The Proving Grounds

Well, I am a colossal failure at National Blog Posting Month. Oh well.

Saturday night the party faced the green dragon (random!) guarding the inner sanctum of Baphomet's temple. The traps didn't harm anyone very much, and a good dungeoneering check from Emlyn allowed them to quickly figure out the Doom Sphere and how to avoid it. Dakkon and Borris put some serious hurt on the dragon, but Emlyn really stole the show with some cool stunts. She stabbed both her swords into its neck and managed to hold on as it flew through the corridors and was blasted by a couple attacks. Then she blinded it and jumped off as it clawed at her and dove back down its pit. The the whole party focused fire on the rock above the dragon's pit and buried it beneath tons of rubble. Epic. First real solo fight went well, I think, though the Doom Sphere really helped make the Dragon more threatening.

For the actual Inner Sanctum battle I prepared the map ahead of time with dungeon tiles and sticky tack, as well as some Heroscape tiles to add height to certain parts. I think the final effect was pretty cool, so I'll probably be doing it more in the future.

The constructed map.

The setup, minus conspicuously absent Barlgura.

This went pretty well too, and I even managed to drop a bunch of characters in one fight without making it a TPK. Maldrick Scarmaker was pretty threatening, but not overwhelmingly so. The Barlgura was an awesome threat, and I finally remembered to use the Evistro's bite and bonus to combat advantage, making them credible threats as well. Anyway, the party managed to rescue the slaves before either one was sacrificed in the ritual, (DC 24 arcana was pretty stinkin hard for Maldrick to pull off) so the day was saved well and good. Aderes' Flaming Sphere made a strong showing, as did an extremely effective and timely Command from Awendella. Maldrick did not fare too well after he was forced into a vat of boiling...stuff. I was also particularly proud of the party focusing all their attacks on the Barlgura once it showed how dangerous it could be. When they decided it was time, they took it out like a chump. In the end, Emlyn snatched a magical silver key that gave her mysterious visions, as well as a beautiful elven cloak. Exhausted, the party decided to rest right there. Hopefully nothing nasty comes for them in the night.