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They drowned her in the waters of the STYX ? Jikes ! How did they avoid memory loss for her and themselves ?....and got the information they wanted by repeatedly drowning her in the waters that came later.
The warblade finished her off with a little cold-iron warhammer to the back of the head while the monk is holding her underwater. Again, my party has subtlety at a minimum.
-the hamster
as far as Her, they didn't care. which was even more funny since she didn't realize the place was dim-locked so tried to port out the first time (triggering the energy transformation field again), and tried to lifedrain the 2nd time...again triggering the field.
as far as the monk, he was able to hang onto the lip of a cave above the surface of the water while holding her in the water.
it was not rising, however, since the cleric had cast a Gate spell right under the planar tear pouring out water, basically redirecting the waters out to the abyssal ocean.
once again, they surprised me and took down the bigboss with little to no effort, after dying horribly to the lesser guardians.
-the hamster
Character: Grogith 1/2 orc fighter 2/ Barbarian 3
Adventure: Sea Wyvern's Wake; Ruins of Tomachoan; Dm's special encounter.
Synopsis: Anything can happen when the 1/2 orc swings his hammer.
After escorting Urol through the ruins of Tomachoan, the party is returning to the beach, where there boats are located. An erie horn can be heard off shore, the Sea Wyvern is shrouded in fog, cannon and musket fire can be heard from the fog.
The party is met by a baker's dozen of Scarlet Brotherhood pirates. 10 pirates are armed with matchlock muskets and open fire. One is a mage and takes to the sky with 4 mirror images. One moves quickly to flank the group, unarmored and carrying a butterfly sword. One is a ten foot tall ogre wearing hide armor, a bad attitude, and weilding a large club.
Grogith, the 1/2 orc fighter/ barbarian rages and rushes in to meet the musketeers with his large masterwork maul. The rest of the party remains timid and indecisive. Grogith finds himself surrounded by three pirates, with drawn scimitars, and the ogre, who moves to flank Grogith. Grogith's strength is sapped by a ray of enfeeblement by the flying mage. As the rest of the party holds back unwilling to commit, Grogith takes a beating. One more hit from the Ogre and Grogith is dead. Flanked by the ogre, Grogith cannot safely retreat.
Grogith slides to his left, giving himself a better angle and swings with his oversized maul at the ogre. Crack, right in the nuts (confirmed critical hit, total damage 88 hit points). The ogre falls dead from one mighty blow by Grogith 1/2 orc fighter/ barbarian blessed of St. Worgel.
After that the other party members find their courage and make quick work of the other pirates. Killing six musketters, capturing four others. The butterfly sword weilding flanker escapes into the shadows of the sand dunes. The mage escapes into the fog offshore.
P>S> I multiply the entire damage roll, magic effects and all (i.e. fire, cold or iajitsu damage) by the critical hit multiplier (in the case x4). Even though I would have enjoyed Grogith's death (HEHEHE), I am glad I made the change, it has made critical hits just sooooo much more fun.
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PCs: Jack, Bard9, and Chey, Rogue9
Adventure: Tides of Dread
Location: First approach to Farshore
Summary: "Oh look! Pirates! How cute. Can I have them, can I, please?"
After Here There Be Monsters, the Olman spared a few canoes to row Jack and Chey (Rogue9) to Farshore.
Following behind them (unable to make the session) were Vemli (Cleric9), Kori (Fighter9), and Asomos (Sorcerer9).
Jack and Chey round the cliffs to the opening in the bay, and are filled with elation at the sight of the Blue Nixie... until the smoke filling the sky behind it registers...
The Olman drop them off at the end of the northern-most pier, and rush off, as Jack and Chey take in the view of the city under attack by vicious pirates.
Hearing a voice calling for help, Chey dives into a nearby building and hurries about saving the woman trapped within.
But to his surprise, Jack ignores everyone, and focuses on a glimpse of the apparent leader, deep in the center of the colony.
Round 1: Jack uses Bardic Knowledge. He rolled very well, and recognized Slipknot Peet.
Round 2: Jack casts Glibness. Now I am wondering what he's up to.
Round 3: Jack casts Swift Fly. Uh oh, he's going to talk his way out of this? No way!
Round 4: Jack casts Swift Fly. Chey is very upset. Where is he going? He'll be killed!
Round 5: Jack casts Swift Fly. I'm quietly thinking of how to handle Jack's impending death, and how to give Chey opportunities to slip away and begin the obvious campaign of guerrilla warfare until the rest of the party can arrive and liberate the colony from its pirate captors...
Jack, to Slipknot Peet: "You there! WHAT do you think you are doing? Your orders were to wait until I arrived. You will tell your men to stand down RIGHT NOW."
I was dumbfounded. Any other player, I would have accused of reading the material beforehand. But Jack's player is Lawful Good to a fault. He would truly chew off his own hand before he cheated. This man lost a $600 prize at GENCON Socal a couple years ago, with seven fateful words: "Doesn't the dragon have spell resistance?" (The seventh was "Oww!" as the rest of us hit him.)
Jack chose the exact and only thing I could think of, even with Glibness, that ol' Peet might actually believe. The ONLY thing. Peet gave the order to retreat, and retreat they did.
You can only imagine Lavinia's surprise at seeing the leader of her band of adventurers giving orders to the captain of the pirates who'd just attacked her parents' colony...
Once the pirates were mostly contained, Jack challenged Peet's captaincy. A duel began. Jack fled and buffed while invisible (cast, move... cast, move...) then came in and took care of Peet quite handily.
As for Lavinia, he explained it all to her--no Glibness at all--and answered the last of her questions while making her breakfast the next morning...
PC: Pyrix, Sunelf wizard/paragnostic Apostle 6/1 (Cohort)
Adventure: Tides of Dread
Location of Glory: Tar Pits
Summary: Headache vs T-Tex
With the first round of combat going very much against the group - Warblade and ranger receiving massive hits and dealing out virtually no damage as well as the ranger ending up in the jaws of the T-rex, the bard bolstering up, the beguiler failing to slow and the rogue running for cover/sniping position - a TPK or at the least an ignominous flight looked likely.
Then the mage fired off a "mindfrost" (by virtue of the "Alacritious Cogitation" Feat from complete Mage ) and rolls for damage.
The fights ends instantly , when a measly 7 points of cold damage, but 4 points of intelligence damage (max damage) are dealt (and our GM fails to save with a natural "1") turning the T-Rex into so many tons of predator with a frozen peach-sized brain, Int of "0". Everybody slowly starts to breath again.
The group still needed three more rounds to bring the Int 0 T-Rex to its knees.... and that was without it actually fighting back :(
Oh, and some ungrateful souls complained about having been saved by a cohort....
It's good work that the bard did!
