Wednesday night D&D/AD&D group starting at Lake Geneva Games

AD&D Episode 1 – Part 1 of 4 ~ Magical Honey You Say?

Melissa: Rayn – Human Wizard
Nate: Krogdor – Human Fighter
Chris: Daren The Fun – Elf Cleric
Anna: Trinity – Human Fighter
Bobby: Ranthor – Dwarf Fighter
Rodrick: Kale - Ranger
Ryan: Sir Ryan – Human Paladin
Lindsay: Nova – Elf Thief
Jeff: Otto – Human Ranger
Nick: Tom – Illusionist
Ed: Kreshoff – Human Cleric
Damian: Ira – Half-Elf Ranger

After returning to civilization, our group of adventurers meets a patron who is looking for anyone interested in an expedition. As they have walked through town, the group has heard rumors of wealth and decide this is what those rumors were about. Supposedly there is magically honey to be found as well as this is what the temple was used for according to old legends.
“You must journey to a canyon, not too far from here, that is the home of a large temple. There are many old legends about this place, but I urge you to keep a clear head and stay at the mission on hand.
A while back, two clerics from this town went there to explore and study, but they have not yet returned. You mission is to find them, be they dead or alive, and help them complete their mission. Once that is done, if they are living, help transport them back here, to the town.”
The group readily agrees, hungry for adventure. It is a several days journey to the canyon, but the trip goes mostly undisturbed. They reach a clearing in the forests they have been traveling in, and see the canyon the patron had described. Deep in the canyon they can make out a large stone building.
“That must be the Temple,” Sir Ryan says. He casts Detect Evil towards it but finds nothing. However, when he looks a little off to the side, he catches a glimpse of something. “Hill Giants!” he yells, quickly reaching for his large sword.
The four hill giants are racing towards the group, obviously having seen the adventurers first. Trees are crushed under their massive, stomping feet as they clumsily advance.
The entire group is now able to see them and instinctively prepares for battle! (This isn’t their first rodeo, after all.) The giants are still about 90 ft off however, and the rangers are having a hard time aiming through all the falling trees. There is slim to no chance they will be able to hit anything at all.
“It's only four, guys. We got this,” says Kreshoff, a tad bit over-confidently. The group gives him a “Okay tough guy, you go first!” look just as the giants break through the trees in front of them. The entire group minus Daren, Rayn, and Kale, bravely approach the monsters, weapons ready. Daren begins to chant to give the adventurers a bonus to their strength and power to attack.
The Dwarf, totally undaunted by the size of the Giants compared to his own, makes a viscous attack for 25 damage to the nearest Hill Giant. Between the screams of the giants, Ranthor's nearby friends can hear him mutter something about the Hill Giants mother and smelly feet.
Three Hill Giants surround the Paladin who fights (somewhat) valiantly to escape. Otto, who sees the Sir Ryan's distress, fly's into action and hits one of the monsters for 18 Damage with his Bastard Sword. Kale is finally able to get a clear shot and hits another of the Giants surrounding Sir Ryan for 16 damage. Krogdor, excited by the heat of battle, races in to join the fun. He also helps the Paladin and hits one of the Hill Giants for 23 damage.
The over-confident Cleric, Kreshoff, comes in to attack as well. However, being a cleric, he is not as skilled as the fighters and gets a hit of only 7 damage.
The Ranger Ira also raises his bow and hits for 6 damage. Daren The Fun decides to have a bit of “Fun” and begins to cast a Dust Devil into the field of battle.
Trinity, not at all intimidated by the Giants, rushes up with Krogdor to fight along side her friend. She hits for a large 40 damage and the monster falls dead to the ground. Krogdor and her exchange a “that was sweet!” glance.
Rayn and Nova jump onto Rayn's new magic carpet, and with Nova flying it, they advance towards the fight. The magic user casts Magic Missile at one of the giants and hits for 10 damage as the big water drop shaped missiles connect with their target.
Sir Ryan, still fighting valiantly, kills one of his attackers with a mighty swing of his two-handed sword and turns to face another.
The Giant the Dwarf (we assume) has thoroughly insulted, attacks his tiny assailant, but misses completely. Dravin, however is not so lucky. One of the Giants swings its mighty arm at Kale and hits him to the ground for 11 damage. The monster on Ranthor is not giving up that easily though. It swings again to hit the short man, aiming a little lower this time, but the Dwarf is far to short and it misses again. Ranthor lets a out a laugh. The group can hear something about a weak woman come from his mouth. The Giant attacking Kale walks to where the Ranger lay trying to get up. It laughs at him and kicks Kale hard with his disgusting foot. Kale takes 8 more damage.
Nova sees only two Giants left and decides to dive bomb off the magic carpet and attack from the air. She lands on top of the Giant swinging at Ranthor and momentarily distracts it while Rayn fires another magic missile for 12 damage and kills it. Nova nimbly jumps from the falling body, landing perfectly on her feet. She smiles slyly, rather impressed with her own agility.
There is only one Giant left on Sir Ryan, but hes having a very hard time hitting it. It seems to have grabbed the top his head and is holding the Paladin back from attack, laughing hysterically the entire time. Trinity sees her opportunity and comes up behind the Giant, hitting him square in the back for 41 damage breaking his backbone and neck. It falls dead to the ground.
The group takes a sigh of relief. “See? Told you we had this,” Kreshoff says grinning. The group turns to him. “Yea, thanks for your amazing help 'Sir Cleric',” Trinity says sarcastically.
“Alright guys lets just keep moving,” Sir Ryan urges.
Before leaving the clearing, they thoroughly search the Hill Giant's bodies. They unfortunately find nothing. The Dwarf cheerily guts each Giant in turn....searching for treasure ingested maybe?
The group continues toward the temple, the rest of the journey goes completely smooth. As they approach they see ah large, arched wooden door. It seems a bit too obvious that this is the way in. Hedges have overgrown around the door but do not cross or block it in anyway. Otto searches diligently for tracks, but there are far too many for him to distinguish anything fresh.
Ira, out of the corner of his eye, sees some old beehives. Without telling the group, he walks over to investigate them on his own. He finds that they are deserted and heads back to the group.
Ranthor looks impatiently around at the group. “Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go in!” He waddles on over to the door. As he gets closer, all of the sudden he catches a glimpse of something from one of the hedges, though he can't tell what it is. He feels very tired and his steady pace seems to slow down.
The rest of the adventurers turn at Ranthor's outburst and watch him walk to the door. They see him slow to almost no motion, but he still appears to be moving forward. Ira, thinking quickly, attaches a rope to his 10 foot pole and tries to snatch Ranthor with it to drag him away from the door and any possible danger near it. He succeeds and pulls the Dwarf to him. Ranthor grumbles irritatedly.
Nova and Daren decide to check the hedges for whatever attacked Ranthor. Suddenly, Daren disappears! Nova looks around, startled. “What just happened?” She yells.
Kreshoff moves forward, casting detect magic towards the area Daren disappeared at.
Otto moves up, trying to maneuver towards the door without tripping any possible traps. He is instantly surrounded by a massive wave of bright and brilliant colors, almost blinding him completely. This happens just as Kreshoff is moving forward to cast his spell and he, too, is surrounded by the lights.
Kale tries to test the field of colors by tossing a coin in to see if it falls in slow motion like Ranthor's experience. The coin however falls normally to the ground.
“What do ya think you're doing?” The Dwarf yells. “That's a waste of money!” and he runs in to retrieve the coin for himself. He is again trapped in the wave of slowness that had previously encompassed him.
Sir Ryan decides to try a different tactic. He stands so that he has a straight line to the door, and closes his eyes tightly. He moves forward through the light and colors, being slowed as well, and he eventually reaches the temple. Unfortunately, in his blindness, he turned just a bit to the side and just misses the door, hitting the wall with his hands.
Seeing how little luck the rest of the group is having, Rayn, Nova, and Trinity jump onto Rayn's magic carpet and try to fly over the anomaly. No such luck. The girls feel very slow, but notice the carpet is unaffected. They realize they must land inside the array of colors to reach the door, so they close their eyes and slowly descend into the colors.
Krogdor has sat patiently, seeing if the rest of the group can disperse the brilliant lights in front of the temple door. He watches as each attempt is met with failure. He decides to try searching the hedges as well, and is met with the sudden explosion of a green cloud. He instinctively backs off, lest he be hurt or worse by the poison.
Rayn, Nova, and Trinity land right outside of the color area and notice the hedges next to the door are moving. Rayn acts quickly and casts a magic missile for 14 damage. A scream erupts from the bush and a wand falls from its branches. The hedge falls over and morfs into a small (about 2 feet tall) human. He was killed by Rayn's missile.
Daren, has seen all these events take place. A spell had been cast on him by the wizard, turning him ethereal. He has been able to walk along his friends as they fought, but he was totally unable to assist them. He breathes a sigh of relief at the sight of the dead wizard.
Rayn walks over and picks up the dropped wand. She can tell it is a Wand of Wonder, but sadly it is almost out of charges.
After a few minutes all the spells that had been cast wear off, and the lights and colors disappear. The group also notices that they can move normally again. They approach the door.
Ranthor, who did finally reach the coin, is quite irritated by the events. He kicks open the door without a second thought. There are two hallways, one on each side. Otto listens for any strange noises, but does not notice anything. Ranthor, curious about the stone work, checks the building. It is in good condition for its age, but is clearly not as good as a Dwarven building. The hallways are dark and our adventurers head off into the black unknown.......

End Episode 1 – Part 1 ~ Magical Honey You Say?

 

AD&D Episode 1 – Part 2 ~ Just Call Me Jesus!
Melissa: Rayn – Human Wizard
Nate: Krogdor – Human Fighter
Chris: Darrin The Fun – Elf Cleric
Anna: Trinity – Human Fighter
Bobby: Ranthor – Dwarf Fighter
Rodrick: Kale - Ranger
Ryan: Sir Ryan – Human Paladin
Lindsay: Nova – Elf Thief
Jeff: Otto – Human Ranger
Nick: Tom – Illusionist
Ed: Kreshoff – Human Cleric
Damian: Ira – Half-Elf Ranger

