Tuesday, October 24th, 2017
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The beast falls. With a final, resounding roar, the barghest tumbles into the flames and there is a bright flash of brilliant light that pulses throughout the room. The acrid smell of burnt hair fills the chamber as the corpse begins to sizzle and spit.
Theo patches up the party using their wand of cure light wounds and Krask investigates the room further, hoping to find any clue that will point them in Nualia’s direction. Even though he discovers another secret room, it contains nothing but decaying shelves and ancient dust. Heading back through the pillar of coins, the party remains cautious and vigilant as they scour their surroundings for traps.
As they continue into the next room, they are hit again with the stale air marking a place untouched from the world for decades. It is a long room with a domed ceiling, decorated with painted carvings depicting a figure whose matching statue rises from the center of the floor. Theo recognizes the figure as Runelord Karzoug, one of the rulers of the Thassilonian Empire, and he also detects magic in three distinct places towards the far end of the room. They carefully make their way through the room and prepare themselves for anything out of the ordinary.
The magic seems to be coming from the painted carvings lining the walls, but closer inspection reveals that it isn’t emanating directly from the wall itself; the magical signature is resting in front of the wall, like a thin sheet of paper attached to the stone. Just as Theo comprehends the situation, three swirling shadows leap from the wall and attack!
Once again, the party is confronted with a battle that they seem ill-equipped to handle. Since the shadows are incorporeal, normal attacks seem to pass right through the shadows. This means that Krask’s crossbow bolts, Richard’s teeth, and Fobias’ falchion are all but useless, leaving Barnaby with the burden of dispatching the enemies. Luckily, the first one is banished quickly, but the other two prove to be more elusive. With each passing round, the party’s strength is sapped and Barnaby falls unconscious in a heap of utter exhaustion after a single, massive blow.
Recognizing that Barnaby’s magical scimitar is their most obvious form of damage output, Fobias rushes to his crumpled body and begins wielding the weapon. Even with Theo providing efficient support with hexes and buffs, the battle begins to draw out in a dangerous way. Once Krask understands his crossbow isn’t causing any damage, he notices that the wall behind him is a hidden passage, leading further to the northwest and smelling thickly of salt. He suggests that they use the narrow hallway to their advantage, funneling inwards so that the shadows are forced to break through Fobias before they’d have a chance at damaging everyone else.
Eventually, the second shadow falls and the third is exiled shortly thereafter. But the party is exhausted and weak from the icy chill of the shadows’ attacks, and they retreat to the barghest corpse and bar the doors to rest. Theo steps out of the room and returns with several lesser restoration spells which are instantly consumed to revive Barnaby and bring the others to a more sufficient level of strength. Nothing disturbs their brief rest, and they return to the salty hallway.
Up ahead, the two paths converge to a rippling tide pool filled with the remnants of what was once a resplendent pile of treasure. Time has not been kind, however, and there are crumbled chests and rusted weapons resting atop the faint glimmering of gold swirling at the bottom of the water. A giant-sized golden helmet is the most prominent object here, and as the party is surveying the scene, it slowly rotates as if to look at them. Two jagged pincers emerge from the helmet and two thin eyestalks pop out from the visor as a giant hermit crab begins to scuttle towards them!
Were those shadows summoned by Nualia to aid her escape? How is Runelord Karzoug connected to a ramshackle goblin fortress? Has any treasure escaped the slow march of time?
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We Done Gone Goofed – Rules Clarifications
There were three rules issues this week and they both center around the incorporeal creature trait. First of all, incorporeal creatures are similar to oozes in that they are immune to a long grocery list of effects: mind-affecting, stunned, poison, etc. One that was missed, however, was that they are completely unaffected by critical hits. Barnaby started the combat with a critical hit that killed the first shadow immediately, when it shouldn’t have been subject to as much damage.
Magical spells or abilities that don’t deal damage (i.e. Theo’s hexes) that target incorporeal creatures also have a 50% miss chance. Man, these things are brutal! After a couple rounds, both rules issues were fixed and the remainder of the combat was by the book, but did these mix-ups end up tipping the scales in the party’s favor? Probably. Next time they face a ghostly illusion or a nasty shadow rat, they won’t be getting any lucky breaks!
The most major rules problem was on the GM – I didn’t realize that the shadows’ strength attack was a negative energy attack, and therefore followed different rules than normal strength damage. Long story short, Barnaby should have died. Oops. I can’t start the next session by saying he’s dead, but I can use this as an awesome RP opportunity for Barnaby to experience some echoing effects of the touch attack. And now I’ve learned and I’m all the better for it.