| ericthecleric |
As Connors expressed interest (in the “Long-Term Survivability of This Party?” thread) in how my and Paz’s STAP campaign goes, here’s my first attempt at a campaign journal. For the moment, I’ll just include highlights from the last few sessions, but if anyone from our group wishes to chime in, please do so. That goes to any interested readers who wish to comment as well.
For the moment, the current plan is that Paz runs parts 1-3 and 8-10, while I run the rest. This way, we’ll both get to run half the 8 two-level adventures and half the single-level adventures. We’re both experienced DMs, although this is both our first stab at a long-term 3.x game using miniatures and battlemats.
Four of the players have only a few months experience with tabletop RPGs. We both ran one-shot adventures for them before beginning STAP, so that they could get an idea of how the game works; it’s a very pleasant experience DMing for such a group, almost like rediscovering the game.
The campaign began with the following:
Human barbarian (possibly aiming for Totemic Demonslayer)
Elf cleric of Corellon Larethian (Good & War Domains; almost certainly going to geomancer/mystic theurge) Note 1
Dwarf dragon shaman
Human wizard Note 2
Half-elf ranger (possibly aiming for Knight of the Chalice) Note 3
When Paz DMs, I’m playing a binder. When I take over DMing in part 4, Paz’s PC will (probably) be a wizard.
Note 1: This player likes the concept of having wings, so he’ll probably go straight to geomancer9, then finish off with mystic theurge levels. To allow a fuller divine progression, perhaps I’ll alter both PrC spellcasting requirements to “Must be able to cast 3rd-level divine spells and 1st-level arcane spells (or vice versa)”.
Note 2: This character is considering changing to dragon shaman. I think the player’s a bit frustrated about the lack of melee skill and current lack of spell firepower, and impressed with the dwarf’s general utility. I’ll update with the player’s decision.
Note 3: At 2nd-level he picked up a marshal level for the Motivate Charisma aura; he’s intending to be the party diplomat. (One of the bonus STAP feats allowed him to gain Diplomacy as a class skill, although I forget the feat’s name.)
We used 32-pts as the basis for generating XPs. Most of the ability scores are 16 or under, although the barbarian’s Str began as 18.
I can’t remember the PC names at the moment, but I should be able to get them tomorrow.
Highlights from the last few weeks’ sessions of There Is No Honor (* SPOILERS *):
The Blue Nixie
While the barbarian and dwarf quickly climbed onto the boat, the rest of us kept rolling failing. The first two (both Cha 8) PCs’ attempts at diplomacy ended badly, but they managed to hold off the grunts while the others climbed up. One thing we learned with that fight: A raging, greataxe wielding barbarian with 18 base Strength and Cleave is a deadly character!
After questioning Soller Vark, we headed off to Lavinia’s manor. Upon telling her about what happened on the ship, the dwarf- who’d carried Soller’s corpse back to the house dumped the body on her carpet and then asked for ale (not the most socially adept of characters, eh?).
Parrot Island
The first session that we were trapped, the cleric’s player didn’t turn up. As he had the character sheet as well, the availability of healing was low. The luck we had with the Nixie’s crew almost reversed, with the zombies getting in quite a few lucky strikes on us (although the barbarian still consistently rolled well, thankfully!). Since then, the cleric has been present.
When we encountered the huecuva (sp?) with two zombies, the cleric turned all three, at which point they ran away, with everyone else following. All except the dwarf and wizard, who decided to go off and do a little bit of exploring themselves. While the three remaining undead were cowering, it fell to the barbarian, binder, and ranger to destroy them. Unfortunately, we had difficulty beating the leader’s DR, but the wand of CLW came in handy.
While four of us were dealing with the undead, the wizard decided to explore the lake, which meant the crabs came out. Both dwarf and wizard were quickly reduced to negative hit points, at which point the rest of us- having dealt with the undead- rushed back to finish off the crabs. I hope that the lesson has been learnt about splitting up; somehow I don’t think so!
Last week’s session dealt with exploring the western section of the Parrot Island dungeon. Three of us were wearing medium armor, and had great difficulty with the water; eventually, two of them got out of the water, but the barbarian kept failing badly (and fortunately didn’t drown), although none of the decent swimmers went to help him! The other three PCs found the note on the other side of the water, and eventually came back to get the rest of us (by this point, the barbarian had managed to return to dry land).
BTW, after escaping Parrot Island the other players couldn’t wait to track down Vanthus and hack him apart. Paz is doing a great job!
The Taxidermist’s
Investigations led us to the Taxidermist’s place. After the dwarf tried (& failed) to gain information about the Lotus Dragon’s lair, we tried to open the back door. Without a rogue, of course, things are a bit tricky. So the barbarian and dwarf decided to pick the back door lock the old-fashioned way (with greataxe and morningstar). After a few failed attempts to bash the door down (during which a crowd began to gather), it finally fell before the steel.
That’s where that session ended.
A general comment: It seems that with our group’s die rolling, we’ve all been very lucky or very unlucky; strangely, very few median rolls have been made. The new players are gradually getting into the roleplaying aspect as well, some more quickly than others.
| ericthecleric |
Yesterday’s session (23/4/2007)
Most of the party split up to explore the taxidermist’s house. The wizard fell before a color spray spell, and after I gave the bad guy a solid whack from my scimitar, I offered him protection while we question the man. After learning of the entrance to the Lotus Dragons’ lair, we suggested that for his own protection he leave Sasserine forever.
Boldly entering the lair, we encountered no ‘Dragons initially until we came across the barracks with sleeping bad guys. After a few failed Move Silently rolls, chaos ensued as we promptly fell upon said bad guys. Unfortunately, two escaped to get reinforcements. The bad guys hit us three times, one of them a critical hit bringing the cleric down to 4 hit points. After the initial threat had been quelled, the cleric ran after the two who escaped, forgetting his low hp, and ran into the reinforcements; unsurprisingly, he was knocked into bleeding unconsciousness. The ranger took his place, but was then attacked by a wolf or worg (I don’t know which) and was is currently at 3 hp. Faced with a choice of helping the cleric or the ranger, I thought it best to yank the cleric out of the way and stem his bleeding. The wizard with 15 Strength and greatsword (thanks to Martial Proficiency) is currently holding off other reinforcements, and the dwarf and barbarian running off to face yet more reinforcements. Things look dicey at the moment, but I’m sure we’ll survive. The 5-foot passages don’t help though. Perhaps it would be best for us all to withdraw to a more strategic position, deal with all the reinforcements, heal up, then continue exploring.
| Connors |
Ok, found it eric :)
Reading through can I make a couple of suggestions.
It is hard to follow WHERE the party is. Realise this is the highlights, but where and how you got places would make it easier to follow.
It appears that you are writing this and also playing a character. It would be cool if the journal was 'in character'. This way you get a character's perspective and their thoughts.
Also realise this may be hard, given you intend to shift in and out of DM chair. Maybe another player could conribute? Our current campaign has a half-orc fighter that takes notes (and we publish those like a journal) and they are hilarious. This is from a very new play too ;)
Maybe I am just a little lost as you assume people have read stuff from Dragon & Dungeon for this AP. And I guess target audience for such a journal would have done so ;) Making me on the outer, though i know a little about the overall idea of the AP.
Be sure who you are writing for. If this is merely for the players then most of the above is irrelevent I guess, b/c they know what you are talking about. A good idea to have a place for them to reflect on what they have done.
| ericthecleric |
Connors, I’ll try to be more informative!
Regarding the “in character” thing. Maybe I’ll try to do that, but bear in mind that that’s especially tricky currently as I know what’s coming up, as you say. For the first 2 levels, I'm a paladin, then I'm going binder the rest of the way. [As a paladin/binder, the character binds the spirit of ancient heroes into himself; this is a slight variant of what standard binders do- it's a change in flavor, but the game mechanics stay the same.]
However, I have mentioned to the other players that this thread exists, so if we’re lucky some of them may post, although they don’t all have internet access. It’d be great to read some of their points of view.
Regarding your point about being a little lost, I’m trying to avoid giving some spoilers away for people who haven’t started STAP yet; sorry if this confuses you!
Anyway. In this week’s session (April 30th), we continued to explore the Lotus Dragon’s lair, after having fought many rogues. Mitch (the barbarian) yet again proved deadly with his greataxe, and Farren (the wizard) managed to knock out three opponents. Because of the narrow corridors, I was mainly stuck to trying to bring down the worg, which was behind cover. As it was, one of the rogues [on 0 hp] did recover while the battle was raging, and this resulted in Farren being sneak attacked. So far, I’ve only managed two kills out of many, many opponents, but I did ensure that our dying opponents stayed dead after the battle. Maybe this isn’t the action a paladin of Anachtyr should perform, but as a warrior it’s best to ensure nothing returns to harm us. At least their souls are now facing judgement for their vile crimes.
