Aubrey's Other Eberron Campaign - The Unbinding (Inactive)

Game Master Aubrey the Malformed

The factory fight in the first Eberron campaign .... That one was just crazy.

Man, since we got those arrows, I've been hoping for a worthy target and that shaman definitely qualifies.

The factory fight was epic - it's not often the durations of spells run out during combat, albeit that the PCs weren't very high level at the time.

To be honest, these things frequently happen by accident - the multi-combatant battles tend to be big, but they aren't necessarily predictable in advance. The battle in village in the Mournland with the forces of the Lord of Blades in the other Eberron game was also a biggie - I was worried I'd overdone it, the PCs were quite beaten up and I thought we might be heading for a TPK, or at least a defeat, and then Ezreal threw down a Wall of Force and the whole battle turned. Great stuff.

Link, for those who are interested. Crikey - three years ago.

I did love that factory fight, but I haven't been back to pick back up the game thread in quite a while now ... I'l have to go back and pick back up where I left off, but that's been ages ago!

Aubrey, reviewing rules in wake of Sol's incorrect attack bonuses. I find that I mis-remembered the 2-handed rule. You get 1.5 on damage, not damage and to hit. I've reduced Rehil's curve blade to hit by 1.

*war maul to the face*

Cole: "Why do you make me do this to you?!"

*war maul to the face again*

Cole: "I only wanted to help you!!"

______

though it likely doesn't help that he's grinning manically when he's doing it.

If Will tries to heal Wultram, would he automatically realize that it actually hurt?:P

Especially if BC writes an awesome post with wounds opening and bloodflow intensifiying!!!!!

Wultram recovers consciousness briefly as Will places his healing hands upon him. "Nooo! The pain!" he gasps. Then his eyeballs explode.

Something like that?

Exactly!

Another wave? You like big encounters Aubrey don't you. :P I guess time to put those actions points to good use.(To fight or to get the hell out.)

Big crush at work til Friday. Will post as I am able.

Yah, I don't know what our chances are of holding the high ground on this one. it would require the folks who are up there (who are already a bit beat up) holding until at least Cole can get up there. But seeing as how Cole will have to spend a move action to stow his war maul (move action) in order to climb (which, even with a successful accelerated climb would take a full round of climbing to achieve), we're looking at 2 rounds of holding against multiple melee'ers while also being exposed to archer fire from across the river.

As much as I'd love to get that high ground and win this one, the arrival of this new group really, really makes that a dicey gambit. And one that could easily earn us a character death or two.

Could maybe buy a round or two of stalling by moving into difficult terrain.(No archers or charges.) Could always just eat the falling damage to regroup and then move into the difficult terrain to fight.

Problem with booking it, is movement speed. Lizardfolks have 30ft unless I am mistaken. Anyone carrying a person(the ones unconscious) is going to go into medium load minium. We would need quite considerable headstart.(Get PF up to use his entangling power and hope it lasts long enough?)

Using the difficult terrain is smart ... whether that ends up being up on top of the cliff or dropping down. But I agree that an actual retreat is going to be difficult given that we have a few people down.

It seems that we're right where we started except PFD, Wultram, James and Vaard are down. Ashshar's one CLW from unconscious. On the other side, we've knocked out 2 PD archers.

I don't think we'll do any better if we try to hold. The shaman won the spell war with archery support on the lower level. We barely hung on up top.

How do we get everyone moving again? Rehil's got a potion of CLW and dried fruit of CLW. One's in his pack at the foot of the cliff; the other is in his belt pouch.

Rehil Ecraish wrote:

Aubrey, as asked earlier is there any way to spend a hero point to boost Ashshar's initiative count or otherwise get him out of harm's way? (Preferably without sacrificing an actual action.)

No, there isn't. Frankly, I shouldn't have moved Rehil out of harm's way either...

I thought that the initiative slip was a fair trade for not letting me alter his action after we'd agreed that I could.

Fair enough.

I thought we were going to run for it?

I know I broke the plan first by trying to help Ashshar, but I was planning on running this round. Really I was.

It was going to beautiful if it worked (and Aubrey agreed to the following.)
1. A double move with Acrobatics to dodge AoO (if Aubrey gave it to me).

2. Climb down 20'. (At double climb speed with a higher climb DC if Aubrey gave it to me.)

3. Acrobatics to jump the last 10' without damage and land on my feet.

4. Move as far away from cliff as possible and see what Aubrey would give me in terms of scooping his pack of the ground as he went.

