Radiating Gnome
Adventurer
Just a little something for those of you that are looking ahead at the airship battle . . . . My group finished our session last night right at the moment when a PC noticed that Jade's Fury was on a collision course, which made for a very nice cliffhanger.
First, I should 'splain that my group is big -- 7 PCs -- and they're going through this at slightly lower level than the mod recommends. They're all 4th level entering the Airship fight. The only arcane caster in the group is an artificer, also, so they don't have a lot of the cool crowd control magic at their disposal.
Anyway, the group reached the platform guarded by the vampire's dominated gnome flunkies, and they tried to fight their way past and make it to the ship. I had decided that it might be fun to split up the group for a while, if possible, and it ended up not beeing too hard at all. I kept the rigid timetable (gangplank back at the end of round 5, ship leaves at the end of round 7) and after some interesting heroic stuff four of the 7 PCs manged to make it to Cloud's Destiny. The remaining four -- a cleric and the two warforged in the party -- were left behind, and waited on the platform for the ship to come back (assuming that the other PCs would turn the airships around). They were eventually picked up by Garrow/Rarwog and Jade Fury, but that took a little while.
The group that was on Cloud's Destiny did some poking around over the course of the next 25 hours. During that time they made some conclusions about which passenger must be either Stellos or his sister (based in large part on the sister's lack of interest in the bard's excellent performance on deck in the mid-afternoon). They decided to wait until the next morning to make a move (so that they sunlight would give them advantages against the vampire) but of course they didn't actually have that sort of time.
Meanwhile, the other group had several visits with Rarwog, the cleric was asked to cure some of the sailor's minor port-related venereal diseases, and they rested up and prepared for the promised delivery to the deck of the other ship.
The time came, and Rarwog loaded the three PCs into a skiff and sent them over to the other ship. They snuck aboard (very badly) but right when the Cloud's Destiny crew noticed them, they also noticed the other four skiffs full of boarding parties that had followed along behind the PCs.
And so the fight began in earnest.
The three skiffs of boarders managed to clog things up on deck pretty well. The party's ranger/bard and monk/archer took up position in the wheelhouse, which gave them a good perch and view of the deck, where they could rain arrows down on the boarders -- but they in turn became the targets of the 6 archers in the fourth skiff. Even with cover, the PC archers were eventually driven out of the wheelhouse (mostly because I was rolling a lot of 20s.).
Those 6 archers, with their rapid shot feat, create a very impressive barrage of missile fire. By the time we ended the session, the ship must have been pincusioned with missed shots like the monastery in Hero (excellent film, go see it now).
The fight on deck was also a bit wild and wooly. The party's tank, a huge Warforged bruiser, was neutralized for a lot of the fight when a team of soldiers grappled him and held him down. His Adamatine armor protected him from most of the other soldiers who tried to damage him while he was in the grapple, but between the Aid Another actions provided by assiting soldiers, and some good rolls on my part matched by bad PC rolls, the party was without it's big fighter for most of that fight.
The Artificer, meanwhile, had stayed belowdecks, invisible, trying to figure out if the one passenger was the vampire or his sister. When her door finally opened, he couldn't see her (she was invisible, too) and the noise of the battle covered the sound of her movement, but he guest right and ended up following her down into the cargo hold, where sne released her brother, the vampire, the vampire figured out that the artificer was near, the Soul Blade used Faerie Fire to expose him, then the vampire hit him once, then dominated him.
What followed was a few rounds of the vampire questioning the artficer about his employer and his intentions, all while going through the artificer's pockets and gear, taking all of his weapons and wands and scrolls.
On deck, the fight raged on. A brief respit from the whithering archery of the skiff was won when one of the clerics on deck used a sound burst to stun most of the archers, but that relief was fleeting. Still, the tankless party was slowly whittling away at the emerald claw soldiers on deck, and finally making progress. Eventually the Warforged broke free and the tide turned pretty quickly. The Artificer, stripped pretty much to his nightshirt, wandered up on deck and started picking up weapons, and then the vampire materialized on deck, killing the last couple of Emerald Claw soldiers for dramtic effect.
He taunted the Warforged tank, who, frustrated with the grappling failures of the fight up until then, charged . . .
and learned just how effective improved fient/sneak attack can be, especially in the hands of a very strong vampire with a nasty magic sword.
Then, the ranger/bard spotted the Jade Fury on a collision course, and the session stopped.
The party are all consious at the moment (although the Warforged Monk did spend a bit of time on his back after a particularly accurate barrage of enemy arrows -- you'll be surprised just how many 20s can come up when you're rolling 12 dice at a time) but they are in bad shape, and no one has yet figured out that the artificer is dominated.
One other wrinkle:
Just before the end of the session, one of the clerics made a desperate plea to the vampire's sister -- although the sister is invisible and not actually on deck -- asking her to help them subdue her brother so they can get him the help he needs. She rolled a 20 on her diplomacy roll, for a total of 25. Given that the sister isn't on deck (she hadn't been able to get up on deck yet, because the stairways up were blocked by the PCs trying to fight for control of the deck while ducking out of the range of the archers when they started to take a beating) so I'm not even sure if the sister could have heard her plea, much less react to it favorable (even with a 25 total), but thanks to the break in sessions I have a little time to think about what I want to do.
My inclination is to let the diplomacy roll have some good effect -- make the sister willing to talk, although being able to talk to the cleric who made the offer will be an interesting challenge. She may be able to tell the PCs something, but she will need further convincing, and that will be tricky, especially since the group is about a round and a half away from the collision between the two ships, and only a few more rounds from there until the crash landing.
