Cattle Driving Necromancers-Bizarre Campaign Journal

[GorinichSerpant]

I see your group has had some fun times.

[Kaveman26]

Session 7: Even Tyrants need Logistics

Spoiler

Show

The staggering results of the previous week have earned them a much faster than expected bump to level 7. I will detail the breakdowns for that development a bit later, as what happens immediately is more relevant. Having broken the minotaur clan, and animal pack they now have a heap of bodies and no spell slots remaining. 11 minotaur warriors are still breathing (and heavily wounded) along with a host of non fighting young and women.

The first order of business for them ends up being rest and security. They separate the living warriors into different areas and withdraw their weapons and arms. The remaining undead are placed as guards dispersed with the 11 warriors. Vanilla and Melty function as guards for the assembled remaining bull-folk. With the area more or less secure they arrange to turn in for the night and try to recuperate while formulating a game plan. I told them they had earned level 7 but they held off on processing all the details…only asking if that would affect spell slots and spells per day etc…not yet feats or the others. I told them that was fine.

As they scheme amidst their bedrolls, Reggie quietly gets Rusk’s attention and sidles over to the gnoll.
Reggie: Now is our shot. We take them in their sleep and make a break for it. Their bony army is occupied everywhere else and they are run ragged…we slit their throats and strike out on our own, may never get another chance.

Rusk: That is a bold play little one. If It goes wrong?
Reggie: Then we die. Hopefully quickly. If we succeed we strike back up and find the dwarves. I don’t think they will kill us outright…especially if we bring anything they have on their corpses.
Rusk: When would you strike?
Reggie: First watch…before they have a chance to recover or prepare spells.
Rusk: That means the Goblin*…he is the most alert.
Reggie: He is also the weakest and most easily held down for the dagger. You can take him in a rush and I will work the blade.

The two reluctant lackeys start down the path to assassination…Reggie putting Bull’s Strength on Rusk who hails Chomper on his approach before bursting into a charge the last few steps to try and bull rush/grapple the goblin. He succeeds in tackling Chomper and wrestling him to the ground, stifling any cries of alarm. Reggie almost gleefully dances forward dagger in hand…only to get snatched about the midsection by Chomper’s spinosaur.

Reggie squeals in pain trying to shake off the dinosaur while slashing with his knife. Rusk maintains the grapple and tries to deliver some overhand shots to the squirming goblin. The dinosaur is making a fair amount of noise and the gnome is hardly silent. It is enough to bring Dis Pater and Pluto to the edge of their room, where they rouse the remaining party to action.

The goblin is banged up, but in no real danger…Reggie is pinned and held by the dinosaur while Rusk is forced to kneel at the edge of Dis Pater’s scimitar.

Dis Pater: Well played…trying to strike when we were vulnerable. At least some degree of cunning resides in your quivering whimpering souls. What do you think Seraphim? Cauldron or stewpot?

Seraphim delicately caresses the sobbing and snarling gnome’s curly hair.

Seraphim: Break their arms…break their legs…cut out their tongues…stabilize them enough that they won’t bleed out. Then tuck them away someplace quiet.

Dis Pater: Wow…you must have hurt her feelings. She wants to save you for something worse.
Seraphim: Nonsense…I only want to help them grow. First we need more medicine.

Doc and Dis arrange for the traitors to have their various bones fractured, and they remove the tongues from both Rusk and Reggie. Then without another word or complaint…they go back to sleep.
The following morning sees a bright and chipper group starting out with a yawn and a smile.

Chomper: Today is going to be fun!

“Today” encompasses the next few weeks. With spells expanded and recovered they set up taking stock of their undead legions and its waiting reinforcements.

Hades: It’s shame to keep burning through so many minions. Especially when we see what can happen from the evolved ones.
Pluto: I agree…I actually had an idea on that. Is there any reason for us to fear the mindless ones? Even if one of us botches a roll we have plenty of chances to try again.
Seraphim: Absolutely.

Pluto: Why not cull the weak and leave them above as roadblocks for any that come after? We cart up the mindless ones and fill them in rooms…provide loose general orders and then set them free. **

Hades: That frees up more room to farm the corpses for psionic/intelligent ones.

So begins the second phase of Necromantic Cattle Driving…they begin seeding livestock (or Deadstock) for preferred traits. They have become breeders. Trips are organized to release the mindless undead to the above levels and corridors, The process of sifting through the dead minotaurs for further gifted ones also gets under way. Joining the ranks of T-Bones comes…
Sir Loin-Full Plate armor wearing Expansion enabled “charger” skeleton
Mignon-Claws…poison…kind of creepy
Well Done-An Energy Ray shooter
Tenderizer: Concussive Onslaught
Sparky-Energy Burst

They leave a reserve of “reinforcement corpses” behind for future raising.

All of the skeletal minotaurs are treated as Manifester Level 6 (I am using magic/psi transparency so CL=ML etc…Spellcraft=Psioniccraft, SR=PR etc) and have power point pools of 11.

Chomper harvests, seasons, and cures as much edible flesh as possible from the carnage previously inflicted. They create a trash heap with the various entrails, unusued bones and random viscera. Cleaning up future illness or disease spreading hooks I get…but then they put a group of mindless skeletons to “protect” the heap…and set them free. That I don’t get…

They also scour the minotaur complex for serviceable goods, then reorganize the minotaur’s homes into something more along the lines of barracks. With patience and kindness they do a bizarre kind of physical exam for all the living bulls. Not just like checking for wounds, but doing full blown interviews, tracing heritage and aptitude. I am honestly perplexed.

Interesting Stuff To Mention in Passing:

*None of the animals comes back with abilities, some come back with memory and speech (side effect of being awakened and a way for me to chide them from beyond death) but most are mindless shamblers. They reanimate the 10 squirrels and 8 come back with memory and speech intact. Hades seizes on this for some reason with far more excitement than the psionic minotaurs.

Hades: What do they count as?
DM: Diminutive 1hp skeletons with moderate intelligence and speech.
Hades: So…how do they affect my control slots?
DM: They are 1/8HD…literally 1HP creatures incapable of breaking skin with a bite, or carrying items of weight.
Hades: So I can have all 8 with one slot?
DM: If you really want 8 squirrels that will goad you and taunt you for the rest of your life, sure 1HD of command undead and they are yours.
Hades: Awesome!

*Each Player receives Wild Talent and Expanded Knowledge as a bonus talent. This is a result of prolonged exposure to the crystals, and the fact that they consume a safe amount of minotaur meat. They all gain a PP reserve of 2…with their primary stat adding to the pool. They are treated as ML of half their HD (rounded down) and may take additional expanded knowledge to gain more abilities.

