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thekwp's War of the Burning Sky Unchained
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<blockquote data-quote="thekwp" data-source="post: 6998967" data-attributes="member: 56444"><p><strong>Session 10 - Jan 11, 2017</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Player Summary</strong></p><p><em>Act One: Out of the frying pan...</em></p><p></p><p><em>Scene One: Ending Suffering</em></p><p></p><p>The party entered the inferno of the Fire Forest of Innenotdar. Protected by the potions of Stand the Heat, they traveled the old Elfroad into the forest. The road was covered with about four inches of soot and ash from the fire, making it clear that the party was not the first to travel this road. A horse pulling a wagon, and a trio of humanoids had traveled the road. Bosma and Krombholz examined the tracks, and determined that the wagon took place earlier, perhaps a week ago, but the three humanoids were in the last day or two.</p><p></p><p>Crystin volunteered that three gnomes had taken a wagon into the fire forest a little more than a week ago, claiming they too had magic that would protect them, but she knew nothing of the other group. She had a foreboding sense of tragedy about the gnomes, and had asked them not to try, but they told her they were confident of their path. Bosma asked Crystin what she thought of the party's chance. She chewed her lip for a moment, and then replied haltingly, "You're my only hope." The party speculated that the gnomes might be from the School of War, and had access to Stand the Heat like the party.</p><p></p><p>A quarter-mile after entering the forest, the party came across the humanoid refugees. Or rather, they came across the smoldering piles of burnt flesh and blackened bones, the remains scattered as if they had been picked over by scavengers. Dom approached the remains to examine them, poking around smoldering corpses and nearly burning himself, as Bromsby noted "Everyone is so curious," mildly surprised at the number of things that captured people's interests.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Bromsby is intent on getting through the forest, and thinks everyone checking out things is slowing down the progress. This lead to a running joke that they couldn't go a mile through this forest without <strong>something</strong> happening. The party is hyper conscious of the clock ticking away and needing to get through the forest before they start cooking.</em></p><p></p><p>Suddenly, one of the corpses moaned, as if in hideous torment, and sat up in a lurch. Mistaking the figure for a zombie, the party lashed out quickly. Krombholz took a snap shot that missed while Dom fumbled backwards flailing with his spear, but Bosma advanced quickly and landed solid hits with his spear. As Bosma spear's impaled figure, he was moaning "Kill me!" Slumping downward again, his last words were "Thank you..."</p><p></p><p>The party was disturbed greatly by this, and Dom checked the figure. He confirmed the man was now dead, but in his opinion, the man should have been dead already from the severity of his burns. He did not show the signs Dom would associate with necrotic energies and the undead. The party speculated briefly if everything in this forest was still alive while on fire for forty years. "Don't die here," Ceilthanus cautioned the group. "Unless you want to burn forever," Gath amended.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I did a slight misdirection on this, as when we started initiative, I labelled Durval as "Fast Zombie, Burning," but never used that description with the party. They know that the labels on the intiative tracker may be wrong or misleading, but several of them were call him a "Burning Zombie" during the encounter anyway. Discovering afterward that he was not a zombie at all caused some distress.</em></p><p></p><p>Noting the few daggers, coins, and spiked chain, as well as the clasp and metal bindings of a now obliterated book, Dom left everything with the figures. Instead, he took a minute to say a prayer for the deceased, with a plea that the dreams of their souls not be plagued by the way their death came to them, but be filled with better moments of the lives they had lived.</p><p></p><p><em>Scene Two: The Unnatural Hunt</em></p><p></p><p>About a mile down the road, the party heard some chittering and swooping in the branches overhead. Suddenly, something fell from them, careening straight at the horse Ceilthanus and Dom were riding, flapping wings to fall to the far side of them at the last moment. In close pursuit, a pair of enormous bats, wreathed in flames, broke from the forest. Bromsby identified the creature as fire mephit, while Bosma identified that bats as looking like Dire Bats, though he had no idea what it meant that there were completely consumed with fire but not dying, other than believing it to be the curse of the fire forest.</p><p> </p><p>The creature starting hissing and crackling, then switch to chittering quickly in Common "Save me, save me, save me!" while attempting to keep the party members between it and the dire bats. The party made quick work of the two dire bats. Then, as the party started talking with the fire mephit, Gath and Ceilthanus assisted by Krombholz, took the extra effort to dismember the dead bats, removing their wings. This proved farsighted, as just moments after finishing, the fire on each bat reignited and both bats began flailing around on the ground, their blood pumping out quickly from the missing limbs.