Dungeons & Drogans: Session XXXII

Session XXXII Summary

They further explore the keep's second level, opening a pair of double doors to the South to reveal an enormous room with a 20-foot warrior statue and two smaller dragon statues. To the south, an entryway leads to another pair of double doors. In the entryway stand for more statues of cherubs holding vases.

Rekoj struts into the room. The doors to the north crash shut, followed by the sound of a heavy bolt sliding into place--he is now locked in the dark.

The massive statue attacks Rekoj.

Autumn and Win'tyr eventually unlock the door and the rest of the Drogans enter.

The Drogans bypass the giant statue warrior by walking outside of the reach of its blade.

Win'tyr investigates the dragon statues and finds that they fire magical energy from their mouths.

Zook, getting the impression that all the statues are dangerous, wants to find out what the cherubs can do. He walks past the first two cherub statues.

The four statues tip their vases downward and release a deluge of water. At the same time, transparent walls shimmer into existence, cutting off all avenues of escape for poor Zook.

Try as they might, the Drogans can find no way to help Zook from outside of the trap.

A whirlpool forms and rocks Zook around, smashing him against walls.

Zook tries to claw at the vases to stop the water.

Win'tyr notices an access panel on the warrior statue, and he and Autumn disable the mechanical trap--but that does nothing to help poor Zook in the magic trap.

Zook finally breaks one vase, and that vase stops releasing water.

Autumn teleports into the trap, risking her own life to try to save Zook.

Together, the gnome and eladrin destroy two more vases and damage the fourth, but too little, too late: the two are knocked out by the whirlpool and after eventually smashed to death.

The surviving party members solemnly keep vigil as the bodies of their friends continue to spin round and round.

After a few minutes, the magic walls vanish and the bodies wash out.

Session XXXII - Part 1 Summary

The Drogans return to Winterhaven to resupply, then head back to Shadowfell Keep.

They further explore the keep's second level, opening a pair of double doors to the South to reveal an enormous room with a 20-foot warrior statue and two smaller dragon statues. To the south, an entryway leads to another pair of double doors. In the entryway stand for more statues of cherubs holding vases.

Rekoj struts into the room. As he approaches the warrior statue, the doors to the north crash shut, followed by the sound of a heavy bolt sliding into place--he is now locked in the dark.

The massive statue in front of Rekoj swings its weapon in a deadly arc, wounding Rekoj and knocking him prone.

Coltaine tries striking the door with his short sword, but does little damage.

The statue smashes Rekoj with its stone sword again, dropping him to 29 HP.

Rekoj forgets to rise to his feet and crawls towards the door.

Autumn and Win'tyr fail to unlock the door, Rekoj tries to kick the door open. Autumn;s lockpicking tools fly out of the lock and onto the floor.

Autumn picks up her tools, puts them back in the door, but fails to pick the lock.

Win'tyr grabs Autumn's tools, throws them in her face, and shoves his own in, but fails.

Rekoj shouts, "Help Rekoj, glorious companions! Rekoj is afraid of the dark."

Session XXXII - Part 2 Summary

Rekoj kicks the door, bending Win'tyr's thieves tools.

Autumn pulls the elf's tools out and hurls them across the room, then fails to pick the lock with her own tools.

The two continue to work at the lock until Autumn eventually picks the lock. The rest of the Drogans then enter.

Coltaine doesn't believe Rekoj's claim that the statue attacked him, so he struts up to it, once again triggering the trap. The doors bolt shut.

The Drogans bypass the giant statue warrior by walking outside of the reach of its blade.

Win'tyr moves to investigate the dragon statues. Magical energy spews from the mouth of the dragon, knocking the elf back for 9 damage.

Zook, getting the impression that all the statues are dangerous, wants to find out what the cherubs can do. Stephen predicts they will come to life and rape him. The gnome walks past the first two cherub statues.

The four statues tip their vases downward and release a deluge of water. At the same time, transparent walls shimmer into existence, cutting off all avenues of escape for poor Zook.

Try as they might, the Drogans can find no way to help Zook from outside of the trap, and are powerless as they watch the water level rise up to his chin.

Zook claws at one of the vases, damaging it.

Session XXXII - Part 3 Summary

As the water level reaches five feet, a whirlpool forms and rocks Zook around, smashing him against walls, wounding him.

Zook, the sodden wet lynx, tries to keep clawing at the vase, but keeps missing as the whirlpool spins him around.

Autumn contemplates teleporting in there to save Zook, but to quote her, "that puts my own ass at risk, which is not worth it in the long run."

Win'tyr notices a well-hidden access panel on the warrior statue's dais. He accesses it and sees mechanisms within.

Autumn disables one of the four mechanisms of this trap.

Win'tyr tries to help, but gets his sleeve torn off into the gears.

The statue knocks both the elf and the eladrin prone with its stone blade, dealing 11 damage to each.

Autumn disables two more mechanisms before getting struck again.

Win'tyr moves in and steals Autumn's thunder, fully disabling the statue trap. Zook continues to be sloshed around.

Session XXXII - Part 4 Summary

On Round 19, Zook finally breaks one vase.

On Round 20, with Zook nearly dead, Autumn realizes she has put this off long enough and teleports into the trap, risking her own life to try to save Zook. The eladrin damages a second vase.

Zook destroys the second vase.

Autumn smashes the third vase.

Zook is knocked unconscious by the whirlpool, leaving Autumn, with 1 HP, to destroy the last vase.

Autumn fumbles.

The elf is knocked out by the whirlpool.

On Round 28, Zook's and Autumn's unconscious bodies are smashed to death in the whirlpool.

The surviving party members solemnly keep vigil, licking their wounds as the bodies of their friends continue to spin round and round.

After a few minutes, the magic walls vanish and the bodies wash out.

The remainder of the session is spent discussing the ridiculousness of this trap and how it reflects poor design choices by the creators of this adventure.

Key points:

1. The warrior and dragon statues can be defeated by staying out of their range.

2. The cherubs trap only one character, leaving the others to do nothing for several rounds.

Doug conceded it was silly to run into the room, knowing that the other statues were very harmful.