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Post by Gilvan Blight on Jul 15, 2009 21:09:19 GMT -5
Not sure what sausage has to do with Schnitzel, but see you Friday.
Is Tuez re-doing her character as well?
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Post by gorechyld2000 on Jul 16, 2009 8:15:56 GMT -5
As far as I know she is not making a new toon. I think she has finally gotten a handle on how to do her spells and stuff like that. Her character is pretty powerful, and was the only one to actually not DIE in the last TPK final battle... thats saying something I guess
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Post by gorechyld2000 on Jul 16, 2009 8:18:08 GMT -5
Isnt schnitzel like sausge? Or would that be a weiner schnitzel? And lets not talk too much about this in the D&D forum hehehe LOL HAHAHAHAHA MUAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!! SCHNITZEL!!!!! BAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!! Whoa... not sure where that came from...
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Jul 19, 2009 10:34:52 GMT -5
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
It's quite a pain the ass to try to describe these games and get the full effect without giving away the plots of the modules run during them. This module in particular has a lot of interesting twists, cameo appearances by some of D&D most famous names, and a really involving plot with lots of details. Due to this I don't think I can do our sessions any justice without giving away major plot points. Due to this reader beware.
SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT SPOILER ALERT
Last night we finally got to play the first session of the new campaign arc. Before we started there were some changes though.
First off Gorechyld decided to let Bullywif remain as a Frog and rolled up a Dwarven Cleric of Pelor with a surname of Sunstone. Night Parade also decided to do some re-building of Olaroso, but since he was out of town this weekend wasn't able to play so the character hasn't been updated yet. Lastly, to give the players a bit more survivability I allowed everyone to re-roll their hit points from 1st level on with re-rolls for any rolls under their con bonus. Gore's new Cleric used this method and Pandora chose to do the same for Gelna. We had one absent character as well, Talon played by Talon. Still not sure what happened there as I haven't heard from Talon at all and he couldn't be reached last night.
So we started of Expedition to Castle Greyhawk with four characters: Siv: Elf Duskblade 8 Beldam: Human Monk 8 Gelna: Half Orc Barbarian 7/ Favored Soul 1 Sunstone: Dwarf Cleric 7/ Radiant Servent of Pelor 1
The game started off with a bit of filler roleplaying where the characters met Sunstone. One of the prisoner's they had freed from the dungeons of Castle Serastis was a Dwarven Thane (An NPC that got sucked down to 1 INT at one point by a Ghost who was using him to heal bettween attacks on the party), in thanks for saving his life the Thane offered the service of one of his High Priests, Sunstone. Once the characters got acquainted we jumped right into the action.
The party arrived at Zagig's Bridge, just outside of the Free City of Greyhawk and found a group of Orcs aparently raiding the hovels found there. They were lead by a Half Orc General mounted on a Huge Wyvern. Sunstone immediately proved his worth for the party by Blinding the Wyvern as Beldam moved in to engage some Orc raiders, Siv moved off to one of the hovels where she hears some screams and Gelna enlarged herself and began rushing towards the Wyvern. With the blindness and relentless assault of a Large Raging Half Orc Barbarian the beast was badly wounded in only a matter of two rounds. It soared off in retreat but not before it's half orc rider managed to get off a couple of Fireball spells. The rest of the battle was a pretty quick affair of finishing off the remaining orcs. Beldam proved his near unbeatable defence by taking on a group of 4 orcs pretty much solo for two rounds before Gelna was ablet assist him in finishing them off one by one.
After the battle the party explored the area found only two survivors of the small settlement a young boy and girl both mute from the horror they witnessed. Sunstone took these under his wing for the time being and the party moved towards Zagig's bridge. Here they met Ricard Demaris, a hero of Greyhawk and owner of the Green Dragon Inn. He was near Death and Pinned under a cart having been stung by the Wyvern's tail and then left for dead by the Half-Orc General. Sunstone healed him up somewhat and in return Ricard offered the group a months free stay at his inn.
Seems that was a good offer as the Free City of Greyhawk was bursting at the seams with Hermits, Crusaders, and Pilgrims who were flooding to the city due to the recent news of Rigby's death. Rigby was a Cleric of high renown in the church of Boccob and a very respected Hero of Oerth. The party made their way through the crowded streets and got a bit of a tour by Ricard who pointed out the various districts of the city as the party passed through them. Eventually they reached The River Quarter and The Green Dragon.
Here the party joined Ricard at The Lords Table and he and the group talked long into the night about their past adventures, his history, and other tall and short tales. At the same time half of the party went to a local mission and dropped off the two orphans. Here Sunstone made some very generous donations earning him the respect of the Church of St. Cuthburt who ran the mission. Gelna got rip roaring Drunk but didn't manage to pick up. The next day was spent at the High Market both buying and selling goods.
On their third day in town the party headed off to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk. After a bit of looking around they followed the orc tracks to the Tower of War. Here they were confronted by a group of Dwarves how laid claim to the tower. A heated discussion took place where a fight nearly erupted between the Dwarf Lord and Gelna both posturing on how powerful they were, this was averted by the diplomacy of Sunstone. In the end the party agreed to pay the Dwarves 10% of whatever they found in the Tower. (Which is something we forgot to play out at the end of the session, so will probably be where we have to start next game).
