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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: 7034748" data-attributes="member: 6781484"><p><strong>The party</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 5 / Rogue 2 / Assasin 9</strong></p><p><strong>Shaith – Fire elf Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/Druid 6/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 2</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>NPC</strong></p><p><strong>Lieutenant Waxillian Ricky – Paladin 16</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>July 20 continued</strong></p><p>The rebellion leaders tell the players about the plans for the coming fight. They party is to lead the defense of the gateway between the 7th and 8th district together with Rantle and another hero, Kathor, who will be on the streets on his horse.</p><p></p><p>Also, the leaders would like the players to make contact with the Shahalesti contingent if possible. Erdan Menash wants the players to find a secret prison. Diogenes does not believe that the prison exists, and if it does, it will be a trap. Erdan acknowledges that it might be a trap, but with the fight the defenders might be distracted, thus eliminating the trap or at least weakening it.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: Immediately that set off talks about where to search, and whether or not the entire party would be needed at the gates or if they should split up, with the different tasks. </em></p><p></p><p>On top of this Gallion added that they would most likely have to take out the wyvern-riding Ragesian envoy (Legate Kolvus) before General Danava would be able to surrender, meaning that they should consider a strike behind the enemy lines.</p><p><em>DM Note: Well, he is not that wrong about having to take care of Legate Kolvus </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>The party is given control over the defenders and told how they are deployed. After this they head off to bed to be ready and well-rested for the coming fight.</p><p></p><p>The next morning they stand on the wall getting ready for the fight speaking with Rantle, when Kathor comes up to Rantle. He nods to the players and asks Rantle is he has any last minute additions to the plans. The party members recognize Kathor from their encounters with him in chapter 1, but say nothing.</p><p></p><p>DM note: Most likely they just thought: “Well, he is on our side now.”</p><p></p><p>As he turns to leave, Rantle says to him: “Stay save Danava”, and Kathor responds: “You too”. As he leaves the party confronts Rantle about the name Danava, it is the same as the Ragesian General after all. Rantle just shrugs and says that he himself has asked Kathor the same question, and that Kathor had answered, that it is a common name where he comes from.</p><p></p><p>Killian thinks back to his dream vision from Crystin and stumbles upon the phrase about a son thrown out with nothing but his horse and his sword, and connects the dots to reach the conclusion, that Danava is most likely the son of the general.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I told him to read the dream out loud. Again to the character the dream would be crystal clear, so he would have had that thought. </em></p><p></p><p>Before the battle is joined one of the soldiers from the flanks comes running. A wraith is lose and is killing off soldiers. It is at this point that the party starts to realize that Wax is having somewhat inappropriate conversations, for a betrothed man, with an invisible woman. Wax gets mad at the party when they pull his leg insisting that they cannot see the woman, and storms off with Gallion to take care of the wraith-problem. Killian and Shaith are left behind wondering what that was all about.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: That was actually quite fun </em></p><p></p><p>Gallion and Wax take care of the Wraiths, with Wax’s turning powers. As the two of them return to the others the sounds of marching boots can be heard in the distance. Rantle jumps up on the wall and gives a magnificent speech that raises the moral of the defenders, following it up with an inspire greatness talk just afterwards.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: I had taken the text from the story and copied it to a word document, and then extended it a bit and made notes as to where to emphasize something or raise my voice, and then I gave the speech, of course shouting the words HELL NO and GATE PASS just to get the mood going. The players seemed to enjoy it. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>They didn’t really enjoy his next speech, but we will come to that </em></p><p></p><p>At the first deployment the heroes stand on top of the gate together with Rantle.</p><p></p><p>The Ragesians come into sight and the battle begins. The first inquisitor throws a fireball at the players, with the strange consequence that suddenly Wak and Shaith have changed appearances.</p><p></p><p>DM Note: That did not make them feel more calm about Wax <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" />. It stated nowhere how long the duration would be, so I decided that 1 minutte would be fitting, as if the disguise self was cast at level 1. </p><p></p><p>The defenders manage to deal heavy damage to the initial waves, with an acceptable amount of losses. After that the Ragesians pull back and there is a break of one hour.