In Phaistos’ defense, I would like to say that Fran had early pulled a weapon on him (for nothing more than a series of snide comments) and Fran had threatened to kill Phaistos. It was only a matter of time before Phaistos made sure that Fran would not be able to carry out that threat, and the opportunity presented itself.
I will note that Vrai would consider sharing Meep with someone if we get a tanky char.
NOTE: When Vrai last leveled up, he put all four of his skill points into Spellcraft. This meant he could re-examine his analysis of the black orb from upstairs.
While the party finished looting the armory, Vrai had a realization. He figured out what the black orb from upstairs did! After convincing Phaistos that it was worth the half-hour delay, he and Khel dashed up the stairs to get the orb. Phaistos, meanwhile, took Meep to the barricade in the Western passage. Together, they brought it down, revealing a long corridor on the other side, with a side tunnel that’s been dug out of the well-carved rock. Inside, they heard squeaking… and moaning, from an injured human.
Meanwhile, Vrai retrieved the orb from above and took it down. He channeled negative energy into the orb, and managed to reanimate Fran as a zombie, although it took three of his Rebuke attempts. He found that he could order Fran around, too. Freakishly happy, he went to the spider’s corpse next and animated it as well. To his dismay, he found that not only the spider required four Rebuke attempts, but it as it awoke, Fran lost his power. A successful Spellcraft check explained: The orb lets him channel Rebuke attempts to animate one HD per attempt burned, and can only control one creature at a time.
Back at the tunnel, Phaistos and Meep scouted ahead. One of the ratmen smelled them, and came after them; they drew him away from the rest and then, working together, managed to slay him. Just then, Vrai, Khel, and the spider, which Vrai named Scheltina (Apparently, it was a girl spider). At the sound of the spider’s claws and the light from Vrai’s torch, the rats attacked. Scheltina blocked the hallway, however, and prevented them from attacking. While the huge spider took on the rats, the man who was groaning earlier in the wererat cave managed to free himself. He ran into the hallway, and the party caught a glimpse of a bookish-looking human in breastplate, carrying a whip and a bag. He tossed the bag at the wererats, but failed miserably; the bag hit the wall and exploded, showering him with a green goo that prevented him from moving. The spider dealt with three of the four remaining rats while the last one fled, but managed to bite the man (Whose name turned out to be Jenks) on its way out. Jenks, who turned out to be an Archivist, easily recognized the wererats and realized that he needed to find a Remove Curse spell before the full moon, which was that night.
Further, the Drow who kidnapped the girl also took Jenks’ spellbook. Seeking to recover his lost book and to find a scroll or potion that will save him from becoming a wererat, Jenks agreed to help the party. Before they went down the stairs at the end of the hall, they searched the bodies of the wererats’ past victims. They found three rings, a necklace, and a pouch filled with small, furry balls, which Jenks claimed for himself. While no one was looking, Meeps pulled out one of the balls, which turned into an owl that flew away. Jenks yelled at Meep, telling him that he should never touch another creature’s balls without permission. Phaistos threatened Meeps, telling him that if he continues to make himself a liability, he would end up like Fran. Meeps teared up, sad that he disappointed his friend; Vrai didn’t like the liberties that Phaistos was taking with “his” Meeps.
As the session drew to a close, Jenks began to accept and even welcome his curse, while Vrai told Phaistos that if he turned, they’d have to kill him in his sleep.
I apologize for the short and not very well-written writeup this time, but I’m in a rush. Jenks is a new PC, played by ToeJam; I ended up letting him start at the same level as the other PCs, since they had just leveled up. He’s an Archivist, and perhaps about to become a wererat.
I still think that this session should have been titled** “The Adventures of Scheltina, The Wonder Spider.”**
This isn’t ominous at all!
To be fair, I told him in Elven, and since you didn’t have your decipher languages spell up (or whatever it’s called) you should have no idea about the potential murderation.
Mule vs. Spider: Fight!
Pffft. Sir Mule doesn’t stand a chance.
GASP! How dare you!
Well, I’ve already thought ahead. Sir Mule will almost definitely smell Schelty and bolt… with our supplies. This means that we will either need to ditch Scheltina, or kill Sir Mule. And I am guessing the mule steaks taste a hell of a lot better than undead spider exoskeleton.
Just sayin’.
And just because this is amusing… a conversation regarding Meep:
Reading that exchange, I can see how “he” could be seen as talking about Phaistos, but I meant that its how Vrai rewards loyalty, by killing and making his subject undead.
Well, yah.
I actually didn’t flash to a pronoun shift, but perhaps it’s because I was there for the topic at the time. But yes, Vrai is all about the gratuitous moderation. Now with bonus undead spider.
Er… gratuitous murderation.
Blah.
(We could still use a really tanky meele char, by the way…)
So all in all it appears that in 2 days the party’s ranks have swelled to 6. Hopefully we can get everyone into the plot by the boss fight.
Two new players? What Dopers and what builds are they using? Also… I suppose that they can also be sacrifices to Jubilex, no? We should be able to meet them at the Big Bad’s lair or just before.
One’s a Swashbuckler, dunnu what the other is yet.
About that Sacrifice, it depends. Are they Virgins?
Traditionally, yes.
So do we have the character class from our prodigal player yet?