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No No No...you are doing it wrong, your minions shouldnt be Rangers. They should all be bards with perform " Pole Dance "
Geeze do I always have to explain these things......
Doh! That's it Altair will take a 2 fate point and 5000 xp hit for suggesting bad things to the bad man in clerical errr robes!
How many times do I have to tell you! Don't Poke the Monkey, Feed the Bear or suggest bad things to the Calistrian Cleric???
Sheesh
No No No...you are doing it wrong, your minions shouldnt be Rangers. They should all be bards with perform " Pole Dance "
Geeze do I always have to explain these things......
Oooo! What a subtle way to plant a Suggestion! Just don't confuse "tell me your secrets" with "put silver pieces in my greaves." I'd probably have to send Triana, bards only get Suggestion at lv 6. I don't think I'll get a follower that high before we finish the campaign.
More seriously though, I had something similar in mind for a few NPC Experts. Pillow talk is notorious for causing leaked secrets.
No No No...you are doing it wrong, your minions shouldnt be Rangers. They should all be bards with perform " Pole Dance "
Geeze do I always have to explain these things......
Oooo! What a subtle way to plant a Suggestion! Just don't confuse "tell me your secrets" with "put silver pieces in my greaves." I'd probably have to send Triana, bards only get Suggestion at lv 6. I don't think I'll get a follower that high before we finish the campaign.
More seriously though, I had something similar in mind for a few NPC Experts. Pillow talk is notorious for causing leaked secrets.
Here ya go...
No No No...you are doing it wrong, your minions shouldnt be Rangers. They should all be bards with perform " Pole Dance "
Geeze do I always have to explain these things......
Doh! That's it Altair will take a 2 fate point and 5000 xp hit for suggesting bad things to the bad man in clerical errr robes!
How many times do I have to tell you! Don't Poke the Monkey, Feed the Bear or suggest bad things to the Calistrian Cleric???
Sheesh
I said nothing and take umbrage at being compared to a surly dwarf.... clearly I am taller and less hairy!
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So yesterday we picked up the Dice and dove back into CotCT after a month off for good behavior…mine not the parties ;).
We had an Absence. Devereux, the Sorcerer did not join us. I always miss folks when they are absent.
We picked up, albeit one character short, in the Acropolis of the Thrall Keepers. We spent a little time going over the history of the characters and the story line up to this point, with a month away from the game, the party was very rusty on what was going on and they wanted to make sure they could cover their bases since they were a character short. They spent a little time brainstorming about what they knew and asking questions about what was going on, refreshing NPC’s and story arcs. This sort of thing can be frustrating, but I liked it. Felt like everyone wanted to stick with the story, they just needed that mid season recap.
They picked up on an elevator shaft room (as they called it). A feather fall/levitation shaft for going down or up. They chose to explore the rest of the first floor before descending further, hoping to find what they were looking for, a Sphere of Stone the Desna worshiping Moon Clan would send people to find and be tested by. The party began to scout around and ran into a pair of odd folks for such a place. A Zon-Kuthon cleric and his Chain Devil companion. They didn’t draw on them, though they were ready to if the others showed any sign of hostility. Shadowcount Sial, as he introduced himself, greeted the folks and offered a bit of an alliance to help the party in return to be able to stay with them and watch them. The party pressed him on why he wanted to watch them and he finally admitted that he was interested in the Crown that the Queen was using and was hoping the party may find a solution to remove it from her. A few sense motives and the party is sure that he finds the idea of them finding such a solution to be almost laughable but none the less he was willing to stick around and watch them to see. He also mentioned that Laori, the cleric who helped them throughout much of Escape from Old Korvosa, was an associate and that she was the one who had tipped him of to the party. They finally decided to allow the cleric to tag along, though they quietly agreed that the orc should stay near them and if they became a problem that he should “Twist off their heads”. Sial seemed not to hear this exchange of ideas amongst the party…
A little more scouting and then the Rogue realized there was light coming in from the Stairs they had used to get down here. A glance and they realized someone was coming down the stairs using torches. The party went into stealth mode. The Rogue hid himself where he could see the folks in the first room with the pools, and he activated darkvision on one of the Mantis Masks they had captured from Assassins long before. The Orc hid behind a wall; close enough to the open doorway that he could come running. The Ranger/Rogue and the Cleric returned to where they had left Trinia, recording a map they had found of the dungeon they were in. It was quite a clever map, used light from the elevator and a large ring that fit over the device. They had found the ring within a statue’s pedestal just before encountering Sial. Trinia had begun to copy the map onto paper while the party explored. Sial and his friend hid themselves well out of the way, saying that they were not interested in a fight so much as to see how the party handled themselves.
After a short wait the folks on the stairs appeared. They were several Shoanti, being led by Krojun Eat’s What He Kill’s. The rogue pulled a hand crossbow and put a bolt with some heavy duty Poison he had scavenged off of the Enormous Reefclaw they had fought under the Arkona Palace. Just before he was going to reveal himself to the Shoanti and try to see if the Shoanti were there to fight, Four Invisible Red mantis Assassins jumped the party. 2 attacked the Rogue and 2 Attacked the Orc. One of each pair began to do their prayer attack, where they try to mesmerize you into standing still while they slaughter you. Both characters made their will saves. The other 2 mantis attacked, apparently not aware that the characters had Imp Uncanny Dodge and couldn’t be flanked or caught flat-footed. The Mantis had the highest initiative in the fight. So after the surprise round they got to go again. They totaled very little damage. Without their sneak attack dice the amount of damage they could drop was very small.
As Krihm the Orc began his round with a Howl of Terror (The exact name of the Barbarian Rage ability escapes me) on the Assassins the whole room shook violently. “That was Odd” said the rogue. “Yep. Very” said the Ranger/Rogue. Krihm grinned. The assassins proved to not be very worrisome for the party; however the Assassins weren’t the only problem. Tentacles began to shoot out of the pools and attack randomly around the room. The Assassins had all failed their saves and were panicked by the Barbarians shout. The Rogue was in a great spot and managed to get a whack on most of them as they fled from the Barbarian. He also Bullrushed one into the pool, just because. It was hilarious actually. If the Tentacles hadn’t been essentially mindless it would have been a great way to distract them from the party. At one point all 3 (1 of the Assassins didn’t make it back to the pool) of the surviving Assassins were swimming trying to get away from the Barbarian.
The Tentacles were a clever bit of work by the writers. Frustrated the party in that they opened on the party with 2 of them (all rolled randomly) attacking Trinia, and one managing to grapple her. The tentacles had an easy grapple roll against Trinia and a very difficult one against the rest of the party except for the Orc who they would have had to roll a 20 for me to even bother checking. The party demolished the tentacle holding Trinia before it could suck her into the pool and then she escaped into a hall, far from where the tentacles were. Mid fight the Ranger stopped to ask Krojun and the Shoanti if they were enjoying the Show or were they there to fight to. He shrugged laughed at her and said they would just watch, but thanks for the offer. He and his warriors then back stepped so they could watch but were a good distance away.
