|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Actually...a +3 enhancement bonus cuts through DR/Cold Iron, so an Evil Outsider Bane Longsword will do the same vs. evil outsiders (since it has a +3 enhancement bonus vs. them).
Just for the record.
The way I read that rule is that it's the raw +3/+4/+5, so +1 Evil Outsider Bane is NOT the same as just plain +3.
A magic weapon is enhanced to strike more truly and deliver more damage. Magic weapons have enhancement bonuses ranging from +1 to +5. They apply these bonuses to both attack and damage rolls when used in combat. All magic weapons are also masterwork weapons, but their masterwork bonuses on attack rolls do not stack with their enhancement bonuses on attack rolls.
Some magic weapons have special abilities. Special abilities count as additional bonuses for determining the market value of the item, but do not modify attack or damage bonuses (except where specifically noted). A single weapon cannot have a modified bonus (enhancement bonus plus special ability bonus equivalents, including those from character abilities and spells) higher than +10. A weapon with a special ability must also have at least a +1 enhancement bonus. Weapons cannot possess the same special ability more than once.
Weapons with an enhancement bonus of +3 or greater can ignore some types of damage reduction, regardless of their actual material or alignment. The following table shows what type of enhancement bonus is needed to overcome some common types of damage reduction.
Notice that they're separate: Magical enhancement bonus is one part, and special ability bonus is separate.
Yeah, but the bane special ability has a caveat for that.
Against a designated foe, the weapon's enhancement bonus is +2 better than its actual bonus.
So it is automatically a +3 weapon with regards to bypassing DR.
I did not know that. That's why I love these boards!
Thanks!
|
Yup. It's also another +2 to hit and damage on top of the 2d6 (for a total average of +2 to hit, +9 damage). It's very nice if you can get it on something you fight a lot of.
I probably wouldn't have known it either before running for (and playing) Inquisitors...where it's sorta important to have Bane details down pat.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
On the subject og the bane ability, they recently nerfed Epic DR in general with the release of Mythic Adventures and the Epic DR FAQ. Essentially, add up all of the + abilities along with the actual enhancement bonus to determine whether or not it's a +6 equivalent weapon. So a +1 holy speed longsword would be +6 because holy is a +2 property and speed is a +3 property, which, when combined with the +1 enhancement bonus, adds to a total of +3.
It gets even worse as one could then argue that a +1 flaming frost weapon counts as a +3 weapon for overcoming DR/cold iron and DR/silver. Basically, if the + bonus adds up to +3, +4, +5, or +6 it overcomes DR of the appropriate type. I strongly recommend against running with the changes in Mythic Adventures as it basically makes one of the primary defenses of a lot of high level monsters worthless.
I mean, a +1 bane furious weapon would count as a +7 equivalent weapon and overcome Epic DR, and if argued, cold iron, silver, adamantine and alignment DR.
============================
As for Jake, what I was worried about is that Abadar and his followers having a very mercenary viewpoint. Unless it's building roads between cities, erecting new buildings, or something related to establishing or building cities or trade, Abadarians aren't exactly known for their benevolence or generosity.
For example, a cleric of Abadar isn't going to give out free healing unless it is in the best interest of himself or his companions. We've actually encountered issues like this with a cleric of Abadar being unwilling to heal a rescued hostage unless the hostage paid for it; another party member had to pay the cleric to heal the hostage.
A neutral good character is going to be more selfless than that; he would donate to charity (where a follower of Abadar wouldn't), or rescue someone for free, or do things for free in general. A person who demands a reward for everything isn't going to be 'good' in alignment
I worry that in order to remain 'true' to Abadar's faith, he needs to change his alignment to a more neutral alignment. I'm just not sure a consummate mercenary is 'right' for this Adventure Path.
|
I just house ruled away the "high enough bonus overcomes a sort of DR" thing. I like forcing my players to have the right type of weapon to do a job. But that's just me. Still not sure how I'm going to house rule DR/Epic (or if I am). Maybe "enhancement bonus on weapon plus highest weapon special ability bonus must be > 6 to overcome DR Epic" or shift the total bonus up to a 7 or 8. Not sure, will have to see how it plays out.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
As for Jake, what I was worried about is that Abadar and his followers having a very mercenary viewpoint. Unless it's building roads between cities, erecting new buildings, or something related to establishing or building cities or trade, Abadarians aren't exactly known for their benevolence or generosity.
For example, a cleric of Abadar isn't going to give out free healing unless it is in the best interest of himself or his companions. We've actually encountered issues like this with a cleric of Abadar being unwilling to heal a rescued hostage unless the hostage paid for it; another party member had to pay the cleric to heal the hostage.
A neutral good character is going to be more selfless than that; he would donate to charity (where a follower of Abadar wouldn't), or rescue someone for free, or do things for free in general. A person who demands a reward for everything isn't going to be 'good' in alignment
I worry that in order to remain 'true' to Abadar's faith, he needs to change his alignment to a more neutral alignment. I'm just not sure a consummate mercenary is 'right' for this Adventure Path.
Well, as I said, I think he's more likely to stray more from his faith than break the AP primarily because he -did- do something totally non-Abadarian at the end of Book 1. (Sick as a dog today; was hoping to do another session writeup but sitting up is exhausting.)
I think of him very much like I think of people who call themselves "Catholic" but who don't go to church every Sunday, use birth control, have sex outside of marriage, etc. They identify with a church without following its stricter tenets. (Or, to be more fair to Catholics, without adhering to every random rambling the latest Pope comes out with. Most "non-devout" Catholics I know are actually very spiritual; they just don't listen to the Pope, which begs the question, "How are you different from a Protestant again?" But never discuss religion with friends...)
And yeah, I know. CotCT makes Abadar look like an out-and-out SOB in Book 2, so I know exactly where you're coming from. I just view a NG follower of Abadar as "not very faithful" and I let it slide. It's not like he's going to multiclass to cleric or paladin any time soon...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ahhh...I'm just sat here with the Inception soundtrack on and a large glass of whiskey with stones. Time for a nice read.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
10-May-2014 Game
For those of you unfamiliar with my campaign journals, this one shows my party's finer points. (OK. *SPOILER* THIS was my party's finest moment, but contains a massive Rise of the Runelords spoiler.) In this case, first came the meeting with Chief Sull wherein Kariss used the exact phrase, "Would you please accept it as a gift?", kind of forcing my hand with Sull's generosity, and then came the classic Paizo AP, "Let's put the bow-focused ranger in a 20-by-20 room with no quick exits and see what happens to her!"
I swear, after yet another range-focused bad guy fell because she was too stupid to wait for them in a long, narrow hallway, watching the party arrange their own mongrelmen in efficient firing lines in long halls just a few sessions later was just painful.
Yes, I know I'm welcome to change tactics-as-written, but I honestly think my players have more fun whomping on the tactically-inept doofi, and I have more fun complaining about it...
In other news, considering the exploration of the tunnels and getting to the surface took 2 1/2 sessions but less than one day, I think it's time to switch over to session-by-session writeups.
Anyway, we're playing a LOT, but the kids are out of school so my goal is an hour of writing a day, which should at least keep me up with this thread...
Let's return to Neathholm...
=====
18-Arodus-4713
Jake awoke feeling significantly better than he had the day before, but still not quite himself.
GM Note: He made the first of his required Fortitude saves against Filth Fever, and since I'd rolled a full 3 days of onset, he had one more day of saves before he started taking attribute damage.
Merissa was already up performing her devotions, and NoPrey stirred soon thereafter to preen. Aravashnial was meditating quietly, while Gwerm snored loudly. Jake didn't intrude on Kariss' room, but Merissa assured him Kariss and Rishi were still sleeping soundly, while Anevia was beginning to stir.
Once the entire group was (somewhat) awake, they made a list of what they had, what they could sell, and what supplies they would need. Food and arrows were the primary need (Anevia was being downright devastating with her bow, and had just run out), and they believed they'd be able to obtain those readily. Selling things might be more problematic, as it seemed like Neathholm probably didn't have a large amount of coin, but they agreed to sell the heaviest items most likely to be of use to the mongrelmen first (for example, unused weapons and armor), and only if the mongrelmen had enough coin would they sell the lighter, more valuable items (for example, jewelry).
Gwerm was more than willing to tell them the fair market value he'd expect for each item, though, "I don't expect these filth-ridden monstrosities to know the value of an honest day's work, much less a decent piece of jewelry."
Kariss thanked him kindly for his assessments and suggested that he rest after his ordeal of the last few days and she would take care of the sales, assuring him she would not take a copper less than the prices he'd quoted.
Without Gwerm the buying and selling went smoothly... until they tried to sell the copper brooch. With a natural 20 Knowledge: Local roll the mongrelman vendor recognized the brooch and insisted, "No! No buy! You see Chief Sull right now! Guards! Guards!"
The party neither resisted nor panicked; they were baffled by the mongrelman's alarm and allowed themselves to be escorted before Chief Sull once more.
GM Note: I neglected to put it in the previous write-up, but I'd felt that figuring out that the brooch belonged to Chief Sull's son was such a stretch that I had Sull asking about "others like us" and "signs of camps" during their initial interview. I didn't try to beat them over the head with it, so they assured him they hadn't found anything interesting in the previous camps, and I was looking forward to how this was going to play out...
Chief Sull was as baffled as the party until the merchant produced the brooch. Chief Sull's eyes teared up. "Where, where did you find this?"
Kariss spoke, "We found it in an abandoned camp site near the cave-in."
"Were there bones? Signs of a body?"
"No, it looked like whoever had camped there had moved on."
This relaxed Chief Sull a bit. "This... was my son's."
"Oh. We didn't know. Would you please accept it as a gift?"
Chief Sull's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "You... would do this? For me?"
"Of course! You have shown us nothing but hospitality, and if that was your son's, then you are the rightful owner and you should have it."
Chief Sull was speechless for a moment. He then reached down and lifted his morningstar. "This. This has been in my family for generations. Yet I do not use it. And your trail to the surface will lead you directly through our worst enemies; a group of vile mongrelman traitors who have allied themselves with the demons. I ask that you take this as a gift, and use it to split at least one traitor's skull."
Kariss was the one rendered speechless. What was she going to do with a morningstar? Fortunately, Jake stepped up. "I promise you that if I have the opportunity, I will certainly use this to strike down your enemies."
He hefted the morningstar expertly. Chief Sull smiled. Kariss heaved a sigh of relief.
Once they had made their proper goodbyes to Chief Sull (saying goodbyes on Gwerm's and Aravashnial's behalves as well), the party gathered the group together. There was some discussion as to whether to leave Aravashnial or Gwerm behind, but Aravashnial wouldn't hear of not being there to help the party, while Gwerm refused to be "left alone with a group of barely-sentient vermin who are just as likely to devour me as look at me."
Thus, the seven of them set off in the direction of the "evil mongrelmen's" quarters. Sull assured them that he would be gathering his own force to follow them, and they should expect assistance within a matter of days.
Though the mongrelmen had insisted that the traitors' lair was only a short distance away, the tunnel through the darkness seemed interminable, lit only by Merissa's light. Eventually Jake heard noises ahead indicating that they had been seen and he charged forward to engage.
GM Note: I did change up the mongrelmen a bit, allowing them a secondary slam attack to supplement their rather pathetic club attacks. It did make the fight more intense, as the mongrelmen managed to roll several criticals on Jake and actually put him in danger. Unfortunately, while I liked having the cultists buff and prep themselves in their room while letting the mongrelmen die (seemed very in-character for them), leaving Wenduag in her own room was a major mistake. I should have had her come out and start shooting as soon as the party entered the main room; that would have been nasty enough the party might have had to flee, or at least use some of Aravashnial's spells. Spreading out the encounter and having Wenduag barricade herself in proved to be the whole group's undoing...
Two mongrelmen met Jake in a small entry room. They had erected minor barricades to provide themselves cover from bowfire, but Jake and Merissa engaged them hand-to-hand, Anevia proved that partial cover was useless against her, and Kariss provided spell support. The mongrelmen fell quickly, wounding Jake a bit but otherwise leaving the party unscathed. The party took the fight into the next room, a much larger chamber obviously used as living quarters by the mongrelmen. Two more mongrelmen engaged the party, wounding Jake grievously. As Merissa healed Jake and Kariss and Anevia helped do away with the new pair a hideous pink-eyed, pale-scaled lizard crept out of another room to attack them. Jake one-shot it, rendering whatever interesting attacks it might have had moot.
Not wanting to take too long to allow the alarm to spread, the party looked at the three doors leading out of the living quarters. Jake chose to listen at the northern door and definitely heard something beyond. Opening it, he was attacked by the cultists who had been waiting to hit the first person to open the door. Once again they hit him for massive damage. Merissa healed him but it looked bad for the party. Unfortunately, Kariss announced that she was casting "Luck" on the party. The cultists spat back that there was no such spell. "Shows what you know," Kariss shrugged.
