The Romanov incident (a 3.5 campaign journal)

[curious-puzzle]

Glad to hear! Two days until the mysterious next level...

[Lazarias]

Player of Tywin emerging from his shadows.

[johnbragg]

Started reading a few weeks ago. Much fun.

[curious-puzzle]

Spoiler: A short rest

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We end up making camp for coming up on a week, partially to start setting up a deal with Bronze about long-term accommodation (if we can make this place a base), partially to represent leveling up, and mainly so Tywin can make a Dedicated Wright to work on stuff for him. I also get a scroll of Restoration yay! I scribe Web into my spellbook rather than always having to use the creepy one covered in skin, and spend the rest of the week attempting to hunt with Fred to reduce our ration consumption. Since no-one has ranks in Survival (and no substantial Wis bonuses), it's a bit of a gamble. But Fred and I crank our dice rolls, and catch a substantial amount of food! When we meet up with the Raven's Rangers again, they're somewhat surprised at how proficient we are at hunting.
Ranger: "You're a bit more of a woodsman than I expected...that's some solid hunting. Knife work?"
Me: *Flashback to hunting scene: "Lesser Orb of Acid! Web! Summon Monster!"* "...yes. Yes, we are full of surprises."

We make arrangements for them to check in again in a week, and proceed to the dreaded level 3!

Spoiler: Killer Fashion

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This level is different again, back to narrower 5-ft hallways, flagstones, and lit by patches of softly glowing fungus. The patches were deliberately spaced, but they've clearly become overgrown, making the lighting kind of weird. Two things are still the same from previous levels, though.
1)Traps everywhere
2)It makes NO SENSE

The traps are nastier on this level, too. Kas fails to disarm several, but manages to Reflex her way out of most (not all though). Some highlights include: Kas getting beaned in the head by Falling Rocks, Tywin getting a jet of super-high pressure icy water to the face (and getting thrown back a few feet from the impact), lots of creepy demon faces with Fireball traps hidden inside, and trapped locked doors leading to dead-end hallways. We finally come across an incredibly detailed dragon statue, its mouth wide open with the tongue sticking out, and the wall behind it conspicuously clean and bare. I bet 5 gold that it's a secret door, and behold, the tongue is a lever. Fred pays me in a bag of small rocks, the prat. Inside seems to be a dressing room of sorts. There's rags and boots strewn about, tattered tapestries on the walls, and then we all notice a rack with an intact cloak hanging off it. Tywin wheels closer to check it out, and at the last moment realizes it's not a cloak IT'S A CLOAKER. Initiative!

Tywin goes first and scrambles backwards while activating his Hammersphere, which thunks the Cloaker. I lob my Lesser Orb of Acid and miss horrifically (fun fact, I have missed every single one of these I've cast). The cloaker spreads its wings and moans, and everyone except me fails their save to not be panicked. Kas fails super hard because of Craven and runs away. Fred screams manfully and runs away. Tywin...wheels away in a panic. I sigh, and clap my hands together and cast Summon Monster III to bring Mongo out. Mongo hands out a beating that critics describe as both "savage" and "unrelenting", landing the killing blow while completely ignoring the Mirror image the Cloaker frantically put up as an attempt at defense, and bringing the "Death by Giant ape" count to 5. When the rest of the party stops running and screaming, they come back to me dramatically posing with the Cloaker's corpse as a batman cape. We scoop up all the treasure, and Kas finds a nasty looking Fireball trap at the room's exit. Rather than risk getting exploded, I summon a Celestial Monkey to take one for the team.

Sidenote, in one of the DM's previous games, they had agreed that every time someone summoned a celestial monkey to "find" traps, it was the same monkey. Every time. So I summon up a grizzled, jaded looking monkey that's smoking a cigar. It glares at me, chitters something celestial creatures probably shouldn't say when I point to the ominous doorway, and resignedly walks over to the door and jumps on the pressure pad in front. I spend an imaginary drama point to request the monkey flipping us the bird as its engulfed in flame. Trap defeated!

Spoiler: Gorilla Warfare

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We continue onwards, and Kas finds a wooden doorway around a corner. While we wait behind said corner, she fails to disarm the Flame strike! trap, but evades the Reflex save. As the door is obliterated, Kas looks in to see a jet-black sinuous winged creature rearing its head back and hissing! She wins initiative and runs past the rest of us yelling, "Dragondragondragondragon!" She gets out of range, but the (Small) black dragon leaps just inside the doorway and blasts the rest of with acid breath for a nasty chunk of damage (half my health, similar for Tywin, still hurts Fred). Fred shuffles his maneuvers and draws his newest acquisition first: Divine Surge. His blade crackling with righteous divine power, he strides forward and brings the blade screaming downwards...and misses. The DM finds this highly amusing. I summon Mongo again, as he can still reach the dragon from inside the room, and he hits 1 of 3 attacks. The dragon decides it can evade the clumsy strikes of these mammals and attack from above, and provokes two attacks of opportunity to fly upwards to the ceiling.

