The D&D Dynasty - The Sequel!

[Abe Sargent]

“This 100' X 70' room is dominated by the huge altar at the far end. There are two doors in the east wall flanking the altar, and a dou-ble row of pillars stretching down the center of the room. There are no benches or other furnishings in the room (the priests didn't need benches after being changed into tritons, so they removed them). Behind the altar is a large statue of Sekolah, the great shark. If the party has not provided a light source, the first one to approach closely enough to see this sculpture must make a save versus Wisdom or be overcome with terror for two rounds.

Upon examination with sufficient light, it will be obvious that the altar has been dese- crated and turned to the worship of evil. There are four shallow depressions where the four sacred objects previously rested, but the items are missing. The wall behind the altar shows signs that previous decorations have been removed and the statue of Sekolah put in their place. The north door leads to room #2. The south- door leads to a stairway up.

They search and find a hidden, locked panel. The chime of opening opens it:


A secret panel that the Sahuagin are un- aware of is built into the back of the altar. This compartment contains a specially blessed holy symbol of Protius, which al- lows one of his clerics to calm rough waiters in a ten-mile radius once per day. It is worth 2,000 gp to a cleric of Protius.”


They take the holy symbol.

They decide to finish this level first:

“This 20'X20' room was once used to hold the priest's ceremonial vestments. Now it is used as a storeroom for the Sahuagin. It con-tains weapons and ceremonial knives used to make sacrifices to Sekolah. There are also sev- eral sealed vessels containing food for the cler-ic's shark companions. There is a door in the east wall leading further into the temple”

[Abe Sargent]

They head east into an empty hallway, and then south:

“The back of this large room has been moved and a large opening has been dug out of the cavern wall. This whole area connects to the sea. The priestess and her lesser clerics use this area to feed their shark companions. If the Sahuagin were present in area 3, (They were not) then the cleric will be here with four sharks. If not, then there will only be two sharks here wait- ing around to be fed”


Shark, Common (4): 11 MV Sw 24; HD 5; hp 38, THACO 11, Damage 3d4.

Lesser Cleric – AC5, HP21, THACO 15, 5 damage as per stats previously for the race. 1000 Xp.

“If the cleric is here, the sharks will attack normally to defend her. If not, the two sharks attack the party and the other two arrive 3 rounds after blood is drawn. If blood is spilled, roll percentile dice for each shark present each round. There is a 30% chance each round that the shark will enter a blood frenzy and attack a random opponent (includ- ing another shark). There is no chance of this as long as the cleric is present. The cleric will hang back and attack with spells until she is out, then she will move into combat with her trident. There is nothing of note here except for some bones and scraps of clothing from pre- vious captives who were fed to the sharks.”


As Juri and Intaria move into battle formation, the lesser cleric casts Silence and silences the area. No spells requiring a vocal component can be cast.


Turn 1 - They win init. Juri stabs and slays a shark with a critical hit. Intaria casts Vocalize so she can cast spells.
The sharks miss Juri, and barely miss Intaria. The cleric casts Cause Light Wounds and Intaria is hit for 8 damage.


14/22


Turn 2 – They lose init. The sharks miss. The cleric casts another Cause. Juri double taps another shark and barely misses killing it it has 1 hp left. Intaria casts Vampiric Touch and drains 11 from it a fully healed shark and it takes 11.

17/22

Shark 1/38
Shark – 27/38


Turn 3 – They get init back. Juri kills the wounded shark and misses the other one. The cleric casts Cure wounds on the wounded shark and heals it.


Turn 4 – They lose init. The sharks miss, and the cleric joins combat attacking Intaria and hits once for 6 damage.

11/22

Turn 5 – They lose init and are missed. They hit twice and slay a shark. Intaria misses the cleric

Turn 6 – They lose inti. Intaria takes another crit in the five hits on her for 6 damage. The last shark is slayed.



5/22

Turn 6 – They win init. Juri misses the cleric one and then hits for 19, and then Intaria hits with her dagger and finishes it off. Combat over.


They search the room and find nothing (they failed, there is a secret door here). Intaria spends some time here regenerating and relaxing, and in an hour they head back out.

