We had another combatroom session yesterday. Since I didn't post the previous session, here's a quick update:
After the troll and the derro stepped through the portal, they found themselves in cave with lots of crystals. Glowing, pulsing giant crystals. (I had equipped two crystals with color-cycling LEDs, see
here and
here.) The hadn't much time to explore and see if these gems were worth looting, as they quickly developed headaches, nausea and after a few minutes painful skin blisters similar to severe sunburns.
Both player's faces showed very clearly that out of game, they totally understood what's going on.
Still they played along without metagaming and just went to the rear part of the giant cave. They explored the rest of the cave and discovered that it got a bit better in the 'shadow' of the two giant stalagmites that were standing opposite to the crystal fields and rested for a while to discuss their situation. It didn't take long until the stalagmites sprouted tentacles and revealed themselves to be ropers.
(see
here and
here)
The two fled out of tentacle's reach, and ropers were quite happy with that: They were a merry couple, the larger one being clearly the more clever one, and told them that they wouldn't have to fight them, as soon they would die anyways because of the crystals. They'd let them rot for a while to let them get the best taste, as they told them in anticipation.
We had a hilarious dialogue for an hour or so, until finally the characters had enough and started to let the spells fly, from safe distance. They hadn't counted on the large roper having a ring of fireballs on it's tentacle, and both of them being expert rock-flingers. So after a while they went back to parlaying. They ropers hinted at another exit in the cave, and the characters promised to summon some alternative food.
The derro druid summoned some animals and got ... a bunch of
buggalo!
We had quite some fun when I dropped these on the table!
The ropers were delighted, as buggalo were delicious snacks. They let the druid summon some more, then the large roper moved a few meters aside and revealed a tunnel. He promised that after travelling the tunnel for three rests, they would come to another portal that would bring them to the Feydark, and from there another portal back to this side of the underdark. They have no idea if that destination is nearer to their home, but having no other choice (the portal that got them here in the first place was one-way), they thanked the two and climbed down.
End of the session.
Fast forward to yesterday's session.
The two arrived in another cave system, one that was quite tight - at least for the troll:
It was the first time we tried the
two Dwarven Forge cavern sets I grabbed recently for a very nice price. The verdict, based on one encounter spanning half of the game night: The pieces are works of art. Beautiful, with countless details that really draw you in and evoke a cool cavern-feeling.
However.
The price is simply too expensive. I have two sets, which would heve set me back about 220 € if I had paid the regular prices and hadn't got lucky. Plus, they take up extremely much storage space as each piece sits in it's own styrofoam hole (which totally makes sense, even with resin pieces). Still, even with two sets we were only able to lay out a relatively small cave system. It takes much longer to place these pieces together than with DIY 2.5 modular walls, so you have to do it in advance - which means the players have the complete dungeon on the table, even before exploring it (no fog of war). This takes away the fun of exploring.
Also, as I said, the cave is small. You don't have many possibilities for strategic combat, at least considerably less than in a cave that would cover 3/4 of the table and can be filled with all kinds of self-made dungeon decoration.
The verdict: Dwarven Forge stuff is cool, but not for my kind of play. I will probably keep the two sets because they're very well made and I might use them as inspirations, should I eventually try to sculpt such stuff myself (not this year and probably not the next, that's for sure) but they probably won't be used in the games.
Back to the game...
One of Torog's children (
here and
here) harrassed them using hit-and-run tactics with it's ability to move through the rock. It levitated the derro a few feet up, turned it around so he couldn't look at it (i.e, couldn't attack it with spells) and started to move him toward it's maw.
At the same time, an
earth elemental appeared, attacked the troll (lucky roll --> shattering the troll's left leg). The derro could cast
soften earth and stone below it, so if sunk in and was out of the fight for a few rounds, giving them some breathing time. They finally drove the flying creature away (they have no idea what the heck that thing was, only that it's powerful and annoying), just in time to see the earth elemental climbing out of the softened pit. The troll hacked away at the elemental and finally shattered it. The blue gems embedded in the creature emitted some 'energy whisps' that all drifted toward one part of the cave, collecting in a cluster if silvery crystals which began to glow ever more brightly.