Which both Mongo and Fred crit on, nearly killing the dragon flat-out. We find this highly amusing :). The dragon swiftly changes its plans from "strafing run," to "evasive maneuvers," and double moves the heck out of Dodge above us into the dungeon, fleeing. We spend a big chunk of resources healing up (that wand of lesser vigor is looking a little low), and Kas finds both the dragon's normal treasure stash under one flagstone, AND the super special hidden one. We rob the bugger blind, and agree again that we need extra-dimensional storage as we're all carrying almost enough to go past light encumbrance and Tywin's chair is getting heavy. After shouting a few taunts and bluffs at the hallway where the dragon left by, we continue onwards.

Spoiler: Guerrilla warfare

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A little while later, we walk around a corner to the black dragon snarling curses at us as it blasts another jet of acid over all of us, then wings off swiftly. It's clear that it's quick and stealthy enough that we can't avoid its ambushes, so we hustle hard back to the stairs leading back up to level two. Tywin burns a bunch of Spell storing Item infusions (which by the way, is the most ridiculous awesome ability ever) on a quill to inscribe 3 pieces of parchment with Explosive Runes while we keep a tense overwatch. We then leave them strewn up the long stairway in eye-catching areas (didn't think of it now, but makes perfect sense to leave some coins holding them down and to draw the eye). We then shout some truly terrible taunts involving the dragon's gender, heritage, sexual promiscuity and low standards of its parents, and beat feet upstairs and several rooms away. Couple minutes later, the DM shakes his head as we roll damage and hear a muffled BOOM. The 1st explosive rune minetrap deals 27 damage...the dragon had 2 hp left. As we start back to the stairs, we hear two more BOOMS in fairly quick succession, and send Kas to scout while we creep behind. Peering with a mirror down the stairway, she spots a beat-up looking super pissed off Drider picking bits of Ettercap off of its chitin, and a bunch of Ettercaps behind it. Deciding to draw them into an ambush, Kas whips a sneak attack knife at the Drider to draw its attention...and rolls pretty close to max sneak attack damage and kills the already wounded drider outright. The ettercaps stare, and she wins initiative and runs for her life. In a probably wise move (seeing as we just wasted their boss and several of their mates with the explosive rune minetraps and a knife), the ettercaps coat the stairway in the Web abilities and book it. We decide to go back to safety for the rest of the day after that, and call it a night.

Victory! Pretty sure we're only going to get away with that trick once, but it was awesome. I'm starting to suspect that when we finally go up against the masters of Romanov, the DM is going to throw every nasty trick we've used on his monsters back at us plus a LOT of interest. I look forward to it . Also, the last two sessions haven't been shorter, I'm just snipping out a lot of the "creep around corner slowly, examine for traps, continue, examine for more traps" because they are EVERYWHERE. This necromancer's comeuppance will be long and unpleasant for inconveniencing us so...

[curious-puzzle]

And hope you continue to find it fun, Johnbragg, we certainly do!

[Lazarias]

Victory! Pretty sure we're only going to get away with that trick once, but it was awesome. I'm starting to suspect that when we finally go up against the masters of Romanov, the DM is going to throw every nasty trick we've used on his monsters back at us plus a LOT of interest. I look forward to it . Also, the last two sessions haven't been shorter, I'm just snipping out a lot of the "creep around corner slowly, examine for traps, continue, examine for more traps" because they are EVERYWHERE. This necromancer's comeuppance will be long and unpleasant for inconveniencing us so...

I'm going to turn that necromancer into a flesh golem. I swear.

[curious-puzzle]

I'm going to turn that necromancer into a flesh golem. I swear.

That's phase 1 of 7.

[Blackhawk748]

I swear this necromancer is a crazed gnome. Also a Drider with a mob of Ettercaps??

[curious-puzzle]

I swear this necromancer is a crazed gnome. Also a Drider with a mob of Ettercaps??

Knowing this country so far, it's a distinct possibility. Just adds credence to my theory that all gnomes are secretly evil.

As for the Drider and Ettercaps, this complex has gone far enough down that we're certain it connects to the Underdark.

[Jeargroth]

The best part is they missed the one important clue that was in an room that they considered irrelevant. It will come back to bite them in the ass later I assure all readers. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

i am GM.