We healed up then continued exploring the lair. Upon finding the kitchen, Mitch sprung a trap and ended up being covered in poisonous goo. I found the kobold chef- forget it’s name- but showed mercy in return for it showing us the way to Rowyn (the Lotus Dragons’ leader).
As we made our way to her rooms, we came across other opponents, including a group of thieves, an evil bug thing called a “rhagodessa”, and a zombie, which we made short work of. During the fight with this last group of rogues, the kobold ran away, curse its wretched hide! It had better not be looking for reinforcements.
Eventually, we reached Rowyn and her pet lizard. There isn’t much room in her chamber, and as combat started the pair used this to huge advantage. This is a tough battle, particularly because of out cursed luck. Whereas some of has have been cutting bloody swathes through our earlier foes, luck seems to have turned against us at this moment. Still, I managed to get one solid whack with my scimitar on the lizard. Maybe Anachtyr’s blessing enable us to quickly deal with this pair.
Oh, yes. Last thought: We haven’t found Vanthus yet. I wonder if he’s still here in this den of thieves?
The session ended mid-combat, so it’ll end next week.
Another update: Another player has joined us while other players have been absent. He’s been playing different people’s characters over the last few weeks, so once we leave the rogues’ lair, he’ll be able to create his own PC. He was thrilled to learn this. He’s expressed interest in playing a rogue (without prompting from either Paz or me), which is good as the trapfinding ability is something the group is sorely lacking.
| Hagen Daaz |
This is an acount of events witnessed and participated in by Mitch Crannon.
Theese events will be recorded by me, young Mervin Hollock of the merchants district, Sasserine. The events will be recorded by me as Mr Crannon unfortunitly did not master the arts of literacy. I have agreed to write theese acounts on the word that no harm will come to my family (i.e mitch will protect me).
Before i recall the events let me describe this man. He is a very tall coloured man with wide shoulders. He has no hair on his head. His arms are the size of legs. Mitch will be dictating his stories and i will be recording them. Mitch has told me he wants his stories to be known across sasserine, he told me over everything he seeks fame.
Any way back to Mitch here is his stories.
"I am mitch Crannon and i will tell u some things that have happened to me.I was just on my way to the merchants District when a letter was given to me by a young boy. It read or atleast he told me that i was invited to a house to meet a lady. When arrived it was such a big house, it was decorated good and when i entered the house i met some weired people. There was a wizard, an elf ranger, a dwarf who loved to drink, an elven cleric and a pallidin.
we were all gathered and the lady introduced herself, i cant remember her name but she was rich or atleast her parents were. She talked fast so i couldnt understand everything, i think she said that her parents are dead and she all her moneys is locked up. What i do know though is that to get her money she needs a ring. Also somone has stolen her boat the blue nixie, that is where i will be going next. I will be going with all the others in the room to get it back. that is where i will leave you, imagine young mervin, imagine the glory."
Mitch left fully armed on hiw way to meet his new adventurers
| ericthecleric |
We finished TINH this Monday, and we’re now 3rd-level. We have:
Balthier, Human paladin2/binder1
Breftnar, Half-elf ranger3
Farren, Human wizard3
Mitch, Human barbarian3
Elf cleric of Corellon Larethian3
Dwarf dragon shaman3
And a new player who’s created a rogue1/ranger2, who’ll probably be an elf.
Farren’s player won’t be present for the next few weeks, so I’m unsure if the PC will be with us in Kraken’s Cove.
We ended last week’s session in the middle of combat with Rowyn and her pet lizard, Gut Tugger. Fortune frowned upon the other members initially, but smiled upon me (for a change), as Anachtyr guided truly guided my hand. I managed to deal three heavy blows against both villains. The lizard was taken down first, and Rowyn’s next heinous act was to revive it as some sort of undead creature. So for that evil act, she received the benefit of my Smite Evil ability. Luckily for everyone, none of us died as the villains had just as bad luck as everyone else after the initial damage dealt by them via Attacks of Opportunity against us.
With the foes overcome, we explored Rowyn’s chambers, finding a key, some treasure, and a journal detailing evidence of Vanthus’s vile crimes. Curse him- we’ll all enjoy sending him to judgement before his god once we get out hands- or rather, blades- upon the cad. The journal also revealed that he, along with his lover Brisa, have sailed to a place called “Kraken’s Cove”, a place some days away from Sasserine.
While reading the journal, the elf discovered a secret door and proceeded up the revealed corridor. A locked door lay at the end of the passage, which the cleric proceeded to unlock using the key we found earlier. Unfortunately, this seemed to set off a number of poisoned darts, which did grevious harm to the cleric and two others (I forget which).
The room contained several chests, which Mitch proceeded to open using his greataxe. Within the chests was fabulous wealth, some of which was stolen from the Vanderboren vault, as it lay within bags marked with the Vanderboren family crest.
At this point, we decided to return the gold to Lavinia and also show her the journal. The latter saddened her, but she was grateful for the returned gold. Our next task, once we have healed and purchased new provisions, is to track her brother down to this Kraken’s Cove place.
| ericthecleric |
The other PC names are:
Ebreck (dragon shaman)
Canis (cleric).
The new PC, a LG elf rogue1/ranger2 (headed for KoTC), is called Valos.
When I take over DMing, Paz’s PC will be an elf conjurer3/master specialist4.
Last night, the first 90 minutes or so was taken up with finishing levelling up/PC creation and wealth distribution from TINH.
So:
After selling the treasure we’d found over the last few days (although some of us kept some of it), I decided to acquire some wands for the next expedition. A wand of cure light wounds, and lesser charged wands of magic weapon and bull’s strength. Amongst the other things we found in Rowyn’s suit of rooms, we also found disgraceful clothing and some books of erotica. The dwarf wanted to keep the books, but I persuaded him to let us sell them, telling him that such books corrupt the soul. Once we have finished adventuring, he can settle down if he likes, but I will not allow my allies to corrupt their souls!
Dash, I realize that I must sound like the stereotypical stick-in-the-mud paladin here. Well, it’s for their own good, and only by staying focussed can we keep the discipline necessary to hunt down Vanthus.
Something I forgot to mention, we were all awarded a special medal by the council of Sasserine. I didn’t include this before, because I’m not really interested in fame, I just want to do good in the name of Anachtyr, and also get to the bottom of the dream my elder had.
* * *
To digress for a moment, this was my character background: Balthier is from a town in the southern mountains of Tashalar. The town is a somewhat unusual collection of warrior/shaman. Warriors are paladins who usually develop into binders (shaman-types who bind the spirit of saints, in a variant from the Tome of Magic), and possibly dragon shamans. The purpose of the town is that it’s a base from which the townsfolk- at least those with PC-class levels- hunt supernatural creatures.
Several months ago, one of the town’s leaders had a vision, and didn’t understand what it meant. It related to an “encroaching darkness, a savage tide”. The leader sent me to Sasserine to discover what I could, and also to try preventing it if I could.
Balthier (me) has spent the last few months in Sasserine’s Merchant’s District. About a month ago, he helped the militia overcome the “Merchant’s Terror”, a pair of ghouls that were preying on the locals of that district.
* * *
Lavinia introduced Valos, a stealthy elf, to us; it seems she felt our team was missing particular skills. He seems a good sort, after chatting with him on the way to Kraken’s Cove.
Breftnar had some tasks to do (ie. his player didn’t turn up!), although he may follow us soon. Before he left though, he informed us that the trip by land would take several days through monster-infested swamp, so we decided to go via boat or ship.
After meeting with Lavinia, and getting odds and ends sorted out, we all headed down to the harbour to hire a boat for the trip to Kraken’s Cove. As a reminder, KC is where we believe the villainous Vanthus is. I dazzled a local fisherman, who agreed to take us for 48 gp, and an additional 10 gp per full day’s wait.
The coastal journey was uneventful and took 16 hours, and we moored at the break of day a few miles up the coast from KC. We proceed to walk towards KC. Along the way, we observed that things were awry. We could see smoke rising from the direction of the cove, and the wildlife was just WRONG. Animals were hyper-aggressive, and monstrously deformed.
