Episode 11: Destroy the Hellforge continued

 

Last we left off, we had just killed the last monster in the Spider's Lair and were about to move into the Objective Room.

 

 Our Objective Room monster roll was 3 rolls at equal level. However, we rolled an 11 for one group (this roll of monsters is one level higher).

First roll of monsters flipped into Chaos Dwarves. 1 Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer, 3 Bull Centaur Champions, 8 Chaos Dwarves, & 8 Chaos Dwarf Blunderbusses. (On level 4, there are only 3 results of Chaos Dwarves, and they aren't very different from each other, Hobgoblins are little too weak and Great Taurus and Lamassu are a bit toostrong). So after the first roll, I just let normal monster rolls happen.

2nd roll of monsters, 7 Black Orc Bosses and 1 Black Orc Big Boss. 

3rd roll is a level 5 group, 6 Wraiths, 1 Banshee, and 2 Wight.

After being placed, the Bull Centaurs move before our first warrior's phase, pushing 2 of us out of the Objective Room.

 

The 7 Orc Bosses are equipped with Chaos Tomb Blades.

The Orc Big Boss has Blood Sword, Armour of Carnage, & Ring of Resistance.

The 3 Bull Centaur Champions have Pain Mail, Sword of Hatred, and Orb of Imprisonment.

So this is a problem. The Centaurs have separated the party into two different rooms and then locked the doors with the Orb of Imprisonment. This could easily be a party wipe. That and the Centaurs have -1 to be hit and 3D6 attack each.

 We devise a plan. It requires killing all 3 Centaurs and both Wights in a single combat (which opens the doors automatically. Then using the Time Freeze Ring, to take an additional Warrior's Phase to get the Ranger and Priest back in the Objective Room. My Pit Fighter kills both Bull Centaurs in the Objective Room, although only hitting on 4+, the big ploy is I currently do 4D6+5 damage ignoring Armour on 5+ to hit. (I drop to 2D6+5 on 4 or less to hit and they still get their armour).

The Ranger & Priest just barely kill their Bull Centaur, then the Ranger pulls out her last Banish Undead scroll, killing both Wights. The Ranger activates his Time Freeze Ring, and we move into our 2nd Warrior's Phase.

During this 2nd Warrior's Phase I think we kill 1 Blunderbuss (Ranger using arrows), 2 Chaos Dwarves, and 1 Wraith.

We pass turn. I may have forgotten how nasty Banshees are. 

Banshee Wail -
At the beginning of each monster's phase, each warrior on the same dungeon tile as one or more banshees must try to pass a Will Power (7) Test. Each warrior that fails will be unable to perform any actions until the next Monster's Phase.

 The Ranger and Wardance both fail this test! The Pit Fighter passes, the Priest almost failed, rolling one short of passing she uses a Luck to push the roll to pass. During this first turn, luckily no one is brought to zero wounds by the Wraiths (as they have Fatal Damage). But both elves and the Priest are brought to zero wounds by the 7 remaining Blunderbuss. Pit Fighter potions the Priest, Priest heals both elves before the turn ends.

My Pit Fighter kills the Banshee, we kill 1 more blunderbuss, 1 more Wraith, and a few more Chaos Dwarves.

 During the 2nd turn's monster phase, the monsters do a bit of damage but the big one, is they kill the Wardancer with fatal damage! Luckily, the Wardancer has the Gems of Life item, good for one free Resurrection! He cashes in this one time use item, and starts fighting again!

 

Turn 3 of combat, we concentrate our attacks on killing Wraiths. That fatal damage is no joke. We kill 2 more Wraiths, 2 left to go. The Blunderbusses bring down both the Warrior Priest and Wardancer. I potion Priest and Priest heals Wardancer.

 

Turn 4, we don't make a ton of progress, we kill one Black Orc Boss and one Wraith. However,  we have manage to avoid death from the remaining Wraith, but the Ranger does get put to zero wounds by Blunderbusses. He is easily healed by Priest before turn ends.

 

Turn 5, that last Wraith just keeps hanging in there. The Ranger throws 4 Bombs he has killing 2 Blunderbusses and leaving the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer at 1 wound. My Pit Fighter kills one Black Orc Boss and moves up to the 2nd floor of the dungeon. With only 4 Blunderbusses, they stop being such a threat, no one goes to zero wounds this turn.

 

Turn 6, We kill 2 more Black Orcs, fail a several attempts to deal last damage to Sorcerer and that last Wraith just won't die. Luckily, everyone stays standing during the monster's phase.

Turn 7, we finally kill both the last Wraith and the Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer. We pick off two more Black Orcs and 2 more Blunderbusses. Now the Blunderbusses can't really hurt anyone.

Turn 8, my Pit Fighter kill the Black Orc Big Boss and 2 Chaos Dwarfs. The Ranger kills a 3rd Chaos Dwarf. The Big Boss's Armour re-animates itself and fails to injure the Pit Fighter.

