Ven Vinder: "Son, what're you doing naked in my basement?" (after Shayliss hides)
PC: "Waiting... for you?"
That encounter was brilliant. Funny without going too far. Do you lovely people have any stories to tell from your games?
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The Hook Mountain Massacre, and a Lamia's false modesty...
Dwarf: "Uh, Hi! Are you one of the bad people here?"
Lucrecia: "Ummm...that depends. Are there any hot guys with you?"
Dwarf: "Well, I guess so. Can we come in? These shocker lizards aren't real happy with us stomping around their eggs and stuff..."
Lucrecia: "I guess so. Could you let me slip into something a bit more...appropriate first, since you have men with you?"
Dwarf: "Oh...Okay!"
And she closes the secret door. As her fellow party members start yelling at her, Lucrecia takes that moment to change into something more appropriate for when they storm the room - her natural form ;)
Good times. We all had a laugh about that later. Only a few of us were laughing at the time it happened though... :D
Your Friendly Neighborhood Dalesman
"Bringing Big D**n Justice to the Bad Guys Since 1369 DR"
One of my players seems to get in a bad pun on each gaming session...
For example, back in Skinsaw, the group decided to break into the seven sawmill in the middle of the night, so there were only a couple of cultists hiding out there at that point.
As the group climbed the stairs, one of the cultists saw the party, and ran forward to attack them. The party cleric hit him with a Blindness/Deafness spell, striking him blind. I judged that as his was running, he'd need a balance check, which he failed miserably.
The run of bad dice rolls continued and he tripped, went over the balcony and fell to his death.
The clerics player... 'He didn't see that coming...'
<groan>
My players ran across the Shadow Clock.
Scarcrow drops the caster in one round, and goes toe to toe with the fighter that hadn't missed a roll all session including several Earthbreaker crits.
Scarecrow fumbles THREE times. I'm using the fumble cards and he bends his weapon (-4atk), gets spun around (-1Atk) and pulls a muscle (-3Str). He's still hitting hard and nearly drops the fighter. The ranger cast Summon Nature Ally I: Giant Centipede
Scarecrow(at 11HP) decides to flee. They try to stop him (fighter took Stand Still) and fail. Scarcrow runs away, and the party discusses how odd it is that the huge golem was afraid of bugs.
FF up to Xanesha.
She is owning the group caster again is dropped, healed back up and retreats, Cleric crit hits with scimitar, draws throat slit (lots of bleed and can't talk), Fighter, who's hot streak ended hadn't hit her once, crits with A knock out blow, but she passes her fort save and decides to take to the air. Fighter again misses with stand still, but the cleric had an ace up his sleeve.
Dispel Magic on the fly effect.... She floats for 60 ft and then plummets 120... dropping her to zero.
The fighter says, "I think she's still moving," and drops the Earthbreaker on her head. Splat goes the Lamia...
That session the fighter also has made use of his throw anything feat to lob said hammer at fleeing enemies.
The first of which was Random Black Dragon that decided to run... I allowed it to do 1d6+Str... he managed three kills with that.
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The final confrontation at the end of Skinsaw.
The confrontation with Xanesha did not start off well. The party (fighter, barbarian, ranger, rogue, paladin ... the cleric died after falling from the Terrible Stairs) all focused their attention to the illusion of the demon Xanesha created and were taken completely by surprise. The next couple of rounds went very poorly for the group, as they could not roll in the double digits let alone hit. Xanesha, seeing they could not touch her began to play with the party; splitting attacks, taunting them, promising them they would not die well, etc.
The barbarian and ranger were both dispatched with extreme prejudice (both being reduced into the negatives at twice their Con score or more) before she was even hit.
The rogue, fell a couple rounds later. After some discussion, the players running the paladin and fighter both decided their characters could not flee the battle, but for different reasons. The paladin could not allow such a powerful evil foe escape while she could still swing her sword and the fighter needed to avenge his brother (the ranger).
At that point, the fighter rolled and confirmed a critical hit with his waraxe. All the players, who had moments before been discussing their new character concepts for after the TPK, literally cheered. Xanesha turne her attention to the one who had damaged her (she was 5 HP from the take flight threshold ... she was not going to fly yet, but her focus was on the fighter fully) and reduced him to less than 10 HP with her attacks.
