A Madman GM's the Shattered Star AP


Campaign Journals

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11th May is the next scheduled session for the Shattered Star.

Carrion Crown begins on 18th May.

(Skull & Shackles' next session is slated for 19th May.)


Thusfar today's session has been entertaining.

Abba-Zaba, Kit-Kat, Snickers and Viole(n)t Crumble messily dispatched Ayala Javeski the natural wererat in a violent struggle.

Ayala took Snickers out with her though, via sneak attack and two coup-de-graces. Snickers failed every single saving throw against the two doses of bloodroot. Before two days' long-term care, he took 6 points of Constitution and 6 points of Wisdom damage from the poison ravaging his system. (The poison left him with a Wisdom of 6 and a Constitution of 10). Ayala's last coup-de-grace put Snickers at 11 points past his CON score.

Snickers used his last hero point to cheat death, rolling a total on (1d10+11) of 15, resulting in a major wound. Ayala's bladed scarf tore up his insides something fierce via sneak attack coup-de-grace, resulting in a 1 point loss of CON until such time as Snickers is reincarnated or receives a regenerate spell.

Kit-Kat's request to use the old bladed scarf statistics bit them in the kiester on this fight, as the wererat fighter/rogue took full advantage of her extended reach, tearing up the silver no-dachi toting Fighter (Snickers) as he demonstrated the only capacity to deal her serious harm.

Ayala barely survived - after succumbing to a sleep spell from Kit-Kat - a coup-de-grace from Abba-Zaba using the silvered no-dachi that Snickers was waving around before his explosively messy demise.

In the end, the three surviving PCs surrounded her and all three of them administered a coup-de-grace simultaneously. Violet Crumble with a silvered arrow + sneak attack, Kit-Kat via silvered dagger, Abba-Zaba via Snicker's silvered no-dachi.

As of right now, Snickers and Kit-Kat have no hero points remaining while Abba-Zaba has one hero point. Only Violet Crumble has her full allotment of 2 hero points.


The Candybar Brigade hewed their way (after a few days' rest and recuperation) through the Crow until they got all the way past the ants' nest, murdered the "mite king" and incinerated the giant black widow spider. They made 3rd level in the process, replenishing badly-needed hero points with which to continue cheating death and are poised to strike at the mite's nest.

Death toll:
Abba-Zaba: 0
Kit-Kat: 2
Ritter: 1
Snickers: 2
Viole(n)t Crumble: 0

Of particular note during the fight during which Snickers took his dirt nap and cheated death, the Fighter failed all six Fortitude saves against the 2 doses of bloodroot poison. It took a poisoned sneak attack arrow, a flanking sneak attack, a resisted initial coup-de-grace (followed by a cure spell) and a second, spectacularly fatal coup-de-grace for Ayala the natural wererat fighter/rogue to put down the powerful two-handed weapon fighter permanently. This ultimately cost Ayala, as a sleep spell from Kit-Kat permiitted our heroes to attempt to coup-de-grace her (which she barely survived by succeeding on the Fort save, at 0 hp). Her desperate bid to grease Abba-Zaba put her unconscious, resulting in a triple coup-de-grace by the surviving 3 PCs.

All in all, a very fun session for everyone.

Now to see about whacking Abba-Zaba and Ritter the next time around.

See everyone in June!


The Candybar Brigade has hacked their way through roughly half of the Crow, the enormous low-level dungeon crawl that is the mainstay of Chapter 1 "Shards of Sin". I cannot wait to wrap up Chapter 1 and send them into the later chapters.

Especially chapters 4 and 5 ... *Jabba the Hutt laugh ensues*


Brilliant as usual, Turin. Thanks!


mittean wrote:
Brilliant as usual, Turin. Thanks!

And big thank YOU to dropping by and posting, mittean! Questions, queries, chucklings, laughter at the players' expense ... all are welcome. ;)


*slow clap*


Orthos wrote:
*slow clap*

If they keep dying at this rate, the PCs will have gotten themselves gacked 60 times...


Hmmm. Wouldn't it be fun if Ayala turned out to have had 'villain points' and subsequently turned out not to be as dead as the heroes thought? (There ought to be somewhere suitable in part 3 Ayala could show up (possibly higher level but slightly the worse for wear)...)
Edit:
It doesn't even have to be necessarily slated in an adversarial combat role. Maybe the heroes have to diplomance Ayala for some crucial favour or piece of information. (Mind you, they may have enchantment/charm things by then.)


Charles Evans 25 wrote:

Hmmm. Wouldn't it be fun if Ayala turned out to have had 'villain points' and subsequently turned out not to be as dead as the heroes thought? (There ought to be somewhere suitable in part 3 Ayala could show up (possibly higher level but slightly the worse for wear)...)

