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    Default The Good, The Bad, and the Psion [PF Campaign Journal]

    Hello again! I figured I might as well keep posting campaign journals since people enjoyed the RHoD one. This time I'm a player and the person who played Raiku in the RHoD campaign is DMing. We've had two sessions so far. I'll try to get the second one up before the third happens.

    A few things about the game:
    1) Pathfinder game, Takes place in DMs campaign setting
    2) Everyone was required to be Psionic in some fashion, using the Dreamscarred Press psionics conversion.
    3) Starting at level 6, and we've been told it will likely end at level 8.
    4) A significant houserule is that weapons don't need a +1 flat enhancement bonus to get special abilities. For example, I have a Shock Scythe, but not a +1 Shock Scythe.
    5) Psionics-magic transparency is NOT in effect in most ways. We can still use Spellcraft to identify psionics, but psionics does not count as magic and cannot be dispelled by dispel magic, it has to be dispel psionics. Spell resistance does apply to psionics though, which is understandable from an encounter balance standpoint.


    THE CHARACTERS:
    Yudathra, CG Female Half-Elf Wilder 3/Barbarian 3 (Invulnerable Rager): Yudathra is a wild ball of death in combat. She wields and elven curve blade and rhino-hide armor to deal damage through criticals and charges. Quoth her "Furious Focus is the best thing ever!" and she's right about that. Whatever she's not beating the crap out of, she's demoralizing through her wilder powers. A bit crazed, but good-natured at heart. Played by the person who played Skalfdir in RHoD.

    Vrai, NG Female Human Vitalist 2/Marksman 4: Wields a boomerang to deal damage and initiate combat maneuvers at a distance, so we immediately called her Sokka. She can also use soulthief's touch in melee. A thing to note is that while her healing abilities aren't spectacular, she has a pretty big collective, so the entire party can receive healing from anyone else. Played by the person who played Nico in RHoD.

    Ivan, CN Male Human Psion 6: A wry kineticist with a penchant for gambling and alcohol, Ivan is our go-to source for elemental damage. Whatever he can't Mind Thrust, he Energy Cones. He supposedly survives solely on on absinthe, but he's really using the Sustenance power to get his nourishment and then drinks to his heart's content. Also took Speed of Thought, Up the Walls, and Boots of Striding and Springing, so he can be anywhere he wants. Gets along with Yudathra quite well. Played by someone who is new to the group but has plenty of experience with Pathfinder.

    Tasha, LG Female Kyton-Spawn Tiefling Vitalist 2/Paladin 4 (Warrior of the Holy Light): This is my character. Tasha, despite her appearance and heritage, is a pretty standard Paladin. Defend the weak, smite the foul, that sort of thing. I've played this character once before as an Oradin, but wanted to player her again so I used Vitalist levels instead of Oracle levels. My collective is small, so I put it on Yudathra so we can share buffs, but with Vrai in the party I can still heal anyone. I can heal pretty well, as I can Lay On Hands myself as a swift action, getting bonus HP from Fey Heritage, and then shunt that healing off to anyone else in the collective. This means I can attack and heal anyone as a swift action in one turn!



    SESSION 1: Bad Horse
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    Psionics have only recently been rediscovered in the DMs campaign setting. It was the primary form of magic used by the ancients, but the only reason modern folk know of it is because of the recently uncovered "Repository." The Repository is essentially a psionic academy, presided over by a sentient psicrystal in the form of a raven who was supposedly a companion to a god before they ascended. Our characters are some of the few in the world with psionic talent, so we have spent some time studying the use of our powers in this place.

    Our school life is interrupted, however, when we receive a job from the Mage's Guild. Apparently they discovered a powerful psionic artifact of some sort in a ruined city in the desert, but the expedition they sent there has not reported back. They want the artifact because it can supposedly create water and make arid land habitable, and such a thing is needed to save a city from drought. Since we're adept at psionics, we're the ideal people to go in and find out what happened. Ivan has an aside where he goes to be see his family and is a jerk to them... but it turn's out they're jerks too so it's all right. They didn't approve of him going off to study magic-type stuff, so he's resentful and things.

    Supplies become majorly important here. It takes around 8 days to get to the ruins via camel, and we have to cross hostile desert for most of that journey. We have limit encumbrance even with Handy Haversacks and camels, and we have to pack for the return trip as well. We buy a bajillion waterskins and a fair amount of food. Fortunately Ivan doesn't actually eat or drink unless he wants to, so we have at least one unladen camel. Even with most of our carrying capacity filled, we have at most a couple days in the ruins before we have to head back. Seems like time is going to be the biggest danger here. This also makes it so the camels are our most valuable assets, as they actually let us carry all that stuff.

    After spending most of our remaining money on said supplies, we strike out into the wild. Fortunately the first couple days are through forested mountains, so we don't need to worry about heat dangers.

    Unfortunately, other dangers reveal themselves first. We're ambushed by 3 Assassin Vines, and Ivan and Yudathra get grabbed right off the bat. I last a turn before getting grappled also. Things are bad, Ivan keeps trying to manifest, but keeps blowing the concentration checks and losing PP. Yudathra stays grappled for a long time despite her superior strength, and constrict damage adds up quite a bit. No one except me has good AC, so pretty much every enemy attack hits. The healing resources of both me and Vrai are strained, and we're seriously looking at a possible TPK in the very first random encounter :( Fortunately Yudathra and I get free, and we start laying into the vile plants. Ivan stays grappled pretty much the whole time, but he manages to get an Energy Cone or two off and we're finally able to finish them off.

    Hurting and rather embarassed, we heal up and forge on. We later encounter two Dire Bears, but we're able to get the jump on them but turns out Dire
    Bears have Grab too! Doesn't go nearly as badly as the first battle though. Yudathra and I charge in and soak damage while Ivan drops Entangling Debris and Vrai attacks at range. Dangerous, but this battle has us in higher spirits by the end of it.

    We later come across an abandoned castle in the mountains, used to belong to a local noble family. It seems intact, but completely devoid of life. We sleep in the stables. We're not about to exploring an "empty" castle in a monster infested forest when we're on a tight schedule due to supplies. Not very heroic, I know, but the threat of thirst and starvation is a powerful one.

