Mattsters of the Mattiverse Session 10

Goin' East

• Party heads out of the area with the creepy stacks of (neatly arranged) bones and uses the left-hand rule.
• A diagonal corridor jukes around an intersection with their hallway--they follow it Northeast
• As they come into an area with several branching corridors, they bump into some very scary things!
  • They have the appearance of one of these, which OOC causes slitherrr to be very nervous.
  • It turns out, however, that they are, in fact, Bone Devil Skeletons (they are later dubbed Bone Thugs).
    • slitherrr gets bonus xp for making this connection
  • They hit like a truck, but go down fast. The party has to run around for a bit to find the last one after it wandered off (since it wasn't able to immediately attack something), but everything is pretty much dispatched without too much worry.
• They find more bas-reliefs showing the monks' evil misdeeds. They also find two rooms connected by a secret passage. They are empty, except for an impressive (albeit musty) tapestry, which they stuff into the Bag of Holding.
• Another secret passage finds a room with a secret altar
  • The room has a circle of protection from chaos inscribed around it, which annoys everyone but Apt
  • There are six masterwork daggers set into the corners of the altar. Russ does the sensible thing and wrenches one out
  • They immediately animate and begin attacking him. Luckily, they are not very good at their jobs.
  • A burning hands takes care of three off the bat. Russ successfully attacks one, and Apt another. Gokar grapples the final one, and secures it--he is now carrying an animated dagger somewhere (possibly one of the almsboxes, or a scabbard).
  • Russ keeps one of the hilts, because the insignia on it is curious to him.
• The party swings back West, and heads south at the diagonal. There is a set of stairs going down, with something written in Old Ubrekti inscribed above them. The party leaves that floor until the rest of this one is complete.
• Continuing West, the party runs into a group of zombies (gnolls and humans). They are all dispatched with a single channel
  • Edi gets bonus xp for being a badass
• The hallway keeps going, turning North. detect undead reveals exactly one, which happens to be another bone thug. The party sneaks up and dispatches it (bringing Gokar down and back up in the process)
• ...only to be ambushed immediately after! A ghost, which was just outside of detect undead range, circled around the party and manifested just beside Edi, rocking him with a touch attack. This ghost's name is Grandil (not that he tells us that), and he is jibbering in Gnollish about getting the Fire Opal (only Russ understands this)
  • The party hastens to get Gokar back up and protect Edi. Russ gets there first, and Grandil tries to possess him, but fails when Edi lends him his luck.
  • Some maneuvering takes place while the party works to do damage to an incorporeal being. Grandil alternates between trying to possess people and doing massive fatigue damage to them. At one point, he unmanifests and tries to jockey for position to possess Gokar. Gokar gets a clutch save, though, and we're able to finish off the ghost with relatively little hassle
• The dust settles, and the party searches the room those enemies were guarding after a pretty harrowing battle.
• It's the Abbot's cell. There's not much in it (an empty chest, a bed-ish thing). There is also a secret door, and a keyhole.
• Russ presents the key he got from the corpse outside. It fits! He doesn't turn it.
• Party rests before continuing any further.

The Opal!... and the Opal!

• Rested, Russ proceeds to turn the key.
• Some rumbling, and a latch now appears to be manipulable.
• Russ manipulates it, and the area he is standing on rotates, swinging him into a new hallway. He doesn't know it, but doing so has also opened a door North.
• Hilarity ensures, as Russ returning to the Abbot's room causes Apt and Gokar to be trapped in the Northern corridor. A tiny bit of planning later, and the party is reunited.
• Russ and Gokar press hard on the opening door to give Apt time to peg it so it is open in both directions.
• They head East first. They are immediately confronted with a glyph ward (sonic)
• No way to disable it, they converse for a while
  • Apt enters into an impassioned defense of exploring other places, since this is an obvious setup into an area with nothing in particular (least of all the fire opal). As he is doing so, his eye wanders to the Southeast, where he catches a glimpse of.. the fire opal, on a pedestal. This causes him to trail off mid-sentence until he can correct himself.
    • Mattie gets bonus xp for hilarity
  • More debate ensues. Finally, Russ shrugs and soaks the trap. It is loud and annoying, but doesn't damage him overmuch.
• The opal is acquired. A quick appraisal shows it to be genuine, and easily worth 7-10k just for its qualities as a gem.
• Party heads back to the Abbott's room. Another quick chat, and they head North. Inside is a mundane torch that was just recently lit (??), and a stairway down onto a landing. In this landing is... another fire opal!
  • This one, though, is a worthless facsimile.
  • There are also some barrels of useless junk.
• That finished, the party begins heading South once more
• ...but is ambushed, by an accuser devil! He's ugly and nasty, and wearing shiny armor festooned with Infernal symbols.
  

  The Accuser Priest (Shirtless)

• • His first attack manages to daze Edi, which allows him to take full advantage of Gokar's terrible saves to first debuff him with anti-luck (all d20s are rolled twice, take worst roll for a few turns), then curse him (50% chance every turn to get no action whatsoever). The latter ends up setting the tone for the entire fight.
  • A nasty slugfest ensues, as the devil uses a variety of spells to debuff the party in nasty ways, and does fair damage with an acid bite. Apt, armed with spiritual weapon, manages to do significant damage, but nobody else can seem to do much. Gokar, for his part, manages to act a whopping three times in ten rounds.
  • Russ tries to be as annoying and in the way as possible while attacking (and missing, with terrible rolls) with his spear. Edi, unable to damage it with fire, is relegated to channeling heals and bit of luck buffs. Apt eventually exhausts his spells, and afterwards spends most of his time just trying to get an advantage.
  • At one point, just over bloodied, the devil turns himself invisible. Apt uses detect evil to keep track of his location.

• • This doesn't stop the devil from healing itself, of course.
  • Eventually, after slowly whittling the thing down, and almost completely exhausting all resources (including a clutch lesser restoration at the end of a very ineffective rage), Gokar is finally able overcome the curse enough rounds to get in a couple of solid blows and finish the job (his silver mace, luckily, does full damage).
  • The devil dissolves into a massive swarm of fleas. It is disgusting.
  • Not disgusting, though, is the treasure it leaves!
    • Amulet of Natural Armor +1
    • Ring of Protection +1
    • Infernal Parade Armor +2
  • The party once again rests. With its key damage-dealer cursed and two of its members diseased, they decide that they are probably done with this place, and will return to town on the morrow.

Awards

• 25 xp to slitherrr for figuring out the bone thugs' deal
• 400 xp to all for dealing with four bone thugs
• 125xp defeating deadly daggers
• 5 xp to Apt for mistaken for deer achievement (thwacking Russ while trying to attack daggers)
• 230 xp to all for skeletons
• 25 xp bonus to Edi for actually being the one to take care of the skeletons (channel FTW)
• 600 xp for Grandil the Gnoll Ghost
• 100 xp for Grandil's bone thug attendant
• 50 xp Apt's perfectly timed oratory
• 25 xp for Gokar for being very especially Gokar
• 800 xp for dealing with the Accuser

• One (1) Fire Opal