*Seraphim drinks the blood of damn near every freaking animal in the hopes of gorging herself into some new spells. She has varying success and her spell list continues to swell.

We reach a point where housekeeping is about done. The minotaur clan is well situated and appear to be settling into the new status quo…most are just happy to be alive. Corpses from the large battle are either reanimated, stockpiled or risen and freed to be a nuisance for anyone else heading in their direction. A cadre of intelligent and gifted undead now make up the majority of a much smaller and far more focused horde. Which brings us to…

Seraphim: Reggie…Rusk…good morning…are you ready for more soup?

The two captives groan, unable to form full words with their tongues removed. Everyday Seraphim has been force feeding them a concentrated psionic bull broth…not as potent as the crystal formula and much slower to act…but certainly as dangerous. When they willfully rejected the proffered broth she began preparing Beguiling Gift to in essence coerce them into drinking it. She reveals that the reason for letting them live was to replicate the same process they performed on Melty and Vanilla…force psionic mutation on them until they die and then potentially reanimate them into something more useful.

Seraphim: You will be stronger in death than in life…and certainly more obedient.

She makes it a point to use her misfortune and evil eye hex while cackling everyday to ensure the highest chances of getting her way.

The steps for continuing on start to take form and they hit me with one last item.

Hades: I am sending my eight squirrels in four two man teams to scout a few different directions. They have orders to avoid conflict if at all possible and report back any sighting of mobile and sentient creatures, living or otherwise. I want them to run silent and run swift.

DM: You are using your skeleton squirrels…for recon?

Hades: They are reasonably intelligent…follow orders and can report back. They are also freaking damn near impossible to spot if our first battle was any indication…so heck yeah.

The twins put their heads together and assemble a catalog of where they deposited free willed undead and like a squirrel that doesn’t want to lose track of buried nuts they use a keycode on their dungeon map to highlight where they left undead behind. Seraphim has a lightbulb go off and she goes off with Chomper to plot her own little agenda. They scounge the stockpile of stolen merchantile goods and work together to create a series of trapped chests, deadfalls, arrow traps, tripwires and anything else annoying and cheap. The witch brews up multiple dangerous potions and masks their nature. They then retrace their steps to leave trapped loot in all the rooms where they deposited their wild undead. To add salt on an open wound they also leave small clues and leads to bring anyone searching towards Moo-Dor, this prompts the following realization…

DM: So…pretty much at this point I think it’s safe to say that you guys are basically commandeering and controlling the upper level of the dungeon. In essence you are now the DM’s of the upper levels.

Group: Yeah…pretty much. It’s like an advanced form of recycling. Plus we wouldn’t want the NPC’s that are modeled on adventuring groups run out of things to do.

Their final little “by the way” moment. They are highly encouraging a selective breeding program for the minotaur clan. After their extensive survey and examinations of the survivors they are nudging the clan to breed along certain lines to encourage maximum physical attributes and maximum mental attributes.

DM: You do realize they are not actually livestock. They are intelligent and free willed humanoids capable of family bonds, monogamy and loyalty?

Group: Yes…and we are making it a point to encourage the growth of the group dynamic to preserve future generations to come…and if they don’t get down the way we instruct them, then we will simply cull them from the herd and keep the ones that listen.

DM: Can I at least ask why you are trying to thread humanoid livestock? Are you guys really going to spend years here waiting for the next generation?

Dis Pater *coughs* as he references the notecards from their original discussion with Dion the Minotaur chief.

Dis Pater: He has personally overseen the clan for just over one year. This is strangely against the notion of there being seven generations of minotaur within the structure. There is from his explanation a staggeringly quick maturation process brought on by the crystals and infants become adults within a matter of weeks. This rapid maturation strains their food supplies and causes excessively high mortality rates.

Dis Pater: So basically…we get a new batch of harvestable cows every month as long as we keep feeding them. We will feed the dead to the living and keep harvesting more fresh.

They end the day completing their advancement to level 7, which I where I will pick up from next update.


*Their default “watch rotation” is Chomper (non-caster best Perception) Dis Pater, twins, Doc, Seraphim.

** We more or less came to the agreement that mindless undead would in essence follow out the gist of their last orders…unless something impeded their well being. So basically if you leave a skeleton to it’s own it will “guard” a room but if something attacks it, it will retaliate. If you aid it…it just keeps following orders.

[ReaderAt2046]

Session 7: Even Tyrants need Logistics

Spoiler

Show

The staggering results of the previous week have earned them a much faster than expected bump to level 7. I will detail the breakdowns for that development a bit later, as what happens immediately is more relevant. Having broken the minotaur clan, and animal pack they now have a heap of bodies and no spell slots remaining. 11 minotaur warriors are still breathing (and heavily wounded) along with a host of non fighting young and women.

The first order of business for them ends up being rest and security. They separate the living warriors into different areas and withdraw their weapons and arms. The remaining undead are placed as guards dispersed with the 11 warriors. Vanilla and Melty function as guards for the assembled remaining bull-folk. With the area more or less secure they arrange to turn in for the night and try to recuperate while formulating a game plan. I told them they had earned level 7 but they held off on processing all the details…only asking if that would affect spell slots and spells per day etc…not yet feats or the others. I told them that was fine.

As they scheme amidst their bedrolls, Reggie quietly gets Rusk’s attention and sidles over to the gnoll.
Reggie: Now is our shot. We take them in their sleep and make a break for it. Their bony army is occupied everywhere else and they are run ragged…we slit their throats and strike out on our own, may never get another chance.

Rusk: That is a bold play little one. If It goes wrong?
Reggie: Then we die. Hopefully quickly. If we succeed we strike back up and find the dwarves. I don’t think they will kill us outright…especially if we bring anything they have on their corpses.
Rusk: When would you strike?
Reggie: First watch…before they have a chance to recover or prepare spells.
Rusk: That means the Goblin*…he is the most alert.
Reggie: He is also the weakest and most easily held down for the dagger. You can take him in a rush and I will work the blade.

The two reluctant lackeys start down the path to assassination…Reggie putting Bull’s Strength on Rusk who hails Chomper on his approach before bursting into a charge the last few steps to try and bull rush/grapple the goblin. He succeeds in tackling Chomper and wrestling him to the ground, stifling any cries of alarm. Reggie almost gleefully dances forward dagger in hand…only to get snatched about the midsection by Chomper’s spinosaur.

