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  1. - Top - End - #61
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    J-H's Avatar

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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Session 24: 3/12/2022
    We’re back! Dmitri’s player couldn’t join us, and Ratel the monk’s player had to join via Discord chat on speaker.

    Dmitri, Ratel, and Teador all got adamantine plating applied to their bones and troll hearts implanted. I skimmed this pretty fast instead of doing any description, because after the nearly 4 weeks of surgery and recovery time, the two new party members met up with them (coordinated with Sending in the background): Saqwam the tortle Fathomless warlock, and Rivkah the satyr Creation bard.

    They discuss plans to attack Tlalcehutli, the city of the Aaracokra earth goddess, and we review what they know about the city layout (last discussed 3+ months ago). They decide to do some more reconnaissance before making a plan. The warlock had chosen Soul Cage as his 6th level mystic Arcanum. This lets him, as a reaction, grab the soul of a nearby humanoid that dies (no save).
    There are several suitably unsettling applications, like draining life from a captured soul, but the big ones are:
    Query Soul. You ask the soul a question (no action required) and receive a brief telepathic answer, which you can understand regardless of the language used. The soul knows only what it knew in life, but it must answer you truthfully and to the best of its ability. The answer is no more than a sentence or two and might be cryptic.
    Eyes of the Dead. You can use an action to name a place the humanoid saw in life, which creates an invisible sensor somewhere in that place if it is on the plane of existence you’re currently on. The sensor remains for as long as you concentrate, up to 10 minutes (as if you were concentrating on a spell). You receive visual and auditory information from the sensor as if you were in its space using your senses.
    A creature that can see the sensor (such as one using see invisibility or truesight) sees a translucent image of the tormented humanoid whose soul you caged.
    They decide to go find an Aaracokra patrol, Soul Cage a priest, and use the priest’s knowledge to find out more about the temple they’re planning to attack. To increase their chances of success, they decide to watch and target the biggest enemy patrol they can find, on the (correct) theory that a larger patrol will have a higher-level priest in it.

    The enemy patrol was 9 strong including 2 priests and a wizard. As usual, Ratel used long-distance archery to kill enemies, while the others used Dimension Door to appear on the back of the enemy air-skiff, after half the patrol had charged towards Ratel and was 2 rounds of movement away.
    Some spells were thrown around, and Saqwam took some substantial damage, but nobody was in serious danger. Teador the paladin got hit with the Sky Nail spear, failed his save, and spent the last 2-3 rounds of the fight stuck to the sky (reverse gravity, single target) launching firebolts down and wishing he had his griffon with him. The enemy wizard spent most of the fight under Greater Invisibility, but launching magic missiles and blights. One of the enemy priests tried to Blind the 3 PCs who had landed on the air-skiff, and ate a 5th level Warlock counterspell. Rivkah pulled out See Invisibility, and the writing was on the wall at that point. It was also late and Spring Forward (lose an hour) night, so we called it because there’s no way the enemies would successfully escape. The 10th level enemy war priest was Soul Caged, and we’re supposed to get a list of questions between sessions (so I have time to compose answers).

    DM notes:
    One person on Discord slows things down a lot… things kept cutting in and out, so his turns took substantially longer.

    We have two new players, both pretty new to D&D (they’ve been through a couple of lower-level 1-shots).
    One is playing a satyr Creation bard, and she didn’t join in the one-shots until they were partway through (mom of one of the other players). Bard has a lot of options and levers but not a lot of damage. I think she’ll be re-working spell selections after tonight.
    The other is playing a Fathomless warlock, serving Oztalun the aboleth. Warlocks are fun! He gets a big built in plot hook and some objectives and information that the rest of the party doesn’t know or understand yet. Nothing PVP, but he’s got the inside scoop on what’s going on with Ssword. His Mystic Arcanum are Soul Cage, Finger of Death, and Maddening Darkness. He’s definitely leaning into the ‘eldritch creepy’ side and I think the huge area of Maddening Darkness is going to occasionally totally shut down groups of enemies, especially in confined spaces.

    We lost time with Discord setup and with item assignments and inventory checks that I’d asked people to do beforehand that nobody did, so we only got about 2-2.5 hrs of actual play in.

    There was still a lot of “what do you do?” “Hey, what should I do? Opinions?” and looking up spell lists and options. Bard has a LOT of moving parts and options.
    Fathomless is pretty useful… the watery tentacle is basically a free 3rd level Spiritual Weapon PB/day.
    Both are still learning where to find things on their character sheets, and having custom items that aren’t on DNDB doesn’t help.

    I’ve run several of these “fight an Aaracokra patrol” scenarios now, as they’re fairly common. In this one, the party faced 4 champions, 2 subcommanders, 1 wizard, 1 war priest, and 1 senior priest. That’s 5 different enemy types with 3 different spellcasting blocks to pick from. It’s good to have variety, but I’m thinking about going through and cutting down some of the variety to a smaller number of priest-types, and perhaps to shorter spell lists also. It doesn’t matter if they have cantrips ready because no fight is going to last long enough for them to run out of spell slots. I’ve also noticed that the “gish cleric” war priests are not good enough at offensive casting, nor do they have a good enough melee to-hit (+8) to make reliable use of their melee casting buffs like Holy Weapon. I think there needs to be a niche for a mid-level cleric, but I’d like to do it in an easier-to-run fashion.
    I also keep making the mistake of putting all the enemy spellcasters in the same initiative grouping (because there are only a few of them), which means I have to pick and resolve 3 different spells all at once.
    Last edited by J-H; 2022-03-13 at 12:41 AM.

  2. - Top - End - #62
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Session 24: 3/26/2022

    Dmitri’s player was unable to make it, so Ssword has moved over to be with Teador the Paladin. They discuss and execute a modified version of the original plan for the attack on Tlalchantli, the city of Tlaltecuhtli, the earth goddess. They meet up with a large group of yuan-ti nearby and get some scrolls of Dimension Door and potions of invisibility, and then spend a couple of days sneaking to the city. The yuan-ti have a spy base nearby, so this goes pretty smoothly.

    They decide to attack at mid-day, when the patrols are out of town and the temple isn’t full of sleeping priests in large numbers. The yuan-ti launch a couple of major raids on the north and south end of the city, closest to the garrisons, firing arrows, lighting warehouses of food on fire, etc. The group waits a few minutes, downs potions of invisibility, and slips through the roads until they are within Dimension Door range of the temple. They teleport up to the top, finding, as expected, a vertical flight shaft that connects all the floors and leads straight down to the altar, 120’ below.

    Not everyone has flight, so 3 of them ride down in a Bigby’s Hand elevator (it moves 60’ per round and can grapple a huge creature, so it can carry a few willing medium creatures) while Ratel the monk slow-falls down. They did occlude sunlight on their way down, so the priests at the bottom were not caught totally off-guard.

    We paused the fight due to time about 5 ½ rounds in (2.5 hours of combat, approximately). At this point, Cipactli is dead, the high priestess has Antilife shell up but is down about 100hp, and one senior priest is dead…and the altar is destroyed by means of Ssword draining divine energy through it.

    Battle highlights:
    The altar acts on initiative 20 each round, opening a 10’ wide pit 1d10+1x10’ deep under the closest target (Dex save to avoid falling in). On the next round, it opens a new pit and the old one slams shut. Only one character fell into a pit (Teador) and he misty-stepped out.
    Someone fired Synaptic Static as an opener and did over 100 points of damage to 4 of the enemies. The debuff sticks around a long time with none of them having INT save proficiency.
    High priestess opened with Bones of the Earth. The strength 12 warlock tortle is still pinned between the ceiling and a pillar (it’s a strength check to get out, not a strength save). He’s taken some damage, but also has been out of the way of the biggest threats and appeared incapacitated until he dropped Maddening Darkness on about 1/3 of the room, doing a pretty good amount of damage. It’s still up.
    The battlefield has been too mixed-up for the lower-level priests to use Fireball effectively. They’ve mostly been missing with Sacred Flame and Guiding Bolt. Almost every single Inflict Wounds the priests tried to use has missed also.
    The enemy priests did land a Banishment and a Hold Person, but concentration got knocked down fairly quickly for those.
    Ratel the monk got swallowed by Cipactli and managed to do enough damage to get thrown up, as well as landing enough Stunning Strikes to burn through Cipactli’s legendary resistances and stun it. Cipactli died shortly thereafter.
    Ssword spent 5 rounds draining the altar and is now back in play.
    Psychic Lance is pretty good at disabling enemies… lots of INT saves failed in this fight.

    I’m pretty sure we’ve hit the turning point in the fight, but several PCs have been knocked about quite a lot, and reinforcements are probably on the way relatively soon (it’s been about 45 seconds since they were spotted).

    DM notes:
    The party:
    Rivkah, 16th level creation bard, satyr - has analysis paralysis and actually used her dagger once instead of a cantrip like Thunderwave. Still did some damage with Psychic Lance, Electric Guitar (lightning bolt), and I think synaptic static.
    Saqwam, 16th level Fathomless warlock, tortle - still figuring out what he needs to do with stuff. Maddening Hex was a good pick though.
    Teador, 16th level vengeance paladin, half-elf - Solid mobility and damage carrying the fight. Hasn't used Lay on Hands yet.
    Ratel, 16th level kensei monk, wood elf - I think he's out of ki points. More stuns this session than the previous 24 sessions!

    Enemy forces:
    1 high priest capable of casting 9th level spells
    2 senior priests capable of casting up to about 7th level
    4 sun acolytes casting up to 3rd level spells
    2 champions (melee)
    1 Cipactli, a CR 20 huge crocodile creature covered in mouths that bites everything near it, and hits for +14 with a 3d12+8 bite attack, plus tail slap, etc. It also can burrow through the ground and is tough and scary.

    I’m not optimizing my tactics too much here. The enemies are mostly focused on “biggest threat” rather than “lowest AC”, which means they were missing a lot. I had the two melee enemies do the same thing each turn, and the Sun Acolytes would all cast the same spell so I didn’t have to use as much mental bandwidth. The simplified caster statblocks seem to be working. The big slowdown is waiting on dice rolling and dice math, plus the newer players taking time to figure out what to do. They are getting faster!

    The High Priestess has Mass Heal (700hp healing) on her list, and I’m not using it, as that would have wiped out all the damage the party did in 4 rounds of combat. This doesn’t need to stretch out further and the resources burned means it could turn into a TPK. This is the second session for 2 of my players.
    I may edit her statblock to reflect some other earth-themed 9th level spell.

    It may have looked grim for the PCs for a while, but with no DM fudging aside from sub-optimal tactics and ignoring one spell, they are going to win this. High level PCs are pretty tough and have ways to recover from problems. This is why I don't worry about "How will my players solve X;" they'll figure out a way. It's just my job to give them interesting problems to solve.

  3. - Top - End - #63
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    PaladinGuy

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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Love reading this thread! The exploration hexcrawl campaign seems to be working well and making for an exciting campaign.

    Do you have a link to a description of your previous campaign or did that one not make it to the boards.

  4. - Top - End - #64
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Thanks. I am pretty happy with it, but I'm never writing something that takes this much work again! I do plan to clean it up and put it on the DM's Guild when I'm done, as there isn't much high level content out there. It takes more DM intervention, so it's hard to do a linear storyline, and the challenges require more DM moderation.
    I was pretty happy when, in the last session, I said to the players "I think you guys have this in hand, but it'll take 2 more rounds to hit the tipping point where that's obvious." Two rounds later, it was obvious, even if they still have to clean up.

    Also, since I haven't come up with a good 9th level spell that's earth-themed for the high priestess, I'll probably just have reinforcements show up.
    Or she can re-summon a weaker (half-power/half-size) Cipactli. That's already in her statblock, and she has Antilife Shell up, so she has a good chance of pulling it off uninterrupted.

    Here's the Castlevania link:
    https://forums.giantitp.com/showthre...-campaign-log)
    Last edited by J-H; 2022-03-30 at 03:24 PM.

  5. - Top - End - #65
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Wow, this almost hit the 45 day mark! We had some people sick, out, etc.

    Session 25: 5/14/2022
    We’re back! We’ve been doing 2nd & 4th Saturdays, but Dmitri’s player has not been making those days even though they’re when he’s supposed to be available. We’re also only running from about 7:30(7:45) to about 10:30, which is a short-ish 3 hour session, so we are going to switch to “Most Saturdays” instead.

    We picked up mostly where we left off, working off of a couple of photos of the battlemap. Top of the round, with Cipactli dead, the High Priestess against a wall but protected by Anti-life shell, Saqwam the tortle still trapped against the ceiling by Bones of the Earth, and 40% of the room covered by Maddening Darkness.

