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Excellent to see Alzar back, Abe.
Tell |
Who says he's back?
:) |
Quote:
A lot of people are playing on G+ now. You can do video games. Of course there's forum gaming and such too, but it seems the G+ stuff is hot, you can get right into a pickup game. I played for years on IRC when I didn't ahve a group and had a great time. |
Just saw this thread.
How cool! |
Alzar hasn’t been on a long adventure since he took out the Temple of Elemental.Evil five years prior. Sur,e there have been some short range missions to destroy or investigate nearby his enclave, but he has really been focused in. He tries to decide who to bring with him and here is his full roster of allies and minions, as of today, which includes new folks gained in the last five years:
Constructs: Coils Fangs #9 Flesh Golem Bokus, Flesh Golem Megala, Alzar’s Homunculous Coils is an Iron Cobra that he made from the dead one he found while adventuring. He took it apart and figured out how it worked, and built a new one. He then moved to a Necrophidus, a snake-like skeletal construct. Both guard his fake treasury. He has a treasury with almost 30,000 gold worth of coins, gems, and a few minor magic items. It is designed to entire people into beleivng that is the real treasury, when he real one isn’t even in the complex at all. Guarding the passageway is Coils and Fangs. Summoned Creatures: Eyes, a Spectator Beholder-kin Alzar summoned and agreed to guard his fake treasury for 101 years two years ago. Dryshik, his Mephit Familiar Hathast, Vala’s Quasit familiar Undead: Taurian Mummy Agarats, Tapi, Ghouls, Ghasts Numerous Skeletons, Zombies, Animal Skeletons Pack of Shadows 4 Gargoyle Cloaks to turn people in Gargoyles sorta Current People Minions: Wassilon Svartálfar Level 4/5 Fighter/Thief Neutral Str 17 - +1,+1 in combat Dex 17 - -3 AC in combat Con 16 - +2 hp per level Int 12 Wis 9 Cha 10 HP 26 XP - 11,000 Thief skills – 45 PP, 37 O Locks, 35 Find/Remove Traps, 33 Move Silently, 25 Hide, 15 Hear Noise, 88 Climb Walls, 20 Read Languages Handed chain mail and long sword and shield. AC is now 1, deals 1d8 damage in combat. Estaish Carum Vala Goldspire, 5th level Pathmage Apprentice Ally People: Aleigha Maerie Darley Other: His Ebony Fly which can be a steed, Zadaxx More than 20 Orcs and humans in a nerby watchtower that work for him |
He decides to bring the following with him:
Bokus Carum Estaish Wassilon Ebony Fly 10 Skeletons 4 Zombies with Gargoyle Cloaks 10 Animal Skeletons Dryshik Megala Vala will stay home and tend the place while he and his are away. Wassilon is brought along in case a thief is necessary. |
Alzar
7th level Fighter (Myrmidon), 10th level Path Mage (Fivefold Mage) Lawful Evil Human Str: 16 Dex: 12 Con: 10 Wis: 15 Int: 19 Cha: 17 Hit Points: 57 THACO: 14 AC: 0 (Bracers, Cloak, Boots) Gets +2 when fighting with one handed weapon Total XP: 285,000 Age 48, Body - 34 Race Abilities: None Taken Class Abilities (Cannot use as Necromancer without losing XP gain): Specialization Leadership (Alzar can command the tactics, strategy, logistics and more that a large force requires) 3 attacks every 2 rounds Non-Weapon Proficiencies: Myrmidon Bonus: Tactical History 14 Fire-Building 16 Riding 11 Swimming 12 Reading/Writing 13 Survival 14 Blind Fighting Etiquette 13 Endurance Heraldry 13 Hunting 10 Fishing 14 Weather Knowledge 10 Orienteering 15 As a Necromancer/Fivefold Mage Necrology 14 Netherworld Knowledge 10 Herbalism 14 Alchemy 12 Poison Use 11 Ancient Languages 10 Spellcraft 12 Ancient History - 14 Languages – Typic, Sis’sharr Traits: Empathy Fast Healer Precise Memory Weapon Proficiencies: Bonus Kit Specialization: Battle Axe Battle Axe One Handed Weapon Style x2 (-2 AC when using one weapon in combat) Crossbow Battle Axe Weapon Mastery Spear Total with normal battle axe - +3 to hit, +3 to damage, -2 to AC. An additional +1 with the axe and +1 damage for strength Staff – Can only use this as a Necromancer, +1 Class Ability: 1). Alzar can control undead as an evil Priest of the same level, and this ability extends to extra planar beings which are considered undead with the same hit dice for this purpose. 2). One Extra Spell/Level is Gained, must be Path. 3). Fivefold Mages reduce the spell level by one when researching spells in The Path. 4). Chance to Learn spell in The Path increased by +15% 5). Saving Throw of Targets when targeted by spells from The Path at -1. 6). No more than one spell per level can be from the group: Abjuration, Alteration, Alchemy and Geometry barring a highly unusual and temporary circumstance. 7). Fivefold Mage must invest a focus item as the method through which magic is cast. (Alzar’s Father’s Ring) 8). Must have a lab and library and workbench with 1,000 gp value per level, and an upkeep of 50 gp/level/month 9). They can store spells like an Artificer, but cannot begin to do so until level 6 10). Fivefold Mages have a chance to identify a magical item by spending a turn peering at it closely and examining it - chance is their level times 5. 11). Fivefold Mages never suffer from a negative reaction penalty due to controlling or animating undead. Stalked by a Death Servant, who merges with his shadow. If he ever is about to take a fatal blow, the Death Servant will jump out, take the blow instead, and Alzar will be fully healed. Immune to starvation Can cast ESP once/week |
Alzar’s Spell Books:
5/5/4/3/3 First Level: Alarm Alzar’s Undead Porter Armor Animate Dead Animals * Cantrip Charm Person * Conjure Spell Component Detect Magic Enlarge Friends Identify Hypnotism * Locate Remains Mount Protection from Good Protective Amulet Read Languages Read Magic Sleep * * Spoil Holy Water Unseen Servant Wizard Mark Second Level: Alzar’s Axethrow Alzar’s Bookmend Alzar’s Familiar Attract Ghoul Blastbones * Choke Continual Light Embalm Empathic Control * ESP Forget Knock Leomund’s Trap Locate Object Ray of Enfeeblement * Ray of Ondovir * Speak with Dead Tasha’s Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter Undead Mount Vocalize Wall of Gloom Wizard Lock Third Level: Bone Knit Curse Tablet Dire Charm * Dispel Magic Fly Haste * Proof Against Teleportation Protection from Good 10’ Radius Searing Serpent Sepia Snake Sigil Slumber Skulltrap * Suggestion Undead Summoning I Vampiric Touch * Watery Double Fourth Level: Alzar’s Quest Alzar’s Scrollmend Alzar’s Undead Expertise Bestow Curse Charm Monster * Contagion Dimension Door Disfigure Evard’s Black Tentacles * Greater Malison Magic Mirror Minor Globe of Invulnerability Mordenkainen’s Faithful Phantom Shield-Maidens * Putrefaction Ray of Oblivion Rary’s Mnemonic Enhancer Remove Curse Special Effects Vorthala’s Undead Turning Immunity Fifth Level: Animate Dead Conjure Earth Elemental * Contact Other Plane Deathmaster’s Vial Domination ** Magic Jar Teleport Transmute Rock to Mud Vile Venom Xult’s Magical Doom Sixth Level: Alzar’s Golem Heal Alzar’s Spellbookmend Curse of Lycanthropy Enchant an Item Ensnarement Geas Invisible Stalker Legend Lore Seizure Spell Mirror Stone to Flesh Transmute Bone to Steel Alzar has gained some new spells such as Remove Curse, Contact Other Plane, Slumber, Magic Mirror and a few others. Asterisks represent those memorized. He has read and uses the Tome of Leadership and Influence and gained +1 charisma Alzar gained the Ancient History proficiency |
Before embarking, Alzar uses several divination spells and his Crystal Ball to spy on the steading. It appears to be a normal wooden enclosure with no windows.
The Magic Items Alzar has equipped Cloak of Displacement -2 AC Bracers of Defense AC3 Boots of Striding and Springing -1 AC and can leap far Belt of Flying with three gems giving CHA18 to LE, regen 1 hp/turn and immunity to Charm/Suggestion spells Robe of Useful Items Ring of Free Action Ring of Sustenance normally but switches in dungeons to what is needed at the time Gauntlets of Ogre Strength – Strength becomes 18/00 Bracelet of Swimming Necklace of Adaptation Amulet vs ESP and Crystal Balls Periapt of Health Periapt Against Poison +2 save vs poison Gingwatzim Amulet – +1 to saves Ioun Stone – Incandescent Blue Sphere (+1 spell level) 5 Bags of Holding. +2 Cursed Battle Axe with curse removed Sword of Lyons on Right Thigh Alicorn inside breeches, strapped to left thigh - +7 save vs poison Several +2 daggers on bandolier Wand of Magic Missiles with 28 charges, Frost, and Lightning Bolts on bandolier on chest, as well as the Paralyzation one with two charges and Rod of Terror. Gem of Seeing, Ear Ring, and Monocle of Read Magic are kept handy on belt, in secure containers for each. Several important potions are in metal vials on belt – such as Extra Healing and Gaseous Form. There is a leather brace on the arm with the Ring of Sustenance that has the following rings available to pull off quickly – Mud Ring, Warmth, Fire Resist, Spell Turning, Spell Storing Rings, Seeing and Human Control. Most importantly, Alzar has the Orb of Golden Death strapped over his shoulder. It: Travel to, and survive comfortably in each of the four elemental planes. Can Wind Walk, Earthquake, Flame Strike and Wall of Ice once per week each Can Conjure 8 hd elemental with max HP (64) once each week per type. Summon and control a demon Type I, II, III and Babau three times per day per type, but not more than once total per hour. That’s in addition to Know Alignment, Detect Lie and Poison automatically. His Axe also: Battle Axe - +2, -2 vs Chaotic Evil (so it’s neutral against CE). It is cursed, but that was removed. It has permanent scrolls in the haft, and the command words are in the ancient language, which he can now read. Three times a day he can activate each of these – Push, Passwall, Burning Hands. Alzar’s AC is 0 without Axe, -2 with it, and -4 with Mordenkainen’s spell in play. He has a Bag of Holding with all major items handy, including Censer of Controlling Air Elementals, Stone of Controlling Earth Elementals, Rope of Entanglement, Daern’s Instant Fortress, a full slate of scrolls, extra potions, and more. Because he’s traveling, a second Bag has all of his spellbooks, as well as those he has found in his adventurers. His Spell Storing Rings: Ring of Spell Storing – Detect Magic, Sleep, Ray of Ondovir (1,1,2) Ring of Spell Storing with these spells – (5, 3, 3, 3, 1) Conjure Earth Elemental, Searing Serpent, Skulltrap, Dispel Magic, Sleep Ring of… 1, 2, 3 and 3 Spell Storing – Charm Person, Locate Object, Fly, Fireball He also has temporary spells: Level 1 - Spoil Holy Water Level 2 – Knock Level 3 – Vampiric Touch Level 4 - Minor Globe of Invulnerability Level 5 – Teleport Which he can use in an emergency Protective Amulets allow a save made if they fail one and are destroyed Level 2 – Forget Level 5 – Domination |
Three days later, Alzar and his retinue take off for the Steading. He is traveling with his wagon of workshop and lab, another of undead and a golem, and a third for him and the people.
It takes five days to arrive at the Steading, and Alzar finds the place as expected. He continued to spur on it as he voyaged closer. There were some minor raids by the giants, but nothing major. He has the group berth at a large cave that is about 6 miles away from the steading. He slays the bears in here easily and they have a nice berth to keep the wagons in while he moves out to investigate the hill giants. |
Alzar will be taking extra people with him, because I want to slow him down a bit. Frankly, I think he could do a good job at soloing the adventure. But the XP would be incredible. One Hill Giant is 3000 XP. If he slays 30 over the course of the adventure, that's 90k right there. Add in all of the other creatures, and he could easily wind up with 200k for the adventure. That's waaaaaaay too much XP for him. Then add the XP for soloing the next two, and you could have him at level 15 or 16 by the time this is all done. Instead, he'll take along people as protection, because Alzar doesn;lt believe in overkill, and thus we slow his development
|
He saw some visitors arrive while he was spying, but no new ones seemed to leave. There should be some Hill Giants in there plus. There are no guards posted outside the wooden fortress and the road goes up to a large set of double doors that is roughly four times Alzar’s height. With a lot of room to move into, Alzar sends Megala and Dryshik to fly around. There are two doors in the back, both closed. There are also ten chimneys. A tower overlooks the door, and there appears to be a dozing hill giant in there, but they can’t see in further.
Alzar wants to enter the keep without causing a major alarm if he doesn’t have too. The Gem of Seeing reveals nothing, and the Ear Ring at the door also is silent, save for snoring which could be the giant upstairs or something else. Opening the door this big will awaken anybody around. Wassilon tries to move silently but fails. There is no sound of anyone noticing. Alzar grabs a Broom of Flying from the Bag and flies up, and sees that he can just squeeze into the space in the watchtower. He fits through, draws his battle axe, aims for the neck of the giant, and… He hits it for 32 damage, which slays it. |
He then tosses the broom down to Estaish and Carum and Wassilon who all come up.
Downstairs are two sleeping giants in front of the door. They are dispatched by the foursome, and the door is opened and the rest arrive. Items Found: Gold and gem belt buckle, 1400 gp Hill Giants Slain – 3 This room has a lot of cloaks and coats and furs on pegs and hanging. Here are a few weapons, bags and sacks here. In the center of the fall wall from the watchtower is another giant pair of double doors, and then doors half as large flanking in and far to the sides. The Ear Ring reveals loud sounds from behind the double doors. A bit of listening reveals there to be dozens of voices inside. Alzar is very tempted to summon a pair of elementals off the Stone and Censer, and bust down the door and hit whatever is behind here. He needs info first, so he takes the…right door (random) |
This room has a lot of cloaks and coats and furs on pegs and hanging. Here are a few weapons, bags and sacks here. In the center of the fall wall from the watchtower is another giant pair of double doors, and then doors half as large flanking in and far to the sides. The Ear Ring reveals loud sounds from behind the double doors. A bit of listening reveals there to be dozens of voices inside. Alzar is very tempted to summon a pair of elementals off the Stone and Censer, and bust down the door and hit whatever is behind here. He needs info first, so he takes the…right door (random)
There is a corridor some forty feet in length that Ts. On the left side, 30 feet down is a large door. Opening it reveals the room of a giant who is out, but a sleeping giantess on the bed. They slay her instantly, and search later 980 cp 320 cp 1500 gp Silver Combo with Gems -300 gold Copper Mirror – 200 gp Gold Hair Pin with a Pearl – 800 gp Hill Giants Slain – 4 |
They head back and look down both possibilities. Left goes thirty feet and then turns right. Right goes 60 feet, there is a door on the faaaar right and it turns left. They head right and find a long corridor of roughly 80 feet with a door at the end and two on the left. They open the door and find the barracks. Snoring in rhythm arrives. Wassilon manages to sneak around while the flyers enter and two giants are sleeping. They are dispatched without an alarm and they keep going.
110 pp Hill Giants Slain – 6 The first door on the left opens into a room that is about 80 feet long and ends at another door. The door opens into a dorm with a dozen smaller, young giants play fighting and wrestling. They move towards the door and Alzar opens it up. Battle begins. They fight like ogres, and will give XP like them as well Alzar orders the Gargoyle en-Cloaked Zombies in first as shock troops, and then behind them move Carum, Estaish, Wassilon, Bokus. Megala and Dryshik fly up out of range, and the weak skeletons and animal skeletons are kept back. Alzar’s Sleep spell drops three before battle begins. The gargoyles and the young giants clash and the gargoyles don’t take any damage due to immunity to normal weapons – which makes them great shock troops. The younglings waste their first round hacking at the gargies, which one is put down by Carum and another by a gargoyle. 7 left The gargoyles continue to dice into them, and this round, only one moves away and attacks Estaish, but misses. He shouts to everyone else to move targets, and next round they will. One more is slain by a gargoyle, as Alzar moves up with his axe. He wins init and his axe cleaves one dead. 5 left. One attacks hi and would hit save for his Cloak – misses first attack that would hit. Two more die to Wassilon and a Gargoyle. Meanwhile, they attack back and miss. The next round they are finished. Young Hill Giants Slain - 12 Used: Sleep Spell Searches later find no treasure of note in the children’s room |
Alzar spends a few minutes checking, while Invisible from the Sword of Lyons, to ensure that no one heard the noise. It was quite loud, but perhaps the children playing is just normal for them. The other door opens into the corridor that was at the other end of the initial T, and there are no other doors in that corridor. Now that he has a Gem of Seeing, Alzar does a basic sweep of all rooms and corridors, and he discovers a secret door in this corridor. It opens in the same direction at the large double doors from before, and his Ear Ring shows the same sounds back here. They return to the corridor with two doors remaining, one of the left and one in front of them when it ends.
The door on the left opens into what is likely a maid’s chamber. Four giantesses are here, one of which is older and barks orders to the other three, and they all move to attack. Gargoyles fly up and meet them. Killing the unarmored giantesses is easy, and nothing else is even needed. 3000 gp 4 potions (Extra Healing, Healing, Poison, Hill Giant Control) 3 bracelets worth 4000 gp each Using his ability to ID items based on his knowing of crafting them, he has a 50% chance of IDing anything. He checks out the potions, and can only suss out one. It’s an Extra Healing potion, which is nice and he pockets int. The rest are taken into a bag of Holding for later. I mention what they are now in italics so you will know them. |
They leave the room and head to the door at the end of the hallway. This opens into a giant hall. There is a corridor twenty feet across heading left and it ends at another pair of huge double doors sixty feet later. Down a twenty feet corridors in front of him is another double doors 80 feet away, and the corridors appears to bend. To the right the place opens into a large hal and a smaller set of double doors Megala checks it, and it’s vacant, but there is another door ot the rear of the hall. It has trophies, a large fireplace, tables ,chairs, furs, shields on the wall and more. There are no occupants. A Gem of Seeing check finds a magic shield on the wall, and a quick check shows it to be a +3 one.
