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The Adventures of the Endhome 6+1. Rebirth of Barakus! (9-27-06, 19 and 20 back up)
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<blockquote data-quote="Scorch" data-source="post: 3079560" data-attributes="member: 1502"><p><strong>Adventure 13 Summary</strong></p><p></p><p>We were on a roll for running Barakus. Ravenspur’s player was on hiatus from our other campaign while he worked on a module he wanted to get published. Our schedule was almost one game a week which is pretty darn good for us. I was eager to run the game and the players were eager to play it. I kept getting good feedback from them so I guess the pace of the game was to their liking.</p><p></p><p>This session, Keldin’s character had family obligations once again (him and his wife being new parents and all) so his character was still out watching the horses. The rest of the group, including the new player playing Ivo, was present. We stocked up the fridge in the game room with a wide variety of beverages and got started.</p><p></p><p>The group was currently in the orc guard room outside of the location of the first key room on the second level. While Absinthe examined the door opposite where they entered, Ravenspur and Ivo decided to wander down the tunnel to the east just to see where it led. It curved around and led to a cave encrusted in crystals. The orcs guarding it had been alerted to the sounds of combat coming down the tunnel began chucking javelins at the two arcanists. Ravenspur started screaming “ORCS!!” as the others realized that the two spellcasters were missing. The gnome and the half-elf dashed back to the others and told what they found. Absinthe and Aislenn were piqued that they had wandered off on their own but there was nothing to do about it now but to go clear out the bad guys.</p><p></p><p>Absinthe snuck forward but could hear nothing from the cavern. Ravenspur used his racial ability to cast some dancing lights down into the cave and the light reflected beautifully off of the crystals but no reaction from the orcs that were within. The group moved forward and heard frenzied activity from down another tunnel. I had the orc guards dash back to the main colony and alert their leader who prepared the tribe for combat.</p><p></p><p>The party decided that both sides knew what was coming so they charged into combat. I asked Aislenn’s player to break out their plastic minis. They had the perfect dire wolf mini and more than enough orcs. There were 19 orcs in total plus their ranger leader and the dire wolf. I broke them into five groups of four orcs each, each group being the same kind of mini so I could tell what groups I was moving on what initiative. The orc tribe had had time to set up a barricade of benches and tables at the entrance and had readied javelins to start throwing as soon as the players entered the main cave.</p><p></p><p>I played it so that the orc leader kept one group back in reserve plus his dire wolf in case he thought things would get hairy. The party fighters rushed the barricade and started attacking over it. The orcs behind it had cover but then so did the players. Ravenspur started tossing down sleep spells but the few orcs he did get were woken up by their comrades. The leader barked out to watch out for the sleep spells from the gnome since their prisoners had told of it. Ivo, who spoke orcish, heard this and told the party that the orcs were expecting them. He tried to yell at them to surrender but the orcs were having none of that (I played them as the book said: they will fight to the death).</p><p></p><p>The party eventually pushed pass the barricade and were mixing it up in melee when the dire wolf moved in. I made the mistake of thinking that it had a 10’ reach since it was a large creature but the group corrected me on that when AoOs started becoming an issue. The wolf still did major damage to Aislenn and the others were in danger of being swamped by the horde of orcs in front of them.</p><p></p><p>Ivo then mentioned that he had web on a scroll and he was hoping to save it to scribe into his spell book later. Ravenspur looked at him desperately and yelled “I’ll buy you another scroll! CAST IT!!!”</p><p></p><p>The web went down and caught half the orcs in it who missed their saves miserably. Only a handful were free but now had to make strength checks to move through it. The combat became very one sided after that. The dire wolf went down and the orc leader burst out of the web to lead his remaining orcs at the group. He went a few rounds with Aislenn but eventually went down. The last few orcs were picked off and the two left alive in the web yelled out that they surrendered.</p><p></p><p>The group questioned the orcs for a few minutes, getting from them that they had captured the fleeing goblin wizard and her guards and had tortured information out of them as to what happened to the rest of the goblin tribe. The party let the two orcs flee and they beat feet to the last remaining orc guard outpost and departed for parts unknown. The group looted and explored the rest of the orc colony and discovered the goblin prisoners who had died of their wounds from torture.</p><p></p><p>Since their resources were tapped the group camped out for the night back in the history room. During the night Ravenspur and Ivo, with help from Curley, started recording the history of Barakus and found out about the great evil buried below. The group looked at me and then looked at the cover of the book and snarled “Lich!” So much for the surprise…</p><p></p><p>I had Aislenn make another will save as she was being scryed by the wizard hired by Dagon. Her player was getting very paranoid about the will saves I was asking her to make. This time Dagon and the wizard got an eyeful of the room the party were camped out in. The evil necromancer then knew that the group had discovered an ancient ruin of interest. He was even able to decipher some of the history written on the walls.