The three assassins looked like they were going to make it out of the room there for a second. Then the next wave of Tentacles (again all random) wound up mostly by them and since they were the only things within range the tentacles wrecked them before the panicked condition came off.
Once the Assassins were gone, the party confabbed in the hall, holding the door from the tentacles and decided they either had to go up the stairs or down the hole, as the tentacles, now 6 of them, were being replaced every time they were dropped. So the party took a quick vote and jumped down the hole. They found a long hall with an odd hall off the side. A stone plug was in it. There was another room off the end of the hall. The party, however, was extremely curious about the plugged up hall. The cleric used a Clairvoyance (domain ability) to peek through to the other side of the plug and though it was dark, he could make out a chamber of some sort. The party then decided to see if the room at the end of the hall connected to it. Within the room at the end they discovered a sphere some ten feet in diameter that looked like a globe. After some experimenting and numerous knowledge rolls they determined that it was indeed the sphere they were looking for and they had to touch it and think of the sky. They then would be teleported inside the sphere and would enter a dream like state. They were flying around in space (I couldn’t get them to do the Star Trek whooshing or the theme song even though I tried mightily) after some finagling they figured out how to return. The orc, then the rogue, then the ranger/rogue each tried the sphere and wound up with the Desna symbol on the back of their left hand.
After playing with the sphere they decided to see if they could figure out how to get to the other room they knew existed just south of them but they couldn’t reach. Using a stone shape they drilled a tunnel. I ruled they had missed the room, but after realizing that I gave them bad info I decided they had reached it. They had decided to rest and try again the next day anyway so they were going to make it inside regardless. They wanted to give the tentacles plenty of time to cool down before they went back up there.
After some finagling they got inside the room and found some rather interesting, but confusing stuff. Some scrolls of Clairvoyance, sending and Dimension Door, as well as a magic dagger and some jewelry. They then went back upstairs and left the dungeon pretty much unscathed. Unfortunately the Assassins bodies were no where to be seen and no one wanted to go diving for the gear.
Sial asked if they would mind if he followed along with them a little longer, as he was fascinated with what they were up to. The party agreed, somewhat reluctantly as the man and his creature had not been much help up to this point. That was where we left it. We had some time left, but not enough to really get into the next encounter. They traveled a couple days north to the Moon House a place of worship for the moon clan where they had been told the Moon clan would be. The Skull clan warriors who had led them this far bid good bye and headed back to the Kallow Mounds.
Two weeks and we’ll drop back in to see how our heroes are doing.
I was thinking about going in the sphere, but already having a holy symbol tattooed on the small of my back, and being in the service of a goddess known for her fickle temperament, I decided to give it a miss.
And yes, I was nonplussed that my 18 Charisma cohort was the focus of a tentacle monster attack.
The tentacles were truely accursed things...I thought it a great plan to feed the assasins to them. How can one be expected to deal with mindless abominations I say ! I am convinced there was something more to be done with the sphere as well, but we had what we came for and are on to more pressing matters.
As to our new " party members " I am all but sure they will betray us eventually.
As to our new " party members " I am all but sure they will betray us eventually.
I think they're learning our tactics and capabilities so that they can take the McGuffin away from us... if we try to keep it, anyway.
And they have stated that they want to learn more about the McGuffin. If it should turn out that they are lying about it being an artifact of Zon-Kuthon there is likely to be trouble sooner rather than later.
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So this past Sunday we picked up the game in the Cinderlands. Just a warning, everything beyond this point is a spoiler, enough said.
The party proceeded on to the House of the Moon, a temple of Desna the Moon clan gather at. They were hoping to find a truthspeaker, which the moon clan were supposed to have. Arriving at the house of the moon they were intercepted by Moon Maidens, moon clan hunter/warriors. The party quickly demonstrated their Desna marks the Sphere in the Thasilonian ruins provided them. The Moon maidens then visibly relaxed and even began to speak with the party on something closer to an equal footing. The Moon Maidens asked the party to help them with a problem, it seems in their seasonal absence a creature had moved into the House of the Moon and they were having trouble clearing the beast from the building. The party quickly agreed, seeing this, rightly, as an excellent chance to score some points with the moon clan and perhaps help them convince the clan to help them in return.
The Red Reaver inside the building was a bit overhyped. The party came down on it like a ton of bricks. This beast was the perfect set up for this party. The party is high damage, low AC. The Beast was Low AC high HP and Ferocious damage. It, unfortunately, didn’t get to demonstrate that much. It had the Orc in the perfect charge position, but rolled a one in the first round. After that it’s day got worse. The Rogue, Barbarian and Ranger/Rogue all quickly surrounded it, along with a few Wolf Animal Companions as well as some of the Moon Maidens who stood back and threw starknives at it. The NPC’s did very little in damage, but they did provide some flanking help. There was a slight error on my part, I attempted to have the creature bull rush, when I should have just howled as my first inclination had been. So by the time the creatures third action came back around, it was almost to the flee threshold of it’s actions. (yes the party did 200 hp in 1 and a ½ rounds as some of the party couldn’t do anything but move the first round) The damage from the party was actually on their low side as they were rolling poorly to start also. There were several 1’s and a few very near misses. If those had hit, it wouldn’t have even gotten a 3rd round of actions.
On the 3rd round the beast let loose with it’s terrifying howl that Panicked all but 2 characters. Sadly by then the beast was in no position to take advantage of the situation and the Cleric put it out of it’s misery before it got a 4th round. The frustrating (from the DM side, certainly not from the players side) note here is that the creature did 4 points of damage, as by the time it finally hit (an AOO on the Barbarian) the Rogue had stripped the thing of all of it’s excessive strength. It was down to a 10 strength so was relying on 2d6 straight up. The 6 on the roll, less the DR of the Barbarian left my side of the screen a little disappointed. Hard to imagine that it would have been a challenge even if things had gone better with the rolls.
After cleaning up the mess and helping the Moon Maidens prepare the House of the Moon for the arrival of the rest of the clan, the party was on rather good terms with the Moon Clan. Ashram, the Truthspeaker of the Moon Clan was quite willing, even eager to go with the party to witness their encounter with Cindermaw the legend of the Cinderlands. The party convinced him, and the rest of the clan, that they needed to leave as soon as possible. So the party, plus Ashram and Sial and his Chain devil cohort, along with Trinia and the two remaining Rangers of the Cleric’s Followers headed for the hunting grounds.
About halfway to the hunting grounds some of the party noticed the ground beneath the horses beginning to change and flow oddly. Up popped 12 Ankhegs This fight was far more impressive than the Reaver. The party was almost in a tizzy trying to protect the Truthspeaker, who they quickly realized was not as hardy as the rest of the Shoanti they had dealt with. Luckily the Ranger had dismounted before the beasts attacked and had a readied action to attack the first creature to threaten the Truthspeaker. She almost slaughtered that Ankheg (thanks to an easily confirmed crit) which instigated it into attacking her instead of the Truthspeaker. The party took some damage here and there, though other than the Truthspeaker no one was in danger of dying in this fight. At one point one of the Ankhegs struck and grappled Ashram. They were not targeting anyone specifically only the closest character he just happened to be the closest to a couple of them no matter what the party did until they started knocking down some of the beasties. Before the creature could do anything with the truthspeaker the whole party managed to get next to it but no one had an action left to do anything. They really thought they were about to watch their lynch pin get rended into a dozen pieces. He acted just before the Ankhegs and he used his Freedom of Movement ability to escape the grapple and escape his certain doom. The party then quickly finished off the last of the Ankheg’s. Channel energies were actually used at a couple of points in this fight.
