| Akumamajin |
| 7 people marked this as a favorite. |
Hello fellow GMs,
in my group I used a different approach, inspired by the story of a fellow german GM posted in a german forum. Because this idea is so neat I want to share it with you in our common gaming language :D
I didn't really liked the "possessed mold that possesses people" aspect of the moldspeaker. So the lab is there in the catacombs, and even the mold, but it is just a characterful monster. One of the walls in the lab thou bears some strange symbols and carvings related to the Sarenrae myth. With some nice Knowledge: Religion and one trinket found in the catacombs it could be opened as a shimmering portal leading to a serene oasis with lush plant-life.
In the under bush the party could hear a peafowl, what our Dawnflower Dervish interpreted as a good omen (a Knowledge: Religion check revealed that the peafowl was often a favorite bird of Sarenrae). In the middle of the oasis there was a great lake with a dock, but before anyone could investigate a lesser spawn of Rovagug (a grick with lowered DR 5/magic). After disposing of the lesser spawn a peafowl fluttered into the clearing, showed it magnificent feathers. It was only then, that the heros noticed the little rowboat.
This they used to get to the little island in the centre of the oasis lake. On the island they found a little ruined shrine of Sarenrae with a pomegranate tree growing in it (Know: Religion -> a favored plant of the Dawnflower :D). Feeling totally at peace in the clearing the heros ate from the tree and healed their wounds. Full and healed they relaxed a moment in the pleasant afternoon sun, when suddenly dark clouds gathered around the isle and the heaven grow dark. The pomegranates fell from the tree, went overripe and then foul within moments. Then the isle broke apart under their feet and they fell into the void.
The next morning they awoke in the lab room without harm, but unable to open the portal again. The following night the Dawnflower Derwish, who ate first from the pomegranate tree, dreamed strange dreams evolving around the bearded saint from the cloister. Awakening in the dead of the night he tumbled into the yard, sank on his knees and dug with his bare hands in the loose, but thorny, soil. With hurt hands he finally uncovered a sleek blade, a scimitar with inlayed gold symbols of Sarenrae, a golden hilt and a big sapphire. The blade was at all times covered in the slim sheet of rime and felt comfortable cold to the touch and with a single name in his mind: Tempest.
From this moment on he was the pomegranatespeaker :D
And the rest of the party felt a change, too, an added sense of awareness for one another. I used the rules of a companion spirit with the communication benefit from the Dungeon Master Guide 2. In essence this allowed the party members the sent a free message to each other once per day a grew progressively stronger, just as tempest. In later levels their collective shared union gained them permanent status effect, whispering wind spell, Rarys telepathic bound for a minute each day and last the ability to scry at each other once per day.
Edit: As a site note, should the 'pomegranate speaker' die or defect from the game the conscience of Vardishal and Tempest could just wander to the next suited party member since they all feel the presence of Vardishal. I don't think that this will be a necessity in my campaign, but it is a nice insurance.
| dwtempest |
... The next morning they awoke in the lab room without harm, but unable to open the portal again. The following night the Dawnflower Derwish, who ate first from the pomegranate tree, dreamed strange dreams...
This is an excellent idea. I really love the flavor of it! Thank you so much for sharing!
| OmegaZ |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Very nice! I think I'll use this instead of the moldspeaker. Don't get me wrong, I'm as big a fan of mycology as the next guy, but it just seems... lame.
| Halidan |
Avery good alternative. Nice use of the goddess and some excellent symbology. It's a pity I didn't see this 2 months ago. I will use this if I run the adventure again.
| Akumamajin |
Thank you very much for the overall good responses, I am glad to help you to live up your campaign :)
I also added a little sidetrack adventur:. While exploring the lands surrounding Kelmarane the party comes about a little pond inhabited by a young nymph. At first she tries to turn them away by some invisible nature mischief, but should the PCs manage to show their good intentions and befriend her she agrees to help them on their assault on Kelmarane should they do a little quest for her :D
Upstream is a little dungeon in the form of an old crypt and underground temple of Rovagug, maybe the same temple that once raided the cloister? Its main feature will be its ghoulish undead cleric of Rovagug and some nice undead.
After this the nymph will help the PCs on their final assault on Kelmarane and tips them off to the whereabouts of a wandering group of dessert marauder-centauers. Should the party help this centaurs with their guerilla war against one of the gnoll tribes will they get an even bigger ally and the assault on Kelmarane could be played a bit more cinematic and with more gnolls and gnoll cavalry and this sort of things.
What do you think about this?
| Halidan |
I think it works very well. It ties in with the history of the temple, gives the players a chance to make an ally in a region where the really don't have any at that time, and allows the PC's to pick up some additional exp.
Have you written up this dungeon yet, or is it just an idea? If you have written it up (or when you do), I hope you'll share it here in the threads. I'm always looking for ways to expand the temple area and give the PC's a better history of the region.
| Akumamajin |
@Brother Faust: in my view the Pomgranatespeaker is just a tad more glamorous than ye old mold :D
Have you written up this dungeon yet, or is it just an idea? If you have written it up (or when you do), I hope you'll share it here in the threads. I'm always looking for ways to expand the temple area and give the PC's a better history of the region.
No, I haven't yet fleshed out the dungeon yet, but it will feature some undead, the mentioned ghoulpriest of Rovagug and maybe some summoned spawn of Rovagug -> an aberration or ooze or freaky magical beasts. By destroying and consecrating the altar there they might even get e boon from Sarenrae in the upcoming battle like sunlight blinding the gnolls just when their centaurean mamluks charge (remember the battle for Helms Klamm?).
Any other ideas for characterful divine interventions or boons? This shouldn't be a lasting effect, but something cool, useful and characterful that makes you go "AHA", of course best timed when things look the most grim.
| Akumamajin |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Hello everyone, we played out the encounter with the nymph sorceress on saturday, and this is how it went, just in case that you are curious ;)
The players stumbled over the Three Jaws Tribe in the ruined fort while exploring and forged a shaky alliance (you get to keep all the meat and the dead and the battle standard of the enemy and we get the rest, lol). While they where detailing their attack plan on Kelmarane they asked the Three Jaws Tribe about the surroundings and got warned that the waterfalls were cursed and should not be approached. Well, curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought her back, so they embarked on a little scouting trip to the waterfalls.
The falls were a piece of rare natural beauty, the magnificent water rushing over cragged stone, casting everything in a thin mist and the shaggy vegetation in this region seemed much more lush and strong, a side effect of the moisture, so it seemed.
On their way to the waterfall the party noticed a gnoll scout who in return noticed them, but before hostilities could be traded a pair of very intimidating monstrous tentacles shot out of the water, loomed over the terrified gnoll and then snatched the poor beast under the water, accompanied by much yelping. The party bard noticed that this all seemed much to a much to pompous and perfect spectacle and bravely stepped forward, singing his distracting song. Just before the tentacles could snatch him they evaporated into a fine mist. Just as the party gathered around the bard a deep and cruel voice commanded them to leave the place at once or also they would suffer a worse fate then any of them could imagine. The dervish of sarenrae was not intimidated in the least and rushed toward the waterfalls, only to be frightened by something and slowly walking backwards. After another 'cause fear' on the paladin and a 'touch of idiocy' they persuaded the strange voice to parley with them.
Moments later the waterfalls parted like a curtain and the beautiful nymph bashvari emerged. She told the party that she made a habit of frightening the gnolls away because most of them where up to no good and she would like to help them on their noble quest to liberate Kelmerane, but she could not leave the falls: about a mile upstream their was a dark place of the rogue beast driven into the very ground and from there filth and corruption seeped into the waters and it took all of her strength to keep that unclean influence at bay. She waved her hand and made the water glow with a beautiful light and led the party fill their waterskins with it, telling them to 'use it in time of great need'.
So, half an hour later the party emerged at the temples doorstep :D It was just a cleft in the a rocky patch beside the river that seemed strangely at the same moment natural and worked into the earth, with angles that were completely mad and unnecessary. Finally they arrived in a worked room with just some more cyclopean and non-euklidean geometry ( ;) ) and some skeletons. It was fun how much the party struggled against them, because they all had just bladed weapons :D But luckily no one was badly injured. Behind a trapped door lay a dark and shadowed gallery with statues of people all with grotesque mutations and unsettling appearance. Their lights cast flickering and jumping shadows on the statues and in fact two shadows jumped them!!! The fight was short but brutal and one shadow nearly sucked the life out of the rogue, leaving him with just Str 4! So no two weapon wielding rogue for the boss fight, luckily he had had his shortbow with him :D
So the gallery finally led them into a sickening room that was at the same time round and square, impossible to tell and impossible with its proportions (I love to link Rovagug with cthulhu images), dominated by an alter the most foul with jagged teeth protruding. In a semicircle around the altar stood six cultists, strapped an the altar lie a poor gnoll (the most easiest humanoid sacrifices in the region to come bye) and looming over him stood a man almost seven feet high with arms thick as a tree and a hood over his head where something disturbing writhed, like a tentacle. For inspiration I took the picture of the cleric of rovagug from p63 of the 5th book of the AP.
Well, everyone was chanting and the cleric pierced the gnolls breast with his hand and removed his still beating heart. The party didn't wait any longer and dervish and paladin charged, one left one right, towards the altar while the rogue and bard opened fire on the cleric with their bows. The cleric nearly faltered but regained his composure, raised the heart what errupted in flames and threw it with a gesture of contempt to the floor.
