The past two months have been fairly busy, with me gaining a promotion, Angela completing her classes to become a reserve police officer, and other obligations and illnesses for various members of the group, but we have managed to eke out five sessions* of our various games during the 8 weeks since I last posted. Here's the conclusion of our 3-part Eberron game ran by Paul.
After leaving the dragon we encountered in the kobold city, we began our dangerous trek further into the mountain, in search of the Demon (alternately, Dragon) Gate, which we were to seal with the scroll afforded us by the Daughters of Sora Kell.
Our passage was blocked by throngs of tieflings and demons of all sorts in fierce combat with a small group of elder dragons of various color. The breach in the Gate had spilled forth much more than we had anticipated and so we threw our power into the fight against the fell host, seemingly doing very little to turn the tide of battle. Then, a few of us had the idea of pushing for the back of the cavern - over a mile deeper into hostile territory, harried all the way by fiends until the Gate was in sight.
Once there, I pulled the scroll and enacted the magic to bind the Gate, and simultaneously, the demon host broke, carrying the day for our band. We finished our business there and returned to the heart of Droaam victorious. There were more of these Gates to be sealed, and many, more dire challenges that awaited us, no doubt, but those are stories for another day...
Cast of Characters**
Saint Cleanse, Awakened Sainted Empowered Divine Living Fireball Monk 8/Paladin 2/Shibu Protector 1 - David
??, Medusa Fighter 10 - Angela
??, Dragonkin Dragonborn Dragon Adept 10 -Tami
??, Harssaf Rogue 10 -Taylor
Anak, Draconic Human-blooded Arkamoi Sorceror 2/Incantatrix 9 - Me
*there is a little bit of debate about this, as some of us remember the last part of Paul's game taking 2 sessions and the rest remembering it as a 2-parter in whole, with the last part just being insanely long. It was only discussed briefly, but ultimately doesn't matter.
**You might notice a level disparity between mine and David's characters and the others. That's because we all gained a level at the end of the last session, and I can't recall what anyone else took. Perhaps some insight will come in comments. Also, I'm not sure of anyone's name, so maybe I can be clued in to those.
Showing posts with label Paul. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paul. Show all posts
7.27.2013
Some Thoughts on the Eberron 3-Parter
Paul's game is, I think, something I've been needing without me necessarily knowing. His initial pitch on our last Dark Heresy night was "Up to 10 ECL and 10 class levels" and then later supplemented via text with "In Droaam, working for Daughters of Sora Kell." Now, this already sounds fun. Monstrous PC working for the leaders of a monstrous nation. I really dug that, but the first thing that I latched onto was the leeway we were given with character creation.
I love crunch in game systems. It's not something I need, but I do like my fix now and then, and sometimes when given the opportunity, I like to fiddle with optimization. You see, I don't usually optimize my characters for other games, such as our Age of Worms campaign, because I don't care for the hassle of the bookkeeping, I don't wish to burden my GM with skews in character ability, and I don't wish to overshadow my fellow players' characters because I wish all of us to have a fun experience.
When Paul announced the levels for this mini-campaign, however, I jumped on the chance to push some limits. Not all of us did, mind you, but the impact is seemingly less, as each of our races have distinct advantages, and most of us went for acutely focused class structures, which means fewer instances of overlap and more fun as our characters do what they do. Taylor has mentioned not being entirely happy with his character as it stands, so he might ask Paul for a change, but I don't think he didn't enjoy himself during the game.
All of this is not to say that I don't have reservations! My fears, however, are that he might slip into a challenge fallacy with our characters. My sorceror, while powerful, is really only as potent as a 15th level character. David's living spell character, on the other hand, is teetering close to epic levels of power, because he was looking at gaming his character, as well. The others vary mostly by situation as to where they sit, but we're definitely not a 20th level party, no matter what our ECLs say, as racial ECL adds seem to not follow any particular scale, and it could be very easy for Paul to design encounters that would just be too powerful for us to really handle.
Part of our weakness vs. apparent power level stems from the allocation of gold. We built our characters with 10th level gold, then got a boost of 100k each by the Daughters as payment for this dangerous task. This effectively puts us at 14th level gold, but not 20th, which means power level will be curbed more, as D&D works off of a "your toys make you good" system. The fact that the extra 100k came after character creation makes a large difference, as well, as choices made are slightly more restricted than they would have been if we had gotten the starting gold for 14th level (150k) or higher.
I'm excited at seeing the challenges to come in the campaign, because I thought the three stone golems were rather clever, and despite my fears, I'm sure Paul will have an exciting adventure for us, and I'm interested in seeing his approach to the three-part model as far as pacing and scene breakup goes.
I love crunch in game systems. It's not something I need, but I do like my fix now and then, and sometimes when given the opportunity, I like to fiddle with optimization. You see, I don't usually optimize my characters for other games, such as our Age of Worms campaign, because I don't care for the hassle of the bookkeeping, I don't wish to burden my GM with skews in character ability, and I don't wish to overshadow my fellow players' characters because I wish all of us to have a fun experience.
When Paul announced the levels for this mini-campaign, however, I jumped on the chance to push some limits. Not all of us did, mind you, but the impact is seemingly less, as each of our races have distinct advantages, and most of us went for acutely focused class structures, which means fewer instances of overlap and more fun as our characters do what they do. Taylor has mentioned not being entirely happy with his character as it stands, so he might ask Paul for a change, but I don't think he didn't enjoy himself during the game.
All of this is not to say that I don't have reservations! My fears, however, are that he might slip into a challenge fallacy with our characters. My sorceror, while powerful, is really only as potent as a 15th level character. David's living spell character, on the other hand, is teetering close to epic levels of power, because he was looking at gaming his character, as well. The others vary mostly by situation as to where they sit, but we're definitely not a 20th level party, no matter what our ECLs say, as racial ECL adds seem to not follow any particular scale, and it could be very easy for Paul to design encounters that would just be too powerful for us to really handle.
Part of our weakness vs. apparent power level stems from the allocation of gold. We built our characters with 10th level gold, then got a boost of 100k each by the Daughters as payment for this dangerous task. This effectively puts us at 14th level gold, but not 20th, which means power level will be curbed more, as D&D works off of a "your toys make you good" system. The fact that the extra 100k came after character creation makes a large difference, as well, as choices made are slightly more restricted than they would have been if we had gotten the starting gold for 14th level (150k) or higher.
I'm excited at seeing the challenges to come in the campaign, because I thought the three stone golems were rather clever, and despite my fears, I'm sure Paul will have an exciting adventure for us, and I'm interested in seeing his approach to the three-part model as far as pacing and scene breakup goes.
Sealing the Dragon's Gate, Part 1 (of 3?)
This week, we switched gears a little bit because Angela is training to multiclass into police officer by taking a class to become a reserve officer. Since she has little time for prep for our Age of Worms campaign, Paul stepped up with an interesting Eberron campaign. The story is as follows:
Each of our characters were approached separately by the honor guard of the Daughters of Sora Kell and escorted to The Great Crag to meet with an envoy of the coven. There, we were told of a prison created at the dawn of the worlds, when Eberron surrounded Khyber and trapped its hellish spawn with it, and how deep in the bowels of the Demon Wastes(I believe, I'll have to ask Paul for confirmation), a fissure was being created that could spill all manner of nasties onto the face of Eberron.
This, of course, would be bad for Eberron, and more importantly, bad for Droaam. The Daughters have a good thing going, and global disruption cannot be stood for. The divinations have shown what would happen if given time, and thus our newly formed band were to make haste to seal the portal/fissure with the application of powerful magic, provided on a scroll.
Not knowing what we may face, an advance of gold was asked for and given and we were also granted use of an airship and an allotment of a week to arrive at our destination, which we did with a day to spare! (Technically untrue, as we were given 3 days for preparations, and it was a 3 day journey, but still made it under a week.)
Once we arrived, it didn't take long for us to come to an ancient bridge spanning a chasm atop a mountain, and leading to an entrance into the rock, itself. The bridge was of grand size, 30 or 40 feet across and nearly four times as long, flanked on either side by large statues of dragons of various looks, some of which had been destroyed or seemingly removed. The plinths the ones to our right rested on were welcome, however, as they were our only shield against the powerful winds that whipped through the area, threatening to blow us off the bridge to our deaths.
The wind, it turns out, was just one of our worries, as the three whole statues still standing became animate and began to attack. Attacks were quickly dispensed and spells thrown, and though we almost lost our Harssaf, the encounter was finished rather quickly, with the five companions barely worse for the wear. Dusting off the debris from the statues' shattering, haste was made to the entrance into the mountain and we entered a partially constructed chamber with massive steps leading down. Just beyond the threshold, however, we found the fairly fresh naked corpse of a tiefling, with no apparent cause of death.
This prompted caution and almost triggered another violent conflict as a kobold came into view and greeted us in the language of dragons. Since we are envoys of Droaam, essentially, we met well with the creature and agreed to be escorted to his 'city', which was a hovel of lean-tos and shanties amid great ruins with dragon motifs everywhere. We were told that we would be presented to the leader of this village and then left in a building that barely accommodated our sizes until we would be met. We took the opportunity to rest and were led to another immense chamber, wherein rested what could only be assumed to be an ancient dragon.
Though we have seen much amongst the varied races of our own home nation, the sight of a child of the creators of the world was awe-inspiring. The great beast seemed to be blind, however, possibly from being inside this structure for eons, and some of its scales had sloughed off.
It spoke to us in a peaceful manner and seemed to take interest in our quest as something it agreed to, giving a promising start to this trek. However, one has to think... if a dragon of immense age can be counted among our allies in this venture, what horrors do we face in the task to come?
Cast of Characters
Saint Cleanse, Awakened Sainted Empowered Divine Living Fireball Monk 7/Paladin 2/Shibu Protector 1 - David
??, Medusa Fighter 10 - Angela
??, Dragonkin Dragonborn Dragon Adept 10 -Tami
??, Harssaf Rogue 10 -Taylor
Anak, Draconic Human-blooded Arkamoi Sorceror 2/Incantatrix 8 - Me
Further thoughts:
This is rather neat. Most of our group really like Eberron and the history of the world, and this story fits well. I appreciate that Paul has made this an exploration mystery early on, because that's where the setting thrives.
Each of our characters were approached separately by the honor guard of the Daughters of Sora Kell and escorted to The Great Crag to meet with an envoy of the coven. There, we were told of a prison created at the dawn of the worlds, when Eberron surrounded Khyber and trapped its hellish spawn with it, and how deep in the bowels of the Demon Wastes(I believe, I'll have to ask Paul for confirmation), a fissure was being created that could spill all manner of nasties onto the face of Eberron.
This, of course, would be bad for Eberron, and more importantly, bad for Droaam. The Daughters have a good thing going, and global disruption cannot be stood for. The divinations have shown what would happen if given time, and thus our newly formed band were to make haste to seal the portal/fissure with the application of powerful magic, provided on a scroll.
Not knowing what we may face, an advance of gold was asked for and given and we were also granted use of an airship and an allotment of a week to arrive at our destination, which we did with a day to spare! (Technically untrue, as we were given 3 days for preparations, and it was a 3 day journey, but still made it under a week.)
Once we arrived, it didn't take long for us to come to an ancient bridge spanning a chasm atop a mountain, and leading to an entrance into the rock, itself. The bridge was of grand size, 30 or 40 feet across and nearly four times as long, flanked on either side by large statues of dragons of various looks, some of which had been destroyed or seemingly removed. The plinths the ones to our right rested on were welcome, however, as they were our only shield against the powerful winds that whipped through the area, threatening to blow us off the bridge to our deaths.
