| Phntm888 |
So, a friend of mine is running Wrath of the Righteous, and I decided I was going to write a campaign journal for my character. We were given a 25 point buy, and the PCs are:
Tirfnel, Tiefling Cleric of Jadiz (with the Pass for Human alternate racial trait, spellcasting/channeling focused)
Voultas (Really Long Name I Forget), Elven Bard (Archery Focused)
Apollo Creed, Paladin of Sarenrae (Archery focused)
and myself, Korgar Forgehammer, Dwarven Wizard (Conjuration Specialist)
Originally, I intended to be an Earth elemental specialist, because I was tickled by the idea of a wizard with a high CMD vs bull rush and trip while standing on the ground, but when I learned we didn't really have a front liner, that summons duration boost looked real nice for putting out bodies to soak damage for us.
Anyway, our first session was this past Sunday (Easter, I know), and Apollo's player had a family emergency, so he couldn't make it. We'll be meeting his character next session.
16 Arodus 4713 AR
Today be the festival of Armasse, a day of celebration, when the knights of Iomedae teach the common folk to fight. This Armasse, in Kenabres, the festival took a much darker turn.
First, a bit about me. My name be Korgar Forgehammer. Me pappy made the finest magic weapons in Kenabres, to aid the crusaders, and me mother was a paladin of Torag, who forged the world at the beginning of time. She died shortly after me birth, killed by cultists of that foul demon lord, Baphomet. One day, when I was 25, me pappy had a visitor, and the next day he was leaving me with the Grundargrym clan, selling his forge to them, and telling me, “Remember, my boy, yer a Forgehammer. And a Forgehammer will always do their duty, nae matter what stands in his way or what the cost may be. Dinnae forget, lad, and be strong.” I never saw him again, for he disappeared, gone on some mission without a trace.
Coming back to today, I’m now a skilled weaponsmith in my own right, and I’ve learned me pappy’s secret to making the magic weapons - he was a wizard. It’s a rare path for a dwarf to follow, but those who do draw their strength from the land, and use it to shape metal and stone, to create weapons that combine the finest dwarven forging techniques with potent magics. I have followed in his footsteps, and once I master his techniques, I will forge the finest magic weapons in Kenabres as he did. In this festival of Armasse, as I made my to Clydwell Plaza, I spotted a horrendously dressed man approaching his middle years, standing on a fountain, preaching to some of those gathered there of finding their strength and overcoming their cowardice. As though cowards live along the very edge of the Worldwound. Cowards have long since been killed. The crowd held a surprising number of children, although that may have been more the elven youth behind him. The man seemed unaware of him, which is just as well, for the elf was parroting his motions to the crowd, and more seemed to be paying attention to the elf than to the man. I stopped to listen, looking on disapprovingly at the man’s talk of cowardice.
A gong rang out, signaling that it was noon and that Lord Hulrun would give his speech shortly. I moved to get a better view of him, for though I am quite tall among dwarves, humans somehow manage to be taller. I watched Lord Hulrun step forward to begin his speech, when suddenly there was a bright flash of light…
I awoke underground, in a dark cave. There was dust all about, and I was coughing it up. I didn’t remember any partying or going on a bender. Course, if I was drinking the good dwarven ale, I wouldn’t. As my vision swam into focus, I could tell there were several others down here with me. One of them uttered a short prayer, and suddenly his cloak lit up like a torch, providing light for those who are less in tune with the earth. Just my luck - it was the man with the hideous outfit. That tiger-striped and dotted cloak was just ugly, and the rest of his clothes were a mishmash of color as well. I wish he hadn’t provided light so I could avoid looking at his clothing. The elven youth was down here as well, and we could see several bodies. To one side of the cavern we were in was clearly the remnants of a recent, massive landslide, which glittered slightly in the light provided by the cloak. To the other were three more people, moaning in pain - a human woman whose leg was contorted at a rather odd angle, an elven man with blood all over his face, and a human man who didn’t actually look like he was in bad shape. Maybe he hurt something internally. Humans just aren’t as hardy as us dwarves. The badly dressed man set about setting the woman’s broken leg, prior to healing her, and he told me to see to the elf. So, I turned to the other elf and told him to see to his own kind. He proceeded to start panicking about the blood and we were trapped underground and this wasn’t good. I went to investigate the shining I saw in the rubble. As I approached, they looked to be scales about the size of a fist, and they were silver…
My memory began coming back to me. I remembered the flash of light coming from the west, looking that way and seeing the explosion from the Kite, where Kenabres’s wardstone was housed. With a roar, I saw the mighty dragon Terendelev take to the sky, for she had spotted what we had not. Khorramzadeh, the Storm King, that powerful balor, had come to attack once again. The foul demon met Terendelev, and the two fought as demons began flooding the streets. Suddenly, Khorramzadeh drove Terendelev into the Cathedral of St. Clydwell, smashing its facade. As that happened, a titanic demon suddenly burst forth from the earth, causing a massive fissure to open beneath my feet. I began to fall down into the black, and as I did so, I saw Terendelev cast a spell, and felt my fall begin to slow, as Khorramzadeh brough his blade down upon the might dragon’s neck, severing it from her body. The fissure seemed to close up, and there was naught but blackness.
