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.
The gargoyles fled, the dragon arrived...1 round later. There was no indication that they were fleeing simply because they were low on health. It seemed very much like they were playing the little fish, big fish role.
I was overwhelmingly pleased with my attempt at dragon negotiations. 75 out of 90 points of damage makes Devereux a happy sorcerer. It was also my last 6th level spell for the day. I'm having difficulties holding on to those even though I have 4 of them a day, they're just too darn juicy to not use... empowered orb of force(4th +2) or chain lightning (6th AoE).
Hey now... Just cuz we rolled poorly doesn't mean I was wrong, it WAS a "black dragon", I don't think I rolled high enough to even say whether it was going to breath acid or not, pretty sure I never got an answer when I asked. Just that it was definitely black... yea, definitely. :D
The brutal part about the breath weapon was the fact that no one saved. 48 damage later I was at half health and poor Trinia was nearly dead being a cohort.
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I gleefully said, "Black dragons breathe a line of Acid, this you know." I showed you the picture and never mentioned the actual color...
Now IMHO the negotiating team needs work...
Ace, "The divinations said the dragon may be able to be persuaded to help"
DM, "Devereux's action."
Devereux, "Empowered Orb of Force to the Face!!!"
DM, "Any other actions? talking anything like that?
Devereux, "Yea...I rolled a hit and its 75 points of damage! Take that for negotiations!"
Ok it didn't go exactly like that but it was close...
I did what I thought was the right thing to do. I'm betting Krim would've done the same.
Devereux has made a point in the past of not caring much for divination back when we first met Zellara, but I have already explained my reasoning above with the "fish" example.
In a party that shouts "Initiative!" whenever someone speaks to them, I'm not going to second guess my actions.
There are no flowery speakers or Diplomatic wunderkinds in this party. We are very much about the "shotgun" diplomacy.
Tell you what next campaign I will make a social butterfly...but Altair isn't likey to start wearing tye dye and Lennon classes anytime soon.
...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.
-.-
Ah. Yes. A mysterious weapon who's magical properties we are unable to determine.
.
.
.
Not it!
=-=-=-=-=
More seriously, next level I'll have a choice between Legend Lore and Invisibility, Mass for my Domain Spells. I think I can crack it.
Some how I knew being forced to leave the deck outside would bite us in the ass....lol
Some how I knew being forced to leave the deck outside would bite us in the ass....lol
That's just Ace and Laori seeing how you taste.
Just to clarify.
...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.
The Cleric’s Favorite Weapon this campaign has been a Silver Dagger he got waaaaay back in the first mod...
So I'm thinking ... python?
I assure you sir...this body is an Ace free zone, despite his whole "your body is a temple and we came to pray" theology.
Just to clarify.
...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.The Cleric’s Favorite Weapon this campaign has been a Silver Dagger he got waaaaay back in the first mod...So I'm thinking ... python?
If its your favorite weapon shouldnt it be a trouser snake...
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The game resumed this past Sunday in the room they had rested (albeit fitfully) in. The party rushed out the door and then popped open another one. This is where the conversation about the method of searching the castle came up. They finally decided (now that they had wandered their way aimlessly to the third floor of the place) to clear level by level. Sadly the level they started on was rather small and had few truly epic encounters in it.
They did find a pair of Barbed Devils. That was exciting for a while, though the Sorcerer brought a tactic I have never seen this group use. Magic Circle against Evil. Very helpful, since they dropped another barbed devil in the room and that one was unable to advance so was forced to use its Scorching ray (Truly not as impressive as its full on I beat you and then grab you and impale you and then say really nasty things about your shoes attacks) Let’s just say that I needed more hitpoints to make this truly a remarkable fight. The Shear amount of damage this party can put up is pretty awe inspiring. The one advantage the bad boys had was DR 10/Good which was never fixed. That all but Eliminated Danni the Ranger/Rogue from the fight as she would miss with her Bastard sword (That was the dice nothing else) and then hit with the Rapier and not beat the DR. Altair and Khrim were not having nearly the frustration on that fight. Give one to the Sorcerer for the Magic Circle take one from the spell casters as this is certainly not the first time they have found DR/Good to be an issue. You can’t expect Laori (L/E Cleric of Zon-Kuthon to provide a Good effect to weapons) But that being said the 2nd easiest way to deal with it is to just drop such large numbers that removing 10 is no big deal.
There were a couple of minor encounters with some Gargoyle Brutes. Since there were never more than 2 I will only mention that this party can not be threatened by anything less than a dozen of these. That’s probably about the way it should be.
They then popped open a tower and discovered a Tall tower that was open to the roof. Inside were an impressive, if deteriorated bed and throne, annnnnnnnd a little something something that Paizo found for them. An Ashmede Devil, she was a bit nasty and quite a fight. Mostly because she dropped a chain devil and called for some assistance from a pair of Bone Devils (who also brought a summoned Bone Devil).
