Slain by Elf

With our Rogue finding himself dead almost right at the start of last week's session and only raised at the end, I am reminded of the time the same player played a Fighter in a different adventure.

The adventuring party is in a crypt, leading deeper underground after opening up in to a series of tunnels and rooms. Taking care as we go, we nontheless encounter some monsters. Our Figher steps up, relishing the chance to relieve the monotonous walking through endless tunnels, ready to destroy whatever threatens him and his allies. Unfortunately, we find ourselves facing ghouls and ghasts and during his first exchange of blows the Fighter gets hit and, failing his saving throw, paralysed. He does little more during that fight than stare straight ahead, as the rest of us destroy the monsters whilst ensuring that our Fighter doesn't get damaged further in his vulnerable state.

After that battle the Fighter is reenvigorated and moving again, but only so far as to enable him to engage in further exploration of boring tunnels and more rooms that don't interest him. After missing out on the skirmish he is aching to flex his muscles and hone his skills on a foe, undead or otherwise. As luck would have it, some time later we encountered more hostile creatures, also intent on ending our days. Desperate to do something other than walk around and look at things, the Fighter rushes in to combat, happy to be seeing action at last! Sadly, he is hit again in his first exchange against what are also ghouls and ghasts, manages to fail his saving throw, and is paralysed for the rest of the fight. Again, the rest of the party have to deal with the menace without his aid, and the Fighter has no role to play.

It really was disheartening for our Fighter, as he had one role to play—to fight monsters—but ended up being a spectator in both fights. He made a nice cloak rack while he was paralysed, though.

We have encountered several, similar objects in the enemy's lair and deduced that we do, indeed, need them to progress further in to the lair. We avoided them previously, as they appeared to be in positions that just screamed out 'TRAP'. We weren't wrong with this appraisal, as I found out earlier, losing most of my hand trying to retrieve the first of these objects. Nevertheless, we needed to get them, and so had to brave the traps.

The Mage was stupidly lucky when trying to get another one, as he managed to fail a Dexterity check in just the right way not to set a trap off. The only other one of these objects that we had found was next on our list to retrieve, and it was balanced precariously over a pit, on a small platform, in a circular shaft. Being good at jumping, climbing, and falling, I was the obvious choice to attempt to get it. Rather than jumping directly on to the small platform I was persuaded that climbing up to the ceiling and then down the chain would probably be better.

With a rope tied around my waist in case of an emergency, I start to climb the shaft. I get to the top and make my way across to the chain; this is pretty straightforward whilst wearing Slippers of Spider Climb. Remembering all the traps that have been set off so far, and not being fooled by what looks like an obvious set-up for a trap in this shaft, I think about what to do next. Rather than put my entire weight on to the chain straight away, I decide it would be more prudent to test its integrity first.

I reach out and, whilst still secure on the ceiling, gently tug the chain to see if it would give way at the slightest touch. Unfortunately, this approach was second-guessed by the enemy and rather than the platform, with its precious cargo, plummet to the muddy depths of the pit, the rest of the ceiling does just that, with me underneath it.

I find myself being pushed down by the ceiling, falling the 80 feet to the bottom of the shaft, the only saving grace being that I'm not facing a stone floor but one of soft-enough mud not to kill me straight away. Using all my might, I start pulling myself through the mud towards the small hole in the ceiling, through which the platform on the chain was able to pass. If I could just reach that and then use my cape to turn in to a bat, I could escape. I just need to hold my breath for long enough.

Above me, the rest of the party was desperately trying to think of a way to get me out of there. Well, after they had snagged the platform with a grappling hook and snatched the desired object off of it. As I struggled through the thick mud, I reflected on how lucky I was to be a part of a team that knows just how long I can hold my breath and favours the dramatic, last-minute rescue over the safer and less stressful quick rescue.

As luck would have it, with everyone searching for a reset mechanism for the trap, the Cleric stood in just the right place, looking in exactly the right spot, to find the small, nigh-invisible trigger to return the ceiling to where it should rightfully be. After preparing himself, the Cleric pushes the switch and swings himself out of the way of the ceiling, now rushing back up to the top of the shaft. It flies up with such swiftness that it catches his arm on the way up. Luckily, he is made of hardy stock, and doesn't lose a limb in the process.

