I'm behind on my camp[aign updates and getting ready for the busy summer gaming season when the kids are back from college, so here goes:
Expedition 12 – Against the Gith; or Too many henchmen end up dead
Village People:
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Tariq the Harvester – Lvl 6 Mage (Necromancer) –Extremely short necromancer
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<li><strong>Tirion Snow</strong> – Lvl 4 Elven Ranger – adventurer with amazing stats - Animal Husbandry, Animal Handling (large cats), precise shooting, fighting style (missile), wears leather and armed with a composite bow and sword.
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<li><strong>Visanti Aeryen</strong>– Lvl 1 Elven Enchanter – Transmogrifier – wears elven cloak</li>
<li><strong>Panthers(3)</strong></li>
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<li><strong>Eduardo aka ‘Keyser Soze’ </strong>– Lvl 7 Thief (Cat Burglar) – budding tycoon
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<li><strong>Ukla the Quick</strong> – Lvl 5 Barbarian (Pit Fighter) – fights with net and trident.
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<li><strong>Michael Thomas</strong> – Lvl 3 Fighter Guardsman – fights with glaive and plate</li>
<li><strong>Furgal Porter </strong>– Lvl 3 War Mage – Fights with sword, leather and shield</li>
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<li><strong>Onde Vrazic</strong> – Familiar imp – Mimicry x2, Arcane Dabbling, Alertness</li>
<li><strong>Delwyn</strong> – lvl 4 Witch – Village Healer
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<li><strong>Bernard</strong> – dog familiar with pack and healing skills.</li>
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<li><strong>Dave ‘the Pure’ Carrin</strong> – Lvl 7 Cleric (Hermit) of Hera –Wears custom made plate (with symbol of Hera) + magical +1 shield. He has an unearthly appearance (eyes burn into your soul, revealing your inner guilt/purity)
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<li><strong>Angela of Hera</strong> – Lvl 5 Cleric (proselytizer) –wears Plate and armed with a billhook
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<li><strong>Spider – </strong>A charmed giant tarantula</li>
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<li><strong>Jane</strong> – Lvl 3 Sword Mage – Weapon finesse (others unselected), armed with sword and dagger.</li>
<li><strong>Jimmy Bakerson</strong> – Lvl 0 – caretaker of the temple of Hera and budding priest.</li>
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<li><strong>Jace</strong> – Lvl 6 Mage (Elementalist) – quiet pyromaniac, wears robes with flames.
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<li><strong>Connor </strong>– Lvl 3 Fighter-Mercenary - personal bodyguard/meatshield</li>
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<li><strong>Illyrio Sicarus</strong> – Lvl 6 Assassin (Bravo) – Wears magical leather, armed with Swordbreaker and a magical dagger</li>
With them was their ally/rival from the Raiders/Lords of Law:
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Dante – Lvl 8 Paladin – Precise Shooting, Mystic Aura, Toughness(+1hp/lvl), Fighting Style (two weapons), Weapon Finesse, Intimidation, Combat Reflexes, Weapon Focus - swords – STR +1, INT +2 WIS -2, DEX +3, CON -1, Wears Thulian Plate mail, and wields dual magic blades – Dwimmersmite and Trollslayer,. He has an unearthly appearance (gold eyes, with a burning intensity).
The party decided to go into Dwimmermount to remove the gith threat in the divinatarium. Dante from the Raiders came with them (son visiting from college). They made it up to the elevator and the level without any problems. The party keep Jimmy, the panthers, and Visanti to guard the elevator room (limiting their XP to 10% of a share). They made their way to the throne room where they had seen the ‘Captain’ of the Gith, only slowing down by burning down a group of slime zombies.
The players thought they heard something after the fight, but nothing was there (the PCs rolled a wandering monsters check and got a ‘1’, which indicated a monster. They then rolled for the monster on the chart and the range. I will adjudicate what the ‘monster’ will do, and have the PCs roll to see if they are surprised and/or notice the monster. Sometimes the monster will avoid the party. In this the wandering monster result was a gith patrol. They heard the party, but the party did not hear them. The gith (a fighter and mage), ran ahead to tell the ‘Captain’, and returned to track them, staying out of lantern range, and ending up behind them).
The party reached the throne room and entered from the southwest. They saw the leader standing on the throne dais. There were also three gith warriors and a single mage in the eastern part of the room. The gith ‘Captain’ greeted the party and asked them to stop while they speak their business.
The entire 18-member party was not able to get all the way into the room at this point, some of them winding into the hallway outside of the SW door (mostly the henchmen guarded by Angela and her spider). After a short conversation involving perfectly reasonable levels of mistrust, combat broke out. Having wiped the floor with the Eld, the party was very confident. They found out the difference between 1 round of preparation by the enemy and 10 minutes of prep.
No one was surprised on the first round. The leader of the gith had previously cast haste and giant strength on himself and started casting mirror image. Dante and Illyrio charged to engage the Captain, Ukla charged towards the warriors, and Dave started casting Hold Person. Jace summoned some magma-men (berserkers) and Tariq tried to hit the leader with a choking grasp, but he made his save. Keyser shot at the Captain and missed.
Dante and Illyrio reached the Captain, while Dave successfully held two of the warriors. Ukla engaged one of the Warriors in an attempt to reach the mage.
Suddenly from behind the party in the hall, they heard chanting and a web of mystical energy captured most of the party in the hall. A gith mage appeared in a hallway to their rear. Most of the henchmen were caught in the web. The spider managed to avoid the web (it IS a spider) and Angela made her save, avoiding being caught. She charged the mage only to be surprised when a gith warrior appeared and sliced her, blocking her progress.
