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Bill T's Second War of the Burning Sky: Shelter from the Storm [more spoilers than you can shake a stick adorned with ribbons and kerchiefs at!]
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<blockquote data-quote="Bill T." data-source="post: 8109398" data-attributes="member: 6795693"><p><span style="font-size: 22px"><strong>Dramatis Personae</strong></span></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Basel</strong>, an Innenotdaran (aka grey) elf evoker from Gabal's school who previously made his living as a baker, with his familiar <strong>Simon</strong>, a cat from Seaquen's docks.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Dämmek</strong>, a brainy and brawny human swordswoman with keen senses and the Living Blade.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Gusle</strong>, a seela bard who escaped captivity from a circus before coming to Gate Pass. This player has been through the first few chapters already, so she was able to fill Torrent's role as guide, and her familiar <strong>Sparky</strong>, a rat from beneath Seaquen.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Jesús Tillamook</strong>, a half-elf cloistered cleric of the Stormbringer Phoenix, a sect of the Stormchaser Eagle that is dedicated to finding the Aquiline Heart so that they can reincarnate the Eagle.</li> </ul><p></p><p>The heroes venture into the fire tomb proper and slowly work their way back to where Teymour is being held. He encourages the heroes to first help Faquaniel, as she's been the most recent recipient of the inquisitor's tender mercies. Faquaniel feigns sleep, but quickly perks up when she realizes there's a stranger in the room. With only a little bit of difficulty, the heroes heal her...</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>blowing a </em>cure moderate wounds<em> in the process</em></p><p></p><p>...and release her from the torture chamber, and free Teymour soon thereafter. Faquaniel, upon hearing that some Ragesians soldiers were taken prisoner, asks for a dagger. Gusle objects, saying that the soldiers surrendered. Faquaniel is not impressed, but a compromise is reached: Faquanel promises not to kill the soldiers, and Jesús even tags along to make sure they aren't killed. The heroes later discover that she had removed their codpieces and, er, sliced their cod. She also mentions that Lee wandered off with the control wand in case he had to change the weather in a hurry.</p><p></p><p>So, that leaves Teymour to explain how the two ended up caged by the Ragesians and what happened to them afterwards. He does explain that Lee's arrival improved their conditions substantially -- he put a stop to the soldiers' abuse of Faquaniel and forced the inquisitor to ask them questions while torturing them.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Last time I ran this, I played Faquaniel as a traumatized victim. I decided to go with a vengeful Faquaniel this time. I figure Lee the Lawful wouldn't tolerate abuse just for the fun of it, if for no other reason that to maintain order and discipline in the ranks. Lee's departure to monitor the storm gave the Ragesians one last chance to indulge themselves before the heroes took care of them.</em></p><p></p><p>The heroes spend a fair amount of time studying the teleportation magnet (a very appropriate term Basel came up with) and its environs. Basel wants to damage the magnet to keep it from sucking anyone else in, but Teymour objects on the basis that damaging powers beyond your understanding may have undesirable side-effects, like incinerating everyone in the room. Gusle decides to see if she can blindly deactivate the magnet, so she steps into cell containing the beacon, only to be rewarded with a silent <strong>splat</strong> as the tanglefoot bags and <em>glyph of warding</em> go off when she enters the room.</p><p></p><p>After everyone (silently) scrapes off the goo and wait for the <em>silence</em> to expire, Dämmek closely inspects the cell to make sure the entangling trap hasn't magically reset itself. Thus reassured, Gusle steps into the cell and tries to shut off the magnet. There's a bright flash as flames from the astral plane leak out and burn Gusle. Gusle decides she's not that interested in disabling the magnet after all, but Basel is fascinated to see the astral plane on fire, drawing a connection between what he saw and the fiery dangers of teleportation.</p><p></p><p>The heroes go back to the master bedroom to discover the ladder, the water barrel and -- oh, yes -- the <em>lesser orb of storms</em>, which they recognize by the decorations on the base. That leaves the heroes with a puzzle -- how did the Ragesians swim in and out of the tomb? Gusle is sure there must have used something so she casts <em>detect magic</em> and traverses the tomb, quickly coming upon the empty-looking bottle on the shelf in the room with the biomancy equipment. They open it briefly and, as soon as the air starts whooshing out, quickly cork it again. You never know what gases might come of of a magic bottle!