With moderate BAB, Moderate at best strength and no feat to add some other bonus' you are just plain running against the characters build.
There are times when disarming is useless, BAB or not. The most common time is facing an opponent simply can't be disarmed, animals and undead for instance.
The second most common is when there is no one around them and they simply spend a move action and pick up their weapon, free from any AoO. The half-orc had a ranger and a rogue (iir) up on him, and Vreeg was on the ceiling looking down at 7 annoyed adventurers. Disarming someone surrounded by their own friends is a bit of a waste of time.
... although there is Greater Disarm now. That sounds like a comedy skit waiting to happen.
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We picked up character sheets, dice, and dove back into our story this past Sunday.
Party was back to full strength player wise, though Muli was a little late. Apparently a late night of gaming the night before. We started where we had left off. In the Vat room, the party had just finished cleaning up the mess they had made.
In our previous game Atrius had seen the room ahead when one of the clerics they were fighting had tried to escape. He told the party that the room had 4 large tanks with some sort of creature floating inside. There were also two more clerics of Urgathoa inside the room. The party formed up, popped the door, and triggered a readied action by the clerics to smash open two of the tanks. One of the vats the critter inside seems to have been dead. The other tank the large beast broke out, and the group was facing a LeukoDaemon. A Neutral Evil outsider much like a demon or devil but the Neutral version. Quite a nasty bit of work.
This fight lasted a very very long time. Muli wasn’t with us when we started it and it turned out that no one had an answer to the DR 10/Good the creature was running with. It didn’t help any that all of the knowledge checks were just plain bad die rolls and left the party with no help in deciphering the best way to fight the thing. This fight took longer than the rest of the dungeon did this day. Finally the Cleric was able to enlarge and bulls strength and that was getting enough damage through to beat down the DR. It still took a very long time. Muli and Atrius were flanking it and aiding the clerics attacks. The Ranger was popping it with his heavy crossbow but was just plain unable to penetrate the DR so he gave up and moved behind the cleric and started pumping Cure Moderate Wounds from a wand. The sorcerer was dropping in damage here and there.
That fight finally done the party started talking rest. But Elam wanted to make sure nothing was going to come through the last set of doors ahead of them. Atrius checked the doors then peaked through and sighed. There was another cleric of Urgathoa, but this one looked a bit more boss like. She was hovering next to a very large statue of Urgathoa. The party talked it over and decided to engage.
Lady Andaisin began her monologue as the party entered. She pretty much did the usual, you are not worth my time, you are losers your going to die and then mentioned how lovely it was that the queen had offered her city up to the Pallid Princess (Another name for Urgathoa). This pretty much triggered the fight.
Atrius charged and struck her for some serious sneak damage. She wasn’t high enough (note to self start NPC’s 10 feet up from now on. I wanted them to be able to see her and I wanted her to be able to see the door). Tormod opened with a magic missile (more because he could than because it was the best action I think) Elam moved into the room and popped her one from the crossbow. Muli, having seen Atrius charge in tried to do the same, but was stymied by being beside the door instead of behind it, thus no charge.Lady Andaisin then moved back, her AC preventing AOO’s from hitting, then tried a spell on Atrius who laughed it off (he rolled a 20 and bluffed her for spite). She was now to high for grounded players to hit. Jim began casting (whenever a Player says “I begin Casting” I usually prepare for the worst…)
Atrius climbed the statue, and Jumped at her, scoring a Crit and doing another chunk of damage (Ok now he is pissing her off). Tormod approached and zinged another spell at her. Elam unloaded a couple of bolts. Muli, having watched Atrius’ Acrobatics said “I can do that only better!” and tried. He had a rough bit of dice though. Then Andaisin dropped a blindness on Atrius which he did not save against. That pretty much ruined him for the rest of the fight. He still tried to help but he was kind of stuck unable to reach her and unable to hit her even if he could reach. And then the game changer went off. Jim’s spell was Silence. Muli, and Atrius to some degree, had her pinned against a wall so she could not wiggle out of the silence. Jim then moved up. He was still large so he was able to effectively block her from escaping. Between him being large, Muli, Atrius and the statue there was almost no where for her to go.
The party then pretty much just put a hurt on her. She was left with Melee which she wasn’t awful at, but she had a few more nasty tricks up her sleaves that she was unable to use. Since she could not get out of flank Muli pretty much ripper her to shreds. That isn’t even counting the damage the Ranger and Sorcerer were dropping in on her.
The party rejoiced. They started looking around to see exactly what the room was and what evidence and loot they could find. Thennnnnnnnn….The body of Lady Andaisin began to twitch. Sadly it was in the Silence still so they couldn’t hear the awful noises it made as the flesh boiled off of it and the bones began reshapping. Lady Andaisin was reborn by her vile goddess into a Daughter of Urgathoa (Large Undead). A new paladin would have shredded this thing in the first round. It took this party 2 rounds. The ranger hates undead almost as much as he does humans. The cleric was large and in charge, and Muli was still flanking it. It did a wrecking ball for a round or two but it just didn’t have the staying power. Which is probably ok. The party was already out of Channels, spells and still beat up from all the fights they had to get to this point. They had all but burned up a mostly full wand of Cure Moderates and had downed half of their potions of healing. Yes they had assets still, but they were beginning to dwindle. The Sorcerer was left using whatever wand he could make fit the situation and the cleric was resorting to just being big and strong and putting a smack down with his bastard sword.
Finally I let them rest. There was nothing left in the place that would come investigate. After they rested, collected the loot, which there was plenty of, and finally got their new spells and such, oh and cured Atrius’ blindness they wanted to check out one final room they had missed on the way in.
Atrius popped open the door. Inside was an odd looking man attending to an unconscious Varisian strapped down on a table. Atrius began talking to him. It didn’t take long for the party to discover that he was a Nosferatu, even though all the Knowledge Religion checks came up less than 10. Ramoska was not exactly trying to hide his vampirism from them.
They had a pleasant conversation, Atrius asking what he was doing, Ramoska telling him to mind his own business but finally being coaxed into revealing that he was searching for a cure to Vampirism and that this Varisian had shown a remarkable immunity to Blood veil a fact that he was going to test some more. Finally negotiations broke down and Initiative was declared.
Ramoska opened with a buff that the spellcrafts all failed to identify (we had a lot of poor rolls for skills this day, made up for it with a few good rolls for saves and for combat). Jim dropped a dispel magic on him. Removed something but they weren’t sure what. Then they discovered he was a pain to hit. And a pain to fight, he cast invisibility and then on his next round cast another buff. Meanwhile the party was flailing around at him, failing to do much to him. Finally he became visible again as he opened with a lightning bolt, that Muli Evaded, Jim saved from and Elam took the full brunt of. That hurt. Now the party could see him. Atrius continued to try to bluff and sneak attack him. He had one of those fights where he could make one roll but not the other. If he failed to bluff then he hit him. The party figured out he had a pretty high DR on top of his insane Armor Class.
This fight lasted a very long time also. This party has issues with DR that are in excess of other parties I have DM’d. Part of it is their weapons damage cap in the 10-15 range but their average is in the 7-8 range. Some of it is they haven’t done well on identifying what the proper fix for the DR’s are. They have failed knowledge checks or spellcraft checks when they needed to know what the answer was. They have survived by using teamwork better than many parties I have seen. Really their only combat weakness is their inability to beat 10 or better DR and I am sure sooner or later they will develop some answers for that.
After the Stinking cloud and a few ray of enfeeblements from him then his quickened magic missiles and things like that the party was nauseated and or beaten up but not really defeated. Finally they dropped enough damage fast enough to take him out. Thus ended the Hospice of the Blessed Maiden and it’s hidden temple of Urgathoa.
So the party collected their loot, the evidence of what was going on, and started to pull in the authorities. They sent a missive to Cressida and to Endrin the Korvossan Guard and Sable Company heads. They then secured the building with some guards and marines and finally trudged off home. They quickly devised a scheme to use the notes to come up with a cure for blood veil. While Tormod, Muli and Atrius were doing that, Jim and Elam began to sell off the loot. We did some paper work like that for a little while. This brought us to the end of our evening timewise.
But I time forwarded a couple of days and had them bask in the glory of being the heroes of Korvosa. The locals threw a big party in their honor, the craftsmen of the city pledged to aid them. Cressida Croft had a big ceremony that the Queen even came to and made a speech honoring them and gifting each of them a writ of 5000 gp each for all they had done. Then Cressida threw open the armory and offered them each a gift also.
As they were sitting there admiring the amount of money they had coming to them, between the loot they grabbed and the rewards they had earned they are sitting on a pretty penny to upgrade with, I dropped one more bit of story on them. It is monstrously long so I’ll Spoiler tag it.
The queen has called a public address to reveal the end of the plague to the masses.
Here, where not even a month ago you came to watch the execution of a girl who would be saved by a scoundrel from the executioner’s hand, you have returned to witness the queen’s public address. The scaffolding for the execution has been turned into a viewing stand, upon which the queen will give her speech. There is a large crowd of people between you and the stands, Cressida was able to get you in, but she was unable to get you close. Hundreds of Grey Maiden’s stand alert and scour the crowds with their haunting stares. A few red cloaks here and there denote Korvossan Guards or Sable marines, though there are few of the latter present.
The crowd is left to wait long enough to begin shifting restlessly before the trumpets announce the queen and her retinue. She strides forward with poise and dignity and yet with an air of authority you haven’t noticed in her before. On her brow is a new crown, one you have never seen before on any monarch of Korvosa. A weave of gold and bone with numerous gems, that look like large fangs and teeth rising up out of the queen’s fiery red hair. Sabina, at least you think it is Sabina as she is wearing some very fancy formal version of the Gray Maiden armor, follows closely behind and to the right of Queen Illeosa. Behind her and to the left is a very large fat man in Deeply Dark red robes. Then comes Marcus Endrin and Cressida Kroft both in their formal uniforms denoting them as the Head of the Sable Company and Korvosan Guard respectively. Making sure the crowd stays back are another 3 or 4 dozen Gray Maidens.
The queen quickly takes the viewing stand, almost by force as you watch her. She then turns to make sure everyone behind her has settled into the place they should be, and then turns to eye the crowd a moment before raising her hands.
“Korvosa, I bring great news of joy. The Plague that has haunted us so has been lifted, for this let us thank Abadar and the gods for bringing us salvation.” There are murmurs of thanks from the crowd.
“Let us also thank the hard work of Doctor Davaulus and the rest of the Queen’s Physician’s.” Again the crowd murmurs thanks, “The Queen’s Physician’s have been disbanded until needed further. But it is now time to turn away from death and unrest and turn to the glorious future of our beloved city. The future holds all of our hopes and dreams and we must strive to reach those goals with all of our strength. To that end, I have appointed a new Seneschal, Togomor, step forward please.”
The bloated man in Red steps up just behind the Queen. She turns and pins a badge of office upon his robe. “Togomor, you are now the Seneschal of Korvosa, do you swear to me, it’s rightful sovereign, to uphold her laws and to do what is best for Korvosa?” The mage merely nods, whatever words he uses are lost in the crowd between you. “I give you, Korvosa, your new Seneschal.” Togomor steps back once more.
“Now for the less pleasant tasks at hand. The Order of the Nail, has fled from Korvosa. With that I end the pact that has given the Hellknights the rights to walk the streets of Korvosa and protect her citizens. They have shown their true colors and we shall never look to them for help again. Sadly the Korvosan Guard and Sable company are both so depleted that the defense of the city must be my first order of business. So, the defense and protection of the City will fall now upon the shoulders of the Gray Maidens. I name their leader, Sabina Merrin General of Korvosa.” The crowd begins to whisper. Confusion and concern are evident from the throngs of people. Before it can grow to anything more, however, the Queen continues on. “The Sable company no longer has the manpower to maintain it’s force levels. To that end I am dissolving the Sable Company, from this moment forward all Sable Marines are to be enrolled into the Korvosan Guard. Commandant Endrin, please step forward.”
Even from here you can see Marcus Endrin trembling as he steps up a few steps, still a distance between him and the queen. He reaches for his badge of office and removes it, a tear making its way down his face. Suddenly he stops his motion and looks out, you swear he looks right Elam then turns back and flings the badge at the queen, striking her on the cheek. No longer is the man trembling, but anger and determination have replaced his anguish and frustration.
“You’re shameful reign ends now! Korvosa will be free again!” an instant later his crossbow is in his hands, aimed at the still-shocked queen. Endrin pulls the trigger before anyone can react. His aim is true; the crossbow bolt strikes Queen Illeosa in the temple.
She Does Not Fall…
With incredible speed she regains her composure and yanks the bolt from her skull. Before the blood from the wound has time to run all the way down to her shoulder she’s standing before Endrin. Her free hand whips out and seizes him by the throat, lifting him off the ground as she holds him up for all to see. An instant later she buries Endrin’s own bolt between his eyes with a single powerful blow. As endrin’s lifeless body crumples to the ground and Ileosa imperiously shakes his blood from her hand she cries out in a strong clear voice- “This shall be the fate of all enemies of Korvosa! Mark well his death! It is only the first!” A moment later togomor steps forward taking ileosa’s hand and teleporting her away.
Pandemonium breaks loose, what do you do?
This struck the party hard. Elam had become quite close to Endrin and the rest of the party seemed to think of him as a friendly contact. The disbanding of the Marines was also a blow. Well…That’s it for this playtest
Oh…One more thing. Jim! I am sorry I didn’t read Ray of Enfeeblement until I got home. Pathfinder has added a Fort save for half! I Guess I owe you an apology and a beer or something…
Oh…One more thing. Jim! I am sorry I didn’t read Ray of Enfeeblement until I got home. Pathfinder has added a Fort save for half! I Guess I owe you an apology and a beer or something…
Not worried about it, I've been pretty frustrated with the changes to spells in pathfinder honestly. Not because OF THE CHANGES, but because I KNOW the 3.5E rules. Besides, I tend to 'rules lawyer' enough without having to look up a spell EVERY time one gets cast.
