Diary of Jaya Ballard, Taskmage

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Running through the Planes of Ravenloft

Day one:

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Ok, not actually day one of my journal, but it's the day I arrived in what I suspect is Ravenloft. In the event that I die, I am dedicating this journal to explaining the situation that I find myself in so that this may help whatever other hapless people this forsaken realm has dragged in. (Or, if I survive, a book deal.)

I am Jaya Ballard, Evocation Researcher, PhD, etc, etc. I woke up one morning and found myself in a desert. This was not fun. The sun was hot and the sand was dry and sandy. This presented a special challenge for me, as it was a problem that could not be solved with fire... at least not at first glance.

I proceeded to make shelter by Wind Walling a trench through the sand and using a Lightening Bolt to melt the sides into glass, and took cover in there to think over the situation. Fortunately, I was not alone for long, as a Dwarf warrior (Gladiator) and an somewhat airheaded female of dubious background (Tina) showed up in short order.

The female went off to scout after introductions, while the dwarf froze up and became non-responsive for some odd reason. This left me the only person at the "camp". I proceeded to try and improve it due to the lack of anywhere else to go and spells that provide shelter. After two goddamn hours of digging, I finally managed to make a hole deeper than I was, and struck something at the bottom.

The bottom of the hole then began to crumble. I jumped back and saw that I had revealed a dark pit under the sands. conveinenetly located at the exact spot that I was digging at. A quick casting of Magic Missile lifted the darkness long enough for me to make out a portal at the bottom, the kind that transports people between planes.

Since I had no way of communicating with either of my two acquaintances, I made myself invisible and hopped through the portal. I ended up in a ruined courtyard of a castle, with a shiny blob and two arrow demons (Note, possibly not the right terminology). I divided the enemies in two groups with one Wall of Force across the courtyard.

Tina then popped into existence and took an arrow from the demons. She was then followed by Gladiator. At this point, we could have handled the existing enemies, but a swarm of blood sucking flowers showed up and started to leech life from Gladiator. I made a second wall of Force to keep them out, but they just floated over this one and continued attacking him. I trued to hide us with an illusionary cloud, but not even that worked. Fed up, I launched a Frozen Orb into the middle of them, and iced the buggers, solving the problem once and for all.

Then we engaged the arrow demons in combat (which, apparently, can also summon smaller demons to join them), which resulted in the death of Gladiator as he was turned into a pincushion. I myself was prevented from casting any spells briefly due to an allergic reaction with the flower's pollen. Realizing that the battle was not going my way, I activated a contingent Resilient Sphere and isolated myself for more buffing. (Mirror Image, in this case.)

When I came out, there a dwarf druid of some sort had arrived and was fighting our enemies, so proceeded toss out a Wave of Fatigue and a Ray of Exhaustion, fatiguing both and exhausting one of them, which is fortunate because I then became paralyzed from the flower's poison, which left me with only a crowd of Mirror Images for protection. Thankfully, the paralysis did not last for more than a few seconds, so I was able to start Magic Missiling things again in short order. At this point, the Walls of Force expired, and the glittering ooze advanced on us. It looked dangerous, so I used Scorching Ray to light it on fire. And then I laughed, because fire is good.

After that, the druid and his animal companion finished off the demons and we were able to rest, though Tina was killed in the process. He told me his name was Dok, and found himself mysteriously transported to this place. We got to know each other a bit more, then fell alseep ready to explore the place more thoroughly tomorrow.

The next morning, we found that Gladiator and Tina had returned to life through some strange magic of the realm, appeared in the desert, and simply hopped down the portal to join us. There was much rejoicing.

Our exploration of the castle produced two useless Scrolls of Detect Secret Doors. I say useless because, with their duration, you have to know where the secret door is before casting the spell, which goes against the entire point of having the spell.

During our exploration of the forest, we found ourselves traveling in circles around the castle. I said, "The non-Elucidean geometry of certain planes often results in 'looping', where the curvature of spacetime leads one in a circle despite going in what is perceived to be a straight line. To counter this, I propose that we either find exits in this plane that allow for travel outside of the loop or grab the anti-reality of this non-spacetime and tear it a new one. The first one is likely to be easier." (Awesome quote though it lacks the phrase "nonlinear".)

We proceeded to explore the castle further, and found that there was indeed another portal in the place. Before we could reach a consensus on whether to go through or not, we were pulled in - whether this was a result of the nature of the portal or the act of some intelligent being putting us through a series of trials, I know not.

