The Curse of Artaith (a 3.5 Campaign Journal)

[danielxcutter]

I just finished reading the journal - mostly done today in local time, but also a few pages before that across a few days as well.

And I must say this.


AWESOME.



Seriously, this is really good. I've read journals by SilverClawShift, Kaveman, and Saph... and I think I've found a fourth person worthy of being mentioned among those names. This is almost Tales of Wyre level awesome - and ToW goes up well into epic levels! This is still non-epic and it manages to be awesome as awesome can get. I really wish I could get a game half as good, or even one-tenth as good. I'm not having much luck, as my situation does not permit RL games and I'm having trouble getting PbPs as well - though I have hope.



I really like the Vitae system. It's like the action point system from Ebberon, but even cooler. Never played Dark Souls, but I've heard enough to catch some of the references. Kudos to you for managing to balance it without going to either extreme of "worse than useless" - "absolutely OP".


You're still accepting monster entries, right? I've sent some potentially useful sources of optimized pain, as well as a shameless plug of mine that I wonder how the PCs will handle.


Oh, by the way, do you have any other transformation ideas for the other sins? I liked the symbolism of Janath turning into an Elder Odopi, fitting for Avarice/Greed. I promise not to mention them your players.

[PrismCat21]

and I think I've found a fourth person worthy of being mentioned among those names.

When you get the chance, read The Romanov Incident.

Spoiler

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http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...paign-journal)

You won't be disappointed. :)

[danielxcutter]

When you get the chance, read The Romanov Incident.

Spoiler

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http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...paign-journal)

You won't be disappointed. :)

I will when I get the time. Probably tomorrow in local time lol.

[curious-puzzle]

Wow, thank you! I'm glad that you enjoy our shenanigans.

[danielxcutter]

Wow, thank you! I'm glad that you enjoy our shenanigans.

You're welcome! In fact, we should thank you for the awesome journal!

Could you add a shot of your players' faces if they meet something from one of the sources I sent? Or the build idea that I plugged?

[Picanet]

Puck is not impressed. :P

[danielxcutter]

Puck is not impressed. :P

So... I assume Puck has one less point of Vitae than he had last session?

No, but seriously, I'm giggling here like a maniac here. It's not really because of the PC death, it's because of the drawing. The drawing itself is pretty funny, but the fact that you drew your character's face and posted it because you were that annoyed and it's because of one my suggestions/sources. Did you know that I gave him a link to both the Villainous Competition and the Iron Chef char-op competitions and two whole threads about adding class levels to monsters, not to mention a certain build that I came up? Yeah, this is just the begininng.

Out of curiousity, which one was it?

Edit: Um... oh yeah, Photobucket doesn't host images properly anymore.

[curious-puzzle]

Hate to break it to you Danielxcutter, but haven't used your stuff yet...I think Picanet just drew the mysterious image (that photobucket won't let me look at) cause it was a fun idea.

Entry is coming in the next couple days, just been busy on a painting spree to make sure all my tiny warmachine dudes are ready for Lock&Load next week!

[Picanet]

Oh it's just a wee doodle of Puck with the unhappiest eyebrows I could manage while binge watching Sherlock lol.

Didn't realize photobucket was being a putz. Sorry folks. I'll have to find another way to share lol

[danielxcutter]

Aw man... I thought this was an update, not a disappointment. I'd prepared Game On(Waka Flocka Flame) for the inevitable whupping your players would have gone through.

Then again, anything of those would have needed more than a week to prepare, anyways. And it's not like I spilled the beans anyways... both those comps have entries in the triple digits by now, and I didn't say what my build was either.

Oh sure, all of you guys are pretty tough. *Two* Frenzied Berserkers, a Sorcerer with a great list(Draconic Polymorph? Wings of Cover? Pretty sweet), a Cleric, and an archer Ranger.

But you know what?

Some of the entries for IC or VC are really powerful. Unsurprising, as many of them were made by Playgrounders who've been in the char-op game for quite a while. Some even wrote optimization handbooks that pull from almost the entirety of first-party 3.5, ones that I always read before making a character.

So whatever Puzzle decides to use, I can guarantee one thing.

you're gonna have a bad time.
Yes, that's an Undertale reference.


Game on.



Edit: I hope this doesn't come across as insulting. I'm just confident in the abilities of the optimizers of this forum. And even if it's a TPK, nobody dies for long in this game.

I just really want to read about the awesome fight you guys will have. You guys are tough too, so the sparks are going to fly.

Again, sorry if I'd been a bit rude. It's just that I'm sooooo hyped for the next fight.

[PrismCat21]

lots of stuff

Spoiler

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[curious-puzzle]

Session the 44th! Is late late, but for the good cause of painting a LOT of warmachine in time for a big gaming event.

