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Kaveman26
2013-10-18, 02:56 PM
If you read my recap The Big One, this is the results of picking things back up this year. I would highly suggest reading the full events as listed in my signature before reading this.

After a long hiatus, several players relocating and even one player passing away we got the gang back together and resumed playing...so far we have four gaming sessions and sporadically we will continue on for at least the near conceivable future. I am in the process of recapping and typing everything up and while they may be semi sporadic for the next few weeks they are coming. I have what accounts to more of a prologue/summary and brief intro ready to post today.

A few notes:

*The No Fly Rule is Gone. Flying is now on the table

*No Res Rule is still in place.

For the Birds:

Having a character sheet and a pile dice in front of me for the first time in what feels like ages is a good feeling. Even better is the knowledge that we have returned to a group of characters that feel nearly alive on their own. The group has changed to a certain extent. Marilius, Kemen, Paddock are all still present (Paddock via skype) but Silent One and Coe-Nan are “gone”. In game it is deemed they have moved on to other calling and while not deceased are not a part of current events. A new player (Indy) has arrived playing a Bard/archaeologist.

Character Sheets are presented for examination and some sourcebooks are consulted, but for the most part everything is cleared for approval and it’s all systems go. For story purposes we are picking up approximately one month after the frantic battle for Cinhill Rue. The academy itself is gone, ascended to a different plane where the Asgardian Pantheon now reigns. It is that particular event that “explains” some of the drastic changes in character and ability. With the Asgardians running the show things have changed accordingly. Odin,Thor, Loki, Hel, Freyja, Lloth, Morradin, and a few other lesser deities are all that remain. Oh…and the Parrot. Many of the Planar refugees are still stuck on our Plane. Demons, Devils and Angels in much greater quantity than typically expected now roam the world.

The Parrot according to what is relayed to us is consolidating power. The capital nest is still in Flynt but he now has Solar captain’s maintaining roosts throughout the lands wherever a dragon abandoned it’s horde. These hordes have been converted to bird’s nests for the most devout Solars in his service. A good portion of the angels who flocked to him have fled and returned to their traditional roles. Despite that he still maintains a sizeable force of planetars and solars. Griffons, Harpies, and sphinxes a plenty are still bending to his will.

What rumours we sift through tell us that he indeed has an heir apparent. One that he is shaping to be a true tyrant. Any pretense of diplomacy or rationale seems wasted. You can’t reason with the bird unless it wants to be reasonable. Coupled with that is the core problem of what kicked off most of it’s hijinks. As far as we know…it has no weaknesses to speak of.

We know for certain there are at least six dragons of note recently deceased that could be serving as corrupted solar lairs. During the assault on the World Tree we killed six formidable dragons that presumably left hordes behind. From divinations and intelligence gathered by Androka and Wind we surmise that the Parrot is seeking an elusive horde to serve as a nest for his son. A horde that ages ago we were unable to locate. When the crew of the Titan’s Pride killed Emberbane his horde was never discovered. Now several years and levels later we have a lead on where the Parrot could be going next. If he is it seeking alone, or as part of a small honor guard it is our best chance to avoid a frontal assault against Flynt. We call it a coin flip as to whether he has bodyguards. To our knowledge he has never expressed any concern about his own well being aside from the times when it was done for comedic effect.

Basic Character Breakdowns:All Level 16

Kemen Sarn-Runesmith/Abjurer
Heavily armored and highly focused on abjuration spells and some blasting ability. Principally a craftsman and now one of the highest ranking Merchant Princes of the dwarven community. Blunt and Clever he our team leader in both execution and planning. In concert with Kemen is Beordie, a sentient and self functioning suit of armor imbued with the spirit of a dwarf wizard and craftsman.

Paddock Odinson-Cleric of Odin
A well equipped warrior cleric and wanderer. He is the high priest of Odin and in many ways his functioning representative on the Material Plane. Primarily a charger from the back of a flying silver bear. Feats are oriented towarding channeling and charging.

“Indy” (We ignored his character name from the moment he said he was an archaeologist)
A highly skilled trap disabler, and summon spammer who has an innate ability to rig just anything as a trap. He entered the story by meaning of being one of the last researchers kicked out Cinhill Rue before it went extraplanar.

Marilius-Bugbear Rogue (Scout/Sniper)
Face of the group and a UMD utility man plus archer. Was gifted by Odin with the abiliy to shapechange into any form in which I have had intimate contact with.

Our first return session is above all else a brainstorming marathon. As matters stand our group power level is at the highest it has ever been. The quality of our opposition is even greater…Solar’s on paper are just downright tough. All efforts at stopping the tidal wave of Parrot inspired destruction are going to involve clashing with his remaining Solar Captains.

Brainstorming Action Items:

*We have to discover some manner of weakness or vulnerability to the Parrot. So far the only thing we know is that he has never shown any harm from the result of physical or magical attack. He doesn’t like crackers but it’s not like they hurt him. Sadly we have never encountered anyone that knows anything about the damned thing. We endeavor to somehow track down the pirate that sold him to Coe-Nan in the first place. Our DM shrugs his shoulders “Figure it out”.

*If we can find Emberbane’s horde first we not only get a dragon’s wealth but we have a chance to prep territory to our best advantage and lay an ambush. We work best when we have a chance to set up and control circumstance.

*The offspring of the Parrot may not share his sire’s prodigious powers, could be a point of leverage. The Parrot has shown (in it’s own eccentric fashion) a sense of loyalty and duty to his son.

*If we can turn the remaining angels back to their natural origin and get them away from the Parrot’s influence that will undermine a great deal of his power.

*When in doubt we can make a full frontal assault against Flynt.

Marilius: So what’s the first step?
Paddock:Yeah…about that. We have been doing some thinking and the guys and I came up with a plan.
Marilius:K…the plan being?
Kemen:Well…hear us out. We thought this through and think it’s a good start
Paddock:We need intelligence on what is happening inside Flynt, ideally with the Parrot and his offspring. To do that we need infiltration of the nest.
Marilius:Yeah we established all that.
Kemen:…so we need an inside man, except Men are not really allowed. We need an inside bird.
Marilius:So we use invisibility, alter self, polymorph…
Paddock: We are assuming True Sight from the Angels and Magical Detection in general from the Parrot. Can’t risk those.
Marilius: I don’t follow what you are getting at.
Kemen: Your Odin gift is a supernatural ability. Whatever you shapechange into you become while changed. True Sight is non applicable.
Marilius: Still lost.

Indy: I will praise it a bit differently since they keep beating around the bush. We need you to ruffle the feathers of a harpy or sphinx and then bring her back to the love nest for some Barry White Action. The next morning you make her breakfast and we have our bird man…

Marilius: You guys really know how to ruin the fun things in life don’t you?

Silverbit
2013-10-18, 08:01 PM
Yay, another one! Good to see you back Kaveman. I will be awaiting this with pleasure.

Axinian
2013-10-18, 08:31 PM
I have only this to say


OMG!!! KAVEMAN'S BACK!!!!!!!!!!


Nice to see another one of these!

Deffers
2013-10-18, 08:55 PM
YESSS! Dude, I am a HUGE fan of all your campaign logs. Glad to see you back in the campaign journal saddle!

J-H
2013-10-18, 09:09 PM
Hurray! It's back!

I have enjoyed all of these posts.

Averis Vol
2013-10-18, 11:23 PM
Hay! nice to see this going again! theres been many other campaign recaps since you finished, but none have been nearly as entertaining. Looking forward to reading this.

Brookshw
2013-10-19, 12:04 PM
Woohoo! Glad this is back.

FlurriesRus
2013-10-21, 05:48 PM
This makes me very happy, I just finished rereading your other logs and now there's more.

Kaveman26
2013-10-23, 11:14 AM
Birds of a Feather:

The “Plan” is executed flawlessly. Marilius desperately needs an extended shower but he successfully acquired the ability to now Shapechange into a Harpy at will. The cost…was very high.

It is agreed that everyone owes me big time, but the immediate thought is for me to work my way from the fringes of Parrot territory and get to the central nest where I can be a spy. Kemen and company are going to be searching the Hullbreaker Island chain looking for leads on Emberbane’s true lair and location of his horde.

Flying in towards Flynt I remain unchallenged for some time, but the deeper I get the more scrutiny all sentient beings find. Planetars begin flanking me mid flight like F-14’s and the attention of their scrying and detecting is apparent to me. That is about when things go wrong.

Planetar to his wingman: Is it just me or is this the cleanest harpy you have ever seen?

Oh crap.

The second Planetar nods and they basically direct me to the ground.

Planetar 2: Where are you from little one?
Me: Hullbreaker Islands, made the long flight to pay homage to the OverParrot
When I shapechanged my gear changed size to fit my new appearance, but I couldn’t exactly go around with everything strapped up in harpy form. So as is, I have a very small bag of holding with my bow and several wands tucked under my feathers and fairly well hidden.
Planetar2: What took so long?
Me:Word was slow to reach the island?

They are leery but not outwardly hostile. They perform the magical equalivent to a strip search and greater dispel me in massive abundance…no result. They cease to detain me and as soon as they are out of sight I make it a point to dirty myself up something fierce.

Meanwhile…

Androka: Sorry Kemen…we can’t find a single pirate with a peg leg and an eye patch anywhere in the world.

Kemen: Argh.

The trio of Kemen, Paddock and Indy have been scouring the island chain near the hullbreakers for a few days. Paddock in the air for an overhead view and Beordie tramping beneath the waves on the ocean floor.

They are operating on a few assumptions. Emberbane being an ancient red dragon was not likely scared or worried about other dragons making a move on his turf, more likely his horde was hidden to prevent scavengers or blitzkrieg raids. So it was likely somewhere proximate to where he stayed most of the time, but difficult enough to access as to prevent pilfering.
Somewhat baffled they have Paddock re-prepare spells the next day and basically play 20 questions with Commune.

*Has Emberbane’s horde been discovered after his demise? No
*Is the person who owned the Parrot before Coe-Nan still alive? No
*Does the Parrot have a weakness? No answer
*Is Emberbane’s horde within a hundred miles of the Island Chain? No
Is it possible to find the horde? Yes
Is it north of our current location…No
South? No
West? No
East? No

WTF….

This prompts the most agonizing question and response
Is it on the Boat? Yes

That answer brings about a near mutiny at the table. Kemen, Paddock and Indy are functionally removed from the remaining gaming day as they go through an avalanche of investigative techniques to re-search the Revenge.
As they try to locate a dragon’s horde aboard our floating home I try to infiltrate deeper into Flynt when I hit a large snag. The second harpy I encounter wants to talk…and I don’t speak harpy. So much for a seamless spy campaign. I end up being chased from the heart of parrot territory being pursued by myriad winged pursuers.

My failed incursion tells us that security is tight. I end up joining back up with the group who have torn the ship apart from stem to stern. We eventually backtrack to emberbane’s abandoned lair and end up reminding ourselves that we found a flute from his lair that much later ended up being the key to the Revenge. We also track back the original Emberbane journal which alluded to warnings about turning the key.

Marilius: So the horde is somewhere on the ship?
Kemen: The flute is probably a key that opens up the location to the horde. Maybe even a separate plane. It just so happened to fit in our ship too.

Paddock: Odin has gone silent upon further attempts to communicate. We are on our own from here.

We settle in to exploring the flute and trying to discern any spell tunes or settings that made be the key for what we are trying to find. DM tells us that we can perform an exhaustive study of the flute but that it will take the better part of a week.

Flute investigation becomes a back burner “its happening off camera” type activity and we steer our efforts to tracking down the dead pirate that previously owned the Parrot.

Complicating any manner of grunt work back tracking is that the world is basically in rebuild mode and so many people were displaced it’s hard to find people that lived in the city where we bought the parrot. The harbormaster (who miraculously survived previous events) tells us that we won’t find any information in the city. Conspiratorially he tells us to meet him in a cove just outside the town at midnight.

The Harbormaster awaits our ship in the Cove on a calm and moonless night. With great care and a clear amount of trepidation he tells us the following.
“Not so long ago strange happenings were visited upon all those who once sailed the oceans and sought their fortune on the sea. What were once thought of as merely old sailor’s tales became much more ominous and foreboding. Any man that has served for a duration upon a vessel will tell tales of Davey Jone’s Locker, but those who serve long enough, know it to be a real place. If you want to find your missing “pirate” it is there you will need to venture. I won’t bother to warn you, because I can tell you are the kind of men who balk in the face of no danger, but I will inform you that the dangers and threats in the locker are real. “

Kemen: How do we find this “locker”

The Harbormaster takes out a net coated in seaweed and opens the net to reveal a will o wisp that seemed soaked and semi solid, like an aquatic wisp.

Harbormaster: It will lead the way.
Indy:You just happened to have an aquatic wisp?
Harbormaster:Strange times have led to strange finds.

We had already established the Revenge was capable of underwater excursions, but any new location sets our hairs on end. The four of us pilot the Revenge below the waves and follow the wisp towards the Locker.

Brookshw
2013-10-23, 04:00 PM
Just going to toss this out Kaveman, the only reason I bothered to register on giantitp was to plug the first installment of this campaign to someone looking for good campaign journals. Great job and thanks for posting!

Kaveman26
2013-10-24, 07:55 AM
I felt obligated to throw this out here. Mostly cause I was pretty stoked about it. It may be sometime away in terms of getting posted, but the Parrot has met it's final outcome.

I won't say anymore than that, just encourage people to throw up their ideas of what you think happened. I sent a private message to myself just to time stamp the actual outcome.

Scow2
2013-10-24, 09:06 AM
The “Plan” is executed flawlessly. Marilius desperately needs an extended shower but he successfully acquired the ability to now Shapechange into a Harpy at will. The cost…was very high. He should have chased the Sphinx instead :smallwink:

Averis Vol
2013-10-25, 02:25 AM
I can't imagine that Parrot going down as anything less than 100% epic, as such I'm even more stoked for your next update as it gets us closer to that goal. Nice job man.

Garaygos
2013-10-25, 08:17 AM
I just have to reply, to say that "enthusiast" is not enough to describe the joy of seeing you posting another of your campaign logs.

Also, I blame you cuz I had to re-re-read the overgnome and chaotic goodfellows, and I'm starting over the big one again ;)

Thanks, and congratulations, your logs are a pleasure to read. They almost make me feel like wanting to play D&D again :p

Axinian
2013-10-25, 12:21 PM
I felt obligated to throw this out here. Mostly cause I was pretty stoked about it. It may be sometime away in terms of getting posted, but the Parrot has met it's final outcome.

I won't say anymore than that, just encourage people to throw up their ideas of what you think happened. I sent a private message to myself just to time stamp the actual outcome.

Was he Pazuzu? Would not be surprised if he was Pazuzu.

Joe the Rat
2013-10-25, 12:48 PM
I've been waiting for this one. Whatever happened to mini-meatshield?


Thanks, and congratulations, your logs are a pleasure to read. They almost make me feel like wanting to play D&D again :p
Indeed. OotS and DMotR piqued my blood, but it's these writeups that got me actively looking again. I just wish my current groups were a little more Homeric and a little less Homer Simpson.

Kaveman26
2013-10-25, 03:42 PM
Was he Pazuzu? Would not be surprised if he was Pazuzu.

Nope Pazuzu has a 100,000 year waiting list filled by legions of kobolds psions with candles all waiting in line.


I've been waiting for this one. Whatever happened to mini-meatshield?

The guy that was going to play "Tink" the tiny armor master dropped out from playing as did Chulainn "The Silent One". Too many other obligations to commit to a regular schedule (or an irregular schedule for that matter)

Averis Vol
2013-10-25, 04:12 PM
Was he Pazuzu? Would not be surprised if he was Pazuzu.

The birds a little too tame to be Pazuzu. I want to guess that he's some kind of shapeshifted Alaex seeing as it can't be killed. I can't think of any other kind of effectively immortal creature.

Kaveman26
2013-11-04, 12:04 PM
The Davey Jones Hurt Locker:

The Wisp takes us deep below the ocean floor and wanders for many miles. It eventually comes to a stop at a small corral formation and a spectral whale of pure ivory festooned with harpoons rises from the ocean floor. The wisp vanishes and a telepathic voice beckons us to abandon all worldly items before proceeding. The Whale’s mouth opens and the water around us disappears while still being there.

We haggle for clarification but the jist of the whale’s instructions is that we must leave all equipment, armor, weapons and items behind except for the clothes on our back. The casters grumble but acquiesce, my rogue quibbles a tad bit longer but caves in and strips down. We walk the ocean floor surrounded by water that doesn’t touch us and enter the whale’s mouth. The darkness of the whale’s maw gives way to a ghostly graveyard that runs on for what seems an eternity. In place of tombstones are ships, all lashed together with rope bridges and gantries. The place is coated in an eternal dusk and the air is chilly and stale. There is no real ground, just a rolling void of shapeless not quite black that looks like it should make the boats sway, but doesn’t.

Worth Noting for Later:

Kemen’s Spells:
1st:7+1:Shield Magic Missilex7
2nd:7+1:Resist Energy,Webx2,Flaming Spherex3,Magic Missilex2 (shared)
3rd:6+1:Protection from Energyx3,Fireballx2 Hastex2
4th:6+1 Stoneskinx4,Wall of Fire,Stone Shapex2
5th:6+1Break Enchantmentx2,Dismissal,Major Creation,Wall of Stonex2,Wall of Force
6th:5+1GDMx2,Wall of Ironx2, Chain Light,Mass Bear Strength
7th:4+1Banishment,DBF,Forcecage,SM7x2
8th:3+1Prismatic Wall,SM8,Mind Blank,Incendiary Cloud

Paddock’s Spells: Domain are all in Travel Domain
1st:7+1Divine Favorx3,SM1x4
2nd:6+1Spiritual Weaponx4,CMwx2
3rd:6+1searing light,dispel magicx2,cswx2,speak with dead
4th:6+1restorationx3,sm5x3
5th:6+1Flamestrikex3,RMx3
6th:4+1Blade Barrier,Healx2,Greater Glyph Of warding
7th:4+1Holy Wordx2,Greater resto,SM7
8th:3+1Mass CCW,GreaterPlanarAlly,SM8

Indy Known Spells
1st:(6)Cure Light,Grease,Unseen Servant, Silent Image, SMI,Expeditious Retreat
2nd(6)Cat’s Grace, Cure Moderate,Eagle Splendor,Glitterdust,Invisibility,SMII
3rd:(5)Cure Serious Wounds,Haste,Displacement,Charm Monster,Remove Curse
4th:(5+2)Break Enchantment,Cure Critical,Freedom of Movement,Greater Invisibility,SMIV,Bestow Curse, Wall of Fire
5th:(4)Greater Dispel Magic,Mind Fog,SM:V,Greater Heroism
6th:(2)Mass Cure Mod, SM:VI

Beordie Spells
1st:6+1Ray of Enfeeblementx7
2nd:6+1Webx6 Command Undead
3rd:5+1Ray of Exhaustionx3,Dispel Magicx3
4th:5+1Enervationx6
5th:5+1Waves of Fatigue,Mind Fogx2,Cloudkillx3
6th:4+1Symbol of Fear,Acid Fog, Wall of Ironx3
7th:2+1Finger of Death, Greater Arcane Sightx2
8th:1+1Horrid Wilting, Incendiary Cloud


Kemen approaches the first sailor in sight and bluntly asks if he knows where we could find The Parrot’s past owners?
No sooner are the words are out his mouth than a crack of red lightning arcs across the sky and the whole world blacks out for a moment. We are all instructed to roll a d6, and the corresponding roll results in a point of ability damage.

1 str
2 dex
3 con
4 Int
5 Wis
6 Cha

Paddock: Don’t think we are supposed to speak about you know who.
Indy: Anyone track where the lightning struck.

Perception checks yield that Kemen caught the general proximity of the lightning strike (as close as you could expect from something so random) and we head in that direction. The Locker is from our perspective a purgatory or repository off all deceased seafaring peoples and races. We spot races and cultural styling of multiple ages and civilizations. After an hour of travelling across juryrigged planking and bridges we find a segment of ships that seem altered. We also are all forced to roll and additional d6 and take more stat damage.

Seated at a table and still smoldering is a spectral….lawyer? Immaculately tailored, well groomed and as far from a one legged pirate as is humanly/ghostly possible. He has a massive stack of documents to his left and he seems to be filling them out and handing them to random ghosts in a never ending stream. He barely even pauses and speaks without looking up.

Lawyer: I am the one you are looking for, but I fear you will be disappointed.
Marilius: You are the previous owner of the avian fellow we spoke of?
Lawyer: Time vanishes in this place…I once owned it. How long ago I don’t know. Too much of my memory has been removed to be certain. All memory after I acquired it is gone, I can only remember that which came before.

“I worked for a prominent law firm. We settled any number of maritime inheritance and salvage issues. I had a strong income and stalwart reputation. Then it happened. A case went far past the probates for inheritance and no claimants stepped forth to bid on the property. It was a coastal lighthouse with six vessels, all seaworthy. Greed took my senses for a minutes and I placed a 1 gold piece claim on the property. When the legally required amount of time passed I took procession of the lighthouse and the vessels. I found IT in the hold of a ship, congratulating me on my new pet. That is the last thing I remember”

Paddock: What is the paperwork you are filling out?
Lawyer: I am paying off debts…I don’t exactly recall which debts, but I know they are important.

We are absorbed enough in the conversation and focused enough on determining further questions for the amnesiac ghost that we don’t notice the line of ghosts waiting on their debts getting antsy. Indy is in the back of the group and a ghost taps him on the shoulder…draining 1d4 Wisdom. It shudders like a smoker lighting up the first cigarette of the day and suddenly are quartet is no longer an oddity, but now being looked at as a snack.
Note the prepared spell lists above…

Note my lack of any equipment…

Guess what role I am pushed into after my selfless harpy swooning?

Kemen: Mar…get up front and be our literal meat shield, Paddock will heal ability damage as it gets low.

I get turned into a bugbear joy buzzer as we backpedal towards open areas. Paddock and Kemen start up a barrage of spiritual weapons, channeled healing and magic missiles. Indy starts spamming celestial summons in front of me to stall time and we try to organize a path back to the entrance of the locker.

I feel completely useless other than being jolted with ability damage while backpedaling. The more and more I get hit the more substantial the ghosts are becoming.

Kemen: Hey Mar…go cloud giant to make yourself a bigger target, I got an idea.
Mar: Why would I become a shape that makes it easier for them to hit me?
Kemen: Trust me.

Time has taught us to trust the dwarf and I shapechange to Cloud Giant form and continue to get zapped.

As we get further and further back and the restoration spells run out, Kemen throws up a wall of force then a wall of stone behind it.

Kemen: I made the wall thinner at bottom, should be able to break it off.
Marilius: What good will that do?
Kemen: I think they are substantial enough to be hit. Try hitting them with the wall.
My giant self tears off a hunk of the stone wall and I proceed to use it like a butter churn over the wall of force. It does manage to make contact and strike some of the ghosts…

Marilius: Sweet.

The ghosts are moving around the force wall and still coming for us, but at least I can swing like some demented baseball player and feel moderately useful now.

We are drained pretty nastily across the board by the time we get back to the entrance, but everyone is alive and mobile. We exit the locker without incident and the Revenge is waiting for us right where we left it.

The position of the moon tells us that at least five to eight days passed while we were in the locker. So time flows differently there.

I practically skip down the stairs of our ship to the Vault to recover my equipment and a sense of security…and open the door to find it empty. Well almost empty.

There is a serving dish in the middle of the room. It has a small note written by an excited hand.

Enjoy the Caviar and Champagne fellas. Your friend Snickle.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-11-04, 01:42 PM
Yes! You're back!

And dammit, Snickle!

Axinian
2013-11-04, 04:33 PM
Ok, please tell me snickle dies? Theres no way an npc steals a party's loot TWICE and lives!

Kaveman26
2013-11-06, 12:26 PM
An Invitation for Assassination: (Partial)

To describe the fury over our stuff being filched a second time transcends my abilities to convey. Our DM was forced to make a very hasty real life diplomacy check to avoid getting his tires slashed.

Before too many objects are hurled at him he practically begs us to flip over the note and read the remaining message.

"Had to help myself to some collateral for an investment you might be interested in. Meet me at the Castle Alucard when the moon is full."

Plans are assembled on the fly and we strive to identify Castle Alucard (which is Dracula spelled backwards and blatantly obvious to us from the instant we read it, along with full moon most likely being tied to werewolves) and pin down it's location.

The Revenge is put into high gear towards our stronghold in the Weald where we plan on a hasty re-equip from our merchant-ing endeavors. The end result is being under equipped but no longer naked, and through our maps, and lich contacts (Androka and Wind) we locate Castle Alucard with time to spare.

Marilius:Just so we are all clear, no one cares if this is a trap right? We are going to mop the floor with the twit even if means a TPK right?

All: Oh most definately.

Amidst our fury some details bear attention.

Castle Alucard is nestled deep in a mountain range littered with gypsy nomadic peoples (not much surprise there) the castle itself is the ancestral home to a noblemen of ancient repute and it is said strange things occur in the castle (no surprise there). What is surprising is the complete lack of parrot presence. If you were to color code a map with areas in which the parrot has influence the majority of the world is covered, but there is a hundred mile blank spot surrounding the castle, like a circular parrot repellent field. That intrigues us.

We eventually reach an impasse where the Revenge simply will not go forward anymore, and we are forced to leave behind our ship (we take the key and music box that operate the ship. They are inside a bag of holding INSIDE the dwarf's armor on a belt that is sovereign glued right to his skin. We are reaching the apex of paranoia.

Awaiting us is a black carriage with black horses and a creepy gypsy-ish driver. He escorts us to the castle proper where a small figure in a tuxedo with a moderate hump greets us.

Indy: Why am I not surprised there is an Igor...

"Igor": Actually guys it's me Snickle...I'm in disguise.

