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Kaveman26
2013-02-06, 02:35 PM
The Greatest Story Ever Rolled-Final Recap:

This will be the last campaign recap I write up. All the boxes of old character sheets, scribbled initiative sheets and a veritable boat load of index cards have reached their end.

This final campaign was nowhere near as long as The Big One. It was much leaner on magic items and over the top moments.

If you have read the recaps I have been posting for the better part of a year now, then you will see that we reuse names quite a bit. This is more a matter of being stubborn than creative. I think the names we recycle the most are Gilpin, Paddock, Ven Aus and Vardon. I mention this just so you understand that while some of these names are familiar, they are different characters and unrelated.

Historically we had always been lax on things like encumbrance, light sources, eating, and to be honest logic. At one point we had a guy playing a barbarian, and the dude had something like 11 different greatswords. When the DM raised a protest he showed the math to indicate he was below the weight limits…but he never could explain how he was carrying 11 two handed swords. This ship was run much tighter.

House Rules/Provisos:3.0-3.5 Rules

*No Flight Rule in effect
*Raise Dead etc are available but difficult to acquire
*No crafting skills for magic items. Traps and Mundane Equipment are fine.
*Skill check rolls resulting in 20 are re-rolled and results are added together
*No prestige classes
*Feats at odd levels (everyone gets 1st level bonus feat not just human)

The Players:

Gilpin Burrows: Halfling Rogue3 Str 12 Dex 19 Con 10 Int 15 Wis 12 Cha 13 Feats: Two Weapon Fighting,Skill Focus Disable Device, Improved Init. Equipment: Leather Armor, pair of masterwork daggers, shortbow with 50 arrows.

Vardon The Valorous: human Paladin3 Str 17 Dex 10 Con 14 Int 9 Wis 14 Cha 17 Feats: Power Attack, Cleave and Weapon Focus Longsword Equipment: Masterwork Full Plate, Longsword, heavy steel shield, backpack with iron rations and waterskins. Composite Longbow (+2str) 20 arrows

Jim: Half-Orc Barbarian3 Str 20 Dex 13 Con 15 Int 8 Wis 12 Cha 7 Feats:Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave Equipment Greatsword+1, Breastplate comp longbow (+4 str) 30 arrows. Backpack with iron rations and waterskins, 50 feet of rope and 5 continual light torches.

Echko :Gnome Sorcerer3 Str 10 Dex 15 Con 12 Int 13 Wis 12 Cha 19 Feats:Spell Focus Conuration, Extend Spell, Augment Summoning Equipment: Bracers of Armor(+4) quarterstaff, light crossbow 20 bolts and Wand of Magic Missile 20 charges (3rd level) (My character)

Spells Known: 1st: Grease,Summon1, Magic Missile

Tristin: Dwarf Cleric3 Str 14 Dex 10 Con 19 Int 12 Wis 17 Cha 15 Feats: Combat Casting, Improved Turning, Extra Domain. Domains:Healing,Strength,Law Equipment: Full Plate Masterwork heavy mace, large steel shield light crossbow 20 bolts.

Stormy Night:

In someone’s signature they said 78% of adventures started in a tavern. This is one of the other 22%. We began play in the middle of a hurricane. For days a storm that extended far beyond natural limitations had hammered the coastal territory we hailed from. With no choice we sought protection in the town cemetery, huddled for shelter in an ancient stone crypt.

For nearly two days we sat in the squat stone building…eating meager rations and warming ourselves by a small fire. The storm showed no signs of abating. Jim would periodically force the door open against the winds and peak out to see present conditions. The growing concern for us was the rising water level. The crypt was in a valley and flood waters were nearly reaching the crests at the valley’s edge. Drowning before the first dice were rolled was not an exciting prospect. The waters keep inching higher and higher and soon spill out into the valley…our squat stone crypt soon begins filling with water and we are looking at drowning or going back into a hurricane where objects are flying at terminal velocity.

Gilpin makes a spot check and sees water swirling under a cherub statue in a corner. There is a hollow space beneath it and the water is running off into it. Jim and Tristin go to work smashing the area around the statue to widen our drain plug. Jim gets a bit carried away and starts “power attacking the stone around the statue’s base…he manages to shatter a big chunk of stone and the whole floor of the crypt begins to crack.

Vardon: Of course it’s the half orc that manages to take the floor right out from under us…

The floor does go out from under us and we are swept into an ancient irrigation system that spirals deeper and deeper into the earth. The whole way down Vardon and Jim barb each other.

The irrigation flume dumps us in a cave way below the surface…a cave that is recently disturbed by the excessive amounts of water. The water is murky and visibility is drastically limited. We tie off a rope to a lighted torch and use it like a fishing line to get better visibility all around us. I toss out the torch and then pull it back in…trying to give us a picture of the chamber we are in.

A dire rat is winged by a long throw and it squeeks its anger at me…then it goes rigid as electricity courses through it…something drags it off further in the darkness. We retoss in that direction and find a trio of lizards sitting on raised stones out of the water…one of them dips it’s tail in the water and see shockwaves course the immediate vicinity and another dire rat gets shocked and floats to the surface. Jim and Gilpin hoist bows and pick the lead lizard…they both shoot into the darkened area and Jim strikes the shocker lizard center mass…the wounded lizard makes a hissing rattle and limps into the murky water disappearing from sight.

Vardon: Wisdom suggests we extricate ourselves from our submersed condition.
Jim:Afraid of your shiny metal rusting?

Vardon: I think conductivity outweighs the risk for oxidation given the other inhabitants of this domain.

Jim: Speak Common you babbling idiot *bzzzzzzzzzz* owwwwwwwww

As the two of them jaw at each other the remaining pair of shocker lizards crept into the water and swam up on the barbarian’s flanks. They made a focused attack on the barbarian and just lit him up.

There is a mad scramble out of the water and the wounded hissing from the arrow skewered lizard has drawn in more of the beasts…they light themselves up in flashes to create a strobe effect in the cavern. It is akin to displacement and grants them full concealment and a 50% miss chance. Jim is jumping around and swinging his greatsword and missing with awe inspiring buffoonery.

I put a magic missile into the one furthest away and Gilpin skewers the target flanked by Jim. Tristin puts a cure light wounds into the singed barbarian who nearly takes his head off in response to being touched.

The lizards never make a frontal assault…they dart in and out the murky water and keep up the flashing lights to never let us to focus in. They eventually decide that we aren’t worth the effort and they withdraw from the battle leaving four of their own behind as corpses. This first blood encounter sets the tone for the next fifty…Jim has developed his first character trait…he is terrified of electricity.

Vardon takes point and an on edge Jim brings up the rear with the rest of sandwiched in the middle. Forced to wander around the cavern we eventually locate a shaft leading out of the lizard’s home. We are moving at a good clip and then Vardon and his torch disappear in a yell. Gilpin pulls us up short (no Halfling pun intended) and sees the Paladin at the bottom a pit trap.

Gilpin: Sorry Var…missed the spot check.

Vardon: I hold no ill will…gravity simply made its forces familiar with me.

And apparently Vardon has developed his first character trait as well…he is a wordy and nobbish type. We lower a rope and bring up the paladin. Gilpin reluctantly takes point and he moves at a snails pace searching for traps.

Tristin: Can’t we move any faster? Traps are supposed to be your specialty aren’t they?

Gilpin: Hey…trust me. I know enough about traps and their designs to want to move slowly. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing I know how bad some of these can be. Ignorance is bliss.

Gilpin locates three more series of pit traps, a dead fall trap and a poison dart trap.

Gilpin: This is a lot of work for abandoned tunnel system. I think we stumbled onto something worth protecting.

Vardon: Fascinating. Any portents that allow you to surmise the said valuables location?

Gilpin *stone faced serious*: Yes Vardon…my keen intellect and expansive knowledge lead me to believe that the items worth protecting are somewhere at the end of this tunnel. This same tunnel we have been walking through for hours and hours. Might have been the lethal traps that we keep running into that tipped me off.

Jim: Stupid Paladin…

The trapped tunnel eventually spills out into a mine shaft…a shaft that descends deep into the ground. A rickety elevator system on a pully waits at the lip of the shaft.

Me: Alright Jim you first…
Jim: Why me? I am the heaviest
Me: Exactly.

Vardon: The connections your logic suggest seem fuzzy…surely the lightest party member should test it first.

Me: So…if it holds me then we know it will hold you?
Vardon: Well no.
Me: But if it holds you then it will hold me right?
Vardon: Obviously.

Me: Then if more than one of us steps on it before discerning its weight limits then we are risking more than one of us. So if Jim goes first then we are only risking him.

Jim slaps the Paladin on the back of the head
Jim: Told you that you were stupid.

And with that Jim confidently strides onto the elevator.

He stands there with arms crossed looking smug…and then the ropes start to fray and the elevator creaks…with suddenly wide eyes he leaps off the elevator and goes crashing to the floor as the whole elevator crashes into the darkness.

