Psion
Adventurer
I don't know what it is, but I find a great visceral joy when a major event occurs just as I anticipated it. I generally loathe railroading and have a "let the dice fall where they may" and a "let the players react as they will" attitude. Given this, I usually expect my well laid plans to go to tatters on first contact with the PCs (so much so that it has become implicit to the way I design adventures... I don't design adventures around what will happen, but rather what will happen if they PCs don't get involved.)
This said, I was overjoyed that last night's game came together like peices of a puzzle. It couldn't have run better if I was railroading. A watershed event that I had been planning for some time went off without a hitch. Basically what happened is that the sole good heir of the bloodline prophecied to be the rightful rules of the land died, leaving the sole remaining royal blood in family that runs an oppressive empire.
The adventure asked the party to get involved in the physical security of a building that a meeting with the king was supposed to be held in. The party took every reasonable step to provide for security... but all the peices fell perfectly into place anyway. The party got distracted by a shapechanging dragon outside the walls who was actually on their side, and the party intercepted a mind-seeded servant. And the left the one hallway unguarded that, if guarded, could have thrown a wrench in the plans.
The assassination was rather exotic. The empire has many psions at its disposal; their lead agent was a high level nomad. He made a teleport circle, turned invisible, and teleported into the keep. I had thought that the gig might have been up if the cleric had cast invisility purge (she didn't) or if she looked down the hallway with true seeing (her true seeing caught the mind seeded servant, but she didn't have a chance to scour the hallway before hand.)
The next entrants into the teleport circle -- and hence the keep -- where some psychic warrior assassins armed with soul shattering blades and a beholder construct (using monte's magical construct rules -- and I though this up before the dungeon episiode with the beholder construct BTW, dammit!
). The battle with the mind seeded servants ended and the cleric ran to warn the king and the prince that they might want to leave. The beholder's initiative was JUST behind the cleric's, so it opened it's eye right after the warning but right before the kings wizard and the prince's nomad had a chance to whisk them to safety. I couldn't have got the timing better myself if I had artificially force it. (As a DM fiat, I had the mind seeded servant look up at the party rogue just as the everburning torches flickered out, and her last breath was "you are too late!")
The beholder disintigrated a whole in the wall and the psychic warrior assassins entered and attacked their quarry. The elven prince's devoted defender sacrificed himself, but the king took his blade square in the chest. The next round, the beholder turned and the soul-sucking blade did their work in the absence of the anti magic field.
The elven prince's nomad did succeed in teleporting, but by that point, the empire nomad had set up a teleport divert. The party still doesn't know the prince isn't safe, though. They will find out next time...
However, the assassin found the nomad lurking outside, and a short duel ensued that led to the nomad retreating. But by then his job was done.
The ensuing battle led to the party's smashing the assassin with one casualty... the rogue failed her save against the beholder's death ray. The priest of the temple was more than willing to ressurect her. However, this is the icing on the cake. The next adventure would have involved the party going to the church of Selna, goddess of the moon and prophecy, to find out what to do next. I hadn't yet planned out how to give them the impetus to do so. But the rogue's visit to the realm of the dead made her decide to consider "getting religion", and she decided to go visit the temple of the Selna since she had relations with them before. What timing! What perfection! It was like I was writing a novel, but I wasn't railroading. The players were just falling into step!
I love it when a plan comes together!
This said, I was overjoyed that last night's game came together like peices of a puzzle. It couldn't have run better if I was railroading. A watershed event that I had been planning for some time went off without a hitch. Basically what happened is that the sole good heir of the bloodline prophecied to be the rightful rules of the land died, leaving the sole remaining royal blood in family that runs an oppressive empire.
The adventure asked the party to get involved in the physical security of a building that a meeting with the king was supposed to be held in. The party took every reasonable step to provide for security... but all the peices fell perfectly into place anyway. The party got distracted by a shapechanging dragon outside the walls who was actually on their side, and the party intercepted a mind-seeded servant. And the left the one hallway unguarded that, if guarded, could have thrown a wrench in the plans.
The assassination was rather exotic. The empire has many psions at its disposal; their lead agent was a high level nomad. He made a teleport circle, turned invisible, and teleported into the keep. I had thought that the gig might have been up if the cleric had cast invisility purge (she didn't) or if she looked down the hallway with true seeing (her true seeing caught the mind seeded servant, but she didn't have a chance to scour the hallway before hand.)
The next entrants into the teleport circle -- and hence the keep -- where some psychic warrior assassins armed with soul shattering blades and a beholder construct (using monte's magical construct rules -- and I though this up before the dungeon episiode with the beholder construct BTW, dammit!
). The battle with the mind seeded servants ended and the cleric ran to warn the king and the prince that they might want to leave. The beholder's initiative was JUST behind the cleric's, so it opened it's eye right after the warning but right before the kings wizard and the prince's nomad had a chance to whisk them to safety. I couldn't have got the timing better myself if I had artificially force it. (As a DM fiat, I had the mind seeded servant look up at the party rogue just as the everburning torches flickered out, and her last breath was "you are too late!")The beholder disintigrated a whole in the wall and the psychic warrior assassins entered and attacked their quarry. The elven prince's devoted defender sacrificed himself, but the king took his blade square in the chest. The next round, the beholder turned and the soul-sucking blade did their work in the absence of the anti magic field.
The elven prince's nomad did succeed in teleporting, but by that point, the empire nomad had set up a teleport divert. The party still doesn't know the prince isn't safe, though. They will find out next time...
However, the assassin found the nomad lurking outside, and a short duel ensued that led to the nomad retreating. But by then his job was done.
The ensuing battle led to the party's smashing the assassin with one casualty... the rogue failed her save against the beholder's death ray. The priest of the temple was more than willing to ressurect her. However, this is the icing on the cake. The next adventure would have involved the party going to the church of Selna, goddess of the moon and prophecy, to find out what to do next. I hadn't yet planned out how to give them the impetus to do so. But the rogue's visit to the realm of the dead made her decide to consider "getting religion", and she decided to go visit the temple of the Selna since she had relations with them before. What timing! What perfection! It was like I was writing a novel, but I wasn't railroading. The players were just falling into step!
I love it when a plan comes together!
