DM's campaign log- Wrath Of The Righteous (PF & spoliers!)

[Kol Korran]

Between Sessions 5 & 6

So, the meeting is one week from now. I thought to update about issues the group is dealing with, and the like.

1) Working on the 2nd module: I've been going through the second module, and trying to prepare stuff, so I'll have less work when we get to it. I am a med student, and have just entered the final exams period, which means I'll have much less time to invest in altering things to my liking. So far I've mostly worked on altering some of the Mass Combat Rules to something more tactical, more fun. THe mass combat rules are originally planned for hex-crawl fielding of many units, where the movements of armies over the map is important. But in the module all of that is nullified, so you basically get "we try to hit it again" kind of influence. So I am trying to make things more tactical, but it is TIME CONSUMING! THe players are highly expecting something of the sort, so I'm trying to fit their expectations.

I got the rules done .They are quite similar to the original rules, with a few additions. We'll see how it goes. As per the above post, in order to avoid just one player having fun with mass combat, I'm enabling recruiting more "armies" for the conquest of Drezen. I mean- a 100 soldiers' army? All of us here (Including the woman player) have been in the army. 100 soldiers is a small unit, definitely not fit for a conquest. And not that grand. I hop to have a 500-1000 men's worth of an army.

2) Mythical rules: THe players started looking through them, and to understand them. So far they think they might be cool, but they dislike how many new options and info they present (Especially Sena's player who both has very little time and is an optimizer who likes to get the best fit for his buck). Andrew's player gone through most of his low tier options, and is not that impressed. We're working on it.

3) Radiance Arabeth and Millorn: For the last leg of the module I'm trying to think of ways to make them more felt a bit. Less like NPCs stats, and more like NPCs personalities. Radiance needs to feel a bit more special, I'd like to make it felt more. Since this is the Gray Garrison, from which it was stolen, perhaps It might nudge people at stuff, or send emotions ant the like? Arabeth needs to be felt more. She's a major NPC but so far had mostly been neglected. There is the story of the sword she sold, but I kind of need more. And lastly Millorn. This last part could have a great effect on his view of good and bad, and the ability to fight it. But I'd like a way to portray this better. Any idea you might have?

4) Started to read the 3rd module: I started with Demon's Heresy. I'm not quite getting the party's motivation at the start of this- random explorers? Or they are again reduced to quest takers? I'm only at the start but there seems to be a loss of momentum here- Save the city, conquest an enemy fort and... sit and wait? Again, I'm just at the start. I hope it proves more interesting as I go on.

Comments are more than welcomed!

[Kol Korran]

Boy am I beat! The final exams period is very tiring... Anyway, we had a session on Saturday, a very battle heavy one. The session went so- so... Sena's player was too tired, Andrew's player was distracted by real life problems, and I think there were too many battles, too few talks to my players' tastes. Anyway, Lets get to it!

Session 6, Part 1- Into the Gray Garrison, Battle with Othirubo

Last time the party just killed the Vermleks outside the garrison, and were ready to enter it, with it's strange twisting and "shifting out" properties. We didn't get to finish the Gray Garrison this session, but the party made great progress. The different players tried to help our new player, Mad dog's player play more tactically, and she liked their advice. She was trying her best through the session.

A few changes I made to the Gray Garrison

Spoiler

Show

I made a few crucial changes to the Garrison, to make it more interesting. I will share these:
1. I found the idea of the party attacking, retreating and resting and then coming back with so minimal reinforcements like in the module unbelievable. Instead, the party needed to do this in one go. However, they still had Terendelev's scales (Two of them left), which enabled two "rests". However, not everywhere enabled this since...

2. I am a firm believer that the battle scenes at the final location of an arc should be memorable. The gray garrison's rooms are boring and constrained. So I added a twist- every now and then a rift may appear and some random effect from the abyss will happen. Either fire/ depressive wind/ a necrotic swarms of flies or summoned minor creatures and such. This usually happens in mid battles, but also by taking too much time exploring a location.

3. Encoutner strengths: Most of them are... well... pathetic. Also, it was very repetitive, dishing out the exact foes they killed 2 levels ago. I saw this in Estrod tower where Mad dog (with a little help from Andera) took on by themselves the entire place. So.... I took all of the XP from the escalations, and used it and the existing encounters XP to produce some a bit higher level foes. Such as tiefling fighter 2, or cultists clerics level 3.

4. Jaclyn's room: In the module she is in a TINY room, who will be crowded if there were reinforcements. I will explain it's change of design when I get to the room itself, but suffice to say I made it much bigger, with a lot of interesting terrain and conditions, and a LOT of reinforcements. A final battle should feel like one damnit!

5. Iomedae's rewards and such: I put them in the Hall of Heroes encounter. some of the things there are absurd. Like in the minotaur room, fixing some helmets or somethign which take EIGHT hours! Really?

I hope this all works out.

Entry possibilites and entry room
Mad dog looked for another way in other than the doors, and spotted the window at the first level (room 13a in the module). He climbed there, and found himself in a little coop (5x5ft room) with a door. Listening he heard some buzzing and words in abyssal from inside. He climbed down and there was a bit of a discussion whether to try and break the above door and go in, but they decided against it.

The front doo was locked though. Andera tried to unlock it, but this drew attention from guards inside. The guard asked "What's the matter?" In Abyssal, but only Harry understood it. He replied with some fast lie, which surprisingly worked! Andera finally unlocked it, but made too much noise. This time Harry's lies didn't work. "Intruders!" went the shout. Roll initiative!

Damnation, fro mQuake
(This music was not a good choice. Not tense enough. we ended up replacing it later)

The party went in and fought a small force of two tiefling fighters lvl 2 (Heavily armored mainly, AC 20) and two sorcerer lvl 1. They quite easily overcame them, but not before one of the fighters run towards the stairs and called for intruders.

"Well, there goes the surprise!" Commented Sena sarcastically. "Let us hurry then! we are not sure how much the diversion will last."

The party decided to hoof it. They had the map of the first level, and decided to go towards the temple.

Where did he go?!
They stopped by the defiled shrine, with Sirius (Radiance) giving emotional pings to where it lay for so many years. They tries to quickly clean the altar, but as they did a sort of a rift opened and too mad dog inside it!

Mad dog appeared at the bottom of a gigantic heated cauldron, with what looked like souls trying to climb out and burning slowly. There were 2 quasits there having fun with the tormented souls. Mad dog quickly climbed to a relative safe spot and fought off the disappointing quasits for a round or tow, before he was transported back.

The party were very worried in the meantime, and Harry understood that was a soul cleanse torment device in the Abyss. He surmounted people were probably transported there. Sirius gave Andrew a feeling of "show reverence" so he knelled and saw the hidden message in the altar "Iomedae let us inherit thine arms". The party was confused about that, but were more worried about the rifts, and moved on.

The Battle with Othiburo and cultists
The party skipped the museum and went to the room towards the stairs on one side, the temple on another. As they debated where to go, another rift opened and a fearful spirit tried to shake their nerves. But Andrew's courageous aura helped most to overcome this, and he used his mercy to remove the shaken condition from Andera. They decided to head to the temple.

We decided to choose a more tense music. We chose the following:
[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcdti-dzPVw"]Power of Darkness, two steps from Hell/URL]
(We ended up using this for most of the session)

There they met Othiburo, tiefling alchemist who stood near the west most point of the room, with 3 Deskari cultists (cleric 3) between him and the party. "You will not get to Jaclyn! Stop them before they get to my research!"

Mad dog roared, and went quickly in. Andera disappeared and went quickly in,m near Othiburo, who threw a bomb, missing Andrew but catching quite a few in the 10 ft splash (discovery), and Mad do caught fire! (another dicovery). Seeing this was the case, Sena cast Murderous command on Othiburo, which worked! The cultists then unleashed their spells: Hold person on Mad dog, catching him in magical hold, Sound burst and... Silence! Which covered most of the place where the party was.

Harry and Millorn cursed (figuratively) and moved to the former room till they could clear the silence. They then heard the museum door opening and 2 ABrikandilu slavering coming towards them. Andrew backed up to defend the squishy casters, while Arabeth pushed forward towards the cultists.

If this wasn't enough, a quasit appeared behind Sena, and another rift opened, sending another fearful wind on the front liners- Mad dog and Arabeth, bot hof which were now shaken.

Mad dog's player was not happy about all of this!

Andera sneaked attacked a cultist from behind, nearly killing him, while Othiburo used his crossbow to attack another. The party thought I cheated here- "A cross bow? He's supposed to use bombs! Why not a bomb?" But there was a reason... Sena came and took the ifre out of Mad dog, While Arabeth fought the cultists. Another bomb came, hitting Arabeth hard, also Splashing Mad dog and Sena. "We're screwed, arent we?" Said Mad dog's player. "Not yet we are!" encouraged Sena's player.

For the next few rounds they tried to push in, heal and kill the cultists while Othiuburo threw bomb after bomb, even getting Arabeth down to -5, and Mad dog to 0. Andrew managed to finally kill the two Abrikandilu (Hurt bad), And him and the casters came back, with the silence now gone. As they killed a cultist the other two started to unleash negative energy, but Andrew's channel attempts kept the party going.

Some of hte bombs hit the cultists as well, but due to a resist energy spell they were protected from the splash (which is why he didn't use the bombs). Luckily he ran out of bombs and they closed on him, battering him easily enough, with Andera killing Othiburo at the end.

Othiburo battle

Spoiler

Show

Much tougher than I expected. The party really lacks ranged options outside Harry. The silence was quite effective, but I forgot to keep track of it till the player told me. The 3 cultist were a very effective enemy.

I never knew alchemist could be so effective as well! It was a good "lvl 1 boss battle".

Armory and Arabeth' sword
The party easily found the secret door, and after some fumbling remembered the sentence from the shrine and opened it. I changed some of the gear, but not all of it. For some reason a lot of the stuff went to Mad dog, who was allready packed with gear...
They also went to the alchemist's lab (former high priest room) and found Arabeth sword, the one she sold to Kandro for Anevia's magical transformation. I made this to a scimitar (Said her father worshiped Sarenrae) but Sena was still worried about accepting this. He still thought she might be a betrayer, and this a trap. But th lure of a +1 bane (evil outsider) was too much even for him. They also found a letter detailing how Kandro came trying to bargain the sword for a better life and having been turned to a vermlek. The letter was addressed to Staunton Vhane, and mentioned that the weapon will "take likely to your brother's touch". which worried the party greatly for some reason.

Dretches and an old acuqaintance

As the party explored another rift opened, with a dozen of the fiendish locust insects (Stat wise fiendish stirges). They were killed with lauhgable ease, but the party didn't want to wait for something bigger. So they sought to head up. Andrew worked on the locks, and got them open as the dretches inside started summoning. As Mad dog entered, a familir figure shot at him- Wendaug the mongrelwoman ranger! The battle was quick, and she tried to run up the stairs but andrew grabbed her and pinned her.

They interogated her quickly, and found of her hatred for the "uplanders" who made them all live underground in squalor while they lived in the riches. But she was also a survivalist, and just tried to live She didn't know much- she knew there were 3 levels, something really messed up at the top floor, and that a strange frightening one eyed demon came a few days ago- The Aghash Div.

The party offered her to join Chief Sul, and she heartily agreed, if they'll vouchsafe for her. But Sena sensed that she lies. They decided to lock her up in the armory bound till they finish with this. They can't be dealing with this now!

With that, they headed up the stairs.
----------------------------------
Here ends the first part. I hope I will get to the second one soon!

[Kol Korran]

Session 6, part 2- Second floor, The Schir and the desert demon

So our party was ready to head for the second floor. They guessed (correctly) that there will be resistance. And indeed there was- 2 tiefling fighter 2, 1 tiefling sorcerer 1 and 2 clutistss cleric 3. These basically replaced the many tieflings and low level cultists in the module.

Not that it made it a tougher fight. The party sort of disregarded the fighters, and headed straight for the casters, taking them down easily. Andera got near a door which seemed to be blocked with some abyssal writing on it, and decided to avoid it. While they were dispatching of the last of the resistance, a schir demon arrived from the library. Millorn cast a grease spell on it's halberd (Which we all thought was clever. Andrew was playing him) but it saved. The party ganged on it and killed it before it hit anyone.

So they arrived at the second floor. The rift's percentage didn't work on this battle, which may have made it easier. Still, quite a cake off.

This battle was according to the module the major part of defenses here. Time to explore!

Behind door number 2...
First came the matter of the blocked door. In the module the Preyton demon was locked here. I thought to put something more interesting, and put a Hungry Flesh ooze monster. As Harry tried to decipher the abyssal warning over the door, I improvised and said "warning. Side effect". That was enough for the party, and they left the room alone.

From here they sort of went counter clockwise.

Next they explored the room the Schir came from- a ruined and burnt library. They found a bit of treasure and carried on. Sena player was getting a bit fed up with the "dungeon crawl". We don't usually have those. We usually go for very swift dungeons, if we do them at all. I think he was getting to tired as well.

Next they went to the room with the buzzing that Mad dog heard when he climbed the window. After some debates Mad dog entered, and with one strike and cleaves killed the demon flies there. "What? That's it? We should have climbed!" his player moaned.

The next room proved more difficult.

The scrying room, the aghash div, and a near fatality
Sena opened the door to the next room, the scrying room, with it's bloodied walls and guts and gore all over the place. There were also 5 zombies there- 3 regular, but 2 that seemed to move quickly, and were armored and held great axes- 2 zombie juju of Sarkori warriors.

But from the pool rose a demon they fought before- the desert demon, the aghash div from the hall of heroes.

Mood music, Soprano of the swarm
(Now THIS music was very well accepted! Set the tone just right!"

"Sword wielder, you have come! The fates are unclear, come, and let the sands solve it!" The juju zombies added. "Come, Jaclyn awaits for you to join us!"

The Aghash tried to curse sena with his spectral hand, but failed. Sena in return called upon Sarenrae, and consecrated the place, driving much of the blood away, returning some holiness to the scrying pool . The zombies moaned with unease. Millorn casts expeditions retreat on Andrew, who moves in up to the Aghash, meeting his challenge, but missing him. "Your faith is weak sword wielder!"

Andera and Mad dog goes in towards the Aghash as well, While Harry stays outside, and starts to burn the zombies. Being surrounded, The aghash dimension doors outside, and have a zombie block the exit, It now faces Harry and Millorn alone!

