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Running Commentary on Rel's 4e Campaign (Complete 8/2/10)
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<blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 4719406" data-attributes="member: 99"><p>...With hunger flashing in her eyes (and not the good kind) the woman reached out to King Klo of Opkhar and her arm became a cluster of scarab beetles that began to chew and bite the king before anyone could react. Then pandemonium broke out.</p><p></p><p>Lord Harrix backed away from the monstrosity and began edging his way toward the door to the kitchen hallway. The Royal Guards closed ranks to protect their king. Astavian climbed onto the table and made a running dive to try and tackle the bug-woman away from the king and knocked her down into Zanne. He and Zanne discovered that the beetles that apparently made up this woman were not limited to biting the king. The bug-woman stood and clapped her hands together with a shout, sending out a wave of pacification that left nearly everyone in the room stunned.</p><p></p><p>Lord Harrix recovered and dashed out of the room with Eshik close behind. Astavian and Zanne also recovered quickly and focused their attacks on the bug-woman trying to get her to loose her grasp on the king. It took Mialain several rounds to skake off the Stun.</p><p></p><p>One after the other the Royal Guards fell to the bug-woman's attacks or simply the blanket of scarab beetles that bit anything that got close to her. Zanne and Astavian sent blow after blow into her amorphous form but most seemed to do little harm to her. She suffered more from ignoring the Divine Challenge of Astavian. They did manage to usher the king into the kitchen hallway at one point and slam the door closed, ceasing her attack upon him for a moment.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile Eshik chased Lord Harrix down the hall and around a corner. He was followed closely by one of the Royal Guards bent on letting neither Eshik nor Lord Harrix escape. Eshik rounded a corner a few steps ahead of the guard and found himself face to face with Lord Harrix. However a moment later he was staring into his own face as Lord Harrix changed form to look exactly like Eshik and plunged a dagger into his leg. The guard came around the corner to find two identical Dragonborn facing off against each other. However he paused a moment and saw that one was armed only with a dagger while the other held a pair of swords that he'd noted during the dinner. Eshik slowed "Lord Harrix's" escape with his Hunter's Bear Trap and the Royal Guard charged him and felled the changeling with his halberd.</p><p></p><p>Back outside the dining hall the bug-woman dissolved into a swarm of beetles again and scurried under the door the PC's had closed and resumed her attack on the king. The elderly king was clearly about to succumb to these wounds when Mialain unleashed her Beacon of Hope and provided him some healing. It was not enough however and the bug-woman's next attack dropped the king to the floor, mortally wounded. Zanne, Astavian and the guards unleashed a torrent of damage upon her however, including Zanne focusing on spreading out her Flames of Phlegethos to strike a more diffuse area. They weren't sure if this destroyed her but it did send the remaining beetles scurrying under doorways and down sewer drains.</p><p></p><p>Mialain shoved her way past the guards and knelt at the king's side. She mustered as much of Melora's power as she could and channelled it all into the king. He drew a ragged breath and opened his green eyes.</p><p></p><p>As this was happening Eshik was fighting his own battle with death. He wanted the so-called Lord Harrix for questioning and frantically worked to patch the wounds he and the guard had inflicted on the changeling. Just as he was certain the creature was going to die he managed to patch the last of the wounds and stabilize it. It's facial features relaxed and assumed the form of a strange looking female with pale skin and eyes.</p><p></p><p>The PC's were all placed in a storeroom for questioning by the Captain of the Royal Guard. Their story checked out however and they had clearly acted to save the king's life when given the chance. Finally they were brought before the king so that he could privately thank them. It was then that they noticed that the king's eyes were not the same color as they were at dinner and were now green. The king told Mialain that "whatever she did to bring him back left him with these new eyes". He wasn't all that happy to have his appearance changed like that but he could hardly complain about her saving his life, no matter the side effects. As he finished thanking them a scream rang out through the New Palace.</p><p></p><p>They all ran toward its source: The cell where the changeling was being kept. They burst in to find her bloody and partly consumed corpse laying on the floor near the cot. A scarab beetled scurred down the tiny drain in the center of the room as they saw the letters "A C" painted on the wall in blood near the changeling's lifeless hand...</p><p></p><p>*******</p><p></p><p>So if you haven't figured it out by now then you've not been reading the Monster Manual. This was a Lamia that I'd de-leveled to be a 7th level Elite Controller. If that sounds like a tough fight for four 2nd level PC's then you are correct. Then consider that Eshik missed nearly the entire thing while chasing Lord Harrix. Mitigating that somewhat was the fact that she was attacking the king nearly the entire time and they also had the help of the Royal Guards. The Guards were effectively 5th level Minions but (although I didn't plan this in advance) they were using reach weapons so they usually stayed out of range of her 5' radius swarm damage.