All as one: Roll for Initiative....

Snickle-Igor: Wait hear me out!


The real "meat" of this sequence kicks off from here.

Axinian
2013-11-06, 06:17 PM
So, evil birds, pirates, and gothic horror? Cant wait to see how all those thngs pull together

Kaveman26
2013-11-07, 01:15 PM
Invitation to An Assassination Continued:

Snickle: I know you guys probably have the wrong idea about recent events, and I can imagine there might be some lingering resentment.

Kemen:Lingering Resentment? Son you are one initiative roll away from a fireball shaped enema.

Snickle: Well that is a bit harsh...but I think if you hear me out you will realize my actions are entirely justified.

Marilius: Nope...I would rather make you suffer

Snickle: Is killing me more important than stopping the Parrot?

*a long arguement follows and eventually we concur*

All:Alright we are listening...

Snickle:Ok...so after you guys dropped me off at the island I went looking for the diamond igloo, and what I found was even better. An absolute trove of divination material and apparatus. The wizard that got offed had a set up where he could scry and observe just about everything on the Plane, and even some other Planes too. Heck he had a wall sized crystal ball that just tracked the actions of Succubus on this Plane...I saw this one Nymph actually...well I digress. The point is I had millions of gold worth of irreplacable magical artifacts and plenty of free time.

So I tried to figure out a way to stop the bird and I found this place. Turns out the guy running this castle has kept the Parrot at bay for some time, but the sphere of influence he keeps clean is diminishing. So i dug a bit deeper and found out the guy is cursed. The only way to break the curse is for everyone in the castle to go one night without being killed. If any person named guest in the Castle dies, then the curse squeezes tighter, if you can help him go one night without killing anyone the curse will be broken and he can tell you the secret to the Parrot! It's foolproof!

Paddock: I don't see how robbing us of all our wordly posessions, the very items we use to defend ourselves aids us in our current endeavor. Nor do I see a reason in which you stole our effects.

Snickle (and our DM absolutely dead pans the most sincere and perplexed face ever): Well I couldn't leave all that cool stuff unprotected, so I used your equipment as collateral to hire out about 4 million gold worth of planar allies...made sure they were good and trustworthy too...hired all devils.

*whimper*

We have a little pow-wow on our own to the side...

Mar: I am all for still killing him. We have other leads on how to take down the bird.

Kemen: You mean the amnesiac ghost that couldn't remember his own name?

Paddock:The faster we succeed here the sooner we can recovery our armaments.

Mar:Ack...we are going to do it aren't we?

So a few ideas are tossed around?

1st: Can we simply have everyone vacate the castle for a night? No one is a guest and no one dies.

A:Nope, the Count is a bit of a madman and his guests are equally so.

2nd:How many people in the Castle and what are they?

A:

Count Dracula-A vampire fighter/sorcerer with all the traditional black suit, cape, widow's peak and Bela Lugosi accent.

3 Wives:All vampire/witches with white evening nightgowns.

Snickle-Igor:

There is a trogloydte type creature living in the dungeons and moat (Creature from Black Lagoon)

A Wolf Man Barbarian that functions as stablemaster.

A voodoo woman cook with the thickest New Orleans accent imagineable.

A wandering Professor and Cleric named...you guessed it Van Helsing

Newlywed aristocrats Jon and Mina Harker...

An Alchemist butler named Jeckyll...*sigh*

Kemen: Does it strike anyone else as exceedingly odd for this many "coincidences" I mean it's like the handbook on a cliche Dracula's castle.

Being gamers and adventurers we are used to strange, but this is over the top in a narrowly specific way extra strange.

We figure that the newlyweds are the most vulnerable and figure them top priority to be targeted.

Van Helsing if he can at all live up to his name should last long enough against any attackers to give us a chance to assist.

The worst complication is that we can't kill anything, even in defense...so it's not like we can just go on full blown offense and clean house, but we can't let the wolfman eat the professor, or the butler poison the newlyweds...etc etc etc. We also can't let the Professor stake the Count etc.

Marilius: It's already night, so we better move quick.

Snickle: It's actually about noon, it's just always dark here. From what the cook tells me, things only get crazy at night. So we got a few hours.

We spend the afternoon getting acquainted with building lay out and the guests. The Castle proper is not as large as we feared and movement from one end of the "inhabited" section to the other end can be accomplished in a few rounds.

Indy assigns himself to following the Butler and tracking the main floor/dungeon. If we can keep Wolf Man and Troggie Guy downstairs they have least ability to move in strange ways.

Kemen sets up his room across the hall from the newlyweds.

Paddock more or less appoints himself to Count duty. As a full fledged Cleric he gives us the best chance to cause the Count to be repelled.

Once again I get the short end of the stick.

Indy: Marilius you should stay with the Professor, make sure he stays in his room.

Marilius:What makes you think he is going to allow a strange bugbear to stay the night in his room?

Kemen: Because we are going to make you shapechange into a human woman?

Marilius: No...no way am I going to...

Kemen: Keep him in his room...you dont need to keep him in bed. Be charming...

Not being able to type this up faster is painful. A lot of fun to follow.

Brookshw
2013-11-08, 11:52 AM
Nice Halloween fold in. Looking forward to the next installment :smallbiggrin:

Kaveman26
2013-11-08, 12:25 PM
Mansion:

So we prepare some unusual spell lists, lots of Forcecage, Wall of Force, Wall of Stone, Wind Wall, Holy Aura, alarms, circles against evil etc. Very defensive and control oriented. Everyone gets a Wand of Web.

Paddock is basically the Count’s shadow and Drac’s at first does nothing out of the ordinary. I infiltrate the Professor’s room and set about engaging him in conversation while Indy patrols the main floor.

The first action takes place in Van Helsing’s room. I make a diplomacy/bluff check to engage his attention and he seems reasonably accommodating, he offers me a glass of wine which I accept and as I put the goblet down…it’s saving throw time.

Van Helsing: Ze Drow are fascinating people…zey haf sum of the most vonderful sleeping potions.
Marilius: Oh crap…

Well that didn’t take long. With the first die cast I am asleep in Van Helsing’s room and have no clue where he may be going or what he may be doing.

Kemen has created the illusion of a door in place of his actual door and he is patiently watching the newlyweds room. Soon in the night the three wives approach the room and are stopped dead in their tracks. The second they tripped his silent alarm he slapped a Forcecage around their room.

The Wive’s are initially perplexed, but in short order they turn for the next closest target…the dwarf.

They immediately try to hit him with a wave of Mass Suggestions…with the simple and reasonable command to “Love Us”

Kemen: No.

Him making the saves seem to irk them and they begin to attempt using their Hex Charms.

Kemen: You apparently are rather narrow minded…this is your castle and it seems that you neglected to notice the suit of armor against the wall next to you.

*the trio turns in confusion*

Kemen: Meet my suit of armor.

Kemen and Beordie put together a Wall of Stone with an Incendiary Cloud inside of it. For good measure Kemen Wins iniative the next round and puts a Wall of Force around the Wall of Stone.

Kemen: When they turn to gas I will dismiss everything and then we will follow them back to their coffins.

Paddock is rather bored just following the Count as he does virtually nothing. Then a screaming madmen in Van Helsing comes charging down the hall brandishing an axe and a wooden stake…he has a bandolier of holy water grenades and cloves of garlic like a necklace. Paddock puts a Wall of Stone directly in front of him and he somehow against all physics manages to skid to a stop.

Paddock: What did you do to the girl.
Van Helsing: She is sound asleep in her room, and will stay that vay unless you stop me from my target, in which case the next wine she drinks vill be fatal.

Dracula: That is why I never drink wine.

Paddock urges the Count to tactically retreat as Van Helsing tries to circumvent the wall, The Count wants to drink him some “german” sounding professor and insists he will stand his ground. Paddock uses his holy symbol to basically hold Drac’s at bay, as Van Helsing smashes at the wall with his axe.

Meanwhile…

Indy is patrolling the ground floor when Snickle comes sprinting up from the dungeon levels…howling werewolf trailing him.

Snickle: It’s trying to eat me!

Indy summons up wave after wave of conjured creatures to harry the werewolf and notices something very troubling in the process. He mostly summons elementals, but as soon as a round or two passes, their forms seem to alter.

The Earth Elementals are resembling frankenstein’s monsters, the Air Elementals look like phantoms, and the Water Elementals take on a certain Siren/Banshee texture.

Indy: Snickle, just how long have you been here?
Snickle: A little over a week.
Indy: When did you get the hump?
Snickle: What hump?
Indy ooc: Guys we are in real trouble here.

Real trouble on my end is waking up while being carried by a trogolyte turned creature from the Black Lagoon. My equipment is MIA and I am somehow out of my normal attire and wearing a white nightgown. We are somewhere deep below the dungeon level in a place largely resembling a cavern. It has me bound and gagged. I try to shapechange into a cloud giant and there is no effect. Crap.

Indy manages to subdue the wolf man with non lethal damage from a swarm of elementals and he and Snickle cocoon him in strong rope. He then comes upstairs to find Kemen who is chasing the gaseous form vampires.

Indy to DM: I am focused exclusively on Kemen’s appearance, anything different?
DM: Yes his beard is shorter and he is now wearing a monocle.
Indy: Just like Van Helsing?
DM: Yep.
Indy: I think we are being pulled into a curse. Becoming part of the story.
Kemen: So vhat, I mean what do ve…we do.

Indy: I don’t know yet. I think we need to find Mar and Paddock.

They hear the commotion from Paddock’s area and arrive to find Van Helsing proper smashing through his third wall while Paddock continues to hold Dracula at bay.

They Forcecage V.H. and then deal enough damage from ranged spells to knock him unconscious. The rope cocoon is repeated on the professor and they join Paddock. In short order Dracula is reduced to gas form and locked inside a wall igloo. They are not by any means “strong” and we are more concerned with over doing it than being outclassed. A strange procession of bound horror icons is dragged down to the butler who is unsurprisingly transformed into Mr. Hyde and he too gets bludgeoned and tied up.

They eventually assemble everyone in the hall and then realize I am missing.
Beordie and Snickle are left to watch the captives while Paddock, Kemen and Indy go searching for me. They find me without too much difficulty and subdue Troggie. Once he is subdued my restraints vanish and my equipment is returned to me. I can’t shift to Bugbear fast enough.

Marilius: What the heck is going on?

Indy: I think there is a curse that is designed to self support itself. The curse is to sustain the “story” anyone that comes into contact with the story of this place is then molded to fit it. Belief is a strong thing. The casket taught you that. Dracula is supposed to wear a cape, the maiden is supposed to helpless and in an evening gown. The Igor is supposed to have a hump.

Marilius: And a parrot is supposed to like crackers, but that ain’t the case.
Kemen: He didn’t just dislike them, they were repulsive.

Paddock: So I’m confused, are we supposed to feed the vampires crackers? Can we kill them, are we still supposed to save them?

Kemen: Don’t think it actually matters. The story will sustain itself no matter what if Indy is right. We could execute everything perfectly and the newlyweds would just murder one another, or the cook would poison the Igor. The question is why did he make a curse like this?

Marilius: Repulsion…there is a wide net of Parrot free territory around this place. That is the trick. I’ll bet you that the Count created this curse specifically, I’ll go even further to say he is the previous owner of the Parrot before that sop we found in the Locker. I’ll go even further…the Count had a lawyer that was in charge of property, and instead of having his lawyer buy property for him, he tricked the guy into buying the property he already owned. Anyone notice who is missing from “the story”
Kemen:Invisible man?
Paddock: Mummy?
Marilius: Renfield.
Count Dracula: Renfield used to be my lawyer.

Kemen: I think I know how to beat the Parrot. But it ain’t going to be easy.
Marilius: Well, what do we do with all of these people?
Kemen: Leave em, take Snickle though. He is getting our stuff back.

Averis Vol
2013-11-08, 10:15 PM
ARGH! the suspense is killing me; can't wait to see that parrot be done with.

And please tell me you actually finished off snickle, I worry about the physical harm brewing towards your DM.

Kaveman26
2013-11-09, 12:19 PM
Hard at Work:

We go over some very elaborate pre-planning and reach a semblance of a working plan. I am going to completely vague on those details at the time being for the sake of the dramatic, but just know it was something we spent far more time on then probably needed, and far less time than what was eventually required.

We take the long trip back to the frozen continent and seek to free the legion of devil’s from their service. Our group is forced to barter back some of our equipment and only the most important items end up being recovered. Things like Paddock’s spear and eyepatch, my bow, the inifinite folio of scrolls, Kemen’s personal non-sentient armor etc.

Worth noting for later, the devil’s have turned the entire island into one massive and fortified stronghold. Even after dismissing them from service they all hang around the area just outside of Snickle’s super scrying workshop. The long and short of it, the island is now Devil occupied territory and if you want into the heart you need to go through them.

With a lot of balls in the air being juggled we take stock and confirm several points.

*The “lawyer”
in the locker is named Renfield and he got duped into buying the Parrot from the Count. He sold it Coe-Nan afterwords.

*All reports indicate that the Parrot is still seeking Emberbane’s horde.

*We are very close to breaking the code to finding the lair.

It is that point that are our masterplan hinges upon. We are more or less taking a massive gamble on Emberbane stashing his horde in a demi-plane that we will be able to access first.

Cracking the code for the flute takes far longer than expected, but between the travel time to the Count, the travel time to the frozen island and the return trip we succeed in unraveling the mystery. So here it goes:

Emberbane hid his horde on a demi-plane of his own design. Being so proximate to Cinhill Rue and being familiar with it’s purpose he assisted the creator of the Revenge in exchange for an unknown favor. To create himself a backdoor to the demi plane he retrofitted the ship with the music box and flute. Which used in the proper fashion it enables the ship to cross Planes. With practice and discipline we will eventually be able to maneuver the ship across the multi-verse, but it’s specific immediate application is that we can reach the Dragon’s Plane. Once we do so, it may very well raise a red flag and function as a beacon for other denizens.

We load up the ship to the gills with everything we foresee ourselves requiring and then we take an enormous gamble on actually crossing into the dragon’s lair.

The actual crossing is uneventful, but the arrival…

The way our DM describes it to us, the lair is much akin to Moria, wide open halls with enormous vaulted ceilings. Everything is polished marble or granite. Spires and support pillars reach high into the air, laced with precious coins and gems to create intaglios and reliefs. All of the walls are murals like a master artist whose only medium is precious gems and coins. Standing at attention in the center of the room are hundreds of mannequins all fully arrayed at battle attention, adorned with the regalia of a thousand fallen adventurers. It’s like a terra cotta army of deceased PC’s. There are entire hallways off the main chamber that are just like museum displays of weapons and items. A wing for swords, a display room dedicated to rings, one for Staves.

On stands made from silver are enormous brass bound tomes, with pages hammered out from beaten platinum that are the dragon’s memoirs. To the rear of the chamber are mounds of coins, gems, artwork and several unfinished hallways partially ornamented. Deep in the recesses of the lair is trophy room. Displayed are legions of fallen dragons, their forms gilded or encrusted with appropriate riches. A green dragon skeleton is covered in emeralds, a white dragon encrusted with pearl and samite and so on and so forth. Giants, krakens, demons, devils, are all trophies of past conquest.
The sheer volume of riches is overwhelming, but is underwhelmed by the scope of it’s presentation.

Indy: It would take twenty years just to package and transport all of this.

Kemen: It would be a great twenty years though.

Marilius:How do we even start addressing this? We are likely to have company any day or any hour and we this lay out is all wrong for what we need.

Kemen:We summon every elemental possible, earths for heavy moving, airs for the stuff way up off the ground and fires to dislodge the walls. We pile up everything in the vacant sections. I will detect magic as they come past and sift for the strongest items that we can siphon off for own use, while You and Indy start prepping for the party. Once the Parrot is done we can sort properly and figure out what we are going to do. Something tells me we are going to have to earn this.

The next update is going to be a big time update, akin to the forty/fifty pager that was the climax battle against Tiraxis. For the sake of relaying how it went down it will have to be put as one big update, probably a week or two from being ready to post.

Side Note:

Coolest Dragon Horde Ever. Never felt the hair stand up on the back of my neck like when he described Emberbane's horde.

Kaveman26
2013-11-09, 12:20 PM
And please tell me you actually finished off snickle, I worry about the physical harm brewing towards your DM.

No comment.

Kaveman26
2013-11-11, 03:38 PM
I'm looking for feedback on an actual full length novel that I'm writing, anyone want to provide a critique? I would email or pm the chapters as they become available.

Brookshw
2013-11-11, 05:59 PM
I'm looking for feedback on an actual full length novel that I'm writing, anyone want to provide a critique? I would email or pm the chapters as they become available.

I'd be happy to.

Averis Vol
2013-11-11, 07:20 PM
I'd be happy to.

As would I.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-11-11, 07:50 PM
I'll do whatever I can to help!

Kaveman26
2013-11-23, 12:23 PM
Farewell:

Here is the summation of clues that we base our plan upon:

*The Previous Owner of the Parrot was a lawyer turned pirate with a peg leg and eye patch
*The Guy before him was at the center of a parrot free zone. That zone was basically one giant Dracula’s castle horror cliché
*We could not find a single pirate with a peg leg or eye patch in the entire world.
*The Parrot was positively repulsed by being fed a cracker the day we got him.
*His temper tantrum in Flynt was spurred by feeding him a cracker.
*The entire adventure arc with the casket and amulet boiled down to belief being a powerful thing. The casket was invincible because thought it to be.
*During the Battle for Cinhill Rue Tiraxis brought wolves, because wolves were powerful symbols of the Asgardian Ragnarok/Apoclypse.

Our solution?

Pirates of Penzance on frigging steroids. We assembled a groan worthy list of every pirate cliché from Pirates of the Carribean, Crimson Pirate, Errol Flynn, Yellowbeard, Treasure island etc.

The sprawling dragon’s lair was turned into a pirate’s cove with mocked up ships, fake cannons, and even a permanent major image of a spectral pirate band. Kemen wanted us to put out an eye and cut off a leg for realistic peg legs/eye patches. He figured we could always regenerate them after the fact. We balked at self mutilation and went with costumes instead. Paddock had already gouged out his eye, so he had that going for him.

We even rigged the entrance to the lair with the dumbest trap ever. It basically changed the attire of anyone entering to something suitably piratey. That’s it.

We were about two hours into planning and scheming when Paddock casually threw this out for consideration:

Paddock: So uh…what is the plan really going to be?
Kemen: We overwhelm him with clichéd pirate stuff and turn him back into an ordinary cursed parrot.
Marilius: It’s so crazy it has to work right?
Paddock: I mean…what then? Let’s say the parrot is balked, what do we do about the Solars? Colorful costumes and saying Arrr! Isn’t going to stop an epically powerful angel from sundering us in two

Hmmm…
Step1: Create Pirate Cove
Step 3: Stop Parrot…
There is a big old Step 2 missing.

Paddock: We aren’t going to be handed a treasure trove like this without complications. So I am 100% percent the Parrot isn’t coming alone.

Kemen: Well I guess we need to be prepared for a fight too.

Paddock: Yeah, that’s what I’m getting at. But who is going to fight a Solar? We don’t have anyone that really take a full attack from one, even with buffs. They have enormous spell resistance and over the top casting. In a straight up fight we look like a speed bump.

We came up with a plan…I won’t say a great plan, and based on how events played out, It probably wouldn’t have mattered.

*****
So…here is how it ended up playing out.

The Parrot arrives at the converted dragon’s lair the day after we finish our adjustments to the structure (suitably plot convenient timing) and he is accompanied by a pair of Solars and four Planetars. The moment they breach the Plane and enter the hallway, the Solars become buccaneers and the parrot himself suddenly supports a crimson sash and tricorne hat. The Planetars resemble deckhands.

As they enter the central grand hallway we trigger the doors of the hall to close and Indy from above the door drops a rod to block the handles.
The Parrot barely even flinches at being locked in…then the music hits and he gets the slightest flicker of doubt in his eyes. Kemen clunks his way directly towards the Parrot complete with peg leg, eye patch and smoldering cannon fuses woven in his beard.

Kemen: Does the pretty bird want a cracker? Arrr!

The Parrot goes wide eyed and jumps back mid flight. That is my cue, and I march Paddock to the edge of the Revenge where we have established a plank…

Marilius: Walk the plank ye lilly livered scallywag!


Parrot: Oh no…Guys…cover me, I need to get the hell out of here!

The Parrot turns on his tailfeather and makes a break for the door, Indy drops down with a mirror to show the parrot his reflection…

Indy:Now thar be a pretty bird…does Polly want a cracker?
Parrot: Pretty Bird Pretty Bird! Rawk

The Parrot throws his wings over his beak in shock and then basically wing slaps the crap out of Indy sending him flying a good fifty feet. The Parrot braces his feet against the door and tries to lift the rod out of the way…and gets lit up like a Christmas tree for his efforts.

You remember the Poligius Rod that casts greater dispel magic and Disjunction? Yeah, we rigged that as a touch activated trap and used it to bar the door.

The suddenly much more mundane looking parrot is treated with a second surprise…We had his cage suspended invisible on the floor and the disjunction disoriented bird fell right in.

It was definitely working, but he had given the order for the Solars to close on us before he bug zapped himself and we are forced to make some rapid order Hail Marys. Paddock and Kemen try to Banish the Solars and prevent out and out combat. Their spell resistance makes it very tough and they present as many chaotic and evil items as we could sift through in the lair to bolster their castings. Kemen manages to connect with his but Paddock eats a charging greatsword attack.

The Planetars each spread out in pairs heading for me and Indy, and we are more or less in full fall back mode.

The Parrot manages to right himself and we hear The Dread Parrot Roberts speak for perhaps the last time.

Parrot: Been a fun ride boys…but since you pulled the cliché card first…figure it’s only fair that if you want a dragon’s treasure you got to fight a dragon for it.

As he says that a swirling form takes shape in the center of the room and a multi colored feathery dragon takes form. It is described as a white,blue,green,red,black dragon with the parrot’s coloring and feathers instead of scales. Kemen discovers that it’s breath weapon is a combination of all five attacks. As the dragon forms up, the angels all seem to halt and appear dazed, as if awakening from a long sleep. Paddock takes that opening to Banish again and he manages to get the second Solar back home. Indy begins summoning creatures and then moving to break line of sight and get cover. I put a full arrow volley into the hybrid bird-dragon and Beordie puts a cloudkill in it’s face.

We get a second round of angel grogginess and Kemen and Paddock account for two more being banished. The dragon puts it’s breath towards me and I make the evasion and return fire of my own. Indy has elementals swarming it and we feel much more confident of our chances to survive. Shockingly…the summoned dragon gags on the cloudkill and falls over dead…

Kemen: Uh…

Indy makes it to the Parrot cage first, and for all intents and purposes he is looking at it like a live grenade…the parrot inside is still strange looking but it is grooming itself and happily muching on a cracker.

Marilius: Is that it?

We regroup in the center and keep a wary eye on the confused remaining Planetars, Paddock heals himself and we debate on next step’s.

A fell voice interrupts our short lived reprieve and a member of the Lich Conclave appears hovering in the air (suitably fitted with pearl earring and a sweet looking Man in Black Princess Bride Silk Shirt…the trap is still working)

Lich: The Parrot will be turned over to us, along with the one that seeks to join our brotherhood.

Marilius: Brotherhood?

Eight other liches all pop up into the center of the lair and basically affirm the statement.

Lich#2:None may attain lich-hood without first paying homage and tribute to us. It is forbidden.

Lich#3:We were alerted to one who seeks this dark blessing, one which he has not yet been allocated to receive.

Paddock actually leans to Kemen at the table and whispers loud enough for us to all hear.

Paddock: It ain’t me mate, so if you made plans to switch to the undead now is a good time to speak up.

Kemen: It isn’t me.

A laugh that shakes the very foundation of our souls and startles even the liches echoes from deep in the trophy room.

“So many pretty new items…so many thralls to serve me…and now an eternity to savor them both”

An enormous red dragon skeleton rises from beneath the trophy room floor, it overshadows any other dragon we have ever seen save for one.

Kemen: I think Emberbane made plans for the afterlife…

A small voice gets the attention of everyone in the room…

Parrot: Rawk! You can’t get a dragon’s horde without fighting a dragon! Rawk!

One by the one the liches all flicker…presumably Plane Shifting or Teleporting out, but are instantly returned and obviously distressed…

Emberbane: No no little ones. The Angels…their leaving was to my benefit. I would much prefer you to stay and enjoy my resurrection. I am sure you all have regalia that will add to the glory of my collection.

Hastily we confer and agree that the Conclave is highly unlikely to side with us, and even more unlikely is them working together. This is going to be an every man for himself type affair.

Paddock begins cackling at the table like a mad man.

Paddock: We actually manage to circumvent being slaughtered by the Solars and pull off the banishments. And now…I am really wishing we failed and still had them here…cause we are totally hosed.

Kemen: We don’t have to outrun the bear though.
Marilius: hah! Just have to outrun them right?

(Two guys are walking in the woods and one has on tennis shoes, the second asks him why and he says “in case we get attacked by a bear” the friend replies “you aren’t going to outrun a bear” and his response “ I don’t have to outrun the bear…just have to outrun you”)

There is a flurry of activity as the lich conclave assemble an all out volley of spells and attacks against the dracolich, and we take that time to spread out and duck for cover. The remaining angels more or less duck for cover with us and try to make hasty apologies amidst voicing their support in aiding us. Solar allies would feel sooooo much better at this moment, but oh well.

Paddock takes the reprieve to bring online his not yet used or abused Inevitable summoning abilities, he is able to summon twice his HD for free, and then can burn spell slots equal to 1 spell level per HD for additional. Marut’s are the current choice, as their purpose is in line with our current predictament, we are hoping like hell Emberbane announces his intent to invade another plane as that could mean lhaksharut’s as well. No such luck initially.

