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Session #5 - The Lotus Dragons Hideout

-We start with the party spending some time determining their plan to proceed from the barracks when a thief opens the door and yells to get off your scurvy butts we are being attacked! They both realize simultaneously the situation and the thief wins initiative running for the secret door and making his escape. He of course warns the guild and everyoone takes their places.

-The party wind their away around the paths circling the Crucible counterclockwise bashing stuck doors along the way. They get ambushed from behind as the Lotus want them in the crucible and the party obliges as they chase all the way clockwise and then into the water. Sewer pipe on, portcullis up, arrows away. The party manages to take down the croc quickly and get out of the way of the arrows flying at them from all around the pool of water.

-Back to counterclockwise all the way to the observation room and many Lotus are mowed down.

-Off to figure out what "Kersh" is on the map. The hand drawn map I handed the party was really great. I could not have asked for anything better in getting them to actually explore in almost the exactly right order for me. I mean Barracks, Crucible, Kersh, then as you'll see Cruncher, Ixits, Rowyn. Perfect, I don't remember which post it was on here that pointed to their hand drawn map but it was great.

-Kersh works great as they fall for the ruse. He takes his chance and bull rushes a PC into the iron maiden, but actually fails the bull rush and the party takes him down.

-Next is the Kitchen and Churlte which works as written and they capture her locking her up in the pantry. Then the training room dummies also fools everyone and finally a semi-difficult fight ensues, but one enlarged PC manages to win the day. The party here decides to take their prisoners, Kersh and Churtle to the Temple of St. Cuthbert. Then rest.

-Returning the next day via the well into the crucible. They make their way to the rocky beach and cave to fight with some Ixits. Fully rested party handles them fairly well.

-Making their way towards Rowyn now they fight another Rhago and then a BB Zombie (another easy turn). Rowyn expects them of course and intimates she'd like to talk a bit if the PCs would be so kind as to lower their weapons and keep their distance. A couple of them do and just enter the room. The others do not and remain outside the room. She makes her offer and before anyone even has much of an answer one of the PCs enters the room with arrow at the ready and looses. Gut Tugger do your thing. But it's not too tough for the PCs as they kill Gut once and then again when he is undead. Rowyn drinks a potion through her tears and turns gaseous getting away.

-The party finds all of the loot and we end the session.

I have not decided what to do next. One PC is well into 3rd level, most of the others on the cusp and one last one just barely 2nd level. I'm considering running Fiend's Embrace as a side treck into the Amedio. I began the campaign with Funeral Procession and the party foiled the Graz'zt Cult there with their leader getting away. I like the idea of them chasing her down as she is off trying to get the Graz'zt Cloak in Fiend's Embrace. I'd likely shorten things a little but that tie in is nice for now and for the future as certain previous owners of the cloak and others who would really like to have it might make appearances.

Session #4 - Back to Parrot Island

-Our lone surviving PC though despondent manages to gather a new party and back they go under Parrot Island where once again they have a hard time. One new PC goes down to the Heucuva before another PC decides Turn Undead is a thing and tries it to amazingly good results. Easy peasy after that.

-At this point all but one of the party havn't even met Lavinia and the one that had, mistrusts her deeply. Didn't see this coming. But some of the new PCs decide to go fill Lavinia in anyway.

-While asking about town regarding Lotus Dragons and Taxidermist's Guild a street urchin snags a PC change purse and runs. This is supposed to lead the PCs into some alleys where rooftop snipers will ambush them ala the movie Clear and Present Danger. However an immediate and well aimed arrow shoots the child in the neck flinging him over the side of a bridge and into the mucky canal. Change goes flying across the bridge and into the water with a bit of a rush by the poor to grab and go. A few Lotus follow up with some arrow shots of their own but the party runs them off easily as they return fire. No chase ensues as the party beats a hasty retreat to avoid any questions regarding a dead child.