At one point we were attacked by four vile, monstrous monkeys. They seemed to be resistant to the blows of my weapons, but not to those of my allies’ which are all magic. However, I’d like to add that my blows still struck true. (I hit 4 times, all for maximum damage- yes (despite the DR) !!). The monkeys were horrible, horrible creatures, transformed by some horrible event or magic; I don’t know what. When killed, they exploded into acid, and left a pool of acid which later turned into some strange green powder, which Farren (the wizard) stored in a container for further study. Unfortunately, several of us were bitten by the creatures, and Mitch (the barbarian) and Canis (the cleric) developed weird black growths where they had been bitten. Strangely, those two became less intelligent as well. Mitch is not the brightest of fellows at the best of times, but if he loses more, then he could be in trouble (Mitch was reduced from 8 to 5 Int, and Canis was reduced from 13 to 8 Int).
Following this encounter, we came across the entrance to Kraken’s Cove. Several boats were burning, although one that was separate from the others is unharmed. We could also see that creatures of some sort are on the beach, but it’s difficult to see how many through the smoke. A one-foot wide, rickety-looking walkway leads down to the beach. Having discussed the best way down- ie. climbing the cliff, jumping into the water, or attempting the walkway, we still haven’t resolved how best to get down yet, although the dwarf dived perfectly into the water.
That’s where the session ended.
Is anyone reading and/or enjoying this, by the way?
| Savage Tide GM |
Canis (cleric).
That's 'Kannes'.
Amongst the other things we found in Rowyn’s suit of rooms, we also found disgraceful clothing and some books of erotica. The dwarf wanted to keep the books, but I persuaded him to let us sell them, telling him that such books corrupt the soul. Once we have finished adventuring, he can settle down if he likes, but I will not allow my allies to corrupt their souls!
Dash, I realize that I must sound like the stereotypical stick-in-the-mud paladin here.
I must say, the thought of a paladin selling erotic literature was an amusing mental image...
Is anyone reading and/or enjoying this, by the way?
Yes, but I guess I have a special interest!
| ericthecleric |
Thanks, Mr. Slaad (and Paz also). As a fan of such things, do you have any suggstions as to how I might improve this thread? Are you interested in the feats that the PCs have, for example.
One thing that I need a suggestion for is what happens when I become DM, as then Balthier will not be present. Ie. he could give his point of view from what he's been told by other PCs for what happened during an adventure (ie. a session), for example.
| ericthecleric |
Well, we got to the beach. Mitch (the barbarian) slipped and fell off the walkway, but Ebreck (the dwarf) managed to pull him out while the rest of us carefully traversed the way down.
Ebreck explored the unburned ship, a caravel called The Sea Wyvern. An interesting name for a ship. While the others searched the beach, I explored the burning wrecks. Thanks to my binding abilities, I am resistant to fire while I bind Aym. Nothing was on either ship, but the beach was a different matter. Gore, weapons, and strange body parts were strewn across it. Evidently there must have been a battle here. Some great evil must have happened. We don’t yet know what happened though.
As we decided to enter a tunnel leading into the cliff, two mutated humans (?) attacked us. They were just as deformed as the monkeys that attacked us earlier in the day, with tentacles, extra heads, and the like. Horrible. Anachtyr’s blessing shone on my blade as I helped cut them down. Mayhap now their souls will rest in peace. Once again, their bodies collapsed into acid which dried out after a minute.
At this point the cleric (Kannes) and wizard (Farren) both cast spells of illumination, as the tunnel led into darkness. The dwarf performed most of the scouting this day, being the only one able to see in the dark. BUT, I wish he had more tactical sense! Ie. as he took a right-hand fork, he encountered something, and retreated to the entrance to the tunnel- meaning that the rest of us found it difficult to bypass the thing that attacked him without it reaching out for us (ie. provoking AoOs). He’s not a fully trained warrior though, although his does have some useful talents. While the dwarf was scouting ahead, Farren cast a spell of bull’s strength on Mitch, and I used a charge of my wand to cast bull’s strength upon myself. These magics proved very useful!
Still, whatever it was was some large reptilian beast of some sort, all teeth and claws (as well as possessing the now-commonplace mutations!). Unfortunately, the beast knocked him into a dying state (-7 hp!), but a timely intervention from the cleric helped. The beast dealt much damage to us, but we eventually brought the thing down.
After the battle, we searched the rest of the large cavern, in which many large silks were hung. Perhaps they can be salvaged for sale later on. Farren and Kannes also found some books, but we’ve not had time to examine them properly yet.
Leaving this room, the dwarf scouted again. Upon entering a smaller cavern, he heard growls and again retreated to the cavern entrance. Two mutated dog-size things attacked the dwarf, who again suffered heavy damage, and others sustained moderate damage as well by trying to pass them, but we brought them down. Is this place vile filled with nothing but evil, deformed monsters? Could Vanthus still be here? And if so, is he also now a deformed monster? I’m sure we’ll find out with further investigations.
That’s where the session ended. Because of various people not being present for the next two weeks (May 28th and June 4th), there will be no sessions until June 11th.
| ericthecleric |
Excellent, new post as this is the first session for three weeks! Yaaay! Because of that, the pace was a bit slower because some players wanted to banter a bit; hopefully next week will be more focussed. For the last few sessions, Farren’s player has been absent, and run by a guest player, but the real player was back today. I’d forgotten how greedy the character is (as played by the real player)!
After dealing with the dog-like thingies, we came across some sort of trophy/treasure room. Inside was a six-foot long skull, nautical stuff, and three chests. Valos (the rogue1/ranger2) tried picking the locks of the chests, but failed repeatedly, so we decided to come back them later.
Leaving that room, we came across a large room full of prisoners- mutated of course- but we left them alone for the time being, walking through to the other exit. Evil as they are, it seemed a cruel fate to be caged like that.
Along a tunnel we came across the entrance to a room. I think it was blocked by a large bookcase or cupboard. Several of us tried knocking the thing down- myself, Mitch (the barbarian), and Ebreck (the dragon shaman), but we all failed; somehow fate smiled on the (Str 15) wizard, who managed to break it down.
Inside was a strange fungal laboratory or brewery, of sorts; I’m not sure what. Under a table were the rotted remains of a gnome. Farren used his abilities to detect magic in the room, so that he could grab the loot. It did help to locate two potions. He also grabbed some vials of plant stuff- sessal leaves or something? I’m not really interested in plants so I didn’t take much notice. While Farren was doing his looting, the probable cause of the gnome’s death attacked the dwarf, who was the nearest creature to it, which was some weird dwarf-sized violet coloured mushroom with tentacles. A few solid whacks by Ebreck, Kannes, and Mitch put an end to it after a few seconds. Just remembered- Ebreck wanted to see if any of the mushrooms were magic; I must admit, I’ve never heard of such things- who would enchant a mushroom! I suppose someone could make one an alternative to a potion.
Searching the room didn’t reveal much else, so we took a moment to take various actions. Half of us went back to the caged prisoners to put them out of their misery.
Farren went back to the silk room (the one that had the savage dinosaur) to collect put the silk in his backpack; Valos and I stood guard while he did this. It seems that we were being stalked, as something, though I didn’t see what at the time, dealt the wizard a grevious wound. Valos managed to react in time to get one arrow off at whatever it was, but the arrow did no damage. Next round, Farren was knocked unconscious, and I moved to attack the creature with my blades, I could see it was a small, warped creature; maybe a halfling? I guess we’ll never know.
Anyway, the other three also rushed to attack the thing, but took some time to appear (3 rounds). Luck turned against us as we kept missing, or dealt minimal damage. Finally, Mitch charged up to the thing and cleaved in one mighty blow. (The player rolled a crit with his greataxe, dealing 47 points of damage!!)
After healing, I decided to take the lead exploring, and we entered a large mess hall (literally in this case!). Several mutated pirates were waiting at a table, while another mutated pirate was acting as “chef”, chopping up bits of a dead human. I’m telling you, it was a gruesome sight. Ebreck (having rolled the highest initiative) charged into the middle of the room, only to be surrounded by three of the pirates. The remaining pirate attacked Kannes. We made short work of that one, then proceeded to dispatch the others.
The session ended there. Looking at our map, I think we’ve largely explored the western half of the Cove, unless there are any secret rooms or some such. There is one cave we haven’t explored yet, leading off from the trophy room, and near that room, what looks like a maze of tunnels. There’s still no sign of Vanthus, nor any clue to what caused the mutations. Perhaps the unexplored part of the Cove will tell us.
| ericthecleric |
Ebreck’s player informed us yesterday via email that because he has a new job, his appearances will be intermittent in the future, so I’m not sure what’s going to happen with his PC. However, Paz’s wife may be joining us in two session’s time, in which case she’ll probably have her own PC.
Also yesterday, Breftnar’s player turned up for the first time in a while, which proved very handy indeed at one point… BTW, he’s actually a half-elf ranger2/marshal1 (with the Motivate Charisma aura), with a Diplomacy bonus of +15 or so.