The next round the paladin managed to land an attack, followed by more cheers and the fighter rolled and confirmed ANOTHER critical, killing her outright. Truly an epic battle.
From Burnt Offerings there was also the time ...
The elf bard was seduced by the shopkeeper's daughter. Ven Vinder came downstairs as soon as Shayliss had freed herself from her bodice and caught the elf with his daughter in his arms.
The bard quickly started to roll out some crazy explanation of what was going on downstairs and rolled a natural 20 on his Bluff check. Ven rolled a 1 on Sense Motive. While the text said the character extricates himself with no hard feeling from Shayliss, the PC had no intention of breaking off the connection and asked the shop keeper if he could court his daughter at some point in the future. The shop keeper agreed without pause.
The party joked for months that not only could he get caught fooling around with a man's daughter, but he could get him to thank him for it and insist they continue.
Dispel Magic on the fly effect.... She floats for 60 ft and then plummets 120... dropping her to zero.
Why didn´t she recast fly?
actually I have a ven story as well. our party's inquisitor of cayden was the target of the daughter's affections, he however hightailed it as soon as the father started heading downstairs. he got out, however later on he asked around and discovered that ven had grounded her and was forcing her to stay indoors, so he then after getting really quite very drunk, decided to take the bard with him and go and rescue her. when they got there they discovered a bedsheet rope, the inquisitor climbs up to discover her with another man, however then they hear ven again.
the man who was in her bed rushes out, and manages to get down the rope past the inquisitor, and breaks out running stark naked, the bard takes after him. when ven got upstairs and saw the bedsheets, he looks over the edge and sees the inquisitor again. a few rounds later he bursts out the front door with a meat cleaver. the bard at this point had managed to tackle and knock out the streaker and together with the inquisitor manages to talk ven down who then breaks into tears about how hard its been raising the girls and keeping them in line since his wife had died, and the two of them then take him back to his place, made him some tea while he vented his grief and then tucked him in.
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My PCs never dealt with Tsuto Kaijitsu, and the party sorceror is currently pursuing Ameiko romantically (I rolled a 20 on how much she enjoyed a kiss from him while being rescued from the Glassworks). Ameiko wants the party to capture her brother, so she can "deal" with Tsuto herself.
The sorceror and Ameiko went out and she got quite drunk at the White Deer Inn. That was fun to DM. The sorceror did the honorable thing with Ameiko.
The sorceror was left alone in Sandpoint while the rest of the party went to Magnimar to get their ghoul fever/Vorel's Phage cured.
Tsuto and Orik found out and tried to kidnap the sorceror the next night.
While dossing down in the sorceror's bed for the night (the sorceror spent an uncomfortable night bound and gagged on the floor), I rolled a 20 on Tsuto's Perception check:
"I'm going to take the gag off for a moment so you can answer me one question. If I get an answer I don't like, you get this dagger in your eye.
Why does your bed smell of my sister's perfume?" - Tsuto Kaijitsu
"I slept downstairs on the floor" - Klaatu Barada Niktu
http://www.nzrag.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=2840&start=19
Awesome AP so far!
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My party never fought Xanesha in the skinsaw murders so they had to fight her in the black arrows stronghold with her sister. And they do surprisingly well, coming in through the secret tunnels and using wild empathy to not disturb the shocker lizards (they plan on smoking them out to create a diversion) they managed to get to the secret entrance to the armory without alerting the ladies, so they had none of their spells up and running, the PCs buff and charge in expecting to knock them out and intimidate them down (not knowing their Powers). So when they transform it seriously scares the s&~% out of the party. However, the party inquisitor on her first attack scores a critical against Lucretia and when we get to the card draw she got severed spine, the save DC is 32 and it's 12 Dex damage. Suddenly Lucretia went from damn near impossible to managable, the monk ki flurries, Lucretia responds (even after the damage) by taking the monk down in one round. Xanesha casts Haste to give them a boost, but then the party gangs up on Lucretia and take her down. Xanesha tries to heal her sister, but she's already dead because the party made sure to hit her while after she went down. So they continue fighting Xanesha, and then I make one of the most terrifying mistakes (to the party) I accidently skip a bunch of people and go with Xanesha's turn and in one round of full attacks she kills one of the black arrows. Then I realize that I've skipped about 6 peoples turns and have to take it back. Anyways that sets the scene, the party gets her cornered and down to half HP. I decide she's gonna Dim Door and make her escape, as I roll her cast defensively check and tell the party she begins casting the party monk says
"If she casts Dimension Door to escape, I'm leaving"
Ven Vinder: "Son, what're you doing naked in my basement?" (after Shayliss hides)
PC: "Waiting... for you?"That encounter was brilliant. Funny without going too far. Do you lovely people have any stories to tell from your games?
