Dark Sun: Session 11
The group begins the session having achieved 6th level.
In the aftermath of the battle, Tenpug tells the party that he wishes to follow the retreating gith to where they are coming from, and destroy them once and for all. Tonight, though, they must bury their dead and gather their forces.
As the funeral pyres light the night sky, several of the town defenders, along with a few of the party members, began gathering the enemies' weapons. Using these, they are nearly able to arm all of the town defenders with metal weapons.
Meanwhile, Treona and Allkirk approach the group. They wish to return to Nibenay so that they can find a way to destroy the dangerous artifact beneath Kiris Dahn. They will be leaving on the morrow.
The following day, Tenpug gathers the remainder of his band. The group decides to leave nearly half of them behind to protect the village in the case of another concerted attack from the gith. The remainder begin tracking the fleeing attackers, heading east into the Black Spine mountains.
Luckily, Tenpug had a ranger who was able to assist with the tracking, but even with Katries phenomenal perception, the going was difficult. The following day, a strange sand storm forces the group to take shelter behind a stoney embankment. Kratas and Katrie both agree that this storm is not natural. As they hunker down to wait out the storm, a rear guard of Gith attacks.
While Tenpug's band fights of a fairly large group, the party finds themselves attacked by a group of about 20 gith. Due to the flying grit and sand, vision is horrible. Fortunately, the party's dice were blessed. I kid you not, the party had no less than 5 crits this session.
Tor Val charges in, sweeping through the gith with his Gouge, killing a group of minions with his Howl of Fury. Dryder rushes after the Gith Drone, hoping that he can kill it before it does too much damage to the party. Kratas and Gundrek go after the Gith commander, and Katrie takes mop-up on the Gith Dust Racers. She uses Predator's Flurry so that she can daze the Dust Racers. She crits not once, but twice!! Dryder, who is busy fighting the Drone, soon follows with ANOTHER crit, and action points to obliterate the drone in one, swift, bloody exchange. Gundrek uses Momentum Swing, Augment 2 to attack the gith spearhead, killing it, then immediately charges the Gith Commander and crits. Soon, the rest of the gith are dead and dying, and the party basks in their victory. The storm, though, continues to rage.
They decide to rest for the night there until the storm abates. As the group settles down, a strange silence falls over the camp. Soon, everyone is asleep.
Katrie awakens to a strange sight. The sand storm has dissolved, but the sky is strange. The two moons hover, full and unmoving, in a red sky. The sand and grass they sleep on is black, and she can barely make out the forms of her companions. Swiftly, she rushes to awaken the rest of the party just as she hears a terrifying roar from the edge of the camp, and the screams of the dying.
Running to the edge of the camp, the party sees a terrifying monstrosity; something so horrible that there is no way that it could exist in the natural world. As it tears into several members of Tenpug's band, Kratas attempts to understand what is happening. He realizes that they are all asleep, dreaming, and that this monstrosity is some sort of psionic attack. He's sure that if they can defeat the attack, they would wake up. So, the party rushes in.
It isn't long before the group has the creature defeated. As it fades into the black sands, the party awakens in the real world to discover that those of Tenpug's band who had fallen to the psychic monstrosity were unable to awaken. They send half of their remaining group back to Kiris Dahn to protect those who are comatose, and decide to try to continue tracking down the gith, despite the sandstorm from the day before.
Weary from the previous night, they press on. Certain that the Gith are coming from the Black Spine Mountains, they continue in that direction. One more day of travel edges them ever closer, and as evening falls, they decide to rest one more night, hoping that they would be fresh in the morning.
Exhaustion forces them all to fall asleep. Gundrek tries as hard as he can to remain awake, but he, too, succumbs to his fatigue.
Again, they awaken on a barren plain with black sand. The red sky arches above them, and everything is featureless for as far as the eye can see. Tenpug's band lies around them, unable to move or awaken from their slumber. Only the party remains awake, and Kratas realizes that they are trapped within the mindscape of a powerful psionicist. The type of attack that they are being subjected to is very powerful, but also very dangerous in that it allows someone who is psionically gifted to use the mindscape to strike back at the attacker (he rolled high on his Arcana check). They begin to travel across the mindscape, searching for the enemy's mind.
Soon, the featureless plain is marred by two giant iron statues standing side by side. Both are identical statues of Gith warriors. As the group approaches, they suddenly awaken and attack.
Kratas realizes that these are the Gith Psion's mental defenses, and that if they can defeat them, then his mind would be open to attack. I leveled down 2 Iron Golems, both elites, to represent the statues.