The adventurers head onwards. Nova, Ranthor, and Otto lead the party as the rest follow faithfully. The first door they come to Nova diligently searches for traps and a lock. She finds neither and they enter the room with no trouble. It is an old and clearly abandoned library. All of the books appear to be in very poor shape, having not been cared for in many years. In the south wall there is a large, rectangular spot on the wall, the same size as the other bookcases that line the entire room.
“Looks like an entire bookcase was removed a little while back,” Otto says pensively.
“Well I'm gonna see if there's anything useful on these shelves!” Rayn announces. She looks for about 10 minutes with absolutely no luck. Meanwhile, Darrin uses his keen elven senses to try and find any secret doors or moving walls. He, too, is unsuccessful in his efforts.
“Come now, you can't really expect to find something in that short of a time Rayn!” Ira chides. “I'll show you how it's really done!” He proceeds to do a brief search of every single book in the room. This takes a good 20 minutes and the rest of the group has become bored and restless by the time Ira has finished.
“Find anything?” Rayn asks irritatedly.
“Well....no not really,” Ira replies, his pride a bit wounded.
“Anyone find a door in this room?” Tom asks.
“Not yet,” the group replies. They continue their search. While the rest of the party focuses entirely on searching the walls for doors, Trinity goes over to a bookshelf, seeing something interesting from across the room. After she approaches she sees that its an odd looking book. It doesn't appear to be intact per-say, but it looks very different from the rest of the books. She tries to pull it out to examin it more and as she does so one of the bookshelves slides from its previous position to reveal a hidden door!
It is extremely dark and Trinity hands Rayn her magical flashlight to illuminate the way. Inside they see that it is an old work room filled with old bottles, worn gloves, and empty beehive frames. They can see a work bench in the room that appears to be adorned with old useless tools.
Ira sees a trap door....underneath a very active beehive. There is also a door along the east wall. Ranthor decides to search the walls for anything unusual. He doesn't find anything.
“Wait, this room was sealed, wasn't it?” Ira asks.
“Yea, looks like the only way to open it was that book on the shelf,” Trinity says.
“Well then how do they get in and out for food?”
The entire group is baffled by this. Darrin decides to try smoke the bees out, calm them enough to move the hive from the door. The smoke, however has no effect at all. “How odd,” he says.
This makes Ranthor very suspicious. He (being a Dwarf) decides he should touch it to see what's going on. His hand goes right through the hive revealing a very affective illusion.
“Well that makes a bit more sense!” Ranthor exclames.
Nova checks the trap door for traps or locks, she doesn't find anything. However, she is still suspicious and decides it's probably best to open this using a rope, staying clear of any traps she may have missed. They attach the rope to the handle of the door and give a big pull. The door opens easily and inside is a short wooden staircase leading down into a hallway that goes to the east. It is unusually dark down there.
Kreshoff casts light on his mace and uses it to light the way as they all descend into the hallway. They reach a door at the end of the hallway and it opens into a room that is filled with mud and standing water (about 3ft deep in most places). It is obvious the water has come from a leak above and recent rains have filled the chamber.
Suddenly, out of the mud rises 7 lizard like men! As the creatures come to attack, the party also prepares for battle. However, the water is so deep fighting is going to be a bit more difficult than normal.
Ranthor (who just barely stands above the water) charges forward, completely unfazed by the amount of trouble he's having running forward. He hits one creature for 14 damage and kills it instantly by slicing it in half. He then takes another mighty swing and hits another of the Lizard Men for 11 damage, also killing it, this time by decapitating it entirely.
Krogdor is inspired by Ranthor's courage and determination and he, too, fly's forward to attack. He hits one of the oncoming attackers for 8 damage, and wounds it gravely.
All the action has already caused a great amount of disturbance in the water and the waves cause Otto to miss his shot with his bow. Kale, however, hits his targets. He hits one that appears to be racing towards the magic user and kills it. He then takes another shot at one heading towards the illusionist and wounds it for 8 damage. Ira also misses his shots due to the agitated water.
Darrin is startled by the strange unnatural creatures and misses with his trusty Bone Crusher. Trinity attacks as well and swings her mighty hammer to hit one for 19 damage, crushing its body, and her back swing hits another for 21 damage, smashing its skull. Rayn sees a monster running towards her and is distracted. She misses her shot just as Kale kills the beast.
Nova rushes up and stabs violently with her dagger, hitting one for 5 damage. The Paladin, Sir Ryan, misses two swings with his mighty sword.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a net drops straight on top of Trinity, pinning her to the floor of the chamber, luckily she is strong enough to stay above the water. The group looks up to see a lizard man on top of a ledge above them. He has another net in hand and he tosses it at Ranthor. The Dwarf, however, can easily see it coming and he nimbly dodges out of the way.
There are only two wounded creatures on the ground, and one unharmed on the ledge above. The Lizard man attempts to hit Otto, but misses completely.
Ranthor is angered by the attempt to en-cage him and he swings his sword and kills one of the remaining monsters on the ground. Otto again misses his two shots. Krogdor hits one of the Lizard Men for 6 damage and kills it. Kale also misses his two shots.
Kreshoff heals the Dwarf for 6 hit points. Ira misses his shots as well. Darrin swings his mighty Bone Crusher and makes giant impact with the last remaining lizard on the ground and kills it by caving in its chest cavity. Only the one on the ledge remains.
Trinity tries desperately to free herself from the net that continues to pin her down, but fails. Rayn misses with her sling. Nova jumps out of the water and goes invisible. She starts to climb the walls towards the Lizard Man, but she loses her grip on the slippery walls and lands in the water, which breaks her fall, but also stops the invisibility.
The monster jumps towards Rayn, attempting to land on her and attack, but just at the last second she deflects the beast with her arm, hitting it away from her.
Ranthor now has his opportunity and attacks (not noticing he seems to be a little taller) the lizard for 10 damage. Otto rushes to Trinity's assistance and frees her from the net. Krogdor misses the lizard as it just barely jumps out of the range of his sword. Kale aims his bow and hits his target for a strong 11 damage. The arrow pierces the monsters eye and it falls dead into the now murky water.
The group turns to see Kreshoff and Ranthor walking on water!
“What in the name of the god's is this trickery!” The Dwarf bellows angrily.
“I was trying to help you see over the water my Dwarf friend,” Kreshoff says cheerily (obviously proud of his awesome plan).
At Ranthor's pleading, Kale guts each of the lizard men (definitely a pattern here...). The water now has red added to its abundance of questionable colors.
There is a doorway leading out of the room that heads south. It slowly angles up and eventually leads out of the water. The hallway seems to go on forever. As they travel the entire group searches for hidden doors and traps but each search comes up negative. Finally they come upon a door. Nova checks it for traps and doesn't find any.
Otto suddenly hears something.
“Someone to rescue me?” comes from behind the door. The voice is obviously female, and he immediately opens the door.
There, chained to the far wall, is a dirty, thin (under fed) woman with beautiful blonde hair!

End Episode 1 – Part 2 ~ Just call me Jesus!

 

Our gaming group welcomes anyone who wants to drop in and play! Wednesdays we play AD&D and Star Frontiers, DMed by yours truly most of the time, and starting Thursday, April 19th, our own Deogolf will begin a Harvesters (C&C) campaign.

Nobody has to commit to a long-term game - some folks can only play now and then, which is fine. If you've followed our group, we've got a lot of players, but this is our first experiment with running games two nights a week instead of just one. Most of our players can only game one night or the other, so if you never joined us, thinking we had plenty of players, feel free to jump in!

 

AD&D Episode 1 – Part 3 ~ Save The Maiden, Save The World!

Nate: Krogdor – Human Fighter
Chris: Darrin The Fun – Elf Cleric
Anna: Trinity – Human Fighter
Bobby: Ranthor – Dwarf Fighter
Rodrick: Kale - Ranger
Ryan: Sir Ryan – Human Paladin
Lindsay: Nova – Elf Thief
Jeff: Otto – Human Ranger
Nick: Tom – Illusionist
Ed: Kreshoff – Human Cleric
Damian: Ira – Half-Elf Ranger

“Finally someone to save me!” the prisoner cries. She is obviously relieved to see our group of adventurers and she manages a weak smile. Ranthor, seeing a beautiful woman, approaches. As he does so, he feels a jab in his arm. Suddenly he takes one damage, and loses a wisdom point permanently. He is very confused and looks around him bewildered.
Sir Ryan tilts his head, not ready to believe what his eyes are telling him. He casts Detect Evil and senses some evil towards the chain woman. He decides, however, that the evil is not the girl directly, but something past or behind her.
“Please! Come over here and unchain me!” the girl cries again.
Meanwhile, Ranthor is again attacked by his unknown assailant. He feels it scrape his armor, but he still cannot see the attacker. Angered, he quickly grabs a handful of dirt and tosses it towards the chained woman. Suddenly, the illusion disappears for him. He no longer sees a chained, innocent girl, but a hideous monster. A woman-like creature appears before him. She is infuriated. Ranthor, himself is very upset, the pretty lady is no longer there.
Otto is having a hard time believing the situation as well. He plants himself firmly where he stands, not willing to advance or walk away. Krogdor draws his sword and stands at the ready, prepaired for whatever creature has captured this beautiful woman. Kale takes Krogdor's hint and backs up against the wall opposite the prisoner and raises his bow, his aim steady. Kreshoff casts Protection From Evil, for he too has an uneasy feeling about this situation.
Without missing a beat, Ira aims his bow and releases an arrow into the girl.
“Ah!” she screams, “What are you doing? Help me you fool!” Ira sees the arrow hit her, but very little of an actual wound appears. Everyone else, however, sees the arrow miss the girl, and are confused by her outburst.
Trinity is tired of all this sitting around, “Either we free her or we kill her. Come on people!” She approaches and pokes the woman lightly with her Maul, to see if what she is seeing is indeed real. As she does so, she can feel resistance on her weapon and believes that it is indeed true.
Rayn is tired of the woman's continuous cries for assistance and decides to cast Sleep on the girl until they can decide what to do. Rayn sees the girl fall to sleep, the rest of the group sees her wide awake though.
Nova, nervous by everyone's reactions, goes invisible and hides, watching events unfold.
Sir Ryan, attempting to locate the evil he sensed, swings at open air with his sword. He doesn't hit anything.
“My champion! You must defend me!” the woman yells. Sir Ryan immediately answers, “I am here my lady!” and takes up a defensive position in front of her.
Ranthor is now the only one who knows the woman is an illusion and the creature controlling it is evil. He attacks the monster and hits for 11 damage. The rest of the party just sees him swinging at open air, just like the Paladin did.
Otto draws sword and attacks the woman who is trying to divide the group. He hits for 5 damage, but notices he didn't hit the maiden. He still notices blood on his sword though. Krogdor and Kale, who have both been ready for action, jump at the opportunity to attack. They both miss the maiden in their haste however. Kreshoff walks up and touches the maiden. His hand goes through the girl! He is stunned as he realizes it is an illusion.
Tom, being an illusionist has not been fooled by this charade. He casts Hypnotism on Darrin, Trinity, Sir Ryan, and Ira, and tells them that the maiden is a trick! Trinity, Rayn, and Nova see that the illusionist is right, the girl is not real! Ryan, however is blinded by her charm and continues to protect her while his friends attack. Ira and Darrin are not convinced by Tom's Hypnotism, and continue to believe the maiden is real.
Ira still attacks, however, and hits the maiden again, still not doing any damage though. The Paladin turns to attack Ira, but Darrin casts Hold just in time to stop the Paladin in his tracks.
Trinity, who can now see the evil demon controlling the illusion, attacks with a massive blow of 30 damage. Rayn quickly follows with a Magic Missile for 13 damage. The Demon screams in pain and anger, she raises her claw for one more attack, but right before she can land it on one of the adventurers, Nova, who has remained hidden but watchful, stabs the creature in the back for 7 damage and the beast drops to the floor dead. The image of the maiden vanishes and the demon becomes visible to all, lying dead and bleeding on the floor. Broken arrows lay around the base of the wall (arrows that had been intended for the maiden).
“Well, that's that!” says Ranthor, who then begins to gut the creature (this is just wrong...). As they search the room, the party finds about 3,000 gp in the room, which they gather up, and take with them.
Heading back the way they came, the group walks back through the Lizard Men room and finds a door, concealed almost entirely by mud. Nova searches for traps and locks, but finds nothing. She quietly opens the door which leads into a deep and odd hallway. It has multiple doors. In the hallway they find Crypts. Ranthor searches them and finds that they are all empty. One however, contains a clear, glass sarcophagus with a beautiful staff inside.
Just as Ranthor goes to open the sarcophagus gently, Ira runs up and smashes it with his sword, shattering the glass everywhere. Suddenly a man in a long black robe, with a hood pulled fully over his head, carrying a sickle, arrises from the sarcophagus. It swings its weapon and hits Ira for 10 damage. The entire group is startled and stunned by the image before them. It looks like death himself!



Episode 1 – Part 3 ~ Save The Maiden, Save Then World!

 

AD&D Episode 1 – Part 4 ~ Death Is Just An Illusion......