And saved by the cohort...well that T-Rex was one tough boy. Similar in my group, really--a couple of charm monsters and then luring it away to the carcass of a recently killed smaller dinosaur.
Cohorts... don't get me started *grin*
Everybody appreciates their contribution (our group had a bard for most of SWW and HtbM providing much needed buffing and knowledge skills) until they save someone's ass - then it suddenly becomes a matter of ego that the heroic character did not get his sweet behind kicked to kingdom come, becuase some "demi-NPC" intervened. And of course, they are wonderful sandbags for less-than-formidable PCs to take cover behind when the heavy stuff is on an inbound trajectory.
Never saw the possibility in "Mindfrost"(save only reduces to half INT damage - should do nicely for most animals and beasts ), gotta steal that for a character of my own.
PC: Blood Faced Jack / Swashbuckler 7
Adventure: Here There Be Monsters
Location of Glory: Shores of The Isle of Dread
Summary: T-Rex bites of more than he can chew.
Just waking from washing up on the shore after last nights ship wreck, the group finds themselves confrounted bu a hungry and ill tempered T-Rex. A hot bloody battle follows a tense stair down. about half way through the battle Blood Face (the new captian of the Sea Wyvern)gets swallowed by the T-Rex. dispair for their fallen commrad washes over the group, emphasized by some bad rolls. Then as if by it's own accord the beast falls over dead. The party dumb struck and bafled about what just happened looks on over the dead lizard. Then it apers to twitch and shift. All of a sudden a rapier stabs out of the monsters throat. Followed by a bloody Capt. cutting his way out with rapier and dagger, emerging to stand over the corps of the giant lizard that dared to try to snack on the Ruthless Captian.
PC: Sha'rell, fey'ri Beguiler 8th (don't ask)
Adventure: ToD - final battle
Location of Glory: the blooddrenched quays of Farshore
Summary: "blinded by the Light".....
After having had everything and the kitchen sink thrown at us at once (which really stretched our resources ), two characters not dying only by timely "close wounds" and "delay death" from an NPC cleric, spell slots clicking emptily, big "Vanthus Vanderbooren, Evil Mastermind at large" swoops from the skies and challenges his sister (cutscene, so he got to deliver his speech before we got to act...).
Lavinia stands defiant, if not half as eloquent, when in front of Vanthus the fey'ri Beguiler swoops from above, casting "Color Spray" at him (basically the only thing left to her after 20 rounds of non-stop combat...).
Our GM grinned and mockingly quibbed "is that all you've got ?", then glanced at V's stat block and looks pale (obviously Vanthus wasn't up to par with regard to his Will save ).
A second later, and among GM'ly curses, Vanthus drops from the sky, quite stunned, impacting on the rocks just off the waterline after falling 60' and loosing his armament in the process..... The "Enervation" hitting him next thing only made the GM curse some more ( I guess the -4 to all saves and actions didn't really help the will-save ), and from then to Vanthus' end two rounds later, the poor guy stayed quite stunned, lolling in the shallow water while our barbarian/bard ripped him to shreds with her greatspear.
Unfortunately, he still got to trigger his shadow pearl in another cutscene, but our much-abused beguiler, who had suffered silently from "target-is-immune-syndrome" ever since SWW, finally had her moment in the spotlight - especially after the GM afterwards confessed that Vanthus was a CR 14 BBEG (*ouch*)
oh, and we still got rid of the "ticking" shadow pearl before it blasted away Farshore, since the wizard got exceedingly lucky on her dispel check (natural "20" on the only dispel left ). She was by then down to 4 HP from the acidic fumes though, and we have no ideas what would have happened if that orb had exploded.... lucky her !
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Olan, Human Cleric of Pelor / Radiant Servant
Lvl: 19
Adventure: Enemies of my Enemy
Catalyst: Being a Balor and having Fortunate Fate (or whatever the spell is called)
Dealing with Dingoslag in the general's camp, Dingo got init, tried to implode the cleric, who is currently shapechanged (via a domain draught) into Balor form. He doesn't even crack his SR, and the implosion fails to go off, as expected.
Olan then moves up, using the aforementioned spell to "roll a 20" on his attack, triggering the vopal quality of the sword. A confirmed crit later, everyone rolls Ref and Fort (for massive damage) as Dingo blows up with no head.
Time of battle: 3 init turns. Dingo, the Ranger, then Olan.
-the hamster
(unfortunately, unable to kill any of them this turn.....maybe next game!)
PC: Kek, phanaton rogue 5/avenger (good assassin) 4
Adventure: "Tides of Dread"
Location of Glory: Outside the Temple of the Jaguar
Summary: A perfect sequence of actions
Long Description: Harg, the half-orc ranger, noticed the emerald anaconda with a natural 20 on his Spot check. Kek buffed up with cat's grace and jump, then studied the snake for a few moments, then cast true strike while the sorceress cast greater invisibility on him, and finally charged. He totalled 40 for his Jump check (perfect to get him onto the pyramid) and rolled a 3 for his attack roll (but good enough to hit with true strike). Needing to beat a DC 16 Fort save (against Kek's death strike) with a +18 bonus, I of course rolled a natural 1: one dead snake.
Needless to say, things would have gone Very Poorly for the phanaton if I'd rolled anything else.
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...hooray, i got to play in the Savage Tide...
one of my players (Cinnamongirl, who plays Z in my STAP group) has her own STAP game going. they're right in the middle of ToD, just having finished up the preamble and starting on the "defense of farshore" part.
here's where i come in.
i finally got a day off that coincided w/ game day, so i brought in my irrepresible, irresponsible, and unbelievably cute sorcerer Karnot in as a "guest character."
Sorc 10, Halfling, Cha of 28 due to high starting, +4 cloak, and a cursed item that drains Wis and grants Cha. So very much fun to play.
The glory startes here: In the defense of Farshore, the Golems walk up on the beach, can't do too much to them beyond Haste-ing the party, so i sit on the beach and assist till the incoming ships hit fireball range (800' away)
Then, i just launch empowered fireball after empowered fireball into the center of the riggings. I think it took 1 on each ship except the one w/ the yuan-ti onboard...that one took 2 since i flubbed the SR check on the sorcerer.
the best part: the party got no experience from the ship encounter (since i did all the work and they literally had NO impact on it) but DID get full CR-10 xp for meeting and surviving my little halfling.
god i love these adventures, especially ToD....hooray!
-the hamster
god i love these adventures, especially ToD....hooray!-the hamster
Why, thank you, my furry little friend! My Ego will now live to see another day. Hooray!
PC: Shallasar - Rogue, Sea Elf.
Adventure: Here There Be Monsters
Location: Temple to the Demogorgon
After jamming his dagger into the winch to stop the poor kidnapped Tristy* being lowered into the fire pit he returns to battle the Bar-lgaru, meanwhile Dalrin flies up and uses Dimension Door to take Tristy to safety.
