... because as I said before, YES, I AM crazy enough to give myself even MORE of a headache while running this thing. :P
So after at least three failed Play-by-Post internet campaigns and one failed Neverwinter Nights adaptation, I started a PnP Gestalt STAP about a month ago, connecting my now-scattered player group through the wonder that is Ventrilo. We're using a mishmash of 3.5 and Pathfinder along with a few houserules, scaling along Pathfinder's Medium XP progression.
The following are my victims... I mean players:
Gin and Jenny Woodstock: LG Dvati Monk|Fighter
A set of opposite-gender Dvati twins, a rarity that was feared by their race so the twins were abandoned at separate monasteries; thanks to their mind link they eventually discovered one another and left to meet and travel the world together. So far they seem to be serving as the party's moral compass, which tends to bring them into frequent conflict with Yuri and Mala. Jenny doesn't talk much, and tends to play watch during group meetings and such while Gin attends and passes messages.
[Note: They're using the Pathfinder Beta version of Monk and Fighter, but as a houserule I've given both classes a Paladin/Ranger like progression of Maneuvers - Monk chooses from the Swordsage list, Fighter from Warblade's. I allow the same thing for Paladin as well, letting them choose between getting spells or Crusader Maneuvers.]
Rokugo Yuri: TN River Spiritfolk Binder|Rogue/Psion (Telepath)
A Scorpion Clan member exiled from Rokugan for communing with the Dark Powers. [Nobody likes Binders, not even in Rokugan ;)] She's the most direct and charismatic of the group and has sort of become de-facto leader, and already looking to gain influence in Sasserine. Plans to go into Shadowmind on the Rogue side.
Cordor Chainror: CG Human Scout|Warblade
Cordor's player is the newest to my group, so he's playing a fairly common concept - an ex-farm boy on the run from a tyrannical king to the north after his family was killed for a reason he doesn't know. Kills things dead with a scythe. He's missed about half the sessions so far though, so he's not as fleshed out as the others yet.
Rin Gold: TN Human Ardent|Psion (Nomad)
This guy's my resident "weird concepts" player. He's essentially a nerd from a more mundane world who's been dropped into the land of his fantasies and given weird powers in the process. He constantly makes real-world references that the others don't follow, and his Psycrystal tends to put him on Autopilot during combat situations. He's the closest thing the party has to a healer. (I might have been too lenient with allowing this concept, as it's starting to drive a few of the other players nuts...)
Mala Shrenan: LN Whisper Gnome Lurk|Wilder
A super-stealthy assassin-for-hire type with a case of Laser Guided Amnesia. Unfortunately the player has some really bad luck with dice, so up until the most recent session she was constantly getting one-upped at her own game by Yuri. Also has a bit of a Napoleon complex, which Jhered and Cordor get some amusement out of exploiting.
Jhered Nightwind: NG Star Elf Duskblade|Bladewind
The closest thing this party has to a Tank. Bladewind is a custom class made by someone on the WOTC forums, modeled after the character Joachim from Castlevania (Google him if you want), and tweaked by myself and two of my players; Jhered's putting it through one of a few playtests. Strong, silent type with a dry wit. Going for Anointed Blade on Duskblade side I think.
So far we're halfway through "There Is No Honor", they took down Veldimar Krund last session and we quit just outside the door to Penkus's room. I'll post summaries of the first four sessions tomorrow... after Paizo ate my first attempt at this post I need sleep. :P
some of them classes I do not know of but good luck
When entering posts, be sure to select all + copy your entry, then click "preview". If the preview bounces you out to the main page, come back in, make your entry and then paste your post back in. That should take care of the "posts being eaten" problem.
When entering posts, be sure to select all + copy your entry, then click "preview". If the preview bounces you out to the main page, come back in, make your entry and then paste your post back in. That should take care of the "posts being eaten" problem.
That it did. Normally I do so, I neglected to this time unfortunately and suffered for it, heh. Thanks for the reminder, though.
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SESSION ONE
The party met with Lady Lavinia and enjoyed dinner in her estate. After the meal, she explained her dilemma - fees, dues, and taxes left over from her parents' deaths had fallen to her to solve, and without access to the family vaults she cannot pay them. The ring that serves as the key to the vault is currently on the Blue Nixie, Lavinia's ship, which is held in the city port until dues are paid. Lavinia paid the man holding her ship, Soller Vark, but Vark then denied ever receiving them and refused to release the ship. The party has been hired to find out what Vark is doing with the ship and possibly to retrieve Lavinia's stolen money.
The group investigated the docks and discovered the Nixie was not docked at the pier as expected but rather moored some distance out into the harbor. Furthermore several people were moving around on deck or standing watch. Further investigation later into the evening revealed several crates being moved into the ship's lower decks, and odd animalistic sounds coming up from below. Vark himself was seen as well, though he never left the ship and disappeared back into the belowdecks eventually.
Come the next morning Gin reported back to Lavinia to inquire if the Harbormaster was allowed to use her ship in any way while it was impounded; Lavinia seemed surprised and asked him to inquire further, as well as planning to speak with the watch about Vark having a license to transport animals.
At the beginning of next session the group plans to meet at The Drunk Bear around noon.
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That was the "player summary" I wrote for the first session, about a month ago now. (It was actually the second, but the "technical" first had been delayed by scheduling issues and distracted players and ended up being nothing more than a prologue of meeting Lavinia and having dinner, and agreeing to her request.)
Compared to some of the other journals I've read on STAP here and on other forums and various blogs, my group was surprisingly inquisitive. They didn't just charge out and assault the ship, planning on kicking arse and taking names, which seems to be what the AP guide was written for - it seems, reading through the guide, that it was written with a combat-enthusiastic CG party in mind. So instead of spending the first session killing smugglers the players split up and went investigating. I wish I'd learned then what I learned recently at Session Four: the party splitting up is a TIME CONSUMER and a headache for the DM. Thankfully Session Five was significantly less of a headache with Parrot Island.
That said... Session One pretty much ended up being several hours of rolling social skills and Stealth/Perception while sneaking about gathering information on Vark and the current situation in the Azure District. Luckily Jhered and Rin - the two NOT-sneaky party members - managed to keep themselves busy with other things in the meanwhile.
It's also probably notable that I changed Lavinia slightly... by the next session (or if not that, definitely the third) she was getting played as more willing to bend the rules a bit if it would be advantageous for their situation, perhaps more so than she was written to be, so I shifted her from NG to CG. Don't think that'll break anything, unless I forgot something that happens later....
NG is no more beholden to "the rules" than CG as far as I am aware. CG indeed often seeks out opportunities to break "the rules", whilst NG merely obey the rules as it best suits the 'greater good'.
Other than that, it sounds like you have quite the haul in front of you for your group - which will be fun I think given their willingness to dig for dirt, establish connections with NPCs and generally open things up for you to extrapolate and build upon.
Most Adventure Paths assume a mere six months' game time passes - the later ones seem to vary from this - Legacy of Fire has a year of game time pass between the first two chapters for example - but I do believe the STAP was originally intended to take a mere six months' game time. Naturally, plenty of groups took several years' game time to play it out - mine took four or five years for example.
NG is no more beholden to "the rules" than CG as far as I am aware. CG indeed often seeks out opportunities to break "the rules", whilst NG merely obey the rules as it best suits the 'greater good'.
Hmm, good point, no shift necessary it seems. I'll keep that in mind. :)
Other than that, it sounds like you have quite the haul in front of you for your group - which will be fun I think given their willingness to dig for dirt, establish connections with NPCs and generally open things up for you to extrapolate and build upon.
Quite so! I personally find it fairly amusing, and after having to ad-lib through parts of the first few sessions I've finally gotten it through my thick skull to make some excess preparations in advance ;)
Most Adventure Paths assume a mere six months' game time passes - the later ones seem to vary from this - Legacy of Fire has a year of game time pass between the first two chapters for example - but I do believe the STAP was originally intended to take a mere six months' game time. Naturally, plenty of groups took several years' game time to play it out - mine took four or five years for example.
Yeah, I don't think we're gonna be anywhere near that fast. It took us two days IG to deal with Vark, and three days after that to find Shefton Rosk, then left for Parrot Island the day after that; out of game it's been a month and a half just to get to Veldimar Krund, considering we game only once a week and there has been at least one week we had to cancel for various reasons. We'll see what happens at this point. ;)
That said, on to...!
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SESSION TWO
The group met at the Drunken Bear to share their gathered information; while debating their next course of action, Yuri and Gin discovered one of Vark's men had trailed them and was standing outside the meeting room eavesdropping. The group fed him some misleading information then tailed him back to the Azure District, where Yuri solicited the aid of Captain Malachai Arnos, the shipmaster who brought her to Sasserine. Captain Arnos lent the group a rowboat, which everyone except Yuri and Jenny climbed into.
The two girls swam behind the Blue Nixie, sneaking aboard from the far side while the rest of the group in the boat distracted the two men Vark had put on watch. When they were disabled the group - mostly Jhered - caused a ruckus as they came aboard, alerting the rest of the Nixie of their presence. Vark's men, and later Vark himself, attacked but where cut down in short order.
During the skirmish Vark ordered someone below to burn the contents of the hold; the fire roused one of the smuggled animals, a spider-like Rhagodessa, which attacked and killed the last of Vark's men before turning on the group. Luckily, the party managed to slay the wild beast before it devoured anyone further. Some smooth talking by Yuri - along with sending Gin, Jenny, and Rin down into the hold to search for Lavinia's missing belongings - managed to keep the group from getting arrested.
Further examination of the ship found not only the missing platinum Lavinia had paid Vark, but also the ring the group had been sent to find and a piece of paper containing a coded message. These were all returned to Lavinia by Yuri, and the group was paid 200GP apiece for their services, as well as given a job offer to work directly for Lavinia, for 500 GP a month; all accepted. Their first task in this capacity was to be undertaken the next day at noon.
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This was really the session that started to solidify people's places in the group. Yuri became the Face (extremely amusing, as being a Scorpion she's always wearing some kind of mask), while the Monks put themselves forward as the Moral Compass (and thus were banished to the hold with Rin, whose out-of-place modern references might have put a delicate situation more on edge, while Yuri palavered with the watch) and Jhered kind of became an Enforcer type, hit first and ask questions later.
No fatalities, sadly; the closest was the Rhagodessa knocking Jenny into negatives. The players were smart enough to draw the beast away and distract it while Rin healed her. If I'd read Turin's journal before running this session I definately would have considered sticking a second Rhag down there, though... I gave the one a few extra HD to compensate for the Gestalt, so while it didn't manage to kill anyone it did take a good while to get down and inflicted some damage in the process.
Special note should be made for some of the more interesting portions of the combat for the session... notably Vark going to gut the healer and knocking him to 1 HP only to be killed D-E-D Deader Than Dead by a lucky Crit+Skirmish from Cordor's scythe - "sliced open like a frog in biology class" - or the memorable mental image of Gin using Throw Anything to hurl a thug's corpse at another thug, dubbed "kill a pirate with another pirate". (Various debating commentary about ninjas followed, mostly as to whether or not the Monks qualified, as expected.)
Though it was missing from the first session (there weren't many opportunities), my group has taken to collecting quotes, after several campaigns with some unforgettable one-liners - one of these days I'll have to explain the stories behind things like "Prepare to face the just actions of your rewards", "You/I see Fish", or "I think-talk to the rock", which have achieved near-meme status among my gaming group. So for your amusement, Session Two's memorable unpolished gems:
Discussing the plan to board the Nixie:
Yuri: "I am needed to distract Vark."
Gin: "How do you know that's where his tastes lie?" *STARES at Jhered*
Yuri: "Well I presumed his tastes lay in GOLD. But if you think my womanly charms would be better we can try that as well."
Gin: "Like I said, how do you know that's where his tastes lie?" *still staring*
Mala: "How do you know his tastes don't lay in little people?!"
On not getting caught (AKA Yay for verbal dyslexia!):
Gin: "But you were seen on the docks."
Yuri: "No, a virgin of me was seen on the docks."
Gin: "A virgin of you!?"
Jhered: "Been busy?"
Apparently nobody uses that skill these days:
Yuri: "Do you people not have disguises in this land!?"
SESSION THREE
With the signet ring retrieved and the group now working under Lavinia's name, the first task they were to undertake was the recovery of her belongings from her family's vault under Castle Teraknian. Cordor was absent, for some unexplained reason, and after some time waiting for his arrival the decision was made to take the journey without him. Lavinia had arranged for a coach to transport them to the castle, and within moments the group had crossed the entirety of Sasserine and reached the mazelike tunnels of vaults and catacombs under the castle, stopping only long enough for a clerk to identify them and point the way.
Upon opening the vault, Lavinia's fears were confirmed - two construct guardians, Iron Cobras, stood sentinel within the vault to protect it from would-be intruders. The group engaged the creatures but lacked the physical and magical force to do them much harm. After a while of combat, Rin noticed the constructs would not approach the doorway where Lavinia stood; on a hunch he took the ring from her and moved into the chamber, and the Cobras retreated to their resting places behind the pillars.
Inside the final chamber of the vault was a complicated combination lock, the only hints to its solution being the intricate carvings of monsters on the walls, and the puzzling cipher Yuri had found with the ring on the Blue Nixie. After some time of bantering - and some near conflict due to Rin trying to take matters into his own hands while the others discussed the situation - the group managed to solve the riddle and open the vault. What they found was disappointing - of the five hidden alcoves, all but one were stripped near to bare. The one remaining though held sufficient funds for Lavinia to get on her feet, as well as several ledgers filled with debts and IOU's due to the Vanderborens for various duties and favors her parents had performed but never collected on.
The group also found a large journal filled with foreign and unfamiliar maps, sketches of exotic flora and fauna, and pages upon pages of script in Lavinia's mother's handwriting, all written in Sylvan dialect. Lavinia has requested Yuri - already an accomplished scribe - to assist her in translating the work during the group's off-time.
Upon exiting the vault, the clerk revealed that the culprit behind the missing 4/5 of the Vanderboren fortune was none other than Lavinia's missing brother Vanthus. When the group returned to Vanderboren Manor, Lavinia gave a short explanation of her and Vanthus's history and some of her suspicions regarding her brother's absence in the light of this new revelation. She expressed an interest in the group finding any information they could acquire on his whereabouts and activities, giving them their second task in her employment before dismissing them for the day.
The group is now left to their own devices to pursue acquiring information on Vanthus, presumably after Cordor has been located and informed, and all have had a good night's rest.
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This was the first of two sessions where Cordor was a no-show, in this case due to family being in the hospital. Luckily both times it's been at a point where his character could simply be absent and the session go on without him "mysteriously disappearing", and gotten to a point by the end where he could jump back in next time. He's about half a level behind the others though, maybe a bit more now that Parrot Island is (mostly) through. Soon though - by Chapter Three at the latest - he's going to have to stop missing as much or we're going to have to cancel when he can't make it, as the party will be on the sea or otherwise traveling and having someone vanish won't exactly work out.
The quotables from Session Three:
Way to Go, Idiot!:
Jhered-OOC: "His psycrystal is his Inner Retard!!" (of Rin)
Apparently it's possible:
DM-OOC: "Hold on, I need to check something."
Rin-OOC: "Whether or not we die?"
DM-OOC: "No, it's better than that."
It's contagious:
Gin/Jenny-OOC: "Jenny's a very hands-on person. While Gin is more of a debutant."
Ah, but is the pen not mightier?:
Rin-OOC: "I liked the part where you were fighting the guy with your sword." (to Jhered)
I would not advise canceling sessions for one player's absence unless the group as a whole agrees - at least, not more than once, maybe twice. Rather, use out-of-game e-mail with the player to see what he would like to do in light of developments in-game as the others relay that information. Keep him "in the background" doing stuff for Lavinia - going to Vanthus' uncle's place to dig up some dirt by way of the Uncle, gathering information on the various 'groups of interest' and otherwise doing some stuff to keep his character level at about that 'half level behind' point. If things go far enough, the absent character can accompany them on the various ships as one of the crew. Barring the player outright bailing on your group, these steps should help keep the player in the loop and the character close-ish to the rest of the active characters.
Good ideas, I'll try that. Thanks. :)
SESSION FOUR
The search for Vanthus began with yet another splitting of the group - Jhered and Rin inquired of Lady Lavinia for further information on Vanthus, Mala and Cordor headed back to the Noble District to see if anyone had seen him lurking about Castle Teraknian while emptying the vault, and the Twins searched Sunrise and Shadowshore districts for more information. Of the three the twins seemed the most successful, encountering an aspiring information merchant named Shefton Rosk who attempted to sell them information regarding Vanthus. When they refused to bite he wandered back to an abandoned warehouse; Gin and Jenny followed.
Yuri inquired in Azure District, finding a bit of information regarding Vanthus and Brissa, a thief-turned-artist operating out of Shadowshore; she also learned of Rosk and the monks, and managed to track the three of them down and get further information on Vanthus out of the information merchant, learning he had set up a smuggling base in the tunnels of Parrot Island. Yuri paid him and offered to keep him in mind for future information necessities. The three of them then ran into Mala and Cordor, following another lead into Shadowshore, then returned to the inn to meet up with the other two. Jhered was waiting there and said Rin had gone to the Library; however when the group reached the library the watchmen there said while they recognized Rin he had not been there that day.
Rin had instead gone to Azure District and tried to acquire some information in the casinos there; however after having no luck he returned to the inn in the Merchant District, where the rest of the group was waiting for him. Yuri shared the information on Brissa and Vanthus she had acquired and led the group to Brissa's art gallery in Shadowshore; however, further investigation by the group found the place abandoned, with only a few unknown missing objects as hints.
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MORE PARTY SPLITTING UP ARGH ARGH ARGH ARGH. Was so very happy when Session Five rolled around and they weren't able to divide up anymore. Adding to the list of self-recommendations for future sessions to limit situations where the party can split up too much if at all possible....
Also, much amusement to be had out of the banter between Rosk and the Monks. Would-be information merchant attempts to convince VoP monk that his business is legitimate and his information worth exchange in funds, while they try to convince him information should be free... it was an amusing five or ten minutes.
Next session, off to Parrot Island. In the meanwhile... Quotables!:
The question of the campaign thus far:
Jhered: "He said he was going to the library." (of Rin)
(*group takes a carriage to the Noble District where the library is*)
Yuri: "We're looking for this young man (describes Rin)."
Librarian NPC: "Oh yes, we know him, he's a regular visitor... but he has not been here today."
(*cue collective facepalms from the rest of the group*)
Jhered: "If I was a moron, where would I go?"
Every woman has her secrets?:
Yuri: "I have found a possible location for Mister Vanderboren."
Rin: "Really? What would that be?"
Yuri: "Ah, but that would be telling."
Derailment by Literalism:
Gin: "Sharp eyes kept on the road."
Yuri-OOC: "I keep getting the mental image of their eyes poking out of their heads like sharp little knives..."
Jhered and DM-OOC: "Like the guy on Roger Rabbit?"
