Sunday, November 14, 2010

Erie Days of Dungeon Crawling Part I
(First time I seen somebody killed by a door)

Robert Conley Referee
Running The Citadel of the Emerald Sorcerer written by Joseph Goodman

Al Krombach
Bing the Witless, 2nd lvl Dwarf
Figin “Not a thief”, 2nd lvl Thief

Tim Shorts
Richard of Greyhorn, 2nd lvl Fighter
Dilgar, 2nd Lvl Dwarf
Chuck, 0th Lvl Peasant

Greg Hofmann
Wilfred, 2nd Lvl Fighter
Erik the Scoundrel, 2nd Lvl Thief

Jason Sholtis
Danidrun, 2nd Lvl Elf
Derillus the Enchanter, 2nd Lvl Wizard

John Larrey
Brother Bombast, 2nd Level Cleric
Bazul the Mad Cleric, 2nd Level Cleric
The Adventure
Everybody was scattered throughout the Kingdom of Zamora and heard their home village of Greyhorn was in trouble. They gathered at the village and found out that the Emerald Sorcerer was kidnapping villagers with his minions.

The party went up the ridge and scouted the entrance to the Sorcerer’s citadel. The spied two strange emerald statues one carved into a perfect likeness of a guard and the other a misshapen lump of a man. Danidrun the Elf fired at the door but missed badly and hit one of the statues. At which point they came to life and attacked the party. The party moved in to fight the statues and within three rounds dispatched both of them. The final blow struck by Figin “Not a Thief” with a massive backstab. When the finely crafted statue was smashed it was transformed into a body of a dying villager. While healing the party Bazul the Mad Cleric found that his patron god, the God of Riddles, had taken personal interest in the adventure and commanded Bazul to unravel the strange mystery of the statues.

The party then examined the strange pewter door that stood as the entrance to the citadel. Dilgar checked for traps and strange constructions. After some discussion it was decided to let Derillus the Enchanter burst the door out of the frame with his Enlarge. As the spell required the wizard to touch the object the party tied a rope around Derillus. At the moment of casting they would yank him back if the door burst forward. Then Derillus cast the Enlarge spell.

Unfortunately, the door burst towards the wizard. While the party succeeded in yanking the wizard back it hit him hard and killed him. After a moment of stunned silence, Dilgar quipped “Well I can say this is the first time I seen somebody killed by a door.”.

After the party collected themselves and buried Derrilus under a rocky cairn they looked inside. There they found a hall with tiled mosaics lining it’s walls depicting a green skinned sorcerer and his deeds. Carefully probing their way through the hallway they came to another pewer door like the first one. Once again Dilgar looked it over carefully not realizing that behind him tiles starting flying off the walls and forming into a humanoid monster!

The tile monster attacks the rear of the party only to stumble. The tiles making up its arms whirling away. The party won initiative and started attacking the creature smashing chunks of tiles away. The creature roared and more tiles come pouring out of the wall forming themselves into 4 dog like tile monsters. One of them leaps on Figin “Not a Thief” and smashes into his head leaving him deafened and gravely injured. However despite the reinforcement the tide turned against the monster and two rounds later the party emerge triumphant amid littered and smashed tiles. Danidrun noted some strange peepholes near the ceiling and investigated them. Behind which he could see narrow corridors.

Angered by the cowardly magics thrown against him Dilgar attacked the door with his crowbar. It took a few tries but he wrenched it open revealing a ornate lounge with a 20’ long table made of solid emerald! Danidrun was second in the room and started searching. Quickly finding secret doors they find the entrances to the corridors behind the peepholes in the entranceway.
No sooner after finishing exploring these corridors when the emerald table started glowing. Out popped two emerald skulls sporting wings! They flew crazily around the room out of reach. Then the Emerald Sorceror himself stepped out. Brother Bombast told everybody to stand their ground and turned to the sorcerer. “Please stopping stop taking villagers. What has angered you so?” . The Sorceror replied “No.” After making a gesture towards the skulls, he stepped back into the table and disappeared. At first the party was on their guard with the skulls. But the skulls just hovered there not attacking.

Bazul the Mad Cleric, carefully examined the table and found that it was a variant of portal magic. With enough effort he could wrest enough control to send the party to wherever the sorcerer went. However it was decided that they would be better off using one of the doors leaving the room.

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