Cattle Driving Necromancers-Bizarre Campaign Journal

[IntelectPaladin]

I give them a lot of credit for committing to functional evil and not just mustache twirling cliche. This is definately a departure from virtually everything else we ever ran, and it was pretty eye opening. As for countering them...still working that out myself

I'd be more than happy to present ideas, if you would like!
It's nice to meet you, Sir, And I do hope that you're finger heals sooner rather than later.

On an unrelated note, I wonder what was set up for them outside,
Or if people getting to their level of advancement was actually routine...Hmm.

Anyways,
We all hope you stick around once this campaign log is done.
Thank you again for being able to post for this long, Kaveman!

[ATHATH]

@Intellect Paladin: If you want to learn more about calculatated, non-mustache twirling Evil, I recommend checking out the post history of Red Fel.

This board also has alignment handbooks; check the Evil ones out. I recommend starting with the LE handbook, then moving on to the CE handbook. IIRC, the NE one was left half-finished.

[BilltheCynic]

@Intellect Paladin: If you want to learn more about calculatated, non-mustache twirling Evil, I recommend checking out the post history of Red Fel.

This board also has alignment handbooks; check the Evil ones out. I recommend starting with the LE handbook, then moving on to the CE handbook. IIRC, the NE one was left half-finished.

Red Fel actually wrote the LE handbook (handy link (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?448542-Compliance-Will-Be-Rewarded-A-Guide-to-Lawful-Evil)), and did an excellent job. After reading that and the exploits of our favorite cattle driving necromancers, I seriously want to try out an intelligent LE character.

[Kaveman26]

Flickering Shadows:

As the image of the Enclave debating their next steps completes, a flicker of light and emergence of Shadow make the party lurch from the sudden onset and immediate retreat of gravity. When their situation stabilizes they find themselves still within the same chamber, but from their estimation some time has passed. A series of Crones kneels before a now partial Enclave.

Jacupa: Masters, the fail safes themselves are failing. Our limitations are too severe and the demands too great. Without a full exit from the lockdown we will begin losing systems to long term closures.

Enclave Member: Your concerns have been noted and collectively we have concurred that your thoughts on this matters stray too far towards pessimism. All is proceeding as designed. Carry on the partial rolling shutdown. If you find it required you may close down all interplanar movement within the ship and Apparition Merge two more qualified brethren.

Jacupa: Two transitory non biological custodians for the prison containment wings would increase our efficiency to acceptable parameters.

Enclave: Then do so…

*Flicker*

As everything lurchs a second time the Enclave chamber is now reduced to a single member and a single Crone…Elliana.

Enclave Member: How did the subject eliminate it’s restraints? Such an action was deemed impossible by the council.

Elliana: The subject Volcanus is demonstrating a resistance to all forms of stasis. We have captured it in layer upon layer of Paradox but it’s flames burn everything.

Enclave Member: Are you implying that a biological, not psionic entity has evolved the physical capability to BREATHE it’s way through metaphorical and mental constructs?

Elliana: My trainings and protocols do not allow me to formulate impossibilities.

Enclave Member: Speculatively then…

Elliana: My data and conclusions are as such.

Enclave Member: What do you think we should do?

Elliana: I am unable to provide a suggestion. My protocols dictate a complete system wide shut down for a minimum of five millennia. Upon which we can bring the vessel back to operating capacity in controllable increments.

Enclave Members: That means selfless drifting in a timeless void for five thousand planetary years. Such a step would functionally eliminate us from our race’s future.

Elliana: Failure to do so may be the end of all creation.

Enclave Member: Carry out the definitive shutdown. Erase all non essential security information about the subject Volcanus and then place yourself in stasis. We must admit defeat and seek a way to alter the reality which we have set in motion.

*flicker*

*flicker*

*flicker*

Faster than they can comprehend a series of lurches sees them thrown about the ship for fractions of a second in periods of days and years. They see the briefest glimpses of silence and stillness over a period of centuries as the ship is stuck in a perpetual lockdown. Eventually they see the ship start the first heartbeats of activity and watch as the showrooms visited those long weeks before break down and the exhibits begin rampaging. Violently and without warning they are pitched back to the world proper and breathless and drastically weakened they are back within the present inside the prison.

Before they can get to their feet…a voice howls with fury from the skull they have been carrying. A voice distinctly familiar and also radically different.

Seraphim: What the hell happened to you? I have been trapped inside the Undead Eco System for weeks??? Get me out of here!!!!

[Fable Wright]

What would I be able to do to stop it? How could anyone, Besides being outside. But then how would you know what's happening?

In most circumstances, the preferred response to this level of industrialized evil is to let them do as they do, let them build a bunch of costly infrastructure, then stage a coup to take them out. Harness their evil for proper ends, and all.

If that's not an option, the preferred method is relentlessness and tracking. In D&D 3.5, Dragoneye Rune was particularly handy for this; cast it on a bunch of darts designed to lodge themselves under the skin, and then use them to track the UC and not give them a break. Their power comes from a willingness to retreat and fortify, as well as information asymmetry; tracking them past their retreat, and finding the passages they use to get in and out of their fortifications are the key to breaking them. Oh, and an unwillingness to listen to them. That's also key. Preferably, you engage on the tactical wargame level, but for a party of 4-6, you're going to need: Someone capable of casting a few Undeath to Death spell; a Summoner (very preferably a Celestial Commander) to get high-DR high-mobility Outsiders (including at least one with the Angel subtype to counter the mind control) to put pressure on Seraphim and the Twins; a battlefield control and divination Wizard to do the magical tracking (especially of phylacteries and coffins), cutting Ares and Doc off from the squishy-er casters, and laying an Invisibility Sphere to ensure that your strike is an ambush; then a few dedicated brawlers to put the hurt on the casters in the window offered by your BFC wizard. Bonus points if you can give them Earthglide, like that one D&D 3.5 Paladin ACF did; that way, they can slip through the Wall of Stones to regroup with the party after the brawl. Though an earth elemental with class levels also works.

Really, you just need a party with similar synergy and superior intelligence, and the UC will be in a lot of trouble.

[Mith]

Wondered if Sera was going to be given the first hint of the boredom of immortality.

[IntelectPaladin]

Really, you just need a party with similar synergy and superior intelligence, and the UC will be in a lot of trouble.

Wow. Thank you, fable, And it's nice to meet you.
Now, you're strategy has much to say for itself.
However, I feel obligated to go over a few details with you.

Last business first. While good guy parties are what D&D is basically composed of,
how often is there both complete unity of purpose and a complete ability to work cohesively?
And should this goal be surpassed, then what of the competition of resources?

The Necroranchers turn everything an enemy has, and is, against them,
and can turn what they have into what they want, and vice-versa, via words or power.

So where do the resources come in for a party of the ethical?
Resources are the second largest hurdle I can make out so far,
the first being of course to take them down.

I respect you're opinion, so I'd appreciate any answers you had.
Thank you for reading this!

[Fable Wright]

Last business first. While good guy parties are what D&D is basically composed of,
how often is there both complete unity of purpose and a complete ability to work cohesively?
And should this goal be surpassed, then what of the competition of resources?

Who said anything about good guys? They might be Good, they might be Neutral, they might just be a competing Evil party that's working with a few Good allies that have proven to be quite useful. Generally, the most cohesive parties are Evil, due to the fact that they have arrangements to get all their competing needs taken care of. Really, any kind of party contract of "this time, we're doing things my way; if you think there's an inefficiency, submit a request and we'll get that taken care of". This way allocates resources effectively and means that whenever they're facing the Necroranchers, they're acting as one unit. Most people sitting around a table won't do it as their own, but a serious adventuring party could put it together easily.


The Necroranchers turn everything an enemy has, and is, against them,
and can turn what they have into what they want, and vice-versa, via words or power.

Think about how they do this. They exploit internal fractures to assume control of tribes, make offers to group leaders to arrange mutually beneficial agreements, and loot natural dungeon resources other groups are using. Think about the groups that gave them the most trouble, though: The drow, Veritas's army, the lycanthrodwarves. Groups that presented a coordinated face, resilience, and pushed the Necroranchers to a fortified strongpoint. All they failed to do was breach the strongpoint, or wait invisibly outside the exits to ambush after cutting off all retreat. Or taking control of the strongpoint when the UC are out.

Remember, their greatest weapons are fear and hesitation. Combine that with pragmatism and relentlessness, and you can break them.

[Jonagel]

I would suggest something like a Lightmare as the best counter .... =P

If you can thrown in a spell or item that negates their negative energy channeling, I'm pretty sure they're toast. Without that healing/damage AOE, they would probably have lost at least a dozen previous fights. Maybe there's a room or wing in the dungeon that blocks all channeled energy? Perhaps because it is 100% cut off from all other planes? Maybe even these planar holding cells do that...I don't think they've tried channeling anything while in Graveyard Land. That would be a hell of a surprise if a fight goes down in any of these rooms!

[Kaveman26]

The Big Picture:

Ares: Weeks? We separated from you a few hours ago?

Seraphim *remote via skull*: I made the switch three weeks ago. I have been stuck in here for the better part of a month. You disappeared from the face of reality in that time.

Hades: Azzie somehow just took us on a little walkabout through space and time to see the waning days of the vessel before everything went to hell. Some intriguing developments based on what we witnessed.

Seraphim: Well figure out a way to get me out here and we can talk shop. I am literally ready to suck the blood from a stone. So on that note…bring snacks.

Doc: What has been happening in those weeks?

Seraphim: Don’t really know. Took Veritas a day or two to locate smash every skull he found. He literally was leaving nothing animateable in his wake. Drow Scouts ran into the giants at one point on day two and he incinerated the troll they killed. I mean flame-baked the ashes into nothingness.

Azzie: So the liz-zard is going scorched erf on us.

Seraphim: Yep.

Pluto: If weeks have passed then we are approaching another gate opening. Might be time to bail.

Seraphim: Why would we bail?

Pluto: From what we witnessed all of creation and reality are at stake. The more we tinker inside this structure the more likely we are to encounter something that can burn us to…I don’t even know.

Azzie: If there were a Gordian Knot…this Volcanus wouldn’t cut it or wax philosophical It would simply burn it from existence. That scares me plain and simple.

Ares: It’s unsettling. Leaving doesn’t remove the possibility of encountering this thing. Only the means to control when that encounter takes place. Or to prevent it from transpiring.

Doc: Let me see if I have this right. In the span of ten minutes (for us) we have lost our ability to see or track our allied enemies, our errant teammate is stuck within a voluntary prison and ready to sink her fangs into anything she comes into contact with, and we are debating “should I stay or go “ with regards to the end of the world. I know we want to have to a game plan, but we need an “exit this room” plan first.

Seraphim: As much as it pains me to say it...the orc is right. You need to focus on safe passage. Ideally that would be safe passage back to me and a means through which for me to escape.

Hades: Well let’ simplify this down. Step 1: Rescue Seraphim and bring something with heart still pumping. Step 2: Locate our various enemies. Step 3: Decide on facing the peril or abandoning ship.

They break out their graph paper maps of the various wings (which are now quite sprawling and somewhat repetitive owed to the mirror nature of the layout).

Ares: We can draw a straight line as the fastest path to the initial prison wing and just try to juggernaut our way through. Absent intelligence and fore-knowledge it is as a good a plan as any. If Veritas and company have actually been waiting for weeks chances are they have moved on in search of us, or are spread out seeking to cover a lot of territory. Only “worst” case scenario is them being massed and all together directly in a location on our straightest path. IF that happens we need a fallback route for full blown retreat that could let us bypass.

Doc: Well let’s say they went all in on the Engine Room, which is kind of the central access for everything around us. If they are massed in there, it is a long narrower hallway out that they would have to chase us down. Funneling their superior numbers plays into our hands. So if we hit worst case there is a silver lining.

Azzie: Let’s get the crazy train rollin then.

The whole mass of undead and PC’s organize their horde and begin a crash course towards Sera’s prison. Progression is quick and unhindered as they enter the engine room. The Engine Room is abandoned save for a single green dragon (Medium Sized) that was apparently left behind as a rear guard or scout. It roars as their arrival and immediately goes for a full blown retreat. A barrage of spells and abilities lace into it and they manage to clip it hard enough with a combination of Graveknight blasts and flamestrikes to make it stumble mid flight.

Doc: Force the giants to grapple it! Don’t kill it.

Somehow against all likelihood a giant actually manages to snag a forelimb and passes the check to grapple the thing. The dragon is tearing at the burning giant with a vengeance and a swarm of giants subdual damages it into submission and a frantic Doc lands fire resistance on it before their fire auras kill it.

Doc: I need that thing to swallow me for my half dragon transformation.

Ares: Uhm…you realize you are now a half giant right?

Doc: So?

Ares: And this thing is smaller than you? Like a full size category smaller.

Doc: Well we are just going to have to stretch it…

Ares: Stretch….you know what, we will tackle the impossibility of that idea later. Restrain the dragon, muzzle it and let’s hope nothing else got alerted. Best case it has intelligence, worst case it’s a snack for Seraphim.

Azzie pats Doc on the shoulder and tries to reassure their Orc.

Azzie: Might not be this one mate, but I promise we will find a dragon to eat you.

[wobner]

okay, that was great.

"Well we are just going to have to stretch it…".

I love your players. Thank you for the excellent read.

[GrayDeath]

okay, that was great.

"Well we are just going to have to stretch it…".

I love your players. Thank you for the excellent read.

This.

Exactly what one of my Players would have said. Sadly its not his rare moment of hilarity but his usual MO to be this ... unrealistic.

[Traab]

Im loving this. Now we have two things going on. One is, we have the new and improved party as our shadowlord and vamp are both ready to go. On the other hand, the party is separated, and they cant be sure whats between them because the big bad has been doing an excellent job of ruining their ability to scout. So if they can link up and feed seras things should be fine. But until they do, they are at a disadvantage. I hope they are able to pull off the half dragon template as well, just to make them as buffed as possible. Especially since it looks like they are going to have a VERY hard time creating new troops for their cattle drive unless they can flat out win a straight up fight with one of the factions. I honestly have no idea how the relative crs of the group and their enemies will match up. On the plus side, its starting to look less and less like they NEED the undead army. Get seras a few thralls, get our half giant half dragon hulk buster ready to rock, and they will likely be able to do some incredible damage. At least at first. I would assume the enemy doesnt know about their new status yet, so that could make for one heck of a blitz attack.

If they can pull off a major victory of some sort. Doesnt even have to be a total victory, just one where they arent the side that is fleeing when its over, they can then really start to stack the deck as creating a nice swarm of giant troll dragon undead minions will make things extra dangerous for their enemies. Man, things are so close! If they pull that off, they might be able to flat out assault one side or the other and win, then use the gathered resources to take on the other factions as well. On the other hand, the doors will be opening again soon, and I fully expect a vast swarm of carrion feeders to be entering the dungeon, hoping to scavenge whatever is left by the invading forces that entered last time. There is no telling what sort of trouble they may face from that. Its doubtful it will be anything they cant handle if they could take on actual armies and win, but you never know. At best, fresh meat for minion supplies. :smalltongue: At worst with their luck they will face a equally leveled party of optimized undead killers. Just designed to shut down every standard and many nonstandard undead fighting techniques.

[FocusWolf413]

Actually, getting in sounds pretty simple. They can just shrink him, enlarge the dragon, and pack him in there.

Edit: it's only 5 minutes. They can slap the dragon with some positive energy spells, vigor, and temp hp to keep it alive for five minutes.

[Mith]

Do vampires have to feed to continue existing, or do they just drift into a dormant state?

[Kane0]

Do vampires have to feed to continue existing, or do they just drift into a dormant state?

They go mad with blood-hunger

[Inevitability]

Actually, getting in sounds pretty simple. They can just shrink him, enlarge the dragon, and pack him in there.

I'm fairly sure Pathfinder, like 3.5, lacks a way to enlarge non-humanoids. They may be able to shrink Doc, (depending on his creature type), but I'm not sure if he'll fit even then.

[SorenKnight]

I'm fairly sure Pathfinder, like 3.5, lacks a way to enlarge non-humanoids. They may be able to shrink Doc, (depending on his creature type), but I'm not sure if he'll fit even then.

Both orcs and giants have the humanoid type, so regardless of whether his first transformation changed it Reduce Person will still affect him. The issue comes when he finishes his half-dragon transformation, then the spell would no longer apply, presumably causing him to revert to his actual size, which would have unfortunate results for the green dragon and more importantly to our party of sociopaths render him useless as an intel source, blood bag or zombie.

And that's if you could fit a Medium orc in a Medium dragon's stomach, so it looks like Doc is going to have to wait.

[Inevitability]

Both orcs and giants have the humanoid type, so regardless of whether his first transformation changed it Reduce Person will still affect him. The issue comes when he finishes his half-dragon transformation, then the spell would no longer apply, presumably causing him to revert to his actual size, which would have unfortunate results for the green dragon and more importantly to our party of sociopaths render him useless as an intel source, blood bag or zombie.

Actually, I'm pretty sure spells that only work on certain creatures remain effective even when their recipent changes type. After all, a spell like Greater Humanoid Essence would be rather pointless if that weren't the case.

[DireSickFish]

Both orcs and giants have the humanoid type, so regardless of whether his first transformation changed it Reduce Person will still affect him. The issue comes when he finishes his half-dragon transformation, then the spell would no longer apply, presumably causing him to revert to his actual size, which would have unfortunate results for the green dragon and more importantly to our party of sociopaths render him useless as an intel source, blood bag or zombie.

And that's if you could fit a Medium orc in a Medium dragon's stomach, so it looks like Doc is going to have to wait.

They just need a time chamber to artificially age the dragon up in a short timespan.

[Jonagel]

Time chamber might be hard, though they do have 4 other planar chambers "next door".

Elemental
Outer Planar
Abyssal
Infernal

Kaveman, will we ever get to know what is inside these other rooms? =D

[NRSASD]

How many sessions are we behind the current point in the campaign?

[Inevitability]

Repeated castings of Bestow Curse can advance a being age several age categories. When used on a monster that grows in power as it ages, this can get ridiculously broken. In this case, it'd help with quickly getting a large enough dragon.

And don't tell me no one in the party has access to bestow curse. It's necromancy, for crying out loud.

[Traab]

Worst case, they find a way to take down mister big red and raging and for their victory dance, use him to bestow the half dragon template before animating his shortly afterwards dead carcass.

Hey, just as a random insane off the wall question. What would happen if serasphim (her new name) managed to jump on the back of said giant red dragon and go for a drain blood? Can she do that? What sort of effect does it have on said dragon? I ask, because while duh she cant pin a dragon, its not like it has a lot of options for dealing with a humanoid between its shoulder blades. I would imagine a combo of blood draining and energy drains from slam attacks could add up fast for weakening the big bugger. Is that something you would allow? Or would you stick to a strict interpretation of the rules saying she has to grapple and pin the creature before she can drain its blood?

[Inevitability]

Hey, just as a random insane off the wall question. What would happen if serasphim (her new name) managed to jump on the back of said giant red dragon and go for a drain blood? Can she do that? What sort of effect does it have on said dragon? I ask, because while duh she cant pin a dragon, its not like it has a lot of options for dealing with a humanoid between its shoulder blades. I would imagine a combo of blood draining and energy drains from slam attacks could add up fast for weakening the big bugger. Is that something you would allow? Or would you stick to a strict interpretation of the rules saying she has to grapple and pin the creature before she can drain its blood?

I'm fairly sure a dragon can reach its back with its tail. It could also just try to crush her against the ceiling (nowhere does it say crush attacks must be made against targets on the ground). Even if Seraphim somehow managed to sink her fangs into the Rampaging Red, it would only deal a few points of constitution damage per round, and dragons have a constitution in the mid-twenties.

I'm pretty sure casting deliberating spells and commanding undead from afar would be a better option.

[Kaveman26]

Time chamber might be hard, though they do have 4 other planar chambers "next door".

Elemental
Outer Planar
Abyssal
Infernal

Kaveman, will we ever get to know what is inside these other rooms? =D

Sort of.



How many sessions are we behind the current point in the campaign?

Quite a few. Party is about to hit level 10. They are currently higher than 13. I don’t want to give away more than that at this point though.


Repeated castings of Bestow Curse can advance a being age several age categories. When used on a monster that grows in power as it ages, this can get ridiculously broken. In this case, it'd help with quickly getting a large enough dragon.

And don't tell me no one in the party has access to bestow curse. It's necromancy, for crying out loud.

They definitely have it. I think just about every person in the group does. I am surprised and a bit happy they never thought to use it for this purpose.


Both orcs and giants have the humanoid type, so regardless of whether his first transformation changed it Reduce Person will still affect him. The issue comes when he finishes his half-dragon transformation, then the spell would no longer apply, presumably causing him to revert to his actual size, which would have unfortunate results for the green dragon and more importantly to our party of sociopaths render him useless as an intel source, blood bag or zombie.

And that's if you could fit a Medium orc in a Medium dragon's stomach, so it looks like Doc is going to have to wait.

A creature has to be a size smaller for it to be swallow eligible. So Medium Dragon=Small Humanoid. Doc is two steps too big. Large Humanoid vs Medium Dragon. And as far as I know there is no spell to enlarge a dragon. There is an enlarge animal druid spell but still dragon ineligible. I am not 100 percent on this, but pretty sure.

Side Note: Compression as a Psionic Ability would allow Doc to shrink two size categories. It would require burning a feat for a single psionic ability but it was something on the table as a possibility.

[Jonagel]

Given the bad ass nature of your PCs, and their ability to stretch the rules -- I'm imagining them stretching a stomach around Doc, and keeping the dragon alive as it sits unconscious basically undergoing going open surgery for 5 minutes. Seems like they could figure this out. Cauterize bleeders, pump heals/healing potions into the dragon like extra blood bags in a surgery... Stomach is very stretchable, and it technically it isn't dead. :smalleek:

[Kaveman26]

Clean Sweep:

The Necroranchers barrel forward in a bid to reach Seraphim, and at every turn they grit their teeth waiting for ambush. The amount of nothing that attacks them is startling.

Ares: I know this wasn’t exactly a crowded place before, but is anyone else getting the feeling that it is now exceptionally empty? Like the debris and garbage from previous fights is straight up gone?

Azzie: The halls do look like someone has given them a good cleaning.

The dragon which is groggily half awake chuckles from beneath it’s bound mouth.

Doc gingerly loosens the bindings and asks what is so funny.

Dragon: We cleared everything. There is not a single twig, scrap of cloth, twist of bone or flesh anywhere. Every room we scoured and left bare. Veritas was obsessed with cutting you off from anything useful. We stripped the halls, the floors, the ceiling and burned it all. The longer we went without finding you the more desperate to hamstring your return he became.

Ares: I got some news for you friend. Doc here wants you alive so that he can force you into swallowing him. He doesn’t fully grasp the physics and why that won’t work yet. That won’t stop him from trying and to be honest he will probably work pretty hard to make it happen. Nothing about that implies it will be to your benefit…so picture if you can That beast over there forcing himself into your gut while you are still alive and realize that he does not care in the slightest what happens to you while that is occurring. Got that image? Good. Now let’s say we talk him out of it. Your Door number 2 is as an offering to our recently vampirized witch. She made the shift a few weeks back and hasn’t had the slightest drop of blood since changing. She is starving for anything with a pulse. Maybe the twins can hold her at bay long enough to prevent her from engorging on you. Maybe they just want a new dragon pet as a zombie. Me personally….I am indifferent. I no longer need food and I don’t crave blood. But the twins would be fine with our vampire draining you dry and then laying you over some coals to make dragon jerky, especially since as you just so eloquently put it…there is nothing else left to eat.

Dragon: Dead is dead.

Ares: Not with us it ain’t.

Dragon: Are you making an offer?

Ares: Tell me where to find a bigger dragon, or something else with a pulse. Tell me where the boss dragon is so we can either attack him or avoid him. I doubt it will make things end any better for you, but if you come through for us I will see to it that in eight days time when the doors open you will be able to fly away intact.
Dragon: And when Veritas comes looking for the coward who fled?

Ares: As you just told us. He has his sights set squarely on us. I don’t think he will turn his attention from that. If we fail to take him out and he does come looking, you will have a thirty day head start. A full month in a region of the world completely scoured of dragons, with the greatest dangers all focusing their attention to this place. You would basically have the place to yourself.

Dragon: They are at the three entrances. We searched every square foot possible. When he turned up no traces of your group he split everything into three groups. They are stationed at each entrance to cut off escape. A few of us were sent to areas with higher chance of sightings as scouts.

Ares: How were you supposed to alert them to our presence.

Dragon: At first sighting I was supposed to flee and inform a group at one of the three spots.

Ares: What of the Drow?

Dragon: The elves? They are fortified in an area closer to the third entrance.* Veritas struck a non aggression pact with them for the time being.

Ares: Last question. What forces are currently holding each entrance? Do any of them currently hold a large dragon?

From their captive dragon they are given a rough force disposition and layout of Veritas army. The closest entrance is held by giants and a black dragon who is in essence a second in command. From last check in he estimates half a dozen frost and fire giants, a formidable black dragon, and a score of trolls+elementals.

Hades: If we hit it hard I feel like we could manage that.

Doc: Yeah I like our chances there.

Azzie: Do you hazard freeing the Witch first or after?

Hades: You mean do we risk it?

Azzie: I ain’t got any blood left mate, don’t bother me.

Doc: She might be a bit feisty.

Pluto: Do we count on her controlling herself? I’m fine with throwing her the dragon as an offering. That may not be enough though.

Seraphim: You know that I can hear you via the skull right?

Ares: Straight Up Honest Assessment Sera, are you going to drain Doc like a milkshake if we let you out.

Seraphim: *sigh* I can’t say no. I would be lying to myself if I did.

Ares: Alright, I am coming to get you. I am bringing a giant to shuffle in for your place. The twins and Doc are not going to be with me. Once we spring the door and make the switch you have our blessing to come straight for Entrance 1 and then go nuts. We will be behind you at a safe distance for support. If you turn on the clerics or witch doctor we will do our best to hold you at bay via holy symbols, failing that we will cloud you and send you packing. If you mind control one of us I am forewarning that we will stake you if needs be. Going to make sure you have plenty of blood rich targets though so this is all not going to be needed ok?

Seraphim: Put me in coach, I am ready!


*1st Entrance=Original Entrance, 2nd Entrance=Frost Giant Entry Point, 3rd Entrance=As yet unvisited “Evil Empire/Thay” entrance.

[Traab]

So how does her being ready to drop in a blood frenzy effect her? I would assume a berserk rage is likely where her entire being is focused on grabbing and draining something, but are her stats effected? Is she having to make constant rolls to maintain control? OOH! She has the ability to summon creatures. Can she drain a wolf or a flock of bats or something? Or does animal blood not work for her? Wait, that wouldnt work, the armies have slaughtered everything alive but them and destroyed the remains. You probably wouldnt let her summon anything.

Heh, when you first talked about how bare the place was, I had this moment of panic that the cleaner had gotten loose. I wonder if having killed everything but themselves will have pushed back the trigger any?

[Inevitability]

So how does her being ready to drop in a blood frenzy effect her? I would assume a berserk rage is likely where her entire being is focused on grabbing and draining something, but are her stats effected? Is she having to make constant rolls to maintain control? OOH! She has the ability to summon creatures. Can she drain a wolf or a flock of bats or something? Or does animal blood not work for her? Wait, that wouldnt work, the armies have slaughtered everything alive but them and destroyed the remains. You probably wouldnt let her summon anything.

I'm pretty sure that if she were to drain blood from the wolves it'd disappear when the summoning ends*, one hour later. It might calm her down long enough to get something actually nutritious, but I wouldn't rely on it.

*Technically only summoned creatures leave while summoned objects stay, but that is commonly read as 'anything part of the summoned creature leaves'.

[Traab]

I'm pretty sure that if she were to drain blood from the wolves it'd disappear when the summoning ends*, one hour later. It might calm her down long enough to get something actually nutritious, but I wouldn't rely on it.

*Technically only summoned creatures leave while summoned objects stay, but that is commonly read as 'anything part of the summoned creature leaves'.

The thing is, it doesnt create the animals out of nothing, it actually calls the animals to her from the surrounding area. They just stop being under her control after a certain time frame if I understand this correctly. So they are real wolves/bats/whatevers. But that also means the call wont work as there arent any animals left alive in this dungeon now.

[Inevitability]

The thing is, it doesnt create the animals out of nothing, it actually calls the animals to her from the surrounding area. They just stop being under her control after a certain time frame if I understand this correctly. So they are real wolves/bats/whatevers. But that also means the call wont work as there arent any animals left alive in this dungeon now.

I guess it depends on how you read the power. On the one hand, the description implies the creatures are called from the vampire's immediately surroundings, on the other hand it says the vampire 'summons' them.

Though being a Supernatural ability, I think the feature summons creatures as opposed to simply making them like the vampire. After all, abilities that do the second, like Wild Empathy, are (Ex).

[CrispyCriminal]

Here you all are speculating on feeding off summoned wolves or other animals, when a more important implication of our red dragon menance has yet to be asked.

Did Veritias deal with the beholder cleaner itself? Because if he did, that removes the biggest part of the necromancers' paranoia. Even if it's now replaced by dragons.

[Cernor]

Did Veritias deal with the beholder cleaner itself? Because if he did, that removes the biggest part of the necromancers' paranoia. Even if it's now replaced by dragons.

Ooh, maybe Veritas "dealt" with it in the most literal sense, so now the Cowboys have to battle their way through an army of Giants and Dragons and a Half-Dragon Beholder! Assuming it's capable of rational thought and reasoning, I can't remember how absolute its obedience to its ancient commands was.

[Inevitability]

Ooh, maybe Veritas "dealt" with it in the most literal sense, so now the Cowboys have to battle their way through an army of Giants and Dragons and a Half-Dragon Beholder! Assuming it's capable of rational thought and reasoning, I can't remember how absolute its obedience to its ancient commands was.

Depending on Veritas's power level and resources, he might have access to Dominate Monster. If he does, all it takes is a failed will save to control the beholder.

[Traab]

Depending on Veritas's power level and resources, he might have access to Dominate Monster. If he does, all it takes is a failed will save to control the beholder.

Thats possible but im thinking no if only because I got the feeling the beholder is basically one step below this volcanus guy in the way of big bads. I may be wrong though, i honestly dont know where a beholder/dragon ranks on the cr list, especially compared to veritas. I just got the feeling its supposed to be like Nemesis in the resident evil game. A big giant monster you cant beat (until its time for the final battle) so you have to escape from it if it shows itself.

*EDIT* One of the big issues might be how old this hybrid is. I mean, this ship has been there for a very long time, yes? For all we know, the beholder dragon is a colossal great wyrm that gets 9 ray attacks each round in addition to whatever else it can do.

[Kaveman26]

Roll Tide…

Doc and the twins set up in a position as close to the entrance without tipping their presence as they can. Their mass of undead giants are barricaded into a side room and they are ready to move out on the heels of Seraphim leading the charge led by Ares, and Azzie. It is agreed they are going for maximum impact upon arrival. Their goal is to sweep the entrance and take only the dragon as prisoner (if possible) leaving no stragglers to act as scouts to warn of their return.

Ares makes the trade off, sending in a giant to balance out the HD restrictions and let Seraphim loose. The moment the giant enters the witch comes out a full sprint. All traces of femininity and softness have vanished. She now more closely resembles wrinkled skin hung from sparse bone. The barest trace of hair remains on a mostly bald scalp. The flesh from lips has decayed away exposing the bone from her jaw and the overly elongated eye teeth that are the hallmark of a vampire. Her hands now look as claws would, fingernails rotted and jagged. There is a predatory strength and grace to her movements that have all the urgency of a drug addict looking for a high. There is no perfunctory greeting or exchange. The moment she is free from the confines of the Undead Eco System she is in motion with a wordless shriek sprinting for the entrance.

