We've had a little trouble getting together but we are still with it! I have a couple sessions to post and should do so within the next week.
Teaser - Alobar the half-elf wizard is now a gnome!
Sessions 81-82, Gaping Again - 8 Apr and 22 Apr 10
Ural and Lavinia have found a new, tougher crew for the Blue Nixie. Now maybe they won’t all die when we leave for our excursions ashore. Lavinia asks us to have pity on Vanthus’ soul, should we meet him again. We take the Blue Nixie into the Abyssal Ocean, using the Wake Portal, and make our way to the River Styx, and the location of the portal to the Court of Stars. Apparently, it is on its own little floating plane, and hard to get to unless invited in. Before we enter the Court, however, we decide to take care of a little unfinished business.
We use Greater Plane Shift to enter the prison on Gaping Maw, thru Vanthus’ chambers, which allowed conjuration spells. Its either these chambers, or thru the break in the walls that we used the first time around to enter. We have buffed up with all of our 10 min per level and longer spells, expecting a trap. Alobar and Xan have Force Cage ready, to trap Shasharra. They also have Dimensional Locks and Dimensional Anchors ready, to prevent her from teleporting, and Limited Wishes, to give themselves an autohit with the Dimensional Anchor ranged touch attacks. Xan has a Telekinetic Sphere ready, as well. Finally, we permanently enlarge Pheophim.
There is no ambush when we pop in, and we proceed out the door, onto the small bridge that connects to the rest of the prison complex. Unfortunately, we get into a long discussion on our next move, while standing on the bridge, and then we do get ambushed! 8 x Nabasu demons (the same type who slew Malaforte with a death gaze) fly up off the walls of the caldera and attack, and then someone begins casting Greater Dispels on us individually, each round. We can guess who this is. It’s a medium range spell, so we figure that Shasharra is somewhere within 300 feet. However, thru the combat, we have trouble spotting her. Eventually, and despite the dispels, we manage to slay the six nabasu demons, using Enias’ whirlwind breath, and Alobar’s Horrid Wiltings. Additionally, Alobar has shapechanged into first a beholder, then a huge air elemental. However, during the combat, we notice a large disturbance across the surface of the lava far below, and realize that Shasharra is casting Abyssal Blasts onto it. We don’t know why, until we see a gargantuan fire drake arise out of the lava, and begin flying up toward us.
We also spot 6 x nycoleths, who are the neutral evil fiends. We slay them, but Alobar dies from demon blows. He was feeling randy, and shapechanged into a pyrohydra, but they are resistance to fire and he doesn’t do enough damage with his bite attacks to take them out quick. They concentrate their greataxe blows, and down he goes. Unfortunately, his body fell off the bridge. Xan runs and dives after him, wildshaping (fast wildshaping feat) as she goes. She is able to catch up to him and cast Last Breath (mobile spellcasting feat), doing a sudden reincarnation that changes him into a gnome (Ural has a new friend!), and leaves him at -1 hp but stable, with no level loss. They fell 600 feet in that one round, and are dreadfully close to the fire drake, who is taking quite some time to fly up the 1300 feet from the surface of the lava to the top of the caldera. Xan then casts heal on Alobar and yells at him to teleport them back to Vanthus’ chambers. He does so, but not before the fire drake took a bite out of Xan – taking two thirds of her hit points as he does so.
While this was playing out, Shasharra teleports into Vanthus’ chambers, from which Father Seamus had been casting spells. She sneak attacks him to death, using Greater Invisibility and four strikes from her rapier and three from her dagger. She figured we were now so scattered, that we couldn’t gang up on her. Right then, Xan and Al pop back in, and Xan, who can see invisible, casts a quickened Glitterdust on Shasharra, wildshapes into a plant form (to protect against sneak attacks, etc) and moves out the door, while casting Aura of Vitality (giving everyone on her slide +4 morale bonuses to Str, Dex, Con). Solaral charges thru the door and pounces on Shasharra, hitting her four times with the Sunblade (double damage vs undead), while dropping her claw from her left hand and drawing Shasharra’s scimitar, to taunt her with it. It works, and she stays to fight, instead of trying to leave. Al casts a Dimensional Anchor at Shasharra, and rolls a 20! No save. However, he takes 10 on the Spell Penetration check, and we realize he may not make it, due to her now incredibly high SR. Al gets a 38 (CL 21, +1 for ioun stone, +6 for epic spell pen, +10 for arcane mastery) and she is a 38 – he just makes it! So she can’t teleport away now.
Shasharra attacks Solaral with rapier and dagger, trying to disarm her, and knock Shasharra’s scimitar out of Solaral’s offhand. Unfortunately for her, Solaral has combat reflexes and beats every one of her disarm attempts, and knocking Sharsharra’s rapier and dagger out of her hands as she does so. The five subsequent empty hand disarm attempts that Shasharra makes, fail as well. Enias charges to the door, and with his reach, can hit her inside, and does so – he is pouncing, as well. With enough blows from his holy greatsword, he manages to kill her! Yeah!
We hastily gather Shasharra and Father Seamus up, and greater plane shift to Ahazu’s well on the Well of Souls plane. H is excited to get her, and agrees that we have filled our part of the bargain. Yes, its only the body of a destroyed undead, but he assures us that he will grab and capture her soul now, and Demogorgon can’t raise her again. We cast Cocoon on Father Seamus, so we can raise him later with no level loss. Then then plane shift again to return to the Blue Nixie, with Father Seamus in a cocoon, on the Styx, in front of the gateway to the court of stars. So we can't call the mercanes to us.
Session 83 – Red Fang - May 6, 2010
We went to the Court of Stars. The queen said ours was a noble cause and she would give us the armies of the Eladrin to defeat Demogorgon. But first we have to prove ourselves. We have to kill Red Fang, an ancient dread lynorn. We spend a day on the boat preparing and the next day the Queen Gates us to the opening of Red Fang’s hole. Xan cast all her standard buffs on herself and the party, which include mass versions of Resistance 30 to acid, elec, fire, cold and sonic, and darkvision. Father Seamus casts death ward mass, spell resist 30, holy aura, and conviction mass. Al casts Haste, and we enter the hole.
