DM Zyren's Heart of Journeys
Game Master Zyrenity

By the time I took his action it was a bit out of sequence I suppose - Atty had probably cleaved to death two of the culties and Nymeria possibly had killed the last... thought ONE AOO wasn't too bad a consideration. If it mean moving Ragnvald to AFTER Attalas then the thing works well :) which is what I suppose I should have clarified in the post... he'd delay, take the (at best one) AOO then step over to start murderising Mayorbug

Ah, now that makes sense...sorry, but now you have to deal with the cultists still alive :)

Rd6:

Jez (resolved)
Ragnvald (resolved)
Mobo (resolved)
Nymeria (resolved)
Cultists (resolved)
Attalas
Mayorbug

Mobo misses the cultist and the man snickers viciously as he raises his curved dagger

Cultist attacking Mobo/Dagger 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20
Damage1d4 ⇒ 4

Cultist attacking Ragnvald/Dagger 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (11) + 3 = 14
Damage1d4 ⇒ 4

Cultist attacking Jez/Dagger 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (15) + 3 = 18
Damage1d4 ⇒ 4

Map is still the same

Jez suddenly realizes something important that she had forgotten after the battle with the scarecrow - healing.

HP: 0

13/17 for Mobo

Round 7
If there is a living enemy in front of me, I will 5-foot step back and then cast CLW, otherwise just cast CLW.

CLW:1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

Attalas simply steps across and with a huge boot tries to sweep the mayorbugs legs out from under him using his superior reach.

Trip - 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24 vs CMD.

As Attalas begins to stomp over to the mayor, he realizes that a trip isn't a good idea, now that the mayor hovers about 3ft above the ground :)

Attalas, you may change your action for rd6

Faced with the ogre in front of him, the giant mosquito uses its stinger to attack

Blightspawn attacking Attalas /Sting 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (8) + 10 = 18
Damage2d6 + 7 ⇒ (2, 5) + 7 = 14

if hit:

Sting - injury; save Fort Dc 16, frequency: 1/round for 6 rounds; effect: 1d4 wisdom and donstitution damage and confusion for 1 round; cure: 2 saves.

Rd7:

Jez (resolved)
Ragnvald
Mobo
Nymeria
Cultists
Attalas
Mayorbug

Battle Mat

Retcon then

Seeing the manbug floating, Attalas spins through and just hacks at it instead...

Attack 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (11) + 10 = 21
Damage 3d6 + 12 ⇒ (1, 2, 5) + 12 = 20

Greenish ichor splatters forth as attalas hits the bug with his mighty swing - the creture does not seem very worried though...

Waiting for Ragnvald

Ragnvald growls eager to get into the fight with the mosquito creature rather than waste time on these fools.

Attack nearest cultist.
1 more round of perform left.
1d20 + 8 ⇒ (6) + 8 = 14 Attack
2d6 + 7 ⇒ (3, 2) + 7 = 12 Damage

Mobo slices again at the cultist with his dogslicer.

Dogslicer 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 2 = 19

Damage 1d4 ⇒ 4

Posting for Nymeria since she has not posted in 4 days.

Round 7 - Nymeria

Hoping to eliminate the last two cultists and free up the big swords to bug the mayor, Nymeria again casts Burning Hands at Y23 and Z23 - should not hit Ragnvald.

Burning Hands-Damage: 2d4 + 2 ⇒ (2, 4) + 2 = 8 <-- DC15 Reflex for 1/2 -- extra +2 from Bloodline

Awaiting turn...

Another Cultist falls to Ragnvald's hungry blade, now he faces only one more of them. The one attacked by Mobo screams in pain as the dogslicer cuts in his tigh, furiously he responds and hears the sizzling flames eating the clothes of his last companion

Cultist attacking Ragnvald/Dagger 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (18) + 3 = 21
Damage1d4 ⇒ 2

Cultist attacking Mobo/Dagger 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15
Damage1d4 ⇒ 3

Rd7:

Jez (resolved)
Ragnvald (resolved)
Mobo (resolved)
Nymeria (resolved)
Cultists (resolved)
Attalas
Mayorbug

Battle Mat

R7

Attalas maintains the attack on Mayorbug.

Attack 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29
Damage 3d6 + 12 ⇒ (6, 5, 1) + 12 = 24

Crit?
Attack 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (19) + 10 = 29
ADD Damage 3d6 + 12 ⇒ (1, 2, 6) + 12 = 21

Are you crazy or what? I was prepared that you are not really like lvl, so I chose a lvl 6 encounter...and what happens? You nearly kill the BBEG with two strikes???[/B]

Attalas nearly hacks the large mosquito in two, only the divine power of Ghlaunder makes the creature resilient enough to survive the blow.