Edit:
It doesn't even have to be necessarily slated in an adversarial combat role. Maybe the heroes have to diplomance Ayala for some crucial favour or piece of information. (Mind you, they may have enchantment/charm things by then.)

Nice idea, (Sir) Charles! I'll have to see about that scenario. Knowing this group, it would surprise me if they didn't have at least the basic "make a friend" magic going on.


As an update, the Candybar Brigade is slated to resume their collective activities of foolishness, mayhem and a bit of the old ultra-violence within the bowels of the Crow on this coming Saturday, 8th June '13.

Will the Candybars get eaten?

Will Abba-Zaba finally get what's coming to him?

Will Viole(n)t Crumble give in to the Dark Side for the cookies and laughs?

Stay tuned, same Hack Channel, same Hack Time!!


The semi-sorta-pseudo-famous Candybar Brigade hacked its way through a swath of the Crow in today's session.

Sadly, no hero points were spent. They attained 4th level. The PCs now have 2 or 3 Hero Points each.

In the process they hewed from B35 (where they left off last session) all the way through C16, skipping C2-C5. They are in closest proximity to C17.

The next session is scheduled for 13th July.


The most entertaining moments:

(In B35, with 8 mites and a pair of giant spiders)

Viole(n)t Crumble, being a gnome of morally flexible disposition, still had bits of "the King" stuck in her teeth after nibbling on him a bit after the party whack-a-mole'd him last session. Mites rather enjoy eating gnomes it seems. And having doom 1/day as a spell-like ability, the little varmints moved to where they could see her and did their best pint-sized impression of Donald Sutherland at the end of the Invasion of the Body Snatchers in an effort to doom the little sociopath.

It took SEVEN (7) attempts to get one of the mite's dooms to stick to her. Not that it mattered, Ritter dropped a calm animals on one of the two giant spiders while Abba-Zaba and Kit Kat merrily incinerated the little snots with repeated applications of burning hands.

I am contemplating awarding the gnome a fear-save-related trait as a reward for weathering six consecutive fear effect saving throws successfully with only a +1 Will. At the rate she is going, a "cast iron stomach" might be in order as well, as she eats bits of more than a few creatures on a regular basis. The player seems to be enjoying her gnome. :)

The abyssal larva really grossed out most of the group. The picture gave them the heebie-jeebies at the thought of being maggot-barfed on. Luckily for Kit Kat, the rest of the group kept the monster flanked and hacked it into giblets faster than it could chomp them into giblets in return. Action economy at its finest. The abyssal larva bites hard though, 2d6+6 at a chomp with a +8 attack bonus is pretty tough for 3rd level characters to deal with - and a confirmed crit, had one happened, would have resulted in 3d6+12. Ouch!

The rest of the critters that they hacked their way through, while packing DR 5/good or silver, didn't slow down Snickers very much. Typically it resulted in making two nupperibos a round via Cleave dead with a mild tap in their eyeless heads post-combat instead of dead outright. Snickers was waving around his newly acquired +1 cold iron ranseur to great effect. If he had to get in close, his alchemically silvered no-dachi did just fine.

All in all, the PCs attained 4th level with but a smidge of "borrowed XP" (326 as memory serves) against their next combat encounter or two. So far, they have spent 3 or 4 full days inside the Crow since their last return to Magnimar, advancing from 2nd to 4th level in the process.

Next session they'll have an hour left on the 24-hour boon from the north-most pillar from C7. They have two "pools of healing" behind them to base from, and are merrily taking advantage of the 1/day 3rd level combined cure light wounds and restoration, lesser that the fountains provide. Having figured out the "shelf life" of the stuff is 8 hours, they will each have a 'potion' of the stuff with 8 hours' useable time on it plus the aforementioned hour of "pillar boon" with which to massacre as much of the remainder of the dungeon as they can manage.

I'm hoping that C17 onward provides a better test of their mettle than what they had to hack through this session. 5 hp devils and 3 hp mites don't really do much of anything besides provide XP to 3rd and 4th level characters.


I like mites. Half the fun is just how miserable and despicable and pathetic they are. Mine in Kingmaker were always whining, it made the players laugh like crazy but it really got on the characters' nerves quickly.


"Mesa wanna make gnomey-gnome honorary gobbo!"


^___^ Gnomey-gnome is making a beeline for becoming a gobbo if/when she becomes reincarnated...


Hee, hee, hee...here witchy witchy witchy...

Spoiler:
Grand Hex (Witch 18 minimum, or similar level ritual) Forced Reincarnation (Su): The witch causes a creature within 30 feet to die and be immediately reincarnated into a new body. A Will save negates this effect. Those that fail are slain and immediately brought back to life with the spell reincarnate. Whether or not the save is successful, a creature cannot be the target of this hex again for 1 day.

...just sayin'...


This upcoming Saturday the 13th the Candybar Brigade continues its assault on the denizens of the Crow to take their stuff and acquire the second shard of the Sihedron.