+3 shield Feldspar Statuette – 2000 gp They go to the door at the rear of the chamber, because it’s on the same wall as the one they entered, and thus likely doesn’t have anything behind it. This is a large 40x50 room in the corner of the building, with another fireplace. It appears to be a nice bedroom for this building, and inside is a pet cave bear, that roars and attacks. Alzar jumps in front with his axe out. He kills it before it can even hit him. Later they will find, in a pouch in the room: Gems worth 5000, 3x 1000, 4x 500, 8x 100, 5x 50, 8x 10 gp Slain – 1 cave bear, 10 Hill Giants, 12 Younglings |
They grab the smaller set of double doors in this area and they open into an even better and bigger bedroom. There is nothing of value here, but the Gem of Seeing finds a secret door into the corridor that goes forward from the enters they opened. They move to that corridors now and head up.
They are now at the smaller set of double doors. To the left the 20’ corridor continues and ends 40’ into another set of smaller double doors. The Ear Ring reveals barking beyond the door they are at. Alzar decides to continue down the corridor instead of taking these doors. So far, they’ve not been discovered. There are no noises and the doors open to reveal a smaller dining room with space for about ten giants comfortably. There is another door in here, and the Gem reveals a secret door as well. Inside the first door is and armory, with lots of giant sized weapons of various condition. A Gem finds 5 javelins and Alzar can’t decide what they are. He also finds a large otter pelt worth 2000 gp. Giant Otter Pelt, 2000 gp 5x Javelin of Lightning The secret door opens into a small closet and stairs leading down. Inside the closet are several scroll tubes, one of which has instructions about gathering the giant tribes together for a large set of raids that are about the begin, and signed by one Eclavdra. There are plans for the steading as well, and Alzar now has a map, but the stairs down to another level aren’t on the map. He retreats and moves into the wolf area. This is a large open area with a small compound on the other side. In here are double doors on what appears to be the exists, and this is the room that the exits outside both come into. 14 dire wolves are here, and they move to attack as a pack. Alzar has been waiting for a situation to finally use the Fireball spell in the Ring of Spell storing, so he can put something else in it. It blasts and incinerates all of the wolves, and slays them, without making too much noise. Slain – 1 cave bear, 10 Hill Giants, 12 Younglings, 13 Dire Wolves Used: Fireball in Ring of Spell Storing |
They move to the doors on the other side and that small compound and enter.
They enter a guard room with a horn. There are more weapons arranged here, along with shields ,and two exits in the far wall. Nothing reveals as magical, so they move to the door that’s closest. This is a barracks, empty of people. The other is as well. They find: 1300 gp 8x 100 gp gems Alzar returns and they move to the double doors to the great hall. Apparently, no one has noticed the dead maids, bear, wolves, guards or children yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Alzar prepares his group. He activates the Censer and the Stone and summons to Elemental allies. Earth Elemental – 43 hp Air Elemental – 45 hp He also summons a Babau demon from the Orb: Babau – 57 hp He orders the elementals and Babau in front and they slam open the doors. Here is what is inside: This is the Great Hall of the Steading. It is where the chief holds audience, they eat and play and socialize. It has many tables, benches, firepits, and more. At the back is a large table with the chief, his wife, the sub-chief ,a cloud giant and three stone giants seated. In the rest of the room is a cave bear underneath the table eating from the chief’s hand, 8 ogres serving food, more than 20 hill giants (22 to be exact) for a total of 38 combatants. Time to get busy. |
Turn 1
Alzar orders in all of his troops, with the elementals and demon spearheading an offensive. A pair each of Gargoyles will flank them and protect him and his men from being surrounded. This is not an occasion for subtlety, such as Dominations and Charms. This is a time for pounding. Alzar’s group wins init. Alzar begins by casting Evard’s Black Tentacles in the middle of the room in the thickest clump of giants. 13 tentacles appear. They have AC 4 and take 11 hp before dying. These 13 tentacles immediately snake out and try to attack nearby anything. 13 attacks commence on random nearby things. Two hit chairs and tables. The tentacles will remain for 11 hours or until destroyed, squeezing and damaging what is grabbed by them each round. 11 tentacles lash out. Three attack ogres and two are entangled and a third takes 2 damage and destroys the tentacle that tried to grab him. The entangled ones take damage and can’t get away. The remaining eight attack Giants. One giant is very close and he is attacked four times . Two entangle him for 14 damage and another two are broken by him for 4 more. 22/40 for that one Another one is attacked twice, hit twice and takes 11 damage – 26/37 The remaining four tentacles eahch attack one giant. One is hit for 10 damage and locked down – 17/27. Another takes 8 and is locked down – 32/40. The last two are out and take just a bit of damage and those tentacles are gone. The elementals each attack a nearby giant and hit twice total for 21 damage and the giant is at 18/39. The babau follows and slays it after attacking it with its 19 strength. The gargoyles attack and one hits for 8 damage and another for 3. An Ogre is at 23/31 and a giant at 36/39. Carum, Est and Wassilon each attack. They each hit and deal a total for 23 damage to a giant. 17/40. The skeletons and animal skeletons each attack and deal little damage. Bokus punches the wounded giant for 8 damage. 9/40 The giants are scattered by the tentacles and the sight of an attacking force. Chief Nosra grabs a ballista on the wall and loads it this turn. He will fire it as a crossbow next turn. The Cave Bear is released and all ot the giants converse, with several attacks coming in. They coalesce on the Earth Elemental and dole out 19 damage to it. 23/42 – Earth Elemental Slain 1 Hill Giant |
Turn 2
The next turn, the giants win init. In comes a Ballista Bolt at….Estaish and it nails him for 19 damage. The giants attack in force and slay the Earth Elemental. Attacks at the gargoyles are wasted, a skeleton falls, and one of the tentacles is freed on the first giant with two on him. 31/50 - Estaish The tentacles squeeze. One tenacled Ogre is slain, and the other has 7 hp left. The rest are held tight. Alzar enchants the skull on his belt with Skulltrap and throws it at the chief and those around him. It arrives and… It deals 31 damage to the six target in the area, save vs half. Nosnra makes the save at takes 16. His wife fails and takes the full damageTwo stone giants fail, and one makes it. A nearby ogre dies. Estaish kills the wounded giant. Carum hits another for 6 damage and the others miss. The Air Elemental and Babau punch and slay a wounded Giant that hobbled over from the tentacles. The gargoyles deal damage but are really holding the fort by having several creatures attacking them for nothing. Four skeletons attack the Cave Bear that rolled it and deal 3 damage in two hits to it. 49/65 – Nosnra, 10/41 – Wife, 20-51, 17/48, 27/43, 40/43 - Bear Slain 3 Hill Giants, 2 Ogre, |
Turn 3
Alzar’s group wins init. The Ogre tentacles dies. One giant is down to just 10 hp, out of 35, and the others are wounded. Everyone has moved past them. Alzar casts haste on the Air Elemental, Babau, four gargoyles, Bokus, and four skeletons. They will each attack twice. The Air Elemental attacks and swirls a Hill Giant for 15 damage. The babau attacks twice times two and hits three times, slaying the wounded giant. Gargoyles bring down another giant. Carum misses, Est does too. Bokus punches and hits the Cave Bear for 15 and the skeletons on it attack 8 times for three hits for 11 damage total. Dryshik is ordered to breath and tries to breathe one of his balls on the Chief. It misses. Three skeletons die, including one hasted. Many attacks ensue and.. Babau takes 10 – 47/57 Carum takes 13 – 51/64 Estaish takes 12 – 19/50 Alzar is attacked and misses by a Cloak and bad attack rolls. 49/65 – Nosnra, 10/41 – Wife, 20-51, 17/48, 27/43, 14/43 - Bear Slain 5 Hill Giants, 3 Ogre, Slain – 4 skeletons |
Turn 4
On the next turn. Five ogres pour through a door on the other side and join the fray. Alzar’s squad loses init. One giant frees himself from a tentacle by slaying it. The Babu is hit several times but takes half damage from most attacks, and is dealt 17 damage. The Air Elemental is hit twice for 11 damage. Another ballista bolt flies at Estaish but misses. Wassilon is nailed twice for 20 damage. Carum takes another 7 and an animal skeleton and a skeleton die. Babau – 30/57 Air Elemental – 34 Wassilon – 5/25 Alzar orders Wassilon to retreat behind the line. He casts Conjure Earth Elemental and summons a 50 hp guy to add to the fray. The Air Elemental hits once for 7 damage on an Ogre. The Babau slays the ogre. The one on the tentacles dies., and a hill giant also dies. The gargoyles damage two giants seriously, and each is at 13 hp remaining. Bokus punches the Bear for 10 damage. A skeleton hits it and slays it. Another attacks a giant for 9 damage. Estaish hits for 6 damage. Slain 6 Hill Giants, 5 Ogre, 1 Cave bear. Slain – 5 skeletons, 1 animal skeleton |
Turn 5
The next turn arrives. They keep initiative. A Stone Giant clubs the Air Elemental for 14 damage and a few giants follow it up and kill it. The Sub-Chief has ordered the giants and ogres on the gargoyles to move to the center of the line with the elementals and demon. They also hit Carum for 8 and Bokus for 9. 43/64 – Carum 39/48 – Bokus The Earth Elemental swings and hits a wounded stone giant for 6 damage. The babau claws into it for 22 damage and it dies. The two hasted skeletons left finish off an entangled hill giant. The gargoyles move in to finish off a 13 hp giant while Carum throws his spear at the other moving away and pins it for 14 damage and slays it too. Dryshik breathes and blinds the chief for 3 rounds. Alzar follows with Domination spell cast on the unwounded Cloud Giant. It….misses the save and the Cloud Giant is told to stop fighting and returns to its seat, which it does. 49/65 – Nosnra, 10/41 – Wife, 20-51, 17/48, Slain 9 Hill Giants, 5 Ogre, 1 Cave bear, 1 Stone Giant – Dominated 1 Cloud Giant Slain – 5 skeletons, 1 animal skeleton |
Turn 6
Turn 6 sees another Hill Giant rushing through the west door and joining the fray. Alzar’s group wins init this time. The gargoyles attack a unwounded hill giant collectively and bring it down to 6 hp. The babau misses all four of its attacks – amazing. The Earth Elemental swings and hits once for 11 damage. Carum is twirling his Sling of Seeking and Alzar ordered him onto the wife in the back, directing the fight. He misses her. Bokus punches a wounded Stone Giant and hits three times for 22 damage. It’s dead. Estaish can’t connect. A weak little animal sksleton finishes off a weakened hill giant that was brought to 6hp. The tentacles finish off the last entangled giant. Alzar grabs his axe and swings, targeting the wounded stone giant that ‘s left. He hits for 18 damage. 49/65 – Nosnra, 10/41 – Wife, 2/51 Stone Giant On the counter attack, the Ogres that joined have formed up on the Sub-Chief and attack as a unit on the Babau. They hit three times for 12 damage. 18/57 hp for it. The others swing at various targets. Two animal skeletons are crushed underfoot and Alzar is missed twice. Slain 11 Hill Giants, 5 Ogre, 1 Cave bear, 2 Stone Giant – Dominated 1 Cloud Giant Slain – 5 skeletons, 3 animal skeleton |
Turn 7
The next round sees them win their init back. They concentrate on the Babau and manage to bring it down. Only Alzar is attacked this round otherwise, and he takes 11 damage. Alzar – 46/57 Alzar swings and kills the wounded stone giant. He gets a second attack this round and misses. Carum hits the wife for 4 damage. Estaish stabs at afresh hill giant and hits it for 9 damage. Bokus adds 19. The gargoyles slay an unwounded ogre. The undead do nothing. 49/65 – Nosnra, 6/41 – Wife, Slain 11 Hill Giants, 6 Ogre, 1 Cave bear, 3 Stone Giant – Dominated 1 Cloud Giant Slain – 5 skeletons, 3 animal skeleton Turn 8 On the next round. Alzar wins init. He swings at the newly wounded Hill Giant and kills it. The Earth Elemental crushes a unwounded Ogre for 14 damage. Bokus adds 10 while Estaish stabs it twice for 14. It has 8 hp left. Carum misses the wife. Dryshik breathes on the Chief who can now see again and misses. He has no more breathes. The gargoyles kill another ogre and deal 12 to another. The chief uses the ballista to attack the wounded Wassilon in the back. He can’t get it on target. Their group forms on the Sub Chief who orders attacks on the golem and Bokus takes 27 damage. 12/48 Slain 12 Hill Giants, 7 Ogre, 1 Cave bear, 3 Stone Giant – Dominated 1 Cloud Giant Slain – 5 skeletons, 3 animal skeleton |
Turn 9
Alzar wins init again. He switches to his Ring of Shooting Stars and uses it’s Spark Shower ability which he can use once/day inside. Everybody in front of him for a bit takes 2d8 electrical damage if they don’t have metal armor or weapons, and an addition a4d4 if they do. Bokus is in front of him and has metal plates in his body, so he takes both. Since electrical damage heals him, he gains 21 damage. Those attacking him take 10 damage or so each, which slays a wounded Ogre. He also hits two hasted gargoyles for 10 damage each and slays three of his animal skeleton due to the area effect. Carum hits the wife for 8 damage and slays her. Estiash misses. Bokus attacks and kills an ogre on him after hitting three times for 31 damage. The Earth Elemental misses, and the gargoyles attack a hill giant and deal 21 damage to him - he has 9 left after taking 10 from the spark shower. Wassilon is ordered out of the room. Bokus 33/48 They form up and try to attack Bokus again. They hit and deal 24 damage. Their chief reloads. 9/48 – Bokus Slain 12 Hill Giants, 9 Ogre, 1 Cave bear, 3 Stone Giant, 1 Wife – Dominated 1 Cloud Giant Slain – 5 skeletons, 6 animal skeleton Turn 10 Alzar wins init and switches to the Wand of Lightning. A Bolt crashes into the golem for 34 damage/healing. After the attacks are through two giants are dead. Bokus takes 21 and a bolt smahes into Carum for 22 damage 22/48 – Bokus 21/64 - Carum Slain 14 Hill Giants, 9 Ogre, 1 Cave bear, 3 Stone Giant, 1 Wife – Dominated 1 Cloud Giant Slain – 5 skeletons, 6 animal skeleton |
The remaining turns of the battle
This time, they win init. Bokus takes another 20 and is sitting at 2/48. They’re just aren’t enough left anymore. They got lucky to do that much. Their chief loads. This time, four giants fall to Bokus, hasted gargoyles, the Earth Elemental and the fighters. Alzar heals another 33 on the golem. 35/48 – Bokus Slain 18 Hill Giants, 9 Ogre, 1 Cave bear, 3 Stone Giant, 1 Wife – Dominated 1 Cloud Giant Slain – 5 skeletons, 6 animal skeleton There are 5 giants, 4 ogres, the chief and sub-chief left. They form up and lose init. Alzar cleaves into an ogre for 16 damage. Estaish stabs it twice and slays it. The Earth Elemental punches a wounded giant and slays it. The battle line has moved towards the chief and reached him. Bokus punches four times and hits once for 6 on a ogre. Carum misses but an undead bite adds 7 and the gargoyles finish him off. They move their attack to the golem that can be healed to the Elemental and dole out 14 damage to it in three hits. Slain 19 Hill Giants, 11 Ogre, 1 Cave bear, 3 Stone Giant, 1 Wife – Dominated 1 Cloud Giant Slain – 5 skeletons, 6 animal skeleton They win init and deal another 17 to the elemental. Alzar double swings and kills a giant who had only taken 10 damage from sparks. The sub chief is now exposed, and the gargoyles move in and attack. They deal 23 damage to him. Alzar orders two gargoyles to fly out and cover the other doors to prevent them from running, although the field of tentacles has helped to hem them in. Bokus deals 14 to a giant. Slain 20 Hill Giants, 11 Ogre, 1 Cave bear, 3 Stone Giant, 1 Wife – Dominated 1 Cloud Giant 49/65 – Nosnra, Sub-Chief 26/49 Slain – 5 skeletons, 6 animal skeleton The next round Alzar’s group wins. Two more giants are slain and the sub-chief himself falls before Estaish’s blade. The giants attacks and a ballista bolt deals 22 damage to the elemental, which added to a minor hit slays it and it is down. Slain 22 Hill Giants, 11 Ogre, 1 Cave bear, 3 Stone Giant, 1 Wife – Dominated 1 Cloud Giant 49/65 – Nosnra, They win init and focus on the skeletons. Two are slain, one of the hasted ones. They finish off the three ogres that are still around, leaving just Nosnra and the giant that came in to help left. The next turn they are finished off easily. Slain – 7 skeletons, 6 animal skeleton Used: Evard’s Black Tentacles, Haste, Skulltrap, Conjure Earth Elemental, Domination, 2 charge on Wand of Lightning Slain 23 Hill Giants, 13 Ogre, 1 Cave bear, 3 Stone Giant, 1 Wife, 1 Sub-Chief, 1 Nosnra – Dominated 1 Cloud Giant |
After wards, Alzar discusses with the Cloud Giant what is happening. It tells Alzar that someone has been building up a unity in the various giant races and preparing for mighty raids all across the mountains. Alzar can’t have this. There would be a clarion call for mighty heroes all over the area to unit, and who knows what they might find while scouring for giants. The Cloud Giant says that some items were magically sent to the Frost Giants, as a way to get them on the side of the power that is unifying the giants. Alzar’s hammer was likely among them, because he hasn’t found it yet.
Alzar and his group finish exploring this level. There are no combatants left, just some orc slaves, a few giantess who offer no resistance and are forced out, and another set of stairs down in a hallway. In this room, and on the rest of the floor, Alzar will find: Ruby Studded Collar 1000 gp 8 pieces of jewelry – 4000 gp each 52 pieces of jewelry – 600 gp average each 100 gp earring 1000 gp gem An arsenal has tons of helmets, weapons, shields, etc for giants The kitchen and larder have tons of provisions. Literally, tons. 955 sp 705 gp 79 pp 381 cp +2 warhammer 2 potions (Storm Giant Strength, Delusion) +2 two handed sword, +4 vs giants, Int 14, 8 Ego, Neutral Good, detects enemies – belongs to the Cloud Giant in his room so he takes it. 29 orc slaves, and two wounded ones, who tell Alzar of an orc slave rebellion in the underground. He should hail orcs as friends. After clearing out this level, Alzar decides to take the secret stairs down, rather than the open ones. |
They arrive in a long corridor. A Gem of Seeing shows a hidden room. A portcullis prevents further going down the hallway into a room. The secret door enters into a treasure roo, and a skeleton dies as it is captured by a pit trap which resets, Wassilon disarms it.