-The next day at the Taxidermists Guild sees the party quickly get into an argument with Nemien when he demands they leave. As they are want to do, an arrow plunks Nemien just before he manages to flee through a door. Some illusionary animals coming to life later and Nemien escapes but the Party finds the hidden entrance to the Lotus Dragon Guild.

-They quickly make thier way to the barracks room while the Lotus are not on alert and manage to engage everyone there and kill them.

-end of session while they are thinking about where to go next with the scribbled map they found of the hideout.

The party was spotted by some Ixits before going to the barracks so next session will begin with a thief opening the door to the barracks to sound the alarm and then seeing the PCs discussing their next move. They party got the jump on them but the entire complex will be a bit more interesting once on alert.

Thanks for the session overviews. We are just starting this adventure path ourselves with me as DM. We still play 3.5 and have never really felt like going to anything else as we have all the books and they work for us just fine.

I'm hosting session 4 this weekend and it will be their second foray below Parrot Island as 4 of the 5 party members met their demise there last session. We do play rather long sessions of 10+ hours but you seem to be moving at quite a clip with your session 5 at Kraken's Cove. I suspect we might start Lotus Dragon Hideout this session 4, but it won't be done until session 5 or maybe even 6.

Actually, I take some of that back. I just remembered that I ran Funeral Procession as adventure #0 if you will. It lasted 1 1/4 sessions, so we might be more on the same schedule.

Looking forward to reading more and am appreciating the tips. Thinking about how to get Kigante Valeros involved, maybe a small encounter as the party is rowing their treasure back to town from Parrot Island.

PCs: Balren - Lvl 2 warmage, Quilzolan - Lvl 2 runeblade, Milo - Lvl 2 rogue, Laerith - Lvl 1/1 rogue/ftr
Adventure: There is no Honor
Location: Underneath Parrot Island
Catalyst: After barely handling the first four ravenous zombies, another four along with their leader showed and spelled their doom.

One party member managed to survive by running into the the water, finding Penkus, and escaping via underwater tunnel (barely). The party learned to perhaps spend some of that money gained on important adventuring gear like, and I quote, "holy water, alchemist's fire, or healing potions."

Starting Savage Tide on Nov 22. I'd like to get a copy also please.

Thanks.

eric DOT ludy AT gmail DOT com

It looks like your order was being held up by the Bard's Gate book. Since this item is unavailable, I will go ahead and cancel the item from the order so we can get the remainder shipped out. I apologize for the delay.

As for your email, we are still working through the backlog of emails from the 4 day weekend, and had not gotten to it yet.

Thanks,
cos

OK, kinda stinks as the book was available when I ordered it. Oh well.

What is up with my Order # 1595551 from Sept 19? I sent customerservice an email and have gotten no reply.

Strange though. The text quite cearly indicates there should be an instance where a Concentration check would occur against the Opponent's Attack Roll as an opposed check.

Thought I might be missing something.

I am taking a wild stab in the dark as I don't have my book on hand, but I assume the rule is that the Concentration check is rolled against the opponent's attack roll. It would be used when casting defensively. Does that make sense?

When casting defensively the Concentration check is rolled against a DC of the opponenet's attack bonus + half spell-level (in order to avoid an AOO). The opponent's attack bonus is not a rolled check, it's their bonus to attack, in fact there is a note to use 10 if the attack bonus is less than 10.

The only time I see an opposed roll is when the spellcaster is grappled or pinned which uses a DC of opponent's grapple check + half spel level.

I'm not seeing how using the Concentration Skill when spellcasting requires an opposed attack roll. All of the instances in the chart outlining situations requiring a concentration check, fail to mention anything about an opposed attack roll.

Can anyone explain when the opposed attack roll would take place?

We just finished the Champion Games. Our party was known as Reprisal Squad, seeing that all but one original PC was killed by fishmen when trying to root out Zyrxog.

