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
General Tabletop Discussion
EN Publishing
Bill T's WotBS campaign, reincarnated
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="Bill T." data-source="post: 7090120" data-attributes="member: 6795693"><p><strong>The mad king's banquet, at last!</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Dramatis Personae</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> <strong>Amelia</strong>, a charming human spellthieving (and spellwarping) 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><strong><span style="font-size: 12px"></span></strong></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 12px">Second Battle of Steppengard Prison</span></strong></p><p></p><p>Having heard some sort of innocuous activity behind the door between the store rooms and the guard room in Steppengard Prison, the heroes tried sneaking up to the door, only to hear someone casting some sort of spell. So, after buffing themselves up, Kjolmar yanked open the door. However, Torrax was ready -- he set the entire hallway on fire as soon as the door opened. Eriel let loose with her bow, only to discover that magical fire can be somewhat hard on arrows. Kjolmar pressed forward and manages to trip both Torrax and Serrimus, and the heroes eventually brought down Serrimus and incapacitated Torrax -- but not until Torrax managed to bring a column of flame down on everyone, including the unconscious Serrimus. Apparently, Serrimus knew too much for Torrax to allow him to be caputred.<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>Kjolmar got a 0 on a Move Silently check. Good thing he was wearing masterwork breastplate, rather than something noisy!</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I was a little surprised he used a pole arm in that scenario, and I probably shouldn't have allowed it. There really isn't enough room in a dungeon like that to swing something that long around, and that's why Kjolmar was able to trip both of the bad guys in a single round.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>While Amelia was the first to notice the prisoners in the prison, she lets Kjolmar and Eriel take care of them while she busied herself with stealing Torrax's spells. They immediately recognize Duke Gallo and his chaplain, and fairly quickly recognize the king's chef. Alas, the duke doesn't recognize anyone at all, including himself, as he is suffering from severe amnesia. The chaplain, on the other hand, refuses to leave his cell because someone <em>suggested</em> that he needs a full interrogation after he attacked Nina Glibglammer immediately after he cast <em>detect poison</em> in the banquet hall. Fortunately for the chaplain, Kjolmar was willing to declare the interrogation complete after the chaplain answered a couple questions. The heroes tried a few spells on Duke Gallo in hopes of restoring his memory, but nothing was effective. They eventually decide to press on to check on the Book of Eight Lands while they let the chaplain tend their duke. The chef decides to look for work someplace very far away.</p><p></p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>The Book of Eight Lands</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong></strong></span></p><p>The heroes dash up the stairs and enter the museum and antechamber for the Book. Amelia sees the honor guard defending the hallway to the room containing the book itself, and...uses a wand of <em>sleep</em> in him. Amelia's rash behavior shocked everyone, but the guard himself was so shocked that he didn't have time to utter a peep before Kjolmar hacked him down where he stood. As he slumped onto the floor, he revealed the writing on the wall that gave the ritual sentence for requesting permission to view the book.<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>This bit of play was pretty sad. Amelia had pulled out the wand in preparation for there being guards in the prison's guard room, and so she was fixated on using that wand, dammit. Mind you, they had done a very bad job of researching the Book, but, as the party face, she could easily have found a non-violent solution.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>So, they proceeded to go find the book, carefully uttering the ritual sentence as they walked past the guard's corpse. Surprise -- the book was nowhere in the room! Well, ok, no one was surprised, so Amelia cast <em>Detect Magic</em>, scanned the walls of the room, and then looked straight up into the 3'-by-5' magical square ten feet above her head. One quick human/half-orc/dwaren pyramid later and Amelia produced a rope hanging in mid-air. She climbed up, handed down the book, and then dashed down the rope and out the door to make sure her handy haversack, which she had been unable to bring into the room, was still there. It was there -- as were a half dozen guards looking at their comrade's corpse. "He, uhm, stole the Book of Eight Lands, but we've recovered it! No worries!" This puzzles the guards, but they are willing to follow Amelia into the room.</p><p></p><p>"See, there was a bad wizard, and he was hiding the book at the top of the rope to, uhm, do something bad, but we recovered it, so everything's fine now! Only, uh, we need to chase down that wizard" The guards, satisfied that the book was safe and the details are being tended to, remove their dead comrade.<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>What can I say? Amelia was having a hard time with her storytelling that day. Still, good enough of a bluff to get them on their way.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>After some amount of cajoling by the DM about the significance of hiding the Book and their recovery of it, the heroes decided to go find Duke Gallo, who happened to be heading up the stairs at the same time. He explained that Nina had turned into a giant mass of snakes and and attacked him. The heroes are now worried that everyone in the banquet will have forgotten who they are. Quick, to the banquet hall!