The Barrier Peaks Expedition: 10/16/2015-3/25/2016 Sessions 9-23

The Barrier Peaks Expedition

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

10/16/2015-3/25/2016

“Sorry of the Delay folks it has a ragged few weeks so here is what has happened over the last 13 sessions in highlights” 

·         They found a metal chest, when Ranold cut it open with his sword it blew up severely injuring him. Inside the remains was 100 resin incased Diamonds. 
  They found a door in one of the large shafts and opened it with a gray card, they passed through the door and explored the cramped area beyond it.
 
·         While exploring the new level they found a hole in the floor and choose to explore down into it. Here they found a quad of creatures called Couatl under some sort of status spell which after some discussion Ranold release them from. After some fast talking from Catherine they convinced the creatures that they were friendly and would help the escape this place. The Couatl repaid this kindness be casting restorative spells on the weakened members of the group.

·         As they start to take their new allies to a safe place to wait for them the Couatl rush through the hole and attack something just out of the party’s line of sight when the party finally arrives the two younger one are dead and the adults are destroying the remains of a creature Blake calls an intellect devourer.

·         After leading the remaining Couatl to the doors the team enter through when they first arrived the choose to descended the shaft near those doors.  The decent was tricky but manageable with the vast supply of rope in the party’s position. They arrived in a darkened area and with the minimal light and dark vision in the group were able to navigate it without much trouble

·         It was in these dark rooms that the party was attacked by deadly Ropers. The fight with the ropers went badly at first until Cad revealed his talent with the strange eggs hurling both flask of alchemical fire and the strange red eggs that exploded in flames thus weakened the team quickly slayed the strange aberrations but not without major injury.

·         Pressing on to the area they found that they were on a level that overlooked a living arboretum area choosing not to climb down the long drop they continued to explore the level that they were on.   They encounter a few assassin vines but made quick work of those without any injury on their part and explored an area that looked like a cargo hold or castle stores here they stumble the hard way in to a large patch of Green slime and only Halvar’s quick think saved Catherine from being dissolved though Faolan’s shield was destroyed and Menyw’s armor was badly damaged. While they were encountering the slime Ranold and Finger were investigating a lift that the group found. They return to the group coated in soot from the actions used to destroy the slime.

·         Ranold and Finger lead the group deeper in to this strange metal castle using the lift and at the bottom of the shaft they explored northward. Here they were attacked by a swarm of strange bats acting with speed and a known anti-swarm tactic Ranold hurled one of the red (fire) Eggs at the swarm before Blake could warn him against it. The result conflagration of fire from the multiple gas bats unleashed flaming devastation upon the team nearly killing the whole team and turning poor Miss Page to a charred corpse. While the team did a quick recovery and planned a retreat Ranold found and acquired the services of a golem body guard whom he tasked to protect Catherine and Thadious.

·         Retreating to the shaft they had descended down they set up a protected camp an rested to regain spells of healing that were exhausted recovering from the fires that slayed Miss Page.   Thinking that the golem (now called Page 2.0) may know how to open the doors they return to the place that they had left the Couatls. As they exited the shaft they were set upon by a victim of the shadows that roamed this level, A Lurker above shadow, the creature captured most of the group within its ghostly folds and was slowly draining their strength as Catherine’s final burst and Menyw ghost slaying sword finished off the undead beast the party discovered that Finger had succumb to the curse of the undead becoming a shadow himself though currently hold his own mind. Party begrudgingly chose not to slay him until he started feeding on the team.

·         After checking on the Couatls and finding them gone (some fear that they too have become Undead shadow) and discovering the that Page 2.0 did not know how to open the doors, the team retreated to the lab section and Camped for a while letting Shadow Finger use his newly enhanced stealth explore the area to west past the security golems and to the magic information cube to the north.

·         While Finger’s recon proved the path to the magic cube clear when they arrived none of them worked and Page 2.0 could not get them any more information. The exploration west however ended badly for Shadow Finger he encounters a pack of Veggie Shadows and they attacked badly wounded and driven mad with pain Shadow Finger attacked Faolan the one his warped mind saw as the cause of his undeath. The attack end quickly with Faolan smiting the Gnome out of existence in a single blow.

·         While the loss of the Gnome the Group had to rely on Halvar and Ranold to act as scout and with Halvar currently keeping Catherine close Ranold took up the brunt of the task. Seeking to expand the maps they had they pushed westward past the area of the security golems. The wide hall was like all the main halls on this level with many branches leading off to the north and south after some discussion the team chose to explore the first southern branch. Ranold activated a sunrod and started down the hall.

·         As Ranold checked each room they passed noting nothing but looted rooms and litter he came to a hog leg turn once pass the turn he noted that the hall became darker just outside the area of the sunrod so to give a bit more of a heads up he tossed the sunrod further ahead and readied to light his spar. As the rod flew down the hall it passed through an open door and bounced off the head a Green Veggie warrior and landed among a large group of the creatures setting off an a hornet’s nest of the creatures.