Later in the fight Olangru badly wounded use his abduction ability on Shallasar to teleport right above the middle of fire pit, dropping him into it while he levitates above. It seems certain doom for Shallasar, until he reaches out with his free hand, grabbing the chains hanging from the ceiling and hanging from one arm stabs Olangru with his cold iron shortsword killing the demon.
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RPG Superstar 2013 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16
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PC: Deek Blackhammer, Goliath Barbarian 8/Fighter 4
Adventure: "The Lightless Depths"
Location of Glory: Gallivant Cove
Summary: Unleashed 278 points of damage to the Glutton in one hit!
Long Description: In my modifed Planescape STAP the members of the SWORD followed the leads left after the Doomsguard fleet and a Ship of Chaos attacked the Signer colony of Farshore (set on the Beastlands near the Forbidden Plateau) to a portal leading to Pandemonium.
Upon entering Pandemonium the PC's found themselves in a raging subterranean river being swept along into a large cavern. The aasimar paladin (winged) and star elf sorceress flew above the dark waters while the 2 barbarians swum the gulf heading towards the green glowing skulls on the bone pier of the Trog caves. Landing on the pier their light was spotted by an advanced Howler (in place of the dimetrodon) and it's subsequent baying alerted the trog clerics and the Glutton to the presence of intruders. Though the Paladin made short work of the "guard dog" the party was trapped between the Glutton and the iron gate. After the Glutton caught half the party in it's Breath Weapon the Goliath Deek launched himself from the pier at the Glutton.
+1 Large adamantine goliath greathammer of Impact: 3d6/19-20, x4
Strength while raging: 34(+12)
Leap Attack feat for 10pts: +40
Nat 19 on the die: priceless
Yeap that's 12d6+236!!! Deek subsequently survived two more breath weapons (failed the save on all 3) and a full attack before the Sorceress hit the Glutton with a Cacophonic Blast!
PC: Xianta Silvergaard, sorceress 10/fighter 1
Adventure: "The Lightless Depths"
Location of Glory: Gallivant Cove
Summary: Never try to bluff a dragon ...
... unless you get lucky. Xianta rolled a natural 20 on her Bluff check to convince Emraag the Glutton that the Crimson Fleet plans to attack him the next time they sail into Gallivant Cove.
This, along with other blandishments and bribes (the latter couched as tribute; the party quickly realized that they were dealing with an ego as much as with a dangerous dragon), helped convince the Glutton to allow ships flying Farshore's flag to pass unmolested. He is now also likely to attack the next crimson-sailed ship he sees.
PC: Pyrix, Wizard (ex-cohort) 6, paragnostic apostle 4, SeaMage* 2 (class from dragonlance setting )
Adventure: "The Lightless Depths"
Location of Glory: Gallivant Cove
Summary: so you wannabe a tuff turtle, ?
After sailing to Gallivant Cove the group was pretty much split over what to do about Emrak's strong-arming tactics, and actually handed over Lavinia's treasure, because "we are not going to fight that island sized thingie".... cowards all !
The sun-elf mage was pretty miffed about this, and after finishing business down in Golismorga and teleporting everyone else back to Farshore returned to the "Serenity" (ex-Sea Wyvern ) still anchored in Gallivant Cove. Some triangulation on Emrak using Circle Dance ensued, a position for his probable lair was calculated and preparations for the following day were made.
The lonely wizard then flew out (the ship being still anhcored inshore) to the general region of the lair (invisible thanks to the ring from Zozilla ), casts Heart of Water, False Life and Resist Energy on herself and proceeds to attract Ol'Emrak with a bad rendition (via Ghost Sound ) of the Olmani Digeridoo. Eardrums were violated, but the turle noticed the lure of doom.
majestically, Emrak surfaced, pretty angry at the interuption of whatever he was doing down in the depths and gets challenged by a (major Image) Ghaele floating above, demanding his immediate withdrawal from the area "or else", since he had outstayed his welcome by the Olmani gods...
Sligtly megalomanicly inclined Emrak refused and snorts a steamcloud at the illusionary Ghaele (which was outside range of his scent-ability)... hostilities commenced !
In return, he gets struck by a double (split Ray feat) Enervation, handily maximized via Sudden Maximize. Before he even gets to act again, he gets hit with a ray of dizziness, and with its tiny brain working furiously smartly attempts to dive away, calling for his ally, a subjugated Kraken (which started swimming up from his lair ).
The wizard follows him underwater (flight plus heart of water = no problem) and hits him with another double Enervation for five more negative levels... Emrak, by now really angry and a bit lame in the flipper, turns, snorts a steam cloud and.... has the damage absorbed by Flase Life and Resist Energy (30 points vs. fire) eben though poor Pyrix has no chance to actually make the high DC save. In return though he gets hit by yet another Enervation, taking him to 17 negative levels... A terrible suspicion is creeping up on him as his life drains away. But wait - now his trusty Kraken surges up, forcing the perky elf to turn invisible (ring) and to dive off sideways, becoming rather hard to spot in the murky depths but the immediate threat seems to be gone... if only he can reach is cavernous lair ! Determinedly Emrak weakly paddles towards his lair (facing a 3 turn reload of his steamy breath ) while his pet puts down a covering inky cloud and covers the retreat... Two rounds pass as Emrak paddles towards the beckoning safety of his lair at a slovenly 30'/round.... while Pyrix moved into firing position once again, and then, with a "smoky confinement" spell (melee touch for delivery)at the ready dove in invisibly and sucked the enraged Emrak into a bottle-sized prison (hard to save vs a DC 25 Fort spell if you have a -17 modifier to your roll... even if you are one monstrous turle ).
The last thing he hears is a soft chuckle - after all, she had given her solemn promise not to hurt the "poor-dragon-turtle" (the keyword here being "turtle" since at least one co-player is extra-ordinarily fond of these )...
Inevitably the Kraken pounced the now visible wizard with its long reach tentacle right away and while he pulled her into a grapple, she escaped immediately via Dimension Hop, sped off, turned invisible once more, and pumped her remaining other 4 Enervations into the poor maritime nasty with "cast-and-flit-away" tactics helped by another timely Ray of Dizziness and her pearls of power. The Kraken was eventually turned (with a -13 modifier to its Fort Save of DC 24) into a salt statue with a timely "Flesh to Salt", and left to "melt" at the bottom of the Bay.After two minutes, everything was very silent in the depths of Galivant Bay again....
Final Score
Wizard vs. Turtle 2:0
Not a single point of damage was actually dealt to either of the two high CR monsters (CR 12 fo the Kraken and CR 15+ for Emrak) - the WWF would certainly approve the lack or premeditated cruelty.