Krihm, using the brand new Celestial Plate mail he found a couple sessions ago and Altair with his flying Carpet were tasked with taking on the boss while the rest of the party got bogged down by all the buggers that she called or summoned. Trinia failed a fear spell (with +6 ish in bonuses mind you) and was pretty much out for the duration of the fight.
Danni drew the luck of the bad dice and was bogged down with the Chain Devil which would have only taken her a round or two normally but since her dice were set on Massive Fail that day she spent 3 or 4 rounds and still needed help finishing it off. Ace, Laori and Devereux combined to hold and eventually demolish the 2 Bone Devils (Magic Circle left the Summoned one a frustrating situation so it flew off and tried to help the Boss against Krihm and Altair. It may have bought her an extra round at best, and I am not sure it really even did that.
Devereux’s Magic Circle’s and his Chain Lightnings and Whirling Blades were such consistant damage and disruption that he was probably the most consistant threat on the board from the party that day.
Altair had one of those days, a failed save here and a couple of places where if the dice or the circumstances had been slightly better he would have looked quite a bit cooler. At the same time he still did pretty well. The vexing flanker has drastically increased the places and times he can flank, which has ramped up his damage quite a bit over all. Sunday it could have been better but I could also see where some different choices or dice rolls and it could have been so much worse.
Danni…she had a day. She rolled more 1’s than the rest of the party rolled hits I think.
Ace was stuck in a few places but his uber AC still makes him something to deal with even if he isn’t that effective melee wise back. Course his dumping in several d6 of healing for everyone every other round or so more than makes up for his low melee ability and that isn’t even counting when he pulls up his spell sheet and says, oh wait I have this…
Khrim. 2000 Str…what else to say. If he hits (which he usually does) he does some insane number of damage.
A note on damage. Everyone in this party, except for Ace and the NPC’s, Does an insane amount of damage if given the right circumstances. Danni needs her opponents to be human and to get a sneak attack off. Altair needs some semblance of a Flank (ie get his sneak attack off) Devereux needs the right line or area of mooks for his AoE’s, Krhim has the easiest requirement he has to be able to reach it. On average I believe everyone of those folks with their best setup can drop 90ish Hps a round. Ace really is a fix it and his thing is to keep those others going so they do that 90ish a round.
The game was wrapped up as the party searched the room. We’ll pick up again in a couple of weeks and see whose dice are hot, whose dice are cold and what monsters we can scratch off the list.
Magic Circle vs. Evil is one of my bloodline spells, if it weren't for that you likely would never see it, at least not from me. BTW, I wasn't considering the cloaks of resistance our party has, so the spell provides most of us with nothing numbers-wise. It does still give anti-enchantment and protection from summoned evil though.
A silence spell grounded Altair's flying carpet for 3 rounds... I'm pretty sure the first round should've just been a do-over after discovering all the "oh btw" rules... silence being a full round to cast now and useless for a counterspell, flying carpets needing spoken commands, etc. I wouldn't have bothered if I had went into it with... Don't bother, she is done by the time you cast it and you're just going to screw Altair's movement for 3 rounds. Also, by the time we discovered a flying carpet is needy and has to be spoken to, I was knee deep in 3 bone devils and flanked by a kyton... I took 2 AoOs(attempted) just to get out of that mess, so I was unable to dismiss it and effectively defend myself.
Give one to the Sorcerer for the Magic Circle take one from the spell casters as this is certainly not the first time they have found DR/Good to be an issue. You can’t expect Laori (L/E Cleric of Zon-Kuthon to provide a Good effect to weapons).
Align Weapon and Restoration, Lesser are both Second Level spells.
Highlight of my day...pulling a bane dagger from my gauntlet of infinite blades and surprising the hell out of the soon to be deceased devil that thought me finished once I was neatly in its grapple.
Sunday 11/15/09
We need to speak to the dragon I was told previously...
I was the only one who speaks Draconic, not that anyone tried anything else, like maybe common. I proceeded to stumble through negotiations. The conversation went as follows(not verbatim, but close enough)...
Devereux - "Hello there! Sorry about that whole Orb of Force thing, we'd like to talk."
Dragon - "You attack me in my home, now you want to talk?! About what?"
Devereux - "We need to find a special sword named "Blah" and perhaps we can help you with something, maybe a particular undead pest?"
**crRRRUUNNNNccchh... SPLAT**
Krim decides to negotiate with a critical hit to the dragon's skull... as I predicted. So much for negotiations.
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Here is the update on our game from this past Sunday.
The game started in the tower where Devil’s had been put down the previous game. The group rested, They then moved out of the tower, realizing they had completely explored the area they were in they went back down with the intent of a little more thorough exploration. They headed back towards the front of the castle. They found several small encounters; a Minotaur skeleton here a pack of wraiths there they still able to proceed with little interference. After some wandering around they found themselves in the gate house. They put down the four Minotaur Skeletons here and found a way up.
