[3.5] An Eberron-flavored Red Hand of Doom Campaign Journal

[AslanCross]

That's pretty much what I was thinking. Hopefully he'll listen to mine and everyone else's advice. The other players are in favor of it too.

[Schylerwalker]

I just finished reading this thread, and I must say, I enjoyed it immensely. Very few of my own campaigns have reached this much success, and only one published module (Black Sails Over Freeport) was nearly as cool. You, sir, have conducted yourself and your players masterfully. ~Bow.~

I was shocked when I read the death of Holden, and I was very disappointed. I have also lost characters when others were playing them, and it's really frustrating. I think the best solution here would be to let him play Rampant, though another idea is to simply let him play all four of the Lions of Brindol. Individually, they wouldn't be very satisfying to play, considering their low level. However, as a crack tactical squad, it could be quite interesting.

I look forward to seeing more updates!

[AslanCross]

Thanks for your support! :D I'm glad my readers are able to enjoy this journal as much as I enjoy writing it.

I'm going to keep suggesting playing Rampant to the player; he's still kind of emotionally distraught over his losses. After all, he did lose three characters in as many sessions.

[Count Dravda]

RIP Holden Magroen, glorious crusader. We will never forget your sacrifice.

[AslanCross]

Well, good news: Holden's player has agreed to play Rampant until the end of the Brindol arc. Not sure yet if he is going to bring back Holden via Raise Dead (which I did inform him is possible) or insist creating a new character. He seems to be ok with the idea of letting him come back, though. It's a good thing his character died now that they have a cleric who has access to Raise Dead.

Anyway, I'd just like to share a few pictures I took of the battlefield.

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I used the map that came with the book, of course, and several random generic miniatures for the militia. Rampant is represented by the Shadowbane Inquisitor. The barricade is made up of index card cutouts and Mauly clips.

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A more dynamic view of the same. The four Lions of Brindol are standing off the map in the background.

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So...a Pink warforged titan. I didn't have a minature on hand, and my Strike Rouge IWSP had the right size and enough space to put the two casters on, so I used that. Ruven and Kash-Tari are on its wings.

Elf archer on the left: Nox
Dark-skinned female in gold armor: Teyani
Combat medic in red robe: Linny
Shifter ranger beside titan's foot: Lyka
Dwarf in plate: Holden
Bronze armor in purple cloak (Shadowbane Inquisitor): Rampant
Long-haired female in blue cloak with a staff (Inspired lieutenant): Kikkeni
Blonde female with sword: Narcy
Guy with greatsword inside building: Wrogann
Red-cloaked guy lying on his face: Jonz. I don't know why he seems passed out on the floor here.

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The titan has gone down. Nox has killed Ruven and is now engaging Kash-Tari.

Needless to say, while 1/144 Gundams make good warforged titans, they tend to mess up a lot of stuff when they topple (which is quite often, as it's easy to snag on some random pointy part).

[AslanCross]

It's almost been a month since I last posted here, so I'm bumping it so that it doesn't lapse into the Abyss forever.

Next session (probably on Feb 6 due to the upcoming prom on the 30th; I finally have a hot date I actually want to sit with for 6 hours; I have to pick her up early.) will build up to the climax of the Battle of Brindol.

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Skather
I honestly don't feel like putting in yet another caster. I intend to trim out one of the Kulkor Zhul War Adepts; I'll be replacing him with a hobgoblin swordsage 8. This will be an unarmed swordsage and will be pretty much the boss of the Doom Fist Monks who haven't been seen since the the Ghostlord's lair. Although he's technically CR 8, he's going to be less threatening than a second battlefield caster while at the same time being more effective in close quarters. He's also kind of squishy for a CR 8 character, so I'm not so worried about the party dealing with him.

Skather will be using his Rogue 1/Swordsage 5 build, but for the most part I intend to make him fight to escape. The remaining war adept will drop a Fiendish Dire Wolf to hold off the PCs at the ground floor and then flee to join Skather and the monk on the second floor. From there on it will just be delaying tactics---I guess I should plan for a rooftop chase scene.

