Shilsen's Eberron SH (Finished - The Last Word : 9/20/15)
Vorput
First Post
hehe, this sounds like it will be an awesome battle.
When all is said and done, you'll have to let me know why those six specific spells were in the ash- and what was up with the different magical auras on the tree/body!
::eagerly awaiting an update::
Vorp
Edit: I sort of wish it were ghasts instead of ghouls, the combined presence of that many coupled with their stench abiity would be rather humorous... and deadly I suppose, but humerous.
When all is said and done, you'll have to let me know why those six specific spells were in the ash- and what was up with the different magical auras on the tree/body!
::eagerly awaiting an update::
Vorp
Edit: I sort of wish it were ghasts instead of ghouls, the combined presence of that many coupled with their stench abiity would be rather humorous... and deadly I suppose, but humerous.
shilsen
Adventurer
Sidekick said:
Thank you.
During the battle, Rackhir said that it wasn't an army, and was actually a horde. So apparently I am going to have to use a real army on them sometime, just to make him happy. I strive to be nothing if not constantly aware of and catering to my players' desires
Vorput said:
As Rackhir wrote above, the update below should make it fairly evident. If not, let me know and I'll post an explanation.
And here you go. I'm trying to stick with an update every 2 days, which is how it should go till the middle of next week, since we'll have to switch to a fortnightly game once my college reopens on the 16th (we've been going weekly during the break).
I did consider it, actually, but the combination of ghast stench, much better attacks and higher DC saves than ghouls would have made it a TPK.
But here's what happened...
* * * * * *
There is an instant while the Angels and the undead horde stare at each other. And then everyone leaps into action.
With an angry growl, Luna hurls her bulk onto the altar, clawing at the ghoul priest, who adroitly leaps out of the way and then smashes a fist into her forehead. Despite being layered with magical protection, especially a stoneskin from Nameless and a protection from energy, both of which absorb some of the impact and the unholy flames wreathing his hands, the impact hurts.
From behind the priest, his ghostly compatriot zooms upwards towards Nameless, even as a flaming bead shoots from the latter’s hand to explode into a fireball, blasting away nearly fifty ghouls from around the altar. The ghost laughs, “You shall be the first victims of our army!” He reaches into Nameless’ chest with a spectral hand, and then a look of bafflement and anger crosses his semi-transparent face, as his attempt to drain his foe’s life force is thwarted.
The alienist flies backwards and says, “Death ward, genius! Don’t leave home without it.” He gestures and a green ray shoots from his hand, and then it’s his turn to swear in disappointment as the disintegrate passes harmlessly through the incorporeal undead. Nameless’ curses are replicated a split second later, except in orcish, as Korm charges forward to slash at the undead, for his sword to also pass through it without effect.
Below, Six and Gareth barely benefit from the potion and spell they respectively used to hide from undead, since a number of the ghouls do still spot them, and surge onto them. Their weapons, especially Six’s whirling chain, temporarily clear a space, dropping ghouls (which instantly return to ash) left and right. But there are too many to keep at bay and a slavering mob surrounds them, trying to pull them down. While the ghouls would rip apart a normal human in seconds, their teeth and claws are ineffectual against the practiced skills and heavy armor of the Angels. A few attacks do connect, but Six’s immunity to paralysis, and the stoneskin that Nameless had also placed on Gareth, also protects them.
Unfortunately, there is an added problem. The Angels face not just an army of ghouls, but army of ghouls with magic. Approximately a fifth of the ghouls bear arcane markings across their chests and arms, markings that replicate the symbols which Six had found emerging from the ash, and which Nameless had identified as associated with certain spells. At a cry of command from the ghostly priest of the Keeper, those which can see the Angels all focus for a moment. The same symbol glows on each of them and nearly thirty magic missiles fly through the air. Most are aimed at the fliers, and while nearly a dozen are absorbed by Nameless’ shield, Korm rocks under the impact of multiple missiles. On the ground, the other three are also hurt, though much less seriously. Even as the two priests laugh in pleasure, Nameless glares down at the sources of the spells. Spell-stitched ghouls! Sh*t! Justified as his concern is, Nameless doesn’t know that sheer coincidence is working in the group’s favor here. In trying to avoid carrying, and depending on, lights down here, the Angels are all relying on darkvision, natural or magical. With the light from the tree now gone, even the ghouls can only see about sixty feet from where they are, and the vast majority of the two hundred spell-stitched ghouls in the chamber, spread across the entirety of the cavern with their other five thousand allies, can neither see nor target the Angels.