We enter the tunnel which is covered in light mist. Red Fang hits Enias’ elephant with a disintegrate ray before we can see it, and the elephant takes 5d6. Most of the party runs down a tunnel after it except the Father and Jak. Turns out we ran down the wrong tunnel as Red Fang used ghost sound, or similar, and then Red tries to disintegrate Father Seamus, but he had just cast spell immunity. We all run back to Father and Jak when Red Fang jumps out of the mist and tries to land on Sol, Slams Father and Breaths on the rest of us. He misses Sol, but now she is separated from the rest of the party behind Red Fang. Red Fang is also trying to keep us separated with Walls of Force. Father is grappled. Several people get AOO's, but not much damage. Red has two heads and breaths fire and cold on us. Most make saves and have the energy resistance going, and the rest take 6 HP damage.
Now it's right next to us and we all scramble to back up. Xan is the last person to go and she can't withdraw without taking an AOO, so she casts time stop. In the 3 rounds, she backs up, summons two monoliths (earth, air), and casts freedom of movement. Red Fang dispels both monoliths the next round. Sol attacks but spends most of her time hitting mirror images. Xan's last attack, she casts stalagmite, but Red makes the save and takes no damage. Next up is Enius who intends to do a charge…
We play from 6 PM to 11 PM on Thursday nights. Some nights, we don't get thru the final combat, and since we all have to go to work in the morning, we end it. Its not as bad as it seems. We discuss it via email over the next week, and figure out what we want to do. Although when we actually get to playing, we usually end up doing something other than what we discussed!
Session 84 – Red Fang part II (Getting Our A&%s Kicked) – 27 May 2010
Enias charges, and gets a hit! Because of the feats he gets from his bindings, he gets double damage on a charge, too. He smacks Red Fang for quite a bit of damage with his huge holy greatsword. He is pouncing, as well, but the rest of the attacks miss. Fortunately, because of his displacement and the fact that Red Fang only has blind sense and not blind sight, Red Fang misses the attack of opportunity that Enias took to get within reach. Alobar casts a Horrid Wilting.
Red Fang then takes a full round of attacks and tries to hit Enias with the first bite, but misses. He then bites Solaral and gets a critical hit, and decides to take his remaining wing and claw strikes on her, not missing once and takes her from 242 (including tempory) hit points to -15. Whoops. Xan casts Tactical Teleportation, and moves Solaral, Father Seamus and Pheophim together. Father Seamus casts Revivify and then Pheophim casts Heal and Solaral is Alive! But prone – or actually, supine. Alobar casts another Horrid Wilting. Enias smacks Red Fang for one attack (a 1, but luck it’s a 20, and confirmed the crit!) and then backs up to prepare for another charge – he doesn’t want to remain in proximity if he can help it.
Red Fang casts a spell, or spell-like ability or something, and he is healed all damage. A Heal isn’t powerful enough for that. We later figure out he Wished it all away. We are down a tunnel, but Red Fang takes a jump and a squeeze and lands on most of us again, crushing and pinning (only a move action for Red Fang). Father Seamus and Pheophim end up caught and crushed. Alobar ends up on the wrong side of Red Fang, ala Solaral earlier, but decides its time for a little disjunction, and casts Mordenkainen’s. Red Fang seems more hittable. Enias charges and gets another crit – triple damage! Enias is also pouncing, and gets another crit! He has done quite a bit of damage to Red Fang, but then Red Fang disappears! The coward, he ran! What a wuss!
Pheophim casts Greater Prying Eyes, and they move out. We heal up and start casting Stoneskin and some other buffs. However, just a few rounds later, some eyes are returning, and before Pheophim can get the download, Father Seamus, who is the only one with True Seeing active, calls “Look Out!” Xan actives a swift action true seeing and casts a Quickened Glitterdust on a charging Red Fang, who appears to have activated some mirror images and an iron body effect. The Glitterdust doesn’t work! It must be Superior Invisibility. Crap. This guy is really tough.
We decide its time to run, and get out of there with a Greater Plane Shift. We are back on the Blue Nixie, and Father Seamus still has his True Seeing active, and notices the entire crew are Erynes devils. Crap again. They must work for Glasya. They confirm it. We decide to roll with it. Suddenly, we all feel a tug, and must make will saves. We use Spellcraft to realize someone is using a Wish to call us all back to Red Fang! Pheophim fails his save and disappears. However, when he appears next to Red Fang, he immediately casts Plane Shift to get back to the Prime Material plane, and escapes. Alobar casts his own Wish (thank the gods the DM doesn’t charge XP for most of these “regular” uses of Wish, such as replicating another spell, which is what we usually use it for) and brings Pheophim back to us – we hadn’t realized he escaped.
Now what do we do? We figure Red Fang has cast at least four 9th level spells during the fight. We need to load up on Mord’s Disjunctions for him, and Displacements for ourselves. And try to attack when he hasn’t had time to prepare.
Sesson 85 – Red Fang Part III – 10 Jun 2010
Admin Note: This encounter rendered me quite unhappy with the mechanics of Wish and Disjunction. Take Disjunction. ALL spells and ALL magic items are disjoined? Disjoin an artifact and possibly lose all spellcasting ability forever? What’s up with that? I think it should work more like Dispell Magic, with the ability to chose to disjoin a single item, instead. Or maybe a spell is needed, like Greatest Dispel Magic, that gives you up to +30 CL on checks to dispel. And Wish. The undo misfortune ability I find to be really confusing. You have to keep track of what everyone did each round, and undo it if someone undoes something from near the beginning of the round. But that’s just me. In any case, the Red Fang Safari continues…
We prepare ourselves for the new day, and load up on all our daily, hour per level and minute per level spells, and return to Red Fang’s lair. We take positions and wait, while Pheo casts Greater Prying Eyes. It takes a minute. We cast some round per level spells, just to be ready, such as Haste, Aura of Vitality, and Holy Aura. Our plan is to recon with the eyes, and get back out. Unless opportunity presents itself. But Red Fang had Mind blank on last time, so divining things about him and his lair is near impossible. We spot prying eyes that aren’t ours, and follow them, but they are going everywhere. Red Fang attacks, but as all have true seeing, we recognize it for an image.