[curious-puzzle]

The best part is they missed the one important clue that was in an room that they considered irrelevant. It will come back to bite them in the ass later I assure all readers. MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Not sure if trying to tempt metagaming....or bluffing...

[Leon]

Fantastic so far and I'm awaiting further posts with interest.

[curious-puzzle]

Thanks Leon!

[Jeargroth]

Not sure if trying to tempt metagaming....or bluffing...

Mostly just to torment and tease. No bluff... you did miss something. It didn't even make your story... so when it comes to pass we will have to bring people back into the story again.

[curious-puzzle]

Two more sleeps till game time

[Blackhawk748]

Two more sleeps till game time

Great movie, also very fitting with you guys.

[curious-puzzle]

But who would be who?

Spoiler: Rolling on

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We (mostly) resist the urge to metagame, and continue on the third floor rather than re-checking everything on the second floor. 37th verse, same as the first. Illogical hallways, numerous traps. But with the combination of Kas rolling like a beast and Tywin's dedicated wright helping to finish a custom item that gives a boost to search and disable checks, they are found and eliminated. They kind of distract Kas from looking up, though, and in one room, something dark and tentacled drops down at her suddenly!

And misses. The epic battle with the 8 darkmantles is predicted in its entirety by that right there. The DM can't roll above 10 to save his life, I dispel some of their darkness clouds, Fred walks in and methodically cleaves through the darkmantles, and then Tywin uses a scroll of summon nature's ally to summon some small air elementals. Kas and I just wait around for the massacre to finish. and peg the fleeing survivors as they try to escape.

The show goes on, and we find a large open room with a bunch of levers to one side. As Kas creeps in to check them out, something hits her with a brutal ZAP! As she turns around, the glowing ball of light wins initiative and ZAPS her again. Kas is understandably concerned by the rather large chunk of health she's just lost, but lashes out with a Death Devotion powered dagger and lands a crit. The will o'wisp fails the save and Kas shuffles out of the way. I fail my knowledge check hard, and fire off a rebuke which does nothing...since, you know...they're immune to all magic except magic missile (which I can't cast) and maze (which I can't cast, and why would you use that on a will o'wisp). Fred steps up with Divine Surge and whiffs. Tywin and I twiddle our thumbs, as there's pretty much nothing we can do to the evil ball of light. It zaps Fred, and he retaliates by rolling an 18 with Mountain Hammer with his falchion...which misses. The total seems low for rolling an 18, so I question Fred's player's math.

And we find out that he'd only been using his base attack bonus and nothing else. And he forgot to take his level 6 feat. After some good-natured mockery and determining that he had indeed hit, Fred nearly kills the Will O'wisp with said blow. It panics and gets the heck out of Dodge, turning invisible and fleeing. Fred takes a few experimental swings and I throw out a Glitterdust, but it's long gone. We heal Kas up and examine the mad profusion of levers and dials. They're not magical, and we have no idea what they do, so of course Fred wants to pull them. The GM starts to offer bonus xp, but we manage to move on before pulling what's most likely the self destruct lever.

Spoiler: A clue

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We find a hallway full of decapitated statues, plus one intact statue. As soon as it pipes up, we all groan and prepare to euthanize again. Blessedly enough though, this one actually tells the truth! We grill him/her/it, and receive enlightenment. The master of this place hasn't been around in at least 5 years, he smashed all the other truth telling statues for doing just that (that he was going crazy), and the necromancer lost it because he tapped into Pandemonium somehow. You know, that lovely vacation spot of madness, insanity-causing wind, and eeevviilll. The statue also mentions that the place is built crazy because the crazy necromancer had earth elementals bound to do his bidding.

Hrm...that sounds like exactly what we came here for. The statue describes a human skull, covered in runes, with amber stones set in the eyes and the teeth replaced with brown diamonds. We all think back...to a room with an open sarcophagus, that had a headless skeleton! We hustle back there, and using the incredibly detailed description, really high spellcraft and knowledge arcana/planes checks, and the resonance of the skeleton, pull off a locate object spell. It points down, so we hustle as fast as we can to the stairs down, poor Tywin nearly bouncing out of his chair.
Appropriate theme music

Spoiler: The Deep Dark

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The spell fades just as we make it down a ridiculously long stairway, but we have a direction. This level is rough natural cavern, and pitch black, so we hug a wall and head gradually forwards. Tywin infuses Undead controlling into his chestplate first, though. So when two wraiths pop up out of the black, they fail their saves bad enough that they bow to Tywin and wait for instructions. We use them as scout/advance murder troopers. They slaughter another group of darkmantles, mangle a gang of troglodytes, and warn us of a group of serpentine creatures with barbed tails and human-like faces. We advance slowly, and a hissing voice at the absolute edge of low-light vision demands to know what we want. Fred replies cheekily with, "Your heads!"

