A week later than it would have been, but after much-needed improvements to the basement, we had a pretty good D&D game session yesterday (10/1/05). Last week, Joe and I hauled off a pickup truck load of old appliances and a dead lawn mower, which freed up some space and cleaned things up a bit; I was able to actually soap and bleach the basement floor afterward. Yesterday, Shane and Robby helped me put terrain materials into a big old locker and set up the tables (three 4'x4' tables, totalling 4'x 12' space) for our minis, terrain and stuff. I gave Roddy a 25th-level version of Fergus Dowrimple to use as an NPC in his campaign (he'll be a PC for any sessions I can make it to). Carson had a commitment that made him a bit late, but he drew some more character cartoons for us so we forgive him... We had plenty of chips and soda, and even Penny and Bella played for part of the session (and Penny bought me the new Unearthed Arcana yesterday, thanks!). One of the best things about yesterday was that I had a new batch of ideas that have been in the works for a while for a multi-part adventure to spring on the party. Thinking about it now, I might have rushed and deviated from what I originally had in mind in places, but that really doesn't matter.
Okay, here we go. So the party, now the proud owners of the spelljammer Impervious, set down on the beach of the Quooly desert, near a pyramid they spotted from the air, and sent out an expeditionary force as shooting stars fell in the distance. After fighting a group of elf-charmed thri-kreen insect-people outside one of their strange, tall rounded sandstone fortress/settlements, Lola, Geena, Aiko, Revan, Buddy Nagel (Flegol's kobold cleric friend), Flegol, Henderson, Nightsong Sharpfang, Telpin, Mick the Gangly, Fergus, Joseph Prex, Rivet, Taito and Black-Eyed Bill advanced to the steep-sided pyramid, a ziggarut in the distance. With great difficulty and a bit of luck, Rivet gained entry through a hidden stone panel in the side, after also figuring out the stone button-symbol combination lock (the symbols were in Draconic). For reasons unknown to the party, the pyramid was vacant, with a heavy layer of dust and a lot of bones in the dark interior. Rivet (mostly) and Henderson found and disabled a large number of magical traps as the party explored the chambers: teleportation circles, petrification zones, a hold person-mass, a powerful sonic burst alarm and a couple of disintigration traps. Fortunately, both of the party's rogues were reptilian (a kobold and a lizardman) or the entire pyramid would have filled with poison gas, and a couple of the traps simply gave magic mouth warnings/messages of mercy instead of going off. At one point, about half of the party were teleported to a distant island, but Fergus had a scroll of teleport, and used it to get them back to where they stood just before the stepped into that trap. Ancient hieroglyphs, interpreted by Joseph, Revan and Fergus, revealed that the ziggarut was a temple to Io, the ancient dragon god considered to be neither evil nor good. After a great deal of exploration, the party found a brass fountain on the top level of the pyramid interior. The NPC bards Telpin and Nightsong Sharpfang (a gnome and a kobold) helped identify that it was a Fountain of Youth, believed to be one of only seven parts of the original brass fountain of the gods in existance--the others being lost, hidden or owned secretly...
In the lowest level of the ziggarut was a tablet, protected by lizardman skeletons that were instantly turned to dust by Joseph. The ancient tablet, made of adamantium-impregnated stone, is older than the ancient pyramid and likely to have been transplanted from a much older structure. The combined skills and knowledge of the party translated the meaning: elves of the moon Soboff were the first drow, and though they enraged the gods into pushing their moon into Aarde, many escaped, and others actually survived the Great Havoc itself, inhabiting Aarde's underdark (dubbed the undermoon by the party). This information disturbed the characters as they tried to put a cascade of pieces to a large puzzle together...
* Knowing that more and more Drow have appeared in each encounter with the Elves of the Purple Order (invading from Aarde's remaining moon Sonaeed).
* Considering the shooting stars.
* Joseph Prex remembering an old St. Cuthbert seminary school prophecy taught by High Priest Miguel: "When the spots of the dark moon fall upon Aarde, the Halls of Prophecy must be revealed."
* And more memories: Revan recalled his paladin training, where he learned some of Khadgar's secrets, including the presence of the time lord Latham in the final great battle against the arch-villian iron golem, Lord Tenneous, over 500 years ago.
So, the party has a voyage to the nearly mythical city of Lhevix planned for the near future.
But first, the party returned to the Impervious and set out to explore the landing site of one of the shooting stars. As it turned out, the tapered egg shape in the large crater was steaming from the round front, and shooting snow from a 5' opening in the tapered end in back. The "shell" was adamantium. Joseph magically protected the party from cold damage, and Revan led the party single file into the nozzle's 100 mile per hour winds and spray of snow, into a widening tunnel of super high-pressure cold air and snow spotted with softball-sized, blackish brown, leathery rocks that turned out to be drider eggs. A couple party members ate some eggs, which contained weak poison, but survived. Within what turned out to be a colonizer pod, the party battled a large number of driders (probably 200 or more), beginning with eggs and small young near the nozzle and mature adult guards near the warm part in front. The tightly packed enemy attacked the party in a battle that would have been difficult if not impossible for the party if not for Joseph's flame strikes, fireballs from Fergus, and Telpin's wand of lightning bolts. These area-of-effect spells made room for the party's melee fighters and archers to kill off surviving driders, some of whom were armed with shortbows. Driders with melee weapons had difficulty attacking party members in great numbers, as even by climbing and attacking from the ceiling and from webs, no more than eight drider warriors could attack any one party member. With their whirlwind attacks, Taito and Mick the Gangly were in their element. Flegol and Geena again had opportunity to shine in this battle, picking off survivors and removing ranged threats.Revan, unable to charge with his pegasis in tight quarters, still fought amazingly, shrugging off scores of attacks and methodically smiting enemies before him. The final drider, older and better equipped than the others, was assumed to have been the leader. After defeating the driders, the party explored the colonizer pod and found it to be loaded with food, some tools and weapons and building materials, and a small pilot station with a glassteel window and wires leading back to a nozzle adjuster in the rear. Left unchecked, a single colonizer pod, with its many eggs would breed and train an army of over 1,000 driders loyal to the purple order. Are all the colonizer pods populated with driders? If the history of the Jaramonians is any indication, probably not.
Experience:3,000 xp. Treasure: Immortality and adamantium.
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