Emberbane at least looks pressed by the combined assaults of the nine liches, but his concern quickly becomes amusement.

Emberbane: Such bravery in the face of your superior. And yet such cowardice to attack in mass. Perhaps you should meet my servants, I think the introductions should prove fruitful.

From the walls, and from beneath the ground massive crystalline ants erupt. The description makes us think they are Formians, but the fact that appear to be made of gemstones and metal is a head scratcher. As some of the larger and more ornamented ones begin lancing fireballs, and Disintegrates we are past head scratching and into hair pulling.

They are actually modeled on Formians, but are in essence Sentient Constructs created from the vast wealth of Emberbane, they serve as masons and builders for his lair. So give a fairly sturdy golem chasis spellcasting abilities and crafting abilities. We identify three “types”, A warrior class that uses sorcerer spellcasting to boost melee abilities and provide self-flight. A Queen Class that seems to be very high level sorcerer spellcasters and an Onyx/Pearl hyrid Caste that are more or less clerics, they channel immense amounts of negative and positive energy but demonstrate no other spellcasting ability.

Our involvement at this point is that of onlookers, and we take the time afforded us to swell our own ranks with summoned creatures, called Inevitables and buff spells.

So in summary at this point we have….
*Nine high level liches all with their private agendas, temporarily working together
*An immensely powerful and out of this world wealthy draoclich red dragon
*Swarms of spellcaster golem bugs under control of the dragon
*Two displaced and very humiliated Angels
*A growing tide of Maruts with agenda of eliminating undead
*A swarm of summoned celestial creatures/elementals
*And four very outclassed PC’s cowering behind a fake pirate ship.

Indy: I have no clue what role we need to play here. Do we gang up on the dracolich and try to turn the tide and take him out? As soon as he is down the liches turn on us and we are toast. That’s if the bugs don’t kill us first.

Marilius: I say we focus on the liches. Pick one and go the whole nine yards on him. They don’t really get along and I doubt they will mind us curtailing the competition.

Paddock: Right, but they are the only things between us and the Dragon…I would much rather they bear the brunt of his attention, then us having to try and take him out.

Kemen: I say we make a break for it. Teleporting is off the table, but we can use the music box to presumably steer the Revenge and get the heck out of here. Too many “overwhelming forces” for us to be immovable objects.

Marilius:Yeah but if he can hold his own for more than 1 round against this amount of firepower we are way out of our depth in ever coming after him again. This is our chance to take him out while they are sapping his spells and resources.

Indy: Then I say we take em all. Maruts spread out to engage a little piece of everything and keep them honest, prevent them from ganging up on us, summoned creatures to swarm the dragon and keep it from identifying a single target. Kemen and Paddock need to focus on taking out Onyx Bugs to prevent channeled healing, and Marilius becomes our hitman, if anything looks like it’s staggered or hurting he full attacks to burst it into nothingness, I will play coach and call out danger spots.

Paddock: That nearly sounds reasonable
Kemen: I am willing to roll the dice on it.
Marilius: I think we are still screwed, but I’ll go out in a blaze.
Indy:Here goes nothing…

Second half and full stat blocks coming soon.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-11-23, 01:38 PM
Wait, I thought you helped the liches escape the prison before?

Brookshw
2013-11-23, 01:44 PM
Nice! Can't wait for part 2.

Kaveman26
2013-11-23, 03:25 PM
We helped the two servitude liches to freedom. There is a separate illuminati esque cabal that we briefly encountered before. They are not friendly.

Deremir
2013-11-26, 08:04 PM
Noooooooo!!!!!!!

I just started reading today and i get a cliffhanger mid climax!?!?!?!?!?!?:smallfrown:

Averis Vol
2013-11-28, 11:15 AM
Noooooooo!!!!!!!

I just started reading today and i get a cliffhanger mid climax!?!?!?!?!?!?:smallfrown:

Yup, he has a way of doing that.

Brookshw
2013-11-28, 12:51 PM
Yup, he has a way of doing that.

But the wait is worth it :smallbiggrin:

Kaveman26
2013-11-29, 12:05 PM
I am working on it. The file I had saved everything in went and vanished so I had to restart write up. Hence the split post. Second half will come soon.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-11-29, 09:41 PM
Ugh, that sucks! Ah well, it just heightens the anticipation for the rest of us!

Kaveman26
2013-12-02, 01:04 PM
Farewell Part 2:

Kemen:
Str17 Dex10 Con24 Int30 Wis20 Cha16 Fort 21 Ref 13 Will 23 AC 37 HP 192

Equipment:

Dwarven Mountain Armor (adamantine)+5,Cloak of Resistance+5,Headband +6 mental stats,Heavy Steel Shield+4 (fire resistance20),Heavy Pick+1 spell storing,Ring Of Elemental Command Earth (Acid Resistance20),Ring of Energy Resistance (Cold 30),Boots of Speed,Amulet of Natural Armor+5,Ioun Stone Pale Green Prism (+1 on rolls),Ioun Stone +1 caster level,Rod of Metamagic Quicken Normal,Rod of Metamagic Greater ,Treasure Hunter’s Goggles

Barred: Necromancy/Enchantment
Feats:
1st:Spell Focus Abjuration
WBF:Scribe Scroll:
3rd:Craft Wonderous Item
5th:Greater Spell Focus Abjuration
5th-WBF:Sculpt Spell
7th:Spell Penetration
9th:Greater Spell Penetration
10th-WBF:Piercing Spell
11th:Energy Substitution
13th:Combat Casting
15th:Allied Spellcaster
Kemen’s Spells:
1st:7+1:Shield Greasex7
2nd:7+1:Resist Energy,True Strikex7 (shared spell)
3rd:6+1:Protection from Energyx1 Hastex6
4th:6+1 Stoneskinx4,Wall of Fire,Stone Shapex2
5th:6+1Break Enchantmentx2,Dismissal,Major Creation,Wall of Stonex2,Wall of Force
6th:5+1GDMx2,Wall of Ironx2, Chain Light,Mass Bear Strength
7th:4+1Banishmentx1(used3 banish already) SM7
8th:3+1 Prismatic Wallx2 SM8x2

Paddock

Str20 Dex 18 Con25 Int18 Wis25 Cha25 Fort 24 Ref 15 Will 24 AC 35 HP208 Full Attack(+23/+18/+13 1d6+10)

Belt Of Physical+6,Mental Headband+6,+5 brilliant energy spear,Eyepatch of the All Father-grants true sight,Flying Stone Bear (coated silver),Phylactery of Positive Channeling,Cloak of Resistance+5,Adamantine Breastplate+5 (fire resist 20), Ring of Energy Resistance (acid 30),Ring of Protection+5, Amulet of Natural Armor+5, Ioun Stone Pale Green Prism, Ioun Stone +1 Caster Level

Feats:
1st :Alignment Channel
3rd :Channel Smite
5th :Mounted Combat
7th :Ride By Attack
9th :Spirited Charge
11th :Selective Channeling
13th :Power Attack
15th :Extra Channeling

1st:7+1Divine Favorx3,SM1x4
2nd:6+1Spiritual Weaponx4,CMWx2
3rd:6+1searing light,dispel magicx2,cswx2,speak with dead
4th:6+1restorationx3,sm5x3
5th:6+1Flamestrikex3,RMx3
6th:4+1 Banishmentx1 (used 3 banishments)
7th:4+1Holy Wordx2,Destruction,SM7
8th:3+1Mass CCW, SM8

Indy:

Str 14 Dex 22 Con 20 Int 24 Wis 14 Cha 29 Fort15 Ref21 Will17 AC 27 HP 175 Full Attack (sling+4 23/18/13 1d3+4 +summons large elemental)

Robes of the Archmage,Headband +6 Int and +6 Cha,Belt physical stats +4,Cloak of Displacement Major, Ioun Stone Caster Level+1, and +1 to rolls, Ring of Energy Resist fire (30) Ring of Energy Resist acid (20), Staff of Conjuration, Boots of Speed, +4 sling (trapped to fire elemental gems as ammunition) Amulet of Natural Armor+4

1st:(6)Cure Light,Grease,Unseen Servant, Silent Image, SMI,Expeditious Retreat
2nd(6)Cat’s Grace, Cure Moderate,Eagle Splendor,Glitterdust,Invisibility,SMII
3rd:(5)Cure Serious Wounds,Haste,Displacement,Charm Monster,Remove Curse
4th:(5+2)Break Enchantment,Cure Critical,Freedom of Movement,Greater Invisibility,SMIV,Bestow Curse, Wall of Fire
5th:(4)Greater Dispel Magic,Mind Fog,SM:V,Greater Heroism
6th:(2)Mass Cure Mod, SM:VI

1st:Spell Focus Conjuration
3rd:Augment Summoning
5th:Greater Spell Focus Conjuration
7th:Skill Focus UMD
9th:Skill Focus Craft-Trapmaking
11th : Improved Initiative
13th:Superior Summoning
15th:Expanded Arcana*(Allows Sorcerer Spell Selections)

Marilius:
Str24 Dex26 Con20 Int20 Wis16 Cha 27 Fort15 Ref23 Will13 AC31 HP186 Full Attack (25/20/15 1d8+11 +8d6+16 on sneak attack)

Belt of Physical Perfecton+4,Headband Mental Stats+4, Bracers of Archery,Greater,Greater Sniper’s Goggles,Cloak of Resistance+5, Mithral Chain Shirt+5 improved electric resistance,+3 adapative composite longbow, Ring Of Fire Resist (30) Ring of Acid Resist (20),Amulet of Natural Armor+4

Human:Improved Init
1st:Point Blank Shot
2nd-RT:Bleeding Attack
3rd:Rapid Shot
4th-RT:Minor Magic
5th:Precise Shot
6th-RT:Powerful Sneak
7th:Shot on the Run
8th-RT:Major Magic
9th:Many Shot
10th-ART:Skill Mastery
11th:Skill Focus UMD
12th-ART:Improved Evasion
13:Deadly Aim
14th-ART:Deadly Sneak
15th:Improved Precise Shot
16th-ART:Dispelling Attack

*We have numerous lower level magic items like scrolls, potions,wands etc, but I am not going to enumerate specifics other than to say Bulls Strength, Cats Grace, etc are almost guaranteed to be up at any specific time.
Paddock burns a bunch of his lowest level spell slots to fuel additional Inevitables, and Kemen disperses True Strikes to myself and Paddock. Provided I move at least 10 feet in a round I am guaranteed one sneak attack and with the sheer volume of summoned critters there should always be flanked targets. True Strike will be the fuel for massive deadly striked, deadly shotted precision bombs, and Paddock will use his for charge/smite bombs. We figure a duo of these two together should one shot just about any single target.

Indy and Kemen are going to run control and direct traffic for all the summoned critters. We assign colors to the nine liches for ease of identification and we have

Red,Orange,Yellow,Green,Blue,Purple,Black,White,Co pper. Yellow is the closest target and we use him as a tester as we all break from cover. Kemen and Indy board the Revenge and use the ship as a moveable platform and cover. Paddock lines up a charging lane and we ambush Yellow with a full blown assault, he turns to vapor from the assembled damage. We added it up to be well over 200 and got waved off from a final total.

Emberbane is brutal. He swats aside celestial critters like paper mache and the earth elementals are dusted in mere seconds. Whenever a strong volley of spells or attacks actually seems to connect the crystalline ants just keep healing him via negative energy. Their channels also wash over to some of the liches and summons. Paddock and I move around the edges of the central corridor attacking engaged proximate liches and alternating to attack onyx bugs whenever possible. The bugs are discovered to be wasted targets for me when precision damage from sneak attack doesn’t apply and I content myself to playing lichkiller.

As is often the case everything goes great right up until it doesn’t. We kill off Orange and that gets Emberbane’s attention, we also left ourselves in something of a line and we get hit with a full blast breath weapon, DC 34, which means I can save on an 11 (or 9 with cats grace which got dispelled) and Paddock can save only on an 18 or better. We both fail our saves and I eat 85 in fire damage and Paddock takes 95. A swathe of animals and Red are pretty much just ash.

We end up with five of seven onyx bugs dead and Paddock and I are reduced to hit and run tactics, It plays out a lot like this…Run+Shoot once, find cover, burn an action to heal from wand/potion...etc etc. Celestial T Rex is kind of cool and we are cheering some dino on dragon action, but a dragon dance eliminates our T Rex in a single round. Eek.

The warrior bugs break off from our dwindling summons and begin swarming the Revenge. Kemen builds artificial barriers with Prismatic Walls to slow/stop them and he and Indy are reduced to delay tactics, all of the higher spell slots are expended and Indy starts plinking warrior bugs with his sling and summoning additional elementals to provide distractions.

The remaining liches, badly seared and expended of their best options all fall back behind a prismatic wall of their own and mass together as one to attack Paddock who is the lone target in the sky. Our Maruts are the only thing really bearing any impact on the fight and they are massed against the dragon.

A mass of flamestrikes and disintegrates comes lancing at Paddock and he is knocked from the sky unconscious and nearly dead. In mid fall (a fall that will likely kill him) we are frantically searching for options to try and save him. We have an air elemental that can just about reach, but we would have to disengage from a warrior bug cluster that would likely AOO him to death. So it comes as a massive surprise to us when our DM rolls back from the screen and stretches

DM: That is about the perfect time for a dinner break. I’m thinking Arbys…
Paddock: Can’t that wait a few minutes kind of a big deal here…
DM: Nah…we can come back to you falling after dinner.

Baffled we take a break and brainstorm over some beef n cheddars how to save our cleric. Our DM keeps checking his phone..something he rarely does. This only became obvious a bit later. When we get back to the house there is a surprise waiting for us.

Kemen: No freaking Way…
Paddock: Dude…just…Wow…

We watch in horror as Paddock plummets from his mount towards the ground, our air elemental tries to break for it and is executed in a swarm of crystal claws…looks like game over…but something comes streaking from the hallway…moving faster than the Cleric’s freefall…it tackles Paddock in mid fall and Dimension Doors itself mid run to the deck of The Revenge.
Standing there holding our knocked out gnome is a green skinned pirate in robes and deck sandals.
Chulainn (The Silent One): Did you miss me?

When we got back from Arby’ the guy who plays Chulainn and lives in California was waiting for us. Got himself some extra vacation and was back to visit his brother (Kemen) and he decided to make a one game return, just so happened that he managed to make one of the greatest entrances ever.
I didn’t catch his feat breakdown, but he retained his out of this world Dex and Wisdom as Odin gifts and he must have had Elemental Fist in some fashion because we added energy damage to his fist attacks.

Chulainn (The Silent One): Monk 16
Str24 Dex 50 Con 18 Int 14 Wis 50 Cha 12 Fort19 Ref35 Will35 AC 68 HP158 Flurry: +28/+28/+23/+23/+18/+18/+13 2d10+12 (+4d6)

Feats:
Equipment: Monk’s Robe, Belt of Physical Perfection+6 Cloak of Resistance+5, Bracers of Armor+8, Ring of Protection+5 Ring of Fire Resistance Greater, Boots of Striding Springing, Amulet of Natural Armor+5, Periapt of Wisdom+6. Permanent Greater Magic Fang+5

His presence helps turn the tide to an extent as he basically taunts the ancient red dracolich and then runs it ragged all over the place. He saves against the breath weapon on anything except a 1. Technically he even saves with a 1. And with improved evasion…it becomes comical to watch him run circles, he doesn’t do much damage, but he is a great diversion.

One of our two angels got roasted early on, and the second one spends its remaining spells healing Paddock and myself back to full. It then kamikazes itself in an all or nothing fashion against nearest Onyx bug. As we regroup and figure our next steps it abandons all pretext of self preservation and hacks the healer bug to shattered glass. The warrior bugs drag her down and finish her off.

Beordie is geared to fight living creatures and I gloss over the sentient armor’s roll through most of this because he was very limited in productivity. Kemen more or less sent him shuffling off towards the back of the hall where we piled up a ton of magic items and told him to search for staffs.

Amidst the lull of Chulainn playing Come and Get me with the Dragon we reevaluate the situation.

*The Revenge is swarming with warrior bugs, and they are going to get around/through our Prismatic Walls in short order.
*The Caster Bugs seem to be running out of juice, as are the dragon and the liches.
*Only a single Onyx Bug remains and it is attached to Emberbane’s hip like a toddler to it’s mother
*The Marut’s are falling at a rate of about 1/3 rounds and 3 remain.
*No one has much in the way of a spell slot over 4th
*We still have 3 true strike spells ready
*Indy can keep plinking elemental gems from his sling to clog up the map and provide roadblocks.
*Of the nine starting liches we are down to three, Purple,Black and White. White seems to be the strongest and is the one who initially spoke. We are banking on him getting a proper name and somehow reoccurring.

The regrouped game plan is to steer the Revenge down a hallway, and winnow down the bugs while the Marut’s hold out. We fill their faces with disposable elementals and then try to one final blitz against Emberbane with our dwindling resources. Failing that…we hide in the ship and try to last the night for a fresh start.

As we break and try to execute our new plan, a horrific realization is driven home. The Warrior Bugs seemed to be taking a long time to get around or through the Prismatic Walls…we find out that is because they weren’t going around.

They were eating their way through…Our ship was turning into a big block of swiss cheese and we could no longer move the vessel. That takes events from heightened tension to out and out panic. We hastily snatch up the flute and music box and try to get Chulainn’s attention.

Marilius: Time to abandon the ship…literally! We need to get out of here.

Paddock manages to recover his spear from where it had fallen and he makes a flyby attack to distract Emberbane hopefully giving Chulainn a path to sprint for the exit.

The bugs are devouring our ship, and as they breech extra dimensional compartments our ship starts leaking magic items and coins. Chulainn does make a break for it and sprints heading for the hallway, only for the exit to suddenly get hit with 3 layers of Prismastic Walls.
Everything goes silent for a moment and White Lich flies closer to the suddenly docile dragon.

White: Do we have an accord?
Emberbane: Yes. Consider our truce sealed. You are free to leave this place and I shall take no further aggressive acts towards your cabal.

Kemen: I think they just struck a deal and we are the sacrificial lambs.

As this is playing out Indy spots an oddity. Chulainn is accelerating heading for the walls. He is still going with a full head of steam, teeth gritted and steely focused.

DM: You sure about this?
Chulainn: If you can’t exit in a blaze of glory then why show up in one right?
Kemen OOC: You know this is suicide right?
Chulainn: Nah…Most of the saves are reflex and those are a cakewalk.
Kemen: You can still fail the Fort Saves though.
Chulainn: So?
Kemen: So instant death poison is a big deal.
Chulainn: I’m a monk…Diamond Body…I’m immune to poison
Kemen: You could still roll a 1 on a save…
Chulainn: Yep, but I got spell resistance too…have to blow both.
Even our DM takes pause at that.

The Walls…end up not being that much of an issue. He eats some elemental damage from a blown save but breezes through the 21 layers without fail. The Door is a bigger problem. It is still barred shut with the Disjunction Rod that is trapped. That one hurts as he begins to lose magic items etc.

We make the world’s most awkward retreat as he more or less shocks himself silly triggering the rod to break down the walls for us to get through. Indy is chucking slingstones in a haphazard fashion to leave trailing fodder elementals and what remaining spells we have left jump up in the form of walls to break line of sight and be hurdles.

He manages to destroy the walls and falls to his knees in agony as every single item on him has been destroyed, the disrupted arcane energy acts like a shield preventing us from touching him and we make a defeated retreat back through the hallway returning to the Material Plane as he gives us a little salute.

Our ship is destroyed…

One of our original party members is in essence left for dead…

We now have the animosity of several extraordinarily powerful liches and one world shatteringly powerful dracolich. White,Black and Purple get names. White is Jareth, Black is Ohr,and Purple is called Pur-Al. More on that front is sure to come eventually.

A veritable trove of countless riches has been left behind…

Side Notes:

When we pressed for an explanation on how the Dragon delayed his lich-ascension for so long (A DM has the right to hand wave away the improbable or impossible but it’s nice to know they at least consider strange thing like this) we are told that he had completed the prep for the change, and then established the separate plane with workers and his hoard and then layered in several contingencies for it actually taking effect. First and foremost being people in his lair.

So the fact that we entered and took a week to set up our pirate kingdom façade happened to coincide with his rise.

Indy: So it wasn’t planned for us to fight the liches and the dragon?
DM: It was possible, but no, you weren’t intended for everything to blow up at once. You just manipulated things to end up with that happening.

Aftermath:

We had one more week of gametime after this all went down. And to be honest it mostly a bookkeeping/strategy session. Very little actually happened. Two important developments did take shape.

First…our stronghold was massacred. Jareth, Ohr and Pur-Al decimated the structure and drove off our employees

Second we were informed that any attempt to divine or scry the dragon’s domain was futile. Any outside intelligence was deemed impossible.

Kemen: What about inside intelligence?

DM: inside? You have no way of knowing if Chu is alive or dead, and no means to communicate with him if he were. All communication between living and undead is cut off.

Kemen:I wasn’t taking about an inside man…I was talking about an inside armor.

All: huh?

Kemen: My damn familiar…Beordie. We sent him off looking for useful staves to extend the battle. He was too damn slow to make it back through the door so I told him to act like a suit of armor…He isn’t alive, and he isn’t undead. And from your description of that hoard there is no way the dragon is getting rid of a +5 suit of armor with extra goodies loaded on it.

We get confirmation, Kemen can communicate with his armor/familiar. Beordie is undamaged and able to convey intelligence back to us. He confirms the dragon is more occupied with restoring it’s lair then pursuing us at the moment and that Chulainn is still alive. Something happened to him…that neither Beordie or Emberbane understand, but no workers or anyone else is willing to touch him and that he seemed to be in some agonizing pain. So the dragon just kind of left him in the corner, like a living statue.

And that is where we are at…waiting on the next session for everyone to get together.

A bit more haphazard than I would like, but this post brings me back to current on where we are at. Somewhere around the 21st is when we get get together next I believe. So any thoughts on how to proceed from here could directly impact what we do going forward.

Axinian
2013-12-02, 02:27 PM
So... what exactly happened with the parrot? Did your plan succeed or is there some implication that I missed? Has it even been explained?

I also think I have an idea on how to combat the liches and dracolich, but I'm gonna spoil it in case you don't want significant suggestions

Ven Aus. He had THE most extensive library of research, notes, and experiments on the nature of life and undeath in history. If you got Kemen and Paddok to study it I'm sure you could find some hitherto unknown weakness to attack the liches with, or make some sort of super-weapon against them. As far as we know these are normal liches, not super-golem-liches like Ven Aus.

I mean, this would involve trying to get into Asgard and having Odin let you in, provided he hasn't destroyed that unholy collection already. But hey, you've done impossible things before!


EDIT: Another idea

Can Paddock remember what their phylacteries were like? They were in his possession briefly. Could provide some leads as to how to find them.

Kaveman26
2013-12-02, 02:33 PM
The parrot at this time is now just an odd cursed parrot in a cage. It was left behind in the dragons lair, which may come back to bite us. But in essence our goofy plan worked.

The observation of paddock having seen the phalecterys is useful. That wouldn't have occurred to me as something to explore.

Brookshw
2013-12-02, 02:41 PM
Fantastic! I love the trouble you get yourselves into as much as watching you get yourselves out again :smallbiggrin:

Deffers
2013-12-02, 02:44 PM
I agree with the Ven Aus idea. There ain't nothin' quite so nice as Valhalla for a dragon-slaying set piece. Freaking heavy metal album cover material right there.

Kaveman26
2013-12-02, 02:54 PM
We realize that we could craft a narrow minded set of items for a focused assassination. But we just lost a ton of surplus resources and disposable income. From past experience I doubt we will be allowed into Valhalla. At least not to cross check the Dewey decimal system of lich related encyclopedia.

The dragon has our greatest attention though. The thought of not pursuing that horde is impossible to contemplate.,

Deffers
2013-12-02, 03:21 PM
The problem, to me, is that they seem to be on the hunt for your team, specifically. They tore down your stronghold, after all. It's not certain how much of a chance you'll get to craft specialized assassination tools. Not a bad plan if you can swing it, though.

On the other hand, the idea that a planet-shatteringly strong dracolich with the backing of the undead lich mafia isn't up to something is a little weird. And considering how many have wanted to be gods in this particular setting... perhaps Odin and company will realize it's in their best interests to humor their high priest.

As for the horde, you have an inside suit of armor. I don't think a dracolich sleeps, but that hoard sounds like it's colossal ++ sized. It's my guess Beordie could easily slip unnoticed and start searching through the dragon's hoard for stuff, categorizing items, that sort of thing-- more importantly, reporting anything interesting to Kemen. It seems unlikely a dracolich wouldn't have an artifact or two hanging about in that enormous pile. You basically have the magical equivalent of MacGuyver locked in a hardware store-- and he's got an unbreakable walkie-talkie to the OTHER magical MacGuyver.

Also, wasn't agonizing pain one of the symptoms of being under the effects of one of the amulets, at least if you were resisting? Jeez, I can't even remember. Emberbane sounds like the kind of dude who could make himself a copy for his own nefarious purposes.

Averis Vol
2013-12-02, 04:46 PM
Woah man! heavy session. Good to see Chulainn again I bet.

As for your current predicament, I think having both groups mad at you is a big problem, you could find a way to try and turn them on each other, but that would be hard while Emberbane's in her pocket plane.....

Oh ****. The Revenge is the entrance to Emberbane's pocket plane right? One of the only ways I can see to defeat something like her is to either gain a ludicrous amount of levels, or destroy the pocket plane. With that in mind, Why not plane shift to the elemental plane of fire before sinking it in a lake of Magma. Pull a lord of the rings on your wanna be sauron.

Also, your DM seems to appreciate the Mythos placed into your world. A trip to Asgard might be in order. Among asking the all father for help, within Valhalla resides a norse hero famed for his dragonslaying prowess. You could take the time to search out Sigurd and ask him for help, maybe even to borrow Gram.

