S3: The Scythe of Seto (Bront Judging)[Completed]

[SlagMortar]

OOC: Beamer has no need for any of the equipment.

Thanks for another terrific adventure, Manzanita, and thanks to the group! I had a lot of fun with this one whole sequence of adventures and if I can get a little more time, the events of this adventure will help shape much of Beamer's future personality.

 

[Manzanita]

I had actually expected the group to engage in more gambling. There were quite a few nice items which could have been garnered. There were risks too, of course.

I'll still post a DM commentary, adventure summary & update the Wiki. So I'm not done with this yet. I'm going to try to kickstart LEW a bit, though, before I move on to that.

Is Eusebius & crew going to leave Torvin in Orussus, then? Or try to take him to the shrine?

 

[Boddynock]

That really depends on whether or not someone's prepared to DM it. If you (unlikely, I know) or Patlin want to run something, Eusebius certainly isn't one to shirk responsibility (although I'll confess that I'm not particularly excited by the idea of riding shotgun on the rat). If not, I guess we just hand-wave it.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

OOC: I know I haven't been around much, and when I have, I've given priority to the games I'm DMing rather than those in which I have one PC. But Rasereit very much wants to gamble. If it's not too late, I'd like to have him draw twice. It's not the end of the world if you think it'll hurt continuity, but I was pretty excited about gambling with the imp after the epic final battle.

 

[rln]

I'd planned for Ogrin to gamble (and attempt to cheat!), but caught up in real life... stuff happens. Also, I think my email subscription must have gone awry somehow.

Let me also thank you for a fun game, for the most part. The chess game dragged a bit; I think it might have lent itself better to a real-life game, where the action would've been decided more quickly. The suspense of watching others struggle in duels kind of wore off after a few weeks.

 

[Boddynock]

OOC: It's funny, because I've always wanted to draw from a deck of many things (which I'm assuming this would resemble) - I just think it's so cool! But Eusebius is probably the last character I have who would do such a thing.

Oh, yeah - and thanks for an excellent adventure, as usual, Manz.

 

[Manzanita]

Thanks for the feedback. I"ll address some of that in my DM Commentary. I'm fine with allowing a little retroactive gambling.

To gamble, the imp insists that the gambler turn in one of his chess pieces. Razh has plenty. He could also give some to Ogrin (who only has one, I believe). If you want to draw, I'll let you do it. Find a deck of cards, and draw at random. Tell me the first two (or one) face cards (or aces) that you draw. There's no cheating, really, at this one. I had another one you could do. I'll have to dig out my notes for that one, though.

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

OOC: I posted a nice, detailed thing about the aftermath of the battle, but apparently it got lost. I'll summarize it.

After offering his many "coins" to the others, Rasereit slams down two chess pieces on the imp's table: A knight and a pawn. The imp pushes forward the deck of cards and instructs the dwarf to draw two. With a wink at Ogrin, Rasereit reaches for the cards. "Two Jacks, one o' Diamonds, one o' Clubs. What's that get me?"

 

[Manzanita]

Rasereit first draws the jack of Diamonds. This card immediately gets his interest. The 'jack' in the image is thick and bearded, certainly a dwarf. And the diamond of the card is being mined. Razh looks at the dwarf picture closely. It's a beauty. A better picture than he has ever seen. This is no ordinary dwarf captured, either. It seems a perfect image of the perfect dwarf. A dwarven god, perhaps, though Razh can't place it. He feels his dwarven identity strengthened. Razh feels himself becoming more like this image, more dwarven than ever. And that's a good thing.

Jack of Diamonds: [sblock]This card normally gives the dwarven bonuses to non-dwarves. To a dwarf, it gives dwarven paragon abilities, including:

Craft Expertise (Ex): Razereit may add +2 as a racial bonus on all Craft checks related to stone or metal items.

Improved Stonecunning (Ex): Razh's racial bonus on Search checks to notice unusual stonework increases to +4. The range at which he receives an automatic Search check for coming near an example of unusual stonework increases to 20 feet. Also, he can intuit where true north lies in relation to himself (as if he had 5 ranks in Survival) whenever underground.

Improved Darkvision (Ex): Razh's darkvision range increases by 30 feet.

Save Bonus (Ex): Razh's racial bonus on saves against poison and against spells and spell-like effects increases by 1. (to +3)

Ability Boost (Ex): Razh gets a CON boost of +1.

These DO NOT stack with the dwarven paragon abilites should Razh ever take levels in that class. Essentially he has already gained these abilities.[/sblock]


The second card Rasereit draws is the jack of clubs. This shows a human jack, or royal servant. This image, though, is hardly of a god. In fact, this servent looks downright stupid. What an idiot, Razh things, rather ironically.

Jack of clubs [sblock] This card causes Razh to lose 1d4 of Wisdom, or 2 points. [/sblock]

 

[Rae ArdGaoth]

Rasereit looks at the cards carefully for a moment. As he does, his skin seems to turn a little darker, though it's difficult to tell in this lighting. He turns to Ogrin, a reckless look in his eyes. "Ah feel a li'l funny. But... in a good way. Stronger, harder, more free... S'good, in fact," he turns back to the imp, "Ah'll do it again." He puts two more pieces down on the table: another pawn and one of his knights.

And in his first act as a less wise dwarf, Rasereit draws the Queen of Clubs and King of Diamonds.