The Coin of Death - Campaign Journal

[Story]

I joined the group over a year into an ongoing campaign, so the backstory is quite lengthy. If you want the TLDR version, we're collecting ingredients for the creation of a magical coin that is probably an evil artifact to kill someone we've never met and don't know anything about.

Edit: I just accidentally discovered that our campaign bears some similarities to a module called Forging Darkness. So please don't spoil it.

Characters


Ezra - Human Ranger/Beastmaster from Chicago in the real world. He uses a version of Beastmaster ported from Pathfinder, not the 3.5 Prc. Has a Wolf animal companion named Stalk.
Barbo - Formerly human Barbarian and steppe bandit. He was recently cursed into becoming a Hill Giant, meaning he can't ride his horse any more.
Tharivol: Elven Duskblade - Also has magical red eyes and a red dragon bloodline.
Calmasis (me): Necropolitan Fire Elf Wizard - Focused on battlefield control and support.
Bren: Halfling Druid with a bison animal companion. Also, the DM decided to generate a backstory for her with Central Casting Heroes Of Legend, resulting in a convoluted mess that would make a Mary Sue blush.

Former/Sporadic players

Aldo - Halfling Monk. He has not been able to play for a while now, so I don't know much about him.
Glorab - Human Cleric of Pelor. He has not shown up for a while either.


The Story So Far

The party started, as so many do, in a tavern. Specifically, Ormsby's Tavern, in the Lovecraftian town of Verdenhaven. Their first task was to investigate a nearby lighthouse. After arguing about the running rules for three hours and an encounter with some Lizardmen, they arrived to find the inhabitants of the lighthouse massacred. On the beach, the fought a band of pirates and found many shipping crates, including one full of copper ingots and one containing dozens of masterwork crossbows. However, the most intriguing find was a note to the pirates promising payment and signed Maurice.

On the way back, they were attacked by some cats of unusual size. The leader had glowing red eyes, which Tharivol, under some strange compulsion, grafted in place of his own. Back at the tavern, the party decided to cast Detect Evil on the eyes. They instead found an overwhelming aura of evil in the opposite direction, but they were unable to locate it before it got away. It is suspected that this is the closest the party ever came to the mysterious Maurice.

Vash Treeno, an eccentric old mystic sent the party on a quest to the Seven Sisters, a group of ancient stone pillars erected by the extinct Ziox civilization. With the help of a Reduce Person'd Aldo, the party managed to enter a pillar and did typical dungeon stuff. They also discovered a door to the Abyssal plane but elected not to enter.

At the top of the pillar, they found a portal which teleported them back into town. Unfortunately, they arrived to find Vash murdered! Her entrails were splayed out and a tree grew through her body. The Vicar Francisco, hereafter referred to as Frank, blamed Vash for her worship of "pagan" gods. He asked the party to find a set of seerstones located near a hunting lodge.

The party found the lodge recently abandoned and a seerstone buried out back. As soon as Glorab read the inscription, the party was transported to the Abyssal plane. There they fought a number of demons, successfully resisted a Succubus and eventually found the second seerstone, transporting them back.

After studying the seerstones and consulting with the local alchemist Halaan, Frank announces that the only way to defeat Maurice is to construct a "Coin of Power". To do this he requires three materials - a tainted diamond from the crypts to the east, a bar of metal struck by the breath of a Blue Dragon on the alter of Manos, and the blood of a powerful demon or devil, spilt by a coward.

The party ventured to the crypts where they defeated a Zombie Lord and removed the diamond from his chest. At this point, the players were complaining about a lack of loot so the DM gave everyone a cursed item. Barbo became a Hill Giant. And that brings the story up to the point where I joined.

[Story]

Session One - The Christmas Campaign


Players: Tharivol, Calmasis, Bren

As it so happened, my first session happened to be a one shot sidequest. In the town of Verdenhaven, there is a local dwarf named Santa who gives gifts to the kids each winter. However, the townspeople had recently grown concerned about his failure to show up.

In fact, he had actually been missing for over a year, because the party previously attempted this quest last December. The first attempt resulted in a near TPK after an encounter with some wolves, with Tharivol the sole survivor.