Nate: Krogdor – Human Fighter
Chris: Darrin The Fun – Elf Cleric
Anna: Trinity – Human Fighter
Bobby: Ranthor – Dwarf Fighter
Rodrick: Kale - Ranger
Ryan: Sir Ryan – Human Paladin
Lindsay: Nova – Elf Thief
Jeff: Otto – Human Ranger
Nick: Tom – Illusionist
Ed: Kreshoff – Human Cleric
Damian: Ira – Half-Elf Ranger


Darrin quickly grabs his Holy Symbol and turns it towards the creature, chanting. The monster pays no heed to it, however, and continues to attack the group. Sir Ryan also to tries to use his Holy Symbol and attempt to turn the creature. Again there is no response. In a last, pitiful attempt, Kreshoff takes a vial of Holy Water and splashes the beast with its contents. The robed monster lets out a deep bellow of a laugh and advances even closer.
Ranthor is unshaken by this creatures show of strength. He swings his mighty sword at the monster, but somehow it seems to miss it entirely. Nova, again, watchful and wary, turns invisible and waits for her opportunity to strike. Trinity follows close in the Dwarfs attack, but she also misses and is confused by the monsters agility. Rayn pulls out her sling and places a stone in it. She spins it high over her head and lets the rock go, straight at the creature. But the rock misses as well. Kale's arrows also misses.
Tom quickly casts Orb Of Light towards the creature. Though it does not blind it, the monster still takes 5 damage, though it does not appear to be that injured. Krogdor attacks the robed assailant as Tom casts the Orb and is able to hit for 10 damage, but this again, seems to do very little against it. Otto shoots through the melee and hits the beast for 12 damage, still very little damage is seen.
Still enraged at Ira, Death swings his sickle again at him and hits for 6 more damage.
Suddenly, the creature starts to fade and disappear! “Just another illusion,” says Krogdor, who is more than ready for whatever creature may be controlling this living picture. Ira reaches into the sarcophagus and pulls out the staff. It has writing all up and down it. Ira tries to read it, but has no success, so he tosses it to Rayn. Rayn catches it and holds it up to the light to get a better look. She too, however, cannot read it. With a shrug, she tosses it over to Tom, who is not at all paying attention, and it hits him right in the back of the head. He bends over and picks it up. Giving it his best go he also tries to understand the words inscribed on the staff, but just like the others, he fails too. Tom looks around kind of lost and confused, and Kreshoff comes up and takes the staff from him. “Well no wonder none of you can read it! It's written in a holy language!” Reading it, he finds that is a Staff of Curing that has some, but not all of it's charges left.
The group also finds a golden liquid. After careful inspection, they find that it is the honey they were told about. They also find some bees wax and use it to seal a pot of honey they filled. The group heads down the northern hallway and finds a door. Nova finds that it has no traps and she goes to open the door. But right before her hand closes completely on the knob, the door swings open to reveal a massive Ogre blocking the entrance! The one at the door swings to hit Otto, the only person it can clearly see and reach, and misses as it's hand hits the door frame instead.
Instantly reacting, Otto shoots two arrows at the Ogre and hits it for 16 damage. Ranthor, who is also at the front of the group, raises his sword to reach the belly of the monster and deals 24 damage as he slices its stomach open (looks like hes not waiting for them to be dead to gut them anymore....). Nova, still surprised by the attacker, misses her swing with her dagger.
The Ogre screams as Ranthor slices its belly open. Trying for another attack, Ranthor, in his haste, misses as the moster bats him away with its hand. Otto, however, is still ready with his bow and deals another 18 damage as his arrow goes straight into the beasts eye, and it falls over dead with a huge THUD.
Rayn can clearly see more Ogres inside the room and she quickly casts Lightening into the room as Nova closes the door swiftly behind it. They hear a loud sapping and some more screaming and decide to open the door again. When they do, they see that another Ogre has died from the spell, and four more are severely blackened and bloody. The group pushes in. Ranthor charges at one and again, slices its belly right open, killing it instantly. Nova, slinking along the shadows, comes up behind another Ogre and stabs it right between the shoulder blades, also killing it. Otto, still in the door way, raises his bow and shoot another arrow at the eye of his enemy and kills it. Sir Ryan, with valiant effort, races forward and stabs the last Ogre through the heart.
In the room the group finds a vast treasure the Ogres had been collecting greedily. The continue their tedious search of the temple. They come across a room with inert rotting mummys. Darrin searches the room for secret doors using his Elven senses. He finds nothing. Feeling saddened for these poor souls, he also stops and takes the time to bless the corpses with holy water, freeing them from their everlasting prison.
Ranthor is curious to see if these dead bodies have anything useful on them. He begins to search one of the mummys and suddenly feels weird. “Stop!” Darrin cries. “You'll get mummy rot!”
Darrin rushes over and examins Ranthor. “Blast, you've got it all right.” Mummy rot tends to take up to three months to kill its host, but the Cleric wastes no time in curing the daft Dwarf using the new staff and a Cure Disease spell of his own.
The group follows another passage to a room with large racks filled with wine bottles. Though the bottles seem old, they are full of wine, though the group is unsure of how good it is. Suddenly a side door opens from behind the racks. A mummy slowly shuffles its way towards them. Sir Ryan instantly raises his Holy Symbol in attempt to turn the undead, but he fails.
Darrin tries as well with his Holy Symbol and as he does so the mummy stops, and seems alarmed and ashamed. “I am sorry Master,” it says to Darrin, “I did not recognize you. What is your will?”
“That is alright. Tell me, did you reside here while you were living?”
“Yes, Master, I did.”
“What happened to this place?”
“It was deserted, empty...It is no longer empty, Master.”
“Have you seen a male and a female adventurer?”
“No, Master, I have not.”
“We seek them. Please, come assist us in our search.” The mummy obediently follows.
Back in the hallway, Darrin again looks for any hidden doors. But again his efforts come up with nothing. Behind one of the doors the group finds an old work room. There is nothing of interest in it, however, and they keep moving. They go west down the hallway.
Walking along, everyone is quiet, their minds on their own things. Krogdor looks at the walls and wonders just how old this temple is. As he does so, he sees a huge shadow seep through the wall. It morphs into a Minotaur and it steps out of the wall and attacks Krogdor for 10 damage, and then steps back through the wall on the opposite side. Krogdor lets out a surprised yelp and the rest of the group quickly turns their attention to the fighter.
Tom, being an illusionist, instantly sees that this is a Maze Spell!
The Minotaur jumps back out and attacks Ranthor this time. The Dwarf yells angrily and attempts to follow the creature back into the wall, but he hits his thick head on the wall instead.
The group stays ready with their weapons and continues to move.
“If we can just make it to the end of this hallway the illusion should disappear!” Tom cries.
The group moves forward at a faster pace and, after a few more attacks from the Minotaur, the maze disappears and reveals the Minotaurs location. The party goes to attack without hesitation. With a solid hit from the Paladin, and another from Trinity, the Minotaur falls dead. And, of course, the Dwarf proceeds to gut it. Kale cuts off the creatures tail and places it in his pack while Kreshoff and Trinity remove and pocket its horns. In the room the group finds a nice sword, possibly magical, and some arrows, also possibly magical.
They decide to rest in a nearby room.

End Episode 1 – Part 4 ~ Death Is Just An Illusion.....

 

Ken, you are a treat to game with at every GaryCon. And I think it's time someone unseated you as Circus Maximus crown.

 

Thanks, Jon! I really thought I was going to get pounded to splinters this year, but folks just had the urge to attack Luke instead. I can only hope people will forget about me again by the time next GaryCon rolls around.

 

AD&D Episode 2 – Part 1 ~ Friends Become Enemies!
Melissa: Rayn – Human Magic User
Nate: Krogdor – Human Fighter
Chris: Darrin The Fun – Elf Cleric
Anna: Trinity – Human Fighter
Bobby: Ranthor – Dwarf Fighter
Rodrick: Kale - Ranger
Jeff: Otto – Human Ranger
Nick: Tom – Illusionist
Damian: Telegar – Human Fighter
Eric: The Unknown – Half- Orc Fighter
Zack: Name Unknown - Elven Thief
Connor: Slytheen – Ranger / Connor: Name Unknown – Magic User

After an undisturbed rest overnight, the group awakens and exits the minotaur room. Heading south down the hallway, they come upon a door. Zack checks it for taps and locks but finds nothing. Ranthor promptly opens the door. It opens into a large chamber lined with dark wooden panel. In it a large amount of old furniture litters the room. And there, in the middle of it all, stands two adventurers, one male and one female. The man is clad with fighters apparel and the woman is dressed in monks attaire holding a beautiful staff. Their faces say they are clearly not happy to see the group.
Assuming these to be the pair of adventurers they had been sent to find, Kale says, “We were sent by the same people as you!”
Just as he gets the words out, the pair says simultaneously, “Die!” and they proceed to attack our party of adventurers.
Ranthor charges at the same time as the male fighter. The Dwarf gets two very effective hits for a total of 24 damage with his long sword. Rayn, seeing what a lovely staff the monk has, attacks her but unfortunately misses.
Trinity knows they need these two alive to complete the mission they were sent to do. She attacks the monk with nonlethal damage and does 14 damage. Darrin casts hold on the monk, but she is completely unaffected. This confuses and troubles the cleric. Otto attacks with his bastard sword and gets a single hit for 8 damage on the monk. The woman looks very bad, and she seems to be almost unresponsive due to the continuous beating shes continued to take.
Telegar attempts to subdue the monk with a final hit, but she still has the energy to dodge his attack. Seeing Telegar's failure, Kale runs up with his own bastard sword and attacks the monk, who is distracted by Telegar's oncoming attack. Kale hits for 11 damage, and the monk falls to the ground, unconscious.
Eric goes to attack the fighter. He attempts to do nonlethal damage with his bastard sword for 12 damage. But the fighter is still up and attacking. Krogdor joins Eric in the fight. He his for 5 subdue damage. The thief runs up and hits the fighter on the back of the head with the hilt of his dagger causing 1 point of damage.
Slytheen takes a giant swing with his battle ax but misses entirely, being thrown off balance by the size of the large weapon.
The fighter, murder still in his eyes, attacks Eric and hits for 6 damage with a very nice long sword. Making a second attack, he also moves towards Ranthor and hits for 10 damage.
Rayn looks at the fighter. With her magic user knowledge, she can tell that casting a Sleep spell won't work on him just as the Hold spell didn't work on the monk.
Slytheen tries again to hit the fighter with his battle ax, but again, he cannot master the size of the swing and misses. Zack sees that the fighter is coming towards him, and the thief darts off into the shadows. Krogdor hits the fighter while he's distracted with Zack, for 9 more damage.
Eric is badly wounded and defensively backs away from the fighter. Kale runs toward the man wielding his bastard sword but in his haste he stumbles just enough to throw his swing off kilter. Telegar attacks with his sword and hits for 8 nonlethal damage.
The fighter is still standing although he's gained a glassy look in his eyes. Otto and Darrin stand near the monk, ready just in case she awakens.
Trinity runs up and attacks the fighter causing 16 damage, knocking the man unconscious, to the ground.
Ranthor ties up both the attackers tightly, very upset at how ungrateful these people were to be found. Telegar picks up the monks staff and, without telling the rest of the group, decides to keep it for himself. Zack searches the fighter and finds a ring and the nice long sword the man had been attacking with.
Meanwhile, Otto remains by the monk's side. He gets a chance to look her over and sees that she is extremely attractive. He is immediately smitten by her beauty.
Darrin sees the thief going through the two adventurers things and says, “Hey guys, we're here to take them back with us, not rob them blind!”
“I was just looking!” says Zack defensively.
Slytheen is very curious about the ring and tries it on. He suddenly has an overwhelming desire to kill all of his friends, and so, drawing his weapon, he attacks the Dwarf. Not realizing how much shorter a Dwarf is from the average creature, Slytheen misses.
Ranthor is livid at his so called “friends” outburst and without a second thought, he attacks as well. Only he is able to make to very strong hits on his opponent, doing 29 damage to Slytheen. With a hair-raising scream, Slytheen is cut almost in two and falls on the floor in a crumpled heap, dead.
The entire group is totally stunned by the events. Kale, seeing what the ring did to Slytheen, carefully removes the dead mans finger with the ring, being extremely cautious not to touch it. He wraps it in a cloth and places it in his Bag of Holding. He also sees the fighters plate armor and picks it up for himself.
Ranthor takes his water flask and pours some water onto the fighters face to wake him up. Otto decides that the ring is a controlling device that was used on the fighter. He begins to search the monk for any unusual markings or jewelry. He finds a pair of stud gold earrings and removes them and hands them to Kale to place with the ring in the Bag of Holding.
Zack searches the room while his friends take care of the attackers. He manages to find a sliding panel door and quickly calls the groups attention to it.
After Ranthor splashes his face with the water, the fighter wakes up. “Am I sill in the Temple?” he asks, confused. He looks down at his hand and notices the ring had been removed. He breathes a sigh of relief. “Thank you for saving us!” The fighter looks around and sees his companion also tied up next to him, and a dead man lying on the floor. He tilts his head and gives a confused look.
Ranthor follows his gaze and smiles mischievously. “Yea you went all crazy and killed that guy.”
Trinity gives the Dwarf a very annoyed glance but does not correct him.
“Oh I can assure I speak for both of us when I say we are so extremely sorry!”
Ranthor grunts and says, “We didn't really care for that one anyway.” Kale asks the fighter what was controlling his female companion.
“I didn't really see. But if it was anything like me it was probably some kind of jewelry.”
Kale and Otto exchange knowing glances.
“If we untie you are you gonna go all crazy again?” Ranthor asks.
“No, I think we are fine now. Someone gave us those things and then I don't really remember much after that. As long as you don't make me wear that ring again you don't have to worry.”
Otto gently wakes the monk who gives almost the exact same story, except she was given earrings instead. Kale returns the fighters plate armor, but Telegar continues to hold the monk's staff.
Suddenly, Connor (new character), Rayn, and Trinity become dumbfounded, standing still and staring into space. Zack completely wanders out of the room without warning. Eric attacks Kale, and Telegar attacks Darrin! An odd battle ensues.......


