Her eyebrow twitches momentarily as Bhoors words sink to her very core. He was right, after all...this Chultan pickpocket had trumped years of an Archoelemental's schemes by little more than luck. She had played her cards wrong the whole time, and was in the end a fool to play cards at all with the bard...
...as her brain explodes from pure psychic trauma a thin line of blood splits the priestesses face. She is no more.
"Oh yes, the fight is ours now! To the Stonemelder! She will be overwhelmed!" in the same arcane maneuver he pulls energetic daggers, one after the next, in a quick cloud of steel.
The dwarves come at her from both sides with their maces, seemingly trying to knock the joint juice from her kneecaps...
...but the stone mage's armor resists their dwarven training.
Round 6:
Shal <--UP
Stonemelder
Cole, Davin, El, Bhoors, Abrel
Murss, Dwarves
"Argh!" she screams as she is lit afire by Abrel's fan of flame, the leather straps of her stone armor smouldering and combusting in the arcane plasma.
Abrel looks back at the priestess, A shame.
The geomancing stone wizard seems to still have some fight in her, and might yet have a trick or two up her sleeve. Still, she knows she is surrounded and might do something desperate...
Having spotted the central cause of most of her problems over the last few days, Shaldinari dashes up the rocks, hopping past Elandil and Bhoors, to the altar. With a quick whisper to her patron and even quicker flurries of her cloak and hands, she places an illusion of the book on the altar while stashing the real thing under her cloak.
Looking around she notices her fallen companions "I see someone has invested quite a bit into getting here, you aren't just any street mercs. Let me live...and I will let you live." she offers.
Abrel looks at her, incredulous, floating above her about 10 or so feet, You are at a disadvantage here. You take your cult and leave forever, or we will destroy you, every last one. Take the others, the sea-drowned ones, while you are at it.
While the stonemelder is busy talking, Shaldinari uses the distraction to slip back down the stone steps.
"Keep her and the drow busy talking if you can. She whispers to Bhoors and Elandil, while flashing a quick smile and a glimpse of the book to the two companions as she passes.
She bows at Abrel, slightly smirking. Murssavayas stays on guard, his hands raised in some arcane discipline. "You abandon the codex freely? What's your game, melder?"
She reasons "You've already given me a victory by defeating Xune and her loyalists...that gives you some merit. I don't share the particular passion to return the Moonsea to the elemental chaos...there is value in things beyond devastation." matter of factly.
Boltsmelter is lying face down in the mud nearby, as well.
Begrudgingly, the young knight floats down to Boltsmelter's body and checks it for signs of life.
Boltsmelter seems to be breathing but has lost a lot of blood. It looks like the xorn simply bit off his fingers and anywhere else it could find a fat gem.
Abrel sighs and pulls the healer's kit from his pack and begins administering healing to the dwarf, So, what do we do now? The drow held up his end of the bargain...
He positions himself to give Shal more time. He waves and interrupts, "If we are parting ways all peacable like perhaps if you have the means you could heal the slimy dwarf. I mean you already had your pet bite off his fingers."
Elandil keeps his shield raised. This stonemelder was just trying to kill them after all. He moves to block sight of Shal to give her cover should the cultist decide to change her mind. "The drow was very helpful and a deal is a deal. He should get what was bargained for."
Cole stands shoulder to shoulder with his companions, eyeing the dwarves and drow, both suspiciously.
Slipping behind Bhoors and Elandil, Shaldinari draws her small carving knife and using the distraction provided by the others, quickly slices several random pages from the most powerful rituals and spells she saw in the codex during her earlier study of the book. She stuffs the torn pages into the inside of her robe and with time running short, attempts to slide the book back into place on the alter just before the illusion disappears.
None seem to notice Shal's quick deception, the stonemelder leaving rather dramatically by earth gliding down through the rock...once gone the drow turns his attention to the altar and begins eagerly climbing up. He is, putting it mildly, not the most athletic specimen "*pant grunt* ...the book... *wheeze slip* ...yes, at last!" and finally reaching the top, holding out his hands expectantly to Shal.
Once Shal is finished with her chicanery and the stonemelder leaves, El finally puts away his weapons. He makes his way down to where Abrel is looking over Boltsmelter. "Here, let me assist you." He intones a few words then kneels down next to the knight.
Stepping back away from the altar, Shaldinari gestures toward the drow and the book. "I believe that is the pain in the neck book everyone's been looking for." She says.
With a glance to the dead priest and the wounded party she shakes her head. "Honestly, I thought it would be more impressive considering all of the death and destruction flowing in it's wake. I'll certainly be glad to see the thing gone and out of my life."
"So the quicker you magic up your copy and the quicker we can all be on our way." She says to the drow and starts making her way back down the steps to the cavern floor clearly eager to get far away from the chamber of Ogremoch.
Davin moves to check the bodies of the priest and her minions. He keeps his eye on the drow...just in case he tries to do anythig...well...drow-ish!
This kit is a leather pouch containing bandages, salves, and splints. The kit has ten uses. As an action, you can expend one use of the kit to stabilize a creature that has 0 hit points, without needing to make a Wisdom (Medicine) check.