As it so happened, Tharivol was around town again this year to introduce our two new characters, Calmasis and Bren to the quest. After negotiating a reward from Ormsby, we set off into the woods. We got lost several times due to a blizzard, but through some good roles on the percentile dice, we did not encounter anything until the final day of the journey.

The first encounter was with four wolves, attacking in groups of two from each side. However, the former foes were no trouble to our 3-4th level all spellcaster party. Two ran away after I blinded them with Glitterdust, while Bren and Tharivol easily killed the others.

The entrance to Santa's valley was guarded by three large Snowmen which we tried to ambush. Thanks to my Web and the snowmen's large weakness to fire spells, we were able to quickly defeat them despite their prodigious strength. Between the three of them, they only got a single attack off.

The house of Santa himself presented a puzzling tableau. There was smoke coming from the chimney, while inside, Santa was tied up with a bag over his head and no sign of his captor. Someone suggested that Santa had been engaged in autoasphyxiation. At any rate, we freed him without incident, and he took us back to town. He gave each of us a present - Bren a Bag of Holding III, Tharivol a Ring of Feather Falling, and me a Lesser Rod of Empower.


Session Two - And now back to your regularly scheduled quest


Players: Calmasis, Tharivol, Ezra, Barbo

Upon talking to Frank, I learned that he was a follower of Satoris, an obscure god formerly worshiped by the Ziox civilization. We decided to question Frank more thoroughly while Glorab provided a Zone of Truth in absentia. On our way, we discovered that a lot of townspeople were suddenly worshipping in the church.

Overall, we did not find any evidence of evil in Frank, but he did nothing to reassure us of his motivations either. He says that once the coin is used, all will be converted to Satoris. Maurice has appeared to him in visions, and he believes that the coin is the only way to defeat Maurice because he can only be defeated by his own demonic powers. He also said the coin would "unleash the very powers of hell". As for magic, I was unable to detect any spells except for the Enchantment aura of his magic ring.

We decided to continue on our quest for now. The next stop is Lut Gholein, far to the south. I proposed that we could travel over 120 miles a day by using all our spellslots through the combination of the spells Mount and Traveler's Mount. Unfortunately, this resulted in Traveler's Mount getting banned.

Fortunately, there just happened to be an airship, the Weatherlight, docking in town on the way to Lut Gholein. Captain Sisay instantly started flirting with Tharivol and decided to let us all onboard if he could win an arm wrestling contest. Glorab cast Bull's Strength in absentia, though he needn't have bothered as Sisay rolled a natural 1.

To pass the time, we played a dice based gambling game. Basically, it functions like poker except you roll 5d6 to get a 'hand' - two pair, three of a kind, full house, etc. After this first round of betting, you can reroll any number of your dice. In the first game, I foolishly stayed in on a three of a kind. I sat out the second game while I hurriedly calculated all the odds on my laptop. The third game I got junk and had to fold. In the fourth and last game, I ended up with five ones! Unfortunately, Sisay went all in after rerolling two dice, but I decided to call anyway. Statistically, it was a bad choice since the most probable explanation is that she got three of a kind followed by a five of a kind, meaning she had at least a 5/6 chance of winning. Fortunately my gamble paid off since she also had five ones. Splitting the pot let me win back almost all my losses in the first two games, leaving me 10gp down.


The journey was uneventful until we were nearly at Lut Gholein, when five Red Drakes suddenly approached us and attacked. During the battle, Ezra abused Rapid Shot to fire two bolts from the ship ballista at once, while Barbo used his giant strength to just hurl the bolts directly. Tharivol spammed Kelgore's Firebolt as usual, presumably to no effect. I foolishly decided to not bother with Nerveskitter this fight, meaning that I acted just after the drakes and was only able to catch two with my Glitterdust. I shouted in Draconic at them, telling them to run away, but they refused to cease attacking, even though we had already killed one or two of them. I'm not sure why they were so suicidal.

Thanks to my high reflex, fire resistance, and a maximum roll on an Empowered False Life, I was able to take three of the dragons fireballs with barely a scratch, but Ezra nearly died. However, on the last round of the fight, we decided to turn the ship and one of the drakes went for Tharivol over on the port side, killing him with a single fireball from full health and shocking everyone.

Note: The Red Drakes were probably based on the Pathfinder monster, but one of them did 35 damage with a Fireball, so they must have been upgraded a little.