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I had to make sure that it would be around noon, when the Ghaele arrived </em></p><p></p><p>The defenders regroup and Rantle holds his second speech.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: This one is not really written explicitly in the campaign, but I wrote a few words together to make quite a speech, which made the party look quite stunned. I really recommend writing something along the same lines, if others have party members who think that the Festival of Dreams is coming in several months.</em></p><p></p><p>Rantle this time speaks of the dark times under the Ragesian oppression and about a long year that has not yet ended as the last New Year was never celebrated. He then adds that today that long evil year comes to an end and together they will step into the New Year as free men of Gate Pass. Today they fight together, tomorrow they will celebrate the New Year, celebrate the Festival of Dreams they did not have 7½ months ago. And he ended his speech with the following sentence: Today we stand together, so we can make our dreams come true… our dreams of FREEDOM.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: For some reason the party did not feel elated or have their morale raised…</em><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> It suddenly dawned on them that the Festival of Dreams had just become the event of tomorrow, and they even missed all the nice references to dreams that I had thrown into the speech </em></p><p></p><p>After the first skirmish, the party deploy themselves differently. Wax wants to hold the gatehouse, but he is convinced to join Shaith and Killian 200 feet out on the streets. Gallion remains behind with Gallion</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: That actually just made the next scene more fun </em></p><p></p><p>Out of the blue they spot some teleporting blossoms on some distant roof tops, and a Bearded Devil suddenly teleports in and stands close to the gate. Rantle and Gallion being the heroes at the gates; do the talking.</p><p></p><p>The devil tells them about the deal it has made and how it would be willing to bend the deal, all it takes is 16.000 gp and three deaths. Gallion being who he is, convinces Rantle that the deal is a good one, especially since the devils most likely will kill at least 3 soldiers anyway.</p><p></p><p>Rantle hating the choice ends up following Gallions advice and strikes the deal.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: It can be fun with evil characters </em></p><p></p><p>Killian was not happy while Shaith was indifferent, as long as no one expects him to volunteer or actually give his life, if they draw lots. The defenders find their chosen sacrifices and the party pays the devil in adamantine glaives taken from gargoyles. The remaining devils teleport in and true to the deal they only kill the three victims. However, they did not specify how or how much pain they would induce while doing it, and they take very good care of making sure that the deaths are long time in coming and extremely painful.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: What did they expect, when making deals with devils?</em></p><p></p><p>The party returns to their forward positions, not knowing that they are playing directly into the plans of the next wave of attackers.</p><p></p><p>The Harpy and the Troll almost kills off Shaith in the first round, before the fight is turned. The troll is killed, and the harpy takes flight.</p><p><em></em></p><p><em>DM note: Gallion kept his wits and ordered the defenders to volley on the enemies, which basically ended the fight for the harpy and troll. I decided that being a mercenary, her loyalty is not the high, and she ran.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>I also decided to skip the fight with the Wyverns, letting the defenders take care of them without the party, as at this point I could feel that I had stretched out the defense of the wall for as long as I could while still making it fun.</em></p><p></p><p>In the distance wyvern riders are circling, when the party hears a female voice in their heads.</p><p><em></em></p><p><em>DM note: At first they thought it was the same person as Wax was talking too, until he asked them if they heard that strange voice </em></p><p></p><p>The voice belongs to Metamorphorsis, who wants to make sure that they know she is coming and that she is an ally. She walks towards them and introduces herself. She tells them that she needs their help to find and free her master, Vigilance. She tells them that he is crucial to saving the world, and if he is not freed; decades of children’s nightmares will come into the world. It is not a thought that the party relishes.</p><p></p><p>She does not know exactly where he is, only the direction.