Me: See aren’t you glad I didn’t step on it first?
Tristin: Yes clearly your altruism has saved us all.

Gilpin takes our tied off torch and pitches it in the hole. The swinging rope reveals the bottom of the shaft…our rope drops 50 feet and it is at least that far over again…so a 100 feet to the bottom. Worst case…the fall wouldn’t instantly kill you, but it will probably kill you 50% of the time or more. We can in theory lower ourselves 50 feet via rope and then fall the remaining 50. The latter is the approach we more go with. One by One we climb down the rope then try to shimmy our way down the remaining distance. Jim and Gilpin pull it off without a hitch. Tristin falls 40 feet and nearly knocks himself out. I fall 20 feet and walk away bruised and Vardon makes a series of great rolls to make it down uninjured. On the plus side…we made it down alive. The negative…one of our torches and our only rope are left behind. We strike a meager camp at the base of the shaft and burn the broken elevator for firewood.

It is cold enough that without a source of warmth we can expect negative consequences. We huddle together and try to get some rest. The following morning/night ( we lost track of time) the group rouses and breaks camp ready to see where the shaft takes us. It leads to a series of criss crossing tubes…barely large enough for us small characters to get through. The tubes are impossible to map out and we recover the same ground numerous times. We finally emerge into a simple stone room with a statue on a raised dais.

The statue is of a Goblin with two peg legs and an eye patch. As we stand there trying to discern it’s purpose a goblin with intricate bone armor and decorations walks into the room. It doesn’t attack us and doesn’t seem the least bit surprised to see us.

Goblin: You hear to seek shelter with Great Chief?
Tristin: Actually we are lost and not sure what we seek.
Goblin: Storm is still going…if it is then you want to see Great Chief. Him smart. Him know what to do.

Vardon: I appreciate your candid desire to work towards our benefit. Forgive my assumptions but your brethren rarely demonstrate the level of restraint we bear witness to at present.

The goblin ***** his eye and stares at the paladin for a long second. He picks up a leg bone from his necklace and carefully walks up to the Paladin. He makes a sign and then walks right up the paladin’s front to stare at him in the eye.

Goblin: You got bad mojo in you somewhere friend. I make prayer to Extra Great Chief. Not sure if it is enough…him say the only cure for Him That Talk Too Much is to lose Him’s tongue. You got that curse bad.

Confused we find ourselves following what appears to be a goblin witch doctor to see his Great Chief.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-02-06, 03:00 PM
Aww, it's sad to see such a great series of recaps draw to a close.

Kaveman26
2013-02-20, 11:12 AM
Goblin Wis-Dumb:

The goblin shaman weaves us through a series of further tunnels and brings us to a well fortified and well decorated underground castle. Goblin families work small sub surface mushroom gardens and for all intents and purposes it is a thriving colony of goblins living in peace.

The shaman cheerfully greets a number of his fellow clansmen and brings us to his Big Chief. The Big Chief is a well equipped and hale older goblin with fine satin robes and a shining magical breastplate. For all intents and purposes he is presented to us as a goblin King Arthur.

Big Chief: My wise man tells me the rains continue to fall. That is sign from Great Big Chief that bad times are here. Great big Chief wants me ask how you get here. Our kingdom hard to find.

Vardon: Gravity exerted it’s authority over the counter weighted contraption that allowed for descent to this territory and we endeavored to escape our previous predictament by maneuvering through the tunnel to these lands.

The shaman turns to his big chief and gives him a knowing look.

Big Chief: You not joke Juan (apparently the shaman) him got the Talking Sickness bad. Great Big Chief have Wisdom. He not make you come or rain come without reason.

Juan: You want me to test them boss?

Big Chief: Yeah. They need test. That will tell us Great Big Chief Wisdom.

Juan the goblin shaman beckons us follow him and dutifully and still cluelessly do so. He leads us to an underground pond and waves us to look in the waters.

Juan: You look. Tell me what you see.
Vardon: My reflection is all that is visible.
Juan grunts in disdain and shoves Vardon into the water.

Juan: look deeper!

Vardon who is wearing heavy armor flails against the deeper than it looks water and begins to go under. Jim dutifully extends his axe as a handle for the paladin to grab onto and as he does…Juan shoves him in too.

Tristin: What are you doing? They are going to drown?

Juan: Big Chief say test you. Best test to push strong man in water. If he sink he is dumb. If he smart he float! Great Big Chief send smart man to help.

Me: they are sinking because of the armor, not their intelligence.
Juan: Great Big Chief does make mistakes. Maybe you mistake. Only one way to know.

As he finishes his sentence goblins pour out of building and begin shoving us into the water. They are not angry about it, just dutiful. They don’t try to push us under, they just stand at the edge watching us struggle. Jim somehow manages to tread water while holding the living anchor that is Vardon and Tristin manages a high enough swim roll to actually move. Gilpin and I easily get back to the edge of the poll and extricate ourselves. We are hardily slapped on the back and welcomed as “honorary citizens”

It’s ugly watching our bruisers struggle to make it back to dry land, but they eventually manage it. Vardon is spitting angry and Jim is happy enough to see him mad that he is actually calm. Juan and several other goblins provide us towels and we are escorted back to the Big Chief.

Juan: They not good swimmers. But they not drown.
Big Chief: You know why rain come?
All: nope
Big Chief: Rain like this mean dead grow.
Gilpin: you are saying this is a divine irrigation?
Big Chief: Irri-what?
Gilpin: Great Big Chief water plants?
Big Chief: No…him water the dead. Smelly body rise up from mud try to eat brains.
Me: Zombies?
Juan: some bees we not worry about. Brain Biters we worry.
Me: No Zom-bies…not some bees…err whatever Brain Biters

Big Chief: yeah them. You go bring me back 50 heads. I give you big blessing from Great Big Chief

Vardon: You wish for us to decapitate reanimated corpses of the fallen and bring back their craniums as trophies?

Juan: You smarter than you look.

Baffled at our strange goblin baptism and unsure of our footing (and location) we agree. Juan is designated as our custodian (somehow our baptism and inclusion in the tribe is also treating us as being owned by the tribe) and he will accompany us to the surface for head whacking. Juan takes us to a vent that opens upward for what seems like miles. Water is trickling down in a steady stream from high above. A saucer carved from crystal is held to the side by a score of goblins. Juan bids us all sit on the saucer.

Juan: We go on ride. It fun.
Vardon: This sacuer is a conveyance? What kind…

A geyser erupts under the saucer and sends us hurtling towards the surface…

Kaveman26
2013-02-20, 12:37 PM
Missing the Rain:

The split second we reach the surface the rain stops. Like someone turned off the faucet stopped. That is the kind of coincidence that breeds paranoia. The clouds disappear in fast forward and Juan grunts as he stretches out his arms and legs.

We get our legs under us and see the cemetery where we so recently sought shelter a hundred yards to our south. The earth around the tombstones is lurching and forms begin scrambling from their graves. Zombies rise from the earth and yank their own headstones free. They immediately begin marching towards us, using their headstones as cover and crude shields.

Juan: Uh-oh. This not happen last time.
Gilpin: Last time? You make it sound like this happens a lot?
Juan: Yep. Last time they not use rocks.

The nonchalance is infuriating. But irritation aside we have shamblers a shambling towards us. Jim and Vardon happily wade into their midst, blades rising and falling with gusto. Vardon lands a critical against a zombie and he buries his sword through the upheld rock and straight through its collarbone deep into it’s chest. A second zombie swings his tombstone like an axe and sunders Vardon’s sword.

Juan: They definitely not do that last time!

Vardon is reduced to shield smashing as he gives up ground calling for a weapon. Tristin has a mace, but he is loathe to part with, and the rest of us have small weapons. Juan pulls a short sword from somewhere and starts hacking kneecaps and tendons. After a few rounds of him crippling the already slow zombies Gilpin has had enough.

Gilpin: Killing them would be far more helpful.

Juan: I can’t kill brain eater! That bad mojo! That why we get you!

What started as a dozen is now a shambling army. Every attack is an attempt to disarm or sunder Jim and we decide to retreat for more favorable terrain. Vardon recovers his sundered longsword and is granted the ability to use it as a -1 dagger. It’s better than nothing. Gilpin and Jim keep up a semblance of offense as they shoot and move with bows. The rest of us scout for better defensible positions, or a place where we can reduce their numbers advantage.

Me: We could go back to the crypt we started in…
Vardon: Drowning would be more preferable.

We crest a small hill with some twisted and dying trees. Jim and Vardon form up at the hill’s edge and Gilpin flings arrows while I put Grease on the hillside. Vardon uses his shield to bull rush shove the ones that traverse the hill and Jim lops off hands with gleeful enjoyment. Tristin wades in for the occasional heal and smack from his mace against the groups that make it up in force. We are doing good and dropping the zombies, but we kill enough that the next wave starts using the re-dead as footholds and bypass the majority of the grease effect. I re-grease a fresh coat and we labor on.