I fell to my knees before one of Terendelev’s scales, and reached out to take it. Upon touching it, I felt a deep sense of sorrow, and her regret for not having been able to save more. A single tear escaped my eyes, and I swore I would not let her sacrifice be in vain. I took the scale for remembrance, and upon doing so, I found that it would give the ability to cloudwalk, which may prove useful for getting back to the surface. I stood and went to see how the others were doing, and found that the poorly dressed human had set the woman’s leg and healed the wounds of her and the other two. The elf’s eyes were gone, and she seemed to be better, although I suspect she had a long healing process still to go through.
The human man, however, was perfectly fine. He stood and loudly demanded to be escorted to the surface, and that he was very important and was not pleased to be trapped down here with a thief and a conspiracy theorist. I’m not sure who he was referring to, but I thought it best to settle things down. I suggested to the priest and the elven youth to go take one of the scales for remembrance, and I went to speak with the loud, important human and greeted him, asking to know his name. He rather condescendingly informed me his name was Horgus Gwerm, and that he was a noble of this city. I very politely told him we would do our best to get to the surface, as none of us was particularly keen to stay down here when the situation up above, in Kenabres, was so unsettled, however, as we did not know the way, we couldn’t be sure how long it would take. I then went to speak with the elven man, as the elven youth had thus far proven rather useless and panicky.
Though he was no longer bleeding, where his eyes had been was nothing but skin. Clearly he would need powerful magic to restore his sight, likely beyond what any of us possessed. I asked him his name, and he responded by asking me what happened. Rude, but that’s an elf for you. I told him everything, including the destruction of the Kite and the death of Terendelev, in addition to our current situation. He was silent for a moment before saying we had to get out of here. I quite wholeheartedly agreed. Eventually, the woman, whose name was Anevia, fashioned herself a crutch to walk, and had agreed to help guide the elf, whose name was Aravashnial. The other two were Tirfnel, priest of Jadiz, one of the Empyreal Lords, and Voultas, an aspiring actor. Gwerm suggested we leave Aravashnial and Anevia behind, as they would only slow us down. I responded by saying I was a dwarf and asking how fast did he think we’d be going. Tirfnel convinced him it was beneficial to have them along, because it meant two other people who might be attacked in place of him. He seemed okay with that. I suspect self-serving arguments may work best in convincing him to go along with what we need him to do. He also offered us 2000 gold to escort him back to his home. I won’t say no to good coin, so I think we’ll be taking him up on that.
As we organized ourselves and began to head towards where we hoped we would find a tunnel leading out, my eyes spotted what looked like a giant spider outside the range of our Tirfnel’s light spell. Voultas was also able to make something out, if not what, and, surprisingly, Tirfnel could clearly see it as well. Most humans can’t see very well without light, and neither Gwerm nor Anevia was able to see this, so I found this strange. Voultas also noticed a wriggling bulge within its belly. It seemed to just be staring at us, but since it was in the way, we knew we’d have to do something with it. Tirfnel fired a crossbow bolt at it, hitting the carapace and puncturing it. The wriggling stopped. Voultas then fired an arrow at it, and a pair of some sort of larvae burst from within, wriggling towards us. Tirfnel and Voultas each fired at them again, and I let loose with a cantrip to splash acid on one. The acid killed it, but the other continued advancing. Voultas backed away from it to fire again, and Tirfnel shot it, but then it was right there. I took a step back, and fired an acid dart at it. The creature fell, it’s corpse melting. The spider itself was long dead, merely a carapace the larvae had likely been feasting on.