The party began to hunt Cindermaw, once they reached the hunting grounds. After a couple of days the party found the beast, as the quakes had finally grown quite strong and then they saw the Colossal worm breach the surface, arch in the air and then plummet back into the ground again. They stopped to use the War paint Thousand bones had provided them and began to prepare for the beast. They began to taunt it and to pound the ground, trying to get it to come closer. Finally after minutes of it breaching and diving in the distance, it began to come closer and closer. The Cleric, Bard and the NPC’s took refuge in an outcropping of boulders, as the Ranger, Barbarian and Rogue tried to get it to come to them and swallow them.
“I have spent 10 levels trying to keep from being eaten and here I am trying to get swallowed by a worm, How absurd is this?” Altair the Rogues Player mid point of this encounter.
Then, it made its move. The beast launched itself straight into the air directly between the three hunters and the observers and breathed Fire…on the observers. Wow were the hunters ticked, as were the observers, though only the truthspeaker was in any danger, he failed the save and was left at exactly 0 hps. On his action he channeled, healing some of the damage, as did The cleric at which point everyone was fine.
On his action, Altair the Rogue used his Boots that provide him with Dimension Door to place himself in the mouth of the worm, right behind the teeth. (Unknown to him at the time, that action works as an escape option) Unfortunately Ashram didn’t make his perception check to notice the rogue get “eaten” This is turns out ok, as will be explained later. The Orc readies an action to “jump into the things mouth if it comes down where I can reach it” I accepted that, and on it’s action the beast randomly attacked the Ranger. Before it could attack, however, the barbarian, who was standing beside her, leapt into the mouth. I ruled it could not swallow both, nor was it attempting to swallow actually as it had recently eaten, and also that the Barbarian had to accept the same damage as the Ranger (which was hit). So it did a large amount of damage to both the Ranger and the Barbarian, and then had little choice but to swallow the Barbarian. The Rogue (who happened to have a +3 Magical Beast Bane Dagger, cut his way out in 1 round. 2 attacks near auto hits 1d4+2d6+10 ish between magic and strength = way more than 25 hps with 2 attacks. The Barbarian took a couple of rounds to escape as he only had a masterwork dagger.
The beast would then wind up biting and swallowing the Rogue on his next action, much to everyone’s chagrin. The Ranger was mad because it didn’t eat her and the Rogue was mad because it ate him twice. Boy did that worm wind up paying. The rogue quickly escaped from inside the beast again, as did the Barbarian for the first time. Then the party went off on the thing. Again, High damage low staying power isn’t that bad in this situation. The creature lost about 200 hp’s in a round. It didn’t hurt any that the barbarians Earthbreaker has frost on it so he doubled damage on that portion of it. The Ranger/rogue was criting on nearly every attack and sneak attacking and the Rogues Sneak attack’s (not even counting bleed and strength drain) is quite powerful.
That is where we left it for the evening. The party has packed up and are heading to meet up with the Sun Clan, hoping to convince them that they are worthy to join the clan, except for the Orc. He, they hope, can become Tshamek instead of Orc…it is a great increase. As it is they aren’t sure the clan won’t just string up the orc, and them for traveling with him, before they can relate their story to them.
Till next time.
I have at this point decided that if I am renamed now that I am "reborn" I will be known henseforth as Altair Twice Eaten.
I would have to go back and see if I mentioned this before, but I still think the Strength attack my rogue recieves is a little over powered...One strength point for every sneak attack die is a little to much. Maybe on for every two would be in order?
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Due to laziness this post is a week late. We played a week ago yesterday.
So we picked up the dice and armed with an armada of the new Core Rulebooks we applied an arm twisting to the characters to make them fit the new rules. We ran into a few troubles. The Barbarian has the Overhand Chop tree going, we agreed to leave that on the character and use the Beta version to finish out the campaign. Altair get’s to keep the 3.5 10’ reach Spiked Chain, and Ace get’s to keep the simultaneous heal/harm undead positive channel. There were a few other very minor adjustments we had to allow for the beta characters to be converted to the final. We only have the last 2 modules left to go in the path and I decided that we’ll just finish it out with these beta things and then start with a clean slate when we start up the next campaign.
The game picked up as the party arrived at Flameford, a Sklar-Quah encampment. I had built some Yurts out of popsicle sticks, some bamboo skewers and some left over linen from some curtains the wife had cut down to size for the house. A little coffee (for stain) some artistic help from one of the players (as well as my artistic advisor) some sharpies and some time and they turned out pretty well. I hope to post some pic’s later this week or early next, of the encampment. The party was wise and had Ashram help speak with the Sklar-Quah burn riders that met them a few miles from the camp and with his help they convinced the Riders that they should be allowed to proceed to Flameford.
Once within the camp they waited for the entire camp to encircle them (a sort of let’s only do this once All or nothing sort of proposition) Just so everyone is clear, I had stat’s for the entire flameford Clan. If the party had messed up or stepped on their tongues or something they were prepared to throw down and it would not have been pretty. But Ace was rather impressive explaining to the Sun Clan why they were there. Not overly to the point, didn’t give away to many of his card’s to soon. With a few good dice rolls and his roleplay he earned a fate point and the right for his party to plead their case to become Shoanti, at least enough to not be hunted. The Sun Shaman agreed to hear the tale of how they reenacted the ancient Shoanti Legend, and Ashram, with some help from the party here and there, retold how the Orc and Altair were swallowed, how the Altair was in fact swallowed twice, by Cindermaw the great fire worm. How the two cut themselves out (indeed the Altair did it twice) even of how bravely Danni tried to be swallowed.
The Sun Shaman calmed the clan that was now completely guffawing and hooting down Ashram and the pc’s. The Sun shaman agreed to the petition and named the party (except for the Orc) Shoanti for all intents and purposes. The party relaxed and let the clan disperse (many angrily). They then approached the Sun Shaman and asked if he could tell them about midnights teeth and he told them in no uncertain terms that they may be considered Shoanti, but they were not Sklar-Quah and they had no right to ask him. After much debate numerous knowledge checks (which were sadly to low to help much) and a long bit of give and take with Ashram they realized they had to ask if they could become Sklar-Quah.
This set Krojun (their neighborhood candidate for anger management courses) off and he led some of his burn riders off into the Cinderlands so he would not start something that would cause him a loss of honor (ie fight with the party and get his honor handed to him on a platter by the shaman and chief). The Shaman agreed to here the petition to join the clan and explained if the party could complete the Test of the Totems then they would be allowed to join the Clan, except for the Orc who would merely be allowed to live and cross the Sklar-Quah’s territory with no fear from the Sklar-Quah as long as he left the Shoanti alone.