Axinian
2013-12-02, 08:37 PM
It just sort of hit me how sad it is that you guys dont have the Revenge anymore. That thing's been a mainstay of the campaign since forever. I believe there is only one proper response to this.

The return of Das Vagon!!!!

CoffeeIncluded
2013-12-02, 10:33 PM
Farewell, Revenge. Is there anything left of it? Or, hm, maybe if there's a way to restore part of it and get it near Emberbane, or in Emberbane, that might be useful.

What about the friendly liches? They might know something.

And what a cameo from The Silent One!

Deremir
2013-12-03, 01:59 PM
... Yeees as previously mentioned if you can just get the revenge back you could send it to elemental plane of fire then submerge it in lava and OPEN THE PORTAL to the pocket plane. There pocket plane full of lava dead dracolich

Averis Vol
2013-12-03, 03:05 PM
And what a cameo from The Silent One!

That one made me jump in joy, kinda weirded out my brother who was on the other side of the room.

Had to explain the whole thing and he just gave me the disappointed look.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-12-03, 04:19 PM
... Yeees as previously mentioned if you can just get the revenge back you could send it to elemental plane of fire then submerge it in lava and OPEN THE PORTAL to the pocket plane. There pocket plane full of lava dead dracolich

Isn't Emberbane a red dragon dracolich? The elemental plane of water, in an icy part, would probably be better.

Averis Vol
2013-12-03, 05:45 PM
Isn't Emberbane a red dragon dracolich? The elemental plane of water, in an icy part, would probably be better.

Immunity to fire is not equivalent to immunity to lava. I mentioned the plane of fire because ice can only freeze the revenge, not destroy it. While sending it there could keep her out of commission for a while, it wouldn't truly do away with her (Especially because undead are immune to cold damage if I remember correctly)

Deffers
2013-12-03, 08:18 PM
I think I know what we need to do. We need to ask Afroakuma over in the 3.5 forum if there's an elemental plane that deals sonic damage or acid damage continuously, and then shove the dracolich into that. :smallbiggrin:

Besides, an epic or near-epic dracolich could probably protect itself from the elements indefinitely. Not from lava, though, perhaps. The question becomes-- is the lava too viscous to flow through the portal for long distances? What's the rate of cooling inside the hoard demiplane? Would Emberbane be able to cast an ice-based spell, or summon something with ice-based spells, that could let it cool the lava?

Axinian
2013-12-03, 09:11 PM
Immunity to fire is not equivalent to immunity to lava.

It kind of is. Lava deals fire damage.

I agree though, that screwing with the demiplane itself is a good idea.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-12-03, 09:34 PM
Also, how much is the power of belief still in effect?

Deffers
2013-12-03, 10:11 PM
Now that I think about it, with the power of belief being a thing-- wouldn't it be possible to spread the bawdy bardic story of Emberbane the weakling dracolich? I mean, Marilius IS a bard, and a high-level one at that. How hard would it be for him to get a concert in which he describes in explicit detail exactly how weak Emberbane is? Because that might... that might do things to its stats. And a cabal of treacherous liches might just consider eliminating competition in a way that has no way to be traced back to them quite the OK thing.

Of course that leaves the players open for retaliation... huh.

Averis Vol
2013-12-03, 11:51 PM
It kind of is. Lava deals fire damage.

I agree though, that screwing with the demiplane itself is a good idea.

Huh, I coulda sworn lava had specific rules. Seems that I was wrong; my bad.

Kaveman26
2013-12-04, 08:52 AM
The Munchkin part of my gamer's soul would cry out in agony if we flooded that place with lava or acid. Too much loot to nuke it from orbit.

Propaganda against the dracolich is intriguing from the standpoint of twisting the twist our DM has thrown into the mix, that is worth exploring.

Deremir
2013-12-04, 09:36 AM
oooh what about a gateway to the positive energy plane? positive energy floods Emberbane's demention is flooded with positive energy, emberbane, as an undead, is force fed positive energy and dies. the loot should be (in theory) ok and you can recover it later. if emberbane ports out then hey, with the demiplane flooded with positive energy she probably wont come back to it.

Deffers
2013-12-04, 10:59 AM
How difficult would it be for a dracolich to get protection from positive energy?

If difficult, then I think this might work. Anything positive energy. It's like a holy neutron bomb: it kills undead, not loot.

Kaveman26
2013-12-04, 12:44 PM
I will have to get more clarification but the music box and flute open up the path into the plane holding the lair. They served as the engine for the revenge and it became a defacto transport into the lair. I think we can return to the lair on our own now using the flute but I don't think we need the revenge. We asked how everyone else got in, and we're told that once a path was opened there was window for others to follow. Presumably ember bane can grant access on its own as well.

Positive energy flood would preserve treasure, have to see if we can trigger something like that.

Brookshw
2013-12-04, 12:58 PM
I'm personally a bit tickled with the idea of using ring gates with one end immersed in the river oceanus and then flooding it into an area though based on the weight restrictions you'd need many for it to have a significant impact. Food for thought since flooding options are being explored.

As to the solars that skipped out, could you use a sending to reach out to them for aid?

Kaveman26
2013-12-04, 01:05 PM
Planar allies both literally and via spell calling are always an option. Concern is the dragon summoning/gating in his own extra planar posse. That is exactly the kind of thing our dm would do.

Going to also explore access to Valhalla for research and follow up. That could trigger any interesting mini arc and if we give him enough time to prep I could see something like that being worked in.

Almost forget to ask leveling advice. Thinking 17th will be rogue then 18th ninja for sneak attack boost, followed by assassin (if Allowed) and then master spy to cheat up higher sneak attack. Also thought finishing last three to four levels as fighter to take better bab and vital strike

Axinian
2013-12-04, 02:24 PM
Well since I suspect that there are a lot of very knowledgeable undead in your future I wouldn't recommend Assassin. Master Spy is a good way to get that extra sneak attack dice with some bonuses. You can't take levels in ninja because you already have levels in rogue (ninja is an alternate class to rogue). I'd recommend actually just staying in Rogue, because getting more Rogue talents is good. Master Spy doesn't really give you anything you don't already have.

Deffers
2013-12-04, 02:44 PM
I got an idea based on what Brookshw was saying about using ring gates to rinse out the loot into a secured pickup zone.

Instead of using a magical water source like a plane, use a real ocean. That way you have a definable hydrostatic column. Which means definable pressure. Which means you can, yunno, modulate how much loot you'll push through depending on the depth, or even cause damage to Emberbane by way of pressure. Have Kemen research a spell that acts like a wall of force that allows items through but not undead. Ideally Emberbane would not have time to react by the time you swept his treasure away. At this point you could use a ring gate to the deepest trench on your planet, close your pickup zone, and allow hydrostatic pressure to crush him to death. This would buy you enough time to figure out which items are tracking markers he can scry on, disable them, and then hide Emberbane's loot.

From that point you'd be perpetually on the run but it'd be worth it.

Lord Torath
2013-12-04, 02:58 PM
I'm not certain how susceptible dracoliches (or any skeletal undead for that matter) are to hydrostatic crushing damage. If Emberbane was dependent on squishy organs, sure, no problem. But bone is pretty incompressible unless you're mashing it against something (say, between a giant boulder and a hard floor), and hydrostatic pressure is applied evenly all the way around the thing, so there's nothing to "mash" it against.

I really do like the idea of flushing the treasure out of the plane, though. Flush it into a section of the Positive Material Plane so he can't come after you for it. Unless he's got a "protection from positive energy" spell or item. Something like the opposite of Death Ward.

Do you still have the Rod of Disjunction? What effect would a hit from it have on a dracolich?

Edit: Chulainn's still in the lair, in a somewhat undetermined state, right? Flooding the demi-plane with water might just kill him off. Unless you can zip someone through first to rescue him before unleashing the flood...

Edit 2: Flooding the place with lava could actually work quite well if you then follow it up with cold, solidifying the dracolich in solid rock. It still leaves you with the problem of accessing the loot.

Kaveman26
2013-12-04, 03:15 PM
Chu is in the lair with an unexplained death grip on the rod. Not sure what the deal is there yet. Time should reveal more about that. Any gate/planar shenanigans will heavily depend on what we are allowed to do with regards to the plane itself. If we can open a hole into the lair like a true gate then some hi jinks will ensue. Otherwise we are going to hacpve to attack from a different angle.

Axinian
2013-12-04, 03:29 PM
Speaking of, is Chu's player going to interact with you guys later via Skype or something? Or is the DM just gonna haveto play for him if he comes out of it.

Kaveman26
2013-12-04, 03:37 PM
At this point he has not expressed intent to keep playing. So his status is up in the air. Him not being killed off indicates that there must be further plans in place for him. We aren't sure what yet though.

With the obscenely high dex and wis his defensive stats were pretty sick. His ac came close to 70 and fort saves are realistically the only thing he will fail with any consistency. So we would love to have him in any form where he is an ally and not trying to kill us.

Deffers
2013-12-04, 03:49 PM
I'm not certain how susceptible dracoliches (or any skeletal undead for that matter) are to hydrostatic crushing damage. If Emberbane was dependent on squishy organs, sure, no problem. But bone is pretty incompressible unless you're mashing it against something (say, between a giant boulder and a hard floor), and hydrostatic pressure is applied evenly all the way around the thing, so there's nothing to "mash" it against..

Actually, here's the beauty of it; by opening up a ring gate, the Bernoulli equation comes into play, meaning that he's got cubic meters of water violently shooting at him. If you've ever seen video of what a cubic meter of water falling on a car will do to it, you know water is deceptively massive. It's more like shooting him with an artillery shell made of water, really. Or throwing a small mountain made of water at him.

If you're worried about that, though, just change the second ring gate of the safe zone to a ring gate somewhere else in the positive energy plane, and keep Kemen's wall of force spell up-- or don't, and wash him into a plane that will immediately kill him. In this case you would just use the plane of water ring and not change to a ring that uses hydrostatic pressure in any capacity.

Remember, how much distance a particle travels is entirely dependent on its mass for any given flow regime. Decent odds that the Dracolich is the most massive thing in there of interest, so it will move last assuming you surprise it and it doesn't lunge at you (though, again, that's what Kemen's modified wall of force is for), granting you a window of opportunity to switch up the gates.

As for the Silent One, he shouldn't be pretty massive. He should be one of the first things to end up in your safe zone. If you set up a grate or sluice or some sort, or cast water breathing on him, he shouldn't drown. Assuming the disjunction rod acts as an immovable rod because we don't know what's up, he'll remain in there after Emberbane is washed away.

I'm not saying it's a foolproof plan. And I KNOW I'm probably killing a few catgirls with this. But it could be a useful part of your strategy!

Lord Torath
2013-12-04, 04:04 PM
Actually, here's the beauty of it; by opening up a ring gate, the Bernoulli equation comes into play, meaning that he's got cubic meters of water violently shooting at him. If you've ever seen video of what a cubic meter of water falling on a car will do to it, you know water is deceptively massive. It's more like shooting him with an artillery shell made of water, really. Or throwing a small mountain made of water at him.

<snip>

I'm not saying it's a foolproof plan. And I KNOW I'm probably killing a few catgirls with this. But it could be a useful part of your strategy!Ahh, see, now hydrostatic force is what you get when the water is standing still. Sitting on the bottom of the swimming pool, your body is subject to hydrostatic force. (slaying more catgirls)

Once you get the water moving, especially at high velocity, everything changes. You will be hitting Emberbane with a flash flood, propelling literally tons of high-density metal objects at very high speed at whatever is in front of them (20,000 coins per ton?). Can you use Beordie to position your bottom-of-the-ocean gate so there's a large pile of coins between it and Emberbane? Or better yet, arrange several racks of magic weapons between the two? Everyone knows dragons like collecting hordes or dragonslaying swords in their hoards, so no-one can use them against them...

Deffers
2013-12-04, 04:09 PM
Perfect. I like it. And yeah, sorry about the vocab mixup when it comes to hydrostatic force and hydrostatic pressure.

I like the idea of hurling the magic weapons at Emberbane. And we also know precisely where Chu is, so we can probably design the trap so that he avoids the violent slaughter of blades.

If this succeeds it'll make what happened to Tiraxis Nis the first go-round look like a fair and completely even fight. :smallamused:

EDIT: In restrospect, hydrodynamic would be more accurate for the... violence we want to subject Emberbane to.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-12-04, 04:52 PM
Does Chulainn have some sort of negative energy protection? If Emberbane were on the negative energy plane would he pop after a short time like with living beings on the positive energy plane? I'll bet he has some sort of positive energy protection, but not negative energy protection!

As for leveling, do you have the penetrating strike acf? I forget.

I really like the idea of propaganda against him though.

Kaveman26
2013-12-04, 05:15 PM
As I dabble throughout the day I'm thinking more and more of taking fighter as my last four levels. That would get me to a fourth base attack and give me some bonus feats for things like vital strike and improved critical.

I'm pretty sure that a huge comp longbow jumps to 2d6 or 2d8, so that if I go giant I get strength boost and bump to huge weapon, which means vital strike adds another 2dx with each iterative, basically replicating sneak attack boost while giving more versatility and better bab. Another attack is always nice as it means Another chance at a 20. It also shores up weaker fort save and I think I can drop armor training for better attack and damage through archer acf.

So 17th level feat would be focused shot to add int damage to attack roll.
Fighter bonus feat would be vital strike

18th fbf would be improved vital strike

19th improved critical

20th fbf oils be third tier vital strike

Averis Vol
2013-12-05, 02:26 AM
As I dabble throughout the day I'm thinking more and more of taking fighter as my last four levels. That would get me to a fourth base attack and give me some bonus feats for things like vital strike and improved critical.

I'm pretty sure that a huge comp longbow jumps to 2d6 or 2d8, so that if I go giant I get strength boost and bump to huge weapon, which means vital strike adds another 2dx with each iterative, basically replicating sneak attack boost while giving more versatility and better bab. Another attack is always nice as it means Another chance at a 20. It also shores up weaker fort save and I think I can drop armor training for better attack and damage through archer acf.

So 17th level feat would be focused shot to add int damage to attack roll.
Fighter bonus feat would be vital strike

18th fbf would be improved vital strike

19th improved critical

20th fbf oils be third tier vital strike

Sounds good to me. While I have read all your recaps, I don't really know your group and what would be best. then again, this looks like a solid setup all together.

Astral Avenger
2013-12-06, 10:57 PM
I love these logs, they make studying for finals so much more bearable. :smallsmile:

Superblack
2013-12-09, 12:33 AM
Even better, although prohibitively expensive and still reliant on the planar portal thingies. Make a massive pool of holy water, maybe there's a way to bless large pools of it and then send it at the dracolich. Or if you can't portal it in get as much extraplanar space, fill it with holy water and then pour it out once you're there. Gotta think of ways other than relying on the portal just in case the DM shoots it down. If you could do the holy water, or whatever plan, in secret without the DM so you surprise him, maybe distract him with another plan then you could probably pull it off. I think it would be hilarious to drown the dracolich.

Kaveman26
2013-12-09, 12:43 PM
Do you know what Nemesis Means?:

As we survey the wreckage of our former stronghold and try to assemble a head count we are interrupted with an urgent request from the Merchant Council in Kay Varn. Kemen receives a sending from a cleric in the city that is akin to a high priority urgent request. As a Merchant Prince he is honor bound to respond and make himself available to the Council barring drastic circumstances.

In conjunction with that communication we are awarded level 17 and given a few long overdue perks. First and foremost our wizard is FINALLY allowed to learn teleport spells with the following caveat. The process will take 30 minutes and it is limited to several keypoint locations. Our approved travel locations are:

Kay Varn city gates

Androka’s former prison cell over seeing the stone city recreation of Malabith

Our stronghold

Hullbreaker Island-The Dragon Turtle’s lair

Indy is given a drastic potential upgrade, with taking further Expanded Arcana he will be permitted to take 7th level spells at 17th level level from sorcerer list, and 8th level spells at 19th level. He is permitted only bonus spell granted from Charisma and has to pick a maximum of two spells, but he is being given the ability to exceed hard limit of 6th level spells.

Kemen takes another level in Abjurer and takes Craft Wand as his feat

I decide to abandon Rogue progession and take Fighter levels.

Indy continues with Bard and takes Summon Monster 7 and Mage’s Sword as his two spells.

Paddock continues with Cleric

The dwarf city is in an uproar when we show up. Guards hastily scoop us up and take us deep into the city. The reigning council of dwarves await us in a conference room with multiple wooden chests. Each chest is revealed to contain a severed head, and they are all addressed to us.

We identify nearly every npc we have encountered in our travels as being a head in a box.

*Kneel Yung-the temporary PC that became an NPC

Wahloon-the oranguatuan druid that reincarnated me

Erick-The cleric stuck in his tower that joined us for the Ven Aus fight

Androka+Wind-our two rescued lich comrades

Anyone that has ever lent us aid or assistance in meaningful fashion.

Along with the known to us heads are several decapitated dwarves. All prominent members of the dwarf community and all were wearing plate armor at the time of their murders.

From that it is extrapolated that whoever is doing this is searching for us and is taking out anyone they can connect to us, or anyone that can reasonably pass as being similar to Kemen.

We are asked if we recently made any new enemies…

Kemen:About 24 hours ago we certainly raised some anomosity, but these all predate that.

Indy: People gunning for us is nothing new, we tend to encounter the worst of what the world has to offer, but this feels remarkably personal.

Being adventurers we do what naturally comes easy to us. We use Sending, Contact Other Plane, Commune, and every other means at our disposal to broadcast our presence to the world at large and announce that if anyone has a beef with us, we will happily await them outside our stronghold the following day at noon.

Kemen plants his feet outside our stronghold with Paddock to his right and Indy and I provide ranged support from cover amidst the ruins of the Weald. Alarms go up about half an hour after noon and a party approaches us. They are bearing a white flag and pulling a wagon behind a donkey. Each of them is dressed in plain clothes. They appear to be just average commoners. Their leader cautiously walks closer to us and shows empty hands.

Commoner: A man paid us 500 gold to bring the wagon to this place…just told us to leave it for whoever was here. Told us not to look inside.

We press them a bit on description of the man, but the wagon handlers appear clueless.

“some guy in a cloak, middle height, slender” is all we can get.

We look in the wagon and find another box once again with a severed head and this time a note. The head belongs to the nymph from the Hullbreaker Island Chain and the note is brief.

See You Soon

Paddock: Did we ever leave anyone alive that would be this pissed off at us?
Marilius: No one that I can think of.

Kemen: Either way…this is new business and we still have old business to address. Whoever is doing this is playing shadow games, taunting us and trying to anger or panic us. We ignore it til we have something to work from. First priority still has to be rescuing Chulainn and curbing the liches and Emberbane.

At that juncture we brainstorm up ideas of how to proceed:

Plan A:Valhalla as a Library

We proposition Odin through Paddock to grant us access to Valhalla and Cinhill Rue to view and study all of Ven Aus’s research. No single person understood more about undeath or lich-dom then he, and the entire sub complex of Cinhill Rue was a scholar’s paradise of research.

Odin doesn’t exactly tell us no dice, only that admittance to Valhalla is strictly posthumous and that we would need to acquire that same information from a different source. With Androka and Wind gone those other sources are limited. He dangles one possible thread to us in the form of a further question.

“When you can’t find the end of the road, why not search for the beginning?”

We take that to mean “find the desert kingdom he manipulated before he exiled himself beneath Cinhill Rue”. Our DM kind of gives us a wink/nod at that interpretation and nudges us towards locating his original workspace or lair.

Plan B: Fun with Physics
This involves some trial and error. We are able to create a pseudo gate back into the Dracolich Plane and we send a summoned celestial rat through for Beordie to spot and confirm it made it. Travel back to the Plane is possible. So reentry and exit are options. Through further survelliance from Beordie we identify Emberbane as being OCD. He has a workforce that totals nearly a 100 crystalline ants and he directs in exacting precision in reforming his lair to it’s previous state, along with completing the unfinished wings. For the most part Beordie is stuck playing statue for the time being, as the dragon is not in a hurry to leave.

When we postulate the idea of bridging his Plane between things like the Plane of Water or Positive Energy Plane we are shot down pre-emptively.

DM: For reasons that have an explanation, an explanation you are currently not aware of, opening a Gate inside his lair is currently impossible. Only the “official” or intended pathway is currently functioning.

Plan C: Targeted Insertion and Blitzkreig
We hole up someplace secure and reallocate any remaining funds and resources, maybe even sell off some of the bloated equipment we already pilfered and create some undead dragon slaying equipment and then just gate it and throw down with everything we can. A holy, undead bane, dragon bane weapon could bolster damage and overcome resistances and if we can frontload positive energy in channels and create focused spell lists we try to overwhelm the dragon with brute force.

Problem we now face from that…we no longer have the ship, we no longer have a secured stronghold, and just about every “ally” we have made is missing their head. We could work under sub optimal conditions but to get what we really want in terms of equipment would still require weeks.

Plan D:Why Kill Two Birds with One Stone, When You Can Take out a Bunch?

This ended up being Paddock’s idea. Everyone had some anti fire plane gear, basically frost enchanted+evil outsider bane equipment from when we stopped Poligius. That stuff is all still in our personal bags of holding. It was meant to combat Lawful Evil Fire based Efreets.

Kemen: That doesn’t help us here though.

Paddock: Well we need further intelligence on the demi-plane, we need a secure location to prepare, we need to locate the liches and whoever is serial killing our associates and we need a big nest egg of money to potentially rebuilt targeted dragon killing stuff. There is a place where all those things are available and we can put our fire plane gear to use.

Indy: Listening…

Paddock: The frozen continent we left Snickle at…its swarming with devils and has the world’s most powerful divination station and a diamond worth millions. It fills all those purposes.

Marilius: K…how do we get there?

There is some dissension over the means of transportation. No one is eager to get back on a rickety wood boat after having the Revenge for so long, and we are doubtful of getting a teleport. From our stronghold we head for the nearest port town and try to make accomodations to hire or buy a ship. Shouldn’t be that hard right? We have saved the world from Tiraxis (twice), Poligius (really all of creation) and from Ven Aus, we helped bring the world back from the brink of extinction, and witnessed the ascension of the Asgardian Pantheon.

Dockmaster: No vessel in this port or any other will take you and your party on board.
Marilius: Why the hell not?

Dockmaster: Word of your deeds is widespread and you are all heroes of this age, but word is also spreading like wildfire that anyone that so much as gives you a room for the night can wind up with their head in a crate.

Taken aback, we do some recon through the town and Indy and I discover that we are world famous…every bard is singing of our exploits and glories, and they are also taking about our hunted status. Digging deeper it appears that figures have been paying them all across the country to keep singing and spreading these tales.

Even Kemen throwing around his status as a Merchant Prince is balked at. Best we can manage is a borderline derelict short range skimmer that may sink with our weight on it. That they aren’t even willing to sell to us, just more or less ignore us if we choose to take it.

Kemen throws his hands up in disgust and gets his “Im about to jack up our DM’s day” look on his face.

Kemen: I need to have a little pow-wow with my armor. Beordie built the Titan’s Pride and I am going to ask him how we find it. Screw this dinghy crap. I am bringing a freaking aircraft carrier.

It takes a while to dig down and figure out how to process that, but we are told that the Pride is still in close proximity to Hullbreaker Chain, it was left there some time ago after Bjorn the Elder was dominated by Poligius. Best Beordie can tell us is that it is still there after he came back to his senses.
We teleport to the Island Chain and in fairly short order locate Bjorn, who is living off the beach, scavenging the wreckage. He is a mess.

To summarize his life since Poligius:

After the hybrid dragon/giant was killed he was brought back to his senses but the Pride itself had been abandoned, and nearly over-run with pirates, marauders and creatures seeking it’s wealth. Bjorn was forced to abandon the ship and leave it as a massive floating dungeon. He has been in isolation since scavenging the beach and driving off kapocinths and harpies.

Bjorn: Without a full crew, and without Beordie to handle repairs couldn’t keep the old girl moving.

We take a longboat back out to the Pride and levitate to the top deck. The once magnificent vessel is in rough shape.

Kemen: I am tired and angry and anything on this ship that wants a fight is in for it.

We summon up a cascade of cheap and expendable summoned celestials and send them scurrying below decks to flush out anything living or uninvited. The first order of business is reaching the propulsion and steering mechanisms for Beordie to remotely walk Kemen through repairing. We steamroll a number of lesser creatures like goblins and dire rats that are there to take up space and get Kemen to the engine room, Paddock uses greater Planar ally to get a Planetar to watch his back and the rest of begin a room by room scouring of the top few floors of the Revenge.

The deeper we go the tougher things become. We stop pressing to the lower levels and instead assist Kemen is getting us moveable. Once he is able to get the ship mobile he sets a loose course for the north and we decide to clean house while in travel.

Marilius: Nothing like a mobile floating dungeon to abuse while you are burning 20+ days of travel.

Saturday's recap is up. Not an overly long session but we have some more forward progress. Next game should probably be the 21st.

Joe the Rat
2013-12-09, 03:41 PM
Oh dear. Time to start reviewing all of the Thwarted Villains and figure out who's still alive, or might have means to return otherwise.


Even better, although prohibitively expensive and still reliant on the planar portal thingies. Make a massive pool of holy water, maybe there's a way to bless large pools of it and then send it at the dracolich. Or if you can't portal it in get as much extraplanar space, fill it with holy water and then pour it out once you're there. Gotta think of ways other than relying on the portal just in case the DM shoots it down. If you could do the holy water, or whatever plan, in secret without the DM so you surprise him, maybe distract him with another plan then you could probably pull it off. I think it would be hilarious to drown the dracolich.

So, what would it take to craft a decanter of endless holy water?