Going up into the top of the gate house they came upon a Skeletal fighter who demanded his circlet back and tried to hack his way through the rogue to get to the Orc who was carrying the item. After some back and forth it became clear that he wasn’t taking no for an answer so the Orc rolled a 20 with his earthbreaker and auto confirmed his crit with his rage power ending the fight pretty quickly. This caused the castle to shudder in a way that indicated to the party that they had found another of the chained spirits anchors.
They looted quickly then proceeded to explore the rest of the second floor of the castle. Avoiding the chained spirit (other than Ace used his domain power to clairvoy on the spirit to see that it was indeed down to 2 chains). They found their way out onto another roof and then popped through a door down some stairs and into the guest wing of the castle. Popping open a door they found the big courtyard in the center of the castle again. They decided to make sure that they had cleared behind themselves and rushed off that way. Before they could go back into the main keep, however, Devereux spotted something eyeing them through some large double doors at the other end of the courtyard.
Quickly the party hit on the idea that it was the dragon they had fought earlier. Devereux approached calling out in Draconic they only wanted to talk. As you can tell from the post above, that ended a few moments later when the Orc reopened negotiations by charging the dragon with his earthbreaker. Needless to say a fully healed party, with the orc in play this time as he had missed the session with the dragon previously, and a Dragon only 2/3rds healed ended pretty darn quckly. He didn’t even breathe. He got hammered pretty much right out of the gate (pun intended) and survived only 1 round. Have I mentioned that this party throws up some outrageous numbers damage wise?
They searched the stables that the dragon was in and found a room with what seemed to be a dragons horde. Scooping all that up they moved on finding little of interest. Thinking it over they ran back across the courtyard and reentered the guest wing of the castle. Exploring it methodically they found several empty guest rooms and some empty torture chambers. Then they came upon a statue with a bag over its head. They laughed and left it there. They were checking out a pair of mahogany doors when we called it for the evening. Wonder what fun could be behind those double doors…we’ll see in a couple of weeks.
Then they came upon a statue with a bag over its head. They laughed and left it there.
lol, I totally forgot about the statue. Yea, we did kinda point and laugh at the statue with the bag on it's head. I mean short of having some nasty effect like a gaze attack... why else does on put a bag on something's head? It's funny I tell you!
We did check it for magic as well and I believe it was Necromancy(like everything else in the huge undead infested castle), so my thought was that we decided the bag was likely there for a reason and moved on.
We did check it for magic as well and I believe it was Necromancy...
IIR it's Necromancy aura was slightly higher than the rest of the castle. The bag on it's head was funny, tho. I'm still wondering if I should give it the Lore Keeper touch. Or maybe Dispel Evil just to be thorough.
Suppose it's the last Chain Spirit anchor. Now that'd be an "What do you know about the werewolf" moment.
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Suppose it's the last Chain Spirit anchor. Now that'd be an "What do you know about the werewolf" moment.
For anyone following this thread who is not in our group, Ace's player was playing a bard in our last campaign. One of the plot points was a search for a werewolf within the town they were based in. The party had come across some information linking a town councilman with some nefarious goings on involving a bandit camp outside town that was preying on caravans and such.
The party confronted the councilman and the first thing the Bard said to this councilman wasn't anything to do with the bandits but rather "What do you know about the werewolf" Well turns out he knew a lot about it as he was the werewolf and the man knew the party was going to interrogate him about the bandits but didn't have any clue they were on to him (which they absolutely were not) about the werewolf. The Sensemotive check after that was pretty good so they dropped gauntlets with him.
Now whenever someone says something with no contextual basis we call it a werewolf moment.
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Here is our newest report. We had all 5 players and we picked up outside some double doors with a statue that had a bag over its head. The party toyed with the idea of taking the bag off the head playing a game of chicken. Sadly no one had the fortitude to remove the bag. Wisdom over bravery and all that…
Inside the doors was a ballroom of sorts with a Cherry colored floor and the ceiling rose tinted glass. Turns out, after a little poking around that the floor is Cherry colored because it was stained with blood. Ace did a detect magic and detected an extra aura under the floor in the middle of the room. Altair and Danni went to check it out the rest of the party hung back in the hall. As they poked and prodded Trinia cast detect secret doors and spotted one across the room. She and Danni went to explore that while Altair, joined by Ace, examined the floor trying to figure out if there was a door or if it was a floor below perhaps. Deveruex and Krim moved just inside the doorway so they could keep line of sight (or line of charge in Krim’s case) on everyone.