The party then participated in the Test of Totems. They rested and in the morning the Shaman took them to another messa not far from the one Flameford stood atop. He explained that this was Bolt Rock, and mentioned during storms that lightning struck this rock numerous times and hoped that the party would not have to deal with such difficult weather while they spent the next few days and nights upon the rock. Then he explained that they each must claim one of the totems from the pile, choose the one that they felt the most affinity with. Then they would have until the shadow of the upper portion of Bolt Rock cleared the lower portion (roughly an hour) to haul their totems to the lower portion and erect them. Then they would have to keep them standing for the entire day and night. On the next day they would have the same hour to move the totems up to the higher plateau and there erect the totems and again keep them upright for a day and night.
The Orc’s player was late arriving so the rest of the group had to struggle (it wasn’t much of a struggle) to get all the totem’s up and in place before the hour was up. The Orc player arrived mid day of the first day and then it got supper easy. He has the strength to carry 2 of them by himself and can steady any totem that got out of control with no problem. Not that without him they would have had much trouble, probably would have been 50/50 whether one of them fell over often enough to be destroyed. With the orc the chances were just very negligible.
Krojun, who had cooled off came and visited the party. They rather expected a fight with him I think, but turns out he seemed to leave impressed with them.
Second day, mid way through they noticed something moving towards Bolt Rock. Then realized that it was something burrowing towards them. They thought it was Cindermaw a first, then spotted Shark fins “Swimming” through the ground toward them. Landshark’s attack! The party deployed, buffing Krihm and sending him and Devereux down to stop the Bullettes. Ace and the Bard proceeded to follow as back up and to assist. Altair and Danni held the high ground and made sure none of the totems fell over.
The Fight was epic. Devereux opened with a rainbow beam, all of the Bullettes but one failed their save and then were in real trouble as he took half their HP’s with one spell. The barbarian and Cleric Slogged through them after that at an alarming rate. Two of them rushed the Bard, but the bard withdrew and the sorcerer blasted them with another shot, killing one and decimating the other. In short order the fight was won. The party managed to keep all the totems upright (early one fell over and sustained some damage but the bard used mending on it and managed to repair all of the damage and none of the totems fell after that).
The Shaman approached the following day, the whole tribe did actually. The party were resoundly greeted, even begrudgingly by Krojun. There was much Rejoicing. Exhausted, and drained from two non-stop days on top of a fight the party was given a Yurt to rest in. The Shaman told them he would gladly tell them of Midnights Teeth but he first had to go commune with the Ancestors to make sure he had all of the info for them. He and the Chieftain, along with some Sklar-Quah set out fot the kallow mounds. The party didn’t really care, they wanted that sleep. Sometime after they rested and were getting around to start the day they heard some hooplah. Figuring the Shaman had returned they went on with what they were doing. Until they realized there was fighting in the camp.
I forget who stuck their head out to see what was going on. Pretty soon everyone was looking. Between a Dozen and two Dozen Gargoyles were circling the camp using their flight and bows to wreak havoc upon the shoanti. The party sprung into action. At first I thought they were going to buff and maybe armor up, but after a half round they charged out into the fray. The cleric, in his pajamas, even leaving his shield behind. Several rounds of firing up at the Gargoyles, along with the discovery that they needed magic to hit, left the party separated and in something of Disarray but still unharmed. Then several Gargoyles crashed a yurt nearby and Danni the ranger along with Trinia the bard rushed to engage them. By this point the cleric had dropped an obscuring mist and Devereux had enhanced the barbarians Earthbreaker to be a throwing returning weapon. Then, the Red Mantis pounced. Seeing Ace with no armor on was to much for them. They went blind. Wait, that was us that went blind, the Red Mantis attacked visciously, even knocking him unconscious as two of them emerged from invisibility on either side of him and proceeded to two weapon sneak attack for an entire round. The Barbarian cleaned ones clock and with some help from the other party members they were able to take out the other and get the bard in position to heal the cleric back to consciousness.
That is where we left off, as we ran out of time for the day. This Sunday we will pick up the mantle again and pick up mid fight with Gargoyles and the Red Mantis.
I was largely ineffective in this session...for some reason I was always in the wrong place at the wrong time in the gargoyle encounter, I dont speak Shoanti, and since I came up with the plan for two to stay behind to hold up the totems, I felt it only fair I volunteer to miss the fun. Cant win them all I guess...I will just have to give em hell this weekend!
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Oh didn't I tell you about the Rogue Repellant spell someone cast? hmm. Could have sworn I did...it requires all rogues of a certain level and higher to flee from the source of fun and adventure and to watch from the sidelines. bummer. Sorry about that. Tell you what after this weekend I'll strike the spell from the books ok?
Honestly, you roleplayed the "I have no idea what the %^#@ is Going on would someone tell me what he said" part pretty well. The part where you were the only one who succeeded on the sense motive check (Even with the hefty penalty for not speaking the language) was priceless. I was chuckling about that for a couple of days.
Besides. Some of the Shoanti speak common. they just didn't like you enough to speak it for you. Also, you now have their respect, so as this fight continues on you'll be seeing the results of and earning more respect I am sure.
The spell on the Plateaus with the Bullettes was Rainbow BLAST(120' line AoE). Rainbow BEAM is single target touch. Both spells are nice additions if you're looking for "kaboom" variety and possibly Celestial/Fairy(etc.) themed destruction. Just a small correction for our live studio audience.
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Oh I assure you there was no poking of Sorcerer heads out of the tent until Stoneskin was cast and Heavenly Wings had been deployed. Though I had not actually decided to fly as it seemed to be rush hour and I do so hate traffic.
Yes, the cleric went down. It was a great day for the Red Mantis Assassins. Don't think they've ever made any one in the party fall down before. However, thanks to the tender ministrations of my able Cohort I was back on my feet a round later.
Full plate would have saved my bacon, but nothing else would have stopped them.
I did send Trinia to fetch my shield, though.
Will AC 17 be enough? Stay tuned to find out.
"Will AC 17 be enough? Stay tuned to find out"
Swami say....not bloody likely!
Sorry, AC 18. +3 Heavy mithral shield, Ring of Protection +2 and Dex 12.
Might be time for Sanctuary. Gotta remember to pack Magic Vestment from now on.
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So, the epic battle of Flameford proceeded yesterday. There were so many mantis running about that even I, who had a list of them all, was loosing track of them all. The hardest part of keeping track occurred in the first action of yesterday’s game. Devereux, the sorcerer opened the day with a see invisibility. A tactically excellent maneuver on his part. There were 9 invisible mantis, on top of the 6 running around doing bodily harm to the Shoanti.