Sena unleashes a channel energy, taking 2 zombies down (but not the blocker), and wounding both juju. Andera destroyes the blocker, and Andrew decides to charge the desert demon...

Only an AoO critical from a juju does more than 50 damage ,sending Andrew to -10 (For those new to PF, you die when you get to -CON score on PF). Suddenly the battle turned far more critical. The party however let Arabeth give Andrew a potion (She rolled the minimum. Didn't wake him up yet). While they focused on the Aghash, It tries to unleash a sand storm, but Sena in return does an AoO crit, and with a few more strikes from Mad dog, and Andera, manage to kill the demon, which turns to sand.

And with that, with Andrew on the floor at negatives, and the party quite depleted, we ended the session.

About the Aghash Div

Spoiler

Show

While it is a very flavorful monster, I do think they work better as a support monster, than a main antagonist. Their curses are a serious hamper, but they just hamper, they do not fully threaten or kill. I think that in retro spect I might hvae chosen a different demon. Oh well...

-----------------------------------------
Each Player's XP: 14,220

So, a bit shorter of a write up than I thought. Some comments:
- Our group doesn't seem to like long dungeon crawls that much.
- Only the Othirubo encounter proved any kind of challenge so far. The one with the Aghash turned to a problem due to the "orc with a great axe at low levels" lucky hit problem
- I wasn't at my best this session, nor were Sena and Andrew's players. Hopefully better next time, eh?

Next time the finale, and possibly the start of the next module. I hope you're enjoying, let me know!

[Kol Korran]

Two small updates:
1) One of our player suffered a tragedy- his father died unexpectedly. We're postponing the game till he feels he'd like to play. So the log is postponed for an unknown time. I may put on some posts about planning and DMing issues, we'll see. I will post when we resume.

2) Before this happened, I opened a thread dealing with Rewrking the campaign traits in the 3rd module, "Demon's Heresy", since that was somewhat... disappointing. Biotroll had already suggested some ideas. Feel free to check it out and suggest soemthing too! I hope to start make it a serious matter in the second and third modules.

We will resume, it will only take a while longer. Some things come first.
Thanks for reading.

[Kol Korran]

Ok, so some good news. The player finished the Shiva. (A custom jewish mourning period) and sent an email: "Ok, I want to kill stuff, even imaginary stuff. When do we meet?" I think he seeks a distraction.

So we'll supply one! We will probably meet next weekend, still trying to figure out exactly when. I have postponed doing the necessary work due to the finals and real life, but it seems I may need to do quite a bit in a hurry. Some things on the agenda:
1) Redo the first module's final battle and finale. I have had a new interesting idea that I don't fully know how to implement yet.
2) Think of the time between the end of the first module and the start of the second one. NPCs, changes in Kenabres, changes in the PCs themselves...
3) Mythic power: I may need to help Sena's player with it. He just don't have the time to go over the rules. I may need to simplify the process.
4) Andrew's player has been having second thoughts about his character. He might change characters. How to make the transition?
5) The start of the new module. As I mentioned a few times, I think the mass combat rules are as boring as hell. I have been working for a LONG time on improved rules that include some tactics. I just sent the players the copy of those rules, I hope these will work.
6) The party will also have the chance to acquire/ recruit an army. I want to have a selection of different units. I have made some progress there, but there is still work to be done.
7) Thanks to Biotroll I've come to some ideas on how to alter the extent that the campaign traits affect the game. I intend to have their story and complications start to affect from the beginning of the second module. This may need some prep work as well.
8) Design the first few mass combat battle maps and army statistics.
9) Go over the chapel encounter (Just in case the party gets there, I don't think they will) and get to know it well enough.

I think this is enough, no? Still, this is a great deal of the fun I get from being a DM. I like working on these stuff and making it work. (Boy, these modules take quite more work than I thought they would! )

Ok, late night here, lets get some sleep!

[Kol Korran]

Biotroll has been discussing some issues in the "reworking the campaign traits" thread, which might be more appropriate here, so I'm copying his last post here and answering it.

You are lucky to have such players. My group prefers to hack and slash withouth thinking too much about, well, anything. No tactics unless they get almost killed, and while they enjoy the story (or so they say) they aren't very active in roleplaying.

Well, Sena, Andrew and Andera's player really like tactics and strategy (A big reason why I'm trying to make the mass combat more interesting than two units just hitting each other). And they are alos quite big on roleplaying stuff. We're not that great roleplayers, but we have quite a few good moments. harry's player mostly lieks to kill and blast stuff, which is fine with us. Mad dog's player? She is new, but she loves the fights, and comes up with cool and innovative plans and stuff. Not always effective, but interesting. She is less tactical, and acts far mroe from instinct, gut feeling and emotion, which makes her an awesome addition to the party.

Aravashnial could recognize the PC after they restore his sight (if it is the blind elf, can't remember). And if they don't, the PC can overhear Quendys takling to Aravashnial about the missing expedition and how the PC looks familiar to the wizard that left with them. Or maybe they can talk about the Worm seeking to purge the information and mentioning that it is lucky, that the PC survived as he might prove vital for fighting him/they might use him in some ritual.

I was thinking of something on those lines... I'm trying to make it simple enough since Harry's player doesn't go much for roleplay, but perhaps something a bit... puzzly? HE sometime likes those.

Also, it's good to see you will be playing again. Too bad the paladin is thinking about changing characters. Try to talk to the player why. In my experience it could be he feels overpowered by Mad Dog. The paladin is fighting with shield and sword, which is not very effective. One of my players played an elf ranger who twf with two longswords but decided to change the character after few sessions because of our dwarf fighter with greataxe. The paladin's damage output is lacking at this point and his special abilities and spells aren't enough yet to make a difference. (One 1st level spell is weak, and besides, Mad Dog can cast spells too.) Mad Dog is simply dominating the melee combat now. He hits harder, has more hit points and has some more skills than Andrew. (Also, Andrew got unlucky AoO crit, which might make him doubt his character as it almost killed him.) If it isn't about not being effective in combat, maybe he feels he isn't given chance to play the knighly archetype? And now with Arabeth (the half-orc paladin right?) he might feel overshadowed. Or perhaps it just isn't for him.

As far as I understand it's not being overshadowed in combat (Andrew is effective enough, and acts as a tank while Mad dog is the striker). He just feels he lacks options... He always liked playign casters, and especially with playing Millorn on the side, well... he wants to sling magic again I guess. So far it seems he'll play a sorcerer, mostly battle control I think, but I'm not sure yet.

Oh, and Arabeth was changed to a cavalier in my game. Saw no reason to have a paladin of a higher level in the party to overshadow him.

If he changes character now, he might be one of the defenders in town, who disobeyed orders and came to help (or even was sent with some urgent message?). If he stays at least untill the end of the first book, he can join the queen and his new character might be someone assigned to help them.

He will stay with Andrew til lthe end of the module (Really not far off). I was also thinking that his next character could be some aid to the queen as well. We'll figure soemthing out. Our group is notthat good with transitions (Usually it is Harry's player that switch). But we'll manage.

Thanks for reading!

[Alleran]

2) Mythical rules: THe players started looking through them, and to understand them. So far they think they might be cool, but they dislike how many new options and info they present (Especially Sena's player who both has very little time and is an optimizer who likes to get the best fit for his buck). Andrew's player gone through most of his low tier options, and is not that impressed. We're working on it.

It may not seem like it now, but mythic tiers do greatly increase power (especially Mythic Power Attack). It's tier 3 where it really kicks in, but you should be ready for the PCs to rocket past the encounters as-written.

4) Started to read the 3rd module: I started with Demon's Heresy. I'm not quite getting the party's motivation at the start of this- random explorers? Or they are again reduced to quest takers? I'm only at the start but there seems to be a loss of momentum here- Save the city, conquest an enemy fort and... sit and wait? Again, I'm just at the start. I hope it proves more interesting as I go on.

Per the book, the special NPCs (basically the ones that have been woven pretty inextricably into the adventure path) get put into the positions of authority in the city while the PCs go around taking and completing quests. I would advise pulling that out entirely and putting the PCs in those positions of authority (as mythic heroes and the effective leaders of the Crusade who just retook the city, the idea of it being taken off them and handed over to NPCs who haven't done half of what they did might rankle). You could partly use the Settlement rules from Ultimate Campaign if you feel obliged to include mechanical elements, or you could freeform it.

Either way, I'd have them in charge, but also have them lead sorties out into the Worldwound. If there has to be somebody in charge of Drezen and it can't be a PC (or PCs), then at least have one of the group - or more - take Leadership and then get their cohort to take the reins. It ties it closer to the players that way. If you like, you could even have the players play as their cohorts for a session as they deal with stuff in and around Drezen (while presumably the mythic heroes are off somewhere).

[Kol Korran]

It may not seem like it now, but mythic tiers do greatly increase power (especially Mythic Power Attack). It's tier 3 where it really kicks in, but you should be ready for the PCs to rocket past the encounters as-written.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm itnrigued at how much the mythic power points/ day will limit them, as every thing is based of them, and my players don't like stopping all the time, and usually go on playing till they are quite depleted. I am worried about the 3rd level ability to refresh all their dailies, but we've sort of been doing that with Terendelev's scales (The idea for them came from this ability in fact). Still, I'll keep a look out. The encounters so far were quite simple to begin with. I wonder how it will be with mythic powers. I needed to upgrade all the important ones so far to provide any sort of a challenge. (?And that didn't work all the time as well).

Per the book, the special NPCs (basically the ones that have been woven pretty inextricably into the adventure path) get put into the positions of authority in the city while the PCs go around taking and completing quests. I would advise pulling that out entirely and putting the PCs in those positions of authority (as mythic heroes and the effective leaders of the Crusade who just retook the city, the idea of it being taken off them and handed over to NPCs who haven't done half of what they did might rankle). You could partly use the Settlement rules from Ultimate Campaign if you feel obliged to include mechanical elements, or you could freeform it.

Either way, I'd have them in charge, but also have them lead sorties out into the Worldwound. If there has to be somebody in charge of Drezen and it can't be a PC (or PCs), then at least have one of the group - or more - take Leadership and then get their cohort to take the reins. It ties it closer to the players that way. If you like, you could even have the players play as their cohorts for a session as they deal with stuff in and around Drezen (while presumably the mythic heroes are off somewhere).

Yeah, I read that about the NPCs taking over. It might go quite well with my group, as I'm not sure they want to deal with ruling a city and it's surroundings. Plus- more new rules and such (Some don't like the addition of mythic or mass combat, so...). We don't let use leadership adding cohorts, just granting some bonuses to mass combat and maybe ruling a city, but no cohorts or followers (We like to minimize "extra hands" to deal with. My players don't much like having the NPCs along for that reason). We'll see closer to when we get to the module. We got some ground to cover before that.

But having them engaged somehow in rebuilding and making the major decisions for Drezen (Whatever those will be, the module didn't suggest anything). Might be interesting and fun. I'll need tothink about it more. Got quite a bit to deal with before Friday. Thanks for the suggestions though!

[Alleran]

Thanks for the heads up. I'm itnrigued at how much the mythic power points/ day will limit them, as every thing is based of them, and my players don't like stopping all the time, and usually go on playing till they are quite depleted. I am worried about the 3rd level ability to refresh all their dailies, but we've sort of been doing that with Terendelev's scales (The idea for them came from this ability in fact). Still, I'll keep a look out. The encounters so far were quite simple to begin with. I wonder how it will be with mythic powers. I needed to upgrade all the important ones so far to provide any sort of a challenge. (?And that didn't work all the time as well).

There's a thread on the Paizo forums (in the Wrath of the Righteous subforum) that has a playthrough of WotR using the mythic ruleset with some modifications. One of the changes made was the restriction of mythic power regeneration to 1d4 uses/day, forcing players to think carefully before expending anything. It also uses upgraded statblocks (Scorpion's ones, found in the same subforum), and the players are still doing much better than one would expect.

The thread is called "combat experiences in mythic gameplay" (IIRC), if you're interested.

Yeah, I read that about the NPCs taking over. It might go quite well with my group, as I'm not sure they want to deal with ruling a city and it's surroundings.

One thing I'd suggest is adding in a questline about recovering the Lexicon of Paradox. It'll be much more important at the end of the campaign, but at the baseline you pretty much just get handed it after a bunch of NPCs/story-characters do all the work.

[Kol Korran]

There's a thread on the Paizo forums (in the Wrath of the Righteous subforum) that has a playthrough of WotR using the mythic ruleset with some modifications. One of the changes made was the restriction of mythic power regeneration to 1d4 uses/day, forcing players to think carefully before expending anything. It also uses upgraded statblocks (Scorpion's ones, found in the same subforum), and the players are still doing much better than one would expect.

The thread is called "combat experiences in mythic gameplay" (IIRC), if you're interested.

Hmmmm.. .I've found it and started to read it i nthe little free time I got. Thanks. Though it seems they are testing the mythic rules not on Wrath of the righteous as far as I understand? I'm still trying to make heads of the thread.

Thanks, it might give me some things to think about and prepare to in advance!

One thing I'd suggest is adding in a questline about recovering the Lexicon of Paradox. It'll be much more important at the end of the campaign, but at the baseline you pretty much just get handed it after a bunch of NPCs/story-characters do all the work.

I don't know what this Lexicon is. I have read only up to the start of the Ivory Sanctuary in the 3rd part, is this something that comes later in the campaign? Or have I missed it? (Mostly skimmed over the third module, tried to get the main themes of it).

[Kol Korran]

So, we played two days ago, and it was a blast! We finished the first module with a bang, and then went on to the next, with a few hiccups. A very fun meeting, I hope you will enjoy as well.

An important note is that Andrew's player wished to change character (He didn't like the limited options of a non caster). But he wanted to find a decent finishing point for Andrew as well. This happens at the start of the second module.

Shall we begin?