2 skeletons left The gem of seeing dispels some illusions, and the treasure is gathered 23840 gp A locked chest that Wassilon opens, 4139 pp 41x 100 gp gems 13x 500 gp gems 8x 1000 gp gms Jewelry pieces worth 7850 gp total There is a map that shows the Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and an obsidian box. The box has instructions on and a chain. This is a chain that, when held by up to 6 people and the special word is read, will teleport them to any place you have a map too, but it only works once. It can send the group to the Frost Giant’s place immediately if Alzar were so included. He is not. 11x +2 arrows +3 spear Flaming Sword, Chaotic Neutral, Int 10, Ego 12, Detects Gems, Empathy Flaming Sword, just a generic one, no intelligence |
They move into the room and open the portcullis. It closes around them and bars release four maddened masticores.
 Alzar orders the gargoyles over to them, and Dryshik drops a Wall of Fog around everyone else. The gargoyles slay them. 4 Manticores Dead A Gem reveals a secret door, and they take it. Inside are levers for the portcullies, and they are raised. They move left to the room the manticores wer in, and there is an exit. This opens into a smaller treasure room. 13000 cp 27300 sp 7140 ep 27 copper ingots worth 400ccp each Potion (Poison) 11 ivory tusks worth 1000 gp each 980 gems of 1 gp value each They return to the top level and come down the other stairs. |
This is a huge room, 80X100 and three corridors and three doors leading off it. It’s a marshalling area with benches and such, but no people. Alzar picks a door and they find a room with the Keeper of the Cells. He is an old twisted Hill Giant with two nasty Carnivorous Apes as his entourage. Alzar’s Axe cleaves into him for 10 damage and he orders everyone else back. After four rounds, they are all dead ,and Alzar took another 17 damage. Two bugbears ran it during combat and were slain easily.
29/57 hp 2 apes, one more HG slain; two bugbers taken out +3 battle axe 5400 gp 5x 500 gp gems 4x 100 gp gems 4x potions of Water Breathing Keys for cells. He heads back and tries the open door opened by the bugbears jailers and discovers five cells. They open all five, and one has a trap with three skeletons rising to attack, which Alzar immediately controls. +3 skeletons Inside is an insane merchant, a human engineer to help with the expansion of this level, 5 captured orc rebels who join Alzar’s cause, andhe gets them crossbows , and a qwith fighter/magic-user named Haden. Haden is a level 5 fighter, lvel 8 mage, and has no spells memorized. He is NG, and won’t serve Alzar beyond this adventure. He has 14/31 hp. He is given the bugbears’s weapons and armor, as are the orcs and engineer getting armed before he goes to the third door . |
Since the long Hill Giant fight was split up into several posts, I'll give you this whole thing in one.
They arrive at the door and open it. Inside are a dozen bugbears who shout for aid and battle is joined. Alzar drops three with Sleep. The rest move in. A door opens and more bugbears can be seen but no one knows the count. Battle begins Alzar’s group wins init. The Dominated Cloud Giant is happy to attack these, and his magic sword cuts into one for 6 damage. Carum spears it for 6 and Estiash misses. Bokus punches once for 15 and slasy it. Alzar casts Sleep from his Ring and drops another 4. Gargoyles eat one. Crossbow bolts hit one for 5 damage and the undead don’t have anything to do, not enough spac.e The bugbears attack various people, and miss. A dozen more Bugbears have poured into the room and more are coming. Alzar’s group wins init. His final Sleep from another Spell Storing Ring drops another three. Bokus and ht fighters slay two more. Bokus takes 16 as a commander Bugbear orders concentrated attacks. 19/48 – Bokus Alzar again wins init and orders Bokus back. He Vamp Touches one for 18 damage and slays it and gains that in life. The Cloud Giant kills another and bolts fly into a third and slay it. 10 more bugbears have arrived. The Cloud Giant takes 8 and Alzar is attacked heavily and unsuccessfully. 47/57 - Alzar Slain – Bugbear - 18 They win init and Alzar takes 21. Another five enter the room. He orders everyone back and casts Skulltrap from his Ring. He flings it and hits 19 bugbears and himself for 22 damage save vs half. He slays 8, and takes 11. No one else can attack save for Carum; sling which misses and orcs that finish a wounded bugbear. The next turn arrives Another group of Bugbears enter, and now there have been fifty come in. Those that can attack Alzar do so, and he takes another 5 damage from two hits. Slain – Bugbear - 27 31/57 - Alzar With him in front, he casts the Faithful Shield-Maidens to drop his Ac twice and to give him two attackers. Bolts slay another wounded bugbear. The gargoyles are flanking Alzar and protecting everyone else from melee attacks, but preventing them from attacking. Slain – Bugbear - 28 Alzar’s axe is out as he wins init. He carves a bugbear dead. A maiden hits and deal 5 damage and Carum kills it with a slingstone. The bugbears in the back have grabbed spears and chuck them at Alzar, but miss (Cloak). They attack back and Alzar takes 15 (With AC4, its hard to hit him) Two axe attacks sly two more bugbears, and another dies to missiles and a fourth to gargoyles. 16/57 Slain – Bugbear – 34 He wins init again. He grabs the Orb of Golden Death and casts Wall of Ice as a horizontal ice sheet on the ceiling, and it falls on the bugbears in front of him. There is no save, they each take 3d10 damage. I roll and its 19 damage. With no save, that slays all of the remaining Bugbears in the room. Used – Sleep x3 which includes both from Ring of Spell Storing, Vampiric Touch. Skulltrap #2 from the Ring, Shield-Maidens. Slain – Bugbear – 50 |
There are several rooms in the Bugbear complex.
300 gp 31x10 gp gems They return to the big chamber and head up. They find large gallery under construction. No one is here right how. All of this dungeon looks relatively new. Someone is planning something big. There’s another unfinished chamber here, and finally, an quarters for three more Stone Giants. They see Alzar approach and make mo menacing gestures. They talk, and the Stone Giants agree to leave but Alzar forces them to leave behind everything but their weapons and some food. In a chest they left is 14230 gp There is nothing else here so they return and take another pathway from the giant chamber. They find a storage room with normal stuff in it and a wine cellar. There is an exceptional rare vintage here with 13 five gallon tuns with a bung seal. They are worth roughly 500 gp per QUART. There is also a cistern back here as well. Nothing else though. They head back and take the final hallway. It Ts and there are numerous doors here. Three doors reveal 78 orc slaves, which Alzar frees. They head right. There is a torture chamber with two dozing hill giants easily dispatched 2 more HG slain Gold Chain with Fire Opal – 2000 gp |
T the north are three chambers guarded by three bugbears which Alzar slays easily.
3 more bugbears killed 88 orc slaves are here and freed as well. The corridor ends down and arrives at an armory and smithy with two fire giants and 7 slave dvergr. Alzar casts Domination on a Fire Giant as they move. It fails. Battle begins. Alzar casts Charm Monster on a Fire Giant and…It works and Alzar has his new friend back away. They other is slain by Bokus, a Cloud Giant, many bolts, and such. 2 Fire Giants answered The Dvergr are freed. One joins Hrothgr Level 8 fighter, 18/29 Str, 8 Int, 11 Wis, 10 Dex, 17 Con, 6 Cha, 70 hp, Neutral 4000 gp in a sack the Fire Giants had |
The armory has a badly damaged corridor to an abandoned temple. Alzar recognizes a temple to Ralishaz, and uses the Gem from the doorway. The altar is radiating strong evil and a trap. They stay away and just head through to the other side. There is a large natural cavern here and they come across the 78 orc rebels. They join their fellows and almost 300 orcs are now together. They were captured form many different tribes, and Alzar suggest that they form a new tribe, which they do. The Tribe of the Bleached Skull is formed, and Alzar will relocate them to an area somewhat near his home where they can build a home and raid.
There are a tribe of 33 trogs to the north of the orcs. With the orcs leaving, they can spread out to the whole huge cavern and grow. The orcs inform Alzar of a hidden cavern to the north past the Trogs. Entering a stream will take you to a large cavern of carrion crawlers where they take the dead of many to consume them at their leisure. Alzar agrees to check it out and switches to the Elvenkind Boots. He goes alone and invisible with the Sword of Lyons. As a reminder, Carrion Crawlers can paralyze you, but that’s it. Due to his Ring of Free Action, Alzar is immune to paralysis, so he can ignore and slay Crawlers at his leisure. A day later, he has slain 12 crawlers and found: 250 ep 250 cp 150 sp 150 gp 120 pp 12 gems total 2400 gp 2 jewelry worth 2000 gp total Ring of Depetrification – 13 charges Ring of Water Walking Wand of Wonder, 13 charges Wand of Fear, 52 charges +2 Mace, +3 Short Sword Not a bad haul all in all. |
And with that, the Steading has been cleared out. For the next ten days, Alzar leads the orcs back to their new home and watches over them. The Cloud Giant manages to throw off his spell four days into it and Alzar slays him. And takes the weapon. The Fire Giant is slain “accidentally” by Alzar as well, since there is no place for him in his place.
He also restocks the Rings of Spell Storing ,and uses the time to find and scry on the Jarl. By the time they arrive at the tribe’s new home, he knows it very well, and has id’d all of the items. Here’s the tally of the dungeon: XP total – 183000 for the adventure Split: Alzar - 337500 (Level 10, level 11 is at 375k) Estaish – 161,000 (Level 8, level 9 is 250k) – Leveled up - Now with 59 HP Carum – 141191 (Level 8) – Leveled Up - Now has 72 HP. Wassilon – 33,900 fighter (level 6, level 7 at 64k)/33900 thief (Level 6, 7 at 40k) – leveled up a lot – gained 14 hp – 39 hp total Hrothgr – 150000 (Level 8) – 70 hp Alzar sells all of the unlabeled jewelry and gems for 90% of their price in gp – 86976 total gp |
Items Found:
Gold and gem belt buckle, 1400 gp Silver Comb with Gems -300 gold Copper Mirror – 200 gp Gold Hair Pin with a Pearl – 800 gp 3 bracelets worth 4000 gp each Feldspar Statuette – 2000 gp Giant Otter Pelt, 2000 gp Ruby Studded Collar 1000 gp 27 copper ingots worth 400 cp each 11 ivory tusks worth 1000 gp each 13 five gallon tuns of rare wine, 500 gp/quart Gold Chain with Fire Opal – 2000 gp After converting all coin to gp we have: 80, 653 For a total of – 167, 629 gold total in pieces Teleport Chain, 1 shot to a map location for 6 people Map of Glacial Rift 11x +2 arrows +3 spear Flaming Sword, Chaotic Neutral, Int 10, Ego 12, Detects Gems, Empathy Flaming Sword, just a generic one, no intelligence +3 shield 5x Javelin of Lightning +2 warhammer 2 potions (Storm Giant Strength, Delusion, Poisonx2, Extra Healing, Healing, Hill Giant Control) +2 two handed sword, +4 vs giants, Int 14, 8 Ego, Neutral Good, detects enemies +3 battle axe 4x potions of Water Breathing Ring of Depetrification – 13 charges Ring of Water Walking Wand of Wonder, 13 charges Wand of Fear, 52 charges +2 Mace, +3 Short Sword This adventure felt generous is gold but stingy in items. Name one item that Alzar will use regularly. 55 bugbear corpses 35 hill giant corpses 2 fire giant corpses 1 cloud giant corpse 4 stone giant corpses Alzar had the orcs carry these back in litters and wagons. They will make nice undead later. |
The new Rings of Spell Storing List:
Ring of Spell Storing – Sleep, Sleep, Ray of Ondovir (1,1,2) Ring of Spell Storing with these spells – (5, 3, 3, 3, 1) Conjure Earth Elemental, Searing Serpent, Skulltrap, Dispel Magic, Hypnotism Ring of… 1, 2, 3 and 3 Spell Storing – Charm Person, Forget, Suggestion, Vampiric Touch We changed several spells and now have Forget, Hypnotism, an extra Vampiric Touch, and Suggestion. |
G2. The Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl
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It will be interesting to see if any of these other giants are going to be able to represent themselves better than the Hill Giants. Alzar's army looks pretty invincible right now.
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Alzar has spent some time scouting this area, with the map and divination magic. The Rift is not a structure like the steading of the Hill Giants was. Instead, it’s a large set of ice caves and caverns made in the glacier by melting ice over the years and years. There appear to be many wild creatures here, such as yeti, wolves, giants, and more.
Hrothgr is joining us for the rest of the Giant missions, and then we’ll see where he stands then. (Again, I want to cut into Alzar’s experience. One Frost Giant gives 7000 XP. Alzar’s Rope of Climbing will be out for this mission, wrapped around his shoulder. He can pull out to help him and his group climb. Due to the precarious nature of some of these places, he will not be bringing any skeletons or animal skeletons with him. Four zombies with gargoyle cloaks Bokus is agile enough to climb but will not be coming with us. Carum, Estaish, Alzar, Wassilon, Hrothgr Dryshik, Megala And that’s it Hrothgr is given appropriate magic weapons and armor for the battle. Alzar wears Ring of Warmth instead of Sustenance for this mission until something happens to force him into something else. Estaish is wearing the other on, switching his Fire Resist Ring for it. He is also wearing the Boots of Elvenkind, which leave no track in the snow at all, rather than the ones he normally wears. |
Alzar has a new set of spells memorized and is leaving behind Bokus – let’s discuss why.
Ogres are tough enemies certainly, but they aren’t that much to handle these days. In the Hill Giant’s great hall, the hp of an Ogre ranges from 20 to 31. The hp range for Hill Giants is 27-44 in that room. Roughly, Ogres are in the 20s usually, and Hill Giants in the 30s. Don’t let the Giant in Hill Giant fool you. They are not a major threat. Frost and Stone Giants, however, are at the next level of difficult. Frost Giants are to Hill Giants what Hill Giants are to Ogres and what Ogres are to Bugbears. Each will have, roughly, ten-15 more hp and be a bit easier to hit opponents. Here is what a Frost Giant needs to hit an opponent who has a great AC of 0. They need a 7 on d20. Bokus has an AC of 4, so they would easily crush him. This is not the adventure for him. A thrown boulder or ice chunk by a Frost Giant will hit with alarming accuracy and deal 2d10 damage. You can expect them to average around 11 points a hit with them at range, and in melee, attack with a giant weapon which deals 2d8+9 damage from their strength, or another 18 damage roughly per hit. Unlike their dim cousins the Hill Giants, they tend to wear metal armor that drops their AC to 0, and thus are harder to hit as well (compared to the HG’s natural 5 sometimes dropped to three with hides). The Frost Giants are clever, and you can expect them to do more tactics than the HG’s did, with more hp, better chance of hitting, and harder to hit. They are also known, like humans, for taming some wild creatures and using them for pets. Now, consider the spell Skulltrap. Let say you cast it on four Frost Giants, and roll 26 damage. They make their roll, and 13 damage each is a scratch. Even if one fails, it may take off half damage and you still have a lot of damage coming your way. Where is the power with it? Also, Alzar can’t get in front and bring in the hits from the others, due to a low AC and such. They’ll pound him even with his AC of -4 from Bracers, Cloak, Boots, Axe and Shield-Maidens. They only need an 11 on a 20 to do it. Here are the spells Alzar knows for this adventure: Hypnotism x2 Sleep x2 Charm Person Empathic Controlx3 Ray of Ondovir Continual Light Dire Charmx2 Haste Vampiric Touch Charm Monsterx2 Shield-Maidens Conjure Earth Elemental Dominationx2 This is a much different slate of spells. It almost looks like Alzar is an Enchanter rather than a Fivefold Path Mage! The following spells are NOT in the Enchantment/Charm school – Continual Light, Haste, Shield-Maidens, Conjure Elemental. All of the rest are. This spell-list shows Alzar wants to turn his foes against themselves. This is a more subtle, but perhaps more powerful list than the one he used against the Giants, where raw force was useful. |
Alzar will be using the Orb more. It’s an artifact, and he has it, so expect him to continue to use and abuse it. The last time, he used it very little – just for a Wall of Ice and a Babau once. He will not hold back this time, and leans into it. He can summon one demon every hour, and it lasts an hour, so Alzar will have one demon with him at all times, rather than just for a big fight.
Here are the demons the Orb will summon, based on the 2nd Edition Description (Which gets rid of generic Type I, Type II demons) – Vrock, Babau, Hezrou, Glabrezu There is no cave of safety here this time, and the Rift is another 125 miles past the Steading away from Alzar’s home. It would take a long time to get there the old fashioned way. Alzar teleports the party back and forth over a couple of days, staying inside his Instant Fortress about twenty miles from the rift. After the whole party is gathered together, and without his normal laboratory and workshop as a result, Alzar and crew move in. Getting there requires some cautious climbing and the Rope’s aid, but there is no major danger. The Rift is very windy and visibility is low. They find the entrance to the Rift, a worn trail of Frost Giants. They can enter the right to the right or left. Each comes out on a ledge overlooking the rift about 250 feet in the air. The powerful gusts stop any planned flights, because use of a simple Broom of Flying would cause random directions to go. |
Alzar choose the…right (random). He summons a Vrock to help the team as they explore.
Vrock – 60 hp, AC - -2, 2d6+6 damage from one claw, two attacks per turn, it can cast Mirror Image/day, THAC0 12  It can fly with us and move with s, and weighs 500 pounds, so it’s not likely to blow off course due ot the nasty winds. |
We move.