    Ratel the monk shot a couple of arrows at one of the Aaracokra champions menacing Saqwam, and Rivkah the bard moved over and lined up a lightning bolt from the Guitar of Electricity that hit four of the Aaracokra. Teador moved over to attack the HP, but was stopped by Antilife shell. His Chill Touch missed. The High Priestess spent her turn chanting while touching the ground…not good. Saqwam realized he could attack the pillar, and hit it with the Warlock tentacle and Eldritch Blast, blowing it up and sending him crashing to the ground.

    Ratel shot the high priestess, breaking the concentration on Antilife shell. Rivkah lightning-blasted the Aaracokra again with her guitar, and the High Priestess resurrected Cipactli (1/3 HP, disadvantage on attack rolls). Luckily, Cipactli was right before the High Priestess in initiative order. The party focused the High Priestess down, then killed Cipactli pretty quickly, although not before the giant crocodilian creature bit Ratel and grappled him in its jaws. The junior priests spent this time failing to connect with Hold Person or Sacred Flame, although Rivkah did get held once for one round.

    Once we hit 4 enemy priests, all with fewer than 30hp, it was apparent the fight would be over, so I said it was basically over… no need to roll it out. The Aaracokra don’t retreat, it’s against their ethos. Teador used Ssword’s divine sense ability to tell that, although the priests on the upper floors were alarmed, there weren’t enough present and grouped up to meet an immediate counterattack. They had time – a few minutes, perhaps – to check the temple. They loot the high priestess’s body, and then decide to take the whole corpse along to prevent easy resurrection.

    There were two halls and two doors out of the main sanctuary, and the two doors would not open (enchanted to stop those with ill intent).
    They almost didn’t check the treasury, but looked there last. First, Ratel found the high priestess’s very rich quarters (looted easily grabbed décor for 250gp), then he went the other way down the side hall and found a room with extensive alchemical and enchanting supplies, and grabbed wizardry inks plus woodworking and leatherworking tools.

    The other three checked the other hall, finding a storage room containing 3’ high urns full of unclotted blood, and bowls full of preserved hearts. The other area down the hall led to a larger room with a lot of curtains, a faint smell of perfume, and a DC 16 Calm Emotions effect. Rivkah felt really calm and chill as they explored this room, finding curtained-off areas each containing a bed, stools, a small crib, and blankets. When they leave the room, they notice they’ve all healed 1hp from a low-level ongoing effect in the room. An earth and fertility goddess has a labor and delivery room for the well-connected…

    Eventually the party does check the locked doors to the treasury, and immediately are confronted by a pair of stone golems. After two round, they’ve done over 180hp in damage, and the golems have slowed 1 PC, missed 6 times, and hit twice for 40 rounds. The outcome is clear and nobody’s in danger of getting killed, so they proceed to loot the room.

    After this, they exit the front door of the temple and immediately Teleport back to a rendezvous point with the yuan-ti, who then use Sending to communicate to the diversionary forces. It’s time to count the loot and LEVEL UP TO 17!

    Loot:
    17,850gp worth of gold, silver, gems, décor, gem-encrusted weapons, etc.
    Shield +1
    Dagger of the War Mage +3. We determined that this stacks with the Rod of the Pact Keeper +2, so Saqwam’s Eldritch Blast is getting a serious to-hit boost.
    Potion of Longevity
    Oil of Sharpness
    2x 6th level spell scrolls (I rolled, Arcane Gate & Disintegrate)
    1x 7th level spell scroll (Symbol)
    1x Earthquake scroll
    Quake Plate +2: Legendary, requires attunement
    This +2 full plate armor is crafted from precisely shaped slabs of grey rock dyed dark red with blood. When struck, the wearer may use a Reaction to cast Earth Tremor with a DC of 14. The wearer may cast Move Earth once per day. If the wearer can cast spells, Earthbind and Erupting Earth are added to his list of spells known and prepared as long as he is attuned to the armor.

    This was a good place to end. Teador the Paladin has access to Holy Sword, giving him +2d8 damage/hit as long as he can keep concentrating with his +15 Con save. Ratel is probably going to take a level of Rogue, as +1d6 sneak attack, 2 expertises, etc. is better than “+4 ki if you have no ki” at 20.
    The bard & warlock both have 9th level spells to choose.

  6. - Top - End - #66
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    In Between
    I noticed last night that Ssword had accumulated 7 points on the power tracker, enough to hit the next transformation, which mean’s he’s going to have a dream. Coincidentally, Teador the Paladin (wielder)’s player asked me for an updated statblock:

    Spoiler: Ssword
    Show

    Artifact, requires attunement
    This +3 mithril short sword’s surface has a snake-scale pattern on the surface, and is tinged green. The crossguard is made from a pair of giant fangs, and the pommel is an emerald set in gold.
    True Poison. When you strike a target, it takes 2d12 poison damage or acid damage, whichever it is less resistant or more vulnerable to.
    Divinity Sense. While you hold the weapon, you are aware of the location and position of all deities and divine spellcasters within 120’. At a range of 30’ or less, your awareness becomes perfect, granting you Blindsense against such creatures and thus the ability to attack without being hindered by Blindness or Illusion-based defenses.
    Godslayer. When making an attack with this weapon against a divine creature or spellcaster whose spells come from a deity, your critical hit range is increased by 2.
    Mind Shield. The wielder benefits from the effects of a Mind Blank spell, becoming immune to psychic damage, charm & domination effects, divination spells, and anything that would sense its emotions or thoughts, even when cast with the power of a Wish spell.
    Sentience. Ssword is a sentient lawful evil weapon with an Intelligence of 14, a Wisdom of 16, and a Charisma of 18. It has hearing and Darkvision out to a distance of 60’.
    The weapon can speak, read, and understand all languages spoken within the region, and can now audibly converse in a sibilant, snake-like voice.
    Spells. Once per day, it can cast See Invisibility on itself and its wielder. Twice per day, on the wielder’s turn, it can cast 2 spells twice each: Inflict Wounds (3d10 necrotic) on hit, and Cure Wounds (wielder only, 2d8+2).

    (this draws from descriptions a specific place, plus a “side plot” option I have scripted out)

    When you rest, you have a dream. You are in a small library, about 20x20’, containing four bookshelves, a table, a few chairs, and two doors. The bookshelves are about ¾ full and appear to be in good condition, containing a variety of hardback books labeled in the yuan-ti script.

    You hear a soft sound behind, you of something sliding over the carpet.

    Teador takes note of the exits, then turns around.

    You turn, and see one of the snake-like yuan-ti. This one seems bigger, and has dragon-like wings and glowing eyes.

    Teador would put his hand where he thinks Ssword would be and say "who are you, and what is all this?" readying his shield as he backs up 5 feet to get closer t one of the doors.

    The yuan-ti looks down at itself. “I am Ssword, it sseemss. And you are a hairy monkey persson, not a yuan-ti.”

    Teador gives Ssword a slightly confused look. “That I am, hopefully it’s not an issue for you. I guess you’ve never seen yourself like this?” He seems to keep his guard up.

    “No… no…” It seems lost in thought for a moment. “The yuan-ti were once hairy monkey people, lacking in intellect and grace compared to now, and perhaps I can finally do what I wass ssuppossed to.. Would you, I wonder, become one of them, the better to crush our enemiesss?”
    (Mechanically you would gain some yuan-ti traits over time without losing existing species traits)

    He seems taken aback at the offer "uuhh... Thank you for the offer, but I think I'd prefer to stay a... monkey, as you call it" he puts some air quotes over the word money, then looks around the room briefly "what is this place by the way, how did we get here?"

    “Ssss… You do not want to become…better…and ensslave our foes to build a gloriouss empire anew one day?
    This place isss real… I think. Look for a ssspring atop a hill, about twenty milesss sssouth of the large lake.”

    "I'll definitely keep that in mind, don't you worry Ssword... but nonetheless that's interesting, does this place have any significance to you, like should I be actively looking for it?"

    “Yes, a ssecret library. Find it.”

    The dream fades. You feel like your views on politics and ethics don’t line up with Ssword’s, but it might be persuaded to change some views if you work at it.

    Session 26: 5/21/2022

    This was a shorter session at a bit under 2.5 hours. We don’t think we’ll see Dmitri’s player often; he hasn’t been responding.
    Rivkah (bard) took Power Word Kill as her 9th level spell for now. Ratel the monk took a level in rogue (just 1) for the sneak attack and skills, as he’s not impressed by Monk 20. Teador continued to Paladin 17, and Saqwam took True Polymorph as his 9th level Mystic Arcanum.

    Since most of the map has been explored, and since the original map they were filling in and making notes in got lost, I handed them a printout of the terrain map (not annotated).

    After finishing with level-up discussions, it was “What do you do next?” Teador says there’s a library he’s been told to look for. The party proceeds, on foot to not draw attention, to within 30 miles of the Aaracokra capital. Along the way, a titanic snake attacks, hitting Ratel and swallowing the monk whole with its first surprise attack. That is, I think, the only attack roll the snake ever got to make, as it rolled a net -2 against Psychic Lance and was incapacitated, then got stunned by a Stunning Fist from within, then Finger of Death’d, Eldritch Blasted, stabbed, and hit repeatedly until dead.

    They search in the area described, and find a hidden switch behind a small waterfall. The switch is trapped with a poison that only harms non-yuan-ti, and Teador takes 8d10 poison damage (resists for half) on a failed save. The waterfall piles up behind a temporary wall of water, the rock next to it opens, and a tunnel is revealed. The party goes inside and down under the hill, finding an area with some machinery that pumps water up to the “spring” atop the hill to generate the waterfall that helps conceal it. After some searching, they discover the key Ssword said ought to be there, and enter a very small library.

    They spend 12 days in the library without going outside. Why?
    -One Anyspell tome (detailed below)
    -One set of the teachings of Sseth, which Ssword wants to be placed near – and by the end, Ssword is upgraded to Freedom of Movement 1/day and Mass Healing Word 1/day
    -One of each of the 6 types of stat tome.

    With a paladin (str, cha), a bard (cha, dex), a warlock (cha), and a monk (dex, wis; already used a dex tome), there is a lot of interest in the Cha tome. This took some time to settle out, and by the end:
    Str tome: Teador the paladin
    Dex tome: Rivkah the bard
    Con tome: Saqwam the warlock
    Int tome: Held for possible sale or trade
    Wis tome: Ratel the monk
    Cha tome: Teador the paladin

    12 days later, they emerge for some fresh air and some showering under the waterfall.

    There is discussion of setting fire to the Aaracokra’s agricultural areas, but they would need a lot of rope and flammable liquid and time to cover ~1200 square miles. The giants would be the best source for large quantities of alcohol. The party heads towards the city of Tlaloc, the rain/weather god. Early on, the player for Teador commented that they do well at avoiding random encounters… so the dice this time generated a random encounter in every hex. Once it was a flock of blood hawks; once it was a small group of yuan-ti spies who cautiously gave away little information; once it was a large Aaracokra patrol (3 air-skiffs and about 30 of them) that they BARELY avoided (1 point lower on any of the 4 stealth checks would have put them below the DC, then when moving away I rolled 3d20 with “if two of the numbers are over 10 they get spotted” and the rolls were 14, 3, and 9).

    They lost time evading these. I was going for the “you’re hunted, the enemy is out in force now, you want to stay unnoticed” and I think I got it.

    Then we ended the session with some bad perception rolls on their part leading to them not spotting a Quetzal until it was close, and it beat their stealth checks by a lot and headed their way. It’s 180 feet away, Ratel started rolling and got a natural 20 on his first attack, and that’s where we will pick up next time as it was too late to start this fight, as a quetzal is (per knowledge checks) smart, perceptive, and slightly less powerful than an adult dragon.

    Anyspell Tome
    Very rare, requires attunement by an arcane spellcaster
    As an action, the attuned user may speak the name of any spell and open the book, and the spell will be written inside. It may be cast from the book as though from a scroll, or scribed into a spellbook. Doing either one consumes the magic, wiping the page clean. The book has a recharge time in days equal to 2d10+ the level of the last spell used from it, and must stay attuned during that time.

    DM notes: The delay is a balancing point to avoid a wizard being able to scribe every spell on the wizard spell list into a spellbook in just 3 months. It’s still a chance to get any situational spell with very little lead time, or Wish every 2d10+9 days.
    The tome is arguably legendary based on the Wish access, but a Ring of 3 Wishes, and most legendary items in general, can be used more than once every couple of weeks.

