Clearwater Crusaders - City of the Spider Queen (Updated 17th June)

[Eccles]

Seeing that his comrades had this fight well in hand (as Aeron's Mace of Disruption destroyed the powerful creatures opposing him quite effortlessly), Halbrinn took matters into his own hands.

He decided that the first of the two larger groups of undead should be attracted, and drawn down into the fight before Aeron's many spells of self-improvement began to wear out.

He flew, on tiny pixie wings, rapidly towards the undead giant encampment, and then raised a small wand.

Lightning erupted from it, blasting into the goblins around the campsite. A cacophonous roar of thunder accompanied a terrifically bright flash of light, and goblins screamed and were flung asunder by the tremendous energies.

Backing away carefully, Halbrinn grinned, and readied his wand for another blast.

.oOo.

In the body of the cavern, more of the undead and giant forms turned to face the source of this second bolt of lightning.

Handlers whipped goblins towards the source of the light, whilst dozens of zombie giants and ogres turned and began to shamble towards the sound they had heard.

Up above, demons ceased circling the castle and dove towards the flashes, teleporting rapidly across the cavern until they were above the lightsource.

Giants, living and undead, began to close on the party.

And the tremendous form of the fire-wreathed balor came with them…

.oOo.

All the while, the watchers waited. Their orders as different as they were clear. One of them knew that the moment would soon come.

 

[Brakkart]

In the body of the cavern, more of the undead and giant forms turned to face the source of this second bolt of lightning.

Handlers whipped goblins towards the source of the light, whilst dozens of zombie giants and ogres turned and began to shamble towards the sound they had heard.

Up above, demons ceased circling the castle and dove towards the flashes, teleporting rapidly across the cavern until they were above the lightsource.

Giants, living and undead, began to close on the party.

And the tremendous form of the fire-wreathed balor came with them…

.oOo.

All the while, the watchers waited. Their orders as different as they were clear. One of them knew that the moment would soon come.

Heh heh, I love this. If they want to fight us, both sides are going to have to fight each other as well. If they want Armageddon, then we're about to give it to them!

There are times when I'm too devious. The party argued and bickered and no agreement could be reached on my idea of giving the password to the demons, so they and the drow/undead could annihilate one another while we sat back and watched, and then went in once both sides were weakened. Ohh no, the priest wasn't having any of that, no alliances with demons he says. So instead they fall for my second idea of "lets go up on a highly visible plateau at the side of a barely lit cavern and start a fight with the undead, pick them off in small groups". This after the gnome had already announced he had no fireballs for the day and me knowing he had a wand of lightning bolts. Plus he managed to achieve nothing in our fight with the ghouls, and knowing him, would be looking to prove his worth in this fight.

Lightning being fired off, in near total darkness. Bit like a strobe light at a disco really, even if you're not looking at it, you'll still see the flash. Bit like holding up a red rag to a bull! Sitting on their ass whilst the demons, drow and undead battle one another wasn't good enough for the Crusaders, so now we're gonna be in the thick of the fight instead. I still get what I want, just a different way of getting it.

 

[Jeremy]

And besides, wouldn't want one side or the other to win. This way you get plenty of say in who goes down when, and make sure everyone is down in the end.

And best of all... Full shares of XP!

 

[Brakkart]

And besides, wouldn't want one side or the other to win. This way you get plenty of say in who goes down when, and make sure everyone is down in the end.

And best of all... Full shares of XP!

Exactly!!

 

[Eccles]

Now that I’ve spoken to the others, I feel like I can say what I need to here.

There’s going to be no update for the time being, as our roleplaying ‘family’ has suffered a tragic bereavement. Rod Kick (who played Yvgeny) died this week, and we have all been far too stunned to do anything as normal as playing games. This may spill over for a few weeks, as we’re still all in a state of shock. We may use this message board to discuss our options and decide what we’re going to do over the next couple of days. As his DM, I feel it’s only really going to hit me when we next try to play, and this fellow of infinite patience, wit and talent won’t be there reacting to me.

I wish you could all have known Rod, who one of my other players and I described as in our understated English way as “a good bloke”; but he was much more than that.

Rod was an incredibly generous, loyal man who has always stood by his friends. For as long as I have known him, he has never had a cross word for anybody. Imaginative, friendly and giving, as well as incredibly hard working, the longer I dwell on it the more qualities I can think of to describe him. I only knew Rod for a few years, but my life is richer for having met him.

In terms that will only really make sense in a place like these boards, he was an amazingly together guy, and he always knew where his towel was.

God speed, Rod. Our thoughts go with you.

 

[Eccles]

Last week we played a short "meanwhile, on the surface..." game. The players rolled up level 10 characters, and I threw villains at them.

