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MrPereira's WOTBS D&D 3.5 Campaign (SPOILERS IN THE POSTS)
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<blockquote data-quote="Mrpereira" data-source="post: 6884624" data-attributes="member: 6781484"><p>At long last the Trillith Reality let go of her evil hold of me, just long enough to make the next and quite long post.</p><p></p><p><strong>The party</strong></p><p><strong>Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 9 / Arcane archer 3 (I allowed him the feat Sword of the arcane order to qualify for Arcane archer)</strong></p><p><strong>Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 5 / Incantatrix 7</strong></p><p><strong>Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 5/Divine Crusader 3(variant)</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>NPC</strong></p><p><strong>Deena – Rogue lvl.7 / Fighter lvl. 5</strong></p><p></p><p><em>DM note: As written in the first entry I had given the players the task to keep a journal, partly because of the large amount of information and length of the adventure and partly because of the time between sessions. The decided that whoever wrote the journal decided the point of view. Typically it has been Killian’s task and his entries have been very subjective, which has led to quite a lot of laughs.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>We typically start each session with the author of the last entry reading it aloud – sometimes if there has been a very long break we read the entries of several sessions to recap everything.</em></p><p><em>The last couple of sessions, however, the journal had been neglected, so when I asked Killian to read the latest entry he said that he hadn’t updated it. I asked him to read it anyway, leading to a suspicious stare from him. He opened the journal, and would you believe it, there was a new entry </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>I had decided that I would make the entry this time, and of course it would be from my point of view – which in this case meant High Inquisitor Griiat’s point of view, where the defenders were righteous and the players were the wielders of evil and black magic. The players loved it, and by the end of this session there was a new entry made by Killian. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Before this session I had advised Gallion the read up on his backstory carefully, as there would be scenes in the next session, where his knowledge would be relevant, and a hell of a lot more fun if he just knew the answers and could pick up on hints without having to roll dices or having to spend time reading in between. Luckily for me he did just that.</em></p><p></p><p><strong>June 11 - continued</strong></p><p>The last session ended just after the fight with the devils, but before searching the area. This session began with the search. The first thing they find is a big black cauldron boiling with pieces of one of the hafling helpers in it. At the same time Grellfin storms into the room to help and to free his party member, but he was too late. They fish out the bits of Halfling and he wraps them in the cloak and brings back the body to his companions to give him a proper sending off. The party continues their search</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: not much compassion there, they didn’t even offer to come to a ceremony or later asked what was done to the body so they could pay their respect. They never said a word about it. Clan Millorn can’t have been too happy about that.</em></p><p></p><p>During the search they find a captured skeleton sergeant that attacks them and they quickly vanquish him. The only special part about this fight was that finally Killian had gotten his hands on a bludgeoning weapon, which helped quite a lot. He did feel a bit of a conflict with his religion, as his god’s favored weapon is the longsword, and he hates using any other weapon. However, the difficulties they faced forced him to make the choice and make amends later on.</p><p></p><p>In one of the rooms they find a cracked mirror, which activates some kind of scrying when Gallion touches it.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: Telling the players about a cracked mirror and describing how it was cracked led to a feeling of dread in the players of what to come. Some time ago we played a very good scenario “Cracks in the mirror” made for Kult system. The scenario was one of the best we have played and had a lot of atmosphere and underlying horror. I described the mirror as a tribute to that experience.</em></p><p></p><p>Suddenly they were watching something through the mirror, a Ghost watching other mirrors. Shortly after activating, the ghost turns around as if he feels being watched, and starts studying the players through the mirror, from the other side.</p><p></p><p>They decide to turn the mirror over, to break the link. A moment later they regret it and turn it back again, but the link is broken. They know what they are looking for but find nothing. They did however find the secret rooms, where the worshippers’ tribute was collected. They decided not to take any of the money.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: They do have respect for the gods, or fear my evil side enough not to press their luck </em></p><p></p><p>Having found nothing, they turn to magic, and succeed finding the healing stash. They decided to uphold the bargain with Lord Gorquith, as they see no other way of obtaining the password, and he lives up to his part of the bargain. He is grateful to be alive and he is very glad that Coaltongue is dead. He tells them that the rebellion will recover now that he is back, and Ragesia will have a fight on their hands. The immortal emperor is dead and the dead leader of the rebellion has risen from the dead as the savior and proof of righteousness of the rebellion.