Will Viole(n)t Crumble succumb to the Dark Side? Will any of the hapless monsters stand a chance of gacking any of the PC's? A few days' time will tell another tale of foolishness, mayhem and perhaps a bit of the old ultraviolence.


As expected, the Candybar Brigade handily massacred villainous scum by the score, concluding their violent sojourn through the Crow with a successful retrieval of the second shard of the Sihedron and attaining 5th level.

Two highlights:

The closest moment of messy demises was when Abba-Zaba unleashed his Flames Mystery fire breath. The group had persuaded Lockerbie Brast to accompany them against the foul derro. When Abba-Zaba caught an entangled Magister Khrysm and her two homonculi in the blast, he also caught Lockerbie.

Now, normally, one doesn't worry overmuch about Reflex saving throws when one is a rogue with a +6 bonus and Evasion. However, Lockerbie's saving throw streak went decidedly south on him in a hurry at the worst possible moment.

Lockerbie failed his initial save against the fire breath, taking full damage. His necklace of fireballs promptly failed its Reflex save not to detonate. The sorry lacedon rogue then promptly failed all three saves against the combined 11d6 worth of fireballing. Lockerbie was summarily cremated by the breath and subsequent trio of simultaneous blasts of fiery, hideous permanent death.

Magister Khrysm succeeded on all four of her saves, but her homunculi were not so fortunate, joining Lockerbie in becoming charcoal briquettes.

A few days afterwards, Viole(n)t Crumble - having eaten the freshly removed heart of the hell hound lurking in the mini-labyrinth in the bowels of the Crow - came down with a serious case of devil chills.

Sadly, Abba-Zaba's cleverness resulted in his pelting her with lesser restorations while she brewed up a baker's dozen batches of alchemical antiplague. 3 consecutive dosings of antiplague over the three days' time following the completion of the brewing shucked her of the devil chills.

Our Heroes, Murder Hobos Extraordinaire, entire Chapter 2 Curse of the Lady's Light at 5th level in early summer of 4712 A.R..

The August play dates are tentative as we are awaiting word of Abba-Zaba's impending work trip to Uganda sometime in August before scheduling the sessions for next month.


Beginning a bit late in the day combined with not personally finding the first part of Chapter 2 all that interesting = skipped right up to the entry point of the Lady's Light.

The Candybar Brigade made short work of 2 of the 3 albino cave solifugids with the 3rd made docile vis a vis calm animal .

They got their kiesters tore up a bit by the quartet of catarydid columns, ultimately costing Ritter's heavily armored turtle animal companion its life courtesy of a confirmed critical hit via guisarme that took it from nearly full hp to quite a bit past dead lickity split.

Our Heroes saw the spirit of Tank the Turtle off by way of turtle chops on the half-shell.

They descended into the silent inky darkness of "the junior Pit of Death" ( into which the Flames Oracle had bull rushed via Hero Point expenditure the last remaining column-golem, resulting in copius amounts of gravel).

They putzed around with the sarcophagus containing a corpse of Runelord Sorshen but did not snatch her bling or touch the body. They instead figured out the starmetal door, wrapping the session up at that point.

Will the Candybar Brigade leave behind valuable bling? Will they press onwards only to die hideously?

We can only hope!


Short-n-sweet:

The Candybars took the time-honored tradition of going left when they really should have gone right.

They wound up in the experimental laboratory section beneath Lady's Light.

Today they expended either 9 or 10 Hero Points, all but 2 of them during a single fight.

^___^


Oh yes, campaign journals, silly real life getting in the way of perfectly good gaming stuff.

Since the Candybars nearly had their clocks cleaned by a certain CR 6 monster in the bowels of the laboratory - burning the aforementioned PILE of Hero Points to save their minds from horrors best left unexplored - they have continued to delve deeper beneath the Lady's Light, tearing out everything that isn't sovereign glued to the walls. Even that might not be enough of a deterrent.

Perhaps the players can post updates on the previous sessions.

Next session is 7th December.

Happy Turkey Lurkey Weekend!


Today the Candybar Brigade was without their artillery piece. Nonetheless, copious butt kicking ensued. They barely drove off the "Boss" at the end of the session, electing to ambush her when she bamf'd in to fetch more Iron Maidens.

Expenditures of hero points kept them all from dying. Two of them had to weather a curse-induced coma while a fortuitous nat-20 by Snickers meant that he was not going to gibletize one of his fellow bits of junk food.

They're now 7th level - and won't hit 8th until after they finish this chapter of Shattered Star.

The authors seem to have forgotten to account for murder hobo ingenuity in maximizing loot collection. So far they have extricated 5 starmetal doors...

Next year sees the Shattered Star continue!


Seems I've lost my dot on this one somehow.