    Soon after, we enter the desert proper, and almost immediately spy a cloud of antlions on the horizon. We get out of the way and let it pass. HEROES!! We also decide to start traveling by night because the sun is hot. Unfortunately, the dangers of the open desert don't stop there. We run into a Behir while traveling, and decide to run from that too! This is because the camels are super valuable, and we are able to Knowledge check that behirs have breath weapons, and that greatly increases the chances of losing camels and supplies. So we run, and the camels can outrun the behir! We think we're in the clear... but then a DEATH WORM bursts out of the sand and starts shooting electricity out us too! Out of the frying pan and into a...

    DUNE REFERENCE!

    We lose a camel, but its Ivan's so we still have enough supplies, and he has the same overland speed as a camel so yeah. We have some tricky maneuvering so not get blasted with lightning, but the death worm isn't too tough, but dang is it scary looking. Not long after the behir shows up behind us! Fortunately we have leverage. I don't detect that the behir is evil, and we know that they can at least understand common, so we offer it the death worm corpse as an "offering." It seems to accept, and it happily munches away while we take off into the night.

    The next encounter is one we don't run from and one that is pretty interesting. As we're getting settled into a campsite at the base of a small cliff, we're attacks by several humanoid creatures made of sand, and they try to use some sort of sleep effect on us so I can only assume that they're actually called "Sandmen." These creatures aren't that tough, they just get in the way, but then the real baddy shows up. We hear what we can only describe as a "demonic whinny" from the cliff above us. A clearly demonic horse... that stands on two legs... has wings and a tail... and sharp gnashing teeth.

    Spoiler
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    What.

    We identify it as a Sandpoint Devil, a creature with spell resistance, a host of spell-like abilities, and a breath weapon that can cause penalties that last days with little to no hope of removal The Sandpoint Devil seems content to stand back and try to get us with spell-like abilities, and while we save against most of them, Yudathra ends up panicked (even with my aura of courage up), and takes off into the desert for 6 rounds, missing the rest of the fight. Things are a bit tougher with our melee DPS gone, and we take a breath weapon to the face, though we save against that very scary curse. Things start going our way when the Sandpoint Devil closes to melee and I get to smite evil. Actually, even with that, the Devil is a badass and can hit my really good AC and resist the attacks of Vrai and Ivan. Fortunately, I get a critical. With my scythe. I end up dealing 96 damage I think. AND IT"S STILL UP AFTER THAT! Fortunately the battle doesn't last much longer, but jeez that thing was tough.

    One more encounter we run from before reaching the ruins. Titan Centipede. Colossal freaking centipede. And it can keep up with our camels. We freak a little. Fortunately, Ivan can manifest Entangling Debris to slow it down, and we barely get away. Again, OUR HEROES LADIES AND GENTLEMEN!

    When we arrive at the ruins, we see the camp of the expedition that got there before us. It appears there was a struggle, but no corpses are left behind. They appear to have been dragged into the underground city through massive double doors, which we open and see...

    The end of the session!


    Next time: Falling, Zombies, and some actual Roleplay
    Last edited by Axinian; 2013-11-05 at 01:15 PM.
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    Default Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Psion [PF Campaign Journal]

    Here's the next session. My memory of this session is a lot better, so hopefully it'll be a little more entertaining for the extra detail.

    SESSION 2: Re-Dead Redemption
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    We enter the underground ruins and find ourselves in an ancient temple dedicated to a long-lost nature god. Apparently this city was a collaboration between humans, elves, and dwarves and they all revered this god, called Cernundwyn. My god, Osgath, Angel of Battle is also an ancient god from this one's time. We investigate the ruined temple and find some minor magic items and a fair amount of treasure. Yudathra and I kick down one door only to let in a bunch of sand that we have to dig ourselves out of... Despite this we continue to kick open almost every door in the rest of the dungeon. Vrai and Ivan are disappoint. The windows at the front of the temple are broken, and we can see beyond them a massive cavern containing the remains of the ancient city. The ground is around 50 feet below, and we set up a rope to start climbing... but then Ivan decides to just jump out and manifest catfall to negate the damage. He makes it down safely, but he ends up right in the midst of a horde of waiting zombies! Me and Ydathra follow Ivan's lead and jump down to help him, just eating the damage 'cause I can heal us. Vrai just shakes her head at us and starts making her way down the rope. These seem like bog-standard zombies. They turn out to be buffed a little, but they weren't much of a threat and we probably just wasted HP jumping down to save Ivan. He probably could've taken them all out with one energy cone.

    Vrai: You guys had no idea what you were doing did you?

    Tasha (me): Hey I knew EXACTLY what I was doing... I just didn't care :P

    We make our way further into the ruins and encounter more normal zombies, but they're acting strangely. They're just standing in a circle around the carcass of one of the lost researchers and don't seem to move until we attack them. Again, they go down without any difficulty. I perform funeral rites for the dead wizard... and then we pilfer through his stuff. He is holding his journal, which chronicles their journey to the ruined city, and their foray into the main palace. Many of them died to powerful undead, and even the ones who made it back to camp weren't safe. The wizard managed to get in one last, panicked entry in his journal before he died to serve as a warning to us. Unfortunately, this info isn't that useful to us, and we do need to find that artifact.

    I detect an aura of evil beyond a door, and I barge in, triggering a very decayed Symbol of Pain trap that Vrai blows the save on. She's wracked with pain, but it fades once she's out of the traps proximity so she gets better. It occurs to me that Vrai probably hated me this session
    There is a chest inside the room that I presume contains an evil item. Yudathra and I smash it, and it turns out the CHEST was evil, and the item inside quite useful. It's a psicrown containing the Mend Body, Animal Affinity, Sustenance, and Energy Adaptation (specified). Vrai gets it because she's the only one with an open Headband slot, and her healing abilities just got a whole lot better.

    We continue on to find a dojo/armory, in which there are several more zombies-like creatures. I say zombie-like because while they are clearly corpses, they have the glimmer of intelligence in their hollow eyes and bear armor and weapons. They turn out to be ghouls, and there are two kinds. There are ghoul fighters with armor and swords, and ghoul monks wearing robes. We begin the battle by staying in the choke-point created by the doorway and make them come to us, and Yudathra and I have little problem blocking them from the squishier two party members. However, they wise up to the fact that they're not getting anywhere attacking us head on, and start taking up tactical positions around the room. We begin to move into the room, as we're gonna have to kill them eventually and Yudathra is eager to charge with her rhino-hide armor.

