City of Brass: Author Playtest Notes

[bowbe]

Wound of Haruspex

So the PCs make the passage from the Lower Gut, The Appendix (Multiple Puns Intended) lead into the Great Repository. The PCs pass onward, cursing the Efreeti who sent them here, as it seems more of the same, and they have a certain fear that they are simply retracing their steps back into the Minaret of Screams a place they swear they NEVER want to return to. However if it does lead to the Repository, surely there is knowledge there that will help them on their quest.

Of course more than a few hope to find books that will grant them extra levels and bigger stat bonuses. With these guys go figure right?

Some distance inside they find the entrail beings which freak them out, looking like baloon animals made from intestine! The things do no damage of course but definitely set the stage for the horrors they shall see beyond this area.

Another short distance they come across a massive purple worm. More PCs swollowed whole, but Glandrin is ready this time and the fight is brief, albiet comical with people getting swollowed and having to be cut out from the critters corpse a few rounds later.

Finally they reach the end, a great cut in the gut and step out into a chamber beyond. An open book lays on the floor explaining the encounter with the humongous purple worm that they just faced. Evidently a wizard had summoned the being, only to become its first meal.

They open the door to the chamber beyond and find themselves midway up the tower on one of the side chambers. There is no bridge to cross to get to the staircase and platforms surrounding the center stacks, which are covered with brass bound tomes or the private stacks hidden within the central pillar.

The Psion shows his total worth to the party in this adventure as he manages to ferry those who cannot fly by other means (Like Ard and Elandril) across to the other side with psionic power. They get to the center stacks and I have them roll for a random encounter. They roll up animated books, so pretty much as soon as they start thumbing through books in this area the books attack, getting some free bites in before being destroyed.

I then have them roll for tomes of general knowledge and they find some books to stuff into their packs. Heading towards one of the central pillars they find themselves facing corpulent attendants and secret tomes protected by force cage. I admit being fairly ignorant of psionics so all i know is that the Psion used one of his powers to get inside the chamber ( i think by making himself really small then using a dimension door type ability to squeeze between the bars) I'm not even sure if this really "works" game wise but I allowed it because it was a cool use of powers and abiliites and was fairly FUN!

The attendants went down quickly but their stench had its toll on a goodly portion of the party, nauseating about half of the group. They rolled randomly for the book in the private stacks and i give them the book of sulymon the wise.

Leaving this area they explore first up and down the stairs examining more books and running afoul of their first Repository Scholar. This is a quick and bloody fight that is very nearly the end of one of the PCs as the Scholar casts imprisonment. Luckily Glandrin makes his save with a natual 20 and the scholar goes down, unable to get spells up quick enough to defend itself before the variety of massive damage brought to bear on it ends its day.

I will say the PCs spent a LOT of time exploring the area, and rolled for a variety of encounters. In the end I allowed them to find a book each to bump a stat of some sort, due to the sheer amount of time they spent exploring. I figured A: its high level play B: they are in a place that should have such things and C: they would need the help for the trials ahead.

They also managed to gain quite a few of the books of knowledge by repeating their forays into the private stacks. Once they were sure that they had not found the scrying chamber that hey were looking for they began exploring the outer chambers by repeating their psionic teleportations and flying to make it to the edges.

The first chamber they entered was the chamber of bones.

Intended as a place to read bone castings for augury type spells, they cast detect magic and note a strange reptilian ankle bone, which ard takes, and a jewel encrusted skull... which happens to be a demi lich. I admit here it was a LONG time ago, and i forget who the first person was to pluck it up... but no matter, they ended up in one of the gems in its head. (This version of the Demilich is the oldschool version). Maybe some of my guys who played in this section can pipe in and speak more efficiently as to what happened here! Needless to say Its second round was the wail of the banshee, and someone else dropped dead from that (Probably Konn). All I really remember was that Ard got soul trapped shortly after... and it took a combo of Rhy and Glandrin two handed power attacking their max to take the thing out! Luckily it didnt have a ton of hit points and its armor class was low.