The wind, it turns out, was just one of our worries, as the three whole statues still standing became animate and began to attack. Attacks were quickly dispensed and spells thrown, and though we almost lost our Harssaf, the encounter was finished rather quickly, with the five companions barely worse for the wear. Dusting off the debris from the statues' shattering, haste was made to the entrance into the mountain and we entered a partially constructed chamber with massive steps leading down. Just beyond the threshold, however, we found the fairly fresh naked corpse of a tiefling, with no apparent cause of death.
This prompted caution and almost triggered another violent conflict as a kobold came into view and greeted us in the language of dragons. Since we are envoys of Droaam, essentially, we met well with the creature and agreed to be escorted to his 'city', which was a hovel of lean-tos and shanties amid great ruins with dragon motifs everywhere. We were told that we would be presented to the leader of this village and then left in a building that barely accommodated our sizes until we would be met. We took the opportunity to rest and were led to another immense chamber, wherein rested what could only be assumed to be an ancient dragon.
Though we have seen much amongst the varied races of our own home nation, the sight of a child of the creators of the world was awe-inspiring. The great beast seemed to be blind, however, possibly from being inside this structure for eons, and some of its scales had sloughed off.
It spoke to us in a peaceful manner and seemed to take interest in our quest as something it agreed to, giving a promising start to this trek. However, one has to think... if a dragon of immense age can be counted among our allies in this venture, what horrors do we face in the task to come?
Cast of Characters
Saint Cleanse, Awakened Sainted Empowered Divine Living Fireball Monk 7/Paladin 2/Shibu Protector 1 - David
??, Medusa Fighter 10 - Angela
??, Dragonkin Dragonborn Dragon Adept 10 -Tami
??, Harssaf Rogue 10 -Taylor
Anak, Draconic Human-blooded Arkamoi Sorceror 2/Incantatrix 8 - Me
Further thoughts:
This is rather neat. Most of our group really like Eberron and the history of the world, and this story fits well. I appreciate that Paul has made this an exploration mystery early on, because that's where the setting thrives.
8.24.2009
The Savage Tide a la Asshole
This past Wednesday, we got back into the swing of Paul's Sessarine/Savage Tide game (or the Asshole Campaign, as we call it.)
When last we had left off, all of the characters were in a cove filled with wrecked and burning pirate ships and another ship hard against the wall that seemed to not have suffered much damage. In the cove was a sandy beach that led to a cave entrance, which we all decided to check out. Moving in first without consulting the others, my griffon (who can't talk anyway) and Josh H.'s Raptoran Druid (who I played as a way to keep my character involved) travelled just inside to find a grisly scene complete with 3 infected pirates, one a cook who was working away at chopping up a man for them to dine on.
The druid cast Entangle, which is probably one of the most broken spells ever, and held most of the baddies at bay while my griffon (named Roc) charged at the "cook" and started rocking him. A couple of well placed spells by John C. and the help of a summoned eagle took out the goons and we continued on after inspecting the room.
Moving into another area, we found huge sheets of silk, worth quite a chunk of change, and their guardian....an infected deinonychus! That's what Jurrasic Park called a "velociraptor" for those of you who didn't know; however, I'll not get into how wrong they were here.
Anyway, the thing proceeded to mangle the party and only Steve made it out alive, but oh well. I'm working on a Fighter that will hopefully not just get chewed to hell by this campaign.
When last we had left off, all of the characters were in a cove filled with wrecked and burning pirate ships and another ship hard against the wall that seemed to not have suffered much damage. In the cove was a sandy beach that led to a cave entrance, which we all decided to check out. Moving in first without consulting the others, my griffon (who can't talk anyway) and Josh H.'s Raptoran Druid (who I played as a way to keep my character involved) travelled just inside to find a grisly scene complete with 3 infected pirates, one a cook who was working away at chopping up a man for them to dine on.
The druid cast Entangle, which is probably one of the most broken spells ever, and held most of the baddies at bay while my griffon (named Roc) charged at the "cook" and started rocking him. A couple of well placed spells by John C. and the help of a summoned eagle took out the goons and we continued on after inspecting the room.
Moving into another area, we found huge sheets of silk, worth quite a chunk of change, and their guardian....an infected deinonychus! That's what Jurrasic Park called a "velociraptor" for those of you who didn't know; however, I'll not get into how wrong they were here.
Anyway, the thing proceeded to mangle the party and only Steve made it out alive, but oh well. I'm working on a Fighter that will hopefully not just get chewed to hell by this campaign.
12.15.2008
Gnomad and the Masters of the Multiverse! - The Old Switcheroo
This session was INSANE. After spending a much needed night just resting before setting on our course, we rose in the morning to find that our hatches have been sealed with a glue-like substance and the only way out other than that having a note on it that instructed us not to wake Iviss. I decided to sneak through the room so as not to wake him, but spotted his body laying next to the elemental engine of the Gnomad.
When I approached, I found that Iviss' throat had been cut and at that instant, multiple bombs of some sort exploded within the engine room. (As an aside, I still need to ask Paul how this happened, since he described the bombs as sonic in nature, and most of the ship is held in an antimagic zone for the crew's protection.)
The explosion shattered the gem housing our bound elemental and let it loose within the ship to rampage at will, dropping me quickly and almost making short work of some of my comrades in arms.
In the aftermath, Belaraphon called upon the help of 'Momo,' his intelligent sword, but the psionic intelligence dealt a cruel blow to our angel, trapping him in the body of a very old human and flying off in the everlasting body of the deva.
As we dealt with the choas of the ship's and angel's incapacitations, Chobham raised Iviss back to life, at which point Nelsie was blamed. The group then put the pieces together and realized that the mirror double of Nelsie must have made this guerilla attack on us. Iviss was sent off to find our fire elemental compatriot while we tried to decide the best way to rid our ship of a crafty water elemental, that we assumed to have gained access to the water pipes of the ship.
Who knows how things are going to go for us as we endeavor to complete the last leg of our quest.
When I approached, I found that Iviss' throat had been cut and at that instant, multiple bombs of some sort exploded within the engine room. (As an aside, I still need to ask Paul how this happened, since he described the bombs as sonic in nature, and most of the ship is held in an antimagic zone for the crew's protection.)
The explosion shattered the gem housing our bound elemental and let it loose within the ship to rampage at will, dropping me quickly and almost making short work of some of my comrades in arms.
In the aftermath, Belaraphon called upon the help of 'Momo,' his intelligent sword, but the psionic intelligence dealt a cruel blow to our angel, trapping him in the body of a very old human and flying off in the everlasting body of the deva.
As we dealt with the choas of the ship's and angel's incapacitations, Chobham raised Iviss back to life, at which point Nelsie was blamed. The group then put the pieces together and realized that the mirror double of Nelsie must have made this guerilla attack on us. Iviss was sent off to find our fire elemental compatriot while we tried to decide the best way to rid our ship of a crafty water elemental, that we assumed to have gained access to the water pipes of the ship.
Who knows how things are going to go for us as we endeavor to complete the last leg of our quest.
10.17.2008
The Gnomad and the Masters of the Multiverse!
Not an update here, the old "Arcane College" game (Because Paul never has named it, I've taken the liberty), in quite some time, but as of Wednesday night, we finally completed locking the Inner Planes by defeating the guardian of the Elemental Plane of Fire's hourglass....a colossal great wyrm red dragon!
It was almost two months in the making, so to speak, but we finally got to play the 25th level characters we made for the epic side quest that is the locking of the Plane of Fire. Sadly, it was a little anticlimactic...
We started off with our epics getting a ride to the volcano-lair of the dragon in the Gnomad then travelled up the side of the mountain where we spotted an entrance to the side that was guarded by two Initiates of Orcus who let us pass, without question, into a larger chamber that held an Infernal and 4 Balor, which we dispatched without too much effort (other than John C. dying) and then moved further, where we found a large settlement of kobolds within the mountain, some of which had obvious dragon blood in them. There, we made sacrifices to Tiamat by giving up an item of worth to us, after which we agreed to escort 4 of the kobolds to an altar area.
On the way there, we encountered a Paragon Steel Predator, which also killed John C., that was one of, if not the toughest things we faced, though getting past it simply took giving the creature enchanted items of metal to eat, which we did, then I Wished to duplicate Fabricate and created 250 cu. ft. of iron for it to gnaw on while we continued on to the altar room, in which an altar to Tiamat was present. Throughout the adventure, Carl's epic was frustrated because he was a Dragon Reborn Cleric of Bahamut who chafed under working with Tiamat followers and being around Tiamat icons. His discomfort became all of ours when the altar spit forth a Disjunction, which my character failed to counterspell and which stripped most of our magic items of power, causing Tony's character to give up the quest.
The rest of us decided to press further, encountering a huge lava pit containing a dragon of immense size, who reared up and shocked us when we saw that the thing had two heads! Alot of useless combat with the thing gave me time to cast my epic save or die spell three times, which is all it took for us to finish the thing off and then we made way with its loot and locked the hourglass, all of which the thing had inside of him.
Exiting the mountain made us cringe as off in the distance, we spotted a dragon flying toward the mountain off in the distance. Carl's character turned into a smaller dragon and gave us a ride to the Gnomad and we shifted out before the dragon got to us.
What does the future hold for us? I don't know quite yet, but it should be pretty freaking fun.
It was almost two months in the making, so to speak, but we finally got to play the 25th level characters we made for the epic side quest that is the locking of the Plane of Fire. Sadly, it was a little anticlimactic...
We started off with our epics getting a ride to the volcano-lair of the dragon in the Gnomad then travelled up the side of the mountain where we spotted an entrance to the side that was guarded by two Initiates of Orcus who let us pass, without question, into a larger chamber that held an Infernal and 4 Balor, which we dispatched without too much effort (other than John C. dying) and then moved further, where we found a large settlement of kobolds within the mountain, some of which had obvious dragon blood in them. There, we made sacrifices to Tiamat by giving up an item of worth to us, after which we agreed to escort 4 of the kobolds to an altar area.
On the way there, we encountered a Paragon Steel Predator, which also killed John C., that was one of, if not the toughest things we faced, though getting past it simply took giving the creature enchanted items of metal to eat, which we did, then I Wished to duplicate Fabricate and created 250 cu. ft. of iron for it to gnaw on while we continued on to the altar room, in which an altar to Tiamat was present. Throughout the adventure, Carl's epic was frustrated because he was a Dragon Reborn Cleric of Bahamut who chafed under working with Tiamat followers and being around Tiamat icons. His discomfort became all of ours when the altar spit forth a Disjunction, which my character failed to counterspell and which stripped most of our magic items of power, causing Tony's character to give up the quest.
The rest of us decided to press further, encountering a huge lava pit containing a dragon of immense size, who reared up and shocked us when we saw that the thing had two heads! Alot of useless combat with the thing gave me time to cast my epic save or die spell three times, which is all it took for us to finish the thing off and then we made way with its loot and locked the hourglass, all of which the thing had inside of him.
Exiting the mountain made us cringe as off in the distance, we spotted a dragon flying toward the mountain off in the distance. Carl's character turned into a smaller dragon and gave us a ride to the Gnomad and we shifted out before the dragon got to us.
What does the future hold for us? I don't know quite yet, but it should be pretty freaking fun.
9.19.2008
The Arcane College Update
A lot has happened since I last posted about this game, but we've still not dealt with all of the Inner Planes in our quest to "lock" them temporally from the machinations of Orcus, whom we found out is on his way to trying to take over the universe and remake it to suit him. He's weaseled deals with some planar beings and has almost guaranteed that the gods won't be involved, as far as we can tell.
Another guy named John has joined us, playing a Half-Gold Dragon/Half-Drow Wizard 4 (was 5, but he got Circle of Death'd on the Elemental Plane of Water. We've fought aspects of Orcus a few more times, and have been threatened with beings such as Concordant Killers and mirror doubles who have yet to strike. Of the Inner Planes, we only have Negative and Positive left, and I think that things are just going to get tougher.