Turn 9 and 10, we clean up the remaining monsters. The party has a debate. Do we continue this adventure or run? We have already had a few close calls, and already used up a one time use resurrection item and used a once per adventure extra combat phase. This was the Objective Room, and should be the most difficult room we would have to deal with, so we decide to push forward to hopefully get some sweet sweet treasure.

 

 The Torture Chamber gives us the "Stranger Dungeon Event". His corpse gives us a few "Herblore Potions". These are healing potions that heal 2D6 instead of 1D6.

 

 

The Monster's Lair springs a Poison Arrow Trap! Our Warrior Priest is at -1 WS and -1 Str for the rest of this adventure. The Jagged Tunnel was uneventful as most hallways are.

 

The next card after the Jagged Tunnel was "The Jail". The Jail has you reveal the next card in the deck, place that Dungeon Tile first, then add an additional doorway to that tile placing the Jail on that extra door. In this case we reveal the "Small Passageway".

If 'The Jail" shows up in an adventure that didn't specifically have a written use for it, you get one of 6 random Side Quests. Some optional, some not. We got the non-optional mission "Fluffy".  Fluffy is a +2 dungeon Level monster. Fluffy is locked in The Jail, and can either be intentionally set free by us right now or wait for Fluffy to be released the next time a Dungeon Event or Trap Event is rolled.  

Fluffy ended up being a Bull Centaur Lord. (It was supposed to be a Level 6 monster, but we rolled another 11, pushing the result into level 7!).

Fluffy is equipped with Axe of Smiting, Armour of Cursed Iron, Screaming Staff, Warpstone Staff, & Staff of Osiris (not sure how a guy with 2 arms is carrying 4 weapons but sure).

 So Fluffy has the Screaming Staff. This makes the Unexpected Event die suffer a -1 for as long as Fluffy is alive, even though he can't act while he is in the Jail. If we leave him in The Jail, chances are good he will be set free but at a time we don't choose, and he has some nasty stats. So our real options are: 

A) Run from this dungeon, and hope he doesn't get set free in time to catch us (he has 6 movement to our 4 movement)
B) Release him now, and fight him 4 of us vs 1 of him.
C) Leave Fluffy in the Jail and hope he either never gets released, or at least doesn't get released at a bad time for us. 

We decided to release him now. That armour he has is quite nasty, no strength bonus vs a model with 9 total mitigation means neither Elf could hurt him. This leaves almost all the damage dealing to my Pit Fighter. My damage against him would be 4D6-6 on hits of 5+, or 2D6-9 on hits of 4. The Priest would be at 2D6-9. 

The first big plan was the Wardancer has a dance that he can give up his whole turn, to remove all actions one monster gets for a full turn (once per combat). Then the Ranger has some armour destroying arrows (Acid Arrows) that if they hit, removes any non-magic armour bonus the victim has permanently. Dealing with total defense of 6, instead of 9 will help.

 

Fluffy!

 

The Priest powers my Pit Fighter up with +1 Attack, putting me to 5 normal attacks, and 1 Head Butt attack. The first round of combat, I think I knock him down to 40 of his 50 starting wounds. This first turn, Fluffy doesn't cast any spells ( he got Skaven Magic 1 from Warpstone Staff) and doesn't attack  because the Wardancer keeps him distracted.

Turn 2, I do another 10 damage or so. The Priest can't attack as there is no available space next to Fluffy. The Priest Collar prevent her from being selected if she doesn't attack or cast at a monster. During this monster's phase Fluffy chooses his target, he is going after the Wardancer. This is probably the best choice for us he could make. The Wardancer has Parry (5+) and Dodge (5+) and even if the Wardancer goes down to the attacks, we can just heal him with the Priest or the few healing potions we have left. He first casts Warp Lightning at my Pit Fighter, my Magic Resist (4+) reflects it back at fluffy, but does minimum damage to him.  The Wardancer does his best to Parry and Dodge the attacks but the one hit that gets through easily takes him down (5D6+6 on a 4 or less to hit, and 7D6+6 on a 5+ to hit). The Priest heals the Wardancer to above zero before the turn ends.

Turn 3,  I deal about 10 damage to Fluffy, putting him somewhere under 10 wounds. Fluffy cast Wither, this does moderate damage to Wardancer and my Pit Fighter. This turn the Wardancer Parries or Dodges every single attack that would have hit.

Turn 4, I deal just enough to take Fluffy out.

Fluffy in 4 VS 1, is completely beatable. If Fluffy had shown up with or been joined by a group of monsters, we probably would have all died (well other than the Ranger who currently  has a escape to town by himself one time use item, he kept threatening to use it and leave the rest of us to die).

That's all for this post, may your lantern always stay lit.

DeMagic Tutor out.