Ghostly music and dancers welled up, sucking all but Krim and Trinia into their whirling dance. You know it’s going to be an odd day when the Barbarian makes the Will save on a mind altering spell but the Cleric, Sorcerer, and Rogue types fail dramatically. A large incorporeal undead floated down from the ceiling and attacked Krim. He Smacked it back, but his weapon is not ghost touched so he did minimal damage. Trinia countered the affect with her bard abilities. Something that I think is cool but sadly doesn’t happen very often. So the entire party was freed from the dancing. The undead didn’t last but a few rounds after the party was freed. When you have a Ranger/Rogue who “hates” undead almost as much as humans and has ghost touched weapons and an Undead bane sword. A rogue with a ghost touched chain, a sorcerer loaded with force based spells, and an orc who even though he halves his damage just compensates by powerattacking and thus doubling his base damage that then gets halved and yea, And that doesn’t count the Cleric doing clericy things to undead and a Bard dropping buffs in…Uuuuuuuuugggglyyy for the undead.
The party rested, as this was at the end of a long day and they had been con drained by this undead as well as a couple of negative energy levels and other drains from along the way. Middle of their rest they felt the castle shudder and grow darker again. Altair nodded, “He got himself a new buddy” A quick knowledge check and they figured that Altair was indeed correct. The Chained Spirit claimed another focus. They shrugged and moved on. After resting away a little more of the nicked ability drain and rememorizing spells for the cleric the party headed back into the heart of the castle. They bypassed the Large Bronze double doors once more, figuring there was still castle to explore. They quickly found a tower to enter.
Inside they found 3 Nessian Warhounds (really big hell hounds) waiting for someone to open the doors. All three opened fire with breath attacks on Altair, the odd shape made it so only he was within the breath rangs. He made all three saves and “evaded” the damage. He got a little cocky and tried to tumble through them. Failed his tumbling check and got bitten by all three. Altair then used his Dimensional Door item and popped onto the other side. After that the rest of the party joined in and they pounded the Warhounds pretty quickly. Altair took a little more damage, but it is clear that he needs to spend some loot in the near future on his AC. Can’t really blame him here, he had other needs to address first. Also he has been the last one to get AC boosting items found, as the Orc and Ranger have been given higher priority.
Searching around the tower they came upon an impressive looking Zombie in full plate and with a big earthbreaker. He smashed the Ranger with that, scoring a critical and demonstrating the Thundering Property on it when he confirmed. He did half the Ranger’s HP in a single swing. The party dropped the A-bomb of damages on him after that, pulling no punches and making sure he didn’t get another swing with that beast.
That freed another Spirit Anchor and they felt the castle shift a bit. They still had one to find, and really only those Big Bronze doors left to go.
They moved to examine those doors. Finding the doors sealed with lead and the mechanism to open the doors dismantled they had no choice but to let the Orc use Brute and Ugly Strength. Like a giant bronze bell the doors rang with each of the three hits it took to smash them open. Adamantine Earthbreaker, massive strength, powerattack…bad news for the door.
5 Spectres charged towards the opening. The Orc, seeing the only thing on the planet that he fears, incorporeal undead, Dropped back and called for help. The rest of the party looked at him and shook their head. Hit them! Well Ace Moved up and dropped a death to undeath spell and fried all but one of the things. That motivated the rest of the party to get in there. Krim charged (using his flying armor to negate some height issues) and made a Will save, luckily for him. As I said earlier, it is an odd day when the Orc Barbarian makes the Will saves. He only took a quarter of his hp in damage (with the save) and was able to proceed with his charge. “Oh yea…the forbiddance forgot about that…” Krim and Devereux, using a range touch spell, demolished the spectre.
The party asked Laori to go first, and remarkably it dropped the forbiddance for a short time allowing the party inside. They poked around, finding a few walls of the Star Tower that were made of different colored stone.
They then stumbled into Prelate Aruth, who had become a Mummy Lord. Wow was that a fight. They had a hard time hitting him and he paralyzed the Ranger right out of the gate. Luckily the Cleric hit her with a Remove Paralysis before that got to ugly. After they were able to surround him they were able to drop the Prelate with only some hp’s lost. All of the saves were made, drat it all. They have some of the best luck when it comes to save now or suffer!
They searched some more of the tower, but that was about all the time we had. It’ll be a couple of weeks before we are able to pick back up do to the holidays and all.
Happy Holidays all!
I have neglected my armor for too long it appears...the armor we have found is almost always heavy and as you pointed out for the most part I have been last piggy at the troth for loot. Not sure why that is for AC items...just sort of worked out that way,at least for weapons it makes sense as I am a chain wielder and none have been found. Wonderous items have also been fairly rare. Not really worried about it, but I am in danger of being a drain on our healers.
and it wasn't cocky damnit! It was a bad roll...I can make that tumble with skill and panache!
Actually I just try to conserve the DimDoor for emergences if I can and it was a makeable tumble.
Inside the doors was a ballroom of sorts with a Cherry colored floor and the ceiling rose tinted glass.
I didn't want to interrupt play, but I have to nit-pick here. Cherry wood looks like any other wood - brown, not red.
