Wednesday, September 18, 2013

The Fane of the Frog God: Part 2 - Where the Wizard Does Something

When we last left out heroes they were just camping out in the abandoned armory of the subterranean shrine, trying to recover from their pitched battles against the Bullywug forces they had encountered thus far. If you remember from last session, Scott's wizard is having trouble getting off any spells - In fact with one magic missile he burned 6 points for a +6 to his roll, and still ended up with a failed cast (Getting less then 12).

Our cast of characters:

Drake the Moller Mauler - A chaotic dwarf with a penchant to bash out teeth of his enemies and affix them to his shield. Played by Randy.

Farmer, the Witness of Ildavir - a neutral cleric in service to the goddess of Nature. Also played by Randy.

Jess the Thug - A chaotic smuggler turned thief with assassin leanings. Played by Ginger.

The Silent Mage - Wizard bound to the King of the Elf Lands. Played by Scott.

We also had two new zero level PCs join in the session, brought in by Scott. An Orphan boy and a Dwarven Blacksmith - Though these come in a little later in the session.

The party has managed to make it through the night without being disturbed. The Bullywug's must not of thought to check the room full of deadly skeletons for the invaders. Jess pops out of the room to do some scouting and finds the hall empty. The head back toward the altar room where they had found the two potions the previous week. Upon entering the room they encounter five bullywug guards, armed and on the lookout for the invaders who have been slaughtering their kin.

The frog-men win initiative and rush in to attack the dwarf blocking the door. One of them runs to the hall and starts croaking - which the players assume means he was calling for reinforcements. Things can get rough quick. The dice at this point are falling in favor of the frog men. A couple of hits and Drake the Dwarf is down on the ground.

Some quick healing from Farmer saves the dwarf. Jess runs past the group and pushes the door shut, on the next round she quickly spikes the floor infront of the door to prevent the reinforcements from entering right away. The sounds of frantic frog hands hammering at the door are heard.

The battle continues to go poorly for the party. The Silent Mage attempts a choking cloud only to have it fail. Jess goes down a critical hit from a bullywug sword, and Farmer is unable to heal her (failing his roll). The Silent Mage grabs one of the potions that had found and pours it down her throat in time, and she wakes back up fully healed and feeling amazing. The tide of battle quickly turns and they have the four remaining Bullywugs down and bleeding out on the stone floor.

They don't have time for a rest, as the door is hit by a massive thud. The party assumes the frogs have brought a battering ram and quickly prepare spell and blade for the attack.

The door breaks down as a massive bear charges into the room. Surprised by the bear, they quickly recover and Farmer manages to critical on his casting of paralysis, allowing him to paralyze the bear in place, blocking then door.

The Silent Mage spellburns again to recast his choking cloud, and gets a minimal effect - a small cloud of stinking smoke that burns the eyes of the bear. His slug familiar moves into position above the door, to paralyze the next thing through after the bear.

They hear spellcasting behind the bear - it must of been summoned. Then the bear is moved out of the way by an enlarged bullywug warrior who stands ten feet tall. He attacks Jess with his massive sword but rolls a fumble, smashing the blade into fragments. The slug then attacks it, paralyzing it when it fails it's saving throw.

The Silent Mage gets off a spell this time, and with a little spellburn was able to cast a potent magic missile this time - killing a distant relative in the process with his mercurial magic. He fires off six missiles that each end up dealing 1d6+1 damage, splitting them between the big bullywug and the caster - Both targets drop in a scream of bloody eagles (the manifestation of his magic missiles) which also dismisses the summoned bear.

Drake the Moller Mauler smashes some Bullywug face and drops the other combatants with the assistance of Jess. Looting the bodies and looking around, the find two prisoners in the hallway, bound up, that the bullywugs had captured from a nearby town to be used as sacrifices. Vowing revenge, the Orphan and the Dwarven Blacksmith join the party and are quickly outfitted in slimy Bullywug leather armor and given longswords.

They had discovered last session that the main hallway was blocked by fallen rubble, so decided to investigate the doors in the "bathing room" they had found before. Heading back inside they find the room empty, and go to climb the vines to get to the ledges above, and the doors they had seen. Farmer is volunteered to go first - The Silent Mage attempts to cast spider climb on him but only gets to cast that spell with a d14 - and thus fails (The Silent Mage has some of the worst Mercurial magic affects I have ever seen). The cleric makes it up easily, however.