In the tower proper Sunstone proved his worth a 2nd and 3rd time by making two fights that may have taken many turns to complete, finish in only 3 rounds though his use of Empowered Turn Undead. The SwordWraiths and Wight guardians the party encountered didn't stand a chance against the might of Pelor. After wandering a small portion of the ruined surface tower the party descended into the depths of The Tower of War. They found themselves in an area of old musty cells where some of the goods stolen from the people of Greyhawk were stored. They left these for now and explored deeper, coming across a Kitchen with a meal still on the spit. Sounds of feasting came from a nearby hall. The party decided to try to be quiet and surprise the feasters but failed miserably due to Gelna singing. So their foes were ready for them.
A titanic fight ensued. A Half Ogre Leader with his 4 Elite Orcs stood from their dinners and grabbed weapons. Beldam bravely rushed in and pummeled the Half Ogre with flaming fists as he was surrounded by 3 Orcs. The 4th Orc moved to block entry to the room. Cut off from the rest of the party and surrounded by Orcs Beldam took blow after blow from Great Axes and Greatswords. Gelna attempted to slaughter the Orc blocking the door but these Elite orcs were stronger then the ones faced previously and he managed to stand his ground. Siv assaulted the HalfOgre with Seeking Rays as Sunstone finished off the Orc blocking entry to the room. Gelna enlarged and entered the room, taking a couple of wicked hits as she squeezed into the room. Beldam continued to fight on, hitting the HalfOrge but not felling him and taking multiple slashes and stabs in turn. Siv stayed back and continued her Ray assault on the Leader and Sunstone moved into the room proper and healed Gelna. Then tragedy struck. The flurry of Orc and HalfOgre Attacks was too much for Beldam and he was cut down (hit to -19 in one hit). Seeing their companion fall seemed to bolster the party as they managed to cut down two of the remaining orcs in short order as well as blind the HalfOgre. The fight went on with the Orge moving to block the exit while the last orc harried the party. Another three rounds the battle raged with the party all needing extensive healing by the end of the fight.
Their first foray into The Ruins of Castle Greyhawk has been a disaster. Only a few rooms in and their long time companion, the pilgrim Beldam was slain. The enlarged Gelna picked up the pieces of his body and the party began the long sad climb to the surface.
Saddened Sunstone cast Speak with Dead and the party shared some final words with Beldam who had decided that his time had come and chose not to return to the mortal coil. As said by Lobo "Two deaths in two sessions is telling me something".
We ended at this point.
A (not so) quick note on my DMing style. After reading the last two session reports people may be thinking I'm a "Killer DM" I really don't think that is the case. As I explained at the end of Fortress of the Yuan Ti, I really expected the party to surprise me and find a way to beat an encounter I didn't see as winnable, do to them impressing me many time in previous encounters. Due to this I didn't modify the module at all and ran it as is and "Let the dice fall as they may".
I normally wouldn't put the party up against something I see as unbeatable and probably won't make that mistake again, but I will still follow the 'Let the dice fall as they may' rule though. The game is no fun if there isn't some chance of failure. The fight that caused Beldam's death was definitely a fair one in my eye. Some suspect party tactics combined with some very unlucky die rolls made this fight fatal for one member of the party. Actually I think the fight itself played out as one of the most dramatic and fun that has happened in the campaign. I also think it will have an impact on future party tactics as the group 'learns from their mistakes'. To me that's part of what D&D is all about.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Jul 19, 2009 10:42:51 GMT -5
I have just created a new thread with some information that will be useful for players of this campaign as well as anyone adventuring in the Free City of Greyhawk. I will be using that thread to post anything I think would be cool and/or useful to add to the campaign. I plan on taking this arc of the campaign a lot more seriously then the earlier arc with more emphasis on details and not just on Hacking ans Slashing. The new thread can be found here: wgamingresource.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=rpg&thread=6454&page=1#15588
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Post by PandoraGreen on Jul 19, 2009 20:59:45 GMT -5
Gelna: You, little man, heal Gelna now. Sunstone: You just wait, can't you see your friend here is in critcal condition. Gelna: He dead. You heal Gelna now. Sunstone: What have you no remorse?! Gelna: Me have magic blanket. Sunstone: <sputter> What?!
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Post by gorechyld2000 on Jul 20, 2009 14:34:36 GMT -5
LOL That was one of the highlights (and lowlights) of the session. Sunstone and Gelna conversing about what should be done about Beldam who had just recently shrugged off his mortal coil. He has chosen to go into Pelor's holy light and i cant blame him for not wanting to leave.
Now... the question is, who will the Gods send to take the place of our earstwhile companion? Only time will tell...
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Post by gorechyld2000 on Aug 3, 2009 13:09:51 GMT -5
So I heard you guys had a good session saturday...
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Post by LOBO on Aug 3, 2009 21:38:50 GMT -5
how many rooms did you guys get done?
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Post by PandoraGreen on Aug 4, 2009 15:13:23 GMT -5
Two players were unable to make it (You called in sick, and Euge had already told us he couldn't make it) so we cancelled the game.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Aug 21, 2009 7:55:17 GMT -5
Totally forgot to update this after our last game. Not sure I remember all the details, but I will give it a shot.
The game started with re-introducing Olaroso. Night Parade's character had undergone a radical transformation on paper but still stayed pretty much the same in game. He was a mix of Sorcerer/Thief and now was Wizard/Thief/Daggerspell Mage.
