Dark Paths of Riddleport
Session 39
November 24, 2013
Assault on the Library
Session Summary
The Elf leaders gather their troops, give them a brief pep talk then send them out into the forest to war. After a short trek through the woods, the Crew has arrived at their chosen spot, the ancient Elvish Library.
With Sairalindë leading them and her companion Findecano watching over them from a strategic vangate point nearby, the Crew approaches the Library. In no time, the Drow reveal themselves, perched on the flat roof of the library, nestled between the two high domes of the library's north and south ends.
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| Battles rage on the ground and on the roof! |
Snargash signals to Aragon that he is going to give him a helping hand up to the roof by charging in and crouching down. Aragon rushes up and launches himself from the Half-Orc's back, flipping gracefully before landing on the roof in front of the startled and reloading Drow. Bodi follows Aragon, though he takes the slower 'climbing the wall' route. Aethel, Guy and Paal approach more slowly, using their ranged attacks to keep the Drow busy.
Spheres of inky blackness begin appearing around the battlefield, momentarily blinding the Crew until Sairalindë is able to dispel them with her magic. A Drow captain wearing plate armor from head to toe and wielding a nasty looking flail leaps down and engages Snargash. The skilled Drow nearly gets the best of the Half-Orc monk but helpful distractions like lightning bolts and handfuls of psionically projected rocks keep him occupied whlie Sairalindë sneaks up behind hm and stabs him through the chinks in his armor.
Back up on the roof, Aragon and Bodi make quick work of the skirmishers and then begin to pursue two fleeing Drow, only to find that they have slipped around the raised dome roof and through a hidden entrance to the library.
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| The Library is an important strategic location. |
Continuing Story Summary
Paal, Guy and Aethel provided ranged fire while Snargash and Sairalindë engaged the Drow on the ground. Aragon and Bodi had moved to the flat part of the library’s roof and engaged the Drow shooting crossbows there. After just a few moments, the Drow had been neutralized or run off. Aragon and Bodi pursued the two fleeing Drow across the roof. They managed to disappear behind the rounded top of the southern end of the library. As Aragon blindly charged around the corner, he saw a dark hole leading to the interior of the library and the Drow were nowhere to be seen.
Bodi halts in his tracks as Aragon looks around the corner. Bodi steps back to the wall and recovers his thrown knife. He then produces his elven rope and lowers it down the side to see if he can assist his companions to climb up to the roof level.
He contemplates them taking 2 approaches to the Library, suggesting that the elves keep some archers around to cover the doors incase any Drow try to escape through that direction.
Aragon swears as he sees no Drow. Then his eyes light on the dark hole, and without breaking stride, jumps in!
Aethel curses to himself as Aragon just brazenly walks into the dark opening. He digs into a pocket, and tosses a continual light stone into the opening past Aragon. “At least lead with some light!” Aethel moves to follow thereafter.
Aragon leaps down through the opening the Drow went through. He quickly finds a small landing and a narrow tunnel leading down into the inky blackness of the library. He quickly feels some footholds carved out of the tunnel’s walls, but he forgoes them and just hops into the narrow space, hoping that it isn’t too deep. As he lands at the bottom, presumably the ground floor of the library he finds himself in complete darkness. Before he could even blink his eyes, he hears Aethel’s muffled voice from above then suddenly the room is filled with bright light as one of the magical stones comes dropping down into the room.
The room is covered in spiderwebs and Aragon’s skin crawls as he sees handfuls of the little crawling beasts scurrying away from the bright light. To his right, a door slams, giving some clue as to the direction his quarry went. As he begins to move toward the door, he spots 2 large shadows moving in the deepest areas of webbing, one across the room to the left and one just to his right near the door where the Drow went A second later they are revealed as giant dog sized spiders!
Up above, Aethel peers down into the hole that Aragon went into but cannot see much due to the fact that a landing lays directly below then continues down off to one side, cutting off view. He can see that his continual light rock is illuminating the area though.
As the rope comes down the side of the building the monk calls up, “All clear top-side Mr. Bodi? Any injuries?” Bowing briefly to Saera he says, “Thank you Ma’am. We should do it again sometime. Oh. . , say. . , in another 5 minutes or so?” and walks toward the rope, thrusting his thunderstaff through the belt of his harness across the small of his back. He calls up, “On the way!” and commences his ascent.
Bodi calls down that no one is seriously hurt on the roof. He then grunts as Snargash begins to climb the rope. He stumbles a bit, but with Bodi’s help from above and Sairalindë’s help from below, Snargash makes it up. The Elf woman looks at Paal and Guy with a look of ‘what next?
Taking a deep breath, Aragon steps and slashes quickly at the nearest spider. He shudders - nasty beasts! The nimble arachnid skitters out of the way, then pounces back at Aragon, mandibles flashing! Fortunately, the fangs find little purchase on Aragon’s armor. He backpedals and attacks again! He tries to distract the creature with Nadir while Zenith crashes down for the kill! The blade misses again, and BOTH spiders move in for the kill. Aethel is mistaken if he thinks he hears a shriek as Aragon jumps back and drives both blades down into the pile of creepy crawlies.