Alzar is always in front, invisible, and about thirty feet away from the group. The path arrives on the north side of the glacial rift, and Alzar and his team move into a large ice cavern that opens behind them to the north. The plateau continues on. Alzar scouts and discovers this is the lair of six Yeti and a leader, This should be a fairly conventional fight, so he brings up the group and they move in for battle. Alzar’s invisible axe bites deep into the leader for his max damage – 8 rolled x2 for Ambush is 16, plus 2 for magic, +2 for expertise with weapon +6 for strength – 26 damage. Rar! Battle begins as the warriors, Gargoyles and Vrock rounds the bend. Alzar is attacked by all of the yeti. Two wound have hit but miss due to the Cloak, and one of those was the Chief with a glowing sword. On the next turn, they win init and Alzar takes 9 from one hit by the chief. The rest miss due to the Cloak or his -2 AC. Alzar slays the Chief with his first attack, and deals 11 damage to another. The group arrives and can attack next turn. On the 3rd round, Alzar wins. He carves the wounded yeti for another 15 damage and slays it. The Vrock attacks and hits once for 10 damage on a yeti. Estaish hits for 6 on it. Carum misses, Wassilon misses, Hrothgr hits for 7 and a gargoyle finishes it off. They attack, and Alzar is misses by them all. They win init and Alzar takes 6 from a hit. Alzar carves into one for nothing after he critically misses and drops his axe. Carum spears one for 5 damage, Estaish adds 10, Wassilon finishes it off. The gargoyles and Vrock slay another – one left. Alzar’s team wins init and finishes the yeti. Slain – 7 Yeti |
Alzar – 44/57 hp
Alzar picks up the glowing cold sword and investigates it. It’s a +3 Frostbrand sword +3 Frostbrand Sword 11 Ivory Tusks – 800 gp each The Frostbrand is +3 and +6 vs fire creatures. It glows when in below freezing. It acts as a Ring of Fire Resistance by its wielder and can extinguish fires by being pushed into one. It’s a good weapon, but not for here and Alzar pockets it in an extra dimensional Bag of Holding. You don’t want t be using it against creatures that take less damage from cold attacks. Alzar and his retinue continue along the plateau. They find a cave that opens o the north as the plateau widens. There is a path down to the glacier, but the plateau continues on, and more caves and tunnels can be seen. The first cave that opens is nothing but a misty cave fogged up with a warm spring that causes a strong mist. Alzar checks it heavily even with gem, but there is nothing in here. Another cave opens up and Alzar investigates. As he does, a growl is heard above and two snow leopards spring on him. They could smell him through the Invisibility and attack him. One would hit, but misses due to his cloak. The other misses. His Axe is unslung and battle begins. They win init. One attacks him and can’t get his bite on target. The other hits, but it’s the one that missed before. Now both have hit him and the Cloak won’t cause a dodge anymore. His axe swings and dashes into a leopard for 13 damage. On the next turn, Alzar wins init. He hits just once out of two attacks, but finishes off the leopard, and the other misses him. It wins init again claws him for 5 damage. His axe bites it for 13 damage. He wins init and finishes it off. Slain – 7 Yeti , 2 Snow Leopards Alzar – 41/57 hp There is nothing in their lair. |
Go down to the Rift, continue along the plateau, or check out this big, giant cavern complex?
They move to the big complex to the northwest Alzar tells the group to stay behind as he scouts deeply after seeing what he thinks he sees. There are four large caverns in this area, and each has Frost Giants. Three of them have four giants, and the last has six. Alzar returns and orders the Vrock to attempt to gate in Dretches. It has a 35% chance of success and these are weak little demons. It can only try once per day and these folks don’t like to do it but the Vrock is fully under the control of Alzar. It tries and…fails. Ah well, it would have been nice to have some cannon fodder. Alzar positions the gargoyles just inside of the cave but way out of sight of the Giants. It’s time to be clever. Alzar goes back out and has Carum come with him. Carum grabs the Diminution Stone and shrinks, and Alzar places him under his cloak. Alzar moves to the easternmost cave, which is the one by the entrance. He finds a place where he can only see one of the Frost Giants in the room, and casts Dire Charm on it. He wants to Dire Charm the Frost Giant which is far away and turn it loose on its friends. Then, while they are taking care of that, the gargoyles move to the mouth of the cave. They are to prevent any other giants from entering. Alzar and Carum will handle the remaining Giants in here, as they are distracted by the one Dire Charmed. That’s the plan. |
Here we go. Alzar casts Dire Charm. It…works! The Frost Giant rolled an 8 and failed his save. One of the Giants will now attack whoever is closet, enemy or friend it doesn’t matter. Alzar grabs the Sword and goes invisible again. It picks up a boulder and heaves it at another Frost Giant.
Alzar randomly magicked the second most powerful giant in the room. It attacks the strongest and hits him for 15 damage. 34/49 hp left. Battle begins. They win init and three boulders fly at our Dire Charmed friend. Two hit for 27 damage. 20/47 left. It roars back and throws a boulder and adds 14 to the wounded one. 20/49. Alzar has run up and the gargoyles are in place. The next turn arrives. We win init. Alzar swings his axe and surprises the Giant farthest from the Dire Charmed one for 22 damage. Carum grows and attacks and misses. Our Giant attacks and misses with a boulder. Two throw boulders at it. One hits for 9 damage – 11 hp left for our guy. The third attacks Alzar and rolls a 6 – miss. On the next turn , they win init. They finish off the Dire Charmed Giant and Alzar is hit so missed due to the Cloak. Alzar swings twice and hits both times, finishing the giant they attacked. Carum throws his spear at the injured giant and hits for 8 damage. 12 left on it. Other giants have arrived at the entrance but they can’t get in, they are body blocked by the gargoyles, who attack them. The next turn arrives, and Alzar’s group wins. Carum slings the wounded giant for 6 damage and Alzar grabs a +2 dagger from his bandolier and throws it and hits for 8 and slays it. 1 left. It throws a boulder at Alzar and hits, miss due to cloak. Alzar wins init again. Carum and Alzar charge this turn across the large room. The giant throws a giant boulder and critically misses Alzar. The Frost Giants break off from the gargoyles and move, but the gargoyles stay put. The giants win init. Alzar is attacked by a large axe and it rolls an 8 – hit on his AC-1 (no Boots of Striding and Springing). He takes 14 damage. His axe bites back for 12 damage and Carum adds 5. 26 hp left four our giant. Alzar’s group wins init. They finish it off with four attacks this round. They begin to retreat, as the gargoyles cover, but no Frost Giants are left to pursue, they are elsewhere. |
As Alzar and Carum move out of the cavern, a few boulders pop out of the nearby rockface, and out pour 14 Frost Giants. They had a concealed entrance/exit in case of emergency. Smart. Alzar didn’t see it because the Gem of Seeing does not notice natural camouflage. 14 Frost Giants are about to attack, and Alzar has no plans, and no sneaky stuff available. His plan backfired. He wanted to fight Giants in a small group and ended up with a large force!
The others are right here, and he orders them in. Alzar’s group wins init. He needs to get his people to a place where they can melee the giants who have strong missile attacks. If he succeeds on a Domination or something, he still only takes out one Giant this turn. Instead, he draws the Orb and casts Wall of Ice vertically in front of the Frost Giants. He creates a physical barrier between them. The rest of his group moves in just behind the Wall this turn. The Giants pound the wall and destroy it. Their axes cleave the ice in big chunks, and their turn is gone. Now what happens, and who will win init? They roll a 9 and Alzar’s group rolls a 5, so they go first – lower is better cause that means you are faster. The Vrock and Gargoyles fly into one in the front and attack it. It takes 32 damage from the attack and has 18 hp left. Carum, Estaish, Wassilon and Hrothgr concentrate on another and hit for 28 damage. It has 20 hp left. Alzar needs an answer. So far, they haven’t killed a single Frost Giant. He needs to give his people time to do stuff, so he shouts at the Frost Giants that they are cowards and casts Hypnotism. He wants them to look at him. Three do. The spell goes off and…4 targets of the spell roll for saves and…three fail (looking him in the eyes gives a -2 to the save). He forces them to drop their weapons and to not attack. This round and next round, three random giants will not attack. Here comes 11 attacks, and Alzar’s cloak isn’t there to take any. They know not to attack the gargoyles now, and there are no wasted attacks. Afterwards Vrock – 46/60 Estaish – 39/59 Carum – 58/72 Wassilon – Missed Hrothgr – 55/70 20/48 – Random Giant 18/50 – Random Giant They win init this round., Rough. Another 11 attacks Vrock – 38/60 Estaish – 31/59 Carum – 41/72 Wassilon – 25/39 Hrothgr – 55/70 Alzar uses Hypnotism and two more drop weapons and will miss next turn and the next – 2 rounds missed in all. The flyers slay their wounded one. The Fighters lay their wounded one and extra attacks deal 32 to another who now has 17 hp left. Slain in this Battle – 2 Frostys, 12 left |
In the next round, the three who were hypnotized can attack again, Alzar’s group wins init and slays another and wounds a third to 5 hp left. Alzar casts Flame Strike on the wounded one with his Orb and slays it. The fire attacks the ice and snow and melts it, letting off severe steam and dropping the visibility to just a few feet. Everyone gets -3 to melee attacks now.
The giants, a bit ard to see, manage to hit some of our people. Vrock – 31/60 Estaish – 10/59 Carum – 30/72 Wassilon – 25/39 Hrothgr – 55/70 Alzar orders Estaish to retreat in the Fog. Slain in this Battle – 4 Frostys, 10 left The giants win init this time, and now its just -2 to hit melee. Vrock – 21/60 Estaish – 10/59 Carum – 18/72 Wassilon – 11/39 Hrothgr – 45/70 The fighters attack with double attacks and carve another giant dead. The Vrock and Gargoyles mostly miss due to conditions. Alzar can’t; see and charges in this turn. Wassilon moves back into the Fog as well. Alzar’s group takes init back. The melee attack is -1 this turn. Hrothgr misses badly, Alzar orders Carum to retreat, . The Vrock hits twice for 25 damage and the gargoyles finish off a giant. Alzar Vamp Touches the one that the Vrock hit and slays it and gains 19 hp back. They attack back. The Vrock is at 8 hp, and Hrothgr at 36. Alzar orders them to retreat and to force the remaining giants to face him for a few turns. The fog has now cleared and missile attacks can begin again. The giants win and concentrate on Alzar. He is attacked seven times. He is hit four times, they miss due to the cloak. Carum spears one for 8 damage, and Estiah’s crossbow is out and snakes into the wounded one for 5 damage. Hrothgr grabs a throwing axe and misses. The Vrock casts Mirror Image and is surrounded by many images. Alzar’s axe snakes into the wounded giant and finishes it. The giants win init. Alzar takes 31 from the hits. His axe darkens into one giant for 13 damage, and then again for 15 damage. The gargoyles finish it off. Meanwhile 11 damage in missile weapons is dealt to another giant. Slain in this Battle –9 Frostys,5 left |
Alzar wins init. He casts Vampiric Touch from the Ring and deals 20 damage to the wounded one and drops it. Missiles and gargoyles only manage another 9 damage total. He takes 19 damage from two hits.
Slain in this Battle – 10 Frostys,4 left An Axe cleaves into a modestly wounded one for 14 damage, and other damage follows and slays it. The three miss (one hits, but misses due to the Cloak, and had been rolling badly for a while) Alzar doubles attacks and kills one that was the last unwounded giant. The others have taken light damage from gargoyles ,and now one take s20 from gargoyles and missile weapons but has 18 left. They attack Alzar and one hits for 12 damage. Alzar retreats. They win init, and flee back down the tunnel they opened. The Gargoyles pursue. As they run, missile weapons deal another 8 damage to the wounded giant. Alzar has just 9 hp left, s ohe orders the Vrock in with the gargoyles and his two minions whose eyes he can see through. They chase down the two giants and slay them You can see how much tougher Frost Giants are than Hill Giants. Alzar had to pull out a lot of stops to take them down. Alzar –9/57 hp Vrock – 9/60 Estaish – 10/59 Carum – 18/72 Wassilon – 11/39 Hrothgr – 36/70 You can see just by hp count how badly the team was wounded. Alzar spends some time investigating these caverns ,and the Vrock’s time runs up and he leaves. 278 Rock Crystals 10 gp each Used: Dire Charm, Hypnotismx2, Vampiric Touch, Wall of Ice and Flame Strike from Orb, Vampiric Touch from Ring, |
Alzar has a lot of spells left and intends to be sneaky and such, but his party is almost wiped. He orders the fighters to stay here, and pulls up his Instant Fortress for them. He decides to continue along the plateau just himself, his gargoyles, Dryshik, Megala and a newly summoned Vrock with 58 hp.
He arrives at a cave along the plateau that opens into a place with a large amount of Brown Mold. He grabs a few flasks of oil, spreads it around, and burns the stuff. He’ll come back later after it’s all cleared out which could take a few hours with the stench the burning, and the mist. The next cave he enters invisibly has two Frost giants. One is at the front on scout duty and the other is sleeping. There is no rear exit. Alzar casts Charm Monster on the one that is awake. He rolls a two and fails. He asks his new friend to step outside into the cold for a bit, and then slips in and grabs his giant axe and aims for the neck of the sleeping giant. His great carve does 25 damage and he finishes off next turn. He leaves and talks to his friend. The Frost Giant tells him about the complex that they are in. In the Rift itself are several enemies and treasures. The way down to the next level is along these plateaus around the Rift. They descend to the Rift and Alzar turns invisible. There is a pack of seven winter wolfs on patrol and the Vrock, Gargoyles, and Frost Giant clean them out. None take any damage. The Frost Giant, btw, is 47/47 hp strong – there are ice chunks and boulders strewn all over and they easily have ammunition for missile weapons. They continue and the Frost Giant leads the way to the enemies in the Rift that he knows of. They wind up at a White Pudding. Alzar’s Gargoyles cannot damage it and it can’t damage them. He pulls out a pair of Flame tongue swords and hands them to the gargoyles. Two of them eventually, after much time, slay the Pudding. They are led to another pudding and slay it as well. They explore the rest of the Rift but find nothing. The Vrock only has about 10 minutes left , and the Frost Giant tells Alzar of a cave off the south end of the Rift where a Remorhaz makes its home. They move to it. Since they attack Frost Giants and, slaying this would be nice to our friend’s community and he is happy to help as well. The Remorhaz moves out of its cave as the Giant and Vrock move in. The Vrock casts Mirror Image. Here we go. A boulder crashes onto the wurm for 8 damage as it closes. It has 50/58 hp left. Alzar casts ray of Ondovir on it, and for the next round, it will move as I has this round, rather than attack, The next round, Alzar attacks and hits for 15 damage. The Vrock adds 18, the gargies 10, and the Giant 18. (It’s easy to hit someone that you know where it’s moving to). After slaying it, they move into the cave. In here are skeletons of previous victims and a sinkhole that heads down. The Frost Giant does not know where it goes, and the Vrock is gone. The Gem of Seeing and some searching turn up some items in the skeletons. Ring (Ring of 3 Wishes) Sword (Sword of Giant Slaying, +2, +3 vs giants and double damage) Alzar can’t ID either and Bag of Holdings them. Slain – 7 Yeti , 2 Snow Leopards, 18 Frost Giants, 7 Winter Wolves, 2 White Pudding, 1 Remorhaz |
They choose not to jump down a random sinkhole but return. Here is what is in the rest of the caves on this level.
An area with 7 Frost Giants split between two caverns on guards. A den of 6 winter wolves. A minor armory. A room where they giants froze the corpses of dead adventurers to scare off people. A cavern with 17 ogre mercenaries. A cavern complex with 9 Frost Giants. A shrine of ice toads. Visitor caves with Fire Giants, Stone Giants Hill Giants and Frost giant guards all spread out., then there is a walkway down to the lower level. That’s just way too many giants for now. They go and clear out the wolves. Right b yit is the room with the frozen corpses. That’s easily done. They also clear out the shrine with 5 Ice Toads. In these places, Alzar will find: Reddish-Purple Amethyst – 5000 gp In the corpses that are thawed +1 Battle Axe Wand of Cold – 16 charges Jeweled Belt – 7000 gp Scroll - Protection from Elementals Ring of Fire Resistance 37x10 GP Gems 471 sp +2 Chainmail |
They head to the cavern of 7 Giants. There are four in one, and three in another, very close by. Alzar decides to try his trick again. This time he summons his biggest demon – a Glabrezu.
It has 81 hp, AC -3, THAC0 of 8, two pinchers each dealing 2d8+10 damage, and it can use Chaos Hammer - 5d8 damage at range vs Lawful, Dispel Magic, Power Word Stun, and can try to Gate in Dretches with a 50% chance. Alzar orders it to try right now. Success. 18 Dretches appear (3d10 by this powerful demon). They each have 18 hp, and AC 6, and deal 1d8 damage with a bite. Alzar orders the 18 dretches via his Glabrezu to move in and swarm the four giants in the one room. Gargoyles are bodyblocking the other three from assisting. In will come Alzar, his flyers, the demon and the giant. The dretches move in, and two are killed with boulders - all four attacks hit (A Frost Giant only misses a Dretch on a natural 1). Battle begins. The Frost Giant won’t hurt his companions. He’s not Dominated, just Charmed. Alzar’s group wins init. 16 Dretches attack. Two hit for 5 damage. The Glabrezu attacks another giant and hits with each hook for 47 damage and slays it exactly. 3 left in this room. The others are blocked by Gargoyles. Alzar throws a +2 dagger at the wounded giant and hits for 10 damage. They attack back and two more Dretches fall and one takes 11 damage. The Giants win init and slay the wounded Dretch and another. 12 left. They attack back and nip the giants fo 13 damage. Alzar’s dagger flies into it for 11 damage and it’s still standing. Another dagger follows (two attacks every other turn) and slays it. The Glabrezu misses once and doles 18 damage to another giant. Alzar’s group wins init and slays the last two. He moves the gargoyles and the Dretches swarm the three right by them. Between them and the Gargies, the giants die in three turns, and slay four more Dretches, leaving 8 behind. Slain – 7 Yeti , 2 Snow Leopards, 25 Frost Giants, 13 Winter Wolves, 2 White Pudding, 1 Remorhaz, 5 Ice Toads Silver Belt – 1600 gp Jeweled Chain – 3000 gp 4128 gp They move along a deep passageway that runs out of this complex and passes a small armory. 3000 gp 4x 1000 gp gems Silver Tube – 300 Gp Cleric Scroll – Cure Serious Wounds |
They finish at another small plateau on the south east of the Rift and there is another tunnel that leads from here. Alzar is making for the Ogre Mercenary room. He wants to hit it while he still has 8 Dretches and the Glabrezu. The Frost Giant is happy to help him slay them. He sneaks in invisible to take a gander at the situation.