Reggie squeals in pain trying to shake off the dinosaur while slashing with his knife. Rusk maintains the grapple and tries to deliver some overhand shots to the squirming goblin. The dinosaur is making a fair amount of noise and the gnome is hardly silent. It is enough to bring Dis Pater and Pluto to the edge of their room, where they rouse the remaining party to action.

The goblin is banged up, but in no real danger…Reggie is pinned and held by the dinosaur while Rusk is forced to kneel at the edge of Dis Pater’s scimitar.

Dis Pater: Well played…trying to strike when we were vulnerable. At least some degree of cunning resides in your quivering whimpering souls. What do you think Seraphim? Cauldron or stewpot?

Seraphim delicately caresses the sobbing and snarling gnome’s curly hair.

Seraphim: Break their arms…break their legs…cut out their tongues…stabilize them enough that they won’t bleed out. Then tuck them away someplace quiet.

Dis Pater: Wow…you must have hurt her feelings. She wants to save you for something worse.
Seraphim: Nonsense…I only want to help them grow. First we need more medicine.

Doc and Dis arrange for the traitors to have their various bones fractured, and they remove the tongues from both Rusk and Reggie. Then without another word or complaint…they go back to sleep.
The following morning sees a bright and chipper group starting out with a yawn and a smile.

Chomper: Today is going to be fun!

“Today” encompasses the next few weeks. With spells expanded and recovered they set up taking stock of their undead legions and its waiting reinforcements.

Hades: It’s shame to keep burning through so many minions. Especially when we see what can happen from the evolved ones.
Pluto: I agree…I actually had an idea on that. Is there any reason for us to fear the mindless ones? Even if one of us botches a roll we have plenty of chances to try again.
Seraphim: Absolutely.

Pluto: Why not cull the weak and leave them above as roadblocks for any that come after? We cart up the mindless ones and fill them in rooms…provide loose general orders and then set them free. **

Hades: That frees up more room to farm the corpses for psionic/intelligent ones.

So begins the second phase of Necromantic Cattle Driving…they begin seeding livestock (or Deadstock) for preferred traits. They have become breeders. Trips are organized to release the mindless undead to the above levels and corridors, The process of sifting through the dead minotaurs for further gifted ones also gets under way. Joining the ranks of T-Bones comes…
Sir Loin-Full Plate armor wearing Expansion enabled “charger” skeleton
Mignon-Claws…poison…kind of creepy
Well Done-An Energy Ray shooter
Tenderizer: Concussive Onslaught
Sparky-Energy Burst

They leave a reserve of “reinforcement corpses” behind for future raising.

All of the skeletal minotaurs are treated as Manifester Level 6 (I am using magic/psi transparency so CL=ML etc…Spellcraft=Psioniccraft, SR=PR etc) and have power point pools of 11.

Chomper harvests, seasons, and cures as much edible flesh as possible from the carnage previously inflicted. They create a trash heap with the various entrails, unusued bones and random viscera. Cleaning up future illness or disease spreading hooks I get…but then they put a group of mindless skeletons to “protect” the heap…and set them free. That I don’t get…

They also scour the minotaur complex for serviceable goods, then reorganize the minotaur’s homes into something more along the lines of barracks. With patience and kindness they do a bizarre kind of physical exam for all the living bulls. Not just like checking for wounds, but doing full blown interviews, tracing heritage and aptitude. I am honestly perplexed.

Interesting Stuff To Mention in Passing:

*None of the animals comes back with abilities, some come back with memory and speech (side effect of being awakened and a way for me to chide them from beyond death) but most are mindless shamblers. They reanimate the 10 squirrels and 8 come back with memory and speech intact. Hades seizes on this for some reason with far more excitement than the psionic minotaurs.

Hades: What do they count as?
DM: Diminutive 1hp skeletons with moderate intelligence and speech.
Hades: So…how do they affect my control slots?
DM: They are 1/8HD…literally 1HP creatures incapable of breaking skin with a bite, or carrying items of weight.
Hades: So I can have all 8 with one slot?
DM: If you really want 8 squirrels that will goad you and taunt you for the rest of your life, sure 1HD of command undead and they are yours.
Hades: Awesome!

*Each Player receives Wild Talent and Expanded Knowledge as a bonus talent. This is a result of prolonged exposure to the crystals, and the fact that they consume a safe amount of minotaur meat. They all gain a PP reserve of 2…with their primary stat adding to the pool. They are treated as ML of half their HD (rounded down) and may take additional expanded knowledge to gain more abilities.

*Seraphim drinks the blood of damn near every freaking animal in the hopes of gorging herself into some new spells. She has varying success and her spell list continues to swell.

We reach a point where housekeeping is about done. The minotaur clan is well situated and appear to be settling into the new status quo…most are just happy to be alive. Corpses from the large battle are either reanimated, stockpiled or risen and freed to be a nuisance for anyone else heading in their direction. A cadre of intelligent and gifted undead now make up the majority of a much smaller and far more focused horde. Which brings us to…

Seraphim: Reggie…Rusk…good morning…are you ready for more soup?

The two captives groan, unable to form full words with their tongues removed. Everyday Seraphim has been force feeding them a concentrated psionic bull broth…not as potent as the crystal formula and much slower to act…but certainly as dangerous. When they willfully rejected the proffered broth she began preparing Beguiling Gift to in essence coerce them into drinking it. She reveals that the reason for letting them live was to replicate the same process they performed on Melty and Vanilla…force psionic mutation on them until they die and then potentially reanimate them into something more useful.

Seraphim: You will be stronger in death than in life…and certainly more obedient.

She makes it a point to use her misfortune and evil eye hex while cackling everyday to ensure the highest chances of getting her way.

The steps for continuing on start to take form and they hit me with one last item.

Hades: I am sending my eight squirrels in four two man teams to scout a few different directions. They have orders to avoid conflict if at all possible and report back any sighting of mobile and sentient creatures, living or otherwise. I want them to run silent and run swift.

DM: You are using your skeleton squirrels…for recon?

Hades: They are reasonably intelligent…follow orders and can report back. They are also freaking damn near impossible to spot if our first battle was any indication…so heck yeah.