Having taken down 4 savage pirates in the last encounter of last week’s session, we found little of value in their mess hall. We headed back to the trophy/treasure room and found a room off that with lots of weapons. We made note of their location so as to pick them up later.
Looking at the map revealed another side passage, and a maze-like area formed by a series of stalagtites or columns. Prior to exploring them, I used my wand of bull’s strength on myself and Mitch, and the wand of magic weapon on my bastard sword.
We took the side passage first, which lead to a large room with a warped human (?). She seemed to have lost her love. We all charged in, chipping away until Mitch, going last, rolled a critical for 51 points of damage (!!) taking her down.
After defeating her- Mitch realized that this woman must have been Vanthus’s artist girlfriend. It’s funny that he succeeded, given that all of us failed our Intelligence rolls except him; because of the monkey bite earlier on, Mitch’s Int is currently 5 (!). While the greedy wizard Farren searched through her belongings, Breftnar and I buried her remains.
We then entered the maze-like area, and were attacked by five more savage humans. We quickly dispatched them, although Breftnar was nearly knocked unconscious. The maze-like area lead to another treasure storage room or something like that; I don’t recall, because while Farren and some others wanted to catalogue and value everything, we heard the sound of battle in the only other exit from the room. Breftnar and myself ran down to find a woman being attacked by a great many savage pirates.
The two of us charged forward to attack while I shouted “Woman in distress!”. It seems that the woman, who’s name we later learned was Captain Harless Javelin(?), was an extremely competent warrior who dispatched one or more of her attackers every few seconds. In the second round, the other PCs also rushed to aid her. It also seems that she has something of a gutter nature with her insults, although perhaps the fact that she was desperately fighting for her life excuses her.
In short order, we and she dispatched all of the foes, then Valos healed our and Harless’s wounds. We learned much from her, but first we persuaded her that we were not on Vanthus’s side. It turned out that she is a Captain in an organization called the Crimson Fleet, a group of (evil?) pirates based elsewhere. It seems that she’d been attacked by Vanthus and his minions, and in the attack Vanthus managed to grab a large black pearl. It seems that this pearl was full of evil magic, and when in the struggle between Vanthus and Harless, the pearl managed to explode, warping all life in a large area. A few people managed to remain normal, but were quickly devored by their former allies. It seems that Vanthus fled after the pearl exploded, while Harless and her lieutenant also managed to survive. In revenge, Harless sent her lieutenant to round up some allies to attack the Vanderboren manor and all inside.
At this point, we repeated that we were on the trail of Vanthus because we were working for his sister, and told Harless of all the evil he’d done. Learning this, we realized that we had to stop her lieutenant- Trevor or something- from harming Lavinia and other innocents at the manor. Breftnar persuaded her to help us, so Harless wrote a note for us to give to Trevor. On this note, I’d like to add that Breftnar’s Diplomacy result was rather high :-) The player rolled 18, +15 for his bonus, +6 for three of us making successful Aid Another checks, plus whatever secret modifiers applied.
After giving us the note, she left. I hope she will be all right.
At this point we decided that we must rush back to help Lavinia.
That was where the session ended.
BTW, Paz, when I take over DMing I’d like you to continue this journal. You could even start pitching in from your PC’s point-of-view during part 3.
| ericthecleric |
Despite the notice from Ebreck’s player about him rarely turning up, he was actually present today! As the current DM, Paz, says, it does lead to a bit of suspension of disbelief when PCs disappear and reappear when players are present or not. Hard to overcome that, I suspect.
At the start of today’s session, we levelled up. So we now have:
Balthier Kramer, Human paladin2/binder2
Breftnar, Half-elf ranger3/marshal1
Ebreck, Dwarf dragon shaman 4
Farren, Human wizard4
Kannes, Elf cleric3/wizard1
Mitch, Human barbarian4
And Valos, a human ranger2/rogue2, if the player had joined in today.
I’ve been informed that when Paz’s wife joins the game, she’ll probably be some form of rogue (because that’s what she always tends to play).
Because we needed to rush back to Lavinia Vanderboren’s manor (for reasons explained in the previous journal entry), at the start of today’s session, we decided to leave the various items of value we’d found behind so that we can pick it up later. I think I saw a tear in Farren’s eye when he realized we were leaving the treasure behind… Hopefully it’ll still be there, but the safety of innocents is more important! Maybe we can even use the unburned ship we found in Kraken’s Cove, The Sea Wyvern; it might take us to some far shores… ;-)
We spent an hour or two heading back to the fisherman we’d hired- thankfully he was dozing where we left him- and spent the next 16 hours sailing back to Sasserine. Along the way, we had a good sleep… to arrive in time for the start of something called “The Wormfall Festival”. Last year, an evil god sought to return and turn the world into a hellish place; fortunately, some heroes stopped this at the 11th hour when they managed to slay the god. Sasserine also took some damage in these events, and in celebration of the heroes’ victory, the Festival was created.
Because of the festival, the town was crowded, therefore passage through to the manor was slow. While the bulk of us moved together, three characters decided to try different routes.
Ebreck decided to just walk along the bottom of the canals (as a reminder, as a dragon shaman with a gold dragon totem he can breath water).
Initially, the rest of us stayed together, passing floats on wagons and cheering packed crowds. A “tired and emotional” gnome (another person might say “pissed as a newt”) deliberately bumped into Mitch and tried starting a fight with the tall barbarian. I think that Mitch found this amusing, and this seemed to annoy the gnome even more, so a fight could have developed. Soon after, one of the gnome’s bigger friends turned up as well to see what was happening. Fortunately, Breftnar stepped in to solve the problem diplomatically, and he ended up giving the gnome’s friend some money so that they could have a quiet drink elsewhere.
At this point, Kannes and Mitch took another route to run for Lavinia’s manor, while the rest of us (Breftnar, Farren, and myself) continued on our existing route. Reaching hilly Hook Street, we saw that a float had lost control and was heading towards a several people drinking outside a tavern. I estimated that we had about twenty seconds before the wagon crashed into the tavern folk. Although Lavinia was potentially in danger, we had to help these people. I tried to warn the drinkers, but they only slowly moved to safety as their drinking games seemed of more immediate interest to them, frustratingly. Breftnar and Farren had fortunately spotted some barrels, which they managed to knock over after ten seconds or so. Breftnar also threw a tanglefoot bag at the runaway wagon in the last few moments, but the wagon rolled straight over it, and was stopped by the crashed barrels. It’s a good job they had heavy contents, and not something like water or soft fruit!
The three of us the continued on, shortly reaching Stirge Alley, where we saw an unusual sight. Ebreck was lying unconscious on the ground, while several stilt-walking thugs were attacking Kannes and Mitch, who’d presumably arrived before us. Breftnar promptly attacked the nearest stiltwalker with effortless despatch (he rolled two criticals hits!), and I had nearly as good a success (hitting twice with my two weapons, but only one critical hit). We soon neutralized or scared off the remaining thugs.
I laid hands on Ebreck to return him to consciousness, then joined Breftnar, Farren, and Mitch in the final hundred yards to the Vanderboren Manor’s entrance. Kannes stayed behind to fully restore Ebreck to health. I learned afterwards that Kannes also healed one of the stilt-walkers so that he could question him, and the cleric learned that the thugs had been sent by the mother of Rowyn Kellani. It seems that the Kellanis are nothing but a family of evil-doers, protected by their “noble” status.
Before entering the manor, I thought it best to take precautions. I asked Farren to use my wand of magic weapon on my blades (bastard sword and short sword) while I used my wand of bull’s strength on myself, Breftnar, Ebreck, and Mitch. While I was using my wand, Kannes used some sort of divination spell which told him that there would be no harm coming to us in the next hour if we entered the manor; I suspect a faulty reading…
In any case, after preparations we burst into the house to find three strange frog-like humanoids. Two of them were within 10 feet of the entrance, with the other on the balcony. Mitch (super-)charged forward and dispatched them both with the aid of his Cleave feat, while some of us ran towards the third, and the rest took potshots at it with their ranged weapons. Unfortunately, none of us managed to take him down quickly enough before it made a strange noise that no doubt warned its allies about us. A few seconds later, we brought it down.
That’s where the session ended.