We started things off in the Green Dragon Inn with everyone in a somber mood drinking away their sorrows in an impromptu wake for Beldam. During this 'celebration' the party met Lobo's new character, a female Warlock who's name I cannot remember except for the fact that it was accented with a rolling r that I couldn't actually say.
After the night of drinking and sorrows the party re-committed themselves to exploring more of the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk. With a few stops about town, a new minor quest objective and some reminders of existing quest objectives the party headed back down into the ruins.
They didn't get much father then last time, though everyone survived. This time in the party nearly immediately came across some Elite Orc Guards sent to watch this entrance in case the ones that killed Kilsog returned. The party fought well as the Orcs cut off their entrance into the dinning room where Beldam died. The Orcs did manage to cause some serious damage before falling though and Olaroso learned just how strong an Orc Guard could be.
After defeating the Orcs the party moved deeper into the Ruins of the Tower of War. They managed to find an old Elevator room but passed that over quickly for more exploration. At the end of a hall near the elevators the party found a ruined temple to some long lost god. An earth quake had hit the temple long ago and the room was split by a wide chasm. The inhabitants of the room had placed netting over the chasm. In the center of it also stood an ancient headless statue that had fallen into the rift. Oh wait did I say inhabitants... that's right. The party was immediately assaulted by hurled rocks thrown by two Hill Giants. As they moved in the party also spotted four goblins just as they quaffed potions of invisibility.
Fortunately for the party their new Warlock friend had some infernal method of seeing invisible creatures. This made the goblin's tactics less then effective. They did still manage to badly wound Olaroso though as he moved up to encounter a Giant and moved past one of the goblin thieves. Backstabbed for over half his hit points Olaroso got to learn what his foes usually feel like. Sunstone moved into the room to assist Olaroso, Gelna moved in and Enlarged, Civ started the fight with a Seeking Ray on one of the Giants and the Warlock stood back and used Eldritch blasts on the enemies.
This was a very long fight. Not nearly as long as the Ghost Fight from Fortress of the Yuan Ti, but it did take up most of the evening. It was an interesting fight that was both tense and tactical. The shape of the room had Gelna squeezing to attack (may have to remember that counter for her enlarge trick for future battles), and the Giants in great position to make opportunity attacks. The Goblins went down quick but did manage to do some damage before hand. The Giants and Goblins weren't the only creatures in the room though, as Olaroso soon found out. At one point he was bull rushed off of a raised platform down onto the netting over the rift. Upon landing he was assaulted by the tentacles of one of D&D most classic foes, a Grell.
The fight went on with the Grell eventually escaping from the netting, one Giant battering the party with it's club and the other tossing rocks until leaping down into the room to get into hand to hand. The fight was eventually won but with nearly everyone in the party damaged and some of them severely. I think only the Warlock escaped this one unscathed.
At the end of the fight, Sunstone and Glena ate through some healing spells and the party took a look around. They found some interesting markings on the wall, missed some treasure and then turned their attention to the statue. Looking about Sunstone managed to find the head of huge statue in the bottom of the rift. He tried to get it up and out but had no luck due to it's weight. Thankfully Gelna was still enlarged and enraged and easily lifted the half a ton head an placed it back on the statue "REAP MY VENGANCE AND RECIEVE MY REWARD" suddenly boomed out into the room. Then everything went silent. Looking at the now completed statue Sunstone sputtered out that it seemed they just made a deal with the Evil Lord of the Dead and Underworld Nerull. A few futile attempts to remove the head were made and the party shrugged and moved on (after a good bit of roleplay and discussion about helping out Lawful Evil gods).
From here the party debated retreating back to the surface, but didn't want to back down after only getting 2 rooms deeper then last time. So instead they moved back to the Kitchen and barricaded themselves up in one of the pantries in hopes no one would disturb them for the next 15 or so hours while they rested and the magic users recharged.
In all it was a pretty good night. It was disappointing how little of the dungeon got explored but we did to quite a bit of roleplay at the onset, set around Beldam's death and the introduction of new characters. So far the players are definitely finding this dungeon a lot more challenging then the last few, without being so over the top as to be unbeatable. I think it's a good balance.
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Post by gorechyld2000 on Sept 11, 2009 9:53:43 GMT -5
AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!
ok... feel better now... Just want to play...
BTW... where is the last session report? I can make it quick for everyone.
The Cleric kicked butt and saved everyones butt again. nuff said.
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Post by gorechyld2000 on Sept 15, 2009 11:14:36 GMT -5
All I know is that there was allot of jibber jabberin' and not enough stabbity stabbin'! Plus it would be nice to know if people have to leave early or if we are breaking on time or not. When I am there thats all I am doing that night. If I have something else I have to do I wont be there.
I have been guilty of that myself so all things being equal I understand. I dont have to like it but it would be nice to know if we are on a limited timeframe or not.
Just saying...
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Sept 15, 2009 15:14:10 GMT -5
We are set to play until 11:30, that's it. It's rare we go much beyond that actually. We technically ended about half an hour earlier last session but people did want to shop and it was a good breaking point. I did know Night Parade had to be out at 11:30, actually I think everyone knew that but you and maybe Tuez.
Next weekend we are playing until 11:30 as well. If Gwen is home and not at one of her grandparents houses we can't really stay up much later then that, she just wakes up too damn early, and Pandora needs to get sleep being pregnant and all.