The rest of the party put down the remaining gargoyles on the ground. Numerous jokes about Krojun were made. Krojun “hides in his tent” was the one that seemed to get the most laughter. Then they heard him fighting with the Cinderlander and went to rescue him. He held his own for a round or two, as he had 4 Red Mantis surrounding him. Devereux tried to help him for a while, but the Mantis and the Cinderlander drove him back, from where he unleashed some dark magics. Ok, they were relatively bright magics but the mantis did not enjoy them at all. Altair then also joined Devereux, but was side tracked by 2 mantis as well. 4 of the assassins pinned the rest of the party down until the Orc could smash a couple and Danni the Ranger/Rogue was able to put one down and another on the run.
Ace spent most of the day picking himself back up. Sadly he was not in his armor and he kept having to expose himself to danger to heal folks and then the Mantis would jump him in pairs.
I think that the Bard spent more time healing the cleric than the cleric spent healing everyone else.
Before everyone starts pointing out that I was targeting the cleric let me just say that I was, indeed, targeting the cleric. Let me give some back ground for this however. The Mantis had spent a module and a half, essentially, several weeks into months, many resources including several squads of Red mantis Assassins, and 4 levels studying the party and figuring out how best to destroy them. When they spotted the Cleric with no armor on, the man they had thought they finally had in a bad spot several times in the past, only to not be able to hit him because of that armor, they all targeted him. They knew better than to flank Krihm the Orc Barbarian or Altair the Rogue as both were un sneak attackable and the damage output against them paled in comparison to the damage output that was given back. The Ranger and the Sorcerer were the targets they had set themselves for first. Take them out, then the Bard and then the Cleric. After that just swamp the Rogue then take down the Barbarian last. Change of plans when they saw the Cleric in simple robes.
They finally took down the first squad of Red Mantis and then pretty quickly they finished the Cinderlander and his squad of red mantis. After a breather Ace and Trinia went looking for the rest of the Mantis that had been spotted with See invisibility but had moved to hide behind, or as they found out, actually inside a large Yurt. Boom the mantis were upon the cleric again. The rest of the party came running, Devereux dropped some more force magic angst on them, Danni and Krihm jumped the Assassins and Altair popped in, finally giving up on the damage and pulled a trip on their leader, a red headed beauty named Cinnabar who was rather lippy, as Ace’s player, I think it was, pointed out. Several long rounds of tripping her and trying to beat on her finally paid dividends and she was crushed not long after her squad was put down.
The fight took a very long time, the entirety of the gaming day. But it leaves us to pick up at the very beginning of Skeleton’s of Scarwall next game.
Ace spent most of the day picking himself back up. Sadly he was not in his armor and he kept having to expose himself to danger to heal folks and then the Mantis would jump him in pairs.
ROFLMAO!! Bolded section was a wonderful statement about the Calistrian cleric with no back chaps :)
* shudders in horror at the mental image*
Never underestimate my willingness to take a beating to payoff on a good joke !
After a breather Ace and Trinia went looking for the rest of the Mantis that had been spotted with See invisibility...
Actually, Ace went to heal up any Sklar-Quah survivors.
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"Ya won't catch me dying. They'll have to kill me before I die." - Yellowbeard.
It was mostly my fault. I kept forgetting my Copy Cat, I never took my Domain spells, I kept running out to heal. Stuff like that.
On the bright side, the only one who reeeeeealy needed a cleric was the cleric.
It was like that scene from Yellowbeard when he's on the beach, reenacting the map to his burried treasure: "Get shot, fall down, stagger, stagger, get stabbed, get stabbed, fall down, stagger..." You get the idea.
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And I know the Animaniacs cartoon took a lot of heat, but it's so appropriate.
"I think we have a new 'Special Friend'." - Yakko Warner.
It pleases me that I chose my Goddess so well. And here I only wanted Trickery & Knowledge Domains.
Speak with Dead will likely be useless. They had their "mist" up. Pity, there would have been much corroboration. ( Do I hear Mr. Eats-what-he-kills breath a sigh of relief? )
Commune... Like playing 20 Questions, only I am limited to 12. I shall have to compose a list.
Scrying, we have plenty of Red Mantis equipment. But that's only good for a familiarity of "None", and then only to the RMA that makes them.
Sending. 25 words out, 25 in reply. Enough to alert my minions to start taking note of anything to do with RMAs, very, very carefully.
I'll have to try to keep one from the next batch alive. I can do Read Thoughts from Knowledge. I doubt their HQ is "prominent" enough for Find the Path.
Trickery: Nondetection won't cover the party. Don't have 250gp in jade for each recasting of False Vision.
Further suggestions will be welcome.
I don't think THAT far in advance, but you're more than welcome to do what you feel is necessary. The Red Mantis, other than "Cinnabuns", have proved to be relatively ineffective against us. The whoopin' you received last session was them being opportunists and taking advantage of your unarmored situation, nothing more. Besides, what's not fun about ninjas popping up everytime you turn a corner?
Besides, what's not fun about ninjas popping up everytime you turn a corner?
Even more fun? Wandering into town with See Invisible running. "Psst! There's Reds up ahead. Lets stand around over here, just out of striking distance. Watch 'em sweat."
mmmm.... 24 + Cinnabuns = 25. 4 more sleeping with the Tentacle Monster, 29. 3 in that one town, 32. 3 in Orsini's townhouse, 35. That'd be a bit of a dent in most organization's personnel roster.
More seriously, I don't want them showing up when we finally go after Midnight's Teeth. That would be very annoying.
24 Red Mantis Masks.
I have to say the helmets are the new ring of protection plus one....
( for those who dont know in our previous campaign we joked of making a suit of chain mail out of them)
Aha! Divination! Now all I need is an appropriate 25gp offering to Calistria. Maybe Trinia can paint something nice for me. The crafting rules'll give Brute some time to think of a response.
Speaking of everyone's favorite sidekick, Dominate Person didn't seem like her style so I picked Rainbow Pattern (It's kind of indiscriminate & DC 20) for her new 4th level spell. I thought about Legend Lore but we've only got Mantis Helmets (Yep, that's the mask of a Red Mantis Assassin allrighty) & area spells will be more help when we "storm the castle".
Oh yes, that reminds me. I applied the stat bump to my Charisma so my Leadership goes up two ranks this level.
And now that I think of it, Legend Lore says anyone 11th level or higher counts a being legendary. +2 Leadership for fame! Woohoo! Holy Tramp Stamps for everyone! <jk>
Speaking of everyone's favorite sidekick, Dominate Person didn't seem like her style so I picked Rainbow Pattern (It's kind of indiscriminate & DC 20) for her new 4th level spell. I thought about Legend Lore but we've only got Mantis Helmets (Yep, that's the mask of a Red Mantis Assassin allrighty) & area spells will be more help when we "storm the castle".
I'm not sure why someone we found with a Wand of Daze Monster and has recently become a Follower to a Cleric of "Calistria" wouldn't be interested in using "Dominate" Person, but I wouldn't take it for the same reasons I mention below under Rainbow Pattern.
Rainbow Pattern...
1.) Fascinated: ...<snip>... Any obvious threat, such as someone drawing a weapon, casting a spell, or aiming a ranged weapon at the fascinated creature, automatically breaks the effect.