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>After the first hint that things might come back inside the fire forest, the part was clearly taking no chances, and immediately took the initiative to hack the wings and even heads off the dire bats!</em></p><p></p><p>The mephit spoke briefly with the party, introducing itself as Zzsss'hss Hssthz, but explaining that its name could be translated as Burning Ember in the cold language of Common. When asked about the gnomes, he said he had seen the people who had fallen into the gorge. The stone path across the gorge had crumbled, and they could not fly. The gorge was dry, it explained, unlike the nasty river which did not boil or steam. After just a few minutes of talking, Burning Ember left the party and flew back into the forest, with a final warning not to anger the forest.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>The party took the distracted and alien viewpoint of the mephit as being partially the perspective gap from a creature of fire, and part of it being that the mephit was somewhat unintelligent. A references were made about calling out for him later for help or advice, but they had not recorded his name in Ignan, and were not sure he would respond to common.</em></p><p></p><p><em>Scene Three: A Dangerous Crossing</em></p><p></p><p>Arriving at the gorge described by the fire mephit Burning Ember, the party found the partially collapsed bridge. Bosma estimated that it should probably bare the weight of any one member of the group, but warned things could get risky with a horse. Stepping out a little way and looking down, Gath confirmed that there was a broken wagon at the bottom of the gorge sixty feet down, and not on fire. Bromsby volunteered to be lowered on a rope to examine the area, and check out what happened. A quick check showed that their rope did not start smoldering when stretch out, so Gath and Ceilthanus worked to lower Bromsby down.</p><p></p><p>Examining the wagon, Bromsby found the bodies for three gnomes and a human, all baked and shriveled from the heat. He recognized all of them as fellow students from Gabal's School of War in Gate Pass. The gnomes were Hiddlerum, Fidhurn, and Gattlenik, and the human was an abjurer named Tamwhet. Gattlenik was known for his alchemical ability and potion crafting. Knowing that known of them were gifted with natural magical talent, he went looking to see if their spellbooks survived. He found a small chest tied under the lead seat, still intact after the fall. Inside, he found four spellbooks hat had become very fragile after a week in the oven level heat, twelve potions identified as Stand the Heat, a wand, and a bag with a mixture of gold and gems. The party retrieved the case, and Bromsby went searching again, retrieving Gattlenik's signet ring, but no other significant things. On the way back up, he realized that the dozens of small candlelight flickers from under the bridge were actually small bats.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>It was amusing to watch the player initially dismiss the bats as anything to worry about because of how small they were with no plans to mention it to the party, until another player joked about flaming swarms. Then his eyes opened wide and he completely changed his stance, urgently telling the party. My players have a strong dislike (they insist it is not a fear) of swarms. </em></p><p></p><p>Warning the party that crossing the bridge could awaken a swarm of flaming bats, Bromsby volunteered to cross the bridge first. Moving quietly by himself, he crossed without incident. Following Bromsby's need, the party followed one by one, with Torrent and Dom both removing their to insure their chance of success. Finally, only Krombholz and Bosma remained. Bosma worked to guide the horses over, coaxing them to cross on the narrow stable region, attempting to have them move slowly to avoid disturbing the bats. The bridge creaked and shifted, but he lead Hitcher and Ceilthanus' horse across. While trying to lead Gath's horse across, he failed to guide it well enough, and the bats did erupt as a flaming swarm. The horse attempted to bolt, but spooked by the flaming bats and the swaying bridge, caused another piece of the bridge to collapse, slipping and falling with it. Bosma made it back, and Krombholz raced forward, getting his mount to plow through the swarm and jump the chasm successfully, but causing another portion of the bridge to collapse.<p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>When I sent this summary out to the party, Bosma replied that "Bosma's handling of the horse was fine. It failed its stealth check then its saving throw. Obviously the horses own fault."