Gundrek, Dryder and Kratas attack one of the statues, and Katrie and Tor Val attack the other. The fight is a little grindy, but not extremely difficult. It isn't long before they both are dead, instantly rusting and disolving into the landscape.
As soon as both fall, a horrible scream erupts from the land around them. The Gith Psion appears, gigantic, and angrily attacks the party.
This is another solo monster, and one I was quite pleased with. He had some interesting attack combinations that allowed him to move the party around. Also, he could attack his enemies and drain Psionic Power Points to recharge his most devastating attack, a psychic scream. If the person he attacked didn't have any power points, then they gained vulnerable 5 to psychic damage. By the end of the battle, almost all of the party is bloodied, and Katrie is close to death. But between Tor Val's 5th crit of the night and the constant barrage of attacks from everyone else, the Gith Psion's psychic construct falls.
From its decaying body, a creature emerges, something out of HP Lovecraft's worse nightmares. While the creature is terrifying, it is only the Gith Psion's last ditch effort to expell the party from its mindscape. One solid hit from Dryder causes it to dissipate. And then, a massive castle made of black stone rumbles up from the plain before them.
The edifice is shaped like the head of a giant gith, and it's mouth gapes open. The party enters and see's hundreds of glowing gems arrayed all throughout the inside of the castle. In the very center, a glowing gem floats. Kratas determines that this is the focus of the gith psion's energies, and that if they can destroy it, they would be free of the psionic attack.
Tor Val smashes the gem, and as a bright flash of light erupts around them, they see a vision of the gith psion screaming as he clutches his head in agony. They awaken soon after. The rest of Tenpug's band also awakens, and the party realizes they have struck a major blow against their enemies.
That afternoon, they stand on a hill overlooking the enemy camp. A small barricade surrounds an encampment of wooden and stone huts. Nearby, a gaping hole descends into the mountainside. It is a mining camp, and it is completely controlled by the enemy gith. But as they watch, they realize that the enemy is disorganized and unaware, and the party begins to plan their assault.
The day is now the 1st day of Wind, in the Season of Sun Ascending, in the Year of Enemy's Vengeance, 190th King's Age.
Next session: Into the Mines
The group begins the session having achieved 6th level.
In the aftermath of the battle, Tenpug tells the party that he wishes to follow the retreating gith to where they are coming from, and destroy them once and for all. Tonight, though, they must bury their dead and gather their forces.
As the funeral pyres light the night sky, several of the town defenders, along with a few of the party members, began gathering the enemies' weapons. Using these, they are nearly able to arm all of the town defenders with metal weapons.
Meanwhile, Treona and Allkirk approach the group. They wish to return to Nibenay so that they can find a way to destroy the dangerous artifact beneath Kiris Dahn. They will be leaving on the morrow.
The following day, Tenpug gathers the remainder of his band. The group decides to leave nearly half of them behind to protect the village in the case of another concerted attack from the gith. The remainder begin tracking the fleeing attackers, heading east into the Black Spine mountains.
Luckily, Tenpug had a ranger who was able to assist with the tracking, but even with Katries phenomenal perception, the going was difficult. The following day, a strange sand storm forces the group to take shelter behind a stoney embankment. Kratas and Katrie both agree that this storm is not natural. As they hunker down to wait out the storm, a rear guard of Gith attacks.
While Tenpug's band fights of a fairly large group, the party finds themselves attacked by a group of about 20 gith. Due to the flying grit and sand, vision is horrible. Fortunately, the party's dice were blessed. I kid you not, the party had no less than 5 crits this session.
Tor Val charges in, sweeping through the gith with his Gouge, killing a group of minions with his Howl of Fury. Dryder rushes after the Gith Drone, hoping that he can kill it before it does too much damage to the party. Kratas and Gundrek go after the Gith commander, and Katrie takes mop-up on the Gith Dust Racers. She uses Predator's Flurry so that she can daze the Dust Racers. She crits not once, but twice!! Dryder, who is busy fighting the Drone, soon follows with ANOTHER crit, and action points to obliterate the drone in one, swift, bloody exchange. Gundrek uses Momentum Swing, Augment 2 to attack the gith spearhead, killing it, then immediately charges the Gith Commander and crits. Soon, the rest of the gith are dead and dying, and the party basks in their victory. The storm, though, continues to rage.
They decide to rest for the night there until the storm abates. As the group settles down, a strange silence falls over the camp. Soon, everyone is asleep.