Jhered-OOC: "YES HIM!"
SESSION FIVE
With Shefton Rosk along as their guide, the group once again solicited the aid of Captain Arnos and acquired a small vessel and rowmen (at Yuri's expense) to reach the nearby islet of Parrot Island, where Rosk claimed Vanthus had been making use of some abandoned smuggling tunnels. The group let Rosk lead them into the island's center, where in the middle of a clearing an old trapdoor had been prepared. A hook beneath held a rope that descended a short distance into the island's depths; the group began to descend, Rosk staying behind at his own request.
Shortly after everyone had descended, Rosk suddenly fell down the shaft and died on impact, with a large bloody gash in his back; the severed rope followed soon after. The culprit was none other than Vanthus Vanderboren himself, who accompanied his murder and imprisonment of the party with veiled threats regarding their association with Lavinia and a request to "say hello to Penkus's ghost" for him while they remained below. Yuri attempted to climb back up the shaft, but Vanthus closed the trapdoor and blocked it with boulders by the time she got about halfway up.
Trapped, the group left Rosk's body and set out to explore the tunnels; it wasn't long before they ran into the first of what would soon become many groups of Zombies wandering the halls below Parrot Island. Most of the party couldn't harm them much, thanks to the tough rubbery hide they had developed; however Jhered and Yuri found that bladed edges sliced through them quite easily, and Mala eventually defaulted to using magic to destroy them as well.
After exploring some of the rooms and destroying a few Zombies, the group came upon a half-flooded room with a collapsed southern wall. Yuri went to investigate the pool and was suddenly surrouned by enormous crabs; however the Spiritfolk was able to speak to the creatures and convince them that the humanoids meant them no harm, and the crabs went back about their business, even allowing Yuri to pull a "broken claw" from their pool - a masterwork silver dagger, apparently belonging to a dead half-eaten pirate who floated some distance from the edge of the pool.
Further exploration revealed a tunnel with more Zombies and some low water, as well as brightly colored sea urchins along the walls. At the end of this tunnel was a chamber where the floor dropped away, turning knee-high water into a much deeper pool. Some of the party spotted some bulbous things floating in the far side of the water; when Gin threw a Sunrod at them they were revealed to be two more Zombies along with a Huecuva, a cursed undead with divine powers. The undead began swimming - clumsily, in the case of the Zombies - towards the party, who held the line just behind the point where the floor dropped off, preventing the undead from getting into the center of the group and flanking. There were a few tight moments, such as Rin charging to the front to cast a healing spell on one of the Zombies, only to be thrown back behind the line by Jhered, but with the help of the silver dagger the group was able to destroy the last three undead with only a few close calls and no casualties.
Yet another door awaits the party on the other side of the pool - what lurks beyond this one?
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Another No-Cordor session, which hurt the party combat wise, another Slashing weapon user would have been really useful against the Zombies, and Maneuvers would have made up for Undead being immune to Skirmish. Ah well.
The group, minus Rin's fumble at the Veldimar encounter, was exceptionally tactics-savvy, forming up in lines with Jhered and the Monks in front so that they couldn't be flanked, which made the last fight a lot less troublesome than it could have been as I Gestalted Veldimar with Rogue (he was Olidamarran, it made sense) and planned to have him combining Huecuva slam and Inflict spells with Sneak Attacks. Except that because of their tactics he never got one....
Have to admit though, Jhered hurling Rin to the back of the party - he aced the opposed STR check after grappling him - was amusing enough to make up for it.
I've decided that if anyone else were to be insane enough to follow my lead and attempt a Gestalt version of STAP in the future, I could be helpful and provide the stats I've put together for various important NPCs and such, spare them some prep time. I'll save that for the end of a chapter, though. ;)
This week's quotes:
That's one explanation:
Yuri: "We have played this out before."
Malphas: "I have been called by thousands, how shall I remember them all? Such is my curse."
Yuri-OOC: "A bad memory is your curse? Oooooooookay...."
I hear the food's good:
(Cordor is missing again)
Yuri: "This is becoming a bad habit."
Mala: "Well, you know farm boys...."
Yuri: "... No, I don't. Why should I know farm boys...?"
Saves time, but not money on Car Insurance:
DM-OOC: "Do you want to roll Sense Motive?"
Gin/Jenny-OOC: "No, not really... the monks just sort of assume she's [Yuri] not telling us the whole truth."
Cannon fodder, perhaps?:
Gin: "Why are we following someone who led us into a closet?" (of Mala)
SESSION SIX
After destroying the accursed Huecuva, the group explored the nearby flooded tunnel; with Yuri leading the way they discovered another room filled with the stench of a rotting corpse. The dead man turned out to be Penkus, a local thief who had been trapped here by Vanthus as well; his dying letter revealed Vanthus's crimes and gave the location of an entrance to the Lotus Dragons Thieves' Guild, beneath the Taxidermist's Hall. The group also found a small remainder of smuggled treasure, including a chest full of silver and copper coins (which was ultimately left behind), a potion vault, an earth elemental gem, and several bags of gold coins and gems.
The group retraced their steps, searching for an exit to the tunnels; they traveled down one of the halls they had not investigated earlier and encountered another group of Zombies trapped behind a blockaded door. After destroying them they continued on down the last remaining hallway and discovered a fully-submerged chamber; Yuri investigated and found a tunnel leading outside the island as well as two bloated Zombies wandering about in the room. She determined that the height of the water in the room was due to tide and the group decided to wait until low tide and attempt to escape then.
After several hours the tide finally dropped enough to enter the room; the group exterminated the two remaining undead and made their way through the winding tunnel to emerge into the ocean, finally free of the tunnel's traps. Yuri helped the others swim around the island's side to the shore where their boat and rowers still remained. After investigating the island trying to find Vanthus - without luck, he'd apparently fled already - they decided to get back in their own boat and return to Sasserine, and investigate the Lotus Dragons and the Taxidermist's once they got there.
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I made the Bloated Zombies for something completely different originally, but they were fun to throw at this group. And the addition of extra undead... eh. I still think Veldimar went down too easy, so I don't feel so bad about throwing exploding poison-filled Zombies at them afterwards.
Da Quotes:
Irony...:
Yuri: "I let the big strong people break down the door"
DM-OOC: "Skinny monks and wiry elf, you're up."
You know you were thinking it:
DM-OOC: "This party doesn't have a muscle person. We have the two skinny monks who are really good at hitting things really fast, and the elf who just happens to wear heavy armor and use a big sword."
Jhered-OOC: "And before you ask, I'm NOT compensating for anything!"
DM-OOC: "Not yet, you only have one sword."
SESSION SEVEN
The team returned to Sasserine and immediately everyone except Yuri made their way back to the inn or monastery to rest; Yuri instead followed Penkus's letter and scouted out the Taxidermist's Hall. During the night she saw a man working there leave and lock up; a few hours later she had a knife thrown at her with a letter warning her to remain uninvolved with the Lotus Dragons. Yuri chased the man who threw the knife back to Dead Dog Plaza but stopped pursuing when he leaped down the well there.
In the morning, the group quickly heard the latest news - the Harbormaster had been murdered either the night before or early that morning. Instead of investigating that, though, they went back to Lavinia's manor and presented her with Penkus's note. She asked them to continue their investigation and try to bring Vanthus in alive, or at least make his death quick. When the group left her and went about their task, though, they were distracted by Jhered getting his pocket picked. They caught the offending urchin and dragged him into an alley to question him, and fell right into an ambush.
A trio of attackers with Lotus Dragon tattoos trapped the group in the alley, nearly killing Mala with their opening volley and tossing a Tanglefoot trap at the alley entrance. The group managed to subdue two of them and killed the third as he attempted to escape. Yuri interrogated one, and after some fierce intimidation confirmed Penkus's claim that the entrance to their guildhall lay under the Taxidermist's, beneath a trapdoor in the back room; he also claimed taking him to the watch would be useless, as all the people of any worth in the city were under the guild's sway.
The group decided with the twins' suggestion to take the two surviving thieves to the monastery, since the watch was apparently unfit to hold them; they also took the urchin along, and left him in the monastery's care while they dealt with the would-be assassins. The monks there suggested taking them to the Temple of Saint Cuthbert in Cudgel District; the group agreed to the idea and escorted the men in that direction thanks to a map provided by the monks.
Along the way, a second group of assassins attacked, this time only two; they opened the battle by trying to kill the two prisoners, but thanks to Gin's quick hands only managed to kill one. Both new attackers were killed in the ensuing battle, though one attempted to escape Mala finished him off with a conjured crystal spear. Now cautioned against further attacks, the group continued on to the temple with their one remaining prisoner.
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This was kind of fun. The retooled thieves didn't fare so well in the first attempted ambush due to some lousy rolls and a party that's way too good at climbing; so I ad-libbed the second group being focused on killing off their captured friends more than attacking the group, and really enjoyed having them bull rush people off the roof when they tried to climb up; knocked one of the monks and Mala off this way, got in some falling damage on Jenny in the process (darn Gnome was too nimble :P).
Next session should be a short "hand over the crook" RP with the Cudgels, then off to meet Nemein Roblach and head into the Lotus Guildhall... assuming nothing goes wrong. Possibly will try one more attempted ambush before they get in, or might just save starting combat for in the guildhall. Everyone's Level 3 (or ECL equivalent, for the monks) now, depending on how the combat in the rest of the hall goes I may have to bump Rowyn and GT up a level or two. Just giving GT one more level would make him significantly nastier.
Quotage:
Session start delayed by a case of the giggles:
Jhered-OOC: "[Yuri] will be a bit, she's laughing too hard."
DM-OOC: "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over."
Jhered-OOC: "Not yet, over."
Yuri-OOC: *laughing harder*
DM-OOC: "What'd you do now!?"
Yuri-OOC: "No, it was the DM!"
Jhered-OOC: "AH-HAH!! See who's pointing fingers now! You and your stupid Whiskey!"
It always comes down to this:
Gin/Jenny-OOC: "It was Mr. Green in the library with the wrench. Gin looks around for Tim Curry in a butler's outfit."
Bureaucracy at its finest:
Yuri: "Your suggestion has been duly noted and discarded."
The truth comes out:
Rin-OOC: "Well, my character's only along to heal, not think."
Out of context for your convenience:
DM-OOC: "[Mala]'s going to kill me with a frying pan!!"
Too Much Information:
Yuri-OOC: "Sorry, [Jhered] distracted me."
DM-OOC: "[Jhered], put your pants back on."
More out of context amusement:
Mala-OOC: "Don't make me come out there with the frying pan." (to Gin/Jenny)
Yuri-OOC: "Please don't kill my husband." (referring to Jhered, but...)
This happens a lot more frequently than we might admit:
Yuri-OOC: "[DM], give me a second. My tongue is getting ahead of my mouth."
SESSION EIGHT
After delivering their prisoner to the Saint Cuthbert church, the group made their way to the Taxidermist's Hall, following their lead from Penkus's note. There they encountered the merchant, Nemien Roblach, and Yuri immediately engaged him in conversation; after a while of discussing the merits of his job, she attempted to pry the information regarding the guild out of him. Roblach reacted violently, attacking with illusionary magic and catching Cordor in the spell then rendering himself invisible. Yuri however was able to see through the invisibility (thanks to binding Andromalius) and was able to quickly disable him.
Roblach showed the group a ladder leading down into the guildhall below; somewhere in this time Cordor wandered off once more. The group investigated a tunnel leading off away from the first chamber, and found their way first to an urchin-filled lake then into a slime-covered cave inhabited by three more of the spiderlike Rhagodessas. After eliminating them, the group backtracked into the lake chamber but fell into a trap laid by a group of Ixitxachitls, nearly felling Yuri, Rin, and Mala in their first flurry of attacks. The group rallied and was able to beat the beasts back, and eventually all six were slain.
Retracing their steps back to the ladder, the group tried the door on the other end of the first chamber, and made their way through the halls of the Lotus Guild. Before long they came across a small group of thieves in one of the barracks chambers; during the ensuing skirmish one of the thieves sounded the alarm, bringing the guild to alert before the four were defeated. The group continued investigations, finding themselves first the mess and kitchen - investigating the latter by Yuri's psycrystal and discovering the trap on the other side, and thusly choosing to avoid it - and then later the lavatory before stumbling onto the training hall.
Yuri had her psycrystal investigate, but saw nothing and entered the room to have a look around herself. Her attention was caught by a large throne on one side of the room, but while she investigated hidden assassins shot her in the back repeatedly with crossbows; before the others could come to her rescue one dropped his disguise - the dummies gathered in the center of the room were actually concealed thieves - and slit her throat.
The monks and Jhered ran to her assistance, engaging the three of the thieves who had revealed themselves; however after they were incapacitated the other three dropped their disguises and shot Rin, finishing him off as well. The group managed to kill two of these, but the third fled after making sure Rin was completely deader-than-dead.
With two of their number fallen, the group gathered up the bodies and retreated, returning to Lavinia. Rin's body vanished along the way somehow, leaving only his belongings. The monks gave their apologies and withdrew their services, leaving Sasserine; Jhered did likewise shortly after, only requesting a cart to transport Yuri's body with him wherever he was going. With only Mala remaining in her employ, Lavinia finds herself once more in need of new adventurers to continue her investigations regarding Vanthus's whereabouts.
------
The reason Cordor's there at the beginning but not after Nemien was because the first part of the session actually happened two weeks ago. The session started late and we didn't play long. Last week I was sick and canceled: Sick DM equals no game when I can't think straight. Unless I'm TRYING to run a freaky off-the-wall campaign. :P
So... my first party fatalities. I really hated to kill Yuri first - she was easily my favorite character of the group - but going in alone to a room with six hidden rogues with crossbows ready was too good an opportunity to pass up. And I still got the healer in the end too, which was my real goal for the session, mwahahahah.
Jhered and Gin & Jenny leaving was interesting and unexpected. Both had goals and plans for adventuring that would have been met in the next few chapters, but after seeing their allies fall so soon decided the payoffs of working for Lavinia were not worth the risks. So with the exception of Mala and the come-and-go Cordor (who I have a feeling will be coming less and going more, as time goes on) they decided it was in their best interests to search elsewhere for their goals.
Yuri's player is rolling up a (Human?) Weretiger Swordsage|Healer.
Rin's is making a Tibbit Rogue|Warlock.
The monks are becoming a Half-Orc VoP Druid|Barbarian.
Jhered's is becoming either a Scout|Rogue or Scout|Ninja, race he hasn't told me yet. He'll probably become the party face either way.
Last Time's/Tonight's Quotes:
Mmm Mmm Mmm, Anachronism Stew:
DM: "Cordor walks in."
Cordor: "'Sup b$+&%es?"
Rin-OOC: "That sounds like something my character would say... more modern."
DM-OOC: "No... no it doesn't."
Cordor: "Okay... VERILY, 'sup b####es?"
Well, I guess that's obvious:
*Rin's phone rings*
Mala-OOC: "It's a giiiiiiiiiiiirl!"
Rin-OOC: "It's my Mom."
Oddly prescient:
Rin-OOC: "I don't think I have any powers that'll get us killed."
Yuri-OOC: "I'm not talking about your powers."
That's one way of looking at it:
Yuri-OOC: "I saved Jhered from having the crabs."
Character Quirks:
Jhered-OOC: "Jhered has an eyebrow twitch."
DM-OOC: "Jhered has a facial tic?"
Yuri-OOC: "He's Byakuya."
When stealthy isn't:
Yuri: *via Mind Link* "Who made noise?"
Jenny and Gin: *point at each other*
Ah, for the chance to choose your own fate:
Gin/Jenny-OOC: "There were some funny moments, like the bathroom."
Rin-OOC: "I would rather die by crossbow than by gas."
T-minus four hours to game time. Along with Mala, the party now (potentially, assuming no one horribly alienates someone :P ) includes the following:
Formerly Jhered: Hantei Yasumoto: TN Human Ninja|Scout
A clanless ronin who, ironically enough, is pursuing the now-dead Yuri. Despite his dishonorable status in Rokugan, Hantei is personable and charismatic, and plans to make an effort to make a better life for himself by completing his tasks successfully.
Formerly Gin/Jenny: Draco: NG VoP Half-Orc Druid|Barbarian/Totemist
A hulking brute who easily towers over his traveling companions, Draco is quiet and introspective, and much smarter than his Half-Orc heritage would suggest. He's taken the alternate Shapeshifter variant for druid, and spends a lot of his combat time in the form of a massive Lion.
Formerly Rin: "Sneaks": CN Tibbit Rogue|Warlock
Sneaks appears for all intents and purposes to be a fuzzy white kitten who tags along with Draco and the healer. He plans to spend all his time in cat form, so I allowed him a tweaked Natural Spell feat to use his Warlock stuff without shifting into humanoid form; only the healer has seen that real form he claims. Draco apparently owes him a debt of some sort.
Formerly Yuri: Raina: CG VoP Human Weretiger Swordsage|Healer
A healer who was attacked by an afflicted lycanthrope she was trying to tend; to attempt to control her new abilities she made her way to a Sublime Way monastery and devoted herself to their teachings. After she left the monastery she took to a pilgrimage across the land, meeting Sneaks and Draco along the way.
SESSION NINE
With most of her employees either dead or gone, Lavinia gives Mala the task of finding new allies for herself to continue the infiltration of the Lotus Guild. Mala falls back on the old adventurer's standby and makes her way from tavern to tavern, inn to inn in Sasserine, starting with the Drunk Bear where her own group was staying, looking for fellow travelers seeking employment.
Draco, Raina, and Sneaks arrive in the port city under some "advice" from the Tibbit, whom both of them seem to owe money to somehow. Both are rather unimpressive in social graces and leave most people they encounter with looks of confusion as to why this strange woman is talking to her cat or why this Half-Orc seems better spoken than most of his kin yet still can't tell the proper directions to an inn. Eventually - with Sneaks giving up and leading the way - they reach their destination at The Ticklish Ogre inn and tavern and have some long-awaited food. Hilarity ensues.
At approximately the same time, Hantei Yasumoto is in the Azure District, having recently disembarked from a long and interesting sea voyage and reached his destination. After falling for a guard's poor advice and nearly getting into a bar scuffle, he eventually escapes to the much more suitable Merchant's District and - after asking around for "a woman who wears masks" - finds Mala at the Drunk Bear, looking for adventurers to help her with a "dangerous and possibly lethal job" that nevertheless promises payment. Intrigued, Yasumoto agrees and follows Mala as she makes her way to the next tavern on the list; along the way he notices she is being particularly watchful of the rooftops, and even catches a glimpse of movement there himself. Their guard is up.
At the Ogre, Yasumoto notices Raina and Draco immediately - the Half-Orc is quite loud - and suggests them to Mala. When the gnome goes to investigate though, Draco mistakes her for a child and treats her as such, prompting a near scuffle that dissolves into Mala sulking and grumbling for most of the visit. Eventually though they are persuaded to at least hear her offer, lured by the chance to earn money to pay off their debt to Sneaks.