[Abe Sargent]

They head up stairs which leads to a hallway:

“This hallway stretches for the length of the second floor with a cross hall about midway down. If no alarm has been given, this area will be empty. If an alarm has been given, there will be ten normal sahuagin led by one of the lieutenants waiting to ambush the party as they leave the stairwell. The sahuagin will wait around the corners of the intersection un- til the entire party has entered the hall. They will then drop hooked nets which have been attached to the ceiling on the party. Because of the slowness of falling objects under water, give all characters a save versus dexterity to escape the trap. Regardless of the effectiveness

of their trap, the Sahuagin will attack in the round immediately following. Five of the Sahuagin and the lieutenant have heavy crossbows. They will fire them and then attack. If there are any recognizable spellcasters in the party, the crossbowmen will concentrate fire on them. No more than three will fire at any one target, however. The re- maining five Sahuagin will wait for the cross- bows to be fired and then attack in the same round. The lieutenant will hang back during the fight and continue firing his crossbow at any unengaged party members. He will con- centrate on spellcasters if at all possible. Sa- huagin know about land-dwelling spellcasters and fear them greatly. These Sahuagin will fight to the death. If obviously overmatched, they will attempt to inflict as much damage on the party as possible in order to give the chief- tain and the priestess as much chance as possi- ble to defeat them. The Sahuagin will especially target spellcasters and try to get them to use up as many spells as possible.”


(as you can see I have had more Sahuagin attack Intaria than Juri their normal distractions won’t work on the Shark Lovers as they hate magic users and target them relentless.)

They launch the net trap from above! However the same free action that doesn’t slow them down underwater also keeps them free from the weighted net with hundreds of hooks, and they slip out.

Battle is enjoined! Against these 10 Sahuagin!

Pre-battle, missiles and spells.

They have five crossbowmen who all fire at Intaria. One hits for 5 damage. One of the soldiers moving forward breaks an ink glob and a cloud of ink, which will give the party a +4 to hit and a penalty to their AC.

Intaria casts her special trick, continual light at the eyes of a crossbowmen, it’s blinded permanently, and they all shriek in fear and will be blinded one turn. Juri’s spear spears one of the sliders charging Intaria and slays it, and it returns to her hand.

17/22

Turn 1 – They lose initiative. They can sense their foes in ink but cannot hit blinded. They miss. Juris hits twice as they are easier to hit and kills two. 7 left. Intaria chucks a Skulltrap at the rear and blasts them all for 7d6 – she tosses a high enough number that they all die even if they make saves. Two left.


Turn 2 – They lose initiative. They both attack Intaria with 5 attacks. One breaks through for 6. They are both slain by Juri


11/22.


They search and find nothing on the body.

[Abe Sargent]

There are some stairs up here in the hallway, but again, they’ll finish here first.


“If an alarm has not been sounded, there will be 3-5 (1-3 +2) normal Sahuagin in this room resting. they will have spears and daggers at hand but unless the party has made an inordi- nate amount of noise, they will be surprised and spring to the attack with claws and teeth. they will try to get one of their number free to sound an alarm if possible. Any disturbance with the doors open will have a 50% chance to bring 5-15 more sa- huagin from other rooms to investigate. If the alarm has been given, this room will be empty as all Sahuagin will have been placed by the priestess in combat stations. If the room is searched, a loose floorboard will be found. There is a pouch under it con- taining three 10 gp gems. The Sahuagin missed it when they ransacked the temple for valu- ables.”


All of the ones here were in the hallway. They find the gems.


Also on this floor:

A second empty barracks (each had room for five Sahuagin which they killed)
A storage room with a bunch of materiel such a crossbow bolts but nothing magical.



They spend enough time on this floor searching to make sure Intaria is healed before they head up. She also grabs a few items from her OtherSpace she may need.

They head upstairs, cautiously.

[Abe Sargent]

They see a room off the stairs:

“This is home of 3 junior clerics, two of which are here, who will not hesitate to attack. They will attack first with spells and then close for combat. One of the clerics has a pet in the room-a small (barely 12 feet long) ma rine eel. It is always remains in this room and will immediately attack anyone other than one of the clerics who enters the room.

Eel, Marine (1): Int Nom; AL N; AC 6; MV Sw 9; HD 6: hp 42; THACO 13; #AT 1; Dmg 2-8; SA Electric shock; SZ H; ML 9; XP 420. The eel will use its electric shock imrnedi- ately if alone.

