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View Full Version : [Campaign Log] Red Hand of Doom (Spoilers ahead)



RFLS
2014-12-09, 09:37 PM
Alright, after a few attempts, I've finally got a run of the Red Hand of Doom module on its closing stages. As such, I figured I'd go ahead and share it with the Playground. Extensive retooling of the module was done, as well as a conversion to PF, mostly to streamline the campaign as a whole (my group tends to get sidetracked during long combats). Overall, the party has done fairly well, and...well, see for yourselves.

The starting characters are as follows:


6th level human bard focusing on snowflake wardance, with Perform (Trashtalk) as his perform skill. Walking reference to Gary King.
6th level tiefling alchemist focusing on using a bow to deliver bombs at range.
6th level changeling druid focused on wildshaping into a bear. Has a bear animal companion.
6th level human oracle, focused on nature-type things. A little healing on the side.
6th level human sorcerer. General blasting and buffing.
6th level goliath barbarian with the mountain rage ACF. Shock-trooper+Leap Attack+Knockback+Knockdown made her easily the most lethal character.
6th level gunslinger. Never managed to land an attack for the entirety of his brief career.


The module nominally starts at level 5, but the group was for the most part fairly new to the game, so I figured I'd make things a bit easier for them. Between their google-fu, party size, the druid being unbearably tanky, and general tactical savviness, this turned out to be one of my poorer choices.

I'll be posting the campaign log in bits and pieces over the next month or so - I should catch up to where the game's at right at the end, if I've planned it correctly. Thoughts and comments would be awesome - the group and I will be reading everyone's comments.

Anyway, without further ado, part 1:


Marauder Attack

The party started out along the Dawn Way with a variety of hooks - the oracle and the druid were trying to collect some herbs they'd heard were to be found in the western reaches of the Witchwood, while the rest of the party had heard that Vraath Keep was largely untouched since it was abandoned. They were heading there in the hopes that some valuable objects had been left in the ruins.

The party rounded the corner in the road and immediately spotted the hiding hobgoblins along the edge of the road. The druid and his bear charge along the right-hand side of the road and make short work of the hobbies hiding along that side. Meanwhile, the alchemist dropped bombs along the other hobgoblins on the other side, incinerating a few, while the gunslinger managed to miss every single shot by one or two points. The barbarian charged along, decimating any that were left for her. At this point, the bladebearer came charging out of the farmhouse, made a beeline for the two casters, and...was immediately dropped by a hideous laughter from the bard (this would turn out to be a recurring theme in the campaign).

Mop-up was fairly simple - the bear tanked damage, the bard and alchemist did damage, and the casters provided support from the back with buffs and blasts.

One of the hobgoblins survived, was healed up, interrogated, and then brought along as a prisoner. His name was promptly forgotten when the bard named him Andy.


Entering Town

After the standard issue looting (during which they found the holy symbol of Tiamat, which was promptly discarded), the players continued along to Drellin's Ferry. Andy's presence caused a bit of a problem, but between the assurance that he wouldn't be a problem and an obscenely high Diplomacy check from the bard, he was allowed in.

Being a typical adventuring party, they made a beeline for the inn. The bard made a killing at the gambling table with a combination of Bluff and Sleight of Hand checks. After a while, Captain Anitah and Mayor Wiston made their way to the inn, looking for the "brave adventurers" that had defeated one of the raiding parties that had been plaguing the town. A brief glance at the party gave them some second thoughts.

Fortunately, the sorcerer, oracle, and alchemist had solid enough heads on their shoulders that the conversation went fairly smoothly. The captain and mayor were growing more and more concerned with the raiding parties in the area, and could barely manage to hold the town with the soldiers on hand. They wanted the party to do their best to scour the area of hobgoblins. In return, they'd be paid handsomely.

Up until this point, the bard had been less than enthusiastic. With the offer of payment, he was more than happy to go on a sanctioned killing (or, as he put it, ass-kicking) spree. His only condition was that Andy not be harmed.

After some more conversation around town, the party decided that Vraath Keep would probably be the best place to start


The Hydra and Vraath Keep

The party left town the next morning, some of them a little hungover. Brief instructions set them on the right path, and they were on their way. They came up to the bridge over the stream pretty quickly, and, after absolutely no dithering at all, they started marching right across.