After leaving the Ogre they catch sight of more movement above; Sneaks climbs to the roof and catches a pair of Lotus Thieves preparing an ambush and engages with an Eldritch Blast. The resulting skirmish is a bloodbath, with Yasumoto, Raina, and Draco easily leaping or climbing to the rooftops and engaging the thieves directly with exotic weapons or by just turning into a lion and chowing down. Mala leads the group, in a rather roundabout way, to Vanderboren Manor, explains the situation, and introduces them to Lavinia; despite Sneaks's suggestions otherwise, the new group decides to engage the Lotus immediately and departs for the Taxidermist's Hall.
There, Mala finds the trapdoor leading to the guildhall is stuck shut; fearing a trap Sneaks investigates, but finding none he allows Draco to tear the trapdoor off its hinges, revealing a roughly-constructed jam built into the underside locking it shut. The first thee or four doors in the guildhall are similarly blockaded, forcing Draco and Raina to break them down noisily to continue (the group decides for one reason or another not to head down the halls leading back towards the caverns where the first group found the Ixitxs and Rhagodessas) and attracts the attention of a patrolling pair of Lotus Thieves... and the half-fiendish Worg, Cruncher.
Unfortunately for them, Yasumoto catches wind of their approach and sends Mala to warn the other two (they both simply think of Sneaks as Raina's pet, and that Raina's just eccentric or something) then ducks into the room below the Taxidermist entry to let them pass, sweeping in unseen behind the group as they approach the others' position. Alerted of the incoming foes, Draco and Mala pounce on Cruncher as soon as they see him, with Raina and Sneaks joining the fray soon after, and Yasumoto makes quick work of the demonic wolf's two accomplices.
Having discovered a door behind the curtains covering the east wall of the training room, the group is poised to enter deeper into the Lair of the Lotus Dragon, and whatever dangers therein remain....
------
This session was constantly being interrupted by people dissolving into giggles. Rin/Sneaks, despite normally being known for being in a rut with only playing psions, sorcerers, or monks, was surprisingly good at playing a Trickster Rogue and manipulating the rest of the party to do his bidding. The players are beginning to fear that the role of party leader following Yuri's death may well fall to a fuzzy white kitten.
The downside of the past session was that Mala's player got a call about half an hour in from her significant other inviting her to a concert. Yuri/Raina and I were particularly annoyed as we plan our sessions several days in advance intentionally to avoid this sort of thing, and NPC'ed her for the remainder of the session. It shouldn't hurt her too much in the long run, she's nearly 4th level and all the new people started at the beginning of 3rd, XP-wise.
Cruncher disappointed. I went beyond the guide's suggestion of giving him the Fiendish template and went with full-on Half-Fiend. A well-timed Critical-Sneak Attack-Eldritch Blast shaved off most of his HP, but after the session I realized that could have been mitigated by Half-Fiend's SR but I had completely forgotten about it. This group puts out massive damage - in lion form Draco's bite is something like 1d6+14 or so, without raging, mostly thanks to massive Strength and Dread Carapace, and we haven't seven seen Raina shift yet - so the group is likely to need some more tweaks in enemies than the previous party. Between that and dealing with Mala's player the main combat of the night was fairly disappointing, but at least the rest of the session made up for it.
Also, despite the description in the post above and discussions on the character pre-game, Draco is very much NOT quiet and introspective. He's not an idiot - 11 INT and a very high WIS being a Druid - and neither does he play stupid to throw others off, but he is quite LOUD. Amusing how characters shift between concept and actual play, heh.
Quotes:
The beginning of the madness:
Busboy: "G'mornin' lady an' gent, what can I getcha?"
Raina: "Food!"
Busboy: "Yah, what kind?"
Raina: *after smelling the air in the tavern* "Sausage!"
Draco: "Meat!" *Pounds table* "And hurry, he's paying." *points at Sneaks*
Busboy: *stares at the cat*
Raina: "No seriously, he's paying. He has all the money."
Sneaks: [Feline] "Actually, YOU have all my money."
Raina: "OH!! I'm paying! With his money!"
Busboy: "Sure lady...." *wanders off*
He also makes Julienne Fries:
Mala: "So what do you do?"
Yasumoto: "It depends on what the job is for. If fight, I fight. If talk, I talk."
Raina-OOC: "If sleep with the pretty lady, I sleep with the pretty lady."
Yasumoto-OOC: "And possibly kill her in the morning."
All the grace of a sack of bricks, and the brains too:
Draco: "I shift (from Lion form to Half-Orc form) on my way down (from the roof)."
DM: "THUD!! He goes from all grace to no grace in 0.5 seconds splat."
Yasumoto-OOC: "I'm imagining him turning into Orc form and landing faceplant."
Draco-OOC: "That's what heads are for, landing on."
SESSION TEN
Continuing their investigation of the Guildhall, the group patched their wounds - what few they had - from the skirmish with Cruncher and his retainers before moving on into the inner sanctum of the Lotus Dragons. The doors now seemed to be more equipped with traps and defenses than simply barred and blocked, and Mala disabled several tripwires along the way. The first thing they encountered was yet another Rhagodessa, this one bigger than most they had encountered thus far and collared to a chain that secured it to the northern portion of its chamber; however when the group arrived the chain had been let slack allowing the monstrous spider to reach the entire room. It pounced on Sneaks as soon as he entered and nearly devoured the little cat, but the group quickly came to his rescue and pummeled the monstrosity senseless.
The next room held yet more Guild thieves, this time once again prepared for their entrance with crossbows drawn, hiding behind an upturned table in what appeared to be some sort of meeting and notice room. Draco, the first one in, was riddled with poisoned bolts but the half-orc's sturdy constitution refused to give way to the toxin; he lunged into the room despite the surprise attack and the following initial volleys and pounced over the barricade, scaring the living daylights out of two of the attacking men; the rest of the group quickly followed suit and soon wiped the floor with the bandits. Investigating the room shortly after discovered a map of Sasserine marked with color-coded flags which the group didn't bother to decipher, and a chalkboard bearing several guild notes. One included a list of names, Mala's plus her previous acquaintances (Yuri, Jhered, Gin, Jenny, and Rin), plus a checkmark by Yuri and Rin's names and a scrawled note in all capitals saying "VANTHUS FIX THIS -NOW-".
After clearing the room, Sneaks and Raina smelled something rotting beyond the next door; investigation revealed another undead monstrosity, a zombified bugbear. Draco charged the beast immediately, and the others rushed into finish it shortly after, allowing it only one swing of its morningstar before destruction. The area beyond seemed to be a private dwelling for someone of wealth and importance, a guess soon proved true when behind yet another closed (but not locked) door was nothing more than a beautiful redheaded woman sitting on a pile of cushions. She attempted to engage the group in conversation, trying to persuade them to accept an offer of employment on her behalf; however only Yasumoto expressed even the slightest passing interest, the others showing outright disdain or in Sneaks's case apathy. When the group attempted to investigate further and Raina defaulted to trying to intimidate the woman into submission, she instead drew her weapon and went on the attack, calling her draconic companion/pet Gut Tugger out of his hiding place in the cushions.
The ensuing battle was short but fairly vicious. The Lady Lotus launched into attacks with shadows stretching from her fingers and light dancing along her blade, while Gut Tugger blasted the group with acid and darted about biting into foes as he bolted by. While her back was turned, Yasumoto dug his blade into the Lady Lotus's side, whispering a curse for "stealing his kill" by having Yuri murdered. Gravely wounded she retreated, downing a potion of Gaseous Form as she did so just in time to see Raina assume her Weretiger form and rip Gut Tugger to shreds. Howling and sobbing, shouting threats and promises of vengeance, the Guildmistress fled into the piping in the sauna and disappeared.
The group made their way back to the mess hall, intent on investigating the rest of the complex, and Sneaks found his way into the kitchen, rousing the many caged birds there. Opening the south door triggered a hastily-erected trap that flung boiling something into the mess hall, easily missing Sneaks who was too small and off to the side to be struck. Further investigation by he and Draco discovered a cowardly little kobold named Churtle hidden in a pile of blankets in a small room behind the kitchen; terrified by the half-orc's lion form the kobold clung to Raina and begged for mercy, offering her culinary skills to the group in exchange for a promise of her well-being. Much to Mala's Gnomish disdain Raina accepted, calmly and easily carrying the tiny kobold out of the room and assuring her the lion-that-wasn't-a-lion wouldn't do her any harm.
Next time, the investigation of the now-leaderless guild's hall continues...
------
Can you spell "curb-stomp"? Rowyn (level 6) and Gut Tugger (level 5 plus 1 Dragon HD) lasted all of two and three rounds respectively. Rowyn was only saved by her rogue trick - Resiliency, gains Temp HP when brought to negatives for long enough to drink potion, retreat, and get healed - and GT lasted long enough to nearly kill Sneaks (I love Improved Skirmish) before getting laid into with a full attack from the Weretiger CLAW CLAW RAKE BITE RIP AND TEAR that brought him to -25. That part was a bit vicious on Raina's behalf, as she did it right in front of gaseous formed Rowyn who had spent her last round tumbling away and drinking the potion and hadn't been able to fully retreat yet. The one consolation was that his Dragon Shaman aura brought Raina down 4 points of Acid damage per swipe - the lycan had the highest hit points of the entire group and was at about 1/3 to 1/2 HP by the time she was done, after a Shadow Garrote and a well-timed stab from Rowyn.
Speaking of... Rowyn this time was Rogue/Bard|Swordsage. Now that she knows what she's up against I'm pretty sure she's going to do retraining as well as gain some levels - more Rogue, less Bard on the first side, and swap to Warblade on the second I think - and you can bet dollars to doughnuts she's going to have a silvered sword and something to protect herself or mitigate some of that massive damage - Ring of Regeneration maybe? I'll figure it out when I get there. Needless to say that when the party comes for her again she's going to be equipped both to deal and to take some severe hurt.
Only one good quote this time that I managed to catch:
Style confusion:
DM: "Is Draco going to let Mala pick the lock or just beat down the door?"
Mala: *wedges herself between Draco and the door* "Let a professional do this."
Draco: "I'm considering whether or not to use you as a battering ram."
SESSION ELEVEN
The investigation of the guildhall continued, with Raina carrying the recently acquired kobold cook Churtle along with them to keep her safe from Mala's vicious glare and the stabbings that were likely to follow. After giving a second lookover to the barracks and the liquor stores, the group headed down an unexplored hallway that quickly took them into a large chamber rank with the scent of blood, sour meat, scorched leather, wet fur, and brimstone... the dwelling, most likely, of the fiendish worg they had slain not long ago. Beyond were a set of empty cells, followed by a door leading into a large torture room. Three men, one wearing a leather apron and armed with knives and branding irons, stood over a bound man in rags apparently about to begin working on him when the group burst into the room and went on the attack.
When Raina moved through the brawl to release the prisoner, she noticed the ropes holding him were tied to slip when pulled, poorly knotted and obviously indicative of a trap. His rouse broken, the "prisoner" - the Guild's torture master, Kersh Reftun - went on the assault, punching and headbutting his would-be rescuer, while she held him pinned to the table as her allies decimated his three goons. After demanding his surrender twice, Raina knocked the torturer into unconsciousness and tied him to the rack with more sturdy knots, then left Churtle - armed with her rolling pin - to make sure he remained unconscious. The group investigated his chambers and found his stores of food and his footlocker (the latter of which Raina left in Churtle's care), then moved on.
The group soon stumbled upon an observation room with four more thieves in it; thanks to Mala and Sneaks's stealth they got the drop on the group so they were completely unprepared when Draco charged in and shoved one of their number through the window they were looking through and out into the pool of water beyond. The group went on the assault, quickly killing two of the men while Raina tossed the last one out into the pool with his partner; Yasumoto then turned a large lever on the wall, releasing some kind of restraint behind it as well as loosening a rattling chain somewhere to the west. Moments later a massive Dire Crocodile charged out of the west side of the cave and bit down on one of the thieves, tearing into him with abandon, while his companion fled.
Eager to head him off, Draco and Mala moved into a hallway they had passed on their way in; through sheer luck the thief entered the hallway from the other side and was nearly knocked out right there by Draco's sudden charge. Wounded and helpless he fell begging for mercy, which Draco answered by knocking him out with a solid punch. The group tied him up and left him in the torture room with Churtle.
Roused by the crocodile's appearance, Draco convinced the others to join him in testing himself against such a superior predator; the group entered the cave by way of the tunnel the thief had used to escape - after sending Yasumoto to turn the water back off so the flooding in the Crucible stopped - and charged the beast, which was distracted by finishing off its meal of Soaked Lotus Dragon. The group pummeled it fairly quickly, but a shot to the head by Raina saved the beast from death by knocking it unconscious.
Next time, they continue on with the remainder of their exploration....
------
I love Churtle. She and Raina bonded immediately and she's come to consider her as her contact to the group. She won't do anything unless Raina tells her to. That said, Mala wants to kill Churtle on principle. At one point Mala almost got caught trying to backstab the kobold only to be caught by Raina; her parting warning to Churtle was "She won't always be here to save you," which Raina countered (after Mala left) with "She won't always be here to threaten you." Churtle hasn't even seen her go Weretiger yet, but she's pretty confident Raina would have the upper hand in a fight.
One Lotus Dragon and Kersh Reftun are unconscious and bound prisoners, plus whatever Draco decides to do with the Dire Croc. They have the Guildhall about 2/3 explored.
Le Quotes:
Idle Chat: (From MapTool's chatbox)
Raina: Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooh I wish I was an oscar meyer weiner
Yasumoto: No
Raina: :P
Sneaks: .....
Raina: I'm bored, I have snapple
DM_Edge: lol
Yasumoto: Just.........no
Sneaks: Ack! Too much crazy!
Raina: Mrow?
Draco: why oscar meyer? why not a different brand?
DM_Edge: Because Oscar wrote the song?
Raina: cause other brands don't fit the song
DM_Edge: My question is why anyone would wish to be a hot dog
Sneaks: Better than being a sloppy joe.
Raina: soooooooo many comments
DM_Edge: lol
Draco: hey now your going too far nothing is better then that
Watch Your Footing:
Draco: "Aaaugh, Sneaks just stepped in something!"
Sneaks: *moves, Mala moves into his abandoned square* "Well now Mala's in it."
Mala: "Ewwww!"
Sneaks: "I search the room, anything interesting?"
Awkward Moment...:
Raina-OOC: *has Kersh Reftun pinned to the rack* "She's straddling him on the table...."
Draco-OOC: "Typical."
Arrogant Kung Fu Guy:
Raina-OOC: "He [Kersh] doesn't try to break the grapple and escape?"
DM-OOC: "He's an arrogant sexist bastard and an unarmed combat specialist. He doesn't need to break free to hit you and he doesn't think you can beat him."
Draco-OOC: "Wait, you didn't tell us it was Vanthus!"
Hypocrisy Killed the Cat:
Sneaks: [Feline] "Just knock him [Kersh] out."
Raina: "Wor-king on it!"
Sneaks-OOC: "Okay, I fire an eldritch blast at him."
Draco-OOC: "Waitwait, you just said 'knock him out' then proceeded to shoot death at him. What the hell man?"
They're always hiring:
Churtle: "I like this job. I'll be bodyguard in the future." *while sitting on Kersh's chest, knocking him out with a rolling pin whenever he comes to*
Preacher, doesn't the Bible have rules for that?:
Mala: "When Raina comes back she sees Mala with her sword drawn about to stab the critter thing [Churtle]."
Raina-OOC: "Roll initiative."
Draco-OOC: "Are we about to lose a party member?"
DM-OOC: "No, she's Exalted, she's not allowed to kill party members. The rules are very specific on killing. They are however somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps."
Well, as was probably obvious to most of my readers, my group bungled the Weretiger template resulting in a character far too powerful for the group at its current level. So, with a wave of the DM wand, the Weretiger Healer|Swordsage Raina Ridathali became Faelyn Morghanna, a Feytouched Human Healer|Spirit Shaman. No re-introduction or anything, just a DM retcon, since this was my screwup in the first place.
That said, on to...
SESSION TWELVE
Still in the depths of the Lotus Dragons' guildhall, the group divided in half - Mala and Draco investigating the secret door found in the Dire Crocodile's tunnel, Sneaks and Yasumoto investigating the other hallway and domed room, with Faelyn eventually deciding to follow the latter. Investigation quickly discovered the one-way windows in the halls around the Crucible and the illusionary wall hiding the observation room where the thieves had been, before the group found that the halls just looped around and met each other on the other side.
Investigating the last remaining hallway in the guildhall unveiled a waiting room and guest bedroom, where Sneaks discovered a scrap of paper with a drawing of a room, with something circular in its center and a long list of numbers underneath. Further investigation discovered several uninhabited waiting rooms and such, before at last opening into a small underground harbor. The group discovered the dead bodies of the ixitxachitls floating there and some crabs inhabiting one of the beaches, but otherwise it was empty and they eventually went on their way.
Faelyn and Yasumoto returned to the torture room where their prisoners and Churtle awaited, while Draco went back to the Crocodile's chamber. After inciting it, he led it through the halls - letting it destroy several doors in the process - and eventually led it to the port, where he knocked it out and left it to find its own way out when it woke. Mala and Sneaks returned to Lady Lotus's chambers and resumed appraising and gathering the treasure there, and were eventually joined by Faelyn, who found herself immediately drawn to Lady Lotus's clothing and jewelry and soon had scavenged nearly all of it while Mala was busy elsewhere.
Mala took the time to go through the ledger of notes and letters she'd found, and discovered several incriminating love letters from Vanthus to her, revealing his part in the murder of Sir and Lady Vanderboren and his betrayal of Penkus, as well as their intent to betray a future meeting with a group of pirates at a place called Kraken's Cove. With this, the posters of Sasserine marked by flags and Sasserine's harbor with ships flying the Lotus Dragon flag, and the two prisoners, the group felt they had enough proof to bring the guild to justice; they gathered up their spoils and returned to Vanderboren Manor, stopping along the way at the Church of Saint Cuthbert to turn over Kersh Reftun and the other captured thief and report their findings to the watch.
The group then returned to Lavinia and informed her of their findings, returning the spoils marked with her family's crest and Vanthus's letters to complete their story. Lavinia was momentarily shaken but quickly regained her calm, and has put her full intentions behind bringing Vanthus to justice, with the aid of the party as her employees. Each of the group was awarded a 1000 GP bonus for their efforts, and a few days later a messenger appeared and invited all of them (including Sneaks, who despite appearing as a cat the messenger still addressed directly) to a banquet held by Lord Worrin Lidu in celebration of their valor.
Attending that banquet marks the end of this journey and the beginning of the next chapter in the tale.
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At last, done with There Is No Honor! Despite not only a complete party shakeup just before the climactic battle but a PC retcon due to DM epic fail, we are at last at the end of this first section of the story. The party is just over ECL 4, slightly ahead of the curve perhaps, but as we all well know they'll need every advantage they can get when they get into Chapter Two: The Bullywug Gambit.
