This is a slightly belated session report.
Our 4e group has been having trouble coordinating timetables for a few months, but we did get in one session since my last session report. (We have been playing some Burning Wheel instead.)
The fighter had landed among the githzerai, and was to fight 20 of the grand master's disciples in a show of prowess. It turns out that one 28th level fighter with good AoE against 20 level 27 minions doesn't have that much trouble. He let some come in close and then took them down with his auto-damage Sun Sphere. He then used Polearm Gamble to knock out any who tried to close, so they resorted to ranged attacks. And in the second round, the 28th level Elite lesser master - Ertrand - joined the fray.
This made things a bit more interesting - the player of the fighter had trouble deciding whether to focus on the minions or the real enemy, and couldn't take on all of them at once, as the minions had a range 5 attack and Ertrand a range 20 attack that dazed. In the end he took down the minions first, while making saves against the daze at the start of his turn (from a mixture of feats - Superior Will plus also some epic fighter feat, I think) and otherwise wearing the damage; and then once only Ertrand was left engaged him in melee.
For self-healing capabilities the fighter has two second winds (dwarven feat) each allowing two surges to be spent (Cloak of the Walking Wounded), plus a 1x/day Healing Word (multiclass cleric) plus a 1x/enc Battle Cry AoE attack that also lets him and allies spend a surge (Warpriest paragon path). By the end of the fight he had used all this healing, and he and Ertrand were confronting one another each with sufficiently few hit points left that they couldn't survive another successful attack. There is nothing like everything turning on the roll of a single d20! The fighter's player took his turn, and successfully hit, and knocked Ertrand down.
He then had to spend 4 more surges to get himself back up to full hit points with a short rest - so an expensive display of prowess (I think a full 10 surges). But Liricosa and the other githzerai were suitably impressed by his prowess.
The other PCs, meanwhile, had landed in their flying tower to watch the fight. Negotiations then opened up.
I was combing three ideas into this scenario, all from The Plane Below: the write-up of Liricosa; the write-up of Sanzaerathad and the Room with No Doors; and the write up of the Mote Swarm, where a githzerai NPC is trying to take control of an archon forge.
In the course of discussions with the githzerai, the PCs were able to piece together that the githzerai were guarding a secret in this place - a Room with No Doors - which Liricosa wanted them to enter, but which the other githzerai didn't want to talk about. The other githzerai were much more eager that the PCs should go and help capture the archon forge, so that the githzerai could forge themselves some air archons to help guard their secret.
The paladin PC seemed willing to go along with this, and the sorcerer - who as a Primordial Adept in service of Chan, Archomental Queen of good aerial creatures, is keen on air archons - seemed interested too. But the player of the fighter had worked out that inside the Room with No Doors was a sixth part of the Rod of Seven Parts, which the PC invoker needs to add to his existing 5 parts. They also worked out that inside the Room with No Doors was a highly dangerous and chaotic portal to the Abyss (which the githzerai are guarding), and they are looking for such a thing so that they can go and fight Lolth and then Orcus. So in the end they decided to skip the archon forge "side quest" and go straight for the Room with No Doors, and bullied the githzerai into opening a portal in it for them. (Liricosa seemed satisfied with this outcome.)
They insisted that the opening be big enough to fly their tower through, and once inside saw that there was a pit inside the room, maybe not quite big enough to fly their tower down, with the portal at the bottom. As they were lowering their tower down to test its size against that of the pit, they were assailed from below by a Discord Incarnate, plus two spectres and a wraith that phased through their tower.
Part-way through this combat we had to end the session. Next time we are quorate the mission will be to finish the fight, and then to find out (i) where the sixth part of the Rod is, and (ii) what happens when you go through a portal to the Abyss.
Our 4e group has been having trouble coordinating timetables for a few months, but we did get in one session since my last session report. (We have been playing some Burning Wheel instead.)
The fighter had landed among the githzerai, and was to fight 20 of the grand master's disciples in a show of prowess. It turns out that one 28th level fighter with good AoE against 20 level 27 minions doesn't have that much trouble. He let some come in close and then took them down with his auto-damage Sun Sphere. He then used Polearm Gamble to knock out any who tried to close, so they resorted to ranged attacks. And in the second round, the 28th level Elite lesser master - Ertrand - joined the fray.
This made things a bit more interesting - the player of the fighter had trouble deciding whether to focus on the minions or the real enemy, and couldn't take on all of them at once, as the minions had a range 5 attack and Ertrand a range 20 attack that dazed. In the end he took down the minions first, while making saves against the daze at the start of his turn (from a mixture of feats - Superior Will plus also some epic fighter feat, I think) and otherwise wearing the damage; and then once only Ertrand was left engaged him in melee.
For self-healing capabilities the fighter has two second winds (dwarven feat) each allowing two surges to be spent (Cloak of the Walking Wounded), plus a 1x/day Healing Word (multiclass cleric) plus a 1x/enc Battle Cry AoE attack that also lets him and allies spend a surge (Warpriest paragon path). By the end of the fight he had used all this healing, and he and Ertrand were confronting one another each with sufficiently few hit points left that they couldn't survive another successful attack. There is nothing like everything turning on the roll of a single d20! The fighter's player took his turn, and successfully hit, and knocked Ertrand down.
He then had to spend 4 more surges to get himself back up to full hit points with a short rest - so an expensive display of prowess (I think a full 10 surges). But Liricosa and the other githzerai were suitably impressed by his prowess.
The other PCs, meanwhile, had landed in their flying tower to watch the fight. Negotiations then opened up.
I was combing three ideas into this scenario, all from The Plane Below: the write-up of Liricosa; the write-up of Sanzaerathad and the Room with No Doors; and the write up of the Mote Swarm, where a githzerai NPC is trying to take control of an archon forge.
In the course of discussions with the githzerai, the PCs were able to piece together that the githzerai were guarding a secret in this place - a Room with No Doors - which Liricosa wanted them to enter, but which the other githzerai didn't want to talk about. The other githzerai were much more eager that the PCs should go and help capture the archon forge, so that the githzerai could forge themselves some air archons to help guard their secret.
The paladin PC seemed willing to go along with this, and the sorcerer - who as a Primordial Adept in service of Chan, Archomental Queen of good aerial creatures, is keen on air archons - seemed interested too. But the player of the fighter had worked out that inside the Room with No Doors was a sixth part of the Rod of Seven Parts, which the PC invoker needs to add to his existing 5 parts. They also worked out that inside the Room with No Doors was a highly dangerous and chaotic portal to the Abyss (which the githzerai are guarding), and they are looking for such a thing so that they can go and fight Lolth and then Orcus. So in the end they decided to skip the archon forge "side quest" and go straight for the Room with No Doors, and bullied the githzerai into opening a portal in it for them. (Liricosa seemed satisfied with this outcome.)
They insisted that the opening be big enough to fly their tower through, and once inside saw that there was a pit inside the room, maybe not quite big enough to fly their tower down, with the portal at the bottom. As they were lowering their tower down to test its size against that of the pit, they were assailed from below by a Discord Incarnate, plus two spectres and a wraith that phased through their tower.
Part-way through this combat we had to end the session. Next time we are quorate the mission will be to finish the fight, and then to find out (i) where the sixth part of the Rod is, and (ii) what happens when you go through a portal to the Abyss.