The twins put their heads together and assemble a catalog of where they deposited free willed undead and like a squirrel that doesn’t want to lose track of buried nuts they use a keycode on their dungeon map to highlight where they left undead behind. Seraphim has a lightbulb go off and she goes off with Chomper to plot her own little agenda. They scounge the stockpile of stolen merchantile goods and work together to create a series of trapped chests, deadfalls, arrow traps, tripwires and anything else annoying and cheap. The witch brews up multiple dangerous potions and masks their nature. They then retrace their steps to leave trapped loot in all the rooms where they deposited their wild undead. To add salt on an open wound they also leave small clues and leads to bring anyone searching towards Moo-Dor, this prompts the following realization…

DM: So…pretty much at this point I think it’s safe to say that you guys are basically commandeering and controlling the upper level of the dungeon. In essence you are now the DM’s of the upper levels.

Group: Yeah…pretty much. It’s like an advanced form of recycling. Plus we wouldn’t want the NPC’s that are modeled on adventuring groups run out of things to do.

Their final little “by the way” moment. They are highly encouraging a selective breeding program for the minotaur clan. After their extensive survey and examinations of the survivors they are nudging the clan to breed along certain lines to encourage maximum physical attributes and maximum mental attributes.

DM: You do realize they are not actually livestock. They are intelligent and free willed humanoids capable of family bonds, monogamy and loyalty?

Group: Yes…and we are making it a point to encourage the growth of the group dynamic to preserve future generations to come…and if they don’t get down the way we instruct them, then we will simply cull them from the herd and keep the ones that listen.

DM: Can I at least ask why you are trying to thread humanoid livestock? Are you guys really going to spend years here waiting for the next generation?

Dis Pater *coughs* as he references the notecards from their original discussion with Dion the Minotaur chief.

Dis Pater: He has personally overseen the clan for just over one year. This is strangely against the notion of there being seven generations of minotaur within the structure. There is from his explanation a staggeringly quick maturation process brought on by the crystals and infants become adults within a matter of weeks. This rapid maturation strains their food supplies and causes excessively high mortality rates.

Dis Pater: So basically…we get a new batch of harvestable cows every month as long as we keep feeding them. We will feed the dead to the living and keep harvesting more fresh.

They end the day completing their advancement to level 7, which I where I will pick up from next update.


*Their default “watch rotation” is Chomper (non-caster best Perception) Dis Pater, twins, Doc, Seraphim.

** We more or less came to the agreement that mindless undead would in essence follow out the gist of their last orders…unless something impeded their well being. So basically if you leave a skeleton to it’s own it will “guard” a room but if something attacks it, it will retaliate. If you aid it…it just keeps following orders.

So each of them got a psionic power and a PP reserve? What did they get? Or are you going to tell us what they got in the next update?

Also, I kind of like how this dungeon is gradually turning into a series of feudal kingdoms. You have the area controlled and colonized by the dwarf squad, then the Necrocracy's territory, then below that the wild region that nobody yet claims.

[Kaveman26]

I'll up updated character sheets with next update along with a bit more detail on overall assets etc.

[blacklight101]

Wow, that was fantastically well thought out on their part. I cant believe they went as far as to re-seed the upper levels. That was just a fun little thing to read, and they have got to be one of the more creative groups ive ever read about.

[Kaveman26]

They are evil incarnate and devious to boot. I mean them as people not their characters btw. I normally play alongside and aid in the madness so trying to DM through the same hijinks I typically act as a catalyst for is tough.

Makes for some fun times and it becomes a thousand times more satisfying when they overthink themselves or have their scheming backfire.

[Gilphon]

Huh. Kind of expected Reggie's betrayal to amount to a bit more than that, when it came.

[Axinian]

I'm just waiting for an army of frost giants from the northern camp to come and start wrecking house on them :P

[Norin]

Oooh, last update was epic as always.

Looking forward to your next update with the sheets and also the continuation of this tale of pure destilled evil undead awesomeness.

[Wolfofmibu66]

Awesome logs Kaveman, I stand in awe of your party's practiced and collected application of evil. I only hope that one day my characters can sink to their level.

[Kaveman26]

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight:Session 8

Spoiler

Show

Seraphim
Half Elf Gravewalker (Patron-Elements)7:Str10 Dex14 Con12 Int20 Wis12 Cha 16
Feats: Skill Focus Diplomacy, Brew Potion,Extra Hex (Cackle),Ability Focus (Hex),Extra Hex (Cauldron), Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge
Hexes: Evil Eye, Cackle, Cauldron,Misfortune,Spell Focus Necromancy
4th Level Spells Selected:Wandering Star Motes, Enervation
Psionic Powers Known: Share Pain
PP Reserve: 7
Bone Thrall: T-Bones
Animate Dead (28HD): Sir Loin (6HD) Mignon (6HD) Tenderizer (6HD) 5 Horse Skeletons (10HD)
Command Undead: Snowflake (skeletal unicorn)

Pluto:
Dhampir Undead Lord 7: Str 14 Dex 14 Con 12 Int 11 Wis 17 Cha 18
Feats:BF:Command Undead, Spell Focus:Necromancy,Selective Channeling,Undead Master, Extra Channeling, Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge
Psionic Power Known: Force Screen
PP Reserve 5
Corpse Companion: Well Done (6HD)
Animate Dead (28HD):Melty (12HD) 2 Skeletal Minotaurs (12HD)
Command Undead (11HD): 1 Skeletal Minotaur (6HD)

Hades:
Dhampir Undead Lord 7:Str 14 Dex 14 Con 12 Int 11 Wis 17 Cha 18
Feats:Spell Focus Necromancy,Selective Channeling,Undead Master, Extra Channeling, Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge
Psionic Power Known: Force Screen
PP Reserve 5
Corpse Companion: Sparky (6HD)
Animate Dead (28HD):Vanilla (10HD) 8 Squirrels (1HD) 2 Skeletal Minotaurs (12HD)
Command Undead 11HD: 1 Skeletal Minotaur (6HD)


Dis Pater:
Nagaji Knight of the Sepulcher 7:Str 18 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 13 Cha 18
Feats:Channel Smite,Extra Lay of Hands,Extra Lay of Hands, Power Attack, Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge
Psionic Powers Known: Animal Affinity
PP Reserve 6
Chomper
Goblin Horse Lord/Trapsmith Level 7:Str 12 Dex 22 Con15 Int14 Wis15 10 Cha 5
Feats:Calvary Formation,Mounted Combat,Two Weapon Fighting,Weapon Finesse, Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge
Psionic Powers Known:Wall Walker
PP Reserve 8

Doctor Lovebones (Orc) Barbarian1/Scarred Witch Dr5/Eldritch Knight1 Str 22 Dex 14 Con 18 Int 5 Wis 12 Cha 5
Feats: Ability Focus (Hex), Extra Hex, Extra Hex, Power Attack, Improved Initiative, Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge
Hexes: Fortune, Misfortune, Ward, Cackle

Psionic Powers Known: Psionic Lion’s Charge
PP Reserve 6

As preparations for basically taking ownership of the dungeon near completion Seraphim is going about her daily ritual of poisoning Rusk and Reggie when she discovers them missing. The undead minotaurs guarding their cell area are torn to pieces and shattered. No one cops to seeing anything enter or leave and they are exceptionally infuriated that their hobbled captives somehow slipped away. Chomper searches the area and turns up some tuffs of canine hair and some unexplained scratch marks. The hair could be gnoll hair…the scratches are way too small for a gnoll though.

