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  1. - Top - End - #271
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    NinjaGirl

    Join Date
    Jun 2014
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    Wild North Yonder

    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    The 'adventure bros' were gung-ho to go back ever since they knew they missed an optional boss (completionists - ugh). The two casters with enough juice to power a can opener planned to go back to Logos. Puck was gone with the stolen vitae before any discussion and Talvosh went shortly thereafter.

    The three left? I believe we looked at each other back in logos, agreed they were idiots, and went to catch some shut eye in real beds. Worst case scenario? They ended up back next to Angela.

    ..... guess where they ended up? Lol

  2. - Top - End - #272
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Daemon

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    Mar 2012
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    The Frozen North
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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Quote Originally Posted by PrismCat21 View Post
    Guardian Ghost Beholder... are you TRYING to kill everyone?!?


    Hey, they managed to beat him before. Not my fault they forgot that ghosts will keep coming back unless you figure out what compels them to stay. Admittedly I was hoping more of them were going to be away from the safety of the fire.
    The Romanov Incident A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Magic! Mystery! Mind control! Murderous Demon Apes!
    The Curse of Artaith A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Heavily influenced by the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games. Featuring lots and lots of death, player (character) and otherwise!
    Dammerung(old) and Dammerung 2.0 A 5e campaign journal, ongoing. My latest kitchen sink of a campaign setting, with magic radiation storms, underground undead hordes, and elder-god worshipping vikings

  3. - Top - End - #273
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Daemon

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    Mar 2012
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    The Frozen North
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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    So many monsters to make before this coming Saturday...

    Votes on where people think our intrepid heroes will go next? And I mean after round 2 with the Dark Presence boss, because there's no way they're letting that go.
    The Romanov Incident A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Magic! Mystery! Mind control! Murderous Demon Apes!
    The Curse of Artaith A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Heavily influenced by the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games. Featuring lots and lots of death, player (character) and otherwise!
    Dammerung(old) and Dammerung 2.0 A 5e campaign journal, ongoing. My latest kitchen sink of a campaign setting, with magic radiation storms, underground undead hordes, and elder-god worshipping vikings

  4. - Top - End - #274
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    PirateCaptain

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    Aug 2008
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    Lake Jackson, TX

    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    I vote they find a nice snowy/ash region for their characters to spend the holiday.

    Perhaps with a herd of Nightmares pulling a sleigh with a festive Balor...
    :D
    Last edited by PrismCat21; 2016-12-15 at 01:08 PM.

  5. - Top - End - #275
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    NinjaGirl

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    Jun 2014
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    Wild North Yonder

    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    No no no no! We've done vorpal blade Santa with Jack Frost and Co. Before YEARS ago and they kicked our ass lol.

    No special Christmas monsters, the regular ones are bad enough lol.

  6. - Top - End - #276
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    GnomeWizardGuy

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    Jun 2015

    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    I second holiday themed monsters!!!

    Nightmares with Antlers that do gore attacks -- negative energy based damage? One Nightmare that has a head made of flames, and is able to shoot scorching rays from it's ... nose. When someone is hit, they light up for 1d4 turns, reducing their AC or something to help guide the other Rein---nightmares?

    It could even be a group attacking a Santa Claus like figure -- save Santa, get gifted toys. Don't save Santa, and the bag is destroyed or randomized instead of gifted (pulled from a pocket dimension).

    Also, Krampus? Chain Devil gone horribly wrong (right?).

    Otherwise, it'd help to know the locations/themes of the upcoming session (spoiler of course). Making up broken awesome monsters if always fun.

  7. - Top - End - #277
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    RogueGuy

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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    just popping in to say that this journal is amazing. My thanks to everyone involved. Keep up the good work!

  8. - Top - End - #278
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Daemon

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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Quote Originally Posted by PrismCat21 View Post
    I vote they find a nice snowy/ash region for their characters to spend the holiday.

    Perhaps with a herd of Nightmares pulling a sleigh with a festive Balor...
    :D
    Quote Originally Posted by Jonagel View Post
    I second holiday themed monsters!!!
    Because of the Santa Balor incident, I am banned from holiday specials...if they travel north, it's free game for terrifying fey/wind and ice monsters, though.

    As for location/themes, it really depends on what direction the party decides on (which is something I'm quite interested to see). I don't want to give an exhaustive list so snoopy sorts have a checklist of objectives , but here are locations of interest that the party knows about for sure:

    Spoiler: Ze list
    Show

    -There's the invisible Dark Presence boss (that I'm 110% sure is the first stop)
    -There's Logos, in particular the Grand Library guarded by the construct/intelligence known as Pathos
    -There are the named Great Fires - Logos (already visited but spark is not collected), Eulethron (to the north), Helios (to the southwest), and the Goblin Holds/Demon Ruins (to the East-ish)
    -There have been mutterings by the players about some "left behind" bosses/encounters. The Rakshasha in the Wastelands, and the Ruin Chanter in the south of Logos were the main two
    -And then there are any of the named locations on the complete map of Artaith that the players have, depending on how exploratory everyone feels


    Quote Originally Posted by Forumlurker View Post
    just popping in to say that this journal is amazing. My thanks to everyone involved. Keep up the good work!
    Thank you! Glad you're liking our silliness.
    The Romanov Incident A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Magic! Mystery! Mind control! Murderous Demon Apes!
    The Curse of Artaith A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Heavily influenced by the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games. Featuring lots and lots of death, player (character) and otherwise!
    Dammerung(old) and Dammerung 2.0 A 5e campaign journal, ongoing. My latest kitchen sink of a campaign setting, with magic radiation storms, underground undead hordes, and elder-god worshipping vikings

  9. - Top - End - #279
    Ettin in the Playground
     
    GreenSorcererElf

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    Oregon
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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    I didn't want to mention immediately after but it's been a bit now: unless Sona's a high level Master Transmogrifist or I'm missing something else, there's no way to gain regeneration from polymorph, draconic or otherwise (it's a special quality). So double the moral victory, unless you guys decided that polymorphs should grant all the qualities already.

    Was funny seeing what I generally think of as the "throwaway" daze rounds on Radiant Assault (there to appease people who sneer at anything that's just damage) lock down one of the bosses and make up for missing the dps+unkillable guy. Long duration daze is indeed brutal.