</p><p></p><p>The next day they explored past the door in the first orc guard room they were looking at until they were so rudely interrupted by orcs. It led into the minotaur maze. The two minotaurs were alerted the moment the door was open and they moved to flank the party. Absinthe scouted forward and came across the room with the dead orcs and the dead minotaur. She was so well hidden that the minotaur coming up to ambush the party did not see here. She tried to alert the group but it was too late. The other minotaur bellowed and charged at the group from a side passageway.</p><p></p><p>Inits were rolled and the charging minotaur got to move first. Poor Curley was in direct line of attack and he got smacked by the minotaur charge attack of 4d6+6. I rolled 22 and he got knocked right down to –6. His body went flying over the group and slide 20 feet down the corridor. Aislenn engaged the second minotaur with Absinthe providing sneak attack support. The others desperately engaged the first minotaur in their midst. The group’s dice decided to abandon them.</p><p></p><p>Almost all the group got knocked into single digit hit points and Absinthe was knocked down to –2. Earlier someone had mentioned that today was “Official DM’s Day” and the following day would be my birthday. I had joked that a good present would be a TPK but was not serious. Oh, how I wished I could take that comment back. I was seriously considering a deus ex machina to come along and save the group but they finally rallied and finished off the two monsters. </p><p></p><p>Unfortunately during that time, Curley had slipped down to –10 hit points and had died. I had thought that he needed to make a DC 10 Fortitude save each round to stabilize but I was told that it was a straight 10% percentile roll. By then it was round 4 of the combat so I rolled four times and did not make it. </p><p></p><p>“Sorry, guys. Curley gives off his death rattle and shuffles off this mortal coil.”</p><p></p><p>“Curley!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!”, wailed someone.</p><p></p><p>I felt so bad about it that I had them roll on the treasure tables for the two minotaurs since the treasure given by the module was pretty weak in my opinion. The group decided that they needed to head back to Endhome and see what their options were for Curley. The cost of raising him would be 5000 GP, way out of their resources. Plus, there were no clerics in Endhome who could raise him.</p><p></p><p>After an uneventful and somber journey back to the city, Micca had the gnome bard’s body laid out in his church and held services. The groups was surprised by the variety of women who came out to pay their last respects to the charismatic Curley.</p><p></p><p>With that we called it a night. The group was a little bummed that they had lost the bard since he was an important component to their combat strategy with his singing (and they kind of liked him as a person). They still enjoyed the session. The death of the bard brought home how fragile they were and they made a decision to do some major shopping next session.</p><p></p><p>I made a decision that they would take a break from the Barakus dungeon next session and that I would run another of the city adventures that they were the perfect level for. I would also have Dagon Ziss act upon the new information he had to make their lives a little more scary.</p><p></p><p>Next Session: Trouble with slavers…</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Scorch, post: 3079560, member: 1502"] [b]Adventure 13 Summary[/b] We were on a roll for running Barakus. Ravenspur’s player was on hiatus from our other campaign while he worked on a module he wanted to get published. Our schedule was almost one game a week which is pretty darn good for us. I was eager to run the game and the players were eager to play it. I kept getting good feedback from them so I guess the pace of the game was to their liking. This session, Keldin’s character had family obligations once again (him and his wife being new parents and all) so his character was still out watching the horses. The rest of the group, including the new player playing Ivo, was present. We stocked up the fridge in the game room with a wide variety of beverages and got started. The group was currently in the orc guard room outside of the location of the first key room on the second level. While Absinthe examined the door opposite where they entered, Ravenspur and Ivo decided to wander down the tunnel to the east just to see where it led. It curved around and led to a cave encrusted in crystals. The orcs guarding it had been alerted to the sounds of combat coming down the tunnel began chucking javelins at the two arcanists. Ravenspur started screaming “ORCS!!” as the others realized that the two spellcasters were missing. The gnome and the half-elf dashed back to the others and told what they found. Absinthe and Aislenn were piqued that they had wandered off on their own but there was nothing to do about it now but to go clear out the bad guys. Absinthe snuck forward but could hear nothing from the cavern. Ravenspur used his racial ability to cast some dancing lights down into the cave and the light reflected beautifully off of the crystals but no reaction from the orcs that were within. The group moved forward and heard frenzied activity from down another tunnel. I had the orc guards dash back to the main colony and alert their leader who prepared the tribe for combat. The party decided that both sides knew what was coming so they charged into combat. I asked Aislenn’s player to break out their plastic minis. They had the perfect dire wolf mini and more than enough orcs. There were 19 orcs in total plus their ranger leader and the dire wolf. I broke them into five groups of four orcs each, each group being the same kind of mini so I could tell what groups I was moving on what initiative. The orc tribe had had time to set up a barricade of benches and tables at the entrance and had readied javelins to start throwing as soon as the players entered the main cave. I played it so that the orc leader kept one group back in reserve plus his dire wolf in case he thought things would get hairy. The party fighters rushed the barricade and started attacking over it. The orcs behind it