Session 7, Part 1- Battle over the Wardstone fragment, Areelu's temptation

Music from where we left last time

Last we left the party after defeating the Aghash Div, but with Andrew at -4 hp due to a lucky zombie's axe. They quickly got him back to health using the many potions of CLW they hoarded (The module gives out LOADS of those!). Once he was back to his feet, they decided to explore the Scrying pool in the room. Sena cleaned it, and prayed for guidance, which came in the form of a short vision- he felt as if he was floating up the stairs to the third level, where he saw a hellish site: The floor as it was seemed ripped apart, like it was pulled and twisted, with gaps leading to abyssal depths. The place was partly transforming into the abyss! Parts of it seemed to connect to a desert, part of it to ice, and in the center thee was a sort of an island, a necrotic themed island, where Sena saw two prominent figures- one of a great black and red minotaur, and the other of a twisted wasted form, part elf, part insect- Jaslyn. Behind her, in the middle of the "isle" was the Wardstone fragment, shedding light. The favored of Deskari noticed his presence, and dispelled it.

Getting his senses back, Sena told the party what he saw, and they decided to explore the rest of the floor first, and only then ascend.

The exploration was brief- some minor documents, minor treasure, 1-2 more planar effects, and little else. The party discussed whether to open the blocked door, but decided against it. From the sounds of it there was some ooze behind (They were right, I changed the Preyton there to a hungry flesh)

They were ready, for the big fight, the last fight in the module, to destroy the wardstone fragment! (I was a bit surprised, they were somewhat depleted, but they decided to go on)

A few magical preparations (Skip if not interested). Mostly out of scrolls and wands and such, which the party hoarded till this point: Protection from evil on all 7 (including Arabeth and Millorn). Harry got Andrew and Mad dog enlarged, and cast shiled on himself. Sena cast Hide from undead on Harry, Mad dog, Andrew and Andera, and used a few scrolls to add all kind of defensive buffs to himself. (He likes playing defense). Mad dog who fers wht is to happen drinks a potion of invisibility.

With improved defenses, and their two melee bruiser enlarged, the party ascended up.

The final battle!
As the party ascended the stairs the came to a strange looking battlefield:

Spoiler: pics of the battlefield

Show

Pardon the quality





A magnification of the central part, Jaclyn's necrotic "isle" she's the green- baige miniature, the black bull in the fiendish minotaur.

A bit of n explanation is due: The characters are on the topmost right of the battlefield. going south of that the battlefield continues till it turns to red- n incursion of an Abysiall desert. From the characters and to the left and then down the battlefield continues till it meets an icy patch- an incursion of an abyssial tundra. There are gaps which are basically sheer drops into abyssal energy. (I was hoping for some pushes over edges and such). In the center there is a black place, an incursion of The Rot- an abyssal necromatic place, In which the Wardstone (Orange) has been placed, hoping that the negative energies will drain on the stone. The area is floating, and not attached by land to anywhere.

Enemies? The blue ones are zombies, fast zombies. (Jaclyn could easily zummon more of these using animate dead combined with remove paralysis on the many bodies in her isle). The green ones are dretches, and the red ones re Schir demons.

And then there re the tiefling summoners, in grey (Hard to see on the map), one for each zone, and focused around some abyssal crystal (There's always a crystal! ). The party didn't know what these were yet, but were worried.

I changed Jaclyn a bit. She raised her bow and mocked at the players. "You've met only mooks and pitiful underlings so far, but now you face a true force of the abyss!" It's go time!

As the start, so the finish- Divided we fall, united we stand!

The party at both curses and is excited. Surprisingly, Mad dog's large size makes it hard for him to navigate the small bridges, he moves a bit to the south, but the schir, with his ability to see invisible sees him, and yells out.

The zombies try to move forward, some are baffled by the invisible mass of Mad dog. This is followed by stinking clouds of dretches. Thoguh the party makes their save (other than millorn), they realize they are gettign swamped. Sena shouts: "Andrew! Mad dog! Make us room, we can't be bottled here. Harry, you and I occupy the bitch, keep the pressure on her!"

But there are more suprises! The summoners each reach towards the crystal, and cast a summon monster spell, and portals appear near the party, an icy one and a firey one. The Blue portal sends a chilling wind on them (30 ft line, 3d6 damage, fort save 16 for half), while from the red one comes another schir.

Sena focuses and unleashes a channel energy, greatly harming the oncoming undead. Jaclyn curses him "I can make many more than you can destroy!" To which Sena just replies "You're probably right!" Harry moves behind Mad dog and targets Jaclyn with magic missiles. She shoots him, trying to disrupt him with her corrosive bow, but he manages to retain his spell, and wounds her nicely.

Andrew also channels, destroying the wounded undead, and tries to move to the other front, but finds it hard to move. Andera follows him, and targets a schir with holy arrows from the armory.

Then the black portal appears, two of them in fact- one near the island, another on the north west front of the battlefield, and the fiendish minotaur steps through it, roaring a challenge, and readying to charge.

The party thinks about having John jump the distance to the island, but he finds it hard to find a good spot (I made it difficult, but not impossible. It's odd that jump is now dex based in PF!). He settles for killing two dretches with a cleave. But then the shcirs (Other then the west most one) close on him and they start exchanging blows. Mad dog is locked in battle with them (To the player's frustration), which takes up most of his next rounds.

Meanwhile the portals spew more cold, and another schir. Andrew moves forward and engages the minotaur, "smite eviling" him. Jaclyn uses a wand for remove paralasys, intending to raise 14 more fast zombies next round and send them through the portal, but Sena notices this. He doesn't know what exactly she is doing, but he knows how to stop her- Silence... he puts it at the center of the island, effectively blocking the entire island! (Including the summoner who controls the portal). This may have been the winning move of this battle.

harry doesn't let go either and keeps sending more spells on her.
Jaclyn comes through the portal to cast dispel magic from a scroll on the silence, but Sena pulls out another scroll of silence and repeats the process. Harry manages to immolate her in fire, While Andrew dmages the minotaur greatly. The party is starting to do some good damage here!

To spice things up, increase the pace! To Glory, from two steps from hell

But they are taking major damage as well. Mad dog can't hold up to the schirs and they drop him to a -8, Jaclyn decides to put some pressure on the heroes, and try and help her minotaur and comes to deliver a serious inflict spell on andrew, making him in the single digits as well.

Sena positions himself between the two, and heals them somewhat, when ndrew turns on Jaclyn and delivers two mighty blows with his sword and shiled, taking her to 0. And Harry finishes her with a well timed power missile! The minotaur then falls from a sneak attack from the disappeared andera.

Now, I try to take some advice from the Angry DM, and know when to finish encounters. This was basically over, as the party easily powered the rest. They were in high mood, and dredging through killing everyone and so on would just take a long time, and add nothing. So we decided that I'll narate a bit from here on, which went on something like this: They went through the dark portal (Which still couldn't move due to silence), and faced the summoner. He used a silver red bell which vanished. Nearly immediately they could feel some presence approaching, so they went to the wardstone frgament, and Sena used the rod of cancellation they got from Quendys to destroy it.

But it was not over yet! As the wardstone fragment shattered, sending out a great light, the party felt falling into darkness, feeling that something was very, very wrong.

DM thoughts- design of the final battle and execution

Spoiler

Show

The final battle was supposed to be a few things- it was supposed to be tough, it was supposed to be a bit of a puzzle (How to get to the main island) and it was supposed to mke the players think and prsent them with quite a few choices.

In the original module the 3rd floor is one tiny room with the minotaur, and one tiny room with Jaclyn (And possible reinforcements if you'd like). That was quite absurd since a character can then just walk to the fragment, suffer a few AoO at worst, and destroy it with one action. Lame! So I tried something different.

The party could solve this in a few ways- either kill a summoner and take control over their portal to gain access. Jump to the place, find another way there or... just draw Jaclyn to where they were and kill her there. Jaclyn had quite a few option on her island as well- send the minotaur and heal him with necrotic energy (Through a wand, I changed 1 feat for undead affinity), Summon fiendish dire bats, shoot her +1 corrosive long bow (She had a big enough to hit bonus to hurt most) Hold person to anyone who got close enough, summon more undead, soul siphon for those who were close enough and so on...

But Sena managed to negate most of those. Good for him the bastard!
All in all the battle felt a bit on the easy side (Though Mad Dog and Andrew were about 1 hit from dying) and ended fairly quickly (5- 6 rounds or so). The party commented on this however that for once, they acted as one group, with each doing his share and acting his role in the plan.
Good for them!

Areelu's Vorlesh offer
The five PCs found themselves surrounded by a soft white light, but otherwise in darkness. Then they heard the slow soft clapping, and saw Areelu Vorlesh, the half fiendish witch who opened the worldwound in the first place, sitting on a destroyed pillar and smiling. Sena's player cursed "I knew it! We weren't supposed to destroy it, right?" Mad dog's plyer was confused. Andera's player was angry "We did as we were told..."

Areelu began to speak. "You have done what none of us could. The wardstone would burn any demon or cultist who tried to get near. Though we destroyed most of it, enough remained to keep the border intact. But heroes? Righteous heroes? Heroes that were played right, led to believe they are saving the day? Those could enter and do our work for us. Provided they were told the right story, and were courageous enough, fool enough, or just gullible enough to do fall for the bait."

She then revealed the wardstone border failing, and the demons rushing in all over.

"Congratulations, you have highhandedly doomed Mendev, and all it's people, we could not have done it better ourselves. You are indeed great monsters, great demons, great murderers. There were many eyes: Those who's mind was preoccupied with the abyss for long" (She showed Millorn, looking at Andrew, voices whispering behind his eyes). "Those who bear our influence in their very blood, body and essence. (Showing Lann, with hateful thoughts towards the "uplanders", towards the great city they have built, while their people were in the dark) "Those who carry the shame of their actions, the curse of those dead due to their guilt" (John, with the spirits whispering in his ears. "You left us! We died cause of you!") And even one so distraught with love, she would pledge herself to the dark, for a chance to see her loved one again." (Arabeth praying fervently, crying, mouthing "Anevia, please! Just bring her back to me!")

The party seemed a bit confused at this. Mad dog's player didn't quite understand what was about with Anevia. I noticed Sena tensing a bit about John. (Mad Dog the Character by the way wasn't listening at all. He was thinking how hot she looked and if he could bed her. Players! )

"Once we knew there were heroes, all it took was to move the right pieces (She makes a sort of a gaming board, moving pieces. The Aghash Div and, Faxon, the above 4, plus Quendys with emphasis. Party "So he IS the betrayer!") and let you do the rest… Give a few heroes little hope, to crush the hopes of hundreds of thousands."

She then turned specifically to each one:
"You Senatef, the ever watchful, careful. You were suspicious, yet you did nothing. You followed around, like a good little sheep. It was your inaction that led to this doom." The player did not respond.

"Andera, the vanquisher of demons, the spy, the cunning. You have failed to see the real danger, you have failed to see the scheme, and have led to your people to their demise." The player looked surprised, but dismissed this offhand.

"Harry, one so knowledgable, so wise. And yet so eager to destroy. You alone could understand the great magical energies in the wardstone, yet did you question? Did you object? Research? No… You came forth eager for destruction of a massive scale. Well, the destruction you have wrought is epic indeed." To which he just replied "Ah- huh!" (??)

"Mad dog, a nickname of a mindless rabid animal, eager for the kill, the slaughter, the mayhem. Congratulations! You and your friends are probably the biggest mass murderers in history, and the deaths of your fellow beings will be excruciating, painful, and their souls will fuel our armies. We have you to thank for!" (Mad dog was still lost in his "how to shag" contemplations)

And you Andrew, with your blind zealortry, and utter conviction of your just cause. You never stopped to question. Even now I can feel you trying to object, to find a way out of this mess, to justify your atrocities, to others, to yourself. You are impressive, but you have been blind. And in your blindness led your people to their doom!" Andrew rose up to her. "A lot of talk and little action! Come and fight me! One on one if you dare!" (The player informed me in secret that he sought a way to finish Andrew's story, and thought this would be an appropriate death. I had another idea though, one that I thought he might like better, later on).

She looked at them all. And then came to her pitch. "I see the power of the wardstone in you. I seek it. I offer you a reprise- You can live, you can flourish, you can become great, powerful, a terror to behold. Swear Allegiance to Deskari, and it will grant you power beyond your dreams! He favors greatly those capable, powerful and destructive enough, as you have shown yourselves to be." Something changed in Sena's player face. I din't quite understand it at that point.

Deskari's form, the gigantic humanoid insectoid with wings made of giant swarmed loomed above.

What is the alternative? Either serve, and relish in the riches, or Die, like your friends. She once more showed them. "The egg hatches" (Millorn erupting, a shadowy figure crawling out of him) "The tainted return to us" (Some Majestic demon commanding Lann and the mongrelfolk to turn on the others) "The warrior faces the past" (John has spirits face him, surrounding him) "Power meets greater power". (Quendys and Aravash try spells against the worm that walks, which then uses disintegrate to kill both) "The Lover returns her love" (Arabeth is possessed and comes towards Anevia who shoots arrows, and drive a sword through her heart, crying.) At this last one they suddenly questioned. "Wait, are we seeing things as they are or..."

But Sena interrupted her at this point. "Thanks you for sharing this info. I think your planned is flawed. I think you tried to trick us. I almost believed you till you told us why you need us, and I understood that all of this... charade, is meant to impress us. But it is YOU who needs US. You chatter too much, your arrogance has betrayed you." He motioned to the eyes of Deskari "And I think we know who is the pawn in this game, don't we?. I don't believe anything you talk about. You have shown your fear! WE are the force that could beat you! Thank you for delivering this freely." He then started slowly clapping, as she had in the beginning. And the rest? Well, they just joined in the clapping!

It was my hope that some might accept her offer, be demoralized or beaten enough. (My guess was on Sena and Mad Dog) but it apparently didn't work. Oh well! "You insolent! If you will not serve! You will die!

Throw init. Areelu wins (+16 to init after all). and starts with mass suffocation. At this Sena's player start shooting expletives "A 9th level spell? you kidding me?" Buuuuttt.. as per the module, the power of the wardstone saves them. As she casts the spell the light within them grows fierce, and attacks her! She creams, trying to get forward. The party's awareness shifts between her and the history of the Wardstone. (This is all narration, but a short one)

The fire starts to sear her wing and arm. The party sees the true vision- Wardstones all over the border over charge, killing thousands of demons, then all of them going inert. In the past, in 4635, PCs see the building of the first wardstone, with the herald of Iomadae- an angel with a halo of swords.

