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Session #44
12/07/2011
Players
Lotur (Chris)
Jarri the Pale (Eric)
Ookla the Mok (Dave)
Xeno (Thaddeus)
Tobias the Awkward (Jed)
Neisseria the Medusa (Scott)
Subex Azure (James)
Ganril the Once Great (Peter)
…and guest appearance from IO!
Enemies Defeated
A white dragon, believed to have been a polymorphed henchman who was then polymorphed into a flounder
Two wraiths which emerged from glass spheres
Ashur Ram the necromancer
Treasure Liberated
36 gems worth a total of 19,000 gp
Rod of Lordly Splendor Jarri
Helm of Telepathy Xeno
Wand of Fireballs Neisseria
Cloak of Invisibility Lotur
Ring of Feather Falling Jarri
Amulet of proof vs. ESP Ookla the Mok
Ring of Soul Trapping Tobias
The hoard of Ontussa:
A portable hole, 6' in diameter and 3' deep, which contains a built-in locked wooden box and features a higher-than-average intrinsic gravity field that extends 5' beyond the confines of the hole when opened, containing:
4,000 gp in the form of 40 ten-pound ingots
200 gp in the form of a 1/10th of a ton of silver (2,000 coins)
12,600 gp in the form of coins paid by the Grey Company over the course of asking 126 questions of Ontussa over the last three years
an ornate Stone Axe worth 150 gp
an electrum ring worth 300 gp
a heavy platinum chain worth 1,200 gp
Exp From Combat
2,400
Exp from Treasure
19,000 from Ashur Ram's personal jewelry + 18,450 from Ontussa's hoard = 37,450
Summary
Previously, two members of the Gray Company, Azimuth and Athena, managed to catch and rob a party of young nobles from Denethor's Lords of Tooth and Tail who had been visiting the floating colossus fortress to picnic on raw dwarf flesh. The story of that haul sparked a large group of the company to duplicate the adventure. They waited for the Ghost Colossus to descend to the city for passengers and then used the Ghost Tower's rocket function to fly up and crash the party.
This move was anticipated by Ashur Ram, who navigated the Colossus away from the rocket, cast wall of iron in an attempt to clobber the rocket, and finally polymorphed a henchman into an iron-colored white dragon to fight us. Tobias cast Deadly Magma Beams at it, setting it afire. The ship was piloted with the expert skill of Subex Azure, a member of the guild of spaceship pilots, and navigated using the quick calculations of Neisseria the Medusa. The two managed to swerve the ship around the plummeting iron wall and the dragon, ramming the spaceship into the open mouth of the Ghost Colossus.
Ganril Once Great valiantly opened the rear hatch to lead the assault on the ghost tower and was confronted with a dragon. The dragon's breath flash froze Ganril, Jarri's polar bear familiar, Xeno's henchman Gisum, and Tobias's charmed manticore Finley. This perfectly preserved them in their moment of death, although both Ganril's arms were snapped off by the blast. Suddenly surrounded by frozen corpses, the rest of the party watched in dismay as a wall of fire struck the front of the ship and bisecting the chamber in which the spaceship had landed.
Xeno used his scroll of polymorph other to change the dragon into a flounder - which promptly fell, drowning in air, thousands of feet to Denethix below. Neisseria swung from the ship into the skull-chamber of the Colossus to survey the scene and saw a crowd of young nobles and their troglodyte servants fleeing from the chamber. As the rest of the Company began to spread out and take grasp of the situation, the voice of Ashur Ram echoed through the chamber. He offered the party a deal: he would buy their spaceship for all the gold they could carry and a magic item for each of them, and drop them off at a destination of their choice in exchange for an end to the assault.
Meanwhile the teenaged nobles screamed and fled back into the central chamber, running away from something Asher Ram had summoned. Xeno dispelled the wall of fire and Neisseria encouraged the youngsters to flee to safety on our "floating party barge." At first they were frightened by a medusa, but Niceria and Jari quickly explained that they were the casino bouncers and convinced them to enter the ship. The rest of the Gray Company began to debate the merits of taking the bribe and selling the spaceship versus an all-out assault on a necromancer known to have wraiths as guardians. The debate was joined by the spaceship's Emergency Phantasmal Cleric (a cleric, played to perfection by Peter), who immediately asked, "Please state the nature of the clerical emergency."
After much wrangling and soul-searching - and an underwhelming list of items on offer from the necromancer - the party decided to risk it all on an assault on Ashur Ram. Xeno cast haste and we took positions but Ashur Ram was invisible and not detectable with ESP. Lotur the Scurrilous Cur leaping forward in Ontussa's honor and calling out the necromancer. It was Ookla the Mok who struck the first blow against our opponent: Ashur Ram had already summoned a wraith and only Ookla was stealthy enough (and invisible!) to sneak around to where we heard his voice. Ookla's swords swept through the air and forced the necromancer to give away his position. A second glass bubble dropped to the ground and a second wraith floated into combat.