Luckily, Captain Sisay and the overjoyed townspeople of Lut Gholien decided to pitch in to raise Tharivol from the dead. Tharivol received a vision of Vash while dead, and when he returned to life, he discovered that he now had a major Red Dragon bloodline. Then everyone went shopping. We finally got a chance to sell all the masterwork crossbows they had been carrying around since the first session. I persuaded the party to use the money to get an Artificer's Monocle (the ability to detect cursed items was a particularly compelling argument). Sisay also sold Ezra a set of special blunderbusses.

[Story]

Between sessions - Level get


I hit level 4 and learned Kelgore's Grave Mist and Earthbind, so I'd be ready if the Red Drakes ever returned. The DM implied that he would enforce the no extradimensional spaces in a Rope Trick thing, so I decided not to bother with it and took Insight of Good Fortune as my third spell instead.

I also sold my Lesser Rod of Empower and got a Lesser Rod of Extend, and learned the spell Friendly Face. I started gathering information with the help of Friendly Face. Unfortunately, my request for a masterwork tool of Gather Information (I suggested a stack of buisness cards) got rejected.


Session Three - Suddenly dungeons


Players: Calmasis, Tharivol, Barbo

As we were gathering information in Lut Gholien, we discovered that there was a lizardman named Maurice, head of the local temple to Ahura Mazda. It was a bit strange, but we decided we might as well investigate, and try to get Barbo's curse cured while we're at it.

Unfortunately, Barbo's curse was a Plot Curse, meaning that removing it was not just a matter of casting Remove Curse. The priest we talked to sent us into the temple basement, where we found a blue portal that teleported us into a random dungeon.

The room we arrived in was covered in tapestries. Strangely, one of the walls had Communist symbols including a picture of Lenin and the sickle and hammer. Another tapestry had a picture of The Seven Sisters, a location the party previous adventured in. The rooms appeared to otherwise be nondescript.

Our first encounter was supposed to be a room full of Shadows, but the DM decided that would be too difficult, so he changed them into skeletons. Of course that turned the encounter into a cakewalk, as I dropped a Web to immobilize them all, and Barbo started pulverizing them with no resistance. Tharivol channeled a Shocking Grasp, taking me by surprise as this is the first time I've seen him actually channel a spell. Of course after the first round, he had to switch back to his trusty Kelgore's Firebolt since he couldn't move through the web to reach the other skeletons.

Halfway through the fight, the DM realized that the skeletons could only hit on a natural 20, so he fiated True Strike onto them, not that it helped much. The last two skeletons decided to throw their scimitars, but they both rolled natural 1s. At that point, we had to leave the room due to the smoke from the burning web, but we came back later to search and found a full plate hidden in the corner.

After some secret doors and traps (but not too many due to our lack of a trapfinder) we came across an unusual room, which contained a baby skeleton in a manger. Barbo failed a will save and was compelled to pick it up. I tried to save him by Benign Transposition-ing him, but I failed my will save too and stuck it in my backpack for safekeeping.

The next room we found had an electrified floor, so we had to skip it, but the room next door held our second encounter, a pair of beasts I was somehow unable to identify*. The beasts caused Tharivol to panic and run away at full speed. I dropped a Glitterdust and Kelgore's Grave Mist and then left Barbo to fight them while I ran off to look for Tharivol. Tharivol lost me when he jumped over a pit trap I didn't feel like chancing with my -2 Jump modifer. He then proceeded to run around in circles in the tapestry room because the DM didn't want to draw any more of the dungeon for now.

* After looking through the MM later, it turns out they were Yeth Hounds. Presumably the DM either doesn't know about the rules for Knowledge checks or is ignoring them. Hopefully I can get things cleared up before next session because it kind of defeats the purpose of having Knowledge skills.

It seems like the DM is having a lot of trouble balancing encounters with an ECL20 Hill Giant in the party. Hopefully Barbo will get cured soon.

[Kol Korran]

the coin sure sounds like a bad idea... I'd try and see if there is a way to find another solution. can your DM deal with such a changing of the plot?

It does seem he has a tough time handling the group with a hill giant in (why the hell did he make that curse? odd... :smallconfused:) have you talked with him about it? he seems to be trying to compensate his encounters midway through them, which as a player I would find annoying.