2.) I have no idea what her feats are, but if she isn't geared toward "Spell Focus: Enchantment", I wouldn't bother this late in the game.
Legend Lore...
Aren't we already getting that info from the Sklar-Quah Shaman? I mean it did take an entire module of jumping through hoops to even get the guy to tell us what we need to know. Plus, have you read the time frame on that? 1d10+ minutes up to 2d6 weeks. I'm thinking we have some relatively urgent matters to attend to, that may take that long as it is.
Suggestions...
Cure Critical Wounds (BUT a wand would work just as well)
Dimension Door (always a good choice, self explanatory)
Freedom of Movement (Can be really useful, as you proved in the past)
Greater Invisibility (completely function, constantly invisible)
Just my input, IMO "Greater Invisibility" would be awesome since she's running backup healer and party buffer. She could then do so unharmed, minus something with See Invisibility. I could also see pretty much everyone else in the party benefitting from it some way or another.
Suggestions...
I hadn't realized that Fascinate was so fragile.
Trinia gets two spells at this level. And her charisma bonus allow her two castings.
Freedom of Movement - Already has decided on this one.
Greater Invisibility - If she wants to use the Bard Noise she'll constantly be giving away her position, and anything that depends on visuals is right out. Anyone who doesn't have a Bard may not have noticed a small change in the "Skull Cracker" edition: Bardic music effects end when the bard stops performing, no more 5 rounds grace period.
Cure Critical Wounds - You are correct about the wand, and I've given her my Serious wand anyway.
Dimension Door - I can just hear the Calistria inspired remarks about personal mounts. Hi-ho Trinia! Away!
There is Hold Monster, too. But it seems to suffer from the same Saving Throw problem the other spells. Cure Critical Wounds is looking better all the time. And she gets more picks over the next two levels, anyway.
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So, we played both of the last weekends and I have been super busy with work so have not gotten the reports in (much to my players disapproval I might add).
Here is the first report (two Sunday’s ago)
So, the party has defeated the Red Mantis in the Shoanti Camp. They have kicked butt, taken names and loot, and kicked back and partied like it was some really important date that ended in 9…
The Sun shaman returns with the Chief and they both kind of look around with a stunned look and mention to Krojun that they left him a camp in one piece and would appreciate it if he were to return it to them in that condition…The tale was then told of the fight (At which point the Chief threw a bit of a temper tantrum as he missed the fight) The shaman retreated to his tent with the Chief and then they summoned the party. They praised the party for their bravery against the Red Mantis and congratulated them on becoming Sklar-Quah (and Krim was congratulated on becoming the first Orc in history to be considered merely Tshamek). The Shaman then told the party a long harrowing tale of his ancestor who assisted Mandravius the Paladin in defeating Kazovan. The ancestor had returned from this mission with a bit of a twitch and was haunted, but he also returned with a Relic of the Dragon. The Fangs of Kazovon, which the party quickly pieced together to be part of the crown the queen now wore. The Sun Shaman then invited them to partake in a ritual to contact the spirits and seek advice and information. The party agreed and rested.
The next morning, before the sun had even thought about rising, the party was summoned to bolt rock and there they participated in a long drawn out ritual involving a lot of humming and chanting. Zellara eventually appeared to them and greeted each character. She then asked to do a harrowing for them, which they accepted and after some dire warning she sang them a song (which I did as a hand out, earning the lasting gratitude of everyone as my singing ability is rather dismal).
The party discovered that they would have to travel to the castle of Kazovan, Scarwall, and hunt for the weapon that had laid the beast low in the first place, as that would be necessary to fight the Queen as long as she had the Crown on.
The party departed immediately…In the opposite direction. (This was a smart move in my opinion) I heard mutterings about, get your own damn sword and forget this, I have better things to do with my time.
Ok actually the party just ran back to Kaer Maga and sold and reequipped before journeying all the way to Scarwall. They were in need of some upgrades and a few mounts as well as a beer or two.
They then made their way to Scarwall, only being waylaid once. They ran into a couple of old acquaintances. Laori and Sidal, the Clerics of Zon-Kuthon they had met previously. Laori was exuberant and jumped right up onto Ace’s horse with him and gave him a hug (if she gave him anything else we have been assured he has remove disease so there is no lasting effect). As for Sidal the party was a lot cooler to him. In the end, Devereux the Sorcerer (Celestial bloodline think Arcane Paladin with a less stringent code) was adamant that Sidal and his Chain Devil would not join the party. He and the rest of the party agreed that Laori could hang out with them, as long as she was “good”. Ace vouched for her saying she was very good. We didn’t ask any questions after that!
So, Laori was in and Sidal and his chain devil were out. The party headed on to Scarwall.
Coming to the castle they stopped to stare at it for a bit and decide on the best course of action. Being the Lawfully Chaotic (that means that they always follow the plans of action, all 7 of them at the same time) party they are they eventually just decided that the “easy” way was to just ride down to the causeway and head in the front gates.
They found the Barbican mostly destroyed, and yet inhabited by some Orcs who did not seem at all interested in letting some humans across. The fight was pretty quick, as the Orcs didn’t even know the party was there until two of their number were dead, one from a pair of sneak attacks with poisoned hand crossbow darts to the face and the other from an empowered orb of force to the chest.
After a quick battle with the rest of the orcs (who most were out of their armor and got caught with their pants down literally) the party had taken the barbican and the causeway it guarded. Checking the causeway, they discovered that it was magical with some Transmutation and Necromancy, but couldn’t determine what the spell or spell like effects were.
Being the Cautious Chaotic lawful party (that means they throw the plan out as soon as possible and move on to the next repeating until something good happens) they are, they sent Altair the rogue on his flying carpet and Devereux the Celestial Sorcerer with wings across the lake to check out the castle before crossing on the Causeway. They discovered that the castle was under the same sort of necromantic enchantment (as was the causeway) and returned to tell the party. Halfway back a flock of 4 large gargoyles chased after them. A few rounds of fighting later the gargoyles were defeated.
That ended the first of the two sessions.
*Devereux has been promoted to party moderator*
*Devereux kicks Sial from the party*
*Devereux kicks Sial's cohort from the party*
*Laori has joined the party*
I'm still not exactly sure how that all came about(I was taking a break.), but I don't need 'Detect Evil' to know 'Chain Devils are BAD Mmmmkay'. While Laori may be creepy, she doesn't sport a devil cohort and she actively participates.
Yes, the Celestial Sorcerer has a small problem with a Chain Devil following/camping with the party.
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So we picked up again this past Sunday…
The party has decided to just cross the causeway and get inside. After a few moments across the causeway a dark wind picks up and begins to circle around Ace. It gets darker and darker, voices and shapes begin to be made out. Then Zellara starts to be pulled from the Harrow deck in Ace’s pocket. Devereux attempts a dispel magic and Ace is about to run back to the shore, when Altair grabs the deck and jumps off the causeway onto his flying carpet, the wind subsides. The group quickly comes up with a plan. Altair (and he alone) is placed under a non-detection spell. Then he went and buried the deck in a location only he knew the whereabouts of. Then he wrote the location on a piece of paper and stuck it in his pack in case anything happened to him.