    Tasha (me): Is this it? I expected more from undead abominations!

    As if on cue, five more ghouls burst into the room from another door. These are Imperial Ghouls, which are much tougher and hit harder that your average ghoul and I believe they have a paralysis with a high save DC. Me and my big mouth. We start getting surrounded, and while Yudathra and I can make the saves against paralysis by sneezing, Ivan not so much. He ends up paralyzed for a turn, which hurts because we were really counting on him to be able to control some crowds here. We get hammered during that turn, and Vrai needs to keep backing up to throw her boomerang without provoking. Fortunately we have plenty of healing, and we're able to maneuver ourselves so as to protect Ivan better. It's not enough though, as he blows another Fort save and contracts ghoul fever. This is nasty, as we have no way to remove disease and the nearest settlement is a week's travel away across harsh desert. The rest of us have good Fort saves and remain un-diseased (I'm flat out immune), but suddenly we're on another time limit. It's a grind, but we start dropping the ghouls one-by-one. Some well timed energy missiles from Ivan take out significant portions of their rather deep health pools. We don't find much of value on the bodies, but I take a +1 Longsword and masterwork shield as backup weapons in case we encounter something I really can't get hit by.

    It's at this point that Ivan brings up the fact that he's pretty much empty on power points, and since we're low on resources also, we retreat back to camp to rest. Nothing bothers us, but even with a Heal check to boost Ivan's save, he fails to resist the ghoul fever and takes Con damage. Ick. We hope that we don't encounter anything else with disease.

    Spoiler
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    We totally encounter many more things with disease


    When we reenter the ruins, we explore and find ourselves in a great dining hall. Throughout the hall are many emaciated undead, which are called Cadavers, and seated at the back of the room are 7 Cadaver Lords. We don't know what cadavers actually do (we didn't actually get high enough on a knowledge check, but the DM gave us the name), so this looks like a fairly overwhelming situation. They don't seem to attack right away, so I figure I'll actually put my ranks in diplomacy to good use.

    Tasha (me): I don't suppose there's an opportunity for rational discourse is there?

    Cadaver Lord: The living must be one with the dead! (Translation: nope!)

    Battle breaks out, but it turns out the normal cadavers are really fragile, as Ivan takes out a bunch of them with a single energy cone. Yudathra charges out into the fray far ahead of us, and the cadaver lord start to move. Fortunately a bunch of them are grouped up, and I get to use my Kyton-Spawn SLA: Web! It gets most of them, and Ivan follows up with a cone of fire to deals extra fire damage form the web. The battle is in our favor most of the time, and while we have to pour a lot of healing into Yudathra, but we're in good shape. We learn what cadavers can really do when one of the lords summons 4 normal cadavers to surround me. All four of them completely fail to breach my AC It's basically mop-up from then on out, and we're able to get some treasure. Yudathra gets an amulet of natural armor and ring of protection to bolster her crappy AC slightly (though it's still only 16 while raging).

    We burst through another door to find ourselves confronted with something much scarier than anything we've faced so far: mummies. Four regular mummies and three mummy lords. Yikes! We have to make 7 saves against despair, which we make most of because of my Aura of Courage, and then we proceed to use the door as a chokepoint once again. Things go much worse in this fight. I'm immune to mummy rot, but no one else is, and both Ivan and Yudathra are afflicted. Even though Ivan is raining destruction on them (they're vulnerable to fire) they have deep health pools and hit hard. I have to put a bunch of healing into myself as I get critted TWICE in a row by a mummy lord and that nearly takes me out. Our narrow position is actually working against us, and Yudathra and Ivan move into the room once they have an opening to get some breathing space. Yudathra can charge now, which helps turn the tide, but Ivan sucks up a lot of our healing as the Con damage has crippled his already meager HP total. We're sucking on fumes at the end of this fight. As the last mummy lord disintegrates, it rasps "Come to the central square..."

    We're low on resources and demoralized, but we decide to do as the mummy asks. We want to get as much done before the various diseases wreak havoc on Yudathra and Ivan. We smell trap, but we don't have any other leads on where the artifact might be, and we're banking on finding some ancient magic to cure disease and remove curse. We find the square, and it's mostly empty. There is a large tiered fountain in the center, and while the water is still, it seems completely pure. There are also four undead submerged in the lower level of the fountain, bu they don't attack us. They just watch. Yudathra takes this one.

    Yudathra: Hey! Underwater zombie! What is your deal?!

    The four undead stand as one...

    Undead: You must enter the fountain...

    All of us: .... Why?

    Undead: You must see for yourselves, enter the fountain.

    The undead in this city have been behaving very strangely, and we obey if only out of morbid curiosity. In the middle of the upper tier of the fountain is actually a hole with a ladder leading down. It lets out on a catwalk above a large cavern. Below us is a shallow pool of water with a large black stone in the middle. One the far side of the cavern is a crystalline forest? Several golems of some sort patrol amongst the "trees" and there is a stairway leading up beyond them. Vrai uses her as yet unused Marvelous Pigments to conjure up a rope ladder for us to reach the cavern floor with.

    When we touch down, we're able to learn a few things through Psicraft. First, the water is psionic, and has purifying qualities. It's able to cure disease (YAY!) and provides those who partake of it the effects of the Sustenance power for 30 days! The black stone is even more interesting. It is an intelligent item of staggering power. We try to communicate with it, and when we do, a large... humanoid... undead... crow (?) flys down from above and speaks to us.

    Crow-thing: You must drink the water!

    Us: Um...

    Crow-thing: You must drink to become one with the stone! Drink! Drink!

    We're wary, as the crow is the symbol of the Lawful Evil god of death in this setting (called Osirel), but this place actually predates that god so we're unsure if there's a connection. Confused and startled by the crow's incessant urging, we start to drink the water... I freely admit that we are not the most cautious party ever.

    We're asked to make a will save. We fail, and the stone speaks into our minds...



    And we'll find out what the hells is gonna happen with that in the next session! We also level up, so Ill let people know how that goes.
    Last edited by Axinian; 2013-11-05 at 01:04 AM.
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    Default Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Psion [PF Campaign Journal]

    OK, so the plot thickened today... we're still trying to figure out what exactly to do.