    Santa Balor?
    Fizban's Tweaks and Brew: Google Drive (PDF), Thread
    A collection of over 200 pages of individually small bans, tweaks, brews, and rule changes, usable piecemeal or nearly altogether, and even some convenient lists. Everything I've done that I'd call done enough to use in one place (plus a number of things I'm working on that aren't quite done, of course).
    Quote Originally Posted by Violet Octopus View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Fizban View Post
    sheer awesomeness

  10. - Top - End - #280
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    NinjaGirl

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    Jun 2014
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    Wild North Yonder

    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    You don't get SU or SP abilities through polymorph, but you do get EX- which in the war troll's case includes regeneration and dazing blow.

    I wouldn't have a breath attack as a gold dragon, but I could breathe underwater. Things like that. :)

    At least that's what I've been told... lol
    Last edited by Picanet; 2016-12-19 at 12:22 PM.

  11. - Top - End - #281
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Daemon

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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)



    Sneaky players! Trying to tricks the poor GMses!

    *Cough cough nothing about how we both just misread and missed that you get EX attacks but not EX qualities*

    Instead that is now a potential ability of burning a Vitae with the casting of the spell, to gain an additional ability on a case by case basis. I shall have to add a use of Vitae for non-spellcasters, as well *plot plot plot*

    Quote Originally Posted by Fizban View Post
    Was funny seeing what I generally think of as the "throwaway" daze rounds on Radiant Assault (there to appease people who sneer at anything that's just damage) lock down one of the bosses and make up for missing the dps+unkillable guy. Long duration daze is indeed brutal.
    Yeah, losing 6 rounds, even if you defend yourself normally tends to be all she wrote.

    Santa Balor?
    Way back when, in another game, I had a Christmas-themed night. The party (who was level 16 or 17 I think) was attacked by a jolly red giant (A Balor) in a sleigh drawn by eight mighty steeds (Nightmares of various varieties)...and I rolled 2 Crit decapitations, ran at least one person over with the sleigh, and others were blown to smithereens with a Firestorm / Implosion. It was always just going to be a dream sequence, so the characters just woke up feeling very perturbed instead of all being dead.

    Consequently, I am no longer allowed to have Christmas Sessions.
    Last edited by curious-puzzle; 2016-12-19 at 03:16 PM.
    The Romanov Incident A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Magic! Mystery! Mind control! Murderous Demon Apes!
    The Curse of Artaith A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Heavily influenced by the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games. Featuring lots and lots of death, player (character) and otherwise!
    Dammerung(old) and Dammerung 2.0 A 5e campaign journal, ongoing. My latest kitchen sink of a campaign setting, with magic radiation storms, underground undead hordes, and elder-god worshipping vikings

  12. - Top - End - #282
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    PirateCaptain

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    Aug 2008
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    Lake Jackson, TX

    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Quote Originally Posted by curious-puzzle View Post
    Consequently, I am no longer allowed to have Christmas Sessions.
    How about a Hanukkah session?

    Spoiler
    Show
    Each day, for eight days, the players awake to find something of theirs missing. The missing items start out simple/mundane, by day eight it's their most valuable/meaningful item.

    Menorah: A bonfire on top of a mountain has gone out and won't stay relit, just has perpetual embers. The players have to travel to eight separate points around the mountain, (taking about a day to reach each one), and light a symbolic bonfire in that area with an ember from the main bonfire.

    Possible Dreidel monsters, a cult of Unhollowed Ones, the final encounter has a creature(s) wearing their best gear and they fight in an area where it's possible destroying the creature could destroy their gear.

    Stealing from PC's often will incur a more vengeful wrath than simply killing them. They may wish for another Balor and Nightmare session instead after it's done with. :P
    The beatings will continue until morale improves!

    Vaz approval for the best backstory. Villainous Competition 16: Burn Baby Burn
    http://www.giantitp.com/forums/shows...&postcount=114

    Honorable Mention Villainous Competition 22: I Am The Night
    http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...e-Night!/page6 Xihu Ayame

    Click my Vulpix to feed it yummy berries!

  13. - Top - End - #283
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    GnomeWizardGuy

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    Jun 2015

    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Or something about the shortest day/darkest day winter solstice special? Might even tie in with a big baddie.

    Also, for those bosses the ignored -- it would be very cool to see what they've done in their spare time since they'll need to be beefed up of course! Maybe the Raksasha has been collecting vitae from a few other travelers that came through a month behind the party...but what is his sin? Greed? Or maybe sloth as he refuses to have to leave his abode? =D

  14. - Top - End - #284
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Daemon

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    Mar 2012
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    The Frozen North
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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Prismcat and Jonagel, I like your flavor of crazy!

    And yes, Jonagel, things aren't staying stagnant while the party is doing other stuff.

    As for the Rakshasha, he was imprisoned when the party last encountered him...
    Spoiler: Buuuuuttt
    Show
    a lot more daemons are wandering about causing trouble...and things other than daemons


    The Writeup is coming shortly...just after Overwatch important stuff.
    The Romanov Incident A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Magic! Mystery! Mind control! Murderous Demon Apes!
    The Curse of Artaith A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Heavily influenced by the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games. Featuring lots and lots of death, player (character) and otherwise!
    Dammerung(old) and Dammerung 2.0 A 5e campaign journal, ongoing. My latest kitchen sink of a campaign setting, with magic radiation storms, underground undead hordes, and elder-god worshipping vikings

  15. - Top - End - #285
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Daemon

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    Mar 2012
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    The Frozen North
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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    And the 31st session, late because of Rogue One (awesome) and Overwatch (also awesome).

    Spoiler: Back to the action
    Show
    The dynamic duo makes it back to the rest of the party, and briefly explain their adventures. Puck shows off the ring he found, which Sona examines quickly. Quickly enough that she misses the Explosive Rune trap on it, and gets blown off her feet.

    After she's rearranged her hair and cleared the soot away, it turns out that the ring is a ring of Spell Storing! Yay! The group decides to worry about anything else in the morning, it's time for sleep.

    Talvosh has some truly Bad Dreams again, and fails a Will save. Sona's absurd Listen modifier means a faint scrape awakens her as a silent Talvosh opens her door. Her irritated query of what he wants trails off as she notices the large axe gripped tightly in his hands, and how good of a Jason Voorhees impression the orc's silhouette is making. The mind-whammied Talvosh rushes her! Initiative! Sona beats Talvosh, and throws down a Wall of Force to block herself off, and screams as loud as she can while Talvosh repeatedly smashes his axe against the invisible barrier. The rest of the gang wakes up, and hustles over to see what the deal is.

