Valegrim's page

The party generally moves forward

Astinos, Kosan and Durr move forward together down the slopped entrace to the stone level about the lava prepared for action, Astinos bellows forth a challenge and many heads can be seen to swivel forth to him from the undead, the thralls and among the snakemen. From down here the area appears vaguely oval shapped.

Llvenoc takes a place behind the three moving forward looking for a opening to move toward the goddesses manacled form, sheilding his eyes from the bright contrast of the channeled powers of the Uberghoul and the Mummypriest in conflict.

Nebebit, Kemenebi and Fox take places behind the fighter about 10 ft back prepared to assist.

The Uber ghoul is in front of the party to the left; intent upon the Mummy Priest; his shear hunger for death radiates from him in a palpaable aura, behind him; the vampires are getting order among the thralls and ghouls whipping them to attack the party in a rush, they move forward to engage...there are enough of them to easily surround the party unless steps are taken; there are no walls at all and the arching stairway in enteres the part with about 5ft from the rear edge of the platform; it is about 60ft to the other edge and the first pillar that hold one of the runic chains which bind the goddess.

The Jewel stays on the arched entrace and casts a wall of fire in an attempt to seal the snakemen from advancing.

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Any other first round action; post them; otherwise; second round actions are up:

The closest one.

they are equal distance at the top of the stairs side by side.

Ancestral relic; what would be the story background for it?

regular starting money

holy symbol for all Egyptians is the Anhk; each have sacred animals; will have to get back to you on that when I have my book handy

I need to know the recipients of these magic missles; same one; different one; Elsdynes or Kurgs Norker?

I would like youi guys, if your there and I hope you are, that your ready or not with your characters; have at least your combat stuff done and a description.

My plan is to bring you in in the big fight with the boss, wihtout giving anything away; real soon.

pc's are up

the norker screams in pain, clearly not used to being hurt; he looks very wobbly now.

The norkers attack back, multiattack claw,claw, bite
Kurgs
1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9
1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
1d20 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9

Elsdyne's
1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14
1d20 + 4 ⇒ (10) + 4 = 14
1d20 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11

Kurg; gets and 18 and his sword leaves a trail of sparks on the norker but not much else

Elsdyne; in a well placed attack slices a norker well

1d8 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10

ok; the guards have a 5

Kurg and Elsdyne attack side by side;

Els 1d20+7

Anyone else need anything before you jump in? all still good to go?

Here are the catfolk stats; you can also look at Kemnebi's character in my original pbp

Catfolk (cat-like humanoids) (Ragadolf’s Version)
(RotW p92)
+4 Dex
+2 Cha
-2 Wis
Favored Class: Ranger
• Humanoid (catfolk)
• Medium Size
• 40’ Movement
• Low-Light Vision
• +2 Racial bonus on Listen and Move Silently checks.
• +1 Natural Armor bonus to AC.

This is a 3.5 game so those are the books I am using.

The three vampires upon seeing the part react and together activate some item that within seconds causes a thrall to explode and a Superghoul to take his place; this ghoul is like no other you have seen; hunger reeks off it it as licks the last drops of the blood of the thrall from its fingers. The ghoul is covered in boney ridges and the age of the creature astounds you; its armor like none you have ever seen.

The mummy priest with you lifts his true Anhk and calls upon the power of his dieites; many rays shine forth from the Anhk some striking human thralls and knocking them down; one touches upon a lesser vampire which breifly flames and turns to dust; but the SGhoul raises forth his hand and a nether black cloud of pure channeled death meets the pure light and they cancel each other out; will vs will he ghould and mummy struggle to push the power of their channeled dieties into eaches party. It would be foolish to break the beams and even more foolish to come near the black pool of death.

The Abominations race forward to meet the party; but they are some distance and thier bulky frames where built for power and endurance, not speed; they are still some 40ft away.

The lesser mind flayers begin a summoning ritual of their own and the four magus/priests from each side continue their stuggle of domination.

The thralls and ghouls loose iniative this round as the survivors jump back behind the SGhoul for protection from the searing light of the Ankh

this is an exremely evil sactified area; all turning from Good aligned priestly persons will be at a -3; neutrals unaffected; and evil at +3

at this time the party can advance either to he snakemen or the undead or split in two and go both directions; but no one is in melee range to move and attack. depending which way the party goes; those who can may make move action and turn or shoot/throw.