Areelu tries to walk towards, but is pushed back by the energy, much of the wing is and one arm are burned. In 4665, Hurlun burns the first 20 witches. In 4692, Storm king attacks wardstone, Terendelev nearly kills him. The Storm King escapes.

Areelu screeches, falls back, wing burned to bones and tendons, arm cracked, Areelu's skin burns, her horn splinters, flesh showing in half her body, skin burnt. In 4712, Arabeth fights Staunton Vhane near Wardstone, he escapes with fiendish wasp. Minhago the Lilitu demon speaks to Jeslyn atop the Gray Garrison "Wish for it darling mortal" Jaslyn- "I wish for the abyss itself make me a protector, help guard the stone till it's corrupted to Deskari's glory!"

One of Areelu's eyes melt, She shrieks to high hell, some ribs are showing, one arm is useless, the other already badly burned. The party sees Areelu's Vorlesh plan- the nyhandrian crystal used with the Wardstone to turn the many crusaders into demons. They see the silver bell appearing at her side and Areelu using the Imago lens to teleport back into the world.

Areelu lays on the floor, crumpled barely living, great strength of will. "I… Will have my revenge! Next time the ward stone won't protect you!" She then turns and despite the great pain uses some power and vanishes… (Mad Dog's player, as gore happy as she is, really liked the drawn out descriptions of Areelu's suffering. But she thought she was less "shag worthy" after all of that..."

DM design- Areelu's Temptation

Spoiler

Show

Areelu isn't a fair match to the players power wise. But she could be roleplay wise. The module have her try to kill the PCs, get burned, and then send 6 Babau to a fight against super powered PCs. It cheapens Areelu in my opinion, and it gives no actual interaction between this BBEG and the PCs. I wanted them to get a small sense of her at least.

I did seem to mess up with her wanting the PCs for their power. This seemed to have tipped Sena's player off. But if did give him a chance to make a cool counter speech, and feel awesome, spitting in the face of the arch demon.

I did hope that at least 1-2 will find the offer appealing, which sort of make them "mini fall", and have effects that will accompany them on the next part ofthe campaign, but it didn't happen. Oh well. She did end up looking a bit ridiculous, but not overwhelmingly so. More importantly, all players got to snub her a bit and feel rebellious and "sticking it up to the boss" sort of thing. Which is fun!

The PCs found themselves atop the wreckage of the great Garrison, with the sounds of fighting ceasing, and the remains of many demons below, with Lann's forces pressed against the building, protecting it. The day was won, and Kenabres returned!

They still felt the holy power in them, much less than before, but still potent, different. The wordstones' power, made up from the prayers of tens of thousands over the past century settled finally on them. And they could sense the last words- "Our last hopes are with you…"

Some end music. We are the champions, by Queen


End of "The worldwound Incursion" module!

-------------------------------------------
Each Player's XP: 19,720 (The big fight was worth around 20,000 XP, Areelu's temptation was 1,500 for each PC that didn't take the bait)

So we ended the first module. Spirit were high around the table, and the feeling was good. The party leveled to 5th level, plus they just got Mythic! There was a long time of trying to work out all of those details, so we took a humus and cake break, and worked on things, while I took a bit of time to unwind. I'll update with the level up and the start of the second module at a later time.

Hope you're enjoying, we sure did!

[Kol Korran]

Sorry for the delay in updating this part. I'm learning for my finals, and it's wearing me out. I come back home and usually just want to rest. That said, I hope you will enjoy. No battles in this one, mostly some roleplay, development and the set up for the module to come.

Session 7, part 2- Level ups, Interlude, Interview with the queen, and the arrival of Julian

This part of the session was done in a far more relaxed pace. Quite a bit was dedicated to leveling up and the mythical powers. Andrew's player helped Mad dog's player, our new player with her choices. An important note to make is that we are brand new to the mythical powers. I've read the general system of these rules, but not the specific feats or powers. So we're trying this on a trial basis.

Conan- The Atlantean sword
(Some music of the recuperating Kenabres, amidst the ruins and devastation- a new hope.

The music escorted us throughout the second part of the session. Quite great for relaxing and hopeful music. So... about these level ups and mythical powers. A quick rundown of what the party picked.

Sena
5th level feat: Channel alignment (Chaotic evil)- Vs. Demons.
Mythical Feat: Extra mythic power.(For more uses of Inspired spell)
Path powers: Inspired spell & Heathen Slayer (Focused at Deskari believers).

Andera
5th level feat: Extra Ki
Mythical feat: Mythical Weapon Finesse
Path powers: Surprise attack (More SA) & Defensive move (More nobility)

Harry
5th level feat: Create wand (He has plans!)
Mythical feat: Mythical Spell penetration
Mythical powers: Wild Arcana & Eldritch breach (He REALLY hates spell resistance!)

Mad Dog
5th level feat: Dodge (The player really sought to upgrade her defenses. She felt Mad Dog got hit a LOT!)
Mythical feat: Mythic Cleave. (Oh my! )
Mythical powers: Sudden attack, Blow back

Andrew' player was about to change character, so We didn't deal with his leveling. We'll get to his character soon enough...

Wrath of the Righteous- The Sword of Valor

The Sword of Valor officially starts a few days after The destruction of the wardstone, with the Queen's visit to the city. I felt there was some roleplay to be had in these days, as well as some smoother transition, not to mention dealing with selling loot, buying items and the like.

Though they have won, it was a t a great cost. More than half of the city's population was dead, including it's most powerful defenders. The streets were littered with dead demons, caught by the blast of the dying wardstone, and the mongrelmen and the soldiers of the Eagle watch greeted the party with cheers, and some confusion. They have won, for now... but the wardstone's protection was no more. It was time to rest, grieve, rebuild and take account of the after math, and to come to terms with the new change the characters hve gone through. They have become... not mere mortals. And people could fill it.

In the next day people started returning to Kenabres from the surrounding region to which most have fled. These were the citizens, not the soldiers, though some armed forces did go with them for protection. The cries of the broken families, the victims and more tore through the city. But most stayed silent, the devastation was just... too overwhelming.

Funerals, mass funerals started to take place. Arabeth spoke at the mas grave of most of her unit. Quendys over the dead of his library, The mongrel folk held their own hushed and silent ceremonies, with Opoli weeping over the body of Chief Sul who fell, and Lann was just stunned, declared as the new chief. John searched for the surviving members of their order, Thew Sovereign Knights of Sarenra (More on tht to come), But foundonly about 90 or so. Nayla Freyton, Andera's confidant mourned the death of Senest, who led their order, and happened to also be... her husband.

Yet in amidst of all of this, rebuilding has begun. The Kenabres people knew very well that they must restore the city's defenses. As to the party? Well, all except for Sena were either outsiders or had no attachments. (Buggers! ). Sena decided to think about it. They decided to worry more about loot (Players!) and understanding their powers.

About the loot- they sold the equipment they found in the garrison, or distributed some of it. They also found 5 wardstone fragments in the fort, each capable of restoring 1d3 mythic power points, once (Like a potion). They made some sells and bought some stuff (Sena bought armor and shiled enchantments, seeking to tank, as well as a headband of wisdom. Mad Dog upgraded his sword, Harry bought some scrolls and such). Harry built a wand of Sontaneous immolation. He LIKES that spell!

Amidst all of that, I sent the players some emails, on some small events/ changes they went through. (We all play with lap tops)

Spoiler: Andera

Show

In the days after the awakening of the mythic power in new, you yourself different. As if not fully "normal" anymore. You feel like you feel things, sense things that are subtly more acute than you did before. You even dream…

You're not fully certain of the dream, But you feel two people who are at both connected and close, and yet opposite at the same time. A great desperation is felt strangely mixed with great elation, in a turmoil of emotions. One burning questions seem to sear through the two people's minds: "Have I succeeded or failed?!"
(Roleplay with this as you'd like)

Spoiler: Harry

Show

In the days after the awakening of the mythic power in new, you yourself different. As if not fully "normal" anymore. You feel like you feel things, sense things that are subtly more acute than you did before. And it seems that Aravashnial feels this as well.

The elf speaks with you in secret. "Harry, we must talk. I was hesitant before, but I did some investigating, and I know a bit about who your lineage. You come from a line of Riftwardens. We explore the Worldwound and the planes. We seek to find a way to fight the demons, maybe even understand how the worldwound itself works. Few have evergotten even close to it. We have been an open sect in the past, but we have gone secret. Some of our members had… unconventional theories. I know that your parents went to the worldwound to try and prove something, but I know not what happened. Their records have been lost. Our members had long discussions about the paths to take, but all of that is moot, lost along with Blackwing. Unless We can find that wrom that walks, Xanthir Vang, who have stolen what we had. I do not know of it's fascination with our order…
(Roleplay with this as you'd like)

Spoiler: Mad Dog

Show

In the days after the awakening of the mythic power in new, you yourself different. As if not fully "normal" anymore. You feel like you feel things, sense things that are subtly more acute than you did before. But the past also haunts you… You dream of the ritual again.

The scarring, the torment, the screams, and the feeling that SOMETHING was changed in you. You're not quite sure what, and you have been able to ignore it all of these years. In fast, it may have fueled your power, your strength, your mighty combat prowess and skill. But now, after the recent events, after this "Ascension" You feel that thing deep inside of you, stirring, once more… (Roleplay with this as you'd like)

Spoiler: Senatef

Show

In the days after the awakening of the mythic power in new, you yourself different. As if not fully "normal" anymore. You feel like you feel things, sense things that are subtly more acute than you did before. Your prayers however have become… Interesting.

On a prayer to Sarenrae (Either at a place that survived, or some other place) You have felt great peace, as if soaring through the sky. And then… Suddenly a great feel of… betrayel? From someone close? You suddenly have the need for air, you suffocate, or breath just barely. And then you feel yourself in great darkness, one that even your darkvision can't penetrate… It's not exactly a vision as it is… a memory? The moment took about 5 seconds, and then everything returned to normal. (Roleplay with this as you'd like)

The events/ changes and the campaign traits

Spoiler

Show

The players were quite confused by this, but most didn't do much about this. They felt (Correctly) That this was a start of things to come. I plan on making the campaign traits into something bigger than the lousy quests they had in the 3rd module, and this is the start of this. An important note is that I didn't give the upgraded traits as reward for finishing the module. They are VERY strong, and the party gets enough rewards. Plus- nothing got changed regarding the traits! Their improved versions will be awarded in the 3rd module, upon developing the trait's stories.

Harry tried to research more on the Worm that walks, but found little. Mad dog's player loved this, but didn't know what to do with it. Senatef however... He went to have a talk with Commander John, who was instructing some of the soldiers. They talked amiably, hugged and chatted. but Sena wanted to know more about the curse. "The witch showed us some things in her vision. Of you, and the curse. What happened in the Worldwound?" John was a bit uncomfortable with this. "A witch can lie quite convincingly, I would not trust her words". Sena insisted. "Yes, but you lie best while telling the truth most of the time, lying just at the crucial point. I believe there was truth in that. You never quite spoke of your expedition to the worldwound, or your imprisonment there." John sat down and sighed. "We went on a mission, a small group of crusaders, but we were ambushed, captured and... "He grimaced "tortured, quite extensively. It was there that I saw Sarenra's light, and with her help, I escaped, but not without being cursed by that blasted land." He seemed to grow quiet. "Sena... I do not wish to talk more of this. I've tried repressing those memories for a long time. I do not wish to go back there." Sena remained suspicious, but respected his mentor's wishes.

But there were more winds flowing in the city. The party heard rumors- while most of the city though of them as saviors, some resented them, accusing them at being bewitched and destroying the wardstone on the demon's behalf. So far these were rumors at best, but these worried the party non the less. Andera asked Nayla to send their people to infiltrate and find more about this, while Andrew went from unit to unit, troop to troop and tried lifting up their spirits, nd helping with the defense plans. Mad Dog? He tried to get drunk thoroughly. The past few days were quite hard on him. He needed some R&R.

Sena's commitment
He surprised with nice piece of roleply. He went to the mongrelfolk, who stayed in the more ruined places in the city. Though the Eagle watch has fully accepted them as comrades to arms, the rest of the city still didn't know how to deal with them, and mistrust still endured. Sena went to the mourning tent of Lann and Opoli, and sat with them for awhile, before talking to Opoli. "You have fought with us, and for this let me do full justice to you. I welcome you ll to be full members of the Sovereign Order of the Knights Of Sarenrae. You have fought beside us bravely, and I would be honored to fight aside you, in whatever happens!" This struck many of the mongrelfolk (And the other players, including me) in a bit of a surprise. "We... shall need to discuss this with all. But thank you!"

Sena wished to do more. "Please take me to Chief Sul's grave, I would like to pay my respects to him." He went there with Opoli, who upon his grave spoke. "I have lost my husband, I have lost all of my sons. And part of this is due to you. Yet... I hold you no grudge. You have done more for my people than anyone has. We shall be better for it, even if we have lost many... so many..." And then Sena's player did a nice improvisation. He knelt on his knee, and spoke respectfully. "You have lost everything, I have lost everything (He decided his family was killed). Please, will you adopt me as one of your children?" Opoli was struck, but she lid her hand on his hand, and accepted. "From this day forth, you are my son, Senatef light bringer! You are equal amongst my people" Sena hugged her as well (The party: "You sleek bastard! Hugging and kneeling much?") and returned to his group.

Interview with the queen
As the queen's troops approached the city more rumors began to spread- that she is an immortal, that she met with Iomadae, that she receives visions from her, that she is in fact a succubus aligned with the demons, which is why all of this has happened, and so on...

Some of her troops camped outside, but she and her knights rode in, surveying the devastation, the people, and finally getting to the Church of Clydewell, a ruined place, overseeing the plaza. Soon after, the PCs along with Quendys, Arabeth and commander John were ushered to meet her.

Queen Galfrey was in full armor, near the back of the church. With her was a middle aged halfling and another human woman, with mage robes. The queen turned to the party, with a weary smile on her face, before speaking to them (This part included a few "read aloud". I'm not that fond of these, but they worked here, with a relaxed party.