ReaderAt2046
2013-12-09, 03:43 PM
Do you know what Nemesis Means?:

As we survey the wreckage of our former stronghold and try to assemble a head count we are interrupted with an urgent request from the Merchant Council in Kay Varn. Kemen receives a sending from a cleric in the city that is akin to a high priority urgent request. As a Merchant Prince he is honor bound to respond and make himself available to the Council barring drastic circumstances.

In conjunction with that communication we are awarded level 17 and given a few long overdue perks. First and foremost our wizard is FINALLY allowed to learn teleport spells with the following caveat. The process will take 30 minutes and it is limited to several keypoint locations. Our approved travel locations are:

Kay Varn city gates

Androka’s former prison cell over seeing the stone city recreation of Malabith

Our stronghold

Hullbreaker Island-The Dragon Turtle’s lair

Indy is given a drastic potential upgrade, with taking further Expanded Arcana he will be permitted to take 7th level spells at 17th level level from sorcerer list, and 8th level spells at 19th level. He is permitted only bonus spell granted from Charisma and has to pick a maximum of two spells, but he is being given the ability to exceed hard limit of 6th level spells.

Kemen takes another level in Abjurer and takes Craft Wand as his feat

I decide to abandon Rogue progession and take Fighter levels.

Indy continues with Bard and takes Summon Monster 7 and Mage’s Sword as his two spells.

Paddock continues with Cleric

The dwarf city is in an uproar when we show up. Guards hastily scoop us up and take us deep into the city. The reigning council of dwarves await us in a conference room with multiple wooden chests. Each chest is revealed to contain a severed head, and they are all addressed to us.

We identify nearly every npc we have encountered in our travels as being a head in a box.

*Kneel Yung-the temporary PC that became an NPC

Wahloon-the oranguatuan druid that reincarnated me

Erick-The cleric stuck in his tower that joined us for the Ven Aus fight

Androka+Wind-our two rescued lich comrades

Anyone that has ever lent us aid or assistance in meaningful fashion.

Along with the known to us heads are several decapitated dwarves. All prominent members of the dwarf community and all were wearing plate armor at the time of their murders.

From that it is extrapolated that whoever is doing this is searching for us and is taking out anyone they can connect to us, or anyone that can reasonably pass as being similar to Kemen.

We are asked if we recently made any new enemies…

Kemen:About 24 hours ago we certainly raised some anomosity, but these all predate that.

Indy: People gunning for us is nothing new, we tend to encounter the worst of what the world has to offer, but this feels remarkably personal.

Being adventurers we do what naturally comes easy to us. We use Sending, Contact Other Plane, Commune, and every other means at our disposal to broadcast our presence to the world at large and announce that if anyone has a beef with us, we will happily await them outside our stronghold the following day at noon.

Kemen plants his feet outside our stronghold with Paddock to his right and Indy and I provide ranged support from cover amidst the ruins of the Weald. Alarms go up about half an hour after noon and a party approaches us. They are bearing a white flag and pulling a wagon behind a donkey. Each of them is dressed in plain clothes. They appear to be just average commoners. Their leader cautiously walks closer to us and shows empty hands.

Commoner: A man paid us 500 gold to bring the wagon to this place…just told us to leave it for whoever was here. Told us not to look inside.

We press them a bit on description of the man, but the wagon handlers appear clueless.

“some guy in a cloak, middle height, slender” is all we can get.

We look in the wagon and find another box once again with a severed head and this time a note. The head belongs to the nymph from the Hullbreaker Island Chain and the note is brief.

See You Soon

Paddock: Did we ever leave anyone alive that would be this pissed off at us?
Marilius: No one that I can think of.

Kemen: Either way…this is new business and we still have old business to address. Whoever is doing this is playing shadow games, taunting us and trying to anger or panic us. We ignore it til we have something to work from. First priority still has to be rescuing Chulainn and curbing the liches and Emberbane.

At that juncture we brainstorm up ideas of how to proceed:

Plan A:Valhalla as a Library

We proposition Odin through Paddock to grant us access to Valhalla and Cinhill Rue to view and study all of Ven Aus’s research. No single person understood more about undeath or lich-dom then he, and the entire sub complex of Cinhill Rue was a scholar’s paradise of research.

Odin doesn’t exactly tell us no dice, only that admittance to Valhalla is strictly posthumous and that we would need to acquire that same information from a different source. With Androka and Wind gone those other sources are limited. He dangles one possible thread to us in the form of a further question.

“When you can’t find the end of the road, why not search for the beginning?”

We take that to mean “find the desert kingdom he manipulated before he exiled himself beneath Cinhill Rue”. Our DM kind of gives us a wink/nod at that interpretation and nudges us towards locating his original workspace or lair.

Plan B: Fun with Physics
This involves some trial and error. We are able to create a pseudo gate back into the Dracolich Plane and we send a summoned celestial rat through for Beordie to spot and confirm it made it. Travel back to the Plane is possible. So reentry and exit are options. Through further survelliance from Beordie we identify Emberbane as being OCD. He has a workforce that totals nearly a 100 crystalline ants and he directs in exacting precision in reforming his lair to it’s previous state, along with completing the unfinished wings. For the most part Beordie is stuck playing statue for the time being, as the dragon is not in a hurry to leave.

When we postulate the idea of bridging his Plane between things like the Plane of Water or Positive Energy Plane we are shot down pre-emptively.

DM: For reasons that have an explanation, an explanation you are currently not aware of, opening a Gate inside his lair is currently impossible. Only the “official” or intended pathway is currently functioning.

Plan C: Targeted Insertion and Blitzkreig
We hole up someplace secure and reallocate any remaining funds and resources, maybe even sell off some of the bloated equipment we already pilfered and create some undead dragon slaying equipment and then just gate it and throw down with everything we can. A holy, undead bane, dragon bane weapon could bolster damage and overcome resistances and if we can frontload positive energy in channels and create focused spell lists we try to overwhelm the dragon with brute force.

Problem we now face from that…we no longer have the ship, we no longer have a secured stronghold, and just about every “ally” we have made is missing their head. We could work under sub optimal conditions but to get what we really want in terms of equipment would still require weeks.

Plan D:Why Kill Two Birds with One Stone, When You Can Take out a Bunch?

This ended up being Paddock’s idea. Everyone had some anti fire plane gear, basically frost enchanted+evil outsider bane equipment from when we stopped Poligius. That stuff is all still in our personal bags of holding. It was meant to combat Lawful Evil Fire based Efreets.

Kemen: That doesn’t help us here though.

Paddock: Well we need further intelligence on the demi-plane, we need a secure location to prepare, we need to locate the liches and whoever is serial killing our associates and we need a big nest egg of money to potentially rebuilt targeted dragon killing stuff. There is a place where all those things are available and we can put our fire plane gear to use.

Indy: Listening…

Paddock: The frozen continent we left Snickle at…its swarming with devils and has the world’s most powerful divination station and a diamond worth millions. It fills all those purposes.

Marilius: K…how do we get there?

There is some dissension over the means of transportation. No one is eager to get back on a rickety wood boat after having the Revenge for so long, and we are doubtful of getting a teleport. From our stronghold we head for the nearest port town and try to make accomodations to hire or buy a ship. Shouldn’t be that hard right? We have saved the world from Tiraxis (twice), Poligius (really all of creation) and from Ven Aus, we helped bring the world back from the brink of extinction, and witnessed the ascension of the Asgardian Pantheon.

Dockmaster: No vessel in this port or any other will take you and your party on board.
Marilius: Why the hell not?

Dockmaster: Word of your deeds is widespread and you are all heroes of this age, but word is also spreading like wildfire that anyone that so much as gives you a room for the night can wind up with their head in a crate.

Taken aback, we do some recon through the town and Indy and I discover that we are world famous…every bard is singing of our exploits and glories, and they are also taking about our hunted status. Digging deeper it appears that figures have been paying them all across the country to keep singing and spreading these tales.

Even Kemen throwing around his status as a Merchant Prince is balked at. Best we can manage is a borderline derelict short range skimmer that may sink with our weight on it. That they aren’t even willing to sell to us, just more or less ignore us if we choose to take it.

Kemen throws his hands up in disgust and gets his “Im about to jack up our DM’s day” look on his face.

Kemen: I need to have a little pow-wow with my armor. Beordie built the Titan’s Pride and I am going to ask him how we find it. Screw this dinghy crap. I am bringing a freaking aircraft carrier.

It takes a while to dig down and figure out how to process that, but we are told that the Pride is still in close proximity to Hullbreaker Chain, it was left there some time ago after Bjorn the Elder was dominated by Poligius. Best Beordie can tell us is that it is still there after he came back to his senses.
We teleport to the Island Chain and in fairly short order locate Bjorn, who is living off the beach, scavenging the wreckage. He is a mess.

To summarize his life since Poligius:

After the hybrid dragon/giant was killed he was brought back to his senses but the Pride itself had been abandoned, and nearly over-run with pirates, marauders and creatures seeking it’s wealth. Bjorn was forced to abandon the ship and leave it as a massive floating dungeon. He has been in isolation since scavenging the beach and driving off kapocinths and harpies.

Bjorn: Without a full crew, and without Beordie to handle repairs couldn’t keep the old girl moving.

We take a longboat back out to the Pride and levitate to the top deck. The once magnificent vessel is in rough shape.

Kemen: I am tired and angry and anything on this ship that wants a fight is in for it.

We summon up a cascade of cheap and expendable summoned celestials and send them scurrying below decks to flush out anything living or uninvited. The first order of business is reaching the propulsion and steering mechanisms for Beordie to remotely walk Kemen through repairing. We steamroll a number of lesser creatures like goblins and dire rats that are there to take up space and get Kemen to the engine room, Paddock uses greater Planar ally to get a Planetar to watch his back and the rest of begin a room by room scouring of the top few floors of the Revenge.

The deeper we go the tougher things become. We stop pressing to the lower levels and instead assist Kemen is getting us moveable. Once he is able to get the ship mobile he sets a loose course for the north and we decide to clean house while in travel.

Marilius: Nothing like a mobile floating dungeon to abuse while you are burning 20+ days of travel.

Saturday's recap is up. Not an overly long session but we have some more forward progress. Next game should probably be the 21st.

Fifty to the dozen it's Snickle who's killing all these people, via devil assassin.

Kaveman26
2013-12-09, 04:09 PM
Well that is kind of the thing. Sickle has been diabolical and evil in a kender kind of way. He has never been overt or brutal. Even in Flynt he used goofy items to belay us not kill us. He is the only major recurring character that we haven't slain, so I'm kind of stumped. Ashleigh the cloud giantess is a long shot...but we have killed our villains. Thwarted villain list is much tougher.

I have been going back through my own recaps today trying to spark any memories.

1. Have we ever done anything to someone still living that would cause this level of anger?

2. Have we overlooked something?

3. Is there anyone we presumed dead that may not be?

Axinian
2013-12-09, 04:25 PM
Maybe these?

1) Sultan of the Efreet. He helped you guys out to save his kingdom, but you did kind of undercut his authority and kind of broke into his palace. I mean, I doubt he would go this far to get to you, but he is someone still alive who probably doesn't like you.

2) I could see some loophole happening with Poligius coming back after Tiraxis died, but Poligius is sort of a breath weapon first, ask questions never sort of guy. He wouldn't take this more behind the scenes approach.

3) I hate to suggest this again but... Ven Aus? Perhaps he had some workaround for the one phylactery rule. Like maybe the one you destroyed allowed him to control the golems, but wasn't his true phylactery?

4) The 13 liches don't like you. At least some of them don't. Again though, if they wanted to get to you I would think they'd just bamf in and try to wreck you with 9th level spells.

5) Snickle... but you've already identified why it probably wouldn't be him.

6) Ashleigh's father? Is he still alive. He hates you specifically but I doubt he hates the whole party enough to do this.

7) There's always the chance that someone you killed has come back as an undead. If that's the case I don't know how to figure out who it is before meeting them.

Kaveman26
2013-12-09, 04:46 PM
Ashleigh's father was killed by tiraxis or a tiraxis minion in new jotun.

Sultan....that is a good lead. Probably not him personally but he couldn't definitely hire people to do it.

Ven/poligius. Possible, but hopefully not. A villain returning from beyond was an entire game arc so if it was done offscreen be kind of a bummer. I think our dm felt obligated with tiraxis based on how we punked him the first time.

The liches destroyed our stronghold but let the workers go, they didn't cover it up. And we know they are gunning for us, but much more recently. Heads were rolling for a while.

Averis Vol
2013-12-09, 11:07 PM
As much as I don't want to jinx you, but I gotta say, I would LOVE to see Tiraxis come back. I feel like him being back in the mix might put you guys over the edge of stress though. :smallbiggrin:

Deffers
2013-12-10, 03:36 PM
Here's the part that worries me. Remember how we were talking about using bards to fight Emberbane? Uh... this looks like that, but tactical. There has to be a purpose behind making you guys the heroes of the realm but also hunted. Which tells me somebody either wants to set up a "tragic fall" scenario, someone needs you to become the mightiest heroes of the age using the power of belief, or someone is using that as a cover to spread the word about your decapitations. Find out who's paying the bards and you might have the beginnings of finding out who's attacking you.

It could be Tiraxis, yes, that's not impossible by any means... but Odin would be letting you know, enigmatic or no. That's a multiplanar emergency. This is targeted. This is personal. It could be Tiraxis in terms of hate, but he doesn't seem like the sort who'd only go so far as to destroy you, personally.

Grim Portent
2013-12-10, 03:55 PM
One thing, if everyone associated with you is being killed left and right... Then why isn't Snickle dead? He may not be a friend of yours but he was involved in a lot of stuff that you guys did. It may be worth looking for him, he seems to have a knack for survival so it may be possible that he's been evading the thing that's killing off prior acquaintances of yours. Or, should that not be the situation, you can always seek vengeance in some form or fashion by dragging him into things.

Kaveman26
2013-12-10, 05:00 PM
Snickle's head is noticeably absent. That may be an indication that he is apart of what is happening or is just too crafty to get caught. Either way finding him and keeping him close would be a good idea.

Tiraxis was well connected and incredibly wealthy, seems probable that he could have a protege or apprentice that could be gunning for us.

Averis Vol
2013-12-10, 09:39 PM
What about a clutch of half something Palagiun spawn. I mean, he was off screen for some time at a point, he could have got a batch of children or something.

Kaveman26
2013-12-11, 09:01 AM
I've got my money on either a tiraxis apprentice or a group hired by the sultan employing or captained by snickle. Anything or anyone else feels too far fetched or we just missed something all together.

In the immediate we are going to aim for the divination hub and establish a new base of operations. Liches/dragon are top priority and if anything comes for us hopefully we will see it coming.

Any leads on spells with no spell resistance or spells highly effective against undead?

Joe the Rat
2013-12-11, 09:15 AM
I've got my money on either a tiraxis apprentice or a group hired by the sultan employing or captained by snickle. Anything or anyone else feels too far fetched or we just missed something all together.

In the immediate we are going to aim for the divination hub and establish a new base of operations. Liches/dragon are top priority and if anything comes for us hopefully we will see it coming.

Any leads on spells with no spell resistance or spells highly effective against undead?
Tiraxis is my first impulse here, as it was specifically the delivery of his head that garnered you his CoB vault. I may be reading too much into the specific delivery of heads, though. Also, that was more of a Chulain thing - you'd think they'd be targeting him specifically.

Quirp
2013-12-11, 12:28 PM
Any leads on spells with no spell resistance or spells highly effective against undead?

I have always been a friend of Celestial Brilliance. It offers no save or SR and deals 1d6 damage to all undead in its area. It lasts for one day per level and can be found in the Book of Exalted Deeds.
Just cast it on a few bags full of pebbles and throw those down, when the dragon or the liches attack. It should at least soften them up for your other attacks (also it reminds me of how you defeated Tiraxis with Magic Missiles, it is just a higher level version (4th) against undead)

Grim Portent
2013-12-11, 01:49 PM
I have always been a friend of Celestial Brilliance. It offers no save or SR and deals 1d6 damage to all undead in its area. It lasts for one day per level and can be found in the Book of Exalted Deeds.
Just cast it on a few bags full of pebbles and throw those down, when the dragon or the liches attack. It should at least soften them up for your other attacks (also it reminds me of how you defeated Tiraxis with Magic Missiles, it is just a higher level version (4th) against undead)

An army of peasants with slings could be useful if each had a bag of pebbles like that.

Kaveman26
2013-12-11, 02:01 PM
Any pathfinder spells similar to that?

Some 3.5 content is permitted in but in very limited quantities.

Averis Vol
2013-12-12, 02:42 PM
For general defense I'm going to say grab some scrolls of burrow, at least for you so you can sink down, pop up to take some shots, then disappear back below ground.

As to actually dealing with the dragon, if you can get a heightened chill touch, you can get 1d4+1 per caster level rounds of panicked undead. Likewise undeath to death will kill 17d4 HD worth of undead in a 40 foot radius. Might mess up beordie, but it would be worth it if you could pass SR.

all of these offer SR. That seems to be one of the big changes PF made, and since I only dabble in pathfinder, I can't tell you about any niche spells. So yea, heighten chill touch to the highest level you can. you got one touch per CL, so put it to good use. you only need one to pass to ruin Emberbanes day.

Kaveman26
2013-12-15, 03:28 PM
Oh so that is who it Was:

I am going to gloss over this portion as it was mostly plot irrelevant, and we blew through most of it. In transit we make daily forays below decks to try and clear out the lower decks and make the ship truly safe. Nothing is a challenge to us and we tear through an assemblage of were-rats, lesser undead and a scant few bandits with class levels.

On day 11 we make our way back to the surface of the ship to find a group waiting for us.

Ashleigh my former cloud giantess consort is bound and gagged, forced into a kneeling position on the deck of the ship. At her flanks are a pair of the biggest nightwalkers any of us has ever seen. They are fully armored in the strange obsidian jagged equipment some of the undead dragons and minion of the amulet bearers once wore. Behind them is a robed rider mounted on a likewise barded nightmare. It is Brithag.

Kemen: You were behind this? Why would you bear this level of hatred for us?

Brithag: I am merely an employee. The true leader is someone else. He simply made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

As he says that, a phoenix of absolute blackness lands on the edge of the ship and a flamboyantly dressed, very lean man makes an acrobatic dismount to the deck of the ship. He is wearing a peacock cloak so ornate it seems impossible to be real. Closer examination reveals it is not a cloak…it is a living part of the man. He looks like Ziggy Stardust had a love child with Zorro.

Peacock Man: Hello…my name is Wings of Indigo…you caged my father…prepare to die!

A horrific revelation hits Paddock first…

Paddock: Your father…was he a parrot?

Peacock Man: Jesh (the J on the Yes is heavily emphasized)

Paddock: But you were supposed to be some weird turkey vulture thing with a gimp leg?

Indigo (Parrot’s son): I am how you say…the ugly duckling that became a Swan.

Kemen: So you are the boss?

Indigo: The Boss no. Merely a humble partner who will happily see you die.

Me: Then who is the boss? No more screwing around. You got us isolated and in the middle of nowhere, let’s get this over with!

A third voice pipes in and a third figure steps on the deck from a portal that looks like it goes straight to hell. A massive ogre, I mean impossibly large and so muscular it’s like an anime bodybuilder on steroids steps out followed by a fiendish black dragon, clad in obsidian armor. The Ogre is not just games mechanic large…he is Huge. On his back is an axe…oversized even for a huge ogre.

Ogre: This will be over when I decide it is over.

The ogre’s cloak is held in place by the upper halves of two dwarf skulls and his breastplate is adorned with a dozen severed dwarf skulls, beards still hanging. The arms and neck visible from the ogre are heavily scarred from fire.

Ogre: I wonder if you even remember me? It feels like lifetimes ago.

Kemen: I am pretty sure I would remember you.
Ogre: Oh but the look on your face says you didn’t.
Me: Did the Sultan hire you?

The ogre laughs a deep and even controlled act. His attention never wavers, and the mirth never reaches his eyes.

Ogre: Hire me…I killed scores of bounty hunters he paid handsomely to track you down. Took him months to realize that you were mine and mine alone. I wanted you to experience the same desperation… the same anguish that I endured.

Paddock: What anguish did we cause you? We don’t even know you!

Ogre: I was not always what I am now. I was once a crude barbarian, a thug in the employ of other thugs. My wits were too dim to think on my own, and I was happy to kill for the sheer joy of killing. Then one day my chief sent us to ambush a wagon on a road. Elfs die so easy, but then you and your ilk interfered, killing my brethren. Me you left alive…so that you could torture me for the location of my tribe. You bound me hand and foot and threatened to crush me. I did what I had to in order to survive and my reward was to be cast to the ground, hungry fire eating at my bonds and my flesh.

I lived…the fire scarred me, but I lived. But when I returned to my people, you had murdered my chief and put a usurper in his place. I was exiled, isolated and without the only thing that mattered to me. I took to the roads, an easy target for other marauders. But I didn’t die. I found a caravan of dwarfs and all I saw was you. The bearded face that cast me to the flames. I began hunting dwarfs…seeing your face in every head I took. I got good at it, savored it. Yearned for more. Made a reputation for myself and earned a book that made thinking much easier.

I began tracking you, across the lands, across the ocean, deep into the desert. Always I was behind you. I bribed an efreet to take me to the Plane of Fire and I watched from afar as the world serpent was defeated. Constantly I strove to make myself stronger. To ensure I would come out on top.

Then one day everything in the world went cold. Rumors of the gods disappearing spread and on that day it hit me. A spirit torn from it’s mortal form crashed into me. Talked to me…relished me for my hatred and anger. It opened a gateway to Plane of devils and from there…it called in every favor owed to it. I became so much more than what I was.

I suffered no interlopers to stop me from my prize, those who stood with you, or refused to kneel before my will I took their heads. Those who accepted my cause, and those who yearned to see it through stand before you now.

Paddock: Brithag, you have a choice, step away from this madmen and stand with us and you will see him fall. You don’t have to be his thrall.

Brithag looks at Paddock, then glances at the birdman, along with the ogre.

Brithag: I am a big fan of self preservation, but I also love someone that lets me play to my strengths. Afraid I have to stay where I am.

So we have a potentially equal level wizard in Brithag, a roguish/swashbuckley parrot scion, and a pissed off enormous ogre (barbarian/ranger type guy) along with augmented nightwalkers, an augmented black dragon, and an augmented phoenix.

There is no time to strategize or come up with a gameplan. An act we normally metagame a bit with. It’s going to be a matter of us making independent actions and hoping things work out.

Kemen: So If I surrender and go with you, you will leave the rest of my associates and the giant alive?

Ogre: Let you feel like your death had a purpose? No chance.

We all rolled for initiative and everything more or less leaps off at once. I get the first action and shift to Cloud Giant:

DM: Actions?
Me: I am going to flash my most winning grin at the bound giantess and then put a full volley of arrows into the nightwalker closest to me.

Before the first arrow is in flight, Indigo leaps into action and jumps the rail, tumbling in a smooth roll to appear in front of Indy, and from seemingly nowhere he yanks a rapier out and takes a lightning fast stab at our bard. He hits hard.

The Ogre acts next and rips free his greataxe and charges Kemen. Kemen, who actually was readying an action puts a Wall of Force up in front of the ogre axe murderer. The Ogre takes a swing at the Wall…and his axe breaks through.

Paddock takes to the sky to wheel around for a charge and the ogre’s dragon and the parrot-son’s phoenix take off to engage him in return.

Indy tries to withdraw with a five foot step and he casts Mage’s Sword to attack Indigo.

Brithag takes a vial of blood from his waist and tosses it over the Wall of Force. An Ice Devil rises from the shattered glass and takes aim at myself. The Nightwalker I attacked and it’s partner both summon Greater Shadows to fill up the space around us.

The following round the Ogre breaks down the wall of force, and he steps behind the giantess raising his axe overhead. Paddock makes a dive from the skies impaling the nightwalker I attacked with a charging channel smite attack and he obliterates it. As he drives to finish his flyby attack the ogre swats him from the sky and sends him tumbling into the ocean.

Kemen summons a celestial T-Rex up behind the ogre and takes a few steps back. Indy puts a trio of slingstones at Indigo and gets some elementals to occupy space. The Shadows all swarm me. And their attack is low enough that they really have to struggle to hit me. But some get through and do str damage. Paddock is scooped from the water by his mount the next turn and climbs back into the fight, only to get raked by the phoenix and acid breathed by the dragon.

Indigo ignores the elementals and takes a five foot step, drawing a dagger and he puts a wave of two weapon full attacks into Indy.

I grit my teeth and accept the AOO’s to put a full attack from nearly point blank range into the ogre. Kemen puts an incendiary cloud right on top of us. I give him a sideways glance

Kemen: You got fire resist, no whining.

At that point it’s hard to tell if we are overachieving or underachieving, but something begins to happen with the ogre and he seems to shimmer in and out reality. With a frustrated growl he seems to disengage and Brithag+Indigo withdraw, resuming their mounts and then all vanish. The nightwalkers, ice devil, and greater shadows are mopped up and we are feeling jumpy.

Ashleigh is still bound and left on her knees on the ship’s deck. As I approach her to free the bonds she sobs and begs me to back off.

Ashleigh: He gave me a choice. I could betray you and live, or spare you and die in your place. Don’t touch me…if you run now you might still have time.

Me: Wait…what?

Paddock doesn’t let me follow it up, he scoops Indy up and yells for Kemen to levitate…he lassos the dwarf and basically flys from the deck trailing Kemen behind him like an anchor.

Paddock: She is a trap! Run! Jump off the edge…

Me: What is going to happen?
Indy: Mar run!

Ashleigh: The Wizard…he put a negative energy bomb into the amulet I am currently wearing. Within 2 rounds of touching it, an explosion of negative energy will erupt. Or 1 minute after Brithag left. We have only moments left.

(I flash a time out sign to our DM and slip him a small note. He is genuinely surprised and he gives me the most dumbstruck look of the entire campaign. He passes me back a short note in return I nod. )

Marilius:I feel like I owe you Ashleigh. Running out was not an honorable thing to do, but I would rather it’s my fault I died, then your choice that I lived.

