So, "Life's Bazaar" ended, and only one player dropped off the map (the stereotypical girlfriend trying to play for her boyfriend moment). The group finally picked a name for Skie's("The Liberators," which sounds all noble until you consider the larcenous/reward-hungry definitions, it's a nice double-entendre that fits the group about right).
Rotating attendance is iffy, so I wove into the backstory of one of the characters that her mother left her a ring of protection +1 (which she had to recover from a Last Laugh guildmember in a side-adventure I ran for some of the characters to get them to third/fourth level in time for "Flood Season"). A high level cagewright, at the start of "Flood Season," when the group was on its way to the Lucky Monkey, showed up and attempted to blast them with a 'Baleful Polymorph.' The ring reacted, tried to protect them all, and half-succeeded: basically now they all have an animal form that they randomly turn into for random amounts of time (ie: if the thief can't make it, she's a cat for the duration of the session she missed, following the group but hiding/not participating/etc). It was fun to watch their reactions as they learned about their animal forms, and that the ring had the ability to do that only once, ever - no more miracles from heirlooms. (On the fun side, the characters mother was a member of an adventuring party which is now all petrified in Vhalantru's place, and she may rescue them to end up with a mother about her own age... heh heh).
Anyway, they got to the Lucky Monkey - and snuck around back, thereby stumbling onto Tongue-eater right away. And they bested him. It wasn't quick (no silver items on the party), but the druid pulled one heck of a nice defense and surrounded the werebaboon with a veritable swarm of summoned wolves. That poor werebaboon must have been tripped once a round. Meanwhile, the cleric/fighter used his spike chain to smack him while was down (doing minor damage) while the rogue/wizard zapped him with her wand of <I>melf's acid arrow</I>, which she bought from Skie's. Heh. It was rather anti-climactic thereafter, as the few thugs and alleybashers that hadn't come for the fight weren't much more of a hindrance.
They did stall at rescuing Shensen, however - they couldn't figure a way past the brown mold until <I>ray of frost</I> became available to the wizard who'd been a crow for most of the adventure (he missed the first session, and showed up just in time for the second session - the animal polymorphing thing is highly reccomended).
Onward...
The animal polymorph idea may just be one of the finest ideas ever for dealing with spotty attendance. Of course, you kind of have to ad-hoc rule with Druid's wild shape ability (especially if they take the wild spell feat), but that's the only problem I see with it. Consider it stolen.
Nice idea with the 'baleful polymorph' to counter spotty attendence. I always have my players characters fall into 'mysterious comas' if they can't show up. Which is fine with the two rogues in my party, because they never miss a session and always rob the comatose character blind while he's gone.
(On the fun side, the characters mother was a member of an adventuring party which is now all petrified in Vhalantru's place, and she may rescue them to end up with a mother about her own age... heh heh).
Stolen!
The animal polymorph idea may just be one of the finest ideas ever for dealing with spotty attendance. Of course, you kind of have to ad-hoc rule with Druid's wild shape ability (especially if they take the wild spell feat), but that's the only problem I see with it. Consider it stolen.
Their memories are spotty at best when they're in animal form, and more instinctual than intelligent - they don't remember much and can reason less.
I love how "Consider it stolen." is a compliment in the world of DMing. Heh.
I had to come up with something as the group is large (originally 8 players, now 7) and attendance for all at once doesn't work all that well. The nicer part is I can flex my creative muscles between adventures since most of the time the players end up a level short for the "next" episode.
After "Life's Bazaar," the Elf Ranger, Human Wizard, and Human Druid worked with Fellian and Fario to switch a disgusting fetish that had obviously been ordered for a necromantic ritual with a flawed version of the same thing that would hold up to scrutiny. Basically, the Striders had figured out that the evil folks in Cauldron had ordered in said item through a Necromancer/merchant, and instead of trying to get directly to the source, they went for sabotage. The wizard determined that the item was likely being used to turn someone in a lich, and strangely had a lot of gnoll blood/skin/teeth in its making - he figured they were about to screw up a gnoll's attempt at being a lich. So, when they meet Tarkilar, those three characters are going to be a little less more accepting of the "oops!" in the broken lich ritual.
The Fighter/Cleric and the Rogue/Diviner - the two characters who grew up in Cauldron - learned a little more about their parents (the Fighter/Cleric is the son of the two "accidental death" victims who used to be the highpriest and highpriestess of the Pelor shrine; the Rogue/Diviner is the daughter of a group of adventurers born on Ash street known as "The Risen," who used a pheonix motif and just suddenly disappeared after leaving her in the care of Rivek Mol - who turned her over to Gretchyn. The Risen are all statues in Vhalantru's home). The Fighter/Cleric and the Rogue/Diviner were being spied upon, and people who knew them were being bribed and/or threatened into revealing what they knew about the two - basically Vhalantru figuring out how much of a threat these folks are. They tangled a little with the Last Laugh to recover the Rogue/Diviner's unknown inheritance (Rivek Mol was keeping it until she was older, and a Last Laugh guildmember stole it when they 'questioned' him about her) and as such, have seen/interacted with Finch now, too.
