Games are on Thursday nights sometime after 6:30PM at World's Best Comics, 9714 Warwick Blvd Newport News, Virginia 23601.

We had an extra large chicken and garlic pizza.

Map attached. Includes prior sessions on this level.

PART 1.

++++ START OF SESSION ++++

The party was still faced with the trapped passageway. Was it a one time trap? Was it reset only to strike again?

Grok found out the hard way.

Aerys tested out the passageway first, going through the first door with seeming ease. She of course said the password before going through. She passed through the second door as well, making the motions of shoveling shit down a grate. Closing the doors, she came back to report there was a cavern on the other side.

Apparently the Players didn't notice Aerys speak the password to the first door nor the somatic component of the second, as Grok took the lead and went through the first door. Just as he opened the second door, he found himself in the same mini-Tholian web of a Forcecage as the former goblin. One minute later a Horn Fiend "gated" in.

(Actually it is called a Sentinel Devil, and it is found two pages earlier than a Horned Devil in the same manual. The verbal reference caused some minor confusion amongst the Players who for awhile thought it was the latter, although I should have docked them Honor points for looking in the manuals. Also I said "gated" because this became before the Players Rules-Law Bar later.)

The Devil started to make mincemeat out of Grok and our Dwarf was down due to a failed Threshold of Pain Check. So, if only to attract its attention, the party shot arrows at it through the while Gnomex cast a Heal spell on Grok from a distance.

Aerys was apparently forgetful, and finally said the password to undo the Forcecage trap.

So the party was now locked into Combat with this Devil. Among the actions this "gated" Devil was to successfully summon another Hell Sentinel (at 35% chance) in the middle of the Party. So they had to fight two Devils. What got me into rules trouble were that I tried to get the secondary Devil to summon another Hell Sentinel and the Players objected, saying a summoned Devil cannot summon another. OK fine, I agreed, but the gated one could. Eventually the fought three Sentinel Devils.

(Aside from being shown the rule that says I couldn't do that, and strangely enough I can't find that rule again, apparently it explained to me that it Chained Summoning is against the rules. Otherwise the entire fantasy world would be suddenly overpopulated by Demons and Devils. Although it occurs to me that's exactly what the Devils would want, but with deference to Terry Brooks' Shannara chronicles as though is its darned magical tree existed, I'll concede this point. But I'll hold that doesn't apply to gated monsters since they have free will. So if the manual states a Demon or Devil can "gate" another as opposed to "summoning one", I'll keep trying.)

Another item we determined did not happen but I have to include it here because it was so funny. I forgot that Grok had been healed and he should have been ambulatory. But I kept him down due to the Threshold of Pain failure. Since Grok was behind the first Devil and the door was still open I gradually moved his figure through the door every round as though it were being pulled by an persons unknown. I told Grok's Player he could hear voices in the dark, saying "... fiend, fiend, Fiend, FIEND, .... I gave him the impression he was about to be murdered and sacrificed. The Players got into into it, at one point the Players gave a group cadence of "Ziggy, Zaggy, Ziggy, Zaggy, oy, Oy OY!"

Meanwhile the Devils in the previous battle had been defeated, so Grok's personal reckoning with his newfound captors was not to be. Although I did maintain Grok entered the next chamber, whether his own free will or dragged, was immaterial. (I was not going to replay the battle with Grok in the rear.)

As the party entered the next chamber they found him with two dozen other malnourished Dwarfs (note I'm using the proper plural here). They effectively wanted to give him to the Big Devil in the back, since they had an "arrangement" that only one of their number would be "eaten" per month for continued existence and the monthly date was about due.

(This is a departure from the module story. I couldn't fathom how two dozen Dwarfs could survive in this chamber for years without food, water or, an unblocked printed exit on the map except they made a deal with the other occupant. It was easier to create this fabrication and just say there must have been more Dwarfs before, if asked.)

In any case, the other Dwarfs have now been freed, presuming Aerys makes continued rituals every time they pass through the two doors. And the Party (including the two dozen new Dwarfs), espying two large glowing eyes in the distance staring at them from about 120 feet away, all headed back to the previous chamber.


++++ OUT OF CHEESE ERROR ++++

BT







BBBB

PART 2.

++++ CHARACTER ROSTER ++++

CHARACTERS
Grok the Dwarf, a third level WitchRanger (Battlemage subclass of Magic User).
Aerys, an Elvariel, a Fingersmith (Thief class).
Baronet Huang - a Master of the West Wind of the Stone Tiger Order, (Monk class).
Numrendir - a human Conjurist (a Conjuror, Magic User subclass)
Junkbot Jackson - a human Tracker/Friar (a Ranger 5th and Cleric 6th level).

NPCs/Proteges:
Baronetess Honda - a Human Datai Samurai, Steward of Catan (formerly Temple of the Frog)
Gnomex, a Gnome Adept of Geardal Ironhand (Cleric class.)
Tanzen - a Fae-Born first level Exciter. (Fourth level Invoker, a Magic User subclass).
Fundisha - a half-Elf Swordsperson/Tout (Fighter and Infiltrator, a Thief subclass).

CAPTURED CHARACTERS (both PCs and NPCs)
Gerry Castagere, human Fingersmith, (Thief class) and ever loving devotee of Elefus, abandoned to the Blood Cult in the City of Brass on the Plane of Fire.

MISSING/OFFLINE/RETIRED CHARACTERS
Count Elefus, a human Abbot of Heimdall (Cleric class). RETIRED
Felipe the Dwarf, a third level Sigil (Chosen One subclass of Cleric).
Jacko, an Albino Dork Elf, a Master Espion (Infiltrator, subclass of Thief).
Serena 2.0 - First Level Battle Mage Second (a Protege of Jacko).
Sir Weasel, human Guild Soldier, Warlock, & Champion (Thief, Magic User, & Fighter classes) he stayed back in BlackMoor.
- and nine Pilgrim henchmen of various levels. (They wear hoodies.)
Slade Wilson - Dwarven Professional (a Bounty Hunter, Fighter subclass) Left behind at Catan.

BT







BBBB

++++ RECORD KEEPING ++++

PART 3.

This is also posted on three forums, and a blog.
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