It is all Ares and Azzie can do to keep up with her. Any attempts at conversation are ignored by the witch as she murmurs to herself.

Seraphim: The heartbeats…like thunder. It feels like a storm to my ears that rages and howls…yet so far away.

Like a raging banshee she enters the hallway leading to the entrance at full speed, a convoy of undead and leery PC’s trailing in her wake. Via the Sleeper and their skulls Ares manages to get off a warning that the witch is DEFINITELY not safe to be around until she has another target in sight.

An arctic troll is the first creature seen and with barely a pause Seraphim charges it with a vampiric slam attack attempting to basically wrap her legs around it’s torso and clutch it like a child clinging to it’s mother…a position that puts her fangs to it’s throat. The force of her charge and sudden chilling insanity of it is enough to bowl the much larger creature over. A flurry of activity sees giants hefting hammer and axes while elementals and trolls wade in to assist their ally.

Seraphim takes a battery of fire damage and AOP’s from anything that can reach. The damage and singed flesh are flat out ignored as she tries to engorge herself upon the trashing troll. Moments later the offensive line of bloody/burning giants crashes into the mix and all freaking hell breaks loose. With a heavier “fire” based arsenal they focus on the frost giants and arctic trolls first. With his fire immunity Ares tries to tie up any fire giants and Azzie leads all their undead in an extra chilling serenade to bolster them.

The black dragon washes acid over them from it’s breath weapon with nary a concern of friendly fire. This does not go over well with the giants for whom neither side is immune. They are zero choice in the matter given the current situation and they grit their teeth and try to reach the clerics in an effort to stem the waves of negative energy.

Azzie: Sera love, I know you was thirsty, but we could really use your help with something other than draining the friggin troll.

No response.

Without sacrificing themselves or leaving their undead cut off they work to position her in such a way to stop her from eating random splash attacks or AoPs but she is solely commited to her task at hand and not exactly helping herself. The bevy of attacks has incapacitated the majority of frost based creatures by the time the troll expires and like a child who has finished their bottle and is still hungry she hefts the dead troll and with a supernatural strength heaves the corpse into the midst of remaining combatants. She pauses long enough to trigger an ice storm over the biggest cluster of fire giants then launches herself claws and fangs first at the next nearest target, a fire giant archer who grunts at the puny humanoid now clutching it’s leg while seeking out his femeral artery.

Every moment she clings to the giant she burns, and every gulp of lifeblood reinvigorates her. Azzie manages to place a fire resistance spell on her before being driven back by a surprisingly robust troll with a ghost touch spear. From a control stand point they are feeling in charge, everything is going the way they want except for the dragon. It is being cagey and hitting them the hardest and at the places where it disrupts them the most. If an undead giant is left in a bad spot the dragon is tearing them to shreds with a flurry of attacks (aka dragon dance) and if they shy away from it, it is sniping them with acid breath.

Doc who up until that point had been functioning as a goalie and spell support finally sees a clear path to one of the remaining two fire giants and triggers a psychic lions charge barreling in with a full head of steam and a pair of big two handed swings.

The fight begins approaching “rout” status as the enemy battalion is in tatters. Seraphim finishes her second kill and manages to get enough composure to assist in a more meaningful manner.

Ares: Alright, let’s see if we can take Big Boy here alive. He seems much more likely to fit the bill for what we need than the green.

As Ares directs traffic a hail of javelins begins falling around them from their rear. A patrol of Arctic Trolls with additional fire elementals and a trio of Svat’s has cut off their access for retreat. A hasty animate dead stands up a log jam of trolls and giants which are sent shuffling to the rear as a stopper. The remainings giant, three trolls and the black dragon all form up and begin a complete defensive stance only meant to belay and allow time for the back up to get through the jam.

Hades: Used most high slots taking out the first wave, not much in the way of bigs for their back up.

Pluto: Can’t leave the black to acid smash us while we get plunked from the other end.

Ares: Doc and the twins, press back and try to drive the rearguard to a hallway where we can get away. Don’t want to be stuck here for a third patrol. Azzie, Sera with me, we are going after the dragon.

Seraphim puts every last fire spell she has towards the trolls while Azzie snipes the giant above Ares shoulder. They manage to remove the dragon’s guards and Ares ends up toe to toe with the black where he fights like this is his last moment on the earth. The dragon rips him to shreds. As they watch Ares die he shouts one final request

Ares: Grab my armor and don’t leave it behind.

Azzie manages to daze the dragon long enough for Seraphim to snatch up the armor and then they retreat with the twins and Doc who have pushed back enough for a retreat path.

The dragon throws in with the second patrol and much to the Necroranchers chagrin, a pair of trolls breaks off from the pack to assumedly report the position of the encounter. They grind a fighting retreat and inch their way towards escape. The disposable undead are dropping like flies to the heavy hitting Svats. After a few minutes of back and forth and moveable trench warfare Doc breaks off with Azzie and they take off at a sprint/float down a side hall.

This leave the twins and Seraphim to hold the line against an increasingly confident attacking force.

Seraphim: I can drop Wall of Ice and use last few spells if you guys want to beat a retreat. Just secure my coffin and get it back to the vault room. When they gas me I will float back to the vault room, seal me inside once I get to the coffin.

Hades: Wont that suffocate….oh yeah vampire.

The Witch drops a wall of ice that in very short order gets shattered by the Svats, but it buys enough separation for the remains of their horde to get a head start. She laces in some smaller spells and then her last Wall goes up in the face of her first. She preps herself for the final assault when a roar of triumph and fury echoes through the Ice and she see a large shadow appear out of nowhere. Doc and Azzie pulled a u turn and came up on the dragon’s rear, Doc manages a complete surprise attack that lands with authority and knocks out the dragon. The Svat’s turn to pursue the Orc and Shadow Lord and Seraphim catches up to the twins…who are rounding a corner to find Doc and Azzie coming back towards them with the mammoth giants behind them in hot pursuit. Doc and Azzie run past an intersection which brings the Svat’s directly perpendicular to the undead giants who pin them against the wall. With the dragon separate they clean house and rout the remaining attackers. Sera’s last third level spell is an animate undead that raises the Svat’s who become beasts of burden dragging as many of the other corpses as possible. Seraphim rides the dragon’s unconscious body and binds it as they go.

[ReaderAt2046]

Roll Tide…

Doc and the twins set up in a position as close to the entrance without tipping their presence as they can. Their mass of undead giants are barricaded into a side room and they are ready to move out on the heels of Seraphim leading the charge led by Ares, and Azzie. It is agreed they are going for maximum impact upon arrival. Their goal is to sweep the entrance and take only the dragon as prisoner (if possible) leaving no stragglers to act as scouts to warn of their return.

Ares makes the trade off, sending in a giant to balance out the HD restrictions and let Seraphim loose. The moment the giant enters the witch comes out a full sprint. All traces of femininity and softness have vanished. She now more closely resembles wrinkled skin hung from sparse bone. The barest trace of hair remains on a mostly bald scalp. The flesh from lips has decayed away exposing the bone from her jaw and the overly elongated eye teeth that are the hallmark of a vampire. Her hands now look as claws would, fingernails rotted and jagged. There is a predatory strength and grace to her movements that have all the urgency of a drug addict looking for a high. There is no perfunctory greeting or exchange. The moment she is free from the confines of the Undead Eco System she is in motion with a wordless shriek sprinting for the entrance.

It is all Ares and Azzie can do to keep up with her. Any attempts at conversation are ignored by the witch as she murmurs to herself.

Seraphim: The heartbeats…like thunder. It feels like a storm to my ears that rages and howls…yet so far away.

Like a raging banshee she enters the hallway leading to the entrance at full speed, a convoy of undead and leery PC’s trailing in her wake. Via the Sleeper and their skulls Ares manages to get off a warning that the witch is DEFINITELY not safe to be around until she has another target in sight.

An arctic troll is the first creature seen and with barely a pause Seraphim charges it with a vampiric slam attack attempting to basically wrap her legs around it’s torso and clutch it like a child clinging to it’s mother…a position that puts her fangs to it’s throat. The force of her charge and sudden chilling insanity of it is enough to bowl the much larger creature over. A flurry of activity sees giants hefting hammer and axes while elementals and trolls wade in to assist their ally.

Seraphim takes a battery of fire damage and AOP’s from anything that can reach. The damage and singed flesh are flat out ignored as she tries to engorge herself upon the trashing troll. Moments later the offensive line of bloody/burning giants crashes into the mix and all freaking hell breaks loose. With a heavier “fire” based arsenal they focus on the frost giants and arctic trolls first. With his fire immunity Ares tries to tie up any fire giants and Azzie leads all their undead in an extra chilling serenade to bolster them.

The black dragon washes acid over them from it’s breath weapon with nary a concern of friendly fire. This does not go over well with the giants for whom neither side is immune. They are zero choice in the matter given the current situation and they grit their teeth and try to reach the clerics in an effort to stem the waves of negative energy.

Azzie: Sera love, I know you was thirsty, but we could really use your help with something other than draining the friggin troll.

No response.

Without sacrificing themselves or leaving their undead cut off they work to position her in such a way to stop her from eating random splash attacks or AoPs but she is solely commited to her task at hand and not exactly helping herself. The bevy of attacks has incapacitated the majority of frost based creatures by the time the troll expires and like a child who has finished their bottle and is still hungry she hefts the dead troll and with a supernatural strength heaves the corpse into the midst of remaining combatants. She pauses long enough to trigger an ice storm over the biggest cluster of fire giants then launches herself claws and fangs first at the next nearest target, a fire giant archer who grunts at the puny humanoid now clutching it’s leg while seeking out his femeral artery.

Every moment she clings to the giant she burns, and every gulp of lifeblood reinvigorates her. Azzie manages to place a fire resistance spell on her before being driven back by a surprisingly robust troll with a ghost touch spear. From a control stand point they are feeling in charge, everything is going the way they want except for the dragon. It is being cagey and hitting them the hardest and at the places where it disrupts them the most. If an undead giant is left in a bad spot the dragon is tearing them to shreds with a flurry of attacks (aka dragon dance) and if they shy away from it, it is sniping them with acid breath.

Doc who up until that point had been functioning as a goalie and spell support finally sees a clear path to one of the remaining two fire giants and triggers a psychic lions charge barreling in with a full head of steam and a pair of big two handed swings.

The fight begins approaching “rout” status as the enemy battalion is in tatters. Seraphim finishes her second kill and manages to get enough composure to assist in a more meaningful manner.

Ares: Alright, let’s see if we can take Big Boy here alive. He seems much more likely to fit the bill for what we need than the green.

As Ares directs traffic a hail of javelins begins falling around them from their rear. A patrol of Arctic Trolls with additional fire elementals and a trio of Svat’s has cut off their access for retreat. A hasty animate dead stands up a log jam of trolls and giants which are sent shuffling to the rear as a stopper. The remainings giant, three trolls and the black dragon all form up and begin a complete defensive stance only meant to belay and allow time for the back up to get through the jam.

Hades: Used most high slots taking out the first wave, not much in the way of bigs for their back up.

Pluto: Can’t leave the black to acid smash us while we get plunked from the other end.

Ares: Doc and the twins, press back and try to drive the rearguard to a hallway where we can get away. Don’t want to be stuck here for a third patrol. Azzie, Sera with me, we are going after the dragon.

Seraphim puts every last fire spell she has towards the trolls while Azzie snipes the giant above Ares shoulder. They manage to remove the dragon’s guards and Ares ends up toe to toe with the black where he fights like this is his last moment on the earth. The dragon rips him to shreds. As they watch Ares die he shouts one final request

Ares: Grab my armor and don’t leave it behind.

Azzie manages to daze the dragon long enough for Seraphim to snatch up the armor and then they retreat with the twins and Doc who have pushed back enough for a retreat path.

The dragon throws in with the second patrol and much to the Necroranchers chagrin, a pair of trolls breaks off from the pack to assumedly report the position of the encounter. They grind a fighting retreat and inch their way towards escape. The disposable undead are dropping like flies to the heavy hitting Svats. After a few minutes of back and forth and moveable trench warfare Doc breaks off with Azzie and they take off at a sprint/float down a side hall.

This leave the twins and Seraphim to hold the line against an increasingly confident attacking force.

Seraphim: I can drop Wall of Ice and use last few spells if you guys want to beat a retreat. Just secure my coffin and get it back to the vault room. When they gas me I will float back to the vault room, seal me inside once I get to the coffin.

Hades: Wont that suffocate….oh yeah vampire.

The Witch drops a wall of ice that in very short order gets shattered by the Svats, but it buys enough separation for the remains of their horde to get a head start. She laces in some smaller spells and then her last Wall goes up in the face of her first. She preps herself for the final assault when a roar of triumph and fury echoes through the Ice and she see a large shadow appear out of nowhere. Doc and Azzie pulled a u turn and came up on the dragon’s rear, Doc manages a complete surprise attack that lands with authority and knocks out the dragon. The Svat’s turn to pursue the Orc and Shadow Lord and Seraphim catches up to the twins…who are rounding a corner to find Doc and Azzie coming back towards them with the mammoth giants behind them in hot pursuit. Doc and Azzie run past an intersection which brings the Svat’s directly perpendicular to the undead giants who pin them against the wall. With the dragon separate they clean house and rout the remaining attackers. Sera’s last third level spell is an animate undead that raises the Svat’s who become beasts of burden dragging as many of the other corpses as possible. Seraphim rides the dragon’s unconscious body and binds it as they go.

Did Seraphim look any better once she'd fed?

[Inevitability]

Thats possible but im thinking no if only because I got the feeling the beholder is basically one step below this volcanus guy in the way of big bads. I may be wrong though, i honestly dont know where a beholder/dragon ranks on the cr list, especially compared to veritas. I just got the feeling its supposed to be like Nemesis in the resident evil game. A big giant monster you cant beat (until its time for the final battle) so you have to escape from it if it shows itself.

*EDIT* One of the big issues might be how old this hybrid is. I mean, this ship has been there for a very long time, yes? For all we know, the beholder dragon is a colossal great wyrm that gets 9 ray attacks each round in addition to whatever else it can do.

1. Pretty sure the Beholdragon isn't that powerful. The group had some bad experiences with it, but nothing so far has convinced me it's anything else than a beholder with the half-dragon template on it.
2. Unless it's immune to mind-affecting abilities (which neither beholders nor dragons get), Dominate Monster will still have a chance of working. Yes, even if it's a world-ending horror a single spell can bring it to your side.
3. Again, pretty sure it's a half-dragon beholder and not a weird homebrew creature that blends beholder and dragon features. It'd be simpler, more balanced, and fairer.

[Kaveman26]

I guess it depends on how you read the power. On the one hand, the description implies the creatures are called from the vampire's immediately surroundings, on the other hand it says the vampire 'summons' them.

For my purposes the summoned creatures would not provide nutrition or scratch the thirst itch.


Depending on Veritas's power level and resources, he might have access to Dominate Monster. If he does, all it takes is a failed will save to control the beholder.

Functionally the beholder is mindless and not subject to mind affecting abilities. I based it as a construct with dragon and beholder properties. In terms of “power” I feel like in an even 1-1 fight the beholder could take Veritas inside the dungeon. With a big enough room and area to manuever the dragon would eventually win.


Did Seraphim look any better once fed?

This will be answered very shortly.

[Traab]

1. Pretty sure the Beholdragon isn't that powerful. The group had some bad experiences with it, but nothing so far has convinced me it's anything else than a beholder with the half-dragon template on it.
2. Unless it's immune to mind-affecting abilities (which neither beholders nor dragons get), Dominate Monster will still have a chance of working. Yes, even if it's a world-ending horror a single spell can bring it to your side.
3. Again, pretty sure it's a half-dragon beholder and not a weird homebrew creature that blends beholder and dragon features. It'd be simpler, more balanced, and fairer.

I thought they hadnt even met it yet, just heard about it and that it has some specific triggers that will set it off. Anyways, WOOHOO! SO it got a little chaotic there at the end, but a resounding victory from the sound of things. Looks like now they have to wait for ares to reincarnate in his gear. Did seras keep ahold of the guys she drained? Could make for handy thralls to start her troupe if so. Either way, they got the dragon, so next comes the half dragon half giant butt whupper. They got themselves a solid set of bodies, so they have their undead force more or less replenished.

[Kaveman26]

Not Quite…

Almost instantly I get a handwritten scrap note from the twins “If we pick up any sign of her turning on us we have holy symbols at the ready to hold her at bay”

Azzie: So uh Seraphim dear?

Seraphim: Yes?

Azzie: You feeling ok? Do we need to be worried?

Seraphim: I am ok for now. I will be honest and straight forward should that condition change.

Azzie: Couldn’t help but notice that you were somewhat focused when we got you out from isolation. How exactly did you keep it together when we asked you before hand?

Seraphim: A snarling beast screaming for blood would not have been freed. A serene calm appearance was impossible given the cravings. I had to be honest enough that I was not safe to be around, but in control enough to be freed.

Azzie: And if say Doc had been standing there when we let you out?

Seraphim: Do you really need me to say it?

Azzie: Just so we know that we are on the same page going forward yes.

Seraphim: I am still fundamentally the same person as before. I am willing to kill if it furthers our goals and if need be I am willing to die if it accomplishes a meaningful goal. The hunger that comes from this new state of being outstrips anything I have ever felt. Without proper feeding I would tear the flesh from anything before me and not give the slightest concern for the consequences.

Azzie: You look a bit better luv.

Seraphim: What?

Azzie: When you pulled a runner I got one halfway good look at you. My first thought was “hey she technically a blonde anymore” my second thought was “I don’t suppose it really matters anymore cause my John Thomas has gone all shadowy”, my third thought was that you looked like hell shat out a skeleton and wrapped it in ten day old chicken skin. Now…you look a bit better. You have de-aged a few years, yer scalp is less empty and you may have put on five pounds or so. Right boys?

Hades: Definitely look better.

Pluto: Oh yeah absolutely.

Doc: So is Ares gone? WE are carrying his armor for a reason right?*

Hades: We think he can regenerate but aren’t sure. So we are somewhat stuck waiting to see what happens.

At this point it was past time that the group had reached 10th level. We sat down and hashed out a compromise. They had overcome the “hard” parts of achieving their templates. All that remained was time. So we decided for simplicity sake and to let me avoid tracking several other things over time we elected to mirror the lich process for the twins and complete the half-dragon bolt on for Doc. End result being that after they cleared the entrance and took the second dragon captive they advanced to level 10 and processed their templates across the board. It meant one less thing to track and a good balancing of power for the group. The trade off for this “upgrade” was relinquishing access to any further templating for their current or future characters.

Seraphim
Half Elf Gravewalker-Vampire (Patron-Elements)10:Str16 Dex18 Con- Int23 Wis14 Cha 20
Feats: Skill Focus Diplomacy, Brew Potion,Extra Hex (Cackle),Ability Focus (Hex),Extra Hex (Cauldron), Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge, Greater Spell Focus Necromancy, Spell Focus Necromancy, Alertness,Combat Reflexes, Dodge, II, Lightning Reflexes, Toughness, Craft Wands
Hexes: Evil Eye, Cackle, Cauldron,Misfortune,
Psionic Powers Known: Share Pain
PP Reserve: 10
Bone Thrall (10HD):Green Dragon (9HD)

Animate Dead (40HD): 2 Burning Bloody Fire Giants, 1 troll (4 open)

Command Undead (10HD):
Vampire Spawn 20HD:2 trolls (8 open)

1st: Beguiling Gift, ILW,CLW,Burning Hands,Ray of Enfeeblement,Enlarge Person,Mask Dweomer,Ear Piercing Scream,Mage Armor,Frostbite,Obscuring Mists
2nd: Command Undead, Flaming Sphere,Glitterdust,CMW,IMW,Blood Transcription
3rd:Bestow Curse,Animate Dead,Lightning Bolt,Dispel Magic,Stinking Cloud,Fireball
4th: Enervation, Wandering Star Motes, Wall of Ice , Ice Storm Crushing Despair
5th: Cloudkill, Feeblemind


Pluto:
Dhampir Undead Lord 10 (lich): Str 14 Dex 14 Con 12 Int 13 Wis 20 Cha 20
Feats:BF:Command Undead, Spell Focus:Necromancy,Selective Channeling,Undead Master, Extra Channeling, Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge, Greater Spell Focus Necromancy, Craft Armor, Improved Channel
Psionic Power Known: Force Screen
PP Reserve 8
Corpse Companion (10HD): Troll (4 open)

Animate Dead (40HD): 2 Burning Bloody Frost Giants (12 open)

Command Undead (14HD): Skeletal Black Dragon (full)

Hades:
Dhampir Undead Lord (lich) 10:Str 14 Dex 14 Con 12 Int 13 Wis 20 Cha 20
Feats:Spell Focus Necromancy,Selective Channeling,Undead Master, Extra Channeling, Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge, Greater Spell Focus Necromancy, Craft Wonderous Item, Improved Channel
Psionic Power Known: Force Screen
PP Reserve 8
Corpse Companion(10HD): Troll (4 open)

Animate Dead (40HD): 2 Bloody Burning Svathurims

Command Undead (14HD): 1 Burning Bloody Svathurim


Ares:
Nagaji Grave-Knight of the Sepulcher10:Str 25 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 12 Wis 17 Cha 22
Feats:Channel Smite,Extra Lay of Hands,Extra Lay of Hands, Power Attack, Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge, Mounted Combat, II, Ride By Attack, Toughness
Psionic Powers Known: Animal Affinity
PP Reserve 6
Animate Dead 24HD:
GK Bucket (50HD): 3 Burning Bloody Frost Giants, 1 troll (2 open)


Doctor Lovebones (Orc) Giant Half Dragon Barbarian1/Scarred Witch Dr5/Eldritch Knight4 Str 35 Dex 12Con 28 Int 7 Wis 12 Cha 7
Feats: Ability Focus (Hex), Extra Hex, Extra Hex, Power Attack, Improved Initiative, Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge, Vital Strike, Craft Arms
Hexes: Fortune, Misfortune, Ward, Cackle

Psionic Powers Known: Psionic Lion’s Charge
PP Reserve 10
1st:Bless,Burning Hands,Ray of Enfeeblement,Mage Armor,CLW,ILW,Obscuring Mist,Enlarge Person, Hypnotism
2nd:Aid, Hold Person, Alter Self, Levitate, IMW
3rd:Prayer,Remove Curse,Remove Blind/Deaf, Blessing of Fervor, Bestow Curse, Lightning Bolt
4th Enervation, Crushing Despair

Azzie Azborne Shadow Lord DirgeBard10 Str10 Dex18 Con12 Int17 Wis15 Cha 26 Feats: Skill Focus Disable Device, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Spell Focus Necromancy,Expanded Knowledge, Wild Talent, Leadership
1st: Grease,Lesser Confusion,Silent Image,Ray of Enfeeblement
2nd:Invisibility,Pyrotechnics,Silence,Mirror Image, Command Undead
3rd:Displacement, Haste, Crushing Despair, Animate Dead
4th: Shout, Hold Monster
PP Reserve:8
Known Powers:Concussion Blast

Animate Dead Bucket 40HD: 6 trolls (4 open)

In Summary:

*Not counting Dance of the Dead which is a bardic performance that lets Azzie stand 40HD of undead up just like animate dead, but only for the duration of performance they can control 312HD at any given time.

*Seraphim, Hades, Pluto, and Ares require specific steps to keep permanently dead.

*Only Doc still requires food.

*Twins channeling just got harder to save against.

The black and green dragons are both killed (not entirely surprised by the straight out deception here) and reanimated, as are a shuffling of giants and the svats. They also create a tidy little stockpile of corpses that they stash within a psionically sealable vault with Seraphim’s coffin. Her alchemical golem is left as a sentry in a sealed chamber.

Seraphim: So do we take the fight against Veritas and push extermination?
Azzie: I think we should see if we can access the pad that let’s us revisit our destination from the shadow walk. When we took our little trip there was a structure built on the floor of the engine room that let us move to a wholly different section of the ship. Let’s ignore Veritas for now, that seems to piss him off.

Doc: Im with the bard on this.

Ares: If we fail to locate or activate the ship transport then the fallback is wiping out Veritas though right?

All: Aye.

With their undead entourage in tow they proceed to the engine room while avoiding engagements. Upon arrival they begin tinkering with Azzie’s shadow abilities and their psionics in an effort to activate the hidden mechanism. They manage to make the apparatus appear by expending Azzie’s planar thinning ability and a concerted group effort sees them activate and transport themselves to an entirely different segment of the ship. The activation drains all of their psionic reserves and is in essence a one way ticket until the following day.


*They blew the check to see if it would come back so they are on the fence if he can rejuvenate from the armor…which he can.

[Traab]

Sweet, so for now they are at least away from the dragon giant army. Still down ares who has to regen first. Of course, the downside is, they just left their stockpile and most importantly, seraphims casket behind in a location that will take all of them to return to. Thats... Thats a bad thing. Can she even return to there in gas form now? If so, can they get back to her without her help to activate the transport? Even if THAT is ok, that still means its a full two day trip to retrieve her and return. During which they will be stuck without a retreat option if the dragon army spots them.

*EDIT* One last thing. It sounds like they might want to capture a few more prisoners from now on. Seraphim doesnt sound like she is fully fed yet, unless the full damage is irreversible at this point. Just fed enough to keep under control. Knock a few out, let her drain at leisure, get her a few thralls to back her up AND drag her away from the danger zone.

[wobner]

Sweet, so for now they are at least away from the dragon giant army. Still down ares who has to regen first. Of course, the downside is, they just left their stockpile and most importantly, seraphims casket behind in a location that will take all of them to return to. Thats... Thats a bad thing. Can she even return to there in gas form now? If so, can they get back to her without her help to activate the transport? Even if THAT is ok, that still means its a full two day trip to retrieve her and return. During which they will be stuck without a retreat option if the dragon army spots them.

*EDIT* One last thing. It sounds like they might want to capture a few more prisoners from now on. Seraphim doesnt sound like she is fully fed yet, unless the full damage is irreversible at this point. Just fed enough to keep under control. Knock a few out, let her drain at leisure, get her a few thralls to back her up AND drag her away from the danger zone.

This strikes me as the really, really risky part. unless I missed something, They went from a location with a known food source, known enemies, and exits about to open into the world, to an unknown location, with potentially nothing to sate Sera or Doc, and no idea what's waiting. Do they know what Sera's feeding cycle is like? How much she has to eat and how long that will last for her? They could very easily get cut off from this transporter, especially since if it took their whole power point load, and they lose someone, they are tough out a luck. Sera gets dusted that's 10 points gone, even when Ares reforms he only adds 6. You have two people you can sacrifice in desperation, knowing they will reform, that you now can't sacrifice.

I've read some journals where the vampiric mist is treated as a physical thing, so an airtight vault would be impenetrable, and I've read others where the mist can pass through walls to get to its coffin. I don't recall it being said which way it works for Sera.

[Kaveman26]

This strikes me as the really, really risky part. unless I missed something, They went from a location with a known food source, known enemies, and exits about to open into the world, to an unknown location, with potentially nothing to sate Sera or Doc, and no idea what's waiting. Do they know what Sera's feeding cycle is like? How much she has to eat and how long that will last for her? They could very easily get cut off from this transporter, especially since if it took their whole power point load, and they lose someone, they are tough out a luck. Sera gets dusted that's 10 points gone, even when Ares reforms he only adds 6. You have two people you can sacrifice in desperation, knowing they will reform, that you now can't sacrifice.

I've read some journals where the vampiric mist is treated as a physical thing, so an airtight vault would be impenetrable, and I've read others where the mist can pass through walls to get to its coffin. I don't recall it being said which way it works for Sera.

1. They didn't realize it was going to be a one way trip.

2. The vaults so far have proven airtight and impenetrable. Gas form will likely be locked out.

3. They have not the slightest clue how long sera can go without feeding. I basically made executive desicion that every point of con drained was a +1 and every hour passed without feeding was a -1 with wisdom being a base stat. Seraphim has a 14 wisdom, the basement is -14 and ceiling is double wisdom so 28. She started T -14 and drained a troll, fire giant, and a dragon. She met her ceiling, and will now lose one point an hour. When drops below 10 (18 hours) she will get antsy, when she drops below 0 it will take every ounce of restraint to control her, at negatives she will have to make will saves against a dc of 15 modified by how far in negatives. Of -4 means save dc of 19. If she fails the closest thing with blood will be attacked.

[Honest Tiefling]

I love how their reaction to a Red Dragon backed by a huge army of elementals, dragons and giants is to annoy him some more. I wonder if they can annoy him so badly that the ship is forced to take him out?

[Traab]

Now, something im curious about. Is the dragon/giant army capable of following them? Its been awhile since you covered how their power pools and such work and how it applies to others. Or are they basically safe from the dragon army now and can concentrate on whats deeper inside the ship? If they can follow, would doing what the party did also make them easy prey in a fight without rest? I ask because that could be an interesting trap. Setup camp here in the teleporter room. If the dragon and crew figure it out they will pop in having exhausted themselves to do it, and be fresh meat.

As for seraph, wow, thats not good. She basically has to max out her blood supply once every day or else she will risk attacking her party. Thats a lot worse than I expected it to be. That means they really DO need to take prisoners to stockpile "supplies" for her or else they have to fight every single day and she has to drain at least one bad guy to top off. Will her injuries continue to heal over time till she is back to looking like her usual self (more or less)? Or will it be like permanent damage, sort of like how some of the lich fluff mentions they look like skeletons because they ignore their bodies till they wither away, only held together by magic. Also, will it give her negative modifiers to her charisma? Its hard to look sexy and charming when you look like a only slightly juicy corpse.

[Kaveman26]

Charisma is equated to beauty but the two are not linked. A character can be repulsive and have thru the roof charisma. Her appearance will change over time but not perhaps as expected.

To their knowledge Veritas lacks ability to cross over. Micko the cleric who allied with him does have that knowledge.

[Inevitability]

Charisma is equated to beauty but the two are not linked. A character can be repulsive and have thru the roof charisma.

Visual aid (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/EPIC_Gallery/Gallery5a/44165_C5_atropal.jpg). Remember, this thing has 42 charisma.

[Honest Tiefling]

Balors have a charisma of 27. I really haven't heard many people go 'Rawr, I'll invade his abyss if you know what I mean!' to that sort of creature. Also, they're fighting giants, dragons and elementals, and whatever the heck Micko is, most of which I assume wouldn't want to bang a half-elf of any description.

[Fable Wright]

Huh. The actual hunger rules on the Vampire PFSRD (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/vampire) page are a lot less harsh than that. Maybe this is just a temporary thing, with her hunger scaling back over time?

[Kaveman26]

Huh. The actual hunger rules on the Vampire PFSRD (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/vampire) page are a lot less harsh than that. Maybe this is just a temporary thing, with her hunger scaling back over time?

I intentionally made it far stricter.

[Inevitability]

Balors have a charisma of 27. I really haven't heard many people go 'Rawr, I'll invade his abyss if you know what I mean!' to that sort of creature. Also, they're fighting giants, dragons and elementals, and whatever the heck Micko is, most of which I assume wouldn't want to bang a half-elf of any description.

Giants, elementals, and a probably-aberration, sure, but have you seen the things dragons are willing to mate with? Half-dragons shambling mounds (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/images/MM35_gallery/MM35_PG223a.jpg) are an actual thing, referenced in an actual book. Compared to that, I'd pick a rotting-yet-still-pretty-attractive half-elf.