We took the northernmost hallway, Voultas up front, me behind him, Tirfnel, then Gwerm, Anevia, and Aravashnial. We came to a chamber with a short (for humans) ridge, overlooking an abandoned campsite. There were old bones and rags strewn about, and Voultas noticed a pair of beady eyes watching us from under a pile of bones. We were able to make out that they were giant cockroaches, and we thought they would likely attack us if we came down off the ridge. We discussed possibly going back and taking a different passageway, and decided that we would just fight them off. Voultas fired his bow at them, I fired some acid, and Tirfnel prayed for Jadiz to guide our attacks. The cockroaches came out and climbed the ridge to us. Voultas fired down into them, and Tirfnel, realizing he couldn’t hit them, continued praying for guidance. I attempted to cast a spell to grease the ledge and cause them to fall by avoiding their attacks, but the movements caused me to slip up the hand gestures, and the spell fizzled. Tirfnel slew the one in front of him, and I splashed more acid on the last, ending its existence. We searched the room for supplies, since we had no way of knowing how long we would be down here, but found only a bronze brooch with an insect of some kind on a fungus.
Continuing on our journey, we came to a split, with one tunnel leading back the way we came, and the other continuing on. We investigated the tunnel leading back, and found a very well-crafted backpack on a ledge. Tirfnel used the gift of his scale, which was the same as mine, to lift Voultas up to the ledge so he could grab the backpack. Inside were several supplies, including a healing potion and a potion that could cure weakness to one’s body or mind. We went back to the split and continued onward in the caves, continuing down the narrow tunnel until it widened again. This time, there was still some dust and small rocks falling, and there were signs of recent cave-in, although everything looked stable to me. I suggested we be cautious crossing the cave, regardless. Voultas went first and was struck by a viper. He seemed to go woozy at its bite, and I suspected it to be poisonous. Tirfnel fired at the viper, and Voultas backed away to fire at it as well. I drew on the arcane bond I had created between myself and the amulet I wore, bearing the Forgehammer family crest, to conjure a snowball and hurl it at the viper. My hope was that it would chill the reptile and make slow its movements, but sadly it shook that effect off. It moved to strike Voultas again, but, aware of it, the actor was able to avoid its bite. Voultas drew out a longsword to strike it, Tirfnel shot it again, and I fired an acid dart. The viper was clearly not to be a threat much longer, and we finished it off. A search of the area turned up nothing, and we continued on.
We came to yet another split in the caves. This time, one of them had a green glow coming from it, while the other led off into the dark. We chose to investigate the green glow. The cavern we entered had a bunker-like stone structure, with the ruins of outbuildings around it. More importantly, the structure had a large hammer carved into the side - the symbol of Torag, the Forgefather. Here was some proper dwarven construction, which had likely stood for over a century, if not longer. A good, safe place to rest. We went to enter the temple, and as Tirfnel and I struggled to open the doors, Voultas spotted a giant fly attempting to sneak up on us. We were able to make short work of it, and entered the vestibule. We found a basin containing some holy water, and Tirfnel and I opened the doors to the chapel. Though the stone benches were tipped over and broken, I saw the remains of the priest up at the front of the chapel, and went to offer my prayers to Torag for providing us this safe haven. It was then that the priests’ remains turned and stared at me with malevolence.
The skeletal priest rose and attacked me, swiping at me with its claws. One scratched me, and I felt a disease seek to creep into me. I fought it off as Voultas panicked and Tirfnel realized he could do nothing to aid from where he was. I told the others to back out of the temple, and I would follow once the path was clear. They did so, and I took a step back to cast a spell and grease the area underneath the abomination. For some extra punch, I used a flask of acid to make the grease cause it to be burned while it remained in the grease. The creature fell to the ground as Voultas and Tirfnel readied themselves to strike the undead when it came out of the temple. The skeleton stood, then slipped and fell back down as it tried to move forward. I fled the temple and went around the corner from the door, out of its sight. We heard the creature thrashing within, and I began summoning a celestial eagle to aid us in the fight. We continued to hear thrashing, though we could not see the creature. I finished my summons and sent the eagle in to engage it, then joined Voultas and Tirfnel in readying to strike the abomination when it came out. We heard the eagles screams of rage, the sounds of battle, and then nothing. Cautiously, we entered the temple. I knew my eagle had returned to the celestial realms, but before doing so, it and the acidic grease I had laid down had sent the abomination back into death. Voultas identifited the creature as a huecuva, a priest who died blaspheming his god. I swore to fix this, and Voultas and I together went about reconsecrating and cleaning the temple.
As we did this, Anevia seemed to be overcome with some sort of emotion, though she said it was nothing when Tirfnel asked. Gwerm then brought up leaving her again, since we couldn’t trust someone who consorted with thieves, and she shot back that maybe we couldn’t trust him since he was ashamed of his religion. Tirfnel intervened, and told Gwerm that who one associated with and what one’s religion was did not matter, but it was actions that showed one’s character, and Anevia’s actions had been more honorable than his thus far. This seemed to quiet the blowhard down, though I do not know how Anevia reacted.