Even so, things are slowly going against the Angels. While Luna lands a couple of powerful slashes, she is unable to pull the ghoul-priest into her clutches as she would like to, and his rapid series of blows begins to sap even her massive vitality. Korm’s blows too have little effect against the ghost’s immaterial form, which responds by wounding him further with a powerful bolt of searing light. While Six is whirling around, cutting down ghouls like the world’s most metallic and frenzied thresher, dozens more simply flow back to fill their place, continually threatening to pull Gareth and him down through sheer numbers. Nameless summons three massive stag beetles, which begin to trample their way towards the altar, aided by their bulk and their immunity to the non-magical attacks of the ghouls, but their progress is slow.
And the spell-stitched ghouls continue to wound the Angels with their spells. Luckily, with all of the adventurers having significant fire resistance now, the scorching rays some of the ghouls hurl are completely ineffectual, but the magic missiles still hurt. And the spellcasting undead bear more symbols on them. At the ghost’s command, Nameless is suddenly enveloped by a stinking cloud, which not only blocks his sight of the battle, but makes him retch with the odor.
Seeing Nameless be enveloped by the spell, Korm shouts in frustration and strikes again. This time, luck is with him, and the magical blade tears through the incorporeal form, ripping it almost in half. The ghost screams and dives towards the battle, disappearing into the mass of ghouls and the ground below. Korm snarls in triumph, and then grimaces, as more magic missiles hammer into him.
At the same time, Gareth, having been driven back against the altar by the sheer weight of the ghouls pressing on him, suddenly hears a weak voice in his head. Considering all that has happened to him earlier, his first reaction is almost to scream, “Aaargh! Get out of my head!” But he listens, and hears simply, “Use me.”
Something tells him that it is the spear that is still stuck in the altar behind him. With no better options at the moment, Gareth swings wildly to clear a space and grabs at the spear. It is still firmly embedded, but as he touches it, the voice strengthens slightly. “I am weak,” it says. “It has been too long. Give me the light of the Flame.” Again, though he does not know how he does so, Gareth realizes what he must do. He concentrates, ignoring the claws scratching off his armor and the long, wiry arms attempting to grapple him, and channels the energy of the Flame through him. Silver flames dance around his hands, where they are wrapped around the spear’s haft.
Instantly, the voice strengthens, taking on a grim and serious tone. The haft of the spear flows strangely, as if it were turning to putty in his hands, and there is a tickling in his head, before the voice says, “So – you use a greatsword.” The spear reshapes, which causes it to pull itself out of the crack, and a second later, Gareth finds himself holding a gleaming metal greatsword. “Six!” he shouts, turning to cleave a ghoul in half with it, “I think we found the Eternal Blade.”
“Beautiful!” says Six, spinning his chain around a ghoul’s throat, pulling back to crack its neck, and smashing the skull of one behind him in the same motion. “Now can it get us out of here?”
Behind them, Luna would utter the same sentiment, but she is too focused on the ghoul before her, not even considering the half a dozen that are clawing abortively at her legs and hindquarters. With another growl, she slashes all the way down one of its arms, ripping undead flesh to the bone. But as she rears up, the ghoul simply snarls back and strikes once, twice and again. As it hits, the dark flames burn into her face and the force of the blows actually crack Luna’s skull in multiple places. Despite the searing pain, she struggles to remain conscious and fight, ignoring the fact that she’s already dying on her feet in her rage and desire to take her foe down with her.