Quotage:
It always takes forever:
DM-OOC: *Draco is sitting on a pier in a cave* "Looking for anything in particular out there Draco?"
Draco-OOC: "Just waiting for the boat to Stormwind."
Druid Humor:
Faelyn: "Where'd everyone else go?"
Draco: "Crocodile."
Faelyn: "What about the crocodile?"
Draco: "You saw how fat it was."
Faelyn: "Don't say that!" *runs to go check on the crocodile*
Draco: "I was joking!" *chases*
Chaos and Nobility:
*PCs have been invited to Lord Lidu's banquet*
Draco-OOC: "This is gonna be awesome."
Sneaks-OOC: "This is gonna be fun."
Yasumoto-OOC: "This is gonna suck."
Faelyn-OOC: "This is gonna give my character nightmares."
CHAPTER TWO - PROLOGUE
After a week of commerce, training, investigation, and relaxation, the group convened once more in full to attend Lord Lidu's banquet.
Draco made quite a scene of himself with his first exposure to alcohol in the form of "berry water" and Dwarven Holy Water served at the gathering. Faelyn spent most of the night on the dance floor entrancing (and sometimes charming) various young men for her entertainment; among the most memorable of these was one Avner Meravanchi, a young scion of a noble house of Sasserine known for their investments in "alternate forms of entertainment" according to Lavinia. Sneaks mostly played chaperon, watching Faelyn from afar and preparing to intervene - possibly violently - if he thought any of the men might try to take advantage of her... at least, that is, until a noblewoman's daughter decided to make him her lap cat for the night. Mala mingled among the guests, occasionally dancing with some of the dwarven and halfling nobles, while doing her best to keep an eye on Draco's antics. Yasumoto probably did the most work of the group, after disguising himself as a local noble he managed to find himself just within earshot of a certain noblewoman of House Kellani, whom he overheard discussing "the Guild", someone named "Rowyn", "those adventurers", and "dealing with them" with a small group of younger noblewomen while he managed to go unnoticed; her gaze also tended to follow Draco, Faelyn, and Mala around as they enjoyed themselves at the banquet.
Shortly after the actual banquet feast was served, followed by the presentation by Lord Lidu, who awarded each of the party members - including Sneaks, after a moment of confusion as to why only four had come when he had been informed there were five - with a medallion marking them as valiant protectors and defenders of Sasserine. Following this the banquet quickly wound down and the group retired to Vanderboren Manor.
After some troublesome pranks the following morning, the group finally convened in Lavinia's parlor to plan their next move in pursuit of Vanthus. The area the group has identified as the most likely location of Kraken's Cove is approximately forty miles from Sasserine through swamp and mire, sixty by coastline; according to sea-familiar Yasumoto, it would take them five days to reach the target by land, two or three by rowboat and a little over half a day by fishing boat or cogboat. The group agreed to charter one of the latter and plan to leave for Bloody Bay sometime later that day.
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Some interesting interplay and some foreshadowing thanks to the conveniently-provided plot device of the banquet, introducing Lady Kellani and Avner as well as a few other nobles the group never acquired the names of. Sadly I missed most of the quotes tonight, didn't have my normal computer and we gamed in person since Faelyn and Yasumoto's players were in town for the weekend so I didn't have most of my ready-and-prepared notepad docs on hand. :P
What we have here is a failure to communicate:
Sneaks: [using magic to speak Common] "Draco we need to go kill something."
Draco: "Why do we need to go kill something?"
Sneaks: "We need to go find Vanthus."
Draco: "Why do we need to find Vanthus?"
Sneaks: "That's what we were hired for."
Draco-OOC: "Y'know I'm not really talking 'cause I'm in Lion form."
SESSION ONE
With Yasumoto at the lead, the group headed to the docks district to elicit the aid of a shipping boat and crew in reaching their destination of Kraken's Cove within Blood Bay. Though the captain of the ship they eventually decided on, the Whispering Wind, paled at first at the nature of the request, Yasumoto's persuasive capabilities and the changing hands of some gold smoothed things over and the vessel departed shortly before noon.
After some amusing shenanigans aboard the vessel and spotting some froglike bullywugs along the shore, about an hour and a half before sundown the entire ship was assaulted by the sound of a distant booming, followed by a violent blast of wind that knocked several sailors off their feet and set the boat momentarily to rocking wildly in the sea. The vessel quickly recovered thanks to the expertise of its crew, but a half hour later a new event caught the attention of all save sleeping Draco: a brilliant fireball lit up the dusk sky from somewhere off in the distance ahead. Sneaks made his way down to the captain's chambers to where he was making notes on a map and confirmed his suspicions - the explosion and resulting inferno had come from Blood Bay.
A few hours after midnight, after the group managed to gain themselves a few hours' rest, they arrived at the northern end of Blood Bay and found a beat suitable to disembark and make the rest of the journey to Kraken's Cove on foot; Yasumoto gave the captain some extra gold to hold anchor until he returned, though the captain warned him that if he saw another explosion he would not wait for their return. It wasn't long into their trek that the group was assaulted by sounds of wild animals far more aggressive than expected; not too long after that they encountered trees full of parrots with unspeakable and monstrous mutations, eagerly tearing their normal cousins to ribbons. Draco attempted a roar to frighten them off, but the freakish birds rallied and swarmed, attacking the group en masse until enough of their number had been slain to break up the flock. The slain parrots exploded in a gory mass of acid, leaving a terrible stain on the landscape, and their fanged bites and wicked claws left burning, diseased wounds on the party, which Faelyn promptly healed.
Upon reaching the entrance of Kraken's Cove, the group spotted a majestic ship moored some great distance out into the harbor, its sails and figurehead decorated with grand wyvern motifs. Shortly after they spotted a tree filled with monkeys as equally mutant as the parrots had been, which also attacked when Draco attempted to frighten them off, and were just as promptly slain, though Sneaks was infected with whatever illness their bites spread and Faelyn lacked further magic to amend the issue at the time. The interior of the cove was much less peaceful than the one distant ship, however: the other vessels in the harbor were blazing aflame as was a reflective slick along the water's surface, and the beach was littered with viciously and disturbingly scattered corpses. Two men garbed in sailors' equipment and carrying scimitars hunched over one such corpse, both even more freakishly abberant than the monkeys and parrots and gleefully devouring the corpse's remains. The group swiftly destroyed them both.
They then entered the cave, and found themselves faced with two paths. Faelyn attempted an omen of peril to determine which path to take, but the response she received was an unbelievable omen of peace and serenity. The group eventually decided to first scout the left path, which led into a large chamber obviously once used as a mess hall. The area was littered with half- and partially-consumed corpses, and three more mutated sailors - one a very heavily-built cook wielding a cleaver with a huge gaping mouth filled with enormous teeth in his belly - stood over the remnants of one such corpse which was currently being simmered over a barely-controlled fire. The group charged, but Mala found herself too far ahead and the bestial men swarmed her, inflicting horrible wounds before the others could come to her aid.
After the cook was slain, a fourth abberation entered the fray - a freakish parody of monkey and racoon with bulging eyes, boneless wriggling fingers and a mouth that stretched literally from ear to ear, clutching a kukri in its puply hands. This creature attempted to attack Yasumoto but only dealt minimal damage, then attempted to leap over and attack Sneaks after being struck by his eldritch blast only to be torn apart by Draco and Yasumoto on the way. The group continued the battle against the remaining monstrosities, ending when a wild tendril of magic from Sneaks turned the final mutant into a statue, which Draco promptly smashed.
There is now the path to the right back at the cave's entrance that they had not explored and the tunnel from which the flying raccoon creature emerged for the group to investigate.
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Mwahahahahahahahahahahah!!! Oh I had so much fun describing the savage creatures to the group. Maybe a little too much, more than is healthy likely. So many possibilities, so much freakiness! So much mood to set, which according to the players I did well save for when I introduced the cook - as soon as he saw Draco he grinned (with the mouth on his face) and pointed his cleaver, while the mouth in his stomach yelled "FFFEEEEEEAAAAAAAAASSSSSTTT!!!!" before they charged. Apparently I did that slightly too loud and/or slightly too close to the mike for my players' tastes. I made a point of being more quiet and more hissssss ssneeeeeeeeakky when Navesh Wyvernsting made his entrance.
Da Quotes:
Minds in the Gutter:
Mala: "I go to drown the little lizard [Churtle]."
DM: "You can't find the little lizard."
Yasumoto-OOC: "She's in my pocket."
DM-OOC: "That takes talent."
Draco-OOC: "Ok I couldn't help it, I just took that whole conversation to a weird sexual place."
Yasumoto-OOC: "Who needs a lucky rabbit's foot when you have a lucky kobold in your jeans?"
Draco-OOC: "And I am now permanently in the weird sexual place. Oh god it does not stop."
Yasumoto-OOC: "I broke him already!! YES!!!"
The Fey Mindset:
DM: "[Yasumoto,] Roll sense motive. Those who wish may roll assist."
Faelyn-OOC: "No, but I may charm his [fishing boat captain's] pants off... wait that's not what I meant...."
Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!:
DM: "I need a reflex save from Mala and Yasumoto."
Yasumoto: "I'm just twistin' and turnin' and everything today."
Draco-OOC: "Am I the only one who sees him breakdancing?"
DM-OOC: "Capoeira Ninja!"
Yasumoto-OOC: "Just so long as Vanilla Ice isn't playing in the background."
Draco-OOC: "Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!"
DM and Faelyn-OOC: "Dundundun dunna dunna..."
Faelyn-OOC: "Under Pressure...."
Yasumoto-OOC: "I will KILL YOU."
SESSION TWO
Continuing their explorations of Kraken's Cove, the party regrouped in the corridor outside the makeshift mess hall to prepare for their next move while Sneaks investigated the chamber off down the right path. The cat explored the room, weaving amidst the shrouds of silk hanging from ropes just below the ceiling for a while before the scent of taint and something unfamiliar stung his nose. Moments later a huge, freakish reptilian creature lunged out of the darkness at him, and Sneaks fled back to the party, getting caught in the side with one hooked claw in the process but making his escape. The group moved in moments later and found themselves face to face with a monstrous Deinonychus infested with the same mutations as the monkeys, parrots, and humans they had already encountered. After tearing a fair-sized chunk out of Draco and nearly felling Mala in one furious frenzy of claws and teeth, the group managed to put the beast down.
While the group licked their wounds Sneaks wandered off yet again, into a corridor leading to a small room with two mutant Krenshars in it; he scanned them for magic and found what he determined to be a clue as to the source of the mutations, but while he was doing this the creatures lunged to the ends of their chains and snapped him up in their jaws. He quickly fled back into the room where the others were, but the infection had already taken root. The group, thanks to the Krenshars' movement being limited by their chains, easily finished them off from range.
The group was stalled for some time by Draco wandering off down a side corridor back to the beach in an angry fit over a perceived sleight from Faelyn, and it took several minutes to get the team back on-course; this was partially assisted by the sudden sound of rattling metal from the left corridor out of the silk chamber. When the group finally got around to investigating they found a room lined with cages filled with humanoids of all different kinds, afflicted with the mutation and thrashing with abandon against their bonds, and their fury only intensified when living intruders entered their midst. Draco went back into the hall and smashed down a wooden barricade concealing a small laboratory, and used one of the broken beams to make a wooden longspear. While he did that Sneaks investigated the room; under one table was a pair of halfling- or gnome-sized boots sticking out, but when Sneaks went to get a closer look one of the massive fungi standing along the walls suddenly became animate and lashed out at him with poisoned tentacles. Sneaks retreated and Mala finished off the purple fungus with a single Crystal Shard.
Draco used his newly-crafted spear to put the poor creatures in the cages out of their misery, then the group moved on to the trophy room. Mala unlocked the three gold- and gem-filled chests and she and Faelyn pocketed most of the gems and pearls, leaving the coins to be gathered later. Yasumoto scouted ahead and found a mutated woman hunched on the beach in a chamber to the south and two more mutant pirates wandering the labyrinthine areas to the east; Draco went west and found a small storage room with weapons and blankets and other useful things and claimed a javelin for himself. Yasumoto returned to the group minus Draco and informed them of the two in the maze, and Sneaks went to fetch Draco, who simply roared and summoned the creatures to engage him. They were joined by a third who Yasumoto hadn't spotted, and moments later by the woman from the beach. This latter charged in screaming of "her love" and ranting of her hunger, and took a few moments to realize that Yasumoto was "not my love, not Vanthus! Where's Vanthus!?" She and her three blighted fellows were swiftly put down with minimal casualties.
Only the labyrinth and the areas beyond remain unexplored....
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Mwahahahahahah, Ripclaw!! LOVE me some Pounce. Knocked Draco to half HP in one round and Mala all the way to -1 from full HP in another. Advanced him to 6 HD, thankfully, as he would have been down in one round if I hadn't; as it was he lasted three and inflicted major damage in that short time. Sadly I rolled pitiful on his "free bite" when Draco killed him and he missed unconscious Mala, and his acid burst only knocked her to -6.
No game next week due to various Thanksgiving complications. Week after that (hopefully) introducing Harliss Javell, back to Sasserine and the Bullywug Gambit, as well as possibly introducing Dresylaer, CG Killoren Bard|Proselyte, being played by one of my best friends and a former roommate recently returned from a military tour in Korea.
No quotes this week, the DM didn't keep tabs like he usually does....
SESSION THREE
As the group recuperated from the last encounter, the sound of wood rapping against stone alerted the entire group to the arrival of another traveler: Dresylaer, a Killoren bard, come to investigate the strange chaotic taint that had taken hold of the area. After a short introduction - or in the case of Draco, a short-term apathy - the party allowed the blind fey to accompany them into the last leg of the caverns. Beyond a dwelling littered with the mutant dead and a half-devoured half-elf pirate, they encountered Kraken Cove's final defender: Captain Harliss Javell, famed pirate captain of the Slippery Eel and member of the Crimson Fleet. The dashing swordswoman was surrounded by no less than nine ravening mutants, but with the party's aid these final freakish beasts were put out of their misery and the party and the captain left the only remaining inhabitants of the Cove.
Javell, after having her wounds tended by Faelyn and requesting introductions from the party, shared some insight on the occurrences in the Cove: apparently none other than Vanthus Vanderboren himself had come to her in the guise of a black market merchant and while he played the part of a curious buyer attempted to steal a massive black pearl from the Captain's ship. Javell had attacked the man and he'd dropped the pearl, causing it to shatter and leak a strange green smoke; in a panic Javell had thrown it into the sea, but this had only caused a massive explosion of some sort - likely the source of the previous night's sonic boom - and incited the rampant mutations in the area. Only Vanthus, Javell, her first mate Drevoraz, and a handful of others had resisted the metamorphosis, and those who did not succumb were quickly devoured by those who did. Furious, Javell ordered Drevoraz and any others she could muster to head to Sasserine to exact vengeance on the Vanderboren house while she and some others stayed to try to reclaim the Cove from the mutants, but now only she remained, infested with the creature's foul bites, disoriented and far out of her element.
Furious at this development Faelyn revealed that it had been none other than Lavinia who had sent them and stormed out, while the others stayed speaking with the Captain and explaining their purpose for coming to the Cove, to hunt their mutual enemy. Persuaded of their honesty Javell wrote a letter to her first mate to call off the attack on Vanderboren Manor and presented Mala with one of her marilith earrings as proof. She then encouraged the group to hurry back to Sasserine as swiftly as possible, as Drevoraz had trudged through the swamps over land and if they hurried they might be able to get back to Vanderboren Manor before he did too much damage.
The group patched their wounds and rested on the sixteen hour trip back to Sasserine; on arriving the air was filled with the sights and sounds of celebration as the Wormfall Festival was in full swing. Yasumoto, Mala, and Sneaks took to the rooftops while Draco and Faelyn took to the air, and Dresylaer made his way swiftly through the crowds as any bard would, through silver words and friendly humor. It wasn't too far into the central districts that some in the group spotted a group of stiltwalking performers headed towards their location, watching the party with hungry eyes and drawing hidden blades; Dres also caught notice of a stealthy pursuer hot on his path weaving through the crowds, and combat was soon engaged between the party and the stiltwalkers, led by the nimble fistfighting hexblade, Diamondback. The group managed to kill two of the attacking stiltwalkers and subdue Diamondback and the rest; however, their goal remains ever pressing, will they have time to tend to their attackers or even to take prisoners while Lady Lavinia's life may very well hang on every second?
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Introducing Dresylaer! His contribution to the fight helping Javell? Perform (Comedy): he spent the battle mocking the savage pirates to the rest of the party's and the Captain's amusement and inspiration. Javell herself decimated the savage forces once she had adequate distractions in combat - along with her normal statistics she was gestalted to Vanguard (aka Scout)/Dervish and equipped with a cutlass rather than a rapier - same damage, just slashing instead of piercing to better work with Dervish - and was easily dealing handfuls of d6s to multiple targets with Dervish Dance once the party arrived. Playing her was quite fun and seemed to suitably impress the players.
Diamondback was advanced one level in Battle Dancer and gestalted with Hexblade, and given the Dark Companion alternate feature, which was quite fun to have floating around the battlefield and causing trouble. She even managed to successfully Curse Draco before the fight got knocked out of her. I just used the stats for Lotus Dragon Thieves (Rogue 2|Fighter 2) for the Stiltwalkers again, and equipped them with the requisite alchemist's fire and masterwork weapons.
Quotables:
One Fey Two Fey:
Faelyn-OOC: "My character perks up at the cute guy. ... Hang on, I just realized how dirty that sounded."
Dresylaer-OOC: "My appearance may inspire feelings in others that they themselves do not understand."
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery:
Faelyn-OOC: "If you're [Sneaks] always in cat form, why do you have ranks in Diplomacy?"
Sneaks-OOC: "You need them for Gather Information."
Dresylaer-OOC: "He's a very persuasive feline."
Yasumoto-OOC: "He's just trying to get into people's laps."
SESSION FOUR
While Draco, Faelyn, Yasumoto, and Sneaks continued bounding and flying over the rooftops of Sasserine, Mala and Dresylaer hung back with charmed Diamondback, questioning the battle dancer regarding her troupe's attempted assault on the party; from interrogating her Dres learned the group had been hired by one Lady Kellani for several hundred gold per head. With a friendly warning to clear the area before the local militia arrived and arrangements made for a future meeting the pair parted ways with Diamondback on good terms and resumed their trek through the streets bound for the Noble district.
Draco and Faelyn reached the manor first; when they burst into the atrium they found four Bullywug frogmen lurking about, two in the entryway and two up on the second-floor balcony. Faelyn took to the chandelier and pelted the pair with arrows while Draco darted up the stairs and bolted down a hall, bound for the third floor where the group knew Lavinia's personal rooms were to be found, two of the Bullywugs hot on his trail. Sneaks and Yasumoto showed up moments later and finished off the frogmen harassing Faelyn, and the four hurried to try and catch Draco. The half-orc druid made his way through the training room with a pile of dead frogmen in the middle, the laundry room with two more Bullywugs sorting through Lavinia's clothing, and out onto a second-floor balcony before running into a pair of watchmen who blocked his path, forcing him to stand and fight before proceeding.