So the 3 dark nagas each blast him with a Lightning Bolt. He makes all 3 saves, but it still hurts. We all slowly scramble for cover (since everyone's moving at half speed due to the rough floor), and I summon a Huge Fiendish monstrous centipede as a mobile barricade. Kas was a little closer, and in perfect Infernal, offers a parley. The nagas agree (possibly influenced by the wraiths lurking in the walls at our command). Turns out they have the skull, but want necromantic magic in exchange for it. All we have to offer is the creepy spellbook we had acquired, plus a miscellaneous item or two. We also promise to not sell them out to the masters of Romanov to be enslaved/killed for parts. The naga don't seem too interested, until Fred pipes up. Fred, who turns out to have max ranks in diplomacy. We all watch in mingled disbelief and horror as the nagas confer, and agree. We make the trade, and scurry away. As Fred hands me the skull, I notice that the stone floor beneath me smooths out. On a whim, I command, "Rise." Two earth elementals rise up. And up. And up. Two HUGE elementals stand before me. We hustle back to base camp, and examine the skull thoroughly.

Spoiler: Plotting and scheming

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So the skull turns out to be very narrow in scope, but VERY good at what it does. It offers absolute control over these massive monoliths, but only within two miles or so of the manor. If it's removed from there, at best the magic is suppressed, worst case it breaks and the elementals rampage. Functioning or not, we all agree that the masters of Romanov can't have this. In fact, we agree that it's too risky for any of us to return to Cassandra; we're just going to get more and more attention, and one of us will slip. As we've all been terrified and freaked out by what Romanov is planning, it's time to step up from espionage to full on rebellion and sabotage. The group decides to use the elementals to collapse and rebuild the dungeon as our own hidden underground lair. Since we're using the earth elementals to flatten anything left in the dungeon and collect the loot, the GM turns it into a montage rather than rolling it out. The combination of crushing everything left in the dungeon+previous session+ I assume a large story bonus puts us to level 9!


All that's left for loose ends is Joss, Kas' contact/former mentor/former lover. Thankfully, Kas has a gem to communicate with him (and she had used it to arrange a black-bagging for Fred if/when we returned to Cassandra, but none of us know in-game). She convinces/cajoles/threatens Joss into bugging out and meeting us out here, along with Grass Clippings.

Tywin and I use a scroll of Teleport to travel to the neighboring country's capital, and spend our frankly ludicrous amount of loot on gear/materials/SPELLS. I burn through my share in a matter of moments, stuffing my spellbook with new 2nd, 3rd, and a bunch of 4th level spells. Once Tywin's done, we're going to return and finish our secret lair of DOOM, contact the Raven to come meet us, and then we're going to try to find these elusive druids to broker an alliance.

[Blackhawk748]

I can hear the evil laughter already...

[Jeargroth]

I can hear the evil laughter already...

Cackling ... Gooooood. Gooooood.

Now I have them suitably levelled I feel an urge to steam roll now...

[curious-puzzle]

Well, I already used a "Come at me Bro" picture, so instead I'll go with an oldie but a goodie:

"Cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war!"

[curious-puzzle]

Steamroller got caught in traffic and never made it, might show up next game. Instead we got...well, you'll see.

Spoiler: Tywin and Haearn

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While we're buying our spells and materials and various sundry goods (bag of boulders for Kas, for example), we decide to spread some ominous rumors and unsettling bits of info about Romanov. I chat up some of the mages in the tower, then lie shamelessly about how I'm an old companion of one of the senior wizards and I'd love to see him again. Said senior wizard moseys down, and is understandably confused, but I lay out all the free will-destroying soul-enslaving elemental-binding loveliness we've encountered. He doesn't throw me out on my rear because a)just dropped almost 7k worth of gold on them b)This is the country in which we saved the frontier town from the massive orc warband (and left a glorious trebuchet as a present) c)they've sent their own agents to Romanov and haven't heard or seen anything back other than, "nothing suspicious, this place is great, will stay to continue investigating" which is suspicious by itself. I don't try for some impassioned speech about rising up and uniting against the evil empire, but I just say that he should be very wary of his neighboring country.

