Many Facets Of Darkness- DM's Campaign log [Eberron, 3.5]

[Kol Korran]

Meeting Number 7: December 18th, 2010- plans and improvisation, butchering a villain, the map

In game date- 28th Sypherus - 18 Aryth (late Autumn, month of Passage)

I had better write this before i forget. time passes quickly... A long time has passed since the last meeting. and though the players wanted to discuss plans against the village, but due to RL they didn't. this has taken up a long time at the beginning of the meeting, and from my point of view meant that i will have to improvise quite a bit, as i knew not what action they will take. in the end it... well, you'll see.

discussing plans

Spoiler

Show

On the roof of the old tower the group discussed plans. Danves and Ipiks who participated in the war thought of the following: using the marvelous pigments they would create a few large flasks containing a large amount of alchemist fire, the wyvern will carry them and the flasks to the village at night (even dark vision has it's limits), the wyvern will drop the flasks at key spots, creating a diversion, and will land them on Creelog's house, where they will infiltrate, kill the chief, and maybe try and persuade his successor to deal with them (they thought that Groomesh, the bugbear lieutenant is on their side).

Big Red the Wyverb claimed she can't carry them all, but they realised she can Carry Google, Red, and Khork if he's hanging from her leg using his feather fall power (i ruled he weighs half the weight doing so). as they discussed what will happen with the other two, Khork and Ipiks suddenly noticed someone listening to them- The sickly elf was hanging by the tower's wall!

Forced into action

Spoiler

Show

The elf somehow teleported down, and the party tried to give chase, they noticed he disappeared (a sort of invisibility), and his tracks turned into those of a great cat! at first they thought some sort of magical shapeshifter again, but a succesful knowledge check by Danves noticed this was in fact a Barghest variation!

DM design

Spoiler

Show

The Barghest in my campaign are quite different from the MM ones, they can even be PRCs. for more on that check my monsters link

Ipiks and Tuulikki tried to follow it's trail, but they have lost it. but one thing was clear- the element of surprise was gone, and most likely their plan as well. They decided to head towards the village as fast as they can. the wyvern was not happy about this.

One more visit from the Ally, and a cryptic message

Spoiler

Show

as they traveled to the village the three tortured companions had to roll a few more fort saves for the increasing pain, but they succeeded. as they got close to the village, the hobgoblin ally suddenly met them with fresh horses, news, and a gift.

he told them that the village is indeed prepared, and that the warriors are all on alert. he said that the blue and the sickly elf will surely notify "the hand", and therefor they will have to avoid their hunting attempts. for that he gave them necklaces of protection from scrying. the party was suspicious, but accepted the gift. (later they used identify on them but found nothing suspicious)

then the ally surprised them, sighing and seeming sad. he motioned towards the personality items the party had (just the ring at this point) "you had done well to find these. find the rest! find us! find me!" but he would elaborate no further, it seemed like a slip of the tongue. the ally said the situation has become quite more complicated than he liked, so he was departing. he may find the party later. "how will you find us if we're protected from scrying?" asked the suspicious Khork. the ally smiled. "by other, more traditional methods.

DM Note

Spoiler

Show

I'm not sure i mentioned this, but the players suspect by now (and correctly so) that the "ally" is in fact the Blue cat, who is a changling. in one of the interactions i used female verbs (there is a distinction in Hebrew_ for describing the ally's actions, and that triggered them off. silly DM. the mistakes i make... a surprise down the runner.

new battle plans

Spoiler

Show

the party neared the village, and then thought again of their plan (we concluded they had done so along the long ride) Big Red can't carry them all. also, Danves wasn't sure that killing Creelog without gaining Groomesh' blessing would do good for them. they decided to split forces- Danves under the guise of a disguise self spell from Red (in my house rules all "self" spells are now "touch" spells) will go and look for Groomesh, while the Big Red will carry Khork (dangling), Google and Red, and Ipiks will fly on one of the little wyverns.

As an escape plan for Danves, Tuulikki captured a small critter (forgot what it was) Red could use Baleful transportation to bring it next to them. it had a range of 140 feet. Ipiks painted 4 casks containing 25 alchemist fire's worth each, and as the night arrived, they flew up, as Danves the hobgoblin got close to the village. Princess Porcia stayed outside the village with the horses.

You really fell for that?

Spoiler

Show

Danves had to lie a few times to get towards the center of the village, seeing various water and archers stations on the roofs, looking at the sky. news of their arrival have reached. luckily the fliers were flying quite high (i forgot at this point that Eberron has 12 moons (!!!). luckily for them. getting closer he saw a big tent in the middle of the road. from it arose nondescript arguing voices, amongst them Crelog and Groomesh. some of the fliers heard it too, and without a second thought told the wyverns- "drop all flask on the tent!"

2 of the casks missed, but two hit dead on!... on the illusion. Ipiks player's butted his head against the table and the others groaned. i was suprised such a trick worked. (a partying scroll from the blue to the leaders). immeidiatly an alarm sprang, and the place was in chaos. "the roof of the temple" whispered red, we'll regroup from there.

I'm really starting to dislike this spell. It's Marvelous!

Spoiler

Show

Danves looked around, and saw Creelog rushing in on a worg as big as a horse, his body guards to the side, and archers around. Groomesh came from another building. the party saw this too from their perch on the temple. as they thought how to deal with the situation Red solved this simply- Balefull transportation on Creelog and the small critter!

suddenly the leader was "polymorphed" to a little animal, (or so his troops thought) and he appeared surprised on the roof. the rest was... simple and messy- surprise round, being flat footed, having 3 warriors around you and a wyvern, not to mention the poisons of the big and little lizard (ipiks), Creelog was taken down surprisingly fast. Ipiks then chopped off his head and waved it, daring the archers to shoot him (they did, many many shots, none hit. high AC got the little bugger)

as Danves saw this he cursed, and grabbed Groomehs the bugbear's shoulder. "i have an offer for you, a chance to become ruler of this village, if you listen to me fast and take control of the situation!" the bugbear saw through the illusion, shoved him against the wall, and they conversed quietly, and fast. Danves slick words work well indeed, and the warlord agreed to reverse the ritual done on them, and free them, if they solve the wyvern problem.

meanwhile the party looted (as players do even in these situation) Creelog's corpse. Google liked the MW full plate, and the party found a few other nicknacks, but also one of the Byeshk swords, and their remaining reincarnation rings.

DM design

Spoiler

Show

I originally planned for various encounters in the village, with variosu squads, wogs, and small defensive contraptions. i intended the battle with Creelog to be tougher due to minions, his anhanced worg and maybe an adapt caster or two. to that i say "players happen"...

DM Note

Spoiler

Show

Ok, some of you may cry "5th level characters or not, no way they could have beaten an entire village!" true. but that wasn't the point. i thought they have accomplished something impressive given the conditions, and so allowed this to come to this conclusion. these guys have become quite the terror of this village, i thought they would be glad to let them go. and hey, if Groomesh can win from the deal, why not?

finishing negotiations

Spoiler

Show

to make a long story short, the party arranged that Big Red will recieve some tribute from the village, and in exchange will help them against enemies, and maybe other wyverns (some of the party suspected that Groomesh intended to kill her on one occasion or the other). they got some (not all) of their stuff back, and the ritual was (painfully reversed).

as to the slaves? have the party no heart? Red and Google tried to plea for the slaves. I said that Groomesh cannot act against the will of his people yet, but once he get firmer control, he will see what he can do. both players still intend to raze the village (and maybe Dargoon) after all of this is over. their personal mission (future campaign?)

"just when you thought it was over" OR "i can't believe this is happening to me again..."

Spoiler

Show

as the party rode towards Kennrun, Danves made a few passes at Porcia, which were not entirely refused. on the wya however Ipiks and Tuulikki sensed a presence- the elf have ambushed them!

now, this was supposed to be the end "boss fight" of this chapter. the guy is approximately CR 8-9 (hard to calculate since he's a druid 5/ Barghest 4- a PRC i invented, that DOES NOT MESH WELL apparently). the party got real close to it with their horses, and started pummeling it. as it tried to cast spells, they pummled it some more, as it Dimension leaped and tried to get away, i found horses are faster. as it tried to disappear, Tuulikki's senses and Khork's new helmet (i forgot Barghest meant he was an evil outsider) made finding him real easy. and as with the Fury, at the end Google came and critted the Devourer massively, obliterating it.

conclusion: so far i SUCK at villains. i may open a thread asking for help. this was a total butchery. as they looted it's corpse i noticed that once again forgot the fly potion it had on him. yay DM!

happy at another well deservd victory (the bastards! ) the party reached Kennrun. safe port at last! Ipiks remembered this map he found...

End of Chapter 2! onwards to the Interlude

In retrospect, we should have taken YOUR offer...

Spoiler

Show

As the party reached Kennrun, they met a small delagation coming their way- a strong presence looking noble, some dangerous looking woman behind him, two worforged, one of mithral one of adamantite, a pipe smoking gnome, and... Edmund? the scholar who offered they'd research the Mournland? what is he doing here?

long story (and conversations) short, this noble guy was Edmund's patron. he kept glancing at Google, seeming worried. he heard that they accepted Auresia's offer, and suspected a ruse, and so followed them here. unfortunately, he doesn't have an airship, so it took him a while longer. the man's name was Obraskyr (FR fans, i know i stole the name, i like it!) and he worked for the Aunderian queen, only as an unofficial concrned citizen. he was a long time scholar of the Draconic prophecy, and have tried to find the "hand of light and shadows" (see the quote at the beginning of this journal) for quite some time. now he is sure he has found them. he offered his help in their battle. he warned them that the "twisted hand" will be hard on thier trail now that they have killed one of their members ("um, two actually" chorused the party smiling. those bastards ) and so they should stay hidden while they can.

Obraskyr had connection in Khorvaire and Beyond, he could help the party.
He provides them with a bit more of the prophecy- "The swarm that rises is not the swarm that was, pieces of earth (shards?) of mid and low dragon makes it anew. the shadow gives it new purpose". they decided to trust him. but where to next? Ipiks brought up the map he found at Blue's chamber's.

The map, next destination?

Spoiler

Show

the map was an intircate map of Khorvaire and northern Xen'dric. it showed a few key points:

• a small bug symbol near the Gloaming in the Eldeen reaches. it was crossed off however.
• a symbol of the dark six in north western Mournland. Red idnetified it as the area around the mines of Eston, the famous Mithral and Admantite mines of house Orien that became unreachable after the Mourning. from there two lines emerged:
• the first took towards the beach of the mournland, and from there it took the sea route acroos eastern Khorviare up to Q'barra, the jungle land of lizardmen and ancient ruins. there the line split. one part anchored on shore and entered the jungle up until somewhere called the Sun Spires. Ipiks, (who grew up in Q'barra) knew this was a place lizardmen were not allowed to go. it was said to hold demons. there was a sign of a dragon's mouth and some... shard? stone inside it? beside it were the letters T and F, but the F was stricken, and underneath it was added an M. the party guessed these were the initial of the dark six. which means the Traveler and Mockery are the ones mentioned. the other line...
• the other line continued all the way down to StormReach on the north point of Xen'drick (land of ruined giant civilization, savage drow, and barbaric giants) . near it was the name "Obsidian City" and a question mark. near it were the letter K and D. which meant only the Keeper was left. however, the party heard from the goblinoids that he might be the dark six leader! he and the shadow... there was a sign of a snake encircling a key beside it. Google was troubled, the name Obsidian city arose images in his mind, this was a place he knew!
• the other line originating from the Mournland went straight over Khorvaire up to the Shadow Marches, homeladn of the orc population (where Khork came from), it reached a place called "halls of silence" and there was a sign of an exclamation mark encircled by a... circle. next to it were the letters S and M but M was crossed out. so the shadow was alone. Red remembered from the Dhakanni book she memorised that the Halls of silence were once a stronghold of the Daelkyr...

in short there were many choices. the party could not decide whether the letters meant they were there, on their way, or had some sort of connection. The party debates between goin to Xen'dric first (a chance to catch their leader, and besides- Google thinks he knows the place. Obraskyr seems partial to Xen'dric as well, he says he has an acquaintance in the Obsidian City- a Naga called Auxellia), and the Mournland. the party guess correctly that this is their base of operation. might be nice to catch the nest unguarded?

Visions

Spoiler

Show

as they started debating, Obraskyr brought a large stone tablet from his bag of holding. "this is a part of the prophecy. rumor tell that those who are mentioned in the prophecy, may try to recieve visions from it. would you like to try?

who wouldn't?

• • Ipiks: you see yourself in the middle of a battle, Khork and Google are in front. one of them, you can't tell exactly who, is heavily injured. You knew this would come, and you're ready. you never would have thought you'd do something like this, but you have too. you hesitate for but a second, and then pull out the dagger with the.... "special poison", and stab your ally's back! (Ipiks keeps this to himself, troubled by the revelation)
• • Khork: you're on some sort of a flying ship. you are all running from something, but you can't tell what. the situation is desperate. suddenly you feel a presence in the air, the presence of dragons! you turn around just to see a materializing...
• • Red: you see the party and you assembled in a room whose features you can't really make. there is a changling there, in it's natural form, trying to assemble a big Syberis crystal from many small ones. the floor is littered with an odd assortment of objects. the crystal seems nearly complete, but still fractured. The changling smiles nervously at you, and motions you to come near... (the player seems pleased, and at the same time confused by this)
• • Danves: Abject terror grips you. the entire party is running as fast as it can up from some twisted mine, with flesh mingled with metal (admantite) on the walls. something is chasing you. you reach the opening of the mine, and depression grips you as you remember where you are- The Mournland. (Danves doesn't like this vision at all!)
• • Google: you see a figure clad in bone armor with great cat motifs. it holds the blackest longsword you have ever seen, and with it, it strikes down fellow half giants. a great cold grips you, as you know their souls suffered something worse than death. (he tells the party, and they guess corre3ctly this figure might be the Keeper)

due to these revalations, the party decides to head for Xen'dric, the land of giants! Obraskyr tells them they'll need to book passage from Sharn.

Rewards, the princess, and Google's revelations

Spoiler

Show

we had very little time left on our hands for the meeting, which was a bit of a shame, perhaps weshall roleplay some of these bits next time, but i doubt it. the party (and their patron) boarded the nearest lightning rail towards Sharn. in the nearest big city the Princess departed, using an Orien service to teleport home, tellingthem to check the Sivis message stations for a message from her. Danves gave her some kiss kiss, some hug hug, some grope grope, and she... responded in kind. Ipiks gave her his "best wishes"

Meanwhile on the train Obraskyr confided in Google- he knew his tirbe (called the Cimdan). they are a tribe of half giants who protect the Naga Auxellia in the Obsidian City. she in turn protected some sort of artifact from the giant era. their agreement was that she would send some of the half giants to contact him if she something was amiss. Obraskyr was concerned, really concerned, especially since only Google reached him, and even that without his memory. could he remember what was the message?

Google could not, and his worried face darkened. he was glad they were heading there. he just hoped it wasn't too late.

as i didn't want to delve into big cities, i described Sharn only briefly. (i know you Eberron fans will shoot me for this) the party stayed mostly at safe houses for the next couple of weeks, while their patron and retinue handled selling magic items and purchasing from artificers. Porcia sent them 40000 gp through a Khundarak bank, and Obraskyr could spare 10000 more. the party rejoiced, and started selling loot and buying stuff. the simple joys of players...

DM Design

Spoiler

Show

the characters are quite beyond their Wealth By Level standards, but i figure they deserved it. the 50000 was originally intended to put them at their WBL, if they were all captured, and escaped "somehow" (as i imagined they would). but instead they had did quite a bit more. and so i let them have it. i'll try to adjust accordingly.

We ended the meeting here. the players haven't yet made all their buying-and-selling, that should be ready for next meeting i hope. there are a few problems that i see ahead:

• first, my RL schedule ain't getting any better. i hope we can arrange reasonable meeting dates. this really irks everyone (me included) one of the players suggested DMing while i was away a different adventure. that might suit them i hope.
• apperantly, i suck at designing villains. they are going to face the Keeper now. i really need this guy to survive, and to frighten them. maybe i'll ask the forum for help.
• i have but sketches ofthe main ideas for the third chapter. but i think i have enough to build on. there are a few... surprises there i just need the time to flesh things out. time time time...

i hope you all enjoyed the read. i'll be glad to hear what you think!
till next time,
Kol Korran.

[Kol Korran]

fewer and fewer readers.
anyway, i've opened up two new threads concerning my... concerns for the next meeting. feel free to chime in!

about building the keeper: "We can build him, we have the source books!"

about Yuan Ti in Xen'dric: "what do you know of your friendly neghborhood snakeman?"

[Kol Korran]

our meeting was delayed to the end of next week. (saturday). meanwhile, one of the players (the one who plays Khork and once played Layla) desires yet once again to change character. i thought to try something a bit special with him this time, giving him options that aren't regular to our games.

he's chosen something... interesting i think. waiting to see how it will play out!

[akma]

What did he choose?

[Kol Korran]

i think i'd rather keep it as a surprise. (hopefully it WILL surprise someone)

[Kol Korran]

Meeting Number 8: Janauary 22nd, 2011- The Road to Obsidian City:Harpy negotiation, undead, drow and riddles

In game date- 18 Aryth- 4 Vult (late fall- early winter, month of Warding)

Long time since last meeting- 5 weeks! i do hope next semester is easier. i was afraid the party would liek to break up, but they seem to like the game, which is good! As This meeting meant a whole new chapter, i had a lot of work to do. plus, i had planned with Khork's player the arrival of his new character, but things have not gone exactly as planned (do they ever do?).

