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Rel's Faded Glory II (Thanks Old One) Final Update 7/14
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<blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 172270" data-attributes="member: 99"><p>Thanks for the comments all. I'll address the points you bring up before I post the next installment.</p><p></p><p>Thorntangle - I don't mind Entangle too bad. It isn't useful in every situation and it gives me a good excuse to throw way more bad guys at the party than they should be able to handle. But Briar Web is just plain nasty.</p><p></p><p>Broc - I love it when the players get that feeling of dread. They look at each other and say, "You know that he is going to burn us with those damn Dark Druids every night between here and the Temple so we might as well hurry."</p><p></p><p>Re: Briar Web. Like Entangle, you can try to break free from it every round. Unlike Entangle, you take damage (I think it's 1 pt per caster leve) every time you try whether you succeed or not. Speaks and Raven were already wounded from the first fight and just couldn't handle the damage. Speaks' player figured that since Briar Web gives you cover, you may as well just wait it out unless the enemy has some nasty area effect spells (he was banking that the Dark Druids didn't have Flame Strike yet).</p><p></p><p>And I promise to get caught up on your Story Hour during lunch tomorrow and tell you what I think. Thanks for your continued support, even though I've been a bit lax with mine of late.</p><p></p><p>Malachai Rose - Scar does indeed kick serious booty. He seems to specialize in taking damage sometimes. But his real strength is his versatility. Between his two-weapon fighting and his Mobility/Spring Attack capabilities, he can serve lots of different roles in combat. He's no slouch with his bow either though he rarely gets a chance to use it.</p><p></p><p>As far as healing goes, Speaks rarely prepares any unless the group is resting for a day after a particularly brutal combat. Raven can of course spontaneously cast healing. But as you may have noticed, he tends to do A LOT of buffing before combat. Combined with a few spells during the course of the combat and he has precious little healing to dole out afterwards. Which brings us to their wands.</p><p></p><p>Working in concert with Tadius Silvanus, after the Winter War, Speaks had crafted a pair of Wands of Cure Light Wounds. This gave them 100 castings of the spell and I was a bit concerned with what this would do to the challenge level of the game. Apparently my fears were unfounded as you'll notice that both the character deaths that have occurred have happened since then.</p><p></p><p>Speaks has always used these wands very sparingly. Usually he would use them to bring someone back from unconscious so they could flee to a location where they could rest and prepare more healing spells. He has still sometimes used several charges at a time however because the luck with these wands has been astonishingly bad. I've never seen so many 1's and 2's rolled on a d8 in my life until these wands came into play.</p><p></p><p>And ever since Raven has been in the party their use has accelerated. Opposite of what you'd think with adding a cleric to the party, eh? But Raven's player tends to have the attitude that "A wand unused is a useless wand." I believe that the pair of wands have a combined total of around 20 charges left (probably more like 35-40 as of this episode if that gives you any idea of what lies ahead).</p><p></p><p></p><p>So let me finally get to the actual update. I present:</p><p></p><p><strong>The Temple</strong></p><p></p><p>The party moved for the rest of the night. After dawn, Speaks and Raven stopped to commune and pray respectively. Speaks provided the group with a combination of magic that rendered them <em>Invisible to Animals</em> and allowed them to move through the woods <em>Without a Trace</em>. Armed with this magic, they marched all day until they tottered on the brink of exhaustion. They finally collapsed and kept a sleepy eye out for any trouble. Thankfully the next night passed without an attack by the Dark Druids.</p><p></p><p>Further considering their situation, they decided that it was important to be prepared for another attack by the Dark Druids. That meant having their most powerful magics ready to bring to bear and therefore foregoing the smoky steed that had allowed Raven to travel so quickly before. To make up for their general lack of speed, they resolved to travel for longer into the night and to try and pick up their pace at certain times during the day.</p><p></p><p>(We learned a lot about the travel rules regarding hustling and forced marching this session.)</p><p></p><p>The group set out and made best speed along the straightest route toward the Temple. The sooner they could go there and leave, the better as far as they were concerned. This feeling was intensified a day later when the woods made another disturbing transition.