Their two handed power attack damage was pretty huge like +24 not counting strength and magic items. I believe also that we had some question as to wether psionic damage was counted as "magic" for the immunity to magic. Again maybe one of my lurking players can pipe in here.

Needless to say it was a tough little encounter!

Later on I will go over some of the other chambers that the PCs explored in their search for the Scrying Bell.

Case

 

[Ard]

There needs to be more Ard time

Case,

I have noticed that you seem to like that treeworshiping pansy more than my Diabolical Archmagus. Make sure you dont forget the fun we could have had with that blasted sword and the diet coke of paladins Rhys (just one calorie). I plan on running CoB with my weekend group cant wait to run them thru Sets temple. I will have to say that we had way to much fun with this campaign. Being LE in a city run by a bunch of LE's is actually quite nice. I am sad that we did not explore as much as we could have. I cant wait to here your take on the rest of the campaign.

Ard
"You die, She dies everybody dies"

 

[bowbe]

Oh yes friends!

To be sure Ard was knee deep in diabolical themed wickedness. How to approach the depths of his evil? Could it be the time that during the battle with the giants in the square where the PCs were seeking to escape getting busted by the authorities for their inadvertant (or direct in Ard's case) involvement with the assassination of the fire giantess dignitary... that Ard coup de graced an immobilized giant with the very same butter knife that Glandrin had to borrow in the pyramid of set?

Could it be his unnatural fear of the sentient magical sword born by our Diet Soda Paladin? A fear that led Ard into contract with some "lawyers" who observed his activities on the day of the assassination? A contract that dictated he somehow find a way to destroy the sword and the wannabe paladin? Could it be how he managed to take the Mask of Ancev, AND the Horns of Curranos and trade both to these "lawyers" at the Basilica of Lucifer... oddly referred to by his new patrons as "Louis, Sifer and Associates?"

Could it be the ongoing plan he had to take Glandrin out of the picture so that he could get a clean shot at annhilating Elandril and Rhy? Obviously Elandril was getting suspicious of Ard's strange predeliction for the darker side of things.

Could it be that Ard took his reward, rented out his own posh suite within the city with servents and slaves to sacrifice while the rest of the party lived in relative squalor in the freeman's tower? Could it be that as soon as he was able, he began crafting clones of himself in a clone laboratory in his hideout and began outfitting his den of evil with devils and other guardians to protect it?

Could be.

Lest Ard believe he was the only one with plots and machinations going on behind the scenes... There were others.

I will do my best to explore these deeper elements of the story as the plot thickens!

Case

 

[bowbe]

Repository: Continued

Sorry for the delay.

So after the skull of the demi lich was destroyed, who should come across the gemstone with Ard in it but Elandrin. Of course he considered communing with his god to find out what to do with the "ard" situation as it was becoming for this one "truely good" character in the entire party.

But of course the other party members spotted him with the gem, and since most of them still belived they owed money to Ard, Elandrin was forced to cough up the gemstone and they quickly freed him from his prison. The dead were raised, made their con checks to avoid level loss and were on their way.

They next entered the chamber of balance where they found themselves faced with an angel and a devil who offer answers to debate.

The PCs asked questions of the angel and devil as to how to get out of the place, in-tact before they came across any more of the Librarians that they were pretty sure could punk them out if they happened to lose initiative against one.

They also wanted to know where and how they could find a weakness that the sultan possessed.

Both being lawful the angel and devil were in congrunce on a couple things.

First: Either going out the way they came or by freeing the antedeluvian prophets trapped in the book burning pit in the basement would grant them a wish that would allow them to escape the Tower was the best bet for escaping.

