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jguy
2013-11-21, 11:40 PM
This is my first attempt at a campaign journal so I hope you all enjoy it. It will be updating weekly as my game runs. It is a 3.Pathfinder hybrid game that starts at level 5. A quick summary of players and the campaign world:

The game is run in my homebrew world with no name. It’s getting made as I go along but it has a slight eberron feel to it as magic is more wide spread and common to people. Adventuring is a recognized career in this world as it is a very high-risk, high-reward kind of thing. A farmer can go adventuring for a month, come back with 10 levels and more than enough wealth to keep his great-grandkids fed for their entire lives, or he could die by a random goblin the very first day. Adventurers are like a giant fraternity. Everyone tends to know everyone else by reputation alone and when two parties clash it is usually with very little hard feelings even those with entirely different ideologies.

With this campaign I am testing out a few things as follows:

Minion rule. I saw this homebrew rule that converted 4e minion rules to 3.5. Minions have exact same stats, ac, and saves as a normal monster but with 1 hp, evasion, and mettle. They are worth 1/4th CR of a normal monster. This lets me have bigger, more epic fights without using piddling level CR monsters.
At character creation choose Dex or Strength. This is your primary to-hit and damage dealer. Bows , crossbows , and guns do automatic dex to damage, while slings and javelins do strength to attack and damage. Light and finessable weapons do dex to attack and damage without needing feats like Weapon Finesse and Shadow Blade but they cannot do 1.5x damage with two hands nor can they use Power Attack or Piranha Strike. This is basically to free up feats for my players because someone always wants to do Dex to damage so they become very same-same.
We are using Tome of Tactics maneuvers for this game as well to give more options for my players. It was created on these very boards. Look them up! It’s a good read.


My players are thus:

Roto: A goliath Barbarian/Warblade who is very much styling himself after the Dragoons from final fantasy. He uses a reach weapon and the Battle Jump feat for massive damage. The character tends to have strings of bad luck but he recovers nicely.

Amanu: A Vanara Swordsage that is focusing on Shadow Hand and Life’s Blood maneuvers. He is the healer out of combat and the tankiest guy right now. His life’s blood maneuvers allow him to tank with HP much more efficiently than most people can. Very mobile and does good skirmish damage.

Flynn: A whispergnome Alchemist with a shotgun pistol. He loads his gun with his bombs for very good damage and has a good amount of utility. Very good stealth checks as well.

Weiss: an Elf Wizard. He is characterized as a smartass and abrasive, but not pompous or better than anyone. Also incredibly paranoid. He focuses mainly on battlefield control and party buffing but is rather handy with a longbow with the new house rules.

A knock on the door:

The party starts in their manor in Lochbell, a prosperous city near the mountains. The party has a good reputation such that they rarely have to go looking for work anymore, it comes to them, and it does. The knock on the front door is answered by the party’s butler Chives, a middle-aged swordsage that Amanu has been personally training and comes from a long line of servants. At the door is a dwarf named Jathar that requests an audience with the party as he has a job offer for them from his boss. Chives escorts Jathar to the waiting room and calls to the party from a sending stone.

The party arrives in a fashion to speak to the dwarf.

Jathar: Good to meet you all. I come on behave of my boss Warren Salazar. He owns Delver Mining Inc and he needs your help. In the recent weeks we have had a slew of disappearances and deaths in our mines. It has gotten so bad that if doesn’t end soon, the company will either go out of business or be bought out by our rival Hincar Mining CO. I can’t discuss payment but you will all be well compensated.

Weiss: Your boss owns a gold mine. I would sure hope he can pay us.

Jathar reddens a little but before he can speak Lidda bursts into the room carrying a tray of food filled with the favorites of the party. Lidda is a young half-elf sorceress whose blood mixed oddly giving her the Abberant bloodline. The party found her on the streets awhile back and took her in. She is fiercely loyal to the party and an incredibly good cook. Her racial Skill Focus feat is Profession: Cook.

Lidda: I am sorry Mr. Jathar I didn’t know your favorite food so I made some that I thought a dwarf might like. I do hope you enjoy

Jathar takes the offered food with a thank you and Lidda passes the rest of the food around to the party.

Amanu: Well it seems like we will be able to help you plight as long as the money is good. What say they rest of you?

Flynn: A job sounds good; I need more supplies for my lab. A good chunk of it exploded on me.

Roto: Haven’t been able to hit anything lately and sparring with Amanu is no fun. Never stays in one spot.

Weiss: You will have plenty of things to hit it would seem as long as you stay in front of me.

The party was in agreement and Chives escorted Jathar out, wishing him the best. Lidda scurried off to the kitchen again to get food ready for the road and Chives gathered the party’s supplies sans Flynn who made sure to get his own explosives. It was a funny image seeing Chives carry Roto’s massive polearm with both hands then have Roto pick it up one handed like it was nothing. It showed Weiss’ trust in Chives that he allowed him into his den to gather his scrolls and spellbook up for him.

