Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for December 7, 2014, Ruins of Undermountain campaign; PCs included Kalil Bakran (human sorcerer), Paddy Brandywine (halfling bard [archaeologist]), and Rumbald Shieldcracker (dwarf ranger [dungeon rover]).

Just when the team thought themselves free from the evil wizard Agothon, they found themselves trapped in a second arena! This one was a natural cavern of some sort with a beautiful waterfall. Chill air began pouring in, and a massive frost giant appeared! He roared as Paddy sank his sword into his toe! Rumbald threw a javelin of lightning and drank a potion of enlarge person to get much larger before attacking with his axe and shield. Paddy continued a furious assault while Kalil hit the giant twice with scorching rays! The brute was unable to survive the onslaught.

Paddy cast some cure serious wounds spells to recover from the giant’s axe blows. Rumbald protected himself with an ironbeard while Kalil cast bear’s endurance upon Paddy.

A roar shook the room, and a tyrannosaurus appeared! Rumbald immediately began hacking away but Paddy got snatched up in the monster’s mouth! Kalil cast wall of fire to keep the dinosaur from coming his direction and also hit it with a lightning bolt. Rumbald scored several great hits while the t-rex swallowed Paddy whole! Kalil, thinking quickly, cast dimension door and appeared beside Paddy INSIDE the dinosaur! He then made an amazing feat of concentration and was able to cast a second dimension door and translocate both of them outside the beast’s gullet in an astounding rescue mission! Kalil was able to hit it with a fireball while Paddy cured his injuries. Rumbald was then able to use his axe and cut down the ravenous beast!

Game summary for March 15, 2014, Ruins of Undermountain campaign; PCs included Boran Gibbs (human cleric), Kalil Bakran (human sorcerer), Paddy Brandywine (halfling bard [archaeologist]), and Rumbald Shieldcracker (dwarf ranger [dungeon rover]).

The group entered yet another section of sprawling Undermountain and found a room with two semi-circular walled off sections occupied by wind-up clockwork minotaurs with the following sign posted:  “No Trespassing.  Visitors not welcome.  Guests not welcome.  Dr. Rotwang.”

The minotaurs click, clack, mooed to life and attacked!  The massive constructs proved very resistance to weapon attacks, although magic missile seemed to find its mark.  They discovered electricity was particularly effected against the monsters.  After several lightning bolts, bottled lightnings, and Rumbald’s shocking axe later, the creatures were reduced to slag.

The team then entered a room occupied by two steel-clad barbarians.  The armored hulks were once human but had steel plates bolted directly to them!  Rumbald charged in and plunged fifty feet into a pit of spikes!  Paddy told a bad joke (i.e., failed with hideous laughter), but Kalil used deep slumber from his wand to put one to sleep.  Boran used hold person on the other.  The group was able to hurl one into the pit (after Rumbald climbed out) and defeat the other.

The next room appeared to be some kind of laboratory with a chalkboard, tables, and a massive flesh golem!  The golem attacked.  Paddy learned he could slow the creature with his frost sword, but Rumbald sped it up with his shock axe!  The team decided to forgo the use of electricity and focus on some cold magic and the outright brutality of a well-swung sword or axe.  Soon, the flesh golem lay defeated.

Horror awaited in the next chamber, as they discovered walls slicked with old blood, and a viscous crimson blood pool in the floor.  Orc shredskins and human meat puppets shuffled to attack!  Boran was able to channel positive energy to damage all of the undead, and the team made short work of them.  They then discovered a chest attached via a chain to the edge of the pool.  They dragged up the chest and found several treasures within.

The team then entered another chamber and found a trio of necrocraft assemblages!  The undead moved to surround the team, a fast response allowed the group to drop the undead in record time.

Game summary for February 1, 2014, Ruins of Undermountain campaign; PCs included Boran Gibbs (human cleric), Kalil Bakran (human sorcerer), Paddy Brandywine (halfling bard [archaeologist]), and Rumbald Shieldcracker (dwarf ranger [dungeon rover]).

The Harm Incorporated team threw open yet another door in deep, deadly Undermountain!  Behind it, they discovered some snarling dire rats along with a wyvaran sorcerer and three kobolds!  The battle was instant, with Paddy leading the charge!  Kalil unleashed a fireball and took down the dire rats.  The party moved in quickly to swarm the creatures and took them out.

The team then opened a doorway and found two enormous ettins!  The arguing creatures instantly shifting their attention to the little meals running around and came crashing through the wall!  The ettins began bashing the party with their spiked clubs, but a barrage of spells and blades later, the ettins lay dead at the feet of Rumbald.  Paddy discovered a loose flagstone concealing some small treasure along with a secret door.  The group went through the secret door and triggered a spiked pit!  Everyone dodged except Kalil who plummeted the fifty feet into the spiked pit.  Injured, he required magical aid when raised upon a rope.