Second: That the words of creation held in the top level of the tower could help them to gain the true name of the Sultan. 2nd, that the gods would not be appeased of the situation on their home plane until Sulymon himself was brought into contact with the sultan but it would require visiting the scrying bell to figure out where he was located. I.E. trapped in the flask of sulymon somewhere in the plane of molten skies or perhaps within the city of brass itself.

Ard and Elandrin, now rivals, each snuck back into the chamber with private questions to ask of the angel and devil, basically about how to thwart one another.

Ard's plan was to somehow plot it out so that he could annhilate Rhy... by getting the "goodly" sword to turn on him, or by stealing the sword and giving it to the devil, and then charming or somehow mitigating the might of Glandril. IN this way he figured he could take the cleric by himself and have no problems. The devil suggested a course of action that involved a high amount of deciet... getting Elandrin and Rhy to murder innocents through use of charms and a veil spell... the angel pointed out flaws in the logic of the plot and the devil and angel had a lengthy argument that Ard walked away from with his own plans cooking in his head.

Elandrin wanted to figure out how to make an insanely powerful magical effect that pretty much turned him into a semi angelic herald of his deity based on a high level spell he wold soon be able to cast, and wanted to know if the words of creation could insure that it would happen that way for him. Figuring as a herald of his elvish deity, he would be more highly resistant to ards magic, he wanted to hedge his bets in the event ard turned. Likewise he wanted to know if it would be against his deities faith to strike at ard pre-emptively or if the gods had other plans for Ard.

The devil loved the thought of a pre-emptive strike and thought that would be a "GREAT" idea. The Angel thought the gods may still have need for Ard and that their reasoning was beyond the understanding of mortals... even elves.

The words of creation should help the elven cleric realize at least part of his heroic aspirations. Both devil and angel are in agreement, but the devil rationalizes that he will no longer be an "elf" so whats the point? This doesnt seem to dissuade Elandrin from his quest.

So the PCs were at a crossroads and decided to insure their way out before seeking the words of creation. They figured that if they had a way out of the library, they could spend more time exploring so that if they ran into something they couldnt tackle, they could simply skip out of the next encounter all video gamey style.

So down to the bowels they headed, but not before searching for more books, which they found in profusion.

I added a book at this point, wanting to have a bit more fun of my own as they rolled a score i felt appropriate to find a book.

This book was titled "The Dungeon of Certain Death" By Zag Yarg.

They pop the book open and an apparition of a stocky fellow with grey hair and beard appeared before them, and the book itself turned into a staircase leading to a tunnel that ended with three devil faces.

This next part is a bit funny. They asked the aparrition who he was and he mentioned his name was Zag Yarg and that this was his dungeon of certain death. A character (i forget who) asked him how long he had been in the book. The aparrition mentioned that he was bound to the book and to the dungeon and that any who chose to enter were forced to stay through to the duration, till their certain death, or they luckily found the great treasures hidden within.

So Rhy... being the genius that he was says "Isn't the magic from your book and dungeon tied to the book?"

Zag Yarg said "Why Yes".

Rhy asks "Did you know that the original books are all burned in a kiln in the basement after copies are made from brass leaf plates somewhere here in the library?"

Zag Yarg said "Why No..." Looking a bit puzzled.


Rhy goes "Well, I don't understand, if they burned the original book that you wrote, doesn't that mean your spirit was destroyed by the flames... how are you hear talking to us now?

Zag Yarg said "Good point their chum"

*Poof*

Book and aparrition vanished.

Rhy's jaw drops. The rest of the players throw dice and curse the players name. I laugh. Now... the magic would translate with the book just like any other book in the library but I figured if the character wanted to play outside his intellect and annoy the apparition of Zag Yarg... Well What would Zag Yarg do?

So they go on, descending into the kiln of sorrows in the defrayed stacks. They fight some enslaved fire giants, a couple more corpulent attendants and come to the kiln room, where they find themselves faced with a ton of fire elementals and mefits, chawing down on original copies of books.