Yes. That is what immediately sprang to mind upon reading the thread title for me, too. Except it went something like:
Ven Vinder: "Shayliss, why are you undressed down here?" (After PC hides)
Shayliss: "Uh, because I'm hot and it's cool down here?"
Sadly, my character was rather cowardly and willing to let Shayliss take the heat for him. Still, he did arrange for Shayliss to meet him later at his room at the inn...
We've got a rather cinematic scene unfolding right now in my PbP Skinsaw Murders.
The party follows the revenent down to the basement, who gets held up by a locked door at the end of a hallway. The party piles into the corridor but doesn't want to get close to her to help, seeing as how she's undead and all. A few momments later, thousands of diseased rats begin pouring out of the walls behind them. The PCs at the back of the party are yelling at the PCs at the front to hurry up with the door before they are overun, while the PCs at the front can't muster the courage to interfere with the revenent's efforts.
Finally the party rogue declares she will trip attack the revenent so she can get to the door to pick the lock...
I haven't deccided how mean to be with the consequences of that action yet :>
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A funny thing happened to us on the way to the haunted house...
On our way in, fresh from slaughtering ghouls and thoroughly ransacking the farmhouse, the first thing we searched was the well. I mean, if you're going to be adventuring for a long time, make sure of your water, right?
Spotting the hidden passageway's entrance, the Dwarf Monk and Human Fighter (me) debate how to scale the walls.
"Do you have rope?" I asked
"Yep, 100' all tied to my climbing kit and ready to go"
Okay, I shove the dwarf down the hole - to the DM.
A 100' foot fall later, and a yelled apology, the Dwarf angers the big undead critter down there, and a tightly fought battle erupted. The Fighter, Cleric, and Bard all managed to jump successfully via various means, while the Wizard and Witch fell, splatting to the floor and almost dying.
We won the fight, after some tense moments, and stockpiled on plenty of nice new toys. Wandering along through the tunnels revealed some more (small and easily killed) undead, before leading to a door. Behind said door lay
who failed his big chance on his attacks (rolled 2, 3, 4 on his first full attack, and missed by 2 on an action-pointed roll on his first charge).
Ameeko the Fighter got all the buffs you could imagine a 5th level group would normally pack. Bull's Strength, Bardic Music, and Haste are the three that I remember, and maybe the Witch's "roll twice and keep the nicer roll" hex. Mr. Stabby-face the bad guy went down like a chump to 2 rounds of swinging.
Just goes to show you: we almost killed ourselves on a simple well, and dropped one of the highest CR creatures in that area in about 12 seconds.
In Hook Mountain Massacre:[spoiler] The party's druid planned to summon some creatures to distract the ogres in the fort while the party snuck into the caves. Her first casting was very successful, summoning five hippogriffs. The casting after that likewise summoned five hippogriffs. This was followed by three more, then three more after that, for a total of sixteen hippogriffs. (Gee, I wonder why they stopped casters from doing this in Pathfinder? Hmm...)
Instead of providing a distraction, this airborne horde became the main attack (Each player took three hippogriffs to manage). Before the hippogriff squadron descended, water-breathing spellcasters had hidden in the drainage channel. As their aerial assault hit, they ignited the ogre barracks with fire spells, then retreated to rejoin the party.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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So we’re getting arses handed to us on a platter by a certain lamia matriarch after struggling up the “Bell Tower of Resource Depletion”. Our paladin and my fighter are struggling to hit her at all, our sorcerer’s out of spells – things are looking grim. With a burst of insane inspiration, my fighter climbs to the top of the bell tower with the intent of pushing the angel statue onto our flying enemy.
