GS: Out of Bounds - Part 3
... waking up the next day, the party continued exploring this ancient underground complex, now recently the home of marauding kobolds.
Heading back into the row of jail cells, Arti was interested in exploring the one empty cell from the other day. He determined that there was a magical effect in part of the room, but couldn't tell just what it did. Testing the area on himself, he started suffering as though he were splashed with acid until he left that area.
At this point the party went all the way back to the large "trash room" and continued down the other corridor. They came across a statue embedded in the wall that looked similar to one they had previously seen. Before they had a chance to investigate further, several quick moving kobolds raced down a hall and began attacking. The fight was swift but after a few rounds of steel and magic, the kobolds were defeated.
The party was now able to concentrate on the statue and noticed that this new statue was more menacing looking (it's weapon was raised as if ready for combat and it's free hand pointed accusingly at all onlookers). Arti correctly figured out that the two statues represented different natures of the same being, though nobody knew who it represented. While looking at the statue both the goblin and Theo found themselves uncontrollably falling asleep. A few minutes later they awoke but in short order the goblin succumbed to the same magical effect again, leaving the party to drag him out of the room...
The next room was actually a huge pit with a crude rope bridge strung across it. As the party entered, the kobolds on duty started trying to cut the bridge down before anyone could get across. One of the three kobolds involved was able to activate some strange effect and created a cloud of obscuring mist around him. Unfortunately for him, Hunter was skilled enough in the bow to still hit his target to devastating effect and the others were immobilized before the bridge was rendered useless.
Traveling down a wide hallway, they entered a room filled with nooks. Each nook held an open upright coffin. Many of them also held kobolds that had been set up to try and ambush the party as they entered. The ranger, the kender, the mage, and even the goblin spread out and were able to defeat the kobolds without taking any serious injury. After the battle, they searched the room and found two secret passages, one lead to a new area while the other lead back to the statue room. (The puzzle that the party never really figured out was if they arranged the heads in a certain manner, it would reveal the secret passage)
The party then proceeded down the secret passage to a new area and found themselves in a strange room. On one wall was a large "mirror" that was actually a magical window that looked through the rock and shown nearby rooms. The device could also be moved along the wall to look in to other rooms, depending on where it was positioned. Magically suspended in the air in the center of the room was a huge glass container. It was open on the bottom, but the remaining 5 sides were solid glass. Also in the room was an old statue of a man in robes, though it was hard to tell if the statue was a mage or cleric.
After a few moments in the room, a small group of kobolds ran in and began attacking the players (what the party never figured out was that the kobolds were summoned by the tribe leader to come to this room). Once fighting broke out, the statue became animated and randomly attacked anyone in the room.
At one point Theo ran under the glass container, wherein it dropped around him. It did no damage, but trapped him inside for a little less than a minute. During this, most of the kobolds had been defeated, but coming down the hallway opposite the one they used to enter the room, Hunter noticed a horrible abomination of a creature moving closer.
It walked on two feet and bore some resemblance to a kobold, but it was much large, about the size of an adult male. It had four arms and wielded a deadly looking trident. It's worst feature, that Hunter and everyone soon found out, was the creatures ability to walk through walls.
Instead of coming down the hallway as Hunter expected, it soon popped out of a wall behind him and began attacking and using it's phase ability to it's advantage. In the ensuing melee everyone scrambled to attack the creature but at first it seemed too powerful, knocking Arti unconscious and bleeding to death, and almost killing the goblin with it's mighty blows.
But the conscious memebers all pulled together and did enough damage to force the abomination to retreat into the walls for parts unknown. With everyone exhausted and hurt, they decided to retreat to the statue room to rest, recuperate, and heal.
The next morning, everyone was feeling a little better and went back to exploring this ancient catacomb. Their first destination was to explore the hallway the kobold abomination had come from. The hallway lead to a room that Arti deduced was a casting chamber (and he was correct). Everyone was hesitant to stand atop the faintly glowing alter in the far end of the room, but as they explored around the area, they found a large collection of treasure -- piles of various coins and a few weapons littered the area (and represented the choicest items from the kobolds raids on unsuspecting travelers on the nearby road). Before the party could get away with this hard earned loot, the kobold abomination returned to try and feed off the party one last time. Time time, everyone was more prepared, and more effective in their attacking. After just a few rounds of combat, they wounded the creature enough to chase him away for good.
The party gathered up all they could carry and left this ancient dwelling...
(It should be noted that the party chose not to investigate at least one area they knew about... and no one know who or what was back in that last area?)
Once outside they found that the horse and cart they previously left outside was gone (it had been about 3 days now since they first went in) and they were forced to try and walk back to town (a journey that would take about two days). As luck would have it, a local patrol from Flotsam was returning to town and had just enough room for the party and their goods, assuming they were willing to make a "donation" for the guards services. It was money well spent to get back to the city and the comfort of their homes that night.
