Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for May 31, 2012, Priscus Venatus campaign, S2: White Plume Mountain adventure; present PCs included Althion Whiteoak (fighter), Marcus Godse (half-orc assassin/fighter), and Nosorn “The Nose” Silversword (dwarf fighter/thief) and present henchmen included Acwald Doubleaxe (dwarf fighter) and Vivienne Longshanks (cleric dual fighter).

The Swords of Greyhawk searched the room of the strange river and found a hidden door unlocked with Sir Bluto’s key!  Behind it lay a narrow passage leading to another chamber.  Beyond the door at the far end lay a room most bizarre indeed.  A massive inverted ziggurat of alternating levels of dry land and water with transparent barriers between each stretched out before the team.  In the first level of water swam half a dozen giant crayfish.  Below them another level crawled with giant scorpions.  Next, four sea lions swam in a second aquatic layer.  Down below this stood three vicious manticores.

The team advanced down to the water and fought the crayfish, using Frank the flesh golem as a shield and warrior to help clear the way.  They then moved down to the scorpion level with Acwald at the head.  One of the scorpions stung the stalwart dwarf, and he went into frothing convulsions and died before the astonished party.  In moments, Vivienne too died from scorpion poison.  The group fell back and moved Frank to the front to clear out the massive vermin.

Next, the team fought through the sea lions with little resistance and moved down to the manticore level.  Nosorn, using his last charge from his ring of flying hovered into view of the beasts, and they pin cushioned him with tail spines to the death.  Mortified, the group again used Frank as a moving wall of destruction to smash the manticores.

With the monsters destroyed, and three of their own fallen, the team triggered a flood and had to wait for it to drain away before opening the door at the ziggurat floor.  On the other side stood a plump halfling smoking a pipe!

Game summary for May 24, 2012, Priscus Venatus campaign, S2: White Plume Mountain adventure; present PCs included Althion Whiteoak (fighter), Marvin Clearmind (paladin), and Nosorn “The Nose” Silversword (dwarf fighter/thief) and present henchmen included Acwald Doubleaxe (dwarf fighter) and Vivienne Longshanks (cleric dual fighter).

The party proceeded down the last of the three corridors and found a corridor lined with copper-colored metal plates.  Vivienne could determine it was a trap, but Nosorn was unable to discover a way to disable it.  Marvin moved forward and found his metallic items heating up at an alarming rate to the point of scalding.  After suffering several severe burns, he fell back.  The paladin then stripped down to his skivvies, wrapped his metal items in a cloak and dragged them behind him on a rope.  Well down the hallway, the metal was so hot it disintegrated the cloak and rope and boiled the water it now sat in.  Nonplussed, Marvin moved into the chamber at the end of the hall and walked into an opening secret door spilling forth ravenous ghouls!

The paladin was quickly paralyzed and shredded to death by the undead.  Nosorn hurled Whelm down the hallway, heating it to glowing red steel, and smashed a ghoul to death.  Magically, the hammer returned to the Nose.  Vivienne climbed into her own bag of holding and was carried down the hallway by Frank the flesh golem and dumped out to fight the ghouls.  She smashed one to the ground but was soon paralyzed as well.  The party slowly by-passed the heat trap using the golem and bag of holding.  One by one, the party got paralyzed until Acwald and Frank were able to kill the last ghoul!

The group declined the opportunity to say a few words over the fallen paladin and instead looted his corpse.  They then moved on and found a strange smooth-floored room with a pair of room-wide pits filled with rusted razor blades.  The Nose activated his ring of flying and picked up Althion to fly across.  Once entering the room, their spell faltered slamming them to a frictionless ground.  The pair slid into the pit and were slashed by the blades.  Frank was able to reach in and extract Althion, but as the Nose tried to get close enough, he cut himself again and contracted super-tetanus.  Frank pulled the Nose out, and Vivienne was able to save his life, although he was weakened significantly.

To cross the room, Acwald removed his equipment and consumed all of his potion of growth, attaining a height of 28’.  He stumbled about and slid across the room, with the party on his back, to the safe side through an illusory wall.  The team could then reach the next doorway.

In another strange room, the team found kayaks and a “river” of water suspended in mid-air.  Fish swam through as they watched.  The group climbed into the river and moved upstream to find another room filled with fighters and the notorious fugitive Sir Bluto!  Many of the fighters charged Frank but were unable to hurt him.  Althion, Acwald, and Frank laid waste to the fighters and Bluto, while the Nose moved around the side mopping up the stragglers.

With the hostile warriors defeated, the team found itself in a huge seemingly empty room with the bizarre river flowing through.

Game summary for May 17, 2012, Priscus Venatus campaign, S2: White Plume Mountain adventure; present PCs included Marvin Clearmind (paladin), and Nosorn “The Nose” Silversword (dwarf fighter/thief) and present henchmen included Acwald Doubleaxe (dwarf fighter) and Vivienne Longshanks (cleric dual fighter).

