This was a short adventure night. Everyone hit level 9- so we had to spend some time letting the group level. Then we also got started a little late. While it was a short week I thought it would be a good chance to set some things up for the next week, where we would be able to go a little later. I knew 1 member of the group was going to be gone so originally I had planned on doing a 1-off where they got to play the badguys- while it would have been fun I was concerned it might take more time than we had, but not enough for 2 sessions. So I just fleshed out a few extra parts of the regular campaign and moved on.
Episode 21:
The party was left in Oberrons Grove with with Mal'Inia's heart in a Cold Iron box and the Anchor stone to close the dimensional rift. After talking with Oberron (the black unicorn lord of the good dark fey) they decided to leave the Anchor Stone with him. In the parties opinion it was not really there business whether the rift stayed open or not. So the Duke and Oberron would have to hash that out between each other. That seemed a little odd to me, if they leave the anchor stone with Oberron they are effectively saying it will stay open, because the Duke would have to go in and get it from the heart of Oberrons encampment... so while they did not "take a stance" they really only left 1 option on the table.
At this point they had to lean on Oberron's military forces 1 more time. Mal'Inia's forces were gathered near the rift to stop the party from getting through to the other side with their mistresses heart in tow. So the good dark fey would attack the evil ones while the party used Damones magic to get as close to the rift as possible. This of course was all done with Sam's corpse still along for the ride. They got in close and crossed a barrier near the rift that ended their invisibility. What waited for them were 4 of Mal'Inias elite guards- buffed to the 9's since the party had triggered a silent alarm a few rounds earlier.
The elite guards were 2 8th level fighters and 2 Eldritch Knights. Turns out an Eldritch Knight can be a massive bad ass. They were universalists, so they had hand of the apprentice. Which means they were flinging their long swords at 30 paces and slamming them with empowered magic missles as well. They were a lot more effective than I thought they would be, simply because it was so hard to engage them in melee, they could always scoot and blast with a +17 damage longsword toss. Well the fight took a few rounds and the party left through the rift once they saw that the Dark Fey army saw them and were headed their way in a hurry. The party went through the rift so fast that they forgot to loot the bad guys. And they had some decent gear.
On the other side of the rift it was snowing, it turns out the what seemed like 9 days to the party in the Twilight Kingdom was closer to 3 months back in Proveria. One they were on the other side of the rift Urz stabbed Mal'Inias heart with a Cold Iron dagger and a shockwave knocked them all to the ground. Mal'Inia was now dead.
Heading down the path they met back with the Dukes military commander, Colonel Christoph, who thought the heroes were dead, since they had been gone so long. Well word of the dukes recovery was spreading and the party was in a hurry to get back to Wisthaven so that they could ressurect Sam, before he had been dead too long. Nabbing some of the supplies at the camp they headed south to Wisthaven, and spoke with their friend Bertrand, the High Priest of Tyr. He agreed to resurrect Sam, for a nominal donation (16,000 for res and removing negative levels). The party agreed and as Sam was waking from the sleep of ages he was handed a magic item and asked to identify it.
As the party spent time in the city they found out that there had been insurgencies cropping up while the war with the Dark Fey was being fought. Specifically there was some trouble down at the sunlight keep. Realizing bad things were a foot they pooled their gold and prepared to drop some enchantments on things in order to ease their burden in the fights to come. Then they decided to see the Duke.
The ferry to the Dukes Island was closed for the day, so Sam cast fly on everyone and they jetted across the bay to go and meet with him. After some small talk the Duke mentioned the King never provided him aid in the conflict with the Dark Fey, he then asked if Urz and his tribe would be willing to lend him aid if war with the King was coming. Urz agreed- so long as he could get a few slaves out of the deal (he is a half-Orc). Then Urz decided to get flung out of a catapult, but he was okay- only took 20d6 of damage.