    The deal apparently is a sleep-murdering Talvosh, who has dropped his axe and is clawing at the wall of force now. Spotter and Puck manage to snag the axe and take it out of the equation, and Talvosh finally manages to wake up, very confused. Remembering what happened before, Angelena uses her leftover magic from the day to purify Talvosh and dispel evil. Keen eyed party members do indeed see a little black worm-thing fling itself away from the orc, and wriggle into the floor cracks before it can be skewered. Sona refuses to drop the wall until everyone gets out she's trying to sleep oh my god she can't even. The gang agrees on a pow-wow in the morning.


    Spoiler: Re-match! Re-match! *Stomp stomp clap*
    Show
    After making sure everyone who levelled last session didn't miss writing anything down, it's agreed pretty quickly that it's time to take out the Dark Presence. If only to get that out of the way so Puck and Talvosh will be willing to consider anything else :D...

    Puck and Talvosh share what they saw/felt of the creature, but Angelena and Sona tank their Knowledge (Religion) rolls, so no easy identification. Spells are prepped, and then the gang warps off to the Forgotten Watchpoint in the jungle. It's about 2/3 of a day's travel to the giant creepy Mangrove and the portal, so off they go. Puck and Talvosh have already seen it, but the rest of the party gets to experience the total absence of anything living across the river. There's also a really obvious and Warforged+Orc-sized hole smashed through the dead trees and foliage, in a straight line towards the Hanging tree. And when I say obvious, it's a negative DC to follow their tracks (Talvosh wears Vanguard Treads, which are essentially giant magical crampons and apply a hefty bonus to tracking him, and Puck has GIANT ROBOSPIDER LEGS).

    Everyone is thoroughly coated with dust and grime, but the trip is eerily uneventful, and once again the party is in front of the Hanging Tree. Their attempt to burn it down has somehow made the massive twisted mangrove even creepier, and the inky portal is still nestled amongst the roots. The party announces that they're going to step through the portal, and THEN quickly pound their buffs out onto everyone (working it out, it will take 7 rounds to buff up - I make them count it out due to the negative energy damage the area inflicts). There's more than a little grumbling and mutinous muttering about the last portal they went through...I naturally have no idea what they're insinuating. After drawing weapons and wands, everyone steps through!

    Again the portal leads to what seems to be an orderly grove or orchard of stone trees, and everything is still entirely black and white. Oily black rain streaks down across the ground and trees now, though, and it is icy cold on the character's exposed flesh. The air is painfully thin, everyone taking negative energy damage immediately. Angelena and Sona each get their first buffs out - Angelena had a bunch of Life's Grace and Death Wards prepped, and Sona started with Mirror image.

    However, since the Dark Presence had just yesterday been invaded by a pair of jerk adventurers who smashed up its home, killed its minions, and tried to kill it, it had been watching the portal with Clairvoyant sense non-stop. So after that first round of buffing, the Dark Presence floats invisibly up through the ground until it can see the party, and hits them with a Confusion.


    Spoiler: BOSS FIGHT: DARK PRESENCE (round 2)
    Show
    Everyone saves or is immune to the confusion...except for poor Spotter, who rolls horribly and is reduced to inane babbling. There's a bunch of readied attacks, but the party stays bunched up relatively tightly except for Puck sliding up and enlarging. There is no sound other than the rain sliding down, and Spotter's maddened word-soup (which we joke about a confused war forged suffering from a computer virus). He rolls "attack the nearest creature" but Puck manages to sweep his feet out from him, which means his arrows bounce off of Angelena's armor.

    Then an absolutely murderous voice scrapes against Angelena's mind. PPPRRRIIIEESSSTTEEESSS

    The sheer malice almost makes her ill, but the Greater Dispel is more alarming as it tears her buffs to shreds. Slightly alarmed, Angelena shuffles up to stand next to Sona and Puck...safety in numbers and all that. However, that's when several spectral hands/tentacles reach up through the ground and claw at the trio's ankles. They miss Sona, and Puck is immune, but as Angelena just lost her Life's Grace, she takes 6 points of CON drain. With that, the party all decide to make haste to the stairs leading down to the creature's lair (Puck physically grabbing Angelena and carrying her). The whole gang makes it to the stairs, except for poor Spotter (whom I feel bad about taking out of the fight so early, but sometimes dice are cruel). He does manage to roll on the chart to chase after them at least. A couple more buffs go out as they're descending the stairs, specifically Life's grace on Sona and Talvosh, and Death Ward on Angelena. The stone roots are back, and have actually grown partially across the bottom of the stairs! Talvosh hacks his way in, and Puck starts the same, while Sona throws a Glitterdust into one side of the chamber in hopes of catching an invisible baddie - no luck. While Angelena is finishing her buffs, she's unfortunately right up next to the wall, and a ghostly claw brush her neck and eats another 4 points of Constitution! She's down to around 2 hit points if I remember correctly, so Sona moves close to keep her safe with Wings of Cover.

    Talvosh is in the room, and can see another one of those Umbral Displacer beasts within his dark vision. He charges with a roar, the beast's attack of opportunity bouncing off because of Life's grace. The orc warrior makes it through the incorporeal miss chance and reduces the shadow to wisps of smoke with a single blow! He also realizes that there are two other creatures in the room - another Umbral displacer beast, and a humanoid figure that he recognizes. It looks like Drokon, the wandering Swordsage they had encountered way back in the Jungle - the one Puck had beaten in a duel, and who had helped them discover one of the first ways to use Vitae. But it looks like Drokon if someone had tortured and warped his limbs and body to obscenely gaunt and stretched proportions, and his image jitters and shudders in place. He's a Dread Wraith now.

    YOU Talvosh feels that horribly familiar attention thundering against his mind, and then the shattering glass of a Greater Dispel removing his protections. Ruh roh, Shaggy. The dread wraith and umbral displacer beast float over to give Talvosh the bad touch - he saves against the wraith, but he takes 7 pts of Strength damage...so he's almost lost the boost from his frenzy and rage. Progress!

    Puck finishes chopping through the roots, and Sona and Angelena move into the room with Angelena's latest buff going: Invisibility Purge. What's revealed in one corner of the room is a swirling mass of greasy mists, with countless screaming faces flowing in and out of existence. The Advanced Evolved Caller in Darkness realizes that it can be seen, and dozens of eyes roll to fix themselves on the party.

    It's not happy. It starts throwing around chained Ego whips (I gave it the ability to chain a power 3/day because reasons), but only Talvosh and Angelena are vulnerable. The second dread wraith floats out of the wall after Angelena and Sona, revealing itself to be a tortured caricature of the necromancer that the party had killed her so long ago. It's attempt to consume Angelena and Sona's life is thwarted though.