Spoiler: We’re not using the “F” word again

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The forges are in...well, chaos is a generous phrase. Angelena and Talvosh have made it back by the time the rest of the party has navigated around the swiftly melting ice walls, hacked-apart worktables, and piles of rapidly cooling molten metal. They’ve also brought a small battalion of guards and mages, but all that’s left is cleanup. When trying to answer the numerous questions of exactly what the **%# happened, the party runs into a particularly vexing and unnerving situation. No-one but them can seem to recall what sort of creatures were seen, even the workers who were in the Forge. Even moments after having one of the party explain that it was a group of strange daemons (creepy spider motif and all), the info just seems to drift away. There’s a few attempts, but after the third time of trying to explain the strange silvery spiders and unusual behavior and speech, the party just defaults to “sneaky daemon assassins.”

On their way back to the Central Bonfire, Angelena and Spotter notice plumes of smoke coming from the Grand Tower of the city...wisely though they don’t split up to investigate :P.

Flamespeaker Alexandria is relieved to see everyone mostly intact, despite Talvosh still looking crisp around the edges (and until he consumed a Vitae, had reached a low enough level that he could no longer benefit from morale bonuses). And when I say “crisp,” a better word/phrase might be “foot and a half in the grave.” His skin is more grey than green, and a constant odor of smoke and ash trails around him. There’s one Vitae from the battle that he noms hungrily as soon as he can, and everyone clearly see life return to his flesh. He’s only went from “possibly shambling animated corpse” to “possible plague victim” though…

From talking with Alexandria, the smoke from the Central Tower is from a group of daemonic saboteurs being driven off (yay!). They were attempting to do something to the portal to Revelation (boo!) but the Mage-King happened to be there and blew them away into many tiny pieces (yay again!)...as well as blowing part of the tower roof away too (...whoops?). When they ask if any witnesses mentioned silver threads or spiders, Alexandria is a little confused. When they start to explain the creatures they had fought, Alexandria is quite concerned. She makes her Will save like a boss and doesn’t just space out as they describe the strange abilities and unnerving appearance of the monsters, and asks for more information. The party is a little hesitant, explaining that the attack was because of some dangerous knowledge that they acquired, and they don’t want to endanger anyone else.

The Flamespeaker reminds the party that she is sworn to aid the Pilgrims (i.e. them) in any way she can, and pulls a rune-carved bell out from her clothes. Ringing it softly, the resonating chime increases in volume before fading suddenly - along with any sound from further than a few feet away. With their words sufficiently protected by a custom silence spell, the party spills the beans of destiny.

The party is cautious not to actually speak or write the imprisoned goddess’ name

Spoiler: DM NOTE - MINOR SPOILERS FOR PLAYERS

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This is a wise decision

, but they present enough evidence that Alexandria goes from disbelieving, to unnerved, to downright frightened at the implications. She agrees to be extremely careful with said information, and asks what the party plans to do now.

At the same time, Sona receives a Sending from some old companions. It’s the Twins! It’s been some time since the party has heard from them, back in the temple of Revelation in fact.

“Good day, hope saving the world and staying alive is going well. Was just wondering...WHAT DID YOU DO??!!?!?! Please visit at earliest convenience.”

The rest of the group just sees Sona grimace and then wince as the panicked wail echoes through her mind. Rapidly their plans change from possibly looking for that underwater library, or making another attempt at speaking to Pathos, to heading to the Lighthouse right now.

Spoiler: DM NOTE

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I was kind of hoping they’d put the visit off and do something small or rest instead first. Then it would have been so much worse for them :P

After a bit more discussion (and a quick chat with the Mage-King where they get to see him blush with embarrassment - the daemons startled him, and he “overreacted” and melted the top side of the Tower), the party huddles around the Fire and warp back to the beginning beach by the Lighthouse!

Spoiler: Here and there, was and will

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The party finds itself back on the sunny beach...but things are a little strange. As they walk towards the tunnel that leads up to the lighthouse, it seems to be a few feet to the left of where it was before. Then with a blink and a shudder, it’s back. Then it’s gone. With another blink, they’re walking across coarse gravel, then back to smooth sand. The air smells of ozone, and practically hums with energy. It’s as if time and space are especially flexible around here.

The entrance vanishes again, and doesn’t come back until the party yells up at the lighthouse. If a tunnel entrance could reappear resentfully, it does exactly that. Once the gang walks up the mismatched stairs, they find themselves back in the same lighthouse as before, except that all the furniture has been piled up against the front door. Every window has been boarded up, and incomprehensible scribbles cover everything. The Twins twitch and whip around to stare wide-eyed at our Pilgrims as they arrive. They’re more than a little weary looking, and immediately start spouting out questions in increasingly shrill tones. As the attack is explained, the twins somehow become even more frazzled and strung-out. When Sona starts talking about the evidence of the seventh god, they both shout over her.

“DON”T SAY HER NAME!!”

“I wasn’t going to…”

The twins mutter about how you don’t have to say it out loud for things to happen. With that confirmation, there’s definitely some negative feelings. Regardless of why they didn’t say anything, the fact that they knew something smacks of manipulation to the party. There’s a little vindictiveness as they explain all the various shenanigans they’ve participated in recently…

Freed the Mage-King of Helios from his aeon of imprisonment and madness…

“What?”

Found and had a lively discussion with Tephras, the mythical dragon responsible for a world-changing catastrophe even longer ago…

“WHAT.”

