I'll edit the battle against the Shadow into the end of the previous post, but tonight was the climactic battle against Belak the Outcast, and I want to type that up while it is still fresh in my mind.
Also, here's a repeat of the lower level map:
After defeating the Shadow in Room 50, the PC's at the end of the previous session had examined the room, and when I read the Draconic inscription on the redstone tile in the floor (translated as: "Let the sorcerous power illuminate my mind"), Værï again failed to read it aloud. Instead, they cast
light on the dragon statue's head. When we started this session, in recapping where we ended the time before, I once again read the Draconic inscription, and gave the translation. No attempt by Værï to read the words aloud... They've missed out on quite a few magical aids due to their failure to realize this. I just find it interesting.
Værï searches the door to Room 51, and the enter without issue. They find what was once a library, with collapsed shelves, and books and papers scattered in the corners of the room, an obvious path leading to the door on the north wall. They search the room well, finding arcane scrolls of
pyrotechnics and
Melf's acid arrow, as well as a book about dragons, written in Draconic, which will provide a +1 bonus on knowledge rolls for information about dragons.
The search and open the north door, and find a short hallway that quickly turns left, then descends down some stairs, about 15 feet, and passes 40 feet east, before rising once again. Værï very carefully searches the stairs and hall; I call for 5 search checks (though there is nothing to find aside from water seepage having damaged the walls of the low portion), and they proceed up the other side, then cautiously peek around the corner, peer southward down a long hallway.
Being an elf, Værï has low-light vision, and a torch illuminates with shadowy light out to 80 feet for him, so he can just make out the door to Room 53. They sneak down that way, rolling 5 more checks to search for traps along the way, and noting the second door, and the end of the hall. Værï checks the door for traps, then tries to open the door to Room 53, finding it locked. He tries three times to Open the DC 25 Lock, even getting a 24, but failing to get it open. Urolph then pulls out his crowbar, and beats the DC 18 Strength check to break the door open. Inside, they find Belak's personal library. They start searching around, finding several scrolls (later identified as
entangle and
delay poison. Urolph specifically checks the desk, finding a large tome on it. Neither he nor Belack the druid can read the title, but Værï can read the Draconic script. So he opens the book, and gets hit with a
fire trap, but saves to take only 2 damage. They also find a tome written in Druidic, that similarly grants a +1 bonus on Knowledge (Nature) checks.
Still having never learned the use of the dragon-shaped whistle that they found, Urolph continues his habit of blowing it in every room. The goblins in room 54 succeed in hearing this, so they very shortly come to investigate. I actually messed up a little bit... the door from 54 to 53 should also have been locked, and Belak the Outcast (BBEG) has the key, but forgot this, and had the goblins enter directly from room 54. No great loss in the end; it's hard to keep all the little details straight.
The goblins open the door, and initiative is called. Erky goes first, followed by Urolph, then Værï; the goblins ended up beating Belack and his wolf. Erky strides forward, drawing his battleaxe and cutting a hefty chunk out of the first goblin, though not felling it. Urolph decides to make use of his Improved Bull rush feat, and remove the bottleneck that is the doorway. He moves through Erky's square, then succeeds in pushing the goblin back 10 feet. The second and third goblin foes were flanking the door-opener, except back 5 feet, so when Urolph continued for that second 5-feet of bull rushing, they would have gotten AoO's, except they were flat-footed. This made Værï happy, as it removed his need to tumble after entering Room 54. He only moved just inside the door, then to the left, and started to attack. I mention that he can move farther if he wants (5 more feet would allow him to flank with Urolph), and after a moment he understands what I'm getting at, and does so. He attacks with Sapphire Nightmare Blade, succeeding at the Concentration check, and... failing to hit with the attack roll. I continue to be justified in my dislike of that maneuver...
The goblins both attack Urolph, whom they are flanking, then each 5-foot step clockwise, getting the eastern one out of the flanking between Urolph and Værï, but maintaining flanking for later. The goblin that had been bull rushed strikes at Urolph, missing, then 5-foot steps back from the dwarf. A fourth goblin moves in from across the room, striking Urolph for a small bit of damage.
That fourth goblin and the one Værï attacked are now side by side, and Belack blasts them with Fiery Burst, though both save, and take only 3 points of damage. With Belack standing just inside the door, his wolf moves in and off to the right, provoking an AoO from the western-most goblin, who gets a natural 20, and confirms it with another natural 20. The instant death rule is not in play, so the wolf only takes 4 points from the 2d6 damage of the crit. The wolf fails to hit.