[ooc] Blightspawn attacking Attalas /Sting 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (15) + 10 = 25
Damage2d6 + 7 ⇒ (5, 1) + 7 = 13

Ok, my lvl 5 monster is now down to 7hp...at least it's fast healing, lol.

Rd8:

Jez
Ragnvald
Mobo
Nymeria
Cultists
Attalas
Mayorbug

Thats becoz an angry Oger is an angry Oger and Mayorbug sed hurtful wurdz about him before.

As if your peanut-brain can still remember what he said...:)

Round 8
Figuring that Ragnvald has the last cultist under control, Jez turns had heads to V19 to help the little man.

As she runs to attack Jez screams:
Ghlaunder is no challenge for a mad girl with blue hair and a big sword.

Attack: 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 8 + 1 = 11
Damage: 2d4 + 7 + 1 ⇒ (3, 3) + 7 + 1 = 14

Once again, the corn stalks pay the price for being somewhere close the the blue haired girl's wildly swinging blade.

Round 8

Mobo grins and slashes again, his toothy maw stretching from ear to ear.

Dogslicer 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18
Damage 1d4 ⇒ 3

Nymeria shoots off a ball of acid at the Mayorbug.

Attack:1d20 + 4 ⇒ (8) + 4 = 12
Damage:1d3 ⇒ 3

Killing cultists now.

1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27
2d6 + 7 ⇒ (4, 1) + 7 = 12

Only one cultist is left now, but with feverish devotion he follows Ghlaunder's teachings and defends his master

Cultist attacking Mobo/Dagger 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (19) + 3 = 22
Damage1d4 ⇒ 1

Confirm 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (10) + 3 = 13
Damage1d4 ⇒ 3

Attalas and the mayor left in this round.

Battle Mat

R8

Attalas continues the assault!
"You called me names!"

Attack 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26
Damage 3d6 + 12 ⇒ (4, 1, 5) + 12 = 22

pff T_T

Before the mosquito can asnwer something in its weird voice, Attalas grabs it and beats its brains out with the hilt of his large sword...as the last cultist witnesses that, he wets his pants and falls to his kness, seeing the glory of Ghlaunder overcome by some dim-witted brutes...

Looking about the carnage, Jez lets out a deep long sigh.
We told him not to mess with us, but did he listen? No, instead he tried to make us and other innocent people of this town sacrifices to whatever twisted power he followed.

After sighing and shaking her head. Well, let's search them and the get back into town and find who was second in command. They have some explaining to do.

12/17

Mobo looks at the shallow wound traced across his arm and grins, he holds his dogslicer to the throat of the pee-soaked cultist.

"It be a shame if no gods got sacrifice today. You want meet Zarongel? No? Maybe you crawl back to town and tell everybody Mobo's clan did this. We not be taken without a fight! Mobo has Attalas Bug-Smasher. What you got now?"

Let's serach the house too. Than leave a grisly reminder for the villagers. :D

Covered in minor scrtches and cuts Ragnvald gives a small but mirthless laugh. "A big bug smashed by a bigger man. Such is how things should be. You!"

RAngvald lifts his gorey and bloodied blade to point between the eyes of the remaining and coweringg cultist. "Go back to your village tell them that Ragnvald Hrolfson has given your nameless farce of an apostle a name; Rotting meat and that Attalas has made the body fit the name! Tell them Gorum has passed through here! Tell them this is the price for crossing one of his sons!"

if/when the cultist flees.

"We should loot and burn the house and leave an image that will stick upon their greasy little minds for decades to come. Come Mobo help me collect the heads and I'll let you keep the ears to chew."

I also cast CLW on myself.
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6

Looking around: Anyone else need some health?
_______________

After hearing Ragnvald's pronouncement, Jez shakes her head:
Are you sure that is what Gorum would want? There is a difference between combat and evil. I do not know Gorum that well, but what you wish done sounds more reminiscent of the demons from my homeland than what the supreme warlord would want. The fact that their false god was destroyed in fair combat should sit well with your lord. Turning this into a nightmare scene sounds more like Lamashtu or Rovagug.

Ragnvald shrugs the demon woman off as he decapitates a nearby cultist. "These are not innocent women and children. These are men who chose a path that made their village suffer and likely cost the life of the man we are searching for. This is to show the price of that path and to make them fear treading it's dark and twisting ways again while being grateful for the quiet, boring, lives they have. This is a nightmare with a strategy to it." Ragnvald then scowls and turns to face Jez. "And do not compare me to those black and cursed gods again."

Pausing for a moment to heal away some of the small cuts Ragnvald continues his grisly work.

CLW: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

With the big dark spot between his legs, the man scurries off as you slowly walk back towards the house. You are sure that the folks of Ravenmoor will never ever pray to Ghlaunder again...and how could they, after you've killed nearly every cultist...