</p><p></p><p>Having explored everything they wish to, the ask Jesús to spend a couple hours <em>identify</em>ing the orb of storms and the magic bottle, which he does, and then they curl up for the night, asking the three elves to stand watch over the course of the night.</p><p></p><p>The heroes wake up refreshed, study their spells, and prepare to venture out of the tomb. As soon as Basel enters the water column, he senses that Simon is doing his best to feel anxious -- the signal that someone is about.</p><p></p><p>The heroes make their way to the entrance to the prison. In the room that they had locked the tojanidas in they see a large, barnacle-covered chest. The chest winks at them. They cast a few defensive spells (<em>mage armor</em> and <em>resist electricity</em>, as I recall) and then peek up out of the prison. A squid darts away from the prison as they step out, and they see Lee, standing above the entrance, dripping blood and holding a bloody sphere in one hand and a wand in the other. The squid darts back to attack. The battle is on!</p><p></p><p>Lee casts a spell to make the water hump up, slamming Jesús back into the prison, as the squid attacks him. Eventually, they manage to drive the squid off. They hear Lee order someone to defend the stairs. Dämmek works her way towards the stairs, while Gusle turns herself into a syrine and swims out into the humpy water to assist. They see an aquatic gargoyle guarding the stairs. They engage -- Dämmek takes the direct approach, wading forth to do battle using the living blade (but dropping her <em>tidereaver's tears</em> to do so), while Gusle moves around to flank and instructs Sparky to head towards Lee. Gusle then tries to draw the gargoyle away from the stairs, but alas, Sparky manages to swim behind her and get onto a stair, drawing the gargoyle's attention. Luckily, it drops its guard when it turns to attack Sparky, giving Dämmek the opportunity to make one final attack with the Living Blade. The gargoyle turns to pebbles and vanishes -- Sparky is saved!</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Jesús and Basel take the shortcut -- Basel flies off to Lee's right, while Jesús flies over him and blasts him with <em>burning hands</em>. Then Basel hits Lee with a <em>grease</em> spell, making Lee fall on his face. Lee nonetheless continues to cast spells while prone, ignoring Jesús's continued blasts of fire from the air and Basel's trivial spells.</p><p></p><p>Faquaniel, surprisingly, wants to join it the fight as well (or at least get the chance to fly), but it's too late -- Jesús is engaged and she can't get far enough out for him to be able to bring her up, so she and Teymour end up sitting the battle out.</p><p></p><p>Eventually, Lee realizes the danger he's in and throws a bolt of lightning at Basel, but it's too late -- Dämmek has come around to attack Lee from just outside the patch of grease, and Gusle has come to the far side, focused on the wand he's holding. This is just the situation Basel has been waiting for -- he casts <em>haste</em> on the entire party (well, except Simon, who's nowhere nearby) and the heroes start laying on the hurt. Surprisingly, Dämmek's attempt to knock down Lee with the sharp edge of her blade is not only ineffective, but Lee is able to knock the sword out of her hand. All she has left is her spiked gauntlet, which she vigorously applies to Lee's forehead. Lee collapses to his knees, shouts, "Master, let your winds destroy them!" and is shredded as as the eye of the hurricane's eye tightens on them into a whirlwind. Gusle, though, sees that as her cue -- she dives for the wand, sliding across the grease and, as soon as she gets hold of it, commands the storm to stop -- which it does!</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I got a little too focused on The Plan there. Lee probably should have started throwing lightning bolts at Jesús as soon as he cast his first </em>burning hands<em>. It wouldn't have been very effective, especially since Jesús has evasion at this point, but it would have validated his choice of casting </em>resist electricity.<em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>In any event, I was quite pleased with how the heroes dealt with Lee. Everyone used good tactics. Lee would have hammered Jesús if given the chance, but couldn't have done anything effective with Jesús hovering out of reach. Basel, despite his fascination with </em>fireball<em>, used good spells to good effect with good timing. Everyone took advantage of their maneuvering capabilities, and I think Gusle's tactics speak for themselves.