Juan: You are fun. Last time The Great Big Chief send us help they get eaten much quicker.

Me: why do you make that sound like a good thing?
Juan: Because…once they eat you they leave us alone.
Jim: What about the chief’s offer for the 50 heads?
Juan: No one ever done it.
Jim: There is always a first.

Jim rages and go Donkey Kong on the zombies…he starts grabbing corpses and hurling them like barrels down the hill. He rips off limbs and uses them like clubs, eating attacks of opportunity to fling them down and back. The rest of us follow in his wake smashing and hacking prone and rising zombies. Vardon covers one of his flanks and we stampede through the bulk of their forces. The sun breaks out from behind a cloud and the remaining zombies groan at the sun’s rays…then burrow below ground.

We slap each other on the back and high fives go all around. We make a count of collectible heads and come up with 43. 7 short.

Juan: Big Chief not make exceptions. He wants 50.

So we either wait until nightfall…or we dig up the zombies and take their heads. Naturally we begin a half assed mining project with no tools. We end up having to dig at angles. When the sun hits them they just burrow deeper. By going at an angle we are able to obscure the sun and kill them. Well…we make Gilpin kill them. I expend my reserves of magic missiles then we send in the remaining small character to “pull the weeds”. As he gets mauled we yank him out and heal him, otherwise we keep sending him down the hole. We get our seven and stare at the pile of heads.

Gilpin: So…how do we carry them?
Vardon: I am not stuffing those vile post mortem heads in my pack.
Jim: Throw them down the hole.

Ahhh…got to love the direct method.

We send all fifty zombie heads tumbling down the hole and then pause.
Me: How do we get back down there?
Juan: Normally we use lifty box.
Gilpin: I think he means the elevator we broke.

Juan: You broke lifty box? Big Chief not realize that. Now I got to ask Great Big Chief for help.

Juan the goblin shaman reaches into what we are assuming is an invisible pack and takes out a tiny shrunken head. He mumbles to himself then swallows the head. A few minutes later we hear drums…but can’t see a source for them and Juan begins dancing. As he dances everything goes completely black and we lose all sense of direction and location. When the drums stop…the orientation to reality returns and with it the light. We are once more back in the strange underground castle with Big Chief and all fifty heads are arranged in a pile before his throne.

Juan fills him in on the destruction of his lifty box and while is he frustrated, no sudden attacks are made against us.

Big Chief: you all bring back 50 heads…Great Big Chief smiles on you. Him give you a blessing.

As he says that our DM just stares at us with this blank grin for a long and increasingly uncomfortable time. After what seems like an eternity Vardon says…

Vardon: So…?
Big Chief: So what?
Vardon: This blessing?
Big Chief: That up to Great Big Chief. I just Big Chief.

Gilpin: Ok…so can you tell us more about these brain biters? Juan makes us think this has happened before

Big Chief: Oh yeah lots.

More nonchalance.

Gilpin: Do you know why?

Big Chief: Yeah. Great Big Chief have enemy. He make enemy stuck in box. When rain comes enemy swim to top of box and make dead grow. We not allowed to smash dead, so Great Big Chief send us help.

Me: Are we allowed to smash enemy?
Big Chief: Sure. But him lost. No one know where he stuck. Great Big Chief smart like that.

Jim: Can we talk to Great Big Chief?
Big Chief: That require lots of tests.
Jim: Nevermind then.

Juan: They could find Head Shrinker.

A gasp goes up from the other goblin’s in the throne room. Goblin women are feinting and goblin children begin crying. Big Chief is suddenly looking much more menacing and none too thrilled with his shaman.

Big Chief: That worse mojo than talking sickness Juan. Why bring up him?
Juan: They got 50 heads. Maybe they can talk to him without losing smarts.


We are sorely tempted to press the issue there, but decide that isolating Juan and asking him in limited company might be wiser. That opportunity presents itself a short while later and we get brought up to speed on Head Shrinker.

Basically the goblin tribe used to be part of a sprawling and diverse surface kingdom. A veritable Avalon. Then their Great Big Chief went to war with another Great Big Chief and he sent his goblin followers below ground for protection. Over time their connection to Great Big Chief waned and the arrival of undead uprisings increased. Head Shrinker was the parallel to a religious schism. For decades they had used standard holy symbols…he made a super charged version of a holy symbol from the shrunken heads of their fallen enemies and revered dead. His ways were deemed to radical and extreme and he was politely asked to leave the city at spear point. Juan as the ranking shaman maintains a very uneasy “I know where he is kinda, but never talk to him relationship”. Juan also tells us that Head Shrinker is stark raving mad but extremely wise. If we want a lead on why the dead are rising then we need to track down their exiled holy man.

Me: Didn't we see you use a shrunken head though?

The off center little goblin suddenly looks far more dangerous and his response is one step short of a thunderclap.

Juan: If you smart then you saw nothing. We kill dumb ones. Follow?

*heads nod in agreement*

Juan: Good...then we need to go find my dad...

Kaveman26
2013-02-20, 01:30 PM
Difference of Opinion:

Vardon: you are Head Shrinker’s offspring?
Juan: Yeah.
Vardon: Can’t you simply replicate the means that brought us back to your people from the surface?

Juan: not until tomorrow.
Vardon: you can only do that once per day?
Juan: more than once with lots of fiber…

(ponder that for a minute and shudder…we did)

Me: If he is your father why are you too so distant?
Juan: We not get along. He have big ideas.

Juan brings us closer and closer to the surface via winding tunnels and trapped caverns. Direction is hard to guess but we piece together that we are moving miles away from the cemetery. We end up moving through a rancid bog and emerging in a swamp. The swamp is thick and we are probably more at risk of malaria than anything. Juan is getting more and more anxious by the minute and he hesistantly leads us on, constantly surveying the sky and waters for movement. We are introduced to the reason why quite quickly. Trolls wearing wooden armor and bearing large stone axes pick up our trail and begin mirroring our movements.

Juan: Dad made new friends when he left us. They not like us. They not hurt me. You they might eat.

Tristin: That’s reassuring.

We pick up a troll escort and some quick and dirty math tells us that we are hosed if things turn confrontational. We would have to stop and make a fire mid combat to have any chance of actually killing a troll at this point in the adventure and we are still scuffed up from zombies.

The trolls bring us to the center of a floating barge, a veritable city that moves through the swamp. It is there that we meet Head Shrinker.

Head Shrinker is old by goblins standards, he has a wild light in his eyes and his force of personality is strong. His entire body is decorated with shriveled and shrunken body parts. Teeth, ears, shrunken heads and even a few legs adorn his frail form. He walks with use of a cane, a cane carved from the femur of some giant.

Head Shrinker: You are risking life and limb to be here Juan. Turn back now and I can probably save at least one of those you brought with you.

Juan: Had to revered one. Brain Biters are back and this time much w
orse. These are smart guys, they took fifty heads without dying. They want to find Great Big Chief enemy.

The Head Shrinker looks us all over and pauses at Gilpin…he fumbles on a string of shrunken heads and holds one up for comparison.

Head Shrinker: You half-man…did you have a father brother called Pedin?
Gilpin: Uncle Pedin…yes
Head Shrinker holds up the shriveled head…and grins

Head Shrinker: Him say hi
Gee…that isn’t at all creepy.
Gilpin: so you can talk to the dead?

Head Shrinker: Always…
Gilpin: That must be useful.

Head Shrinker: I am never alone..that is for sure. But if you want to find the Great Big Chief enemy, then I think you may end up on someone else’s necklace. Him very bad mojo.

Vardon: you really can talk to the dead through those? Do they make you stronger?

Head Shrinker: Yes…him that barely hears the voice of Great Big Chief…will sound like god yelling in his ear. Him that is close to Great big chief…he have much power.

Vardon: Does this enemy have similar advantage.

Head Shrinker: only my people and my son have this power. Is great mojo.

Vardon: Ok…I am going to make a two handed smite evil attack at Head Shrinkers noggin.

*groan*
Vardon sure enough tries to attack the shaman in the midst of his entire troll tribe. He misses horribly and is immediately set upon by trolls.

At the table we are livid. This is in essence one step removed from suicide.

Vardon: this guy is the only shaman capable of creating a humanoid second coming. He has the ability to amplify clerical power through black magic. Can’t risk him setting a few thousand goblins shamans loose with the ability to topple whole cities. This is the baddest kind of magic available and I will not stand aside and allow him to continue. If I have to die then so be it.

Gilpin: Then pull us aside and explain your thoughts so we can agree on a plan…

We are faced with a grim proposistion. Allow Vardon to be sacrificed and we could go free with a lead on the enemy. Or die alongside him.

We leave him to the Head Shrinker.

Vardon the player is hardly happy with the choice and promises retribution from beyond the grave.