How are they transporting said doors, out of curiosity?


Orthos wrote:

Seems I've lost my dot on this one somehow.

How are they transporting said doors, out of curiosity?

Copious use of ant haul, rope, strategically placed pulleys and more ant haul. Boats and mounts easily take care of the rest.


That'll do it yeah.


Haw, holy crud, forgot to post updates. Will endeavor to do so in 2 weeks or so when the next session hits.


Our Heroes Five have concluded The Lady's Light, attaining 8th level without any timely fatalities. They are burning Hero Points by the handful, so that helps.

The next session is 19th April.

The downtime rules were discarded in favor of increasing awarded cash by 50%, with the caveat of "no item creation feats" plus "if it's in the book, it's legal - and if you can convince the GM that an extrapolation of a book item is fair, it's also legal."

I anticipate two mnemomic vestments bought at 25k for unlimited use before the next session. ^_____^

And a few villains will probably have them, so it works out.


Our Heroes Five have concluded The Lady's Light, attaining 8th level without any timely fatalities. They are burning Hero Points by the handful, so that helps.

The next session is 19th April.

The downtime rules were discarded in favor of increasing awarded cash by 50%, with the caveat of "no item creation feats" plus "if it's in the book, it's legal - and if you can convince the GM that an extrapolation of a book item is fair, it's also legal."

I anticipate two mnemonic vestments bought at 25k for unlimited use before the next session. ^_____^

And a few villains will probably have them, so it works out.


Too long, far too long, since an update.

This past Saturday the 9th of August 2014 saw the Candybar Brigade begin Chapter 4 of the Shattered Star AP.

Freshly leveled up to 10th level, Our erstwhile Heroes found Ritter scouting Windsong Abbey from above and along the side while they waited some distance to the south and east. At least the other four (Snickers, Kit Kat, Violet Crumble and Abba Zabba) were to soon be promptly rewarded by Ritter's insistence in going off solo at the beginning of the session.

Having wild shaped into the form of a seagull, Ritter espied redcaps, hill giants and ettins roaming about the grounds of the partially shattered fortified cathedral / lighthouse perched atop the cliffs some 120 feet above the pounding surf below.

Swooping in low, he noted the "lighthouse", anchored to the main structure of the Abbey by way of a stained glass window - laden causeway smelled of soap and warm water. He also espied a stained glass window set into the side of the cliff on the west side some 80 feet above the sand. He also espied a tunnel at beach level that would at least partially flood during high tide.

Ritter landed on a window sill and used stone shape to bore a "viewing hole" into the wall. Within he espied a bathing medusa, nat-20'd his Fortitude saving throw and returned to the group.

Returning to the group, he explained his perhaps clinically insane desire to "solo" the bathing medusa in the wee hours of the morning by returning much the same way as he scouted the Abbey.

The other players, shaking their heads ruefully, did not have to wait overlong to begin playing.

Ritter returned once more, wild shaped into the form of a Small earth elemental and earth glided into the bath. He promptly failed the Fortitude saving throw by more than 4 points, becoming a lawn ornament just inside the wall of said bath. The medusa didn't even awaken from her peaceful slumber, although her dream became much more pleasant. Petrification shut off the status spell that Abba-Zabba cast upon him before his departure. The other PCs now knew that Ritter was either insta-killed, petrified or dimensionally shunted elsewhere, they knew not which. And he carries the Shard of Lust...

Creative use of custom mnemonic vestments and passwall via scroll permitted the group to explore north then east into area E3 of the bottom-most dungeon beneath Windsong Abbey. The habitual use of detect magic in combination with Violet's "trap radar" noted that the doomsday locked door ahead of them was also trapped with a greater glyph of warding.

Abba-Zabba sent via wand a mount, promptly setting off the sonic blast glyph, becoming a spray of chunky salsa (briefly). Squicking out over such a powerful trap, Kit-Kat dismissed one of her passwalls, which spared them the sight of seeing the "response force" from E4.

Seeing discretion as the handsomer part of valor, our ever courageous heroes sent Violet scaling up the cliff ahead of the high tide, 80 feet above the sands, scaling the rope she secured on her way up and accessing C3 via another passwall. Once within, she dismissed the passwall - her final 5th level spell for the day - before they set up camp.

Onward they went, clearing out "C deck" (dungeon level 2 of the 4 beneath the Abbey) with the judicious use of a nap stack. They suffered horribly, but alas the only "fatality" was Ritter's petrification. All of the DR 10/lawful, cold-immune, mind affecting-immune, energy resistant qlippoths on "C deck" provided the group with a substantial challenge until Abba-Zabba finally remembered that he had align weapon. Derp!

