I recently sort of restarted my homebrew campaign, by which I mean I completely killed off my entire party and they had to restart with new characters.
Some background is in order. I started everyone at 1st level in the world of (Name to Be Decided) going to the City (by which I mean I haven't settled on that name either). The pretense for them going to said city was that one of the group (a sorceress) had discovered in her master's chambers a scroll that detailed an incantation (Unearthed Arcana) called Through the Rabbit Hole that would set up a special Teleport/portal/whatever to a dungeon called the Vault of the Magi-an abandoned school of the arts arcane somewhere below the city.
To sum up, they did the incantation, explored the vault and kicked ass all over the place, and learned the secret of the vault. To whit, the master of the place, a fellow named Magister Magus (aka The Magi), was performing a complex incantation of his own. The intent of his incantation was to siphon power from an imprisoned divine entity and grant it to the Magi, thus elevating him to the ranks divine. However, a vile fellow named Vexxius (a warlock) posing as a student at the school managed to subvert many of the vault's inhabitants to rebel against the Magi. Vexxius' intent was to subvert the incantation is such a way as to grant him the power to become a demon prince (with all the bells and whistles).
The resulting backlash slew Vexxius and many other, mutated/altered a lot more, and trapped Magister Magus in an extradimensional space on the threshold of said entity's prison. Moreover, the seals on the thing's prison were now weakening. To stop the entity from breaking free, the Magister must complete his incantation. Unfortunately, the foci for the incantation-three triangular plates used in the magic triangle of the spell-were shifted to parts unknown.
So, after my party defeated an arcane manifestation of Vexxius, Magister Magus was able to communicate with them and send them on a quest to find the first of the plates, an adamantium triangle set with a white diamond. He was able to discern that the plate was now on the Isle Perilous (think Isle of Terror) in a volcano that was a sort of secret burial ground/holy place for chromatic dragon followers of Tiamat.
So my party set out for the Isle Perilous. Starting the journey were Senga the Wizard, Red Star the Red Dragon Hatchling (monster class), Kai the Fighter, Vaalik the Fighter, Vinak the Goliath Barbarian, a cleric run by someone who doesn't play with us anymore, and Cailon the Rogue.
After many interesting adventures along the way, they were shipwrecked on a dangerous reef inhabited by crabmen (Tome of Horrors). Below the reef, in a weird kuo-toa temple complex, I killed them all horribly with lots of fireballs and a couple nasty critical hits and some vicious coup-de-graces.
So now I get to start anew. We'll see what happens.
So...my new group is as follows:
Father Lazarus: a cleric 5/swift wing 1 (Dragon Magic) of Pelor. Played by my wife (a natural 20), he has a cohort: Taryn, a dragon shaman 4 (copper dragon aspect).
Roondar: a sorcerer 6.
Jagrethor uxBahamuti Fintirmaeklix: a dragonborn samurai 6. I can't pronounce his extended name. The writers of the various dragon-themed books should've done a pronunciation guide. He also has a cohort: Akiro, a whisper gnome ninja 4 (the party's only rogue type and the one who gets to do the dirty work that the dragonborn samurai can't sully his hands with).
Eniko Varady: a knight 6.
The party was assembled by an agent of the Magister, an elf cleric named Dion Pravi. I enjoyed this part because my players (not their characters) know that Dion is dead. In fact, when the original group was setting sail for the Isle Perilous, an enemy of theirs delivered Dion's head to them in a basket (with two others from other former PCs who had to leave the group and thus fell victim to the DM's dastardly plot).
I started the new group right at the Isle Perilous, specifically at its only port-Treasure Cove. A notorious pirate's haven, the Cove is ruled over by The Thrice-Blessed Overlord, an evil samurai who is the titular head of the Cove's real power, the Cult of the Ebon Triad. The Cove is protected by a barrier reef and all ships must be guided in by an official pilot. The ship the PCs arrived on declined to enter the Cove at all and its captain arranged for the party to enter the Cove on the longboat the pilot came out on.