Seraphim: Can you tell if they were carried or dragged out? I don’t expect that they were able to walk out with shattered limbs.
Chomper: Drag marks should have left a minor trace…tracks aren’t much help. If I had to guess they were either healed and walked out on their own…or something managed to exit in ways we can’t determine.

They set about forming full search parties and organize efforts to track down the errant NPC’s. Squirrel recon team three reports back in and informs the cleric that they spotted several small humanoids with a gnoll heading for the surface.

Dis Pater: Doors are scheduled to open up soon. I think tomorrow.
(I confirm that fact as accurate)

Hades: If they make it out we are not going to be able to play naïve or aloof come time to make our own exit.
Pluto: Don’t think we have much cause to leave as of now. Everything is running to our benefit.
Hades: Yeah…but a month from now that may change, and I do not think the welcoming committee awaiting our exit would be very keen on our presence.
Seraphim: There is still twenty four hours until the doors open. More than enough time to find our wayward prisoners.

A lock down procedure goes into effect and they get Micko to close the door leading to the lower level.

Dis Pater: How do we secure the minotaur colony? If we take the intelligent skeletons, and the giants we have maybe six or seven undead to leave behind? They wouldn’t be able to hold back the remaining warriors and young.

Hades: Crap…Didn’t think about that. How do we secure them without leaving the vast majority behind.

Doc: Lock them behind door. The one only Micko can open. Leave whole clan there. If they want to ever get out then they need hope we survive. Or they can try to find safety deeper in.

Pluto: That means we could take the whole undead battalion with us.

Chomper: Why not just leave the women and kids behind the locked door? That basically forces the remaining warriors to aid us or never get their clan back. We stash the whole clan behind the sealed portal, take the 11 living minotaurs with us, and leave behind the mindless ones to stand as guards for the non combatants. Means we get 11 EXTREMELY motivated minions and we still get to take the bulk of our undead fighting strength.

Seraphim: Sold!

The Squirrel Recon teams are sent as scouts while the U.C. shift into motion as one large moveable unit. As the squirrels check back in with potential leads, Chomper leads the horde in a tracking mission to locate Rusk and Reggie. Tufts of canine hair and the occasional aroma of dog urine clue them into the correct path to track.

They are amped up and eager to get back their NPC’s, so when they turn a corner to see Reggie and Rusk behind a shield wall manned by the dwarf expeditionary force they are definitely ready for bloodshed. Reggie hops onto the platform of a rolling ballista and flips a double bird at the party as they come into sight. The dwarves grin…and the audible clicking of siege bolts being cocked is practically like thunder.

A shield wall warrior shouts before anything pops off.

Warrior: Don’t bother trying to talk or banter, we ain’t buying. No one behind this wall has anything but contempt and hatred for your lot. So crawl back into whatever hole you have been skulking in.

Seraphim: We don’t have to quarrel with you…we just want Rusk and Reggie returned to our protection. Then we walk away.

Russ…the dwarf leader appears from the end of the hallway with Rusk and Reggie on either side of him.

Russ: I wouldn’t commit to these two just yet witch. We got a full breakdown of your protection…along with your cannibalism, murder, blackmail, extortion and double crossings.

Dis Pater *quietly*: How did they learn all that in twenty seconds?
Russ: Twenty seconds? We have been hearing stories about you for weeks now.
Russ steps ever so slightly to the side and reveals a beleaguered and ragged Halfling.
Russ: Gup here has been extremely helpful to us. He was even kind enough to help rescue the gnome and gnoll here for us.

There is a long collective pause as they all look each other to try and figure out what the heck is happening.

Chomper: Oh yeah…Gup…the rogue from the gnoll vault. We threw him a knife and kicked him back into the wilds to see what would happen. Little bugger went and stole out our prisoners from us and gave them to the dwarves.

Seraphim: Who…I get. Why…I get. But how? He couldn’t carry them, he couldn’t drag and he has no means to heal their broken bones. Also…how did he hear Dis just now? I think we should take a very close look to see if anything is amiss before acting rashly. Something isn’t adding up.

The whole group takes a few cautious steps back and tries to really focus in and seek out anything off with the dwarves and their new allies.

*Armor everywhere is banged up and seemingly put back together by some hasty repairs.
*They all look more haggard and run down then the neat and tidy legion that marched in a month ago.
*Chomper rolls the highest check and seems to clue in some more subtle oddities…

Chomper: These are some very hairy dwarfs.
Hades: What dwarf isn’t?
Chomper: No I mean…furry. Like the fur we found on the ground…
(they more or less “knew” what was about to happen…but they were trying to be certain)
Seraphim: Did you notice if they also had exceptionally large teeth Chomp?
Chomper: Yeah…much bigger teeth than a normal dwarf.
Doc: Maybe it’s time to let them go?

As the U.C. start to backpedal ever so subtly Gup snarls and the sound of shifting cracking bone echoes through the halls…this sound accompanies the whole host of dwarves as well.

Doc: Maybe go faster?

The Halfling rogue shifts from a ragged hobbit to a much larger lupine form in a matter of seconds, the dwarves follow suit as they shift into a hybrid werewolf form. For my own amusement Gup looks like a wolf-poodle and the dwarves look like bulldogs.

Some of the dwarves launch siege weapons, and advance in still organized shield wall ranks, while others bound over top the shield wall and charge on all fours in something closer to true wolf form. Massive crossbow bolts slam home into the front rank undead and a mass of fur and claws clog up the hallway. Some return fire and energy channeling exchange as the group works backwards in a steady retreat.

From side halls and what looked like barred doors, more dwarf-wolves emerge to nip at the groups flanks and harry them in retreat. What damage they return to the shapeshifters is visibly dissipating in seconds…

Chomper: they have fast healing!

Dis Pater: Smoke em if you got em…we need to deliver heavy damage in quick time or they will back and let their natural healing catch up.

