Aaron E., Jon G., Rod, Rob, Penny and I played D&D for the first half of the session. Carson was sick, and Phil didn't make it. The wizard Noctorium, Gemberlion the Flying Gnome, Joseph, Revan, Geena, Lola and all the NPCs (plus Carson's characters Black-Eyed Bill and Taito) returned to the thrice-restored Temple of Transformation. There, they once again faced the usual Jaramonian mongrelmen and assorted strange crossover mutations. Much more powerful now, the party easily approached through the strange landscape, where no flora or fauna is normal in any way, ants have monkey faces and trees have grass for bark.
Crossing the mutation wave about a mile from the pyramid, the PCs each resisted the effects, except for Noctorium. Strangely, randomly (I had Aaron make the rolls on the chart I made) it was his left hand (once again) that was effected. Even more strangely, it was again transmuted into an Eagle's Claw as it had been long ago, out of 20 items on my list. The only thing different was that it turned blue this time. I considered this and after a contest of wills (as with an intelligent magic item) and several dice rolls, Noctorium somehow absorbed the strange energy and his claw is now a +4 weapon that will also function as a spell foci, and the wizard gained two levels.
The main battle took place inside the pyramid, where the party faced Tuplegorp, a beholder-lynerian hydra aberration. Floating 85 feet up in the inner chamber, Tuplegorp had 16 eyestalk-heads each on a hydra-length snake head, each with spell effects more powerful than a beholder's. Beyond the reach of melee attacks from non-flying party members, Tuplegorp blasted the group from above, turning party members to stone, freezing, frying, splashing acid and fingers of death from above, magically charming, disintigrating, telekinesis-ing--seemingly at will. Three voices--the two singing bards and a dread pirate's battle cries -- became two, than one, and then just the sounds of battle. Worse, two heads were growing from each of the places where heads had been severed by the twin longswords of Lola, who had used her boots of teleportation to jump on top of Tuplegorp before being paralyzed. Fortunately, fireballs from Fergus and Noctorium stopped this growth. The geyser of arrows from Geena, Henderson, Mick the Gangly and the other NPCs was reduced to just Geena, the mighty dwarven archeress. Likewise, spells from Noctorium, Joseph, Fergus and the bards Telpin and Daybill had been silenced. Even the slippery goblin rogue Blip lay immobile, swarming with insects. Most of the party had been effectively removed from combat without actually being slain.
After a while it was down to just Geena, Revan and Tuplegorp. Then Geena's will was magically subverted and she was charmed into inaction by one of the beholder-hydra's head-stalks. The paladin Revan on his pegasis had been stabbing the body of the beast heroically, but to no avail; this portion of its body was immune to physical attacks. The monster was definitely wounded, and now Revan's sword burst into flame and he dispatched it.
Experience: 4,000 xp Treasure: 8,000 gp
Magic
Jon brought Coldsnap boosters, and five of us played a draft. Penny won with her green/white Aurochs/Kjeldoran Warcry deck (how fitting for St. Patrick's Day!). Aaron's red/white deck was great overall and was a very near second. My deck of fliers was mostly blue with splashes of white and black. It did okay, but just didn't have the speed or focus so I landed somewhere in the middle. Rob's deck was black and blue with good graveyard recursion and creature control, and he probably would have beaten me if he had been a bit more lucky; he did okay and won quite a few games. Jon's green/red deck was well constructed and his game play was good; his games were close and several could have gone his way if his card parity had been better. Overall we had a great time.
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