Oof, getting behind.
Session 14 was a hoot. The dwarf, paladin, and newly raised assassin were joined by a monk (Willis the cleric remained a statue). The party was intent on delving deeper into the Scriptorium. They descended one level deeper, and found a library, filled with shelves of books and scrolls. The center of library was open and looked down on a scriptorium below, filled with small writing podiums and stools for copyists. The library shelves were infested with huge book worms, which leapt out when the books were disturbed but did not prove to be too dangerous. A swarm of moths, attracted by torch light and throwing themselves suicidally onto the flame until it was extinguished, proved to be a greater danger, for when a new torch was lit, the party found themselves surrounded by shadows. They fought pretty well but the paladin turned them, and then the party descended to the scriptorium level from which the shadows seemed to come. There they fought more shadows, and again the encounter ended when the paladin turned them successfully. The assassin was badly weakened but otherwise the party felt confident and went even deeper. The next level was divided into several rooms. The first door they found had a warning sign: “Danger, lich at work”.
now you might think that this would dissuade a party of 4th level characters. The dwarf and assassin began to fall back when the paladin and assassin decided their best bet was to kick in the door and attack!
Inside they found only a skull and some dust on a table, and an otherwise mostly intact room. However the dust began to swirl and the skull floated up, and the demilich assumed a wraith-like form.
My thinking as a DM was: 1) they won’t open this door, might as well put a lich in there; 2) shit they opened the door, give ’em one more chance, make it a demilich so they can at least retreat safely; 3) fuck, they’re fighting a demilich.
The wraith form drained the paladin of a level and at that point even he began to fall back. However the monk’s player decided that monks were the suck and he’d throw away his character trying to steal whatever he could from the lich’s lair. He actually made off with a nice haul of treasure but was quickly drained of all his levels. The party fled while the monk made his ‘heroic’ effort, and returned with a de-stoned cleric, who managed to turn the monk-wraith. They party avoided the lich level (taking a different stairwell down to the next level). They were now on the ‘ground floor’ and fought group of trolls, defeating them and winning the statue of Garmin the magic user they’d been seeking.
Of course they needed to push their luck and went down one more level, to the ‘basement’, where they found three dungeon cells and some torture equipment. They freed a shedu from one cell, who rewarded them with rich treasures; then they checked the next cell, and the assassin found himself unable to resist the urge to ppen the cell and free… a mind flayer. The party won initiative and between the dwarf and paladin dealt a huge amount of damage, causeing the mind flayer to flee. For now. The last cell had a purple worm, which the party left alone. End of session. The dwarf, who is given to having occasional prophetic dreams, dreamt of the mind flayer, riding a purple worm and driving a group of chained peasant before him…
Session 15 saw the party, now almost complete (rogue, assassin, paladin, dwarf, and wizard all present) deciding to look for another statue — this time Matrim, which they knew was supposed to be in the Jomsburg, the HQ of the town guard (The Hellbrand Fireguard). Bogron the barbarian retired and a wizard joined the party.
Long story short, I used the excellent OPD “The shifting crypt.” (I’d like to thank Eric Jones for writing that…but he left no contact info, just his RPGnow link.) The party fought ghouls, an undead Valkyrie, and a wight, and although the assassin died again –when the dwarf sprang a trap– they managed to find the statue and some magic armor, as well as the Valkyrie’s magic spear.)
New monster:
Brunhild the Shieldmaiden
AC 16 (magic weapon to hit); HD 6; damage d6+1 (magic spear +1, which returns after a throw) and special attacks: raise dead (d6 skeletons), scream (all within 30 must save or go berserk, seeing all creatures as enemies; affected PCs will use their most effective tactics rather than attacking blindly; wears off if Brunhild is slain); move 12″.
Brunhild wears gilded armor worth 400 GP and carries a +1 spear which will return to the thrower. Her scream attack caused the paladin and wizard to turn on their party. The wizard used his pyrotechnics spell to majorly screw the party over with blinding smoke. It was total chaos as the party fought each other and the undead, but somehow they pulled through. The paladin and wizard players were very good sports, and actually the whole party roleplayed the fog of war quite well, not knowing who was hostile. Lots of fun.
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