By this time Dres and Mala had reached the manor and followed the trail of destruction and the sounds of battle to do what they could to catch up to the rest of the group. The other four left the two in the laundry room - who were too occupied with sifting through the silks to bother with attacking the party - while they engaged the rest; Draco simply knocked one off the balcony then took to the air in hawk form and few to the roof to spend half a minute healing his many wounds from his dash through the manor's halls. Other than Yasumoto taking a devastating hit to the stomach from a lucky Bullywug's strike the others were dispatched with little trouble, save the pair in the laundry room.
Draco flew off the far edge of the manor's roof around to one of the larger windows of the third story; he couldn't see inside because the blinds had been drawn, so decided to ram the window... and shifted into lion form just before hitting, allowing him to crash through both grass and wooden blind to land in the master bedroom of Vanderboren Manor, surrounded by two unconscious Jade Ravens, one murmuring Bullywug, another half-orc dressed in leather armor and missing an eye, and Lavinia sitting on a chair next to said half-orc with his scimitar at her throat. The pirate, Drevoraz, demanded an explanation from Draco, who told him they had orders for him to call off the attack on the manor but the person with the proof wasn't here yet. Moments later Faelyn flew through the shattered window and took a place behind Draco, while Yasumoto and Sneaks finally made it past the balcony and to the stairs leading to the third floor, and determined which door of the three there led to wherever all the noise was coming from.
Dres and Mala were distracted momentarily by the Bullywugs in the laundry room; Mala killed one and Dres blinded the other to prevent them from attacking the group from behind before catching up to the others. By then Draco had opened the door to let the others in and Yasumoto had taken the chance to slip past and attack Drevoraz; in the sudden chaos Lavinia - who had slipped her bonds - rolled away from Drevoraz and retrieved her rapier from a pile of stolen gear in the corner as the pirate and the Bullywug, who summoned a glaive of crackling eldritch energy, went on the attack. Drevoraz nearly felled Faelyn and the frogman tore viciously into Draco before a lucky strike by Lavinia caused the half-orc to lose his grip and drop his blade, and Dresylaer attempted to bring the combat to a halt with calm emotions; however the Bullywug shrugged the spell off and proceeded to shatter it entirely moments later by attacking and subduing Draco.
Mala delivered Captain Javell's message and earring to Drevoraz, but the Bullywug warlock refused to let up on the attack; as the party rallied against him the half-orc slipped out and down the stairs in the ruckus, escaping the party and likely fleeing the manor to return to his captain. The group focused their entire assault on the frogman, who attempted to first simply finish them off with his eldritch glaive then when that failed tried to blind them all with deeper darkness. When neither of those fully brought the beatings to a halt, he attempted to smite the entire group with a vile spell; however, Dresylaer had slicked the ground beneath his feet with grease and Draco's menacing presence directly above him prevented him from completing the spell, and a final shot by Mala finished him off for good.
Lavinia has been saved and though unconscious Zan and Tolin of the Jade Ravens appear to be alive; the group is battered and beaten but still alive and well. However, there is likely much more to the Bullywug infestation of the manor than the few rooms the group passed through getting straight to Lavinia....
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Only Dres would think to ask the lady who had just tried to kill his newfound friends for a date. Then turn right around and ask his party member who was there for it - Mala in this case - if she wanted to do lunch.
Another in-person session, Dres's player was in town for a week, with much laughing and much combat. I would have killed Faelyn, Zan, Tolin, and possibly Lavinia and Draco with unholy blight - Bua Gorg got advanced a couple of levels, so he had one 4th-level spell to throw at the group and that's what I picked - if he hadn't gotten stuck on the grease and forced to defensive-cast because he couldn't five-foot step away from Draco. That likely would have brought an end to the campaign, especially if Lavinia had gone down. Really hard to do Savage Tide as-written without her after all, assuming you don't use the "Switching Sides" path. ;)
I got a "WTF!? Award" from my players for the laundry room Bullywugs sorting through Lavinia's stuff. I described them as having some of it being worn in odd ways and the players... well... you know what.
Oh, and Bua Gorg Gestalted Cleric|Warlock with eldritch glaive and Dragonscale Husk? Naaaaaaaaaaaasty.
Le quotes:
Tempting Fate again!:
Mala-OOC: "No more short jokes."
Faelyn-OOC: "There will always be short jokes. Live up to it."
Sucker Punch:
Dresylaer-OOC: "I can see his [Yasumoto's] spine, I can count his ribs and the number is not as high as it should be!"
Easily Distracted:
Draco-OOC: "These two frogs have attention deficit disorder. They're like 'ooh, shiny clothes!'"
His Motto:
Dresylaer-OOC: "I'm the bard. When the curtain goes down the show's over, but when the panties go down the show's just begun."
SESSION FIVE
While the group was patching their wounds from the battle with Drevoraz and the Bullywug warlock priest, Dresylaer and Faelyn questioned the two Jade Ravens to the whereabouts of their compatriots while Sneaks discovered the body of Kora Whistlegap, Lavinia's handmaid, stuffed under the bed with her throat slit, long beyond even the help of the healer's skilled hands. Zan and Tolin told Dres that their two fellow mercenaries had been scattered after the initial attack, and they didn't know where they had gone to; Dres called upon his memory of the Ravens and recalled that one of their membership was a sorceress named Liamae and set off back into the halls of the manor to search for her; Mala soon joined at his side.
The pair made their way back through the halls and passed through the kitchens, where they discovered several more Bullywugs dead to a dizzying array of Churtle's inventive cookware traps - spilled boiling pots of poison and spice, knives and cleavers rigged to fly, even a cauldron hanging awkwardly at an angle prepared to fall on anyone who tampered with the dumbwaiter - one of the few traps not yet triggered. Deciding well to leave the scene alone they continued on into the training hall, where the one surviving Bullywug from the laundry room had hidden in the pile of corpses prepared to pounce; however Mala noticed him shifting about to try and get in place and moved to attack, forcing the creature to give up its position to take advantage of the chance to attack the gnome. Yasumoto, Sneaks, and Faelyn caught up moments later and the ninja put the beast down with a shuriken between the eyes.
Draco meanwhile had jumped back out the window and gone around to the front of the manor to search the halls for more frogmen. He found several empty rooms but no more Bullywugs; by the time he had explored the first five chambers of the building the rest of the group minus Yasumoto had made their way back to the atrium and were preparing to go into one of the unexplored hallways. Before they could Yasumoto caught up and directed them back upstairs, then to a different stairway back down to another part of the first floor; this led them back to the dining room where Lavinia had first spoken with them before hiring them, which had been taken over by four more frogmen, one of which was much larger than the others and busying itself with a box of cigars. Draco led the charge, putting down one of the Bullywugs in a single bite, and the larger toad leaped to the attack, a massive viper emerging from beneath the table to come to its aid. The bigger beast managed to do some severe damage to Draco before it was finally put down, its pet and companions following shortly.
The group then moved into the empty banquet hall to continue their search. Yasumoto stood watch and inspected the southern doorway of the room while the rest of the group stepped out into the courtyard to examine the remains of a battle there - three more dead Bullywugs and one dead badger, which Dresylaer surmised had belonged to the dwarven druid who was part of the Jade Ravens. Tracks leading out of the courtyard exited through a door to the north, and the suggestion was made to follow in that direction. In the meanwhile Yasumoto had discovered the muffled sound of dogs barking behind the southern door, offering another clue and perhaps an advantage to their search.
------
Poor Dres was the one this time without a mike - he just got to his station at Fort Hood in Texas, and didn't have internet in his room yet so he was forced to use a 'net cafe and therefore couldn't use voicechat. The next few weeks will be sessionless due to the holidays, meaning Saturday 1/9 will probably be the first session of 2010.
Pathfinder Barbarian = Nasty. One more round and Lorb-Lorb would have put Draco under.
Quotes:
I have no words:
(From MapTool's chat)
Dresylaer: Hmmm... I have no hand free to cast...
Faelyn: but you can mock
Dresylaer: ...taking a hand away could be an insult...
Dresylaer: ...but having both hands full with cute girls is a daily ambition. Clearly I must rely on my skill with my tongue.
Dresylaer: :D
At least he's direct:
Dresylaer: Dres has no objection with sharing his personal space.
Maybe too direct:
Dresylaer: Dres does... not... step aside to make room. You'll have to squeeze past. ^_^
That would be stinging, if they were smart enough to get it:
Dresylaer: Perform Mockery: The terrifying power of the sex drive is horrifically demonstrated by the fact that someone was willing to father you.
Things Man Was Never Meant To Know:
Yasumoto-OOC: I can't tell if you [Sneaks] got your whiskers twisted or your tail in a knot.
Faelyn-OOC: Worse, he got neutered.
Draco-OOC: Sneaks is a eunuch? Ow man, that sucks.
Sneaks-OOC: You think that's bad, you shoulda seen the doctor that did it.
Draco-OOC: Wait, are you admitting it!? TMI! TMI! TMI! I'mma run for the hills, good thing I can run so fast!
SESSION SIX
Yasumoto, with some slightly unwilling support from Sneaks, investigated the kennel and discovered there were indeed dogs caged there; Faelyn and Dresylaer decided to release the dogs and allow them to search for more of the frogmen or the two missing Jade Ravens (despite dragging Dres and Mala rather forcefully from their leashes). The dogs were eager to leap to action when the group discovered more Bullywugs lurking in the trophy room, and their tracking capabilities by scent allowed one to discover a hidden room under the stairs where Kaskus, the dwarf member of the Jade Ravens, was found unconscious. Faelyn mended the druid's wounds as he shared his tale of the events that had passed, and suggested that the last remaining Raven, Liamae, was probably down in the basement, the one place the group hadn't explored yet.
Draco and Dresylaer, with the dogs leading the way, charged down into the basement and leaped to the attack as soon as they spotted the last remaining group of Bullywugs, led by the obese and lazy chieftain. Liamae was being held captive and tormented by the chief's pet Rust Monster, but managed to charm the chief and retreat while the group had him and his thugs distracted. The dogs decimated the hunters while the group ganged up on the chief, but the Rust Monster instead decided to go after Mala and her chain shirt before being disabled and rescued by Dresylaer.
The last of the frogmen exterminated, the group went over the lower two floors before returning to the top floor, where Lavinia and the first two Ravens had fully secured the area. The group gave Lavinia a summary of what had happened and an explanation for the attack, and she awarded them handsomely for their efforts with a significant bonus to their pay and some time off. The group spent their vacation weeks at various tasks, except for Draco who bid his farewells and left for the wilds again shortly after, his debts to Sneaks repaid.
While the party rests and enjoys the fruits of their labor, Lavinia turns her attentions away from the pursuit of her brother, whose trail has gone long cold, and more day by day to the mysteries unfolding in her mother's journal. With Dres' and Faelyn's help she has managed to translate the entire thing, and a new plan has begun to arise.
------
Thus ends The Bullywug Gambit. The party is either halfway to or just below ECL 6, and fairly wealthy given their payments from Lavinia coupled with the treasures found on Parrot Island and Kraken's Cove. Draco has departed and Sneaks has taken a new position as an NPC at Lavinia's side, and both will be replaced by new characters at the beginning of Chapter 3: The Sea Wyvern's Wake.
Chief was retooled Warblade|Dragon Shaman, mostly used the Power Aura. Nailed Draco and Yasumoto pretty good with one of his maneuvers, and got half the party with a breath attack as well before going down.
Three Mastiffs + Bard Song + Words of Creation = Dead Mooks.
Dres also took Chunkus as a pet. In his words, "Because it eats metal. Having one around is an excellent deterrent against people with swords." He even had a wooden cage constructed for it.
Also, the funniest moment in the session was easily Sneaks being paranoid about being around all the dogs. So it was ironically appropriate when he rolled a Nat 1 on his Eldritch Blast and the Critical Fumble Deck came up "Monster Rift: Your spell turns into a Summon Monster spell, monster attacks you" and I rolled "Goblin Dog" for the monster. Managed to bite Sneaks and inflict its disease before being overwhelmed by the mastiffs (who, ironically, all made their saves for biting it).
Quotage:
Sad But True:
Dresylaer: So Sneaks has been bitten by a rabid dog. Do we need to put him down?
No Accounting for Taste:
Draco: So anyone up for frog legs tonight? I hear they're a delicacy.
Faelyn: EEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW!!!
To What Measures?:
Dresylaer-OOC: I'm a very efficient healer.
Faelyn-OOC: Yes, but you're also grabby.
Dresylaer-OOC: Are you seriously buying magical items just to deny me the chance to use touch-range spells?
Faelyn-OOC: It has crossed my mind.
CHAPTER TWO - SESSION ONE
When Yasumoto, Faelyn, Mala, and Dresylaer arrived, Lavinia revealed her intentions: the journal they had recovered from her family's vault cataloged her parents' journey to a place known as the Isle of Dread - a far southern jungle island infested by strange natives and monstrous creatures. Seizing upon a chance to permanently enshrine her family legacy, she had planned a voyage south, taking supplies and volunteer colonists to the city her parents founded on the Isle, Farshore. She wished the party to come along as the crew for a second ship, provided they could acquire one; Yasumoto quickly reminded the group of the abandoned caravel, the Sea Wyvern, the group had discovered back at Kraken's Cove. The group, with the aid of the Jade Ravens, recovered the ship and Yasumoto claimed the abandoned vessel as his property.
Once back in Sasserine the group started in earnest preparing the Sea Wyvern for the journey south. Yasumoto interviewed some of the prospective passengers and assigned Amalla Venkalie, an experienced sailor, as her captain and turned management of the crew over to her capable hands. Faelyn and Mala spent the next few days with Lavinia making preparations and gathering supplies. Dresylaer busied himself with locating his newfound companion Ramelia Diarn - also known as Diamondback, the leader of the Stiltwalkers who had attacked the group on their way back to Vanderboren Manor a little less than a month ago - and convincing her to accompany him on the journey.
When at last the day of departure came, the group arrived at the Sea Wyvern to see Amalla checking the crew and passengers in; the sudden discovery of one passenger holding what appeared to be a woman with foxlike features by a leash and collar nearly caused a riot in the line, especially when the local watch got involved. Before any blood could be shed - but not before the young man was nearly arrested for what appeared to be slavery and magical domination - Mala explained to the group that the woman was just a summoned creature created by the man, and he was released with a warning. He turned out to be Gene Syn, a young alchemist and mage, and Amalla placed him under Faelyn's command. Another crewman, a Duskling named Avander, was brought aboard as a night watch crewman; a young swordswoman and sailor named Lirith was assigned as First Mate, a balding priest of Hieroneous named Father Feres was given the job of surgeon (also under Faelyn), a twitchy gnome druid named Urol Forol was (reluctantly on Amalla's part) given the job of navigator, and a nervous elflike figure named Skald was given the job of day crewman. A young boy named Tavey served as cabin boy.
After all seemed to be set and ready to depart, Lavinia and one of the journey's financiers named Mr. Nurn informed Yasumoto that they could not yet depart because the other financial representative had not yet arrived. No sooner did the ninja's patience nearly come to an end than none other than Avner Meravanchi stormed down the street on his magnificent steed Thunderstrike, with his two manservants dragging his personal effects along behind. Avner immediately pitched a fit about where he was to be roomed, and would likely have been intolerable if Faelyn had not convinced him that Gene was training for a position as a manservant and given his quarters to Avner to share; this seemed to pacify the nobleman and he immediately set to putting the summoner to work on various menial tasks, much to his Eidolon's despair.
The first night and day at sea passed without incident, and the following afternoon a messenger in a rowboat from the Blue Nixie informed Amella and Yasumoto that Lavinia was throwing a dinner party on the Nixie that night as a celebration of their departure, and invited her employees, the entire Wyvern crew, and Avner over for the celebration. That evening anchor was weighed after the ships were stationed aside one another, and a rope-strung net chair swung between the vessels to ferry people across. The banquet was likely the best meal any of the group would have for some time, and the celebrations for the night were ended with a toast and a drink on the deck before the two groups parted ways and resumed travel.
Avner made to be the first across back to the Sea Wyvern, but Yasumoto and Mala along with Gene's Eidolon caught sight of a strange flaw in the rigging, part of the rope had been frayed. While they removed Avner from the harness before he could fall into the sea, shattering glass drew the attention of all back to the Nixie's deck, where amidst shards two Water Mephits had suddenly appeared. The group went swiftly on the assault and destroyed the creatures before they could act, much to Dresylaer's frustration, and attempted to determine where the creatures had come from. Mala discovered the rope had not frayed on its own but rather had been cut, suggesting a saboteur of some sort aboard.
Eventually everyone was returned to their proper vessel and the journey restarted; though the crew was on high alert no further incident troubled the ships this night. But if there was a saboteur aboard, as Mala and Dresylaer suggested, who was it and when would they strike again?
------
At last, what you've all been waiting for - The Sea Wyvern's Wake and the full introduction of AVNER!! The party's actually split about sixty-forty on him - Yasumoto, Avander, and Mala can't stand him, Gene is being tormented by him so likely hates him too, Faelyn prefers to manipulate him but considers him useful, and Dres seems to kind of like him. Definitely will be interesting.
Ah yes, new characters. Sneaks' player has become Gene Syn, a human Alchemist|Summoner with a Fox-Girl as his Eidolon. I kid you not. Yes, he had her on a leash. Yes, it caused about an hour worth of near-conflict. Draco swapped for a different sort of damage dealer - Avander, a Duskling Barbarian|Totemist, focusing on natural attacks with the Sphinx Claws meldshape. Avander's a native of the Isle of Dread who was kidnapped by Scarlet Brotherhood pirates and taken from his home years ago, who obtained a chance to return to the Isle by agreeing to serve as a guide for Lavinia and the party when they arrive.
Le quotes:
It keeps going:
Amalla: "Faelyn would make a good ship's chaplain."
Faelyn-OOC: "So does this make me a naughty nun?"
And going:
Amalla: "What is the point of bringing a blind man [Dresylaer] on a ship unless he offers some other skill?"
Yasumoto: "You would probably appreciate the skills he does have."
Amalla: "I'm not sure I want to know."
It makes an excellent story hook:
Dresylaer: *regarding the chaos caused by Gene and his leashed Eidolon girl* "Nothing sets off a noble's legacy like SCANDAL."
SESSION TWO
As the Sea Wyvern continued on its voyage, Gene and Dresylaer continued their search for the mystery saboteur. Gene managed to identify the magic-infused shards of glass as belonging to a pickled mephit, a magic and alchemical item that allows a summoned mephit to be called simply by shattering or opening the jar in which its physical form for the Prime is contained. Dres suggested Gene should take a sweep of the ship with detect magic, but the young alchemist's search came up fruitless.