4 are sleeping in the front room, and 13 are playing in the back room, gambling. None are on guard. Alzar slays the four in the front room. He then moves in his party, leaving four gargoyles to guard the only exit and preventing any from running out. In run the Dretches and battle begins. Sleep spell drops two. 11 left in here. Melee range has been reached. They win init. Four Dretches fall, leaving just four. The Glebrezu is in and attacks. He slays an ogre and the Dretches all miss. Alzar’s dagger stabs one for 13 damage from range. The Frost Giant smashes a boulder into it and slays it. 9 Ogres left. They win init again, and two more Dretches are slain. The demons kill another Ogres and Azlars double dagger and the giants Ice Chunk slay another. 7 left. Alzar’s group wins init and slays three. They kill both remaining Dretches, both of which were wounded. They win init and can’t hit the demon. They die. All Dretches have died. The Glabrezu is gone after searching and grabbing things. Used: Dire Charm, Sleep, Hypnotismx2, Vampiric Touch, Charm Monster, Ray of Ondovir, Wall of Ice and Flame Strike from Orb, Vampiric Touch from Ring, Slain – 7 Yeti , 2 Snow Leopards, 19 Frost Giants, 13 Winter Wolves, 2 White Pudding, 1 Remorhaz, 5 Ice Toads, 17 Ogres 4250 gp 4000 gp in gems 1300 cp 2111 sp 792 ep 5300 gp 6 Silver Jewelry Pieces worth 3100 gp total Gold Armband with Inset Ivory and Amber Bear – 2000 gp Two Healing Potions The Giant tells Alzar that the Armband is a pass to the Jarl. If only Alzar had the ability to look like a Giant, he could sneak in. But he wants to kill everything and take everything anyway |
Alzar and his small retinue return to the other side of the Rift and move to the Hill Giant visitor cave. He is invisible and quaffs the potion of Hill Giant Control. Two Hill Giants leave the cave and come join him.
Hill Giant #1 – 34/34 Hill Giant #2 – 38/38 There’re three left in the cave. Alzar asks his giant friends to move away. That way he can kill them quietly. He casts Conjure Earth Elemental and summons a Vrock agin – the 3rd one. Vrock has 61 hp, the Elemental has 51 hp Alzar moves in, and again blocks off the cave entrance with Gargoyles to prevent any from leaving and telling others. The Vrock casts Mirror Image. Battle begins. Alzar’s group wins init. He orders the Earth Elemental and the Vrock to attack one giant. It takes 30 and Alzar’s knife adds 11 and slays it. Two left. One manages to kill an Image on the Vrock. They win init and slay another image. The Vrock and Elemental kill another Giant and Alzar’s double daggers finishes the last one after winning init once more and hitting with a 4th knife. He moves in to recover and search when he hears a noise from outside. 5 Stone Giants from a nearby cave on the plateau have heard the noise and move in. Instead of getting his knives, he orders the Gargoyles and his minions to the plateau to battle the Giants before they can leave and warn the others. The plateau they are on has five exits. Behind the Stone Giants are none, they are on the farthest entrance on the plateau. They can’t get past Alzar and his minions until they enter melee range first. One barks out commands to the others to get past and warn the Frost Giants. Battle begins. Alzar casts Domination on a Stone Giant. It makes the save and nothing happens. The Earth Elemental and Vrock attack one giant and deal 23 damage total. Two gargies hold the line behind Alzar and two attack and harass another giant for 12 damage. The giants attack. The Vrock is hit for 10 damage and the Elemental takes 20. The giants win init and focus on the Earth Elemental. They deal another 28 damage to it exclusively One giant breaks away from melee and runs down the plateau. The Vrock and Earth kill the wounded Giant. The two gargoyles deal another 5 damage to the barely wounded one. Alzar needs to stop the one running. He casts Continual Light on its eyes to permanently blind it. It works and the giant can’t see. On the next turn, Alzar’s group wins init. They destroy a giant and harassment continues. Alzar throws his last knife at the harassed one for a miss. They slay the Earth Elemental. They win init and cannot hit the Vrock, instead slaying an Image and missing. It claws a giant for 14 and the gargoyles bring down the blinded one in the back. Alzar, daggerless, grabs a Crossbow from his bag of Holding this round. Alzars’ group wins int. They kill a 4th, a bolt slams into one for 5 damage. It clubs an Image away. IUT wins init and misses. They slay it. Used: Dire Charm, Sleep, Continual Light, Hypnotismx2, Vampiric Touch, Domination, Conjure Earth Elemental, Charm Monster, Ray of Ondovir, Wall of Ice and Flame Strike from Orb, Vampiric Touch from Ring, Potion of Hill Giant Control. Slain – 7 Yeti , 2 Snow Leopards, 19 Frost Giants, 13 Winter Wolves, 2 White Pudding, 1 Remorhaz, 5 Ice Toads, 17 Ogres, 5 Hill Giants, 5 Stone Giants, He checks both caves and gets his daggers back. 5 Fur Cloaks – 3500 gp each Gold Inlaid Skull with a note to King Snurre, a Fire Giant. Jeweled Crown of 15000 gp that was intended as a gift by the Stone Giants to the Jarl |
Alzar grabs the giants and moves to the last tunnel in the area. He slips into a room with four Frost Giants near another with 3 Fire Giants messengers from King Snurre. It will take about three rounds for people to get from one to the next, but the caves are very close together. The back of the Frost Giant cave has the passageway that leads down, so an attack in would result in word getting out about Alzar’s presence.
2 are sleeping, and one each is watching guard down each entrance. What Alzar has to do is without making sound from his walking and invisible, slip past the first guard. Noise can be made from many things, such as objects banging together on his clothes. If he can get past the first giant, then he can get to the one on the other side first. A successful Domination or Charm will stop the madness. Alzar’s current Hp is 34 after the regen each turn of one. Alzar has a different idea. He grabs his axe and intones Passwall from it. He can use Paswall three times a day, and it makes a small corridor in a wall for a few hours. He uses it three times and creates a corridor that bypasses the giant and arrives into the middle of the room. Now he’s in. He casts Domination from the secret passageway and… It rolls a 9 and fails. He has a new friend 46/46 by it, and this one will attack its giants. Alzar orders it to guard the exit, and two gargoyles are guarding another one. They charge in as the guard on the door they bypassed spins and shouts to awaken the giants in the middle. Alzar orders the Vrock and two gargoyles to handle the guard and races for the ones sleeping with his axe. Battle begins. Alzar wins init and cleaves a giant as it is awakening and gets double damage for 23 damage. Rar! The Vrcok and gargies attack and hit for 29 damage total. It flees down the passageway and runs into two more garies and is surrounded. |
The two wake up. A boulder is thrown by the one at the door and hits the inured one for 4 damage.
They win init and can’t hit Alzar. He cleaves the wounded one and slays it, and then critically misses. The other giant in the hallway is slain. This one hits Alzar but the cloak prevents damage. A boulder spaashes it for 10 damage. Alzar smashes for 15 and it runs down the new passageway. He mentally commands the gargoyles to meet it at the other end and slays it. The three fire giants arrive to see what is going on and Alzar lets them in. The Frost Giant is ordered to keep watch at the doorway out. They grab weapons and move in. Alzar meets them just inside of the doorway they entered and mentally commands the gargoyles to come behind. The Vrock emerges from the newly made tunnel. Alzar casts his final Charm Monster on one. It makes the save. All three hit him but the Cloak keep shim safe. A ice chunk hits one for 7 damage and it has 55 hp left. The next round begins. Alzar’s group wins their init roll. A boulder hits for 10. 45 left. An axe bites into him for 13 damage and the Vrock tears into it once for 11 damage. 19 hp left. They attack Alzar and hit twice fro 25 damage. He has 11 hp left. Alzar moves away and lets’s the Vrock take the brunt of the damage. The gargoyles arrive and two block each exit that is uncovered. The Fire Giants follow him and refuse to allow him to get away so easily. He wins init and changes strategies. He uses a charge on the Belt of Flying and flies into the air at the top of the room out of melee range. The Vrock hits once for 12 damage and aboulder finishes the first Fire Giant. The other two are forced to move to the Vrock and hit once for 15 damage and once for an Image. They win init and destroy two images. Alzar orders the Vrock to try and summon Dretches but fails. A Boulder and dagger fly into a Giant for 14 toal damage – 46 left. On the next turn, Alzar wins init two dagger stab once for 11 damage, and the Giant adds 15. The Vrock pecks for 25 damage twice and slays it. Pone left that misses the Vrock. It wins init and runs to the Frost Giant and attacks. It critically misses. The Giant grabs its axe and hits for 21damage. The Vrock adds 11 and Alzar 10. He has the gargoyles converge onit and finishes it off. Slain – 7 Yeti , 2 Snow Leopards, 23 Frost Giants, 13 Winter Wolves, 2 White Pudding, 1 Remorhaz, 5 Ice Toads, 17 Ogres, 5 Hill Giants, 5 Stone Giants, 3 Fire Giants Alzar searches the two chambers. Silver and Topaz Statue of Bear – 6000 gp 9000 gp Alzar has the following spells left – Haste, 3x Empathic Control, Shield-Maidens, Sleep, Dire Charm. |
The only group left on this level is an armed camp of 8 Frost Giants guarding the other entrance to the walkway down.
Alzar uses his Censer to summon an Air Elemental, and due ot the icy winds ,it’s a stronger one than normal – 12 HD Elemental – 73 hp Alzar tries to see if he can Dire Charm one to distract them. He can use his Dominated Frost Giant for aid. His Vrock still has 5 Images. They move in from the walkway entrance after Alzar’s gargoyles, Vrock Frost Giant and Air Elemental arrive on the other side to block any escapees and to flank them. . He tries to Dire Charm the guard at the door, and let’s see what happens. It rolls a ten. -1 for a spell cast by Alzar and that is a failure. A 10 succeeded. The Frost Giant has gone crazy and grabs a boulder and attacks a nearby giant for 10 damage – it has 42 hp left. The complex roars and moves in and Alzar slips back to invisible. The other seven giants move to attack the one going berserk on them. As they in, in comes a huge hit on the guard on the other door, as Alzar’s army destroys the Giant there. The giant at this door wins init and hits the wounded one for a mighty 3 damage. 39 hp left. Four ice rocks smash into it for 44 damage and it has 6 left. Alzar has Dryshik drop a Wall of Fog in front of the Dire Charmed Giant, so none of them know where it is and can slay it next turn with their boulders. Alzar’s group wins init. He moves into the Fog and supports the Frost Giant Dire Charmed. His group up two slays another by the entrance and the Air Elemental moves in and smashes one for 19 damage – it has 32 left. The Frost Giant moves into the Fog and three others moves into it as well. They win init and slay te Dire Charmed giant. One finds Alzar and misses due to the Cloak. The Air Elemtnal takes 20 fcrom counter attacks but slays the wounded one after a Boulder and Vrock soften it up. Alzar’s axe bites into the one that attacked him in the Fog and deals 15 damage to it – it has 39 left. Alzar’s group wins init again. A double attack takes the giant he is facing down to 11. Another giant falls. They swing on the Elemental for 11 damage and Alzar is attacked by the two in the Fog. Both hit and thus miss. Alzar retreats into the hallway to the exit to the lower level. They win init. They miss the Air Elemental one throws a boulder at as another chases him. He takes 5 damage from a weak hit and has 9 left. His group finish eht giants in the room, and he mentally orders the gargoyles to him. Dryshik’s ball flies from about to the Giant that chased him and hits. He is blinded for just two rounds. Megala does a dive into the Fog on the one that threw a boulder at Alzar and misses with its claws. Alzar wants to pull them off of him, and hopes that was successful. The giants win init again. The blind one swings at Alzar but misses badly. The other throws a boulder at Megala and nails it for 10 damage. Megala is almost down. He didn’t want to use them unless he had too. But now the flying Elemental, Veock and gargoyles have arrived and carve into it and slay it. The blind one is slain next turn. 5600 gp There is three more armbands each worth 2000 gp 21x 100 gp gems |
Alzar has cleaned off the top level, but he has out of tricks. He doesn’t want to push on until he has rested and memorized new spells and healed. The lower level will know he has arrived as soon as someone leaves, but what he does not want to happen is that someone leaves, and discovers dead giants and puts new sets of enemies in all of those rooms he has just exterminated. He has the come to him and they set up the Instant Fortress at the top of the walkway out. The four giants join him in the space. He intends to fight anything that comes out.
Slain – 7 Yeti , 2 Snow Leopards, 31 Frost Giants, 13 Winter Wolves, 2 White Pudding, 1 Remorhaz, 5 Ice Toads, 17 Ogres, 5 Hill Giants, 5 Stone Giants, 3 Fire Giants Used: Dire Charm, Sleep, Continual Light, Hypnotismx2, Vampiric Touch, Dominationx2, Conjure Earth Elemental, Charm Monsterx2, Ray of Ondovir, Wall of Ice and Flame Strike from Orb, Vampiric Touch from Ring, Potion of Hill Giant Control. Used Charge – Belt of Flying. He casts his Haste into the Ring of Spell Storing to replace the Vampiric Touch temporarily, and the following day memorizes Vam Touch twice instead. He copies the exact same spell light as the previous day but moves an Empathic Control to Tasha’s Laughter. No one bothers them at all. But he is sure they know he is here. |
He goes invisible with the elvenkind boots and walks. Within 200 feet he can see a skinny long ice cavern. It looks like everyone has gathered here to protest his presence. They have moved tables here and set them up, as well as barrels and boxes and beds to act as shelter against missile fire. They’ve also moved three ballistas here with Frost Giants stationed at each – Giant size ballistas that will deal a massive amount of damage with a hit! Alzar can’t tell exactly how many are here, but it’s a lot.
He heads back up and prepares. The charmed Hill Giants will attack servants of the Giants here happily, but they consider all giants to be allies and friends. The charmed Frost Giant won’t attack anything down there, so Alzar’ asks him to guard the rear after he takes down the Fortress. Alzar begins to summon every ally he can. Air Elemental from Censer – 75 hp Earth Elemental from spell – 55 hp Earth Elemental from Stone – 58 hp Earth Elemental from Orb – 61 hp Air Elemental from Orb – 73 hp Water Elemental from Orb - 52 hp Earth Elemental from Ring – 59 hp Glabrezu – 71 hp, tries to gate in Dretches but fails. That would have been really nice. Dryshik tries to gate in Mephits and success in bringing in a Mist One. Alzar chooses not to summon a Fire Elemental with the Orb. It would destroy the walls, floor, ceilings, and who knows what else. He summons Zadaxx from his statuette His plan is simple. Dryshik will cast Wall of Fog in front of where he wants his party to arrive. They will run in with the elementals and demon in the front line, two gargoyles flanking. Behind them are the two Hill Giants and the Frost Giant. They will attack as directed. Meanwhile, Estaish, Carum and Wassilon have missile weapons in the back due to low hp and Hrothgr is in the back as well, waiting until Alzar gives him to word to come in. They are to be at extreme range for their weapons. Flying way up will be Megala, Dryshik and the Ice Mephit friend. Alzar wants them in the roof and out of danger. He expects to cast spells such as Domination. He casts Haste on the 7 elementals, the demon, and two gargoyles and the Frost Giant. This will enable them to get to their positions in one round and give them double attacks. Here we go! |
The Wall is dropped and they move in.