Voultas and I finished reconsecrating the temple, and Torag, showing us his favor, provided us with his blessing. I know not what we shall face next, but with the blessing of the Forgefather, we cannot be stopped.
Going not in character for this to actually talk about a fight. The fight against the huecuva may not quite have been Silver Tsuto worthy (borrowing from NobodysHome), but it was still kind of ridiculous. At first it looked like we were going to be challenged a bit, but then I cast my grease spell and it failed its save. I originally just intended the spell to buy me enough time to get out of the way. What happened, though...
Thanks to an acid flask as an Alchemical Power Component, the grease spell does 1 point of acid damage each round. Grease also requires an Acrobatics check to move through it. The huecuva managed to stand on its turn, but then it failed the check to move by more than 10, so the GM ruled it fell prone again. I got my dwarf out, as previously stated. But the huecuva, on its next turn, failed to stand up on its first move action, then got up on its second move action. The next round, it failed the Acrobatics check to move by more than 10, and fell prone again - and then failed to stand up. Once I finished summoning the eagle and it went in to attack the huecuva, the huecuva was smart enough not to stand and take the AoO, so it swiped at the eagle from the ground, missing. The eagle finished it of on its second round of existence.
It was kind of like something out of a Benny Hill sketch. The huecuva got up, and then slipped and fell right back down. It was rather amusing.
Our next session will hopefully be this Sunday, April 23.
| clgarret |
PH Dungeon used the Mythic rules for our Age of Worms campaign and it was a lot of fun - we actually hit 20th level, but there are some truly game-breaking abilities scattered amongst the Mythic rules that any GM should be super careful about allowing, imho. Starting with a 25 point buy too seems ambitious since mythic rules can blow the game scale out of the water pretty quickly.
Anyway, lots of luck, will be following with interest :)
| Phntm888 |
This is a friend from back in high school running it who just moved to where I live last year. He apparently ran it back home and didn't have an issue with the Mythic stuff, so I guess he's prepared for it - or he's already made the modifications necessary to make it work.
I think it also helps that the Paladin's player has talked about avoiding certain options that are considered game breaking (Mythic Power Attack > Mythic Deadly Aim), and I'm going to avoid some options as well. The bard is also rather unoptimized overall (starting Cha 14, Int 18), so that should help as well.
| Phntm888 |
So, first of all, props to people like NobodysHome who both GM and, after every session, write both an entertaining and informative journal writeup. Trying to write an entry that isn't just "We did this. Then this," but actually has some character is tricky, and I'm not the best of writers to begin with.
Apollo's player made it to this session, so we were able to work his character in pretty early on. Anytime I mention Apollo saying something, pretend the voice you're hearing is Sammy Davis, JR. He's going for that transatlantic accent, and it's quite amusing.
We also reached level 2 at the end of it. I can't decide if that's because the AP throws EXP at you to level you up quickly or if it's because we've bitten on every single plot hook we can find. Still, level 2 after 2 sessions is pretty quick. I wonder how long the next one will take.
17(?) Arodus 6713 AR
This date is my best guess, as yesterday was the 16th, and I think it’s been long enough tobe the 18th. We spent the remainder of the night in the temple of Torag, and in what we think is morning we gathered our equipment and ventured further into the cave system, seeking a way out. After a time, we came upon another large cavern. This one showed further signs of collapse from up above, as well as yet more bodies buried under rubble. There was one, however, lying atop the debris - you could clearly tell by his armor and weapons he was one of Sarenrae’s paladins. We checked, and found that he yet breathed, although he was in rough shape. Tirfnel healed the worst of his wounds, and Aravashnial offered him one of his potions of cure moderate wounds. His name was Apollo Creed, and he was indeed a paladin of Sarenrae. He had led a contingent of soldiers from Egede to aid in the crusades, and they had recently arrived in Kenabres in time for Armasse. He told us he had previously been a reform officer in a prison, rehabilitating the prisoners there, and asked after his dog, Rae. There was no sign of a dog anywhere, so we could not help him with that. We told him everything that had happened as his memory came back to him, and we joined with him for the journey back to the surface. He had mentioned having a family, and when Vouthas asked him about it, he pulled a book out of his bag and proceeded to go page by page as we walked, telling us who each member of the family was. The man himself has 8 children, not counting his siblings and cousins and aunts and uncles and their children. If it weren’t for his height and his complete lack of a proper beard, he could be Dwarven in how fastidious he is in tracking his family.