Cast of Characters
Belaraphon Astral Deva 10 - Carl
Chobham Sohes (Human Cleric 11 of Nerull) - Tony
? (Human Fighter/Reaping Mauler) - Steve
Nelsie (Elf Rogue 5/Rogue) - John C
? (Half-Gold Dragon Drow Wizard 4) - John
Nastrond Esyllo (Sun Elf Beguiler 10) - Me
I'll be back to giving weekly updates starting next week, so look for those.
Another guy named John has joined us, playing a Half-Gold Dragon/Half-Drow Wizard 4 (was 5, but he got Circle of Death'd on the Elemental Plane of Water. We've fought aspects of Orcus a few more times, and have been threatened with beings such as Concordant Killers and mirror doubles who have yet to strike. Of the Inner Planes, we only have Negative and Positive left, and I think that things are just going to get tougher.
Cast of Characters
Belaraphon Astral Deva 10 - Carl
Chobham Sohes (Human Cleric 11 of Nerull) - Tony
? (Human Fighter/Reaping Mauler) - Steve
Nelsie (Elf Rogue 5/Rogue) - John C
? (Half-Gold Dragon Drow Wizard 4) - John
Nastrond Esyllo (Sun Elf Beguiler 10) - Me
I'll be back to giving weekly updates starting next week, so look for those.
6.19.2008
To Boldly Go Where Gnome Man Has Gone Before...
So...I've spoken at length in other posts about how amazingly awesome Paul's Wednesday night "The Arcane College" campaign is, and it just keeps getting better, in my opinion.
Since my last update, we've only moved on to one more plane...The Elemental Plane of Earth (this game is still 3.x)...and while that might make it seem like we've not made much progress, ALOT has happened in the sessions leading us to where we are.
Among those things has been discovering that Orcus has made some sort of deal with a high power that deals with godhood and noninterference in his quest to destroy the world and effectively remake it to his liking. The Caliph of the Plane of Air almost went along with it, but interference by a member of the royal line disrupted his dangerous course of action and gave us the edge.
With this victory, we were able to locate the hourglass and lock it on this plane, thus saving the plane and (hopefully) ensuring that we had started off on our mission with a solid pick-up. After departing there, we then traveled to the Elemental Plane of Earth and spent very high fees on gems to please a Xorn who we ended up acquiring the services of and who is currently leading us to the Great Dismal Delve.
It is our hope that we will come to face the Dao who hold dominion over the hourglass and we'll convince them easily of what we need and that it's for the best.
That's all for now. Sleepy.
Since my last update, we've only moved on to one more plane...The Elemental Plane of Earth (this game is still 3.x)...and while that might make it seem like we've not made much progress, ALOT has happened in the sessions leading us to where we are.
Among those things has been discovering that Orcus has made some sort of deal with a high power that deals with godhood and noninterference in his quest to destroy the world and effectively remake it to his liking. The Caliph of the Plane of Air almost went along with it, but interference by a member of the royal line disrupted his dangerous course of action and gave us the edge.
With this victory, we were able to locate the hourglass and lock it on this plane, thus saving the plane and (hopefully) ensuring that we had started off on our mission with a solid pick-up. After departing there, we then traveled to the Elemental Plane of Earth and spent very high fees on gems to please a Xorn who we ended up acquiring the services of and who is currently leading us to the Great Dismal Delve.
It is our hope that we will come to face the Dao who hold dominion over the hourglass and we'll convince them easily of what we need and that it's for the best.
That's all for now. Sleepy.
4.25.2008
The Arcane College, or Seasons in the Abyss (Part 5)
Finally, I'm back on track with posting!
I'll start updating this when it needs to be now, which isn't days after games happen...which brings up the fact that The Drow War is skipped. I wasn't feeling good at all last Sunday, so I stayed home. It happens, though I feel bad when it does.
Also, I was thinking as I was writing a title for this post. What is the name of this campaign? I've never thought to ask Paul if he had a name in mind for it, and I call it the Arcane College, because that's where it all started, but it's definitely NOT where it is or is going.
Read on for details!
There's SO much that goes on in these games of Paul's. For one, we play two nights a week.Wednesday and Thursday are both devoted to the game, though this Thursday is our last, as John has decided to run a game. With all the bouncing in time and such, it gets confusing and hard to relate the story here on the pages of the blog. Part of the reason this week is so hard to tell is because we did an amazing amount of things. The group is finally getting used to each other's play styles and the game and things just clicked really well for us the past two nights.
To make the story somewhat short, we continued to bounce through time some, learning some interesting facts and then discovering, to our dismay, that we're the reason that the curse fell into place and thus are/were the reason that Orcus was able to dominate the world in a far future that we travelled to.
We were able to save Dessa, the dwarf queen who is trapped in the great oak mentioned before, by performing clever time hops and travelling to when she sacrificed her soul to Orcus to save her love, Grontor Gorun, who we were trying to prevent being cursed. Turns out, when we jumped to an earlier time, Dessa was able to glean that we were trying to save Grontor and, in turn (before the curse ever took place), offered herself to the demon prince, thus causing the chain of events that triggered the curse!
Alas, we were too late. Orcus had taken her soul, but chose to barter it for the large hourglass filled with time sand. After some discussion, we handed the hourglass over and he (we think) kept his end of the deal. We knew that the trade aided him greatly in his attempts to bring about the end of times and promote the decay of the universe.
Leaving there, another jump in time led us to a somewhat familiar place...the decayed ruins of the Arcane College. This time, we were outside of it, though. Venturing in, we found the body of Pick, a mischevious halfling whom we've dealt with for a while and who randomly jumps times due to sheer luck.He will be missed.
On leaving the ruins, we decided to investigate a pulsing light that we had seen in the distance before that was still going. Upon reaching the source, we saw a terrifying sight...Orcus pounding on a small orb containing Dessa and a wooden facsimile of her, yet trapped in an orb himself, that was seemingly formed from the concerted efforts of many large figures each holding a large hourglass like the one we traded Orcus and with their eyes closed in concentration.
Having been able to pierce a temporal bubble in the far future, I quickly devised a plan in which the others would stay with me and walk in while touching me. It worked and we found ourselves face to face with 7 Karrnathi goblins and an Aspect of Orcus! (CR 9, Minis Handbook)
Through quick action and smart spellcasting, the skeletons were dispatched fairly quickly, leaving the big boss himself for us to contend with...which we kinda did. Isak dropped soon to the magic of the Ruby Rod and then Orcus began systematically killing us, his awesome might coming to full bear against us. When it came down to the ropes, Chobrim and Nelsie were the only two left, almost everyone dead. With last ditch efforts and the luck of the dice on their side, they were finally able to wear him down til Chobrim struck the demon down with a mighty blow!
Afterward, the beings holding the outer sphere up let it down and began to explain that we didn't defeat Orcus, but just a particle of his essence, or an Aspect. Those there, whom we later learned were Time Lords, was able to resurrect those of us who chose to come back. Paul was nice and gave us the option of new character creation.
We gained many a boon from the Lords, not to mention furter guidance on the items we had as well as having some age taken off our character and some of our magic items recharged.
Where the game takes us next, I have no clue, but I do know that wherever it takes us, we're as ready as we ever will be. The party dynamic is becoming better and better and those whose game this is a first are obviously improving (except for one, whom I plan to speak about soon.)
I'll start updating this when it needs to be now, which isn't days after games happen...which brings up the fact that The Drow War is skipped. I wasn't feeling good at all last Sunday, so I stayed home. It happens, though I feel bad when it does.
Also, I was thinking as I was writing a title for this post. What is the name of this campaign? I've never thought to ask Paul if he had a name in mind for it, and I call it the Arcane College, because that's where it all started, but it's definitely NOT where it is or is going.
Read on for details!
There's SO much that goes on in these games of Paul's. For one, we play two nights a week.Wednesday and Thursday are both devoted to the game, though this Thursday is our last, as John has decided to run a game. With all the bouncing in time and such, it gets confusing and hard to relate the story here on the pages of the blog. Part of the reason this week is so hard to tell is because we did an amazing amount of things. The group is finally getting used to each other's play styles and the game and things just clicked really well for us the past two nights.
To make the story somewhat short, we continued to bounce through time some, learning some interesting facts and then discovering, to our dismay, that we're the reason that the curse fell into place and thus are/were the reason that Orcus was able to dominate the world in a far future that we travelled to.
We were able to save Dessa, the dwarf queen who is trapped in the great oak mentioned before, by performing clever time hops and travelling to when she sacrificed her soul to Orcus to save her love, Grontor Gorun, who we were trying to prevent being cursed. Turns out, when we jumped to an earlier time, Dessa was able to glean that we were trying to save Grontor and, in turn (before the curse ever took place), offered herself to the demon prince, thus causing the chain of events that triggered the curse!
Alas, we were too late. Orcus had taken her soul, but chose to barter it for the large hourglass filled with time sand. After some discussion, we handed the hourglass over and he (we think) kept his end of the deal. We knew that the trade aided him greatly in his attempts to bring about the end of times and promote the decay of the universe.
Leaving there, another jump in time led us to a somewhat familiar place...the decayed ruins of the Arcane College. This time, we were outside of it, though. Venturing in, we found the body of Pick, a mischevious halfling whom we've dealt with for a while and who randomly jumps times due to sheer luck.He will be missed.
On leaving the ruins, we decided to investigate a pulsing light that we had seen in the distance before that was still going. Upon reaching the source, we saw a terrifying sight...Orcus pounding on a small orb containing Dessa and a wooden facsimile of her, yet trapped in an orb himself, that was seemingly formed from the concerted efforts of many large figures each holding a large hourglass like the one we traded Orcus and with their eyes closed in concentration.
Having been able to pierce a temporal bubble in the far future, I quickly devised a plan in which the others would stay with me and walk in while touching me. It worked and we found ourselves face to face with 7 Karrnathi goblins and an Aspect of Orcus! (CR 9, Minis Handbook)
Through quick action and smart spellcasting, the skeletons were dispatched fairly quickly, leaving the big boss himself for us to contend with...which we kinda did. Isak dropped soon to the magic of the Ruby Rod and then Orcus began systematically killing us, his awesome might coming to full bear against us. When it came down to the ropes, Chobrim and Nelsie were the only two left, almost everyone dead. With last ditch efforts and the luck of the dice on their side, they were finally able to wear him down til Chobrim struck the demon down with a mighty blow!
Afterward, the beings holding the outer sphere up let it down and began to explain that we didn't defeat Orcus, but just a particle of his essence, or an Aspect. Those there, whom we later learned were Time Lords, was able to resurrect those of us who chose to come back. Paul was nice and gave us the option of new character creation.
We gained many a boon from the Lords, not to mention furter guidance on the items we had as well as having some age taken off our character and some of our magic items recharged.
Where the game takes us next, I have no clue, but I do know that wherever it takes us, we're as ready as we ever will be. The party dynamic is becoming better and better and those whose game this is a first are obviously improving (except for one, whom I plan to speak about soon.)
4.22.2008
The Arcane College: Part 4 - Curiouser and Curiouser
So...things just get so weird from week to week.
While the party moved on from the tree to find food and the comfort of a room, I stayed behind at the tree and began to meditate on what has happened and what path to take next, when above me, I heard a voice. There was Pick, a halfling we had met in the future, though my character was at first oblivious to that fact (I've begun to roleplay that the different people and places are somewhat static to my character, with all the jumps taking a toll on him mentally.) After having spoken to Pick, and him having given me a small charm in the form of a necklace, I realized, with the help of Ferrell, what year it was and directed him to The Dragon's Cauldron, where I have a contact in a guild I joined.