</p><p></p><p>DM note: I had to make sure that they did not just teleport in and thereby avoiding the moral dilemma of choosing between the Prison and the Elves. Those dilemmas are always fun in our group and they actually never questioned how she could sense him and yet not find him <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>They get ready to head out towards the prison, leaving the defenses in the hands of Rantle and Kathor, when a Ghaele suddenly appears. He invites them to a meeting with Lord Shaaladel, King of Shahalesti. The meeting will take place at noon, which means in a about as long as it will take them to get there if they leave now.</p><p></p><p>And thus the party is stuck in the middle of a dilemma without knowing the consequences of their choices. </p><p><em></em></p><p><em>DM note: It was a fun discussion, with a great focus on the unknown consequences. They feared that not choosing the elves would mean losing Gate Pass, but that not choosing the Prison might mean losing the Gate Keeper.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>I made sure to point out to them, that as they had classes in elven etiquette and diplomacy, they knew how insulting it would be to decline the invitation, but that accepting it would mean wasting at least 5-6 hours on negotiations. Elves do have a lot of time after all.</em></p><p></p><p>In the end they decided that choosing the meeting with the elves was the lesser of two evils; Leaving Kathor to handle the defenses as Rantle goes with the players; he needs to see Shalosha.</p><p></p><p>They head out with the Ghaele and finally get to meet the legendary leader of the Shahalesti. He talks to them about Trillith and they negotiate the terms of the alliance. The king has five points the needs special attention. </p><p><em></em></p><p><em>DM note: had the party chosen the prison, Rantle would have given Shahalest the first four points. As it was, the party ended giving him three, so the only real difference was that he accepted breaking up Ragesia instead of being emperor</em>.</p><p></p><p>The final point ended as could be expected. The party did not surrender the torch, and they agreed to talks about it later, but didn’t really mean it. They did not agree internally about whether it would be best to destroy it or keep it safe for the future. But they agreed that Shaaladel would never have it.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: It was like the scene from the Fellowship of the Ring. Destroy it or use it against evil Anyway, they did not manage to convince Shaaladel about their sincerity, which means that he will most likely have Aurana try to kill them in the waking nightmare.</em></p><p></p><p>After the negotiations, they had to observe the elven etiquette and celebrate the alliance with an elven specialty; a glass of sparkling white wine only produced in a very exclusive area of Shahalesti. The wine is called Shahalagne. Shaaladel did however send out orders immediately to his soldiers, so they did not waste any time in coming to Gate Pass. A fact that the party appreciated.</p><p></p><p>DM Note: Cheesy, I know, but somehow it just seemed fitting for the scene <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" />.</p><p></p><p>After the talks finally end, they party hurry outside the tent and get ready to head off towards the prison. As they exit a messenger is impatiently waiting for Rantle to come out. He hurries to him giving him bad news. While they were negotiating a Ragesian strike force somehow located the resistance headquarters and caught Diogenes and Erdan Menash. They took them towards the old wizard school. As of now Rantle is the only leader of the rebellion left.</p><p><em></em></p><p><em>DM note: That was the consequence of choosing the elves. And since they know about the players, the torture they experienced resulted in making sure that the parents of the party were tortured as well for any information. I had them roll dices on a table I made. The result was that they ended up killing off four out of five of their parents – and they would go on to face them as wraiths.</em></p><p></p><p>Metamorphorsis tells them that her master is in the same direction, and might be held prisoner at the mage tower as well.</p><p></p><p>As they head towards the tower, they ask Metamorphorsis about Vigilance. They stumble and look quite shocked when they realize that Vigilance is actually Indomitability. She tells them that after he was freed he changed and is now Vigilance the gate keeper.</p><p></p><p>The information destroy all their thoughts about an ancient Gate Keeper who had kept the trillith at bay for a long time. Shaith asked her about their mother, and she replied to her she was mother.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: I have danced around that answer for a while, but plan on having Vigilance giving them the name. I see Metamorphorsis as a young trillith, and as such she just sees Trilla as Mother.</em></p><p></p><p>At the tower Killian attempts’ sending an arcane eye in, but the tower is sealed against it, so they have to do the exploration manually. At the ground floor they open the door, and much to their surprise the find Erdan Menash Spiked to the door with a spear. Dead, but not tortured – he died before. As Gallion steps inside the tower, they suddenly face a lot of wraiths, including four out of their five parents. After the fight Shaith recognize the spell in effect as Guards and Wards and uses his scroll of Mordenkainen’s Disjunction to remove it. </p><p></p><p>In one cell they find Shaith father, the only survivor of their parents.