[Honest Tiefling]

I assume that the majority of the population doesn't. I mean, there are people who want to screw fighter jets, doesn't mean most of us humans do. For all we know, in this world dragons shun those with taboo tastes in their partners. "Don't look now, but Uncle Dyzarakin is in the corner with his partner. Disgusting! He doesn't even have scales!'

And I also wouldn't be surprised if that half-dragon shambling mound was the result of some messing around on the part of Tiamat, she sorta does that a tad.

[Kaveman26]

How does the joke go?

Elf: you humans will mate with anything.
Human: we have standards...
Elf: half orcs. Half elves...
Humans: perfectly acceptable
Elf: centaurs...
Human:....

[Honest Tiefling]

And then the human narrows their eyes and looks to the elf lowering their voice and whispering 'halflings'.

[ATHATH]

How does the joke go?

Elf: you humans will mate with anything.
Human: we have standards...
Elf: half orcs. Half elves...
Humans: perfectly acceptable
Elf: centaurs...
Human:....
Elf: Mermen, Aasimar, Tieflings, Silverbrow Humans...
Human: Fey'ri.
Elf: ...

[Honest Tiefling]

Human: "I might have banged a dragon, an orc, at least three different types of elf and whatever it was that made centaurs but at least I didn't bang my cousin!"

[GorinichSerpant]

And then the human narrows their eyes and looks to the elf lowering their voice and whispering 'halflings'.

I can hear the whistle sound as this joke passes over my head.

[Honest Tiefling]

I can hear the whistle sound as this joke passes over my head.

Elflings (I think) were halfing/elf hybrids from I think Greyhawk. So elves aren't exactly immune to Bangitis, the compulsion to bang everything that isn't your species.

[Inevitability]

Something I read somewhere:

"It is commonly believed amongst humans that centaurs were born from the union of elves and the wild horses that dwell near their forests, but both elves and centaurs are appalled by this tale. (the wild horses have no particular opinion on this all)."

[FocusWolf413]

Something I read somewhere:

"It is commonly believed amongst humans that centaurs were born from the union of elves and the wild horses that dwell near their forests, but both elves and centaurs are appalled by this tale. (the wild horses have no particular opinion on this all)."

It sounds like something Pratchett would write.

[Honest Tiefling]

One day I will find a DnD group where I can play a wizard who would genuinely think asking wild horses on their opinions on if their ancestors canoodled an elf. Or maybe one day I'll find a DnD group. :smallfrown:

[Kaveman26]

Weapons of Mass Destruction:

The pristine second layer they arrive in far outstrips the design of their previous environment. This is clearly where the first class passengers or elite spent their time. There are four paths leading from the central chamber, the Western hallway leads to the Enclave’s Council Chamber, a path already journeyed through the shadows.

Seraphim: Maybe we should have asked this before, but what exactly are we after?

Azzie: A control room that lets us open and close the main doors would be fantastic. Or a full schematic of the ship.

Hades: To an extent we also need answers. What exactly is this Volcanus? It can be assumed the attempts to fully secure it failed based on the fact that we are still getting warnings about it’s release. If we locate a control room or even a means to direct the Crones towards something other than ourselves…

As the word Crone is verbalized a Crone appears from thin air in front of them. It is neither Jacupa or Elliana.

Crone: Keyphrase identified. Sentient lifeforms detected. Please confirm authorization.

Pluto: Uhm…Whisky Whisky Foxtrot?

Crone: Authorization invalid. Hostilities activated.

A blast of sound and energy erupts from the Crone’s forehead knocking Pluto through the air a clean 20 feet. The impact is accompanied by the Crone going incorporeal and then turning invisible. A slurry of activity follows where the location she was last seen is bombarded with a fireball and flamestrike. Doc makes a blind charge attack against the target and swings at thin air. From thirty feet away the Crone reappears and blasts Hades with an identical mind blast. Azzie manages to track her as she blasts and laces an arrow that seems to bounce off of her. The contact disrupts her invisibility and a chaotic mess of PC’s flying through the air along with mostly ineffective attacks proceeds. Azzie uses Shout which causes Sonic damage and that seems to drastically interrupt the Crone. Her physical form wavers and kind of blinks out.

Pluto: What the heck triggered that? Was it just saying Crone…

All: WAIT!

See above for what happens as a second (different Crone) appears and they repeat the dance again.

Pluto: Ok…So how about we call them Hags instead?

Seraphim: I won’t get in a twist over it.

Azzie: let’s head east. We already got a rough idea of West.

As if walking on eggshells they head East through the established hallway and traverse a curving hall that opens into a central room with three doors. As they cross the barrier of the room a new mental voice that differs from the Crones becomes audible. This new voice is markedly masculine and seems more metallic in tone.

Metallic Voice: Sentient Lifeforms present. Identify Clearance:

Seraphim: Identification Elliana.

Metallic Voice: Call Sign Verified. Proceed with Security Clearance.

Seraphim scans the room all over and remains silence.

Doc: Are you going…

Seraphim cuts off Doc before he can finish and makes a shush sound.

Metallic Voice: Security Clearance is required. 10 seconds to comply.

Seraphim: Ok…30 seconds total to respond. Anyone see anything?

As the time expires a large iron floating head with eight eye stalks seems to emerge from the wall itself. It looks remarkably similar to the Frank-Eye-Stein, but this one is like a steampunk clockwork monstrosity of a beholder.

Doc actually manages to charge it and land a huge two handed running swing that crunches gears and springs with a twist of rent metal. The Iron Beholder responds with ray attacks from all eight of it’s eye stalks, most dispersing in random directions. Doc get a face full of electricity and various, acid, fire, freezing, sonic and “light” based emissions all blast out. Seraphim hits it with a fireball that seems to repair the damage inflicted by Doc.

Seraphim: Crap it is basically an Iron Golem, flames heal it.

AS the fire fades the Beholder spins in place and it’s eyestalks rearrange. They avoid the majority of spells and instead try to force their undead minions to dogpile and smash it. Each round the beholder changes it’s properties and sends out a new array of energy blasts from it’s eye stalks. The group bemoans their constantly burning giants whose fire auras keep repairing the creature. Time and a lot of smashing eventually render the creature to a smoldering ruin.

Azzie: This place is sucking hardcore.

They nickname the creature Iron-Eye (which is the name I will use for them) and a quick group conference confirms they need more security clearance to keep searching effectively.

Doc: Well we know that if we name drop known persons it can buy us 30 seconds of time to think. Might want to explore running and see if they chase.

The group decides to push their luck a bit and experiment further but this time they do so with a bit more creativity. Seraphim jumps to a mook troll zombie using her magic jar gravewalker ability and tries to enter the first of three doors. An additional Iron Eye is triggered and she forces her puppet zombie into a retreat…the Iron Eye chases the minion with eye stalks blasting until she is halfway down the hall at which point it disintegrates her borrowed body and returns to his original position.

Seraphim: Well they chase, but it ganked the troll before we found out how far. Do we risk a giant?

Doc: Would be useful information. I say we risk one giant.

They repeat the experiment and the bigger giant makes it to the end of the Hallway and the Iron Eye halts. All eight of it’s eyestalks blink and a Prismatic Wall blocks off the end of the hallway…which the giant runs into head first and obliterates itself.

Doc: ok…well…running is apparently worse than fighting.

[Traab]

This is really not good. So far they have yet to find anything living. That means they have no blood for seraph, no bodies to raise, and noone to try to interrogate for information on wtf they are supposed to do here. Oh, and the way back is probably guarded by a dragon/giant army since I doubt they were able to hide their trail very well. I mean sure, for a regular group fighting constructs and such would at least be good for exp, but for this group? Thats a bad thing. They NEED living creatures to fight. Im guessing at this point they are praying for some dm interference to trigger the info they need to move on. Either that or they will locate something down one of the other paths. Either way they better hurry, seraphim is going to be getting hungry soon.

[Honest Tiefling]

Time to make bets! Who is team Sera, and who is team Doc? And who will the party back?

I think they'll back Sera. They can make Doc into an undead, and Hades and Pluto probably have a religious thing to side with her. Azzie might be thinking with the ding-willy, even if it is non-corporeal right now.

[Traab]

Time to make bets! Who is team Sera, and who is team Doc? And who will the party back?

I think they'll back Sera. They can make Doc into an undead, and Hades and Pluto probably have a religious thing to side with her. Azzie might be thinking with the ding-willy, even if it is non-corporeal right now.

You know, thats disturbingly possible. She is really only a threat to those with a heart beat. Are any of the group, aside from doc, alive enough to be in danger of bloodthirst vamp attacks?

[Inevitability]

Anyone getting flashbacks to the last time one of Kaveman's PC's became a vampire?

[Honest Tiefling]

You know, thats disturbingly possible. She is really only a threat to those with a heart beat. Are any of the group, aside from doc, alive enough to be in danger of bloodthirst vamp attacks?

And having a pet witch on a leash might appeal to certain characters...They could probably ensure her loyalty through that method alone.

[Kaveman26]

Anyone getting flashbacks to the last time one of Kaveman's PC's became a vampire?

Have I ever had a vampire pc before? I'm drawing a blank at moment.

[Honest Tiefling]

Ahem. Might I direct your attention to the following?


“FROM THIS POINT FORTH LET IT BE KNOWN THAT I-CARAMIS WOLFSBANE WILL SUFFER NO FURTHER INJUSTICES FROM THESE FOUR LEGGED FIENDS”

[Fable Wright]

Have I ever had a vampire pc before? I'm drawing a blank at moment.

I think Stirge is thinking of the City of the Enigmatic Overgnome campaign at the moment.

[Kaveman26]

Wow. not only did I forget a vampire pc, but it was my own pc. To be fair I didn't get to use him after vampirism.

If I remember correct yellerbeard got vamped by npc and thralldom was transferred to a different pc. Yeah....that was a high body count campaign. Lots of backstabbing.

[Honest Tiefling]

Even if Stirge was thinking of that, it does still stand that Kaveman26 forgot when his PC got turned into a Vampire...Twice.

[halfeye]

I like this story.

:smallsmile:

[Roughishguy86]

well after a few days of reading this thrtead at work i have officially caught up and now my life absolutely sucks. Idk if i can go a day without this in my life.:eek:

[Honest Tiefling]

well after a few days of reading this thrtead at work i have officially caught up and now my life absolutely sucks. Idk if i can go a day without this in my life.:eek:

One of us! One of us! Now, we shall prepare the virgin sacrifice in order to continue the posts. Any volunteers from the audience?

[Reboot]

At this point it was past time that the group had reached 10th level. We sat down and hashed out a compromise. They had overcome the “hard” parts of achieving their templates. All that remained was time. So we decided for simplicity sake and to let me avoid tracking several other things over time we elected to mirror the lich process for the twins and complete the half-dragon bolt on for Doc. End result being that after they cleared the entrance and took the second dragon captive they advanced to level 10 and processed their templates across the board. It meant one less thing to track and a good balancing of power for the group. The trade off for this “upgrade” was relinquishing access to any further templating for their current or future characters.
"And future"? So if anyone gets killed, their new guys will be a lot weaker than their comrades?



3. They have not the slightest clue how long sera can go without feeding. I basically made executive desicion that every point of con drained was a +1 and every hour passed without feeding was a -1 with wisdom being a base stat. Seraphim has a 14 wisdom, the basement is -14 and ceiling is double wisdom so 28. She started T -14 and drained a troll, fire giant, and a dragon. She met her ceiling, and will now lose one point an hour. When drops below 10 (18 hours) she will get antsy, when she drops below 0 it will take every ounce of restraint to control her, at negatives she will have to make will saves against a dc of 15 modified by how far in negatives. Of -4 means save dc of 19. If she fails the closest thing with blood will be attacked.

Huh. The actual hunger rules on the Vampire PFSRD (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/vampire) page are a lot less harsh than that. Maybe this is just a temporary thing, with her hunger scaling back over time?
I intentionally made it far stricter.

I take it the player didn't expect you to be following the much laxer PFSRD rules, at least? Because that's really harsh since they're (now) in a target-poor environment!


One day I will find a DnD group where I can play a wizard who would genuinely think asking wild horses on their opinions on if their ancestors canoodled an elf.
Wouldn't a druid be a better choice? ;)

[GnomishPride]

One of us! One of us! Now, we shall prepare the virgin sacrifice in order to continue the posts. Any volunteers from the audience?

Ooh! Ooh! Pick me! Anything to continue the posts! :smalltongue:

[Mith]

Ooh! Ooh! Pick me! Anything to continue the posts!


Not a chance! If you die and go to Heaven, you'll get to read the entire campaign log ahead of us! (Since God knows all things, he will have the entire story already completed). :smalltongue:

[GnomishPride]

Not a chance! If you die and go to Heaven, you'll get to read the entire campaign log ahead of us! (Since God knows all things, he will have the entire story already completed). :smalltongue:

Ah curses! You caught onto my plan! (I actually hadn't thought about that...) :smalltongue:

[Brion]

well after a few days of reading this thrtead at work i have officially caught up and now my life absolutely sucks. Idk if i can go a day without this in my life.:eek:

I highly recommend reading through Kaveman's other campaigns, especially The Big One or An Adversarial Process, in the mean time. I love The Big One to a disturbing degree.

[Kaveman26]

I take it the player didn't expect you to be following the much laxer PFSRD rules, at least? Because that's really harsh since they're (now) in a target-poor environment!

The better question would be: would it have altered the choice if they had known? I am confident it would not have shifted the decision at all.

Also...no sacrifices virgin or otherwise should be required. I'll try to keep up this pace

[Roughishguy86]

I began reading the big one and while I do love it already..... It's just not the same I need my azzie fix.

[DireSickFish]

I began reading the big one and while I do love it already..... It's just not the same I need my azzie fix.

Obligatory recommendation of SilverClawShift's Journal. Can be found here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?116836-The-SilverClawShift-Campaign-Archives

[Kaveman26]

Past Expiration:

A bit of tinkering and undead shuffling with Seraphim leads them to believe that the room they sacrificed a giant and troll for is safe and then move forward with searching it. The chamber is the first evidence of true habitation they have encountered. A vertical hammock seems built into the wall, less bed and more cocoon, but definitely something that implies sleep. There is a bench with several crystalline implements and a transparent parchment like cellophane paper. They also identify what they are presuming is a bookcase, but with crystals in place of books.

Azzie: This is getting more and more confusing by the minute. The blokes used books in their flipping libraries, but now its all sparkly glass baubles and high faluting shinies. What gives?

Hades: I think it’s kind of like the Titanic. There is a Third Class, Second Class, First Class and then all the ugly behind the scenes stuff. I am guessing everything we have spent the last several months fighting for is their counterpart to a storage closet or at best Third Class. It’s the ugly watered down “visitors” or low man on the totem pole type place. This is more of a Second/First Class deal.
Doc: Anyone want to volunteer to try the the hammock?

Azzie: Why not you mate?

Doc: Bit small for me.

Pluto: I’ll give it a go.

The dhampir steps into the folds of the hammock and in response to his presence it gently folds around him sealing him off. He tries to speak from the interior but no sound escapes. He is able to leave the hammock easily enough.

Pluto: It’s a sensory deprivation tank. I couldn’t see or hear anything or feel anything while inside. Literally was like floating in nothingness.

Doc: That makes sense.

Seraphim: How do you figure?

Doc: Everything they have done is related to the mind. They talk mind to mind, they speak with their brains. Makes sense they would want to turn that off to rest.

Seraphim: That is a surprisingly good point.

They continue to scour the room and after finetooth combing the place they find a hidden drawer at the desk that uncovers a distinctly different crystal. It is darker and denser than any of the other crystals they have previously discovered.

Seraphim: Think we can tap into it?

Azzie: You can bet it takes psionic energy to power or utilize and we are tapped out.

Seraphim: We have a few points reserved in Cog Crystals. Think we have a pair of five point crystals. I have one and I think Ares ended up with the second one. We could try to use them and see if it bears fruit.

Azzie: Alright, let’s give it a go.

Seraphim expends a point of reserve from her cog crystal and a sequence of symbols appears in the air. It is quick and hard to catch but they are reasonably certain it is a security code. Azzie makes the deduction from a high Use Magic Device that the pattern presented is selected randomly.

Azzie: It’s a keycode, but random. I think it’s like an authenticator. No way to preemptively know the code you have to show this as proof.

Doc: Should we test it?

Seraphim: I’m fine with burning another troll if it means we may be able to avoid destroying more.

They restage themselves for the second room and once again have the body jumping witch utilize a troll as surrogate for their “Scientific testing”. Upon attempting to enter the second room of the corridor an additional Iron Eye materializes and demands security clearance, expending a point of psionic energy to the crystal triggers the sequencer and the Iron Eye stands down once again disappearing.

Seraphim: Well we now have confirmation of it working, we can can open three more today.

The second room is by their summation a more high end personal workshop. There are a variety of tools both familiar and completely alien all staged on wall mounts and the framework of a construct pegged to the rear wall of the shop.

Pluto: What kind of metal is that? Never seen anything like it before

Azzie: Not sure. Looks like stained glass but it is definitely metallic. It looks like a series of colors are somehow embedded into a transparent steel.

Seraphim: It matches the same colors as a Primastic Wall. Probably wouldn’t be so easy to associate except that one just incinerated my giant while I was in it.

Doc: A golem made out of a metallic prismatic wall would be staggeringly powerful.

There is suddenly a collective silence and contemplation as they try to process that statement.

Pluto: Wait…are we saying that they were developing a golem that was functionally a prismatic wall?

With an urgency risen from the prospect of a pheneomonal discovery they scour the room and try to assemble any semblance of intelligence to confirm their suspicion. They uncover a single crystal on the work station table top and expend a power point to activate it. A mental image and narration pops into their minds.

“As per the Enclave’s request I have delved deeper into the exploration of adapting prismatic qualities into a metallic alloy that should prove immune to the prisoner’s breath weapon, while also allowing for autonomy of thought and action. The ever shifting nature of the seven colored power construct should allow for a jailor capable of corralling the prisoner. Present attempts at imbuing movement and installing the mental routines required have failed. The alloy itself has tested mostly stable and I will continue my research upon the next waking cycle”
Several schematics and processes are visually displayed along with instructions and notations. They are able to discern a few important facts from the presentation.

1. A Prismatic Golem was conceived in theory but never finished.
2. The alloy used is highly dangerous and prone to exploding with all the effects one might associate with the spell array embedded.
3. The alloy is more stable when created as a shifting rotation, I.E. it adapts to different elements of the eight embedded spells instead of furnishing them all at once.
4. A similar experiment created the Iron Eye’s.

Azzie: Hypothetically…if we had some of this alloy and made say a dagger out of it, what do you think would happen?

Hades: From the information here a dagger would randomly have an attribute from a prismatic wall each turn it was used. Could offer some sizeable defensive bonuses as well.

Doc: Imagine a suit of armor made from this stuff.

Seraphim: if we find unmanipulated alloy we are going to have to try our luck.

They elect to move on to the third room in the corridor and drop down to two points in the cognizance crystal. If the first room was a bedroom, and the second room was a workshop, the third room is the storage closet.

Robes crafted from an extremely unusual material hang from pegs on the wall, as do other garments and sashes. Several unidentified liquids sit untouched in crystal vials more akin to wine bottles than potion jars. There are also five cognizance crystals present, sadly all five are currently empty but by their estimation they are capable of holding 9 points each.

Azzie: Getting in cost us 44, we can stockpile 45 and if we get Ares back that brings us to 50. That means we can make a two way trip just about every other day if we offload to the crystals.

They also find a small cache of the prismatic alloy, not a lot but perhaps ten pounds of the material.

Doc: Well that didn’t take long.

There is also a cupboard or vault at the rear of the storage room. They attempt to trigger it open with the cog crystal and while they feel the pull of energy about to taken from the crystal it fizzles, leading them to believe they need more power to open the added layer of security.

They scout out the remaining two hallways and discover the same three room layouts, they stop short of entering and triggering the first security feature and instead go back to the Council Chamber hallway, fully scouting that corridor to uncover a large locked door to the outside rear of the meeting room. They present the security crystal to the door and expend their last two points before they even realize it and unlock the door.

Seraphim: No one is attuned to the last crystal we are going to have to wait at least ten minutes.

Hades: That shouldn’t be an issue.

Approximately 30 seconds after unlocking the larger door a trio or Iron Eyes all appear and in unison begin requesting security clearance.

Hades: Spoke too soon…

[Traab]

Oh wow. So they are slowly starting to piece together information on what is basically a sci fi setting crammed into their D&D universe. Its fascinating. I love the idea of prismatic weaponry and armor. I wouldnt suggest making entire suits of armor out of the material they found, maybe coat specific points of their gear instead? Like, ares could coat his left arm say, and use it as a shield. Every time his arm is struck one of the effects goes off. Unless they find a heavy stockpile they would have to use it sparingly.

I also like how you gave them the ability to travel back and forth between levels. I figured something had to be done since so far, golems aside, the area is looking mighty empty of life. As far as the robes and such go, I wonder if it will have any uses specific to its currently unknown material? If this is an experimental lab, I wouldnt be shocked if that stuff was protective gear, meant to keep them safe from stuff like oh, say, exploding prismatic metal golems? Could come in handy.

[GnomishPride]

Obligatory recommendation of SilverClawShift's Journal. Can be found here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?116836-The-SilverClawShift-Campaign-Archives

Welp. See you guys in a couple weeks. :smalltongue:

[FocusWolf413]

One of us! One of us! Now, we shall prepare the virgin sacrifice in order to continue the posts. Any volunteers from the audience?

Better if they've been around the block a few times.

[Traab]

Better if they've been around the block a few times.

Reminds me of a joke a guy said once. "Who wants 72 virgins anyways? Give me 72 slutty chicks who know what they are doing!" Its... its hard to argue against that one. :smallbiggrin:

[FocusWolf413]

Reminds me of a joke a guy said once. "Who wants 72 virgins anyways? Give me 72 slutty chicks who know what they are doing!" Its... its hard to argue against that one. :smallbiggrin:

So... we're sacrificing Seraphim?

[Honest Tiefling]

So... we're sacrificing Seraphim?

Her backstory somewhat implied that while she's willing to talk the talk, she may not walk the walk so to speak.

[GorinichSerpant]

Her backstory somewhat implied that while she's willing to talk the talk, she may not walk the walk so to speak.

Unless the walk in question is fire and/or poison.

[Honest Tiefling]

Unless the walk in question is fire and/or poison.

You have an interesting definition of sexual intercourse.

[dramatic flare]

You have an interesting definition of sexual intercourse.

...And yet one that is not unheard of. Pyrophilia (sfw, it's an interview article). (http://www.cracked.com/personal-experiences-2102-i-burn-myself-to-get-off-6-realities-extreme-fetishists.html)

[GorinichSerpant]

You have an interesting definition of sexual intercourse.

While that's not what I was trying to imply, let's assume that I was for comedic value.

[Inevitability]

I've noticed that the longer we go without an update, the crazier conversation here gets. I'm also pretty sure these things are directly related.

[Kaveman26]

Her backstory somewhat implied that while she's willing to talk the talk, she may not walk the walk so to speak.

There is more to her backstory that I will include at some point and this question is answered in a somewhat surprising manner.



I've noticed that the longer we go without an update, the crazier conversation here gets. I'm also pretty sure these things are directly related.

So in addition to "Because I enjoy it" I can add the following reasons for why I continue to update...

1. Prevent Virgin Sacrifice
2. Prevent Non Virgin Sacrifice
3. Prevent anxiety over the thread being bumped as the result of something other than an update
4. Maintain sanity
5. Allow for even debate and discourse that does not devolve into something best designed for the darker corner of the net. I.E. centaur jokes and discussions of pyrophillia.

[FocusWolf413]

you have an interesting definition of sexual intercourse.

Stop kinkshaming

[GnomishPride]

So in addition to "Because I enjoy it" I can add the following reasons for why I continue to update...

1. Prevent Virgin Sacrifice
2. Prevent Non Virgin Sacrifice
3. Prevent anxiety over the thread being bumped as the result of something other than an update
4. Maintain sanity
5. Allow for even debate and discourse that does not devolve into something best designed for the darker corner of the net. I.E. centaur jokes and discussions of pyrophillia.

That about sums it up, yeah. No pressure though! :smalltongue:

[Honest Tiefling]

Stop kinkshaming

You're the one who thinks interesting means bad. Tsk tsk!

Anyway, we'll get a group of non-virgins (for all we know, he's not into the ladies, let's not judge) and light them on fire. We should be safely covering our bases at this point.

[Inevitability]

Anyway, we'll get a group of non-virgins (for all we know, he's not into the ladies, let's not judge) and light them on fire. We should be safely covering our bases at this point.

I think using only a single form of sacrifice is risky, though. Why don't we shake things up? We could poison one, drowing another, have the next one fight to the death against a vicious predator...

[GorinichSerpant]

I think using only a single form of sacrifice is risky, though. Why don't we shake things up? We could poison one, drowing another, have the next one fight to the death against a vicious predator...

Which extra-planar entity are we sacrificing to? That's an important question, Zeus would prefer females, the Fates would prefer boy bands, Steve swings both ways and Hastur doesn't care as long as thier fans of his book.

[Honest Tiefling]

Well, Zeus isn't writing this thread, so he can get his own dang sacrifices.

[GorinichSerpant]

Well, Zeus isn't writing this thread, so he can get his own dang sacrifices.

Kaveman has already stated that he doesn't want any sacrifices, so we need to sacrifice to something/one else to the magic to get the entries to go faster.

[Kaveman26]

http://www.somethingpositive.net/arch/emokitty.jpg

This image came to mind.

Don't be that guy....or girl...or cat devotee.

[turbo164]

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0081.html comes to mind :smallwink:

[Tenmujiin]

5. Allow for even debate and discourse that does not devolve into something best designed for the darker corner of the net. I.E. centaur jokes and discussions of pyrophillia.

Fighting a losing battle on that one I suspect, given the nature of the campaign.

[Honest Tiefling]

Oh, he's just playing hard-to-sacrifice-to, really.

On a more serious note, do any of the other characters have backstories like Seraphim, or was that just her/him? I'm a little curious about the twin's god.

[Kaveman26]

Oh, he's just playing hard-to-sacrifice-to, really.

On a more serious note, do any of the other characters have backstories like Seraphim, or was that just her/him? I'm a little curious about the twin's god.

Nothing to her extent. I got like two paragraphs on the clerics and a few pages on doc and azzie. Maybe five on ares/dis pater

[GrayDeath]

http://www.somethingpositive.net/arch/emokitty.jpg

This image came to mind.

Don't be that guy....or girl...or cat devotee.

A nonexistant Image? How so?

[Reboot]

On Seraphim, what happened to Snowflake, BTW? You just stopped mentioning it at one point.

[Mith]

Pretty sure Snowflake was destroyed around the time he stopped mentioning it. At least, that is what I am remembering.

[Lord of Shadows]

On Seraphim, what happened to Snowflake, BTW? You just stopped mentioning it at one point.


Pretty sure Snowflake was destroyed around the time he stopped mentioning it. At least, that is what I am remembering.

(shuffle....shuffle...shuffle...)

Snowflake was last mentioned toward the end of Session 8: "Seraphim cedes Snowflake to Hades who plays courier galloping back to Moo-Dor for a fresh batch of corpses." Session 9 was the pitched battle with the Were-Dwarves that featured the superb Benny Hill soundtrack.
.

[FocusWolf413]

Kaveman has not given us an update in several hours.

Hasa Diga Eebowai.

[Hamste]

http://www.somethingpositive.net/arch/emokitty.jpg

This image came to mind.

Don't be that guy....or girl...or cat devotee.

And we all know how it ends when you become a cat devotee...in case you don't read Something Positive It ended with the kitty fan girls killing most of the people at a convention and trying to tear apart the main characters when they did something they didn't like.

[Kaveman26]

On Seraphim, what happened to Snowflake, BTW? You just stopped mentioning it at one point.


Snowflake was wiped out around the time they encountered the were-dwarves.

[Kaveman26]

No Way Out:

Hades: We can’t run. If we try to flee they will seal off the hallway. Got to stand and fight.

The encounter is brutal. Plain and simple the sheer scale of ray attacks and the ever shifting qualities of the Iron Eye’s makes it hard for them to blitz a single target. Their undead ranks get shredded. They manage to overwhelm the three guards but pay a heavy price in terms of minions and expend virtually all their channeling and spellslots.

Pluto: Well I think it’s safe to say that we need to pack it in and hold tight until we can get out of here and replenish the ranks.

Being a bit anxious about their resources running on empty they retreat to the initial point of entry and settle in to research what they have already discovered.

Doc: We have enough alloy to make a couple small weapons, a pair of shields or maybe one larger weapon. Stockpile it or do we roll the dice and see what happens?

Hades: I think stockpile, good chance we will find more of it and maybe be able to fashion better uses.

Ares: Can you hear me?

The voice feels very distant and faint but there was definitely a whisper from the set of armor.

Azzie: Barely mate.

Ares: I am starting to reform a physical essence, but it may still take some hours. Thanks for bringing me along.

Hades: Well that is useful to know. He can regenerate.

As they chat on about the implications of having four recyclable PC’s there is a short burst of electricity to the air and in an instant there are half a dozen fire elementals in their laps. The sudden call to action and singing of clothes has them riled up, as does the realization that they are out of cold spells. They send in their remaining giants and minions to pin down the elementals and expend their last channels for the day.

Seraphim: Well it looks like Veritas figured out a way to activate the circle.

No sooner does she grumble about their adversary breaching the new territory than a Hezrou demon appears with the same surge of electricity in the air. The disgusting scaly demon tears into the closest target it can, who happens to be Hades. The cleric already injured and void of healing spells takes a nearly full damage critical and sees his physical form shattered and rent to ash.

The remaining party members are able to dispatch the demon and are doubly frustrated when the body disappears.

Seraphim: Or maybe it’s the drow that are probing the circle. They seemed to like sending in summoned demons as distractions and drains.

Doc: So, should we count on more coming?

Seraphim: I mean that was two separate activations, what are the chances their pools are deep enough for a third?

Azzie: The chances are 50/50 by my reckoning, either they do or they don’t. We need to be ready if they do. If I recall correctly they were running summons on a one hour interval. So we should be safe for a while.

Seraphim: The elementals and the demon came pretty closely together. That wasn’t a one hour interval.

Doc: Elemetals could have come from Veritas, Demon from Drow. Or both from Drow and the elementals were something other than a summons.

Pluto: So we may or may not be safe for an hour, but we can’t count on it. Not much we can do about it, we are stuck here for at least a day.

Seraphim: Yeah about that…took 44 to get here, Hades being down puts us at 34, Adding in Ares gets us to 40, the cog crystal gets us to 45. If we lose 2 points from the cog crystal or lose another party member we are stuck longer than a day. We need to be extra careful.

They do their best to dig in and create a triangle of undead as a wall around a corner of the transportation circle. The remaining group members huddle behind their minions and wait for the one hour mark to hit. Less than a minute past the one hour mark a second demon comes though and is promptly swarmed. As their try to smash the summoned creature to submission Doc and Azzie both feel the sting of blades entering flesh as a pair of invisible drow shank them from behind. Their sudden grunts and shouts of warning are only enough to see the pair do an acrobatic roll back to the circle and vanish.