    I ended up drawing a bit of a chart out on the dry erase battle mat with what classes benefit from what tomes, and helped guide the discussion from "easiest to assign" to "hardest" so things stayed fairly fair. Everybody got something. This is the most contention over loot I think I've seen.
    The library is definitely the motherlode of "valuable find" and is gated specifically behind either having a partly-juiced Ssword or an extremely high set of exploration rolls in an area that's hard to find.

    I don't know how the Quetzal fight will go; it may get away and alert the local forces; if so, the party may have to teleport out. They are definitely not in "exploration" mode now.
    Last edited by J-H; 2022-05-21 at 10:59 PM.

  7. - Top - End - #67
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    In Between Sessions

    Teador the (LG) Paladin has Ssword (LE). There’s a side plot option where Ssword can be persuaded to be less of a yuan-ti supremacist tyrant in his attitude, which will carry over
    Spoiler: foreshadowed, but a spoiler
    Show

    When he turns out to be a shard of the dead god Sseth. You know where this is going.


    I made the comment to Teador’s player that his character could tell their their ethics and values were not aligned. He said he didn’t think he’d be able to do very well role-playing out persuasive conversations and arguments. I respect that, and so instead we’re going to do a series of opposed Persuasion checks for various aspects of Ssword’s morality. Ssword is just an intelligent sword right now, so he can be persuaded to change at least some of his views.

    However, he’s arguing morality in his dreams with a reasonably strong entity with mental scores equal to or greater than his (vs. Ssword, his Cha is greater, his Int is substantially lower, his Wis is slightly lower). I’d like to make it not just a one-sided thing. I am currently planning to do a "best 2 out of 3 rolls" resolution mechanic for the arguments, probably opposed Persuasion checks, although other skills (Religion, History, Insight) could be substituted in.

    If he crit-fails (lose by more than 10) on both of his losing rolls on an argument, then TEADOR converts to Ssword’s views on a topic.

    Aspects up for debate:
    1) Yuan-ti supremacy: Ssword/Sseth should advance the yuan-ti primarily, who are better and worth more than other beings. (evil)
    2) Tyranny: Rule with an iron fist and conquest is the best form of government. Those who don’t fall in line should be crushed. (evil + law)
    3) No redemption: Enemies must be wiped out. The Aaracokra who served Huitzopochitl must all be killed. Deliberately phrased to avoid tripping on “vengeance paladin”. (evil)
    4) The ends justify the means: Any action is okay if it leads to victory. (Evil; possibly chaotic)
    5) Utility: Altruism is foolish and not worthwhile. Only help those who are useful. (Evil)
    6) Order: An orderly people with firm laws and codes is stronger than one with more “freedom.” A few people may be harmed by this, but it’s worth it. (Law)

    Teador’s player agrees, and we handle the first two arguments as though they happened while in the Ssacred library.
    #1: Vs. Tyranny: The best form of government is one that allows it's people free to be individuals and rule by conquest aside from the absence of morality it breeds nothing but revolution and hatred.
    He rolls a pair of 26s, while Ssword rolls an 8 and a 22 (d20+4 for non-proficient – I will add a proficiency bonus with the next power-up).
    His argument against tyranny as an inferior, conflict-causing form of government is successful.

    #2 Vs. Yuan-ti supremacy: No race in reality is greater than one or another, each have their own strengths and weaknesses.
    Ssword rolls 14, 15, and 8. Teador rolls 23, 20, and 14. Success!


    Session 26: 5/28/2022
    Saqwam’s player is out, and his dad subs in for his first time playing D&D since 8th grade. Welcome to running a 17th level Warlock you haven’t had time to get familiar with!

    We start by resuming the battle with a single Quetzal that was teased last session with it at 180’ away. Ratel gets highest on initiative, and uses that 20. Quetzals have 195hp and it takes about 70 points of damage from the crit + poison. It flies closer to the party on its turn, and tries something, I don’t recall what, but it didn’t work. The quetzal ends failing saves against Earthbind (from Teador) and then a Psychic Lance from Rivkah the bard, and being incapacitated early in round 2, leaving its final ~60hp to be battered down by two Ssword stabs, 2 monk arrows, 4 eldritch blasts, and then Rivkah would get to go again before the Quetzal could take an action. It dies, they loot the body for feathers and a couple of fangs as trophies, and the party heads west.

    The comment from last session pays off, as I roll for a random encounter as they enter the next hex. I roll on the encounter table and get 1d3 quetzals again, so I reroll it and get the exact same result. Then the d3 turns out to be a 3, so the party spots 3 Quetzals having just spotted them.

    The fight takes 3 or 4 rounds and the rest of the session, and a lot of damage is done as the Quetzals each have legendary actions (but not resistances) and can use Chaos Bolt for their LAs. One quetzal gets hit early and then spends most of the fight under Greater Invisibility; another eats a lot of early damage from, among other things, a failed save against Finger of Death from Saqwam, and then turns itself invisible (greater) and flies off.
    The party kills the other two, but not before eating a pair of Prismatic Sprays from the other two Quetzals (damage, no lasting effects). The Invisible one ends up grabbing Rivkah with its tail and flying up. Rivkah almost tries casting Teleport to get to the jungle floor (I’m a nice DM and explain what Teleporting to a place you’ve only seen casually can entail). Teador flies up on his fast griffon and, working with Ratel (archery) they end up killing the Quetzal; Rivkah falls 80’ to the floor, leaving her in the 20s or 30s in HP. The other Quetzal went down to a mix of Ratel’s poison arrows, archery from Teador’s summoned Celestial (5th level), some Eldritch Blasts from Saqwam, and a Bigby’s Striking Fist from Saqwam that stayed around for a few rounds.
    At this point, the party is fairly battered and depleted, and one Quetzal – a smart and fast creature serving their enemies – has gotten away. They decide to head west 1 hour and bunker down for a long rest, using Ratel’s 29 on Survival to try to conceal their presence….

    DM note: There’s a party of 4 Aaracokra Elites (basically PC chassis but simplified and with some high level abilities) that I could send after them, but I’m also getting tired of yet more jungle fights. On the other hand, I could say they found a small cave and are slightly boxed in.
    The Elites are, at this point, most definitely an adventuring party hunting the PCs, and they do have access to Teleport as well as information about where the party is reported to be.

    I’ll figure out what I want to roll and see if they find the party. They will also be unofficially added to encounter tables for that hex for a couple of in-game days. It’s too bad the party isn’t searching the hex, as there’s an illusion covering a stone slab in the hex. Under the slab is a Death Tyrant (I’d buff it for a solo fight) and a Staff of Power. I may have the Elites find it if they don’t meet the party, and then their Twinning sorcerer will be even stronger…

    I may be able to pressure them into departing the hex via Teleport and trying their plans by some other means, as the recon for them is definitely ratcheting up.

  8. - Top - End - #68
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Glad to see this again. I'm really enjoying the story.

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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Session 27: 6/11/2022

    The party is now back up to 5 reliable members. Troudaar, the Goliath warrior (samurai), has been quietly traveling with the party for a while (that’s the excuse). We equipped him out of spare gear the party had: Broom of Flying, anti-scrying amulet, Plate +2, Maul of Extreme Pain (+2 maul, +2d8 psychic damage), Ring of Spell Turning. It took a while to get his character sheet built, so actual playtime was only about 2 hours.

    The party finishes their long rest, hidden in a cave (I wanted some terrain variation). As they discuss what to do next (at my prompting), Ratel overhears fragments of discussion in the Aaracokra language in the near distance. He had the highest pre-rolled Perception, and can understand any language as a monk. There were fragments of a discussion about “they must be around here” and “the bounty on that group.” The party talks briefly about what to do, and I mention that Ratel doesn’t hear anything any more.

    Teador the paladin hastes Ratel, who heads outside. He sees two Aaracokra hidden in trees not too far away. Being a hasted monk, he runs up the tree to the farthest one, which is wielding two wands, hits the spellcaster in the face several times (no stuns), then runs the rest of the way up the tree, does his boot-drop thing for minor damage, and lands on the ground with a very loud noise. I check with the rest of the party, and they were in a “wait for him to be a diversion” mode and not “ready to rush outside” so they sit out the rest of the round. All the enemies go.
    The barbarian-like enemy closest to the cave chugs a potion (Storm Giant strength). The spellcaster twins Hastes on him and on the monk Aaracokra. The monk one flies in and makes four attacks against Ratel. Three miss, but on the fourth, his hand and forearm go translucent, and he reaches inside Ratel’s chest and tries to pull his heart out. Ratel makes the Con save and only takes half of the 10d10 force damage. A lightly armored Aaracokra flies over, blinking in and out of place twice (horizon walker teleport) as he stabs Ratel twice, once with 9d6 sneak attack damage.

    Ratel starts of the next round simply running dead away at Hasted Monk Dash Speed after disengaging. I don’t remember the number, something ridiculous like 320’/rd. The monk Aaracokra, also Hasted, flies after him, ending up 40’ behind.
    The spellcaster moves and the horizon walker/rogue hides, disappearing from the map.
    The rest of the party runs out of the cave and starts heading in the opposite direction.

    In round 3, Ratel dashes further away. The enemy monk catches up, ending his turn only about 25’ overhead – just out of melee range.

    The Aaracokra spellcaster casts a 4th level Mind Whip at the party but gets Counterspelled by Saqwam the Warlock. The horizon walker rogue blips in, stabbing Teador the paladin with sneak attack, and Rivkah the bard with no sneak attack. This was a mistake, as Teador got to use Sentinel to make a reaction attack for 20-30 damage against the rogue. The high strength barbarian, meanwhile, charges in, his fingers ending in two inch talons. He attacks Saqwam once and Troudaar twice, hitting every time for about 20 damage per hit; Troudaar passes his wisdom save to avoid having to attack the ally standing next to him (Beast barbarian feature). I forgot the 4th attack from Haste.

    Teador smites the snot out of the horizon walker rogue with 94hp of damage inflicted. Rivkah considers using Power Word Kill but decides to use Psychic lance instead, leaving the rogue with 3hp. Saqwam fires two Eldritch blasts that blow the barbarian back 20’ away from him, and a 3rd that kills the rogue. I think he forgot the 4th ray.
    Troudaar action surges, attacking the beast barbarian 6 times including one crit. The damage is decent as only about 60% of it is resisted, and that was a lot of hits.

    In the distance, Ratel fires two bow shots at the monk overhead and moves somewhere. The monk easily follows, pummeling him with 3 attacks and another heart-ripping attempt, which Ratel again saves against, I think – don’t recall.

    Back at the main battle, Teador drops Concentration on haste (basically stunning Ratel) and successfully Banishes the enemy caster (basically stunning the monk and barbarian). The party deals a bit more damage to the beast barbarian, and then Rivkah asks how many hit points he has left. I say he’s pretty badly hurt and allow a medicine check to determine that he in fact has 97hp. Power Word Kill, boom and dead. Saqwam Counterspells the enemy caster’s Vitriolic Sphere, then casts Danse Macabre to raise the two dead enemies and zombies, making them much harder to bring back to life.

    Once both monks recover from the post-haste Lethargy, they trade blows. Ratel is on the ropes with much lower hit points, but finally succeeds with a stunning fist, and the battle is over thanks to repeated stuns at that point. The enemy sorcerer pops out of banishment just in time to receive about 12 different attacks before he gets to go, and Shield avails him nothing.

    The party heads west, then curves north, with a long rest somewhere in there. The random encounter chances are very high currently due to the Aaracokra’s alert status. They run into 2 more Quetzals and have very bad group stealth checks. Ratel (very stealthy) moves normally, and the rest of the party uses a pair of Dimension Doors to get 500’ or so out of the Quetzal’s path. They evade another patrol (3 air-skiffs and 30+ Aaracokra) with some decent stealth checks, and then another (1 quetzal, 2 air-skiffs & 20 Aaracokra) the same way. A couple of people have rolled 2s or 3s for Stealth, and Rivkah turns whoever is least sneaky Invisible, which helps bring the group average up.
    During one of these encounters, Saqwam orders the zombies to bury themselves in the ground as they are insufficiently stealthy… thus end the zombies.
    The party is now about 12 miles away from the city where Tlaloc’s high temple is.