</p><p></p><p>Another thing that made the fight tough was that Mialain didn't make the save vs. Stun for four rounds. But when she recovered she poured out gobs of healing, especially there at the end with the king. I had ruled that, being an old man, he wasn't all that durable and had only one Death Save he could fail before dying. But Mialain dumped so much healing into him in one round (Melora's Tide + Healing Word + a Heal Check, all under the effects of a Beacon of Hope) that he was nearly at full hit points when she was done with him.</p><p></p><p>Astavian probably did most of the damage to the Lamia by virtue of her ignoring his Divine Challenge round after round. He got in some nice shots with the greatsword as well but the Lamia reduced those by half. Same with most of Zanne's attacks but she did Power Stunt to turn her Flames of Phlegethos into an area attack spell (that still only hit the Lamia) so it did full damage and sent her fleeing (besides it looked like the king was dead anyway).</p><p></p><p>Props to Eshik for almost single-handedly defeating the doppelganger and then single-handedly saving her from dying. Eshik is not great at Healing and she was one death save away from biting the dust when he rolled well enough to stabilize her.</p><p></p><p>A quick note about the doppelganger who had been with the group since the start of the campaign: I had a tougher time than I originally envisioned portraying this NPC. The problem was that I wanted to try and give a few clues as to the fact that "Lord Harrix" was not who he seemed to be without making it blatant. That was tough because during fights I usually had the NPC fade into the background and the PC's seldom talked to the aloof Lord Harrix otherwise (this aloof, "don't talk to me unless necessary" attitude was intentional by the doppelganger who didn't want to get into any lengthy Q&A sessions that could reveal its identity). Thanks go to my friend Speaks With Stone (who isn't playing this campaign) for his idea to have Lord Harrix perform beyond expectations in some fight or other. In the prison mines he managed to down a couple of the Mist Demons that had teleported their way past the party. The PC's chalked that up to the fact that they were wounded anyway and he just "got lucky". But at least I did my due dilligence for planting a seed of doubt. I also think there was a dose of "something isn't quite right with this guy but my character has no reason to suspect him too strongly" roleplaying by the players so kudos for that as well.</p><p></p><p>The cryptic message in blood on the cell wall could mean a lot of things but most of the group thought it referred to the Arcanon Confederacy, a neighboring, expansionist magocracy. I guess we'll see...</p><p></p><p>(I'll be posting one more update sometime over the weekend covering the events of last session.)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rel, post: 4719406, member: 99"] ...With hunger flashing in her eyes (and not the good kind) the woman reached out to King Klo of Opkhar and her arm became a cluster of scarab beetles that began to chew and bite the king before anyone could react. Then pandemonium broke out. Lord Harrix backed away from the monstrosity and began edging his way toward the door to the kitchen hallway. The Royal Guards closed ranks to protect their king. Astavian climbed onto the table and made a running dive to try and tackle the bug-woman away from the king and knocked her down into Zanne. He and Zanne discovered that the beetles that apparently made up this woman were not limited to biting the king. The bug-woman stood and clapped her hands together with a shout, sending out a wave of pacification that left nearly everyone in the room stunned. Lord Harrix recovered and dashed out of the room with Eshik close behind. Astavian and Zanne also recovered quickly and focused their attacks on the bug-woman trying to get her to loose her grasp on the king. It took Mialain several rounds to skake off the Stun. One after the other the Royal Guards fell to the bug-woman's attacks or simply the blanket of scarab beetles that bit anything that got close to her. Zanne and Astavian sent blow after blow into her amorphous form but most seemed to do little harm to her. She suffered more from ignoring the Divine Challenge of Astavian. They did manage to usher the king into the kitchen hallway at one point and slam the door closed, ceasing her attack upon him for a moment. Meanwhile Eshik chased Lord Harrix down the hall and around a corner. He was followed closely by one of the Royal Guards bent on letting neither Eshik nor Lord Harrix escape. Eshik rounded a corner a few steps ahead of the guard and found himself face to face with Lord Harrix. However a moment later he was staring into his own face as Lord Harrix changed form to look exactly like Eshik and plunged a dagger into his leg. The guard came around the corner to find two identical Dragonborn facing off against each other. However he paused a moment and saw that one was armed only with a dagger while the other held a pair of swords that he'd noted during the dinner. Eshik slowed "Lord Harrix's" escape with his Hunter's Bear Trap and the Royal Guard charged him and felled the changeling with his halberd. Back outside the dining hall the bug-woman dissolved into a swarm of beetles again and scurried under the door the PC's had closed and resumed her attack on the king. The elderly king was clearly about to succumb to these wounds when