Head Shrinker assures him that the “grave” is the last place he will end up. We are forced to watch as he is executed and harvested for further totem charms. In a macabre sort of appeasement. Tristin is given the shrunken head of Vardon. Eerily we are able to speak with his essence from beyond the grave. Nothing like having a constant reminder of your fellow comrade being killed so you can live with it at all times.

The tone is also established…no kiddy gloves. Consequences are stark .

Vardon re-rolls into a half orc ranger with favored enemy goblins. More on that later.

Head Shrinker tells the four of us (as we are trembling in fear) that the enemy is mortal and can be killed, but the Great Big Chief would not do it. The enemy called NeMack was imprisoned in a soundless,sightless,dark tomb. The tomb floods when the sustained rains come and allow him to touch the world, bringing forth undead minions to torment the world. Over time these attacks have come more frequently and with great intelligence from the zombies risen. He goes on to tell us that because we were the first ones to make contact with these zombies , we are marked. They will relentlessly track us until we are dead, or we find a way to break the spell that animated them. Every night they will come for us, and with dawn and the sun, they will burrow below ground to wait again.

So much for an overly optimistic beginning.

Silverbit
2013-02-20, 01:47 PM
Looking good so far.

Axinian
2013-02-21, 12:24 PM
Jeez. Did you guys know what you were getting into beforehand?

Kaveman26
2013-02-21, 12:31 PM
Jeez. Did you guys know what you were getting into beforehand?

Nope. Not even a little bit.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-02-21, 12:40 PM
Can't say I'm surprised he didn't last long...

Kaveman26
2013-02-21, 01:01 PM
Talking Heads:

Head Shrinker gives us a shriveled and decrepit shrunken head and tells us that it was the last person to seek for the NeMack’s tomb. It will show us the way it took. It will also lead us to a trove of artifacts needed to confront this NeMack.

As a cleric Tristin is the only one capable of bearing the shrunken head and we are forced to endure the two shrunken heads constantly arguing.

Shrunken Vardon won’t shut up and is constantly trying to interrupt our sleep. In that vein we are happened upon by a wandering ranger that hears the incessant shouting and bickering.

Vardon the head happily fills in Nodrav the ranger about his demise and we are then accompanied by a mistrusting and vengeful ranger. Nothing like letting your dead character fill in the blanks for your old character. Nodrav stays with us under the auspices of wanting to find redemption for Vardon, something we are happy to assist with.

Our schedules are flipped as we rest during the day when it is safe and move at night. As we rouse ourselves to move at nightfall we are shocked to find zombies burrowing up from the ground below us.

Tristin: how the heck did they manage to move miles and miles with the sun up.

DM: They have burrowing, they hide from the sun it doesn’t render them immobile. They tunneled their way towards you.

So…we were expecting to have a good headstart on fleeing and create separation to buy time. That now seems like a pipe dream. The undead are popping up all around us, and from round 1 we are surrounded on all fronts. My gnome is grappled and torn limb from limb as everyone scrambles to form up. Tristin manges to mace the one grappling me and get me free, only for an emerging zombie to trip me and drag me below the surface.

They don’t find my body.

Everyone else is hard pressed and fighting for survival. Jim is getting the lion’s share of attention and he has Nodrav firing arrows all around him. Tristin and Gilpin go back to back and just try to avoid getting dragged underground. Juan dances around hacking at legs and smashing knees, but still refuses to deliver fatal blows.

Surviving gives way to full blown fleeing and they all beat feet and take off. Jim yanks free a bow and he and Nodrav fill their faces with arrows on the move as the remaining four try to escape.

I am left to roll up a new character as they run for their lives. I roll…
Str7 Dex 10 Con 9 Int 18 Wis 17 Cha 18. I go Human Druid1/Cleric1/Sorcerer1 I take Spell Focus Conjuration, Augment Summoning and Practiced Spellcaster, and Fleet(higher movement). My mission…flood the field with critters and get the F out of the way.

I name him Twitchy. I fully expect Twitchy to be disposable.

The remaining four PC’s end up in trees Hobbit style while zombies claw away at the bark and trunk. They shoot until they run out of arrows then settle in to wait in a tree all night until day break.

When we probe as to the number of zombies below…
DM: Hundreds…

Dawn is running close and it looks like daybreak will see a chance to move. Enough zombies have gathered that the trees are in danger of being torn down. As the number of zombies grows, they begin demonstrating tool use…this tool use is manifested by a zombie yanking the arrow impaling the zombie ahead of him out and chipping away at the tree with the arrowhead. This behavior is repeated and panic rises up once more.

The world’s worst game of leaping from tree to tree begins and within a few rounds Tristin makes a critical fumble and falls to the mass of zombies below. Gilpin, Jim and Nodrav manage to swing around enough to avoid being consumed. Day breaks and the zombies retreat to the earth. The surviving three run themselves to exhaustion and as soon as they are able to run again they do so. They happen upon a small village and like crazed hermits emerging from the wilds they rage about the impending zombie doom, begging the townsfolk to leave. The townsfolk say they aren’t worried, Twitchy and Jumpy will protect them.

Jumpy is Tristin’s new character. A fleet footed monk/cleric. He has maxed ranks in jump,climb and swim. We made them in tandem and with RUNNING heavily on our minds. Heavily exhausted Jim, Gilpin and Nodrav are forced to rest or pass out. None of us has much money to speak of, but we trade Vardon’s scavenged armor and shield to get some food, arrows and a few bolts. It’s a heavily lopsided trade against our favor, but its something. Before nightfall we are once again on the move and this time we have a headstart on the zombie hordes. Twitchy and Jumpy pay off as they pepper zombies from range with light crossbows and then fall back. As they close distance or we need to catch a breather, Twitchy fills their faces with summoned critters and then we repeat the process.

We cut down zombies, but its not enough to stem the tide. We continue fleeing for two more days, out of arrows/bolts and in little more than full blown retreat. On the fifth night the shrunken head finally speaks up.

SH: A few miles to the east rests the first key we located for the tomb. It is a dreamcatcher forged from spider silk and obsidian. You will need it.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-02-21, 01:13 PM
How did this not end up in the ignominious thread?

Kaveman26
2013-02-21, 01:34 PM
How did this not end up in the ignominious thread?

Because we managed to turn it around in due time.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-02-21, 01:51 PM
After how many new characters? Eight? Nine? Do you reuse characters at all?

Kaveman26
2013-02-21, 01:58 PM
After how many new characters? Eight? Nine? Do you reuse characters at all?

I would have to go through and assemble a hard count. Lots is the best answer I can give.

And no we very rarely re-use characters unless we have the means to raise them ourselves.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-02-21, 01:59 PM
Ffff, wow. And honestly if I had a character bite the dust early on I'd likely use it in a different campaign. I don't have too many concepts.

Kaveman26
2013-02-21, 02:03 PM
Ffff, wow. And honestly if I had a character bite the dust early on I'd likely use it in a different campaign. I don't have too many concepts.

Oh we re-use concepts in different campaigns just rarely in the same one.I think Kemen the dwarf runesmith has popped up in at least four. Vardon the Paladin in even more and Gilpin as a halfling rogue...3+.

Kaveman26
2013-02-22, 10:57 AM
Key To Success:

Jumpy clues in on something and discreetly tells me and Nodrav about it. The zombies initially only target Gilpin and Jim. Only after we demonstrate aggressive actions do they actually recognize and attack us. Ergo…as “new” characters we are not subjected to hordes of zombies trailing us at all times.

There are two ways this can be used. We split the party and let Jim and Gilpin be bait, buying us enough time to grab the dreamcatcher. Or we make sure Jim and Gilpin are eaten, thus suppressing the zombie horde who would have now eaten the original five PC’s.

From a character standpoint Twitchy and Jumpy are not exactly the heroic types. They are cowards at heart. So do we fear Jim’s greatsword more than the molars of the zombies? Also from a meta standpoint. We don’t really KNOW Gilpin and Jim, they are just some raving schlubs that brought a horde of undead into our village. At least the above reasoning is the justification we used to ambush our own party and try to feed them to zombies.

The following night as we are trying to stem the tide and hold the hordes at bay, we wait for Jim and Gilpin to get tied up, then Jumpy attempts to Stunning Fist Gilpin. I put a summoned creature directly behind Jim to delay retreat and commit the first steps in willfully murdering our teammates.

Shrunken head Vardon approves…

Jim begins dropping d20 rolls like the gods of chance are grinning and slapping him on the back. Crit after Crit, Missed zombie attack rolls, and multiple rolls on a 2d6 for greatsword damage that break the 10 mark. He is absolutely cleaning house. Gilpin saves against the stunning fist and manages to tumble into the thick of the zombies. Jumpy loses sight of him in the scrum.

Jim breaks from his zombie slaughter and charges me landing a critical on a roll of 19, he takes me to negatives in a single swing and laughs as I fall.
Gilpin manages to pop up near Jumpy on a great hide/move silent and backstabs him thanks to zombie flankers. He and Jim scoop up the confused Nodrav and Jumpy and Twitchy are no more. Out of character we explain our reasoning and we get some shaken heads and chuckles at the botched assassination attempt.