The session went well IMO. I will be sending you my purchases shortly, still not sure on some of the smaller stuff. The 250gp reward is allowed to be a 'valuable' right? Gem, Figurine, Jewelry, etc.
We really need to add the role-playing aspect of our teenager, Muli, as well. He is so enamored with Sabina that this is also creating a little bit of tension within the party. He thinks that Sabina can do no wrong and that she must be duped into following the Queen. It is an awesome aspect of the role-playing right now because we are trying to convince him that she is as involved as the Queen. This tension is even higher now that Elam has been moved into the Korvosan Guard from the Sable Company.
Elam was visibly upset with the turn of events. Yes, there will be tension there between him and Muli especially if Muli keeps professing his love for Sabina and her innocence.
I can not speak for Tormod or Jim because there was no visible signs that I noticed.
Atrius, the rogue, is boiling inside right now. Atrius' only purpose was to take out the first drug-dealer at the docks whose name I can't even remember now. Events have gotten so much bigger than that petty dealer, Atrius doesn't even look back at his horrid past.
Atrius finally feels like he has a sense of purpose and looks up to Elam even though he doesn't let on that he admires his sense of duty. Muli appeals to Atrius' sense of playful fun and competitiveness. Tormod scares and entertains Atrius all at the same time which is somehow horribly deranged reaction to traveling with a little gnome that seems to have multiple personalities. Jim is this quiet giant that I know I can trust despite him not being from Korvosa.
This camaraderie that we have has given Atrius a sense of family. More than that, he respects the leadership that he has encountered and to see Marcus Endrin get demoted and the dissolving of the Sable Company just started a silent boiling within himself. Atrius then witnesses the attack on Queen Illeosa and the death of Marcus Endrin. Yes, he did what we all want to do and he failed. He failed because the Queen is not human any more or she is somehow protected by some evil magics. Whatever the cause, we are going to kill her; we just have to find a way. We need to find out what she is, what's protecting her and what her weaknesses are.
If there is any physical sign that Atrius is angered. It could be the clenching and unclenching of his weapon hand. Or, it could be the tightened jaw and the squinting eyes staring at the spot from where Togomor and Illeosa just disappeared.
The only question on my mind now is, "Can we trust Cressida Kroft?" Assuming she is still in charge of the Korvosan Guard, she just obtained the Sable Company into her ranks. Of course, she isn't in charge of the Gray Maidens but she is still alive. We need to be careful where we place our trust but she hasn't shown herself to be untrustworthy yet... The jury's still out.
Anyway, we need to find a way to hurt them. We need to find the real Seneschal, loser or not. We also need to find a weakness in Sabina and the Queen. And...if I can kill this new Seneschal, the bloated toad Togomor, that will be one way of putting a chink in the Queen's plans.
Atrius turns and quietly follows his "family" and Cressida out. A whisper leaves his lips that he hopes only his "family" can hear, "There's work to be done."
Daughter of Urgathoa (Large Undead)
I forgot to mention, but I also managed to slap a massive '-8 BLEED' on this beast, thanks to the "Critical Hit deck". So far using the 2 critical decks has been hit or miss. Losing 'double damage' for CHA damage on a monster, not so impressive... losing 'double damage' for a -8 Bleed, absolutely amazing.
Ramoska, Nosferatu
This fight was actually similar to group #1's encounter, only difference being the ability to beat his DR. I was happy that I was able to land my Dispel Magic and a Cure Critical Wounds, but being reduced from a 16 STR to an 11 STR while Moderately encumbered(at 16)... that sucks as I was immobilized. The Stinking Cloud was a pain in the balls like last time, not a surprise.
Elam was visibly upset with the turn of events. ... I can not speak for Tormod or Jim because there was no visible signs that I noticed. Atrius, the rogue, is boiling inside right now.
Honestly Jim would've been impressed by her show of strength, as she one-arm lifted a man much larger than herself with her off hand, and considers it a benchmark/goal of sorts. (I won't get into the TWO CALLED SHOTS, as they're obviously in place to ramp-up the drama in a cut-scene.)
Emotionally, Jim won't have much to say about Endrin, the Queen and her various lackeys. If asked, he would simply point out (in a very blunt manner) "Commandant Endrin attempted save his city and failed, every battle is not fated to be won by the righteous. This day belongs to the wicked." Given the opportunity Jim will LOUDLY celebrate Endrin's glorious demise in battle with a toast at their next meal.
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following is a note sent immediately after the death of Endrin:
Darron,
The b~@#% killed Endrin! He bravely tried to end the threat to the city, and that inhuman murderer plucked the bolt from her temple and had the audacity to say that she is Korvosa!
Everything has changed now. I want you to gather up what you can and fly down to the manor I have told you about in the south of the city. Bring only those you can trust as the Charter has been revoked. I have some pull with Commander Kroft and will be able to outfit some men from the guard's stores but make sure each man comes with his weapons and his armor.
Also, I came back to the compound to find that Sirocco had been returned to the Aerie. I will need you to shuttle me back to pick up Kish. He was always a stronger flier and stubbornly loyal. With him I am sure we'll be able to make a stand here in the city.
Times are about to become even more interesting Phal. We are going to need to work carefully and quickly to release the city from this bi-lacho chovexani. My recent activities lead me to believe that the spirit of the city is not broken, but is fragmented. We need to reforge the people and take Korvosa back!
I will see you soon Phal.
Tormod sees things pretty black and white. You are either a friend of his and his group and get treated well, or you are an enemy and Tormod will happily shove a spear through your throat. He feels like he will burst most of the time if he isn’t talking, casting spells or bluffing his way into situations no Gnome should be in.
Tormod right now is counting himself very lucky. After joining this group via a favor owed to Cressida, due to some “misunderstandings” about the law here in Korvosa, Tormod is feeling like he has found a group of friends that he can not only depend on, but hopefully in some ways are coming to depend on him.
While Tormod certainly is beginning to care about the town of Korvosa on a new level, he mostly sees his duties and interests lying in with his group. If they left the town and wanted him to come he would drop everything here happily and follow along. Now due to the insane events with the Queen and the death of that nice gentleman that Elam seemed to like, it seems the group will be heading in a new direction and that’s just fine with him.
He is very happy to let Elam lead the group for the most part and only pushes his way to the front when he has something he feels he has to say or can do something as a Gnome no human would expect a Gnome to be able to do. Jim seems to be a kindred soul, if a little quiet, in that he enjoys the joy of combat and doesn’t seem to be too horribly upset if I accidentally let him drink some poison. Muli makes him laugh quite a bit, as he seems very young and immature, but Tormod can’t doubt his skill with a blade, so is very happy to have him around. Atrius is the only member of group Tormod can’t quite put his finger on, but he saw how deadly Atrius was with that rapier recently, so Tormod has decided not to lay any fingers anywhere near him.
Tormod isn’t sure what exactly our next step is, but he is sure Elam does and he is happy to follow along blasting and stabbing his way through things, making sure no one messes with his friends.
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Here is this past Sunday’s happenings. After a little paperwork to update the list of items the party purchased during their down time, we got back into the story.
We dropped back in time just a little to the time period between the party and speech by Queen Ileosa congratulating the group for developing a cure for the plague and the Address the queen made to all of Korvosa. A few minor things here and there were roleplayed. Also Zellara did a harrowing for the party, indicating that while they had assisted Korvosa with the strength of their arms and wits the days were about to get darker.
She indicated that forces unseen were mustering against the city and against them. One card in particular, the Rakshasa was worrisome to Zellara as it fell into the negative future slot. She indicated that this was a sign of great forces hidden but marshalling against them. “Beware of the powerful wrapped in the illusion of weakness. But be more vigilant against the Greatly powerful hiding amongst the merely strong.” Yea she is all about the helpful babble…
Muli also had a visitor to the manor during this time. He was not home when Sabina Merrin came knocking on the door looking for him. Elam was the one to take the message for Muli that Sabina was looking for him. Elam then flew over to the other house where Muli and the rest of the folks were and let Muli know that his “Love” was looking for him. Muli then took a bauble (used one of the gifts from the people to get her a lovely gift of jewelry) and headed to the new Gray Maiden’s watch house but a few hundred feet from the Manor.
Muli speaking with Sabina had everyone on edge, none more so than Muli’s player however. He was joking that he was going to get to make that Goblin Sorcerer pretty soon. The rest of the party were jockeying for positions in which they could swoop in and save their erstwhile fighter should the need arise. Sabina beckoned the lad into an office where she told him point blank he had to leave the city. He blinked in response. Then she told him again, “You have to leave the city.”
“But why?” was his response. I think the player enjoyed playing him struck speechless. After a few back and forths she got him to promise to leave the city as soon as possible. He is now convinced that she loves him. We were all worried there for a few minutes that he would actually do it. Pack up and leave. But…he realized that he couldn’t leave without his friends and he didn’t really have time to convince them to leave before the queen’s address the next morning.
Well, after the Address the party was thinking about leaving to, but Cressida had one last thing she wanted them to do before they bolted. She told them, as she was trying to get the crowd away from the palace, to meet her at her office in a couple of hours. The party agreed and fled the scene. Elam gathered his troop and they gathered their wits. They rushed to the houses and got everything they would need (i.e. Their weapons armor and equipment) Elam dispatched letters and gave instructions to the folks who they had been helping. Tayce Soldado and her children were caring for Zellara’s house and a few others the party had purchased in the neighborhood. Some folks were told to keep the Caryowyn manor up, but to keep it locked.
The party met with Cressida. They found her with a bottle of wine in an almost empty Citadel. They added a few bottles of wine and all sat around toasting the death of Korvosa. Cressida gave Elam a ring, a signet ring that he had given to Orsini, and told him she had received word that he wanted to speak to the party as soon as possible. His missive had said he had discovered some things about the queen that had to be looked into. She asked the party to get into Old Korvosa, find Orsini, find out what he knows and get the hell out of Town as it wasn’t safe for them anymore. The queen would be moving against them soon now that she had nothing left to hide and the party had proven to be a problem recently. They all agreed, in fact they had trouble deciding to leave before speaking with Cressida because they wanted to make sure Orsini was safe before they left.
So off to Old Korvosa they went. First stop was the Sable Company headquarters where Elam resigned his commission, collected an old friend (back story dwarf who was something of a running contact up until this point that he was added as Elam’s Cohort). Then he switched mounts (i.e. There was a rename and rebuild of the hippogriff) The party was then whisked across the narrows on the back of Hippogriff’s, except for Jim and Tormod who chose to use Jim’s Airwalk spell instead as they were pretty sure the hippogriffs would end badly. (Jim uses heavy armor and has no ride skill and Tormod was told that hippogriffs eat gnomes).
They quickly moved to Orsini’s house, where they found the academy burned to the ground. The house still stood, however. The group entered the house, Atrius and Muli through a first story window, Jim, Elam and Tormod through the front door. A quick reconnoiter was the plan. Majenko could tell there were two people in the house, but no one answered the knocking or the party calling hello. After a moment the two people in the house jumped the party, Turns out they were Red Mantis Assassins.
One smacked down the gnome upstairs the other jumped Atrius. A quick fight ensued, resulting in a fire being started that roared to life. It would eventually consume the entire house. A few rounds in Muli and Atrius demolished one of the assassins. The other one didn’t last long after that. The party just escaped as the house became completely engulfed in flame.
Orsini was not home, and now his home was no more. Many people came out to put out the fire, it seems that is about the only thing the people in this part of town would be willing to come out for. After the fire was extinguished the group was able to glean a little information from the firefighters. Orsini’s academy had burned a couple of days before. No one remembered seeing him for a few days more than that.
One person approached them, after the crowds had melted away. It was the noble man Amin they had helped during the riots way back in the beginning of our story. Tormod didn’t remember him but it was because he joined the party after that. Convincing him not to murder the nobleman took a little doing he has gotten more and more blood thirsty as time has gone on.
Amin told them that he had been living with Orsini since the quarantine had started. A few days ago Red Mantis attacked Orsini in the academy. Orsini was able to kill one of them before being forced to flee. They then burned the academy down. Speaking with him further they learned that Orsini had been meeting a few times with a man named Salvator Scream, a painter. Amin didn’t know what they were talking about but Orsini got really angry during one of the meetings just a couple of days before the Mantis attack.
The party then decided to head towards Scream’s house and see if they could find out what that was all about. They were waylaid, however, by a mob demanding they surrender to the Emperor of Old Korvosa. After some hilarity caused by the mob’s leaders dimwittedness an agreement was struck that the party would indeed surrender but the party would keep their weapons and the mob could keep their weapons and the party wouldn’t hurt them, but instead be allowed to lead them to the “palace” of this emperor.
They went nicely, though Tormod and Jim had a conversation about the ways they could maim the mob the whole way there. I think it was just an RP way of trying to lay a little Intimidate bonus on. I think that was it. Probably not. Arriving at the makeshift palace, or hovel as Muli I think it was called it. They met the “Emperor” a man named Pilts Swastel. He used to run the Execrables place that they found so distasteful before.
This meeting didn’t go so well. The emperor is a few taco’s short of a full bread basket if you get my meaning. He demanded a lot of things but eventually grew bored with the party and let them go, “Diplomacise” as he put it, the rest of Old Korvosa for him. The party then went to Eel’s end to speak with Devargo Barvasi about the emperor.
They didn’t actually meet with Devargo the king of spiders at this time. They were speaking with the guards at the gate to a barricade that had been added around the dock. The name Emperor of Old Korvosa came up and they nearly through the group out. They did mention that the King of Spiders would love it if something really unpleasant happened to the Emperor. The party then gave up with this whole line of pursuit and decided to head back to the Painters house since it wasn’t that far away.