From his vantage point above the battlefield, Korm can see Luna’s situation even better than Six and Gareth near her. Already badly wounded himself, the Gatekeeper knows that he has only seconds before the endless barrage of spells overwhelms him, and only using one of his rejuvenation cocoons will save him. But Luna is already even worse off than him.
As Korm struggles momentarily with the decision, he sees the ghoul-priest link his fingers for a double-handed strike that no spell will be able to heal Luna from. With a flap of his wings, Korm dives, speaking the words of his spell as he goes. Even as the linked, darkly flaming fists come down, Korm touches Luna’s shoulder. The killing blow bounces off a glowing yellowish-green cocoon of force.
Naturally, the reward for Korm’s heroism is immediate and painful. Five more missiles slam into his back. As he rocks at the impact, the furious ghoul-priest places both hands on the cocoon and adroitly somersaults upwards. The ball of his foot smashes into Korm’s jaw, sending him tumbling backwards into the sea of ghouls, which flow over him.
And even as Korm falls, the ghost rises out of the ground nearby and soars into the air, many of its wounds healed. It looks around to see Nameless finally emerging, coughing and with watering eyes, from the multiple stinking clouds that had surrounded him. As Nameless tries to recover his senses and cast, the ghost does so first. Instantly, the alienist’s eyes go milky white, as he is rendered blind. He still attempts to cast his spell and succeeds, hurling a fireball blindly that blasts away two score ghouls. It also strikes some of his allies, but their magical protections leave them unhurt. The ghost laughs gleefully and flies up towards him, calling back to the ghoul-priest, “Finish them now.”
Six looks around, seeing only Gareth and him remaining, and says, “Okay – now we’re really in trouble!” Beside him, Gareth hears the voice in his head again. “We must slay the ghost. Can you jump?”
“What?”
“Just … jump!”
Gareth shrugs, with no better options at hand, and does so. To his surprise, the sword in his hands shoots out, dragging him behind it as it blazes through the air, silver flames flickering along its length. Six, the ghoul-priest, and the ghoul horde stare up after it. Perhaps the only person more surprised than them is the ghost, who barely has time to stare before the sword slashes through its side, parting incorporeal matter without the slightest difficulty.
As the ghost screams in agony, Gareth opens his mouth to shout in exultation and triumph, before he realizes that he is falling. His fall is broken by a pair of unfortunate ghouls, but as he stumbles to his feet with a couple of bruises, the sword says, “Sorry.”
The ghost shouts commands and instantly, a number of stinking clouds cover Gareth and the ghouls around him. Nearby Nameless, flying through the air but unable to see anything, tries to summon some more stag beetles, but, unable to place the spell in the right area, fails. Feeling his spell fizzle, he swears again and then shouts, “What’s going on?”
“No time,” says Six, as he swings his chain to try and keep the ghoul-priest, which now focuses on him on the only target, at bay. “Tell your beetles to get the ghoul guy with the flaming hands. Now!”
Nameless complies, and Six darts out of the way of the huge beetles. And then follows in their wake, as they smash their way through the ghouls towards the altar. Having shouted the orders, Nameless tries to cast another spell, but the ghost is waiting, and a blast of cold interrupts the alienist, badly wounding him.
Below, the ghoul-priest stumbles backwards as the three stag beetles cut a thirty-foot wide swathe through the undead army, leaving only crushed and wounded ghouls or a trail of ash behind them. They clamber over the altar and down onto him and his surrounding ghouls, trying to follow Nameless’ order.
But the priest of the Mockery, skilled martial artist in life and further empowered with the strength and agility of a ghoul in un-life, is far too adroit. He leaps, tumbles and dodges out of their way, leaving the beetles to blunder by. Looking up, he sees his ghostly ally flying closer to the blind figure of Nameless, and he can see the ghouls swarming into the cloud that surrounds Gareth. With a snarl of anticipation, he turns to look for the lone figure of Six, so that he can be dispatched and they can finally rise to ravage Sharn, as they have waited to do for centuries. To his surprise, Six is nowhere to be seen.