</em></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p><p></p><p><em>Scene Four: Devil Looking Over</em></p><p></p><p>As the party moved along the road, several people in the party noted a burst of flames behind them and off a bit into the burning forest, like hundreds of chrysanthemums made of fire blossoming and exploding at once. Despite some teasing about being curious cats, the party opted to ignore one more strange aspect of the fire forest, and push on. Nearly half an hour later, as they came to another ravine spanned by a stone bridge, a creature much like a dog with a collar and broken chain got up from the side of the road in the burning brush, and moved slowly onto the road. Holding a femur bone in the center of its mouth, it came to the center of the road, and carefully placed the femur down right in front of the bridge. Ceilthanus identified the creature as a hell hound, and the party halted to see what the creature would do. After putting the bone down, it backed away slowly for about ten feet, observing the party carefully before turning and trotting away into the forest.</p><p> </p><p>The party crossed the bridge quickly, and kept a look out for the creature, but found no threats. Something with terribly sharp claws had carefully carved a message on bone in Common: "Leave the case. Cooperate, and we might find an arrangement to spare your lives. Carry this with you if you wish to bargain."</p><p></p><p>After considering for a moment the idea of leaving the travel chest retrieved from the gnome's wagon, the party rejected the notion of turning over the adamantine case. Tossing the femur into the forest, they headed on down the road.</p><p></p><p><em>Scene Five: Infernal Harrier</em></p><p></p><p>About ten minutes after throwing away the bone, two small eruptions of flame both of them like chrysanthemums blossoming, appear in the midst of the party. A devil appeared, with a collar and broken chain around its need connecting in a chain of fire to a hell hound with a broken chain collar as well. As the fire of their arrival dissipated, so did the fiery chain connecting them. The tattered brown cloak whipped around the green scaled body of the devil, its eyes glowing with infernal fire, and its beard wrthing and biting like a nest of vipers. Its left hand has only four fingers, and the scaled, desiccated pinky finger hung on a cord around its neck. Ceilthanus identified it as a bearded devil, and its sudden appearance as a form of teleportation, but did not understand what caused the eruption of elemental fire as part of the arrival.</p><p></p><p>Speaking quickly, the devil greeted the party with a toothy smile. "Smart negotiators always obey the letter of any contract. Unfortunately, I have already signed one. I do so appreciate your spirit.” The hell hound immediately leaped forward to attack, sending his fiery breath to immolate Krombholz, Bromsy, and their mount. Ceilthanus called out a warning about the bearded devil, and prepared himself for a difficult fight, casting Shield to protect himself. Bromsby dismounted away from the hell hound, and moved into position, casting color spray on it, stunning the beast. He called a quick warning to Bosma, that the devil might be more powerful than they can handle. Bosma recalled the rumor Torrent had shared with the party a few days ago, about the last courier arriving via teleportation as burned husk, and wondered if only creatures immune to fire could now teleport, while starting an inspiring stanza to help the party rally against the devil. Crystin attempting to use a magical effect on the devil, but it proved too strong, shrugging off her efforts. Krombholz showed his grit firing a shot at the hell hound that grazed across its skull. The bearded proceeded to lash out with his glaive at the party, striking at Dom and leaving a razor thin cut that continue to bleed, but missing his strike against Ceilthanus because of his magical defenses. Gath closed with the devil, and struck out a with a might blow, which did no harm to the devil. Dom channeled energy to heal himself and his allies, and found that the thin cut by the bearded devil's glaive resisted him; he only barely managed to overcome the infernal power of the wound, with only a trickle of energy to help his allies. Torrent dismounted as well, and called forth an ocean wave to overwhelm the bearded devil, but it broke upon the devil's squat stance and did not move up.</p><p></p><p>Ceilthanus moved up to fight the bearded devil, striking with Meetima Salka. He managed to injure the devil with his black blade, but did not over come all of its damage reduction. Bromsby attempted to use an electrically charged Ear-Piercing Scream on the devil, but it remained unphased by the attack. Crystin focused again on the devil, her eyes flashing eerily for a moment, before a small trickle of ichor flowed from the devil's nose. "You are more powerful than you look, but not enough to save you," the devil told her.</p><p></p><p>Having seen Gath's efforts against the devil, Bosma pulled out his oil of magic weapon and applied it to his spear. Krombholz took another shot on the hell hound, as well as driving his horse to attack the creature, and between his bolts and horses kicks, the hell hound began to show some signs of fatiguing already in the battle. The bearded devil took at step back and called forth a malignant force. Six figures rose up through the ashes, blubbering bodies covered in ash and pus, with dripping tumorous faces. Immediately they struck out, a pair each ineffectually attacking Krombholz and Gath, but doing well against Krombholz horse as well as Dom's mount.</p><p></p><p>Frantically trying to find something effective, Gath drew the alchemical short short he acquired from Flaganus Mortus, the wyvern pilot, and struck the devil a quick blow that it felt, despite its strong defenses. Dom once again healed his allies with a Channel Energy, this time healing much more. Torrent paused, asking Bosma "How do you want to handle this?"