Elf Dungeon News

01/06/2006

Hey gang, God here. It’s been so long since our last game I thought I’d put together a short summary of what went down last time we got together. I’d like to make this a regular part of Elf Dungeon. I think it will help us keep up with everything that goes on, and it will be sort of a record of the story we are all telling together. Here goes.

A Visit to the House of Pain
      Shortly after arriving in Floatsum Dida, a drow and former priestess of Loth, found that her past had finally caught up with her. The Kuo’zan Koshen, a group of drow sorcerer assassins, had stalked her from the underdark to the floating city. In elvish their name means “The House Where Pain Lives”, and they certainly have been a pain.
      The party had found poisonous spiders the size of Halflings lurking in their bedrooms at The Last Port, had been attacked in the streets, even faced a gigantic spider demon intent on dragging them into the fires of Hell. And Dida fell victim to a Venom-Curse crafted just for her, which transformed her beautiful dancers body into that of a hideous Drider.
      The last straw came when the Koshen drow launched a surprise assault on the party on their home turf. The assassins infiltrated The Last Port, used magic to disguise themselves as the staff, and nearly murdered the entire group in one tactical sweep. Had the ruse not been uncovered in time, and had a wandering monk and a master of fire magic not happened to be sharing a pipe and a pint at the bar, the story could well have ended there.
      But such was not their fate. As the elves turned the tide of battle against the drow, the leader of the strike team fled to the safe house from which the Koshen had been spying on the party. He disappeared into the apparent safety of an abandoned shop. But in a feat of archery that elven bowmen will be bragging about for centuries, Nee’lahn loosed an arrow that struck the fleeing master assassin from two blocks away through a solid wood wall.
      Suddenly it occurred the elves what they had to do. After weeks of being stalked and harassed by the drow, it was time to take the fight to them. First they revived and released the staff of The Last Port. Next they gathered their gear and their new friend with his welcome firepower. Then after a quick recon of the boarded up candle shop, they entered the House of Pain itself.
      Once inside the two story structure the party found themselves immediately under assault. They faced a multitude of traps both mundane and magical. They also battled drow in far greater numbers than they had expected to find. More surprises awaited the heroes within the building. They found evidence of an extensive intelligence gathering program directed against them. Maps, profiles, activity timelines, even illusory images of each member.
      They also uncovered an insidious plan to secretly “remove” members of the party and replace them with magically created vat grown simulacrums. Apparently it was the drow’s twisted intent to replace all of Dida’s companions with duplicates, then subject her to the horror of being betrayed by her “friends”. Two of the simulacrums had already matured enough to break free of the tall glass tubes they were encased in. This put Kyra and Niro in the disturbing position of having to fight themselves to the death.
      Despite these shocks and obstacles the party has made steady and determined progress through the drow lair. Dispatching assassins, slaying a priestess of Lolth and her minions in her own temple, and killing themselves (literally). “House of Pain” indeed. Having regrouped, the elves and their allies plan to explore and secure what remains of the first floor. Then move on to the upper level to exterminate the remaining drow and rid themselves once and for all of the deadly plague of the Kuo’zan Koshen.