DM: “…sure you could try that but it’s pretty heavy. You’ve really got bugger-all chance of hitting her, plus you’re likely to take out the entire tower and kill everyone in the party.”
Me: (CN alignment taking over and laughing with glee) “PUSH!!!”
DM: “… um OK. First make a DC 20 Strength check to even move the thing”
Me: Rolls an 18 and passes the Strength check. “OK, now what?”
DM: “Make a touch attack at -12, due to a difference in weapon size and your non-proficiency with statues.”
Me: Rolls a natural 20. “Aha! This can best be described as a monumental blow, as I’ve hit her with a f$&king monument! Now to confirm the critical”. Rolls a 17, and after determining that my Point Blank Shot counts, hits exactly the lamia’s touch AC.
DM: “OK that’s normally 10d6 damage for being hit with a Colossal object, doubled for the critical hit, plus 20d6 falling damage…that’s a total of 158 points of damage...”
Me: “…plus two for Point Blank Shot…”
DM: “…shut up Dave, she’s already at -85 hp.”
The rest of the encounter involved us coming up with hare-brained schemes for escaping a collapsing bell-tower.
Heh. I love when stuff like that works against all odds. I have a player that tries cracked schemes like this...and is often successful. She's a lot more interesting to DM than the toe-to-toers.
M
Player1: Yes, Chief Justice we believe we have found the hideout of a cult of assassins called the Brothers of the Seven, or B7 for short.
Ironbriar: Truly? This a wonderful developement, I'm sorry the last errand I sent you on turned up nothing, but this could help us solve the mystery. But before you go I need you to check out the estate of a deceased noble who lived in the Marble District. Its an old case, but there were markings similar to those that you had described in the other killings.
Player1: Yes, we can get right on that.
*When the players arrived at the abandoned estate they went in and saw what looked like a large crate covered by a blanket in the back of a hallway. As they approached the doors behind them slammed shut and were barred. That's when the dire tiger starts running down the hallway at them, they do notice it is from the zoo.
*As they exit about 8 townguards try and arrest them for the murder of a police seargeant who's body they found at the scene. Currently they are wanted fugitives and know that Ironbriar set them up.
Party arrives in Magnimar with a plan: have the Bard use her Hat of Disguise and Perform(Acting) skill to impersonate Aldern Foxglove and occupy the townhouse, waiting for a visit from agents of the unnamed "mistress" who left Aldern a note at the time of his transformation.
This would have been really amusing given what the module says Ironbriar had waiting for them at the townhouse, but I decided that a confrontation between
The party killed the creatures and found
Three 5th L PCs against
Awesome stuff.
I'm really looking forward to getting into skinsaw murders now. Something tells me my players will love this.
Party arrives in Magnimar with a plan: have the Bard use her Hat of Disguise and Perform(Acting) skill to impersonate Aldern Foxglove and occupy the townhouse, waiting for a visit from agents of the unnamed "mistress" who left Aldern a note at the time of his transformation.
This would have been really amusing given what the module says Ironbriar had waiting for them at the townhouse, but I decided that a confrontation between ** spoiler omitted ** would give things away too quickly, and had the ** spoiler omitted **
The party killed the creatures and found ** spoiler omitted **, then decided their best bet would be to split the party(nooooooooo!) tomorrow night, leaving the Bard and two others at the townhouse to wait for contact by agents while the other three part members went to check out the Seven's Sawmill. What they don't know is that (a) no agents will be coming to the townhouse and (b) ** spoiler omitted **
Three 5th L PCs against ** spoiler omitted ** = 3 dead PCs, so I I had Desna send a dream to the Bard. Corresctly interpreted, the dream would tell them "If you split the party, half will be slaughtered while the rest sit around waiting for something that won't happen." This is one of two interpretations they're kicking around, so it remains to be seen how this will go.