I seem to have made them paranoid or something…yay me!
That being taken care of they once more begin the journey across the Causeway. Halfway across the gates open and a Skeleton in armor on a mount leading a dozen and a half or so Armored Skeletons come out of the castle and move onto the causeway to challenge the party.
Altair jumps up on the walled side of the causeway and then the Mounted skeleton charges Krim. A readied attack from Krim and an Aoo from Altair leave the rider quite badly dinged up but it still manages to do some significant damage to Krim. The next round the rider is dispatched as is the skeletal mount. Then Devereux proceeds to smash the footmen with his “Ghetto Lightning Bolt” (Whirling Blade from the Spell Compendium)
As the party closes on the gates they start taking bow fire from the castle, which never winds up hitting. Their AC’s are pretty amazing at this point, only surpassed by the amount of raw damage they can pump out.
Working their way in the building is accomplished by the Adamantine Earthbreaker key they brought. Turns out it opens all locks. Kind of like a master key only a bit larger and a tad messier. Krim started trying to dig his way through the ceiling of the tunnel the causeway led into the castle with, but gave up and decided the portcullis and doors were faster. The only damage the party took was when some super frozen flaming oil dropped on Ace and Danni. Danni used Evasion to negate that attack so Ace was left holding the oil.
Pushing on they came upon a room full of corpses that looked pretty fresh. As they began to work their way across a pile of the bodies moved forward and attacked. The common theme in this fight was “It isn’t undead” I said that, word for word, about a half dozen times. Now, to be fair, Danni the Ranger/Rogue’s second favored enemy is Undead. And, of course, Ace has the channel energy I hurt undead thing going. Unfortunately it was not undead. Still, it only lasted a couple of rounds and managed some small amount of damage.
Then, before the party could move very far forward a pack of Shadows attacked. A couple of failed touches later (I did manage to drain Altair of 2 strength) and most of the shadows are destroyed by the “I hate Undead” Ranger/Rogue and the I am Arcane Sorcerer. Not to mention the frustrated Rogue, I can’t get a sneak attack off here and the Barbarian who prefers fights against stuff that he can hurt.
After a quick patch on the Rogues strength, they moved forward and discovered a suit of Awesome Armor on a skeleton slumped in the corner. After playing Rock paper scissors for it (which the Orc one by pointing out that if he hit you with his rocks you wouldn’t need the armor anymore) the orc began stripping the skeleton of the armor. About this time a Black cloud began to rise up out of the Skeleton and the party was struck by a Wisdom drain. I believe everyone made the save on that, though a fate point redo on the save was required as the Barbarian initially failed the save and didn’t have enough wisdom as I rolled max damage on it.
The Cloud then turned into a Dread Wraith. This was the preeminent fight of the evening, as when the dust cleared the Barbarian had 2 Con left (unraged). It touched him twice for maximum damage both times. He warned everyone he was leaving on his next action, but just before it came around again Altair dealt a death blow to the wraith. Ranger’s who hate undead and have a Ghost Touched Undead Bane weapon are ugly! Of Course Sorcerers with Empowered Orb of Force are ugly as are Rogues when they can get all 20 bazillion sneak attack dice involved or Clerics who drop d6’s of healing…I really like the new stuff they added. Makes the characters kind of rock. Just hard to watch a well built death machine go down in 3 rounds.
The party had to rest after that as they had to memorize some Lesser Restorations. They realized they didn’t have any Diamond Dust to do Restoration with. This may be a problem coming up as they have realized the place has numerous Undead in it. Be interesting to see how they deal with that.
In the night there was some scratching at a door. They realized there were some Skeletons on the other side of the door trying to get in. Devereux checked the time and decided that he could risk a sleep spell on them. So he dropped a shardstorm into the room they were in so he could get some sleep...
End of Skeletons and end of session.
The Cloud then turned into a Dread Wraith. This was the preeminent fight of the evening, as when the dust cleared the Barbarian had 2 Con left (unraged). It touched him twice for maximum damage both times.
I used my remaining 4 fate points trying to cast Empower Orb of Force on that thing while threatened and still failed. Twice I missed a touch attack, twice I failed to cast defensively... such a bummer as that WAS my final 6th level spell for the day and I didn't know if we were going to get to rest or not. The orc barbarian having no constitution is never a good thing.
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Krim's player made me laugh quite a bit, even after the game once I got home. "Oh man, ghosts (aka ghost-like creatures) suck! I'm not fighting any of those ever again!" At which point I HAD to run down a list of at least 3 other occasions where our various other parties got mauled by Specters, Giant Shadows & Wraiths... where he was never the target, LOL!
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"Ghetto Lightning Bolt" rocks, although the +2 Holy Greatsword helps. :)
*Devereux has been promoted to party moderator*
*Devereux kicks Sial from the party*
*Devereux kicks Sial's cohort from the party*
*Laori has joined the party*I'm still not exactly sure how that all came about(I was taking a break.), but I don't need 'Detect Evil' to know 'Chain Devils are BAD Mmmmkay'. While Laori may be creepy, she doesn't sport a devil cohort and she actively participates.
Yes, the Celestial Sorcerer has a small problem with a Chain Devil following/camping with the party.
We knew they were evil, but figured at least we knew where they were if they were with us....or at least that was the logic at the time.
When they did not lift a finger to help us on any occasion I was pretty much done with having them around, but since you were the only one not involved last time I just voiced my opinion but left it up to you.
In short as far as I am concerned....Evil and useful, come on in! Evil and lazy, go find someone else to betray at the worst possible moment.
As too the well built death machine...I would alledge that if that combat didnt end when it did one of us would have been rolling a new Orc. ( fate points dont save you from death by ability damage). It may have been fast but it was a good combat as evidenced by they fact we had to rest right after. I also failed to attempt to bluff the guy,which though limiting me to one attack should have increased my damage output. Another spot where we goofed is I think we needed to spend a fate point to force a reroll the second time the Wraith rolled max con damage on our Orc. I think this dungeon is going to be a bit of a problem for us without full restoration as an option.....here is hoping for a few diamonds and a potion or two amongst the loot!
Laori was exuberant and jumped right up onto Ace’s horse with him...
I'd like to point out that Laori has left me for someone more to her liking. Apparently being slapped around & threatened with an Adamantine Earthbreaker is the marriage ceremony for Zon-Chthonites.
I think this dungeon is going to be a bit of a problem for us without full restoration as an option.....here is hoping for a few diamonds and a potion or two amongst the loot!
We could find the nearest city and restock. I could Brew up more Lesser Restorations & we could get more diamond dust. Maybe buy a wand?
On the bright side, I did load my head with Death Ward. Minutes per level, but only vs. Energy Drain & negative energy. I don't think Stat Drains & Damage count.
I am reasonably certain that the nearest city is damn far away....hense why we went two days out of our way to restock on the way here. Its a good idea but logisitcally not exactly ideal...
