The characters rested an hour after the big fight from last session to regain some hit points and to decide what to do. They then decided to search for treasure. That took some time. They ransacked the temple and they only had one last place to search, the fire pit. No treasure had been found so it was either that, or nothing. The pit was filled with coals from the elemental plane of fire and would not be extinguished. Surprisingly they did not think of the coals as treasure! The paladin used his lance to prod the coals to search for something, he was lucky on two counts, first that his lance did not ignite and that he found a box. The pit was deeper than he was tall and just approaching the pit hurt him, so he failed to find his valiant heart. The Ranger was removing his clothes so they would not burn up and go into the fire, but he was preempted by the Druid who said that she would turn into an animal and brave the fire. She leapt into the flames and knocked the box out and jumped out of the pit aflame, burning bear filled the air for hours. The Ranger/Rogue took out his Thieves Tools and checked for traps and disarmed the trap and opened the box, discovering a thin one use blade and spring that would have cut off the appendage that first opened the box. Inside the box, was a ring of fire resistance, two potions of fire resistance, and a sword, that zapped the first person that handled it with biting cold damage. The sword then spoke, "I will let you wield me, but you are not the best person for me." It was a bit of a shock, as most swords they had met with had not talked. It was quickly determined that the sword liked the Fighter the best he asked the Ranger to trade him to the Fighter, he did not want to do it because he wanted a magic sword, or something and the Fighter already had a magic sword. The fighter then stated that she only wanted one sword, as she fought with a shield, and she said she would give up the Firebrand. This worked nicely and e two exchanged swords, the Frostbrand and the Firebrand. They reassessed their positions and two of the characters wanted to continue and two wanted to have a long rest. The Fighter decided that since this fight was so tough and the next fight was supposed to be tougher, a long rest sounded prudent, but understood that this might be giving up an advantage. Part way through their rest a Hill Giant and two Ettins came up from the lower level to investigate the disturbance to the temples. The characters asked the Air Priest to intervene and send the giant away. The giant was very stupid and easy to guide to a different part of the dungeon and it worked. When e party was fully rested, they headed out.
Seeking the best advantage, the characters asked the Evil Cleric ally if there was an easy way into the Water temple. The Cleric obliged. He knew a route that would take e characters through the minion apartments, the bugbears and the ogre's rooms. They entered them and they found them deserted. They went to the temple and found out why, they were all in the temple and there was some sot of service going on. So, they had to fight them all at once.
The battle took most of the session and the difficulty was extreme, the battle evolved over time, since it was a noisy affair. The priests joined the battle late as a few of the combatants were still alive. When the last enemy was was put to rest I brought in Explitica Defilus back from the dead, who had spent weeks tracking them down. She was able to cast a few potent spells that knocked characters unconscious outright or reduced characters to nearly dead. I used lightning bolt rules from the first edition, where the bolt bounces until it reaches it's maximum spell distance and hit one NPC on the rebound. I think if the spell had done enough damage to the impact site it would have dissipated, but stone walls are very resistant and no one was grounded.
The next thing after a short rest was to enter the elemental room. The elemental room seemed simple enough. The was a picture of a Triton chained up at the bottom of the pool and he was urging them to jump in and save him. Should have switched it to a nymph or a neirid, naked women lying at the bottom of ponds might be the basis of a comedy sketch about democracy vs monarchy, but it would probably gotten more than one of the characters to jump in. As it was the characters did not trust or believe the image. The pool was the monster, it was acidic in nature and very deadly. The paladin was in possession of a cursed magical item, and he attempted to use it against the beast. The Trident of Yearning, magical trident, but it's wielder feels compelled to leap in the nearest body of water. The water in this case was highly acidic. The paladin also took all his magical items with him when he went for a dip, and the creature ate magical items and healed itself with them, so Everytime they attacked the beast in the pool they had to save or lose their weapon. The character's after the first round stopped using weapons that they wanted to keep and started failing the combat. The entity started to call people to jump in with magical influences. Which caused other characters to try to save them too. So this was marginally successful tactic. Soon the Druid asked about spells that might affect the creature, they had a spell scroll and cast Purify Water, they cast Create Water. Spells that affected the creature were any water spells that created water (diluted the creature) or destroyed the water, also Part Water, which is like a sword stroke. Freezing stunned the creature, so the frost brand was effective.
In the end, the characters won, but also, the temple ceiling collapsed and they all had to run to escape the room, save vs dexterity. Some characters needed to be revived. The allies of e characters survived too, some of them anyways. Two bugbears and the priest survived. The one character dubbed the one bugbear the king of bugbears, because he fought the Bugbear Chieftain and the Ogre and got in the killing blow on each, he also successfully saved against the suggestion that he go for a swim in the acidic pool. If I was being weird I might have the characters shadowed by Bugbear, his alignment shifted from CE to CN.
The next session I have to come up with some content. They are out of the temple and they are going to Hommlet. There is the under plot that needs to take place but the bard is also becoming a warlock and so the others need something to do too. The Half Orc is coming back for a session so he needs to tell his tale, which means I need to give him a tale to tell. Also the Druid will have to meet with the druids and the clerics of Xeric, they need to dispose of magical items and they need to figure out what they want to do with all their money.
One option is to tithe, another option is donation, the Druid might decide to pay her NPC.
This is a point I will bring up when I talk about the coinage, that if they want to pay their minion, it does not come out of the party share, but their own, also magical items. Pay and magical items will make followers more loyal as with alignment conforming actions. For example, the Druid has a follower, Ceraza. She is NG and a cleric of Xeric. She was sexually abused and the Paladin attempted to seduce her in that state and she hates him. The paladin also hates her too. When she is injured the paladin refuses to heal her, when the paladin is injured she will get past her loathing and heal him, but the Paladin is resentful of this, so she will only heal him when he is unconscious. She is Good after all and won't let her likes and dislikes stop her from doing what is right, but her loyalty to Io is being tested as the Paladin and leader of the party keeps on making selfish decisions. She is thinking about heading home, or making her own way in the world. She has not been paid at all to this point and she is surviving on her basics that she joined up with. She is now fourth level, and next level she will be fifth. She is trying to decide if she will restart the temple in Neloar or stay in Hommlet or Nulb or somewhere else. There is no Temple in Nulb so this is a stretch, given that she has no money or equipment. She may have a conversation with Io.
Phil the Cleric. He took off with two Orcs in tow. He surprised a group of brigands who were trying to make off with the cart and bourses so he decided to take them as they were safer with him than alone. Orcs told him they were hopelessly nïeve to do that in the lands of the untrustworthy humans. At the height of the Orcish empire you could leave stuff alone and you would be able to find it where you left it. The fastes way was to head to Neloar and then to the the Great Road and then south for three days before heading off to where HS found a village in ruins. The ruins were complete, huts and farm houses burnt to the ground, animal pens ruined and in the central green, a sleeping Green Dragon. It was enough to make the Orcs think that this was the cause of the destruction of the town and the countryside. But Phil saw other signs. Arrows in corpses, axe marks in doors and military precision. But he had to look and it was clear that the dragon had come later and only cleared out the surroundings after they had been crushed. The Orcs suggested that they would come back with him and then decide where they were going now, as they had no other viable options. One was a worshipper of Stromida and the other Grey Warder.
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