Nibbens
2014-10-01, 02:33 PM
For those of you just tuning in – get acquainted with the game here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?330770-City-of-Progress-Campaign-Journal).
For those of you who missed the last session – click here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?372636-City-of-Progress-Campaign-Journal-Chapter-9-(Dirge-and-the-Blue-Candle-Inn)).
Joining us at the table were the usuals:
Beable Bamford - Halfling siege mage and Golem Lord for Rab's Progress, and his trusty Golem "Mouse 2.0" which is a cannon golem in the general shape of a giant Foo Dog. One of the cannons is decked out with plenty of enchantments and the other is just normal.
Galarend - Human Shining Knight Paladin of Iomedae and General of Rab's Progress' standing army. He is never far away from his trusty steed "Bolba" (A huge flying Triceratops decked out in spiked full-plate armor. (yes, it flies. I approved a permanency of a Fly spell in his case due to particular circumstances.))
Lady Wisteria - Human verdant Sorcerer who is the Rab's Progress' herbalist and "tea-master." (In the front yard of her home stands the only tree in the entire city - a huge oak tree)
We also gained a new player who unfortunately couldn’t make it this game, but plans to be there for the next. He's an old friend of the group to boot!
Down-down-down into the deep-deep dark.
This session picked up where the last one ended and I reminded the PC’s of Mumford’s request – he provides them with aide, but gets half the loot they find. Lacey (Mumford’s emissary) lays a chest at the players feet. Upon opening it the players receive the Dry Load Gunpowder that Beable requested as well as 6 potions of Water Breathing (Lasting 6 hours) 6 potions of Delay Poison (Lasting 6 hours) and 3 scrolls of Neutralize Poison. Each player got 2 potion of each and the 1 scroll.
Mumford makes mention that he’d normally never part with 10 grand worth of gold in items for any reason, but he’s holding the paladin of Iomedae to his word. He also reminds them of the request to destroy the haunted house.
At this point I handed a full map of the sunken city of Dirge – since Lady Wisteria had previously sent an Arcane Eye to check out the city, I provided them with all information that she could see – including the buildings visible and all the doorways into them.
Their exploration started by going back to the basement of the haunted house. Once they were inside, they began checking the bodies strewn about the floor as a ghostly image rose up from the hole. I gave them the description of what they saw:
Two elongated and deathly pallid arms protrude from this creature's smoky body as it slithers silently through the air. The very nature of a Soul eater Makes it an ideal and terrifyingly efficient tool of death, and it is for this reason they are often conjured by vile spellcasters pursuing morbid agendas. Even when not seeing to the heinous commands of a sinister magic user, the soul eater prowls and hunts, constantly seeking living souls upon which to gorge itself.
The fight started in earnest with the Advanced Soul Eater (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/additionalMonsters/soulEater.html#soul-eater) a flyby attack being made at Galarend, he was struck for moderate damage, and took 5 points of wisdom drain. The players reacted with Bolba squeezing through the entrance into the basement, followed by Beable casting a defensive spell on himself, followed by Lady Wisteria casting Protection from Evil on herself and Mouse 2.0.
The second attack was another flyby attack as it struck Galarend again for meager damage and 4 wisdom damage, dropping him to a wisdom of 1.
Beable stopped it in his tracks with two heavy blasts from his cannons, killing it dead… er, deader. Anyway, they were able to loot the room and found several bottles of alcohol, a five gallon drum of mead and a trunk full of adventuring gear. They keep the loot and record what they find and have to split up with the Red Rope Bandits.
Next, they descend down the hole. A casting of Touch of the Sea is placed on Galarend to help him be able to charge underwater, and everyone either casts Water Breathing and Delay Poison, or consumes the potions of them.
First in the water is Galarend followed by Lady Wisteria and Beable and Mouse. Bolba would be squeezing down the tunnel behind them. A bunch of jokes were made – and you can guess what kind of jokes. Once she was at the bottom, Lady Wisteria suspected (and correctly) that hiding in the mud would be some kind of undead. So she spammed 4 castings of Mud to Stone – which was just enough to cover the entire flooring of the city.
Monster Mash!
Immediately I begin making more reflex saves that I ever cared to. The spell trapped ¾ of the very very Advanced Bog Mummies (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/mummy/mummy-bog), which means there was only eighteen placed on the board. Lady Wisteria had trapped nearly fifty in once-mud-now-stone.