And I swear the dice listened to her.
The cultists suddenly couldn't roll over a 5. No one in the party rolled under a 15. AND I WAS USING THE SAME DIE FOR BOTH SIDES!!!!
With rolls like that, Kariss' "Luck spell" saved the day and the cultists fell. A cursory search of their room revealed a ladder going up to parts unknown, and a doorway that opened to a passage leading to a hole going down, from which the sound of rushing water could be heard. Not wanting to change levels, the party returned to the living quarters as Merissa continued to heal Jake. The second door out of the living quarters was already ajar, as the pale lizard had come out of it, and was obviously some kind of pantry.
Opening the third door, Jake was narrowly missed by an arrow as Kariss' Luck spell seemed to continue to function and Wenduag the mongrelman (mongrelwoman?) ranger missed. As soon as Jake saw someone with a bow, he used a full move to get next to her and asked Merissa to do the same. Then came the ugliness of two hand-to-hand fighters (Jake and Merissa) chasing a bow-focused ranger around a small room. Wenduag managed to keep herself alive for a good 2-3 rounds, but eventually with no space to move and no chance to get away (save jumping down a 20' drop to the next level) she fell.
Looking at the hole in the floor, Jake and Kariss did the only sensible thing: They yanked up the rope ladder.
GM Note: D'oh! I had all four mongrelmen waiting to hurl spears at whoever came down, so they were backed away from the ladder to get a good angle. And then the ladder went "whoop" up away from them. I'm sure their expressions were priceless. Reading Hosilla's background, I judged that she would be absolutely ecstatic if the adventuring party didn't bother to come down and left her alone, so I decided she'd order the mongrelmen to stand guard in case the party tried to come down, but under no circumstances to try to go up. This gave the party precious time, as both Kariss and Merissa had used most of their resources. Similarly, the two mongrelmen on the upper floor had managed somehow not to hear any of the fighting (stupid Perception rolls!), and again I figured that if no one came to relieve them they'd believe themselves the sole survivors and not dare going down for a while. So the party was at a point where everyone left alive in the enemy camp was content to wait it out.
It was fairly late, so we decided to call it a night at that point.
*** End of Session ***
Next Planned Session: 17-May-2014 (Already played)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
17-May-2014 Game
Well, my players just gifted me the best birthday in many a year: Dinner at Trader Vic's on Thursday, Rivoli on Friday, Sobo Ramen on Saturday, and home-cooked bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin steaks on Sunday. Oh, and they bought me the entire WizKids Wrath of the Righteous set as a birthday present!
Yeah, it was a good weekend! Plus, thanks to a Whooping Cough epidemic our kids ended up quarantined for the weekend so we had nothing to do but play Wrath of the Righteous the whole time. There's a whole separate thread on parents who don't vaccinate and I don't want to derail my thread, so all I'm going to say is that I'm very thankful we are all vaccinated. Even though most of us seem to have caught it (Jake's player had it twice as a kid and seems immune, curse him!), it manifests as nothing more than a mild cold if you're vaccinated, so it wasn't exactly debilitating. Just seriously annoying. Antibiotics don't go well with wine at all.
As for the mini set, it's gorgeous. Yes, two figures arrived broken, but that's what mini glue is for. And the monster details are outstanding; it's definitely superior to the Rise of the Runelords set in terms of monster quality. My two complaints are the usual:
- No NPCs other than Irabeth? Seriously? I NEED a Horgus Gwerm figure! C'mon!!! I had to use Aldern Foxglove, and Gwerm is waaaaay uglier than that!
- The humanoids are extraordinarily poorly painted. On seeing Queen Galfrey's figure, Jake's player exclaimed, "Yow! She's hideous! What happened to her?"
But yeah, getting to the temple in Book 2 and being able to put out the ghouls (from my RotRL set), the incubus (as Kariss' player said, "Why HELLO there! What are YOU? Oh... of course (*blush*)"), and the death demon, I was just cackling with glee.
But I am way ahead of myself. Let's get back to the mongrelman traitors, shall we?
=====
18-Arodus-4713 (continued from last session)
Deciding that the best course of action would be to seal off all possible lines of attack before moving on, Jake and Merissa moved the table Wendaug had been hiding behind over the hole, then put Wendaug's body on the table. That didn't seem like nearly enough weight, so they added various other items and bodies until they were fairly confident that anyone down the hole would have a great deal of trouble climbing up, what with no ladder and several hundred pounds of stuff blocking the hole.
With the hole secure, they searched the remaining rooms on this level of the cave. Wendaug's room had a door that opened on a steep slime-covered passage that ended in a pile of stinking garbage. No one volunteered to investigate the garbage, so they closed the door. The living quarters had no exits they hadn't already explored, so they moved on to the room where they had found the cultists. They followed the hall where they heard the rushing water and found a knotted rope hanging down into a hole in the ground, apparently leading to an underground stream or river. Once again they pulled up the rope, figuring they would deal with whatever was below at a later time. This time they didn't have anything convenient with which to cover the hole, so they left it open and finally approached the ladder that went up to the next level.
Jake climbed up the ladder first, followed closely by Merissa, and was beset by enormous rats almost the moment he reached the top of the ladder. Fortunately, they still seemed to be shaking off their sleep, and Jake and Merissa managed to pin them in their nest long enough for Anevia and Kariss to arrive and start hammering them from range. Soon enough, the rats dropped. They found nothing worthwhile in the room or the nest, and moved on to the next room.
This time the ambushing mongrelmen (finally) rolled a high Initiative, and dropped Jake to negative hit points in their initial assault. Unfortunately for them, this prompted Kariss to ask Aravashnial to do something so he dropped a Sleep spell on the entire room and the mongrelmen fell unconscious. Merissa first healed Jake, then turned to the party. "These mongrelmen are known allies of the demons that felled Kenabres, and I deem their lives forfeit. Does anyone argue?"
No one argued, and Merissa cleanly coup de graced them.
Once they were dead, Merissa took time to heal the injured. While everyone was fully healed, Merissa warned the party that she was completely out of healing of any sort, and was concerned that they might need to withdraw and rest so she could recuperate.
Jake wouldn't hear of it, and the party proceeded into a room that was obviously part of Kenabres' original infrastructure: Grey-black stone walls lined a regular chamber. Jake guessed that it must have been an old cistern for the sewer system of the city. However, someone had built brick walls within the cistern to create a makeshift maze. Wanting as much visibility as possible, Jake lit a torch to supplement Merissa's Light spell. The party proceeded cautiously into the maze, checking each junction for any sign of danger. About twenty feet in there was an area where the whole party could gather so Jake had everyone get together while he scouted ahead.
GM Note: And here's where I never get to tease Jake's player about burning so many feats on Perception ever again...
As he walked between two walls with a four-way intersection ahead of him, he heard eager breathing coming from the passage to his right (yes, he rolled THAT high). Gleefully, he drew his sword, stepped in, and struck the dretch who had been waiting to ambush him. Unfortunately, he was unable to kill the dretch in a single blow, and it belched forth a noxious cloud of gas, rendering breathing difficult and visibility even worse.
Kariss heard the Abyssal yammering and Aravashnial easily recognized the sounds and the smells as belonging to dretch and didn't hesitate: He immediately began casting a summons.
It really looked like it was going to be a nasty fight. Merissa couldn't enter the cloud without risking getting nauseated, the dretch's damage resistance kept them (there were two of them) up against Jake's attacks, and Kariss and NoPrey couldn't see a thing, and were also concerned about a flanking maneuver that might jeapordize the NPCs. Fortunately, Jake's armor class was high enough to keep the dretch from doing major damage to him, but he couldn't stand alone forever. Just then, coming around the corner like a speeding blue comet, came a glowing blue-and-green being. Jake asked, "Uh, guys? There's something else here! Is it friendly?"
Lancing beams of light burned the dretch facing Jake to a crisp. (Rolled max damage.) NoPrey recognized the giggles and chittering of a Celestial creature when he heard them. "Yes! It's a lantern archon! And it's VERY happy to be killing dretch for you!"
Yeah, Aravashnial summoned a lantern archon. THEN cast Magic Circle of Protection from Evil because he could hear the fight through the wall right next to him. Between the archon, the circle, and Jake the dretch were mopped up forthwith. The happy, happy archon thanked Aravashnial for the opportunity to kill demons, NoPrey thanked it for its assistance in return, and it faded back to its own plane. Kariss thanked Aravashnial profusely, and asked whether she might learn such a spell. "Considering your talent, my lady, I am sure you will learn it soon enough. Hopefully after we have left these caves."
Aravashnial couldn't see Kariss' smile.
Now that both Merissa and Aravashnial had used their high-level spells, and Jake was wounded once again, they found a "safe" corner of the maze to sleep in and settled down for the night. They rested uninterrupted, except by Gwerm's incessant complaints. Fortunately, he dozed off fairly quickly once the lights were out.
GM Note: Considering the only creatures left alive were under the table in Wendaug's room, I figured a free night of rest was fair enough.
=====
19-Arodus-4713
As usual, the only mark of time in the dark caverns was Merissa performing her devotions in the morning. She was in good spirits this morning, so Kariss dared ask whether she had slept well.
"Oh, yes! Iomedae came to visit and we walked along the beach and spoke of our sadness at the fall of Kenabres, and she reassured me that all is not lost. But she wouldn't tell me about my brother or my parents or Kenabres, for that matter. Actually, I guess she didn't say that all wasn't lost, either. Just something about how I should maintain hope. But the beach was really nice!"
Kariss rolled her eyes and was sorry she'd asked.
Once everyone was awake, breakfasted, armed, and equipped, Merissa and Jake removed the piles of detritus from the table. Anevia and Jake prepared their bows as Merissa slid the table aside...
...and the mongrelmen with spears were no match for the PCs and NPCs with bows and died rather unclimactically.
They moved forward through the mongrelmen's lower quarters, noting a clear pool of water and some barricades but otherwise moving on into the meeting hall.
Then came Hosilla. Poor, silly, deluded Hosilla.
As Jake entered the hall, he spotted a shadowy figure hiding in the doorway to the north and heard a woman casting spells behind that person. In a bit of epic silliness, Kariss hit Uziel (the tiefling guarding Hosilla and blocking the door so she'd be able to use her reach weapon) with Cause Fear and he ran off to the back of the room. This prevented Hosilla from having the time to cast True Strike before Jake got up to her, so he ate the attack of opportunity and hit her. While Uziel cowered, Jake disarmed Hosilla. It was just bad. Then NoPrey added Grease to the room to finish the lunacy.
So, anyway, after Hosilla and Uziel were dispatched with great prejudice the party searched the room. In addition to Hosilla's gear, they found a note on her person and a lockbox. The note indicated that Hosilla's orders were to hide underground until after the city was sacked, then check on three "Safe Houses" to make sure no evidence remained behind. It was signed, "S.V.", who was apparently in command of Drezen. Two more items of note on the note were that someone named Vorlesh who was going to do something to the wardstone (they made their rolls to recognize Areelu Vorlesh's name as the rumored architect of the Worldwound), and that "Yaniel's sword" had been stolen from the museum. None of them knew who Yaniel was, so Gwerm condescendingly filled them in: She had been a paladin of the Fourth Crusade who had spoken out against the negligence and sloth of the Mendevian crusaders and ventured forth herself into the Worldwound. All expected her to die, but instead she returned with hundreds of rescued crusaders. Unfortunately, she was killed by a demoness named Minagho shortly into her second personal crusade, and the sword had been placed in a museum for safekeeping.
Sure enough, inside the sword case they found Radiance, Yaniel's holy sword. Unfortunately, Radiance didn't seem all that radiant; in spite of detecting like a very powerful sword, it behaved as nothing so much as an ordinary cold iron longsword. The party decided that Merissa should wield it, since she was already wielding a longsword and this one would obviously be better.
GM Note: And here I faced my first major dilemma as a GMNPC. As GM, I knew that only a paladin could wield Radiance properly. As a player, I had no clue. Since the party had no paladins in it and didn't plan on having any, should I force my hand and make Merissa gain of level of paladin when the party shattered the Wardstone? It would at least be in keeping with the story and she was already LG. After a great deal of discussion with my players, we decided that she would remain a cleric, and they would give Radiance away to someone who seemed worthy.
There was nothing left in the traitorous mongrelmen's lair but to explore that strange underground stream. Jake went down first, descending 40 feet to a small pool. He searched around but didn't see anything, so Kariss brought her light down to help.
GM Note: After everything they'd been through, I felt that the two gars were just a bit over-the-top, so I omitted them from the pool.
Finding nothing of interest, they turned to climb back up the rope. As they moved, they were exactly facing the secret door as they started pulling on the rope, so I figured I had to give them one more roll each as they went up. Apparently the angle was all-important, because Jake had no trouble seeing the secret door on his second try. They left Merissa, Anevia, Aravashnial, and Gwerm at the top of the rope as NoPrey went down as well.