Tywin goes to the church of Boccob, and has a very long and very detailed speech with the high priestess regarding the use (and we feel misuse) of magic that's going on in Romanov. She's quite concerned, especially the using souls as magic item ingredients, and the binding elementals part. His detailed sketches of the airships and scroll with a thorough analysis of the mind-whammy rings puts her firmly on our side. Firmly enough, that when Tywin asks for a volunteer from the church to aid us (looking for a cohort as he just took Leadership), she knows just who to talk to. Tywin will have an answer the next morning.

I also have a chat with the church of Wee Jas to see if I can suss out any more on Kas' "condition." I don't get too far as I'm staying vague just in case there's some prophecy about a stab-happy chosen of death that will murder the world or something along those lines, and because the senior priestess is a DROW. Awkward...I smooth talk my way through the meeting, and hastily make an exit. We get all our various supplies, and Tywin manages to make a converted Handy Haversack in the drawers beneath the seat of his wheelchair (his next plan for the wheelchair is to make it essentially a rolling homunculus). The next morning, there's a knock at our door, and we meet Tywin's cohort: James the cleric of Boccob, with the Magic and Trickery domains! He's super fresh faced, and hasn't really ever traveled outside his city. He's neutral at least, but the poor guy's in for some crazy times rolling with us. We prepare to return back to our lair.
http://www.youtube.com/v/4UqFPujRZWo...hl=en_US&rel=0

Spoiler: Kas and Fred

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Fred takes to lair-building with a vengeance, and makes the best secret lair ever, with a pool Everything is underground, just like Tywin said (except for a big sign that's left there just to mess with Tywin when he gets back). Fred even makes custom rooms for everyone that he's certain they'll like; a replica of Tywin's cramped workshop, a room with a writing table and a bunch of shelves for me, and an elegant princess room covered in rose quartz for Kas.

...Fred apparently hasn't spent time with many girls other than his mother.

Kas spends most of her time making a little blind and shelter for when Joss arrives, at the absolute edge of the elemental's range. We're still not 100% trusting of Joss, so this is a halfway house of sorts for him. Also, Kas has an excuse to not have to hang around Fred in an enclosed space. We arrive back a little over a week before Joss is due to arrive. James and Fred meet, shake hands ra ra, it'll be fine. Kas meets James and just kind of stares. Then Kas discovers the room Fred made for her, complete with a little "I'm sorry (for pushing you into a trap)." Kas starts swearing quietly, then builds in intensity. When James asks what's wrong, Kas lets loose with some truly horrifying threats involving his kidneys, her knives, and paintings made of said kidneys. I pull James into my room, taking a break from my frantic scribing to explain the dynamics of our motley band. He's a little concerned, but should be allright working with everyone. I spend the rest of the week transcribing my new spells, Tywin works on gear for everyone, Fred keeps building on the lair, and Kas lurks about, before disappearing a couple days early to have a "private" chat with Joss (that happened just between Kas' player and the GM online earlier in the week). Once she's back, she mentions that Joss has "lost some of his edge" and she doesn't know if we can trust him to work with us. So Fred, myself, James, and Kas go out to have a chat with our buddy Joss while Tywin keeps working away.

Spoiler: Meeting in the woods

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We wander out, and once we reach the shelter, a raven flaps out, lands on Kas' shoulder, and starts chatting...in Infernal. Suspicion point #1. I ask it how well it speaks, and it snarks back at me before calling its master. I use detect magic and eyeball Joss on his way down the ladder. His gear's magic, and he definitely has some magic humming on him too. The bird is magic as well...Joss grumbles that the damned bird is speaking that freaky language to Kas again. So the familiar speaks Infernal, but Joss doesn't...suspicion point #2. We joust back and forth verbally a bit, and I finally come to the ultimatum that he needs to let me detect thoughts on him. It won't reveal his deepest darkest secrets, but it will reveal any overt manipulation or subversion. He doesn't seem mind-whammied, and after a bit more chatting, we decide Joss can come back with us.

On the way back, I get Kas to bribe the raven back over to her shoulder, and I grill Joss about where he got that raven familiar. He mentions that he claimed him from someone that he killed. It managed to survive, and it just seemed so sad to Joss that he felt sorry for it....and decided to bind it to himself as a familiar.

Suspicion points 3 through 7. Then I hear the raven (still in Infernal!) bragging to Kas how it had caught a rabbit for Joss to eat, since he's absolutely hopeless in the woods. The Raven. Caught. A Rabbit. That's it! I blast the "bird" with a Dispel Magic, and suddenly said birdie is a scaly winged imp.
"Aw crap." says the imp. It wisely flaps away off Kas' shoulder, and then it's time for a little chat. Joss is gobsmacked, and it seems genuine. We decide Joss stays out in the woods for a couple more days while he sorts this out, and warn the Imp that he'd better cooperate if he doesn't want to suffer a most unfortunate fate. We head back to our underground lair (I LOVE SAYING THAT), and have a group drinking/discussion meeting about what just happened. Joss is on his last straw with everyone; he does anything shifty and he's done for. James is understandably freaked out , and we understand to him that this is perhaps...not a place for heroes.
And yes, I am commanded to play our group theme song right then.