Tristin/Jumpy rolls his new character and drops 6,6,6,6 on a roll of 4d6. As a house rule that is a natural 20. He then is allowed to roll d6 one at a time…further sixes add 1 to ability score. He rolls 3 more sixes and is celebrating like he just took home the Stanley Cup. From a starting ability score of 23 in intelligence….rises Cinder-La (Cinderella) a fire wizard and mad nutter. His other scores are garbage. Str11 Dex 12 Con 8 Int 23 Wis 11 Cha 9….but he could care less. He starts play as a third level elf (25 int for the win) and makes him a fire based evoker.

Echko/Twitchy becomes Quincy Wigglebottom…Halfling Druid and sling specialist. I rolled Str15 Dex 12 Con 10 Int 13 Wis 17 Cha 16. He takes Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery and Ride By Attack. His animal companion is a Wolf, which he rides.

An unofficial truce is called and we are cold introduced to the current events. So updated roster (lots of turnover here)

Nodrav-Ranger
Gilpin-Rogue
Jim-Barbarian
Cinder-Fire Wizard
Quincy-Druid

My druid fills his packs with as many stones as I am able to carry and periodically I expend downtime to refill my supply of stones. They are flung at a penalty but I just about never run out of rocks. The newest group composition takes advantage of the zombies honing in on Jim and Gilpin and we do the smart thing (and probably what we should have done from the onset). We split the party far enough to prevent being over-run but we stay close enough to provide support. Jim and Gilpin form a train of trailing zombies and the rest of us pick them off a few at a time from range. By peeling a few at a time from the train we attack manageable chunks and begin to put a lasting dent into the horde.

Cinder gets a mass of them burning and we have the sudden “well duh” realization that we should have just lit the whole mess of them on fire to begin with. As the flames take hold and burn, the zombies stop their pursuit…then stop, drop and burrow. They get underground long enough to snuff out the flames, then resurface to take up their chase again.

The strangest game of tag you could ever witness takes place as our barbarian and rogue pied piper the horde towards our goal. The “hundreds” is whittled down into “dozens” and morale is up for the first time since we rode the geyser to the surface.

The shrunken head alerts us that we are coming close to the first key and we are given confirmation of this fact when the zombies all come to a sudden and abrupt halt. Just ahead of us is a copse of trees laced with thick spiderwebs. The zombies stop short a hundred feet from it’s edge in a perfect circle. They will not go closer. Looking to capitalize on this fact we begin culling their ranks from safety. The zombies all burrow deep below the ground, deep enough to make digging them out an exercise in futility.

Our excitement is short lived.

Gilpin: Great…spider webs and a miniature forest that scare off intelligent zombies. That doesn’t scare the hair off my feet or anything.

Nodrav: It would be a good place to rest. We got open sight lines to anything coming out of the trees.

Any attempt to relax or rest is proven impossible. The area has a palpable chill and unease to it that grows the longer we linger. Apparently we are not meant to make camp in this place. If we leave the zombies re-attack us. If we stay and press forward we are dealing with new unknowns while exhausted from most spells and health. Our reprieve has just switched to a potential death knell. The copse of trees might just be our final resting place.

FlurriesRus
2013-03-05, 06:44 PM
I really hope this keeps going, like all of your recaps so far it is quite fun to read and the high body count has been entertaining.

Kaveman26
2013-03-06, 08:53 AM
It will keep going, but right now I am more focused on developing characters and gameplans for picking back up our group in The Big One.

FlurriesRus
2013-03-06, 03:12 PM
Awesome, glad to hear it'll happen eventually.

Kaveman26
2013-12-06, 05:36 PM
Bigger is Not Always Better:

The forest is dense and is littered with spider webs, and we are on high alert for giant spiders. The head warns us to avoid touching the webs, and we circle around searching for any path inwards. Nodrav stumbles on a small pathway that Gilpin and I can crouch our way through, but the rest of the group will have to commando crawl. If even with that the webs are very close to us and the medium sized group members have to roll acrobatics checks to avoid touching, anyone with at least a +5 Move Silently gets a synergy bonus to avoid contact. The reason for the cautious is quickly made obvious. Jim fails a save and touches the webs, and instantly is forced into a Fort Save against contact poison, he fails and takes 1d3 dex damage.

As he grumbles in pain some of the webs start to shake and we spot tiny spiders crawling through the trees. The size of tennis balls, they are dark grey and look spikey. One settles on a branch close to Cinder and it lauches a tiny barbed harpoon from it’s back. The projectile does no damage, but Cinder has to make a Fort Save which he makes. What’s the only thing worse than giant spiders? Freaking tiny spiders that make ranged touch attacks with poison that are damn near impossible to target in return while you are stuck on the ground and denied a dex bonus.

No more than 40 feet in, we start seeing corpses, or corpse signs. Scant tattered clothing, bits of mail, broken sword hilts and the occasional bone adorn the forest carpet. I send my wolf back out, because in this tangle he is useless and I don’t it getting eaten. Gilpin and I try to launch a few slingstones hoping to disperse the spiders but they are quick and hard to hit, and we fail miserably.

Foot by foot, round by round they plink away at us, con damage from the barbs, and dex damage from the webs starts to add up all across the board, and it gets worse the deeper we get, the spiders get larger and the barbed projectiles begin leeching strength.

Shrunken Head: They slow you down and wear you out from the edges, then they sap the strength from your limbs to prevent you from leaving. My group lost 2 before we made it this far, but you are getting close.

Gilpin breaks through to a center clearing first and at the heart of the forest is a spectral form, wrapped in a silky cocoon, it is howling, but the sound is badly muted by the webbing. Above it is a wicker frame dreamcatcher with stones, and bones and thread laid out in it’s center. Cinder identifies the spectral form as a wraith, but one that still possesses it’s former intelligence. Somehow the webs are holding the incorporeal form.

From the rear of the cocoon, a bloated grey and yellow “queen” spider emerges, maybe the size of a housecat, it starts talking to us.

Queen Spider: Leave this place…my sisters will balk at being denied your flesh, but mercy is granted to those who leave my glade of their own accord.

Gilpin: Well shrunken head? Is she telling the truth?
SH: No clue, we turned her down.

Nodrav: We just want the dreamcatcher then we shall leave you in peace.
Queen: It must not leave this place. The Drowned Terror must not see. As those who visit this place must not speak or remember it.

At that proclamation the spiders that harried us at our entrance begin to rush us. They have to enter our squares to attack, so we all get free swings, but with fumes for magic and ability score damage all over the place, we look like drunk little leaguers trying to hit MLB pitching. Jim has it the absolute worse. With his Con and Fort Saves being the best he should in theory make the most saving throws, his dice hated him that day ( a recurring theme) and he is a mess. The spiders die in one or two hits even from a sling stone, but they are tough to hit, and their bite attacks begin to sap at our mental scores as well.

Jim is the first to fail three bite saves and he told to roll d3, he rolls a 1, and is blinded. Without being able to see a target he declared he is going to smash the spiders on him, and based on what he feels he fall forward of backwards. Problem with that plan is that his dex is reduced to the 5-6 range and he can barely feel his hands. So he ends up bellyflopping or prat falling the wrong direction just as often as the right.

Cinder is reduced to swinging with a club and he does get Gilpin a sneak attack against queen spider and he rolls a high damage critical impaling her. The remaining spider’s bug out (no pun intended) and are left alive but in tatters. Not knowing how long the poison will last on Jim we are in a hurry to get the heck out of there before the spiders come back. Nodrav cuts the webs away from the wraith’s face and we are instantly assailed with a screeching howl piercing enough to cause physical pain.

Wraith: GET IT AWAY FROM ME! THE REMEMBERING TEARS AT MY SOUL. A THOUSAND DEATHS ALL OVER TO AVOID THIS MADNESS. END IT! END IT! THE SCREAMS OF A MILLION SOULS AND A THOUSAND GENERATIONS!

Cinder manages to remove the hovering dreamcatcher from above the wraith’s head, but the howling does not cease. We are all for killing the thing and putting it out of it’s misery, but that seems highly unlikely. So we decide to get the heck out of dodge and make a run for it. Or a shuffling, half stumbling literal crawl through poisonous webs. The return trip is made with a +2 “you already went through once” bonus, but we all still make our mistakes and by the third round the spiders begin creeping back towards us, more accurately they are scurrying past us…we hear the sound of something snapping/tearing and as the trailing party member I spot the wraith breaking free from the remaining cocoon.

Wraith: FLESH! FLESH TO MAKE THE AGONY DIM. GIVE ME FLESH!

Me: We need to go faster. Much faster.