I have resigned to believe that few people read this campaign log, but hopefully it will be left for my party once (and if) we finish the campaign. or at least for me to learn from? for the few of you who do read this- thanks!

a quick reminder: may be in due- last meeting the party met their new patron- Obraskyr, who has been working to thwart the Dark six (now only 4... ) in their plans, by providing help and guidance to the party. the party had found a map detailing 4 destinations important to the dark six, and they chose to equip themselves and try and reach the Obsidian City down in Xen'dric. Google remember it has something to do with his memory, maybe it's his home?

Between meetings, preparations

Spoiler

Show

The party had quite a loot. most bought protective armor and cloaks of resistance, but there are a few note worthy acquisitions:

• Ipiks purchased and crafted many poisons, almost all of them Sasson Leaf. he is in love with it. he also purchased a partially depleted deck of illusions.
• Red bought 2 pearls of power, enabling her to cast many low level spells. she's becoming quite the batwoman.
• Google purchased boots of striding, improving his speed. also a magical full plate to make him far less vulnerable.

despite their considerable wealth, they remained nearly broke. PCs will be PCs. however, they did have 5000 "spending acount" through a Khundarak bank by their patron.

Eberron Stuff:

Spoiler

Show

Khundarak is the house of banking, and it keeps transdimensional vaults for his clients, that can be accessed from any branch of the bank. easier to carry large amount of loot.

Chapter 3

Another Prophecy bit, and a sea voyage

Spoiler

Show

Bfore leaving the party met the troubled Obraskyr once more. he told them that he was searching the Porphecy for any clues, since they have done something that was deemed... unlikely (the bastards smiled smartly at that! ) and he have been able to come up with this piece of the prophecy- an old flame that lighten a new, covered in metal, ally true except for Khork's player, they all looked quite confused.

DM note:

Spoiler

Show

this was supposed to ease the joining of his character. however the party quite forgot about it till they met him

the moved through the dark streets and boarded a ship towards the city of Stormreach. i Have originally planned an encounter with Sahuagin here (starting as negotiation, might escalate to more), but decided it will be a waste of precious gaming time. perhaps i was wrong, perhaps right. anyway- we continued. after about 10 more days of sea voyage, the party reached the shores of Xen'dric

Gather Information in a strange City

Spoiler

Show

This part was set to give the party a bit of the exotic feel of the strange City- the giant ruins, the heat, the different and strange races, and more. i was going for a "wild west in chicago" type of feel, since i had precious little info about the city, and that's how i imagined it. the party first visited an Inn (that for some reason that eludes me they decided (!) was called "The Energetic Flee") and started info gathering. soon they learned that there was such a place, but that most explorations of it either didn't return, or came back repoorting some sort of a "headache disturbance".

they headed for the Wayfounders enclave, and had a hilarious talk with the dwarf owner there, trying to persuade him that they are his new exploring team, asking him to equip them and more. Ipiks kept trying to get on his good side by "being small comaradery" which did not go well. at the end they purchased a fairly expensive map, being promised that if they bring back valuable information, the dwarf will be able to refund them, even buy the map back. he also told them of a half orc called Iliacus that been close to the place a few weeks ago.

Google started to remember- the City was indeed his home! he now remembered, looking at the map, traveling down the river that led from near the city to Stormreach alongside about a dozen other half giants, they were on a mission. but where are they now?

The half orc was found at a gambling hall. Khork and Ipiks sat down to play. Khork's "unsubtle" methods almost led to a whole battle, but Ipiks cleared the table (high dice roll), and won the Iliacus's respect. he was worried at Seeing Google, almost going for his weapon before he was calmed down.

the conversation yielded the following information- about 4 months ago a sickly looking elf (the party guessed correctly it to be the devourer) hired him and some other merceneries to get to the Obsidian City- they reached some sort of craters with pillars of Obsidian stone in it, upon which was the ruin of some giatn city, but they couldn't get in- when they tried some barriers caused them severe head aches. plus- there were the half giant and stone gianst guardians.

but the devourer would set ambushes outside the city, hunt those that got out and... interogated. the giant kin also retaliated, and one of their ambushes nearly got Iliacus killed. it sure did the others. but the elf was pleased, and headed back. Iliacus hated the place ever since. he also gave them the name of a good boat captain- Eirs and her sister Larrisa, that could take them close to the city.

The party went to sleep, not before Ipiks tried to find some Drow to converse with, without any success.

Boat and Ambush

Spoiler

Show

next morn the party was contacted by Obraskyr through the personal sending stone they carried- he had procured the services of an adventuring Jorasco healer to join them- Jalo d'Jorasco. they found the merry and mischevious fellow, who followed them. they also took the opportunity to buy quite a lot of antidote and a few "delay poison" potions.

then they contacted Eris as she was supposed to pay taxes, and used that as a leverage to lower the boat price. there was some fierce haggling, as all expenses were now gone. Eris told them to get to her boat, she would come soon.

Design Note:

Spoiler

Show

For those familiar with skills challenges from 4E, the entire "preperations stage" worked quite similar to that- gain a number of successes due to roleplaying and skill uses in various opportunities, before a certain number of failures. the party did succeed at the end, but not before they made enough noise to attract attention

near the boat i had all throw sense motive checks, and all but Red succeeded. the ambush was partially spoiled! there was a young hill giant (10 HD), Warblade 4, and Warmage 4. Ipiks was burnt by the mage, but shadow jaunted right beside him, the warblade was beset by Google and Khork, while Red (after recovering) made the giant fall with her Tasha's Hideous laughter spell.

DM rules note:

Spoiler

Show

some of the "Save or suck" spells were a little changed (like Tasha's hideous laughter). the target can make a new save every 1d4 rounds. it weakens the spells somewhat, without making them obsolete. i still think it's a powerful spell)

the battle was quite one sided, and finished with Google (as usuall) making a hideous crit against the just about to rise giant, cutting off a limb. the party quickly investigated the warblade, who admitted he was a mercenery that was hired by a noble man with lots of Karrnathi skeletons and zombies (the Keeper) at his back to take down whomever asked "too many questions".

cue in "intimidation extremes" by the party. except for Danves, they all chimed in, THOROUGHLY convincing him to be their eyes and ears now. needless to say, he eagerly agreed. the party also found a wand of shield (which Red took) which proved quite useful later on.

Eris (and a few guards) came to investigate the commotion. she quickly motioned the party to get to her boat, "The Daring Venture" and get the hell out of here!

River Ride, "Deal" with harpies.

Spoiler

Show

the boat is small, the crew as well, made up of 2 pilots/ captains, 4 deck hands, and 3 warforged guards, maintianed by a small and nerveous dwarf called Hrit. the voyage is quiet at first, except for Google not liking the waves, and Danves courting Larrisa. on night watches, he "watches" with her. which is just the situation that comes up when on the second night the boat (while anchoring), is beset by 6 harpies that land on deck! the warforged is prepared to attack, when their leader, not a terribly bad looking crone hawks "NO fight! not yet! we wish bargain! make deal! got pretty stones! yes?" Danves is intrigued "what deal?"

as the others wake up and get out (danves makes sure to stamp his foot and talk really loud!) he learns of the deal- the harpies need... mates. Their roost has been depleted ,and so they need more young to refill the wing.

DM note:

Spoiler

Show

I may have mentioned it before, but i tweak quite a bit with the fluff of monsters. i prefered to leave harpies female only, taking male mates from other humanoid races).

now this has led to a most humorous discussion we had to date. they desired either Danves ("you look nice! real nice!", Khork ("big and so strong! strong chiks!") or Google ("one of giant kin?! yes! bigger and stronger! we like!") and the three parlied between them. Khork at first was amendable till he heard they also kill and eat sentient creatures, after which he just sought an opportunity to kill them.

finally it was Google who agreed! the leader was joined by two others. at this the party stopped "wait, all 3?" to which was replied "small wing, need many eggs. beside- 2 groom while we... yes..." And so Google and 3 of the harpies went down to the hold. amongst screeches and hawks the party talked to the others (and Danves calmed Larrisa) and learned that the roost was attacked by the Keeper and his troops some time ago, only they were followed by Drow.

2 stones were chosen from random 4, for a bit of loot, in exchange, before the harpies left.

DM note:

Spoiler

Show

I think this was truly a different kind of encounter. true- it was mostly for laughs, but i also think it added a bit of depth to their character. i thought to skip this encounter as well (as with the sahuagin), but i'm glad i didn't.

Outskirts of Obsidian City. Battle at the way point.

Spoiler

Show

The party reached "Ever Watchful", a huge statue looking over to the sea. this was the Daring Venture's stopping point. Erin agreed to waut for them for 10 days, after that she heads back. Googl'e memory was jolted by the statue's familiar look- he remembered the way to the Crater, but also the mental barriers. however, there was a way around it- some sort of... door? portal? way? through a building in the outer ruins.

He started leading the way there, until Ipiks who scouted ahead heard the sounds of 2 drow talking. he and Tuulikki (Red's pseudo-dragon familiar) found the building and noticed two drow talking amongst themselves, with some bows at the ready. they also heard some noises from further to the crater, what sounded like a little camp.

as Ipiks climbed the building and waited for the party to arrive, thye made their way. luckily the drow thought the noise they were making was that of forces from the camp, but as soon as they got close enough they noticed Google. "Giant Kin!" they shouted in giant "they got through! sound the alarm!"

Ipiks fell from the roof and cut one, and then the other quickly, but the forces inside the building allready heard. a round later two horsn were sound- the battle was against the clock now!

and what a strange battle it was- they rushed in, but Ipiks and Khork took cover behind a wall while Google enlarged himself and took point. he quickly got struck by a hail of arrows, taking down most of his hit points. 3 Karrnathi zombies made a choke point at the opening of the room, while several drow and Karrnathi skeleton from a height advantage were the artillery. beside, there were a low level drow wizard and drow cleric, mostly using buff spells and control spells.

There was another figure in the room- someone covered entirley by a full plate armor with a flame motif. he seemed to try and struggle against something.

DM note:

Spoiler

Show

This is Khork's player next character! I shall from now on refer to him as Willie, as this is his name. He did not take control of him till the end of the meeting however. and the party barely interacted with him.

Google was replaced By Khork and Ipiks, while he healed, and struck from behind him. Ipik's numerous flasks of holy water proved useful, as did Khork's strikes, while Khork was absorbing most of the arrows with his many, many hi points. but the battle was taking long. finally they broke in, angry and tired of the mooks. Khork massacred the cleric, Red and Ipiks the wizzard (together with Willie), and Google approached the balcony the archers were on and started smashing them left and right. the battle was won.

Riddles and Keepers

Spoiler

Show

In the middle of the room was an arcane circle, around which was some writing in giant, but it made no sense! Google remembered this was a portal, but it was protected by a riddle, which was encrypted itself. he might be able to figure it out, if he had time... the rest of the party went to buy him time, while Willie's movements seemed worried, and he would not leave the room. he says the Keeper tried to find out a way into the inner reaches of the Obsidian City, but he couldn't figure out the writing.

Red and Google make a few Decipher script and memory tests to try and figure it out, and google starts to remember, but not enough to decipher. Red leaves to help the others against the coming reinforcements.

and they come, in the image of a sole rider on a skeletal horse, covered in bone armor from head to toe. Ipiks' player guesses it- "The Keeper, we're screwed!"

Design Note:

Spoiler

Show

I've used a bit of the advice given to me about how to build this guy, but it's mostly my own thing. he's a clr 4/ Ftr 1/ Bone Knight 7 (prestige class from Five Nations) except for his wealth, i stayed by the rules.

This battle was supposed to feature the death of Khork, by an agreement before game between the player and me. this turned out to work otherwise.

The Keeper opened up with a volley of a split ray enervation, knocking down Khork 3 levels, and Red 4! (she was now level 1). he dismounted as the party closed on him, and Google tried to remember. though he wielded a magical tower shield and full plate, they got a few blow, though not as many as with the other's of the dark six, While Red mostly used her wands, not shrieking away! meanwhile he continued to debuff them (he should have came buffed up from the ride, but i forgot about that). menawhile Danves, invisible sneaked up from behind him. Khork drank a potion of restoration.

As Danves struck him delivering a channeled shocking grasp, his stalwart pact came to be- dark energy enveloped him, fueling his power. (5th level spell, CoD). and then he stopped playing- Slay living on Khork! the orc rolled well, just as Google remembered the cipher, and found out the riddle "get back here!"

as they retreated, the keeper shot two enervation rays at Khork (I was confused a this point why he didn't "die as agreed") but he survived. the party, with Willie, got into the Circle and disappeared, with the shout of the frustrated Keeper in their heel.

They were then surrounded by about 20 Half giants, raising their swords and bows before a hand was raised. "Stop! Google, is that you?"
------------------------------------
This is where we stopped. next meeting (4-5 weeks) we'll continue with the defense of Obsidian City, Google's revelations, and a new intriguing character.

As to Khork's player- i talked with him after the meeting. he was too attached to Khork to let him die in "not as heroic" a situation, which i understand. i get a feeling he quite likes the fellow, so i came to think of a way to have Khork depart in a "not terminal" fashion next meeting, something i've talked with the player, which he really liked.

I'm trying to find a way to make my own RL schedule less hectic so i can fit more meetings. luckily, most of the material for next meeting is ready (i over prepared), so maybe it will be possible. a few more thoughts:

• The skills challenge went well. i think this is due to two main factors mainly- a lexible and adjustable enough frmae to allow the party to explore where they want to. Annnnd- not telling the party it is a skill challange, and just leting them play it out.
• i really liked the harpy encounter. i should try and think up other interesting ideas.
• the battle with the mooks was suprisngly entertaining, and difficult for the party. they do not deal all that well with archers... this may prove a particular hindrance in the battles to come.

for any readers- thanks, and please share your thoughts!

[Kol Korran]

Meeting Number 9: February 26th, 2011- Besieged, Bridge Battle, Webs and constructs

In game date- 4-5 Vult (early winter, month of Warding)

Again a long time had passed since last we gamed, and last i wrote. but this may change as my schedule is a bit more free, so that means more frequent games! in fact we're playing this saturday (two days from now)- just two weeks after the last game. hopefully this will continue.

Just before the meeting the player playing khork told me he's not coming. problems with the family and so on, but i felt there was something deeper to this. some of us tried to persuade him to come, but he refused. this had me worried at the beginning of the game, and a bit distracted through out. but as i'll detail in the next post, things may have changed for the better.

the player was supposed to take on a new character- the guy in armor who joined the group after the battle? it was supposed to be an undead "Karrnathi" (sort of) skeleton paladin of the silver flame, also a favored soul of it... yes, a bit bizarre, but i felt it could work. he intended to be always covered fully in his full plate armor, claiming he was some sort of an intelligent construct, similar to warforged.

Instead i decided he just didn't pass, and that's it. onwards towards the session!

Don't you remember me?

Spoiler

Show

when the party appeared through the portal, they saw surrounding half giants (they all looked as big as google), some expanding, when they suddenly heard a feminine voice- "Google?" the player was a bit surprised when a tall dark haired green eyed woman half giant ran towards him, smiling, kissing him. "i Knew you'd be back! it has been so long! did you miss me? where are the others, who are these?" all in giant language. meanwhile the group was surrounded suspiciously, the hald giants pointing at Ipiks hissing "Yuan Ti!"

Google's player stammered for words, and opted for apologetic honesty, telling his story in short, as unbelievable as it sounded. he seemed to recognize some of the faces, though the names eluded him. the woman seemed scrutinizing "you say you don't remember, not even me? I'm Deest, you're betrothed. your mother? Auxellia? your father who went with you?"

DM's note

Spoiler

Show

Google's player just got married. i thought to give him an in game bethrothed, in case his wife might join and they'd want to play together? slim chances i know, but still. besides- he's very happy that he's married, though to do a little twist on that.

I enjoyed toying with the clueless player, providing him a name or memory once in awhile, but in the end he was accpted, if not yet believed. "Let us go to Auxellia, she knows about memory" the party was escorted towards what looked like a massive temple with dragon heads (stone ones) protruding from it. as everything around here- the place was in shambles. as they reached the giant steps, another impressive half giant came from one of the temple's openings. Google recognized him as Nau, the son of the chief. only now he learned the chief died and Nau is in charge. this one looked brash, emotional, but strong. again Google was examined, and again he opted for the truth. this angered Nau, but he too agreed that Auxellia should be consulted, though he added bitterly "you and your father have brought this upon us!"

Unfelt by the others, Danves felt something stir within him as he entered the temple- some power rising within. the spark of... whatever the speaker of the flame put in him just grew a bit stronger

DM note

Spoiler

Show

I decided to start playing with Danves' curse make it more prominent.

The Guardian, the relics, the siege of Obsidian City

Spoiler

Show

as the party traveled inwards they saw the ruined splendors of the giant's temple. they saw that out of the 8 towers there remained 5 towers, one that they were climbing. they were joined by a not half giant, but rather an elderly Kalashtar whom Red knew from her old community at Cyre. "Ellesir? what are you doing here of all places?" thus began a short conversation where she learned the telepath/ artificer traveled to Xendric after the war, fascinated by the concept of giving sentience to constructs. "if Cannith can do it, i bet i could to! a dream of an old man!" he heard of the psychic barrier surrounding obsidian city, and decided to travel there to explore. the half giants welcomed him- he taught them the common language and made magic items for them, and they let him explore. "now i'm trapped here like the rest of you!"

DM design

Spoiler

Show

I wanted to give the party the ability to craft and change magic items to a limited degree during the sige, so a low level artificer did the trick. there were other reasons to add him, which will be made clear. some more obvious, some less.

they reached a great open circular room, in the middle of it there was a humming obelisk. on it was a serpentine creature- the guardian naga Auxellia. the walls were covered with moving and shifting glyphs- parts of the draconic Prophecy.

The naga introduced herself, and welcomed Google. she seemed warm and kind, though very tired. She checked Google's memory by sinking her teeth to his back and concentrating. "Strange, it's not like you're memory was wiped, but rather that it was forcibly taken from you. it's trying to reconstruct itself." the player was disturbed by this, when Ipiks chimed in. "When i saved him, i saw his attackers taking something shining from him!"