Nadir slices the top spider in half, and the second scurries away from him. “There are spiders down here!’ he calls. “Big ones!” He crosses the room, avoiding the cobwebs as much as he can. “The fiends went to the right! Come on! They’re getting away!” He charges to the doors on the right, jumps into the air, and kicks them with both feet!
As the doors burst open from Aragon’s kick, the light from the glowing stone fills the room. The center of this vast oval chamber is dominated by a number of tall stone bookcases coated in dust and cobwebs. Some of these shelves lean ominously to one side, their age clearly showing. Scattered about the floor of the chamber are thousands of crumbling tomes, most holding little more than scraps and dust, their knowledge forever lost. Two Drow, leaning around the far end of the center shelves point and fire their crossbows at Aragon while a third shoots at him from the left, also taking cover behind some shelves.
Aragon drops flat and the three bolts fly over his head. Using his momentum, he leaps to his feet. The drow duck behind cover to reload, so he quickly makes a call and heads off to his left, hoping to kill the one there and use the shelves as cover.
Atop the Library Bodi assists Snargash to the rooftop level. He then looks down at the others and calls out to them. “Aragon went inside to pursue our quarry. I wish we had some back up support to cover the doors in case we chase the drow out of this thing, but I think it best if we keep moving before they have time to regroup!”
Bodi waits a few moments to help Snargash climb up and sees that Paal, Guy and Sairalindë are going for the main doors afterall. He then heads off following Aethel to the opening where Aragon lept into the fray. Bodi looks to see what is below before he lands. If a spider is below him, he may just jump on top of the thing with his rapier, otherwise he will look to keep pace with Aragon as he chases down the drow.
Cursing at his friend’s impetus, Bodi mutters under his breath, “Dammit Aragon, I have a wager on this and I have drow to kill!”
Bodi tells Snargash to follow him into the depths and that there are hand and foot holds carved into the wall for them to descend.
Bodi leaps down, using his acrobatic skills to make a quick landing and skitters around the fleeing arachnids as he follows Aragon through the next set of doors. He looks around at the immediate area looking for any threats. He makes sure that the others get down and sees Aethel ready with more of his light magic. “A lightning bolt would be quite interesting around here” Bodi mused to his wizardly friend.
Aragon steps into the chamber and puts on a burst of speed, hoping to slay him before he can shoot again! He slams his shoulder against the end of the bookcase and whips both blades from left to right.
The Drow retreats back down the aisle away from Aragon’s flashing blades, managing to avoid one of them but then stepping right into the way of the other. The Drow staggers back from the blow and draws his blade, a finely crafted shortsword, taking a moment to ready it.
The quick ‘yelp’ of surprise and thwack of crossbow bolts slamming into the doors clues Bodi that there is resistance in the next chamber. He starts to make his way off that direction to where he thought he heard Aragon move. Cloak coiled in his left hand and throwing knife in his right, Bodi charges through the doors as the drow should be reloading.
The half-orc saunters into the room after him, arms wide, and the room echoes with his booming voice singing extemporaneously, “Such cute little toy crossbows you tiny people have. You really should just suck on them and get it over with! Your captain’s remains await you outside. . .”
As Bodi and Snargash enter the dimly lit chamber, they realize that the Drow have had just enough time to reload their crossbows as they lean around the edge of the stone shelves and fire, both aiming at Bodi, who is in the lead. Both bolts fly directly at Bodi’s neck!
“Well that was bad timing!”, Bodi yells as he tries to somersault out of the way of the incoming crossbow bolts.
Pressing his attack, Aragon tries to slay the Drow before he can recover. He makes a downward swing to distract the foul foe, followed by a slash at his leg!
The Drow gives ground and attempts to parry but is thrown off by Aragon’s feint and Nadir cuts deeply into the Drow’s leg, sending him hard to the ground.
Bodi drops and pops back up on his feet as both crossbow bolts sail past where he was standing. As he pops back up from his tumble, he hurls a throwing knife at the drow warrior to his right.
Bodi’s throwing knife goes just wide of the Drow, clanging against the far stone wall behind him.
Meanwhile, several aisles over, as Aragon’s foe goes down and he contemplates leaping up to the top of the stacks, he catches a movement out of the corner of his eye as another Drow Captain comes from around the next shelf, swinging her morningstar directly at the back of his head!
Aragon ducks and rolls forward out of the way of the vicious attack! Turning, he smiles. Someone to go toe-to-toe with! Nadir flicks out at the Drow’s weapon hand, while Zenith makes a show at a leg. “Was that your friend outside? Killed him with one blow. Hopefully, you’ll last a bit longer…”
Aragon’s Drow opponent says something to him that sounds vaguely Elvish, but he cannot understand any of the words, though he thinks he catches something akin to feces and baby pig… She leans forward and crosses her buckler across her body, easily blocking the strike against her weapon hand and spits at him. She leans back, steps forward and quickly whips the morningstar back at Aragon’s face!
