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GAME NINE: March 26, 2005

A Dragon was the least of our problems

Attendees:

Virtual Attendees:

(Yes, John was in both places.)

Given some information about there being dragons and liches, etc, we set off to adventure (Sorry I don't have more info on that, I was wrestling with a sound problem on our virtaul connections at the time).

So we go into the dungeon and look around. Etrin and Murk, the sneakiest of the group, go first. They're thrilled to eventualy have us wander up behind them making all kinds of noise. Anyway, there's these doors, ya see. And upon opening them we find a dragon's teasure, but no dragon. Sounds good, except the dragon has just wandered back and scared off our horses as he enters the cave behind us.

The good news: He's like a 2-hex creature. Tiny, fellow. And we whoop-up on him like he was flirtin' with our sister. The treasure is scavenged and the area inside his trove is searched further, discovering secret doors.

Beyond said doors is a room covered in slime. A torch mage-handed through the area triggers nothing. But of course, Murk stepping into the area triggers plenty. About now, our war mage shows up and has little trouble boiling the slime away to steam. Inside this room are doors which lead to a room with a sarcophagus in it. It is guarded by two ghosts, whom are held by Vernal and dispatched by various magical attacks. We rest afterwards to get spells back.

Now from time to time party members are hearing cats, but nobody has seen them yet and cannot pinpoint their location.

When we return this time, wandering around the area where the sarcophagus was is an undead frakensteinian monster that must be brought down primarily by the timely appearance of Guzgern and his Adamantine weapon. NOTE TO EVERYONE: Adamantine weapons next game. Every game now has something that only Guzgern can hurt! Anyway, I actually heal it with an electrical attack. Eventually the thing is brought down.

Behind the sarcophagus is a small caverous dungeon area. We follow that to a dining room. From there the right fork is a corridor. Midway up the corridor is an opening in the wall, and in the room beyond there is a room filled with a pool of lava, with a stone path through the middle. We put this off for later.

Continuing up the corridor we bend around and wind up hearing music. It's coming from behind the door at the end of the corridor. Peeking in reveals a ghostly trio. One is playing a a violin and the other two are gnashing and whailing and doing ghosty things. So we prepare, then barge in. Immediately some of the party are entranced by the music, and this means they will do nothing but stand there and occupy space in the corridor. One comes to the end of hall and holds up the whole procession by blocking the doorway, since no one who is able to move has both the movement AND the tumbling skills to get by. Eventually a combination of priestly turnings and a barrage of magely fireballs takes out two of the ghosts and the enraptured and bottlenecked alike enter the room to take out the violinist, who has been trapped in an area of silence, so his music don't work.

(If I were more evil that thunderclap was perfect. Then I'd see the lich about a finder's fee for all your corpses.)

A bit of backtracking gets us an area we can't enter because something is blocking the way (Looks like the back of a sarcophagus). Extrapolating from the map, we go around, enter another door and find a room like the earlier one with the big stoney coffin blocking the way. (Hmm... I like the name "Stoney Coffin". Maybe I'll make an undead detective. Stoney Coffin, P.I.)

We are beseiged by ghostly cats who pour forth mewling from the walls and attack the party. Largely they are taken out by the typical tactics of turns/spells, and some hammering.

Well, we've got that lava room to deal with. A wall of stone is put up as a 2.5ft wide parallel path across the lava. Upon moving across and securing a line, an undead lava creature proceeds to assail Murk. Undead + Lava = Kill with Magic. So the thing is slowed by various cold attacks, but eventually it's hurt by spells and such.

Beyond this room is the room of the undead master of this dungeon. He's apparently a vampire (we were guessing lich at first). He rises when anyone enters the room, and asks why we are here. Vernal, being a Cuthbertian, tries a turning, to little effect, and the fight begins.

Now the next...oh... three hours? Is us trying to hurt this thing with little effect, punctuated by Murk or Krayden trying to run off with it's sword and being commanded to stop and hand it back. Eventually, Murk hurts it's magic resistance a little by removing it's broach and throwing it into the lava. Etrin is insisting we retreat, and some of us start to but come back. Guzgern is brought back to consciousness, and at that point, since Guz was doing the most damage, Vampy McLich turns to gasseous form and flows off thorugh a crack in the ground.

We defile the place and leave, our asses soundly kicked, though not defeated (technically). So the problem of the Vampire is not abated. We got some treasure, and we got out alive. But that's about it.