Week 48 - Two short fights and one long one.

Gauthkan elects to use his Cloak of the Bat to explore the cavern, reasoning that as the carrion-crawlers are covering the walls, he will likely be ok. He “sees” with his bat-sonar some sort of balcony above them within the cage. Slipping through the bars, he determines that the cavern is immense, and there is some sort of tunnel leading out from the bottom - over 20’ wide.

Mend has a look at the cage. The bottom of the cage is hinged to open. As he steps out into it, the bottom comes away. Mend manages to grab hold, and the carrion-crawlers don’t identify him as food. Frith turns to their captive Troglodyte and starts berating him about not warning them of this trap, getting in reply a confused story from the terrified captive about how this cage isn’t a trap per se, as it is not triggered but must be manually opened. Meanwhile, someone starts firing Scorching Rays at Mend from the balcony above.

Gauthakan transforms into a bat again, and investigates the balcony. A pair of dwarves are up there, one next to the lever that opens the cage, and one firing a wand. Gauthakan flies between the two of them and commences laying down some hurt. One dwarf is swiftly dealt with, but the other flees. Meanwhile, the other party members are swarming up the ladder stapled to the wall. Flash casts Dominate and says “Gathakn, leave my toy alone”.

Arrgh! Arrgh! Yet another walk-over of a fight that is supposed to be tough. These twins are high-level rogues!

Looting the rogues and their alchemical lab where the carrion-crawler loads are made, the party head back to consider the cavern. A stack of troglodyte bodies (and a giant and a dwarf) attracts most of the swarm of crawlwers, which Frith then dispatched with a Fire Storm. No worries. And so, to the mother worm.

Well, there’s not much to tell, unfortunately. The party buff, and there’s a couple of rounds of combat. Then Frith attempts a Destruction spell, which has almost no chance of working. “Almost None”, however, is not quite the same as “None”. The mother worm is destroyed. And more: these handiworks of the Daelkyr do not reproduce as natural things do. With this worm gone, no more carrion crawlers will be birthed. The party have done a good deed this day.

And as the last parts of its unnatural flesh are consumed with holy power, one thing is left behind - a key, which drops out of the air where the worm’s stomach was a moment before. The party recover it, and elect to rest here. No danger remains.

Arrgh! Triple Arrgh! Can you belive it? SR 29, and a fort save of +26. Bevis beats the SR (with an action point, I think). For the fort save, I use my usual d20 that only rolls ones or twenties … and roll a one. M…f…ing pus-bucket!

And so back to the citdael to deal with Konger Thunderballs - or whatever his name was. But on the way, while negotiating the ledge connecting the two halves of the city, they are attacked by a fang dragon - the wyrm Xyzanth - and two mature adult blue dragons. A lot happens - this fight is complicated and takes a long time (real time). Gauthakan keeps Xyzanth busy, neither able to get past the other’s armour. Mend and Screechy deal with the blue dragons, but the day is Flash’s - first reducing Xyzanth with his Bolt of Glory spells, then Dispelling it’s magical protections. Finally Gauthakan gets a hit - and it’s good. Al three dragons dead, the party continue on towards the citadel.

And what will Mr Thunderballs have to say? “Ta, thanks, and be on your way”, no doubt. What does he know that he’s not telling? How will they convince him to at least give them a gander at the vault door? What NPCs are in the citadel that I haven’t used yet? And how will they recover the lost Ritual of Opening? And, assuming all that … then what?

As always: we’ll all have to find out next time.