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: The obvious rhetoric and parallels to the story of Jesus Christ in his resurrection will no doubt fill the rebellion with hope, and maybe even create a new legend and worship. Did they make a new friend? Well that depends on how they support his story, if they start telling the truth about him being undead, he will hate them for undermining his powerbase. If they support his miraculous story, then they will have made a friend and an ally.</em></p><p></p><p>After getting the code word for the elevator, all that remains for the players is to wait for the elevator to be powered. They rest up, rememorize and gear up for the next stage of the exploration.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: As it turned out, I could have waited with levelling them up, but I wasn’t sure that they would wait the feeling of a time constraint I had given them. As it turned out it was probably quite a good idea as the next stage pressed their resources to the limit.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>I decided to skip the nightly assault, partly because I thought that Griiat would realize attacking the combined force of the players and the Clan would only result in a weakening of his forces with no real gain. The other reason is that I wanted to have a tougher fight upstairs as they would need a tougher foe with all their preparations. For that reason I had divided the enemies in groups, and added a few more skeletons, so there would be the sense of a lot of chaos.</em></p><p></p><p><strong>June 12</strong></p><p>After what seemed like an eternity the background sound in the castle changes slightly and they feel a silent hum in the walls. They agree that this must be a sign that the power is back on, and the elevator is working. They prepare themselves for a tough fight and then head out towards the elevator. Out of the blue, more specifically around a corner, a Ragesian knight appears, surprising both sides. The knight dies before he gets to react.</p><p></p><p>The party rush to the main entrance to determine if he was alone. In the distance they see a dust cloud, enhancing their sense of urgency. They determine that the cloud means that a large body of people is coming, most likely the Ragesian army, and they are pretty close.</p><p></p><p>They hurry towards the elevator and enter alongside Grellfin, Jorrina and Oller. The remaining members of the clan will hide in the pipelines or the tunnels. </p><p></p><p><em>DM note: At least that was the plan. In reality they didn’t last long before deception killed them off, and followed the party upwards.</em></p><p></p><p>Having learned the password they use it and the elevator ride is uneventful. Arriving at the top they see two doors, and decide to open one of them, revealing the mechanism for the elevator. They decide that the Ragesians most likely know the password, so they decide to take the time it takes to ruin the mechanism.</p><p></p><p>Satisfied that the elevator is out of order, they open the other door, revealing some skeletons at the end of the hallway firing arrows at them. Killian decides to charge down the hallway, triggering the Dispel magic traps on the way.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: With their many persisted spells I had doubled the amount of traps. Killian would end up being dispelled 4 times during the combat, each time losing a few spells, but was lucky enough not to lose the most crucial ones. Lucky for him, and probably also for the session as they managed to scrape by in the end. </em></p><p></p><p>After defeating the skeletons, and noticing the ones in the secret hallway, Killian notices the big dragon skeleton in the next room, and heads in to see what it is. The rest of the party had moved up to the end of the hallway, except for Shaith, who was halfway up hallway. Entering the Dance Hall he notices a plaque reading ‘Syana – worthy foe’ which he reads out loud, just as the doors open and enemies pour into the Dance hall, as well as from the other hallways.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: Killians actions triggered two things at once. First of all his mentioning of Syana led to a Gallion realizing a link to his backstory. Shaith might have recognized the name too, but he didn’t have the same luxury of being warned by me to prepare. Gallion is a Taranesti elf after all. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Second of all, entering the Dance Hall leads to a massive combat, in which the players are placed tactically very poorly. From behind them came the incorporeal undeads, and from the elite quarters came skeletons, led by some sergeants. All in all they were spread thin, with enemies all around them. I would lie if I said that they didn’t think I was unfair and that this would be the end of the party.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>I did pull a few punches regarding the incorporeal undeads, who just attacked the nearest enemy, which turned out to be the tiny white dragon, giving the party just a little more time to regroup</em>.</p><p></p><p>The odds looked bad for the party, and they did the only sensible thing, they eliminated the enemies in one hallway, to make sure they only had one front. Gallion, wielding the living blade as a bow, took out the tragedies pretty fast due to the ghost touch ability. Reddengot decided to vacate that hallway as he learned how vulnerable he was, leaving the party room to maneuver a bit. Luckily for the party Killian cast a spell at the very beginning of the combat, learning of the quickened effect on spells. This ensured that the enemy did not have an advantage at the very beginning.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: During the first few rounds of combat both Oller and Jorrina died. Grellfin lived a little longer but he too died during the fight, thereby ending the Clan Millorn alliance and deal for dividing treasure.