Sweating buckets after dispatching a pair of CR 11 gongorinian qlippoths, our heroes eagerly return the philosopher's stone to safer storage than their haversacks by dint of teleporting back to the Magnimar Pathfinder Lodge after spending 8 hours 'carefully studying' the "Safe Room". They left behind Ritter's heavily armored turtle animal companion and the 4 werebears they liberated from the custody of the qlippoths in C3.

The next session will see Our Heroes return to the "Safe Room" via teleport at 5:00 a.m. the following morning with a new PC in tow (in the form of Ritter's new character).

What Our Heroes probably don't realize is that Ritters' wild shape wore off shortly before they left C3 the previous afternoon at 4:30 p.m. ... oops.


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In celebration of Labor Day weekend in the States, this Sunday we will be celebrating in time-honored gamer tradition: booze, chow and a healthy chance of dead PCs. W00t!!

Two villains have been "Turinized". The readership will have to figure out whom. ;)


Yesterday the Candybar Brigade returned to "C level" of the dungeons beneath Windsong Abbey at 5 a.m. of the groups' 2nd day in dealing with Chapter 4.

Once they set the trio of werebears and Ritters' pet turtle loose via passwall and feather fall to the sandy beach below, they turned their murderhobo natures loose upon the hapless denizens of "B level", ascending the wide stairs into B7.

Viole(n)t Crumble scouted ahead, her Stealth bonus so ridiculously high courtesy of Kit Kat's invisibility that the half dozen skulk rogue-clerics had no hope of seeing her. Perversely, their Stealth bonus barely beat her Perception checks while she scouted out the exiting hallways and warily eyed the doomsday lock.

Snickers' fairly respectable Stealth, ahead of Kit Kat and Abba Zabba did not help them much. The skulks overheard the group's whispered conversation so they redeployed to perforate the first enemy they saw ascend the stairs from C2.

A volley of six inubrix arrows flew, seeking to perforate anatomically vulnerable parts utterly failed to penetrate his mithril full plate body armor.

The smackdown ensued with Snickers winning initiative. The Candybars merrily chased and slaughtered all sixteen skulks and the taiga giantess to go with it before doing a "Sweep and Clear" of "B level". At one point Abba Zabba had been reduced to below half hit points - the rest took some damage. The paltry combination of nakedness, a 1/day 2d6 negative energy channel, a +2d6 sneak attack and attack bonuses that wouldn't be threatening to a party 2 or 3 levels lower spelled the skulks' collective doom before the characters walked up the stairs.

Ironically, the giantess' only meaningful blow was dealt by a Vital Strike boulder to Snickers' face on her first round of action. Afterwards, she would whiff mightily for several rounds before Snickers and Abba Zabba put her out of my misery.

Attaining 11th level, the Candybars teleported back to Magnimar, sold off 156 inubrix arrows (along with lots of other loot) at 125 gp per arrow and picked up a few commissioned magical items - including a scroll of planar ally with which Abba Zabba plans to call upon the aid of a movanic deva for dealing with the medusa in A22.

On day 3 they came back, divined Ritters' newly formed whereabouts and returned him and Soup IV to Magnimar. At this point they realized that all of his gear, along with his former body, rests somewhere within the Abbey; that Ritter would be almost permanently deceased should he die again in the next week; and that Ritter can be returned to life solely by way of either reincarnate or true resurrection.

Our Heroes returned once again 9 a.m. on the morning of Day 4 via teleport thence dimension door at to the area outside of the ruined main gates into Windsong Abbey. Quickly they devised a plan using a combination of invisibility, a silenced pet rock of Snickers' and copious amounts of cheap shots with which to dispatch the gatehouse guard compliment of nine redcaps.

Snickers found his jingasa of the fortunate soldier to once more prove its value in keeping his insides inside as the redcaps did unleash not one but three critical hits - the first from a redcap's scythe, negated by the jingasa - whilst flanking him. The same redcap critted Snickers with both scythe and iron shod boots.

As we wrapped up, the Candybar Brigade has commandeered the gatehouse of Windsong Abbey, having butchered and looted the redcaps of A1-A9. We left off in media res.

Cast of Characters:

  • Snickers, Neutral atheist male Varisian human Two-Handed Weapon Fighter 11th;
  • Viole(n)t Crumble, Neutral female gnome Rogue 11th - knows 22 languages, fond of snacking on recently deceased foes;
  • Kit Kat, CG female Varisian human Starsoul Sorceress 11th - Harrower and devout follower of Desna;
  • Abba Zabba, NG male aasimar burned Oracle of Flames 11th, patron deity Sarenrae;
  • Ritter, Neutral male human whom I believe to be 3rd rogue/8th druid whose reincarnated form has yet to be determined.

Ritter's player may feel inclined to bring in a new PC. How I introduce him will depend on his choices.


We're hoping to play again on the weekend of the 13th/14th of September. I'm hoping to as well, it would be REALLY nice to wrap up Shattered Star some time in 2014.