The next day they went to go check on Ismana and see what she had been up to for the past several months. It turns out she had been kidnapped by a man named Lord Pelegrin, the same name on a "magic vault" they had received from Ismana on their last mission for her. There was a note in her room that said "If you want to see her again, come find me". It also turns out that Ismana was constructing a deep water vessel from the materials the party had been collecting for her over the past several missions.
With that the night drew to a close, there was a lot to be done and a ton of loose ends that would eventually lead somewhere.... I hope.
Until Next Time!
-Ubercroz
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Episode 20
A little late on delivery this week, sorry. This week we had a few funny things going on. I had 2 people who had joined us for 1 session not there (and unfortunately would not be able to keep coming in the future) and 1 new person who had not really ever played before. So I had to figure out how to get him into the game and get them out. Well I came up with something that was a little Deus ex Machina- but it worked out. This was a big week- featuring mayhem, triumph, and a little defeat.
Episode 20:
The party started off the night back in this little garden of Mal'Inia where they had fought off a Naied the week before with her water elemental minions. It was a tough fight, but they had a good time. This week they took some time and prepared listening at the door and trying to figure out what was up ahead. They made good rolls so I gave them a hint that these dark fey goblins had captured something. The group popped into the next room and started way-laying the bad guys. Within 3 rounds the encounter was over and the party was looking for clues.
The next room they went in to (with great care, I guess I have made this group a little paranoid... being a GM can be so rewarding) had 4 human ranger looking dudes in it, and their leader was in the room next to them (their leader was the new guy). At this point the two other folks who were not here "decided" to take the 4 rangers and try and keep the bad guys busy at the front while the rest of the party went on to fight Mal'Inia at the top of the tower.
As soon as the party left the room with the guards they ran straight into a very large scale battle. At this point there were something like 12 good guys for the party to control and this fight had 12 dark fey goblins, 2 satyr mauraders, 2 dark fey spellcasters, and a trap the party NEVER sprung.
I knew this fight would take a while, but I also know that I have couple of players who really like to play tactics games. So every now and then it is fun to let them play tactics with the guys they have with them. This was not the best example of that, since the guys they had were very limited, but in general I think that its fun to run a few guys and make their combat decisions.
It was a pretty long and difficult fight, that ultimately was brought to the last guy was invisible and the party was waiting to pounce on him when he was revealed. I was happy with the fight, and they got a healing fountain in exchange. The healing fountain was basically just a way for them to get some free healing- the rest of the tower should be tough enough to make this a fine choice and to reward them for exploring.
The party then went up to the next level of the tower and saw a still pool surrounded by statues and trees. The party used this opportunity to try and avoid any traps I might have laid for them. Instead they used an Unseen Servant spell and had him collect the water from the pond. The water was beneficial to them. It was infused with power from the shadow realm and would give anyone who drank it a +1 to saves vs Mal'Inia... that would be helpful very soon.
On the top floor the dark queen herself waited for them. She mentioned that some "Cleric" had told her that these heroes might visit her. The fight was easily the most challenging that the party had faced. Urz was immediately Baleful Polymorphed into a song bird, and Damone was dropped into a pit. Mal'Inia is highly mobile, but they pinned her down with silence spells and stinking cloud, which really would have ended the fight right there.... except that there were 3 gargoyles the party had not fought on the level below and 1 air elemental. These kept them busy until Mal'Inia got out of the stinking cloud. The party defeated her minions and crushed her illusory defenses. Mal'Inia was down to her last desperate act- a mazimized shadowfireball. Most everyone made the save, and those that did not were fine. Except for Sam. Sam died- he was dropped 1 point below his CON and was done for. Urz proceeded to cut Mal'Inia down now that he had been changed back to normal, and the girls panicked and tried to figure out how to make everything better for Sam.
They collected the gigantic Anchor Stone and placed Mal'Inia's heart in a cold iron box so they could eventually slay her.
