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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: 6980589" data-attributes="member: 6781484"><p>I finally got around to write up one of the sessions I am behind in posting here. It was the first of three sessions in chapter 8, a chapter that took a lot of hours to get through due to the big combats, specially at the eye and at the end at the obelisk.<strong></strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>The party</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 5 / Rogue 2 / Assasin 8</strong></p><p><strong>Shaith – Fire elf Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/Druid 5/Arcane Hierophant 9</strong></p><p><strong>Killian – Human Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Mystic theurge 10 / frost mage 1</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>NPC</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Lieutenant Waxillian Ricky – Paladin 15</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>July 12</strong></p><p>The party is invited to the next meeting of the war council, which will take place in a few days’ time. In the meantime they spend their time selling loot and stocking up on items and spells. </p><p></p><p><strong>July 13 </strong></p><p>More of the same</p><p></p><p><strong>July 14</strong></p><p>The day of the war council arrives and the party joins the other participants in the meeting room.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I had prepared this well in advance, by giving out the players their parts. Each character had a heading with their traits and descriptions. They also had entries showing what the general idea of their speaking part was for each entry. I had written it as openly as possible, only impressing on them if some sentences had to be said and what was essential to say. Finally I had noted what number entry theirs were, and who was speaking at the previous entry so they would be ready to step in keeping the dialogue going.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>I had made sure that none of the players had two speaking parts in a row, so they did not have to reply to their own parts. The part of Pilus was hidden from the other two by referring to the Ostalin representative as the previous speaker, although Galion might have guessed as he had the part of the two monks who summon him through the mask.</em></p><p><em>All in all it was a 25 A4 page long script and it worked like a charm once again. The players enjoyed the challenge and it also ensured that they did not miss anything vital by being distracted by my long monologue. </em></p><p></p><p>Like at the previous council Lyceum were presented by the Headmaster Simeon and Kiernan Stekart. This time they were also represented by Haddin. The different nations, Dassen, Sindaire and Ostalin were represented as well. However, the Ostalin ambassador was flanked by two monks from the Monastery of the Two winds. On top of those participants one more person was present at the council, Drakus Coaltongue.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I made some few alterations to the war council as written. Haddin was thrown in as the party loathes him. I have been making him an important part of the resistance and the man behind the effort to break the secret code. He has found a cause to dedicate his life to again, and is now deputy headmaster of Lyceum. I also had Coaltongue play an active role in the discussion and thereby having a few more roles to fill out the gaps that might have been between speaking characters.</em></p><p></p><p>First up, Headmaster Simeon wanted to honor some of the big contributors to the cause. The first was Haddin, for breaking the code.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: In their papers it said to applaud when award was given. They did it, but not without throwing in some jibes </em><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Haddin was also given the honor of having an award named after him.</p><p></p><p>Second up the players were to be honored for their part and getting the torch.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: Since so much of this chapter reminds me of Star Wars I decided that we might as well have a scene where the heroes are given medals, like at the end of ‘A new hope’ – well with a lot fewer people applauding. I even considered putting on the music from that scene, but never got around to it.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p>The players are then called up to the headmaster and presented with the ‘Haddin Pin’</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: This was a bit of an internal joke. Shaith has a saying in Danish which is ‘Hattenål’ (meaning hat pin) that he uses when he wants to say that someone is an idiot. So I gave them the Haddin pin, which in Danish would be ‘Haddin nål’ which sounds close to hat pin and basically is rubbing it in their faces <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite6" alt=":cool:" title="Cool :cool:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":cool:" />.