Another door revealed an interrogation room occupied by two bugbears wearing spiked armor and carrying punching daggers with razor edges.  One of the bugbears began brutally stabbing Rumbald.  Thinking quickly, Paddy cast hideous laughter to tell a hilarious joke and cause one of the goblinoids to roll about laughing.  Soon the team mopped up the two brutes.

The next room was a killing field flanked on either side by arrow slits with orc crossbowmen on the other side!  The party carried tables on either side as massive shields to get Paddy to the door so he could get them back to the crossbowmen.  A few bolts landed true, but most thunked into heavy tables.  The team surged back and took out the orcs with blade and spell.

Finally, the team opened another door to reveal an octagonal room occupied by a single man, Bruce Lee.  Master Lee challenged the team, and they rumbled for quite some time.  Rumbald and Paddy found themselves repeatedly disarmed and thrown to the ground under a barrage of punches and kicks!  Boran landed a critical hit with a searing light, and Kalil ended the fight with a scorching ray!  Admitting defeat, Master Lee disappeared in a puff of blue smoke, but the team realized they had honed their own hand-to-hand combat skills after the experience.

Game summary for January 3, 2014, Ruins of Undermountain campaign; PCs included Boran Gibbs (human cleric), Kalil Bakran (human sorcerer), Paddy Brandywine (halfling bard [archaeologist]), and Rumbald Shieldcracker (dwarf ranger [dungeon rover]).

The Harm Inc. team entered another section of Undermountain and encountered a small pack of goblins led by a goblin snake shaman!  The singing creatures attacked with their dogslicers and torches!  The goblin snake hit Rumbald with a ray of enfeeblement, but Kalil countered it with a bull’s strength.  Boran quickly blessed the party and switched to his shortbow to better fight in the cramped hallways.  The goblins were fighting on two fronts, and the party broke through one side and swarmed the creatures from both directions.  They then discovered two smaller chambers.

Paddy accidentally triggered a fireball trap on one of the doors but found a small fortune in the room behind.  The second door proved untrapped, but the small tomb contained two cairn wights and some purple mold!  Boran channeled positive energy and moved in to engage.  He quickly learned the undead could drain life energy through their razor blades.  The team swarmed into the cramped quarters and took out the wights but found themselves woozy from the purple mold spores.  They quickly ran out and tossed alchemist’s fire within to clear the room.  They found some treasure in a stone box including a wand that could restore the effects of the wights’ negative energy.

The group went through another door and found a room with two dungeonbred manticores guarding a chest swinging from a chain on the ceiling.  The manticores hurled spikes at the party and fought viciously, but the team setup a number of flanks and took them down quickly.  They then sent Paddy up a rope where he unlocked the chest and took all the treasure within.

Behind another door, the team found a horrific sight!  A massive ogre zombie lord stood swinging an enormous hammer!  Even worse, his body swarmed with thousands of wasps!  Rumbald advanced and was beaten mercilessly.  Boran followed as well and was knocked unconscious by the creature’s hammer.  Paddy used his wand of magic missile, and Kalil used his lightning bolt.  Soon, the undead monster was destroyed, but this only unleashed the entire swarm of wasps!  Fortunately, Kalil’s lightning bolts eliminated them.  The team then discovered a belt of giant strength in the remnants of the corpse, and Rumbald put it on to enhance his physical prowess.

Next the group went down a hallway, and Rumbald went flying through the air and slammed into some magnetized ore!  His allies pried him loose and slipped through a door.  On the other side, they found an enormous heap of gleaming treasure!  Three of the team entered the room while Boran debated his options for passing by the giant magnet.  In the room, a young black dragon revealed itself and breathed acid all over the party!  Paddy dodged it with his evasion, and the team tore into the dragon.  Boran ripped a door from its hinges and used it as a shield to interfere with the magnetic pull.  He slipped in just as the dragon’s fangs and claws shredded Rumbald’s flesh.  Kalil hit it with a scorching ray, and Paddy sliced it with his magical sword Frostburn.  Rumbald stepped up and shield bashed the dragon to death!  The team then collected its small fortune in treasure!

Game summary for December 23, 2013, Ruins of Undermountain campaign; PCs included Boran Gibbs (human cleric), Kalil Bakran (human sorcerer), Paddy Brandywine (halfling bard [archaeologist]), and Rumbald Shieldcracker (dwarf ranger [dungeon rover]).

