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View Full Version : Best. Session. Ever.



Shnezz
2010-02-20, 05:53 PM
I started this in part to share what happened in my last session, and to ask people to share stories about sessions where something amazing, unexpected, or interesting happened.

Here's mine, spoiler'd to keep down on size.
This is 4th edition. This took us 4 and a half hours. :smallbiggrin:
Starting Party: Level 2 Human Rogue (Me)
Level 2 Tiefling Warlock
Level 2 Tiefling Wizard
Level 2 Human Cleric
Level 2 Dwarf Fighter

In the previous session we were exploring the underground area of a castle, and had taken a rest in what seemed a reasonably secure room, except for the cleric who is currently lost. Begin this session.

After a series of uneventful rooms, we came across one that had only a stone coffin in it, on a 2-foot raised platform on the far side of the room. Of course, me and the fighter immediately go over and open it, since we're gluttons for punishment that way. Out bursts a skeleton in heavy armor and a greatsword. After a surprisingly length discussion with the skeleton that we were simply exploring, he attacks. (Go figure. I later found out he had 300+ hp, while our strongest party member has less than 40. And he can hit for 20 on a basic attack.)

Needless to say... we were severely trounced. After a few rounds, our fighter was down, and I was beaten pretty badly trying to keep Mr. Bones away from the nice and squishy spellcasters. Both of which rolled a 1 on their daily spells. Lovely. A glimmer of hope as the cleric arrives and gets some heal on. Fighter up, and I'm better. Let a few more rounds pass.

Fighter's re-downed, I'm beaten, Cleric's beaten, and the spellcasters are being largely ignored due to ineffectiveness. (They missed about 1/2 their shots, while my crossbow continued to regularly hit for about 15) The cleric's last heal goes to get the fighter back up after he failed 2 death saving throws, and they have him where the skeleton can't move without provoking several AOOs. I flee to the corner, presumably to keep the crossbow bolts raining.

"Pazuzu, Pazuzu, Pazuzu." Yep. That's me, the chaotic, fearing-for-my-life rogue. In essence, my rogue always resented not being a magic caster, and has a moderately unhealthy obsession with death. (He has a pet goblin skull). So, my wish was, in more legal specific terms, to be a Lich Wizard. Yep. It was granted on the condition I also get the Lawful Good cleric to convert to evil, which he refused to do whilst I beat the hell out of him.

So, due to my traitorous actions, I'm killed by the party. Many rounds pass without me, until the wizard calls Pazuzu, and in essense his wish corrupts the rest of the party to evil and makes himself a lich.

But wait! The cleric has been corrupted! And now I'm back, as per my deal with Pazuzu, as a lich wizard. Booyah.:smallbiggrin:

We kick the skeleton's ass, and stop there.

Ending Party:
Level 3 Lich Wizard (Me, Converted to Evil)
Level 3 Lich Wizard (Other, Converted to Evil)
Level 3 Tiefling Warlock (Somehow is the only one NOT evil.)
Level 3 Human Cleric (Evil, and lost his powers until he finds an evil deity to worship.)
Level 3 Dwarf Fighter (Evil too.)

Thieves
2010-02-20, 08:13 PM
Urr. I don't know much about 4e, but how did the Pazuzu get in there in the first place? As a "here comes the cavalry" type of thing? :smallconfused:

Volkov
2010-02-20, 08:19 PM
Urr. I don't know much about 4e, but how did the Pazuzu get in there in the first place? As a "here comes the cavalry" type of thing? :smallconfused:

If you say pazuzu's name three times fast he will come to you.

Iceforge
2010-02-20, 08:22 PM
If you say pazuzu's name three times fast he will come to you.

So a hastur impersonator, how lovely :D

erikun
2010-02-20, 08:23 PM
Pazuzu is an old D&D deity. (OD&D, I believe?) Say his name three times, and you can barter your soul for a wish. Maybe. If he feels like it.