Red Fang casts Disjunction, really screwing with half the party, and then Alobar Wishes he did not delay his turn (see Wish spell description) and shape changes into a beholder, placing the AM Ray on the image and causing it to wink out, thus we avoid the Disjuction from Red Fang's image, because now it was never cast.
Red Fang casts a Prismatic Wall from somewhere to block the AM ray. Much discussion on casting a spell, while outside an AM ray, into an AM ray – a spell that is not affected by AM. The DM decided. I will remember this decision, for future favorable use.
We D-door and teleport in two groups, and look for him. We spot him, even through his Superior Invisibility, and everyone starts attacking! Alobar starts with a Disjunction on Red Fang. Enias does great damage, and Solaral a lesser amount, but Con damage as well. Jakara is smacking down with arrows. Alobar does a Horrid Wilting. Xan is casting buffs left and right. Her Mordenkainen’s sword fails to penetrate Red Fang’s SR.
Xan casts Dreaded Form of the Eye Tyrant and places AM ray on Red Fang. He jumps out of the cone, triggering attacks of opportunity. Sol hits with hers, but Enias is within the AM Ray, and goes from Large to medium, and can’t use his huge greatsword anymore, so doesn’t get one. Red Fang Wishes all his damage away.
We consider whether its time to depart again, but figure we have the upper hand. Red Fang is minus his buffs, and many high level spells. We are buffed and angry. Alobar is particularly angry at Xan, because he wants the fight over! Alobar casts another Wish, allowing Jak to reroll his one missed arrow, and he hits! Red Fang is dead. (The miss, and so the subsequent reroll and hit, take place before Red Fang healed himself).
Our mission was to free the stars he ate, so we crack him like a piñata, and out one comes. The eladrin later prove to be quite grateful. Of course, we loot his hoard. I love that about dragons.
Session 86 – Enias the Champion - 17 Jun 2010
We decide to go to Orcus, and recruit his aid, following Iggwilv’s advice. We take the Blue Nixie to the plane of Thanatos, and dock at the city of Lacramosa. We must cross a thousand miles of undead enfested desert to get the Orcus’ capital. However, someone is aiding us again. We are met by “Sharon,” the leader of the dustmen, a group of outcasts who help travelers here. For 50,000 gp, she gives us a detailed map of Orcus’ city and palace, so we can use Greater Teleport to get right there. 50k. We wuz robbed.
Our wand of Attune Form comes in very handy, or we would be taking damage from the negative energy effects of the plane.
We teleport to Orcus’ palace, and see a line of undead petitioners. Since we have the note from Iggwilv, we go to the head of it, and manage to get the two balors on guard duty to let us in. We get our audience with Orcus, but before he will aid us, we have to prove ourselves and provide some entertainment. Our chosen champion must fight in his arena, versus two death giants and one crawling head. However, we get to buff up the champion before hand, but no help is allowed once the fight starts. We notice that Enias appears to be communicating telepathically with Orcus. We figure he is offering his services, or asking how to take over Demo’s plane if we kill him.
Enias and Solaral roll for the pleasure of it – neither wants it. Jakara begged off, even though we thought he could fly around and shoot with his bow and really kick butt. The rest of the group bought his little act. High roll has to fight. Sol got a 4 and Enias an 18, so we start to buff Enias. He gets Deathward, Superior Invisibility, Ironguard, Aura of Vitality, Fires of Purity, Darkvision, Resist 30 for all five energy types, DR 5/adamantine from the gargoyle crown is activated, Freedom of movement, Sol’s ring of spell turning with greater dispel in it, Spell Resistance, Conviction, Heroe’s Feast, Renewal Pact, Protection from Evil, Fly from boots is activated, True Seeing, Sheltered Vitality, Bless Weapon, Haste, and probably some other things. (As players, we were all responsible for remembering what Enias had on him, so we would call out when he attacked or was hit, as to what might be affected or activated). Heck, even Alobar the gnome could have fought these guys in melee, when we were done.
The gladiators started 360 feet apart. Enias called his elephant and started forward. The two death giants couldn’t see him, so they started throwing boulders at the elephant. 2 rounds later, it was dead. The crawling head started forward, but had a slow speed. Enias then flies and charges at the head, pouncing while hasted. He gets four hits with his huge holy greatsword and hit with his bite (each hit from the greatsword, while charging, did 7d6+23+15 fire + 1d6 acid. If he had remained mounted, it would have been 11d6+46+ the energy). He almost killed the head, but not quite.
The head howls and does a Wail of the Banshee, but Enias is immune and then the head heals itself, but not completely. This becomes important. The head then bites (can get a vorpal on a critical hit) and swings 4 tentacles, but gets only 1 hit. Both Death Giants do area greater dispels, because they still can’t see Enias, and strip away his Conviction and True Seeing. Enias full attacks the head and kills it. The two death giants keep with the area greater dispels, and strip away Heroes Feast and Renewal Pact. Enias uses his Whirlwind Breath to get the head (we aren’t sure if its dead) and one of the death giants. The two death giants continue with the area greater dispels and strip Superior Invisibility and Spell Resistance. Enias charges and kills Death Giant number 1, whose attack of opportunity misses due to displacement. Death Giant number 2 charges and misses, and Enias then kills him.