Panning his eyes across the room the monk assesses the threat quickly and steps forward, angling slightly to his left. As he does so he singles out the lone drow a few yards in front of him, pointing his finger straight at him, then turning his hand over and beckoning with that finger while drawing his staff back out of his harness with his other hand. He looks at the unengaged skirmisher with the expression of someone having to clean up something distasteful, singing sweetly, “So come and get some of my ugly stick, little boy!”
The 2 Drow in front of Bodi and Snargash duck back behind the shelves as they bring their crossbows up to reload. Normally it should take a few seconds to reload such a weapon, but it appears that these Drow have mastered the skill of quick loading!
As the archers drop back to reload, the monk sidesteps along the wall following his quarry. Looking down the first aisle, he waggles a finger at the Drow admonishing, “No, no, no. . . You can’t run away that easily!”
Paal tries to force his way through the ground floor door and provide a complementary angle of fire.
Aragon backflips away from the Drow’s swing with a laugh, then brings Zenith and Nadir back across the Drow in two powerful slashes. “I’m not sure you can keep up with me in that tin can - let’s see if we slice you out of that suit!”
The Drow confidently ignores Aragon’s feint and raises her shield to intercept Zenith, but Nadir hits the edge of the buckler and nearly cleaves it in half, forcing it out of the way. Zenith bites deeply into the torso, penetrating the Drows plate armor. The heavily armored warrior’s eyes widen and she steps back, taking a defensive position.
Approaching from the side, Snargash watches Aragon dancing with his dark opponent. The Half Orc slows and begins playing a familiar tune.
Pressing his advantage, Aragon slashes at her weapon hand while his tries to lead her weapon off-line with a feint. She easily avoids his attack, but knowing she still is at a disadvantage she falls back on her foul Drow magics in a vain attempt to thwart the Bladedancer. A field of darkness envelops him and his foe. Dropping himself into Cat’s Whiskers, he smiles and confidently brings both blades across from left-to-right intending to sever her weapon arm.
Surprising his foe who thought she had the advantage in the dark, Aragon strikes out at her, defeating her defenses and nearly severing her weapon arm. He hears her heavy weapon fall to the floor and prepares himself for some other attack, but it does not come.
In the darkness, Snargash finished playing his song, but can no longer see Aragon.
The monk frowns slightly and casts the spell on himself, before reaching for the the Dark Vision Stone stowed conveniently in one of the pouches of his harness. He speaks softly, “One moment Mr. Aragon and I’ll play a second verse.”
Meanwhile, back at the front doors of the library, Paal, Guy and Sairalindë make their way inside. It takes several moments as the doors are barred from the inside, but some magic from Sairalindë and a stout shoulder from Paal get the doors open. They enter a round chamber that is covered with thick spider webs. The center of the room appears to be mostly unobstructed as to the doorways leading to the right and left. None of their companions can be seen anywhere around, though four large shadows scurry out revealing themselves to be giant spiders nearly the size of large dogs!
Bodi saw that his attacker was reloading his crossbow quickly, so lunged into action. Starting off at a run and attempting to fast-draw his rapier in the process, Bodi was looking to perform a flèche type of fencing attack. He runs and draws his rapier out and holds it out straight as he charges in and attempts a thrusting attack with his arm fully extended.
Though Bodi’s aim is true, the Drow manages to step back, dodging the blow while continuing to load his crossbow. With the bolt in finally in place, the Drow continues stepping back into the darker shadows of the library, raises the weapon to point at Bodi’s face and fires! The tiny projectile flies directly at Bodi, sure to hit unless he does something! As he contemplates his action, he feels a sharp pain on the side of his neck and sees blood splatter from the wound. He realizes that he forgot the other Drow on the other side of the stacks behind him! He feels faint as he realizes that the wound is fairly serious. As the other bolt speeds toward him, he feels fire in his veins as the Drow poison quickly attacks his nervous system, pulling him to the ground, unconscious. Fortunately, though he does not know it, the remaining bolt flies past him, no longer on mark since he is now prone.
Hearing the crossbows and a collapsing body, he snarls as his fingers slip on the stone, forcing him to waste another precious moment digging it out of the pouch.
Snargash realizes that he dropped the Dark Vision Stone not back in the pouch, but on the floor. He quickly drops to the ground to find the valuable magical item. Aragon keeps his blades at the ready, listening quietly for his foe, but he cannot sense her. Meanwhile, Aethel moves into the room and sends bolts of lightning at the two remaining Drow skirmishers, finishing them off. After a tense moment, the Drow’s magical darkness fades and Aragon sees his foe, laying motionless and bleeding on top of one of the stone bookcases.
“There it is!” exclaims Snargash as he finds the magical gemstone, putting it back into his pouch before moving to examine the injured Bodi.
Back in the entry chamber, Paal, Guy and Sairalindë either kill or drive off the giant spiders. They open the doors to their left where they hear loud bursts of lightning, hoping to find their companions. Another set of doors remains to the right of the main entrance to explore.
Session Notes
This was our first full session of Roll20. It was a tiny bit slower than MapTool but I think that with some practice it will get easier and easier. I like the Roll20 interface, though I keep wanting it to behave like MapTool. I will get used to it eventually! Overall, it was good and I think that everyone is ok with moving!