As the ghoul-priest looks around, he hears a whistling sound behind him and turns, to see Six perched on the back of one of the beetles. The belated realization that the crafty warforged had clambered up the back of a beetle, using it to clear his path and making it a temporary mount, passes through the ghoul-priest’s mind. And, a second later, so does Six’s chain.
The ghost, just about to cast a spell to blast his helpless target from the air, begins to scream in rage as he sees his compatriot collapse, but he never completes it. And as he does so, a silvery form erupts from the cloud below, driven by the Silver Flame. Gareth, pouring all of his power into the Eternal Blade before him, soars into and through the ghost, blasting it into nothingness.
As it falls apart, there is a soft sighing sound across the cavern, and as Gareth falls again, he lands on the ash that now covers it. Every ghoul has returned to the ash that formed it. A second later, the ash dissipates, falling into nothingness and leaving the chamber starkly empty.
As Gareth gazes around, the sword in his hand vibrates and a voice from it, sounding significantly less solemn than the version he heard in his head, shouts, “Yeah! Eat that, motherf**ker!” Gareth stares at it, and then gets a feeling of the sword staring back, as it quickly says, “Sorry – my bad! I never quite figured out how not to drop someone on his ass after that move.” There’s a moment’s pause, and then it says, “But you have to admit, it was f**king cool!”
Gareth stares at the sword, almost as shocked by what it says as he was at anything that occurred. While he struggles to formulate a response, Luna – who has emerged from her cocoon and rushed to Korm to cocoon him in turn – and Six walk over. “You can come on down. They’re all dead,” Six calls up to Nameless, who’s still trying to work out what has happened.
“The undead, right?” says Nameless. “Or are we going to have more room at the mansion?” He descends carefully and slowly, until his feet hit the ground, and Six guides him over.
“Hey!” says the sword excitedly, as they walk over. “You guys have a golem? Cool!”
“I’m not a golem,” begins Six, but Gareth interrupts, asking, “Are you the Eternal Blade?”
“Huh? No. I’m the Endless Blade. So who are you guys?”
“We were told that Jalus wielded something called the Eternal Blade,” persists Gareth.
“Nah! Somebody’s been giving you screwy info. But they’re close. It’s the Endless Blade. There’s no end to what I can be, see? Anyway, what year is it?”
Nameless, who’s had Six explain to him that the sword is speaking, chuckles at its tone and the expression which he – correctly – imagines on Gareth’s face. “998 YK.”
“998?” asks the sword in a horrified tone. “998? I’ve been stuck in that bloody altar for over five hundred years? Son … of … a … bitch!”
Luna, who’s getting as amused as Nameless and Six, changes back into her shifter form, which immediately distracts the sword. “Hey – it’s a babe, not a bear!” Though there is no physical manifestation, Luna feels its attention switch to her, and its tone shifts to what she might expect from a young man in a bar (albeit a fairly drunk one, considering Luna’s normal demeanor). “Hi, baby – how you doing?” To the amusement of Six and Nameless, Luna emits a girlish giggle, and then walks away towards Korm, who has just emerged.
As she goes, the sword’s tone falls to a whisper. “Hey, man,” it says to Gareth, “It’s obviously been a while since I saw a girl, but is that the new style? I mean, she’s a little chunky, right?”
Six and Nameless burst out laughing, while Luna turns and mock-glares back. “I heard that!”
“Damn! Good hearing,” says the sword, as she continues on to Korm, to tell him what is going on.
Having stopped laughing, Six looks at the sword and asks, thinking about the problems that have occurred with various objects the group has encountered, especially Kizmet. “So, what exactly are you? Are you a spirit bound to a sword?”
“No, metal man - I’m a sword!” comes the sarcastic reply. “What the hell are you? A spirit bound to a statue?”
“No,” chuckles Six. “I’m a warforged.”
“What the crap is a warforged?”