Beyond the secret door was a small dry chamber, covered with dust. At the other end of the chamber was a chest, covered with dust and cobwebs. NoPrey yelled, "Shineys and tasties!" and charged across the room...
...directly into the spiked pit trap.
To my absolute horror I rolled hit, potential crit (not confirmed), hit, hit, and near-max damage. (NoPrey's player clearly recalls me saying, "I'm sorry to do this to you, but..." NoPrey was at -6 hit points and bleeding out fast, with the only healer 40 feet up and with a horrific Climb roll. I pantomimed how NoPrey must have spread his wings in an attempt to fly and managed to impale him on multiple spikes.
As NoPrey started bleeding out, I had no choice but to try to send Merissa down. Fortunately for the party, she managed her DC 5 Climb roll (with a check of -6 it's no joke) and channeled energy the moment he was within 30 feet, saving his life.
As we all sighed in relief and giggled at the ridiculous tengu, I listed the loot (gold, a +1 light wooden shield ideal for Merissa, a ring of climbing (amusingly enough), and various scrolls and potions. NoPrey was disappointed at the lack of shineys.
And at that point, we called it a night.
*** End of Session ***
17-May-2014 Game
Well, my players just gifted me the best birthday in many a year: Dinner at Trader Vic's on Thursday, Rivoli on Friday, Sobo Ramen on Saturday, and home-cooked bacon-wrapped beef tenderloin steaks on Sunday. Oh, and they bought me the entire WizKids Wrath of the Righteous set as a birthday present!
Yeah, it was a good weekend! Plus, thanks to a Whooping Cough epidemic our kids ended up quarantined for the weekend so we had nothing to do but play Wrath of the Righteous the whole time. There's a whole separate thread on parents who don't vaccinate and I don't want to derail my thread, so all I'm going to say is that I'm very thankful we are all vaccinated. Even though most of us seem to have caught it (Jake's player had it twice as a kid and seems immune, curse him!), it manifests as nothing more than a mild cold if you're vaccinated, so it wasn't exactly debilitating. Just seriously annoying. Antibiotics don't go well with wine at all.
As for the mini set, it's gorgeous. Yes, two figures arrived broken, but that's what mini glue is for. And the monster details are outstanding; it's definitely superior to the Rise of the Runelords set in terms of monster quality. My two complaints are the usual:
- No NPCs other than Irabeth? Seriously? I NEED a Horgus Gwerm figure! C'mon!!! I had to use Aldern Foxglove, and Gwerm is waaaaay uglier than that!
- The humanoids are extraordinarily poorly painted. On seeing Queen Galfrey's figure, Jake's player exclaimed, "Yow! She's hideous! What happened to her?"
But yeah, getting to the temple in Book 2 and being able to put out the ghouls (from my RotRL set), the incubus (as Kariss' player said, "Why HELLO there! What are YOU? Oh... of course (*blush*)"), and the death demon, I was just cackling with glee.
But I am way ahead of myself. Let's get back to the mongrelman traitors, shall we?
=====
18-Arodus-4713 (continued from last session)
Deciding that the best course of action would be to seal off all possible lines of attack before moving on, Jake and Merissa moved the table Wendaug had been hiding behind over the hole, then put Wendaug's body on the table. That didn't seem like nearly enough weight, so they added various other items and bodies until they were fairly confident that anyone down the hole would have a great deal of trouble climbing up, what with no ladder and several hundred pounds of stuff blocking the hole.
With the hole secure, they searched the remaining rooms on this level of the cave. Wendaug's room had a door that opened on a steep slime-covered passage that ended in a pile of stinking garbage. No one volunteered to investigate the garbage, so they closed the door. The living quarters had no exits they hadn't already explored, so they moved on to the room where they had found the cultists. They followed the hall where they heard the rushing water and found a knotted rope hanging down into a hole in the ground, apparently leading to an underground stream or river. Once again they pulled up the rope, figuring they would deal with whatever was below at a later time. This time they didn't have anything convenient with which to cover the hole, so they left it open and finally approached the ladder that went up to the next level.
Jake climbed up the ladder first, followed closely by Merissa, and was beset by enormous rats almost the moment he reached the top of the ladder. Fortunately, they still seemed to be shaking off their sleep, and Jake and Merissa managed to pin them in their nest long enough for Anevia and Kariss to arrive and start hammering them from range. Soon enough, the rats dropped. They found nothing worthwhile in the room or the nest, and moved on to the next room.
This time the ambushing mongrelmen (finally) rolled a high Initiative, and dropped Jake to negative hit points in their initial assault. Unfortunately for them, this prompted Kariss to ask Aravashnial to do something so he dropped a Sleep spell on the entire room and the mongrelmen fell unconscious. Merissa first healed Jake, then turned to the party. "These mongrelmen are known allies of the demons that felled Kenabres, and I deem their lives forfeit. Does anyone argue?"
No one argued, and Merissa cleanly coup de graced them.
Once they were dead, Merissa took time to heal the injured. While everyone was fully healed, Merissa warned the party that she was completely out of healing of any sort, and was concerned that they might need to withdraw and rest so she could recuperate.
Jake wouldn't hear of it, and the party proceeded into a room that was obviously part of Kenabres' original infrastructure: Grey-black stone walls lined a regular chamber. Jake guessed that it must have been an old cistern for the sewer system of the city. However, someone had built brick walls within the cistern to create a makeshift maze. Wanting as much visibility as possible, Jake lit a torch to supplement Merissa's Light spell. The party proceeded cautiously into the maze, checking each junction for any sign of danger. About twenty feet in there was an area where the whole party could gather so Jake had everyone get together while he scouted ahead.
GM Note: And here's where I never get to tease Jake's player about burning so many feats on Perception ever again...
As he walked between two walls with a four-way intersection ahead of him, he heard eager breathing coming from the passage to his right (yes, he rolled THAT high). Gleefully, he drew his sword, stepped in, and struck the dretch who had been waiting to ambush him. Unfortunately, he was unable to kill the dretch in a single blow, and it belched forth a noxious cloud of gas, rendering breathing difficult and visibility even worse.
Kariss heard the Abyssal yammering and Aravashnial easily recognized the sounds and the smells as belonging to dretch and didn't hesitate: He immediately began casting a summons.
It really looked like it was going to be a nasty fight. Merissa couldn't enter the cloud without risking getting nauseated, the dretch's damage resistance kept them (there were two of them) up against Jake's attacks, and Kariss and NoPrey couldn't see a thing, and were also concerned about a flanking maneuver that might jeapordize the NPCs. Fortunately, Jake's armor class was high enough to keep the dretch from doing major damage to him, but he couldn't stand alone forever. Just then, coming around the corner like a speeding blue comet, came a glowing blue-and-green being. Jake asked, "Uh, guys? There's something else here! Is it friendly?"
Lancing beams of light burned the dretch facing Jake to a crisp. (Rolled max damage.) NoPrey recognized the giggles and chittering of a Celestial creature when he heard them. "Yes! It's a lantern archon! And it's VERY happy to be killing dretch for you!"
Yeah, Aravashnial summoned a lantern archon. THEN cast Magic Circle of Protection from Evil because he could hear the fight through the wall right next to him. Between the archon, the circle, and Jake the dretch were mopped up forthwith. The happy, happy archon thanked Aravashnial for the opportunity to kill demons, NoPrey thanked it for its assistance in return, and it faded back to its own plane. Kariss thanked Aravashnial profusely, and asked whether she might learn such a spell. "Considering your talent, my lady, I am sure you will learn it soon enough. Hopefully after we have left these caves."
Aravashnial couldn't see Kariss' smile.
Now that both Merissa and Aravashnial had used their high-level spells, and Jake was wounded once again, they found a "safe" corner of the maze to sleep in and settled down for the night. They rested uninterrupted, except by Gwerm's incessant complaints. Fortunately, he dozed off fairly quickly once the lights were out.
GM Note: Considering the only creatures left alive were under the table in Wendaug's room, I figured a free night of rest was fair enough.
=====
19-Arodus-4713
As usual, the only mark of time in the dark caverns was Merissa performing her devotions in the morning. She was in good spirits this morning, so Kariss dared ask whether she had slept well.
"Oh, yes! Iomedae came to visit and we walked along the beach and spoke of our sadness at the fall of Kenabres, and she reassured me that all is not lost. But she wouldn't tell me about my brother or my parents or Kenabres, for that matter. Actually, I guess she didn't say that all wasn't lost, either. Just something about how I should maintain hope. But the beach was really nice!"
Kariss rolled her eyes and was sorry she'd asked.
Once everyone was awake, breakfasted, armed, and equipped, Merissa and Jake removed the piles of detritus from the table. Anevia and Jake prepared their bows as Merissa slid the table aside...
...and the mongrelmen with spears were no match for the PCs and NPCs with bows and died rather unclimactically.
They moved forward through the mongrelmen's lower quarters, noting a clear pool of water and some barricades but otherwise moving on into the meeting hall.
Then came Hosilla. Poor, silly, deluded Hosilla.
As Jake entered the hall, he spotted a shadowy figure hiding in the doorway to the north and heard a woman casting spells behind that person. In a bit of epic silliness, Kariss hit Uziel (the tiefling guarding Hosilla and blocking the door so she'd be able to use her reach weapon) with Cause Fear and he ran off to the back of the room. This prevented Hosilla from having the time to cast True Strike before Jake got up to her, so he ate the attack of opportunity and hit her. While Uziel cowered, Jake disarmed Hosilla. It was just bad. Then NoPrey added Grease to the room to finish the lunacy.
So, anyway, after Hosilla and Uziel were dispatched with great prejudice the party searched the room. In addition to Hosilla's gear, they found a note on her person and a lockbox. The note indicated that Hosilla's orders were to hide underground until after the city was sacked, then check on three "Safe Houses" to make sure no evidence remained behind. It was signed, "S.V.", who was apparently in command of Drezen. Two more items of note on the note were that someone named Vorlesh who was going to do something to the wardstone (they made their rolls to recognize Areelu Vorlesh's name as the rumored architect of the Worldwound), and that "Yaniel's sword" had been stolen from the museum. None of them knew who Yaniel was, so Gwerm condescendingly filled them in: She had been a paladin of the Fourth Crusade who had spoken out against the negligence and sloth of the Mendevian crusaders and ventured forth herself into the Worldwound. All expected her to die, but instead she returned with hundreds of rescued crusaders. Unfortunately, she was killed by a demoness named Minagho shortly into her second personal crusade, and the sword had been placed in a museum for safekeeping.
Sure enough, inside the sword case they found Radiance, Yaniel's holy sword. Unfortunately, Radiance didn't seem all that radiant; in spite of detecting like a very powerful sword, it behaved as nothing so much as an ordinary cold iron longsword. The party decided that Merissa should wield it, since she was already wielding a longsword and this one would obviously be better.
GM Note: And here I faced my first major dilemma as a GMNPC. As GM, I knew that only a paladin could wield Radiance properly. As a player, I had no clue. Since the party had no paladins in it and didn't plan on having any, should I force my hand and make Merissa gain of level of paladin when the party shattered the Wardstone? It would at least be in keeping with the story and she was already LG. After a great deal of discussion with my players, we decided that she would remain a cleric, and they would give Radiance away to someone who seemed worthy.
There was nothing left in the traitorous mongrelmen's lair but to explore that strange underground stream. Jake went down first, descending 40 feet to a small pool. He searched around but didn't see anything, so Kariss brought her light down to help.
GM Note: After everything they'd been through, I felt that the two gars were just a bit over-the-top, so I omitted them from the pool.
Finding nothing of interest, they turned to climb back up the rope. As they moved, they were exactly facing the secret door as they started pulling on the rope, so I figured I had to give them one more roll each as they went up. Apparently the angle was all-important, because Jake had no trouble seeing the secret door on his second try. They left Merissa, Anevia, Aravashnial, and Gwerm at the top of the rope as NoPrey went down as well.
Beyond the secret door was a small dry chamber, covered with dust. At the other end of the chamber was a chest, covered with dust and cobwebs. NoPrey yelled, "Shineys and tasties!" and charged across the room...
...directly into the spiked pit trap.
To my absolute horror I rolled hit, potential crit (not confirmed), hit, hit, and near-max damage. (NoPrey's player clearly recalls me saying, "I'm sorry to do this to you, but...") NoPrey was at -6 hit points and bleeding out fast, with the only healer 40 feet up and with a horrific Climb roll. I pantomimed how NoPrey must have spread his wings in an attempt to fly and managed to impale himself on multiple spikes.
As NoPrey started bleeding out, I had no choice but to try to send Merissa down. Fortunately for the party, she managed her DC 5 Climb roll (with a check of -6 it's no joke) and channeled energy the moment he was within 30 feet, saving his life.