Here is what they are facing: 5 Ogre Magi – 34, 2x29, 27, 26 20 Ogres 1 Cloud Giant - 70 4 polar bear pets, attack as cave bears – 41, 39, 36, 33 3 Fire Giantesses -- 46, 42, 40 – won’t engage in melee, but will throw some rocks at THACO – 13 and 1d12 damage 23 Frost Giants – 62, 61, 60, 58, 57, 56, 55, 55, 53, 53, 53, 52, 52, 51, 50, 49, 49, 49, 48, 48, 46, 44, 43 Jarl – 80 hp, fights as Cloud Giant Lady – 70 hp That is a lot of bad guys. This is one battle for all of the marbles. This is a battle of attrition, and if Alzar can Dominate a few to join his side, this could really swing to a victory. All of Alzar’s troops are dispensable, although he’d like to keep the gargoyle cloaks, the humans and dvergr, familiar and Megala for another go. Zaddaxx will die and just return to a statuette. Here we go. Who wins initiative first? |
Turn 1
We do. Whew! Alzar casts Domination on a Giant on a Ballista. It rolls a 15 and makes it. A ball flies down to another giant on a Ballista and blinds it for three turns. Another flies from the ice mephit to the other one and blinds him for four turns. We took out two of their ballistas temporarily. Our Elementals an Demon crash and attack. The Glabrezu gets four attacks each round. He hits a Frost Giant twice for 27 damage. An Earth Elemental smashes it for 15 damage and another hits twice and slays it. One Frost Giant down. Two other two Earths attack an Ogre each. Those are dead after two attacks for a lot of damage. An Air Elemental is caught up with a Frost Giant. it hits once for 17 damage. The other one hits another Frost Giant twice for 28 damage total. The Water Elemental backs it up for 19 damage in one hit out of two. In fly missile weapons from the soldiers and 11 damage finishes this heavily damaged Giant. Two giants dead. Two boulders fly in and smash the one wounded by the Air Elemental once for 7 more damage. The two Hill Giants attack an ogre and slay it. The gargoyles attack a Fire Giantess on the edge and hit her for 18 damage -24 left for the Giantess. The others harass an Ogre Magi for 18 damage. It has 11 left. Blinded Two Giants on Ballista Slain – 3 Ogres, 2 Frost Giants Now it’s their turn. The Jarl orders those blinded to step away from the ballista and two others to take their spot. The other fires at….the demon (random rolls). It misses. Here come boulders from the lines. The jarl orders them to focus on the Earth Elemental in the center and it goes down. Another takes 16 damage. Slain by them – 1 Earth Elemental |
Turn 2
Turn 2 arrives. They win init. They finish off the wounded Elemental with boulder. Three bailistas fire at the demon and he takes 41 damage. Another boulder misses. Alzar casts Domination on a ballista’d giant. It rolls an 8 and falls under. He pulls a 53/53 Frost Giant to his team. Elementals and the demon slay two Giants, including the damaged one. The gargoyles finish an Ogre Magi, and the Fire Giantess is slain when aided by missiles from our fighters and gargoyles. Zadazz hits for 3 damage on the Cloud Giant. The Hill Giants slays another Ogre and two boulders fly into the Cloud Giant for 17 total damage. 50/70- Cloud Giant Turn 3 We win init. The Elementals and demon slay another giant and hit an undamaged one for 17 damage. The gargoyles miss on one side and on another fail to slay an Ogre so fighter shave to kill it with missiles. Alzar casts Charm Monster on a Giant on a Ballista. It fails to take as the giant makes his roll with a 13. . The dominated giant attacks a nearby Ogre with his axe and slays him. Two boulders hit once for another 7 damage on the Cloud Giant. The Hill Giants attack another Fire Giantess and his for 11 damage. They unleash a surprise. The Ogre Magi each fire off a Cone of Cold at Alzar’s team. Both Hill Giants die, they kill two gargoyles, Zadaxx, and they finish off the Glabrezu. Then come the attacks some go after the Dominated Giant. After 7 attacks, he is dropped. The rest attack a damaged earth Elemental and bring him to 7 hp Alzar has left – two Earths, two Airs, Water, two Imps, Megala, human fighters, Dominated Cloud Giant, 2 gargoyles 43/70 Cloud Giant; 35 Fire Giantess Slain – 6 Ogres, 5 Frost Giants, 1, Fire Giantess, 1 Ogre Magi. Slain by them – 2 Earth Elementals, Glabrezu, 2 Hill Giants, 2 zombie gargoyles Used – Conjure Earth Elemental, Haste from Ring, Dominationx2, Charm Monster |
Turn 4
Alzar is quickly running out of allies. He luckily wins init. He casts Dire Charm on the one that made his save last turn and succeeds. He will now attack his mates. The five elementals carve out the Cloud Giant. Alzar orders concentration on the Ogre Magi now. Gargoyles peck at one for 17 damage. The fighters finish it. Two balls fly in and blind the other ballista guy. A Frost Giant moved to take the ballista from the one that was Dominated and slain. Their Chief Bellows an order and suddenly a giant boulder blocking a passage is pulled aside by a Fire Giantess and out fly two white dragons. They are joining the Giant’s side! They slay the one Dire Charmed, and then finish off the wounded Earth Elemental nad deal 29 damage to the last one. Slain – 6 Ogres, 6 Frost Giants, 1, Fire Giantess, 2 Ogre Magi, 1 Cloud Giant. Slain by them – 3 Earth Elementals, Glabrezu, 2 Hill Giants, 2 zombie gargoyles Turn 5 With the bad guys winning init, the last Earth is slain, and the Dragons breathe and kill the two gargoyles. Boulders slay the Water Elemental and a Ballista thuds at Alzar’s feet, missing due to Cloak. Alzar orders the fighters to fire one last time ,and retreat. He wants them to hit another Ogre Magi and 18 damage is doled to one. The Air Elementals attack an undamaged Ogre Magi and slay him. Alzar casts his final Dire Charm on a Giant on a Ballista. It works and he will be slain by his comrades. Slain – 6 Ogres, 7 Frost Giants, 1, Fire Giantess, 3 Ogre Magi, 1 Cloud Giant. Slain by them – 4 Earth Elementals, 1 Water Elemental, Glabrezu, 2 Hill Giants, 4 zombie gargoyles |
Turn 6
Alzar orders a retreat of the his force. The Air Elementals stay behind as a harassing force, and manage to off the unwounded Ogre Magi and wound an Ogre. The fighters are retreating, and Alzar has the Frost Giant Dominated going with them. He has Megala and Dryshik flying back as well. He casts Skulltrap from his Ring and aims it at the wounded Ogre Magi. He misses by a bit but it does hit nearby and slays it and the wounded Ogre. He doesn’t kill anything else, but he injures a few people. Then he has Dryshik’s summoned Mephit drop a Wall of Fog and flees. The Air Elementals are attacked and mostly destroyed but Alzar has not fled, but gone Invisible for a second. He grabs the Orb and summons the power of the Earth Gem and uses Earthquake in front of him. The roof collapses and deals all sorts of damage to those crushed under it. The Fire giantess wounded, by both battle and the Skulltrap dies. Two Ogres dies. No one else does. No one can follow Alzar, and it will take the giants, who are big people, just a few hours to dig out a tunnel. Alzar is hit by 9 damage of ice falling as he flees. Slain – 10 Ogres, 7 Frost Giants, 1, 2 Fire Giantess, 5 Ogre Magi, 1 Cloud Giant. Slain by them – 4 Earth Elementals, 1 Water Elemental, Glabrezu, 2 Hill Giants, 4 zombie gargoyles Used – Conjure Earth Elemental, Dire Charmx2, Haste and Skulltrap from Ring, Dominationx2, Charm Monster; Earthquake of Orb |
The loss of the gargoyles is keenly felt, and he has used the weekly summoning of the Orb for all of its elementals and powers, save the Wind Walking power. The addition of the Dragons was simply too much and the giants were winning anyway. The foe was smart. Instead of letting the Domination and Dire Charmed individual wreak havoc, they were just immediately slain and back to business. The surprise of the Cone of Cold by the Ogre Magi and the dragon appearance was a knife in the attack. Obviously Alzar was out maneuvered again. He doesn’t like that at all. But what can he do with fighters that are badly wounded? He has one Dominated Giant, fully healthy, himself, fully healthy mostly, a familiar, a damaged Homunculus and in a few minutes, a new demon. What he needs is to get lucky with the new demon. If he gets another Glabrezu, and gets a nice horde of Dretch, then three passwalls might allow him to hit them while many are trapped and busy and separated.
After ten minutes, a 81 hp Glabrezu arrives. It tries to gate and had a 50 chance and…rolls a 5 so I works! 17 Dretch arrive. Alzar takes the Glabby, the Dretch horde, his Giant, and himself to the area he was fighting a. He can hear giants hard at work. He aims three passwalls at the spot that the Dragons came out. He tunnels in, but not enough. He grabs he Mud Ring and turns the rock and ice to mud and breaks through. He is wearing the Ring of Warmth and Mud Ring and enters the dragons’ domain. Both dragons have returned, and he sees the sinkhole from above comes in here. They spin and he orders the Dretch back into the passageway. They both breath Cold at him and His Ring of Warmth prevents him from taking too much damage. He takes 41 damage total. The Frost Giant takes nothing The Glabby takes half damage or 25 damage. They move in to Alzar’s team, and out pour the Dretch from the tunnel. Battle begins. |
Alzar casts Vampiric Touch and hits the larger dragon for 18 damage and heals that. The Glabrezu hits once for 14 damage. The Frost Giant is no longer hasted and misses. The Dretch take the turn arriving. Alzar is physically attacked and misses due to the Cloak. The other attacks the Frost Giant and hits it for 23 damage.
They win init. The smaller dragon slays our Frost Giant friend. The larger one hits Alzar twice for 22 damage. He casts Vamp Touch and heals 19 and doles it to it. The Glabrezu slays it. The Dretch attack the smaller dragon but only his once for 5 damage. It wins init and breathes ,slaying six Dretch. Alzar and the Glabrezu move over and deal 27 damage. The Dretch deal 14. Alzar wins init and finishes it off. The hallway is closed by icefall. Alzar uses the Mud Ring a second time to drop it to Mud and they are able to get out. The large room is fallen in by ice, but a large section in the middle has been cleared out in just 20 minutes. The Giants see Alzar arrive and move in. Dretch flood out and keep them back. Alzar just wants to see what he can kill now, while he still has the Dretch and they are injured. There are still 10 Ogres, 4 Cave Bears, and numerous giants running around. Alzar grabs his Wand of Magic Missile and pumps a Giant that is limping with five missiles for 16 damage and slays it. There are countless ice chunks for throwing now. The Glabby hits a nearby Ogre and slashes into pieces. The ballista are all broken. They counter attack and slay three Dretch, and throw weapons at Alzar, all missing. The Glabby is not even attacked. The bears have based it though and will attack next turn. Alzar wins init. The Dretch wounds a few, and keep many from reaching Alzar and the Glabby. The Glabby attacks and badly wounds an unwounded Polar Bear. Alzar grabs an item he readied, expecting this and blows into the Horn of Blasting. A massive sounds comes out, and the people are stunned for one round, and deafened for two more. They all take 1d10 damage. The Dretch take damage and are stunned too, but Glabby is not. Alzar uses this round to grab the Wand of Lightning Bolt and stab the giant that looks the healthiest, for 38 damage, which slays him. The Glabby is ordered to move its attack to another Bear and damage is badly. Alzar then uses the Mud Ring again Once a month, you can use it to Earthquake, and the Ring stops working for two days. He summons another Earthquake, slaying three Giants, the wounded bears, and six ogres. The Dretch and Glabby are drenched, and the ceiling where he is is fine, since he targeted the other room, and its’ stable. He returns via his self made passage, content that he has weakened the enemy enough. He can return later via the sinkhole if he wants. Slain Downstairs - 17 Ogres, 12 Frost Giants, 2 Fire Giantess, 2 Polar bear, 5 Ogre Magi, 1 Cloud Giant, 2 White Dragon Used – Conjure Earth Elemental, Vamp Touchx2, Dire Charmx2, Haste and Skulltrap from Ring, Dominationx2, Charm Monster; Earthquake of Orb, 5 charges on Magic Missile Wand, 1 Charge of Wand of Lightning |
Now, here’s the question. How much healing and resting do you do? Neither side is strong enough to assault the other, and they have to dig out of two Earthquakes. That gives Alzar some time. He still has virtually nothing left in the till. No undead, no constructs, no conjured foes, and nothing that will fight on his behalf save a charmed Frost Giant that won’t fight anything downstairs. He can’t use the Horn again today without risking it blowing up in his face. The Mud Ring is off for two days.
Alzar decides to wait until night fall. They Fortress it up the same location, and again, nothing comes out and nothing attacks. It is midnight. Alzar tosses on the Ring of Shooting Stars for the dead Mud Ring. The tunnel he made is gone. He checks, and the area is still caved in and no tunnel has been opened. He heads back up and drops down the Sinkhole using the Rope of climbing. He arrives in the Dragon’s Lair, and no one is here. They did not open p a path to here either. Alzar grabs the axe and casts Burning Hands at the ice in front of the doorway. It falls away and makes a big mist. He does so again and the ice has completely melted. They dug everyone out and retreated. He does not know where, but he moves invisible. No one is with him at all, but Dryshik is in the Dragon’s Lair in case Alzar needs flying eyes. Alzar prepares another magic item surprise on a pouch on his belt, in case he needs to switch to it. He follows the tunnel to the east, where there is a tunnel off. Two healthy looking giants are keeping watch to make sure no one gets in. Alzar casts Charm Monster and…it fails. One moves towards him and the other grabs a horn and blows it. It draws an axe, and Alzar does as well. Battle begins. Alzar hews 16 damage into the giant, and it hits but misses - cloak. The Giant by the doorway and the horn move sin – he can’t get a bead on Alzar. The giants go first. One attacks and hits for 21 damage and the other misses but actually hit. Alzar’s double attack slays the wounded giant. One left. Alzar wins init and hits it for 13 damage. It swings and misses. It wins init and misses ,and Alzar doubles hit and finishes it off. Despite looking fairly healthy there were damaged a bit earlier by cave ins and the Horn. Used – Conjure Earth Elemental, Vamp Touchx2, Dire Charmx2, Haste and Skulltrap from Ring, Dominationx2, Charm Monsterx2; Earthquake of Orb, 5 charges on Magic Missile Wand Slain Downstairs - 17 Ogres, 14 Frost Giants, 2 Fire Giantess, 2 Polar bear, 5 Ogre Magi, 1 Cloud Giant, 2 White Dragon |
Alzar goes invisible and waits to see who or what comes after the horn. He waits patiently for 30 minutes, but notices nothing. He moves in. As he does, he arrives at a passageway 14 feet long, from wall to wall are another set of barricades, fully manned. There is no chance he can sneak around. Everybody is here. Alzar retreats 100 feet and summons a Vrock and it tries to gate in Dretches but fails. It casts Mirror Image and Alzar switches his bracers . Alzar switches to Bracers of Protection from Normal Missiles. His AC drops massively. He summons his Shield Maidens. He wants to have the Vrock charge in, and be protected from their melee attacks while he is protected from their missile ones and wreaks havoc.
In we go. Alzar is visible and they see a demon and two ghostly creatures getting near and weapons are up. Alzar orders the Vrock, with its 61 hp, to fly up. Missiles come in and miss everybody and the Vrock loses an Image – 8 left They win init. The Vrock loses three Images, Alzar is missed, and then the Vrock is ordered to attack a Cave bear and hits for 15 damage. Alzar stops ten feet away and uses the Ring to drop Spark Shower. It deals 2d8 to everything 20 feet in front of him and ten feet across. Four giants, and both bears are in the way as is the Vrovck. Demons are immune to electricity so it takes nothing. Alzar slays the wounded Bear, hits the other for just 5 damage, and hits the Giants for 2d8 plus 4d4 for metal armor. Two fall. Alzar notices that the Jarl is not here. Alzar’s group wins init. The Vrock slays the final bear. Sleep drops two Ogres. The remaining giants and ogre flee because they feel they can’t damage Alzar, and this is the third time he’s approached their defenses and slain their people, As they run, a +2 dagger thunks into the back of a giant for 9 damage and the Vrock hits a badly wounded giant who was sparked and slays it. Alzar orders the flying Vrock to pursue and stops to switch boots. They can easily outpace him with their longer legs, and Alzar switches to his normal boots now that stealth seems not to be needed. He orders Dryshik to catch up. Slain Downstairs - 19 Ogres, 17 Frost Giants, 2 Fire Giantess, 4 Polar bear, 5 Ogre Magi, 1 Cloud Giant, 2 White Dragon There are only 6 giants, a fire giantess and the Jarl and one Ogre left. Most are wounded badly or decently. After ten minutes, the Vrock slew another giant, and the rest got away. |
This has been far more compelling than the Hill Giants. Fun read.
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Alzar begins a room by room investigation. He runs into some child giants who are non combatants and some giantesses. He ties them up and leaves them. He also finds a prisoner Storm Giantess who was being tortured. He frees her and she promises aid for the rest of the mission.
They catch up to the giants when they ambush boulders at Alzar but they deal no damage because he is still wearing his bracers,. The Storm Giant throws boulders slaying one and Alzar kills another with a thrown dagger and they flee again. This time, with a giant and his boots, they are able to keep up, abd eventually corner the group. Alzar’s and his allies make short work of the giants. Slain Upstairs – 7 Yeti , 2 Snow Leopards, 31 Frost Giants, 13 Winter Wolves, 2 White Pudding, 1 Remorhaz, 5 Ice Toads, 17 Ogres, 5 Hill Giants, 5 Stone Giants, 3 Fire Giants Slain Downstairs - 20 Ogres, 23 Frost Giants, 3 Fire Giantess, 4 Polar bear, 5 Ogre Magi, 1 Cloud Giant, 2 White Dragon |
Quote:
Yay! |
However, the Jarl and his woman managed to get away. A search later will find an escape tunnel in his quarters, plus a teleportation rune to the Fire Giants Steading. Alzar doesn’t know which one they might have taken.
An exhaustive two day search of the lower level including Gems, their friend Frost Giant telling them about it, and more occurs and Alzar finds 9because of this long list, this will be the first part of the all items found list: (I’ve converted all coins to gold) and all jewelry and gems that are generic to gp with a 90% conversion rate. 159,574 in coin downstairs 197,274 gp in coin total 115,668 gp in gems and jewelry after conversion total 312,942 gp total 2x White Dragon Scales, Hide, Tooth, Blood, Horns, etc Alabaster Statue – 4000 gp 8 boxes of Ivory – 4500 gp each box Silver Belt with Gems – 2750 gp 5 Golden Platters – 2500 gp each 3 Silver Bowls 100 gp each 2 Flagons of Ivory with Gems – 750 gp each Tapestry – 1875 gp Tapestry – 500 gp Platinum Drinking Horn Set – 9000 gp Gemmed Gold Flagon – 6000 gp +2 dagger +3 chainmail +1 shield +2 shield 11x +2 Bolts Heavy Crossbow of Speed Hammer of Thunderbolts Potion of Poisonx2, Polymorph Self, Diminution, Speed, Extra-Healing, Delusion, Storm Giant Strength, Healing, Human Control, Oil of Slipperiness Iron Horn of Valhalla +2 Elven Plate Mail Curse Scroll Scroll – Protection from Magic Pearl of Wisdom 8 Jars of Nolzur’s Marvelous Pigments Ring of Invisibility Wand of Paralyzation – 17 charges Map of Fire Giant Hall Small Iron Casket – Trick Box with 18 plates of electrum, 18 pf platinum, 18 of silver that slide in secret combination to reveal a Box of Holding – like a Bag but 3000 gp in weight. – Unknown how to open (Currently inside is 2000 gp, Pot of Frost Giant Control, Pot of Cloud Giant Strength, Necklace of Missiles – 5 missiles of 7, 2 of 5 and 2 of 3)) Trophy Room With – White Dragon Hide Large Polar Bear Skin Wyvern Skin Su-Monster Hide Teeth and Claws of Umber Hulk Giant Scorpion Claws Horn of Wooly Rhino Pair of Mammoth Tusks Pair of Mastodon Tusks Shedu Head Alzar took 20 from an Explosive Runes on a Black Scroll Stuff from the first level 11 Ivory Tusks – 800 gp each 278 Rock Crystals 10 gp each Jeweled Belt – 7000 gp Silver Belt – 1600 gp Jeweled Chain – 3000 gp Silver Tube – 300 Gp 4x Gold Armband with Inset Ivory and Amber Bear – 2000 gp 5 Fur Cloaks – 3500 gp each Jeweled Crown of 15000 gp that was intended as a gift by the Stone Giants to the Jarl Silver and Topaz Statue of Bear – 6000 gp Gold Inlaid Skull with a note to King Snurre, a Fire Giant. Reddish-Purple Amethyst – 5000 gp +3 Frostbrand Sword Ring (Ring of 3 Wishes) Sword (Sword of Giant Slaying, +2, +3 vs giants and double damage) +1 Battle Axe Wand of Cold – 16 charges Scroll - Protection from Elementals Ring of Fire Resistance +2 Chainmail Cleric Scroll – Cure Serious Wounds Potion – Healingx2 The Pearl of Wisdom is very powerful, and if a cleric has it on their body for a month, they gain +1 Wisdom and keep it as long as they have the Pearl on them. Jarl left with his +4 Two Handed Sword, +1 Shield +4 vs Missiles, Whelm, and a few scrolls of high value Alzar marks the area to come back for giant corpses and such later. |
XP: 546,255 XP earned
Everyone gets 109,250 Alzar - 446751 (Level 12 is at 750k) – 58 hp Estaish – 270,250 (Level 9) –69 HP Carum – 250440 (Level9) - Now has 81 HP. Wassilon – 88,525 fighter (level 7, level 8 at 125k)/88,525 thief (Level 8, lvl 9 at 110k) 49 hp total Hrothgr – 259250 (Level 9) – 78 hp Hrothgr leveled, as did Carum and Estaish – Wassilon gained 2 thief levels and one fighter |
Alzar now has this spell progression:
5/5/5/4/4 – He gained a 3rd, 4th and 5th spell. Alzar’s Spell Books: 5/5/5/4/4 First Level: Alarm Alzar’s Undead Porter Armor Animate Dead Animals * Cantrip Charm Person * Conjure Spell Component Detect Magic Enlarge Friends Identify Hypnotism * Locate Remains Mount Protection from Good Protective Amulet Read Languages Read Magic Sleep * * Spoil Holy Water Unseen Servant Wizard Mark Second Level: Alzar’s Axethrow Alzar’s Bookmend Alzar’s Familiar Attract Ghoul Blastbones * Choke Continual Light Embalm Empathic Control * * ESP Forget Knock Leomund’s Trap Locate Object Ray of Enfeeblement * Ray of Ondovir * Speak with Dead Tasha’s Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter Undead Mount Vocalize Wall of Gloom Wizard Lock Third Level: Bone Knit Curse Tablet Dire Charm * Dispel Magic Fly Haste * Proof Against Teleportation Protection from Good 10’ Radius Searing Serpent Sepia Snake Sigil Slumber * Skulltrap Suggestion Undead Summoning I Vampiric Touch * * Watery Double Fourth Level: Alzar’s Quest Alzar’s Scrollmend Alzar’s Undead Expertise Bestow Curse Charm Monster * Contagion Dimension Door Disfigure Evard’s Black Tentacles * * Greater Malison Magic Mirror Minor Globe of Invulnerability Mordenkainen’s Faithful Phantom Shield-Maidens * Putrefaction Ray of Oblivion Rary’s Mnemonic Enhancer Remove Curse Special Effects Vorthala’s Undead Turning Immunity Fifth Level: Animate Dead * Conjure Earth Elemental * Contact Other Plane Deathmaster’s Vial Domination ** Magic Jar Teleport Transmute Rock to Mud Vile Venom Xult’s Magical Doom Sixth Level: Alzar’s Golem Heal Alzar’s Spellbookmend Curse of Lycanthropy Enchant an Item Ensnarement Geas Invisible Stalker Legend Lore Seizure Spell Mirror Stone to Flesh Transmute Bone to Steel Alzar wants to find more 5th level Magic after this is all over. Over the next three days, Alzar teleports back everything to his home, including the people and items. |
G3. Hall of the Fire Giant King
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I am heading to Greensboro today for a job interview, and thus no updates for a while.