I can relate to where DM's coming from. I like many(but not all) of the "upgrades" PF made to 3.5, but something just feels off. I feel better about PF thinking of it as it's own game, and not "D&D 3.75." There were just way too many little changes that crept in under the radar that sabotaged any easy conversion, in my case. Yes, I was one of those "system mastery" fans in 3.5 and I took pride in learning the in's and out's of the entire system. Resetting all that memorized material has been a nightmare and makes me feel very awkward and lacking confidence when I run a PF game. Some of our other groups have just said "screw it" and went back to 3.5e rules(I'm not the DM of those games in case anyone's wondering).

As soon as I feel comfortable with running a PF game, one of my players brings up another change we missed before and we're back to square one. A lot of times I feel like it would have been easier just picking up an entirely new system and learning it, rather than trying to replace and relearn 1,000 little rules that have had the past decade to embed themselves in my brain. Unlearning is a lot harder for me than just learning something new.

I think Pathfinder would have been an amazing RPG had I skipped 3.5e entirely and learned PF from the ground up. On it's own, it's an amazing game from an amazing company. I'm just taking forever warming up to it, and I constantly feel like I'm doing things wrong in game, constantly looking up and double-checking, and still getting it wrong most of the time.

The best post in this thread. Josh, you are speaking from experience and have articulated the very problems I would expect if I were to take up the PF rules. I DM 3.5 and have been since 2004. I have abandoned convention play with the end of Living Greyhawk. (PFS factions turn me off before I can even sit down to give it a go.)

I am so glad PF is around and in a sense takes up the mantle of 3.5. PF is like the offspring of 3.5 and as long as it endures, in a sense 3.5 is not dead. That being said, I just have not felt compelled to convert yet. I foresee Josh's issues being real and true hurdles for me and my group. I do intend to give PF a whirl one of these days, but don't have a burning desire to do so as I have very little issue with 3.5. It does not feel bloated to me, I have invested much time and money, yada, yada, yada.

But, I have invested quite a bit in PF also and have every Paizo RPG product from the company's inception up until (and not including) the recent beginner box. That's a lot, and now feels like so much that I really don't want anymore for the time being.

My bookcases runneth over with 3.5 and PF. I look forward to PF one day, but still have so much 3.5 to explore and still too little time.

This has been interesting reading as I have read all of the APs but not played nor DM'ed them. We are painfully slow and meet erratically so I am still DMing Shackled City and playing in Age of Worms.

Come to think of it, there are 3 more APs that I think bear some mention in all this discussion: Shackled City, Age of Worms and Savage Tide. My group is in 13 Cages so we are getting towards the end. Been wondering if I should go for the Dungeon Mag trifecta and run Savage Tide next or forget about it and get with the times and run one of the later APs.

Anyone care to add those first 3 APs to the mix and compare and contrast those with all that has come later?

I knew the eye rays were free actions and ranged touch attacks but didn't see the 2 for gauth and 3 for beholder limit in a round to a 90 degree arc. I assume the creature can always choose any combination of rays it wants to bring to bear in a given 90 degree arc. So each round I will use tactics to determine which it would use and whether it would move to a more advantageous spot in order to target multiple enemies with various eyes.

My main question was about the gauth's single stunning gaze special attack. I'll go with the if you look at the gauth on your turn make a save, if you try to avert your eyes on your turn you have 50% chance of not needing to make a save and the gauth gets concealment, or you can close your eyes and not have to make any save but the gauth gets total concealment

If the gauth actively uses its stunning gaze on a foe then another save may need to be made on the gauth's turn by the targeted foe. The target gets the same modifiers as above if they were averting or covering thier eyes.

As for the traterian stuff, since the gauth is a farastu and thereby gets rage I will make the rage the same length as a farastu demodand, 7 rounds.

I agreee that the whole bite thing is minor especially given the small damage it can do. But I will go ahead and raise the to hit mod by 5. With the farastu version having adhesive slime and the Kelubar version acidic slime they become a bit more effective in melee.

One more question, this one about the Kelubar tarterian SA of Stench (Ex): A while back, the party ran into something on Occipitus with stench and I had a player try to avoid making a save by holding his breath. I didn't allow it at the time since I envisioned the Stench as being almost radiation like, assaulting the character in more ways than just through inhalation. What do you think?