With that the Heroes slipped out of the fortress using Oberron's army as a shield to get back to their Base camp. No one there was capable of raising Sam from the dead, and the party did not have a divine caster capable of casting that spell, so now the party has to sit and wait until they can cross the rift safely and try and patch up their loving companion.
Until Next Time!
-Ubercroz
Episode 20:
The party started off the night back in this little garden of Mal'Inia where they had fought off a Naied the week before with her water elemental minions. It was a tough fight, but they had a good time. This week they took some time and prepared listening at the door and trying to figure out what was up ahead. They made good rolls so I gave them a hint that these dark fey goblins had captured something. The group popped into the next room and started way-laying the bad guys. Within 3 rounds the encounter was over and the party was looking for clues.
The next room they went in to (with great care, I guess I have made this group a little paranoid... being a GM can be so rewarding) had 4 human ranger looking dudes in it, and their leader was in the room next to them (their leader was the new guy). At this point the two other folks who were not here "decided" to take the 4 rangers and try and keep the bad guys busy at the front while the rest of the party went on to fight Mal'Inia at the top of the tower.
As soon as the party left the room with the guards they ran straight into a very large scale battle. At this point there were something like 12 good guys for the party to control and this fight had 12 dark fey goblins, 2 satyr mauraders, 2 dark fey spellcasters, and a trap the party NEVER sprung.
I knew this fight would take a while, but I also know that I have couple of players who really like to play tactics games. So every now and then it is fun to let them play tactics with the guys they have with them. This was not the best example of that, since the guys they had were very limited, but in general I think that its fun to run a few guys and make their combat decisions.
It was a pretty long and difficult fight, that ultimately was brought to the last guy was invisible and the party was waiting to pounce on him when he was revealed. I was happy with the fight, and they got a healing fountain in exchange. The healing fountain was basically just a way for them to get some free healing- the rest of the tower should be tough enough to make this a fine choice and to reward them for exploring.
The party then went up to the next level of the tower and saw a still pool surrounded by statues and trees. The party used this opportunity to try and avoid any traps I might have laid for them. Instead they used an Unseen Servant spell and had him collect the water from the pond. The water was beneficial to them. It was infused with power from the shadow realm and would give anyone who drank it a +1 to saves vs Mal'Inia... that would be helpful very soon.
On the top floor the dark queen herself waited for them. She mentioned that some "Cleric" had told her that these heroes might visit her. The fight was easily the most challenging that the party had faced. Urz was immediately Baleful Polymorphed into a song bird, and Damone was dropped into a pit. Mal'Inia is highly mobile, but they pinned her down with silence spells and stinking cloud, which really would have ended the fight right there.... except that there were 3 gargoyles the party had not fought on the level below and 1 air elemental. These kept them busy until Mal'Inia got out of the stinking cloud. The party defeated her minions and crushed her illusory defenses. Mal'Inia was down to her last desperate act- a mazimized shadowfireball. Most everyone made the save, and those that did not were fine. Except for Sam. Sam died- he was dropped 1 point below his CON and was done for. Urz proceeded to cut Mal'Inia down now that he had been changed back to normal, and the girls panicked and tried to figure out how to make everything better for Sam.
They collected the gigantic Anchor Stone and placed Mal'Inia's heart in a cold iron box so they could eventually slay her.
With that the Heroes slipped out of the fortress using Oberron's army as a shield to get back to their Base camp. No one there was capable of raising Sam from the dead, and the party did not have a divine caster capable of casting that spell, so now the party has to sit and wait until they can cross the rift safely and try and patch up their loving companion.
Until Next Time!
-Ubercroz
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Episode 19
It was a large group at the Ubercroz residence this evening. We had a total of 7 players for this iteration, the difficulty being that 2 of them were only going to be there that evening, so I had to figure out a way that would make things work while not ruining the fun for the rest of the group. The good news is that when you have a group of players in their late 20's and early 30's it makes things easier, since no one gets too hung up on things.