You asked me on another thread what can be done to help campaign logs more interesting- I'd suggest a bit more detailed descriptions? it was a bit confusing to understand what happened, and some things could have used some expanding upon. :smallwink:

As to the intro- "The story so far"? I'd suggest to just put in the major important points of the story, not every adventure. you write a whole adventure in a paragraph, with missing details which is a bit... confusing. just what is important to know from here onwards I think.

loved the Santa idea, though the gifts were really not in proportion to one another. what happened to the cryptic tableau? didn't Santa tell you what happened to him?

[Story]

He said he was captured by Krampus but he never explained how he ended up tied up like that or why Krampus just disappeared.

As for the True Strike thing I didn't really mind since it didn't affect the outcome. I think the DM just wanted us to take at least a little damage from it (a grand total of 4 from the one attack that connected).

The main issue of course is that now we have to figure out how to fight Shadows. Luckily I'm immune to the strength drain, and Barbo's 30 strength means he can take quite a few hits. Unfortunately, we only have one magic weapon in the entire party (Tharivol's +1 Keen sword) and the only spell I've got that can hurt them is Persistent Blade.

Also, do you have examples of places where I should add details?

P.S. Do you think I should include information about leveling up?

[Kol Korran]

Just a few ideas:



Characters
< description of race/ class>

characters are more than their race and class. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0610.html) what is their personality? what makes them stand out? why should the reader care?


On the way back, they were attacked by some cats of unusual size. The leader had glowing red eyes, which Tharivol, under some strange compulsion, grafted in place of his own.
what? he cut out his own eyes? put on cats eyes? how? weren't there fatal wounds? how did people react? what were his new eyes like?


Vash Treeno, an eccentric old mystic sent the party on a quest to the Seven Sisters, a group of ancient stone pillars erected by the extinct Ziox civilization.With the help of a Reduce Person'd Aldo, the party managed to enter a pillar and did typical dungeon stuff. They also discovered a door to the Abyssal plane but elected not to enter.
so much to ask... who were the Ziox? why were you sent to the pillars? why did you need reduce person? what was the trouble? why was the door to hell there? why didn't you enter? who wanted to? who didn't?


The Vicar Francisco, hereafter referred to as Frank, blamed Vash for her worship of "pagan" gods. He asked the party to find a set of seerstones located near a hunting lodge.
So... he killed your former patron and you just went on the next quest he offers? something seems to be missing here. didn't you want to avenge her?
what are seer stones? were you supposed to take them with you? if so why did they transport you?


Frank announces that the only way to defeat Maurice is to construct a "Coin of Power". you only know that Maurice had some pirates take over a lighthouse and get some copper and crossbows from there. why are you so concerned? how did he suddenly become so important? did you still not suspect Frank?


And back to your regularly scheduled quest
[SPOILER]
Players: Calmasis, Tharivol, Ezra, Barbo


Upon talking to Frank, I learned that he was a follower of Satoris, an obscure god formerly worshiped by the Ziox civilization. again- more info about the Ziox and Satoris


. He says that once the coin is used, all will be converted to Satoris. He also said the coin would "unleash the very powers of hell". And why did you choose to still follow this through? it sounds like this is a very bad idea in two ways- forcing mass conversion + unleashing hell. what was the group's reasoning for going through with this? it's obvious now you don't trust Frank.


To pass the time, we played a dice based gambling game. I ended up 10gp down but it was still pretty fun. if it was fun, it should also be fun to hear... might you expand on this?


Tharivol received a vision of Vash while dead, and when he returned to life, he discovered that he now had a major Red Dragon bloodline. what sort of vision from Vash? how did he come to get the bloodline?



As we were gathering information in Lut Gholien, we discovered that there was a lizardman named Maurice, head of the local temple to Ahura Mazda. that sounds like an interesting investigation if he wanted to stay discreet. how did you find it out? and who is Ahura Mazda?
side note: are you sure the person with overwhelming evil presence at the bar at first was Maurice, and not say... Frank? how do you know? a letter could have been signed under a different name to frame this Maurice.


where we found a blue portal that teleported us into a random dungeon.
random dungeon? did you know that in advance? why did you choose to go?