DM design

Spoiler

Show

Nagas in my world have some powers to extract and examine memory. for more info about Nagas check my "compendium for the maligned..." sig. it does however contain a spoiler of what is to come.

What followed next was a long conversation explaining the life and importance of The Obsidian City, and how it was protected, and who are the forces against them. i'll detail it in points:

• Obsidian city was an ancient bastion against forces from the dream plane- Dal Quor. the obsidian was used to create a massive Psychic barrier, and thus a refuge and safe place for magical study.
• in the cataclysm most of the city was turned into a crater, from which jutted up quite a few small obsidian islands.
• the islands are mostly connected by large obsidian bridges. travel from island to island is through the bridges, or by flight.
• the city drew the half giants to it, who lives there for quite some time, as well as a friendly tribe of stone giants.
• in the middle of what was the obsidian city (now at it's edge) lies the temple of dragons. it houses 3 great artifacts- the Great Geode which the stone giant worship and holds power over rock, earth and stone (the party ignored this), the psychic generator that controls the psychic barrier of the city, which Auxellia operates. and the blood summoning pool, which is supposed to enable summoning of some vessel to travel nearly everywhere.
• Auxelia hasn't been clear on this, but apparently Nagas from ancient times take residence here, guarding the artifacts against those who'd use them for ill.
• at night the moons power the psychic generator so that on each bridge there are 3 barriers that prohibits passage of any sentient creature. at morning they cause damage to any sentient being passing through. at light they require maintenance by the Naga by the generator. they can be taken down by enough psychic energy applied to specific conducting stones near the bridges
• the enemy forces are led by the Keeper, and are comprised by Karrnathi undead, regular undead, drow and Yuan ti. Auxellia does not know why they joined forces. they did choose their timing well however, when nearly all of the stone giant's tribe is on pilgrimage elsewhere. they have been using some strange psi bugs (!! remember them from the first session? i don't blame you if you don't. been a long time since) they apply their powers to take down the barriers, while the other forces harass any half giant who tries to energize the barriers.
• the current battles is over 7 bridges, each 3 bridges away from the temple. 3 have drow, 3 have Yuan Ti, 1 have only undead. all have extra undead. the forces are outnumbered, but they try to hold off until the giants come back (Auxellia sent them a psychic message)
• at night since the generator is powered by the moons, no fighting is possible. neither side seem to have flying capabilities.
• many have died on both sides, but mostly on the half giants side. the enemy seems well prepared.

But what do they WANT? from what they've got, they are looking for some sort of "key". Auxellia was worried that it might be one of the artifacts, When ipiks said "no! i think the key is you!"... i tried to remain calm and not show anything, since of course in bloody hell he was right! but that was meant to be the surprise of the chapter. i know it's not that original, but i thought i could fool them for *a little* while. thankfully the others didn't seem to much notice and i diverted the conversation.

Um, so what do we do? some regular work, and some not-so-regular work

Spoiler

Show

Well, the plan was to have the group protect be a reserve force- be called to any bridge where there was trouble. when most half giants left, Auxellia called upon the party for one more chat: "I'm afraid we're losing, and we may not be able to hold on till the giants come. we need something to improve our odds. i've thoughts of 3 ventures:

• There is an old crumbling giant mage's laboratory still in our control. in the past those who explored it never returned. perhaps you can prove more usefull? Nau won't like it though.
• the catacombs hold the grave of the mage i mentioned. maybe he holds some power there? you Google know however that your people consider this a holy site.
• if you can pass through the portals to one of the sites of the smaller resonating stones- psychic stones that can amplify the resonator, perhaps i can make the barriers stronger. this may buy us time. however, whenever you use a portal, the other side is aware someone is coming. so beware.
  Auxellia thought they could defend a bridge at morning, and explore a site at night. the party decided they'll explore the mage's laboratory tomorrow night. (they were still under the effects of fighting the previous day, including the enervation that brought Red to 1st level!)

DM design

Spoiler

Show

I wanted the party to fill they need to choose their resources wisely, and choose when to use them. a bit of a feeling of being overwhelemed is also what i was going for.

lastly, i thought it could be an interesting variation- at morning fighting similar yet somewhat different battles (the bridges), and at night- unique mini dungeons/ missions

A few more things before bed time

Spoiler

Show

As they were ready to depart, Auxellia called Khork over, who was in a sort of religious awe the entire time. in the end it was concluded that he will try to use some of his draconic power to help her power the psychich generator (the players rolled their eyes at me. "this is a PSYCHIC generator. Khork is really unlikely to be the one powering it... but i wanted to leave the player a way into his old character if need be).

Is there anything of use to have? well, Nau explained they distributed all useful stuff amongst the fighting forces, but Auxellia had a few mroe trinkets none of them liked. the party took a Troll Gut rope, and 2 parls of Brain Lock.

DM design

Spoiler

Show

I'm introducing new items from the MIC which i just got. quite nice things they have there. however, most items i'm presenting are low magic. the party is WAY over the Wealth by level (killed two of the dark six) and so i'm trying to balance them a bit. a bit less magic items in the coming adventures.

Red went to talk to Ellesir, sharing intricities of their Kalashtar heritage (this is where i learned i've read about it far less than Red's player has... awkward! and we played a bit more with Google and Deest, who didn't lnew what to make of him. his mother, and knowing that his father went on the trip with them! (which Google can't remember). Google also met his Chimera! (which turned out to be a matted multi colored aging cat).

Ipiks enjoyed taunting the Half giants, and Danves, when going to sleep, had a dream.

Dream

Spoiler

Show

you start dreaming a strange dream, the clearest you've had in some time. you float back from this place, over the ocean, over the Sahuagin infested waters, back towards Aundair. you reach Fairhaven (the capitol), and descend near the warehouse where this all started. you hear a humming, and as you turn you see Auresia, your former... "employer", with a swarm of the psychic bugs on the floor around her.

"we've been searching for you", she says in a honeyed voice. her appearance is striking- she seems almost like a queen, or an empress. " but we've looked in the wrong places it seems" she smiles, and started walking towards the warehouse. "you've been following us all along."

you enter the warehouse, and find the corpse of the dead changeling that caught fire. she nods her head sadly. "we did hope we could transfer more of these back to our place, but we have enough, i assure you. more than enough for our plans." she laughs pleasantly "you must have thought you've succeeded greatly, haven't you? naughty children!" she walks further, into a mist that appears from somewhere, into the Skull Reave village. "and here as well, what a glorious victory!" she claps her hands poiltely "so we lost some allies. but those were weak, disorganized, and well, they were mostly meant to soften the enemy a bit, as mortals tend to do. such short lives..."

the mist surround her again, and you see the outskirts of Obsidian City. "but now you've got yourself in... a bit of a situation it seems. you've managed to defeat two of our members, but now you've met the strongest of us. and he is not alone, he got a whole army behind him. and as i understand- you are besieged?" Auresia turns to you with a sympathetic compassionate face. "I won't lie, there will be deaths, but mainly on one side. who'se side do you wish to side with? I have felt something, (and my feelings are rarely wrong) that says you Danves, might be more suited to our number, than to theirs. we have an... opening you might say, thanks to you, which can be filled with ones so connected to the prophecy...

Auresia starts to fade away, her arms open wide. "the future shall not be as the past. the offer stands for a short time. the lord of bones will be watching. choose wisely..."

with that the dream ends.

Ding! Ding! Ding! Bridge battle! round one!

Spoiler

Show

I asked the players to roll a dice- this represented some of the progress the Keeper had made at deciphering the portal. (not that the player know what it means) average result. Without the company of Khork, the 4 stood as a reserve force. time went by, psy bugs tried to take down barriers, half giants tried to keep them up (i made it so that the process of taking down is long). at midday, i rolled to see- the enemy was making progress at the 7th bridge- the Yuan ti one, with the most vegetation.

as they reached there, 2 of the 3 barriers were up, but most of the half giants were lain down bleeding- the reason- skeletons of a stone giant and Ettin. behind the farther barrier were Karrnathi archer and zombies, and some yuan ti.

a desperate fight followed. Google is fragile, and easily hit. the gisnt skeleton's reach pommeled him quite quickly, but he was moved away through Red's teleportiaon magic. Ipiks used most of his maneuvers to bach the skeletons, when Google came back to action and helped bring the skelton's down, with some scorching rays from Red, and some meager help from Danves.

the sentient enemies proved to be fairly poor archers against Ipiks, who shined with his great AC, but they managed to hit Red quite a few times. Jalo, the Jorasco healer (the party forgot about him as Vaarsuvius forgets about Black wing) had his hands full.

And that is when the OTHER naga appeared, beside the Yuan Ti, casting a ball of acid at Red. the party seeked cover, avoiding missile fire while Jalo heals the otehr half giants, Red uses some of her spells back, and Google tried to bring the barrier back up.

Ipiks used his Shadow Jaunt to bypass one barrier, and prepared to rain alchemist fire on the enemy, but the Yuan Ti cast their fear on him, and made him run. (failed the 3rd saving throw). the battle could have ended much worse, if it wasn't for Google bringing the barrier back up.

DM design

Spoiler

Show

the party was supposed to be tough, but perhaps this was a bit too tough.i'll need to see in other battles.

Ipiks shined through out the battle, mostly his nigh- unhitability, and massive damage at times.

Level up!

Spoiler

Show

level 6 for Danves and Red, level 5 for Google and Ipiks.
Red just beacme an Ultimate Magus! (but still caps at 2nd level spells for now...)
Danves added a level of duskblade- rogue 2, duskblade 4
Ipik's new maneuver is a some ball of flame- touch attack 30 feet for 6d6 damage.
I wish i remembered what Google's new power is but i don't. i'll ask him at the start of next meeting.

tangled web to begin with...

Spoiler

Show

the party healed, and hear the news- 2 other bridges fell. with that on their mind they reached the obsidian island where the mage's laboratory lay. as they approached the gates Google's sharp sense caught sight of cobwebs in the yard. ever so cautious, they sent Ipiks to explore inwards. once he was inside enough, suddenly a phase spider materialized behind him, trying to bite, and the whole yard was way laid with it's web (i've gien the spider a new ability). Ipiks dodged him, and met also 2 ettercaps.

the battle was short, ipiks retreated, and after a carefull ready actions by Google, the phase spider was almost killed and retreated. Ipiks harvested poison glands, and they moved to what remained of the main building.

Tidying up

Spoiler

Show

Inside there was an Obelisk partially humming, but more then that- there were neat piles of stuff organized all over the place, and a bit of static electricity. but there was not much time to think, as two obsidian warforged chargers charged at them. (nonintelligent versions, with 3 power points to use for 1-3 powers) this battle ended in 2 rounds. bloody joke. when examining the malfunctioning obelisk (which went through the roof to higher floors) Red realized it tries to organize things. the party found some stairs and went up.

and a tangled web to end with

Spoiler

Show

the y found what looked like a huge workshop, with three huge tables upon which various parts of big warforged were assembled. but near the obelisk, in the middle of the room, hanging from a multitude of cobwebs was a hanging figure, and it lunged at them!

this was the "boss monster" of the complex- a web golem (MM3) it's immunity to SR magic meant it was imprevious to most powers by Danves and Red, which i didn't count on. they resorted to using Acid Splashes... Ipiks again shined, especially by burning the thing with lots of alchemist's fire, and jumping on ledges trying to escape it. Google's sword got stuck in the golem's webs, and it flew from him (i deemed that the webs enable it a sort of flight in the room) after Ipiks. it's regeneration kept it active for quite long. (i described it as cobwebs rushing towrds it and fixing it from the mass of webs above.)

but even hard and long battles end, and so did this one (by an acid splash from Red!) the party searched the place, and found some more magic items (a jewel linking to an armor making it a mind armor, and braces of arcane freedom), but most importantly, they found a nearly complete construct that looked like an early version of a warforged titan! they couldn't fix it, but perhaps Ellesir could?

with that news the party decided to head back.
-------------------------------
this was a busy meeting, with 2 nearly fatal encounters. i may need to recheck the balance of my encounters, but this is a bit problematic. oh well- win some and lose some.

through out the meeting Ipiks shined. i think this is due to Khork not being there, and Google being a "hit me!" button. the palyer became concenred that he is overpowered for the group. i didn't think he was broken, but he made adjusting encounters more difficult.

i hope i am not railroading the party too much. i feel that to an extent i am, which troubles me. true, i am giving them options, but ONLY those options, unless they'll think of a clever idea.

we'll see how long the siege goes. this may prove to be interesting.
NEXT post: in between sessions- changes in the party!

[McSmack]

This is a good read and has inspired me to possibly make my own campaign log for my Eberron game. Keep posting and keep being awesome.

[Kol Korran]

Thanks McSmack. every little encouragement helps.

In Between Sessions- dealing with players and characters
the 10th session is tomorrow, but between the previous one and this one there have been a lot of phones and emails and so on, so i thought i should update. if you don't care about this, or don't want spoilers, just wait (or skip) to the next session.

First of all- Khork's player:

Spoiler

Show

his friend (Red's player) has talked him over, and he decided to go for the character he likes the most- blaster! (he just loves his fireballs this guy) so he has chosen to play a warmage dwarf (instead of the Karrnathi skeleton paladin/favored soul he first wanted). he played a VERY successful invoker wizard in a previous campaign, and i guess he missed that. His new character's name is BomBurrel starting level- 6

he's done very little background on the character, more just giving it a personality, which is the one of a battle enthusiastic blasting dwarf. i've allowed him to have an ever feeling ale-skin, and he used his money to get a lesser rod of empower, and some stat boosting items (con and cha). two of his feats went to overcome SR, the bane of the previous wizard invoker he played...

one note about the extra spells the warmage can take- i expanded it to more than just evocation. the player chose grease and dispel magic as his spell. i'm kind of relieved at that- dispel magic is a sorely needed spell for the party.
all in all- powerful character, (party wise), but i don't think it's game breaking. as to how it enters the game- you'll see next time

Secondly- Ipiks Player:

Spoiler

Show

he decided to change character! at first i was bummed about it, feeling that he is just doing this to preserve group balance, and doesn't really want to do it, but he informed me that he felt he had his fun with Ipix, but that the character roleplay isn't going to progress anywhere much. he wanted someone with more depth.

his character is a cleric woman Aasimar (playing as partially angelic sort of thing) who is a follower of the Soverign host... sort of. She looks like Tilda Swinton did in her role as the fallen Gabriel in the movie Constantin (minus the wings). a far cry from Ipixs!. the character has some dark secrets, and she comes from the ranks of the enemy with BomBurrel, but i'll keep those in check for now. don't want to spoil the surprise too soon. suffice to say he invested heavily in her personality, background (together with me. i like to cooperate when players want me to), and how it affects her mechanical aspects. she has chosen the name Savage for herself. starting level- 5

pics

Spoiler

Show

the character will probably be refined up to the meeting itself tomorrow (we have precious little time to invest in such matters), but this is how it stands so far.

note worthy items? i don't remember it all, but she has some spectacles that help her scribe scrolls (i'm using modified pathfinder item creation rules- no XP, but you must roll a spell craft check of 15+CL), spider boots (refluffed slippers), and her full plate armor is glamored to represent her priestly robes, angelic looking. she fights with... a club, which the player hopes to enchant with the brambles spell (CoD), or it's 3rd level version (forgot the name)

this has the potential to be a fascinating character. i just hope i'll provide enough opportunities for her to roleplay with.

one question remains- what happens with Ipix? well, wait for the meeting for that to become clear. i integrated him in a position where he can return if Savage doesn't play out as fun.

Lastly- Danves' player:

Spoiler

Show

don't worry. he is not changing character. since i started playing with his curse, i realized that we may be pulling it in different direction. also- the dream i sent him- did he start using acid splashes because of it, or because of... being Danves? in short, i started to email with the player, and see where we stand.

i thought that he is a coward that comes out and becomes a hero, that the curse is a blessing in disguise. but as far as i understood (and i'm still not sure) that is not the case- he likes to play the character as an actual full fledged coward. Boy have i blinded myself to this! he would have liked to take on Auresia's offer, but felt that the group won't accept, and won't forgive that- and that he couldn't really play that.

to tell the truth i didn't quite plan on how to react to Danves reactions to the dream. i did it more so the group will feel that the enemy is trying to mess with their minds.

i feel i may be a bit at odds with the player, but i hope it works out well.

hope you enjoyed an update (those few of you who read this). i'll probably write up the next group's session next friday, a week from now.

and as always- tell me what you think!

[Kol Korran]

didn't mean to post so soon, but this is about a different matter- i added pics to the characters at first, and to Savage (see previous post). i still need to find a pic for Khork, and there are pics of Red that i somehow need to convert into non-word-file images. (i suck at computers). hopefully there will be more soon.... enjoy!

[Kol Korran]

Meeting Number 10: march 12th, 2011- New arrivals, the Betrayal, "Bring it on!"

In game date- 5-6 Vult (early winter, month of Warding)

well, this last Saturday we had our 10th (yay!) meeting. and it was a BLAST! it was serious fun though it posed a few future problems for me. but we all enjoyed immensely! Before the meeting Ipiks/ Savage's player told everyone he was changing character as well, and sent them the pics. as we started to set the game table, there was a discussion between some of the players- they were disappointed that Ipiks is leaving, they kind of liked him, but they were more worried about the new character. Red's player who got to know Ipiks player said that if he know him, the character will be intense, probably obsessed or possessed. he comes close to it.

but i'm stalling- to the meeting!

What to do with a broken warforged

Spoiler

Show

through the connection with Auxellia, the party reported their success, and requested that Ellesir will join them. the telepath/ artificer came, marveling at their find. he explained this is no normal warforged like the Cannith ones, and that a simple repair spell won't fix it. but maybe the "order making obelisk" can help him.