Erky makes use of the fact the goblin just used its AoO, and moves through Belack's space, then attacks the closest goblin, dealing 3 damage. Urolph is positioned to make use of his Cleave feat, but misses on his attack. Værï maneuvers around to flank with Urolph again, and guts him with 3d6 damage, all while resetting his maneuvers. One of the goblins lands a blow on Værï, but the other two remaining goblins miss their targets. Belack's wolf hits its goblin foe, and trips it, and Belack slays the first goblin hurt by Erky, using his trusty Fiery Burst.
Erky damages a goblin, and then Urolph slays the other with 12 points of damage. After its ineffectual turn, the final goblin is killed by another burst of fire from Belack. Finally having a chance to take in their surroundings, I describe the cavern that opens up from the collapsed southern wall, and mention the briars and other plants that fill it starting about 10 feet beyond where the room's wall should be. Belack walks over to check it out, and I describe that the briars have thorns, and that although Belack the druid could move through just fine, his other Medium-sized companions would have trouble, and would probably take damage. This talk of damage produces a strong aversion in the other players, which gets a bit ridiculous later on. Værï can see well even at a distance, given the phosphorescent fungus growing all over the ceiling of the Twilight Grove, combined with his low-light vision, and he notices 20-foot high walls about 130 feet away.
At mention of the difficulty the others would have moving through the briars, Belack pulls out his scimitar, and starts hacking away at the briars. It takes him 6 rounds to clear a 5-foot section (1d4+3 rounds). This hacking also immediately notifies the ten twig blights roaming the briar patch that the PC's are here. I have the PC's make listen checks, and they can hear something moving toward them. Belack readies an action to use Fiery Burst on the first thing that comes out, so he damages the first twig blight for 5 points, after which it attacks Urolph, hitting for 1 damage, but the dwarf saved against the poison. Two twig blights then arrived every round thereafter, though the PC's and Erky dealth with them well. There was only one point when there were three conscious twig blights engaging the PC's, and I only had a chance to get 2 or 3 full attacks out of a total of 10 twig blights. This was a little bit of a tedious fight, simply because the twig blights weren't doing much of anything to the PC's, and a lot of the PC's were having trouble hitting their AC's of 15, or getting through their DR 5/Bludgeoning or Slashing (Værï had forgotten about the DR, and was still using his rapier).
In the span of about six rounds, the PC's were victorious. The idea of trudging through that briar patch still made Urolph very wary, and he was insistent that there must be some other way to access the other side of the grove. So, I sketch out a crude map of the level, pointing out the entrance to area 43, which they have yet to investigate, and pointing out they have not yet delved the full length of the rift (area 44). The investigate the blood-soaked area 43, finding some putrid bedding and rats' nests. This is where Balsag the Bugbear had lived. They search the area, finding 30 silver and 32 gold pieces, as well as a "great coat of patchy black fur," which Urolph immediately dons. They search the narrow tunnel beyond, finding a larger crossing tunnel about 50 feet off the map. They explore ~400 feet in either direction, realizing it doesn't connect back to the grove, and then returning to the Citadel.
They enter the rift, and I remind them of the sulfurous smell and the holes tunneled in the rock. They freak out at the thought of fighting another thoqqua, and proceed VERY carefully into area 45. They note a glowing hole, avoid it like the plague, and not wanting to slow the pace of the evening down, I ignore the fact the thoqqua has tremorsense, and could feel their presence before they even entered the room.
At this point they give up trying to find another entrance to the grove, and decide to rest for the night, again in room 46. Again, I could have easily given them an encounter with the remaining thoqqua, but didn't want to mess with the flow of the evening (we end at 10 pm, and they slayed Belak at 9:59, so I did it right).
The next morning they decide to have Belack take a rope and tie it up to the 20-foot walls (the part with the tower, around the tree), so they can shimmy across the cavern, over the briars. Belack could use Animal Devotion to fly the rope up there, but it will sag from its own weight (let alone the PC's), and they don't have an especially good way to anchor the other end of the rope on the north end of the grove. Not wanting to use up his Animal Devotion yet, Belack realizes he can walk through the briars just fine, and decides to just walk the rope over there. But rather than take the rope with him and uncoil it as he goes, the party decides it would be best to keep the rope pile near the others, and Belack will just take the end of the rope and pull it after him as he walks through the briar patch. Dragging a rope (actually from knotted-together 50-foot sections) through a thorny briar patch doesn't work too well, and after about 50 feet I start to require Strength checks to pull it every 5 feet. Since Erky is Small, he can slowly make his way through the briar patch just fine (a sidebar explains all this), so Belack enlists his help. After only dragging the rope another 15 feet or so, they give up.