Eric.

I'm prepping Lords of Oblivion and am wondering if there are mistakes in the stat blocks for Tarterian Gauth and perhaps any other floating eye tyrants.

There is Monster Manula errata regarding Gauths and Beholders which says to increase their Bite Attacks by +5. So in the MM the Gauth should have a +3 melee bite instead of -2. Our Tarterian version which has higher strength has a -1 melee bite but I think it should be +4 and while raging +6. And by the way exactly how long does their rage last?

Next we have our advanced beholder version of bad guy. Beholders in the MM are listed as +2 melee bite but with the errata that become +7. The advanced version has been advanced 4HD and is listed at +5 melee bit but I believe should be +10.

And so on for the other beholder versions.

Also, the errata mentions the use of eye rays as a free action. So does that mean they can perform full-round actions doing whatever they want (moving, flyby attacking, using spell-like abilities, etc) and still at any time during thier round get off all of their eye rays?

Lastly, I have had trouble adjudicating Gaze situations. In this case, for the Gauth it is a special attack so just looking at the gauth in the eye doesn't mean anything right? The gauth has to use his stunning gaze on a foe during its round. So when the gauth uses his gaze, does a character automatically meet it unless they specified something during thier turn to avoid such a thing? I'm thinking the first round the gauth uses it someone will just have to make a save as it was not expected. In subsequent rounds players can specify they avoid eye contact. Now, exactly what impact does that have in the game?

Thanks,
Eric.

I'm interested. The MD side of DC is a bit better for me, or at least somewhere inside the beltway on the VA side.

Weekends are also best as getting anywhere on a weekday is awfully time consuming.

E.

Question:

I am finding myself a bit put off by the encouragement of Pathfinder Society management to foster a gaming environment filled with smack talk and rivalry.

Oh, and smack talk the crap out of players not in your faction. Go team!

How do you foresee players from various factions interacting at the gaming table?

Is smack talking to be encouraged in-character as the factions try to outdo one another?

How do you see the faction rivalry enriching the Pathfinder Society organized play environment?

I'm the DM and I have a player who hates AOOs. The player isn't dumb but he refuses to learn the AOO rule(s) and every game he will attempt something that causes an AOO and start the complaining. Don't ask me what happens when a monster with reach gets an AOO on him, just suffice to say that the game bogs down into an argument that can get heated.

I say this just to outline that I think about AOOs and the rules regarding them quite a bit. First of all I like them as I feel they add an element of risk to combat. Certain actions a character takes come with risk. Now remember combat is abstract, all the PCs, NPCs, and monsters are acting simultaneously. It is simply played out in a one goes at a time mode.

I don't see an AOO as an extra out of turn attack, it is an attack that all creatures in combat get each round if they wield a melee weapon and something they threaten lets their guard down i.e. performs some risky action. That sounds pretty cool to me. The designers could have come up with some other abstract penalty for performing a risky action like "The creature performing a risky action is considered flat-footed until the beginning of its next turn" OR "All melee attacks and ranged attacks from within 30' against the creaure who performed a risky action gain an extra 1d6 damage until the beginning of the creatures next turn."

Anyway you slice it it is just some abstract penalty for performing some risky action while in melee combat. Could have been a lowering of AC, or attacks against you do more damage, or extra attacks. You could likely think of other penalties that could be applied. I like the AOO one the best as there are limitations to what ones enemies can do i.e. without some feat a creature only gets 1 AOO a round and only enemies that threaten you at that moment get an extra attack. Better than applying a penalty to the creature who provokes as that would apply against all enemies for an entire round.

Eric.

Well, I have Adobe Acrobat Pro 7 and under the advanced menu is an option called "Export All Images." I just tried it for the first time and sure enough the directory I pointed it to now has a copy of every image in the pdf as individual jpegs. I had to do quite a bit of cleaning as every line and border and background in the document is an image. But once I got rid of those I am down to the art that matters.

