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<blockquote data-quote="MerricB" data-source="post: 5949142" data-attributes="member: 3586"><p>Everyone managed to get to our tenth session of this campaign, where we finished play of <strong>The Infernal Syndrome</strong>. So, 10 sessions brings us to 9th level and completion of four AP adventures...</p><p></p><p><strong>Mephits and Rods</strong></p><p>The group began by continuing to investigate the spiral, going counter-clockwise around it and returning to the entrance chamber, which was on the far side of the hall of unstable fire. A detour into a side-chamber led them to some mephits, that hissed at them for letting the steam escape. The group quickly shut the door, and avoided the battle. </p><p></p><p>Having explored all the way up, they headed downwards, where they discovered a chamber with a lot of writing describing the workings of the Infernal Engine, but were unable to make head nor tail of it.</p><p></p><p>Further downwards brought them to the third cooling station, which was building up steam at a dangerous rate. Michael's rogue tried to disable it, but was unable to do so and the escaping steam exploded at pressure, hurting the party badly. Lee channelled positive energy to heal the party, and the group - upon consultation with myself - realised that there was one tunnel back in the tunnel rat home that they hadn't investigated. </p><p></p><p>This party is dreadful at taking notes, and this module, in particular, requires players to pay attention to what was said.</p><p></p><p>The unexplored tunnel did indeed lead to the Stygian Keyrod they needed to shut down the Infernal Engine, but it was in the possession of a beautiful woman who had slain the previous keeper. In fact, she was a succubus, but none of the party realised that until after the end of the encounter, by which time she'd been extremely charming and managed to make Lee's cleric her potential lover (that will occur next session...) In exchange for a couple of Pearls of Power that Lee gave her, she gave them the Keyrod. The group returned to the Engine and shut down the cooling towers, one after another.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Final Cooling Towers</strong></p><p>A great Stygian Water Elemental rose from the depths of the fourth tower, but it was quickly dispatched by the group, although not before inflicting some negative levels on the group. Lee restored Michael and Dave, and the group disabled the final two towers, and recovered a lyre of building from a pool of water.</p><p></p><p>At this level, the DR 5/- of the elementals is finally not a problem, added to which we have Dave's fighter - his halfling monk would have been incredibly ineffective.</p><p></p><p>With all five cooling towers shut down, the group proceeded through the 'airlock' gates into the next sequence of rooms. (And I wondered why the final cooling tower had no encounter in it...)</p><p></p><p><strong>Supper with Gargoyles</strong></p><p>The group came into a great chamber filled with illusions (in fact, a rather small chamber) and conversed with four gargoyles that were supping on a great feast in front of them. They were discussing whether there was a difference in taste between the heart of a virgin and the heart of a trollop, which led to some amusing exchanges; there were some lovely role-playing touches here. Of course, it devolved into a fight as the group refused to eat with the gargoyles, but the gargoyles were terribly underpowered for this group, and died in the third round. (They were CR 8 together? Really?)</p><p></p><p><strong>The Pool of Molten Gold, the Room of Mirrors, and the Achaierais</strong></p><p>More chambers filled with illusions greeted the party as they continued. A pool of molten gold (actually boiling water) beckoned the group, but only Dave's fighter plunged his hands in, and he resisted the urge to jump in. Around the pit were eight mirrors, holding images of realms known by the pit fiend. The group averted their eyes, and continued onwards.</p><p></p><p>The group then came to a great room of metallic vegetation in which great beasts roamed. In particular, there were four achaierais - four-legged flightless birds. They attacked the group, but were slain in the fourth round. (Unlike many groups playing this adventure, I actually own four achaierai miniatures - they're one of my favourite monsters). Tim's sorcerer was sent insane by the black smoke they emitted, but they just locked him in a room until he recovered.</p><p></p><p><strong>Mining with the Behir</strong></p><p>One of the nastiest encounters of the afternoon was found in the next room: a behir supervising illusionary miners. As it entered, it <em>suggested</em> that the group put down their weapons, pick up the mining tools and go to work. And three of the party failed their saves, leading to one of the stupider combats as they couldn't do anything to help the rest of the party. Oh, and the mining tools were -2 cursed heavy picks...