They grit their teeth (and fangs) as they dispatch the demon and then morosely settle in while waiting out the following hour. A third and final demon comes through, void of any drow support and is once again vanquished. With a high paranoia they settle in as the hours begin to tick away and the vampire grows more anxious by the minute. As her hunger grows she is proactive in sharing the pangs with the rest of the team and forewarning them. Right around hour 18 as her buffer drops below 10 she is starting to hug herself as if to control her arms.

Seraphim: I am starting to get a nasty ache and I’m already rationalizing eating the orc.

Doc: Alright, we only have a few more hours to go. Let Azzie and Pluto bind you and a non burning giant grapple you. I will submit to be voluntarily drained, but no more than 8 Con worth. Rather not chance it.

Seraphim: That means a lot to me.

The brutish Witch Doctor offers up his wrist as opposed to his throat and smiles while holding his axe in the free hand. Seraphim does her best to gulp politely but her groans and sighs of enjoyment are unsettling, the muscles or neck flex like a bodybuilder as she swallows draught after draught, she holds to her word and stops at 8 Con, removing herself with just a slight lingering of doubt.

Seraphim: That helped a lot actually.

Doc: We suffer together right?

Seraphim: Right.

As the time limit before they can recuperate their psionic potential approaches Ares completes his regeneration once again taking up his suit of armor, they all settle into their spell acquisition and rest routines when from the shadows a trio of drow scouts all hurl burning flasks and hit the whole group with darkness before sprinting for the circle and vanishing through. As they disappear a small host of summoned creatures (all lesser than the demons from earlier) comes right through and immediately suicide charges the group.

Azzie: How are they able to afford that kind of movement back and forth?

Doc: Let’s catch one of the little buggers and ask him.

They manage to dispatch the group of elementals and fiendish animals with far less concern than the earlier demons and try to resume their rest. From a separate corner the process is repeated with more drow breaking from camo/invisibility, carpet bombing and vanishing. A full twenty four hours has passed and Seraphim is once again getting antsy. This time they have their giants walk the entire the reachable area basically playing invisible tag and letting their aura hopefully singe anything still hiding. Once satisfied they are alone they resume their rest routine and this time manage to be complete the process.

Pluto: I am curious to try something. Everyone back away from the circle except for me. Going to try and go through by myself and see what gets drained.

Before any objections can be raised the cleric steps through…and no one left behind has their points drained.

Seraphim: Uhm…took 44 for us to get through, Down Hades puts us at 34 add Ares is 40 and cog crystal is 45. Down Hades and Pluto we are at 35…

Doc: Well as soon as he steps back through we should be fine.

As is on cue Hades contacts them through the skull network.

Hades: Good news everyone. I have regenerated and am ready to return. Bad news…Pluto just popped into his phylactery. Cant communicate with him yet, but I felt his soul enter.

Doc: Uhm….

Seraphim: So something basically curb stomped him moments after travelling through. Let’s assume he was right and that we got drained because we had a big party with us. We can probably go through more piecemeal and leave behind some of the remaining minions. But if something on the other side wrecked him that quickly, can we take whatever is waiting?

Ares: Well we are down a good portion of our undead meat shields, and we are down both of our clerics who are the fuel that keeps that engine running. Doc has a big Con penalty and we have no idea what is waiting for us. I see this breaking down a few ways. We go through in mass and get reamed. We stay and try to let Hades/Pluto gather some intel and stand up fresh corpses, hopefully in a day we regroup. Problem with that is that the drow have shown a strong willingness to harry us, and with two of or group down diverting their attempts will only get harder. If we delay too long the vampire eats Doc.

Seraphim: I don’t see a good way out of this.

Ares: I got one, but I wont call it great.

Azzie: We are listening.

Ares: Sera…I need you to pull a Leeroy…

[Demidos]

Great post, as always.

A question for you as DM -- everything that happens seems to be rather planned. Is that accurate, or how much of it are you adlibbing? Also, I notice that all your PC's tend to be rather equal in terms of power levels -- is there a way you enforce or set this sort of thing, or do all of your players just happen to enjoy building to roughly the same strength?

[Kaveman26]

Great post, as always.

A question for you as DM -- everything that happens seems to be rather planned. Is that accurate, or how much of it are you adlibbing? Also, I notice that all your PC's tend to be rather equal in terms of power levels -- is there a way you enforce or set this sort of thing, or do all of your players just happen to enjoy building to roughly the same strength?


Best way I can answer this is to describe my behind the scenes thoughts on what I just posted. So with the discovery of the transportation circle I wanted to accomplish a few different objectives. I wanted to start filtering in some exposition for what was occurring. I also wanted to pull back the curtain on the ship's security while utilizing their psionic bonuses. Making their psionics more than just a bonus feat for the occasional use the ship security turns them into currency. I also very badly wanted them to feel some terror around the vampire in their midst. The actions they took to get them where they are should feel solid and have consequences. So...

I decided that activating the circle would take 2 points. At the time they activated there were 6 party members and 29 "minions". I made a decision that corpse companions and bonethralls were slightly different than the standard undead from animate dead and vampire pool so I took them out of the cost. I also took the vampire thralls out of the mix because they were deliberately left behind as guards for her coffin. That meant I had 6 party members and 24 undead AKA 50 points. Ares was technically dead so I deducted 2 points....48. When they triggered the circle it drained their 44 points and from the negative balance it took 4 from a cog crystal...randomly selected by a d6 it came from Ares cog crystal...a slight detail they are not yet aware of, having not attuned themselves to that crystal.

From the moment they went through I had already established that the drow who have moved to the shadows would be constantly scrying, scouting and observing. When the new layer of the ship was discovered they would be keen to explore and probe, and if they could harry and harass the group all the better. The drow have figured out a lot of how the ship works, they were stuck inside for a long time and the matron is over the top intelligent and wise. I knew that I would be harrying them with summoned creatures and stealth scouts that would be reporting back. It played into my strategy of wanting to create a situation where blood lust would become a concern. I used already established tactics from the drow (mostly the summons) and repeated one of their earlier strategies. The drow weren't specifically trying to isolate Seraphim from blood, they were trying to press the group using the methods already showcased. Her being isolated and creating conflict and tension was a benefit.

I have to scurry a lot to compensate for their creativity, but generally speaking I am not concerned with specifics and more concerned with trying to advance some objectives. In a short enough time they will understand the circles and understand Sera's feeding habits. They will force the drow to adapt or wipe them if they keep repeating the same tactics.


As for the power level. We avoid tier 1 and 2 characters because we enjoy not being a universal toolbox. We like niche or narrower scope characters. No flight rule goes a lot way towards that being possible.

[GrayDeath]

And yet Sera is a Witch and the Underworld Twins are Clerics?

Also reread the Stat post earlier. Why do your ClericLiches have a Con Score?


Aside from that: hoohboy, that looks ... problematic for the NR`s. ^^

[Kaveman26]

And yet Sera is a Witch and the Underworld Twins are Clerics?

Also reread the Stat post earlier. Why do your ClericLiches have a Con Score?


Aside from that: hoohboy, that looks ... problematic for the NR`s. ^^

The con scores was me not paying close attention when transcribing, sera was correctly changed to nil, left the twins a con score by accident.

Cleric and witch are tier 1/2 classes, but I would probably put the twins and sera as 3 to 4 tier characters.

[GrayDeath]

I can see an argument for Tier 3 t due to over Specialization (still they can break the Game with what they CAN get, its not what they ahve at any given time^^, so Tier 2 it is at the least), but 4? Really?

No matter, dont want another "which Tier is this" Discussion. Glad I could help with the Constitution. ;)

[Traab]

Oh good lord, it sounds almost like they are going to be forced to abandon this level and find a way to get back to the original level. At least, long enough to take care of these guys. They have NOTHING to work with here. No minions to create, no life forms to drain, every enemy is either a summons with no body to leave behind or a golem/construct/whatever, with no flesh and blood body to leave behind.

My theory? They send seraph to "suicide" through the portal, she heads back to meet up with the lich team and recuperate, and maybe from there the three of them can pull off an attack in a way that lets them clear the transport long enough for the team to regroup. Then they will HAVE to wipe out at least one or two of these forces. They flat out cant afford to leave the fire/frost/drow forces intact. Its sounding like you intend for the drow to be the real overarching long term threat with their smart matron and figuring things out about the ship, so wipe out the fire and ice duo, hopefully replenish some undead stock from them, then start dealing with the drow. Figuring out a way to spot these guys ahead of time is going to be crucial. They can deal with the whole summon every hour siege mode just fine, its those damn invisible elves attacking at random that are screwing things up. Are there any items they could craft that would help them see the drow easier?

[Randomguy]

I think the party is going about this the wrong way. They've already cleared some of the rooms, so they could hide in one of those areas and let the demons and summons trigger the Iron Eyes and break through the security for them. That'd be easier if they had illusory wall or something, though, to block off the hallway they were hiding in, but I don't think any of them can cast it.

[Traab]

If they give up the transporter room, that means the enemy can teleport in with total impunity and they will be stuck in one of the rooms with literally nothing to work with. No blood for seraphim, no bodies for minions, no way to escape. The last time they accepted a seige it was to protect the library and get a chance to loot more books. There is nothing they have found (so far) in these rooms worth risking being trapped long term.

[Mith]

There is nothing they have found (so far) in these rooms worth risking being trapped long term.

Well, the drow could probably find uses for prismatic metal.

[FocusWolf413]

What I would do:

Cast a bunch of defensive spells. Immunities to poison, see invisibility, some form of etherealness or incorporeality, haste, nerveskitter, and basically anything else that can give a boost to defenses, hit points, saves, ac, etc.

Send a weak giant in to get curbstomped, then teleport in the round later and just SPRINT at top speed. Leave a couple trolls and stuff behind. Make a break for it.

[Traab]

Well, the drow could probably find uses for prismatic metal.

Yeah but I meant our crew of "heroes". There is just nothing to work with in this place for their group. Its like it was designed just to screw them over. *cough* Getting pinned down in one of the rooms is just asking for a slow gruesome death. The dragon giant drow crew could swarm into this level and they would have nowhere to go and no hope of escape short of dm fiat (suddenly a door opened in a previously blank wall!)

Focus, I agree they need to make a break for it, thats why I made that guess about what will happen next. If seraph suicides on the other side that will give our group half the party on either side. Whats more, they shouldnt be expecting them to just come back and assault them from the other side so they might be able to pull off some sort of blitz that lets them make a break for it. Azzie is going to be really tough to pin down, and with two lichs, a vamp, and a grave lord or whatever ares is called, they only have like the half giant half dragon guy thats in real danger of permanent death, so as long as he survives to reach a safe point they can make it.

[Kaveman26]

Schism:

Seraphim: Pull a Leeroy?

Ares: Yeah, charge through the portal in a suicide run and try to disrupt as much of their set up as possible. If they gas you…fly back to the vault and hit your coffin. The twins and you regroup and when you hit them from your side we come from this side and trap them.

Seraphim: Why me and not you?

Ares: Because I won’t eat Doc if I get stuck here another day or two.

Azzie: What if she can’t trigger the vault in gas form? Then she is locked out and dies forever.

Ares: Hades is inside the vault and is already regenerated, he has a pile of corpses ready to stand up and within a day Pluto will be back as well. Worst case Hades can pop the lock and let you in.

Seraphim: So we are 24 hours from Pluto regenerating, should we plan on assaulting after 24 hours time?

Ares: Yeah that is what I am thinking. We will hold the line here and wait another full day then we will load up for battle and come through blazing once we get the signal. We need to take control of this room and this device. He who controls the circle controls the ship.

Azzie: Only us attacking through won’t hold the circle. Kill the drow and face the dragon. We are always going to have animals circling the goodie pile. It took my shadow thinning to make the damn thing come into sync and be accessible, should be able to do the same thing in reverse and make it go away. Took all my performances, so it would be an every other day type thing.

Seraphim: That could actually work. Send me through, close off the door to prevent them from sniping and raiding and open it when it is in our interest.

Doc: One problem…if we take away the reason for them being here, what if they lay siege to the vault?

Azzie: Don’t think they will, think they will have to hold this territory for no good reason or leave. Can’t risk letting the rest of us through again. Only problem from staying here is lack of fuel. We need stuff to kill and feed on. If we could bring some provisions we could hold up in here and keep the territory to ourselves, got a feeling this is where we need to be. I feel confident that we will able to leave them high and dry.

Seraphim: Well hit me with some buff spells and let me get hair in order and we can get crazy.

Ares: Do your best to get free and provide us intelligence based on what is waiting. I got a feeling you won’t make it cleanly though.

Seraphim: Wish me luck…

The witch takes off through the circle and confirms for herself that as a lone passenger it sinks 2 points of her pool to operate the apparatus. She emerges amidst a platoon of drow and fire elementals. The Matron is visible from a well protected corner and it looks like the vast majority of the drow entourage is present. Strangely all of the ice spiders are missing. I go out of my way to mention this because Seraphim went out of her way to mention looking for them.

The dark elves seem to have been on high alert and react quickly to her presence, not quickly enough to avoid the closest target being forced into a Dominate Person check from her vampiric ability. The drow warrior fails his check and in captivated to action for Seraphim, who wordlessly orders him to protect her, as she tries to sprint from the danger zone.

To her temporary thrall’s credit he reacts swiftly and boldly slashing at the next closest warrior and taking him by surprise. She manages to get clear of the circle and in motion by the time a flurry of fire spells and arrows begin to home in on her. The sheer volume of spells being lobbed is alarming and the fire protection they dropped on her before she made the jump pay off in spades. She is nearly to the hallway proper when the matron drops a Wall of Ice to block it.

Seraphim: Well played…taking a page out of my own book.

The following round sees Seraphim launching spells of her own as she tries to stay behind the frantic blades of her press ganged bodyguard. A flaming sphere spins against the wall and begins to melt a path as she puts up a wall of her own in a half circle to cut the elves off. She successfully makes the hallway and breaks into a dead sprint, putting up a second Wall oF Ice to belay her pursuers and prevent their tracking her path.

She convoys a message through the skull network back to the other stranded members.

“Drow contingent only, more elementals than summoning supports not sure of their source. Boss lady is with them and they are camped out prepped for ambush. No sign of spiders, giants, or dragons. Clear for the moment”

Ares: Well it sounds like she made it through. Azzie see if you can reverse the circle’s access from our Plane. Let’s lock the door on them.

Azzie: Aye Aye captain!

[Traab]

Wow, part 1 of the plan worked better than I expected. Too bad part 2 is going to fall the heck apart. I wouldnt be even slightly surprised if the rest of the army is parked right outside the vault door. In fact, isnt this the vault door where we found the squadron of dragons way back in the day including our ticked off boss? It would make sense for him to be there just because he still likely wants to get inside there.

On the other hand, we may get lucky and the alliance fell apart with the giants and dragons not wanting to bother anymore so its only the drow that are dedicated to penetrating further into this place. Meaning the dragon is dealing with giant ice spider dragon creatures and such.

[Traab]

A follow up question I wanted to ask. As I have pointed out a few times recently, it seems like this next layer of the ship/dungeon was custom designed to wreck the cattle drivers standard MO, was this something that just happened? Or did you always plan to have this floor be devoid of biological life even before learning what classes the party was going to choose? I know you have said how you had to juggle things on the fly to adapt to how hard they were stomping through originally so I was curious about how far its gone. And as a dm, how do you balance that sort of thing? When your party is basically designed around one thing, how do you counter it without no selling it?

[Kaveman26]

A follow up question I wanted to ask. As I have pointed out a few times recently, it seems like this next layer of the ship/dungeon was custom designed to wreck the cattle drivers standard MO, was this something that just happened? Or did you always plan to have this floor be devoid of biological life even before learning what classes the party was going to choose? I know you have said how you had to juggle things on the fly to adapt to how hard they were stomping through originally so I was curious about how far its gone. And as a dm, how do you balance that sort of thing? When your party is basically designed around one thing, how do you counter it without no selling it?

This segment was conceived before I even knew what characters they had created. Was always going to be construct heavy and "automated". It became an unexpected additional source of conflict as a result of their eventual actions

[Kaveman26]

Wider View

Ares: Alright, time to dig a bit deeper on our end. We have 24 points between us. Let’s expend at least half trying to unlock more rooms, etc.

In quick order they are able to discover a few key pieces of information:
1. Rooms in which clearance is granted remain accessible. So they need only be unlocked once.
2. Guards vanquished repopulate, they discover this when the trio of Iron Eyes reappear and once again demand security clearance.

They expend 3 points to “deactivate the trio guarding the larger door and uncover what they dub the “Cocoon Room”

A series of tubes suspended from gossamer ropes hang from the ceiling, they look much like the vertical hammock, but completely sealed and partially opaque. There are close to fifty in the room, only 4 of which are empty. Inside each cocoon is an illithid in what is outwardly suspended animation or hibernation. Some U.M.D from Azzie leads them to conclude that the three empty chambers correspond likely to the three separate room and the fourth empty pod is unexplained to them from the onset.

Azzie: Best guess…the three sets of room were livin quarters for some of the squidfaces. Not sure about the fourth. Looks like they are MiA in any event.

Doc: Should we try to open one?

Azzie: An actual intelligent person would be a nice change of pace, as opposed to the you know…automated crew.

Ares: No gurantee they will be friendly or helpful. Suppose it worth a chance though. Some firsthand intelligence would be fantastic.

A considerable amount of effort coupled with some very off the wall trial and error sees them fail miserably to open the cocoons. Eventually they throw their hands up into the air and decide that they must be locked from the inside and only can be released from the occupant.

Azzie: That would make sense from a security standpoint I guess.

Stymied by the cocoons they reverse directions and instead deactivate the security for the other two work/living areas. The second set of rooms is set up identical to the first, but the second workstation seemed to be dedicated to the formation of the crystalline formations found in the proximity of Moo-Dor. A second projection illuminates the presence of these crystals.
“In an effort to expand understanding and improve our knowledge of this locations limitations we have expanded our own neural enhancers to interact with the native flora and fauna. Prolonged exposure and consumption of the material will boost any latent psionic ability and in some cases cause a mutated evolution of the subject. First wave results indicate that this planet’s inhabitants have only scratched the surface of their ultimate potential. Enclave deems such a ceiling for growth problematic and an area of concern”

The stockroom for this second station is empty.

The third set of rooms has been wiped out completely. All traces of what transpired or any projects in place are gone. They find a lone crystal stuck under the hammock after a long and tedious search. The vision presented seems less of a personal log and more of a group conference, as if recorded or captured from someone inside an auditorium. The speaker is identified by his robes and jewelry as an Enclave member.

“This Plane and it’s subsequent realities are a cluster of balances. Demons are offset by Devils, Sun is offset by Moon, To each positive is a negative. Symmetry and parallel border on the universal for their domain. We have catalogued a vast selection of flora and fauna, even going so far as to quarantine some of the more dubious denizens into more fitting homes. For our intents and purpose this planet was of interest but nothing of significance was present.

We have recently uncovered an anomaly. Deep below the surface in a place called Underdark we located a source of energy. This energy in the form of a benign radiation was completely unequaled or paralled in this reality. We could locate no corresponding opposite or balancing agent. This radiation dramatically altered the biology and ecosystem it covered. The divergent psychology and biology of the Underdark’s inhabitants can only be attributed to this unknown power source.

Brethren I offer an opinion that may make you uncomfortable, but our conclusions support no other outcome. This radiation is beyond our ability to comprehend and poses a grave risk to our future. “

The audience seems outraged at the final assertion and their fury is vocalized in harsh terms. After a period of minutes the anger dies down and the speaker continues…

“I share your hostility and disbelief. Be that as it may it is to our ultimate benefit and with our species survival at stake that I urge a further investigation into this anomaly. If we fail to harness it then I believe that we may be forced to destroy it. To this end I propose two separate and immediately urgent projects. The first is an exploration into the extent of this radiation’s power and a determination of it’s purpose. The second is the creation of an Extinction Protocol that can be utilized in this realities destruction. This second project will be based on our Volcanus Theory. “

At this the recording ends.

[Mith]

Do we actually know who Volcanus is yet?

[Kaveman26]

Do we actually know who Volcanus is yet?

Only vaguely. At this point the group is still in the dark. Readers will know he is a red/gold hybrid dragon.

[Traab]

Hmm, interesting. If they can figure out how to get at the cocoons they will have at the very worst, a number of undead they can raise and control. At best a potential source of information and control over the dungeon, IF they can get straight answers and willing cooperation out of their new minion. That second room for increasing psionic power really raised my eyebrows. then you had it be empty. Makes me wonder. The drow are in here somewhere already i think. Lets hope they didnt just become even more deadly and dangerous.

[Kaveman26]

Territorial Disagreements:

While Ares and company watch the Illithid Conference Call, Seraphim reunites with Hades and soon to be Pluto inside the vault chamber. They reanimate a pile of disposable skeletons and then hold tight.

Seraphim: Come tomorrow we need to go hard against the drow and see if we can’t pull them away. If we can create enough clearance then Doc and company can come from their rear and we can surround them.

Hades: How is the thirst?

Seraphim: Already overwhelming. Can we afford a little grocery scouting?

Hades: I can hold down the vault if you want to run out and scout/hunt. Take your troll vampires with you, leave the skeletons we will need them as fodder.

The witch takes her troll thralls and starts brief sweeps of the surrounding areas, looking for stragglers or in a worst case trying to stave off larger groups. She is practically giddy when she is attacked by a drow patrol. 3 dark elves emerge from the shadows, one (presumably a cleric) brandishes a holy symbol in an attempt to hold her at bay. The second launches a fireball at her cluster of vampires, and the third puts a trio of arrows into her sternum. With ruthless glee she has her thralls swarm the fireball caster while she tries to Dominate the cleric. Her attempt fails and she eats another spell coupled with another cluster of arrows. The trolls rip the caster to shreds with energy drains and blood drain. The following round Dominate lands and she rips control of the cleric who she compels to inflict negative energy spells on her for healing. The surviving drow is energy drained to the point of coma, and taken back to the vault with the dominated cleric. She drains the fighter dry and leaves him dead. She destroys one of her troll spawn and replaces them as thralls with the soon to be reanimated cleric and wizard (both 6th level)

Hades: Nice, three less drow and now we have a pocket wizard and cleric.

Bloodlust sated for the time being, and with some new minions they elect not to press their luck any further and bide…

Are’s three man team elects to search the Cocoon Room further and they isolate three separate exits from the central chamber, each with the same style larger doors. They open all three doors to find similar hallways.

Doc: Nothing that scream winner…

Azzie: Let’s start from the left and work to the right then…

They follow the left passage down a hallway that eventually curves around a bend and leads them into a Domed chamber that seems to extend into the night sky and straight off into infinity. It is as if the cosmos themselves were contained in one limitless room and reachable with an out grasped hand. A nearly invisible sphere rests in the center of the room and physical contact allows them to steer through the heavens.

Azzie: Bloody Hell, talk about your map rooms.

Ares: I am willing to go out on a limb and assume this was for navigation purposes, or charting courses. Doesn’t seem to be interactive beyond steering the image though.

A new voice disrupts their reverie of the heavens…

Elliana: It is not meant to be interactive, simply a visual aid for my masters.

Ares: Uhm…I didn’t say the word…did you guys?

Both: nope.

Elliana: I am present of my own accord and not the whims of my protocol. I am surprised at your presence more so than you should be my mine.

Ares: Why is that?

Elliana: No sentient lifeform aside from the Illithid has ever set foot in this place and surived the experience.

Azzie: We have the proper security clearance luv…

Elliana: Indeed.

The Crone at this point began circling the trio hands before her back as if steepled in thought. Her steps seemed to span entire solar systems as she walked among the stars.

Elliana: Do you know why you are here?

Ares: Because we triggered the circle…

Elliana: We prefer the term Interdimensional Internal Device

Doc: Circle works for us just fine.

Elliana: In any case my meaning was misinterpreted. Why are you on this Ark? What is your purpose?

Doc: Well you took me from my tribe and made the only world I know vanish.

Elliana: Then why are you still here?

Doc: Because I expect someone to answer for my life and my people being snatched from me.

Elliana: Do your comrades share these feelings?

Ares: I came looking for power and wealth. Both have come to me in plenty. I stay because I refuse to leave an enemy to come for me someday.

Azzie: These are my bandmates. I never leave a man behind…

Elliana: Ahhh. Do you know why we are here?

Ares: Because your bosses screwed up, and badly from the sounds of it.

Elliana: For thousands of millennia my masters were unopposed in their ability and scope of influence. Galaxies rose and fell like drops of rain beneath their control. Their knowledge and power go beyond your comprehension, and yes sadly they made a mistake. They found something greater than themselves and their hubris was their downfall. I wonder if you will realize that your end has come only before or after it has arrived?

Azzie: Awfully chatty you are, what changed?

Elliana: I have failed as well. It was my duty to enact repairs to the Ark and bring it’s systems back online. It was my duty to revive the Masters and reunite their spirits to their corporeal forms. Without them the prisoner will escape and this world will burn. For the first time I am without purpose or reason.

Doc: Why can’t you fix the ship?

Elliana: Too many systems have been offline and failed. Far too many elements are damaged beyond repair and I lack the ability to create new components.

Azzie: Is there any way you can jury rig it?

Elliana: If I jettisoned all non essential components and diverted everything to core functions and prison containment we could limp all along. Unfortunately the overrides for such a procedure were scattered and hidden as a security precaution. To ensure no rogue element overrode our protocols they are inaccessible by automated service providers.

Ares: But if these overrides were located and restored you get the ship functional albeit crippled? That would keep Volcanus secure?

Elliana: Yes.

Ares: What do they look like?

Elliana: There are three total, each is designed in the aspect of Volcanus himself, a poetic irony from the Enclave. They will bond with the first sentient lifeform to touch them.

Doc: Do they look like this?

The witch doctor holds up the dragon amulet from the vault and shows it to the Crone

Elliana: Yes, that is one of the three…how did you find it?

Ares: We stumbled onto it. It was inside a vault room closer to the surface.

Elliana: There are three such chambers in the ship.

Azzie: Well for sake of discussion, where would the other two be located?

She pauses and seems to flicker as she processes this question. After serveral long moments she bids them follow her. The Crone walks down the center of the three hallways and comes to a new Transportation Circle, she activates the circle and deactivates any security associated with it in one stroke, taking the four of them to a completely different segment of the ship.

Elliana: This is the architectural hub for the vessel. I have elected to grant you access to the full ship’s layout in an effort to ensure acquisition of the remaining two override keys.

Spread out in an entire room are the layouts and key code for entire ship. Transportation Circles dot the map and enable travel between different layers and even different dimensions. Extra dimensional spaces abound within compartments throughout the Ark and by their estimation they count at least fifteen different sections in addition to the two they have already visited.

Elliana: I have highlighted the two remaining vault locations.

Ares: Alright. We are going to need something from you.

Elliana: I await your request…

Ares: We need access to a central control room and unlimited access to all secured areas of the vessel.

Elliana: I am not able to comply with that request.

Ares: This is make or break time darling, no time to haggle. We NEED access to everything.

Elliana: Negotiation is not my intent. I am unable to comply with that request. It is forbidden as an absolute by my protocols.

Azzie: You said that these override keys were dispersed and hidden in case your protocols got corrupted or hijacked right?

Elliana: Yes.

Azzie: So where do we go to change them?

Elliana: I am forbidden from disclosing that location.

Azzie: Can you list all requested locations that you are forbidden from disclosing.

Elliana: Secured Locations: Central Programming…Enclave Hibernal Pod…Volcanus Core Prison…Disintengratory Hygeniene Control Panel…Master Control Room.

Azzie: Please identify all allowable locations on the map…

The Crone basically lights up the entire board with an index and designation for everything…everything except for six locations.

Azzie: Right…we know that it has to be one of the six undisclosed locations. Let’s hope like hell that we can’t just accidentally open Volcanus’s door, that means we have five places to search in addition to the two vaults.

Ares: Hmmm, there is something missing still.

Doc: Looks pretty complete to me. Only six places not identified.

Ares: Where is Jaze’s cell at? Every prison wing and prisoner has a name. I don’t see him anywhere.

Azzie: Elliana…locate Jaze.

The Crone once again flickers and this time her voice comes across as the playfully masculine and smug sound of Jaze himself.

Jaze: My location is my own business.

As his voice fades Elliana vanishes. Leaving the group of three alone inside the map room.


Within the next week or so I will scan and post the full map the received

[CrispyCriminal]

Territorial Disagreements:

While Ares and company watch the Illithid Conference Call, Seraphim reunites with Hades and soon to be Pluto inside the vault chamber. They reanimate a pile of disposable skeletons and then hold tight.

Seraphim: Come tomorrow we need to go hard against the drow and see if we can’t pull them away. If we can create enough clearance then Doc and company can come from their rear and we can surround them.

Hades: How is the thirst?

Seraphim: Already overwhelming. Can we afford a little grocery scouting?

Hades: I can hold down the vault if you want to run out and scout/hunt. Take your troll vampires with you, leave the skeletons we will need them as fodder.

The witch takes her troll thralls and starts brief sweeps of the surrounding areas, looking for stragglers or in a worst case trying to stave off larger groups. She is practically giddy when she is attacked by a drow patrol. 3 dark elves emerge from the shadows, one (presumably a cleric) brandishes a holy symbol in an attempt to hold her at bay. The second launches a fireball at her cluster of vampires, and the third puts a trio of arrows into her sternum. With ruthless glee she has her thralls swarm the fireball caster while she tries to Dominate the cleric. Her attempt fails and she eats another spell coupled with another cluster of arrows. The trolls rip the caster to shreds with energy drains and blood drain. The following round Dominate lands and she rips control of the cleric who she compels to inflict negative energy spells on her for healing. The surviving drow is energy drained to the point of coma, and taken back to the vault with the dominated cleric. She drains the fighter dry and leaves him dead. She destroys one of her troll spawn and replaces them as thralls with the soon to be reanimated cleric and wizard (both 6th level)

Hades: Nice, three less drow and now we have a pocket wizard and cleric.

Bloodlust sated for the time being, and with some new minions they elect not to press their luck any further and bide…

Are’s three man team elects to search the Cocoon Room further and they isolate three separate exits from the central chamber, each with the same style larger doors. They open all three doors to find similar hallways.

Doc: Nothing that scream winner…

Azzie: Let’s start from the left and work to the right then…

They follow the left passage down a hallway that eventually curves around a bend and leads them into a Domed chamber that seems to extend into the night sky and straight off into infinity. It is as if the cosmos themselves were contained in one limitless room and reachable with an out grasped hand. A nearly invisible sphere rests in the center of the room and physical contact allows them to steer through the heavens.

Azzie: Bloody Hell, talk about your map rooms.

Ares: I am willing to go out on a limb and assume this was for navigation purposes, or charting courses. Doesn’t seem to be interactive beyond steering the image though.

A new voice disrupts their reverie of the heavens…

Elliana: It is not meant to be interactive, simply a visual aid for my masters.

Ares: Uhm…I didn’t say the word…did you guys?

Both: nope.

Elliana: I am present of my own accord and not the whims of my protocol. I am surprised at your presence more so than you should be my mine.

Ares: Why is that?

Elliana: No sentient lifeform aside from the Illithid has ever set foot in this place and surived the experience.

Azzie: We have the proper security clearance luv…

Elliana: Indeed.

The Crone at this point began circling the trio hands before her back as if steepled in thought. Her steps seemed to span entire solar systems as she walked among the stars.

Elliana: Do you know why you are here?

Ares: Because we triggered the circle…

Elliana: We prefer the term Interdimensional Internal Device

Doc: Circle works for us just fine.

Elliana: In any case my meaning was misinterpreted. Why are you on this Ark? What is your purpose?

Doc: Well you took me from my tribe and made the only world I know vanish.

Elliana: Then why are you still here?