Faster is bad. We are about twenty feet from the edge of the trees when Jim fails another dex check, he rolls a 3 on the damage and collapses to the ground paralyzed. Gilpin was the lead character and he gets to safe ground, the rest of us need to climb over/around the fallen barbarian and we all take additional damage of our own. Nodrav gets hit by a spider barb reducing him to 4 str, and he is forced to drop his bow and remaining arrows along with his greataxe in order to continue moving and not be overweighted. Cinder is practically out on his feet (3 dex) and I am on the receiving end of a soon to be famished insane wraith. I scurry over Jim and take a spider barb of my own..knocking me to 3 str, and I have to drop my sling stone bag.

Everyone but Jim makes it safety and see the wraith rampaging through the trees, sucking down spiders like candy and tossing the drained husks to the ground. It seems we have limited time to rescue Jim (or leave him as meat). None of has the strength to to go back in and drag him out. Jim is saved from an ignoble death by our DM making a snide joke.

DM: Well Quincy, your wolf is very appreciative that you let him stay outside the forest.

Me: The Wolf! I’m going to try and lasso Jim with some rope, and they tie off the rope from the wolf’s saddle, the rest of us will aid the wolf and provide any bonuses we can and try to drag him out.

It works, but with drastically diminished strength and a heavy half orc, we are all left exhausted by the work. Gilpin makes a near suicidal return trip in to snag the greataxe and dropped weapons and the four of us still able to collapse all collapse around the paralyzed barbarian.

Our moment of triumph (if you can call it that) is interrupted by the groaning of zombies surrounding the forest.

Gilpin: Oh yeah…them.

With everything else caught up, I felt guilty about abandoning this so I figured I would try to wrap it up in the mean time.

Axinian
2013-12-07, 12:00 AM
YAY ITS BACK!

Btw, who was DMing this and what other characters did these players play in the other campaigns?

Kaveman26
2013-12-07, 08:36 AM
DM is the same person who ran Adversarial, and played Coe-Nan (this is from a long ways back). This was the second campaign he ran, and he learned a lot from his first . The first lesson he learned was not to overload us with magic items, and the second one was to manipulate terrain and utilize special abilities of creatures.

Kemen=Jim

Paddock=Gilpin

Vardon/Nodrav=Silent One

Tristin/Twitchy/Cinder=Indy (he has been the most sporadic person to game with us)

Kaveman26
2013-12-07, 12:01 PM
Stay in the Light

Me: Any minute a raging lunatic undead is going to come charging out from the trees and devour us. Does that sound worse than being torn limb from limb by a horde of zombies while still alive?

Cinder: Honestly never contemplated that as a better/worse scenario.
Nodrav: Anyone have an idea?

(To myself I’m thinking leave them all behind as bait, mount my still full health and full ability scored wolf and get the hell out of dodge…but I don’t voice that)

Gilpin: How far is it to Head Shrinker’s village from here?
Shrunken Head: In a straight line 3 days.

It is a few hours until dawn, and we figure once they dive below ground we should be able to get a chance to rest. We just need to get out the place we are in until then. I volunteer my previously private thought in public with the amendment that I can run distraction for them while they try to drag Jim away. They build a hasty litter from cloaks and pull the barbarian feet first straight towards Head Shrinker’s village while I mount my wolf and run a parallel course to drag the remaining zombie herd away from them.

Everyone is completely spent and dragging Jim leaving them panting for breath and unable to continue every 3-4 rounds, but the distraction is working and I am the sole party member being hounded by the zombie pack. The process leaves me nearly asleep on my wolf and ready to pass out, but we buy them an hour, and with the passage of an hour Jim manages to wobble to his feet and at least stumble upright and in a forward direction.

As dawn approaches I decide to break direction and rejoin the group, only to get pummeled with a wave of thrown rocks…I very nearly get dismounted, but hang on by the fur and get back to the party bloody and exhausted. Everyone collapses knowing full well if anything attacks us or the wraith shows up it is game over.

Eight hours of rest gets a good chunk of ability score damage out of the way, and fresh spells for me and Cinder feel very reassuring. We lack healing spells, and I am loathe to prepare much in the way of healing, as we need just about every offensive and defensive resource online. We resort to healing kit and natural means as an alternate.

We manage two-three hours of daytime travel before the horde reemerges behind us, the pack is noticeably smaller, in total they are under 75 remaining. But each day they have demonstrated smarter and smarter behavior and discretion has outstripped valor by a long shot for these characters. Engaging them is only going to happen as an absolute last resort for the time being. The outlook and attitude is much different at this point. Every spell slot, hitpoint, and skill is being measured for future survival.
Amidst the pursuit we reach a thicker section of non- spider infested forest and Cinder waits for the zombies to string out in a tight line and sends a flaming sphere in their direction. The front ones get hit, but the trailers simply burrow under and come out closer to us once the spell expires.

Cinder: That rules out Web for the most part too.

Despite the rest period, everyone is still banged up and we are pushing ourselves at a hustle so fatigue becomes a factor, especially for the burlier types. They took the most strength damage and it is making them flag. We need to delay the zombies to buy breathing room, and I have to expend my 2nd level spells to summon earth elementals that can burrow and slow down the pursuers. They only last 3 rounds, but that is three rounds of zombies coming to a halt and 3 rounds of getting a little more distance. It gets us a bit of breathing room and the little breaks are enough for us to avoid furthering our negative conditions.

Cinder does expel his further spells and they burrow slower than walking, so the Web does snag some and force the others below. It ultimately comes down to us once again fighting them off to try and hold the night until dawn. We form up in a circle with Cinder at the center and me trailing off on wolf-back from a distance. They hone in at first on the circle and ranged attacks in the form of thrown rocks assault us first.

A funny thing then happens, the zombies once out of their held rocks all stop and stare at the group from a distance of 20 feet. Some of them they turn and begin shambling towards me as the outrider. A little trial and error teaches us they are stopping 20 feet from the dreamcatcher. I get pelted and my wolf get pelted with rocks from stragglers, but we burst back to the safety of the little circle and try to regroup. For close to a minute the zombies just stare at us, then shuffle around looking for more rocks.

We make a fighting withdrawal and move at a run, then catch our breath. When we next settle I burn my single prepared Obscuring Mist, and we get three minutes of peace and quiet while the zombies mill around us. It’s hard to convey the feeling of futility and desperation in scraping out each minute. It was tense. Our tactics had thinned the ranks a bit more, and we were into the sixties at this point.

As the obscuring mist dissipates we all make a frenzied run for it and sprint as hard as possible to get a big break in space. Nodrav blows through every arrow he has, and Gilpin and l lob slingstones from maximum penalty range in the hopes of natural 20’s, then Cinder literally burns through all his remaining spells. I save my remaining spells (Entangle, Cure Light Wounds) for either emergency triage/final delaying tactic. We get a few more down from range, but it looks like we are going to have to fight them in melee or get stoned to death waiting for dawn.

Only thing going for us at this point, is being able to selectively engage at melee. I hold the dreamcatcher at the center of safe zone, while Jim,Gilpin, and Nodrav pick targets to duck and weave against. Cinder creates a natural fire and begins throwing burning piles of branches at the zombies, hoping to start some burning and push some underground. Gilpin gets grappled, and they begin to drag him away and tear at him…so we push the circle towards the grappler and he is forced to recoil, Gilpin is knocked to negative-1 and we stabilize him, throwing him on the wolf’s back.

Jim is below five health, and any single attack could drop him to negatives at this point. Nodrav is badly injured and nearly fails two grapple checks that would have proved fatal. Cinder takes a stone to the head that is a confirmed critical and he crumples to the ground at 0 on the dot. Jim’s rage runs out and it drops him to negatives as well, we get him stable just as the sun begins to rise and Nodrav and I are the only ones left on our feet. We can’t move them all, so we are forced to wait where we are, surrounded by buried zombies and try to rest in those circumstances.

Nodrav: You got a deck of cards on ya?

Kaveman26
2013-12-12, 11:55 AM
Finish Line:

Day 3 is less eventful. Time and additional spells are eliminating ability damage and we are approaching a more ideal set up for defense. We have thinned the herd and now see what works and what doesn’t. We stay ahead of the pack and cull them from range using Obscuring Mist+dreamcatcher to buy reprieves and entangle/web+ flaming sphere to hold some and burn them.
With close to fifty remaining it’s little a war of attrition but we have Head Shrinker’s village in sight by the late-middle of the night and no one has died.

Troll warriors pick us up a few hundred yards out and escort us back in. They shred the remaining 12-15 zombies. We give a ragged cheer to be safe in the village where one of our previous comrades was horrifically murdered.

Head Shrinker is excited enough by our getting the dreamcatcher to order a feast. Everyone gets healed back to full and absolutely hammered on homebrewed troll alcohol. Amidst the celebration Head Shrinker gets on top of a hut and brings the tribe to attention.

Head Shrinker: They have done a great good for us, and it is time for us to make them blood brothers!

Uh…hooray?

Gilpin: Uh…anyone else notice that lots of trolls just yanked out some really sharp knives?