Red suggested to help him, and help him with the morning Kalashtar ritual. he responded that he does not follow the Rituals any more, that he finds other forms of meditation. "how do you keep the nightmares in you quelled?"

DMs! read at least as your players do about their races and classes! i have read about the Kalashtar only a long time ago, and so missed on a good roleplay opportunity here. the player laughed about it, and we decided he is from another clan, whch follow different practices. the players however are now somewhat suspicious of him.

DM design and spoiler

Spoiler

Show

As they should be. perhaps i should have hidden his "awekward nature" more.

the party decided to let him work on the warforged titan. hopefully it could be activated soon enough.

new arrivals

Spoiler

Show

the party got back to camp, chatted abit with Auxellia, Nau and Khork, and went to sleep. they were aroused from sleep and told that 2 new people came through the portal. as the party rushed there they saw Bomburrel the dwarf holding a light mace casually (his rod of empower), and a tall fair looking woman in slightly blood stained clerical vestments, with an odd holy symbol emblazoned upon it, similar to that of Dol Arrah, a goldn symbol of the sun with sharp angled protrusions

Eberron stuff and holy symbol explanation

Spoiler

Show

One of the major pantheons in Eberron is that of the Sovereign host- gods of civilization. they are usually worshiped as a whole, but at times a person chooses to follow one specific god. one of their leaders is Dol Arrah- goddess of honor, sun, valor, and self sacrifice. Savage's player asked just before the game if he can belong to a religious order he invented- the Pretorian Order- focused on seeking evil actively and fighting it.

those who know Eberron would say this sounds like the Silver flame (which is Ironic because the player has issues with that faith), but i allowed it. a very "off beat" order

the two seemed quite calm, but it was obvious they came from a fight. Nau asked Google to interrogate, since most of the half giants didn't speak common. they said that they were under the Keeper's hold, but that BomBurrel figured out the password to get through the portal, and they fought some skeletons and went through. the party was suspicious, but Savage agreed to undergo any examinations, but before that she wished to unload her supplies (she was carrying many sacks tied to her backpack, which she "liberated" from the Drow forces.

It was hilarious when Ipiks said "traitors! kill them!" to his own character, and responded as Savage with calm and ignoring him. BomBurrel's player stayed mostly silent through this, other than drinking form and offering his everfilling wineskin.

Nau told them that Auxellia could examine them through her memory- bite. they got to her, and she bit both, and confirmed they were speaking with true intentions, though she looked at Savage oddly, but didn't reveal her secrets. Google who trusted her judgement welcomed them to the defense.

the party discussed, got to know the new ones a bit better, and said they would try to hold of another bridge tomorrow, hopefully kill either the Naga or enemy wizard (which is in fact also a warmage like BomBurrel) and see the giant's catacombs at night...

Goodbye Ipiks, till we meet again

Spoiler

Show

as they awoke, they saw that Ipiks was gone. On Red's lap was the dark six map, only there were some things written on it. And Danves woke to find a slayed rat next to his head. confused (yeah right!) the party started reading the farewell letter.

the letter was partly something the player wrote, and partly (a big part) things he improvised. thankfully for this log, we play in English (a bit of practice for all of us), and so the letter was in English as well, and added in the spoiler. the actual speech was about twice as long.

Ipiks' letter

Spoiler

Show

For the… "hand of shadow and light" (said mockingly)

"dear friends (and Danves)… for the past two weeks I have enjoyed your company- we fought bugs, got exploded and betrayed. Fought a strange ball with eyes and a fleshy thing with eyes and mouth (both of which you didn't let me kill!). we got captured, I tried to save you, you didn't want to be saved, I understand… we went to kill a wyvern, and again you didn't let me kill it. We dropped fire from the sky (and wasted it! I blame Danves!) and killed a warchief. That I admit was fun! But again, you didn't let me kill the rest of the hobgoblins.

Then we go to another continent, fight giants, tanned elves and snakey people! Sounds like fun. But you see, through all of this there was something bothering me. I.. I.. I never liked you! (well, except for Red with her inner spells! She is smart!) Google that I always need to protect, Khork with his loud mouth, and can't the orc bathe? And Danves… hmmmm… you know Danves.

Tonight I received an offer. I'm joining up with the other hand. They promised me more money, more power, more killing! More fun! This is much more than any of you ever offered me! Bah!

It has been nice (no it hasn't). but I'm leaving. Just to show I'm a nice guy, I didn't kill you all in your sleep (thought the temptation with some was hard). I might kill you when we next meet in battle. No hard feelings, eh? Just business. Oh, and I'm leaving you the map. I'm not a total bastard.

With love, Ipiks.

At some point through it, i thought it might bore the players and asked him to shorten it (not a solo performance) which was my bad- the players hushed me as they wanted to hear it all. they loved it.

I must say, that hsi was one of the more satisfying conclusions to a character's involvement in a group that i met. i've talked to the player, and agreed that Ipiks won't come into direct conflict with the character in the near future, when the player can try and see how he likes the new character. if he doesn't, we can bring Ipiks back in several ways.

Design Note

Spoiler

Show

Before knowing that Ipiks player was changing characters, i wanted to mess with the players' minds by sending two dreams- to Ipiks and to Google (Red doesn't dream) from "Obraskyr" (Auresia really) warning of an upcoming betrayal. i thought it might be interesting for them to mistrust each other. but with an actual betrayal it seemed like a waste. i'll save the dreams for another time.

Right! so now we're done with exchanging characters!

Ding! Ding! Ding! Bridge battle! round two! (also known as "the wipe out")

Spoiler

Show

first things first- i let the players roll two things: Keeper's progression in breaking the riddle, and working on the warforged. Red or Danves could help fixing the warforged, but they didn't want to be left out of the fighting (as i expected) and so Ellesir was left alone). both rolls were fairly average.

Again the wait for a crisis, and again the party was called to a bridge- the half giants were fighting a few Harpy zombies, while Drow rangers, few Karrnathi skellies and zombies, and a low level cleric waited behind the barrier, shooting arrows.

now, i knew that suddenly the party had a blaster, but i couldn't really have a reason for radically altered tactics (yet). besides- the player has been DYING to blast something. i thought he should have the chance.

so. first round into the battle- some buffs, Google charges the harpies and progression. second round- empowered ice storm over all the ones in the back... enough to wipe out everyone but the skeletons (immune to cold), who were still seriously wounded (bludgeoning damage). such joy in the party! the previous bridge battle nearly wiped them out. the skeletons retreated, and all but 1 (who had 1 hp left) were wiped out. the harpy zombies proved to not be much of a threat, but big bags of hp, so to save some time we decided after a few rounds to cut the battle short, and just assume some hp loss (which the wand of lesser vigor took care for).

exhilarated from victory, the party thought- "what next?"

Pressing on!

Spoiler

Show

Red mentioned the resounding stones- Auxellia can use them to strengthen the Psychik Generator. but they were in enemy territory. if they'll pass through a portal to it- the enemy will be alarmed. but what if they'll go over the bridge directly towards the stone? it's onl3 3 islands away!

to tell the truth, i never thought they'd press straight on. i prepared a battle at bouth resounding stone sites, but not on route. so i decided to wing it. the half giants lowered the barriers, and the party passed, but not before savage cast "hide from undead" upon the whole group. they ran to the site (not quite quietly), and Google's sharp senses noticed a flaming arrow shot from one of the roofs to the place.

as they reached the place they faced an 8 headed hydra skeleton (i made a bunch of skeletons the keeper could create to unleash on the defenders, i was winging it as i said). and 4 more drow archers on the roof. Savage commanded one to approach, and fall to his death, BomBurrel created a flaming sphere there. and Danves shot one, while Google buffed himself. the Hydra couldn't see them due to Savage's spell, or so i thought.

having gotten rid of most opposition (Red was summoning a giant bee to deal with the rest), when Danves player informed us, the undead don't see the party, until they make ANY attack. RAAWR snapped the skeleton hydra? Savage tried to turn it, while BomBurrel brought his flaming sphere upon her, and blasted her with an empowered fireball, and Red used her wand of scorching ray on her. Danves tried to get away, casting Disrupt undead.

Meanwhile a drow cleric and wizard appeared, casting silence and glitterdust. and Damn the players- they all succeeded! Google, who still haven't attacked anyone, and was therefor ingnored by the Hydra, Rushed past her, like a small hurling giant, attack once- crit, splat on the wall. cleave! another crit, splat on another wall. the party gave few cheers to Google!

They got the Hydra to single digits hp, when i decided to bring the major drow threat- the warmage. he succeeded in casting a lightning bolt, before the Savage cast confusion on him, effectively disabling him. (some players got confused looks at the spell. confusion is usually a 4th level wizard spell. what domain does Savage has? Passion) 2 more spells, and a sword swing of Google, and a thrid splat was added to the walls. the Karrnathi zombies who guard him fled.

the party looted as they could in a short time (they understtod more forces were underway)- they found a +1 mithral shirt of blurring,(BomBurrel) anklet of translocation (Red), and armbands that grants 5 fire resist and +1 resistance to will (Google). they took the resonating stone, and used the portal to get back.

small victory, yay!

but wait, there is more!

Spoiler

Show

I thought they may wait till evening now, and go to the tomb, but they decided to press the advanatage and go to the second resonating stone, which was in Yuan Ti territory. only there were 2 main problems- first is that they'll have to go through the portal to get to it, which means they'll be expected (the portal gives warning of incoming travelers. it is not instantenious. it gives 3 rounds "heads up".)

the Second was Danves- he became ill, quite pale and sickly, and tried to persuade the party to avoid the battle (the player wanted to do it, the character didn't)- the curse kicked in as severe as it could. Savage whispered to the rest "the darkness is allready here, within us..." in an ominous manner.

but press the advantage they must, and so they did, not before casting various buffs and defenses. in the location they found themselves surrounded by 8 pure blood and 3 half blood yuan ti! the vegetation in the place has grown wild, everywhere.

to make matters worse, they encountered a glyph of warding, who blasted quite a few of the party, though not that seriously. the battle commenced with Google failing his saves (the player has the worst luck) against two suggestion spells from the half bloods ("approach closer to the bushes, they'll offer protection" and "lower your psionics- they interfere with the resonating stone") followed by arrows, and more.

the party sort of split to two- Red trying to help Google on one side, and Danves, BomBurrel and Savage trying to cast spells from the middle. then the naga appeared- crawling through the vines and roots of the ceiling, spitting poison from there (damn the players again! they kept making their saves!).

Red was besieged by two pure bloods, when she cast balefull transportation with another Yuan ti who was facing Google, thus bringing her to his reach, and him crashing from the ceiling down. another Empowered Ice storm from BomBurrel, cone of light (or whatever it was named. first level spell) from Red, waves of despair by savage, and sword swings from Google and the battle was won. it was tougher than the rest this day, but still managable (i could have gotten away with it if it wasn't for those meddling adventurers ).

a bit more looting, the resonating stone, and back with the Naga's head in Savage's back pack.

a great victory, yay! the barrier were increased, LOTS of XP awarded this session. but still no level 7. the party was fairly depleted after all of this, so they decided no tomb tonight.

-----------------------------------------
and so the meeting ended. the players were exhilarated! so was i, but i was a bit worried. can i challenge them enough? also- how can i plan the next bridge battles? BomBurrel will just blast through them.

I have originally planned the chapter for the party i thought i had then, which included Ipiks and Khork- mostly a melee oriented party, with one "tricky" caster. now the party has a serious blaster, and a good buffer/debuffer. this makes the bridge battles fairly obselete. though perhaps not completely. i think i may need to change tactics. after the last success the party had, i think it's time to bring in the (readied and buffed) Keeper.

next meeting will probably be the end of this chapter, for better, or worse.

if you have any suggetions, please share with me. i'd love to hear opinions of faithful readers.

[Kol Korran]

hey those who read the journal! i added a ask the playground's help with challenging my players, due to the last session.

this is the link.

[Kol Korran]

small update for any that may follow this log. Bomburrel's player (the one who played Khork) has quit the party, mainly due to the low frequency of the games- he would be in a game, get worked up in the week after, but then the wind would go out of his sails.

this has been coming on for some time now. it has been anticipated, but it still makes me sad to see him go. he is a fun player (even though he irritates at times) and he will be missed. i just hope this doesn't spell the ending of the party as a whole... they seem pretty happy with the game as it is, but who knows?

also, another note: though we play tomorrow evening, i probably won't be able to update until around the 18th, since i have militery reserve duty and to study for a test.

yes, the frequencies are low in this log as well. no wonder no one is reading. ... alright, i'll get out of my self pity and go back to planning the meeting for tomorrow.

[Kol Korran]

saturday's meeting was a blast. i don't have enough time to update it right now, but i thought to put in here a few threads i've posted asking for help in various matters in the future. be warned though- all contain spoilers!

a most peculiar encounter in the Mournland

about those personality shards

Minions for an underwater dungeon

[Kol Korran]

Meeting Number 11: april 9th, 2011- Showdown with the Keeper!

In game date- 6-11 Vult (early winter, month of Warding)

between meeting Savage's player talked to me about an idea he had. he has seen that Nau wasn't performing much as a leader for the tribe, and thought that perhaps Google should take his place. however, the half giant seemed subservient to his chief, and so Savage's player thought that Savage might be "a Gandlaf to his Aragorn"- maek a new "return of the king". he had made inquiries between sessions with me playing as Auxellia and a few tribe members.

Bomburrel's player has made up his mind (i'm waiting to see if he's adamant about it before revealing the thread to him) he had been having less and less fun over time. this was unfortunate. also it meant i'll have to find a way to get rid of his character in a reasonably believable way, which will remove most of his items as well. i think i came up with an ok explenation, which added a bit of tension i think.

This has been one of the most difficult and most satisfying sessions for me. it was mostly comprised of the longest battle i have ever played, an engaging and intensive one. i apologize in advance for not remembering what happened in it in great detail, just the basic jist of things. this has also threw a good chunk of my campaign plans down the drain, but i have other ideas... but i'm getting ahead of myself. time to tell the tale!

Nightly assassination

Spoiler

Show

Last we saw the party, they just returned from a full day of achievements against the invading force. they went to sleep with Bomburrel muttering that they should celebrate. all retired to sleep however.

they were awakened a few hours later, to voices of alarm from the tribe- assassination! as the party hurried to the place they were met by the corpses of 4 half giants and the poisoned Bomburrel (yes, i know dwarfs, high con, poison resistance and fort save, but still) appearently he fell to a strengthened dose of drow posion, that made him helpless before Ipiks (yes, they all knew it was him) slaughtered him he also killed a few other half giants before disappearing.

the half giants were panicked- they were sure the psychic barriers at night guarded them! what can they do? Nau, a bit lost called for all the half giants to crowd in the dragons' temple. it had only two exits, and they could watch those. they will stay there and guard the portal.

the party seemed strangely... disinterested. they thought up plans such as using alarm spells (Red knew the spell), conjoined with watchers, in order to put ambushes for Ipiks. they feared that he might go for Auxellia next. they talked various plans and ended up conceding to Nau's plan. Savage's player saw this as his opportunity, and tried to get Google to rise and take responsibility, take charge! but the Gentle giant said it was not his place to command the tribe, which surprised Savage. they decided to let it rest for now.

The party slept in Auxllia's room, with the tired naga, Khork and the humming psychic generator keeping them company. Ellesir had thankfully came to sleep with them for the night, but they had to think of ways of protecting him when morning came. he would surely be a target for Ipiks.

3rd day of the siege

Spoiler

Show

As the party rose they faced a perplexed Naga- Khork was no more, instead of him was a reddish looking... medium sized egg! one of the player theorized he was turning into a dragon, which was close- a dragonborn. however, the party won't see him hatching.

the party forgot about Ellesir who forgo any massive protection "there are few half giants as they are"

once again the party stood on alert, Auxellia sending them mental reports that few to no draw and Yuan Ti are amongst the besiegers, rather more undead. soon aneough came the a strange call- one of the two twin bridges (two bridges bridging the same two islands) was attacked by undead, but also somehow a live cloud giant and Ettin appeared at their back.

DM design

Spoiler

Show

I should have made it a lesser giant. cloud giant is too strong, and therefor the players smelled something was fishy

the players rushed to the place, and afer a bit of a bumble, discovered that those were illusions from Ipik's deck of cards. helping a bit against the troll skeletons, they knew another call would come quickly, and indeed it has- the second bridge was attacked!

DM Design- where is Ipiks?

Spoiler

Show

i've decided to let Ipiks have a ring of invisibility from the resources of the invaders. i had further plans for him, and wouldn't yet risk him in combat with the players. he would gain levels, and a few other... adjustments, before he'll meet the party in person. for now he added terror and complication.

Show down with the keeper- Dark energy away!

Spoiler

Show

The battle being close, the players cast a few spells and the like. most important was Red's protection from arrows, And Google's expansion and dissolving weapon powers. on the far side of the bridge were 4 Karrnathi zombies, and 4 Karrnathi skeletons who couldn't pass the barriers. the half giants themselves were attacked by 4 troll skeletons, led by the Keeper!

there were still 2 barriers of the 3 standing, but the Keeper's mind was strong for them, he didn't seem much injured.

this time he was partially boosted already- shield of faith, protection from energy (fire) and Spell resistance. he would cast more spells as the battle enfolds, as he didn't know when exactly he'll meet the PCs, and most of his spells are short lasting. immediately he started shooting split enervation rays at the party (split ray, decay domain for enervation, and domain spontaneity, combined with Lots of rebuke attempts). Red and Savage were hit for 1 negative energy, and google for 3. but a restoration potion fixed that. Savage and Google were also hit by a wave of despair, both fialing.

meanwhile the party was trying to get over the troll skeletons. Red tried a spell or two at the Keeper, but couldnt penetrate his SR. Danves was surprisingly courageous, right by Google's side, perhaps pushed on by the sickness the curse caused him the day before. Savage tried to turn the undead away, but they were bolstered by the Keeper, and that had failed. But Google and Danves strikes did away with the undead blocking access to their chief.

backing up, silence him up, buffing up

Spoiler

Show

The keeper retreated behind a barrier, planning to buff up, but Savage cast silence near him, menawhile Red drank a potion of fly and took to the air, drawing fire from the archers. again the keeper retreated (Google would not pas the barriers, not willing to take up the damage), and this time Savage used another scroll. Red in the menawhile whilted at the Karrnathi archers with her scorching wand. the keeper backed again, and cast a dispel magic to eliminate the zones of silence. the alarmed Red quickly got back over solid ground.