This elicited low whistles from everyone in the group. Expecting that since there were so many, that they wouldn’t be that difficult to kill, Galarend charged one and Beable fired 2 of mouse 2.0’s cannons at another and missed entirely, due to the water making the firing difficult. When Galarend did seventy some-odd damage and it didn’t drop, the players now are beginning to worry. These wouldn’t be easy to kill. Bolba spends his entire turn sliding halfway down the tunnel, squeezing.
On the Advanced Bog Mummies turn, the two that were attacked turn and approach their asailants, but the others continue to look around sightlessly. Beable, and Lady Wisteria, rolling high perception checks could tell they were blind and responded to violent action nearby – but they didn’t know how close they needed to be. The Bog Mummy missed his slam against Mouse 2.0, but connected against Galarend. Since he was immune to disease, he didn’t contract the Bog Mummy Rot.
The rest of the mummies stand around confused, and end their turns, much to the relief of the players.
At the start of their turn, both Galarend and Beable need to make saving throws for the aura the Bog Mummies have. Beable saves, but Galarend fails and he is paralyzed for 3 rounds – a quick read of the rules determines that paralysis is the same a helpless and now everyone is scared. Lady Wisteria casts wall of thorns encasing the mummy as well as sealing off the pathway – followed by Beale casting Icy Prison.
While trapped and relatively safe, Beable slams the Bog Mummy on his turn with two point blank Mouse 2.0 cannon shots and down it.
After this point, I call for an end of round by round combat, since nothing was an immediate threat. My players discuss ways to get to the location of the Blue Candle inn. The first option was to use the wand of find the path – which I then drew a straight line from the entrance into the furthest building. Everyone rolled their eyes “Of course, it would be the furthest one away.”
Bolba came into the chamber and picked up Galarend in his beak until the Paralysis wore off. At this point they were all discussing the best way to get into the Blue Candle Inn. After much arguing, they decide on buffing the heck out of Galarend, feeding him a potion of Hide from Undead which they received many sessions earlier, and he would swim out alone (above the reach of the Bog Mummy Despair aura) and check it out.
The other two hung back and prepared a teleport spell, just in case they needed to jump the distance to him. When Galarend succeeded his strength check to open the door, he was greeted by a scene of a bar, several tables overturned with approximately seven or so skeletons on the floor. Near the back, there was a set of stairs going down. He takes one step inside the Blue Candle Inn and immediately makes a saving throw.
Starvin'-Burnin'-Marvin
Being inside the Blue Candle Inn is just the distance of a creatures aura and Galarend starts making saves. Fortunately, his good rolls and the fact that he was previously buffed with protection from evil makes him failing a near impossibility. He travels to the back of the bar and down into a second floor. There, he sees a mass grave, with bones from close to a hundred people. The room wraps around to a “U” shape and he can’t see beyond. I call him to make another set of saves, and he does.
Galarend’s response is to summon Bolba to his side and when he does, Bolba fails to make his save. He is immediately affected by
Starvation Aura (Su) A powerful aura that causes all creatures within range to feel the intense pains of starvation. Each creature within 60 feet must succeed a save or be fatigued and succumb to the supernatural starvation, taking 2d6 points of nonlethal damage at the end of its turn each round it remains in the aura. Even after leaving the area or slaying the the creature emitting the aura, an affected creature continues to starve and cannot heal from the nonlethal damage dealt by this ability until it consumes food.
Galarend, undeterred clambers up Bolba and they turn the corner. Lady Wisteria and Beable with Mouse 2.0 teleport successfully to the top of the house and they cast rock to mud on the ceiling. They drop down, but successfully make their saves.
Bolba takes starvation damage and Galarend makes his saves again. They turn the corner in the “U” shaped hallway to find another small bar, while behind it is a trapped door.
Lady Wisteria and Beable come up with a plan to avoid the damage of the starvation aura and after making their next round of saves, they cast tiny hut and climb inside, using Mouse 2.0 as a mount to transport them. Since the rules are wonky and no one could find a quick answer, I house ruled for this session that the tiny hut would stop the aura, with clarifications to be made at a later date.
Mouse continued downstairs to the second floor.
Charging through the trapped door in the floor, Bolba appears on the other side to which he sees:
This area is a stone chamber which looks as though it’s a bottomless pit. It was once a basement, but below the floor (which has mostly eroded away (save for a single point near the far back)) the light fades into blackness. The water in this place has become hot and you can see in the distance, near the last section of the remaining basement floor, a single light source – boiling the water around it. A mass of bones bobs near the top of this chamber as though it were floating.