As we all sighed in relief and giggled at the ridiculous tengu, I listed the loot (gold, a +1 light wooden shield ideal for Merissa, a ring of climbing (amusingly enough), and various scrolls and potions. NoPrey was disappointed at the lack of shineys.
And at that point, we called it a night.
*** End of Session ***
Next Planned Session: 25-May-2014 (Already played)
Oops! Sorry for the double-length post! Apparently my copy-and-paste fu was misbehaving this morning!
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
GM Note: And here I faced my first major dilemma as a GMNPC. As GM, I knew that only a paladin could wield Radiance properly. As a player, I had no clue. Since the party had no paladins in it and didn't plan on having any, should I force my hand and make Merissa gain of level of paladin when the party shattered the Wardstone? It would at least be in keeping with the story and she was already LG. After a great deal of discussion with my players, we decided that she would remain a cleric, and they would give Radiance away to someone who seemed worthy.
My thoughts - since it sounds like Merissa has some strong tie to Iomedae, I would have had Radiance awaken in her hands as though she were a paladin when the wardstone shatters. It's just part of her mythic ascension that she's able to use it. But your answer works just fine too!
Yeah; I was thinking of doing that, too, but it just felt "cheesy" to do it for a GMNPC. Especially giving a cleric a Holy Avenger. Halek's obscene hit points and damage output notwithstanding, I prefer my GMNPCs to be "background" characters who fill holes in the party, rather than "real" players.
So for the moment Merissa is continuing to amuse (and worry) the party with her strange dreams of Iomedae, and Irabeth is wielding Radiance.
After Sunday's game I started browsing through Book 3 to see what kinds of clues and hints I should start giving the players about their backgrounds. I think Merissa and NoPrey's origins are going to give my players giggle fits.
Oops! Sorry for the double-length post! Apparently my copy-and-paste fu was misbehaving this morning!
Whenever I check the forums, I always open up all the *new* posts in a new tab and then I read them in the order opened, sometimes skipping others depending on length or content. With yours, I quickly scrolled to the bottom and was like, "SUPER POST!!" so I skipped it and came back. Was a little disappointed at the double post :P
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Radiance only awaken in the hands of a Mythic Paladin? Are you making Irabeth mythic in your game?
The text in front of me reads:
So nothing about the base abilities requiring a mythic paladin.
She's not getting any of its mythic powers, though...
And what's REALLY irritating about the "double post" is that I saw my post twice, but it looked like it was the classic, "Oops, I posted twice," mistake so I checked for that.
Never thought I'd accidentally paste twice. First time in a few hundred posts, I think...
The text in front of me reads:
So nothing about the base abilities requiring a mythic paladin.
She's not getting any of its mythic powers, though...
And what's REALLY irritating about the "double post" is that I saw my post twice, but it looked like it was the classic, "Oops, I posted twice," mistake so I checked for that.
Never thought I'd accidentally paste twice. First time in a few hundred posts, I think...
I see what I was remembering: Radiance only becomes a legendary weapon when wielded by a mythic paladin. Also, there are events in the further books that allows it to be further awakened; for example...
Yep; it's already upgrading. My posts are a month behind the game. Stupid real life, getting in the way of gaming, writing, and dining! :-P
And shouldn't you be outside for the next 4 months? I thought you Alaskans "Northerners" abandoned the indoors as soon as the sun came out...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think Merissa and NoPrey's origins are going to give my players giggle fits.
Spoilers!!!! I HATE spoi ... oh a SPARKLY!!!
Yep; it's already upgrading. My posts are a month behind the game. Stupid real life, getting in the way of gaming, writing, and dining! :-P
And shouldn't you be outside for the next 4 months? I thought you
Alaskans"Northerners" abandoned the indoors as soon as the sun came out...
I'm actually not much of an outside person, nor do I like fish (which always causes people to look at me funny in Alaska). The reason we stop gaming in the summer is because every one else in my group goes outside. However, I do still sit in the sun (with one of those big table umbrellas, parasol I think) with my laptop and do stuff.
Do NOT let GothBard know you sit under a parasol with your laptop and drink fru-fru drinks while other people fish. She'll be in Alaska in a hot second!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Do NOT let GothBard know you sit under a parasol with your laptop and drink fru-fru drinks while other people fish. She'll be in Alaska in a hot second!
I don't drink fru-fru drinks, just soda an water, (sometimes juice or kool-aid). But other than that, it's exactly what I do. Lately we've been having a ton of sporadic rain, so outside time has been precious.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
25-May-2014 Game
Some days, you just shouldn't be taking notes. This was an out-of-rotation Sunday game, and I clearly didn't have my head on straight with such gems as, "On cause fear, demon eat," but I figure between my addled brain, addled notes, and player edits I should be able to produce something coherent from these...
Language and images in this post are a bit rougher than most. It was post-fall Kenabres, and it's hard to keep the write-ups 100% G-rated. But this is at worst PG...
=====
19-Arodus-4713 (continued from last game)
After the fights and NoPrey's plummet, Merissa's healing was sorely depleted once again, and this time the party decided that it would be better to let her rest and recuperate rather than to try to press on once again with little healing. Even Master Gwerm could not argue with this logic, so the party gathered in the mongrelmen's filthy pantry (everyone agreed it was better than staying in the cultists' room), set watches, and rested for the rest of the day.
Jake made his second save and recovered from Filth Fever without taking any ability damage at all. Boo!
The party leveled up to third level.
=====
20-Arodus-4713
Another dark morning greeted the party, once again lit only by Merissa's light. Any grumblings at this monotonous light source were immediately silenced by the realization that at least they could still see, unlike Aravashnial, who traveled the caverns in eternal darkness.
With Jake in the lead, the party clambered up the ladder to the old cistern and followed the passage beyond. And followed it... and followed it... and came upon their first ladder up. It was old, and iron, and looked like it had been installed when the city had first been built. This reassured the group that they were headed in the right direction, and Gwerm confirmed that the sewers were built as each section of city was built, indicating that they were getting closer to the surface. A few random turns and ladder climbs later, and Jake finally saw a source of light beyond Merissa's shield.
Above them, up another iron ladder, was an iron grating through which sunlight streamed. Even standing under the grating, 10 feet belowground, the smell of burning flesh and wood wafted down to them. Not wanting to risk lifting the grating unless it was absolutely necessary (and the coast was clear), Kariss sent Rishi up the ladder to try to squeeze through the grating. Unfortunately, the slits were too narrow. Rishi returned to Kariss and the party decided to go through the grate the hard way: Jake pushed it up and rushed upwards, Merissa, Anevia, Kariss, and NoPrey close on his heels.
Fortunately, there was no one there to meet them.
Unfortunately, they could finally see the devastation that had once been their home.
Kenabres was a city in ruins. Open flames still sent massive plumes of smoke into the sky in many areas. Patches of sky that were not darkened by smoke were blackened instead by opportunistic buzzards, circling overhead and looking for the latest victims of the carnage. Among the buzzards, worse shapes flew, looking for new prey. Less than 100 feet to the east was a massive trench created by who-knows-what, a creature that tore through streets and buildings and anything else in its path with equal aplomb. As the party blinked in the sunlight, a wailing scream from hundreds (or even thousands) of feet away broke the silence and was quickly cut off; another victim of the sack of Kenabres.
The weight of the devastation was visible in Jake, Merissa, and Kariss' shoulders: All of them had family in Kenabres. While NoPrey had no family here, he was outraged that someone had done this to his adopted city. Gwerm and Aravashnial were silent, while Anevia wept silently for her lost wife.
Kariss was the first to break the mood. "Well, where should we head, then?"
Gwerm insisted that it would make the most sense to head to his manor, where his servants would surely have maintained his armory, and he could equip the party as promised. Aravashnial indicated that he would prefer to travel to Blackwing Library, where he might be able to find some "resources of use to the party". Anevia wanted to go to her home as soon as possible to find out whether there was any word of Irabeth, but dreading the worst, was willing to wait. Jake's family was in the southwestern Gate District, far from any of the other locations. Similarly, Merissa's home was in the northern Ring District, across half a city of ruin. Kariss' house was only a few blocks from Anevia's; she wondered how she hadn't recognized Anevia sooner. They must have traveled in different social circles.
Drawing a crude map of the city in the ashes on the road, the party planned a winding path, first to the Blackwing Library, then past Gwerm Manor and on to Anevia and Kariss' houses. Everyone agreed that this was the most reasonable plan, so the party set forth.
Unfortunately, traveling in broad daylight in the ruins of Kenabres was foolhardy. Fortunately, the dretches they came upon made such abysmal Perception rolls it was a moot point. The fight was short and brutal, with Jake and Merissa carving into the dretches, Kariss testing various spells to see which affected them, and Anevia peppering them with arrows. The only risk came from NoPrey, who tried valiantly to enter the fray but managed to fumble twice while trying to strike the dretches. Fortunately, his fumbles were harmless and the surprised dretches were dispatched forthwith.
Even more unfortunately, the noise from the battle with the dretches attracted even more unwelcome company in the form of several cultists of Baphomet. Even more fortunately, NoPrey decided to stop trying to fight and instead Greased the ground under the cultists. The fumbling, bumbling, tumbling cultists were cut to pieces by Jake and Merissa, aided by Anevia's arrows, Kariss' spells, and NoPrey's inspirational dancing. (Yeah. Whatever. He took it. I gotta give it to him. An inspirational bird dance. Yeah.)
The party arrived at Blackwing Library to find it in ruins. The entire structure had collapsed, leaving a pile of rubble atop a small mound that might be its former great hall. Even more ominously, the buildings around Blackwing were intact, indicating that it had been the target of a directed attack. On hearing the description, Aravashnial collapsed to his knees. "All of my friends... all of my companions... they were all... there."
Kariss reassured him that not all of the building was destroyed, and there might yet be some survivors inside. Aravashnial was not reassured.
Coming closer, the party heard a voice inside ordering someone to "stack the books higher" and laughing maniacally that, "If you drop another book, you'll be the next to burn."
Speaking of epic ugliness, Merissa put Bull's Strength and Protection from Evil on Jake, while NoPrey performed and Jake drank a Potion of Invisibility. Chaleb Sazomal, one-time crusader and now insane sadist, first knew that something was amiss when Jake whomped him for nearly half his hit points. He'd been trying to get one of the surviving librarians to surround the other four with piles of the remaining books so he could send them up in a pyre of learning for his own amusement while his tiefling lackeys cackled, but Jake cut that plan rather short as Merissa, Anevia, and Kariss moved in to provide additional support. Chaleb was no match for a fully-buffed fighter with a surprise round, and his tiefling cohorts were quickly subdued as well. Even the free librarian got in a Burning Hands, though the rest of the party quickly asked her not to use fire spells in a library.
The librarians were almost as happy to see Aravashnial as he was to "see" them. He called them by name, recognizing their voices, and they hugged him as a lifeline to more peaceful times. While the librarians explained the events at Blackwing (a horrific abomination shaped like a man but made of worms had come and used magic and demons to destroy the library as they had hidden) and Aravashnial described his own trials and travails (Kariss was pleased to note that she featured prominently in his descriptions), Jake and Merissa set to re-sealing the doors. The librarians had been stupid enough to offer assistance to Chaleb when he pounded on their doors, pretending to be a crusader in distress, and they would not make that mistake again.
Once the doors were closed and locked, the library was clearly a strong, defensible position. The party asked the librarians about anything that might aid them, at the same time looting the bodies of Chaleb and the tieflings. Finding yet more valuable-but-heavy loot (Chaleb's banded steel mail and +1 heavy mace, for example, the party decided to risk leaving some of their loot at the library to lighten the load. The librarians gladly agreed to watch over it for them, and offered them the library's lone remaining spellbook as payment. Unfortunately, no one in the party could use a spellbook, but they figured they could hopefully get it to someone who could. Within the spellbook they found a scroll of Dimensional Lock. THIS, Kariss could use!
While the party wasn't particularly low on resources, they also weren't eager to push their luck. The library was well-defended, had survived for days undisturbed after the initial assault, and now Aravashnial was planning on staying there. They decided to camp there for the night. Aravashnial asked as to the whereabouts of Quednys Orlun, the head of the library, and the librarians admitted that he'd been near the Cathedral of Saint Clydwell when the attack happened, and they hadn't heard from him since. This saddened Aravashnial even more.
The party settled in for the evening...
=====
21-Arodus-4713
Bidding Aravashnial, "Farewell 'til we meet agains", the party set forth towards Gwerm manor. To get there, they had to cross one of the wide crevasses carved by who-knows-what as it crawled/slithered/who-knows-what out from the city center and through the city walls as if they didn't exist. It was nerve-wracking, and Anevia needed significant help getting up and down the steep lips, but those not climbing/crossing provided bow cover for those who were, and the party made it across the barren expanse unperturbed.