After venturing into town and learning of a gathering of the council to discuss with us our progress and their concerns about the caves/mines, we all decided to retire and rest so that we could have a good start. Meeting with the council was just as boring as it sounds when Chobrim and I began to argue and everything around us halted but we were able to move freely. A small figure was spotted fleeing the building so we gave chase, pursuing what we saw to be a small creature seemingly made entirely of sand, and could corrode things with a touch. On his trail was a gnome, who could also function normally, and who told us some of the timeslips we were experiencing and directed us in the direction of some items fueled by Time Sand (which the creature seen earlier was constructed of) with which to aid us (the first of which being the amulet I was given by Pick.) He then went on to explain that he is a watcher, and that his job is to correct the timestream so that rifts and anomalies don't appear and threaten the very future, itself.
Armed with the information given us, we immediately made haste to the south where a temple dedicated to time and temporal research is. There, we acquired our second item, a bracer which my character put on and used, subsequently aging myself 100 years, though stopping time for a minute around me. Armed with a dangerous item and an aged elf, we travelled back to whence we came and then made our way to a different town down the road, where sat a museum with what could possibly be another time-related tool. Various shenanigans there, and the expenditure of EVERY coin in my possession netted us a set of dice (a prize I did as a job for the guild) and another use of my bracer netted me 100 more years and an hourglass full of Time Sand, which happened to be attached to a water clock.
Having stolen the hourglass, we made haste to leave the town, and did so on foot, encountering a band of orcs, whom we dispatched, then moved on to our original departure point. There, we called a meeting among ourselves, revealing the steal, and decided that we needed to go to the Temporal temple place again for analysis of our things and what we could do with them. We called forth the head of the temple and as he went to whisk us there, something went wrong. We wound up where we were going, just not when. Research notes put us hundreds of years into the future, where we encountered another Time Sand homunculus, and searching for its owner, found....Pick! In possession of a Watcher's Orb.
As we ended the session, magical identification had uncovered nothing about the orb, and we had pretty much decided to activate it blindly. All the while, some of us were using those old dice we got at the museum to pass the time with a game, oblivious to the fact that we were gambling with more than just the 1 gp wager, as we have in our possession Olidammara's Dice.
While the party moved on from the tree to find food and the comfort of a room, I stayed behind at the tree and began to meditate on what has happened and what path to take next, when above me, I heard a voice. There was Pick, a halfling we had met in the future, though my character was at first oblivious to that fact (I've begun to roleplay that the different people and places are somewhat static to my character, with all the jumps taking a toll on him mentally.) After having spoken to Pick, and him having given me a small charm in the form of a necklace, I realized, with the help of Ferrell, what year it was and directed him to The Dragon's Cauldron, where I have a contact in a guild I joined.
After venturing into town and learning of a gathering of the council to discuss with us our progress and their concerns about the caves/mines, we all decided to retire and rest so that we could have a good start. Meeting with the council was just as boring as it sounds when Chobrim and I began to argue and everything around us halted but we were able to move freely. A small figure was spotted fleeing the building so we gave chase, pursuing what we saw to be a small creature seemingly made entirely of sand, and could corrode things with a touch. On his trail was a gnome, who could also function normally, and who told us some of the timeslips we were experiencing and directed us in the direction of some items fueled by Time Sand (which the creature seen earlier was constructed of) with which to aid us (the first of which being the amulet I was given by Pick.) He then went on to explain that he is a watcher, and that his job is to correct the timestream so that rifts and anomalies don't appear and threaten the very future, itself.
Armed with the information given us, we immediately made haste to the south where a temple dedicated to time and temporal research is. There, we acquired our second item, a bracer which my character put on and used, subsequently aging myself 100 years, though stopping time for a minute around me. Armed with a dangerous item and an aged elf, we travelled back to whence we came and then made our way to a different town down the road, where sat a museum with what could possibly be another time-related tool. Various shenanigans there, and the expenditure of EVERY coin in my possession netted us a set of dice (a prize I did as a job for the guild) and another use of my bracer netted me 100 more years and an hourglass full of Time Sand, which happened to be attached to a water clock.
Having stolen the hourglass, we made haste to leave the town, and did so on foot, encountering a band of orcs, whom we dispatched, then moved on to our original departure point. There, we called a meeting among ourselves, revealing the steal, and decided that we needed to go to the Temporal temple place again for analysis of our things and what we could do with them. We called forth the head of the temple and as he went to whisk us there, something went wrong. We wound up where we were going, just not when. Research notes put us hundreds of years into the future, where we encountered another Time Sand homunculus, and searching for its owner, found....Pick! In possession of a Watcher's Orb.
As we ended the session, magical identification had uncovered nothing about the orb, and we had pretty much decided to activate it blindly. All the while, some of us were using those old dice we got at the museum to pass the time with a game, oblivious to the fact that we were gambling with more than just the 1 gp wager, as we have in our possession Olidammara's Dice.
4.15.2008
The Arcane College: Installment 3 - Who, Exactly, Is Cursed?
Last week, I played both Wednesday and Thursday, and alot of crazy things happened.
Henry has officially left us now, and we might actually be taking more people on, since those games are open. We had 8 or 9 PCs last week as it is.
After a short trek away from the Hill Giant's place, we then started climbing into the hills, heading toward the keep of the "king" whom we believe to be cursed. On the way, we encountered some eagles of the giant variety who had taken to inhabiting the bluff along the road, as well as a Elven Druid who had taken this territory and the eagles under his care. He helped us gain an audience with the King (whose name escapes me, though he's some dwarf) on neutral ground where we tries to warn him of a curse and he and his advisors dismissed the notions and put up his guard, then ended our audience with him, bidding us good day.
While this may have seemed like a pointless encounter, don't think we didn't try. Good roleplay carried it, and ultimately, we ended up insulting him (and all dwarves) with a few statements that, if taken a certain way, could be considered veiled threats.
With that behind us, we ventured back to the Druid's (can't recall his name, either) home, a secluded barely accessible through a narrow pass in the hills, and talked with him at great length, finally convincing him of our plight and gaining an ally in our mission. Since we had nothing on us, he aided us with money to buy simple gear and convinced the eagles to give us passage to a town further away so that we could resupply without harassment.
While there and plying my trade, I was caught by a member of a local guild of property reassignment experts, known as the Fire Dragons, who operate out of safehouses in businesses with the word "Dragon" in the name. There, I gained a magic marking resembling a dragon rampant on my arm by an elderly elf who was able to discern that I wasn't from this time. All very interesting stuff. I was so enmeshed in that, that I'm not entirely sure what the other guys were doing. Heh.
Back to the eagles that evening, we flew back and discussed things with the Druid again and decided to rest before heading to a mine/cave complex that we were familiar with in the past which we thought might hold the key to whatever the curse was. Once morning came and we went to the caves, a small deal of exploring brought us to a large chamber with a huge staircase carved up and a set of double doors. Jeremy's Samurai (name not remembered) moved to open the doors and inside we saw a small creature with scaled hide and curving horns (a quasit,) which smiled then said "My master has been expecting you, but not now."
This triggered another temporal shift, which landed me in the arms of a lady familiar to the group as she grabbed me and whisked me into a dance with "Come, let us celebrate the birth!" A quick sweep of the area led us to believe we had went back 500 years in the past again and were witnessing festivities surrounding the birth of the Dwarven "king" who is cursed in the future. Once this realization hit, we all made haste to collect our old gear (leaving me with 2 of many things, since I have little magical junk in comparison with some in the party.) While at the inn we were transported from, another PC "poofed in," as we have begun calling it...and elf and cousin of my character (name not remembered.) My character was not impressed, since my family thinks of me as a good person, and now a member would be around to witness my true ways.
In any case, I simply avoided him by pursuing my own ends, looking for alchemical substances that might aid me in my travels and making contact with, to my surprise, the beginnings of the Fire Dragons, including a young elf who I recognized as the older woman in the future. Coming away with a "job" and some more information on this group, I made my way back to the others and we began preparing to move for the caves.
With another night's rest, we made our way there and to the doors of before, which were harder to open this time. Once we accomplished this, we set up a tight formation to move forward and be prepared for anything. Nelsie placed a piton at the door to ensure it stayed open, but that didn't work well. It seemed to be kicked out of place, as it skittered close to us and we could hear the doors shutting further back.
Undaunted, we continued forward til we came to a circular room with an enormous oil-filled brazier, unlit. Since I was point, I went back and conferred with the party. No other exits existed, so I told them that lighting it probably was our only way out. The party bought it and we spread out in the room and the elf who is my cousin lit the brazier...then poofed out, as we do when a player has to leave. The loss of a PC seemed to do nothing but hurt us, as when the flames began to grow, the visage of a great, scaled, goat headed creature rose out of them . A few attacks to it revealed it was an illusion, and it began to speak to us with something along the lines of "Why do you dare come here and disturb the workings of Orcus?" To which, without skipping a beat, my character shot back, verbatim: "To send you back where you came from, demon!"
The other guys didn't seem entertained with that, but hey...I'm straight up Neutral and I had some Good in me itching to come out. Sadly, that led to some Karrnathi Skeletons showing up and laying the smack down on us. We were insanely ill equipped to be fighting skeletons or demons, for that matter, but we fought valiantly on, taking out only 3 of the 9ish there and losing some of our own. Steve's fighter began to get scared and bargain with the image of Orcus, who then accepted the deal and handed him a facsimile of the Wand of Orcus with which he began to go around attempting to steal souls and then Choldram did the Dance of Ruin...and Tony rolled 20s on both die.
As we died (not much survives 40 points of damage after 11 rounds of combat,) we were given the chance to appeal to our deities (or whoever would listen,) and ultimately something happened that saved all of us. I like to think it was my superbly worded supplication to Erevan Ilesere that saved our lives. Even Steve's character appeared with us when we all shifted out of the fight, albeit knocked out from the Dance. Choldram made his way over and slew the fighter with a spell, which none of us moved to stop.
There, we ended the session, with each of us still alive thinking greatly about the experience and what it means to our characters that we are still around somehow, after knowing our fates were sealed. For Nastrond (my Beguiler,) it begins a more devout path dedicated to spreading and enhancing the worship of Erevan, as I see him as the one that saved not only me, but all of my compatriots and to deserve such a boon, I must show the utmost devotion.
By the by, Nastrond has no clue that Orcus is a demon, but he does know the term "demon" refers to evil outsiders. I wasn't metagaming in that instance. Also, I think I might have forgotten some stuff or switched some events around as far as order goes. I should have posted right as it was fresh on my mind.
Henry has officially left us now, and we might actually be taking more people on, since those games are open. We had 8 or 9 PCs last week as it is.
After a short trek away from the Hill Giant's place, we then started climbing into the hills, heading toward the keep of the "king" whom we believe to be cursed. On the way, we encountered some eagles of the giant variety who had taken to inhabiting the bluff along the road, as well as a Elven Druid who had taken this territory and the eagles under his care. He helped us gain an audience with the King (whose name escapes me, though he's some dwarf) on neutral ground where we tries to warn him of a curse and he and his advisors dismissed the notions and put up his guard, then ended our audience with him, bidding us good day.
While this may have seemed like a pointless encounter, don't think we didn't try. Good roleplay carried it, and ultimately, we ended up insulting him (and all dwarves) with a few statements that, if taken a certain way, could be considered veiled threats.
With that behind us, we ventured back to the Druid's (can't recall his name, either) home, a secluded barely accessible through a narrow pass in the hills, and talked with him at great length, finally convincing him of our plight and gaining an ally in our mission. Since we had nothing on us, he aided us with money to buy simple gear and convinced the eagles to give us passage to a town further away so that we could resupply without harassment.
While there and plying my trade, I was caught by a member of a local guild of property reassignment experts, known as the Fire Dragons, who operate out of safehouses in businesses with the word "Dragon" in the name. There, I gained a magic marking resembling a dragon rampant on my arm by an elderly elf who was able to discern that I wasn't from this time. All very interesting stuff. I was so enmeshed in that, that I'm not entirely sure what the other guys were doing. Heh.