Acid Psionics from Melty go online…the psionic minotaurs immediately burn through their PP reserves to nova out what damage they can muster to those immediately attacking and Chomper+Seraphim throw their attacks directly into what Dis Pater is attacking. The twins channel like madmen and try to staunch the bleeding. Every corridor they approach is met with more resistance and in short order they are surrounded and fighting on all fronts.

With no regard towards conserving resources they are capable of hearty offense…but damage reduction and fast healing play havoc with their general plan of attack. The targets receiving high individual focus are dropping and seem to be staying down…but the were-dwarfs are fine with eating an AOO to disengage and cycle in more recovered troops. As their backwards progress stalls…the shield wall rolls around a corner and they can hear the siege crossbows winching back. Gup, Reggie, Russ, and Rusk are all laughing from behind the wall. Reggie and Rusk are both in hybrid wolf form as well. *

In desperation they throw everything they have to hold the front…all their undead…all their mounts…even grabbing a salt mephit from the hourglass…Cullen the swordsmen mephit appears with a sabre and is almost instantly eaten by the wolves. They arrange the giants and minotaurs in a thick line towards the front and then have their remaining horses, Snowflake and Chomper’s spinosaur charge out the back in a half cocked stampede. Then they follow on the heels of their mounts with a full blown retreat. The twins, Dis Pater, and Doc all break free pretty easily. Chomper and Seraphim get charged by waiting wolfs. Seraphim manages to dodge her attacker on a natural 1 attack roll…but Chomper gets tripped mid retreat. He is immediately swarmed by wolves and they watch over their shoulders as their undead begin to fall.

Dis Pater: If we don’t turn back he is a goner.
Seraphim: If we turn back we just join him as a meal.
Hades: Farewell brother…we will honor you in the life to come.
Chomper: YOU ARE LEAVING ME????

He actually manages to get his feet back under him and he puts feet to ground in a mad attempt to run free. He has to make four separate attackers miss on attempts to grapple or pin him and he jukes past the first three. The fourth is a super tense roll…which he rolls a natural 1 on the opposed check. As the rest of the group turns the corner Seraphim sees them in essence draw and quarter the goblin ranger while consuming him.

As they continue their mad dash to retreat Seraphim is able to get back on Snowflake and she doesn’t hesitate to put distance between herself and the rest of the party. Dis Pater tries to reign in the now masterless Spinosaur who relentlessly bucks him off…hissing and baring teeth at the anti-paladin.
The dinosaur hisses softly and then roars…leaving off in it’s own direction.

This puts Dis Pater at the back of the pack and he is the first to see full wolf form were-dwarves come barreling in pursuit. The twins redirect the remaining undead horses to clog up the hallway and Dis Pater manages to get ahead of the swirling mass of claws.

Seraphim: We need to get back to Moo-Dor central and get behind the sealable door.
Dis Pater: They are moving faster than us…you are the only one that can outpace them since you are mounted.
Seraphim: Not eager to split from safety….
Hades: No choice…get back to the gateway, have Micko open and as soon as we are all through we slam it shut.

The twins consult their map and start doing some complicated math. At this juncture everyone is wounded…the only remaining undead under any kind of control is Snowflake and they are about to overtaken by swarms of lycanthropes. They draw a straight route for Seraphim to take back to the central minotaur compound, then draw a second alternate meandering route they intend to take.

They converse as they move…

Dis Pater: Why are we taking a long path?

Hades: We deposited uncontrolled undead in several different rooms to move about freely…going to command them back under uncontrol and shove them behind us as roadblocks.

Pluto: Should help buy a little extra time and force them to divide or slow down. I think we should stagger in two man teams. Dis and I take first room, Pluto and Doc take second. We push the fodder towards the first team and play leapfrog. Seraphim will use an animate dead to bring some of the stockpile corpses back to this juncture where we meet up. We make a fighting retreat back towards Moo-Dor with Hades and I tagging out to bring more animated corpses as calvary. If we can stall them enough we make a break for it through the gateway and get our heels back under us. **

So in short order “Run Away! Run Away!” has morphed into “Run and find dead bodies to animate and throw in their face”. A series of smaller skirmishes erupts as Dis Pater and Doc swing away at the fastest wolves…Hades and Pluto play a bit of leapfrog and send a stream of reclaimed undead to join the fray. The aggressive tactics of the wolves continues, as they seek to trip and grapple any target possible…those who take wounds or AOO to do so seem not to mind as they cycle fresh bodies in and out. The retreat made the wolfpack string out to an extent and the time it took for them to finish off the giants and skeletons is buying precious rounds for the U.C. to avoid being run over in one mass swarm.

Seraphim makes it back to Moo-Dor and alerts Micko to the current state of affairs. She stays long enough to scoop up her HD allotment animated from their stockpile of bodies…taking anything with four legs and faster movement. She then stampedes back into the fray.

The leapfrogging is starting to lose by this time. The stragglers are all catching up and the mass of claws and teeth is growing at a much faster pace. Dis Pater and Doc are running out of options and health, and the twins are measuring out their remaining command undead attempts. As panic sets in, a small herd of skeletal horses comes tearing through the juncture with all the finesse of a fullback hitting a packed goal line defense. It plugs up enough space to let the whole PC group fall back as one and get some much needed healing, Seraphim cedes Snowflake to Hades who plays courier galloping back to Moo-Dor for a fresh batch of corpses.

The tactics let them hold the line and as the rounds creep on they begin measuring just how long they have to hold out until they can literally run through the door into the safety of the lower level. With a certain degree of smug satisfaction their celebratory grins at seeing the finish line turn rather sour as Micko shrugs his shoulders from the lower level side of the door and slams it shut…locking them on the Moo-Dor side.

Dis Pater: Well…anyone got some other bright ideas?



*Gup infected them and waited for the changes to take effect…fast healing got them into moveable shape and they all escaped in wolf form. For what its worth…I modded “lycanthropy” a bit for my purposes. Making the “infection” much faster acting and I bolstered it with fast healing.

**I definitely overbuilt the were-dwarves…but from my perspective they keep trivializing difficult situations and I have to keep ramping up the risk. This one got Chomper killed, and just when I started to feel a twinge of guilt they organize a very effective and creative strategy to regain control of the situation.

[Kid Jake]

It does players good to have the fear of God tossed into them on occasion; keeps them on their toes.

[CrispyCriminal]

Heh, Karma for taking your job I see.

I feel bad for em. But I hope they get a sweet case of revenge out of it.

[blacklight101]

Yeah, I think that should work to hold them back a bit. It's pretty nuts, but that works really well.

I think they have been given quite a lot to think about.