The hydra, sensing easy prey, immediately reared out of the water and charged, taking huge chunks out of the barbarian. The barbarian returned to favor, and, thanks to some crits, immediately killed it, at which point its body was torched. The poor thing never had a chance.

After the speedbump that was the hydra, the party continued largely unmolested through the woods, finally arriving at Vraath Keep (I'll largely be leaving out random encounters; none of them had any effect on the party whatsoever for the entirety of the campaign).

Upon arrival, the party briefly conferred about what to do, and then split into three groups, each with their own plan. The bard cast invisibility on himself and went into the keep. Once inside, he went into the barracks, looked around at the sleeping hobgoblins, and immediately went for a coup de grace. This got the attention of the surviving hobbos, who immediately scrambled for their weapons and begain wailing on the bard.

Outside, the barbarian and druid charged in over the breach in the southern wall, encounter Karkiklan, who, like the hydra, was immediately turned into salsa after a turn and a half.

Meanwhile, the two casters and the gunslinger came in through the main gate - where they were immediately peppered with arrows by the goblin archers I'd stationed there. Unfortunately, I underestimated the archers a bit, and the sorcerer was immediately dropped to the negatives while the gunslinger was put into single digits. As the worg riders came charging out, the oracle, thinking quickly, dropped a fog cloud between the riders and his part of the party before retreating. The gunslinger, who spent a round trading shots with the archers, gave up after neither party could hit each other, decided to drag the bleeding sorcerer out of there. Of course, this is when the goblins' shots started landing, complete with confirmed crits from their longbows, turning the gunslinger into a pincushion while the oracle healed the sorcerer up before getting the hell out of dodge.

During all of this, the alchemist had been busy. Due to a combination of racial and class abilities, he had a fly speed, which enabled him to fly over the battlefield and rain bombs down, first taking the two hobbos on the roof of the keep out, and then the goblins near the gate.

At this point, the manticore came out to find out what all the ruckus was, breaking through the roof of his den. Spotting the alchemist, he launched a barrage of spikes his way, dropping him to single digits. At this point, he too decided to flee, leaving the bard, the barbarian, and the druid on their own. This wasn't too big a problem - they pulped the hobgoblins, worg riders, and manticore respectively. While the bard was downing the last pair of hobgoblins, Koth finished up his buffs and attacked. Once. He got one energy-substituted lightning bolt off, and then the bard tagged him with hideous laughter, sending him down for the count.

Final tally was a dead gunslinger, and a wounded alchemist and sorcerer. None of the other characters suffered significant injury. At this point, I was questioning my decision to start them at level 6.

The party scouted around, finding both the map and the vault under the keep. Disturbed by the former and excited by the latter, they decided to return to Drellin's Ferry.

Envyus
2014-12-09, 09:42 PM
Did they capture or kill Koth.

Anyway always a Treat to read Red Hand of Doom journals.

RFLS
2014-12-09, 09:45 PM
Did they capture or kill Koth.

Anyway always a Treat to read Red Hand of Doom journals.

He was immediately coup de grace'ed by the bard. Forethought is not that character's forte.

Axinian
2014-12-09, 09:57 PM
Looks fun so far! I don't think starting them at level 5instead of 6 would've changed much actually. I'd say that having 6 PCs usually tends to wreak more havoc than having them be a level too high in most campaigns. (though in this case, both are true)

RFLS
2014-12-09, 11:57 PM
Looks fun so far! I don't think starting them at level 5 instead of 6 would've changed much actually. I'd say that having 6 PCs usually tends to wreak more havoc than having them be a level too high in most campaigns. (though in this case, both are true)

That's actually a pretty good summation of the campaign so far - I generally upped troops by 50% and raised the power level of individual troops considerably after a few sessions. I'll post links to the sheets I used for each section as I get there.