E.

It was in organized play (RPGA Living Greyhawk) that I returned to D&D as I never played during 2e and 3.0. I am still playing today so have found enough enjoyment to keep up with it to some degree.

Ultimately the fun/success of a given table is the responsibility of all who sit down to play. I personally come to every table with a completely open mind, meaning I don't assume my character will need to fulfill a certain role during the game. It is really up to the players to allow each other to fall into their roles as they play. Sometimes my character is the party mouthpiece and I roleplay lots of cenversation. Other times another player obviously wants to fill that role and I sit back and follow along.

You have to be adaptable. I know each player has an idea in their head as to how to play their character but having a character that is abrasive or domineering or pompous doesn't fit the style of game you will be in. Lots of times you sit down with 5 to 6 other people you have never played with before and you have to learn a way to work together; it is the same often times with your characters as your characters come together and adventure with 4 to 5 other characters you have never known. The only way it works is to work together.

Overall I go to perhaps 3 to 4 conventions a year and play in every slot. Most tables are good to great with maybe 1 in 8 being a dud due to one or more of many potential pitfalls. But, I have had just wonderful tables where I have made good friends with other players and DMs. Those are the tables that make it worth it and as you meet people you like gaming with you can try to make sure to game with them more and more at future events.

Eric.

This is the most exciting aspect of all the Pathfinder announcements to me. I DM my own home campaign and only ever get to be a player when I go to conventions. That is why I play Living Greyhawk, but with its imminent demise I was reluctanly succombing to having to buy 4e to play in Living Forgotten Realms.

But now I am overjoyed to have an alternative to be managed by the people who are the best equipped to be the torchbearers for the type of campaign I can get behind. I love(d) Greyhawk and love Pathfinder. I can't wait to see more and get to play from the outset.

I won't be able to home game with it as my gaming buddies have never been interested in organized campaigns like this. So here is hoping we get local conventions (Wash DC area) going with this as soon as possible post GenCon. I hope to see the faces I have come to know form Living Greyhawk getting involved and many new ones also.

Eric.

That said, I'm certainly open to some kind of "super-feats" that need a build-up of one or more rounds to allow me to do something really cool.

Just thinking outloud here but what if the number of combat feats that could be used in a round increases with Class Level? Say you get to use a second combat feat in a round at the same time you gain an iterative attack?

So in round 1 I might declare Power Attack and Dodge.(I cannot Cleave as I did not Power Attack the previous round). Then in round 2 I decide to Power Attack and Cleave. This means in Round 3 I can still use Cleave since I used Power Attack in Round 2.

I am going on an assumption that all combat feats must or at least should be declared at the beginning of the round. Since they last until the beginning of your next turn I see very little reson to use Dodge at the end of my turn (though you could I suppose if you only wanted the AC bonus in place while not your turn. Say you move first in your turn causing an AOO and don't want a bonus to AC because you have retributive strike prepared. Then you could turn on Dodge in mid turn or end of turn.)

Also, in this way as you reach a certain level you could then use Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot in the same round. And at the time you recieve another iterative attack giving you 3 attacks you could use 3 combat feats, so Dodge, Mobility and Spring Attack can be used in a single round.

Maybe this is too powerful for the style of game we are going for. Not sure, will have to playtest.

Eric.

Good ideas. I had begun brainstorming a few of my own along those lines.

I guess I need to temper my kneejerk reaction as too the unliklihood of surviving the dangerous areas surrounding the demonskar, the Gnoll-filled forest and beyond.

I will use it as a nice story element. I in fact might try to have the bat familiar keep an eye on the doggie and once the telepathic link is restablished, get the bat to help lead them to the dog. Perhaps the dog (named Bark by the way) stumbled out of the forest into Red Gorge barely alive and was nursed back to health by a pretty, young farm girl/woman. (It's starting to remind me of a Seinfeld episode.)

E.

