Recap from 1/21/2012 and beyond...
After finally defeating the last of the Bugbears, the group
turned its attention to the enchanted labyrinth we had explored previously with
the confusion spell on it. After some
time we eventually found the Minotaur’s cave at the end of the Labyrinth and it
was quickly defeated mostly due to the casting of multiple magic missiles in quick succession by the three wizards in the party as the others engaged it
in melee. We found some great magic
items in its lair which were divvied up amongst the group. Following our foray into the enchanted
Minotaur’s maze, we returned to the Owlbear’s lair and awakened the beast in
order to defeat it and steal its treasure.
It was a much tougher encounter than we had anticipated as the ferocious
creature managed to bear hug and rend one of our fighters hurting him badly but eventually,
the beast was defeated. At this point we
turned our attention to the other side of the complex again and entered the
Gnoll’s lair. After several tough
combats we eventually took out the Gnolls and their leader and relieved them of
their treasure.
Within the Gnoll Chieftain’s quarters we found a fireplace
with a chimney above that lead to the surface, and which was wide enough to gain
access to or egress from the place by someone able to make the climb. We also found a secret door in the Gnoll
Chieftan’s room that led to a corridor where we found a pair of Boots of
Elvenkind on the body of a dead thief that had succumbed to his wounds in the
little used hallway long ago. The
hallway led into a little used storage room where we were surprised by and fought
a Gelatinous Cube! At first we didn't see it and of course were surprised, but it was eventually defeated after a
close call with one of the group that was nearly consumed by its quivering yet
transparent body. Within its gelatinous body we
found a magic wand and some other items and a few coins. Beyond the storage room was a series of
tunnels that contained several doors. Our
Monk Amul even managed to find a staircase that led upwards at the end of the
hallway but we didn't explore the area any further afterwards. After these adventures we returned to the
keep to rest for a while and eventually returned to the Caves of Chaos for more
exploration.
We decided to enter the last cave within the box canyon of
the complex that we had not yet explored.
The cave mouth in the center of the box canyon was surrounded by a
number of twisted and misshapen trees giving the whole place a less than
wholesome feel and an eerie and unnatural quiet ensued giving one the
impression that even nature was afraid of this place. As we entered the cave mouth, it led into a
10’ hallway that spilled into a larger 20’ wide hallway in which all of the
sounds we made seemed to be amplified due to the slick glassy surface of the
worn down smooth stone floor. This made
it very difficult to hear anything but the noises that we made as we walked
down the corridor. We continued
exploring the complex and made it to a corner of the corridor that had two
doors on either wall of the outside of the corner. The one on the right led to a set of stairs
down, so we decided to mark it on the map but leave it unexplored for now. We surmised that it may have led to the
stairs leading up that we found beyond the Gnoll’s lair since that area was on
a lower elevation on the hillside than this area.
Oddly enough, while we were checking out the doors, we were
surprised in the noisy hallway by a large group of zombies due to the excess
amount of noise we were making since it was hard to hear anything else but ourselves. As the battle ensued, our clerics failed
to turn the foul undead creatures with their holy symbols and things were
looking grim for the group as our fighters were taking a beating. Just as it looked like we were about to turn
the tide of the combat, the other door opened up and we were confronted by a
group of four evil clerics and a fierce melee ensued on both sides of the
group. One of them cast a command spell
on one of the fighters and told him to “die” though he only dropped to the floor for a
round.
We were hemmed in at this point and things were looking grim
for the group, but one of the spellcasters made good use of a Protection from
Undead scroll that we had acquired elsewhere in the complex, and read it aloud
to save the day as we managed to defeat the vile undead creatures. At the same time, Lorinar cast stinking cloud
on the group of clerics in the room just after the door opened and they were
immediately incapacitated by the gas and were gagging and vomiting on the floor
of the room. We used a rope and grapple
hook to retrieve them from the cloud filled room and relieved them of their
belongings and their lives. They had a
number of odd looking amulets on them which we found out later were in fact
evil and we also took their robes which we thought might be useful later.
Having had a full adventuring day we decided to return to
the keep to rest and recover from our exploits.