Yikes, this kind of thing isn't fun. But just because something is written doesn't mean it has to pan out exactly that way. Perhaps agents DO come to the townhouse, and give them enough info that they have to ride fast and hard to stop the rest of the party marching in alone. This kind of situation sounds like it could be pretty tense.
If not, you can just say out of game that it may throw a wrench in things. I was forced to do this before thistletop, it isn't the best feeling, but it beats seeing your game derailed.
** spoiler omitted **
James, your deviousness is admirable.
Bravo!
Rich
Party arrives in Magnimar with a plan: have the Bard use her Hat of Disguise and Perform(Acting) skill to impersonate Aldern Foxglove and occupy the townhouse, waiting for a visit from agents of the unnamed "mistress" who left Aldern a note at the time of his transformation.
This would have been really amusing given what the module says Ironbriar had waiting for them at the townhouse, but I decided that a confrontation between ** spoiler omitted ** would give things away too quickly, and had the ** spoiler omitted **
The party killed the creatures and found ** spoiler omitted **, then decided their best bet would be to split the party(nooooooooo!) tomorrow night, leaving the Bard and two others at the townhouse to wait for contact by agents while the other three part members went to check out the Seven's Sawmill. What they don't know is that (a) no agents will be coming to the townhouse and (b) ** spoiler omitted **
Three 5th L PCs against ** spoiler omitted ** = 3 dead PCs, so I I had Desna send a dream to the Bard. Corresctly interpreted, the dream would tell them "If you split the party, half will be slaughtered while the rest sit around waiting for something that won't happen." This is one of two interpretations they're kicking around, so it remains to be seen how this will go.
We had a similar moment at Paizocon UK this year where the group I was GMing were playing with the idea of splitting up then thought better of it. There should be an old RPG proverb along the lines of they who split their group, risk being split themselves.
Or something.
It is very interesting to see how these things pan out, cool stuff:)
Also in Skinsaw
"Hey guys what if it's a living farmer held captive?" says our newest player. This of course required me make the hardest will save of my life and maintain my poker face. "Dude, it's just a ghoul let's nuke it and have it done with" says our group's paladin and most veteran player (that completely doofed up and forgot ENTIRELY about Detect Evil). So a short debate commenced at the table, after which time the paladin's player got frustrated and fired his crossbow at the scarecrow, slaying the innocent victim inside. Suddenly his powers shut down and he realizes what he's done.
Mortified and p-o'ed beyond belief my dear loyal player decides not to pelt me with his lead dice and we have a good chuckle and a toast of Dr. Pepper round the table.
This also served to make the Foxglove Manor portion of the adventure exceedingly more entertaining for me as GM and for the players because the paladin's anti-fear mojo was non-existent (this was all in 3.5).
Truly one of my favorite adventures I've run and definitely one I'll remember until I'm too senile to GM anymore (currently some debate as to whether that event has come and gone).
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There should be an old RPG proverb along the lines of they who split their group, risk being split themselves.
Or something.
It is very interesting to see how these things pan out, cool stuff:)
My GM happiness factor went up by loads when my group arrived at the hambley farm and promptly decided... "Lets split up!" hilarity ensued with ghouls chasing overpowered PCs one by one through the cornfields and eventually grappling and dragging off the rogue (being the victim of Aldern's obsession) to make her into one of them. While the PCs won in the end, they had a hella creepy time of it!
While i'm in this thread, and seeing Mr Pett present, i'd just like to take the opportunity to say thank you Sir! My group absolutely loved it, found it creepy as all hell, and really got into it. Kudos for the excellent adventure, and can't wait to get to play/run more of your work!
Also in Skinsaw
** spoiler omitted **
My group nearly did the same thing, but fortunately the first arrow did minimum damage and provoked a muffled scream. I allowed the Bard a DC 20 Listen check to notice that the sound was somehow different from the cries the "other" ghouls had made as they were killed. Check made, death averted, and one embarrassed Bard (she was the one who'd shot the arrow.)
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Our first encounter with the ghouls in the cornfields resulted in us having initiative, being mounted, with readied ranged attacks.