</p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>The Banquet</strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong></strong></span></p><p>The Duke ordered the guards to let him into the banquet hall, stepped in, and declared, "That gnome is a traitor!"<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>Note to self: Only allow players to drive NPCs during combat. </em><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/ponder.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":hmm:" title="Hmmm :hmm:" data-shortname=":hmm:" /></p><p></p><p>"Traitor?! <strong>You</strong> slew my wife and my bright children! ...land I kill!!" exclaims the king. He whipped out his magic flail, knocked Lady Namin's chair out from under her, bashed her head in, whipped around to knock the chair out from under Lord Iz, and knocked him unconscious as well. Nina gleefully applauds the carnage.<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>A little Cleave, a little Improved Trip, and the eight lands are down two nobles, all in the space of a standard action.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>Amelia quickly responded by evoking a force globe that traps but protects the king. Our other heroes started attacking Nina, who eventually gathered her wits and turned into Madness, engulfed them, and was quickly defeated, although Eriel, unable to step out of reach, got bitten several times as she tries to shoot Madness with her bow (and attacked by a couple <em>confused</em> associates of Lady Namin) before Madness is defeated. As Madness collapsed into a pile of tiny snakes that quickly vanished, her lingering smile mockingly said, "I'll be back!"<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>I'm not sure engulfing was the best idea, although I was a little surprised that Kjolmar opted for -- and made! -- the reflex save rather than the attack of opportunity. She never did get a full attack in, let alone use her spell-like abilities. On the other hand, Amelia's quick application of the resilient sphere pretty much won the battle right at the start. With the king safely incapacitated and unable to order his troops, all that was left was to attack Madness and beat down typical noble who'd been poisoned. Sadly, I'm not convinced anybody understood that they'll be seeing Madness again.</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p>The king slumped and eventually started to weep. Amelia tried to organize people to make sure the king was safe before releasing him; it doesn't help that a few more proxies succumbed to the poison, and that Eriel pointed her bow in the king's direction on the theory that she'll shoot anyone who attacks him (like the guards are going to stand for that). Amelia dismissed the sphere, the king apologized to Duke Gallo, contemplated his crown, and threw it away.<p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>The adventure ends on a pretty sour note at this point. Eriel's player loudly and repeatedly proclaims, out-of-character, that the king can't quit, while Kjolmar and Amelia politely wait for the nobles to to talk Steppengard into remaining king. Eventually, one of them puts words into Gallo's mouth to the effect that the country really needs the king to unite them against Ragesia's treachery. And no one ever did make me a construction-paper crown. </em><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite7" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue :p" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":p" /><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em></em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em> A bit later, Amelia uses the </em>dream <em>scroll she found on Serrimus's charred corpse to give Simeon a full report. In return, Simeon sends a dream to the three of them, telling them that he needs them to proceed to....</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bill T., post: 7090120, member: 6795693"] [b]The mad king's banquet, at last![/b] [SIZE=3][b]Dramatis Personae[/b] [/SIZE] [LIST] [*] [B]Amelia[/B], a charming human spellthieving (and spellwarping) acetomancer [*] [B]Erielle[/B], an half-orc (formerly elven) archer ranger [*] [B]Kjolmar[/B], a dour dwarven dungeoncrashing deepwarden [/LIST] [B][SIZE=3] Second Battle of Steppengard Prison[/SIZE][/B] Having heard some sort of innocuous activity behind the door between the store rooms and the guard room in Steppengard Prison, the heroes tried sneaking up to the door, only to hear someone casting some sort of spell. So, after buffing themselves up, Kjolmar yanked open the door. However, Torrax was ready -- he set the entire hallway on fire as soon as the door opened. Eriel let loose with her bow, only to discover that magical fire can be somewhat hard on arrows. Kjolmar pressed forward and manages to trip both Torrax and Serrimus, and the heroes eventually brought down Serrimus and incapacitated Torrax -- but not until Torrax managed to bring a column of flame down on everyone, including the unconscious Serrimus. Apparently, Serrimus knew too much for Torrax to allow him to be caputred.[INDENT] [I]Kjolmar got a 0 on a Move Silently check. Good thing he was wearing masterwork breastplate, rather than something noisy! I was a little surprised he used a pole arm in that scenario, and I probably shouldn't have allowed it. There really isn't enough room in a dungeon like that to swing something that long around, and that's why Kjolmar was able to trip both of the bad guys in a single round.