Chives: Well Master’s I hope you all well and look forward to your return. Me and Lidda will keep the manor safe until we see you again.

Lidda: Yeah! Weiss, try to bring something magical back! I am still working on a portal from the kitchen into your food bags!

Weiss: For that, I will do my best.

The rest of the party nods, greatly looking forward to that prospect. They strike out on foot, the road not too long to the mine and Weiss does not like horses all the much. The road is oddly lacking in traffic this day as it is a main trade route but the party doesn’t think much of it. Soon, they see a man atop a horse ahead when suddenly a massive tree falls in front of the man, stalling him and causing the horse to rear up in fright. The man turns and hails the party.

Man: Hail friends! It seems the road is blocked. I would recommend you find another route; this one does not seem safe.

The party looks around confused and Roto responds

Roto: It’s not that big of a tree. We can just go around or over.

Man: I must insist you turn around, it would not be safe….oh, it is you.

In that instant the man recognized the party and the party recognized him. He was Hassan Dali, leader of the Fanged Ambush group who specialized in ambushes and traps.

Hassan: I don’t think you would all consider turning around and not returning for a week. I have been hired to keep people off this road heading this way.

Amanu: Sorry, no can do. We must go through here to our employer and time is of the essence.

Hassan: I guess we are at odds. Shame. No hard feelings but it can’t be helped.

He snaps his fingers and three figures rise from a platform behind the tree, the remnants of a destroyed watch tower. Two men in banded-mail wielding Glaive-Gisarmes flanking an Elf Air Elemental Sorcerer named Valendron Oparal. Two more men with Gisarmes seem to flow out of the downed tree to stand next to Hassan who is now holding onto his lance and shield.

Amanu goes first and dashes forward, shooting off a shot from his longbow at Hassan's horse using the Frozen Leg maneuver from Life’s Blood. Hassan failed at his Mounted Combat roll to avoid the damage, something he will be doing every time they attack his horse by the way. The maneuver, if it hits, causes the target to make a reflex vs damage dealt of have its movement reduced to 0. Unfortunately for the players but fortunate for me, Amanu forgot to switch to his skirmish stance so only dealt 5 with his attack, something the horse could make even on a 1.

Flynn went next and scurried over to a nearby bush for cover and shot at Valendron with his pistol and a bomb infused bullet. Even though he was using an advanced firearm, the distance penalty combined with cover from the two mooks meant he missed his shot by a bit and all 3 of them evaded the splash damage from the bomb.

Roto came next and he charged at Hassan, hoping to end it with one blow with a Furious Focus, Power Attack Battle jump! He then proceeded to roll a 17 all together and miss. Valendron cast Spectral hand and then Hassan used his Spirit Charge to skewer Roto, or would have if Roto didn’t save himself with Wall of Blades to deflect it. Hassan ended up way away from everyone but in perfect charging distance, even worse, two archers up in the trees showed themselves and shot at Weiss and Amanu, hitting Weiss much to his annoyance.

Weiss did not like Hassan or his charging and cast Create Pit directly under him and his horse. The horse failed its reflex save but I gave Hassan his own at a very large penalty but he managed to save, jumping off the horse and rolling to the ground.

Weiss: Oh what the hell is that crap. He is in full plate with a lance and shield!

The thug mooks are up next and use Roto’s own tactics against him. A Furious Focus Power Attack swing from both of them at Roto hits for about 23 damage when only 1 hits, causing everyone alarm. Amanu scampers up the tree the archer was in and stabs him in the throat, killing him instantly. As everyone guessed, it was a minion. Flynn again takes a shot at Valendron with a bomb infused bullet but again missed him and everyone evades. Flynn is not happy.

Roto is not happy either, having been made almost bloodied with one hit from a minion. He swings and kills it in one blow but is now regretting not having Cleave or the Steel Wind maneuver. Valendron casts Shocking Grasp through the spectral hand at Flynn but Flynn’s small size and high dex coupled with a bad roll causes him to miss.

Hassan reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small horse figuring and throws it to the ground. It is a one use item of the Mount spell and he saddles back up. The last remaining ranged minion shoots at Weiss again and hits. I mention I keep forgetting Rapid Shot and Deadly aim

Weiss’s player: Good! Damn Minions need to stop hurting so much!

Weiss ducks behind a bush and casts Web on Valendron and the thug minions surrounding him. Valendron fails his save and so does one minion, but the other saves. The remaining thug minion by Roto swings at him, and hits, but thankfully he recovered his Wall of Blades so avoids another massive hit.

Roto: Little help guys! I should be fighting Hassan, not this minion who hits like a truck!

Amanu scurries down the tree and shoots again at Hassan’s horse, though remembering to get into his skirmish stance. Hassan makes his mounted combat roll for once and it misses. Flynn pops out from behind the bush and shoots the thug minion by Roto in the head. Roto turn and runs at Hassan. He can’t quite reach him so chucks a javelin at his horse, hoping to end the spell. He hits hard but the horse has 2 hp left.