Ghoul 1 steps out, takes Point Blank Shot / Deadly Aimed Longbow Arrow to the head, drops.
Ghoul 2 steps out, takes Nat 20 Electricty Ray Sorcerer ability, near max damage, drops.
Ghouls 3-5 went down like chumps soon after.
After that, we saw some more scarecrows swaying and moving, so I (being the longbow-wielding Fighter) plunk a (again, near max damage) arrow center-of-mass. One dead local later, I feel kind of sad, and we move on.
Fantastic times were had all around.
My group nearly did the same thing, but fortunately the first arrow did minimum damage and provoked a muffled scream. I allowed the Bard a DC 20 Listen check to notice that the sound was somehow different from the cries the "other" ghouls had made as they were killed. Check made, death averted, and one embarrassed Bard (she was the one who'd shot the arrow.)Also in Skinsaw
** spoiler omitted **
HEH, In the group I'm running the NG Cleric of Sarenrae was adamant about killing the ghouls/scarecrows and having the archer do it. Worked great until they checked one and found a not quite dead farmer who was still merely infected. Entire strategy change immediately. They were very lucky the shot didn't kill the farmer, a single point of damage and they might have been looking for a rez. I do enforce good players doing the RIGHT thing... even if it costs them.
Moment of awesome from this week's session, from under Sandpoint. Facing The Scribbler and his demon ally, most of the party (monk, cleric/paladin, ranger) have moved up to hand-to-hand range with the demon, while the universalist wizard hung far back and tried dismissal.
The Scribbler, using his free action summons brings in a barghest and two shadow mastiffs, dropping them around the wizard, and finishes up with a quickened spiritual weapon to complete the encirclement, before moving up to engage the ranger in melee.
The wizard survives the first round of strikes thanks to false life. He then calls "broken arrow" and trusting to his resist fire 30, drops a fireball on himself. A bad roll means he doesn't quite drop the creatures, so using his sihedron rune, he pulls another false life on himself.
Another round of attacks leaves him hurt, but up, so he drops an empowered fireball on himself... this one takes out the shadow mastiffs and the barghest. Of course, the spiritual weapon drops him the round after, and the party (having dealt with the demon and driven off The Scribbler) barely manage to drag the wounded wizard to safety.
My players came up with funniest and very insane plan to infiltrate Jorgenfist but they never executed it. But in short: "let's charm a stone giant and then let's order it to carry us in fortress in his sack. Or in two bags 'cause there are three of us, Shalelu and one large wolf". Hard time to keep my cool when they came up with this, so brilliant that I haven't think about it myself.
Plan they used was much less fun, invisibilty and tricks with ropes to get in tunnel of deathwebs. Still, they really impressed me with this one. ^^
I forgot about this one...
At the end of HMM, the party encountered Barl and his giant minion. Melee started between the party melee PCs and the giant minion, while the spellcasters squared up against Barl.
The sorceress of the group was about to open up with her then favourite spell (Blindness/Deafness) when Barl beat her too it and blinded her first. As she couldn't see Barl, she couldn't target him directly, so called to the party druid to help her with area of effect and line spells.
This meant that the rest of the fight for them was the sorceress casting fireball and lightning bolt and having the druid point her in the right direction (not unlike the bar fight scene in See No Evil, Hear No Evil). I ruled that the druid would have to make ranged attack rolls to get it right, and the effect was mostly successful.
The best bit come at the point when the giant minion fell, the melee types were advancing so Barl cast Fly to escape. So the Sorceress/Druid combo ended up being some kind of improvised Anti-Aircraft cannon to bring him down.
They did manage to do it in the end (thanks to a natural one on a save and his ring blowing his arm off)
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My players came up with funniest and very insane plan to infiltrate Jorgenfist but they never executed it. But in short: "let's charm a stone giant and then let's order it to carry us in fortress in his sack. Or in two bags 'cause there are three of us, Shalelu and one large wolf". Hard time to keep my cool when they came up with this, so brilliant that I haven't think about it myself.
Plan they used was much less fun, invisibilty and tricks with ropes to get in tunnel of deathwebs. Still, they really impressed me with this one. ^^
That's far more inventive than our plan - gladhanding with Longtooth and blindly searching all the local caves.