A week and a half into the journey, the ships reached their first stop - the peninsula known as the Hook, and the outpost of Fort Blackwell. The group spend the night there relaxing, either enjoying the small but comfortable taverns and inns, browsing the market, or simply taking some time off. They departed by noon the next day, now rounding the eastern edge of the Amedio continent and bound south towards their next destination - first the Tamoachan ruins where Lavinia had promised to let Urol make some investigations before leaving the mainland, then another fort, and lastly the small settlement of Renkrue on an island, then straight south out to the Isle of Dread.
A few days later, after spending yet another day investigating, Dres was approached by Ramelia Diamondback on the deck and brought dinner. After eating and relaxing for a while she suggested they take a swim; Dres, never much for such rigorous tasks, suddenly grew suspicious. He suggested "an alternative activity", and Ramelia answered by leading him down into the hold of the ship. Yasumoto caught sight of them leaving and judged that the former assassin was acting oddly, and followed in silence. Down in the hold Dres released the Rust Monster he had captured from the Bullywugs and taken on the ship, and just as Yasumoto came down the woman posing as Ramelia fled back up under cover of invisibility, dropping a jeweled dagger to distract Rusty.
The two chased her back up to the main deck then to the rear of the ship, shouting for the others to do anything they could to disable invisibility magic in the area. Faelyn doused the area in Glitterdust, revealing an invisible woman crouching on the ship's rear railing; said woman lashed out at Yasumoto as soon as he drew close, dispelling the illusion magic and revealing herself as Rowyn Kellani, ex-guildmistress of the Lotus Dragons. She attempted to hold her ground at the edge against the entire party's assault, gravely wounding Yasumoto and Gene's Eidolon in the ensuing battle, but a lucky strike from Dres's Spiritual Weapon blinded her and a furious flurry of claws from Avander brought her to the ground. Yasumoto confiscated her belongings, dividing up her many daggers among the group and giving one vial of a brownish liquid found in her pack to Gene to identify; Faelyn charmed her and escorted her to the hold, mending her wounds but leaving the second blindness, a permanent infliction done by one of Dresylaer's spells in a fit of rage when Rowyn refused to answer what had become of Ramelia.
Faelyn discovered Rowyn had smuggled herself on board with the cargo and had been hiding her magic items in a lead-lined tarp stuffed behind some crates in the hold when she wasn't actively trying to kill the party; said tarp was mostly devoured by Rusty, who had been left out of his cage while Dres and Yasumoto pursued Rowyn to the main deck. She explained - thanks to the charm - that Diamondback and her assassins had been sent by her mother, Heldrath Kellani, in revenge for the group's destruction of the Lotus Dragons; when they had failed Heldrath had washed her hands of the situation but Rowyn's vengeance wouldn't be satisfied with that. She'd boarded the ship with the intent of killing them all, but Dres had been too curious and too persistent and her hand had been forced to deal with him first. Faelyn tried to turn her to a more friendly viewpoint of the party, but as soon as the spell faded she was back to her hateful and enraged self. Faelyn locked her in the room in the hold with bread and water, leaving her blinded and pretty much incapable of escape.
A few days later, Father Feres fell ill, complaining of stomachaches. Only a couple hours after that his skin had turned deathly pale, and he'd become delusional and convinced the world was "too bright and soft around the edges". Faelyn discovered a massive cyst in his stomach, and consulting with Dres the bard revealed that casting remove disease would expel the infection without permanently harming Feres. Secretly, Dres had identified the object as a Slaad egg, but he kept that fact secret - he wanted to move it to some other creature, so that it could be allowed to hatch. Faelyn managed to guess that he wanted to hatch the egg and opposed the action strongly, adamantly refusing to allow any creature that had to kill another creature to survive to be born on the ship while it was under her watch. The pair argued for quite some time, with Avander occasionally interjecting a recommendation that the egg might be used for food instead. Eventually Faelyn gave up and resigned to let Dres do whatever he wanted with the creature, and Dres took it back to his quarters to keep it as well incubated as possible without a host - wrapping it in towels and blankets and using prestidigitation to keep it warm.
Feres was left resting, recovering from whatever fate had befallen them; Dres understood the incubation period of Slaad eggs to be a week give or take, meaning Feres would have to have contracted the infection while in Fort Blackwell. Too far out now and with no way back turning back was not an option; they could only pray no harm had befallen the small village and look forward to whatever the rest of their journey would bring them.
------
Gene has a long way to go before the party is going to trust him enough to let him travel with them, it looks like. Thankfully for him Avner was sleeping, drunk, or otherwise occupied for most of the events of this session.
Rowyn got caught mostly due to Dres's uncanny anti-stealth capabilities... being blind and knowing ways around it are surprisingly effective ways of routing out a stealth-based adversary. I gave her the Darkstalker feat to negate his blindsense, but that didn't stop his Hunter's Sense, darn Killoren. :P Rebuilt as a Warblade she had a decent chunk of HP and managed to tear up Yasumoto and Kitsue pretty good before Avander and his darned Landshark Boots shredded her. The party started doing nonlethal damage around the second round - Yasumoto shouted "I want her alive" as soon as he knew who she was - and pummeled her into unconsciousness, and a very angry Dres used a spell to blind her, casting all three of his spell slots on it until she finally failed the save on the last one. She's currently still blind and locked in the hold with just food and water to survive on, and Faelyn charming her whenever they need more information.
The argument between Fae and Dres at the end about the Slaad egg was hilarious. Other than that I missed out on collecting quotes this session. I was a bit frustrated on how cantrips were negating a lot of Rowyn's sneakiness. Apparently detect magic can see through wood walls... grrrrrrr... gave her a lead sheet to hide under as a result, and a wand of magic aura for the times when she had to be out and about.
SESSION THREE
Nine days out of Fort Blackwell, the ships stopped at the mouth of the Havekihu River to restock the ship's water supplies - despite the presence of multiple spellcasters aboard, superstitious sailors would much prefer fetching their own water from a mundane river than having it conjured for them out of apparently nowhere. The river mouth is just beyond the edge of a vicious looking jungle, and the branches of the trees at its borders were filled with strange masks, ritual fetishes, and dessicated corpses of hanged lizardfolk; the crew gave them worried and nervous glances but mostly stuck to their work, avoiding going any further inland than absolutely needed for their duties.
For Avner Meravanchi, though, this would not do. After tasting one of the recently-acquired barrels of water supply and finding it unfit for his tastes, the nobleman somehow got it in his head that the best thing to do was to head inland and look for a spring. He sent his two servants to the hold to retrieve his horse and began badgering Gene into making preparations for the journey. Luckily, Avander discovered the servants trying to free the horse and alerted pretty much everyone on the ship; Faelyn and Yasumoto approached Avner before he could leave and the healer convinced the young nobleman that "fey water" created by magic would be superior to any spring water (a little charm person didn't hurt either) and persuaded him to call off the reckless inland expedition.
Fae, Dresylaer, Churtle, and Dres's pet rust monster did take a walk while the crew was working; Churtle managed to knock down one of the hanging masks with a slingshot and took it as a souvenir, then discovered a patch of mushrooms and began to harvest them. Turns out they were slightly hallucinogenic and she and Dres, who nabbed one after Faelyn took them from the kobold, spent the next hour in a drugged haze. Thankfully, they were both awake and sober by the time the crew was done stocking and the ship was ready to sail.
Shortly after sundown, a thick fog rolled in and obscured the crew's vision so badly that they could not even see the Blue Nixie not too far ahead; after a bit of sloughing through the mist the sound of a horn came from ahead, a signal from the Nixie to drop anchor and wait for the fog to pass. While the crew waited, a sudden jolt to the port side of the ship sent several people to the deck and four overboard - Skald and Dresylaer managed to catch the edge of the ship as they fell over, but the other two were less lucky and tumbled into the sea. Mala and Yasumoto investigated and saw a semitransparent mass covered in driftwood clinging to the edge of the ship - a flotsam ooze, and a big one at that. Ramelia and Lirith pulled Skald and Dres back on board while Amalla threw a rope to one of the swimming crewman and Gene sent Kitsue to fetch the other. Before he could reach the rope, though, the unfortunate first sailor was snapped up by the ooze's tendrils and crushed in a single action.
Avander, up in the crow's nest, launched himself into the ocean in a brazen attempt to assault the thing head-on; unfortunately he missed and plunged into the sea, but moments later was able to surface and launch into a frenzied attack on the ooze at melee range; unfortunately this resulted in him getting caught fast to the ooze's adhesive form, preventing him from escaping as it engulfed him. Ramelia hurled knives and Skald plunked away at it with his bow, but the times they didn't simply miss and shoot into the water their projectiles sunk harmlessly into the writhing translucent goo. Yasumoto caught onto the idea that bigger weapons were needed and bolted for the ballista on the port side, pushing Dres and the sailors out of the way trying to rotate it into the awkward but basically serviceable position of shooting at his own ship's side. Mala lashed away at it with crystal shards from the rear of the ship, and Gene threw a few bottles of alchemical weapons in attempt to deal as much damage as possible.
Faelyn eventually managed to hit it with an arrow from her revealing bow, outlining the ooze in faerie fire and giving the attackers a more stable target; she then swooped down to heal Avander's quickly-multiplying wounds but got caught by one of the ooze's tendrils and nearly crushed to death herself in the process. Gene summoned a handful of Water Elementals but they did very little and were easily exterminated one by one; however this distraction seemed to serve its purpose, as the ooze concentrated on foes in the water until they were all stuck to it or destroyed before attempting to move onto the ship. Dresylaer summoned one spiritual weapon after another, happily letting the conjured daggers be engulfed by the ooze to slash away at it from the inside. These combined with Mala's magic, Avander's claws, and repeated shots from the ballista - reloaded by the crew after every shot, on Amalla's orders - finally brought the ooze to instability just as it reached the deck and attempted to pull itself aboard. As it disintegrated several bodies were found among the pieces of driftwood that clung to its form; Gene fished a trio of magic items off these as well as retrieved the slain sailor, and the crew took him to be buried in a sea funeral after tossing the dessicated remains of the ooze's other victims back overboard.
Faelyn returned to her quarters for a bath - aside from an interruption by Dres - then went to get some rest. Avander, Dres, Ramelia, and Mala spent the night drinking, telling stories, playing cards, and eventually passing out in the mess hall. Gene returned to his bunk and spent the night working on alchemy to resupply the resources used against the ooze. Yasumoto went back to his place on deck and observed the rest of the night.
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Chapter 3's first meat grinder - the Flotsam Ooze. Some very close calls, Avander was brought to >10% HP once and Faelyn twice; Level Adjustment hurts against enemies that deal lots of damage at once. One more round and I would have had more additions for the obituaries thread. *shakes fist* ;)
Next week - Tamoachan!
Quotes:
Well, he is Management:
Faelyn: "I need to inform our defunct group leader [Yasumoto]."
It's not a cliche, it's an archetype:
Dresylaer-OOC: (After Faelyn dissuades Avner from going inland to search for a spring by offering him 'fey water') "Cute girl successfully talks stupid man out of very bad idea... I guess this really is a fantasy game."
Drink and Deal:
Avander: (playing blackjack) "Hit me. Hit me. Hit me. Hit me. Hit me."
Avander-OOC: "Yeah he's smashed."
SESSION FOUR
Five days after the encounter with the flotsam ooze, the Blue Nixie and Sea Wyvern came to a stop at the ruins of Tamoachan, an ancient Olman ruin where Lavinia had promised Urol Forol a day to visit and study the ruins before the ships head out into deep sea. Dragging the party along as companions and protectors, the babbling gnome led them on an hour journey through the jungle to the ruined gates of one of the ancient ziggurats. The entryway beyond was adorned with statues of humanoids which Urol quickly identified as more recent visitors who had been petrified by a basilisk's gaze; moments later the source of the deathly glare appeared, burrowing out of one of the side corridors. The basilisk didn't have long to make its assault though; moments after it appeared Avander launched at the creature and pummeled it viciously with his claws, prompting it to flee back into its burrow.
Investigating the first room, Dres found himself under assault from a gibbering mouther that lived in the well there; it nearly might have devoured him if the group hadn't set to attacking immediately. Gene examined the well after its demise and found a few magic items in the piles of bones at the bottom, which he sent Kitsue to retrieve. The group then doubled back to the entrance to go down the second pathway, which led into a large chamber. Mala disabled a necromantic trap she and Gene discovered in the entry archway, but was less lucky in handling the fire trap that awaited at the bottom of the stairs; after she and Avander were singed they noticed the wall of flames the trap conjured moved north along the room, so the group bolted across behind it and reached the corridor leading out before it could come back again.
The next chamber was blocked off by a massive wall of iron conjured by a magical trap; however Dresylaer had brought along the rust monster he had obtained from the Bullywugs and swiftly set to leaving his "pet" to open a space large enough for the party to walk through. Once through they found themselves in the middle of a massive miniature of an ancient Olman city; in the center was a gargantuan pyramid that Mala determined was also some sort of chest or sarcophagus. She opened it careful not to disturb the ancient dust within, and managed to retrieve a ceremonial necklace from the Olman mummy inside.
Avander and Mala then moved on to the next chamber south while Urol turned his focus to sketches and notes of the miniature city; there they discovered a large calendar stone and a pair of statues, but before they could investigate something attacked with magic. Dres and Gene were soon able to identify the creature as a Varrangoin, a beast from the Abyss, and instructed Yasumoto to use the cold iron katana he'd obtained from Rowyn Kellani to carve through its hide. Halfway through the battle a Will-o-Wisp from somewhere else in the ruin launched into the attack against the Varrangoin as if fighting on the group's side, but after the demonic creature was slain turned its wrath on the intruding adventurers. Avander was greatly weakened by its assaults and his own exhaustion as his Rage faded, and many other members of the party were badly injured, but between repeated vicious attacks and Faelyn turning her shamanistic powers against the fey abberation they finally managed to subdue and destroy it.
In the chamber beyond Avander found and retrieved a golden idol of Camazotz, the Olman god of bats and the night; the group then returned to the entrance of the ruin and used the stone salve Urol had brought "just in case" on some of the statues there; the survivors were dazed and unresponsive as they were led back to the Sea Wyvern, where Amalla and Yasumoto had them housed in the cargo hold. One statue was also brought along by Avander and Kitsue, a woman with a leg that had been partially devoured by the basilisk, for possible later healing of her petrification.
Shortly after sundown the ships set sail once more, southbound for their next destination - the ship blockade at the town of Narisban, on South Olman Isle.
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Tamoachan was a bit of a pushover. The big threats - Sutolore the Varrangoin (by suggestion of another poster advanced with levels and Gestalted Sorcerer|Rogue/Assassin) and the Mummy Rot trap - were both bypassed with excellent skill checks and superior combat advantage (limited movement space + Hunter's Sense to negate invisibility/stealth + Grease = grounded Varrangoin). The Wisp was more frustrating than dangerous, through that he did excel at.
Quotes:
Innuendo Ahoy:
Dresylaer-OOC: (Discussing Reserve Feats) "Sorry dude, a certain amount of power is required. It has nothing to do with finesse or efficiency."
Faelyn-OOC: "I walked in on a bad part of the conversation, bye now!"
Dresylaer-OOC: "Don't worry. [Gene] just wants to hold something in reserve."
Faelyn-OOC: "That's not helping...."
Pronunciation Guide:
Gene-OOC: "Dray Slayer..."
Dresylaer-OOC: "Dre-sil-yeh-er!"
Yasumoto-OOC: "Say it Dre's Sillier."
The woes of the party band-aid battery:
DM-OOC: "Avander is a combat monster."
Avander-OOC: "He is."
Dresylaer-OOC: "I'm going to re-spec my spells for more buffing on you."
Avander-OOC: "Wait, so the plan now is just power-up Avander and send him in?"
Faelyn-OOC: "No! The healer does not like this plan! She doesn't like you sending people away to get hurt!"
SESSION FIVE
Upon reaching Narisban, Lavinia sent word back to the Sea Wyvern warning of the Scarlet Brotherhood piracy known to occur in the area and alerting the party to fears that the ships might be accosted. To avoid the possibility of both ships being attacked, Lavinia suggested having the ships go through separately and meet up on the other side at a pre-arranged position. The Blue Nixie was to go first, with the Wyvern following about an hour later.
The first ship made it through fine, but the Wyvern had no such good fortune: the Nightshark, a caravel flying the colors of the Scarlet Brotherhood, approached and made to board the Wyvern only a few moments after it began entering the strait. With a cutthroat crew and no less than four chained spellcasters - Wavewitches, in seamans' terms - on deck, there was no doubt as to what these brutes had in mind. Unfortunately for them, there was little chance of any sort of victory - with a vicious assault the group crossed to the Nightshark or attacked at range from the Wyvern's deck as soon as the former came into boarding range, and most of its crew along with its no-necked captain were slaughtered in less than half a minute. Two pirates were taken captive, and the Wavewitches between their own pleas and Dres's personal opinions were taken aboard as guests.
The Nightshark was claimed by the party and added to the retinue headed for the Isle of Dread; very minimal supplies were taken from the Sea Wyvern to see to the third ship's needs, as Faelyn and Dresylaer seemed happy to provide magically-conjured food and drink for the party rather than dealing with the superstitions of sailors. The party and a couple of choice crewmen - Skald, Churtle, and Ramelia Diarn - moved to the Nightshark to man it, leaving the Wyvern under the complete command of Amalla Venkalie; the only others taken aboard were the crew's prisoners, "Father" Feres and Rowyn Kellani.
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SESSION SIX
Shortly after passing the blockade and acquiring the Nightshark, a former Scarlet Brotherhood vessel (its emblem-stained sails quickly replaced with blank white spares), the next arranged stop was another supply point: the reclusive and remote colony of Fort Greenrock, an outpost and monastery co-operated by a small circle of druids ordered out of the nearby jungle. Such was not to be, however: when the three ships arrived it was obvious Greenrock was no more, long since crushed and burnt to the ground. Not a single corpse nor bit of commerce remained, only evidence of a long-over battle with local lizardfolk tribes. Though perplexed at first - lizardfolk have no desire for the trappings of civilization and thus would not attack in order to simply raid - it was quickly determined that in the months since the battle that claimed Greenrock it was more likely that the left-behinds had been looted by local pirates or other passersby.
A few days after departing Greenrock, the trio of ships reached their final water-stock point at the mouth of the Atikula River; if all went according to plan this stop is the final point of reference on the mainland, followed by a stop on the Axuxal Isles at the trade village of Renkrue, and lastly passing the uninhabited island Ruja as their final landmark before the open sea before at last reaching the Isle of Dread. Given the party's preference for magically-conjured water they had no need to restock and set the crew of the Nightshark as guard while the other two ships restocked their necessities. A few of the crew decided to take the time to relax - Avander, Dresylaer, and Ramelia all decided to take a swim, while Faelyn climbed up to the Crow's Nest for some privacy while sunbathing.