Eventually we emerged into another cave, this one containing massive stone carvings of men and women in armor. Based on the style of the armor, Vouthas and I determined them to be carvings of the First Crusades. Legend spoke of a lost regiment, and perhaps these carvings had been made in their honor. Whoever had done the work was not a Dwarf, but they were clearly skilled and put a great deal of care into their work. I found them to be quite pleasing to my eyes. Stonework such as this, away from the air and water, would stand for centuries, a proper tribute to the brave men and women who first fought the demons when the Worldwound was breached.
So engrossed in studying the carvings was I, that I completely failed to notice two creatures above my head, looking down at me. Fortunately, Apollo Creed did notice them, and, using his bow, took aim and fired at one of them, hitting quite soundly. Tirfnel then came into the room and loosed a bolt from his crossbow, spitting the creature quite soundly and killing it. It fell from the sky and bounced off my head, which I found annoying, but given that they may very well have saved my life, an acceptable trade off. The other then swooped in and attacked Apollo, grabbing him as its teeth sunk into the paladin. Vouthas came in and loosed an arrow at the one attacking Apollo, fortunately managing to hit the creature and not Apollo. I was then able to get a good look at the creatures, and identified them as nightgaunts - a type of underground, winged predator that usually hunted in tunnels close to the surface. They were capable of creating a globe of magical darkness, which would blind those who could not see in the dark. I considered a moment what to do that would not harm Apollo, and in the end took a chance on my acid dart, which hit the mark and hurt the monster. Apollo fought the nightgaunt’s grapple, then Tirfnel attempted to shoot the creature with his crossbow. He missed as he attempted to avoid shooting Apollo by accident. Vouthas moved in, drawing his longsword, and was able to strike and finish the creature off. We stopped, catching our breaths momentarily, as we assessed the creatures’ ambush.
After only seconds, two bolts of force flew into the cave, slamming into Tirfnel. I immediately recognized them as a magic missile spell. Turning towards the source, we were shocked to discover a Dwarf, whose form was blurred! Apollo fired an arrow at the Dwarf, but the blur caused his arrow to miss the mark. Tirfnel channeled a burst of healing energy from his god for himself and Apollo, then the Dwarf loosed another magic missile at Tirfnel. Vouthas went to retrieve his bow, and I called to him, ”Brother! We are nae yer enemies! Cease yer attacks on us!” and cast a grease spell under him. Like all Dwarves, however, he proved sure on his feet, and the grease did not cause him to fall. Apollo moved forward with his scimitar to make it more difficult for the Dwarf to cast his spells, and struck him for some damage, but the Dwarf remained standing as Tirfnel again channeled to heal himself. The Dwarf then focused and cast a spell defensively, shooting a cascade of colors at Apollo that, when they cleared, had the brave Saerenite lying on his back, unconscious. Vouthas shot an arrow at the dwarf, further wounding him, and I moved closer to strike him with an acid dart. He spoke wild, crazy ramblings, his mind clearly addled but something - perhaps the trauma of what he’d just witnessed above? Regardless, Tirfnel moved into melee with him and struck with his short sword, causing him to fall unconscious. After a moment of agonizing decision, Tirfnel then ended his life. Perhaps it’s for the best. Who knows if we would have been able to save him, and this may have been a much greater mercy.
The Dwarf had several items on him of interest. Two potions, of cure light wounds and invisibility respectively, as well as scrolls of shocking grasp and resist energy. He also possessed a cloak of resistance, as well as his spellbook. This I took, and would hopefully learn something of this poor brother, who’s mind was clearly broken.
In the next chamber we discovered the remains of a campsite. It clearly belonged to the Dwarf, which begged the question: why was he down here, all alone? What tragedy could have befallen him? We had no answers, and pressed on, continuing through the maze of tunnels underneath the city. We entered into a massive cavern, one large enough that even I could not see the other side. The sounds of effort could be heard from far off, and I could tell there were at least two voices speaking, even though I could not make out what they were saying. We cautiously approached the voices and peered at them, seeing that they were a pair of heavily deformed humanoids working with shovels. There seemed to be a third one under some debris. Apollo approached the group and spoke to them, causing the other two to take a defensive stance. We were told by the one that, if we meant them harm, they had nothing and we should just move along. After a few moments of conversation, they told us their friend was trapped, and asked if we would help them. Vouthas apparently knows a thing or two about engineering, because he was able to identify how we could move the rock trapping their companion without it shifting and crushing him.
After having done so, we learned they were mongrelmen, although their term is ‘Children of the First Crusade’, the descendants of crusaders who were tainted by their proximity to the Worldwound. They kept to their Crusaders’ Oath still, however, and seemed particularly excited about meeting Apollo, as a Knight of Sarenrae. They offered us shelter at their village, which was not too far away. We agreed to accompany them, and told them what had befallen us on the surface. Master Gwerm was none too pleased with this, convinced it was a trap, but Apollo was able to mollify him by negotiating with Horgus that he only had to pay us 1500 gold for escorting him to the surface, as opposed to 2000 gold.