</em></p><p></p><p>The heroes gather up what few possessions Lee had, as well as whatever they had lost during the battle, and headed back to town. The pass by the remains of the Battle Royale and get into the remains of Seaquen proper. Gusle, true to form and joined by Sparky and Dämmek, start search and rescue operations, with Sparky finding buried people, Dämmek digging them out, and Gusle healing them. Gusle likely blew through the entire healing wand she got from the inquisitor that day.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I had had some warning that they were thinking of spending the night in the pyromancer's tomb, and kept a straight face when they decided to stay the night. I wanted to give them a feel for the consequences of their delay, so I played up the devastation caused by the hurricane. At least one player had been aware of the risk they were taking and were clear-eyed about it, so I don't feel like I was being unfair to them.</em></p><p></p><p>Basel, meanwhile, proceeds back to what's left of the Lyceum and reports to the faculty what they encountered, leaving only a few things out (like Faquaniel's revenge).</p><p></p><p>Jesús continues further on and is pleased to see, and Gusle is ultimately thrilled to hear, that the barracks Gusle built with Naizelasa's input withstood the hurricane quite well. The Pantheon of Unity didn't fair quite as well but, true to its name, the refugees' religious leaders have already started working to repair it. Apparently, the monks represented by Three Weeping Ravens weathered the storm with only minor injuries. Natalie was severely injured, on the other hand, and Majestic Creations (Paradim's shop) took some damage as well. Oh, and no one has managed to track Giorgio down.</p><p></p><p>Takasi approaches the heroes at some point and reports on Laurabec's passing and related circumstances. Curiously, as far as anyone knows, the Shahalesti fleet was destroyed -- no one saw any of their ships since the hurricane struck. The Wayfarer's Theatre sank with most of the crew and cast on board, but, strangely, Tiljann is not alarmed. She's try to find people to help refloat the ship in order to evacuate it.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Hey, it's an extra-dimensional space, after all. As long as they keep the hatch closed, they'll be fine and well-fed. I'd love to construct an adventure around rescuing the Wayfarer's, but, with the opposition dead or driven off, can't come up with anything that would make the rescue even remotely interesting. Any ideas, anyone? Relatedly, is there a good point in the campaign to have Giorgio reappear?</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>We next play on the 26th, but we'll also have a mini-session on the 18th to give the replacements for Gusle and Jesús a trial run -- Jesús hasn't been working out too well (too wimpy), and Gusle is being swapped out to backfill some of the things Jesús was contributing and vice-versa. This partly explains why Gusle was willing to blow through a fully-charged healing wand on anonymous strangers.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bill T., post: 8109398, member: 6795693"] [SIZE=6][B]Dramatis Personae[/B][/SIZE] [LIST] [*][B]Basel[/B], an Innenotdaran (aka grey) elf evoker from Gabal's school who previously made his living as a baker, with his familiar [B]Simon[/B], a cat from Seaquen's docks. [*][B]Dämmek[/B], a brainy and brawny human swordswoman with keen senses and the Living Blade. [*][B]Gusle[/B], a seela bard who escaped captivity from a circus before coming to Gate Pass. This player has been through the first few chapters already, so she was able to fill Torrent's role as guide, and her familiar [B]Sparky[/B], a rat from beneath Seaquen. [*][B]Jesús Tillamook[/B], a half-elf cloistered cleric of the Stormbringer Phoenix, a sect of the Stormchaser Eagle that is dedicated to finding the Aquiline Heart so that they can reincarnate the Eagle. [/LIST] The heroes venture into the fire tomb proper and slowly work their way back to where Teymour is being held. He encourages the heroes to first help Faquaniel, as she's been the most recent recipient of the inquisitor's tender mercies. Faquaniel feigns sleep, but quickly perks up when she realizes there's a stranger in the room. With only a little bit of difficulty, the heroes heal her... [INDENT][I]blowing a [/i]cure moderate wounds[i] in the process[/i][/INDENT] ...and release her from the torture chamber, and free Teymour soon thereafter. Faquaniel, upon hearing that some Ragesians soldiers were taken prisoner, asks for a dagger. Gusle objects, saying that the soldiers surrendered. Faquaniel is not impressed, but a compromise is reached: Faquanel promises not to kill the soldiers, and Jesús even tags along to make sure they aren't killed. The heroes later discover that she had removed their codpieces and, er, sliced their cod. She also mentions that Lee wandered off with the control wand in case he had to change the weather in a hurry. So, that leaves Teymour to explain how the two ended up caged by the Ragesians and what happened to them afterwards. He does explain that Lee's arrival improved their conditions substantially -- he put a stop to the soldiers' abuse of Faquaniel and forced the inquisitor to ask them questions while torturing them. [INDENT][I]Last time I ran this, I played Faquaniel as a traumatized victim. I decided to go with a vengeful Faquaniel this time. I figure Lee the Lawful wouldn't tolerate abuse just for the fun of it, if for no other reason that to maintain order and discipline in the ranks. Lee's departure to monitor the storm gave the Ragesians one last chance to indulge themselves before the heroes took care of them.