Orcus promises his help, but says he needs a few weeks to get his armies moving and in position. He warns us not to betray him. We teleport back to the ship, and Iggwilv congratulates us. She suggests we visit Malconthet next, because Mal can help us with Obox-ob, and Bagromar should go last, as the one most likely to be noticed by Demo.
We travel to Malconthet’s plane, Shandrilavi. To get an audience with her, we must “present” ourselves naked. Father Seamus is not so hot about that, so he stays outside. Sol is so disturbed by the scenes of debauchery in Mal’s palace that she suffers wisdom damage. When we meet Mal, only Xan (with a base Will of +31 and a roll of 19) can resist her presence and is not affected by her profane beauty. Mal is willing to help us, but we must do for her. She calls Al forward, and gives him a long kiss, draining four levels. She also whispers something in his ear.
To get her help, we must "return Crimson" to her. Crimson is apparantly some bard lilitu succubus type, who is rebelling or undermining Malconthet. If we do this, Mal will give us some demon-catching artifact horn thing and help us with Obox-ob.
Session 87 – Crimson - 2 July
We travel to Crimson’s place, hideout, lair, whatever she calls it. It’s a building that is built to be a mockery of a Peloran temple. There is no one upstairs, and we find a plain trap door, that leads down to crypts. Of course we go down, and find a large hallway filled with crypts, whose doors are closed.
As we begin searching, we are approached by six priests of Pelor. Of course, we recognize them as false. They radiate evil, but not demon-ness, so we attack. Its then we discover that they are actually vampires. Vampire monks, as it turns out. Still, six is not a whole lot, and we aren’t too concerned, until six more pop out of gaseousness, and surround us. Ok, 12 vampire monks. You know what? We still aren’t concerned. They try hitting us, but have trouble. Sol and Enias each kill one, and then Father Seamus hits everyone in the area with a Mass Heal (250 hp, or 125 on a save, for the Vamps). By By vampires.
We start following the gas clouds back to their coffins. They each lead to a different crypt. Some are marking crypts that gas clouds went into, while others are staking and cutting off heads. Suddenly, she is there. Crimson. She seems either bored or sad. She doesn’t want to go with us, and Malconthet wanted her alive. This poses a dilemma. We have to hurt her into unconsciousness, but not kill her. At this level, that can be difficult.
Xan hits her with a dimensional lock, and she keeps talking. So Xan pops a Force Cage around her, and we start shooting. That’s when we find out her whip is vorpal, and has a 15’ reach. After some close calls to Jakara, we all make sure we are out of range. Crimson is able to blind some of us with a cool magic halo effect, but we all have 30’ blindsight permanentized on us, and Father Seamus hits us with a Mass Heal when its all over, to restore normal sight. Jakara uses his blunt arrows to deal subdual damage, and Xan and Al use magic missiles to take her down. Soon, she is unconscious, and we don’t wait around to search for treasure. We head straight back to Mal.
At Mal’s place, we strip down again, while Father Seamus chooses to wait outside (again). This time, our reception in the palace is much more respectful. Malconthet gives us the Iron Flask of the wizard of forgotten name, and we watch the other rainbow sisters torture Crimson to death. Then we leave.
The iron flask can hold 100 demons or one aspect. It has seven demons in it. We argue about what to do with them. Some want to let them out and kill them. Some want to unleash them on the next demons we have to fight. Some want to stage a gladiatorial combat between them. Eventually, Iggwilv shows up. She gives us ‘grats’ for a job well done, and tells us where we can find the aspect of Obox-ob. Apparently he is dead, but two aspects survived. One got back most of its full power, and one was forgotten. She tells us where to find the forgotten one – a location called the Blood Shallows. We explain our dilemma – we have to get rid of the seven demons in the flask to make room for the aspect – and she offers to take them off our hands. We let her do so, in exchange for a foci (for Plane Shift) for the Blood Shallows plane, level 81 of the Abyss.
We head for our target location, and a supply camp for Demogorgon is built on it. Its full of Goristros and Rutterkin and run by another aspect of Demo. We have to cast Freedom in the central supply building. We veil ourselves as demonic birds that we see abouts, and fly to the camp. When we get close enough, Father Seamus casts Control Winds, and Pheo and Xan each cast Storm of Vengeance, and we hit the camp for six rounds, to cause a diversion. Then Solaral casts Dimension Door to get everyone past the perimeter and inside the supply building. Al casts Freedom, and out it comes. It’s a big ‘un, and starts wrecking the camp. The big boss of the camp is mad, but we figure we can’t please everyone. Al then sucks it into the flask, which just barely holds it. We teleport out of the camp, and then cast Earthquake and Tsunami, just to increase the damage, and high-tail it back to the Blue Nixie.
Session 88 – War Council - 8 July
Iggwilv instructs us to just walk into Bagromar’s camp of 25,000 demons, and so we do so. We apparently won’t be able to keep it a secret. We must win him to our side, or kill him, and in any case, try to learn about Demogorgon’s dispositions.
We make our way through and are directed to the Minister of Entrance, a huge balor (32 HD). We tell him we want to see Bagromar, and he says “follow me” then attacks! He casts Implosion on Enias, who shrugs it off, and then does four attacks with his huge vorpal longsword. One rolls a 20, but Enais uses two luck points to make him reroll, and he gets a 1. Whew! He also smacks Enias with his whip, but Enias has a Ring of Freedom of Movement and can’t be grappled, and it does little damage. Enias attacks the balor and gets a hit. Solaral waits for Xan to cast Haste, then charges and pounces, taking an AoO on the way in, and does 249 hit points of damage with her 9 attacks. Jakara kills him on the next round with a barrage of arrows.
We proceed to Bagromar’s tent, and after negotiations, and a roll of 56 for Diplomacy from Enias (with a little help from his friends), Bagromar agreed to help. We depart.
