Session date: Monday, October 3, 2016
Game date: Saturday, March 22, 209
PCs:
Tod P. Quasit, Jr., Fighter 3, hp 16, xp 6282/8000
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 4, hp 23, xp 11357/17000
Tyrriel, Elf 2, hp 7, xp 6278/8000
Caryatid, Magic-user 4, hp 19, xp 12996/20000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 1, hp 4, xp 1669/2000
Adrien, Fighter 1, hp 4, xp 458/2000
Retainers:
Father Jibber, Cleric 3, hp 16, xp 3218/6000
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 3, hp 17, xp 4062/8000
Wilhelm, Magic-user 2, hp 4, xp 2624/5000
Brother Chase Pike, Cleric 1, hp 6, xp 784/1500
Remus Thynerius, Thief 1, hp 2, xp 246/1250
Finally, the big day had arrived! The entire current roster of players were in the same room at the same time, and in the city of Idalium the vernal equinox augured an auspicious delve: the Great Heist of the gilded idol and ceremonial paraphernalia from the shrine of shadows! Tod and Tyrriel arrived at the Rusty Lantern for the first time in a couple of months. Tod was still a woman and Tyrriel was still a man, after sampling from the magical fountains in the Temple of Hedonism; apparently the effects were permanent.
In recent sessions, the adventurers had commissioned a mining party of friendly gnomes to dig a shaft straight down from the first level to where they hoped was the shrine of shadows on the second level (they lined up their hand drawn maps to figure out where to dig). Only today would they find out if they had calculated their target correctly. In the past few sessions, they had procured various supplies for the heist: a custom-designed leather harness and plenty of rope for lifting the idol, a block and tackle and winch for hauling it up the shaft, and a small handcart for moving it through the dungeon.
Buzzing with excitement, the adventurers descended into the undercity. Their first stop was the headquarters of the gnomes, deep in the mines in the northeast section of the first level. Tom Pipkin, the leader of the gnomes, greeted them warmly. The adventurers could see the same avaricious excitement in his eyes as they saw in their fellow party members' eyes, for they had promised the gnomes a 50/50 cut of the revenue from the sale of the idol and paraphernalia. Tom, his right hand man Grimble Grumble, and half a dozen gnomes set out with the adventurers to the dig site.
The dig site was in one of the old temples off the main Avenue of Temples. The inside was constructed to resemble a natural cave, and the ceiling was painted to look like the night sky. Great piles of earth and stone rubble now lay strewn in the corners of the temple, as well as in the street outside. Caryatid had wizard locked the door to the temple, which sealed it to anyone except her. The door in the back of the temple they had spiked shut with iron spikes, which Gulleck now pulled out, in case they had to escape that way in a hurry. Meanwhile, the gnomes and other party members went to work setting up the winch and the block and tackle system, along with rope ladders, etc.
While they were busy setting up their stuff, four scruffy looking guys in leather armor sauntered up to the open door. Bandits, evidently. "Hey, whatcha doin'? That's quite a hole you guys dug! Mind if we watch?" Pretty soon Tyrriel got tired of talking and cast Sleep on them. The bandits were dragged into a robing room behind the temple.
With that out of the way and everything set up, Gulleck and Tod descended into the shaft, climbing the ladders as quietly as possible down some twenty or so feet to the bottom, where they could see the shaped flagstones of the ceiling of the room below them. The gnomes had carefully cleared the dirt and rubble away, but left the ceiling itself undisturbed until the adventurers were ready. Now, they made ready to silently pry the stone from its space. Tod drank a potion of invisibility that they had found some time ago, and Gulleck slipped on Caryatid's ring of invisibility. (Now this kind of thing always leads to debates at the table as to what happens when someone goes invisible while carrying a leather harness attached to a long rope. My ruling is that the carried harness itself goes invisible, but the end of the rope that is not in first-hand contact with the character would still be visible, moving around with no apparent cause.)
Anyway, as soon as Gulleck and Tod shifted the stone, Caryatid quickly cast Phantasmal Force at the gap to "set up a camera loop" with the image of the stone ceiling slab. Then Gulleck and Tod lifted the slab out of the way, and poked their invisible heads through the illusion to see what was going on. The shrine lay still and unsettling as ever, heatless green flames flickering in torch sconces on the walls, casting eerie shadows all around. The hideous idol crouched on the bloodstained altar on the south wall. The adventurers were hoping to have come out exactly above the idol, but unfortunately their shaft terminated in the northeast corner of the room some fifteen feet away from the altar. Oh well, at least they hit the room!