If one or more of the lesser cler- ics is in the room, it will wait until brought to one-fourth of its total hit points or less or until the Sahuagin cleric(s) is slain. It will first at- tack anyone stunned by its discharge. If it waited until it was at one-fourth of its hit points to use the electric shock, it will attempt to flee once it has done so. The clerics are all wearing necklaces with giant sharks teeth on them. “

Ready for battle?


Lesser cleric, same as the earlier one they slew.


One round of range:

Juri stabs and kills a lesser cleric. Intaria tosses her dagger and misses. The lesser cleric Causes Light Wounds on Intaria.

14/22


Round 1 – They lose init. Another Cause on Intaria. Juri hits once and slays her.


6/22.


They search and find nothing of interest here. Intaria uses a healing pot to heal.

[Abe Sargent]

They head to the next room down the corridor:

“This large room is hung with bolts of rich cloth looted from merchant vessels. The drap- ery move languidly in the water currents stirred up by the party member’s entrance. By now, the chieftain and priestess will know something is amiss, and will be waiting in area 17 for the party. Therefore, there will be no one in the room. However the priestess, as a favor to the chieftain, placed a glyph of ward- ing just inside the doorway quite some time ago. Anyone entering the room without speaking the name of the Glyph (in Sahuagin) will sustain 10 points of electrical damage (save for half). There are two sets of chain mail, two foot- mans flails, a set of leather armor, and a well worn short sword lying in a heap in the cor- ner. These items were taken from Leean, and the clerics of Ssu-ma , and Jirac. Otherwise nothing of note remains in the room.”



(Juri was first in and took 5 damage save for half, she didn’t.) They find nothing on their search.

“This room is identical in size to the chief- tain’s room across the hall. It is decorated in a much more austere manner, however. There are no adornments of any kind in the room ex- cept for a small shrine to Sekolah in the south- east corner. As was mentioned above, the chieftain and priestess know something is wrong here even if no alarm was given earlier. Therefore, the room will be empty except for a chest.”



The chest appears to be locked. We use the Chime of Opening for it’s 2nd use today (it has one left). Inside is:

500 pp
1,100 gp
13 100 gp gems


The four sacred items from the Temple:

Bowl of Commanding Water Elementals
Censer of Commanding Air Elementals
Stone of Controlling Earth Elementals
Brazier of Controlling Fire Elementals


Each of these, when near a large source of that element, will summon a large, loyal elemental that will fight for the summoner, and it can be used once/week. They are taken, and will be identified and such later. They are each pretty powerful items as summoning a single elemental per adventure is a big level up.

[Abe Sargent]

They head out into a large meeting room with a conference table, chairs, and more. The chieftain, 2 lieutenants, the high priestess, and 3 other Sahuagin are here:


Chieftain – 35 hp, AC 4, THACO 14

Priestess – AC5, 40 hp,

Lieutenant – 27 p, AC5,

Three Sahuagin – 15 HP, AC5


Battle is enjoined. Range round.


Cause Light Wounds at Intaria. A trident is tossed at her by the Chieftain and misses, as do two more by the Lieutenants. Juri’s spear stabs the priestess for 20 damage and teleports her next to Juri so she is in melee range.

14/22

Round 1 – They win init. Juri slays the priestess and then misses a Sahuagin. Intaria’s Light spell hits the Chieftain, and they are all blinded this round. They miss her. The chieftain reaches over and breaks another ink sack to surround them all in ink, which the Sahuagin can see through, as can Juri.


Round 2 – They keep init. Juri slays two Sahuagin on Intaria, who cannot see to cast spells so she retreats out of the ink blob and is followed. One trident hits her for 6 damage.

8/22

Round 3 – They lose init. They miss Intaria (they need 20s). Juri finishes a Sahuagin and badly wounds a Lieutenant. Intaria finishes it off with Chromatic Orb.


Round 4 – They wrest init back. Juri finishes the other lieutenant. Intaria casts Ghoul Touch and tries to paralyze the chieftain but it fails. He attacks Intaria with 5 attacks and…none hit. One 19 though.


Round 5 – They lose init. Missed again. Chieftain slain by Nykthos twice carved him.


They have won the battle.


