Dark Paths 22

Dark Paths of Riddleport
Session 22
January 6, 2013

Really Took the Legs Out From Under That One

Map Tool Chat Log

Session Summary

"The party is making its way through a narrow, rocky cavern underneath the city of Riddleport, after discovering a room filled with pretty, glowing crystals, Aragon noticed someone moving in the next cavern, going to investigate led to encountering a strange, ugly creature growling at them..."

The party quickly enters combat with this strange, hunched over, four legged creature. After growling, the grotesque monster emits what sounds like incredible flatulence and fills the corridor with a thick, stinking yellow haze. It nauseates Bodi and Guy but Aethel quickly

Hold your breath!

moves in and uses a magical gust of wind to push the stench cloud away. Another one of the creatures appears and lets out an ear splitting scream which startles Aethel so much he just stands there, stunned.

As the party battles with the two demon creatures, a crossbow bolt comes flying up the passage from the next chamber, nearly striking Aragon in the face. Aragon charges into the next room and spies a dark skinned Elf woman with bright white hair. A shudder flows through his body as he looks upon a live Drow, thought to only exist in the stories that Elf parents told their children to encourage them to be good.

Guy pulls off a great shot and hits one of the demon's eyes, causing it to fall over and disintegrate into a pile of ash. The other demon immediately turns and runs back into the room it came from. Meanwhile, Aragon is engulfed in inky blackness, obvious magic caused by the evil Drow. He assumes an aggressive stance and uses his heightened senses to attempt to detect the presence of his enemy though he cannot see her.

The Drow manages to stab Aragon as she passes him in the darkness and he tries to follow

The Drow!

but ends up coming up out of the darkness near a strange, smooth pillar of stone that runs from the floor to the ceiling. The rest of the group press into the chamber and use magical light rings to dispel the magical darkness. Bodi continues pressing the attack against the demon creature while everyone else attempts to stop the Drow, who is making toward a ladder leading up at the far end of the room. She deftly dodges and deflects several attacks at her and then proceeds to run directly up the stone wall next to the ladder and through the hole in the ceiling.

Undaunted by her grace, balance or speed, Aragon pursues at full speed, using his acrobatics training to tic-tac off the walls and leap up, swinging both Katanas at her as she disappears through her escape route. His aim couldn't have been better and his timing could not have been more perfect. His twin swords bit into each of her legs, severing them. As he hopped back to the ground, covered in blood, the Drow and her legs fell, thudding on the floor at the base of the ladder.

With the Drow defeated, the remaining demonic creature puffs its face, up, holds its breath for a moment, then disappears in a cloud of burning smoke.

Continuing Story Doc

Continuing Story Summary

Everyone just stood there, looking at the motionless body of the legless, unconscious Drow woman. Drow were the things of bed time stories and scary campfire tales, not real, living things. But here one was. Aragon and Aethel conversed briefly in Elvish, expressing their fear and disbelief and whether their new ally, Kwava, knew he was tracking a Drow.

After the excitement of the battle died down, Bodi and Snargash, both long time residents of Riddleport, realize what the strange stone formation is that runs from floor to ceiling. "Cyphergate!" they both exclaim at the same time. 

Session Notes

This session marked the 2nd 'Level UP!" bonus for the characters. After this session, each character got a specially selected package worth [10] CP.

Three of the characters received the following package:

  +1 Will [5]
  +1 FP [3]
  Special Exercises: FP can exceed HT by 100% [1]
  Teamwork [1]

while Snargash and Aethel both received the following package:

  Combat Awareness [5]
  +1 FP [3]
  Special Exercises: FP can exceed HT by 100% [1]
  Teamwork [1]

These two characters got this package with the new made up advantage, Combat Awareness, because I wanted to give the characters Combat Reflexes but knew that it wasn't in the development plan for either of them. So I took Combat Reflexes and broke it down into some component parts, 3 advantages of [5] points each. Combat Awareness is the first component of Combat Reflexes and consists of the following:

  Combat Awareness - You never “freeze” in a surprise situation, and get +6 on 
  all IQ rolls to wake up, or to recover from surprise or mental “stun.” You get 
  +1 on initiative rolls. (Leveled part of Combat Reflexes 1/3)

When the characters reach the next Level UP! bonus, these two will gain the 2nd part of Combat Reflexes that I've named Combat Quickness, and then upon the following Level UP!, they will gain full Combat Reflexes. Of course, if they want to purchase the next component or full Combat Reflexes with their normal, unspent character points, they are more than welcome to, and in that case, they will just receive the normal Level UP! bonus like everyone else.

Cast of Characters: 

Aethelarian "Aethel" Flitterseed - Noble Elf wizard played by +Daniel White 
Aragon Whisperwind - Elven Bladedancer played by +Arne Jamtgaard 
Bodil "Bodi" Jantzen - suave and smooth swordsman played by +Mike Biancone 
Guy Greystone - Gnome telekinetic played by +Gren Drake 
Snargash Windblown - Half-Orc monk played by +Amergin O'Kai 
and +Jason Woollard as the DM