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The Final Showdown
As it stands, the following will be at the boss battle:
-Kharn (CR 10)
-Ulwai (CR 9)
-Two skullcrusher ogre warblade/fighters; one specializing in High Sword Low Axe and the other with Awesome Blow. (CR 7 each)
-Kharn's rage drake mount (CR 9)

I don't know if I should add anything else. The rage drake alone is a meat shredding machine against the mooks. If I do add anything, it will probably be along the lines of 2 extra whitespawn berserkers.

PCs
-Rampant in lieu of Holden
-Lyka
-Linny
-Nox
-Kikkeni

The Lions
-Wrogann
-Narcy
-Teyani
-Jonz

To make things a bit less taxing on my brain, I'm going to have each of the players run one of these.

The NPCs
-Immerstal
-Tredora (as a cleric of Dol Arrah, she's quite a bit different from the default stats; she has the War Domain for one. Her stats still suck, though, so while she might go Divine Power, she's not really that effective)
-Killiar
-Trellara

Not sure how effective the elves will be, but I guess every little helps at this point. What I'm worried about is the PCs feeling useless since they've drained almost all of their resources (notably, Kikkeni---honestly I have no idea why she burned herself out this quickly; she seemed to have panicked during the artillery attack) while the NPCs themselves are going to be at full strength---unless of course I have them all wounded and lacking in spells.

Any suggestions? Should I trim out some of the NPCs?

[Zephyros]

Trim and boost (if you fear that it will take a heavy toll on your brainpower during the battle :P ...and still want to not have the players wiped out..)

If you think that Kikkeni won't be able to contribute much

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and if the players still have charges on their Staff of Life (do they?) have them burn 1-2 charges to replenish her mental life-force However she may be able to demolish the encounter after that by going all-out-nova (at that point every player's metagaming sense is tingling that its the last stand :P)

Or may be have the elves use some kind of ritual to help with the burnt out casters and then quietly withdraw; thus, making your life easier and boosting your players

[AslanCross]

Unfortunately, they've got one Heal left on the Staff of Life. They already used it to raise Kikkeni the last time she got killed.

[Zephyros]

You can always ask someone to co-dm with you on this session (solves many many problems)

[kjones]

Go AslanCross! I don't really have anything to say other than keep up the great journals, and have fun with Skather! The stealthy battle provides a nice change of pace from Streets of Blood.

[AslanCross]

Thanks, everyone! Having difficulty finding a co-DM, unfortunately. I did find some solutions to the problems at hand, however:

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-Tredora can have dweomer of transference prepared. She can pump a few spells into Kikkeni to replenish a bit of her PP so that she won't be so useless in the final battle. This is perhaps the best solution within RAW. To heighten the tension, the PP-recharging can happen just as the Red Hand starts crashing Cathedral square.

Sniper Attack
-Skather is accompanied by a hobgoblin swordsage 8 and a single Kulkor Zhul War Adept (figured two casters would be too much; besides, the space is too small).
-The War Adept has a lot of weakening spells prepared such as power word weaken, ray of weakness, and ray of dizziness. Basically his entire spell payload is meant to slow down the PCs to allow Skather to escape; at 50% HP he escapes and they'll end up chasing him across the burnt-out rooftops left in Abithriax's wake.

[CTLC]

quite possibly my favorite thread ever.

[kjones]

quite possibly my favorite thread ever.

I'm not sure I would go that far - for one, it doesn't have a single post about how monks are better than wizards!

[AslanCross]

The Final Showdown
I'm sure you've been waiting for this entry. We finally got around to holding the final session for Brindol. Nox's usual player couldn't make it, Holden/Rampant's player could only stay till noon, and the rest had to leave by around 3 pm, so I asked my players to come really early. Unfortunately, Rampant's player arrived early. It took the rest a while to arrive; we were only able to start at 10:30 am.

The party hurries toward Cathedral square only to find Jaarmath being dragged into the safety of the cathedral. Captain Ulverth hurries toward the PCs, telling then that Jaarmath was taken down by a sniper. Seeing that Brindol is in grave danger, Rampant tells the others that Cannith designed him with a one-time use program that greatly increases his abilities, but only lasts for an hour. He activates this program and begins speaking in Autobot lines.

"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings."