They had a slight problem with some Otyugh’s there, but quickly dispatched them. They knocked on the door, then Muli knocked down the door to the house. They didn’t find the painter, but they did find a Cleric of Zon-Kuthon. Laori Vaus who was quite the bubbly personality, even if she did seem to have a thing for pain. I told them that she was just misunderstood…
Laori told the party that the painter had been taken a few days ago by someone named the Emperor of Old Korvosa (insert Ahhhhh’s of understanding here) and that she had been thinking of going to see this emperor about talking to Salvator. Tormod took an instant liking to her, what’s not to like, she loves pain, she is about twice as tall as him and she is pretty good looking. She did ask Tormod if he’d like to be her Cohort ;)
Tormod suggested she join up with the party, which everyone seemed ok with so she added her spiked chain to their efforts. The newly expanded party (5 pc’s, 1 Cohort, 1 hippogriff mount, and 1 NPC cleric is starting to be quite an army) headed back to the emperor’s palace.
Meeting with Pilts again was even more fun now that the party had a goal. Several back and forth’s occurred with Elam asking for Salvator Scream, Pilts suggesting that they play a little game he liked to call Blood pig. Party wins they can talk to Scream, Party looses Pilts gets all their stuff. Elam looked Pilts then just said, “Tormod…Go…”
Initiative time. Well it turns out that in the crowd were a couple of old friends of the party. Rolth and Jolistina were there and they caused some havoc. Rolth called forth some Zombie Otyugh’s he had hidden beneath the playing field that the party was standing on. Pilts dropped a bardic noise on his people and Jolistina started to circle around. The 18 or so thugs also clogged up the board.
An aside here. I should have called the night right here and we picked it up next time. I didn’t realize how late it was until the fight had started, at which point it was kind of late to bail. I don’t like to stop fights in the middle and pick them up again next time if I can help it. To many details get lost or forgotten.
This fight was one of the longest I have run in a while. There were probably 40 combatants on the board at the height of the battle. I’ll just mention the highlights. Atrius held the stairs, Jim Cast Enlarge person on himself and used his new toy, +1 Whirling Blade Bastard Sword. Smacked a lot of the thugs around. Muli jumped up onto the platform where Pilts was and smacked him a couple of times before Pilts was able to Dimension door away. At which Point Muli went toe to toe with Rolth for a few rounds, before he finally fled the scene using Dimension door also. Jolistina never got into the fight. Once Rolth Fled she turned and fled to. She had to circle around a huge area to get where she wanted to be and it just didn’t work out for her.
The Otyugh zombies really only harassed Tormod. Other than that they are not really a threat at this point. I realized halfway through the fight that Tormod probably should forget the casting on the defensive, the DC for casting from taking damage from them would probably be lower. (I didn’t mention that though ;)
Rolth fled, then Jolistina then Pilts. By then all the mook’s on the board were fleeing or dead and the zombies were declared by me a mop up. (They couldn’t do anything to the party really) We bolted at that point. We’ll pick up after the holiday’s and see what the party wants to do.
Tormod is only bloodthirsty because he knows if he isn't the bad guys will just dimension door away and then we will have to deal with them at some other point in time.
I am finding this highly entertaining, watching how somethings differ in regards to how we did it and how some are scarily similar. I am jealous of the level of RP going on here...
For some reason though our party is comprised of strong players, there is just a faster pace to the group that tends to push us from combat to combat. We miss out on the little moments of character interaction and often reduce to one note players.
Tormod is only bloodthirsty because he knows if he isn't the bad guys will just dimension door away and then we will have to deal with them at some other point in time.
In an alternate universe, you stepped over an empty wand of Dimensional Anchor probably once or twice during that "Dances with Otyughs" performance.
Just be glad Muli took the hit for the team and kept Rolth distracted.
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But…he realized that he couldn’t leave without his friends and he didn’t really have time to convince them to leave before the queen’s address the next morning.
OoC: Well, this isn't quite accurate. Muli knows his travelling companions are all "big boys". They have been warned and can take care of themselves. His leaving might cripple their attempts at going proactive but that would only encourage them to accept Sabina's warning and leave the city themselves.
"I do not normally accept the council of other men, let alone a woman and you, you are not even one of my wives."
In truth Muli recognized the self-sacrificing nature of Sabina's warning. She was concerned enough with his safety to forego any and all help he would have been to her in the future in order to safeguard him from harm....obviously. He could warn his friends or not as he saw fit but it was of paramount importance to her that he leave the city, she said so. But what kind of man could do this thing? No, he would stay and face whatever danger presented itself and, if the gods will it so, he, his friends, and Sabina will die fighting for Korvosa together.
The next morning, a sign from the gods that he was on the righteous path as Cressida (herself trusted by the party members) echoed Sabina's warning. Vindication! Certainly even those of hardest heart must now see Sabina's innocence! None can deny and would not speak again against his love lest they themselves be touched by djinn.
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We were finally able to return to Korvosa this past Sunday. We were short Atrius (rogue). We picked up on the hunt for Salvator Scream. The party had smashed Piltz’s guards in his throne room area in the previous episode before the holidays.
The party regrouped and entered the palace on a search and destroy mission. They were hunting Piltz, Rolth and Jolistina. They were also hoping to find Salvator. They came upon Piltz raiding his own bedroom for stuff, preparing to flee. Muli put the smack on him (30+ subdual damage) before he even knew they were there. After interrogating him, using the intimidating presence of their homicidal gnome to pull information out of him, they discovered that Salvator Scream was in the next room. Freeing him they whisked Scream out of the building and returned to the house they had been holed up in by Orisini’s place.
Speaking with Salvator they found out that Scream was harboring the Seneschal back during the beginning of the queen’s reign. Orsini had hunted him down and had learned that Salvator had turned the Seneschal over to the Arkona’s and that Orsini had grown angry. Scream felt that Orsini had probably gone after the seneschal. The party decided, after a large amount of discussion, to let Laori Vaus, the Cleric of Zon-Kuthon, take care of Salvator. She agreed to protect and harbor him. They gave the painter numerous supplies they had captured at Piltz’s place as well as some of his paintings.
The party rested and headed up to the Arkona Palace to try to collect Orsini and the Seneschal. They wandered up to the gates and were met with some gaurds. They were able to get the guards to go through their channels and get someone to talk to them. Carnochan, the majordomo of the palace spoke with them and the party was able to convince him to arrange an audience with Glorio Arkona, the head of the Arkona house. They were whisked into the palace, taken to a beautiful sitting room to wait. Quickly Glorio entered, the party made it clear they were looking for the Seneschal and Vencarlo Orsini. Glorio agreed that he might be able to arrange a meeting between the party and the two gentlemen, as he referred to them.
After a lengthy conversation the party learned that Glorio was not a fan of the Queen and in fact, if the party were to do something about her Glorio would be quite happy and perhaps it might benefit the party. He also agreed to allow the party to get the Seneschal and Orsini and leave with them as the party had taken out one of the thorns in his side in the “Emperor of Old Korvosa”. He regretted to inform them that the “two gentlemen” were guests in the Vivified Labyrinth” and the party would have to go down and retrieve them as he was unwilling to do so. Glorio even showed them the entrance and told them where to find the secret door.
With that the party entered down a long winding stair case that eventually dropped them off in an underground Sea Cavern. A fungal garden had taken over the cavern. The party began making their way around when they were jumped by three Large Fungal creatures. The combat started with the creatures invisible and they did a number on the party out of the gate. Muli took quite a beating and Tormod got smacked around a bit. Quickly, however, they dug in and took over the fight. Elam’s Cohort’s Animal Companion (Bear) took quite a few beatings as well. The fight over the party proceeded down a series of rope bridges. Glorio called it the Cat’s Cradle and as it twisted down that was very much what it looked like. The group came to the first door and opened it discovering numerous carvings of animals. Relizing they had been told to go in the Secret door, they just shut the door and moved on to where Glorio had told them the Secret door would be. Easily finding it they entered the Vivified Labyrinth. A long hallway led to a pair of Bronze doors. Entering they discovered a small room with a lever. Several folks, other than Muli, noticed odd markings at the entrance and the party quickly realized the lever would move the room.
After everyone was in the room they flipped the lever. The room turned and opened into another room with a door and another lever. They opened the door and were hit by a Symbol of Pain. Racking pain overcame Jim, Elam and Darron Elam’s Cohort. Jim quickly shut the door.
This was when the party petitioned to have Atrius’ character used to do the trap things as that was what he was built for. We contacted the player and had him email us a copy of his character (amazing thing technology we should probably have more of that stuff it’s kind of cool)
After a few stops and starts the party figured out they could cover the Symbol with a Painting they had and that would prevent any one from getting hit with the symbol, but the folks suffering would have to ride it out. They then turned their attention on the three chests that were in the room. A detect Poison spell later and they realized one of the chests was just a poison gas trap. They then went about working on the other two. One was covered in Poison also, and would turn out to be empty. Another had a poisonous snake inside that attacked Tormod, but was unable to hit him. Tormod Scorching rayed it into submission. They found some potions in the chest with the snake.
We left it there, hoping that Atrius’ player could join us for the next installment of the game and enjoy dealing with all the traps.
I read the whole thread in two days and I'm envious to your players. Way you are GMing them through this AP is awesome. I got this whole AP as christmas present from my gaming group and now more than anything I want to run this AP to them. All thanks to you and your journal here. ^^
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I read the whole thread in two days and I'm envious to your players. Way you are GMing them through this AP is awesome. I got this whole AP as christmas present from my gaming group and now more than anything I want to run this AP to them. All thanks to you and your journal here. ^^
I am rather jealous of you. I think taking a new group through this AP is an exciting thing. I am glad to see you like what we're doing. Any help you need just let me know. And don't forget to post up your own journal so we can watch your progress as well.
I am rather jealous of you. I think taking a new group through this AP is an exciting thing. I am glad to see you like what we're doing. Any help you need just let me know. And don't forget to post up your own journal so we can watch your progress as well.
I'll remember this one. It may take some time before we start playing CotCT mainly because as soon as I finish RotRL campaing we start playing SD. If I don't find another bunch of people to I can run this AP. And I promise to write journal eventhough english isn't my first language.
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This past Sunday we returned to Old Korvosa. After bringing the player of Atrius up to speed we dove back in to the Vivified Labyrinth. In the previous session there was an error on my part that I discovered after the game. I had connected two rooms incorrectly resulting in no way for the party to actually move forward. I adjusted it and explained it to the group.
The party started to look around, finding a room with a jungle scene painted on the walls of vicious and carnivorous animals eating people. Atrius, scouting ahead a bit looking for traps, realized that he was among the people being eaten in the painting. That freaked him out. He ran back to the party and hid behind Jim. After some more of the party moved forward and realized that they to were in the painting Atrius felt better, primarily because no one was taking any real effects I think.
Atrius moved forward again and checked out a door. After finding no traps on the door he opened it. His Trap spotter trait kicked in and he closed his eyes before setting off another Symbol spell. Attempting to disable it he failed his disable check and set off the spell, failing his will save and…fell into a slumber the party was unable to wake him from. They pulled him from the room very carefully so as not to be subjected to the spell themselves and holed up waiting for the spell to wear off. They also threw the painting over it they had used before.
The party then moved forward and found another door and beyond it another symbol that Atrius was unable to prevent from triggering but he was able to disable it after Muli was stunned for several rounds. The party waited that out then retreated and Tormod decided to pull another lever. Tormod was asked if he should wait to have Atrius check it and he said naw. This triggered a Symbol of Insanity. Sadly for the DM only the Hippogriff was affected by the symbol.
We entered initiative to sort out how to deal with the insane Hippogriff. We moved through with Muli readying an attack against the Hippogriff and Darron (the Druid Cohort of Elam) trying to calm the beast. After the Hippogriff moved to attack him, Muli’s readied action kicked in and he beat the bejesus out of the Hippogriff doing almost half its hitpoints in Subdual damage. Then Jim went and announced, “I grapple it”
Everyone, including me, raised their eyebrow (I was reminded of the mini movie WOTC put out when they announced 4e. The guy was facing a troll and in 1st, and 2nd edition he attacked it but in 3rd he tried to grapple it but it was difficult. Funny video if you remember it) Grapple it? Yep. The Hippogriff missed on it’s AOO and Jim Grappled it. Wasn’t even that close. Made me realize that large isn’t as big an advantage as it used to be. Everyone else but Tormod joined the grapple, Jim was going to have a huge positive modifier to keep it grappled. Tormod hit it with a dispel magic. Finally he rolled well on it and the insanity eased.
The group then turned to see what the Labyrinth looked like now. They were now looking at a new room, one that was decorated with paintings of wasps everywhere; floor, ceiling and walls. Atrius took one look and said, “Well that’s definitely a trap…” He then searched and lo and behold it was a trap. Shocking. The wasps all poked with their stingers. Atrius Disabled it before it even got to go.
They then checked a door to the north, and then checked a door to the south. Then prepared to go north until Muli popped the door to the south. There was a hall with iron Sarcophagi in alcoves. Jim and Muli started to head down the hall. Then the door to the north opened. And out stepped Vencarlo Orsini who looked like hell. He was beaten up, had numerous Stab wounds and was just a mess.
Meanwhile Muli and Jim had discovered the hall they were in was a trap. There was a screaming coming from the alcoves on their right. The floor that Muli was standing on lifted to try sliding him into the next square. They made the saves on that then the Sarcophagi on the left opened and shot spears at Jim. Atrius ran down and disabled the trap as it was reseting.
The party spoke with Orsini then. Asking him all manner of questions, like what he was doing, “escaping” Did he know where the Seneschal was, “nope but I am pretty sure he’ll be easy to find once we kill that Bastard Glorio” Orsini seemed to want to kill Glorio more than anything else, but he also wanted to get the Seneschal and escape also.