</em></p><p></p><p>It was a very tough fight, taking a very heavy toll on their resources. Shaith and Killian were both all but out of spells when the fight ended.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: Griiat turned out to be a very capable leader of the combat, as he was the last enemy left standing. To think, that they could have ended the fight much earlier had they only concentrated on him early on in the combat.</em></p><p></p><p>Regarding the gravity effects I did not use it very much. It was too hard to depict with so many enemies and PCs/NPCs on the battle map -37 miniatures – and keeping track on who was on what wall.</p><p>In the end I only used it once or twice and played out the rest of the combat quite ordinarily. I used the debris to reduce sight, until Shaith fire a fireball in the area, pushing the debris to the sides.</p><p>Having vanquished the enemies, looting the corpses of friends and foes, they turned their attention back to the dragon.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: We have a miniature of a dragon just the size of Syana, that I placed on the battle map depicting Syana, so they had a sense of her size and presence. They were completely convinced that the dragon would come to life and attack them during the combat. They were so relieved that it did not happen… for now.<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious :]" data-shortname=":]" /></em></p><p></p><p>The dragon remains turns out to be the former defender of Ycengled Phurst, Gallion’s homeland. It has a visible effect on him learning that her remains are in Castle Korstull. He has always believed that the Shahalesti killed her, but seeing her as a trophy in Coaltongue’s castle makes him reconsider a bit. Did the Ragesians help Shahalesti kill the Taranesti or did they just take out the guardian?</p><p>Gallion tells the others that he would be happy if they could find a way to get the body out of the castle, she should not be a trophy, honored or not, she deserved better.</p><p></p><p>After talking a bit they realize that they hear some noise from the elevator, someone is clearly trying to get it to work. They clearly sabotaged it just in time. They also know that it will most likely only be a question of time before the Ragesians arrives.</p><p></p><p>They search the floor, finding the Pyre with the shadows in the flames and the sun chariot, the scrying room and the secret door leading the throne room. Here they find a mad man, mumbling to himself, scratching words on the floor. The words and sentences make sense in some cases, seeming to be words of prophecy. Some of the things seem to have happened, other parts of the scribblings make no sense, leading the players to conclude that it relates to the future.</p><p></p><p>In the bedroom they find the bloody bed and the empty holder for the torch. And finally they find the treasure room, finding more treasure than they can carry in one go. The one thing they did not find was the torch. With the Clan dead, the party loads up on all they can carry and go back to the madman to give him the cure they also found. </p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: They were out of options to detect magic and identify the items, so they took what they liked best, including the cheese; it intrigued them that there would be a cheese in the treasure room. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>For some reason I decided to let them have a guessing contest – what do you expect to find in the treasure room. It was a bit of harmless fun, or so I thought. As it happened Gallion had prepared well, so on one of his turns he said that he expected to find a black-bladed scimitar, something that would lead to quite a fun scene a little later.</em></p><p></p><p>The mad man turns out to be Darius, one of the Emperor’s bodyguards. He is crushed that he failed in his duty, and has no idea what really happened these last many months. He does, however, recall the fateful night quite vividly. He describes how the assassins were two Drow female and a man with a black-bladed scimitar.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: The look on Killians face, followed by his stare on Gallion was priceless. He was immediately wary of treason, not knowing what to believe, but expecting foul play from Gallion. Intrigue is always fun, especially when it leads to a little paranoia among the players </em>.</p><p></p><p>Shaith and Killian look questioningly on Gallion, who has mentioned a black-bladed scimitar before, but they decide not to bring it up in front of Darius. </p><p></p><p>Darius wants to get in contact with the Ragesians and the party wants to show him some things on the top floor to see if it triggers some memories. He agrees to do this first, as he understands that the Ragesians are on their way up, when the elevator is fixed.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I did not realize it at the time, having clearly been focused on something else, that they wanted to take him to a room outside the throne room to kill him. </em></p><p></p><p>As they head down the stairs they hear someone laughing. They see the mute Halfling slowly transforming into Deception, their old foe from Innenotdar. Even worse than this, they see him activating some kind of device and a life force flows into Syana, reanimating her, not as a skeleton, but actually building muscle, flesh and hide – Deception has somehow brought Syana back to life, and she, whatever she is now, is on his side.</p><p></p><p>In Gallions mind the creature is no longer Syana. That said none of them are in any way fit for a fight with a huge dragon. They run full speed towards the Sun palanquin, after Darius tells them to do so; it is their only way out.