    Also, they get to level up to 18, and loot distribution resulted in a net +4 AC for Rivkah and +1 for Saqwam, bringing them up to 20 and 19 respectively from 17 & 17.
    1 potion of storm giant strength
    3 potions of superior healing
    Ioun Stone of Protection (Rivkah)
    Ring of Protection +1 (Saqwam)
    Short Sword +3 (Rivkah)
    Studded Leather +3 (Rivkah)
    Wand of the War Mage +2 (Rivkah)
    Brooch of Shielding (Troudaar)

    DM notes: I was worried this was going to be too tough for my players. It wasn’t! Maybe it would have been if they were 4 PCs tonight instead of 5. I didn’t use the head-hunter’s stun-on-sneak-attack ability right away, and I should have. If something’s too tough for the players, it’s probably not. These were under-geared for PCs but highly geared for typical NPCs. The strategy of splitting them definitely helped, as the monk’s heart-ripping attack and speed would have been very dangerous had he faced anyone but another monk. The counterspells shut down the sorcerer, who was stuck concentrating on Haste and couldn’t bring his twinned Flesh to Stone to bear. Due to the splits and early death of the rogue, they never got to the point where he could use Twinned Power Word Pain either. He could have counterspelled the counterspell, but it was on a second page (character entry too long) and I missed it.
    Still a good fight and had them worried a bit.

    I think this proves I can stop worrying about throwing the kitchen sink at them.

  10. - Top - End - #70
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Session 28: 6/25/2022

    After some discussion, the group decides to head north, slightly further away from Kiayaltepetl. They search the hex for a place to make a temporary hideout/base, and in the process, discover a suspiciously round island in a round pond. Teador flies over on griffin-back and Ratel runs across the water. They determine that the island feels slightly holy, but can’t make the Religion roll. As Teador, a high-level paladin, approaches the small crater in the middle, he hears whistling noise. A boulder falls from the sky with a bright flash, shattering in the crater and sending dust and rocks flying. Inside is a golden rod, one foot long, with a large ruby at one end and an amethyst at the other end. In his head, he hears a voice: “The light of the sun does not belong only to Huitzopochitl. Wield this well.”

    His response: “Oh great, another voice in my head.”

    This is a Rod of the Sun.
    Spoiler: Rod of the Sun[/spoiler
    Show

    Legendary, requires attunement
    This rod has a huge ruby at one end, and an amethyst at the other. The wearer may use it to cast Daylight at will, and Dawn once per day. The rod may also be activated (as though drawing a weapon), causing it to generate a glowing hot blade. This can be wielded as a +3 sword, with options listed below. Half of the damage dealt by the weapon is fire, and half radiant. Greatsword: Base damage 2d10; Longsword, base damage 2d8; scimitar, base damage 2d6.


    Troudor the Fighter takes it, and may use it.

    There’s then more discussion, and two of the four PCs go to recon Kiayaltepetl, the city of Tlaloc the rain god. Rivkah flies up on her broom at night at high altitude, then flies over the city in the clouds, and descends, using Invisibility from her Instrument of the bards. She rolls several d20s but always rolls high, so nothing happens on her approach. Her massive perception (+12) lets her make out many details in the dark despite not having Darkvision. She spends some time going over the inner city and decides to check out one of the big buildings. It has iron rods sticking up at every corner, joined together by iron bars around the roof, and only a single covered entranceway. She sticks her head in, sees that it’s a library, and in doing so, sets off the trap, taking 22 points of lightning damage and making a brief thunder-and-lightning show, so she leaves.

    Meanwhile, Ratel the Monk, with 2 levels in Rogue and Expertise in Stealth, makes his way to the city, learns what’s on the outer ring, then swims across to the inner ring (because walking on a 50’ wide river at night with no cover is bad for hiding) and investigates a few buildings. When Rivkah sets off the trap, he leaves as well.

    What they/the party have learned, summarized:
    The entire city is surrounded by miles of chinampas, which are a cool permaculture/aquaculture nerd thing that were actually used in Mesoamerica (go look them up). The Aaracokra don’t need bridges, so approaching on foot means moving between a lot of islands across a lot of 10-25’ wide canals.

    The city itself is arranged like a bullseye target. At the center is an island with the temple, which is a stepped-pyramid temple with the roof removed, leaving it a bunch of ground-level passages separated by increasingly tall stone walls. There’s a ring of water/river around it, then an inner city containing priest quarters, the library, a lush garden area, and a large stone building surrounded by two wooden fences that nobody got to take a good look at.

    Then there’s another ring of water, and you’re in the outer city, which has a large market/artisanal area, two regions of high-end houses/mansions, two areas where there are garrison barracks and air-skiff parking, and a very large warehouse district with lots of small docks. The Aaracokra farmers use small barges to bring their goods here, where they are stored and trans-shipped downriver to the Aaracokra capital in bulk.

    They start talking about plans of attack, and decide that they want help. The next session is probably going to involve some Teleportation movement and diplomacy, as they try to recruit the yuan-ti, some giants or goliaths, etc., to join in the attack. Both forces will have to travel >100 miles through the jungle unobserved, so a big question is going to be “how do you make this happen?” It may take a couple of weeks of in-game calendar time to facilitate this.
    Teador thinks the yuan-ti need to come out of the shadows and seize an entire city.

    It will probably be 4 weeks until the next session.

    DM notes: A shorter session due to scheduling, but zero combat! Nobody flubbed stealth rolls, and Rivkah rolled high enough on the random d20 rolls to not have the permanent weather effects over the city cause her to get hit by lightning as an intruder.
    They are really starting to look at the “war/logistics” side of this, rather than just “adventurers striking temples.” That’s part of getting a good/successful ending, so I’m glad they are thinking that way. Soon they will forge an alliance, and make a plan for what happens after they defeat Huitzopochitl!

    The Rod of the Sun is a pretty cool Lightsaber item. Some of the main enemies do resist fire and sometimes radiant damage, so it's only really great against certain targets. Troudar's Maul of Extreme Pain (2d6+2d8) still does more base damage, although the Rod could be paired with a shield for more AC.

  11. - Top - End - #71
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Teador vs. Ssword, Debate 3:
    At issue: No redemption, wipe them out.
    The paladin's argument:
    "While I am in agreement that those who do evil must be punished even killed in some extremes, painting a broad stroke like that runs the risk of catching several innocent people. I have met some Aarakocra that are good people, so that speaks to me that perhaps some if not many of those who serve this evil god might be doing so unwantingly."

    Rolls:
    Ssword 21, 13, 9
    Teador 24, 28, 14

    Success!

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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Session 29: 8/6/2022
    Teador’s player is out sick. The group decided to wait until he’s back to assault the temple in Kiayaltepetl, so they instead head up into the nearby mountains to explore. After searching for a day or two (on foot due to no air-skiff), they spot a cave protected by a small palisade. When checking it out, Ratel notices an Aaracokra with black feathers keeping watch. They haven’t seen Aaracokra with this color scheme before. Approaching and some short discussion reveals that these are Revenant Aaracokra opposed to Huitzopochitl – the champions of a destroyed tribe, reanimated for vengeance. They have ~3 weeks left before they “die” one way or the other. The party promises to bring them in on the next major attack. All 3 of them are packing magical weapons.

    Heading northwest, they search another hex of mountains. As they top a low rise, they notice some trolls hiding about 80’ away. Ratel attempts to engage in diplomacy, but is unhappy with a response of “Get in our cookpot.” Further talking is attempted, until the trolls decide that the party is trying to trick them and just attack. They are big and fast and hit for some damage, and there are 7 of them. Ultimately the party can outdamage them, and by round 2 or 3, several have gone down but popped back up. The bard, warlock, and monk all lack fire or acid damage sources.

    Two Rocs pop into view in round 2, and make a pass on round 3 to pick up some snacks. I roll randomly for targeting, and one of the trolls ends up carried off. Troudar’s player then realizes that he did in fact get the Rod of the Sun, and does thus have a flaming sword. Two trolls are killed the next round – as they’d already been knocked down, they only had 10hp. The third troll Troudar scorches runs away and is finished off. Ratel hops up on top of one of the trolls he’d stunned and makes an animal handling check (21) to get a Roc to attack it, resulting in another Roc being carried away.

    Power Word Kill was used to kill one troll by Rivkah the bard, and Finger of Death from Saqwam killed another troll. Flaming sword: 3 Rocs: 2 High level necromancy: 2.

    The party continues exploring, and finds the village of the Blue Updraft Aaracokra tribe. They do not like Huitzopochitl, but, as a small tribe that has suffered losses, also fear him and his warriors. They have few fighters, no magic, and don’t want to do anything that would cause a fighting force larger than the entire civilian population of their tribe to be casually dispatched to hunt them. There’s some discussion of fostering better ties between the tribes/villages, but when you’re low magic and a day or two apart over dangerous terrain, options are limited.

    They do relay a rumor of strange skinny rude people with green-yellow skin hunting for something off to the northeast. It’s fourth or fifth hand, so that’s all they know.

    DM notes: The Revenant’s magical weapons are good but not great at this level. They will still be a reward of sorts for the party.

    I did a “roll for 2 days and combine the random encounters” for the trolls. I meant for the Rocs to be a threat for the party, but the way it turned out was fun. I’m glad someone thought to direct the Rocs towards a troll to use one threat to remove another. It’s odd to have an 18th level party with nearly no sources of acid or fire, but that’s what happens randomly sometimes. Two of the characters who had acid damage before were from players who dropped out. I know I gave someone a trollbane bota (acid spray 3x/day) but again I think that was a player that dropped. Not all parties are formed in total coordination all at once in a whiteroom optimization scenario.

    Spot the gith rumor. There’s a crashed illithid UFO that I’m looking forward to them finding.

  13. - Top - End - #73
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Quote Originally Posted by J-H View Post
    Spot the gith rumor. There’s a crashed illithid UFO that I’m looking forward to them finding.
    Oh thats some classic AD&D right there.
    Last edited by Kane0; 2022-08-07 at 03:46 AM.

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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    I think so, although I don't know if they will go for it or not.

    Session 30: 8/20/2022
    DM notes: We are losing Rivkah (bard)’s player due to college classes. I had to help the newer players identify a couple of options they had from class features. This session lasted about 3 hours – 1 hr of planning and 2 hours of battle. The battle is paused after, I think, 4 rounds? To resume next time.

    The band of four plot right away to attack the Temple of Tlaloc, the rain god. They pick up the Revenant Aaracokra, and make their approach. Saqwam the warlock uses Scrying to observe the moat around the temple, making it a valid target for his 14th level Fathomless 1 mile teleport feature. He then turns himself, Teador the paladin, Troudar the fighter, and one of the revenants invisible, and they fly to within 1 mile of the temple. The other two revenants are visible, but are at least Aaracokra when seen from a distance.

    Ratel, meanwhile, borrows Teador’s summoned gryphon, and flies high above cloud level, then drops down onto the temple. The clouds thicken around him as he falls, and the last 2000’ of the fall are spent dodging lightning strikes once a round. He lands next to the altar, his Skyfall boots damaging it and the two closest Aaracokra (20d6 thunder damage, Dex DC 12 half). He immediately stabs Ssword into the altar, where the blade starts to drain power from it, and initiative is rolled.

    Saqwam, the one who’s teleporting everyone else to the battle site, is dead last. Two Slayers (4x shortsword attacks for 1d6+14 each at +12 to hit) leap from the doors to engage him, and he eats several cantrips and spells. Luckily, “thunder and lightning” as a theme involves a lot of AOEs that have to be carefully targeted to avoid friendly fire, and he’s nearly surrounded, so he doesn’t go down.

    The party teleports in at the edge of the temple and starts to disperse. There were 4 PCs, 3 NPC allies, and about 10 different enemies in a couple of different areas.

    Every round on initiative 20, a 30’ diameter circle of enemies is hit with 4d8 lightning, Dex DC 16 half. The thunderstorm reduces visibility to 40’ and causes disadvantage on perception checks. The ground is also soon going to be muddy and difficult terrain, but that hasn’t kicked in yet (DM judgement). The altar also casts an upcast Ice Storm for 5d6+4d8 damage once per round, but the altar got Ssworded early, so that only went off once.

    Two of the Aarcokra revenants tie up a senior priest and an air elemental off to the side. They have magic weapons and are doing okay, but the only reason they are still up is the “regenerate 10hp/rd if not damaged by radiant.”

    Ratel initially stunned both Aaracokra slayers, but they passed their saves the following turn, downed him, and then stabbed him when he was down until dead. He’s immune to crits (adamantine skeleton), so it took 3 hits to kill him when he was at 0hp. The Aaracokra aren’t messing around and are really going for kills now. Teador (hasted) revivified him the following round, but Ratel went down again when the High Priestess hit most of the party with Horrid Wilting. Teador then stepped over his unconscious body and kicked him for 50hp of Lay on Hands before killing the remaining living Slayer.

    Teador spent his time being the healer and also handing out a lot of smite damage. One of the revenants was with him and targeting mostly the same targets.

