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Bill T's WotBS campaign, reincarnated
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<blockquote data-quote="Bill T." data-source="post: 7068250" data-attributes="member: 6795693"><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Dramatis Personae</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> <strong>Amelia</strong>, a human spellthieving acetomancer</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> <strong>Erielle</strong>, an half-orc (formerly elven) archer ranger</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> <strong>Kjolmar</strong>, a dour dwarven dungeoncrashing deepwarden</li> </ul><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Tournament of Unity</span></p><p></p><p>Our heroes are dragged parade through Bresk and reach the palace. They listen to Steppengard's speech and their immediate reaction, similar the duke's, is that he didn't mention the Ragesians once in that speech. Anyhow, the evening passes fairly uneventfully, although Amelia and Kjolmar are apalled to learn that Gate Pass has falled and Eriel is appalled to learn that there is now a second Ragesian army marching through Shahalesti.<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>I could have sworn I'd asked the players to make characters with an attachment to Gate Pass.... <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite4" alt=":mad:" title="Mad :mad:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":mad:" /></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>The next morning, they head off to take part in the Tournament of Unity. They first run into a food vendor throwing coins and steak at a paying customer. Eriel, of all people, manage to chat him up and find out he's been booted from the kitchens. Immediately, the heroes start speculating about the banquet being poisoned.</p><p></p><p>Eriel finds horseshoes too easy, although Amelia has a lot of fun despite having a hard time hitting the pit, let alone the stake. No one gets terribly drunk, but that could simply because the beer is terrible.</p><p></p><p>Kjolmar, surprisingly, goes to sign up as a jouster, although he does ask if he has to ride the horse to joust. In the meantime, Amelia finds Gallo in the stands and tries to subtly hint to him that there may be something up. The message goes totally over Gallo's head, so she takes him for a little walk to explain their concerns. She then goes back to the joust and seeks out the Megadon entourage, chatting them up in hopes of determining if they're up to something. Instead, she ends up with a date to the banquet with Megadon's son. Meanwhile, Kjolmar knocks someone off their horse, advancing to the quarter-finals.<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>I can only assume that the heroes have a lingering hatred for Megadon after being mocked by some of their agents when they visited Dene's holdings. Amusing, in any case.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em> Maybe I was doing it wrong, but jousting turned out to be really dull -- Kjolmar won the first two rounds in a single pass, then got unseated in the semi-final just as quickly.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>Eriel keeps saying they need to find out if anything's going on in the kitchens, so Amelia eventually gives in and uses Disguise Self to pose as a scullery maid. She notices that there are small casks everywhere in the kitchen containing something being put into all the food. She manages to scrape up a sample of it and gets thrown out of the kitchen in the process. She then corners Gallo and, with the help of one of his clerics, determines that her sample is indeed poisoned. Gallo's appalled, and is at something of a loss, but Kjolmar eventually suggests that a cleric consecrate the banquet, cast Detect Poison as part of the ritual, and announce that everything's poisoned.<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>Now I've really done myself in! I liked the idea of sneaking into the kitchen so much that I couldn't resist giving a clue. I didn't notice until after the session that the food wasn't supposed to be poisoned until the last minute. Now, in theory, the whole poisoning attempt should fail totally. <strong>However</strong>, I noticed one little detail that might give me an acceptable escape hatch: Maddening Spirit. If Glibglammer gets hit with the Detect Poison, the cleric will end up getting confused and do something that gets him locked into the dungeon. The dinner can then proceed, but at least the heroes get some information about some magic that they might be able to tie back to her.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em> On the other hand, I'm not convinced that's plausble. It would make more sense if Nina or Steppengard were to have Gallo arrested before he can warn anyone, but then the heroes don't get anything resembling a reward for finding out about the poisoning before it should have been possible for them to do so. Decisions, decisions....</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>They go back to play horseshoes again. Kjolmar throws one hard enough to knock the stake out of the ground while Eriel goes back into Bresk to buy a bunch of antitoxin for everyone -- only to discover that all the alchemists are closed. They also discover that the castle cook's food truck had been shut down.<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>...but, strangely, neglect to inquire with any of the other vendors about what happened.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>Amelia decides to try her hand at the shell game, claiming she needs money to buy a new dress for the banquet -- and then wagering one measly silver piece. By the third round, she's convinced to wager a gold piece or two, just in time for the guy working the cups to palm the coins. They catch him in the act, and he turns over the coins, with surprisingly little acrimony from all concerned.