Hassan turns and charges the only target he has, Amanu, and hits for a whopping 47 damage with his spirited charge! Amanu uses his Healing Palm maneuver as an immediate action to give himself 30 temp hit points but everyone was now terrified of Hassan. The Ranged minion rapid shots at Roto, his only target, and hits once for okay damage. Weiss is now annoyed at the last minion so chucks an alchemist fire at him and sends him to the ground in flames. The game session ends with the last two thug minions by Valendron chopping away at the webbing to free him.

Kaveman26
2013-11-23, 09:29 AM
I got a good laugh out of this beginning. I like this concept too.

jguy
2013-11-23, 10:12 AM
Hey Kaveman! Glad you like it so far. Your journals are what inspired me to write this up.

jguy
2013-11-23, 09:30 PM
A drink to remember. A drink to forget

Amanu is up and not happy about the huge hit he took. He uses an immediate action to heal himself with using the Head on Straight maneuver then runs towards Hassan, shooting at his horse. Once again, Hassan fails on his Mounted Combat check and the spell ends but he does make a successful ride check to stay on his feet.

Flynn loads up another bomb infused bullet and shoots at Valendron, finally hitting the guy for 20, bloodying him with the splash damage killing one of the minions to a cheer from my group.

Amanu’s Player: Luckiest. Minions. Ever.

Roto charges at Hassan using the same tactics as before. Unfortunately, like before, he whiffs on the attack roll and misses. Valendron, free of the web, sends his Spectral Hand to deliver the Shocking Grasp spell he been holding to Flynn. He fails miserably. Hassan 5 foots up to Roto and pulls out his Greataxe and proceeds to roll a natural 20 and then a 17 to confirm! I have to sit back in my chair and think for a bit.

This puts me in a deep bind. I can’t fudge the roll, everyone just saw it. I am not against killing players but this is the first fight and Roto’s player really likes his character. He even admitted that if Roto died he’d use the same character sheet and just rewrite the name as Otor or something. I end up deciding to go with 4e max damage rule instead of the axe’s x3 crit. I make a note to myself to shy away from x3/x4 crits for now. In retrospect I should have simply made it a knockout hit with again using a 4e rule of any damage can be nonlethal when it’s enough to kill a guy.

Roto ends up not dying but being taken down to 2 hp and everyone is worried. Those worries are very quickly alleviated when Weiss casts Create Pit under Hassan who fails his saves, ending up prone at the bottom of a 20 foot pit. With Hassan in the hole with no easy way out, Valendron bloodied, and only one remaining minion left Hassan calls out.

Hassan from the hole: I surrender! I would like to discuss terms! If we give you all of our magical gear, will you let us live?

Amanu: I thought this was a fight to the death?

Hassan from the hole: It was but dying in a hole like fish in a barrel is no honorable way, no glorious way, for a man like me to die! I had a stipulation in my contract for surrender in certain situations and this is one of them!

Weiss: We can accept that.

A few rounds later Hassan rises up out of the hole along with his wayward horse from the other.

Weiss: I don’t want you anywhere near the saddle of that horse okay.

Hassan nods and calls Valendron and the last remaining minion to him

Hassan: Would you all kindly help me gather my fallen men so that I may bury them and send word to their family? You can have their affects, they no longer need them.

The party gladly agrees, one to keep their reputation up and another because they want the loot! They take Hassan’s magical lance and armor, leaving him his masterwork greataxe for defence. Valendron loses his vest of resistance and his ring of deflection along with his spare scrolls. The rest is mundane masterwork armor and weapons. After the fight is over the notice the tree in the middle of the road is gone. It was an illusion by Valendron the whole time.

Hassan: Your reputation precedes you. I will spread word of your deeds as I try to regain what I have lost. Sir Weiss, I hope to never see you again. If I do, I hope we are on the same side or it’s with my lance through your stomach

Weiss: Yeah well good luck with that. I don’t want to see your face again either.

With that the party gathers their stuff and continues down the road, Amanu tending to their wounds along the way. A bit later, they turn off the main path down to the mine with a sign saying “Delver Mining Inc” greeting them at their destination. They look around and it is eerily quiet with no sign of life. Oddly enough there is no equipment out. No picks, no shovels, no carts. They spot a large building nearby that looks like a warehouse and Amanu stealths up to it, peering into the window. Inside is all the equipment, stacked and organized.

Amanu: Well that solves that mystery. Now what?

Weiss: I still don’t trust this place. Let me try something

He casts ghost sound directly behind the warehouse to mimic the sound of a mountain lions roar. Immediately afterwards they hear a crash of glass and furniture from a small building away from the warehouse. Flynn and Amanu move up to investigate while Weiss hide behind the wall of the warehouse, Roto standing guard in front of him.