RFLS
2014-12-10, 03:37 AM
For the next session, the party roster was as follows:


6th level human bard focusing on snowflake wardance, with Perform (Trashtalk) as his perform skill. Walking reference to Gary King.
6th level tiefling alchemist focusing on using a bow to deliver bombs at range.
6th level changeling druid focused on wildshaping into a bear. Has a bear animal companion.
6th level human oracle, focused on nature-type things. A little healing on the side.
6th level human sorcerer. General blasting and buffing.
6th level goliath barbarian with the mountain rage ACF. Shock-trooper+Leap Attack+Knockback+Knockdown made her easily the most lethal character.
6th level human ninja; replaced the gunslinger. Equally ineffective.



Finding the Horde and the Return to Drellin's Ferry


The party....well, conferred is the wrong word. Argued is closer to the truth. The map was their first real hint that the Red Hand was planning an attack, and it split their opinions considerably. The druid wanted to return immediately to Drellin's Ferry and begin evacuations, the bard was excited by the gold, the alchemist and oracle wanted to go try to take and hold the Skull Gorge Bridge, and the bard was really excited by the gold.

In the end, a compromise was reached: the druid would hustle back to Drellin's Ferry with the map to ask for reinforcements and try to convince the town leaders to evacuate. Meanwhile, the rest of the party would advance on the bridge to see if they could hold it.

Half of this plan went really well.

The main body of the party advanced along the Dawn Way towards the bridge. Upon arrival, they found the encamped Red Hand forces occupying the bridge and surrounding area. Once again, their plan for dealing with this amounted to "charge." The two archers on the nearer towers were taken out fairly rapidly, and the soldiers on the other side began forming a line at the base of the bridge while their archers laid down fire. The barbarian and bard went barreling down the bridge, making it about halfway across on their turns.

That's when Ozzy showed up. I've generally felt that having him just resting on the tower was a bit bland. It didn't leave any unknown element at the bridge, and it didn't give a proper scare for what would be a major theme in the campaign. So, for this section, I decided that Ozzy had been roosting under the bridge. I'd also bumped him up an age category, giving him Frightful Presence and moving his size up to Large. I also set up the knockback routine on him, hoping for some entertainment around the gorge.

So, as the bard and barbarian are charging along the bridge, two sets of talons come out from under the bridge, followed by a massive, scaly head that unleashed a stream of acid across the two of them.

This had the desired effect of getting them to turn on their tails and get the hell out of Dodge. The archers on the other side of the bridge continued to lay down fire while their comrades began charging after the bard and barbarian. Ozzy, meanwhile, was thoroughly pissed off at having his nap disturbed. He launched off the underside of the bridge and gave chase. The party had, for some reason, decided to rally in an attempt to turn the tide of the battle. The first of the hobgoblins reached the barbarian and, due to some poor rolls from the barbarian, managed to actually get a hit in. The casters started their buff and blast routine, while the alchemist decided the dragon need some attention.

A well-placed arrow caught the Ozzy in the chest, enraging him even more as he swooped in on the party, taking off a good chunk of the barbarian's health with a bite attack. The party wailed on him for the next round, at which point he unleashed all six of his natural attacks, putting the barbarian to single digits, taking a good chunk of the bard's hit points off, and scaring the heck out of the alchemist. The bard and barbarian were pushed back, and, fortunately for the dragon, out of full attack range. The party started to withdraw, but the barbarian was having a hard time of it between escaping the hobgoblins and Ozzy. The only thing that saved her was a well placed fog spell from the oracle.

The ninja spent the entire time trying to get in position for a sneak attack. Somehow managed to miss every opportunity.

The druid, however, largely succeeded. The map and some nice Diplomacy rolls convinced the captain to send a dozen soldiers back with him, while the mayor began preparations to evacuate if that became necessary.


Skull Gorge Bridge, Take 2

The party made camp back at Vraath Keepk, escaping Ozzyrandion's spirited efforts to find and annihilate them. The next day, they met at a prearranged location with the druid and his reinforcements. The story of what had happened was recounted, and the druid spent the next five hours wearing an "I told you so" expression, in and out of game.

The group pushed forward from Vraath Keep. This time, they spotted the effigy, and decided to go see what was up with the giants. They found Warklegnaw pretty quickly - he was doing his crazy old guy routine as written. They finally got his attention by mentioning the hobgobln army. I'd decided that, as written, it was a little strange for the giant to go out of his way to help the party, so I'd added two facets to his personality - a fear of dragons and a hatred of hobgoblins. He was ready to go kick ass and take names with the party, and then they mentioned the dragon. He flipped out, and refused to help them attack the bridge. After some Diplomacy checks to calm him down, they convinced him to go get his tribe for help against the hobgoblins, as long as they were going to kill the dragon.