Dante and Illyrio reached the Captain, while Dave successfully held the mage and one of the warriors. Jace’s magma men moved to support the fight against the captain.
The next round, three additional gith warriors charged through the door. Angela and the spider traded blows with the gith warrior in the hall way, and Dave started casting again. Keyser managed to kill one of the held gith. The hasted Captain struck a mighty blow against Dante (taking him down to ½ of his HPs), while he, Illyrio, and the magma men managed to reduce his mirror images.
The mage in the hallway cast lightning bolt, which store through Angela, her spider, and after bouncing off a wall, through most of the henchmen. It dropped all of the henchmen except Connor, Ukla, and Tyrion (who remained caught in the web). Dave managed to hold two more of the Gith, and Ukla and Keyser took them down.
The next round Illyrio, the magma men, and Dante attacked the Captain. Dwimmersmite sang as it cut him (double damage is nasty). The Captain cleaved through some magma men. Dave was locked into combat with the last remaining gith warrior. Jace and Tariq cast spells, and Keyser shot at the Gith in the hallway, taking them down.
The gith Captain started casting in attempt to escape, and Dante and Illyrio finished him off. Jace, Tariq, and Keyser started to try to reach the fallen henchmen in an attempt to save them. Dave was stuck in combat with the remaining gith warrior. The next round Illyrio managed to help Dave finish off the last warrior and Jace and Tariq managed to use their healing skill on some of the henchman.
After combat, Dante, Dave, Tariq, and Jace used healing on the henchmen. The results were ugly:
- Angela chest was severely burned, and her spider was crippled, losing 2 of its legs.
- Both of Delwyn’s arms were burned off, and her familiar Bernard was dead.
- Furgal, Michael Thomas, and Jane were down to 1 HP and needed rest.
Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, they decided to quickly collect what they could and leave the dungeon. Jace cast detect magic and discovered that each of the gith warriors had magical swords, each mage had magical bracers, and one of the mages had a wand. The Captain also had magical armor, a magical cloak, and a serrated magical sword. There was also a chest with treasure plundered by the gith.
In the ear of the Captain was also a magical device. Illyrio took it out and could hear a voice coming from it. It spoke in a strange language. Illyrio spoke back and the voice responded in common. The voice identified himself as the ACTUAL captain of the gith vessel. He asked about the status of his men. When he found out they were dead, he paused before making a simple demand. The party could keep any treasure they found by right of combat, but they MUST leave all swords, armor, cloaks, and bracers. If they did so, he would let them live and each group would go their own way. Illyrio and x came to an agreement that the party could take the bracers but would leave the magical plate and all of the swords in the throne room. The Captain stated he would send a patrol to collect them. If the party betrayed him, however, the gith would never rest until they hunted the party down and made them pay.
The party discussed their next move. They all agreed that they had to leave immediately. Onde the imp told Keyser that the gith were no joke. The leader’s sword was sacred to them, and that the threat to track them was real. The party decided to risk it, put everything in Dave’s bag of holding, and headed to the exit as quickly as they could, carrying their wounded. They took the earpiece with them.
Illyrio and Keyser lead the way, with Dante and Ukla protecting the rear. They were slowed substantially by the wounded. They made it about halfway before Ukla noticed they were being followed. A lightning bolt shot through the rear of the party, striking Jace, Tariq, Connor, Ukla and Dante. Saves were made and no one was killed (Dante’s armor absorbed some of the damage as well).
80 feet Behind the party were 3 gith warriors, a gith mage and another gith leader with a serrated sword. Illyrio, Keyser and Dave protected the henchmen while mages turned to face the new threat. Conner remained with his boss and Ukla and Dante ran towards the battle. The gith lost initiative. A portal to the elemental plane of fire opened and a ball of fire blasted them. It was soon followed by a blast of necrotic energy. All the lesser gith were destroyed and the leader lost his spell.
The next round the gith won initiative and opened a tear into the astral plane, and stepped through, ending up in the middle of the party! (Dimension door). The hasted Lieutenant, with his enchanted giant strength, struck down Connor, cleaved through Jace, cleaved through Tariq, and slashed Dante with a massive cut, taking him below 5 HP. Ukla missed. Dante and cut him down as Dwimmersmite cut through the spellcasting gith like a hot knife through butter.
As the healers quickly attended to the fallen, Dante grabbed the earpiece of the fallen Lieutenant and spoke to the gith captain. They traded threats and Dante threw it down. The party quickly stripped the bodies of the fallen gith and left the dungeon.
Jace cast identify on one of the large serrated gith sword wielded by the Lieutenants determined that it was a sword of wounding +2. It had large spikes coming out of the hilt and the crossbars of the hilt. Jace consulted his elemental and they both agreed that the gith might be able to track the swords through the spikes.
The party wanted to sell the swords but were afraid the gith would attack Murray before he could make a successful sale. Dante stated that there was someone that might be able to help. There was a dwarven craftpriest in the Barony of Dor to the south east who might be able to remove them.
The party quickly travelled to Dor with Dante and spoke to the craftpriest. He marveled at the craftsmenship and asked where they came from. The party admitted they were gith swords and he agreed to remove the spikes from both of the swords for a fee of 5000 gp and an agreement that the party was to take the spikes and dispose of them immediately. He was able to do so and the weapons were taken to Murray in Adamas to sell.