These 2 were a couple, he was with us the week before and asked to bring his lady so that she could get to see how a game ran and so she could get some context if he ever started spouting inane gamer nonsense. I think it worked out, now it did leave me with a few interesting challenges for the next week, since the party is closing in on the BBEG and I now have 7 PC's for what I had designed to be a 5 PC fight....
Episode 19:
The party spent some time preparing for their journey up to find the druid who was supposed to have a secret way in to Mal'Inia's fortress. To find the way Oberron asked a guide named Moonflower Stardust (the girl) to guide them up to where the druid lived. It very quickly became apparent to the party that you could move Moonflowers name around and come up with all kinds of interesting names: Starflower Moondust, Moonstar Flowerdust, Starflower Dustmoon, etc. I think we as a group were more amused by that than she was... but maybe not.
So Stardust led the party up to the druids hut and on the way they were waylay-ed by a Quickwood- This was an encounter I thought would be real fun and it challenged the party because of how far away the monster can engage the group. It continued to grapple and pull them in towards its slobbering maw while the archer types blasted away at a distance. It didn't take long for the tree to fall, given its not that tough of a monster, but it was a fun fight regardless.
Afterwards they made it up to the druid who was about to explain how to get explain how to get into Mal'Inias lair (after some cajoling from the party) when they noticed a Quickling in the rafters and took off after it. At this point I had a chase set up using the rules in the Game Mastery Guide. At 8th level chases get a little difficult it seems. The skill disparity between characters is so high that you either play towards the high skill characters and leave the others behind or you try and figure out to let everyone win somehow.
I decided to play to the latter- at a certain card in the chase sequence there was no way for a couple of the characters to bypass it, so I made a secret perception roll on that card that would let them use survival to run a shortcut so they might be able to cut the quickling off. Well the way it worked out Typhus made the perception check and then the survival check easily and caught the quickling with no trouble (something I was a little worried about, but it was fine). The the new silver dragon in the party caught up quickly and caught the little fey in a mouth grapple (which sounds much better than it is I think). At this point one of Mal'Inia's main supporters, a 10th level fighter pure fey, was waiting to catch the PC's in an ambush with the quickling who was leading the party to him. Well the ambush didn't go off well because the quickling got caught. Then Typhus did a move and swing on Arbalest, the bad guy, and caught him with a critical. Since I use the crit cards Typhus pulled "decapitation" which meant Arbalest Saves or dies. Arbalest dies.
I had planned on this being a much more bad ass fat than it ended up being. Somehow I was not upset, it was just what happened. It seemed real great in a lot of ways, I had wanted the party to get an advantage if they caught that quickling and they caught him. It worked out really well. It made Typhus feel like a bad ass and the rest of the party felt good because they got to move on in the game with a clean victory.
They then headed back to the druid, Shalinia, who explained that they would need to travel through a myconid and troll infested cave to get to an underground waterway. At this waterway they would need to polymorph into a diminutive creature and swim for some distance to get into a pool in Mal'Inias courtyard.
Taking this information back to Oberron they planned their next move. On the parties signal Oberron would lead his forces to attack while the party slipped in the back. Once inside the good Dark Fey would provide a distraction so the party could get in and put Mal'Inia's heart into a cold iron box.
The party slipped into the cave and ran into a few trolls... and talked their way out of the fight. I was really hesitant to let this one go. It seems like it would be very hard to talk a troll into not wanting to eat you. They made the roll so I did not want to discredit that. The thing was it seemed really strange that these trolls who had been waiting to eat whatever came into their cave did not eat the party. I don't know, it was probably fine it just seemed a little strange.... to make it easier they used the bards fascinate and suggestion skill- which I was fine with, the diplomacy just seemed strange. After talking their way past the trolls they dove into the waterway and popped out in the courtyard of Mal'Inia.
