(082) The Darkness Below

[ehiker133]

From his seated position, wound bound with a strip of cloth and a mouth full of food, Leudigar shrugs his shoulders and pauses while he finishes chewing.

"I'm hoping we'll find some ointment or tincture in the snake hag's loot that would restore him. But barring that? I've heard of wizards powerful enough to turn someone with such poor luck back to flesh. Undoubtedly they charge a bit of coin for such an invocation..."

Indeed, Mike! My first medusa, actually. Lots of firsts in the Hinterlands, actually. My first laser-eyed cyclops... my first doppleganger... my first medusa...

[waysoftheearth]

"..."

Akbar's final, tobacco scented, breath.

[waysoftheearth]

Leudigar sits down to rest, as the party gathers around the imposing statue of Akbar...

At this point, it's worthwhile noting that M&T p3 specifies: Medusae: Number Appearing: 1--4.

Since it is generally thought that M&T's Number Appearing stats are intended for outdoor encounters only, DD4 "hacks it" into explicit numbers encountered, and numbers in lair. I.e., the DD4 Compendium p86 has Medusae: Number Appearing 1--4, and Number in Lair 1--4.

However, DD5 (and hence our current Hinterlands play) uses a more "correct" procedure for determining the number of monsters encountered underground, per U&WA p11--12.

This is reflected in DD5 book2 WIP 20170320 p4, which shows Medusae as a Table IV monster, and p10 which shows that one Table IV monster occurs on dungeon levels 1 thru 4. Importantly, 4--6 players will bring double the basic number of monsters shown on p10. Therefore, a party of six players will attract two Table IV monsters on dungeon levels 1 thru 4.

Be aware that your dutiful referee chooses interpret the fixed "2 monsters" as implying the possibility of 1--3 monsters (yielding the required average of "2 monsters")...

[mgtremaine]

Gulp...

[The Red Baron]

[coffee]

At this point Karl does indeed string his bow and knock an arrow.

Y'know. Just in case.

[waysoftheearth]

A few minutes pass without further ado. The low fire in the brazier continues to flutter without enthusiasm...

A momentary rule clarification re: fighter healing...

Fighters automatically recover from normal hits that don't kill them, but not from fantastic hits. This seems well and good until a fantastic monster combats low-level fighters in normal combat. In this case, the fantastic monster gets multiple attacks as a man (i.e., THAC2 17) but any hits are still counted fantastic.

I.e., a medusa may get 4 attacks as a man (THAC2 17) versus lowbies, but her hits are still medusa hits, and thus counted fantastic. In other words, medusa damage can only be healed by town-time rest, or by clerical magic.

[ehiker133]

Leudigar begins making a thorough search of the medusa's lair, beginning with the corpse and then moving on to the area through the archway, first checking to make sure nothing else is a danger to them.

Well that sucks. Leudigar is off the front line until we find some healing I guess.

[Eris]

Now is the time to find some treasure and get out of here! We need to get back to town/camp, ASAP.

[Tonneau]

Zax joins the tracker in the hunt for goodies.

He makes little attempt to hide his low expectations - so far this jaunt has proved largely fruitless and the gnome getting increasingly unimpressed. He reflects momentarily on the fact that though he does not enjoy being unimpressed, it seems to happen an awful lot to him...

Returning his attention to the job at hand, he wonders if this creature's abode bears any resemblance to the rooms of his former mistress.