Of course, envious groans, lame comments and rather verbose lamentations by the other players accompanied a feisty grin on part of the wizard's player. The lamentations stopped though, when the turtle's treasure was divided up, and solemn oaths were sworn (ingame and outgame) that the turtle would not be killed (outright).....
Using him as an advance "drop-troop" over Scuttlecove (which we are bound to sail too, as our GM alludes ) is still an option... calculations as for the impact damage done by a gargantuan sized Dragon Turtle dropped into the anchorage of the piraty hive of Scum and villainy from 6000'+ up are just too attractive^^
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The bes tthing is after over 1 year that itr finally is done. Players hated the abyss (especially the conjuror) Players got to play demon races for the first time ever, and got to 18th level before encountering a batch of flying demons. They were trying to rescue Lavinia from the prison but fell short as they crossed the bridge. In a shortened version of what happended, two of the four characters got knocked off the bridge sand were climbing the 100' of cliff, the demon/angel character tankkd as long as they could but got decapitated. With the hope of continuiong on the mages shoulders, he decided to wish them all back to the prime material plane and end the campiagn and retire. So much for epic heroics at high level. On the 4th ediion we will go.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Adventure: Sea Wyvern's Wake
Location: Sargasso, at the Thunderer
After being spooked by Vine Horrors who slaughtered half the crew and fought the party from under the surface, the party decided to find the 'brain' and put an end to her evil.
They built a sled from spare wood and the ships boat and set off. The Water Genasi Barbarian in adapted snowshoes, with a total move speed of 90 (don't ask), pushed three halflings and another barbarian over the seaweed towards the Thunderer. The dark seaweed sloped upwards until it was above the deck of the recessed ship at the heart of the Sargasso, leaving it in a sort of crater of it's own making. Behind the speeding sled, Vine Horrors lurched forward, and behind them a Gargantuan seaweed beast made of a broken boat held together with animated vines tried to catch the sled.
The speeding sledge filled with three halflings and an axe-wielding barbarian clinging on for dear life shot over the rim of the dark crater and crashed onto the deck of the Thunderer, spilling its contents over the deck and they cheered!
PC: Khia the Wizard
Adventure: Tides of Dread
Location: a yuan-ti crewed pirate ship in Farshore harbour
Summary: two casters throw EVERYTHING at each other...
Big battle at the end of ToD. Stygian Shark hanging offshore, V'sesslin fireballing all and sundry. PCs watching as their militia (and various others like Lavinia and Khai's squeeze Lirith) begin to really feel it.
Khai's Contingent Energy resistance is triggered by the first fireball, so he's ok, and safe from any future fireballs. But his only way to get out to the ship is his Cloak of the Mountebank, and that's a one-way trip.
He does it anyway.
(Note that I tweaked V'ssesslin's spell loadout to give her Dispel Magic, or the whole assault would have petered out into a big fat anticlimax as the cleric cast Control Water to create a whirlpool in the harbour mouth - it's in the spell description, look it up!)
He's invisible to start (plus mirror imaged), but after one enhanced fireball from a scroll, he's cursing spell resistance and the yuan-ti archers promptly start filling him (and his images) full of holes after V'ssesslin hastily Hastes them. He fires an enervation at V'sesslin, but misses. She fires one right back at him, and hits thanks to the archers whittling down the mirror images. 4 negative levels, and all of the big spells go bye-bye. In trouble now. But his next Enervation (from a scroll, since all his level 5 and 4 spells are all gone by now) hits her, and she cops 4 of her own right back.
V'sesslin spends a round mirror imaging herself, not wanting to cop another one of those. Khai spends his last level attack 3 spell, a fireball, killing two of the archers and singeing V'sesslin. He cops a fireball from V'sesslins wand for his trouble, but is protected by his energy resistance, and blows the last archer away with a magic missile.
At this point, Khai has no spells left higher than second level other than Turn to Sand. V'sesslin doesn't even have that. She's seen her big gun (the wand) be completely ineffective, and her only other real offensive spell (scorching ray) is also fire-based. Both are going to have real trouble causing damage from here on.
A round is spent on defences. Khai renews his mirror image while retreating to the crow's nest, V'ssesslin her false life from the quarterdeck. They glare at each other.
Khai boosts himself with a True Strike, only to growl in frustration as V'ssesslin hastily Mirror Images herself. He fires off the Ray of Enfeeblement anyway, and gets lucky enough to hit her. Most, but not all, of the damage is undone by a Bull's Strength, and the still-hasted sorceress draws an lightning-crackling dagger and charges up the rigging into Khai's face. He throws the last of his magic missile at her, which fizzles on her SR, and as she starts slashing his mirror images down he casts his Turn to Sand, and flows over the railing and reassembles back on the deck.
V'sesslin spends a round hacking the ratlines off the crows nest, for some peculiar reason, but once Khai retreats to the bow and hits her with his last fireball scroll, and when the mast starts smouldering and creaking she decides it's time to come down. And on the way she, reaching the bottom of the barrel, hits Khai with a charm person, which he laughs off.
Khai renews, for the last time and off a scroll, his Mirror Image, and then tries to knock V'ssesslin off the ship with his Ring of the Ram. She flies out of the rigging (her Haste had expired, so it took longer climbing down than going up...) and skids along the deck, smacking hard into the railing.
But this gives her time to bang out another charm person, and this time Khai natural-1s the save (and the +4 save bonus for being charmed in combat doesn't help at all when that happens!)...
Khai abruptly wonders why he's attacking his good friend snaky-woman. Especially when there's more important matters happening on-shore (ie, there was a great big boom cos the remaining PCs had just failed to prevent the vrocks from completing their dance of ruin). V'sseslin says "the demons are here, you have to go protect the village - here, step into this circle and I'll teleport you there!" She forms a circle out of rope on the deck and gestures to it. Khai nods, and steps inside.
The rope lashes around and tries to entangle Khai as V'ssesslin casts Animate rope. He *just* manages to extricate himself, snaps out of the charm, whips out his last scroll, and catches V'ssesslin helplessly in a Web.
That does the job. She hangs there helplessly as he proceeds to expend every last charge in his Ring of the Ram depleting her last couple of mirror images, and then beating her bloody. When the ring runs dry, he tosses a pot of alchemist's fire into the web. V'ssessling shrieks in mortal agony, and charges, still flaming, straight at Khai, fangs bared and dagger crackling.
Khai meets her charge, draws his own dagger, and slams it up under her chin and into her brain. The keen quality finally paying off with an attack roll of 18!
Epic, epic combat. You don't often see real mage-duels in D&D, but this was a cracker - probably because both casters lost their big spells early, neither had dispels available, and both were well kitted-out defensively, though if Khai didn't have the energy resistance things would have gone much differently.