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Good luck with the interview, Abe!
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The next four days are spent spying on the Fire Giant’s Hall and preparing for his next journey. The Gargoyle Cloaks were recovered from the landslide and Alzar has them on four zombies again. The volcanic area around which the Hall is located is very far away.
Alzar thought about trying to use subterfuge and the seal of Snurre that was found, but he doesn’t believe that is a good long term option. After both giant places are taken out, there can be no question that the Hall will be on high alert. Alzar decides to wait a week longer. That gives security a chance to relax a bit. He also uses the time to summon aid – Aleigha and Maerie have arrived. Considering just how powerfully the Rift tore into his team on two occasions, Alzar wants the extra help. Maerie – Level 8,Thief, Neutral, 55 hp Aleigha – Level 9 Fighter, Neutral, 72 hp, can turn into a Werebear, wields Sword of Spartusia This is in addition to Wassilon, Carum, Estaish, and Hrothgr. Alzar really needs a Priest, but he has never met one in his adventures. He is bringing the gargoyles, four skeletons, Megala, Dryshik, Zadaxx and nothing else. It will take a long time to travel there overland. He spends the extra week getting ready teleporting to the area and exploring in real life. He finds a cave five miles away that can be a great backup, and the four skeletons are placed here, silently. They will be pulled out in case the gargoyles die and he needs more undead for cloaks. Alzar also teleports to a large city to try and trade some spells. He can’t find any good 5th level spells that he wants. |
Two weeks are up, and Alzar begins teleporting people to the area. Over the course of the next two days, he teleports everyone and everything in. This time, Alzar will be using the _1 AC and +1 save Ioun Stone to drop his AC. He will also switch back to his old boots. Elvenkind aren’t going to make it any easier to sneak around when he’s already in a nice place. He’s seen in twice when someone opened the door while he was using his Crystal Ball. It’s clean, large, and ostentatious.
Alzar has enough Rings of Fire Resist for everyone. This seems like the sort of place where you will need them. Carum has the Gloves of Fire Resist. Estiash is handed the +3 Frostbrand Sword for this adventure only, instead of his normal +3 sword. It will give hive Fire Resist and be a +6 weapon to hit and to damage many folks here. Hrothgr is given the Slaying Giant Sword that is +2, +3 vs giants and does double damage against them, it’s just for this adventure as well. |
For this Adventure, Alzar will have
Sleep Hypnotismx2 Charm Person Unseen Servant Tasha’s Uncontrollable Hideous Laughter Empathic Control x2 Knock Ray of Ondovir Dire Charm Haste Slumber Vampiric Touch x2 Charm Monster Evard’s Black Tentacles x2 Shield-Maidens Domination x2 Animate Dead x2 Alzar has a new strategy, and we’ll see if it pays off Rings: Ring of Spell Storing – Sleep, Sleep, Ray of Ondovir (1,1,2) Ring of Spell Storing with these spells – (5, 3, 3, 3, 1) Animate Dead, Searing Serpent, Skulltrap, Dispel Magic, Hypnotism Ring of… 1, 2, 3 and 3 Spell Storing – Charm Person, Forget, Dire Charm, Vampiric Touch You’ll note only a few cosmetic changes, save for the Conjure being dropped for Animate Dead |
The game is afoot. Alzar is invisible and well in front. The door into the Hall is a giant polished obsidian. You need the strength of a Fire giant to push them open. A noisy opening warns people that Alzar is coming. Alzar’s scouting noticed this, and he prepared by having Knock. He casts it at the door and it opens smoothly. There are no windows, watchtowers, or anything of the sort. Just a giant corridor with a large tapestry to the left and about 100 feet of corridor.
Alzar summoned a Glabrezu, and we move on. Glabrezu – 79 hp Alzar slips in and investigates. The Ear Ring detects breathing behind the tapestry. Alzar bends down and peers under it, and there is a Fire Giant on guard here. Luckily, it didn’t hear the door open. There is a giant Bronze Horn here as well, probably to alert the complex about intruders. Alzar needs to take care of it, and pulls out a new spell – Slumber. It works on just one target, but any target, unlike Sleep and it can’t be woken early by slapping and such. Alzar unveils to Slumber the Giant. It dozes to sleep and Alzar slays it. Alzar goes invisible again and moves on. The corridor arrives at a giant hall, and there are two Ettins in the foreground. They are back to back and their heads are turned so that every direction is covered – smart. This hall goes back for 180’ and it’s the throne room of Snurre. There are 16 pillars, four tapestries on the walls, two hallways that split off. The Gem shows nothing nearby, but Alzar can’t use it on everything. On the dais is a giant throne, with Snurre sitting there. Guarding the throne are two hell hounds, and four Fire Giant guards, fully armed. That’s not that many people – 2 ettins, 2 hounds, 4 giants, and Snurre. Of course there must be giants nearby, and who knows how many secret doors or more alcoves behind tapestries there are. Alzar does want to go in too much farther, because he wants to avoid detection by these people that are on heightened alert. Is this an illusion? If he goes hard corps, and it’s an illusion, he walks into a trap. Or if Snurre is not Snurre but a doppelganger or someone dressed like him. It seems very early in the Hall to have a throne room, but the great hall of the Hill Giants was also just one door in It is consistent. |
Alzar comes up with a plan and retreats. He gets the demon to try and gate in Vrocks instead of Dretches. He can 50% gate in 1d2 Vrocks. It fails. No gate for this guy. The extra muscle would have been nice.
All demons can teleport without error. Here’s the plan, the Glabrezu teleports directly behind the throne an attacks a surprised King. Everybody’s attention goes to the Glabby. Alzar’s Domination spell can reach all the way down there at the end of the room – it has a range of 350 feet. Charm Monster won’t work – too many hit dice. Tasha’s Laughter will reach all of the way down there as well – 180 feet. That would affect four beings and the Fire Giants would save at -4 and the Ettin at -6. The Tentacles have a range of 90 feet and Alzar would have to get a lot closer. The Ray has a range of 80 feet, and Dire Charm 360 feet. Several of these spells could immediately be used to assist. If Snurre tries to run, Alzar commands the Glabby to try and Power Word, Stun it. If he has 90 hp or more, it won’t work, and he might not run or even be the Chief. Still, that’s the plan. Alzar orders everyone just outside of the entrance. The Ettin can see down the hallway near the front, but not the way due to his angle. Alzar commands the Glabby in, and here we go. |
Round 1
The Glabby appears directly behind the King and attacks. He rolls two d20s for his attacks. He rolls a 15 and an 18. Both hit. Each hit doles out 2d8+10 damage. 44 damage is doled out. Snurre is down to 47 hp. Giants immediately shout for aid. Meanwhile, Alzar casts a spell. He tries Dire Charm on a Fire Giant guard to the far side of Snurre. It rolls a 7 and fails. It goes berserk. Alzar’s allies run in. Round 2 This round, everybody can do stuff. Alzar’s allies are just entering the end of the room. All of the giants are now able to attack. Others that hear can run in. Initiative is rolled. The giants win. The two Ettins attack Alzar. Giant spears miss him – both would have hit. The hell hounds attack the Glabrezu. One hits for 8 damage after half damage from fire. The three guard attack the Glabrezu It takes 32 damage from two hits. King Snurre runs and moves to open a secret door behind the throne. The Glabrezu, as commanded, tres Power Word Stun on Snurre as he flees. It works. There is no save to a Power Word. Due to his current hp, he is stunned for 2d4 rounds and may not move. He rolls a three. In three rounds, he will be free again. The Dire Charmed giant attacks another giant. He hits the Ac -1 (Fire Giants have a THAC0 of just 5). And deals 2d10+10. 23 damage. 36/59 hp left for Throne Guard #3. The allies are commanded to handle the Ettins. The Gargoyles are ordered to fly over to the throne. Carum’s spear pierces an Ettin for 6 damage. Hrothgr deals 15 damage to it, and Aleigha adds 10. The others miss. 18/49 hp left for Guard Ettin #1. Alzar moves up and hears loud voice coming closer indicating a tunnel behind a tapestry he is passing. He drops Evard’s Black Tentacle sin front of it to catch whoever comes in. 15 of them are there. |
Round 3
Alzar’s group wins init. The charmed giant hits for 28 damage and leavesthe guard with 8. Alzar mentally commands the Glabrezu to follow and it hits once and slays it, and attacks another guard for 20 damage. 38 hp left for the guard. Alzar has arrived at the dais and can attack anybody here next turn. The gargoyles have flown is as well. They can attack next turn. The fighters carve the wounded Ettin and slay the other as well. The two guards attack the demon. They both hit for 41 damage and it’s reeling with just 6 hp left. A group of five giants arrive through the tentacle tapestry, and three enter before the other two pull back. Of those three one is attacked by eight tentacles, and another five and the last just by two that are left. The one in front is drug down to the ground and four are holding on tightly. The next has just two holding him down and the last has two as well. They might be able to free themselves before dying. An alarm is sounded down one of the side corridors. North of the great hall. Round 4 – They win init. The demons is slain and our Dire Charmed one takes 24 damage. The #2 and 3 giants destroy a tentacle. The charmed one hits for 22 damage back. 16 left. The Gargoyles tear into the King. E’s easy to hit, and they deal 35 damage. Alzar slashes him and slays him. The fighters moves in and try to hit the tangled giants before they can free themselves. Round 5 – Alzar’s group wins. It’s a nice alternation we’ve had back and forth. Alzar orders the gargoyles to attack the Hell Hounds, and they slay both. Our charmd giant slays another guard. One left. Alzar leaves it instead of hacking it from behind. The Dire Charm would then attack him! He closes the secret door and moves back into the fray. Two giants arrive down a long corridor and run into the fighters. Four giantesses have arrived from the back and they brought two boulders each to throw. |
Round 6 -
We keep init. Our Dire Charmed one hits for 26 damage on the guard. It has 34 hp left. The fighters slay the two giants with one tentacle each. The giant slayer, Frostbrand both hit and the giants have already taken damage. The two giants that entered mid hall are attacked by Gargoyles, but are barely scratched. The one with four tentacles is slain by the spell. The guard cleaves our charmed guard for 19 damage. Boulders slam into Aleigha for 12 damage and Carum for 6. Maerie – Level 8,Thief, Neutral, 55 hp Aleigha – 60/72 - Level 9 Fighter Alzar - – 58 hp Estaish – 69 HP Carum –75/ 81 HP. Wassilon – 49 hp Hrothgr - 78 hp Alzar orders Maerie and Wassilon to sneak behind the curtain and see what’s back there. At least two giants should still be back there. He sends in Megala and Dryshik as well. He runs to the Fire Giants and swings with his axe. He hits the one grazed by the gargies for 15. It’s got 34 hp left. Round 7 – They win init. The guard slays our Dire Charmed friend. More boulders arrive. You can see the damage dealt below. Alzar double swings and hits the giant once and misses once. The gargies finish it. Alzar orders the last gargoyle who didn’t attack to attack the guard that just slew the charmed one. The fighters run to the giantesses. Wassilon and Maerie sneak over and both success is hiding and moving silently. They see a room with two Fire Giant Warriors, the queen barking commands, and eight frustrated giantesses. Megala and Dryshik give Alzar that info. |
Round 8- They keep init. The queen orders everybody into the room despite tentacles even though they are all gone – attached to dead things. The giantesses miss in melee. The gargoyle is missed and Alzar is missed. Two more fire giants are running up the corridor that Alzar is fighting the last one in front of, and 6 fire Giants are racing down the long corridor by the three giantesses. Alzar’s group is about to be flanked. It’s time to move up. Alzar casts Domination on a Fire Giant moving down the corridor towards him and…failure. It rolled a 17. The three gargoyles hack the giant here for 21 damage and the other misses the badly damaged one. The giantesses lack he full armor of the others, and the warriors slay two. Alzar shouts for all but Aleigha to retreat to the group that just entered and to hit it. Aleigha changes to Werebear form, making it impossible for anyone to hit her with a non-magical weapon.
Maerie –55 hp Aleigha – 60/72 - Level 9 Fighter Alzar - – 58 hp Estaish – 61/69 HP Carum –75/ 81 HP. Wassilon – 44/49 hp Hrothgr - 78 hp Slain – 8 Fire Giant, 2 Ettin, Snurre, 2 Hell hounds, 2 Fire Giantesses. Used: Slumber, Dire Charm, Evard’s Black Tentacles, Domination |
Round 9 – They keep init again.
The fire Giants miss. Aleigha is misses. The eleven that just broke through the tentacles-area attack. The two guards charges, and their queen right behind them. They attack the fighters. All hit. You can see their effects below. Boulders are tossed in. They mostly miss, but a few hit here and there. The gargoyle finishes the badly wounded Fire Giant guard and the other three badly wound the one in front of Alzar. Alzar tries another Domination as the two Fire Giants get close. It works and one switches sides. Aleigha slays the last giantess and moves to intercept the 6 giants that have arrived. Alzar orders the gargies to move over to help Aleigha. They attack. Maerie deals 6, , Estaish 14, Carum 8, and Hrothgr 20 to a giant guard. It has 11 hp left. Dryshik Mist Balls the Queen and hits. She is blinded for two rounds. Fire Giant Ally – 57/57 Maerie –45/55 hp Aleigha – 60/72 - Level 9 Fighter Alzar - – 58 hp Estaish – 44/69 HP Carum –51/ 81 HP. Wassilon – 40/49 hp Hrothgr - 56/78 hp Round 10 – We finally wrest initiative back. Alzar’s axe slays the badly wounded giant. Aleigha and the gargoyles badly savage a fire giant, and he has 17 hp left. The fighters attack. Estaish kills the guard. The other takes 19 from the other fighters. The Dominated ally stabs his partner in the back for 32 damage. He has 28 hp left. A Wall of Fog drops between the Giantesses and the fighters, preventing missile weapons. Our ally takes 21 back from the giant. Aleigha and the gargoyles are immune to the damage the giants dole out. Maerie is hit bad for 23 damage by the guard that can attack. Fire Giant Ally – 36/57 Maerie –22/55 hp Aleigha – 60/72 Alzar - – 58 hp Estaish – 44/69 HP Carum –51/ 81 HP. Wassilon – 40/49 hp Hrothgr - 56/78 hp |
Round 11 – We keep init. Our ally slays the Giant in front of it Aleigha kills the wounded giant and Carum slays the other wounded guard. Alzar orders all fighters save for Aleigha to retreat back to the cave and Megala follows to lead them there. Alzar wants to clean up what we can here before leaving as well. The five giants leave the gargoyles and Aleigha and rush to Alzar and his Giant ally. Alzar sees two large Fire Giants leading six hell hounds coming down his hallway. The giantesses move into the Fog.
Round 12 – The Alzar teams wins again. The fighters and thieves have left. Alzar is in the middle of five giants with many enemies approaching. What Alzar wants to do is to finish off the command structure by slaying the queen. He orders the ally to attack the queen and the gargoyles fly to her. He casts Hypnotism and gets four giants to drop their weapons and runs towards the queen. A few boulders are thrown at him and miss. The last giant left with a weapon attacks him, hits, but actually misses. Round 13 – They get init back. The four Hypnotised pick up their weapons. One runs and fllows Alzar. The hell hounds and packmasters have arrived. The queen is no longer blinded and attacks Alzar and misses. Alzar takes 12 from two boulders. Our ally slashes the queen for 26 damage, and the gargoyle add 13. Alzar doles out 15 with the axe. She has 20 ho left. A ball flies in and blinds her again, to prevent her from escaping. Dryshik is orderd to fly out. Round 14 – Alzar wins inti and the ally slays his queen. 13 giants and hell hounds move in. Alzar flees and has the gargoyles set up a screen. On his way out, protected by the gargoyles, he animates the dead corpse at the front of the hall and it leaves with him. The gargoyles prevent anyone from leaving to chase for ten minutes, giving them time to erase the trail, and then fly after. Slain – 14 Fire Giant, 2 Ettin, Snurre, Queen, 2 Hell hounds, 3 Fire Giantesses. One Fire Giant dominated. Used: Slumber, Dire Charm, Evard’s Black Tentacles, Domination x2, Hypnotism, Animate Dead |
Alzar has turned himself invisible and stays at the doorway, about 5 0yards away, to see who pops out. The two Fire Giants and 7 Hell Hounds appear, and he smiles - he was hoping that would happen. He casts Unseen Servant. This conjures a force from beyond that does simple chores, like sweep, for hours. It has no powers, no hit points, and nothing special. Alzar pulls out an extra Cloak of Displacement to add to the spooky effect and orders it to run past the giants. He leads the giants and their dogs on a chase for ten minutes, letting them get closer. Then another ten, and they are even closer .