They search and find little usable items for above.

[Abe Sargent]

They find a prison in the back where the fisherman and the two clerics. Are waiting. They were getting ready for a rescue and prayed for spells to ready their journey up and they can cast water breathing on themselves and Leean.

They search the temple once more, and find nothing else, and head back to the ship.


Nothing attacks them on their way back. (The priestess was supposed to flee at the first sign of trouble and attack the group with a newly recruited group of Sahuagin, but she died and no one knows to attack back, so the trip is safe)


They return to Evenarrow and arrive just around dusk, and then they teleport over the two clerics and Leean back to Raider’s Point.

They each earned 10k XP. They are each close to 7

End of The Murky Deep


And there you are! The next chapter of the Sahuagin Adventures finished. As you can see, they have moved recently there and were building up an outpost. The first ship to disappear after the opening stanza was fired was, actually, a victim of the Sahuagin!


A few days later the Sahuagin launch a large reprisal against Evenarrow with a fast, light night raid that takes 8 people and kills another 17. No more raids follow despite being ready for them.


After ID’ing the four holy items, normally they can only be used by Wizards, but these can only be used by priests instead.

[Abe Sargent]

Year 34, Month 1 –

The End of the Year festival occurs. A few minor problems occur within in the realm, none related to the ocean or seas at all. Juri and Jarl head out and take out a Frost Troll cave.

Year 34, Month 2 –

As the winter continues……



Begin Bestiary of Dragons and Giants: The Tip of the Iceberg

[Abe Sargent]

At dinner, Intaria and Juri are eating together with a few friends and staff as per usual. One of the adjutants arrives and gives the Queen a message. She reads it.


A ship in their navy was finishing scouting and returning home when it came across an iceberg that must have been broken in a recent snowstorm. It looks to have traveled from the island of Frosthaven. There was a giant on it asking to be rescued and offering half of it’s treasure should that happen. They told it to hold on, as they had no equipment on board to mount a rescue. A message was sent. The ship is anchored safely away.


Intaria tells her adjutant to prepare some equipment to send over and she and Juri and a court Magist will teleport with it over to the ship to rescue this giant. They arrive around an hour later and Intaria takes over the role of talking with the giant. It’s clearly a frost giant, often someone led to mendacity. Intaria casts ESP on it, but it makes it’s save and she cannot get any info from it about it’s truthfulness.

It says it’s been starving, and they agree to help it out. Using their equipment, they rescue it, bring it over to the boat, and then feed it. It points the way to it’s treasure, and it wants to head home to Frosthaven. Intaria asks if it has any friends or family on the iceberg and notices a tiny pause before it says no.

Fair enough, she says, we’ll teleport you over now! She nods to the Magist who casts teleport other and the giant heads to Frosthaven just as it was beginning to protest.

[Abe Sargent]

They scout the iceberg virtually. There is a Manticore, 3 frost giants which appear to be a similar family, and a pack of white wolves on the iceberg. Forewarned, Juri and Intaria decide to isolate them. She heads to OtherSpace and grabs the Carpet of Flying that Alzar their father found on Hamedh.


They fly over to the biggest battle, the giants, as they don’t want to be forced to use spells early and then have little left for the bigger fight.

Frost Giant – AC 3, HP 51, 46, 39, Damage – 4d6 ice boulder or club, THACO 9. They need a 20 for Juri and a 16 for Intaria.


As they fly into range, two pepper the sisters with boulders, and the third unfurls a Horn of Blasting and blasts them.

They take 2d6, 7 from the Horn.

15/22
57/64

Skulltrap:

22 damage, save for 11

Nykthos needs a 2. Hits for 18, giant teleports over.


Giants:

22/51
35/46
17/39


Round 1 – They lose init. Intaria is attacked once and Juri twice. Intaria is missed as is Juri. Juri misses and then slays the weakest looking one. Intaria casts Acid Arrow on the strongest looking giant for 2d4 7 damage.




Giants:

14/51
35/46


Round 2 – They grab init Juri hits the medium looking one twice and slays it, and then Juri’s Acid Arrow deals 3 damage and then Intaria backs away from it as it was based with her, but it grabs a ice boulder, tosses it at her, and hits for 12

3/22.


Round 3 – They keep init. Juri finishes the giant.