They enter the Cathedral to check on him and run into Tredora, who is tending her fallen lover. As much as she loves Jaarmath, she isn't willing to use up her spells when she knows that they might be needed later. Linny volunteers her one prepared lesser restoration and brings Jaarmath back to 4 Strength.

Jarmaath orders Cpt. Ulverth to take command since he doesn't want Lady Kaal giving orders. He then orders the PCs to look for the sniper.

The Sniper Attack

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The PCs begin by sending Rampant into the area where soldiers had fallen to the sniper. Almost immediately Skather takes a shot and scores a critical hit against Rampant. His fortification doesn't protect him and he instead takes a full 20+ critical sneak attack. Nox is able to spot Skather as he takes his snipe hide check and quickly tries to enter the coffin maker's shop.

Nox enters the back door and begins sneaking in extremely well, while the rest of the party gathers around the door outside. As Nox explores the interior, he opens a door that creaks noisily, alerting the invisble Kulkor Zhul War Adept hiding in the stairwell. However, Nox's hide checks are so high that no matter how high the War Adept rolls, he is unable to spot Nox.

Nox spots into the stairwell and is able to discern the vague outline of an invisible creature. Taking his survival pouch, he rips out a campfire (AGAIN) and throws it at the War Adept. He hits, dealing a full 6 fire damage to the War Adept, who promptly swears and runs up to the second floor. The party rushes into the door while Nox follows the still invisible War Adept up the stairs.

When Nox gets up to the second floor, he opens the door to the supply storage room only to find a fiendish dire wolf snarling at him. He quickly backs away and enters the room on the other side of the stairwell to avoid getting pinned down by the wolf. The other party members pound their way up the staircase. Lyka immediately steps in front of the wolf, closely followed by Rampant. Linny tries to run past the wolf, but in the process gets AOO'd---the beast grabs her leg and shakes it, dealing a massive 30 damage, but Linny is actually able to succeed on the opposed trip attempt. Kikkeni remains on the ground floor, keeping watch in case someone comes in the front door.

Nox takes a shot with his crossbow at the Dire Wolf through the space between Lyka's legs, taking off almost 3/4 of the wolf's HP. Rampant steps in and then decapitates it, spraying Lyka with black blood.

"You're going to have to polish my armor," Lyka tells Rampant.
"Freedom is the right of all sentient beings," replies the warforged.

Lyka spots someone hiding behind some boxes in the storeroom--a hobgoblin. Rampant stomps all the way up to the hobgoblin, taking a double move, and stopping short of attacking him.

"Would you like to butt heads with me?"
The hobgoblin emerges from his hiding place and attempts to bash Rampant with Death Mark, but misses spectacularly.
Linny follows into the room while Lyka attempts to close in with the hobgoblin swordsage. With the stairs clear, Kikkeni decides to head up to the stairwell and try to help the others on the second floor.

Nox, in the meantime, investigates the back rooms to see if there is anything else. He notices that the doors in the bedroom are curiously He spots the windows in the bedroom and decides to try investigating it. Rampant then roars---"This hobgoblin is not our sniper!"

Right at that moment, the War Adept reveals himself and casts shatterfloor on the rickety floorboards, dropping Rampant and Lyka (Lyka fails her save to grasp onto the vertical wall below her) onto the first floor. Rampant's player attempts something so awesome that I let slide at the cost of one action point---initiate a grapple with the swordsage and pull him to the ground with him. He makes the touch attack and succeeds in his grapple attempt, pulling the hobgoblin down. They crash into the coffin display on the first floor.

Lyka falls prone onto the ground, only to see none other than Skather suddenly materialize over her with his poisoned blade at the ready! He performs a Strength-Draining Strike on Lyka, his blade pulsing with black energy in the gloom.

Lyka rolls natural 1s versus both the Strength-Draining Strike and the poison. Her strength instantly drops from 18 to 8. Rampant then attempts to bash the grappled hobgoblin's face in with his slam (headbutt), even using Emerald Razor and a full power attack, but misses. Lyka, still ever sarcastic, quips: "My hope! It is draining away faster than my strength!"