Isn't the Lich an epic destiny? Are you really a level 3 character with level 30 powers and abilities? Or just a fancy skeleton?

Other than that... eh. It was probably a lot more fun in session than in retelling. After all, it's basically "we were getting our butts kicked until we called in the deus ex machina."

kemmotar
2010-02-20, 08:25 PM
Don't you need an appropriate knowledge religion check to even know who pazuzu is and know that if you call him candy man style he grants wishes? I think it was around 25 or something for 3.5....

If I remember correctly from what I know about 4e rogues shouldn't be able to use knowledge religion...did you multiclass into cleric?

On the other hand your DM probably realized he made the encounter a bit too difficult and allowed this little piece of metagaming.

Funny though how the wizards wish worked like that...heh

Volkov
2010-02-20, 08:27 PM
Pazuzu is an old D&D deity. (OD&D, I believe?) Say his name three times, and you can barter your soul for a wish. Maybe. If he feels like it.

Isn't the Lich an epic destiny? Are you really a level 3 character with level 30 powers and abilities? Or just a fancy skeleton?

Other than that... eh. It was probably a lot more fun in session than in retelling. After all, it's basically "we were getting our butts kicked until we called in the deus ex machina."

Wrong, He's an Obyrith Demon prince. And he's not old, he was in 3.5's fiendish codex.

Starbuck_II
2010-02-20, 08:30 PM
I do like the twist ending.
How did the wish make the others evil?

DragoonWraith
2010-02-20, 08:36 PM
How did the other players take having their characters entirely co-opted by you and the Wizard?

Also, the thread title makes me miss SilverClawShift. Just saying.

KillianHawkeye
2010-02-20, 08:40 PM
Wrong, He's an Obyrith Demon prince. And he's not old, he was in 3.5's fiendish codex.

The fact that he was reprinted in 3.5 does not exclude the possibility of him coming from an older edition originally.

Innis Cabal
2010-02-20, 08:40 PM
So a hastur impersonator, how lovely :D

Considering Pazuzu was an Assyrian diety? No. Not at all, in fact.

Iceforge
2010-02-20, 08:46 PM
Considering Pazuzu was an Assyrian diety? No. Not at all, in fact.

Now, I can't find a good mythology on Pazuzu online, but I was assuming that the "say his name 3 times" thing was DnD related and might not actually be part of his original mythology, as in the scarce sources I could find, there was no indications that the real mythology included anything about him coming upon his name being said 3 times

ondonaflash
2010-02-20, 09:09 PM
Now, I can't find a good mythology on Pazuzu online, but I was assuming that the "say his name 3 times" thing was DnD related and might not actually be part of his original mythology, as in the scarce sources I could find, there was no indications that the real mythology included anything about him coming upon his name being said 3 times

That's a cliche that comes from an urban legend that's over 60 years old (Source (http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/bloodymary.asp)), I don't think Hastur gets to call dibs anymore. His statute of limitations has run out.

Shnezz
2010-02-20, 09:26 PM
I do like the twist ending.
How did the wish make the others evil?

Addressing this: Pazuzu's goal is to make others evil, and to make a complicated conversation short, he wished to remove weaknesses from all partymembers, and "good" was classified as a weakness.

To others questioning Pazuzu's appearance, we aren't very serious here.



Isn't the Lich an epic destiny? Are you really a level 3 character with level 30 powers and abilities? Or just a fancy skeleton?


I am, effectively, a level 3 wizard with Lich racial bonuses and a phylactery.

ken-do-nim
2010-02-20, 10:04 PM
Considering Pazuzu was an Assyrian diety? No. Not at all, in fact.

He's the demon featured in The Exorcist movie, by the way.

Dogmantra
2010-02-20, 10:15 PM
If I remember correctly from what I know about 4e rogues shouldn't be able to use knowledge religion...did you multiclass into cleric?