In our journey to their city, Neatholm, we encountered two obstacles. The first was a huge fissure, 30 feet deep, that had not been there before when our guides passed this way. More damage from the demon attack on Kenabres, it appears. We would have had a great deal of difficulty navigating it with Anevia and Aravashnial’s injuries, but fortunately, thanks to mine and Tirfnel’s scales of cloudwalking, we were able to ferry everyone across with not incident. The second issue, we were told, was some sort of creature that produced hallucinogenic spores. Lann, one of our guides, called it a “spore-cougher”. We identified it as a Basidirond, and knew we would have to use stealth to sneak past its lair.
Upon entry into the lair, however, we found the creature split open, along with the bodies of two Iomedaen crusaders, one lying next to the creature, the other a ways away with a trail of blood leading to it. Strangely, rather than longsword and shield, they had glaives lying next to their bodies. Apollo entered the room and went to investigate the blood. He dipped two gloved fingers in it, sniffed it, and confirmed it was blood before he began shouting and screaming about something involving him melting or some such. He looked to be having a fit. Sighing, I held my breath and walked over to him to drag him from the area. The fit cleared up, and he told us the strange things he had seen. I reminded him they were hallucinogenic spores, and that there were likely some still in the air from the fight. Holding my breath, I retrieved the bodies of the two crusaders as well. Upon searching the bodies, we found one clutching something gold in his hand. Prying it open, we found it be an unholy symbol of Baphomet, a demon lord whose cultists had apparently infiltrated the ranks of the crusaders. Cultists of Baphomet slew my mother, and the thought that there might be more on the surface filled me with rage. In Dwarven fashion, I did not unleash it, but kept it on a slow simmer. Once we find some of the cultists of Baphomet, I shall show them the wrath of an angry Dwarf.
There was some debate about what to do with the bodies of the two cultists. Aravashnial insisted we bring them to the surface so they could be identified. Hauling decomposing bodies through the caves did not seem very productive, so a suggestion was offered of merely taking the heads. In the end, Apollo sketched their faces, and I made sure to give each a kick, and spit upon the vile traitors. After we took their equipment as forfeit, we finished our journey to Neatholm. I was impressed by the wall they had built, and how defensible the village was, being situated on an island in the middle of the lake.
We were taken to meet their chieftain, Chief Sull. We spoke with the Chief, and told him what had befallen us, and spoke of our urgency to return to the surface. He told us of life underground, and of another tribe of mongrelmen who had broken off and taken to worshipping and allied with the demons. Other humans dressed as Iomedaen crusaders, likely more cultists of Baphomet, had been seen among them. Their fortress was also along the quickest path to the the surface. He asked us if we would assault their fortress and eliminate the crusaders. In aid, he offered us several restorative potions. As it was the fastest route to the surface, we agreed.
As we conversed with Chief Sull, I noticed that the carvings around the room matched the bronze brooch we found in the tunnels. Taking it out, I asked if he recognized it. The Chief asked if he could have it, and told us it belonged to his son. They had fought, and his son had left the village. The Chief had not seen him. Fights between kin are always the worst, and I saw a father who had lost his son. We offered him the brooch back, as remembrance of his son. In return, he gave us his family’s morningstar, with the promise we would split at least one cultists skull with it. We told him it would be our pleasure.
We sold some excess supplies and weapons and are resting for the night in the village. I have copied a couple of spells from that lost Dwarf’s spellbook into mine, a little extra surprise for those demon-worshipping filth who would soon know nothing but pain. Tomorrow, we shall show them what happens to those who consort with demons.
| clgarret |
So, first of all, props to people like NobodysHome who both GM and, after every session, write both an entertaining and informative journal writeup. Trying to write an entry that isn't just "We did this. Then this," but actually has some character is tricky, and I'm not the best of writers to begin with.
Apollo's player made it to this session, so we were able to work his character in pretty early on. Anytime I mention Apollo saying something, pretend the voice you're hearing is Sammy Davis, JR. He's going for that transatlantic accent, and it's quite amusing.
We also reached level 2 at the end of it. I can't decide if that's because the AP throws EXP at you to level you up quickly or if it's because we've bitten on every single plot hook we can find. Still, level 2 after 2 sessions is pretty quick. I wonder how long the next one will take.