Astinos; to get to the demons; until they fly over here; you will have to go through either the snakes which are the largest contingent; or the undead and mind flayers.

In each corner you can see another hump much like the one you are on predisposing that there are three more entrances.

"Dont ever take a fence down, until you know why it was put up" - robert frost

Fox

Kemnembi

",...Wow,..."

Kemnebi's eyes, (that you didn't think could get any wider than they did when he was briefly reunited with June) are saucer sized now, giving him the look of a kitten playing dress up.

He looks around, abominations on one side, snake creatures on the other, vampires ahead, and dark elves and demons straight across. He blinks and takes deep breath, smelling the power here. He bares his teeth in a feral grin.

'This is wrong! So much power! And some so vilely conjured,... it shouldn't be able to all coexist! It's the very definition of 'chaos'. We might not have to defeat all of these creatures,... If we disrupt the casting of the right group or groups, the feedback should destroy the others. IF we disrupt the wrong ones, the feedback could backfire on us! Which ones,..?'

K:Arcana, K:Planes, K:Religion, Spellcraft: 1d20+16; 1d20+16; 1d20+10; 1d20+18

His feral grin turns almost disturbing as he feels the coils of power manifesting around him. His thoughts leak through,...

'So much power, must be careful. The Taint,... but you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs,...'

was a great game; best I have seen for a superbowl in a long long time; coulda gone either way at the end depending upon heroics

ok; the guards have a 5

Kurg and Elsdyne attack side by side;

Els 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

If your character is going to be an abomination; then mainline Egypt is ont for you; the Summerian/Babylonian area just ended a long 15 year total war civil conflict. It was a bloody mess that some Eyptian, Greeco-Roman, Arthurian, Holy Cities and so on were all involved in; lot of abomination were created for the war. This war was a bloody and magical conflict that involved many magic users and summoned monsters like Holyphants, Genies, Efreeti, Salamanders, Marids, Giants, various insect folk, elementals and both demons and devils to mention a few. Many special combatants were sought after for both good and evil.

After the war; the Shah proclaimed that all would be invited to be part of his great society; none would be left out.

One of the Shahs proclaimations if for his questing knights to find out whagt happened to the dwarves? His call for aid during the war from his dwarven allies was not responded to; he has already found out that his primary allied dwarves are all dead and their Great Hold, a massive tomb. He has sent his questing knights to find out if any dwarven holds still exist.

now; you could be clever and tie both of these together; being a questing paladin follow of Ra who went to join the civil war for the side of good and rightousness; only to arrive after the war had ended, thought much work to be done; then go with the Shah's forces he sends to aid the Holy Cities to repel and attack from a horde of monsters; but these forces arrive to late and the Emperor sent forces to break the seige; but there you could be summoned by agents of good to look into the dwarven hold a few weeks travel as they are wondering where the dwarves were in this conflict as well; The Elven Emperor sent forces as well, but they all went back to their forests and elves have been very rare to sight in the last 3 years.

ok; we are more or less playing in a world based on literary myth and such from our world; so there is all the lands and areas of the golden are of myth and fantasy more or less. Your Character would be from the Eyptian area bordering on Summaria and Babylonia; your character race exists in all these areas.

if you going to be a paladin; and there are a lot of them in those areas; you need to pick a diety to serve; the dieties in the deserts there promote fanaticism so there are lots of dieties to choose from as opposed to say; the Viking culture which has almost no Paladins.

I would suggest you take RA as your characters diety; they are the greatest of the questing paladins as they are searching everywhere with the help of Isis, to find all the pieces of RA's body after he was dismemebered by Set. Horus and Isis are the dieties that will generally answer your prayers and grant powers; but just remember that the pantheon of polyistic so any of the could as you to do something and you could ask of any of them for help.

If you want to go other than Egyptian; then I will give you another idea or you can come up with one of your own. One you settle on it; I will tell you some legend/background information.

4d6

4d6

4d6
4d6

4d6
4d6

4d6
4d6

4d6
4d6

4d6
4d6

OK, so it's: 15, 11, 19, 16, 21, 15

Num-Rah is a 6'8'' tall and 190 lbs heavy Whitemane Litorian. His broad back is straight as a spear and he carries
his heavy backpack and strange-looking great sword as lightly as feathers. Num-Rah's pelt and
mane are whiter than a fresh snow and eyes blue as waters of a mountain lake burn with quiet intensity.
Num-Rah speaks but rarely. When he does, his voice is deep and rich. In a sheet across his back rests a strange
sword, as large as a greatsword, but single-edged and with a handle made from carved bone of some large beast. By
his right arm there's another strange weapon. Similar to short sword in size, this is obviously a weapon made for
both chopping and stabbing, but with an inward-curved blade and wider end section of the blade. To his caravan
companions, Num-Rah seems as exotic and deadly as his weapons. When asked, he said that his people call them
"Direclaw" and "Smallclaw".