Linny takes a shot at the War Adept who now has a spectacular bird's eye view of the desperate fight below, blasting him with scorching ray. Nox attempts to jump across the gap using a rope, but hearing the mess going on, he decides to crash through one of the ground floor windows into the display room. Kikkeni rushes to Lyka's assistance, while Lyka weakly tumbles away from Skather to take her position beside the psion.

The War Adept drops a glitterdust on Kikkeni and Lyka, but both make their saves.

Skather uses Cloak of Deception and materializes behind Kikkeni, his blade firmly planted in her back. Half of her HP is gone instantly. All this time, Rampant and the hobgoblin are wrestling in a stalemate. Although Rampant's grip is overpowering, he keeps failing to injure the hobgoblin except for one landed punch.

Linny decides to try to help Kikkeni by using her Rod of Viscid Globs at Skather. She hits and Skather fails his save. Nox attempts a crazy stunt with the grappling hook and tries to throw it at the war adept to pull it down, but it is quickly found lacking as an improvised weapon and simply fails to hit.

Kikkeni pulls back from the now stuck Skather. OOC the player agonizes over which of her powers to use---she's down to her last use no matter what she does, and decides she wants to end the battle quickly and increase her chances of taking Skather out by using her highest-save viable power--Death Urge.

Skather rolls a 3; even with his impressive +14 modifier, he fails to make the save. Lyka tries to help Skather along, but her awful attack rolls and modifiers fail to do anything---and to add even more injury to injury, the War Adept drops a power word: weaken on Lyka. 2 points of Strength drain.

Skather stabs himself, leaving him with very little HP. Rampant, in the meantime, caves in the hobgoblin swordsage's head with Emerald Razor + full power attack while Linny and Nox finish off the war adept.

Skather is unable to break free of the goo, and is finally finished off by Linny's scorching ray.

The party collects their loot and moves back to Cathedral Square, with Rampant toting the corpses of Skather and the War Adept. The party reports to Captain Ulverth, who commends them on a job well done.

Not long afterward, Killiar and the hunters land their owls close by. Killiar reports that the Red Hand is making a final push on Cathedral Square, and that he expects them to arrive in about 10 minutes.

Hearing this, Jaarmath gets up and staggers to the Cathedral square to show that he's still up and about, and delivers an inspiring, albeit recycled speech. Rampant continues this by saying, "Our chance of success is very slim, but we can make it happen because we are heroes---and everyone that has fought here is a hero!"

Tredora takes Kikkeni aside, saying that she senses Kikkeni is extremely fatigued. Kikkeni says she just wants some tea, but Tredora forces her on her knees and lays her hands on the psion's head. She casts dweomer of transference and sacrifices enough of her spells to bring Kikkeni up to 26 PP (+1 from the cognizance crystal she has). Tredora uses up the two lesser restorations to bring Lyka back up to 16 Strength (she can't get the 2 Strength drain from the power word weaken back yet).

While we have lunch, the party then goes about the very tedious and hassled process of procuring potions and scrolls from the 5000-GP item pool given to them by the merchants.

Lyka: bear's endurance, bull's strength, girallon's blessing and dragonskin, shield of faith. She had a bunch of spare +1 short swords so she put those to good use with her extra arms.
Rampant: shield of faith
Nox: cat's grace

Finally, they had Immerstal cast haste on the PCs.
Killiar, Trellara and the elves took up their positions on a grandstand in the corner of the Cathedral Square. Tredora stood by the Cathedral's stairs with Narcy, Wrogann, Teyani and Captain Ulverth. Rampant, Lyka, and Linny stood in front of them, while Nox, Kikkeni and Jonz took up sniper positions on the Cathedral spires.

Nox's and Kikkeni's player help each other run Killiar, Trellara and the elves, while Linny's player runs Rampant and the Lions. Kikkeni's player also runs Tredora and Cpt. Ulverth. Lyka's player has a handfull enough with her oodles of attacks.

Everyone nervously awaits the coming of the horde. As they wait, the rhythmic beating of swords on shields accompanied by goblin chants fills the air. The blaring of dragonbone horns rises above the din.

The Symphony of Crimson Carnage

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The horde charges the barricades surrounding the Cathedral Square, and the assembled soldiers do their best to fight off the oncoming tide. However, the sound of soldiers screaming as they are flung through the air fills the Cathedral Square. Immediately afterward, a fireball shoots out of the melee and strikes the Holy Symbol of Dol Arrah on top of the Cathedral, setting it on fire. The wicked red-orange light casts dancing shadows all across the Square.