In the courtyard an evil Neiad with a couple of water elemental servants fought the party. Finally a good fight! She was back in the water, so the group had to swim or fight at a distance... or enlarge. This would have been a better fight against 5 players, but 7 was still fun. It went pretty quickly but the party had fun and it made for a nice closeout on the night. Now this week I have another new player showing up who wants to play his own character, which I am fine with... I just have to figure out how to make it work...
I use to many ellipsis.
Until next time!
-Ubercroz
These 2 were a couple, he was with us the week before and asked to bring his lady so that she could get to see how a game ran and so she could get some context if he ever started spouting inane gamer nonsense. I think it worked out, now it did leave me with a few interesting challenges for the next week, since the party is closing in on the BBEG and I now have 7 PC's for what I had designed to be a 5 PC fight....
Episode 19:
The party spent some time preparing for their journey up to find the druid who was supposed to have a secret way in to Mal'Inia's fortress. To find the way Oberron asked a guide named Moonflower Stardust (the girl) to guide them up to where the druid lived. It very quickly became apparent to the party that you could move Moonflowers name around and come up with all kinds of interesting names: Starflower Moondust, Moonstar Flowerdust, Starflower Dustmoon, etc. I think we as a group were more amused by that than she was... but maybe not.
So Stardust led the party up to the druids hut and on the way they were waylay-ed by a Quickwood- This was an encounter I thought would be real fun and it challenged the party because of how far away the monster can engage the group. It continued to grapple and pull them in towards its slobbering maw while the archer types blasted away at a distance. It didn't take long for the tree to fall, given its not that tough of a monster, but it was a fun fight regardless.
Afterwards they made it up to the druid who was about to explain how to get explain how to get into Mal'Inias lair (after some cajoling from the party) when they noticed a Quickling in the rafters and took off after it. At this point I had a chase set up using the rules in the Game Mastery Guide. At 8th level chases get a little difficult it seems. The skill disparity between characters is so high that you either play towards the high skill characters and leave the others behind or you try and figure out to let everyone win somehow.
I decided to play to the latter- at a certain card in the chase sequence there was no way for a couple of the characters to bypass it, so I made a secret perception roll on that card that would let them use survival to run a shortcut so they might be able to cut the quickling off. Well the way it worked out Typhus made the perception check and then the survival check easily and caught the quickling with no trouble (something I was a little worried about, but it was fine). The the new silver dragon in the party caught up quickly and caught the little fey in a mouth grapple (which sounds much better than it is I think). At this point one of Mal'Inia's main supporters, a 10th level fighter pure fey, was waiting to catch the PC's in an ambush with the quickling who was leading the party to him. Well the ambush didn't go off well because the quickling got caught. Then Typhus did a move and swing on Arbalest, the bad guy, and caught him with a critical. Since I use the crit cards Typhus pulled "decapitation" which meant Arbalest Saves or dies. Arbalest dies.
 |
| This was going to be a really good fight. |
They then headed back to the druid, Shalinia, who explained that they would need to travel through a myconid and troll infested cave to get to an underground waterway. At this waterway they would need to polymorph into a diminutive creature and swim for some distance to get into a pool in Mal'Inias courtyard.
Taking this information back to Oberron they planned their next move. On the parties signal Oberron would lead his forces to attack while the party slipped in the back. Once inside the good Dark Fey would provide a distraction so the party could get in and put Mal'Inia's heart into a cold iron box.
 |
| The cave of Wonders! (or maybe just trolls and things) |
In the courtyard an evil Neiad with a couple of water elemental servants fought the party. Finally a good fight! She was back in the water, so the group had to swim or fight at a distance... or enlarge. This would have been a better fight against 5 players, but 7 was still fun. It went pretty quickly but the party had fun and it made for a nice closeout on the night. Now this week I have another new player showing up who wants to play his own character, which I am fine with... I just have to figure out how to make it work...
I use to many ellipsis.
Until next time!
-Ubercroz
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