Far as I know Gwen will be home next session, so 11:30 it will be Now we did start later then usual, and that's something we do need to work on. Again Gwen is the case, and that's not really a problem that will be going away (damn family life), so I doubt we will ever be starting right at 7:00 again, but we will try to make it closer.
Totally behind on summaries, computer virus has kept me from here for a couple weeks as has afternoon shifts. Here's the short version as I don't have a lot of time before the next reboot that the latest Windows update is going to require (update 38/50 so far)
Two weeks ago:
Party hid in a pantry, party came out, finished exploring the rest of the 1st floor of the dungeon. Had some run ins with elite orcs and a Tiefling (who would have been a tough fight if Erebos didn't have the ability to see in the dark) and then a half orc general and his succubus mistress. Sunstone got stabbed badly by the assassin Tiefling but saved vs. instant death, then spent the next encounter making out with the succubus and loosing a level. He finished off the night getting drunk on Greyhawk wine and brandy that the orcs had looted. Then the party found a prisoner who was wearing an odd cloak, Erebos put it on and became an invalid. The party dragged the prisoner and Erebos back to town. The prisoner was a cleric of Boccob. Party took both invalids to the temple of Boccob and found out that Rigby's corpse had arrived in town. Also found out someone tried to desecrate said corpse and offered to try to find out who.
Last weekend:
Erebos and Cleric healed. Cleric points out where to find a secret door in the ruins (party didn't realize it but they had explored pretty much everywhere in the area they were in and would have been stuck without the cleric's help). Party wanted to both sell and shop in town and decided to use two days to do it. So they investigated the desecration of Rigby. This took up the entire night and was a nice city based roleplaying interlude that reminded me of running Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. The party followed three different leads and even came up with the great idea of checking in with a diviner. Had some good character development, met some new NPCs and found out more info about others. Highlights: Olaroso slept with a Gypsy woman and had his purse stolen even though he left it with Gelna (technically that happened the end of the last session). Olaroso had his purse returned by a hot elf he had met the night before (not the Gypsy). The party met an alchemist and were told they could be rewarded for finding certain mushrooms. They then met a taxidermist who offered to stuff anything interesting they found and mentioned a fanciful menagerie in the Rich District. Then they got involved with the Riverboat Gypsies and played through some very Sopranos/Godfather like scenes. The they hunted down a Half-Orc called the Pomajer, who Gelna slept with and cleared of the crime. In the end they figured out who had desecrated the corpse and took revenge. The night ended with the shopping the party wanted to do.
Next session, I'm guessing the party will be venturing back into the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk and heading to a new floor of the Tower of War.
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Post by gorechyld2000 on Sept 30, 2009 9:50:28 GMT -5
Good long session this time. Still trying to figure out how to make my character more usefull other than just to be a healing machine.
Gotta find more party buff type spells that I can put in my repetoir.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 2, 2009 11:13:49 GMT -5
As Gore noted it was a long session. Started a bit early (should have been earlier but someone, the person who wanted to start early, was late) and ended late. Lots of Dungeon Crawling this time around.
We started off in Greyhawk and finished up a bit of Town business first. The party learned they had been implicated in the attacks on the City (they were present at the first raid, raids had increased since they were here, they've been investigating the ruins and only come back with treasure and no evidence of success, etc). They also learned of another recent raid.
This got them motivated to get back down underground and eliminate the cause of these raids. On the way there they were ambushed by an old friend. A half-orc lieutenant on a Wyvern. This hearkened back back to the first battle of this campaign arc in more ways the one. Erebos quickly blinded the Wyvern (it was Sunstone who did this last time) and the party finished off it and the Orc raiders very quickly. The Sorcerous Lieutenant took a bit longer to take down but it wasn't much of a fight. The party took this victory as a chance to prove they are doing some good in town and brought the Wyvern's head and the Half-Orc back to town as proof.
After clearing their names the party headed back to the Tower of War. They debated bringing up a bunch of the raided supplies they had found but immediately noticed most had been moved since their last trip down into the depths. Their immediate goal suspended they decided to explore deeper into the dungeon following the route proposed by the Cleric they had saved two sessions ago.
So the party moved down to the Second floor of the Shatterstone level of the Tower of War. Here they faced a very tough fight against a modified Flesh Golem. This Golem had resistances such that half the party couldn't touch it. This made things interesting as the party had a really hard time taking it down as it pounded on Sunstone, Glena and Civ. Thankfully the party figured out that Fire damage slowed the creature or else the fight could have been deadly. It took many rounds of combat but the beast finally fell. The party then found a lost treasure cache and Sunstone almost turned into a Toad (which would have been the second time for this player, if you remember Bulliwyf turned to a Toad at the end of the last adventure arc).
After clearing out the Golem, instead of taking the elevator down to The Arena where they know the enemy General is waiting, the party decided to explore Shatterstone. Thankfully I was ready for this (I had a feeling they would go off the path sometime soon) and the party began exploring an area of ruined mining shafts complete with old rail system Here they faced a couple of Trolls. The Trolls set a pretty good trap for the party and managed to flank them in a Mine Cart shaft but were no match for the parties significant Fire attacks (two players had flaming weapons as well as having two arcane casters with Fire spells). The fight didn't last long but quite a few characters did take some serious damage.
At this point instead of continuing to explore the mining area the party decided they better head downstairs and take out the General, possibly returning here after (I found this an odd choice and an annoying one as I have to keep my map made for the area). So the party headed down to The Arean level of the Tower of War.