    Angelena restores her con drain so she doesn't die, and Sona blasts the wraith with Wings of Flurry. Talvosh makes short work of the spectral foes surrounding him, while Puck hacks away at the dread wraith. The Dark Presence tries a Death Urge on Talvosh, but he saves...one day I'll get that power to work on someone, and it will be glorious.

    An opening! Talvosh rushes the Presence and cleaves deep into the roiling clouds. Angelena ghost touches Puck's weapon, and he rushes forward with a bellow of "WE SEE YOU NOW!" He slashes the creature for heavy damage, and activates his brutal surge ability just to force an attack of opportunity from Talvosh. The surprised creature is rocketed backwards, and cut into again by the orc. Meanwhile, Sona blocks the Dread Wraith again (perhaps forgetting that Life's grace makes her immune to its touch), and finally blows him apart.

    The Dark Presence is more than a little enraged at the creatures that can SEE it, and are HURTING it. It tears and rips at the party's psyches again, and even making the save deals enough Charisma damage to drop Talvosh - but he uses Mad Foam Rager to delay the damage long enough to cut a chunk off the creature again.

    Angelena steps up, it's time to finish this undead monstrosity...with a Bolt of Glory!
    The Bolt of light blasts towards the monster! And Angelena rolls a three. Puck slashes it a final time (it was down to 2 hit points), and the Dark Presence lets out a glass-shattering howl and bursts into nothingness. Talvosh promptly falls into a coma.

    VICTORY!


    Spoiler: What next?
    Show
    Spotter is finally over his computer virus, and isn't quite sure what had happened. The party scoops up the Vitae left by the Dark Presence, and manages to find a suit of armor and a well made vest amongst the bones. With that, it's time to go back to the normal world! It's too late to head back to the closest Bonfire, so the party decides to rest by the portal for the night. Angelena can already feel the difference in her surroundings, and finally makes a high enough knowledge (religion) check. The Caller in Darkness had absorbed enough power and malice that it had been desecrating and killing everything around the portal in an ever increasing radius. Spotter sees a hawk fly overhead, the first sign of life they've seen all day. Just to be sure that nothing menacing is going to come out of the portal, though, the party sets to chopping the Hanging Tree up and burying the portal with said chopped bits of tree. A couple hours of work later, no-one's getting to that portal without a lot of effort.

    Talvosh has bad dreams again. This time though, he immediately gets Angelena to check his neck. Sure enough, there's a red swollen mark at the base of his neck. With a final blast of healing magic, a jet of inky liquid spurts out, and the shard of the Dark Presence is dissipated!

    The trip back to the Bonfire is uneventful, and everyone notices the lighter atmosphere. Whatever the Dark Presence was, its destruction seems to be a good thing. The vest turns out to be a Vest of Resistance +2, while the armor is a +4 Full Plate. Everyone heads back to Logos, and Ember is waiting this time, so he doesn't get his pants scared off. Alexandria isn't present (apparently resting after healing and assisting when a building collapsed), so only Ember plus a few patients still in the church are there to witness.

    Angelena, acting on instinct, takes the Lantern and with only a brief hesitation,steps into the Bonfire. The flames dance about, her armor begins to glow, her cloak smoulders, but she does not burn. After a moment, a gleaming spark leaps into the Lantern, and Angelena steps out of the flames. Heat is radiating off her in waves, and her armor gradually loses its reddish glow. The small spark flickers back and forth in the Lantern, almost too bright to look at directly.

    PRIMAL SPARK ACQUIRED



    And we shall leave it at that! There's one more encounter/bit of information, but I'll either write it up by itself or combine it with the front of next session.

    Spoiler: DEATH COUNT
    Show
    34
    Talvosh made it a session without dying!
    The Romanov Incident A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Magic! Mystery! Mind control! Murderous Demon Apes!
    The Curse of Artaith A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Heavily influenced by the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games. Featuring lots and lots of death, player (character) and otherwise!
    Dammerung(old) and Dammerung 2.0 A 5e campaign journal, ongoing. My latest kitchen sink of a campaign setting, with magic radiation storms, underground undead hordes, and elder-god worshipping vikings

  16. - Top - End - #286
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    BarbarianGuy

    Join Date
    Feb 2014

    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Haven't posted in awhile, but have been silently stalkinglurking in the shadows keeping tabs on the party of victimsadventurers from afar. I love what has been going on and wish I lived where ever you guys do just so I could join into a campaign as in depth as this.

    Is there any chance you could PM me the list of all of the rules/abilities usable with Vitae? I am debating doing a similar campaign to this (Dark Souls/Bloodborne) themed and would appreciate not having to entirely create the functionality of Vitae from scratch.
    Last edited by Mongobear; 2016-12-23 at 12:10 AM.
    I Am A: Neutral Good Half-Orc Fighter/Barbarian (2nd/1st Level)

    Ability Scores:
    Strength-16
    Dexterity-16
    Constitution-17
    Intelligence-17
    Wisdom-16
    Charisma-13

  17. - Top - End - #287
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Daemon

    Join Date
    Mar 2012
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    The Frozen North
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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Done and sent, Mongobear!
    The Romanov Incident A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Magic! Mystery! Mind control! Murderous Demon Apes!
    The Curse of Artaith A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Heavily influenced by the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games. Featuring lots and lots of death, player (character) and otherwise!
    Dammerung(old) and Dammerung 2.0 A 5e campaign journal, ongoing. My latest kitchen sink of a campaign setting, with magic radiation storms, underground undead hordes, and elder-god worshipping vikings

  18. - Top - End - #288
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    YossarianLives's Avatar

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    Jan 2014
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    Vancouver, Canada

    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    I've finally caught up on this journal - I forgot how fantastic it is! If possible, I'd love to check out the complete backstories.

  19. - Top - End - #289
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Daemon

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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Thanks, Masterkerfuffle!

    And session 32, which along with Zombicide Black Plague, was how we rang in the new year . Wild party animals, we are.

    We return to the party back in Logos, having acquired one of four Primal Sparks. They take a while to discuss their various options and directions - after a while, it's agreed that the sorcerer island-nation of Helios is the next destination. It's off the coast near where the Lighthouse is. First though, they go to ask some questions of Ambassador Noctis (who I named waaayyy before FFXV, take that :P), since he's from there and all.

    Spoiler: A brief primer on Helios
    Show
    The gang finds Noctis (who's first name is actually Brandt, but he seems to go by Noctis all the time) lounging in his garden, served by unseen servants. It's a pretty easy diplomacy check now for the sorcerer to help the party out, since they know his dark secret of not actually being that much of an ass.