The battle raged on and on, as did the cleric (gave him the ability to rage like a barbarian, I mean its called "rogue beast") and with his great axe he nearly cleft the dervish in two with his first strike. At the place where the heart had landed the floor had crumbled and much screeching and tentacles ensured that something unpleasent was coming. Strangely no one of my players had the idea to throw or poor one of the waterskins into the hole, as I had thought at least one of them would do!!! So after three rounds there needed to come something bad out of it and some big and bad and manyfacetted and tentacled monstrosity emerged. Luckily they downed the cleric but it was going to be a tough fight. In the end they made it with just one man down and everyone badly wounded ... and just ONE drank their special potion! Are my players so item starved that they refuse to use the once they are supposed to use? :D Really strange.
About this fey water: I just would have ruled that it was powerful fey magic infused water with several effects just as need: 'cure medium wounds', 'heroism' for 5 rounds or a 'potion of closing summoning hole of rovagug' were all possible effects. Well they will definitely not take that stuff with them back home!! It was just for this occasion. Still, much more important is the fact, that they now have the help of the Three Jaws Tribe and a powerful nymph sorceress for their attack on kelmerane. I upped the gnoll population to about 40, so they needed the extra muscles. I am most curious :)
| Akumamajin |
Hello everyone,
so now my PCs managed to invade the battlemarket, kill Kardswann and liberate Kelmerane. Yeah! :D But one after another.
After they secured the help of the Three Jaws Tribe and the nymph Bashvari they set the second part of their plan in motion: some of the NPCs hat been ordered to harvest pesh flowers that Father Zastoran (Alchemist in my campaign) brewed into a highly concentrated drug. In the evening they loaded one of the caravan wagons with a few trade items and chained the barbarians and the paladin to it, the Sarenrae Dervish would pose as a shady slavetrader.
I let them get through with the ruse: they where searched through and allowed into the battlemarked, where Ugruk talked to the Dervish for a while, asked for 100GP charge for a stand and showed him to a room for his slaves and himself.
Meanwhile the rogue and the bard sneaked into Kelmerane under the cover of darkness. The bard hid in a ruin in the upper town, the rogue sneaked into the old tavern, where I ruled the main larder was situated. He stumbled over a mistreated halfling cook and convinced him to season the breakfast with their pesh extract. This done he joined the bard and waited.
Everything went well and most of the Gnolls in the lower part of the town were drugged. Then, one hour before noon the Three Jaws tribe, the four mercenaries and house-guards sounded the attack in lieu with Bashvari, who summoned several animals of the dessert. The gnolls in the lower parts reacted in a rather uncoordinated manner to this attack and soon a dozen better armed and fresh gnolls from the battlemarket made their way down to the lower city. This was the moment that the 'slave' barbarian and paladin got rearmed and started their own riot, but before the bard and rogue could join into fray, the doors of the battlemarket closed.
A battle royal ensured, soon to be joined by the bard and the rogue. The Dervish and Paladin hold the stairs against gnolls from upstairs, the rest fought the gnolls in the mainroom, Kardswann from his lofty position in the upper floor offered 500GP for every head of the intruders. Ugruk disarmed the Barbarian, who just mangled the next gnoll in a grapple and took his weapon :D Ugruk ran away, the Barbarian kills more of the mainroom gnolls. The Dervish and Paladin manage their gnolls and push forward to the second floor.
With the room downstairs cleared Ugruk returns ... with Hurvank the strangler in tow .. and what did the Barbarian do? :D Try to strangle the strangler. The titanic grapple raged back and forth but in the end the Barbarian prevailed. The rogue and bard fought Ugruk all the while, who fled again when the ogre finally succumbed to the might of Barbarak the Barbarian.
Meanwhile the Dervish and the Paladin encountered a small four gnoll resistance on the second floor. During the skirmish they could movement out of the corner of their eyes and saw the Schir jumping into one of the skylight and then chargeattacked/jumped them. This was a pitched battle, only won by the Paladins smite evil, that vanquished the vile demon on the brink of defeat.
The party joined up, used their last healing stuff and went upstairs. In the throne room they encountered Kardswann and 6 gnolls. A few insults where exchanged, the pomegranate-speaker expressed his disgust about how far Kardswann hat fallen and the two clashed while a melee erupted all around them. The rogue drank his potion of 'breath fire' that he got from Father Zastoran and managed to kill 2 1/2 gnoll with it and the bard used his earth elemental gem. This was when Ugruk returned and started to trip and thisarm people again. The battle raged on and on, after a few rounds they managed Ugruk, but Kardswann downed the Dervish ... and vanished ... just to emerge behind the Paladin and down him! Panic erupted, the Barbarian and the Bard and Rogue scattered and used their shortbows. The Barbarian, too, fell, but Kardswann was heavily wounded and in his last leg. I rolled the dice and he went after the bard BOOM, another one down. PANIC! The Rogue just couldn't hit and run, hiding in the guards room behind a curtain. Kardswann etherial jaunted after him, scanned the room SMACK one cabinet was reduced to splinters CRACK one box was smitten and CATCHING the Rogue sneak attacked, hit and killed Kardswann !!!
Yeah! Much joy and cheering and Kelmarane was liberated. After this the spirit of the gnolls was broken and the remains fleet into the wilds.
The battle at the end was really great and epic, but would have ended in a TPK if I hadn't fudged the dice a little ... but that is what we DM are there for, too, aren't we? ;)
| dwtempest |
Hello everyone,
so now my PCs managed to invade the battlemarket, kill Kardswann and liberate Kelmerane. Yeah! :D But one after another.
After they secured the help of the Three Jaws Tribe and the nymph Bashvari they set the second part of their plan in motion: some of the NPCs hat been ordered to harvest pesh flowers that Father Zastoran (Alchemist in my campaign) brewed into a highly concentrated drug. In the evening they loaded one of the caravan wagons with a few trade items and chained the barbarians and the paladin to it, the Sarenrae Dervish would pose as a shady slavetrader.
I let them get through with the ruse: they where searched through and allowed into the battlemarked, where Ugruk talked to the Dervish for a while, asked for 100GP charge for a stand and showed him to a room for his slaves and himself.
Meanwhile the rogue and the bard sneaked into Kelmerane under the cover of darkness. The bard hid in a ruin in the upper town, the rogue sneaked into the old tavern, where I ruled the main larder was situated. He stumbled over a mistreated halfling cook and convinced him to season the breakfast with their pesh extract. This done he joined the bard and waited.
Everything went well and most of the Gnolls in the lower part of the town were drugged. Then, one hour before noon the Three Jaws tribe, the four mercenaries and house-guards sounded the attack in lieu with Bashvari, who summoned several animals of the dessert. The gnolls in the lower parts reacted in a rather uncoordinated manner to this attack and soon a dozen better armed and fresh gnolls from the battlemarket made their way down to the lower city. This was the moment that the 'slave' barbarian and paladin got rearmed and started their own riot, but before the bard and rogue could join into fray, the doors of the battlemarket closed.
A battle royal ensured, soon to be joined by the bard and the rogue. The Dervish and Paladin hold the stairs against gnolls from upstairs, the rest fought the gnolls in the mainroom, Kardswann...
Thanks for your updates, I'm enjoying them!
| Akumamajin |
Thanks for the support :> It really inspires me to tell you all what happened next.
Ok, so the party killed Kardswann, but within an inch of dyeing. The downed PCs awakened to the warmly smiling face of Father Zastoran. After the death of Kardswann morale broke and the last few able Gnolls fled into the dessert and mountains. Everyone was happy and Almah thanked them deeply for this great victory, that wouldn't have been possible without their aid. During the day the dead bodies where piled up and burned and the caravan that waited at the cloister closed up and settled in town.
One square was cleaned and a big feast was held to celebrate this achievement. This was the best meal that they had had eaten in weeks and the rescued halfling cook thanked everyone by creating wonderful dishes of the most exquisite art.
After the feast Almah asked to speak to them privately. She told them a bit about the history of the city and why it had been abandoned 60 years ago (I wanted some more time to have elapsed). Most of the story about the deamon I kept without changes, but I wanted some more realistic reasons why they should open the seal of a deamon, that the houseguards of the pactmasters sealed just barely. So I made the deamon really powerful, with overpowering powers of mindcontrol. The pactmasters hadn't chosen the time of the retake of Kelmarane randomly but according to a special astrological sign: the planets and the sun aligned in a way that it strengthened the powers of Saranrea and weakened the powers of the deamon to such an degree that he could be slain. Kelmerane could have been liberated before, but it would soon have fallen again under the sway and malign influence of the deamon, so the pactmasters waited for this special astrological opportunity to bring the city back into the fold. Still a little corny, but a much easier pill to swallow. Oh and of course it helped, that Father Zastoran is a hobby astrologer. I forgot to let him slip something like "the stars are right" during the sessions before, but it would be cool to have him mention that a few times.