Galarend detects evil in the mass of bones – the evil has the “Strong – nearly overwhelming” category.
Beable, Mouse 2.0 and Lady Wisteria round the U shaped bend.
Galarend starts to see the bones swirling around and moving to create a huge 30 foot tall skeleton made of skeletons – An Advanced Homebrewed gashadokuro (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary4/gashadokuro.html#gashadokuro). Galarend decides on a strange course of action. Using his move action he climbs into Bolba’s mouth and pours a potion of burrow into it. Bolba then charges straight at the light. He lunges straight into the boiling water and takes 20d6 damage, opens his mouth enough for Galarend to reach out and grab the candle. Considering the way Bolba was moving, the water rushed into his mouth scalding Galarend as well.
He successfully grabs the candle, and Bolba ends up with his hind quarters sticking straight out the mud wall. The gashadokuro blows a bone shard breath weapon at Bolba and he only takes half damage.
The next turn Bolba burrows straight up, and Lady Wisteria, Mouse 2.0 and Beable teleport back to their room in the Inn.
Wrapping Up
Making note of where Bolba and Galarend popped out the earth, he vows to go back and destroy everything down there. Most likely heading straight to the gashadokuro again – but only after he’s gotten help from the Red Rope. Bolba goes on an eating spree, eating whole trees voraciously from his hunger.
Beable and Lady Wisteria immediately request a meeting with the Red Rope, because there’s something that could slaughter the town underneath it – and use that as a bargaining chip to get them in on the action.
In the meanwhile, Lady Wisteria goes back to the Duke to give him the candle. She asks for assistance in the coming offensive with the gashadokuro but he refuses, stating that there have been developments and he cannot spare any troops at the moment. When Lady Wisteria pressed for information, asking what kind of developments, he refused to tell her – because she was not part of the military.
She returned and we stopped there for the night, because it was getting pretty late. Lady Wisteria has midterms the next session, so we will have to wait two before we can meet again, but I can’t wait to see what happens. See you guys then!
For the next session, click here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?378779-City-of-Progress-Campaign-Journal-Chapter-11-(End-of-Part-2)&p=18292631#post18292631).
For those of you who missed the last session – click here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?372636-City-of-Progress-Campaign-Journal-Chapter-9-(Dirge-and-the-Blue-Candle-Inn)).
Joining us at the table were the usuals:
Beable Bamford - Halfling siege mage and Golem Lord for Rab's Progress, and his trusty Golem "Mouse 2.0" which is a cannon golem in the general shape of a giant Foo Dog. One of the cannons is decked out with plenty of enchantments and the other is just normal.
Galarend - Human Shining Knight Paladin of Iomedae and General of Rab's Progress' standing army. He is never far away from his trusty steed "Bolba" (A huge flying Triceratops decked out in spiked full-plate armor. (yes, it flies. I approved a permanency of a Fly spell in his case due to particular circumstances.))
Lady Wisteria - Human verdant Sorcerer who is the Rab's Progress' herbalist and "tea-master." (In the front yard of her home stands the only tree in the entire city - a huge oak tree)
We also gained a new player who unfortunately couldn’t make it this game, but plans to be there for the next. He's an old friend of the group to boot!
Down-down-down into the deep-deep dark.
This session picked up where the last one ended and I reminded the PC’s of Mumford’s request – he provides them with aide, but gets half the loot they find. Lacey (Mumford’s emissary) lays a chest at the players feet. Upon opening it the players receive the Dry Load Gunpowder that Beable requested as well as 6 potions of Water Breathing (Lasting 6 hours) 6 potions of Delay Poison (Lasting 6 hours) and 3 scrolls of Neutralize Poison. Each player got 2 potion of each and the 1 scroll.
Mumford makes mention that he’d normally never part with 10 grand worth of gold in items for any reason, but he’s holding the paladin of Iomedae to his word. He also reminds them of the request to destroy the haunted house.
At this point I handed a full map of the sunken city of Dirge – since Lady Wisteria had previously sent an Arcane Eye to check out the city, I provided them with all information that she could see – including the buildings visible and all the doorways into them.