Here they were immediately attacked by Elite Hobgoblin Archers as their elevator cleared the floor. The archers were joined by more Hobgoblins and some type of Leader with Two Fiendish Dire Hounds. This was an interesting fight. The party decided to keep the elevator up 10feet off the ground and the ranged attackers fought mainly from there. Gelna leaped from the elevator to a balcony and took the fight to the Archers while Olaroso jumped down to the floor and engaged The Master of Hounds. Sunstone who was slow to react (3 on an initiative roll in a combat with surprise) showed how many arrows a dwarf could soak. The fight was a pretty long one with the party taking significant damage from shock arrows and Olaroso getting taught a lesson from one of the Hounds. Much healing was expended and the party thanked Palor for sending a Cleric their way.
From here the party explored the Hobgoblins encampment and moved onward. After a bit of exploring the party entered the room of a Dark Naga. This fight would have been a lot more interesting if it weren't for Erebos' ability to see Invisible. It was still a really good fight though. The Naga opened with Glitterdust in the suprise round and then was quick enough to get off a lightning spell before the party could even move in. This did significant damage. Unfortunately for the Naga it didn't have much room to manouver and the party then moved in and just started pounding on it. Even 20% concealment from Blur didn't really help much and it went down quickly.
A moment of Hilarity was had shortly after that fight. Among the treasures the Naga had collected was a small perfectly clear gem. Sensing this was an Ioun Stone Sunstone holds the gem up beside his temple between forefinger and thumb and then quickly releases those fingers. The player is shocked when I say "the gem quickly falls to the ground, roll a save for it" and the table bursts out laughing. It was truly a moment not to be forgotten for years as the player acted out the part. Overall though, it was a fortuitous event for the party for the dropped stone summoned an Air Elemental which was very useful in the next battle.
From the Naga's den the party headed deeper into The Arena and found a room that had been shattered by some ancient quake. A wide chasm split the room with only a narrow bridge crossing it. Immediately upon entering the room the party was noticed and attacked by Zombie Gargoyles (we are still trying to figure that one out). As they moved in the Air Elemental engaged them over the pit. As the party advanced towards the bridge and assaulted the Gargoyles the fight was joined by 3 small demons. These quickly pointed out to the party how nasty the Stinking Cloud Spell was. 2 of 5 party members were taken out of commission by the nasty spell. Luckily for the group their main damage dealers remained and were able to take the fight to the demons. The source of the Demons soon appeared as a small group of Clerics joined the fight from an adjacent shrine to Iuz. This fight went on quite some time and had some interesting moments, including the Air Elemental going wirlwind and picking up one of the clerics and carrying him around. It was a long fight that ended in tragedy.
Near the closing rounds of the battle when only two clerics remained the party began to move accross the bridge into the hall where the shrine was. Everyone was having an easy time of it until Civ came to cross. In a series of extremely low rolls the Elf Swordmage plummeted off the bridge and down into the rushing water below. Gelna attempted to save her by throwing a rope but was too late as Civ was swept out of the room and underground to who knows where. At this point we all assumed Civ was dead and I was going to get to add another notch to my 'killer DM' status.
Rounds later the combat moved into the Shrine room with just the leader of the Clerics remaining. He managed to wrest control of the Air Elemental with a Command Spell and was moving to engage Gelna when Civ's character interrupted with a "wait! I have potions of Water Breathing!" It seems Civ was alive after all. The party quickly finsihed up the fight and decided to head to town assuming that the underground river would empty out to the Selantin river that runs through Greyhawk, in hopes of recovering their lost Elf.
We stopped at this point. I did a lot of extra prep work for this session and I think in many ways it paid off. I did have a problem of forgetting monster abilities and strategy though. I think this comes with being prepared for so many different encounters at once. Not knowing which way the party would go had me prep a lot of 'if' encounters, which didn't get used. This spread my knowledge out over too many areas at once. I think next time I will be putting reminder 'cards' with each encounter, noting spells to be used first, tactics and abilities that are easily forgotten. To be fair the party also seemed to have a hard time remembering their abilities as well. It was like starting early was like waking up early and it took us all a bit to get going.
Unfortunately due to Thanksgiving and a slew upcoming events it looks like the game may not start up again for over a month. So it may be some time before another update. Looking forward to the next game though, the party has really come together and work very well together, they are more balanced then ever. They are going to need it too, things only get worse they deeper they go into The Ruins of Castle Greyhawk.
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Post by gorechyld2000 on Oct 21, 2009 11:03:54 GMT -5
Eager to roll the dice again. I hope we can all make it for the session, but as the time draws closer to major holidays it seems that the weekends get eaten up by other responsibilities. Hope to see you all there saturday!
The power of Pelor compells you!
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 21, 2009 18:59:58 GMT -5
Yeah I know. The games are going to get further and further apart regretfully.
I also hope people can all make it Saturday. I will be nice to hit a milestone in the adventure.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 25, 2009 10:39:37 GMT -5
Well the party caught up to the General. The one responsible for the raids on Greyhawk.
We started out with a bit of roleplaying in order to get Civ back into the game. Seems she was beaten and battered by her trip through the Cairn Hills underground waterways and washed up unconscious on the shore. Here the Pomager (Gelna's boyfriend) found here and took her captive and was selling her out by the hour. The party sent Gelna to try to get her back but Gelna kept getting distracted. So they went themselves. After Sunstone and Pomager flexed their muscles a bit they reached an agreement of $500 for Civ and another halfling prisoner. Not how I expected things to go, but hey it worked.