I get a bit of a running start and snatch the amulet from her neck…leaping from the deck of the ship.

A blast of dark energy buffets the side of the ship doing some serious damage and it’s the fantasy proxy to a mushroom cloud. Paddock, Kemen, and Indy join the Cloud Giantess as the waves settle looking over the side of the ship. Floating on the water is a human sized corpse, with my approximate size and appearance, but the life has been completely sucked out, like skin stretched over a husk of skin.

Paddock brings the corpse back to the ship and the rest of the guys are kind of staring at me like a madman.
Paddock:Any signs of life?

DM: On the skeletal corpse? No…no signs of life.

They are all looking me waiting for the other shoe to drop and I shrug my shoulders, pantomiming that I can’t talk.

DM: Alright, we will pick it up next week.

We got a session in last night and I put in some frantic typing to get this written up. Should be a follow up session next week that will be a longer game night. I should feel ashamed of myself for leaving it as it is, but I can't help it.

Axinian
2013-12-15, 04:30 PM
So... it was a combination of people who are your enemies... led by that random ogre from like the 3rd session? Did not see that coming.

Wait was he even the boss, or were they all employees?


The parrot is technically still alive though right? If you can get him to Indigo that might get him off your back.

Kaveman26
2013-12-15, 04:54 PM
No he was some random shlub ogre that we left behind, and we did not see that coming what so ever. The parrot's son was in retrospect foreseeable. Brithag was just someone that slipped through the cracks in terms of us recalling.

Either the ogre was a reach at a surprise or there is more than meets the eye that we aren't clear on yet.

The parrot is still alive. It's in it's cage inside emberbanes lair.

Averis Vol
2013-12-15, 05:55 PM
Oh man, what a hell of a session. I feel like its a good thing that they phased out, because a prolonged fight with that many high CR creatures could be rough.

Though that does lead me to wonder what took them away, as that ogre seemed a little pissed. He also said that he visited the hells....did you guys happen to piss off any denizens of the lower planes that you can recall?

Also, I'm curious to see what kind of batman **** you pulled with the diving overboard with the bomb; I doubt you're actually dead, but I can't see where the other body came from as of now.

ReaderAt2046
2013-12-15, 06:58 PM
Oh so that is who it Was:

I am going to gloss over this portion as it was mostly plot irrelevant, and we blew through most of it. In transit we make daily forays below decks to try and clear out the lower decks and make the ship truly safe. Nothing is a challenge to us and we tear through an assemblage of were-rats, lesser undead and a scant few bandits with class levels.

On day 11 we make our way back to the surface of the ship to find a group waiting for us.

Ashleigh my former cloud giantess consort is bound and gagged, forced into a kneeling position on the deck of the ship. At her flanks are a pair of the biggest nightwalkers any of us has ever seen. They are fully armored in the strange obsidian jagged equipment some of the undead dragons and minion of the amulet bearers once wore. Behind them is a robed rider mounted on a likewise barded nightmare. It is Brithag.

Kemen: You were behind this? Why would you bear this level of hatred for us?

Brithag: I am merely an employee. The true leader is someone else. He simply made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.

As he says that, a phoenix of absolute blackness lands on the edge of the ship and a flamboyantly dressed, very lean man makes an acrobatic dismount to the deck of the ship. He is wearing a peacock cloak so ornate it seems impossible to be real. Closer examination reveals it is not a cloak…it is a living part of the man. He looks like Ziggy Stardust had a love child with Zorro.

Peacock Man: Hello…my name is Wings of Indigo…you caged my father…prepare to die!

A horrific revelation hits Paddock first…

Paddock: Your father…was he a parrot?

Peacock Man: Jesh (the J on the Yes is heavily emphasized)

Paddock: But you were supposed to be some weird turkey vulture thing with a gimp leg?

Indigo (Parrot’s son): I am how you say…the ugly duckling that became a Swan.

Kemen: So you are the boss?

Indigo: The Boss no. Merely a humble partner who will happily see you die.

Me: Then who is the boss? No more screwing around. You got us isolated and in the middle of nowhere, let’s get this over with!

A third voice pipes in and a third figure steps on the deck from a portal that looks like it goes straight to hell. A massive ogre, I mean impossibly large and so muscular it’s like an anime bodybuilder on steroids steps out followed by a fiendish black dragon, clad in obsidian armor. The Ogre is not just games mechanic large…he is Huge. On his back is an axe…oversized even for a huge ogre.

Ogre: This will be over when I decide it is over.

The ogre’s cloak is held in place by the upper halves of two dwarf skulls and his breastplate is adorned with a dozen severed dwarf skulls, beards still hanging. The arms and neck visible from the ogre are heavily scarred from fire.

Ogre: I wonder if you even remember me? It feels like lifetimes ago.

Kemen: I am pretty sure I would remember you.
Ogre: Oh but the look on your face says you didn’t.
Me: Did the Sultan hire you?

The ogre laughs a deep and even controlled act. His attention never wavers, and the mirth never reaches his eyes.

Ogre: Hire me…I killed scores of bounty hunters he paid handsomely to track you down. Took him months to realize that you were mine and mine alone. I wanted you to experience the same desperation… the same anguish that I endured.

Paddock: What anguish did we cause you? We don’t even know you!

Ogre: I was not always what I am now. I was once a crude barbarian, a thug in the employ of other thugs. My wits were too dim to think on my own, and I was happy to kill for the sheer joy of killing. Then one day my chief sent us to ambush a wagon on a road. Elfs die so easy, but then you and your ilk interfered, killing my brethren. Me you left alive…so that you could torture me for the location of my tribe. You bound me hand and foot and threatened to crush me. I did what I had to in order to survive and my reward was to be cast to the ground, hungry fire eating at my bonds and my flesh.

I lived…the fire scarred me, but I lived. But when I returned to my people, you had murdered my chief and put a usurper in his place. I was exiled, isolated and without the only thing that mattered to me. I took to the roads, an easy target for other marauders. But I didn’t die. I found a caravan of dwarfs and all I saw was you. The bearded face that cast me to the flames. I began hunting dwarfs…seeing your face in every head I took. I got good at it, savored it. Yearned for more. Made a reputation for myself and earned a book that made thinking much easier.

I began tracking you, across the lands, across the ocean, deep into the desert. Always I was behind you. I bribed an efreet to take me to the Plane of Fire and I watched from afar as the world serpent was defeated. Constantly I strove to make myself stronger. To ensure I would come out on top.

Then one day everything in the world went cold. Rumors of the gods disappearing spread and on that day it hit me. A spirit torn from it’s mortal form crashed into me. Talked to me…relished me for my hatred and anger. It opened a gateway to Plane of devils and from there…it called in every favor owed to it. I became so much more than what I was.

I suffered no interlopers to stop me from my prize, those who stood with you, or refused to kneel before my will I took their heads. Those who accepted my cause, and those who yearned to see it through stand before you now.

Paddock: Brithag, you have a choice, step away from this madmen and stand with us and you will see him fall. You don’t have to be his thrall.

Brithag looks at Paddock, then glances at the birdman, along with the ogre.

Brithag: I am a big fan of self preservation, but I also love someone that lets me play to my strengths. Afraid I have to stay where I am.

So we have a potentially equal level wizard in Brithag, a roguish/swashbuckley parrot scion, and a pissed off enormous ogre (barbarian/ranger type guy) along with augmented nightwalkers, an augmented black dragon, and an augmented phoenix.

There is no time to strategize or come up with a gameplan. An act we normally metagame a bit with. It’s going to be a matter of us making independent actions and hoping things work out.

Kemen: So If I surrender and go with you, you will leave the rest of my associates and the giant alive?

Ogre: Let you feel like your death had a purpose? No chance.

We all rolled for initiative and everything more or less leaps off at once. I get the first action and shift to Cloud Giant:

DM: Actions?
Me: I am going to flash my most winning grin at the bound giantess and then put a full volley of arrows into the nightwalker closest to me.

Before the first arrow is in flight, Indigo leaps into action and jumps the rail, tumbling in a smooth roll to appear in front of Indy, and from seemingly nowhere he yanks a rapier out and takes a lightning fast stab at our bard. He hits hard.

The Ogre acts next and rips free his greataxe and charges Kemen. Kemen, who actually was readying an action puts a Wall of Force up in front of the ogre axe murderer. The Ogre takes a swing at the Wall…and his axe breaks through.

Paddock takes to the sky to wheel around for a charge and the ogre’s dragon and the parrot-son’s phoenix take off to engage him in return.

Indy tries to withdraw with a five foot step and he casts Mage’s Sword to attack Indigo.

Brithag takes a vial of blood from his waist and tosses it over the Wall of Force. An Ice Devil rises from the shattered glass and takes aim at myself. The Nightwalker I attacked and it’s partner both summon Greater Shadows to fill up the space around us.

The following round the Ogre breaks down the wall of force, and he steps behind the giantess raising his axe overhead. Paddock makes a dive from the skies impaling the nightwalker I attacked with a charging channel smite attack and he obliterates it. As he drives to finish his flyby attack the ogre swats him from the sky and sends him tumbling into the ocean.

Kemen summons a celestial T-Rex up behind the ogre and takes a few steps back. Indy puts a trio of slingstones at Indigo and gets some elementals to occupy space. The Shadows all swarm me. And their attack is low enough that they really have to struggle to hit me. But some get through and do str damage. Paddock is scooped from the water by his mount the next turn and climbs back into the fight, only to get raked by the phoenix and acid breathed by the dragon.

Indigo ignores the elementals and takes a five foot step, drawing a dagger and he puts a wave of two weapon full attacks into Indy.

I grit my teeth and accept the AOO’s to put a full attack from nearly point blank range into the ogre. Kemen puts an incendiary cloud right on top of us. I give him a sideways glance

Kemen: You got fire resist, no whining.

At that point it’s hard to tell if we are overachieving or underachieving, but something begins to happen with the ogre and he seems to shimmer in and out reality. With a frustrated growl he seems to disengage and Brithag+Indigo withdraw, resuming their mounts and then all vanish. The nightwalkers, ice devil, and greater shadows are mopped up and we are feeling jumpy.

Ashleigh is still bound and left on her knees on the ship’s deck. As I approach her to free the bonds she sobs and begs me to back off.

Ashleigh: He gave me a choice. I could betray you and live, or spare you and die in your place. Don’t touch me…if you run now you might still have time.

Me: Wait…what?

Paddock doesn’t let me follow it up, he scoops Indy up and yells for Kemen to levitate…he lassos the dwarf and basically flys from the deck trailing Kemen behind him like an anchor.

Paddock: She is a trap! Run! Jump off the edge…

Me: What is going to happen?
Indy: Mar run!

Ashleigh: The Wizard…he put a negative energy bomb into the amulet I am currently wearing. Within 2 rounds of touching it, an explosion of negative energy will erupt. Or 1 minute after Brithag left. We have only moments left.

(I flash a time out sign to our DM and slip him a small note. He is genuinely surprised and he gives me the most dumbstruck look of the entire campaign. He passes me back a short note in return I nod. )

Marilius:I feel like I owe you Ashleigh. Running out was not an honorable thing to do, but I would rather it’s my fault I died, then your choice that I lived.

I get a bit of a running start and snatch the amulet from her neck…leaping from the deck of the ship.

A blast of dark energy buffets the side of the ship doing some serious damage and it’s the fantasy proxy to a mushroom cloud. Paddock, Kemen, and Indy join the Cloud Giantess as the waves settle looking over the side of the ship. Floating on the water is a human sized corpse, with my approximate size and appearance, but the life has been completely sucked out, like skin stretched over a husk of skin.

Paddock brings the corpse back to the ship and the rest of the guys are kind of staring at me like a madman.
Paddock:Any signs of life?

DM: On the skeletal corpse? No…no signs of life.

They are all looking me waiting for the other shoe to drop and I shrug my shoulders, pantomiming that I can’t talk.

DM: Alright, we will pick it up next week.

We got a session in last night and I put in some frantic typing to get this written up. Should be a follow up session next week that will be a longer game night. I should feel ashamed of myself for leaving it as it is, but I can't help it.

Wow. Your guys pull the most amazing heroics sometimes.

Superblack
2013-12-16, 04:39 AM
Could you have just tied the amulet to an arrow and in cloud giant form shot it way further than you could have hoped to move.

geeky_monkey
2013-12-16, 06:47 AM
Could someone remind me who Brithag is?

It's been a while since i read the original thread and I'm afraid I can't place the name.

ReaderAt2046
2013-12-16, 07:21 AM
Could you have just tied the amulet to an arrow and in cloud giant form shot it way further than you could have hoped to move.

Probably not. Remember, they had literally only seconds before it detonated.

Kaveman26
2013-12-16, 08:57 AM
Also, I'm curious to see what kind of batman **** you pulled with the diving overboard with the bomb; I doubt you're actually dead, but I can't see where the other body came from as of now.

It's not another body. I won't say anything more than that until all the dust has settled.


Wow. Your guys pull the most amazing heroics sometimes.

When I read the word "sometimes" in that line I got a good laugh, especially as am I typing up stuff from the other Log I am posting. Much less heroics and far more cowardice in that.


Could someone remind me who Brithag is?

While contending with the amulets and their holders, Paddock got kidnapped by a flight of dragons in obsidian armor and carried off. We found him in a cave being held by a wizard (Brithag) who had absconded with an undead amulet. He struck a deal with the Lich Conclave (our first meeting with them) and turned over the amulet in exchange for protection. How things went awry or what agenda he has I don't know.

Side Note:

We told our DM that he is teaching us the wrong lesson. We left an ogre alive and 14 levels later he comes back as an antagonist that has wiped out everyone close to us. Basically said he is telling us to never leave anyone alive, never take prisoners or show compassion. He chuckled and said he would take that under consideration.

Grim Portent
2013-12-16, 09:16 AM
We told our DM that he is teaching us the wrong lesson. We left an ogre alive and 14 levels later he comes back as an antagonist that has wiped out everyone close to us. Basically said he is telling us to never leave anyone alive, never take prisoners or show compassion. He chuckled and said he would take that under consideration.

Destroy them all! Kill everything lest it harm those who you care about! Embrace the dark joy of the murderhobo! :smalltongue:

You have to respect that ogre for his dedication though don't you?

Crazyfailure13
2013-12-16, 09:55 AM
You haven't been intimate with any undead or other negative energy beings have you kaveman?

Also I really enjoy your campaign, hope to keep reading in the future.:smallbiggrin:

geeky_monkey
2013-12-16, 10:55 AM
Thanks for the reminder of who Brithag was. I remembered the dragons and the kidnaps but had forgotten about him - I thought the lich council were behind it.


You haven't been intimate with any undead or other negative energy beings have you kaveman?


I was thinking the same thing myself.

Kaveman26
2013-12-16, 11:33 AM
You haven't been intimate with any undead or other negative energy beings have you kaveman?

I actually outsmarted myself here. When they press ganged me into infiltrating the Parrot's base via harpy loving, I made an off hand remark to our DM that I might as well cuddle up to one of the liches (Androka)as all shreds of my dignity were pretty much obliterated. He said "you mean that in character or just messing around out of?"

I laughed and said "totally in character"

Fast forward to the ticking bomb and I reminded him that I could shapechange to a lich...he genuinely forgot until I reminded him and he wrote me back "you can shift to an undead human, but not a "lich"...but while the energy won't kill you, the fall and concussive force are definately knocking you out...fair enough?"

I nodded my agreement and pulled off the swan dive. Then i realized something as he waved me to silence...if they heal me I am completely scewed. Even a decently rolled cure light wounds could actually finish me off. So I am kind of screwed if they try to save me...I could survive a cure light, but if they use a heal spell, the positive energy will blast me to ash. Nothing like anticipation right?

CoffeeIncluded
2013-12-16, 02:17 PM
Oh man, that's brilliant!

But if they leave you alone, will you recover on your own?

Kaveman26
2013-12-16, 02:50 PM
Oh man, that's brilliant!

But if they leave you alone, will you recover on your own?

I think so. Just need a minute or two.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-12-16, 04:23 PM
You know, I don't think a heal can kill you. It'll knock you to 1 HP, but it can't kill you.

Crazyfailure13
2013-12-16, 04:51 PM
Question for kaveman, spoilered for anyone who wants to keep it a surprise
Not sure if its been said before but what are the rules of your shapechange , because if you are are undead as per the rules shouldn't you sink when knocked out?

Kaveman26
2013-12-18, 08:42 AM
Question for kaveman, spoilered for anyone who wants to keep it a surprise

It seems to be adapting a bit over time, from how we are using it, I actually become that creature. So it is not detectable as a transformation, I just am that race etc. Should I have sunk? Never examined undead that closely and to be honest I don't think that was even a consideraton in the moment. In terms of stat changes and abilities, it mostly been following Form of the Giant type rules with some DM fiat/handwaving to eliminate or add certain traits.

He told me that transforming to an actual lich with level drains and fast healing was out, hence the human undead.

Kaveman26
2013-12-23, 01:07 PM
Shocking

They are all looking me waiting for the other shoe to drop and I shrug my shoulders, pantomiming that I can’t talk.

Kemen: Try a healing spell…
Indy: To heal what?

Kemen: Doctors will shock a flat line, even if it looks hopeless, humor me.
Paddock: Ok…cure light wounds on Mar’s corpse.

As paddock touches my character’s corpse I make a startled yelp at the table and jump up pushing my chair back.


Me: SON OF A BITCH THAT HURTS!

My corpse jumps up and starts patting at the burning part of my skin where the positive energy touched me.

Indy: WTF.

Kemen: You turned undead????
Me: Not exactly…

I shapechange back into my natural form and grin.
Paddock: Ok…spill it smart ass, what did that note say?

Me: I was asked a ways back when we got our Odin abilities what races I had the ability to shift into, we agreed on some strange criteria for being able to shapechange into a form. Right around the time you press ganged me into “learning” how to be a harpy I jokingly told DM that after that indignity the only thing left was to cuddle up to Androka. He asked me if that was in character or just messing around, I told him In character and laughed it off. Figured it would make good comic relief at some point. Didn’t realize it would have game applications. So the note asked if I could change to a lich…he said lich no…undead yes. So yeah…

Me: Guys?
….
Me:Guys?

Paddock gives me the most exaggerated and drawn out pause ever and finally he says as slowly as humanly possible.

Paddock: You bumped bony uglies with a transgendered lich on a lark?

Me:Uhm…more or less. Is that a problem?

Kemen: No not at all…but I am definitely moving my room further down the hall from Mar’s. There are some sounds no mortal should ever wake up to in the middle of the night, and I don’t want to even imagine what else he has up his sleeves.

Indy: His sleeves are the least of my concerns.

*This was actually a curveball to what was intended for Ashleigh. DM figured he could get an “on camera” death from a notable npc, or some wild sacrificial heroics. He didn’t plan on us rescuing her and all surviving. In fact had we been dismissive or callous towards her in any way she would have actively assisted in our deaths. By me flashing a smile and trying to help her we won her over.

So we get introduced to our newest npc party member. A Cloud Giantess Eldritch Knight, she is a mix of sorceress,fighter and EK and while we don’t get a full breakdown or her class levels etc, we get a good gauge of her capabilities.

Ashleigh: You should have some time before they return.
Me: Why is that?

Ashleigh:The ogre,Beardslayer, had so many fiendish enhancements made to his mortal form that he surpassed the limitations of being fiendish, or half fiend. He is bound to the same calling and geas that any devil who is summoned or hired is subject to. His skills and talents are in high demand and when the price is paid he must answer the call.

Interesting.

Very short update, just a few bits of what happened. More to come after the holidays.

Joe the Rat
2013-12-23, 03:06 PM
Hooray update!
It's like Festivus come... on time actually.

I love how much you guys invest into the roleplaying - jumping, screaming, pantomime. Adds a lot to the game.



Paddock: You bumped bony uglies with a transgendered lich on a lark?

That's the winner right there.

Kaveman26
2013-12-23, 05:43 PM
It's a funny thing playing your character. Sometimes certain actions just jump out of your mouth that make no meta sense but perfect in character sense. The perfect example of this was ages ago when we first encountered the nymph in the island and she charm person me into coming to her and kemen stopped her. Said "no reason for you to compel what would have happened voluntarily. It was a great example of pragmatic logic that he constantly portrayed.

We do tend to reach for the absurd in the interest of good fun. And I don't think I will ever top this moment in terms of absurd. Then again...I could be wrong. It helps to have someone that doesn't mind getting "beaten". It's hard to design and build stuff and watch others tear it down, but our dm is a good sport about not holding hard feelings and he tends to just roll with our punches and adjust accordingly.

To that end, he is getting anxious to step out from the screen and let me take over again when this campaign stalls. Figure 8-12 sessions remain from what he estimates and then I am picking up the reigns on a whole new campaign. Still building the ideas for it as we speak and I have questioning the sub forum with ideas. I think I am brewing something spectacular but we shall see.

CoffeeIncluded
2013-12-23, 07:00 PM
Oh man, I cannot wait.

And believe me, something else even crazier will come to top this. I don't think anything can top my moment of my rogue disabling a bomb with one round to go by, in an act of desperation, disabling the motion detector, shoving it into a bag of holding with the help of her friends, and stabbing the bag, but something will.

Kaveman26
2013-12-24, 03:34 PM
Busy Work:

Here is a summary of our new objectives based on recent developments:

*Discover “Beardslayer’s” real name. If we can uncover his actual name we can conceivably hire him and press him into service for our own purposes.

*Capture Brithag alive, or get him to turn allegiance. He has shown that he has the capability to create an amulet that would let us overwhelm Emberbane (we hope)

*Get to the command center at the frozen continent’s center. It is a defensible position with superior intelligence and hopefully a place where we can strategize against the dragon

*locate the remaining liches and gather intel.

*Find Ven Aus’s original workshop from his home country (a region currently lost to antiquity)

*Be on guard against the Ogre’s assassination attempts.

Everyone is on high alert, but we make landfall to the frozen continent without issue. Things have certainly changed since we last visited. Standing at attention are legions of Ice Devil’s all in perfect rank and file and numbering so many that we lose count. They are all in perfect 10x10 blocks and all spaced in exacting consistency. A lone Pit Fiend awaits from the shore line the aura of heat he emanates sends up a cloud of steam all around him.

The Pit Fiend hails us from the shore and bids us to approach. He is positively infuriated, and has the demeanor of someone told they can’t torment the innocent until he has eaten all his vegetables. If you have children under the age of four that have been denied a toy but are trying to hold in the frustration picture that. With grinding teeth he addresses us.

Pit Fiend: I am compelled to take you to the master’s apartments. Please follow me and kindly do not interrupt the soldiers.

We zig zag our way through the assembled legions of Icey’s and follow the grouchy Pit Fiend to the heart of the island where the diamond igloo awaits. He stands outside and waves his hand in a gesture telling us to enter.

As we go inside the halls are lined with Horned Devils all parallel to each other at perfectly spaced intervals down the corridors. They are all exactly across from each other and staring with intent focus at their mirror copy on the other side.

We are so drastically outnumbered that any thoughts of being something other than on our best behavior is not even considered.

Unimpeded we reach the heart of the former wizard’s workshop and are not surprised in the least to find Snickle running back and forth between tables groaning under the weight of towering stacks of paper.

He squeels in triumph when he sees us and actually runs to each of us and tries to hug us. We are too shell shocked to stop him (but we all make it a point to extensive checks of our person for missing items).

Snickle: Was hoping the ogre didn’t get you. I tried to warn you as best as I could. Hired every bard and minstrel I could have the devil’s find to spread the word that someone was gunning for you.

Paddock:….thanks?
Snickle: Anything for you guys…just glad that you are here to repay the favor. I need some help.

Kemen: Favor? You got us blacklisted and ostracized.
Snickle: Alone and alive is better than crowded and dead…am I right *wink wink*

Me: *sigh*

Snickle: Look. I am running out of treasure to hire these guys with and the paperwork alone is more than I can handle. I need some extra sets of eyes and hands to help get through this all.

This All turns out to be hundreds of Faustian style pacts with the legions of devils that Snickle has been occupying with busy work and pointless errands to prevent them from taking the command center of the island. He basically make a deal to get devil’s to work for him at triple rates, but provided the task didn’t cause the devil’s critical harm, or force them to do the impossible then they had to accept his contracts. He has become the bearuacrat from hell…literally. The Ice Devil’s he hired to spend a year standing still. The Horned Devil’s…he paid them to stare at each other unmoving, until the other blinked. He did it for both sides so that they couldn’t blink first. Basically froze them in place.

But now he is running out of ideas and money and needs to figure out what to do next.

Kemen: Why do we care? That is your problem. We have our own problem.

Snickle: Well I mean come on…we go way back right? If that isn’t enough reason, then how about this. I made a deal that I got to keep this place for as long as live, but once I’m gone, they own it. So if they get around to killing me you lose the center. I may have also accidentally sold your souls to them too, but it’s a technicality that I’m sure they will overlook. Anyways…all you need to do is help me come up with more busy work and stall for more time. I got a stack of …

Me: Wait! You accidentally sold our souls? How the heck did you manage to do that? I don’t think you can do that.

Snickle: Easy Mar…I said it was a technicality. Told them I owed you my life and they said they couldn’t have a lien on my soul living or otherwise if I was going to sell it, so we treated you as underwriters. I missed a part in the fine print where the underwriter’s had to make payments in lieu of my own if I missed one.

Me: and???
Snickle:and…I missed one, only a few seconds late, but they said you were now responsible and that they could collect your souls as collateral for the late payment. I’m sure we can work it out, they seem like accommodating sorts.

Silence.

Snickle: Right?