I have neglected my armor for too long it appears...the armor we have found is almost always heavy and as you pointed out for the most part I have been last piggy at the troth for loot. Not sure why that is for AC items...just sort of worked out that way
I'm 90% positive I purchased all of my AC items and some of those were right before we left for Scarwall. But when/if you tell Krim what he can/can't have, please give me advance notice so I can make popcorn for the show.
I am sure you purchased them too...and I as I pointed out, to my detriment I did not. My bad...lol
As to Krim...I am sure I can just trade him for a cookie or distract him by pointing at something shiney.
Seriously though, I did spend some money on defense. I think I just underestimated how quickly the curve would climb. I also probably should have spoke up more on the rings of protection and things like that since I have been consistantly lagging behind in that department for a few months now. Im not worried about it until Ace starts refusing to fix me.
True..he might think he is a vet that day!
I bought mine, too. But I enchanted them myself. And Trinia's. And our weapons, too.
Which might be why we buy our own. The stuff I'm making is better than the "level appropriate" loots. And it's more customizable.
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We picked up the dice again this past Sunday. As I was writing up this post I realized that I had forgotten to post our previous game. We have played now twice since the holidays. I will sum up quickly what has occurred. So here is the update from the fight with Aruth.
The party found a secret door into that odd tower that seemed to be made of a much different style of rock than the rest of the castle. The party explored it a bit and found themselves on the first floor. There they were contacted by telepathy from some being in the tower. It demanded to know who the volunteer to be the Curate was. Altair was about to volunteer when Sial entered behind them with his pet Chain Devil. The party turned and pointed and said, “There’s the Curate now!” Sial took a dim view on this and began berating Laori suggesting she do it. Finally Altair lost patience and whacked Sial starting a fight that would end a round or two later with Sial begging to be the Curate.
A Nightwing materialized and took Sial in hand. It offered to take Laori to the halls of Zon-Kuthon. An offer she gladly accepted. The Nightwing told the party that Zon-Kuthon knew they seaked the sword and they were welcome to it. They merely had to execute Kleestad and it was theirs. With that the Nightwing, Sial and Laori shifted away.
The party stepped into a pool that some found to be a short trip down to the next level, some found it taking a lot longer. (Will saves weren’t much of a problem this day so no one fell victim to the nastiness of a very very very long fall that it promised). The group found themselves far below Castle Scarwall. They entered some caverns and came upon a large cavern with an underground lake, several huts on the shore and a bright glowing light on the otherside of the lake.
The Huts belonged to some Gug’s, some large Aberrations with 4 forearms and mouths on top of their heads. The party cleaned this nest out rather quickly, but it hurt a lot!
They then looked the lake up and down, decided not being able to see very deeply into it was a bad sign. Krihm, Altair and Devereux flew across to an island where they found a sword sticking up out of a large rock. After a little debate Krihm landed and pulled the sword from the rock. As he was tugging at the sword a Collosal aberration rose up in anger from the lake. The fight was epic. Krihm charged the beast, some sort of cross between a worm and a man. Altair flew to flank and Devereux opened fire. The rest of the party pulled bows and began taking pot shots. They wore down the thing after a couple of rounds.
They had found the sword, Serithtial. With that the party rushed out of the castle, leaving behind the Chained spirit undefeated and several encounters unmet. They then turned and headed back towards Korvosa. The party decided to swing by the Shoanti and tell them the tale of the castle then headed on to Janderhoff to begin forging weapons and equipment before returning to Korvosa.
That was were we picked up this past Sunday. We did a bit of bookkeeping on buying selling and manufacturing. Ace has most of the craft feats and the party employed him full time for a couple of weeks. They were contacted by Orsini and were told he and Neolandus were busting back into Korvosa and joining up with Cressida who had quit the guard and gone underground. Ace contacted his followers and had them hook up with Cressida and help her as much as they could while they were gathering information.
The party Travelled back to Korvosa. Using invisibility and some Airwalk to augment the parties ability to fly they crossed over the wall into the Grey district. They quickly headed to the Pharasma cathedral where they spooked the lower level clergy by entering invisibly and making a bit of a ruckus. At one point a couple of clerics channeled energy to try to dismiss the undead spirits that were trying to haunt the place. Finally Altair tired of the game and dropped his invisibility. The party then met with the Bishop who led them to Cressida and Orsini in the basement of the cathedral.
The party began their preparations, starting with information gathering. The queen had not been idle in their absence. There were many more Gray Maiden’s on the street, they had most of the city under martial law. There were 4 new, very large, statues of the queen under construction in the city. The stone was coming from the great tower that was being torn down bit by bit. There were rumors of a dragon and of Devils in the castle. The party began to formulate a plan. Neolandus and Trinia began to collaborate on maps of the castle, but were told it would take a day or so to finish the maps. Cressida mentioned that she was trying to flush out a new “Hero of the City” who was supporting the queen. She had planned to attack one of the new Statues, grab the workers and see if that would pull this Triffacia, the hero, out.
