The in-game month since Solid had been bitten by a lycanthrope had just passed. And night was coming on the surface as well. You can see where this is going: about 4 hours into long rest and chill, Solid transformed with a blood-curdling howl and pounced on his fellow party members. They started to beat him up, obviously, but did not want to kill him. And so, mid-combat, some of them switched to trying to tie him up. After all, what are all those lengths of rope, pitons etc for? The notes don't detail, but the fight was actually pretty funny.
And after the wolf-Solid was pinned and tied up, the party debated what to do with him. The Remove Curse spell was unavailable to them at this time, but they still had some Belladonna on hand. So they shoved it all into the wolf's mouth, along with some dried beef. This was highly unorthodox; I've never heard of a lycanthrope willingly ingest the plant after the month had passed and the curse was fully set. So I ruled that Solid transforms back and the curse recedes.[1]
After 7 more days of going through the caves[2], the party found another chute, and got out for a bit of scouting. The castle was just up ahead, and they saw a huge army leaving it, heading towards another dust cloud in the distance - presumably, the allied peoples of the Zarek Valley. All's well. They headed back underground.
After still a bit more trekking, the adventurers reach an area with shallow puddles.
As they were inspecting the water, a Gelatinous Cube burst out of a pond and swallowed an adventurer whole. Seriously, what did they expect to happen? Another slime fell on them from the ceiling, and the battle was on. Fondly referred to as "Jelly" and "Blobby" by the adventurers, the slimes put up a decent fight before they were defeated. They even ate through some armor.
After that fun interlude, the adventurers carried on, finally reaching what looked to be an exit through a well, right in the middle of the castle courtyard. How convenient.[3] Anyway, they climbed through the well, evaded a few orc patrols - the skeleton crew of the mostly emptied castle - and reached the main building, which had the glowing tower. Or rather, the tower with the greenish glow coming through the windows.
Going through the corridors, they came into a huge room, decorated with arms and suits of armor, and a couple of chests at the end.
Adventurers being adventurers, they tried to open the chests, which triggered a trap and animated the suits of armor.
Progressing ever upwards through the tower, the adventurers finally reached a huge hall with a big puddle of blood in the middle. Other features of the room include a pulsating portal and a glowing circle of runes (referred to as a "disco ball" in the notes).
And then these fine young gentlemen emerge from the portal.
Boss fight!
The highlight of the battle was a roll on the wild magic table by Selene: fireball centered on yourself. Lili, Solid and Tari immediately dropped unconscious.
After a long battle[4], the demon soldiers were defeated.
Even their crab-clawed leader was lain low, just before escaping into the portal.
At this point, as the players were celebrating, the portal pulsed and out came another party: Nixi, Random, and a third, unknown gnome[5]. Nixi berated the party for being meddling fools[6], but Random, ever the gallant rogue, recognized Ireth and asked his companion to spare their lives. Annoyed, Nixi conceded, and conjured a huge wall, hiding them from the adventurers. The wall disappeared shortly, and the party noticed that their new opponents vanished, along with the corpse of the demon-soldier-leader.
As tradition dictated[7], the portal exploded and the castle collapsed on itself, leaving the adventurers to escape by the breadth of a hair.
All's well that ends well. The monster army had been defeated; the adventurers were regaled with tales of how the battle turned from defeat to crushing victory, when the enemy general opened a portal and disappeared, along with his cadre of bodyguards. The monsters, left without leadership, crumbled.
Alas, not everything was well. As the lords and ladies, soldiers and adventurers were sitting at their victory feast, a messenger arrived. A request, sent by Lady Siena some time ago, was accepted, and she had been admitted into some sort of alliance of nobles[8] that spans the continent. Troops were coming soon to help her out, unaware that the danger to the Zarek Valley had passed. Cooperation was of paramount importance: the Giants had risen to rampage throughout the North.
[1] For now. *evil laugh*
[2] And eating their rations every day.
[3] I originally intended this part to go on through a couple of sessions. However, due to time constraints, I had to compress it, and leave out a few combats.
[4] Which I actually misjudged in terms of difficulty, and made too easy. However, the miscast by Selene set things right, and the fight became a desperate struggle for survival for the adventurers.
[5] Armed with a crossbow. Especially observant readers might recognize him as the gnome fought by the adventurers in our previous campaign, who escaped death twice. Looks like he found a new master to serve!
[6] As any self-respecting villain should.
[7] See the ending of our 4E adventure.
[8] A lords' alliance, one might say.
No comments:
Post a Comment