</em></p><p></p><p>After the awards were given out, the council turned to matters at hand. The speakers presented the situations and their opinions as per the source material, and in the end they ended up with a plan. The party chose Wax, Crystin and Torrent to accompany them on the mission. Suddenly the council is attacked by two elementals as Seaquen is targeted by an attack boosted by the obelisk.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I had Coaltongue sit at their table and be unaffected by the stun as well. I wanted the players to see a bit of why he was so feared. I used the stats somone had provided on the forum – and I cannot remember who or where, sorry . Anyway it put a healthy dose of respect for him in the players as he was unarmed and unarmored and took control of the situation as the commander he is.</em></p><p></p><p>After the fight, the last preparations went on. The players were given wands to help them fly and be invisible for the trip to the eye and further on. The planning took a few days</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: They made the plan and started calculating what it would cost. When their planning hit the 20.000 gp mark I had Lyceum donate the items. They have a lot of treasure so I decided that they would not get 20.000 each. Once again I was evil, I did however return a bit to the light side (star wars chapter, remember? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> ) later in the chapter when they were about to bypass the room with the staffs and rods.</em></p><p></p><p><strong>July 15 </strong></p><p>Planning</p><p></p><p><strong>July 16</strong></p><p>More planning</p><p></p><p><strong>July 17</strong></p><p>At 3 am the army is gathered for the first major attack from the (rebel) alliance. It starts out well with lot of shouts and encouragements, but as it takes the army 3 hours to pass through the teleportation circle, it quickly settled and returned to normal.</p><p></p><p>The army starts their attack on the needle, while the players’ strike force head to the eye. The eye is heavily defended and the party faced a tough battle to get through the surface defense.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: It was a lot tougher than I expected and the fight took many hours to get through. They had to blast through quite a lot of their resources to get through the first layer of defense. They used all of their cure light wound wands, and they had a lot, as well as most of their cure light wounds potions, just to get back in fighting shape hp-wise. </em></p><p></p><p>After a very tough battle, the mood is a bit somber, the party knew that this was just the first of many skirmishes on the day, and it took quite a lot out of them, especially on the healing reserves. As they know they are on the clock, and the Ragesian army will be marching towards them, they head inside the cave towards the eye.</p><p></p><p>They manage to stumble across a couple of traps, before finally entering a larger cave, where they are met by an old human; Kreven, hovering above a lake in the cave. He tries to convince the party that their quest is futile, and that they have already lost. He offers them a choice, turn away now and give up the fight, and Ragesia will never bother them again. He will make sure of it by talking to Leska about their intelligence in making the right choice.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: For some reason, they didn’t really believe him or that a world where Leska won was a place worth living in… go figure </em><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":]" title="Devious :]" data-shortname=":]" /></p><p></p><p>They decline his offer, and much to their surprise he takes their answer with a smile. He much preferred to kill them anyway, which he then asks Velkiss to do. As he does that the illusions in the room disappear, and the party notices that they are not alone in there. In the room with them is an aboleth under the ice, an Ice devil, a couple of worms, a couple of very big hell hounds and several humanoids, one of whom turns out to be Kreven’s wife Koren.</p><p></p><p>Velkiss, the ice devil, turns out to have an agenda of his own. He wants to make deals with the party while doing his best to slay them.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I had made up a way to handle this, giving each player 30 seconds real time to speak with the devil on their turn as a free action. More talking would cost them their standard action or a full round. Answers from Velkiss could expand past the 30 seconds, without costing them. They were not really super positive about that approach in the beginning, and I am not sure they really liked the idea even after it turned out being ok. I would suggest finding a better/different way of handling the extra actions and discussions.</em></p><p></p><p>The party decided to make several deals with Velkiss, paying the price for some of his information. They bought the information about how to avoid the Forbiddance spell, the map of the prison fortress, information on how the obelisk works, and finally how to get rid of Velkiss easy.</p><p></p><p>The fight again takes quite a few resources before they manage to turn the situation around. At the end they are left with the nullifiers and the aboleth, after Koren left. They dispatched the nulliefiers and decided to leave the aboleth alone. It cannot follow them, and killing it is not part of their mission right now. </p><p></p><p>They did however mention to Commander Xavious that the aboleth is alive inside, and that he should not send anyone inside.