So after some negotiations (some money, good political positions in the city and a nice manor house) the party gave their ok and planed to go down into the catacombs in two days, during the hight of the astrological event. They healed up, sorted their new loot, restocked with Zastoran etc etc and eventually where ready to go down. Because of Garavels report they knew that the deamon had some powerful mindeffecting powers and that the 'humming of its wings drove half the city guard insane', so the bard and rogue decided to build some kind of ear protection. The bard failed and wont get any bonus, but the rogue got a natural 20, so I decided to let his ear protectors give him a +2 bonus vs language or sound dependent abilities as long as he where wearing them ... oh and of course: he would have difficulties to communicate with his pears.
I set the mood quite creepy while exploring the temple, with thick shadows that seemed more like some sticky material that only reluctantly pulled back before a light source and muffled sound like a blanket. Eventually they found a priest of Sarenrae praying before a statue of the goddess. They spoke up to him, but only after finishing his silent prayer did he acknowledge their presence and welcomed them. The Dervish of Saranrae asked him "brother, are you guarding the temple?" "Yes, I am indeed and I welcome you, noble ones" "Then you seem to have gotten lax in your duties " "Thats only because there have been few people from whom I had to protect this place ... but your souls will soon fertilize this garden" and then his face melted and he attacked. It was no difficult fight, but the Dervish was hit two times for 9pts damage each.
So they inserted the interdict key and went down, where the sticky-shadows and muffled-sounds effect was even more pronounced. The rogue examined the door thoroughly and made some awesome checks, so I told him, that the lock on the door was fake, but trapped. The bard lay flat an his stomach and let his dancing lights float down the well and actually described how he let them fly around and examined everything with great attention, so he noticed that the light shone under a tiny opening, where the floor of the well could slide into the wall.
Meanwhile the Dervish examined the gong. I ruled that there where some scenes inscribed on the thing that hinted at a specific prayer that he knew. My Idea was to recite the prayer before sounding the gong, so that the fire elementals would not attack them. Well, he recited the prayer but did not sound the gong and they where really paranoid about what to do: "the door is trapped but the lock is fake, I think that the door is fake, too." "we must go down, but how do we open the door in the well?" "the well is surely a trap, its to obviously" yadda yadda ... After a while, in the truly classic way, the barbarian had no more patience with this, walked over to the gong and just hit it with Kardswann's axe.
A deep, pleasant hum filled the room and with some low rumbling both, the door and the well, opened, bust just as soon as this happened a jet of flame erupted from the well, snaked along the ceiling and coalesced into the forms of two fiery women who presented Sarenrae. Our pious Dervish greeted them but was greeted in return with their fiery blades. A short fight and a 22hp critical from the barbarian later the room was cleared.
After some bickering they first investigated the room just ahead, promptly found the reliquary and nearly looted it, if the Dervish hadn't stepped in "we are here to rid this temple of the evil that deviled it, not to loot its treasures!!!" Good guy :>
So they went down and neatly arranged themselves in front of the portcullis. The perceptive rogue noticed some movement: a lone skeleton was striding towards them. They stepped back one step and observed it, assured in the security that the bars gave them. It was shimmering spectral green ... hmm ... Knowledge: religion checks where made, but they were no one the wiser ... then they noticed that the skeleton wasn't walking up to them, but serenely gliding ... and just moments before the gelatinous cube burst through the bars they understood their error!!! Initiative was rolled and the cube actually rolled a ten :D (we houserule that Initiative uses the d10, so that it is a little less random and dex and feats factor into it are much more felt).
Panic ensured, no one knew what to do, the rogue attacked it, fumbled and lost one of his swords. The Dervish hit it two times and made it leak some of it cytosol onto the floor, the barbarian couldn't get through, the Paladin didn't know what to do and the bard panicked and fled upstairs again.
Then the cube hit their neatly stacked formation, everyone but the barbarian opted to jump back, and all of them made their saves. The barbarian hit the thing really hard, but was just swallowed by it (still made his fort save). The bard doesn't know what to do and hits the gong, hoping against hope, that the sound will somehow damage the cube. CRRRRRRRRRRRRRSH, the doors slide shut and suddenly its pitch black down there with the cube. PANIC!!!! The rogue tries to find the footholds in the wall but fails his perception check. The Dervish rolled a natural 20 for acrobatics and sticked to the wall of the well in Jacky Chan style. The Paladin hits the cube and nearly misses it because of the dark, the barbarian rages IN the cube and I allowed him to attack for half damage. The cube advanced again, the Paladin is nearly with his back against the wall, the rogue tells me, that he tries to drag himself up ON the cube in order to get into the well again ... to sad that he didn't knew about the paralyze effect and is promptly swallowed ... with a rageing barbarian next to him, trying to dissect the cube inside out. The bard hits the gong again, light filters down into the nightmare when suddenly a Volcano erupts just under the cube!!! He totally forgot about the two fire elementals that activated again. The cube takes some fire damage, the dervish just barely makes his reflex save and pushes himself flat on the wall in order not to burn.
Well and that was when we had to cut the session with a really great cliffhanger: the Barbarian raging in the cube, the rogue paralyzed, Paladin with his back against the far wall, the Dervish hanging in the well and the Bard facing two royally pissed fire elementals. :D Just "§$%" great, I couldn't have made this any better if I scripted the whole thing.
Well actually the situation isn't that bleak for the players because the cube can't take much more. If the Dervish does one jumping charge it will probably die, or the Barbarian will succeed in carving his way out, but still, its a totally badass cliffhanger and one of the most memorable fights I have ever DMed :> Totally love it.
So next session we will mop this unlucky situation up and proceed to the confrontation with Xulthos. One of my players is constantly whining that he loves the Magus soooo much and totally wants to play one, but so far I have been adamant and told him that I didn't like the magus and that we were already too far into the campaign to change characters. He is not exactly unhappy with his character but is itching to play that magus ... Well, I actually like the magus and want to grand him his wish, but plan to kill his character off in the most grueling and bloody way with the first charge attack of Xulthos so that everyone will be just flabbergasted that that deamon killed one of their numbers with its FIRST frigging attack!!! This will surely rise the tension and will be much much more satisfying then just change characters. And in the one year rebuild phase of Kelmarane it will be totally no problem.
| Akumamajin |
Hello everyone, so here I am back again to fill you in with the news about my party :>
Last time we left my party, when they where quite panicked and in a severe situation in the crypt under Kelmerane. As it played out, things where not in the least as gloomy as they looked like: by activating the Fire Elemental trap again the bard had damaged the gelatinous cube severely and it fell under the combined might of the barbarian and the dervish. At once the heroic paladin scaled the ladder and helped out the poor bard and after two other rounds everyone was under control. Reminds my of the pulp shows of the 60s, where you SEE the hero dying in a car accident and then next week he jumps out just the moment before he hits the wall, but I digress.
So the party explored the rest of the crypt and came about the door with the mared picture of Sarenrae. They entered the jumbled room and saw at the far end a Kardswann sitting on a throne, clapping his hands and applauding them for coming so far. He filled them in a bit on his master plan and offered them to kneel down and swear fealty to him or die an ignoble death down here. After some inevitable trashtalk the dervish jumped Kardswann and gave him all he had, including a critical hit. Sadly he wasted all his attacks on an illusory double and the real Xultos charged him out of the shadows to his right, filling the room with his maddening drowning. Xultos hit the dervish like a brick, critted and send him well into his negativ twenties, rendering him in two in the process. This came as quite a shock to two of my players who are new to RPGing, that one of theres could die just like that from the first enemy attack ... well, it surely hammered home to them that this deamon meant some serious business.
The following round was quite hilarious ... at least from the GM perspective :D The paladin was drawn in trance towards the discarded sword Tempest and staggered when he picked it up and foreign thoughts, ideas, memories and another presence flooded his mind. The rogue peppered Xultos with some arrows and the bard and barbarian ... well, they both didn't make their will saves. So the bard just babbled gibberish which must have annoyed the barbarian severely - the attack in the back brought him down to two hitpoints :D
Well after that I allowed them another save to snap out of it. I played out the mental effecting side of Xultos a little bit more with jumping shadows, the insane drowning in their ears and the rising of dark emotions deep in their heart, but eventually the paladin struck the killing blow (a smiting powerattack against deamons is really sick ... I already commented on that, but on the other hand: he is a $%&/$ paladin, thats what he should be goot at). They emerged to the surface victorious but grieve stricken, especially the bard liked him and started to compose a dirge for him. There where some disgusting jokes made about the fact that he was literally ripped in two so that it was easier to get his body out of the crypt ... but at last the paladin hastily consecrated the graveyard and they laid him to eternal rest during a private sollem ceremony. The dervish player always wanted to change his character to Magus, but that he couldn't participate in the final battle and maybe die heroically taking down the BBEG was a harsh blow for him ... well you can't have just the sweets, can you?
After this the rebuilding of Kelmerane could be started in earnest and I explained to my players that we would do this kind of a minigame and handled them two pages with condensed Kingmaker Rules. At first they where skeptically but than they became really enthusiasts when it came to the different offices. This is how it played out (mind you: because Kelmerane is just a small City I reduced the offices to fit the cast ... a Grand Diplomate or General is surely not needed)
Ruler - Almah (of course :D)
Councilor - Luther, the bard
Abbot-Protector (High Priest) - El-Falas, the paladin
Magister - Father Zastoran, the alchemyst
Marschall - Elandurial, the half-orkish NPC sorcerer of fire (he was a NPC that helped out the party a few times, don't ask about his name :D). He already wanted to part ways but the bard made him stay and take this office, at least for a few month, until the city can stand on his own legs.