Doc: Because I expect someone to answer for my life and my people being snatched from me.

Elliana: Do your comrades share these feelings?

Ares: I came looking for power and wealth. Both have come to me in plenty. I stay because I refuse to leave an enemy to come for me someday.

Azzie: These are my bandmates. I never leave a man behind…

Elliana: Ahhh. Do you know why we are here?

Ares: Because your bosses screwed up, and badly from the sounds of it.

Elliana: For thousands of millennia my masters were unopposed in their ability and scope of influence. Galaxies rose and fell like drops of rain beneath their control. Their knowledge and power go beyond your comprehension, and yes sadly they made a mistake. They found something greater than themselves and their hubris was their downfall. I wonder if you will realize that your end has come only before or after it has arrived?

Azzie: Awfully chatty you are, what changed?

Elliana: I have failed as well. It was my duty to enact repairs to the Ark and bring it’s systems back online. It was my duty to revive the Masters and reunite their spirits to their corporeal forms. Without them the prisoner will escape and this world will burn. For the first time I am without purpose or reason.

Doc: Why can’t you fix the ship?

Elliana: Too many systems have been offline and failed. Far too many elements are damaged beyond repair and I lack the ability to create new components.

Azzie: Is there any way you can jury rig it?

Elliana: If I jettisoned all non essential components and diverted everything to core functions and prison containment we could limp all along. Unfortunately the overrides for such a procedure were scattered and hidden as a security precaution. To ensure no rogue element overrode our protocols they are inaccessible by automated service providers.

Ares: But if these overrides were located and restored you get the ship functional albeit crippled? That would keep Volcanus secure?

Elliana: Yes.

Ares: What do they look like?

Elliana: There are three total, each is designed in the aspect of Volcanus himself, a poetic irony from the Enclave. They will bond with the first sentient lifeform to touch them.

Doc: Do they look like this?

The witch doctor holds up the dragon amulet from the vault and shows it to the Crone

Elliana: Yes, that is one of the three…how did you find it?

Ares: We stumbled onto it. It was inside a vault room closer to the surface.

Elliana: There are three such chambers in the ship.

Azzie: Well for sake of discussion, where would the other two be located?

She pauses and seems to flicker as she processes this question. After serveral long moments she bids them follow her. The Crone walks down the center of the three hallways and comes to a new Transportation Circle, she activates the circle and deactivates any security associated with it in one stroke, taking the four of them to a completely different segment of the ship.

Elliana: This is the architectural hub for the vessel. I have elected to grant you access to the full ship’s layout in an effort to ensure acquisition of the remaining two override keys.

Spread out in an entire room are the layouts and key code for entire ship. Transportation Circles dot the map and enable travel between different layers and even different dimensions. Extra dimensional spaces abound within compartments throughout the Ark and by their estimation they count at least fifteen different sections in addition to the two they have already visited.

Elliana: I have highlighted the two remaining vault locations.

Ares: Alright. We are going to need something from you.

Elliana: I await your request…

Ares: We need access to a central control room and unlimited access to all secured areas of the vessel.

Elliana: I am not able to comply with that request.

Ares: This is make or break time darling, no time to haggle. We NEED access to everything.

Elliana: Negotiation is not my intent. I am unable to comply with that request. It is forbidden as an absolute by my protocols.

Azzie: You said that these override keys were dispersed and hidden in case your protocols got corrupted or hijacked right?

Elliana: Yes.

Azzie: So where do we go to change them?

Elliana: I am forbidden from disclosing that location.

Azzie: Can you list all requested locations that you are forbidden from disclosing.

Elliana: Secured Locations: Central Programming…Enclave Hibernal Pod…Volcanus Core Prison…Disintengratory Hygeniene Control Panel…Master Control Room.

Azzie: Please identify all allowable locations on the map…

The Crone basically lights up the entire board with an index and designation for everything…everything except for six locations.

Azzie: Right…we know that it has to be one of the six undisclosed locations. Let’s hope like hell that we can’t just accidentally open Volcanus’s door, that means we have five places to search in addition to the two vaults.

Ares: Hmmm, there is something missing still.

Doc: Looks pretty complete to me. Only six places not identified.

Ares: Where is Jaze’s cell at? Every prison wing and prisoner has a name. I don’t see him anywhere.

Azzie: Elliana…locate Jaze.

The Crone once again flickers and this time her voice comes across as the playfully masculine and smug sound of Jaze himself.

Jaze: My location is my own business.

As his voice fades Elliana vanishes. Leaving the group of three alone inside the map room.


Within the next week or so I will scan and post the full map the received


Well that's...disconcerting. I don't expect Jaze to have absolute control over protocols, but I do anticipate he'll be an obstacle in the way of overriding protocols.

[Blitheslayer]

I knew there had to be a twist. It seemed like they were overcoming so much all of the sudden. I also wonder how long it will take them to realize the "Disintengratory Hygeniene Control Panel" is the dragon beholder. That is my guess at least.

I look forward to the map! Although, you write well enough that I have had pictures of this game in my head for many weeks. I'm glad you are mended and back with us. Reading your updates are something I look forward to. We all need to share a different reality some times.

Thank you for your efforts.

[Traab]

Oh wow, so the undead squad are bulking up in preparation for a major offensive, the left behind crew are learning more and more about how everything works and what they need to do to take advantage of things. That issue with Jaze is very concerning. He has helped and hurt them at different times, and we have no idea what his current plot is. There certainly is a lot going on. I cant wait to see how things go. Im actually worried now because they left the teleporter room, which leaves the drow free to infiltrate even more.

[ATHATH]

What if "Elianna" doesn't actually exist, and is just one of Jaze's illusions?

[Kaveman26]

What if "Elianna" doesn't actually exist, and is just one of Jaze's illusions?

I vow that this is not the case.




I knew there had to be a twist. It seemed like they were overcoming so much all of the sudden. I also wonder how long it will take them to realize the "Disintengratory Hygeniene Control Panel" is the dragon beholder. That is my guess at least.


I was trying to be as blatant as possible without being Pun-Blatant.

[Norin]

Eeeheheh...

DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
I'm such a nerd for thinking about DHCP when i read the Disintengratory Hygeniene Control Panel thing.

Anyways, this is great as always.
In between your updates i am currently reading through "The Big One". It's been a blast so far! *thumbs up*

[Lord of Shadows]

What if "Elianna" doesn't actually exist, and is just one of Jaze's illusions?


I vow that this is not the case.

Perhaps Elianna isn't an image conjured up by Jaze... but she could have been co-opted, or "infected" by Jaze. Speaking of, whenever Jaze makes an appearance, I keep having flashbacks to The Q (http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Q) of Star Trek:TNG fame... Ahh well, probably just nothing.
.

[Mith]

I apologize if this has been mentioned before, but do vampire thralls require feeding the same way Sera does, making when to acquire thralls vs. killing them a logistics issue, or do they not require blood to be kept functional?

[Kaveman26]

I apologize if this has been mentioned before, but do vampire thralls require feeding the same way Sera does, making when to acquire thralls vs. killing them a logistics issue, or do they not require blood to be kept functional?

Without blood they will became feral and savage much like Seraphim. The "feeding" requirements for them are not adhered to as strictly as hers, partially because we treat them like complete slaves. If she doesn't let them off the leash they are bound to obey. Should one become freed you can bet they will harbor a level of resentment and anger unparalleled. At this point of the campaign that issue hadn't really come up because her trolls were short lived and stuck in a vault with a bloodless skeleton. Named thralls lasted longer than a few hours/one day. Those created some more intriguing scenarios.

[Inevitability]

I vow that this is not the case.


Did anyone else highlight the empty space below expecting white text?

[Demidos]

Did anyone else highlight the empty space below expecting white text?

Guilty as charged. :smallbiggrin:

[Demon 997]

Guilty as charged. :smallbiggrin:

Same here. Was really surprised to not find it.

[Kaveman26]

I am not that devious (usually)

Also worth noting that after something of a marathon session last night we completed this campaign. It will still take me weeks to finish the write up for here, but the deed is done.

Get to pass on the DM screen now and relax as a good ol PC

[GrayDeath]

You mean a young (eg freshly created) Evil one, dont you? ^^

Also: finished, at lvl 13-15ish? Awww, no new Gods/Demon Lords....

[Kaveman26]

I think I have had my fill of evil for a bit. Tempted to go straight pacifist hippie of some kind. Probably won't, but I'm tempted.

[GrayDeath]

Cleric with Vow of Nonviolence, Domains Good and Plant?

Sounds fun to be around ^^

Too bad I only once got to play in a (relatively given your examples) good Evil Campaign.
In the Underdark, political play of a house shortly prior to the house war.
Interestingly I managed to pull of a lawful evil Warrior (Fighter/Kensai, high Int and other unusual things, we rolled and I had luck for once^^) due to our house superiors being very interested in one Guard/etc who could be sure to keep his oaths. Doubly in my case.
Later got started on the Road to Half Devil...but sadly 2 players left.
Nothing nongood/Neutral ever since....aside from GMing of course.

[Kane0]

I'm conflicted at this news. On one hand I am greatly anticipating the finale, but in the other i'm dreading the thought of what to read after this is done.

Any idea on what you're doing for your next campaign?

[GorinichSerpant]

I'm conflicted at this news. On one hand I am greatly anticipating the finale, but in the other i'm dreading the thought of what to read after this is done.

Any idea on what you're doing for your next campaign?

All good things come to an end. Luckily so do the bad things.

[Talakeal]

Question, do you think this is a horror game?


Longer explanation, if people dont mind me derailing the thread for a bit while we wait for the next gripping installment of Kaveman's epic saga:

I asked for advice on an upcming game and was directed to this campaign log for inspiration. I read it and absorbed it, (and loved it) and it did indeed give me a lot of neat ideas.

The result was that yesterday I ran a game where the players were trapped in an ancient ilithid fortress that had been cut off from the rest of the world for eons. It was populated by various deranged squatters, unquiet ghosts, strange constructs acting out old programming, and various sorts of mad science gone wrong. The players cleared out a portion of the place, killing monsters and grabbing several valuable artifacts before escaping.

After the session one of the players told me that while it was obvious that I put a lot of thought into it he couldnt bring himself to care. And as he couldnt care he didnt pay attention to my descriptions, let alone remember them (at one point during the game he actually chose to walk right past a treasure horde that I had spent the last thirty seconds describing because he "tuned me out" while I was describing the room).

He said he really didnt enjoy the game because he came for an fantasy action adventure game and instead got a horror game, and he hates horror.

I was kind of taken aback by this. To me it seems more like a weird fantasy / pulp sci fi mashup rather than horror. While it has elements (like undead and monsters that you need tp run from rather than fighting head on) I really think it lacks the sense of bleakness and helplessness that is a key to horror.

What do you guys think? What genre would you say this sort of campaign best emulates?

[Gallowglass]

Question, do you think this is a horror game?


Longer explanation, if people dont mind me derailing the thread for a bit while we wait for the next gripping installment of Kaveman's epic saga:

I asked for advice on an upcming game and was directed to this campaign log for inspiration. I read it and absorbed it, (and loved it) and it did indeed give me a lot of neat ideas.

The result was that yesterday I ran a game where the players were trapped in an ancient ilithid fortress that had been cut off from the rest of the world for eons. It was populated by various deranged squatters, unquiet ghosts, strange constructs acting out old programming, and various sorts of mad science gone wrong. The players cleared out a portion of the place, killing monsters and grabbing several valuable artifacts before escaping.

After the session one of the players told me that while it was obvious that I put a lot of thought into it he couldnt bring himself to care. And as he couldnt care he didnt pay attention to my descriptions, let alone remember them (at one point during the game he actually chose to walk right past a treasure horde that I had spent the last thirty seconds describing because he "tuned me out" while I was describing the room).

He said he really didnt enjoy the game because he came for an fantasy action adventure game and instead got a horror game, and he hates horror.

I was kind of taken aback by this. To me it seems more like a weird fantasy / pulp sci fi mashup rather than horror. While it has elements (like undead and monsters that you need tp run from rather than fighting head on) I really think it lacks the sense of bleakness and helplessness that is a key to horror.

What do you guys think? What genre would you say this sort of campaign best emulates?


A horror game is not a horror game because it contains certain objects like dark corridors and horrid creatures, a horror game is a horror game if its presented with certain elements such as suspense and shock and fear. I don't mean "he casts fear on you and you run away" I mean your descriptions actually make the player feel fear.

I mean the difference between:

"You inch through the open portal and enter another long slick-walled corridor. The walls here pulse with heat, moisture pooling down the slick stone. You hear some kind of chittering clacks from further ahead, but you see nothing in the oppresive darkness. As you pass the portal, you hear the ancient mechanisms shuddering and clicking trying to cycle the door closed but the machine was rusted or damage beyond function long ago. As you step in, you foot sinks into a noxious pool of thick mucussy fluid that sticks to your boot. You see more pools of the liquid gathered here and there like slimy footsteps preceding you."

vs

"Through the door is another 60' corridor. The light level is full darkness. The corridor is very hot, enough to cause fatigue if you stay in here very long. There is a lot of condensation on the stone walls. Roll a perception check. 18? You hear sounds up ahead like insect clicks. You think its probably more than 100' ahead of you. You also hear sounds coming from the portal you just passed that sound like mechanical failure in the closing mechanism. There are slimy footprints on the floor, do you want to roll a tracking roll to see if you can identify them?"

The story presented as "trapped in an ancient ilithid fortress that had been cut off from the rest of the world for eons. It was populated by various deranged squatters, unquiet ghosts, strange constructs acting out old programming, and various sorts of mad science gone wrong" could be horror or it could not. It depends on how you, the GM, present the material, how you let the players interact with the world and also how the players choose to interact with the world.

based on Kaveman's story, it doesn't seem very horror to me. Yes, there are times where the party says "hell no!" and back off, but its never presented as being out of fear or trepidation, but out of tactical planning. I have never played with Kaveman, but his logs always sound like tactical wargaming to me. I imagine when he has 6 PCs that are wrangling 30+ minions fighting a horde of 60-150 enemy minions, that is more of a battle mat area control exercise which would never really be "horror". Its undead battletech. NTTIAWWT. And when it isn't undead battletech, its more problem solving like right now where some of the PCs are in a "lets figure out how this puzzle works" mode to get further access to the ship. Note how the players are thinking the puzzle through and trying things to get it to work. If you read the forums here, you'll find a large number of people who will moan "but I should be able to roll a knowledge engineering check or a spellcraft check to figure it out!" rather than trying to figure it out as a player. I applaud Kaveman for not doing that, I think his players are having more fun puzzling it out themselves and I think most readers of this log agree that it makes a more interesting narrative.

Presented in a different way, I could see the exact same story being a horror story. Or a dungeon crawl. Or a dark comedy.

In your case, based on your post, I think you just had a fundamental disconnect with this player. That's not on you, so you shouldn't feel like it was. Did the other players have fun? If most of the players are having fun, the fact that one or two errant players aren't' having fun... well... its on them. If they are so recalcitrant and inflexible that they cannot enjoy a game if its not exactly the way they want it to be (an attitude I see quite often on this board), then that's their problem. They are going to go through a life of enjoying very few games they play in.

Now if MOST Players in your games feel this way, or this is a common complaint you hear, well, maybe then you do need to think about what your doing as a DM and pay attention to other DMs to try and hone your craft.

[GorinichSerpant]

Question, do you think this is a horror game?


Longer explanation, if people dont mind me derailing the thread for a bit while we wait for the next gripping installment of Kaveman's epic saga:

I asked for advice on an upcming game and was directed to this campaign log for inspiration. I read it and absorbed it, (and loved it) and it did indeed give me a lot of neat ideas.

The result was that yesterday I ran a game where the players were trapped in an ancient ilithid fortress that had been cut off from the rest of the world for eons. It was populated by various deranged squatters, unquiet ghosts, strange constructs acting out old programming, and various sorts of mad science gone wrong. The players cleared out a portion of the place, killing monsters and grabbing several valuable artifacts before escaping.

After the session one of the players told me that while it was obvious that I put a lot of thought into it he couldnt bring himself to care. And as he couldnt care he didnt pay attention to my descriptions, let alone remember them (at one point during the game he actually chose to walk right past a treasure horde that I had spent the last thirty seconds describing because he "tuned me out" while I was describing the room).

He said he really didnt enjoy the game because he came for an fantasy action adventure game and instead got a horror game, and he hates horror.

I was kind of taken aback by this. To me it seems more like a weird fantasy / pulp sci fi mashup rather than horror. While it has elements (like undead and monsters that you need tp run from rather than fighting head on) I really think it lacks the sense of bleakness and helplessness that is a key to horror.

What do you guys think? What genre would you say this sort of campaign best emulates?

Hm, well this game is differently gritty and has some horrific elements of the weird fantasy variety, I honestly don't want to pinpoint genres.

I think some of the difference maybe due to a different distinction in style, Combat as War vs Combat as Sport. Kaveman's and friends is completely Combat as War, where you're trying to stack all the strategic advantages for yourself, where time and supply and encumbrance are important factors, and a fair fight means you already lost. This plays well with Horror, where these paradigms are true and the enemy starts with the advantage. The other side of the coin is Combat as Sport which is about two equal sides fighting for tactical supremacy, each party needs to have a fighting chance and so forth. Horror breaks down if Combat as Sport is used, for obvious reasons.

[Lord of Shadows]

He said he really didnt enjoy the game because he came for an fantasy action adventure game and instead got a horror game, and he hates horror.



Kaveman's Undead Cowboys are, first and foremost, fantasy RPGing. When I think of horror RPGing, I think of things like Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia, and their clones. While Illithid are certainly Lovecraft-inspired, I have seen very little "horror" in Kaveman's adventure log so far. There are horror elements - Vampires, Liches, Undead, bloodthirsty beings out to rule the world - but they are all framed within a fantasy setting. The primary (at least so far) antagonist is a hybrid dragon. As others have said, a lot of it is in the presentation, too.

I am curious which of the following from another poster comes closest to your unhappy player's style of play:



"You inch through the open portal and enter another long slick-walled corridor. The walls here pulse with heat, moisture pooling down the slick stone. You hear some kind of chittering clacks from further ahead, but you see nothing in the oppresive darkness. As you pass the portal, you hear the ancient mechanisms shuddering and clicking trying to cycle the door closed but the machine was rusted or damage beyond function long ago. As you step in, you foot sinks into a noxious pool of thick mucussy fluid that sticks to your boot. You see more pools of the liquid gathered here and there like slimy footsteps preceding you."
Vs.


"Through the door is another 60' corridor. The light level is full darkness. The corridor is very hot, enough to cause fatigue if you stay in here very long. There is a lot of condensation on the stone walls. Roll a perception check. 18? You hear sounds up ahead like insect clicks. You think its probably more than 100' ahead of you. You also hear sounds coming from the portal you just passed that sound like mechanical failure in the closing mechanism. There are slimy footprints on the floor, do you want to roll a tracking roll to see if you can identify them?"

If your player is more the second type, he probably disliked the session not because it had elements of horror, but because it didn't let him "Roll Play" and instead forced him to "Role Play." This difference has been the end of many a campaign.
.

[Kaveman26]

I have thought of this campaign as something that runs the edge between science fiction and hyperbolized fantasy. For a traditional party of good or mostly good characters it would feel more horrific but not quite a "horror" game. For us it is as alluded to very much a battle map strategic hobby. The role playing is secondary to the roll playing.

Having said that they embrace their characters and generally make in character desicions and the story grows as a result.

As for next campaign...

Either a modified version of the overland "Tucker's everything" I had queried about months ago. We tried the original build of it and wiped 36 characters in one day and then "cheesed" a solution where we bypassed virtually every encounter. I'll talk about that later when this is finished.

A city based campaign more three musketeers in nature.

Or dare I say it...we actually attempt to run some pre-published adventure path material.

[Grim Portent]

In some ways this game is a horror game, but only from the perspective of the NPCs. Think about how the lower ranking giants, adventurers, drow and dragons must really feel about the Undead Cowboys.

They're a force that emerges from hidden passageways with little warning and overwhelming force, they drag away the dead to consume in various ways and leave little beyond the rotten carcasses and shattered bones of their fallen minions behind. They throw your own dead comrades at you as twisted parodies of the warriors they once were and are themselves all twisted beings who are no longer truly natural, and they see outsiders as little more than pawns, obstacles and stepping stones on the route to their goals.

To most creatures, the UCs are the thing that goes bump in the night.

[Lord of Shadows]

.

"You may laugh and scoff, if it's ghostly I'm off
at the first sign of something not right,
it's true what I've said, I'm afraid of the dead
and things that go bump in the night..."

From: Things That Go Bump in The Night, by Graffiti Poet.

Complete poem here (http://monologues.co.uk/Visitors_Submissions/Things_That_Go_Bump.htm)..
.

[Kaveman26]

All Together Now…

Taking full advantage of the Sleeper and their skull walkie talkies they convey recent updates to each other and affirm a strong desire to control the circle at all costs.

Ares: From what we can gather on the map we are within reach of a prohibited location. Not sure if the crystal will get us in the door or just to the door. The map tells us that our current spot is basically a central conference room. This is where the Illithid convened to discuss matters it was one of the last places exited so the circle was still attuned to this level. From within here we can change the dial and basically use it as a transport to multiple spots.

Seraphim: So it is imperative to hold the circle from inside the conference center and not from the engine room.

Azzie: Yeah, the engine room is one of three spokes on the same wheel, there are separate engine rooms in two other hubs. We have barely scratched the surface in terms of this thing’s capacity.

Seraphim: I acquired some new drow toys, come tomorrow they should rise as thralls. Should provide us a good batch of intelligence as to the drow’s movements and plans. Feel like getting them talking is imperative before we formulate any plans.

Ares: I hear you. I guess for the mean time we are going to pop open some more doors and start clearing a path to the location we need. Going to hold back the last few points to charge up a cog crystal or two as well.

Hades: Roger that.

Hades, Pluto, and Seraphim hold tight inside their vault while waiting for Pluto to reform and for the thralls to rise from their makeshift coffins.* They load up on spells with heavy emphasis on energy protection and AoE. When the next day arrives their thralls stir awake and are greeted by their new Mistress.

Seraphim: The hunger only gets worse from here my lovelies, but I am kind and gracious to my children and I will make sure that thirst is sated. First I need to know everything about your former Matron and her intentions.

The cleric identifies himself as Pal, and the wizard as Noa.

Pal: Matron Domina was prepared to await you crushing yourselves against the forces of the dragon. She relocated our clan far from the contested territory and fortified a position. When the dragon came in force she elected for diplomacy. When you vanished Veritas became more and more agitated. She found something of value in the new territory and to appease him and keep him from lurking nearby she established scouts as deep as we could arrange. Something tipped her to the presence of the circle and she came in force with her best captains to secure it.

Noa: We had orders to infiltrate the circle and assess the position and situation inside. Once we reported back on the destruction of a cleric she decided to keep pressing against those trapped inside.

Hades: How did she know how to operate it?

Noa: Something provided her the needest instructions.

Pluto: Something or Someone?

Pal: A multi tentacled humanoid the likes of which we had never encountered.

Seraphim: This is critical, living or dead?

Pal: It consumed the brains of a fallen brother. It has a pulse and draws breath. It lives.

Hades: Think we just got a lead on the fourth empty pod.

Meanwhile:

Ares: So according to Seraphim and the twins the drow have a living Illithid feeding them intelligence and steering their actions. That is really bad.

Azzie: That basically rules out the possibility of us locking down full access to this layer. Not sure we can lock out the natives, best we can do is squat and limit their usage.

Doc: So the drow are camping us and trying to pin us down because the squidy told them to? What’s in it for him?

Azzie: No idea mate. Not sure why folks avoid trusting us.

Doc: We are backstabbing double crossing and greedy?

Azzie: He don’t know that…

Ares: They are mind readers, pretty sure they got at least a good idea of what to expect.

Azzie: So why don’t we all agree to legitimately not double cross him. I mean if we all seriously and genuinely reached out or at least thought out good intentions it would know right?

Doc: Are you suggesting that If we Think It He Will Come…

Azzie: Precisely. I would hope at least enough for a parley. I think that at least for the time being our agendas line up. Keep everything from being destroyed and keep the beastie under lock and key.

Ares: I’m pretty sure it’s a dragon. They altered it somehow, but Elliana said the override key was designed in the image of Volcanus and the key is a dragon. Ergo he should be a dragon.

Azzie: Right on mate, but I know stories that go back a long ways and I am familiar with all the tales of dragons and nothing says they are capable of what this thing is being built up to do.

Doc: So quick rundown. The drow have us split in half and are content to keep us separated while nickel and diming us. They have a mind flayer partner and Veritas still wants us dead. Why don’t we just let the drow try to raid an empty room. I say we relocate to the map room and secure the second circle. We inch our way to opening up more territory and reach one of the critical zones. Let the twins and Seraphim play shadow games against the various forces beyond reach and wait for them to get sick of being hunted. If they overcommit to attacking Sera and company we can make a break to take them from behind. If they under commit then the attrition game goes to our favor.

Ares: You are saying we should stay split?

Doc: For now yeah. Hell I would even go so far as to tell Seraphim to turn everything they manage to drain and just let them run free. We can always command them later.

Ares: It’s hard to command a vampire…

Doc: Not for us. We get a lot of chances and have a lot of boosts.

Azzie: You think she should just vamp everything in sight and leave them as a ravening horde?

Doc: I actually think they need to whip up some coffins and start honeycombing the vault room with vampire spawn.

Ares: You want to turn the vault room into a macabre jack in the box where starved vampire spawn leap out in a frenzy for anything opening the door?

Doc: Well when you describe it like that, hell yeah.

[CrispyCriminal]

All Together Now…

Taking full advantage of the Sleeper and their skull walkie talkies they convey recent updates to each other and affirm a strong desire to control the circle at all costs.

Ares: From what we can gather on the map we are within reach of a prohibited location. Not sure if the crystal will get us in the door or just to the door. The map tells us that our current spot is basically a central conference room. This is where the Illithid convened to discuss matters it was one of the last places exited so the circle was still attuned to this level. From within here we can change the dial and basically use it as a transport to multiple spots.

Seraphim: So it is imperative to hold the circle from inside the conference center and not from the engine room.

Azzie: Yeah, the engine room is one of three spokes on the same wheel, there are separate engine rooms in two other hubs. We have barely scratched the surface in terms of this thing’s capacity.

Seraphim: I acquired some new drow toys, come tomorrow they should rise as thralls. Should provide us a good batch of intelligence as to the drow’s movements and plans. Feel like getting them talking is imperative before we formulate any plans.

Ares: I hear you. I guess for the mean time we are going to pop open some more doors and start clearing a path to the location we need. Going to hold back the last few points to charge up a cog crystal or two as well.

Hades: Roger that.

Hades, Pluto, and Seraphim hold tight inside their vault while waiting for Pluto to reform and for the thralls to rise from their makeshift coffins.* They load up on spells with heavy emphasis on energy protection and AoE. When the next day arrives their thralls stir awake and are greeted by their new Mistress.

Seraphim: The hunger only gets worse from here my lovelies, but I am kind and gracious to my children and I will make sure that thirst is sated. First I need to know everything about your former Matron and her intentions.

The cleric identifies himself as Pal, and the wizard as Noa.

Pal: Matron Domina was prepared to await you crushing yourselves against the forces of the dragon. She relocated our clan far from the contested territory and fortified a position. When the dragon came in force she elected for diplomacy. When you vanished Veritas became more and more agitated. She found something of value in the new territory and to appease him and keep him from lurking nearby she established scouts as deep as we could arrange. Something tipped her to the presence of the circle and she came in force with her best captains to secure it.

Noa: We had orders to infiltrate the circle and assess the position and situation inside. Once we reported back on the destruction of a cleric she decided to keep pressing against those trapped inside.

Hades: How did she know how to operate it?

Noa: Something provided her the needest instructions.

Pluto: Something or Someone?

Pal: A multi tentacled humanoid the likes of which we had never encountered.

Seraphim: This is critical, living or dead?

Pal: It consumed the brains of a fallen brother. It has a pulse and draws breath. It lives.

Hades: Think we just got a lead on the fourth empty pod.

Meanwhile:

Ares: So according to Seraphim and the twins the drow have a living Illithid feeding them intelligence and steering their actions. That is really bad.

Azzie: That basically rules out the possibility of us locking down full access to this layer. Not sure we can lock out the natives, best we can do is squat and limit their usage.

Doc: So the drow are camping us and trying to pin us down because the squidy told them to? What’s in it for him?

Azzie: No idea mate. Not sure why folks avoid trusting us.

Doc: We are backstabbing double crossing and greedy?

Azzie: He don’t know that…

Ares: They are mind readers, pretty sure they got at least a good idea of what to expect.

Azzie: So why don’t we all agree to legitimately not double cross him. I mean if we all seriously and genuinely reached out or at least thought out good intentions it would know right?

Doc: Are you suggesting that If we Think It He Will Come…

Azzie: Precisely. I would hope at least enough for a parley. I think that at least for the time being our agendas line up. Keep everything from being destroyed and keep the beastie under lock and key.

Ares: I’m pretty sure it’s a dragon. They altered it somehow, but Elliana said the override key was designed in the image of Volcanus and the key is a dragon. Ergo he should be a dragon.

Azzie: Right on mate, but I know stories that go back a long ways and I am familiar with all the tales of dragons and nothing says they are capable of what this thing is being built up to do.

Doc: So quick rundown. The drow have us split in half and are content to keep us separated while nickel and diming us. They have a mind flayer partner and Veritas still wants us dead. Why don’t we just let the drow try to raid an empty room. I say we relocate to the map room and secure the second circle. We inch our way to opening up more territory and reach one of the critical zones. Let the twins and Seraphim play shadow games against the various forces beyond reach and wait for them to get sick of being hunted. If they overcommit to attacking Sera and company we can make a break to take them from behind. If they under commit then the attrition game goes to our favor.

Ares: You are saying we should stay split?

Doc: For now yeah. Hell I would even go so far as to tell Seraphim to turn everything they manage to drain and just let them run free. We can always command them later.

Ares: It’s hard to command a vampire…

Doc: Not for us. We get a lot of chances and have a lot of boosts.

Azzie: You think she should just vamp everything in sight and leave them as a ravening horde?

Doc: I actually think they need to whip up some coffins and start honeycombing the vault room with vampire spawn.

Ares: You want to turn the vault room into a macabre jack in the box where starved vampire spawn leap out in a frenzy for anything opening the door?

Doc: Well when you describe it like that, hell yeah.

The fact that the guy who just suggested the vampire spawn horde is the one who's most suspectable to their hunger says alot about how ballsy your group is, even with their tactical caution.

[Traab]

The fact that the guy who just suggested the vampire spawn horde is the one who's most suspectable to their hunger says alot about how ballsy your group is, even with their tactical caution.

True, though he does have a good point. I mean, while the matron herself is likely fully capable of wrecking some vampire spawn, the entire party is pretty much capable of taking control of any at any given time they need a reload of undead. But still the problem remains, WHERE IS VERITAS?! That is a really really bad dude to lose track of. Not even counting the forces under his command. Thats the real problem here. They could probably take out any one of these factions that are after them, but they just cant handle all of them, and losing track of one of them is just asking to take a nasty pasting at the worst possible moment.

Not sure what to make of the illithid. Thats just dangerous all the way around. These people are treachery personified, there is no way in hell they are going to run a scam on a mind reading npc. And illithid are pretty dangerous too arent they?

[Inevitability]

Not sure what to make of the illithid. Thats just dangerous all the way around. These people are treachery personified, there is no way in hell they are going to run a scam on a mind reading npc. And illithid are pretty dangerous too arent they?