</p><p></p><p>"All together, let's take that thing down," Bosma replied. </p><p></p><p><em>To be Continued</em></p><p>[HR][/HR]</p><p><strong>Story Deviation & Extra Details</strong></p><p></p><p>One of the players recently read the post by the Angry GM blogger on how to run combat like a dolphin, and shared it with the group. While we discussed the merits and weaknesses of his approach, we generally agreed that the emphasis on a narrative format helped the flow of the game. I spent some extra effort trying to recap and frame the situation for each player at the start of their action, and it seemed like it might have improved the game slightly, though I still felt a bit awkward with it at times. Practice makes perfect, of course, and the players generally responded in kind. Some of the things I want to do later in the game leverage greater narrative and story involvement for the characters, so I think the effort it worth while.</p><p></p><p>Based on the earlier campaign element that Stand the Heat is a recent innovation shared with Gate Pass by Seaquen, I decided that the gnome wagon was an attempt to take most of the Stand the Heat produced by Gabal's School away from the oncoming Ragesian Scourge. In that case, it would make sense that the characters who had studied at the School of War would recognize these them, even if they had not heard of this before. Plus, given the nature of the old Elfroad, all travel would pass in front of Crystin and Haddin's farmhouse. I had Crystin be aware of one group, the gnomes, but having missed the other group.</p><p></p><p>Durval, I imagined, was attempting to flee the Scourge as well, and hope that things would be clear enough for he and his family to make it through on Endure Elements if they stayed on the road.</p><p></p><p>Since names tend to make places and people more real, I had the names for the gnomes, as well as their human compatriot, ready. As a little bit of additional backstory, Gattlenik was a nephew of Fogo Henning, the Instructor of Illusions at Lyceum Academy, so the signet ring may provide some additional opportunities for the party when they get to Seaquen. I also had the mephit's name in Ignan ("Zzsss'hss Hssthz") and Common, as "Burning Ember" which came up, and for the Hell Hound, Purvotch, which has not yet come up.</p><p></p><p>I have described to the party how fragile the books are after essentially baking in the ravine for a week, and they have decided they will not try to handle them any more while in the fire forest. I will have the hand outs for the spellbooks and formula book ready before next session, though, just in case they decide to risk examining them in the Seela village.</p><p></p><p>Since we ended the session in the middle of a fight, I have attempted to record extra details about the fight for my players, so they can resume with a feel for what was just happening.</p><p></p><p><strong>Tactical Notes and Conversions</strong></p><p></p><p>After looking at Occult Adventures, I decided not to use the psychic class for Cyrstin, and instead stay with sorcerer. However, I did decide to change her to the Psychic Bloodline from Occult Adventures, giving her spells a very different look and feel, but not introducing too many new mechanics.</p><p></p><p>I wrestled a bit with how to make Kazyk a viable challenge for my over-sized party. I could not give him level or hit dice as that would move him outside the range of Lesser Planar Ally. Inspired by the image I found for a hell hound with a collar and broken chain that alludes back to back to the collar that Kazyk wears, I made this a magic item that allows an outsider to transport another outsider along with it when using its Greater Teleport ability. When Kazyk teleports, he can bring Purvotch the hell hound along with him. I considering give him a magic weapon as well, with a slightly different history, but decided against that for the initial encounter. </p><p></p><p><strong>Mechanics Issues</strong></p><p></p><p>We started using the Wound Threshold optional rules, but applied only to Wound Points. This was always the intent in the campaign, but all of the optional rules turned out to be a bit much to swallow in the first adventure as my players adjusted, so this one was delayed. It has emphasized that wounds are dangerous issues for characters, and something to be avoided. In play this time, it did not come up as no one really hit the point of wounds, but they all commented on it and are aware of it.</p><p></p><p>To cross the bridge, I used the stealth check for the individual characters. To lead a horse across and make it try to be stealthy I had them make a handle animal check to push the animal for a trick it didn't know, effectively "walk softly." After we were halfway through leading the horses over one by one, I realized that the horses drastically exceeded the weight limit on the bridge, but having already allowed one across, I continue with the same mechanic. They lost a horse anyway, and are slowed down enough that they are worried but, already having the extra potions from the same area made them feel confident enough that they could make it through. Except that they feel like it is risky to go back know with their horses, which I feel works well for the adventure.