End AD&D Episode 2 – Part 1 ~ Friends Become Enemies!

 

AD&D Episode 2 – Part 2 ~ It's Time To Meet The Puppets!
Melissa: Rayn – Human Magic User
Nate: Krogdor – Human Fighter
Chris: Darrin The Fun – Elf Cleric
Anna: Trinity – Human Fighter
Bobby: Ranthor – Dwarf Fighter
Rodrick: Kale - Ranger
Jeff: Otto – Human Ranger
Nick: Tom – Illusionist
Damian: Telegar – Human Fighter
Eric: The Unknown – Half- Orc Fighter
Zack: Name Unknown - Elven Thief
Connor: Slytheen – Ranger / Connor: Name Unknown – Magic User

Kale notices Rayn, Trinity, Krogdor, and Connor stop in their tracks and a blank gaze cross over their faces. He starts to walk up to them when all of the sudden he hears Eric behind him. Turning to look, Kale is just able to dodge Eric's wild swing with his sword.
Tom goes into immediate action. He casts a Hypnotize spell on all of the affected adventurers. As he does so, he calls out the command “Stop”. Nothing happens, however, and the small party that has been caught in some unknown spell, continue to act different.
Ranthor is not at all paying attention to the events unraveling behind him. He approaches the panel door that the thief located and slides it open to reveal a room filled with items that have obviously taken from the many rooms above and a massive treasure chest filled with thousands of gold and gems.
Rayn, Trinity, Telegar, and Krogdor snap out of their trance, but Connor and Eric are still not themselves. Zack is still MIA. Eric goes to attack the Dwarf this time, but he again misses as Ranthor turns around from looking at the treasure in the room. Still standing in the doorway, Ranthor fumes at his friends obvious attack. Krogdor sees the Half Orc attack Ranthor and jumps into action to try and save the controlled fighter. But Eric somehow dodges Krogdor's grab.
Kale decides to leave the group to find the thief who wandered out into the hallway.
Seeing that Krogdor missed his attempt to grab Eric and hold him from attacking again, Rayn casts Sleep on the fighter to save him from his Dwarf friend. Eric immediately succumbs to the spell and crumples to the ground unconscious.
After Tom sees his Hypnotize Spell fail, he also decides to leave the fighters to deal with the situation, and he casts Detect Magic and looks around the room to find what could be causing this. He sees the fighter's sword and the monks staff glowing bright with magic. But behind the sliding panel across the room (which the dwarf is still standing in from of), Tom sees a magnificent glow of magic. He immediately orders Ranthor away from the door. Ranthor however is still caught up in battle and doesn’t hear the illusionist. But Telegar does. With great strength and speed, Telegar yanks the Dwarf from the doorway and slides the door firmly shut.
Connor is still dumbfounded and Otto tries to tackle and tie him up before he, too, begins to attack the party. Just as he does so, however, Telegar pulls Ranthor out from the doorway and the Dwarf accidentally bumps into Otto, throwing him off balance and causing him to miss his target.
Darrin also tries to tackle Connor, but he fails as well.
Trinity is curious at what Ranthor saw in the room that distracted him so. She slides the panel open again while Telegar is distracted by the Dwarf's questions as to why he was not allowed in there. She sees the same things Ranthor did, and she is curious about the treasure chest.
“Why can't I go in there?” Ranthor asks Telegar angrily.
“It's what's causing all of this!” Telegar retorts exasperated.
Connor attacks Darrin after the cleric misses. His Magic Missile hits Darrin for 4 damage. While Connor is distracted, Otto sneaks up behind the magic user and tackles him and ties him up.
Darrin takes a Healing Potion from Telegar. Connor tries desperately to break through his restraints to attack again, but he is bound far too tightly. Eric is still deeply asleep on the floor.
Trinity is still standing in the doorway to the hidden room, and Ranthor sneaks up to look in behind her while Telegar is distracted with handing Darrin the Healing Potion. Trinity advances into the room towards the massive treasure. But just as she gets about halfway there, she falls straight through the floor and lands with a “thud”, taking 14 damage. Ranthor still sees the floor, however, and he just sees her fall straight through stone! Tom hears her land and comes up behind Ranthor. He sees a large magical glow around the chest and discovers that the floor all around the chest is only an illusion (the floor directly underneath the chest is real). He throws a rope down to Trinity.
Krogdor, Rayn, and Tom all enter the room behind Ranthor, all very careful not to step on the fake floor. Tom calls down to Trinity, “How far down did you fall?”
“Looks to be about 30 feet!” She calls back up to him. It is almost pitch black in the pit so Trinity takes out her magical flashlight to provide visibility. Without hesitation, after Rayn discovers Trinity is in the pit, she takes out her Magic Carpet, and dives down into the hole with it to get Trinity.
Tom looks around trying to discover what's causing all the ruckus. His eyes grow big and the group sees him cast Phantasmal Force at an empty corner of the room. Suddenly rocks begin to fall on what appears to be thin air. The illusion replicates a cave in. He can see a cloak, a ring, and some other things crushed by his imaginary rocks, whatever it is is desperately attempting to free itself from the debris.
Ranthor bends down and scoops up a handful of dust and tosses it in the direction of Tom's illusion. He can now see an outline of a human.
In the other room, Eric awakens and Connor stops trying to break his bounds. Kale has now found the thief and they both sit outside in the hallway, the thief now returning to normal.
Krogdor is completely confused as to why Tom made rocks fall in an empty corner. Making one more fake rock appear, Tom attempts to kill his unseen opponent with a final blow. But the human sees now that the rocks are only an illusion, and Tom's last boulder disappears into air. Ranthor, not seeing his friend's last attmept, runs in to attack the creature he can now see. He hits the man with his long sword for 26 damage, and before the man can stand, he falls to the ground dead.
The entire group looks around, utterly confused. Tom begins to explain.
“It was another illusionist! I could see through his spells! He was the one controlling us and probably the monk and fighter as well. I created a cave in to try and kill him but right before I finished him off he was able to disbelieve my spell.”
As he explains, all the illusions that had been cast, including the hidden pit, disappear, and the room returns to normal.
They go and search the now visible dead illusionist. On him they find, a cloak, two rings, and inside some pockets in the cloak, a dagger, and a pare of spectacles. All these items are magical. There is nothing magical in the treasure that fills the room, but based on its size, the group can tell that they are now insanely rich.
End AD&D Episode 2 – Part 2 ~ It's Time To Meet The Puppets!

 

AD&D Episode 2 – Part 3 ~ Medieval Exterminators!
Melissa: Rayn – Human Magic User
Nate: Krogdor – Human Fighter
Chris: Darrin The Fun – Elf Cleric
Anna: Trinity – Human Fighter
Bobby: Ranthor – Dwarf Fighter
Rodrick: Kale - Ranger
Jeff: Otto – Human Ranger
Nick: Tom – Illusionist
Damian: Telegar – Human Fighter
Eric: The Unknown – Half- Orc Fighter
Zack: Name Unknown - Elven Thief
Connor: Slytheen – Ranger / Connor: Name Unknown – Magic User