It's nice to meet you at last! I've heard quite a lot about you. Pardon me for going over the pleasantries, but there is wr going on, and I understood you are people of action. I have summoned you more than just to congratulate you, I hope you'll agree to my offer. Lets get to it then, shall we? While there are some narrow-minded souls among the crusade who blame you for the destruction of the wardstone border, I do not begrudge you for what you did. Far from it. From the sound of it, you saved entire legions of crusaders from a most vile fate by preventing Vorlesh from transforming them, and the blast of energy gave us the time we needed to regroup and prepare for what will certainly come next. But you understand the implications of what you’ve done, I’m sure—the wardstones are gone, but Iomedae has seen fit that you will be their replacement. I can think of no other reason that would explain why their power would have settled in your bodies and souls and didn’t merely fade into the ether. In time, the demons will regroup and reorganize—we can trust their inherent chaos to make this period of regrouping longer than it otherwise would take, but we shouldn’t underestimate them. They’ll be back soon enough. Already I’ve had reports from along the front lines that small groups of demons are attacking fortifications and settlements along the southern border.

But what intrigues me most is news from several reliable sources that as our fiendish enemies are starting to mass in the southern reaches along the Riftshadow within the Worldwound, they have left several of their northern lairs relatively unprotected. In particular, the fiend Aponavicius has taken the bulk of her army from Drezen, leaving it only moderately protected as she joins with the Storm King in Iz to, no doubt, plot greater attacks on larger targets like Nerosyan, Karcau, and beyond. The time is right to strike into their territory. Drezen was the first of our cities to fall after the First Crusade, and we lost more than our kin and our pride that day. We lost the Sword of Valor, a magical banner carried by the Inheritor herself during the Shining Crusade.

If Drezen could be retaken—if the Sword of Valor could once again be held by the crusade... well, I trust I don’t need to explain how well that would affect morale. But with the imminent attacks along the border, I cannot spare many to lead an assault on Drezen. And even if I could, a large army attacking the city would only draw Aponavicius back to defend the place. The obvious tactic is to send in a group of capable heroes with a modest but well-trained army to strike now, while the proverbial iron is hot. And this is why I’ve sought you out. If you can retake Drezen and reclaim the Sword of Valor, not only will you silence the fools who would brand you traitors for destroying the wardstone, but more importantly, you would bolster the entire war effort with your heroism. And I fear we need all the bolstering we can get!"

The party seemed quit e thrilled at this. They wanted to know more. The queen then motioned the halfling and human women to approach. "This here is Nurah Dandiwhare" the halfling smiled and bowed slightly. "She is a capable bard, as well as an astute historian, whose knowledge of Drezen and it's surroundings can be invaluable to you. She can also boost your troops moral as you venture forth to the worldwound, and you will need it!"

"And this" The human woman looked at the party evenly "Is Julian. She is a sorcerer of some power, whom we met on the road to Kenabres. When you destroyed the wardstone some of it's power settled in Julian as well. We think that... her power was connected to the wardstone. I believe Iomedae sent her to our path not by chance. I think her destiny lies with you. I would like you to take her on your journey!" Julian nodded, but seemed somewhat uncertain of the party, and they of her. A whole vibe of "Who the hell are YOU?"

Welcome Andrew's new character! But there was a need to say goodbye to Andrew. The queen spoke to Quendys. "Master Quendys. I do not wish to reproach you. What you have done in the absence of a ruler is commendable. But we are at war, and I need someone to bolster my troops, give them hope, courage, and lead this city to a new age. Do you know of someone?" Andrews player took his que. "My queen, I will be most honored to serve this city, and rebuild it for the war effort. However, I do not hold to the same views of the former ruler. I do not go for witch hunts and persecutions. I will not be another Hurlun." The queen smiled a faint smile. "I hoped you'd take my offer. I heard quite a bit of you, Andrew who wields Sirius. You will make a fine leader. As to Hurlun? Well, let us say we had more than one difference of opinion. Stay true to your values, and inspire the city to them, is all I ask." Andrew knelt before the queen and offered his allegiance.

Sen and Johan exchanged glances (See their conversation in Defender's Heart) Sena took Andrew aside for a moment. "Well... This is a turn of events! I wish you the greatest luck and my full support!" (The party: "Licking your way up?") They exchanged and parted.

There was starting to be a commotion outside. The queen looked off the window, and started to stride out. "Come, there are things that need be done, and you need to be recognized for what you've done!"

Julian

Spoiler

Show

She's a human female, sorcerer with the arcane blood line, 5th level. Her back story ties her to the wardstone at an early age, and later on wandering far and wide, till she started getting back, found by the Queen's army, and then imbued by some of the wardstones' power. (There is more to the story, but this is the jist of it).

Mechanically the player went a long wy to try and get more spells, including buying spell pages. Most of his spells are battlefield control (He wishes not to go on the blasty side. That's Harry's department). She has a hawk familiar, which Julian's player hope to use for scouting.

To keep things interesting, I allowed him to take the "Exposed to awfulness" trait and take the archmage mythical path (and powers later on)

Some feats and such:
(These included the Hall of Heroes bonuses. I didn't see a reason why not to add them)
42 hp
Cha 22 (Thanks to head band of charisma)
Feats: Silent spell, piercing spell, Spell penetration (+ greater), Expanded arcana (2 more spells of 1st level)
Mythic feat: Spell lore (Mirror image)
Mythic powers: Wild Arcana, Enduring armor
Spells:
1st level
Air bubble, grease, mount, identify, ear piercing scream, hydraulic push, magic missile (From spell page), Ray of enfeeblement (Spell page), Break, Blood money, feather fall
2nd level
invisibility, mirror image, aboleth's lung.

Queen's speech, medals and knighthood!
They came outside to a temporary stage in from of the broken arena, where many of Kenabres' folks gathered, seeking to hear their queen. (A bit more read through. Mine this time). She rose and addressed the crowd.

"Citizens of Kenabres. It was in holy Aramasse, but a week before that the wardstone shook at Narosyan. We got the news fairly quickly- Kenabres was attacked, it's defenses overthrown, and a demon host ravaged it's streets. We tried to contact the leaders- Hurlun, the high priest, The general, but have failed. He was struck here, with many of our people, where the Storm King killed our valiant defender and friend, Terendelev…

My heart sank that day, for I feared for Kenabres, for you, my beloved people. But I prayed for The Iomedae, Sarenrae, Torage, Desna, Shelyn and other gods to grant us hope. A chance to fight and prevent the worst." (Pause, she looks at all, and then smiles). "And the gods have answered. From the ranks of mere recruits rose new heroes. First locked in the depths of the city they have brought us a new light, a new sword, and our long awaited brothers, sisters, family and comrades to battle. The first ascendants." (The queen knelt in front of the mongrelfolk. This brought awed responses from the crowd, and the party as well. She just gained points with them it seemed.) "We have done you great wrong, but no longer will you leave in the darkness. I welcome you to our homes, to our hearts, to our people. May the transgressions of the ancestors be redeemed by the children."

She stood up, and went towards the character, with Nurah in tow with a small brief at her side. "And from those recruits rose a few commendable, brave and resourceful individuals. For a demon may plot, scheme, betray, and confound, but they can never count for the rise of new heroes, protectors and defenders. I give you Kenabres champions."

She went to Senatef "The Medal of Clarity, for discovering the demons' plot, and the presence of cultists in our midst. The Medal of Valor, for killing the half fiend bone cobbler, in the Hall of Heroes." She pinned the medals unto his chest.

Next was Andera "The Medal of Clarity, for discovering the demons' plot, and the presence of cultists in our midst. (They all got it!) The Medal of Vigor, for killing the fiendish minotaur at the gray garrison, and the Medal of Vigor, for coming back to the fight with Hosila the cultist after being felled".

Harry. "The Medal of Clarity, for discovering the demons' plot, and the presence of cultists in our midst. The Medal of Valor, for killing Jaslyn at the gray garrison"

Andrew. "The Medal of Clarity, for discovering the demons' plot, and the presence of cultists in our midst. The Medal of Command, for redeeming one that was lost" (Millorn got a lot better after the event in the gray garrison, forgot to mention it).

Mad Dog. "The Medal of Clarity, for discovering the demons' plot, and the presence of cultists in our midst.The Medal of Agility, for killing the cultist Faxon before he could act. The Medal of Valor, for killing Othirubo the cultist, as well as the Aghash Div demon."

The queen draws her sword. John gives them a look and they all kneel. The queen goes one by one, placing the sword on their shoulders. "I knight thee, champions of Kenabres, Knights of Mendev! Citizens of Kenabres, I give you your champions!" As the party rose to their feet there was applause, shouts and such. (The party REALLY liked that).

As the applause quieted down, the queen concluded. "Kenabres was struck, and the loss is great. The wardstones are no more, and their protection lost. But they have also suffered great losses, and have lost the initiative. And we shall cease it! As we stand here, in the rebuiliding of Saint Clydwell's cathedral, so shall we rise and rebuild, and more- we shall avenge those who died! We shall strike back, while the iron is hot, and we shall strike with such wrath, such might, with such a holy light that the demons will scamper back to the abyss from whence they've come! If the demons seek war, they will regret it! I declare the Fifth crusade begins today! We will end this war, once and for all!"

(More applause and so on... )

Queen's interview and speech

Spoiler

Show

I aimed to make the queen very approachable, friendly, someone the party can respect and relate to. Not just because of her title or paladin levels. As I understand she accompanies the PCs on later module, so they need to be friendly with her to some small degree.

I wanted to play out some sort of a ceremony with the PCs at the center, to give them some recognition, and a change that things are now different. Knights get to lead armies and to own land, which comes up real shortly.

As to the medals, I went with what the modules suggested. After the session Julian's plyer (Not Andrew no more, I need to get used to it as well) Commented about them. While they are nice (The party liekd them) they do not encourage group play, but rather a sort of a competition. He suggested making medals for soemthign a groups can accomplish. Plus, some were quite dumb- killing blow of an enemy? Whiel others are most likely to do more damage or affect. Or coming back to fight after going to negatives? It's not what you did, but rather what other did to get you back, and so on.

Tell the truth, I didn't give the medals a lot of thought, but he is right. I will try to think of new, more interesting medals for the end of the next module, that do not encourage competition as such. Suggestions?

Also, a bit of unthinking on my side- Julian didn't get knighted... She can't "Officially" lead armies. Though her player might have come up with an idea to circumvent that.

Starting to plan...
The party got back to the church, and Nurah pulled some of her maps to show the party (I sent the party via email a file with the general map of the worldwound and their location, of the march to Drezen, and of Drezen). They started discussing and asking questions. The Queen also sent Nulan, her elf advisor to help them with picking the units for their armies.

The module let the party have an "army" of 100 paladins of 4th level. We were all in the army though (Israel). And that sounds quite... absurd. Plus, I intended to make a more interesting rmy interaction than that presented in the module and the PF rules (The PF army rules are meant for kingdoms and hex combat, not fora straight route, where the armies just hit each other back and forth).

Edit from later on: Our homebrew tactical mass combat rules

Now this got a bit... complicated. and we stopped the session there. It was apparent that these new rules will need some digesting, discussing, and some decisions need to be made.

It seems we'll have TWO systems to try and get used to- mythic rules, and army rules. We all agreed we shall see them as we go. Gonna be a bit of a bumpy ride!
---------------------------------------------------
We ended the session here. All in all a good session- the end of one module and the start of another, with high spirits, and planning. At least 2 of the players (Julian and Sena's players) quite tactics' svy, I hope I will be able to challenge them. I worry a bit about the others though- Andera seemed suspicious. Harry... I can't quite read Harry. But Mad Dog's player? I feel she got a bit lost. Both due to the overload of gaining a level, mythic powers and now armeis and lrger scale tactics (Not something she that good at). She closed up a bit at the end. I've discussed this with some players, and with her along the week, but that will come in further post.

Currently I'm quite tired, so I'll go rest before the next leg of studying. I hope you all had a fun read, feel free to write your opinions, comments and questions, as always!

[Kol Korran]

Hi again. I'd like to address 3 subjects:

1. Mad Dog's player's frustration: I felt her withdrawing a bit from the game last time. I assumed that she was intimidated by all of the new rules, and have asked the forum for some advice. Talking to her though it seems her main frustration comes from being told what to do and the good intentioned advice some players give her, which sort of stymy her creativity. I've been trying to address this, mainly encouraging her to make her frustration known to the other players, but willing to talk to the group myself, if she feels uncomfortable. Still no answer from her. We'll see...

2. The army rules: So far just minimal interest, but my players tend to look at the game only when coming close to playing it. Sena and Julian's players are the most active. Julian's player suggested a more narrative and dramatic sort of conflict resolution, focusing less on tactics and more on roleplay. We're discussing this as well.

3. I started to look for music for this module (I hope to give each module more of a feel of it's own.) So searching for new tracks, mainly on this thread. Feel free to contribute!

Next meeting is on the 12th of July it seems. But Most likely I will update how the entire army issue goes before that. We hope to settle this before next session.

[Yuul]

I'd like to say that I'm the third to register just to thank you for posting this as I too am preparing to run WotR, if not until sometime next year after my brother and our gaming group wrap up Rise of the Runelords(Anniversary Edition), but as it turns out I already had an account here that I forgot about a long time ago!

Still I wanted to say thanks. I was looking for references and help(preferably from other DMs and GMs) with how to run it as best I can and I want to say that your campaign log has already helped me a lot. Many of the things you point out I hadn't even thought of, or did, but just not to quite the same extent. I particularly like the idea of the players participating in the opening fight for a few rounds before they fall into the tunnels, I always prefer to start things with a bang, and they usually like it too. Other things of note for me are the build up to finding Radiance, as well as the much more "boss battle" feel to the final fight as well as what came after.

I am already planning to make use of much of the changes you already made, and a few of the music selections(particularly the ones where they are first exploring ruined Kenabres), and so am looking forward to future posts on your group's progress. :)

Now I'm going to stop by that music thread some suggestions for you, as it seems the least I can do.

[Kol Korran]

Hey Yuul! I've seen the post before but was unable to respond to it and... forgot. Thanks for the music suggestions in the music thread.

I'm glad you liked the log so far, It's far from perfect, but hey- people have fun and come back to play, right? I'm a bit worried about the mass combat stuff, but we'll see how it goes long. At worst We'll change back tothe way the module does it.

I've had a bit more time to read the third module, and the thing that I find the hardest is finding a good motivation for the characters to just explore the wilderness aimlessley. If I know them they will lots of ideas of what to do. Maybe we'll just go with them, I don't know.