    But first, level ups! Vrai takes another level in Marksman, Yuda (Yudathra) in Barbarian, Ivan in Psion, and Tasha (me) in Paladin. Ivan takes Psychokinetic Charge, so he can throw me and Yuda at people for damage. I get a paladin mount, and I get the OK to get a giant scorpion! I dig into the Animal Archive book for it to take the Boon Companion feat (letting me get a mount that's 7th level instead of 5th), and gave it the Racer archetype to trade out share spells (which doesn't apply to powers) for fast movement. The poison isn't worth jack in this place, but the grab ability is!


    SESSION 3: All This Over a Rock
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    So the stone, which we learn is called the Aqualinth, is an intelligent artifact that can create and control healing water. Actually the undead we;ve been fighting so far haven't been animated by fell magic, but by the stone controlling the water present in the corpses. It's not doing this of its own volition though, it is currently embroiled in a psychic battle with a powerful Uncarnate, a psionic mind that has forsaken its own body.

    Before we can learn more from it, we're attacked by the human-sized undead crow thing. It doesn't seem too tough, but then a new undead monster appears. A cloud of incorporeal faces contorted in agony rises from the water and manifests Death Urge on Yudathra! An automatic critical takes out most of the barbarian's HP, and I immediately shift focus to start attacking the creature with Smite Evil. We don't have any force effects, so we have to whittle down the phantom bit by bit. However, it throws most of it's powers at me, and I have great Fort and Will saves so it's mostly ineffective. Meanwhile the crow goes down pretty easily... but its remains transform into an entire Murder of Crows! It being a swarm means we don't do a lot of damage, but we have Ivan so we think we may be able to one shot it with energy cone... thats when it moves over us and we have to save vs being blinded. Ivan blows it and is blinded, unable to use any of his powers because he can't aim properly. Yuda lasts another turn before being blinded also, but I manage to fell the incorporeal thingy and focus my attentions on the swam. Yuda and I wail on it while Vrai heals us and Ivan sulks in the corner. I get blinded too, but I remember to pull out the shield I found and start shield bashing for full damage! That doesn't last long, I get knocked unconscious by swarm damage the next turn. Ivan actually manages to make the heal check to remove his blindness (thank gods that it wasn't a permanent thing) and finishes it off with energy cone.

    We're sucking on fumes at this point. I'm out of healing, and we have to burn through a lot of our dorje. We're running low on potions also. We're gonna have to ration our healing a bit more as things go on. The stone contacts us again and says that it's losing the battle against the Uncarnate, and that we have to leave before things get nasty. We do so, and get to rest at our camp. Fortunately the water cured our diseases, but Ivan needs to use a ton of his power points on Body Purification the next day to cure the ability damage. This lack of PP would come back to haunt us later. On the bright side, I have a scorpion now! I name him Pinsir, because Pinsir is a badass.

    We're left with a few options here:
    1) We go back into the ruins to try and figure out more about what's going on, and maybe stop it.

    2) Go back to the Academy and ask our teacher aout what we can do.

    3) There's another recently discovered Repository of psionic power a short boat ride from where we are that we can research. However, it's as of now unexplored and who knows what awaits us there.

    4) Go back to the castle we passed on the way here and clear it out because adventurers


    We decide on option 1 and head back down into the ruins. The mummies hanging out in the fountain attack us this time, and they have a weird ability where, if they grapple you, they kiss you and force water down your throat. Ew. Fortunately they don't have mummy rot, so it's not that dangerous of a battle, though I am thoroughly grossed out from one of their drowning kisses. My scorpion acquitted himself nicely, it's nice to use Grab on our opponents for a change

    We head back down into the room with the Aqualinth, and decide to check out the crystal forest on the far side of the cavern and head up the stairs there. We try to stealth our way through and not get attacked by any golems... that goes out the window with my armor check penalty and my scorpion's size penalty. We first encounter several Brass Men, basically just constructs who are immune to fire, but they also explode when they die, so we have to maneuver carefully to not get rocked when we finish one off. Yuda and I spend most of our time charging as my scorpion grapples. Vrai shines in this fight, as she is able to pick off our targets at range (without using PP) after we get out of the way.

    Our next opponent is what is called a Golden Guardian, a large golem-like thing that is immune to psionics and fire, and has a breath weapon of
    molten slag. Ivan gets to try out his Psychokinetic Charge on Yuda to maneuver her around for attacks while not provoking from the guardian. I get
    a critical with my first attack, which shaves off a good chunk of the creature's HP. This is good because it has DR 10/adamantine so we have to nickle and dime the thing otherwise. My scorpion can do much damage, nor can I or Vrai. Electricity damage, which my scythe has, slows the thing so we don't
    get hammered by full attacks the whole time, but it's on Yuda to finish the thing, as Ivan can't use his signature offensive powers on it. It eventually
    falls, but it takes forever. Thankfully it doesn't explode!

    We're almost to the stairs! But one more trial stands before us: a trio of Brass Angels, flying constructs with fire breath weapons. With Yuda and
    my scorpion on the front lines, the first angel dies quickly. They use their breath weapons a lot, but they don't do that much damage and my scorpion
    has evasion. One of them manages to get back to the two ranged people, but they don't have that much trouble with it. I myself don't end up doing much
    other than soaking damage, as I can't attack at range and I move pretty slowly also. What is a problem though, is that Ivan is already almost out
    of power points because he used them curing ability damage. We decide to go up the stairs anyway because it's still too soon to rest, but we're gonna have to move cautiously and leave when the opportunity presents itself.

    And that's where we left it.


    Unfortunately we were all sort of tired, so not much was said in character, but we got to try out our new abilities so that was fun. The next session is
    planned for the week after next, because we're gonna go LARP instead
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    Default Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Psion [PF Campaign Journal]

    Keep it up this is an amusing read.

    Have fun
    I must not fear.
    Fear is the mind-killer.
    Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
    I will face my fear.
    I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
    And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
    Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
    Only I will remain.

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    Default Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Psion [PF Campaign Journal]

    Alright, I'm back! Here we go:

    SESSION 4: I've Seen Enough Hentai to Know Where This is Going (don't worry it's SFW)
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    So we head up the stairs and arrive in a room with walls covered in old psicrystals, only a few of which are still active. There's a pedestal in the middle of the room that, when a psicrystal is placed on it, projects the images recorded in the crystal. The first image is of an elven women speaking into psicrystal in her hands...