** spoiler omitted **...
Yeah agreed that it is hard to create those kinds of write ups :/ I just aim for accuracy and try to translate whatever notes that I took during the session onto paper as quickly as possible before my memory fades, heh. I think part of it is with very experienced gaming groups they can go through the adventures fairly quickly (we tend to go through each one in 6-7 sessions), so just from a plot perspective it takes a lot of time to write up each one, so that actually writing up banter etc would take an insane amount of time.
Anyway, I stopped worrying about level up speed a long time ago, and started going with the story based advancement track. As long as people are having fun it's all good imho.
| Phntm888 |
So I did a crappy job keeping this up. We just finished up Book 2, so we're all level 9/Mythic Tier 3. It was requested I post about the final fight with Eustoryiax, since it was felt we rather . The group's makeup has changed and grown somewhat, as well. Here's the updated PC list below:
Tirfnel, Tiefling Cleric 7/Exalted 2/Hierophant 3 of Jadiz
Voultas Vouthas, Elven Bard Unchained Rogue 9/Trickster 3
Apollo Creed, Paladin 9/Champion 3 of Sarenrae
Korgar Forgehammer, Dwarven Wizard (Conjuration Specialist) 9/Archmage 3
Bjorn the Chaste, Half-Elven Bard 8/Gunslinger (Bolt Ace) 1/Marshal 3
[name unknown], Kitsune Gunslinger 9/Champion 3
And the cohorts:
Apollo Creed's cohort, Charlie Cheddar, Ratfolk Hunter 7
Bjorn the Chaste's cohort, Flurg, Half-orc Oracle of Life 7 (who we had yet to find from where ever he was hidden in Drezen).
Vouthas got tired of nearly dying so much as a bard (he nearly got eaten by ghouls while traveling to Drezen), so the young Elf is going through his rebellious phase and switched to Unchained Rogue. He also missed everything from the Salamanders forward, since that was a different session.
In order to ensure the survival of the cohorts, Apollo orders Charlie to retreat from any fight with a potentially mythic opponent, and Flurg casts Sanctuary on the first round of combat and avoids taking any hostile actions.
So, after we finished clearing out the first floor of Drezen, we began making plans for heading into the basement after the Sword of Valor. We had Staunton Vhane's journal, so we knew Eustoryiax was a shadow demon who had been imbued with greater than normal power. Thanks to the brilliant Dwarven Wizard and the actually somewhat knowledgeable about demons Cleric, we had a good idea of what shadow demons were capable of. We knew we were going down into a dungeon, and we figured we would encounter evil creatures. The Cleric's player was paranoid about undead (this is important).
So, we had our plan of go down into the dungeon, find Eustoryiax, and kill him. We prepared the following long-duration buffs:
Apollo and Vouthas: use Alter Self scale to gain darkvision.
Bjorn the Chaste: cast Alter Self to gain darkvision.
Kitsune: Darkvision cast upon him by the Dwarf, using Wild Arcana Mythic ability.
Group: Magic Circle Against Evil (courtesy the Dwarf), and, courtesy the Cleric: Greater Hide from Undead.
Note that last spell, cause that's what made the whole thing.
So, we've buffed ourselves up to the maximum possible effect, we're ready for whatever's down there. We head down the stairs into the first room. We see there are two spectres guarding the doors before us. We take a moment to consider our options, and the difficulty of battling them. Eventually, I point out that we can just walk right by them and not have to deal with them.
Now, if you aren't familiar with Greater Hide from Undead, it's a spell from People of the Wastes. It's a level 3 Cleric/Oracle/Inquisitor spell, and it functions exactly as Hide from Undead with the following exception: whenever you would take an action that would break Hide from Undead, that action no longer breaks Hide From Undead. Instead, intelligent Undead get a Will save to see through the effect. If they fail, they can't see you - regardless of whether you just attacked them, channeled positive energy, or used turn undead. Unintelligent undead get no save - even if you do any of that.
So, we walk up to the doors the spectres are guarding and open them. Both spectres promptly fail their Will saves, look at the doors that apparently opened for no reason, and, because they can't see anyone living who opened the doors, shrug their shoulders and go back to guarding the doors. They don't see any light, because we all have darkvision through one means or another. We walk past them into the hallway. At our next intersection, we hear the sounds of people talking at the far end, so we go to check it out and find the Vampire Spawn - all of whom promptly fail their Will saves to notice we're there, and continue talking. We decide to ignore them, because there's a lot of them and they aren't a threat right now.
We go back to the intersection, and choose to go to the barred area, where we find Flurg, and the broken, destroyed cell that once housed an Abyssal heretic succubus. Flurg recovered, and hide from undead cast on him, we go to the other door across the hall. Upon opening it, we find the room has a vampire in it sitting at a desk - who promptly fails his Will save to notice us. We file into the room while he gets up to check the door, then closes it while muttering about spirits, and returns to his desk.