It's nice - between episodes proper, I can really play at foreshadowing, and introduce characters they otherwise only meet once...
(On the fun side, the characters mother was a member of an adventuring party which is now all petrified in Vhalantru's place, and she may rescue them to end up with a mother about her own age... heh heh).Stolen!
*grins* The character is a Rogue/Diviner (who is aiming for Rogue/Diviner/Arcane Trickster). Her mother was an Arcane Trickster, too, her Father a Temple Raider of Olidamarra, and their companions were a Cleric of Obad'Hai and a Fighter/Sorceror/Spellsword. They're on the wall at Skie's, have a bit of renown in the city, and will not likely handle having been "on the rocks" for almost twenty years. Heh.
Now, if only I can convince her to take "Leadership." "This is my cohort, whom I call 'Mom.'" :)
I really do like adding the backgrounds to PCs that ties them in more or less with the action in the AP. For me it is breaking down like this... (we have yet to start our first session... planned for Thursday evening on OpenRPG)
Tiefling Rogue - Local who's mother died in child birth. She was a poor woman new to town who was being cared for by the nurse at the lantern street orphanage when she gave birth and passed on. The daughter was then raised in the orphanage.
A particularly likable girl, Kalishan was offered a job there at the orphanage as a fix it person. A particulary intelligent girl she was able to quickly figure out how to fix things and improve things around the orphanage, everything from updating the old outdated locks with some bought from Ghelve's locks to fixing the perpetually leaky roof.
But a life of fixing small problems and improving the life of her fellow orphans in small ways was not what she wanted for herself... she didn't want to stay small. She wanted excitment. It was at this point she was approached by a member of the Last Laugh thieves guild named Revus Twindaggers. He had noticed her acts of petty larceny the budding and natural rogue had committed and offered her a choice; accept a job from the Last Laugh and be paid in gold and training or get out of town and stay off their turf. The draw of gold and training combined with the seeming ease of the job she was asked to do made it a no brainer.
And so, it was the Last Laugh that finally kept Kalishan from leaving the orphanage. She had been asked to watch a young boy there named Terrem and see that he came to no harm.
Life was finally starting to stagnate again when things got exciting. Four children were abducted from the Lantern Street Orphanage and among them was Terrem. This could only mean that either the Last Laugh had finally decided to come and take Terrem to whereever the wanted him or that she had failed. Already she had a meeting with Revus set up and this would be an interesting one. She knew that to fail the Last Laugh was a death sentence... she just didn't know what they knew.
(Basically this replaces Patch from the Latern Street Orphanage. I figure this is a pretty good reason to hook up with the adventurers who are trying to solve the problem).
Sean Mahoney
That rocks.
How do you think the player will handle the eventual revelation of just how nasty the LL guild are? Or is she already more than aware and uncaring of it?
How do you think the player will handle the eventual revelation of just how nasty the LL guild are? Or is she already more than aware and uncaring of it?
If anyone can handle it well in RP it will be this player. The character is CN with good tendancies, so he was aware that... well, that they were a thieves guild. Learning just how depraved they are will make the whole thing a lot sweeter.
Sean Mahoney
I am still writing up many of the others so the notes will be shorter.
Dwarven Cleric of Gorm Gulthyn - Will have heard of the rumors that a great bastion of protection the dwarves set up seems to have been lost, the Malachite Fortress, and no sign of it's great leader, Zenith Splintershield, has been seen.
Additionally, the similarities between Gorm Gulthyn and Helm (this is in the FR) mean that I will likely have the dwarf hook up with the friendly human temple (I have Helm replacing St Cuthbert). He will be asked by the acting high priest to go to orphanage and assure them that the church of Helm is doing what they can to resolve this issue. On his way back he will be assaulted by three men with faces painted black and white in the style of the Last Laugh.
(Replaces Ruphus Laro... gives him ties to the church and a personal dislike of the last laugh as well as a reason to meet up with the rest of the party)
Goliath Fighter - working his last day for the city watch he is asked to trail on of the two people who are scheduled to meet today and are suspected members of the Last Laugh thieves’ guild. Violence has been escalating in a guild war and the watch also suspects the guilds involvements in the disappearance plaguing the town. He is assigned to follow a young named Kalishan (tiefling rogue player) back to wherever she goes and report on it.
My plan is that she will see him and chase will occur... and run smack dab into the rest of the party who has just shown up to help the attack on the dwarf. If I can swing it I will move the chase to the roofs and have her literally run into Jil.