Flynn scampers to the ceiling and Amanu looks into the window. He sees an office of sorts with a desk, shelves, and lots of important looking documents strewn throughout the room. A man stumbles in the room, taking a swig from a bottle. He is dressed in leather, hasn’t shaved in weeks it seems, and he looks dirty and greasy. Amanu taps on the window and ducks below. The man moves to investigate but sees nothing, his hot breath steaming the window. Weiss steps out from behind the warehouse to see the man and the man lets out a yell and runs, well stumbles out the door cursing.

Man: Is that you?! The men ‘ere to ‘elp? *drinks* Well ‘bout timesh.

Weiss: I assume you are Warren Salazar then?

Roto and Weiss move up from the warehouse to stand by Warren as he continues to drink from his bottle, the smell of alcohol permeating from every pore.

Warren: Damn you are tall son. The both of you ‘cept the thick one makes you look even skinner. Ay, I am Warren and this be me mine.

Amanu steps from behind the building and scares the living crap out of Warren.

Warren: Don’t do that to me! You have no idea what I have sheen lately *drinks* The death I’ve been around lately.

Weiss: Oh I do believe we have seen worse.

Flynn pops out from atop the building and speaks up.

Flynn: Yeah, you see some messed up things in this line of work! We have caused some of them too!

Warren screams and stumbles back, falling on his rear and dropping his bottle, breaking it.

Warren: Don’t do that to me!

Warren goes back into his office and retrieves another bottle of liquor.

Weiss: Tell us what has happened and what you specifically need of us.

Warren sits down on a step and gets a far off look in his eye.

Warren: It all started a few weeks ago when one of the workers went missing. We searched for him for hours but couldn’t find him until the next day. He was here, there…in pieces everywhere. It soon happened again and again until 8 more people turned up.

Weiss: How did they die?

Warren: Some were smashed to a pulp so they were barely recognizable, other where burnt to a crisp or seemingly melted. A few died as if a doctor operated on them with precision and more strangely enough we found body parts sticking out of the very walls.

Roto: Like someone slammed them in there?

Warren: No, it was merged with the wall! We found an arm sticking out seamlessly from the wall. We had to dig it out and there was a good 3 inches of flesh imbedded into it. I’ve never seen anything like it.

The party looks to each other, their interest peeked as they don’t know off the top of their head what could kill in such bizarre and wildly different manners.

Warren: After that the men stopped coming into work. Can’t say that I blame ‘em. No one deserves to die like that. *Long, deep drink* With no one working, I am bleeding money. Soon, tomorrow even if this issue isn’t cleared up, I will have to sell the mine to Hincar who has been beating down my door for almost a month trying to get me to sell. Might just have to take them up on it.

Amanu: Do you have enough to pay us then? We didn’t come all this way for free.

Warren: Ay, I have enough to pay you each 1000g if you find the source of all this and kill it. I need it done by today though. I can provide you a map of the mine system as well.

The party nods and finds it all acceptable. They take the map and head into the mind proper. It is well lit with Light cast on steel rods studded through the tunnel walls. They come to a large open space with a lot of the mine rails meeting up in a circle. It was the switching station and it split off to 3 other tunnels.

Roto: What does the map say Weiss?

Weiss: This is the central hub but there are no real ‘locations’ on this map. Everything is a dead end as it mined into the mountain. I guess we just pick a tunnel and hope for the best.

Amanu makes a really good perception check and he sees that there are spots on the tunnel walls that are rather smoother than the rest. He can’t make much of it though so just shrugs. They decide to take a look down the tunnels but don’t travel down them, with Roto moving up to the mouth of the north facing tunnel and Amanu going to the eastern. Weiss and Flynn stay back at the entrance as the other investigate.

Roto: Nothing suspicious down here.

Amanu: Here either.

Before anything else can happen, 8 figures emerge from the walls, 2 to each tunnel. This is the description I gave to the players on the two types of enemies:

“A humanoid seemingly crafted from obsidian stands before you, garbed like a knight with armor and shield, his sword merging with his arm that nearly touches the floor.”

“Crafted from brimstone, its skin split with red light spilling from it, this humanoid reminds you of a determined foot soldier. A small shield of stone, along with a wicked axe glowing deep red, makes up the ends of its arms.”

Weiss quickly discerns that these are medium earth and magma elementals. He notes that while normally they take the form of animals and other beasts, these seem to be humanoid and garbed for battle. Initiative is rolled and Weiss amazingly goes first. He rushes away from the Magma elemental standing next to him, happy it doesn’t have combat reflexes, and a little ways back from Roto.

Weiss: Get near me! You need to protect me and I have spells for you!

A magma elemental near Amanu slides up to him and hurls magma onto his feet.

Amanu’s Player: I must have rolled like crap for the elemental and Weiss to go before me. I have a +10 to initiative!

Me looking down at my battle app to check roll results: Yeah, you rolled a 1 and Weiss got a natural 20.