“Can we get back to the mansion before we have history lessons?” asks Nameless. “I’d prefer not to be in the Depths while I’m blind, you know.” Korm and Luna walk up as he says this, carrying Jalus Baine’s remains.
“I just want to make sure we have everything we need,” says Gareth uncertainly. “So you are Jalus Baine’s sword?”
“Yeah, yeah, I already said so. Is that why you guys are down here? To look for him? It’s a little late, you know! And so is he!” The sword chuckles at its own humor.
“Jalus Baine is a hero of the Flame!” says Gareth indignantly.
“Did you know him?” snaps back the sword. “Just because I’m joking about it doesn’t mean I didn’t like him. Jalus was a nice guy. Had a little bit of a pole up his arse – kinda like you, I’m thinking. But a damn solid guy. Oh yeah, except for the lisp. Oh Flame, that lisp. You should have heard him…,” it’s voice changes, and it puts on a comically serious tone, “I am come to thave your thouls, in the name of the Thilver Flame!”
Six chuckles. “I like this sword.”
“You do not sound like a holy weapon…,” begins Gareth, when the sword indignantly interrupts.
“Listen, buddy- I’m as f**king holy as the holiest f**king avenger, okay? Somebody needs to teach you not to judge things on appearance – or sound.” A little more calmly, the sword adds, “After all, you sound like a bit of an idiot, but you’ve got skills, and you evidently work for the Flame, which I was doing way before your time. And that was a sweet little smiting you put on that ghost. So how about you be polite to me and I’ll be polite to you, okay? Since Jalus isn’t around any more, I need someone to wield me anyway.”
A change of tone signals a shift to addressing the group, as the sword continues, “You folks seem like a pretty interesting bunch, anyway. So let’s head up to Sharn … wait a minute … Sharn is still there, right?”
“Yes,” says Six, “Though probably not what you remember.”
“No kidding! Damn – you guys are really going to have to catch me up on what I missed. Five hundred years!”
“All right,” says Nameless. “Shall we head back to the Cathedral now?”
“I’ll get Deemin,” says Korm, taking wing and heading toward the exit.
“All right,” says Gareth, looking slightly unconvinced. “I don’t have a scabbard for you,” he adds to the sword.
“No biggie!” says the sword, shrinking into a dagger. “Size doesn’t matter.” Then it chuckles, and says, “But, just for the record, Luna – I can be a greatclub.”
Luna laughs and Six looks at the Endless Blade and then at Gareth. “I think I am going to enjoy having you around.”
“Of course,” says the Blade confidently. “I’m f**king unbelievable.”
Last edited:
shilsen
Adventurer
Sidekick said:
Thanks. This was one of those choices one feels quite happy about as a DM. I was thinking of a weapon to give Gareth to replace Kizmet, and I was thinking, "I definitely want it to be very different in nature. Holy would make sense, since Kizmet seemed holy but wasn't." And then I thought of something which was holy, but didn't seem like it. And then I imagined an intelligent sword going, "Yeah! Eat that - motherf**ker!"
And then I sat and cackled to myself for a bit.
Currently I have him down as a +1 Holy Morphing Ghost-Touch Weapon, w. Swift Fly 2/day; Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 14 and CG. 60 ft darkvision and hearing. Telepathy.
I may change some of that around, but not very likely. Also, I really have no idea what Morphing as written (Underdark book, I believe) says, but it seems the right analogue to what I have the Endless Blade doing.
According to the DMG, a CG intelligent weapon can't be wielded by anyone who isn't CG. That's in the long list of rules I'm ignoring.
Currently, I'm giving each of the PCs one or two unique items, like Six and his warforged harness and the floating eye, or Luna and the belt of Greater Magic Fang that works with her in wildshape and her two symbionts, etc. This one is Gareth's. All told, each of the PCs is toting around about 200,000 gp worth of magical equipment and enhancements. Someday they'll be mugged while walking down the street by a horde of XP-hungry artificers.
Precisely
Sidekick
First Post
Ditching a DMG rule - perish the thoughtshilsen said:
That sounds like a fun sword. Consider that baby *YOINKED*.