    -Magic and bloodlines are the most important things in Helios. Families of sorcerers rule the island, and those without magic are barely citizens. Magic is needed to be acknowledged in any way other than a servant, and specifically sorcery. Other sources of arcane magic are seen as valid but lesser - wizardry, for example is quite distasteful if useful. Noctis has a quote and everything prepped for the comparison.

    "Imagine Magic as being locked inside a house. You need to get inside to use it. Now sorcery, as the true and original Art, means that you possess the keys to the door. You simply use the key to unlock the door, and open it. No props, no bargains, no funny writing or tricks. Just the purity of your blood, and the strength of your will to command the magic.

    Wizardry is for those without the natural Gift. They have to study the door, examine the lock. They have to figure out to turn the tumblers just so, to trick the door open. Their focus and comprehension is admirable, to be sure. But no matter how impressive a lock you picked, you're still a thief breaking into someone else's house."

    Since Sona is the only user of arcane magic in the group, Noctis suggests that the officials and authorities of Helios will look to her as the leader of the party, whether she is or not. The other members will be seen as servants at best. Angelena will get some positive authority for following a god so close to Adremmelach, but divine magic still isn't seen as equal to sorcery.

    The Grand Bonfire of Helios is in the royal palace. To get into there, Noctis suggests getting the attention of one of the members of the Most Glorious Solar Assembly On High (he recites the title with a bit of a sneer), the ruling council. Best ways to do so would be to garner fame in the gladiatorial arena (this gets a bit of attention) since it's a popular pastime, gathering blackmail or political info of some sort on various members (the more fighty characters roll their eyes), or presenting a large enough gift could work.

    Noctis narrows his eyes, remembering that the group had a pair of control crystals for a Helios elemental vessel. Returning a lost ship like that would be a very large foot in the door for getting positive attention. The lazy sorcerer suggests that finding said boat would be a very good idea (plus it would be an easy way to reach the island. Using one of those ships means the journey would only be several days, rather than close to a week with a standard sailboat).

    Spotter asks if they couldn't simply sneak in, to which Noctis acknowledges that it's possible, just incredibly risky. After some more half-hearted haughty comments about people wanting to dissect Spotter and Puck, he wishes the party good luck.


    Spoiler: Tropical Vacation!
    Show
    Angelena decides to use a Divination to help narrow the search down, asking where the ship that they search for is located. After the required meditation time, an answer rings in her ears.

    "Search the shore beyond the Sinking Village, there you will find the vessel."

    As the spell fades, strangely she hears another voice, more muffled.

    "The eyes of heaven are upon you."

    Weird...but the party gathers their stuff and warps off to the Bonfire just near the entrance of the Sinking Village!. It's not quite as sunny as their first visit, but it's still a near-tropical beach. The smell of salt, rotten seaweed, and decay is even stronger, though. Before the gang sets out, Spotter decides to do a bit of experimentation.

    I love experimentation!


    He lets the group get about 100 feet away from the Bonfire, and then he concentrates and attempts to mentally conjure up the same sensation of travelling between fires - but focused on Angelena instead. I have him do a Vitae roll, and he rolls a 19...so with a horrible wrenching sensation, Spotter disappears and reappears about halfway to Angelena, crashing into the sand all of a sudden. It was very painful and disconcerting, but it worked! Sort of. The sneaky Forged has the instinct that sacrificing a Vitae would have most likely aided in his attempt. So with that little bit of knowledge tucked away, the party wanders into the village. It's even more ramshackle than before, partially from the passage of time and partially because they wrecked up the place on their first trip through.

    Sona is...more than slightly on edge (OH MY GOD GUYS WATCH THE WATER, DID SOMETHING JUST MOVE KEEP AN EYE OUT). I'm not sure why, it's not like she was torn limb from limb by a scaly monstrosity bursting forth from the blackened waters oh wait. Hee hee hee! Either way, she's a lot jumpy as the group walks in. The hollows that were wandering about don't seem to have returned, everything is silent except for the gentle waves rolling in. Puck is in the lead, but actually makes his Reflex save to avoid falling into the pit trap dug into the sand! Peering down, he can see water and a bunch of crude wooden spikes sticking out of said water. Curious, he carefully clambers down and tosses the spikes up for inspection. There's a greenish white paste spread across the rough tips, which Spotter recognizes as a mix of urchin and jellyfish. Crude, but very painful and possibly paralysis-inducing. While Puck is examining the wet hole, he notices that there's actually a tunnel under the water-line. He ducks his head under to take a look...and sees a pair of startled reflective eyes staring back at him! Swiftly, the sneaky troll swims around the corner out of sight.

    Sona is mildly panicked (traumatic memories ahoy!), Puck wants to chase it down through the tunnels, the rest of the party is unsure. Spotter guesses that the scrag has an underwater lair, so the tunnel probably leads back to the ocean. After a couple minutes, Puck trucks off into the tunnel while the rest of the party takes a defensive stance in case the beastie pops out.

    Spotter sees a pair of eyes in the surf, a couple hundred feet away. The eyes see him seeing them, and then something strange happens. A stick bursts out of the water, with a bedraggled white shirt tied to it. The scrag vigorously waves it back and forth, before stomping up to the shoreline. Everyone is a little suspicious, but then the creature waggles the white flag again and grumbles something in Giant. Sona uses her newly acquired comprehend languages and practically snarls a question at the troll.

    "No chop, no hurt." The scrag rubs a noticable scar across its shoulder, staring at Talvosh (who baarrreelly resisted the urge to immediately charge). "We par...par..Parley!"

    After a bit more half-threats, the troll slips up that it knows common, and the actual negotiations start.

    "We're looking for a boat. Tell us where it is, for starters."

    "That way, behind rocks." The scrag points to the submerged docks, the part of the village the party never explored. "But you never get on boat. You burn, like everything else. Fwoosh! Unless you have shiny ring!"

    Sona scoffs and counters that they do indeed have the crystals needed. Her nemesis-troll shakes its large head and grunts. "I have shiny hidden! Captain's ring!" And then the troll twists its fingers together, and Sona recognizes it casting Silent Image, of all things! Spotter notices (since he has trained to hunt arcanists) that the gestures are the exact same style as Sona. The Scrag conjures up the image of a large brass ring, and makes his offer.