And that's pretty much the game for the night, except for some personal revelations that Kas receives from Joss about her family and guild that should get its own post.

[Jeargroth]

Yes the Steam roller got caught in traffic... Primarily due to the players not sure what to do with Joss... I am hoping they decide to either vent his kidneys like Kas threatened to do to the Cohort James the cleric, or bring him into the fold. Cause right now he is circling like a guy in the Friend zone.



I will steam roll them I promise. Right now they are making items... and more items. As it was pointed out to me they are way behind on the Wealth per level table.



I couldn't help but put the last one in... I still love you guys. Despite Landmines, Undead control armour and Elementals that Wipe a dungeon.

I am GM and I DON"T APPROVE this message.

PS... i have a whole scene with Joss and Kas written down as it was done by Text... I will try to fill it in this weekend so if your a follower of this misadventure you can be let in on the background scenery.

[curious-puzzle]

Salt content levels seem to be rising , is fun to trash talk in multiple mediums. And as we discussed, wealth level will adjust quickly, we just had a serious xp spike and have to catch up.

Now the real thing you have to ask yourself...if you manage to kill one of us and it sticks, will what we come back with be better...or worse?

[curious-puzzle]

Saturday's game is still on schedule, having defeated zombie-plague level colds, crazy accident causing drivers, and maniacal wisdom-teeth stealing dentists. I'm thinking the danger level of our enemies is going to be increasing drastically...

Who's going to "win" the death lottery?

[curious-puzzle]

Spoiler: Off for a stroll in the woods

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The Raven finally arrives, and strangely enough, is quite enamored with the idea of formally allying with a group of relatively powerful mercenaries who have a grudge against the people who took over his country.

Plus we have a lair! Never gets old saying that. The Raven makes arrangements for his band of merry men and women to begin filtering to said lair.

After a bit more discussion (and introducing the Raven and Joss, who has seemingly established himself as the boss of his imp Druzil) of potential forces against the city of Cassandra, we decide to still go with the Druid circle as our first bet. The other options are necromancers and the remnants of orc tribes, so the druids are much less likely to try and kill us. Leaving Anton in charge (who is officially one of Tywin's followers now that he's taken Leadership) and making sure the Elemental Skull (I'll think of a better name later) is secure in its lead lined room behind multiple traps, we set out for the several week journey (each way) to where we think the Druids should be.

Most of the trip is uneventful, there's a river we cross where the DM is disappointed that we use fly to bypass (open spell slots on traveling days are handy), apparently there was something in the water. A few days later, we come across a broad gorge, 60 ft across and at least 60 feet deep with a bunch of rocks, a creek, and a large pond below. We decide the easiest way across is for me to Dimension door everyone except Tywin across, and Tywin will use Levitate on his chair, holding onto a rope we had shot across the gorge with a crossbow. Feeling paranoid, Tywin infuses his chair with some damage reduction just in case.

His paranoia is warranted when it turns out that those rocks below are hiding a gang of stone giants. Kas spotted them from the edge in time to warn everyone, so Fred grabs the rope and HEAVES to speed Tywin up, I lob a Glitterdust down and blind one of the 5 giants, Kas and James back up, and Tywin...Tywin holds on for dear life. Thanks to one giant being blind and Tywin having that extra DR on his chair, the 4 giant rocks only almost obliterate his chair, dropping it to critically low hit points. Fred catches him as he crosses the gorge, and we listen for a tense moment for signs of the giants climbing up. They seem content to argue with each other instead, so a Mending later, we just leave. Encounter sort of defeated?

Finally we reach the territory of the druids. At least we think it is with the abundance of wildlife that watches us and shows no fear of people. Well, no fear until Fred decapitates one of the deer for food *sigh*. They keep their distance after that, and we make sure to use all the deer respectfully. Another day later, we're wandering along when the grass, roots, vines, and surrounding shrubbery all tangle about us, grasping and gripping! Everyone fails their save except Kas, who promptly ninjas out of sight. An angry voice tells us to halt, then to turn around and leave. We display the proper amount of plucky heroic defiance and diplomatic smoothtalking, though, and the druid at least dispels the Entangle and comes out to talk. She's a half-elf named Elise, and she states mechanically that the Druid Circle has no quarrel with Cassandra, and will not break its truce. Unofficially, she seems quite disgusted with the whole thing, and quickly reveals herself to have favorable opinions towards our goal. Her hands are tied by her Elders, though. When we insist that we might be able to change their minds though, she grins wickedly and announces that we somehow made it past her patrol without being spotted and points which way to go. We thank Elise and head onwards cheerfully.