[Axinian]

He actually manages to get his feet back under him and he puts feet to ground in a mad attempt to run free. He has to make four separate attackers miss on attempts to grapple or pin him and he jukes past the first three. The fourth is a super tense roll…which he rolls a natural 1 on the opposed check. As the rest of the group turns the corner Seraphim sees them in essence draw and quarter the goblin ranger while consuming him.

Just FYI, grappling is not an opposed check in Pathfinder. If the attacker didn't beat his CMD he should've gotten away.

[DoctorProfessor]

The cliffhangers!!! Well played~

I really can't get enough of this campaign journal though. I... went through the entire "Big One" in between waiting on updates for this one. Honestly? The twins alone have sorta inspired the class selection for my main planned antagonists in my first attempt at DM'ing Pathfinder. Although faaaaar less capable and a bit more light-hearted than this particular party of PCs. I just kinda want my main antagonist be just that less evil and less of a problem than 90% of other things cropping up on the PC radar at any given point.

Normally, I wouldn't mention this given the fact that the people I play with occasionally frequent this forum as well. Seeing how one of them, our current DM, has already played a bit of a hand in optimizing one of those antagonists, I don't REALLY see the point in hiding it too much.

I also really enjoy occasionally getting to see what you have planned further down the road.

Anywhoo, on the edge of my seat to find out what happens next and see how they get out of this predicament.

[Lord of Shadows]

Just FYI, grappling is not an opposed check in Pathfinder. If the attacker didn't beat his CMD he should've gotten away.

Yes... Er, well, the Attacker rolls d20 and adds his or her Combat Maneuver Bonus (CMB) against a DC equal to the Defenders Combat Maneuver Defense (CMD). CMD is almost always larger than CMB, due to the way they are calculated. We generally have a tie go to the Defender, although I am not sure what the RAW is on that.

Although, in the current example, however they calculated it seems to work OK. To paraphrase Meat Loaf, "3 out of 4 ain't bad."
.

[Ionsniper]

This campaign is so amazing, I just cant get enough. Now you got me itching to find out how the dwarves became werewolves and how the Ranchers are going to fix the mess they've created.

[Khaiel]

I've been loving this so far. Your players have an intellegent way of being evil magnificent bastards. I am even getting some good ideas for a game I will be running for some friends.

Keep up the good work!

[Kaveman26]

Just FYI, grappling is not an opposed check in Pathfinder. If the attacker didn't beat his CMD he should've gotten away.

Yeah...transcription error on my part. In translating notes to recap I still apparently think of it as an opposed check even though the mechanic changed in PF.

I also really enjoy occasionally getting to see what you have planned further down the road.

I will pick this back up once I am current and caught up with everything that transpired after my hiatus.

[Kaveman26]

I posted this as a seperate thread. Soon I will be taking a break from this campaign to let a friend roll out an idea of his own that he is going to experiment with...anyone with ideas please throw them in that thread.

System: Pathfinder
No Advanced Class Guide
No 3rd party publishing (This includes Dreamscarred)

House Rules:
No Flight...no flying by item,spell, or ability
No Raise Dead, Reincarnate, or Ressurection
No Teleport...or "shortcuts" to travelling
No Calling Spells (Planar Ally etc)
No Summoner

Character Builds:
7th level (probably won't run past 10th or 11th)
32 point buy
Traits allowed
No custom races...featured, uncommon etc are allowed from Advanced Race Guide
2x Wealth by Level (loaded up early based on expectation of not finding a lot along the way)
Evil is Fine

Campaign Expectations:
*Extensive Overland Travel
*At least one dungeon delve that can't be bypassed.
*The world has already been "destroyed", evil has won. Demons, Devils, Undead, Vampires, etc all control the world at large. Very scant minor "points of light" persist but are few and far between.
*A being of good has been captured and will be "sacrificed" in 90 days coinciding with celestial event that will bring about the coup de grace for humanity and the Material Plane. We are tasked with stopping this sacrifice. This can involve simply murdering the sacrifice before it is completed.

Oh...one more thing....

Tucker's Everything:

Every single encounter, random or planned is being stated up front as absolutely brutal and played for maximum lethality. We are told before even cracking the first line of a character sheet that we can expect CR and encounters way above the stated level. There will be five PC's total and we will not be replacing lost characters...so no revolving door of new characters.

Last Minor Details:

*Those creatures capable of flight and teleportation will have kind of a rules limitation. Since we are restricted from flight and teleport hijinks they will have escape capabilities but not ambush capability. So if we lock horns with a demon he can teleport out, but not teleport in to nuke us in our sleep. Its a small matter but worth noting.

*We are asked to provide cursory backstories, but nothing overly extensive. For purposes of this campaign we are considered to have knowledge of each other and a willingness to go forward with this mission.

[Kaveman26]

Session 9: The Chase

Spoiler

Show

Feeling of betrayal compound the dire situation they currently face. Thoughts of retribution for Micko’s apparent betrayal are quickly pushed to the side as they try to figure out a solution to their current canine problem. The closest they can manage to a plan is to literally fight inside the room where they stacked all their corpses. Their “locker” was basically the former chief’s grotto and it permits a narrow entrance and lots of dead bodies to raise. It is also a large room, so any wolves that make it past the chokepoint have plenty of room to spread out and use guerialla tactics.

Survival is their first order of business and they get enough skeletons upright that they can block off easy access to the grotto and they plant Dis Pater right at the center of the entrance with Doc on his side. The clerics and Seraphim hang back a bit to act as crowd control and battle triage. At this point the dwarves shift tactics…the full court press is lifted and they back off to regroup themselves.

Dis Pater: Why fall back when they have us on the ropes?

Seraphim: because we are stuck in this room, and they have plenty of ranged artillery and mobile cover. They can take some time to get their rolling siege in range, shift back to dwarf form and just push us in like a rugby scrum until they can swarm the edges of the room and surround us.

Doc: Lots of them bunched together helps with our AoE channels.

Seraphim: Yes, but it also benefits them from being able to swarm us and keep us from focusing on any one target, they have major advantage in numbers and fast healing, that is a war of attrition we won’t win en masse.

Hades: So do we hold the line and run undead at them until we run out of corpses? I would prefer to make them fight their own fallen, but 1 HD dwarf skeletons/zombies won’t do much. Might make the cost of taking us out not worth the effort.

Dis Pater: We need to get access to the second level of the dungeon, or make it to the surface and get out the exit. Put silver weapons in our hands and this is a whole different game.