Spymaster - Satinder, the rogue (of course)
Treasurer - Garawell
Warden - Barbarak, the barbarian
Especially the bard really liked his new office and happily described how he went around town, trying to keep in touch with everyone and listening to their problems, as long as the city was rather small, planting the seed of trust in the populace. Nice.
The spymaster took a role similar to Lord Varys from Games of Thrones and well, most of the people where quite happy ... only the paladin had some deep personal problems. He was raised a paladin of Iomedae but witnessed the powere of the Dawnflower here in the dessert first hand and now his mind was assaulted constantly by whispers of Vardishal. Well, I let him make a will save and he promptly rolled a 1. Perfect! :D I don't want to punish the paladin a lot, just add a little personal drama and let him play his inner rupture a bit ... well at least for now he was stripped of his cooler powers and tried to keep this a secret.
The first month they build two farms, payed their upkeep, gained a few new BP and then lost one third of that to some gnoll attacks! This pissed them of but reminded them, that while they had conquered Kelmerane, the region was still mostly wild, gnoll-infested lands. The second month the dervishs player Magus, Variel, showed up in town. His father was a distinguished noble in Kyonin until, thanks to his brothers intrigue, he was stripped of position and status. Now Variel wanders the lands to gain enough money, influence, power and knowledge to challenge his oncle.
Well, he was quite soon shadowed by Satinders spys and approached by Luther, who showed him around town and talked to him quite merrily. They arranged for him to visit to old monastery and the temple to see if any books or scriptures could be salvaged. A few days into this everyone was awoken during the night from a few screams and a translucent and blue-glowing figure of a paladin of Sarenrae who was walking down the main street.
The magus approached the figure and was promptly ignored. When he touched him his hand frosted over and he was rebuffed ... and the paladin turned to give him a soul-piercing stare, before resuming his path that would lead him to the temple. Just when he entered the temple grounds he erupted into brilliant flames. In disbelieve he tried again, but to no avail. He then let out a howl of utter anguish, pain and dispair and enraged jumped the next living target: the magus who was still following him. Taking a hit of the ghostly weapon he spoke soothing words to the ghost and stepped into the temple grounds. But the paladin joined the fray and attacked ... and in the shadows Satinder was sneaking and trying to get into position. Next round the paladin ghost emitted a truely horrifying scream that send the magus and rogue running for their lives with only the paladin standing firm ... ironically that would both have made their save with the paladins courage aura :D Cool. So they fought a few rounds until the magus regained his composure and banished the ghost with a dazzling display of martial prowess and magical fire.
Are you sometimes baffled by the truly unrational ways some of your players react? A prime example would by out rogue ... after the incident everyone gathered on the temple grounds sans the rogue, who had returned but sulked in the shadows, ignoring the calls for his name. Even when they mobilized the guards and looked around the entire town and outskirts for him he ignored that and just went to bed ... explaining that this would just add to his aura of mystery and teaching the others a lesson in ... something.
Well, whatever. This rounded up the session and it was quite some fun. The magus had had his time in the spotlight and was very pleased with his performance. When he keeps up to distinguish himself he will be offered the position as Magister and everything is on road.
The basic idea for the next few sessions are: solving the mystery of the paladins ghost (look into the Kingmaker rules for Kelmerane treat, there I got the idea) and more problems with gnolls, especially of The Circle tribe and explosions in the mountains that keep raising unrest until resolved. I want to integrate the Game Mastery Module "Crucible of Chaos", so the strange weapon that they are searching for is part of the key to reactivate the city and a pointer to said place. I am still tossing around ideas if the City will be an old azlanty city or a flying brass fortress from Javhul, stranded during the War of Genies.
What I have planed for the 6. book is, that the Efreeti Army guarding the House of the Beast is much bigger and more dangerous than presented. So, when they find the second part of the key in Javhuls Vaults in book 5, they can reactivate the city and crash it down on the House of the Beast, punching right down to the Firebleeders Grave :> If that isn't epic I don't know what. Oh and the Carrion Kings reanimated corpse will be guarding the temple of Sarenrae, otherwise my players wouldn't have a reunion with him ... and while we are at it, why not let him join up with a reanimated dervish? :> So many plans, and everything still so far in the future.
So thats it for now. Please keep commenting and brainstorm some of my ideas, I am thankful for every further input.
Cheers
| Akumamajin |
Hello everyone, here I am with a new bloggy part of my players exploits.
The last entry ended with the paladin of Saranraes ghost tormenting the town. Well is happend again, once every week and further investigation and trips into the archives confirmed, that there was once a saint of Saranrae who died by destroying some evil creature. At the site of his death a shrine was erected and Saranraes grace was bestowed upon it with his body never withering away.
The party decided to travel to the shrine, suspecting that something must be amiss. I have a new player to introduce, and his character is a very special case: this player really LOVES dragons and has asked me time and again to let him play one, no matter how downpowered. Till this day I always disappointed him ... will till we stumbled over the Dragonrider Base Class:
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/s/dragonrider
It seemed reasonably balanced and so I said: "ok, we give it a shot, but if it turns out to be too unbalanced this experiment ends rather sooner then later". The mainfeature of the Dragonrider is, well, his dragonmount. Without the dragon he is just a fighter without feats. So, while traveling through the mountains the party got ambushed by a beefed up mountain troll. A vicious fight ensured and the magus got dropped immediately by a really mean rending/biting combo. That was when a great shadow fell upon the fight and a mounted bronzedragon fell out of the sky, its raider lancing the troll. The dragonrider went heavily down the spirited charge lane and did a wooping 3d8+12 with his fly-by-attack. He flew another circle and impaled the troll with his attack next round. Even the barbarian was impressed, but well, this encounter was very much designed to play to his strength and show off.
He landed, everyone introduced themselfs, yaddayadda and he offered to help in the search of the shrine. Talking to his new compagnons he asked his dragon if he could scout ahead a little what the dragon reluctantly did, snapping something back like "there you are, the greatest race the world has to offer, reduced to common scouting duty", is was already quite fun, because the two really love each other but are always snapping all the time.
Everything went well till the dragonrider got a telepathic distress call from his dragon just before contact ceased. He was really shocked "you gave me a dragon and just took it away in the first 20min!!!" but well, thats the drill :D Earn what you get.
So, he knew the general direction in which his dragon disappeared and just started running in this direction. Hours later the rest of the party found his collapsed form, nursed him back and explained to him a thing about the dessert and harsh mountain settings :D Together and in more conservative speed they continued their way.
Eventually they came to a strangely discolored valley with some forests and a small river meandering. It took them the first step onto the grass, accompanied by a crunchy feeling, like snow, to realice that the entire valley seemed to be petrified, welcome to Litha Vale. They descended warily into the vale, spooked by the utter silence of their surrounding, as if time itself stood stil. When they entered the forest a voice like millstones grinding shouted out to them, stating that their kind was not welcomed here and that they should turn tail or face the consequences. The dragonrider responded corny in kind and rushed forward. He was stopped in his tracks be a spear edging itself into the ground just before him. He could see a towering figure composed of living rock receding into the underbrush, just before he was ambushed by a pack of petrified wolves. The fight was short but bloody, the wolves taking out quite a chunk of the parties HP.
The party argued if they should go back to the entrance of the valley and rest, but the dragonrider pushed forward. Man, this guy is even more zealous then the paladin :D Cool, now we have two of that kind. In the middle of the forest, good to see from nearly every vantage point, stood a great oak tree, not just petrified but crystalized, translucent glimmering in the fading sun. This, they figured, should be their target area.
Deeper into the forest the trail went through a field a tall grass ... a gruesome experience when the petrified blades of grass turn out to be, well, blades!!! The entire field acted like a Spike Growth spell and it took them some time to get through.
The crystalized oak tree loomed just a short distance away, their last hurdle being the mirror-smooth river. Many a failed acrobatic check and much hilarity later they made it to the other side and at last they arrived at their destination. The trees formed an arched way that lead straight to a clearing in front of the giant tree. The clearing featured a ring of menhir stones, inscripted in terran with praises to the earthmother or stuff like that. On the far site an altar of sorts was erected in front of which stood a woman, unmoving and clad in petrified hide armor. The towering figure from before stood halfway between her and the party, eyeing the PCs wary ... oh and the dragon stood behind the altar, too, half petrified and calcifying by the minute.
After the woman presented herself as Orlass, the warden of this forest, she asked the party to state their business and leave. Well, after some trashtalk she offered the dragonrider this: she would release his dragon if he would let him turn his heart to stone, robbing him of all emotions by doing so. He loves his dragon, does he not? So shouldn't love be the last emotion he ever felt and this be a fitting sacrifice? HA!!! Nobody expected something like this, everybody was already readying their dice, expecting a nice fight :D Well, it WOULD have been a really interesting role play opportunity, but OF COURSE our zealot bursted out something corny like "evil can only be served the justice of steel" and our grand royal started.