    Troudar missed his second turn due to a failed save against Banishment, but Teador was able to break the Concentration on that pretty soon thereafter. He stood and delivered a solid 20+ damage per hit for a lot of hits, that’s what high level fighters do.

    Saqwam used, if I recall correctly, Counterspell (blocked a 70hp heal), Soulcage (now self-healing himself as a bonus action), Eldritch Blast once, Synaptic Static, and Blight. He’s attuned to the Anyspell Tome and will be using that to Wish-teleport the party out when they are done.

    There was a brief discussion of teleporting out after the altar was dead, but a religion check revealed that leaving the High Priestess alive makes rebuilding a lot easier. She’s now 50’ up on a wall, and they can’t quite see where she is, so we still have a couple of rounds of combat left. Other enemies still standing include 2 Ahuitzotls, 2 damaged Air Elementals, and two Senior Priests of Tlaloc.

    DM note: I I think I’m going to drop most reactions from enemy Aaracokra. Too many things going on to remember them. This is the first character kill in quite a while, although it certainly hasn’t stuck. There’s a lot of AOE damage that’s stacking up over time, and more reinforcements are inbound. The weather-related spells are all AOEs and the Aaracokra are just now free to target the party with them without hitting a lot of their own. Whirlwind is a junky spell for the level it’s cast at, but Cone of Cold and Freezing Sphere will be incoming. Of course, the casters have lost most of their melee screen, and reinforcements are slow and mostly more priests. When seconds count, help is only minutes away…

  15. - Top - End - #75
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Session 31: 9/3/2022
    We pick up right where we left off. At initiative 20, people take some lightning damage based on Dex save results. Lightning continues to come down for the duration of the fight, but Dex saves are usually made.
    Troudar the fighter wields his mighty mallet, finishing off the air elemental and the stunned ahuitzolotl next to him. Ratel goes next, running up the wall to near the high priestess. He shoots, hitting once for quite a bit of damage thanks to purple worm poison, which he’s almost out of. It’s then the “Enemy Caster” turn, which is most of them.

    The High Priestess drops Freezing Sphere in the middle of the open area, damaging most of the party. Many of them pass their CON saves. F.S. also has the fun side effect of freezing standing water, and it’s been pouring buckets. For the remainder of the fight, the center of the temple (ground level) is covered in ice. Any creature starting its turn on the ice has to pass a DC 10 Acrobatics check or fall prone at the start of its turn. There were many failed checks.
    The other casters go, but mostly miss with Guiding Bolts or things that are saved against.

    The other Ahuitzotl is finished off with a Hasted stab from Teador, who then drops concentration and loses his turn by casting Circle of Power, giving everyone advantage on saves vs magic, and basically Evasion on successful saves. I think Saqwam turns invisible and moves to the side, as there are no ground targets. One of the revenants wields a Club of Humanoid Bane and catches up to the high priestess after killing one of the Senior Priests.
    Troudar’s next turn is an Action Surge to double-move with his broom up to the High Priestess, where he uses Fighting Spirit to make 3 attacks and deletes her from the board. The remaining air elemental finishes off one of the revenants.
    Ratel shoots at the other Senior priest (just within 30’ visibility range), doing about 40 damage thanks to poison and leaving the priest with about 60 hit points left. Teador uses Ssword’s blindsight vs divine casters to target the remaining priest with a Firebolt, then rolls a natural 20. We use big crits, so that’s 40 + 4d10 and he rolls well. That firebolt went right into the hapless priest’s beak and killed him!

    The remaining lesser casters are finished off, partly by Saqwam using True Polymorph to turn into a Planetar and dealing 40+ damage per melee hit. Bodies are quickly retrieved, and the party teleports out quickly. The remaining Revenant turns down the offer to go with them in favor of staying and killing more.

    Loot:
    Everyone levels to 19!
    Adamantine Breastplate and Club of Humanoid Bane +1 from the Revenant. It’s just a club, but against a humanoid, it’s a 3d6+1 damage club.
    From the high priestess:
    Cloak of Displacement (goes to Troudar, who drops his Ring of Spell Turning)
    Dagger of Precision +2: +2 Dagger, Dex increased by 2 to max 22 while attuned (Goes to Ratel, who gets rid of the Skyfall boots…again…for now)
    Ring of Air Elemental Control (Goes to Teador, who drops the Anyblade…again…for now. He’ll need to kill an Air Elemental for it to be much use).
    Shark Leather +2, the last item in the Panoply of the Shark set. Unfortunately no takers, as the set is more for rangers and rogue types and we have none of those.

    Also, Ssword gets smarter from absorbing divine energy… after all, it was made from a fragment of divine energy originally. A fragment of Sseth, the yuan-ti’s dead god. Take a bit of divinity, and add a bit more, and more, and eventually you have a god again.

    The Ssword of Sseth would like to be revealed to the yuan-ti, so that they can begin worshipping Sseth again, giving the Ssword more power. Sseth was lawful evil. Troudar isn’t a fan of the idea. Saqwam is definitely against it, given orders from his patron. Ratel is fine with it because it helps kill the enemy. Teador, the wielder of the Ssword of Sseth, reveals that he’s been working on changing the Ssword’s alignment and persuading it to change its views to be more open and acceptable.

    Next time, unless they change plans, they’ll be traveling to visit the yuan-ti to start spreading the word of Sseth.
    They don’t have an air-skiff, and it’s 7 days until the Anyspell Tome can be used to cast Teleport again, so I’m not sure how they plan to travel. Saqwam’s player has now realized that he can True Polymorph himself into an adult dragon every day, so maybe by dragon-back.

  16. - Top - End - #76
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    RedWizardGuy

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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Very exciting write-up of a high level campaign, can't wait for the rest.

    What would be your advice for successfully integrating new players into a high-level campaign that has been running for dozens of games? What are the biggest challenges you met in this regard?

  17. - Top - End - #77
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Thanks!
    For the first two "new to D&D" players I took a break and did a couple of one-shots set in the same general setting, one at low (3rd-5th) level and the other at 11th level.
    I lost one of the two at the 3rd level (13-14 year old, his phone was more interesting) but gained his mother instead, whose first was at 11th level.
    For the most recent addition, we just helped him build his character at...17th? level. He had played D&D back 20-25 years ago, so he had at least a general idea of how things worked. We did steer him away from playing a strength-based 4 Elements monk, though...

    D&D Beyond is a big help, in that it lifts the mechanical load of doing calculations and figuring out where and how to document things on the character sheet. Luckily, one of my players has all the content, subscribes and shares it, and is competent at dropping magic items into other people's sheets to reflect custom magic items I've handed out and extra attunement slots. This takes away the headache of documentation, and just leaves people figuring out what to do and what their character options are.

    Saqwam's player is around 16 and has onboarded himself pretty well and uses DND Beyond. He's throwing out Soul Cage and Finger of Death, and then of course just discovered the true power of True Polymorph.

    His parents (mom played Rivkah, dad now playing Troudar) are not as tech savvy AND don't put in before-game prep time to research things at all.
    What I ended up doing for both, albeit at different times, was making a single page reference sheet. If you're not used to the action economy of 5e, even a high level Fighter can be hard to keep track of.

    Here's what Troudar's looks like:
    Spoiler
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    I deliberately put the Bonus Actions at the top, because he wasn't using Fighting Spirit. Now he is.
    We are still having to remind him of options like Action Surge.
    I think he pretty much has "which dice are used for what" down at this point. He needs more dice, though.

    It takes a few sessions to really get used to a high level character.

    For what it's worth, when I do a PBP and make a high level character in a vacuum, I'm usually not very optimal with that character until I get to play it... and I have plenty of experience DMing (only a moderate amount playing).
    Last edited by J-H; 2022-09-12 at 04:56 PM.

  18. - Top - End - #78
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Session 32, 9/17/22

    This was a more exploratory session, with not much serious combat. The party starts heading towards a yuan-ti city, but they are all far away and will require a circuitous route. There is discussion of using True Polymorph to travel via dragonback, but it’s ultimately decided against. They decide to search the hexes they travel through along the way. They get lucky, and only one random encounter gets rolled across several days…and that encounter is a pair of Air Elementals! The Ring of Air Elemental command is now fully powered up. We didn’t bother rolling for 4 19th level characters vs 2x CR 5 elementals.

    The group heads southwest to 05.05, where they spot an abandoned rock quarry with 5 stone huts down at the bottom. They descend; Saqwam uses Ghostly Gaze to look through the stone huts, and sees 5 translucent, ghostly figures, which he (Nat 20 religion) identifies as Banshees. There’s no obvious treasure to his x-ray vision, but Teador the Paladin wants to smite undead anyway.

    The party lands and passes all their saves, wiping out the Banshees in about 1.5 turns. The 30’ +5 Paladin aura is very helpful.
    Investigating afterwards, they notice runes of imprisonment and warding carved around the edges of the quarry; the banshees are apparently trapped there, and have been for who knows how long.

    The group departs, heading southwest, where in the next hex they find some chewed up petrified people (none in raisable condition) with a bit of gold. The basilisk or whatever did it does not seem to be around.

    Somewhere around this time, a running discussion that lasts the rest of the session off and on begins. I think it started with Saqwam collect a rock from the quarry, and it went through him possibly eating them, the party being in Roc territory, Teador being as dumb as rocks, what rocks taste like, etc.

    Heading further southwest to 03.06, they find a large opening in a cliff-face over a waterfall. Troudar notices signs of traffic in and out. They fly in, then walk back in the cave. It forks, and they follow the right fork back, where it terminates in a large room. Teador and Ratel walk in, and both pass their saves against a Zone of Truth. In the room is a Quetzal sitting on a nest (snake/bird creature with prismatic stuff, serves Quetzalcoatl). It interrogates them briefly, and asks if they brought tribute?
    PC: “What would be acceptable tribute?”
    Q: “Valuable gems… oh, or the heads of those people that have been giving the Aaracokra fits. I’ve heard the bounty is immense!”
    PCs: “We’ll just be leaving now.”
    They depart in peace from the Quetzal nesting grounds. Troudar’s good Perception rolls let him realize that an invisible Quetzal is following them out.
    Saqwam picks up a rock on his way out to serve as an anchor to teleport back in the future if needed.


    Southwards, they find an abandoned cliffside dwelling possibly occupied by Gargoyles at one point in the past. Ratel takes a 150# stone stool and stuffs it in a Bag of Holding. More rocks.

    In the next hex to the south, they find a cave that has an overgrown but clear opening coming up to it. Entering it, it appears to be an abandoned mine. They explore and find an elevator going down. Checking the rest of the floor they are on, they end up going down a hall with four short halls to the right prior to the end. The first short hall contains a headless zombie and a 50’ silk rope. The second, third, and fourth halls all each contain a headless zombie, and a healing potion, 34 gp, and a +2 crossbow bolt. The zombies are dispatched without bothering to roll.

    The passage continues with a couple of side exits, one containing a non-magical steel shield, and a room that appears to have had something dig through the rock in the past.

    The party then doubles back to the elevator (fits 3), and take it down while Teador floats down above it. The group makes an Intelligence save, and detects a psychic aura that makes them feel bad…except Teador. He got an 11 and didn’t notice anything.

    When reaching the next floor down, they find 3 brains with legs waiting for them. Ratel beats them in initiative and kills one, damaging another. He passes his intelligence saves, then Troudar picks up the injured brain with legs and uses it as a weapon (Tavern Brawler) to kill it and nearly kill the other living one. Saqwam uses his crossbow but misses, then Teador skewers the last one.

    We left off there and will presumably continue exploration next time.

    DM note: Yes, Intellect Devourers. Saqwam’s player specifically said “I feel like this is someone leaving candy out to bait a path for a kid, so they can then come along and kidnap the kid, and we’re the kid.” That is exactly what this abandoned mine is.
    Nobody has tried to make an Arcana check to identify them yet.

    If they go deep enough, the encounter as currently written is:
    If the party proceeds to the third level and engages with any intellect devourers there, they will have come within the proximity zone for an Illithid Colony. In this case, 3 Mind Flayers (MM pg. 222) will teleport in, accompanied by two enthralled Gladiators (MM pg. 346) and two enthralled Assassins (MM pg. 343). They will either come down behind the party if they can do so stealthily, or will ambush the party when they come back up. 1d4+1 intellect devourers will accompany them, setting up in a flanking or rear-attack position.

    I don't feel like this will be a huge challenge, as the thralls only have around +7 to hit, but they may be able to meat-shield long enough for the psionic attacks to add up. I may give them +1 or +2 to hit.
    Teador's failed save means he spends his time on the lower floors with disadvantage on his mental saves.
    Last edited by J-H; 2022-09-17 at 11:10 PM.