Back to the eagles that evening, we flew back and discussed things with the Druid again and decided to rest before heading to a mine/cave complex that we were familiar with in the past which we thought might hold the key to whatever the curse was. Once morning came and we went to the caves, a small deal of exploring brought us to a large chamber with a huge staircase carved up and a set of double doors. Jeremy's Samurai (name not remembered) moved to open the doors and inside we saw a small creature with scaled hide and curving horns (a quasit,) which smiled then said "My master has been expecting you, but not now."
This triggered another temporal shift, which landed me in the arms of a lady familiar to the group as she grabbed me and whisked me into a dance with "Come, let us celebrate the birth!" A quick sweep of the area led us to believe we had went back 500 years in the past again and were witnessing festivities surrounding the birth of the Dwarven "king" who is cursed in the future. Once this realization hit, we all made haste to collect our old gear (leaving me with 2 of many things, since I have little magical junk in comparison with some in the party.) While at the inn we were transported from, another PC "poofed in," as we have begun calling it...and elf and cousin of my character (name not remembered.) My character was not impressed, since my family thinks of me as a good person, and now a member would be around to witness my true ways.
In any case, I simply avoided him by pursuing my own ends, looking for alchemical substances that might aid me in my travels and making contact with, to my surprise, the beginnings of the Fire Dragons, including a young elf who I recognized as the older woman in the future. Coming away with a "job" and some more information on this group, I made my way back to the others and we began preparing to move for the caves.
With another night's rest, we made our way there and to the doors of before, which were harder to open this time. Once we accomplished this, we set up a tight formation to move forward and be prepared for anything. Nelsie placed a piton at the door to ensure it stayed open, but that didn't work well. It seemed to be kicked out of place, as it skittered close to us and we could hear the doors shutting further back.
Undaunted, we continued forward til we came to a circular room with an enormous oil-filled brazier, unlit. Since I was point, I went back and conferred with the party. No other exits existed, so I told them that lighting it probably was our only way out. The party bought it and we spread out in the room and the elf who is my cousin lit the brazier...then poofed out, as we do when a player has to leave. The loss of a PC seemed to do nothing but hurt us, as when the flames began to grow, the visage of a great, scaled, goat headed creature rose out of them . A few attacks to it revealed it was an illusion, and it began to speak to us with something along the lines of "Why do you dare come here and disturb the workings of Orcus?" To which, without skipping a beat, my character shot back, verbatim: "To send you back where you came from, demon!"
The other guys didn't seem entertained with that, but hey...I'm straight up Neutral and I had some Good in me itching to come out. Sadly, that led to some Karrnathi Skeletons showing up and laying the smack down on us. We were insanely ill equipped to be fighting skeletons or demons, for that matter, but we fought valiantly on, taking out only 3 of the 9ish there and losing some of our own. Steve's fighter began to get scared and bargain with the image of Orcus, who then accepted the deal and handed him a facsimile of the Wand of Orcus with which he began to go around attempting to steal souls and then Choldram did the Dance of Ruin...and Tony rolled 20s on both die.
As we died (not much survives 40 points of damage after 11 rounds of combat,) we were given the chance to appeal to our deities (or whoever would listen,) and ultimately something happened that saved all of us. I like to think it was my superbly worded supplication to Erevan Ilesere that saved our lives. Even Steve's character appeared with us when we all shifted out of the fight, albeit knocked out from the Dance. Choldram made his way over and slew the fighter with a spell, which none of us moved to stop.
There, we ended the session, with each of us still alive thinking greatly about the experience and what it means to our characters that we are still around somehow, after knowing our fates were sealed. For Nastrond (my Beguiler,) it begins a more devout path dedicated to spreading and enhancing the worship of Erevan, as I see him as the one that saved not only me, but all of my compatriots and to deserve such a boon, I must show the utmost devotion.
By the by, Nastrond has no clue that Orcus is a demon, but he does know the term "demon" refers to evil outsiders. I wasn't metagaming in that instance. Also, I think I might have forgotten some stuff or switched some events around as far as order goes. I should have posted right as it was fresh on my mind.
4.06.2008
Mid-week game. The Arcane College!
It's been two weeks with no update on this one, but I have played in the Wednesday/Thursday game that Paul runs the past two weeks, Thursday this past then the Wednesday the week before. It really sucks that the game runs on both nights, because I usually miss out on Thursday, so I miss part of the action.
At any rate, I'll try to catch it all up...
Having ventured further into the basement levels of the School of Wizardry/Arcane College (we've yet to learn the proper name for the place) with the aid of some OTHER friendly goblins and not the ones we had originally befriended, we delved in and encountered some blues on the 5th basement. These creatures wield powers of the mind that outstrip our current magical aptitude and so we made a deal (as we do) to keep our hides safe by agreeing to rid the level of the enemy that has been a bane to the mind lord goblins....undead. We were also tasked with opening a vault for them, but I'm unsure of the terms of payment for that one.
Having failed in the first attempt to fight the skeletal dwarves inhabiting the interior, we decided to leave them be, since they weren't hostile unless we messed with them/certain things. Through some experimentation and exploration that would take alot of confusing description, we ended up opening a few more areas up and eventually found the vault door and the 4 keys that go to it. We opened it just to reveal a wall with a niche designed to hold an object which we couldn't find. An audience with the undead dwarven king gave us a clue as to how to open the vault.
A clue which we couldn't figure out, and my character wrongly interpreted as ridding the complex of the blues. A failed attack on those creatures led us to pursue other paths and after a day of trying everything we could think of, we discovered that simply replacing some things we had moved was all that was needed to get the key to the...empty vault.
Further searching led us into a chamber that was seemingly a extra-dimensional space where an oppresively thick forest was flourishing with a 300' oak tree right in the middle. Conversing with a disembodied voice associated with the tree revealed that it belonged to a dwarven lady and that there was a curse on her husband (the undead king) that she wished us to "fix." We were granted a magical boon in the form of a stat boost of our choice to aid us in our task and then we were whisked into the past....some 1200 or more years back, where we garnered a few tidbits of information that didn't really make sense, because the temporal displacement had skewed our memories.
While sleeping a few nights later, we were then hurled 500 years forward in time...with only the gear we had on us. (Note, we were sleeping.) Here, we were run out of town after a misunderstanding with a militia force almost got us killed, but garnered alot of info on what, exactly, we were doing. I forget the dwarven names we have to keep track of, else this would be more detailed.
While traveling, we encountered a hill giant and a giant weasel. There were eight 5th level PCs Thursday night and we were unable to take a 10th level encounter. Now, doing the math, we should have had no problem tackling an EL 8 or 9 threat, so it really bothers me that this EL 10 was so difficult for us. The cohesion of the party just simply wasn't there.
It's fun to backstab and sell each other out when it comes to role playing our characters, but the whole reason we are together are mutual survival...and in combat, if we can't find that cohesion, then we might as well all turn it in. Next session, I hope to try and correct that problem by trying to set forth a game plan. We'll see how that goes.
The Players:
Ferrel Muttor (Half-Elf Sorceror 5) - Chris
Choldram Sohes (Human Cleric 5 of Nerull [He pretends Heironeous]) - Tony
Arthas (Human Fighter 5) - Steve
? (Human Rogue 5) - Carl (new character, since Orestes died)
? (Human Samurai 5) - some kid we called Epic
? (Human Fighter 5) - Sam
Nelsie (Elf Rogue 5) - John
Nastrond Esyllo (Sun Elf Beguiler 5) - Me
At any rate, I'll try to catch it all up...
Having ventured further into the basement levels of the School of Wizardry/Arcane College (we've yet to learn the proper name for the place) with the aid of some OTHER friendly goblins and not the ones we had originally befriended, we delved in and encountered some blues on the 5th basement. These creatures wield powers of the mind that outstrip our current magical aptitude and so we made a deal (as we do) to keep our hides safe by agreeing to rid the level of the enemy that has been a bane to the mind lord goblins....undead. We were also tasked with opening a vault for them, but I'm unsure of the terms of payment for that one.
Having failed in the first attempt to fight the skeletal dwarves inhabiting the interior, we decided to leave them be, since they weren't hostile unless we messed with them/certain things. Through some experimentation and exploration that would take alot of confusing description, we ended up opening a few more areas up and eventually found the vault door and the 4 keys that go to it. We opened it just to reveal a wall with a niche designed to hold an object which we couldn't find. An audience with the undead dwarven king gave us a clue as to how to open the vault.
A clue which we couldn't figure out, and my character wrongly interpreted as ridding the complex of the blues. A failed attack on those creatures led us to pursue other paths and after a day of trying everything we could think of, we discovered that simply replacing some things we had moved was all that was needed to get the key to the...empty vault.
Further searching led us into a chamber that was seemingly a extra-dimensional space where an oppresively thick forest was flourishing with a 300' oak tree right in the middle. Conversing with a disembodied voice associated with the tree revealed that it belonged to a dwarven lady and that there was a curse on her husband (the undead king) that she wished us to "fix." We were granted a magical boon in the form of a stat boost of our choice to aid us in our task and then we were whisked into the past....some 1200 or more years back, where we garnered a few tidbits of information that didn't really make sense, because the temporal displacement had skewed our memories.
While sleeping a few nights later, we were then hurled 500 years forward in time...with only the gear we had on us. (Note, we were sleeping.) Here, we were run out of town after a misunderstanding with a militia force almost got us killed, but garnered alot of info on what, exactly, we were doing. I forget the dwarven names we have to keep track of, else this would be more detailed.
While traveling, we encountered a hill giant and a giant weasel. There were eight 5th level PCs Thursday night and we were unable to take a 10th level encounter. Now, doing the math, we should have had no problem tackling an EL 8 or 9 threat, so it really bothers me that this EL 10 was so difficult for us. The cohesion of the party just simply wasn't there.
It's fun to backstab and sell each other out when it comes to role playing our characters, but the whole reason we are together are mutual survival...and in combat, if we can't find that cohesion, then we might as well all turn it in. Next session, I hope to try and correct that problem by trying to set forth a game plan. We'll see how that goes.
The Players:
Ferrel Muttor (Half-Elf Sorceror 5) - Chris
Choldram Sohes (Human Cleric 5 of Nerull [He pretends Heironeous]) - Tony
Arthas (Human Fighter 5) - Steve
? (Human Rogue 5) - Carl (new character, since Orestes died)
? (Human Samurai 5) - some kid we called Epic
? (Human Fighter 5) - Sam
Nelsie (Elf Rogue 5) - John
Nastrond Esyllo (Sun Elf Beguiler 5) - Me
3.16.2008
Enter...The Well of Despair!
Paul, today, picked up DM chores with an old homebrew dungeon of his called The Well of Despair.
Here's a little backstory on the Well...shortly after I started playing under Paul, he whipped out a dungeon that he had been working on and sent us down into the thing. Nobody made it out alive. Skip through the years to the present day and I'm playing in the dungeon for the 8th time.
Normally, I would think people might get a little bored with this, but not me. You see....I've never had a character survive a Well campaign, and neither have any of my friends. This leaves so many questions unanswered as to what is really happening down there in that death trap, and I love it. I was way eager for this.
With our freshly minted 3rd level characters, the usual Sunday subjects (minus Dusty) rode into a sleepy little town on the fringes of our nation's lands. There, we find that they are hosting a great celebration and though we are looking for employment (having just been knighted, my character is eager to prove himself worthy of his status as knight-errant), we happily join in the festivities.
All this was soured, however, when we learned that this celebration wasn't just to give thanks for harvest...it was announced, to our horror, that one of the first people we met, a comely lass by the name of Marlynn, was sacrificing herself to honor a pact the village had made with would-be coquerors 2 centuries ago that promised them peace if they would simply give one virginal maid a year at a place called the Well, which is a 2 day ride from town.