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: It was late and no one really wanted to finish a fight that they did not have to, by spending more resources, than what they had so far. The conclusion is that the eye is still functional, and the aboleth is still alive. I am not sure if that will be something I bring up later, but I might let it be known that it is because of the eye that the enemy knew they were coming in chapter 9. We’ll see.</em></p><p></p><p><strong>End of session.</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mrpereira, post: 6980589, member: 6781484"] I finally got around to write up one of the sessions I am behind in posting here. It was the first of three sessions in chapter 8, a chapter that took a lot of hours to get through due to the big combats, specially at the eye and at the end at the obelisk.[B] The party Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 5 / Rogue 2 / Assasin 8 Shaith – Fire elf Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/Druid 5/Arcane Hierophant 9 Killian – Human Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Mystic theurge 10 / frost mage 1 NPC Lieutenant Waxillian Ricky – Paladin 15 July 12[/B] The party is invited to the next meeting of the war council, which will take place in a few days’ time. In the meantime they spend their time selling loot and stocking up on items and spells. [B]July 13 [/B] More of the same [B]July 14[/B] The day of the war council arrives and the party joins the other participants in the meeting room. [I]DM Note: I had prepared this well in advance, by giving out the players their parts. Each character had a heading with their traits and descriptions. They also had entries showing what the general idea of their speaking part was for each entry. I had written it as openly as possible, only impressing on them if some sentences had to be said and what was essential to say. Finally I had noted what number entry theirs were, and who was speaking at the previous entry so they would be ready to step in keeping the dialogue going. I had made sure that none of the players had two speaking parts in a row, so they did not have to reply to their own parts. The part of Pilus was hidden from the other two by referring to the Ostalin representative as the previous speaker, although Galion might have guessed as he had the part of the two monks who summon him through the mask. All in all it was a 25 A4 page long script and it worked like a charm once again. The players enjoyed the challenge and it also ensured that they did not miss anything vital by being distracted by my long monologue. [/I] Like at the previous council Lyceum were presented by the Headmaster Simeon and Kiernan Stekart. This time they were also represented by Haddin. The different nations, Dassen, Sindaire and Ostalin were represented as well. However, the Ostalin ambassador was flanked by two monks from the Monastery of the Two winds. On top of those participants one more person was present at the council, Drakus Coaltongue. [I]DM Note: I made some few alterations to the war council as written. Haddin was thrown in as the party loathes him. I have been making him an important part of the resistance and the man behind the effort to break the secret code. He has found a cause to dedicate his life to again, and is now deputy headmaster of Lyceum. I also had Coaltongue play an active role in the discussion and thereby having a few more roles to fill out the gaps that might have been between speaking characters.[/I] First up, Headmaster Simeon wanted to honor some of the big contributors to the cause. The first was Haddin, for breaking the code. [I]DM note: In their papers it said to applaud when award was given. They did it, but not without throwing in some jibes [/I]:) Haddin was also given the honor of having an award named after him. Second up the players were to be honored for their part and getting the torch. [I]DM note: Since so much of this chapter reminds me of Star Wars I decided that we might as well have a scene where the heroes are given medals, like at the end of ‘A new hope’ – well with a lot fewer people applauding. I even considered putting on the music from that scene, but never got around to it. [/I] The players are then called up to the headmaster and presented with the ‘Haddin Pin’ [I]DM note: This was a bit of an internal joke. Shaith has a saying in Danish which is ‘Hattenål’ (meaning hat pin) that he uses when he wants to say that someone is an idiot. So I gave them the Haddin pin, which in Danish would be ‘Haddin nål’ which sounds close to hat pin and basically is rubbing it in their faces :cool:.[/I] After the awards were given out, the council turned to matters at hand. The speakers presented the situations and their opinions as per the source material, and in the end they ended up with a plan. The party chose Wax, Crystin and Torrent to accompany them on the mission. Suddenly the council is attacked by two elementals as Seaquen is targeted by an attack boosted by the obelisk. [I]DM Note: I had Coaltongue sit at their table and be unaffected by the stun as well. I wanted the players to see a bit of why he was so feared. I used the stats somone had provided on the forum – and I cannot remember who or where, sorry . Anyway it put a healthy dose of respect for him in the players as he was unarmed and unarmored and took control of the situation as the commander he is.