As they moved farther into the southeastern Gate district, the quality of the houses and shops quickly improved, and the signs of damage from demons grew scarcer. This was an area of wealthy merchants and shopkeeps, not crusaders, and only demons bored of slaughtering the righteous came here. The party was just beginning to relax when Jake heard the crashing of glass and a woman's scream, this time close enough that they could do something about it.
Not one to think before charging, Jake rushed forward to see what the commotion was about. There, in some kind of fancy clothing store, was a dog-like demon tearing through the store's wares.
GM Note: I was going by the picture on p. 29 of the book. Unfortunately, once I got the pawns and minis I realized an abrikandilu looks nothing whatsoever like that picture. But I kind of have to go with what I told my players...
A man with a badly-wounded leg lay on the ground near the demon, while a woman (presumably his wife) tried to pull him to safety. Inexplicably, the demon was demolishing a full-length mirror instead of attacking the prey.
Jake reached in the smashed front window and introduced himself to the demon by whacking it with his morning star. This got its attention. As it prepared to pounce, NoPrey Greased the ground under it.
In perhaps the most pathetic, one-sided fight of the campaign so far, the abrikandilu demon proceeded to fail EVERY SINGLE Reflex save it tried as Jake simply leaned in the window and beat it to death as it thrashed around prone. It was a bit anticlimactic.
The shopkeeps were ecstatic! They explained that they were Belthis and Nira Loumis, and had hidden in the store's storage cellar during the initial attack. They had food supplies down there, but not enough water, so they had been venturing forth to find sources of fresh water. The demon had apparently caught sight/scent of them during one such outing and had come back to their store. Rather than killing them, the demon had focused its rage on their clothing, mannequins, glass casings, and especially the mirrors. Belthis had been injured trying to protect his wares, but once he had backed away the demon focused all of its rage on destroying things.
As Merissa healed Belthis' leg, the party asked the shopkeeps of news from the surface: Were there other survivors? Had they heard any news?
The news from the Loumises was mixed: They knew that other survivors were hiding in the Gate district; they'd seen them on occasion, but never approached each other. They had heard that some of the crusaders had gone mad and were causing as much mayhem as the demons. The party confirmed this, and warned the Loumises to be wary. They had heard that the mole people were rising up from the sewers, abducting people for food. The party assured the Loumises that the mole people were allies to be trusted. Finally, the Loumises mentioned that they had heard that cultists had been in the city all along, and had safehouses within Kenabres' walls. The party knew this as well.
Making sure the Loumises were safe, and having Merissa create several dozen gallons of water for them, they took their leave and moved on. (Isn't Create Water the best cantrip/orison ever? With the possible exception of Prestidigitation?)
It was only a few more blocks to Gwerm Manor, and Horgus was pleased to note that his manor stood undisturbed among the destruction around it. "See? If you prepare yourself well, hire only the best staff, and equip and train yourselves adequately, none of this nonsense can affect you!"
The party was unmoved by his self-righteousness. As they moved closer, they noticed no movement on the grounds. Gwerm was still unconcerned. "Of course they wouldn't be outside! What fool would be under the current circumstances? Present company excepted, of course!"
Rather than risking attracting unwanted attention by ringing the bell, they let themselves in at the iron gate and moved on to the manor itself. To Gwerm's chagrin, the door was unlocked. "What madness is this?"
The inside of the manor told the true story. Every painting, vase, tapestry, carpet, candelabra, or other item of value had been stripped from the house. The barren halls echoed. Mouth agape, Gwerm traveled room to room, slowly drinking in the magnitude of his employees' betrayal. The silverware was gone, as were the plates, the crystal glasses, and even the napkins! Arms and armor, both functional and decorative, had been completely looted. The grinch had visited Gwerm manor, and stolen Gwerm's Christmas.
The search of the house revealed not a soul, nor an item of value. Staring at the now-empty armory, Jake quipped, "I suppose we're not going to get paid after all, are we?"
Gwerm turned purple with rage. "Of course you are! I am a man of my word, d**n it! And I will not go back on a bargain!!"
He stormed back to the entryway and into the den. Stomping on the floor three times, he revealed a small metal ring. Pulling back the false panel revealed a heavy steel door with a large keyhole. Gwerm pulled a key from his pocket. "Couldn't get at my safe, could they? The ungrateful bastards!"
The steel door rolled back on oiled rollers, revealing a staircase going underground lit by everburning torches. Another formidable steel door prevented further progress. Once again, Gwerm produced a key for this door and opened it.
Gwerm's vault was undisturbed. The cramped quarters included not only racks and racks of sacks of coins, but a small cot and at least a month's rations, if not more. Gwerm wandered over to the coin rack. "I promised to equip the four of you from my armory, did I not?"
He weighed out several sacks. "Hmmm... plate mail for the fighter. A breastplate for the cleric. Studded leather for the bard..."
After some mental calculations, he handed Jake 20 small sacks, each containing 10 platinum coins. "2000 gold coins. Do you consider that sufficient to fulfil my promise?"
Jake pondered for a moment and decided, "Yes. I believe that is fair compensation."
Gwerm turned to NoPrey. "And as for you..."
He carefully counted out 6 silver coins. "I believe I have been using your rapier for six days. Here is your payment."
NoPrey was more than pleased that the coins glistened and gleamed, as if freshly-minted. He resisted the strong urge to rush off and find a nest to hide them in and hiss at people.
As the party prepared to move on to Kariss' house, Gwerm informed them he would not be accompanying them. "I believe the Mendev army is on its way, and I believe that I will be safer in my vault than I will be with you lot, no offense."
The party had no reservations about leaving Gwerm in his manor, and they carefully sealed up the hidden panel as they left, ensuring Gwerm would remain undisturbed until either he decided to come out, or someone came looking for him. Both seemed equally unlikely.
Moving northward, the party had to cross another massive trench of destruction, this one burned and charred as if whatever had created it was a seething mass of magma or coals. Once again, they assisted Anevia in crossing the trench, and those not climbing covered those who were with bows.
Less than a hundred feet from the far side of the trench, the party heard another commotion, this time the voices were in common. "Sit still, woman! Don't you know this is for the good of Kenabres! If you struggle my blade might not pierce your heart!"
Jake, being Jake, rushed ahead, the rest of the party (save Anevia) close behind him. The tableau before him was grim. A young woman knelt weeping, hands tied behind her back and shirt torn completely off, as a man in crusader garb placed a longsword at her breast, clearly planning on driving it through her heart once she stopped struggling. Two more "knights" held her arms in a vain attempt to hold her still, while three more watched the proceedings grimly.
"What the hell are you doing?" Jake asked diplomatically.
The knight looked at Jake as if he were a stupid child. "We need blades that can pierce the demons' hides. This virgin's blood will strengthen our blades and give us the means to defeat the demons."
Jake continued to play to his Charisma beautifully. "Well, I haven't had any troubles killing demons, and I haven't had to kill any virgins. Maybe you're just not very good fighters."
"You won't stop us!"
"I think I might."
The fight started with the knight coup de gracing the girl. Proving Jake right, he managed to roll dead minimum damage on his CdG attempt and she proceeded to roll a 19 on her save, surviving the attempt. Jake charged forward to engage the knights, NoPrey put a tactical patch of Grease between two of the standing knights and the girl, and Kariss hit the offending knight with a Magic Missile. As the knights lined up in a defensive formation to allow their leader to finish his grisly act and Merissa started moving forward, Kariss asked, "What do you think you're doing? Don't you have half a dozen scrolls of Cause Fear in your belt pouch!?!?"
The leader got in his blow, sending the poor girl deep into negative hit points, but Merissa hit him with Cause Fear and he spent the rest of the fight running for his life. As Jake fought the remaining knights and NoPrey spread Grease liberally, Merissa got into range to channel and heal the girl. As other knights hit the girl, Kariss Magic Missiled them and Merissa channeled. As Anevia hobbled into range, mayhem ensued as every knight without cover started sprouting arrows. Eventually, the knights fell and the girl was saved, but not without costing the party a great deal of resources.
The lead knight was in for a much worse fate. I'd taken the GM screen down so when I told them I had to roll to see whether the fight had been noticed by the demons in the area, the natural 1 told everyone something else was coming for the knight. With a dead-up in-the-open 00 on the percentile dice for what saw him, a great, black, blurry form swooped out of the sky, scooped him up, and carried his screaming form away, never to be seen again.
"Glad we didn't have to face that, whatever it was," Jake quipped.
Kariss approached the wounded, sobbing, shaking girl and wrapped her in her cloak. Startled, she realized that she recognized the girl as the baker's daughter from down the street from her adopted mother's house. "Julia? Julia Bacan? The baker's daughter?"
Julia sniffed and looked into Kariss' eyes. "Kariss? Is that you? THANK YOU!!!"
Julia wrapped her arms around Kariss and sobbed. Kariss knew they didn't have time for this, shortly after a fight and with at least one major demon having seen prey here. "Julia. We need to move. Are your parents OK? Where are you staying? Why are you on the streets? What did those men want with you?"
Kariss' persistent questioning pulled Julia out of her hysteria, and she was able to explain: Many families in the area had hidden underground when the attack came: In their cellars, in the sewers, in storage rooms, or anywhere else that demons were unlikely to search. Unfortunately, none of the families had significant stocks of food, so they were forced to forage, especially for water. She had been caught during one such foraging attempt by a group of knights who insisted they needed a virgin's blood to bless their swords, and her protestations that it wouldn't work nor was she a virgin fell on deaf ears. (Her furious blushes when she insisted she wasn't a virgin was enough to tell the group the knights had at least one thing right.)
Kariss asked Julia whether she'd seen Kariss' adoptive mother Yularr during any of her forays. Julia looked truly sad when she reported that she hadn't seen or heard anything of Yularr since the attack.
The party escorted Julia back to the bakery, Kariss and Merissa bracketing her and helping support her. At the bakery, Merissa ensured the whole family was healed and had ample water supplies. In return, the family told them what they knew: Of primary importance, the Eagle Watch and a few other crusading groups survived the attack and had set up a fortified camp at Defender's Heart. This elated Anevia! Irabeth might still live! In darker news, apparently after the Storm Lord killed Terendelev, his minions carried her body away for unknown purposes. Finally, they reported what everone already knew: The Kite had been destroyed, as well as the wardstone, and demons were loose on Kenabres, and perhaps the rest of the world!
Thanking the Bacans for their hospitality and information, the party moved on to Kariss' house. The signs were not good. The upper floor showed significant damage, and the feathers of a vrock (Merissa finally made a massive Knowledge: Planes roll) littered the area in front of the house. The damage inside was minimal, and Kariss was able to gather some of her belongings, including a few changes of clothes and personal items. Checking the upstairs balcony, they found a smashed heavy crossbow with half a dozen cold iron bolts beside it. Kariss had to smile in spite of herself. That was just like her adoptive mother! Taking pot shots at a vrock from her balcony during an apocalypse! They gathered the bolts, but the crossbow was beyond repair.
While Anevia was eager to get to Defender's Heart as soon as possible, they were so close to her and Irabeth's home that she wanted to stop by and see its state as well. The party felt no reason not to humor her, and thus started perhaps the stupidest fight of the AP so far.
GM Note: OK. We have an invisible sorcerer with a reach weapon in a 4x4 room summoning fire beetles. Is he supposed to be a threat? A joke? I'll write it, but it was far less thrilling to run it than to write it, and I'm not exactly thrilled at this travesty...
As the group approached Anevia's home, a fire beetle appeared and attacked her. And missed. And got killed. Big surprise. Jake smashed down the front door with very little difficulty and the party poured into the small room. Oops. Another fire beetle appeared. And missed. And died. Jake and Merissa ran about the room, fully armored, hoping to run into the obviously-invisible caster. He managed to make his Acrobatics roll to avoid Jake when Jake moved through his square, but fumbled it when Merissa moved through it, falling prone and making a noise. So Jake and Merissa started pounding the area, accepting the 50% miss chance. Not to be outdone, Kariss put Shocking Grasp on Rishi and had him track the enemy by smell, biting him for significant (and hilarious) damage. Prone and being beaten to death, he used his wand of Magic Missile, since he couldn't attack them with a reach weapon. Now visible and prone, Jake and Merissa continued the pummeling. Morale did not improve.
Once he was soundly dead, they looted him. Anevia was very upset that he'd been in her house, but Jake reassured her that he wasn't exactly a threat, now was he? Anevia showed them her and Irabeth's secret hiding place, and there found a note from Irabeth that she was indeed alive and well and in Defender's Heart. The passphrase was, "Silverstrong".
The party gathered the clutch of potions and headed off, arriving soon thereafter at Defender's Heart without further incident.
