Recap 20190111 - Tomb of the Lizard King - Part 3 - Team B (Full Recap)

20190111 Recap – Tomb of The Lizard King Part 3 - Team B
Part 3 of a 3 part series and competition between two teams of players.

Alyce – Female Halfling Bard/ Sorc – Steve
Ezio Auditore da Firenze – Human Rogue – Kobe
Gird – Human Monk – Art
KrizDevvon – Deva Invoker – Chris
Bannor the Bloodguard – Human Fighter – Brendon
Souldun – Human Warlord - Vic

…after defeating the bandit main body in their great gathering hall, our heroes gather up their gear, including a powerful magic axe, and question the handful of bandits who are still alive. Alyce is especially diplomatic and the party discovers that the kitchen area is to the east, the wizard’s area is to the west and further into the complex is to the south. Since the wizard was dispatched with many of the other bandits, the group moves west. Ezio finds a secret passage to a hidden complex of rooms. They find nothing of great worth in the wizard’s quarters except a piece of parchment, written in draconic, telling about the lizard king’s lair. They find the wizard’s lab and then a secret room of total darkness. Gird and Ezio search the room and Ezio finds an invisible chest in the totally dark room. Within the chest is a fortune in platinum and the wizard’s spell book.

The group moves south east and ties off the doors to some of the bandit barracks and then avoid a fight with a group of hairy ogre like creatures who were there to chat with Sakatha, the great king. Continuing to head south, the group finds a temple area with minor priest barracks to the west (which Ezio locks all the doors) and a library and worship area to the east. The group finds the Book of Abyssal Darkness and using their most powerful goodly magic, Alyce and KrizDev blast the book, causing the book to explode in a blast of dark energy. Returning to the altar area, the group looks behind the wall hanging and find two secret passages and take the one on the southeast. After defeating a room with two false doors with both false doors being trapped, the group finds a short hallway with a secret trap door to a stairway going down into a huge underground cavern. The group ties a rope to Alyce and with Bannor and Souldun holding the rope at the top of the stairs, Alyce moves down the stairway. About thirty feet down, the stairway folds flat but the little Bard avoids sliding into the flaming pit below, the rope saving her. The rest of the group then moves down the slide and drop well to the side of the flaming pit.

Once safely on the floor of the huge cavern, the group see the banks of a river crossing their path and stretching far to both the east and west. The adventurers also cannot see to the other bank. After a brief recon, they sense that the river is not real. They also come across a stout wooden post to which is attached a silver horn on a sturdy chain. After some more searching, they find a large wooden column under the water and form a human chain and walk across the bed of the river, finding that there is air under the surface of the water and no water. Upon reaching the other bank the group see a huge triangular building straight ahead. Between them and the building are a large number of burial mounds. To the far southwest, they see a large number of campfires and lizardmen around each campfire. They are challenged by a team of lizardmen scouts and convince them that they are here to pay homage to the great lizard king. Carefully avoiding the mounds, the group makes it to the massive front door of the temple. With the memory of a thousand lifetimes, the Deva remembers the password to open the doors. Within the hall of traps, the group discovers the pit traps and falling blocks. After the Deva is nearly crushed to death by one block, they avoid the other set and gain entry to the hall of the hunt. With no exit from that hall, Gird gives Ezio a water breathing potion and after being tossed around the water chamber, the group enters the hall of the feast. Although some are reluctant, they all eat a good meal and then find a trap door into the lower dungeons. After a small ante chamber, the party bursts into an altar chamber where three priests of Orcus are preparing a dire spell. Moradin, the evil high priest who attempted to assassinate the baron, immediately recognizes the group and orders the lizardmen guards to kill the intruders. Ezio darts past the guards leaps onto the altar of blood and strikes serious blow to the head priest. The bard and invoker both blast the area with spells. Bannor blitzes past the guards and seriously wounds the high priest with a blow that would have cut any normal warrior in half and does manage to cut down a guard on the back swing. Gird weaves past the initial line of guards and with a mighty kick, throws one guard into the high priest, knocks down a second guard, and downs a third. Krisdev unleashes a blast into the center of the room, downing two more guards. Surrounded by enemies, Gird and Souldun are fighting back to back and with a flurry of kicks, Gird takes down two additional guards with a spinning hook kick, increasing his count to three. One of minor priests backs off but several more lizardmen form a shield around the high priest. Krisdev downs two of the shielding guards with radiant magic while Ezio strikes another deadly blow to the high priest’s back just as he unleashes a flame strike against several of the party members, concentrating on the spell casters. Bannor strikes another solid blow against the priest’s unholy shield and spurred on by the bard and encouraged to take another swing by the warlord, finishes off the high priest. Ezio spins off the altar and finishes off the lizardman thrown by Gird and then the rogue switches direction and engages the minor priest near the back of the room. Three more guards fall to the Deva’s radiant magic and Alyce blasts a guard with sonic blast. Bannor takes down his second guard but takes a couple hits in return. Souldun strikes down the minor priest that was trying to reinforce the line of blocking guards and Ezio easily defeats the priest in the back of the room, ending the fight.

After a short rest the group moves ahead and bursts into the throne room of Sakatha the Great Lizard King himself. Right away, Ezio darts ahead and strikes a serious blow against the dreaded enemy. In return Sakatha strikes at the rogue and weakens him. Bannor charges forward and is blasted by a lightning bolt while the rest of the group is caught in an explosive fireball. Sakatha unleashes a burst of magic missiles as Bannor surges ahead and strikes a solid blow against the gigantic enemy but is hit by the trident and flung against the wall. After a combination of martial arts, arcane and divine magic, Sakatha is off balanced, stunned, dazed, blinded and slowed. The group concentrates all their attacks on the imposing vampire lizard king and he recovers enough to wish the strength of his followers into this body, allowing him to blast the party with a cloudkill. The Deva catches the bride of Sakatha with the edge of a blast of radiant magic and she in turns tries to dominate the Deva and blasts the Deva with negative energy. Every party member continues to blast and strike at Sakatha and finally, the Ezio strikes him through the heart and he turns into a cloud of mist, sinking into the earth. The bride does likewise. The group opens the coffin and Souldun sprinkles holy water on it, destroying it. The group fans out and finds a nearby room with six coffins and open them and the first four, they sprinkle holy water on the dead brides, making sure they never rise again. In the fifth coffin they find the bride that just escaped them and finish her with holy water. In the last coffin they find Sakatha himself and likewise finish him with holy water.

The group finds Sakatha’s treasure horde in a nearby chamber and as they head to the surface, find that all the lizard men are dead, having all the strength within them sucked out by their master’s ill worded wish. The meet up with Stephen, leave the swamp and return to the Baron’s hall, hailed as heroes.