[/I] [/INDENT] While Amelia was the first to notice the prisoners in the prison, she lets Kjolmar and Eriel take care of them while she busied herself with stealing Torrax's spells. They immediately recognize Duke Gallo and his chaplain, and fairly quickly recognize the king's chef. Alas, the duke doesn't recognize anyone at all, including himself, as he is suffering from severe amnesia. The chaplain, on the other hand, refuses to leave his cell because someone [I]suggested[/I] that he needs a full interrogation after he attacked Nina Glibglammer immediately after he cast [I]detect poison[/I] in the banquet hall. Fortunately for the chaplain, Kjolmar was willing to declare the interrogation complete after the chaplain answered a couple questions. The heroes tried a few spells on Duke Gallo in hopes of restoring his memory, but nothing was effective. They eventually decide to press on to check on the Book of Eight Lands while they let the chaplain tend their duke. The chef decides to look for work someplace very far away. [SIZE=3][B]The Book of Eight Lands [/B][/SIZE] The heroes dash up the stairs and enter the museum and antechamber for the Book. Amelia sees the honor guard defending the hallway to the room containing the book itself, and...uses a wand of [I]sleep[/I] in him. Amelia's rash behavior shocked everyone, but the guard himself was so shocked that he didn't have time to utter a peep before Kjolmar hacked him down where he stood. As he slumped onto the floor, he revealed the writing on the wall that gave the ritual sentence for requesting permission to view the book.[INDENT] [I]This bit of play was pretty sad. Amelia had pulled out the wand in preparation for there being guards in the prison's guard room, and so she was fixated on using that wand, dammit. Mind you, they had done a very bad job of researching the Book, but, as the party face, she could easily have found a non-violent solution.[/I] [/INDENT] So, they proceeded to go find the book, carefully uttering the ritual sentence as they walked past the guard's corpse. Surprise -- the book was nowhere in the room! Well, ok, no one was surprised, so Amelia cast [I]Detect Magic[/I], scanned the walls of the room, and then looked straight up into the 3'-by-5' magical square ten feet above her head. One quick human/half-orc/dwaren pyramid later and Amelia produced a rope hanging in mid-air. She climbed up, handed down the book, and then dashed down the rope and out the door to make sure her handy haversack, which she had been unable to bring into the room, was still there. It was there -- as were a half dozen guards looking at their comrade's corpse. "He, uhm, stole the Book of Eight Lands, but we've recovered it! No worries!" This puzzles the guards, but they are willing to follow Amelia into the room. "See, there was a bad wizard, and he was hiding the book at the top of the rope to, uhm, do something bad, but we recovered it, so everything's fine now! Only, uh, we need to chase down that wizard" The guards, satisfied that the book was safe and the details are being tended to, remove their dead comrade.[INDENT] [I]What can I say? Amelia was having a hard time with her storytelling that day. Still, good enough of a bluff to get them on their way.[/I] [/INDENT] After some amount of cajoling by the DM about the significance of hiding the Book and their recovery of it, the heroes decided to go find Duke Gallo, who happened to be heading up the stairs at the same time. He explained that Nina had turned into a giant mass of snakes and and attacked him. The heroes are now worried that everyone in the banquet will have forgotten who they are. Quick, to the banquet hall! [SIZE=3][B] The Banquet [/B][/SIZE] The Duke ordered the guards to let him into the banquet hall, stepped in, and declared, "That gnome is a traitor!"[INDENT] [I]Note to self: Only allow players to drive NPCs during combat. [/I]:hmm:[/INDENT] "Traitor?! [B]You[/B] slew my wife and my bright children! ...land I kill!!" exclaims the king. He whipped out his magic flail, knocked Lady Namin's chair out from under her, bashed her head in, whipped around to knock the chair out from under Lord Iz, and knocked him unconscious as well. Nina gleefully applauds the carnage.[INDENT] [I]A little Cleave, a little Improved Trip, and the eight lands are down two nobles, all in the space of a standard action.[/I] [/INDENT] Amelia quickly responded by evoking a force globe that traps but protects the king. Our other heroes started attacking Nina, who eventually gathered her wits and turned into Madness, engulfed them, and was quickly defeated, although Eriel, unable to step out of reach, got bitten several times as she tries to shoot Madness with her bow (and attacked by a couple [I]confused[/I] associates of Lady Namin) before Madness is defeated. As Madness collapsed into a pile of tiny snakes that quickly vanished, her lingering smile mockingly said, "I'll be back!"[INDENT] [I]I'm not sure engulfing was the best idea, although I was a little surprised that Kjolmar opted for -- and made! -- the reflex save rather than the attack of opportunity. She never did get a full attack in, let alone use her spell-like abilities. On the other hand, Amelia's quick application of the resilient sphere pretty much won the battle right at the start. With the king safely incapacitated and unable to order his troops, all that was left was to attack Madness and beat down typical noble who'd been poisoned. Sadly, I'm not convinced anybody understood that they'll be seeing Madness again.[/I] [/INDENT] The king slumped and eventually started to weep. Amelia tried to organize people to make sure the king was safe before releasing him; it doesn't help that a few more proxies succumbed to the poison, and that Eriel pointed her bow in the king's direction on the theory that she'll shoot anyone who attacks him (like the guards are going to stand for that). Amelia dismissed the sphere, the king apologized to Duke Gallo, contemplated his crown, and threw it away.[INDENT] [I]The adventure ends on a pretty sour note at this point. Eriel's player loudly and repeatedly proclaims, out-of-character, that the king can't quit, while Kjolmar and Amelia politely wait for the nobles to to talk Steppengard into remaining king. Eventually, one of them puts words into Gallo's mouth to the effect that the country really needs the king to unite them against Ragesia's treachery. And no one ever did make me a construction-paper crown. [/I]:p[I] A bit later, Amelia uses the [/I]dream [I]scroll she found on Serrimus's charred corpse to give Simeon a full report. In return, Simeon sends a dream to the three of them, telling them that he needs them to proceed to....[/I] [/INDENT] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
EN Publishing
Bill T's WotBS campaign, reincarnated
Top