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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: 4789777" data-attributes="member: 99"><p>(a lot of ground was covered last session so I'm going to break this into parts)</p><p></p><p>The party returned to the spiral passage and continued down deeper into the Mist. The passed more mundane shops before coming to a place where the passage leveled out and a grand entrance on the inside of the spiral was topped by an archway adorned with dwarven runes. Zanne stepped forward and read them: "The Hall of the Underking" It sounded promising and they entered.</p><p></p><p>They found what was once probably a grand throne room that now stood in shambles, a victim of time and pillage. The imposing stone throne still stood in place but the rest of the chamber was a scattered mix of broken furniture, rubble and fallen bits of the mosaics that decorated the walls. Astavian examined the remains of this artwork with interest and noted that it depicted dwarves fighting along side a gold and silver dragon against what looked to be a red dragon.</p><p></p><p>The others found a bench that appeared to have been recently righted and stacked upon it were some square pieces of slate, upon which were carved some more runes. Zanne read these and identified a couple of them as a recipe for some kind of alcoholic beverage. The other was a missive to a place called "Karak Dag", requesting aid and indicating that soon an offensive would be mounted against a place only referred to as "the island". Nearby these stones they saw evidence of booted footprints and also those that they believed to be the unshod tracks of bugbears.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly the entrance to the Hall was crowded by a horde of small, pale, hungry creatures who swarmed into the chamber with murder in their eyes. The PC's leapt to the defensive. It was immediately obvious that these creatures were not all that tough individually and most fell to a single blow. But there were dozens, if not hundreds of them. And, when they got in close, their sharp claws and needle teeth were vicious.</p><p></p><p>Zanne unleashed some hunger of her own with the Hunger of Hadar, a consuming zone of darkness that she used to block the entrance to the throne room. This killed many, but not all, of the creatures as they appeared to be somewhat resistant to its effects. They appeared less resistant to Mialain's Consecrated Ground however. As the fight wore on, the PC's noticed that sometimes rather than cower and die when struck, some of the creatures would seem to rise to the challenge and fight back harder than ever. Both Eshik and Astavian were brought to the brink of unconsciousness and still they kept coming.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly there was a loud scraping of stone on stone and the creatures seemed to panic. Many retreated into the Hunger of Hadar, which killed some who had survived its embrace on entering the chamber. From the black flew the broken body of one of the diminutive Mist Demons and then, with a great roar, a giant stone lion burst from the darkness.</p><p></p><p>This...thing regarded Astavian and Eshik, "So...Dragonborn...Back to finish the job?" It growled and spat these words and seemed ready to rip them apart. Astavian lowered his blade however and spoke calmly, "Many years have passed and we have no quarrel with the Dwarves. We are here at their request to recover what we can from this place that has been so long abandoned. If you are the guardian of this place, I tell you that we come in peace."</p><p></p><p>Although mistrustful of the party (especially the Dragonborn) the "guardian" eventually seemed to agree that they meant no harm, or at least were being truthful. The PC's wished to know what it was that had happened there that had caused the Dwarves to abandon Karak Tor half a milennia ago. The Guardian led them deeper into the mountain to where the downward spiral ended in a wide promenade going north and south. It took them to the north where a large stone door blocked the way. It was held shut by what appeared to be the burly statue of a Dwarf that was melded into the stone of both the doors and floor. Behind the door were the distant sounds of battle.</p><p></p><p>"When your kind and their draconic masters came here, they unleashed a terrible evil at the River Gate. Those nearby, on both sides, were killed by it...and then rose from the dead to continue fighting. They fight there still.</p><p></p><p>The King held the doors closed while the Priests of Moradin did magic upon him to give him the strength of stone. He held this gate fast while the others escaped. The Everstone King has remained its guardian."</p><p></p><p>Further questioning revealed that the "Guardian" (the stone lion would not tell them its name) was tasked with guarding the "Hearth". This was another large door at the other end of the promenade, sealed shut. Outside the PC's found a teleportation circle, similar to the one they suspected that the Guildmaster of the Arcanon Confederacy had used in the chambers above in order to bypass the doors there. The Guardian indicated that these "guileful wizards" had tricked him, just a couple of days prior, into letting them do their magic here and he believed that they had possibly entered the Hearth. The Hearth was where the Dwarves had secreted many of their less portable treasures when they had fled Karak Tor.