No session next week. :-(
| ericthecleric |
We had our first death today! Read on for more…
Characters present:
Aramel, elf rogue4
Balthier Kramer, Human paladin2/binder2
Breftnar, Half-elf ranger3/marshal1
Ebreck, Dwarf dragon shaman 4
Kannes, Elf cleric3/wizard1
Mitch, Human barbarian4
Valos, a human ranger2/rogue2
Note: I can’t believe how piss-poor my luck has been with initiative rolls today! I have a modifier of +2, but only once achieved a decent modified score (20)- even then 3 PCs still went before me! The rest of the time, I didn’t get anything better than 4- and that’s WITH the +2 modifier! Strangely, Ebreck’s player (with a +6 modifier) never seems to get a modified score of less than +22 (and this has been over many sessions). Today he didn’t get anything less than 25- and that’s in 4 fights. Still, going last all the time, while a bit tiresome, does have advantages at times. Like, it means that other PCs are typically the foes’ first targets.
After the fight (at the end of last week), we’d regrouped in the manor’s foyer. At this point, an elf rogue entered. It seems her name is Aramel, and had turned up because she’d been invited to the manor by Lavinia for a job interview. After this short discussion, we decided to let her join us, explaining what we were doing there- ie. trying to save Lavinia and her employees from the attackers sent by Captain Harless.
With several members of the party still benefiting from Bull’s Strength, I urged us all to explore quickly. First of all, Mitch and Ebreck investigated the room to the right of the entrance, which turned out to be a trophy room (I think).
While they looked at that room, I detected evil in the west-north-west direction of the house. I determined that evil was present somewhere, so I ran through a library, another trophy room, and then found the kitchen. I don’t really remember the details of those rooms (although there was an upward-leading spiral staircase in the trophy room between the kitchen and the library).
Upon opening the kitchen door, I saw three strange froglike-humanoids (someone later pointed out that the creatures are called “bullywugs”, and they live in the marshes between Sasserine and Kraken’s Cove). Mitch and Ebreck quickly seized the initiative, and promptly set to killing them; my allies also quickly moved to join in, but I never got the chance to do anything in that fight.
A quick search of the kitchen- by Valos, I think- revealed a set of muddy footprints leading to a door. We heard the sound of a woman in pain or distress (it was difficult to tell), so we all tried moving silently down the stairs. Everyone did well at that, although Mitch was marginally successful (rolling a modified 11), but I- in my masterwork breastplate- tripped on the last few stairs (I rolled a 2, and with my -3 modifier, achieved a modified roll of -1!!) Everyone was appalled at my loudness; well, I’m a warrior, not a sneak thief!
The stairs led to an extremely muddy floor, so our movement was slowed through the basement. The first one down noticed two more bullywugs further down the passage, so we all moved as quickly as we could to deal with them. Aramel, Breftnar, and Valos tried to take potshots at one of them as they moved closer, while the rest of us sought to engage in melee. After some of the arrows dealt damage, the two bullywugs retreated about 10 feet, but Mitch was the first to reach them.
Unfortunately, the cover offered by those of us seeking melee, and the fact that Mitch was in melee meant that the archers didn’t really hit much after that. Mitch quickly learned that there were other foes present as well; a weird large insectile creature with feathery antennae, and a big, well-armed and well-armored bullywug as well.
The insectile creature touched Mitch’s breastplate, which promptly disintegrated (!) and was then hit by the big bullywug, and I think by one of the other bullywugs. Mitch had taken a beating by this point, so Kannes (the cleric) moved closer to heal him, along with the rest of us.
Next, the insectile creature rushed to attack me (taking some damage from Breftnar (?) as it passed him), and disintegrated my armor. This shocked me. Mitch received a huge blow from the big bullywug, knocking him unconscious (to -6 hit points). Some of us were in melee at this point, and I think that one of the lesser bullywugs was knocked down. I can’t be sure, as combat is quite hectic, and I had other things to think about, with my armor having just been destroyed. I attacked the horrid insect-like creature with my two weapons, missing with my shortsword, but scoring a mighty blow with my bastard sword, stabbing it right throw the eye. (I got a critical, dealing 23 points of damage- yay!) Unfortunately, this also caused my blade to also rot away. Curse that damn creature! Someone later remembered that those things are called “rust monsters”. I hope we never encounter anything like that again. I also suggested that Ebreck switch to his Vigor (fast healing aura).
Next round. Ebreck took my advice, and Mitch stabilized. (Paz thought that was very clever, for which I thanked him. Damn- hope I’m not sounding egotistical!) Things were getting tense now. Kannes managed to cast a cure light wounds on Mitch, bringing him to consciousness (and 3 hp). I managed to run round to the back of the big one and stab it with my remaining weapon. Luck was with me (I dealt 12 hp).
The remaining lesser bullywug managed to hit someone, but the big one struck Mitch a deadly blow (dealing 20 points of damage)… We were stunned- our first campaign death! The rest of us fought on, taking wounds (Valos was reduced to 1 hp), and I used Smite Evil on the villainous foe (again hitting, and again dealing 12 hp, but it was still alive!). Some of us were demoralized at this point, not sure if this battle would end in victory or death, but we kept plugging away. Eventually we won, but it was a hard-won battle.
Aramel and I investigated the chained woman (who’s sounds of pain we must have heard earlier), while Kannes healed the living, and the others investigated the creature’s equipment. Ebreck was very close to Mitch, however, so he just held his fallen friend. It turned out to be Liamae, a human sorceress and member of the Jade Ravens. It seems that the mercenary group were with Lavinia when the bullywugs attacked, but Liamae got separated from her friends. We released her, and she joined with us (run by Mitch’s player for the rest of the session). Amongst the found equipment was the leader's magical greatclub and hide armor, which I picked up and put on respectively; it's not my ideal equipment, but it'll have to do for the moment.
Kannes made a eulogy while Ebreck loosely covered Mitch with mud in one corner (intending to bury him properly later), and this was Kannes’ speech:
“It is a sad day that we have encountered most recently, the finest fighter our noble city of Sasserine has had the priviledge to provide a home for, Mitch, has been untimely pulled from this material world, into the domain of the great ones above.”
”May Corellon Larethian bless his courageous and noble deeds and protect him in his passing. “
”Our thoughts be with you on this day. “
”Farewell”
Finishing this task, Ebreck was filled with rage. He took Mitch’s greataxe and ran out of the basement. We all ran to keep up with him. The dwarf ran upstairs into the trophy room with the spiral staircase, amd quickly found a pair of bullywugs. We caught him up while he vented his rage on the creatures, but it was not enough. He continued into another chamber (or chambers), finding some downward leading stairs. We followed him again into a room- of which type I can’t remember- but there were three of the lesser bullywugs, and a larger female bullywug. We quickly moved to engage, taking two of the lesser ones down quickly. After receiving several wounds, the female ran off, pursued by myself, Ebreck, and Valos. The three of us chased after her, and brought her down with arrows, while the remaining members brought down the last bullywug.
It has been a tense evening, with much loss. We still haven’t found Lavinia, or any of her staff, and it seems that the other members of the Jade Ravens are also somewhere within the manor. I hope that Anachtyr has looked kindly upon them and that they are still alive, and hopefully safe.
That’s the end of the session- and journal- for this week.
I asked Mitch’s player if he was OK with his PC’s death, and while he said he was, he shortly after said that he’d like a break from the campaign for a bit. I hope the player rejoins soon, as he is (usually) a good player, and brings much to the game- especially his lucky rolls.
Mitch, you’ll be remembered!
| ericthecleric |
I’m quite tired as I write this, so it probably won’t be as long a post. :-)
Initially, only three players turned up yesterday, so we each ran two PCs. Later on, another player turned up.
After dealing with the bullywugs, we decided to explore every inch of the ground floor, just in case we’d missed something.
We came across a study; one door had scratching and whining noises from the other side, which Breftnar(the ranger) identified. After opening the door and seeing three huge dogs, he successfully used Wild Empathy on them, they became his friend.
That meant that our party also included, with the 6 PCs who were present, three dogs, and Liamae the sorceress. Shortly after that a fourth player turned up. So our group included 11 miniatures… which looked a bit silly on the battlemat.
The only part of the ground floor we hadn’t explored was two doors off the kitchen. Kannes looked through those, and spotted a secret door, behind which was an unconscious dwarf. Kannes healed him, and remembered the dwarf as one of the Jade Ravens, who’d fled to this area (which, it emerged, had some emergency healing potions) to use the potions, but collapsed before he could use one. So he joined us, and that made 12!! It was truly an army.
It seems that we’d encountered everything else, until we came to the last room in the top floor. Someone opened the door and saw the remaining Jade Ravens and Lavinia each tied to chairs. Also present was a palsied-looking bullywug and a half-orc, which we presumed to be Drevoraz (the lieutenant sent by Captain Harless to deal with Vanthus at the Vanderboren manor, as detailed in a previous post). Breftnar quickly stepped forward to show him the letter and Harless’s earing that she’d given us to calm her lieutenant down.