Going by 3.5 stats, they're 'mere' CR 8 creatures. I'm pretty sure this one will have class levels/templates, though.

[Talakeal]

Kaveman's Undead Cowboys are, first and foremost, fantasy RPGing. When I think of horror RPGing, I think of things like Call of Cthulhu, Paranoia, and their clones. While Illithid are certainly Lovecraft-inspired, I have seen very little "horror" in Kaveman's adventure log so far. There are horror elements - Vampires, Liches, Undead, bloodthirsty beings out to rule the world - but they are all framed within a fantasy setting. The primary (at least so far) antagonist is a hybrid dragon. As others have said, a lot of it is in the presentation, too.

I am curious which of the following from another poster comes closest to your unhappy player's style of play:



Vs.



If your player is more the second type, he probably disliked the session not because it had elements of horror, but because it didn't let him "Roll Play" and instead forced him to "Role Play." This difference has been the end of many a campaign.
.

Well... my flavor text is definitely closer to the first one and his gaming style is definitely closer to the second one. But when the dice come out I am generally very transparent about rules and mechanics heavy, and I usually set up encounters with a "combat as sports" mentality, although the players are certainly allowed to employ asymmetrical tactics if they so choose.

[Lord of Shadows]

"You inch through the open portal and enter another long slick-walled corridor... "

vs


"Through the door is [yet] another 60' corridor... "


Well... my flavor text is definitely closer to the first one and his gaming style is definitely closer to the second one. But when the dice come out I am generally very transparent about rules and mechanics heavy, and I usually set up encounters with a "combat as sports" mentality, although the players are certainly allowed to employ asymmetrical tactics if they so choose.

Well, if everyone else enjoyed the session, I see no reason to change things very much. As you can read in the story of the Undead Cowboys, some days are filled with combat and some are filled with discovery (i.e., narrative, or "story" material). Keep an ear to the table, so to speak, and see how it plays out over a few sessions. Maybe throw in a few less "Lovecraftian" encounters, and replace with straight up monsters.
.

[Kaveman26]

I expect to be MIA for about a week or so. Writing up a massive sequence all as one piece.

In the meantime (I will likely post this as a separate thread as well) here is what we have to work with as far as next campaign is concerned.



House Rules:
No Flying
No Ressurection
No Summon Monster
No Teleport
No Wind Walk, Air Walk, or other Aerial Travel Spells.



Character Creation:
30 Point Buy
Allowed Classes: Fighter, Barbarian, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Paladin, Monk, Ninja, Samurai, Bard
Starting Level 6: Capped at level 6
2 Bonus Feats granted at level 6
Starting Equipment: 1 MW weapon, 1 MW armor, 1 weapon, 250 gold as seen fit to spend as a group.

The Premise:

Exactly 99 years, nine months and nine days ago the world was shattered. All auspices of civilization and peace obliterated in the blink of an eye. Those whose abilities and powers once created marvels and enabled impossibilities were destroyed. In the following century the world was wrought with chaos and madness. Forces beyond mortal and immortal control ravaged the landscape forever altering the balance of power.

A single island, isolated and sheltered from the world at large endured. A barrier protecting it from the maelstrom beyond. This barrier the product of an age long lost is failing. When the century rings true and the 100th year is marked the barrier will fall, and the last vestige of humanity and brotherhood will become vulnerable to the savagery of what now is.

A small band of the strongest, cleverest, and boldest has united in a desperate quest to traverse a foreign continent. Their task is critical and their window for success narrow. A focusing gemstone, a diamond of perfect brilliance, will sustain and renew the barrier for a new century, but the path is long and the map unclear. Forty days and forty nights is the currency allotted to this band to retrieve this diamond. Forty days and forty nights more to return it and renew the majesty that is their hope of a continued peace. The expected destination is 1,000 miles west. Which means a 2,000 mile round trip in eighty days.

Some bits we digested from the initial premise:

*Assuming a standard eight hour overland speed at the standard ratio (avoiding difficult terrain) and a normal 30 feet per round movement speed, we would log 24 miles per day, or 960 miles one way.

*Horses with a movement rate of 40 feet per round pushes us to 32 miles per day or 1280 miles. So we could in theory slog in on foot if we get good terrain and hustle every so often, but mounts with a movement speed better than 30 will make a big difference.

*A survival check DC 10 lets a person feed and water themselves, with each 2 above the 10 mark you can feed one additional person. With a six person group a skill check of 20 means everyone eats free for that day, but it costs us half the movement speed of person foraging. To come out “ahead” we need to get three days of provisions from one day’s worth of foraging. So that means multiple foragers need to provide enough goods for a three day period in one day. Quick and dirty math says a level 6 ranger with max ranks and a halfway decent Wisdom has (6 ranks+2 wis+3+3 trained skill bonus ranger class level) a +14 skill check which means he can sustain the whole party everyday on his own more than fifty percent of the time.

*Buying all the rations we need ahead of time means carrying loads becomes an issue and our meager initial budget gets chewed up.

*We are getting a crude general map that may or may not be very accurate.

*For DM convenience purposes (everything he has planned is overland) we are ruling out attempts to go nautical.

*Healing is actually a big concern for us. No cleric, no druid, no oracle, limited access through paladin and bard provides our sources of magical heals. Downtime is a big factor for a campaign where the timeframe is a limiting factor. We also have little in the way of stat recovery.

[Gallowglass]

I expect to be MIA for about a week or so. Writing up a massive sequence all as one piece.

In the meantime (I will likely post this as a separate thread as well) here is what we have to work with as far as next campaign is concerned.



House Rules:
No Flying
No Ressurection
No Summon Monster
No Teleport
No Wind Walk, Air Walk, or other Aerial Travel Spells.



Character Creation:
30 Point Buy
Allowed Classes: Fighter, Barbarian, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer, Paladin, Monk, Ninja, Samurai, Bard
Starting Level 6: Capped at level 6
2 Bonus Feats granted at level 6
Starting Equipment: 1 MW weapon, 1 MW armor, 1 weapon, 250 gold as seen fit to spend as a group.

The Premise:

Exactly 99 years, nine months and nine days ago the world was shattered. All auspices of civilization and peace obliterated in the blink of an eye. Those whose abilities and powers once created marvels and enabled impossibilities were destroyed. In the following century the world was wrought with chaos and madness. Forces beyond mortal and immortal control ravaged the landscape forever altering the balance of power.

A single island, isolated and sheltered from the world at large endured. A barrier protecting it from the maelstrom beyond. This barrier the product of an age long lost is failing. When the century rings true and the 100th year is marked the barrier will fall, and the last vestige of humanity and brotherhood will become vulnerable to the savagery of what now is.

A small band of the strongest, cleverest, and boldest has united in a desperate quest to traverse a foreign continent. Their task is critical and their window for success narrow. A focusing gemstone, a diamond of perfect brilliance, will sustain and renew the barrier for a new century, but the path is long and the map unclear. Forty days and forty nights is the currency allotted to this band to retrieve this diamond. Forty days and forty nights more to return it and renew the majesty that is their hope of a continued peace. The expected destination is 1,000 miles west. Which means a 2,000 mile round trip in eighty days.

Some bits we digested from the initial premise:

*Assuming a standard eight hour overland speed at the standard ratio (avoiding difficult terrain) and a normal 30 feet per round movement speed, we would log 24 miles per day, or 960 miles one way.

*Horses with a movement rate of 40 feet per round pushes us to 32 miles per day or 1280 miles. So we could in theory slog in on foot if we get good terrain and hustle every so often, but mounts with a movement speed better than 30 will make a big difference.

*A survival check DC 10 lets a person feed and water themselves, with each 2 above the 10 mark you can feed one additional person. With a six person group a skill check of 20 means everyone eats free for that day, but it costs us half the movement speed of person foraging. To come out “ahead” we need to get three days of provisions from one day’s worth of foraging. So that means multiple foragers need to provide enough goods for a three day period in one day. Quick and dirty math says a level 6 ranger with max ranks and a halfway decent Wisdom has (6 ranks+2 wis+3+3 trained skill bonus ranger class level) a +14 skill check which means he can sustain the whole party everyday on his own more than fifty percent of the time.

*Buying all the rations we need ahead of time means carrying loads becomes an issue and our meager initial budget gets chewed up.

*We are getting a crude general map that may or may not be very accurate.

*For DM convenience purposes (everything he has planned is overland) we are ruling out attempts to go nautical.

*Healing is actually a big concern for us. No cleric, no druid, no oracle, limited access through paladin and bard provides our sources of magical heals. Downtime is a big factor for a campaign where the timeframe is a limiting factor. We also have little in the way of stat recovery.


My assumption is the terrain you have to transverse is outside the barrier. I wonder how much you can depend on survival for rations in a terrain in a "world was wrought with chaos and madness. Forces beyond mortal and immortal control ravaged the landscape"

6th level sorcerer means 3-4 3rd level spells per day. Which means

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/conjure-carriage for 18-24 hours a day

Oh wait... that's pathfinder

well at least you have 7 castings of 12 hour sorcerer access to

http://dndtools.pw/spells/players-handbook-v35--6/mount--2412/

The best horses are ones that you can just make new ones when the monsters eat the old ones. Sorry Paladin.

[Traab]

Let me get this straight. You are on a mission to save your last bastion of safety and order. You and your group were chosen for this, and they are making you PAY for rations?! Seriously, a mission like this should consist of, "Here is our best gear possible, here is all the food we could prepare in time that will last the trip, godspeed heroes and please save us!"

[Kaveman26]

Let me get this straight. You are on a mission to save your last bastion of safety and order. You and your group were chosen for this, and they are making you PAY for rations?! Seriously, a mission like this should consist of, "Here is our best gear possible, here is all the food we could prepare in time that will last the trip, godspeed heroes and please save us!"


Yeah, have a feeling it's a means to ensure everything feels dramatic and critical. More of a "you are our only chance but we can't afford a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out". The paltry starting equipment and tiny budget for "provisions" makes it a logistics challenge, kind of like Oregon Trail where you select something other than banker.

[Lord of Shadows]

Let me get this straight. You are on a mission to save your last bastion of safety and order. You and your group were chosen for this, and they are making you PAY for rations?! Seriously, a mission like this should consist of, "Here is our best gear possible, here is all the food we could prepare in time that will last the trip, godspeed heroes and please save us!"


Yeah, have a feeling it's a means to ensure everything feels dramatic and critical. More of a "you are our only chance but we can't afford a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out". The paltry starting equipment and tiny budget for "provisions" makes it a logistics challenge, kind of like Oregon Trail where you select something other than banker.

I can see a party like this happening... if... this party is not the first that was sent out (Cue Dark Music). Perhaps there was a party that was given everything that could be spared, and they failed. But it was kept a secret known only to a few higher-ups, and they aren't telling the current party (or anyone) about that failure. To do so might demoralize the people [or this party] and turn them to mush, and/or, admitting failure just isn't done, so failures aren't ever known to the masses.

That would give the campaign a a dramatic, "end of the world" feel... Imagine this party slowly finding clues that others had recently tread their same path. Wondering, who? When? Why? And, what happened to them?
.

[Traab]

I can see a party like this happening... if... this party is not the first that was sent out (Cue Dark Music). Perhaps there was a party that was given everything that could be spared, and they failed. But it was kept a secret known only to a few higher-ups, and they aren't telling the current party (or anyone) about that failure. To do so might demoralize the people [or this party] and turn them to mush, and/or, admitting failure just isn't done, so failures aren't ever known to the masses.

That would give the campaign a a dramatic, "end of the world" feel... Imagine this party slowly finding clues that others had recently tread their same path. Wondering, who? When? Why? And, what happened to them?
.

Honestly? It would make sense. Why else would they wait so long to send out our heroes to get this gem? There is also the potential for the previous party having gone bad. They think to themselves, "Hey! We got us all this fancy gear and supplies, we can easily carve out an area for ourselves in all this chaos. Why bother going after the gem just so we can return to being ordinary joes when the shield gets boosted?" They will figure that since their old town will likely be destroyed soon its the perfect crime. When they learn you and your group are heading out, they decide they cant risk it so now you have a better equipped group of adventurers out to stop you by any means, because they cant risk you having been sent after them. That would make for an awesome constant threat in the background.

[Lord of Shadows]

.
Heh.. So the original team's "failure" is shrouded in mystery.. Perrrfect.
.

[Kane0]

Thats all the classes you can choose from? Cause damn, that party is just begging for a Slayer or Hunter.

[Fizban]

Transportation blues? The spell you want is Traveler's Mount. +20' and then double it for hustling without penalty, and it's only a 1st level spell. Light horses reach 16mph, a pile of 8gp mules would still move at 10mph.

So first you buy up all the horses, mules, cows, and other such livestock in the area. . .

[Inevitability]

My assumption is the terrain you have to transverse is outside the barrier. I wonder how much you can depend on survival for rations in a terrain in a "world was wrought with chaos and madness. Forces beyond mortal and immortal control ravaged the landscape"

6th level sorcerer means 3-4 3rd level spells per day. Which means

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/c/conjure-carriage for 18-24 hours a day

Oh wait... that's pathfinder

well at least you have 7 castings of 12 hour sorcerer access to

http://dndtools.pw/spells/players-handbook-v35--6/mount--2412/

The best horses are ones that you can just make new ones when the monsters eat the old ones. Sorry Paladin.

I'd remove the Dndtools.pw link if I were you. Not only is it completely unnecessary (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/mount.htm), it's also against the site's rules to link to sites containing copyrighted material.

[ATHATH]

Mystic Ranger+SotAO (depending on how it's ruled) would be quite good in that campaign, I'd imagine.

Also, possible ending plot twist: Just as the diamond is about to be consumed by the shield, the Wizard of the enemy adventuring party activates the Instant Summons spell (when it's placed on the altar or whatever is used to renewed the shield, it isn't technically in anyone's possession) that he cast on it before the heroic party found it.

[Hamste]

So to be clear no resurrection includes no raise dead.

Assuming so you could try to convince your entire party to all go classes with fast movement like barbarians and monks (there may be others with archetypes but those are the obvious ones) and go at 50 feet per round. Endurance is actually a decent feat and con will probably be very important as you will be hustling a lot. Destroyer's blessing or the fire one can cover your personal healing needs if you are a barbarian half-orc (with lesser celestial totem to heal more). Another possibility is getting a worg from monstrous mount if you can find archetype that can get it.

Basically, you want as everyone to have the maximum movement speed possible. You only go fast as the slowest person so anyone with small size should have a mount or an ability to make them go faster.


Barbarians do seem to be the kings of this challenge. Fast movement, survival as a class feature, large hit die, abilities that reward high con, good fort saves and a feat means to get infinite healing as long as you have something on hand to break

[DireSickFish]

Ranger and Paladin come with mounts in the form of animal companions and, uh, Paladin Mount. I'd try and get everyone with survival at least in a basic capacity so that when you slow down everyone can contribute to adding rations to the pool, meaning you need to slow down less often.

Sorcerer or Bard with the Mount spell could get you a light horse with 60ft of movement for 12 hours per cast.

I'd be very interested to see a dedicated thread for this. Been a while since I've seen some good 3.X planning. Been playing a lot of 5e.

[Kane0]

Sorcerer with Extend spell and Communal Mount might be better, depending on slot usage

[Kaveman26]

The single most chaotic, anarchy filled, jumble of FUBAR to ever hit the fan at once. (Part 1)

I genuinely had good intentions before all of this went down. The group was split but confident. I had lots of pieces to move around the board so to speak. The “endgame” in terms of plot was starting to take shape. Things were good. I was even amused at the prospect of vampire bingo in the vaults. With five days until the doors opened again and things could resume a full lockdown I decided to press the pace and really start challenging the group. I also realized that I had made one critical error. For the most part…I emphasize for the MOST part I try to play fairly. Things like the lightmare are also plot related or reveal details about the ship, I don’t counter create things specifically to be a nuisance. I also let the dice fall where they may and I don’t sweat plans being disrupted. That is for their side of things. I will fudge certain details in terms of my behind the scenes actions, for things like troop movement and intelligence (provided it fits within context) reports. So for example drow are sneaky and stealthy and prone to espionage and intrigue as part of their culture, so drow spies are natural and fair. Veritas isn’t going to have invisible sneaky giants or be able to spy on the group. So I tried to handle my oversight as follows in the fairest possible way….

Emboldened by their acquisition of drow vampire casters and with a new set of mischief in mind Seraphim and the twins begin to make “disposable” sorties, they begin seeking out skirmishes with mundane skeletons and zombies while holding back their template laden investments for larger fish. Their goal is simple, winnow away enemy ranks, avoid overwhelming encounters and drag and drain as much as they can possible afford to. They roam the halls like gluttonous wraiths devouring wayward patrols of giants and trolls and stashing the bodies in vaults to arise. As the patrols grow larger and more organized they start taking advantage of the hallways and their negative energy synergy to conquer and divide. Seraphim is particularly brutal as she is for the most part fearless. She sacrifices her own safety with abandon and glee if it means she can snatch a dominate or isolate a blood filled target.

They take pause for the first time when they round a corner to find a pair of fire giants carving up a svathuriam and roasting it from their own body heat while gorging themselves on it’s flesh. Somehow against all odds they blow the check to notice the gang of shufflers not 40 feet away and the trio has a chance to whisper amongst themselves…

Hades: Did the alliance shatter?

Pluto: Haven’t really seen signs of it recently.

Seraphim: If I were so inclined to investigate the amount of Con I have been draining from anything we have killed would I notice a decline in overall health?

Me: You mean have you perceived a noticeable or measureable difference?

Seraphim: Yes.

Me: You have…you are draining less and less from the things you feed on.

Seraphim: Let’s say they are growing weaker because they are starving. The alliance may not be shattering, but their stockpiles could be.

Hades: I don’t follow.

Seraphim: There is a horde of large and huge omnivore/carnivores in this place. The frost legion brought a stockpile of goods, but the month is nearly over and they have probably been playing host to a swarm of dragons and additional giants. The place was scoured clean by their own admission, not like they can just dip out the door for a snack. I got a feeling they are up against their own wall of hunger.

Hades: So if your hunch is correct let’s stockpile up meat and basically offer nutrition as a bargaining chip for someone to throw in with us.

Pluto: They would just keep eating each other. That’s what we would do.

Seraphim: Yeah, and anything killed can be chalked up to us. “Bob? He got taken by the liches, no I don’t have Bob stains on my breastplate...it was totally them”

Hades: So what do we do then?

Seraphim: We salt the earth. We skeletonize everything that won’t reanimate on it’s own and we get rid of any viable meat. We don’t need it.

Hades: What about Doc?

Seraphim: He had enough rations and food until the door opens, and you two can create food for him. I doubt they have enough clerics to sustain their whole legion. We need to feed one big orc with wings.

Without further discussion they launch an attack against the giants and come charging in undead blazing…to find Veritas sharing in the giant’s snack. The dragon seems to choke off the entire hallway and he has an entire haunch of the svat in his mouth like a chicken wing as he steadies himself on his metallic limb. His eyes go wide at the sight of the clerics and witch and as his spits out the leg they see him inhale…with both sides surprised there is a roll for initiative which Sera wins and she throws up a Wall of Ice as they try to skid back around the hallway from which they came….the dragon’s breath comes immediately after and evaporates the wall like wet Kleenex, toasting all but a handful of their giants and incinerating their undead flesh.

Without ceremony or hesitance they bolt at full speed, mindful to order their remaining shufflers to take one for the team and get in the dragon’s way. The roar from the dragon echoes through hallway after hallway…

Veritas: BRING EVERYTHING. THEY WILL NOT ESCAPE OR I WILL TEAR YOU ALL TO SHREDS

Hades: We need to split up. IF he doesn’t follow you get back to the vault, if he does it’s time to take it like a champ and hope someone makes it back to the vault to seal it.

Meanwhile…

Psionic point after point goes into clearing a path to the closest restricted section. Something Ares, Doc and Azzie are hoping to reach in the current day. They are leery of getting cocky and move deeper into the new layers of the complex slowly and steadily, letting their few undead lead the way. To that point nothing living or free willed has made itself known and they are optimistic that it will continue to be that way.
With only a handful of points remaining they reach a secured doorway of a much stronger looking metal. Having absorbed enough Illithid culture to this point and worked mentally they are able to translate the heading for the room.

Disintengratory Hygeniene Control Panel

It takes five points of psionic energy to open the room and inside is a single chair sitting in front of a large crystal ball. The room is sparse and practically barren. A panel surrounds the large ball and two smaller balls and nine round crystals fill out the panel. Ares sits down at the chair and the larger crystal ball powers on. A small floating patch of light, seems to flicker behind red/green and Ares touches it until it stays green. The whole panel illuminates with a soft light and the screen shows a panel of metal along with nothing else.

Ares: I think we turned it off autopilot and it seems active, now what?

Azzie: Think arcade game…smaller controls in the center means the crystal balls should be movement.

Trial and Error reveals the left crystal sphere to be a 360 rotation control and the right sphere a forward and reverse.

Ares: So we have forward and back and we can turn, but no up or down.

The graveknight pilots forward and the panel vanishes revealing a hallway near the top of the ship.
Doc: Should we check in with the clerics?

Azzie: Yeah let’s find out their status before we do anything else.

Ares: Sera you getting this?

Her voice comes back in a panic…

Seraphim: GET DOWN HERE NOW. We found Veritas and he is coming with everything he has got.

Ares: Uhm ok. I think its worth mentioning that we discovered the eight eyed dragon melty thing. Pretty sure we can pilot it too. Looks like it is on the top floor somewhere.

Seraphim: Well put that thing to work…

Ares: What are we aiming for?

Seraphim: Just go ape****…don’t leave anything behind.

Ares: Roger that…

Additional trial and error shows that each of the round crystals activates a separate eye stalk.

Ares: I can’t reach them all at the same time, and this thing corners like an 18 wheeler.

Azzie: We can’t all reach it either room is too tight.

Doc: We could all reach if you sit on my lap?

Azzie and Ares share a look…

Ares (ooc): I would dismiss that suggestion on principle but my principles flew out the window once I realized that I am about to get to use a beholder dragon like an arcade game. So for the next five minutes I guess we will call you Santa Doc.

Ares takes over rotation duty, while Azzie steers the throttle and Doc smashes as many of the eye stalk controls as possible. The street sweeper kicks into gear and begins to stalk the hallways…

Hades draws the fewest persuers and he manages to return to the vault without any tails. He pops an animate dead to stand up more disposable minions and then holds position to drop the vault door.

Pluto is turning corners and trying to shake a growing train of giants. Isolated and without minions to hold the line he is feeling pretty powerless.

Seraphim…is getting burned. She has Veritas on her like a shadow and with any straight away or longer vantage he is throwing the full weight of his breath weapon with a force that can knock her twenty feet forward. Each breath renders her remaining flesh to ash and as she stumbles the fast healing from her vampire template begins to repair the damage. She does her level best to steer him towards the upper levels and stay ahead.

Pluto runs through a corridor and makes a sharp left…running straight into Frank-Eye-Stein and is vaporized mid stride…

Ares: Oops..

Azzie: I’m sure he won’t mind…

As the last tuffs of Pluto waft through the air in ash form the pursuing giants round the same corner and are treated to the same fate. The trio at the control panel reverse the chase and are soon pulverizing everything within their path. The giants and trolls learn VERY fast that the hallways are death, but the beholder will not enter or fire it’s beams into rooms, only the hallways.

Ares: I feel kind of like Pac Man but with acid and death rays…

Seraphim finally gets hit with an above average roll and is burned to ash by Veritas, reduced to a gas form she starts the float back to her coffin and the dragon for the first time in ages smiles.

Veritas: Well little witch child it looks you have run out of places to hide. Now show me the way home…

Seraphim: ****…I am a gas cloud and he is tucking in to follow me back.

Hades: let him, I will seal you in with me once you are in and he can camp out there all he wants.

Ares: That means you guys are going to be under siege.

Hades: Also fine. We think they ran out of food. If he wants to camp out there for the next five days with an army let him. They will turn on each other long before we get bored inside.

Veritas follows Seraphim back to the vault and observes her entering and Hades closing it off. He calmly waits and supervises a siege of the vault room as he gathers all of his remaining forces to assist.

Hades: He is pulling in the whole army if you guys think it’s time to break off and rejoin.

Ares: it’s a shame not to pilot this thing, but three of us beholden to it is a waste of resources.

Azzie: Not exactly hard work. Anything with half a mind can steer it. Think we can get Seraphim’s vampires in here?

Hades: not easily, they would have to run the Veritas Gauntlet.

Ares: A pity we ran out of crystals and psionic undead. A few intelligent skeletons could run this for us.

Doc: What about Tombstone? The undead sphere? We released intelligent undead from there right?

Azzie: Oh yeah. Bring a couple of ghoulies and we are locked and loaded. Should be able to hook up a few Tombies to come man the soundboard for us. That will also verify for us whether or not the circle is still guarded.

The communication chain goes into effect and a trio of ghouls is escorted to the beholder panel where they are given instructions to roam the halls and decimate anything is not the Necroranchers. Sadly…the beholder will not enter the vault room.

They resume a holding pattern for a full day while Sera and Pluto reform.

Doc and company form up and bring themselves back to the contest layer of the ship, and Azzie seals off access to the circle by shuffling it back out of phase. They left Frank in a predetermined location with the intention of luring Veritas to the disintegration maker. As they begin a stealthy approach back to the vault Sera and her team gear up their templated undead and organize a break free pattern of burning and bloody giants to take the first steps out. They intend to have Ares hit the host from the rear and draw off pursuers to feed Frank, and if they take the bait the twins will counter attack and cull off as much as possible to stuff in the vaults.

The intelligence they were able to gather confirms that the host of giants and dragons are out of food and virtually at each other’s throats (literally and figuratively). They go into action with Azzie lacing their first target with bow fire and the fighters come in on the arrows heels to engage a trailing giant. They flurry their attacks and then break off looking to see what pursues.

Veritas: Hold this vault no matter the cost, I will deal with them myself.

The dragon peels off and charges after the rear trio, breath weapon filling the halls ahead of him. The dragon is furious, but clever. Every turn and movement he makes is preceded with carpet flaming the hallway ahead and seeking out the presence of the beholder. Slowly he creeps forward as Azzie plinks at him with arrows from afar. As they near their trap the ghouls send a hasty alert that something just entered the room and suddenly their beholder does a 180 and disappears into the wall.

Ares: Something just hijacked our sweeper and took out our ghouls.

Doc: We still got an angry dragon coming guys…

Azzie: Well he thinks the beholder is out here, let’s abuse that.

They play a game of cat and mouse where they all heft bows and take potshots against the dragon while ducking around corners. The shots are hardly fatal, but they grow irritating and soon enough the dragon is shouting for reinforcements. The longer the back and forth continues the bolder the dragon grows and soon there is an epic game of table top Bomberman in full effect. The fire proof Ares is happy to ignore the breath weapon and he manages to land the occasional channel smite negative energy swing against Veritas.

As enough of the siege peels off in pursuit of the graveknight and company the twins pounce on their chance for a break out and come out undead blazing against the siege forces. A trio of rounds where they go shock and awe is followed by them dragging their kills back to the vault and resealing it.

Azzie and his group eventually fall back to the circle which is now reopened and they hop back through to the other side. An enraged Veritas breaks off the pursuit and drags his forces back to the vault to lick his wounds and count his losses.

Returning to the control panel they find the door barricaded and locked with a hazy shield of force. As they examine it a blast of energy slams into all three of them as a Mind Flayer in the flesh appears before them.

Mind Flayer: The matron told me you were a clever bunch. Admirable for humanoids disadvantaged as you are. The time for your games is over. I appreciate your attempts to belay my people’s error coming to fruition, but the situation is well in hand. As a courtesy I will refrain from lobotomizing you or slaying you, provided you leave once the doors open.

Ares: You are saying you can stop it from escaping?

Mind Flayer: It will be stopped.

Azzie: How? Your errand girl says that you lot don’t have the foggiest notion of how to contain Volcanus.

Mind Flayer: Why do you even care?

Azzie: You can’t sell out a show when all the fans are obliterated mate. I live for the adoration and devotion of me fans and you buggers are trying to vaporize my audience.

Ares: I agree with the bard…for different reasons. Conquer and dominion require something to subjugate, destroying that which I control is opposed to my own goals.

Doc: Yeah, and you stuck me in a showcase for a few thousand years, it has left me wondering just what that squidie face of yours will look like once it is shrunken down.

Mind Flayer: Do you all prattle this much? Last warning. Leave.

Azzie: Then answer the fuggin question. How are you going to stop the beast from destroying the world?

Mind Flayer: It will not escape. Measures have been taken to ensure it’s continued restraint.

Ares: Good, answer how and we will leave.

Mind Flayer: The prison is multi layered. Our attempts to isolate it from the Material Plane proved unsuccessful. Our steps to prevent it from interacting with the Material Plane have proven effective. It is forever stuck between two worlds, it’s mind may touch the Plane but it’s body is captured.

Ares: I think you are lying.

Mind Flayer: Yes I can see that. I see that you want to attack me but are leery of doing so. All save for the Orc..

As the flayer turns to Doc, the witch doctor is already in mid charge axe raised high. As he runs, a wall of ectoplasm snaps into existence cutting off their access to the Illithid who chortles a bizarre laugh through his tentacles as he seems to step into the wall and vanish.

The voice of the Mind Flayer echoes from the walls as he taunts and mocks the group.

Mind Flayer: You are so confident and self righteous. You think that your machinations amount to true cunning and intrigue. My people reached intellectual heights you can’t even dream of comprehending. Perhaps you would like to meet some of those you opposed us and failed. If we have a peculiarity it is certainly our nostalgia for those who challenged and inspired us to reach our full potential.

A series of large hairless ape/reptilian creatures emerges from the ground swirling into solid forms with long arms and visibly enlarged brains from nearly translucent skulls. The demonic creatures stare at the trio with wordless grins and each party member feels a sudden vise like grip trying to sieze control of their very minds…

As they are suddenly thrust into a battle for control of their identities the staggered communication from the skull network tells them that similar beings have emerged from within the vault itself and amidst the Veritas army as well.

Ares and Azzie manage to shake off the mental assault and as Ares lays into the closest psionic demon Azzie sends a trio of arrows…Doc seems to be struggling against the attempted control and as he turns and raises his axe against Azzie there is only the slightest hesitation before he begins assaulting the dirge bard with a furious abandon.

Ares breaks off his attack against the demon and tries to tackle the much larger orc to the ground, his attempted bull rush fails but it does let Azzie retreat. Doc turns to attack Ares and in a matter of moments he is surrounded by rending claws and razor sharp teeth.

Ares: Just get clear! Try to get back to the twins.

The Cerebriliths tear Ares to shreds with their now mind controlled Orc thrall and then turn to pursue Azzie. The Mind Flayer reappears into the Hallway and stalls the demonic creatures.

Mind Flayer: A soul hidden deep within the recesses of his armor. We must eliminate the seed before it springs forth as a new weed. We shall carry forth the husk to a terrain that bears the heart of a volcano. We will “anoint” this cursed shell with a consecration to weaken it’s binding. Follow…

Azzie: Oh bollocks…

[Traab]

Well... damn! I knew the dragon would follow seras back, so that part didnt surprise me. Getting control of the beholder was fracking awesome. Too bad it didnt last long. What I want to know is, how freaking awful does your spot check have to fail to miss a GIGANTIC FREAKING DRAGON EATING A MEAL?! Even if it was around the corner, something practically large enough to fill a tunnel floor to ceiling and devouring the equivalent of an elk quarter is not going to be very quiet.