Roto is up and swings at the elemental in front of him for a nice chunk of damage, moving back stand directly in front of Weiss. Weiss uses his readied action to cast Bulls Strength on Roto.

Flynn steps back and loads up his pistol with scatter rounds and shoots at the two elementals near him, hitting for 11. After this a lot of elementals take their turn. A magma hurls up at Flynns feat while two earth move up to take a swing at him, both missing. The earth by Amanu moves up and manages to hit his flatfooted AC for a nice amount but that gets healed up instantly by Head on Straight. The elementals directly in front of Roto slide up and the hurt one gets an attack of opportunity for its work and goes down, the other swinging and missing. The last magma double moves up to Roto and Roto is now sad he doesn’t have Combat Reflex.

Amanu finally gets to go and after a lot of debating about attacks of opportunity and getting in skirmish damage, he fails his tumble check and gets attacked but it misses thankfully. He lands a nice blow against the magma elemental that threw up on him.

Weiss goes next and shoots the injured magma elemental by Amanu with his bow to land the killing blow.

Amanu: Kill stealer!

Roto uses a Furious Focus power attack combined with his Battle Jump feat to one shot an elemental for 60 points of damage.

Me: See, now I don’t want anyone complaining about my enemies doing too much damage okay! Roto just hit that guy for 60 while Hassan only did 47 and he needed to charge first!

Flynn isn’t liking being attack by three guys at once and move back and shoots them with a shotgun blasts, easily hitting their terrible touch ACs. The elementals are quickly being whittled down but they show no signs of retreating as they attack the party in mass. Only person hurt this round is Flynn from a good sword swipe from an earth elemental and Roto when a Magma chucks lava at his feet. Amanu move up and lashes out at the nearby earth, getting in for good damage.

Weiss wants this fight over now so he cast haste from a scroll on the party. Roto is in such that he gets two attacks, doing a standing battle jump against the two elementals near him, squishing them both for absurd damage, that he doesn’t move out of the magma puddle he is in. Flynn pumps a shotgun blast into the elementals near him, killing them, and then spins the chamber around his pistol to fire at the one by Amanu, ending the battle.

Amanu: Kill stealer!


I hope everyone is enjoying this journal. Feel free to comment and ask questions. I will do my best to answer without spoiling anything to my players.

jguy
2013-12-01, 07:00 PM
Where giants fail to do much of anything

After the elemental ambush the party figures they have nothing else to do but press forward. Amanu quickly patches up the party and they take the western tunnel further into the mine. The tunnel goes for quite awhile and the party sees subtle signs of violence; a dark spot here and there on the tunnel floor and walls and the faint smell of burnt flesh perceptible only to Amanu. They come to a bend in the tunnel and Amanu hears the faint sounds of talking.

Amanu: Shh. Flynn, you and I will scout ahead. All of you be quiet and stay here.

Flynn and Amanu ghost up to the wall, their baseline stealth checks very easily beating the enemy’s inattentive perception checks. They peer around the corner to see two strange figures sitting on boxes, chatting with a tone of boredom. Gold coins hang from their bodies like piercings and they skin seems to be plated stone. Gaps in the stone reveal translucent skin, revealing bone and organs beneath. A quick description from Flynn to Weiss reveals that these are Urdefhan but ones that hale from a meeting of the Elemental Plane of Earth and the Abyss.

Weiss: I will need a better look

Amanu: No!

Amanu is too late in his hissed warning as Weiss walks up to the curve in the wall and peers around it. He himself is not trained in stealth and rolls average but the Urdefhan proceeds to roll a natural 20 on his perception check. Apparently Weiss kicked a pebble right into the guy’s field of view.

Weiss: Whoops

Weiss quickly attempts to make a diplomacy check to dissuade the Urdefhan from attacking so they can discuss things rationally. He has a 7 charisma. He rolls a 5.

Weiss: So how about we talk about your mom for a minute?

Amanu: You need to stop talking so much.

The two Urdefhan snatch up their nearby weapons and prepare for combat. Amanu is up first, making up for his terrible initiative roll the last fight and snaps off a Frozen Leg maneuver at one of the Urdefhan, easily hitting him. Though he remembered to get into his skirmishers stance, the Urdefhan has DR/5 and only took 11, meaning the reflex save was quite easy to pass, which he did.

Amanu: One of these days that will work

Next up is Flynn who moves out and shoots the injured Urdefhan for a decent amount of damage despite the DR. Roto runs up and simply chucks a javelin so he can get in charging distance next round. His throw strikes true and spears the guy for 12 damage. It helps that his javelins are large and it is like he is chucking long swords at them.

To the surprise of the characters, but not in the least bit to my players, a hulking figure emerges from the tunnel wall behind Weiss.

Me: “You smell brimstone behind you and a behemoth melts from the wall. Standing almost 15 feet tall is a man formed from a living volcano. He looks like a soldier but both his hands are great axes made of molten rock”

Weiss: Don’t suppose you could just go away?