After this the party did some shopping for winter clothes (it's reaching the end of Harvester in the game) and set off to the Ruins. They fast tracked their way down to the floor they knew the general was on and burst through the doors looking to fight. This was an odd choice I though as they kept talking about how they had to prepare, get buffs in place and plan a strategy before starting 'the main fight' but I guess the excitement was just too much.
The party found themselves among the stands of an Arana. Across from them the General taunted them as his Fiendish Blue Dragon Guard entered the Arena. The General ducked down a back door as the party moved into the room. They had pretty well pinned themselves into a 5' wide entry hall at the time and were having trouble getting into effective positions. Eventually people moved apart just enough to give the dragon room to fly in and zap 3 of the 4 of them with it's breath weapon. At this point the party tried a couple spells on it only to find it was immune to lightning damage as well as resistant to fire damage.
This put Olaroso and Civ in a hard place. Most of their memorized/known spells were electrical or fire based. Olaroso in particular was frustrated due to the fact he had no ranged attacks that would work. So he decided to be the tank. Well he didn't decide really but that was pretty much the role the Wizard with a level in Thief played.
The beginning of the fight had the dragon blocking the path out of the room and battling Gelna and Sunstone in close, while Civ fired spells at it from down a hall and Olaroso entered into the main area and circled around to the back of the Dragon. The plan was looking pretty good until the General came back on the western part of the room, Charged Olaroso and took him down in one series of attacks. As Gelna and Civ continued to try to hold the Dragon back while dodging cones of lightning Sunstone moved up to heal Olaroso. The healing went well but then the General changed his target and Sunstone got to see the most damage dealt in two rounds to date. He took over 90 damage in two rounds and found himself on the ground bleeding.
The General was turning out possibly be more then the Party could handle. The Blue dragon continued to Tie up Gelna and Civ, while Olaroso managed to get to his feet again while taking over half his hit points just trying to stand up. Sunstone was resuscitated by Civ only to watch Olaroso go down again. At about the same time Gelna finaly finished off the Dragon. The fight didn't last much longer then this though. Gelna and the General exchanged a series of blows with Gelna taking enough damage to take out two of the other characters. She won out though finally delivering the killing blow.
After a serious expenditure of healing resources the party checked out the other areas including the Dragon's Horde. What a horde it was, a horde of rotted meat, bones and refuse. While searching, and finding some good stuff, Olaroso managed to contract Filth Feaver. The party also rescued a messenger from Greyhawk that had been captured during the raids. The messenger noted that a Goblin was always seen with the General. At this the party rushed to explore the rest of the area around the Arena.
After searching a library and finding plans for an attack on the City the party found a Snivling Golbin talking to a Crystal Skull. Here they found out that the General was reporting to someone else. Someone that was still in the Ruins. Before they found out too much infromation the Crystal Skull shattered and thier nemesis summoned a Vrock into the room. This was a hard fight for the party who had expended many of their resources in the last battle. It lasted a long time and featured Sunstone finally trying out Summon Monster IV where we got to see a Lantern Archon at work and saw both Gelna and Olaroso being invected by infernal Vrock Spores. The creature was no match for the combined assault of the heroes though and fell after about 7 rounds.
At this point the party headed back to town for a couple of days. Here they 'handed in' three of the Major quests they had been working on since the beginning of the adventure, took part in some roleplaying, found out that Olaroso may have made a mistake in his choice of bedfellows and identified their magic items. They took one more trip down to the Tower of War to see if they missed anything in their rush to be healed. They did manage to find some more information, which led them to believe that their next target would be found in The Tower of Magic, the Second built of the three towers that comprise the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk.
Next session, hopefully with a full party, the party will brave the depths of the Tower of Magic... or will they?
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Post by gorechyld2000 on Oct 26, 2009 9:53:27 GMT -5
I will have to fine-tune my spells in order to count the increasing amount of baddies from other dimensions that keep turning up more and more as of late. I think the "dispel magic" spell I used on the general worked rather well too! I will be keeping a couple of those in my repetoir as well. Still trying to figure out the proper mix of buff/damage dealing spells that I should have ready. I have a few ideas but its still a work in progress. I cant believe we couldnt find anything else around that would have gotten Olarosso and myself to the next lvl last session I know it was late but soooo close!!! LOL oh well next time. Speaking of which... are we gonna try and shoot for friday the 30th so we dont have to wait a month? I think my next level in Radiant servant of Pelor will imbue me with a buff that will grant a bonus to will save for all close enough, that will be cool. I kida tweaked out my cleric to be the bane of the undead but we havent come across any since really since the first time we set foot into the tower of War. oh well I think I can use them up to create a link to other characters so I can heal them from afar. I agree we should have buffed up outside the door before the main battle but I didnt think that the first door we were going into was gonna be the big one or I would have totlaly done it first. I didnt want to waste it on some pee-ons and then have it run out before the big battles. oh well.... we made it out I guess. Pelor was watching over us it seems yet again. Anyways... thats it for my thoughts on last session. Lets not forget the cool blade of chaos that Civ inherated from Rikard! Be it a blessing or a curse only time will tell...