After a period of sendings and missives, we hold a war council with all of our allies on the Blue Nixie. Orcus, Iggwilv, Charon, Malconthet and the Court of Stars. We have Obox-ob in a box, and Bagromar does not attend. We hope he is still with us. At the council we decide to attack in 5 days. We have learned of a master shadow pearl in a temple called Wat Dagon, and so the party will go after the master pearl while others do their thing.
Charon has a fleet of 5,000 ferrymen. They are marinoloths, a type of yugoloth. They will run interference in the brine flats vs a balor fleet, and pull Demo’s attention. Gwynhyver from the Court of Stars has two eladrin hosts of 50,000 warriors each. She will lead one, and Celeste will lead the other. They will attack thru portals on the flanks of Demo’s capital city. Orcus has four legions of 25,000 demons and undead each, and they will attack thru the portal closest to the city. Orcus will fight Demo directly. Malconthet has no troops, but knows many tricks and will act thru Alobar (We don’t really like this). Iggwilv will open five portals at weak points in Demo’s plane. The remaining two lead to a jungle, and the beach. The beach one is only 10 miles from the temple with the master pearl, so our plan is to go thru that one.
Iggwilv tells us our goal is not to aid Orcus or the Eladrins, but to get the master pearl, an artifact in its own right. We are unsure how to destroy it, but we can at least grab it.
Session 89 – D Day – 15 Jul 10
Gwyn gives us a squad of 10 eladrins to assist us. A ghaele leader and nine braelani. We share our Heroe’s Feast with them, as well as many of our normal protective and buffing spells.
Iggwilv opens her portals and the armies pour forth! The portal to the beach is small and we can only get 4 thru at a time. The first four thru, Solaral, Xanaphia, Jakara, and Father Seamus, are hit by five siege weapons. Two are acid shooters – ballistas that shoot a globe of acid. We make our reflex saves and our acid resistance does the rest. The next three are ballistas shooting 5 magic missiles, each. They do more damage throughout the battle, but some of us use Ioun Stones to soak up the spells. The ballistas are in bunkers, along a beach, and the whole area is swarming with babaus, hezrous and mariliths, with a nalfeshnee flying above.
Jakara kills a hezrou with his bow.
Father Seamus does earthquake and gets three of the bunkers. One collapses and two are damaged.
Solaral heals herself with a prayer bead, having taken some magic missile damage.
Enias charges in on his elephant and hits a Hezrou with a crit, but doesn’t kill it.
A swarm of babaus charge Enias, but have trouble hitting him.
Four mariliths cast blade barriers, two lines, two high, up to the clouds at 40’. We make our saves and they don’t get any damage on us.
The Nalfeshnee tries an area Greater Dispel and gets a few spells, but not many.
12 of the hezrous hit us with Unholy Blight. What the f%&! That hurt. 5d8 from each of them.
Xan does a Quickened Haste and starts Tsunami.
Jakara kills three of the babaus around Enias with his arrows.
Solaral charges and kills a hezrou.
Father Seamus does a mass heal, which we need after all those unholy blights. Another round would kill several of us.
Alobar brings for a Sphere of Ultimate Destruction and hits the Nalfeshnee, who fails his save but is not completely killed.
One of the surviving (from the earthquake) missile launchers shoots at Alobar, but he has spell turning engaged, and the missiles shoot back and get the trigger-babau.
The Nalfeshnee tries a call lightning, but it doesn’t affect us.
Four mariliths teleport in close.
The remaining hezrous hit us with Unholy Blights again, but we are more spread out, so they must spread them out.
Jak shoots the Nalfeshnee out of the sky and also wounds a marilith.
Sol attacks another marilith.
Enias charges and attacks the marilith hit by Jak.
The Tsunami hits and we quickly mop up the survivors.
We leave the eladrin in charge of security for the portal, and head out after receiving a message from Iggwilv. Orcus’ legions are in trouble, as his portal was closed or blocked, by a love child (the first) of Malconthet and Demogorgon named Arendograst. If we “fix” the portal, then we can salvage the attack.
Session 90 - Arendograst - 5 Aug 2010
We go to the portal point. We determine it is an anti-magic zone, radiating from the totem. How to disable it?
Solaral and Jakara move forward to study it, and Arendograst strikes. He comes up from the ground, where he was covered by bodies. He is gargantuan, with three heads and four tenticular arms, and seems draconic in nature.
Aren breathes a weapon from each head, a cone of fire, a cone of frost, and a line of acid. We take some serious damage, even with resist 30 on all energy types. Pheo tries a Forced Reincarnation (from Pathfinder Witch class), and Aren rolls a 1 on the save! However, Aren is immune to death effects, and the DM rules that this is one, so it’s a valiant attempt, but a no go.
Solaral moves in and pounces, taking the AoO. Aren misses. Solaral does a lot of damage, but the DR takes a lot of it off. Its around 15 or so, and we can’t figure it out. We try good with cold iron, silver and adamantine, with piercing and slashing weapons, some epic. Maybe its bludgeoning that’s needed (we find out afterwards that its lawful)? Enias is hitting great blows with his holy sword, after sending his elephant out of range. Jakara is firing arrows.
Xan shoots a quickenend Moonbolt at Aren, but is unable to pierce his SR – crap! Alobar is able to pierce its SR with magic missiles, so he decides to go bigger, but ends up not needing to.
Xan casts Timestop, and gets 5 rounds. She casts Summon Elemental Monolith (which she will have to concentrate on), swaps a second such spell for Summon natures’s Ally IX and summons an Elder Earth Elemental, swaps a Cocoon for a Summon Nature’s Ally IX and gets 3 Greater Earth Elementals, swaps another 8th level spell and gets 3 more Greater Earth Elementals, and swaps a 7th to get another Greater Earth Elemental.