Amanu: Oh dear lord good thing I don’t wear pants


The Giant, which was revealed to be a Huge Magma Elemental by Weiss, did not go away. He swing at Weiss and easily hit. Lucky for him, he rolled min damage and Weiss was barely scraped. Weiss then proceeded to catch on fire but I mistakenly rolled duration in front of everyone and it came up one.

Weiss’s Player: I can just take this, no need to try to put it out.

Me: That’s adventurers for you. Where a man can get lit on fire and shrug it off because it will be gone 6 seconds later.

Weiss abjurant jaunts backwards out of the giant’s range and casts haste from a scroll on the party. Amanu is up and races forward and tries to tumble his way through the giants reach. He fails the check but the giant just misses his buffed AC. Amanu uses Mountain Hammer to burst through the DR and hits for a good chunk of damage.

Flynn takes advantage of the extra attack from haste and fires two bullets into one of the Urdefhan, the damage being mitigated by the DR a bit but that is not enough to save its life as it goes down. Roto gives zero *bleeps* about DR and pounces the Magma Elemental. Even Roto’s epic jump checks make are not enough to get above the elementals head for Battle Jump, but Furious Focus lets his first power attack hit for 23 and a lucky second roll means he hits for another 18.

The last remaining Urdefhan charges at Weiss, giving him a really nasty slash with its weird Rhoka sword.

Weiss: That sword is so mine when we kill these things.

Amanu double attack the Elemental but without the benefit of skirmish or mountain hammer, he only deals 6 damage to the huge beast. The elemental swings down at its two attackers, with Amanu nimbly dodging the first and Roto using Wall of Blades to smack away the second. Flynn shoots the Urdefhan attacking Weiss in the head and Roto proceeds to do what Roto does best and utterly destroys the magma monster with two massive hits.

The bodies of the Urdefhan and Magma Elemental crumble and disperse upon their death, leaving nothing behind except a few weapons and miscellaneous gear,

Weiss: Well this is now mine.

Weiss picks up the sword and stows it on his back. Despite being a wizard, he specifically carries holsters for swords just in case.

Roto: Why do you want that sword so much anyway?

Weiss: One, because he cut me with it, and two, so I can do this to any of his friends if we meet.

Weiss proceeds to make a lewd gesture with the sword that makes everyone around him groan.

Weiss: Oh be quiet. Now Amanu! I need healing! Get over here and touch me!

Roto: Creepy….

The party searches the dead end of the mine but finds nothing of value or import so they return to the main hub. Using logic only adventurers can follow, they take the east passage, leaving the north for last because “We save straight for last, we have to explore the side corridors first.” Ah glorious.

The second corridor is void of all sign of life but it this tunnel really shows what happened to the miners. Large splotches of darkened earth can be seen all around; the smell of burnt flesh is noticeable to everyone now. They come to a curve and they see a face of a man, half imbedded into the stone wall. Weiss move up to examine it but he can’t see a seam. He pokes the guy’s cheek and it presses against the stone wall.

Flynn: Is the guy actually merged with the wall?

Weiss: it seems to be. Warren was not lying it appears.

Flynn: I think I need a drink.

Despite the grizzly scene, they find no clues as to what is the cause of all this mayhem. They return to the main hub again and steel themselves as they move towards the last tunnel. At first, it seems similar to the second but Weiss keen elf senses pick up something strange about a nearby wall.

Weiss: Something isn’t right about this. Amanu, can you check it for us?

Amanu pulls out a quarterstaff and taps the aforementioned wall. It rings the faintest bit hollow. That is all Amanu needs as he proceeds to bash the wall with Mountain Hammer, knocking a huge hole in it and revealing a tunnel behind it. A few more hits from his staff and Roto’s polearm show that the stone wall was about half an inch thick but was melded seamlessly with the surrounding rock.

Before them is an incredibly long tunnel made from pure marble. A quick knowledge: engineering check from Flynn shows that the tunnel is exactly 10x15 feet and the wall and ceiling meet at a perfect 90 degree angle. He shares this information with the party.

Weiss: It appears that this shaft is very well worked.

Amanu proceeds to hit Weiss over the head with his staff.

After that little spat, the party goes down the tunnel, taking notice that it is very well lit by all the crystals patterned into the wall, glowing with a rainbow of colors. Flynn starts to remove one but a quick glance by Weiss shows they are worthless crystals. At the end of the corridor stands a massive pair of doors, spanning 25 feet wide and 20 feet up. On the door is a mural, shaped from the very stone itself. It shows the planet, sitting on a pedestal, surrounded by mountains. Weiss identifies it as the house symbol of royalty on the Elemental Plane of Earth. The session ends as they start to push open the doors.

