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(5e) Against the Idol of the Sun (high level, hexcrawl)
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<blockquote data-quote="J-H" data-source="post: 8979765" data-attributes="member: 7020951"><p>The campaign is <a href="https://www.dmsguild.com/product/431188/Against-the-Idol-of-the-Sun" target="_blank">posted for sale on the DM's Guild</a>! 296 pages total, NOT including the campaign log.</p><p>The preview packet includes a lot, including the campaign log up to Session 40. I'll update it with the full log once we're done, which should be around Session 43.</p><p></p><p><strong>Session 41:</strong> <strong>4/1/2023</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p>The party is escorted directly to the leader of the Yuan-ti village, who is happy to see them…they are important, and Teador is trailed by a number of people as he carries the Ssword of Sseth. It will take a few days to find someone who may have records of the Teleport Circle under the high temple, but they think it can be done.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There is some discussion of how to get the Yuan-ti to the final battle. They can sneak to the area in the jungle in small groups, but will need to know when to go, and what to do. They aren’t suited for open field battle. It will take two weeks for the teleport ring to be ready, so they decide to have the Yuan-ti check in with them once per day with <em>Sending</em>, and will count on the Yuan-ti’s long-established internal communication channels to distribute word from there.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There is a logistical problem – nobody in the party can cast <em>Sending</em>. If they get the giants to agree to come and fight, and set up the ring as a destination for the Teleport Circle spell that will fit the giants (unlike the under-temple one)… how do the giants know when to cast the spell from 100 miles away and come through? They travel south to the next Yuan-ti hex and recruit Priya to come with them. Nobody specifically asks about her spell list, but she definitely has <em>Sending</em>, <em>Invisibility</em>, and <em>Teleport</em> <em>Circle</em>.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>There’s discussion of how to get the portal ring in place in the Aarakocra city. Options discussed true polymorphing into a dragon, getting turned <em>Invisible</em>, and flying it in, as well as shrinking it, Teleporting in, and setting it up, or carrying it in on/under a stolen air-skiff.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The group returns to the giant city via Helm of Teleportation and meets with Pono and Fef, who look very concerned. In the absence of the party, a very large Aarakocra force showed up and issued an ultimatum: If the giants work with the party, the Aarakocra will return and bombard the city, killing everyone there.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The PCs are immune to scrying and divination…. But the Giants are not. It is still 12 days until the portal ring is ready. Extended discussions ensue, with thoughts of diversionary strikes, hitting the capital early, trying to defend the city, bag of holding bombing raids, and the like. The final choice is that the giants officially kick out the players and refuse to work with them.</p><p></p><p>Unofficially, Fef is a point of contact for <em>Sending</em> and will spread the word. There will be some volunteers acting in a non-endorsed individual capacity when the party is ready to go in two weeks. It’s a reduction in their force, but better than nothing. They make a mediocre Deception check with advantage showing disappointment and leave. If they’re lucky, this will be enough to fool the divination spells the Aarakocra are using.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Teador has the party take a couple of days doing a sweep of the hexes around the city looking for any enemy Forward Operating Bases. None are found. After some discussion, they decide to kill time by hunting enemy patrols to thin their numbers until the ring is ready.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>They use the Ssacred Library of Sseth (very well hidden, within 2 hexes of the enemy capital) as a teleport destination, and start traveling around, looking for enemy patrols. There’s no way they can’t win, and over a few days, they wipe out 3 patrols (3 air-skiffs and 30-something enemies) in 3 hexes. Saqwam snags a few priest souls to interrogate with <em>Soul Cage</em>, but doesn’t verify much new information. They continue their search, but the next patrol they run across is six air-skiffs and 70-something Aaracokra.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The group decides that it’s too much to take on, and that they should leave… but Teador wants to use <em>Chain Lightning</em> from his ring first to thin them out. It has a range of 150’ and hits several enemies. By this point, Ratel’s player has had to drop off Discord for the evening, so nobody has anything longer ranged.