Mialain unleashed her Beacon of Hope and provided him some healing. It was not enough however and the bug-woman's next attack dropped the king to the floor, mortally wounded. Zanne, Astavian and the guards unleashed a torrent of damage upon her however, including Zanne focusing on spreading out her Flames of Phlegethos to strike a more diffuse area. They weren't sure if this destroyed her but it did send the remaining beetles scurrying under doorways and down sewer drains. Mialain shoved her way past the guards and knelt at the king's side. She mustered as much of Melora's power as she could and channelled it all into the king. He drew a ragged breath and opened his green eyes. As this was happening Eshik was fighting his own battle with death. He wanted the so-called Lord Harrix for questioning and frantically worked to patch the wounds he and the guard had inflicted on the changeling. Just as he was certain the creature was going to die he managed to patch the last of the wounds and stabilize it. It's facial features relaxed and assumed the form of a strange looking female with pale skin and eyes. The PC's were all placed in a storeroom for questioning by the Captain of the Royal Guard. Their story checked out however and they had clearly acted to save the king's life when given the chance. Finally they were brought before the king so that he could privately thank them. It was then that they noticed that the king's eyes were not the same color as they were at dinner and were now green. The king told Mialain that "whatever she did to bring him back left him with these new eyes". He wasn't all that happy to have his appearance changed like that but he could hardly complain about her saving his life, no matter the side effects. As he finished thanking them a scream rang out through the New Palace. They all ran toward its source: The cell where the changeling was being kept. They burst in to find her bloody and partly consumed corpse laying on the floor near the cot. A scarab beetled scurred down the tiny drain in the center of the room as they saw the letters "A C" painted on the wall in blood near the changeling's lifeless hand... ******* So if you haven't figured it out by now then you've not been reading the Monster Manual. This was a Lamia that I'd de-leveled to be a 7th level Elite Controller. If that sounds like a tough fight for four 2nd level PC's then you are correct. Then consider that Eshik missed nearly the entire thing while chasing Lord Harrix. Mitigating that somewhat was the fact that she was attacking the king nearly the entire time and they also had the help of the Royal Guards. The Guards were effectively 5th level Minions but (although I didn't plan this in advance) they were using reach weapons so they usually stayed out of range of her 5' radius swarm damage. Another thing that made the fight tough was that Mialain didn't make the save vs. Stun for four rounds. But when she recovered she poured out gobs of healing, especially there at the end with the king. I had ruled that, being an old man, he wasn't all that durable and had only one Death Save he could fail before dying. But Mialain dumped so much healing into him in one round (Melora's Tide + Healing Word + a Heal Check, all under the effects of a Beacon of Hope) that he was nearly at full hit points when she was done with him. Astavian probably did most of the damage to the Lamia by virtue of her ignoring his Divine Challenge round after round. He got in some nice shots with the greatsword as well but the Lamia reduced those by half. Same with most of Zanne's attacks but she did Power Stunt to turn her Flames of Phlegethos into an area attack spell (that still only hit the Lamia) so it did full damage and sent her fleeing (besides it looked like the king was dead anyway). Props to Eshik for almost single-handedly defeating the doppelganger and then single-handedly saving her from dying. Eshik is not great at Healing and she was one death save away from biting the dust when he rolled well enough to stabilize her. A quick note about the doppelganger who had been with the group since the start of the campaign: I had a tougher time than I originally envisioned portraying this NPC. The problem was that I wanted to try and give a few clues as to the fact that "Lord Harrix" was not who he seemed to be without making it blatant. That was tough because during fights I usually had the NPC fade into the background and the PC's seldom talked to the aloof Lord Harrix otherwise (this aloof, "don't talk to me unless necessary" attitude was intentional by the doppelganger who didn't want to get into any lengthy Q&A sessions that could reveal its identity). Thanks go to my friend Speaks With Stone (who isn't playing this campaign) for his idea to have Lord Harrix perform beyond expectations in some fight or other. In the prison mines he managed to down a couple of the Mist Demons that had teleported their way past the party. The PC's chalked that up to the fact that they were wounded anyway and he just "got lucky". But at least I did my due dilligence for planting a seed of doubt. I also think there was a dose of "something isn't quite right with this guy but my character has no reason to suspect him too strongly" roleplaying by the players so kudos for that as well. The cryptic message in blood on the cell wall could mean a lot of things but most of the group thought it referred to the Arcanon Confederacy, a neighboring, expansionist magocracy. I guess we'll see... (I'll be posting one more update sometime over the weekend covering the events of last session.) [/QUOTE]
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