You don't remember correctly. Rogues can't train Religion, but anyone can use any skill, they just don't get that nifty +5 bonus.

Shnezz
2010-02-20, 10:18 PM
You don't remember correctly. Rogues can't train Religion, but anyone can use any skill, they just don't get that nifty +5 bonus.

Correct. But, I didn't have to make a religion check, as I had previously found out about Pazuzu. I just hadn't needed pazuzu earlier

AgentPaper
2010-02-20, 10:21 PM
I am, effectively, a level 3 wizard with Lich racial bonuses and a phylactery.

You mean, the lich template?

Shnezz
2010-02-20, 10:23 PM
Template, Yes. I have no idea why I said racial bonuses... I think he's pondering nerfing a few things. I dunno.

AgentPaper
2010-02-20, 10:29 PM
Template, Yes. I have no idea why I said racial bonuses... I think he's pondering nerfing a few things. I dunno.

Well, it's going to be making you more powerful no matter what. I would instead suggest that he give everyone a template of some type, and then balance the monsters accordingly. (a 50% increase in XP budget should do the trick)

Edit: Another idea, if he doesn't want to make everyone just as powerful, would be to rule that becoming a lich only grants you the phylactery and undead status, and the rest of the buffs from the template are just tricks the liches know from other sources.

Fortuna
2010-02-20, 10:41 PM
My last session was... interesting.

So there we were, a Spontaneous Cloistered Cleric (Me), a Paladin (played by a moderately stupid player), a Rogue (played by someone who doesn't really know the rules well yet), a Wizard, a Sorcerer and a Ranger (who muck about instead of playing). We had just been through a serious fight last session, and the last conscious party member (the Wizard) had to drag us 500 feet up the road to an inn. A week later, everyone wakes up in the middle of the night, and the inn is deserted. After some mucking about in the bar, we hear the door being broken down. A fight with three kobolds, who we take down easily, ensues, and that's the point when my Detect Thoughts (cast pre-fight for a reason that seemed like a good idea at the time) showed dozens of them just out the door. I surrendered in Undercommon, and the whole party got led off to the cave and stripped of weapons.

Here is where it gets interesting.

I sit down in a corner, shrug off my heirloom lyre, and start playing Simon and Garfunkel songs (I like them, OK?). The kobolds start worshipping me as long as I play. Once everyone works this out (and I was playing those songs on my harp the whole time) we all march out of the cave like the pied piper and friends. A long, looong time later we arrive at a small town. We ask the guards to help us (my character has been playing for 14 hours straight by now!) and the kobolds promptly slaughter them all to "protect the music". A little bit of exploring later we find a cliff, and I stand at the top while the sorceror goes down the bottom. I shut up and the Sorc starts singing at the same time, and the kobolds run over the cliff to the sound of "Scarborough Fair".

So Yeah. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SoYeah)

DragoonWraith
2010-02-20, 10:43 PM
That is awesome. Have you, by any chance, read Peter and Max? It's an excellent novel about the Pied Piper, who you're obviously channeling there.

Fortuna
2010-02-20, 10:54 PM
You know what was freaky? My DM had planned that as the only option!

AtopTheMountain
2010-02-20, 10:57 PM
My 4E group (level 16) today had an incredible battle, mainly due to the utter rediculous stupidity of the player of the Doppleganger wizard [now deceased]. To make a long story short: We were facing a Large demon, two wizards, a death knight, and many minions. First few rounds: My avenger isolates the demon for most of the rest of the fight, and ends up effectively solo-dueling him. The warlock minion-bombs all the minions. The aerialist rogue jumps in to engage the death knight. The cleric gets ready to heal. The wizard? He shapeshifts into a female version of one of the enemy wizards and tries to seduce him with diplomacy. It works, and that wizard is taken out of the fight for a few rounds... but so is our wizard. When that enemy is killed, he moves on to the next one. Later, the death knight and the enemy wizards are dead, and our "Wizard" (who has yet to cast a single spell) tries to seduce... the giant demon that I am still in solo combat with. He finds out what happens when a demon four times your size tightly hugs you. He takes about 18 points of crushing damage per round, and almost goes negative when he (still as a female) casts Thunder Lance to launch the demon away from him. At this point, the demon becomes quite mad at the wizard, and just tries to kill him. The wizard starts casting spells (including a Wall of Fire that almost takes out our cleric), but goes negative. The rogue stabalizes him. My avenger deals a killing blow to the demon, which explodes in a mass of dark fire, instantly killing the wizard but leaving the rest of us alive. Then, a hidden door at the other side of the room opens... and we run out of time.
Okay, I guess that wasn't so short after all.