The room we arrived in was covered in tapestries. Strangely, one of the walls had Communist symbols including a picture of Lenin and the sickle and hammer. Another tapestry had a picture of The Seven Sisters, a location the party previous adventured in. The rooms appeared to otherwise be nondescript. do you have any ideas why such tapesteries were in the room? what are the charcters thoughts/ guesses? the players'?

about level up I suggest to just put in major things: new classes, possibly an important feat or spell, stuff like that. no need to go into too many small details...

(if this post intereferes with the flow of your log, tell me and i'll erase it)

all in all, sounds interesting, but quite confusing... :smalltongue: good luck!

[Story]

Responses in bold. I'm not sure what to do about some of the questions but I'll see if I can work more information into the previous posts.


characters are more than their race and class. (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0610.html) what is their personality? what makes them stand out? why should the reader care?

The problem is that I'm not sure what their personalities are. With the exception of Barbo, I don't think we've done much RPing. and all I know about him is that he wants to become human again so he can ride his horse.

what? he cut out his own eyes? put on cats eyes? how? weren't there fatal wounds? how did people react? what were his new eyes like?

They're glowing red. I don't know much since it happened before I joined the campaign.

so much to ask... who were the Ziox? why were you sent to the pillars? why did you need reduce person? what was the trouble? why was the door to hell there? why didn't you enter? who wanted to? who didn't?

The Ziox are an ancient civilization, presumably extinct. The door was too small to enter normally. I don't know anything about the rest.


So... he killed your former patron and you just went on the next quest he offers? something seems to be missing here. didn't you want to avenge her?
what are seer stones? were you supposed to take them with you? if so why did they transport you?

you only know that Maurice had some pirates take over a lighthouse and get some copper and crossbows from there. why are you so concerned? how did he suddenly become so important? did you still not suspect Frank?

I think they did suspect Frank. We definitely suspect him now.


again- more info about the Ziox and Satoris

And why did you choose to still follow this through? it sounds like this is a very bad idea in two ways- forcing mass conversion + unleashing hell. what was the group's reasoning for going through with this? it's obvious now you don't trust Frank.

Mainly because we don't have anything better to do. But I definitely want to talk to Halaan when we get back to get a second opinion on the coin. I've also been asking around to try to find out more about Maurice and the coin but haven't had much luck yet.

if it was fun, it should also be fun to hear... might you expand on this?

what sort of vision from Vash? how did he come to get the bloodline?


that sounds like an interesting investigation if he wanted to stay discreet. how did you find it out? and who is Ahura Mazda?
side note: are you sure the person with overwhelming evil presence at the bar at first was Maurice, and not say... Frank? how do you know? a letter could have been signed under a different name to frame this Maurice.

Well we interrogated him in a Zone of Truth. Among other things, he said that the most powerful spell he'd ever cast was Cure Light Wounds. And I didn't see any magical auras except for a weak enchantment aura from his ring. It's possible that he really is the evil guy and using magic to hide his auras, but it doesn't seem likely at the moment. But there's definitely something fishy going on, especially since most of the town recently converted to Satoris.

random dungeon? did you know that in advance? why did you choose to go?

Barbo charged in because he's a 5 int barbarian and we had no choice but to follow. We did at least prod the portal with a stick first and cast Detect Magic.

do you have any ideas why such tapesteries were in the room? what are the charcters thoughts/ guesses? the players'?

I think some of the tapestries might relate to important quest locations, but other than that I have no idea. The Seven Sisters also had a portal in it, but I have no idea what the deal with the Communist stuff is (obviously we don't know what it means IC).

about level up I suggest to just put in major things: new classes, possibly an important feat or spell, stuff like that. no need to go into too many small details...

(if this post intereferes with the flow of your log, tell me and i'll erase it)

It's ok. Most people's logs have reader responses in them.

all in all, sounds interesting, but quite confusing... :smalltongue: good luck!

Edit: I just updated with a description of the dice poker game and leveling up.

[Story]

Between Sessions - Meanwhile back in the past

The DM misunderstood my attempt to research the Frog God's Fane back in Lut Gholein so he let me play it out retroactively. There were several libraries in town that might be useful. I decided to go for the library at the temple of Ahura Mazda.