Num-Rah was born in the mountains on the edge of the savanna (I'm thinking Kilimanjaro), as a son to the priest-king of the ancient city of Opar. The city holds thousands of catfolk, with pelts of different colors, but the highest of them all are whitemanes, born to defend, to rule and to bring justice. Their strength is tempered by justice and their justice is tempered by mercy - but their wrath is terrible thing to behold. Whitemanes are mostly paladins and sorcerers, since they lack the Constitution of their cousins, but are gifted with great Charisma (Changes to Litorian: +2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Cha instead of Con; favorite classes Paladin and Sorcerer). One of their sacred duty is to make blades for
the common Litorians, who are mostly hunters and shepherds and elders tend to be shamans. Whitemane bladesmiths
believe that the warrior soul is...

wow; hope you have good food; that sounds like a lot of fun

ooh; have a great time on your vacation; sounds cool

Llvenoc; I need to know what speed your moving and how many feet that will be; ie tactical walk to outright sprint.

Elsdyne gets and init of 11,
Kurg gets a 13

Attention all you who have your characters rolled up; let me know what you still need; I want to wrap it up so you guys can get your group background story all set and get in this game real soon.

My plan is to have you in the boss battle which if things go as expect; should be very very soon

yes there are catfolk; they are from Egypt. and no recruiting is not closed just yet; not sure how many are still around from the recent recruitment.

Valegrim, is the recruitment finished?

If I am not mistaken, you have catfolk-like race in your game, right?

The knight leads; Kurg carries the dwarven corpse; and they move up the stairs seemingly heading toward the top; their heavy armor slowing their advance a bit, but their stamina does not falter.

at the top of the stair is two elite looking goblin guards; intiative please. They have the advantage of higher ground; but the party is obscured due to the dark flowing around the Black Orc so the guards didnt see the party until they arrived, but heard them enough to be curious enough to get ready to do do some guarding.

the gaurds are Norkers; cousins to goblins; their rock hard skin and gleaming claws bely thier tougher nature.

these guys have a natural armor class of 20; plus dex gives them each a 23; the dull look in their eyes shows their not to bright but the gleam and lear of their smiles shows they are all kinds of maleficant.

I am of course still here; havent been watching the discusson thread much though, but I try to check the game thread often as possible; I try to at least every day or two; little harder since work is giving us more the hairy eyeball.

did I forget anyone; not intentional to be sure.

Fox, your mask stirs as it absorbs more information that you can process, but doesnt interupt you. You are certain that the Emperor would be interesting in what is going on here and if you need allies; you could probaby send some...

Nebebit and Kemnebi, you notice that the Ancient Mummy Lord with you is clutching in his hand a symbol of power; a True Ahnk and both of you believe the the blast of power that will come from it will light up this area like the sun come to earth, that or open and pour forth his troops; in the stories from your childhoods both these activities as well are raising the dead and breaking ancient curses are possible with an True Ahnk. Being dead so long; he probably just uses it as a holy symbol for casting; you may want to remind him as this battle is for all the marbles.

Astinos; fighting directly for a goddess of your pantheon has moved your courage to unbeakable; even by magic or direct god power of opposed dieties; your presence aura will encompass the party in this activity no matter how far they are from you as long as they hold true to the purpose of this quest.

hehe post monster tried to eat my post; but I outwitted him.

Ok; last we left off; interepid adventurers were about to mount an attack from the newly carved snake tunnel into a near infernal pit of fire. The heat that blasts the party is immense, without some type of heat protections, not many can last long on this platform above an inferno filled with liquid fire; yes, lava, and in the lava swims several creatues; both fire snakes and salamanders.

A heavy presence fills the air, the unholy hissed chanting of hundreds of snakeman that ring the chamber on six levels concentric rings; their reptilian bodies giving off an hair raising scent of death and inhuman morbidity.

Central to the chamber bound with mystic chains is a giant woman of undescribable beauty and generous proportion, a vast sense of age as that of the earth itself comes from her and the youth of spring dances across her features even as the fury of winter from her stare is leveled against her captures.