The party then moved into the room that Orsini had come from. The room had a black marble column that was throbbing with energy. They discovered the column would let them rememorize some spells and do Restoration effects. They partook of the effects and then headed back down the hall. They came to a room with a pool and a statue with numerous sharp shiny swords. Atrius laughed and searched, finding that it was indeed a trap. Disabling it was not to difficult for him.
Searching the room they found that the only thing of value was the eyes of the statue, which they grabbed, and the secret door. They popped it open finding another room with tiger heads on all the walls. Atrius couldn’t find a trap and Tormod couldn’t find any magic so Atrius entered and we went to initiative as the tiger heads attacked.
Atrius and Muli entered the room and attacked the heads. Tormod shot from outside the room. Jim and Elam just watched as they didn’t see a point in even dealing with the room. After a couple of rounds the room was dead.
Sadly there was no where to go, though they could tell one end of the room could connect to the rest of the place if the spin put a room there. They went back and flipped another lever They then found a room with two levers and four spheres. They spent quite a bit of time debating the levers and the spheres. Finally they pulled the lever on the right, turning the party into a room that contained a large Darksphinx. Initiative time again. The fight went quite a while, as her DR and Resistances weakened almost all of the attacks made against her. Eventually the party wore her down.
Back to the room with the levers and spheres they went and another debate about what to do. They were unable to pull a good spellcraft check on the spheres so had no idea what they were or what they did. They couldn’t even get the Aura of them. While Tormod, Jim and Atrius worried at the problem Muli began speaking with Orsini. They spoke of getting out of the Labrynth finding the Seneschal then getting out of there. “After we kill Glorio” said Orsini. Muli said, “Of course just as long as we aren’t going after Sabina.” I had Muli roll a Sense Motive. He rolled a nat 20. Now that was a really nice roll. I mentioned that for a second he didn’t think Orsini knew who Sabina was.
Muli played it really cool then, when Orsini moved off, he turned to Atrius and Elam and told them he didn’t think it was Orsini. He explained what happened and the party started looking at Orsini a little differently. Then the game changed. Tormod announced, “I touch the green one with my spear” And he disappeared.
The party took a moment to think about that while I told Tormod where he wound up, a circular room with a pool and a room beyond. Atrius was the first to recover and suggested to Orsini that he should follow after Tormod. Orsini agreed and touched the same sphere and he to disappeared. Atrius quickly followed, saying he didn’t want to leave Tormod alone with “Orsini” After a few minutes the party agreed to do the same and everyone touched the sphere, Jim, then Muli, then Darron, then the Hippogriff then Elam.
And that is when I told them it was a sphere of Annihilation and thanked them for playing Curse of the Crimson Throne, but the Queen won and they lost and even lost their souls! MWAHAHAHAHA
Oh wait…no it teleported them to where Tormod was.
Orsini, Atrius and Tormod were alone in the room for a bit. Atrius spotted another Symbol in the next room and went to try and disable it. He failed and then failed the save and was once more unconscious. Orsini then turned to Tormod and said, “Agree to help me kill Glorio or I’ll kill you myself…” Initiative.
Well this was the fight of the night. “Orsini” was all but unhittable and he was having no problem hitting the party. On top of it he had SR 29 as well as DR and Resistances. The party quickly decided they were right and this wasn’t Vencarlo. Round 1 the Gnome Sorcerer was unconscious. Round 2 Jim Popped in. He was able to channel and put the gnome into positives. He then took a beating. Then Muli popped in. The party started to work around trying to beat on Orsini, but they then were forced to make saves from the Symbol of Sleep. Muli, Tormod and Darron failed and fell asleep. Jim was hurting. Then in came the Hippogriff. The Hippogriff and Jim were able to nickel and dime it for a bit then Elam came in. Down went Jim. The Hippogriff was able to hold it for a round and a half. Elam was able to hit and do some significant damage. He had the magic (literally) weapon. A good aligned piercing weapon. Down went the Hippogriff and Elam and Orsini were battling for several rounds. It became a race between Elam’s To Hits and Elam’s Hit Points. He could bypass the DR but he needed to roll 20’s to hit. So he wound up running to the other end of the room, taking an AOO and then casting true strike. Next round Shooting. That happened 2 or 3 times before he finally killed the beast.
Turns out it was a fox headed Rakshasa posing as Orsini. They were not pleased with that…primarily because out of character they had been talking about Rakshasa’s for the last couple of sessions. I was handed more fate points in that fight than I have ever been handed in one encounter before. Reroll the crits, stabilize me at -1, reroll those crits to. Oh and those fumbles.
After healing up and waiting for the sleeping ones to arise they moved down the new room and into the next room where there was a symbol of stunning, which they all but ignored and into a new room. There they found a Throne and another Vencarlo Orsini, this one chained to a statue. The party as a whole was very wary of him, Tormod ran up and kicked him between the legs. It took them quite a while to determine that it was indeed Orsini.
That is pretty much where we left off.
There they found a Throne and another Vencarlo Orsini, this one chained to a statue. The party as a whole was very wary of him, Tormod ran up and kicked him between the legs. It took them quite a while to determine that it was indeed Orsini.
LOL, it took a Zone of Truth scroll to get Tormod to stop kicking Orsini in the nuts. Short people are so angry!
In my defense I was angry because the encounter with the rakasha didn't go quite the way it was described. It was more like this ...
"You see Atrius fall asleep after failing to disable the trap. Orsini turns and hits Tormod for 49 points of damage"
WAIT WHAT?????
Thats right, I never even had a chance :( It was very sad. Especially since I only had 37 hit points ...
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Brutesquad, question, how exactly did Bahor's proposal to retrieve his guests go down with the party? I might be coming up to this myself in the next session and I'm wondering how it will turn out. His explanation as written is a little weak. I can see it very likely the party may try to hold him hostage to demand the release of Ven and Neolandus which hey they can try... Anyways just curious if there were any other details.
Excellent write-ups BTW!
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Brutesquad, question, how exactly did Bahor's proposal to retrieve his guests go down with the party? I might be coming up to this myself in the next session and I'm wondering how it will turn out. His explanation as written is a little weak. I can see it very likely the party may try to hold him hostage to demand the release of Ven and Neolandus which hey they can try... Anyways just curious if there were any other details.
Excellent write-ups BTW!
I could write up a transcript of it but that won't really do you much good. Every DN and Party is going to do it different. Just know what he wants and what how far he is willing to go. It really went pretty well in this game and in my first one. Pretty much both parties knew that Glorio is at the very least attached to the Organized Crime scene, if he isn't more than just attached. He uses some Inuendo to imply the Queen is not someone to be trusted or followed, and that he has the folks the party is looking for. It's all Mobed up though. He couches everything in terms of probabiliteis, possibilities and perhapses.
The party could have recorded what he said and I can gaurantee he never said, "I have your friends and you can have them if you do such and such a thing." However, that is exactly what the party heard.
I am not thrilled with the description of Bahor's motivations or actions. I had to think it through and come up with some added motivations.
When the party shows up he realizes that if they have the seneschal then, assuming Vimanda doesn't kill them, they'll take care of removing the queen and then he can step in. Now, here is the hole that I haven't come up with a satisfactory answer on. The party kills Vimanda and they realize she is a Rakshasa. Bahor's Greatest fear is that someone will figure out that the Arkona's are Rakshasa. Doesn't it seem unlikely that the party would think, hey there is a Rakshasa here we should save Glorio from them? No Of course they think he is a Rakshasa. So shouldn't he then kill them since he doesn't want the secret out? But then he has just wasted his new perfect tool, Party plus Neolandus' Information.
I have gone with; he'll let the party go, take Neolandus and Vencarlo, use the info they have do what ever they have to do to kill the queen and then he'll step in take the throne and then execute the party, Orsini and Neolandus. Of course he has no concept of Levels and such so from his perspective they won't be any more difficult to deal with after they kill the Queen than they would be right now...
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From Elam's perspective, he expected to find Tormod asleep on the floor or in some other "benign" trouble. Being the last one into the fight, I am reminded of the scene from the latest Star Trek movie when the Enterprise warps to Vulcan. *POP* Hey! Where did all this wreckage come from.
I really don't want to think about what would had happened if Elam had not bought that sacred crossbow. And now that the party has found Orsini, they can find the Senechal, prosecute the Arkona for unlawful and potentially deadly imprisonment, kill the Queen and then relax in the house by the sea.
Should be easy enough... we have a gnome... and are not afraid to use it.
I really don't want to think about what would had happened if Elam had not bought that sacred crossbow.
Well, I do have several copies of "Align Weapon" floating about , but it was more in readiness for when/if we see another horse-demon thinger. 'I' knew what/who the fake Orsini was, but 'Jim' had no clue whatsoever, nor have we fought a Rakshasa up to this point.
One of the original items I had on my "to buy" list felt a bit too metagamey for my tastes and I removed it in lieu of more common defense magics.
Also Jim isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, between piss-poor die rolls and low skill points you may have to point knowledge-like things out to him from time to time.
"Hancock?! Bad guys?!" ... "Whatchu want boy, a cookie?!"
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Sunday my players and their Cohorts (one of which was the PC Tormod whose player was unable to join us) dove back into the Vivified Labyrinth. The party had rested at the break of last game. The group prepared for another day, not that they had much choice. They were trapped in a portion of the labyrinth that was cut off from the rest of the world.
Eventually the room spun for them and they were able to escape. They exited the Labyrinth and met a man with two large cobras. The man, whom they had never met before, said that his master bid them to collect their other friend and depart from the grounds. They “agreed” to do so. The party then followed Orsini’s directions and found a hidden passage that led to a torture chamber. Within was a three headed, six armed woman who invited them in, suggesting each of them choose their torture device and wait by it to be affixed to it. Pshaw right said Muli who began to approach her. Init happens…
This fight was dynamic and drawn out and very tough…oh wait. No that was the way it was the time I ran it for the first party that played this AP. This group brought a Shoanti Cleric with a Bastard Sword and a knack for dramatic swings of luck. This day he was on the positive luck side. He critted and drew a Beheading card from the Critical Hit deck. She was unable to make the fort save and lost her heads. She did get to make her 6 attacks though before she went down. She just rolled very poorly.
They then rescued the lone prisoner in the room, a man who said his name was Vedak. A couple of knowledge local rolls later and Elam the Sable Company Lieutenant had kneeled before the man and declared him to be Neolandus Kalepopolis, the Seneschal of Castle Korvosa. He acquiesced to this title and name and the party asked him what he wanted them to do. He suggested they all leave, the Labyrinth, the Arkona’s, Old Korvosa and the City itself.
The party then started to leave, but decided before they left that they had some unfinished business with a certain Rakshasa as they believed Glorio Arkona to be. They quickly huddled and decided that they would indeed leave, right after they kicked some ass and took some names.
As they were leaving the Secret door into the Cat’s Cradle from the Labyrinth they ran into the man with two snakes again. The man almost seemed to be waiting for them. They dropped the gauntlets. The snakes kept the bulk of the party pinned in the tunnel for several rounds, with help from Tormod’s Black Tentacles that were not affecting the snakes but were preventing the party from moving. Atrius had tumbled out before the fight got going and put himself between the man and escape. Then the Black tentacles hit, capturing Atrius and not the man. A couple rounds of full attacks later they were sure the guy was another Rakshasa as Atrius couldn’t hit him, though he could bluff him making him flat-footed for everyone else.
Finally Tormod dropped the Tentacles and Jim and Muli went to rescue Atrius. A couple of rounds later and the man and his snakes were all dead. They chopped off the head to be sure.
They then took advantage of their Hasted status and ran back to the top. Several rounds later they were preparing to exit the elephant statue. Jim had Aligned (good) several weapons. His armor spikes, a Longbow for Muli and Atrius’ Rapier. The party sent Jim out, who was large still from the earlier fight.
Glorio Arkona and four of his lackeys, two of whom were on top of the now living elephant and two who had bows up on the balcony around the room they were in, were waiting for them. Glorio challenged Jim, suggesting heavily that all would go well if Jim and the group would just leave the palace with their friends and go deal with the queen. This was an unfair place to put Jim’s Player in. He has played this mod before. He knew that every one of those 5 were Rakshasas and that Glorio himself is enough of a match that this was really not the time to be starting this. He is also not the face of this party. He is the “uncivilized” muscle and Clerical Support. He chose wisely in my opinion and decided to let one of the other PC’s start the fight and he moved to a tactically sound, yet RP sound position by the door waiting for the rest of the party after nodding in agreement, but not saying anything, to Glorio. The rest of the party exited (except for the 2 NPC’s Orsini and Neolandus) the elephant’s pedestal. Tormod was the last one out…and he opened negotiations as another friend of mine likes to call it with an orb spell…it missed. Initiative time.
This was a very very long drawn out fight. It lasted well over 3 hours real time, took over 10 rounds of combat easily might have been closer to 15 before I called it over. This had TPK written all over it. If you are familiar with this encounter, it is not an easy one if the enemy doesn’t know the party is coming. They were fully prepared, buffed and ready to go. They had superior position and essentially had the party right where they wanted them. From there it broke down quickly from their side. Darron, the Druid Henchman of Elam, opened combat with a Dominate Animal on the Elephant. Tormod opened with a Glitterdust that didn’t blind anyone but the elephant, but made invisibility on the Rakshasa side all but impossible. One was not affected, but he never had a reason to go invisible.
Muli rushed, dropping the “good aligned” bow to engage one of the Rakshasa’s that he thought was a regular human bowman. Atrius moved to flank with Muli on him. Atrius’ magic dagger that could never be identified, jumped out of Atrius’ sheath and turned into a snake and helped a Rakshasa flank him. Meanwhile Jim engaged the lone bowman on the other side of the battle. Elam and Tormod began peppering Glorio with spells and bolts. The bummer was the AC’s, SR’s and DR’s on the board were very high. The saving grace was the damage being applied to the party was not overwhelming.