Belack notices another twig blight approaching, and burns it twice with his Fiery Burst; since he dropped it to exactly 0 hit points, it ran away. Værï commented about how that was unusual (I'd never had them flee before). With the twig blight gone, and seeing no other options, Urolph pulls out his urgrosh and starts hacking his way through the briars. It takes 5 rounds for the first 5-foot section. Urolph's player then asks me how long 5 rounds is. "Thirty seconds," I tell him. To which he exasperatingly says they should have just done that from the beginning; that's not a long time. I think to myself "yep.."
The Fiery Burst and the ~13 minutes of hacking their way through the briar patch has of course alerted Belak the Outcast, so by the time the PC's arrive, he and his minions are ready. He has also armored himself with a shield (his stats in the book leave him unarmored, with an AC of 12...) Had I really given it thought, he would have had plenty of time to go get some armor and truly prepare himself, but oh well.
Belak the Outcast's animal companion, a Medium tree frog, as well as a transformed Sir Braford and three twig blights form a defensive line at the front, while Belak and a transformed Sharwyn Hucrele stand in the back. (Their transformed states were caused by the evil Gulthias Tree, at Belak's direction; they have barklike skin, and are basically automatons.) The PC's finish hacking their way through (the briars don't extend into the courtyard), but lurk just outside the ruined walls of the courtyard. They start to spread out a bit, with Værï sneaking through the tower, and Urolph sneaking the other way. Belak the Outcast notices Urolph as he peers around a corner, and I tell him that Belak is looking right at him. This is when Belack the PC Druid blasts the tree frog and a twig blight with his Fiery Burst. This was the perfect opening for Belak, as scripted, to entreat the PC's to hold off the attack, so that he may discuss the situation with them. Based upon the things posed by the PC's, Belak tells them that the Gulthias Tree is the result of someone having staked a vampire to the earth with a still-living branch, which took root and grew. He also has time to tell the PC's that he was purposefully trying to colonize the surface with twig blights, that the PC's will make great servants after he makes them "supplicants" of the tree, just as he did to Sharwyn and Sir Braford, and that the druidic order had expelled him. At that point, Belack the Neutral said that he'd heard enough, at which point he peeked around a corner and fried Sharwyn and Belak with a Fiery Burst. They both failed their reflex saves, and the 10 points of damage was plenty to drop Sharwyn to –3 hit points.
At this point Belak the Outcast stopped talking (which is somewhat of a shame, as there was still much to learn...), and having won initiative, used his wand of
entangle to catch Belack the Neutral and Erky Timbers outside the walls, and positioned such that they could not see him (or attack him) for the entire fight.
Belack's wolf made the save though, and escaped the
entangled area at the first opportunity (which is good, as it allowed Belack's player to still be involved in the battle).
After Belak the Outcast, Urolph stepped forward with his urgrosh and slew the damaged twig blight, and having positioned himself well, cleaved at the giant tree frog, but missed. Værï, having snuck through the tower seemingly unnoticed while Urolph and Belak were talking, and seeing that his movement would place him 5-feet short of being able to attack the evil druid... he let loose a magic missile, inflicting 3 points of damage on the BBEG. Belack remained stuck in Belak's
entangle after failing his Strength check, but his wolf moved free of the magical impediment, and moved in to attack the middle twig blight, dealing 8 damage, and destroying the creature.
Finally, Sir Braford's turn came. Specializing in sundering (the specific magic weapon
Shatterspike in the 3.5 DMG is basically an exact copy of his sword from this module), and seeing only one foe with a weapon, he moved around the back of the defensive line, attacking Urolph's urgrosh, dealing 12 points of damage; after accounting for hardness, he was only 3 points shy of breaking the dwarf's weapon...