</p><p></p><p>As the group moved closer to the Temple, they passed an unmarked boundary after which the wood suddenly became dead. Not just a few trees dead, but the entire forest was devoid of life. There were plenty of trees and bushes but they were all gray and black and bore no leaves. No deer scampered away from their approach. No birds flew from tree to tree. No insects crawled the ground. The woods had become simply lifeless.</p><p></p><p>The party exchanged uneasy glances but decided not to tarry. Soon the party made camp and spent a fretful night in the decidedly unnatural silence of this dead place. At dawn when Speaks went to pray he made another disturbing discovery: The lands in which they traveled no longer had any link to the natural world. By struggling, he eventually felt his way back through the dead lands to the natural world beyond and managed to refresh his magic. But it was obvious that it would become more and more difficult to do so with each additional mile they traveled within the dead zone and each passing day he spent there.</p><p></p><p>The party kept to the cautious but enduring pace they had been setting. None enjoyed the extra long days of hiking. But the nights were restless and the shorter they were kept the better. Two more such days brought them to a large clearing and in the center stood the object of their quest.</p><p></p><p>The Temple stood some forty feet tall at the top of the cathedral. Four lower wings stood lower than the center and around all of it was a twelve foot high stone wall. In the center of the wall they faced was an archway flanked by a pair of statues. The statues were eight foot tall renderings of men in garb that resembled that of the Imperial Legions. In their right hands were maces and their left hands were raised above their heads.</p><p></p><p>Speaks assumed eagle form and took flight to scout the temple from the air. From above he could see that a path led from the archway to an alcove in one wing of the building. The roof of that wing formed a railed balcony occupied by several skeletons. In the courtyard lay a dozen or so dead bodies. Speaks suspected that they may not be quite as dead as they appeared and swooped lower for a closer look.</p><p></p><p>As he descended toward the courtyard, he was suddenly jolted by a powerful shock. He recovered his senses a moment later and flapped his wings vigorously to regain altitude. He cast about seeking an assailant but saw no one. He circled twice more looking for any signs of who or what had attacked him but found nothing. He returned to the ground where his companions stood and related what had happened.</p><p></p><p>Neither Raven nor Scar had ever had much use for subtlety. Raven cast a variety of protective magics on them (including <em>Shield Other</em> on Scar, <em>Circle of Protection from Evil</em> on himself and <em>Invisibility to Undead</em> on all of them). They drew weapons, checked their armor and strode forth through the archway. Speaks feared the lot of them being caught in another <em>Entangle</em> or <em>Briar Web</em> so he gave Scrubs instructions to protect Raven and transformed back to eagle form.</p><p></p><p>The approach to the Temple appeared perilous from the start. The skeletons on the balcony held bows fashioned of bone and stood poised to rain arrows down on them as they approached. None of the party was so gullible as to think that the bodies lying in the courtyard would stay that way. Who knew what other devious trickery awaited them.</p><p></p><p>Scar rushed the doorway alcove into the temple hoping to bottle up any inside who might attempt to sally forth. He also figured that this would also shield him from the skeletal archers on the balcony above. Unfortunately, it also took him beyond the range of one of Raven’s protective magics (<em>Shield Other</em> foiled again). Additionally, as he entered the alcove, he set off some kind of ward which sent crackling lightening shooting throughout the alcove. Scar dodged the worst of it but was still wounded.</p><p></p><p>Raven followed more slowly with Scrubs at his heel. Seeing the blaze of lightning that shot through the alcove, he only slightly regretted that Scar had invalidated his spell by haring off like that. Glancing around, Raven could already see the bodies on the ground starting to move. He moved forward with caution counting on the <em>Invisibility</em> to keep him hidden.</p><p></p><p>Speaks stayed just beyond the archway for the moment, keeping a watchful eye out for any who would try and assail them from behind.</p><p></p><p>Seeing the destructive forces he had unleashed by merely entering the alcove, Scar opted to wait until the others arrived before opening the door. He watched with disgust as the various corpses rose from the ground and began to cast about for what had disturbed their rest. His disgust turned to apprehension as several of them seemed to turn directly toward himself and Raven. But Raven had told him that they were invisible!