Kale turns to the fighter and the monk and asks gently, “Is this the man who gave you the jewelry?”
“Yes,” they say, “But we didn't really have a choice whether to take it or not. He just told us to, and we had no choice but to comply. We really don't know why, we just couldn't stop ourselves.”
“Aha!” shouts Tom, “I thought so! He must have used a Hypnotism Spell!”
Ranthor, who has been searching the dead illusionist, hears Connor come up behind him. “Here, wanna try this ring on and see what it does?” the Dwarf asks innocently.
“Sure!” Connor tries on the ring but does not feel any effects. Rayn tries on the other ring and can immediately tell that it is a ring of AC +1.
Disappointed that his ring appears to be useless, Connor tries on the cloak instead. This catches Otto's eye and he comes up to examine the familiar item. “This looks like a Cloak of Displacement,” he tells Connor.
Ranthor is totally enthralled by the pair of small crystal spectacles he found in the illusionist's pockets. Being as delicate as he can possibly be, he places the fragile item on his weather scared face. He looks up Tom and stares for a second. Tom appears to change a little in the glasses so Ranthor continues to look. Slowly, the illusionist takes on glazed look and seems to start to enjoy Ranthor's attention. The Dwarf quickly removes the glasses. Having been charmed himself, he can easily tell that the glasses can be used to charm someone! Unfortunately, however, they can only effectively be used by a wizard, so his charm on Tom would not have extended any further than it already had.
The monk walks over to Telegar. “Excuse me sir, but my companion and I are quite returned to normal. I would much appreciate it if you would return my staff to me.”
After much hemming and hawing Telegar finally relinquishes the beautiful staff. And the fighter's brilliant long sword is also returned to him.
“I think it's time we take you kids back to town. They've been very worried about you,” says Darrin, and after they pack up the treasure on the magic carpet, they all head back to the town.
Upon the group's return, the town holds a celebration. The fighter and monk are quickly embraced by their relived friends. After some discussion, the town agrees to let the adventurers keep whatever treasure they've found, in exchange for the magical honey they had collected. This, seeming to be a fair trade, is quickly agreed upon. The group stays and rests the night at the local Inn, and sets back out to the temple the next morning.
They head back to the final room of the upper floor they had cleared before heading down into the catacombs. The first door they come upon, the thief thoroughly checks for traps and finds nothing. Ranthor opens it into a room that appears to have been used for storage. It is filled with old grain and old, rotting honey. And all around him, Ranthor can see hundreds upon hundreds of rats!
The movement of opening the door catches the rats attention and they race in a giant heap towards the open doorway towards the Dwarf. About 15 make it past him and attack the group behind the startled Ranthor. They are quickly defeated.
Tom uses some quick thinking and casts Improved Phantasmal Force, making a massive herd of cats appear to run down the hallway straight for the open door and the rats. Rayn and Connor also cast a Sleep spell on the tiny creatures and 18 rats fall asleep. Because the rats had already been racing toward the group and Tom's illusion, they, without knowing, run straight through his spell. The rats to the back of the room who had at first seem frightened by the cats, see that many of their comrades have run through unscathed and no longer believe the illusion and the hundreds of cats disappear into thin air.
Telegar grabs Ranthor by this collar and yanks him from the doorway, and slams the door shut, killing a few rats in the process. After they kill the several rats that managed to fight their way into the hallway, they decide what to do.
“I saw several more doors in there. I think we should just go in there and kill 'em all!” Ranthor cries.
Telegar at first refuses to let the small group comprised of Ranthor, Trinity, Eric, Kale, and Krogdor, into the room. But after some harsh words he lets them past at their own risk and he stays in the hallway to protect the rest of his friends.
As the door opens more rats escape into the hallway and and the rest of the group is left to fend for themselves as the fighters race into the room. Zack jumps up onto the wall and just escapes being attacked by multiple tiny enemies. Telegar quickly slams the door shut behind his friends.
After they enter the room, the fighters are met by a wall of rats and they quickly begin batting away at the little creatures. But no matter how many they kill, more just seem to take their place.
“There's gotta be a hole somewhere!” Shouts Ranthor. They search and quickly find a large hole in the far wall. Using some fallen rocks the group works together to seal it. Once it's closed, they succeed in killing the couple hundred rats left in the room. They let the rest of the group in once it's safe.
Without a second thought the thief heads straight for one of the new doors and searches it for traps and listens for anything behind it. He finds nothing and decides to open the door himself. Inside appears to be a large dining hall with two very long wooden tables that each have large benches on either side. Both tables have places set, though they appear to be slightly disheveled. Melted candles line the center of each table.
Zack searches the whole room for any secret doors or passages but finds nothing. The group continues moving and takes the east door in the dining hall. This leads to a furbished bedroom with a large bed, a dresser, a small night table, and there, in the center, stands a beautiful woman, and a man holding what looks like a two-handed sword.
“Oh! Get rid of them! They're not from him!” The woman shouts.
“Right!” the man obeys and heads to attack the group. He charges through the group to attack Rayn and Ranthor, hitting only Ranthor for 11 damage. The woman stands back and cheers the man on, telling him what to do.
Ranthor attacks back for 23 damage and Rayn uses Magic Missile and hits him for 17 damage. The man appears pretty hurt but he is still fighting for his Lady. Trinity attacks him and hits for 16 damage. Darrin, Kale, and Tom are totally surprised by the attackers and stand there stunned.
Otto uses the flat of his sword to smack the rear of the woman for non lethal damage (still hasn't gotten over his monk thing it appears). Telegar also attacks the woman for 13 damage. Connor turns on his invisibility ring and begins to sneak around the back of the woman.
Suddenly, the beautiful woman's appearance starts to change. Her disguise drops and the group now sees her true form: She is a Medusa!
“By the god's! It's a Medusa!” cries Telegar.
At his outburst the entire group fighting lowers there gaze, not taking the chance to be turned to stone. As Trinity lowers her eyes, the fighter takes the opportunity to attack her. He hits for 15 damage with his beautiful two-handed sword.
Medusa races towards Krogdor to attack, but he sees her reflection in Trinity's plate male and he is able to dodge her attack!
Connor is frozen in fear at the revelation of Medusa and he refuses to attack any further. Krogdor hits the fighter for 9 more damage and the man looks like his barely able to stand. Kale recovers from his surprise, and aims to attack the fighter, but just as he raises his bow he hears Telegar cry out about the Medusa and Kale must release the arrow without full visual of his target, causing him to miss.
Telegar must now fight the woman blindly, but this does not stop him! He hits Medusa for 10 damage with his sword and she lets out a fierce and angry scream. As she turns to attack Telegar, Otto attacks her from behind for 4 damage.
Darrin begins to Pray to his god for blessing for his friends, that their attacks be swift, and their aim be steady. Tom casts Amber Chromatic Orb and blinds Medusa, also causing 3 more damage. Trinity is furious with the fighter for attacking her and she takes a mighty swing with her Maul and hits the fighter for 34 damage. He never knew what hit him as he fell to the ground in a pile, dead.
Rayn casts Magic Missile at the Medusa, a sure hit, and causes 24 damage, killing the Medusa in mid-step. Telegar quickly covers her head with a canvas blanket from atop the bed. Ranthor runs over to assist and cuts the creatures head off so that they may totally encase it in the blanket lest they all turn to stone.
On the rest of the body (minus the head obviously), they find many ornate rings, while not magical, they will certainly bring a pretty penny in the market. The fighter's two-handed sword, they discover (thanks to Rayn's Identify spell) is a magical +1 Sword.
Totally drained from the days adventures and finding the casters low on spells, the group decides to set up watches and stay the night in the bedroom. What a perfect place to spend the night.....or is it?

End Episode 2 – Part 3 ~ Medieval Exterminators!

 

AD&D Episode 3 – Part 1 ~ The Clay Catastrophe!
Melissa: Rayn – Human Magic User
Nate: Krogdor – Human Fighter
Chris: Darrin The Fun – Elf Cleric
Anna: Trinity – Human Fighter
Bobby: Ranthor – Dwarf Fighter
Rodrick: Kale - Ranger
Nick: Tom – Illusionist
Damian: Telegar – Human Fighter
Connor: Sir Garn – Dwarf Fighter


Awaking the next morning in the room they had killed the Medusa in only the night before, the group finds everything in order. The night has gone by smoothly with no interruptions. Deciding it wise to destroy the head of the Medusa, they promptly burn it in the hallway.
The group heads south of the room, (back into the dining hall) and they take the south door. This leads to a kitchen. It has a wood burning stove which has obviously been recently used.
“Hmm, looks like the Medusa's been here a little while,” Kale observes as he looks around the kitchen. He can see a set of ceremonial dishes around the counters. Some are clean, but many lie dirty in the sink. The entire set is silver.
There are doors directly across to the south and east walls. Darrin searches the room for secret doors using his keen elven senses. He does not find anything, however. Ranthor's Dwarf knowledge of buildings, helps him figure out that one of the doors leads back to a hallway they have already partially explored. They decide to head east.
Darrin casts Detect Traps and searches the doors. His searches come up empty and they continue to move forward. They enter a room filled with bunks which appear to be very old.
“These must be from the old clerics that used to inhabit this temple,” Darrin says, looking around.
They notice that one of the bunks has been completely rebuilt and made up. A backpack is sitting up on it. The group looks through the backpack, hoping to discover who it's owner is.
Inside, is a pint of oil, a tinder box, and a letter. Darrin opens the letter and discovers that it is addressed to the monk.
“These must been the possessions of that monk woman we rescued. She must have slept here while she was prisoner,” Darrin tells the group. He pockets the letter while the rest of the group places the other contents into the bag of holding possessed by Kale.
There are two doors in the room. One leads back into the hallway again, which extends at least another 60 feet. The group heads into the hallway, Darrin searching for traps the entire way. They come upon a door which opens into what appears to be an altar chamber. The altar itself is very old and worn, and used and broken candles lay on it and on the floor around it.
Darrin immediately senses a trap. He looks closely at the altar and notices a statue located very close to the altar. To him it appears that the altar itself is trapped and the statue might possibly be the after effect of setting the trap off.
Ranthor sees the statue as well. He tilts his head. “Well that just seems funny,” He says to no one in particular. “That statue looks soft! Why would anyone want a soft statue!” And without a second thought, he tosses a loose stone at the statue. The stone his its target and sticks in the statues shoulder!
The statue comes to live and is revealed to be a Clay Golem. It is very upset at Ranthor's gesture and immediately attacks the rest of the group. As it races towards Ranthor, the Dwarf is prepaired for the attack and is able to hit the statue first for 35 damage with his sword. But the wound almost instantly heals as the clay just slides back to fill in the holes that had just been created.
Rayn casts Magic Missile at the creature and hits it for 15 damage. But the creature, again, is able to heal itself.
Trinity runs up with her giant Maul. With a mighty swing she hits the statue for 39 damage, and this time, the creature is not able to refill the massive dent the blunt object caused in its body.
Darrin attacks with his trusted Bone Crusher and does 4 damage, but Bone Crusher is a blunt weapon as well, and the statue cannot heal again.
Kale attempts to throw a pint of oil at it but the statue is just able to dodge it and his oil just falls onto the stone floor.
Krogdor activates his new ring of Shocking Grasp and tries to grab the statue with his hands. But the creature is again to quick, and Krogdor just manages not to fall on his face.
Sir Garn, with Dwarven stubbornness, refuses to enter the chamber at all to assist his friends in battle.
As Krogdor fights gravity in attempt to remain on his feet, he doesn't see the statue coming straight for him. It hits him square in the back for 10 points of damage unlike anything Krogdor has ever felt before. Suddenly the statue speeds up to an amazing rate. He appears to be under a Haste Spell. At the thought of this Rayn's eyes get big and she goes very pale.
At its new rate of speed, the statue is able to get the jump on everyone. Trinity sees him coming for the terrified Rayn, and she jumps out into the creatures path. Taking the full brunt of the monsters attacks, Trinity takes 25 damage, and like Krogdor, the pain is unusually intense.
Krogdor again tries to use his ring of Shocking Grasp and is able to successfully grab the statue. A great shock of electricity shoots through the creature, but the Clay Golem is almost entirely unaffected.
Kale again tries with his oil, but just as he goes to throw it, Krogdor runs up and grabs the statue, causing Kale to miss again.
Darrin rushes forward with Bone Crusher again and hits for 9 more damage, closely followed by Trinity who hits for 39 more damage.
The statue slumps into a pile of clay and is dead.
Attached to the altar room is a storage chamber. It is filled with boxes of candles, though they are all very old, they appear to be in usable condition. The candles are very thick and large, one could easily assume they produce a large amount of light. Rayn, Sir Garn, Ranthor, and Kale all take at least a handful of the useful items.
The group decides to take a brief rest after the strenuous fight. Trinity and Krogdor are really feeling their wounds. While they rest, Darrin's Detect Traps spell wears off.
Ranthor decides to search the room for anything out of the ordinary, but doesn't find anything. Darrin again uses his keen Elven senses to try to locate any secret passages in the room, but he, too, finds nothing.
They all follow the hallway until it reaches a dead end. Deciding it best to go explore one of the other doors, the group heads back to the library. Taking the opposite door to the one they had just previously explored, they find themselves in a hallway. It leads to two doors on each of its sides and another dead end. Looking into each of the doors, the adventurers discover that these are confessional booths.
After examining Ranthor's very detailed map he has been drawing thru-ought their explorations, they discover that they have now searched the entire upper floor! The group decides to head back down into the basement, to explore the few rooms they missed on their first go-round.


AD&D Episode 3 – Part 1 ~ Clay Catastrophe!