It quickly became apparent that the council had grown tired of this agreement and have been seeking adventurers who have no formal ties to the city government to delve into the Well and gather information on who or what controls it and how to remove the town from the pact they had made. Since we were the "new guys" in town, we were quickly sought out and given many a gift (quite similar to bribes, really) to "help us on the way" if we were to go. Being mostly Lawful and Good, the party was appalled at the truth behind the apparent sacrifices and were more than willing to go, leaving our second day in town with much haste.
On the road during the day-long trip there, we were ambushed by a small group of goblins, whom we dispatched with no great trouble, though Kenny dropped. After finishing that fight and getting everyone back on their feet, we made our way to the location of the Well to discover that a sizable settlement had grown up around it. We all said short curses to the council of our departure point when a short recon showed us that the whole place was inhabited by nothing but goblins. Fearing the worst, but unwavering, Ricky Joe and I rode down into the village to speak with them, if we could, because we HAD to make it to the Well.
To our surprise, these goblins were not only helpful and kind, they were also grateful that we had rid the road of the goblin bandits plaguing the trade road between their town and the one from whence we had ridden. After acquiring some good from these good souls and waiting out a night or two in rest and preparation, we lowered into the Well...
...and our worst fears were soon to be realized. Ricky Joe's halfling was the first down and as he tread the water at the bottom of the area we descended into, a crocodile roughly the size of a horse bobbed up from under the water and attacked our small friend. I rushed down to help, followed quickly by Kenny and Josh M's characters, but also found myself facing another of the beasts. Things did not go well. Within moments, Ricky's character had died to drowning when his body finally shut down from being croco-chew-toy. Another couple of breaths and I was on the brink of suffering the same fate, but Josh jumped in and was able to save me right in the nick of time by killing the one that had begun to try drowning me. Kenny got me to safety while Josh tried, in vain, to save our poor halfling comrade.
Once the fight was done, Paul called the session and we discussed how much fun we had. Me, especially. This makes only the 3rd time I have made it past this encounter. Crocodiles in water are tough! I can't wait to move further in and (hopefully) discover things within that I have never seen before.
It's interesting to note that this version of the Well is the "official" version. Before, the site was sometimes in the town itself or otherwise protected in extreme ways that, themselves, caused death or maiming. I hope the game keeps up so that I can report more as I encounter it.
Characters:
?? (? Warlock 3) - Kenny
?? (Halfling Rogue 3|Deceased) - Ricky Joe
?? (Dwarf Fighter 3) - Josh M.
Sir Jaden Ambrosius, Knight-Errant of the Order of the Wing (Human Fighter 2/Knight 1) - [Yeah, reused name. I was upset that Paul called Red Hand after just one session, so I reconcepted the character without the dragon slaying stuff]
Next week: The Drow War continues! Also coming soon, I'll be discussing my homebrew setting, Khardtha, and my preparations for its 4E makeover.
Here's a little backstory on the Well...shortly after I started playing under Paul, he whipped out a dungeon that he had been working on and sent us down into the thing. Nobody made it out alive. Skip through the years to the present day and I'm playing in the dungeon for the 8th time.
Normally, I would think people might get a little bored with this, but not me. You see....I've never had a character survive a Well campaign, and neither have any of my friends. This leaves so many questions unanswered as to what is really happening down there in that death trap, and I love it. I was way eager for this.
With our freshly minted 3rd level characters, the usual Sunday subjects (minus Dusty) rode into a sleepy little town on the fringes of our nation's lands. There, we find that they are hosting a great celebration and though we are looking for employment (having just been knighted, my character is eager to prove himself worthy of his status as knight-errant), we happily join in the festivities.
All this was soured, however, when we learned that this celebration wasn't just to give thanks for harvest...it was announced, to our horror, that one of the first people we met, a comely lass by the name of Marlynn, was sacrificing herself to honor a pact the village had made with would-be coquerors 2 centuries ago that promised them peace if they would simply give one virginal maid a year at a place called the Well, which is a 2 day ride from town.
It quickly became apparent that the council had grown tired of this agreement and have been seeking adventurers who have no formal ties to the city government to delve into the Well and gather information on who or what controls it and how to remove the town from the pact they had made. Since we were the "new guys" in town, we were quickly sought out and given many a gift (quite similar to bribes, really) to "help us on the way" if we were to go. Being mostly Lawful and Good, the party was appalled at the truth behind the apparent sacrifices and were more than willing to go, leaving our second day in town with much haste.
On the road during the day-long trip there, we were ambushed by a small group of goblins, whom we dispatched with no great trouble, though Kenny dropped. After finishing that fight and getting everyone back on their feet, we made our way to the location of the Well to discover that a sizable settlement had grown up around it. We all said short curses to the council of our departure point when a short recon showed us that the whole place was inhabited by nothing but goblins. Fearing the worst, but unwavering, Ricky Joe and I rode down into the village to speak with them, if we could, because we HAD to make it to the Well.
To our surprise, these goblins were not only helpful and kind, they were also grateful that we had rid the road of the goblin bandits plaguing the trade road between their town and the one from whence we had ridden. After acquiring some good from these good souls and waiting out a night or two in rest and preparation, we lowered into the Well...
...and our worst fears were soon to be realized. Ricky Joe's halfling was the first down and as he tread the water at the bottom of the area we descended into, a crocodile roughly the size of a horse bobbed up from under the water and attacked our small friend. I rushed down to help, followed quickly by Kenny and Josh M's characters, but also found myself facing another of the beasts. Things did not go well. Within moments, Ricky's character had died to drowning when his body finally shut down from being croco-chew-toy. Another couple of breaths and I was on the brink of suffering the same fate, but Josh jumped in and was able to save me right in the nick of time by killing the one that had begun to try drowning me. Kenny got me to safety while Josh tried, in vain, to save our poor halfling comrade.
Once the fight was done, Paul called the session and we discussed how much fun we had. Me, especially. This makes only the 3rd time I have made it past this encounter. Crocodiles in water are tough! I can't wait to move further in and (hopefully) discover things within that I have never seen before.
It's interesting to note that this version of the Well is the "official" version. Before, the site was sometimes in the town itself or otherwise protected in extreme ways that, themselves, caused death or maiming. I hope the game keeps up so that I can report more as I encounter it.
Characters:
?? (? Warlock 3) - Kenny
?? (Halfling Rogue 3|Deceased) - Ricky Joe
?? (Dwarf Fighter 3) - Josh M.
Sir Jaden Ambrosius, Knight-Errant of the Order of the Wing (Human Fighter 2/Knight 1) - [Yeah, reused name. I was upset that Paul called Red Hand after just one session, so I reconcepted the character without the dragon slaying stuff]
Next week: The Drow War continues! Also coming soon, I'll be discussing my homebrew setting, Khardtha, and my preparations for its 4E makeover.
Wednesday Game at Bald Man
Is there some unwritten law that D&D should be played on Wednesdays? Every group I have ever been a part of has met on Hump Day at one point. Crazy stuff...
So on my 2nd visit to Bald Man, I got in on some D&D with my pal Paul (DMing), Tony (the owner of Bald Man), some dudes named Chris and Steve. Henry and Carl are supposed to play, too, but the former had to leave due to a nagging significant other, the latter opted out for church.
My character was minding his own business when he was magically whisked into a room with no exits. A grainy looking projection of an older man appeared and welcomed me to a school of wizardry and stated that an assembly would be held soon (a date my knowledge told me was long past) and then faded. A door then opened leading out into a ruined hall with goblin bodies and wrecked furniture strewn about.
Investigating rooms leading off the hall, I encountered a few minor traps and found a cache of magically preserved food, but nothing else of interest. I then proceeded down the hall to find hastily erected barricades with holes large enough to move through along with more dead goblins and then a T intersection with large, magically protected double doors before me.
I quickly made it past the wards of the door and peered in to find a large audience chamber that I surmised to be the assembly hall. When I was investigating this, I was spotted by a couple of people (the other characters) and through negotiations followed by more exploration then more negotiations, we reached an agreement and I was allowed to camp with them while they rested after battling goblins.
When we arose, we left the area we had holed up in and then made it out to find another barricade blocking our way down the hall where there was none before. Once we pulled it down, we were ambushed with crossbow fire from gobbos. With quick thinking and a few illusions courtesy of yours truly, we were able to trick the goblins and defeat them piecemeal, leaving one prisoner alive, who I then bribed with money and gear pilfered from goblin corpses to lead us to his tribe.
We spoke with them some and established some fruitful deals that leaned in favor of us which would take us down into the basements of the school and face to face with stronger, more warlike tribes, but also give us an opportunity to extract some greater treasures. Amidst this talk and resting, I was able to enter an area the goblins had been unsuccessful in accessing and there we found many treasures that were sure to aid the growth of our wealth.
That's where we left off, due to time constraints...it was basically us just lining our pockets and avoiding fight after fight. You see, we're all a bunch of amoral jerks, and if it benefits us, we take the deal. I kept saying "our" when speaking of being rich, but I actually ended up with the lion's share. You see, I'm the only one able to pick locks, etc., so I was able to stuff things into my pack before the others moved in to see plenty of times.
I love being a swindly bastard. Sometimes it's nice to not have to be good.
The party has this...
Ferrel Muttor (Half-Elf Sorceror 2) - Chris
Choldram Sohes (Human Cleric 2 of Nerull [He pretends Heironeous]) - Tony
Arthas (Human Fighter 2) - Steve
Orestes (Human Rogue 2) - Carl
Nastrond Esyllo (Sun Elf Beguiler 2) - Me
So on my 2nd visit to Bald Man, I got in on some D&D with my pal Paul (DMing), Tony (the owner of Bald Man), some dudes named Chris and Steve. Henry and Carl are supposed to play, too, but the former had to leave due to a nagging significant other, the latter opted out for church.
My character was minding his own business when he was magically whisked into a room with no exits. A grainy looking projection of an older man appeared and welcomed me to a school of wizardry and stated that an assembly would be held soon (a date my knowledge told me was long past) and then faded. A door then opened leading out into a ruined hall with goblin bodies and wrecked furniture strewn about.
Investigating rooms leading off the hall, I encountered a few minor traps and found a cache of magically preserved food, but nothing else of interest. I then proceeded down the hall to find hastily erected barricades with holes large enough to move through along with more dead goblins and then a T intersection with large, magically protected double doors before me.
I quickly made it past the wards of the door and peered in to find a large audience chamber that I surmised to be the assembly hall. When I was investigating this, I was spotted by a couple of people (the other characters) and through negotiations followed by more exploration then more negotiations, we reached an agreement and I was allowed to camp with them while they rested after battling goblins.
When we arose, we left the area we had holed up in and then made it out to find another barricade blocking our way down the hall where there was none before. Once we pulled it down, we were ambushed with crossbow fire from gobbos. With quick thinking and a few illusions courtesy of yours truly, we were able to trick the goblins and defeat them piecemeal, leaving one prisoner alive, who I then bribed with money and gear pilfered from goblin corpses to lead us to his tribe.
We spoke with them some and established some fruitful deals that leaned in favor of us which would take us down into the basements of the school and face to face with stronger, more warlike tribes, but also give us an opportunity to extract some greater treasures. Amidst this talk and resting, I was able to enter an area the goblins had been unsuccessful in accessing and there we found many treasures that were sure to aid the growth of our wealth.
That's where we left off, due to time constraints...it was basically us just lining our pockets and avoiding fight after fight. You see, we're all a bunch of amoral jerks, and if it benefits us, we take the deal. I kept saying "our" when speaking of being rich, but I actually ended up with the lion's share. You see, I'm the only one able to pick locks, etc., so I was able to stuff things into my pack before the others moved in to see plenty of times.