The first of the battle turning events happened pretty early. The Elephant failed the Dominate Animal save (Nat 1). Darron had the Elephant throw the two Rakshasa’s off it’s back and move to guard over them incase they tried to get back up. The Howda on the back of the elephant entangled the two Rakshasas forcing them to spend a round extracating themselves. These two would never be much of a factor for the rest of the fight. The Elephant would “Trample” them, doing minor damage, but always leaving them prone. They would get up and one would get an AOO from the Elephant, but then on it’s action it would trample them again.
Glorio, who flew up and grappled the Hippogriff with the intention of pinning it and riding it into the ground, was able to avoid the Hippogriff’s attempt to pin him and do the same. The Hippogriff still landed, just brought Glorio back down with him, forcing an AOO on Glorio from Muli, who missed. Glorio then spent a round pummeling the Hippogriff into paste. He then moved to engage Muli, flanking with the Rakshasa that was flanked by Muli and Atrius. A Conga line of flanking if you will…
The Critical Hit Deck and Critical Fumble Deck were hugely helpful to the party. Only one Critical hit applied to the party was really dangerous, while every Hit and Fumble the Bad guys drew was devastating. The Rakshasa bowman who was never really engaged or threatened, kept Fumbling. At the end of the fight he was Bleeding Dex (he drew this in the first round and was very low by the end), Sickened, and down 3 Con. He hit Jim for about 25 hp total during the fight and a couple other PC’s for a total around 10. Glorio, after engaging Muli, drew a Critical Hit and a Critical Fumble every round for 4 rounds, There was one round where he drew one Critical Fumble without a Critical Hit.
Muli and Atrius, with some help from Jim who Good Aligned a spear and gave it to Muli so he could damage his opponent, then Bull’s Strengthened him a few rounds later so he could be more effective with it, not to mention healing in between, kept the one Rakshasa pinned down. The fight kind of went that way for a long time. Neither side really giving or taking enough to change things.
Finally Muli and Atrius were able to take down their Rakshasa. Then the Second turning point came. Elam, pulled a Critical Hit card for his first attack of a full round. It did 50 points of damage AND pinned Glorio’s arm to his side. Glorio had taken some minor damage up to this point, but now he was just under 50 hps and his attack line was suffering. It was time to split. Tormod hit him with a spell for some more of those hp’s, on his move he tried to fly away, drawing AOO’s from numerous PC’s. When he finally finished moving he was at 20 hp.
Elam cast True Strike and climbed onto the Hippogriff’s body. Tormod climbed on to. Darron and Jim then Cured the Hippogriff putting him back to 20 or so hps. And Up they went to chase down Glorio. The Haste on the Hippogriff made him fast enough that they caught him before he could go far and Elam put down the Arkona lord.
Not only was there no TPK. Atrius was the only PC that came close to going down, he was at 1 hp at one point during the fight before Jim healed him back up a ways.
I am really very proud of my players. They kept their heads up and kept going, frustrated they couldn’t hit, they worked at it until they pounded their opponents to dust. A few things were huge. Knowing they were facing Rakshasa’s they aligned some of their weapons (and of course Elam’s Bow is already a Good Piercing weapon). They also used Haste and teamwork fairly effectively. Some things could have been done better, but then again, sometimes it is better to be Lucky than Good and Luck was certainly on their side. I was rolling poorly, though still able to get about the right number of crits. The Deck betrayed the bad guys and helped the PC’s. The crits applied to the party, while bad, were not as bad on average as double damage would have been. And the ones the party applied to the bad guys were pretty viscious. Luckily the party avoided the fumble deck for the most part. The bad guys drew from it pretty vigorously, a couple of them being devastating. The 1 point Dex Bleed, even when you start at 22 Dex, is awful for a bowman that has no heeling of his own and no one around who would bother to heal him even if they had the ability. That was a minor game changer. The Arm Pinned card completely changed the fight from a wear the PC’s down which was starting to look successful, to flee time instantly.
*cries like the Battle Newt he is*
I cannot believe I missed this battle ... *sigh*
Believe me, we tried to add some gnome craziness. Casey did a great job for you! Those black tentacles were really doing me in and forced me to have to tumble through the enemy...oh wait...he never did get his initiative until I realized I needed to set up the flank. Unfortunately I had to wait until the snakes were dispatched.
And that last battle went well because luck was really, really on our side. Had the elephant not occupied the two that were riding it, it would have been a major Cluster-BEEP! What helped us A LOT as well was being able to Bluff the rakshasas and use my Greater Feint on them to make them flatfooted for the rest of the party. My d20 was not hitting and it made it easier for the rest of the party to reach their AC. The touch AC went down immensely giving Tormod an opening for the orb (SR-less) spells.
This was a great team effort and I especially am glad that NO ONE got away. My motto for every character I play is "no loose ends". We've left a bunch in this campaign but this past Sunday's victory was quite satisfying!
...a three headed, six armed woman who invited them in, suggesting each of them choose their torture device and wait by it to be affixed to it <... snip ....> This group brought a Shoanti Cleric with a Bastard Sword and a knack for dramatic swings of luck. He critted and drew a Beheading card from the Critical Hit deck.
This battle belonged to Gorum! Rawr!
The snakes kept the bulk of the party pinned in the tunnel for several rounds, with help from Tormod’s Black Tentacles that were not affecting the snakes but were preventing the party from moving.
I don't care how much people cry certain spells were nerf'd, 'Black Tentacles' is just as nasty as it was in 3.5. A low CMB for it was 29, the best CMD I could get large and buffed was a 28. It was luck that Atrius survived because I couldn't reach him with any buffs except Bless, cuz he was 35 feet away.
Glorio challenged Jim, ... This was an unfair place to put Jim’s Player in. He has played this mod before. He knew that every one of those 5 were Rakshasas and that Glorio himself is enough of a match that this was really not the time to be starting this. ... He chose wisely in my opinion and decided to let one of the other PC’s start the fight and he moved to a tactically sound, yet RP sound position by the door waiting for the rest of the party after nodding in agreement, but not saying anything, to Glorio.
Uh, yeaaaaaaaa. I honestly didn't know what to do, so I basically mumbled "yea sure" and let the rest of the party out of the passage way. I do enjoy roleplaying, but I would've had an issue with starting what I perceived was going to be a TPK. We managed, though I'm pretty sure the elephant was the key, as Atrius mentioned. I was a bit bummed as I had to cleric-up for most of this fight, but ONLY because I was capable of dishing out the good/piercing damage and we were Hastened. *sad Shoanti strength cleric* Being large was a tremendous help in supporting the team without having to waste entire rounds of movement, not to mention constantly threatening most of the enemies. I need to work more on my durability, specifically AC.
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I need to work more on my durability, specifically AC.
Yea, somewhat though I wouldn't worry about it to much. These guys were set up to take hits and give hits, just not to do much damage, I mean if they had been doing real damage the TPK would have happened round 2. d4+2 was the low damage and d4+7 was as high as it got. The key for them was the crit range and the dice and deck were conspiring against that being a real threat (thankfully). The Dice were below par for threats, especially for the "regular" Rakshasa's and when they confirmed a threat it was a result like, normal damage and 1 cha damage (fort negates) or some such. Not a lot of damage and hardly any truly threatening effects. Your AC will be back to pretty darn good very soon I would think.
I need to work more on my durability, specifically AC.Yea, somewhat though I wouldn't worry about it to much. ... <snip>... Your AC will be back to pretty darn good very soon I would think.
Well don't forget that I wasn't with group #1 during most of 'History of Ashes', so I have no clue what to expect encounter-wise. My thought on increasing my AC more was to further compensate for consistantly being 'large', similar to a Barbarian always 'charging'. Plus being 'large' draws a ton of aggro, but that's sort of the point behind being the guy in Full plate with gobs of health.
Anyhow, I'm having fun with the character, but I think the Rakshasa just frustrate the crap out of everyone with their super defenses and silly backwards hands! I bet Tormod would argue they do very significant damage, as soon as he gets done kicking Glorio's corpse in the nuts, LMAO.
I need to work more on my durability, specifically AC.
How about a Cloak of Displacement, Minor? Then you can keep reminding Brute until starts to roll a 20% miss on everyone. <snicker>
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Here is the update for this past Sunday. This was a no combat day. There were some dice rolls but they were for recreational purposes only…oh and some trap disarming by Atrius. And a couple of knowledge rolls here and there. It was mostly a paperwork kind of day.
The party picked through the Arkona palace. After realizing they were in sole possession of the place and that no one would bother them for a few days they kicked back and lived it up for a while as they decided what to do and how to do it. They found some wine, some cigars and leisurely looted the joint. Atrius found a smoke trap that he disarmed with out incident and they found the Arkona’s Treasury which was protected by several layers of spells, but they were able to work their way through.
The next few hours were spent divvying up treasure and sorting what to sell and buy when they had the time.
They then spoke with Neolandus about what he knew about the queen. He told them that the Shoanti were guarding the half pyramid the castle was built on for centuries before the Chelaxians appeared and pushed them off the land. They knew that the pyramid contained a great evil. Neolandus suspects the Shoanti would know what the Queen found on her jaunts down into the treasury and that they would know how to stop what ever it was that she found.
The party agreed to go to the Cinderlands and find the Shoanti and get the answer to the Queen’s new power source. Neolandus suggested the party start by meeting with Thousandbones and picking his brains, preferably with diplomacy. The party agreed and snuck out of Korvosa, reaching Harse a few days later. There they met Trinia and her host, Jasan, an old friend of Orsini’s. Jasan agreed to outfit the party and help them also purchase a couple of Combat trained mounts (what is the deal with war horse versus combat trained horse anyway? The new book has Combat Trained horse…is that supposed to be more descriptive than War Horse?)
The party loaded up on some supplies, primarily a wand of endure elements and a little extra food for the horses, though they have several magical means to provide as well as Create Water from the Druid and Cleric so they are covered.
They entered the Cinderlands and spent a few days there, getting introduced to the Cinderlands lightly so far. They did find a skull with a pair of crossbow bolts stuck through the eye sockets. Jim was a bit grim, claimed the head and took it with them to the Kallow Mounds. The party asked him what it was all about and he told them that in the beginning after the earth cooled there were Dinosaurs but that didn’t matter right now. He then went on to tell them that the skull was a Shoanti that a man named The Cinderlander had killed and left as a warning to the other shoanti that he was going to kill them as well. He was a Wetlander who had a personal war with the tribes going on. The party all voiced their desire to help Jim hunt the guy down and go Tormod on him. (yes Tormod is now a verb…)
The party arrived at the Kallow mounds and spoke with Thousand bones, greeting him and showing him the Cinderlanders calling card as well as saying they really wanted to know about what the Shoanti were guarding in the Pyramid under the Casle. Thousandbones said they would speak about that at a council fire later in the evening but for now they would be made at home in a tent. That was where I called it for the evening.
Next time we find out what Thousandbones knows; what the party is willing to do about it, whether Hippogriff taste like chicken, who is taller Tormod or Muli on his knees, and whether or not Atrius can fly. These are just some of the truly important questions to be determined when next we return to Curse of the Crimson Throne…
(duh duh duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)
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I was a bit lax last week as I was scrambling to get my other campaign, starting Rise of the Runelords, ready for this past Sunday. So here is the log from a week and a half ago. I apologize for the delay.
The party was short Muli for the first half of play. We picked up at the Kallow mounds, where the party had just begun to make themselves comfortable, Thousand Bones was catching up with them about Korvosa when the camp erupted with excitement. Atrius “slipped” out to see what was going on, but he doesn’t speak Shoanti. Jim and Thousand Bones leaned out and a band of Sklar-Quah (Sun Clan) Shoanti had arrived, a bundle on one of the horses indicating that someone of import had died and was being brought to the Mounds for burial. A few minutes of confusion over translation issues and it became apparent that the leader of the Sun Shoanti was one Krojun Eat’s What He Kills. Krojun was a bit of an A$@ and the party quickly put him on their “Do Not Like” List.
He Spotted the group and came over, quickly insulting Jim (NPC Rule if you don’t want to gain the ire of the entire party, don’t insult the cleric) he then challenged the party to a Sredna match, a match of strength and endurance. Before he heard anything else, Tormod proclaimed he would participate. Jim laughed. Tormod, to give him credit, went ahead with it once he learned the rules (and that the game was stacked against him) He held out for 3 rounds, which in itself was amazing and even impressed Krojun somewhat.
Next Atrius joined. He attempted some subterfuge and attempted to Bluff Krojun into failing at the game. This actually worked to some degree, though Krojun did rage and win the match. Finally he challenged Jim. Jim, a strength cleric, was able to draw the game out for 4 or 5 rounds of the game (each round is 4 game rounds long). Sadly, Jim was unable to beat Krojun, but all three did gain some respect from Krojun.
Krojun left them at this point, but he made arrangements to stay for a few days while he waited for his clan-mates burial. The Bone Council Fire was held that night; after the rest of the Shoanti went off to bed, including the Sklar-Quah, the party was able to ask questions of the Shaman and Chief as well as Thousand Bones. They learned that the Sklar-Quah Shaman would have the answers they needed, and that Thousand Bones and his friends and Ally’s could not help get those answers for the party. They Would have to impress the Sklar-Quah enough to convince the Shaman to tell them what they need to know.
Thousand Bones struck upon an idea. The party would be “reborn” as Shoanti. They would follow a Sklar-Quah legend and be swallowed by Cindermaw, an Imortal Fire Worm (read purple worm with fire subtype) and cut their way out. But first they would need the aid of a Truthspeaker. To gain that aid they would need the help of a the Moon Clan. To gain their aid the party would have to delve into an ancient Thasilonian ruin and find a shrine to Desna where they could get a mark of Desna. After that all they have to do is jump through hoops, dodge around obstacles and oh wait…sorry. That really is all they need to do.