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: When I wrote the back stories Shaith’s mother hated Shahalesti blaming them for burning Innenotdar, while his father always blamed Ragesia. Let’s just say that his father’s hate for them did not diminish, now they tortured him and killed his wife.</em></p><p></p><p>At the next floor they are attacked by devils that only plan to cast dimensional anchor and then they leave. Killian cast invibility purge to make the devils visible which meant that when they shortly after headed up to the third floor and faced Gabal, he was visible.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: Not quite the ambush that was expected, no Guards and Wards and no invisibility.</em></p><p></p><p>Despite having his ambush foiled, Gabal gives them a fight for the money. He started off with a prismatic ray, which turned Gallion to stone. The fight is tough and Wax took a lot of damage and was finally nocked out. He ended up being stabilized close to permanent death, and the fight ends with Killian delivering the final blow on Gabal while on 0 hp, meaning he dropped to -1 and started bleeding to death. </p><p></p><p><em>DM note: Quite Heroic scene.</em></p><p></p><p>After a while with healing, and 1 minute to turn Gallion back into flesh, they head up to the last floor, finding a mirror. Killian expects the worst and casts quite a lot of spells readying for the final fight.</p><p><em></em></p><p><em>DM note: I almost felt sorry for him wasting all those spells. Almost </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 explore it gingerly, with Shaith going ahead alone to examine the mirrorbegin with, before the others also move in. Nothing seems to happen until Metamorphorsis looks into the mirror and is drawn into it.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: That almost ended catastrophically. The party thought it was a hint from me that they had to enter the mirror. She really did miss her safe, and I almost ended the campaign with it.</em></p><p></p><p>Gallion decides to enter the mirror as well, and wills to miss his safe, and is followed by Killian. Wax and Shaith are about to enter the mirror as well when Shaith suddenly realize what has happened.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I let him succeed a spellcraft without a roll, but with his skills, I don’t think he could have missed it anyway. </em></p><p><em></em></p><p>Shaith suddenly realize that it is not a portal, but a mirror that imprisons people, like the Imprisonment spell. Instead of entering the mirror he breaks it.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: THAT was close, he was saying that he was entering it as well together with Wax… </em><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/erm.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":erm:" title="Erm :erm:" data-shortname=":erm:" /><em> Talk about anti climatic end…</em><img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/blush.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":blush:" title="Blush :blush:" data-shortname=":blush:" /></p><p></p><p>As he breaks the mirror he frees all the prisoners, including some older heroes of the resistance and of course his party members and Vigilance. Vigilance asks the party for their protection, as he is sure that his brethren will do all they can to kill him.</p><p></p><p>They leave the tower and head back into a city, where the alliance is getting the upper hand. After about an hour or two, they receive a message from General Danava. He wants to meet and talk about surrender.</p><p></p><p><strong>End of Session.</strong></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mrpereira, post: 7034748, member: 6781484"] [B]The party Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 5 / Rogue 2 / Assasin 9 Shaith – Fire elf Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/Druid 6/Arcane Hierophant 9 Killian – Human Wizard 1(with precocious apprentice feat)/priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Mystic theurge 10 / frost mage 2 NPC Lieutenant Waxillian Ricky – Paladin 16 July 20 continued[/B] The rebellion leaders tell the players about the plans for the coming fight. They party is to lead the defense of the gateway between the 7th and 8th district together with Rantle and another hero, Kathor, who will be on the streets on his horse. Also, the leaders would like the players to make contact with the Shahalesti contingent if possible. Erdan Menash wants the players to find a secret prison. Diogenes does not believe that the prison exists, and if it does, it will be a trap. Erdan acknowledges that it might be a trap, but with the fight the defenders might be distracted, thus eliminating the trap or at least weakening it. [I]DM Note: Immediately that set off talks about where to search, and whether or not the entire party would be needed at the gates or if they should split up, with the different tasks. [/I] On top of this Gallion added that they would most likely have to take out the wyvern-riding Ragesian envoy (Legate Kolvus) before General Danava would be