On the following day, we returned but decided not to walk right into the
front door of the evil cave complex where we had fought the zombies and clerics
previously and announce our presence to our enemies. Instead, we decided to enter the complex by a
different route that might attract less attention. So this time, our Monk Amul shimmied down the
chimney to the Gnoll Chieftan’s quarters below and the group followed down the
rope he had used. We started exploring
the area beyond the secret door and store room and Amul scouted ahead a bit to
determine if the stair at the end of the hallway connected to the area with the
undead and clerics and he determined that it did.
Rather than ascend to that level, or explore a couple of
other passages that branched off from the main passage, we decided to open
another door that was in the hallway instead.
The door was bolted shut so after prying it open, we descended a set of
stairs beyond into an old dusty crypt chamber below to search for loot. Within were a number of coffins and
sarcophagi which we proceeded to search.
When we opened up one of the sarcophagi an ancient and evil creature
within sprang to life and attacked the group – it was a level draining
Wight! A fierce and tense melee ensued
in which our Paladin was hit by the malevolent and evil being and was drained
of a life energy level before we finally managed to slay the horrific
creature. Within a secret compartment
hidden in its resting place we found a magical sword and a magical scroll. After this combat we returned to the keep to
rest and recoup. At this time we
discovered that the keep was bristling with activity and that the entire area
was on alert for an attack from a large group of marauding humanoids that had
been spotted nearby and that had attacked a few farmsteads!
TO BE CONTINUED...
So your party went to the Minotaur caves, and my party did as well, after resting. They defeated the Minotaur caves disorientation effect by putting their left hand on the left wall and holding onto it. I thought that was a pretty clever way to do it, and pure player skill, so I let it stand. They got to the Stirge cave and then to the entrance, then continued on with this method to get to the Minotaur's chamber. Who was already dead.
ReplyDeleteKudos to you for defeating the Owlbear. That as far as I was concerned was the apex predator of the box canyon. I was glad they didn't go poking around in there, because between the Owlbear and the THREE Grey Ooozes yeah...death is right.
So, my players characters went back to the Keep, and did level up activities (to Level 3), which allowed for a little re-organization at the Caves of Chaos. The surviving humanoids had entered into a common defense pact by this stage, with sentries and an agreement to all come out to meet invaders.
Well, when my players went back out, they spotted the sentry, who ran away to report. The players backed off, and approached from another direction, and entered the Shrine of Evil Chaos, going down into the dungeon, killing the torturer, getting into the crypt, opening one tomb, and then getting the heebie jeebies and backing away. They were like "Wait why was this bolted from the inside?" Good thinkin' Lincoln. I felt like I had to at least give them *A* clue before throwing a Wight on them.
They found the secret door in the store-room and then entered the Gnoll chief's lair from that route, killing the chief's sons and his mates, then sending an invisible thief to scout, who returned, and they fled back through the secret passageway. Imagine the Gnoll chief's face when he comes back in to find his sons who he left behind for their safety DEAD. He was PISSED at the Orc Chief who thought up the whole common defense idea.
I skipped the whole Gelatinous Cube thing. It just seemed really incongruous and I didn't like the idea of a Wand of Enemy Detection anyway.
The party encountered the Medusa next. They fell for it, three of them went in, got stoned, and then the rest of the party was outside. I liked this because both of my wife's characters were stoned and so my eight year old daughter and five year old son had to figure it out. They decided on sending in the halfling, invisible, to search her out and he found the elixer of stone to flesh, then they put a bag over the stones characters heads and applied the oil and walked them out one at a time. Then, my wife's Ranger went in, shoved a large shield in her face, and stabbed upward with a sword until she stopped moving. Problem. Solved.
They then went back to the secret passage, rested, got discovered by the gnolls--who found the secret door--fought the gnolls to a standstill, parleyed, and let the gnolls depart after they dropped some treasure. Interesting how that worked out a lot. A fair number of humanoids escaped the Caves of Chaos with their lives.
Too bad that the rest of this playthrough isn't posted here. I've enjoyed reading it and recollecting my players' experience with it.