Day Two

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Got dumped into a cave of ice. I had a bad feeling about it. It turned to be the correct assumption as Dok dropped into a pit and a cryohydra came charging out of a pool of ice cold water at us. Fortunately, two castings of Enervation solved that problem quite well.

After we has all reassembled, proto-water elementals came andtried to drown us. I was fortunate to hold my breath in time, but my teammates were not so lucky and water was force into their lungs.

A quick lightening bolt took care of the elementals, but did nothing to stop my teammates from drowning. To make matters worse, the only one who hadn't started to drown (me) got dropped down a trap door. At the bottom, there were stairs that led up, which enabled me to climb back up to the main cavern.

Fortunately, I had taken first aid training along with a CPR course while I was in college, so the first thing I did when I returned was to pump the water out of Dok and Tina. However, in the time it took me to do that Gladiator died again.

He got better in a day or so, though, which is the important thing.

Day Three

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We wound up with some priests of Pelor. Don't believe them to be trustworthy, because they allowed us to be killed in our sleep by Shadows. Half the party was taken out, and Gladiator and I survived for a few hours longer while the priests went down into the catacombs to "strengthen their defenses".

We were then attacked briefly by shadows, but a Resilient Sphere protected me. We went to find the priests, but they would not let us in because, and I quote in the words of the head priestss, "We cannot allow Jaya in, as the shadows kept attacking her."

My response was "And how did you know I was just attacked, motherf*cker?"

It was promptly followed by a Lightening Bolt through the door she was hiding behind. Then the shadows got me.

I popped back into existence the next day with Dok and Tina, and we're going to go back to kill everyone and rescue Gladiator. I think my teammates are inclined to kill the head priestess and spare the followers who are likely just controlled by her powers, but I do not believe in taking chances and am going to toast them all with a well placed Chain Lightening.

They had their chance.

Day Four

Part 1

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We began the assault by sending Tina in to possibly distract and negotiate with the enemy, with Dok and I following her invisibly.

When we arrived, the battle had started, and we began to lay down the law through the use of a Wall of Force and a Summon Nature's Ally for unicorns, respectively.

Unfortunately, since Gladiator was flying at the time, he was able to bypass the Wall of Force from above and disrupted Dok's attempts to summon reinforcements. Priests directed by Lillian moved around the Wall of Force, so I responded by using Persistent Image to cover the battlefield and cloud their eyes while Dok did the same with a casting of Sleet Storm. As a result of the loss of sight, I was unable to target Gladiator or the priests, though I heard Gladiator attacking Dok and Tina stabbing several priests.

However, I did not get a chance to exercise my formidable arcane might before Gladiator knocked me unconscious. Fortunately I can still remember what happened after.

Dok summoned a protective shell of stone around himself using Sculpt Stone, and proceeded to summon unicorns again. He succeeded in doing so several times, thanks to the cover provided by the stone. They proceeded to heal me and I was able to wake up long enough to attempt to dispel the enchantments on Gladiator, though it seems that fate was not with me; I was only able to dispel 20 or so of the 60 ish spells effective on Gladiator. He then proceeded to knock me out again.

Tina ganked more priests, though she was eventually hit by a Confusion effect and spent several turns either attacking unicorns or babbling incoherently.

While I was out for the second time, the Magic Circle effects of the unicorns finally kicked in and warded Gladiator from possession. As a result, he broke off his attack, which allowed me a reprieve from being constantly assaulted.

I then proceeded to wake up after some more healing and, fed up with the battle, pointed a finger at the priestess and set her on cold. And then I laughed, because cold is good.

She retreated afterwards, deciding that it would be better to "take her chances with the monsters" whatever that means. Good riddance, though not having her dead leave me feeling slightly uneasy. It could mean that she'll still be out there, waiting to poise as another friendly ally.

Well, the battle is over, and it's time to restock my spells. My familiar has been here ever since I died, and I'm sure that between his intel and that of Gladiator's, we should be able to piece out a better understanding of the situation. The priests, assuming they were human, should be back in a few days; I shall recommend that we stay for a bit and wait for them; they could be potential allies and at the very least, we owe them an explanation of what happened.

Part 2

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After giving the place a good once-over in search of clues, the gang decided to scout out the crypts because of the danger that Lillian might come back at us with summoned monsters or something of the sort.

We went down the steps and into the catacombs, and found four undead awaiting us. Two were ice-zombies that drained body heat to sustain themselves, while two others were bodaks with deadly gaze attacks.