Their exploration started by going back to the basement of the haunted house. Once they were inside, they began checking the bodies strewn about the floor as a ghostly image rose up from the hole. I gave them the description of what they saw:
Two elongated and deathly pallid arms protrude from this creature's smoky body as it slithers silently through the air. The very nature of a Soul eater Makes it an ideal and terrifyingly efficient tool of death, and it is for this reason they are often conjured by vile spellcasters pursuing morbid agendas. Even when not seeing to the heinous commands of a sinister magic user, the soul eater prowls and hunts, constantly seeking living souls upon which to gorge itself.
The fight started in earnest with the Advanced Soul Eater (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/additionalMonsters/soulEater.html#soul-eater) a flyby attack being made at Galarend, he was struck for moderate damage, and took 5 points of wisdom drain. The players reacted with Bolba squeezing through the entrance into the basement, followed by Beable casting a defensive spell on himself, followed by Lady Wisteria casting Protection from Evil on herself and Mouse 2.0.
The second attack was another flyby attack as it struck Galarend again for meager damage and 4 wisdom damage, dropping him to a wisdom of 1.
Beable stopped it in his tracks with two heavy blasts from his cannons, killing it dead… er, deader. Anyway, they were able to loot the room and found several bottles of alcohol, a five gallon drum of mead and a trunk full of adventuring gear. They keep the loot and record what they find and have to split up with the Red Rope Bandits.
Next, they descend down the hole. A casting of Touch of the Sea is placed on Galarend to help him be able to charge underwater, and everyone either casts Water Breathing and Delay Poison, or consumes the potions of them.
First in the water is Galarend followed by Lady Wisteria and Beable and Mouse. Bolba would be squeezing down the tunnel behind them. A bunch of jokes were made – and you can guess what kind of jokes. Once she was at the bottom, Lady Wisteria suspected (and correctly) that hiding in the mud would be some kind of undead. So she spammed 4 castings of Mud to Stone – which was just enough to cover the entire flooring of the city.
Monster Mash!
Immediately I begin making more reflex saves that I ever cared to. The spell trapped ¾ of the very very Advanced Bog Mummies (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/undead/mummy/mummy-bog), which means there was only eighteen placed on the board. Lady Wisteria had trapped nearly fifty in once-mud-now-stone.
This elicited low whistles from everyone in the group. Expecting that since there were so many, that they wouldn’t be that difficult to kill, Galarend charged one and Beable fired 2 of mouse 2.0’s cannons at another and missed entirely, due to the water making the firing difficult. When Galarend did seventy some-odd damage and it didn’t drop, the players now are beginning to worry. These wouldn’t be easy to kill. Bolba spends his entire turn sliding halfway down the tunnel, squeezing.
On the Advanced Bog Mummies turn, the two that were attacked turn and approach their asailants, but the others continue to look around sightlessly. Beable, and Lady Wisteria, rolling high perception checks could tell they were blind and responded to violent action nearby – but they didn’t know how close they needed to be. The Bog Mummy missed his slam against Mouse 2.0, but connected against Galarend. Since he was immune to disease, he didn’t contract the Bog Mummy Rot.
The rest of the mummies stand around confused, and end their turns, much to the relief of the players.
At the start of their turn, both Galarend and Beable need to make saving throws for the aura the Bog Mummies have. Beable saves, but Galarend fails and he is paralyzed for 3 rounds – a quick read of the rules determines that paralysis is the same a helpless and now everyone is scared. Lady Wisteria casts wall of thorns encasing the mummy as well as sealing off the pathway – followed by Beale casting Icy Prison.
While trapped and relatively safe, Beable slams the Bog Mummy on his turn with two point blank Mouse 2.0 cannon shots and down it.
After this point, I call for an end of round by round combat, since nothing was an immediate threat. My players discuss ways to get to the location of the Blue Candle inn. The first option was to use the wand of find the path – which I then drew a straight line from the entrance into the furthest building. Everyone rolled their eyes “Of course, it would be the furthest one away.”
Bolba came into the chamber and picked up Galarend in his beak until the Paralysis wore off. At this point they were all discussing the best way to get into the Blue Candle Inn. After much arguing, they decide on buffing the heck out of Galarend, feeding him a potion of Hide from Undead which they received many sessions earlier, and he would swim out alone (above the reach of the Bog Mummy Despair aura) and check it out.
The other two hung back and prepared a teleport spell, just in case they needed to jump the distance to him. When Galarend succeeded his strength check to open the door, he was greeted by a scene of a bar, several tables overturned with approximately seven or so skeletons on the floor. Near the back, there was a set of stairs going down. He takes one step inside the Blue Candle Inn and immediately makes a saving throw.