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>They hide in the path of the enemy force, but not well enough. They are spotted. The air-skiffs hold back, and the enemy force spreads out in two wings to encircle them completely, before advancing all at once. When they hit 150’, we roll initiative to see who is fastest off the mark with spellfire.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>With 72 enemies, I am <em>not</em> tracking individual spells or HP. Instead, I use multiples of 6 to determine how many enemies of each type, and then decide that they’re spaced equally around.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Saqwam opens with <em>Circle of Death</em>. I do some quick math on a 150’ diameter circle, and it hits around 1/7th, or about 10 of them. Unfortunately, the damage on a failed save is about 24, so it doesn’t kill any enemies.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Troudar the fighter is next. He dodges, as he has no weapons long-enough range to hit.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>I look at the spell lists for the enemy senior and junior priests, and rather than splitting things up, have them all advance 30’ to a range of 120’, and eighteen castings of <em>Fireball</em> fly at the party.</p><p></p><p>Fireball’s average damage is 27, with a Dex DC of 12-16 depending on caster.</p><p></p><p>I have everybody roll 4 dex saves to see how they do. Teador and Troudar pass all 4, and Saqwam fails one save.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Using D&D rounding (down), Teador takes 27 x .5 (passed saves) -> 13 x .5 (fire resistant) -> 6 damage per Fireball. 18 x 6 = 108 damage.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Troudar is not fire resistant, and 13 x 18 is 234, so he is reduced to 0hp.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Saqwam takes more than 234hp in damage and is killed (reduced to 0 then plenty of hits).</p><p></p><p>Troudar, as a Samurai, can take a full turn when reduced to 0. He uses Second Wind, then grabs the other two and activates his Helm of Teleportation. Teador Revivifies Saqwam.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Teador rolled poorly on initiative, and never got to go. It was a short fight.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It’s only 3 days until the portal ring will be ready, so the party puts things in motion – they use the next check-in to tell the Yuan-ti to move, and they send Saqwam and Troudar to teleport to the west coast to call the Kraken’s name and wait for him to arrive, so that he will be ready to be teleported to the battle site.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Next session will be sitting down with the map of the enemy capital city and planning what they will do in what order to kick things off, and then we’ll start the final battle.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Everyone gets an epic boon for getting the plan in place and lining up allies. No choices have been made yet.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>DM Notes: Another 2.5 hour session. I’d rather do longer sessions, especially for the Big Finale. </em></p><p><em>18 Fireballs was hilarious. There should be 2 sessions left, unless they decide to change plans or something. </em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="J-H, post: 8979765, member: 7020951"] The campaign is [URL='https://www.dmsguild.com/product/431188/Against-the-Idol-of-the-Sun']posted for sale on the DM's Guild[/URL]! 296 pages total, NOT including the campaign log. The preview packet includes a lot, including the campaign log up to Session 40. I'll update it with the full log once we're done, which should be around Session 43. [B]Session 41:[/B] [B]4/1/2023[/B] The party is escorted directly to the leader of the Yuan-ti village, who is happy to see them…they are important, and Teador is trailed by a number of people as he carries the Ssword of Sseth. It will take a few days to find someone who may have records of the Teleport Circle under the high temple, but they think it can be done. There is some discussion of how to get the Yuan-ti to the final battle. They can sneak to the area in the jungle in small groups, but will need to know when to go, and what to do. They aren’t suited for open field battle. It will take two weeks for the teleport ring to be ready, so they decide to have the Yuan-ti check in with them once per day with [I]Sending[/I], and will count on the Yuan-ti’s long-established internal communication channels to distribute word from there. There is a logistical problem – nobody in the party can cast [I]Sending[/I]. If they get the giants to agree to come and fight, and set up the ring as a destination for the Teleport Circle spell that will fit the giants (unlike the under-temple one)… how do the giants know when to cast the spell from 100 miles away and come through? They travel south to the next Yuan-ti hex and recruit Priya to come with them. Nobody specifically asks about her spell list, but she definitely has [I]Sending[/I], [I]Invisibility[/I], and [I]Teleport[/I] [I]Circle[/I]. There’s discussion of how to get the portal