Having escaped from the group of gnolls which was threatening to eat them (the group started tied up and surrounded, but a stilled Mist Form followed by a fireball and 2 or 3 lightning bolts put paid to that), they group then took out the group of more powerful Zhentarim which was leading the gnolls.

Looting the slain for their cloths and armour, the group found a map with a meeting place clearly marked upon it, and decided to follow up on this clue.

They traced the 'X' on the map to the site known as "Traya the Forsaker's Tower" (where the Clearwater Crusaders defeated a possibly evil mage named Dyfed the Abjurer in times long past).

The tower was guarded by a pair of red-scaled dragon-kin, who eventually let the 'Zhentarim delegation' in. Inside the tower, which had been rebuilt, there was a large slab or iron, on which the group used a strange iron star they had found on the body of the Zhent cleric. The slab opened up into a large chamber, magically concealed within another dimension. Waiting for them was a towering draconic figure, flanked by a bronze dwarf and a dragon-kin. On one side of the table was a Shade, flanked by an ever-shifting silver statue and a human rogue. On the other side was a down-trodden looking human peasant woman, with a strange gleam in her eye.

The half dragon introduced himself as 'Dyfed Dragonkine', now chief emissary of Gran'Rath Tendathaloth (the huge red Dragon which wants the Crusaders dead). The woman was named as Irae Tsarran, and the shade was named 'Rand Stormseeker'.

This last caused a good degree of speculation from the group.

.oOo.

Finally, the last delegate arrived by means of a gate spell. A Prince fo Shadovar arrived, and immediately threatened to blast 'Rand' into his component parts.

The threat averted, a negotiation began as to 'how the Dalelands were to be divided after the Great Revenance'.

Irae Tsarran's view was that there was no greater vengeance on the peaceful surface worlds than to have evil overrun them.

Dyfed wished only to safeguard Gran'Rath's mountain range, but the Shadovari prince demanded Scardale Town from the Zhents. He offered to pay 100 million pieces of gold for the town.

When pressed as to why, he told the others that it was to be the site of a great conjunction in 3 years, where a powerful rite of magic could be effected by the Shadovar.

Which would plunge the world into darkness.

The party, trying to stir up dissent, accepted the offer.

The Shade vanished, and Dyfed tore the head off the peasant woman, who suddenly came to her senses and screamed at the last moment, as Irae's spirit stopped dominating hers.

The session ended as the various paries separated and headed off their own ways; the heroes decided to find someone in suitable authority and tell them that the Great Revenance must be stopped, and the Dales saved so that the world would not end!

 

[Eccles]

That's going to be the last update for a few weeks, as I'm off to Florida for a holiday, and 2 of my players are moving house. However, as I'm about to change jobs and will be moving away from the area in a few months, we're going to have to run a few extra sessions (and make a lot of progress!) when I get back, so we *might* just manage to finish a campaign for once!

 

[Jeremy]

Very, very sorry to hear about Rod. That's got to be rough.

I like the idea of the mission on the side as it gives an idea what is going on elsewhere, and it reinforces that the main pc's aren't the only people in the world fighting to set things right. Of course, secondary pc's are more fragile and expendable, so that's another fun dimension I might use.

 

[Brakkart]

Very, very sorry to hear about Rod. That's got to be rough.

I like the idea of the mission on the side as it gives an idea what is going on elsewhere, and it reinforces that the main pc's aren't the only people in the world fighting to set things right. Of course, secondary pc's are more fragile and expendable, so that's another fun dimension I might use.

Thank you and yes, still coming to terms with it.

Yeah and it gave me a chance to try out the Mystic Theurge class (which Nik/Eccles) was very much against allowing in any campaign after he read the 3.5 DMG. As it happened it didn't prove to be game imbalancing at all really, but then this was a mostly RP and little combat session, and Nik hampered us by starting the group on half spells. Even so, Presmer Stamaraster was hardly a dominant force in the group.

 

[Eccles]

Regrettably, I have to announce that you've had the last episode of the Clearwater Crusaders' Story Hour.

After 2 years and 13 levels of gaming (turns out WotC's maths were off in our case), we've had to decide to disband. My fault, unfortunately, as I'm about to take a new job in Southampton, and need to move house and life and everything.

A shame, really, as I'd just introduced all the backstory about what was going on in the meantime. If anyone has any final questions of comments, please put 'em in here...

For those who are interested, I'll attach the .doc files which contain the character details of the revenant army ravaging the surface (in case the PCs ever had to fight 'em), as well as the 'Dark Order' of monks and PC copies. Should prove to be a nasty surprise to somebody!

My final tally: 4 PC Retirements, 15 PC deaths, and an NPC pile of the dead tall enough to qualify for grant-maintained status...