herrhauptmann
2010-02-20, 11:35 PM
Since this is 4E, aren't divine characters just inspired by their Deity, but no longer limited by their deity?
Like how 4E paladins have their powers just from being confident in themselves, even if they do evil, they can't 'fall'?

I'm surprised that Pazuzu exists in 4E. Random being that appears and grants a wish was one of the cheesier things I've seen in 3.5 (the first time I heard of Pazuzu)

Narazil
2010-02-20, 11:41 PM
Had a session with one of the other players plus our DM, as a part of a larger campaign.
Long story short: Faerūn - we rule Amn, we needed to go through the Dungeon of Death to get some netheril scrolls.
On the quest was my character, Warlock 3/Sorcerer 3, and my in-game half-brother, Rogue 1/ Cleric 5.
After hours and hours battling through trolls, making deals with succubi, playing quick draw against the medusas, we finally found the treasures - which was behind a Merilith. We defeat the dreaded Merilith, and descend towards the treasures.. Only to find two Balors, slightly mad that we killed their Merilith.
Forcecage rocks. :smallamused:

Calimehter
2010-02-21, 01:34 AM
I did run a 13-hour session once that capped off a long running campaign. We had a couple of guest players in town (old college buds of mine) who could only stay for that session, and nobody wanted to stop!

The high level PCs managed to plane shift back to their home realm with the long-lost holiest relic of their church (that they had spent many previous sessions tracking down and reclaiming) and used said relic to uncover and foil a plot by mind flayers to take over the entire realm. After this rousing success, the PCs ended up in high positions throughout the empire, thanks to the party cleric having been universally proclaimed the high priest of the order. Pretty straightforward stuff, but it just all 'clicked' that night in a way I've never really been able to recapture since then.

That was also the only time I ever got yelled at by the apartment manager in my 6 years of living in that building. :smallcool:

Toric
2010-02-21, 02:09 AM
This last session my group fought some highly intelligent mohrgs, in a sealed room with a Cloudkill that nobody could dispel. Con damage each turn + concealment = excitement. Eventually, somebody makes an exit to blow the acid fog out of, and most of the mohrgs are taken down. The last one, though, manages to hit my dwarf warblade with a paralyzing touch, and holds my inert body hostage. I ask the DM whether the paralysis is complete or it allows speaking and eye movement. He replies that it allows speaking. My dwarf whispers eight words.

"Who the hell do ye think I be?"

Iron Heart Surge.

Beat the opposed check to escape a grapple by a single point.

My teammates took it from there.

Lycanthromancer
2010-02-21, 10:19 AM
Also, the thread title makes me miss SilverClawShift. Just saying.I concur. Greatly.

Come back to us, SCS!

Greenish
2010-02-21, 11:13 AM
My dwarf whispers eight words.

"Who the hell do ye think I be?"

Iron Heart Surge.That is exactly how it was intended to work. :smallbiggrin: Shame you'll have to houserule to actually make it work like that.

SilverClawShift
2010-02-21, 11:21 AM
Come back to us, SCS!

I lurk. And I'm flattered. And I'm sure I'll have more time to write about gaming ONE of these days...