^__________^


Talking Skull wrote:

Looks like Hero Points kept these Candybars from getting...

All Wrapped Up.
Yeah, I've been waiting to use this one. I'm not pathetic at all.

Is this King in Yellow part of the AP, or was that special something cooked up just for this group, Turin?

Finally started reading ahead. As it turns out, the King in Yellow could be considered part of the AP based on certain events in Chapter 5.

^_______^


Turin the Mad wrote:

We're hoping to play again on the weekend of the 13th/14th of September. I'm hoping to as well, it would be REALLY nice to wrap up Shattered Star some time in 2014.

^__________^

Yeah ... not likely barring TPK and the group not wanting to press onwards. Amusing, nonetheless.


Picking up where they left off, the Candybar Brigade was rejoined by Ritter in his shiny new eagle body, eager to reacquire his previous body's loot.

Resuming hostilities where they left off, Soup IV trundled around the tall white lighthouse/tower, drawing a volley of screaming bolts that ineffectually bounced off the plate-armored animal companion's stupefyingly-high AC.

While Viole(n)t Crumble Stealth'd up behind the larger Soup while fire spells rained death and destruction upon the quartet of redcaps, the redcaps sent one of their number into the fray with the turtle as three of them scattered in order to sound the alarm.

Sadly for the occupiers of Windsong Abbey, they withered rapidly under the assault of the Candybar Brigade. One by one the redcaps were felled whilst Abba Zabba's newest revelation of Flame is the dreaded firestorm. Useable only 1/day, it creates a persistent area of fiery death. The Gods help anything that they can trap within that ability's field for its current duration of 7 rounds. At (level)d6 fire damage a round for 7-8 rounds, that's an awful lot of fiery death to suffer...

A lightly wounded redcap, having finished alerting the occupants of the dormitory (although the previous rounds' volley of fireballs had already done that particular task), charged Kit Kat ... and whiffed. Offended at the little steel-shod-footed critter's temerity, she promptly uttered a word with an imperious gesture. The last redcap's skull shattered along with every other bone in his psychotic body, victim of a spectacularly failed saving throw against a high-damage boneshatter spell.

Kob-Kog and his trio of ettins were incinerated in short order by a combination of Ritters' flaming sphere, several fireballs and that horrific firestorm that flushed the poor bastards out of their quarters.

The long-awaited return of the Adepts of the King in Yellow, led by the early-campaign half-elf Summoner and his charge-pouncing Eidolon was a less-than-spectacular affair. The mummified Adepts didn't even get within despair range of the group before they too succumbed to fiery death.

The Summoner and Eidolon lasted a smidge longer due to greater invisibility and a summoned Huge Earth Elemental - but that didn't help them for very long before glitterdust revealed the eidolon, faerie fire thoroughly rained on the summoner's parade and an 11th level party proceeded to layeth the smacketh down. The summoner attempted to make use of repositioning to unleash the eidolon, but in a foreboding scene for later none of the PCs were more than "mostly hurt" by the combined firepower of all the occupants of the Abbey.

The juju zombie bugbear and his trio of mummies swiftly returned to being properly deceased, followed by hilarious violence performed upon the pair of vrocks.

Sufestra, revised, really took the group to task who made full use of averting gaze and closing eyes to survive her DC 24 petrification gaze. In the end, she joined the carrion heap, the Candybars attained 12th level and have cleared all but the bottom pair of dungeon levels. They recovered Ritters' gear save the Shard of Lust with its ioun stone.


Of note: Snickers the Fighter burned 2 Hero Points to save his bacon. Other than that, I believe nearly everyone is once again filled-to-maximum capacity on Hero Points.

This should allow them to waltz through "D level" with ease, leaving "E level" as the remaining source from which any significant challenge could emerge.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

Sounds like enjoyable morning's romp through the Abbey. My congratulations to all involved :-)


Snickers' player was griping for quite a while about Sufestra's gaze and her being "only" a CR 12. Personally, I think he's largely become accustomed to roflstomping most encounters, even when they trigger multiple encounters in succession.

In the meanwhile, they have 25 point buys, +2 ranks/level for "make a living" skills (Heal, Knowledge, Craft, Profession, Perform, etc), +5 inherent bonuses to INT (misinterpretation of a certain book from Chapter 2, one I find more entertaining with the lack of an INT-based PC at the time of discovery), we've house-ruled that there are no item crafting feats (preservation of sanity) in trade for a blanket +50% gp bonus - with which they can "buy" looted items for sell value instead of market value.

The group also regularly uses downtime training rules to maximize their hit points from hit dice, and they've added on a gaggle of trained languages (both of which I don't blame them for in this campaign).

I rarely pick off a character - haven't outright whacked one in a fight in a long, long time. Since Chapter 1 or 2, I think.