After recuperating from the brutal sphere room, the team proceeded down a northern corridor and opened a room filled with stitched-together bodies.  Once entering the room, the door slammed shut, and the golems animated and posed a riddle.  Marvin figured out the problem in moments, deactivating the golems except for one, whom he named Frank who now follows the party’s orders.  Joined by Frank, the group moved through another door.

The team went through a turnstile and found a large natural cavern filled with boiling mud and traversed by wooden platforms on swinging chains.  Geysers of scalding steam erupted every few minutes.  Nonplussed, Nosorn activated his new ring of flying and ferried people across (leaving super heavy Frank behind).

On the other side, the group moved down a corridor and found a room of utter darkness.  Marvin could sense evil within, and the group crept inside.  The evil within attacked, but Marvin was able to dodge at the last moment.  Acwald swung his bardiche and connected with something unseen.  Meanwhile, Nosorn flew up to the ceiling and mapped out the room by touch.  Vivienne stumbled forward while Marvin moved out of the room and read his anti-magical scroll.  Moving back into the room, he disrupted the magical darkness revealing a vicious vampire!  Nearly panicked, the team closed in on the vampire unaware of the extreme danger it posed.  Miraculously it missed with its next attack but Acwald did not.  The second bardiche blow was staggering, and The Nose was able to sneak around and slay the monster from behind.  The gaseous vampire fled to its coffin, which the group prompted dismantled.  The gas sped out of the room to parts unknown.

Inside the ruined coffin, the team discovered a small fortune in coins and potions.  They also found the mystical hammer, Whelm!  The Nose decided it more fit him than Wave and claimed the hammer as his own.

The group went back across the mud chasm, collected Frank, and returned to the spinning chamber.  They ordered Frank through, but he was too uncoordinated.  The poor golem was caught spinning in the cylinder until rescued.  Marvin ran and slid through the oily chamber right as Burkett fired a flaming arrow igniting it.  Badly burned, Marvin healed himself on the other side.   Burkett and a female caster emerged through a door and fought viciously.  The woman cast a web spell, trapping Marvin.  Acwald came sliding through the cylinder and slammed into the web, sticking as well.  However, now on fire, he ignited the webbing, burning him and Marvin.  The rest of the team rushed through the cylinder, and brutal blows landed on Burkett.  The female yelled out his name in obvious distress and anger and suddenly shifted into a raging werewolf!  The team rallied to battle, and although Marvin was bitten, the team took out both the human and lycanthrope.

The group ransacked the room and moved to head down the last of the three branches of the dungeon.

Game summary for May 1, 2012, Priscus Venatus campaign, S2: White Plume Mountain adventure; present PCs included Marvin Clearmind (paladin), and Nosorn “The Nose” Silversword (dwarf fighter/thief) and present henchmen included Acwald Doubleaxe (dwarf fighter) and Vivienne Longshanks (cleric dual fighter).

The Swords of Greyhawk left the spinning corridor behind and opened the large metal doors before them.  On the other side, another metal door behind which was another metal door.  Finally, the team proceeded down a hallway into a large bubble surrounded by a boiling lake.  Within the bubble scuttled a massive crab!  Stunned momentarily, the group allowed the monster to scurry up and maul Nosorn.  The brutal attack wounded the dwarf badly, and Marvin bravely stepped in front to take the brunt of the attacks.  Acwald’s powerful bardiche cracked shell, and the team slaughtered the crab.  Within a large chest, they discovered the mighty trident, Wave!  The weapon rejected Marvin as a wielder but accepted Nosorn.

The group then proceeded back to the gynosphinx and took another branch, heading to the right.  A few steps later, Marvin discovered green slime growing up his magical armor!  He panicked and fled down the hallway as his dwarven allies yelled for him to banish it like a disease.  Dropping the ruined dagger he was using to scrape off the slime, he called upon the might of Heironeous and cured disease, which slew the slime.  He then investigated ahead, finding a patch of the stuff under the water.  He reached down and used his last cure disease for the week to slay that patch as well.

The group then found a stairway and door and decided to leave it for later.  They rounded another corner and found a second stair and door.  The group cautiously moved into a room filled with nine mirror globes hanging from the ceiling.  As they entered, magic compelled the door closed, and it locked.  The group began busting the globes and finding keys and treasures within.  Before long, they had released shadows, but Marvin kept them back with the power of Heironeous.  Then, they released a gray ooze but were able to kill it quickly.  Finally, an air elemental was released and beat Nosorn nearly to death.  The group just managed to find the right key and flee the room, slamming the door shut behind, sealing in the shadows and air elemental.

Exhausted and battered, the group slinked back down the corridor to nurse their wounds.