To be continued

Lord Torath
2013-12-24, 10:03 PM
Urggg! And you can't kill the little flostloken thing, because if he dies, the devils own the island (and possibly your souls. Although how he can "sign" for you guys in a legally binding way is beyond me). Is he considered dead if turned to stone? As long as the stone remains unharmed?

CoffeeIncluded
2013-12-24, 11:35 PM
Technically you're still alive if you're on the Demiplane of Extremely Painful Torture.

Brookshw
2013-12-25, 10:07 AM
I love to hate snickle, really I do :smallbiggrin:

Averis Vol
2013-12-25, 02:00 PM
I still think your DM secretly just doesn't like you guys, and this is his passive aggressive way of showing it; he just keeps getting you by the shorthairs at every turn :smallbiggrin:


Cant wait for the next update.

Kaveman26
2013-12-26, 01:17 PM
I have been goading for a stat block/character sheet on snickle for some time. Only response is a grin and "maybe when these characters retire".

Astral Avenger
2013-12-26, 05:12 PM
hrm... anyone want to bet that snickle is actually Loki in disguise or something similar?

Kaveman26
2013-12-26, 05:26 PM
We entertained that notion and were told he definitely isn't. We actually had them in the same room together at one point.

Axinian
2013-12-26, 06:41 PM
We actually had them in the same room together at one point.

He's just that good.

Kaveman26
2013-12-27, 12:26 PM
The Closer We are to Danger, The Further We Are From Harm:


Table Haggling and some blustery sentiment indicate that we are not completely hosed. There is certainly some fuzzy logic in terms of the basic explanation he provided, but the gist of it is that we are in for a prolonged “legal battle” to recover full control of our souls. No one is in dire urgency of being hellbound or corrupted through illicit means, but we are in for a long bout of lawyering with the denizens of the lower planes if we want free and clear after lifes.

As for our immediate concerns we want control of the scrying equipment and long distance recon the command center provides and we don’t want devils busting down the doors looking to collect on payment every 30 seconds. Snickle has already provided them enough revenue to bankrupt entire kingdoms in the ways of potions, scrolls, spellbooks, gems, and other high value arcana. We put together a quick and dirty list of new tasks for them to work on.

*Have them find the corner in a round room.
*We order several to dig a hold at a precise location, and more to fill in the hole at the same precise location. Hoping them basically force each other into a standstill.

Anything with a clear “finish line” that can’t easily be reached.

Then things all begin erupting at once. Beordie tells us that Emberbane just left it’s lair and returned to the Material Plane. With his lair fully back to the way he wants it, and crystalline workers doing the rest of the rennovations the dracolich decided to spread his wings and stretch out in our realm.

We quickly locate all three liches (White is Jareth, Black is Ohr,and Purple is called Pur-Al) and almost to the second we find the 3rd one, Beardslayer and his cronies appear out of nowhere and hack Pur-Al to pieces. From our outsider’s perspective it barely took seconds. They materialized out of nowhere, The Ogre’s axe seemed to breech all defense on the lich and he and Indigo full attacked him to dust within moments. We watch as Brithag almost casually summons the liches phylactery to himself and he takes the relic and places it into an ornate lead box. Brithag does something to the dust of Pur-Al and a skull reforms, a skull the Ogre takes for himself.

Kemen: That was hostile.

Paddock: Doesn’t bode well for us if they decide to avoid gloating and just try to murder us.

Me: Not at all. But that does tell me that the Ogre has an axe capable of sundering magical defenses much akin to Coe-Nan’s Ragnarok gear. We need to skirmish with him and keep him at range. Don’t want him in your face.

After the assassination of Pur-Al we shift attention to Beordie and Emberbane’s realm. We had expected the dragon to leave at some point and had set Beordie with a spell set focused on various sights, sounds and telekinetic type activity. Our goal is to isolate the early warning systems and defenses the crystalline workers and Emberbane have in place. If we can let Beordie move around and not play statue, or even reach the still stationary monk those are huge benefits to our favor. If the slightest movement or sound triggers an eruption of caster ants then we can’t have him play super market sweep in the magic item warehouse.

Ghost sounds and mage hand bumping things off shelves or twisting helmets on mannequins go unanswered. Just to press our luck he tries to summon a celestial badger in the vicinity of Chulainn and the spell fizzles. He retries again in the opposite direction and it works. As soon as the critter materializes, ants erupt from concealed tiles in the floor and walls and scurry to various positions in the lair, some of them swarm the badger which is easily dispatched.

As soon as the interloper is vanquished the ants all form into ranks at various spots and a search party consisting of an onyx bug, two caster bugs and two warrior bugs break off and begin a sweep of the lair.

This tells us that invaders trigger responses, but while the bugs are intelligents, they seem to be under strict orders. At the first sign of trouble they moved to defend various wings in the lair and some moved towards the trophy room (mostly the onyx) and once the threat was eliminated sentries were maintained until the searchers finished their sweep. Sounds and movement didn’t trigger them.

We press our luck a bit further and have Beordie put up a major image complete with yelling and hollering. No bugs emerge. We then add a summoned creature next to the illusion. The Bugs reemerge and follow the same process, but this time a warrior bug pauses to dispel the illusion. Hmmmm, recognized it as a non-threat and dispelled it without question. This makes us a hazard a guess that they have True Sight and recognize illusions as a non issue.

Beordie is asked to actually move from his position and try to reach the monk. As the suit of armor begins a very slow march towards Chulainn, no bugs emerge or take action. He gets within about 30 feet of Chulainn and it’s like he hit a bug zapper. As a suit of armor he feels no pain, but the sensation is described as painful. His entire essence was interrupted by a field around the monk.

Chulainn himself is stuck in some sort of waking coma or trance and non responsive. He also apparently has an anti-magic or disruption field emanating from his center. Beordie returns to his position and we assess our new information for any advantages gleaned.

*Beordie can get up to a lot of trouble based on current parameters. But we are leery of pushing his hijinks much further until we get a better understanding of what Emberbane will do upon his return.

*Chulainn is suffering the effects of something we have never seen before and we aren’t sure what to do for him.

*The Bugs are going to be a major obstacle in trying to attack the dragon. With healing support, ranged support, and bruisers to act as shields we can’t isolate and dogpile the dracolich.

Indy: We could always hire the Ogre to kill the dragon, and then after they go 15 rounds we could jump in and clean up the mess.

Me: Yeah, but we were told that summoning a specific devil required us to know his actual name, and that we don’t have, nor does it seem like it will be readily available.

Kemen:Someone is hiring him out now, so people somewhere must know the name.

Snickle: Are you talking about Beardslayer? I got some of the Pit Fiends talking about him one day. Nasty piece of work. Makes even them a bit skittish. From what they say, he doesn’t like being turned into an errand boy and anyone dumb enough or foolhardy enough to hire him ends up dead once the job is done. So if the devil’s really want you dead or desperate they just give you his name.

Paddock chuckles and puts his arms around the halfling’s shoulders.

Paddock: It sounds like they really want you dead don’t they Snickle? Heck they must be angrier with you than any other mortal on this Plane, am I right?

Snickle: Hey, we have a good working relationship, I never make them do anything fatal and they are paid handsomely.

Kemen: That is exactly the problem. T-Rex doesn’t want to be fed…he wants to hunt.
Snickle: what?

Kemen: These are devils…corruption, avarice and destruction are their bread and butter. They don’t want busy work. They want to watch the rest of us squirm and reach out in desperation for the one thing that only a fiend can offer. Then they can treasure the plummeting fall when we reach too far and plunge off the cliff. You are putting the stick in fido’s mouth. Dogs don’t care about the stick…they care about the chase.

Me: You are right. And something tells me there is a certain tricky morsel that has alluded their grasp for some time. One they wouldn’t mind being rid of.

Snickle: I don’t like where this is heading. You are supposed to be keeping me alive, not offering me up like a Halfling dangling from the end of a string.

Me: Snickle…come on…didn’t you say we go way back. How many times have we saved your life? How many times have you helped us out a bind? The best way to keep you alive, is to make everyone you wants to kill you to try. That way we can stop them. Us putting you out there as bait , is simply a defensive gambit to ensure we can save you.

Snickle: I don’t know about this…
Kemen: You trust us as much as we trust you mate, so I know you will happily agree to this

Me (whispering to avoid him hearing):Do we actually have a plan here, or just relishing the thought of making him squirm?

Kemen: I think we can come up with a plan, worst case the devils rend his flesh and take his soul…I can live with that. Everyone else?

All: Yeah we are good with that.

So…

Snickle gets in contact with the resident Pit Fiend and makes a comment about really needing a good tracker and assassin to take down a troublesome target. Actually a group of five. Seems that an adventuring group from his past has returned to the island and they are trying to redeem and save him. Said they were going to put the status of his Faustian Deal to the legal question and try to get him out of hoc. If they can protect him long enough for the courts to rule in his favor he will be free and clear of their ownership. He is hoping the Pit Fiend might “know a guy” that could get them off his back. The Pit Fiend does in fact know a guy…called Grunthrog also known as Beardslayer.

Snickle: Grunthrog huh? Might have a job for him.

Astral Avenger
2013-12-27, 10:37 PM
whats the plan, summon the sucker and kill him or sic him on emberbane or something else?

Kaveman26
2014-01-02, 12:03 PM
So....

Campaign has met it's final resolution. We all had New Year's Day off and pulled a nearly all-dayer. Got 2-1/2 sessions to finish recapping and that will culminate in these characters full and final completion. Depending on schedule that will be either 2 decent sized updates, or one big mega update to finish up events.

We are now in full transistion mode to shifting the screen back to me, and I am deep into planning for a radically different campaign which is pulling a lot of my attention. I am getting hit with character development questions that have me seriously wondering just what the heck I am getting myself into. I will share more on that as I get further into development.

CoffeeIncluded
2014-01-02, 01:36 PM
So....

Campaign has met it's final resolution. We all had New Year's Day off and pulled a nearly all-dayer. Got 2-1/2 sessions to finish recapping and that will culminate in these characters full and final completion. Depending on schedule that will be either 2 decent sized updates, or one big mega update to finish up events.

We are now in full transistion mode to shifting the screen back to me, and I am deep into planning for a radically different campaign which is pulling a lot of my attention. I am getting hit with character development questions that have me seriously wondering just what the heck I am getting myself into. I will share more on that as I get further into development.

This is going to be a thing of sheer glory. I just know it.

Kaveman26
2014-01-03, 03:57 PM
Next Campaign Premise:

On the border of three nations a complex which stretches deep below the earth is discovered. For one hour every thirty days, the doors to this dungeon come open, and at the conclusion of one hour, no force mundane,arcane, or divine can keep them open. At first this structure was deemed an oddity. Once tales of those who survived the thirty days and exited with vast wealth and long forgotten relics spread it became a boomtown. It has been six months since the doors opened for the first time and strange tales of those altered by their experiences have been whispered.
Three base camps exist outside the dungeon:

The Northern Camp, controlled by Frost Giants and presided over by their Jarl. Most of the humanoid bands (orcs,ogres etc) make this their camp. Thievery is harshly punished.

The Eastern Camp which is presided over by the magistrate of a human kingdom. Well organized, and most reputable of the three, also the most congested and hardest to gain entry and exit.

The Western Camp which is the Thay camp. Prices are the highest, but the merchandise is the most valuable. Crime is rampant and it has more of a survival of the fittest feel to it.

The hour of entry is controlled chaos, or complete madness depending on the point of entry. Merchants and Vendors of all sort litter the territory around the dungeon and wares range from the genuine oddity to random garbage. Adventuring supplies are all available but at inflated rates. Trade routes into the territory are all through rugged terrain and heavily poached by bandits.
Inside the complex are interior vendors, all heavily paranoid and willing to sell wares at staggeringly high prices.

The World In General:

*Item Crafting has been lost to antiquity. Brew Potion, and Scribe Scroll are the only remaining craftable skills.

*Magic items are vastly overpriced based around normal expectations. Any wonderous item or magical arms/armor are heirlooms, rare and treasured.

*No characters exist beyond level 9 in the world. For intents and purposes it is as if the world is just breaking free from the constraints of an E6 setting.

*The Drow were shattered and spread out from the Underdark. They exist now as nomads and wanderers. Lloth is but a whisper to history though some do still cling to the old ways.

*Planar Travel is all but eliminated, and those scant few demons and devils that exist on the Material Plane are awesome in power and infamy.

*Dragons are scarce. Few are ever sighted, and fewer still ever engaged.

Game Mechanics:

*There is an extensive “Ban” list of spells and items. Some spells have been dramatically altered.

*Level caps are illusionary, once the adventure takes off any perceived limitations on level or ability will go out the window.

*Magic items and items of power will be available once they are located in the dungeon. Martial Classes dependent on gear will not be gimped, just delayed.

Ban List:
All Teleport Spells and items
All Flight spells and items
All Raise Dead/Reincarnate etc
Terrain Altering Spells, StoneShape, Soften Rock, Earth to Mud etc.
All Calling Spells


Altered List:
Summon Chains:All summoning spells now have a casting time of 1 hour, and the duration is 1 minute per level.

Create Food/Water: May one feed one creature per casting. May be used to alter food from one edible form to another. I.E. meat to fruit or fruit to meat.

Detect Secret Doors, Knock, and other trap locating, door opening, trap disabling spell now provides a bonus to a rogue or similiarly trained skill user.

. Here is a list of questions brought to me for consideration with regards to character creation. Which begs the question of what I am getting myself into.

As pertains to Cavalier, can Beast Rider count for Expert Trainer Feature? It replaces it, but basically is the same thing.

A: Sure…Beast Rider will act as a substitute for Expert Trainer Class Feature

Can we assume that we are able to spend our wealth by level pre-campaign provided there is no magic gear aside from potions/scrolls? Can we find rare/odd mundane stuff?
A: Absolutely.

Can we make identical twins?
A: Uh…yeah.

With create food/water limited, will Survival be functional in the dungeons? I.E. can we hunt for food and supplies? Also can Purify Food and Water be used to augment existing foodstuffs? We are concerned with running into dietary restrictions for animal companions.
A: Yes Purify spells can augment foods to meet palletes.

Can we select up to two Traits?
A: Sure

Is evil allowed?
A: Yes…

Can we drive a wagon into the dungeon opening?
A: NO

A wheelbarrow?
A: Yes

I always tend to inquire about general character background and any particular points of interest to build into events. They are all mum on this front, the only thing I am told is this:

We would really like some cool scythes.

Alrighty.

I am very intrigued at what they are going to end up looking like.

zagan
2014-01-03, 04:13 PM
Kaveman I want to say that I really love this journal and I'm impatient to see how it end.
The setting for your next campaign look really interesting too.
Just one question, 1 hour casting time for all summoning spells ? Why not just ban it ? If you don't want summoned creature in this particular world, that's fine you're the DM. But a change like that it's called a soft ban, a nerf so drastic that the ability become useless. I'm really curious to know what's your reasoning for that decision.

Kaveman26
2014-01-03, 04:31 PM
A couple reasons, first if they really want that capability so be it. I could still see applications for it. Narrow applications but applications. As a day beginning scout, or as a sacrifice for a tricky corridor etc.

Second, because I want the ability to alter that casting time through unique items or developments in plot. Over time some of those rules may change (this is known to my players as well).


I am impatient to finish writing it but still a ways to go. It was a big deal for us. We spent TONS of time with this set of characters.

Crazyfailure13
2014-01-03, 05:26 PM
can't wait to read what snickles well deserved fate

Your new campaign is interesting, but the twin question A bit worrying.:smallsmile:

Averis Vol
2014-01-06, 01:20 AM
Would the new game by chance happen to be a mega-dungeon? if so I'm even more excited to see how it plays out as I've been thinking about doing one myself, and I always enjoy seeing veteran DM's play out scenarios before I attempt em myself.

Lookin forward to it:smallsmile:

Kaveman26
2014-01-06, 09:10 AM
It will be a mega dungeon, but I hope with a different feel than normally expected. Got a lot written up for final posts on this campaign and a lot more put together for next campaign. Should be at least partial update today.

Kaveman26
2014-01-06, 02:51 PM
Machinations on Assassinations:

The first thought we vocalize is hiring Gruhthrog to go kill Emberbane. Indy points out that hiring The Ogre doesn’t mean that his party members will follow suit. So having Grunthrog take point in fighting a dragon is counteracted by Indigo and Brithag working against us. Paddock comes up with a good compromise.

Paddock: Let’s hire Grunthrog to kill Indigo, then have him “warn” Brithag that he is next on the list. Force Brithag to assist us and join us and then we take out Grunty.

Kemen: Why would he turn to us?
Paddock: IT would be kind of a Come With Me If You Want To Live *Austrian accent used* scenario.

Me: We are paying the Terminator to go warn Sara Connor that he will kill her, making her come to us? Except she is Brithag?

Paddock: Sure.

DM:Do realize that hiring him to attack a high powered fellow party member or an ancient red dragon dracolisk is going to require some hefty reward or benefit. Money may not be a driving factor in this regard.

Kemen: I got that covered.
He refuses to volunteer anything beyond that.

Our Gameplan breaks down like this:

Step 1: Craft a holy+dragon bane bow for Marilius, a holy+dragon bane spear for Paddock and make sure everyone has adequate fire resistance.
Step 2:Have Beordie try to locate a center where the crystal bugs are created or controlled from.
Step 3:Use the epic level scrying center to pinpoint Ven Aus’s original home region and his alpha workshop.
Step 4: Hire the Ogre to kill the Parrot’s son and hopefully coerce Brithag into joining us, then send the Ogre as point against our current arch enemy and hope they kill each other and we then we mop up the rest.
Step 5: Retire and Live like emperor kings from the spoils of the dragon’s lair.

Steps 1-3 all more or less run concurrently and we devote several weeks in game to research and crafting. Dragon slaying weapons are brought online, and Beordie is able to locate an artifact level magic item that serves as a sort of 3-D printer for the bugs. Several crystal “crucibles” are interchangeable to allow different breeds of the bugs to be created.

The dragon follows fairly predictable cycles. He leaves, kills another dragon or in some cases an unknown treasure holder and returns with the corpse of the slain (if one was left behind) along with the relevant horde. Once he has a kill, his attention goes entirely towards sorting and organizing the further spoils. He then takes a day off and repeats the process.

In a sort of call back to the ages ago segment where we confronted Kreestan, the dragon riding evil nymph in the desert, we locate the orginal Ven Aus workshop in that region. There was an immense “blind spot” to the searching and focusing on that area broke through. With the weapons crafted and that area of interest located we decide to enact the next phase…hiring the ogre.

We set up every defensive and buff spell possible on the whole group and assume readied positions as Snickle walks through the Devil-Summoning process. Calling him to Snickle goes off without a hitch, but boy is he pissed to see us.

Grunthrog: There is no need for your call little one. There is no price I would take to aid these heretics.

Snickle: We can offer you millions of gold…
Grunthrog: Not interested.
Kemen: Guessing magic items, souls and gems are out too?
Grunthrog: No price

Kemen: I think we can reach a bargain. See you need to kill us. But unfortunately we are soon off to kill a dragon. The strongest and most dangerous dragon in all of reality. Be a shame for him to incinerate us before you get a chance to take off my head. What I propose is simple. A pair of heads for a head. You kill Indigo, then you aid us in killing the dragon. Once the dragon’s head is removed from it’s shoulders, I will surrender to you and become your property for you to do what you wish with.

Grunthrog: How am I to know you would keep that bargain?
Kemen: How are these things typically done? Signed in blood? Enforced by my soul? I am willing to sign in my own blood, and put my soul up as collateral.

Amidst the uproar of us all protesting he waves us off to silence.

Grunthrog: I am amenable to this bargain.

The instant Kemen signs the fiendish and legally binding contract the Ogre vanishes.

Kemen: Alright boys, we are on the clock, time to roll out and see if Ven left us any resources for the dragon.

Paddock: You are seriously going to sacrifice yourself?
Kemen: Looks that way yes.

We teleport from the command center to the area in question and immediately proceed to seek the workshop.

That is where the wheels fall off.

The moment we orient ourselves to the desert location Beordie alerts Kemen to the dragon leaving his lair in a panic. The Ogre appeared from nowhere and they both vanished within moments after.

Kemen: How the freaking hell did he already kill Indigo and locate the dragon?
Me: Don’t know, but we need to move double time if we want to gain anything from here.

The original Ven Aus lair is deep within the heart of an ancient pyramid and we are left spiraling down in circles to circumvent the distance. Deep underground we emerge to an open valley, one with it’s own night sky. Black lightning arcs across a below ground atmosphere and the entire place feels like nails on a chalkboard.

Paddock: It’s definitely desecrated land, but amplified.

Across the valley we see a squat building with ivory pillars. Standing sentry before it are two towering Titans armored with shining volcanic glass armor. Obsidian equipped Thanatonic Titans. None of us has outrageous health or armor. If they full attack one of us…that one of us is dead.
Indy: This a fight we have to avoid.

Paddock: Absolutely.

We settle on a Plan A with Plan B fall back.

Plan A: Hope they are friendly and open to discussion. Maybe they won’t kill us on sight.

Plan B: If that is not the case, then we all scatter and try to buy enough time for me to slip in and do a snatch and grab of anything noteworthy or attention grabbing and then we pull a Benny Hill exit sequence.

We approach to a range where we are confident they can’t charge us and then hail them in friendly greeting.

Me: So…how goes it? Been waiting here long? Any chance you guys want a break, we could watch the place for you.

Left Titan: Our duty is eternal and not in need of relief.
Me: Does that duty include keeping us out?

Right Titan: It includes allowing none to enter, and none to leave.
Paddock: So do we attack and scatter?

Indy: I don’t think it will matter, look behind us.

Approaching us at a leisurely pace from the opposite end of the valley is Grunthrog, Indigo, and Brithag. Demolishing the pyramid entrance and our only exit is Emberbane.

Me: Uh…this is officially the worst case scenario.

Paddock: It looks like they want to talk.

Me: How do you know that?

Paddock: Because we aren’t dead yet, and the ogre isn’t charging.

Kaveman26
2014-01-09, 06:15 PM
The End:

Emberbane takes a lazy flight path towards us and lands without a care in the world.

Emberbane: I thought I would have to search for ages to find this place, and then you clever four went and found it for me.

Kemen: Hey Grunthrog, we had a deal.
Grunthrog: The dragon cut a deal too. His was first. Told me that he would serve you up to me on a silver platter and all I had to do was wait for you to hire me.

Me: I don’t get the how.

Emberbane: I took the time to count you in my lair. When one fewer left, I did a tally of everything in my lair and discovered one extra suit of armor. From there is was easy enough to discretely intercept your telepathic communications, and use your spy as a unwitting double agent.

(We call shenanigans at the table and are rebuked. It is pointed out to us that several mentions of his OCD were highlighted, along with the oddities of his bugs not seeming to care that Beordie was moving around)

Kemen: So what happens from here?
Emberbane: Well I suppose that is up to you. I would most gladly enjoy discovering what Ven Aus has secreted away in his lair. I don’t relish the notion of hostility with his doormen though. I suppose a compromise is in order.
Grunthrog: Compromise???

Emberbane: Relax. The dwarf must die. That is surely understood by all parties present. The rest of you, well I suppose exceptions could be made.

As our strange little stand off commences a voice almost lost in the sound of an otherworldly storm pipes in…

Snickle: Whoa! This place is crazy.
Standing behind the dragon against all reason is Snickle…looking up at the titans in awe.

Indy: What are you doing here? How did you get here?
Snickle: I wanted to see what the big deal was. If there is something this worthwhile in there I wanted to check it out

Me: and?

Snickle: The outside is much cooler than the inside. Only thing in there was some dusty old amulets.

*blink blink*

Emberbane: You were already inside?
Snickle: Yeah.

Snickle pulls out a handful of amulets from around his neck. And cheerfully twirls them.

Snickle: They were all part of some machine inside.

There is the briefest moment of pause followed by

Emberbane: Kill the little twit and bring me the amulets!

As he roars the command Snickle does something we have never once born witness to.

He pulls a knife.

Emberbane puts a torrent of fire straight at the Halfling and Snickle squeeks in fear and seems to be vaporized from the breath weapon. As the flames die out and everyone jumps into action the Halfling is straight up gone. No bones, no corpse, no ash…no Snickle.

Kemen puts up a Wall of Force between us and the rest of the dragon’s cronies and Indy lobs slingstones over the top just to start filling their faces with nuisance elementals. Paddock and I share the same thought.

Without onyx bugs to support him, and with his breath weapon currently offline we both decide on all out nearly suicidal levels of aggression for the dragon. Ashleigh hangs back as a bodyguard for Kemen and Indy and Paddock and I go all out on the dragon. I shift to Cloud Giant to immediately boost strength (I don’t do it under standard procedures to avoid becoming a primary target).

We each have 2 quickened true strike runes and I move a short distance to trigger auto sneak attack from scout feature and put a fully boosted arrow into Emberbane as Paddock does a similar diving spear charge from his mount.
Grunthrog ignores the dragon’s directive and makes a bee line for Kemen, Indigo starts to trail behind him, and in mid stride clutches his leg and falls to the ground hamstrung…we catch the barest glimpse of Snickle and then he is gone.

Brithag subtly moves himself closer to the squat titan guarded temple and takes no apparent action. Emberbane uses his bite as an AOO against Paddock who completes his flyby charge and then he takes a move action to close against Paddock clawing him.

The following round I put a full volley, rapid shot, haste from boots of speed, and lay a swarm of dragon bane holy arrows against the dragon. It is more than enough to make him howl in pain and shift his attention towards me.
Ashleigh is fighting completely defensively in an attempt to hold off the Ogre and Kemen frustrates him by putting up walls and backing away. More elementals surround Indigo as the now hobbled swashbuckler is left behind. Unfortunately Ashleigh is still at a major disadvantage and a single hit from the Ogre takes away almost half her health.