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: It states that the palanquin is powered by a soul gem, but I couldn’t see where they could find one or even know about it. Therefore I had Darius take the lead, both by telling them they could get out, and activating the Palanquin with a soul gem.</em></p><p></p><p>They jump into the palanquin, Gallion by the reins, and power through the “window”. Much to their delight the Dragon is very unsteady at first, and with their escape they expect to be able to power away at high speed. The disappointment is very obvious as they realize that the palanquin goes no faster than 80 feet.</p><p></p><p>On the ground they see the Ragesian army, mixed with Shahalesti elves, something that take them by surprise. They did not expect that combination. Someone from the ground starts to fly up, shouting for them to surrender and to land. Much to the surprise of the party Deena jumps out of the palanquin and flies straight down towards the army. At first they think she is attacking, but then they hear her shouting:” Captain Deena, Ragesian special forces coming in – do not shoot”.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I am not really sure what hurt them most; that she betrayed them / was a traitor or that she got away with almost 20% of the treasure Most of the treasure measured in wealth was in the bag of holding, which she did not carry.</em></p><p></p><p>Out of the broken window Syana shoots out, heading straight towards the party. Their resources being depleted they expect this to be the end. They notice the Princess Shalosha flying towards them, shouting for a parlay. They accept on the condition she flies to the, and not that they go to ground.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: It had been a long day, and we were well past midnight. Combining this fact with the issue of the players being out of resources, I decided that the fight with Syana would not be beneficial to anyone. The treasure loving Gallion even mentioned that he could live with losing their hardfought treasure if it meant surviving. That said a lot of the situation they found themselves in.</em></p><p></p><p>The party negotiated a truce with Shalosha, and the combined Ragesian-Shahalesti force killed the dragon, with heavy losses. Part of the truce was accepting to land the Palanquin and attend a parley in General Magdus’ tent. During their talk with Shalosha they learned that this branch of the Ragesian army is basically a rebel army, not accepting Leska as the emperor. That fact explained a lot to the party as to why the Shahalesti were working together with them</p><p></p><p>The players try to postpone/avoid the parley by telling that the firestorm could close any minute, as they were only guaranteed 50 hours, and they are about to be up. The elves seem unconcerned, as their specialists have determined that the breach will easily last 50 hours or longer than that.</p><p></p><p>Being out of options, they are escorted to the tent for the parley. The party is treated well, and with respect and are not disarmed. They do, however, feel that the status is symbolic and expect to be seen as prisoners. </p><p></p><p>During the parley they get to meet Magdus, who sees himself as the leader of the Ragesian branch that does not accept Leska as the new emperor. He has Deena as one of his aides at the parley as well as Darius, who recounts his story once more. Shalosha tells the players that the one thing that all parts of the conflict agree upon is that finding the torch is imperative. She proposes a deal where each group goes off on their own to be able to cover as much ground as possible. The party to find the torch is obliged to inform the others and there will then be a meeting to determine how to use the torch best and who should wield it in the fight against Leska.</p><p></p><p>All parties agree to the deal and the parlay ends.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: The players felt they had no choice but to accept. As to whether or not they will live up to their part of the deal remains to be seen.</em></p><p></p><p>Finally understanding that they are not prisoners they ask for horses and saddlebags so they can be on their way, which they naturally are given. </p><p></p><p><strong>End of chapter</strong></p><p></p><p><em>End of chapter: This was one long chapter, basically being a dungeon crawl chapter with a lot of fighting. The party enjoyed the chapter and the ingenuity of the castle. From my point of view I really could have used some better maps of the smaller areas, as it was a bit hard to portray to the party how the different areas where placed in relation to the others, specifically the chapel, the hall with Lord Gorquith and the rest of the ground floor. That said, it was a nice dungeoncrawl and it had a lot of interesting features and enemies.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>From my seat the one thing I disliked most was that it took so long to get to Darius and advance the story and plotline. That is not to say that it wasn’t fun, but somehow it could have been nice with a few more plot enhancers on the ground floor. It didn’t help that they only got to Lord Gorquith and the devils at the very end.