</p><p></p><p>The PC's asked if the Guardian could let them enter and it told them that its purpose was to prevent any from entering the Hearth without the key. It did not have the key. The PC's of course asked where the key was located and the Guardian replied without hesitation: "The key was held by the Warden of the River Gate."</p><p></p><p>And he of course fell to the necromantic magic unleashed by the dragons. If the PC's wanted the Key then they would have to find a way into the River Gate and pry it from the bones of the warring dead!</p><p></p><p>*****</p><p></p><p>Let me say up front that this last session was one of my favorites of the campaign. This despite (or maybe partly because) some of the very worst rolls I've ever seen by players in any RPG session I've ever sat in. I mean, some of the early sessions of this campaign saw Astavian's player roll badly for most or all of a session. But this last session the bad rolls were so widespread and consistant that it was simply astounding. And the dice would prove that they could roll high right at the moments when it mattered the least.</p><p></p><p>So the horde of little critters that swarmed into the throne room were an idea that I've been toying with for a while and decided to try out: Schroedinger's Minions. Basically I used the stats from a Goblin Blackblade but they only had 1 HP (also Resist 10 Necrotic). However, whenever one was hit, it had a 25% chance of being a non-minion. So I rolled a d4 and on a 1, that creature had 25 Hit Points.</p><p></p><p>Well my rolls were not much better than those of the party. I rolled at least 12 times before I rolled a single 1. At least a dozen, probably closer to 20, of them died to a combination of the Hunger of Hadar and Consecrated Ground. They were dying left and right, but whenever a group of them managed to gang up on one PC (usually Astavian or Eshik) the damage they inflicted was NASTY. Astavian took 37 points of damage in one round from four of them. The PC's were relieved when they finally fled, although they dreaded whatever struck such fear into the hearts of the vile little creatures.</p><p></p><p>When the Guardian showed up, Astavian's player said, "Well it least it isn't a Balrog!"</p><p></p><p>The Guardian was a Sphinx. My plan was that this thing was ready to fight them but that they could initiate a Skill Challenge to talk it down and get some information. Especially considering that they hadn't had a chance to rest after battling the horde of Mist Demons, a fight with the Sphinx would have been a disaster. It turned out that (thanks to the bad luck on dice rolls) that the PC's BARELY squeaked through that Skill Challenge. It was only by virtue of being totally forthright and honest that they managed it. If they had lied to the Sphinx, even once, I think things might have gone very badly for them.</p><p></p><p>The great news was that, because of the potential for disaster and squeaking by on some of the rolls, this Skill Challenge was tense as well as informative.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rel, post: 4789777, member: 99"] (a lot of ground was covered last session so I'm going to break this into parts) The party returned to the spiral passage and continued down deeper into the Mist. The passed more mundane shops before coming to a place where the passage leveled out and a grand entrance on the inside of the spiral was topped by an archway adorned with dwarven runes. Zanne stepped forward and read them: "The Hall of the Underking" It sounded promising and they entered. They found what was once probably a grand throne room that now stood in shambles, a victim of time and pillage. The imposing stone throne still stood in place but the rest of the chamber was a scattered mix of broken furniture, rubble and fallen bits of the mosaics that decorated the walls. Astavian examined the remains of this artwork with interest and noted that it depicted dwarves fighting along side a gold and silver dragon against what looked to be a red dragon. The others found a bench that appeared to have been recently righted and stacked upon it were some square pieces of slate, upon which were carved some more runes. Zanne read these and identified a couple of them as a recipe for some kind of alcoholic beverage. The other was a missive to a place called "Karak Dag", requesting aid and indicating that soon an offensive would be mounted against a place only referred to as "the island". Nearby these stones they saw evidence of booted footprints and also those that they believed to be the unshod tracks of bugbears. Suddenly the entrance to the Hall was crowded by a horde of small, pale, hungry creatures who swarmed into the chamber with murder in their eyes. The PC's leapt to the defensive. It was immediately obvious that these creatures were not all that tough individually and most fell to a single blow. But there were dozens, if not hundreds of them. And, when they got in close, their sharp claws and needle teeth were vicious. Zanne unleashed some hunger of her own with the Hunger of Hadar, a consuming zone of darkness that she used to block the entrance to the throne room. This killed many, but not all, of the creatures as they appeared to be somewhat resistant to its effects. They appeared less resistant to Mialain's Consecrated Ground however. As the fight wore on, the PC's noticed that sometimes rather than cower and die when struck, some of the creatures would seem to rise to the challenge and fight back harder than ever. Both Eshik and Astavian were brought to the brink of unconsciousness and still they kept coming. Suddenly there was