  19. - Top - End - #79
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Session 33, 10/1/22: How a single CR 2 creature can chase off a 19th level party

    The party explores further, having not made any knowledge checks to identify their foes. They proceed down a twisting but clearly artificial corridor, and find a very large (>100’) oval room. There’s one other tunnel leading out of it. They check over the room and find what they identify as a Teleportation Circle (for the 5th level spell), but it’s written in a language they can’t identify.

    DM Note: Qualith, the Illithid language. History DC 20, nobody made the check.

    Proceeding up the other tunnel, Saqwam, near the rear, notices a tiny (1’ wide) crevasse that seems to go somewhere. Teador the paladin (INT 8) sticks his head in. There’s an Intellect Devourer inside. INT save, with disadvantage because he failed his save against the psychic aura last session. 6. Roll 3d6, 16. Teador is now Stunned and his intelligence is 0. Troudar moves the drooling paladin-vegetable away while Ratel sets up with a readied attack and flattens the Intellect Devourer.
    Saqwam identifies it, and the connection to mindflayers. After a brief discussion, the party decides to execute a planned retrograde exfiltration of the area.

    There’s some discussion, including “If you could read his mind, you’d just hear the sound of static.”

    They tie Teador to his griffon (outside) and continue exploring. It will take 2 more days for the Anyspell Tome to recharge, allowing them to cast Greater Restoration. The only random encounter during this time is a few manticores, not worth rolling out. The book recharges, and Saqwam restores Teador’s brain. After re-orienting him, and giving him several different explanations for what happened, the group moves on.

    They find a carved opening in a mountainside, and explore it. Inside is a large, clearly artificial room containing nothing but a single stone humanoid figure. It’s features are stylized and blurred so that there’s no clear species model, but it’s continually moving through an extremely long pattern of katas and martial arts forms with perfect precision and placement at every point.

    Studying and mimicking its form and precision can lead to a greater understanding of how to make unarmed strikes. Anyone who follows its lead for 8 hours gains a permanent +2 to damage with unarmed strikes. This is physically taxing however, requiring a Strength save at the end of each hour. On a failed save, the character gains one level of exhaustion. The DC is equal to 14 minus the would-be martial artist’s proficiency bonus.

    Everyone except Saqwam participates, and thanks partly to the Paladin’s +5 aura (you can do it!) they all pass the series of saves and now punch and kick more precisely than before.

    The next hex south contains a pack of Winter Wolves, who follow the party for a while. There’s a brief conversation, but they don’t have anything to give the wolves (the Aaracokra bodies they carry around will still have decomposed some in the Bags of Holding), and don’t think they need the services of the wolves for anything either.

    Continuing on, they find a path above a cliff. A rope is tied nearby, going down the cliff face to a small, square opening. Entering, they find a small room with a scorched and blackened Goliath body in the middle. Teador walks across the room and sets off an Immolation trap, getting lit on fire (8d6) and taking a round or two of continuing damage before using Dispel to end the spell on himself.

    Detect Magic and Thieves Tools are used to find and disable the trap, and the Detect Magic also reveals an illusion containing a door on the other side of the room. The door is locked, so Troudar kicks it down. The hallway beyond is full of completely opaque fog. Teador uses Gust of Wind from his ring twice to clear fog, but runs out of charges before they hit the next bend and the 3rd (longest) stretch of fogged corridor. This fog is all from the Guards and Wards spell.

    Moving down the corridor, Teador trips a pressure plate, and everybody except Ratel gets zapped by a lightning bolt (disadvantage on saves because they can’t see it coming). After this, they all fly (brooms and Ring of Air Elemental Command floating). At one point, Teador fights off a Suggestion to explore openings to the left and the right. He warns the rest of the party, so they get advantage on their save versus Suggestion. At the end of the hall, they find a rotating color wheel they can’t really figure out, and another locked door behind an illusion. They break the door, and go into another fogged corridor. Ratel picks the lock at the end of this one.

    They enter a large room that is mostly a living area, but contains some statues of elven wizards in heroic poses. Immediately, a gem on the ceiling lights up with Sickening Radiance. They destroy it before it does much damage. A few seconds later, one of the statues points at Troudar and does something, but misses. Teador rolls higher in initiative and destroys the statue after it misses him in turn.

    The party spreads out to explore the room, and after about 2 more rounds of time, four Helmed Horrors under the effects of permanent Improved Invisibility attack the party. Saqwam the warlock is closest, so he gets two of them on him, and loses about 2/3 of his hit points. Teador gets Ssword to give him See Invisibility. Everyone else spends the whole fight rolling at disadvantage.

    We stopped here due to time.

    DM Note: This is a wizard’s study home away from home, and when you’re an elven wizard, you have a LOT of time to make it hard to get into. Everything the party runs into here is on the Wizard list or associated with spellcasters. I don’t usually use traps, but this place absolutely calls for it… and they are, I think, pretty well telegraphed. The Suggestion pointed either to a room with several Symbol:Deaths in it, or to a fall into a room with an Illusory Dragon in it.
    One player made a comment about hoping there’s good loot. We’ll see if they can get it. They already missed the illusion-covered door to the room that the wizard used to arrive via Teleport Circle.
    Nobody in my party has the spell, but I have left a number of Teleport Circles scattered around the map, including one sealed up in the basement of Huitzopochitl’s high temple.

  20. - Top - End - #80
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    This isn't dead, but we've had a run of bad luck scheduling...and the holidays are coming up.

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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Looking forward to next episode.

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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Thanks!

    Session 34, 11/26/2022
    We are closing in on 2 years! One more meeting this year and then a 4 week break due to the Christmas holiday. Today’s session was only around 2-2.25 hrs due to time.

    At this point, the party has cleared all of the active threats. They explore the sitting room, and with the Investigation check I mention that the furniture is well-made. “What kind of wood?” “Roll a nature check” as I buy time…. “22”… “umm, Red Ironwood.” It turns out that’s a real wood, and a very hard and expensive wood. Later on, Ratel spends some time cutting up some chairs for wood to sell or use to make stuff because it’s so valuable. Lesson learned: If you improvise an expensive sounding wood, make sure it’s a real one, or that nobody in your party has actually worked with exotic woods.

    The party cautiously proceeds down one of the two fog-filled corridors after checking the door for traps. They find two guest rooms (nice furniture, apparently untouched but clean), and a partly empty library. Searching the library, they find 1200gp in spell scribing supplies, two empty spellbooks, and an array of 12 wizard scrolls.

    Exploring the other hall, they found the master bedroom, which contained a Robe of Eyes and Cloak of Elvenkind. Right now, nobody has suitable attunement slots.

    From there, they proceeded to the wizard’s study, picking up a couple of high-level scrolls, a Staff of Charming, and a Wand of Paralysis. Again, attunement slots. While Ratel starts cutting up some wood, Teador decides to open the other door in the back, ignoring the fact that furniture arrangement indicates it was rarely used. The door is not locked, but is “stuck.” He yanks it open, and a Magic Mouth yells in elven about hating thieves, right before a Glyph of Warding (fire) goes off, destroying all the papers and any un-held items in the room, plus damaging the party.

    Luckily, they grabbed the valuable stuff before the door was opened, so nothing of value was burnt. A greedy or speedy group may have tried the door first, and lost the items in the room.

    After this, they decide to take a long rest. Despite having three good, comfortable bedrooms, everyone but Teador decides to rest in the library. Saqwam doesn’t need to sleep, so he reads, Ratel reads and then trances for 4 hours in a wingback chair leaned against the wall, and Troudar just finds a comfortable corner. Paranoid PCs are gonna be paranoid.

    The party proceeds back to the long fog-filled hallway, making sure to specify that they float to avoid the pressure plates and lightning bolts.

    However, this does not prevent them from passing through the area with a DC 20 Suggestion effect to check the sides. Unlike when they came in, two PCs failed.

    Troudar went to the eastern room, a 10’ triangular room. The door slams behind him, and two Symbols light up on the walls… one of Death (10d10 necrotic) and one of Insanity (INT save or insane for 1 minute). There’s a second Death symbol on the door that he triggers when he turns around and sees it in the following round. Before getting pulled out (below) he spends a couple of rounds moving randomly in the room and takes somewhere around 150hp of damage.

    Ratel, meanwhile, turned west, and walked down a short corridor. The floor at the end of the corridor is an illusion leading to a 100’ fall. He falls, hits the ground unscathed (monk) and has a dragon pop into existence in front of him. He fails his Wis save against fear and his Int save against the breath weapon, and uses his turn to run away back upstairs to tell everyone there’s a dragon. He sees the closed door and opens it, subjecting himself to two of the three Symbols. He fails his save against insanity as well.

    Saqwam, meanwhile, thinks there’s not much he can do. “I walk farther away.” DM: “You walk further away?” “Yeah.” Pressure plate triggered, lightning bolt saves from everyone except the insane guy locked in a small room.

    Ultimately, Saqwam uses Bigby’s Hand to grapple Ratel and pull him out of the area of effect, then Teador uses a Paladin ability to end the ongoing spell effect. Ratel wants to go back for Troudar, and insists that he be dropped where he is.
    Ratel was being held right over the square with the pressure plate. Lightning bolt saves from everyone except Troudar…again.

    Ratel makes his saves and pulls Troudar out, then Troudar is healed by Teador. The Paladin +5 aura (30’) helped a lot with this.

    They then decide to go back and confront the dragon, triggering Suggestion again. Luckily, the only one who failed was Troudar, and since he’d already checked one side, checking dragon-side was his reasonable choice…and he was headed there anyway. He starts floating down at 30’/rd on his broom.

    Ratel runs down, punches the dragon, and misses with 20-something and 30-something to hit. This is fishy. He yells something up the 100’ drop about waiting, but the other PCs decide they don’t hear him.
    Teador casts Haste, and then uses a Hasted dash and his flight speed from his ring to Magneto-hover down past Troudar to reach the bottom, coming into view of the dragon at the end of his turn. Ratel then decides to just leave, wall-running/dashing back up the 100’ drop past Teador and Troudar.

    The dragon breathes fire on Teador and moves. Teador makes his save, then Hasted-floats back up past Troudar.
    Troudar eventually catches up, and the party exits without further issues.
    A triggered Illusory Dragon can be a fun thing. It’s a nice spell.

    DM note: The wizard’s library contained some basic scrolls to refill a spellbook in case of catastrophic loss. I don’t think anyone picked up on this.

    The illusory dragon and death room both threw them for a loop and required some problem-solving. I may stick this little dungeon up on the DM's guild as a 1-1.5 session mini-dungeon for high level parties. The potential damage output from the traps is too much for low level PCs. It's not the tomb of horrors or anything, just ....wizard spells with lots of prep time.

  23. - Top - End - #83
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    We were due to meet tomorrow, but 2/4 players are in a house with strep (one of them has it). The best saving throws against disease are the ones you avoid having to make.
    With the usual bi-weekly based on someone's other games, the next game would be on 12/24 - nope - so we probably won't get to play again until 1/7/23.

    I have done a test run of the final battle, and at this point everything has been pretty good, so I have been working on prepping the different documents for publishing on the DM's Guild. It's over 20 different files currently, and I don't see that going down, as a DM may need to have the following up all at once if playing off a laptop instead of printed copies:
    -The hexmap
    -Hex details
    -Terrain info
    -Random encounter table to roll from hex details
    -Bestiary

    Plus, actual dungeons/detailed locations, and two DM screen references, and maybe details on how the Air Skiff works. It's a lot, and I'll probably end up publishing before we finish the actual playthrough. I'll include the campaign log to date + final battle test-run recap in the "preview" packet, which may make it the largest preview on the DM's Guild! The campaign log document is currently about 70 pages excluding the final battle test run (Arial size 10 no columns), and reformatting will only shrink that by 5-15%.

    I have a to do list, and I'm going through it a bit at a time. This one was written formatted to publish, but there's still a lot.
    Did you know that I spent the last two years mis-spelling Aarakocra as Aaracokra, and Huitzopochitli as Huitzopochitl? Ctrl+H is coming for a lot of my documents.

    In the meantime, behold! The draft cover, made by someone armed only with Publisher, Word, Irfanview, and a search engine!

    Spoiler
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    If you can't see imgbb due to proxy server issues, sorry. I had that problem recently, then it went away without me doing anything.



    Attributions:
    Aarakocra from 5e MM1
    Chichen Itza photo by Arian Zwegers from Brussels, Belgium, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons


    This is pretty much the only art. I do content, not graphics, and with DM's Guild publishing there's not a budget for art unless there's a guaranteed audience. Castle Dracula recently passed 100 sales after a bit over 2 years on the DMG (DM'sG? DMsG? what's the non-confusing acronym?). The time I spent whipping my docs into shape for that one has finally been paid for.