A thorough search of the mayor, his brother, the cultists and their headquarter unearthes the following treasures:

3 blue potions
1 yellow potion
2 antitoxin
magic spear
220 gp
MWk Longsword
unholy symbol of Ghlaunder

Well done, Feast of Ravenmoor is nearly completed. Any wishes for the next Adventure? If not, I can maske some suggestions. And: Level up for everyone.

Jez looks at the magic:

Spellcraft(blue potions): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15
Spellcraft(yellow potion): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7
Spellcraft(spear): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (10) + 5 = 15

Unfortunately she is pretty clueless about what she is looking at.

________________

Congrats all! I'm fine with any module/adventure really. There are some fun ones, just not sure what's around our level.

Mobo happily follows Ragnvald torching everything he can get his paws upon in the home.

"Stoke the house to make a pyre,
Build a grasping burning fire,
Zarongel likes flames higher,
Howl for him my ember choir!"

Mobo lets loose a long and excited howl as he dances around tossing wood and cultists on the flames.

"Mayor he thought he'd call me names
denied he did when I complains
Make my anger burning flames
Took my sword and smashed his brains".

"Why are people like him so mean to me? I just want to be friends. Just wait here they said, secret mission they said, dont follow us they said, come back for you we will they said. What I ever do wrong?"

Attalas wipes the gore off his sword and starts poking the stab holes in his body with a grubby finger a little absent mindedly whilst making strange sound effects..

"I'll take some healing if spare"

Forgot the saving throw from earlier too!
Fort Save 1d20 + 9 + 2 ⇒ (12) + 9 + 2 = 23

Jez walks over to Attalas. Some people never learn. They grow up mean and they stay mean. Good thing you are not one of those people. You have a good heart, which is hard to come by.

Not sure how much down you are, tell me how many CLW you need.

Jez carefully looks at Attalas' wounds and then moves her small hands over the pokey holes which are surrounded by an aura of knowledge binding the wound back together.

CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (5) + 1 = 6
CLW: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 1 = 9

Level Up:
Fighter(Lore Warden) 2

HP: 1d10 ⇒ 9

Feats:
Combat Expertise(Lore Warden Bonus)
Butterfly Sting(Fighter Level 2)
Gory Finish(Level 3)

Skills:
Perception +2
Knowledge(arcana) +1
Knowledge(planes) +1
Sense Motive +1

Lol - now I can scare the crap out of enemies when I kill their friends - I am such an nice little girl. And if that does not work, I can hand off my crits to the ogre or the crazy Gorumite.

Well if the ogre picks up an axe, or worse, a scythe, trhan yes that would be incredibly nasty. Sadly Ragnvald must keep the sword as a matter of faith.

This is my last real martial level, after this is is Sorcerer x2, Dragon Disciple x8, Sorcerer x7 for me. In the end, between a Belt of Strength + Orc Bloodline + Dragon Disciple + Giant Form (Orc Level 15 Bloodline), I should be able to get my strength up to the 42-44 range. Maybe I should get that feat that allows me to add my Strength to Intimidate - would be like +30 or so. I think there is also something that gives Moral bonus to strength, forgot what it is though.

Attalas was 10/30. He could dish it out, but geez even being beefcake we are only L2 after all... that one sting hit would have dropped the average lowbie 'one shot' style!

Attalas, you need an x3 or x4 weapon. And I need a Keen Falchion, then we will be a deadly pair. Me with crits on 15-20, and you getting crit gifts. Lol.

I rolled with Greatsword on the basis that as a Guardsman (and the foster son of a goodly Paladin) he would have notionally favoured a sword, and perhaps an Axe would look a bit too... Oger!!RAR! - for true ugliness I was tossing up Two-Handed fighter archtype (kill with big weapon) but vanilla seems fine. Will consider a weapon swap out when he goes to purchase a good blade (ie when he has some budget!)

On a side note I was heartbroken Ogres were one of the cuts from the final ARG

Ogres may have been cut from the ARG, but not from the HoJ.

Do you want to return to the village or avoid it and return to Magnimar as soon as possible?

Some chars of this group - I'm looking at no one in particular...-are a real DM problem...but I will find a solution hrhr.

Er - Permanent Reduce Person? Then I would be really small.

Don't we still have to find the taxman? I assume they killed him, but have we found any evidence? And what of the tax money he was supposed to be collecting?

Two questions for the group.
.
1) Nymeria - are you planning on continuing? Your posting has been relatively infrequent and if you are in too many campaigns, let us know.
.
2) Are we going to replace Bilbo (again)?
.
I am planning on going Sorcerer/DD starting at level 4, but without Bilbo, we are 1 caster short from where we started.

Ragnvald arranges sharp sticks about the fire planting the earless cultists heads firmly upon them as him and mobo toss the bodies of them into the pyre. The last, the mayor, he spares this indignation for another.