SamQ2 busts out a wand he's been using with use magical device... ice storm, Ard charges up his staff with some cones of cold. The psionicist uses some cold elemental mumbo jumbo, and they basically freeze, freeze, freeze the fire generating beings in the kiln with the other heroes standing along the rim of the kiln, waiting for the elementals to pop up and attack and clobbering them as they come.

They free the antedeluvian prophets (yes this is an ode to the nebedcanezzer story, and the beasty boys song) and get a wish that will free them from the tower.

So they gain entrance to the chamber with the words of creation as they pass the scrying bell but cant figure out how to get in. Maybe the words of creation can help that out as well.

So they go in and see the pool of water, the angels and the golems.

Ard is having a tough time here because the angels pretty much forbid him from drinking the waters lest the golems come alive and attack him. This would be why the Sultan cannot use the words of creation to achieve his own quest. Ard feels a little screwed by this turn of events but hey... evil isnt always fair!

Konn on the other hand, hasn't really ever done anything evil and im not sure the guy actually understands alignments (due to numerous debates on the subject) and I had him already on a sliding scale more towards lawful neutral. He understands there is a chance of being utterly destroyed (a chance that gives most of the rest of the party pause to avoid drinking from the waters in the first place) because the save is higher than most of them think they can make.

Konn volunteers to drink so they can get into the scrying bell.

He drinks and learns the true name of the sultan (the key to getting into the bell) and avoids pure destruction.


Elandrin drinks, because he wants to be this wierd arm of the deity thing... sprouts wings, and changes his entire reality. Trick is, he thinks of himself as always being this new thing, gets a level adjustment to his character and everyone else can only remember him as being this new being that is somehow a servant of an elf god. (The level adjustment later becomes a non-issue due to a different set of circumstances).

The dwarf decides to take a drink, as Elandrin has been casting a spell on Glandril to make him Large from time to time in tough fights and he likes the feel. He gains the ability to grow large i think 3 times per day.

The party leaves and enters the scrying bell, looking for a way out. Konn speaks the true name of the Sultan and as he enters the scrying bell, gets a glimpse of The sultan. I read him a bit of the story of the sultan, the fable of the old sultan Ashurban and the Sultana and the he has an epiphany (Character/player style) rather than one i put on him by DM Fiat.

He tells the party that he can no longer follow a path of evil, that he has seen the face of evil and it is the Sultan and as bad as he's been in his past life, he is nowhere near the level of wickedness that the Sultan has. (He also gets some xp bonus).

The PCs are itching to get out of the tower now, and go study some tomes. They scry the exit and it appears in the wall of the scrying bell... destination the Freeman's Tower and they are out.

Untill next time

Case

 

[Obergnom]

Great Story... I just ordered CoB

 

[bowbe]

"Downtime"

So the PCs have some downtime in the COB.

So far they are "in the clear" and unwanted as far as they know though for precautions sake they begin to move around under a veil spell when out in general public area to avoid drawing undo-attention to themselves. A few of the Silaal had escaped in their battles within the minaret of screams. Things are tightening up with guard patrols and what not searching for foreign insurgents within the city and that is all that is said.

The sultan is determined that he not look as if he has failed in anything thus hundreds of foreigners have been publicly executed as have any who fail to pray at the appropriate times.

The PCs are in possession of the name of the Sultan... a powerful tool, and also in possession of knowledge as to the where-abouts of the flask of sulymon but don't know what to do with that knowledge. They spend a bit of time reading their various tomes to juice their stats and for a couple lucky dogs, to level up... though actually everyone managed to squeeze a level out of their previous forays.

They know that the bottle is held in a cavern somewhere out in the plane of molten skies, and have come into possession of another bottle but do not know what is in it other than it is magical.

So they start out by rubbing the new bottle and out pops a half djinn girl (soon to be played by my wife, who will be playing a half djinn bard named kitiara). Kitiara introduces herself, and creates a feast and gallons of wine to throw a little introductory party for the PCs who enjoy this bit of time to RP and get to know one another.