Turned out that our priestess was a medusa druid, so everyone had the option to avert their eyes when fighting her and give her 50% concealment. Her first action was to cast Spike Growth, the magus dashed to the front, wanted to play lucky and attack without averting his gaze and promptly turned to stone. The barbarian was bullrushed by the shaitan sidekick (yeah, thats what he was) up unto the hip into the ground and was stuck. The shaitan took him out next round, but the bard healed him back to health. Well, the fight went back and forth a little, luckily no one more got turned to stone, and eventually they vanquished the evil medusa and her shaitan. The bard made a nice bardic knowledge roll and remembered a tale in which the blood of a slain medusa was used to break her curse of stone and everyone was happy ever after.
I don't follow any experiment shard but level my players when I feel that they earned it. Now they are all level 5. I want to insert some more side plots (especially later in Kakishon), maaaaaybe I can get them to level 20? This would be really nice, since no one of us has ever played a character past level 9 ;D
After the thing with the paladin I plan to use the excavation of The Circle gnoll tribe in combination of "Entombed with the Pharao", where they will find a magic item revering them to a lost brass stronghold lost during the war of genies and opening into "Crucible of Chaos". After this I will continue with the house of the beast as planed.
Feel free to comment and cheers, till next time.
| Akumamajin |
Hello everybody, I didn't update my groups progress in a while, but some stuff did happen and now is the time to tell you about it :)
So, last time my PCs killed the meduse residing in the petrified forest while searching for the disturbed resting place of a paladin, whose ghost was freaking out the Kelmerane residents. So after some overland travel they arrived at the mausoleum side. Meanwhile the groups paladin was still in Kelmerane, because last session he could not show up. This character was originally of the Iomedae faith, but lost his spiritual powers after picking up tempest and becoming the new pomegranate-speaker. It provided some interesting roleplaying moments when his training and upbringing collided with the new presence, thoughts and memories in this head.
So, while the other players where on their way to the medusas hideout, the paladin had a fateful dream. A big and fiery worm was worming its way towards the city and I let him describe what we would do. Some attack rolls, a reflex save to rescue a child from being buried under debries, a will save to not waver etc.
Suddenly he was staying in the ruined battlemarket surrounded by the crowd and accused by Almah for not saving the city in times of need. I let him roll play his defense. Then Almah accused him of fear of dying and that he failed because of this ... her words hit him like a brick and he fell ... fell into darkness and oblivion. Questions where asked: how do you view death? Do you fear it? What do you fear? Out of the darkness death was reaching with fiery hands for him and he was sure to perish ... but then comforting cold was washing over him: tempest, the sword on his hip was protecting him. But then it was melting right in his hands and he was standing again in the Xultos chamber under the Temple of Sarenrae, where the former bearer of the sword was charging the daemon, but instead of joining the battle he fell into his comrades back and yanked the sword out of his still warm hand. A flash and he was standing on the plains before Kelmerane, a great host of humans, elves, dwarfs, soldiers was standing their, awaiting the charge of an overwhelming army of Efreet, Janni and fiery creatures. On opposing ends of his battle lines where an unit of heavily armed Iomedaen cavaliers on horse and an unit of nimble Sarenrae Dervishs. Both looked battered, their spirit broken from former battles and ordeals. Their respective commanders tried the raise their spirit, but the just could not find the proper words. He had do chose one unit to support and went to the Sarenrae one, uplifting their spirit with a rousing speach, while the spirit in his sword lend its wisdom and experience to his words. When they charged the world disappeared again, but out of the darkness the paladin, who's ghost he hat seen and battled before, appeared, smiling and greeting him as brother. He told him of great peril and a mighty artifact buried the crypt behind his tomb, that must not fall to the gnolls of the brazen peaks and implanted in him the knowledge of his tomb. And so, a redeemed and reborn Paladin of Sarenrae embarked on his first quest.
He arrived just at the same time as his comrades. After some exchange of news they inspected the tomb. In the front room they found a small shrine and desecrated sarcophagus and a stone door bashed open. I used the setpiece 'refuge of nethys' for the floor plans and layout, but changed the purpose of the crypt. So instead of a former monastery of nethys it was a temple dedicated to the four pharaohs of ascension who ruled this part of the world millennia ago. Our rogue was very interested in osirian history and jumped at the opportunity to explore this place and faithfully deciphered every piece of hieroglyphs. As it turned out, each of the four pharaohs seemed to had been a lord of one element and he deciphered the the names and titles of the four. So throughout the setpiece I inserted many references to their backstory and history. If you might wonder where I got this, give the gamemastery module "Entombed with the Pharaoh" a read. So after devious flametraps an the room of Ankana, the radient pharaoh, and being nearly crushed by stones and killed by sphinxes in the part dedicated to Hetshepsu, the buried pharaoh, they emerged in the main room. Oh, by the way, the magus player, who just abandoned his Dawnflower Dervish because he wanted to play a Magus sooo bad, asked if I could kill of his character, because now the Dervish Dancer from 'Ultimate Combat' was his dream character concept -____- I really value this guy, but he is always unhappy with his concept and constantly wants to try something new as soon as he has a streak of bad luck and gives the 'ineffective concept' all the guilt. Geez. So because I couldn't stand this I allowed him to change his Magus to the Dervish Dancer behind camera, because both where roughly the same concept. BUT after this I ruled, that I would not allow any further respecs just like this (he is too MMO poisoned). Respecs of skills, would cost now one permanent skill point, feats two, class five. This resulted in some long faces but ultimately he was happy, because now he could play his dream character -_____-
The mist properly confused all of the party sans the dragonrider without his dragen. Neat :D In the main room they found some gnolls sitting in front and paying homage to the big ark. Most of the players where seeing the magnificent barge flying through the sky and bearing aloft the four pharaohs, too. One of the gnolls, the one wearing a peculiar headdress, one half of an ossirian burial mask, noticed them and demanded, that they lay themselves flat in the dust to pay homage to the pharaohs. Well, they didn't and so a fight ensured. Most of the party was stoned and I described this with all manners of fancy visions or hallucinations like scarabs of snakes crawling over their bodies, their comrades turned into mummies and attacking them or being awestruck by magnificent and radient Pharaohs towering over them. This was was more interesting then just "you do nothing" or "you damage yourself" ... one player stumbled backwards and fell prone (do nothing) and another player, who just got attacked by crawling scarabs the round before (damage yourself for 1d8+str) viewed him as another scarab swarm pouring out of a crack in the ground and delivered some painful kicks (attack nearest player). Really hilarious from this side of the screen :D Also quite funny was the real world confusion: the only player who could act normal in the first round (beside the non confused guy) was so confused by the stuff going on that he delayed his action ... well, that was his last sane action for this fight :D
So, eventually they beat the gnolls, recovered the half-mask and cooled down. After some looting and stuff they returned to Kelmerane. There they found new trouble: a fat bard, who was secretly payed for his doings by the Carrion King, was standing on a public place and denouncing the PCs, asking the populace where the gold and comfortable living was that they were promised and pointing out that the only persons eating from golden platers were the so-called-heros of Kelmerane, who were fouling around the countryside and absent as often as they throw the taxes out of the window for decadent joys. Out parties spokes person, the bard and counselor, stepped in front of the whole thing and started to argue and discuss this thing with, doing quite well. What happened next was a prime example what can happen, when players don't pay attention to the other players actions :D The parties rogue and Kelmeranes Spymaster bribed some workers to depose of the troublemaker, so during the discussion between the guy and our bard, 5 workers proclaimed that they didn't like the way how that guy just burst here in a denounce their leaders, pulled him down from the box he was standing on and gave him a good beating. The demagogue cried murder and vengeance and things like "you see? this happens to everyone who opposes the leadership. you might by better of in Cheliax". This caused quite a commotion in the crowd. Enter the dragonrider. The player was talking to another player all the time, when he looked up and said "what? the crowd gets aroused and angry because of this guy? better stop this now", stepped in, picked the guy up and proclaimed, that he would throw him into jail and that his likes are not tolerated in this city. Needless to say, this started some proper unrest in town and made Almah really pissed, questioning their ability to rule. Well, end of session.
| Akumamajin |
Hello everyone, time for some more storytelling ;)
Well, the thing how they handled the bard was wuite embarrassing. The next day they set him free, again, but out barbarian made it VERY clear, that this kind of behavior isn't welcomed here. We will see how things will turn out in the future.
Well, another month went by, some more buildings are erected, everybody is happy, until some explosions from the south-western mountains are heard. They repeat the next few days and really unsettle the citizens, so the group goes out to investigate what is causing the commotion and to not risk unrest in Kelmerane.
They travel a day, rest and travel some more. The Cohan, the dragonrider, scouts ahead and reports a strange excavation camp with some pyramids half a day away and some gnolls sneaking around the dessert. They agree to travel in the directions of the Gnolls, hide behind some dunes and intercept them while one of them plays the decoy. It kinda works and Variel, the elfen Dervish Dancer, parleys with the gnolls. He asks if they know anything about the explosions, they tell him "maybe, maybe not" and ask him about the town of Kelmerane, seeming very pleased to hear, that it is rebuild and trade is slowly but steadily increasing. Variel asks them about the excavation camp and the Gnolls grin at each other: we would be welcomed to investigate the camp .. as a slave. He smiles and drops into fighting stance and the Gnolls surround him. At this the rest of the group comes running down some dune and the five Gnolls are quickly dealt with. Funny enough: the Barbarian sits himself on top of the dune and just observes the slaughter, deeming the Gnolls unworthy as proper enemies.
