Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
(5e) Against the Idol of the Sun (high level, hexcrawl)
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="J-H" data-source="post: 8960668" data-attributes="member: 7020951"><p><strong>Session 24: 3/12/2022</strong></p><p>We’re back! Dmitri’s player couldn’t join us, and Ratel the monk’s player had to join via Discord chat on speaker. </p><p></p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>They discuss plans to attack Tlalcehutli, the city of the Aarakocra 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).</p><p>There are several suitably unsettling applications, like draining life from a captured soul, but the big ones are:</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>They decide to go find an Aarakocra 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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p>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).</p><p></p><p><em>DM notes:</em></p><p><em>One person on Discord slows things down a lot… things kept cutting in and out, so his turns took substantially longer.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>We have two new players, both pretty new to D&D (they’ve been through a couple of lower-level 1-shots). </em></p><p><em>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.</em></p><p><em>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.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>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.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>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.</em></p><p><em>Fathomless is pretty useful… the watery tentacle is basically a free 3rd level Spiritual Weapon PB/day.</em></p><p><em>Both are still learning where to find things on their character sheets, and having custom items that aren’t on DNDB doesn’t help.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>I’ve run several of these “fight an Aarakocra 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.</em></p><p><em>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.</em></p><p></p><p><strong>Session 24: 3/26/2022</strong></p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Battle highlights:</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p>The enemy priests did land a Banishment and a Hold Person, but concentration got knocked down fairly quickly for those.</p><p>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.</p><p>Ssword spent 5 rounds draining the altar and is now back in play.</p><p>Psychic Lance is pretty good at disabling enemies… lots of INT saves failed in this fight.</p><p></p><p>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).</p><p></p><p><em>DM notes:</em></p><p><em>The party:</em></p><p><em>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.</em></p><p><em>Saqwam, 16th level Fathomless warlock, tortle - still figuring out what he needs to do with stuff. Maddening Hex was a good pick though. </em></p><p><em>Teador, 16th level vengeance paladin, half-elf - Solid mobility and damage carrying the fight. Hasn't used Lay on Hands yet.</em></p><p><em>Ratel, 16th level kensei monk, wood elf - I think he's out of ki points. More stuns this session than the previous 24 sessions!</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Enemy forces:</em></p><p><em>1 high priest capable of casting 9th level spells</em></p><p><em>2 senior priests capable of casting up to about 7th level</em></p><p><em>4 sun acolytes casting up to 3rd level spells</em></p><p><em>2 champions (melee)</em></p><p><em>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.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>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! </em></p><p><em>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.</em></p><p><em>I will edit her statblock to reflect some other earth-themed 9th level spell. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>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.</em></p><p></p><p><strong>Session 25: 5/14/2022</strong></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Ratel the monk shot a couple of arrows at one of the Aarakocra 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 Aarakocra. 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.</p><p></p><p>Ratel shot the high priestess, breaking the concentration on Antilife shell. Rivkah lightning-blasted the Aarakocra 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.</p><p></p><p>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 Aarakocra 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.</p><p></p><p>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). </p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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…</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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!</p><p></p><p>Loot:</p><p>17,850gp worth of gold, silver, gems, décor, gem-encrusted weapons, etc.</p><p>Shield +1</p><p>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.</p><p>Potion of Longevity</p><p>Oil of Sharpness</p><p>2x 6th level spell scrolls (I rolled, Arcane Gate & Disintegrate)</p><p>1x 7th level spell scroll (Symbol)</p><p>1x Earthquake scroll</p><p>Quake Plate +2: Legendary, requires attunement</p><p>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. </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p>The bard & warlock both have 9th level spells to choose.</p><p></p><p><strong>In Between</strong></p><p>I noticed last night that Ssword had accumulated 7 points on the power tracker, enough to hit the next transformation, which means he’s going to have a dream. Coincidentally, Teador the Paladin (wielder)’s player asked me for an updated statblock:</p><p></p><p><u>Ssword </u></p><p>Artifact, requires attunement</p><p>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.</p><p>True Poison. When you strike a target, it takes 2d12 poison damage or acid damage, whichever it is less resistant or more vulnerable to. </p><p>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.</p><p>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. </p><p>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.</p><p>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’.</p><p>The weapon can speak, read, and understand all languages spoken within the region, and can now audibly converse in a sibilant, snake-like voice. </p><p>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).</p><p>(this draws from descriptions a specific place, plus a “side plot” option I have scripted out)</p><p></p><p>"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.</p><p></p><p>You hear a soft sound behind, you of something sliding over the carpet.</p><p></p><p>Teador takes note of the exits, then turns around.</p><p></p><p>You turn, and see one of the snake-like yuan-ti. This one seems bigger, and has dragon-like wings and glowing eyes. "</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>The yuan-ti looks down at itself. “I am Ssword, it sseemss. And you are a hairy monkey persson, not a yuan-ti.”