He was wary at first, but believed us. He then asked for safe passage out of the city, which we agreed to. Then the bullywug shouted “No!” and started haranguing us and threatening us about some Dagon rubbish, probably some make-believe god the stupid thing “worships”. Perhaps I should look into it later.
Anyway, he summoned two fiendish creatures, so we had to deal with them and the shaman. So we took the three creatures down, although with so many of us, we couldn’t all reach the foes.
While the melee happened, Drevoraz didn’t hang around, and bravely- or perhaps, foolhardily (is that a word?)- he opened the window, JUMPED to the ground. I wonder if he was OK. There was no body afterwards, so he must have been reasonably unhurt.
Following the battle, Farren searched the bullywug for treasure- typical!- we untied Lavinia and the other captors. All were glad to be rescued, but sorrowful for the loss of Mitch. The Jade Ravens were all pleased they’d made it- although they’d evidently had a hard time, with Kaskus losing his animal companion.
That’s it for this week. We’re having a break next week, and then it's onto The Sea Wyvern's Wake!
| Calavingian |
Thanks for the campiagn journal Eric, keep it up. I love reading about other folks games.
| ericthecleric |
The good news: Today was our first session for six weeks.
The bad news: We only roleplayed for about 20 minutes. I’ve explained more in Saern’s most popular thread.
If anyone remembers, we (the PCs) quickly left Cracken’s Cove to rescue Lavinia and her friends, so left much loot behind there.
Before starting Sea Wyvern’s Wake, the DM first did a little role-play interlude as we returned to Cracken’s Cove to recover the loot. The DM pointed out that the Sew Wyvern would be a useful way to bring the loot back The DM pronounced the word “WYE-vern”, to which two players said it was “WYV-ern”, and they got into a little (non-shouty) argument about the correct pronunciation for about 5 minutes. :-(
Two players suggested selling it, the dwarf and the cleric. Ironically, Farren, the greedy wizard suggested not doing so in case it was needed!
After returning to Sasserine, the dwarf and wizard proceeded to “bags me” most of the magic items, with no thought to the rest of the party’s need.
After sorting out loot- although this WILL need some retrofitting, for fairness to other players- we returned to the Vanderboren manor. It seems that Lavinia had finally gone through the charts and journal found in the Vanderboren vault. She told us about how the journal described her parents’ founding of the colony of Farshore, a place near somewhere known as the “Isle of Dread”. When she mentioned that name, a couple of us said “I’m not going there- it sounds dangerous!”, and things like that. But we did eventually all agree to go.
After outfitting the ship, departure was delayed because of the late arrival of Avner Meravanchi, a noble who’s family is co-financing Farshore and the journey there. He seems an arrogant fellow, and soon managed to offend the dwarf. (At this point, I went to get a drink from the bar, and when I returned the following happened) The dwarf attempted to get into a brawl Avner. Even if the nobleman is arrogant, some people (or dwarves) are just too oversensitive- or obnoxious- to make good allies. A group of adventurers only works well when everyone works together. I wonder what will happen on the voyage?
Just after the ship left the harbour, the DM ended the session, having had enough of certain players.
Next session's in two weeks, I think, because of a sodding LARP game next week (which some members of the group go along to). Hopefully we can get more stuff done then!
| ericthecleric |
Sea Wyvern’s wake continued yesterday. This was a fun session, and there were a few good quotes that I’ll include if I can remember them.
Present:
Aramel (Rogue5)
Balthier (Paladin2/Binder3) (played by me)
Farren (Wizard5)
Kannes (Cleric3/Wizard2)
? (can’t remember name) (Fighter 5)
The player of the ranger/rogue can’t make it to the club now, because of Real Life, so we’ve lost Valos.
Breftnar’s player turned up briefly yesterday to say hello, but left early because he wasn’t well.
Ebreck’s player (the most disruptive one) only turns up intermittently now.
The player of Mitch (the barbarian killed in Bullywug Gambit) is playing another game in the games club. When (if) he returns, he’ll be playing a druid.
Aramel’s player is due to give birth on Halloween, so we’ll be missing another PC then (but congrats to Paz and Heather for when this happens!).
So I asked Rob (another member of the games group) to create another PC (the fighter).
After Sea Wyvern’s Wake finishes, I take over DMing for Here Be Monsters, and Paz’s PC- Thanduil (I think), an elf wizard, will join the PCs. Thanduil is a passenger on the Sea Wyvern, who’ll just keep to himself.
We sorted out the wealth imbalance. Yay! So with all the money Balthier received (I also sold his potion of CMW and the wand of bull’s strength), he visited the Red Wizard enclave and bought some nice shiny items. If anyone recalls, Balthier’s mwk bastard sword and breastplate were destroyed by the rust monster in Vanderboren Manor. So he purchased a +1 mithril chain shirt, two +1 bastard swords, a +1 ring of deflection, and two potions of bull’s strength, leaving 246.6 gp in his kitty. At 6th-level, Balthier will pick up the Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting feat, for added badness. Yesss!
Anyway:
The voyage got underway, with ourselves on the Sea Wyvern, and the Jade Ravens and Lavinia on the Blue Nixie. Various other passengers are on our ship, including Avner Meravanchi (Lavinia’s co-investor), Urol Forol (a scholarly gnome), Thanduil (an elf wizard), and Father Feres (a cleric of Chauntea (??)). It seems the ship’s captain is Amella, a female human, who seems a no-nonsense yet competent sort. It will be interesting to see what these people are like on the three month voyage, although it does seem that some of the party have taken a dislike to Avner already. I hope none of my allies do something foolish to him, and will pray that matters do not get out of hand.
The first day went well, for the most part. In the evening, the two ships anchored close to each other, and Avner, myself, my allies, and Captain Amella were invited to the Blue Nixie for dinner with Lavinia. The crews set up a pulley system between the ships, with a chair attached, which allowed for easy transportation between the ships.
The dinner was enjoyable, and the elven wine went down well. The fighter remarked that he didn’t enjoy “fancy food and fancypants wine”, but otherwise kept to himself and quietly imbibed large amounts of alcohol. Sigh. Moderation is always the best way, but he is a hearty fellow (OOC: Con 18!), so perhaps he can take that much.
Avner somehow managed to corner Lavinia and Amella in a corner of the cabin, and I could tell that he was boring the ladies. I am not an entertainer, so I didn’t feel like I could interrupt, really. I kept an eye on the three though, to make sure he didn’t try anything. Maybe if this happens again, I will try to engage them in conversation.
After the dinner, we returned to the deck to be transported back to our ship. Aramel was the first on the pulley chair, but for some reason the rope snapped and she fell into the water below. (Having the highest Initiative,) I grabbed the rope from the pulley system, shouting at Aramel to grab the rope so I could pull her up. Unfortunately, Aramel didn’t seem to cope well with the choppy waters and started to sink. Farren- wearing his ring that aids swimming- dived in the water to help her. A few seconds later, a small demon flew across from the Sea Wyvern to attack the pair. I recognized the fiend as some type of mephit, a minor fiend that’s linked to elemental forces.
So, I let go of the rope to try shooting at the thing. I hit, but the arrow did little damage, unfortunately. Kannes cast a spell that created some knives around him (OOC: Cloud of Knives, PHB2) to attack the thing. Not having a ranged weapon, the fighter grabbed hold of the rope to pull the two out of the sea. The fiend breathed a cloud of steam on the pair. Farren was struck, but managed to keep hold of the rope, but at least he’d managed to get Aramel to the rope. In the next few seconds, the fighter continued pulling the rope. I invoked Malphas (the saint I’d bound that day) to make me invisible, but it takes time to do so. Kannes continued to use his spell against the fiend, which summoned some foul gaseous cloud. Aramel was unaffected, but Farren became nauseated by the it.
A few seconds later, I tried shooting the thing. Unfortunately, I missed. Kannes continued pelting it with his knives. I think that Aramel managed to reach the deck at this point, and picked up Kannes’ bow. (Aramel had left hers on the Sea Wyvern, when going for dinner, although the rest of us had our weapons). The fiend was attacking Farren with its claws, and he was getting bloody.
Finally, Farren was brought on to the deck. At this point, I’d dropped my bow and got my sword out, ready and waiting for the fiend. As Farren was pulled up on deck, I waited for it to appear, and struck a telling blow. (OOC: I rolled a crit! For 2d10+10 damage. Unfortunately, I rolled snake eyes with the d10s, for which I thumped the table. Paz later said that if I’d rolled 1 more point of damage, it would have become unconscious. Damn!) Aramel hit it with an arrow, and the thing was knocked into the water. A few seconds later, it flew back to attack the wizard, who sent several magical bolts (OOC: magic missile) at it. The thing finally decided to flee, and that was the last we saw of it.