Seraphim: I would rule out the surface, we can’t hold out for a full day. They will just nip at our heels until we longer have feet. If we can spread them out and force them to work in smaller chunks that works to our benefit. Really need a head count for what we got left to re-animate. Also a spell count to determine who has what remaining.

Hades:
3rd: Animate Dead, Animate Dead
4th: Enervation (Domain slot), Divine Power

Pluto:
3rd: Animate Dead
4th: Enervation (Domain Slot)

Seraphim:
3rd: Animate Dead
4th: Moonlight Star Motes, Enervation

They have a scattering of second level spells (mostly desecrate) and some first level spells (bane and bless that will likely be burned and converted to healing

Doc:
3rd Level: Inflict Serious Wounds
Lots of buff spells

Remaining Bodies:
6 Baboons (1HD)
2 Rhinos (5HD)
1 Mastadon (14 HD)
18 Minotaurs (6HD)

Hades and Pluto can animate as if they are 11th level, and with Desecrate running they can bring up 44HD with a single casting, they can control 28 each.

Their remaining stockpile measures out at 138HD, 44x3=132…so they can actually get everything minus the baboons with three castings. They gameplan using Enervations to target Russ/Gup as a primary target.

They load up Dis Pater from scrolls/buffs to get Bulls Strength, Bears Endurance, and Eagle’s Splendor all running. He ditches his shield and uses a +1 longsword two handed for a bit of added power. Doc gets a similar treatment to buff strength, con, and Dex, and he has his flaming greataxe. Whatever Dis swings at, Doc targets.

Seraphim uses her Animate Dead to pop 28 HD worth of undead. 2 Rhinos and 3 Minotaurs. Hades Pops his for the Mastadon, 5 Minotaurs, Pluto pops his for 7 Minotuars and 2 Baboons. The twins each commandeer a Minotaur and Rhino for their Command Undead slots, and all three take a minotaur as their class companion (bonethrall/corpse companion). The baboons are thrown to the forefront as fodder.

Hades: So now what…we wait?
Pluto: Buffs will wear off before they may decide to harry us again.

Dis Pater: What If we mounted the rhino’s and Mastadon…then just made a mad dash through their ranks. Force them to string out and pursue. We play hide and seek through the halls and force them to keep moving. If they want to bring their heavy equipment and mobile cover at us they are going to eventually get tired of changing direction. If we can take them in smaller chunks then I think the attrition works better to our advantage. Ideally we Benny Hill them so much we get a clear shot at their leadership. Swarm the boss and see if they look for a new alpha.

Benny Hill chaos is the only appropriate description of how this devolves. I would have absolutely been playing the freaking music if I realized just fitting it would have been. They pull a Rider’s of Rohan charging from Helm’s Deep gambit into the teeth of the forming were-dwarves and set off a chain reaction of mobile skirmishes. The were-dwarves are faster than most of the undead…and slower than the mounted running undead. So this kind of yo yo effect takes shape where the Mastadon’s and Rhinos hit a dead end…have to stop and turn…the dwarves catch up…eat a ranged volley, engage…get hit with negative energy…then get swarmed from the rear by a mass of minotaur skeletons who finally caught up…and then the whole thing repeats itself. Their burst capability is low…but the combination of A.O.E. and constant engagement start to make their fast healing less of a boon. Dis and Doc take out a wolf at a rate of about 2/3 rounds. I had intended to keep Gup and the rest of the “leaders” safely behind their shield walls and as the casualties rise from their soldiers I eventually have them relay a retreat order. The wolves disengage and pull back to their barricaded and defended territory.

The U.C. are spent. Chomper is dead…no body to be found. Their spells are undead ranks are in
shambles (again), and they have expended virtually their entire stockpile of buff scrolls and potions. They have virtually no useable corpse stock left (1HD dwarves are too humiliating to bother with) and their main avenue to the lower level (Micko) left them figuratively and literally to the wolves. For salt in the wound their minotaur breeding stock is locked on the other side of the gateway. As we are preparing to end session they find themselves back in Moo-dor. They scavenge their looted trade goods for missile weapons, ammo, re-equips for their remaining undead troops, and any silver weapons.

Seraphim: We really need a way further in. The dwarves are not going to let us walk out the gate.
Dis Pater: Well unless we find a way to will the gate open with positive thinking I don’t see it happening.

DM: Do any of you have any PP lefts?
Dis Pater: Yeah…I have 1 point.
DM: Your pool drops to zero…and the gate opens.

*blink blink*

I figured it would be easier to just hand them the pre-written note card from my side of the screen. As written was the following.

“Gateway is designed for psionic capability entrance only. Micko was given a pointless relic that simply facilitated mental command for the gate to open. His Master knew this and was trumping up the importance of a “key”. Any being with a power point in their pool that thinks about the gate opening will cause it to open”

We end session here.

[blacklight101]

Man, those are definitely solid tactics on all fronts. Unexpected, but they really work.

The gateway thing just made me laugh a little.

[Gilphon]

I laughed hard at the gateway thing. Though I had reread a bit until I realized just how apt Dis' comment was.

I also imagine that the players must've been a bit annoyed with you when they realized that they could've used that to easily escape the Dwarves.

[Kaveman26]

They don't talk it personal when stuff like this happens, it did take the wind out of their sails, but they are highly adaptable if nothin else.


And as a side note....in retrospect I was thrilled that chomper died because his replacement has become one of my favorite characters ever. You will meet him next session.

This got us through ninth session. We have completed 16 at this point. Might be one or two more before we take a break and I get a chance to adjust next phases. They can chew through prepped content or outstrip my plans pretty quick and I'm looking forward to a break from DM.

[commander panda]

.....so, how did the minotaurs not accidentally open the gate? did one of them never stand in front of it and think "i wish this thing would open?"

[Inevitability]

.....so, how did the minotaurs not accidentally open the gate? did one of them never stand in front of it and think "i wish this thing would open?"

Wondered about that too. I guess the psionic ones were too busy doing important stuff, rather than trying to open a stupid gate? Or the minotaurs gave up on opening it some time before the radiation altered them.

[Kaveman26]

As it would have been inconvient for my purposes I will answer the following,

"Against all logic and reasoning and in denial of common sense they never once thought the door open"

[Lord of Shadows]

As it would have been inconvient for my purposes I will answer the following,

"Against all logic and reasoning and in denial of common sense they never once thought the door open"

Typical DM response!!
.

[Inevitability]

Or... maybe some did get the door open, and against all common sense wandered in. Then the door closed behind them and squids happened. Since they still didn't know how to open the door, the minotaurs eventually gave up trying to open it.