5. Next round give PF the potion of CLW and run in earnest.

Of course it would have failed miserably when I blew the first Acro roll, gone down hill fast after failing the Climb check, and crashed and burned when I failed the last Acro roll. But it was a plan.

So, Eben, is the plan now a glorious clifftop last stand? If so I'll take a shot at L12 so that you might finish the climb without eating an AoO.

I weep at lost opportunities.

I'm restricted by what Cole knows, and he only knows you guys are still up there fighting. Have Rehil call out your intentions, and I'll have Cole adjust accordingly. If Rehil would have said "we're headed your way!" or something ... I would have Delayed, instead.

Sorry, I assumed you had changed your mind when you chose to engage them.

Just a suggestion but if staying to fight, you probably want to start spending those actions points they can make quite the difference. Actually even if trying to escape should still probably do it. With some luck we(well you now) might drop enough people to break their morale not like they haven't taken substantial casulties already. It might be better to make that desperate last stand at this point than try to run as it is getting harder and harder to pull off. Of coarse trying to surrender is an last chance option, but things are not quite that bad yet.

Hey, guys...I just realized my hp is wrong:P

I should have
6 from my first hit-die
3 from my second hit-die (I rolled a 2 on my second hit-die,, and Aubrey said that to take minimum half).
4 from my third hit-die
6 from constitution
4 from the Psionic Body feat.

Total: 23, not 19.
So Portforged would actually have been knocked down to 2, not -2, and have been conscious this entire time. Oops.
DM how should this be handled?

I'm restricted by what Cole knows, and he only knows you guys are still up there fighting. Have Rehil call out your intentions, and I'll have Cole adjust accordingly. If Rehil would have said "we're headed your way!" or something ... I would have Delayed, instead.

Sorry, I assumed you had changed your mind when you chose to engage them.

No need for sorries. I should have stated my intentions OOC.

Good point Wultram. We received one hero point per level, right? So I think Rehil has one left.

Hey, guys...I just realized my hp is wrong:P

I should have
6 from my first hit-die
3 from my second hit-die (I rolled a 2 on my second hit-die,, and Aubrey said that to take minimum half).
4 from my third hit-die
6 from constitution
4 from the Psionic Body feat.

Total: 23, not 19.
So Portforged would actually have been knocked down to 2, not -2, and have been conscious this entire time. Oops.
DM how should this be handled?

We could say you decided to play dead for the last few rounds and can act on your next turn.

Good point Wultram. We received one hero point per level, right? So I think Rehil has one left.

Action points, hero points are a lot more powerful. 5 + 1/2 character level and that pool replenishes with every level up. I am writing that from memory so there might be a mistake there but I am pretty sure it is correct.

That's right, it's action points. I'm not really familiar with hero points.

Bad naming on my part. Is BC (Wultram) correct, did we have 6 action points at the beginning of 3rd level?

Edit: just checked Will's post. Looks like a glorious last stand it is!

yup 6 Action points in total

Excellent! Thanks.

I'll assume Rehil's got 4 points left.

No need for sorries. I should have stated my intentions OOC.

Live and learn, right? Well, assuming we live, that is. ;P

I forget how high the slope is: could Portforged get up it with Nomad's Step?

I'm not sure about the best way to help Wultram and Vaard. PF doesn't have any way to heal him, and everyone else seems too far away.

There's fruit of CLW in Rehil's pack at the base of the cliff. Whatever you do you better hurry, cause the shaman's due to hit the beach this round or next.

Oh, this is my first time playing with action points. So continue to watch me like a hawk. I can guarantee that I will mess up again.

Yah, i'm not a fan of the fact that two downed group members and the canoes are defended solely by a caster w 2 hp's against 2 archers and a druid and his pet croc. O.o

Portforged wrote:

I forget how high the slope is: could Portforged get up it with Nomad's Step?

I'm not sure about the best way to help Wultram and Vaard. PF doesn't have any way to heal him, and everyone else seems too far away.

There's fruit of CLW in Rehil's pack at the base of the cliff. Whatever you do you better hurry, cause the shaman's due to hit the beach this round or next.

Problem is, won't CLW hurt Wultram? I could try getting it to Vaard, but that would take multiple rounds to do.

And yeah, you're right. The fruit of CLW will hurt Wultram.

Best might be to get Vaard moving again and he can drag Wultram away, while you do something amazing.

Good luck.

