“If Only I Had Taken Resistance to Cold!” - Agurro

Well, I hate to say it, but, the loss of Agurro was unexpected and unwelcome. Two cones of cold will do that do you, particularly if you've not had the chance to move out of the field of fire. . .but, I am getting ahead of myself.

Here is our recap of the last session:

The party returned to the bookstore known as The Reality Wrinkle, to finish the battle they had started the day before. It was fortuitous that the group did not spend time to allow the cultists to gather their forces, or, they would have had to fight a combined group of enemies from tow encounters. Arriving at the bookstore, the characters found the door open, but the first floor was empty. Given the choice of going up to the next floor or down to the basement, the party decided to block the basement door with a bookshelf and then head upstairs. Once they got to the third floor, the cultists, who were now prepared for a fight, unleashed another Wyste on the group. The alien creature blocked the hallway that led up from the stairs effectively and channeled the party into a single file. Wisely, the group decided to head back down the stairs to fight on their own terms, but, misfortune struck Orien, who had shapechanged into the form of an eagle. He found himself grappled by three of the wyste’s tentacles. The rest of the group tried to find a way into the room in order to lay the hurt down on the beast, but, with many trying and failing to overrun the aberration, most of the party ended up being knocked prone at the top of the stairs. Solanthos used his ability to shift to get into the room behind the wyste, but, he found himself surrounded by cultists, who pelted him with a number of magic missiles, taking him down to 4 hit points. In the meantime, Orien was partially swallowed by the wyste, with the resulting damage dropping him to negative hit points. Against the odds, Korik won a grapple check against the wyste was able to grab the talons of the unconscious and dying Orien, healing quite a bit of damage and restoring him to consciousness. While things looked pretty dire for a moment, good fortune did shine on the group. The eagle-formed druid was just barely able to claw his way out of the wyste’s gullet and Solanthos was able to get off a series of spells that destroyed the wyste and a number of the cultists. From that point on, Lianna, Gyrr and Ymir were able to make quick work of the remaining members.

The group then headed to the basement, where they fought and killed another gibbering mouther and the last three cultists in the building. There, they found two prisoners; Alein, the paladin of Heironeous, and a scout by the name of Drake. Drake asked to join your ranks and your group then headed to the inn to heal and rest.

It did not take long for word to spread of your exploits in the bookstore. That evening, you received an invitation to a banquet in your honor, sponsored by the merchants of Brindinford and numerous city officials. It was the town’s way of saying thank you for al of the deeds you have performed on their behalf, which, for the record, include:
• Saving many innocent people at the fair from an attack by wererats.
• Exterminating the wererat infestation at the bell tower.
• Putting an end to a string of murders in the southern part of town, and killing the grimlocks responsible.
• Rescuing the two paladins of Heironeous from the clutches of the alien cult known as “Those Who Hear”
• Destroying the cult members at the Reality Wrinkle.

After the banquet, and even though it was late into the evening, the party decided to head over to the cemetery to investigate the desecration of Lin’Thalus’ grave. On the way, you were ambushed by an ogre mage and a number of other assailants. There were assassins, rogues, a cult member and an evil cleric. The composition of the group demonstrates that the cult was perhaps working in tandem with some of the other sinister forces that you have battled. At the start of the battle, the Ogre mage was invisible. He used his surprise round to blast as many of you as possible with a cone of cold. After rolling for initiative, the ogre mage was able to go before several of you had the chance to go, thus poor Agurro taken down to -19 hit points. Korik too was seriously hurt, falling to -7 hit points and, even the sturdy Gyrr was taken aback by the damage inflicted on him, being taken down to 10 hit points eventually. Once again, you found yourselves in deep trouble. Mustering your courage and using your penchant for sound tactics, you fought back well. While nothing could be done to save the frozen Agurro, Orien was able to heal Korik before death claimed him. Solanthos sculpted a web that entrapped the ogre mage, who, while entangled, decided to use his invisibility power while fighting to get out of the morass of webs. The webbing also served as a buffer between most of your group and the rest of the enemies. Ymir waded into combat, raging and killing the two assassins that he targeted. Lianna and Drake pulled out bows and deftly took out a few others. Using his headband of see invisibility, Drake took the ogre mage down to a single it point, and finally, Solanthos, who had inflicted a devastating amount of damage on the ogre mage with his magic, killed him with a final spell. (Oh, and Gyrr got a kill or two in there somewhere too.)

There is some discussion amongst party members about the possibiity of paying for a true resurrection, for Agurro, at the church if Pelor in town. It stands that you will get a cut on the cost, thanks to all that you have done for Brindinford. You players will have to work that out.

Everyone is level 7. JJ has the loot list and you guys can determine amongst yourselves who gets what.

A few points of note:

1. The fight in the bookstore is the last fight that I know of, where your group will be bottlenecked in a 5-foot corridor. That first battle wit the wyste took quite a long time, and, in the future, when I can, I will create maps that offer a 10 foot wide hall, in order to take your group size in mind.
2. I think we can all agree that using minis on the projected maps is the way to go. I think I was able to alleviate a lot of the time I consumed by having to dick around with the electronic tokens.
3. Also, finally figuring out how to get rid of the auto scroll feature on the battle map sure did help prevent the map from bouncing around all over the place,
4. I think too, that getting rid of DMgenie was a bonus that helped speed things up from my end.

I will leave this recap posted until later in the week, and afterwards, JJ has prepared Drake’s background, which I will post for your reading pleasure. It will take several posts to complete the whole background.

See you all in a month for our next session.