Get Desna Mark, Go to Moon Clan, Get Truthspeaker, go to Hunting Ground, Get swallowed whole by Cindermaw, get out (some how) of giant worm, make sure Truthspeaker saw that, go to sun clan, have truthspeaker tell Sun clan what he saw…then…well hopefully then you can ask what the heck that queen found in that pyramid under that castle that has caused all this muckity muck…
So off they went gleefully. (anything to get away from the crazy shoanti)
Step 1: Desna mark from Thasilonian Ruin…
They had a couple of Boneslayers lead them to the ruins. As they approached an Emberstorm (or big nasty fast moving grass fire) approached. The Boneslayers took the horses higher into the mountains to hide them from the fire while the party entered the ruins. They went down a long set of stairs, a very very long set of stairs. They found a room with a very large room with a pool in it. There were some doors and they began to search the place. The Hippogriff was left in the main room (because of squeezing issues) to guard the exit while they hunted for the Desna Mark Maker.
By this Point Muli has joined us and the party is at full strength.
They found a small shrine to a long forgotten water nymph, a couple of caved in halls and a room with a hole in the floor with glowing light that Atrius (who has Thasilonian as a language) was able to discern is a sort of levitate, feather fall elevator to the next level down. Before they used it however, the Hippogriff began giving an alarm. The party rushed out into the large pool room to find Krojun and a small band of warriors at the other end of the room. They called to him to see what he was up to, preparing for his attack. Krojun did not seem in the mood to fight the party, he seemed more curious as to what they were doing.
Then the Red Mantis Attacked. (Invis +20 to Stealth, +18 Stealth skill +d20 = dropped right in the middle of the party and opened combat) The fight was complicated. Not by the Mantis or the Shoanti (who never entered combat but merely laughed and pointed) but by some Tentacles that began shooting up out of the pool. After the Mantis were finally dispatched, the last one by one of the tentacles, the party began trying to save Tormod who the tentacles (all random by the way) seemed to love and wanted to give a hug to.
We had to break for the evening with the tentacles still going. We’ll pick up mid Tentacle fight this weekend.
I remember this one!
You have no Calistrian Cleric! We get a +15 on all tentacle effects, both saves and attacks.
Phear teh Tentacles of Doom!
< jk about the hmanga >;D
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I have been lax again, life has become very busy. Allow me to bring this up to date, though we will play again tomorrow.
Four Weeks Ago: (Atrius’ Player was MIA)
The party spent several rounds Hacking and Slashing through Tentacles trying to get a path to freedom for everyone. The Hippogriff was freed with some help from just about everyone, though there was another surge of tentacles that attempted to thwart the escape. The Hippogriff then assisted getting Darron the Druid to safety, by flying him out of the dungeon. Meanwhile Atrius secured the route to the elevator shaft and Jim held the door while the rest of the party dove, danced or just plain ran for the shaft. Once the party had feather falled their way down the shaft they spent a couple rounds recuperating then began exploring some more. The tentacles behind them, but not forgotten, they proceeded to find the area they were in was not very large or complicated. Go down the hall, turn right hey that’s it. They found a Large Stone Sphere suspended on three rods. The Sphere looked to be a globe but it didn’t look like Galarion. They hemmed and hawed about it for a bit then Elam reached up and touched it. Poof he disappeared.
Elam found himself floating in space looking down on his world. Then he was swooping off into space. He was awestruck by the enormity of it and just as his mind was beginning to be overwhelmed by it (made save but suspected more saves to come) he decided to think about how to get home and he returned to where he had been a step away from the globe. A blue glowing desnan butterfly on his left hand.
Well this was just to cool, everyone had to try it!
After they all had a blue butterfly on their hands they debated a long time about taking the rods, but chose to continue on with out the immovable Rods.
On their way in they had noticed a depression on the wall of the first hall that looked like a huge hallway that had been plugged with a large piece of rock. They began to explore this before leaving. After a few tricks and trials they decided to just buff up their cleric (his strength for a strength check was amazing) and he just man handled that plug out of his way. In they went, finding some very very very long dead folks with some interesting toys, including a bottle of air, a decanter of endless water and some scrolls of various spells; sending, dimension door, clairvoyance, etc.
They then made their way back up, where the tentacles had calmed down and gone back into the water. They left, quietly so as not to wake the tentacles, and found Darron waiting with the horses, the emberstorm having subsided.
Part 2: Get Truthspeaker from Moon Clan.
They then headed to the House of the Moon, a place they had been told the Moon clan would be gathering at at this time of year. They arrived a few days later to be greated by a patrol of Barbarian Women. The Moon Maidens spoke with them rather bluntly, before they noticed the Desnan marks on the hands of each of the party. That warmed the conversation a bit and with some diplomacy Elam was able to discern that the Moon Clan had a problem. A really nasty beast had moved into the House of the Moon (something of a Clan house and temple rolled into one) while the Clan was off gallivanting during the off season. Elam and group gladly signed on to help rid the place of the creature.
They assaulted the building, a tall structure. The party split up into two groups, each taking a couple of Moon Maidens and their Wolf Companions with them, more by accident than design. The two groups came upon the beast in a central room on the second floor at about the same time, a huge gray biped with stubby wings. It Roared a challenge and Charged Muli, and missed. This was the beginning of the end of it’s reign of terror. After a round of readying and prepping the party put a wallop on it. The next round it roared a real challenge, requiring will saves. The Moon Maidens and their pets all failed, A couple of party members failed, but it was to little to late. The rest of the party put it down after that.
Part 2a Get Truthspeaker from Moon Clan
Now it was just a matter of convincing the truthspeaker to come along, which a 20 on the die during diplomacy pretty much secured. There was much RPing here, but the gist came down to once that 20 was rolled they could have said, “Hey come with us and we’ll bury you alive up to your neck and put honey on your nose by a couple of colonies of fire ants” and he probably would have done it. (Not that I am saying these guys would have done such a thing, but such a thing has been suggested before…just saying)
Part 3 Get eaten by Cindermaw and carve your way out…
Well, this was a bit longish. The party had to track the beast down. Turns out Cindermaw is a Purple Worm who has mutated into a red worm and become something of an immortal. The hardest part was finding the thing. They knew where it was in a general sort of way, as in, somewhere in this corner of the world map…heh.
After a couple of days (time decreased drastically by having a Druid and a Ranger on a flying mount) they found the thing, and it started doing whale dives off in the distance, breaking the surface, flying a bit in the air then diving back into the ground. They closed on the beast, deploying Darron and the Truthspeaker Akram on the Hippogriff, for safety sake, and the rest of the party approached on foot.
Cindermaw surfaced straight up and breathed fire on the party. They had Resist Fire and Acid spells and effects on so the fire was mostly harmless. They charged in, trying to get the thing to eat them. This was harder than they thought, as the thing seemed more intent on nibbling than swallowing. Finally they began readying actions to jump in when it Bit. After a couple of rounds Muli and Jim had been eaten and forced themselves down it’s throat. They quickly cut their way out, the Truthspeaker seeing this rather easily. As they were exiting, Elam and Tormod managed to get swallowed, then realized they didn’t have anything to cut their way out with. Tormod finally just blasted and he and Elam escaped the beast, but at this point they were almost 100 feet beneath the earth (and were not seen by the Truthspeaker) Tormod was able to sorcerer his way up, but Elam had to wait a couple of hours as Tormod, Jim and Muli (and some Earth Elementals they could summon) Dug their way down to him.
Cindermaw escaped but the deed was done and the party was ready to move on.
That was where we left off that day.
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Two Weeks Ago: (All Present and Accounted for)
The party has just dug their Ranger up out of the ground (long story) and are deciding what to do when a man starts walking towards them. Full Plate, all deathed up, has a Chain devil on his side, uses, but not currently wielding, a Spiked chain. They identify him as a Zon-Kuthon Cleric pretty quickly. They hail him, he says his name is Shadowcount Sial, Cleric of Zon-Kuthon (shocking). He is there to make an offer. He wants to work with the party to recover an item the Queen of Korvosa has possession of. A long debate follows. “Do we give the bad people something we take from another bad person? Do we really need this guys help? Can we trust him?” he suggests they think on it and he whips out an item and creates a Bone Tower (instant fortress item in shape of a skull tower). He invites them in, they decline and set up camp. They continue talking it over. Finally they knock on the door at breakfast time and Elam begins negotiations. The agreement is that they will talk about the item later, but for now he can travel with the party, but he must behave. No Chain Devil in the Shoanti camp and no undermining the party.
Part 4: Go to Sun Clan, join Shoanti and learn from Sun Shaman what the queen found in the castle
The party then heads on to the Sun clan. They are escorted the last little way by some warriors of the clan. Akram explains to the clan what the party did by being swallowed and escaping Cindermaw, thus preventing an instant execution of the group. From there the Sun Shaman agrees to Akram’s proposal that the party be considered Shoanti. Krojun (an old “friend” of the party in the sun clan lost it at this and stormed off) Jim was from the Sun Clan but accepted exile for some past deeds. The group as a whole were now Shoanti. They said “Great, can we talk about the queen and what she found under the castle?” The Shaman said, “Uh-No…You are Shoanti and allowed to roam the cinderlands without interference, but you are not Sun Clan and we only tell our secrets to sun clan folk.” The look was priceless, “So how do we become Sunclan?” The Shaman seemed surprised for a minute then said, he would consider this. After a while he said, “you can join, but you have to go through a test first.” The party said, “Bring It!”
First thing in the morning the Shaman took them from the Bluff the encampment is on across the way to another, called Bolt Rock (because it has a bunch of Iron ore running through it and turns out it is a giant lightning rod). They had to do the Test of the Totems. They had an hour to haul 500 lb stone totems up to the lower bluff erect them and keep them upright all day and night, then an hour to haul them up to the higher bluff and keep them upright all day and night. Hauling them up proved to be fairly easy. With Jim and his buff ability and a couple of enlarge persons here and there they were able to haul them up. Add a couple of Animal Companions, a couple of strong characters and some clever folks on top of it and it was doable. There were a couple of close calls here and there, but for the most part they did it. Only 2 totems fell throughout the whole test and they weren’t damaged enough to worry about.
Krojun visited them, the party prepared for him to try to sabatoge them. He merely studied them for a bit then complimented them and left. Then they spotted fins approaching from a ways off. Bullettes attacked them. The party split into a defense force and a hold the stupid sticks up force. The Animal Companions pretty much held the sticks while the rest of the party shot and fought the Bullettes. It was a fun fight, over way to soon.
The next morning the entire clan came over, expecting for them to have failed. When they found the totems standing cheers went up and the party was beaten up with backslapping and such. They had done it and were now Sklar-Quah Shoanti…Or as Tormod likes to say, “I’m a Barbarian!!!”
They headed back to camp to rest and recover, the Sun Shaman told them he would have to head to the Kallow mounds to meditate on what exactly to tell them, he would be back the next evening. Partying took place. Pretty much all of the party found themselves to be the center of attention. Tormod was taken into a tent and shown how to be a man, then pretty much everyone was.
As the revelry was dying down the camp came under attack. Elam was the first to notice something wrong. He and Krojun were sitting at the large fire in the center of the camp drinking and trying to reconcile. Arrows began to strike the camp, some of them lighting a tent or two on fire. The party started throwing on armor and grabbing weapons. Soon it became apparent that there wasn’t time for anything heavier than a chain shirt.
Gargoyles were attacking with bows, a dozen or two of them were circling the camp and lobbing arrows in. Atrius stuck his head out looking to see what he could do, then realized he needed more armor, heading back in to his tent. A couple of rounds later his tent is slashed to pieces by a couple of Gargoyles looking for him. As he engages them, Jim abandons his armor and Muli rushes the last couple of rounds of his. Then a couple of Red Mantis Jump Atrius also. Pretty soon it is Jim, Muli and Atrius versus 4 Gargoyles and a couple of Red Mantis Assassins.
After several rounds they smash the Gargoyles and Assassins with help from Tormod who has turned himself into an air elemental and is flying around. He has fireballed, acid balled, scorching and acidic rayed groups and single targets providing needed firepower here and there. Elam is, by now, on his hippogriff running roughshod over gargoyles as best as he can.
Then the Cinderlander begins attacking Krojun. He is using a heavy crossbow and doing amazing damage to the Shoanti. Tormod says, “Forget that” (though he used a different f word) and uses Wall of Force to lock the Cinderlander up for a bit. Some Red Mantis Jump Krojun and pretty much put him down, after the tenderizing that the Cinderlander had put on him. The party rushes to aid Krojun, Jim and Muli charge in, Atrius is hanging back, stealthing around, looking for someone to hurt badly. Elam is blasting away with his bow and having his Hippogriff make Gargoyle snacks. Tormod is causing all kinds of trouble, including wall of forcing off a couple of the Red Mantis.
The Cinderlander pops out of his force cage…That is where we had to leave it for the end of our time was upon us.
Tomorrow we pick up there!!!
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Here is the report from this past Sunday’s Game.
The battle at Flameford continued. Two things completely changed this fight. 1 I realized that the Cinderlanders AC had been messed up. I gave him 2 different Armor bonuses and let them stack in error. I fixed that and had Elam roll up a full round attack to retroactively fix a whole slew of misses. 2nd thing. Elam had forgotten his Feat that essentially has him shooting at Touch AC’s instead of Real AC’s. These two things essentially demolished the Cinderlander in a round and a half. He didn’t really do anything again.
The best tactic the bad guys used was to assault the flyers with gargoyles. This essentially pinned down Elam and his Hippogriff for 3 or 4 rounds and Tormod for 2 rounds. Things on the ground started to look pretty grim.