( ooc.... I would feel like a complete tool doing that...I know its a matter of seconds for us....but in terms of our characters it would be wasting a better part of a week and admitting defeat...)
I am reasonably certain that the nearest city is damn far away....hense why we went two days out of our way to restock on the way here. Its a good idea but logisitcally not exactly ideal...
( ooc.... I would feel like a complete tool doing that...I know its a matter of seconds for us....but in terms of our characters it would be wasting a better part of a week and admitting defeat...)
::chuckle:: Well, there are some places that might be possible depending on the evilness of your GM, but not sure they'd be an improvement or easy to shop in ... being orc cities and all :)
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After reading through some of our posts again, I have decided that as much talk as Ace did about legend lore and scrying and commune spells that at some point he would have gotten the message, hey it's an undead castle bring some resto components. If you guys have any cash left over from that last purchasing you guys can retro purchase some components. Within reason of course...
Brute...you are a gentleman and a scholar.
[...] you guys can retro purchase some components. Within reason of course...
Thank you, although, unlike AAA, I'd feel more embarrassed if I got killed in the castle an became a "tool" of the forces of undeath.
A fully charged Wand of Lesser Restoration = 4,500gp (50 charges at 90gp each). I'm not too worried about going overboard.
Diamond dust in 100gp increments would also be a good investment. It's used for Restoration.
I recall Krim offering to finance some enchants for people?
Otherwise... 1st Rule: CARDIO.
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I don't know that Lesser restoration is your issue. Between Ace and Laori you can memorize it about 12 times a day. Restoration is the thing that I think you may want to concentrate on. Just a thought. Though, a wand of lesser does free up those second level spells again. Up to you guys. I just don't see the point in running you all the way back out. Either way we'll figure it out next weekend.
A fully charged Wand of Lesser Restoration = 4,500gp (50 charges at 90gp each). I'm not too worried about going overboard.
Rod of Bodily Restoration (Can be used by anyone)
3,100gp(pg. 173 MIC)3 charges/daily... STR/DEX/CON only
(1 charge: 4 pts. or 2 to all 3)
(2 charges: 6 pts.or 3 to all 3)
(3 charges: 8 pts. or 4 to all 3)
Otherwise... 1st Rule: CARDIO.
Rule #2: DOUBLE TAP
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Once more my intrepid adventuring friends picked up dice and pencil and assaulted Galorian with the intent to save the people of Korvosa. This episode brought us back, once more, to the castle Scarwall. The party, as you recall, had just busted into the place. They had crossed the causeway and fought their way inside. We picked up in a long hall with arrow slits looking out onto a courtyard of some sort. The party had rested during the previous game and had expended very few resources so they were able to go a long distance. Krim the Orc Barbarian was unable to join us do to work issues.
They started out by checking a door heading back in the direction they had come. Several doors later they have managed to make it quite far without running into any encounters. They have found a kitchen and some halls as well as some stairs. They quickly move up the stairs and explore some more. They found one of the Minotaur Skeletons inside an audience chamber. A half a round later it is a pile of dust. They then spend some more time checking doors and wandering around the place.
Warning to anyone who is running Scarwall in the future. It is indeed possible for the party to find a way in then wander for almost an entire session without running into anything. I have witnesses. But for one back track where the party found a large room with some pillars and a cold firepit that had one heck of a baddie in it, the Party may have been able to spend an entire session without triggering anything but some minor random encounters. This is not a criticism of the party or the module, but an observation that it is indeed possible.
The party did indeed double back at one point and find a room with a spirit with 4 very long chains. They demanded of the spirit the sword, at which point the spirit laughed at them. They then suggested the spirit help them destroy the dragon or at least give them some ideas of the dragons weaknesses. Apparently they party took some of the divinations they had received to mean the place is under the control of a dragon. The divination said that the dragon may be at odds with some of the undead within the castle’s purposes. (Or something to that affect) and that one may help with the other. After the spirit stopped laughing (several full round actions) combat began. The specters it had as allies proved to be far more dangerous than it. While the party could not hit the chain spirit, neither could it hit them. Almost every party member has a very high touch AC from Ghost Touching on their armor. The chain attacks were not very effective either. The specters were able to drain a couple of levels off of folks, but the sorcerers chain lightning spell pretty much ended their threat. Devereux was also able to hit the big guy with a Ray of Clumsiness (dex drain) making him hitable and down came the hammers as the party dropped all kinds of damage on him. Ghost touch weapons here and there and a ranger who hates undead (albeit only the +2) was all it took after that.
The only problem, 1 minute later he returned…fully healed and ready to go. The next fight went even faster as there were no specters this time and the party waited for the sorcerer to drain his dex again. After the second fight Trinia used Bardic Knowledge to take 20 on a Knowledge Religion check (OMG is that a high number) I spilled the beans at that point. Each Chain represented an anchor out in the castle, some creature who is essentially holding this spirit in place. To defeat this one the other four would first have to be dealt with. They never got back to me about rolling more checks for more details, but I am sure that will come up sometime soon. The party then decided that instead of fighting him over and over and over and over again, they would leave and come back another time when he had no anchors to pull him back.
Some more wandering (after some quick restoration) and they found a balcony overlooking part of the castles roof and up onto another part of the castle. Large quantities of Gargoyles were all over the place. The group kind of looked at each other and nodded. Altair stepped out onto the balcony, full defense waiting for the gargoyle attack. The rest of the party positioned themselves to shoot from behind a door and a couple of convenient arrow slits. Some of the Gargoyles did indeed attack. Sadly, even though they were gargoyle brutes, they were little match for the party. After a couple of rounds all but 2 were destroyed and the 2 were running for their lives. The Dragon that had come to investigate the hubbub, however, was a different manner.
Devereux swears that from his vantage point it looked like they were running from the bigger fish in the pond. For that he opened fire with an empowered Orb of Force…75 hps later the dragon breathed Negative energy upon the party. Wow were they a bit surprised as they had rolled poorly on their knowledge checks and mistaken its black coloration to mean it was a black dragon and were waiting for a line of acid. The Cone of Negative energy was pretty brutal. Altair Danni and ace were able to get a couple of flanks going and with the help of Trinia’s and Laoris buffs and Devereux’s fire support they quickly ruined its day. The Dragon Flew out of the area at full speed, double moving to hide behind the castle from the party.
The only other thing we did was find a place for the party to hide. They found a hall with a single door and no other exits. As they were resting, however, they found a secret door to a little study. Within they found a magic sword and a staff. They started laughing loudly as they realized they had wormed their way all around Castle Scarwall looking for a magic bastard sword, avoided all of the legendary bad and ickiness and managed to find a magic bastard sword.
We wait for the next installment to see where they will go from there.
I found it quite humourous that we joked of running around the whole place without encountering anything and very nearly accomplished just that. It's a shame evil doesnt leak breadcrumbs for we surely could have used a few!
I did get a chance to use my flying carpet to engage the dragon....something I stayed away from previously since my fly skill is sub par. That is until I read the full text and realized the carpet grants a +5 bonus.