As I have said in some other thread I am doing a little side trek for my players on their return from the Test of the Smoking Eye to the material plain. They have miraculously plane shifted to near the capital city (Rel Mord in my case).

The side trek will foreshadow or at least introduce a little back history on Shatterhorn. It will be brief and help them get some much needed xp (3 characters at lev 11, 2 at lev 10).

Two of my players have already expressed interest in determining whether they can retrieve their "animals." The Ranger had a dog animal companion who never entered the starry mirror in Vaprak's Voice (at least not as far as he knows). The Sorcerer has a bat familiar who he told not to enter the starry mirror.

Here we are a few weeks later and they are back on the material plain. How would you as a DM handle the reaquiring of these animals?

The players completely cleaned out Vaprak's voice but for Kymzo, the steam mephit.

My initial gut reaction is to say "no way" on the dog, and there is a decent chance on the bat. Without going into too much detail, this will cause the Ranger player to freak out. Not that I care that much, but I want to be fair. I can handle the fallout if there is any.

What do you think? How can I make it seem absolutley fair to both players? Are you like me and feel the survival of the bat is more likely than the dog? Would you handle it with some sort of roll, or just DM fiat?

E.

I am the Dmand this is our first 3.5 campaign, actually we were all old 1st editioners who skipped over 2nd and began again with the SCAP.

Anyway session #1 was on November 27th, 2004. We just had session #22 with each being 8 to 12 hours. We only just finished Test of the Smoking Eye. 3+ more years to go? Yikes!

E.

I intend to solve the potential problem (enough recovery time versus being outlawed in Cauldron) elegantly by letting their plane shift back from Occipitus misfire in such a way that they end up very near Sasserine, which - I believe - they'll use to stock up on all sorts of magical items (especially enhancements of existing weapons and armor that they were not allowed in Cauldron). While waiting for their items to finish, they'll have plenty of opportunity to enjoy downtime and spread some rumors about the situation in Cauldron, which can lead to all sorts of other hooks and so on ... After they return (maybe even by means of then available teleportation) they will face the immediate action by Vhalantru sending the assassins through Wee Jas...

My players have just finished the second part of the Test of the Smoking Eye and next session will hopefully get through the third. Without a tuning fork to the material plane, how exactly do the Plane Shift scrolls they have acquired work? Or do they use the amulet that Kaurophon has? I don’t have the info in front of me so I don’t remember the specifics.

I also intend for the PCs to end up back near Sasserine (Actually Rel Mord of Nyrond in my campaign as I chose the location for Cauldron before it was ever published. Between the Rakers and Gamboge forest seemed to fit. And yes we have been playing SCAP that long.)

When they get to Rel Mord I wanted to have a side quest that could in some way further their knowledge of the overall plot. My players every session wonder what the heck Occipitus has to do with Cauldron and don’t like the idea of this planar jaunt. My loose idea, as I haven’t figured it out fully yet, is to have the PCs meet up with an emissary of Cauldron (Vhalantru) in Rel Mord. He asks them to help foil a conspiracy that has been identified by the Nyrond government. This is going to be an adaption of an old retired LG mod, NMR4-06: Syrul's Slander. In it the PCs are teleported to the hideout of some Yuan-ti conspiracy pushing the ideas of Syrul. They are but one such party in one city, as other adventuring parties are doing the same kinds of things in other major cities of the region (Capital of Pale, etc.) Vhalantru was in Rel Mord as he answered the call from the Nyrond government to Cauldron to help out. He is fortunate to have the PCs close by to help out. In actuality the transportation into the Yuan-ti hideout is a trap. Vhalantru is hoping the PCs fail and the Yuan-ti conspiracy is not associated with Syrul but instead is associated with Shatterhorn. I intend to use this as a way to foreshadow Shatterhorn as the HQ of these Yuan-ti conspirators that have hideouts in all the major cities of the region.

Eric.