Two skullcrusher ogres lead the charge, one of them carrying an enormous halberd while the other wields a longsword and an axe. Between them are two muscular, white-scaled dragonspawn wielding spiked chains---Whitespawn Berserkers---mounted on Redspawn Firebelchers.

Finally, mounted on an enormous Rage Drake, Wyrmlord Kharn makes his entrance. He is clad in red full plate, has his long hair in long, tight dreadlocks woven into a very long braid, and an enormous jagged greatsword. The sword's steel is a deep purple, and the blood that sticks to it seems to be rising instead of dripping off.

Livid with rage, Kharn orders the charge.

Before they are even able to move, Lyka charges. She savagely slashes at the halberd-toting ogre, taking off almost a third of its HP before it's able to do anything. Killiar, Nox and Immerstal shoot him as well, while Captain Ulverth charges on his horse. The halberd ogre is brought down to extremely low HP before it is able to even do anything, while Kharn, on his turn, vanishes with invisibility.

Tredora and the Lions charge the second ogre, while Kikkeni drops an electric energy ball on the berserkers. Linny casts healing circle, giving the party and their allies a multiple-use healing source.

Kharn reappears in his mega-buffed form (12 feet tall with a chromatic pentagram halo, long, black horns, pitch-black eyes, and dragonmark glyphs floating all over him) behind Ulverth and stabs him with his greatsword. The blood slick on the sword seems to get sucked into the hilt, after which the spikes on the sword flare out. Ulverth cries in agony. Kharn, one of the berserkers and the rage drake close in on Ulverth, Rampant and Lyka, while the other berserker uses his mount to spew artillery fire at Linny and the Lions.

The Lions close around the second skullcrusher, while the elves open fire on the halberd-wielding skullcrusher.

Linny tries to dispel Kharn, but he is able to counterspell it with his Divine Defiance feat.

The invisible Ulwai casts haste on her party, while Kharn slashes Ulverth, tearing him down from his horse. The captain was left at -1, so Kharn began to concentrate on Tredora and Rampant. The rage drake tries to maul Lyka, but is unable to hit her with its bite due to her high AC.

Rampant tries to use Charging Minotaur on one of the firebelchers to push it into the rage drake's space, but he's unable to overpower the massive beast.

The melee continues for a round before Kikkeni is no longer able to fire an energy ball due to the muddled-up battle lines, but the elves and Immerstal are able to continue supporting fire. Amazingly, despite the -4 penalty for shooting into melee, the elves roll incredibly high and are able to score successive hits on the ogres and on Kharn.

Lyka breaks invisibility and starts using Thunderstrike on Tredora, then Lyka.

Rampant slashes Kharn and then activates his fleshgrinding greatsword, painfully wounding him. Kharn angrily raises his own weapon and executes Divine Surge on Rampant, practically melting him in half at the waist. With Rampant dead, Linny angrily attempts a second Dispel Magic on Kharn---and Kharn rolls a natural 1 on his Counterspell. His buffs shatter one after another. The rage drake makes a beeline for Linny and tears her apart like it would a rag doll.

The Firebelchers eventually fall to Lyka's blades and the Lions' attacks, while the archers take down both ogres. One of the ogres is able to trip Teyani, but he doesn't do enough damage to kill her. With only the berserkers, the Rage drake and Kharn left, the Lions and the snipers concentrate their fire on one of the berserkers while Kharn attacks Tredora. Kharn continues taking damage from Rampant's still-grinding greatsword, but he keeps fighting on.

Arrows bring down the last of the berserkers after the Lions kill the other one. Lyka shreds Ulwai to pieces, dealing over 40 damage with her second full attack.

Immerstal gets the killing shot on Kharn, blasting clean through him with his magic missiles. The Lions and Tredora get in some hits on the rage drake, until a solid headshot from Nox kills it. Immerstal fireballs the rage drake's corpse for good measure.

We end the session there.