In a bout of quick thinking, I locked down one of the bodaks with a Resilient Sphere while Dok cast Obscuring Mist over the party, preventing us from being subject to gaze attacks. This made targeting our enemies a bit more difficult than usual, but since I had a decent compliment of area-effect spells, I could compensate with a good listen check - which is exactly what I did. I electrified one ice-zombie with a Lightening Bolt so that it could be more easily beaten down by the others, and froze a bodak so hard that it fell apart.

After that, I dismissed the Resilient Sphere trapping the other bodak and Gladiator proceeded to punch it to death. Meanwhile, Dok and Tina had moved forward to scout for Lillian, but she was not there. The chamber was now empty.

Well, aside from the two ice-zombies who rose again, as we had been hanging around them for a bit after they had died. Fortunately, a few empowered Magic Missiles put them in their place.

The only other thing that we found was a piece of parchment detailing the plane, in an obscure dialect of common. It speaks of this place being a vast maze of sorts, ruled over by a "Dark Lord" imprisoned at the center. Methinks we should meet with this man to discuss our predicament.

Preferably with fire. And lots of it.

Part 3

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Ambushed by shadows while resting. Escaped through portal.

-The rest of the text is heavily water damaged -

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Builds:
Jaya
Gladiator:

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12th level Dwarf Monk (Giamonk tank variant style); Lawful Good
STR 24 (15 start, 3 stat gain, +2 size, +4 enhance), DEX 14 (+2 enhance, -2 size), CON 16 (+2 racial), INT 10, WIS 16 (+2 enhance), CHR 6
FEATS: Improved Unarmed Strike, Improved Grapple (Monk bonus feats), Improved Initiative, Combat Reflexes (Monk bonus feat), Weapon Focus/Unarmed Attack, Improved Trip (Monk bonus feat), Improved Natural Attack, Blind-Fight, Stunning Fist (12/day, DC 19)
SPECIAL: Improved Evasion, Slow Fall 60ft, Ki-Magic/Lawful, Purity of Body (immune to Disease), Wholeness of body (24 hits/day), Diamond body (immunity to poison), Abundant Step (Dimension door 1/day). Dwarf racial traits (including 60ft Darkvision).
SKILLS: Move Silently +9 (DEX, 6 ranks, MW item), Hide 0 (DEX, -4 size, MW item), Spot +25 (WIS, 15 ranks, MW item, eyes), Listen +20 (WIS, 15 ranks, MW item), Use Magic Device +5 (CHR, 5 ranks, MW item), Spellcraft +3 (1 rank, MW item), Tumble +14 (DEX, 8 ranks, MW item, synergy), Jump +28 (STR, 5 ranks, MW item, synergy, move).
ITEMS: Masterwork tools for all above skills (450 gp), Masterwork spiked chain, cold iron (650), beads of bless 1/day (600), Pearl of Power, level 1 (1,000), Cloak of Resistance +2 (4000), Lesser Rod of Extend (3,000), 50 Masterwork Shuriken, silvered (410), Eyes of the Eagle (2,500), Belt of Giant Strength +4 (16,000), Amulet of WIS +2 (4,000), Boots of Speed (12,000, usually worn), Slippers of Spider Climb (4,800), Hat of Disguise (1,800), Bracers of AC +1 (1,000), Ring of Protection +1 (2,000), Ring of Spell Storing (18,000; usually with obscuring mist, shield and bless weapon), Permanently enlarged at lvl 16 CL (3,460), Gloves of DEX +2 (4,000)
WAND BUDGET: 8250.
2x Wands of CLW, 1x Wand of lvl 2 Mage Armour, 1x wand of lvl 1 mage armour, 2x wand of shield, 2x Wand of Obscuring Mist, 1x Wand of Bless Weapon.
- For this adventure, I assume there are only 10 charges per wand, as per DMG p. 199 for one-shot adventures. EDIT: just noticed that others also have one-shot items without higher prices and/or less charges. But I guess it does not matter, anyhow.
OTHER EQUIPMENT 20 days of trail rations, backpack, 5 flasks or 1.5 litre water each, explorer's outfit, monk's outfit, bedroll, shoevel, 5 (empty) scrollcases, 2 belt pouches, 2 50ft silk ropes, 5 torches, flint&steel, 10 tindertwigs, 12 gp.
INITIATIVE: +6 (DEX, feat)
MOVE: 60ft (60ft climbing)
AC 18 (WIS, DEX, monk, bracers, deflection, size), 21 with mage armour. Possible boosts: +1 (haste), +4 (shield), +3 (fighting defensively).
Touch AC: 17
HITS 93 (max d8 at first level, CON). Current: 80
SAVES: Fort +13 (+15 vs spells), Refl +12 (+14 vs spells), Will +13 (+15 spells, +17 vs enchantment)
BAB: +9/+9/+9/+4
TRIP: +15 (STR, feat, size) +19 vs opponent trip attemts (dwarf)
GRAPPLE: +24 (+24/+24/+24/+19)
UNARMED ATTACK: +16 (+16/+16/+16/+11); Damage 4d6 +7
SPIKED CHAIN ATTACK: +12 (+12/+7), Damage 2d6+10