Continuing down the Dawn Way, they arrived at the bridge around noon. Things were...a little different. The guards, spooked by the rather brutal attack, had called for reinforcements. A half dozen worg riders, along with some more archers and a couple of alchemists, had arrived and set up a spiked barricade along the southern edge of the bridge. Ozzyrandion was nowhere to be seen.

The party charged.

Both sides exchanged fire, with the hobgoblins suffering a little more due to some lucky rolls. Meanwhile, the sorcerer dropped a stinking cloud on the melee defenders behind the barricade. Every single one of them proceeded to fail their saves, running back across the bridge coughing and wheezing. The archers on top of the bridges were quickly dispatched, at which point the party was left mopping up the hobgoblins stranded on their side of the bridge and waiting for the fog cloud to disperse. That's when Ozzy made his grand appearance.

He'd been out in the woods, looking for the party, and had come back at full speed when he heard the distant sounds of battle. He flew along the Dawn Way at top speed towards the party, smacking at the druid with his tail as he went by, and ending up just above the stinking cloud on his turn. The bard tagged him with hideous laughter, dropping him into the cloud below, for which he failed his save. As soon as the cloud dispersed and the party could get at him, he looked less like a convulsively laughing, coughing dragon and more like dragon salsa.

Mop-up was fairly simple - the remaining hobgoblins were taken out, and the worg riders were picked off one by one as they arrived (I had intended them to be gradual reinforcements to wear down the party's resources. Instead, they were speedbumps).

Afterwards, they had to decide what to do with the bridge. They'd found the weak spot, but some of them wanted to hold the bridge instead. A brief scouting trip to get a bead on the size of the Horde was agreed upon before further action was taken. They went, they saw, they ran like frightened rabbits. There was no debate about what to do anymore; they pointed the barbarian at the weak spot, gave her a big hammer, and let her go to town. Thirty seconds later, the bridge was debris in the rushing waters below.

Envyus
2014-12-10, 03:57 AM
Poor Ozzy was hoping he would get away. Well I am going to hope that Saarvith and Regi had better luck.

RFLS
2014-12-10, 02:35 PM
Poor Ozzy was hoping he would get away. Well I am going to hope that Saarvith and Regi had better luck.

They had....well, you'll have to see when I post that bit. It was significantly more entertaining, that's for sure.

Envyus
2014-12-10, 03:34 PM
When I ran a party through this I am just reminded of how my party beat Ozzy. (Also bumped up an age category) He was causing difficulty then one of the party members tossed a tangle foot bag at Ozzy. It hit him and he failed his save. He was flying above the river so this resulted in him taking the 200 ft fall into the river and being swept away by it. (Though he did not die or anything)

Faily
2014-12-10, 04:47 PM
Always fun to read through a Red Hand of Doom journal. I like seeing how different groups approach the obstacles differently, though "charge" seems to be a common tactic.

Our group was a party of 4 (Favoured Soul, Monk, Ranger/Scout and myself as an Ultimate Magus with Wizard/Sorcerer basis), whom managed to mop up all the draconic boss-battles we encountered, rode past the speedbumps as the party above, and between the Favored Soul and the Ultimate Magus we usually had "the right spell for the right occassion". The Monk and the Ranger-Scout made excellent scouts as well for most of the scenario.

Like your twist of hiding Ozzy under the bridge. I might just do that when I finally run PF-Red Hand of Doom myself, just to make the moment all the more "WTF?!".

RFLS
2014-12-10, 05:50 PM
The party roster for this section was as follows:


7th level human bard focusing on snowflake wardance, with Perform (Trashtalk) as his perform skill. Walking reference to Gary King.
7th level tiefling alchemist focusing on using a bow to deliver bombs at range and a side focus on crafting.
7th level changeling druid focused on wildshaping into a bear. Has a bear animal companion.
7th level human oracle, focused on nature-type things. A little healing on the side.
7th level human sorcerer. General blasting and buffing.
7th level goliath barbarian with the mountain rage ACF. Shock-trooper+Leap Attack+Knockback+Knockdown made her easily the most lethal character.
7th level human ninja; replaced the gunslinger. Equally ineffective.