Casualties:
-Rampant
-Linny

Severely Injured:
-Cpt. Ulverth

Postmortem

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-This gets better and better. This was truly the most epic series of encounters so far, despite both of them lasting for a relatively short time.
-I had an epic chase scene across the tops of the burnt houses for the Skather battle, but Nox's snooping around in the back rooms prevented Skather from escaping in the midst of the fight.
-To any DMs planning to run RHOD---I highly recommend the use of shatterfloor in the Coffin Maker's Shop.
-It was nice of Linny to sacrifice her lesser restoration for Jarmaath, but I did have to make some excuses as to why Tredora didn't use her own spells on Jarmaath. In the end I boiled it down to her wanting to keep him from fighting and getting killed.
-The archers and mooks were actually useful here. The players running them were extremely lucky with their d20 rolls.
-One of the best things about the Kharn finale was that I got the players to make their rolls in advance so that we didn't have to move so slowly. When it was Lyka's turn, Killiar and Nox were already making their rolls. It was a pretty efficient way of running things and made the battle move really smoothly and swiftly.
-Lyka has become so badass I can't even describe it. She's been dropped to negatives so many times and yet she's always managed to bounce back and tear her enemies apart. She took 10 Strength damage + 2 Strength drain and still managed to come back and shred one of the Wyrmlords.
-Raising Holden has now become a huge problem. With the only cleric in the Elsir Vale with Lv 5 spells dead, they have no way of getting either Holden or Linny back. Although I might be able to have them procure a black market scroll of raise dead from Lady Kaal, I still think they will probably not have enough money for both of them. Any suggestions?
-I'm looking forward to tweaking Act V. I'm going to make it so that they can't just wander about the interior with impunity.

[kjones]

*claps*

Bravo, sir! You have outdone yourself. The shatterfloor in the coffin shop was a stroke of genius. And I wish I had thought of this:

Immediately afterward, a fireball shoots out of the melee and strikes the Holy Symbol of Dol Arrah on top of the Cathedral, setting it on fire. The wicked red-orange light casts dancing shadows all across the Square.

Simply epic, through and through.

As for the resurrections - Kaal always struck me as the sort of person who wouldn't expect you to pay her in money... she deals more in favors owed, if you catch my drift. Someday she'll approach the party with an offer they can't refuse.

[Zephyros]

I believe congratulations are in order (again!) both for your narrative-DMing-skills and writing it down in this magnificent diary..

After all those combats it will be truly hard to add new members in the party. Old-members have shed so much blood together that they must look really grim to outsiders!

...and Lyka is one badass shifter. Isn't she thinking about prestiging at the moment?

[Eldariel]

I'll be looking forward to what you do with the last Chapter too. Good job tho.

I'd say black market scrolls are the way to go. Since they have...contacts, maybe they could get some discount or help from the church/whatever. Or maybe they could resurrect the Cleric first...though I suppose that'd cost her the ability to cast 5th level spells.

You could handwave that somehow tho; maybe toss 'er enough XP to be level 10 before then or something so back at level 9 and enough XP for Raises. Or you could give them a Candle of Invocation and bring down a Solar to do the dirty work

[DarkEternal]

I am currently near the end of that campaign, but I'm making the party have a challenge by having them at level 9 after they kill the blue dragon(which they did in the last session). Since their characters started this campaign after trudging through previous ones, they already are fairly well equipped and are pretty strong, still the dragon almost got them(the cleric was down on -7 before he got stabilised and two more partty members were below 10 hp).

The session ended(since it was bloody late) with one of the wyverns poisoning the cleric(again) and taking some good 12 con away from him.

It was amusing(especially since the cleric is a bit scizophrenic :))

Next session they'll try to take out Azar Kull. Wish me luck in slaughtering them all ;).

[AslanCross]

Thanks for all the support, everyone. My players all think that was one of the best sessions we ever had, and now we know how to run the game with lots of additional NPCs.

As for the resurrections - Kaal always struck me as the sort of person who wouldn't expect you to pay her in money... she deals more in favors owed, if you catch my drift. Someday she'll approach the party with an offer they can't refuse.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I thought. It's pretty consistent with Eberron's deep levels of intrigue as well.

After all those combats it will be truly hard to add new members in the party. Old-members have shed so much blood together that they must look really grim to outsiders!