The party joined the raid to see if they could help. They wacked 6 Gray Maiden’s in short order and the raid went perfectly. Within moments Cressida had the laborers and was gone. The party hung around to see if they could destroy or damage the statue. They were interrupted by some thugs claiming to be rebels. Since the party had watched the real rebels leave they were dubious about the nature of these guys. The men started insulting them and one wished Krim would go to hell. Krim shook off a spell effect with a very nice save. That got some attention. The party charged. Krim smashed into the guy who wished, leaving a pile of goo. Another one wished Devereux would just die. He then made his will save and shook off a finger of death, taking minimal damage. There were no guys left to wish after that.
As the party was cleaning up the mess an invisible person began laughing at them. They started looking around and couldn’t find him with See invisibility or Invisibility Purge. Eventually Traffacia stepped out. He was a fencer style guy and bantered with the party a moment, challenging them to send one person forward to dual him, the winner stayed in town the other side took their friends and left forever. They generally scoffed and demanded initiative. The crowd of onlookers seemed swayed by Traffacia’s words pointing out how honorable he was and how the party was not. This would have been very very effective by Traffacia if Ace hadn’t hit him with greater dispel and revealed him to be an Efreeti.
That pretty much outraged the crowd and the party then pounded him. He was a truly difficult fight though. He flew and then disappeared using Dust of Disappearance again. Eventually the party hunted him down and executed him. Devereux hit him with Glitterdust just as his dust effect ended. That was when Krim and Danni opened up with massive damage, ending Traffacia’s heroing ways.
That was where we left it, with the party intent on a raid on the castle next session, which will be this upcoming Sunday.
Finally Altair lost patience and whacked Sial starting a fight that would end a round or two later with Sial begging to be the Curate.
I believe it was me whispering to Krim, "Grab him and throw him in."
It made Krim happy.
They quickly headed to the Pharasma cathedral where they spooked the lower level clergy by entering invisibly and making a bit of a ruckus.
15 minutes of Chaotic Good Roleplaying!
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In reviewing my stuff for this coming Sunday I realized that I had never posted up our last session. I have been so busy preparing my Rise of the Runelord campaign that I have begun to let a few things slip in this one. For that I apologize.
Here is the short version of our last game.
The party was traveling away from their encounter with Traffacia when a Black Dragon swooped down and with Sabina Merrin on it’s back landed behind the party. The First to act was Devereux who slapped up a Reslient sphere and gave the party several rounds of buffing before engaging with the dragon. The Dragon Breathed on the sphere, thinking the party was lined up perfectly, only to have the acid cover the sphere harmlessly. The fight only lasted about 2 rounds after the sphere was dropped. The party was buffed beyond belief and protected from acid. In the midst of it they realized that Sabina was causing the dragon to be flat-footed against their attacks. Then she put her sword into the dragon and dropped off the side of it. The party finished the dragon and then demanded her surrender, which she gladly gave.
They whisked her off and interrogated her, finding that she had had a chance of heart and wanted the party to be successful in their overthrowing of the queen. They added her information to the Seneschal’s and Trinias as well as had Trinia draw up some maps of the castle.
The party rested and in the morning they assaulted Castle Korvosa. Using Wind-Walk and a lot of invisibility they snuck to the secret door leading into the Armory. They then worked their way around the castle, following the map. They snuck past some Gray Maidens who were off duty and made their way to the Throne Room. There they engaged the Queen, three Nessian Warhounds, Togomor, her new Seneschal, and three Gray Maidens. The fight was fast and furious. Altair engaged a hound, Danni snuck up onto the throne and struck the queen with Serithtial. Devereux moved and began casting silence. Krim pretty much laid waste and Ace and Trinia threw support into the mix. Danni’s strike was enough to destroy the Queen, who exploded into a pool of blood, more blood than any normal being could contain. After a shocked pause the party dived into wiping the minions away. Togomor invisibilitied himself and mirror imaged (expecting the invis to not last very long). Then Devereux’s Silence went off and his casting days were over. Danni and Krim laid waste to the square that Togomor pretty much had to be in. A round later he was dead also. The next round left nothing in the room alive.
The group recovered from the fight and moved on, looking for more information and trouble. They were not convinced that the Queen would really go down with one swing, regardless of whether it was a swing of Serithtial or not. Poor Knowledge Arcana rolls left them confused and uninformed of exactly what had occurred in the throne room other than something odd. They entered the queens rooms, intent on discovering more information. There they encountered a Devil that was a Worm with three skulls for heads on the back end and tongues that acted like whips. The fight was pretty impressive, and for a moment I thought a couple of characters might not make it out of this one, but a couple of rerolls and some shear pounding on the part of the group and they finished this one off as well.
After tossing the queens room they were assaulted again, this time by a Bearded devil and three Barbed Devils. This fight was even faster than the other two. Pretty quickly they put these devils down.