</p><p></p><p>The final fight is proving interesting in the opening rounds, as the Armor as Damage Reduction rules make the stacking damage reduction of this natural armor and normal damage reduction essentially impossible to overcome at all, without using either magic or silver. Chris was fairly distracted with some work calls and emails during the game, and has completely forgotten that he has the Soul Shroud which would obviously help dramatically in this encounter. Some of the players are worried that they cannot win this fight; I am pretty sure they will without too much trouble, but having the concern at the start of the encounter is good.</p><p></p><p><strong>Notable player reactions</strong></p><p></p><p>The player summary does not emphasize enough the role play that is going on with Ceilthanus and his sword. He is playing up the interactions with this sword, and how disappointed he is that, after all the family legends of the brilliant advisor the sword was, he find is to so... average. Also, a nice little bit on his reluctance to oil the blade inside of a fire forest, while the sword observing that it would not be burned by the fire. Meanwhile, Gath's reaction was expressed as "Your sword talks to you. In your head. And only you can hear it. Sure..."</p><p></p><p>I was really unsure how the group would respond to Dulvar. Turns out that all the damage done on him was done by Bosma, making for some interesting reactions for that character. He now has killed two people he is not really sure he should have, and it weighs on him.</p><p></p><p>I am very much looking forward to how they respond to <s>Incompatibility's Offer</s> Indomitability's Offer, and what they do in response. The more things came up, the more the party's discussion turned to "how do we get through this in time," and I suspect they will try to rush through the exploration of things, feeling trapped by the fire.</p><p></p><p><strong>Props, music, images, supporting handouts, etc</strong></p><p></p><p>Music for this session was:</p><p></p><p> * Victor Frankenstein by Craig Armstrong</p><p> * Backdraft by Hans Zimmer</p><p> * Batman Begins by Hanz Zimmer & James Newton Howard</p><p> * The Bourne Identify by John Powell</p><p> * Casino Royale by Nicholas Dodd</p><p> * Oblivion by M83</p><p> * Prestige by David Julyan</p><p></p><p>This play list, at 6 1/2 hours, was way longer than the session, which we typically play for about 3 hours. I may end up using the same list for the next session. I definitely was aiming for more of a moody mix, less action driven than the past several sessions.</p><p></p><p>I printed out the map for Trial by Fire from the 4E version, and had it ready in case the party got there, with the intention to share the general Trail by Fire location map with the party when they got through the encounter. However, we did not get that far in this session, and I didn't print out any other map locations, instead using our traditional vinyl battle mat.</p><p></p><p>I used a pintrest image for a burning zombie to show for Durval, and another image gathered from deviantart to show for the hell hound.</p><p></p><p><em>Edits:</em></p><p><em>2017-01-17: Fixed a humerous spell correction that a reread would have caught. Left it as strikethrough for others to enjoy. Fixed duplicate word, and character name spelling.</em></p><p><em></em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="thekwp, post: 6998967, member: 56444"] [b]Session 10 - Jan 11, 2017[/b] [B]Player Summary[/B] [I]Act One: Out of the frying pan...[/I] [I]Scene One: Ending Suffering[/I] The party entered the inferno of the Fire Forest of Innenotdar. Protected by the potions of Stand the Heat, they traveled the old Elfroad into the forest. The road was covered with about four inches of soot and ash from the fire, making it clear that the party was not the first to travel this road. A horse pulling a wagon, and a trio of humanoids had traveled the road. Bosma and Krombholz examined the tracks, and determined that the wagon took place earlier, perhaps a week ago, but the three humanoids were in the last day or two. Crystin volunteered that three gnomes had taken a wagon into the fire forest a little more than a week ago, claiming they too had magic that would protect them, but she knew nothing of the other group. She had a foreboding sense of tragedy about the gnomes, and had asked them not to try, but they told her they were confident of their path. Bosma asked Crystin what she thought of the party's chance. She chewed her lip for a moment, and then replied haltingly, "You're my only hope." The party speculated that the gnomes might be from the School of War, and had access to Stand the Heat like the party. A quarter-mile after entering the forest, the party came across the humanoid refugees. Or rather, they came across the smoldering piles of burnt flesh and blackened bones, the remains scattered as if they had been picked over by scavengers. Dom approached the remains to examine them, poking around smoldering corpses and nearly burning himself, as Bromsby noted "Everyone is so curious," mildly surprised at the number of things that captured people's interests.