Discovered the existence of a seventh deity, a goddess imprisoned in the moon and responsible for the Curse currently killing this world…

“WH-you already said that one, stop being a prat.”

After a bit more flailing and panicking, the twins calm down enough to actually talk. Part of their panic is because of the party’s actions; whatever they did, the twins are unable to see what will happen as a result. They’re flying blind, and that is very worrying. The rest of the panic is that they are being hunted with a renewed ferocity. The question of what they are being Pursued (heh) by is answered by solemn faces and pointing up towards where the moon is (hiding behind the lighthouse walls). A bit of boasting about past and recent triumphs by the PCs starts the twins to planning out loud - maybe the Pilgrims are on the right path. They’ve accomplished more than anyone else has in a very long time (the twins are very reluctant to say exactly how many attempts and cycles they’ve been through), so perhaps they can help remove the twin’s hunters from the equation.

Ah, “kill something for us,” the most ancient and beloved of PC murderhobo bargains. Seems simple enough; kill whatever has been hunting the time-hopping twins, and then they’ll throw their full support behind the party in forging a new path.

Such picky people. I gave two perfectly good options, but nooo, no-one liked eternal burning or unending darkness…

The twins are grilled for any and all info they can cough up on their Pursuer. It takes a couple knowledge checks to get useful information from the description of a great armored warrior covered with glowing runes, and packs of horse-sized spiders that can phase in and out of the material realm and are far smarter than they appear. Sounds like a giant of some sort, most likely with magic of one form or another, and the spiders are seemingly related at least to phase spiders. There isn’t too much more the twins can offer; all their energy in the past has went towards evading and deceiving said hunters rather than analyzing them. There’s an unnerving throwaway line about how fighting normally only occurs when they drop some unsuspecting dupes in the Pursuer’s way to slow him down while they escape.

The party is ready to spend the day resting and preparing, but there’s only one catch: Talvosh’s axe and Spotter’s armor/weapon still needs to be completed, which will take several more days after the Forges are put back in working order. The twins scoff and casually find an alternate timeline where such things have been completed already, and “borrow” it. Yay upgrades complete!

I make a random roll while the party is resting up and deciding their plan of attack, and Angelena comes up the “winner.” A sending spell tugs at her mind - it seems the PCs are popular all of a sudden. It’s an aged, cold voice...one they haven’t heard since the very beginning.

It’s Maria, the masked and iron-handed mage who sent them all to Artaith in the first place.

“It seems you’ve discovered the truth of things. Don’t waste your time on these sentimental fools, concentrate your efforts on the library of Pathos.”

Strangely enough, the party is less than amenable to listening to anything to Maria says. Maybe something about them seeing her as being responsible for all of them being cursed and stuck in this crappy world in the first place? Angelena’s response is technically polite, but just dripping with the overwhelming flavor of “please go fall into a deep pit and get some sort of terrible infection.” A few moments later, there’s another sending:

“Fools. Your compassion is a weakness, and will be your downfall.”

Well now, that happened. I think the full implications of the message gets shelved for the later by the PCs, but I’m certain there’s still a bit of a grudge there. But now is prepping for fight time!

Spoiler: The Pursuer

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The party decides to do this fight on the beach rather than right outside the lighthouse, to keep the enemy away from the twins, and to reduce the chances of people being drop-kicked off the cliff. A whole junk-ton of buffs go up on everyone, and the twins help out with a blink spell for everyone. Immediately following that, they drop their misdirections and nondetections, to act as a giant glowing “come get me” beacon.

It seems remarkably effective-by the time the party gets out onto the beach in a couple rounds, Puck can already see unnervingly large arachnids shimmering into existence around them on the beach. Let’s Rumble!

The Pattern Spiders (Lolth-touched Phrenic Phase spiders with some Psychic warrior levels) are nasty creatures, but the PCs are nastier. That’s why there’s 6 of them!

Spoiler: DM NOTE

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I shot myself in the foot mildly here - Blink was pretty much the perfect spell for this fight, negating the major advantage of retreating to the ethereal plane as well as providing that huge 50% miss chance. Ah well, was very much in flavor and there needed to be a reward to responding to the Twins as quick as they did

One of the Spiders charges an alarming distance to try its utmost to bite Angelena’s arm off, expending its psionic focus for even more damage dice to roll. We’ve also determined that my DM dice really don’t like Angelena anymore, as I blow through the Blink miss chance and then roll a 20 followed by an 18. Did I mention that I gave the spiders augmented crit? Because I did. The bite lands with way more force than anyone expects, and then the fight is on in earnest!

More spiders appear as they advance within Angelena’s Invisibility purge, and the skirmish darts back and forth. My spiders have Energy current as a psi-like ability, but I miss every single one because of the blinking miss chance :(. There’s some shooting, and chopping, and hacking, and Angelena splits the beach off with a Blade barrier, which (very important) extends into the Ethereal, so the party only has to deal with a couple spiders at a time.

A round later, there’s a thunderous crash further down the beach, as a huge armored warrior hurtles down from the sky and sends plumes of sand flying everywhere. His armor is covered with glowing purple runes, he has a big sword and a floating shield, and his feet are floating slightly above the ground. It’s the Pursuer!