They search the giant’s home area and find:

10,000 gp
Golden Statue of Charioteer – 2k gp value
Silver Scepter with Topaz Thunderbolts – 1.25k gp
Scroll of Protection from Magic
Shield +2


They will give it to the Kingdom.

[Abe Sargent]

They fly over to the Manticore and it flies out to meet them.


Manticore: 30 hp, AC 4, 1d6X6 at range, 4x day, THACO 13. It needs 20 for Intaria and Juri.


Range is reached. It fires at Intaria and misses (Cloak of Displacement causes missiles to miss in 1st round). Nykthos hits for 21. Intaria misses with a Chromatic Orb.

It flies faster than the carpet and will remain at range here.

Round 1. 7 vs 2. It goes first and fires at Intaria. It misses all six. It takes 22 from Juri and dies.


They search it’s lair but find nothing.

Next is white wolf pack.

They land and move to the wolves:


10 Wolfs – 14 hp, AC7, 3 attacks of claw, claw, and bite.


They are in range. Nykthos kills a wolf and returns. Intaria’s Dagger misses, and they arrive.

Round 1 – They win init. Juri slays two. Intaria casts Light and blinds one. They are each attacked 4/4 by the wolves and are each hit once:



16/22
60/64



Round 2 – They lose init. Intaria is hit for 4 doubled into 8 from the crit. Then she cast Vampiric Touch and drains enough from a wolf to kill it and fully heal. Juri slays two more.


Round 3 – They retake init. Juri kills two. Intaria blinds one with Continual Light and that’s it. All are dead or blinded.


They search the wolf pack home and find nothing. They fly over the iceberg to verify that everything is quiet and chill. Literally. It’s been cleaned out. They head back to the ship and release it and it heads abck. The Magist teleports them back home.


End of AC10. Tip of the Iceberg

[Abe Sargent]

New levels:


Juri, Myrmidon, 7th level Fighter, 2nd in Line for Queen

Lawful Neutral
Human

Str: 19
Dex: 18
Con: 18
Wis: 12
Int: 11
Cha: 16

To hit bonus (+11 with Nykthos)
To damage bonus (+16 with Nykthos)

Hit Points: 74
THACO: 14 (3 with bonuses listed above)
AC: -15
Age 20, Body 20

XP: 65,000


Intaria, 7th level Path Mage (Fivefold Mage), Diplomat, Queen of the Kingdom of the Mighty

Lawful Neutral
Human

Str: 12
Dex: 17
Con: 12
Wis: 16
Int: 18
Cha: 17

Hit Points: 26
THACO: 18
AC: -7
Age 22, Body 22

XP: 65,000

Her new spells: 5(10)/4(8)/3/2


Fourth Level:


Alzar’s Scrollmend
Backlash
Bestow Curse
Charm Monster *
Confusion
Contagion
Control Death Tyrant
Detect Ensorcellment (D229)
Detect Scrying
Dig
Dimension Door
Disfigure
Dweomerflow (Volo)
Enchanted Weapon
Evard’s Black Tentacles
Fire Trap
Gloom Ravens (D July 99)
Greater Malison
Guardian Shadow (D July 99)
Imbue with Ability (J: I of D)
Instruct Spectator
Itemmeld
Magic Mirror
Merald’s Meld (Volo)
Merald’s Murderous Mist
Minor Globe of Invulnerability
Mordenkainen’s Faithful Phantom Shield-Maidens
Obar’s Lesser Purification (Volo)
Polymorph Other *
Protection from Normal Weapons
Putrefaction
Rain of Terror
Ray of Oblivion
Rary’s Mind Scan (D249)
Rary’s Mnemonic Enhancer
Remove Curse
Ritual of Renewal
Special Effects
Summon Lycanthrope
Swordshun
Tongue Parasite (D249)
Unburn
Vorthala’s Undead Turning Immunity
Wall of Evil


The most common spells to use here include the Protection from Normal Weapons which will last for one turn per caster level (8 turns, so a couple of combats as each turn is ten rounds), Charm Monster, and Polymorph Other that can turn a foe into a crushable insect to smash. Right now I am not wasting a spell slot on Nefti;s Spell Recall to use for any spell, and am typically going to memorize Polymorph Other and Charm.