He takes the body into into the town in the morning and finding a suitably visible tree he nails the body to it while leaving a sign written in blood hanging from the deformed creatures neck. "The Unnamed Corpse"

His work done he talks little and with swamp water purified of disease by the blessing of Gorum he washes the blood and his wounds before prepping for the journey.

I think Zyren's issue was he didn't nip the race thing for Attalas in the bud. I already knew that one level of warrior simply wasn't going to cut him down enough I would have gone for commoner. :P Personally I'd knock his strength down by about 4. That puts him at the equivalent of a barbarian raging. Beyond that things will even out a bit. Early level like this all meatshields look crazy good. In another game my cavalier and the barbarian wreck encounters with incredible ease. And we all know how hard Kanyk could hit when he could actually roll well. However this is really up to shifty and zyren since his character was already approved and it's not entirely his fault that attalas exists.

I'm of two minds.
1) Critical Mass
When people drop out with little to no notice it sort of leaves us posted and quite often unable to (reliably) tackle the modules and teh end-game encounters. In fairness this is a real problem with AP's where WBL is already at a bargain basement, then we up the number of players to 'deal with' attrition and then after taking a share of the already skimpy loot they drop out - leaving us under numbers AND well below WBL. Frankly having people do that means it is less fun when we have to end up getting murderised because we are weak, or having the BBEG encounter nixxed (Second Darkness, Runelords, prime examples - reckon we are about to get a megarapesauce in COT for the same reason).

So to that my answer is 'at least this way the mega-beast can unchain and just destroy the bad guys'. It is actually quite satisfying to have a feeling of 'winning', and as long as winning is simply a factor of killin stuff then we are apples. He's like t+~+ on a bull for interaction/skills/diplomacy/yadayada and has weaknesses that I would never ever in a million years tolerate otherwise. He does combat well, and that's about it, but for these campaigns its enough to ensure victory. On the other hand my character choices seem to be based on the interesting choices of others, so I am tending towards self-reliant monsters these days (Alcheringa is a good example, Harry less so, Bloodless becoming more so; disliking Victoria for the LACK of self reliance)

2) Fun Factor.
It is a lot of fun, in some ways its like being the Battlemech roaming the field supporting the guys. If it was a game of Warhammer 40k I'd be the dude driving the Dreadnought. Loads of fun and carnage, but can be a bit overshadowing. That said, I reckon we are a bit out of whack anyhow - the strange sylphlike blue haired girl is already rolling a 20STR which is going to be a great base to exceed the Ogre pretty quick anyhow. Dropping the Ogre down a bit means he is still good now, but wont be so later, in the later stages he's going to have those holes exposed even harder (gear, abysmal will save etc) Maybe keep him as a 'Warrior' for longer would have been the go, or just keep warrior all along, having to 'multiclass' is a bit of a pain.

All good, but if its 'too' overshadowing now then people might not be having as much 'fun'. The real problem we have is that we are a bit all over the shop in power generally.

I think the real impact to the fun factor is the drop in drop out rate of players.

In this campaign we have four consistent posters, one inconsistent poster - where are you Nymeria - and one which keeps getting lost - Bilbo-dwarf cleric-Bilbo again. So far, I have had a lot of fun with the general insanity that is the group. As I mentioned in the last post, we really need a regular arcane caster. I am not sure whats up with Nymeria, but just showing up for battle definitely makes the campaign less fun. It was much better when she was the good conscious versus the rest of us who while not being evil, have morals and ethics which are slightly skewed.

And I will not top Attalas in strength for quite a while, I do not get the DD bonus until level 7 or 8 and the orc bloodline bonuses do not start until level 9 sorcerer (level 12 for me). It is just fun for me to imagine what I will be capable of if we are able to keep this going that long.

In my opinion, what really makes Attalas dangerous is the reach combined with cleave. But that will be offset when we start facing large monsters with similar reach. Either way, I have no problem with the characters we all chose and as I said above, it has been fun so far.

It has definitely been fun thus far, as with Sable, Mobo is in it for the long haul no matter what. I enjoy these campaigns and Zyren's playstyle, and the friends I am making along the way. An arcane caster would be nice, either in the form of what we have now or a steady poster... just don't think Mobo is at shaman mentality just yet :P

I'm also not too worried about Attalas and Jez...at least not now. They might run into enough prolems once an adventure is rather riddle or city-based.
As far as I know, Nymeria is on the road?!
A replacement for Bilbo would be a good thing, I guess - ask at the campfire?

The fearsome villagers only slowly leave their houses in the morning and with horror watch what Ragnvald nails to the tree.

Some of them begin to realize that the cult they mayor had called the new-church of Desna, was not really something the goddess blessed.

One of them, an old man with bald head and a long grey beard approaches you and asks

What demon possessed the mayor? And please, if you return to the city, could you please tell the priests of Desna that we need someone who helps us to find the right way again?