Who’s actually an Eldritch Giant Confessor (MM3), but mmm flavor. The fight is more of a skirmish across the blade barrier for a bit, the Pursuer blasting most of Sona’s images away with magic missiles and scorching the party with a Flame strike, Spotter being disappointed that the Pursuer doesn’t check any of his favored enemy boxes (the difference in damage output for him is absurd), Sona attempting to dispel the Pursuer’s obvious glowing magic but being counterspelled (yeah I know rule-bending but shh).

Puck and Talvosh make it over the barrier with flight, and then the Pursuer teleports to the other side and directly in between the trio of Sona, Angelena, and Spotter. Ruh-roh. The Pursuer does far better than the Pattern Spiders and lands a hit on each of them through the miss chance. And when you’re a giant buffed with divine magic, that’s a BIG HIT. There’s some emergency shuffling, some magic misses due to the 20% blink miss chance on the party, the Pattern Spiders continue to miss all of their energy currents or fail to mind thrust or Psychic crush the PCs, and they keep hacking and shooting away.

The Pursuer does have his greater dispels, but there’s almost always a more tempting target than dispelling one enemy (or saving it to prevent himself from being dispelled). The Spiders fall one by one, I do manage to land some bites (it’s especially fun to land a dissolving greater psychic fist bite), but the PCs are pulling ahead.

After some emergency healing to prevent death, Sona and Angelena coordinate and both hit the Pursuer with greater dispels, one after the other, and manage to strip away all of the buffs that Puck had barked out (due to his battlevisor). Suddenly the Pursuer’s AC is no longer in the “melee needs to roll a 17+”, and now only hits like one freight train instead of two. The Pursuer’s mountain of health starts to rapidly deplete as the group focuses on him, but he finally rolls high enough on his Wisdom check (I’d been rolling behind the scenes). The Pursuer’s glowing visor turns upwards...towards the Lighthouse. Uh-oh again! He’s gone with a flash, presumably up to the Lighthouse to wreak havoc.

As the party starts to rush towards the cliff, there’s a deafening clash of metal cleaving through stone, and the top half of the lighthouse comes tumbling down the cliff! It crashes down all dramatically in front of the party, and I decide on rule of cool instead of, “the Pursuer continues full attacking the lighthouse until interrupted.” As Puck and Talvosh rocket upwards, the Pursuer slams his hands into the earth at the base of the tower, and Heaves. A nat 18 plus the absurd lift/drag capacity of a Huge creature with a strength in the high 30s means there’s a catastrophic roar as the earth gives way, and the Lighthouse is overbalanced and comes crashing down!

Everyone makes their save to get out of the way, but the Twins were still in there. Sona polymorphs into the highest strength creature she can (which I believe is currently a Sun giant) and starts scraping through the rubble on rescue duty, while the rest of the party unloads with everything they have left on the Pursuer. He hacks back angrily, but it’s finally a Flame Strike from Angelena (who managed to roll higher than a 3 on a spell penetration check for once, yaaayyy!) that blasts the armored behemoth apart.

And when I say blasted apart, he explodes and sends Puck and Talvosh tumbling.

Sona manages to excavate both twins out, and some rapid application of healing belts and cure spells from Angelena keeps both of them alive. Mission success!

We end it there for the night.

Spoiler: DEATH COUNT

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Still at 44, alas

And unfortunately there will be no game this weekend, due to myself and 3 of the players going on a road trip to the above mentioned gaming event. So next game won’t be until the 29th!

[danielxcutter]

Neat, though the hiatus makes me sad.

I wonder if they'll survive next game?

[curious-puzzle]

I wonder if they'll survive next game?

I make no promises concerning the veracity of this post...

[danielxcutter]

I make no promises concerning the veracity of this post...

>u>

<u<

I see...

[curious-puzzle]

Game time tomorrow, and after a wee bit more slapping stats together tonight, I think I'm mostly ready for whatever direction our somewhat-illustrious "heroes" decide to take.


It's all connected, I promise!

[PrismCat21]

[danielxcutter]

hypehypehypehype

[Picanet]

Tsk tsk Puzzle, leaving this poor soul holding the hype bag for nigh a week! Especially when there's delicious murder afoot!

Also. Totally made your thread subscribers look lol.

[PrismCat21]

Also. Totally made your thread subscribers look lol.

That was wrong! Sick and wrong!!

[danielxcutter]

I wonder if any of my sources got used?

[Picanet]

I wonder if any of my sources got used?

Probs not. We did a lot of story/character stuff and haven't had and 'invader' show up yet. Plenty of time though I'm sure lol. Might even be the dude in the box....

[danielxcutter]

Probs not. We did a lot of story/character stuff and haven't had and 'invader' show up yet. Plenty of time though I'm sure lol. Might even be the dude in the box....

I guess. Some of the sources could easily be used for undercover stuff, but the vast majority is built to kick butt and about subtle as a brick wall.

[curious-puzzle]

Tsk tsk Puzzle, leaving this poor soul holding the hype bag for nigh a week! Especially when there's delicious murder afoot!

Also. Totally made your thread subscribers look lol.