</p><p></p><p>After the disappointment at the shell games, she lets herself get talked into a single round of the spell games. The sorceress from the Lyceum doesn't mess around -- she is able to cast two spells in quick succession before her opponent finishes even one. The second spell knocks her opponent out cold. The audience stands in stunned silence, and eventually thank her for her participation.<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>Beware the sneak-attacking spellduelist with Improved Initiative and swift-action spells! I'll have to decide if the mages of Bresk decide to bone up on their spelldueling or instead find a small hole to crawl into until the war's over -- that duel was brutal.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>The heroes catch sight of Whizbang, and are disappointed to discover that the explosions are over for the day. They do manage to tie together Whizbang's woes with Eriel's trip into the city.</p><p></p><p>As the heroes head for the exits and their final chance to catch up with Duke Gallo, a dwarven soldier from the castle sidles up to the group, tells them that the back end of the castle and the Book of Eight Lands are both unguarded, and then disappears into the crowd.</p><p></p><p>Gallo promises the heroes that he'll inform Lord Dashgoban and Lady Timor about their discoveries so that they may also protect themselves against poison and asks them to investigate what's going on, making sure to check on the Book of Eight Lands while they're at it.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Up The Castle's Hind End</span></p><p></p><p>The heroes make their way back into the sewers and run across the tragedies floating guard in the walls -- one of which briefly looks like Hrumbrand. Kjolmar gets severely touched by the first one without landing a single blow on it himself and has to beat a retreat. In the meantime, Eriel and Amelia let loose with their Magic Stones and Magic Missiles, causing the first tragedy to vanish forever. The second one pursues them out into the graveyard and, since Amelia is unable to outrun it, they have to stand and fight. It's at this point that Amelia realizes they all have healing magic. The tragedy and the heroes exchange touches, but the heroes get the final touch and it, too, disappears. At this point, Amelia observes that the touches' effects will wear off in an hour, so the heroes go to the tower overlooking the graveyard to rest up.<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>Kjolmar was down five negative levels -- yipes!</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em> Although the heroes didn't realize it, hiding in the tower was a mistake. By the time they're done, the parade celebrating the jousting victor will have finished and the nobles are starting to gather for the banquet. The timeline should be enough for Nina and/or Steppengard to arrest anyone who might interfere with their plans.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>The heroes make their way into the prison again and manage to make their way into the chamber Torrax used to make the Red Madness.<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>After the session had broken up, I realized that Amelia would know that the Book of Eight Lands should protect the nobles. She immediately began speculating on ways to keep the Book from protecting the nobles, including -- hang on, wait for it -- Rope Trick. This last section is just too easy, I guess!</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bill T., post: 7068250, member: 6795693"] [SIZE=2]Dramatis Personae [/SIZE] [LIST] [*] [B]Amelia[/B], a human spellthieving acetomancer [*] [B]Erielle[/B], an half-orc (formerly elven) archer ranger [*] [B]Kjolmar[/B], a dour dwarven dungeoncrashing deepwarden [/LIST] [SIZE=2]Tournament of Unity[/SIZE] Our heroes are dragged parade through Bresk and reach the palace. They listen to Steppengard's speech and their immediate reaction, similar the duke's, is that he didn't mention the Ragesians once in that speech. Anyhow, the evening passes fairly uneventfully, although Amelia and Kjolmar are apalled to learn that Gate Pass has falled and Eriel is appalled to learn that there is now a second Ragesian army marching through Shahalesti.[INDENT] [I]I could have sworn I'd asked the players to make characters with an attachment to Gate Pass.... :mad:[/I] [/INDENT] The next morning, they head off to take part in the Tournament of Unity. They first run into a food vendor throwing coins and steak at a paying customer. Eriel, of all people, manage to chat him up and find out he's been booted from the kitchens. Immediately, the heroes start speculating about the banquet being poisoned. Eriel finds horseshoes too easy, although Amelia has a lot of fun despite having a hard time hitting the pit, let alone the stake. No one gets terribly drunk, but that could simply because the beer is terrible. Kjolmar, surprisingly, goes to sign up as a jouster, although he does ask if he has to ride the horse to joust. In the meantime, Amelia finds Gallo in the stands and tries to subtly hint to him that there may be something up. The message goes totally over Gallo's head, so she takes him for a little walk to explain their concerns. She then goes back to the joust and seeks out the Megadon entourage, chatting them up in hopes of determining if they're up to something. Instead, she ends up with a date to the banquet with Megadon's son. Meanwhile, Kjolmar knocks someone off their horse, advancing to the quarter-finals.[INDENT] [I]I can only assume that the heroes have a lingering hatred for Megadon after being mocked by some of their agents when they visited Dene's holdings. Amusing, in any case. Maybe I was doing it wrong, but jousting turned out to be really dull -- Kjolmar won the first two rounds in a single pass, then got unseated in the semi-final just as quickly.