The keeper started to buff up- divine power, recitation for himself and his troops, and lastly- divine might, rising up close to Google's size!

bash party

Spoiler

Show

and so the Keeper charged (he might have suffered some little damage in a failed saving throw going through this barriers), he and Google locked swords- the one highly armored, mediocrealy hitting (1d12+1d6+8
) the other quite hittable, but dealing lots of damage (4d6+8 wihtout psionic focus and dissolving weapon) they started swapping hits, with Danves getting into a flanking position, and Savage and Jalo (remember him?) trying to heal the quickly dwindling giant.

meanwhile Red destroyed some of the archers, but their arrows took her protection downand shot her up. jalo went to her rescue, where she took cover. meanwhile Savage remembered she had two scrolls of dispel magic, and was able to take down two spells, one of which was the shield of faith...

suddenly Danves and Google hit more easily, and the Keeper flared in drak Energy (stalwart pact, from complete divine. yet another crit from google, (or was it a strike from Savage or Danves?) and he retreated back once more, trying to reheal and to rebuff himself. his major spells had but a few rounds to go (and this is a 10th levele caster!) he seeked to find a way to turn this.

Do we press on or retreat?

Spoiler

Show

there was a moment there, where each side was beaten badly, but neither claimed defeated. the Savage and Jalo used their wands spells and scrolls to try and heal the party halfway, while the Keeper did the same. Savage fi8nally had luck uin turning the rest of the zombies away. Keeper's response- flame strike. but the party had lucky rolls for damage. (15 hp total ) meanwhile the party inquired- "where are some reinforcements?"

i never planned for this to happen, becuase i never though a battle might take too long. i have imagined the party would run far earlier than now! (about the stage of succesful full damage enervation rays ) but the party stayed. i looked over my notes and said "two wounded small stone giants are on their way" (9hd stone giants) but wait! why should one side only get reinforcements? the keeper blew his horn (i like horn signaling in my game)

the party said "we stay! we're finishing him! they called for AUxellia to take down the barrier on their mark, just when the giant came, and took the keeper by surprise! he wax nearly fully healed, and partially buffed (i don't remember which spells)

no one gets away from me!

Spoiler

Show

As Google charged and missed, the party followed roaringly, with the 2 giants leading them. from the other side arrived 4 pure blood yuan ti and 2 half bloods. they made their suggestions, and one of the giants fled. meanwhile the keeper used inflict spells on Google, but he responded by trying to bull rush him off the bridge!

they have never, not in this campaign on the campaign before used any "special maneuvers" they remember now? cool moment to do so!

The Keeper barely succeeded, and drank his potion of fly. i should have run then, but the Keeper still had a good chunk of hp, so he decided to fly over the side of the bridge, and deliver his attacks from there. Google was nearly down anyway!

"grapple him" said Danves player. Google extended is considered HUGE size! he easily grappled the confused Keeper, where the remaining giant and the grinning Danves struck at him again and again.

for several rounds he tried to do soemthing, anything, till at last he broke free, and flew away. but wait- Google was entitled an attakc of opportunity! and as happened on the second session, he delivered a massive crit, offing his head!

(by the way, REd was offing the Yuan Ti in the meantime).

with the death of their leaders, all spirit in the besiegers have left, and they fled.

going up a level & Loot, Loot, Loot!

Spoiler

Show

this was a most engrossing fight, and the party functioned well in it. they used most of their potions, their spells (Danves was down to acid splashes!) and their scrolls. plus, they have finished the chapter, albeit in a very un-planned way! the XP from this rocketed them into 7th level.

Red has continued in Ultimate Magus. she has taken Improved mage armor and Deepe slumber as her wizard spells.

I don't remember what power Google took next. he is Psywar 6 now.

Danves took another level of Duskblade, and Savage of Cleric, with little changes.

the Keeper was loaded with magical equipment (and here i was working towards getting them to WBL damn persistent players! still- they deserved it!

some of the things:
- +2 bone armor +2 tower shield, and evil "keeper's fang" sword: will be sold later.
- wand of dispel magic 8th level 18 charges (i should have used it against google at the beginning of the battle... silly me)
- boots of striding (for Savage)
- belt of health +4 (i think for Google)
- Periapt of wisdom +2 (Savage)
- teleportation stone (as the srcoll, jusst use activated)
- various amounts of spell components
- a map similar to theirs, but with various markings over thrane, Karrnath and Aundair.
- money of course, in coins and lots of Onyx..

finishing up and Celebrations!

Spoiler

Show

the battle took most of the meeting, so we may have rushed things a bit here, which is a bit of a shame, but people wanted to have things wrapped up.

as the news spread, and the enemy fled (we decided their equipment goes to the tribe) the party returned to the temple as heroes. Nau, Deest, Daku and Auxellia all called their praise. after taking care of the wounded, preperations (from what meager provisions were had) had started to take place.

Ellesir informed them that he'll have the warforged titan prepared by tomorrow, and that he'll teach the tribe how to operate it- it is susceptible to psionic commands. Ellesir had a talk with Red (Kashana), about how he had lost hope, lookd for a place away from his kind, away from the war, away from all that trouble. but now he saw that war follows, but his kinmen (and women) come to help. she had given him hope, and after helping the half giants, he would return from his self enforced exile.

the party still worried about Ipiks, but felt that at least for now the trouble is gone. "but what were they looking for, what is the key?" asked Auxellia quietly. the party was a bit stunned, for they indeed did not know. they thought to perhaps investigate the tombs, but Google put his foot down- "there is no need for that now. we shall desecrate the dead." Savage tried to figure out Google- "why wouldn't you try to lead your tribe? they need you, a leader who faces the enemey and takes responsebility, not like Nau!" but Google responded "I am not fit to lead, for my memory still lacks, and since i need to leave them. will i take leadership just to leave again? no. perhaps when this is all over, then we might have something to talk about." the party accepted that, though the players did want to search the tomb (for different reasons- magic items, spells of the wizard giant, and clues to what the key is).

but Savage wasn't satisfied, as the party took place, she went to the pool of blood's chamber- it was just a subterranean big pool of clear water. she tried to swim, explore and more but found nothing except for an inscription in fiendish (!!) "when in need..." frustrated she came to talk to Auxellia. "legends tell that in times of great need, a person can shed great blood, and some sort of transportation might arrive to help them. i do not know how this happens." they could find no more clues.

Savage's player regret

Spoiler

Show

IN Savage's backstory she was captured and partially tortured, partially brain washed by the Keeper. this was a sketch of a story, and the player planned to develop it further and give it life between sessions. (we are all busy people and have little time)

however the suddenty of the Keeper's death came to soon, and he didn't know how to respond. this should have been a big deal for him, and he regrets not playing it right. yet, perhaps he can play is as shock/ not sinking in, and play it up next sessions.

There was also a tense moment between Deest and Google. she did not accept him living again, especially to face such unknown dangers. their departure did not go well with her. Google sighed, was sorry, but decided in his path. he shall return.

back to Stormreach

Spoiler

Show

this was done very hastily. i didn't feel any other encounters (other than harpies flying overhead) would contribute. the party got to storm reach where they will sell loot and but stuff, and decide where they want to go.

at the end of the meeting they watched the map again, and decided to try and head towards the Silent Halls, where the Shadow went, deep in the Shadow Marches.

End of chapter 3!
------------------------------------------------------
and this is where we ended. all in all a very successful meeting. the players felt that they went through the wringer, and succeeded. i had a blast too!

but it did throw a wrench in my plans. i depended on the keeper to live (and level) up until near the end of the campaign (he is second in power only to the Shadow). also, i planned on him to SUCCEED in getting the key. (more on that soon). now that he didn't, what next?

perhaps it's due to the meeting, perhpas due to other things, but i had a burst of creativity as to what to do instead. some of these are things i thought vaguely before, some are brand new.

but i bet you're wondering- what did i plan for the chapter?

Spoiler

Show

that day was supposed to focus on a battle with the keeper (short one, which they'll definitely run away from), and searching the tomb at night. the tomb ins a mini dungeon, in which they find a few magical items, some spell shards (Red's player was right) and the Sun Giant's Banner- a banner that gives special affects to giants, which would later could be used to produce a special magic item for Google.

Ipiks attacks again that night, poisoning their supply of water.

the next day, while they prepare, Auxellia tells them that the giants at the mage's laboratory (where Ellesir works) are under attack from Ipiks. when they arrive there however they find the obsidian warforged titan, in which Ellesir's soul now resides. the warforged destroyes the portal leading to it, and attack the characters- Ellesir was indeed a traitor in disguise.

as they fight they get an alarm that the portal in the temple's yard opens! the Keeper and his forces have figured this out, and are breaking through- the "Attack" by Ipiks is a diversion, and the warforged is keeping them in place while the real fight is taking place.

once the party returns they have different possiblities in the fight (take command seek out enemy leaders, use the magic banner and so on). but the real fight is in the Naga's chamber. Ipik's player was right by suggesting she was the key, and not the artifacts- the keeper and his forces arrive at her and beat her till she's dying, where he stabilizes her. a round or two fo fighting, and the keeper teleports with ipiks (who is still invisible) and her (due to the teleportation stone)back to stormreach, where he gets a ship to take them back, hops on the shadow's flying ship back to the mournland.

a lot of blood is spilt, and the party is in need, so the Crimson Ship (from Explorer's Handbook) arrives, andsuggests to take them somewhere. most of the tribe dead, water poisoned, enemies still on the loose they ask the party to help them relocate. the crimson ship takes them to their place of choice, for a price... End of Chapter 3

what to do without the Keeper? (SPOILER)

Spoiler

Show

There was never any real need for a "dark six" gang, the Shadow has just used this to draw powerful individuals whom she uses as puppets. the Keeper was the strongest of them, and was supposed to lead some of her armies later on.

i think next time the party meet the dark six, it will either be with a fast means of escape (traveler) or all without the Shadow. she will become mighty powerful soon through homebrew adjustments, that it won't matter.

i may need to find a new force commander, but it won't be themed on the Keeper.

The Key?

Spoiler

Show

If you have read SilverClawShift's campaign (mentioned in the first post) then Keeper=Priest & the naga=the angel. if you'll check my for the monster compendium you'll see the way i view nagas. most to the point- guardian nagas turn to Couatls (which all the party missed on their knowledge checks, and Auxellia didn't want to reveal). Couatls in Eberron are imbued with an energy called the silver flame. and the villains needed someone imbued with such energy for their purposes.

however, as i thought, i came upon 2 more beings that have some of the silver flame within them. one (which i may truly use) is the speaker of the flame herself. yet how to capture such a powerful caster?
the second is under your nose. can you guess?

this has been a long post, but might deserve it as a turning point in the campaign. what do you say? comments, critiques, encouragements are welcomed!

[Kol Korran]

Meeting Number 12: april 23rd, 2011- decisions, preparations, the shadow marches, the Dark Waters

In game date- 7 Vult- 7 Zarathyr (early-mid winter, month of Storm)

Huh. i've just noticed i've listed all through the log that it was summer. odd. fixed that now.

this last meeting had been... a difficult one. in terms of preparation, game play and more. it has been one of those- "in between" places meetings. not sure i ran it that well, might need to think things over for when the party tries to venture to the Mournland. there are similarities here and there.

the session could be broadly divided to two parts: preparations for adventure and the long journey there, and the actual adventure. the first part includes all kind of small details about other possible routes and things that have happened in the world, but for those seeking the action, skip ahead.

i'm writing this close to when we played since it would be easy to forget details of this. i hope i'm not forgetting anything. oh well, here goes...

Loot Distribution and buying stuff

Spoiler

Show

This part took place between sessions and atthe beginning of the session. not everyone bought magic items, how much to leave for the group fund wasn't decided, and what to do with some of the more special items from the keeper?

Red and Savage's player have been emailing a lot about magic items and spells to learn during these two weeks. the Magic Item Compendium has been received quite warmly in our group, as has the Spell compendium. Google's player didn't get a chance to view them, and tried to stick to simple choices. all in all the major changes are:

• Red sold all her offensive staffs, the player trying to focus on neutrelizing affects. she bought a pearl of power level 3, quite a few spells, amongst them some ray that disallow full round actions (i'm worried of this spell), and added two chrocharms to items she has, to summon creatures faster.
• Savage bought an item from the MIC that makes her immune to blindness and dazzle, and allows her 3 fireballs with her own CL, but a weak DC per day. we fashioned it as a golden veil she keeps over her face.
• Google just bought an amulet of NA +1. he is saving his money for... something (i think he may want to improve his sword)
• Danves bought quite a few potions. he likes potions.
• both Google and Savage both armor crystal that enables them to sleep in heavy armor without being fatigued. this proved to be important.

there was still the question of what to do with the keeper's special items (not the obvious magical ones). most were sold, but Savage kept hold of his bone armor and weapons crafting tools (to the odd and worried looks of the party), and Red kept the teleportation stone. something of a last resort. they also kept the map, though they still didn't know what the markings on it held.

DM design:

Spoiler

Show

i wasn't sure whether to give the party the teleportation stone or not. it was supposed to enable the Keeper to run away with Auxellia back to stormreach, but should the party get it? it entirely circumvents a big element of an encounter later on.

still i believe in playing fair. so i put it in.

Chapter 3a! further investigations...

why "3a"? aren't we at 4? well, not exactly. the way i planned the campaign, the party now has time to due some further investigation, seek yet another advantage, before things get more serious. their basic choices could be:
- go to one of the other locals the dark six went to (the Silent Halls in the Shadow Marches, or the Sun Spires in Q'barra). each holds a potential advantage.
- another quest that comes from a surprising source (which i'll detail soon)
- go straight to the Mournland (which starts chapter 4. however, they arrive early, and there are greater chances to succeed, and less resistance)

all of this meant i had a lot of preparations to do, but i think it adds to the game. plus- what can't be used now, can be recycled for later.

Stormreach- rumors, dreams, decisions

Spoiler

Show

Last we stopped the party just reached at stormreach. the above mentioned selling and buying all took place off screen. during these, they hear two gnomes talking about some news in Darguun, and the name "Skull Reave" is mentioned. as they inquire, they learn that there has been a curious... development. just about after they left for Xen'dric, a small army unit of warforged went over the Breland- Darguun border and attacked the Skullreave village, decimating it, freeing the slaves and bringing them back to Breland. the Darguun overlords are furious, but it seems to be an act led not by a country, but by a couple- Lady Auressia and her husband, who are quioted to "have learned of the plight of these people, and done what they could with their wealth to free them". not much else is mentioned about the couple.

this has quite confused the party. some thought it a trick, some though that maybe there are two Auressias- the real good one, and a shapeshifter using her form. they decided not to dwell on this for now.

while they were there though Danves and Savage each had a dream coming to them.

Dream for Danves

Spoiler

Show

: "in your dream you're in a hall of mirrors. most are the usual kind, some are enlarged, some small. some simple, some more elaborate. some are crashed... in the mirrors you see various faces, people, creatures, all looking at you. once they've got your attention, they begin to speak. "they have done it! you have done it! the keeper, dead! ha! who would have believed! success after success. but still so far away. we wish... they wish... (some bickering amongst the images) we'd like to try and trust you. we can help you, if you can help us. you've found some of us, some of ME! the items you hold, the personality shards we/ i crafted (there is some care and love when talking of the shards, but also pain and sadness) I.. we... us... me... go lost, separated, misplaced.... STOLEN (with anger!) she will not let us join. this hurts so much.
but we've listened, and learned. i gained clues. there is a chance- if we can get the rest, maybe we can become me... maybe not, perhaps it is lost anyway. will you try? (the various images look at you with hope). the unlikely champion, will you help an unlikely opponent?"
you see an image of a Khundarak bank, and you feel yourself going in. a dwarfbanker ask you "how may I help?" and you hear the voices answering. "I'd like to check my vault, Danves Stormwielder" with that the dream ends.

Dream for Savage

Spoiler

Show

In your dream you see the Mournland again, the ever changing mines of Eston, your prison cell in the nearby encampment. you see the Keeper, powerfull as ever, intimidating as ever, cruel as... but suddenly his head falls down? the Shadow comes behind him, in her human form, that of a high born lady of some sort. "you have done it. finally done it. your captor is dead, you are free, you are good, and all that nonsense..." she looks at you with a face of mixed emotions- anger, disinterest, hatred, caring, compassion... pride? she undoes the locks on your cell, letting you out. the scenery changes to that of the siege. "why nonsense? because you and I know what lies within you don't we? the Keeper and I haven't created anything new, we just enabled it to blossom." she turns to you, and caresses your angelic face "ah yes... i can feel the rage, the anger in you. you want to strike back at me, don't you? strike! strike with all your might!" with anger, frustration and pain you unleash a dark enveloping fire to consume her. she partly yells in pain, partly laughs in thrill "yes, yes! you will have the power to tear down worlds my Savage, my brute, my raging wrath of the gods! your ancestors show themselves well in you, my angel of battle"
you start to take flight, over he seas, over Khorvaire. the land seems to crack, some malevolent light beams through "we shall battle again, this is quite sure. but that is less of a consequence. how does the battle within go oh Savage dear one? how does it TRULY go?" with that the dream fades.