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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Session 35, 1/7/2022

    Teador’s player couldn’t make it due to work.

    Once everyone gets back up to speed after the long break, the party continues south and east, working their way towards the Yuan-ti, but exploring along the way. They find an old giant hideout with a couple of Superior Healing potions and some oversized bandages, needles, thread, etc.

    They then spot a couple of goliaths heading south while carrying longbows. Introducing themselves, they learn that the two goliaths are named Sadat and Ihtafeer. The group offers to travel with them, but then starts debating it. Saqwam notices himself saving against a Suggestion to travel with the two. Ratel takes him aside and they have a conversation in Primordial (to be sure the two goliaths can’t understand them), but ultimately decide to travel with them. They do notice the two asking a lot of questions. hey are very interested in what the party is doing, and eventually offer to show up when the party is ready to attack the Aarakocra. After traveling close to the giant city to the south, they part ways and the group heads in a more easterly direction.

    Passing through some already-explored areas, they find an abandoned cliff settlement. Along the way, they also find an overgrown statue of a Yuan-ti Abomination clasping hands with a Giant. Uncovering the inscription, it commemorates a peace treaty between the people of Sseth and the giants, and the giants sending stone-workers to help built Sseth’s main temple, which has now been converted to the High Temple of Huitzopochtli. The Ssword of Sseth thinks this was around 800 years ago. I roll an Int check, and that also jogs the sword’s memory. There was a secret back route…a Teleportation Circle hidden in a small chamber underneath the temple. If someone can cast Teleportation Circle, they have a possible secret way in. Nobody in the party has it, but I do let them know that the yuan-ti should have at least a few wizards who can cast the spell. This is not the first Circle they’ve run across.

    Due to time and turnover we recap the kraken that may help during the final battle, as well as remind them about the Crystal Sword locked in a stone by a riddle…the party is close to the area.

    A few days later they find an old fortified cave with a small shrine to Lolth. Everything else there is just scraps aside from a half-shredded backpack containing two Unbreakable Arrows and 3 Acid Flasks.

    The group continues southeast into the jungle, and spots an Aarakocra patrol about 900’ away. They decide to attack it, and Ratel immediately flies upwards on his bow and starts raining arrows upon them. Once the first guardsman falls, the air-skiff makes a quick U-turn and starts flying away. Ratel pursues, running across the treetops as monks do, while trying to shoot down any that aren’t within the boat for cover. He continues to pursue. After about a minute and a half, he’s 900’ away from the party, and the session ends with the sharp crack as six Aarakocra arrive via teleportation to a point not far in front of him.

    DM Notes:
    I know none of my players have played Baldur’s Gate II, so I felt very safe naming the Rakshasas disguised as Goliaths after two of the Raskshasas from a quest in that game. They failed one of their deception vs. insight checks, and failed to land a Suggestion, and acted a bit over-interested, but the party never cut them loose or interrogated them more thoroughly. I made sure to phrase a few things with weasel words like “We’d be happy to show up to one of your battles with some friends if we know in advance.”
    I did have the Rakshasas offer to help with night watch duty. Saqwam has the invocation that means he doesn’t sleep, and Ratel is an elf and only trances for 4 hours, so they specified that there were always two of them awake on watch. If they had not been paranoid, well, Rakshasas do have Dominate Person.

    I forgot to roll Random Encounter checks for part of the evening, then near the end did roll the weakest possible Aarakocra patrol. At this point, the party has attacked 3 temples and is very well known to their enemies. There is only one entity in the entire setting that will fly up on a broom and start putting arrows into people reliably from 900’, and that’s Ratel. Sending is a 3rd level spell, so easily accessible to the low-level cleric in charge of the weakest patrol.

    The character, and his player, have grown very, very confident. Now he’s going to face a full ambush party by himself for at least two rounds, including several Slayers. He’s solo’d quite a bit before, but it really only takes a failed save against Hold Person. On the other hand – he’s a Monk with high WIS saves, and he can spend a ki point to reroll a failed save. If they kill him, logically they may try to escape with the body for interrogation. I would not want to perma-kill a PC at this point in the campaign, so I’ll probably have him raised and imprisoned, and then let the others find out about it quickly… say, perhaps by Saqwam soul-caging one of the others and finding out that they had a plan to capture, interrogate, and then sacrifice any of the PCs they capture. Saqwam’s a warlock, so Soul Cage is his only spell of that level. I’m pretty sure he'll use it, especially if Ratel goes down.

    Assuming the PCs succeed, they’ll get a Helm of Teleportation out of it. I had an ambush marked down for the abandoned keep they’d designated as a “base” but they have not returned to the area since I put that in place.

  25. - Top - End - #85
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Session 36, 1/21/2023
    Teador’s player couldn’t make it due to work. Starting at 7:30 and ending around 10:15 means we are ending up with some pretty short game sessions. RL happens.
    When we left off, Ratel had six Aarakocra teleport in front of him. He wins initiative, turns, and high-tails it back to the party, running across the top of the jungle canopy at 180’/rd (1 ki point per round). They give pursuit, but he quickly outpaces them. Saqwam True Polymorphs into an Adult Gold Dragon, picks up Troudar, and heads to meet him.

    The Aarakocra pause, group up, and ready an action to Teleport in front of Ratel. Roll 1d100… 05. They Teleport someplace else, and having only one charge left in their Helm of Teleportation, do not return.

    The group stays in the area, and Saqwam remains a dragon. Unfortunately, True Polymorph specifies that your gear melds into your body and provides no benefit, so he is no longer protected from Scrying. At dawn the next day, the group is on the ground when the same team of Aarakocra teleport in. There are two Slayers, two priests of different levels, a wizard, and one wielding an atl-atl.

    Troudar flies up to the atl-alt javelineer and reduces him to about 15 hit points. Ratel then shoots him, hops onto the back of Saqwam the Adult Gold Dragon, and starts picking on the next target. Saqwam hits the enemies with Dragon Fear (4/5 fail) and then breathes fire at the two Slayers who, with +14 to hit, missed most of their attacks on Ratel.

    The enemy priest tries to dispel Saqwam’s polymorph, then eats a full attack routine from a dragon. The Aarakocra wizard gets knocked down to single digit HP by Troudar, and finished off by Ratel again. The remaining enemies leave via Word of Recall as they have lost two of their number without doing major damage (Cone of Cold does not count).

    Loot:
    Atl-atl of the many: When you launch a javelin from this, 1d4 copy javelins are created, each with their own attack roll against the target. Requires attunement.
    Helm of teleportation: Requires attunement. Ratel dropped the Bracers of Defense for this.

    The group bails on the hex and heads southeast to solve the fey riddle and get the sword out of the stone:

    Useless to the blind,
    A drinker, a spiller,
    Chains this crystal blade bind,
    Until offering is made in kind.

    Dryness of ocean,
    Melting of rock,
    Color of air,
    Flow of clock,
    Hair of the wielder,
    Place to unlock.

    Their answers, in order:
    Salt
    True Polymorph into a magma mephit and try to fit into the bowl
    Breathe into one of the bowls
    Sand, like from an hourglass
    A bit of Troudar’s hair

    The sword comes out.
    Troudar is now hairless.
    Ratel succeeds on his Constitution save as the bowl tries to suck all the breath out of his lungs.
    Saqwam is de-polymorphed as the bowl destroys his Magma form, and succeeds on a Con save to not die (improvised system shock roll).

    The sword is a +3 crystal greatsword. The wielder, when targeted by a single-target spell or ranged spell attack that he can see, can use his Reaction to make an attack roll. If the attack roll meets or exceeds the spell DC or spell attack roll, the sword absorbs the spell, discharging it into the next target struck within 1 hour. It can only hold one spell at a time.
    Yes, you can catch and redirect Disintegrate with this.

    After some discussion about trapping Eater Goats and releasing them in a city, or using the Helm of Teleportation to conduct city bombardment via 9’x9’x9 rocks 3000’ into the air, the party teleports to the old fort they had dug a hideout under, over in 15.11.

    We ended the session there.

    For next time, the discussion question is: What is your action plan and where are you going? I feel like they’ve been muddling around with no clear plan. With scheduling getting tougher and sessions getting shorter, I’d like to see this end soon… but they keep not committing and following through to a single course of action.

    There is no one correct answer to the fey riddle... just "Good enough that everyone believes it." Their answers were more creative than some of the basic answers that I had in mind when I wrote it!

  26. - Top - End - #86
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Session 37, 2/4/2023
    There were two planning periods this session where everyone sat and talked about strategy and next steps. I’m going to consolidate them into one section for clarity.

    With the player for Teador, wielder of the Ssword of Sseth back, and having Teleported near yuan-ti territory, the group heads north after some discussion about revealing the sword or not (random encounter: big beehive in tree, only a threat if you mess with it). The closest village is actually one of the first yuan-ti settlements they visited, the one where a scarred wizard first challenged them with “Are you worthy?” and set them on the path to finding Ssword in the first place nearly 2 years ago IRL.

    Once there, they reveal the existence and nature of Ssword to the leader (Ila, a snake-form yuan-ti). I have Ssword drop the “I am the Ssword of Sseth, a fragment of what was once a god and may be again” line. Not being a fan of narrating NPC to NPC conversations at the table, it’s pretty short. Ila calls together the entire population of the settlement after the discussions are all over with, and Ssword talks to them about his history and what he could be. The Ssword of Sseth asks them to get out their old books and records of prayers and rituals, and to believe. Not all believe him, and there is arguing and talking, and a near fistfight (Ratel wanted to put 4cp on “the smaller one” in the fight), but that there would be evidence in the morning of those who believed the strongest.

    The party is not left alone that evening – lots of people want to see them and talk and ask questions, including Priya, the scarred enchanter. She is sure to come over and ask questions, and promises to help when they need it.

    The next morning once everyone’s awake, one of the yuan-ti runs out in front of the village, slices her arm open, and then heals it. This is the first clerical magic they’ve had since Sseth was killed. Following this a LOT of Sendings and messages start going out to all the other yuan-ti villages and outposts.

    For now, the Ssword of Sseth can only grant clerical powers in a 1 mile radius (range based on what I’ve read of the Time of Troubles in the 2nd edition transition). Also, he hits his final power-up and can cast Harm on-hit and Heal once per day each.

    The team then heads out to begin executing the plans they made slightly earlier in the session. Here’s my summation, which may not be as accurate as what they wrote down and kept for themselves.
    1. Get the giants on-side to participate.
    1a. Provide them with evidence that demands action regarding Huitzopochtli being present in person on the Material Plane, as they’ve stayed cautiously neutral and the yuan-ti haven’t gotten them on-side in 300 years.
    1b. Acquire this evidence by raiding an Aarakocra temple to steal documentation regarding their plans and purpose.
    1c. Deliver the evidence so the giants will help with military action.
    2. Either go destroy the last outlying temple altar, or proceed directly to Huitzopochtli’s high temple and lay waste to it.
    3. Influence the long-term outcome through their discussions with Sseth and plans with the yuan-ti and giants.

    To that end, they are teleporting to a giant city near the city belonging to Quetzalcoatl, the god of invention. The first teleport rolls for a similar location… “Oops, wrong city”… then they try again and get where they planned. From there, they head north (random encounter: bull elk, pretty, but not the time to hunt) for a day. Approaching the hexes around the city, they determine that they are not stealthy, and spot a number of Quetzals circling the area looking for anything. They do not think they can get past the eagle-eyed giant intelligent magic birds, so they re-route to another hex to approach the city…and run into the same thing.

    After some discussion, the silver raven figurine is sent to retrieve a small object from some kind of sheltered location a mile or so away from Quetzalcoatl’s city. They then use that to teleport without error to that location. The party will wait there. At dusk, Ratel the stealthy fast monk will don his Boots of Elvenkind and the Nightcloak (we had to look it up, it was from September 2021!), which allows him to cast Invisibility at will. He will infiltrate the city and look for any written documents that could be useful.

    He doesn’t read the Aarakocra language, but he asked the yuan-ti for some cheat sheets of symbols and words to look for, and with a Headband of Intellect he should be able to pick them out.
    We’ll run that over Discord before the next session, and the plan is to get the documents, exfiltrate quietly, and then go talk to the giants before going on offense.

    Every Aarakocra city is different…this one has a lot of logging operations around it, and is the main manufacturing assembly line for the air-skiffs.

    Since the party got the yuan-ti 100% in their corner and and restored Ssword to full power, that’s a major accomplishment, so everyone levels up to 20.