Finally the brightness hurt the derro, so they took cover. After a final flash of blinding light, they discovered that a curtain of light had appeared, originating from the crystal and spanning from the cave bottom to the ceiling, somehow being anchored at the nearby funghi. The curtain looked beautful (I described it out of character as somehow similar to northern lights), and after some rock-tossing, they guessed that it is probably the portal they were looking for. So they collected the remaining crystals that the exploding earth elemental had scattered in the cave (exploding enemies are cool - use it as often as possible!
) and stepped through.
They appeared in another cave, inside a triangle of the same light curtain which quickly dissipated. They were pretty low on hitpoints and still hampered by the effects of the glowing crystals, so they decided to rest, even in unknown territory. After the druid cast cure disease, the troll's regeneration kicked in again (they were quite worried that the regeneration couldn't heal the 'radiation damage', and neither the troll cleric not the druid can cast heal spells), so they were very relieved. After the rest, they started to carefully explore their new surroundings:
They started in the little side-cave in the top-left corner of the pic. The player's totally loved the new faerie-plants/mushrooms.
What they loved considerably less was drawing arrow fire from well-hidden enemies (spriggans, but they didn't know that at that time). They shrugged off the poison (the troll is totally immune to poisons, being a cleric of Ghaunadar, and the derro druid has excellent saving throws). One enemy jumped from a stalagmite on the troll's back and stabbed him like mad with his spear in the neck. The troll reached behind himself, grabbed the bugger and threw himself back-first into a rock arch.
A good move, but the enemy got lucky and could jump off without taking much damage continuing to fight from abve the rock arch which the troll began to run up.
In the meantime, the derro shapechanged into a slime and went into melee with his foe, but then suddenly the troll spontaneously changed into a slime as well - something that the flabbergasted player interpreted as a sign of his god* and adapted his tactics: He dropped from the rock arch and engulfed his enemy.
* wrong: it's a permanent mutation caused by the radiation from the last session - whenever under bodily stress (low on hit points, being attacke by fire, etc), there's a chance that he'll go Hulk and become a slithering Gelatinous Cube. Let's see how long it takes until they piece that together! *evil DM grin*Both were doing well against their enemies, engulfing them and playing it out (suffocation shouldn't take long...) Being gelatinous cubes, their main sense were not vision but some kind of vibration-sense: They were able to locate creatures by their heartbeats and footsteps, well enough to attack them. They both sensed someone else approaching, someone large. I didn't put miniatures on the map but simply indicated roughly where they guessed the being(s?) should be.
Suddenly the derro-cube began to levitate again...
They both guessed that the critter from the previous encounter had followed them, but were proven wrong soon enough. The floating derro slime suddenly became imprisoned in some kind of sphere. Still floating and now additionally imprisoned, his vibration sense wasn't of much use, so he changed back to his derro shape - and stared a cyclops right in the smirking eye.
In the meantime, the troll-cube had hunted his enemy in the rear part of the cave, where he didn't get what happened with the derro. After having killed his enemy, he found himself changing back into troll shap (sans armor, weapons and equipment) and soon got attacked by a second cyclops. With a little help from his spriggan friends, the cyclops brought the troll low.
Both were brought before a formorian giant, who made quite a show letting them know who was in charge. He had them thrown in a cell (with crystal walls inside the traditional prison bars, so no slithering out) and let them wait for several days. On the second hearing he offered them a way back, if they agreed to kill someone for him: A prince of Inbarran, the Fomorian kingdome they were in. He told them a few more details: The kingwas about to die, and the surviving prince would become the new king. They guessed correctly that he was a prince as well, and asked for details about the culture, the prince and his stronghold. The Fomorian asked them about their ability to shapechange into slime, and how long they could keep that shape. He seemed to be pleased that they showed some good sense, at least that's how they interpreted his lopsided smile.
...which dissappeared suddenly, as his mood changed to ' at the end of hi's tether'. He asked them if they really believed that it would be that easy, simply entering the most defended place where a royal prince lived and killing him? The Formorian let them be thrown back in their cell. The players remembered that some sessions back they had heard a story about the Formorian's proverbial madness, and expected the worst.
...and that's where we ended the session.
Next time the players will get the assignment, and enough information to make plans.