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Post by PandoraGreen on Oct 27, 2009 13:57:57 GMT -5
You got a few minor details incorrect. Such as the fact that Civ was at the door to the balcony putting a Seeking Ray on Tall Dark and Ugly, while Gelna pretty much single-handedly defeated the Blue Dragon.
Gore, that dispel magic spell you cast on the general was a stroke of genius, and I think made the difference between a TPK and us squeaking through.
I am loving the interaction between Civ and her new intelligent weapon. Looking forward to seeing where that heads. Most amusing.
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Post by gorechyld2000 on Oct 28, 2009 12:16:44 GMT -5
Yes you are a machine when it comes to combat Gelna, I would never disagree with you on that one. I am pretty sure that you could wipe out the party if it was us against you. Glad your on our side! Now if we could only get Civ in there to stab something with her cool new sword it would be a momentous occasion! She is almost as strong as Gelna, (by a few points with her new gauntlets of ogre power) has good hit points and better AC then my Cleric with full plate +2 and dodge and mobility. Hey... how did all the girl characters get so damn powerful! Its just olarosso and I that bring any testosterone into the party and he's an Elf! And im a priest!! We should plan on all our major battles sometime around the 3rd week of every month.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 29, 2009 9:56:04 GMT -5
Okay been reading the Rules Compendium and checking up on some rules.
One biggie: we've been playing Seeking Ray totally wrong. There is absolutely nothing in the spell description that would allow you to shoot at a target you can't see. It does two things. First off all it ignores Cover and Concealment. This means that enemies don't get the bonus to AC they would get if they have cover, and you don't need to roll a miss chance for concealment. It specifically notes that it does not Negate Total concealment (aka being around a corner, in another room, down in a pit, etc). Now the spell does have one more effect, it makes a bond with the target, all this does is give you +4 to hit with any spells cast for 1/round per caster level. This does not allow another spell to ignore cover or concealment (though the +4 to hit pretty much negates the +4 AC for cover).
One other thing with this spell, there is nothing in there that would remove the penalty for firing into melee.
Personally this makes a lot more sense to me, as the spell seemed way too powerful for it's level as we were playing it plus it broke some fundamental rules (you must see your target being the biggest one).
Another Rule I had forgotten is Item Saving Throws. Any time anyone rolls a 1 on a saving through, one of their items must also make the save. This is for any burst/blast/line spells and not things like poison and will saves.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 29, 2009 12:42:05 GMT -5
Something that may actually benefit Olaroso and Civ:
Weaponlike Spells: which is any spell that you have to roll an attack roll to hit.
You can take weapon based feats, like Weapon Focus Ranged Spells, Improved Critical Touch Spells, or even Precision Shot (no -4 for attacking into Melee). Besides that there is one thing I saw that I think Olaroso will like - you can do a Precision Strike with a Weaponlike spell. Which means that you can add your Sneak Attack damage to any attack roll based spell as long following all the normal rules for Precision shot.
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Post by gorechyld2000 on Oct 30, 2009 8:33:41 GMT -5
Wow that kinda nerf'd the spell, but if were playing it all wrong to begin with then we gotta play by the rules! I just assumed that in order to make the inital hit with the ray you HAD to have line of sight, but afterwards it ignored cover and concealment. it still is better than firing an arrow into melee by far though.
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Post by gorechyld2000 on Oct 30, 2009 8:41:25 GMT -5
for Civ and Olarosso: weapon focus + improved critical touch spell + empower spell + spell loaded into weapon + improved critical strike with weapon + back stab = one hit one kill. Civ would need to take a lvl in rogue to pull it off. I was thinkking of taking a lvl in something else to maybe get my saves and skill or bonus feats better... what does anyone suggest? barbarian? Fighter? or maybe a lvl in mage or paladin?
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Post by PandoraGreen on Oct 31, 2009 9:33:05 GMT -5
I can tell you that a level in Barbarian will NOT improve your saves. My levels in Favoured Soul bumped my saves up greatly.
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Oct 31, 2009 11:41:43 GMT -5
Late night Devil's night session that taught me that I need more XP in encounter creation in 3.5. As it was Devils night that we were playing on a rare 'off night' (a weekend we normally don't play but that happened to find everyone free), I decided I need some undead/demon type encounters. So I read through the DMG on how to create encounters in 3.5 and created 4 EL 10 encounters for the mostly level 10 party. The group walked through all of them. Thankfully there was also a nice side plot in The Ruins of Castle Greyhawk that I started the night with that was definately challenging enough to make up for the later cakewalk. On to the summary:
The night started with Frustration for the characters. They did some in town buying and selling then headed off to explore The Tower of Magic only to be confounded by Grandfather Magic, a high Priest of Zagyg. After an amusing interlude with the mad cleric the party found they needed a Key to get into the Tower of Magic and had no leads on where to find one.
So the party headed back to town and tried a few ideas to find a lead with no luck. Frustrated and drinking the frustration away at the Green Dragon the party was approached with an unexpected offer to buy a house in the High Quarter. They were intrigued by the idea but skeptical so decided to check the place out by staying overnight. As expected the house was Haunted by three Cold Shadows.
A long and desperate fight ensued. The shadows started the battle by coming upon the party while everyone was sleeping and blasting them with cones of cold. After this they used their ability to pass through solid objects combined with Sneak Attack to enter the room through the floor, drain some Strenght and then fade back away to the lower levels of the house. At first the party had a really hard time countering these tactics and had to rely on turning undead and chill touch to get the Shadows to flee so they could fight fewer of them at a time. Generous uses of Readied actions had managed to kill 1 of the Shadows before they all retreated.