While Aramel and Farren were healed by Kannes, the ships’ crews managed to re-set the pulley chair, so we finally returned to the Sea Wyvern. When we got back, the fighter immediately returned to his bunk to sleep; perhaps the alcohol had had an affect after all! Aramel mentioned suspicions about the fiend, and suggested searching the ship. So the four of us (me, Aramel, Farren, and Kannes) decided to split up and search the ship.
Slight digression. It seems that Paz made a slight mistake here. Aramel found the room with the bad gal, Rowyn Kellani (former head of the Lotus Dragons thieves’ guild- from There Is No Honor). Rowyn attacked with surprise, casting Hold Person on Aramel, and said something like “Remember me? Now it’s time to suffer”. Aramel (and the player) didn’t join until part-way through The Bullywug Gambit. Oops. Never mind, Paz, we all make mistakes! (No doubt I will when I take over.) Rowyn then attempted to coup de gras Aramel, which fortunately failed, so she “only” took a critical hit.
A few minutes later, I heard a scream down below. (Aramel were searching the lowest deck; Kannes and I were searching the next one up, with Farren upstairs.) I rushed downstairs to move downstairs, but Kannes was quicker. A few seconds later, I rushed past Kannes to make a solid strike at Rowyn with my sword. The fighter was woken by the noise, so he and Farren joined the rest of us on the lower deck. Farren cast magic missile, and said something like: “Ha ha! You’re going down, b****, and notice I’m wearing your pet’s Collar of Armor!” (To which I replied OOC: “You’re like the anti-Gandalf!” Farren’s player laughed and said “I like that!” in a friendly way.)
At this point, Rowyn tumbled past us to reach the stairs, so I ran after her and made another solid strike, only just failing to make a critical hit (OOC: I failed the confirmation roll, but I’d dealt 19 points of damage to her with two strikes). At this point, noone else could get past, because of the narrow stairs. Farren might have cast another magic missile, but I can’t remember. Rowyn tumbled up the stairs out of sight, and that’s where the session ended. I hope next week’s as fun as this session was.
Mnaaaar!
| Savage Tide GM |
Some comments and clarifications on the above, with much snippage...
Present:
? (can’t remember name) (Fighter 5)
Caldrin.
Aramel hit it with an arrow, and the thing was knocked into the water. A few seconds later, it flew back to attack the wizard,
It wasa bit longer than that, more like two minutes (I think you were away from the table at the time).
Slight digression. It seems that Paz made a slight mistake here. Aramel found the room with the bad gal, Rowyn Kellani (former head of the Lotus Dragons thieves’ guild- from There Is No Honor). Rowyn attacked with surprise, casting Hold Person on Aramel, and said something like “Remember me? Now it’s time to suffer”. Aramel (and the player) didn’t join until part-way through The Bullywug Gambit. Oops. Never mind, Paz, we all make mistakes! (No doubt I will when I take over.)
As the only person who's been present for every session, I reserve the right to get players/PCs mixed up from time to time! ;-)
I have a couple of other comments to make about Rowyn, but as the encounter with her isn't over yet, I'll wait for now.
Rowyn then attempted to coup de gras Aramel, which fortunately failed, so she “only” took a critical hit.
Actually I judged that to be the surprise round, so she did not have time for a full-round action. Still, the sneak attack was pretty nasty.
Rowyn tumbled up the stairs out of sight, and that’s where the session ended.
You missed out a key point: someone followed her up the stairs to the cabin deck a few seconds later, only to be startled by the sight of no Rowyn, but two Avners standing there!
All in all, a very good session, and I'm looking forward to more of the same next week.
| ericthecleric |
PCs present yesterday:
Aramel (Elf Rogue5)
Balthier (Human Paladin2/Binder3; played by me)
Ebreck (Dwarf Dragon Shaman5)
Farren (Human Wizard5)
Kannes (Elf Cleric3/Wizard2)
Farren’s player wasn’t actually present, but Paz asked me to run him as well for yesterday’s session.
The journal left at a cliff-hanger: TWO Avner Meravanchis! Ebreck (who’s player typically rolled a higher initiative than pretty much everyone else!) ran up the stairs to stand beside one of the Avners, then asked “What did you call me when we first met?”, to which one of them replied “a gnome”. Ebreck then attempted to strike the other Avner, but missed. Several others of us ran in- also missing- but with one solid whack from Justice (one of my magic swords), the fake Avner/Rowyn died as the gods decreed.
With all the blood flowing out of Rowyn’s body, (the real) Avner seemed pale and shaken. Methinks he is not as brave as he makes out. As Farren looted Rowyn’s body, Ebreck mentioned various plans he had to mutilate her body. Thankfully, Kannes and myself managed to dissuade him from this behaviour.
At this point, Captain Amella entered the cabin, asking what had happened. Aramel explained what had happened, and the captain suggested another thorough search of the ship. Although it was late, Aramel did happen to find Rowyn’s resting place- it seems she had prepared stocks for a long voyage. Some questions remained though: Considering that we’d killed her several weeks ago, how was it that she was alive? Had she made a pact with dark powers? I hope we don’t find her again. While the search was going on, the dwarf was unsupervised, and did manage to undertake some of his planned mutilation, cutting off Rowyn’s head and throwing both body parts different sides of the ship. I asked Kannes if he wanted to say a few words for her, but he declined. Even though Rowyn was evil, she couldn’t always have been that way, and it is sad that the eldest child of one of Sasserine’s noble families should suffer such a fate. I wonder if Vanthus Vanderboren will suffer a similar fate, or if Lavinia will manage to redeem him?
After a long day, we managed to get some sleep before rising the next day. As it was fairly quiet, I practiced fighting with both bastard swords (OOC: I’m planning on getting Oversize Two-Weapon Fighting for Balthier at 6th-level), and while I don’t think anyone was impressed initially, I did achieve more grace and skill as the days went by. I also think that (initially), some passengers or allies thought I might have thought I was merely showing off; well, they can think what they wish. I’m sure the blades will be necessary before we reach the Isle of Dread.
The next few days were largely uneventful, although at one point we did pass a fortress/village. I summoned a dove to have a closer look at the place (OOC: Having bound Malphas gives Balthier that ability, and he can see and hear through the bird’s eyes); it turned out that there had been a raid against the place. No bodies were present, or any signs or recent activity, but there were some bloodstains. I wonder what happened there? I think that Captain Amella had thought to call in at that place, but after I told her what happened, she bypassed the place to head for a larger supply station
The next two weeks or so passed uneventfully, although tempers did begin to flare as cabin fever set in. I continued practicing with my swords. Ebreck continued attempting to aggravate Avner, who would seek to avoid the dwarf when he could; I wish the dwarf would grow up- the few dwarves I met in my hometown seemed to have good manners and sober dispositions. Maybe Ebreck had been banished because of his lack of social skills.
After those two weeks, we arrived at a large fortified town, where we stayed overnight. I think most of us were glad of the opportunity to get off the ship. I spent some time in discussion with a priest of Anachtyr, and wandering through the town. I can’t remember it’s name though, but Father Feres- one of the Sea Wyvern’s other passengers- delivered a religious artefact while the crew picked up fresh supplies. Aramel also decided to spend some of her money, and she purchased a spyglass and two well-made (OOC: masterwork) ballistas for the Sea Wyvern. The weapons were placed at the front and back upper decks of the ship. (I’m sure those are not the proper terms, but I grew up in the mountains, so perhaps I should speak with Captain Amella about such things along the voyage.)
We departed the town with spirits uplifted, and continued on the voyage. After some time, Father Feres seemed to become increasingly ill with some malady. Kannes examined him, and discovered that something was inside him. It seemed to be a large, writing parasite of some sort, so Kannes decided to immediately operate. Ebreck sapped the priest into unconciousness, as the cleric prepared his tools. I think some people seemed very uneasy about the planned operation. I think that Kannes is unused to performing operations, as it took him several attempts, but eventually he removed a disgusting looking egg. It was slightly opaque, and something could be seen writhing within. Farren examined the object, and said that it looked like the egg of an outer planes creature called a “slaad”. Ebreck grabbed the object, and stamped on it until it stopped moving. He then threw it into the sea. I wonder how it happened to get inside Father Feres? Definitely something evil went on.