Spoiler: The Druids

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The next day, we hear an ominous amount of crashing and thrashing coming through the woods towards us. Kas vanishes (her Hide and Move Silently checks were insane the whole night), and the rest of us wait looking all non-threatening. A T-rex tromps out of the woods, and several Dire Bears lumber in from the sides. We found more druids!

Shifting into a sour-looking elven woman, the former T-rex demands to know why we're here. Explaining that we seek an audience with the elders of the Druidic Circle, she tries to blow us off. Tywin is quite firm and quite eloquent, explaining that the reason we have come is very serious, we don't mean any harm to the circle, but we are not leaving without having a fair chance to speak. We manage to convince the angry lady, and she leads us further into the woods. Kas creeps along behind, safely out of sight. While traveling, the woman grudgingly gives her name as "Willow" of the Duchains.

Spoiler: Side note!

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Fred's last name is Duchain! He was pretty close-mouthed about it, but apparently he and his parents did not get along with the other members of their family name. So he's kept his visor closed and his mouth shut the whole time. Especially because he recognizes this woman as his aunt...and the last words she said to him were, "You have no place here, half-breed." Whee!

We finally reach the grove proper, and once we're in a clearing next to a MASSIVE oak tree, Willow reveals herself to be the ArchDruid of this circle, and not-so politely tells us that we're wasting our time. We politely disagree, and request to speak to all the Elders of the circle, so they can make a decision as a whole. She consents to this, and gives us food and lodging (well, berries, water, and soft grass) while we wait for them to arrive. We also catch Willow in a lie (go cleric cohort!) talking about how the Circle freely chose a truce with the city of Cassandra. Something's fishy about her...Kas finds a shadowy perch in a tree, and keeps watch as best as she can while staying hidden.

That evening, we are summoned to make our case before the Circle. There's four others in addition to Willow, and we pull out all the stops. Tywin's got the evidence he's discovered down to a glass-slick routine (we joke that we make a magic Powerpoint with Silent image, prestidigitation, ghost sound, and dancing lights). The druids are aware of the clear-cutting and creepy Elemental-Air forest around Cassandra, and state that it's still part of nature. Kind of strange, but okay. They're aware of the fact that people are being enslaved by the rings. They're not aware of the fact that people's souls are being used as magical fuel and materials, or of our (pretty solid) theory that anyone wearing a clockwork ring isn't passing to the Outer Planes when they die. This disturbs 2 of the elders more than Willow and the other two. They know about the Airships, but not of the refueling stations being built towards Romanov's borders. All in all, Tywin and I paint a fairly grim picture for them (and laugh down their insistence that the masters of Romanov will hold to their promise to leave the Druids alone). And we manage to do it with only one or two WWII references. Grim-faced, the council states that it will deliberate, and give us an answer in the morning. We wander off, and Kas creeps in juuuusst close enough to listen to them debating.

It's pretty ugly right from the get-go, with the council split along Willow+two members against the two that seemed more receptive to us. They throw something about "death being part of the natural order" at Willow, and she spits back, "He's my Son!" Oho, a possible hostage. It goes back and forth, with Willow nearly full-on threatening the other members that her strength as Arch-Druid makes her authority greater. Kas also hears that apparently Obad-Hai has not spoken to the druids on this matter...creepy/curious. Once the argument starts coiling into circles, Kas sneaks off to report to us.

I shamelessly bribe the child-druids that they've been using to guide us around with candy, and find out that Willow's (human) husband died of old age 10 years ago, and they had a son named Barnabus who went away to the city a few years ago. I also learn that the Arch Druid seems sad and angry all the time, and the kids keep their distance. Once we're alone, Kas lets us in on what she overheard. Pooling our info, seems like the Circle is holding to this "truce" because of Willow. Whether her son is a hostage, or Thiloff is promising something involving her husband, or both, her fear is what's keeping the druids uninvolved. Fred finally lets us in on why his family exiled him: Willow hated her sister (Fred's mother) for leaving the circle to marry a human. When Fred tried to go back after his parents died, Willow cast him out with a lot of nasty language. So our main opposition to allying with the druids is nasty, hypocritical and fearful...and might be suffering a crisis of faith if Obad-Hai isn't speaking to her regarding the whole evil empire thing. Tywin does an Augury on whether revealing Fred's identity would be good or bad; we get an answer of Weal and Woe. So it's a plan B