So the level 10 wizard beat a CR14 encounter all by himself (though he expended a ring and half a dozen scrolls doing it...) and is now miles ahead of the rest of the part on XP. Still, he's the one who does item crafting, so that's probably not a bad thing.
(He was *cranky* when he got back to Farshore and realised that since the rest of the party b#%%$~!sed up the vrock encounter so badly, Lirith had been killed by the Dance of Ruin...)
Final post for me; our campaign ended at the end of "City of Broken Idols" -- a natural stopping point -- due to another player and me both having babies due in a few months.
PC: Crimgin, gnome wizard 3/druid 3/mystic theurge 7
Adventure: "City of Broken Idols"
Location of Glory: Khala's chamber
Summary: well-chosen and -cast spell
The party teleported into Khala's chamber, having been driven out last time in the single or low double digits. They had a well-planned series of actions for the first few rounds of combat. Crimgin deviated from the plan immediately, casting a feeblemind on Khala instead of whatever else he was going to do. The player rolled a natural 20 on the spell penetration check (needing something like a 16 to beat Khala's SR); I rolled a natural 1 on his saving throw, his only possible failed Will save.
Unable to use his spell-like abilities, or conceive of tactics any more complex than "charge and hit", Khala slogged towards the party through two solid fogs, taking steady damage all the way, and getting grappled by a pair of the thaumaturgist's huge earth elementals, before finally falling to a hold monster (due to his dramatically-lowered Will save) and a coup de grace.
This ended the threat of the savage tide, Khala not having created enough shadow pearls to power Demogorgon's final ritual.
The Jade Ravens are the true heroes of the Savage Tide
Well, at least until Scuttlecove. ;)
My playesr have been wanting to hear some responses to one of their great glories.
Advengure: Here there be Monsters
location: Fogmire
Character: Keelek Mindhammer, dwarven BBN/Wizard 1/8 (1/9?)
Keelix the lonely, phanaton scout 8 (9?)
Olongru makes a grab and successfully grapples Keelex. Before he can teleport (abduct) away Mindhammer drops a spell on Keelex polymorphing him to something larger. Since polymorph is limited to creatures with hit dice same size as the character Keelex is now an 8 headed hydra. His grapple failing Olongru moves away. His mobility keeps all 8 attacks of opportunity from causing any harm, but then he grapples Urol.
The hydra moves to follow getting all 8 heads to attack the demon. Since he moved Keelix's skirmish damage kicks in 8 TIMES! A botched concentration roll and suddenly the demon is facing 8 attacks of opportunity and alas, mobility is of no use on this one. Same round so the skirmish damage kicks in again.
Olongru is hurting, but moves well away from the hydra to finally abduct the little gnome.
So polymorph (hyda) + skirmish = scrambling DM. O:)
Adventure: Bullywug Gambit
Location: Master Bedroom
Summary: "No one tells me who who not to kill . . . not even the halfling I love."
Racing to Lavinia's to save her from Drevoraz, Orbee (the halfling) heads to the water and jumps in while Calamity (ftr/psy war) and Alura (rogue/ninja) take to land route. Orbee emerges from the water being chased by the district watch for violating the water during the Zelkarune Fall Festival (AoW hasn't occurred in this world), but he quaffs the potion of gaseous form he bought from Blisker Tittertop and recons the manor.
While racing through the city streets, Alura & Calamity are confronted by Diamondback & her stiltwalkers (killers hired by Sebastian Kronenberg, an npc wizard from the Witchwardens who's still irritated about being left behind in Steamer's Lane (read: Scuttlecove) during Dead Man's Quest in the clutches of the Ur-priests (couldn't be Rowyn b/c she used the PC's as unwitting pawns in her bid for thieves' guild supremacy and placing Heldrath on the Dawn Council, replacing the Islarans and so Rowyn has no beef with the group). Diamondback leaps down on Calamity in a move that Alura, as a Telvanta Academy graduate, recognizes as being straight from Academy. Diamondback criticals and rolls broken hand on the chart. Calamity can no longer wield her 2H greatsword very effectively.
Alura tumbles through the crowd and scores her own critical on Diamondback. And rolls a very debilitating roll for a battledancer, "punctured thigh, half movement." Which is a moot point b/c Alura does enough damage to kill Diamondback. So she rips her rapier out of Dback's femoral artery and she bleeds out. The stiltwalkers pause as they watch their leader killed in one. A & C race on to Vanderboren estate.
So Orbee knows where everyone is. But when he gets to the master bedroom, he sees his love (well, maybe its just his lust), Kora Whistlegap tied to a chair with an opaque, viscous fluid on her cheek. He dismisses the gaseous form and attacks Drevoraz. Not nearly enough to kill him, just irritate. Drevoraz takes a 5' step, lays his blade on Kora's throat and tells the wee man to stand down. The player wants to throw a dagger, but he only has quick draw, not flick-of-the-wrist. I make it plain that Drevoraz has taken a readied action to slit her throat. Orbee uses his speak w/o a sound halfling racial ability to tell Kora that he's going to kill Drevoraz. She's panicky and just keeps repeating back to him, "Don't do it, don't do it." Orbee gets ready when . . .
Calamity and Alura burst through the front door to warn Lavinia of impending doom and run into 3 bullywugs. Two go down quickly while the one at the top of the stairs wigs out and runs away screaming. But he doesn't know the manor well and takes a wrong turn, into the kennel. Pooches are happy with their new chew toy. The other bullywugs are used to the dogs barking so they pay no heed or fail their listen checks altogether. Alura makes her Use Magic Device to read her scroll of speak with animals to control the dogs and tell them to stop yapping and go find Lavinia. Outside the bedroom, Alura fails her strength check vs. two of the three dogs, who go bursting through the door.
Orbee makes his concentration check, Drevoraz doesn't. Orbee throws his dagger, and rolls a 20. Confirms the crit and rolls on the chart: nailing him in the shoulder so Drevoraz's rapier falls nervelessly from his hands. Lavinia leaps upon the bullywug cleric who was casting his summon monster, grapples, and the cleric fails the concentration check. Drevoraz dies, cleric dies. Two Jade Ravens are freed and Orbee knows where everything is laid out.
Mop up.
Considering last week, Ripclaw killed Alura and Captain Harliss left Calamity for dead at -8, I thought the group sprang back quite gloriously.
Was I the last one to post a glory? ELEVEN months ago?!? Either there are some pretty brutal DM's out there, or not many are still playing this one.
I am still running the same group. We're ready to start the siege of Farshore in ToD, which brings me to . . .
Adventure: Tides of Dread
Character: Gnomenatrice (my wife's character)
Summary: Excuse me, but I'm the enchanter.
I didn't railroad the beaching of the Sea Wyvern, instead, it was the Blue Nixie. The group has had a lot of down-time between HtbM and ToD, so they were able to dispatch a crew to retrieve the Nixie. But they were overdue, thus requiring PC intervention for the VP's.