That was where we left off. We’ll be picking the game up again this Sunday and see if the party can’t figure out what is going on in Castle Korvosa.
Then Devereux’s Silence went off and his casting days were over. Danni and Krim laid waste to the square that Togomor pretty much had to be in. A round later he was dead also.
He died after having his buffs dispelled, he was already beaten beyond recognition at that point. Fortunately it was inside a Silence, no fat man screaming to be heard.
...this time by a Bearded devil and three Barbed Devils.
It was a Horned Devil wasn't it?
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We returned to our raid of Castle Korvosa this past Sunday. The party began to hunt for more information on the Queen’s Melting into a pool of blood. The consensus was that the real queen would not have collapsed so easily, nor so messily. They began hunting through the castle. Encountering no further resistance of note until they reached the top floors.
They started with the Seneschal’s room, clearing it of all magical and story plot items of interest including a map of the swamp to the west, ending in the Sunken Queen. They also found numerous spellbooks and scrolls. The books revealed that Togomor was positive the queen was interested in immortality, and using a route through merging with an Outsider. They then began a search of the towers, thinking that perhaps there was something up there, either a clue or the queen.
They were ambushed by Red Mantis Assassins while crossing a bridge to one of the towers. This was an interesting fight if only for the conclusion. The Mantis were Spider Climbing and stuck to the outside walls on either side of the bridge. Altair began the combat flanked by the two, who were standing on the wall over a 15’ fall to a roof below. The Mantis were in the middle of the Initiative. They 5’ stepped into the air, making a standard attack and then falling, using their feather fall spells to flutter to the ground. This provoked AOO’s from Krim and Altair. Krim and Altair killed one of them midair. Altair (combat Reflexes) smacked the other really hard.
Altair’s Move came up and he popped the Mantis with a Hand Crossbow with a poisoned bolt. The Mantis failed his save and was paralyzed. Devereux stepped up and, with an evil grin on his face, cast dispel magic. Now we all knew that he was under 10 hps. It was all but obvious. But instead of just popping a Magic Missile or using a bow or something he dropped Dispel on him, removing the feather fall spell. The paralyzed Mantis rolled off the roof and plummeted 120’ to the ground. Splat.
Searching the towers turned up a couple of things. The first tower was empty, the second was obviously 2 levels high, but they were unable to figure out how to get to the top floor. So the party turned back into mist and air walked up, Altair dimension doored into the room. There they found a book shelf full of scrolls and books. They stripped the place, finding a scroll and a book on the Sihedron Rune and discovered that Ileosa was very interested in something called the everdawn pool as well as the sunken queen.
Heading to the last tower they were ambushed by Mantis again, this time by 6 Mantis, another Mantis woman who seemed to be their leader, a Large Half-Fiendish Red Praying Mantis and 6 Erinyes. The Mantis opened up with a few nicks on Krim, Danni and Altair. Trinia, on the other hand, was pounded on. The Erinyes opened fire on Ace, who was in the back of the party and the only PC they could target from the sky as he was just inside the door. They all missed. That pretty much summed up the whole fight. The Erinyes missed again and again, the Mantis could smack Trinia around, but that was about it. The Leader put a hurt on Danni, knocking her low enough that Ace had to step up and use a Heal spell on her. Devereux frustrated the Erinyes by stepping up and slamming the door in their face. They had to then use a Standard Action to teleport into the room.
The fight lasted quite a while, but other than Trinia was not much of a threat. Though Danni did take that beating, once the party reorganized and got going, the Mantis attack was put down pretty quickly.
They then headed into an old dusty room full of Harrow decks. They found a secret door partly open. They entered and were greeted by a ghost of a Tiefling. He was playing with cards and begged them to retrieve his bones. Down into the bowels of the castle they went. They searched the entirety of the bottom levels before finding a bricked over room and Krim opened it. They found the body of a Tiefling there. They took them upstairs to the ghost, after a debate over whether to help him or not.
The Ghost, Venster, was the brother of the King. He remorsefully admitted helping the queen to Poison the King. He then told the party that the Queen was harvesting blood from the people of Korvosa to fuel something called the Everdawn Pool and that it was a ploy to gain immortality. He also told them that they should examine the Queen’s secret room again, intimating that they missed something. Before the party left to do that though, Zellara materialized and the two spoke, out of earshot of the PC’s. Venster then asked to use the parties deck to channel the spirits of those that the Queen had harmed. The party agreed, though they realized, as did Zellara, that this would destroy the decks ability to hold Zellara in this world.