A relaxing day was not to be in the cards, unfortunately; some time during the festivities a Hydra dwelling in the depths of the pool at the bottom of the Atikula's waterfall came up to investigate the visitors and drive away intruders into its territory. It caught Avander and Dresylaer off guard and lashed out rather violently, but in the confusion two of its heads got tangled up in themselves or their would-be prey and a third missed and crashed into the side of the Nightshark, momentarily stunning it. Nevertheless the beast put up a vicious fight, gravely injuring both swimmers and Faelyn's conjured dolphin before their attacks and a barrage from the ship removed enough of its heads and disabled the rest to convince it to try to flee. Blinded by glitterdust and burnt by alchemy and magic, it dove underwater to escape only to be finished off and pummeled unconscious by continued attacks from Ramelia and Avander. The victorious return to the surface - with Gene's newly-formed Eidolon, now a dragon-like creature instead of a humanoid fox, dragging the unconscious Hydra along - was greeted by applause and cheers from the other two ships' crews and passengers, which intensified suddenly as Faelyn decided to "show off" for a moment after returning to the Crow's Nest after the battle.
For a short time after the group debated what to do with the beast - some suggested killing it off, Avander wanted to harvest it for eating, Dres for a short time seemed to be considering taking it as yet another "pet" along with Rusty. Before a final decision could be made though the creature came to, though Dres managed to subdue it with magic and skill before it could go back on the assault, and convinced it to "stand guard" over the ships until they departed. (In all actuality it might have simply been looking out more for its lair, and unable/unwilling to go back on the attack either because of its grave injuries or due to calm emotions.) When the three ships finished their stock for the night and departed the Hydra went back into its underwater home.
About a week later the three ships arrived in Renkrue and all aboard were granted two days of shore leave. Yasumoto and Faelyn spent most of their time out in the jungle exploring, camping, or training; Faelyn returned on the second day and spent most of it with a local shaman, who tried unsuccessfully to teach the half-fey some of the Olman language that was the primary form of speech in the village. Gene spent the time on the edge of the forest near the coast, working on his alchemy and attempting to perfect his Alchemist's Explosion, a dangerous and volatile mixture of Alchemist's Fire and Blackpowder; he eventually managed to get the combination right, but the resulting product was so unstable that transport - especially by ship - without causing an explosion was near impossible, requiring that the object in question be transported in his Haversack at all times to prevent an accidental detination. Dresylaer sought him out to aid in crafting a few magic items as well. Avander spent most of his time in the village, milling with the crew and enjoying the fine homebrews at the small Olman tavern.
The first evening seemed like it would go by peacefully, but sometime during the night a loud shout and arguing caught the attentions of Faelyn, Dresylaer and Ramelia, and Avander; when they went to investigate they found one of the Olman families had Avner Meravanchi pinned up against the wall and shouting violently in his face. Dres used his favorite spell to calm them all down and Avner - rather absentmindedly - explained that he had attempted to purchase the Olman fellow's daughter as a concubine but the old man had refused his money and gotten violent. Disgusted Avander departed, and Faelyn was about to take matters into her own hands when some of the Olman tribesmen arrived seeking an explanation. Thankfully for the group Dresylaer smoothed things over with the tribesmen while Faelyn banished Avner back to the Sea Wyvern for the remainder of shore leave.
At the end of their second day in Renkrue the crews returned to their respective ships. That night, however, the passengers and crew of the Nightshark all had the same terrible dream:
A cauldron of black stone and metal sitting in the middle of a dark cave, atop a bonfire of vile purple flame. A sickly brown-green soup bubbled and boiled within. Wretched hunchbacked creatures with taloned hands and twisted feet hopped and danced in circles about the cauldron, cawing and chanting in an unfamiliar tongue. After a moment though the strange inhuman crowd parted for a hooded, cloaked figure who resembled something more humanoid; said figure stuck one arm down into the bubbling slop and withdrew it twisted and scorched, burned and charred and changed into a wretched taloned claw not unlike those of the dancers, and clutching a gleaming black orb. In the flickering light of the unholy flame, they could barely catch sight of the face beneath the hooded cloak:
Vanthus Vanderboren.
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Apologies for the lack of update last week - the session was short due to a combination of lack of preparation and utter BLAAAAAAAAAAAH. I had a really lousy week. Thankfully this one has turned out a bit for the better.
As one of my players observed, my party seems to like collecting things. First Chunkus now known as Rusty and Ramelia AKA Diamondback, then the Nightshark (much better name than Purity's Prow IMO, so I switched them... the players approved, in hindsight :) ), and for a moment we thought the Hydra would be next. (It probably would have been if it wasn't size Huge, weighing in at about 4000 lbs. according to the 3.5 MM, and limited to a swim speed of 20 ft.) Also, Avander keeps forgetting he has Magical Beast Empathy as a Totemist... would have made the fight all the simpler if he had, Dres was quick to point out post-session.
The players are getting fairly bored with ship life, I noticed a bit of a lag in the RP lately - especially with Avander and Yasumoto - so next session we're fast-forwarding past the remaining ship events, wrapping up the storm in the session warmup, and cutting straight to the Sargasso.
By the by... Totemist|Barbarian + Girallon's Blessing and Blood Wind from a friendly caster = Dead Pirates.
Quotes for both sessions:
See No Evil:
Dresylaer-OOC: "My pacifism greatly benefits from the fact that I cannot see the results of my own actions."
Revenge of the Meme:
Dresylaer: "You [Yasumoto] have officially become a pirate ninja."
The TMI Strikes Back:
Gene: "If you have something that burns use it!"
Avander: "what, you want me to pee on it?"
Yasumoto-OOC: "Close range acid damage!"
Dresylaer-OOC: "That would provoke a very bad attack of opportunity."
The Fey Mindset, Part Deux:
Faelyn: "I was this close to saying 'screw it' and healing naked."
Dresylaer: "Now that's what I call morale-based healing."
SESSION SEVEN
After leaving Renkrue, it was only a matter of about a week until the group passed their final landmark, the cliff-riddled isle of Ruja, and at last set off on their last leg of the journey out into the open ocean bound finally directly for the Isle of Dread. Unfortunately the ships' good luck ran out mere days after passing Ruja and a violent storm beset the trio; Yasumoto's superior captaining skill and Dresylaer's navigation kept the Nightshark on-course but when the storm broke the Blue Nixie and Sea Wyvern were nowhere to be found. Standing orders from Lavinia in the case of the ships being separated were to continue on and meet back up at their final destination, so the adventurers continued their journey on for another week or so before trouble struck again.
During one night a rough patch of sailing turned out instead to be a firm seaweed Sargasso which had trapped the Nightshark firmly in its weedy hold. The two captive pirates from the Nightshark's original crew informed the group that this was none other than the dreaded Journey's End - a wretched, cursed moving isle of blighted weeds rumored to have a malevolent intelligence at its core, from which it was said no ship that fell into its embrace had ever escaped. Come morning the group began to investigate, assaulting the seaweed with claw and magic alike trying to break its grip; Faelyn even requested one of the Wavewitches to try to lay a Hex on the strange plant, but when she attempted the vile vegetation rebelled and resisted the magical assault - and filled her mind with thoughts of hatred, rage, and hunger, along with a single word: "Outsiders." Faelyn and Gene attempted to damage the Sargasso with various weapons, alchemy, and spells, and fell prey to the same invasion. The two captive pirates, knowing all too well the many rumors and legends of Journey's End, gave into despair and spent the majority of the day drinking themselves into a stupor until Yasumoto intervened directly.
Gene's Eidolon, meanwhile, went out to investigate and discovered the nearest of the countless other ships trapped in the Sargasso's grip, the Rage. Though abandoned, no corpses or remains were found on the vessel, though there was blood, scorchmarks, broken weapons, and other signs of a long-past struggle. Investigating the lower levels, the summon discovered a journal once belonging to a monk who had been a passenger on the Rage; when she attempted to retrieve it, the weeds below began rippling causing the journal to plummet into the briny waters below, forcing the dragon to dive after it. She swooped down and snatched up the book and flew back out of the pit just in time to avoid the attacks of two reams of Strangler Kelp - aquatic cousins to the infamous Assassin Vine.
The Eidolon returned the journal to Gene, who passed it on to Yasumoto and shared the information with the rest of the group. Realizing they'd need all the help they could muster, Faelyn released their two prisoners - Conrad "Father Feres" Horst and Rowyn Kellani, the latter of whom Faelyn finally cured of the blindness Dresylaer had inflicted on her during their fight - and instructed them to aid in the inevitable battles to come if they wanted to live, or they'd be doomed to die if the ship was taken. Horst agreed without complaint, while Rowyn only submitted reluctantly after agreeing in exchange for the return of her sight.
As night fell, the first wave of horrific plant creatures approached the ship; when the crew engaged them in combat, the creatures called forth the Sargasso into Strangler Kelp which attacked on its own while they continued their shambling assault. They were crushed but not without casualty, and mere hours later a second wave approached to repeat the process. Greater force was used against this second group, and they were also defeated, but the night is young and there may be yet more attacks before dawn.
After debating for some time after the second wave, the group eventually turned to Yasumoto to give the final word as Captain; they would hold the Nightshark until dawn then set out onto the Sargasso to explore after sunrise, taking every member of the crew along. Now all they needed to do was survive that long.
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This is extremely appropriate for Journey's End, especially just before nightfall, if you want music to set the mood. I couldn't resist myself, it was just too perfect.
The players seemed to like the change in pace, so I think the decision to fast-track the remainder of the ship stuff in Chapter 3 was a good one; this combined with not playing last week due to several players being sick more than made an excellent comeback session. Unfortunately we'll be missing next week (well, not completely unfortunately, we're missing it because 3/4 of the group are going to the RenFest, me included) so it'll be another two weeks before another update and the attempt to reach the Thunderer and what resides there.
Quotes:
We're doomed! Cool!:
Pirates: "Journey's End... we're doomed...."
Yasumoto: "Oh... joy."
Faelyn: "Oh fun."
Gene: "Well... drat."
Dresylaer: "Oh hells."
Avander: "Is that all?"
The Chains of Commanding:
Yasumoto: "What do you think you're doing?"
Pirates: "We're gettin' drunk, Cap'n. We're in Journey's End. We're gonna die. We wanna die drunk."
Faelyn: "Ask a stupid question...."
Pirates: "Wanna get drunk an' die with us Cap'n?"
One Thing Leads to Another:
Dresylaer: "You know, if you guys keep trying to talk to the plant, you're going to end up as vegetables."
Tremble in his Presence:
Dresylaer-OOC: "Behold the Dread Pirate Ninja."
SESSION EIGHT
After one final assault by the Sargasso's inhabitants - which the crew allowed Faelyn and Dres to sleep through - dawn at last came to the Nightshark. After a couple of hours of rest, preparation, and equipment gathering the entire crew of the ship embarked out onto the Sargasso, bound for the wreck of the Rage. Finding nothing further compared to Jewel's previous investigation, they moved on to the next wreck, and the next before Yasumoto determined their next landmark too far away to reach before nightfall. The group camped inside the ruined hulk of an aged, unidentifiable ship to wait out the night; this time the plant creatures never actually attacked, but merely lurked a few yards away from the ship as if watching the group.
Come morning the group made the last leg of their journey, and reached the ship they'd seen the day before; on the way there they discovered a massive "forest" of huge braided-kelp "trees" just beyond the final wreck. The group camped several times on the six-hour journey, then stopped one last time at the fifth wreck to recuperate. Yasumoto gave the group a choice: head in now, or wait until the next morning; the party chose to move on now rather than wait for whatever wrath the Mother might call down on them. As expected, as the group approached the "woods" some sort of whispering pulse shot through all their heads, and those who looked saw a massive army of the plant creatures approaching their location. Deciding that their best bet would be to remove the head of the beast before the claws could reach them, the party charged into the heart of the forest.
There they found a surprising sight - a mostly-intact ship marked as the Thunderer. Half the ship had sunk into the weed and much of it had been overgrown, but the deck was still clear - albeit slick - and littered with the corpses of its crew. Gene and Yasumoto investigated, and found several more plant creatures in the lower decks. Rather than go below and try to engage them, the group decided rather unanimously to simply burn the ship. By combining conjuration, alchemy, and empowering spells, the group set the Thunderer ablaze with a massive conflagration. The roar of the inferno was only overcome by the shrieks of the plant creatures trapped within as they burned alive.
The ruckus was only intensified when the Mother-of-All, a gargantuan plant monstrosity towering well over the party, exploded out of the side of the ship in a frenzy. The group, expecting a battle as they came in, had already prepared with spells - giving Avander, Ramelia, and Jewel Girallon's Blessing among many others - and were partially prepared for the attack. The Wavewitches were less so, their ability to spellcast hampered by the relentless screeching of the Mother's grasping young; these also flailed out at anyone nearby, striking and killing Conrad Horst (AKA "Father Feres") in the first few moments of the battle.
Jewel's relentless assault of claw and fang quickly gained the Mother's ire, and it finally settled on the Eidolon as its target of choice. After pummeling it for some time, though, Dresylaer's conjured Spiritual Weapons began to aggravate it enough that it chose to lash out at the bard as well. It sank into the Sargasso and rose again behind Dres, causing the rest of the crew to scatter away from it as it clawed into the favored herald of Verenestra, striking him down for good after several blows. Moments later his death was avenged at Avander's claws as he ripped the bottom of the Mother's body out from beneath it and crushed its fanged head.
As the group rested a while and prepared to recuperate from their losses, an explosion from the Thunderer threw a few pieces of cargo from one of the lower holds out towards the party; many of these registered as magical, explaining how they had survived the flames, including one apparently wooden chest that appeared completely unharmed. As they collected their odd finds, the Sargasso beneath them began to quake; the group quickly gathered their treasures and fled for the ship just beyond the forest's edge. As they looked back, they saw the kelp woods collapsing in on itself; they barely managed to reach the wreck of the nearest ship before the Sargasso collapsed out from under their feet. Faelyn and Gene riding Jewel flew ahead to the Nightshark as the Sargasso fell apart rendering the infamous Journey's End to nothing more than drifting loose plantlife; by the time they reached the others it had ceased to exist.
The rest of the journey to Farshore was uneventful in comparison and relatively quiet if cloudy. When they reached the Isle of Dread at last, the docks were filled with people awaiting their arrival - among them Lavinia, Sneaks, Mr. Nurn, and the Jade Ravens. What was even more unnerving was that while the Blue Nixie was moored where they expected it to be, there was no sign of the Sea Wyvern.
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At last, "Sea Wyvern's Wake" has come to an end. Sadly it comes with the death of Dresylaer and the loss of Faelyn and Avander, both of whom will be retiring when they reach the Isle of Dread - Fae to serve as Farshore's town healer, Avander to work as a guide and look for the remnants of the Isle's Duskling tribe from which he was once taken. Dres will be replaced with a Warforged Crusader/Cavalier, Avander with a possibly Elf Duskblade/Inquisitor, and Faelyn with a Barbarian/Incarnate of some sort.
Le Petit Quote Leest:
He knows it:
Gene: *going to wake Faelyn* "Oooooh I'm a dead man."
Do Not Disturb:
Faelyn: *half asleep* "Go AWAY."
Gene: "We've got company over the horizon."
Faelyn: "Serve them tea and biscuits then."
Into the Furnace:
*Wavewitch gets a magic critical: Planar Rift - normal damage and target sent to random plane*
Dresylaer: "Woooooooooow. Most casters just bring the energy here. Sending the enemy THERE? Now THAT'S creative thinking! ... Can you do it again?"
The Admission:
Dresylaer-OOC: "We're hopeless for horror gaming. We'd pull Cthulhus for fun."
Fier Frei!:
Dresylaer-OOC: "Some men can't be reasoned with, they just want to watch the world burn."
Yasumoto-OOC: "Burn, baby!!! BURN!!!!"
Avander-OOC: "I'm a man of simple pleasures. I like Dynamite, Gunpowder, Gasoleeeeeen. EVERYTHING BURNS!!"
Gene-OOC: "This is going to be crazy."
Dresylaer-OOC: "...this is going to be a crowning moment of something."
Avander-OOC: "Goodness gracious great balls of fire!"
Dresylaer-OOC: "Pyrotechnics away! I dub this plan: Disco inferno!"
Dresylaer-OOC: "Ya' know, I kinda expected to find a crater in the heart of this place. Whether it was there before, it's gods-sure there will be now!"
CHAPTER FOUR - SESSION ONE
Shortly after arriving in Farshore, Lavinia took Yasumoto and Gene to get the story of the Nightshark's journey and inquire as to the whereabouts of the Sea Wyvern; discovering the two knew no more than she did Lavinia presented Yasumoto with a scroll of Divination, a powerful spell she'd set aside for emergencies, and recommended Yasumoto take the scroll to Vesserin Catherly, Farshore's chaplain and a priest of Pelor; there he encountered the tiefling mage Lazarus Sul'Queath and his construct companion A'Reth Guar'Dian, just returned from the isle's interior on a hunting and supply trip.
Catherly's divination, inquiring as to the search for the Sea Wyvern's whereabouts, returned with the following riddle: "The beast lays rent on dread fangs snared, its bones a-pierced and its charges bared; Cast to yonder mist afar, to delve to oni king's twin maw." Yasumoto returned to Lavinia with the information; the noblewoman couldn't make any more sense of the riddle, and suggested that if the riddle referred to something on the island, he might be better served by inquiring of some local guides, and suggested he return to the shrine and speak to Lazarus.
Lazarus and A'Reth informed Yasumoto of their guesses regarding the divination: the "oni king" might refer to some powerful fiend (possibly the actual oni lord, Fu Leng, from the Shadowlands of Yasumoto's homeland), while "maw" might refer to a cave or chasm instead of an actual mouth; they were most sure, though, that the "mist" referred to the area of the island known as Fogmire, a mist-shrouded valley on the northern, mostly-unexplored portions of the Isle of Dread, rumored to be haunted. They recommended Yasumoto also acquire the assistance of Shariss Dal, a Skarn Barbarian who often traveled alongside them as a guide and warrior. Yasumoto traveled to Shariss's home and discovered her in the middle of trying to cook some of the meat brought back from the latest trip inland; when the ninja inquired as to her accompanying them, she challenged him to a wrestling match, which escalated into a swordfight challenge before Yasumoto attempted some of his ninja tricks, persuading the barbarian to drop the challenge due to "not liking fighting sneaks".
The new group waited two days, preparing and supplying and resting up from their sea journey, before setting out north for the mainland of the Isle of Dread. After crossing the channel by having A'Reth walk underneath and drag their raft by a rope, they embarked out into the jungle and before long had their first encounter with the island's native horrors: a great Tyrannosaurus burst from the foliage while Gene was examining some of the plant life, and almost snapped up the Summoner when he attempted to scramble away. The group lashed back immediately, and the creature was toppled without any further injuries, though Gene's Eidolon was badly injured due to the multiple bites the creature inflicted on it.