[/I] After the fight, the last preparations went on. The players were given wands to help them fly and be invisible for the trip to the eye and further on. The planning took a few days [I]DM Note: They made the plan and started calculating what it would cost. When their planning hit the 20.000 gp mark I had Lyceum donate the items. They have a lot of treasure so I decided that they would not get 20.000 each. Once again I was evil, I did however return a bit to the light side (star wars chapter, remember? :) ) later in the chapter when they were about to bypass the room with the staffs and rods.[/I] [B]July 15 [/B] Planning [B]July 16[/B] More planning [B]July 17[/B] At 3 am the army is gathered for the first major attack from the (rebel) alliance. It starts out well with lot of shouts and encouragements, but as it takes the army 3 hours to pass through the teleportation circle, it quickly settled and returned to normal. The army starts their attack on the needle, while the players’ strike force head to the eye. The eye is heavily defended and the party faced a tough battle to get through the surface defense. [I]DM note: It was a lot tougher than I expected and the fight took many hours to get through. They had to blast through quite a lot of their resources to get through the first layer of defense. They used all of their cure light wound wands, and they had a lot, as well as most of their cure light wounds potions, just to get back in fighting shape hp-wise. [/I] After a very tough battle, the mood is a bit somber, the party knew that this was just the first of many skirmishes on the day, and it took quite a lot out of them, especially on the healing reserves. As they know they are on the clock, and the Ragesian army will be marching towards them, they head inside the cave towards the eye. They manage to stumble across a couple of traps, before finally entering a larger cave, where they are met by an old human; Kreven, hovering above a lake in the cave. He tries to convince the party that their quest is futile, and that they have already lost. He offers them a choice, turn away now and give up the fight, and Ragesia will never bother them again. He will make sure of it by talking to Leska about their intelligence in making the right choice. [I]DM Note: For some reason, they didn’t really believe him or that a world where Leska won was a place worth living in… go figure [/I]:] They decline his offer, and much to their surprise he takes their answer with a smile. He much preferred to kill them anyway, which he then asks Velkiss to do. As he does that the illusions in the room disappear, and the party notices that they are not alone in there. In the room with them is an aboleth under the ice, an Ice devil, a couple of worms, a couple of very big hell hounds and several humanoids, one of whom turns out to be Kreven’s wife Koren. Velkiss, the ice devil, turns out to have an agenda of his own. He wants to make deals with the party while doing his best to slay them. [I]DM Note: I had made up a way to handle this, giving each player 30 seconds real time to speak with the devil on their turn as a free action. More talking would cost them their standard action or a full round. Answers from Velkiss could expand past the 30 seconds, without costing them. They were not really super positive about that approach in the beginning, and I am not sure they really liked the idea even after it turned out being ok. I would suggest finding a better/different way of handling the extra actions and discussions.[/I] The party decided to make several deals with Velkiss, paying the price for some of his information. They bought the information about how to avoid the Forbiddance spell, the map of the prison fortress, information on how the obelisk works, and finally how to get rid of Velkiss easy. The fight again takes quite a few resources before they manage to turn the situation around. At the end they are left with the nullifiers and the aboleth, after Koren left. They dispatched the nulliefiers and decided to leave the aboleth alone. It cannot follow them, and killing it is not part of their mission right now. They did however mention to Commander Xavious that the aboleth is alive inside, and that he should not send anyone inside. [I]DM note: It was late and no one really wanted to finish a fight that they did not have to, by spending more resources, than what they had so far. The conclusion is that the eye is still functional, and the aboleth is still alive. I am not sure if that will be something I bring up later, but I might let it be known that it is because of the eye that the enemy knew they were coming in chapter 9. We’ll see.[/I] [B]End of session.[/B] [/QUOTE]
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MrPereira's WOTBS D&D 3.5 Campaign (SPOILERS IN THE POSTS)
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