I love being a swindly bastard. Sometimes it's nice to not have to be good.
The party has this...
Ferrel Muttor (Half-Elf Sorceror 2) - Chris
Choldram Sohes (Human Cleric 2 of Nerull [He pretends Heironeous]) - Tony
Arthas (Human Fighter 2) - Steve
Orestes (Human Rogue 2) - Carl
Nastrond Esyllo (Sun Elf Beguiler 2) - Me
2.29.2008
I'm Doomed! ...again
Red Hand of Doom(ed,) that is.
That's what Paul has been running the past few weeks at that there flgs, and I have jumped in whole-heartedly, making a character and playing my first session of D&D in months last Sunday.
I've been through the Red Hand of Doom before, with Chris as DM, but this time around it's a bit trickier as no character in the game is as powerful as the party we had last time (in which Paul actually played, too.)
The story thus far, as I understand it, is that the original party running under Paul two weeks ago stumbled into a massive orgy of "We don't know what the heck we're doing here!" and found themselves 2 shy of a TPK...out of 8 characters. This is where the story starts for me.
Norro Wiston, speaker of Drellin's Ferry and a lady by the name of Captain Saronna had put an open call out to "brave souls" who would be willing to aid the area in light of the growing threat from some hobgoblins. Those brave adventurers consisted of everyone whose character died's new character and my guy. (See below for cast of characters.)
During the rally, the NPC Ranger, Jorr Natherson, came into the area with a scaled man bearing the face of a dragon and the vestments of a priest of Bahamut. The dragon-man (whom I recognized as Dragonborn) interrupted Speaker Wiston and began explaining that he would need strong hands and that he was taking the fight against the baddies. Wiston apparently knew the guy and expressed that he felt it would be wise for us to all go together under the leadership of this faithful of Bahamut named Kelmvor.
We're led to an abandoned keep where Kelmvor claimed a great battle had occurred and where his comrades had fallen. Though we found plenty of blood, nothing else remained of the combatants to give creedence to the priest's story. This made Mouse distraught, as his daughter (Matt's original character) was among the missing dead PCs. Since it was well into the night, we decided to camp there and head out in the morning...probably not the smartest thing we could have done.
The smell of blood attracted two digesters who quickly pounced upon the buckler of swashes Torin and Kelmvor, who had been the watch for that time of night. The fight was tough for those two an as they were a distance from us, we had to make listen checks to rouse to our comrades aide. Only the warlock Morthos heard, and rushed out of the room without waking the rest of us. Shortly thereafter, with the arcane aid of Morthos, the PCs prevailed and all went well and quiet for the rest of the night, though our time camping was extended so that Kelmvor's spells could thoroughly be replenished.
When we finally continue on toward a known encampment, we are beset after several hours on the road by a small warband of hobgoblin archers backed up by a powerful leader wearing insignias of a bloodied hand and an invisible spellcaster of some sort.
As soon as combat starts, our largest, most powerful warrior...a man with ogre blood named Grunk is blinded and left pretty much useless during the encounter. Our ranged combatants and spellcasters engaged the archers while I took the fight to the guy with the bloody hand stamps all over him. We exchanged blows for a couple of round then he stepped back to quaff a potion. As I moved to close the gap, a hell hound appeared between us and I dispatched it with two blows only to look up and see my chosen mark further from me now and suddenly disappear.
Acting quickly, I chukked my spear at the place where I last saw him and it embedded so solidly that his invisibility effect covered the whole of the shaft. Kelmvor then stepped beside me and breathed a gout of frosty breath that outlined not only our known foe, but another invisible assailant (who we surmised summoned the hound.)
Giving chase, we were unable to find any trace of those enemies left alive other than a short blood trail and my spear discarded in the woods a short distance in.
This was where we ended. A short, but very cool game. I loved being back in a game, and my dice seemed to enjoy themselves, too...they were VERY good to me.
Cast of Characters
Mouse (Human Samurai 7) - Matt
Morthos (Human Warlock 7) - Paul's son Paul
?? (Human Scout 6/Fighter 1) - Dusty
Grunk (Feral ½ Ogre Barbarian 5) - Josh
Nuhelia (Half-Elf Rogue 7) - Heather
Torin (Human Fighter 4/Swashbuckler 3) - Jeremy (along with Paul, one o the first guys I ever gamed with)
Arbor Leave (Human Druid 7) - Kenny
Kelmvor (Dragonborn Cleric 7 of Bahamut) - Ricky Joe
?? (??) - Kevin (He wasn't able to play last week, but he was the other survivor)
Jaden Ambrosius, Knight Errant of the Order of the Wing (Knight 5/Dragonslayer 2) - me
Yep...10 characters/players. There's actually one more guy who also didn't show...so 11.
Sunday: The Drow War begins!
That's what Paul has been running the past few weeks at that there flgs, and I have jumped in whole-heartedly, making a character and playing my first session of D&D in months last Sunday.
I've been through the Red Hand of Doom before, with Chris as DM, but this time around it's a bit trickier as no character in the game is as powerful as the party we had last time (in which Paul actually played, too.)
The story thus far, as I understand it, is that the original party running under Paul two weeks ago stumbled into a massive orgy of "We don't know what the heck we're doing here!" and found themselves 2 shy of a TPK...out of 8 characters. This is where the story starts for me.
Norro Wiston, speaker of Drellin's Ferry and a lady by the name of Captain Saronna had put an open call out to "brave souls" who would be willing to aid the area in light of the growing threat from some hobgoblins. Those brave adventurers consisted of everyone whose character died's new character and my guy. (See below for cast of characters.)
During the rally, the NPC Ranger, Jorr Natherson, came into the area with a scaled man bearing the face of a dragon and the vestments of a priest of Bahamut. The dragon-man (whom I recognized as Dragonborn) interrupted Speaker Wiston and began explaining that he would need strong hands and that he was taking the fight against the baddies. Wiston apparently knew the guy and expressed that he felt it would be wise for us to all go together under the leadership of this faithful of Bahamut named Kelmvor.
We're led to an abandoned keep where Kelmvor claimed a great battle had occurred and where his comrades had fallen. Though we found plenty of blood, nothing else remained of the combatants to give creedence to the priest's story. This made Mouse distraught, as his daughter (Matt's original character) was among the missing dead PCs. Since it was well into the night, we decided to camp there and head out in the morning...probably not the smartest thing we could have done.
The smell of blood attracted two digesters who quickly pounced upon the buckler of swashes Torin and Kelmvor, who had been the watch for that time of night. The fight was tough for those two an as they were a distance from us, we had to make listen checks to rouse to our comrades aide. Only the warlock Morthos heard, and rushed out of the room without waking the rest of us. Shortly thereafter, with the arcane aid of Morthos, the PCs prevailed and all went well and quiet for the rest of the night, though our time camping was extended so that Kelmvor's spells could thoroughly be replenished.
When we finally continue on toward a known encampment, we are beset after several hours on the road by a small warband of hobgoblin archers backed up by a powerful leader wearing insignias of a bloodied hand and an invisible spellcaster of some sort.
As soon as combat starts, our largest, most powerful warrior...a man with ogre blood named Grunk is blinded and left pretty much useless during the encounter. Our ranged combatants and spellcasters engaged the archers while I took the fight to the guy with the bloody hand stamps all over him. We exchanged blows for a couple of round then he stepped back to quaff a potion. As I moved to close the gap, a hell hound appeared between us and I dispatched it with two blows only to look up and see my chosen mark further from me now and suddenly disappear.
Acting quickly, I chukked my spear at the place where I last saw him and it embedded so solidly that his invisibility effect covered the whole of the shaft. Kelmvor then stepped beside me and breathed a gout of frosty breath that outlined not only our known foe, but another invisible assailant (who we surmised summoned the hound.)
Giving chase, we were unable to find any trace of those enemies left alive other than a short blood trail and my spear discarded in the woods a short distance in.
This was where we ended. A short, but very cool game. I loved being back in a game, and my dice seemed to enjoy themselves, too...they were VERY good to me.
Cast of Characters
Mouse (Human Samurai 7) - Matt
Morthos (Human Warlock 7) - Paul's son Paul
?? (Human Scout 6/Fighter 1) - Dusty
Grunk (Feral ½ Ogre Barbarian 5) - Josh
Nuhelia (Half-Elf Rogue 7) - Heather
Torin (Human Fighter 4/Swashbuckler 3) - Jeremy (along with Paul, one o the first guys I ever gamed with)
Arbor Leave (Human Druid 7) - Kenny
Kelmvor (Dragonborn Cleric 7 of Bahamut) - Ricky Joe
?? (??) - Kevin (He wasn't able to play last week, but he was the other survivor)
Jaden Ambrosius, Knight Errant of the Order of the Wing (Knight 5/Dragonslayer 2) - me
Yep...10 characters/players. There's actually one more guy who also didn't show...so 11.
Sunday: The Drow War begins!
10.07.2007
The Thursday Group
I showed up 20 minutes late to an almost empty house at Paul's It turns out that Henry, Karen, Tammy, Miah, Shaun, and whoever else were unable to or otherwise just didn't show. This left Paul and a guy named Jeremy at the table, which I gladly joined.
Since the campaign is in full swing and the night was off to a late start, no real heavy backstory was hashed out for Hlorgr Wolfscall, my Ogre (Savage variant) Bard 4/Barbarian 3 (or Bardbarian, if you will), but it was determined that the leader of my tribe, tasked me with finding the root of various draconic attacks in the area, which I readily accepted as a warrior and I might just find the inspiration for an epic in my journeys.
The mission took me into an area where, to my astonishment, hundreds of dragons were in flight, battling for reasons unknown to me. I stood, dazed as a blue dragon swooped down to me, with a Dwarf Fighter 12 by the name of Turok Stonesmelter upon its head or neck or something, bearing a large egg, which he immediately handed to me after introductions, claiming it was bringing him no luck.
Taking better stock of the surroundings, I learn that I'm next to a mountain surrounded by rolling hills and a forest (which I had just come out of). The closest face of the mountain had a temple built into it with the symbol of Bahamut and I knew the land to be sacred to all dragons, a neutral ground of sorts. The battle here was sacriligeous.
Commanded to get to safety within the temple by the blue, the Dwarf and I rushed in and were welcomed by a Human woman who is prompted to tell the story of what's going on with the egg by the Dwarf. Turns out, it's the product of a Silver and Blue coupling and part of a foretold legacy of a great dragon and the battle was fought to claim the thing so that one of the forces may exert influence on the hatchling and that Bahamut wants it raised by a dragon unwavered by good or evil. It also happens that Hlorgr knew an epic about the prophecy and so recited it with a very high Perform check. WeWt.
We rested there a night and then arose to a grand breakfast (Heroes Feast). When we took the meal, Paul brought in Fitzhugh, his wife Tammy's Winged Human Healer 14, as a DM PC to help us along the way and we were instructed to go into the catacombs beneath the temple to facilitate transfer of the egg to it's destination by going through what I assume is a portal of some sort.
Coming to a juncture in the corridors, we encountered 3 Redspawn Arcanisses who got a little fireball happy with us after declaring we were doing the duty of Tiamat. I tried to tell them that we had the egg. Turns out, they knew that and stopping the egg (possibly destroying it, though they didn't elaborate) was part of their duty.
They died.
Pressing on, we later came to a blood drenched Y in the passages, which we determined had been passed over many a time by reptilian feet. A good Survival roll got us on the most heavily trafficked path and into a chamber with a headless blue dragon. A Blackspawn Exterminator was sitting atop it speaking to someone out of sight.
Turok and Hlorgr are not the sneaky types (meaning I rolled a 1 on my Move Silently) so the thing disappears and the next thing we know, we're being sneak attacked by not just the one, but two of the punks.