Being a member of the watch, he will have the info the party would get from questioning the watch on the disappearance and can get pretty easy access to the list of victims.
Human Bard - The player was pretty insistent he wanted his character new to town. He was looking for adventures and new songs and found a group of adventurer hopefuls looking for work and decided to throw his lot in with them. He made the party large enough to get a government contract and things were finally looking like they would get their first assignment when they found shady political maneuvering had pulled the carpet out from under them.
A group with plenty of political connections, called the Stormblades, had used their connections to take the very contract that the fledgling group thought they had all tied up. The first scene will be them rushing hopefully to the government office to seal the deal when they are met by the Stormblades heading out smugly after stealing it from them. I am even thinking of having Lord Vhalantru be the one who hands out these contracts as the Lord Mayor’s right hand. What better position to keep an eye on adventuring companies?
To tie the bard more into the adventure I will give his player more background info on the area (taking skills appropriate for this and his bardic knowledge make it appropriate). Additionally in his background will include him having met the high priest of helm accompanied by Alek Tercival on their way out of town at staying over at the lucky monkey.
Sun Elf Diviner – This character will be a bit tougher… I am thinking perhaps the wizard he was apprenticed to will be one of the members of the city counsel found later on in the adventure. Perhaps I will give this character more knowledge of ancient history than the bard (depending on skill choice).
Human Monk – I have yet to see this character yet. Originally the player rolled up an Elan Telepath, but later changed my mind (of which I am glad… I was having to learn the psionic rules just for him). So once I see his proposed background I will have more. At this point I have convinced him to be a local who’s parents were adventurers and left him often in the care of the monastery while they were on adventures. They will be some of the statues found in Lord Vhalantru’s lair. Not sure what else to do for him.
Obviously it seems I have far less to give the Diviner and Monk and theirs come into play much later in the game. Any suggestions on what I might do for them?
Sean Mahoney
Your monk could have been raised by the order of monks that have been tracking down Mhad (from "Lords of Oblivion"), which would be a nice tie-in that shows up later on... Expecially if Mhad starts making vampire spawn to take him out of the equation... He could even be <I>looking</I> for her on behalf of the order, and/or doing other business for the order.
So the monk player IM'd me today and told me he wanted him to worship Kelemvor (which is the sub I have for Wee Jas). That in itself should be enough to get him involved... BWAHAHAHA
Sean Mahoney
Alright... I am thinking for the diviner that I will actually have him apprenticed to Maavu... that should pretty much tie them all up nicely!
Sean Mahoney
To get the thread back on track I have a question. I love the baleful poly idea and I am in the prossess of introdusing it to my campaign. I was trying to figure out what I was going to have attack them as they are on the way to the Kua-toa stronghold. As far as I can tell a mass baleful poly would be a minimum of a 9th level spell!! Baleful poly is a 5th level spell and all other mass spells add 4 levels to the spell. So I am curious how all of you handled a 9th level spell being shoot at a low level party?
To get the thread back on track I have a question. I love the baleful poly idea and I am in the prossess of introdusing it to my campaign. I was trying to figure out what I was going to have attack them as they are on the way to the Kua-toa stronghold. As far as I can tell a mass baleful poly would be a minimum of a 9th level spell!! Baleful poly is a 5th level spell and all other mass spells add 4 levels to the spell. So I am curious how all of you handled a 9th level spell being shoot at a low level party?
The way I handled it for my group was that it came from a very ugly looking staff - a minor artifact. The wizard holding it knew the group by their adventuring name, and sneeringly apologized something like, "I'm sorry, the Liberators must retire." Then zap.
However, an episode earlier, I let the Rogue/Diviner find her inheritance from her mother, which included (unknown to the rogue/diviner) a complex <I>contingency</I> designed to rescue her daughter from a magical assault - <I>once</I>. When the wizard tried to hit the entire group with the <I>baleful polymorph</I> effect, the protection in the amulet activated, and assaulted the energy in the staff, the wielder of the staff, and the staff itself. However, it was designed to save one person completely, and instead, it saved seven people <I>in</I>completely. Worse, it seemed to react badly to the staff and the wizard, and he caught fire. He fled via a <I>teleport</I>...
The rogue/diviner has begun to suss most of this out, including that the staff is quite powerful, evil, and tends to bond to one user for that users life. In the mean time, the group looks for a cure (but not really, since they're using this as a crutch for when one or two of them can't make it), they keep an eye out for a burned man, and they try to deal with the fact that they sometimes turn into animals for random amounts of time.
So - long answer short: "it was magic." We just made it up.
That works for me. My group on the other hand sometimes has to be hit over the head with a lead pipe....."It is that way for the story....and no it probably will not work that way next time." >:} One of the disadvantages of a group with an average age of 42. There isn't a rule they as a collective haven't read or played before.