They make for the camp, while Cohan once again goes scouting, this time flying a little more to the ground, to make out more details. But this time he seems to be spotted: out of a foppish tent a slender figure walks and within seconds the sky darkens and lightning bolts start to drop down on him and his dragon! Luckily he has a Bronze Dragon and some electricity resistance, but none the less he takes some damage from the 5 or so hits he takes while turning tale. The rest of the way they all walk :>
Soon enough they reach the camp and, having already been spotted, make for the main entrance, with the notable exception of the rogue, who goes sneaking around on his own. They are greeted by a dozen Gnolls, but are not attacked, apparently their leader is expecting them and wants to talk. In front of the foppish tent stands a little pavilion with blankets covering the sand, some sitting pillows and a low table with a fine mocha set. Behind the table sits a slender woman dressed in a hijab, the leader of the circle tribe, the witch.
She is quite cultured, asks them to sit down, offers them some mocha and asks to state their business. They accept the hospitality and directly come to the point and mention the detrimental effect the explosions have on the moral of the citizens. She admits that this camp is the source of the explosions, but that she is afraid that she can't stop the explosions, yet, but that this land here is unclaimed and that she and her people have as much right to be here and do their business then the PCs and their town. A valid point, they argue back and forth till she offers them a deal: her Gnolls are quite some martial people, and they would likely just stap them. So, to appease them, lets pit her strongest fighter against theirs.
This is something to the Barbarians liking and he instantly volunteers. One big, burly Gnolls with reeeeeaaaally long and unpleasant claws steps forward, spittle dropping down his mouth. This guy is really mean, a shapshifting weapon style ranger with favored enemy humans. He is attacking for three times for +13 1d4+14, ouch! Barbarak the Barbarians combat prowess is well knowns from the last adventures, so everyone is quite shocked, when he takes quite the beating and is downed the second round, even severely damaging the Gnoll. When the Gnollranger starts looting Barbarak Variel interrupts and the inevitable royal melee starts.
In the meantime our rogue sneaked his way into the main tent, found the second part of the mask they unearthed in the last dungeon and started to read the ladies diary ... tsktsktsk, what a gentleman ;D When things went rowdy outside he nevertheless joint the fray.
The Gnolls just waited for some excuse like this, but the Witch also showed what she was made of: one vision of hell turned the camp into a playhouse of the devil, like a silent hill version of it, and a quickened channel negativ energy did also hurt quite a lot, not only damaging them but also shredding tents, grounding stones to dust and rending the very earth. Somewhere hidden was a sneaky Gnoll Alchemist, tossing acid bombs at the party, further complicating their situation. The Bard got tp Barbarak pronto and healed him so much up, that he could join the fight again. The fight was bloody and intense, but without a real climax. The rager was still damaged from the fight with Barbarak and dropped at once. The party carved a bloody path towards the witch and hacked away at her, while being peppered by her channels, scimitar and the acid bombs, but she couldn't prevail against them. But a favored of Rovagug doesn't go so easily, so the ground split open and some mean tentacles draged her underground. The Gnoll Alchemist honored the time honed tradition of living to fight another day, and so the party liberated the camp.
There where some half dozen tents for the Gnolls and some really ragtag ones for the slaves. All in all there where about fifty slaves, all underfed and exhausted. Luther, the bard, set them free and told them to take what ever they needed from the provisions of the Gnolls and how to find Kelmerane, if the felt strong enough for 1 1/2 days travel through the dessert. Most interestingly was what the slaves where excavating: four pyramids arranged in a square, the last one still embedded in sand and dirt. The pyramids did not sport any opening or entrance, but each beard the personal rune of one of the four pharaohs of ascension. The diary of the Witch shed some light on the whole affair: apparently the four pharaohs where entombed in a fifth pyramid, that is presently on another plain of existence. In order to summon it here a death mask of the pharaohs must be worn and an old ossirian text be incanted in front of the four lesser pyramids. She hoped to find rich plunder and loot ... and the mentioning of some devastating weapon of sort, entombed with the pharaohs. Also mentioned was a certain curse: the one who entered the pyramid would not return alive should he witness all four personal runes of the pharaohs.
Uncertain if they should do this in her stead they rested and got to bed. The next day the party decided to summon the resting place of the pharaohs, so the rogue donned the mask an spoke the words. Suddenly a powerful wind started to blow, rising to gale force, so the everyone needed to avert their eyes. When the wind died down again, as if by a miracle, there stod a pyramid between the other four, dwarfing them. And half way up they could see an opening, beckoning them to enter to never return to the world of the living...
| Darkstrom |
Cool stuff
Thanks for sharing your interesting campaign. :) It's always fun to read.
| Akumamajin |
Akumamajin wrote:Cool stuffThanks for sharing your interesting campaign. :) It's always fun to read.
Thank you, it is always nice to get some feedback from you guys :) So far my players have had a blast with the campagne and are thoroughly enjoying it. Is there any greater joy for an entusiast gamemaster? :> I really like the Legacy of Fire AP, even thou it is much lower on the arabian night thematic then I had hoped for. Never the less, the story is really top notch and interesting.
I will keep you updated ;)
| Akumamajin |
Hello my loyal readers, I finally got time, to write about my parties misadventures in the pyramids. Because of the holidays we didn't play as often as we would have liked (somehow relatives have a knack for selecting concert tickets for presents that take place on our gaming day ;D), but we still managed to to finish this really fund sidetrack adventure.
Well, last session ended, when the party burst into the Gnoll excavation and resurrected the resting place of the four Pharaohs of the elements back to this plane. The entrance was way up a sloping pyramid, but with a dragon rider in the party it was no problem to get a rope up there. In preparation of the exploration of the pyramid the parties rogue read the diary of The Witch, which told them about some big treasures and hints of a fantastically powerful artifact in the pyramid ... oh, and a curse of the four Pharaohs, that would smite the one, who would witness the four runes corresponding with the Pharaohs. The party descended the main shaft, which bore into the side of the Pyramid at a steep angle, till it leveled horizontally and a big stone slate engraved with runes warned them to turn around, because here the world of the living ended and the place of the dead began, lest no one would return. Well, it would have been a rather short adventure if they backed out already, so they pressed on. The emerged in a portico, where a whole unit of skeleton spearmen stood vigilant. Needless to say, that the skeletons posed not much of a threat, but they set the tone. Adjacent they found several rooms depicting the deeds, depravities and magnificence of the Pharaohs. In one very interesting room they where attacked by a mummy, but made short work of it ... well, at least one of them contracted that nice mummy rot, this will pose interesting. Quite prominently one of the four runes was presented in the room, which everyone saw, the bards player informed me, that he would be very careful from now on, not bursting into rooms or looking too intensely into anything... wise guy :)
In the final room of this pyramid-level they found a room choke full of urns, vases and other containers of sort. Our Bard warned, that they might be canopic jars, but well, the rogue already was sorting through the stuff. It turned out, that the urns where in deed canopic jars and soon the mummified remains and organs of the Pharaoh of Earth, who tried to betray the others, filled the room and clinging body parts tried to get into their orifices or choke or bludgeon them to death. It was a bloody affair, but one from which the party emerged victorious. In the aftermath one of them found a finger still wearing a magical ring, that sadly bore another rune, that the rogue and the magus saw. The magus was quite unpleased, the rogue couldn't care less, stating, that he beheld the entire curse thing as utter bogus.
The party at last found a shaft with a steep, and rather big, stair, descending and ascending into other parts of the pyramid. While they were still debating whether they should go up or down, and how to traverse the rather odd stair, they heard heavy food steps coming down, the more perceptive ones of them could even make out some movement in the distance. Everyone prepared and to the parties surprise a big golem in the form of a shapely human man with a snake head came stepping down, bearing a plate form, that they could easily fit onto -> a very fancy elevator. The golem waited a short time, before descending deeper, and after about 15minutes they emerged in the deeper level. This level consisted of just four long corridors, forming a perfect square, and two doors, leading into the centre of the level. Needless to say, that the corridors where literately garnished with traps. Well, the party started to argue which door to open, to get into the central part, but the dragon rider said "bah, lets take this one" and of he was. The door entered into a reeeaaaly big circular room filled with a literal sea of gold coins, cast into a serene blue light. In the middle of the sea was an isle with crystal palms, bearing a sarcophagus ... presumedly the resting place of Anok Fero, the Cerulean Pharaoh of Water. Needless to say, that all where awestruck by this fast richness ... but at the same time utterly wary. The dragon rider mounted his trusty bronze dragon and scouted the room further, taking pains not to touch anything, yet. Well, our magus, craving some action, decided to join him and wandered into the room, soon fallowed by the rogue and the paladin. The more perceptive ones, namely the rogue and the magus, sensed some vibration, then one ripple in the sea of gold coming straight into their direction and then vanishing mere meters before the ripple reached them ... an awful silence fell upon the room, no one dared to move ... when suddenly a huge form burst from the sea of gold, sending gold coins flying in all directions (ref-save :P), knocking the magus out cold. When the (gold)dust settled they could see what had emerged there: a really pissed, undead, in bandages clad, mummified blue dragon!