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>I guess a party with a priest geared up for some real undead turning might find the chapter a bit too easy. Luckily I did not have one of those – Gillian turns as a level 3 priest, so he is basically useless that way – and I also had a party without bludgeon weapons for a long while, so I ended up having a group of players who had a lot of fun balancing on the edge several times. </em></p><p></p><p>And we are back up to date, with the next session coming up soon. </p><p></p><p>I am really looking forward to chapter 7; it seems to be one of the best chapters in the story, especially the third chapter. I have prepared special visions with the focus on each player in turn. These visions will reveal some secrets about the players, some they don’t even know themselves. The secrets will twist part of their backstories to be seen in a different light. I am sure it will be fun </p><p></p><p>Now the next issue is the Cheese they found… what to do with it? </p><p></p><p>I have decided to settle on it being an artefact giving eternal life. What it does is that the use must eat some cheese, making it an artifact of limited use. The user will sense that the body does not agree with the cheese and either have the body fight the effect like a poison, or will the body to accept it. (Will DC 35 to force the body against its will – otherwise it is a fortitude save DC 35 to avoid the effects of the poison). If the poison save fails, the user takes 3d6 con damage – only the strongest of mind and body can attain eternal life. If the poison does not kill the user, the secondary effect of the poison takes place. If the user makes the safe nothing happens. If he fails, he dies. 1 minute later the dead will rise again as a vampire – eternal life is granted.</p><p></p><p>Any comments/thoughts about this idea for the cheese?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mrpereira, post: 6884624, member: 6781484"] At long last the Trillith Reality let go of her evil hold of me, just long enough to make the next and quite long post. [B]The party Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 9 / Arcane archer 3 (I allowed him the feat Sword of the arcane order to qualify for Arcane archer) Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 5 / Incantatrix 7 Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 5/Divine Crusader 3(variant) NPC Deena – Rogue lvl.7 / Fighter lvl. 5[/B] [I]DM note: As written in the first entry I had given the players the task to keep a journal, partly because of the large amount of information and length of the adventure and partly because of the time between sessions. The decided that whoever wrote the journal decided the point of view. Typically it has been Killian’s task and his entries have been very subjective, which has led to quite a lot of laughs. We typically start each session with the author of the last entry reading it aloud – sometimes if there has been a very long break we read the entries of several sessions to recap everything. The last couple of sessions, however, the journal had been neglected, so when I asked Killian to read the latest entry he said that he hadn’t updated it. I asked him to read it anyway, leading to a suspicious stare from him. He opened the journal, and would you believe it, there was a new entry I had decided that I would make the entry this time, and of course it would be from my point of view – which in this case meant High Inquisitor Griiat’s point of view, where the defenders were righteous and the players were the wielders of evil and black magic. The players loved it, and by the end of this session there was a new entry made by Killian. Before this session I had advised Gallion the read up on his backstory carefully, as there would be scenes in the next session, where his knowledge would be relevant, and a hell of a lot more fun if he just knew the answers and could pick up on hints without having to roll dices or having to spend time reading in between. Luckily for me he did just that.[/I] [B]June 11 - continued[/B] The last session ended just after the fight with the devils, but before searching the area. This session began with the search. The first thing they find is a big black cauldron boiling with pieces of one of the hafling helpers in it. At the same time Grellfin storms into the room to help and to free his party member, but he was too late. They fish out the bits of Halfling and he wraps them in the cloak and brings back the body to his companions to give him a proper sending off. The party continues their search [I]DM note: not much compassion there, they didn’t even offer to come to a ceremony or later asked what was done to the body so they could pay their respect. They never said a word about it. Clan Millorn can’t have been too happy about that.[/I] During the search they find a captured skeleton sergeant that attacks them and they quickly vanquish him. The only special part about this fight was that finally Killian had gotten his hands on a bludgeoning weapon, which helped quite a lot. He did feel a bit of a conflict with his religion, as his god’s favored weapon is the longsword, and he hates using any other weapon. However, the difficulties they faced forced him to make the choice and make amends later on. In one of the rooms they find a cracked mirror, which activates some kind of scrying when Gallion touches it. [I]DM note: Telling the players about a cracked mirror and describing how it was cracked led to a feeling of dread in the players of what to come. Some time ago we played a very good scenario “Cracks in the mirror” made for Kult system. The scenario was one of the best we have played and had a lot of atmosphere and underlying horror. I described the mirror as a tribute to that experience.[/I] Suddenly they were watching something through the mirror, a Ghost watching other mirrors. Shortly after activating, the ghost turns around as if he feels being watched, and starts studying the players through the mirror, from the other side. They decide to turn the mirror over, to break the link. A moment later they regret it and turn it back again, but the link is broken. They know what they are looking for but find nothing. They did however find the secret rooms, where the worshippers’ tribute was collected. They decided not to take any of the money. [I]DM note: They do have respect for the gods, or fear my evil side enough not to press their luck [/I] Having found nothing, they turn to magic, and succeed finding the healing stash. They decided to uphold the bargain with Lord Gorquith, as they see no other way of obtaining the password, and he lives up to his part of the bargain. He is grateful to be alive and he is very glad that Coaltongue is dead. He tells them that the rebellion will recover now that he is back, and Ragesia will have a fight on their hands. The immortal emperor is dead and the dead leader of the rebellion has risen from the dead as the savior and proof of righteousness of the rebellion. [I]DM note: The obvious rhetoric and parallels to the story of Jesus Christ in his resurrection will no doubt fill the rebellion with hope, and maybe even create a new legend and worship. Did they make a new friend? Well that depends on how they support his story, if they start telling the truth about him being undead, he will hate them for undermining his powerbase. If they support his miraculous story, then they will have made a friend and an ally.