The team continued to explore treacherous Undermountain and stumbled upon a trio of drow!  The two blademen attacked with their poisoned two-bladed swords!  An impressive exchange began between a swordsman and Rumbald the dwarf!  Kalil unleashed a scorching ray at the other while the wicked priestess of Lolth blessed her allies.  Boran attempted to run over a bench and table to attack the cleric, but he tripped and fell on his back.  So, he instead blessed the party.  Meanwhile, Paddy moved in and cut down the burnt bladesman and moved to pressure the cleric.  She responded with a hold person spell, but plucky halfling shook it off!  Boran countered with the same, to no avail.  The battle went back and forth, but soon the team had defeated the drow and looted them.

The group then wound its way down a dark twisting passage and triggered several acid arrow traps that fortunately missed (they went over Paddy’s head).  At the end of the passage stood a frightening creature, a skeletal mage!  It unleashed a scorching ray and injured the team but was soon cut down.

They then found a room occupied by a fearsome drider!  The monstrosity warded itself with mage armor and blasted away with numerous lightning bolts.  The team found its spell resistance particularly challenging, and it put up quite a fight!  Finally, Kalil’s fire ray punched through and slew the beast!

Harm Incorporated then opened another door and found a massive yellow terror solifugid!  The ten-legged arachnid ripped into Paddy, rending his flesh and harming him terribly!  The team found the monster easy to hit because it was so large; however, it also injured Boran.  Finally, the group whittled away and dropped the horror!  Boran and Rumbald used magic to heal the injuries thus far sustained by the party.

Continuing on, they came across a room with two frenzied cultists worshiping a beholder!  Fortunately, the beholder turned out to be a gauth beholderkin, a weaker relative of the floating orb of destruction!  The gauth blasted Boran with its six eye rays!  He shook off the worst of the effects but was significantly hampered by exhaustion!  Soon, Rumbald was also magically exhausted.  The team took out the cultists with ease, but the gauth put up a fight!  Fortunately, Kalil caught it with two scorching rays and exploded the inhuman monster if a ball of flame!

The group then discovered the secret hideaway of Undermountain merchant Ludovic Snerd!  He taught them the magic phrase to summon his magical equipment shop but warned them he would only appear in areas that were very safe.  They decided to do some shopping after exploring one more room.

The final room explored by the team appeared to be a tomb of a fallen priest of Shar.  The sarcophagus was flanked by four suits of battered armor which Boran determined where undead with his detect undead spell!  Kalil smiled and hurled a fireball into the room and melted them all to slag!  They then discovered the coffin was infested with brown mold!  The mold sucked all the heat from the room and caused cold damage to the team!  Kalil hit it with a fire ray and caused it to double in size!  Thinking quickly, Paddy used his magically cold short sword to destroy the hazard.  They then claimed the treasures from within the tomb.

Game summary for November 16, 2013, Ruins of Undermountain campaign; PCs included Boran Gibbs (human cleric), Kalil Bakran (human sorcerer), Paddy Brandywine (halfling bard [archaeologist]), and Rumbald Shieldcracker (dwarf ranger [dungeon rover]).

The Harm Incorporated team went down a flight of stairs and found four skeletal champions moving to attack.  The team cut down the first undead, but the other three hung back in another hallway.  Kalil launched a fireball while the rest of the team moved in.  Rumbald nearly fell into a pit trap but caught his balance just in time!  The group mopped up the champions very quickly and then dropped a rib bone with a light spell into the pit.  They found a dead adventurer at the bottom and lowered Paddy down on a rope to retrieve his backpack.  The mighty Rumbald lowered the rope and hauled the halfling back up.  They found several magic items and coins within.

From here, the team went to a large green door and picked the lock.  On the other side, they found a massive room filled with broken furniture and a group of ogres and minotaurs!  Rumbald hates minotaurs, so he charged in and ended up flanked by the ogres!  He took some heavy shots while the team moved in.  Several were hit hard, and Paddy cast good hope to make the team better fighters!  Kalil unleashed another fireball and used his fire ray attack.  The fighting was intense, forcing Boran to channel positive energy to heal the team.  Kalil used his scorching ray, and the team slowly took down each of the giant creatures.  The group then discovered some treasure on the body of a slain dwarven adventurer.

The group moved back down the hallway and entered an enormous room filled with cracked bones, straw, and hair balls.  Within, a white chimera paced about!  Paddy and Rumbald moved in to form a front line while Kalil slipped in behind.  The chimera pounced and also unleashed a blast of icy cold!  The creature fought valiantly but was no match for the combined might of the party.  Paddy then cast detect secret doors and found a door to the north!  On the other side, they discovered a chest full of treasure!

Finally, the team went through the last door they knew of.  Without was a tangled mess of hallways and trails of slime.  Four massive flail snails glided about and attacked trying to eat the party!  Rumbald, Paddy, and Boran all charged in and attacked while Kalil unleashed a lightning bolt.  As the snails were defeated one by one, Kalil also discovered the snails’ shells somehow protected them from some kinds of magic.  Within a few moments, though, the team was victorious and had survived their first few encounters within Undermountain!