[Yuul]

I've read through about as far as the start of book 4, and I too am a bit iffy about book 3. It's very sandboxy, which can be a good thing sometimes, but I worry what it will mean for my group. They have a track record of half the time overlooking hints and clues meant to be noticeable but still somewhat subtle, and half the time shooting off in completely unexpected directions(the kind that are harder to just roll with than some) when in sandboxy situations.

I've also been worried about the mass combat stuff, so I am going to see how your planned modifications work out(I glanced at the thread discussing it).

Though I haven't read past the early pages of book 4 yet, I can tell you that Queen Galfrey joins up with the party for at least a good portion of book four as they plunge into the abyss. Supposedly the other "Main" three or four NPCs(Irabeth, Anevia, Aravash, and Horus) also join in. Or have the option to anyway.

I am looking forward to seeing how you work with the campaign traits, and may incorporate some of it into my own game. Touched by Divinity, I like the potential, but I feel the plot as is has it falling rather flat. So I planned to improve it all along the way with hints and perhaps even a 'guiding voice' at times.

Still I wonder how you will roll with them.

[Kol Korran]

We have a session tomorrow. Due to the current situation in my country (Israel) we ae half joking- half serious where to play, where is safe enough. (Though we do intend to play. We won't let it disrupt our life). And whether any of us might be called to reserve service before the session (We all do reserve service). Oh well, just a weird situation. Please don't make this a political discussion, it's not the issue here.

Due to the final exams I had very little time to work on the game or prepare. I'll probably try to do so this evening. Some other small updates:
1) We hope that Mad Dog's frustration will be dealt with in game. Both me and Julian's player will try to help her out more to express herself, and do mistakes to learn from them. Hopefully this will work.

2) A silent front on the army rules issue. Other than Sena's player who took quite some interest, the others seem to wait to the session to try it out.

3) I sent a short "end of module" questionnaire to the party. Only Andrew/ Julian's player answered it. (Lousy good for nothing players! ) I will try to post the main points later hopefully.

4) I've been thinking about the first mythic trial- Soltenberrge the mythical chimera. The module assumes they meet her at 7th level/ 1st tier, and she's a CR 9... It's my opinion that a mythical trial should be hard, REAL hard, so I'm trying to upgrade it to about CR 11. If you're interested in chipping in, feel free to check out the Soltengrebbe thread! Ideas will be welcomed!

[Kol Korran]

Hey, I just wanted to mention in case someone is wondering what happened to the log, that we did have a session, but with how things are currently in Israel, the pressure from studies and a few other more minor things I haven't been exactly in the right mind frame to write the session log. I hope to do this a bit later this week. My head hasn't much been on the game lately.

I only posted one advice seeking thread about a sword for Andera. Feel free to suggest there if you wish.

Thanks, updates will come up soon I hope.

[Kol Korran]

Ok, I'm back, sorry for the delay. The last session happened quite bit ago, but thankfully I keep some notes. That said, it wasn't all that dramatic. Most of the sessions focused on interviewing potential units and building the PCs army (The players preferred to leave it to the session instead to do it through emails) and then we had one battle in their march to Drezen. So not that much going on, but hopefully you'll enjoy just the same. We tried to roleplay it as much as possible.

Session 8, part 1- The making of an army!

Putting this again, if it helps Our homebrew tactical mass combat rules

The set up was that the party had 300 BP from the queen to "purchase" units for their army (It was an allocation of resources, since the units they didn't "purchase" stayed to protect Kenabres). I had 9 units who were a bit more experienced who sought to be in the PCs army, and the PCs could also use the building points to upgrade the units with equipment and resources, to make them more formidable.

Each Unit also had a representative to speak for the unit, which was my way of "putting a face" on the unit, and thus make it more of an NPC than a bunch of stats. The party decided they wanted to interview the units, and so we started. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the forumists, who may recognize some of the units as their suggestions (made in one of the side "asking for advice" threads).

The party also needed to allocate the commanders for the units, which could be themselves, or Arabeth, Commander John and Lann from their forces (More on that later). They also had Anevia as a front Scout, and Aravash and Nurah (The queen's advisor, a bard who joined them) as support casters. So there was a bit to handle.

The Queen's Knights (100 mounted human cavalier 4. Cost: 54 BP)
The Queen's Knights traveled with the Queen, and she offered their servie to the PCs. They were highly trained professional soldiers. The module gives the party a unit of 100 paladin knights, and this was my version of them. Statistics wide- they were probably the best unit- fast, good defense, good offense. But they were also the most expensive.

Their representative is Camilo Dann (A name taken fro ma very minor NPC later in the module). She seemed a bit surprised to be taken from the Queen's direct command, but accepted it. The general impression was tht though she accepted the PCs command, she was unsure of them, and didn't trust them enough. The party gathered they may have to earn her trust.

Surprisingly, it was Julian who conducted the majority of the interviews, despite being the newest one in the group. (You can take the face out of the party, but not of the player). She had the same sort of questions for all the troops:
1) What are your strengths? Your weaknesses?
2) How best can we use your force in battle?
3) Your experience at fighting demons? At fighting a siege? (This question was due to the party suspecting they will have to siege Drezen)
4) If you were ordered to fight alongside tieflings, how would you respond? (There was a captive tiefling unit, which we'll get to later. However the question was mostly used to the obedience and discipline)

Camilo answered that their main strength was their speed. They were used to intercept, or to flank demons. They struck fast, and hard. They had little experience of dealing with magic though. Camilo did not like the possibility of fighting alongside "demonic traitors", but would accept it, which was on the whole, the general answer they got to this questions from most units. I kept calling Julian "Sir" (Still thinking of the player as playign Andrew" which was a bit humorous.

The party decided to move to the next unit.

Spoiler: The Queen's Knights

Show

The main idea here was for the party to deal with a highly professional military unit roleplay wise, and a strong unit stat wise.

Eagles of Kenabres (200 lvl 2 fighters, poorly equipped. Cost: 34 BP)
The next unit was actually the remains of Kenabres' Eagle watch, Arabeth's unit in the city, as well as the other troops that fought for the PCs in the previous module, providing them the needed distraction to infiltrate the Gray Garrison. Their representative was Sergent Tam, a fairly young man, who was eager to fight under the PCs banner, which his entire unit viewed as great heroes.

They comprised a large unit (2 squares instead of one on the battle grid), which was an advantage and disadvantage at the same time. They were eager, but fairly inexperienced, and other than short range capability and cold iron weapons, didn't have much support. The party whoever was mostly concerned of their speed (20 feet base), which meant that tking them will slow down the entire march (7 days with all units mounted, 10 days with a speed of 30 ft, 14 days with a speed of 20 ft). The party wished to move fast, and so debated whether to take them and supply them with mounts (24 BP for 200 people) or leave them behind.

This led to a small discussion whether to take fewer units, but upgrade them better, or more units, and use numbers to their advantage...

As this discussion went on, the party moved on to the next unit.

Spoiler: Eagles of Kenabres

Show

I wanted to have some continuity with the former module, and though that continuing to fight alongside their fellow defenders-of-Kenaberes might be interesting. Mechanically wise they had great moral, and were a large unit, which was unique amongst the units. But this also meant that upgrading them cost more.

The first descendants (100 Mongrelfolk, 1st level rogues. Cost: 28 BP)
The mongrelfolk established themselves somewhat apart from the rest of the city's inhabitants. While the Eagles of Kenabres accepted them, most others still had suspicions about them, so they decided to separate themselves. As the party approached they saw Lann (Now a 2nd level fighter) supervising an urban guerrilla fight drill amongst his forces. As they approached he put his hands on Sena's shoulders. "Welcome Spirit, what brought you here today?" This surprised the party, who have just learned that Sena earned new name amongst the mongrelfolk- Spirit.

Lann answered Julian's questions. The mongrelfolk were used to fight from hiding, from ambush, and with stealth, and so their tactics focused upon that. Plus, they could see at night, which was an important advantage. Lann however commented that "While you and the eagels respect us, I'm afraid most others won't..." Lann however seemed uncomfortable in command, and Sena/ Spirit noticed that, but kept quiet. They too weren't happy to fight alongside tielfings, but "You gave us a chance, we'll give them one, though we'll keep our eyes open". Julian had one more question though: "suppose we capture our objective, suppose we get to hold it. What then? What is your long term goal?" Lann answered this simply "We wish to prove ourselves to your people. Perhaps then we'll "earn" our place amongst them. I but seek a place where my people could leave as equals, without fear." The party liked that.

Equipment wise they too were poorly equipped, but Sena (Who wished to lead them, as part of a roleplay opportunity) hoped he could upgrade them sufficiently enough.

As the pry moved on to other units, Sena departed. "I'll meet you later, I have some other business to attend to."

Spoiler: The first ascendents

Show

Again, I wanted to have some continuity with the past, and I thought the mongrelfolk presented much of a roleplay opportunity. They also brought some conflict to the army, as most units didn't trust them. Mechanics wise they were a stealth and ambush unit (Though not the only one) Lann could also be made a commander, though he fared much better with commanding the mongrelfolk than the other units.

Bartlet's hounds (50 halflings mounted on war dogs, 4th level rangers, long range capability. Cost :29 BP)

THe party moved outside of Kenabres, to where the units not native of Kenabres, who rode to help when the trouble started, were stationed. They came upon a great archery range, with halflings riding dogs and far away targets. A halfling in rich clothing, a cigar at his mouth and an open bottle of strong liquor approached them. "So you are the heroes! Damn glad to meet you! Me and me boys are ready to go demon hunting, just point us the way!"

Bartlet's hounds were a small, fast moving, stealthy unit with long range capabilities. They were great for scouting and archery support, but were extremely vulnerable, which caused quite a discussion with in the group. As to fighting beside tieflings? Bartlet spat and cursed the "backstabbing, wretched, thieving, scheming, murderous, treacherous scum!" He pleaded with Julian to not hire them, but agreed (Quite grudgingly) to obey a commander's command if it came to that. Which seemed to satisfy the party on that point.

Spoiler: Bartlet's hounds

Show

This unit requires quit a skill to use right, due to all that's mentioned above. I also quite liked the idea of non traditional halflings with a "let me at them!" attitude!

Dunklehelm's mercenary company (100 dawrves, 3rd level fighters, well equipped including an engineer support. Cost: 43 BP)

The second most expensive unit after the Queen's Knights, and for a good reason- experienced, disciplined, and with good equipment, including an engineering support. Dunklehelm himself, the company's leader/ treasurer was found in his tent. Surprinslgy enough the dwarf proved to be some what of a philosopher-warrior though also quite a practical one. The party worried about the mercenary aspect, but Dunklehelm assured that while they were working under a contract, they will see it through, and that they don't work for devils.

Julian asked them about their long term plans- what will happen if they capture Drezen? "Well, that will have to be negotiated at that point, under those conditions." The party didn't quite like it. Julian wanted people loyal to the cause, and not just the money. (She also didn't relish needing to pay him over and over again) But as the others in the party mentioned- they were an excellent fighting unit... Tough choice.

Spoiler: Dunklehelm's mercenary company

Show

The idea was to introduce professionals, who were not instantly loyal to the crusade. A more experienced voice, but also one with more gray morals.

Meanwhile, Sena and the Queen

in order not to dry out the player while the others interviewed the units, I turned to him. He approached the Queen at her command post in the cathedral. "My Queen, you know of Lann, the leader of the mongrelfolk. He feel that leadership was thrust upon him unprepared. This has put doubts in the leaders of his people and I fear- also in himself as well. I wish to strengthen his resolve, his confidence in himself." The Queen nodded. "I Agree, but I feel you do not come for advice, but with a plan?" Sena nodded, and went on. "I think that a simple ceremony, a word from authority, and perhaps a symbol of legitimacy can go a long way." Sena steadied himself, and went with his request. "My Queen, if I can arrange for a gathering of Lann and his community's leaders, might you perform a small ceremony, strengthening his position? Perhaps offering some symbol of your trust?" The queen sighed. "I wish people wouldn't put so much into these things, but if you think this is important, we'll arrange something. I would not want to send him to battle with such doubts. Arrange for them to come to the cathedral as the sun sets. We'll perform something quick, but which hopefully do the job. Will that suffice?" Sena nodded, and showed his respect again. As he was about to leave he just added one small thing "This did not come from me. I was never here!" To which the Queen just shooed him away.

Sena went to Opoli, and informed her that the Queen requested the presence of Lann and the community leaders. "What for?" asked Opoli suspiciously, but Sena ws just as surprised as she was...

Sena's player likes the mongrelfolk angle, and thinks it has a LOT of roleply potential. I'm trying to work with him on that.

Lions of Sarkori (100 humans. 3rd level barbarians. Moral support. Cost: 34 BP)
As the party approached their tents they could hear quite a lot of chanting, hymns, and a high spirited ceremony. They saw some priest, with some green coloring and clothes blessing the warriors. But as the party approached he made place to them. The priest, Jester Helton of the Green Faith (A character from the 3rd module which I thought should start appearing now) approached them, and answered their questions. The Sarkori were the original people from the land now occupied by the Worldwound. These were refugees, remnants that sought to revenge and bring battle on the demons. Quite high spirited, and eager for battle, they were in a way exactly opposite of the Knights of the Order of Sarenrae- they were wild, focused on strong offense, and fast moving (Barbarian's fast movement). They had drummers and such to lend moral support, and Mad Dog quickly liked their spirit, saying he'll command them.

They had pretty much the same approach to the tieflings s the Bartlet hounds. No love lost.

Spoiler: Lions of Sarkori

Show

Roleplay wise, I wanted to bring the story of the people who had their land ruined. The 3rd module mentions them quite a bit more, so I thought to make an appearance here. Plus- barbarians can lead to all kind of interesting stuff.

Mechanically, This unit was designed to be Mad Dog's unit in mind- simple enough to use, and fitting his general method. I wanted to not complicate the player too much.

The Silver Banner (50 elderly humans, mounted. 5th level fighters. Well equipped Cost: 30 BP)

The party was about to go and see the tieflings, but a troop of riders approached them quickly. The Queen's representative rolled his eyes seeing them approach. "Not again!" The riders' armor seemed to have seen lots of battles, as did their weapons, and the riders themselves. But... they were a bit... elderly. The average age was around 60-65, but it didn't seem to deter the old knights. There was fire in their eyes!