[/I] After getting the code word for the elevator, all that remains for the players is to wait for the elevator to be powered. They rest up, rememorize and gear up for the next stage of the exploration. [I]DM note: As it turned out, I could have waited with levelling them up, but I wasn’t sure that they would wait the feeling of a time constraint I had given them. As it turned out it was probably quite a good idea as the next stage pressed their resources to the limit. I decided to skip the nightly assault, partly because I thought that Griiat would realize attacking the combined force of the players and the Clan would only result in a weakening of his forces with no real gain. The other reason is that I wanted to have a tougher fight upstairs as they would need a tougher foe with all their preparations. For that reason I had divided the enemies in groups, and added a few more skeletons, so there would be the sense of a lot of chaos.[/I] [B]June 12[/B] After what seemed like an eternity the background sound in the castle changes slightly and they feel a silent hum in the walls. They agree that this must be a sign that the power is back on, and the elevator is working. They prepare themselves for a tough fight and then head out towards the elevator. Out of the blue, more specifically around a corner, a Ragesian knight appears, surprising both sides. The knight dies before he gets to react. The party rush to the main entrance to determine if he was alone. In the distance they see a dust cloud, enhancing their sense of urgency. They determine that the cloud means that a large body of people is coming, most likely the Ragesian army, and they are pretty close. They hurry towards the elevator and enter alongside Grellfin, Jorrina and Oller. The remaining members of the clan will hide in the pipelines or the tunnels. [I]DM note: At least that was the plan. In reality they didn’t last long before deception killed them off, and followed the party upwards.[/I] Having learned the password they use it and the elevator ride is uneventful. Arriving at the top they see two doors, and decide to open one of them, revealing the mechanism for the elevator. They decide that the Ragesians most likely know the password, so they decide to take the time it takes to ruin the mechanism. Satisfied that the elevator is out of order, they open the other door, revealing some skeletons at the end of the hallway firing arrows at them. Killian decides to charge down the hallway, triggering the Dispel magic traps on the way. [I]DM Note: With their many persisted spells I had doubled the amount of traps. Killian would end up being dispelled 4 times during the combat, each time losing a few spells, but was lucky enough not to lose the most crucial ones. Lucky for him, and probably also for the session as they managed to scrape by in the end. [/I] After defeating the skeletons, and noticing the ones in the secret hallway, Killian notices the big dragon skeleton in the next room, and heads in to see what it is. The rest of the party had moved up to the end of the hallway, except for Shaith, who was halfway up hallway. Entering the Dance Hall he notices a plaque reading ‘Syana – worthy foe’ which he reads out loud, just as the doors open and enemies pour into the Dance hall, as well as from the other hallways. [I]DM Note: Killians actions triggered two things at once. First of all his mentioning of Syana led to a Gallion realizing a link to his backstory. Shaith might have recognized the name too, but he didn’t have the same luxury of being warned by me to prepare. Gallion is a Taranesti elf after all. Second of all, entering the Dance Hall leads to a massive combat, in which the players are placed tactically very poorly. From behind them came the incorporeal undeads, and from the elite quarters came skeletons, led by some sergeants. All in all they were spread thin, with enemies all around them. I would lie if I said that they didn’t think I was unfair and that this would be the end of the party. I did pull a few punches regarding the incorporeal undeads, who just attacked the nearest enemy, which turned out to be the tiny white dragon, giving the party just a little more time to regroup[/I]. The odds looked bad for the party, and they did the only sensible thing, they eliminated the enemies in one hallway, to make sure they only had one front. Gallion, wielding the living blade as a bow, took out the tragedies pretty fast due to the ghost touch ability. Reddengot decided to vacate that hallway as he learned how vulnerable he was, leaving the party room to maneuver a bit. Luckily for the party Killian cast a spell at the very beginning of the combat, learning of the quickened effect on spells. This ensured that the enemy did not have an advantage at the very beginning. [I]DM note: During the first few rounds of combat both Oller and Jorrina died. Grellfin lived a little longer but he too died during the fight, thereby ending the Clan Millorn alliance and deal for dividing treasure.[/I] It was a very tough fight, taking a very heavy toll on their resources. Shaith and Killian were both all but out of spells when the fight ended. [I]DM Note: Griiat turned out to be a very capable leader of the combat, as he was the last enemy left standing. To think, that they could have ended the fight much earlier had they only concentrated on him early on in the combat.