(The "Out of Bounds" adventure took more than three sessions to complete, these entries combine more than one game session)
Heading back into the row of jail cells, Arti was interested in exploring the one empty cell from the other day. He determined that there was a magical effect in part of the room, but couldn't tell just what it did. Testing the area on himself, he started suffering as though he were splashed with acid until he left that area.
At this point the party went all the way back to the large "trash room" and continued down the other corridor. They came across a statue embedded in the wall that looked similar to one they had previously seen. Before they had a chance to investigate further, several quick moving kobolds raced down a hall and began attacking. The fight was swift but after a few rounds of steel and magic, the kobolds were defeated.
The party was now able to concentrate on the statue and noticed that this new statue was more menacing looking (it's weapon was raised as if ready for combat and it's free hand pointed accusingly at all onlookers). Arti correctly figured out that the two statues represented different natures of the same being, though nobody knew who it represented. While looking at the statue both the goblin and Theo found themselves uncontrollably falling asleep. A few minutes later they awoke but in short order the goblin succumbed to the same magical effect again, leaving the party to drag him out of the room...
The next room was actually a huge pit with a crude rope bridge strung across it. As the party entered, the kobolds on duty started trying to cut the bridge down before anyone could get across. One of the three kobolds involved was able to activate some strange effect and created a cloud of obscuring mist around him. Unfortunately for him, Hunter was skilled enough in the bow to still hit his target to devastating effect and the others were immobilized before the bridge was rendered useless.
Traveling down a wide hallway, they entered a room filled with nooks. Each nook held an open upright coffin. Many of them also held kobolds that had been set up to try and ambush the party as they entered. The ranger, the kender, the mage, and even the goblin spread out and were able to defeat the kobolds without taking any serious injury. After the battle, they searched the room and found two secret passages, one lead to a new area while the other lead back to the statue room. (The puzzle that the party never really figured out was if they arranged the heads in a certain manner, it would reveal the secret passage)
The party then proceeded down the secret passage to a new area and found themselves in a strange room. On one wall was a large "mirror" that was actually a magical window that looked through the rock and shown nearby rooms. The device could also be moved along the wall to look in to other rooms, depending on where it was positioned. Magically suspended in the air in the center of the room was a huge glass container. It was open on the bottom, but the remaining 5 sides were solid glass. Also in the room was an old statue of a man in robes, though it was hard to tell if the statue was a mage or cleric.
After a few moments in the room, a small group of kobolds ran in and began attacking the players (what the party never figured out was that the kobolds were summoned by the tribe leader to come to this room). Once fighting broke out, the statue became animated and randomly attacked anyone in the room.
At one point Theo ran under the glass container, wherein it dropped around him. It did no damage, but trapped him inside for a little less than a minute. During this, most of the kobolds had been defeated, but coming down the hallway opposite the one they used to enter the room, Hunter noticed a horrible abomination of a creature moving closer.
It walked on two feet and bore some resemblance to a kobold, but it was much large, about the size of an adult male. It had four arms and wielded a deadly looking trident. It's worst feature, that Hunter and everyone soon found out, was the creatures ability to walk through walls.
Instead of coming down the hallway as Hunter expected, it soon popped out of a wall behind him and began attacking and using it's phase ability to it's advantage. In the ensuing melee everyone scrambled to attack the creature but at first it seemed too powerful, knocking Arti unconscious and bleeding to death, and almost killing the goblin with it's mighty blows.
But the conscious memebers all pulled together and did enough damage to force the abomination to retreat into the walls for parts unknown. With everyone exhausted and hurt, they decided to retreat to the statue room to rest, recuperate, and heal.
The next morning, everyone was feeling a little better and went back to exploring this ancient catacomb. Their first destination was to explore the hallway the kobold abomination had come from. The hallway lead to a room that Arti deduced was a casting chamber (and he was correct). Everyone was hesitant to stand atop the faintly glowing alter in the far end of the room, but as they explored around the area, they found a large collection of treasure -- piles of various coins and a few weapons littered the area (and represented the choicest items from the kobolds raids on unsuspecting travelers on the nearby road). Before the party could get away with this hard earned loot, the kobold abomination returned to try and feed off the party one last time. Time time, everyone was more prepared, and more effective in their attacking. After just a few rounds of combat, they wounded the creature enough to chase him away for good.
The party gathered up all they could carry and left this ancient dwelling...
(It should be noted that the party chose not to investigate at least one area they knew about... and no one know who or what was back in that last area?)
Once outside they found that the horse and cart they previously left outside was gone (it had been about 3 days now since they first went in) and they were forced to try and walk back to town (a journey that would take about two days). As luck would have it, a local patrol from Flotsam was returning to town and had just enough room for the party and their goods, assuming they were willing to make a "donation" for the guards services. It was money well spent to get back to the city and the comfort of their homes that night.
(The "Out of Bounds" adventure took more than three sessions to complete, these entries combine more than one game session)