...and Lyka is one badass shifter. Isn't she thinking about prestiging at the moment?

Haha, perhaps! At the same time it also strains plausibility that some random high-level character will be wandering around nearby.

I originally recommended Bloodclaw Master to Lyka, but I think she wants to continue her maneuver progression.

I'd say black market scrolls are the way to go. Since they have...contacts, maybe they could get some discount or help from the church/whatever. Or maybe they could resurrect the Cleric first...though I suppose that'd cost her the ability to cast 5th level spells.

You could handwave that somehow tho; maybe toss 'er enough XP to be level 10 before then or something so back at level 9 and enough XP for Raises. Or you could give them a Candle of Invocation and bring down a Solar to do the dirty work

I forgot about the level down problem. I realized that a Candle of Invocation will actually allow Tredora to cast Raise Dead on both Holden and Linny without even using the gate effect. Of course, asking a Solar to cast Miracle or Wish is more expedient and can even bring them back without leveling them down.

I am currently near the end of that campaign, but I'm making the party have a challenge by having them at level 9 after they kill the blue dragon(which they did in the last session). Since their characters started this campaign after trudging through previous ones, they already are fairly well equipped and are pretty strong, still the dragon almost got them(the cleric was down on -7 before he got stabilised and two more partty members were below 10 hp).

The session ended(since it was bloody late) with one of the wyverns poisoning the cleric(again) and taking some good 12 con away from him.

It was amusing(especially since the cleric is a bit scizophrenic :))

Next session they'll try to take out Azar Kull. Wish me luck in slaughtering them all ;).

Good luck! I Azarr Kul doesn't suffer from Natural 1s at critical moments like Kharn did.

[ShadowFighter15]

Amazing session. I'll have to keep that floor-shattering spell in mind. Is it in the Spell Compendium?

Also, is Girallon's Blessing good for a TWF character? I've got a TWF Warblade in a game and I'm wondering if it'd be smart to invest in a wand of it along with a second pair of swords (She's got max cross-class ranks in UMD, so she should be able to use a wand of it reliably).

[AslanCross]

Amazing session. I'll have to keep that floor-shattering spell in mind. Is it in the Spell Compendium?

Also, is Girallon's Blessing good for a TWF character? I've got a TWF Warblade in a game and I'm wondering if it'd be smart to invest in a wand of it along with a second pair of swords (She's got max cross-class ranks in UMD, so she should be able to use a wand of it reliably).

Shatterfloor is in Spell Compendium, yes.

Girallon's Blessing is best if you have easy ways to get full attacks. If you're a Lion Totem Barbarian or a Warblade with Pouncing Charge, it's great. Otherwise, don't bother. It's a good way to use "vendor trash" +1 short swords, though.

[ShadowFighter15]

Shatterfloor is in Spell Compendium, yes.

Girallon's Blessing is best if you have easy ways to get full attacks. If you're a Lion Totem Barbarian or a Warblade with Pouncing Charge, it's great. Otherwise, don't bother. It's a good way to use "vendor trash" +1 short swords, though.

Thanks. What sort of penalties are there for quad-wielding, or is there a section in the SRD or somewhere that explains it?

[AslanCross]

Thanks. What sort of penalties are there for quad-wielding, or is there a section in the SRD or somewhere that explains it?

Here.

Girallon's Blessing says the original arms count as primaries, while the new arms are secondaries. Without MWF, the penalties apply.

[asphen fox]

Sorry for the thread necromancy but I think I have to do this. I know people are expecting further posts on this thread especially since the campaign is about to come to an end.

Anyways, According to RAW, Multi-Weapon Fighting automatically replaces Two-Weapon Fighting if the creature has more than two arms. It's written under a special clause in the Multi-Weapon Fighting Feat. I think this is to make Girallon's Blessing an actual useful spell. I am yet to see a [Non-Thri Kin] PC with Multi-Weapon Fighting written in their character sheets.

[AslanCross]

Say hello to asphenfox, Nox's subsitute player.
It's not thread necromancy until the thread's more than a month dead, if I remember correctly. You're in the clear.

Anyway, I've been seriously rethinking Azarr Kul's tactics in the final battle. Actually, the tactics entries are one thing I really ignore. AK's go a huge spell list at his disposal. There are a lot of nasty things he can do.