Picanet said, feebly trying to distract from the two weeks it took to finish the update and nearly get lapped again

Onto Session 45!

Spoiler: Kind of a big deal

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We cut back to the party, standing somewhat on the beach near the shattered remains of the Lighthouse. The usually verbose and witty Twins are a little flabbergasted. Not only were they nearly crushed and buried by their Lighthouse getting tipped over, their Pursuer has been slain quite thoroughly. On top of that, when Sona somewhat smugly points out their silence, they reply in shaky tones that they cannot see anything about the path these actions have taken.

Whether that is a good sign remains to be seen.

After a bit more awkward conversation (and the party only slightly revelling in having the conversational upper hand with the Twins), the twins reach into the air and pantomime grabbing something above the party. There's the motion of cutting with unseen scissors, and then an audible TWANG of some sort of thread being cut. The male Twin grimly announces that the party should be a little harder to track down now, but they still should be carefully what they say under the *silent pointing at the sky*. With that the servants(?) of Anael vanish abruptly, presumably to Logos. After a quick check of the smoking crater where the Pursuer died and the eerie shiny spots where the Pattern spiders were cut down, the party follows back to Logos as well.

They arrive to a particularly displeased Alexandria verbally flensing the Twins. She doesn't know them, but she certainly knows of "their kind" and is quite interested exactly what they've been doing the last few years, and if they know anything about the fact that the Moon is suddenly closer than it always used to be. Some wisdom checks confirm that yep, the moon is larger than it was just yesterday... The party settles down to rest and recover from their battle, and to then decide their next step. There are two of our quirky quintet that get up to some shenanigans in particular...

Spoiler: Sona

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Sona finally busts out the Crystal Ball that was acquired from the fallen Janath, deciding to take it for a spin. She decides against infusing it with Vitae, so the save is quite basic, but she spends a couple hours first looking for Jezelle...and then for Maria the Iron mage. Both make their saves, alas, but Maria's attempt provokes something extra. Sona hears a building hum, quickly gettiing louder as she finds herself unable to let go of the crystal. Sona makes her save for half damage, but the ZAP of feedback from Maria's scrying defenses is enough to make Sona's hair stand on end and send her flying across her room to land in a heap, smoking slightly. The crystal ball gets put away after that, but our dragonblooded sorceress leaves a small written note next to her mirror.

"M, we need to talk.

S"

Ominous.

"Hello again, Sona. What exactly is it you wished to talk about?" When the hauntingly familiar rasp of Maria the Traveler wakes Sona up during the night, she's more than a little surprised. Successfully resisting the urge to attack attack attack, Sona instead talks, albeit with clenched fists and death glares. Maria congratulates the Pilgrims on managing to discover the truth; apparently they're the first in a VERY long time to go so far. When Sona demands to know how many cycles, the pain in Maria's voice as she simply replies, "Too many," gives her pause briefly.

Maria confirms Sona's suspicion of someone or something obscuring knowledge of Zophiel, though the conversation is forced to be quite roundabout and winding due to Maria's inability to speak directly about the Seventh Goddess. There are a lot of "hypotheticals" and "perhaps" and "what ifs". The big points that come out of this:

-The party is going to need a lot of power to attempt Operation Deicide (Maria didn't quite laugh outright at Sona's declaration of intent, but it was pretty close), as well as a way to get across planes. Maria "accidentally" leaves a high level scroll of Plane shift on Sona's dresser

-The Primal sparks are concentrated Power with that very noticeable capital letter. Collecting the final two would would most likely be a good idea

-However, the more time the party takes travelling about, the more likely that Something will take notice, with unpleasant results.

-Pathos knows more than he realizes, but the issue might have to be forced to release said info. Also, deep within the library are a set of imbued paintings of places like Eulethron and the Goblin holds/Daemon ruins that are detailed enough to be used as a reference for magical travel

The tense discussion ends with a possible promise of assistance of leaving Artaith if both Maria and the party survive what is to come, as well as a grim promising of a reckoning of one manner or another.

Spoiler: Puck

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So the players had been discussing possibilities of how to prevent Talvosh from losing so much Vitae, or a method of gaining more Vitae, since it's only to get rougher from here on in. One of the possibilities discussed was full on rampaging and collecting a stock of Vitae, and if the PCs could go down such a path.

Since Puck is in fact NE, he decides it's time to go for a late night stroll through Logos to do...things. Spotter watches him go, but has no reason to suspect anything and continues watching over the Central Fire. Puck continues on his stroll. Unfortunately for him he runs into a guard patrol (Logos is mostly recovered, but guard patrols are near-constant at this point). When the patrol asks what he's doing alone...in the middle of the night...nearly an hour away from the Central church...it's Bluff time!

With his charisma score and the penalty from Warforged Juggernaut, his modifier is a mighty -7. Needless to say, suspicions are aroused. He's debating if he can kill all 7 members of the patrol when they move on and wish him well....unfortunately, he doesn't roll high enough to notice his new tail. Onwards marches the murder-bot, until he finds light spilling out from under a reinforced door. Hearing soft conversation on the other side, Puck knocks.

"Who's there?"

