The Barrier Peaks Expedition session 8: safe and shadow

The Barrier Peaks Expedition

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

9/25/2015

The morning of the third day, the team awoke to the harsh smells of Thaddeus finishing alchemical concoctions with the aid of his Homunculus, Chad. He’d worked through most of the morning and was able to use chemicals found in the recently found lab storage area to craft 8 vials of alchemist’s fire. With Chad armed with vials of fire, the party went back to the passage of the vicious spiders and began searching the hallways in that area.

Choosing to continue along the way they were going the preceding day, they came across a collection of doors with jet black panels, though the area was trashed and there were a few doors actually missing. A quick inspection of the nine doors along this eastward traveling hall the team fell nothing but a collection of looted and trashed room. One thing that stood out in each of the rooms: in those that contained skeletons, the skeletons were missing their femur and humerus bones, something they had not noticed in previous rooms with skeletons in them. They speculated whether this was a new behavior caused by the party’s actions.

Further investigation about this hall led back to the area with the strange boxes with flashing lights in which their attempts to break into the boxes attracted a security golem. Not wanting to leave an uninspected hallway behind, the party backtracked to a short hallway they had found and traveled this hall, going north. Inspecting rooms they found one with a Brown door panel, which yielded in much the same way as the jet black doors. So the group returned to where they fought the spiders and took the passage heading north. As they moved toward the end of this hall, they came to a westward passage. They also noticed that not much further north was a gray door.  Unable to resist the temptation of the mysterious gray door, they moved towards it.

As they reached the gray door, they noticed to the West was a red paneled door. Making careful note of their location, they decided to try the red panel door first. Within they found what looked like a personal lounge and dining area and in one of the built-in sideboard cabinets they found six wine bottle-sized crystal flasks containing various liquids. Keeping a bit of caution in mind after the other mishaps they had encountered, they allowed their master alchemist (Thaddeus) to examine each bottle (because for some reason Catherine’s ability to detect poison could not penetrate the crystal flasks). With careful examination and using a few of the tools he still had in his kit, he determined that three of the flasks contained an excellent, good-quality vintage of alcoholic spirits, another flask contained a fairly well-aged and potent Dwarven strength spirit, a fifth flask seem to enhance articulation, while the sixth flask was a deadly poison.

With all the flasks cleared by Thaddeus, Faolan, who had been drinking the samples cleared as safe, served up a round from one of the good quality vintage spirits, with only Roland not partaking. The effects of drinking these fine spirits did not become excessively apparent in the party (that is, while some were tipsy, none were drunk).

The group continued searching the new collection gray doors they had found. In one room, apparently some sort of bedroom, they found what looked like a tin cucumber with fins at one end and narrowing to a point at the other. A quick assessment discovered that it was not made of tin but an even rarer metal and of some value. This encouraged them to continue looking (that is, looting). In another bedroom a quick search revealed a jewelry case with many items of jewelry: rings, bracelets, and necklaces (also of great value) and in a shoe near a skeleton’s foot, a gray card.

In a different room in the same area they a found an office. A thorough search of this office yielded a full collection of cards including the brown and yellow cards on their list. (The gray card had been hidden in some files Thaddeus noticed.) The team and also found another Automatic Micro Crossbow (AMC) as well as a small box they kept finding with the AMCs. Ranold was starting to think they might be ammo for the AMC’s, but before they could discover an answer, Fingers found a safe in the side of the desk of the room.

After careful examination, Fingers could not figure out how to get into the safe – there was no obvious locking mechanism other than small black panel no bigger than a human thumb. Ranold, thinking that maybe it required the hand of the owner, so Ranold went to get the hand off the skeleton in the room where they found all the jewelry. Fingers looked doubtful at that suggestion and while Ranold was off trying to go get the hand, Thaddeus attempted his knock spell, a spell that supposedly opens locked doors. In his two castings he had no success piercing the protection on the safe.

Soon Ranold returned with the skeletal hand and applied the skeletal thumb and fingers to the black panel to no effect. Ranold then took a better look at the safe and implied that he could probably cut it open with his enchanted adamantine sword. He lined up to take a swing.

Remembering the events of the room the glowing boxes, Faolan acted quickly and attempted to tackle Roland. His attempt threw Roland’s aim and he missed on his initial swing. Before he could swing again, the usually clumsy Faolan managed to grapple him and prevent him from following through with his mad idea. (At this point Roland had realized that most of the party seem to be slightly inebriated, but he chose to keep that information to himself.)

The team chose to press on. After thoroughly examining this interconnected set of gray doors, they exited once more into a northbound hallway. A quick look revealed to the south was a jet black door and a few white panel doors, while to the north was another red door. A quick search of the southern doors yielded much the same as the jet black doors to the South in previous halls: trashed and thoroughly looted rooms with bones missing off the skeletons. So as a group they turned their attention northward.

An inspection of the red door revealed a fairly good-sized room that seem to be a master bedroom. A thorough search revealed an untouched skeleton sprawled on the floor near what looked to be an impressive belt. They also found a small metal box with a grill. After tampering with it for a bit it burst into smoke and ceased to function, but not before calling forth a security golem! A quick flash of a red card sent this golem away.

Seeing a single red door leading from this room, the party cautiously tested their key and the door opened on what appeared to be a personal ward room with two intact uniforms. Ranold, more out of a morbid sense of curiosity than anything else, checked to see if the uniform would fit over his armor. When this was not the case he removed his armor and started donning the uniform. It was then, quite literally with his pants down and without armor, Ranold and Faolan noticed the shadows in the room moved of their own volition, not as an effect of the whirling, glowing Ioun stones the characters were using as torches. With the party outside the room and crowded into the narrow passage, the attack of the six living shadows savaged the group with great devastation before they could react. The shadows sapped strength in great quantities from Faolan, reducing him to nearly a third of his power, even Ranold suffered from the vicious touches, as did Thaddeus and Ruis. But this time Faolan thought quickly (if not thoroughly) and reached out his hand, coated with holy energy, and landed a devastating blow upon the shadow nearest him.

Realizing the danger her team was in, Catherine unleashed a burst of holy energy, striking down most of the shadowy opponents in a single blow. The few that survived were met with attacks from Ruis, who slayed one, while a third fell to a volley of arcane missiles launched by Thaddeus, his companion Miss Page’s sword, and by sheer surprise from the bite of the mighty Chad (the homunculus). The remaining three living shadows vented their rage at the loss of their companions upon Ranold and Faolan, but this time their attacks were not as effective. Faolan, learning from his mistake against the previous shadow, released his own burst of holy energy to encompass the remaining opponents, wiping them from the battlefield. With the shadows gone, realization of how badly their attacks had left the party caused the party to pause and consider what they should do next.

This is where we ended it for the night: two hours into the third day, Faolan at only a third of his strength, with Ranold, Ruis, and Thaddeus no better.