Finally, Jakara deals the death blow with an arrow, and Aren falls! We are then able to tie ropes around the idol, and use Enias’ elephant and the remaining elementals (all outside the antimagic zone) to pull down the idol. Orcus’ hordes start coming thru again, and of course, there is another job for us. The capital city of Lemoriax is surrounded by an interdiction zone, that stops teleports and other forms of interdimensional travel, by those who don’t follow Demo. It has a radius of 10 miles, and the temple of Wat Dagon is included within its perimeter. As well, its guarded by an army called the Demo horde. We must kill the Demos horde’s leader so Orcus’ minions can shatter it. The leader is Tetradarian, a clone of one of Demogorgon’s head. Then we must ruin the interdiction zone bycreating a distraction near the city and its walls, that will undo the demons’ attention and concentration on maintaining the zone.
We decide to HALO into the Demos Horde’s camp, and land at the leader’s tent. It’s made of demonhide and has a 60’ diameter. The camp has about 100k demons, and is similar to Bagromar’s camp. BTW, Bagromar hasn’t shown his face yet.
Session 91 - Tetradarian - 12 Aug 2010
We immediately head into the tent, casting buffing spells as we do, such as Haste and Mass Spell Resistance. Inside the tent is General Tetradarian, looking just like his brother, Bagromar. There is also some huge undead plant guy in the tent, as well, whose name is Gromsfeld. He has four arms and a huge head and a stomach head, too. Not sure what that’s all about. He seems to be some sort of bodyguard. Tetra doesn’t seem surprised to see us, and orders the undead guy to kill us. Instead, we kill him (it?), but not before Solaral is charmed and sent to “guard the back of the tent.” Most of the damage is from Pheo hexing and Jakara shooting with his newly lawfully-aligned bow.
Tetradarian appears to be observing, then he starts casting Greater Dispels, both area and targeted. Xan casts one on him, and it has no effect! So we realized his CL is at least 30. We swiftly kill Tetradarian, and have some trouble with his rotting arms. They do Con damage when they hit, and they hit alot. We return to Orcus’ legions and let them know, and they attack and scatter the Demos horde, while animating those they kill, as undead servitors of Orcus.
Release Obox-ob from Turney’s Iron Flask at the walls of Lemoriax, and the disruption he creates causes the Interdiction Zone to fail. Orcus’ legions teleport in, and we get out. First, however, Iggwilv appears and demands the flask. We have no reason to keep it, and don’t feel up to fighting her (we are almost tapped out of spells) and so give it up. We go back to the beach portal point guarded by the eladrins, and settle in to rest – and level up!
the DM says 2 or 3. We had difficulty getting together around the labor day holiday.
Session 92 – Entering Wat Dagon - 16 Sep 2010
We rest and plan our assault on the temple of Wat Dagon, which holds the master pearl. We decide to teleport to Wat Dagon, even though its only 30 miles away. Enias calls his elephant and Pheo teleports them. Xan casts an Elemental Swarm spell, gets four large air elementals, and we cast the teleport right before the huge elementals arrive, 10 minutes later. Al teleports the rest of the party. There is an army waiting for us, of 12 x ghast archers, 4 x ghasts manning 2 of the magic missile ballistas, and 8 x nabasus and 6 x chasme demons. We really don’t care to waste our fire power on them, but a big fight erupts anyhow.
The nabasus try to use their death gazes, but we are all under Death Ward and Blindsight, so the gazes don’t affect us. Jakara gets hit with six targeted Greater Dispels, but they can’t touch Al or Xan’s caster levels, and only get the spells that Jak cast himself. Ha! Jak starts bringing some Nabasus down with arrows, and Sol charges and kills one. Father Seamus destroys two ghasts with a turning. The ghasts are trying to knock us down with arrows, and failing miserably. The magic missile ballistas would be more effective, but we all have spell-nullifying ioun stones, and they start obsorbing the spell levels, so nothing there, either. The chasmes are trying rays of enfeeblement, but again, the ioun stones absorb the spells. Xan casts a Wall of Smoke and we run inside. First, though, we kill the army commander, a balor or hezrou (not sure which, don’t ask). Sol does another charge and pounce, and slays him. Pounce may be even better than evasion, as a character ability! Unfortunately, Enias loses his elephant on the way in. The army has clearly heard about us, and figured out how to target us.
Inside, another big bad guy comes out, a big glabrezu, and he pretends to be Lavinia (he is a “mortal hunter?”). He mocks us for not seeing through his deception these past months. We don’t really buy it, and we kill him, using Enias’ whirlwind breath and Pheo’s Evard’s Black Tentacles, followed by Pheo’s Forced Reincarnation, turning him into a dwarf. Quite frankly, we are amazed at the temerity of these underboss demons, who seem to think they can take us. Haven’t they learned by now? We are after more dangerous prey! This guy had some sort of human Vanderboren skull artifact that he tried hitting us with, but Enias disarmed him, and Father Seamus used his ring of telekinesis to whisk it away. The Skull of Kallum? We don’t know what it does.
I think we don't believe it, because it would be a sudden fake out of the whole adventure path. It may be true, but we don't WANT to believe it, so we don't.
Session 93 – Kargosh the Destroyer – 30 Sep 2010
Vanthus is there, as a larvae. We slay him (again).
Xan tries a Summon Nature’s Ally I, to see if she can summon, or half her top level spells are useless! It fails, after a level check. Crap! She tries a second, and makes it. So figure a 50% chance on any summoning spell?
Open doors. Sol enters an antechamber, and her lungs are filled with water, but she manages to expel it. She opens next set of doors. Kargosh the Destroyer, the first death knight, is there! He is wielding a longsword and a mace/sphere thing, and is in full plate. Sol throws the doors wide, and K does an abyssal blast, getting most of the party. Thank the gods for evasion and fire resistance! Jakara tries a ranged disarm or two on K, and his animated tower shield intercepts the arrows – it’s a shield of arrow deflection or something. Crap, again. Jak doesn’t even know if he has a melee weapon.