I also found a cool way of allowing the PCs to discover what AK's plan really is. There's a room in the fane that is a great place to put the pieces of the puzzle together. :D

[Ladorak]

Hey nothing really to add to the topic, my group didn't make it as far as Azarr Kul. But I just wanted to say I've really enjoyed this thread, so thanks for that

[AslanCross]

Hey nothing really to add to the topic, my group didn't make it as far as Azarr Kul. But I just wanted to say I've really enjoyed this thread, so thanks for that

Thanks for dropping by. :) I want to share my experiences so I can hopefully help others who want to run the same adventure.

[Eldariel]

Sorry for the thread necromancy but I think I have to do this. I know people are expecting further posts on this thread especially since the campaign is about to come to an end.

Anyways, According to RAW, Multi-Weapon Fighting automatically replaces Two-Weapon Fighting if the creature has more than two arms. It's written under a special clause in the Multi-Weapon Fighting Feat. I think this is to make Girallon's Blessing an actual useful spell. I am yet to see a [Non-Thri Kin] PC with Multi-Weapon Fighting written in their character sheets.

Chorus: Hi, fox.


Anyways, here's hoping we get to see the aftermath of the Battle for Brindol soon! And yeah, the last chapter could use all the rewrite you can give it. Sounds just about right.

[asphen fox]

XD Heyo.

Glad I'm in the safe. Never really appreciated the necromancy school that much. :D Anyways..

I can't wait for the next session. I might just have to round up everyone to distribute the goods taken from the corpses soon. It's gonna eat up too much time if we wait for the cut until the session comes. Any ideas now about when the next session would be?

[CheshireCatAW]

Firstly, you have done an amazing job both in preparing the adventure and transcribing it eloquently. Bravo on both counts. I think I've learned a lot from merely reading what you have done and I look forward to putting it into practice.

Secondly, I have an idea regarding your PC deaths. I will preface my thoughts by mentioning that I've never read the module itself and my familiarity with Eberron is shamefully low.

Spoiler

Show

The Red Hand is not a small organization by any means. In addition, it's got to be able to count on a certain amount of Divine (or, I suppose, Infernal) guidance. With these two things in mind...

The Wyrmlords were paragons of their kind. They seemed to be incredibly important to the structure of the hoard; likely to their morale as well. While I'm certain that Evil likes to punish those who fail it, losing valuable pawns is something that should be factored in. If I were the Red Hand leadership, I would look for a way to return the Wyrmlords to life. Possibly even the Dragons, though I think that would skew the difficulty a bit much. It would be boring to merely bring them back via normal magic spells. I thought it would be entertaining to offer a side adventure that might tie up this desire by the Red Hand and your PC deaths.

Create a side adventure where the Red Hand has located an ancient Magi-Tech laboratory. To make it more interesting and to not mess up XP have the adventuring party that goes to find this place as the Lions accompanied by some named NPC's that have a great debt to the PC's (And at this point in the adventure EVERYONE owes the PC's, from the Elves to the townsfolk of both towns to the Wereboar. Nothing says "Thank you for saving my portion of the world" like risking your life to save someone else's.

As to the specifics of the adventure itself? I'm afraid I have little actually worked out. I would consider making the Ghostlord a figure central to this quest (perhaps he has recently began dabbling in ways to return Ghosts to flesh and blood?) as you've spent much time working on him already and making him a fantastic character, it would be a shame to never see him again. Perhaps Lady Kaal can offer this bit of obscure knowledge as her grudging way of thanking the PC's for saving her life without actually thanking them (Or, if she could even offer this in return for future favors by the Lions).

There should be a price for this. The PC's might reconsider raising their dead if they know that the Wyrmlords will return if they activate the equipment. Or perhaps the Wyrmlords have already returned and there's only one or two people that can be returned to life with the remaining abilities of the equipment. Or perhaps one or more of the Lions gives their life to resurrect their mentors.

Of course, this is only a suggestion and it diverts a good bit from the module. Anything you do, I'm certain, will turn out amazing. I eagerly await further word of your groups' doings. Best of luck, and thank you for posting this.