Evacuation of Drellin's Ferry


After they destroyed the bridge, there wasn't much in the way of dithering. They made back for the town in double time. As they passed the effigy, the bard decided to go check if Warklegnaw had held up his end of the agreement. The druid, mostly so he could babysit, agreed to go along. They found the site of his camp, with the giant's tracks leading directly towards the mountains. This was good enough for the druid, and he was ready to go rejoin the party.

Not the bard, though. He somehow got it into his head that he should follow the giant to make absolutely sure that the deal held. He went to follow the tracks, and immediately botched his Survival check, with something like a total of -2 on the roll. I ruled that he wandered around the woods for three hours before arriving exactly back where he'd started.

Now, the entertaining thing about this character is that he's absolutely incapable of admitting that he was wrong. So, he went right back down the Dawn Way, catching up to the party in Drellin's Ferry, where he informed them that he'd found old Warklegnaw and that the giants were absolutely, for sure, 100% going to help. As far as the bard knew, this was a big ball of lies, so a Bluff check was in order. Every single one of the party failed their Sense Motive checks, as did every single person the bard told this for the rest of the campaign (as a side note, Lord Jarmaath later would confirm that the giants had slowed the Horde with guerilla tactics. The bard was incredibly pleased with himself ("I told you so!"), and the player went from mildly bemused to amused in about five seconds).

When the party arrived back at Drellin's Ferry, they found a town already in the midst of preparations to evacuate. They delivered their news to the mayor, who immediately kicked the evacuation into full gear. Wagons were loaded up and people started moving out with whatever they could carry.

I chose to skip the chimera attack; the party had already established a pattern for what they did to single, large opponents, and I felt that it would slow the game down unnecessarily.

So, as the town loaded up, the mayor asked the party a favor - there was a wagon filled with the sick and wounded, and, as there were children in it, he wanted it to have significant protection on the road. The party agreed, and, after vetoing the bard's "let's loot the town" initiative, were on their way.



The Not-So-Sick Spy

The wounded and sick included a pair of wounded soldiers, a woman with a broken arm, a few farm injuries, and a handful of people that were suffering some sort of wasting disease. The party went along the Dawn Way toward's Brindol, stopping in farmhouses for the night when they could, and camping on they road when they couldn't.

One night, camping at a farmhouse, the members of the party on guard heard a noise from inside the farmhouse. The oracle went to investigate, and found the woman with the broken arm rustling around in her bag. She claimed she was looking for some water, and the oracle, botching his Sense Motive roll, believed her and went back to guard duty. The woman, of course, was Miha Serani, keeping her victims (the people with the "wasting disease") sick.

I'd redone Serani as an Aranea 5/Rogue 3/Arcane Trickster 3, which opened up some entertaining options for me. She took Craven, Extra Trick 3 times, and Practiced Spellcaster, meaning that, if she got the drop on you, she was a deadly opponent.

The next day, the party spotted a Red Hand raiding party pursuing them along the road. Having nowhere to hide, they turned the wagons sideways across the road, hid the sick people on the other side with the two casters, put the alchemist on top of the middle wagon, and waited for the raiding party to hit.

I combined the Marked for Death and Not So Sick Spy encounters here, mostly out of confidence that the party could handle it rather easily and partly to save time. So, six hobgoblins riding barghests hit the party, with two of them circling around to get at the back of the wagons.

The party members in the front spent several rounds taking out their four opponents. The barghests were far more deadly than the hobgoblins, who died fairly quickly. Eventually, though, the last of the barghests on the front side of the wagons succumbed to the druid and his bear.

Meanwhile, the barbarian had joined the casters on the back side of the wagon in an attempt to protect the sick and wounded. The three of them did a pretty good job of holding the enemies' attention - and unwittingly made the mistake of turning their backs on Miha, who immediately hit the barbarian with a Sneak Attak bite+poison, followed by a Ray of Enfeeblement, taking her from full health to single digits in hit points and his Str score. The only thing that saved her was the alchemist turning around and dropping a few bombs on Miha, who, along with the last surviving barghest, made for the hills.