a loud scraping of stone on stone and the creatures seemed to panic. Many retreated into the Hunger of Hadar, which killed some who had survived its embrace on entering the chamber. From the black flew the broken body of one of the diminutive Mist Demons and then, with a great roar, a giant stone lion burst from the darkness. This...thing regarded Astavian and Eshik, "So...Dragonborn...Back to finish the job?" It growled and spat these words and seemed ready to rip them apart. Astavian lowered his blade however and spoke calmly, "Many years have passed and we have no quarrel with the Dwarves. We are here at their request to recover what we can from this place that has been so long abandoned. If you are the guardian of this place, I tell you that we come in peace." Although mistrustful of the party (especially the Dragonborn) the "guardian" eventually seemed to agree that they meant no harm, or at least were being truthful. The PC's wished to know what it was that had happened there that had caused the Dwarves to abandon Karak Tor half a milennia ago. The Guardian led them deeper into the mountain to where the downward spiral ended in a wide promenade going north and south. It took them to the north where a large stone door blocked the way. It was held shut by what appeared to be the burly statue of a Dwarf that was melded into the stone of both the doors and floor. Behind the door were the distant sounds of battle. "When your kind and their draconic masters came here, they unleashed a terrible evil at the River Gate. Those nearby, on both sides, were killed by it...and then rose from the dead to continue fighting. They fight there still. The King held the doors closed while the Priests of Moradin did magic upon him to give him the strength of stone. He held this gate fast while the others escaped. The Everstone King has remained its guardian." Further questioning revealed that the "Guardian" (the stone lion would not tell them its name) was tasked with guarding the "Hearth". This was another large door at the other end of the promenade, sealed shut. Outside the PC's found a teleportation circle, similar to the one they suspected that the Guildmaster of the Arcanon Confederacy had used in the chambers above in order to bypass the doors there. The Guardian indicated that these "guileful wizards" had tricked him, just a couple of days prior, into letting them do their magic here and he believed that they had possibly entered the Hearth. The Hearth was where the Dwarves had secreted many of their less portable treasures when they had fled Karak Tor. The PC's asked if the Guardian could let them enter and it told them that its purpose was to prevent any from entering the Hearth without the key. It did not have the key. The PC's of course asked where the key was located and the Guardian replied without hesitation: "The key was held by the Warden of the River Gate." And he of course fell to the necromantic magic unleashed by the dragons. If the PC's wanted the Key then they would have to find a way into the River Gate and pry it from the bones of the warring dead! ***** Let me say up front that this last session was one of my favorites of the campaign. This despite (or maybe partly because) some of the very worst rolls I've ever seen by players in any RPG session I've ever sat in. I mean, some of the early sessions of this campaign saw Astavian's player roll badly for most or all of a session. But this last session the bad rolls were so widespread and consistant that it was simply astounding. And the dice would prove that they could roll high right at the moments when it mattered the least. So the horde of little critters that swarmed into the throne room were an idea that I've been toying with for a while and decided to try out: Schroedinger's Minions. Basically I used the stats from a Goblin Blackblade but they only had 1 HP (also Resist 10 Necrotic). However, whenever one was hit, it had a 25% chance of being a non-minion. So I rolled a d4 and on a 1, that creature had 25 Hit Points. Well my rolls were not much better than those of the party. I rolled at least 12 times before I rolled a single 1. At least a dozen, probably closer to 20, of them died to a combination of the Hunger of Hadar and Consecrated Ground. They were dying left and right, but whenever a group of them managed to gang up on one PC (usually Astavian or Eshik) the damage they inflicted was NASTY. Astavian took 37 points of damage in one round from four of them. The PC's were relieved when they finally fled, although they dreaded whatever struck such fear into the hearts of the vile little creatures. When the Guardian showed up, Astavian's player said, "Well it least it isn't a Balrog!" The Guardian was a Sphinx. My plan was that this thing was ready to fight them but that they could initiate a Skill Challenge to talk it down and get some information. Especially considering that they hadn't had a chance to rest after battling the horde of Mist Demons, a fight with the Sphinx would have been a disaster. It turned out that (thanks to the bad luck on dice rolls) that the PC's BARELY squeaked through that Skill Challenge. It was only by virtue of being totally forthright and honest that they managed it. If they had lied to the Sphinx, even once, I think things might have gone very badly for them. The great news was that, because of the potential for disaster and squeaking by on some of the rolls, this Skill Challenge was tense as well as informative. [/QUOTE]
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