When the “priest” recovered, he seemed completely remorseful. He admitted that his name was Conrad, and that he wasn’t a priest at all, but a down-at-heel rogue who’d been hired to deliver an object to the town. I asked if he’d be willing to seek a new life in Farshore, where he could pursue an honest trade. Ebreck was a little less merciful, though, and forced the man to become a deck-hand.
Several more days passed, until someone spotted two ships on the horizon. I sent a dove across to see who they were. It seems that they belonged to the Rundeen, an organization of evil merchants and pirates. Listening in, it seemed that they intended to board us- and they did look a scruffy crowd. The bird couldn’t discover much else though, so I recalled it.
When the ship got within a certain distance, their “Captain” shouted out that they were government inspectors, and that they were going to inspect us- whether we wanted to or not. It seemed that they also had their weapons ready. Everyone on the Sea Wyvern was pretty sceptical of the “Captain’s” claims, so Aramel and myself went to stand aside the ballistas, ready just in case.
As the ships grew closer, it appeared that they were even more unsavoury, so Farren caused one ship’s rigging to burn (OOC: he cast a fireball at it’s rigging). I’m not sure how much effect it had, as both ships continued with their boarding course.
That’s where the session ended.
| ericthecleric |
Sea Wyvern’s Wake continues (third full session of this adventure)-
PCs present yesterday:
Aramel (Elf Rogue5; run by a guest player as the usual player wasn’t well)
Balthier (Human Paladin2/Binder3; played by me)
Breftnar (Half-elf Marshal1/Ranger4)
Ebreck (Dwarf Dragon Shaman5)
Farren (Human Wizard5)
Kannes (Elf Cleric3/Wizard2)
Farren’s player wasn’t actually present (again), so I ran him again. Something I think that I forgot to add last week- when Aramel purchased the ballistas, Farren purchased four scrolls of fireball . Having read the adventures a while ago, I knew some dangerous encounters were coming up, so thought it might help prevent a TPK.
The journal left at a cliff-hanger (again):
As the pirates’ ship drew closer, Aramel fired at their ship with her ballista, to little apparent effect. Ebreck threw a javelin into the water (his attack roll was a natural 1). Balthier missed with his attempt to damage the rigging with his ballista. Farren used one of his fireball scrolls to great effect on the crew (I rolled 28 damage, out of 6d6; yay!), laying low most of them. Breftnar then hit the pirate’s leader twice with solid blows from his bow.
In the rest of the battle, Aramel fired her bow at one of the remaining pirates, taking him down with an arrow through his eye (the player rolled a crit for 24 damage!). Everyone else hit their foes with arrows/crossbow bolts. However, Ebreck threw another javelin in the water (he rolled a natural 1 a second time).
The folks on the Blue Nixie- which included Lavinia and the Jade Ravens- handled their battle with their pirates just as well. Following the battles, we boarded alongside “our” pirates’ ship, as Farren and Ebreck wanted to search the ship for loot. They were disappointed at the lack of it, although it turned out that the pirate’s leader had some magic equipment.
While this was going on, I suggested to Kannes that we perform some sort of service for the pirates. It was quite clear that they were a crew of unfortunates, and that by choosing the path of evil, had a chosen a path that led to a poor life. At least we have prevented them from preying on other ships. So the two of us buried them at sea.
Ebreck also wanted to keep the ship as loot, but Captain Amella informed him that we wouldn’t be able to tow it, firstly, because we didn’t have the means, and secondly, because it would slow down the journey, and the supplies would run out. Therefore, the rest of the party dropped anchor, thinking that they could come back another time to pick it up.
OOC, at this point I suggested preparing fresh meals, so that if anyone found the ship, someone would wonder what had happened. This brought laughter, and one player said “Yeah, it would be a great April Fool’s joke”.
Upon leaving the pirates’ ships, the journey continued for several days, until we needed to stop for some fresh water. Captain Amella told us of a secluded but narrow cove where there was a freshwater waterfall, which only one ship could enter at a time. After communicating with the Blue Nixie, Lavinia decided to let the Sea Wyvern enter first.
When Paz drew the map for the cove, everyone else made remarks about how it must be the lair of a sea dragon or something equally nasty. :-) Paz just smiled.
Breftnar went in a rowboat to fill the barrels with freshwater, while the suspicious Ebreck swam nearby to look for the creature he believed was there. Aramel followed closely by in the other rowboat, about thirty feet away from the waterfall. Avner, Urol Furol (the gnome sage), and someone else used the opportunity to have a swim in the clear water, near the Sea Wyvern. Everyone else remained on the ship, with myself manning a ballista, and Skald (?), the lonesome half-elf passenger manning the other.
(Incredibly, everyone failed their Spot rolls; not through DM malice, but because of crappy luck, so I don’t think anyone was surprise when the creature appeared.)
Breftnar’s boat was overturned by a huge multi-headed creature that raged at it’s territory being invaded (someone later identified it as a (7-headed) hydra). With the boat overturned, the furious creature laid into the dwarf, biting him three times (for 17 hp) with a surprise round.
First round, the dwarf responded by breathing fire on it (for maximum damage! Well, only 12 hp, but it was a lucky roll!). Farren used a fireball scroll on the creature, causing much pain. Everyone else did marginal damage or missed. The hydra hit the dwarf- again with three bites- for 27 damage, putting the dwarf into unconsciousness, and the creature began moving towards Aramel’s boat. (Breftnar moved closer to the creature but successfully hid next to the boat, which is why the hydra hadn’t attacked him.) Naturally, the three swimmers attempted to get out of the water as quickly as possible! Not surprising, considering that they’re not adventurers!
Next round, everyone let rip again. However, Breftnar moved to help prevent the dwarf from dying. Farren cast another fireball , and everyone else stuck the creature’s body with additional wounds. Last to move was Skald, who demonstrated great skill- or just blind luck- hitting the thing with a ballista bolt for much damage, dealing the killing blow. I looked on him with a newfound respect for his skill- whilst also recognizing that the hydra’s death was a team effort.
With the creature’s death, the wounded were healed, and Ebreck swam to examine the cove bed to see what treasure there might be. He found some coins, a suit of untarnished chainmail, and a cloak. Upon returning to the ship, we moved out of the cove to let the Blue Nixie enter. While waiting, the chainmail and cloak were found to be magical.
Ebreck donned the cloak, and tried several tests to see how it might affect him. Eventually, he jumped in the water and transformed, apparently resembling a manta ray! He was over the moon about it, spending several hours in that form; he even swam alongside the ship, as the cloak’s magic allowed him to swim faster than the ship! (OOC: The player really loves the cloak! It’s a cloak of the manta ray, for those who are interested.)
All was quiet again for the next few days. However, along the way, we passed several miles of forest with skulls and other totems in the trees. Ebreck decided to have a look, so he swam over to the coast. As we were “hugging the coast”, as I believe the term is called, it wasn’t too far. I summoned a bird, to follow and keep an eye on him, just in case. I described what I saw to my allies and other interested crew as I saw it, but nobody could tell what the items in the trees represented, other than as evidence of an evil shamanistic society. The dwarf found a few items of marginal value, and eventually returned to swimming alongside the ship.
Later that day, the weather, which had been good so far, took a turn for the worse. In the latter part of the afternoon, fog grew around us, which became thicker and thicker. Over shouted conversation with The Blue Nixie, we stopped for the day, as sailing without being able to see would obviously be very dangerous, and might have thrown us off course. Apparently the fog was even thicker at crow’s nest height. The fog really creeped Ebreck out, as the thought that even his darkvision couldn’t help him scared him, so he came back on board. As night fell, Ebreck, Kannes, and myself took first watch.
At some point, the ship lurched as something hit it. Because no-one had a lantern, Kannes cast a magical light spell on the main mast, and while he did that the dwarf jumped overboard. A few seconds later, we realized that the something- some very weird, very large- oozy thing, is the best way to describe it- began climbing the other side of the ship. Ebreck swam to it’s side and breathed fire on it, with less success than he did at the hydra, and the ooze struck the dwarf a painful-looking blow with one of it’s pseudopods.
I can’t remember what else happened if there was another round, except that the other PCs, woken by the sound of the ooze’s collision with the ship, began running for deck. At that point, Paz ended the session. I hope I've remembered all the salient points!
| ericthecleric |
Last week (the 24th), there was a session, but I really didn’t feel like writing the journal. Here’s just a summary:
We finished off the ooze.
We begin exploring the lost city of Tamoachan (as based in a map found by Urol). Outside the entrance to the dungeon, we fought and killed a basilisk.
Inside the first large room we came across an “Indiana Jones”-style model of the city (as was); pretty cool.
There was a session yesterday (as far as I know), but I’ve had back pain the last few days so didn’t go. If anyone from the group can update this journal, please do so!