Samuraicat said:
JD,
A high level overview would be great. I realize it has been some time since the tourney and details get fuzzy.
You'll have to forgive my gaps in memory, but as near as I recall, we started out at around 5th level. The characters were a shifter ranger (myself), a dwarf favored soul (Richard), a warforged fighter, a human wizard, a rogue, and a monk. The gyst of the tourney was to recover several lost, powerful dragon shards for a wizard that had hired us. The first session took place on an air ship en route to the southern continent to find the first dragon shard. While aboard, the ship was attacked and in danger of an imminent crash. The group had to defeat the boarding party and avert the crash. Once on the ground, we made our way to a dungeon setting where the shard was supposed to be. There, we clashed with several minor undead, a couple of trolls, and ultimately, an evil priestess and her warforged titan croney. We handled ourselves well, with the monk disarming the priestess of her necklace which allowed her to control the wft, and giving it to our wizard, who then took over the construct.
The second tier leveled us all by one, with prestige classes being added. I had a level of were-touched master, and I know the warforged had one of warforged juggernaut. I can't remember the others. This time, we went to an abandoned giant temple to find the next shard. There, we ran afoul of drow, and a cadre of hill giants, as well as a drider. In the climactic battle, we entered a misty, extradimensional area connected only by ledges, with a bevy of spell-casting drow on the far side guarding the shard. My character had an incredible jump check, and closed the distance in one round, followed by most of the others who had made judicious use of the sorcerer's fly spell. We bested the drow and took the shard, only to be confronted by a dragonne, and a half-dragon warrior who warned us of dire consequences should we return the shard to our wizard employer. Ultimately, he left us no choice but to fight him.
The final round had us each around 7th or 8th level. This time, we found that our employer had betrayed us and was planning to use the dragon shards for his own nefarious schemes. We tracked him to his lair, which was a labyrinth guarded by a young red dragon and several small fire elementals. His final abode was located on an island in the middle of a lava lake guarded by salamanders and a magma paraelemental. This one was touch and go, and we ended up losing the rogue and the monk. The elemental was beyond us, so our trusty mystic theurge lured it away, while my character once again jumped like a fiend to the wizard, followed by the flying warforged and the sorcerer. We had to fight off a couple of azers and a fighter type, but ultimately, we defeated the wizard.
I should point out, that it was made clear to us that should our characters rest at any point in one session, that our session would end. So, we had to guard or expedintures of resources carefully, and not get too wounded. Also, we were graded on whether we completed each overall mission, and several submissions within, as well as how many made it to the end. I think what nailed us the victory was that we were the only group to actually defeat the wizard, even though we lost two characters doing it.
)