11 or 12 ghast archers run out of side doors, and attack. Ha – Jak has someone he can shoot at, now. Sol rushes and attacks K, and gets him twice. His AC is pretty high. K attacks Sol, 5 hits with his longsword and 1 with his spherical mace. She is down half her hitpoints. He is doing combos of acid and sonic and Con damage. Fortunately, none of these can affect her! Enias rushes in and tries a sunder, but misses on K’s longsword, but misses the mark.
Xan casts Ironguard on Sol, to render K’s longsword and mace as useless. Al is surrounded by ghasts and tries a D-door to get to a safeplace, and it fails. No teleportation subschools allowed. Crap, for a third time.
Pheo and his pig familiar, Chops, use Shapechange to become a pair of huge beholders (who have to stay within 5’ of each other, to keep the pig shapechanged). They throw their AM eye rays on K and his shield drops. Xan casts a Force Cage on K. She starts it outside the AM area, and its description says they are like Walls of Force, and the Wall of Force spell says its not affected by AM, so the DM allows the cage to pop in. Yay!
Pheo and Chops move the AM rays off of K, and Al and Xan start hitting him with magic and chain missiles. Some ugly old Olman dude with no lower legs flies in, and Disintegrates the Wall of Force and then the Force Cage, in 1 round. Obviously a thrall of Demogorgon. Jakara shoots him full of arrows in 1 round, and he dies. That seems kind of easy, though, and we are worried that he will come back to life. Pheo and Chops keep shooting disintegration and slow eye rays at K, and eventually he fails a save. BAM! He is dust and his equipment drops to the ground. Awesome!
Oh yeah, Father Seamus has been turning and destroying ghasts and healing folks. We are all much appreciative.
Session 94 – End Game – 14 Oct 2010
Alobar uses his Sphere of Ultimate Destruction to destroy the Olman’s body, and we pick up his equipment, including a key. Xan looks in the cauldron, and Enias feels within it, but there is no pearl. The arcane symbology around it seems to indicate that it is the proper location for the master pearl, but its not here, so we have to search. Al tries to destroy the cauldron with his Sphere, but it doesn’t work. Crap. We won’t be stopping the ritual this way.
We continue searching through the complex, and find a room with a beach, and a door under the water. We decide to save it for later, and keep searching. We find a room with walls made of leather and a lot of arcane writing on them. Our knowledge checks reveal that the leather is purple worm hide, and the writings on the wall are some form of transformative magic. We don’t know what will happen if we go in the room, but we figure its not good. Al uses his Sphere to destroy most of the leather walls and hangings in the room. The sphere is gone now, but we try a door on the far side of the leather room, and we find a room full of sea water (is the temple half in the surf in this demi-plane?) and it has a rickety wooden walkway heading to door above the water in the far wall.
Before heading out over the water, we check out two towers on the sides, but they are empty, beyond some strange windows with strange views that make us feel strange. Sol won’t look out, even though the others dared her to.
We decide to go back to the rickety walkway over the water, and try the far door. Of course, we fly, since no one trusts the walkway. There is a lot of steam in the room, and the water seems really hot. The door is also very hot, and so Xan and Pheo, who can resist the heat, try the key. It just works, then breaks from the heat. We push the door open, and see another room with a large oyster! Inside the oyster is a large pearl! Of course, right when we see it, the oyster snaps shut! Is it intelligent?
We start discussing ways to get the pearl out of the oyster. It looks big and tough and jagged. Maybe someone using Ghostform? The spell doesn’t allow you to become corporeal, grab something, and go incorporeal again (unless you cast it twice). Dang! Attack it? It looks really jagged. Enias figures what the heck, and attacks it with his greatsword. Sol swings away, as well. Someone starts casting Fingers of Death and other spells at us, and Xan spots Vanthus (?!) in the water, throwing spells at us. WTF! We’ve already killed this guy 3 or 4 times! Sure enough, the oyster is damaging us as we hit it, but our Stoneskin is still active. Suddenly, a Gate opens in the air, and Demogorgon strides into the room! We see Gwenhyver rushing to reach the Gate as well, but she is too late, and it closes without her. Crap! She only rolled a 3 on her initiative to beat him.
Demo gestures, and we see the master pearl suddenly appear onto his tongue, and he swallows it. Then he summons a balor, and tries an enchantment gaze on Alobar. Al is currently immune to such things. An area Greater Dispel suddenly hits us, too. Is it the second head, or someone else? Pheo and his pig, Chops, both turn into Beholders again and place Antimagic rays on the balor and part of Demo. Al casts a Wish, to give Gwen another chance to beat Demo’s initiative roll and get through the Gate. She (Al’s PC, for her) rolls an 8 – almost, but still no good! Solaral then uses the ring of wishes (she had put it on, since her ring of counterspells was used up) to give Gwen another chance (we aren’t holding anything back – even Wishes – Do or Die time) and Sol’s PC rolls a 19! She beats Demo’s initiative and makes it thru the Gate this time! These uses of wishes prove to be worth our while, in the long run.
Xanaphia casts a Timestop, and gets five rounds, so casts four ninth level, and one seventh level summoning, make her caster level check to force each into the demiplane. She summons an elemental monolith (earth), an elder water elemental, an elder air elemental, a Sphere of Ultimate Destruction, and a Mordenkainen’s Sword. Unfortunately, the Sphere fails the caster level check to affect Demo, and the only area to summon in the Monolith and the Water Elemental are in the AM rays, so they can’t attack Demo immediately. Demo hits Solaral with his two arms, but her Stoneskin helps with the hit points, and the Sheltered Vitality prevents the Con damage from the rot. Demo bites twice at Gwen and tail slaps Enias – which proves to be his most devastating weapon. Additionally, Demo (we think Demo) does a Greater Dispel over the party (the room is so small, it can effectively get the entire room with its 20’ radius), taking a spell from everyone. We have so many spells, that even with a max of +20 on the roll, rolling a D20 10-30 times over everyone will eventually roll at least one high enough to get a spell. The elder air elemental is also taken out with this Greater Dispel.