[GrayDeath]

That probably was the ... bad move he mentioned.
I mean honestly, thats a level of OotS First Chapter Incompetence in Spot....

[Kaveman26]

PART TWO:

Seraphim and Hades manage to stave off the demon that materialized inside the vault and then they are left with a conflict.

Seraphim: If we move now they are distracted, but that means leaving Pluto behind unguarded.

Hades: As long as we shut the door behind us he will be fine.

Seraphim: And what if Veritas ducks inside before we shut it?

Hades: Then he will suffocate from lack of air.

Seraphim: Oh yeah good point. Still means we are then down three. Feel like we need to mass up and break out, then try to intercept the Illithid before he can finish Ares.

Hades: Feel like time is of the essence right now. We can’t wait 23 hours for Pluto to reform.

Seraphim: I would consider writing him off, but that means writing off Doc and likely Azzie as well. I don’t relish spending my last days stuck in a vault.

Hades: I think we need to get you loose to join up with Azzie and see if you can wrestle control of Doc from the psi-demon. Maybe we can screen for a getaway.

Seraphim: I am hardly unnoticeable. He is going to see a white haired bony chick running from the door.

Hades: You are more than a witch, you are also a vampire.

Seraphim: Doesn’t make me any less conspicuous.

Hades: Did you not pay attention to all of your abilities?

A few minutes later a swarm of “disposable undead” along with almost a dozen wolves burst from the door as the legion of giants and dragons is still engaged with a series of psi-demons some of which have wrested control of various creatures. The dragon without hesitation redirects his full attention to the vault room door where he angles his neck just so…unleashing a focused torrent of fire directly at Seraphim’s coffin. One of the wolves stumbles and lets out a plaintive bark…but continues its escape.

Hades manages to shut the vault door behind the fleeing witch and reports in that the coffin is now melted slag.

Hades: He was definitely waiting for it and had it in mind Sera.

Seraphim: Yeah, I kind of realized that when it felt like I got punched in the gut. He is still chasing me down…my stumble tipped him off. He apparently dislikes me. Think I can use that.

As Veritas chases the wolf form witch (abandoning the legion behind him) she begins taunting the dragon…

Seraphim: I applaud your aim. You actually managed to do something worthwhile. Unfortunately it is too little too late. Our allies have unlocked the breach and you can expect more demons to pile out of the walls and cut your meager army to shreds. All I have to do is reach my back up coffin and you are as good as dead.

Veritas: Lies! You deceitful whelp I will roast the marrow from your frozen bones and crack them with my teeth while I hear your undead flesh howl in agony. I will rip you limb from limb and savor your misery while your body feebly tries to repair itself.

Seraphim: Big talk for an upjumped little wyrm. Our Illithid friend even now completes the ritual that will shut your mouth for all of eternity. I think we will reanimate you as a zombie, I will carve out a living room from the cavity of your chest and make that my new lair. I will sleep soundly within your breast for eons to come. Your rotting flesh will be a reminder of my triumph over your idiocy.

Hades: Uh…is horrifically mocking the flying furnace a good idea? Don’t you want me to avoid chasing you?

Seraphim: Nope…I need the big lug.

Hades: You do realize that you are bluffing right? You don’t have a back up coffin and I don’t think you can reform without one.

Seraphim: Oh no I am scared ****less right now, but I got a headstart and a plan. Hopefully this isn’t the last goodbye.

As Seraphim rounds the corner for a final sprint down to the engine room and the circle Veritas is closing in fast and she manages to duck just out of sight inside the circle room. The dragon comes in at full speed and stops near the circle. With a squint and some trepidation she rushes the dragon and triggers the circle…transporting both to the Illithid Conference Level. Before big red can react she is off to the races and sprinting for the Conference Room.

Seraphim: You sure this is where they headed Azzie?

Azzie: Yeah I am waiting outside right now. They are doing something to fudge the laws of physics as we speak. He is building a freakin volcano from the center of the room.

Seraphim: If this goes sideways don’t sacrifice yourself. Get back to the twins and get the heck out of here. Don’t run at the first sign of trouble either, fight and help.

Azzie: You got it luv.

The gravewalker beats the dragon into the chamber by only a few seconds and as the Mind Flayer looks up in shock nearly a dozen cerebiliths (psi-demons) turn as one to view her entry. The Mind Flayer has Ares armor atop a small volcano emerging from the floor of the room, it is holding in it’s hands a scythe that seems to drip ice from a jagged blade.

Seraphim: Hurry up and finish the ritual my friend. The dragon is just in time for it’s funeral.

As she speaks the dragon bursts into the room and sees the assembled demons and the mind flayer.

Seraphim: Now! Strike before he can react!

Their confusion is met with a widening of eyes from the massive dragon. There is a moment frozen in time where the demons begin to move…Doc begins to rush Seraphim…the Mind Flayer begins to swing it’s blade into the molten hot armor…and the dragon inhales. Virtually all at once Doc bull rushes Seraphim (returned to human form) into the wall pinning her against it with one hand as he rears back his greataxe in his free hand. The dragon lets loose an avalanche of flame that levels virtually everything in it’s path and scatter the psi demons. A wave of psionic attacks barrages the dragon who fends off each attempt to control it’s mind. Seraphim attempts to dominate control of her already mind controlled comrade…and in a battle of wills the witch wins out over the demon freeing Doc.

The Mind Flayer trying to direct the actions of his demonic minions is distracted long enough to stay his swing, and Doc turns to hurl his axe at the Illithid. The Mind Flayer makes a noise that rustles through it’s tentacles with malice and pure hate…but it elects retreat, vanishing from sight. The dragon is laying into the demons with a fury, and Azzie leaves a shadowy illusion of Doc and Seraphim still pinned against the wall as he grabs the armor from the makeshift volcano grimacing at the burning pain of doing so. The quartet (well trio+armor) make a break for it and get out of the room before Veritas realizes he is being played. They rush down the hall as the clatter of scrabbling claws and torrent of fire from a dragon’s flame nips at their heels.

Azzie: Where we going?

Seraphim: Back to the circle…going to try and send big red back through on a solo ride.
They manage to reach the circle room and try to duck long enough for the dragon to come back through, but this time the dragon is much more methodical, and he stops short of the room. Pausing in his pursuit to assess the situation.

Seraphim: Ok plan B, we are leaving him behind.

The group dives for the circle and amidst the inescapable wave of fire they transport themselves back to the prime engine room leaving Veritas stuck behind. Topping off the various injuries sustained they make quick progress heading back for the vault room (just in case the dragon manages to trigger the circle on it’s own).

The psi demons have been routed, but there is a great deal of confusion and chaos still in place. Racial bias is winning over as fire separates from frost.

Doc: Hades…get ready to come out swinging we are coming in aggressive.

With a rage boosted Doc leading the way they pour everything they have into eliminating the fire contingent. Ackshale and his remaining frost entourage seem to waver on trying to wipe out the U.C. and instead drag off the corpses of a few fire giants and his forces take the opportunity to leave.

Isolated and still reeling, the fire giants try to hold their own…but as the cleric sends a new swarm of undead and waves of negative energy into the mix they are routed. Completely and mercilessly. A host of spells and abilities expended, battered and singed they all give a wordless celebration and then collapse inside the open vault. They advance to level 11 and await the morning for a united party.

[Inevitability]

Does anyone else find it kind of funny the party managed to overcome yet another challenge by making their enemies fight each other?

[Lord of Shadows]

Funny, yes. This time, though, there was little subterfuge and much more brute force. Meanwhile, I wonder if make whole will fix the coffin... LOL
.

[Traab]

Wow, this was some crazy crazy stuff. I cant help but wonder how much trouble they are in now. Ok, so seraphim is now in trouble, she needs a new coffin, and more than that, they need a new hiding place. Now everyone knows where to find them, the fire and ice giants may be routed atm, but its unclear how many are left and how tough they will be. And lets not forget the drow. They have been quiet for far too long. At least the gang is back together once everyone finishes regenerating. I wonder if this level will net them anything useful in the way of upgrades or spells.

Now, there is an upside. They have done a lot of damage to the overall forces arrayed against them. That means they may be able to restock on undead supplies. Of course, if dragon boy comes back out to play that might be a bad idea. The doors are going to reopen soon, which will cause a LOT of havoc. New parties unconnected to any side will enter the place, which will hopefully cause plenty of confusion and opportunity. I wonder if they will go for the released vamp thrall idea? I like the idea of lots of random encounters with vamp versions of everyone seraph can turn and release.

[Kane0]

Probably something a bit more powerful, maybe along the lines of Desecrate + Greater Make Whole + new blood supply. The last part might be especially difficult considering she burns through a lot just being a vampire, stockpiling it would prove difficult.

[Reboot]

Ok, so seraphim is now in trouble, she needs a new coffin, and more than that, they need a new hiding place.

On the one hand, can she even GET a new coffin, or was she permanently bound to the now-destroyed one from the vampirisation ritual? [Which was metal?]

On the other... she's still in no more real trouble than she would have been pre-vampire, no? Can't she survive any hit she would have survived as a half-elf, esp. given fast healing?

[Both of these are, of course, subject to any ruling from Kaveman - we already know he's rolling-his-own hunger rules]

[Mith]

Imagine Sera making a prismatic metal coffin. I realize that they did not have enough metal, but that is an amusing thought.

[Reboot]

Imagine Sera making a prismatic metal coffin. I realize that they did not have enough metal, but that is an amusing thought.

I think that would be more likely to backfire on her than it would hurt anyone else. She'd be the one encased in it!

[Kane0]

Or prismatic armor for Ares even. That would be interesting.

[Traab]

On the one hand, can she even GET a new coffin, or was she permanently bound to the now-destroyed one from the vampirisation ritual? [Which was metal?]

On the other... she's still in no more real trouble than she would have been pre-vampire, no? Can't she survive any hit she would have survived as a half-elf, esp. given fast healing?

[Both of these are, of course, subject to any ruling from Kaveman - we already know he's rolling-his-own hunger rules]

If she gets damaged enough to turn to mist and she doesnt have a coffin, she is done. Gone, never gonna come back. Thats the damage. Up till now she could afford to basically suicide her way through enemy troops at will, causing damage then retreating, because if she got "killed" it wouldnt matter, she would just return to her coffin and heal. She still can survive a lot more damage than she could pre vamp, its just now she is far more vulnerable to death than she was before. And I have no idea if she can just make another coffin or not. I still found it amusing that half the group couldnt die without some shenanigans, but now I cant help but wonder if they were doing a bit too good due to the no need to fear the reaper factor, which is why veritas destroyed the coffin.

[Fable Wright]

If she gets damaged enough to turn to mist and she doesnt have a coffin, she is done. Gone, never gonna come back. Thats the damage. Up till now she could afford to basically suicide her way through enemy troops at will, causing damage then retreating, because if she got "killed" it wouldnt matter, she would just return to her coffin and heal. She still can survive a lot more damage than she could pre vamp, its just now she is far more vulnerable to death than she was before. And I have no idea if she can just make another coffin or not. I still found it amusing that half the group couldnt die without some shenanigans, but now I cant help but wonder if they were doing a bit too good due to the no need to fear the reaper factor, which is why veritas destroyed the coffin.

If she builds a new coffin with the old one as the bottom and some parts cut away to be included in the sides and top, she might get away with regenerating in it. It's by no means a guarantee, and she has all rights to be a lot more cautious now. Frankly, I'm surprised that the breath attack didn't hit either of the twins' phylacteries.

[halfeye]

Is Veritas Volcanus?

If not, are they comparable?

[Lord of Shadows]

Is Veritas Volcanus?

If not, are they comparable?

Veritas is the big-ass dragon they are currently battling, allied (sort of) with Giants and Drow.

Volcanus is the Ultimate BBEG whose release from this place spells DOOM for the entire world.

While Veritas is powerful, we presume he is nothing compared to Volcanus.
.

[halfeye]

While Veritas is powerful, we presume he is nothing compared to Volcanus..

They are both dragons, with names beginning with 'V', it seems possible that might not be coincidental, especially as Veritas means truth.

[FocusWolf413]

They are both dragons, with names beginning with 'V', it seems possible that might not be coincidental, especially as Veritas means truth.

Oh....

OH MY GOD

[ImperatorV]

Mind Flayer: The prison is multi layered. Our attempts to isolate it from the Material Plane proved unsuccessful. Our steps to prevent it from interacting with the Material Plane have proven effective. It is forever stuck between two worlds, it’s mind may touch the Plane but it’s body is captured.

Veritas is not Volcanus in the flesh, could be a proxy/avatar maybe.

[Kane0]

Or a relation

[ATHATH]

InB4 some Psychic Drow ally with Veritas and he commands them to realign the portal to the center of the ship to some other location, locking the UC out of the center of the ship until they can fight their way to one of the other three branches.

[Quertus]

That probably was the ... bad move he mentioned.
I mean honestly, thats a level of OotS First Chapter Incompetence in Spot....

I'm not sure, but I think the mistake was not providing adequate food for the dragon / giant / drow armies.

[Lord of Shadows]

They take pause for the first time when they round a corner to find a pair of fire giants carving up a svathuriam and roasting it from their own body heat while gorging themselves on it’s flesh. Somehow against all odds they blow the check to notice the gang of shufflers not 40 feet away and the trio has a chance to whisper amongst themselves…

[...after some discussion among the party...]

Without further discussion they launch an attack against the giants and come charging in undead blazing…to find Veritas sharing in the giant’s snack. The dragon seems to choke off the entire hallway and he has an entire haunch of the svat in his mouth like a chicken wing as he steadies himself on his metallic limb. His eyes go wide at the sight of the clerics and witch and as his spits out the leg they see him inhale…with both sides surprised there is a roll for initiative which Sera wins and she throws up a Wall of Ice as they try to skid back around the hallway from which they came….the dragon’s breath comes immediately after and evaporates the wall like wet Kleenex, toasting all but a handful of their giants and incinerating their undead flesh.


That probably was the ... bad move he mentioned.
I mean honestly, thats a level of OotS First Chapter Incompetence in Spot....

I can picture this scene... two Fire Giants roasting a Svathuriam and eating it, slurping and munching, bones cracking and crunching, and no doubt an argument about the best way to cook a Svat. I can imagine a dragon hearing and/or smelling this and approaching, cautiously at first, making as little noise as possible until he sees what is actually going on. When he see the Giants, he approaches, which for him is likely just a few steps. He then joins the Giants in the repast, adding to the slurping, munching, and bones cracking and crunching.

Then we have our heroes, cautiously retreated around a corner, their attention divided between the noise of the eating and listening to each other whisper as they plot and scheme. Plotting and scheming at a whisper requires paying more attention. The only threat they are on alert for is the Fire Giants rounding the corner and attacking. As long as the sounds of eating continue, they feel safe enough to whisper among themselves. They are not likely to hear anything more than perhaps a barely perceptible jump in the amount of slurping, munching, and bones cracking and crunching. And perhaps the addition of a third voice. All of which they would have to be listening for in order to notice it, which they did not specify, and which would have been problematic anyway with their divided attention.

The only part of this that seems even a little odd is that none of the U.C. smelled the roasting Svat...
.

[turbo164]

Ares (ooc): I would dismiss that suggestion on principle but my principles flew out the window once I realized that I am about to get to use a beholder dragon like an arcade game. So for the next five minutes I guess we will call you Santa Doc.

Reading this quietly at work is difficult :smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin:

[Lord of Shadows]

Reading this quietly at work is difficult :smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin:

Ares has an even better line coming up... One word...

Ares: Oops..


.

[Kaveman26]

Meanwhile, I wonder if make whole will fix the coffin... LOL

This will be answered shortly. Took a bit more than make whole.



If she gets damaged enough to turn to mist and she doesnt have a coffin, she is done. Gone, never gonna come back. Thats the damage. Up till now she could afford to basically suicide her way through enemy troops at will, causing damage then retreating, because if she got "killed" it wouldnt matter, she would just return to her coffin and heal. She still can survive a lot more damage than she could pre vamp, its just now she is far more vulnerable to death than she was before. And I have no idea if she can just make another coffin or not. I still found it amusing that half the group couldnt die without some shenanigans, but now I cant help but wonder if they were doing a bit too good due to the no need to fear the reaper factor, which is why veritas destroyed the coffin.

The problem with having a reset button or stay out of death card is that eventually someone is going to take your button away or at least make it harder to press. Once coffins/armor/phylacteries are used they become fair game in our book. This kind of stems back to a certain unwritten rule in gaming for my peers and I. Spellbooks are off limits, bags of holdings are not to be targeted, and mounts that avoid combat are avoided in combat. It was agreed that the more a coffin or similar “regeneration” method was employed the more open to targeting it became.



Veritas is not Volcanus in the flesh, could be a proxy/avatar maybe.


They are mutually exclusive…I promise


This is a test...simply a test to see if anyone ACTUALLY looked for white text







I'm not sure, but I think the mistake was not providing adequate food for the dragon / giant / drow armies.

Veritas pulling off his sneaky approach was more dramatics and less game mechanics. The realization that I had a sweet legion of soon to be starving giants and dragons was pure “slap yourself on the forehead boneheadedness”





Ares has an even better line coming up... One word...

So bonus featurette….a more accurate depiction of this exchange…

Pluto is vaporized by the Beholder.

Ares: Oops

Pluto OOC: You just baked my cleric

Ares: He’s in a time out he will be fine.

Pluto OOC: Still…

Ares: S**t went bad…she took two for the company. *

*Bonus Points if you recognize this quote…it is from the only show that consistently gets cited more than Monty Python for us.

[BilltheCynic]

This is a test...simply a test to see if anyone ACTUALLY looked for white text

If we do look for it, do we pass or fail?

[SethoMarkus]

If we do look for it, do we pass or fail?

Regardless of passing or failing, I feelthe dashed expectations are punishment enough.

[Honest Tiefling]

I looked for more further in the post. I feel as if I have failed, somehow.

[Traab]

Im tempted to write a post with alternating colors, one white, one the color of the quote box. Just to see what sort of confusion I could create. :smallbiggrin:

[BilltheCynic]

Im tempted to write a post with alternating colors, one white, one the color of the quote box. Just to see what sort of confusion I could create. :smallbiggrin:

Challenge accepted!

The journey of a thousand miles is much easier if you ride an undead unicorn.
Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day. Give the necroranchers a fish, and the next day they will have convinced that fish that it is in its best interest to lure the rest of its school into shallow waters for them to catch, eat, then raise as skeleton fish to swarm and kill that kraken that they had previously made a deal with and promptly backstabbed at the most opportune moment.

[Lord of Shadows]

.
"Their confusion is met with a widening of eyes from the massive dragon. There is a moment frozen in time where the demons begin to move…Doc begins to rush Seraphim…the Mind Flayer begins to swing it’s blade into the molten hot armor…and the dragon inhales." This is a test...there is nothing wrong with your monitor. We control the horizontal... We control the vertical.. Sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your monitor.
I don't think they are gonna make it thru the night... Mind Flayers are nasty when you get them all riled up like that. :smalleek:

[Efrate]

Just read all of this and am going to start my almost core only campaign journal as soon as we finish up the module. My secondary group is running the Sunless Citadel path with modifications and with moments like the gargoyle 150ft piledriver I feel should be shared with everyone.

One question since I know little about pathfinder, aren't undead universally immune to mind affecting stuff? I mean I get why cause plot, but seems a huge benefit of being undead is immune to almost all enchantment effect and a lot of illusions. They should be eating squidfaces for breakfast. Or just dominating it. Again not familiar with PF enough to know better, also plot.

I am actually going to recommend to a few of my new players that they read a few of your logs, to see some of the awesome that is contained. Recommendations on which might be the best for new players that might be able to help them think of thinks outside the box?

[Reboot]

One question since I know little about pathfinder, aren't undead universally immune to mind affecting stuff? I mean I get why cause plot, but seems a huge benefit of being undead is immune to almost all enchantment effect and a lot of illusions. They should be eating squidfaces for breakfast. Or just dominating it. Again not familiar with PF enough to know better, also plot.
Yes (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/rules-for-monsters/creature-types#TOC-Undead). But strictly speaking, neither Azzie (Shadow Lord (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/shadow-lord-cr-2)) nor Doc (half-dragon, half-giant, two-halves-orc... wait...) are undead - and while Ares (Graveknight (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/templates/graveknight-cr-2)) is, although Kaveman does imply that he got hit, he also shrugged it off (his real problem was "got torn to shreds"). And when a psi-demon materialised where Sera & the twins were, they also didn't have any real trouble, it seems, either then or when Sera showed up in the volcano room with Veritas. Doc is the only one who got actively dominated, and he's not even nearly undead.

[Kaveman26]

Dead Calm:

With T-Minus three days remaining until the doors reopen and most of the automated security about to rearm itself the group is reunited and for the moment in control of their territory. The fire forces are routed with a few stragglers perhaps still roaming the hallways. The frost force is crippled and in retreat. The leadership for the frost party remains intact with Ackshale and Micko still AWOL. Veritas himself is isolated within the Conference Level for the time being, but the U.C. are not hedging on him staying there for long.

Hades: We blitzed the Flayer and Tom Sawyered Veritas into creating a disruption. I doubt he will bank on the Illithid being an enemy so we can’t count on him being stuck or prone to starving to death. One decent mind to mind chat from our squid buddy and Veritas has confirmation he got played.

Seraphim: Played the hand dealt to us. United we can probably give him a run for his money. I am more immediately concerned with my lack of coffin. The ritual tome says I have to imbue a replacement coffin with a similar essence. I have to make a new coffin, fill with blood, and submerse within it for 24 hours in order to attune and set it as a new sanctuary.

Ares: We can accommodate that easy enough. I think that while you craft the coffin we are going to run sweeps on the immediate vicinity to search out stragglers and deprive any unlocated enemies from potential food stuffs.

Pluto: Our undead are in shambles and we are running low on resources for templated undead. The disposable ones are just that…disposable. They are not showing enough durability for the class of enemy we are facing.

Doc: Securing our safety is important, but I think that as soon as we feel safe we need to be aggressive and take back the Conference Level. If we find the other override keys I will feel better.

Azzie: The squidie kept insisting that Volcanus was secure. Maybe he wasn’t gaming us.

Ares: That feels too convenient to be true. If a solo Flayer could have “stopped” the threat of this thing the whole place wouldn’t have gone to Defcon 5. I genuinely feel like that is the ticking timebomb. We have been screwing around in this territory too long and we need to put all our resources towards uncovering a solution or confirmation that Volcanus can be contained or eliminated.

Seraphim: We have eliminated most of the immediate threat to us at this junction. Veritas is the only entity that is presently salivating over our destruction. The drow seem content to ride out the storm and see if they can finish off the wounded. The giants are broken and the Mind Flayer is quick to abandon a fight. If we can coax Veritas into chasing us or juke him out of the Conference Level I think we can press and try to reach additional secured zones. Once we have the override keys in hand Elliana may be able to give us more definitive answers.

Ares: I don’t think we can bank on her being anything other than a glorified Janitor. While intelligent she is clearly limited by her instructions and protocols. If we can get to a point where we can adjust her programming or remove her limitations that could change.

Azzie: So we all agree that we need to get further into the meat and potatoes but we are stuck on the appetizers. To get to the main course we still have to get past the dragon.

Doc: Veritas is the gateway to progress right now. If we can’t kill him or get him to a place where he is impotent then any plans made amount to us spinning our wheels.

Hades: Then let’s assemble a plan to kill the dragon. Put everything into taking him out and then we can pick a course.

LEVEL 11:

Seraphim
Half Elf Gravewalker-Vampire (Patron-Elements)11:Str16 Dex18 Con- Int23 Wis14 Cha 20
Feats: Skill Focus Diplomacy, Brew Potion,Extra Hex (Cackle),Ability Focus (Hex),Extra Hex (Cauldron), Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge, Greater Spell Focus Necromancy, Spell Focus Necromancy, Alertness,Combat Reflexes, Dodge, II, Lightning Reflexes, Toughness, Craft Wands, Split Hex
Hexes: Evil Eye, Cackle, Cauldron,Misfortune, Retribution
Psionic Powers Known: Share Pain
PP Reserve: 10


1st: Beguiling Gift, ILW,CLW,Burning Hands,Ray of Enfeeblement,Enlarge Person,Mask Dweomer,Ear Piercing Scream,Mage Armor,Frostbite,Obscuring Mists
2nd: Command Undead, Flaming Sphere,Glitterdust,CMW,IMW,Blood Transcription
3rd:Bestow Curse,Animate Dead,Lightning Bolt,Dispel Magic,Stinking Cloud,Fireball
4th: Enervation, Wandering Star Motes, Wall of Ice , Ice Storm Crushing Despair
5th: Cloudkill, Feeblemind, Flamestrike
6th: Transformation, Greater Dispel Magic

Pluto:
Dhampir Undead Lord 11 (lich): Str 14 Dex 14 Con - Int 13 Wis 20 Cha 20
Feats:BF:Command Undead, Spell Focus:Necromancy,Selective Channeling,Undead Master, Extra Channeling, Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge, Greater Spell Focus Necromancy, Craft Armor, Improved Channel , Spell Penetration
Psionic Power Known: Force Screen
PP Reserve 8

Hades:
Dhampir Undead Lord (lich) 11:Str 14 Dex 14 Con - Int 13 Wis 20 Cha 20
Feats:Spell Focus Necromancy,Selective Channeling,Undead Master, Extra Channeling, Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge, Greater Spell Focus Necromancy, Craft Wonderous Item, Improved Channel
Psionic Power Known: Force Screen, Spell Penetration
PP Reserve 8

Ares:
Nagaji Grave-Knight of the Sepulcher11:Str 25 Dex 14 Con - Int 12 Wis 17 Cha 22
Feats:Channel Smite,Extra Lay of Hands,Extra Lay of Hands, Power Attack, Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge, Mounted Combat, II, Ride By Attack, Toughness, Lightning Reflexes
Psionic Powers Known: Animal Affinity
PP Reserve 6

Doctor Lovebones (Orc) Giant Half Dragon Barbarian1/Scarred Witch Dr5/Eldritch Knight5 Str 35 Dex 12Con 28 Int 7 Wis 12 Cha 7
Feats: Ability Focus (Hex), Extra Hex, Extra Hex, Power Attack, Improved Initiative, Wild Talent, Expanded Knowledge, Vital Strike, Craft Arms , Cleave
Hexes: Fortune, Misfortune, Ward, Cackle

Psionic Powers Known: Psionic Lion’s Charge
PP Reserve 10
1st:Bless,Burning Hands,Ray of Enfeeblement,Mage Armor,CLW,ILW,Obscuring Mist,Enlarge Person, Hypnotism
2nd:Aid, Hold Person, Alter Self, Levitate, IMW
3rd:Prayer,Remove Curse,Remove Blind/Deaf, Blessing of Fervor, Bestow Curse, Lightning Bolt
4th Enervation, Crushing Despair
5th: Baleful Polymorph,Cloudkill

Azzie Azborne Shadow Lord DirgeBard10/Agent of the Grave1 Str10 Dex18 Con12 Int17 Wis15 Cha 26 Feats: Skill Focus Disable Device, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Spell Focus Necromancy,Expanded Knowledge, Wild Talent, Leadership, Greater Spell Focus Necromancy
1st: Grease,Lesser Confusion,Silent Image,Ray of Enfeeblement
2nd:Invisibility,Pyrotechnics,Silence,Mirror Image, Command Undead
3rd:Displacement, Haste, Crushing Despair, Animate Dead
4th: Shout, Hold Monster
PP Reserve:8
Known Powers:Concussion Blast



They assemble and prepare with a singularly focused gameplan. Eliminate Veritas. To this end they prepare a very specific list of spells and preparations that mainly focus on buffing Seraphim and Ares with everything possible. They shuffle/ animate undead to fill up those two individuals with as many fireproof bruisers as they can hold. Eagles Splendor, Bulls Strength, Bless, Prayer, Fire Resist along with any other buff the can reasonably put into place is organized and readied.

Seraphim picked up a sixth level spell Transformation that turns her into a frontline fighter with full base attack, complete with str boosts and natural armor boosts. She also has a Hex ability that transfers damage done to her back to the target who delivered it. A battery of curses and energy drain effects are prepped and meant to hobble the red. They figure most of the effects lasting 11 rounds and it will take 4 rounds to get everything into place. They are budgeting 7 rounds of maximized engagement and if they enter through and fail to find Veritas within 2 full rounds they are prepared to fall back and start over from step 1 the following day.

Ares: Alright I think we are as geared for draconic assassination as we can get.

Seraphim: Alright, let’s move out.

The U.C. mobilize and return to the platform ready to burst through and engage. Via Cognizance Crystals and undead minion budgeting they have enough juice to get through and back.

The graveknight and vampire come through the circle first and from the instant reality stabilizes around them they are ready to move, they immediately move down the hallway giants running ahead of them as fodder to take the first blows. For the first time in perhaps our gaming history they are elated to see their lead wave of giants engulfed in dragon fire and they erupt in cheers as they have their target within distance.

Seraphim makes the turn first and sees Veritas clawing and slashing at the giants….she also finds Ackshale, Micko, and what they are assuming is the fire giant Chieftain aiding him. She spares a wordless glance at Ares who shrugs mid rush.

Ares: Seven rounds. Take out what we can.

They lay into Veritas with abandon and Seraphim immediately Evil Eye’s to reduce saves against the dragon. Doc who is hot on their heels pulls up short and does likewise. The twins come on the heels of everything else and start their channeling routine. The first full round sees Doc drop a Cloudkill directly over the dragon and his companions. Even with the improved channeling bolstered by undead lord bonus the giants are falling fast. As the dragon and giants try to maneuver out of the Cloudkill Doc puts a second one in their path*

As the giants fall or healing becomes pointless Enervations lance against Veritas who is taking a pounding from the combination of Ares and Seraphim going recklessly all out. By the third round the last of their giants is killed and two giants flank Ares. Seraphim throws herself on the Fire Giants shoulder and instead of attacking blood drains him. The twins step up into combat with a wince and each lands a Harm to fully restore their closest comrade.

Veritas is in very bad shape, but fire resistance is not fire immunity and everyone is now close enough for the breath weapon to level buildings. Azzie tries to Hold Monster against Ackshale as the group collectively decides to bug out and retreat. The only thing in their way is Micko who had broken off and slinked towards the rear of the encounter. Veritas screams for the cleric to stop the retreat but for lack of options or will he succeeds only in casting a spell that bears no affect against Azzie. A Wall of Ice serves as a punctuation mark for the sudden encounter, and this time the dragon does not give chase. Azzie is who last out sees the dragon start to pursue and then stop to snatch the cleric up in his mouth, tearing him in half and then spitting out the two halves of his body, following which he incinerates him to ash.

Ackshale falls back away from the retreat and the fire giant limps towards his frost compatriot. As they retreat for the circle the twins top off the array of damage and then make sure no surprises come with them back through.

Seraphim: Hate to retreat like this. A few rounds longer and think Veritas was toast.

Ares: He probably was, but the giants swing like trucks and we have no idea what kind of recuperative abilities they may have. Against the dragon we could have finished him off. With support from those beasts we can only stand in there so long.

Azzie: Why don’t we offer to parley?

Hades: I don’t think he would even hesitate to ignore requests for a parley.

Azzie: Veritas won’t, but Ackshale might. Do you think there is any chance that the Mind Flayer is not responsible for their arrival in that fight? He must have rounded them up and built a force to hold this ground. If we can give Ackshale a better option he might at a minimum leave. That was not a natural alliance, that was a strange circumstances makes strange bedfellows type deal if I eva saw one. Let’s offer them a different bed. Don’t we have a Forge Ring and Craft Arms/Armor manual still in reserve?