Tod and Gulleck dropped as quietly as possible into the room, carrying the harness (trailing a visible rope behind it) and made their way over to the idol. Gulleck and Tod quickly the the harness over the idol, and it became visible as they did so. The room suddenly felt colder and a panicky fear began to catch in their throats as they saw the shadows begin to coalesce into eight man-sized shapes. They hurriedly continued securing the harness to the idol as the shadows drifted off the walls and swirled angrily through the air at them, cold voices hissing meaningless curses at them.
Gritting their teeth against the fear, Gulleck and Tod tugged on the rope attached to the harness, lifted the idol from the altar, and carried it towards the hole in the ceiling. The shadows swirled around them, snatching at the air angrily. But Tod and Gulleck were still invisible, having not attacked in any way, and I generally give a -4 penalty to attack rolls against invisible opponents, if the attacker even knows generally where to attack! Along with their plate armor (magical, in Tod's case), this was enough that the shadows flailed at the air ineffectively, and Tod and Gulleck were able to get the idol under the shaft without ever being hit by the shadows. The party members above began cranking the winch and the idol began to rise up the shaft. The eight shadows howled in rage and swarmed up the shaft, as dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly. Gulleck and Tod could scarce believe their good luck, and quickly ran back to the altar to collect the chalice, dagger, and sacrificial implements and secure them in a backpack before returning to the shaft and climbing the rope ladder back up to join the battle above.
And a battle it was. The shadows swirled through the air of the temple, barely visible in the flickering lantern light until they swooped down to slash at someone. They attacked indiscriminately, and because they were aerial, no one had shelter from their attacks. (Basically, I just assigned everyone a number, including the eight gnomes, and rolled a d20 for each shadow to determine its target each round.) Brother Jibber kept working the winch to bring the idol up, and Tod and Gulleck were trying to stabilize it from below to make sure it didn't get damaged on the walls of the shaft.
The battle raged on. Meat and Brother Chase found that their weapons passed through the shadows with no effect. Caryatid's voice rang out over and over, reading the magical words from her scrolls of Magic Missile. The glowing golden arrows shot forth and struck true every time with a small burst of golden sparks. Eventually, Tod and Gulleck surfaced and joined the battle with their magical sword and axe. There was an effort at some point to put the idol on the cart and get it out into the street in case the shadows wouldn't pursue too far from their shrine, but the shadows poured forth from the temple into the street and the battle continued there. Quite a few people were struck by shadows, feeling a cold numbness suffuse their bodies, but eventually magic weapons (and especially Caryatid's Magic Missile scrolls) prevailed, and the last of the shadows dissipated into a cold mist.
A great cheer went up. The adventurers and gnomes bid each other farewell with a promise to meet again after the auction to pay the gnomes their share of the revenue. And the adventurers carefully maneuvered the cart through the halls of the undercity and had it carefully hoisted up into the cellar of the Rusty Lantern (one of the few times they've used the cellar hoist for anything other than unconscious or dead bodies!).
A couple notes on the shadows: eight shadows are potentially a serious threat to a party of second level PCs (especially as they are immune to normal weapons). To mitigate this, I had the shadows be attached to the idol and ceremonial items in the shrine. They would not pursue PCs out the shrine if the items were left alone. (I do like including dangerous monsters or situations if the players have the ability to disengage and retreat.) If the ceremonial items like the robe and headdress were taken, the shadows would pursue into the peripheral rooms with the magical darkness, but not into the hallways. And if the idol itself was stolen, the shadows would pursue anywhere and without giving up or losing morale.
Now, in the end, my players left this room with the scary shadows until they were significantly above level 2 on average, and had several magical weapons to fight them with, so this fight wasn't quite as tough as it could have been. But I don't mind! I really enjoyed watching my players plan and execute this "heist", negotiating with the gnomes to do the hard work of digging a shaft (which is now a permanent alternate entrance to the second level for the PCs), and creatively using invisibility to get the idol out of the room while taking minimal damage from the shadows. The shadows didn't end up being a very significant threat, but it was still a highly memorable session!
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