Anyway, that was the session . . .
First, I should 'splain that my group is big -- 7 PCs -- and they're going through this at slightly lower level than the mod recommends. They're all 4th level entering the Airship fight. The only arcane caster in the group is an artificer, also, so they don't have a lot of the cool crowd control magic at their disposal.
Anyway, the group reached the platform guarded by the vampire's dominated gnome flunkies, and they tried to fight their way past and make it to the ship. I had decided that it might be fun to split up the group for a while, if possible, and it ended up not beeing too hard at all. I kept the rigid timetable (gangplank back at the end of round 5, ship leaves at the end of round 7) and after some interesting heroic stuff four of the 7 PCs manged to make it to Cloud's Destiny. The remaining four -- a cleric and the two warforged in the party -- were left behind, and waited on the platform for the ship to come back (assuming that the other PCs would turn the airships around). They were eventually picked up by Garrow/Rarwog and Jade Fury, but that took a little while.
The group that was on Cloud's Destiny did some poking around over the course of the next 25 hours. During that time they made some conclusions about which passenger must be either Stellos or his sister (based in large part on the sister's lack of interest in the bard's excellent performance on deck in the mid-afternoon). They decided to wait until the next morning to make a move (so that they sunlight would give them advantages against the vampire) but of course they didn't actually have that sort of time.
Meanwhile, the other group had several visits with Rarwog, the cleric was asked to cure some of the sailor's minor port-related venereal diseases, and they rested up and prepared for the promised delivery to the deck of the other ship.
The time came, and Rarwog loaded the three PCs into a skiff and sent them over to the other ship. They snuck aboard (very badly) but right when the Cloud's Destiny crew noticed them, they also noticed the other four skiffs full of boarding parties that had followed along behind the PCs.
And so the fight began in earnest.
The three skiffs of boarders managed to clog things up on deck pretty well. The party's ranger/bard and monk/archer took up position in the wheelhouse, which gave them a good perch and view of the deck, where they could rain arrows down on the boarders -- but they in turn became the targets of the 6 archers in the fourth skiff. Even with cover, the PC archers were eventually driven out of the wheelhouse (mostly because I was rolling a lot of 20s.).
Those 6 archers, with their rapid shot feat, create a very impressive barrage of missile fire. By the time we ended the session, the ship must have been pincusioned with missed shots like the monastery in Hero (excellent film, go see it now).
The fight on deck was also a bit wild and wooly. The party's tank, a huge Warforged bruiser, was neutralized for a lot of the fight when a team of soldiers grappled him and held him down. His Adamatine armor protected him from most of the other soldiers who tried to damage him while he was in the grapple, but between the Aid Another actions provided by assiting soldiers, and some good rolls on my part matched by bad PC rolls, the party was without it's big fighter for most of that fight.
The Artificer, meanwhile, had stayed belowdecks, invisible, trying to figure out if the one passenger was the vampire or his sister. When her door finally opened, he couldn't see her (she was invisible, too) and the noise of the battle covered the sound of her movement, but he guest right and ended up following her down into the cargo hold, where sne released her brother, the vampire, the vampire figured out that the artificer was near, the Soul Blade used Faerie Fire to expose him, then the vampire hit him once, then dominated him.
What followed was a few rounds of the vampire questioning the artficer about his employer and his intentions, all while going through the artificer's pockets and gear, taking all of his weapons and wands and scrolls.
On deck, the fight raged on. A brief respit from the whithering archery of the skiff was won when one of the clerics on deck used a sound burst to stun most of the archers, but that relief was fleeting. Still, the tankless party was slowly whittling away at the emerald claw soldiers on deck, and finally making progress. Eventually the Warforged broke free and the tide turned pretty quickly. The Artificer, stripped pretty much to his nightshirt, wandered up on deck and started picking up weapons, and then the vampire materialized on deck, killing the last couple of Emerald Claw soldiers for dramtic effect.
He taunted the Warforged tank, who, frustrated with the grappling failures of the fight up until then, charged . . .
and learned just how effective improved fient/sneak attack can be, especially in the hands of a very strong vampire with a nasty magic sword.
Then, the ranger/bard spotted the Jade Fury on a collision course, and the session stopped.
The party are all consious at the moment (although the Warforged Monk did spend a bit of time on his back after a particularly accurate barrage of enemy arrows -- you'll be surprised just how many 20s can come up when you're rolling 12 dice at a time) but they are in bad shape, and no one has yet figured out that the artificer is dominated.
One other wrinkle:
Just before the end of the session, one of the clerics made a desperate plea to the vampire's sister -- although the sister is invisible and not actually on deck -- asking her to help them subdue her brother so they can get him the help he needs. She rolled a 20 on her diplomacy roll, for a total of 25. Given that the sister isn't on deck (she hadn't been able to get up on deck yet, because the stairways up were blocked by the PCs trying to fight for control of the deck while ducking out of the range of the archers when they started to take a beating) so I'm not even sure if the sister could have heard her plea, much less react to it favorable (even with a 25 total), but thanks to the break in sessions I have a little time to think about what I want to do.
My inclination is to let the diplomacy roll have some good effect -- make the sister willing to talk, although being able to talk to the cleric who made the offer will be an interesting challenge. She may be able to tell the PCs something, but she will need further convincing, and that will be tricky, especially since the group is about a round and a half away from the collision between the two ships, and only a few more rounds from there until the crash landing.
Anyway, that was the session . . .