So we have had a couple of play seesions since I originally posted my thoughts. When we began, my 5 players are hurting, they are all in Area 5 having just finished off the kuo-toa, and Aushanna is 2 round from appearing. The party cleric recognizes that a shrine of this magnitude could very likely have extraplanar protection and the ominous glow of the statues eyes signaled that something was coming soon. She yells for everyone to run for it and decides to try and delay whatever is coming as long as she can relying on her troll-blood to keep her alive (Regeneration/1).

Well the party isn't keen on listening, the Ranger decides he has to have the scrolls on the dead kuo-toa, and the rogue wants to hide and see. The dwarf sorcerer runs like hell and the Barbarian does to, running through the secret door, through the torture room and then slowly approaching the cells where they had left the prisoners locked up. Well they unlock the cells and tell them to run for it also. It's a nice diversion as Aushanna kills White-eye and Cherrit while searching the complex.

The Rogue did successfully hide but instead of getting out, went back to the shrine to cure the Cleric with a healing potion. The Cleric comes to and tells the Rogue to split again. But the Rogue stubbornly hides again waiting for the demon to reappear.

The Sorcerer has made it to the lake and is trying to off load some gear to be able to swim for it when the Barbarian decides to try the doors leading toward the shrine. The trap explodes bringing Aushanna immediately who quickly puts 3 arrows into the Sorcerers back flaling into the water and floating off. The barbarian still manages to run away back toward the torture chamber where he runs into the Ranger. They both submerge themselves and hide praying to not be seen.

Aushanna sees the cleric up again and decides to finish her off for good this time. When the Rogue hurls a Halfling's Exit at her (sling bullet that bursts into a cloud). The rogue misses and gets -20 to her hide, 3 arrows later she's dead. The cleric again ends up unconcious but alive, captured and thrown in the jail cells. The Barbarian and Ranger hide successfully, free the cleric and get out.

Not a TPK. The player of the Rogue was not happy but if the character had run or just stayed hidden she would have survived. You take a chance and sometimes it doesn't pay off.

With 2 out of 5 dead, they head back to town and we get 2 new characters, another Rogue, and a Fighter/Sorcerer. Both 5th level. Ranger and Barbarian get to 7th level, Cleric is still 6th.

Next session they go back in. They know what's coming. They start preparing for her appearance again when the Rogue produces a scroll and gives it to the Cleric. She Casts Consecrate on the shrine. Since I had made it a point to let them know trouble was on the way by giving them a visual cue of the statues eyes glowing brighter and brighter, it seemed to them that the statue was actually triggering the call of Aushanna. In the end, I liked that they had finally come up with a tactic that wasn't just bust down the doors and hack em all to pieces. So, I let the Consecrate break the Shrines connection to Blipdlepoolp (sp?) thereby canceling the summoning of the Erinyes while the spell is in effect (in the hours range).

A nice solution I think and one I had not seen anywhere else on the boards. A DM could rule that it doesn't work, but since they had already faced her and come up with a pretty good answer, I let it work.

E.

Great tips and ideas so far. I like the idea of capture. I do belive Aushanna will come out with all she has, but if anyone stabilizes before -10 I'll have them wake up in a cell.

Party makeup:
Lev 6 Half-orc barbarian
Lev 6 human ranger (two-weapon style)
Lev 6 halfling rogue
Lev 4clr/2ftr human
Lev 1ftr/5sor dwarf

The party has some resources and I've tried to warn them so we'll see. The rogue has the Cloack of Arachnia, Ranger has slippers of spider climbing, Sorcerer has a wand of invisibility, the Barbarian has a Ring of Ram, and the cleric as I mentioned has 5 charges left on wand of CMW.

As for invisibility, the rogue tried it earlier against the Kuo-toa who happen to be able to see invisible creatures. I thought Aushanna might have some sort of True Seeing or something of the like to make invisibility not very effective (I don't have the mags/book in front of me.)

If they can make it to the water I do like the idea of having her basically scream epithets from the stairs as she won't leave the temple. I will have her loose arrows and the canoe (which miraculaoulsy I suppose is there) might catch fire sinking, giving swimmers cover. WHat's the movement on a canoe with one paddle?