 

AD&D Episode 3 – Part 2 ~ Don't Let Him Poke You!
Melissa: Rayn – Human Magic User
Nate: Krogdor – Human Fighter
Chris: Darrin The Fun – Elf Cleric
Anna: Trinity – Human Fighter
Bobby: Ranthor – Dwarf Fighter
Rodrick: Kale - Ranger
Nick: Tom – Illusionist
Damian: Telegar – Human Fighter
Connor: Sir Garn – Dwarf Fighter


Picking up where they left off in the basement, the group finds themselves in a room with large dark stains all over the floor. The room is empty, but for the stains. Ranthor searches for the source of the stains but has no luck. Darrin also searches the room but doesn't find anything. Seeing Darrin and Ranthor searching so diligently, the rest of the group decides to assist. But alas, none of them find anything at all.
Finally, the group leaves the room and comes across another door. This one is very large and heavy. Ranthor walks up to it. “Aye, it's a stubborn fella!” he says, and he tries to open it. But he is not quite strong enough to do it on his own. Sir Garn walks up to help, and together, the two Dwarfs are able to open the door.
The door opens into a room full of ancient skeletons covering the entire floor. Darrin senses no undead and says it is safe to enter the room. Rayn goes about searching for anything pretty or shiny. Telegar is excited at all the skeletons and starts randomly stomping skulls around the room.
After the entire group has entered, a giant wall of ice suddenly appears in front of the door they just came through. All of the skeletons that are on the floor slowly start to rise and put themselves back together. Many are headless thanks to Telegar. In the very back of the mass of skeletons rises a larger, odd looking one. It has a long, bone tail with what looks to be a giant stinger on the tip. It looks just like a scorpion tail!
Darrin attempts to Turn the walking dead, but oddly, it fails.
Ranthor jumps to action. He swings his mighty sword, striking two skeletons for 13 and then 14 damage. They both crumple to the floor, a pile of dust.
Rayn casts Magic Missile at the Scorpion Skeleton, and hits him for 19 damage. He is hurt, bot not entirely showing it.
Trinity also attacks and kills two more of the smaller skeletons. Telegar is quick to assist and takes out his sword to fight. He also kills two more of the smaller skeletons. Kale runs up, and using his Claymore, hits and kills another of the mass of skeletons attacking. Krogdor, unwilling to let his friends have all the fun, attacks using his sword, and he kills another.
Seeing his fellow Dwarf make such a strong attack, Sir Garn is encouraged and decides to attack. Using his two handed sword he makes a giant swing at one of the approaching skeletons. But the sword is almost too big for him and his swing is thrown totally off balance, making him miss.
Suddenly, the Scorpion Skeleton grows to over 9 feet tall! Rayn, Krogdor, and Sir Garn are terrified. Sir Garn drops his heavy sword and all three run over to the door that is now a wall of ice. They pound on the ice, making very little progress towards escaping.
Most of the group gets a weird feeling as they are killing these skeletons. They seem so easy to kill, and looking back to some of the piles of dust from the dead ones, they realize that there is now no trace of the dead skeletons. Like they just disappeared. Sir Garn and Ranthor are far too busy to notice this, however, and both continue with their actions.
Although they both now know that all the smaller skeletons are just an illusion, Rayn and Krogdor are still terrified of the giant Scorpion and continue to bash away at the ice.
Kale pulls out his bow and uses a previously found magical arrow. He does not know what it does, but decides it best to use it anyway. He is able to hit the Scorpion Skeleton for 20 damage, and discovers that the arrows are +1.
Now realizing that the smaller skeletons are just illusions and not worth their time, the group starts pounding on him alone. Except Ranthor, who is still in the dark about the illusion.
Telegar his the monster for 9 damage while Darrin the Fun casts Prayer. Trinity races toward the creature and also deals 16 damage.
The Scorpion Skeleton appears about to attack, and Trinity jumps in the way to take the blows. The monster uses its hideous tail and stings the woman fighter with its poisoned tip. Trinity takes 5 damage from the pure force of the blow as the tip is unable to penetrate her armor, and the poison that flows out of the stinger, just drips down her plate mail.
The creature pulls its tail back again and throws another attack at Trinity. This time she takes 8 damage as the stinger hits the back of her neck, one of her only unshielded areas, and the poison oozes into her blood stream. She feels a bit weaker and realizes she has lost some strength (-1 Str).
Swinging at her attacker, Trinity's Maul is heavier than she remembered and she misses both attacks, unable to compensate for the weight. Just as she misses the second time she shouts to Ranthor, “All the little ones are an illusion, my friend! Attack the giant beast!”
Ranthor immediately stops attacking the normal skeletons and races toward the creature with the strange tail. He uses his sword and hits the monster for 18 damage. The group can see chips of bone fly off with the powerful hit.
Darrin attacks with Bone Crusher but the creature bats the Cleric away with it's mighty tail.
But while it's distracted, the monster fails to see Telegar raising his sword for another attack. He hits the Scorpion for 7 damage and the creature lets out a blood chilling scream.
Kale can see the creature is very wounded and carefully aims his bow for it's vulnerable neck. He gets a perfect hit for 10 damage, and the neck bones explode, causing the entire creature to fall apart onto the ground with one final scream.
As soon as it's body hits the floor, all of the smaller skeletons disappear and the ice wall starts to melt slowly. Ranthor is curious about the chamber and how that monster got in here in the first place, so he searches the room.
Sir Garn notices that the monster had a bone like sword in its hand and he runs up and tries it out. But alas the sword is far to heavy for the Dwarf and he cannot wield it. Sir Garn drops it where it was and walks off, pouting.
As soon as the illusions disappeared and the ice wall started to melt, Rayn stops yelling and pounding on the ice and realizes that the giant monster is dead. Exhausted, she collapses onto the floor.
Darrin walks up to Trinity and heals her for 11 damage.
Before they leave the room, the group notices some writing on the door frame that is now clear of ice. The runes are very old and difficult to read. Rayn tilts her head a little. “I think they're runes of warding.”
“Can you read them?” Trinity asks.
“No the language is far too old. But some of the runes are similar to modern runes I learned at the Serrilian Academy of Magic. I think these were placed to keep that dreadful beast in. If I'm right, and if we had somehow broken the ward, he would have gone to fetch a few friends.”
“Well, thank the god's none of us did!” Ranthor exclaims.
After checking the map one more time, the group discovers they have explored and cleared the entire temple!


End Episode 3 – Part 2 ~ Don't Let Him Poke You!

 

AD&D Episode 3 – Part 3 ~ The “Giant” Journey Back....
Melissa: Rayn – Human Magic User
Nate: Krogdor – Human Fighter
Chris: Darrin The Fun – Elf Cleric
Anna: Trinity – Human Fighter
Bobby: Ranthor – Dwarf Fighter
Rodrick: Kale - Ranger
Nick: Tom – Illusionist
Damian: Telegar – Human Fighter
Connor: Sir Garn – Dwarf Fighter


After spending the night in the most secure room in the temple, the group now exits the old building and starts their journey back to the town.
Darrin sees that Trinity and Krogdor are still wounded, and he attempts to heal Trinity further. But no matter how many healing spells he casts, her wounds will not heal. The Cleric is very confused. “Are these the wounds that Clay Golem gave you?” he asks.
“Yes,” Trinity replies. “Is something wrong?”
“I'm not sure yet. Let me just try one more thing.” Darrin takes his Staff of Healing and makes one more attempt to cure her wounds. But, again, there is no effect. “I don't think there's anything I can do about those wounds, Trinity. They just won't heal.”
This confuses everyone and they decide to find someone in town who may have the answer to this mystery.
As the move forward, Kale continuously looks for any tracks, incase any dangerous creatures may be in the area. He has no luck. During their trek, the group talks amongst themselves, and fails to notice large creatures slowly surrounding them.
Suddenly, they find themselves totally surrounded by six Hill Giants! Without a second of hesitation, one of the Giants picks up a stray rock and throws it straight at Darrin's head. But the Cleric sees it coming and is just barely able to dodge it. But another Giant also picks up a rock and throws it at Tom. The illusionist is totally unprepared for the attack and is hit on the shoulder for 5 damage. Sir Garn is also hit with a rock for 5 damage.
Ranthor attacks the Giants, full of rage and hatred for the massive creatures. He hits one with his sword for 37 damage and the Giant lets out a yell.
Rayn jumps on her magic carpet and fly's just out of the Giants' reach. She casts Magic Missile and does 15 damage on one.
Trinity races forward with her Maul, straight for the closest Giant, and with a mighty swing, causes 37 damage. It just so happens, this is also the Giant Rayn hit with her Magic Missile.
Darrin casts Prayer to help his friends out while Telegar activates his Ring of Invisibility.
Tom, upset about being hit with a rock, and seeing that he and his friends are very outmatched, casts Spectral Force. The Giants hear him start to chant. It sounds almost Demonic. Suddenly, the ground beneath the monster's feet begins to shake, almost like an earthquake, and then a giant chasm opens right behind one of the creatures. A pare of glowing red, fiery hands raise up out of the chasm and grab the closest Giant. The Giant screams and thrashes, trying desperately to free itself from it's most certain death. All of the Hill Giants have fallen for Tom's brilliant spell, and they immediately turn their attention to the spectacle happening before them. They lose interest in the rest of the group and begin tossing rocks at the glowing hands. It is obvious they are all terrified.
Kale uses his bow and and hits one of the giants for 25 damage, but the Giant is to busy fighting the illusion to notice.
Krogdor attacks with his sword and causes 12 damage to the one that Ranthor is currently attacking. It is in very bad shape and could easily die with another hit, but it, too, is preoccupied with trying to save his friend from the very gates of hell.
After Kale hits with his bow, the creature feels the pain, and takes a second to throw another rock at Kale for 9 damage. As it does so, it also sees Krogdor, who is busy attacking another Giant, and tosses a rock at the fighter as well. Krogdor takes 11 damage.
The one that Krogdor hit turns to quickly attack its attacker, but sees that its Giant friend is already doing so. So the Giant turns to attack the next closest thing, Trinity. But the fighter sees it coming and tucks and rolls out of the creatures reach. Aggravated, it instead throws a rock at Tom, who seems to be focusing on something. It hits the Illusionist for 16 damage. He is very badly wounded and can no longer focus on his illusion. However, the illusion will be able to last on it's own for about 9 more seconds.
Seeing the small man on his knees, the Giant walks up and attacks the wounded man again. This time for 8 damage, and Tom crumples to the ground unconscious.
Sir Garn is enraged and advances to attack the Giant that just felled Tom. But in his fury, he fails to see one of the stones, that had been thrown previously at the group, lying right in his path. He trips over it and is lucky enough not to land on his sword.
Krogdor advances at the same time as Sir Garn. As Sir Garn falls, Krogdor leaps over him and hits the Giant before his feet even touch the ground. The mid-air hit causes 16 damage as Krogdor's sword is thrust deep into the monsters brain. It falls to the ground dead.
Kale reloads his bow and aims for the Giant he previously injured. The Giant is an easy target because it is distracted again by its fellow monster's screams as it tries to escape the clutches of certain death. With a straight shot, Kale hits the creature for 12 damage and blood pours from its near mortal wound.
The still invisible Telegar sneaks up behind an unsuspecting giant and tries to stab it in the back. But just as he gets close, he steps on a stick. The snap alerts the Giant to his attacker and Telegar is thrown back by the Giants arm as it swings around.
Darrin runs over to the fallen Tom and uses his Staff of Healing to cast Cure Serious Wounds on the illusionist.
Trinity continues to attack mercilessly. She makes another strong swing at the Giant she has been hitting with Rayn, and kills it with a massive blow to the chest.
Rayn knows Tom's illusion only has a little time left before it disappears, so she casts Magic Missile at the affected Giant's back, causing 14 damage.
Ranthor charges at the Giant Kale has been attacking, and uses his sword for a firm hit to the belly. The Gaint takes 16 damage and is barely able to stand.
One of the Giants watched Trinity kill it's friend, and it decides to attack her. Picking up a nearby rock, it chucks it at the female fighter's head. Trinity uses her shield to deflect the attack and is unharmed.
The Giant Telegar missed so badly now decides to really try and hit this pesky human. It takes a full swing with it's arm, but Telegar easily sees this coming and dodges the attack.
Rayn, still on her Magic Carpet, uses her sling to hit the Giant Ranthor is battling for 8 damage, and the creature lets out a roar. Trinity also attacks the same one for 35 damage and hits it so hard, the monster's head is knocked clean off it's shoulders.
Darrin rushes up with Bone Crusher (his +3 Mace) and hits an unharmed Giant, who has been attempting to help his Giant friend out of the illusionary hands, for 5 damage.
Telegar hits one of the injured ones for 14 damage and kills it.
Tom, after being healed, gets as far from the fight as he can without completely abandoning his friends.
After just a little bit more fighting, the group annihilates the remaining Hill Giants. Just in time too, because Tom's illusion just ran out before they managed to kill the last one. Ranthor proceeds to gut all of the Hill Giants (as usual, not finding anything useful, just doing it for some extremely perverse pleasure.....).
Rayn uses her Magic Carpet to fly up above the trees to see if there are anymore Hill Giants around. But the forest looks quiet and she can neither hear, nor see anything out of place.
Kale decides to check the Giant's tracks to find exactly where they came from (Hill Giants tend to horde treasure you know).
The group follows the tracks to a cavern that leads deep into the ground. The opening looks tall enough for everyone in the party to fit into easily, But the Hill Giants probably had to do a bit of crawling. They can barely make out a large room inside the cavern.
Darrin casts Detect Evil to see if he can spot any more Giants in the darkness. But the spell does not locate anything.
Ranthor decides to pop his head into the opening and take a look himself. He can see the room is huge, and there is quite a bit of shiny expensive objects inside. Suddenly, as he surveys the room, he notices 5 pairs of yellow eyes coming towards him and the rest of the group. The entire party can make out a low growling and they all prepare for battle!
Out of the cavern comes 5 large, hungry, and mean Dire Wolves. They all immediately head towards the first thing they can see: Ranthor.
The fight is over very quickly. Trinity, Telegar, Kale, Connor, and Krogdor each kill one Wolf, but not before Tom sets one on fire and Darrin does a good hit with his Bone Crusher.
Ranthor again guts the beasts, and Kale takes a tail as a souvenir.
They discover that inside the cavern is a large treasure. The group finds a total of 6,000 electrum and somehow manages to take it all with them back to town.
Rayn decides to stay in town for about a month to study her Book and Trinity and Krogdor, after some asking around, discover that their wounds that had been caused by the Clay Golem can only be healed by a very experienced high level cleric. They are told several times that they are just lucky to have survived at all!
Trinity and Krogdor agree, it is now their quest to locate a powerful cleric to heal them!