Quite a few rounds later the two remaining shadows renewed their attack. It seemed that they were able to heal in the interim. The party continued to use Readied Actions to battle them off, but they had already suffered one Casulty. Sunstone was touched one too many times and was drained of all Strength. Fortunately for him Erebos was good with Scrolls and managed to get one of his Revify scrools off of his body and get it cast before he joined the Shadows himself. The fight continued with the party huddled in the master bedroom forming a defense and lashing out at any shadows as the entered the room. This fight went on for upwards of 30 rounds but eventually the party dissipated all of the undead. I think Erebos was the only one to have not lost any Strength at this point.
After the restless night the party did some investigating into who these Shadows were and eventually did buy the house for a discounted price. The next day was filled with plans for the house, renovations and repairs (as always happens when I give my players a base of operations). In addition they took a visit to Lord Henway's Menagerie a local Zoo. Here they learned of the potential to make some gold by bringing back live creatures from the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk and received a specific request to find a mated pair of Aumorvoraxes.
Late that night, resting over a pint at the Green Dragon the party was approached by a bedraggled man who looked to be scared near to death. His estate has a Crypt on the land and someone had borken in and now horrible sounds came from it's depths. He hired the party with a very generous offer of platinum and magic.
The party descended into the raided crypt and first fought two large Bloodhulks. This was a good fight with the party taking a fair amount of damage before eating through their ridiculously high hit points. They then found a secret door in the back of the crypt which lead them to a trap. A force cage descended upon them and a Babu was summoned. This fight was quick only lasting about a round. Fortunately for the party Gelna had taken ill from the fight with the Bloodhulks and was not present and all of them could see in the dark so did not have a torch lit, so the lack of air in the force cage had no effect (my bad on that one, not much of a trap there, in retrospect I shouldn't have given XP for it as it posed no actual threat. Though if the party had been full I think it would have been interesting to see what they did to survive that one). From here the party found a large hidden temple to the Demon God Orcus. The temple was filled with Skeletons which were quickly blasted to bits by the power of Pelor as channeled though Sunstone.
Investigating the temple the party found that some type of tome had been taken. They headed back into town and attempted to find some leads on this book. Olaroso's Rehenee lover suggested a Rehenee fortune teller to the party and they deiced to give that a try. Spending some gold they received a visions of Stench, filth and rats. They also tried to get some information on a key and received a very vague hint as to who could help them.
So they descended upon The Ratfang Sewers. After a very dramatic moment of Sunstone falling into the effluent channel and nearly being whisked away into an underground grinder, the party found the cultists. Erebos killed off the leader of the cultists which disrupted their ritual. A Bearded Devil was summoned along with some lesser Demons. A huge hulking Pit Fiend also still stood in the now broken summoning circle. The fight was quick and pretty easy for the party. The lesser demons attacks were near pointless vs. the parties high AC, the Pit Fiend was found to be only an Imp in disguise after it managed to wound Sunstone (for 2 hp damage) and the Bearded Devil was blinded by Erebos before it got to make it's first attack.
After defeating the Demons and Devils the party tried to recover the summoning book but it had been destroyed when the ritual was disrupted. So with victory strong in their minds the party returned to the surface and picked up their reward.
At this point it was way too late already and we ended the session. At this point all of the Characters except Erebos were now at 10th level. The party now has a new base of operations. Now they just need to figure out where to find Zagyg's Key.
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Post by gorechyld2000 on Nov 3, 2009 9:02:33 GMT -5
Good gratious I hate fighting ghosts. They totally ruined me since I have feeble strength to begin with ( 11 ) and when they are draining approx. 7 - 9 / hit that means pretty much you are doomed if they attack you more than once. It sure does drag the fight out when they pop in and out of existance and/or get sent away with chill touch for many rounds. IT sucks that I couldnt even turn them There has got to be an easier way to combat this type of foe. I will consult Pelor and see what knowledge he will bestow upon me. This whole experinence has really shown that my cleric is pretty feeble... I need to hit the medieval gym! Now this whole key of Zagyg... that will be another thing. I am wondering if he was as insane as everyone says he was than perhaps we are not even looking for a "physical" key? hmmm.... makes ya think dosent it!
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Post by Gilvan Blight on Nov 3, 2009 12:05:57 GMT -5
I don't think it was feebility on your Cleric's part. Those were tough ass Shadows. Besides being 10HD creatures they also had turn resistance 2 (making them effectively 12HD). You did manage to turn them once.
I was really surprised you guys didn't split up. That's what I think the encounter expected (by giving combat maps for all three floors). I expected to have a group on each floor so that when the ghosts moved back out of the room to another floor there was someone there waiting for them. I also don't think making a creature with regeneration run away is a good strategy, it just gives them a chance to heal up. Made for a good visual in my mind though everyone all tense and huddled up at the foot of (and on) the master bed, jumping at shadows and not knowing when the Cold Shadows were coming back.
Regarding fighting Ghosts... you just need the right counter weapon. Just like you should be using Good or Cold Iron weapons on Demons and Silver on Lycanthropes you guys should have some Ghost Touch weapons in at least one of the sacks just in case. Especially after the Ghost in the Fortress of the Yuan-Ti that took 28 rounds to kill.
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