[/I] Regarding the gravity effects I did not use it very much. It was too hard to depict with so many enemies and PCs/NPCs on the battle map -37 miniatures – and keeping track on who was on what wall. In the end I only used it once or twice and played out the rest of the combat quite ordinarily. I used the debris to reduce sight, until Shaith fire a fireball in the area, pushing the debris to the sides. Having vanquished the enemies, looting the corpses of friends and foes, they turned their attention back to the dragon. [I]DM note: We have a miniature of a dragon just the size of Syana, that I placed on the battle map depicting Syana, so they had a sense of her size and presence. They were completely convinced that the dragon would come to life and attack them during the combat. They were so relieved that it did not happen… for now.:][/I] The dragon remains turns out to be the former defender of Ycengled Phurst, Gallion’s homeland. It has a visible effect on him learning that her remains are in Castle Korstull. He has always believed that the Shahalesti killed her, but seeing her as a trophy in Coaltongue’s castle makes him reconsider a bit. Did the Ragesians help Shahalesti kill the Taranesti or did they just take out the guardian? Gallion tells the others that he would be happy if they could find a way to get the body out of the castle, she should not be a trophy, honored or not, she deserved better. After talking a bit they realize that they hear some noise from the elevator, someone is clearly trying to get it to work. They clearly sabotaged it just in time. They also know that it will most likely only be a question of time before the Ragesians arrives. They search the floor, finding the Pyre with the shadows in the flames and the sun chariot, the scrying room and the secret door leading the throne room. Here they find a mad man, mumbling to himself, scratching words on the floor. The words and sentences make sense in some cases, seeming to be words of prophecy. Some of the things seem to have happened, other parts of the scribblings make no sense, leading the players to conclude that it relates to the future. In the bedroom they find the bloody bed and the empty holder for the torch. And finally they find the treasure room, finding more treasure than they can carry in one go. The one thing they did not find was the torch. With the Clan dead, the party loads up on all they can carry and go back to the madman to give him the cure they also found. [I]DM Note: They were out of options to detect magic and identify the items, so they took what they liked best, including the cheese; it intrigued them that there would be a cheese in the treasure room. For some reason I decided to let them have a guessing contest – what do you expect to find in the treasure room. It was a bit of harmless fun, or so I thought. As it happened Gallion had prepared well, so on one of his turns he said that he expected to find a black-bladed scimitar, something that would lead to quite a fun scene a little later.[/I] The mad man turns out to be Darius, one of the Emperor’s bodyguards. He is crushed that he failed in his duty, and has no idea what really happened these last many months. He does, however, recall the fateful night quite vividly. He describes how the assassins were two Drow female and a man with a black-bladed scimitar. [I]DM Note: The look on Killians face, followed by his stare on Gallion was priceless. He was immediately wary of treason, not knowing what to believe, but expecting foul play from Gallion. Intrigue is always fun, especially when it leads to a little paranoia among the players [/I]. Shaith and Killian look questioningly on Gallion, who has mentioned a black-bladed scimitar before, but they decide not to bring it up in front of Darius. Darius wants to get in contact with the Ragesians and the party wants to show him some things on the top floor to see if it triggers some memories. He agrees to do this first, as he understands that the Ragesians are on their way up, when the elevator is fixed. [I]DM Note: I did not realize it at the time, having clearly been focused on something else, that they wanted to take him to a room outside the throne room to kill him. [/I] As they head down the stairs they hear someone laughing. They see the mute Halfling slowly transforming into Deception, their old foe from Innenotdar. Even worse than this, they see him activating some kind of device and a life force flows into Syana, reanimating her, not as a skeleton, but actually building muscle, flesh and hide – Deception has somehow brought Syana back to life, and she, whatever she is now, is on his side. In Gallions mind the creature is no longer Syana. That said none of them are in any way fit for a fight with a huge dragon. They run full speed towards the Sun palanquin, after Darius tells them to do so; it is their only way out. [I]DM Note: It states that the palanquin is powered by a soul gem, but I couldn’t see where they could find one or even know about it. Therefore I had Darius take the lead, both by telling them they could get out, and activating the Palanquin with a soul gem.[/I] They jump into the palanquin, Gallion by the reins, and power through the “window”. Much to their delight the Dragon is very unsteady at first, and with their escape they expect to be able to power away at high speed. The disappointment is very obvious as they realize that the palanquin goes no faster than 80 feet. On the ground they see the Ragesian army, mixed with Shahalesti elves, something that take them by surprise. They did not expect that combination. Someone from the ground starts to fly up, shouting for them to surrender and to land. Much to the surprise of the party Deena jumps out of the palanquin and flies straight down towards the army. At first they think she is attacking, but then they hear her shouting:” Captain Deena, Ragesian special forces coming in – do not shoot”. [I]DM Note: I am not really sure what hurt them most; that she betrayed them / was a traitor or that she got away with almost 20% of the treasure Most of the treasure measured in wealth was in the bag of holding, which she did not carry.