*** End of Session ***
Next Planned Session: 31-May-2014 (Already played)
What classes and levels are your players at now? (I don't suppose when you have them level up, that you could include that information? I know it's not too important, but I'm an inquisitive sort. ^^)
I must admit I'm also curious as to how you handle tracking an invisible spellcaster. Do you require spellcasters to be loud when they cast their spell? Or can they whisper it (perhaps requiring a Concentration check) and thus possibly have a chance to remain stealthed?
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
All of the players are "vanilla": Jake is a half-elf fighter 3, Merissa is a human cleric 3, Kariss is a half-elf arcane bloodline sorceress 3, and NoPrey is a tengu bard 3.
If "now" means, "Where we are as of tomorrow night's game," we've reached fighter 8/champion 2, cleric 8/hierophant 2, sorceress 8/archmage 2, and bard 8/trickster 2. Levels fly fast and furious in this game!
Vagorg has (had) the Silent Spell feat, so there was no way for the party to hear him casting. Thus, as long as he was still he had the full +40 to Stealth, preventing anyone from knowing where he was. However, the fighter and the cleric proceeded to move through every single square of the room. (Yet another AP "Caster in a small room" syndrome.) I ruled that since you can make an Acrobatics check to move through an enemy's square, he could make a significantly easier Acrobatics check to avoid getting bumped into, but because getting out of the way involved movement, his Stealth dropped to +20, at which point Jake could easily make the roll to hear what square he was in. (If I recall, I made it 5 + enemy's CMD - 10, with the -10 reflecting that it was easier to do when invisible.)
In general, if an invisible caster casts a spell with a verbal component, I use the Perception table: "Hear the details of a conversation" is a DC 0 Perception check, +20 for being invisible, so it's a DC 20 Perception check to determine the square in which the spell is being cast. Since it's sound instead of sight, I house rule a +1 DC per 5' instead of the standard +1 DC per 10'. He also still gets the 50% miss chance for being invisible.
With Jake's complete focus on Perception, once he blew his Acrobatics roll they had a very good idea of the handful of squares he might be in.
Unfortunately, Rishi had scent and once Rishi bit him with a Shocking Grasp the jig was up completely.
I must admit, that bit was absolutely hilarious! =^-^=
|
|
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Even more unfortunately, the noise from the battle with the dretches attracted even more unwelcome company in the form of several cultists of Baphomet. Even more fortunately, NoPrey decided to stop trying to fight and instead Greased the ground under the cultists. The fumbling, bumbling, tumbling cultists were cut to pieces by Jake and Merissa, aided by Anevia's arrows, Kariss' spells, and NoPrey's inspirational dancing. (Yeah. Whatever. He took it. I gotta give it to him. An inspirational bird dance. Yeah.)
So, it's the Chicken Dance, right?
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So, it's the Chicken Dance, right?
Even more unfortunately, the noise from the battle with the dretches attracted even more unwelcome company in the form of several cultists of Baphomet. Even more fortunately, NoPrey decided to stop trying to fight and instead Greased the ground under the cultists. The fumbling, bumbling, tumbling cultists were cut to pieces by Jake and Merissa, aided by Anevia's arrows, Kariss' spells, and NoPrey's inspirational dancing. (Yeah. Whatever. He took it. I gotta give it to him. An inspirational bird dance. Yeah.)
He also performs at weddings ;)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Thoroughly enjoying the read as my group are about to reach 8-2 (I'm a player).
Keep it coming - you have a talent for making the story interesting, funny and entertaining.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Ah, bards... I may never fully understand them. NoPrey can inspire an army with a dance. He packs so very much inspiration in such a chicken-like strut! When he speaks, he can capture the entire range of emotions from sorrow and grief to total jubilant elation with but a single word. He says, "Shiney!" like no other and you can really tell he means it.
So many bards depend upon entire languages to get across as much. :)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
So Kaylee from Firefly was a Bard? Who knew? ^_^
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
And now, we must all stand and applaud Misroi.
During last night's game they were continuing their exploration of Citadel Drezen (Yeah, yeah, I know. "Get back to writing, you!" But I did get my "standard" two posts up this week -- they were just RotRL and SD).
They heard something through a door and silently prepped.
The bard's player stood up and pantomimed his "inspirational dance" for the table.
We pretty much all fell out of our chairs laughing.
"Chicken dance" forevermore....
And as long as I'm annoyingly posting non-campaign stuff, you (Misroi) should keep up on the SD journal. We're still stuck in the $&#&#$ cave, so if you've been playing at all you've left us far behind...
Whelp, I now have another thread to keep a close eye on.
I haven't ever played WotR, so unlike the RotR campaign journal, everything that happens here is going to be new and exciting!
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
LOL. Happy to make your life too busy for socializing!
Have you read the Leilani thread on Second Darkness yet? It's *supposed* to be all the players keeping character journals, but even the other players have started calling it "Leilani's Journal" and then complain if I miss something they do.
I keep saying, "It's HER journal. It's HER point of view. If she missed something, it's because she didn't see it."
"Oh, I still think you should have put it in."
*SIGH*
Anyway, epically-long two-session game Friday and Saturday to finish off Book 2, but the "good" news is that Jake's out of town this weekend so I'm going to try to use the extra down time to get off *gasp* 3 posts this week...
I have not yet gotten around to that one yet - shall probably start on that one tomorrow night.
Ah, the joys of working nights with long stretches of free time. It's not as enjoyable as it sounds, boredom is my constant enemy.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
31-May-2014 Game
With Leilani put to bed (nest?) for the moment, Rise of the Runelords on indefinite hiatus, and my goal of two writeups a week generally being met, I naively thought for a moment that I might start catching up on my Wrath of the Righteous writings. Then, my players started making me run two games a week. *SIGH*
But that is what is so wonderful about this AP. Even though Jake is already starting to show the power creep associated with mythic tiers and complained about in so many other threads, the story lines are so compelling, so visceral, that my players are DEMANDING that I run more. From saving and rebuilding their home city in Book 1, to freeing Drezen in Book 2, to what is perhaps my favorite story arc that I've run in an AP yet in Book 3 (though Myriana comes *SO* close. Geez, Myriana was AWESOME), the stories are of redeeming those that can be or who are willing to be redeemed against a backdrop of irredeemable evil and corruption. Great stuff! The Book 3 story is so compelling that I've rewritten Jake and Kariss' backgrounds a bit to incorporate the Chance Encounter backstory into their characters, just so things flow smoothly. For what is an AP other than a well-told tale that you write as you play though it? It's gotta flow!
And I have to admit, although Jake has one-shot some supposedly "hard" encounters (a certain vrock in Citadel Drezen comes to mind), my players are generally using their mythic surges to extend their adventuring days, thus increasing their danger and reducing their power creep. Both Merissa and Kariss are focusing on more spells per day, keeping Jake buffed and the enemies flopping about in grease and acid. (Not a good combo. Bad for the skin AND the hair.) Jake uses his extra attack surges as a last resort to drop potentially-dangerous enemies before they can get past him to the squishies, rather than starting off trying to one-shot things and then declaring, "Whelp, out of mythic surges. Time to call it a day!" And I know I'm not mentioning NoPrey, but I'm not quite sure what his mythic surges do for him yet. I'm sure I'll find out...
Anyway, let's get back to Defender's Heart for some reunions...
*** WARNING: THIS ONE IS STILL POST-FALL KENABRES, AND HAS SOME PRETTY STRONG CONTENT. I'VE SPOILERED THAT CONTENT. ***
=====
21-Arodus-4713 (continued from last game)
As the party approached Defender's Heart, the entire landscape changed from "ruined abandoned city" to "fortified outpost". Bodies, rubble, and even collapsed walls and buildings were removed to provide clear lines of fire from the one-time fort, one-time inn. It was impossible to get within 100 feet of the building without being seen. Sure enough, as they walked up the road, a rough voice called out in Common, "Stop right there or die! What's the passcode?"
Anevia limped forward and called out, "Walter? Walter Haag? Is that you? You made it?!?!?!"
Walter's head popped into view on the rooftop of the enormous building. Originally constructed as a fortress on the outer edge of Kenabres, the city had kept right on expanding past it, and it had converted to a well-respected tavern and inn. Needing a headquarters for the Kenabres resistance, Defender's Heart made an obvious choice. An innocuous inn had not attracted the major demons' attention during the initial assault, and once the major demons had moved on to fresher prey the handful of surviving defenders of Kenabres had been able to restore the fort's old defenses and set up a makeshift headquarters.
"Anevia? By all that's holy! Willem! Go tell Irabeth that Anevia's made it! And she's brought friends! I'll still need that passcode, Anevia. The demons around here are tricky bastards!"
"Silverstrong."
The door virtually erupted outwards, with at least a dozen well-wishers charging forward to embrace Anevia. Near the fore was a massive female half-orc in full plate, who scooped up Anevia in her arms and cried out, "You're safe! Thank Iomedae! I never thought I'd see you again!" before planting a solid kiss on her.
The party stood about awkwardly for a few moments as the other surviving members of Eagle's Watch welcomed Anevia "home", but then the watch turned their attention to them. "And who might we have here? Merissa 'speaks with Iomedae'? You survived? Perhaps Iomedae DOES watch over you a bit! And you! You're in a guard's uniform! I'm sorry..."
"Jake. Jake Thornbriar."
"Well! Welcome, Jake! It's good to see another member of the guard survived! You'll find perhaps two dozen of your fellows survived the onslaught. I wish I had better news, but the guard were braver than most of the crusaders in the city." At this point Irabeth harrumphed a bit. "I personally saw a dozen guards facing down an ulkreth while half a hundred so-called crusaders ran. You're welcome here, Jake. You'll have meat and bread and a place to sleep and call your own."
"And our own bird bard. I don't know what kind of god or goddess watches over you, fair tengu, but know that you were lucky to have fallen in with such fine company! I'd put a dozen guardsmen against a hundred crusaders any day of the week. And Merissa... er... Merissa... er... I'm sure she's a fine cleric!"
If Merissa was aware of the insult, she didn't show it, looking quite happy and a bit vacant, as if distracted by her own thoughts.
"And finally... I'm afraid I don't know you at all, miss?"
"Kariss. Kariss Trevelyan. I was wondering if you'd heard from..."
"Kariss? As in Yularr's 'my poor little Kariss'?!?!"
"Yularr? Is she safe?"
"If I know her she's disobeying my orders right now and manning one of the crossbow mounts on the roof. Insufferable, wonderful old woman!"
Kariss allowed herself a broad smile. THAT was Yularr all right!
Sure enough, moments later her adoptive mother crept forth from the fort, heavy crossbow in hand, looking to the skies and calling out, "Reunions are for INDOORS! Get in here, all of you! You of all people should know better, Irabeth! Kariss? Welcome home, girl! Now get inside where it's safe!"
Yularr would not allow Kariss a hug until the entire party was safe indoors, and scolded Irabeth once more for putting the group at risk. While a few of the newer guard (easily identified by their clean armor and weapons and lack of a certain "lived-in" odor) were appalled at Yularr's insolence, Irabeth took it in stride. Jake and Merissa asked for word of their families. The news for Merissa was bad: Her brother Derek, heavily wounded, had escaped the house and made it to Defender's Heart, though he was still in no shape to help with the defenses. Her mother and father were dead, their house destroyed, and their bodies defiled. Derek simply said, "It's over. Don't go back. Don't ever go home."
Merissa, downcast, was assigned a room with the surviving female paladins. Jake, Kariss, and NoPrey were all perceptive enough to notice that her presence was not appreciated by the paladins. Apparently her delusions of conversations with Iomedae made her a persona non grata among her peers. Kariss was incensed. After all they'd been through the paladins had the nerve to treat her poorly?!? "Merissa? Would you like to stay with me and my mother instead?"
"Oh, no. I belong with the clerics and paladins. But thank you for the kind offer."
In fact, there were almost no clerics or paladins left. Irabeth was the highest-ranking paladin alive, and as far as they could tell, Merissa herself was the highest-ranking cleric. Left unsaid was the fact that Merissa had only been ordained 5 days previously, and so should have no ranking over any other clerics at Defender's Heart.
There was no news of Jake's family at all. He showed no outward emotion as he joined the remaining guards in the barracks. A few recognized him and made him welcome. NoPrey decided to join Jake in the barracks.
A few hours later, Irabeth summoned the party together for a debriefing. On learning that Horgus Gwerm was alive and well in his vault, she decided that she personally would lead a squadron of crusaders to rescue him.
Jake spoke the question everyone else was wondering. "Why?"
"No matter how any of you might feel about Horgus Gwerm, he is a good man, and an asset to this city. I will not risk his death if I can do anything in my power to protect him. And I can."
On learning that Aravashnial was alive but crippled, Irabeth grew serious. "I will let Quednys know of this. He will be overjoyed. I think we will need to extend our expedition to retrieve Aravashnial and the remaining librarians as well."
