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Merric Blackman
Australia
Waubra
Victoria
Ramping up my reviewing.
Happily playing games for many, many years.
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We had been missing Nathaniel during our last session, but now he and his character, the Archer Will Jr, were ready to aid solving the several tricks and traps that had defied the group last week.
Of course, first the group had to rest, as they were very depleted in their resources. To recap:
Rich's paladin, Drakult: 1 hit point, 0 healing surges
Adam's bard, Max: 0 hit points, 1 healing surge
Martin's druid, Gillaine: full hit points, 1 healing surge
Nathaniel, Will: full hit points, 1 healing surge (I dropped him down to 1 for missing last session and so he didn't feel left out)
The group considered resting in a safer part of the complex, but swiftly realised that to do so they'd have to cross a rickety bridge. Bridge-crossing not being their strongest point (Martin and Adam had both fallen off the rope-bridges last session), they chose to rest in the tapestry room.
Their rest was disturbed: in the first instance, a group of Orcs bearing the insignia of Iuz arrived. This group (consisting of 8 level four minions and one level four leader) were soon accounted for, and Rich was never more happy to lose initiative: he only arrived at the battle after it was over. (Note to DMs: 12th level characters account for 4th level monsters really, really easily).
This was not the first time the group had dealt with orcs serving Iuz: the first time, Adam's Warlock, Archibald, had betrayed the party and has since them been working with the priest of Iuz (and possibly for his own goals as well). It revealed to the group that the servants of Iuz knew about the gate to this area of the Feywild from Greyhawk, and were beginning to investigate as well. Admittedly, with quite expendable minions to begin with!
Later that night, the group heard trees crashing down to the north, and then some giants - at least they were speaking in the Giant tongue - could be heard investigating the site of the orc battle. They did not enter the building, however, as they were summoned back to the north. They departed, not seeing the heroes.
It was quite a relief when everyone rose the following day. However, the strange corruption of the area had taken a toll on the group: they were all down a healing surge.
The first business was to track the giants that had visited the following night. Tracking them was not difficult, as they'd left a fair track through the thick forest to the north of the complex. The track led to the edge of the cliff that surrounded the garden; below, the group could see dislodged boulders and a pool of blood. Will climbed down (with the aid of rope; the cliff face was quite unsafe) and determined that something had been injured falling off the cliff, and that the trail led further north. He was dissuaded from tracking the giants - which they'd determined to be firbolg - further, and the group returned to the garden.
They then tracked where the orcs came from: it was soon obvious that they'd come along the same path the heroes had travelled: from the portal near the Shadowleaf Forest.
The group explained what they had previously found to Will, and then decided to have another go at removing the key from the pool. After examining it (and dissuading Will from shooting arrows into the pool), they determined that they needed to string a rope across the river so that if they were teleported back into it by the pool's guardian they could grab hold of it and pull themselves to shore and not be swept over the waterfall to a very dangerous (60 foot!) fall.
Their initial plan was to have Will hold one end of the rope and Drakult the other end, Will to cross at the bridge and then both to walk down the river until they reached the proper spot. I pointed out to them that there was a big obelisk in the way, which derailed this plan. Instead, they decided to throw the rope over (having first weighted one end with a grappling hook). Actually, Will wanted to shoot the rope over, but I explained that it was way too heavy for that to work.
So, Will made his way down the other side of the river as the group waited for him to throw them the rope. Unfortunately, he got distracted: there was a buried stone slab near the buildings, so he began to clear it off. Upon noticing arcane symbols etched into its top, he called for Max to join him, which Max did. The rest of the group waited, somewhat patiently, as Max and Will cleared the entire top of the slab: it contained a teleportation circle terminus. Max noted down the symbols in case they might ever prove useful.
At this point, Will realised that there was a door into another of the strange buildings on this side of the river: a very strange building indeed, made in the most irregular form. He called for the others to join him, and - instead of setting up the rope - started investigating the building.
Indeed, it seemed that the eastern section of the chamber had been set up to resemble a cave! However, as Will entered, the world shifted around him. He was elsewhere (although the building's dimensions still matched), no longer in the Feywild but instead somewhere that felt... darker.
He first noticed a statue that had been literally defaced: whatever face it once possessed had been scratched away. The statue stood in the centre of the "cave". However, appearing out of the darkness near to it was the dangerous form of a Gray Angel, a harbinger of death if ever he'd seen one. It attacked before he could react, dealing a great deal of damage to Will.
Another angel appeared from the corridor to the south, and moved to attack Drakult; the group soon found itself in a difficult combat, with the angels occasionally teleporting using the statue to different locations in the complex. Will took the bulk of the damage, with the angels concentrating their attacks on him. He moved back, only to have the other angel arrive and attack him!
Both sides took a lot of damage, and with Drakult defending their backs, the group was finally able to overcome the angels. No treasure was forthcoming (much to the group's disappointment), but Will then noticed a secret trapdoor in the floor of the "cave" chamber. It led to an ancient tunnel running to the south-west; as they entered it, they felt the world shift around them and realised they'd returned to the Feywild.
Max wanted to test this, and returned to the chamber above: however, this time he arrived in yet another place: some old tomb, still with the "cave" dimensions, but with a great pile of rubble containing the broken parts of old headstones, statues and the like. As he investigated the rubble, a wraith appeared out of the darkness and attacked. Feeling that discretion was the better part of valour, he fled back into the tunnel: the wraith did not follow and was no longer discernible from below.
Following the tunnel, which was long and windy, the group found one hidden exit that led to the lower garden, providing another (safer) method of reaching the top of the cliff, albeit one that might have a wraith guarding the exit. Continuing on, the tunnel curved around to the north and then forked. The group chose one direction, and it eventually ended in a small cave with another secret trapdoor above.
Once opened, the room beyond was revealed to be some sort of a "game" room - five tables, each with games such as Dragon Chess, Three Dragon Ante, and other such gambling and skill games of Greyhawk were scattered about the room. As Max and Will approached them, a domination effect was cast upon them, compelling them to play the game. They shook off the domination, but played the game anyway!
For the next hour, they went to one table after another. The games were brutal: bad plays sapped their life force! However, they were good enough players to defeat their ghostly opponents. One after another, the tables were drained of their magic and deactivated. It wasn't a walk in the park, however: by the the time the last table was deactivated, Will had lost all of his remaining healing surges.
The group took a few of the gold game pieces that the tables possessed, and resolved to rest in the tunnel below: its secret and long-disused nature would likely mean they were undisturbed. The further investigation of the Garden of Graves would have to wait for the next session!
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Ramping up my reviewing.