They have quite a few +5 resistance garments - warded, again wisely, with book ward and I know Snickers is tooling around in +5 mithral full plate with an AC over 30. Soup has an AC at ~35 without enhancement bonuses - the turtle is annoying, but effective. The gods help them if they encounter Sundermonsters, as Snickers' nodachi is merely a +1 adamantine blade.

I find it wryly amusing that the Fighter dealing 25-30 damage with a 15-20/x2 critical threat was BWMC'ing about a single medusa. Admittedly, she was an advanced 9th Cleric medusa (final CR 12), but against heavily buffed level 11 characters with the above "bumps" (estimated APL 13th), well ... they're going to have to take some lumps now and then.

Over what for most groups would have been 3 consecutive sessions' worth of play, they carved their way through the entirety of the "above ground" level of Windsong Abbey without more than a minute or two's rest. In-game time passage, killing every foe from the gatehouse through the bath house was perhaps 10 minutes, at most.

I forgot to mention the "dump-and-run" they're doing before heading down to "D level". They're going to see what they can get "off the shelf" while the Society acts as proper fences for their violently acquired goodies. I suspect that they "layover" between Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 will see a massive increase of swag. They should enter Chapter 5 at an estimated ACL of 15-16.

Messy. :)


DC 24 is admittedly pretty high for a CR 12 beastie.

Of course, he probably has the least room to complain, since Fort is far and away going to be his best save. And boosted by a +5 cloak at 11th level, too! That's a +12 before Con mod, or the 50% chance of even needing to roll.

In any case, congratulations to everyone for making it out alive - that goes for you too, Turin, for putting up some nasty roadblocks. :)


At a guess, Snickers is packing a +14 or +15 Fort save bonus, before any buff spells from the group (such as heroism from Kit Kat, which has become commonplace). I know that, buffed, Kit Kat and Abba Zabba are packing +16 - +20 saves. Poor Viole(n)t Crumble probably has the worst saves of the entire group, Reflex included! checked PRD Seems a CR 12 for a normal group has a DC 21 primary save DC. Given the preponderance of double-stat-dipping save bonuses, +5 garments of resistance in the group ... well, too bad for them. ^___^

A DC 24 for a normal group of this level (+2 or +3 resistance items, 15 point buy builds, not using "cross class magic") would be tough. As we can see, that DC if they didn't avert gaze/close eyes would (excepting the poor gnome rogue) be at worst a 50/50 proposition. ;)

Ballpark speaking, most of the group strolls into encounters with save bonuses that ordinarily belong to ~CR 17-18 monsters.


Dramatis Personae

  • Kit Kat, CG Sorcerer (Starsoul) 12th, patron deity: Desna; female Varisian Harrower wanna-be with a Summon Good Monster feat up her sleeve for when she gets summon monster VI to call upon nasty beasties like ki-rin!
  • Abba Zabba, NG male aasimar Oracle (Flames) 12th, patron deity: Sarenrae;
  • Viole(n)t Crumble, Neutral female gnome Rogue 12th;
  • Snickers, Neutral male Varisian Fighter (Two-handed Weapons) 12th;
  • Ritter, Neutral male reincarnated eagle [formerly human] Rogue 4/Druid 8 with a velociraptor fetish and an unfortunate tendency to go haring off too far on his own, as demonstrated by Sufestra 2 sessions ago.

The Allied Caster teamwork feat is nasty business. Sure, the casters risk being fireballed together. A small price to pay for +1 CL, +5 vs. all SR ... yep, small price. All they need to keep this feat up and running (besides being adjacent) is a single 1st+ level spell slot unspent. o.O


The murderhobo Candybar Brigade short-circuited Chapter 4 by way of jumping Ardatanthatus (or whatever his way-too-frickin'-long name is) literally from above.

They got (un)lucky by way of the GM having forgotten that he had an anti-life shell up and running. On the upside, said Turinized "Boss" tore Snickers and Abba Zabba a new one by a combination of a full-round attack with his flensing halberd, fury of the abyss and two confirmed critical hits. Were it not for the Oracle's omnipresent shield other in operation on the Fighter, he would have been a red stain on the pavers.

As it was, Abba Zabba burned a Hero Point to plant heal spells from the two previously looted scrolls on both himself and Snickers. Viole(n)t Crumble and Ritter very nearly died from two 15d8 stormbolts to the face.

Many hero points, 4 durable arrows to which bunches and bunches of holly berries were attached and several days' worth of DC 41 Diplomacy checks later, our Murderhobos redeemed the bugger, wiped out the remainder of Windsong Abbey and headed back to Magnimar to rack up Prestige points, train to 13th level, commission high-gp magic items and generally make ready for Chapter 5.

I couldn't stand the mostly useless NPCs presented in the dungeons - and Our Heroes plum forgot about the father-and-daughter pair in the Abbey proper - so I swapped the pair out for a victim of the Animate Dreams/Bogeyman.