With the weight off my back, I pick myself up and, leaving a Monk-shaped impression in the mud, climb out of the shaft to rejoin the party. Someone else can get the next one of those, dammit.

Still in the enemy's lair, having set off however-many traps already, the Rogue finds a trap on a chest. He tells me that it's probably best if I, the only other person in the room with him, back away to a safe distance, which I do. From where I'm standing, I see a ghostly apparition appear in front of the Rogue as he tries to disarm the trap.

The DM asks the Rogue to make a Will save. Even with +2 on spells for being a Dwarf, the Rogue only has a +3 Will save; hardly ideal. His D20 rolls across the table, almost on to a natural 20, but tips back to stop on to a 7. Now he is asked to make a Fortitude save, and the DM adds, almost as a curse, 'You need to make this.'

Of course, whenever someone is told that he must absolutely, positively make a saving throw things go wrong. The Rogue's player rolls his D20, and it hops across the table. Luckily, it comes up on a 13! But, hang on, isn't 13 an unlucky number? Yes, because it doesn't stay on 13, but tips back; the D20 ends up with a natural 1 facing upwards. Regardless of his Fortitude save, a natural 1 always fails.

All the colour drains from the Rogue's face and he drops to the floor. I rush in to the room to aid him, but it is all ready too late: he is dead.

It's always sad to lose a party member (unless it's the mage), even more so if it's your character. It doesn't help if you die 15 minutes in to the session, pretty much with your first action. Still, we had managed to raise him five minutes before the end of the session, but for some reason couldn't persuade him to check out any of the secret doors and compartments we had found. He mumbled something about not wanting to die twice in one session.

When the Rogue entered the Room of Many Mirrors he felt a sudden wave of nausea flow through his entire body. Well, he just saw thousands of images of himself; who wouldn't feel like throwing up when seeing that?

While exploring the enemy's lair, we found some interesting looking objects that we suspected were important to the enemy. With a bit more exploration we found an interesting door that had cavities for what we assumed were these objects. Until that point, we were all too cautious to meddle with the objects for fear of something bad happening to us, but it was inevitable that one of us would interact with them at some point.

And that's where I step in. Having found another of these objects, protected by light-beams all around it, I decided that it was time we found out if there really was any danger in picking them up for whatever reason. Sure, there was an inherent risk involved in getting my hand through the protective light-beams without piercing them, but I was confident I could do this safely.

I took some breaths, finding my inner calm, and started to slide my hand through the beams, taking care not to let any of them touch me. However, when the Mage shouted 'be careful!' from outside of the room my focus slipped slightly and a beam passed straight through my wrist! Luckily, it seemed to be a fake trap put there to deter anyone from trying to get the object, as the beam just passed through me without damage.

Breathing a sigh of relief, I reached in to grab the object, but my confidence was to be my downfall. Being sure of myself, I didn't notice in time the painful, tingling sensation caused as I tried to pick up a Sphere of Annihilation; the object was illusory. As fast as I could, I whipped back my hand, but my reflexes let me down, damn them. My hand retured, but my fingers were no more! Waah! All I had left was a cauterised stump of a palm.

Mind you, it could have been worse: at least I didn't have an artefact-level ring worth hundreds of thousands of gold pieces, and one of only two ever made, with the other one missing, on one of my fingers that was obliterated. Oh, wait; it was that finger. Arse.

Having nearly died once all ready this evening, the Mage laughs at fate right in the face again. Well, the player does, at least.

The Enlarged and Invisible Rogue fights a lone enemy mage, striking him once. The Rogue remains Invisible because of the Improved Invisibility cast on him, but the enemy mage is not stupid and realises that he is being hit by an invisible creature. As such, the enemy mage casts a spell but, without a way to deliver it at that time, backs off in to a corner. This provokes an Attack of Opportunity from the Rogue, who smites the enemy mage justly, killing him in the process. The DM then announces that the Rogue was lucky to hit him before the enemy mage got his Enervation spell off at him, as the four negative levels would have been tough to deal with.