Finally, Jake showed Irabeth Radiance. The moment she touched it, Radiance awoke in her hands. "Thank you, Jake. This is a fine weapon!"
Jake, being Jake, merely responded, "It wasn't a gift."
"Ah, I see. Will you take a letter of credit? We are well-stocked in weapons and armor, and I will give you fair value for her."
"Sounds good."
Irabeth wrote Jake a writ for several thousand gold pieces, which he deemed sufficient for parting with the sword. Kariss, feeling that she would need some utility, invested in quite a few scrolls that the mages had prepared to help in holding the keep.
Once all of the other business was finished, Irabeth looked at the party seriously. "My friends, the four of you have not only traveled across Kenabres when few of my people can do so, but you safely delivered Anevia, Horgus, and Aravashnial, losing none. I wish that I could say the same of my forays. But at this point it seems that time is of the essence. We need to retrieve Horgus. We need to retrieve Aravashnial and his librarians. And, perhaps most importantly, we need to examine the 'safe houses' mentioned in the note you retrieved for evidence of further corruption. Even a few names would be of extreme use to us at this point.
I am spread too thin; I cannot do all of these things myself. So I must ask you as loyal citizens of Kenabres: Will you explore these safe houses for me and find what you can? I cannot guarantee any reward save knowing you are aiding the city that was once your home, but I need your swords and your magics more than you could know."
Merissa immediately volunteered. The guards behind Irabeth could not hide their eye rolls. Incensed, Kariss nearly started in on them but was interrupted when Jake volunteered as well. She looked at the guileless cleric and the stalwart fighter. She wasn't sure how much help she could be, but Yularr had always taught her that it was everyone's job to pitch in to the best of their abilities.
"OK. I'll go."
NoPrey was far less circumspect. "Sure!"
With their marching orders in hand, the party retired for the evening.
=====
22-Arodus-4713
The beds were hard. And cold. And Yularr snored. How Kariss had missed that snore! She got up, dressed, and prepared for her 'missions'. It was an odd thing to be going on 'missions' for the 'resistance', but she knew that Yularr was proud of her. As Yularr always said, "If you're not doin' it yerself, ya got no right to complain!"
Merissa was already up, just finishing her devotions. As usual, there was a circle of space between her and the other paladins. She felt a bit sorry for Merissa until she heard, "And then we looked for starfish in the tide pools!"
If Merissa was going to be accepted by her peers, she needed to learn not to talk so much.
The four of them breakfasted together. Amazingly, the inn had found a cache of some kind of grain that NoPrey found delicious but that did not sicken the other party members watching him eat it. NoPrey commented that the grain was good, but not as good as the giant fly eyes he'd enjoyed at Neathholm. The rest of the party managed to keep their breakfasts down.
The first part of the trip south was in good company: Irabeth's group and Quednys' group was with them, and the small army made good time to Gwerm Manor. Jake warned them in the area they had seen the great demon swoop from the sky, but nothing bothered the group. Arriving at Gwerm Manor without incident, the party decided that discretion was the better part of valor and moved on before Gwerm emerged.
Now traveling alone, the party made much better time, soon arriving at the collapsed wall that once marked New Kenabres before the fall.
A man's scream cut through the morning air and the party no longer hesitated. Three men wielding glaives (obviously cultists of Baphomet) had a fourth man tied to a table in the middle of the road and were obviously planning on sacrificing him in some sort of ritual. The party interrupted. The cultists died most satisfyingly. Their latest rescuee turned out to be a grocer with a story all too familiar: He and his family had hidden belowground during and after the initial assault, but a need for food and water had driven them from their hiding place to forage. The party wondered: Just how many citizens of Kenabres were still living here in hiding? Losing their lives every day to the ever-present demons and cultists? Something had to be done!
They escorted the grocer back to his house, ensured he and his family had rations, and recommended that they get themselves to Gwerm Manor; Irabeth would most likely still be there, and the family would be able to find safety in Defender's Heart. They thanked the party profusely and disappeared back underground. Jake wondered aloud whether they would ever see them again.
It wasn't that much farther to the first "Safe House", Nyserian Manor. Fortunately or unfortunately, the manor was in ruins, having obviously been in the path of one of the giant demonic engines of destruction that had wreaked its way through Kenabres. Not wanting to leave anything to chance, the group spent some time exploring the grounds checking for secret doors, secret tunnels, or even any clues or valuable detritus in the rubble. After perhaps an hour of fruitless searching, they decided that Nyserian Manor was a dead end, and no clues were to be had.
Since it was still early morning and they'd been expecting some resistance, they decided to proceed across southern Kenabres to Jake's house. Perhaps beyond all possibility some members of his family had survived the destruction.
As they proceeded, the signs were both hopeful and damning. The major swaths of destruction were all within New Kenabres; the section of the Gate District south of New Kenabres' southern wall seemed relatively undisturbed. Unfortunately, it also seemed utterly barren. There were no signs of cultists, demons, or survivors. They were alone with their own thoughts and the occasional shadows of the buzzards in the sky passing over them. Once they were within a few hundred yards of Jake's house, they heard the cackling. A high-pitched feminine laugh that made the hairs on Jake, Merissa, and Kariss' necks stand on end, and NoPrey's feathers ruffle. The laugh was cruel, and inhuman, and spoke of glee at another's pain.
Jake's jaw tightened and the party moved forward quickly. The market square near his house was a scene of horror and depredation. Most of the carts and stalls had been knocked over, torn apart, and then burned or smashed, but enough wood had been salvaged to build a makeshift stage. Naked bodies littered the ground around the stage attracting flies and buzzards. All bore many wounds from small weapons. On either side of the stage was a wooden cage. Each cage housed perhaps 8-10 people, all naked, all obviously in the preliminary stages of starvation.
More horrible than this scene was the one on the stage itself. Jake's sister Jade stood there with nothing but a small rusty carving knife, madness and fear in her eyes. Across the stage was a man Jake didn't know, also naked, wielding a carpenter's hammer. Two small flying demons cackled with glee, screaming, "Kill him or we'll eat your eyes out, dearie!" or, "Come on, man! Rape her! Kill her! Do SOMETHING to her to entertain us, or we'll eat your nuts off you while we make you stand still for it!"
Needless to say, Jake led the charge.
As the party charged forward, heedless of any stealth, the demons opened the cages, ordering their captives to kill the intruders or be killed themselves. Jade, seeing her opponent distracted, brought her knife upwards into his abdomen. As he fell lifeless to the ground she straddled him, maniacally stabbing him again and again in a paroxysm of fear and disgust.
Kariss immediately assumed Jade (and therefore the rest of the prisoners) was under the effects of some form of mind control. She acted. Beautiful, brilliant Kariss. "Go web go!"
OK. I'm sure that's not what she said. But she SHOULD have.
BOTH quasits failed their Reflex saves, putting them on the ground right in front of Jake and Merissa. Guess what? When quasits don't fly and are trapped in a web, they're not very good fighters. NoPrey performed. The fight was as brutal and one-sided as it deserved to be. The captives, having no reason whatsoever to resist, all voluntarily failed their Reflex saves so the party didn't have to harm a single one.
The moment her quasit was dead, Merissa raced forward, tore off her cloak, wrapped it around Jade, and channeled energy for all the prisoners. Jake was close behind, giving Janet his own cloak and standing protectively over his sisters.
Kariss had to admit, Merissa might be a bit touched in the head, but she was a damned good cleric when she was needed.
And she was needed. The prisoners were starving, demoralized, and near death. Merissa healed them again and she, Kariss, and NoPrey handed out food and water. Almost presciently, Merissa had prepared Create Water that morning, so soon the captives were washed of their filth, fed, and clad in whatever rags they could find.
But Kariss was left wondering about the nature of Jade. She had NOT been mind controlled. And yet at the moment of her rescue when she could have turned and run, or even attacked her tormentors, she had instead murdered a presumably-innocent man in cold blood. Kariss could not bring herself to trust her, and did not want to be anywhere near her. But the girl was also Jake's sister, and he and his family had suffered enough without Kariss' condemnation to add to it. What was she to do?
The news of the rest of Jake's family wasn't so good. His father and brother had died trying to protect the house, while his mother had died trying to protect his father. The quasits had captured the sisters on the first day of the attack. The fact that they were somewhat thankful to the quasits that the fights were the worst they'd had to endure spoke volumes of the atrocities that had befallen Kenabres.
Jake needed to see his house. Merissa volunteered to watch over the refugees while Jake, Kariss, and NoPrey went on. It was only a couple of blocks to the shop.
The scene there hadn't been disturbed since the day of the attack. Jake could re-create the entire battle in his mind. There were his father and his brother, standing side by side, foolishly trying to defend a shop that should have been abandoned from who-knows-what monstrosity. There lay his brother, a gaping claw wound through half his side. When his brother fell, his mother had rushed forward to save his father and there she lay, having paid the ultimate price for her love. Finally, his father, alone against the demons, fell.
Jake said a prayer over his family and he, Kariss, and NoPrey took the time to bury them in a cozy yard right near the shop. Finally, Jake took up his father's sword. This sword had been meant to save his family and had failed. It would not fail again.
The trio returned to find Merissa telling stories of Iomedae to the refugees. Had it been tales of heroism or valor it might not have given anyone pause, but she was talking about when they were at the old swimming hole and Iomedae's swimsuit had gotten snagged on a log and torn, and one of her heralds had had to bring a new one because, "Dreams aren't my domain, little one. My powers aren't the same here."
Kariss recognized the usual reaction of horror at Merissa's sacrilege on many of the refugee's faces. Maybe she could convince Merissa to take a vow of silence?
On the other hand, the refugees certainly weren't terrified of their plight or their future any more -- if this loopy cleric could stagger about Kenabres uttering sacrilege, certainly they could make it to Defender's Heart!
The small army moved ever-so-slowly back to Gwerm Manor. Fortunately, they were unperturbed. Even more fortunately, Gwerm and Irabeth were still in a bitter argument (both of them would have called them, "Intense negotiations") about the conditions at Defender's Heart, why Gwerm should leave his vault, and what was in it for him. He actually showed a faint hint of a smile (Kariss could only assume that was what it was) when he saw them, and gave a brief wave before resuming the "negotiations". The crusaders welcomed them back and provided them with fresh food. Surprisingly, the crusaders were far better-equipped for refugees, and soon the refugees had proper shoes and clothing.
It took another half hour before Irabeth and Gwerm had finally agreed on SOMETHING. Unfortunately, it seemed that this SOMETHING involved Gwerm coming with them. NoPrey hopefully asked, "Do you need to rent my rapier?"
"Don't be stupid, you annoying bird. I'm among crusaders. I shan't need to show THEM how to fight. Unlike certain other company."
NoPrey did not rise to the bait.
The entire group waited for another half hour or so. Quednys and a group of crusaders returned, Aravashnial and librarians in tow.
"Aravashnial," Kariss cried out enthusiastically.
Aravashnial seemed to smile. "Ah, Kariss! It's good to hear your voice again! Will you walk with me?"
"Yes, of course!"
The trip back to Defender's Heart was uneventful. As the refugees poured in they were assigned various rooms. Kariss had an idea. She brought Yularr out. "Mom? These are Jake's sisters. They've just lost their parents and their other brother and have no place to go..."
She got no further before Yularr charged forward, taking a girl under each arm, bustling them away and speaking soft words of comfort. Kariss grimaced to herself. She couldn't bring herself to be around Jade, but for Jake's sake she would fail to mention the horrors the girl had committed and let her reap the benefits of Yularr's kindness and caring. Yularr, knowing nothing of the sadism inflicted on the girls by the demons, would simply treat them as victims who had lost family and needed caring for. Perhaps that would be enough to salvage their minds and hearts from the brutality they had endured. She was certain that having someone to mother and look after would do Yularr a world of good as well.
Kariss felt utterly inadequate. She was simultaneously disgusted with herself for being unable to forgive Jade and pleased with herself at having found a situation to benefit Jake's sisters as well as her own foster mother. She sank down into a corner, miserable, but unable even to cry, and cuddled Rishi close. She tried to sleep and prayed to Nethys she would not dream.
As they all settled in for the evening, Jake was perturbed by the sound of carts' wheels creaking in the early evening. Peeking outside, he saw at least half a dozen wagons rolling in to Defender's Heart. Every one was stocked with fresh weapons, armor, arrows, bows, and barrels of who-knows-what. His keen eyesight was good enough to notice the carefully scraped-off "HG" on every cart.
A "good man" indeed!
*** Not quite the end of the session, but a great place to stop ***
Well. That was twisting the knife a bit. ^^;;
So I take it this session was roleplay-intensive with just the two random encounters being the combat encounters?
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Yes; I was still running the "one random encounter between each location" rule. I have to admit, I *really* liked that method. I threw in random encounters when I felt it was appropriate, and didn't bother when I wanted to get on with the narrative.