    From here out we are entering Epic Boon territory.

    DM Notes: Level 20, hurrah! I am definitely glad I let them get the Helm of Teleportation. It might have been good for them to get it earlier, but once you have fast travel, exploration also takes a back seat, and they would have missed a few things. It’s not like they are ever going to see all the content anyway, though.

    I didn’t do a statblock for Priya, but she’s around a level 14 enchanter. Easy to throw in if they ask for her specifically.

    I am overall pleased with how the Ssword of Sseth subplot has been playing out. The final encounter is pretty tough but I have a feeling they are going to slaughter the opposition despite it being so hard.

  27. - Top - End - #87
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Can't wait to read the conclusion to this. Thanks for keeping this log up to date!

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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    I hope I can do it justice. I may have to pre-write some of the speech stuff. A lot of the end (after the battle) is going to be "Ok, how do you handle X, Y, and Z over the next year or two?" I don't think they're going to keep exploring and find the lich who needs some help finishing his "Cleanse City" spell and go the genocide route, so there are going to be a lot of leftover Aarakocra to deal with somehow.

    The lich been working on it for a couple of centuries, and will happily trade the party a Talisman of Pure Good for their help. It stopped working for him a while back for some reason, so he doesn't need it any more.

    Spoiler: Cleanse City
    Show

    This epic-level spell takes 1 hour of Concentration to cast, and targets a point within 10 miles. Casting it involves a major visual display, enough to be visible from a distance and draw attention. The spell destroys all avian and mammalian life within a 5 mile diameter sphere. Affected creatures take 400 necrotic damage, CON DC 25 half. Lizard-like creatures, including yuan-ti, are not harmed by the spell. It is custom-designed to be cast by an undead yuan-ti. After casting, the caster suffers 3 levels of Exhaustion, even if normally immune to the condition, and is unable to cast any spells until the exhaustion has gone away.

    The Nameless One will require substantial protection during and after casting, and magic of this level would definitely generate direct warnings to priests, as well as showing up in divinations.

  29. - Top - End - #89
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Session 38, 2/18/2023
    Ratel’s player couldn’t make it. A family member with “some” D&D experience joined while visiting in town, playing Rivkah… Walking in to a high level game with a 20th level bard you’re unfamiliar with and haven’t picked a spell list for is not a smooth transition.

    I didn’t get the one-on-one recon/infiltration session done with Ratel between sessions as planned. We have “assumed” that it succeeded, and will do minor retcons as needed when I get it done in the next 2 weeks.

    Assuming success, “What next?” ended up being a plan for the party to go ahead and attack Quetzalcoatl’s temple and destroy it. The city is laid out as a long, thin rectangle, about half of which is occupied by an assembly line for air-skiffs. They decide to go for a night attack, and teleport in around midnight to the sawmill area. It’s vacant, and they find some barrels of corn oil (used to lubricate the trough the air-skiff frames travel down). Heading to the western side where a bunch of logs are staged, they douse them in about 30 gallons of oil, then Fireball the storage lot and immediately Teleport across the city to a concealed point near the temple.

    (note: They used the Silver Raven figurine to pick up stones from target points for teleportation without errors)

    They then wait about 5 minutes to see the response, and see some Quetzals flying overhead, which causes Teador to say they should go for the temple at once. They are invisible… but as they round the corner, a Quetzal has the temple ground entrance blocked. I ask how quiet they are, and the results are something like 3, 7, 11, 14… so the group gets Prismatic Sprayed . Teador gets an 8 and then rolls double 7s, but that’s one that does nothing on a successful first save. Wanting to hold on to invisibility, the party changes course and flies up to the top of the temple, leaving the Quetzal behind them to call out a warning. Initiative was rolled with the Quetzals getting a nat 1.

    The second Quetzal on top of the temple is actively looking for them, but when I say it starts to… I don’t even remember if I said what… “I Banish it!” It succeeded versus one Banish, but not the second one. Teador has a +15 Constitution save, so unless he takes 30+ damage in a hit, it’s still banished. As of writing, we’re about 5 rounds into the fight and that Quetzal is still in never-never land.

    The group drops into one of the two vertical entry shafts to the top level of the temple, and finds the altar, the high priest, 4 lesser priests, 2 iron golems, and a floating blue golem thing.
    Late in round 1, six more smaller golems, with weapons similar to the staff weapons from Stargate, enter the room as reinforcements.

    The enemy high priest uses an 8th level Summon Fiend for a Yugoloth that does nearly nothing. The group opens with Chain Lightning (Paladin’s Air Elemental Command ring) and the Lightning Guitar, which ends the summoned fiend due to Concentration failure. Then the two Senior Priests in the room cast Spirit Guardian on top of the party… so anyone who goes anywhere is going to take damage. They stay still, except for Troudar, who starts moving to engage the golems (40 damage from SGs). The Iron Golems get close enough that one of them can breathe poison and does damage.

    Next round, the High Priest drops a Prismatic Sphere on the party (except Troudar). Saqwam the Warlock tries to counterspell it, but can’t. Two Dimension Doors fix the problem, except that Teador is blinded for the next minute.

    I don’t have a detailed record of the full fight thus far (it’s on pause until next session), but the dice were terrible. Over 5 rounds not a single combatant has rolled a natural 20. Troudar got reduced to 0 while attacking the High Priest, and used his Samurai capstone in a round where he was also Action Surging, for a total of 12 attacks made at +14 to hit against enemies of AC 22 and lower. I think he scored a total of 4 hits.

    He did manage to block a Prismatic Ray with his sword, then discharge it into the High Priest.

    Teador has stabbed the Ssword of Sseth into Quetzalcoatl’s altar, and plans to use his action next turn to cure the 1 minute blindness from Prismatic Wall. He's currently using the Rod of the Sun, which does half its damage as radiant and half as fire...which means it does 0 damage to Iron Golems.
    Saqwam got tired of being beat up by an iron golem and a priest and just turned into a Planetar.
    Troudar is back to full HP thanks to Power Word Heal, but the dice still hate him.
    Rivkah (new player using someone else’s bard) has had a hard time figuring out what to do and doesn’t have a lot of great options.

    DM Notes: Terrible, terrible dice. I feel bad for them. They are facing 3 high level casters, 2 Iron Golems, and 6 CR 2 mini-golems. This is the easiest temple fight by the numbers, yet they are having more trouble than any other temple attack… Ratel the super-mobile death/stun dealer being missing makes a huge difference. They are letting enemies stack up around them instead of staying mobile, and nobody is using any form of crowd control or mobility control.

    There’s a Mind Golem in the room hitting them with Ego Whip (one at a time) at a relatively low DC, but both Teador and Troudar have failed their INT saves and had partial turns as a result. It has low AC and low hit points, but nobody has fired so much as a Fire Bolt at it.

    Troudar’s Crystal Sword (+3/+3) is great for blocking rays and spells, but has less damage than the +2/+2d8 maul he was using before. I need to fire more rays at him to let him get the chance to use it.
    They did have the High Priest down to about 60hp, but he used his one-off “heal 100hp” bonus action and cleared it.

    Bad dice, bad tactics… and reinforcements should start showing up shortly.

  30. - Top - End - #90
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    Default Re: Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log

    Session 37.5
    This happened after Session 38, but is set beforehand.
    Ratel waits until dusk, sneaks across the fields, and then up and over the fence with a 34 in Stealth. He approaches the quiet, dark sawmills, explores there for a bit, and then takes some cautious observations of the building to the east. He thinks he sees some Quetzals on the top floor, and skips it.

    Ratel then slips alongside the troughs that air-skiffs travel along while being assembled.

    Turning invisible (18th level monk), he crosses to the temple, finds the door shut, and peeks in the top. He decides it’s not safe to go in the temple, and proceeds east past the long buildings. He pauses for a while to listen to talk in the sitting areas around the Fountain of Hues, and hears mostly craftsmen talking. It sounds like there’s a lot of enchanting and work with special materials here.

    Moving east, and going invisible several times with Empty Body, he ultimately decides to infiltrate what turn out to be priest quarters. He finds an unoccupied room on the 2nd floor, checks it out, then hides in the wardrobe (with a very high stealth check). He waits until the occupant comes back, then listens and waits while the occupant east, changes, and sleeps. He trances during the day to pass the time, and waits for the occupant to leave the next night.

    He then examines the room, finds some personal letters, and takes them because they have a few of the appropriate symbols. He almost decides to leave, but instead turns invisible and goes up to the next floor.

    There are four buildings of priest quarters…3 of them have Senior Priests. The other has the High Priest quarters. I roll a 4 on the 1d4, so the top floor is the High Priest quarters…all of it. Ratel looks around briefly for a desk or writing area, and finds one. It’s neat and organized, with blank vellum, parchment, and writing materials on top. There are two locked drawers, but Ratel’s Rogue levels come in handy and he pops the lock with an 18+12=30.

    One drawer has a number of letters, documents, etc., which Ratel cannot read. However, they do contain some of the symbols on his cheat sheet, so he thinks they are at least some of what he needs. He takes them.

    The other drawer contains sealing wax and official seals (one personal, one for his position). He takes impressions of both seals and steals one container of the rainbow-colored wax.

    As he’s finishing this up, he hears a thump as someone lands in the next room over in the apartment. Using his Empty Body ability to turn invisible, he quickly moves to the window and out the curtain, slow-falling to the ground. I call for a new Stealth check for this (it’s been a while), and the High Priest, who is VERY perceptive, beats him and hears Ratel exit. The HP moves into the room, sees his desk drawers open (I didn’t ask/prompt him to close them) and the curtain moving, and looks outside. The High Priest has permanent True Sight 120’, so he sees Ratel… and of course the party’s descriptions are well-known at this point.
    Initiative is rolled, and Ratel wins. He uses his move and bonus action dash to move 120’ north, then activates his Cape of the Mountebank to teleport a further 500’, landing invisible outside the wall. The alarm is raised behind him, but it’s too late for anyone to catch him before he makes it back to the party.

    DM Note: Document secured for the Giants. He successfully avoided the teaching areas beneath the Quetzals, as well as the main archives and details in the Temple, which would have had a lot more information. This will be enough to persuade some, but not all.


    Debates with Ssword, Continued - via Discord PM
    There have been plenty of long rests, and we’re catching up. Ssword is now at Cha 20 and, being aware of his true nature, Proficient in persuasion, so he has a +11. Teador’s arguments:

    The ends justify the means: Any action is okay if it leads to victory. (Evil; Possibly chaotic)
    Teador’s argument: While I respect a great desire for victory, I can not agree with any action being okay. If the means are more destructive and dangerous than the victory against the enemy you are trying to defeat, it does not make it a victory. Or outside of war, if the means harm innocence or cause issues even less than the problem you’re trying to solve, that doesn’t mean the solution you applied is okay, since you’ve only shifted the problem to something else.
    Teador’s rolls: 26, 26, 26
    Ssword’s rolls : 24, 25, 12

    Result: The Ssword of Sseth does not believe the ends justify the means.

    Utility: Altruism is foolish and not worthwhile. Only help those who are useful. (Evil)
    Teador’s argument: That’s untrue more in the idea that you believe that you can’t, with your altruism and helping others, raise those deemed “unuseful” and make a greater society by the end, which simply isn’t the case for even non-sentient beings.
    Teador’s Rolls: 18, 30, 32
    Ssword’s rolls: 12, 25, 19

    Result: Altruism has a place, at least sometimes.

    Cumulative alignment shift to Lawful Neutral.

    Order: An orderly people with firm laws and codes is stronger than one with more “Freedom.” A few people may be harmed by this, but it’s worth it. (Law)
    Teador’s argument: I can understand that a society with rules, laws, and a fundamental understanding of morals is a good society, however, without giving the people freedom is to box them in and limit them as a species. Many of the advancements in magic or technology in the land I come from is largely due to the freedom those bright individuals were given to invent or express themselves. Not only that but a society boxed in completely and limited by strict laws and codes is a much less happy society, leaving them either depressed and less able to commit to anything, or leaves them outraged and they will lash out against the system limiting them, it’s much more worth it giving people freedom in many areass.

    Teador’s rolls: 30, 21, 24
    Ssword’s rolls: 26, 22, 26

    Result: Teador does not convince the Ssword of Sseth of the value of freedom versus a more strict order.

    DM Note: Changing Ssword’s mind would have been much harder, had the Ssword of Sseth remained in the hands of a Charisma 8 barbarian, instead of being wielded by a Lawful Good character with high Charisma and persuasion proficiency… especially later in the game when Ssword has such a high modifier.

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