Yet, just a powerful and maelevolant beyond description is the presence of one or more snake gods channeled from the chanting devotions of their faithful. An etheral glowing snake head of giant proportions hand in the air; its questing tounge lapping at the Earth Goddess and its solemn stair seeks only the anticipation of a divine meal.

The party rushes up the steps; each to thier own skills and heroic design; as the crest the stone arch which continues to the main chamber; the unholy forces directing the chants and wielding the power of the ritual of divine destruction. There are four partial arches of abyssal stone which are bound the mystic chains that bind the Earth Mother. Between each of these curved pillars is a group directing the ritual. To your right is a group of the walking dead, a master vampire, a few other vampires, and spread out among several warrior thralls. to the left are robed, pureblood ophidians that look frighteningly human but with snakelike features; among them are numerouls slaves kneeling naked with bright red collars and unholy script written upon their bodies; among them are several Abominations awaiting the commands to begin the slaughter of blood for the Snake God to manifest. Across the way can be seen the perhaps the most vile of enemies, five mind flayers and one Hive master; with them are a few mind slaves altered by mad surgery. Opposite them and the other far side are horrific beasts that can only be demonic in origin, a powerful looking armored Cambion with two heavily armored figures and a robed dark elf Wizard, an arch magus to be sure. The Cambion channels the power, the two anti paladins are holding up their unholy symbols of power in some ritual while the dark elf wizard conjures with staff and rod. Another figure is in a background but somewhat hidden in the abyssal gloom that pervades that area and hidden behind on open gate way that shines from the power the Cambion is drawing from it. One thing can be noted sure as lava is hot; there is a long red two handed sword hanging in the air point down about 15 foot over the figure is gloom.

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ok; lets start by iniative; actions will take place generally with fast range attacks happening first and then those who close in melee.

Llvenoc; you see two close by options close at hand unless you can fly or get thrown somehow; the left are right half arches with the mystic chains; in your estimation; breaking a chain at the arch would be pointless; with a quick calculation; you guess you should probably staddle, stand or hold on the the 25' tall goddess and break the chains upon her if you can, but then you hazard the fall afterwards into the lava unless you can spring back onto an arch; you doubt a earth goddess can be hurt my mundane lava; but who knows. so; if you follow this which I beleive was your plan; you must choose one of the four routes; the vampires or snakemens are closest.

Fox and Kemnebi; you can see something is mystically going wrong; off balance an some other presence is intruding upon the ritual. The magical power in the area just leaking out hightens your abilities much like a potion o heroism; you both can act as caster 2 levels higher from this position; in the center of the room; add two more levels; near the gate; 2 more levels. This magical power is dark and evil; each of you gain 1 point of corruption. You may of course seek to push away and reject this power and try to halt anymore corruptions; but you would have to reject all of your power in this battle with total commitmant; this would require a high dc willpower roll.

Nebebit and Astinos; the divine power in this room is staggering. The power wafing off the snake god directed at the earth goddess and her furious directed power back at him; it is obvious that very soon; she will loose this battle of wills unless help arrives, yet, that is not what bothers you. It is the sheer wrongness of the power coming from both the Cambion led team and the Hive Master, it is the power of the Elder Gods; the Old ones; they are trying to summon something beyond description; perhaps some long forgotten General of these ancient enemies. Their summoning will probably take another turn by your best guesses as the skill of the Hive Master and the Drow Priest seems to exceed the Master Vampire's group combined with the Pureblood snakes. Not doing anything is bad, yet disrupting this balance is bad, consider and choose.

Kosan, lucky day; a target rich environment :

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ok; lets go; by inits.

My plan is to bring the new players into the game at the fight with the boss of this citadel.

from the Celtic Knight from my conversation with him

"comrades, let us accend the stairs; thus engaging from strength the vile foe and make them rue the death of our valiant dwarf, I will lead, Goodman Ork; would you accend next to me; then others as may follow with one good of fighting to gaurd our rear; thus we can obtain the path further into this Hold. Who says this yea?"

the Black Ork grunts
kill wicked goblins, good plan, dont care where, what you say Biscuit; you smarts

I am not the kind of gm that tried to dictate peoples action; but rather give you a set of options and have you choose then present the fallout from such choices in a rather Zork-like approach. What I expect is that the players fit their skills to the choices and as more information is collected change their plans accordinly. Extra or bonus exps given to characters who do this well within thier character theme.