</p><p></p><p>They got out of it mainly because the Behir attacked Dave, breaking the suggestion, and he was able to occupy it long enough for the unaffected players to take it down. But it wasn't pretty.</p><p></p><p><strong>The Infernal Guardian... or the Pushover</strong></p><p>A room guarded by a flaming minotaur statue now confronted the party. (There was actually a ring that they could use to get past it that they'd bypassed). However, the group went against it with spell and sword. And it got *one* action before it was killed after a total of six party attacks at the beginning of the second round. This thing was allegedly CR 8 and I had a party of five level 7s. Let's look at its main points: Init -1, AC 17, hp 96, light fortification. It went last in initiative, and that was that.</p><p></p><p><strong>Filling in Backstory and the Riddle Locks</strong></p><p>Now the group came to a inevitable, sworn to protect the Engine, and following that "the Librarian", a medusa. Strangely enough, the group talked with both and didn't provoke them into attacking. The inevitable alerted them to the location of the Amulet they needed (behind a mirror, and the group then went back to get it, and all of the other loot there - which Greg, holding the contract, could get without difficulty). The medusa basically just waved them through, with the group not provoking her.</p><p></p><p>To reach the Pit Fiend, the group needed to answer five riddles (or beat down the doors). The riddles could be answered by people who had paid attention during the adventure, so no luck there. Eventually, I ended up handwaving it and saying the group knew the answers. I hope the group will start taking notes now!</p><p></p><p><strong>Facing the Pit Fiend</strong></p><p>The group had two final challenges: first they had to break the containment cage holding the Pit Fiend, and then defeat him themselves. </p><p></p><p>The cage was a pain. Animated Constructs with hardness 20 and three grab attacks? Yeah, nice. An enlarged and bull's strengthed Dave was the only one able to damage it, which caused a lot of rumblings from the group about another poor design by Paizo. (Seriously, you get to the end of the adventure, and then you have to go home to get an adamantine weapon? And that this module puts no time limit on a nuclear meltdown is rather stupid...)</p><p></p><p>Once it was destroyed (with a lot of fudging by me to stop Dave from being grabbed), Liebdaga the Twin, the imprisoned Pit Fiend manifested from within the cage. No discussion, just fighting - and the Pit Fiend took long enough to act that he was almost dead before his first attack: a fireball. Yeah, the group took some damage from that, but not enough to drop him. He didn't get another attack.</p><p></p><p>And, with that, the group had successfully completed the adventure.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MerricB, post: 5949142, member: 3586"] Everyone managed to get to our tenth session of this campaign, where we finished play of [b]The Infernal Syndrome[/b]. So, 10 sessions brings us to 9th level and completion of four AP adventures... [b]Mephits and Rods[/b] The group began by continuing to investigate the spiral, going counter-clockwise around it and returning to the entrance chamber, which was on the far side of the hall of unstable fire. A detour into a side-chamber led them to some mephits, that hissed at them for letting the steam escape. The group quickly shut the door, and avoided the battle. Having explored all the way up, they headed downwards, where they discovered a chamber with a lot of writing describing the workings of the Infernal Engine, but were unable to make head nor tail of it. Further downwards brought them to the third cooling station, which was building up steam at a dangerous rate. Michael's rogue tried to disable it, but was unable to do so and the escaping steam exploded at pressure, hurting the party badly. Lee channelled positive energy to heal the party, and the group - upon consultation with myself - realised that there was one tunnel back in the tunnel rat home that they hadn't investigated. This party is dreadful at taking notes, and this module, in particular, requires players to pay attention to what was said. The unexplored tunnel did indeed lead to the Stygian Keyrod they needed to shut down the Infernal Engine, but it was in the possession of a beautiful woman who had slain the previous keeper. In fact, she was a succubus, but none of the party realised that until after the end of the encounter, by which time she'd been extremely charming and managed to make Lee's cleric her potential lover (that will occur next session...) In exchange for a couple of Pearls of Power that Lee gave her, she gave them the Keyrod. The group returned to the Engine and shut down the cooling towers, one after another. [b]The Final Cooling Towers[/b] A great Stygian Water Elemental rose from the depths of the fourth tower, but it was quickly dispatched by the group, although not before inflicting some negative levels on the group. Lee restored Michael and Dave, and the group disabled the final two towers, and recovered a lyre of building