They arrive to discover an angry elasmosaurus. The ranger charm animals it. From a porthole two rounds later Skephilipika charms his animal companion back. The ranger holds it. The PC's race to the boat and board. And are attacked by their own crew!
Or, are about to be attacked by their own crew. The gnome enchanter sorceress decides she'll dispel magic on the crew. "Oh, right," I'm thinking, "dispel the domination of a kopru, good luck with that." She rolls a twenty on the check.
Skephilipika tried to flee at that point. Didn't get far.
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Character: Orbee (halfling ranger)
So, later, they're at the tar pits, rescuing phanatons from the depradations of one Temauhti-tecuani. Orbee quaffs his resist acid and readies his bottle of air because he knows he's probably going to fail his animal empathy check and get swallowed whole.
He was right.
I was using Blackgale's CR 14 Temauhti-tecuani (not the CR 11 in Dungeon #143). It looked like the old T-Rex was going to get in a few tasty nibbles before finally going down for the big dirt nap. That is until Orbee rolled a 20, confirmed it and then hit 99 on the critical hit chart ("decapitated, death").
He worked his way back up the gizzard and can opened his head from the inside out. Oh, yeah, and it also kind of impressed the phanatons.
Adventure: Sea Wyvern's Wake: Journey's End
Character: Hantei Yasumoto, NE Human Ninja|Scout (Gestalt)
Summary: I am the Dread Pirate Ninja and YOUR CAPTAIN.
Yasumoto, being the only PC with Profession (Sailor), had gotten the thankless position of Captain. He'd been able to shuffle it off on Amalla Venkalie while they were on the Sea Wyvern, but when the pirates attacked at the pass the group captured the Nightshark and decided to man it, leaving the Wyvern to Venkalie and the rest of the crew, taking only a few choice NPCs along (Churtle, Skald, Diamondback, and captives Conrad Horst and Rowyn) as well as the surviving members of its pirate crew and their Wavewitch captives. Being a ninja, Yasumoto doesn't really like being the leader. But no one else could really sail the ship except the pirates who nobody trusted, so he got the job by default. He hated it. Still does actually.
Then the Nightshark got stuck in Journey's End, turning these two big, bad pirates into blubbering wimps. "Journey's End - WE'RE DOOMED!" they sobbed through their whiskey. And the Dread Pirate Ninja had had enough. He whipped those two whimpering thugs into fighting shape through mere threats alone, and proceeded to head the assault against the first two waves of Vine Horrors. The rest of the party was just kind of standing their stunned at the quiet ninja suddenly lashing out and putting "the two nitwits" in their places... those places being reloading the ballista so Yasumoto could rip through Vine Horrors without delay.
Now not only are the barely-tolerable pirates completely obedient, I might actually have to give them names and personalities. (In my head I refer to them as Hack and Slash, but not in game or on MapTool.) Or just have the Mother-of-All eat them.
Adventure: Serpents of Scuttlecove, The Wreck
Character: Tyrix Draktus, hellbred warlock/hellfire warlock
Summary: ...and DON'T talk about my dad!
During the party's assault of the Wreck, they were ambushed by Cold Captain Wyther. After a sneak attack on the party monk, the captain turned and began mocking Tyrix, reminding him about how his father was once a captain in the Crimson Fleet.
"Aaah, ya little bastard... ya look just like yer daddy..."
Wyther never got the chance to say another taunt, as Tyrix launched a maximized hellfire eldritch blast at him. One confirmed crit later, the warlock strode cockily away from the carnage, having just one-shotted the head of the Fleet.
Last round of fight with Demogorgon. Party'c cleric and main fighter (a Swiftblade) lay dead, Druid and Rogue combined have about 80 hp, Bard plays first, Demogorgon second and he has 1 hp. Bard, who has never drawn his sword during the campaign and doesn't really have any offensive capabilities remembers that he has Ring of Three Wishes which he snagged of Redfang and launches a Flame Strike using a Wish, yelling FOR MY FATHER (the Cleric) and finishes him off.
Moved from Obits:
FRIDAY Night's Session
PRESCIENT POST OF POSSIBLE TPK in CoBI
So those pesky players couldn't decide where to start looking for the lost gnome ambassadors to the Isle of Dread. It was either:
(A) Gallivant Cove, where they crashed or
(B) Thanaclan, where they were headed.
They really were in a toss-up, so I meta-gamed and told them that Gallivant Cove would be easier (TLD). Okay, they agreed; even said they were leaning towards that anyway.
Friday, a week after that decision, they're heading out. They end up charming the roc that's just passing by and decide to hitch a ride by getting into a launch and having it carry them. Okaayyy . . .
Then they decide to descend onto the plateau. You know, on Thanaclan. On the part I said was harder! I suppose I should have said, "Uh, you remember that's the harder part, right?" But I didn't want to be too railroady; they'd started out going to Gallivant Cove, so I figured it was a conscious decision.
They dropped off at Mantru. Passed the couatl's riddle within 30 seconds and took all the buffs they could. Including gaseous form. The players were looking up durations, so I thought they were looking up other pertinent information, like fly speed whilst gaseous.
They go past the nets, which I didn't think would be set off by clouds. The first skinwalker guard gets a 3 on his INT check and thinks nothing of it. The skinwalkers in the main chamber get a 5. One fans the fire because they think its getting a little smoky. There's nothing else between them and room 28 (where the fiendish oyster are).
The players, with only 2 minutes remaining on the spell, dismiss it and decided to eliminate these oysters. They use the wand of enlarged fireballs from the yuan-ti sorcerer from ToD. The oysters all start shrieking.
It was 10 p.m. I stopped the game there with, "You've pretty much just alerted everything in this complex that you've bypassed and that's ahead of you. I am in no way prepared to run this massive of a fight, nor are we going to be any good starting it this late."
So the hezrous in 30 heard it, as did the 3 kopru in 29. The three kopru will appear in two rounds, see the PC's and one will go to Temple Level 3 to round up all the other koprus and alert Khala. The three hezrou will get to room 26 in two rounds, see the PC's and each will attempt to gate in another. One will head for the skinwalkers (chief, Onaitli, the julajimus, 2 acolytes, and 12 regular), one will teleport to the clay golems, and one will charge the group.
As one player is The Voice of the Outer World (a Chosen One to the Olman), I may have the 2 dread wraiths and 8 wraiths rise to aid the group. I may also have the couatls rouse Rissashtak and his lizardfolk to a valiant charge. That's about all the calvary I think I can muster for this otherwise doomed party of hearties.
It's 3:20 a.m.; I'm finally done prepping minis, spreadsheet with stats and HP calculator, dungeon tiles. Tomorrow might be the end. Wish them well.