Spoiler: The Decision

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The elders meet with us the next morning, and their grim faces are not a good sign. Right away, Willow states that it is the decision of the Circle to hold to their truce with Cassandra, and that we should leave. Going right for the soft bits, I ask if it's the Circle's decision, or her's because she's frightened for her son. We can see the eye twitch and hand flex from a loooong ways away. A little more tensely, she reiterates that all five voted, 3 to 2. I spit back her words that Kas overheard, about how Willow was the Archdruid, and her strength commanded their obedience. One of the other druids steps between us and Willow, cause she looks like she wants to beast out on us and show us the inside of our faces. A bunch more fruitless arguing later, they still won't change their minds. On the plus side, we now know that none of the druids could seem to get an answer on how they should deal with Cassandra from their god. How that doesn't seem suspicious to them is mind-boggling. We turn away in disgust, and Fred lifts his visor and throws his family crest dagger at Willow's feet. All she does is sneer at him.

On our way out at least, we make a small ally. Elise, the first druid we met, turns out to be Fred's cousin. And as Fred is family, she can come to the aid of family without technically defying the orders of the Circle. She gives us a hawk to use as a messenger, and promises to bring as many as she can when we call. So...something, at least. Grilling her for last bits of info, she mentions that the stone giants are out of place, they're normally more in the mountains.

On the way back, we decide to try and speak to the stone giants, to figure out what they're doing in the woods. When we reach the gorge, though, the giants are all dead, ripped apart by something very large. Perhaps foolishly, I slap Mirror image and Fly on myself and float partway down the gorge, using my Elemental Reserve summons to poke about. A nymph pops out of the pond below, and I hastily avert my eyes. She mentions that her pet took care of the nasty giants for her, and I wasn't going to try and hurt her was I? Eyes looking elsewhere, I assure her that I would never harm such a beautiful nymph. At the loud words of "nymph" Tywin tells everyone to shut their eyes and clangs Fred's visor down on him. Then the nymph's "pet" shows up; a massively oversized Gray Render. As the nymph invites me to come and visit her, I lie through my teeth that I most certainly will as soon as I ferry my less-handsome companions over the gorge. Kas hops into Tywin's chair, I Dimension Door everyone except Tywin, then I fly back and scoop him up. I then dramatically claim a heart attack due to the merest glimpse of such natural beauty as the nymph's, and we run like hell before the Gray Render climbs up.

We make our way back somewhat grumpily, having little to show for almost a month's trip. Interrogating Joss if he knows of any "Barnabus" in the city, the only druid he can think of isn't a hostage. He's a popular gladiator named "Bloody Barney."

Wait, Cassandra has a gladiatorial arena? He gives us more info, and we amend our theory that the clockwork rings aren't just claiming souls upon death. They might be draining emotions and energy from people still living, if they have an arena to try and encourage blood-thirsty feelings. Suddenly it might not be a force of overwhelming Law behind this, but Evil in the mix too.

We end the session still having to decide on our next course of action. So far the options are:
1)break back into Cassandra and find this arena, this Barnabus fellow, and possibly wherever all this energy/souls are going
2)find the remnants of the orcish tribes and take over one by killing their leader in ritual combat
3)Plane shift to somewhere like the Outlands and try to find some divine servants and figure out why none of the gods seem to care or notice what's happening in Romanov

Any votes?

[Bad Wolf]

I say do 4) Seduce the Nymph to get a massive Gray Render as a friend.

[curious-puzzle]

Couple problems with that:
1)My bluff is good, but not that good, and eventually I would roll low and the nymph has a pretty good sense motive
2)My continued being able to see is slightly vital to being a wizard

So tempting, but ultimately not worth the risk

[Bad Wolf]

Couple problems with that:
1)My bluff is good, but not that good, and eventually I would roll low and the nymph has a pretty good sense motive
2)My continued being able to see is slightly vital to being a wizard

So tempting, but ultimately not worth the risk

1) Carefully say things in a way that it isn't a lie.
2) Nymphs can turn it off. How do you think there's so many half-nymphs running around?

[curious-puzzle]

Lol, both valid points. Still thinking it would end in tears and/or blindness for someone.

Once I can cast the planar binding spells, I'm planning on fishing for extra nasty stuff anyways.

[curious-puzzle]

Alas, no game this weekend...so the orc tribes remain free from our iron grip for another two weeks...