Now, Alzar summons a Hezrou. It has 65 hp. Why it? You’ll see. Alzar orders the Hezrou to try and gate in some help, but again, failure. He hides the Hezrou and himself and the Unseen Servant approaches with them on its trail. It passes by and the Hezrou jumps out and attacks a Fire Giant. He bites the giant for 12 damage and claws it for 11. Then he starts to give off a stench. All living creatures near it save every turn or become nauseated and they can’t attack, just move. Three hounds fail their save. Then Alzar slashes the wounded giant with his axe. (He is immune to odor and smell with his Necklace of Adaptation). It takes 21 from surprise and is reeling. One giant attacks Alzar and misses (Cloak). The other attacks the demon and hits for 19 damage. 46 hp left for it. It takes another 8 from half hellhound damage – 38 hp left. Alzar wins init. He slays the wounded giant with both hits. The demon hits the other giant once for 9 damage. The giant fails its save and two more hounds do as well. The packmaster orders everyone to retreat . Alzar is easily able to keep up with his boots, and the demon teleports in. Next turn, they slay the wounded giant. They keep this up with the hounds and slay them one by one as well. Slain – 17 Fire Giant, 2 Ettin, Snurre, Queen, 9 Hell hounds, 3 Fire Giantesses. |
This was not a bad first go into the dungeon. Alzar animates both corpses as Skeletons.
Fire Giant Skeleton – 56/56 Skeleton #2 – 68/68 Skeleton #3 – 59/59 Maerie –22/55 hp Aleigha – 60/72 Alzar - – 58 hp Estaish – 44/69 HP Carum –51/ 81 HP. Wassilon – 40/49 hp Hrothgr - 56/78 hp Hezrou – 38 hp left Used: Slumber, Dire Charm, Evard’s Black Tentacles, Domination x2, Hypnotism, 3x Animate Dead, including Ring animation, Unseen Servant With most fighters not damaged too badly, all four gargoyles, three giant skeletons, and many spells left, Alzar doesn’t think this went badly at all. Now it’s time to go take a look and see what is still wanting to die. |
In the hour or so he has been gone, the giants have cleaned up the dead corpses, and placed a barricade of tables across the hallway twice, once twenty feet in front of another. This should stop invisible people from getting in. Two giants are on watch.
Here is who is left on this level alone 21 giantesses 5 Giants 15 young giants 4 hell hounds Alzar wanted a disorganized defense after taking out the queen and king, but someone has stepped in and managed things wonderfully. Alzar sneaks in and casts Dire Charm from a Ring on one of the two guards. It works and it starts attacking it’s mate. It attacks again doling out 45 damage, and then a ton of boulders crash into it and slay it. Another giant is sent to take its place. Alzar uses Flame Strike on the wounded one from the Orb and slays it. They won’t let him keep launching in spells. Four Ettins move in and push aside the first table, taking up rank at the second. Alzar orders the Hezrou to teleport into their midst and attack. It does and attacks an Ettin. It hits once for 19 damage. The odor occurs and one fails the save. The other three attack and slay it, while Alzar uses the sacrifice play to run in (still invisible ) and swings at the wounded Ettin. He hits for surprise and 20 damage. The next turn, they win init. Alzar is attacked for a bunch and takes nothing – Cloak. He cleaves and slays the first Ettin, and then carves into another for 15 damage. He takes 21 damage from attacks. He then goes invisible and flees. A few thrown weapons try to hit him, but they can’t bring him down. Slain – 19 Fire Giant, 3 Ettin, Snurre, Queen, 9 Hell hounds, 3 Fire Giantesses. Used: Slumber, Dire Charm, Evard’s Black Tentacles, Domination x2, Hypnotism, 3x Animate Dead, including Ring animation, Unseen Servant, Dire Charm from Ring, Flame Strike from Orb |
Alzar retreats out of the hall and waits an hour, but no one comes out. He returns and sees that they changed their posts. They now have a giant, giantess and Ettin with a weapon to throw in hand every 15 feet. By having so many, they all cover each others’ range. They want to insure that Alzar can’t penetrate their defenses by being sneaky and invisible.
He returns and summons another Glabrezu. This time, it gates in one Vrock. The Vrock casts Mirror Image. They are to teleport besides of an Ettin. Slay the Fire Giant instantly, and then Power Word Stun the Ettin. Alzar is there for support. They tp in. The Giant is attacked four times and hit three for 45 damage. The others throw items and the Glabrezu takes 50 damage. Alzar carves the giantess on the end by the door, who is obviously cannon fodder for 26 damage off surprise from invis. Roll for init. We win. The giant is dropped and the Ettin stunned. Alzar attacks the chick twice and finishes her. The Glabrezu is slain and an Image disappears off the Vrock. Alzar moves up to the next enemy, and attacks with invis and hits the stunned Ettin. The Vrock is ordered in and will be slain in three turns , but not before Alzar takes out the Ettin and retreats. In a few minutes, a party of three arrives and shuts the door. Alzar hears huge bolts, boulders, and whatever being placed there. He leaves Near theend of the day, Alzar uses his three daily passwalls to pen a tunnel into the chambers of the queen and king by the throne room. He can;t get all of the way, and they will be there for 12 hours. He leaves. End of Day One Slain – 20 Fire Giant, 4 Ettin, Snurre, Queen, 9 Hell hounds, 4 Fire Giantesses. Used: Slumber, Dire Charm, Evard’s Black Tentacles, Domination x2, Hypnotism, 3x Animate Dead, including Ring animation, Unseen Servant, Dire Charm from Ring, Flame Strike from Orb |
On Day Two, Alzar has cast extra spells into the Rings temporarily – Haste for Dire Charm. Today he memorizes everything the same as yesterday save for an extra Dire Charm instead of Haste and Skulltrap instead of one Vampiric Touch.
He goes to the tunnel and passwalls twice more and breaks through. His minions are outside. He sees no one and sneaks around for a bit. There don’t appear to be anyone iin these rooms. Hiding behind the tapestry, he checks out the throne room. It’s a Giant armed camp. Fire Giants, Giantesses, children, two ettins, 5 Hill Giants, Hell Hounds, and more are all here. Alzar makes a Glabby and it fails a gate. These teleporting demons make great assassin. The problem is that either Alzar or they have to have line of sight. Alzar has an opportunity to hit them from the flank and then retreat. He has the fighters outside covering the exit, but the skeletons remain in the cave – even the big ones. This is not the time to risk them. Maerie is fully healed from borrowing his Regeneration Gem. How can Alzar cause the maximum amount of panic and slaying? Several possibilities are considered and dismissed. Here’s what we are going to do. Alzar will use the Horn of Blasting to do a small amount of damage an stun everyone for a turn. The Demon will use his Confusion ability on 15 creatures in the room. Everybody who fails the save is Confused. The next turn, while stunned, the Glabby will attack a powerful giant in the area, and Alzar will drop a Wall of Ice to prevent people from leaving and hem them in. Then they will take it from there. Here we go. |
The horn works - everything works as planned and Alzar cuts off the room leaving 12 people on this side. 8 of which are Confused.
The Glabby attacks one of the two Fire Giants here for two auto hits while stunned for 39 damage. The awake. 8 roll to see what they do. Two stand around, an Ettin damages a Hell Hound, 3 more stand around, two more stand around. The glabby finishes off the damaged and unconfused Giant. Alzar attacks an unconfused Hill Giant for 13 damage. A Hell Hound breathes and misses, Alzar is hit and misses by the giant, and a giantess misses with a boulder completely. They win init. One confused acts normally and attacks Alzar with an attack by a child – miss. Two stand around. One Hell Hound breathes on an Fire Giant and that does nothing. Two stand around. One attacks a child and slays it. The last does nothing. Alzar takes 10. The glabby moves to a Hell Hound and slays it. Alzar finishes the Hill Giant with two hits. We win init. The glabby takes out a child. Alzar attacks a giantess and is missed by her. None of the confused attack us, but two attack each other and do little damage. We win init. The giantess is slain by Alzar. We carve into confused people. A few turns later, all of the confused have died On the outside, a Hill Giant was confused and slain by its mates before they brought the Ice Wall down. Fire Giant Skeleton – 56/56 Skeleton #2 – 68/68 Skeleton #3 – 59/59 Maerie –55 hp Aleigha – 60/72 Alzar - – 48/58 hp Estaish – 44/69 HP Carum –51/ 81 HP. Wassilon – 40/49 hp Hrothgr - 56/78 hp Slain – 22 Fire Giant, 5 Ettin, Snurre, Queen, 11 Hell hounds, 7 Fire Giantesses, 3 Fire Giant child, 2 Hill Giant Used – Horn of Blasting, Ice Wall of Orb, |
Once the Wall is brought down, Alzar is facing a lot of angry folks. He casts Tentacles and they grab four children and the last two hounds. They separate him from some giants. The Glabby casts Power Word Stun on the last Ettin and moves in. Attacks fly in and miss Alzar.
We lose init. Alzar takes 15 from some boulders ,and the Glabby attacks a 3rd hill Giant. It takes some hits too and is down to 29 hp. Alzar Dire Charms a Fire Giant successfully. It moves to attack it’s former friends. We win. Our charmed ally attacks a giantess. She takes 25. The glabby finishes off the Hill Giant. Alzar attacks the downed Ettin for surprise and an auto hit 22 damage. They slay the Dire Charmed giant. We win. The Glabby attacks and slays the damaged giantess. All of the children and hounds have died to the Tentacles. Alzar finishes the Ettin and moves to leave. They slay the demon and Alzar takes 18. He turns Invisible and gets away. None follow this time. From behind the curtain he stops, and then Animates a Fire Giant right by the doorway. It takes 33 before it can get out. They move to the curtain and force him out via the tunnel but again, do not pursue. Fire Giant Skeleton – 56/56 Skeleton #2 – 68/68 Skeleton #3 – 59/59 Skeleton #4 – 24/57 Maerie –55 hp Aleigha – 60/72 Alzar - – 15/58 hp Estaish – 44/69 HP Carum –51/ 81 HP. Wassilon – 40/49 hp Hrothgr - 56/78 hp Slain – 23 Fire Giant, 6 Ettin, Snurre, Queen, 13 Hell hounds, 8 Fire Giantesses, 7 Fire Giant child, 3 Hill Giant Used – Horn of Blasting, Ice Wall of Orb, Evard’s Black Tentacles, Dire Charm, Animate Dead This was another successful outing. We took out some more giants big and small. Now they know to protect against Alzar’s Passwalls as well. |
Alzar summons a Bebau who teleports in with him when he does some digging around and finds a chimney to the back from above and a few hours later descends. There is a Pyrohydra here guarding this entrance, and Alzar engages it.
It breathes fire and the Bebau takes 15 and Alzar takes 19. They attack. Three heads are destroyed. They attack and lop off three more heads (Alzar misses once) and then it tries to bite them. Alzar is missed due to cloak and he hops back. It wins init and bites the Bebau but it takes just half damage from piercing attacks. It takes 18 damage total. Alzar’s knife kills a head, and the Bebau another. They win int and finish it. Alzar has 21 hp left. He explores with the Gem and this is the secret chamber of the King. It leads to a secret passage behind the throne. His treasure cave is back here, and Alzar explores it carefully. 28000 cp 9500 gp in jewels There are eight trunks, 6 chests, and 5 coffers. Alzar flies out with his Broom of Flying and brings back both thieves. They each search every chest so it gets two scans. Trunk #1 – locked opened, - 72000 sp Trunk #2 - Empty Trunk #3 – 60000 cp, 55000 gp jewelry Trunk #4 – Trap found and disarmed, 3 Cubic Feet of Silk, 3000 gp per foot Trunk #5 – locked, opened – 8 pieces of rare wood, lined with mother of pearl – 1000 gp each Trunk #6 – 13000 ep Trunk #7 – locked and picked – 12 ivory husks work 1500 gp each Trunk #8 – Trap found and disarmed – 15000 gp jewelry Chest #1 - Trap found and picked – nothing Chest #2 – Empty Chest #3 – Trap not found, fires – Alzar takes 12 acid damage. Then disarmed. 12 potions, 8 scrolls Chest #4 – Trap disarmed – 17300 gp Chest #5 – Locked, opened, empty Chest #6 – Powerful hidden trap found, disarmed, lock picked, - Set – 1 Black Cloak, Black Boots -75% to move silently/be invisible in dungeons. Coffer #1 – Trap found and disarmed – Ring of Protection +3, Contrariness, Ring of Water Command, Ring of Delusion, Ring of Three Wishes Coffer #2 – 1325 pp Coffer #3 – 9000 gp worth of spices Coffer #4 – Locked, can’t pick, too big for Acid, Alzar uses Knock spell – 41000 gp in gems Coffer #5 – 7 Evil Statues, placed in bag for study later, don’t count as on Alzar for their ability. 9 hp left for Alzar Alzar can’t detect the WC and 3 Wishes with his ability, but he knows the other Rings. The potions and scrolls are: Scroll of Protection – Demons, Acid ; Cleric Scroll – Shillelagh, Neutralize Poison, Sanctuary; Wizard Scroll – Mislead, Summon Swarm, Control Weather; Potions – Healing, Fire Breath, Speed. Longevity, Treasure Finding x2, Agility, Seeing,. Extra-Healing, Flying, Freedom, Human Control Agility potion gives 18 dex when drunk for twenty minutes. Seeing heals Blindness of any sort. Freedom acts as a Free Action Ring for an hour. Alzar doesn’t ID anything important right now There’s nothing else here and no one seemed to hear or respond to the Pyrohydra battle. It’s been almost an hour. |
Alzar And the Bebau move quietly down the secret passage. An Ear Ring at the door that opens into the throne room comes back with only modest sound.
Creatures still left from the 1st level – 5 children 19 Giantesses Level 2 slain - 1 Fire Giant slain from level 2 4 Ettins slain from level 2 3 Hill Giants slain from it Alzar slowly opens the door. No noise is made, and They have spread out the group very thickly, with noise makers all over and broken glass, steel, rock and more all spread out over the ground. They are trying to keep Alzar from moving invisibly around. They also have three barricades he can see o stop anybody from going through. Alzar slips in and closes the door. Invisible, orders the Bebau to teleport to a child and slay it, which it does. This time instead of moving towards it, the defenders fan out to look for Alzar and some boulders and spears fly in and slay it. They’ve gotten used to this tactic. For twenty minutes they explore and a female arrives with soot from the lava below and begins to dust the air, looking for Alzar. She begins at the far entrance and moves to other entrances. She will get close to the door soon. They’ve gotten smart. Alzar grabs a Potion of Spider Climb and quaffs it. He climbs onto the walls and ceiling. They brush even by the throne but nothing, They dust the corridors and find nothing, and the back rooms. After an hour they give it up. They order four more women to collect dust, so that they can have more next time. Alzar recognizes who is given orders when he rounds the bend – it’s the Frost Giant Jarl. If Alzar were to Earthquake the roof, he’d get maybe 8 people instead of everyone. The Jarl has learned. Alzar creeps along the ceilings and explores. He explores much of the open areas in the floor. At one point, he switches to Elvenkind Boots to not leave prints on the ceiling over a sooty stove ceiling. There are Stone Giants, Frost Giants, Hill Giants, some trolls, and more Fire Giants here. It’s clear there are many more foes to face before this danger has ended. The Spider Climb will wear off soon, leaving Alzar in a deep enemy infest lair. He drops to the ground and gets his new trick ready. A skull trap is prepared and placed on the ground by a room no one is in near the back. He then prepares a second in the same location. When he turns visible and attacks, he’ll be able to force giants in and they will take damage. The doorway I just ten feet across, so they will have to come in thick. They will have to enter the doorway to hit him with boulders. It’s now night outside, so he switches to the Ring of Shooting Stars from the Free Action one. He summons a Glabrezu. It tries to gate and brigs in 20 dretches. They will remain in the room as fodder. Alzar steps into the corridor invisibly and finds a bad guy. He saw how they went out trying to find him, so he casts Dire Charm. It works and the Stone Giant attacks a nearby Giantess who is wounded (which is why he chose him) and slays her. The Stone Giant is slain very quickly ,and they look for him. They see him and move in. He orders the Glabby to jump into the hallway as they ready boulders and it Power Words Stuns a Fire Giant. Alzar summons Searing Serpent with the Ring to clean it out for something better right by a Hill Giant. A few boulders move in and a spear. Alzar steps back and the glabby tps back into the room. Angered and upset, in come several bad guys, and the traps are triggered. 65 total damage is dealt. A Giantess dies instantly. A Hill giant is in thare aad dies to. Four children are instantly gone. A Fire Giant makes a save and faisl another and is badly damaged. Out pour 20 Dretches. They finish off the wounded Fire Giant and the last Hill Giant playing with the Serpent. ^ Drecthes are slain, but they finish off two children. The Glabby tps back in and takes out the giant he froze a few round ago. Meanwhile, Alzar’s Animates a Fire Giant and it joins he fray. It will be killed, but it’s another enemy. A Domination follows and fails. The Jarl arrives and orders people around. The Dretches are slain, the Glabby gone, the skeleton killed and another giantess dies. Alzar then grabs the Orb and steps to the Fire Elemental Plane. He can survive, and moves to a safe place,e and steps back t the Primeoutside and a fe miles away. You can’t do that with accuracy to step behind the walls of a guarded builindg. Slain – 25 Fire Giant, 6 Ettin, Snurre, Queen, 13 Hell hounds, 11 Fire Giantesses, 14 Fire Giant child, 5 Hill Giant, 10 Headed Pyrohydra, 1 Stone Giant Used – Horn of Blasting, Ice Wall of Orb, Evard’s Black Tentacles, Dire Charmx2, Animate Deadx2; Potion of Spider Climb. Skulltrap in Ring. Skulltrap. Searing Serpent from Ring. End of Day Two |
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