    "I give you ring, but you kill things up in fort! They taste bad, scare away food. Kill all three of them, and I give you ring. We parley!" After a bit more discussion, the aquatic troll describes a trio of hooded and robed figures, horribly burnt and withered-looking. Sona absolutely crushes a Knowledge check after the description and a Silent Image visual aid, and suspects that the creatures might be Grimweirds, undead beings that specialize in summoning and binding minions. Slinking backwards, the scrag mutters parley again, and sinks his truce flag into the sand before diving into the water.

    Puck had spidered through the underwater tunnel while this was happening, and managed to get horribly turned around before ending up in the ocean, and finally returning by aiming for sunlight. After conferring with the party, Spotter decides to scout out the keep, while the rest of the gang takes a quick look towards the docks to confirm that the ship is actually there.


    Spoiler: Let's split up!
    Show


    I'm sure this always goes well.

    Spotter makes some absurd Hide and Move Silently checks, and creeps his way between huts to get close to the keep. The doors to said keep are wrecked, one barely on its hinges and the other flat on the ground (thank Puck for that way back). Spotters hears some muttering and shuffling from within, but can't understand the language. Peering carefully around the wall, he can see three hooded figures standing close to one another, along with three large winged creatures. He listens long enough to try to memorize at least the sound of the language to see if one of the others can figure it out, he then creeps backwards quietly.

    Meanwhile!

    The rest of the party tromps happily towards the fully sunken part of the village, staying just at the edge of the water. They can see an outcropping of rocks at the end of the village, possibly the ship is behind those. No-one makes their checks to notice the 5 Drowned floating silently in the water, however, and the gang walks right into the edge of all their auras. When I demand 5 Constitution checks from everyone except Puck, they're slightly concerned. When Puck and Angelena nat-1 their checks and pass out with water leaking out of their mouths, it goes right to panic. Sona grabs Angelena and Dim-doors a full 600 feet out of the village...leaving Talvosh drowning on the ground...

    Well, we know who she likes better. And see what I mean about jumpiness? *DM Note to self - huge success*. Puck can see the edge of the the shimmering effect, and he swiftly grabs the unconscious orc and drags him to safety further up the beach. He can't see any enemies, though. On the next turn, Angelena and Talvosh both manage to spit out the water in their lungs and regain consciousness. Sona brings herself and Angelena back, but further up the beach. Puck decides to try and pretend to drown, in order to lure the monsters out of the deeper water. Even with his not great charisma, and his -5(!) from Juggernaut levels, I roll poorly enough with one of the Drowned that it can't resist. The sodden corpse bursts out of the waves, intent on dragging its prey to a watery grave! It promptly gets tripped and smacked for its troubles, then Angelena drops a Holy Smite on it. The Drowned retreats, taking another chop to the shoulder on the way out.

    Spotter hears the sound of fighting, and so do the three figures. With barked orders, two of the winged and horned beasts (which look like Trolls except for the wings, horns, and glowing eyes), take to skies and start flapping towards the beach. From his hiding spot, Spotter takes aim...

    And drops one instantly with a crit. The second takes an arrow, then wheels around and divebombs Spotter, landing a cut with its axe! Spotter responds by critting in the face. The first one regenerates and wakes up, and goes after him with a snarl. After dodging a couple more blows, Spotter fills it full of holes, and drops it unconscious again. There's some more barked commands from the keep, and the second wakes up and tries to drag its companion to safety while throwing Darkness at Spotter. He laughs at the miss chance and crits on the beast again.

    So those two half-fiend trolls are out of the fight...probability has no place here, folks. However, Spotter hears an eerie howl from the keep. Then another. Then two more. Then a full dozen, and even more.

    Spoiler: DM note
    Show
    I wasn't too worried about this fight being actually threatening, but wanted a different sort of entertaining. So I gave the three Grimweirds an extra ability. If they stayed close to one another, instead of every 5 rounds, they could pump out summons every round - that way there would be a true horde of minions


    The rest of the party started rushing up the beach towards the keep as soon as they heard arrows whizzing, and just arrived when the first few of the 20-plus(!) Fiendish Dire Wolves burst out of the keep!

    Spotter gets bit and tossed to the ground as the horse-sized wolves stream out in a tide of teeth and fur, but they're all nicely clumped up for Sona to land a Cacophonic Burst. She rolls a brutal 54 points of damage...now with Augmented Summons and a bit of extra, the dire wolves have 60 hit points. Most fail their saves, and are reduced to single-hit minions just like that. The furry tide continues however, and the wolves close in on their prey! Puck activates his winged vest and zooms above to head for the spellcasters in the keep, while Talvosh absolutely annihilates the wolf that dared bite him. Angelena is in no playing mood, and vaporizes a wolf with a Sunbeam. The wolves keep coming though...until Sona blocks off the keep with a Wall of Fire. The rest of the wolves are quickly Sunbeamed, picked to death, or axe-exploded while Puck soars towards the three hooded figures! Unfortunately for him, the summons finishes and three Gargantuan Fiendish Centipedes are suddenly there too. The Grimweirds dispel his flight, and the centipedes plus the remaining Half-fiend Troll attack! It lands a blow after resisting a trip, but Puck is still close enough that he relieves one Grimweird of its head. Then Sona swaps Talvosh and Puck, and Talvosh tasmanian devil-cleaves his way through a Grimweird, all three Centipedes, and the Troll while the remaining Grimweird runs for its life.

    Ah, giant centipedes. So cool and scary looking, so absolutely useless (I know this from playing as a Malconvoker as well). Unfortunately for the remaining Grimweird, the Scrag is waiting outside the keep. It grabs the grimweird with a massive chokeslam, and performs a flying troll Curbstomp to finish it off. Talvosh makes his will save, so the parley continues...for now.

    The party wanders up as the remaining summoned creatures poof away, and glare at the scrag. It dives back in to the water, and a few minutes later pops back up and throws a sodden bag at Talvosh's feet. "Parley!" It reminds everyone, then disappears into the water. Inside is a heavy brass ring that emanates enchantment and transmutation magic.



    We end the night with Spotter reaching level 14!

    Spoiler: DEATH COUNT
    Show
    still 34, more of a smash minions night :)
    Last edited by curious-puzzle; 2017-01-03 at 12:09 PM.
    The Romanov Incident A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Magic! Mystery! Mind control! Murderous Demon Apes!
    The Curse of Artaith A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Heavily influenced by the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games. Featuring lots and lots of death, player (character) and otherwise!
    Dammerung(old) and Dammerung 2.0 A 5e campaign journal, ongoing. My latest kitchen sink of a campaign setting, with magic radiation storms, underground undead hordes, and elder-god worshipping vikings

  20. - Top - End - #290
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    PirateCaptain

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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Holy Boop!
    I'm giddy with glee that the Trolls and Drowned made an appearance. This sounds like a laugh-filled, adrenaline-pumping night for the players.