End AD&D Episode 3 – Part 3 ~ The “Giant” Journey Back....

 

AD&D Episode 4 – Part 1 ~ Grave Robbers We Shall Be!


Bobby: Ranthor – Dwarf Fighter
Chris: Darrin The Fun – Elven Cleric
Anna: Trinity – Human Fighter
Jeff: Otto – Human Ranger
Ed: Kreshoff – Human Cleric


While staying in the previous town, the group comes across a map of the tomb of the Spell-caster Vundraziel. Legend has it he was a very powerful ruler of a smaller area. His followers were so devoted to him, they even followed him to the grave. There is rumored to be a great treasure in the tomb itself and so part of the group decides to go on this quest while the others stay and do their own thing.
Ranthor, Darrin, Trinity, Otto, and Kreshoff decide to take on this great adventure.
After a days travel, they follow the map to a large dark cave. As they enter, Trinity takes out her magical torch to light the way. Directly inside, lying on the floor, are two skeletons. They both have what appear to be axes.
“Dwarves,” Ranthor says quietly, looking to bodies over.
Otto examines the bodies and can tell, although they are completely decayed, they have not been here for many years. Ranthor also searches around the Dwarves while his friends are busy checking out the the passage directly ahead.
On them he finds they each have a backpack and pick axes, and one also has a coin purse. He immediately assumes them to be miners and without saying a word, empties the coin purse into his own. As he walks back to the group he checks the cave walls for any pickax marks. He does not see any.
Otto listens closely for any noise in the passage ahead, but he can only hear a slight echo of the groups own movements. Darrin casts Detect Traps before they enter the dark hallway. He checks the entrance carefully but finds no traps and Otto sees no tracks leading in or out of the passage.
The group enters and follows the passage for a brief time. It opens into a great cavern that is closed in on all sides, appearing to be a dead end. But Ranthor, who put together the fact the Dwarves were minors in the first place, can see what they were digging at before their deaths. Across the room is a large wall with many indents on the lower portion, clearly made by pickaxes.
And there, between them and the wall, is a large bear. It has already seen, heard, and smelled them before they even knew it was there, and it charges to attack.
Without wasting a second Otto draws his bow and shoots to well-aimed arrows at the creatures neck doing 22 damage. The bear winces and almost stops for a second before shrugging off the pain and continuing its charge.
Ranthor runs to meet the animal and hits it with his sword for 24 damage right in the gut. The wound is deep and the bear can barely continue moving towards it's intended targets.
Without missing a beat, Kreshoff walks up with his mace and delivers the killing blow to the head. The bear falls lifeless to the ground. The cleric quickly removes some of the bears meat for himself and wraps it in cloth and places it in his pack.
“That must have been what killed those poor people in the entrance,” Trinity says, looking the bear over.
Ranthor and Darrin search the room for any secret doors or passages that my lead out of the dead end, but neither can see anything that would indicate such exits.
Ranthor walks up to the wall that the Minors had obviously been working on. It looked as though they must have been removing bricks to get through the wall at some point before the bear had moved in and killed them both.
Deciding it might be worth a look, the Dwarf walks over and checks out the wall. The Minors had made some good head-way before their untimely end, and Ranthor considers finishing the job they started with his friends to make their own way out of this dead end.
“I think there might just be a way out of this caver,” He says to his friends. “If we all work together I think we can break through this wall over here. And I'm willing to be the crypt is behind this wall anyway. Everyone up for it?”
The group agrees and after retrieving the Minor's pickaxes, they all begin work. Ranthor uses his battle hammer, Trinity, her maul, and Otto and Darrin each use a pickax. Kreshoff stands guard while his friends are too distracted to notice anything.
After about 5 hours of hard labor, they create an opening in the wall just big enough to see a very large chamber on the other side. Ranthor, being the shortest peeks as much of his head inside as he can, and see that inside the chamber are 4 wooden doors, two on each side, and directly ahead, is an archway with passage extending further into the darkness.
They break down enough of the wall for everyone to fit through one at a time and enter the chamber. With the help of Trinity's magical torch, they can see the room much better. It is very old and dusty, and it appears to not have been touched for a very, very long time.
Deciding to proceed with a left hand search, the group takes the first door on their left. After having worked on the wall for so long, Darrin's Detect Traps spell has totally worn off.
Kreshoff casts Detect Traps this time and does a quick sweep of all four doors in the room. He finds no traps on any of them.
Ranthor opens the door to the left. The door makes a loud squeaking noise followed by a soft crunch. As he enters, Ranthor can see that the room is a small crypt with shelves about waist high adorned by small jars of old incense and burial cloths. On the floor are 5 skeletons with very long gray hair cloaked with old, frail burial shawls. As Ranthor places his first foot into the room, the skeletons rise from the floor and slowly start to shuffle their way towards the surprised Dwarf.
“Quick! Everyone out of the room!” Ranthor shouts. They all rush out of the room with the exception of Darrin who raises his Holy Symbol and turns the 5 skeletons.
“As long as I stand here, they cannot leave the room,” Darrin informs the others.
Ranthor runs into the room and hits one of the skeletons for 13 damage, while Trinity quickly follows and with two massive swings with her Maul, kills two. Kreshoff hits one with his mace but does very little damage. It is now unturned and tries to attack the group but fails miserably.
Trinity takes out two more, and Kreshoff and Ranthor kill the last one, clearing the room without much trouble at all.
As they search the room for anything of value, Ranthor can see the crypt is very well-crafted indeed. But there is no treasure, nor any secret doors in this room so the group leaves.
Back in the chamber with the four doors, the group notices two suits of armor they failed to see before due to their dark coloring. It wasn't until the torchlight shone off of them that the party could see them at all. The suits are ebony black and each is complete with a kite shield and a long sword, both made out of the same material.
Otto and Ranthor move up to examine the suits cautiously. They appear to be almost Dwarven made, but both are Human size. The material is extremely dense, but does not appear to be as heavy as it looks.
Darrin is suspicious about the armor, and casts Detect Evil. He looks over the suits very well but cannot sense even the smallest bit of evil coming from them. The passage through the archway, however, glows with a distant evil.
“Well, they are not evil,” Darrin declares to the rest of the group.
This makes Otto happy, for he has now been eying one of those shields for several minutes now. He reaches up to take one of the shields, but just as his finger tips make contact, the black suits of armor come to life.
Otto jumps back, startled. Ranthor (always battle hungry) raises his weapon and hits the nearest attacker in the chest for 31 damage, but the suit does not seem to slow down, though the armor seems a bit marred.
Otto raises his bow and aims for the joints of the suit Ranthor just attacked. His plan is to lock up the joints making it difficult for the creature to move at all, let alone attack. His first shots miss, however, and he must take time to draw two more arrows.
Darrin casts Prayer to help his group while Kreshoff casts Chant to do the same.
Trinity attacks the suit of armor that is slowly advancing to the groups back. She uses her Maul and hits for a hefty 30 damage, making a very large indent in the armor.
The creatures attack but the group is far to quick for them and they both miss dreadfully.
Trinity attacks but this time the creature is able to anticipate her movements and raises its kite shield to block both blows.
The same happens to Darrin as the cleric uses Bone Crusher to attack the first suit.
Attempting to help the lone Trinity, Otto has reloaded his arrows and takes two more shots at the suit Trinity is fighting, again trying for the joints. This time both shots hit dead on and the creatures joints lock totally up, causing it to fall to the floor and fall apart.
Ranthor hits the first suit one last time and it too joins its counterpart on the floor. They are both normal suits of black plate mail armor.
Otto walks over and reaches down for the shield he had tried to take at the beginning, and is able to wear it without a problem.
The group proceeds to search the next three room and finds that in each one, 5 skeletons await them. They use the same tactics as before and are able to easily defeat all 15 without any major difficulties. The party concludes that the skeletons must have been the Spell-casters followers that had been faithful even to the grave.
After clearing all of the rooms, the group decides to enter the passage through the archway. Ranthor picks up a handful of dust and tosses it into the entrance, searching for any unseen wards, but nothing happens so the group continues on their way.
The hallway leads into a room that has two more suits of ebony black armor. But this time, without warning or aggravation, the suits immediately attack.
The party quickly disposes of the suits but not before Ranthor takes a strong hit of 12 damage.
Inside the room is another archway with another passage leading through it, though no doors line the walls of this room. Taking the second passageway, the group is caught off-guard by a pit trap which Ranthor accidentally sets off.......


End AD&D Episode 4 – Part 1 ~ Grave Robbers We Shall Be!

 

AD&D Episode 4 – Part 2 ~ Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death!