    Vrai (ooc): Help me Obi Wan Kenobi! You're my only hope!

    We learn a lot from the psicrystals, as they were recorded by the city's former inhabitants. We learn that the Aqualinth and the crystal forest actually predate the city, built by the ancient civilization that actually had the psionic knowledge required to create it the Forefathers. The most recently created crystals describe a great sickness sweeping through the city. Apparently the aqualinth turned on the inhabitants and worked to destroy them. We presume this is because of its possession by the Psionic Uncarnate, the former citizens don't appear to have reached that conclusion, as records in the next room indicate that they forgot that the Aqualinth could be communicated with.

    The next room up is an ancient library, where we learn more of the nature of the city and the sickness that plagued it. Not only was it a physical disease, but some victims began to act as if possessed. This information does help, but we're a bit at a loss as to what to do next. We rest up regardless, as the library is secure and we only need 2 hours sleep due to the Sustenance effect the Aqualinth gave us. We decide we want to try to find out more, and we know from the journal of the dead researcher that there are powerful undead in the palace we're in. We haven't really encountered the head honcho undead yet, so we decide to find him and beat him the hell up!

    We go up to the second floor of the ruined palace and are almost immediately set upon by Ghoul assassins. Literally, they have sneak attack and wield daggers. Some of them are ghasts even, making their stench and paralysis even more dangerous. I'm functionally immune to most things requiring a fort save, but everyone else is in grave danger of being paralyzed. Case in point, Yuda (despite the fact that she has a great fort save) gets paralyzed almost immediately and stays put pretty much the entire fight. Vrai holds out longer, but then also gets paralyzed for WAY more rounds than we really want. It's basically Tasha (me), the scorpion, and Ivan against four nasty undead with disease and paralysis. We manage to take out three, but it takes a long time as Ivan needs to maneuver very precisely to not get killed by AoOs and I have to stay put to protect him. The final ghoul makes a break for the double doors at the other end of the room and opens them, but thats when Yuda breaks out of paralysis and kills the little turd with a charging critical!

    Unfortunately, something worse is on the other side of the door. There are four Wight Monks, which means MORE PARALYSIS and now negative levels. Scarier, there is a massive undead gnoll sitting on a throne. He bellows in rage and starts advancing on us with his greataxe. Fortunately it takes him a couple turns to get in range, but the wight monks have no such problems, and immediately start spamming stunning fist at us. Again, I'm basically immune, but Ivan keeps getting paralyzed and Yuda takes 4 whole negative levels over the course of this fight. I shrug out my sword and shield to make my AC better and go into full blown tank mode, with me and my scorpion clogging up the doorway between us and the gnoll. Yuda holds her own against the wights despite the negative levels, and there are only 2 left when
    she decides to engage the gnoll. The gnoll attacks back for a truckload, reducing her to single digits. Eek. She has to fall back, as do I. The last remaining is pummeling on Ivan, and holds out for a frustratingly long time as we get unlucky on to hit rolls over and over again. Vrai finally comes out of paralysis, and starts giving us extra damage and healing, since I used up all my Lay on Hands already. The battle seems to begin to go in our favor when me and my scorpion get to flank the behemoth and I get to smite evil. With my boosted AC and damage and Ivan once again able to blast things, we start laying on the hurt on the gnoll. Then this happens:

    DM: With a horrifying roar, the gnoll goes into a frothing rage!

    Me: HE WASN'T RAGING ALREADY?!

    DM: Also make Will saves.

    Even with my Aura of Courage, Yuda blows the save against fear and flees the fight. Poor Yuda keeps getting scared and paralyzed . Fortunately the fight doesn't last much longer. My scorpion gets in a couple critical hits and the beast goes down.

    Yuda: Go Captain Crustacean!

    Yes, the scorpion is rechristened Captain Crustacean, despite the fact that scorpions are not in fact crustaceans. Hey don't look at me! It was Yuda's idea!

    We're pretty low on resources, but we press on to the upper floors anyway. We first discover a treasury with mounds of gold coins! We wipe the drool from our mouths and stuff as much as we can carry into extradimensional storage. We end up with 40,000 GP in coins

    The next floor up is actually devoid of undead. In fact, we discover several survivors from the expedition before us. Their gnome leader introduces himself as Jack Clustou He tells us that the undead were forcing the survivors to drink the Aqualinth water, and that sets off alarm bells for us. Indeed, we have to leave one of the survivors bound and gagged as he is ranting and raving due to being possessed. At this point we opt for leaving the ruins and escorting the survivors back to town, and then returning to the psionics school to try and figure out what to do about the Aqualinth. We get rested and then head out into the desert towards the port we arrived at.

    A couple days out, we hit a random encounter... and it turns out to be our toughest fight yet.

    In front of us, five monstrous spiders erupt from the sand. From behind, a mass of ten writhing tentacles tipped with wicked barbs emerges. We identify the thing as a sand kraken, basically a big bruiser with grab and constrict all over the place. The kraken moves very slowly, so most of us engages the spiders while Vrai starts kiting the kraken at range. The spiders aren't tough in terms of HP and AC, but they have a nasty poison that deals strength damage AND paralyzes the victim on each round they fail their save. Yuda ends up paralyzed AGAIN, and keeps getting bit whenever she actually makes a save against the poison and ends up paralyzed gain. I don't think I've ever seen someone fail so many saves in a row before. The player rolled a natural 5 a highly improbable number of times in a row, and Yuda ends up taking 7 strength damage and is paralyzed for just as many consecutive rounds. This is on top of the two negative levels she failed to save to remove earlier in the day!

    Ivan gets paralyzed once or twice, but he brings the pain to the spiders, and together we finish them off.

    Meanwhile, Vrai is having some success attacking the sand kraken, but it ends up grabbing her and dealing massive constrict damage. The thing has 20 ft reach, so even when she does break free it's a delicate balancing act between provoking and actually doing things until she manages to get out of range. Unfortunately, Ivan too winds up in its tentacles and is squeezed into unconsciousness. I rush to their aid, and then get full-attacked by 9 tentacles, two of which crit. I go unconscious too, and the kraken picks me up and starts to flee with me and Ivan in it's grasp, apparently content with the two of us as a meal. Captain Crustacean rushes in... and gets full attacked into unconsciousness too. Ugh. Yuda finally breaks paralysis and roars into combat against the kraken, only to get an AoO into unconsciousness. This means she drops out of rage, meaning she dies instantly... Well crap . We are seriously looking at a TPK here, as three of us are down, along with the scorpion. But Vrai, gods bless her, keeps wailing on the thing from a distance with her boomerang, narrowly avoiding getting knocked herself. After a few rounds of back and forth, she manages to beat the damn thing to death.