Danves' dreams was meant to introduce the other quest- search for the personality shard, while Savage's dream was supposed to fuel the character's roleplay theme- between light and dark. however, the player took it quite differently- if Savage had dreams of the Shadow, that must mean that Danves is also contacted by her!

and Danves? he kept quiet, and at morning went to the bank (the players were really amused by an idea of a bank in a fantasy setting. still not used to the "luxury" of Eberron) he got clearance to his little documents vault, and peered inside. two scrolls, one magical, one not.

the not magical one had a list of clues, guessed locations and so on of Shards, or shard owners? 15 such clues. the magical scroll held two arcane spells- "detect shard" (level 1, same as other detect spells, just 10min/level, only for personality shards) and the other one was "shard compass"- could sense a "connected shard" (each shard was connected to another, in a long chain) for up to 100 miles/ level. Danves took them all, and got back to the party.

"Hey Red, i've been thinking about the strange personality items we have. last time we were here, i asked some... people i know, from my past, to prepare some spells that might help us. can you make use of these?" he wasn't going to tell them what it was about! their own little quest? Red and Google's players play their characters as somewhat naive and trusting, and so accepted this. but they were thinking of whether to notify Savage about this. this was the first time they talked about not trusting new members to the group immediately.

Google's player said he'd trust Savage, she healed him all through the battle with the Keeper and exchanged some blows with him as well, but Red and Danves were not as quick. Red just wanted to know the new (now veiled) preistess better, while Danves disliked the suspicious looks she was giving him.

meanwhile Google received a message through the sending stone from Obraskyr. he wanted to know what are their plans, and urged to search the Mournland now, while they can, while the dark six are away.. the party... didn't like the idea. they still desired to explore the Shadow Marches, the Silent halls. mostly i think they wanted to duel it out with the Shadow.

Danves went about to other "errands" ("i'm looking out to see that Savage doesn't follow me") and returned with a list his "contacts" have made regarding the shards. this got their interest, but not for long. where i hoped they might think and ponder the various clues, the players gave it a cursory look of "that's nice. maybe some time we'll get to it". Danves and Savage both said that they must learn what these shards are about, but Red and Google both argued that they didn't give them any real benefit till, so why bother?

DM Design: what is the "search for the shards" quest?

Spoiler

Show

i had plans for this quest for a long time, but only started to really build it in the past two weeks. the inspiration for it comes from Shadowrun- heavy on exploration and "leg work", with very few deadly battles. basically the party could have searched for the variosu shards 9there are many more than the listed ones, but we focused on them). with intriguing non standard challenges to get each, with a very real possibility not to find many of the shards at all. also there would be some competition by another shard collector, being tracked down by the Shadow's servants for a deadly fight (or two), and things going strange with some of the shards themselves...

this was all supposed to lead to an intriguing meeting with the traveler later on, and possibly gaining her as a powerfull ally (as well as one of the only artificers on the continent who could create high level items)

the party looked around and found a boat of house Tharash'ak that went straight to Zarash'ak in the marches. the journey would take 13 days.
oh! nearly forgot- Jalo the healer has left them finally.

Eberron Stuff

Spoiler

Show

House Tharash'ak is one of the dragonmarked houses, specializes in finding people, stuff, and surveying lands. they originate from the shadow marches. the house is comprised mostly of human and half orcs, though orcs work for them as well.

Boat ride

Spoiler

Show

the party used the boat ride to craft some scrolls (as to my adjusted rules, similar to the PF rules, only making failure to scribe an actual possibility), and also to... bond.

Red had her long talk with Savage, getting to know her, at least the little the Aasimar told her (The characters still think she is human). Savage told her that she believes strongly in the prophecy, and that Google is destined to great things (to which his Google responded groaning "so people keep telling me") but that as the darkness touched Ipiks, so she fears it now touches Danves. i was really amused by this exchange. while Danves' player lamented that every character the other player has tries to mix things up against Danves. this was all said in humor though. no real tension in the party.

two days into the journey they receive a message from Jul, a changeling working for Obraskyr "he got tired of waiting. he arranged a small expedition and went to the Mournland". the party looked at each other. "well, now we know our next destination"

the party tried to sense some of the shards through their "Shards compass", and they got a sensation from two. (the party holds 5 items so far... have i listed them in the log?), somewhere around Breland or Zialrgo or Darguun. i wondered if they'll ever have time to check it out...

and what did Google do? well, he meditated.

Zarash'ak

Spoiler

Show

they reached the city of stilts, and gave a bit of atmosphere (not that good about it), and two commented "oh, a bit like Thailand", which from what i've heard of the place, may be close. it is then that i asked
"so, what are you gonna do now?"
"We go to the silent halls!"
"do you know where it is?"
"errrr"
"do you know what it is?"
"Errrr"
the party asked around in a few places, but didn't get much answers. then they went to the Tharash'ak enclave, and looked for trackers. upon questioning one seemed to be avoiding, afraid (I called this NPC orc Darek), but they persuaded him to tell them what he can. instead he took them to a druidess of his tribe. the exchange was humorous, as they tried to explain to her what they want.
"yes, yes, but WHO are you?"
"we are THE HAND OF LIGHT!"
"... um, that is a very nice name. uplfiting. but who are you?"
the conversation had all kinds of this problems, the druidess told them that the Silent Halls were a stronghold for one of the Daelkyr (horrible super powerfull masters of madness, flash warping and creating aberrations), who perished long ago, but that submerged his entire fortress in the depths of the swamp's underdark, underwater. she feared if they will know the location, others might as well.
long story short, after some more a bit more skilled talking, and some influence rolls, she agreed to let Darek guide them to and back from the place.

preparations for underwater travel

Spoiler

Show

as the party understood what underwatertravel takes, they inquired what they would need, and how to make their life easier. they faced 3 major problems:
- Breathing: they needed either water breathing spells/ scrolls/ potions, or alternate forms. they invested heavily in this. each carries i think 2 potions of water bereathing, and they crafted several scrolls of 3rd level, and some of a 1st level spell ("deep breath?") that gives a short time solution. some also got alter self potions (for a locathah form)
- movement: especially a problem for Savage and Google with their heavy armor, but still a problem for everyone. i ruled that the 1/4 movement underwater will be translated to 10 feet, with full round movement 15 feet... this is if they made their swim checks. they bought quite a few elixirs of swimming, mainly for tough battles.
- fighting: grapple included a -2, ranged weapons are at -2 per 10 feet (the rules say for every 5, but that felt too much for me), and non piercing weapons (which no one had), sufferd -2 to attack and half damage. this looked like a serious business. the party acquired several melee weapons in the shops, and Google had to settle for a medium halberd.

the scroll writing took them a few days. meanwhile Danves enjoyed the city, and Google? he meditated.

Journey! fight! fight! what? so soon?

Spoiler

Show

The party was on their way. i said they fought some monsters here, animals there, but steam rolled over it. the session was lagging as it is. they were on a small boat, with Darek leading them the way, always fearing the dangers of the swamps. on the 7th day they saw a deserted boat with some trees and spear holding it in place. Google noticed something moving towards them underwater, and what looked like tnetacles with eyes. (he got high perception). they all readied themselves...

suddenly a multitude of tentacles rose from the swamp, some bearing weapons! but Danves was quick, and slashed at them, channeling a schicking grasp. crit! massive crit! as the creature writhed in the assault, Savage unleashed a searing ray, and finished it off. it sank to the depths without ever attacking anyone.

you should have seen the grumpy look on Google's player face, but he said nothing. that i think is the fastest battle i've seen, other than the Ice Storm leashed on the bridge from BomBurrel. i really expected the battle to be fierce and fun. the party found a bit of treausure, and moved on.

DM Design

Spoiler

Show

This was "dark tentacles" monster from MM3. it can do up to 12 attacks per turn! and also constrict, and hold monster! damn... it was supposed to strike a bit of terror into the party, draw some underwater and give them a taste of what it would be like. i guess they gave it a taste.

sleep deprevation

Spoiler

Show

the party reached the shore on the 8th day. on the 9th night, while Red was watching over the sleeping party, orcs (and a half orc) attacked! first the druidess cast some spell that created force jaws that grasped at Red (from Monster compendium. 3rd level. i think "grasping jaws"). she used her anklet of translocation to get out of it's grasp, and for some reason, used her dimension door scroll (the only 4th level spell she had) to get into the swamp some distance away.

the 7 Brb3/Rgr1 (ranger for the stealth) charged and caught the party unprepared. Google managed to get his force screen up, but Darek got pommeled to unconsciousness, and Savage was pounded hard. Danves proved his power once again, with a color spray, taking out 3 of them, while Google attacked another. Savage unleashed a fireball, but it did little enough damage, she oculd not get to the bleeding guide.

but the druidess attacked with her spells, while the barbarians proved surprisingly (to both the party and me), usefull and powerful. Red started to make her way back, and tried to cause diversion using illusions. it looked pretty grim though. then Red heard the Druidess yell to the orcs in orcish- " kill the devils!" from then on they tried diplomacy, but succeeded poorly, until Savage threw her club down, surrendering, pleading to be heard.

now, if at the previous battle i judged the monster too strong, here i judged them too weak. i thought the battle was tough, but definitely winnable, gaining some amount of respect in their eyes, which would help later on.

but players and encounter planning will surprise you. they were taken as prisoners (after healing Darek enough), and marched on. they learned they were on the "Dark Waters" clan territory, who overlook the Silent Halls. they also learned that they were expected only as demons.

Dark Waters Clan

Spoiler

Show

As they reached the Dark Waters, they were brought in front of the leader, and his strange green skin adviser Moita (the party guessed rightly it is a hag). again negotiations, but it seemed Moita was in their favor, and in the end they were released. they learned that "the great druid Hamat of he gatekeepers and his sorcery friends were here, and dwelt into the Silent Halls to strengthen the Seal. before they left in their flying ship they have warned us of 4 demons in these forms who might come" the party was allowed on some shaky terms to go into the Silent Halls ("the halls will test you!") but with no help of the tribe.

DM design

Spoiler

Show

had the party won the previous fight they would have gotten some respect, and could trade some weapons and get potions and more from the tribe. i decided that due to that failure, they won't get any such help, and as to weapons- they may get them, but will have to pay a hefty price.

Moita came to them that night, to offer some advice and warnings. she did not trust Hamat and the other outsiders, but could not speak against them, for the tribe respected them. she did however offer some help to the party:

• "the master of silence did not like any noise. in his realm there would be no sound. but this magic has weakened. i have been to the silent halls myself, and there are silent spreads every so often. be aware of that.
• the place is filled with vile creatures. they and the place itself warp flesh and mind. be prepared to have magic that counters this. (the party inquired and learned that she suggests "Remove disease" this is in fact an important warning, that i think the party had forgotten entirely.
• before the halls there is a lair of scrags. they are not hostile, but not friendly. you will have to deal with them.
• the hags offered them a few +1 weapons the tribe keeps- long spear, short spear and trident. but since she was taking a risk, and since the party wasn't likely to get back (or so she believed), she demanded a hefty price for that. this caused quite a bit of haggling and resource management. at the end they offered her coin and equipment worth around 8500 gp. the party felt quite broke after this.
• navigation in the caves i hard, as they also change and lead anywhere the druids have carved signs at he openings of caves, they use these to navigate somehow. she doesn't know their meaning however (the party would have learned 2-4 of the signs had they won the fight)

Savage's player came to the conclusion that Moita is in fact the Ally/ blue cat/ traveler that they met in Skull Reave! i love the way players jump to conclusions.the mood wasn't good. the party was irking for adventure. Google's player gave me a (don't know the word for this in english), a sort of a button you put on shirts with a slogan, one that he got at a fantasy convention. it read "actually, i want to slay the dragon!"... subtle hint. time for adventure.

The Descent, and the surprise.

Spoiler

Show

Next morning, after memorizing spells (Savage took all of her 3rd level as Water Breathing) he party got onto a boat, and ito the waters. there was a darker patch there, about 40 ft wide. just before sinking Moita told them "i don't think that Hamat trusted only us to stop you..." the first water breathing spell is cast (3 hours for each. i'm counting time)

20 feet, 30 feet, 50 feet, the light from above was dim, and the continual light rod that Red held wasn't much comforting. 70 feet. they started to see a bottom, and also from a cave- two heads of scrags who quickly vanish. the party land at the cave, and walk/swim and meet the scrags and their leader, with his large great spear (exotic weapon from one of the books, reach, 2d6, was intended as a prize for Google for either haggling or killing the creatures).

the party talks a bit, learn that the caves are quite vast, and that there are some strange eel like creatures that are really fast. they try to haggle with the scrags, who mostly want tasty meat. Danves' player remembers the encounter with the gibbering mouther at Dur Martop, and suggest to bring them new meat for secret. Savage tries to haggle with her varied equipment and the head Scrag likes her mirror, and gives nothing back. the scrags excpet for the leader looks nervous (which non of the party picks up on), but they generally just rush the party on

a note from Red's player:

Spoiler

Show

"Do you Raggae much?" apperantly i do trolls and scrags with that accent. i wonder where it came from. the old warcraft games? hmmmm...

The party reach the other descending opening. 10 feet, 30 feet, starting to get cold (forgot about cold dangers!), 50 feet, 70 feet. suddenly, there is some noise from... above. the players go "oh S**t" before i let them know the Scrags just put a boulder over them, sealing them down.

suddenly a wavering image appear in front of them, as a Locathah transforming into... Lady Auressia! she gives a small speech, at how naughty they were to go and kill the keeper, and how this serves as their watery grave, and their nightmares are coming and... the party was dozing off at this point.

as the programmed illusion fades, Red takes out the teleportation stone "worse case come, we still got this. now lets see what is so damn importent in this gods forsaken hole!"

I think... that way!

Spoiler

Show

The party comes into a huge cave. the walls are slimy with some wost of weed, and there is an eerie glowfrom some floating pieces of statue in the middle, which proves to do nothing other than some... something to the water. as they begin a search, every few seconds, sometime a minute an enveloping silence spread, blocking all sound. usually for seconds, sometimes for more. after a search through it (ticking time on the water breathing) they notice five main exits and... a few dozens smaller ones. this will indeed be problematic.

Savage's player doesn't take it well. "We're F**ked" but the rest are more calm. Red's player likes it "interesting setting!" they decide to search the entrance of one of the tunnels, and find two markings: one is hard to explain here (i think they called it "the horn") and the other is like a horizontal and a vertical wave, crossing each other. (they didn't name it. their responses were "um. ok") theygo through the opening, and go into a labyrinth of twisting tunnels/ this is where i consult my tables and see where random going might lead them. they reach an opening into some sort of a built area. they find a marking above the entrance, a horizontal line, and three circles at differentiating heights above it. they call it "the smiley sign" (not my intention AT ALL). they search the place, it is comprised from several rooms, but other than the broken legs of an aberration statue, find nothing of import. i mark the cave as E1.

they go through one of the other openings once again through the tunnels (time is a ticking, silence unnerving) till they reach another built area, again with the smiley sign above it. this one is built like a 4 hall elevator shaft. they start to explore, but find nothing, and start to get worried. this is E2. they go through one more of the tunnels, and try to navigate it.

Meet the Dolsags

Spoiler

Show

another room. another smiley... E19 this is some big open space, with some sort of pool/ hole in the middle. they move inwards a bit, when suddenly two spear like weapons are hurled from the darkness, trailing a small whirlpool behind them! one hits Google, but the other fails to penetrate Savage's armor.

but the party doesn't see anyone! thye try to move forward, and learn how debilitating those 10ft increments of movement are. after a few more spears (the party counts 4 throwers) some of the creatures come into the light- eel like pale creatures, who'se torso and arms is covered by thick powerful skin.

Deep slumber from Red almost put 3 to sleep, but only 1 failed his save. Savage unleashed a fireball (underwater? yes. i ruled that instantaneous effects work underwater, causing lots of steam, such as the dragon turtle's breath weapon. any fire that stays lit get put out) but again the DC is very low. i think the player may be regretting his purchase. Google inched forward, and Danves shot Kelgor's fire bolts.

upon coming close enough to one of the creatures, it's skin suddenly departed from the main body, as long stretches of leech like creatures! they tried to grapple google, but the half giant fought them off.

a few more rounds revealed that without the skin the creature is quite vulnerable, and that they are resistent to acid (resist 10 with the skin, 5 without). but all in all, that if they get cloe- they are fairly easy to kill. 2 of the creatures also got the idea, and ran away.

as the skin leeaches sank, they turned into something resembling stone, which further confused the party. they got their whirl-spears (exootic weapon) which don't get penalties in water. Danves took them, with the best "to hit" ratio.

DM design

Spoiler

Show

the Dolsags are a new aberration i designed with the help of the people from this thread, especially Akma. i needed some kind of underwater mook Aberration. they are 3 HD, but intelligent enough to use tools and tactics. this was a patrol group, or as some might say- a random encounter. lets see how the party deals with them later on.

and this got them no further still...

Acid, refuge.

Spoiler

Show

The party was running out of time. true, Savage still had two spells, but... you get the idea. they tried to navigate somewhere else. there they found two more marks. one that they called "the sideways lightning" and underneath it what look like two horizontal lines, from the lower one two lines up, close to center, the same from the upper one only down. the party decided not to go in, and try to puzzle this out. when Danves' player asked if he can try and somehow navigate the caves somehow, going on the places they've been.

as i prepared for this i enabled navigation using the dungeoneering skill (i'm interpreting it more like 4E than 3.5E) this enabled him to try and navigate to a room he knows allready, or to try and "navigate to a place of import" (this can affect my 2d6/2d4 dice roll by 1 or 2) they decided to navigate "to a place of import", and got a pretty good roll. this led them to another room, above which were 3 signs. the sideways lightning, two partially overlapping triangles (not the shield of david), and some oval form with diamonds at it's side which they called "the egg".

the room had stranger plants, more abundent, but soon the party learned what they were secreting- acid. some fort saves, and acid damage, and they were ready to go

DM design

Spoiler

Show

these rooms are the basis of the subterenean ecosystem. i know the party rarely thinks about these matters, but this setting involving druids, i thought they just might. few creature, especially the hydras and the scrags that inhabit these caves come to the room, relying on meet. the only creatures that harvest these places are the Dolsags. this makes these rooms quite important to provide safety locations.

the party navigated again. the acid rooms are the only rooms from which you can get to the refuges ("the egg"), and thanks to Danves' navigating, this is exactly where they've got. a small room with strange mushrooms and plants, with the appropriate druid sign on top. this eased the party a bit. but can they find their way back? Savage cast her second spell for today, and they headed searching again.