Final tally - 5 dead barghests, 5 dead hobgoblins, 1 captured hobgoblin, a severely injured barbarian, and a seriously pissed off party (in game, not out of game).

Red Rubber Band
2014-12-10, 08:05 PM
Yay. Another RHoD campaign log :smallsmile:

RFLS
2014-12-16, 08:08 PM
The party roster took a serious shakeup this time. The ninja, oracle, and sorcerer all returned to college, meaning that their characters were phased out. However, the party was then joined by a rogue (again, very ineffective). They also leveled at this point.


8th level human bard focusing on snowflake wardance, with Perform (Trashtalk) as his perform skill. Walking reference to Gary King.
8th level tiefling alchemist focusing on using a bow to deliver bombs at range and a side focus on crafting.
8th level changeling druid focused on wildshaping into a bear. Has a bear animal companion.
8th level goliath barbarian with the mountain rage ACF. Shock-trooper+Leap Attack+Knockback+Knockdown made her easily the most lethal character.
8th level rogue. Incredibly bland. I'm not entirely sure the player ever actually said anything in character.



Brindol, Part 1


After the battle with the raiding group, the party regrouped around the one surviving hobgoblin. After a brief interrogation, during which the party learned absolutely nothing, the bard decided to adopt another hobgoblin, to the collective exasperation of the group. The hobgoblin's name was promptly forgotten in favor of "Steve."

The party finally reached Brindol with their rather battered, but alive, evacuees. The city was overwhelmed by the flood of panicking people, exhausted pack animals, and more panicking people. The guards began to process the wagon of sick and wounded, asking the basic questions - "What town are you from? How many are you? What supplies did you bring?" A rather jumbled set of answers came out of the party, with the bard providing highly exaggerated (outright lies) about their adventures (the guards failed their Sense Motive checks. Again.), the alchemist shook his head in the background, and the druid tried to give the guards the actual story.

Eventually, the guards were confused enough to summon the captain, who, while smart enough to sort out that these were the folks who'd taken out Skull Gorge Bridge, finally gave up when he learned that they had "some sort of map" and sent them to Lord Jarmaath. The druid successfully overrode the bard this time, giving Jarmaath the straight story, and, more importantly, the map. Seeing the map kicked him into top gear - before now, he'd had no coherent view of what was happening. Between the druid's story and the map, he had a clear view of what was happening, and it was terrifying.

After interrogating the bard's hobgoblins (this time with a zone of truth), Jarmaath decided he needed backup, fast. He asked the party to go in search of a powerful wizard who'd retired to the Blackfens years ago. The wizard's name was promptly forgotten, and the party headed out.

RFLS
2015-01-04, 04:13 PM
The party roster stayed the same with a new player joining in this session. He rolled up a (3.5) VoP monk and was introduced in fairly short order.


The Swamp, Part 1


The previous session finished with Lord Jarmaath asking for the party's help in a time of dire need. They were the only ones who could do it, and so they set forth.

Well, got ready to. First they had some shopping to do. The bard commissioned a Hat of Disguise, the alchemist loaded up on alchemical supplies (Pathfinder has some highly entertaining ones), the goliath drank and shopped for basics, the druid messed around with spells, and the rogue did absolutely nothing. Eventually, though, they managed the whole "setting forth" thing without too much difficulty.

The journey was fairly uneventful, up until they reached the roadblock. After a bit of hemming and hawing, they actually came up with a plan that wasn't "charge." I was highly surprised, to say the least. Instead, they stood in the treeline and had the alchemist rain bombs and various fire-causing alchemical weapons down on the, unfortunately wooden, roadblock. The ogres and hobbies contained within ran out in a panic right into the waiting arms of the goliath. It was a bit messy. Behind them was the new player's monk - fortunately a fatal misunderstanding was averted.

