Session 4 : Expedition to The Barrier Peaks, 7/31/2015 Food time

Name	Player	Race	Class	Present	Survived	Replaced
Blake	Carl	Human	Bard	N	Y	Y
Catherine Lastation	Chris	Human	Oracle	Y	Y	Y
Faolan Ironhammer	Glen	Dwarf	Paladin	Y	Y	Y
Finger	John L.	Gnome	Rogue	Y	Y	Y
Goran Stonecrucher	Guest Player	Dwarf	Fighter	N/A	Y	Y
Halvar Gunnarson	Cory	Dwarf	Ranger	Y	Y	Y
Menyw Daolg	Danielle	Elf	Fighter	Y	Y	Y
Ranold Winterhare	Tim (T.J.)	½ Elf	Magus	N	Y	Y
Ruis	Johnunce	½ Drow	Magus	N	Y	Y
Thadious Bullskin	Mike K.	Human	Wizard	Y	Y	Y
Mrs. Page	Mike’s npc bard	½ Elf	Bard	N/A	Y	Y
The Homunculus	Mike’s critter		Critter	N/A	Y	Y

After a long battle fighting the vicious shadows, the explorers realized that, while they had been the complex for only 2 hours, it was well past midday when they had arrived and evening was approaching. So they choose to set up camp and rest in the mead hall, although over Halvar’s strong objections.

They choose a far corner in the front of the room, one furthest away from all the doors. Thadious cast both his hut and alarm spells to shelter them through the night and help keep them hidden. Halvar then set ice traps near the doors.  The hut spell would only hold nine adventurers, so it was easiest to have the two who on watch set up a hiding roost outside the enclosure by overturning the two tables nearest to the enclosure to use as cover. They set four two-hour shifts with two guards in the 1^st, 3^rd, and 4^th shifts and three guards on the 2^nd shift.

Ruis and Ranold took first watch, planning to sleep the rest of the night away. Near the final third of their watch the two noticed, but just barely, a large force of small silvery and brown humanoids enter the room the adventurers were camping in. Ruis and Ranold carefully took advantage of the cover that the tables provided so as to observe the humanoids. These small creatures looked similar to the plant creatures they had fought earlier, but with different coloring. More disturbing, they seemed to be sharp-eyed and noticed many of the precautions that Halvar had set up to protect against intruders. They easily avoided the traps, making their way cautiously to a door in the north eastern part of the room before slipped out and returning to the mead hall before leaving back the way they came. They did not neem to notice the party and it was only by bare chance they were noticed by Ruis and Ranold.

The two Magi realized most of the adventurers were tired and chose not to cause an engagement, but to observe and inform those who replaced them on watch that the creatures were about. When the second watch was told, Halvar, part of the second watch along with Faolan, and Catherine, again expressed his objections to camping in the mead hall, which seemed to be a thoroughfare for the locals.

At the end of the second watch, a smaller group of the creatures entered the room but this time Catherine seemed to attract the attention the creatures while trying to hide. They seemed to have noticed the noise of her presence, but as she was avoiding them, they chose not to chase her down. Instead, they moved two guards to watch her as the rest of their party moved into the north eastern room to collect whatever they were collecting and slip back out the way they came. This act gave the three on watch pause and led to the thought that maybe these creatures were more intelligent than their fellows to the south.

The next two watches took to place and were uneventful. Halvar, able to due to his enchanted armor, and Gorlan took third watch and then Halvar and Menyw took the final watch.

In the morning, after a quick meal and more discussion about the creatures, and while the casters prepared spells, several adventurers chose to investigate the room the creatures were going into to find out what they were doing. In that room they discovered some very mysterious items that seemed to create food out of nowhere, but the few devices they tested produced only poisonous food. Catherine stated that that would be no problem – she had the magics available to cleanse the food and make it safe to eat. Having one safer place for the group to get food alleviated one concern that they all had.

After thoroughly investigating the room, the entire group headed out the main doors and continued on their quest for this library they were told to go see. In that hall they noticed a door with a brown panel (it lined up with the one in the room they had just explored), two doors that did not seem to be closed along the north wall, and one door on the south wall.

Being cautious, Halvar and Finger crept forward to scout the two rooms. Peering in cautiously, only Halvar’s sharp eyes noticed 16 of those silvery brown creatures in the room, seemingly eating or just simply resting. They said nothing. Seeing an opportunity to attempt conversation and learn more about this place, the party devised a plan: Thaddeus would cast tongues upon Catherine, then her, Faolan, and Halvar would present themselves in front of that the open door in an attempt to make peace or at least to negotiate with the creatures. Things started to look well – until the creatures suddenly shouted “Nests” at the party and then attacked.

Seeing as the door was not that wide but with no way to close it, Halvar ”the Door” dominated the doorway and barred their foes from getting out, supported by Faolan. As the start of the fight the creatures at the door seemed a bit tougher than pair of adventurers were expecting, even mostly resisting fiery bolts hurled by Ruis. To make matters worse, out from the other open door pour an entire horde more of the creatures, catching the party on their exposed flank. When the new group joined the fight, one of the creatures landed a telling blow to Faolan’s Kneecap with a metal club. Although not life threating at the time, it did slow him enough for a spear wielder to land a minor hit on the same knee. Thinking quickly, the Magi formed up adjacent to Faolan to support him with the mad Elf woman Menyw at the far end, threshing any creature within her reach.

The battle in the hall went much quicker than the battle inside the room, but a few injuries were sustained, mostly to Faolan. The worst of this fight seem to be the focusing on a secret weakness of Faolan, javelins, as without fail these hurled missiles always seem to find their mark on him. Few of them would actually hit hard enough to do more than scratch him, but the wounds were piling up and Catherine’s magic was having her pay the price. The creatures seem to note the Paladin’s wounded knee and many focused their attacks there, either as feints or full on attacks. This well-thought tactic lead to a volley of attacks that ended with a short spear to Faolan’s right eye hampering his health and vision. When Thadious the spell caster entered the fray, the creatures with darts volleyed them at him as if he was a dart magnet, leaving Thadious injured, while their front line fellows engaged the wall of adventurers.

The attack from the flank left Halvar to hold the door to the first room alone. While the foes in the room tried to shift him at best they could, all they could do was scratch him, and even that need teamwork to work. Halvar’s skilled shield work was taking its toll on the creatures as he slammed his attackers to the ground like a hammer smacks a nail, but, the creatures’ hardiness made this slow and tiring work.

In the hall, Menyw seemed to have awakened as a grim harvester of the creatures, laughing madly as she reaped through those in the hall with deadly speed.  Ruis and Ranold, not wasting spells, sliced through the creatures in the hall but nowhere as quickly as the crazy elven battle maiden. In little time the fighting in the hall was over, Faolan was tired and exhausted, and with Menyw pressed into the first room to support Halvar, quickly making short work of the survivors of that room.

After a quick reassessment by the party once the battle was over, they realized that the creatures had displayed some serious tactics, with their dart throwers hurling darts focused on either spell-casters or those weakened by wounds. This led to a coordinated effort at landing serious wounds to the paladin’s eye and knee, hampering his ability to see and move. Faolan also seemed more exhausted after the fight than the rest of the group. With that in mind, the team, ready for the nearby library, expecting to have to take it by force.

Here is where we paused the game for the night, with the adventurers’ plan ready to storm the door, expecting hostiles deep within.

Time-lapse in complex: 14 hours 25 minutes, two hours into Day 2.

Still on the 1^st floor