The next day they head out into the lower city in search of Tarbish or Chufa Um Sofanie. Rhy is still waffling badly on the paladin issue, and hasn't really done anything for or against becoming one, and is fixing to gain another feat (of course). Coupled with a good pile of treasure and it having been a week or two they want to check into their newly crafted goods, and collect several items from the bazaar of arms and bazaar of arcana along the way.

Once they get to the handmaidens tower however, their veil fails at the gate and they are confronted by two maidens dressed in white (as Chufa was) who asks their purpose. They say it is to come and meet with Chufa to discuss important matters.

Problem: Ard suffers a lot of damage the moment he tries to pass through the gate, and glandril suffers some damage as well. A powerful Forbiddance rune is placed over the entire area and he cant get in, nor can SamQ2. Leaving only the newly good Konn, Rhy, Kitiara, and Elandrin able to enter. The fact that Ard and the others cant give in raises suspicion in the party immediately against Ard. Glandril cant get in because he is simply too chaotic and crosses against the forbiddance on two scores... Chaotic and Neutral.

Elandrin can get in because he is Good and Chaotic, though he has difficulties, but is eventually given a "pass" as he is not evil and is an outsider.

Same with Kitiara, however kitiara has a "pass" for some unknown reason, unknown even to herself as she is playing her character with amnesia.

Rhy Neutral (good) trying to be lawful so he has a few difficulties, but Chufa had given him a pass.

They head in to meet chufa. She tells them of the Pheonix warriors and of the obsidian angel in the desert with his army of undead djinn and the carnelian idol. How these armies could be brought to play as a suicide squad in the city, should other forces come into play that could weaken the powers of the Sultan, such as the destruction of the burning dervishes, or the rebellion of the fire giant mercenaries. Mostly the freeing of the Azer plays big into her plan, but she admits, its a 1 in a million shot at this point, as the sultan has a pet elder wyrm red dragon and the only creature able to match it is the solar dragon the old sultana once had.

She also mentions a great relic of immense power in the city of the dead sultana, one that could slay the grand vizier or any other efreet who is caught in its deadly rays. Regardless, when the time is right, Chufa and her army will be ready to strike in any way that they can help. She admits that they are weak, but their band fights well together and could at very least hold a defendable gap for some time unless the sultan or grand vizier themselves showed up to face them.

She gives Rhy some guidance on becoming a paladin (which he more or less flatly ignores for the duration of his stay with the party) and they are on their way.

In the meantime Ard rus across his old lawyer "friend" again and heads off with the lawyer to a place called Louis Sifer and Associates, which is really an illusiory front to the Chapterhouse of Lucifer the lightbringer. Ard trades relics and books that were in his possession (being the wizard) in exchange for some bearded devil minions, and a closer relationship with the dark lord. He continues to plot and plan against Glandril, Rhy (his sword), and Elandrin because he is seriously P.O.ed about the whole not getting into the paladins sanctum thing. The progress on this front is to somehow get the paladins into a trap where they can be annhilated by lucifers minions and a plot is hatched to eventually do just that.

After coming back together the PCs set out into the desert... not having found Tarbish for some reason... he must be busy. In actuality tarbish is recruiting a seperate assassination squad for his own devices but the PCs have no knowledge of this at the time.

In the plane of molten skies again the PCs make quick progress towards the hiding place of the bottle. A band of so called rebels holds the flask at this time but have been awaiting word from their master to get it.

I concoct a level appropriate convocation of efreeti, giants, and the rebellious salamander princes from the text and others to flesh out the caverns of Abdul Shihab (as i had rolled the location randomly as suggested in the text).

I mixed in some traps from grimtooths traps for the dungeon which i built out of dwarven forge pieces i got as a partial payment for a book i did years ago and we were on.