The rest of the journey was fairly quiet - one night the Alarm spells were triggered by low-flying birds, and the next afternoon a dinosaur being pursued by feral birds almost trampled the party - but after three days they reached the Olman village of Tanaroa, beyond which lay the land bridge to the Isle's interior. Lazarus, the only one in the party who spoke the Olman tongue, inquired of the locals as to the whereabouts of their destination; the Olmans pointed out on Yasumoto's map the area beyond the land bridge, which they spoke of as the "Deep Jungle", and beyond that to the northeast the "Land of Mist" where nightmares walked and none who ventured too deep ever returned. Although they warned the group against venturing into the accursed land, they gave them enough information to find their way and figure out they could reach it within two more days.
After spending the night sleeping in Tanaroa, the group crossed the land bridge into the Isle's heart and made their first venture into the Deep Jungle. Their first day of excursion was noisy - filled with the brilliant sights, sounds, and colors of the jungle - but lacking in dire threats until just before nightfall, when a pair of Dimetrodons assaulted the group after their marching nearby disturbed their lounging. After easily dispatching them, the group has a night and a day more before reaching the place on the map the Olmans believe is the location of haunted Fogmire....
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So yeah, having to kind of re-write this story as coming from the other direction. Instead of being stranded on north Isle of Dread and needing to make their way south to Farshore, they're starting from Farshore and heading north to find the Wyvern. Their only clues point them to Fogmire as the source of their answers....
They're a day through the jungle away from Fogmire's borders. Oh the fun to be had... I've been waiting for this. Mwahahahahahah.
This session introduced three new party members, as mentioned before: Dres's player is now playing A'Reth Guar'Dian, Warforged Crusader|Cavalier; Faelyn's is playing Shariss Dal, Skarn Barbarian/Warblade|Incarnate/Sanctified One; and Avander's is playing Lazarus Sul'Queath, Tiefling Oracle|Sorcerer with Infernal bloodline connected to the Reth Dekala mentioned in the Book of Nine Swords, he even conjures green fire. Heheheh.
Quotes:
Hazing the Newcomer:
Shariss: "You look lost."
Gene: "Looking for someplace quiet."
Shariss: "The graveyard?"
Hazing the Newcomer, Part Deux:
Shariss: "Beware the invisible lizards that like to eat your eyes. They hang out on the outskirts of town."
[Ten minutes later, just outside the village]
Gene: "... and I go ahead and cast See Invisibility and look around..."
Lethal Chef:
Shariss-OOC: "I'm trying to cook without burning down the house. I stink at cooking but I'm too stubborn to ask for help."
DM: "Okay Yasumoto, you don't have much trouble finding the house they [A'Reth and Lazarus] gave you directions to because there's SMOKE coming out of it."
Shariss: "DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT DAMMIT AAAAAAAARGH!!"
DM: "You're wondering how someone can get that much smoke in a wooden house without the house itself being on fire...."
Skinny People are Mighty:
A'Reth-OOC: "Behold the power of scrawn! By turning sideways, he [Yasumoto] becomes invisible!"
All the Rage:
DM: "[Shariss] has these weird blue spike things jutting out of her arms."
A'Reth-OOC: "....barbarian chicks and their freaky body piercings."
Your Mental Processes, they Serve No Function:
Yasumoto: "What are you doing out here?"
Gene: "Mostly thinking."
Yasumoto: "And that's to benefit us... how?"
Try Blowing on it First:
DM: "Okay, the T-Rex bites you for 28 points of damage."
Shariss: "It takes 9 fire damage."
DM: "It does not attempt to Grab you! It forfeits its free Grab! Hot potato, hot potato!"
A'Reth-OOC: "My thung, my thung ith numb!"
If You Want to Live:
A'Reth: "Statement: I will not allow anyone to die."
Shariss: "Statement: We're flesh, not metal. Death comes easily."
A'Reth: "Imperative: Train. Harder."
SESSION TWO
Progressing further into the Deep Jungle, shortly before nightfall on the second day after leaving Tanaroa the group finally reached the edge of the fog. Gene detected strange patterns and unusual magic in the areas beyond, and the group decided it would be best to camp the night in the jungle outside the mist and enter Fogmire in the morning. Shariss made her way around the campsite looking for anything that might pose a danger; she found little, though, as the area around Fogmire was strangely devoid of even the smallest animal life, giving the jungle an eerie and unnatural silence. While she was gone, someone or something approached the campsite from above; though it left without being seen, it dropped a blood-splattered blue ribbon, which Yasumoto recognized as belonging to the first mate of the Sea Wyvern, Lirith Veldirose.
The party entered Fogmire the next morning, and before long found themselves among the noises of the jungle once again, though this time strangely distorted and abberant. Animal and plantlife in the area was warped and mutant, an inexplicable strangeness which reminded Yasumoto of the chaos of Kraken's Cove, if not as volatile. Other than a few odd disturbances and a sudden burst of magical darkness - swiftly dispelled by Lazarus - and an overwhelming sense of being watched by something unseen, the group faced no further trouble until shortly before nightfall, when they encountered a clearing with some ancient ruins at their heart. Staked to an upside-down cross on the far side of the clearing was an Olman zombie, who proclaimed the party's doom at the hands of "the master of Fogmire", who he refused to name or describe. After questioning the figure and getting very little information, A'Reth and Lazarus destroyed it and cut it down from the cross. The group took advantage of the safety of the ruins and camped in the clearing for the night, battling the nightmares inflicted by the strange magic of this place.
That night A'Reth detected an intrusion of some sort; he woke Shariss and went to investigate the edges of the clearing, while the barbarian prodded around the campsite and discovered a gunny sack dropped behind Yasumoto's sleeping place; investigating inside, she found the decapitated head of a horse. A'Reth held onto the sack until morning, then informed Yasumoto of the situation: the ninja identified the dead animal as Thunderstrike, Avner Meravanchi's horse. A'Reth determined that the horse's head had been torn from its body by sheer force, a fact the mechanical man determined not to share with the rest of the group. Examining the dead zombie from the night before, it turned out it was actually a human woman, and the appearance and sound of an Olman man had been an illusion; Yasumoto and Gene identified it as Lirith. There was no mistaking it now - the crew of the Sea Wyvern, or at least part of it, was here and likely dead, and someone was intentionally trying to draw them deeper into the jungle.
The group found themselves plunged into darkness twice more over the course of the next day; on the second attempt the group quickly escaped the range of the spell and Yasumoto and Lazarus spotted what appeared to be a massive ape or monkey in the trees. Lazarus quickly identified it as a Bar-Lgura, a tanar'ri demon scout, before it vanished with a sinister grin. The following night the group failed to discover another clearing and were forced to sleep in the jungle, and during the night something caused Lazarus's pack to fly up into the canopy and out of sight, stripping the sorcerer of his supplies.
The next morning the group stumbled onto a huge boulder which had been dropped in the jungle not far from their campsite; in smudged red liquid of some sort was written a message: "THE WINGED ONES COME FOR YOU TODAY - DO NOT DIE YET MEAT". The group continued on, keeping the warning in mind and with A'Reth and Yasumoto keeping an eye on the skies as they made their way out of the jungle once again and this time into a deep valley. A portion of the way down, a group of Gargoyles dropped from the mists above while a second gang crawled out of the stones ahead to catch the group in a vice attack. The party went on the assault and quickly decimated the Gargoyle wing with minimal casualties, and recovered a magical Gargoyle Crown from the leader of the group.
Proceeding ahead, the group finally found the "twin maws" that Yasumoto's divination spoke of: a pair of caverns at the bottom of the valley, with two huge baboon heads carved into the wall around them shaped so the caves served as their mouths. A wave of dread fell over the party as they gazed upon this feral visage, and Lazarus knew all too well why: the carving before them was designed in the image of Demogorgon, the Prince of Demons.
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OLANGRU!!! Easily one of my favorite NPCs in the entire path. Had so much fun playing with him tonight, even after the party spotted and ID'd him.
Next week: Temple of Demogorgon! A'Reth's a mounted charger build, he's going to be a bit gimped unable to ride his horse or use his lance. He'll be pummeling things with his adamantine fists instead it looks like.
Quoted:
How do you Plead? *shrug*:
Shariss-OOC: "I'm supposed to tell you to shut up and get on with it."
DM: *to Yasumoto* "Coward."
A'Reth-OOC: "Super-Secret Ninja, you are hereby called before the court on charges of excessive stealth."
Beyond the Impossible:
Yasumoto-OOC: "Where am I [on Maptool]?"
DM: "Under the dragon [Jewel]. Where do you wanna go?"
A'Reth-OOC: "Wow. Super-Secret Ninja, so stealthy he lost himself."
Just Like Momma Said:
Lazarus: *to Gene* "You keep doing that [using Detect Magic] your vision will get permanently stuck that way."
SESSION THREE
Forging ahead into the cavernous Temple of Demogorgon, it wasn't long until the group stumbled upon signs of the Sea Wyvern's crew. Yasumoto and Shariss spotted a bloody handprint on a wall at the entrance that was about the right size for an adult halfling or gnome, and when moments later Shariss found Urol Forol's equipment discarded in a side corridor it was confirmed that the gnome - and likely the rest of the crew - were present or had been at one time. A'Reth, his horse too large to maneuver through the narrow corridor, attempted to use a larger passage but triggered a rock-collapse trap, burying himself and Lazarus and almost Yasumoto, though the ninja's quick reflexes spared him the same fate. He and Shariss quickly dug the sorcerer out, but A'Reth and his horse - though injured - were able to push their way free of the rubble with little difficulty. Thankfully, Lazarus's horse hadn't shared the same fate - the beast, living rather than mechanical like A'Reth's - had been skiddish and fearful of the caves and refused to enter, and had been left outside to graze.
The group quickly discovered a blockade - a door carved with abyssal imagery and flanked by two fiendish statues, its handles barbed with vicious spikes. The inscriptions "Giveth of your left" and "Giveth of your right" were carved into the demons' torsoes, and Lazarus deciphered that blood shed on the handles was required to open the doors. A'Reth, not fond of that idea, attempted to open the doors by force, first by pulling - which failed - then by beating them down; before he could do the latter though Shariss grabbed the handles, cutting them and releasing the enchantment on the door that kept it closed.
Beyond was what appeared to be some sort of shrine, a room with a blood-stained altar with candles on top, two thrones on either side of the room, and two mirrors on the far walls. A'Reth began smashing the altar, while Yasumoto and Lazarus determined that the room was some sort of elaborate trap tied to the candles, the mirrors, and the thrones. Yasumoto was able to deactivate the trap - after some time of arguing between the group as to whether it would be better to simply destroy it - and activate a portal through the mirrors. Unsure where the portal would lead, the group cleaned up the blood in the room with spells and shut the doors to spend the night there. Gene's nightmares were more fitful than usual even in Fogmire, though the others experienced the same horrific dreams they had since arriving. Thankfully, nothing else disturbed their rest during the night.
The next morning they made preparations, guessing from the demonic taint in the area that the portals led to some place in the Abyss. After passing through the mirror they found themselves in a large room with an enormous pool of blood in its center; moments after arriving a trio of Bar-Lguras descended from a ledge above and attacked the intruders. Though two pounced on Shariss and badly wounded her early in the fight, the group quickly counterattacked and managed to kill one of the three, while Shariss slashed open the throat of one of the other two and they fled, their attempts to teleport unwilling fighters away with them failing.
Investigation of this room discovered a door against the east wall, the only door on the lower level. Through this passage was a narrow, filth-strewn corridor that seemed to serve as a refuse pit; cowering in this tiny area was a badly-injured woman stripped of almost all her clothing and missing her left hand. She screamed in terror and cowered when A'Reth broke open the door and attempted to approach her, but recognized Yasumoto when he came to investigate; the ninja quickly identified her as Amalla Venkalie, the Sea Wyvern's captain, visibly long tortured and suffering from shock and mental trauma. Amalla was barely coherent enough to speak but was able to give the group a little information, claiming "they killed and ate the others". Needing to continue on and unable to take her with them deeper into the temple, Yasumoto and Lazarus did what they could to tend her wounds then left her back in the shrine room, protected by A'Reth's mount.
The group then moved on to the upper level and exited by a doorway to the south; there they found a room strewn with bones that turned out to be a lair for a strange creature, a Cobra clan Naga from Yasumoto's homeland who was a spinner of magical shadows. It managed to inflict some damage on the group but surrounded by powerful warriors and limited on mobility it fell swiftly; pilfering its goods the group found a metamagic rod, a magical warhammer, a potion, and a strange object - a right paw of a monkey or ape, crafted from iron.
Great doors barricade the other entrance of the Naga's lair, and still yet another door remains back in the upper level of the blood pit. What further horrors await within the temple?
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Replaced the Spirit Naga in the bone room with a Rokugani Cobra clan Naga Shugenja|Shadowcaster. I got baaaaaaad luck on the 50/50 for displacement and the players never missed. I need a new Evil DM Coin.
Also, Adamantine fists = Warforged breaking down doors.
So far the group has found Lirith (dead and zombified in the ruins) and Amalla (badly injured and slightly insane in the temple)... just Avner, his servants, Urol, and Tavey remaining, you can pretty much assume everyone else is dead and Olangru Buffet by now ;)
Next week: More Olangru Ebilness, maybe boss fight? >:D
Session was cut about an hour short but was probably more like two less in content due to Gene being absent and A'Reth having connection issues. Internet hates my group this week. Also no quotes this week.
I, of course, am awesome. ^_^
I, of course, am awesome. ^_^
Yes. Yes you are. Cigar?
I, of course, am awesome. ^_^Yes. Yes you are. Cigar?
Absolutely. I wonder if your heroes will recoil in horror when they realize the women they recover have been ... fertilized. :D
Absolutely. I wonder if your heroes will recoil in horror when they realize the women they recover have been ... fertilized. :DI, of course, am awesome. ^_^Yes. Yes you are. Cigar?
Well, perhaps not YOU, considering you did it... but I digress. ;)
Poor Avner.
Spoiler:Given what I have in mind for one of the prisoners, this may be more horrifying than you may expect!Well, perhaps not YOU, considering you did it... but I digress. ;)
Poor Avner.
Brutalizing them is certainly not out of the question. After all, an ape's gotta do what an ape's gotta do. And with some style ... the cigar ash has to go somewhere, and occasionally one has got to put it out in a hurry - say, in an eye.
Spoiler:Men get slaad eggs 'implanted'. I have this buddy up the coast aways, within easy teleporting distances you see - a few quick hops each way, and a little packet of 'presents' are available.
** spoiler omitted **
Do tell.
** spoiler omitted **Do tell.
I believe the gruesome details are in my Savage Tide journal. ^_^
SESSION FOUR
Stuck in the bone room, A'Reth and Shariss struggled with the iron doors leading to the next chamber for several minutes before Shariss finally called upon her rage and a burst of strength to shove the barricade aside. The room beyond was blocked at the far side by another pair of doors and adorned with two iron statues of demonic apes, each missing one hand. Cowering in the corner of the room was another human prisoner, a traumatized woman covered in horrible wounds much like Amalla's. Panicked and terrified and likely nearly insane, she resisted attempts by Lazarus and Shariss to calm her until physically restrained. Lazarus identified the one piece of clothing she wore other than tattered scraps as a cursed item, a belt of masculinity/femininity, and without the spell to undo the curse there was nothing the party could do for the unfortunate victim. Shariss took the woman back to the shrine and left her with Amalla and A'Reth's horse, promising to help her as soon as possible as long as she stayed put and waited for them, then returned to the group to resume their investigations.
A'Reth and Lazarus discovered that the doors were bound by an arcane lock keyed to the two statues, and that the monkey paw they'd recovered from the Naga's fountain clicked into place on the left statue, removing the magic aura from its presence. When the door didn't open, the group doubled back to the first chamber to investigate further, looking for the other missing hand. They crossed over to the other door on the upper level, and discovered a throne room and shrine filled with fiendish baboons which swarmed after the group, attacking en masse. Though momentarily overwhelmed and badly injured, the party managed to beat back the attacking mob and kill enough of the beasts to break up the attack.
Investigating the throne room, Yasumoto discovered that the throne at the far end could be moved; when he and A'Reth pulled it away from the wall - knocking off a bone bowl filled with ashes and stubbed cigars that had been left on the armrest - it revealed a hidden door. While Yasumoto unlocked this hidden chamber, Lazarus discovered that the underside of the bowl appeared to be lined with straw, but on closer inspection it was actually blonde human hair. This bowl had once been someone's scalp.
Inside the hidden room were two chests; one had a bowl with a spoon and some grey material inside - which Lazarus identified as brain matter - while the other was decorated with symbols of flames and fiends consuming the righteous. Yasumoto unlocked the latter, but when A'Reth attempted to remove the bowl from the former a muffled voice from inside the chest caught the group's attention. Yasumoto carefully unlocked and opened the first chest and discovered a horrible sight inside: Tavey Nesk, the cabin boy from the Sea Wyvern, scalped and shackled to the bottom of the chest, obviously far gone and badly wounded. Lazarus and Gene moved the other chest - containing a large amount of gold and silver, some trinkets, and the other iron paw - out of the room on Yasumoto's order.
The ninja attempted to put the boy out of his misery, but A'Reth intervened, claiming any kill would be against his instructions. The two argued for a few moments, during which Lazarus arrived and attempted to convince A'Reth to leave with him. When that failed he informed the construct that he would be traveling ahead into the ruins and A'Reth would have to choose between protecting him and stopping Yasumoto from mercy killing the boy, A'Reth attempted to knock Lazarus unconscious; while distracted, Yasumoto rendered himself invisible and slipped behind the crusader to deliver a single killing blow.
All exploded into chaos as A'Reth charged Yasumoto with murder and prepared to administer the sentence of death himself. He struck at the ninja twice but could not connect, and rather than counterattack Yasumoto simply went invisible again and fled. Lazarus attempted to talk A'Reth into ceasing again and Shariss returned to try and stop him by force, but both met with failure as the warforged shoved his way through his blockading allies and moved to block the exit of the throne room, attempting to trap Yasumoto, Lazarus, and Shariss inside with him.
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WHOA CLIFFHANGER
A'Reth's player had to leave early, and I didn't see the PvP coming until it was too late, so the session literally ended mid-combat. Next session we start with Lazarus's initiative.
This actually might be a bit of a pickle to solve. Unless it turns out Tavey was dead already - his brain had been already consumed by an Intellect Devourer, was what A'Reth had been expecting and made as a suggestion, so I most certainly can't use that ;) - A'Reth simply will not stop until Yasumoto is dead. If knocked unconscious he'll be right back at it as soon as he wakes.
Yeah, this won't end well. Olangru, however, is getting pay per view content for free. Dinner and a show!
One does enjoy such amusements. I'll have to bust out the special enchanted stogies for this one ...
The one downside to having a vivid imagination: horror settings. Three hours later, my stomach still hadn't settled and I was debating if I could game through the rest of the chapter, considering my squeamishness.
Regarding the dinner show... it is quite clearly the Crusader vs. everyone else. We're having a bit of communication problem, apparently his definition of alive is different than ours. (Yay for LG vs. CN and NE?)