The PC's relatives were fun, too. I looked at the pre-fall and post-fall Kenabres populations and made a little percentile table. I don't have it handy, but it was something along the lines of:
01-20: Hiding at home (and unsafe)
21-30: Fled to Defender's Heart
31-40: Fled to the countryside (and a good chance of dying every day)
41-60: Captured by demons for an NPC encounter
61-80: Killed by demons and findable by PCs
81-90: Dragged back to the Abyss by demons
91-00: Ew. Think of something awful
I was quite frankly surprised at how many player relatives survived and were in Kenabres post-fall. I mean, yeah, 4 of 9 were killed outright, but 2 were "rescuable" and 2 were in Defender's Heart. (Merissa's mom got a dreaded 00, and will show up in a few writeups.)
The in-Kenabres encounter table didn't inspire me to want to run a lot of them. They were perfectly decent fights, but nothing memorable, and with a group of players who prefer roleplay to combat and not using XP for level-up points, the main reason to throw them in was to endanger NPCs. (I admit, each time the party took a group of helpless NPCs with them over terrain that they'd already explored, I threw in a 25% chance of random encounters anyway just to threaten the NPCs, but none ever showed up.)
My *only* regret on this section was not knowing how weak the backgrounds as-written in Book 3 are. I knew Merissa's "dirty little secret" because it's revealed in Book 1 so I'm getting to play her so that that narrative works out well. (I think you'll all be surprised where I'm going with it. Or at least many of you.) Now that I've fully read the backgrounds in Book 3, I find I'm having to rewrite them all to better fit the overall narrative, and wishing I'd done so beforehand so I could have dropped a few hints in Book 1.
Ah, well, live and learn! I know most GMs say, "Read all 6 books before starting," but that takes too much time and breaks my brain. Did I mention I like to wing it?
EDIT: And don't think I don't know what you're doing, Tangent101! "Keep some GM discussion in the thread so it doesn't get banished to the dreaded 'Invisible Campaign Journals' section of the board."
And I appreciate that! Thanks!
I'm glad to be of service.
And thank you for your survival chart. If I ever run this AP then I might borrow that. ^^ Though currently a 2nd edition of Pathfinder seems more likely to happen before I finally run Wrath. *sigh* Still, there is a slight possibility of starting up a third group with a friend who was in my old gaming group (before my best friend's divorce sundered that group - she's one of the two I got with the divorce, and my friend's ex is welcome to the rest of them), even though she personally likes the idea of "dark Russian faerie tales" for the AP being run. ^^ (Still, she did say it depends on what the others decide on. Once she can find a fourth player, that is...)
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
What's funny is that we *finally* found a "compatible" fourth player, but his gaming schedule is even more ridiculous than ours (I think it was 6 games a week right now). He *really* wants to run through Wrath of the Righteous.
So Jake's player is hoping to start up a Wednesday Wrath of the Righteous game, running the game he's playing in but 2 modules behind. And he's only got 2 players, so we've suggested that Kariss' player play in that one as well, but as a monk with a vow of silence so she can't give away any plot points. :-P
Convoluted gamers, we.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Heh. I've contemplated taking my Runelords group and when they finish off Karzoug to have a certain winged-and-tailed lady appear with the corpse of a companion begging for their help... because the Mythic Heroes failed.
And it's time for the Old Guard to save the day once again. And what should be facing them but the corrupted forms of formerly Mythic heroes? Heh heh heh. It helps that I've given the Runelords group a mythic tier already; they might be at Tier 3 or 4 by the end of the Runelords AP.
If I did that though I'd probably start them in Book 5; I'd be tempted to rewrite Book 4 to be tougher but don't know if it's really viable.
Heh. I've contemplated taking my Runelords group and when they finish off Karzoug to have a certain winged-and-tailed lady appear with the corpse of a companion begging for their help... because the Mythic Heroes failed.
And it's time for the Old Guard to save the day once again. And what should be facing them but the corrupted forms of formerly Mythic heroes? Heh heh heh. It helps that I've given the Runelords group a mythic tier already; they might be at Tier 3 or 4 by the end of the Runelords AP.
If I did that though I'd probably start them in Book 5; I'd be tempted to rewrite Book 4 to be tougher but don't know if it's really viable.
Very nice. Yeah, the WotR group keeps hearing about "Sainte Rae'Sheleth" single-handedly holding a large portion of the southern front. Lots of fun, and I might let them do some demon lord fights just to practice high-level mythic vs. demon lord combat...
What have been the most difficult fights for you to run so far?
Which encounters (social or combat) just didn't seem to 'fit' in WotR?
Any difficult/convoluted plot lines uncovered so far?
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
What have been the most difficult fights for you to run so far?
Which encounters (social or combat) just didn't seem to 'fit' in WotR?
Any difficult/convoluted plot lines uncovered so far?
This gets complex, because it's a question of whether we're talking just Book 1 (the campaign journal so far) or Books 1 and 2 (where we are right now), where I've been posting difficulties in the "A Failed AP" thread.
But here we go:
The "difficult" fights for me have been:
- The ones where the "lead" monster is listed as spending 6 rounds buffing while his or her grunts "hold off" the PCs. The grunts might last 2 rounds, so when the bad guy finally pops out and says, "Ta da! Look at all my buffs," he or she immediately gets pounded into the pavement. I like Seanoss' idea of mysteriously "accelerating" the buffs so the bad guy pops out on Round 2. These fights are especially prevalent in Book 2.
- The ones where the monster has a really cool ability the authors were counting on (a certain shadow demon's ability to cast Deeper Darkness at will and then see through it) that gets totally countered by a single spell (Daylight). The most egregious offender is of course Protection from Evil, negating all the charms, dominations, and possessions that are so prevalent in Book 2. I'm going to have to give every enemy caster Dispel Magic already, because if you take away the mind-affecting effects, most of the monsters in Book 2 just aren't that tough.
The "difficult" fights for my players have been:
- The cultists in the mongrelman lair. Striking with reach from surprise with x3 crit weapons is fun and nasty.
- The abandoned temple in Book 2. Now THAT whole area is a bit of nastiness.
- The "battle of the bridge" with the chimera in Book 2. THAT has been my favorite fight of the AP so far, and it was VERY VERY close.
- The battle with Staunton in Book 2 should have been epic. It failed to be so not because of a lack of balance, but because my bad guys couldn't save against Merissa's Holy Smite to save their lives (literally), and taking 8d6 - 10d6 a round and having all your demon mooks blinded just gets sad fast. It was nice because the party could tell the fight could go either way very quickly, and as Merissa and Kariss "did their stuff", it became clear the fight was going to go their way early. Worked very well.
Which encounters just didn't seem to 'fit'?
- I completely removed the despairing paladin. They hadn't lost a man yet, so it made no sense.
- The "misguided fighters sacrificing a virgin" didn't feel right to me. I played it up, but it left a bad taste.
- Lots of the random encounters in Kenabres were just, "A fight for a fight's sake," so I omitted them.
- I really messed up Nurah, but I think that was simply because of the sheer weight of NPCs. The party was traveling with 100 paladins, 6 AP NPCs, and 1 GM NPC. That's a LOT of roleplaying for me to manage. And they were more interested in talking to Aravashnial, Anevia, and Irabeth than the newcomers (absolutely natural) so I would have been forced to enforce mandated roleplay with the new NPCs. It didn't work out for me, so that's mainly a warning that you're going to have to shove Aron, Sosiel, and Nurah down the players' throats with roleplay if you want subsequent events to have any weight.
Any difficult/convoluted plot lines uncovered so far?
As I mentioned upstream, I think the big one is the whole enormous build-up to the PC backgrounds. The Player's Guide says, "You'll learn more about why you have this trait in the course of the AP." Book 1 says, "Just wait 'til Book 3 when you learn the true story of your background!" Book 2 continues to play up the backgrounds in Book 3.
And then the backgrounds themselves are horribly, horribly boring and incomplete. Only Touched by Divinity and Chance Encounter give you a chance to really roll with them.
I'm going to spoiler at this point not for my players (who know all this), but in case someone's playing a bit ahead of this and doesn't want to learn about my adjustments.
- I changed Riftwarden Orphan so Kariss' parents' secret mission was to find and rescue Arushelae. Since they didn't actually bother to put the 'precious family heirloom' in the treasure trove it's supposed to be in (oops), I plan on putting in a custom staff designed for Riftwardens.
- For Exposed to Awfulness I gave Jake visions of being tormented by Jerribeth (she's experimenting on corrupting humans into mythic demons) and rescued by Arushelae (Chance Encounter). Still pondering what to do with his demonic taint, if anything.
- I'm not adjusting NoPrey's background much because the notion of a bunch of tengus living in a fortress in the Worldwound (Child of the Crusades) is just too silly to pass up.
- After reading up on Iomedae in Inner Sea Gods and then reading the Touched by Divinity trait, I realized I could tell a sweet-yet-poignant tale with Merissa that would also make her seem like a complete loon to her templemates, explaining why she runs off with the adventuring party. It's been a lot of fun so far. I mean, imagine being at a seminary and having one of the priests-in-training saying every week, "Oh, yeah! Jesus came by last night in my dream. We went bowling together. He got a 267, but I only got an 83. Jesus is a surprisingly good bowler."
You think the other priests might get a wee bit offended?
Does that cover it for you?
Yeah, that helps. I got volunteered to run this AP, so I'm looking around for all the advice I can and am lurking in several threads. I'm trying to find the biggest offenders to watch out for, but, knowing my players, they'll manage to have tough times dealing with, what should be, simple tasks due to brain farts, mis-preparation etc.
A second treasure sits upon the northern shelf but this treasure should be customized to be a specific magical treasure of use to a PC who has the Rift warden Orphan campaign trait. This item is a special heirloom, an object once owned by that PC's father or mother. It should be a relatively minor item worth no more than 9,000 gp; its true value lies in helping that PC close a chapter of her life and accomplish a mythic trial. If the PC in question is a wizard, the heirloom should be his parent's spellbook, filled with spells of your choice.
Still, I think your change is probably better. It ties the characters in more, then the trait as it exists. As far as I'm aware, they completely fail to mention what happens to the parents of the Riftwarden Orphan.
** spoiler omitted **
Still, I think your change is probably better. It ties the characters in more, then the trait as it exists. As far as I'm aware, they completely fail to mention what happens to the parents of the Riftwarden Orphan.
Wow! I'm going to have to go back to reading comprehension classes! Reading Rainbow, here I come!
In other words, yes, I missed that entirely.
Again, I'm spoilering just because I've been seeing other players reading along in campaign journals and I want to be polite, but sooner or later I'm going go forget to, be warned:
And I honestly don't mind that they leave the fate of Riftwarden Orphan's parents completely up to the GM; that's exactly the kind of place I like such openness to fit it in with my tale.
So hopefully it's not too self-contradictory, but, "Your parents were on a secret mission," is enough for me to fill in what the mission was and how it ended. On the other hand, "This was done to you by demons and there are others like you," for Exposed to Awfulness leaves me to come up not with a single mission for a single pair of people, but an entire subplot as to why the demons were doing it, how they picked the people out, who else is out there that it was done to, and so forth. It's not "one secret mission", it's "an intentional action with a purpose" with no other details, so it's *much* harder for me to come up with something.
And even after I've come up with something, closure is much harder. Riftwarden Orphan you (hopefully) complete your parents' mission, recover some of their belongings, and get closure. I like that ending. Exposed to Awfulness you just kill the person who was doing it. It that really "closure"?
I'm all for having freedom to make my own story, but it just bugs me that they tried to make these awesome campaign traits that would each have a story built into the AP, and then forgot to include one of them. I'm guessing there was a whole encounter dealing with it, like the other traits, but it got cut for space or something.
** spoiler omitted **
I'm all for having freedom to make my own story, but it just bugs me that they tried to make these awesome campaign traits that would each have a story built into the AP, and then forgot to include one of them. I'm guessing there was a whole encounter dealing with it, like the other traits, but it got cut for space or something.
That trait's fight is supposed to be the final BBEG of Book 3. So less of a side quest than a, "Here's some extra motivation on your main quest."
But otherwise I'm in full agreement. There's *SO* much build-up on the traits in the PG, Book 1, and Book 2, and then in Book 3 I found every single one fell short of my expectations. Some were easy for me to "fix" (Touched by Divinity, Riftwarden Orphan) with a few minor tweaks. Others required (and are still requiring) more significant thought (Exposed to Awfulness). And as I said, I'm just kind of throwing my hands up at Child of the Crusades. I've got no ideas on that one... yet. (I have a bit of time yet; Jake's player was off for the weekend so we're not playing again 'til Thursday, but I can look forward to having to run 3 sessions for them this weekend as 'make-up' for the time "I" missed...)