The party reached the swamp after a couple days' travel. They started picking their way through it, with me occasionally asking for Perception checks. Occasionally they'd hear a rustle of grass, or spot a ripple in the water. Dusk fell, and the party became a little uneasy. Finally, though, they reached the wizard's house. There were no lights on, no movement within, and no indication that anyone was, in fact, home. They poked around a little, investi- who am I kidding, the bard kicked the door down like it had dissed his mother. They snooped around, finding dust covered rooms with the basics of life (kitchen, study, etc). I continued asking for the occasional Perception checks, and the mood at the table was correspondingly tighter. The party finished working around the downstairs, and sent the alchemist on up. There were two doors - one locked, one not. She opened the unlocked one first, only to find a simple bedroom with nothing in it besides what you'd expect in a normal room.

The other room, however, was different. The lock proved difficult to open, so the party decided to let the bard try his new party trick again. This door didn't fair any better.

Inside was the wizard's workshop. Various half-finished scrolls, moldy potions, and ancient books lined the desks and shelves, while the one chair in the room was occupied by a very, very dead wizard. It was natural causes, but it definitely dialed the mood up another notch. As the more respectful members of the party had a moment of silence, the rogue and bard made a beeline for a chest they'd spotted in the corner. After breaking it open, they found some rather entertaining goodies. The alchemist got some powder to add to her bombs - it forced a Fort save against being blinded for one round. She also got the recipe for it, meaning that she could craft more of it in her downtime. The barbarian got a belt that granted her fast healing 1 up to half of her health, as well as providing a boost to Con. There were a pair of Truedeath weapon crystals for the rogue (which she promptly forgot about, never to use them). The druid ended up with a few scrolls and potions, but nothing special (the player was understanding - his druid had been overwhelmingly effective the entire campaign).

After oohing and ahhing over their new goodies, the murderhobos, I mean party, set up camp in the house for the night, ready to return the next day. Of course, this is when I asked for a Perception check from the goliath, who was on guard. Outside, in the mangroves surrounding the house, there was a something moving about in the water. The rest of the party joined the goliath at the door, staring out at the swamp, trying to get a clear look at the creature, which had gone underwater at this point. The bard cast dancing lights, sending them out over the water in the hopes of catching a better look as it came back out of the water.

The razorfiend glared at the party, water dripping off its long, sinewy body and the massive wings it rested upon. Each side tried to stare the other down, with little success. I asked for initiative, partly because I knew combat was coming, and partly because I wanted to make things all the more tense. Of course, the rogue took this as the cue to charge.

Now, the thing about mangroves is that they're big, and they have a serious canopy. The ones in this swamp were ancient, even by tree standards, and had had plenty of time to develop nice, thick branches under their canopy. In other words, you could, say, climb up into one and have total cover from anything not directly under you. Like, say, an unsuspecting rogue.

So, the rogue charged, the second razorfiend dropped out of the tree with a readied action (free to let go, standard to attack), and hit him. 15-20 crit range, x3 crit, and a max damage roll. The rogue was turned into two rogue halves. The rest of the party, shocked out of their standoff, charged in and pulverized the two razorfiends (the bard dropped one with hideous laughter, of course).

Afterwards, the party stood around and hemmed and hawed for a bit. They'd not been overly attached to the rogue, but it didn't seem right to just let him die like that. So, they pulled out the staff of life, rezzed him, and got a good laugh out of it. The rogue was slightly less amused.

Faily
2015-01-05, 10:56 AM
Alas, poor Rogue. :smallbiggrin:

Sounds like your group is having great fun with the adventure.

RFLS
2015-01-06, 11:25 PM
Alas, poor Rogue. :smallbiggrin:

Sounds like your group is having great fun with the adventure.

We actually just finished the campaign today! It was great; we all had a lot of fun.

Only two of the original characters made it to the very end. Care to take bets?

Faily
2015-01-14, 10:05 PM
We actually just finished the campaign today! It was great; we all had a lot of fun.

Only two of the original characters made it to the very end. Care to take bets?

For hilarity's sake, I want to say the Rogue, but not one of the original cast so... Alchemist and Oracle.

Envyus
2015-01-15, 03:45 AM
We actually just finished the campaign today! It was great; we all had a lot of fun.

Only two of the original characters made it to the very end. Care to take bets?

Welp I almost can't wait for more updates if it is finished.