Erky then ineffectually tried to extricate himself from the
entangle, followed by the one remaining twig blight stepping over to attack the wolf. Belak the Outcast then cast
flaming sphere, using it to attack Urolph, but the dwarf made his save. Urolph responded by dropping his damaged urgrosh, drawing his magical morningstar, and slaying the evil druid's frog companion with a 13-point swing. Værï, still perturbed that he can't even charge at the BBEG (yeah, that happens when you ended your last turn by remaining behind cover...), he draws his bow and looses an arrow at Belak, hitting for 8 points (which effectively negated the 8 bonus HP's he had for having buffed with
bear's endurance, which I had forgotten about until that point). Belack decided to just sit tight in the
entangle, calling down a Fiery Burst upon Sir Braford, who he could now see from his position just behind a wall. Thankfully, the reserve feats are supernatural abilities, and thus never require concentration checks. Braford failed his reflex save, and the fire brought him down to 1 hit point, but he was able to hang on for several more rounds of weapon-attacking fun (well, sort of...) Belack's wolf bit the twig blight for 5 damage (dropping it to 0), and tripped it.
Sir Braford now had a shiny new target for his sundering attempts, and my request for Urolph to make an opposed attack roll brought a look of perturbed consternation. Lucky for my player, Sir Braford managed to roll a natural 1...
Erky continued to tug helplessly at his natural bindings, and the twig blight clawed twice at the wolf from prone (which I just realized should have caused it to drop to –1 after the first attack), missing both times. Belak used his move action to attack Urolph with the
flaming sphere, this time inflicting 11 points of fire damage, and then healing Sharwyn back to consciousness with a CLW spell.
Since Sharwyn had been knocked unconscious by Belack's (second) opening assault, she had not yet rolled initiative. I rolled at this point, and her initiative fell one point below Belak's. Since he had just healed her, she stood up, and attacked the only obvious foe in sight, Urolph, dealing a measly 2 damage with a
magic missile. Urolph attacked Sir Braford, failing to 5-foot step into flanking with the Wolf first, and his attack roll of 18 missed Sir Braford's AC by... 2
I forget what Værï did at this point, but it was completely ineffective, whatever it was. Belack had now activated Animal Devotion to give himself a +2 sacred bonus to Strength, but was still failing to get himself free. The wolf finishes off the twig blight at its feet. Sir Braford took another sundering swing at Urolph's pretty new magic weapon... and again rolled a natural 1. Seeing Belack having used Animal Devotion to get strong, Erky, who had leveled and chosen Animal Devotion himself, did the same, but still couldn't get himself free.
Beginning to have success, Belak the Outcast attacked Urolph once again with the
flaming sphere, but the dwarf saved again this time. So, he followed that up by casting
heat metal on Urolph's armor, but the now-raging barbarian beat the Will save DC by 4. Sadly, I forgot to have Sharwyn act here... Still in flanking with the wolf, Urolph slew Sir Braford outright with an 11 point hit, dropping the fallen paladin to exactly –10 hit points. (Good thing he was flanking this time, as he only hit due to the flanking bonus.) Værï looses an arrow at Sharwyn, hitting and just barely dropping her unconscious once again. (At which point I remembered I forgot to have her act; oh well.)
Now realizing that Escape Artist attempts would be statistically better off for himself, Belack tries that, but is still stuck. His wolf moves to attack Belak, but botches and misses the weakly-armored druid. Erky continues to try and pull his way out, but cannot. Belak the Outcast attacks Belack's wolf with his sickle, dealing 4 points of damage, and 5-foot stepping back. Being too far removed and poorly positioned, Urolph just double moves to threaten Belack. Still unable to move and attack the evil druid, Værï sighs and double moves to also threaten Belak, flanking with Urolph.
Belack remains stuck in the
entangle, and his wolf fails to hit Belak the Outcast. Erky is also still stuck. Belak the Outcast attacks Værï, hitting and dealing 6 damage, then 5-foot steps diagonally next to Værï, to prevent the easy flank. Urolph steps forward and nails the Outcast for 11 damage (placing the BBEG's hp's at 12). Værï then has an opportunity to end the combat like a mother-fucking hero. He attempts to tumble back into flanking, failing by 1, but not getting hit by Belak's AoO. Værï then decides to go all out: Sneak Attack, Punishing Stance, and Sapphire Nightmare Blade. He succeeds on the Concentration check, and... botches the attack roll.
Belack and Erky remain stuck, but the wolf bites the BBEG for 6 damage. Then Belak the Outcast withdraws. Probably not the most memorable way for a BBEG to meet his end, but it seemed prudent at the time. Urolph then moves to the side, only not getting in the way of Værï's charge because Værï's player griped at him and told him to keep moving, out of Værï's way. The dwarf's arrow missed its mark, but then Værï charged, and his rapier plus punishing stance was enough to drop Belak the Outcast to –2 hit points, cursing the PC's as he fell.