"...City...Watch..." (Catastrophic Bluff check)

"...why would the watch be banging on the door this late at night?"

"..."Time to wreck up the place. Puck blows the door off its hinges with a bull rush, crushing the hapless man on the other side with said door...against the opposite wall. The arachnid robo-strosity tromps into the room horror-movie style as the teenager/young adult screams in sudden terror. However, the young woman is abruptly gone, replaced with a member of the guard gripping his sword hilt tightly.

"What the Hell is going on, Puck?" Puck's only response is to grip his axe tighter. With an oath, the guard rushes his now-Hollowed/mad hero (in his mind at least). The guard attempts a maneuver to toss Puck back out of the building, but rolls horribly. With a five-foot step and a brutal surge cut, Puck spills the guard all over the walls. The second guard, the mage who had swapped his partner for the second innocent, swears and drops a Wall of Fire inside the small home to cover his and the woman's escape. Puck takes a moment to gather the glittering Vitae sitting amongst the blood, bottling it for later. Then he strides through the flames Terminator style (see why the music's fitting?) and looks about for his remaining victims.

A faint noise of exclamation and scuffling has Puck accelerating down the straight to skid into an alley...where the young woman is pressed against the wall in fear as a hooded and robed figure chokes the life out of the unlucky mage-guard.

"You need to be more careful if you're going to engage in such behaviour, my child." Maria chides Puck softly as she energy drains the guard before snapping his neck. "Subtlety is an important consideration, not even you are invincible."

"Child?" Puck advances steadily, axe still in hand.

"Your body may be from elsewhere, but your heart was shaped by my hands. All of the Forged hearts were. You are all my children." Maria steps aside smoothly and gestures at the remaining victim. "You were fortunate I was nearby, my child. And that I am very interested in seeing how much stronger you can become." With a flicker, she vanishes. After the deed is done, Puck has to make a Will save to not immediately consume this new Vitae. He passes, and scoops it up into the bottle. Using a barrel of water, he washes most of the blood off and makes his way back to the rest of the party. Spotter is wary, and knows something is up, but doesn't press further than that.

In the morning, Sona passes on the events of her night-time discussion, and belatedly realizes (after Spotter and Angelena give her the gears) exactly how dangerous trying to draw the attention of murderous archmages can be. The group decides that getting deeper into Logos' library is their best option, along with trying to cure Pathos one way or another. Sona asks for the Vitae stored up from the previous fight, and Puck pulls out the bottle with 3 Vitae (2 from his "excursion" in the night). Angelena notices, and her basic math skills ruins Puck's clever ruse.

His refusal to directly answer where the extra came from fills Angelena with a sinking sensation, and when his evasions make it clear that she would not have approved in any way of what lead up to the Viate, the priestess flat out refuses to have anything to do with the Vitae. The exact words end up being "I would rather wither and rot." Sona...simply and quietly asks if they suffered.

Don't worry, there are marks going down on charts for this stuff.

However, both Puck and Sona completely flub their dex checks to carefully shake out one or two Vitae, and all three touch Sona's skin and are absorbed with an uncomfortable rush. Puck (and the player) are a little put out with this turn of events. Once Sona can see straight and walk again, the gang heads towards the Library entrance (Spotter and Talvosh noticing the VERY OBVIOUS hostility radiating off of Angelena towards Puck).

Spoiler: Down we go

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The grizzled warrior-librarians are shocked that the party willingly wants to speak with Pathos again. Ever since the Invasion, the intelligence has been even more mercurial and psychotic. Spotter blithely spouts that they're going to go down and cure Pathos of his madness, and when the librarians scoff and mock him, Angelena just pats one on the cheek and tells them to have faith.

"10 gold says they do it." With that, the librarians begin arguing and betting, as the heavy door opens.

The party is back in the unassuming study room. Right on cue, Pathos pipes up and is indeed crazier than before. He immediately barrages the party with questions about where they've been, if they've collected any of the overdue books they were supposed to find, and did you happen to bring the books where are my books. Admitting that they hadn't found any upsets Pathos, and a request to be allowed deeper into the Library upsets him more. The dreaded F word of "Fix" is finally the last straw, and the exit to the Library slams shut as yellowish/green gas hisses into the room. The fresh air function of the party's Rod of Escape keeps everyone safe from the deadly neurotoxin.

The fact that everyone is still alive catches Pathos' interest. He grudgingly agrees to let the party further into the library. Apparently if they can solve the "issues" in libraries 5 and 6, then they'll talk.

With that, the whole floor drops out. Sona, Puck, and Spotter make their saves and balance carefully on framework, while Angelena and Talvosh tumble down into the blackness!

They fall for an entire round before Talvosh manages to activate his flying boots and catch Angelena, and they aren't even at the bottom. Bottom of what?

The party is in a massive shaft from the looks of it, all smooth stone and polished metal. It's around 40-50 feet in diameter, and is apparently hundreds of feet deep. As the party ascends/descends to meet up again, they go by multiple tunnels branching off of this main shaft. Counting carefully, the party descends to the 5th entrance, guessing that this is what Pathos meant by the 5th library. While floating/clambering down, random books, chests, or art pieces would float by from time to time. To everyone else, they're just floating in the air. To Puck (who can see invisible creatures with his battle visor), they're being carried by humanoid swirls of air, or by weird floating balls of light.