</p><p></p><p>A pair of them entered the alcove, and raked their filthy claws at Scar. Raven had given explicit instructions not to attack lest it cast off their invisibility. “To hell with that!” thought Scar. He certainly wasn’t going to stand her and become a snack for these spawn of hell! He swung his hammer overhead and brought it crashing into the shoulder of one of the corpses. The thing staggered under the blow and as it lurched back, Scar saw several more of the undead turn his way.</p><p></p><p>Another pair of the ghoulish figures slashed at Raven at almost the same moment. His armor and the protective ward around him kept their claws from finding purchase. Raven knew that if an undead creature was smart enough, it may not be fooled by the <em>Invisibility</em>. But most of them still seemed unable to find him so he resolved to stick with the plan and hope for the best.</p><p></p><p>Scrubs however, only saw Raven come under attack. Speaks had charged him with guarding the Dwarf and his protective instincts kicked in. He slashed and bit at the Ghoul with all his strength. Several more of the creatures turned in that direction as though seeing the bear for the first time.</p><p></p><p>Speaks saw that the situation was about to get really out of hand. Most of the Ghouls had still not engaged the party and Speaks called forth the plants to <em>Entangle</em> the area. But even as he discharged the magic, he felt it find no purchase upon the land. The few black vines and weeds in the courtyard were only the gnarled and lifeless shells of their former vigor. Speaks suddenly became very afraid at what was about to happen.</p><p></p><p>Scar continued to smash at the Ghouls with his hammer with fairly good results. More of them continued to pack into the alcove with him, but he held his own. Out in the courtyard the creatures started to press in around Raven. Some seemed to know where he was and others clawed at the air in an attempt to locate him. Fearing that he would be overwhelmed, Raven muttered a quick prayer and wrapped himself in a cloak of <em>Sanctuary</em>.</p><p></p><p>Scrubs had no such cloak however. Several of the Ghouls attacked him and dug their claws into his flesh. He also came under fire by the skeletal archers who could now see him but most missed because of the intensity of the melee with the Ghouls. Speaks started to call out to Scrubs to retreat but found that he could not form the words with his avian throat. A moment later, the point became moot when he saw Scrubs go rigid under the hand of one of the Ghouls. He filled himself with resolve and transformed back to human form as he prepared to go and rescue his companion.</p><p></p><p><strong>To Be Continued…</strong></p><p></p><p>(Note: We stopped the session right about here. It was getting late that night and I knew we would be up till all hours if we tried to finish the combat. It made for a suspenseful week as everyone wondered what would happen. You only have to wait a day.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rel, post: 172270, member: 99"] Thanks for the comments all. I'll address the points you bring up before I post the next installment. Thorntangle - I don't mind Entangle too bad. It isn't useful in every situation and it gives me a good excuse to throw way more bad guys at the party than they should be able to handle. But Briar Web is just plain nasty. Broc - I love it when the players get that feeling of dread. They look at each other and say, "You know that he is going to burn us with those damn Dark Druids every night between here and the Temple so we might as well hurry." Re: Briar Web. Like Entangle, you can try to break free from it every round. Unlike Entangle, you take damage (I think it's 1 pt per caster leve) every time you try whether you succeed or not. Speaks and Raven were already wounded from the first fight and just couldn't handle the damage. Speaks' player figured that since Briar Web gives you cover, you may as well just wait it out unless the enemy has some nasty area effect spells (he was banking that the Dark Druids didn't have Flame Strike yet). And I promise to get caught up on your Story Hour during lunch tomorrow and tell you what I think. Thanks for your continued support, even though I've been a bit lax with mine of late. Malachai Rose - Scar does indeed kick serious booty. He seems to specialize in taking damage sometimes. But his real strength is his versatility. Between his two-weapon fighting and his Mobility/Spring Attack capabilities, he can serve lots of different roles in combat. He's no slouch with his bow either though he rarely gets a chance to use it. As far as healing goes, Speaks rarely prepares any unless the group is resting for a day after a particularly brutal combat. Raven can of course spontaneously cast healing. But as you may have noticed, he tends to do A LOT of buffing before combat. Combined with a few spells during the course of the combat and he has precious little healing to dole out afterwards. Which brings us to their wands. Working in concert with Tadius Silvanus, after the Winter War, Speaks had crafted a pair of Wands of Cure Light Wounds. This gave them 100 castings of the spell and I was a bit