This session happened Friday, December 17, 2010, and was the only session I ran this past weekend.
Adventuring Group:
Su Bel (human cleric)
Mog the Doomed (half-orc barbarian)
Sal Ty (elf wizard)
Thorngrim (half-orc sorcerer)
– Kainen (Thorngrim’s human fighter cohort)
Note: the list of player characters is in player sitting order, from my left and then clockwise around the table.
Su Bel wanted to go to Iron Keep to switch out her current weapon for an improved scimitar, the favored weapon of her deity. Mog, Sal, and Thorngrim agreed to go with her (mostly to get out of the very crowded Drop-off Tower). After making a swap for a new scimitar [+2], the group talked about going back to the tower where the adamantine door had been found. Knowing that there were two fire giants and the Lake of Fire up those stairs, the group spent the day at Spider's Bar planning their attack. The plan was to cast no less than nine spells (later increased to eleven spells) on Mog, increasing his abilities to be (hopefully) over that of the giants.
The next day, with a plan in hand, the group headed back east, temporarily stopping off at Drop-off Tower before following Owlbear Road east. Surprisingly for this late in April, there were no encounters along the way. Once the group made their way into the ruins and up the stairs to the landing below the Lake of Fire, the three spellcasters started casting a series of spells on Mog, including: resist energy [fire], bull's strength, protection from evil, and haste (by Sal); shield other, bless, aid, and prayer (by Su Bel); enlarge person and greater invisibility (by Thorngrim); and barkskin by way of a potion made by Tycho. Mog then charged his way up the rest of the stairs. The others cast a few more spells on each other before following (mostly greater invisibility on Su Bel and Thorngrim and invisibility on Sal).
Thinking he could sneak up on one of the fire giants, Mog quickly followed the arching path from the center of the immense chamber around towards the platform to the left of the stairs. He only made it half way when four fire bats erupted from the Lake of Fire and attacked him, their echolocation completely nullifying the effects of the greater invisibility cast upon him. At the same time, the other adventurers entered the center platform and were noticed by the sharp-eyed fire giant at the other end of the room, who started throwing rocks the size of their heads at their heads.
During the fight, Sal summoned a medium air elemental to fight the fire bats and Su Bel summoned a celestial dire boar, attempting to send it around the second path to the first fire giant to flank it for Mog (who she was able to track thanks to the fire bats attacking him). Unfortunately, the celestial dire boar was not very nimble and stepped off the path, burning itself severely and triggering four more fire bats erupting from the Lake of Fire. Sal dealt with the fire bats by having his air elemental batter the first group and he cast slow on the second group, effectively taking them out of the fight.
Mog went toe to toe with the first fire giant, beating it down while the giant was only able to land the occasional blow due to the greater invisibility Mog was fighting under. Emboldened by Mog's success, Su Bel advanced on the second fire giant in order to cast bestow curse on it. This turned out to be a mistake.
The second fire giant was able to determine where Su Bel was in general and was lucky enough to hit. Su Bel could not take the same amount of damage as an enraged Mog, and the third hit she took killed her. This galvanized the other adventurers, who quickly took down the second fire giant and then mopped up the last of the fire bats. Behind each fire giant they found a set of spiral stairs leading up to another level of the tower. They gathered what treasure they could and then carefully wrapped up Su Bel's body to take it with them.
The adventurers made a bee line back to the Iron Keep. There they were able to use cash on hand to have raise dead cast upon Su Bel. As she was a fellow cleric, the temple forwent the 40% markup the Baron mandated on all transactions within the Keep. This allowed the casting of the raise dead and both restoration spells necessary to bring back Su Bel back to full strength. Most of the money spent was Su Bel's, but Thorngrim was able to cover the cost of the second restoration when her funds ran out.
While waiting for the necessary time between restorations, Sal took the time to create some magic items for the adventurers. After Su Bel was back up, the adventurers decided they wanted the skulls of the fire giants as trophies and returned to the Lake of Fire to claim the grisly trophies. After using magic to clean the skulls, the adventurers returned to Drop-off Tower, where one of the skulls was mounted over the fireplace. The second skull was carted back to the Iron Keep and mounted in Spider's Bar with a small placard. The adventurers then spent another week in town while Sal crafted two more magic items.
*End of Session*
[AD&D grognards may recognize the Lake of Fire inside a tower from an old TSR module. I've switched it up a bit and dropped the portions leading up to the tower. I'll talk about this later, once the players explore more of the ghostly tower.]
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