Scrags and questioning

Spoiler

Show

I won't go through other blunderings. amongst other things they reached the main cavern again, and at some point reached another cavern, again with the sign of sideways lightning and 2 horizontal lines with 4 vertical lines coming from them. soon after they entered two scrags launched themselves at them. the battle was quite easy. the bouts of silence didn't hamper as much as i thought, mostly caused them to delay and change initiative. Danves who can now attack twice in a round came close to Google in damage dealing, and Savage's fireballs helped put the fear into the creatures. as they were heavily wounded and tried to run away, Savage commanded one to return, whence he was beaten down to unconsciousness, and manacled. (crazy adventurers carrying MW manacles)

i was quite confused about this. why did they capture a Scrag? when i learned of their work premise- they assumed he was one of the above scrags, sent to spy on them, which means he knows of a way up. they were quite disappointed to learn that this wasn't so, but could still try and milk him for info. they learned that some of the caves changed constantly, but slowly. but there were some other parts that stayed the same, to which the trolls don't go, "because it makes your head hurts. bad things there!" the trolls and other creature somehow navigate by scent, which carries farther in water. they convinced the troll to get them close to one of the stable places.

Abomination!

Spoiler

Show

3 caves later the trolls stops and gives directions. Danves tries to navigate, when suddenly behind them appears an Aboleth (surprisingly, the players barely know this creature... good ) Danves knows quite a few things about it from his knowledge check, and the fight begins! and after a few spells it ends- they find out it's an illusion! but who, or what, is trying to deceive them? the party is out of spells, and the troll's navigation have been long enough. the party is already on their 3rd water breathing spell. onwards!

Toss and turn

Spoiler

Show

this time Danves' navigation fails them, and suddenly they are pulled forcefully into a cave. they come into a big room with several pillars floating in it, with arcane marks. but there is no time to examine, as the water pulls them and bashes them against the pillars. quite a few bad reflex saves later, and the party is wounded, they are pushed towards several of the exits, while others remain fairly calm. they do not muster the strength to get to those, and go where the water leads them. feeling drawn out, Danves leads the party successfully into the acid room ("ow! ow!") and then into the refuge. they had 20 minutes left before resorting to their potions. they intended to sleep, and investigate tomorrow.

-------------------------------------------------------
and this is where i stopped. the caves are not entirely random, there is some logic to them, and some method. but those are but a few of the surprises that await the party. someone is now aware of them, as the Aboleht illusion have proved, and may try to go against them.

note that the party doesn't get extra XP for monsters they defeat. i award for accomplishments, not just monsters, so they have incentive to try an avoid pointless ones. (to me their point is to reduce their resources, as well as a few other possible directions which the party may take).

all in all it was a very different session then the rest i've run. i was (and still a bit am) that the party doesn't like this, but they have said that they liked the change, and find it challenging, though somewhat frustrating. i believe it will prove interesting all in all. Google's player i think was a bit bummed. didn't get his "kill ratio" today.

i haven't detailed quite a few things here, do to limits of space, my time (this post has taken me a long time to write) and your interest. if anyone is interested, let me know and i'll explain more.

next time we play will be only on the 21st of may, unless the good god be willing to reduce my study load. sigh another long pause.
Kol.

[akma]

I`m glad to see you used my idea
When you said Google gave you something that had "Actully, I want to slay the dragon" written on it, I think the word you looked for was badge.
What didn`t you detail?

[Kol Korran]

hey akma! you're right. the word is "badge". sometimes English slips by me.

i didn't detail all kind of stuff- the Dolsags' stats, the druid signs i'm using (15 or 16 i think), the caves mechanics and so on. i thought most of these aren't THAT necessery for the story.

i'm glad to see you reading. hope you're enjoying it! at least one reader...

i'm kinda bummed out that the next session will be in such a long time. and soon there are exams... when were the times we played every other saturday?

[Kol Korran]

i realized i forgot a small matter- news about Darguun. i updated this in the session recap, but for any who might have allready read it, here is the segment. it took place while they were in Stormreach.

Spoiler

Show

Last we stopped the party just reached at stormreach. the above mentioned selling and buying all took place off screen. during these, they hear two gnomes talking about some news in Darguun, and the name "Skull Reave" is mentioned. as they inquire, they learn that there has been a curious... development. just about after they left for Xen'dric, a small army unit of warforged went over the Breland- Darguun border and attacked the Skullreave village, decimating it, freeing the slaves and bringing them back to Breland. the Darguun overlords are furious, but it seems to be an act led not by a country, but by a couple- Lady Auressia and her husband, who are quioted to "have learned of the plight of these people, and done what they could with their wealth to free them". not much else is mentioned about the couple.

this has quite confused the party. some thought it a trick, some though that maybe there are two Auressias- the real good one, and a shapeshifter using her form. they decided not to dwell on this for now.

[Kol Korran]

( the following post deals with various events in RL that have... some (sometimes only a slight) connection to the game and to the experience of DMing this group and campaign. it has no actual info on the campaign itself, so if that doesn't interest you, feel free to skip thos post.)

gaming frequency
Two days till next meeting! boy, this time's break was quite... making-you-draw-away-from-the-game (forgot the right word/ term). unofrtunatley, as the exam period is coming up, i don't see this improving. this bums me a bit.

soon it will be a year since we started, and our gaming frequency is a bit worse than once every 3 weeks. this seems to fit the players nicely, i just wish we could play more.

Hanging out together and future campaigns
Red's player has noticed a little while ago that we barely know each other outside the game (Savage's player is my best friend, but other than that), and suggested a little get together. this led to anotehr, and was quite fun. Red's player and i discussed the campaign, and he finds it interesting, though i got a feeling he thinks the action points may be a bit too much. (in favor of the characters) i heard this from some of the other players as well, but they all said that for now they'd like to keep them.

Google's player asked how long the campaign is going to last. is said they are slightly over half the campaign, but that the second half is far more "free roaming". he is planning his next character allready. have they been playing the same characters for too long? has Savage's players changed because of this? hmmmm...

as to the next campaign. orignally it was planned that Red's player will DM the next campaign (he DMed our last), and we'll take turns. but he expressed a desire to continue playing Red to higher levels. i myself am having a few campaign ideas in mind, and i wish to implement lessons from this one, so we shall see. in any case i estimate about 6-8 months more of RL before we end the campaign.

Shadowrun on the side
i play as a player in a shadowrun game (where i need to invest far less planning) that Danves' player is running, with different people. Red's player joing us in the last meeting. however, looking forward towards exam period, i find only a few precious little "holes" in the schedule to play in. and most chances i won't be able to play both. i'm trying to work something out with the player since he wishes to play with no missing players. we'll see.

And if that wasn't enough
Khork's player (with whom i keep in touch) decided that if he can't play in a game that goes his way, he's going to create one! he decided to DM, in a campaign that includes lesser dragons as far more common creatures, and the main theme of the game. from what i gathered it's going to be intense, largly sandbox-ish, and quite lethal. he won't pull any punches. he wants me to play, but he also wants quite a frequent gaming schedule (once a week/ two weeks), and i can't do that. he is looking for a group. i hope he succeeds

Spell Compendium
we've recently (1 session ago?) decided to try out this book. about a week ago i got a LONG list of spells that Red would like to add to her spell book. that took some time checking, autherising and banning. i must say however- that book has some awesome spells! and some inspiring art work (submerge ship ). it would mean i'll need to expand beyong my usuall spells for the opposition as well.
Savage's player realized he might reach 7th level next time, and so he's now going over cleric spells... of level 1-4... sigh. this will take some more time.

thanks for listening to my ramblings. next post will most likely be about the 13th meeting- deeper into the silent halls!

[Kol Korran]

Meeting Number 13: may 21st, 2011- Google's Bad Luck, deeper into the Silent Halls, Lighting Rail Ambush

In game date- 8 Zarathyr- 3 Olarune (mid- late winter, month of storm- sentinel)

This was a tough meeting for Google's player. he had the WORST luck with dice and other stuff. things that were supposed to be simple turned complicated. the old joke that "they keep google alive till he hits" came around once or twice.

the session was divided to two parts- first the Silent Halls, and then what followed. To my surprise, the second part was more intense.

I forgot the battle grid at home, and we used a makeshift one. this called for some improvisation which annoyed me a bit, but the players seemed to not mind it.

last thing: Savage's player has been feeling he's not expressed his character's duality enough (he hasn't) he kept trying to find opportunities for that. he found near the end.

onwards to the meeting:

through the mazes of the depths

Spoiler

Show

waking in their refuge, the party noticed tiny boils and a thin membrane on their skin. they realized they may be transforming, but felt rest assured that Savage's remove disease spell might help them. she still memorized just "Breath water" as her 3rd level spells. this was my attmept to prepare them to the Aboleth's Slime ability, but it didn't work. Savage also memorized a lot of Divine Guidance (a 2nd level spell that increase skills) to help Danves navigate the caves. these proved useful. in order not to seek another refuge, Red memorized 2 rope trick spells.

the navigation wasn't that easy, they reached a cave with a Chuul, which they neutralized with rays of enfeeblement and clumsiness. it tan away, and came back when the party was searching the cave, only to duffer the treatment again. it was still capable of grappling Google, even with a strength of 1 (and Google with a strength of 21) he ran away none the less.

what followed was a bit of a tiresome navigation therough the cave by luck mostly- the players couldn't make head over heels of the druidic signs. they met more of the Dolsags, and their living net (at least they got more of their special spears from them), and illusions of two Chuuls. they understood someone was messing with them. they may have encountered more things, i don't really remember.

in some of the caves they saw natural rock invading, not with slime. this was supposed to be a bit of fluff on my part- the druidic powers enabling nature to take over, but the party thought this was some sort of clue, and spent some time searching for secret doors and what not. these appeared on a few other occasions, i won't detail them right from now on.

at one point they reached the huge main cavern again. this really bummed them out. they decided to spend a thorough long search over the caves, looking for signs. they found a few more interesting (yet bewildering) signs, but decided to focus on an entrance that showed 4 signs together. (good search role). thanks to the divine Guidance, they didn't lose their way.

Orcish?

Spoiler

Show

they reached a big cavern, with what looked like make shift huts on the floor and walls. they sensed many figures moving in the background, and soon some Dolsags appeared, but not immediately hostile. one of them tried to converse with the party using some sort of sign language of his leaches. this didn't seem to work, and Red decided to try all her languages (she known a LOT) to sya they mean no harm, strangely enough- ORcish worked!

DM design

Spoiler

Show

The Dolsags are orcs transformed to aquatic creatures, same as the dolgrim and dolgaunts. i was hoping the party might think this way sooner. oh well.

Red explained they mean no harm, that they seek where others like them went. the chief looked suspicious "the fish people? they go into the deep caves. we don't go to the deep caves- master of the deep might get angry!"
so the party had the name of the "boss". as they talked the party noticed a fleshy blob of euyes and teeth swims amongst the Dolsags- Gibbering Mouther. it seemed to coesxist with the other aberrations. they tried to inquire a bit more, but got no answer. after an especially successful convincing, the chief relented and showed them a cave that is supposed to lead there.

DM design.

Spoiler

Show

this could have also gone the violent way. battle with 6 dolsags, 1 lvl 4 warlock (the elder) and the gibbering mouther. some loot the party didn't find, but it think they were happy to just "move along"

the party followed it, and again with some successful navigation, they reached a shaft that went deeper, and deeper. the silence periods grew longer, and more frequent. (unfortunately i completely forgot about the silence from this point)

the party reached another cavern, with Two Chuuls from the sides. the mutated crabs made clacks and shrills, a whole lot of noise, and attacked!
but after a round or two, it was evident that these were illusions as well. so the alarm has been sound, the party decided to crawl into a rope trick, learn spells and come back ready.

Battle of illusions

Spoiler

Show

as the party descended the rest of the shaft, they came into a huge cave, and beneath them there was some sort of bizarre looking structure- the actual halls of silence, but through the structure's walls rose several creatures for them- 2 chuuls, 2 aboleths, 2 8 headed hydras, and one beholder-looking monster with 2 eyes and claws (eye of the deep), there were also some dolsags. the party knew that many of these were illusions, but who? i was kind of hoping they'd go for the beholder.

thankfully the players didn't play to their knowledge, but to their characters knowledge (2 of the more experienced ones guseed the true monster). it was a cofused battle- the illusions and real cratures surrouned them on all sides. they spent a few spells and strikes trying to obletirate them, and after severa (highly confused) rounds, the party faced the real threat- one of the aboleths, and several doslags (who were incapacitated by color spray from Red and Danves). Red tried to cast Deep Slumber on the creature, but it was immune to it's powers "he's powerfull guys, more than 10 HD!"

The Aboleth used mental powers till then (it had a few levels of Psion, and his enslave ability didn't work), but then he opted for the physical attack. he slammed his tentacle against Google, and the PSi war with 20 con failed his fort check- he was beginning to transform...

in the next 2 rounds the party focused their power on the creature, but hurt him just a little. it decided to retreat however (he had healing potions elsewhere). the party took a moment to breath, and noticed Google skin turning into a slimy translucent membrane. the player looked SOOO happy.

undead memoria

Spoiler

Show

the party searched the wall, and founf the opening through the illusion, thene they entered another maze of tunnels and rooms. the groaning and bemoaning of the party was heavy. they tired of this. i decided to speed this along a bit.

they chose a path in random, and found a room with holes with shelves at it's floor. soon after starting to search the room, shadowy bits rushed off the halls over the characters- shadow bug swarms, resembling the bugs from their first adventure! as they swarmed over them, they tried to get through their eyes, ears, mouths... and of course they succeeded with Google!

who was able to throw them out with his will, and was taken over again, and out.

the battle was bad because the party had nearly no means to battle the swarm- only Savage had her weak fireballs magic item. but she ould however turn the undead, and that saved them. as the creatures fled, she healed the party with the last charges of the Lesser Vigor wand. from here on just potions and Savages' spell, the little she had.

as the bugs were soon to return, the party made haste through one of the caverns.

The Chasm to Below, and one domain spell

Spoiler

Show

originally i planned for the character to search through more caves. there were 2 trap rooms, and a room with an actual 8 headed hydra, and one with eye of the deep (the aboleth had to take his illusions from somewhere). these were all dominated slaves. but i felt that the message had gotten through, time to bring this to a close.

the party reached al ong cavern, in the middle of it a big chasm to dark depths below. in the walls of the chasm were some sort of runes. arcana didn't reveal it's source. but there was a more pressing danger- at the far end the aboleth, and 4 dolsags with their spears.

this was supposed to be the big fight! as the oparty could only advance slowly, it gave the aboleth enough time to use his psionic powers, and perhaps his enslave abilty (it had 1 more try).

but Savage kept a spell for this occasion. she has the madness domain, and at it's 3rd level there is- Confusion... the abolthe and 1 of the dolsags started to babble, as the Danves and Google slowly started to make their way. Google would swim 10 feet, and buff himself, swim 10 feet more, and so on... Danves started throwing Kelgor's blots at the Aboleth, while Red tried unsuccessfuly to teleport the abomination closer. meanwhile, Savage found a usefull way of moving- meld into stone.

as Google moved over the half mark of the chasm, a great yellow eye appeared from below, but they all yelled- illusion! good disbelief rolls.

the aboleth attacked and nearly killed one of the surprised Dolsags, and acted quite baffled... quite the "Horror of The Deep!" Then Red remembered something- they had Swim Elixirs! suddenly they all closed the distance, and Google skwered the creature for 40+ more hp, and Danves finished him with his trident. the body sank to the chasm, and as it reached the runes it started to sizzle and decompose- the party has guessed that the runes were some sort of a druidic ward.

a bit of research, news, getting out, helping Google

Spoiler

Show

from this point onwards i fast forwarded it, without the tunnel naviagations. the monster slaves escaped, and theparty looted some rooms, and came finally to a sort of research room. in it were shards, some projected a sort of "mental video log" to the brain, but most were damaged, quite a few were missing. the party found one shard about the acquiring of the bugs, and getting them to communicate with each other, a sort of a mind hive.

they took the shard and... forgot about it. the loot was more important. after some diligent searches they also found a cave that led to up above, to a hidden cavern in a hill. (for this i did let them throw navigation dice- they might have used their teleportation stone otherwise. though Savage said she has another idea. i think it's with her "melt to stone" spell) but the outside air hurt Google. they decided to rest there. A cure disease spell wouldn't help, so they gathered they must return to Zarash'ak. Google swam and stayed in water up to the village, but a great barrel of water was built for him for the travel back. they sold most of their "water purpose" equipment (kept a scroll and maybe a few potions) and headed back.

On the way Jul contacted them, said the hiedout was attacked, and that she now retreated to Arul Dusk. still no news from Obraskyr, she requests them to come to her, to forge a plan. "anyone surprised he got caught without us?" said Red's player.

back at the big city a Jorasco healer cast heal on him for a fee, and they started to head to Sharn.

Level Up!

Spoiler

Show

Major changes:
- Savage now has access to 4th level spells.
- Red has MANY more spells (she bought a bucket load of them) including surprisingly- a fireball. might be a little change from the usual non hurtful tactics?
- Google's new power is Hostile Empathic transfer, which enables him to make a touch attck to transfer up to 50+ damage to an enemy and get that healed. i'm a bit wary of this power. sound mighty powerful.
- Danves is Rogue 2, Duskblade 6 (i may have stated differently before, not sure). he got some new spell/s and seemed very happy about the level.
- Red and Danves' now throw 2 action dice instead of 1.