Kaveman26
2013-12-02, 08:58 AM
Ominous doors are ominous.

jguy
2013-12-11, 10:08 PM
Battle inside the mountain

The party pushes upon the door and it opens with nary a sound or much effort at all despite its bulk. The view behind the doors is almost blinding. The entire room is polished marble, its entirety spanning 75 feet long and wide and 20 feet tall. To the left and right of the room are 2 rows of marble pillars, 5 feet thick, spanning floor to ceiling. At the end of the room is a set of stairs going 10 feet up, with a sacrificial alter on top. Standing next to it is a man made of stone, bare but for a leather kilt, his flesh carved with runes of power and he grips a heavy pick in his hand. Upon seeing the party enter the room, the stone man positions himself behind the alter and readies an action.

Flynn sidesteps out of sight and drinks his chameleon mutagen. His skin begins to blend to match the background and his hands become more like that of a gecko’s, giving him a climb speed. Amanu decides to take the initiative in the battle and moves up, shooting at the stone man with his Frozen Leg maneuver, just barely missing as his arrow plinks off the alter.

Roto lets out a shout and charges at the stone man, his movement speed easily able to send him across the 75 foot room, or would have if the guy’s readied Web spell didn’t go off, stopping him in his tracks. Roto makes his first of many, many saves that session and is simply inconvenienced. He uses his Sudden Leap maneuver to get himself out of the web, though he finds himself regretting that very quickly. Just to his left is a large figure of stone, a Shaiten Genie to be exact. The genie steps up and full attacks, his fists passing through the stone pillars like they were air. The first hit lands a critical hit on Roto, dealing 28 and bloodying him. The second would have hit but thankfully Roto’s Wall of Blades manages to deflect it.

Roto: A little help guys!

Weiss: On it buddy

Weiss stays put where he is and starts to cast Summon Monster 3. Amanu feels some wisps of air pass by his ear but he largely ignores it. Flynn scampers up the 20 foot tall door and shoots at the genie. He easy hits, dealing 25 and a large fog cloud billows out, filling a large chuck of the room.

Flynn: That should help you get away from the genie Roto

Weiss: The genie has tremorsense! He doesn’t need to see us to know where we are!

Flynn: Crap

Amanu runs to Roto’s side, tagging him with his Healing Palm maneuver to grant him 30 temp hit points. Roto carefully backs away from the genie out of the cloud and in between the right most set of pillars when suddenly the floor gives way beneath him. He deftly jumps backwards and sees that there are two of these stone men and realizes that they are actually wizards and he just dodged a Create Pit spell.

The genie moves up and casts a quickened Glitterdust on Amanu, blinding him. Unfortunately for the enemies but very fortunate for the party, he also hit what looked to be a small, emaciated elf with fairy wings that was standing right where Amanu used to be but invisible. It lets out a shriek as the dust gets in its eyes and Weiss identifies it as a Lurker in Light. The genie slams its fists down at Amanu, critting him, or would have if amanu hadn’t gotten incredibly lucky with the small miss chance granted by Fog Cloud.

Weiss finishes casting his spell and a celestial crocodile springs into existence, its huge jaws clamping around the screaming Lurker and holding it fast. Weiss moves up and tags the croc with Bulls Strength, intent on making sure the Lurker doesn’t escape.

One of the Stone Wizards casts Grease on Roto but he makes his save again. Despite Weiss’s efforts, the Lurker in Light manages to claw its way free from the crocodiles jaw and stumbles away a small distance. Flynn makes a flying monkey jump from the stone door to one of the pillars and shoots the revealed wizard with a bomb infused bullet, dealing a massive 28 damage and cracking nearly every part of the man skin. The wizard runs away, out of sight behind the large web spell from earlier.

Amanu does his best to get the glitter out of his eyes but to no avail, moving around blindly and getting wacked for 12 from the genie. Roto sees a tasty target in the blind lurker and moves up to it, smashing it for 17 damage post DR.

The genie sinks into the ground and reappears directly in front of Weiss. Weiss and the croc fail as the Shaiten casts a quicken glitterdust again but Weiss thanked his stars when the genie rolled a 1 on its attack roll on him.

Weiss’s player: This thing is like flippin’ Raiden!

Weiss can’t think of anything to do and tries to spend his full turn removing the dust but again rolls terribly as well as the crocodile. The other Stone Wizard casts grease on the pillar Flynn is clinging too. He makes the save like a boss but gravity still tugs his lubed up body down the pillar, almost sending him into the pit from earlier. The Lurker makes his save to remove the dust and 5 foots away from Roto. Flynn decides to return the favor to the wizard and blasts him for 30 damage. The other wizard comes to his friends’ aid and casts his Web spell to hide them from site but fails to ensnare Flynn as he makes his save.

Amanu manages to finally remove the dust from his eyes and Roto proceeds to absolutely crush the Lurker with a staggering 64 point hit from his polearm. The genie lands two meaty blows on Weiss for 24 damage and casts his last quickened glitterdust on Roto. Like all previous times, Roto makes his save though he had to use Moment of Perfect Mind for this one.