    I love your change to the Grimweirds. That's precisely what disposable minions are for.
    There's nothing that can't be solved by sending wave after wave of men, (monsters), at it.
    The beatings will continue until morale improves!

    Vaz approval for the best backstory. Villainous Competition 16: Burn Baby Burn
    http://www.giantitp.com/forums/shows...&postcount=114

    Honorable Mention Villainous Competition 22: I Am The Night
    http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...e-Night!/page6 Xihu Ayame

    Click my Vulpix to feed it yummy berries!

  21. - Top - End - #291
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Daemon

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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Thanks, Prismcat.

    As much as we joked about the Scrag (and played 80's montage music while doing so), he did not level up to the point to be a boss for the PCs. He did gain some rudimentary spell casting from eating several arcanists, however, and is smarter than the av-er-age troll! Hence the sneaky bargaining.

    And Drowned are just nasty, nasty creatures. I'm sure the players will figure out a way to deal with them (which I suspect will be to send the non-breathing pcs in to fight while everyone else hides), but the fact that these sodden corpses punch so far above their weight class is awesome.
    The Romanov Incident A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Magic! Mystery! Mind control! Murderous Demon Apes!
    The Curse of Artaith A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Heavily influenced by the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games. Featuring lots and lots of death, player (character) and otherwise!
    Dammerung(old) and Dammerung 2.0 A 5e campaign journal, ongoing. My latest kitchen sink of a campaign setting, with magic radiation storms, underground undead hordes, and elder-god worshipping vikings

  22. - Top - End - #292
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    MonkGuy

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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Yay! My favourite troll survived the PCs (for now).

  23. - Top - End - #293
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Daemon

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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Direct quote from Sona's player while we were hanging out over the weekend:

    "Why does everyone like that **#$*$# troll!?"

    The Romanov Incident A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Magic! Mystery! Mind control! Murderous Demon Apes!
    The Curse of Artaith A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Heavily influenced by the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games. Featuring lots and lots of death, player (character) and otherwise!
    Dammerung(old) and Dammerung 2.0 A 5e campaign journal, ongoing. My latest kitchen sink of a campaign setting, with magic radiation storms, underground undead hordes, and elder-god worshipping vikings

  24. - Top - End - #294
    Halfling in the Playground
     
    DwarfClericGuy

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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    I say we start a Cult of Scrag. Dibs on high priest!

  25. - Top - End - #295
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Daemon

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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Phase one: Scraggy eats unsuspecting Mind Flayer

    Phase two: Scraggy begins taking levels in Illithid Savant

    Phase three: My game remains unfinished as I am torn limb from limb by a horde of enraged players
    The Romanov Incident A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Magic! Mystery! Mind control! Murderous Demon Apes!
    The Curse of Artaith A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Heavily influenced by the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games. Featuring lots and lots of death, player (character) and otherwise!
    Dammerung(old) and Dammerung 2.0 A 5e campaign journal, ongoing. My latest kitchen sink of a campaign setting, with magic radiation storms, underground undead hordes, and elder-god worshipping vikings

  26. - Top - End - #296
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    PirateCaptain

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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Quote Originally Posted by curious-puzzle View Post
    Phase three: My game remains unfinished as I am torn limb from limb by a horde of enraged players
    Totally worth it.

    Maybe someday when the campaign is complete, you can pull it out just after they've finally defeated the Big Bad.
    Not to fight, just to see the look on their faces. :D
    The beatings will continue until morale improves!

    Vaz approval for the best backstory. Villainous Competition 16: Burn Baby Burn
    http://www.giantitp.com/forums/shows...&postcount=114

    Honorable Mention Villainous Competition 22: I Am The Night
    http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...e-Night!/page6 Xihu Ayame

    Click my Vulpix to feed it yummy berries!

  27. - Top - End - #297
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Daemon

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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Maybe...maybe...

    Session the 33rd! We return to the ruined keep of the Sunken Village, where the party had reconvened after beating up the grimweirds and acquiring the Captain's ring.

    Spoiler: Tally ho!
    Show

    Sona: "Hey Puck! You don't breathe, right?"
    Puck: "Correct."
    Sona: "Go beat up those undead!"
    Puck: "All right."

    And thus began the evening. Spotter went along with the intention of shooting from the shore (since underwater + bow and arrow = not very effective), but there was a lack of communication. Puck went trucking into the ocean, and just kept going until he found some Drowned (which took a couple minutes), so the action was far out of sight. Five pale corpses float ominously towards Puck, who is doing his best impression of a giant robotic crab. Who has an axe.

    Puck activates the air-sphere ability of the rod of escape so he doesn't take the underwater fighting penalty, but the Drowned are unperturbed by this. It's hard for the Drowned to hit, but with all five surrounding Puck, that's 10 attacks a round coming his way. Puck hits way harder...but 3 hits compared to 10 starts to very quickly tilt in favour of the undead. Puck chops away probably close to 2/3 of one of the Drowned's health, but realizes that even if he kills that one, or even another, he'll get pummelled to death. Crab-withdraw! With his spider legs and the air-sphere, he very rapidly outpaces the Drowned and retreats to shore. A very dented Puck bursts forth from the waves, and he and Spotter return back to the rest of the party.

    The party hunkers down for some serious strategizing. Spells are examined and debated, bluffs and misdirections are considered, and then Spotter's player pipes up with, "Do we actually need to fight them?"

    Everyone else:...........

    Plans are made to get to the ship (which can be seen 200 feet or so from the rocky outcropping at the edge of the docks/village), with fighting the Drowned as a backup plan. Angelena uses a Water breathing on the non-Forged members just in case, and the gang creeps along the edge of the fort to the rocks, staying as far from the shore as they can. I roll to see if the Drowned notice anything!

    And I roll a 3...5....2...3...2. So the Drowned are busy harassing flounders or something along those lines. Standing on the rocks, the party can see the Helios ship, a decent sized vessel with 2 masts. With a Dimension Door, they're on the deck!



    Spoiler: Yarr harr!
    Show
    On the ship, the party is immediately confronted by two unusual individuals - one made of flame and the other seemingly translucent wind. Things look tense until Sona waves around her hand bearing the Captain's Ring. There's a lot of snotty comments (in Ignan and Auran, but Sona uses Comprehend Languages and the elementals understand Common), and some more vague threats about burning everyone not wearing the ring, but Sona absolutely crushes the opposed charisma check to cow the elementals.