End of Chapter 3a, Start of Chapter 4- Into the Morunland

I've been waiting for SOOOOOOO long for this chapter! if you'll remember, the party had a chance to head to the Mournland twice before- once after the killed the Fury (WAY WAY back at level 3), when they would have been able to go very little indeed into the blasted place, but would have discovered some interesting things... and after getting back from Xen'dric (level 7) where they would have faced similar things, but with less hardship at the destination (but not less XP). regardless, i'm glad they chose this way.
time to get nasty...

Lightning Rail Ambush

Spoiler

Show

the party spent a day buying and selling stuff in Sharn (mostly more scrolls for Red. the party decided to leave that to next meeting, they wanted to get ahead) and took the lightning rail thanks to their deal with Avandra d'Orien (first adventure) they took the luxury cabin, closest to the helm.

on the last night of travel, while the rest slept (restful crystals enable sleeping in armor. clever party) and Google meditated, they suddenly felt a sudden lurch in the train, and it speeding up...

quickly they got up, and headed to the helm. in the crew cabin they saw bodies strewn about. feeling urgency they rushed forward in the 5 ft wide corridor , when suddenly 2 people- some sort of warrior and some caster appeared in front of them (the warrior in front of the caster). "Tonight the hand of light and shadow dies at last!"

Google was head to toe with the warrior, Savage bhind him, then Red, and Danves. both had a shimmering skin about them, which worried the group. as Google struck, he did little damage past the creature's innate defenses.

and then 3 of the doors opened, to reveal rogues behind them, who struck heavily at Savage, and partly at Danves in the back.

Google couldn't expand, and he was locked in battle with the warrior, who easily hit him cutting into his flesh. Savage called on her god for a Recitation spell, while Red summoned... some creture to give a flank to Google and attack the mage. but the mage dispelled gboth spells, and Google's shield. the warrior started to power attack him.

As Danvas tried to deal with the rogue at the back, Red cast a fireball. in incinerated one of the rogues, but then they learned the warrior and mage also has a spell resistance. the warrior was hit, but the mage unscathed, he unleashed his own fiery rays in response.

all the while the lightning rail was speeding... a timed battle.

google was struck hard and fell down, Savage began trying to keep him up by healing, and he himself (once awake) tried the hostile empathic transfer on the rogue giving him his pain, healing in the meantime. from this point onwards Google starting using up action points like crazy, mostly to keep himself from being hit, which often didn't succeed (we have the PCs throw a defensive roll instead of the monster an attack roll).

suddenly the train lurched, most characters fell down, except surprisingly- the mage. Google and the warrior struggled to get up and avoid each other's swords, while Savage tried defensive spells on him, and urged him to move aside. Google couldn't penetrate the SR of the creature. and then they both revealed themselves for what they are- Rakshasas!

DM Design:

Spoiler

Show

i think i mentioned this but the Eberron Campaign Setting gives another Rakshasa, a warrior one- the Zakya. the other one is a Normal Rakshasa.

this may look like a tough battle- confined space, powerful monsters (aided by the rogues that didn't do much), and it's timed. it's supposed to be tough- the opposition should have a say, no?

Google moved to one of the doorways, As Savage cast Divine Power and spikes on her club and waited for the villain. i saw the glint in the player's eyes- he had been waiting for this. "Ah Savage, long lost child. you dare betray us?!" the Rakshasa hit her with a full power attack true strike, but she could absorb the damage, and struck back. the normal damage was not much, but her club was also holy. further more, Savage, who usually looked calm, entered a horrible rage, one born out of great pain and frustration, helping her strike even more at the creature.

as they started to trade blows, Red teleported Danves to the mage (instead of her summoned... something), but he couldn't affect her due to DR and SR. meanwhile he kept firisng magic missiles and fiery rays. another lurch of the train, but people kept up, and finally Google and Savage combined efforts struck down the Zakya! he fell down and dissolved into ochery smoke. the Mage pulled out a dimansion door scroll, and vanished. the party was bloody wounded and had to rush things.

stopping the train

Spoiler

Show

through jolts the party had rushed to the cabin, where the Air elemental was only barely tied to the Khyber Crystal holding him, moving the train faster and faster. there were a few failed attempts to control him or soothe him, but to no great effect (Red made him stop accelerating, but it was allready too late). without much choices, and with some heavy hearts, Red cast rope trick and the party climbed to it, 1-2 (don't remember) before the train crashed.

--------------------------------------------------------------

the train battle was intense, on a similar level to the battle with the keeper i believe. more importantly however- i think it gave the party their first real jolt of apprehension.

i didn't do the aboleth right- i wanted it to feel like a terrible abomination from ages past, but it turned out to be "just another monster", and a cowardly one at that. oh well, some thing work, some things not so much...

next meeting the party probably (unless they really surprise me) is going to enter the Mournland. quite a few of the encounters there don't depend on level at all. I aim for the feel of "What the hell just happened? can someone explain it to me?", "That was so cool!" and "I don't EVER want to get back there again" sort of experiences, if possible- all 3 together.

i'm still working out some kinks, in the little free time i have.
as always- i'd love to hear your comments, thoughts, or just general encouragement.

[Kol Korran]

a little update- new pics of Red ( the player has been hoarding them for a long time), in her entry at the first post... enjoy! (Kashana if you've forgotten her actual name)

[Kol Korran]

Meeting Number 14: June 11st, 2011- Into the Mournland, 6 ft. under.

In game date- 3- 8 Olarune ( late winter, month of sentinel)

This wasn't such a good meeting. Red's player was coming back from a trip with his kids, and was to joining late. he gave Savage's player a character sheet to replace him in the meanwhile (i've talked with the player a bit before hand at what his character will know and so on). plus, players seemed less pleased. i learned some things from this meeting, but i'll get to that in the end.

lets get telling, shall we?

Burying the dead

Spoiler

Show

After climbing down from the rope trick, the party hurried towards the wrecked train, it was blazing aflame. they tried to help any survivors, but found none. they waitied till morning, when the heat wore off a bit.

Google dug, Danves guarded (they were weary of the Rakshasa), and Savage performed last rights, both the Sovereign host rights, and the Silver flame. Red helped as she could. the party also searched the staff train-part (forgot how it's called), and was able to retrieve a bit of treasure from their assialants.

soon after a research team of houses Orien (who controls the lightning rail) and Medani (general investigators) came to research the absence of their lightning rail. they questioned the party, and Savage's player did an effort to play Red right, but couldn't. (Danves player kept saying "Red wouldn't say THAT!") it was a bit of a blunder, but due to their good efforts they were requested to await further investigations at Arul Dusk (which the party ignored). the news of fiend attacking the train were not received well by the thranes...

The Two Boars Inn

Spoiler

Show

At Aruldusk the party started searching for Jul, their changeling contact, at the place she mentioned- The Two Boars Inn. the place catered for war veterans, but they soon found their contact, a burly strong man called Brian, who was the owner's son. in confidence Brian turned out to be Jul.

She told them that Obraskyr sensed that despite the party;s successes, the Twisted Hand was progressing fast, and so he ventured into the Mournland towards the Eston Mines. that was quite a while ago, and she heard nothing of him since. she gave the party some funds (and they sold some gear), and gave them the name of Holdfast, a dwarf adventurer and... um... profit maker of the Mournland. the party decided to see him next morning.

Holdfast's Emporium

Spoiler

Show

the Dwarf's place was like a museum to Cyre, with various "souvenirs" hanging everywhere. (i wish Red' player was here. this might have been interesting). the conversation/ haggling went on quite humorously, with Savage and Danves doing most of the exchange. at the end they bought some Good Berry wine bottles, a warforged warrior (called Johnny 5 by Google's player from now on) and a repair wand.

Red stayed in ArulDusk to write some scrolls, whil Danves and Google went to the Grey Carp fishing village on Lake Arul to inquire on some boats.

DM design

Spoiler

Show

For those who don't know Eberron, what does the Mournland mean? well, it is a land that was blasted by magic, and therefor everything weird can and WILL happen there. some types of magic don't work so well there, but different books and ideas are a bit conflicting. this is what i decided upon:

• Healing (including restoration and posion healing and such)- the character toll 1d20, substracts 1d8, and adds CL. the result is on a table, but is usually not that friendly.
• teleportation magic of any kind doesn't work. this means dimension door and anklet of translocation affects as well
• any knowledge seeking spells about the nature of the mournland simply don't work.

A change of heart

Spoiler

Show

before the meeting the Savage's player said he wanted to make a change with the character, and asked me to play along. Savage came to a temple of the silver flame, and asked for consultation of the priest. we had a long talk, about their journey so far, about the seemingly losing fight with the Rakshasa (the priest was very disturbed and asked Savage to notify Flame Keep, the center of the faith), but mostly about the disquiet that Savage was feeling, and her loss of faith in the power of the Sovereign Host.

the talk was "long" in game terms, (but not sufficient to the player he later told me), and in the end Savage asked for a conversion to the Silver Flame. she felt only this faith had what was needed to battle the fiends, and only that will grant her peace. the priest tried to tell her there is more to the faith than that, but he allowed the transition. a small ceremony later, a prayer book, and a new holy symbol, and she was on her way.

oh, one little thing- she renounced her nickname, that was given to her by the Keeper- No longer Savage, now simply Gabriel.

To The Mournland, finally!

Spoiler

Show

the preparation took too much time. this is always the case. perhaps in the future i'll conduct this by email. the party hired a boat of a warforged couple called Mast and Box. as they crossed the mists to the Mournland i put on Some music i prepared. it was accepted quite nicely.

as the party saild they met the weeping, melancholy singing trees, rising from the water. they became slightly edgy, but not much.

next they were attacked from the side of the boat by a chilling fog (living cone of cold). that was the fastest battle i've ever seen, with Google and Red killing it in the surprise round. boring.

next some flying mithral fish flew over the ship, they helped the ones ho landed on deck over the side, not wanting to deal with them. finally, after many hours, they made shore... to a huge graveyard.

The Epitaths

Spoiler

Show

It was by this point that Red's player notified us he won't be able to arrive. this was quite a bummer, as the game just felt missing without him. Danves arranged with Mast to come back in tow weeks, and then wait for a week. they figured out this will give them time enough. (according to Gabriel's telling that she has been to Eston, and that it takes 3-7 days each way. the land of the Mournland changes.) they saw a peculiar guesthouse with figures slumped all around. as they do in the Mournland- alive? dead? suspended? they do not rot however... Gabriel tried a spell to talk to the dead but it failed.

as the party took the road towards Eston, they crossed the Mournland, till they saw numerous white raves, with some black ones with ugly humanoid faces. shortly after the white raves attacked them. as Red won initiative, she cast a spell and suddenly fell to the floor, gazing at nothing, rigid, sweating. Gabriel confirmed she was holding her breath.

a black raven flew by and spoke a riddle. the party ralized they must find the right grave. they locked on the right area due to the riddle, and started searching. this is when i began handing Epitaphs from a little thread i started . some were funny, some creepy, some just bizarre. this got... mixed results. the party set Johnny 5 to bash one of the head stones, while Daves was mortified to find his own name, with a date of death 3 days of now!

finally the party was able to find the right grave, and dug underneath to find a wrapped up figure- Red. as they freed her the "above ground" Red wilted and died. the party just... carried on. i'm sure if the player was here, the response would have been different.

Danves dug his own grave, and found a skeleton. his response? "does it has any loot?" players...

onwards on the road

Spoiler

Show

The rest was short- the party met some feral frightened, elf looking creatures with no face or arms, some horses partially entombed in stone and crazed. (they were mercifully killed), and finally some fight with An advanced Vastueth (MM3) and some Mourners (Five Nations) which were turned away by a strong turn undead check by Gabriel.

we cut the meeting short as Google's player didn't feel well.

------------------------------------------------------
so the meeting didn't go so well. part of it was due to Red's player not showing up (we consider not playing when someone's missing), but after some thoughts i think it's also due to the type of encounters and choices i'm presenting these last two adventures.

in a way, the silent halls and the graveyard are similar- an interesting puzzle, but that forces players to try and get into my head instead of finding meaningful creative ideas. it doesn't allow them enough interesting choices. a long walk through the mournland might prove the same, so i may need to find another idea.

another thing i vowed not to do when i started the campaign and yet here i do it, is to avoid meaningless battles- the bunch of undead at the end, the cone of cold living spell, the trolls and the like at the caves. true, they were meant to add atmosphere, but i fell they aren't even providing that. i need to create more meaningful battles before boss battles.

so... something to improve. i've emailed with Google's player after the end of the meeting, and got the feeling he is not as displeased as i though he is, so that's good. i already got some ideas for the Eston mines, hopefully they'll prove intriguing.

thanks for reading (the few of you who do! ) see you next time. suggestions for the Mournland or Eston are welcomed.

[Unseenmal]

Just so you know, I found this thread today and have been glued to my screen reading this. Great work!

[Kol Korran]

i'm glad you like it Unseenmal, just be aware that updates are precious few. we play about once a month, so updates are the same. if you really want to keep posted, i suggest subscribing to the thread, but it's your call. if you have questions and/or suggestions feel free to comment.

glad to see you're enjoying the read!

[Unseenmal]

I have already subscribed. It's really a good story you have to play. I like it.

[LansXero]

Haven't finished reading yet, will probably comment some more when Im done, but so far I've found your Design Notes very insightful and very useful, its really good to be able to see what was the intention behind some of the encounters and how the inter-player mechanics play out.

[Kol Korran]

i'd love to hear your thoughts! for better or worse- comments and discussion are welcome.

[Biotroll]

Found this just few days back, and I'm really enjoying the story. Good work.

I saw you have plans for mines, but I'm still going to suggest few things.

Spoiler

Show

On their way inside they might encounter fog, from which they will hear sounds of big battle. Shouting orders, clashing metal, explosions and such, but they wouldn't see anyone. If they come to the fog, they will find only dead bodies, but the sounds would go away. Should they dawdle in the fog for too long, send Carcass crab against them. (Maybe take few HDs away, so he isn't that deadly to your party.)

Spoiler

Show

If I get it right, mines are rich on mithral and adamantine, so I'm going to suggest group of warforged miners, who are trying to get some resources for the Lord of Blades (he has working creation forge, so he should be needing some of those metals right?). They might be free and hostile, or they might be trapped there by some other inhabitants of the mines, or maybe they caused cave in and weren't able to get out on their own, being damaged and all that, thanking the PCs for freedom by not killing them. (They are lesser beings after all. They might taunt poor Johny 5 for following adventurers if they feel like it. )

Spoiler

Show

Don't know what else you plan to have inside, but maybe there can be a clan of grimlocks (or other humanoid monsters), who are people that survived mourning, but mutated heavily, not remembering who they were (or where they are). They just seek shelter from the cruel outside world, defending their teritory fiercely, but might stop attacking if someone talks to them. They don't have to help PCs, or even talk to them (forgot how or can't because of mutation, it just reminds them something they know they should know).

Also aberrations. Nothing screams Mourland more to me, than twisted lifeforms. Or maybe some plant type creatures (phantom fungus! ).

Ok, I think I rambled enough. I just love Eberron and don't have oportunity to play or DM it. Good luck with next sesion!

[Kol Korran]

Found this just few days back, and I'm really enjoying the story. Good work.

thanks, i'm glad you do!

I saw you have plans for mines, but I'm still going to suggest few things.

there is still a bit of a road through the Mournland to traverse before they reach the Eston mines. i may take some of your ideas for that instead. The mines are (mostly) figured out, and may be a turning point for the campaign, for better or worse.

Spoiler

Show

On their way inside they might encounter fog, from which they will hear sounds of big battle. Shouting orders, clashing metal, explosions and such, but they wouldn't see anyone. If they come to the fog, they will find only dead bodies, but the sounds would go away. Should they dawdle in the fog for too long, send Carcass crab against them. (Maybe take few HDs away, so he isn't that deadly to your party.)

i like the idea for the road to the Mournland, i'll see if i can fir it in. i totally forgot about this monster. also- the party are level 8, and a bit strong for that. i don't think it would need any leveling down.

Spoiler

Show

If I get it right, mines are rich on mithral and adamantine, so I'm going to suggest group of warforged miners, who are trying to get some resources for the Lord of Blades (he has working creation forge, so he should be needing some of those metals right?). They might be free and hostile, or they might be trapped there by some other inhabitants of the mines, or maybe they caused cave in and weren't able to get out on their own, being damaged and all that, thanking the PCs for freedom by not killing them. (They are lesser beings after all. They might taunt poor Johny 5 for following adventurers if they feel like it. )

the party is already planned to meet followers of the lord of blades and have some interaction with them. but perhaps adding some slaves in the mines? hmmmm... that might fit the story well actually.

Spoiler

Show

Don't know what else you plan to have inside, but maybe there can be a clan of grimlocks (or other humanoid monsters), who are people that survived mourning, but mutated heavily, not remembering who they were (or where they are). They just seek shelter from the cruel outside world, defending their teritory fiercely, but might stop attacking if someone talks to them. They don't have to help PCs, or even talk to them (forgot how or can't because of mutation, it just reminds them something they know they should know).

Also aberrations. Nothing screams Mourland more to me, than twisted lifeforms. Or maybe some plant type creatures (phantom fungus! ).

the mines don't have any more space for the "mutated people" though it's a valid idea. as i siad, there is enough going on there as it is. there are some twisted life forms on the way though, including plant creatures, but that's all i'm telling

Ok, I think I rambled enough. I just love Eberron and don't have oportunity to play or DM it. Good luck with next session!

ramble on! i ramble far more! thanks for your input and suggestion, next session is in a week and a half, updates are... infrequent, but i hope you'll enjoy.