Once they reach the 5th tunnel, they walk in fearlessly. Coming across three pillars that hum and crackle with electricity, Angelena hits the party with resist energy for just that before walking up to the pillars. The hum is menacingly loud, but before she can look closer, some of the library's automated defenses activate! A cyclonic ravager (MMIV) and a gaggle of library servitors (half-farspawn Will O'Wisps) pour out of hidden trapdoors and cause chaos!

The cyclonic ravager hurls everyone about, and causes general trouble until Angelena manages to get off an Invisibility Purge, and then the fight pretty solidly turns in the party's favor. The Will O'Wisp servitors are general pains. The party is immune to their electricity touches, but Stinking Cloud, True strike, and Touch of Idiocy spell-like abilities make the battlefield a bit of a madhouse. I reveal my hand a little early announcing Touch of Idiocy as they hit Talvosh, and that cranks Sona's panic defense levels up to "use every immediate action to stop the Will O'wisps from touching me". Ah well.

Spotter's damage is curtailed by the Cyclonic ravager's DR and elemental subtype, and everyone's damage is curtailed by the Will O' Wisps absurd AC and general dodginess. The Ravager manages to hurl Sona and Angelena into one of the crackling pillars, and even through 30 points of resistance I deal a good bite of damage as the Capacitors discharge instantly, but that's about the only setback before the party cuts the Ravager apart and forces the remaining servitors to retreat.

Spotter wearily asks if that was the trouble that Pathos was experiencing.

"Oh no, those were just some automated defenses. Or I might have activated them to test you. Either way, good job!"

Spotter's plotting to murder Pathos becomes more intricate.

There was a little bit more, but it fits better in the next entry!

Spoiler: DEATH COUNT

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No deaths this time!

[danielxcutter]

Oh, none of my stuff... yet.

[curious-puzzle]

Session 46...of doom!

Well, more a shorter session than doom, but twas still fun.

Spoiler: Sublibrary Five

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The party shuffles to the end of the tunnel, at least half of them fantasizing of finding a way to chop Pathos into many tiny pieces. At the end of said tunnel is...another sheer drop, whee!

It's almost as if the curator of this place hates legs. And the fleshy things attached to them.

The party's collective darkvision and the numerous little motes of light floating back and forth gives them a rough idea of this "sub-library." It's another large open chamber, with what seems to be a massive square-edged structure in the centre. A couple hundred feet down, though, there's a bit more light and what looks like an opening of some sort at the base of said structure. Puck spider-skitters his way down, with Spotter keeping an eye out and the rest of the gang recovering from their "shocking" experience.

As Puck clambers his way down, the "library" becomes more visible. It's a bunch of polished steel cubes, 30'x30', all stacked together in a massive framework (when I say a bunch of cubes, I get some suspicious squints). Puck creeps closer, counting 5 rows of 5 cubes each (so 125 cubes total in a 150' x 150' block of ominous-ness).

Spoiler: Amusing DM note

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I originally was going to have claustrophobic 15'x15' cubes, until I realized that I would have to worry about 1000 BLOODY ROOMS

Puck can see now that there's a 5ft opening in the center of one of the bottom corner cubes-and what seems to be a bar holding the opening ajar...he can also hear rustling sounds as he approaches.
Since he doesn't try and move quietly (which admittedly would be a Herculean task for the spider death-both), the rustler hears him as well, and stops. Puck peers inside the cube.

Spoiler: DM note

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When I mention an opening into the giant structure made of metal cubes, those suspicious squints evolve into paranoid glares. Why yes, most of our gaming group has seen Cube, why do you ask?

He sees a room absolutely stuffed with books. Practically every inch that's not floor is covered with shelves filled to bursting with tomes of various sizes and shades. Also in the library cube is a goblin festooned with various knick-knacks, gear, and sundry items. Bulging eyes stare silently at Puck, and the big green ears twitch. The pair stare silently at each other for a moment.

"...Are...are you one of the defenses?" The goblin speaks Common just fine, but is pretty nervous sounding. Puck decides he's going to get closer, and moves to squeeze around the pry-bar jammed across the opening. Unfortunately, the mysterious goblin is just a little twitchy, and it's INITIATIVE TIME!!

The goblin wins and levels a ludicrously large crossbow, and fires!

Not at Puck, but at the prybar, knocking it loose. The aperture slams shut with a limb-removing CLANG right in front of Puck, and the only reason Puck can tell there even was an opening is that he was staring right into it. Going for the direct approach, Puck pulls out his adamantine axe and jams it as hard as he can into the metal seam. Unfortunately, as soon as his axe bites into the metal,
the air fills with an awful noise

"DAMAGE TO STORAGE CUBE DETECTED- ACTIVATE DEFENSES" The blaring siren and booming voice gets everyone's attention, and what seems to be a flat chariot of sorts, emerges from a hidden passage and hovers ominously through the air.