Weiss jaunts away in a random direction, landing partially in a pillar and gets shunted to the left for some damage but at least he is away from the genie for now. Flynn moves to another pillar and unloads another shot into the genie for a solid 22 damage and Amanu spends his turn healing himself up a little. Roto charges the genie at an angle, wanting to hit him with a sideswipe pounce attack but the genie uses its attack of opportunity to bull rush Roto, knocking him back and actually trapping him in a nearby stone pillar with its Stone Curse ability!

The genie doesn’t like that it is being ganged up on like this and slips down into the floor and reappears out of sight behind the large door. Unbeknownst to the party, the genie casts Stone Skin on himself. Weiss at this point manages to make his save versus the blindness but the croc is still out of it. Without a target, Flynn holds his shot and Amanu moves up to see the genie. He shoots, and misses, but makes his save versus the Create Pit spell that suddenly targeted him. He looks to see one of the very injured wizards hiding behind a pillar obscured by fog, glaring at him.

Roto drags himself out of the pillar through sheer force of will just in time to save versus instant death as the genie casts Soften Earth and Stone on the surroundings. Thankfully everyone saves but a lot of the ground is difficult terrain now and the pillars are leaning precariously. Weiss jaunts over to solid ground and holds his turn.

Flynn, in an amazing display of rolling and leaping skill, jumps from a pillar to Roto’s back, from his back to another pillar, then from there to the large stone door. After that he aim and kills the exposed wizard with a shot to the head.

Amanu actually finds the one spot in the room that isn’t covered in fog, webbing, grease, or muddy ground and spends the full turn recovering all his maneuvers. Roto can’t see any enemies and decides to hoof it entirely across to the other side of the room, through the mud and fog. On the other side he sees the last remaining wizard hiding.

The genie is really starting to hate Flynn and his constant shooting so he charges through the stone door and bull rushes Flynn. Flynn is sent through the stone door he is perched upon and into the pillar behind it. Thankfully he makes his save to prevent himself from being sealed in the pillar but that leaves him sandwiched between the pillar and the massive stone door next to it.

Weiss jaunts backwards away from the genie and casts Benign Transposition, switching his place with Amanu.

Weiss: You have trigged my trap, genie! Amanu shall slay you!

Amanu: Well, I appreciate your vote of confidence there Weiss.

The last wizard steps away from Roto and casts Grease on his weapon. Much to his chagrin, Roto saves, though he doesn’t live long to regret it as Roto slays him with a single swing. Flynn squirms around and slips free of the pressing stones. Amanu dashes forward, failing to tumble through the genies reach but the genie just barely misses him. Amanu slashes at him but is sword pings off his rocky hide.

Genie: Adventurers…Death to Dauer’s pain….

The genie full attack and hits Amanu for 14 and Amanu is now very glad he healed up earlier. Weiss strikes the genie from behind with his Acid Dart ability for 8 and Flynn plugs him good for 17, though a good chunk of his bullet was negated by his Stone Skin spell.

Amanu grips his sword tight and Mountain Hammers the genie right in the gut, bypassing the DR and hitting him just hard enough to slay the beast to the cheers of everyone at the table. With the enemies defeated, the party investigates the sacrificial alter, finding that there is actually something sealed inside it. After checking for traps and finding none, they open it to find 12,000 gold inside. It is minted in a way they had never seen but realize it will still spend the same.

Roto: So how did this all get here? Why did this all happen?

Weiss: Well Lurkers in Light can create a portal to another plane, either material, the fey, or to one of the elemental planes as long as it has enough sacrifices. It must have used the workers to summon the Shaiten Genie who then preceded to plane shift everyone else here. It also explains why none of them were afraid to fight to the death. Killing them just sent them back to their home plane.

Roto: Well that explains how they got here but not why.

Weiss: That I don’t know. Lurker’s are sadistic bunches but I don’t know why a Shaiten Genie would work with it. Perhaps it was offended by the mining?

The party realizes they may never figure out the exact reasons why it all happened but they weren’t hired to find that out, just to put a stop to it all. They walk out of the mines with their gold, Roto pulling it along with his massive strength. As soon as they get out of the mine proper and see Warren Weiss shouts “This gold belongs to us! It is minted coin from somewhere other than this mine! So it’s ours!”

Warren doesn’t argue with the bloodied warriors and pays them their fee as they recount to him what had happened. He says he will look into the reasons why this all happened but for now he is just glad it is over. The party bids him farewell and the players cheer as they get quest completion XP, enough to level.

Kaveman26
2013-12-12, 09:43 AM
Shaitans can be downright nasty. I love Weiss instantly lobbying to keep the loot on way out too.

jguy
2013-12-12, 11:39 AM
I have found I love Shaitens as they have everything I want in an enemy. Incredible mobility and speed if in the right environment, very flexible crowd control abilities, good defenses, and their Stone Curse is good up to even high levels if the player has a bad CMD and reflex save i.e. wizards.

razorfloss
2013-12-15, 12:46 AM
this interesting and weiss is quickly turning into my fav