That works for me. My group on the other hand sometimes has to be hit over the head with a lead pipe....."It is that way for the story....and no it probably will not work that way next time." >:} One of the disadvantages of a group with an average age of 42. There isn't a rule they as a collective haven't read or played before.
*smile* Then use the phrase, "Minor artifact." They do all sorts of rule-bending things. ;)
Having headed down into the once Kopru lair, the Liberators actually acheived a stealthy entrance (a first for them) when they took the guards at the top of the cage winch room by surprise. Getting down was handled easily enough via the Druid's wild shape ability and the curse on the party (one person hadn't made it yet, so they flew down on their own, and the Druid used an eagle shape to get down, so only three people rode the cage anyway). Quietly, they decided upon the southernmost door, and managed to wipe out the guards in that immediate area. They couldn't get through Skaven's door (multi-classing, I've noticed, often means a lack of the spell you need when you need it, such as knock - and the only pure-Wizard in the party was still a crow as he was late). They cleaned out the spider caves first (so much for the Harpoon spider being a big tete-a-tete with Skaven and his elemental... oh well) and it wasn't until the needle trap that people realized where they were. So they burst in on Triel and had a rollicking good fight (until the Fighter/Cleric got pinned in the doorway by the scything trap, though the Rogue/Diviner managed to help him get out). Triel wasn't all that rough a fight, over all - she did smack one character for 16 points with her Power Attack, but after that, she was constantly using her wand just to stay alive (end result: the wand of cure serious wounds has about two charges left for the party). Ditto all the thugs about - they nearly all ended up five-foot-stepping and quaffing their cure moderate potions - but none of them did any real damage to the party at all.
The party, post clean-out of the southern two-thirds of the Kopru ruins was nearly tapped out for spells, so after the fight in Triel's room (which I had Skaven show up for, since the alarms by that point had been sounded - he ended up running away after tossing one very effective lightning bolt at the party, and now sets up a sort of ambush at the cage for when they try to leave.), I handed out XP, and luckily, it turned out that the Druid hit 6th level, the Rogue/Diviner hit 2nd level as a Diviner, the Fighter/Cleric hit 4th level as a Cleric, and the Wizard hit 5th level - ergo, they can take fifteen minutes or so and prepare spells into the new slots they have available...
Tarkilar is going to be rough on them. As are the Worms of Kyuss...
They do have, however, four of the wands of control water and are wondering if the druid shouldn't wild shape into an eagle and drop them off at the temple to St. Cuthbert perhaps...
Well, we had our first fatality in the Shackled City adventure path last night. Draken the brave (*cough*) Wizard was felled by Skaven's phantasmal killer spell, and the party decided to make a break for the surface, raise him, and come back later. Since they'd wiped out the spiders, Skaven, most of the thugs/alleybashers, Triel, and such, I'm going to spread out the undead a bit for them to handle upon their return...
Poor wizard.
He's better now.
The Liberators finally finished "Flood Season" last night. They managed to get all the wands (a simple mage hand got them the wand from the Bloodbloater Ooze once they noticed the wand in the water via a coin dropped in with a light spell on it), and Gutterut fell quickly once the Wizard used a see invisibility scroll.
Where they had trouble wasn't with the worms of Kyuss (they actually dealt quickly with them, via the druid's call lightning and some good saving throws on their own behalf. There were two de-wormings, but they still managed to crunch the Kyuss folk.
Was it the giant dino skeleton? Nope. One flame arrow and then one haste spell had the ranger running past (taking an attack of opportunity, but making it to the far little cavern with a double move action) and then peppering the dino with four arrows a round from her composite long bow, dealing 1d8+3-5 piercing damage and 1d6 fire damage. It eventually dropped to bits - though it did cost her more than half of her arrows from her Quiver of Elhonna.
No, the biggest problem turned out to be... drumroll please... the glyph of warding (blindness) at the door to Tarkilar's cavern. The Druid's wolf companion and the Fighter/Cleric got hit by it, and the group had no way to reverse it, so suddenly, their two best melee folk couldn't see. Then, Tarkilar used his silence and no one could even direct the Fighter/Cleric verbally. It was sad, and quite creepy. Tarkilar did go down - again, to the ranger with her small supply of silver arrows.
They never managed to get into Skaven's little area, and neither did they go into the huge room where the cages were being created. They cut their losses, and took off, and bulging with treasure, after one trip, the cage on a rope broke down. Happily, it happened at the top and they were okay. Not so happily, the druid and the wolf were still at the bottom. One speak with animals later, and the Ranger got her owl companion to fly a potion of spider climbing to the druid, who had to carry his wolf along the walls. Cute escape.
The flood waters were, of course, held back. Go team.