk we noticed patches of mold growing on the wall, patches that seemed to grow more numerous and larger as we progressed down. This also bothered the party and we went back to the main chamber.

Feeling silly now but forcing ourselves to make a choice, we opted for north and kept walking. After over 120 paces we saw the floor of the chamber was slowly being covered with a cool mist or haze. It displaced easily as we walked over it, but it was still disconcerting. Telling us to continue no matter what, we eventually came to an expanded section of the cavern where the ground mist was the thickest. A crack was along the northern wall, almost 6’ tall and a good two inches thick at its center. It was from here that cool air was coming in and was making a mist on the floor that spread out across the chamber. We noted at least two other ways out of this chamber and discussed our options.

Meet 159, Adv 13, 2/25/12

Wandering Monsters.

Could have had a TPK when I rolled up "giants" on the outdoor wandering table, 3 Frost Giants. Luckily the reaction roll was a pair of 6's so the giants were apt to be friendly to the group and the party let the dwarf talk to them.

They did make it to the cave and it is here that they are going to go "spelunking". I wish them well, because the cavern could be fucking dangerous!

Write up follows:

The party spent some time going over the Deed of Yngvi, opting on a course of action. We would go to the caves as marked to the northwest of Njor and hope that it joins up with the other caves northeast of that, beyond Snorri’s Pipe. There is a body of water there labeled Freyslik that we assume is mentioned in the Deed as the shore and the runemaker.

We spent the rest of the night going through the place, raiding the larder for supplies and foods, eventually loading not only the sled, but all 4 travois with gear and provisions. In addition we hollowed out a section of the outer tower wall and magically skinned it with a couple of stone shape spells, allowing us a possible way to reenter the citadel should we need to in the future.

We awoke just before the sun rise on the 8^th day and after breaking our fast and praying, we left about an hour after the sun turned on. It was snowing, adding cold powder to the world and the visibility was no better than a third of a mile. Detheron had prepared the party with a variety of endurance spells to keep us warm and we arranged the party so that both Smokey and Jerrig were trailblazing with the party trudging behind. In addition, Norris has using his bardic powers to make the entire party invisible.

The hours passed until we noticed that the party was being shadowed. We had been walking for about 4-5 hours and whatever was following us, was following the displaced snow, as well as the disembodied sled and travois tracking behind us. We stopped, arranged ourselves in a better layout to face whatever was coming, and took our time with weapons and prep.

What was coming was almost a dozen white and black, 450 lb, Siberian tigers. And they were stalking the group. They slowed at a couple hundred feet away and crept closer, dividing into 3 groups and encircling the sled and party. We stayed quiet and hoped that our scent and lack of visibility would confuse them. And then the groups sprung.

Detheron called out a charm animal spell and Thurin attempted a charm monster – taking 2 of the tigers out of the mix. Then it was bounding leaps and Gwyn and Guyus (on his steed) took the next brunt of the attacks, getting mauled pretty badly during the exchange.

The tigers charged forward at the rapidly “appearing” party but the presence of the two charmed ones intercepted two others. Smokey beat the hell out of one of them but our own Jerrig was battered badly and we lost him. Guyus was getting pretty chewed up before we dropped enough of the tigers that one managed to escape, the others broken. Detheron adopted the charmed tiger as “Jerrig 3” (the one he had assigned the suffix “2” had also died during the melee) and we passed out healing. Some of the meat was taken but mostly we allowed our three animal companions to eat until full.

We marched onward for another 3 hours of so. The land had changed into hills, some of them cresting to almost 600 feet and a decent slope of 30 degrees. We heard a voice calling us and coming around the bend of one of the hills were 3 frost giants. They had some tigers and a bear with them and they spoke to Gwyn, the giants conversing in dwarvish. They were on their way back to Hanin (on the map) to meet with the Grylians there and trade some food and skins.

We had some conversation with them and learned that although Dritka are occasionally sent out, it is not common. They referred to Detheron as “Freytouched” and were friendly enough assuming that we too were from Hanin. Gwyn was able to convince them that we needed to get to some “big caves” in the area and the giants led us over the hills northward to what they referred to as the “Gullincaves”.

We arrived about 2 hours after sunout and bid the frost giants farewell. The caves were massive – 20’ wide, 15’ tall. Bones, lots of bones, were outside and the cave seemed warmer than the air around it. We entered, travelling over 300 feet in and down as the corridor sloped until we felt warmer. From here we set up camp and rested for the night.

During Mebali’s watch he awoke Draugmore and pointed to the ceiling, saying something was moving. Sure enough, one of the stalactites was moving oh so slowly across the surface, getting closer to the group. In fact, it was almost over Thurin. The decision was made to “wake everyone up” and Thurin was grabbed by the legs and yanked across the floor – moments before the strange stone-like thing crashed down.

Was it for real? It was a piercer, a mollusk-like dungeon creature that drops from the ceiling and impales unsuspecting creatures below. We knocked it back over twice when it tried to upright itself and then “killed it” by stabbing at the underside where there was no stone covering. At this point Thurin was going to cast Rope trick and was going to hide up there to rest the remainder of the night.