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SUNDAY AFTERNOON:
I was premature . . . no, no, no, not that way!
They holed up in room 27. A strategic location as it turns out.
The group scrounged up an old scarab of golem bane. That's one of those "roll again" items, but I let 'em have it levels ago. I mean, the group certainly didn't have any bludgeoning adamantine lying around, so I felt pretty good about my first wave of clay golems. But the clay golems couldn't get two abreast in the narrow hall and couldn't successfully bull rush nor overrun the study dwarf with the aforementioned scarab.
How'd they keep getting swarmed by everyone else? My lovely wife, playing the one foot gnome. She's been using the Staff of Evocation to fireball and chain lightning anything and everything. As she pored over her character sheet from Friday night to Sunday afternoon, she discovered she could also use it to erect Walls of Force.
Guess who, in the entire complex of the City of Broken Idols can teleport past it? Yeah, the three hezrous. And who in Khala's band can cast disintegrate? No one. Not a single smurfing one of them!
The group would just wall off one section, divide them up and then carve them up. Down some potions, and then switch.
Khala did make them soil themselves with two gaze attacks every round at DC 27. But the dwarf's horn of blasting stunned every one of the six skulvyn for 11 rounds! Meat shield fighter/psionic warrior took a full round of attacks, wouldn't have taken a second, when that dwarf scored a critical hit for 102 points of damage and dropped poor Khala to -7.
Why didn't Khala swap with Xerkamat? My lovely wife, after three attempts, managed to get past Khala's SR and he failed his save vs. dimensional anchor.
Oh, it was a glorious 6 hour slug-fest that everyone enjoyed. But I roll in front of my players and, well, let's just say I wished I was playing Alternity on Sunday.
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Character: Orbee (halfling ranger)
I was using Blackgale's CR 14 Temauhti-tecuani (not the CR 11 in Dungeon #143). It looked like the old T-Rex was going to get in a few tasty nibbles before finally going down for the big dirt nap. That is until Orbee rolled a 20, confirmed it and then hit 99 on the critical hit chart ("decapitated, death").
He worked his way back up...
My congrats to Orbee. I actually used something similar to introduce a new character to the party. Since I allowed Lizardfolk the dwarf and a few others assumed the new character was a baby T-rex birthing itself from the creature's belly.
KUDOS also to Hantei Yasumoto, Tyrix Draktus, the swift blade, and Mykuls whole party.
Last week we were traveling to lightless depths and I added two poison gas rooms (to give a reason for drawing the map and asking for checks without spoiling the encounter). The mage player was actually out, and so others were trying to remember his spells. Fortunately with all the preparations for the pirate invasion he had a lot of stone shape and fabricates handy. I was expecting the force wall, (which they used well) but stoneshaping a tunnel and scooting around the ooze, was a pretty good call. O:)
Adventure: Tides of Dread: Temple of the Jaguar Side-quest
Characters: My entire party:
Summary: A little generosity can change EVERYTHING.
Lazarus and Gene both wanted to do character rebuilds (they'd actually wanted to play new characters entirely, but my game has had a lot of cast switching already and I was sick of it so I managed to talk them into same characters, new classes) so I turned the weapons cache in the Temple of the Jaguar into a side-trip dungeon to accomplish that. The place was home to an artifact created by Huehueteotl, Olman god of Time, that allowed anyone who jumped into the flames to rewrite their own personal history. As I'd replaced Rakasta in my game with Duskling fey, I had the dungeon be populated by Shadar-kai and their various fey minions, looking to get to the flame so they could rid themselves of their Curse of Darkness.
The group beat their way through the first few encounters, killing and looting Shadar-kai left and right, stopping only to negotiate with some Shimmerlings who had gotten stuck down below as well; however, after an extremely difficult encounter two Shadar-kai warblades had been badly wounded - one with a severed spine, the other with several missing fingers and a gashed hand, courtesy of Shariss's scimitars an extremely generous Critical Hit deck - and were taken prisoner and questioned.
The group eventually made a deal with the Shadar-kai: if they would defeat the guardian protecting the flame, the Shadar-kai could use it once Lazarus was done. The fey agreed, the party kicked some Inevitable tincan, and Lazarus and Gene got their rebuilds. The Shadar-kai, seeing that the flame did indeed work as advertised, started leaping in and tossing in their wounded, who then emerged moments later fully healed and curse-free.
Thanks to some swift diplomacy and smart dealmaking, the group not only ended further hostilities but freed an entire race from a devastating curse, possibly turning their alignment as a racial whole away from evil in the process, AND elicited the aid of a well-known, famed warrior culture for the defense of Farshore in the upcoming pirate attack, on TOP of the Temple's weapon cache and the help of the Olmans.
City of Broken Idols
Lost Temple, Boulder Trap
Keelix the Lonely, phanaton scout
Having scouted ahead in gaseous form Keelix found the hall safe. He led the party later up the hall and set the ball a rolling. Being ahead of the party Keelix he saw it first, but had finished his move.
The others began to run back down the hall on their turn.
Keelix, paralyzed by initiative turn, watched the crushing ball roll toward him, growling as it pushed its way through the narrow hall. The round stone's speed was not enough to close on the hapless squirrel-monkey before he could react however. Thinking fast he pulled the portable hole from his pocket and unfolded it in front of him.
The party continued running, all but one making it to the corner and diving to the side. Afraid of the smear their little friend might have become they cautiously peeked around the corner.
The great ball crushed dust and rock as it continued; then fell into the hole with a slight plop. Keelix calmly folded the hole back up and stuck it in his pocket.
We are just beginning the final chapter. My PC Danithal is Ranger 9/Totemic Demonslayer 10. My party had just arrived at the General's encampment toward the end of the second module. After speaking with the balor, who's name escapes me, to gain an audiance with the general, said Balor attacked (apparently he wanted to empress the gathered horde). The witch and I went first in initiative. After he did some piddly damage with a freezing sphere I activated my dynonychus tattoo for a pounce attack and shredded him. He died in a great fireball and I still had on attack with my off-hand and a rake to go if needed. That mini rested at my spot the rest of the night lol.
RPG Superstar 2015 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 16
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Prince of Demons. The party has just hit level 20. At Quah-Nomag's request, the PCs must infiltrate the headquarters of the Demos Horde outside Lemoriax and take out the leader--in this case, War Secretary-General Gromsfed the Drowned. I've replaced the Gromsfed in Dungeon #150 with a custom acid-based balor lord.
Initiative is rolled. Unbeknownst to the PCs, they have until his turn to shut him down completely via death or action denial, or else he will teleport away, summon allies, rain a storm of vengeance on their current location, buff up, and return with a lot more pain. Fortunately, Gromsfed goes next to last. Unfortunately, the PC most likely to be able to shut down Gromsfed via Stunning Crit, Stunning Assault, or Malcanthet's use of greater command via her queen's kiss link, is the one that goes after Gromsfed.