The leader, one Dumas Ardent went straight for Julian. "My lady! I beseech you to accept us, The Silver Banner, on this glooorious crusade, to skewer demons, slay the vile, and have one honorable, valiant and bloody charge to the enemy's ranks, slaughtering them in the beauty and glory of righteous battle!" Apparently these were all well seasoned fighters, who were retired after many years of fighting. Dumas however brought them together once more, once he herd another crusade, probably the last crusade, has started. Between aching joints, baldy or white haired heads, and other such ailments these knights were fierce to the battle and to the fight!

The party were greatly amused by them, but also quite apprehensive. "Why do you want this? Don't you have families? Grandchildren and such?" The riders groaned, but Dumas surmised their feelings "What? And to die in the comfort of my fluffy bed? In the night? That is no way a warrior should die! A worthy death is with the enemies guts in one hand, and your own guts in the other, choking it's miserable life with it!" To which there was a general grunting of agreement.

Again, the party was amused, but worried nonetheless about "grandpa's army". As to the tieflings? "who cares? So we fight?" The party tired to easily let them know they'll decide a bit later...

Spoiler: The Silver Banner

Show

Roelplay wise, they re both an experienced voice, and a hoot to have around. They consider themselves as equal to the party, and won't accept their leadership that easily if opportunity for glorious battle presents itself. They are a sort of a tip of my hat to Terry Pratchet's Cohen the Barbarin and his SIlver Horde.

Mechanics wise, they are the strongest offensively of all the units, but more vulnerable than if they were younger (less hit points)

The Tieflings' horde (200 tieflings, 2nd level rogues, no equipment but sorceres support. Cost: Free!)

Finally the party came to the tieflings. These were captives that somehow survived the destruction by the wardstone's lash of power, and were captured by the city defenders. They were supposed to be executed tomorrow, but their leader, one Qulis Long shadow, offered their servitude in return for their lives.

Now, to say that the players didn't trust them would be an udnerstatement, but Andera's player was quite intrigued by them. So he wished to interview Qulin. The tiefling, who's shadow didn't quite fit the play of light, and seemed abnormally long, postured and grovelled at the feet of the PCs. "Our souls are lost, we seek to lvie longer, before goign to the Abyss, we shall fight for you, serve you, if you spare us oh Master!" The party didn't quite like the grovelling, but habits of living with powerful demons who would slay you without a thought were hard to break, so Qulin kept on acting submissive and belittling himself.

Apparently, since they have failed in their goal, and even managed to live after their failure, their lives, and more than that- their souls were forsaken. They all faced great torment and punishment in the next world, so they sought to postpone that moment as much as they could. Not exactly the greatest motive to the opinions of some of the group. "How do we know you will not betray us to some other demon?" Qulin laughed mirthlessly. "Other demon? They won't see us worthy of the ash between their hoofs. We are forsaken, lost, worse then you are in their eyes. We are fully and totally lost, we wish to live longer." Julian though that they might be perhaps redemeed but Qulin explained "The worldwound tielfings put their souls to the Abyss, part of it is in demons' hands. We appreciate this suggestion, but it is hopeless, a mad thought. No, we are lost." Sena's plyer wondered- can their should might be found in the worldound perhaps? (Kching! Plot hook?! ) but Qulin seemed to have no hope.

"We know that you don't trust us, fear us. But we have no other hope, no other opportunity. We shall serve you Master, be your tools, your weapons, we are yours oh great lord, we shall do s you wish, our lives are yours..." and so on and so on.... they were decent warriors, with darkvision, a darkness ability, and some sorcerer support. They didn't have any equipment though (Not even provisions, all of the other units had enough for 2 weeks), but they did come for free. (The queen didn't plan on using them to defend the city, She wished to execute them), so upgrading them shouldn't take too much, wouldn't it?

Lann's ceremony

We turned to the ceremony. Lann came with some leaders of the mongrelfolk ot the Cathedral. Sena and Commander John also attended. The Queen came, with some other officials, and some knigths to give it some more dignity. "We are at a time of war, and so I apologize, but this will need to be brief. Though I paid my respect, my appreciation for your people Lann, I did not pay my respect to you. Pelase come, and Kneel". The surprised and shocked Lann came forward and knelt. "You have done much for the city, more than most would have in your condition. And yet, depspite suspicion from our people, you and your valiant clans come to fight for us once more. I cannot leve the leadership of one of my forces to a simpleton, so I knight thee, Lann, a Knight of the realm, a protector of Mendev. "And she put the sword to his beweildered shoulders. "Rise lann". As the stunned mogrelfolk rose she continued. "Your people are ones of action, and so am I. If you are to go and be my arms in the war to come, than You'll need protection." The Queen undeed her arm braces, and put it on Lann's arms. "With these, you are acting in my name. Your hand as my hand. Go forth and lead your people to victory!"

The ceremony seemed to have done the trick, at lest for the other mongrelfolk leaders if not necessarily Lann himself. Sena hugged Lann, and then him and John went to the order, leaving the mongrelfolk to celebrate. On the way Sena asked John of his curse, as the spirits haunting him (Oracle curse) seemed more ctive these last few days. John smiled and sighed. "It's just the tension I'm afraid. It's been a long time since I've been to the worldwound. I came to a teaching position for a reason." Sena stayed silent for a bit, but let it go. As they reached the order, Sena spoke out loud. "Tomorrow we go to battle, You brother John, wil lcommand the order, I will help guide another troop. We all have a purpose." And that seemed to have settled it.

Final army composition

The next part of the session included lot of discussions about which units to add, which not to add, who will command what, and what upgrades to acquire. Major points of discussion were as follows:
1) To bring the tieflings along or not? Most of the group were certain that they'll betray the party at some point, but Andera wished to lead them. They were intrigued by the possibility of perhaps redeeming them, but it seemed unlikely.
2) Other units that got some scrutiny were Bartlet's hounds (Aren't they too vulnerable?) Dunklehelm (Did't like their mercenary nature) and The Silver Horde (They were weary of leading the elderly to battle, plus thoughtthey might be TOO enthusiastic).
3) Who will command what. Quite a few changes here.
4) What upgrades to take, with first and foremost- who will take the siege weapons, and how many to take of those?
5) How fast should the army be? All mounted for 4o ft? 30 ft? 20 ft? The party settled on a speed of 30 ft, which meant they'll reach Drezen (hopefully) in 10 days.

In the end, it came up to the following troop composition:
1) The Queen's Knights: Under Command of Arabeth. Upgraded with engineer support, and a small stock of CLW potions.
2) Lions of Sarkoris: Under command of Mad Dog. Upgraded with better armor, and a small stock of CLW potions.
3) The first ascendants: Under formal leadership of Lann, but with Sena advising and tutoring him (We're using Sena's stats of command). Andera put his spy expert scout under their command. Aravashnial also joined the troops for magical support.
4) Knights of the Order of Sarenrae: Under command of Commander John, upgraded with short range weapons and the army's only siege engine (John is a siege specialist)
5) Bartlet's hounds: Under command of Julian (The player served in similar elite scouting and targeting unit,s he liked the idea). Upgraded with better weapons and armor, to increase survivability, as well as a small stock of CLW potions. Harry didn't wish to command a troop (Thinking he'll be more of use as magical support) and initially joined the hounds as well.
6) The Silver Banner: left to the command of Dumas! (He adds no command bonuses). Upgraded only with a small stock of CLW potions. That's the way to respect your elders?
7) The tieflings' host: Last but not least, the party decided to bring them along. Not because they trusted them, but because Andera's player really wanted them, so they though to indulge him. Andera manged to get them cold iron weapons, short range capability, some better armor and provisions. They decided to add Nurah to their troop, both so she could boost their low moral, and also keep another eye on them. (But if you know Nurah's role in the campaign, you know what opportunities this might mean! )

And so, after a long process, the party had their army- some experienced soldiers, some over zealous soldiers, the mongrelfolk and tieflings who weren't exactly trusted. What could possibly go wrong?
--------------------------------
Enough for now, I hope I get to update about the first battle soon enough. The party decided to drop the mock battle I originally planned for them to get to know the rules, and just head straight for the march.
Next update!

[Kol Korran]

Ok, the second part of the session.

Session 8- Part 2- Battle at Vilareth ford

(A small note: Sena's player had to return home around this point. so we tried to keep him and the first ascendents "in the background")

Next morning, each commander gives his own version of a rising speech to the unit they command (Nothing that special), and the party set out. The Tiefling host marches in front, as the rest don't trust them to be at their backs. I put this marching music:

The Black moon Chronicles, track 7

The Silver Banner rides by the Lions of Sarkori, and the two units banter at who'll charge first. The party decides they may need someone to command the Silver Banner, and try and hold them in check. Harry surprisingly decides to take charge, and joins the group of battle hardened veterans. They are mostly amused by him (He's supposed to look somewhat like Harry Potter) and take him "under their wing",regaling the "youngling" with tales of battles and so on.

Originally the plan was for Andera, Mad Dog and Anevia to do short scouting missions ahead of the army, but they preferred to just leave it be, and roll with what Anevia brings them. And as they near the most northern settlement in Mendev- Vilareth Ford, where they are supposed to resupply, Anevia indeed comes with news- the ford has fallen! There is some black smoke rising, and she got close enough to notice the place is held by a large number of tieflings, and some dretches as well. There is little sign of the ford's people though...

The party goes into planning, and I put on the tactical battle map of the ford' surroundings. (I took a picture, but it got corrupted somehow. Sorry). Basically the army was traveling on the east side of a river, with forests mostly surrounding them. Vilareth ford was just beyond a bridge crossing the river, on the west side, there were also a hilly terrain to the west and south west of the ford.

Strategy was discussed. The party wished to gain info of what was going on, and so a plan of soem trickery came up. Andera, under the guise of disguise and magic, would approach with the tiefling host, and will try and get info, and learn of what happened there. Tell the truth, I think this was also a "loyalty" test the party had for the tieflings. A bit of a dangerous loyalty test, considering that Andera and Nurah will be alone there amongst 200 tieflings + who knows how many other enemies!

Before their approach though, The Bartlet hounds (Commanded by Julia) Will cross the river from the south, and make head for the hills, trying to get to a vantage point, and a look out. The First ascendents will travel by the cover of the forest up north of the ford, and will cross there, and will block any enemies escaping north. The rest will wait for a signal from Julian's eagle familiar. Anevia's report said that the tieflings looked mostly like an undisciplined bunch, and were mostly celebrating, so hopefully there were few scouts.

Julian and the hounds started this. They indeed managed to get close enough to the range of their long bows, hiding in the hills. They counted about 400 tieflings in the village, half looking more like raiders than an army (1st level rogues), while the other half looked more like an army (2nd level fighters). There were also Dretches strewen about, and a heavy smell of cooking meat. Julian didn't like this. Through the eyes of her eagle she saw the first ascendents finally reaching their position, and sent her eagle to Andera.

Andera spent the time disguising himself, with some help from Nurah's magic. He warned Qulin "Betray me and I'll have your hide!" Qulin groveled. "Our fate is yours oh master". The plan started to look quite risky to Andera all of a sudden. As they approached lonely from the woods, some lookouts from the village noticed them, and called an alert. It was just then that Andera's player realized that he doesn't speak Abyssal. It was up to Qulin to direct the negotiations...

The tieflign army unit along with the dretches crossed the bridge to meet with the new comers, highly suspicious. Qulin started t ogrovel and explain, with Andera desperately trying to read body language. A big horned demon, with fire in his eyes and breath (The Brimorak Commander) approached and roared at Qulin, speaking briefly, before striking him down, splaying the sorcerer on the ground. Andera almost panicked, but Long Shadow gave him a quick smile and warning look. The Brimorak yelled at them, and motioned them into the village. Somehow (and with lucky rolls on the players part) this worked. Qulin portrayed themselves as raiders and harrasers, coming to resupply.

The source of the smell soon became apparent- bodies of the villagers over roasting pits. Andera's tieflings entered the village, amongst the other tieflings, when all of a sudden (Maybe because the enemy forces were split? Half across the bridge), Julian gave the order to attack. A hail of arrows came upon the unprepared raiders, felling almost all of them in once concentrated Volley. "Betrayal!" Yelled the Brimorak, but surprise was on the PC's army side. The Sarkori lions as well as the Silver Banner rushed forth towards the enemy, but didn't reach them just yet, With the Queen's Knights just behind them.

The Dretches summoned another small army (one size less by our rules), and both charged the Banner and the Sarkori. The Sarkori took an aggressive approach, which enabled them to destroy the Dretch army, but at heavy wounds. They resorted to drinking part of their healing potions stock (Quite early in the march...) And retreating, while the tiefling army shot behind the dretches at the knights. Meanwhile at the village, both tiefling hosts started a battle between the buildings streets, tiefling fighting tiefling, and ANdera caught in the mess, not knowing who to strike or defend against! The engagement meant that the Bartlets couldn't fire, and so they moved more north to help catch escapees.

The battle was soon over though, The last of the dretches vanished, and the combined charge of the Queen's knights and the Silver Banner quickly cut down the tiefling army with few wounds. Qulin's sorcerers deployed their abyssal powers and gave the needed edge to strike down the heavily wounded tiefling raiders, cutting them all down. Qulin looked at Andera, somewhat bruised, but smiling enigmatically "As I said Master, our lives are yours".

But one thing did go amiss- As the tieflign army was trodden by the knights, Harry riding beside Dumas saw the Brimorak panicking, and then suddenly vanish- teleporting. "Crap!" said Julian's player. "Our presence has been exposed..."
---------------------------
We stopped the session there. For the first battle it went ok, with the specific battle stages of our system (Reconissance, Strategy and tactics, Ranged combat, movement and last melee). It was quite fast (Which was the point), but perhaps a bit too deadly. With the low hit points of hte units (Half their max according to their ACRx HD of the basic unit) An army could easily be utterly wiped out with one lucky roll (Which was close to happen with the Lions of Sarkori). We need to think about it , but I think we'll just double the army's hp. this will lengthen the battle a bit, but not by a whole lot, and might make the battle less swingy.

Our next session in on this Saturday (I took a loooong time to update this time. Sorry.) The next Session will probably include some inter army interactions, The battle at Keeper's Canyon, the PCs tackling the Lost Chapel, and generally getting into the Worldwound, and with some stuff that happens with it. I've made some adjustments, we'll see how it goes.