Bobby: Ranthor – Dwarf Fighter
Chris: Darrin The Fun – Elven Cleric
Anna: Trinity – Human Fighter
Jeff: Otto – Human Ranger
Ed: Kreshoff – Human Cleric
Nick: Tom – Human Illusionist

Ranthor starts to plunge into a dark pit. With some quick thinking, however, he activates his ring of Feather Fall and instead of falling, he begins to float down. He lands safely on the bottom of the trap amongst dozens of large spikes that would have killed him had he landed on them. The group proceeds to pull him out of the pit using a a rope from one of their packs.
They continue down the hallway, this time a little more cautiously. At the end of the hallway is a door. Kreshoff casts Detect Traps and searches the door. He finds nothing suspicious and opens the door. Inside is a room with a hallway directly opposite them. In the Northwest corner sits a pure, white brazier, and in the Northeast corner sits a coal, black brazier. They are directly across from each other.
Curious, Darrin sets a small fire in the white brazier, but nothing happens. Kreshoff, driven by the same holy curiosity as Darrin, searches all over the white brazier for runes, but he is unable to locate anything at all.
Ranthor searches the black brazier but his search comes up with no luck as well.
Kreshoff casts Detect Evil and searches both braziers intensely, but neither appear to be evil at all. Down the nearby passageway, however, that same distant evil glows without fail.
After stepping back from the braziers the group notices two doors in the room. One next to the white brazier and one next to the black brazier. Using his Detect Traps, Kreshoff searches both doors and discovers the one near the black brazier is trapped, but the other is not.
The party decides to enter the non-trapped door first. The room looks as though it was once pure white washed but it's age now shows and small bits of paint are chipping from the once magnificent walls. The floor is covered with large white tiles that, although dusty, are still beautifully crafted.
Ranthor takes the first steps into the room. As soon as his foot touches the first tile, some of his wounds are healed. Otto follows him into the room, but when he steps on the same tile as Ranthor had, nothing happens. He steps over to the next one, however, and he too is healed.
“Hmm. They must only work once,” Otto observes to the group.
The group proceeds through the white room to a door on the other side. It opens into a new hallway and as soon as they enter, Kreshoff can sense a trap.
“It must be another floor trap, no more than 10 feet away,” He explains.
Ranthor throws a rock that he found on the floor towards the trap. But the rock is not heavy enough to trigger it. Shrugging his shoulders, the Dwarf decides to take one for the team and set off the trap himself. He walks across it and sure enough the trap goes off.
The Dwarf suddenly sees very dark murky water below him as he begins to fall towards it, but Kreshoff is ready and grabs Ranthor before he falls too far.
Thinking there might be treasure hidden in the murky water, Tom casts light onto a small stone and tosses it into the water to light the surroundings. But the stone just continues to fall and the water is far too dirty to see anything. Giving up, the party continues down the hallway.
Kreshoff soon senses another trap. He tosses a fallen brink onto the floor in front of them and triggers the trap. Dozens of little spears suddenly shoot out of the walls and floor and then disappear again.
“Is that it? Did we set it off? Or is it going to reload again?” Trinity wonders aloud.
Ranthor tries throwing another brick onto the trap, but it does not go off again.
They decide it's better to be safe than sorry and start to jump over the trap one at a time. Otto goes first and makes it no problem, even manages to do a planned tumble at the end. Ranthor follows and makes it as well. Darrin decides to take a running jumps but only manages a running fall instead. He sets off the trap again but is able to get up and run before he is hit by any of the spears. Trinity also takes a bad fall as she tries to make it across but thanks to all of her armor, the spears cannot touch her skin. Tom casts Phantasmal Armor and a suit of plate mail armor envelopes him. He makes it nimbley across as well.
As they continue down the hallway, Kreshoff's spell detects one more trap before it fades away. It is another spear trap. This time the group doesn't even bother setting it off and just crosses with minimal trouble.
The hallway ends at a door which opens into a small chamber with a pedestal holding a stone brazier. The brazier is filled with white spruce wood blocks. After some discussion the party decides to place the spruce in Otto's backpack. There is nothing else in the room so the group heads back to the main area with the black and white braziers.
The walk over to the opposite door and Kreshoff casts Detect Evil again, and again he sense some evil farther off.
Ranthor opens the door and sees the same, but opposite thing as the white room. The room has been painted coal black, but the paint is old and chipping here as well. The floor is covered in beautiful black tiles.
“Well, one would assume these do the opposite as the white ones,” Ranthor mumbles. The party spends a good half hour discussing how to handle this predicament. Finally Darrin casts Aid on Kreshoff, and the Cleric makes a daring attempt to cross the room. Touching as few tiles as possible, Kreshoff is still gravely wounded by the time he makes it to the door on the other side of the room.
They were right, each tile touched causes wounds.
Otto follows Kreshoff's path, jumping from tile to tile. He slips once, and lands on an untouched tile which causes only slight wounds. Ranthor follows behind Otto, and he slips up once as well, again only taking a small wound. Trinity, Tom, and Darrin all make it fine.
The door leads into a hallway very similar to the previous one. This time the group is prepared for all of the traps and makes it to the final room without any incidents. They make it to the end room, which is very similar to the white one, but again, opposite. Inside is another stone brazier, but this one has blocks of black Elm inside of it.
The party takes this wood as well and travels back to the main room with the black and white braziers again.
Feeling very brave, the group places the white spruce into the white brazier, and the black elm into the black brazier. They light both piles of wood and as it begins to burn, they can all hear a squeaky door open. Between the two braziers in the middle of the wall, a secret door has opened.
The door opens into a room with an elevated section on the rear wall. In the center of the elevated section sits a magnificent wooden throne. A skeleton sits majestically atop it.
“Why art thou disturbing us from our sleep?” a voice calls from somewhere across the room.
“We did not mean to,” one of the group replys.
“They mean to steal from us!” cries a voice that sounds very similar to the first, but different at the same time.
“Could you show us some hospitality and come see us?” Ranthor calls out, looking around searching for the owners of the voices.
“I cannot move, but your words have saved your life. You may each take a piece of treasure,” the voice replies to Ranthor's request. As it says this a door to the side of the group opens. Inside the group can see treasure.
But some of the party is suspicious. Kreshoff casts Hide Alignment and Tom casts Detect Illusion. This upsets the voice. Suddenly something comes out of the bones that are lying in the throne. It's a Shade! The walls directly underneath the elevated section fall and out of it runs 18 Rabie Babies.
“Hungry!” the Babies scream as they race towards the group.
Darrin tires to turn the Shade, but the creature is to powerful for the Cleric. Kreshoff also tries to turn, but his target is the Rabie Babies. But the Cleric is overwhelmed by their mass and speed and he also fails.
Ranthor without hesitation attacks the Shade with his sword for 14 damage, but the monster does not seem to take the full front of the blow.
Otto shoots two arrows at the Shade but the creature dodges them easily.
Tom casts Chromatic Orb in attempt to blind the Shade. The Orb does 10 damage for a solid hit, but it cannot blind an unseeing creature.
Trinity sees that her friends are all distracted by the greater of the evils, however, she of all people knows how lethal the Rabie Babies can be. In attempt to ensure her friends not be destroyed she attacks the Babies. She hits two with her Maul and kills both instantly.
The Shade does a sweeping attack on Kreshoff. Suddenly the Cleric ages 18 years, but only gets minimal wounds.
The Rabie Babies attack their unsuspecting victims. They seem to concentrate their attacks on Ranthor, Otto, and Darrin. Each of the men finds a Baby attached to himself as it starts to suck out blood.
Trinity swings twice more at the Rabie Babies and gets to more quick kills. Darrin tries desperately to detach the one on his arm but it wiggles to much for him to get a good swing. Kreshoff takes out a jug of Holy Water and tosses it at the Rabie Babies, but the splash misses as the little creatures scatter.
Otto pulls out his sword and is able to hit the creature on his arm for a large 10 damage. But the little monster is still alive and sucking.
Ranthor, with Baby still attached, attacks the shade for another strong hit, but again, the creature does not seem to take the full force.
Tom conjures up an illusion. The group suddenly feels the Holy Water take effect on them all (everyone but Ranthor who is too busy fighting the Shade to notice) even though it did not touch them. They all begin to feel faster and stronger as they fight for their lives.
The Rabie Babies continue to suck more life from their victims while more continue to advance. Another of the small creatures attaches onto Ranthor who still doesn't even seem to notice. Four more attach onto Darrin.
The Shade takes a swing at the pesky Dwarf, but Ranthor ducks just in time!
As the Rabie Babies continue to feed, the last of Darrin's blood is drained from his body and the Cleric drops to the floor dead. The entire group is enraged at the death of their friend. Another Baby attaches onto Ranthor (he now has three feeding off of him).
The Shade attacks Ranthor again but this time gets a hit. Ranthor takes a small wound to the shoulder but he ages 2 years.
Ranthor tries to attack back, but the three Rabie Babies that have gone unnoticed until now, are too heavy for him to continue, and he misses his swing.
Tom creates another amazing illusion. The group sees Darrin's spirit rise from his fallen body and glow brightly as it opens it's shining hands, and with a smile, explodes into a shower of light that encompasses the entire group (except Ranthor again).
Otto misses the Rabie Baby that is still on his arm. Kreshoff hurries to Ranthor's aid and heals the brave Dwarf.
Trinity rushes to the Dwarfs aid, for she can see he will not last much longer, and she is unwilling to lose two friends in this fight. With two swings she kills two of the little monsters that are slowly killing Ranthor.
The Shade attacks Ranthor again and he ages 5 more years!
Suddenly out of no where two more Rabie Babies attach onto the Dwarf and he falls to the ground unconscious from lack of blood.
Otto kills two more of the little monsters that are running around as Trinity kills the one that is attached onto Otto, and the one that has just attached onto her.
Kreshoff again heals the Dwarf and he is able to rise once more to fight.
Ranthor viciously attacks the Shade for 23 damage, a huge hit that has visibly hurt the monster.
Otto shoots and kills one of the Rabie Babies on Ranthor while Kreshoff heals the Dwarf again.
Tom uses his staff to attack one of the few remaining Rabie Babies and gets a good hit, though it is not yet dead. Trinity hits the last two on Ranthor and he is now free from the little creatures.
The Shade, now injured badly, goes for another attack on Ranthor, but the Dwarf has nothing holding him back and he dodges the hit easily. One of the last Babies attaches onto Tom who injures it, but does not kill it fully.
Ranthor takes one final hit from the Shade and ages 17 more years as Otto kills two more Rabie Babies. Trinity assists Ranthor against the Shade and hits the creature for a massive 35 damage. It is gravely hurt but still alive.
“Die foolish mortals! Join your friend!” The Shade calls out to the group. It knows it's fate is sealed.
Otto kills two more Rabie Babies as Ranthor takes one last hit against the Shade. As his sword makes contact, the Shade explodes into a cloud of black dust and then dissipates.
After clearing the room, the group advances to the door that they saw the treasure in. Inside they find potions, long swords, a helmet, and a shield. All the items are magical.
Curious, Ranthor places the helm oh his head. Suddenly the helm begins to constrict. It begins crushing the Dwarfs head and Kreshoff has to cast Remove Curse to save the man. The helm then dies and loses it's magic. Kreshoff casts Detect Evil and sees that everything in the room is evil.
Positive there must be some real treasure around, the group searches the room. Trinity is able to locate a secret door which leads to the treasure they had originally been seeking.
Their quest being completed, the group gathers the treasure, and the suits of armor they fought earlier, and leaves the crypt to return back to the town with their friends. They take Darrin's dead body with them which Trinity later pays to have Resurrected.


End AD&D Episode 4 – Part 2 ~ Give Me Liberty, Or Give Me Death!

 

Can't wait for the write-up of the Star Frontiers finale!

 

Miss reading the write ups......

 

Our scribes went through a bit of burnout (myself included) trying to keep notes on a party of 9-12 characters each week. With luck, we'll get the record going again soon.

 

Well?.......I'm waiting........

 

Nobody wanted to restart in the middle of our latest epic adventure. This week is a new start, so hopefully we'll restart the logs as well.