able to surrender, meaning that they should consider a strike behind the enemy lines. [I]DM Note: Well, he is not that wrong about having to take care of Legate Kolvus [/I]:) The party is given control over the defenders and told how they are deployed. After this they head off to bed to be ready and well-rested for the coming fight. The next morning they stand on the wall getting ready for the fight speaking with Rantle, when Kathor comes up to Rantle. He nods to the players and asks Rantle is he has any last minute additions to the plans. The party members recognize Kathor from their encounters with him in chapter 1, but say nothing. DM note: Most likely they just thought: “Well, he is on our side now.” As he turns to leave, Rantle says to him: “Stay save Danava”, and Kathor responds: “You too”. As he leaves the party confronts Rantle about the name Danava, it is the same as the Ragesian General after all. Rantle just shrugs and says that he himself has asked Kathor the same question, and that Kathor had answered, that it is a common name where he comes from. Killian thinks back to his dream vision from Crystin and stumbles upon the phrase about a son thrown out with nothing but his horse and his sword, and connects the dots to reach the conclusion, that Danava is most likely the son of the general. [I]DM Note: I told him to read the dream out loud. Again to the character the dream would be crystal clear, so he would have had that thought. [/I] Before the battle is joined one of the soldiers from the flanks comes running. A wraith is lose and is killing off soldiers. It is at this point that the party starts to realize that Wax is having somewhat inappropriate conversations, for a betrothed man, with an invisible woman. Wax gets mad at the party when they pull his leg insisting that they cannot see the woman, and storms off with Gallion to take care of the wraith-problem. Killian and Shaith are left behind wondering what that was all about. [I]DM Note: That was actually quite fun [/I] Gallion and Wax take care of the Wraiths, with Wax’s turning powers. As the two of them return to the others the sounds of marching boots can be heard in the distance. Rantle jumps up on the wall and gives a magnificent speech that raises the moral of the defenders, following it up with an inspire greatness talk just afterwards. [I]DM note: I had taken the text from the story and copied it to a word document, and then extended it a bit and made notes as to where to emphasize something or raise my voice, and then I gave the speech, of course shouting the words HELL NO and GATE PASS just to get the mood going. The players seemed to enjoy it. They didn’t really enjoy his next speech, but we will come to that [/I] At the first deployment the heroes stand on top of the gate together with Rantle. The Ragesians come into sight and the battle begins. The first inquisitor throws a fireball at the players, with the strange consequence that suddenly Wak and Shaith have changed appearances. DM Note: That did not make them feel more calm about Wax :). It stated nowhere how long the duration would be, so I decided that 1 minutte would be fitting, as if the disguise self was cast at level 1. The defenders manage to deal heavy damage to the initial waves, with an acceptable amount of losses. After that the Ragesians pull back and there is a break of one hour. [I]DM Note: I had to make sure that it would be around noon, when the Ghaele arrived [/I] The defenders regroup and Rantle holds his second speech. [I]DM Note: This one is not really written explicitly in the campaign, but I wrote a few words together to make quite a speech, which made the party look quite stunned. I really recommend writing something along the same lines, if others have party members who think that the Festival of Dreams is coming in several months.[/I] Rantle this time speaks of the dark times under the Ragesian oppression and about a long year that has not yet ended as the last New Year was never celebrated. He then adds that today that long evil year comes to an end and together they will step into the New Year as free men of Gate Pass. Today they fight together, tomorrow they will celebrate the New Year, celebrate the Festival of Dreams they did not have 7½ months ago. And he ended his speech with the following sentence: Today we stand together, so we can make our dreams come true… our dreams of FREEDOM. [I]DM note: For some reason the party did not feel elated or have their morale raised…[/I]:cool:[I] It suddenly dawned on them that the Festival of Dreams had just become the event of tomorrow, and they even missed all the nice references to dreams that I had thrown into the speech [/I] After the first skirmish, the party deploy themselves differently. Wax wants to hold the gatehouse, but he is convinced to join Shaith and Killian 200 feet out on the streets. Gallion remains behind with Gallion [I]DM Note: That actually just made the next scene more fun [/I] Out of the blue they spot some teleporting blossoms on some distant roof tops, and a Bearded Devil suddenly teleports in and stands close to the gate. Rantle and Gallion being the heroes at the gates; do the talking. The devil tells them about the deal it has made and how it would be willing to