RFLS
2015-01-22, 02:49 PM
The Swamp, Part 2

The party roster for this chunk was as follows:


8th level human bard focusing on snowflake wardance, with Perform (Trashtalk) as his perform skill. Walking reference to Gary King.
8th level tiefling alchemist focusing on using a bow to deliver bombs at range and a side focus on crafting.
8th level changeling druid focused on wildshaping into a bear. Has a bear animal companion.
8th level goliath barbarian with the mountain rage ACF. Shock-trooper+Leap Attack+Knockback+Knockdown made her easily the most lethal character.
8th level rogue. Incredibly bland. I'm not entirely sure the player ever actually said anything in character.
8th level VoP monk. Hobbies include punching things, punching more things, and, in case those two don't work, punching things.



After rezzing the rogue, the party briefly took stock before returning to sleep. The next day, they puttered around the house a bit, a little unsure of what to do now that it was apparent that their reason for being here was, not to put too fine a point on it, dead as a doornail. While they were at this, the druid pulled out a spell known as create treasure map. He went outside, cut a chunk off of a razorfiend, and worked his magic. The map indicated a small clearing a few hundred yards north, so the party headed in that direction, not wanting to leave the swamp entirely empty handed.

Entering the clearing, it was pretty obvious what form the razorfiend's "valuables" had taken - a dead elf and his owl were sprawled across a fallen tree trunk, both of them eviscerated quite brutally. Once again, the rogue and bard went right ahead and plundered the bodies, finding the jade band around the owl's leg, and an obsidian ring on the elf's hand. As they cleaned up the area, taking care of the bodies and storing their plunder, Killiar's hunters arrived, looking...rather upset. After a tense conversation about what had happened, the players were escorted back to Starsong Hill.

Upon reaching the elves' village, the players were greeted by Sellyria. After another recount of what happened, they were offered food and rest for the night. The next day, a funeral for Lanikar and his owl was held, with due respect from everyone, even the bard. Afterwards, it was pointed out that they had been sent into the swamp for help, and here were a bunch of fairly well armed people that seemed well disposed towards them. The players asked for help, and received troubling news - the elves had been plagued by the razorfiends for weeks now, and were even more wary after having lost a hunter. They would help, but only if the players could find the source of the razorfiends and eradicate it. The players were told that the razorfiends seemed to be coming from Lake Rhest, and decided that, without a better lead, that's where they should start.



Lake Rhest, Part 1


The party reached Rhest just as dusk was falling. Looking out across the lake, they could see the ruins sticking out of the center of the lake. After talking it over, they decided that, instead of camping for the night, scouting around, and seeing how best to get to those ruins, they'd much rather light a massive bonfire to see what they could draw out.

So, they went ahead and did exactly that. The bonfire was built, the druid placed a fire trap in it, and then the players hid in the trees to see what came a calling.

The answer to that question was, of course, Saarvith and Regiarix. The dragon landed near the water's edge, while Saarvith dismounted and approached the fire, looking around to see what, exactly, was happening here. He prodded the bonfire with a stick, which conveniently served to set the fire trap off. This players took their cue and dropped out the trees, making a beeline for Saarvith. He took his cue, too, and bolted back to Regiarix, dropping an arrow across the players on his way. The next round, the players closed to just outside the dragon's reach, obviously wary of its full attack this time. Saarvith took the opportunity to unload a full attack across them, which provoked the monk just enough to charge in, landing on the dragon's back and engaging Saarvith in melee. Regiarix decided that he'd rather not fight a well armed, prepared group of adventurers and took off, monk and Saarvith on his back. The two traded blows for a round, Saarvith sinking several arrows into the monk before the monk got a successful Punishing Kick in, knocking him off the dragon's back. Of course, this meant Regiarix was free to dislodge the monk via barrel roll. The monk crashed into the water, knocking him into negatives and forcing the druid to waste his action using control water to save the monk. As the players fished the monk out, Regiarix fished Saarvith out of the water, retreating to the ruins to lick their wounds.

Tally: one battered monk, one battered Saarvith, and the Red Hand knew they had enemies in the area.

Faily
2015-01-24, 05:56 PM
lol That bonfire is so... for a lack of better term, I'm going to say "such a player-thing to do". :smallbiggrin: