Chat Summary for 15 September, 2000

DM’s Note: This was a rather interesting chat session. Not only was it our first chat in almost three months, it was essentially two sessions at once. The party that the Truth Seekers runs in to during this chat session was fairly vanilla in the module. In keeping with my idea of letting the players using Players Options rules - but also having their opponents use the same rules, I decided to modify this aggressor party into Players Options characters. Rather than doing this myself I asked several players from my other games to take the characters from the module plus a few extra and breath life into them. Several of those players were able to attend the chat session. So during the session I was essentially running two parties, trying to keep events in two separate IRC rooms synched up. It was challenging, but fun. I was sure the Seeker players would catch on. It wasn’t until the very end of the session that the Seekers were told that they were playing against other players, not just the DM.

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We picked up the narration just after the party makes it past the purple worms. They did so without any injury, although there were a couple of close calls. Once they were safe they landed and discussed their options. Several people thought going back and taking care of the worms would be a smart idea, since it was possible that the party would have to retreat past this location in the future. Instead they decided to have Diana scribe one of her temporary town portal inscriptions.

After resting that night the party pressed on. Late in their marching day Sane was scouting ahead when he saw light up ahead. He proceeded on carefully and found a small group of adventures. There were eight in all, three of which seemed to be prisoners. There was a young half-elf who looked around nervously all the time, a human fighter with numerous bandages, an elven female dressed in robes, a tall human leaning heavily on a staff, and a mysterious cloaked and cowled figure. Of the three prisoners there was a male drow elf, a very tall figure with a hood over its head, and a third figure, human sized, also with a hood.

Sane listed for a while. He gathered that the party had recently had a battle in which they lost their cleric, but during which they captured the three prisoners. They were trying to decide whether they should press on or rest up. Having heard enough, Sane returned to the party.

After some discussion the party decided to go with a plan Sane came up with. The party would move towards the others, with the many body of the Seekers moving 300’ behind Sane. Sane planned on setting up the illusion of a generic “good” party camped in the tunnel and let the other party stumble across them. The idea was to find out what the other party’s intentions were with little risk to the Seekers themselves.

The Seekers set forth with this plan in mind, but had to modify it when they met up with the party about half way to where Sane had originally seen them. Sane saw the party’s light heading towards him, so he quickly hid, cast a few defensive spells, and then set up his illusion. Hunter, who had been traveling with Sane, returned to the Seekers and told them to hold their positions.

Soon the other party came around a corner and saw Sane’s illusion. They approached cautiously, with the half-elf out ahead of the others. As they got closer the elven female yelled out that Sane’s party was an illusion. Figuring the gig was up, Sane let the illusion drop.

As the spooked party reacted to this Sane called out to them mentally. The spokesman for the other party was the half-elf, Dac. While cautious, he seemed eager to find somebody to help them out with their wounded. At the same time he was adamant that the party would fight any slavers they found to the death. While Sane talked with Dac, trying to establish some kind of rapport, the elven female in the back kept calling out that it was a trap and that they should flee.

In the end Sane had to show himself to convince the other party of his good intentions. This seemed to calm them down a bit, although they somehow knew that K’harn (or, at least, an invisible cat) had been with Sane.

As they talked Sane scanned the party. He found that Dac had magical armor and a ring. The fighter’s armor and weapons were magical. The elven female held a wand that glowed brightly, but not as bright as the staff held by the human. The cloaked figure glowed with diffuse magic. Surprisingly, the prisoners seemed to be wearing their magical armor, although no weapons were visible.

After some tense discussion Sane offered to help heal the wounded among the other party. At first he tried to convince them to let the wounded come forward, but the others refused to be separated. Finally Sane called Castinar forward. Matar, Amber, and Diana all decided to come forward as well.

When Castinar arrived there was a little more discussion, and an increase in tension as the drow captive stared hatefully at Castinar and then Diana. Apparently the tall prisoner sensed this tension and he began to grow restless. The fighter in the other group moved back to subdue the tall one by hitting it with the flat of his sword. The plan backfired when the tall prisoner burst the ropes holding its hands and ripped off its hood. The party was initially surprised, thinking it was Tharg, but they soon saw that this trollkin had more troll in him than Tharg had. After looking around wildly the trollkin charged towards the party.

That started the first round of combat. Throughout most of the round the party tried to hold to the hope that this was a tragic turn of events, not something planned. By the end of the round they knew the scene was planned.

As the trollkin charged towards the party Matar drew his katana. The trollkin ended up charging right at Matar, so the fighter attacked it, hitting it twice for considerable damage. But the trollkin didn’t seem phased and slashed and bit at Matar, doing considerable damage himself. Diana got a Spellshield running, while Sane turned invisible and took off. Castinar and Amber readied their weapons, still not sure what was going on.

That’s when the ice storm hit. Sane had managed to fly out of the range, but Matar, Castinar, and Amber were all injured by the falling hail. Diana seemed unaffected by it - as did the trollkin. The ice apparently has a very strange effect on Matar as well as he suddenly found that he could not move.

Amber tried to strike at the trollkin but missed. Castinar was busy watching the drow prisoner. He had tried to hit the elven female, but had apparently spun off balance and fallen to the floor. Castinar moved towards him, Finslayer urging him on. But before he reached the drow the strange cloaked figure moved into his path. As it moves forward it drops a sack it had been carrying over its back. The sack spills open when it hits the ground, scattering brown and white sticks all over the floor of the tunnel. Castinar tried to step around the figure, only to be attacked. The figured hit him twice with huge fists. The blows were only glancing ones, but they still did a lot of damage. Castinar counterattacked, getting in a good blow.

Even at this point that Seekers (well, some of them) hoped this was all a misunderstanding. But all doubt fled with the fighter from the other group ran up behind the trollkin - then past it - then attacked Diana. He hit her, badly injuring her. But it wasn’t over for Diana as the half-elf Dac pulled out what looked like metallic drow crossbows without the bow part. He aimed them at her and they made a loud bang sound. Diana reacted like she had been hit by magic missiles.

While this was going on Kat, who had taken up a position 200’ away from the others, was shooting arrows into the melee. She hit the trollkin once. Behind her Ariessus, Shadow, and Thengal came running forward. The fates were unkind to Shadow, who slipped and fell. Ari, running next to her, was tripped up as well. Meanwhile Nikki turned into a bat and flew towards the combat.

That’s where we ended. Only one round of combat. I’d like to get one, possibly two rounds of combat in this week. Next chat session I hope to have some of the other party there as well. We’ll do things a little differently so that everybody can see what is happening, but intentions remain private.

So, the situation, by individual:

Matar: Between the trollkin’s five attacks and the ice storm Matar is down to 1/2 his normal hit points. Worse yet, he appears to be frozen or held somehow.

Katrina: 200’ back from the melee, bow in hand. She has fairly clearly seen everything that has happened but doesn’t know that Matar is held.

Sane: invisible and flying back away from the combat. He is about 30’ away from his original position, about 20’ off the ground, heading south (down on the map). He knows about the ice storm, but not the attacks on Castinar and Diana.

Shadow: on the ground. Will need to use half her action next round to get up. She can then run 1/2 her normal running rate.

Ariessus: same as Shadow. She does know what is happening up at the melee as K’harn is relaying the details to her. She is the only one who fully realizes that Matar is held.

Diana: badly wounded, approaching 1/2 hit points, facing the classic mage dilemma - what spell can she get off that will get her away from this fighter in her face before he can injure her again. She had just noticed that Matar wasn’t acting normal when the fighter hit her.

Castinar: right in the middle of the melee, facing the strange cloaked opponent. He has this very nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach when he wonders what this thing is. Finslayer tells him that this opponent is “unnatural” and magical. What’s worse, beyond his current opponent he sees the that drow is free of his bonds and pulling two short swords from behind his back. What can be worse than that? The other “prisoner” pulling her hood off, revealing a drow priestess.

Amber: facing the trollkin, suspects something is wrong with Matar, aware of Diana’s condition. Aware that Castinar has been attacked, but not about the drow beyond him.

Nikki: in bat form, rapidly approaching the melee (figured you flew at double speed). Note that you cannot cast spells in this form. If you want to cast a spell you’ll have to land and change into some kind of humanoid form, which will take a round. Has a pretty good idea of what is going on, including seeing the two drow free in the back of the other party.

Thengal: just arrived at the melee, sees Matar and Diana are both badly wounded, but unaware that Matar is held. Sees that K’harn is moving to defend Matar.

K’harn: full sized, trying to protect Matar.

The others: (the letter before their name is the letter they have on the map)

T - Trollkin: bleeding, but grinning fiercely

D - Dac (half-elf with barking wands): backed away from melee, weapons ready

G - Groznyj (human fighter): eager to take out Diana before she can do any damage

C - Crystenna (elven female): chanting

Q - Human Male with Staff: standing there

H - Cloaked Figure: attacking Castinar

U - male drow: drawing weapons. Has something strange on the sides of his torso

V - female drow: just getting hood off and looking around intently

So, questions?

Intentions for round two?

Saif