concerned with what this would do to the challenge level of the game. Apparently my fears were unfounded as you'll notice that both the character deaths that have occurred have happened since then. Speaks has always used these wands very sparingly. Usually he would use them to bring someone back from unconscious so they could flee to a location where they could rest and prepare more healing spells. He has still sometimes used several charges at a time however because the luck with these wands has been astonishingly bad. I've never seen so many 1's and 2's rolled on a d8 in my life until these wands came into play. And ever since Raven has been in the party their use has accelerated. Opposite of what you'd think with adding a cleric to the party, eh? But Raven's player tends to have the attitude that "A wand unused is a useless wand." I believe that the pair of wands have a combined total of around 20 charges left (probably more like 35-40 as of this episode if that gives you any idea of what lies ahead). So let me finally get to the actual update. I present: [B]The Temple[/B] The party moved for the rest of the night. After dawn, Speaks and Raven stopped to commune and pray respectively. Speaks provided the group with a combination of magic that rendered them [I]Invisible to Animals[/I] and allowed them to move through the woods [I]Without a Trace[/I]. Armed with this magic, they marched all day until they tottered on the brink of exhaustion. They finally collapsed and kept a sleepy eye out for any trouble. Thankfully the next night passed without an attack by the Dark Druids. Further considering their situation, they decided that it was important to be prepared for another attack by the Dark Druids. That meant having their most powerful magics ready to bring to bear and therefore foregoing the smoky steed that had allowed Raven to travel so quickly before. To make up for their general lack of speed, they resolved to travel for longer into the night and to try and pick up their pace at certain times during the day. (We learned a lot about the travel rules regarding hustling and forced marching this session.) The group set out and made best speed along the straightest route toward the Temple. The sooner they could go there and leave, the better as far as they were concerned. This feeling was intensified a day later when the woods made another disturbing transition. As the group moved closer to the Temple, they passed an unmarked boundary after which the wood suddenly became dead. Not just a few trees dead, but the entire forest was devoid of life. There were plenty of trees and bushes but they were all gray and black and bore no leaves. No deer scampered away from their approach. No birds flew from tree to tree. No insects crawled the ground. The woods had become simply lifeless. The party exchanged uneasy glances but decided not to tarry. Soon the party made camp and spent a fretful night in the decidedly unnatural silence of this dead place. At dawn when Speaks went to pray he made another disturbing discovery: The lands in which they traveled no longer had any link to the natural world. By struggling, he eventually felt his way back through the dead lands to the natural world beyond and managed to refresh his magic. But it was obvious that it would become more and more difficult to do so with each additional mile they traveled within the dead zone and each passing day he spent there. The party kept to the cautious but enduring pace they had been setting. None enjoyed the extra long days of hiking. But the nights were restless and the shorter they were kept the better. Two more such days brought them to a large clearing and in the center stood the object of their quest. The Temple stood some forty feet tall at the top of the cathedral. Four lower wings stood lower than the center and around all of it was a twelve foot high stone wall. In the center of the wall they faced was an archway flanked by a pair of statues. The statues were eight foot tall renderings of men in garb that resembled that of the Imperial Legions. In their right hands were maces and their left hands were raised above their heads. Speaks assumed eagle form and took flight to scout the temple from the air. From above he could see that a path led from the archway to an alcove in one wing of the building. The roof of that wing formed a railed balcony occupied by several skeletons. In the courtyard lay a dozen or so dead bodies. Speaks suspected that they may not be quite as dead as they appeared and swooped lower for a closer look. As he descended toward the courtyard, he was suddenly jolted by a powerful shock. He recovered his senses a moment later and flapped his wings vigorously to regain altitude. He cast about seeking an assailant but saw no one. He circled twice more looking for any signs of who or what had attacked him but found nothing. He returned to the ground where his companions stood and related what had happened. Neither Raven nor Scar had ever had much use for subtlety. Raven cast a variety of protective magics on them (including [I]Shield Other[/I] on Scar, [I]Circle of Protection from Evil[/I] on himself and [I]Invisibility to Undead[/I] on all of them). They drew weapons, checked their armor and strode forth through the archway. Speaks feared the lot of them being caught in another [I]Entangle[/I] or [I]Briar Web[/I] so he gave Scrubs instructions to protect Raven and transformed back to eagle form. The approach to the Temple appeared perilous from the start. The skeletons on the balcony held bows fashioned of bone and stood poised to rain arrows down on them as they approached. None of the party was so gullible as to think that the bodies lying in the courtyard would stay that way. Who knew what other devious trickery awaited them. Scar rushed the doorway alcove into the temple hoping to bottle up any inside who might attempt to sally forth. He also figured that this would also shield him from the skeletal archers on the balcony above. Unfortunately, it also took him beyond the range of one of Raven’s protective magics ([I]Shield Other[/I] foiled again). Additionally, as he entered the alcove, he set off some kind of ward which sent crackling lightening shooting throughout the alcove. Scar dodged the worst of it but was still wounded. Raven followed more slowly with Scrubs at his heel. Seeing the blaze of lightning that shot through the alcove, he only slightly regretted that Scar had invalidated his spell by haring off like that. Glancing around, Raven could already see the bodies on the ground starting to move. He moved forward with caution counting on the [I]Invisibility[/I] to keep him hidden. Speaks stayed just beyond the archway for the moment, keeping a watchful eye out for any who would try and assail them from behind. Seeing the destructive forces he had unleashed by merely entering the alcove, Scar opted to wait until the others arrived before opening the door. He watched with disgust as the various corpses rose from the ground and began to cast about for what had disturbed their rest. His disgust turned to apprehension as several of them seemed to turn directly toward himself and Raven. But Raven had told him that they were invisible! A pair of them entered the alcove, and raked their filthy claws at Scar. Raven had given explicit instructions not to attack lest it cast off their invisibility. “To hell with that!” thought Scar. He certainly wasn’t going to stand her and become a snack for these spawn of hell! He swung his hammer overhead and brought it crashing into the shoulder of one of the corpses. The thing staggered under the blow and as it lurched back, Scar saw several more of the undead turn his way. Another pair of the ghoulish figures slashed at Raven at almost the same moment. His armor and the protective ward around him kept their claws from finding purchase. Raven knew that if an undead creature was smart enough, it may not be fooled by the [I]Invisibility[/I]. But most of them still seemed unable to find him so he resolved to stick with the plan and hope for the best. Scrubs however, only saw Raven come under attack. Speaks had charged him with guarding the Dwarf and his protective instincts kicked in. He slashed and bit at the Ghoul with all his strength. Several more of the creatures turned in that direction as though seeing the bear for the first time. Speaks saw that the situation was about to get really out of hand. Most of the Ghouls had still not engaged the party and Speaks called forth the plants to [I]Entangle[/I] the area. But even as he discharged the magic, he felt it find no purchase upon the land. The few black vines and weeds in the courtyard were only the gnarled and lifeless shells of their former vigor. Speaks suddenly became very afraid at what was about to happen. Scar continued to smash at the Ghouls with his hammer with fairly good results. More of them continued to pack into the alcove with him, but he held his own. Out in the courtyard the creatures started to press in around Raven. Some seemed to know where he was and others clawed at the air in an attempt to locate him. Fearing that he would be overwhelmed, Raven muttered a quick prayer and wrapped himself in a cloak of [I]Sanctuary[/I]. Scrubs had no such cloak however. Several of the Ghouls attacked him and dug their claws into his flesh. He also came under fire by the skeletal archers who could now see him but most missed because of the intensity of the melee with the Ghouls. Speaks started to call out to Scrubs to retreat but found that he could not form the words with his avian throat. A moment later, the point became moot when he saw Scrubs go rigid under the hand of one of the Ghouls. He filled himself with resolve and transformed back to human form as he prepared to go and rescue his companion. [B]To Be Continued…[/B] (Note: We stopped the session right about here. It was getting late that night and I knew we would be up till all hours if we tried to finish the combat. It made for a suspenseful week as everyone wondered what would happen. You only have to wait a day.) [/QUOTE]
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