Five players this week. The lass with the TWF BS fighter could come. Don't whine about the build because she's still learning the game, is keeping up very nicely damage wise so far and, sadly, has more widely useful skills than anyone else.

The party hung around long enough debating what to do that I got bored, so some slitherazi spear carriers found them standing over the corpse of the chieftain. They ran out and clumsily fought through to the drawbridge, slaughtering about 10 civilians (using the tome of lightning with uncontrolled effects) and four braves. It still took them almost fifteen rounds to get out.

They ran off into the swamp, found a dry spot to hole up, and spent two days there. During that time (spent so that they could come back at full spells and hp) they made no effort to do anything with the magic items they had found, posted only minimum watches at their camp site, and cooked food. So I checked for the slith to send scouting parties to find them and lo! A 20 was rolled, right off the bat. Since these guys had done some major damage the scouts only watched from a good distance away. Players couldn't get over a 20 on any spot or listen checks so didn't notice the scouts. Seriously, the DC from the scouts 'take ten,' +1 bonus, and -10 for distance totalled 21 and they failed twice each. So two days later they head back to the city, everyone failing another set of spot and listen checks to notice the scouts going back before them.

Now the slith here aren't a major war force and most of the leadership has been killed. But the warriors have 16 Int scores and know that a major offensive is going to pass through the city before hitting Fort Dunvo. So they set a defensive position with spiky barriers and lots of spears just inside the gate thinking they could lure the PCs in one at a time and kill them. Four warriors and 12 braves with ten short spears each for throwing. The scouts reported the PCs still in the area and then reported when the party was coming back, time to set the trap.

I think that the Sanctuary spell was the only reason that the warblade didn't die. He used his boots of "teleport 20 feet" and the warriors and 4 of the braves failed the Will save to pincushion him. He was still below 1/2 hp before he got the drawbridge down. Then began the twenty round slugfest fight while the sorcerer kept flipping pages in the tome to try and get Orbs of Electricity and Chain Lightnings, after starting an uncontrolled Call Lightning and two uncontrolled Call Lightning Storms. That tome started with 42 pages in it and still had 35 pages when they left the city. It now has 12 pages left.

So they killed 7 warriors and 17 braves, leaving 43 more warriors and 83 more braves (reinforcements show up every 4 to 6 rounds). I believe that they think this is some sort of computer game spawn fight, they did say something about a "boss mob fight" that they expect. Of course they also think that the item they are looking for in here may be in a pool, in someone's bedroom, or somewhere in the farms. Never mind that they were explicitly told by the mage who sent them here that it was in the temple. These guys can fight, but that can't actually adventure worth a dang. This is way harder on them than it needs to be.

Just in case I didn't detail the tomes of random magic elsewhere in here (although I'm sure I updated the google docs magic item file)
Spoiler
Show
Magic Tomes
A fresh tome has 50 pages when created. When opened the user makes a Will save DC19 or he involuntarily reads the page and activates the spell. Read Magic will allow you to read the spell without activating it. Turning the page will waste the spell, it is gone as though it had been cast. The reader can only control spells that are on his class list, those spells are cast at the reader's caster level or the minimum caster level of the spell, whichever is higher.
65,000 gp value, CL 11.
Tome of Summoning: 1d6: 1-2 wizard, 3-4 cleric, 5-6 druid. 1d6: Summon Monster or Nature's Ally 1-6
Tome of Lightning: Shocking Grasp(w), Resist Energy(d), Call Lightning(d), Orb of Electricity(w), Call Lightning Storm(d), Chain Lightning(w)
Tome of Death: Chill Touch(w), Death Knell(c), Vampritic Touch(w), Death Ward(c), Slay Living(w), Circle of Death(c)
Tome of Protection: Shield(w), Shield Other(c), Prot from Energy(d), Lesser Globe of Invulnerability(w), Spell Resistance(c), AntiLife Shell(d)
Tome of Animation: Animate Rope(w), Animate Fire(d), Stone Shape(w), Shape Metal(c), Awaken(d), Animate Object(c)
Tome of Stone: Magic Stone(c), Soften Stone(d), Stony Grasp(w), Spike Stones(d), Wall of Stone(c), Flesh to Stone(w)


So it's the 21st now, in four days the force of warriors, priests, and mages, led by another chieftain, will arrive at the city to stage up for the assault on Fort Dunvo. If they're still here then I'm pretty sure they'll all die. Of course if they take too long and fail to hit the slitherazi Island Fort in time then Dunvo will fall anyways. Interesting times.