[/i][/INDENT] The heroes spend a fair amount of time studying the teleportation magnet (a very appropriate term Basel came up with) and its environs. Basel wants to damage the magnet to keep it from sucking anyone else in, but Teymour objects on the basis that damaging powers beyond your understanding may have undesirable side-effects, like incinerating everyone in the room. Gusle decides to see if she can blindly deactivate the magnet, so she steps into cell containing the beacon, only to be rewarded with a silent [b]splat[/b] as the tanglefoot bags and [i]glyph of warding[/i] go off when she enters the room. After everyone (silently) scrapes off the goo and wait for the [i]silence[/i] to expire, Dämmek closely inspects the cell to make sure the entangling trap hasn't magically reset itself. Thus reassured, Gusle steps into the cell and tries to shut off the magnet. There's a bright flash as flames from the astral plane leak out and burn Gusle. Gusle decides she's not that interested in disabling the magnet after all, but Basel is fascinated to see the astral plane on fire, drawing a connection between what he saw and the fiery dangers of teleportation. The heroes go back to the master bedroom to discover the ladder, the water barrel and -- oh, yes -- the [i]lesser orb of storms[/i], which they recognize by the decorations on the base. That leaves the heroes with a puzzle -- how did the Ragesians swim in and out of the tomb? Gusle is sure there must have used something so she casts [i]detect magic[/i] and traverses the tomb, quickly coming upon the empty-looking bottle on the shelf in the room with the biomancy equipment. They open it briefly and, as soon as the air starts whooshing out, quickly cork it again. You never know what gases might come of of a magic bottle! Having explored everything they wish to, the ask Jesús to spend a couple hours [i]identify[/i]ing the orb of storms and the magic bottle, which he does, and then they curl up for the night, asking the three elves to stand watch over the course of the night. The heroes wake up refreshed, study their spells, and prepare to venture out of the tomb. As soon as Basel enters the water column, he senses that Simon is doing his best to feel anxious -- the signal that someone is about. The heroes make their way to the entrance to the prison. In the room that they had locked the tojanidas in they see a large, barnacle-covered chest. The chest winks at them. They cast a few defensive spells ([i]mage armor[/i] and [i]resist electricity[/i], as I recall) and then peek up out of the prison. A squid darts away from the prison as they step out, and they see Lee, standing above the entrance, dripping blood and holding a bloody sphere in one hand and a wand in the other. The squid darts back to attack. The battle is on! Lee casts a spell to make the water hump up, slamming Jesús back into the prison, as the squid attacks him. Eventually, they manage to drive the squid off. They hear Lee order someone to defend the stairs. Dämmek works her way towards the stairs, while Gusle turns herself into a syrine and swims out into the humpy water to assist. They see an aquatic gargoyle guarding the stairs. They engage -- Dämmek takes the direct approach, wading forth to do battle using the living blade (but dropping her [i]tidereaver's tears[/i] to do so), while Gusle moves around to flank and instructs Sparky to head towards Lee. Gusle then tries to draw the gargoyle away from the stairs, but alas, Sparky manages to swim behind her and get onto a stair, drawing the gargoyle's attention. Luckily, it drops its guard when it turns to attack Sparky, giving Dämmek the opportunity to make one final attack with the Living Blade. The gargoyle turns to pebbles and vanishes -- Sparky is saved! Meanwhile, Jesús and Basel take the shortcut -- Basel flies off to Lee's right, while Jesús flies over him and blasts him with [i]burning hands[/i]. Then Basel hits Lee with a [i]grease[/i] spell, making Lee fall on his face. Lee nonetheless continues to cast spells while prone, ignoring Jesús's continued blasts of fire from the air and Basel's trivial spells. Faquaniel, surprisingly, wants to join it the fight as well (or at least get the chance to fly), but it's too late -- Jesús is engaged and she can't get far enough out for him to be able to bring her up, so she and Teymour end up sitting the battle out. Eventually, Lee