Night Below Chat Summary for 17 March, 2000

We began the chat session with the party camping in the cavern where they slew the behir. After setting up the house Nikki took all of the magic items and disappeared upstairs to Identify them. Meanwhile the rest of the party moved the behir’s treasure horde into the house and rested.

The next day Nikki came down and told the party that unfortunately she hadn’t been able to learn as much as she wanted to. She was able to tell them that the bastard sword was a Flametongue, that the chain mail was +2, and that the helm had a strange clear visor that could be pulled down in front of the face. Sane then pulled her aside and the two had a quick side conversation.

After closing up the house and breaking camp the party moved on to investigate the Cavern of Dancing Lights that Sane had found earlier. They moved in very cautiously in three ranks - the fighters (Matar, Castinar, Xaveus, and Thengal), the archers (Shadow and Katrina), and the spellcasters (Diana, Nikki, Ariessus, and Amber). Sane, as usual floated around the party invisible.

The party slowly entered the cavern but found nothing there to oppose their approach. Sane went over to check out the other tunnel, discovering a larger cavern beyond. The Seekers spent about ten minutes investigating the cavern and especially the water, but found nothing of interest.

They then decided to move into the second cavern after Sane noticed that the light coming from around the corner of the tunnel was different from that in the rest of the cavern. The party moved into the tunnel area, and then Castinar, using his elven cloak and boots, moved silently towards the light.

What he found was rather surprising. About 150’ away from the tunnel sat an ancient-looking drow sitting in an overstuffed reading chair leafing through a very large book. Over each of the drow’s shoulders hovered a small globe of light, which is what Sane had noticed. Behind the drow were a small bed, a couch, and a few other pieces of furniture gathered close together against the wall. When Castinar stepped into the cavern the drow looked up in his direction and frowned, but then returned to reading the book.

Castinar sent back the situation through Hunter and began to carefully approach the drow. Sane moved forward to where he could watch what was going on. When Castinar got to within about 80’ of the drow the old man spoke to him, obviously knowing where Castinar was. He then surprised the ranger by mentioning Ariessus by name. Castinar de-cloaked (literally) and called for the party to come gather round. He even went so far as to tie Finslayer (who hates drow and was eager to attack) into his sheath with a peaceknot. Sane dropped his invisibility and came forward as well. As the party gather round the old drow made several comments showing an uncanny knowledge about the party. He was particularly interested in Ariessus and her holy symbol and referred to Lloth as the "spider-bitch".

When the party came up the old drow motioned for them to sit around him on his couch and bed. Several sat on the furniture, others sat on the ground. A few remained standing although all gathered within the radius of his lights. As everybody gathered the drow answered some questions posed to him with somewhat cryptic answers. Once everybody was gathered around he announced that he couldn’t stay and chat. He then turned to Castinar and told him it was "Time to die".

As he said this the old man faded from view, as did everything else in the area except for the glowing globes. Just as the party started to react to the old man’s words they were enveloped with a cloud of dark vapors.

OOC: At this point everybody in the party had to make saving throws. Only three out of the ten made it, something which OOC concerned me a great deal since it basically meant that the party was pretty much dead. So I allowed people to use their "free rolls" (OOC awards for different things that happen outside the game or for something a player does that contributes to the game). Several party members burned several free rolls trying to make their saving throws. After this confusing little OOC interlude the odds reversed to where only three out of the ten did not make their saving throws.

BIC: The vapors had a strange effect on the party members. Everybody felt much weaker, less "invulnerable" or "tough". Worse, spellcasters suddenly found that they had forgotten most of their spells, and fighters found that they couldn’t remember some of the fancy moves they had recently developed. Diana quickly figured out that the vapors somehow drained levels of ability from those affected by them. The OOC effect was pronounced. Most of the party dropped down to around 4^th level, while a few people dropped down to 2^nd.

That’s when things went from bad to worse. As the vapors cleared the party spotted the source of the cloud - a dark dragon over eighty feet in length. What’s worse, as soon as they became aware of the dragon they noticed not one, not two, but nine dragons encircling them. Fortunately the party had a great deal of exposure to the Mirror Image spell and they quickly figured out that is what was going on. Still, Nikki pointed out that only a very high-level spellcaster could achieve eight images with the spell.

So the party, down to about half it’s normal strength in both offensive and defensive power, found itself facing a huge, probably old dragon with significant spell casting abilities. What to do? Charge!

Yes, the party attacked. Then again, they didn’t have much of a choice. The dragon had moved between them and the only known exit in the cavern. They had to fight their way out.

We only got three rounds of combat in, but they took quite a bit of time as the party struggled to deal with this fearsome opponent. In the first round Matar, Thengal, and Xaveus all charged the dragon. Matar somehow managed to hit the correct target and do some damage, but in return he was almost bitten in half by the dragon. What’s worse, the dragon was using his attack routine twice every round and moving rapidly (well, rapidly for a gargantuan-sized creature). Matar’s wounds were so bad that he passed out. Kat with her bow and Diana and Nikki with spells were able to take out three of the mirror images. Sane quickly went invisible while Amber tried to make herself invisible by running away. Ari moved to guard the spell casters while Castinar cast Dancing Lights above the party to illuminate the scene. Shadow snuck over against the wall and got her bow ready.

In the second round Katrina did very well with her bow, managed to take out three more of the mirror images. Shadow began shooting as well, although she missed. Diana used another Magic Missile to take out a mirror image while Nikki used Dispel Magic, hoping to hit the real dragon. Sane took off to fly over the dragon and take up a position behind it. On the way he drank his Elixir of Health, hoping that it would restore the spells that he had forgotten. It didn’t. Castinar pulled out his crossbow and got it loaded while Amber stopped and pulled her sling out. Ari rushed forward to care for Matar, but Xaveus got to him first, waking the warrior up. Ari instead pulled Matar to "safety" against the wall. Thengal continued to attack the dragon but couldn’t hit it. The dragon attacked the dwarf several times but couldn’t get through the stoneskin spell.

In the final round of combat Friday night the party felt like it was getting the upper hand. They had finally managed to dispel all of the mirror images and could now concentrate on the real target. Thus they were rudely disappointed to find that the spells they cast at the dragon were being turned against them! Nikki was fortunate in that she cast several weak magic missiles which returned to her. Ariessus, seeing the trouble the fighters were having hitting the dragon, went to outline its head with faerie fire but found herself outlined instead. Katrina and Shadow continued to shoot at the dragon. Castinar joined them this round with his crossbow. However, only one missile hit its target, a sling stone from Amber. Xaveus and Thengal continued to try and hit the dragon, only to find their weapons turned aside by the creatures translucent scales. The party finally got a decent blow in when Diana read a spell off of her scroll, casting a Flame Strike on the dragon. Still, after three rounds of combat the dragon looked down perhaps a quarter of his strength, while the party had lost their primary fighter, most of their spell casting ability. What’s worse, the dragon continued to focus his attacks on Thengal, finally wearing through the dwarf’s stoneskins and doing considerable damage to the old warrior.

That’s where we stopped.

So, the current situation: Everybody in the party except for Nikki is down to at least half if not a quarter of their normal strength. Matar is walking wounded. Thengal could be taken down with one claw swipe. Most spells seem to be bouncing off this creature and rebounding at the caster. The dragon is wounded, but still has a lot of fight left in it.

Questions? Comments? Map and Grid are both updated and correct. Note on the map I shifted everything north slightly to show where the tunnel exit would be.

If not, let’s try to get at least one round of combat done via e-mail.

Actions?

Saif