Katrie awakens to a strange sight. The sand storm has dissolved, but the sky is strange. The two moons hover, full and unmoving, in a red sky. The sand and grass they sleep on is black, and she can barely make out the forms of her companions. Swiftly, she rushes to awaken the rest of the party just as she hears a terrifying roar from the edge of the camp, and the screams of the dying.
Running to the edge of the camp, the party sees a terrifying monstrosity; something so horrible that there is no way that it could exist in the natural world. As it tears into several members of Tenpug's band, Kratas attempts to understand what is happening. He realizes that they are all asleep, dreaming, and that this monstrosity is some sort of psionic attack. He's sure that if they can defeat the attack, they would wake up. So, the party rushes in.
It isn't long before the group has the creature defeated. As it fades into the black sands, the party awakens in the real world to discover that those of Tenpug's band who had fallen to the psychic monstrosity were unable to awaken. They send half of their remaining group back to Kiris Dahn to protect those who are comatose, and decide to try to continue tracking down the gith, despite the sandstorm from the day before.
Weary from the previous night, they press on. Certain that the Gith are coming from the Black Spine Mountains, they continue in that direction. One more day of travel edges them ever closer, and as evening falls, they decide to rest one more night, hoping that they would be fresh in the morning.
Exhaustion forces them all to fall asleep. Gundrek tries as hard as he can to remain awake, but he, too, succumbs to his fatigue.
Again, they awaken on a barren plain with black sand. The red sky arches above them, and everything is featureless for as far as the eye can see. Tenpug's band lies around them, unable to move or awaken from their slumber. Only the party remains awake, and Kratas realizes that they are trapped within the mindscape of a powerful psionicist. The type of attack that they are being subjected to is very powerful, but also very dangerous in that it allows someone who is psionically gifted to use the mindscape to strike back at the attacker (he rolled high on his Arcana check). They begin to travel across the mindscape, searching for the enemy's mind.
Soon, the featureless plain is marred by two giant iron statues standing side by side. Both are identical statues of Gith warriors. As the group approaches, they suddenly awaken and attack.
Kratas realizes that these are the Gith Psion's mental defenses, and that if they can defeat them, then his mind would be open to attack. I leveled down 2 Iron Golems, both elites, to represent the statues.
Gundrek, Dryder and Kratas attack one of the statues, and Katrie and Tor Val attack the other. The fight is a little grindy, but not extremely difficult. It isn't long before they both are dead, instantly rusting and disolving into the landscape.
As soon as both fall, a horrible scream erupts from the land around them. The Gith Psion appears, gigantic, and angrily attacks the party.
This is another solo monster, and one I was quite pleased with. He had some interesting attack combinations that allowed him to move the party around. Also, he could attack his enemies and drain Psionic Power Points to recharge his most devastating attack, a psychic scream. If the person he attacked didn't have any power points, then they gained vulnerable 5 to psychic damage. By the end of the battle, almost all of the party is bloodied, and Katrie is close to death. But between Tor Val's 5th crit of the night and the constant barrage of attacks from everyone else, the Gith Psion's psychic construct falls.
From its decaying body, a creature emerges, something out of HP Lovecraft's worse nightmares. While the creature is terrifying, it is only the Gith Psion's last ditch effort to expell the party from its mindscape. One solid hit from Dryder causes it to dissipate. And then, a massive castle made of black stone rumbles up from the plain before them.
The edifice is shaped like the head of a giant gith, and it's mouth gapes open. The party enters and see's hundreds of glowing gems arrayed all throughout the inside of the castle. In the very center, a glowing gem floats. Kratas determines that this is the focus of the gith psion's energies, and that if they can destroy it, they would be free of the psionic attack.
Tor Val smashes the gem, and as a bright flash of light erupts around them, they see a vision of the gith psion screaming as he clutches his head in agony. They awaken soon after. The rest of Tenpug's band also awakens, and the party realizes they have struck a major blow against their enemies.
That afternoon, they stand on a hill overlooking the enemy camp. A small barricade surrounds an encampment of wooden and stone huts. Nearby, a gaping hole descends into the mountainside. It is a mining camp, and it is completely controlled by the enemy gith. But as they watch, they realize that the enemy is disorganized and unaware, and the party begins to plan their assault.
The day is now the 1st day of Wind, in the Season of Sun Ascending, in the Year of Enemy's Vengeance, 190th King's Age.
Next session: Into the Mines