The party has the basic choices as follows and I will give you a general outline of things I think you might consider.

1) go forward up the stairs bypassing all other levels; if you go quick enough you will probably make it to the top before anyone notices you or at least if they follow; at the top you will have the combat advantage of fighting from higher ground; the top is the most defensible so a probable place for the goblin leaders of this section.

2) go to the left and fight the goblin artillerists in the left section; they are not good fighters and would be a decent exp boost and have the advantage of not leaving anyone behind you, this might also confuse any pursuit as those who might track you would have to split into four groups to try to find you, or possibly more.

3) go up to the second level either right or left and melee the forces there; again; more combat exps but also might weaken the party before the fight with the bosses; but then, do you want these forces pursing you or behind you? You may also find some treasure the more bad guys you encounter in their living areas.

4) you could also leave the fortress and find another way down; but that appears to be very dangerous at the moment as hundreds of goblin forces are leaving to go outside.

Is this helpful? the party needs to decide how they approach these situations; it doesnt look like the party is that stealthy ;but you could try it; the party would probably do pretty well with brashness as goblins are generally cowards and use their strengths of ambushes and numbers. With good intimidation rolls; I will give the goblins a minues or two to their actions.

one thing; our knight from Camelot is having some issues; so I will be conversing with him and posting for his character as his posting will be sporatic at best.

So; which way will the party be going please; and how fast; sneaking; boldly going; or in a rush to catch some unwary or some such?

wishful thinking but i doubt it will be that easy

there are of course other options; but those are most likely.

not that I know of; I am waiting for someone to say something like: we go that way; choices are door on this level; go to the other side and fight those gobs and enter that door; or go up the stairs.

so we are just waiting for Kojan's init I think; will give it another day

is that everyones init?

yes

Y'alls making me thirsty; went to a funeral today; always better to go to more weddings than funersls

lol; no, no crits on inits in this game; though same game systems have a rule that if you roll maxe you roll again and keep rolling as long as you max which is kinda neat.

Ok; lets start with some initiative rolls for action; this aught to be like a big swirly

unless your impersonating a beer hehe

Hmm, I didn't take the differences into account when I built the character. I think I would have to say I'm probably a Stout. Seems wrong for a widdle girl to say that, though.

Cool; thanks for helping in the round up of getting things moving after the holidays

"Stay with the elf! We need to make sure he reaches his objective!"

Is that also halfling speed?

** spoiler omitted **

what speed are you moving?

which book is Hall of Stone in so I can read it; dont know it right off

is curious isnt it.

did everyone get their characters updates done; ready to go; this is the description of setting for the next sequence; basically the party is at the bottom of a arched stair that goes into the ritual chamber; what is the parties plan of action?

also, you may wish to go back a page and read the narrative interlude.

ok; when you round the corner and look; or anyone does.

the first thing you notice is that this room is really really hot, the smell of brimstone <sulphur> is prevalent. This 300' diameter room is conical like a step flowerpot, but inverted where the large opening is at the bottom. The very bottom level below you is a lake of lava, swirling in bright and dark masses. The step walls are each 20' high to the next level; each level is an open gallery where hundreds of snakemen who look very human, but your eleven eyes can pick out their reptilian nature. So, with 6 levels, you quickly guess about 1000 snakemen, wearing red and black robes with mystic snake symbolsw, all chanting some dark rite. You are at the base of what perhaps amounts to a leg of a table; but instead of a leg; it is a stone archway that leads up the the central table top. This tabletop has four such stone archways, much like legs that lead up to the tabletop; you are at one corner on one leg.

up on the table top itself you notice a central feature. There is a large 40' central circle cut out of the stone and there are six grotesque sculpted arms that are evenly spaced around the central circle. Each of these arms has a large metalish circle on which attached is a great mystical chain. To these six chains are affixed a very beautiful, yet distraught, 25' tall woman. The aura around her tells you that this is indeed the goddess you are looking for....

The room is both dark and bright; shadows abound and there is some murk hanging in the air. From the arms to which are attached the chains, there is also swirls of magic power and at random intervals; black lightening strikes the goddess and she squirms in agony shaking the chains; massive chains even a peronage of her stature cannot break.

roll perception to notice other things.

Llvenoc wrote:

Seeing that everything has been turned around I move into the main chamber looking for the best path to get to the Earth Godess.