bend the deal, all it takes is 16.000 gp and three deaths. Gallion being who he is, convinces Rantle that the deal is a good one, especially since the devils most likely will kill at least 3 soldiers anyway. Rantle hating the choice ends up following Gallions advice and strikes the deal. [I]DM note: It can be fun with evil characters [/I] Killian was not happy while Shaith was indifferent, as long as no one expects him to volunteer or actually give his life, if they draw lots. The defenders find their chosen sacrifices and the party pays the devil in adamantine glaives taken from gargoyles. The remaining devils teleport in and true to the deal they only kill the three victims. However, they did not specify how or how much pain they would induce while doing it, and they take very good care of making sure that the deaths are long time in coming and extremely painful. [I]DM Note: What did they expect, when making deals with devils?[/I] The party returns to their forward positions, not knowing that they are playing directly into the plans of the next wave of attackers. The Harpy and the Troll almost kills off Shaith in the first round, before the fight is turned. The troll is killed, and the harpy takes flight. [I] DM note: Gallion kept his wits and ordered the defenders to volley on the enemies, which basically ended the fight for the harpy and troll. I decided that being a mercenary, her loyalty is not the high, and she ran. I also decided to skip the fight with the Wyverns, letting the defenders take care of them without the party, as at this point I could feel that I had stretched out the defense of the wall for as long as I could while still making it fun.[/I] In the distance wyvern riders are circling, when the party hears a female voice in their heads. [I] DM note: At first they thought it was the same person as Wax was talking too, until he asked them if they heard that strange voice [/I] The voice belongs to Metamorphorsis, who wants to make sure that they know she is coming and that she is an ally. She walks towards them and introduces herself. She tells them that she needs their help to find and free her master, Vigilance. She tells them that he is crucial to saving the world, and if he is not freed; decades of children’s nightmares will come into the world. It is not a thought that the party relishes. She does not know exactly where he is, only the direction. DM note: I had to make sure that they did not just teleport in and thereby avoiding the moral dilemma of choosing between the Prison and the Elves. Those dilemmas are always fun in our group and they actually never questioned how she could sense him and yet not find him :). They get ready to head out towards the prison, leaving the defenses in the hands of Rantle and Kathor, when a Ghaele suddenly appears. He invites them to a meeting with Lord Shaaladel, King of Shahalesti. The meeting will take place at noon, which means in a about as long as it will take them to get there if they leave now. And thus the party is stuck in the middle of a dilemma without knowing the consequences of their choices. [I] DM note: It was a fun discussion, with a great focus on the unknown consequences. They feared that not choosing the elves would mean losing Gate Pass, but that not choosing the Prison might mean losing the Gate Keeper. I made sure to point out to them, that as they had classes in elven etiquette and diplomacy, they knew how insulting it would be to decline the invitation, but that accepting it would mean wasting at least 5-6 hours on negotiations. Elves do have a lot of time after all.[/I] In the end they decided that choosing the meeting with the elves was the lesser of two evils; Leaving Kathor to handle the defenses as Rantle goes with the players; he needs to see Shalosha. They head out with the Ghaele and finally get to meet the legendary leader of the Shahalesti. He talks to them about Trillith and they negotiate the terms of the alliance. The king has five points the needs special attention. [I] DM note: had the party chosen the prison, Rantle would have given Shahalest the first four points. As it was, the party ended giving him three, so the only real difference was that he accepted breaking up Ragesia instead of being emperor[/I]. The final point ended as could be expected. The party did not surrender the torch, and they agreed to talks about it later, but didn’t really mean it. They did not agree internally about whether it would be best to destroy it or keep it safe for the future. But they agreed that Shaaladel would never have it. [I]DM note: It was like the scene from the Fellowship of the Ring. Destroy it or use it against evil Anyway, they did not manage to convince Shaaladel about their sincerity, which means that he will most likely have Aurana try to kill them in the waking nightmare.