The Balor flies to a better vantage and tries an Implode on Pheo, but it doesn’t take and Sol and Enias get AoOs on it. Pheo also takes a Finger of Death, we think from Vanthus. Jak busts some arrows into the balor. Pheo and Chops drop their AM rays, nad the water elemental and monolith pop in. Pheo hexes the oyster, exhausting it (we don’t know if any of the spells are from it) and tries to hex Demo. Chops throws a Disintegrate eye ray at the Balor, and rolls a 20 to hit, then confirms the crit – 80d6 of damage! (Note: Beholder’s eye rays are rays of spells that aren’t rays for normal casters, so we give them the standard 20/x2 of a ray spell). Chops gets 272 points of damage, and with the hits from Sol and Enias, its enough to kill the balor, and he dusts out.
Father Seamus casts another Mass Death Ward, to get those who lost it to Demo’s (and Vanthus’?) Greater Dispels, and he also gets the monolilth and water elemental. Xan casts an Aura of Vitality and Quickened Haste, getting most of the party and Gwen and the monolith and elemental. The elder water elemental finds Vanthus, who has been hiding in the water, and starts hitting him. The Monolith and the Sword continue to attack Demo. Xan has to use a move action to concentrate on the monolith, and so can’t move the Sphere to Vanthus. Malconthet then speaks to Demo thru Al, the recipient of her kiss in her pleasure palace, and starts casting thru Al. Unfortunately, her spells blow, since charms don’t work well against Demo and his CL is too high (41+) for Greater Dispel Damage to strip anything from him. Al and Xan have Mordenkainen’s Disjunctions ready to go, but the room is so small that we don’t use them, because it would get the party, as well. Even if cast in an upper corner. That 40’ radius is a b!&$*. Demo doesn’t even move during the whole encounter, but stays in his corner.
Enias and Sol are swinging at Demo, as is Gwen. None of us can bypass his DR, which is Epic, cold iron, Good and Lawful, so all of our attacks have minus 20 damage. Those that hit, that is. We can’t get past the Lawful bit, yet. Even Gwen, whose own DR is similar strength, doesn’t have the weapons to get past his. Her weapons aren’t even cold iron – WTF! Xan casts Investiture of the Hellfire Engine on Gwen, to help her out. Jak is shooting arrows that hit, though, and do fully penetrate the DR. He is only shooting the first 3 (of 5) arrows each round, because the last two don’t have much of a chance to hit and he doesn’t want to deplete his quiver too soon. Pheo and Chops are throwing Disintegrate, Slow, and Inflict Moderate Wounds rays at him. Pheo and Al are also throwing Horrid Wiltings at Demo (who we learn has the aquatic subtype, so is taking d8s from damage – yeah!), the oyster and Vanthus. We can tell that Vanthus is undead, because the Wiltings aren’t affecting him. So Father Seamus does a Mass Heal, because Sol, Enias and Gwen need it, and also gets Vanthus, killing him (destroying?) for the fourth time, by our count.
Father Seamus moves up and takes an AoO to cast Align Weapon on Sol’s sacred evil-outsider-bane sunblade with a Least Fiendslayer Crystal, making it Lawful and finally she is getting full bore hits on Demo. Her offhand weapon is a Weapon Shifted vorpal shortsword, that is really a vorpal whip, but she never rolls 20 on the to-hit. Even with four off-hand attacks every round. Damn. Next round, Father Seamus aligns Enias’ huge holy greatsword, and he starts getting full damage, too.
Finally, Sol, while in the midst of a rage, holy fury, and wild frenzy, gets 2 crits in the same round with her sunblade, and slays Demogorgon! A glowing nimbus of power takes shape over Demo, waiting to be taken! None of us want to – we don’t know what will happen. Will the taker turn Chaotic Evil and become a Demon? We use the Sphere of Ultimate Destruction to get the pearl out of Demo’s body, and Gwen says we can take it to the Court of Stars for disposal. Iggwilv shows up and uses Tourney’s Iron Flask to gather some stray motes from Demo. Glasya shows up and grabs the nimbus of power. We consider slapping her happy ass, but its late and we want to go home.
One gee whiz fact - At one point, I realized that Xan had 33 spells active on her. They were: Resist Acid 30, Resist Cold 30, Resist Electrical 30, Resist Fire 30, Resist Sonic 30, Superior Resistance, Mind Blank, Barkskin, Freedom of Movement, Foresight, Greater Anticipate Teleport, Heart of Earth, Stoneskin, Heroe’s Feast, Darkvision, Protection from Energy – Fire, Deathward, Shield, Conviction, Cloud Walkers, Longstrider, Veil of Undeath, Tongues, True Seeing, Arcane Sight (permanent), Blindsight (permanent), Renewal Pact, See Invisibility (cast before the True Seeing), Ghostform, Dreaded Form of the Eye Tyrant (so she was an undead incorporeal beholder), Haste, Aura of Vitality, Spell Resistance. She was also sporting one alternate Wild Shape form (flight – from Unearthed Arcana (we were inside and Cloud Walkers was inactive)), and controlling a summoned Elemental Monolith (thru Extraordinary Concentration), Elder Water Elemental, Sphere of Ultimate Destruction, and Mordenkainen’s Sword. I wonder how that would look to a Detect Magic or Arcane Sight from another caster?
Thanks. I started putting these posts up late - it actually took a little over 3 years to complete. The running joke is that the DM, my brother, keeps promising how long a module or side trek will take, and we have learned to double his estimate, at a minimum. The final battle with Demo went about 10 rounds, I think, that took about 5 hours to do. We broke up at 1:30 AM and all had to go to work that day! No one wanted to stop in the middle of the fight.
Tim! Did you just finish reading the whole thing? You are right about the spell sheet. I'll work on designing one.