Thanks for the ideas,
Eric.

I don't see how my players are going to make it alive. They just got done finishing off the four whips and soldiers in the main shrine room. They've used almost all resources available. The party cleric is out of spell-casting healing and has 5 charges on a wand of CMW. The barabarian and ranger are at mid to low hp, the rogue is near full and the sorcerer is full-up on hp. The sorcerer has no 0 or 1st level spells left, but does have his 2nd (Flaming Sphere, not too good vs flying). The party is effectiely split up in this room with 3 on the floor level and 2 on the middle level balcony.

And we are 2 rounds away from Aushanna showing up. She's going to blow them away I think. I was playing as the party cleric since the player couldn't make it last session. I made a quick (fake) knowledge Religion check and had the cleric tell everyone "we better get out of here now, that statue's eyes are getting brighter and most shrines of this magnitude have summoned protection."

Maybe everyone's first action will be to run but they can barely make it out of the room before Aushanna appears. and even so, she'll quickly track them down. Say they do manage to run to the stairs out, there won't be any canoe waiting for them.

As a DM I'm just dreading the next session because I don't see a way out. Maybe if they have the guts to split up, Aushanna will have to focus on one of them and maybe that one can hold her off for a few moments while the others get away. Other than that I don't see this ending well.

If they do die, I will have a player who will get really upset. The others will take it in stride I believe and create new ones for another go. That could take an entire session however.

As a DM has anyone ever known for an extended time between play sessions that everyone is very likely to die almost immediately? Anything that can be done to lose as little time as possible? Anything you think I can do to cut the players a break without making it totally obvious? I guess I can make things happen so that at least one survives. I might have Fario and Felian show up, though they haven't been seen in quite awhile and I have no idea how they could suddenly appear many miles into the underdark.

Any tips appreciated.

Eric.

Wow, excellent list Derek!!

I haven't really thought ahead to Flood Season and beyond yet. Still trying to flesh out Cauldron a bit better. In my game I'm sorta shortcutting some stuff but want to role-play some of the loot selling, inn staying, supply buying, church worshiping things. Just haven't had time to flesh it out yet.

I do plan on using an Umber Hulk fig from Harbinger in Zenith and do have 1.

For the Kuo-Toa that are named maybe you can get away with other serpent looking amphibious/reptilian figs. Like troglodyte zombie (harbinger), lizardfolk (harbinger), lizardfolk rogue (giants), or Sahuagin Ranger (aberrations) At least they are all green.

Thanks again for your list, I'm printing it out and separating the figs out soon.

E.

I'm still in Life's Bazaar but have used many minis for the encounters up till now. For some of them however I've been using the supplied counters that came in Dungeon (I think). There is one for the skulks, dark creper, dark stalker, Kazmojen, Triel, Tongue-eater, and others I can't remember off-hand.

Figs for Thugs I used Human Thugs(Harbinger); for Death Knight, Death Knight, Choker(Aberrations) for Choker, Kua-Toa are in Harbinger. Dread Guard is in Archfiends. Hobgoblins are in multiple releases, Lemure are in Giants of Legend. For the Automatons I couldn't find anything acceptable and used tokens/counters (I scan the illustrations in the books, crop them and print to size.) That's what I will do for Grell since the fig won't be out in time.

NPCs are Nebbin (harbinger) for Ghelve, Cleric of Lathander (Archfiends) for Jenya (I'm in Greyhawk), Cleric of St. Cuthbert (Aberrations) for Ruphus, Duargar Warrior (Archfiends) for slave trader guy, Deepshadow Elf (Giants) for Fellian, Human Wanderer(Harbinger) for Fario. I think that's right, Human wanderer for whichever one is the two-weapon fighter. Drow Rogue (Giants) for Jil.

My players are still in Jzadirune though they are most likely over half-way through it. Still need to figure out what other figs to use in Malachite area. And beyond...