They decide to go up the northern passage where the bullywug crossbowman had been guarding the previous day - and venture down a long hallway with a downward slant. The walls here are etched with images of frogs worshipping a giant frog and killing snakes.

In the next room they find a large room, empty of creatures and a door on the right wall. In the center is a clear crystal fountain with a trio of frogs spitting a stream of water into the fountain basin, which shimmers with the flicker of jewels under the water. The Silent Mage believes it is trapped, but Jess the thief is more interested in the jewels and Drake rushes over to join her. As Jess tries and scoops out some gems with a spear they see the spear melt into nothing - and the fountain chimes loudly, and then begins spraying acid all over the room.

Jess manages to dodge behind Drake before he goes down from the acid. She quickly drags him back to Farmer to be healed and the party waits for the acid spray to stop. Choosing to leave the fountain alone for now they pass through the next door, and out into the hallway on the opposite side of the fallen rubble they had found before.

They discover a set of massive double-doors as the end of the hallway with torches burning on the wall to frame it in flickering orange light. They decide to investigate a side passage first, heading down a hallway and listening at the door - where they hear the sound of water. Opening the door they discover the a massive spawning pool of the Bullywug, guarded by several bullywug warriors. Piles of eggs and tadpools swim in the waist deep swamp water. The room smells of rot and swamp gas.

As the Bullywugs rush the door, The Silent Mage gets an idea and starts prepping some oil. The Blacksmith and the Orphan borrow some of his oil and do the same. Drake blocks the door to prevent any of them from getting in, smashing and killing one with his shield.

Jess joins in the fight when Drake goes down to a bullywug attack. Farmer provides some quick healing and the dwarf rises to push back the frogmen. The trio in the back toss in their burning oil, lightning the swamp gas and soon there is a raging inferno in the room sucking the oxygen out of the air around them. Drake kicks the last frog back into the flame to join his burning companions and young, and they shut the door to let them cook.

With no where else to go, they venture to the large set of double doors. Listening at the door, they hear nothing so open up one of the doors. Inside they see a large chamber with still, brackish water just below floor level - with stepping stones slick with slime across the water to an island with a bronze statue of a frog. Red jewels for eyes the size of saucers, and a pile of treasure between it's feet. A brazier burning hot in the palms of the statue.

Seeing the gold, Drake rushes across the stones but falls into the water after slipping, hurting his back and having to scamper to grab the stones to keep from sinking in his chainmail. Jess dances across the stones and notices some strange greenish nodules smeared on the gold, as if something had been using the gold to scratch off it's skin. However she is more interested in the large gems than the gold, and begins climbing the statue.

The others notice a large dark form rising out of the depths, and then it rises from the water. A huge, hulking green creature with rubbery blister and nodule covered flesh. Sickly yellow eyes and a maw full of jagged teeth. He mauls the Dwarf in an instance, tearing out ribs and tossing his body to the side on the stones.

They know they are in trouble (though they didn't know this was a troll - and I got to say, DCC trolls are nasty) and spring into action. At this point I have to say, the Silent Mage made up for being so terrible at casting spells the whole game. He put everything he had into an invoke patron, and his sword began to glow a rainbow hue - Not knowing what it would do, he passed it off to the Orphan who charged across the stones and swung the sword burning a large chunk of his luck to hit the thing.

It had to make a DC 12 Will save to fail, with a +8 to it's roll. I rolled a 2.

The troll is banished to the elflands for 500 years. A scream of victory comes up from the characters (and the player's alike). They begin going through the treasure they can carry out of the temple, and Drake decides to go exploring a bit. Diving under the water, he discovers a cave. Further investigation and he finds a hidden chamber with more treasure, the lair of the troll as well as a glowing one foot tall golden statue of a squatting frog, and a sheathed sword that seemed to be holding up well in the moisture. He fills his pounches with some gems and gold, and swims back through the water.

Drake discovers when he dives under the water that his fingers have developed webbing and he can swim fast - as well as he does not need to hold his breath. He sets down the statue and nearly drowns on his lungful of water before picking it back up and swimming to the surface.

Investigation of the Sword reveals it is intelligent, and calls itself Ezeral, the Defender of Esterfay. A blade forged to defeat the darkness at the heart of the depths. To bring balance to the world. Sheathing the blade the group heads home for some rest.

They make it out of the swamp without issue, and hit up some shops in town to get armor and weapons for their adventure next week.

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