Actual Play: DF Jade Regent – The Pit of Frozen Guys

We follow that pathway until another surface, which clearly had to be a secret door as well. We found it, and saw a spiraling slide down into a large pit, 60′ below us.

I had a point unspent, and so I asked if I could spend it on Acrobatics, and slide around the spiral ramp on my shield. +Nathan Joy said yes. I made it most of the way around, slammed into a wall (1d-3 to my pride), then made it around the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, the more sane of us used the gear we brought: pitons and 700-lb. test rope, to scale down into the pit.

Each little cloud is an air spirit. Crap.

We saw lots of bones, lots of runes with the symbol of Sihhud, Demon Lord of blizzards and the frozen dead. We knew it was a trap, expected a trap, and a trap it was. The old guy (Tunuak), five or six hunters, and at least twelve air spirits popped up. Game on.

First valid action was +Mark Langsdorf ‘s Mystic Knight Shiba launching an exploding shrapnel arrow at one of the bad guys, which did about 2 points of damage to a whole bunch of air spirits (max), killed one hunter with three shrapnel hits and 26 cut damage. Cadmus slices at the torso of one, does 12 cut, and he seems fine, coming back to a guard stance.

Hmm. Cadmus smells demon on this one. The vertical eye slits do give it away. That probably means they’re amenable to Smite. 2d burn goes a long way, and if the air spirits are demony as well, that works.

For the bad guys first action, Tunuak casts a nasty fog spell, which obscures our vision past 2 yards. Icky.

Then, lots of spirits attack, with blows that go right through our parries, striking for 1d+3 (2) pi damage (we can read this right off of MapTool, which is a bit metagame. Still.) Staver eats 9 pi damage, while Cadmus takes only 1 HP through his DR 11 armor. That (2) works both ways.

Staver steps up and quick-shoots two arrows at some air spirit that must be visible to him. He hits with both despite the shock penalties. Both arrows are torn from their path by gale-force winds. Thumvar flies around to thee dge of the altar of bones at the bottom of the map. Shiba takes a swipe at a diffuse spirit, hitting but hey, diffuse. This brings him in visible range of Cadmus, who does a General Prayer to Pharasma for some assistance, but apparently the fates are not kind today. He does step close to Shiba, so they can go back-to-back.

We get attacked a lot by wind spirits, and Staver goes unconscious. Shiba takes a minor hit as well. Thumvar then tosses alchemists fire on the Evil Altar of Bones, which will burn merrily at 1d per second for a while. Cadmus, being reduced to pretty much mundane attacks, tries a shield bash and crit fails, spending a destiny point to not suck.

As the flames consume the altar, the spirits all flail around, flames licking all over them. Perhaps things are looking a bit less grim?

Maybe, maybe not. Our sorcerous friend disappears again (he used Body of Air last time, too), while a few of the hunters step up and attack our flanks – unsuccessfully thanks to shieldwork. The difficult terrain makes retreating impossible, though, so using retreats to reposition is not viable.

The alchemist’s fire continues to burn, and one Air Spirit vanishes from the map in front of Cadmus. Not sure if that’s dead or moved, but I’m not sorry either way.

Thumvar attacks the Hunter within reach, pulling one of his trademark Dual-Weapon Attacks, from the flank, also a Deceptive Attack. Bastard manages to block one, parry the other, despite eating -4 in penalteis. Was close, though.

Shiba does a telegraphed rapid strike for two solid hits and destroys an air spirit, and Cadmus invokes smite and goes up like a candle, taking 12 burn and dying.

Our inability to dissipate the fog is proving a real liability. For a DF party, we have some gaping holes we need to fill. This isn’t the first time we’ve been menaced by diffuse types.

Shiba’s turn comes, he casts Purify Air, nullifying the fog next to him, and Cadmus steps next to him, invoking Smite despite that he can’t see anything. He has guessed right, and a Hunter bursts into a pillar of fire and collapses. This formation crap actually works.

There’s an inarticulate scream of rage, a thunderclap, and then hunters drop like flies, collapsing.

Cadmus goes around doing Final Rest on every bone in sight, while Shiba pours major healing potions on Staver one at a time until he recovers. Staver’s down to -4 HP, but it takes both potions and only restores him to 4 HP. Cadmus tries Lay on Hands on the Infernal anyway:

Cadmus: says a prayer for Staver anyway, touching him lightly. Couldn’t hurt, and we’ll see if he’s been good this year

* Staver groggily opens one jaundiced eye to
blink at Shibas worried face.

GM:	Staver, you feel a burning sensation. Cadmus appears to be touching you and murmuring something.

Staver:

And then promptly cringes at Cadmus, “OW!”

Cadmus:

“Sorry, sorry! Just thought I’d try and see if God still hates you. Behave better.”

Staver:

“It’s got NOTHING to do with me!”

* Staver swats at Cadmus’s hand.

Shiba:

“Your kami is a strange sort, Cadmus-sempai.”

Cadmus:

That’s what they ALL say, you know.

Shiba:

Looks around a bit more. “Why is that altar on fire?”

Staver:

“I’ve got second-hand problems, and nobody consulted me about them.”

Cadmus:

“Shiba, you don’t know the half of it, really.”

Staver:

“Is anyone else made uncomfortable by the idea of mixing demons and dragons?”

Cadmus:

Seems like a bad game. D&D?

Shiba:

“It seems obscene.”

Staver:

“It just seems like a terrible idea.”

Staver:

“That too.”

We speculate a bit as well. Possibly possessed half-dragon, a mama dragon really pissed at having eggs stolen, or having a dragon slave attack those who are not “sufficiently faithful.”

Shiba: black standing stones, north pole magical ruins, icy lake on our path, enemy wind spirits, demonic goddess? Oh joy.
Cadmus: You know we need to walk into those magic towers, right? Right?
Shiba: That’s probably a good idea. I meant “bringing up our hostess is a good idea”. Walking into the magical towers that no one ever returned from seems problematic as a plan.
Cadmus: Aw. “No one ever comes back” is clearly a challenge. To us.
GM: 🙂
Cadmus: We’d be cheating Destiny if we didn’t take it on
Shiba: It looks more like “get advice from our hostess”, then “take the caravan to unaimo”, then “find the lonely tower by the lake”, and then? Hopefully kill a behir and teleport to Tian or something.
GM: ((NO MORE AND THEN!!!))
Cadmus: and then seek out the mystical towers. Gotta be good stuff there if no one ever returns!
Shiba: Uhm.

and we called it there!