Panic ensured! They had expected undead, especially mummies ... but a dragon mummy? Holy crap! Well, a battle royal ensured, the dragon rider could really shine and deliver his devastating 3d8+15 damage spirited charge lance attacks ... but he really fumbled with his fly rolls, so he always needed 2 rounds of maneuvering after each attack to get into a new charge position. The dragon would also fly around the room, never being an easy target for the parties superior numbers. The barbarian and paladin alternately attacked the dragon, when he passed their position, while the bard was buffing the party and shooting rather ineffective arrows from his short bow. I played the encounter rather cinematic, allowing the party special attacks, when they tried something interesting ... like the rogue, climbing the walls and then jumping onto the dragons back, delivering a sneak attack and every round, that he made his strength check to cling to the dragon, an auto hit. It was a fierce battle, that took the party to their limits and drained all their resources for the day, but in the end the dragon lay defeated ... but not without a severe price, having claimed the life of Barbarak, the (ig)noble Barbarian from the North. Well, not much time for sentiments, thought the rogue, and opened the sarcophagus. Inside he found the preserved and lifeless mummy of the Cerulean Pharaoh, a marid in life. Suddenly the mummy opened its eyes and mouth and transformed into a swarm of vipers, scarabs, centipedes, scorpions and countless other vermin. The vermin swarmed the hapless rogue, before scattering into dark corners, nooks and cranny, never to be seen again. The rogue meanwhile was unconscious and having strange dreams in which he witnessed some of the history of the Four Pharaohs through his own eyes, and later conversing with the Cerulean Pharaoh himself. It turned out, that the Pharaoh sensed, that we could not win this battle, not with his dragon cohort destroyed ... but rather longed for live then eternal destruction, so he injected his conscience into the hapless rogue. This was, of course, planed. The player declared, that he really liked the witch class and asked, if he could play a new character. We tinkered a bit and decided, to go multiclassing into the witch, with later branching into the Arcane Trickster prestige class. Because he was already a level 5 rogue this was suboptimal at best, so I allowed, that his hexes would level with the Arcane Trickster. Well, after the fight, the party got a level up and the rogue came to his senses, now having gained a witch level and an ageless Pharaoh as his Patron of Time ... rather cool, eh?
Of course this was properly roll played, and when the party decided to rest, after this encounter, the guy at guard noticed some shadow bending over the lifeless body of Barbarak. As it turned out it was Syndranar, the rogue, inserting something into Barbaraks chest! He had taken out the obsidian heart in the chest of the now dead dragon, that had given the mummy its unlife, and inserted it into Barbarak, to raise him. Because the obsidian heart had lost much of its necromantic power, and Barbarak had just recently died, it didn't mummy him for eternity, but just raised him back to live, giving him something acing to half-undead-status in the process. Syndranar was in some kind of trance during the whole process and now snapped out of it, stating, that he could not remember a thing of what he has done ... raising the paranoia level of the party :D Oh ... and no one had the guts to tell Barbarak that he was dead ... and most likely still was ... isn't that lovely? :D I will split post here, so that this won't become too big to read. See you soon.
| Akumamajin |
Soo ... lets dive immediately into the upper parts of the pyramid. After some arguing and much talking and even more glaring Syndranar was released of guard duty until further notice, and the party ascended to the upper parts of the pyramid. After half an hour on the then no-longer-so-interesting-golem-elevator they emerged on the level situated above their starting level. They could see a long gallery with great crystal windows set into the sides, letting them behold the surroundings of the pyramid ... but like they where a thousand years ago! Around them they could see a bustling city, teaming with live and commerce ... but after a few minutes, the scenes reset, unveiling them as the nice illusion, they where. While most of the party were beholding the pretty scenery, Cohan the dragon rider passed a perception check and noticed someone spying on them around the next corner ... the mangey snout of a Gnoll! And a rather living and breathing one! At once he mounted his dragon and hurtled down the gallery, after the Gnoll. The poor Gnoll turned tail and run around another corner, all the while Cohan gave chase, noticing that he passed by a door leading into a magnificent throne room ... but that room could wait, first the Gnoll! ... So around the corner he found a rather unpleasant surprise, the Gnoll had not ventured into the pyramid alone, but got company: The Witch, leader of the Circle Tribe, and her deadly Gnoll Ranger, both of whom the party had defeated two days ago, but who where swallowed by a hole in the ground, denoting, that Ravagug would not have one of his favorite clerics die without giving here a second chance. The Witch looked just as seductive as they had known here two days ago, her hijab accentuating more of her shapely body, then veiling, but her companion hadn't fared that well ... or maybe even better, just like you put it into perspective, because he had been blessed by Rovagug rather extensively: where his head once had been (his head had been split be the Paladin) now sprouted a sinewy tentacle that ended into a rather wicked looking sickel, whipping maniacally ... Residend Evil 4 anyone? The battle was short, but bloody, because the opposition was expecting them and had time to buff. Cohan charged the Gnoll-Ranger-Tantacle-Thingy and the other party members where hot on pursuit. The Witch casted Visions of Hell, that turned the already gloomy pyramid into a sanity-depriving sinkhole of evil and dishing it out in melee with the magus, all the while spamming quickened negative energy - really nasty, me likes : > Well, in the end the party was victorious, but bloodied. One of the players unveiled The Witch to look at her face ... and recoiled in terror! With the veil and hijab she looked moth seducing, but under her robes she was utterly deformed, her form somehow unfitting for her body, bulging out here and there, forming strange apendixes or semi-functional limbs. Worst though was her face: she had no mouth, but a sucker-like apendix ... you could call it insectoid, but that would not do it justice ... an insect is something that belongs in this world ... THAT thing was something entirely else.
While his friends where looting the dead bodies for nice goodies, El-Falas, the Paladin, peeked into the aforementioned throne room and wandered into it. It was a rather high and grand room with magnificent grandeur. At the end of the room sat a large (as in size) female, mummified shape on a grand throne who bore quite a beautiful burial mask, making her look just like an oversized nofretete, who could be no one other then Ankana, the Radiant Pharaoh, an Efrit-Princess. She was flanked by two silent jackal-mummies, and beside her throne.-alcove two shapely and muscular stone man with jackal heads stood sentry. When El-Falas entered her throne room her form slowly started to emit smoke and she addressed him in a very commanding and demanding voice in old-ossiriani. The only one, who could speak that was Syndranar, the rogue. But before he could make it to the room, other party members where fileing into it, but where soon obstructed by a wall of force, that cut the room in two halves. The wall of force was rather amusing, as they first walked into it,(El-Falas run into the wall full-force and I could juste barely keep myself from making that bad joke about the elf with a hard one who runs into a pole, just to break his nose :P) then tried to go around, looking like pantomimes. She was saying something "Who are you, to dare to disrupt my eternal slumber?" and then "The first once to pay me a visit in thousand years ... and it are clowns". Well, in the end, Syndranar was able to translate ... even thou she was quite a bit annoyed, that he spoke anything less then accent free high-old-ossirian like it was spoken on the courts of the Pharaohs of old. He even got the party to kneel, but after a while of listening to the two conversing, Cohan got bored and noticed, that the entire room was honeycombed by stone-slates with rings set into them. So he walked over to one of em and pulled the ring .. and pulled out a stone cube waiting about 60lb. Seeing this, Ankana stated, that Syndranars friend must be bored and wants to play ... so play he should" ... and rumbling the door closed. Barbarak and Lutter, the bard, standing outside made a Reflex-Save to get into the room, but the Magus was still in the gallery, trying to identify the sword used by The Witch. Barbarak tried to use his Greatsword to block the door from closing, but the sword just snapped in two ... but still, nice trying.
Just after the door closed, the two stone jackal-men moved out of their alcoves ... and when they stepped into their side of the room, their half descended about 10cm, while the parties side ascended the same amount. Confusing made place to realizing that the entire room was a gigantic scale, when the stone man already started to pull heavy stone cubes out of the wall and so raising the players side even higher ... making the ceiling close in rather rapidly! So, the bard inspired competence in the dragon, Cohan tried on his own, and Syndranar was helping El-Falas. The strongest guy, Barbarak, is played by a player, who loves to do stuff intentionally the dumb and brute way, so he didn't participate but rather tried to destroy the wall of force by bashing it over and over again with a stone cube :D The scale want up and down, but when the players had a firmly winning margin, Ankana summoned an Earth Elemental, adding a third paid of strong arms to her team plus the weight of the Elemental ... in the end, the party won this show-off of strength, and the two golems and the elemental got ground to fine dust. After a moment, the scale ascended back into starting position, and a rather soured Ankana reopened the door, dismissing them, the magus reunited with the party, having waited before the door. In this moment, Syndranar had again a flashback, seeing himself casting powerful rituals with the other Pharaohs, and even erecting this wall of force with them ... and so knew the proper incantation to dispell this one here; this was the perfect opportunity to get rid of his old rival Ankana. Well, the party just thought "cool, lets kill that b*~~~ and take her stuff", so the third Pharaoh battle ensured.