On the other hand, our plan A was to attack the guard tower and then dispatch the whole army with the Staff of Heaven and Earth. Seriously, this was suggested and considered even, nevermind the odd hundred giantkin camped around Jorgenfist and possibly draconic creatures in the area.
That's far more inventive than our plan - gladhanding with Longtooth and blindly searching all the local caves.
On the other hand, our plan A was to attack the guard tower and then dispatch the whole army with the Staff of Heaven and Earth. Seriously, this was suggested and considered even, nevermind the odd hundred giantkin camped around Jorgenfist and possibly draconic creatures in the area.
They used charm animal+speak to animals combo to scout canyon. Then argue about the method to get in caves so it wasn't that easy as it sounds. About half of session went to planning (over 2h) and other to find Conna and to chat with her. You already finished FotSG and my group hasn't even met Mokmurian (I assume that you are Muser who plays in NiTessine's group).
So, the PCs in my game arrive in Magnimar planning to have the Bard impersonate Aldern Foxglove and go to the townhouse, hoping to be contacted by the "agents" mentioned in the letter to Aldern from his unnamed "mistress."
Doesn't go as they'd hoped, but they kill the creatures waiting for them and find the clue directing them to the sawmill.
Same plan: they visit the sawmill with the Bard disguised as Aldern, bluff their way past the "mill workers" and come face-to-mask with Ironbriar. For 3 or 4 rounds even Ironbriar is fooled; the timetable is such that he's only heard a rumor of Aldern's demise, he hasn't had confirmation, and he knows Aldern as a living man, not as a ghast.
Ironbriar gets suspicious, casts Detect Magic and the Bard immediately attacks him. Cultists have been heading upstairs and combat ensues on two fronts. The party's Cleric is nearly taken out by multiple Channel Negative Energies but in the end Ironbriar and 13 cultists are dead with all PCs surviving. Unable to decode any part of the coded journal, they called in the law, who were horrified to see Ironbriar there. The PCs are sworn to both secrecy and inactivity while the matter is further investigated (mainly because I want them to level up before visiting the Clock Tower.)
Four days later the journal has been decoded by the locals, who don't understand the reference to "Vorel's legacy". The PCs realize what it means and will now be haring off to chase the Red Mantis and recover the phage before it can be spread again.
Curse of the Crimson Throne wasn't much help in prepping me for this pursuit. I now need to work out a timetable and logistics for the export of the phage, and a way for the PCs to get on the trail quickly.
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Yesterday evening.
The characters make themselves obvious in the Nettlewood, near Thistletop, so the baddies send out a war party headed by Gogmurt and Bruthazmus to give the longshanks a proper welcome.
The PCs are two half-orc barbarian brothers, a paladin, a cleric of Gorum, a druid, an halfling rogue, a rogue-wizard, and a sorcerer, all of them 3rd level.
The couple manages to lure the PCs in an ambush of sorts, after having a number of guerrilla attacks on the scouts to gauge their abilities and plant fear of the unknown woods in their enemies.
Left wing is made up by the Bird-Crunchers refugees, right-wing is 5 goblin rangers and two goblin dogs, center is the bugbear, the druid with his leopard animal companion, and two goblin dogs.
At the start of the ambush proper, Buthazmus taunts the PCs, yelling "Hey, tasty morsels... we are HUNGRY!!", but after two Sleep spells the entire right wing of the ambush is collapsed on the ground, the left wing is shaken and counting casualties, and the bugbear is charged by an Enlarged, raging half-orc barbarian wielding a greataxe.
Critical hit. 63 points of damage.
YYEEEAAAAAAAAARRRRGGHHH!!!
That was the player, in-character, roaring in triumph. Damn.
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They used charm animal+speak to animals combo to scout canyon. Then argue about the method to get in caves so it wasn't that easy as it sounds. About half of session went to planning (over 2h) and other to find Conna and to chat with her. You already finished FotSG and my group hasn't even met Mokmurian (I assume that you are Muser who plays in NiTessine's group).