It wasn't a big dungeon and with the party's numbers bloating exponentially (though we again lost the psion) The whole deal was over in about two nights between the RP from this night and the finishing up on the 2nd night. It was a good encounter with some good challenges when i managed to roll well enough on initiative. The addition of the bard with her song and buffing abilities on top off the impressive damage the party already dealt was pretty impressive. She managed to charm several of the giants and got them easy access into the lair, but was annoyed with Glandril who being chaotic always rolled a die to decide what he would do, and ended up capping some critters she had charmed rather than saving them to absorb damage or at least question and get information out of. Such is a raging mountain plated chaotic neutral dwarf in your midst... x10 worse when he can double his size 3 times per day! Hahaha.

The PCs became a bit suspicious of tarbish when they got the description of the guy who they were holding the bottle for, so decided to keep their capturing of it a secret. Several of the salamanders managed to escape into a lava pool... which much of the fighting was fought in or around... slipping through a dimensional portal that led to Rappan Athuk. The PCs did not follow! Almost too bad that they didnt, about that time I had got my copy of RA Reloaded in the mail... but it isnt like these guys dont side trek a bit already and throwing the weight of Orcus's minions into the mix with The Great Sultan, Grand Vizier, Lucifer, agents of the Pheonix Warriors, and a mess of angry gods (Set, Anumon) ... woo imgine that! As is, about 4 more factions get added before its all said and done anyhow!

After they finished up, they discussed their next move and decided that really the best bet was to try and take on the City of the Dead Sultana (which floats within the city of brass)because... there seemed to be answers to many of their questions there.

One thing was certain... at this point the PCs were fully embroiled in a half dozen major plots and they had made enemies and allies both powerful and in some cases mysterious. This was really beginning to become what high level adventure is supposed to be about! Drama, itrigue, and insanely powerful PCs! Well so they thought anyhow.

Case

 

[Obergnom]

I just thought, this may be among the best promotion one can do for an adventure/setting product... if you write another one, maybe you should write those Logs while doing the playtest and post them once the product is released as something like a daily feature...

they made me by CoB as my monthly gaming product for september and october...

 

[bowbe]

That is very appreciated Obergnom. I understand that the price is stiff on this product. Luckily most of the folks can find a decent discount on this side of the atlantic but I cant imagine how much more it cost you for it with gaming budgets being what they are! For once our canadian friends get a break at least since the dollar is currently about equal to the looney and Amazon.ca is stocking. Evidently WW's new owners have a better relationship with Amazon or something. Not for me to speculate! All is well and I am glad so many are getting a chance to pick this product up!

I have much better recollection of things that proceed pretty much from this point in the story forward. And you are right, I am trying to do a better job of noting the events as they unfold in our current game play and in future sessions. Thus far as the adventures have played out in the re-telling the PCs have managed 3 strongholds of evil in the City of Brass and the Introductory adventure plus side quests. They still have roughly 5 to go + extras before most see the end of the road... so plenty more posts on this as we move along.

I got a call from Necro to be prepared to revise 2 of my books that have been waiting in the wings since the rumors of 4e became more rampant (and definitive)... both are products that I have very strong attachment to! One of which I can say will definitely expand adventure possibilities for folks who play through City of Brass before making the switch to 4e and converting all their old characters over!

At least one of those two will have all the 3.5 stats available as a download as they are done.

That and my continued work on my own setting/adventures and rules for Castles & Crusades that the Troll Lords give me so much freedom in developing keep me pretty busy.

Next time: The arrival of Zack!

 

[carmachu]

Even at the sticker price, the product has been worth its price. Its one of the few out there that is.

 

[Tharen the Damned]

I understand that the price is stiff on this product.

For us Euro-Zone Europeans the EUR-USD exchange rate makes it relatively cheap. Though living in Ireland, I ordered my copy from amazon.com and got it, including shipping costs, for about 40 EUR. That is a VERY good price.