realizes the danger he's in and throws a bolt of lightning at Basel, but it's too late -- Dämmek has come around to attack Lee from just outside the patch of grease, and Gusle has come to the far side, focused on the wand he's holding. This is just the situation Basel has been waiting for -- he casts [i]haste[/i] on the entire party (well, except Simon, who's nowhere nearby) and the heroes start laying on the hurt. Surprisingly, Dämmek's attempt to knock down Lee with the sharp edge of her blade is not only ineffective, but Lee is able to knock the sword out of her hand. All she has left is her spiked gauntlet, which she vigorously applies to Lee's forehead. Lee collapses to his knees, shouts, "Master, let your winds destroy them!" and is shredded as as the eye of the hurricane's eye tightens on them into a whirlwind. Gusle, though, sees that as her cue -- she dives for the wand, sliding across the grease and, as soon as she gets hold of it, commands the storm to stop -- which it does! [INDENT][I]I got a little too focused on The Plan there. Lee probably should have started throwing lightning bolts at Jesús as soon as he cast his first [/i]burning hands[i]. It wouldn't have been very effective, especially since Jesús has evasion at this point, but it would have validated his choice of casting [/i]resist electricity.[i] In any event, I was quite pleased with how the heroes dealt with Lee. Everyone used good tactics. Lee would have hammered Jesús if given the chance, but couldn't have done anything effective with Jesús hovering out of reach. Basel, despite his fascination with [/i]fireball[i], used good spells to good effect with good timing. Everyone took advantage of their maneuvering capabilities, and I think Gusle's tactics speak for themselves.[/i][/INDENT] The heroes gather up what few possessions Lee had, as well as whatever they had lost during the battle, and headed back to town. The pass by the remains of the Battle Royale and get into the remains of Seaquen proper. Gusle, true to form and joined by Sparky and Dämmek, start search and rescue operations, with Sparky finding buried people, Dämmek digging them out, and Gusle healing them. Gusle likely blew through the entire healing wand she got from the inquisitor that day. [INDENT][I]I had had some warning that they were thinking of spending the night in the pyromancer's tomb, and kept a straight face when they decided to stay the night. I wanted to give them a feel for the consequences of their delay, so I played up the devastation caused by the hurricane. At least one player had been aware of the risk they were taking and were clear-eyed about it, so I don't feel like I was being unfair to them.[/i][/INDENT] Basel, meanwhile, proceeds back to what's left of the Lyceum and reports to the faculty what they encountered, leaving only a few things out (like Faquaniel's revenge). Jesús continues further on and is pleased to see, and Gusle is ultimately thrilled to hear, that the barracks Gusle built with Naizelasa's input withstood the hurricane quite well. The Pantheon of Unity didn't fair quite as well but, true to its name, the refugees' religious leaders have already started working to repair it. Apparently, the monks represented by Three Weeping Ravens weathered the storm with only minor injuries. Natalie was severely injured, on the other hand, and Majestic Creations (Paradim's shop) took some damage as well. Oh, and no one has managed to track Giorgio down. Takasi approaches the heroes at some point and reports on Laurabec's passing and related circumstances. Curiously, as far as anyone knows, the Shahalesti fleet was destroyed -- no one saw any of their ships since the hurricane struck. The Wayfarer's Theatre sank with most of the crew and cast on board, but, strangely, Tiljann is not alarmed. She's try to find people to help refloat the ship in order to evacuate it. [INDENT][I]Hey, it's an extra-dimensional space, after all. As long as they keep the hatch closed, they'll be fine and well-fed. I'd love to construct an adventure around rescuing the Wayfarer's, but, with the opposition dead or driven off, can't come up with anything that would make the rescue even remotely interesting. Any ideas, anyone? Relatedly, is there a good point in the campaign to have Giorgio reappear? We next play on the 26th, but we'll also have a mini-session on the 18th to give the replacements for Gusle and Jesús a trial run -- Jesús hasn't been working out too well (too wimpy), and Gusle is being swapped out to backfill some of the things Jesús was contributing and vice-versa. This partly explains why Gusle was willing to blow through a fully-charged healing wand on anonymous strangers.[/i][/INDENT] [/QUOTE]
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Bill T's Second War of the Burning Sky: Shelter from the Storm [more spoilers than you can shake a stick adorned with ribbons and kerchiefs at!]
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