from a pool of water. At this level, the DR 5/- of the elementals is finally not a problem, added to which we have Dave's fighter - his halfling monk would have been incredibly ineffective. With all five cooling towers shut down, the group proceeded through the 'airlock' gates into the next sequence of rooms. (And I wondered why the final cooling tower had no encounter in it...) [b]Supper with Gargoyles[/b] The group came into a great chamber filled with illusions (in fact, a rather small chamber) and conversed with four gargoyles that were supping on a great feast in front of them. They were discussing whether there was a difference in taste between the heart of a virgin and the heart of a trollop, which led to some amusing exchanges; there were some lovely role-playing touches here. Of course, it devolved into a fight as the group refused to eat with the gargoyles, but the gargoyles were terribly underpowered for this group, and died in the third round. (They were CR 8 together? Really?) [b]The Pool of Molten Gold, the Room of Mirrors, and the Achaierais[/b] More chambers filled with illusions greeted the party as they continued. A pool of molten gold (actually boiling water) beckoned the group, but only Dave's fighter plunged his hands in, and he resisted the urge to jump in. Around the pit were eight mirrors, holding images of realms known by the pit fiend. The group averted their eyes, and continued onwards. The group then came to a great room of metallic vegetation in which great beasts roamed. In particular, there were four achaierais - four-legged flightless birds. They attacked the group, but were slain in the fourth round. (Unlike many groups playing this adventure, I actually own four achaierai miniatures - they're one of my favourite monsters). Tim's sorcerer was sent insane by the black smoke they emitted, but they just locked him in a room until he recovered. [b]Mining with the Behir[/b] One of the nastiest encounters of the afternoon was found in the next room: a behir supervising illusionary miners. As it entered, it [i]suggested[/i] that the group put down their weapons, pick up the mining tools and go to work. And three of the party failed their saves, leading to one of the stupider combats as they couldn't do anything to help the rest of the party. Oh, and the mining tools were -2 cursed heavy picks... They got out of it mainly because the Behir attacked Dave, breaking the suggestion, and he was able to occupy it long enough for the unaffected players to take it down. But it wasn't pretty. [b]The Infernal Guardian... or the Pushover[/b] A room guarded by a flaming minotaur statue now confronted the party. (There was actually a ring that they could use to get past it that they'd bypassed). However, the group went against it with spell and sword. And it got *one* action before it was killed after a total of six party attacks at the beginning of the second round. This thing was allegedly CR 8 and I had a party of five level 7s. Let's look at its main points: Init -1, AC 17, hp 96, light fortification. It went last in initiative, and that was that. [b]Filling in Backstory and the Riddle Locks[/b] Now the group came to a inevitable, sworn to protect the Engine, and following that "the Librarian", a medusa. Strangely enough, the group talked with both and didn't provoke them into attacking. The inevitable alerted them to the location of the Amulet they needed (behind a mirror, and the group then went back to get it, and all of the other loot there - which Greg, holding the contract, could get without difficulty). The medusa basically just waved them through, with the group not provoking her. To reach the Pit Fiend, the group needed to answer five riddles (or beat down the doors). The riddles could be answered by people who had paid attention during the adventure, so no luck there. Eventually, I ended up handwaving it and saying the group knew the answers. I hope the group will start taking notes now! [b]Facing the Pit Fiend[/b] The group had two final challenges: first they had to break the containment cage holding the Pit Fiend, and then defeat him themselves. The cage was a pain. Animated Constructs with hardness 20 and three grab attacks? Yeah, nice. An enlarged and bull's strengthed Dave was the only one able to damage it, which caused a lot of rumblings from the group about another poor design by Paizo. (Seriously, you get to the end of the adventure, and then you have to go home to get an adamantine weapon? And that this module puts no time limit on a nuclear meltdown is rather stupid...) Once it was destroyed (with a lot of fudging by me to stop Dave from being grabbed), Liebdaga the Twin, the imprisoned Pit Fiend manifested from within the cage. No discussion, just fighting - and the Pit Fiend took long enough to act that he was almost dead before his first attack: a fireball. Yeah, the group took some damage from that, but not enough to drop him. He didn't get another attack. And, with that, the group had successfully completed the adventure. [/QUOTE]
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