[/I] Out of the broken window Syana shoots out, heading straight towards the party. Their resources being depleted they expect this to be the end. They notice the Princess Shalosha flying towards them, shouting for a parlay. They accept on the condition she flies to the, and not that they go to ground. [I]DM Note: It had been a long day, and we were well past midnight. Combining this fact with the issue of the players being out of resources, I decided that the fight with Syana would not be beneficial to anyone. The treasure loving Gallion even mentioned that he could live with losing their hardfought treasure if it meant surviving. That said a lot of the situation they found themselves in.[/I] The party negotiated a truce with Shalosha, and the combined Ragesian-Shahalesti force killed the dragon, with heavy losses. Part of the truce was accepting to land the Palanquin and attend a parley in General Magdus’ tent. During their talk with Shalosha they learned that this branch of the Ragesian army is basically a rebel army, not accepting Leska as the emperor. That fact explained a lot to the party as to why the Shahalesti were working together with them The players try to postpone/avoid the parley by telling that the firestorm could close any minute, as they were only guaranteed 50 hours, and they are about to be up. The elves seem unconcerned, as their specialists have determined that the breach will easily last 50 hours or longer than that. Being out of options, they are escorted to the tent for the parley. The party is treated well, and with respect and are not disarmed. They do, however, feel that the status is symbolic and expect to be seen as prisoners. During the parley they get to meet Magdus, who sees himself as the leader of the Ragesian branch that does not accept Leska as the new emperor. He has Deena as one of his aides at the parley as well as Darius, who recounts his story once more. Shalosha tells the players that the one thing that all parts of the conflict agree upon is that finding the torch is imperative. She proposes a deal where each group goes off on their own to be able to cover as much ground as possible. The party to find the torch is obliged to inform the others and there will then be a meeting to determine how to use the torch best and who should wield it in the fight against Leska. All parties agree to the deal and the parlay ends. [I]DM Note: The players felt they had no choice but to accept. As to whether or not they will live up to their part of the deal remains to be seen.[/I] Finally understanding that they are not prisoners they ask for horses and saddlebags so they can be on their way, which they naturally are given. [B]End of chapter[/B] [I]End of chapter: This was one long chapter, basically being a dungeon crawl chapter with a lot of fighting. The party enjoyed the chapter and the ingenuity of the castle. From my point of view I really could have used some better maps of the smaller areas, as it was a bit hard to portray to the party how the different areas where placed in relation to the others, specifically the chapel, the hall with Lord Gorquith and the rest of the ground floor. That said, it was a nice dungeoncrawl and it had a lot of interesting features and enemies. From my seat the one thing I disliked most was that it took so long to get to Darius and advance the story and plotline. That is not to say that it wasn’t fun, but somehow it could have been nice with a few more plot enhancers on the ground floor. It didn’t help that they only got to Lord Gorquith and the devils at the very end. I guess a party with a priest geared up for some real undead turning might find the chapter a bit too easy. Luckily I did not have one of those – Gillian turns as a level 3 priest, so he is basically useless that way – and I also had a party without bludgeon weapons for a long while, so I ended up having a group of players who had a lot of fun balancing on the edge several times. [/I] And we are back up to date, with the next session coming up soon. I am really looking forward to chapter 7; it seems to be one of the best chapters in the story, especially the third chapter. I have prepared special visions with the focus on each player in turn. These visions will reveal some secrets about the players, some they don’t even know themselves. The secrets will twist part of their backstories to be seen in a different light. I am sure it will be fun Now the next issue is the Cheese they found… what to do with it? I have decided to settle on it being an artefact giving eternal life. What it does is that the use must eat some cheese, making it an artifact of limited use. The user will sense that the body does not agree with the cheese and either have the body fight the effect like a poison, or will the body to accept it. (Will DC 35 to force the body against its will – otherwise it is a fortitude save DC 35 to avoid the effects of the poison). If the poison save fails, the user takes 3d6 con damage – only the strongest of mind and body can attain eternal life. If the poison does not kill the user, the secondary effect of the poison takes place. If the user makes the safe nothing happens. If he fails, he dies. 1 minute later the dead will rise again as a vampire – eternal life is granted. Any comments/thoughts about this idea for the cheese? [/QUOTE]
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MrPereira's WOTBS D&D 3.5 Campaign (SPOILERS IN THE POSTS)
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