ring in place in the Aarakocra city. Options discussed true polymorphing into a dragon, getting turned [I]Invisible[/I], and flying it in, as well as shrinking it, Teleporting in, and setting it up, or carrying it in on/under a stolen air-skiff. The group returns to the giant city via Helm of Teleportation and meets with Pono and Fef, who look very concerned. In the absence of the party, a very large Aarakocra force showed up and issued an ultimatum: If the giants work with the party, the Aarakocra will return and bombard the city, killing everyone there. The PCs are immune to scrying and divination…. But the Giants are not. It is still 12 days until the portal ring is ready. Extended discussions ensue, with thoughts of diversionary strikes, hitting the capital early, trying to defend the city, bag of holding bombing raids, and the like. The final choice is that the giants officially kick out the players and refuse to work with them. Unofficially, Fef is a point of contact for [I]Sending[/I] and will spread the word. There will be some volunteers acting in a non-endorsed individual capacity when the party is ready to go in two weeks. It’s a reduction in their force, but better than nothing. They make a mediocre Deception check with advantage showing disappointment and leave. If they’re lucky, this will be enough to fool the divination spells the Aarakocra are using. Teador has the party take a couple of days doing a sweep of the hexes around the city looking for any enemy Forward Operating Bases. None are found. After some discussion, they decide to kill time by hunting enemy patrols to thin their numbers until the ring is ready. They use the Ssacred Library of Sseth (very well hidden, within 2 hexes of the enemy capital) as a teleport destination, and start traveling around, looking for enemy patrols. There’s no way they can’t win, and over a few days, they wipe out 3 patrols (3 air-skiffs and 30-something enemies) in 3 hexes. Saqwam snags a few priest souls to interrogate with [I]Soul Cage[/I], but doesn’t verify much new information. They continue their search, but the next patrol they run across is six air-skiffs and 70-something Aaracokra. The group decides that it’s too much to take on, and that they should leave… but Teador wants to use [I]Chain Lightning[/I] from his ring first to thin them out. It has a range of 150’ and hits several enemies. By this point, Ratel’s player has had to drop off Discord for the evening, so nobody has anything longer ranged. They hide in the path of the enemy force, but not well enough. They are spotted. The air-skiffs hold back, and the enemy force spreads out in two wings to encircle them completely, before advancing all at once. When they hit 150’, we roll initiative to see who is fastest off the mark with spellfire. With 72 enemies, I am [I]not[/I] tracking individual spells or HP. Instead, I use multiples of 6 to determine how many enemies of each type, and then decide that they’re spaced equally around. Saqwam opens with [I]Circle of Death[/I]. I do some quick math on a 150’ diameter circle, and it hits around 1/7th, or about 10 of them. Unfortunately, the damage on a failed save is about 24, so it doesn’t kill any enemies. Troudar the fighter is next. He dodges, as he has no weapons long-enough range to hit. I look at the spell lists for the enemy senior and junior priests, and rather than splitting things up, have them all advance 30’ to a range of 120’, and eighteen castings of [I]Fireball[/I] fly at the party. Fireball’s average damage is 27, with a Dex DC of 12-16 depending on caster. I have everybody roll 4 dex saves to see how they do. Teador and Troudar pass all 4, and Saqwam fails one save. Using D&D rounding (down), Teador takes 27 x .5 (passed saves) -> 13 x .5 (fire resistant) -> 6 damage per Fireball. 18 x 6 = 108 damage. Troudar is not fire resistant, and 13 x 18 is 234, so he is reduced to 0hp. Saqwam takes more than 234hp in damage and is killed (reduced to 0 then plenty of hits). Troudar, as a Samurai, can take a full turn when reduced to 0. He uses Second Wind, then grabs the other two and activates his Helm of Teleportation. Teador Revivifies Saqwam. Teador rolled poorly on initiative, and never got to go. It was a short fight. It’s only 3 days until the portal ring will be ready, so the party puts things in motion – they use the next check-in to tell the Yuan-ti to move, and they send Saqwam and Troudar to teleport to the west coast to call the Kraken’s name and wait for him to arrive, so that he will be ready to be teleported to the battle site. Next session will be sitting down with the map of the enemy capital city and planning what they will do in what order to kick things off, and then we’ll start the final battle. Everyone gets an epic boon for getting the plan in place and lining up allies. No choices have been made yet. [I]DM Notes: Another 2.5 hour session. I’d rather do longer sessions, especially for the Big Finale. 18 Fireballs was hilarious. There should be 2 sessions left, unless they decide to change plans or something. [/I] [/QUOTE]
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