Unfortunately, I was met at the door by a mysterious lizardman I'll refer to as Bruce, as I never learned his name. He told me to do a bunch of sidequests to prove my devotion to Ahura Mazda and then disappeared Batman style before I could talk to him (no Spot or Sense Motive check). I went inside to look around and cast Detect Magic, but I didn't see anything, though I heard footsteps behind me. Bruce told me to not come back until I retrieved an artifact and referred to me as undead, even though I was disguised.

So, it looks like my only choice is to sneak in. Even if I had the time or motivation to pursue the artifact, Bruce never told me what it was or where I could find it. I'm a bit nervous about trying it though, since Bruce appears to be possessor of Mystical Homebrew Powers (while it may be possible to do what he did within the rules, I doubt the DM bothered to figure that out). On the other hand, the DM did mention sneaking in as a possibility, so at least Bruce isn't supposed to be railroading.


Session Four - The best laid plans of Necropolitans and Hill Giants


Players: Calmasis, Tharivol, Barbo, Ezra, Bren*

* Bren's player initially decided to sit out

We started in the Random Dungeon after a nights rest, with Ezra teleporting in through a Warp Pipe. We decided to explore a different direction this time and tried the room east of the Tapestry Room, which turned out to contain a moldy tapestry as well. Unfortunately, the tapestry concealed a Minotaur and 4 Grimlocks who leaped out and ambushed us. They all did some damage in the surprise round (I got hit for 11, and I forgot to cast False Life first), but after that we beat them easily in two rounds.

At that time realizing that everyone was damaged with Barbo in particular down 47hp, and no healing ability (though my Bitterleaf Ointment helped) we decided to rest again even though it was the first fight of the day. Luckily we avoided a random encounter, so rested, we continued onwards. And this time I remembered to cast False Life.

Past the Ambush Room, the hallway turned into a curving, uneven tunnel. After Barbo got hit by a poison dart trap, we decided to push the minotaur corpse in front of us to trigger the rest of the traps. We also got Barbo to bash up the walls in an attempt to dig out the traps. However, this attracted two Grey Oozes who slowly started advancing up the tunnel. I ran and the party quickly followed.

Back in the Ambush Room, we initially started off a different hallway, but the oozes followed us through a hole in the wall. I proposed that we try to lure the oozes into the room with the electrified floor. With Barbo's massive Climb bonus, he could climb across the walls of the Electric Room, leading the oozes to their doom. He agreed, and I left the room in preparation.

Unfortunately, the plan quickly collapsed. First off, the rest of the party was supposed to run away so that both oozes would follow Barbo. For some reason, they decided to stay and fight one of the oozes, even though we already had a risk free plan to beat both of them. Speaking of which, at this point, Bren decided she wanted to play, so she got rescued from inside the ooze. No clue how she got there from Verdenhaven, but when you have players coming an and out you just have to go with things like that.

The other ooze followed Barbo, who successfully climbed along the walls. Unfortunately, when it was almost in the room, he decided to drop down on the floor ?!! Taking electricity damage the entire time, he walked over and bashed the ooze to death, while the ooze remained safely outside the room. So, my plan ended up executed in pretty much the worst possible way. Meanwhile I was running from room to room trying to figure out what the heck was going on. Oh well, at least we won.

After that, we went back up the ooze tunnel, which turned out to end in giant room with some sort of shrine, complete with chandeliers (Hooray for randomly generated dungeons). As soon as we opened the door, the Bralani inside immediately shouted at us and attacked. I think she was upset about me, being undead, even though she never actually saw me, and I was magically disguised anyway. Anyway, the party quickly surrounded and killed her. I tried talking to her, but she refused to listen (I was still out of sight incidentally).

At this point, the DM grumbled that the dungeon was "supposed to be about what you took with you, and you guys brought only violence". Which I think is unfair since everything attacked us on sight, and I tried talking to everything that looked intelligent anyway. At any rate, after the Bralani died, two Celestial Lions appeared and attacked, bringing my first encounter with Spell Resistance. The right one appeared to be a normal 5HD Celestial Lion, but the left one was much more powerful (SR > 14). We killed the first one easily, but the second one said something like "Until we meet again" and teleported away before we could kill it.

Hopefully this shrine means the end of the dungeon. At any rate, with Bren back we can just wait until she's level 5 and use Thoqquas to tunnel out.