A woman standing on top of on of the yurts called out a challenge to the party, demanding they surrender. Atrius, Muli, Jim and Krojun all headed that way and were jumped by 4 more of the Red Mantis, not to mention the woman. At one point all PC’s on the ground were unconscious. A Sun-Clan Shaman burst for some hp’s and stabilized the group and put a couple of them into positives. From there they patched themselves back together after the Red Mantis ran off to try to get better positions to take on the flyers.
At this point Tormod began shooting the ones on the ground. Soon Elam would join in, and that would eventually end the fight.
After the Red mantis were dealt with they were able to unload on the woman and put her down quickly.
End of fight. The Experience was enough to level. After that the Sun Shaman finally returned and told the party he was ready to tell them what they wanted to know.
He tells them a tale of his ancestor who went off on a crusade with a Paladin named Mandravius. Mandravius had sworn to take down a despotic warlord named Kazovan. Mandravius and his Cabal, including the Sun Shaman’s Ancestor, snuck into Castle Scarwall, the home of Kazovan. In their long running fight with Kazovan and his minions they discovered that Kazovan was in fact an ancient blue dragon. Mandravius, using his sword Serithtial, was able to finally slay the beast. They attempted to destroy the dragons remains, as the dragons will kept trying to knit them back together. Finally they were unable to destroy 7 parts of the dragon. Mandravius instructed 7 of his followers to take one piece of the dragon, tell no one, not even Mandravius, where they were going and to hide the pieces.
The Shoanti Shaman returned to his people, a changed and haunted man. He hid the Fangs of Kazovan in the half pyramid that now lies in the heart of Korvosa under castle Korvosa itself. Midnights Teeth, as the Shoanti call them, harbor some of Kazovans soul. That is what they fear the Queen discovered beneath the castle and has turned into her new crown.
The Sun Shaman told the party that if the queen is indeed wearing the Fangs as a Crown then she is in no doubt in possession of part of Kazovan’s soul and it is most likely infusing her with power and corruption. The party will need to separate her from the crown and from Kazovan if it wishes to defeat her. The best suggestion he had to do that was to go to Castle Scarwall and find Mandravius’ sword, Serithial.
Not long after the Cabal broke up and the 7 left with their pieces of the dragon, Orcs assaulted Scarwall and slaughtered Mandravius and his remaining forces. Then, something truly amazing and scary happened. The Castle then consumed the Orcs. The place is now truly haunted and uninhabited. In the haunted castle somewhere lies the sword Serithial and it is up to the party to find the thing and claim it.
The party then decided to wind walk their way to Janderhoff in order to buy and sell items and equip themselves for a journey into a haunted castle.
That is where we finished the game for the day…
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Here is the report for 5/1 (we played a Saturday to make up for missing Mothers day our next scheduled day)
The group was short one, Atrius’ player had a prior commitment.
We finished up buying/selling and updating the paperwork.
The story picked up at Scarwall. There were several possible Random Encounters, but all of them were rather non aggressive and weak so I chose to just skip them. The party spent some time studying the castle from afar, it is a very large structure that sits on an island in the middle of a very deep lake created by an extinct Volcano. There was but one way across to the castle, a wide causeway. On the mainland side of the causeway was part of a destroyed gatehouse, half of it still standing and the other half nothing but rubble.
As they were studying the place Laori, Sial and Sial’s pet Asyra (chain devil) approached the camp. Sial spoke, they wanted to travel with the group and assist them in their goal of freeing Scarwall and retrieving Serithtial. The party spent a very long time discussing whether or not to allow them to go in with them. Elam argued that the best course was probably to keep your enemies near. Muli mumbled something about “hell no” and then his player went out for a cigarette.
The party debated several ways of getting over there but in the end decided to take the gatehouse to use as a fall back point. They assaulted the building at dawn. Inside they discovered some Orcs (fully alive until the party was done with them). The Orc fight was pretty uncomplicated and the party used few resources and fewer worries. Muli’s player returned and asked what those minis are there for. When he found out they were Laori Sial and his Devil he said “Hells no” and moved into a flank with Jim on the Devil. Jim’s player pointed out that his character didn’t know what was going on so he couldn’t provide a flank yet and Muli’s player pointed out that he could still sneak this round since the devil was flat-footed, he just needed the flank for later. Thus it was the end of the road for Sial and Asyra. Elam, confused by the switch of the deal, moved over to Laori, making sure that she wasn’t going to come to the aid of Sial and pointed out to the party that she had been helpful in the past and she shouldn’t be considered part of the house cleaning.
Sial and Asyra did more damage than the orcs did by a lot, still they were not much of a threat for the party.
The party then came to a quick agreement with Laori and the 6 started to cross the causeway. Elam was flying along and above as the rest of the party marched across. Halfway across the causeway the gates of the castle opened and the portcullis opened. Out marched a small army…of skeletons. A Skeletal warrior on the back of a skeletal horse leading a bunch of skeleton foot soldiers. The mounted skeleton charged Atrius, who was a few feet ahead of everyone to watch for traps. The Skeleton hit hard, but Atrius was still at 1/4 of his HP. Tormod Fireballed the skeletons, thus ending the mooks in the back. Muli, Jim and Atrius ripped the leader and his mount down.
Meanwhile in the skies a couple of large Gargoyles had charged Elam and his mount. They were done at about the same time as the ground crew was finishing the mop up of skeletons.
As the party started to head for the castle again, 4 more Gargoyles swooped around the castle and made a bee-line for the party. Tormod again fireballed and left the aerial assault weakened and easily picked off. This, however drew some more attention.
Around the castle came a huge dragon. Black as midnight it approached the party, took a couple of light shots and then breathed…negative energy. The party took quite a bit of damage and some of them were blinded, including Tormod who in the second round the dragon charged and Snatched. Elam, by this point had his sights on the dragon and a couple of the ground force had managed to hit the thing, giving it the idea that it was time to get out of here. He flung Tormod (who had just been made conscious by Jim) and turn fled with Elam hot on its heals. Tormod turned into an air elemental, just in time to not fall 110 feet to his death, and was charged by a couple more Gargoyles (of course said Tormod). A couple of rounds later Tormod was once again unconscious from lack of HP but the Gargoyles were dead and Elam had rescued the gnome.
Durring the fight with the dragon, Jim had tried to pry open the portcullis and his dice finally stopped fighting him and he got Attrius, Laori, Muli and himself inside the gatehouse.
That was where we ended for the night.
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I have to say, as a player taking such a long hiatus between games is going to be hard. This campaign and the participants have made this regular gathering very pleasurable and something I look forward to each time it comes up. Not playing until June is oddly hard.
For Elam, well... things are complicated. On his mind are all the people he left behind under the thrall of the Queen. While he knows his travels out of the city will eventually allow him to take her down and thus improve life for the people of Korvosa, each day away eats at him.
His compatriots while formidable still concern him with their motivations. Elam believes he understands what drives each of them, but then he also knows that with very little disruption, this group of "heroes" would scatter to the winds.
Tormod seems to have gotten more caught up in his arcane power, and while still a loose cannon, some direction has been applied to him so that destructive nature is focused on the enemy. Once we are finished... well Elam is not too sure about letting his little friend stray alone inside Korvosa without a leash... or at least an escort.
As to Jim, Elam still finds him an enigma. The most loyal of the group, Jim still has his own motivations and is moving along more to route out the evil in and behind the Queen than to save the city which represents a great injustice to his people.
That takes Elam to young Muli. Most of the time this desert rat is concerned with trophies and amassing material and arcane wealth. Then occasionally there are bouts of moral high ground that come out of nowhere. No knowing how things are going to shake out if the party will need to go through the Queen's bodyguards to get to her, Elam hopes that morality will win out over lust.
And lastly Atrius. He is the least understood by Elam. Supposedly out for his own good, he too will occasionally thrown in some moralistic ideals that seem odd when taken against the measure of producing poisons and occasionally sapping people into unconsciousness. What will this half-human do in the city during the chaos that will follow the Queen's removal.
Elam never thought he would be in the position to change the destiny of the entire city, and now chafes under the weight of responsibility he has taken on. He worries that plans should be made ahead of time so that order can be quickly restored in the city after their confrontation with the Queen. And in the darkest part of his fears he wonders what will happen should he and his compatriots fail...
As to Jim, Elam still finds him an enigma. The most loyal of the group, Jim still has his own motivations and is moving along more to route out the evil in and behind the Queen than to save the city which represents a great injustice to his people.
+1
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I have been very lax in keeping this updated. I will now catch this board up to the game. Pardon me please if I remember things out of order or incorrectly. It has been a very busy summer…
We have played 3 times (I believe) since our last update.
The party continued their infiltration of Castle Scarwall. We also lost a player after the 2nd date. Atrius’ player has left our table, the group has decided to continue on with just the 4 remaining PC’s.
Jim, Laori, Muli and Atrius found themselves in the gatehouse. They realized there were some sort of guards behind the murder holes. The murder holes are sized for large creatures so Atrius and Muli squeezed through them and attacked the Minotaur skeletons on the other side. Jim found it impossible to get through so he and Laori used spells (Spritual weapon was quite effective) to assist. The fight drew Muli and Atrius up the stairs to a room above where Jim and Laori were so they began to beat on the gates trying to get in. At this point the party is pretty split up. Tormods player was not there for this part of the adventure and Elam had been hunting the dragon that had escaped.
Elam returned to find the portcullis down and the party pushing forward without him. He landed on the top of the gate house and attempted to work his way down to them. Elam ran into a skeletong with flames dancing on his skull. He and his hippogriff mount engaged and took the skeleton down after a couple of rounds. With the destruction of the skeleton the castle lost a bit of its gloom.
Meanwhile in the halls of justice…err in the gate house, Jim and Laori were beating on the door still slowly working their way in…
At that exact same time Muli and Atrius were scouting out a route back to Jim and Laori.
Meanwhile back at the gate house…Boom Boom Boom…boy those gates were tough
Meanwhile upstairs…with the skeleton down, the ranger and his companion pressed into the castle looking for a way down…
Boom Boom Boom still not opening
Atrius and Muli found stairs down! They didn’t lead to the gates though…
Let us say at this point that the party was circling Jim and Laori. Atrius and Muli were avoiding Elam quite a bit. Finally the boys found Elam and then they found the door and opened it, leaving the gates with their paltry 3 hp’s left.
The group moved into the castle further finding a room full of Orc and Human bodies, looking as though they had just died that morning. The group started to cross the room when a larger pile of bodies rose up and attacked. Several rounds of fighting left the animated pile of corpses an inanimate pile of corpses.
In the next room was a heavily armored corpse. They approached the corpse to examine the body. A whirlwind of incorporeal creatures rose from the body, trying to suck the life from each of the party members. Then a Dread Wraith rose up out of the armor and began to attack. Muli, if I remember correctly, and Atrius were abused by the Wraith before they were able to take it out.
They pressed on, into a room with murder holes open to the courtyard in the center of the castle. The room was filled with Minotaur Skeletons. Turns out the Minotuar skeletons aren’t much of a threat, even in large numbers. They do provide the party with really nice Large Masterwork Greataxes however.
The group then checked out a kitchen, in which they found a few trinkets in the ovens, after destroying the Cinder Ghouls that popped out of the Ovens.
From their they went out into the courtyard. Poking around they found the Dragon they had fought outside. Even with some healing the thing just wasn’t up to the firepower the party had. It managed a charge, but it was unable to hit more than once before the party overwhelmed it. With it’s death the castle lost more of its gloom. They then found it’s lair and looted it.
That was about the end of the first session
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The second session the party explored the tower next to the Dragon’s lair. They went up stairs and as they entered the tower itself they were accosted by a trio of Nessian Warhounds. Nasty firebreathing dogs the size of Elam’s Hippogriff. Sadly, for the warhounds, the targets of their firebreath all evaded then made quick work of the dogs.
Exploring more of the tower they came upon a Juju Zombie with an earthbreaker. They broke him in record speed. He didn’t really stand much of a chance. Everyone was using slashing weapons and the sorcerer was in a foul mood since he had missed the previous game. When Tormod is in a bad mood, the monsters take the brunt of it. It didn’t help the zombie any that I couldn’t get a decent roll for his attacks. He didn’t hurt anyone before the party ripped him apart.
That tower exhausted the party rested before pressing on.
They then decided to cross the courtyard and tackle, what they would learn was the guest wing. Several guest chambers interspersed with torture chambers were in the wing. At the end they found a statue with a bag over its head and a grand pair of doors.
Now they new the bag was there for a reason, and they surmised taking the bag off was a bad idea, and they even contemplated just leaving it alone. They just couldn’t quite bring themselves to do it. The bag disintegrated as they took it off and everyone had to make will saves. Muli failed, thus he had to flee, up a ladder into a tower where a corpse of a dwarf sat, still waiting for the curse upon him to be lifted. Jim, who had been around the corner so had not seen the statue yet, came to see if he could help, then failed his own save and found himself in the guest tower with Muli.
Tormod, after he stopped laughing, summoned an earth elemental to demolish the statue. Sadly this did not release the curse, but it did make Tormod feel better. Anytime he gets to demolish something it is, in essence, a good day. The party planned on waiting until Jim could memorize remove curse, but the effect wore off after a minute or two. Luckily the statue was gone when they came down, or they would have had to save again.
They then opened the double doors. Inside they found a ball room. They were about to leave when Tormod used detect magic and spotted an aura under the floorboards near the center of the room. The party instantly jumped to the conclusion that the sword may be under the floor. They moved in to examine the area. Meanwhile an incorporeal undead was hovering above them observing.