Puck doesn't like the look of that, his visor blaring that the seemingly empty floating chariot is just chock full of magic, and uses his vest to soar as fast as he can back towards the gang. He's right close to the edge of the tunnel when a hideous gargoyle statue appears on the chariot, and it flies closer while magic pulses around it.

Spoiler: DM note

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I had been paging through my DMG 2, and came across Spell Turrets.

"But what if they were mounted on floating discs, like heavily armed drones?" Asked the devil on my shoulder.

"Won't that be kind of mean?" I questioned.

"Pppbbbttthhh," replied the devil, "it'll be fine."

"Oh hey, spell turrets!" My shoulder angel returned. "You should throw some wacky metamagic combos in there too!"

This version of the spell turret starts off with a Repulsion, so the party holds actions and glares at it/prepares for aerial combat. Then it zorches Puck and Spotter with a Mass Inflict Serious wounds, and we're off to the races! Spotter lets loose a barrage of arrows, Talvosh bashes through the Repulsion but isn't ready to attack, Angelena buffs, and Puck zooms up and chops the turret. It responds by turning to look at him, ominous light building up in the statue's mouth.

Sona burns her readied action to counterspell the Destruction, saving Puck from a facefull of death. Admittedly, it's necromancy so he would have been immune, but it was a cool image.

The party focuses fire, and the immobile statue shatters, the floating sled spiraling down in with smoke streaming out. However, two more float out from the wall, and the ominous voice blares out again.

"INTRUDERS DETECTED IN TRANSFER TUNNEL"

And the edge of the tunnel abruptly drops into a ramp beneath the party's feet! Sona's Fly is still running, and Angelena and Spotter make their saves, but that still means they're clinging for their lives, on a steep ramp, above a 200+ ft drop. Then the new turrets activate!

Sona saves vs Maze, and we briefly go on a tangent of a supercharged version of Maze - if you fail to escape within a certain time limit, a minotaur with class levels equal to yours bursts out of your skull :D. I scribble it down and we keep going!

Talvosh notices that the third turret has outstretched fingers instead of crossed arms, right before those fingers shoot him with a Maximized Twinned Magic missile machine gun style!

Spotter tries to brace himself on the ramp to keep firing, but rolls just well enough to not fall and nothing else. Sona scrambles over and taps Angelena with Fly, while Puck and Talvosh decide to double-team the Maze Turret. They hack away at it, so it tries to Flense Talvosh. He makes all his saves, but I gleefully describe how an unseen force keeps slicing and peeling at his skin.

Angelena floats over and zaps the other turret with a Searing light, so it zaps her right back with an Energy Drain for 7 negative levels.

It's at this point that the players accuse me of having far too much fun making these turrets.

The party keeps fighting the turrets, Angelena floating back to Restore herself, while Sona manages to spot a panel that's pulsing in time with the wailing siren. Flying over, she actually makes her UMD check to manage to turn off the alarm!

Without more turrets (or the more advanced defenses I have lined up) appearing, the two remaining turrets get cut/shot down, but not before I melt a hole through Puck's shoulder with a Transdimensional Maximized Orb of Acid.

We end up having to call it early for the night, so it's left at that.

Shorter session this time!

And no Danielxcutter, no invaders yet :P. Probably going to be at least 3 sessions or so before even the chance of stuff showing up - and I reiterate my disclaimer that I'm a heartless monster and may or may not even use any of the stuff I solicited.

Spoiler: DEATH COUNT

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Still at 44, should be changing in the next couple sessions. Paranoia was at an all-time high this game, though

[danielxcutter]

My opinions of the spell turrets:

Spoiler

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Mass Inflict Serious Wounds? 7th level spell, but 3d8+13 negative energy damage isn't that high for this level. Nice opening, though.

Maze and Destruction? Ouch. Nasty SoDs. I think they're both 7th level too? Still, fairly standard.

Maximized Twin Magic Missile? Yeesh. That's 50 force damage, no save I think. Not huge, but ouch.

Okay, seriously, Energy Drain?! That's a 9th level spell!

Transdimensional Maximized Orb of Acid? Now you're just being ridiculous - that's 78 points of acid damage.

Those turrets are nasty, especially since you've given them movement. Still, you *could* have done nastier stuff. Reach Transdimensional Shivering Touch, for example, or Empowered Split Ray Enervation. Both are effectively 7th level, and hurt. A lot.

Also I'm okay if you don't use my stuff if you can't fit it in. This is great anyways, and your encounters are always creative and neat!

[curious-puzzle]

Don't worry, those are only 2 models of spell turrets. There are more!

[danielxcutter]

Don't worry, those are only 2 models of spell turrets. There are more!

Hmm... How about Scorching Touch from Magic of Eberron? [CLd6 fire damage and Fort save-vs-daze]... times caster level, as a 7th-level spell. Or how about Twinned Transdimensional Spilt Ray of Stupidity? Oh, I know! Invisible Spell is a +0 adjustment!

[PrismCat21]

Why does Sona keep trying to ruin your fun? Doesn't she understand that you have a thirst for depraved and sadistic acts that only your players can quench?
Thoughts and desires that would makea cenobite blush in anticipation?

Spoiler

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