Also what does the WF harness do again? sounds familiar but I can't for the life of me remeber it nor where Six got it.
Also, its nice to see another DM who isn;t particularly bovvered with the wealth by level "rules".
Sidekick said:
He got it from our journey to Skull Island, the place where we found the Shard and battled the Dragon and the Dalkyr. We fought some ancient warforged who had them on and found out that they also contained a self destruction mechanisim that we removed from the one we were able to recover for Six's use.
Six is up in the Rogues Gallery.
Sidekick said:
Well a fair amount of the "wealth" that the characters have is essentially what I call "hand waving" stuff. IE. where you just go "Yeah, yeah you've got/can do that."
For example the Inherent slotless stat boosts. That's 96k gold for those, but essentially what it does is mean that we don't have to worry about taking or casting the stat boost spells or how long they last. So it effecively is a method of simplifying the accounting and reducing what people have to keep track of.
Another example is the fact that Nameless now has access to essentially all of the PHB Wizard spells. Nominally, this gets up into silly amounts of money, but in practice he's still taking the same spells he was when he just had SMVI, Disintegrate and True Seeing for 6th lv spells. With only 3 sixth level slots available and one of them having to be a conjuration spell, there just isn't that many options for taking too much else.
shilsen
Adventurer
Sidekick said:Ditching a DMG rule - perish the thought
That sounds like a fun sword. Consider that baby *YOINKED*.
Cool. Hope you have fun with it.
He found it on the island during the Xen'drik expedition, on one of the proto-warforged they fought. When the PCs dropped them, the harness on them would explode, doing damage to everybody nearby. Luna, I think, grabbed one before it hit the ground, and Corven managed to deactivate and remove the harness. Six tried it on and found it gave him some nice boosts, and then, when he tried to take it off a few weeks later, found it was attached to him. It gives him some nice benefits, but both PC and player are a little paranoid about it.
To quote the player: "It's a really nice item and it's your game, Shil - so I know it's going to screw me!" I find this lack of trust ... disturbing.
Mechanically, what it does right now is increase his composite plating’s armor bonus (Six has neither Mithral Body nor Adamantine Body feats) to +4 and also provides a +2 enhancement bonus to armor. It increases his immunity to criticals to 75%. And also provides immunity to nonlethal damage. In short, it's like a warforged usable version of +2 Chain Shirt of Moderate Fortification, with no upper limit on Dex bonus to AC, and with immunity to nonlethal damage. On the downside, it occupies both amulet and belt slots, and is currently unremovable.
More like a DM who took the wealth by level rules out behind the wood pile and beat them till they stopped moving
On top of what I already mentioned, I've completely stopped tracking healing between fights or even charging the PCs for it. I simply assume they have enough healing wands and such on them that if they have time after a fight, they heal up back to full. Considering how loaded they are, tracking charges on a 750 gp wand of Lesser Vigor is just not worth it for me.
Anyway, the wealth bit in the DMG is a suggested guideline, more than real rules, and I'm already doing enough stuff that should have cracked this game wide open. Just the fact that the PCs normally only have one encounter in a given game day, and are often in places where they know that and use resources accordingly, should theoretically be a big problem for me in challenging them. And then on top of that you have swashbuckling cards, extra high stats, the UA metamagic rules (which mean far easier use of metamagic and that the two druids are casting 2 spells a round 3/day each), etc. But that's never been a problem, even though I've restricted myself to core material for the NPCs for the majority of the campaign (I've recently started using a lot more non-core material, since the PCs are now very seriously buff). This is why I maintain that while there are certain assumptions in the core D&D rules in 3e, a DM who understands the nuts and bolts can very easily mess with them to a great extent, with no problem whatsoever.
Anyway, speaking of challenging, how tough a challenge do you think two halfling Ftr2/Rgr2/Rog3s and a Bbn1/Warblade7 could be for Korm, Luna and Gareth, assuming both parties are well-buffed? That's what we found out last session.
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