Music Swelled up within the room, dancing music, and a host of incorporeal, half real half imagined dancers began to circle the party. Saving throws please…Most of the party made this save as I recall. Someone failed, but I don’t recall who. A couple others employed their skill set (who in their right mind takes perform dance anyway???) to mimic failing. The Danse Macabre moved in to attack and just before it did Atrius and Elam spotted it and pointed it out. Oh the inhumanity…the shear amount of damage…the pooooooor thing didn’t stand a chance. Oh it held up for a couple of rounds and had a couple of people worried there for a minute, but really…what did it ever do to them anyway????
That disposed of they ripped a whole in the floor and found a suite of Armor, shield and a sword…a long sword. Not the bastard sword they were looking for.
They rested again. As they rested the castle shuddered and some of the darkness and gloom returned.
They then decided to enter the Donjon. Using some very clever deducing and dumb luck they figured out that the doors were stoneshaped shut and they used some magic to open them. I believe they debated magic or shear brute force and magic won. They then started to enter, Muli First. Boy that didn’t last long. He ran into a field affect that shunted him back out and walloped him for a ton of damage.
Then Tormod tried. He didn’t get quite as much damage but he did get shunted. Elam then asked Laori to try, she entered it and the field came down. The party entered only to be swarmed by Spectres. Wow, this party is so lucky they have ghost touch armor or they would be in a lot worse shape. They still took a few hits before they were able to destroy the undead. Exploring around they found numerous clerical rooms and realized the whole place was essentially a big temple.
The party had split up a bit, Muli and Atrius ran one way and the rest of them went another. While Muli and Atrius were handling some minor encounters with a couple of zombies Tormod, Elam, Jim and Laori opened a door full of darkness. I think it was Jim, but it may have been Tormod dropped a light spell of some sort, if forget, but they essentially un darkened the room. Inside was a Mummy Lord and he was hopping mad….ok he couldn’t hop but he was mad.
The fight was epic. It lasted long enough for Muli and Atrius to arrive just as Tormod got clever and cast a Passwall beneath the Mummy and dropped it into the room below.
Now Muli and Jim jumped in after it, followed later by the rest of the party. Elam, cleverly used his flying mount, as the hole was large enough for it to fit in. Jim created a wall of stone to hem the mummy in and keep it from entering the large foreboding room beyond. Muli and Tormod made quick work of the beast.
Then they decided to examine the rest of the room beyond. Muli jumped the wall (it was only 6 feet tall and between his skill, his ring of jumping and his insane die he was able to leap the wall with ease). Atrius pulled off a similar feat and the two of them started to explore. Jim and Tormod devised a scheme where Tormod summoned another earth elemental to open a whole in the wall of stone, as they were unable to get over the wall.
Muli Jumped directly upon an altar covered with ashes…boy was the rest of the party surprised…literally pretty much everyone was surprised when the skull atop the ashes began to hover and rain down upon them soul trap attempts…
DEMI LICH!!!!
This was an epic fight. It took a long time. The party had a hard time hitting it, then the thing had DR 20/Vorpal ie they couldn’t really damage it very well. Then it hovered, leaving Elam as about the only one who could do much to it but he couldn’t beat the DR. Jim enlarged Atrius, then Giant Growthed himself. Every round it was giving 2 negative levels. Muli was down to half his levels (-1 to just about everything per negative level left him pretty much unable to hit) Atrius was down a couple. The party finally wore it out. With it’s demise the castle once more lost some of its Gloom. That was where we left the game for that session. This, it turns out, would be Atrius’ last game with us. He quit for personal reasons and we’ll leave it at that.
More soon…
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We picked up the game again a couple weeks ago. (July fourth to be exact)
The party dealt with the aftermath of Atrius’ player leaving the group. We divvied up the non character specific items that he had (potions, scrolls, and stuff like that) and moved on.
After resting, during which the castle once more regained some of its gloom, it was time to explore the castle again.
They had cleared the Donjon and found no way into the Star Tower in the back. They were beginning to suspect that the tower was the key. They then Dimension Doored up to the top of the star tower from the courtyard. They found a phase door using a bit of magic and some really good perception skill. They couldn’t, however, open it. Even Laori was barred from entering. They decided that it had to have something to do with the gloom that they were lifting from the castle as well as the two times it had regained some of its gloom.
They decided the key to the key was to find the key to the gloom but what was the key to that???
Well there was more castle unexplored…They looked across the chasm that was the courtyard at the other towers across the way and decided they hadn’t been there yet. Before they dimension doored over to the top of the tower they decided to invisible Elam and his mount and let them have a look around. Probably a good move. There was no floor of the tower, it was in essence a giant tube. A rude landing if they had dimension doored over there…
Down they went again and began working their way up, exploring the place more. They entered a room full of netting and bottles and smoking apparatuses. Tied up in the netting was a female Halfling. She begged the party help her. They freed her and she told them a nasty hag had captured her and tied her up. The party began looking around. She told them they should go upstairs and confront Mithrodar. They asked her numerous questions about this Mithrodar and the Hag and quickly came to the conclusion that the Halfling was in fact the hag. She came clean. They asked her why she wanted them to go upstairs and she said that Mithrodar would give her more souls and that she wanted to also be free of him, so if they could defeat him then she would be free, have her souls and could leave.
Elam and Muli gave each other the look. Yep, Unleash the Tormod it’s initiative time…
Wow she didn’t even get an action. Admittedly she was surprised by the party so it took a round and a half to put her down. The Castle shuddered and released some more of its gloom again.
They then found stairs up they also found stairs up to the level where the tower was but they decided to finish exploring the second floor of the castle first. They then found Mithrodar. As they approached and tried to dialog with him, another voice boomed out, “He won’t speak to you. Elam, Tormod, Muli and Jim… It has been such a long time”
Tormod was confused, Muli was oblivious (a side effect of him having left the table for a minute) and Jim was unimpressed. Elam…Elam snapped his finger and said, “Is that the voice of Rolth I hear?” Up went Jim’s invisibility purge, on went the goggles of see invisibility and such. Rolth and his wench Jolistina were indeed invisible and they were casting…
What an awesome battle.
Rolth called forth some minions, undead he had rounded up on his way in; a couple of Minotaur Skeletons and some Greater Shadows. Mithrodar is a Chained Spirit. He had two spiked chains, though they realized he could have had more but he was down to two spirit anchors. He also had a handful of Spectres.
Turns out while the Chain spirit was all but invulnerable to their attacks, he was unable to hit them without rolling nat 20’s. The Shadows and the Spectres were the first targets of the party. Get rid of those!!! Jim used channels and mass cures to pound them, Tormod pitched in with Chain Lightnings and Muli swung and swung. Meanwhile Elam and Laori tried targeting Rolth. Laori changed over to helping out the others after Rolth targeted Tormod with an Empowered Chain Lightning. The damage was flying, the to hits were amazing…
Rolth had a windwall up so Elam was unable to engage him. Jolistina and the Minotaur Skeletons pinned down Elam. This was working well until Jim and Muli finished off the incorporeal undeads, then they were able to help. Muli engaged Rolth, keeping him busy. Jim hit Rolth with a Greater Dispel, dropping several of his defenses.
Then Elam finished off Jolistina, with a little help, and one of the Minotaur Skeletons. He then got inside the Windwall. That finished off Rolth. Between the Ranger and the Fighter the poor man didn’t stand a chance.
When Rolth went down the Castle released more of it’s gloom. The party tried to take on the chained spirit, but quickly realized he still had an anchor somewhere so they were unable to really hurt him. They pulled out and rested. That was where we left off for the day…
And that is where we will pick it up this weekend.
Yay, update. ^^ I've been waiting for new stuff and this made my day, thanks Brutesquad.
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Ok,
We played yesterday and here is the tale…
The party, having recovered from their scuffle with Rolth and the Undead (sounds like a band name perhaps I’ll have to find a drummer…oh and a guitar player…keyboards too I suppose. Never mind) they went off in search of the last anchor for the chained spirit.
They searched high (since they had cleared low already) and found several empty rooms before encountering a couple of Devils. They were cleverly disguised with invisibility and waited for Tormod to run by then pounced. Sadly they were no match for our intrepid home invaders. Several rounds later they were Ex-Devils. Searching around they found a couple of balconies with more gargoyles that never did move. They cleared the whole level only finding empty rooms and getting a bit frustrated till they opened a door and Elam happened to have See Invisibility working on his Mantis mask and spotted an Imp…
After the first bolt blew the Imp’s brains across the floor, the second bolt sent his entrails in another direction and the lifeless body was then ripped into numerous pieces by the next couple of bolts well there really wasn’t anything after that. He had the Imp at hello.
They then moved on finally coming to the large tower, it was once rather opulent. As the place was open to the sky above it was now a bit soggy and run down. The party realized something was wrong pretty quickly, however. Muli was the first to act and he used his mantis mask to activate the see invisibility. Wow was the place packed full of Devils. There were Bone Devils, Barbed Devils, A chain Devil, an Ashmede Devil (who seemed to be the ring leader), 14 Lemures, and 4 imps. The Lemures and Imps were merely for the fear factor…
This was quite a long fight. Everyone had their moment. Elam mowed down several opponents with his chain gun. Tormod got to Chain Lightning, Muli got to dance with a devil in the pale moon light and Jim got to grapple a Barbed Devil as only a strength cleric in big spiky armor should! Laori even got to jump in and heal some folks.
After the dust settled and the healing had been done they realized they had found the last of the anchors and put it down. They also had found a great haul of cash stuffed into the bed, sadly most of it was copper. Several cool items including numerous magic mouth skulls that spoke their names.
Back to the Chained spirits room they went. Bam down went the spirit. He almost knocked Muli unconscious by draining him of his Charisma, but it didn’t quite happen before the last of the spirits hit points were taken away viciously. With the Spirit defeated the castle’s curse was broken. One last spirit visited them, some young man who’s very flesh kept being flayed away as he spoke appeared and told them they had freed the castle of it’s curse and of Kazavon’s spirit. They had to find the sword however and use it to free Korvosa of the spirit of Kazavon. He also told them the sword could be found in the star tower.
Over there they went. Laori was able to enter the phase door now and the group proceeded down the stairs…down down down down down down they went until they reached a room with a shaft full of blue mist.
There someone spoke to them Telepathically, asked them who was volunteering to be the Curate. Muli quickly volunteered Laori. There was a bit of a small confrontation between Muli and Elam at this point. Muli ready to boot her into the Curate roll and Elam wanting to make sure she was willing and wanting to find out what the role entailed before condemning her to it. After much back and forthing Laori agreed to become the Curate and was whisked away by a NightWing. As they left the NightWing told the group that Zon-Kuthon wished for them to take the sword and that it could be found below…
Elam and Tormod flew down the shaft on the back of the Hippogriff. The mist was a bit disorienting but caused few issues. After landing the Hippogriff was sent back up to get Jim and Muli. Muli was a bit dazzled by the shaft but everyone came through unharmed.
They found a door that led into some tunnels. These led them to an underground lake where they were attacked viciously by some Large Abberations (I say this a bit tongue in cheek as the party opened the attack first but really they are C/E Large Abberations with four arms and a penchant for humanoid flesh)
That was where we left off. The party can see a light shining off over the lake and are sure that it’s the sword…
Until next time!
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al' Qadar wrote me asking me to post this for him as he was having difficulty getting it to stick.
OoC: For his part, Muli is unaware of Jim's concern (I blame his -1 perception "bonus") but takes his joining the Shoanti very seriously. While he did not make a public deal of it at the time this was a big decision for Muli as it meant extending his familial responsibilities and obligations. Nothing takes priority over family for Muli. In the end Muli had to look beyond the cultural differences and see Jim as a man he would be proud to call Brother. Assuming Jim to be typical of his people, Muli's decision became much easier. For inspiration in these dealings I look to The Eaters of the Dead (that would be the movie "The 13th Warrior" for those more familiar with that media).
To Muli, Tormod remains a "monkey with a loaded handgun". He certainly respects the power Tormod wields and appreciates his free spirit but simultaneously pities him his "tough talk" figuring that he is compensating for his small physical stature.
I was both pleased and proud to read Casey's (Elam) impressions of Muli. "Stereotypical adventurer background #1" (my entire village was wiped out by undead and/or Orcs) just would not do for Muli so I went to "stereotypical adventurer background #2" (I come from a very wealthy family who lost its entire fortune and therefore have to seek my own through adventuring) but I did not consider it important enough to actually mention to anybody. Yes, Muli understands the value of, well....value. Money, money, money and the societal power which accompanies it is no stranger to Muli and he misses it. He is also painfully aware of how quickly and easily even a large fortune can be lost. That said, he is good aligned, very spiritual (as are most of my characters actually) and he is growing as a man.
Muli does not, nor will he ever, truck with evil or those who willingly do so and he has noticed a worrisome change in Elam as of late. Elam's concern seems to have migrated from saving Korvosa to an intense hatred of the Queen. This can be rationalized as elimination of the Queen is probably what it will take to save the city but saving the city seems to have become little more than a happy side-effect of killing someone for Elam. Muli knows that this kind of obsessive hatred weakens the mind and can cause one to lose perspective. It was no surprise to Muli then that Elam was so easily dominated by Laori (the witch who travels with devils) and convinced that Sabina Marrin was as guilty as the Queen herself and deserved no less a fate. Muli further understands how little he knows of magic, arcane or divine, but he could go to neither Tormod nor Jim with his concerns as neither seemed to have noticed this change in Elam and Muli's casual inquiries had, to that point, been met with bemused indifference by both. As Elam was, nonetheless, a friend and vital to our mission, Muli knew that Laori had to go and with Elam her "sworn" protector, he could not get at her without confronting Elam directly. When the whole Curate thing came up, Muli saw it as a gods created miracle. With the witch gone and Elam free of her magical influence, he might be put back on the right path. Perhaps Elam is yet salvageable. Muli watches for signs knowing that if Elam has become that which he hunts, he will have to be put down as well.