Everyone else goes. Damage is done, but not nearly enough to stop the balor lord. Verity, party rogue, is the last to go before Gromsfed. Since he hasn't yet gone, he's flat-footed. She sneak attacks--natural 20. Master strike. Gromsfed must roll a 1 on his Fort save or else he dies. I roll his save--natural 1. Verity 1, balor lord 0. Master strike FTW.
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Awesome! Balor carnage FTW! :-)
Can't wait to get back to DM-ing my STAP campaign - the party have just found Golismorga, taken out their first Beholder (just) and want to go to sleep first.
Beside the Living Aberration City currently populated by Demogorgon-worshipping Mind Flayers.
Right. Like that could end badly :-)
Awesome! Balor carnage FTW! :-)
Can't wait to get back to DM-ing my STAP campaign - the party have just found Golismorga, taken out their first Beholder (just) and want to go to sleep first.
Beside the Living Aberration City currently populated by Demogorgon-worshipping Mind Flayers.
Right. Like that could end badly :-)
Carbo', make sure you play up the aberrant flavor of Golismorga! Just using the few creepy interactions presented in the text really disgusted my players.
It was great!
Carbo', make sure you play up the aberrant flavor of Golismorga! Just using the few creepy interactions presented in the text really disgusted my players.It was great!
Yes, I cannot agree more. The best was when the purple pillar of flame appeared in front of the party and they began rolling initiative. I let them, and even rolled for the fire (?) only to have them figure out, eventually, that it wasn't an attack - just disconcerting how it appeared right in front of them and then disappeared after they'd edged past it. The giant lung, the building licking its "eye" and the screaming buildings were a huge hit in the creepiness. Also, I'm playing with the optional Sanity rules, so by the time they got icked by the skin avalanche, the female character ended up with temporary Spermatophobia. She played it well, too, refusing to allow anyone to touch her, even for healing.
Awesome! Balor carnage FTW! :-)
Can't wait to get back to DM-ing my STAP campaign - the party have just found Golismorga, taken out their first Beholder (just) and want to go to sleep first.
Beside the Living Aberration City currently populated by Demogorgon-worshipping Mind Flayers.
Right. Like that could end badly :-)
Carb, you are WAY sadistic. You must be an AWESOME DM!
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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Thanks! I'm way too easy on these guys if you ask me :-) Only one death in 12 levels!
I'm currently almost finished my Skinwalker Magi for the next chapter. All with the Elusive Target feat from Complete Warrior - which. is. AWESOME!!!
(When flanked, designate an opponent. His first attack automisses - have him roll to hit his comrade!) I can't wait to designate the UBER-fighter and have him slaughter the Rogue :-)
When the numbers are crunched I'll be sure to post them :-)
Thanks! I'm way too easy on these guys if you ask me :-) Only one death in 12 levels!
I'm currently almost finished my Skinwalker Magi for the next chapter. All with the Elusive Target feat from Complete Warrior - which. is. AWESOME!!!
(When flanked, designate an opponent. His first attack automisses - have him roll to hit his comrade!) I can't wait to designate the UBER-fighter and have him slaughter the Rogue :-)
When the numbers are crunched I'll be sure to post them :-)
You still have a campaign journal documenting your players' mayhem and violence don't you ? ^_^
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RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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I do, but we haven't played for a while due to the new baby. (And it's in Dutch.)
We were supposed to kick off again but then there were medical issues with my girlfriend - complications after the birth - and I'm back to occasionally playing an interim campaign when I can safely leave home for a few hours. The summer holidays are shaping up to be a triumphant return to STAP.
Your Ogrekin Magi are darned inspiring, by the way :-)
I do, but we haven't played for a while due to the new baby. (And it's in Dutch.)
We were supposed to kick off again but then there were medical issues with my girlfriend - complications after the birth - and I'm back to occasionally playing an interim campaign when I can safely leave home for a few hours. The summer holidays are shaping up to be a triumphant return to STAP.
Your Ogrekin Magi are darned inspiring, by the way :-)
Wait until you see Silas and Pappy ... ^_^
Character: The whole party (the 12th level mage, in particular)
Adventure: The Lightless Depths (battle with Emraag)
Synopsis: A sinking ship is a great motivator…
One of my new player characters has a background plot that his ship was sunk by Emraag, which led to his being on the isle and, subsequently, picked up by the Vanthus’ slave traders (He was rescued from their holds at the Battle of Farshore). So, the player reasons, the character really has a grudge against Emraag. Fair enough. So, when the party brokers a deal with Emraag at the beginning of TLD, he’s (in character) kind of annoyed. Therefore, on the return trip (with a party that’s two or three levels tougher), he cantrips the flag off and prepares his spells for battle.
Rolled for crewmembers on watch in the crow’s nest to notice the missing flag; fail. Rolled for Emraag to notice; success. Boom! He hits the ship. The party rolls initiative and the instigating character gets to go before the charismatic character and he casts Disintegrate; Emraag makes his save but still takes sizable damage. So, when charisma boy tries to talk the Glutton down, (“Wait, we had a deal! It’s us! The flag just fell off”) he’s taking a massive negative for the damage inflicted. Diplomatic fail.
So I explain the way of things; 20% chance of capsize. I recommend taking him out before he rolls that 20%. Unfortunately, very next roll, 14%. The ship is capsized. I didn’t have Stormwrak handy, so I was making crap up as I went (sometimes the most fun) However, the prospect of being swallowed whole, eaten by sharks or drowned seemed to have a motivating effect and they really took the battle to the Glutton. The instigating mage lobbed Dex effecting spells making it easier to hit. Summoned a Huge Water Elemental, too. Iceball did damage and gave them a free round. The Glutton was killed and we had fun figuring out his treasure randomly.
Meanwhile, the instigating mage made use of Teleport to return to Sasserine to buy some scrolls – more Summon Spells. I was a bit generous here, but his reasoning was sound – if one Huge Water Elemental can STOP a ship, then three should be able to right a ship, and even bail it out.
For a narrative telling of the story, see our STAP site.
Good to hear you are still playing the STAP. We will be soon again, after a year's break playing the Freeport trilogy (long story), and we will be reaching the Emraag moment shortly. Hope it will be as epic as yours!
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My group successfully negotiated with Emraag. They managed to keep one of Lavinia's tribute chests (and handed it back to Lavinia). Instead they proposed to Emraag to build an enormous Emraag statue in Farshore. Of course he agreed. It will have a continual flame in its mouth. When the statue is finished, there will be a celebration and this will become a yearly Farshore holiday (when Emraag gets new tribute of course!)
I think this was so clever and original a solution that I had to put it here!