[/I] [/INDENT] Eriel keeps saying they need to find out if anything's going on in the kitchens, so Amelia eventually gives in and uses Disguise Self to pose as a scullery maid. She notices that there are small casks everywhere in the kitchen containing something being put into all the food. She manages to scrape up a sample of it and gets thrown out of the kitchen in the process. She then corners Gallo and, with the help of one of his clerics, determines that her sample is indeed poisoned. Gallo's appalled, and is at something of a loss, but Kjolmar eventually suggests that a cleric consecrate the banquet, cast Detect Poison as part of the ritual, and announce that everything's poisoned.[INDENT] [I]Now I've really done myself in! I liked the idea of sneaking into the kitchen so much that I couldn't resist giving a clue. I didn't notice until after the session that the food wasn't supposed to be poisoned until the last minute. Now, in theory, the whole poisoning attempt should fail totally. [b]However[/b], I noticed one little detail that might give me an acceptable escape hatch: Maddening Spirit. If Glibglammer gets hit with the Detect Poison, the cleric will end up getting confused and do something that gets him locked into the dungeon. The dinner can then proceed, but at least the heroes get some information about some magic that they might be able to tie back to her. On the other hand, I'm not convinced that's plausble. It would make more sense if Nina or Steppengard were to have Gallo arrested before he can warn anyone, but then the heroes don't get anything resembling a reward for finding out about the poisoning before it should have been possible for them to do so. Decisions, decisions....[/I] [/INDENT] They go back to play horseshoes again. Kjolmar throws one hard enough to knock the stake out of the ground while Eriel goes back into Bresk to buy a bunch of antitoxin for everyone -- only to discover that all the alchemists are closed. They also discover that the castle cook's food truck had been shut down.[INDENT] [I]...but, strangely, neglect to inquire with any of the other vendors about what happened.[/I] [/INDENT] Amelia decides to try her hand at the shell game, claiming she needs money to buy a new dress for the banquet -- and then wagering one measly silver piece. By the third round, she's convinced to wager a gold piece or two, just in time for the guy working the cups to palm the coins. They catch him in the act, and he turns over the coins, with surprisingly little acrimony from all concerned. After the disappointment at the shell games, she lets herself get talked into a single round of the spell games. The sorceress from the Lyceum doesn't mess around -- she is able to cast two spells in quick succession before her opponent finishes even one. The second spell knocks her opponent out cold. The audience stands in stunned silence, and eventually thank her for her participation.[INDENT] [I]Beware the sneak-attacking spellduelist with Improved Initiative and swift-action spells! I'll have to decide if the mages of Bresk decide to bone up on their spelldueling or instead find a small hole to crawl into until the war's over -- that duel was brutal.[/I] [/INDENT] The heroes catch sight of Whizbang, and are disappointed to discover that the explosions are over for the day. They do manage to tie together Whizbang's woes with Eriel's trip into the city. As the heroes head for the exits and their final chance to catch up with Duke Gallo, a dwarven soldier from the castle sidles up to the group, tells them that the back end of the castle and the Book of Eight Lands are both unguarded, and then disappears into the crowd. Gallo promises the heroes that he'll inform Lord Dashgoban and Lady Timor about their discoveries so that they may also protect themselves against poison and asks them to investigate what's going on, making sure to check on the Book of Eight Lands while they're at it. [SIZE=2]Up The Castle's Hind End[/SIZE] The heroes make their way back into the sewers and run across the tragedies floating guard in the walls -- one of which briefly looks like Hrumbrand. Kjolmar gets severely touched by the first one without landing a single blow on it himself and has to beat a retreat. In the meantime, Eriel and Amelia let loose with their Magic Stones and Magic Missiles, causing the first tragedy to vanish forever. The second one pursues them out into the graveyard and, since Amelia is unable to outrun it, they have to stand and fight. It's at this point that Amelia realizes they all have healing magic. The tragedy and the heroes exchange touches, but the heroes get the final touch and it, too, disappears. At this point, Amelia observes that the touches' effects will wear off in an hour, so the heroes go to the tower overlooking the graveyard to rest up.[INDENT] [I]Kjolmar was down five negative levels -- yipes! Although the heroes didn't realize it, hiding in the tower was a mistake. By the time they're done, the parade celebrating the jousting victor will have finished and the nobles are starting to gather for the banquet. The timeline should be enough for Nina and/or Steppengard to arrest anyone who might interfere with their plans.[/I] [/INDENT] The heroes make their way into the prison again and manage to make their way into the chamber Torrax used to make the Red Madness.[INDENT] [I]After the session had broken up, I realized that Amelia would know that the Book of Eight Lands should protect the nobles. She immediately began speculating on ways to keep the Book from protecting the nobles, including -- hang on, wait for it -- Rope Trick. This last section is just too easy, I guess![/I] [/INDENT] [/QUOTE]
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