    Some healing later, the rest of us and the survivors are standing around Yuda's corpse wondering what to do. The somber moment is lightened however, when we realize we have tens of thousands of GP sitting in our packs, and we can easily pay for a resurrection. We unceremoniously shove the body in a bag of holding and continue onward. Yuda's player will control Captain Crustacean from the time being.

    And that's where we left it.


    So yeah first character death... It was a fun session anyway, but Yuda just kept failing all the fort saves thrown her way, and I can't imagine
    it was fun fighting with strength damage, paralysis, and negative levels. The dice gods are unforgiving.
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    Default Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Psion [PF Campaign Journal]

    Have only read the first set this far, but freaking hell your D.M was brutal with the random encounters! Still, was entertaining to read, and probably to play
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    Default Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Psion [PF Campaign Journal]

    Quote Originally Posted by Doorhandle View Post
    Have only read the first set this far, but freaking hell your D.M was brutal with the random encounters! Still, was entertaining to read, and probably to play
    Yeah we actually ended up rolling two encounters in a row, so he iust decided to throw both at us at once. It seemed pretty doable actually. But yuda got massively unlucky so we ended up surrounded.

    Btw, our regular session got cancelled yesterday so the next update is put off until next weekend.
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    Default Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Psion [PF Campaign Journal]

    Aaaaaannnnd we're back!

    SESSION 5: Chupacabras Estan Locas
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    So yeah Yuda is dead for the time being, and we continue on through the desert. We luck out and don't get any more encounters until we get into the mountains. We manage to spot some Redcaps hiding in the trees, and an unsuccessful attempt to pass through peacefully, initiative is rolled. 3 smaller, previously unseen Redcaps emerge to flank us, and we discover that the two types are annoying in their own ways. The big ones have DR 10/cold iron, which means Captain Crustacean straight up can't deal damage to them and damage is greatly reduced for the rest of us. The smaller ones have less DR but have spell resistance which hinders Ivan's normal strategy of blasting the crap out of things. The Redcaps don't hit that hard... which of course means I take a crit from a scythe to the face that drops me from full HP to 0 HP exactly. Fortunately I can heal myself quite well, and with the help of my old friend Smite Evil the rest of the battle isn't too hard. We also discover that Vrai can actually do really good damage also, it's just that she's spent the last couple sessions either healing or suffering from paralysis. On the way back to town we spy a trio of Lamias ahead of us on the road. We just keep our distance to see where they're going. They turn off deeper into the mountains and not towards town, so we're content to just let them be and continue on our way.

    We get back to town and continue back to Ilian. We pay for Yuda to get Raise Deaded and Restored and I regain control of Captain Crustacean. We have a lot of raw gold and a bunch of loot to sell... suddenly we're ROLLING in cash! We buy a stat boosting items, healing items, some Ioun Stones. Most of the money though, goes towards upgrading our weapons. I get Holy on my scythe and Yuda gets Furious and Thundering on her elven curve blade. I also boost my AC some more and buy some barding armor for the Captain. We also level up! I get my 3rd level of Vitalist, Yuda continues in Barbarian, Vrai in Marksman, and Ivan in psion. I get to use share pain now, and while I do have a psicrystal... I realized I have no way to heal the psicrystal and forgot to buy one So I'll probably but it on either Yuda or Captin Crustacean when I can. We spend a good amount of time leveling and buying, so if this write-up seems shorter, this is why.

    We report back to the Mage's Guild that hired us, and after talking with them we decide that we should head to the other recently discovered psionic ruins across the sea. We learn that the only real way for us to fight the Uncarnate possessing the Aqualinth is to travel to the Ethereal Plane... which we can't really do with our current abilities. The other Repository may have a portal or something though, since the Forefathers are known to have advanced planar travel capability. We got across the seas with no troubles, and the nation we arrive in is a welcome change from the hostile desert. It's a land of rolling fields and orderly civilizations. Much of the countryside is patrolled by paladins, so it takes us quite a while to get beyond the reaches of true civilization and into random encounter territory.

    During the night we see three winged shapes heading towards a farm. We are able to identify them as winged Chupacabras. Ay caramba! We chase them onto the farm and engage. Even without our armor on, they don't do much damage, though we do learn that they have pounce. An Energy Ball
    and some swinging later and two are dead and the last one bugs out. We alert the surrounding inhabitants of the potential threat, bu then continue
    on our way.

    The next night, we actually spy SEVEN of the buggers flying back the way we came, presumably to raid more farms. We decide the take these things out once and for all, but we're a little overconfident from our last fight with them, and Ivan decides he can take them all out on his own. He probably
    can, given a couple rounds, since they're all bunched up and don't have much health. He takes off, Yuda following behind him, but one thing we neglected is that he can't see far in the dark, so he needs to get right up underneath them to target them (despite the long range on energy ball). He takes a good chunk out of them, but none of them die. Initiative is rolled, and all the Chupacabras go before Ivan, and they all charge and pounce him. 21 attacks take him into negatives, and they start draining his blood. Ow.

    I forgo donning my armor and jump onto captain crustacean. He has the Racer archetype from Animal Archive... so he gets to move 500 feet as a full-round action once per day. Yuda is also able to get to the chupacrabras that round. Imagine the confusion of the beasts when two warrior women in patch-work armor come speeding out of the darkness towards them yelling battlecries and bringing a giant scorpion with them!

    Yuda: Oh I know what we should have done!

    Us: What?

    Yuda: We should be making goat noises!

    We basically just tried to draw a much attention as possible away from Ivan and for the most part it works. He takes a little bit more blood drain, but I we heal him back to consciousness he manages to use Fold Space (Dimension Door) to get out of the scrum. Vrai is content to stay back at our camp and just pump healing into us through her collective :P Ivan doesn't teleport that far away and is able to lend us some energy blasts from a distance, and me and Yuda clean house in melee. The chupacrabras have lots of attacks, but their AC and HP ar both low and we blow through at least one per full-attack, sometimes more.