Kiara Arvanxi, orphaned a few years ago game time in Westcrown, Cheliax was shipped off to Isger to be raised by the tender ministrations of the Sisterhood of the Golden Erinyes. Instead, she held onto a childhood fascination with stars and night butterflies, to later find herself with Desna her Patron. In mechanical terms, a Bonded White-haired Witch 13 with Improved Unarmed Strike, WF and Hamatulatsu as her early feats followed by Skill Focus (Heal), EH (Celestial) for both heavenly fire and wings of heaven, the latter when used animates and enlarges the angelic wings tattooed upon her back (erinyes wings are angelic - hers are golden-silver feathered). I envision Kiara closely resembling her, although a bit worse for wear after a nat-1 save against Ardanthatus' Maximized blade barrier when she was captured more than a month ago. Natural healing would have made for some interesting battle scars.

I don't expect the players will want her along, but Crumble's player is starting to have some trouble so I'm considering having the Witch handing her a "fetish doll" (with something suitable built into it, not sure as to what just yet) through which buffs and cures could perhaps be delivered remotely.

November 1st, yours truly's upcoming birthday, sees the Candybar Brigade enter Richard Pett's excellent Into the Nightmare Rift at 13th level with all of their attendant bells and whistles. The first part is relatively easy ... the fun happens in part 2 ...


Minor update: In-game, it is only Fall of 4712 A.R., although I understand that the group is 'burning' 3-4 months' down time before beginning Chapter 5. Basically, they'll begin Chapter 5 on either side of "Christmas" by a couple weeks.

To put this in some perspective:

The preceding CoT/Kingmaker campaign does not conclude until late summer of 4719 A.R., 10 years after they departed Westcrown in 4709 A.R..

The beta test Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign wrapped up in 4707 A.R..

Kiara, orphaned at "apprenticeship age" in 4707 A.R., falls into the "young but works" age range. ^_____^

The next campaign should begin in 4715 A.R. - which one is YTBD.


"January" 4713 A.R., Into the Nightmare Rift

Kiara Arvanxi is busily playing fetch for the Society, tracking down and securing the last ioun stones necessary to complete the reforging of the Sihedron. This event is the first part of Chapter 6.

The Candybar Brigade these past sessions hacked, fireballed and sneak attack'd their way into the bowels beneath the giant shard of viridian sticking out of the ground somewhere in the Storval Plateau. They've attained 14th level.

The giants, not a problem.

The other monsters, pretty much not a problem.

Two sessions ago the only critters that posed a significant threat were the dreaded skull rippers in area C1, the Guiltspur Library.

The Librarian, ordinarily an absolutely nasty foe, was hosed by his own dice. He wound up being little more than a nuisance, sad to say.

We left off with the Candybars having confronted - and narrowly survived - the first semi-dangerous encounter in D2 'The Nameless Lake'. Specifically against a Mother of Oblivion, along with collecting the phat loot from D3.

Violent Crumble very nearly did the job for me thanks to Obnathooga's breath of madness, but alas her percentiles did not cooperate according to my most ardent desires.

Note for encounter designing: freedom of movement lasts a very long time and at the typical starting point of most Chapter 5's the group likely has access to at least 6/day, more if they're willing to use higher level spell slots via Oracle.

However, the upside is that "Level E" awaits Our Heroes! Lovecraftian monstrosities galore, including the first reveal of Big Red, my Colossal Red Dragon miniature, which shall be standing in for the Bhole in E3. I fully expect them to reach this room during the next session.

When the next session will be is to be determined as D.C. winters are the nastiest in February.

Will the Candybars at last be eaten? Or will they continue to brutalize, loot, pillage and plunder as they have all before them these past months?

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

I, for one, shall be eagerly tuning in :-)


Tentative date, weather cooperating, is Valentine's Day.

May they take the fastest route down...

Oh, and "M" is getting Turinized. <weg>

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32

Brrrrrr! M is nasty enough - wonder how that'll go.
Mr. Pett made a fun dungeon, I emjoyed readig it, wonder if I'll ever get to run it.


It is fun, although Obnathooga's set up is not the best - especially since she lacks certain senses.


M:

Given my group's combat stats, things have warranted a rare-in-this-AP stat block rebuild for "M" (CR 19 vs. EPL 17).

What makes the Turinized "M" so entertaining is her vastly shortened rejuvenation period, thanks to her Oracle's Curse. 3pp material does have its uses! ;)

The bhole itself warrants the Advanced simple template and swapping out a few feats (CR 18; relying on a critical feat to make a difference is being tossed aside in trade for my beloved Greater Vital Strike: 24d6 on a non-critical bite). I've not yet looked at the Chapter 5 'end boss' in detail, though I know the players are worried about what they'll wind up fighting when the time comes.

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