We are grappled and dragged to inclined tables at the village’s center. Once there we are all bound amidst some heavy duty drumming and dancing. Head Shrinker proceeds to carefully cut open our wrists and drain us of blood. Vats of troll blood are magically pumped back into us. We are told that we are being permanently stripped of 2 Con and in return we will gain fast healing 2. If we so desire we have the ability to further sacrifice ability scores to gain further fast healing. Attributes can’t be doubled up. Most of us our content to avoid any further bloodshed…Jim is the exception to that.

He takes a hit to Cha and Int bringing his fast healing to 4.

After our forced transfusions, we are bumped to level 4.

Gilpin Burrows: Halfling Rogue3/Fighter1` Str 12 Dex 20 Con 8 Int 15 Wis 12 Cha 13 Feats: Two Weapon Fighting,Skill Focus Disable Device, Improved Init.Weapon Finesse (dagger) Equipment: Leather Armor, pair of masterwork daggers, shortbow with 100 arrows.

Jim: Half-Orc Barbarian4 Str 20 Dex 13 Con 14 Int 6 Wis 12 Cha 5 Feats:Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave Equipment Greatsword+1, Breastplate comp longbow (+4 str) 100 arrows. Backpack with iron rations and waterskins, 50 feet of rope and 5 continual light torches.

Nodrav: Human Ranger4 Str 16 Dex 15 Con 14 Int 12 Wis 12 Cha 11 Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Two Weapon Fighting, Improved Init MW Longsword, MW Shortsword Comp Longbow (+3 str) 150 arrows, rope, food, water

Quincy Halfling druid4Str15 Dex 12 Con 8 Int 13 Wis 18 Cha 16. Mounted Combat, Mounted Archery and Ride By Attack. Leather Armor, MW Sling (100 stones) rope, water

Cinder-La Evoker4 Str11 Dex 12 Con 6 Int 26 Wis 11 Cha 9 Scribe Scroll, Spell Focus Evocation,Greater Spell Focus Evocation. Quaterstaff, Sling (50 stones)

Hungover, suffering from blood loss and feeling incredibly funky (probably a side effect of the troll blood) leave us in little shape to do a whole lot and we spend 3 days recovering and in the case of Cinder scribing scrolls. With a supply of required paper and ink hard to find he is given some tribal “skin” parchment and blood mixed with some oil as ink. The scrolls he writes function normally, but are subject to some possible side effects. He is also given enough parchment and “ink” for a further 10 2nd level spells.

As we are getting ready to hit the road again, All of us suddenly are forced to make Will saves and one and all we fail. We see Head Shrinker with voodoo dolls fashioned after each of us and he is playing them like puppets, and our actions mirror the puppets.

Head Shrinker: Big Bosses say make sure you not betray us. Think of double crossing me will not end in good ways.

The second item we are sent to retrieve is a tribal fetish to ward off evil spirits. It was stolen from the tribe long ago and taken to a cave far away. Little is given in the way of things to expect and we are more or less shoved out the door and left on our own. Our shrunken head totem guide tells us to head east and look for charms and other tribal markings amidst the trees, that will tell us that we are close.

Not being constantly hounded by a pack of zombies is a pleasant change and we travel uneventfully for a trio of days (+3 scrolls, pretty much stocking up on mist and web spells)

The terrain begins to change and we are encountering rockier/hillier ground. Small charms and scratching are noticed on tree trunks and by the end of day three we are jumping at sounds as more and more wind chimes are hung from branches. We get into full blown paranoid mode and we try to pick up trails and tracks to identify what we might encounter. Jim at point bends down to examine what might be a footprint and half a dozen arrows come whistling from the trees, 2 of them hit Nodrav and the other four go wide but were clearly aimed for Jim and Cinder. The arrows are barbed and well made, but no metal, completely organic. We can’t find a single track, print, or sign of our attackers and we didn’t pick up a sound. For the next hour we get periodically ambushed and then our attackers melt away.

Nodrav makes survival check and realizes that we are maneuvered. The snipers are prodding us towards a specific path. So we decide that means trap or ambush. Gilpin as our best trap/reflex person takes point. Nodrav as our best tracker brings up the rear and we pile up Gilpin, Jim and Myself in the center. We finally catch sight of a goat man with a shortbow taking up aim at us from our flank and from all corners arrows come at us. Jim who finally manages to make a spot check draws his sword in mid charge and rushes the visible archer…and he runs right into a pit trap…reflex saving throw of 2. We are outnumbered 10 to 4 and they have us surrounded.

Nodrav tries to close distance on a clump of 3 and they immediately withdraw. Gilpin makes a spot check and realizes the satyrs are carrying nets and pre looped ropes for binding and he makes the smartest decision possible.

Gilpin: I am surrendering.

Cinder and I follow suit and the five of us are soon subdued and taken captive. The satyrs take deeper into the hills and eventually into their lair. The satyrs number about 20 in total and they are well organized. Their leader is a heavily tattooed and lean predator of a goat-man. The tribal fetish we require appears to be around his neck. The Chief recognizes the shrunken head and demands to know why the trolls are sending us to his territory.

Gilpin:Well we got attacked by zombies and then almost eaten by spiders, and finally we almost bled to death before being told to come here and get the fetish you are wearing or we would be broken via a voodoo doll. Any chance you want to let it go? If so we can be out of your hair in no time flat.

Chief: This is a powerful charm, not one we would let go. It controls our god.

Me: You have a literal god that this thing controls?

Chief: Yes and he will be eating your friend as an appeasement for your trespass.

As he says that we are taken deeper into the cave where there is a pen holding a sharp toothed and filthy ettin. Jim is tossed into the pit along with his greatsword.

The satyrs all begin playing pipes and the Ettin comes to attention, as does Jim.

The ettin hefts a pair of morningstars and we prepare to say goodbye to our barbarian.

Jim immediately rages and charges the ettin…and he rolls a 20, then follows with a 15 to confirm a critical. Rolls a 12 on the 2d6. 40 damage in one swing. The Ettin full attacks him in response and hits 4 of 4 times, and nearly kills Jim in a single round. Rage is the only thing keeping him up. As part of the attack Jim is knocked back a ways and the following round he makes an additional charge attack this time fully boosted as a power attack

Jim takes an upswing and rolls a 19…then a seventeen to confirm and he rolls 11 damage on the 2d6…does nearly 60 damage and kills the ettin outright.

The satyr tribe goes speechless and when Jim comes out his rage he collapses to the ground seemingly dead. The whole tribe is in shock and amidst the panic Gilpin slips free from his ropes and discreetly steals a satyr’s dagger, then slips in the shadows. A few rounds of arguing and shouting follow and then Jim stands back up (fast healing bringing him to positives) and the satyrs watch as his wounds continue to close.

Jim: I am your new god…now run before I take your tear off our legs and roast them on a spit for the mutton!

Panic ensues and for us bound PC’s the daggers come out and we are facing some executions. Gilpin pops out of the shadows tossing us our weapons, while Jim makes the world’s worst climb attempt out of the pit they tossed him. He falls 20 feet and rolls max damage for the fall,knocking him back into negatives. Cinder manages to get free of his bonds and immediately drops a web right on us.

Nodrav: How does that help?
Cinder: Provides us cover and makes them use bows. Buys time for you two to get free.

Gilpin is forced to leg it, as the chief and several other satyrs come at him, and the rest of us get ourselves free and begin to return fire against those pinning us in. Jim makes the climb check and finds himself behind several unsuspecting satyrs. He keeps up his string with another smashing power attack and cleaves a second one.

The chaos becomes a rout as the satyrs flee and we get the four of us back together.

Meanwhile…

Gilpin is in full blown retreat, the whole satyr tribe including the chief have chased him out of the cave and back into the woods, where his lower movement speed is suddenly a big impediment. They are nickel and diming him to death and he races back to the cave absorbing arrow damage the whole way. As he catches sight of us, a trio of arrows pin cushion him and drop him to negative 7. Jim charges from the cave mouth and satyrs flee away from Gilpin…as Jim makes the return back to the cave Cinder uses a web scroll to block off the mouth of the cave and we retreat inside.

Kaveman26
2013-12-13, 12:37 PM
Under Siege:

Me: So…we are pinned down by approximately 20 satyrs that have proven remarkably capable in the forest setting, but don’t seem to be very hardy.

This could work to our advantage. Narrower tunnels means they can’t use guerilla tactics and have to come after us. Disadvantage being we are outnumbered 4-1 and they know their lair much better than us. So…we need to see if there is a secondary entrance.

Jim: I killed their god!
Cinder: Yep…that was awesome.

Jim: That makes me their new god. They need to listen to me.
Gilpin: I don’t think they are going to see it that way.

Jim not to be dissuaded marches to the front of the cave with his greatsword in hand and yells out to the massing satyrs.

Jim: I am your new god. The Old one couldn’t cut it…now stop shooting us and give us the charm!

