This week we had Chinese food. One City Beef, one City Chicken, and one City Shrimp. (South Park pronunciation applies.)

Games are on Tuesdays sometime after 5PM at World's Best Comics, 9714 Warwick Blvd Newport News, Virginia 23601. For purposes of this message, that means 9 December, 2014.

++++ START OF SESSION ++++

The previous HackMaster session we left the party outside a steel door where the corridor turned North. (Minor correction, it was an IRON door.) Moreover, starting with Elefus, and then to the rest, they had a feeling of evil emanating into the Hallway from the doors. To verify this Kmaregh got on his Broom of Flying to check out the hallway and got the same indication from two more doors before the corridor turned again.

Upon his return they all decided to go back and hole out in one of the safer cleared out rooms. They also determined it was an hour before midnight and the party was low on spells. In the finest HackMaster tradition, they simply waited for Midnight for the priest character to refresh his spells. The Magic Users had spent all their low level combat spells and spent a couple hours memorizing those. Then they all took an 8 hour rest and woke up around 9AM.

The party decided to forego exploring the remaining rooms and went to the stainless steel doors and used their assembled KEY parts. The doors parted and slid open easily, revealing an empty room with eight heavily padded chairs and 3 other possible sliding doors (which mapped out to the other possible entrances the party had been to). Kmaregh not wanting to set off any traps, decided to fly in on his Broom again and check it out. Meanwhile Numrendir walked in anyway.

After that slightly embarrassing moment, the rest of the party blundered in. Having 9 party members and eight reclined padded chairs, everyone took a seat but Numrendir and Slim, who was having a moment of indecision.

Suddenly the doors slammed shut and those who were not in chairs were slammed to the floor. Party Members not sitting were slammed to the floor and took nine hit points each. After a short while the pressure stopped and the party were staring at a new ten foot diameter opening in the ceiling. Kmaregh once again decided to ride his Quidditch stick topside to see what was up.

He found himself is a fog with visibility of ten feet in either direction. There rest of the party were ferried up by everyone who could fly. (Weasel, Elefus, & Kmaregh.)

Kmaregh decided to scout about by having a fifty foot rope tied to himself while being held in check by one of the party members. He had flown about one quarter the way around a circle before being attacked from above by a Hieracosphinx, the male form of sphinx who are perpetually frustrated in their search for Gynosphinxes. Kmaregh was hit and grabbed for many points but fortunately one short of a mandatory Threshhold of Pain Check. Kmaregh decided to talk to it, declaring there were fatter and tastier prey down below and pointed.

The creature must have understood as he let Kmaregh go and dove down below to be destroyed by the rest of the Party, Elefus landing the killing blow.

Kmaregh, completing his circuit found an iron spiral staircase going up. Huang went up first accompanied by Kmaregh on his trusty broom. At this point I played a card on Kmaregh's character, giving him the Wuss of Heart flaw for one day. Meaning Kmaregh wasn't volunteering for awhile. In fact he'll be bringing up the rear if at all possible.

At the top they Huang was attacked by a roosting trio of Pteranodons and no, unlike the last time encountered, they weren't "Dinosaur Train" ticket holders. Huang killed the first one, the second was killed by an unknown party member as it swooped down below (I'm sure they'll tell me who it was next Tuesday), while the third was also killed by Huang.

Arriving at the top they found themselves still indoors but within a forest clearing. The trees extended to the top of a dimly glowing ceiling thirty feet up. The underbrush was so thick that it clearly indicated they were in a forest maze with a singular path ahead.

Arriving at the first fork in the path they were attacked by a trio of Poison Monkeys. The first Monkey fumbled and killed itself, while the second and third struck Krazzek and Slim who failed their poison saving throws and died.

Slim and Krazzek were thus spanked by monkeys.

Meanwhile the non-combatant Players in the room sang the "Baby Monkey" song.

While the Monkeys were otherwise dispatched by the rest of the party, the two immediate party deaths posed a dilemma for Elefus. While he could raise both from the dead with spells, a clause in the rules mandates he must also cast Neutralize Poison, for which he only had one spell (and also only cures one victim). Since Krazzek was a Player Character and Slim was only a Sidekick, Elefus chose Krazzek.

(Since Krazzek's Player has been absent, we hope he appreciates the gesture. Additionally, his character qualified for forced raising up to level 3, congratulations! P.S. We also made the appropriate die rolls.)

The party continued on down the path carrying Slim's body and Krazzek the whole way.

Note to party members, I read up on the Raise Dead spell, seems the recipient when raised gets only one hit point and must rest an entire day per day of being dead or fraction thereof. Therefore Krazzek must be carried also. So any action taken by or on Krazzek will be voided for this session. In other words, he is immune from attacks but can't make any either until next week.

The party followed the path to a dead end, where they were attacked by another simian like Su-Monster which was easily defeated with the killing blow landed by Honda.

Turning back to another fork they passed along the way, they came to a path that was more dimly lit due to the overhanging branches, when all of a sudden it became pitch black.

Huang, Honda, and Weasel were in the the lead when they were attacked by four Nefarian Shadow Demons. Two were on Huang, one were on Honda and Weasel each. Kmaregh made a hasty retreat back down another path while Elefus, Special Ed and Numrendir could not see due to the darkness so they also retreated.

Note: Nefarian Shadow Demons are always pissed off, as they are a regular demon trapped in their own shadow and are not at all happy about it. Once per day they cast Darkness and Fear in a ten foot radius, and once a week cast Magic Jar a victim. Having no other container for the Magic Jar, this means the Victim is then trapped inside the Shadow (which becomes the container), while the Demon trades places with the victim.

What this means, during the attack, is that some of the Shadow Demons were successful. Huang was trapped first, then Honda. The one on Weasel failed and the other one on Honda went looking for a different victim, and landed on Krazzek. But since I made him immune (above), I'll have to save the Demon's Magic Jar attack for next session.

Returning to Huang & Honda, since they became freshly minted Shadow Demons, I judged they had one chance to reverse the process. Honda succeeded and returned to her own state, Huang failed. Meaning he is stranded as a Shadow Demon for a week until he can attack his possessed body again, or a new victim.

Huang's possessed body made an attack on Weasel (I think.)

At this point we took a photo of our miniature's tactical situation and called it a night.


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

BT






BBBB

++++ CHARACTER ROSTER ++++

PLAYERS

Count Elefus, Human Male Deacon
Sir Weasel, Human Guild Soldier, Enchanter, & Myrmidon
Sir Kmaregh Dismal, Human Evoker
Sir Huang - Human Monk Sub-Master
Dame Honda - Human Samurai Bushi
Numrendir - Human Coercer
Krazzek Thunderkeg - Dwarf Tracker (temporarily incapacitated)

NPCs:

Slim, an Elf Presdigitator/Apprentice. (deceased)
Special Ed - A Human Risk Mage

MISSING CHARACTERS (captured)
Junkbot Jackson - Tracker/Adept
Gerry Castagere, Human Fingersmith, and ever loving devotee of Elefus
Fundisha - Half-Elf Swordsperson

"Spanked by monkeys"...what a tragic fate! :D

-Havard