Not sure if you've ever fought ninja, but they aren't pushovers. With invisibility and poison coupled with breath weapons, we had a tough time of taking them out, but with Fitzhugh there to help out, we killed the bad guys and took their stuff. Too bad about the blue dragon.
That's where we ended and hopefully more people will be around next time, when Henry will be running his game. I have a Kobold Dragon Shaman named Meerp ready to go for it!
Since the campaign is in full swing and the night was off to a late start, no real heavy backstory was hashed out for Hlorgr Wolfscall, my Ogre (Savage variant) Bard 4/Barbarian 3 (or Bardbarian, if you will), but it was determined that the leader of my tribe, tasked me with finding the root of various draconic attacks in the area, which I readily accepted as a warrior and I might just find the inspiration for an epic in my journeys.
The mission took me into an area where, to my astonishment, hundreds of dragons were in flight, battling for reasons unknown to me. I stood, dazed as a blue dragon swooped down to me, with a Dwarf Fighter 12 by the name of Turok Stonesmelter upon its head or neck or something, bearing a large egg, which he immediately handed to me after introductions, claiming it was bringing him no luck.
Taking better stock of the surroundings, I learn that I'm next to a mountain surrounded by rolling hills and a forest (which I had just come out of). The closest face of the mountain had a temple built into it with the symbol of Bahamut and I knew the land to be sacred to all dragons, a neutral ground of sorts. The battle here was sacriligeous.
Commanded to get to safety within the temple by the blue, the Dwarf and I rushed in and were welcomed by a Human woman who is prompted to tell the story of what's going on with the egg by the Dwarf. Turns out, it's the product of a Silver and Blue coupling and part of a foretold legacy of a great dragon and the battle was fought to claim the thing so that one of the forces may exert influence on the hatchling and that Bahamut wants it raised by a dragon unwavered by good or evil. It also happens that Hlorgr knew an epic about the prophecy and so recited it with a very high Perform check. WeWt.
We rested there a night and then arose to a grand breakfast (Heroes Feast). When we took the meal, Paul brought in Fitzhugh, his wife Tammy's Winged Human Healer 14, as a DM PC to help us along the way and we were instructed to go into the catacombs beneath the temple to facilitate transfer of the egg to it's destination by going through what I assume is a portal of some sort.
Coming to a juncture in the corridors, we encountered 3 Redspawn Arcanisses who got a little fireball happy with us after declaring we were doing the duty of Tiamat. I tried to tell them that we had the egg. Turns out, they knew that and stopping the egg (possibly destroying it, though they didn't elaborate) was part of their duty.
They died.
Pressing on, we later came to a blood drenched Y in the passages, which we determined had been passed over many a time by reptilian feet. A good Survival roll got us on the most heavily trafficked path and into a chamber with a headless blue dragon. A Blackspawn Exterminator was sitting atop it speaking to someone out of sight.
Turok and Hlorgr are not the sneaky types (meaning I rolled a 1 on my Move Silently) so the thing disappears and the next thing we know, we're being sneak attacked by not just the one, but two of the punks.
Not sure if you've ever fought ninja, but they aren't pushovers. With invisibility and poison coupled with breath weapons, we had a tough time of taking them out, but with Fitzhugh there to help out, we killed the bad guys and took their stuff. Too bad about the blue dragon.
That's where we ended and hopefully more people will be around next time, when Henry will be running his game. I have a Kobold Dragon Shaman named Meerp ready to go for it!
Entering the Lich Lord's Castle
So, Wednesday, I was a little rushed and underprepared so Paul ran another session of his Lich Lord campaign. This week, Brenton rejoined us, since we were playing earlier in the evening, so that was nice. Another person/character in the group is always a plus.
After mine and Henry's retreat from the asskicking we took from the Bleakborn, we holed up in a cavern with my dead Fighter and rested so that Henry's Druid Miles might make room for a Reincarnation spell with which to bring back our fallen comrade.
During the space in which the spell effects were taking place, we were being watched and were later approached by Kenneth, Brenton's Ranger/Scout, who is apparently on a quest for vengeance against a Vampire Druid. My mage Amna was intrigued by this. Could it be the same weasely bastard that had eluded us before?! With that on my mind, and mirrored on Miles' face, we took Kenneth into our group and rested a bit more in preparation to storm the Lich's castle while Donias the Fighter, newly reincarnated from Human to Dwarf, took stock of his new situation.
As soon as we could, we set out for the graveyard-path that we had to cross before reaching the castle and there encountered 2 Bleakborn, defeating them fairly easily by throwing them off the cliffside that lined the cemetery on either side, down to either their doom, or at least away from us.
Miles turned into a giant owl and carted the party up one by one to a caved in section of wall we spotted after having proven unable to deal with an old portcullis. This put us in a room with two ways out. One door was stuck, so we decided to go the path of least resistance, hoping that the stuck door would make noise should anyone/thing come through it to get to us and proceeded down a hall.
Moving on, we came to a store room with moldy wares, a skeleton, a few gp and silverware! Paul kicked himself for that when he realized why we were excited at this find. "Oh shit, I gave you silverware and you've been fighting vampires!" Damn right, you did.
Also in the room was a small nook which held 3 swarms. 3! Swarms! My caster has no area effect spells. That might tell you why I was concerned at this news. Anyway, Henry's Paladin, Davina, was able to turn the Bloodmote Swarm and the 2 Ephemeral Swarms, granting us escape for a time.
We had enough time to enter another chamber, which held nothing of interest, except a magical aura emanating out from under a bed when Detect Magic was cast. Miles stuck his hand under the bed to retrieve whatever it happened to be only to be bitten by an Iron Cobra! So kick ass. Constructs are magical creations, you know. Haha. A short fight put the creature running through a hole in the wall and brought us to "time up" on the session.
I'm interested in what's to come in there, and I still wanna take it to that vampire S.O.B.
After mine and Henry's retreat from the asskicking we took from the Bleakborn, we holed up in a cavern with my dead Fighter and rested so that Henry's Druid Miles might make room for a Reincarnation spell with which to bring back our fallen comrade.
During the space in which the spell effects were taking place, we were being watched and were later approached by Kenneth, Brenton's Ranger/Scout, who is apparently on a quest for vengeance against a Vampire Druid. My mage Amna was intrigued by this. Could it be the same weasely bastard that had eluded us before?! With that on my mind, and mirrored on Miles' face, we took Kenneth into our group and rested a bit more in preparation to storm the Lich's castle while Donias the Fighter, newly reincarnated from Human to Dwarf, took stock of his new situation.
As soon as we could, we set out for the graveyard-path that we had to cross before reaching the castle and there encountered 2 Bleakborn, defeating them fairly easily by throwing them off the cliffside that lined the cemetery on either side, down to either their doom, or at least away from us.
Miles turned into a giant owl and carted the party up one by one to a caved in section of wall we spotted after having proven unable to deal with an old portcullis. This put us in a room with two ways out. One door was stuck, so we decided to go the path of least resistance, hoping that the stuck door would make noise should anyone/thing come through it to get to us and proceeded down a hall.
Moving on, we came to a store room with moldy wares, a skeleton, a few gp and silverware! Paul kicked himself for that when he realized why we were excited at this find. "Oh shit, I gave you silverware and you've been fighting vampires!" Damn right, you did.
Also in the room was a small nook which held 3 swarms. 3! Swarms! My caster has no area effect spells. That might tell you why I was concerned at this news. Anyway, Henry's Paladin, Davina, was able to turn the Bloodmote Swarm and the 2 Ephemeral Swarms, granting us escape for a time.
We had enough time to enter another chamber, which held nothing of interest, except a magical aura emanating out from under a bed when Detect Magic was cast. Miles stuck his hand under the bed to retrieve whatever it happened to be only to be bitten by an Iron Cobra! So kick ass. Constructs are magical creations, you know. Haha. A short fight put the creature running through a hole in the wall and brought us to "time up" on the session.
I'm interested in what's to come in there, and I still wanna take it to that vampire S.O.B.
9.30.2007
We're taking it to that bastard ASAP!
I mentioned Paul's "Lich Lord" game last time. No clue if he has a name for the campaign...if he does, I've not heard it, so it's the "Lich Lord" game. Paul was running this for his other game group, from what I understand, and brought it over when we decided to get this group going.
I was told to make a 9th level character, so I whipped up a Wizard/Sorceror/Ultimate Magus because the party of 1 I would be joining had 0 arc-tillery. Paul and I hashed out a quick background in which my character had tasked herself with seeking the notes on the spellcraft of a particular mage, who I had later found out was a lich. No foreshadowing here...
I hooked up with Henry's Druid and Brenton's Cleric joined us for this session. We had no meatshields in this group at all and were all running pure caster archetypes. Joy!
After heckling the Druid for some non-Druidy things, we all made peace and came up against a guy that set his minions upon us. What were they, you ask? Vampiric Rabbits. That's right...vampiric bunnies. So they did some hurting on us because they're fast. We completely kill the horde just in time for their master to slip away. No big deal, he's ours next time, right?
Wrong. We travel more, coming upon a cottage besieged by vampiric wolves and worgs and that Lost Boy wannabe. We take out his pack o' hounds and he slips away again! Given, he had hidden this time and only one character saw him fly away. Can't remember who, but I wish it had been me, so I could have blasted him with a long range spell . A kindly lady in the cottage takes us in for the day, because we chose to travel nights since we were dealing with vampires. She gives us each a charm of some sort and sends us on our way that night.
We have to slip through an old burial ground on our way to the lich lord's place. Our cleric decides to camp in the thing while the druid and my mage hole up on the other side. Long story short; our cleric is swarmed by shadows and joins their ranks. Henry and I continue and are given the option to make extra characters. We both make stabby/slicey types. He a Paladin, me a Fighter. We enter another graveyard at the base of the ridge that takes us to the lich's manor and encounter some crap undead bolstered by 4 Bleakborn. Dunno if you know these baddies, but they suck your heat and use it to fuel themselves. Henry's Pally turns 3 of them. We fail to kill the one remaining and my fighter goes down. We're in the process of retreating with our pal the dead fighter to come up with a good plan when the last session ended.
Man...Bleakborn fucking rock.
And also, that vampire is going down!
I hooked up with Henry's Druid and Brenton's Cleric joined us for this session. We had no meatshields in this group at all and were all running pure caster archetypes. Joy!
After heckling the Druid for some non-Druidy things, we all made peace and came up against a guy that set his minions upon us. What were they, you ask? Vampiric Rabbits. That's right...vampiric bunnies. So they did some hurting on us because they're fast. We completely kill the horde just in time for their master to slip away. No big deal, he's ours next time, right?
Wrong. We travel more, coming upon a cottage besieged by vampiric wolves and worgs and that Lost Boy wannabe. We take out his pack o' hounds and he slips away again! Given, he had hidden this time and only one character saw him fly away. Can't remember who, but I wish it had been me, so I could have blasted him with a long range spell . A kindly lady in the cottage takes us in for the day, because we chose to travel nights since we were dealing with vampires. She gives us each a charm of some sort and sends us on our way that night.
We have to slip through an old burial ground on our way to the lich lord's place. Our cleric decides to camp in the thing while the druid and my mage hole up on the other side. Long story short; our cleric is swarmed by shadows and joins their ranks. Henry and I continue and are given the option to make extra characters. We both make stabby/slicey types. He a Paladin, me a Fighter. We enter another graveyard at the base of the ridge that takes us to the lich's manor and encounter some crap undead bolstered by 4 Bleakborn. Dunno if you know these baddies, but they suck your heat and use it to fuel themselves. Henry's Pally turns 3 of them. We fail to kill the one remaining and my fighter goes down. We're in the process of retreating with our pal the dead fighter to come up with a good plan when the last session ended.
Man...Bleakborn fucking rock.
And also, that vampire is going down!
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