In HackMaster.. a Wizard can take his spellbook and cast spells off of them as a Scroll.. .ripping the pages out and the magical ink disappearing as you cast the spell (obviously in an emergency)... We used to play AD&D 2E with this same house rule... Result was we had to go and buy the wizard a new spell book after almost every adventure. He was always casting the things out of the book... DM: A group of four goblins sit in the sewer junction ahead, discussing something while hurling stones at the nearby rats Weaver the Wizard: "AAAAAAGGGGHHHH. I have no decent spells left. I open my spell book to fireball and hurl one down the corridor at them!" Everyone Else: <Collective sigh and shaking of heads>
Just letting you all know that I have created a word document that contains 120 discoveries (bits of info) that can be found in the city. It uses the ten headings of historical discoveries as noted on page 10 of the module. A lot of it is as I have made up from reading the first three modules (I like to read ahead only one module at a time) so the information in the discoveries are from what I understand and a bit of fiction that I have added (particularly around the legend of Savith herself). If you want a copy email me at m.knights AT bigpond.com We will e heading into the City of Seven Spears in the next couple of sessions :)
They slipped NKechi into the river and made their way on. Three days later I had their faction (Pathfinders) find the scene of the battle and send another "guide"/cleric to join them (their party suffers for healing so need the support while on the road). This time a green adventurer who had only spent time in temples to Sarenrae joined the group arriving just after Amghawe's Tomb. The party owned Itombu, sneaking up on him and getting a surprise round. That combined with the flying feral alchemist meant the encounter was practically over before it began. The gnome took the war mask adding to his conversion into a savage. The eloko head hunters encounter was hilarious and everyone loved it. Everyone except the monk failed their save and it turned into a running battle to the bell. He managed to take down the eloko and after the effect of the extremely large bell (I had failed to read it was a small bell so had it like a church bell hung between trees LOL). They took the bell with them (it had one more ring in it) and made their way to the spirit dancers... The spirit dancers was again hilarious. They all did not like the look of them but a suggestion from Zakiyya saw three of the four fail the save (including the NPC). The one that did not fail also resisted her dominate and several attempts at charm before a fight broke out and the party was seriously divided. Some making saves others not. It was hilarious but the monk entangled the succubus wings with a tanglefoot bag and got her on the ground. The rogue/sorceror failed every save and continued to kiss the succubus who cared little for the combat as her damage resistance was turning aside practically all damage. In the end the monk rolled a crit, confirmed and then icrit came up with a crit where the succubus lost d4 hours of her memory. After this, shocked and bewildered she teleported away, determined to track the party and destroy them, after she worked out who and why she ended up in that situation. The road to Tazion found them come across a pregnant tribesman caught in labour, two scared tribesmen with her and a strange old woman who once was a midwife (actually the succubus). While the cleric delivered the baby the rest of the party discerned that the tribes people had no idea who she was, and they thought she was dodgy. The succubus got some information from the cavalier that settled her mind on destroying them as a minor annoyance. To do this she headed to Tazion to find a good ambush point... I will write the Tazion section in yet another post...
I am actually enjoying this threat level for my players. It is great that they do not need to rest up for days after each battle and this level also allows for random encounters to be used without unbalancing the target difficulty. And I also have to say that my dead Cavalier would argue with you too! The chemosit destroyed her In a couple of rounds flat and then ate her brains. She was so happy they had not used the raise dead scroll from the Shiv on one of the NPCs and N'kechi did the honors after they retrieved her brains from the Chemosit stomach and popped them back where they should be :) We are having a great time with this module. I am using a lot of random non-creature and in some cases non-threatening encounters just to build the feel of the place. Some of these encounters have really entranced the players and help them buy into the story more. I have been using things such as totems, shrines, prayer trees and other signs of natives that have unnerved them and caused them to Barbour a great deal of respect when they meet the locals! Next session will see them move into Kalabuto to meet Cheiton and then onward. |