    Examining the helm, there are slots for the crystals, each a different size. Both click in, and the ship notably hums and lifts a little out of the water. I call for either a Profession (Sail) check or a Use Magic Device to fumble through the ship's controls. Sona rolls her first Nat 20 of many for controlling the ship. She figures out the controls, and the sails snap and stretch with a sudden wind. Off the ship goes, towards Helios!

    Sona absolutely crushes every Use Magic Device check I call for (rolling a nat 20 for pretty much all of them), so the first day of sailing goes quite smoothly. It'll take several days to reach Helios at this speed without any detours or delays. The rest of the party examines the ship during the day, finding a little bit of interesting info. Judging by the state of the galley, the ship's been abandoned for at least a month (Puck kills the one rat remaining that had consumed both the food and its fellow rats). The hold has posts and chains set up to hold a large creature of some sort - there's immediate laughter and speculation that the ship was meant to capture Scraggy. Going through the notes strewn about the captain's desk, the party figures that the ship was looking for monsters to sell to an Arena for gladiator fighting, or lost treasures to sell/bribe with. In particular, the note mentions that the captain was hoping to sell to a Citizen Priscus.

    It's late in the afternoon when the party decides to slow the ship, and Puck decides he wants to go deep sea exploring. Talvosh ties a tight knot around Puck's waist, then loops his spool around a mast and braces himself. With a splash, down Puck goes!

    The ocean is only 400 deep or so here, so Puck eventually sinks his way to the ocean floor. He disturbs a lot of fish as he lands, but there are no convenient shipwrecks or gaping chasms to investigate. He still takes a good while and scours the chunk of floor he can reach. I meanwhile roll and succeed on the chance for a random encounter - I then roll the highest/most dangerous encounter I put on my quick chart...

    After the half hour or so of Puck's search turns up nothing, he tugs on the rope to go back up. The sun is just setting on the horizon as Talvosh reels Puck up hand by hand, when the others notice that the water seems to be getting darker. Puck also looks down and behind him to notice the preternatural darkness spreading through the water...that's spreading towards him. Then he notices the glowing red eyes and colossal shape surging towards him, and begins pulling himself up the rope reealllllyy fast.

    Angelina's instincts are screaming at her that SOMETHING BAD is coming, so Sona kicks the ship into full speed (again acing the UMD check)and Spotter starts helping Talvosh heave. The ship is at full speed and Puck skittering aboard as the Nightwave bursts out of the water where the ship used to be.
    Spoiler: Nightwave image
    Show


    Angelena rolls poorly on her Knowledge religion, so all she gets from her memory is, "RUN."



    Spoiler: Full speed ahead
    Show
    Spotter zips out a couple shots which sink into the shadowy hide. The Nightwave responds by getting closer and using its Wail of the Banshee ability.
    Spoiler: DM note
    Show
    This guy was meant as a worst case scenario on the chart, and frankly something that the party should run from. So I felt it would be a little cheap to open up with an instant save or die, so I used the Pathfinder version of the Wail, and reduced the damage a little

    Angelena and Sona are knocked to single digit health instantly by the sepulchral shriek, while Talvosh and Spotter take heavy damage. Puck's player sits smugly behind his "immune to dat" defences. This understandably panics the party a bit, so Sona keeps her hand on the throttle (especially since operating the ship requires concentration similar to maintaining a spell). Talvosh howls as he's blasted into a frenzy, and dives overboard towards the colossal death-shark.

    Um...okay.

    Talvosh promptly gets gnashed on and swallowed, and Spotter makes a couple more shots before the ship is quickly out of sight in the eerie darkness - Puck briefly argues that they can take the beast, but everyone else disagrees. Talvosh deals an alarming amount of damage with his armor spikes, managing to gouge his way out, and then managing to deal a good chunk even just punching the Nightwave while he's grappled. But while the damage can't kill him, the negative levels quickly add up and Talvosh sleeps with the fishes. The ship's fire elemental manages to manifest itself once they're far enough away from the Nightwave, and also urges a hasty retreat. The ship sails (well, skims) across the water smoothly for the rest of the night (Sona again crushing her UMD to stay steady and her Fort to stay awake - I'm really starting to think my players are starting to sap the good luck out of my dice and infuse it into theirs:small tongue: ).

    The next day I throw a random encounter of an Elemental Monolith (Water) and an Elder water Elemental attempting to seize the ship and hold it ransom, but the party working together along with the bound Fire elemental (who is a Holocaust Disciple) sublimate the poor Elementals without taking much damage in retaliation (the flurry of damage including a Blade barrier directly through their midsections from Angelena coming too fast for them to attempt to sink the boat with a Vortex).

    We end a little early as I'm tired from being up early all week. The party is still a day's voyage give or take from the grand docks of Helios.


    Spoiler: DEATH COUNT
    Show
    35
    Suicide via giant Death-shark *shakes head*
    The Romanov Incident A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Magic! Mystery! Mind control! Murderous Demon Apes!
    The Curse of Artaith A 3.5 campaign journal, complete. Heavily influenced by the Dark Souls and Bloodborne games. Featuring lots and lots of death, player (character) and otherwise!
    Dammerung(old) and Dammerung 2.0 A 5e campaign journal, ongoing. My latest kitchen sink of a campaign setting, with magic radiation storms, underground undead hordes, and elder-god worshipping vikings

  28. - Top - End - #298
    Halfling in the Playground
     
    DwarfClericGuy

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    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    If only his holiness, Scraggy, first of his name, could eat a drowned and gain an aura...

  29. - Top - End - #299
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    PirateCaptain

    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Lake Jackson, TX

    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Quote Originally Posted by Brion View Post
    If only his holiness, Scraggy, first of his name, could eat a drowned and gain an aura...
    I propose Scraggy and a Drowned go on a date and see if they can't make some truely horrific lil monster babies
    The beatings will continue until morale improves!

    Vaz approval for the best backstory. Villainous Competition 16: Burn Baby Burn
    http://www.giantitp.com/forums/shows...&postcount=114

    Honorable Mention Villainous Competition 22: I Am The Night
    http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...e-Night!/page6 Xihu Ayame

    Click my Vulpix to feed it yummy berries!

  30. - Top - End - #300
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    NinjaGirl

    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Location
    Wild North Yonder

    Default Re: The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

    Quote Originally Posted by PrismCat21 View Post
    I propose Scraggy and a Drowned go on a date and see if they can't make some truely horrific lil monster babies
    D: I just... I can't...

    I CAN'T EVEN!

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