So the party pulled cards from The Harrow Deck of Many Things. Krim was the big winner. He pulled a card that increased his base speed 30’, leveled him, and gave him some choices, most of which he turned down. Altair had a very poor draw and we allowed him to use up most of his Fate Points to redraw. Danni pulled the Fix one thing that happened. She undid Zellara’s Death. I ruled that, while Zellara was now alive and well, it didn’t undo the whole story. Ace pulled the card that basically said, you and whoever and whatever you want get to go where ever you want one time…
That was pretty much where we left off. Next time the party will see about the Sunken Queen Thing…
Ace pulled the card that basically said, you and whoever and whatever you want get to go where ever you want one time…
I drew 4 cards, 'cause that's the kind of guy I am. <-RP
I also got the "One former enemy returns to life." Brute said, "Lamm."
Another gave my whip (looks at the paper he scribbled it on)
INT 16; WIS 16; CHA 10
Speech, Darkvision 60' & Hearing
Use Detect Magic at will
Search +10
Locate Object 3/day
The very next card allowed me to "Reforge" any one magic item. That Detect Magic gotta go.
For Trinia things got grim. 2 cards. She is now permanently Flanked. And everyone who looks at her knows her greatest weakness.
The very next card allowed me to "Reforge" any one magic item. That Detect Magic gotta go.
So:
Whip +1
INT 16; WIS 20; CHA 10
Speech & Hearing, Telepathy
Blindsense
Sense at 120'
Perception +10
Haste/3 day
At will:
Mage Hand
Message
Dancing Lights
Ray of Frost
Guidance
Suggested Names:
The Good Tentacle
Calistria's Feather Duster
The Good Touch
Calistria's Holy Touch
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Probably….
Ok so the party rested and then used Ace’s Go anywhere for free card (from the harrowed deck of many things) after buffing up and into the end fight they went. They found themselves in a slanting room with a large blob of blood suspended in the middle. Turns out the Queen was in there. They made several attempts to get her out, including Ace diving into the sphere to slap her with Dispel Evil, sadly she is not from another plane or that would have been pure genius, instead it was just bloody messy ;)
Next Danni dove in with Serithtial and slapped her a good one.
Meanwhile the rest of the party was dealing with a pack of Dread Wraiths and Erinyes that were trying to put the hurt. Something to know about this party. Don’t bother attacking them if you are Evil, or an outsider or incorporeal, corporeal, Zon-Kuthon agent, it’s a Tuesday, or they don’t like you. You will die very very very quickly.
The fight lasted 4 rounds (and 2 and half hours of real time)
Danni began swinging at the queen and dealing a lot of damage. So the Queen hit her with an Irresistable dance. Would have done the trick, but Altair’s player pulled out a fate point and said, She gets a round of Actions. Wow, Between her and Krim pounding her the Queen didn’t stand a chance.
Then the Pool of blood began to shudder and crackle with energy then a Dragon began to form in it. The party all realized as Devereux’s player said it, Kazavon is reforming! Danni was still Dancing an unable to do anything, so Krim grabbed the sword from her and plunged it into the Blob of Blood. Booooooom…
We ended there with the world saved and a new game to start!!!!
I loved this AP…
There was a save to avoid permanent blindness when the bloodpool exploded... It would have been funnier if I failed. There was this scene in a movie called Top Secret, where the hero is introduced to a blind interrogator who has to do everything by feel.
And when out on the street I'd have a seeing-eye bard.
So, no simulacrums in the final fight?
So, no simulacrums in the final fight?
Not sure. We blipped right to the queen, bypassing everything. Surprised the heck out of the queen. The teleporters and flyers had to play catch-up. It did get very crowded there for a few rounds.
Unless you mean, "Was that the real queen?" Yah. That was her. I'm sure she had guards because I was the first one to directly attack the queen, but they went down so fast I don't remember what they were.
So, no simulacrums in the final fight?Not sure. We blipped right to the queen, bypassing everything. Surprised the heck out of the queen. The teleporters and flyers had to play catch-up. It did get very crowded there for a few rounds.
Unless you mean, "Was that the real queen?" Yah. That was her. I'm sure she had guards because I was the first one to directly attack the queen, but they went down so fast I don't remember what they were.
I'm not sure how much of how the encounter should have gone down I can reveal here. :p
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The Simulacrums...My players may open this as they have finished the AP but just in case there are still folks poking around who are playing the game somewhere...
The Drop in...same thing
In the end I don't think any of the suspense or excitement was lost. If you have read the entire journal to this point you will see that there have been occasions where I have forgotten a couple of things (or just cut a couple of things) or added a few things. Everyone had a good time and the Players get to do their various victory dances. I am pleased.
The Simulacrums...My players may open this as they have finished the AP but just in case there are still folks poking around who are playing the game somewhere...** spoiler omitted **
The Drop in...same thing ** spoiler omitted **
In the end I don't think any of the suspense or excitement was lost. If you have read the entire journal to this point you will see that there have been occasions where I have forgotten a couple of things (or just cut a couple of things) or added a few things. Everyone had a good time and the Players get to do their various victory dances. I am pleased.
Not blaming you or anything. God knows that I've had similar moments of forgetting crucial stuff, which made encounters much easier for the PC's. :)