I wanted to test my party's resolve and discipline (ie; restraint) right away. They immediately noticed that the blind-folded orc rowers were chained to their benches and their backs were covered in whip scars. As they were brought into the cove, they saw a work crew of lizardfolk slaves dredging mud from the mouth of the river that empties into the Cove.
Once they docked, they were met by a delegation of Ebon Triad clerics-one each of Hextor, Erythnul, and Vecna. Accompanying the clerics were two varag "watchdogs" with a hobgoblin wrangler. The group had been warned about the pervasive evil in the Cove. Lazarus wisely was concealing his holy symbol, but Jagrethor could hardly conceal what he was and his armor included heraldry identifying him as a samurai devoted to Bahamut.
The clerics made the group nervous. The cleric of Hextor was bold and forthright, while the cleric of Vecna stayed silent and cast a seeking eye upon them, and the cleric of Erythnul stared at the sky and muttered to himself (that really made my group nervous).
The delegation demanded tribute to enter the Cove and decreed that by the magnanimous decree of the Thrice-Blessed Overlord, all were welcome within the Cove so long as they obeyed it laws: the word of the Thrice-Blessed Overlord is the law and no faith may be spoken of or proselytized save that of the Ebon Triad. Moreover, the party must submit to letting the varags gain their scent (this creeped them out pretty good).
While the varags were sniffing them over, Jagrethor was standing proud and indifferent. Suddenly a varag reared up and locked gazes challengingly with the dragonborn (varags get off on fear, MM IV). Unimpressed, the dragonborn suddenly focused his stare on the varag, meeting its challenge. The will of the samurai was not to be met and the varag flinched away and groveled before him. This greatly impressed the clerics (it also pleased Jag's player, who got to try his staredown ability).
why did you kill off the old party?
why did you kill off the old party?
It wasn't on purpose. They walked into an encounter totally unprepared and unbuffed. The party was a 7th level wizard, 6th level red dragon monster class, 2 5th level fighters, a 5th level druid, and a 5th level rogue. Against them were a 7th level kuo-toa sorcerer, 2 blackspawn raiders (no class levels), and 2 merrow.
The room was huge. The kuo-toa and his 6 mirror images were standing on a 20x20 platform held aloft by a column of water. The room was divided by a 10' wide, 30' deep trench bridged by 2 spans guarded by the merrow.
Have descended via elevator, my party stepped out as a group into the room and a prepared action by the sorcerer (who was alerted by an Alarm on the elevator that the rogue never bothered to search for). The sorcerer cast a Stinking Cloud that blitzed half the party. The blackspawns used their prepared actions to quaff potions of Invisibility and move.
Surprise round over, my entire group moved out of the Stinking Cloud and regrouped in front of it in a nice little cluster. Acid Substituted Fireball #1 from the sorcerer for 28 damage (nothing below 4 on the sixers). Staying in a nice little cluster, my group decides to start casting defensive spells and drinking potions. No attacks against the enemies in this round. It is worth noting that my wife's wizard PC just learned Evard's Black Tentacles and it never gets cast at all. Nor does the vicious red dragon ever even leave the ground. Nor does ANYONE ever even attack the sorcerer once.
Next round, Acid Substituted Fireball #2. Again, nothing below 4 on the dies. Say goodbye to the wizard and the druid. The rest of the group decides to finally go on the offensive-against the merrow mooks.
It all went downhill from there. The sorcerer rained down death. The blackspawn flanked the fighters. No one bothered to attack the sorcerer. No one bothered to retreat. It was a total slaughter that left me wondering how they'd gotten this far without learning better tactics.
To be fair, this was the first time they've come up against a dedicated arcane caster of significant level. When I ran the Vexxius manifestation (a warlock) they kicked ass and made sound decisions. They've also kicked a lot of cleric booty. It all just kind of went crazy.
I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit. When the party arrived outside the Cove and as they were coming into the docks, they could see a huge column of black smoke billowing up near the walls on the far side of the city.
They asked the Ebon Triad clerics about it and they replied that the Cove had been attacked by dragonspawn of Tiamat. Jagrethor was of course guite interested by this.