Hades: Yes.

Azzie: Then we offer a ransom. He heads for the entrance and we provide a non aggression clause until the doors open. His legion is shattered and presumably he can’t leave empty handed. We give him a win and let him be on his way.

Pluto: If we give up even up of those manuals we are losing a monopoly.

Azzie: We would have one competitor and he will have a limited range of inventory. ****, I am not opposed to hiring him in a professional and lasting manner when we get out of here. Just saying that such an offer could be accepted.

Doc: Or the offer on it’s face could get him killed.

Everyone kind of picks up interest in that…

Seraphim: How do you figure?

Doc: The witch can walk up to them right now in a hijacked undead minion and make the offer in front of Veritas. The offer alone might be enough to set off the angry bastard and have them go at each other right there. If not he might accept it…which would set off the dragon and make them go at each other right there. Or he declines. I like to think the other outcomes are possible.

Seraphim jumps through the circle…grabs a random mook skeleton and then proceeds to come back through with her possessed lackey leading the way back down the hall. As she walks down the hallway the two giants and dragon are visibly drinking from a vat that seems to be healing their wounds. A pair of Cerebiliths are also now visible and conversing with the dragon.

They all pause as the skeleton shambles alone down the hall.

Seraphim: This is an offer for Ackshale. We are prepared to give you access to Forge Ring and Craft Arms….

The dragonfire doesn’t even leave much dust behind before she can finish the sentence.

[GrayDeath]

And still everybody but Sera has a CON Score....just saying. ^^
Also: your * to **** were not explained. Might want to correct that.

Aside from that ... well lets see where that leads, shall we? :smallamused:

[Kaveman26]

Copy and paste to avoid retyping has led to that continued error

[GrayDeath]

Its a simple 1 minute fix....?

I) mean we all see how much effort, blood, negative Energy and ... EVIL goes into this Journal, why let some minor oversights stand? :vaarsuvius:

[NRSASD]

Honestly, let oversights stand. This journal is absolutely fantastic, and I'd rather see Kaveman keep telling us the story than correcting small mistakes

[Kaveman26]

Just read all of this and am going to start my almost core only campaign journal as soon as we finish up the module. My secondary group is running the Sunless Citadel path with modifications and with moments like the gargoyle 150ft piledriver I feel should be shared with everyone.

One question since I know little about pathfinder, aren't undead universally immune to mind affecting stuff? I mean I get why cause plot, but seems a huge benefit of being undead is immune to almost all enchantment effect and a lot of illusions. They should be eating squidfaces for breakfast. Or just dominating it. Again not familiar with PF enough to know better, also plot.

I am actually going to recommend to a few of my new players that they read a few of your logs, to see some of the awesome that is contained. Recommendations on which might be the best for new players that might be able to help them think of thinks outside the box?


Adversarial Process: see wagon related hijinks

The big one: web...and more


The con issues have been corrected to appropriate nil value

[Traab]

Well, that kinda sucks. Its a bit of a stalemate. They cant kill veritas with him still having some support, and it sounds like he has a fountain of healing potions which means they cant even try to wear him down. On the up side, they got enough of the offer out to maybe cause some dissension, maybe next try they make, if they havent heard back from acky, is next fight they concentrate on veritas and ignore ackshale in hopes he accepts AND in hopes of making dragon boy think he is being betrayed.

[wobner]

"As the dragon and giants try to maneuver out of the Cloudkill Doc puts a second one in their path*"

someone beat me to it, but no answer, i get the **** was probably the language filter blocking out something it thought was naughty(its more obvious in some of your other posts), but the single asterisk? there was one in another recent write up as well that didn't lead to a corresponding footnote (that i noticed anyway). Am i missing something? was something left out? or is this(and the other) just a typo?

here's the other one

"Hades, Pluto, and Seraphim hold tight inside their vault while waiting for Pluto to reform and for the thralls to rise from their makeshift coffins.* They load up on spells with heavy emphasis on energy protection and AoE. When the next day arrives their thralls stir awake and are greeted by their new Mistress. "

Once again, great read

wondering how long it will be between the end of this journal and the start of the next, and more importantly, how i will survive.

[Kane0]

Ive already started stowing supplies in the basement

[Kaveman26]

"As the dragon and giants try to maneuver out of the Cloudkill Doc puts a second one in their path*"

someone beat me to it, but no answer, i get the **** was probably the language filter blocking out something it thought was naughty(its more obvious in some of your other posts), but the single asterisk? there was one in another recent write up as well that didn't lead to a corresponding footnote (that i noticed anyway). Am i missing something? was something left out? or is this(and the other) just a typo?

here's the other one

"Hades, Pluto, and Seraphim hold tight inside their vault while waiting for Pluto to reform and for the thralls to rise from their makeshift coffins.* They load up on spells with heavy emphasis on energy protection and AoE. When the next day arrives their thralls stir awake and are greeted by their new Mistress. "

Once again, great read

wondering how long it will be between the end of this journal and the start of the next, and more importantly, how i will survive.


The first asterisk was going to reference cloudkill as a long time go to spell for big single targets as it virtually guarantees at least 1 con per round.

The azzie **** was language filter

The makeshift coffin was going to reference using shattered bones and skin to craft makeshift coffins.

[Traab]

Given enough materials, could seraph create multiple coffins and hide them everywhere possible? Or can you only have one set coffin at a time? I was thinking it would be kinda hilarious to be forced to play whack a mole to destroy her for good.

[Kaveman26]

Seraphim has to go through a process to bond with her coffin, so while she could set up decoys there would only be one active or imbued coffin for her to retreat to. More from this line of thought is coming

[Mith]

Can one seal a coffin with blood stored in stasis (so no spoiling) to make for a stash of quick to attune coffins?

[Kaveman26]

Counter Riposte:

As Seraphim takes back ownership of her true body and reports back the less than cordial rejection of their attempted offer…the two cerebiliths round the corner with attempts to mind control Doc again. Veritas is hot on their heels as he comes into view with a roar and a spell enabled Shout.

Ares: Well I guess he didn’t feel like waiting.

Seraphim puts a Cloudkill in the dragon’s face and Ares pivots to get in front of the twins.

Hades: Stand or Run?

Ares: If it’s just the demons and him we fight. First sign of a giant we need to bug out.

Doc resists the mind control attempt and he charges the closest demon, Azzie starts lacing arrows into the dragon, and Pluto+Hades try to position themselves at intervals that spread them out the maximum distance where their channeling will still affect Ares. In effect Ares becomes the fulcrum for all their following actions as he does his level best to stand in toe to toe with the dragon. He basically tries to maneuver like a prize fighter, instead of opening himself to a full range of Claw+Claw+Wing+Wing+Bite+Tail he takes the AoP and takes two of the attacks each round, he makes it a mission to burn through all of his channel smites as he pours everything he can into each attack.

Seraphim curses and cackles at the demons engaged with Doc, softening them up for further spells. Azzie manages to land a Hold Monster against one of the two demons and a concerted flurry of attacks and a swing in targets from Azzie puts one down. Veritas is giving Ares everything he has and the graveknight takes a pounding. Floods of channeling hitting him from the two clerics is the only thing preventing another time out for regeneration. It was at this point that the real trouble began.

Veritas: I like seeing you angered, It pleases me to watch you suffer. The Illithid are clever creatures. They have revealed to me the chink in your armor. I can end you for all of eternity. In fact I know the means to end you all.

Ares:You have to kill us first.

Veritas: On the contrary. I have to hold you first. My new ally is even now ransacking your “vault” for the relics that will ensure we send you to your final doom. I feel his voice in my mind right now. I sense the triumph of his search and the certainty of your demise.

As the dragon croons out the realization that the Mind Flayer has located and entered their vault the twins as one feel a shudder of someone probing their phylacteries.

Hades: He is not bluffing. I can literally feel someone prying at my soul like a mom rummaging through clothes at a yard sale.

Pluto: It is unsettling and definitely not the metaphor I would have chosen…but it will work.

As the twins confirm Seraphim lurches…

Seraphim: My coffin just got destroyed and my vampires with it. Hang on…picking up something else…

The witch starts laughing with a genuine non mechanical cackle.

Seraphim: My golem entangled it, and is currently pounding the crap out of it.*I think it is managing to get away but it took a beating in the process.

Now faced with a sudden prospect of permanent death the “tension” of Dragon Fight Round 2 takes on a sudden ferocity. Hades puts his last Harm onto Ares to restore him and they furtively launch their last energy drain spells.

The second demon is dispatched and with a grim finality Doc bursts a psionic lion’s charge from a cog crystal, functionally making this a final one way trip with no way to activate the circle and he barrels into the dragon with a pair of attacks. It also puts him square into the Cloudkill which starts leeching con from him.

A torrent of dragon fire sends the twins reeling and aflame. Azzie’s arrows are having little affect against the dragon and he tries to hit it with a ray of enfeeblement. No effect. Out of their best tools and with their escape plans in tatters they are gritting their teeth and trying desperately to finish off the dragon in the hopes of a reprieve. Ares lands a high damage critical strike that send Veritas stumbling and the dragon nearly buckles losing his balance and scrabbling to stay up with his metallic limb. A massive warhammer crackling with electricity comes screeching through the air in between the dragon and the graveknight. It hits the wall and sends a shockwave throughout the room. It is verrrry hard to tell if the target was dragon or anti-paladin or if it was an intentional miss, but by the time they turn to see Ackshale the hammer is back in his hands and lightning seems to already be building back up.

With a seething hiss Seraphim grabs Doc and calls for a retreat. Stumbling they get to the circle and activate to jump through, a final off balance gout of dragonfire chases them through the circle as they barely escape.


*She intentionally has left it behind as a bodyguard, and it straight up slammed and entangled the Mind Flayer and began landing I kid you not a series of natural 20’s for attacks that would make you cringe if you were on the receiving end

[Traab]

Damn damn DAMN! Just one or two more rounds and they might have finished the freaking dragon off! So close! And now they are all well and truly screwed on the reincarnation front. At least, for some time to come. I suppose the liches can remake a phylactery eventually right? Same for seraph. But just how useful will it be to even bother if this damnable illithid that seems to know everything (god I hate psychic npc opponents) they plan is still around. But at least if they had killed Veritas it would have removed a MAJOR threat from play. Plus I bet he would have made a VERY nice pet. Nice lucky break on the golem at least. Give the illithid something to ponder on while his head wounds heal. Maybe it wont realize it was raw bad luck that kept him from tearing it apart or ignoring its minor damage.

[Gallowglass]

Make Golem lay down.

Hollow out chest.

Make new coffin in chest.

seal with prismatic metal lid.

Turn Golem right fist into Hades Phylactory.

Turn Golem left fist into Pluto Phylactory.

Problem solved.

[Lord of Shadows]

Damn damn DAMN!

Same here... what the heck did Ackshale do, roll a 1? If only they knew for sure which "side" he was on, they could have ended it right there. I was also fully expecting the Flayer to try something like that, but didn't count on there being a guard. That was a wise move on Sera's part. Can't wait for the next chapter.
.

[Traab]

Same here... what the heck did Ackshale do, roll a 1? If only they knew for sure which "side" he was on, they could have ended it right there. I was also fully expecting the Flayer to try something like that, but didn't count on there being a guard. That was a wise move on Sera's part. Can't wait for the next chapter.
.

Its also possible (even likely) he knew about the guard. Its just it got in a number of very lucky hits that turned him from a nuisance into a threat. When you roll an endless set of 20s you might as well raise your cr by a few ranks, ya know?

[Lord of Shadows]

Its also possible (even likely) he knew about the guard. Its just it got in a number of very lucky hits that turned him from a nuisance into a threat. When you roll an endless set of 20s you might as well raise your cr by a few ranks, ya know?

The Flayer may not know, then, if the Golem really is as nasty as it seemed. That could be used against it. But then, it seems to know everything ahead of time. Damn mental powers.. except of course, most Goelms are mindless, so a perfect guardian against a Flayer.

I know Kaveman said that this campaign has concluded. I think I can can sense a final confrontation brewing.
.

[Kaveman26]

Out of Mind Experience:

Sincerely depressed and moderately humbled they beat a hasty retreat back to the vault where they collapse to the ground in frustration. The Flayer now holds their phylacteries and has destroyed Seraphim’s reformed coffin. Her drow vampire clerics are destroyed permanently.

Ares: Bottom line: We can take Veritas in a fair fight where we choose the circumstances and allot for combat on our terms. Unfortunately isolating him to a place where we choose the terms is presently impossible. The Flayer has us in it’s sights and we it knows what we know.

Hades: I have been thinking about that for some time…Doc, Azzie could you give us the room for a minute? I don’t want Doc suffocating and Azzie you watch his back.

When the Orc and Bard are out of the vault and the door is sealed Hades cracks his bony knuckles.

Hades: Right, as far as we know as undead we four are immune to telepathy (Jaze being a possible exception) which means any intelligence coming from our group is from Doc and Azzie, let’s operate on the basis that the Flayer is making them unwilling double agents and siphoning information from their minds. Anything they know he will know. So I got an idea. We make new phylacteries and a new coffin and stash them someplace we know about. We make FAKE phylacteries and a FAKE Coffin and stash them someplace Doc is aware of. Step Two, we hide our real items someplace immune to telepathy…I.E. the Undead Ecosystem. In fact I think we should make multiple duplicates and seed them throughout.

Ares: Aren’t we getting paranoid?

Pluto: To be fair…everyone is out to get us. That makes it justifiable paranoia.

Seraphim: I am fine with irrational paranoia if it means disrupting his attempts to disrupt us. We only got two days til the doors open. Assuming we don’t get ambushed in the next ten minutes we are going to be cutting it close. I think it’s worth investing though. To kill the dragon we need to clear the Flayer first.

Ares: Can you make new phylacteries?

Hades: Yes. It will require the old ones being destroyed first. So we will be in the uncomfortable position of being vulnerable.

Seraphim: What goes into recrafting them?

Hades: We have to corrupt the receptacle with negative energy and meditate via our spellslots to reawaken it as a holder for our souls. Basically we need to blow an entire days worth of channels and spells into a hole so we can throw our spirits back into the hole.

Pluto: On the plus side, as soon as he destroys the old ones we will know. Also means that once he has his hands on a fake he will be able to tell the difference.

When they come of their timeout they all discuss whether they think Ackshale was making a play to end them or to aid them.

Doc: If he was looking to double cross the dragon that was the moment.

Azzie: If he was looking to finish us off that was the moment as well. Flip a Coin…

Hades: We need to stay close and alert, they may try to swoop in and finish us off.

As preparations commence to rebuild their oh so important relics they run on a high alert staging disposable minions from all possible approaches. The knowledge that their vault sanctuary can be breached seems to be getting under their skin with a passion. To their surprise no ambushes or sudden incursions are staged and as they approach T-1 Hour to the doors openings, they are getting extremely anxious. As a testament to their foresight they manage to pilot sentry zombies to all three entrances where they are planted for survelliance. Assuming noon is the door entry (which is what we have been running off the whole time) then at 11:55 Hades and Pluto both shiver and then look at each other.

Twins: He just broke the old phylacteries. We are now officially vulnerable.

The hour arrives and from their zombie Tivo they witness their original entrance open, along with the mostly unexplored entrance three.

From Door 1:

A veritable legion of shining shield, razor tipped lances and parade ready heavy horses leads an entourage of knights, and crusaders. At their front a regal man of powerful build astride a silver dragon complete with mithral barding. From the leader’s sigil and regalia they identify him as the Paladin King once viewed as the “most powerful” man alive. King Galud by name and a fearsome man of great reputation. By outward appearances he has brought the entirety of his army and kingdom with him as they watch custom wagon after custom wagon work it’s way through the door. The procession takes the entire hour.

From Door 3:

The door springs open and a horde of ogres all heavily armed and armored, all bearing a red palm brand in their flesh and adorned to their barbaric gear. A drove of worgs all barded in spiked armor and of a size that outstrips their ancestory follows them. A caravan of slaves still bound in chains carries palanquins holding multiple men and women all wearing crimson red and ornamented with the same red hand. Half-Giants in plenty carry up the rear and an emissary from the Red Hand force approaches their “Sentry”

“ I am archmaster Sirra…I present my greetings to the necromancers whose reputations proceed them. We will talk soon. The time for children’s games and play is over. We shall speak more directly soon”

[Mith]

I really hope that this campaign ends in a success for the group. Yes they are unrepentant evil, but they are a great narrative.


Make Golem lay down.

Hollow out chest.

Make new coffin in chest.

seal with prismatic metal lid.

Turn Golem right fist into Hades Phylactory.

Turn Golem left fist into Pluto Phylactory.

Problem solved.

If there was someway for Ares to make a helm that allowed him to slowly regenerate after his armour is destroyed, and give the Golem a helm for a head that would basically cover all the undead. It is all the eggs in one basket, but it does make a nice symbolic representation of their pact. Perhaps you add to it by making this Super-Golem comprised of lesser animated parts that can move separately. Sure Animated object isn't that big of a deal, but it does allow for the individual relics to bug out if needed.

How can Azzie be destroyed? Just reduced to 0 HP?

[Traab]

Oh dear. There is no way this can end well. Im assuming the unmentioned door was a fairly random assortment of adventurers and such with no apparent connection? So we have one faction that is pretty damn obviously not going to parley with a bunch of undead monstrosities, and one that might, but they are in a very tenuous situation when it comes to negotiating strength. They have no undead army of their own, they have no phylacteries or coffins, they have no valuable magic items to hand over as bribe material, and no way to really stop either side from just taking their books from their finally destroyed carcasses. 5 gold says they try to turn the archmaster guy against high king pally galud whatshisface and it will backfire like it always has and seemingly always will.

Oh wow, just did some reading trying to find what the heck an archmaster even is. A neutral cleric thats nice and highly ranked, though not obnoxiously higher level than they are as at best he is level 14/15. Not that that helps much with a bleeding ARMY at his back. Rock, meet hard place. I think our party is going to hang out between you for awhile.

[Lord of Shadows]

The only thing going for them with the new arrivals is that the newbies likely only know the U.C. by reputation, they don't likely know the current state of affairs. And by reputation, it would be that these folks always seem to have an Undead Army at their disposal, and some pretty nasty negative energies.

It is interesting that they seem to have drawn the attention of the two most powerful, and polarized, forces in the world. I assume that both King and Wizard had to pull rank to be first in the door. The third door could be just some random mooks, or it could be the deciding factor in any final confrontation.

As s side note, the U.C. should feel proud that their antics have drawn such massive attention... LOL
.

[Traab]

The only thing going for them with the new arrivals is that the newbies likely only know the U.C. by reputation, they don't likely know the current state of affairs. And by reputation, it would be that these folks always seem to have an Undead Army at their disposal, and some pretty nasty negative energies.

It is interesting that they seem to have drawn the attention of the two most powerful, and polarized, forces in the world. I assume that both King and Wizard had to pull rank to be first in the door. The third door could be just some random mooks, or it could be the deciding factor in any final confrontation.

As s side note, the U.C. should feel proud that their antics have drawn such massive attention... LOL
.

It might not just be about them either. Remember when they made a break for it and got into a multi dragon fight outside the gates? Or the next time they opened we had a massive fire army and a massive frost army? There are some major things taking place, and with the armies running in there, its entirely possible these kingdoms also fear some faction is trying to take over the INSIDE as well. Up till now they were happy to control the gates. But there have likely been a few escapees to inform the gate holders of whats going on and they dont want to lose control to other nations or merc armies.

[Lord of Shadows]

There are some major things taking place, and with the armies running in there, its entirely possible these kingdoms also fear some faction is trying to take over the INSIDE as well. Up till now they were happy to control the gates. But there have likely been a few escapees to inform the gate holders of whats going on and they dont want to lose control to other nations or merc armies.

This is true as well. I don't recall if Scrying would work on those who were inside, but if so, then the outside world may be in panic over what they have seen so far. Certainly the merchants would be in a panic. But any appearance of an army would likely also draw "imperial" attention. Without scrying, and only the bits of rumors that get out when the doors open, the limited info would likely make people start to speculate, and panic.
.

[Traab]

This is true as well. I don't recall if Scrying would work on those who were inside, but if so, then the outside world may be in panic over what they have seen so far. Certainly the merchants would be in a panic. But any appearance of an army would likely also draw "imperial" attention. Without scrying, and only the bits of rumors that get out when the doors open, the limited info would likely make people start to speculate, and panic.
.

I remember after the big dragon battle at the gates a number of other adventurers got inside and our team sort of held them captive for awhile. Did any of them escape death by any chance? They would have known about the ice giants being inside the dungeon at least, and those outside had to be aware that veritas was intending to bring in his own burning legion *cough* So during that change over the survivors of the unaffiliated might have made it out and told about the frost giants, and the outsiders would have SEEN the fire giants dragon and elementals, so clearly there would have been reason for worry. Those arent adventure parties, those are armies of occupation.

Now all that said, it very well may have nothing to do with any of this, im just thinking of possible alternate reasons that dont completely revolve around our party. (even if it is their fault all these forces are in here)

[Lord of Shadows]

Yes, and I imagine the appearance of a powerful Dragon drove everyone outside into a panic. From Kaveman's Intro:



* Dragons are scarce. Few are ever sighted, and fewer still ever engaged.

And I am not sure if any of that second group of adventurers would have survived...

[CrispyCriminal]

So many factors. I definitely see the Red Hand being a parley opportunity, after all it was their wish to do so. But ultimately with all sides involved, if they get into an alliance it'll have to be a lasting one. They can no longer afford a wheel and deal now that things have come to a head. But surprises are always abound. On the upside though, being in an alliance with them means a very convenient recruitment scenario should one of the PCs meet the final death. Albeit with Red Handed intentions.

As for the paladin king and his army...his army is highly doomed to get either werewolved, vamped (our favorite domination devoted vampire is still a wild card), or turned into corpses of either animated or limp variety before 2 months are up. Not to say he won't take anyone down with him but this dungeon has proved itself to be too cruel for long term hospitality, especially after the undead cowboys had their way with it. Controlling a gate only ensures new reinforcements and supplies, but considering how deep they have to go now they can be stretched thin, suspectable to guerilla strikes and all.

[Kaveman26]

Head of Security:

There comes a point when I take information from my notes and do my best to translate everything to something approaching a legible narrative. I filter out a great deal of the Out of Character chatter and side distractions (except for some of the funnier ones) and I try to focus on critical events without getting too caught up in the game mechanics. I feel it is better served to put some of the “behind the scenes conversation”

Seraphim: Right, so we got an army of evil creatures that already know us and want to parley. Then we have the king of virtue that will call us heretics to be destroyed. I genuinely don’t want to deal with the King and his knights.

Hades: So we kill them?

Ares: Can’t we just ignore them?

Seraphim: That’s what I am saying. We could go through some rudimentary diplomacy exchange insults and then mop the floor with them. I just don’t want to be bothered with any of it.

Doc: So let’s lock the door from Moo-Dor and just ignore them.

Me: You are seriously not going to interact with them at all?

Pluto: Yeah kind of with them on this. We don’t have time to eradicate the noble king and his band of merry man. They are just going to have to spin their wheels for the time being.

Seraphim: We have a Mind Flayer to assassinate, a world ending terror to contain, and a force of evil creatures that want to talk with us…we are swamped.

With a gameplan of “just ignore them and hope they go away” in regards to King Galud and a “Let’s set up a face to face with the Red Hand” agenda they go to work.

A little background on The Red Hand. There is/was a kingdom in Forgotten Realms ruled by the Red Wizards called Thay. This kingdom was heavy into slavery, demonology and magical items. They were immensely powerful and ruthless. Ruled by a section of eight casters each aligned to a specialty of casting and controlled by an ancient and powerful lich. Thay as was known is gone, but the region is still held and controlled by a group of powerful wizards, sorcerers, and clerics known as the Red Hand. The zulkirs (kind of like lords) have been replaced by Archmasters. Sirra is the current “highest amongst equals” or the closest thing to a ruler the region now possesses. I drew from a lot of the ideas surrounding Thay and kind of melded it into something new but still familiar for purposes of this campaign.

So…the U.C. arrange via their sentry a diplomatic meeting. They anticipate that while the envoy is not to be trusted nothing overly hostile will occur at the onset. This should by their reckoning be a getting to know you affair.

As the two sides meet at the prearranged destination point at a juncture near the initial engine room Azzie makes a too late realization…

Azzie: Uh…how did you know how to get here?

Sirra: We have detailed information about the layout and organization of this structure.

Azzie: Well that is specifically vague, do you also have detailed information about us?

Sirra: Less so, but adequate enough. I think these answers would best be served by my Master.

That gives them pause. While The Red Hand is secretive and distant from most worldly matters Sirra as the leader of their society is one of the few unquestioned facts. Flanked a pair of ogre bodyguards the Red Hand wizard beckons and from beyond the hall a lone golem approaches. Gasps rise up from those still able to draw breath, and the soft hiss of shock escapes the rest. The golem is a towering contraption forged entirely from adamantine. It carries in it’s massive hands a velvet draped box. The golem holds the box with a delicacy more befitting an egg than a crate. The Golem drops to a knee and offers the box to Sirra, who also prostrates himself to the ground as do his ogre bodyguards. Slowly and with great precision gears whir and clockwork pieces wind as the golem lifts the velvet covering the box.

A skull, bereft of nearly all flesh and mass is exposed. Two gossamer chains of mithral dangle from bolts on either side at the skull’s base. A series of nearly putrified tentacles hang from the face, and gemstones (clearly Ioun Stones) swirl about in hollowed eye sockets. The skull bears an intricate crown and an array of ancient and priceless beyond measure magical jewelry. Sirra with infininte care attaches the dangling mithral chains to each ogre. He then binds them to the ground and muzzles them with a leather bit.

Sirra: You may wish to step back…a few steps more if you please.

Hades *whisper*: Pluto…is that…what I think it is..

Pluto: I think it is.

Seraphim *whisper* if you have something to share, share it with all of us please.

Hades: in the worship of death, a lich is at the upper rank. There is a creature whose status transcends mere undeath, it sheds even the memory of it’s body and confines its entire being in the skull alone. A demi-lich

Pluto: For us a demi-lich is like a boxing fan meeting Muhammed Ali, or a basketball fan meeting Michael Jordan.

Sirra takes a deep breath and with a sudden jerk of his arm a cascade of lightning electrocutes the ogres…whose howls are muffled by the leather bits, their spasms restrained by the bindings placed…an energy travels back through the chains and the skull jerks to life. The archmaster resumes his prostration…
Sirra: Master Ko…we have arrived.

The demi-lich seems to take a moment gathering it’s presence. It turns to them with it’s vacant eyes and grins…

Ko: My apologies for the process. Too long have I stayed in this form. Too easily can the mind wander away, only intense sensations can draw it back.

Ko turns as if looking at the twins and his grin grows wider…

Ko: I see you have conquested elements of our research. My congratulations on correctly transferring your spirit to the immortal husks of your former body. A vampire as well…excellent. Perhaps…just perhaps you are the tools needed for the job at hand. So much tumoil…so much angst. I think that before we begin our discussion a token of appreciation…a goodwill gift is required.

The skull floats higher off it’s velvet tray and in a burst of light and thought a single word seems to scream it’s way through the Ark…Li-Ban.

The Mind Flayer who has been antagonizing them appears as if unbidden and with a fury sees the U.C. the fury is short lived as he spots the demi-lich…

Li-Ban: Master Ko? How is this possible? You have been exiled from the colony for….

Ko: Too long…much too long. Exiled is not the correct word old friend. I volunteered. The predicament required a witness someone to research and monitor from beyond the scope of our home.

Ares: you were part of the crew?

Ko: Yes. A preeminent researcher and scholar. I do not wish to give offense, but in my culture undeath is a sign of triumphant failure. A sign of grave humility and shame. It was with heavy heart that I volunteered to be the recipient of this state. For millennia I have watched and learned. I built an empire from the ashes of a world we shattered with our hubris. When the ship began to show signs of activity I came back from my astral and planar travels and turned my focus to the resurgence of our failings. That will come soon enough. First…Li-Ban…I would have your solemn pledge that hostilities between yourself and these allies cease.

Li-Ban: Master Ko…these filthy animals are little more than primates who play with fire…they are beneath…

The skull flairs with a burst of anger and the sudden explosion of energies sent back through the chains to the ogres snaps their bones as muscles clench with a force far beyond the bodies capacity to withstand…

Ko: NO! You will pledge and honor a vow of non aggression or I will scour your mind of all thought and leave it a mindless drooling simpleton.

Li-Ban: yes Master.

The mind flayer kneels and prostrates itself. With a wordless cue Li-Ban vanishes…

Ko: Good…now where was I?

Sirra: Perhaps the candle my liege?

Ko: Ah yes…the candle. Perfect.

From his robes Sirra produces a stub of wax and wick, the tattered end of a mundane candle.

Ko: This is precisely enough wax to burn for exactly one minute. Precisely enough. Not a second more or less. Light it my apprentice…

Sirra humbly sets the wick ablaze with a flick of his finger and with complete focus the pair watch the candle burn…for 48 seconds before it snuffs out.

Ko: Forty Eight Seconds…do you see?

Seraphim: It burned faster?

Ko: Yes…well no…it burned Hotter and consumed it’s fuel faster. A month ago it would have burned for 50, a year ago a full minute. Sometimes simple is best. The grandest experiments result in grand failures. Simple tests yield simple results. The candle is burning faster.

Hades: Does this relate to Volcanus?

Ko: Indeed. Are you aware of Ortes Comet?

Pluto: Let’s say astronomy was not a keen topic for us.

Ko: Well in four months time the comet will return past this planet.

Ares: Let me guess…an astronomical event tied to this comet will empower Volcanus?

Ko: No…not in the slightest. The comet is anything but a comet. It is our fleet. This Ark was a research vessel. The Comet signifies the Fleet returning to this planet to investigate a distress beacon. We purposefully shut down the ship for containment purposes with orders that it only reawaken to join the host of our brethren.

Seraphim: We don’t follow….

Ko: The candle is burning faster you see. The ship will be awake and Volcanus will be released BEFORE the comet and our fleet arrives. They are expecting to aid in containment and security not to be confronted with the damned beast itself. We put a great deal of resources in suspended animation to preserve them. The Fleet will not be ready when it arrives and it will perish in unquenchable fire. The flames burn hotter and the precautions we placed are failing at a similar rate. We have two maybe three months at the most before it is fully escaped.

Azzie: Your brethren…Li-Ban seemed confident that Volcanus was secure.

Ko: Li-Ban was always headstrong and arrogant, capable but not as capable as he thought. He is mistaken. I have spent centuries isolated and disconnected from all I knew doing nothing other than tackling the problem at hand. I have a plan that should work. I need your assistance and unlike those who came before me I offer not extortion or threats but wealth and power. IF we are able to save this world and save my people then it is yours. We will bestow upon you all the secrets and knowledge of our people and ensure that you are gods amongst mortals on this planet. Provided you make assurances that your ambitions will stay to this planet and this plane then you will be unbothered. This is the pact I would make with you.

[GnomishPride]

And the plot thickens...
Great as usual Kaveman!

[Mith]

Huh.

This is an interesting turn of events.

[Kaveman26]

A lot of events really explode from this juncture. I'm trying to kick into overdrive and post faster at this point, I also intend to put up a big chunk of my back story in regards to Ko.

[GrayDeath]

Interesting, although as soon as the head appeared I expected almost exactly that.

Cant wait to see how they botch THIS Alliance ^^