Ankana started by casting a wall of flame before her and quickened a scorching ray on the three main fighters. Then her two mummy-jackals revealed them-self as advanced Yeth-Hounds and moved in front of her, just behind the wall of fire. All of the party made their saves for the unsettling fear effect of the hounds ... all but the magus, who panicked and fled into the far corner of the room, cowering ... and dropping his shiny new flaming-scimitar at the floor :D The wall of fire was a serious treat and no one wanted to advance or had any ideas ... that was when Vardishal whispered into El-Falas thoughts to use him to slay the accursed Efrit and use the power slumbering in him. So the pomegranate-speaker strode forward and quenched three squares and the Yeth-Hounds with a Frost Hand spell from the sword. Nice! So Barbarak scooped up the flaming scimitar and run into the fray, splattering one Yeth-hound on the fine wall. Cohan again made his deadly charge and retreated next round to try again. In the ensuring AoO he got criticalled ... we play with the nice critical deck from paizo (cudos) and he get 8 bleed damage!!! Ouch! After his next attack he fell from his dragon at -7 HP. The second Yeth-hound didn't survive his first round, too, because the bard criticalled with his short bow ... damn, this critical deck is really mean ... but fun, non the less :> It was really a critical fest, Barbarak was criticalled by Ankanas Falshion and got 2 Cha-Damage ... and that when Cha was his dumbstat :D And Ankana was criticalled by Barbarak and got her lung punctured. The battle was really fierce and it was not looking too good for the party, because Ankana hit them with her melee attacks AND three quickened scorching rays. The last round was REALLY memorable: Barbarak critical fumbled and stuck his scimitar in a crack in the wall, needing a Str DC 20 to get it out ... after trying it without effect for one round, he just let loose of the sword and pummeled Ankana with his meaty fists, killing her :D Perfect! Well, I described, that he was REALLY upset and just stormed her and bashed her to a fine pulp in his berserker rage for several rounds ... I really like this. The other fun fact was, that the punny Dex-Magus recovered after the fight and tried to reclaim his scimitar :D Barbarak had taken hold of Ankanas Falchion, finding it more to his likeing ... noding only to the stuck sword when the magus asked, where his weapon might be, he then walked out of the room. Priceless!!!
Soooo, after some recovering and looting amply use of the bards want of cure light wounds, the party was half as new ready to take the fourth and final level of the pyramid. The emerged into a 5x5m room filled with complex mathematical formulas. Two doors let from this room, both with complex locks involving mathematical riddles. It was really late, so I didn't throw some actual math-puzzles at them, that I had prepared, but substituted them with some more light-hearted riddles. I had to improvise fast, so I googled for the Riddles in the statue room of baldurs gate II while I was describing the doors to them :D That was fun. So, behind the first door they found a room identical to the entrance, with even more complex formulas and sort of an diary on the wall. Syndranar translated, that the last Pharaoh, the Pharaoh of numbers, had been really annoyed by dying, because he was making progress with his life work: making contact with the dark entities an the planet aucturn! So he continued his work after death ... and succeeded! Aucturn came close to Golarion every 56 years, explaining, why he build so many reverences to the number 56 into the pyramid. The deamon X'ultos, that invaded Kelmerane nearly 60 years ago was actually a denizen of Aucturn that found its way to the city ... and it would have grown really powerful during the conjunction. Just a short while before the conjunction however, Aucturns invluence is cut off for a short time by one of the bigger planets, moving before it. Thats why the pactmasters choose this time, to sent Almah to reclaim Kelmerane, because the Deamon would be at its weakest there. Well, the next conjunction is not that far away, maybe one year. It appears, that the Pharaoh was venerating Rovagug, and that Rovagug has a firm hold of Aucturn, too, explaining, why all this Rovagug cultists walk around the region ... and why a powerful Rovagug cleric (The Witch) tried to enter the pyramid ... and that it is no coincident, that the scroll of Kakishon will be found around the time of the conjunction, the Final Wish taking place during the full fledged cosmic event! The other denizen of Aucturn are the Visitors of Leng ... it is Aucturn, that the sunset ships actually sail too. And it was this sinister place, that The Witch emerged from. This is how I gave Legacy of Fire a really lovecraftian taste, without changing the core setting.
What started the Pharaohs interest in Aucturn and its dark denizen in the first place was an artifact belonging to an ancient athlantean city, a part of the Aeromantic Infandibulum from the flying city in Crucible of Chaos. I plan to insert this module into the campaign, too, and replace any reverences to Azatoth with Rovagug and Aucturn. Thats the direction, that my campaign will head to. Ok, but enough with the fluff part, in the next room, the party finds complex calculations concerning the planets, especially Aucturn ... and a magnificent telescope. Looking into the telescope shows the planet Aucturn, different lenses allow to view the planet with different filters or zoom in or out. One of the lenses though bears one of the runes of the Pharaohs. Well, in the last room, forming a perfect cubicle with the three others, at last stood the final sarcophagus, gently drifting in the air. Well, with out further ado Barbarak opens the sarcophagus and breaks the mummies neck ... out of the desiccated mummy seeped a thick and cloying mist that congealed into a ghostly Djin form. The Pharaoh gauged them with hateful eyes before summoning two Belkers and some pseudo natural creature and attacking. It was really late at this point, so I didn't drag this battle too much and it must have been rather unimpressiv, but the guys seemed to be releaved. The Highlight was a lightning bold hitting Barbarak and Lutter, the bard, while the Belkers where doing some mean stuff with the other guys.
So ofter the fight they find some more nice loot and the Artifact, that after some examination might lead them to the city Ulduvai. During the happy looting the perceptive players noticed a slight rumbling of the pyramid. With cutting intellect they deducted that the pyramid must be sinking back to the sands. So they madly run back to the entrance --- only to be rebuffed by an antilife shell! They again see the slate that states, that here starts the realm of the dead and that they might never return to the world of the living. Oh no, after defeating all Four Pharaohs we will still die!!! But El-Falas, the paladin, had had a great idea, the telescope must lead outside! So with a buckeling and shacking pyramid and rising sand that pours into from the entrance the again ascent to the final layer, and with desperate courage they smash the telescope reemerge into the world of the living! Success! So next session they will emerge victorious back into Kelmerane ... with a lot of new information to ponder and discuss ... oh and because the trade route to Katapesh will be completed next month, Almah plans a great celebration and festival ... unknowing, that the Cadaver King sabotaged the entire festival, by replacing the carnies with pugwampies ... so it will be a maddening CARNIVAL OF TEARS!!! ;D
| Balōs |
I didn't really liked the "possessed mold that possesses people" aspect of the moldspeaker. So the lab is there in the catacombs, and even the mold, but it is just a characterful monster. One of the walls in the lab thou bears some strange symbols and carvings related to the Sarenrae myth. With some nice Knowledge: Religion and one trinket found in the catacombs it could be opened as a shimmering portal leading to a serene oasis with lush plant-life.
I used your idea as inspiration and did my own take that I thought I would share. In one of the undercrypt paths, my PCs saw a faint red glow coming from the tunnel's end wall. When they approached they saw an intricate carving in the wall of birds surrounding a pomegranate tree. The red fruit on the trees were inlaid rubies with light glowing through them from an apparent room on the other side. The party opens the not so hidden secret door and as it opens they hear a whisper of "finally".
On the other side of the door the party finds a circular room filled in its center by a real pomegranate tree and the room lit by a couple dozen thin beams of sunlight that appear to be shining through clear diamond-like gems in the ceiling. (I positioned this tree room underneath the secret garden in the monastery, so the PCs could first have a chance to discover the gems lodge in the ground of the garden)
At the base of the tree is a raised stone planter holding the tree (as if a well was filled with soil and a tree planted in it) with the inscription running around the top "Here lies the goodly spirit of St. Vardishal, the noble warrior". Also on one side of this earthen planter is a white marble had coming out of the dirt and holding a chalice of endless water, held at just the right angle to keep a constant drip of life-giving water into the tree's soil base.
Now, I could have just hoped they would eat some fruit so I could let Vardishal possess someone, but I actually took one more dramatic step and had them hear a ghostly voice say "I have waited so long for you" and had all the fruit on the tree start to wither, except one central fruit which instead flowered before their eyes and grew ripe but with a white swirl to it.
If that wasn't enough to get them to eat the fruit I was going to say "Eat of my fruit, so that my will shall live", but at this point the Paladin already was voicing his belief that spirit of st. vardishal might need to be set free.
Once the fruit was eaten I let the paladin feel as if he was poisoned for a bit as he was overwhelmed by vardishal's entrance into him. Then righ about when the party started panicing a bit, I let him feel better, aside from the compulsion to dig for "tempest" in the courtyard of course.
And if your wondering I made tempest a scimitar with the over-sized blade made of a mysterious single bone, that I will later find a way to work in a story of its origin. I am probably going to scale it with different powers then those written as well to give it more flare, such as some power that only occurs on criticals for instance.
Lastly, I knew the Paladin of Saranrae would not allow the gems or the magic chalice to be removed. Which should make for an interesting encounter when Dashki tries stealing the gems.
Also since the water source will stay in place, the tree will continue to grow, so I am considering making the fruit when they grow back serve as weak healing and/or protection from climate benefits. That way the party will get over the inability to rob the gems and chalice by instead having a recurring supply of minor magical fruit.
All in all, I really like it better and I just let the slime molds be an interesting monster instead. Not sure if I will have anything manifest on the "fruitspeaker" - maybe his mouth will fill with pomegranate juice or something odd like that.
| ValarakarU |
Hello fellow GMs,
I didn't really liked the "possessed mold that possesses people" aspect of the moldspeaker...
I also was not terribly fond of the moldspeaker and loved the oasis idea. I implemented it last week and think it went really well.
I will also be stealing some of the waterfall/rovagog temple.
Thanks for the terrific ideas!