The clerics in turn wished to know why the party had come to the Cove, since it was obvious that they weren't pirates, merchants, or after slaves to buy. The group tried to be evasive and talked about trying to find out what had happened to a previous expediton (the old party) which was true. The cleric of Vecna used Detect Thoughts, but everyone rolled ridiculously high on their Will saves-except for the whisper gnome ninja. The haughty Vecnan sneered and dismissed them as mere adventurers and treasure seekers. This turned out not to be a problem and they were allowed to enter the Cove freely but admonished to register with the the authorities when they'd found a place to stay.
Going up the main road from the docks, the party could see to their left a district of hovels and shanties. On their right were the shipyards and warehouses. Higher up to their left were more upscale houses, shops, and inns/restaurants/taverns. On the right was a squalor of slave pens, livestock pens, bordellos, and a huge arena. Further up the hill was the fortress of the Thrice-Blessed Overlord, flanked by barracks and offices on one side, and rich mansions and the sprawling temple of the Overgod of the Ebon Triad on the other.
I'm behind a bit on this post. We're playing again tomorrow and I have a surprise for the party that will resolve some of the continuity issues for the campaingn.
I'm planning on having the lizardfolk druid who is their guide perform a spirit ritual that will allow the party access to the memories of the previous party. It will also give them a companion spirit (DMG II) that will help them out a bit.
They'll also be running into a creature they encountered in the Vault of the Magi: Mugwog, a mud slaad. Fun for me:)
The party was flush enough with money to stay a least one night in the Cove's best inn, The Palace of Heaven. I played the innkeeper, Damodar by name, with a hokey East Indian accent that went over okay and might have earned me brownie points with my group since I don't usually do voices for my NPCs.
They decided to check out their options for approaching Dragon Mountain on the far side of the island. They learned that they could approach overland, by the sea along the coast, or up the river that roughly bisected the island. All the ways were frought with peril (get it? the Isle Perilous?) but the way by sea was especially so because of the storm hag, Yara Aranis. She was apparently guarding all approaches to the island and destroying some ships while ignoring others.
The way overland was ruled out because of the many dangerous dinosaurs and draconic creatures running rampant (dracotaurs, dragonspawn, etc).
This left the river and there was even some encouragement because they were able to find a guide who had been inland before and lived to tell about it. The name of the guide was Sseska, and it turned out that he was a lizardfolk with his own boat and a poison dusk ranger companion named Iss'ak.
After locating Sseska, the party was able to negotiate a price for passage. Sseska urged them to get any supplies they needed before leaving the Cove, as none would be available in the interior. [This isn't strictly true, because the lizardfolk communities in the swamps are more sophisticated than anyone knows-but that's a secret.]
So far behind....
To catch up a bit, the party gathered the supplies they needed and met Ssesska back at the docks. Without further ado, they set off upriver. I made them sit through about 20+ minutes of running narrative describing the river and swamp scenery and animal life (dinosaurs).
When I noticed them starting to fidget/yawn, I called for Spot checks. Akiro rolled high enough to see a pair of greenspawn razorfiends slipping into the river from a marshy hummock in the middle of the channel. I called for initiative and melee ensued.
I had a lot of fun here. My party was stuck in a boat in the middle of the river. The razorfiends have phenomonal Jump scores and just kept underwater most of the time. They would enjoy the cover of the water and then do Spring Attacks where they would just jump right over the boat and bite or swim by and bite. My group had to ready actions to fight them.
Luck turned in the party's favor when one of the razorfiends surfaced ahead of the boat to use its breath weapon. Roondar lobbed a Fireball and Jagrethor used his own breath weapon to take it out. Shortly thereafter, Roondar managed to roll high enough on his Spellcraft to detonate a Fireball underwater and boil the remaining dragonspawn.
And while the fight was on, no one noticed the party of greenspawn sneaks slipping away....
Gosh, I haven't posted in forever. Got to catch up so I can tell about how the red dragon from the previous group is now back in the current group. Love them time elementals.