Sheesh. This thing is balanced on a knife's edge.

Balanced no more. We're losing. Portforged down tips the fight toward their side. I should have suggested that he just run. His entangle was the biggest thing between us and a TPK.

I guess the only viable plan now is to win the hilltop fight, then retake the beach.

I had this page for reference on action points:

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/actionPoints.htm

That is what I have been using too. Now I do have the eberron books but did not come to mind to check if they work differently there. So now I go check and yeah it is different Putting stuff here.

Character Level Action Point Dice (d6) Rolled
1st–7th 1
8th–14th 2
15th–20th 3

Character Action Point
Level Maximum
1st 5
2nd–3rd 6
4th–5th 7
6th–7th 8
8th–9th 9
10th–11th 10
12th–13th 11
14th–15th 12
16th–17th 13
18th–19th 14
20th 15

Special actions:

Activate Class Feature: You can spend
2 action points to gain another use of one of
the following class features that has a limited
number of uses per day: bardic music, rage,
smite evil, Stunning Fist, turn or rebuke
undead, or wild shape.

Hasten Infusion: On his turn, an
artifi cer can spend 1 action point
to imbue an infusion in 1 round,
even if the infusion’s casting
time is normally longer than
1 round.

Stabilize: When your character
is dying, you can spend
1 action point to stabilize at your
current hit point total. Spending an
action point does nothing for you if you’re
already dead

Yes, action points per the Unearthed Arcana are not the same as in Eberron.

Rehil stiffens as he takes an arrow in the back, but he dare not turn his attention away from his melee foe.

That hurt. 3 hp remaining.

Was it Asimov who said that robots couldn't die, you can always rebuild them?

'sides Rehil doesn't speak Draconic and he's too busy to listen to some scratchy high-pitched hissing.

I am an RP fiend, but will always bend to prevent PC death. Rehil's natural action would be to keep fighting for the reasons cited above. Somebody jump in there to stop the fight before he turns L7 into raw material for a pair of boots.

Rehil will surrender; he just needs an RP push from Cole or Nalverren.

William will follow that majority reluctantly (and he doesn't speak draconic anyway)

For a quick confirmation, is the following true?

Poisondusk - our main enemies because they hate us, roused kalaktua

finback - not yet true enemies, we are just unknowns in their land

blackscales and cold suns - generally against us and xenophobic

pooma's tribe - i forgot their name

I think Pooma's folk were Cold Suns, but there were coloration differences between them and the ones backing the shaman.

Do y'all have suggestions for what sort of character to make next to replace Portforged? I'm up for almost anything.

Maybe another lizardfolk from Pooma's tribe?

137ben, sorry about Portforged. I was a little surprised at how quickly that devolved. In retrospect, I should have realized our capitulation would have to be swift and absolute to satisfy the shaman.

As for replacing PF, a lizardfolk from Pooma's tribe makes the most sense, a nestmate of Ashshar or Vaard perhaps. Sorcerer veering into dragon disciple, maybe.

Don't rush to complete the back story yet. I've got a feeling Rehil's going to quickly follow PF into the darkness.

Edit: Another angle would be the new PC is a dissenter in either the Blackscale or Poisondusk-allied Cold Sun tribes. Guys like the shaman are going to stir up a lot of resentment. That would also provide an avenue for Aubrey to feed us some more information, if he is so inclined.

Yeah, i wanted to capitulate without compromising us and resigning the group to death.

Yea, I'll hold off on finalizing a backstory so that it can jive with other new PCs if others die.

Apology accepted, Rehil. It was a tough situation.
I was expecting that had you surrendered, y'all might have had a good chance of escaping later, maybe as good a shot as you do now. It's not like they have big prisons in the jungle. Getting bound, gagged, and hauled to their chief may have been pretty unpleasant, though:)

Yeah, I'm sorry too. I don't think the guys realised what a vicious little bastard that shaman is. He wasn't interested in negotiation. And yes, DMB's expectations were effectively correct - it wouldn't have wanted to end the campaign with you all just being murdered, though to be fair that would have been metagame knowledge.

Assuming one or the other them doesn't die, I'd suggest either Vaard or Ashshar in the meantime as a replacement. They don't have class levels but that can be retrofitted. Vaard would be my choice, as he doesn't really have a personality that's come out in the game so he's a reasonable blank slate. If necessary we can rejig his stats. I'd intended him to go fighter but there's no reason he can't be a completely different character class.