    It is amidst the bloody corpses of these foul things that we decide to call it a night. We fully intend to track these things back to their den and wipe them out now.
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    Default Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Psion [PF Campaign Journal]

    Another short-ish session, but we're approaching the final showdown next session, and it's gonna be epic.

    SESSION 6: Let Me See if We Have Some in the Back
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    So we find the Chupacabra lair to kill the remaining chupacabras. We find three sleeping there. I want to take them out silently, so I use hand signals to communicate this. Yuda somehow interprets my hand signals to mean to charge in screaming The battle is easy regardless and we don't even take any damage I don't think.

    We enter the mountains in which the Repository of Power is situated, and I somehow manage to blow a will save against a suggestion from an unknown source, which compels me to walk right out into the middle of an open clearing to be immediately set upon by 5 large size hyena/mountain goat hybrids from all sides! Ivan tries to identify them but fails leading to Yuda to make up more names for things:

    Yuda: They're Cragoldires!

    Vrai: Ivan doesn't know what they are so you just make up a name?

    Yuda: No these are definitely Cragoldires! My tribe has spoken of these beasts for generations... or at least they will once I return and tell them the epic story of how we vanquished 5 Cragoldires!

    Tricky terrain in this battle. Yuda doesn't get to charge and mobility in general is limited, so the rest of the party is limited to just fighting a couple of the things while the remaining ones just wail on me. Or at least they try to, my AC is pretty high and I take a lot less damage than you would think from being surrounded by 5 massive hyena-demon things. The things aren't that badass in terms of HP though, so the battle swings our way pretty quickly once a couple of them go down. Yuda actually consideres using some of her wilder abilities for once! but we actually talk her out of using up Power Points because these guys didn't seem worth it :/ We learn afterwards that these were not in fact Cragoldires, but Leucrottas. They are big hybrid things that can mimic voices and use suggestion, among other mind-affecting things.

    Afterwards we have to start rolling survival checks to stay on the right path. Most of us have ranks in survival but Vrai has by far the best number in that skill.

    DM: It's a good thing that you guys have Vrai with you are else you'd die cold, sad, and alone in the wilderness.

    During the night we're asked for perception checks, and we joke that stealthy assassin vines dual-wielding daggers jump out of the darkness to kill us:

    Assassin Vine's Creed

    We still have a bit of assassin vine phobia from the first session. What really shows up is a blind old woman that Yuda engages in conversation. She seems normal at first, but all of us immediately reach the conclusion that she's a hag or something out to steal our souls. Our suspicions are confirmed when she pulls back her hood to reveal that she has hideous scarred skin and gems in place of her eyes. Hoping to the gods that these gems don't suck out our souls we roll initiative.

    Me: Captain Crustacean, I choose you!

    Yuda: False sentiment there are no other choices!

    We surround her pretty quickly, but she holds out longer than expected on account of damage reduction. Smite Evil helps, as does psionic fire and Ivan's ability to bash her into a rock repeatedly using Energy Push. We don't take much damage here either, but the gems embedded all over her body are worth something though!

    The next day we come across what at first appears to be an ordinary honey badger just rummaging around looking for food. We do notice that it has 8 legs however. We once again fail to identify it, and while we keep our distance, we're kind of unsure what to do about it. I mostly just squee over how adorable it is. I change my tune when it sees us and charges me, hits, and grapples me (despite our difference in size)
    and starts making tons of rake attacks.

    Me: OH GODS GET IT OFF!

    People try to make attacks against it, and while some hit, it also has damage reduction, which makes it surprisingly resilient.

    DM: Your attack connects but it just doesn't seem to care

    The reference is not lost on us as I try to break the grapple... and it apparently has a CMD better than 30. Holy crap. Ultimately we use Captain
    Crustacean to grab it off me so I can attack, and we just throw the kitchen sink at it hoping we kill it before it shreds my scorpion. It dies, but we're all rather perturbed by the fact that despite all the stuff we've encountered, one of the scariest was a freakin' honey badger thing.

    Yuda: I change my totem to honey badger.

    We get a bit of foreshadowing when the DM asks me for one of my huge size minis... a bulette. Sure enough a bulette bursts out of the ground and starts wrecking us. It has good AC which me and Yuda repeatedly miss. Vrai actually ends up doing the most damage, and also gets the kill shot. She really should spend more time attacking than healing because she can be a death machine when she tries. We learn that bulette hide can be made into armor, which kicks off a whole tangent of us discussion variant armor types. Eventually we decide that Stone Plate is useless for everyone except dwarven druids. Yuda's player has now decided that his next campaign will have the only loot be stone plate. Dwarven druids go!

    Anyway, that night, we manage to hear creatures approaching from quite a ways off. After donning armor, we see that a group of five hill giants is foraging for food and enemies, so we decide to set an ambush. I charge out first and land a crit that cripples the first giant, Yuda follows and crits also, so we've put a lot of damage in the first round. Things get tougher next round, as the giants all have reach and moving around without getting rocked is difficult. Yuda doesn't care and sets up a charge whenever possible, but I have to maneuver myself to defend Ivan and Vrai while they put the hurt on the giants at range. Ivan's Energy Balls end up being the stars here.

    We finally come to the Repository of Power, which is sealed by a massive locked door. We spend a long time trying to figure out how to open it, since the thing has all sorts of wards and protective runes on it. Turns out the solution was to just put a few power points into some psicrystals embedded on it. Took a little too long for us to figure it out Inside there are many statues of ancient gods and strange orb that Yuda immediately grabs hold of without even trying to identify it. It does not in fact dominate her but instead grants her a modicum of knowledge about the place, the extent of which we don't explore before entering the next room. There is a woman with silver hair inside, and she is quite cordial to us, and we have a pleasant chat to get some plot information.

    1) She was in suspended animation until we opened the door.
    2) She is a guardian of sorts, destined to keep the treasures within from being exposed to the world at large unless there is a great need for them
    3) She's almost 400 years old, despite being a fairly normal looking young human.

    When we explain the situation with the Aqualinth and the Psion Uncarnate, she is willing to lend us some of the psionic artifacts stored in back before
    we head off to the etheral plane.

    Me: I wasn't expected "well let's see if we have some of that in back" when we opened that big door...

