Rubble Rousers, Day 42 (2007-11-03, 6:30 PM), Chapter 13: True Colors

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)

The next morning, as the party was settling down for breakfast, shouts came out from the periphery of the temple. Garlen stepped around the corner and saw a huge demon wielding a curved sword, and behind him, the orc cleric who'd escaped from the temple. The demon, a strange balor-hellcat hybrid, leaped ahead and killed Garlen before he had a chance to react. Roland's attempt to make the demon dance failed, as did Grokk's attempt to make the demon bleed. The orc cast repulsion, making it harder to approach. Amber converted the party's weapons into energy, making them bypass the demon's considerable armor, and Horkina laid into it with a pair of powerful strikes. It responded by smashing into her with its huge sword and tackling her with its claws. Roland's Mass Hold Monster failed, but this time, Grokk's axe succeeded. The enemy cleric healed the demon, and Amber healed the party while strength draining the foe. The demon clawed Horkina to little effect. Roland fired off a Ray of Dizziness, and the enemy cleric again healed the demon. Rain stabbed into the demon's exposed hind quarter and Amber spoke a Holy Word to paralyze the opposed healer. The demon tried to dispel its own diziness, but failed. Grokk took a few swings at it and then let up as it got close to death, and Roland sent it into a maze, where it died seconds later due to bleeding from Rain's strikes. Rain took care of the paralyzed enemy cleric while Amber set about the unpleasant task of reviving Garlen.

The party headed back below the temple, but not until they'd finished breakfast and picked up significant spell protections such as Fortunate Fate and Spell Resistance. Only a few steps into the cave, and the walls began to constrict on Garlen and Rain. Grokk stepped forward and took a powerful swing at the stony-looking mouth, and Rain gutted the Tunnel Terror from inside. He and Garlen crawled out of the mess and led the way into the next massive cavern. There, another orc cleric and several two-headed dinosaur skeletons patrolled. Garlen charged straight across the room, jumping off an uneven ledge midway, and started attacking the nearest skeleton. Amber gave Grokk's axe a magical boost against undead. Roland cast Bigby's Grasping Hand to keep the cleric occupied. Horkina's Maul smashed one of the skeletons to bits, and Grokk's axe vaporized another. Rain jumped into position to attack the cleric. The skeletons tried to claw at Grokk, but had very little effect. The cleric's attempts to cast spells failed as the hand squeezed him. Garlen and Rain finished him off with a series of pokes and stabs, and Grokk vaporized the remaining two dinosaurs.

A glimmer of coins from a side cavern caught Rain's eye. Inside, about 25,000 copper coins lay in a huge pile, which was protected by a Wail of the Banshee trap. Out of its range, a young goblin woman stomped on several spiders in succession, counting out "25... 26... 27... 28." Garlen started breathing heavy and was getting ready to attack her when Grokk grabbed his belt to hold him back. The goblin looked up and introduced herself. "Hi, I'm Marta. You must be the ones Snow told me about. Come with me back to our camp." As Marta led the party through the largest of the caves, the party came upon a group of somewhat larger spiders, and the sound of a dwarf yelling from a corner. Marta called out "I frickin' HATE spiders, and halfli... uh... spiders and undead." Amber created a stone bridge for Marta, who ran up to the closest spider and shredded it. Grokk flew into a rage and jumped into the middle of the group of spiders, cleaving through three of them. Roland created a Black Blade, which killed another. Horkina landed a critical hit on yet another. The drunken dwarf in the corner dropped the final spider, and then introduced himself as Thorko. He continued to drink ale from his funny hat as he stumbled his way back to camp, with Marta and the party following along.

Back at the other party's camp, Snow and Grilka sat quietly in the dark next to a svirfneblin and his skeletal black dragon mount. As Amber approached, he called out "will someone put out that halfling? She's giving away our position." The dark gnome cast a darkness spell, trying to extinguish Amber's light sources. Most of the members of both parties stepped between the two, trying to prevent a violent confrontation. Snow apologized to Rain, saying "Obsidian is pretty particular about light." As Amber and Obsidian continued to stare each other down, Thorko asked Snow where her sister had gone off to. Snow explained, "she's probably off reading a book or something." Just then, Roland spotted a swarm of insects led by a Thorciasid. Garlen fired off a series of arrows at the Thorciasid while Snow took out one of the escorting spiders. The bug's huge claw swooped in and drained some energy from Roland. Amber gave both parties a Death Ward to protect from further drains and Obsidian cast Repel Vermin to hold off the assault. Grokk and Horkina both ran into melee, and Roland's Black Blade of Disaster and a pair of Chain Lightning casts reduced the swarm considerably. A little bit of cleanup was all it took to destroy the threat.