Starvin'-Burnin'-Marvin
Being inside the Blue Candle Inn is just the distance of a creatures aura and Galarend starts making saves. Fortunately, his good rolls and the fact that he was previously buffed with protection from evil makes him failing a near impossibility. He travels to the back of the bar and down into a second floor. There, he sees a mass grave, with bones from close to a hundred people. The room wraps around to a “U” shape and he can’t see beyond. I call him to make another set of saves, and he does.
Galarend’s response is to summon Bolba to his side and when he does, Bolba fails to make his save. He is immediately affected by
Starvation Aura (Su) A powerful aura that causes all creatures within range to feel the intense pains of starvation. Each creature within 60 feet must succeed a save or be fatigued and succumb to the supernatural starvation, taking 2d6 points of nonlethal damage at the end of its turn each round it remains in the aura. Even after leaving the area or slaying the the creature emitting the aura, an affected creature continues to starve and cannot heal from the nonlethal damage dealt by this ability until it consumes food.
Galarend, undeterred clambers up Bolba and they turn the corner. Lady Wisteria and Beable with Mouse 2.0 teleport successfully to the top of the house and they cast rock to mud on the ceiling. They drop down, but successfully make their saves.
Bolba takes starvation damage and Galarend makes his saves again. They turn the corner in the “U” shaped hallway to find another small bar, while behind it is a trapped door.
Lady Wisteria and Beable come up with a plan to avoid the damage of the starvation aura and after making their next round of saves, they cast tiny hut and climb inside, using Mouse 2.0 as a mount to transport them. Since the rules are wonky and no one could find a quick answer, I house ruled for this session that the tiny hut would stop the aura, with clarifications to be made at a later date.
Mouse continued downstairs to the second floor.
Charging through the trapped door in the floor, Bolba appears on the other side to which he sees:
This area is a stone chamber which looks as though it’s a bottomless pit. It was once a basement, but below the floor (which has mostly eroded away (save for a single point near the far back)) the light fades into blackness. The water in this place has become hot and you can see in the distance, near the last section of the remaining basement floor, a single light source – boiling the water around it. A mass of bones bobs near the top of this chamber as though it were floating.
Galarend detects evil in the mass of bones – the evil has the “Strong – nearly overwhelming” category.
Beable, Mouse 2.0 and Lady Wisteria round the U shaped bend.
Galarend starts to see the bones swirling around and moving to create a huge 30 foot tall skeleton made of skeletons – An Advanced Homebrewed gashadokuro (http://paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd/bestiary4/gashadokuro.html#gashadokuro). Galarend decides on a strange course of action. Using his move action he climbs into Bolba’s mouth and pours a potion of burrow into it. Bolba then charges straight at the light. He lunges straight into the boiling water and takes 20d6 damage, opens his mouth enough for Galarend to reach out and grab the candle. Considering the way Bolba was moving, the water rushed into his mouth scalding Galarend as well.
He successfully grabs the candle, and Bolba ends up with his hind quarters sticking straight out the mud wall. The gashadokuro blows a bone shard breath weapon at Bolba and he only takes half damage.
The next turn Bolba burrows straight up, and Lady Wisteria, Mouse 2.0 and Beable teleport back to their room in the Inn.
Wrapping Up
Making note of where Bolba and Galarend popped out the earth, he vows to go back and destroy everything down there. Most likely heading straight to the gashadokuro again – but only after he’s gotten help from the Red Rope. Bolba goes on an eating spree, eating whole trees voraciously from his hunger.
Beable and Lady Wisteria immediately request a meeting with the Red Rope, because there’s something that could slaughter the town underneath it – and use that as a bargaining chip to get them in on the action.
In the meanwhile, Lady Wisteria goes back to the Duke to give him the candle. She asks for assistance in the coming offensive with the gashadokuro but he refuses, stating that there have been developments and he cannot spare any troops at the moment. When Lady Wisteria pressed for information, asking what kind of developments, he refused to tell her – because she was not part of the military.
She returned and we stopped there for the night, because it was getting pretty late. Lady Wisteria has midterms the next session, so we will have to wait two before we can meet again, but I can’t wait to see what happens. See you guys then!
For the next session, click here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?378779-City-of-Progress-Campaign-Journal-Chapter-11-(End-of-Part-2)&p=18292631#post18292631).