    She comes back followed by a massive golem of red crystal and hands us a similarly red psicrown. She explains that this is a sort of psionic golem, a "Psion Killer" and that it will help us greatly. Vrai takes the psicrown that controls the golem, given that she has the highest Will save and is thus least likely to be dominated.

    We also receive some other powerful items:

    A Psicrown controlling Psion Killer goes to Vrai as I said

    A Psicrown of the Astral legion goes to me. It allows me to create 9th level Astral Constructs and has like 150 Power points :o

    A Psicrown of Fiery Ruin goes to Ivan. More blasting is always good for him.

    Yuda grabs the Orb of Dragonshape before it is even explained what it does. Being a dragon is basically what her player lives for.


    We end the session there, decked out in psionic items way above WBL and ready to enter the Ethereal Plane to fight the Uncarnate


    NOTE TO SELF: Stat up a Cragoldire.
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    Default Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Psion [PF Campaign Journal]

    Have to admit, this is a blast to read. Thanks for posting this. ^_^

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    Default Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Psion [PF Campaign Journal]

    Thanks for the kind words people!

    Sorry it's been awhile, but tomorrow will be final session and I'll hopefully update the log that night!

    Another thing! Immediately after finishing the psionics campaign, this group will beginning another campaign, run by me, that is intended to run for quite a long while. I've said level 1-15ish and hopefully the campaign is interesting enough to last that long. I'll be keeping a journal of that as well, although I'll see if the players can help me in that endeavor.
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    Default Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Psion [PF Campaign Journal]

    Thanks for posting this campaign journal. It's been a great read! I'm a big fan of Dreamscarred's Psionics and I always love to see them in action. I bet the next campaign will be a blast to follow as well.

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    Default Re: The Good, The Bad, and the Psion [PF Campaign Journal]

    Alright the finale is sort of short, since it was only one encounter. However, it was probably the most creative and tactical combat of the whole campaign.

    SESSION 7: A New Fantastic Point of View
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    So Tasha the tiefling paladin, Yuda the half-elf barbarian, Vrai the vitlist marksman, and Ivan the psion are now loaded down with powerful psionic artifacts and are ready to enter the ethereal plane to do battle with the psion uncarnate. The guardian of the repository has one more gift to give us to make travel through the plane swifter: a magic carpet.

    As we board it and enter the portal: Yuda beings to sing!

    We arrive at the ruins we were originally investigating and just float through the walls into the room with the Aqualinth. We are immediately surrounded with a cloud of ectoplasm that deals damage to us and limits our vision. The final initiative roll happens, and we all begin to move out of the cloud. It's easy for most of us, especially Yuda in her form as a silver dragon, but the psion killer has a slow move speed and takes several rounds to reach the bottom of the chamber, all the while spamming dispel psionics in the hope of getting rid of hostile effects. We discover that the uncarnate's caster level is so high as to be almost un-dispellable. Eek. My astral construct, which I granted the ability to smite and use power attack mostly, is beset by a smaller astral construct from below. My huge size one crushes its opposition, but it delays it which we don't want for our big guns.

    We spot the uncarnate, who is partially inside the wall of the chamber, appearing only as a face. Yuda moves to attack it and rolls in the mid 30s for her attack. It misses. We realize that it's entirely possible that we are completely boned. What's worse, the uncarnates first visible action is to dominate Yuda. The apprehension at the table was palpable as we realize that we are DEFINITELY completely boned.

    Fortunately, Yuda is commanded to attack the Astral Construct, as it is the next toughest combatant after Yuda herself. I command the construct to ignore Yuda and just attack the uncarnate, and we find that it is the only
    thing with an attack bonus that reliably hits it, with +33 or so. Ivan tries to blast the thing, but Power Resistance renders him moot for a significant portion of the fight. At least when he connects, he connects hard. Vrai and I move to attack the uncarnate and Smite Evil means that I can actually hit it, and for significant damage, but I blow a fort save and afflicted with Forced Share Pain. Fortunately we roll high enough on Psicraft to know that the effects of the spell end beyond certain range, so I bravely run away for a turn to dispel it.

    The psion is throwing out damage at status effects like nobody's business. His AC is still prohibitively high, and he has schism up so he's throwing out multiple powers per turn before any metapsionic feats are applied. The psion killer can hit him, but not as hard as the Astral Construct, and it's primary contribution is spamming dispels ineffectually. Yuda finally makes a save against the dominate, and we discover that DCs for the uncarnates powers are in the mid-to-high 20s. We basically fail any save thrown at us and we are clearly going to lose a prolonged fight. We just throw the kitchen sink at the uncarnate hoping it's enough. The psion does this weird teleport where it goes IN to my body and pops out of Ivan's afflicting us with damage and Ivan with nausea, and then proceeds to start casting a power. We try to throw damage on him to make him lose it, but it makes the concentration check and next round... he mind switches with Yuda.

    That right, now the massively powerful psion covered in buffs and with a bottomless PP pool has a dragon body. Our barbarian is now stuck in a small etheral body with 4 strength and 9 dexterity. To make things worse, if we kill the psion, when the power's duration ends, Yuda dies too. There is a moral debate as to how to proceed, but we agree that we can just rez Yuda again, she's been dead before, but we still need to attack the dragon body so that the psion definitely dies. It's tight, the dragon's attacks hurt alot, and it puts another Forced Share Pain on Ivan, so we're in danger of killing TWO team-mates now. I get the final blow, which triggers a strange power that the psion had cast on himself, where he goes into suspended animation instead of dying, his body turning to crystal. This is actually GOOD for us! The psion can't become active again unless he is healed externally, and now Yuda can get back into her own body without dying! That's exactly what happens when the mind switch ends, and we deliver the crystalized big bad back to the repository of power, where he can hopefully studied in the future and NOT revived to wreak havoc once again.

    Our epilogues are mostly the same, we study a bit more at the arcane academy, but our taste of adventure eventually leads us to spread knowledge of psionics to the world at large. We meet back up with Yuda after a time, since she never went back to school :P


    So yeah that's that campaign. Many of us has never used psionics before this campaign and it was cool to actually use a variant system for once.

    We didn't actually get started on the new campaign because reasons, but that will start up next week with the same group and me DMing.

    I'm glad people enjoyed this and hope you'll continue to enjoy future campaign journals!
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