So, naturally, we get a nice, big group coup de grace on him, turning him into paste. We then wait for the Vampire Spawn to come investigate - but apparently their tactics call for them to leave Drezen if the main Vampire dies. So we didn't have to deal with them - at that moment.
At this point, we've searched everything we can, and realized we missed something. So, we go back to the main entrance and check the two side rooms for anything - the spectres continuing to be oblivious to our presence. We find the secret door to the rest of the dungeon, and go through, closing the door behind us.
The Corruption Forge presents little challenge - two of the Fiendish Advanced Salamanders are blinded by holy smite, then I drop two more down a pit. The gunslinger mows down a couple. Thanks to myself and all of Charlie Cheddars level 2 spells (and Tieflings natural fire resistance), we give everyone in the group resistance to fire so we don't have to deal with the heat aura. The salamanders dealt with, we search the two side rooms, one an armory, and the other containing several blacksmithing tools - and a secret door that we also find easily (the Cleric and the Dwarf have very good Perception).
Taking the secret passage, we find ourselves in the hallway with all the carvings of Deskari. We trigger the phantasmal killer trap, and all make our Will saves. We then advance onto the room with the statue of Aponavicious, and we take the high ledge, with the Paladin accidentally triggering one of the telekinesis traps. He resists being thrown off the edge, and we realize the floor is fake and there's green slime down the pit. So, using the wand of daylight (from book 1), I cast it down there to kill the green slime and we continue. We use gloves of reconnaissance to determine that the next room is shrouded in deeper darkness, and decide this has to be the boss room. So, we cast our buff spells (Mythic Bless, Mythic Haste, Enlarge Person on the Paladin, Heroism on three different people, Daylight on myself and the Paladin, Daybreak arrows on the gunslinger's bullets) and then we go to enter the room. The gunslinger goes first, but can't see anything to shoot, so he delays. Bjorn goes next, and he uses Commanding Entrance to try and intimidate Eustoryiax. It's a very good roll (40 Intimidate), but you can't intimidate what you can't see, and he couldn't see Eustoryiax. He also beings inspiring courage. Then the Paladin strides into the room, his daylight cancelling out the deeper darkness, until we can see Eustoryiax floating in the air. Eustoryiax then takes his readied action - and shoots the paladin with a crossbow. I mean, he did decent damage, but not what we were expecting from a shadow demon.
Then the Paladin got his one smite attack off for half damage (because Eustoryiax is incorporeal), and the gunslinger went. Unfortunately, this is the point where we found out Eustoryiax had a mythic ability that made him immune to the Daylight arrows effect. The gunslinger did damage, but not a lot. It was, I think, a first for him. Flurg cast Sanctuary and hid in the corner, Charlie Cheddar cast a buff on the Paladin, and then the Cleric came up. He decided to try casting Bestow Curse - and managed to overcome the Spell Resistance of the Shadow Demon, giving Eustoryiax only a 50% chance to act. Then it was my turn. I strode into the room, and cast Mythic Magic Missile, overcoming the Spell Resistance and doing a solid chunk of his health in damage - then used my second move action from Mythic haste to exit the room and remove myself from line of sight.
The Gunslinger got off another low-damage full attack, the Bard tried and failed to hit with his crossbow. Eustoryiax went next, and he went to rip the paladin to pieces with his claws...and couldn't act. The GM rolled above a 50 on the d100, so Eustoryiax could do nothing. Then the Smiting, buffed to the gills Paladin got off a full attack, and got to use his Mythic Ability Sudden Strike as a Swift Action - dropping Eustoryiax. We then reclaimed the Sword of Valor, ensuring Drezen was secured from demonic attack.
Apparently, Eustoryiax's tactics rely on one of the enemies from earlier in the level alerting him to the PCs presence so he can buff. We bypassed all the undead, curb stomped the salamanders, and completely avoided the spellcaster who was trying to conduct a ritual to bring Drezen down around our heads. None of the enemies who are supposed to alert Eustoryiax were able to, because they either didn't know we were there or they died too quickly. So we caught the final boss off-guard, without time to buff. It was a surprisingly short fight, and we still had plenty of resources remaining.
On my review of the Adventure Path to this point, I'd have to say that it can be deadly if you do stupid things or hit a string of bad luck with the dice, but otherwise is pretty easy. I don't know that I see the challenge going up moving forward, but if nothing else this should get interesting. Tier 3 is when Mythic supposedly really goes off the rails, so I'm curious to see how it goes.