Boltsmelter lay stable and unconscious as the drow hurriedly, voraciously, copies the material needed to save his homeland. It will likely be hours before the drow realizes the deception, giving you all a chance to escape. The drow and the dwarves, none realize the book is as ruined and fallen as Boltsmelter himself.
xp: 1200 each
gp: 65 each
downtime: 10 days each
renown: +1
Favors:
Friends in Low Places. You have met a drow mage of
Szith Morcane, if he was allowed to copy the items he
needed from the codex he sees you in a favorable light.
Perhaps one day he will be able (and willing) to return the
favor.
Treasure:
1. Someone gets the Medallion of Thoughts from Boltsmelter. You all can decide as a party, or I can roll randomly:
that would be Shal.
2. Spells can be copied from the codex by spending downtime. The list is:
1st level: absorb elements*, alarm, earth tremor*, illusory script
2nd level: magic mouth, Maximilian's earthen grasp*, silence
3rd level: erupting earth*, meld into stone, Melf's minute meteors*
4th level: transmute rock*
Really?!? Holy crap that is a lot of XP! I expected half that! Wow. Medallion of thoughts... Anyone want it? I kinda like having the Insight disabled... ;)
EDIT: Abrel is 4th level!!! Woot hoot!
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Cool. Shal is level 3 and gets lucky with the random treasure roll. :)
Thanks for another great game all!
Yeah, thanks for running, buddy! You gonna run something new or take a break for a little while?
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I am going to finish my White Plume game then take a little month or two break. Been GMing here nonstop for about a year and a bit burned out to be honest. Very much want to return to Chult though.
I'm almost lvl 4 too! By that I mean I went from 1 to 3 in one adventure. Did we ever complete the smuggling thing?
As an aside, I bought the elemental evil book a while back and never got the chance to run it... it wouldn't be AL and it would be a longer commitment but if anyone is interested I could blow the dust off.
Smuggling thing was meant to occur in your downtime after the adventure. The alternative was to pay the halflings something like 50gp each (nearly everything you made)!
I'd be down for EE as a player, for sure.
El, to be honest, for me, I prefer the module length for PbP. Having a clear start and end, helps keep these PbPs in tasty chunks. ;) Thanks for the offer though.
I am really looking forward to the Dragon Heist coming out... but we also have the new Eberron AL campaign coming this season too! Season 8 is going to be crazy!!!
If anyone is willing to run another module, Abrel is down... though I am considering dumping some DM XP to level him to 5th so that I can use his flame blade.
It was fun. Thank you everyone. Look me up when you want to go again Infinity.
Hmm, I suppose I should look up how to convert a pre-season 8 AL character into a season 8 one. Thats probably something you all will need to do to continue this bunch of characters.
If interested...
Converting Your Current Experience
To determine the number of Advancement Checkpoints your characters currently has, follow these simple steps.
1. Find the experience your character has in excess of that which is required for their current level by subtracting the experience needed to achieve your current level from your current total.
2. Find the experience you need to achieve your next level by subtracting the experience needed to achieve your current level from the experience needed to achieve your next level.
3. Determine how far into your level you are by dividing the result of step 1 by the result of step 2.
4. To determine the number of advancement checkpoints you now have, multiply the result of step 3 by the number of experience checkpoints needed to achieve your next level.
5. If the result of step for is not an integer, round the result down or up. (Your choice.)
6. If you wish to use the Slow Progression, divide your result by 2.
Example: Your character is currently level 6 with 17,000 xp and you are not using the Slow Progression option.
Your character has 3,000 xp more than the 14,000 xp needed to achieve level 6. (17,000 xp – 14,000 xp)
Level 7 requires 23,000 xp; 9,000 xp over the amount needed for level 6. (23,000 xp – 14,000 xp)
Your character is 33% of the way to level 7. (3,000 xp / 9,000 xp = 0.33)
In the new system, it takes 8 check points to gain 7th level. You currently have 2.64 check points (0.33 * 8).
You choose to round up. Your character has 3 checkpoints of the 8 that they need to make it to level 7.
...more here.
Its probably a good think Bhoors didn't end up with the medallion of thoughts.
If Shal puts it on. Bhoors is suddenly not quite the pig you remember. He is no saint but you realize that he is really struggling how to deal with actual feelings for you, showing you he is interested (without reckless sexual advances) and how do to that without being a creep.
I went from 1-3 too...I would also be interested in EE!
EE would be fun.
I'd be interested in EE as well. Won't bring Shal since I want to keep her AL ready for when Infinity re-enters the fray.
Bhoors, Shal wouldn't normally use the medallion on her companions unless there was a really unusual circumstance or need. But good to know in case it does come up. With her 9 Wisdom, street-based background, and fae mindset, she really doesn't have a clue around Bhoors' internal struggle.
You can go here to figure out what your characters would be and all that for playing EE.
I figured it would be all new characters for that Shal. Starting at lvl 1 I suppose. I have a friend that's wanted to play this campaign too if that's alright.
Thanks natloz.
And I wanted to thank everyone here for the game. Having great players makes it so much fun!
I'll deactivate the campaign Monday night at the latest.
Thank you all..jumping over...