3 encounters, 2 respawns

Tina
Dok (Sstopppidtallkid)
Dok (Olo Demonsbane)

Highlights thus far:

Death toll:
Giacomo: 2 deaths, once in combat, once as a result of drowning due to water creatures. 1 instance of being mind controlled by the enemy.

Dok: 2 deaths, both due to being ambushed by Shadows while sleeping.

Tina: 2 deaths, one in combat, the other after being ambushed by Shadows

Jaya: 1 death, attacked by Shadows in combat.


Kills:

Jaya: One Hydra downed with two enervations, one blood blossom swarm, one glowing living spell, one Moil zombie, one Bodak. (Total 5)
Note: The two Moil zombies we fought came back to life and Jaya put them down. Depending on how you count, that may add two kills to the total.

Gladiator: One zombie, one elemental swarm, one Shadow, one Moil zombie, one bodak. (Total 5)

Dok (factoring in Animal Companion and Summons): Two Arrow Demons, one elemental swarm, 3 priests. (Total 6)

Tina: 2 priests, 1 unicorn. (Total 3)

Note: In cases where two people attack the same target, I count someone as having made a kill if they contribute significantly.

Notable occurrences:

Well, after the RITUAL DESECRATION AND DISMEMBERMENT OF THE ENEMY CORPSES WITH FIRE! FIRE! I think Jaya will rest on the old ramparts.

"I dance on their corpses. This is a sacred dance of my peoples to grant good luck to the victors of battle. I take no joy in this whatsoever. It is purely professional."

Perform: Dance (1d20-1)[1]

Wait, I have rope. And 2 Demons. Craft:Marionette - (1d20+2)[21] Perform:Puppet Show - (1d20-2)[4]

Unless Jaya has something else to do, we set watches and camp for 2 days.

Milil, God of Bards, comes down and smites both you and Jaya. Seriously, that's the worst set of Perform checks I've ever seen.

"Jinkies! We're being attacked!"

"Zoinks! Run for it, Scoob!"

You still need 47 more dispel checks, by the way.

why do YOU HAVE no spoon mr bibblington, all your colour has worn out. I like the chance to fix my frount DOOR to a girls best cupckae.

[Keld Denar]

However, in the time it took me to do that Gladiator died again.

He got better in a day or so, though, which is the important thing.

LOL!!! Hillarious!

[SparkMandriller]

It looked dangerous, so I used Scorching Ray to light it on fire. And then I laughed, because fire is good.

I can see you earned that PhD.

(I'm amazed there hasn't been more sniping at Giacomo)

[Artanis]

Maybe it was a PhD in Arsonology

[Gralamin]

Truly, this Diary is of an enlightened individual. It would be good to have it when you find yourself in Ravenloft. I'll be sure to read it.

[Olo Demonsbane]

And then the dwarf had a personality fracture...

[sofawall]

This... It amuses me.

[Claudius Maximus]

I can't wait for her angle on day 3. What with the dying and all.

[Flickerdart]

I can see you earned that PhD.

(I'm amazed there hasn't been more sniping at Giacomo)

He got shot full of arrows and died, how much more sniping do you want?

[Sir Giacomo]

Written in a style worthy of Solo!
While the tale is not complete (for instance, Tina also died on day 1), I eagerly await the sequels...

- Giacomo

[Doc Roc]

I look forward to Day 4, myself. Failure to continue this will result in great hunting cats being released on your campus, ol' friend.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Giacomo, you're right, I forgot that Tina died on the first combat from getting attacked by a summon.

[Logalmier]

Perhaps this diary could be found by other Test of Spite'rs in another game. A bit of dramatic foreshadowing, no?

Just an idea.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

I am compiling highlights of the dungeoncrawl. Please submit your favorite moments to me via PM so that I may put them up in the second post.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

What, do people feel, has been the effect of luck in the the playtest?