His only response is a hail of arrows. He quickly ducks back into the cave and glumly looks at us.

Jim: They are not big on faith.

Nodrav: we need to get them inside where they can’t melt away. Clump them up and take em out.

Some hedging and debate gives us the benefit of the doubt that entangle has enough roots and creepers under the ground to work. So our plan is to draw them in and place an obstacle behind them, then flaming sphere and ambush them. We set Nodrav to searching deeper in the cave with Jim, while Cinder and I wait for invaders. Gilpin starts searching the central parts of the cave for anything useful, or any stragglers.

A second entrance is not located and assumed to either not exist or is cleverly hidden enough for us to not detect. Gilpin turns up a few potions and some gemstones, but nothing tactically beneficial. He also finds very little in the way of foodstuffs or drinkable water. Hours pass with no incursion and after turning the whole place upside down and examining every nook we still don’t uncover anything useful.

Come nightfall we begin rotating watches and that is when they begin messing with us. Every 30 minutes then make a quick sortie to rouse us and break up our rest periods. It makes recovering spells neigh impossible. By the second night’s end we are all ragged and hungry. All throughout the day we pick up the scent of roasting meat and we spot the satyrs cooking a stag on a spit, wafting the scent into the cave.

On the third night, they begin playing music…lullabies …soothing music. One by one everyone drops off to sleep and as soon as we are out…they hit us en masse. All hell breaks loose as their initial attack was not at us, but to separate us from weapons. We acquit ourselves pretty well, managing to secure our weapons and return fire. Jim forces bows to drop and the knives to come out, and he is the focal point of their attack. His fast healing pays enormous dividends.

Cinder is tossing spheres, and burning hands like a madman, and Nodrav plays goalie to stop runners. As a direct confrontation we are in good shape.
Cinder actually hits the deck first, taking a pair of dagger attacks that dip him to negatives. The chief ends up facing off with Gilpin and he is clearly the chief for a reason. A flanked Gilpin is sneak attacked to -6 and we are losing the attrition battle.

Jim goes for broke and eats AOO to charge the chief with a full power attack. He rolls a 2 and misses by a large margin. Cinder stands back up from Fast Healing and moves into a spot to hit the chief with burning hands. Jim gets dogpiled from satyrs taking advantage of his AC penalty and they shank him from the mid teens to negative 5. Nodrav puts a critical from his bow into the skull of a flanking satyr and Cinder steps in and delivers a perfectly placed hands spell to roast the clump standing over Jim.

Nodrav and I are falling back to avoid being surrounded and I use my final spell to Entangle as many as I can. We pump stones and arrows into them as they work to extricate themselves and give ground for when they get loose. It buys enough time for Jim and Gilpin to get back up and Cinder uses a flaming sphere scroll to light up the pile. From the smoke and coals the Chief and two of his best troops are still standing. Gilpin takes the chief in his back and drops him, Jim decapitates the second and we subdue the final survivor.

Cinder: This charm your chief had…what does it do?

It looks like a fetish doll, but with two sets of eyes…one wide open and comically large the others narrowly squinted with blood pouring from the sockets.

Satyr: It gives you the gift and curse of sight. Sight of things no sane creature should ever witness. We held it to protect it, and now you have stolen it from us to return to the madmen.

Me: The goblin is a madman?

Satyr: Yes. The witch doctor is insane, he must not have these things. If he does he will be able to open the tomb which holds Nemack.

Gilpin: Would slaying Nemack be bad?

Satyr: It would be impossible. He was imprisoned for a reason. He must not be released.

Jim: How did you get the charm? The Head Shrinker said you stole it.
Satyr: It was given to our chief by the monster for us to safeguard.
Cinder: What monster?
Satyr: A floating head with eight eyes, too terrible to imagine.

All: A beholder…oh crap.

Superblack
2013-12-19, 10:11 AM
I'm loving this, like all your campaigns.

Kaveman26
2013-12-20, 01:18 PM
Sacrifish

Nodrav: So who do we trust? The goblin witch doctor that slit our wrists and made voodoo dolls of us, or the crazed Satyr’s worshipping an Ettin in a cave?

Me: We don’t trust either, but we can’t exactly double cross the witch doctor with the voodoo dolls.

The group puts itself back together and makes their way back to Head Shrinker’s village. And once again the goblin is impressed with our endeavors and rewards us with a further “blessing”. This time we are stripped naked and forced to crawl through a bed of burning hot coals while the tribe chants at us. The further we make it before passing out, the better the blessing. The blessing gives us all permanent fire resistance ranging from 3 (Me ) to 6 (Jim).

Head Shrinker next decrees that we must travel by river to a temple where the third and final artifact is held. To this end the trolls have fashioned a crude but sturdy river raft. It is large enough for us all to fit comfortably aboard and we are shoved off downriver to jungle territory. There is a lean to tent on board, and Gilpin and I alternate turns mounting the “mast” which Is really just the pole for the tent, but we are small enough and light enough to climb it. Gilpin spots our first bump in the water on day two. A thick and tangled nettings lines the river from bank to bank, As we try to steer the raft to ground and avoid getting netted, lizardfolk with harpoons and blowguns begin assailing us from the riverbanks. Some even have grappling hooks they are aiming at the raft with , and it becomes clear they are steering us to the net.

Jim manages to snag a harpoon that landed on deck and he rolls back to back 20’s on a thrown roll at a lizardman…skewering it through the chest and killing it instantly. He then drags the corpse from the banks directly back to the raft like a fisherman, and proceeds to use it like a tower shield. We are flinging spells and missiles like mad, and the net is closing in. We are getting ready to jump ship and risk the waters as opposed to being entangled when Jim decides to drop his murdered lizardman over the side like an anchor, he then charges off the raft leaping at the net, swinging his greatsword in a two handed overhand chop…rolls a 19 to sheer through the netting and shred it in half. A cheer goes up, then quickly falls as he botches the roll (2)to climb on the rocks to get out of the water. He ends up tangled underwater in the netting being dashed against a rock.

With the netting gone the lizardmen all bug out and run into the surrounding brush. We extricate our half drowned half orc from the river and drag him on deck. He insists on retrieving the lizardman anchor claiming it is good luck. Being a bit ticked off over the botched ambush we do what any adventurers would do…we decide to track down the lizardfolk.

Gilpin: We can’t just leave the raft.

Jim: The raft comes with us. Can’t leave it now…we just got a masthead.

Every one turns to see that Jim has taken down our tent and more or less build a frame to tie the dead lizardfolk to the front of the raft like a figure on a ship.

We snap off the heads of some harpoons and use the poles to make runners under the raft (now more a sled) and begin tracking down the lizards. Their camp is a small crypt a mile or so inland. As we approach we spot a pair of sentries standing above an opening in the ground. We dogpile and overwhelm the sentries and wait to see if anyone else shows up. When they don’t we make plans to enter their lair. Well kinda…

Cinder recommends that we add fire…something his character is a bit obsessive over, Gilpin wants to set a trap for when they exit and Jim just wants to smash something. Nodrav recommends doing all three. Cinder sends a flaming sphere down the hole while Gilpin and Jim prop the raft up on it’s side with a couple of harpoon poles holding it up. When another pair of lizardmen pop up we missile attack them, then drop the raft on their head.
As the raft drops into place sealing off the crypt we all stop and look at each other. Jim and I smirk and at the same time we both throw our hands into the air and shout at the top of our lungs

Jim/Me: DAS RAFT!

Our DM sighs and facepalms.

The dead lizardmen are piled on top of the raft and we leave it on top of their lair’s entrance while we all cheerfully begin gathering flammable items. We joke about a sense of Déjà vu and then begin plans to smoke them out.

As we prepare our reptile bbq, a gaseous form seeps through the gaps in the raft and we everyone grabs weapons as a lizardman caster begins to materialize.

Gilpin: Good work around to get out…bad timing to get ambushed by five guys at once.

The caster doesn’t even complete an action and destruction of the remaining lizards is a moot point as we slaughter them. We have to talk Jim out of taking multiple corpses along with us, and he is persuaded to keep his one lucky corpse instead of dragging the whole den. The den itself is a wash for usable items. We take every piece of rope, netting, and the harpoons, but nothing of true value.

We continue Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn’ing it down the river and the water spills into a verdant and lush jungle valley. At the center of the valley is a towering steppe pyramid of polished limestone. We pull the raft to the river bank and decide to make camp for the night. Jim props his dead lizardfolk up by the fire and the rest of us make our bedrolls just outside the firelight a ways away. As we are getting deep into the net, a series of bolas and darts come from the dark and pepper our already dead new friend. A raiding party of gnolls in elaborate mayan inspired headdresses and garments enters our camp and finds out our little ruse. We attempt to ambush the ambushers and find that it was actually a ruse to flush us out as a second and third raiding party quickly subdue us and take us captive.

We are marched to the pyramid’s top where an alter complete with blood grooves awaits.