We'll be able to test this battle system more, and see how it develops, as well as see the mythical powers coming to play for the first time I think. Should be interesting. As always, feel free to leave comments, questions, or whatever you'd like! See ya!

[Yuul]

Unless you happen to have it another thread, could you give me your charts for the BP upgrades costs and the full statistics? I'm thinking of taking your approach when my group gets there.

I like this though, has more of an army feel to it.

[Kol Korran]

Unless you happen to have it another thread, could you give me your charts for the BP upgrades costs and the full statistics? I'm thinking of taking your approach when my group gets there.

I like this though, has more of an army feel to it.

Hmmm... putting it in another thread (Homebrew probably) might be a good idea. That way people can look it over and possibly improve the system. As the hydra says- multiple heads are better than one, no?

I have it all on a file, but I need to figure out how to do tables on the forum. Some things are in tables, though fairly simple ones. I'm a bit swamped by other RL issues, but I'll try to see later if I can manage something. The rules are based on the strategic Paizo system to a degree, but with changes to enable it to be more... tactical, plus a few other small modifications.

I need to find the time and know how to be able to do it. I'll post a link here once it's underway.

[devlear]

I've had fun reading your story so far. I just recently found it and sadly I will have to stop reading soon as my group has just reached the end of Book 2. I don't want to spoil things for myself if your group overtakes mine.

My group consists of:
Paladin of Iomedae
Cleric of Iomedae
Ranger spec'd in tripping and the Low Templar prestige
Conjuration Wizard (Me)

So far every single Mythic encounter has very nearly wrecked us.

We have taken steps to try to mitigate how broken Mythic abilities can be. For example, we decided that the Recuperation ability was far too powerful for spellcasters. Instead of regaining all spell slots, I regain a small fraction of them instead. We also decided that allowing Spell-Like abilities with expensive material components would be too broken (I.E. taking Divine Source path ability and getting to use Miracle to give ourselves free ability enhancements)

Our DM also warned us that if we don't take any defensive Mythic abilities, we will probably die. Multiple times.

[Kol Korran]

Today is game day. Some of the party however mentioned that they DO NOT intend to take the dry river route, since if the demon teleported- then there will be some serious ambush that way. They might try to brave the steps, and travel the Worldwound's hostile environment to get at Drezen from a surprise angle. I have prepared for this... partially. We'll see what comes.

I've had fun reading your story so far. I just recently found it and sadly I will have to stop reading soon as my group has just reached the end of Book 2. I don't want to spoil things for myself if your group overtakes mine.

Unlikely. We play only once every 4-5 weeks, so this log updates slowly. we're not nearly as slow as PbP, but we're probably fairly slow for table top games.

My group consists of:
Paladin of Iomedae
Cleric of Iomedae
Ranger spec'd in tripping and the Low Templar prestige
Conjuration Wizard (Me)

Having fun? Anything in specific that you found more or less fun? Anything you'd suggest to change?

So far every single Mythic encounter has very nearly wrecked us.

Really? We're coming up to meeting Soltengrebbe (The mythic Chimera, beast of Drezeb. frost breath and all). From the little I read over the boards, it is considered a cake walk, along with the dwarf anti paladin (forgot his name, though I intend to do something VERY different for him) Only the shadow demon is considered a challenge...

We have taken steps to try to mitigate how broken Mythic abilities can be. For example, we decided that the Recuperation ability was far too powerful for spellcasters. Instead of regaining all spell slots, I regain a small fraction of them instead. We also decided that allowing Spell-Like abilities with expensive material components would be too broken (I.E. taking Divine Source path ability and getting to use Miracle to give ourselves free ability enhancements)

Do you happen to have some sort of a "mythic house rules" list to look upon? I'd like to see what suggestions you might have. We'll probably use the mythic powers this session, see how it goes.

Thanks for sharing!

[devlear]

I'm writing mostly on my phone so it is difficult to quote, so i apologize for that.

We just went with the standard army and the 4 adventurers acted as advanced scouts, taking measure of the enemy forces, killing any obvious leaders and other misc encounters, like the forgotten church side quest.

When we got to the city of Drezen we took out all of the other armies in the area and then the 4 adventurers did the crypt, the securing the bridge and securing the walls.

For the walls, i used mythic power to dimensional door into one of the towers along the wall. The two Brimrock there immediately sent up a flare and we had 6 more Brimrock appear for us to fight off. The next round the mythic chimera was upon us. The chimera had the mythic speed template in my game and blasting two ice breath and full attack, pounce, rend twice in the one turn that we had. Every turn it nearly killed one of us. Thanks to relentless healing we barely managed to survive. I think he tried to run away at some point but we got him somehow. Our DM decided that we did 1 Mythic Trial to become mythic, so it didn't make sense to only do 1 more trial to become mythic tier 2, so we didn't gain Mythic Tier 2 and Character level 8 until we defeated the Mythic Gargoyle in the castle

After that, we entered the castle and I had to keep using mythic power to use Shape Stone (because all of the doors are locked and we don't have high enough disable device to open them) to get around the locked doors. We came upon a Mythic Gargoyle that was a pain to kill. It can animate statues, magic jar statues and hide in plain sight at will along with other Mythic powers, like Hover (30' cone that provides cover.) We felt that we had to keep going because if we pulled back they could more then double their forces because all demons can use Greater Teleport once per day. We had to kill 2 succubus, 1 Advanced Ghast Knight or something like that (succubus kept dominating people), 2 Minotaur and an Alchemical golem, shadow mephit and Jorn (Staughton Vaughn's brother). Then we had to kill Staughton Vaughn, trying to keep him away from his brother because he wanted to kill him too. (We had captured Jorn because we felt he could be redeemed). Staughton Vaughn in one turn, Smited Good the Cleric, tripped cleric, AoO cleric, tripped Paladin, AoO paladin and then Whirlwind attacked. Then he somehow summoned a babau (Summon Monster V my character decided) as a free action. We were really hurting because we had already used much of our power throughout the fortress but somehow we won and retreated from the castle.

[devlear]

We are all really enjoying the game so far and having a lot of fun role-playing things out.

As a whole, there are a bunch of things we could do to make our characters a lot stronger, but all of us feel we would rather enjoy the game and story instead of 1-shot-ing things all day long.

We don't really have a list of house rules that we use. We each kinda talk over our Mythic feat / spell choices with the DM and decide together as a group how to interpret its meaning. Some of the ones I talked to the DM about are:

Divine Source - Spell like abilities belonging to the domain you pick. You must pick your Alignment Domains 1st and if you ever change alignments the ability stops working for the alignment you picked (So if I take it as a Lawful Good person i have to take Law and Good domains before anything else). I was told that i could use Miracle to cast any divine spell but that I couldn't use it go gain +1-+5 to a stat (because that costs expensive material components.)

Mythic Metamagic - We decided that spells should not be allowed to go above 9th level. I saw in some other thread that a Cleric used a Mythic persistant empowered maximized Blade Barrier. I'm not sure how that worked because that would be a 13th level spell (Blade Barrier 6th + 2 persistant +2 empowered +3 maximized). We decided that Mythic Metamagic would not raise the spell slot of a spell that you cast using it, but that you also cannot go above 9th level with it either.

Mythic Vital Strike - No one in our party likes this feat. We don't use it and our DM doesn't use it against us. It breaks the flavor of either moving and attacking or full-attacking and facing the consequences.

Oh, and something I forgot to mention in my other thread. The halberd that Staughton Vaughn has is special. I'm not sure what it does exactly, but meta-game I am guessing it is an Intelligent weapon with the non-detection special ability, but my character has not been able to make heads or tails of it lately. Though my character has been acting a little out-of-character lately and my party has not yet noticed

[devlear]

I would say that the shadow demon gave us the least trouble out of the entire book. I made a great knowledge roll and used communal protection from evil, made the check to cast protection from evil on Nurah and then I touched the Sword of Valor and summoned the Planarite. Then dimensional anchor (I forgot that the Sword of Valor prevented teleportation) and he died very very quickly.

[Kol Korran]

Hey Devlear! Thanks for sharing your experience! Sounds like you're having fun!

For the walls, i used mythic power to dimensional door into one of the towers along the wall. The two Brimrock there immediately sent up a flare and we had 6 more Brimrock appear for us to fight off. The next round the mythic chimera was upon us. The chimera had the mythic speed template in my game and blasting two ice breath and full attack, pounce, rend twice in the one turn that we had. Every turn it nearly killed one of us. Thanks to relentless healing we barely managed to survive. I think he tried to run away at some point but we got him somehow.

8 Brimrocks plus Soltengrebbe alltogether? Sounds quite hard! And yet you survived... Hmmmm... I don't know when I'll have the Beast of Drezen fight the party yet, I guess it will depend on their actions. But I intend to buff it up somewhat. The party have 5 PCs, not 4, and the few places I've read consider Soltengrebbe not that powerful as it is. I intend to make a mythical challenge mythic indeed! A decent chance for a TPK. If you want to be epic- earn it!

After that, we entered the castle and I had to keep using mythic power to use Shape Stone (because all of the doors are locked and we don't have high enough disable device to open them) to get around the locked doors. We came upon a Mythic Gargoyle that was a pain to kill. It can animate statues, magic jar statues and hide in plain sight at will along with other Mythic powers, like Hover (30' cone that provides cover.) We felt that we had to keep going because if we pulled back they could more then double their forces because all demons can use Greater Teleport once per day. We had to kill 2 succubus, 1 Advanced Ghast Knight or something like that (succubus kept dominating people), 2 Minotaur and an Alchemical golem, shadow mephit and Jorn (Staughton Vaughn's brother). Then we had to kill Staughton Vaughn, trying to keep him away from his brother because he wanted to kill him too. (We had captured Jorn because we felt he could be redeemed). Staughton Vaughn in one turn, Smited Good the Cleric, tripped cleric, AoO cleric, tripped Paladin, AoO paladin and then Whirlwind attacked. Then he somehow summoned a babau (Summon Monster V my character decided) as a free action. We were really hurting because we had already used much of our power throughout the fortress but somehow we won and retreated from the castle.

You did the citadel differently than the module intended- they assuemd the party will explroe it at their leisure. A dungeon crwl where the party explores a bit, go out and rest, and come back again. This may explain why it was so hard. Though it is impressive that you've still made it so well, or it might mean the module as it is is just not challenging enough? I intend to give the Citadel an entire different feel, especially Staunton Vhane. (Again, most reports I've read considered him an utter cake walk). Lets just say, I think the party will be exploring Drezen at a run!

- various mythical abilties discussions -

I assume I'll discusss things with my party as they come along. I'll post my session a bit later, but we had the first uses of mythical power in it. Just a taste.

Oh, and something I forgot to mention in my other thread. The halberd that Staughton Vaughn has is special. I'm not sure what it does exactly, but meta-game I am guessing it is an Intelligent weapon with the non-detection special ability, but my character has not been able to make heads or tails of it lately. Though my character has been acting a little out-of-character lately and my party has not yet noticed

I'm saying nothing!

I would say that the shadow demon gave us the least trouble out of the entire book. I made a great knowledge roll and used communal protection from evil, made the check to cast protection from evil on Nurah and then I touched the Sword of Valor and summoned the Planarite. Then dimensional anchor (I forgot that the Sword of Valor prevented teleportation) and he died very very quickly.

I am reworking how it will be handled as well. It will be encountered BEFORE Staunton though, and Staunton, after the changes I make, will be the final encounter of this module.

Thanks again for sharing! I imagine your party will explore the third module before mine does. If you'll have some insights then, I'd love to hear them!

[Alleran]

So far every single Mythic encounter has very nearly wrecked us.

We have taken steps to try to mitigate how broken Mythic abilities can be.

What's the general optimisation level of your group, and what are the other steps you've taken?

We also decided that allowing Spell-Like abilities with expensive material components would be too broken (I.E. taking Divine Source path ability and getting to use Miracle to give ourselves free ability enhancements)

While a 1/day Miracle is nice, it's only 1/day (unless you're letting Miracle give you a straight +5). Picking a deity with the Luck domain via Touched By Divinity (or incorporating the Mortal Herald rules from Mythic Origins) will end up giving you as many SLA-uses of Miracle as you have mythic power available. Significantly more broken, of the "nigh-unbeatable" variety. Presumably the sort of thing you'd be attempting to avoid, but I thought I'd note it - the Touched By Divinity trait is extremely good.

I would say that the shadow demon gave us the least trouble out of the entire book.

Protection from Evil stops it stone cold, yeah. Standard adventuring gear should be a wayfinder with a clear spindle in it. Saves on ever needing to re-cast it.

[devlear]

What's the general optimisation level of your group, and what are the other steps you've taken?

We started with 25 point buy which should put us way above the curve, but we also have 2 people that are completely new to the roleplaying, dice rolling thing and we (Me and the Ranger) are giving them advice if they ask for it but we are otherwise leaving every choice up to them.

I don't know everyone else's stat sheets but I am
Teleportation special / Conjuration Tiefling Wizard (Forbidden: Evocation/Illusion)

Feats: Spell focus(Conjuration), Augment Summons, Improved Initiative, Improved Familiar (Lyrikian Azata), Extend Spell, Worldwound Walker

Mythic Abilities: Wild Arcana, Flexible School(Divination), Mythic Paragon, Crafting Mastery

I have 1 Efficient Quiver, Wand of Daylight, Wand of Magic Missile CL5th and that is pretty much it. I can't be as prepared as I would like to be because I have had no time to prepare anything like scrolls and wands. Now that we have some downtime I plan on making several wands, rods and scrolls so that I can be prepared for anything.

I always get to go first and in the surprise round (Flexible School Mythic Path Ability) so I usually Haste, Enlarge, Enervation, Ray of Enfeeblement, Summon Monster, Create Pit. In large battles I use battlefield control spells and in 1 on 1 fights I use buffs and debuffs.

Cleric is supposed to be the tank. She has 36 AC, uses Radiance but only does 1d8+10 damage on a hit with +16/+16/+11 to attack rolls.

Paladin does all the damage. I usually enlarge him and haste him so he usually does on a smite round 3d6+2d6+1d6+31 damage with +19/+19/+14 to evil outsiders

Ranger also puts up amazing damage, but only against evil outsiders with 1d4+14 with +16/+16/+16/+11/+11