had cover but then so did the players. Ravenspur started tossing down sleep spells but the few orcs he did get were woken up by their comrades. The leader barked out to watch out for the sleep spells from the gnome since their prisoners had told of it. Ivo, who spoke orcish, heard this and told the party that the orcs were expecting them. He tried to yell at them to surrender but the orcs were having none of that (I played them as the book said: they will fight to the death). The party eventually pushed pass the barricade and were mixing it up in melee when the dire wolf moved in. I made the mistake of thinking that it had a 10’ reach since it was a large creature but the group corrected me on that when AoOs started becoming an issue. The wolf still did major damage to Aislenn and the others were in danger of being swamped by the horde of orcs in front of them. Ivo then mentioned that he had web on a scroll and he was hoping to save it to scribe into his spell book later. Ravenspur looked at him desperately and yelled “I’ll buy you another scroll! CAST IT!!!” The web went down and caught half the orcs in it who missed their saves miserably. Only a handful were free but now had to make strength checks to move through it. The combat became very one sided after that. The dire wolf went down and the orc leader burst out of the web to lead his remaining orcs at the group. He went a few rounds with Aislenn but eventually went down. The last few orcs were picked off and the two left alive in the web yelled out that they surrendered. The group questioned the orcs for a few minutes, getting from them that they had captured the fleeing goblin wizard and her guards and had tortured information out of them as to what happened to the rest of the goblin tribe. The party let the two orcs flee and they beat feet to the last remaining orc guard outpost and departed for parts unknown. The group looted and explored the rest of the orc colony and discovered the goblin prisoners who had died of their wounds from torture. Since their resources were tapped the group camped out for the night back in the history room. During the night Ravenspur and Ivo, with help from Curley, started recording the history of Barakus and found out about the great evil buried below. The group looked at me and then looked at the cover of the book and snarled “Lich!” So much for the surprise… I had Aislenn make another will save as she was being scryed by the wizard hired by Dagon. Her player was getting very paranoid about the will saves I was asking her to make. This time Dagon and the wizard got an eyeful of the room the party were camped out in. The evil necromancer then knew that the group had discovered an ancient ruin of interest. He was even able to decipher some of the history written on the walls. The next day they explored past the door in the first orc guard room they were looking at until they were so rudely interrupted by orcs. It led into the minotaur maze. The two minotaurs were alerted the moment the door was open and they moved to flank the party. Absinthe scouted forward and came across the room with the dead orcs and the dead minotaur. She was so well hidden that the minotaur coming up to ambush the party did not see here. She tried to alert the group but it was too late. The other minotaur bellowed and charged at the group from a side passageway. Inits were rolled and the charging minotaur got to move first. Poor Curley was in direct line of attack and he got smacked by the minotaur charge attack of 4d6+6. I rolled 22 and he got knocked right down to –6. His body went flying over the group and slide 20 feet down the corridor. Aislenn engaged the second minotaur with Absinthe providing sneak attack support. The others desperately engaged the first minotaur in their midst. The group’s dice decided to abandon them. Almost all the group got knocked into single digit hit points and Absinthe was knocked down to –2. Earlier someone had mentioned that today was “Official DM’s Day” and the following day would be my birthday. I had joked that a good present would be a TPK but was not serious. Oh, how I wished I could take that comment back. I was seriously considering a deus ex machina to come along and save the group but they finally rallied and finished off the two monsters. Unfortunately during that time, Curley had slipped down to –10 hit points and had died. I had thought that he needed to make a DC 10 Fortitude save each round to stabilize but I was told that it was a straight 10% percentile roll. By then it was round 4 of the combat so I rolled four times and did not make it. “Sorry, guys. Curley gives off his death rattle and shuffles off this mortal coil.” “Curley!!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!”, wailed someone. I felt so bad about it that I had them roll on the treasure tables for the two minotaurs since the treasure given by the module was pretty weak in my opinion. The group decided that they needed to head back to Endhome and see what their options were for Curley. The cost of raising him would be 5000 GP, way out of their resources. Plus, there were no clerics in Endhome who could raise him. After an uneventful and somber journey back to the city, Micca had the gnome bard’s body laid out in his church and held services. The groups was surprised by the variety of women who came out to pay their last respects to the charismatic Curley. With that we called it a night. The group was a little bummed that they had lost the bard since he was an important component to their combat strategy with his singing (and they kind of liked him as a person). They still enjoyed the session. The death of the bard brought home how fragile they were and they made a decision to do some major shopping next session. I made a decision that they would take a break from the Barakus dungeon next session and that I would run another of the city adventures that they were the perfect level for. I would also have Dagon Ziss act upon the new information he had to make their lives a little more scary. Next Session: Trouble with slavers… [/QUOTE]
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