·         Without the solid ability to kill large numbers mainly due to the creatures immunity to lighting attacks(though Ranold recently had added fireball to his known spells through a ancient Magus trick he only had one loaded)  the battle was a slough fest and as one creature fell a new took its place worse still just as they started to make progress with the eggs (mainly thrown by Chad) a new group appeared from around a distant corned and with them a spellcaster ,hurling fireballs, the first one the team had seen since they had arrived here. Trying to buy time for a regroup and heal Ranold laid down a wall of Ice. While this bought a little time it did not last long as the Veggie cast knew fire spells and to make things worse as the team was starting to pull back a stranger runs around the corner from the main hall yelling that more were coming from the rear. With Veggie Dogs and warriors pressing from the south and more coming from the northwest things looked grim. A quick assessment from Thadious confirmed that the stranger was human and a wizard Catherine quickly through healing and the new wizard tossed a wall of fire into the hall to block off the Veggie advance leaving them to deal with the new group quickly or that was the plan driven by their masters veggie dogs leaped through the flaming wall to attack Faolan already badly wounded standing only due to the Endurance spell cast on him by Ranold and Menyw held them off as Thadious transformed Goran into a giant dwarf and Once again Ruis into a giant gorilla hold the north exit. Realizing that the group needed an escape Ranold had a plan. Blake remove the Iron door from his outfit of many things and blocked off the south passage while using smoke sticks and a donkey (also from the outfit) the party Fled north than east into the security golem laid down even more smoke sticks then fled in to the med lab to hide and recover. The group was sorely wounded so they took 3 days in relative safety heal their wounds and counting their remaining supplies. With all the known eggs and alchemist’s fires in the groups expended (not counting Ranold secret supply of eggs) they choose to finish exploring west while avoiding the any side passages.

·         As they reached the end of the main west hall they were ambushed by a small pack of tentacle kitties and while the fight was short and brief Faolan proved that cats of any type hate dwarves when one attack by the cats nearly shattered his spine.  Still injured he insisted that they move on as they explored end of the hall they again found a large tube and hiding in a adjacent passage a dozen local men at arms. The dirty and exhausted men welcomed the food and water the team provided them and as they talked exchanging news Blake and Catherine were starting to find holes in their stories. Meanwhile Ranold was trying to clean them up with a cantrip and noticing a strange delay to the effect just as the New team member Cecilia (an invoker) called out to Blake that if needed she could use her true see spell. This small slip triggered the men at arms attack as the two flanking her ran her through with their swords. While the fight was quick the Men at arms were revealed to be doppelgangers and with them intermingled within the group area effect magic was useless so force of arms carried the day.

·         Having had enough of the area of the metal castle the group chose to descend into the tube. Landing on the lower sphincter they open the brown coded door with a grey card. This lead back to the low ceiling area they had visited before but in a different location. Exploring southward they found a magic cart and Faolan chose to use it to explore the level. Piling everyone but Ruis and Thadious on board off they went slowly at first no faster that a man could walk it slowly gained speed though it was not long before Faolan lost control and slammed into a mess of wires and piped electrocuting the riders and causing a small explosion injuring many and nearly killing Blake and Catherine. The crash happened near a new tube so after Catherine healed herself and the others (Faolan was tended by Ranold and his healing paste Catherine was still angry at him) they again descended. This was lead to a previous area near the Roper lair so they chose to descend again.

·         As Ruis and Ranold reached the bottom of the eighty foot drop and secured landing area the rest of the groups started down the rope just as Halvar started down a large creature attacked those at the bottom sending Ruis into the danger level on Catherine’s status spell. Ruis got a good look and the creature and called warning to the group to not descend Ranold tried to lend Ruis aid but his opening attacks failed to score. Catherine seeing the half-drow life failing Fast shout to Faolan and Halvar to get down to him fast as Ruis was calling a retreat back up the rope. Ruis Realizing the creature before him was a beast called an umber hulk did his best to avoid its eyes and hold it off till the group escaped with Ranold’s help. Hearing that the Drow was in trouble and out of Catherine’s range Thadious ask if she would like to become an earth Elemental to assist him with her reply being Air would be better thus he turned her into a small air elemental allowing her to Fly down closer to the group at the base to cast a healing spell to help Ruis. Ruis still rocky on his feet hurled lighting at the creature and acid while Ranold inflicted damage with his enchanted blade expending some of his arcane reserve to ensure a hit. At one point the beast crush Ruis’s throat prevent him from casting or shouting out but between him and Ranold they brought the beast low though a last minute blast of magic missiles from Thadious destroyed the beast head. After a quick bout of healing, mainly Ruis, the group assessed their surroundings. To the South a Door, to the East and West Ramps and the North the living arboretum curious about the arboretum the group went north. As they travel Blake cheerfully pointed out the vast array of deadly plant life advise strongly to “keep off the grass because it will eat you”, as a result they stayed diligently on the grassless trail. Seeing may small animals that fled as the group approached they were not overly concerned of when one rabbit like creature froze in fear on a stump as they passed or at least until a collection  tentacles ripped free of the ground and attacked them. The creatures opening attack grabbed both Faolan and Ruis (both Male but who can tell with Dwarves and Elves) just as Ruis breathed fire at it and started to draw them closer Menyw leaped to their defense as Cecilia hurled destructive fire bolts leading to the creature quick fiery death. Continuing down the path they found a pool with flashing and shine fish but wisely chose to leave the fish alone.

·         As they continued down the trail they came to a clearing with 2 other paths choosing the north path they continued on. After a bit of travel down that path they were surprised but a large pig gorilla with 3 arms that leaped from a tree grabbed Thadious and Catherine and tried to flee in to the foliage. Menyw, Halvar and Ruis were quick to chase after it gaining a few hits on the beast but it was Cecilia and Chad that finished it off. Cecilia hurled fiery bolts while in a mad dash to save Thadious, Chad zipped in deftly avoiding its claws and landing a Vicious bite flood the creature with his venom. Much to the surprise of all the beast succumb to the toxin and collapsed to the ground. At this point Faolan called for a retreat and camp back up the rope where that had camped earlier to heal and recover.

Here is where we stopped for the most recent night.