[PhoenixRivers]

Written in a style worthy of Solo!
While the tale is not complete (for instance, Tina also died on day 1), I eagerly await the sequels...

- Giacomo

Solo? Like Han Solo?

It's not THAT good. I bet it can't even make the Kessel run in under 5 parsecs.

[jiriku]

The elementite swarm trap felt flukey to me. The swarms were positioned so as to immediately be able to attack from hiding, close range and envelop, without the players having a chance to take any actions. Their attack is basically "pass a Con check or you're out of the fight and dying".

That's mild to moderate cheese in the Book of Jiriku, as the players are subjected without warning to an attack that bypasses AC, saving throws, level, and defensive class features. Basically, it comes down to the luck of who happens to be standing where when the swarm is released.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Well, it comes down to Con, and those who have higher Con do have better defenses against this...

Though I still felt it was... underhanded.

[PhoenixRivers]

I believe that Ravenloft is like that, though.

[jiriku]

I believe that Ravenloft is like that, though.

Well, I can see that side of it. Ravenloft doesn't intend to play fair or let the good guy win. That's the whole point of Ravenloft.

But Pharoah asked where luck impacted the contest. I feel this is an attack against which the only real defense was dumb luck.

Aside: Whenever I kill a PC, I want there to be a level of justice to it. The player should think to himself, "My character would probably still be alive if only I hadn't foolishly done X." If the death occurred without regard to the PC's actions, or the action the PC performed seemed wise and safe according to all the information that was reasonably available to the player, then the death wasn't just. There's no way the player could have reasonably avoided the threat.

[olentu]

Yeah this is ravenloft. It totally has that whole "Suddenly a lich jumps out of a tree." thing going for it.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

So what do people think of the dungeoncrawl and the characters therein?

[tyckspoon]

So far, luck seems to have been very significant, perhaps too much so; first with the elementites, and then the Shadow attack, both of which effectively came down to whether or not the characters were lucky enough to still be standing when their turns came around so they could try and do something. And now with Gladiator mind-controlled, he seems to be having unusually good luck bypassing miss chances (admittedly I haven't been keeping a close count, but it's hard not to notice when he rolls ten attacks against Tina's Blink and comes up with 9 out of 10 hits.)

For performances, everybody is finding a way to contribute, but the actual results of the fights still seem to swing on the actions of the casters. And Giacomo's "UMD yourself into power" hypothesis does not seem to be bearing up; he's helping out, but he's mostly demonstrating the value of having good reach instead of showing off the power of buying magic.

[Pharaoh's Fist]

My personal opinion of Gladiator is that he has been a bit underwhelming, in that I can't give a good summary of his contributions to the party.

This encounter with the priests will probably be used as evidence on how good the monk is, but let's see....

Started off dominated by the enemy is not points in his favor. He's been hitting pretty hard, but it's against people who have low AC, not the opposition he's supposed to be able to face.

Furthermore, it's against a druid who had a horrible spell list prepared due to Sstoop just not caring anymore (Stonetell, when we know we're going into combat? Really? How about Find the Path?), a rogue who isn't built to optimized standards, and a wizard who barred the two most powerful schools of magic and specialized in the weakest.

[Cieyrin]

Yeah this is ravenloft. It totally has that whole "Suddenly a lich jumps out of a tree." thing going for it.

lol, I totally want to sig this. Permissions?

[olentu]

lol, I totally want to sig this. Permissions?

This is fine with me.

[Deth Muncher]

Solo? Like Han Solo?

It's not THAT good. I bet it can't even make the Kessel run in under 5 parsecs.

Solo is a former poster here on the playground that got banned. He came up with the Sorceror Stratagems guide in my sig.

[Kurald Galain]

This encounter with the priests will probably be used as evidence on how good the monk is, but let's see....

Well, let me put it like this: I've seen the encounter with the hydra being used as "evidence" on how good the monk is...

[mostlyharmful]

What, do people feel, has been the effect of luck in the the playtest?

So far it's been the deciding factor a bit too much for anything worth analyzing to have come up, the lack of traps or skill rolls is also something that's bothering me but that's just personal play style versus campaign limitations as this is all set up to not have any of that. meh.

Also, Tina didn't die from a summon in combat 1, she died from being shishkebabbed by arrow demons after she went back to save total strangers, not particularly in character for a scared rogue.

So far what's coming closest to being shown conclusively is the power of casters, such as Jaya sorting encounters on her own and the power of a buffing cleric which knows exactly when and who their buffed minion will be fighting.