Us completing the module quickly had more to do with NiTe wanting to finish it directly rather than having several sessions worth of interesting but fairly pointless combat encounters. And I kind of agree. From what I've read the fortress would have held dozens of potential encounters, several of them with entirely new creatures, but we already had plenty of that in both HMM and SSM. And honestly, compared to the rapacious ogres and the eerie death cultists and yet eerier haunts the giants were a letdown of sorts. I'm glad our group weren't served any more. The new creatures(dark fey, etc) on the other hand would probably have served as a passing interest while adding nothing to the plot when were already aching for actual answers to questions such as "what's with these endless lamias?" or "why does the sihedron symbol find itself into every dark domain we decide to cleanse?". Fireball fodder didn't interest us.
** spoiler omitted **
The dragon swoops down and picks a random target - Lars the barbarian, hits with a bite and sucessfully grapples, then flies into the air. Then opens his mouth to drop Lars. Lars grabs the dragon's teeth (readied action) then swings around to the dragon's neck (tumble check DC 25 I think I chose). Then the dragon tries to shake him off but Lars holds on with his legs (DC20 ride check) Lars starts beating on the dragon with his greatsword. The dragon tries to claw Lars off, tries to weaken him with a spell, then flies to the cave entrance and tries to scrape him off using the roof (DC25 ride to hold on that time). The dragon gets to the end of the tunnel leaps across to opening, twisting to hit the far wall feet first and bounce off. Lars looses his grip (strength vs ride opposed check). The dragon having been wounded sufficiently to want to flee flies back up the corridor. Lars grabs the tail (AoO for leaving threatened area) and gets a tow to the entrance to the corridor where he lets go before he can be smashed against the wall.
Hell yeah, that's epic!
Our encounter with the dragon started with my character casting shield of faith on one of the stone heads(Xanderghull?) and half the group groaning and preparing spells when the humming of the stone saw the dragon rearing from the mountainside. Ten seconds and it was among us. Its breath caught our swordsmen by surprise with only the cold-protected barbarian coming out none the worse. Two rounds of steel and fire had the dragon yearning to escape but ending up a bleeding mass of flesh with one wing left. The fall finished his disastrous awakening.
Basically, we knew what to expect thanks to good knowledge checks concerning Stormunder and Rimeskull. My character had time to cast two fire balls(and had retrained Power Attack to Spell Penetration), our scout/transmuter had two fly-spells memorized and both the paladin and barbarian hit true. Two rounds and over two hundred damage, with 70 of it fire, later the dragon was hit with an aao and died just before hitting the ground, which would have finished the wyrm anyway.
We coined the term "paladin howitzer" that day. It's what happens when a smiting bullet of steel charge attacks a dragon in midair and confirms a threat with the first hit of a smite evil. Things go boom.
Us completing the module quickly had more to do with NiTe wanting to finish it directly rather than having several sessions worth of interesting but fairly pointless combat encounters. And I kind of agree. From what I've read the fortress would have held dozens of potential encounters, several of them with entirely new creatures, but we already had plenty of that in both HMM and SSM. And honestly, compared to the rapacious ogres and the eerie death cultists and yet eerier haunts the giants were a letdown of sorts. I'm glad our group weren't served any more. The new creatures(dark fey, etc) on the other hand would probably have served as a passing interest while adding nothing to the plot when were already aching for actual answers to questions such as "what's with these endless lamias?" or "why does the sihedron symbol find itself into every dark domain we decide to cleanse?". Fireball fodder didn't interest us.
OT again: I know why NiTe wanted to do that FotSG isn't the best part of this AP. I wanted to do things lot more faster but I had problem with realism (couldn't came up with faster solution to some problems so those solutions would have make sense) so it took more time that I wanted. Now we have started SotS and we had more fun and drama in one sesison that in whole fourth part.
I think we can agree that there's a gap in the overall quality of the AP then, right?
By the by, do you use the wiki to chronicle your campaign at all or am I just blind? All I can find is the Second Darkness one.
My first RotRL had wiki page but I didn't have motivation to write about exact same campaign again. First campaign can be read here. It is finnish only so others can't enjoy about it..