Jarri the Pale ran forward to engage a wraith and was struck a violating blow that sapped his power. On the other side of the room Subex, Neisseria, Lotur, and Ookla were engaging Asher Ram, who managed to elude them and resist the gaze of the medusa, the 1,000 witcheries of spectre slaying, and a charm monster spell. He cast a spell - still invisible - and rose to the ceiling out of the grasp of the melee.
Jarri was again struck by the wraith, losing a second experience level. Then the Company caught two breaks. The Emergency Phantasmal Cleric
appealed to his god Holographia and managed to turn the two wraiths, sending them shrieking away through the dark door in the hull. Tobais used Phantasmal Forces to summon an illusion of his slain manticore, and sprayed the ceiling with spikes. Then Lotur used his ring of running to run up the walls and take a flying leap at where he thought the necromancer was. He connected and brought the levitating magic-user to ground. He then began throttling the wizard with his bare hands. There was a quick, bloody melee culminating in a solid blow by Jari which slew Ashur Ram.
In the aftermath the party stripped the body of many valuable magical treasures and a large bag of gems. Tobias used his new Ring of Soul Trapping to capture Ashur Ram's soul before he could be saved by his minions. Ganril was placed into one of the regenerating glass coffins, and revived, and his arms were regrown- however he became even more enfeebled by the experience. Everyone except for Subex used Tobias' gates to leave the ship, while Subex managed to land the ship/tower back in its dock - with some minor fluctuations in control, and a short detour through the slimosphere.
Many in the party went to visit Ontussa, where we were greeted with the sight of Ontussa free and grateful. She bestowed her joy upon Lotur the Scurrilous Cur, and bequeathed her treasure to the party.
The Grey Company is now left with the task of exploring the floating Ghost Colossus for the rest of Ashur Ram's treasures, and perhaps consolidating control of or allies within Denethor.
Ontussa contributes the following to the party, in gratitude for the slaying of Ashur Ram:
a portable hole, 6' in diameter and 3' deep, which contains a built-in locked wooden box and features a higher-than-average intrinsic gravity field that extends 5' beyond the confines of the hole when opened
4,000 gp in the form of 40 ten-pound ingots
200 gp in the form of a 1/10th of a ton of silver (2,000 coins)
12,600 gp in the form of coins paid by the Grey Company over the course of asking 126 questions of Ontussa over the last three years
an ornate Stone Axe worth 150 gp
an electrum ring worth 300 gp
a heavy platinum chain worth 1,200 gp
For those reading along at home, she is planning to keep the lion man, the Helm of Telepathy, and the sticky curtains for use in setting up a household with Lotur, but could be convinced to part with them for the right offer.
I believe that's 18,450gps total /8= 2306.25 per character. SWEET!
Helm of Telepathy = awesome, but I don't have the scratch to make a decent offer, I don't think (beyond 2k gold, that is.) And I should be more modest about my treasure hoarding desires to the senior members of the Gray Company who get first dibs!
2306.25 per character = still less than the 3,000 each that you spurned when Ashur Ram offered it in negotiation. Let this be a lesson to NPCs who try to deal with you in future, should they be observing by crystal ball!
I'm sorry, sir, but that was just the party's share of Ontussa's treasure offering. It's about double that with the Necromancer's gold! I just realized Ontussa also granted us the means of carting ridiculous amounts of treasure around. Her existing portable hole system is genius!
I had a great time, guys. Thanks for the warm welcome. I hope to join in future sessions, family allowing.
And for the record, my second incarnation was "The Cleric," aka EPC*, pka** ECH†.
*Emergency Phantasmal Cleric
** Possibly Known As
†Emergency Cleric Hologram
Peter - was great to meet you. Sorry I got the name of the EPC incorrect in the session summary, I will fix that…
Looking forward to seeing Ganril again at the table.
The ECH is a mother box! Had a great time with you, Peter!
"Artistic" rendition of the colossus docking procedure
I would like to congratulate this PeterTierney fellow on the grounds that his characters are awesome.
Thanks!
Long ago, I learned to embrace failure - and Ganril is so very fail when it comes to the numbers. But he's got the most epic sword EVAR. So immediately the fiction was springing to life before my and Tavis' eyes.
And the EPC was inspired by Jed as we figured out how in the world a brand new character could just appear in the middle of this spaceship we were in. Star Trek: Voyager to the rescue!