</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>“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?”</p><p>(Mechanically you would gain some yuan-ti traits over time without losing existing species traits)</p><p></p><p>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?"</p><p></p><p>“Ssss… You do not want to become…better…and ensslave our foes to build a gloriouss empire anew one day?</p><p>This place isss real… I think. Look for a ssspring atop a hill, about twenty milesss sssouth of the large lake.”</p><p></p><p>"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?"</p><p></p><p>“Yes, a ssecret library. Find it.”</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><strong>Session 26: 5/21/2022</strong></p><p></p><p>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.</p><p>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) to use for planning.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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 Aarakocra 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. </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>They spend 12 days in the library without going outside. Why?</p><p>-One Anyspell tome (detailed below)</p><p>-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</p><p>-One of each of the 6 types of stat tome.</p><p></p><p>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:</p><p>Str tome: Teador the paladin</p><p>Dex tome: Rivkah the bard</p><p>Con tome: Saqwam the warlock</p><p>Int tome: Held for possible sale or trade</p><p>Wis tome: Ratel the monk</p><p>Cha tome: Teador the paladin</p><p></p><p>12 days later, they emerge for some fresh air and some showering under the waterfall.</p><p></p><p>There is discussion of setting fire to the Aarakocra’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 Aarakocra 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).</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p><u>Anyspell Tome</u></p><p>Very rare, requires attunement by an arcane spellcaster</p><p>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. </p><p><em>DM note: This 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. Just shy of legendary based on that.</em></p><p></p><p></p><p><strong>In Between Sessions</strong></p><p></p><p>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</p><p>[spoiler=foreshadowed, but a spoiler]</p><p>When he turns out to be a shard of the dead god Sseth. You know where this is going.</p><p>[/spoiler]</p><p></p><p>I made the comment to Teador’s player that his character could tell 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. </p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>Aspects up for debate:</p><p>1) Yuan-ti supremacy: Ssword/Sseth should advance the yuan-ti primarily, who are better and worth more than other beings. (evil)</p><p>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)</p><p>3) No redemption: Enemies must be wiped out. The Aarakocra who served Huitzopochtli must all be killed. Deliberately phrased to avoid tripping on “vengeance paladin”. (evil)</p><p>4) The ends justify the means: Any action is okay if it leads to victory. (Evil; possibly chaotic)</p><p>5) Utility: Altruism is foolish and not worthwhile. Only help those who are useful. (Evil)</p><p>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)</p><p></p><p>Teador’s player agrees, and we handle the first two arguments as though they happened while in the Ssacred library.</p><p>#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.</p><p>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). </p><p>His argument against tyranny as an inferior, conflict-causing form of government is successful.</p><p></p><p>#2 Vs. Yuan-ti supremacy: No race in reality is greater than one or another, each have their own strengths and weaknesses.</p><p>Ssword rolls 14, 15, and 8. Teador rolls 23, 20, and 14. </p><p></p><p><strong>Session 26: 5/28/2022</strong></p><p>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!</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p>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.</p><p>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….</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: There’s a party of 4 Aarakocra 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. </em></p><p><em>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.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>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…</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>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.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="J-H, post: 8960668, member: 7020951"] [B]Session 24: 3/12/2022[/B] 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 Aarakocra 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 Aarakocra 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). [I]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 Aarakocra 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.[/I] [B]Session 24: 3/26/2022[/B] 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). [I]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 will 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.[/I] [B]Session 25: 5/14/2022[/B] 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 Aarakocra 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 Aarakocra. 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 Aarakocra 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 Aarakocra 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. [B]In Between[/B] I noticed last night that Ssword had accumulated 7 points on the power tracker, enough to hit the next transformation, which means he’s going to have a dream. Coincidentally, Teador the Paladin (wielder)’s player asked me for an updated statblock: [U]Ssword [/U] 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. [B]Session 26: 5/21/2022[/B] 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. 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) to use for planning. 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. 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 Aarakocra 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 Aarakocra’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 Aarakocra 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. [U]Anyspell Tome[/U] 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. [I]DM note: This 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. Just shy of legendary based on that.[/I] [B]In Between Sessions[/B] 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] When he turns out to be a shard of the dead god Sseth. You know where this is going. [/spoiler] I made the comment to Teador’s player that his character could tell 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 Aarakocra who served Huitzopochtli 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. [B]Session 26: 5/28/2022[/B] 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…. [I]DM note: There’s a party of 4 Aarakocra 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.[/I] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
(5e) Against the Idol of the Sun (high level, hexcrawl)
Top