'But isn't Enervation a ranged touch attack, not just a touch attack', asks the Mage player, 'and so it is a ray and should go off as soon as it is cast.'

The DM agrees that his memory of the spell was not as accurate as it could have been, and begins to roll the dice to see if the Rogue gets hit before the Attack of Opportunity takes place. It's a shame that the Mage player didn't get to see the result, as he was chased out of the room by the Rogue player who wished to 'thank' him for pointing out this helpful advice to the DM.

Having been brought together to fight the Stone Golem, the party decides to split up again. After all, with two members of the party protected by Improved Invisibility and three members Enlarged, what could possibly go wrong?

The Mage and Fighter headed off towards the library. With the Mage keen to find some spell books, he cast Detect Magic when in there, but to his disappointment finds nothing magical. The Fighter steps in to the next room where he finds something peculiar: a room covered wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with mirrors. The Mage joins him, and detects something magical on one of the mirrors across the room. Moving closer, they both notice a door of some sort, and the magic eminates from that.

Forgetting that the Rogue has all ready set off more than one magical trap from opening doors in this place the Mage's quest to own all the magic in the universe continues, and off he rushes to get his grubby little mits on whatever is magical. Needless to say, the trap is sprung and a Lightning Bolt shoots out of the door and hits the Mage quite badly. The bolt then bounces around the room, made from special mirrors that reflect Lightning Bolts, hits the Enlarged Fighter three times and strikes the Mage again before leaving through the door they entered, which was left open.

Seeing that the Fighter is unconscious on the floor, the Mage, in the true spirit of cooperation, rifles through the Fighter's backpack looking for a healing potion to give him. Once up and about, they both flee the room to find the Cleric. At least it brought the party back together in one room again.

'I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure', says our Mage.

'So you're going to cast Fly and then Maximised Fireball?'

'Essentially, yeah.'

With the Rogue in the party all ready having set off at least two traps, both Fireballs, having not found them in the first place, the player behind him was understandably nervous when he positioned his character in front of another unexamined door with the plan of opening it. He made a quick Listen check at the door, and wonderfully rolled a 1 on the D20.

After failing that badly he chanted the Player's Mantra when checking for traps, a roll the DM generously allowed the player to make. He chanted, 'Not a 1, not a 1, not a 1'. In this case, the mantra was successful, as we all watched the D20 roll across the table and land on a 2.

'You find no traps', is not what you want to hear when you roll a 2 on a Search check and you have all ready been engulfed in two fireballs from other traps not found.

Having infilitrated an enemy's lair and having many rooms to investigate, as well as lots of questions needed to be answered, the party continued to investigate. In a stunning display of teamwork, the six members of the party, including one NPC, managed to find themselves in five different rooms for most of the time. This was obviously to increase everyone's safety, as it meant that when the Rogue 'found' more traps no one else was hurt from the ensuing Fireballs, and when I casually wandered in to a room with a large statue I alone was almost killed by the Stone Golem. Well, until I turned invisible, thanks to a rather handy artefact-level ring I just happen to have, and ran away, turning the Golem on the rest of the party in the process. Still, no party member died in that fight, which was nice.

We maybe could have found out about the presence and danger of the Golem if we had caught one of the several mages that inhabit this lair and interrogated him. As luck would have it, I have Improved Grapple as a Feat, making it relatively easy to capture characters and stop them from escaping. This enabled me to catch a mage who was trying to run away to alert others of our presence, but just before I could ask him anything our bold Fighter stepped up and cut him in half with one blow. Oh well, I guess he was asking for it. Ne'er mind! Another mage popped his head around a door and, on seeing me, tried to run away. He didn't count on my having more nimble feet. I soon caught up with him and got him in another grapple, stopping him from running away.

'Who do you work for?!', I queried him in my sternest voice, but alas he didn't answer. I would have asked him twice more, to guarantee a reply, but the reason he didn't answer was because his head became detached from his body when the Fighter stepped forward and severed it for him. Our Fighter likes puppies.

Because of these brutal slayings when grappling I quickly found myself covered in quite a lot of blood. It was one of the rare occasions when the blood wasn't mine, though. Well, not until I awakened the Stone Golem, but I think I've all ready mentioned that.