Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 84 - Through Earth, Fire and Water

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 7 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 7) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 6)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 6)]

Date/Time

Goodmonth 11 (night) - Goodmonth 11 (later night) 

Pushing aside the three carcases, the party continues along the wall. And almost immediately comes to a wrought iron staircase going up, and a mound of stone and earth nearby. The mound proves to be the sphinx's lair, and a pile of treasure is looted from there. Everyone then heads up the stairs, which leads them into well lit area full of trees and undergrowth. The growth is too thick for anyone but the druid to pass through, so they follow a winding pebbled path through the verdant vale. It proves to be a maze of branching paths, and at some intersections they are ambushed from above by strange monkey like creatures. The paths eventually lead to a small clearing. At the centre is a rose garden. Kneeling back on to the party is a brown robed figure, softly singing and tending the garden. Skeef immediately drops an entangle spell on the figure, and Goro follows with a silence. The figure rises and turns to face the party, pulling back it's hood. And revealing a feminine face with a writhing mass of snakes for hair! The medusa's gaze immediately turns Solcha to stone. The others shake off the effect, and averting eyes turn to attack. Goro eventually throws a bag over her head, allowing petrification-free attacks on her. Once the medusa is dead, they cut off the head and leave it in the bag for potential future use. And Goro uses a hoarded dispel magic scroll to bring the elf back to flesh-dom.   

After looting a small coffer hidden in the rose garden, the party continues around the maze until they come to another wrought iron staircase. This leads up to a field of fire, with just a few safe paths and platforms. At the far end they can see another staircase; but standing next to it is a huge fire giant. The party (less Skeef) jumps on the carpet to loop around the outer wall towards the giant and stairs. At about the halfway point, the giant turns to pick up a stone from a nearby pile, and hurls it at the party. Which encourages the party to 'put on the gas' and zoom over to take the giant on face to face.  Skeef transforms into a giant eagle so he can fly above the flames and straight across to room to join them. But when he gets halfway across, he is suddenly pushed upward with great force, getting smashed against the ceiling and partway into a shaft leading up. 

As eagle-Skeef claws his way to safety, the rest of the party take on the giant. Solcha takes a boulder to the face, but otherwise the fight goes smoothly and the giant is soon dead. Once more they loot a pile of treasure and head to the stairs. But are annoyed to find the stairs are an illusion. And swiftly realize they are going to have to go up the reverse gravity shaft Skeef has discovered. 

One by one, they pass below the shaft and "fall" up, going through the shaft and exiting into a water filled area. They 'fall' up to the ocean, splashing down into 15' of warm salt water. Having seen strange shapes swimming about during their fall, the party all swiftly swim to an adjacent sandy island. They all then jump once more on the carpet to scout from the air. They see a mass of coral fills part of the sea, and in it is a cleared space. Closer examination shows something on the bottom. As Baqua crawls along the walls to join them, Solcha and Goro (protected from drowning by amulet and potion) dive in. They find a round metallic hatch with a wheel-like device at the centre. Solcha starts to turn it, as Goro (now assisted by a dolphin-Skeef) holds of the manta rays that now converge on the trio. Once the hatch is open, Solcha swims "down" the revealed shaft. She breaks into an air filled shaft, and simultaneously gets a nauseous feeling as gravity twists back to normal. The elf swims back to let everyone know, and then one by one they descend/ascend the shaft to their next challenge ... 

GAINS

Gems (8x50, 1x10, 500, 700, 5000, 10000) 

3000gp

Be-gemmed platinum crown (8000gp)

Potion of Healing

Potion of Sweetwater

Footman's Mace +2

Bracers AC4

Ring of Feather Falling

KILLS/VICTORIES

5 Su-Monsters

1 Medusa

1 Fire Giant

1 Ixitxachitl 

LOSSES

none

Gygax & Greyhawk Session # 83 - Are You Man Enough?

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

Skeef Hawkridge (Half Elf Druid 7 / Thief 7) 
Goro (Half Orc Cleric 7 / Fighter 6) 
Solcha (Elf Fighter 5 / Magic User 7) 
Chanee (Human Paladin 6)
[Baqua Irontoes (Halfling Fighter 4 / Thief 6)]

Date/Time

Goodmonth 10 (night) - Goodmonth 11 (night) 

The night passes without incident, except for Skeef's sudden return from whatever space/time warp he'd stumbled into. After preparing spells and healing, the party enter the last, south east, tower. This one warns them to "TAKE CARE WHERE YOU STEP". And the first room they enter has a floor inscribed with a black 10'x10' grid. So they very carefully tap and search their way across the room, Skeef in the lead. They cross without incident, but when the druid/thief tries the same in the next gridded room, a giant lizard materializes in front of him and must be slain. So instead, the party rolls out the carpet of flying and fly over the grid. Except Baqua, who uses her gauntlets to work her way across walls and ceiling. 

After likewise passing through another gridded room, they next enter yet another gridded room in which 16 bugbears stand statue-like scattered across the space. And at the far end can also be seen a stone sarcophagus. The party attempts once more to fly over to the sarcophagus and avoid all trouble. However, this time that does not work; four of the humanoids animate and race to attack them when they land. These are slain with relative ease, and the lid of the sarcophagus is removed to reveal a mass of copper and silver coin, a small number of gems, and the fourth "key".

Grabbing the key, the party flies onward, once more animating 4 bugbears when they exit the room. They are able to out-fly (and Baqua out-climb) them, reaching the end of the passage facing yet another blue-ish metal wall with the ubiquitous 'key' carving.  After turning to face and slay the four pursuing bugbears, the party opts to rest here in the corridor to allow the spellcasters to rest and memorize spells once more. By that time, the full moons will have risen above the horizon, giving them access to the ghostly tower above. 

When everyone is ready, they place the four key pieces in the engraving. This causes the wall to slide open, revealing a 20'x20' room furnished with 8 thickly padded reclining chairs.   Which  everyone rushes to, assuming the worst. And they are just barely seated when they all feel themselves slammed back in the chairs by a great force, which dissipates after about 10 seconds. Looking up, they can now see a 5' opening in the ceiling that had not been there before. Skeef once more leading the way, they climb up ...

... into clouds of billowing warm mist that block view of anything more than 10' away. Underfoot is stone and rubble, but otherwise there is no sign of anything. Flying up with the carpet, they find the room is about 80' high. The party then proceeds to march in a straight line until they hit a wall, and then walk along it to see what they encounter. The room proves the be circular, and after getting about a quarter of the way around, they suddenly hear a flap of wings and a thud as a creature lands in front of them. 

It is a gynosphinx, and the lion-lady immediately begins to question them and leave unsubtle hints in her husky voice that she is in need of male companionship. Unwilling to contemplate interspecies liaisons (although she was clear none of them is 'man enough' for her), the party tries to reason with the sphinx. Maybe if she  tells them about the soul gem, they can help her leave the tower to "find a man" herself? 

This seems to enrage her, and screaming something about being trapped here by Galap-Dreidel, she attacks. And is joined by two massive pteranodons who'd been ciciling in the mist above. It is a short combat that sees Chanee and Baqua suffer a symbol of pain before the three beasts are slain. 

GAINS

gems (10, 50, 50, 1000) 

KILLS/VICTORIES

4 Bugbears

1 Giant Lizard

1 gynosphinx

2 pteradons 

LOSSES

none