[/I] After the negotiations, they had to observe the elven etiquette and celebrate the alliance with an elven specialty; a glass of sparkling white wine only produced in a very exclusive area of Shahalesti. The wine is called Shahalagne. Shaaladel did however send out orders immediately to his soldiers, so they did not waste any time in coming to Gate Pass. A fact that the party appreciated. DM Note: Cheesy, I know, but somehow it just seemed fitting for the scene :D. After the talks finally end, they party hurry outside the tent and get ready to head off towards the prison. As they exit a messenger is impatiently waiting for Rantle to come out. He hurries to him giving him bad news. While they were negotiating a Ragesian strike force somehow located the resistance headquarters and caught Diogenes and Erdan Menash. They took them towards the old wizard school. As of now Rantle is the only leader of the rebellion left. [I] DM note: That was the consequence of choosing the elves. And since they know about the players, the torture they experienced resulted in making sure that the parents of the party were tortured as well for any information. I had them roll dices on a table I made. The result was that they ended up killing off four out of five of their parents – and they would go on to face them as wraiths.[/I] Metamorphorsis tells them that her master is in the same direction, and might be held prisoner at the mage tower as well. As they head towards the tower, they ask Metamorphorsis about Vigilance. They stumble and look quite shocked when they realize that Vigilance is actually Indomitability. She tells them that after he was freed he changed and is now Vigilance the gate keeper. The information destroy all their thoughts about an ancient Gate Keeper who had kept the trillith at bay for a long time. Shaith asked her about their mother, and she replied to her she was mother. [I]DM note: I have danced around that answer for a while, but plan on having Vigilance giving them the name. I see Metamorphorsis as a young trillith, and as such she just sees Trilla as Mother.[/I] At the tower Killian attempts’ sending an arcane eye in, but the tower is sealed against it, so they have to do the exploration manually. At the ground floor they open the door, and much to their surprise the find Erdan Menash Spiked to the door with a spear. Dead, but not tortured – he died before. As Gallion steps inside the tower, they suddenly face a lot of wraiths, including four out of their five parents. After the fight Shaith recognize the spell in effect as Guards and Wards and uses his scroll of Mordenkainen’s Disjunction to remove it. In one cell they find Shaith father, the only survivor of their parents. [I]DM Note: When I wrote the back stories Shaith’s mother hated Shahalesti blaming them for burning Innenotdar, while his father always blamed Ragesia. Let’s just say that his father’s hate for them did not diminish, now they tortured him and killed his wife.[/I] At the next floor they are attacked by devils that only plan to cast dimensional anchor and then they leave. Killian cast invibility purge to make the devils visible which meant that when they shortly after headed up to the third floor and faced Gabal, he was visible. [I]DM Note: Not quite the ambush that was expected, no Guards and Wards and no invisibility.[/I] Despite having his ambush foiled, Gabal gives them a fight for the money. He started off with a prismatic ray, which turned Gallion to stone. The fight is tough and Wax took a lot of damage and was finally nocked out. He ended up being stabilized close to permanent death, and the fight ends with Killian delivering the final blow on Gabal while on 0 hp, meaning he dropped to -1 and started bleeding to death. [I]DM note: Quite Heroic scene.[/I] After a while with healing, and 1 minute to turn Gallion back into flesh, they head up to the last floor, finding a mirror. Killian expects the worst and casts quite a lot of spells readying for the final fight. [I] DM note: I almost felt sorry for him wasting all those spells. Almost [/I]:] They explore it gingerly, with Shaith going ahead alone to examine the mirrorbegin with, before the others also move in. Nothing seems to happen until Metamorphorsis looks into the mirror and is drawn into it. [I]DM note: That almost ended catastrophically. The party thought it was a hint from me that they had to enter the mirror. She really did miss her safe, and I almost ended the campaign with it.[/I] Gallion decides to enter the mirror as well, and wills to miss his safe, and is followed by Killian. Wax and Shaith are about to enter the mirror as well when Shaith suddenly realize what has happened. [I]DM Note: I let him succeed a spellcraft without a roll, but with his skills, I don’t think he could have missed it anyway. [/I] Shaith suddenly realize that it is not a portal, but a mirror that imprisons people, like the Imprisonment spell. Instead of entering the mirror he breaks it. [I]DM Note: THAT was close, he was saying that he was entering it as well together with Wax… [/I]:erm:[I] Talk about anti climatic end…[/I]:blush: As he breaks the mirror he frees all the prisoners, including some older heroes of the resistance and of course his party members and Vigilance. Vigilance asks the party for their protection, as he is sure that his brethren will do all they can to kill him. They leave the tower and head back into a city, where the alliance is getting the upper hand. After about an hour or two, they receive a message from General Danava. He wants to meet and talk about surrender. [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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