I get charged by a diving dragon who bites me in response of my arrow volley. Paddock wheels around to charge again and uses his second rune. With a faceful of dragon, I have limited range of vision, but I spot a small figure take a sudden slashing cut at the dragon’s throat from underfoot and I hear Snickle chuckle as he once again seems to vanish. Paddock slams into the dragon again and this time it is a critical hit that sends shudders down the dragon’s spine.

Emberbane disengages, taking an AOO and a gap in the sky opens back to his lair.
Paddock: He is trying to run!

All at once there is a moment frozen in time. If he is injured enough to run, then that means he is injured enough to be taken out. No one has an action that can stop him or kill him though. Except for…

From the gap we see a slightly built form in black robes still with his pirate bandana on limp to the edge. It is Chulainn…or at least what once was Chulainn. Something has happened to him, and as he walks we see the rod he had the death grip on turn to dust and fall away. He leaps from the sky and basically makes a diving roundhouse kick to the dragon’s face…energy crackles all along Emberbane’s form and he roars in horrific agony.

Chulainn falls to the ground and seems to be clutching himself. Paddock tries to get close enough to check on him and Chu shouts him away.

Chulainn: Don’t get near me…I can’t control it!

As everyone focuses on the dragon, The Ogre puts a power attack into Ashleigh that sends her deep into negatives and he moves forward towards Kemen. Indigo is fighting his way clear of the elementals and Brithag seems to have decided to join matters because he begins casting a spell.

Emberbane is badly wounded and his power of flight seems to have vanished, limping badly he slinks back to keep all of us in sight. I line up a shot on him, and he puts a breath weapon towards me, Chu and Paddock. The fire seems to evaporate anywhere within 20 feet of the monk and we are spared the BBQ.

Snickle suddenly pops up right by Grunthrog and with a hearty laugh he flings a stone at the Right Titan. The pebble pings off the Titan’s breastplate and his vision is drawn to where it was thrown from. Only Snickle is once again gone. The right titan hefts its greataxe and charges at the ogre, while the left titan moves to the immediate front of the temple.

With things looking in our favor I take my shot and land another solid hit on the dragon. Paddock starts to charge, but is intercepted by a charging Chulainn, who knocks Paddock from his mount and shatters his spear with a single blow. A light goes out from his eyes and a dead stare like a doll’s eyes replaces it.

Indy starts a Mage’s Sword and has it engage the ogre and then he moves towards Paddock. Kemen continues to play hide and seek with the Ogre.
The next round the dragon begins to run away, and is stopped in his tracks by a thick cord of black energy. A cord that emanates from Brithag. The odd box we saw him collecting phylacteries in is now open and it seems to be as acting as an anchor and siphon from the dragon.

Emberbane: What are you doing? How is this possible?

Brithag: you succumbed to the amulets once, I was wise enough to know that doing so a second time was unlikely. I simply took the seed of what Ven Aus began and took it to the next logical step. Why control something when you can simply remove everything that makes it what it is? Your essence will fuel my own immortality and provide me with a strength to never operate from a position of fear again.

As he is explaining his plan a knife enters his liver at an upward angle and in shock he looks down to see Snickle smiling at him. Everything at this point is chaos, we are all split up and engaged in battles of life or death.

Paddock tries to inch back from Chulainn and the monk flurries into him, sending half a dozen magic items to shattered dust and nearly killing the cleric outright.

We are beginning to get a clearer idea of what may have happened to him. The rod with disjunction must have overloaded and imbued itself into The Silent One, somehow fusing with him and taking over his personality.
Indy puts a stone at Chulainn, and the elemental that takes form seems to break down before it’s full summoning. Chulainn turns to look at the bard and in a voice fraught with depression and melancholy utters one word

Chulainn: Unmake…

As Brithag clutches his wounded side, black vapors trail from the box used to anchor the dragon and several obsidian armored black dragons take form and begin harrying Snickle. The problem is in finding him, he is not invisible, just hiding in plain sight and damned near impossible to locate. They begin acid breath+fireball carpet bombing to try and flush him out.

Kemen puts a Prismatic Wall in the Ogre’s face, then uses his pick to levitate high into the air. He is taunting the ogre as he ascends. The Titan falls back to defend the temple and seems to be laughing at the predictament.

Paddock shoulders his spare weapon and in a daze tries to regain his mount.

Me: Do I try to finish off the dragon or shoot the wizard?
Kemen: Kill the dragon!

I put another full volley into Emberbane and he crumbles to dust.

Chulainn charges Indy and somehow makes a full attack at the end. He shatterers nearly every item of power on the bard and knocks him into negatives.

Ashleigh peels off from the ogre and makes a charge at the wizard. As she closes a shadowy version of Emberbane erupts from the box and hits her with a negative energy breath weapon that kills her.

All: Oh crap.

Unable to reach Kemen, the ogre turns his sights on me and begins to charge. As he approaches the monk turns from the dying bard and trips him, sending him stumbling and shattering his armor. As the ogre stumbles Paddock makes a diving charge at Brithag that nearly tears the wizard’s chest in half. Badly bleeding and gagging from the shock of the attack he falls to a knee and the box slips from his grasp.

As it touches the ground the vapors tying the dragons to the box are severed and the black dragons along with emberbane snap to a different attention. As one they all turn to face Kemen.

I put a volley of arrows into the prone Ogre and connect for some serious damage, but it barely seems to slow him.

Kemen puts a prismatic sphere around himself and holds tight.

(side note-we gave him a lot of crap after the fact for this fight because for a 17th level wizard he basically turned himself into a series of roadblocks)

Snickle pops out amidst the chaos right next to Indy and basically forces feeds the knocked out bard a healing potion, and then he seems to vanish again. Indy gets to his feet and lobs air elementals at the massing dragons as he creeps away from the center of the fight.

Paddock begins burning spell slots to bring Inevitables into play and engage the dragons around Kemen. He also lines himself up for a charge attack against the Ogre’s flank.

The Ogre gets his feet back and completes a charge attack against me that does well over 100 damage. I roar in response and eat an AOO that nearly kills me, but I put another poink blank fully volley right into his face and with elementals trailing behind him, sneak attack damage applies. I pincushion him to the extent that doubt creeps into his mind.

The monk clutches at his head and for the briefest of moments it looks like he is back to himself. He shoots Paddock a forlorn and hopeless glance and gets one controlled communication out.

Chulainn:You have to kill me. The spirit of the rod is too strong, all it seeks is destruction. I fought it for as long as I could, but this is it. It will consume me within moments.

Chulainn spreads his arms out wide in surrender and closes his eyes.
Roaring and with tears filling his eyes Paddock makes a power attacked dive bomb and as the spear pierces Chu’s heart it dissolves and Paddock goes tumbling to the ground weaponless as the life fades from The Silent One.

Ineffectual against the sphere the formless dragons turn to the source of the elementals buzzing them and they all make strafing acid breath runs against Indy…he should comfortably save against their breath weapons like 75-85 percent of the time and with evasion it shouldn’t be an immediate threat. But sadly…low on health and unable to make more than 1 save in 3 he screams in agony as the acid takes his life…no knockout or chance to act…he too joins Chu and Ashleigh.

I have mentioned this once before, but we roll initiative every round. Makes for more dramatic moments. I got one myself at this point.

If Grunthrog goes first, I am likely dead, a full attack from him is instant death for me. If I go first I have a few options.

I go first.

Paddock: Run Mar! regroup with Kemen

Me: Don’t feel like running anymore today. One swing of your axe could take my head clean off. But before you can blink Grunthrog I can have five more arrows sprouting from face, and maybe, just maybe one of them finds your brain stem.

I eat an AOO that leaves me with 2 hp, and in return I make a point blank volley in his face that leaves him staring at me speechlessly.

The axe falls from his hands and a gust of wind takes his mortal form and scatters it on the breeze. The closest thing we experience to celebrating takes place here.

The celebration is short lived when a magic missile volley slams into me from my blindside. I hit the ground unconscious, and Brithag is seen behind me, pulling himself back into a standing position. He has recovered his box and the black dragons are all swirling around him like a shifting forcefield of wings and claws.

Emberbane’s ghost (spectre?shadow?wraith?not sure to be honest) kneels before him and he mounts the spectral dracolich.

Brithag: You have performed admirably, you saved me the complication of killing the ogre myself, you rid me of the moronic parrot bastard and you successfully helped the dragon make the transistion to the next stage of undead. All in all I would call today a win. In fact…I need not even enter the temple as the Halfling has already retrieved the prizes within.

As he is gloating we hear a startled yelp and see Snickle patting at dark flames across his clothing, he is about 30 feet away from Brithag and on fire.
Brithag sneers at him and then laughs.

Brithag:No living creature can approach me. A final evolution of the magic Ven Aus desired. He tricked a cadre of the most intelligent wizards and clerics the world has seen into developing a protective shield that would exceed the limitations of any other and instead sought domination. But they certainly strove to meet his original stated goal, I merely finished the last steps.

There is something of a lull in combat and Paddock takes the time to heal himself and scavenge out a Morningstar from his bag. The summoned Inevitables all begin to converge on Brithag and are thwarted by his protective shield.

So in case I overlooked anything:

Ashleigh: Dead
Indy:Dead
Chulainn (NPC): Dead
Indigo: Dead
Ogre: Reduced to dust, presumably dead or banished.
Emberbane: Reduced to dust, now reanimated as something else altogether.
Kemen: Still at full health with a good compliment of spells available.
Paddock: Back to full health, his primary weapons destroyed now equipped with a fallback Morningstar that has lawful evil outsider bane.
Marilius: In negative hitpoints and slowly dying.

Still in Play:

Brithag: Badly injured and with three shadowy black dragons, and Emberbane
Summoned Elementals: About 8 large elementals that are little more than nuisances.
Inevitables: 3 Maruts ineffectually banging at the shield around Brithag
Two Thanatonic Titans: Standing sentry to the temple and scaring the crap out of anyone that might dare to tread in their direction.

Wild Card:

F***ing Snickle

Kemen: So where do we go from here Brithag? Can’t say we bear you any particular ill will. Not sure how I feel about the way you are using and subverting this magic.

Brithag: I too bear no ill will towards you or your allies. However, I doubt that your purposes align with my own. I have followed in the footsteps of several who sought to control the world and I have seen them fall time and time again in your wake. Would a compromise be possible should you know that conquest is not in my agenda?

Paddock: Possibly. Depends on what you really want, and how you aim to get it.

Brithag: I want peace. Peace from the fear of reprisal and peace from the fear of a new day bringing a new challenger. I want to ensure my own safety and longevity.

Kemen: You have your shield, you have minions to serve as guards, what more do you need?

Brithag: I need nothing else. I desire the dragon’s hoard. I am led to understood that you and you alone are able to enter this place free of the dragon?

Paddock: You have the dragon…he can’t let you in?
Brithag: No…what you see is merely an echo of what he was. Still potent and formidable, but not HIM.

Kemen: What assurances would we have for our safety or that of the world if we assist you?

Brithag: I provide no assurances. Only a commitment to not seek conquest or reprisal against you and your comrades.

Paddock: All of us?
Brithag: You, the dwarf and the…well frankly I’m not sure what the bugbear is really supposed to be. To you three I extend this commitment.

Kemen: What about Snickle?
Brithag: He will die. He can’t run forever and he can’t hide from everything.
Snickle: That’s what you think chickens**t…plenty have tried worse and I have survived them all.

Paddock: Why do you care about Snickle? He has double crossed us and left us high and dry how many times?

Kemen: He helped us today. That counts for something in my book.

Paddock: That hardly cancels out everything else he has done.

Kemen: You are right…we may have an agreement here Brithag, but we need to consult our third party member Marilius. For that we need to attend him and make him coherent.

Brithag: I am more comfortable with him as he is for now.

Kemen: Well then you are in for disappointment. Marilius has the only means in which to access the hoard and he is on death’s door. If he dies you don’t ever get to see the halls of plenty.

Brithag: Attend your friend little gnome, but drop the weapon first.

Paddock shrugs his shoulders and runs to my side, hitting me with a flood of healing magic.

Brithag: Don’t go anywhere near the bow Marilius.

Kemen and Paddock fill me on what has transpired and Snickle pouts off to the side of everything as we confer. He looks genuinely sad.

Marilius:Assurances of avoiding conquest are one thing, how do we trust this guy further than we can throw him? And personally…Snickle has grown on me too. I would love to watch him squirm and I would be hesitant to throw him a rope if he was up to his ears in quicksand, but I can’t in good conscience let him be executed or hunted down like a dog.

Kemen: So what do you propose?

Me: I am going to snatch the Morningstar off the ground and shift to undead in mid charge and try to cave Brithag’s skull in.

Paddock: I am surprised at how reasonable you are being…oh wait nevermind you are attacking the neigh invulnerable wizard.

DM: The sudden charge and shift to undead definitely take him by surprise….but while that gets you through the barrier it doesn’t get you past the dragons waiting for you. They could probably kill you if they wanted, but Kemen already tipped his hand. They grapple and pin you.

Brithag: You can become undead…how fascinating. You could be a most intriguing addition to my cadre.

As he says that the black light from his box hits me in the chest and I feel myself being mentally torn asunder as my will becomes his own. He rummages through my memory and yanks the access to the dragon’s lair. Against my will I produce the music box and flute and begin opening a portal to the dragon’s lair overhead.

As this is happening Kemen hands a note to the DM.

Words will never describe the look on his face when he read it.

Standing at the edge of the portal opening into the lair is a suit of armor…the armor makes a diving leap from the portal directly overhead of Brithag and comes hurling through the air like a full plate bomb. The injured Brithag tries to move too late and Beordie lands on him knocking him flat on his back.

Beordie’s voice echoes from the armor as he tries to grapple the wizard.

Beordie: Meet my friend…Cloudkill.

The dragon’s grappling me, frantically release me and try to free their master. That lets me grab the Morningstar from the ground and take a two handed swing at Brithag that smashes his jaw and sends teeth flying. He looks at me for a split second with utter surprise and then the strength goes out from his knees. The echos of the dragons vanish and the Marut’s stumble forward.

Paddock is left standing speechless as Kemen dismisses his sphere and rushes to embrace me. Snickle is suddenly nowhere to be seen.

Paddock: You dropped your familiar on him.

Kemen: Well we ran out rocks, and I didn’t see any houses around.

It is more or less quickly decided that there is no more for these characters to do. We have in essence completed everything we could hope to do.

Epilogue:

Kemen-The dwarf utilizes the staggering wealth received from the dragon’s hoard to more or less put the world back together. He becomes a real estate and construction magnate and of the most prominent builders and craftsmen in the world. His crafts are multi-world elite and Kay Varn becomes the epicenter of growth and expansion for the world over. He lives a long and fulfilled life alongside his own suit of armor.

Paddock-Paddock Odinson builds a temple and leads the spiritual renaissance. Rekindling faith not just in his deity but in belief in general. He urges all races and faiths to expand knowledge in whatever way they see fit. He also commissions a sub branch of inquisitors to seek out and destroy any of the arcana fostered or created by Ven Aus. To this end, he farms out the ability to summon Ineveitables for those who’s transgressions are that severe.

Marilius:I more or less slip into obscurity. It is my character’s intent to enjoy vast wealth and return more to my roots of travelling and basking in the wonders of the world. In time several of my wayward scions find their father, and I help regal half-nymph teenagers with tales of our adventure. I discretely try to ignore rumours of a harpy/bugbear hybrid species that seems to be cropping up.

We build a monument to the memory of Chulainn, Indy, and Coe-Nan (who vanished and is presumed gone in terms of the game). Paddock and Kemen spend considerable time researching potential means of a resurrection spell, but that is considered unlikely.

The Parrot becomes a strange oddity in a deep and distant corner of the dragon’s lair, constantly humming in tune to a spectral pirate band. Whispers of it’s legacy endure and perhaps someday an unfortunate band will locate it in the same manner we once did.

The Revenge is eventually restored and Kemen spearheads a new Cinhill Rue with the Revenge as it’s crown jewel.

As for one last loose end…

Snickle: You know what guys, you are the first ones to ever give me a second chance, that means a lot to me. From the heart. I just want you to know that I will absolutely get this whole devil/soul fiasco behind us. Just new a few million in resources to hire the right attorneys and we are golden. Now why did you gets bring me to this hill again?

Kemen: A long time ago Snickle, what feels like lifetimes ago we got ambushed by a band of Spriggans, we tracked them to this very place and by moonlight we fought them. After their defeat we climbed through these tunnels and found fifty of the hardest workers you could ever imagine. For ages I have wanted to show you what we found down here. It’s a special surprise just for you.

Snickle: I love surprises…

Kemen: It’s just over there in that corner, under the cloak…

Snickle cheerfully skips to the corner and pulls the cloak back from a long dessicated Medusa, and is promptly turned to stone.

Kemen: I said I didn’t want to you see dead, but I sure as hell can’t have you running around either.

By no means is that an indication of RAW or any game mechanics, simply a final piece of Role Playing that seems truthfully fitting and appropriate.

Axinian
2014-01-09, 08:14 PM
*sob* no more Big One :smallfrown: That was an... interesting combat at least.

Can we expect a record of your next campaign?
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

Averis Vol
2014-01-10, 01:57 AM
oh man...dude....that was friggen awesome. I'll be honest I'm a little surprised at how that turned out. I was pretty sure you guys were goners, but ya made it through (Well, most of you....)

As with all your recaps, great job man, that was way too awesome for words.

Kaveman26
2014-01-10, 07:33 AM
Can we expect a record of your next campaign?

I believe so. I am very likely going to continue looking for input on some of the set up and design for it, and I doubt that I will be able to resist the temptation of sharing how it plays out.


I'll be honest I'm a little surprised at how that turned out

Us too. I think a few things contributed to an odd convergence and strange final encounter. First of which, I dont think that approaching the valley was meant to be a final confrontation. I think that in terms of how our DM had charted things developing we screwed up his planning and everything kind of happened at once.

He shared a few things after the fact:

1. Chulainn being dominated and infused with the disjunction rod's properties was going to be an entire arc of it's own, but we never really pulled the string to run with it.

2.The Ven Aus valley with it's titans had a backdoor that we never got a chance to search for.

3.The scrying center was something we could have utlized much better. As he put it " I gave you guys Skynet, and you used it like Google Maps"

4.Brithag was not intended to be a primary villian, just an opportunist that could have been bribed or coerced to switching his priorities. We just happened to bump everything into happening at once.

5.Snickle had an entire deranged backstory and history that we never sought out. He was a little bummed about that, " I tortured you guys in every way possible with him, and you never once tried to figure out just what the heck was going on with him". We didn't get a full sheet or stat block but he did admit that Snickle was a "very poorly built extraordinarily high level character. Full 20 level rogues, and dips into just about half a dozen other classes including ranger,fighter,assassin,and wizard. I never gave him about 20HD or 20BAB, but he had lots of class features". He also refused to divulge the backstory to us, said that he was saving Snickle as a potential reocurring character for later games.

6. Emberbane was always going to have become a dracolich. That was planned ages ago.

7. He wouldn't admit it, but he certainly seemed to fudge some of the final fight once it became clear that events were playing out in that spot. The Ogre+Indigo by themselves should have been a challenging fight. Adding in Emberbane, Titans and a deranged Chulainn was overwhelming and he seemed to pull some punches. Although not dice rolls. He rolled those in the open.

I was happy to get resolution on the parrot, may not have been as satisfying as I hoped, but it was resolution. For the most part I was glad that we all got an ending. Didn't feel like there was any major loose threads left hanging when all was said and done.

Brookshw
2014-01-10, 09:30 AM
Slow clap....

A wonderful story Kaveman though I'm sorry to see it end. Nice trick on snickle.

Will look forward to your next campaign :smallbiggrin:

geeky_monkey
2014-01-10, 09:37 AM
Didn't feel like there was any major loose threads left hanging when all was said and done.

Don't you still owe your souls & those of your deceased party members to demons due to Snickle's manipulations?

Kaveman26
2014-01-10, 09:54 AM
For the souls issue. Yes it is an issue, but more an off camera legal court issue. Nothing that we add to actively do in game.

CoffeeIncluded
2014-01-10, 12:13 PM
5.Snickle had an entire deranged backstory and history that we never sought out. He was a little bummed about that, " I tortured you guys in every way possible with him, and you never once tried to figure out just what the heck was going on with him". We didn't get a full sheet or stat block but he did admit that Snickle was a "very poorly built extraordinarily high level character. Full 20 level rogues, and dips into just about half a dozen other classes including ranger,fighter,assassin,and wizard. I never gave him about 20HD or 20BAB, but he had lots of class features". He also refused to divulge the backstory to us, said that he was saving Snickle as a potential reocurring character for later games.

Honestly, I'm surprised he was expecting you to figure out what was going on with him. If someone tormented me and my characters like that, I wouldn't give a crap about his backstory--I'd just want him gone.

That fight was...wow. Complete chaos. How do you play that without losing track of everything? Fantastic, utterly fantastic.

fishjam
2014-01-10, 12:21 PM
Thank you Kaveman,

I have been a huge fan of this log, after reading The Big One, i had hoped you would do more, and you did..

Now... did you ever learn what snickles stats were? i do believe we all want to know how that blighter got the one up on you guys so many times...

Averis Vol
2014-01-11, 12:48 AM
I believe so. I am very likely going to continue looking for input on some of the set up and design for it, and I doubt that I will be able to resist the temptation of sharing how it plays out.

Can't wait to hear from it.

Also, while I'm not the best DM, I would be glad to give some input and help with whatever you need set up or designed.

Kaveman26
2014-01-11, 07:55 AM
My biggest stumbling block so far, is providing a basis for the "mega dungeon" to exist, and for it to function in the way intended. The core hook or twist of the set up being entry and exit are only possible for a very short window (one hour each month) and this should drive a change in thinking. No more "Well we blew our spells for the day and the fighter's sucking fumes on hit points, let's go topside and rest up". I want there to be a challenge in terms of safety and a sense of victory if they survive thirty days and get to come back out.

My explanation at this point is that the entire structure's stated original purpose was to function as an ark and repository during an apocolyptic event. Various items of substanial power, tomes of knowledge and creatures from all aspects of creation were to be sheltered inside and protected from the ravages of a dying world. Stasis spells and ancient relics that provided susteanance were provided so that aging was not a concern. In time the safeguards that locked down the structure gave way, leading to the one hour opening per month. Some of the "traps" that created food and water began to malfuction or lose potency, and the inhabitants began to spread out to scavenge for survival. This coincides with the first groups of adventurers gaining entry.

The actual purpose, and the one that may eventually be discovered, is that the entire place is an illithid planar vessel. Ages ago when the mind flayers left their home world/plane their ship crashed into this world, and the scant survivors ended up taking refuge in the Underdark. Fail safes went into action and the ship which posesses a degree of sentience reworked itself to fulfill it's purpose: Gather samples from the world at large and keep them viable for the return trip. So functionally the place worked as an ark, but in actuality it has a much different purpose.

I feel like this gives me enough justification for why things will function in the manner they do. Pockets of creatures defending sections with still functioning food generation, roving packs of half starved magical beasts, humanoids carving out territory in forgotten corners, adventurers trapping the paths behind them out of paranoia. All these things should make sense in that context.

The focal point of making this enjoyable and stand out, in my view will be the other adventuring groups. Creating hostility and alliance between parties and developing conflict over time. If that becomes more than simply murder-hoboing then this could be a blast.

Axinian
2014-01-11, 12:37 PM
That all sounds just fine to me!

One thing to be aware of. The PCs will still try to rest whenever possible while inside, so make sure that no area is 100% safe. Even with precautions against them resting there, this group especially has a tendency to make crazy stuff work. Once they find any moderately safe area, they will no doubt set about fortifying that area and turning it into a definite place they can retreat to. Don't let them do this, 'cause that will undermine the feeling your going for. Perhaps let them enjoy a couple days of success, but them hit them hard with some powerful monster that shatters their barricades penetrates their defenses.

It's a good thing you banned stone shape :smalltongue:

Kaveman26
2014-01-11, 12:55 PM
Yeah, elimanting stone shape and its ilk is a big part of getting them to branch out a bit.

Kaveman26
2014-01-11, 05:00 PM
Just met the new characters for mega dungeon. They went a direction I did not expect.

Good lord am I in for a headache. Will try to get recap from tonight up by Monday.

Axinian
2014-01-11, 07:04 PM
Just met the new characters for mega dungeon. They went a direction I did not expect.

Good lord am I in for a headache. Will try to get recap from tonight up by Monday.

Remember if it's too much to deal with you can always say "no." Not everyone's character concept is suitable to every campaign.

Averis Vol
2014-01-11, 07:14 PM
I actually don't think the party setting up shop in one area is such a bad thing. The way I see it, whenever some new area pops up, everyone goes all wild west and starts setting up small towns in semi fortified locations. Only once they have somewhere they feel safe would they actually start to branch out into the unknown.

So I would think by the time the party got in, there might be a few small established camps. once in there, they can trade, rest, maybe pick up a side quest or two, all they want for a price. If they don't like the way the places are run, maybe they start their own city and start charging their own prices. and when that one day a month comes in, they send out small wagon trains to ply their goods.

jguy
2014-01-11, 09:31 PM
Question. What prevents a Wall of Force from keeping the door from closing?

ReaderAt2046
2014-01-11, 09:50 PM
Question. What prevents a Wall of Force from keeping the door from closing?

I would guess the door breaks the Wall of Force.

Kaveman26
2014-01-13, 08:07 AM
Question. What prevents a Wall of Force from keeping the door from closing?

As part of the premise for the campaign the concept of characters beyond level 9 is gone. From that perspective there may be a couple people in the entire world capable of casting Wall of Force, and they haven't tried yet. Even if they did...as was mentioned...it wouldn't work. That illusionary level cap will disappear, but for story beginning's sake it is in place.

Powers of Plot, Disjunction, Dispel Magic trap, sheer brute force of the wall's magic...take your pick. Every means attempted to prevent the doors from closing has failed.