[INDENT][I]Bromsby is intent on getting through the forest, and thinks everyone checking out things is slowing down the progress. This lead to a running joke that they couldn't go a mile through this forest without [B]something[/B] happening. The party is hyper conscious of the clock ticking away and needing to get through the forest before they start cooking.[/I][/INDENT] Suddenly, one of the corpses moaned, as if in hideous torment, and sat up in a lurch. Mistaking the figure for a zombie, the party lashed out quickly. Krombholz took a snap shot that missed while Dom fumbled backwards flailing with his spear, but Bosma advanced quickly and landed solid hits with his spear. As Bosma spear's impaled figure, he was moaning "Kill me!" Slumping downward again, his last words were "Thank you..." The party was disturbed greatly by this, and Dom checked the figure. He confirmed the man was now dead, but in his opinion, the man should have been dead already from the severity of his burns. He did not show the signs Dom would associate with necrotic energies and the undead. The party speculated briefly if everything in this forest was still alive while on fire for forty years. "Don't die here," Ceilthanus cautioned the group. "Unless you want to burn forever," Gath amended.[INDENT][I]I did a slight misdirection on this, as when we started initiative, I labelled Durval as "Fast Zombie, Burning," but never used that description with the party. They know that the labels on the intiative tracker may be wrong or misleading, but several of them were call him a "Burning Zombie" during the encounter anyway. Discovering afterward that he was not a zombie at all caused some distress.[/I][/INDENT] Noting the few daggers, coins, and spiked chain, as well as the clasp and metal bindings of a now obliterated book, Dom left everything with the figures. Instead, he took a minute to say a prayer for the deceased, with a plea that the dreams of their souls not be plagued by the way their death came to them, but be filled with better moments of the lives they had lived. [I]Scene Two: The Unnatural Hunt[/I] About a mile down the road, the party heard some chittering and swooping in the branches overhead. Suddenly, something fell from them, careening straight at the horse Ceilthanus and Dom were riding, flapping wings to fall to the far side of them at the last moment. In close pursuit, a pair of enormous bats, wreathed in flames, broke from the forest. Bromsby identified the creature as fire mephit, while Bosma identified that bats as looking like Dire Bats, though he had no idea what it meant that there were completely consumed with fire but not dying, other than believing it to be the curse of the fire forest. The creature starting hissing and crackling, then switch to chittering quickly in Common "Save me, save me, save me!" while attempting to keep the party members between it and the dire bats. The party made quick work of the two dire bats. Then, as the party started talking with the fire mephit, Gath and Ceilthanus assisted by Krombholz, took the extra effort to dismember the dead bats, removing their wings. This proved farsighted, as just moments after finishing, the fire on each bat reignited and both bats began flailing around on the ground, their blood pumping out quickly from the missing limbs.[INDENT][I]After the first hint that things might come back inside the fire forest, the part was clearly taking no chances, and immediately took the initiative to hack the wings and even heads off the dire bats![/I][/INDENT] The mephit spoke briefly with the party, introducing itself as Zzsss'hss Hssthz, but explaining that its name could be translated as Burning Ember in the cold language of Common. When asked about the gnomes, he said he had seen the people who had fallen into the gorge. The stone path across the gorge had crumbled, and they could not fly. The gorge was dry, it explained, unlike the nasty river which did not boil or steam. After just a few minutes of talking, Burning Ember left the party and flew back into the forest, with a final warning not to anger the forest.[INDENT][I]The party took the distracted and alien viewpoint of the mephit as being partially the perspective gap from a creature of fire, and part of it being that the mephit was somewhat unintelligent. A references were made about calling out for him later for help or advice, but they had not recorded his name in Ignan, and were not sure he would respond to common.[/I][/INDENT] [I]Scene Three: A Dangerous Crossing[/I] Arriving at the gorge described by the fire mephit Burning Ember, the party found the partially collapsed bridge. Bosma estimated that it should probably bare the weight of any one member of the group, but warned things could get risky with a horse. Stepping out a little way and looking down, Gath confirmed that there was a broken wagon at the bottom of the gorge sixty feet down, and not on fire. Bromsby volunteered to be lowered on a rope to examine the area, and check out what happened. A quick check showed that their rope did not start smoldering when stretch out, so Gath and Ceilthanus worked to lower Bromsby down. Examining the wagon, Bromsby found the bodies for three gnomes and a human, all baked and shriveled from the heat. He recognized all of them as fellow students from Gabal's School of War in Gate Pass. The gnomes were Hiddlerum, Fidhurn, and Gattlenik, and the human was an abjurer named Tamwhet. Gattlenik was known for his alchemical ability and potion crafting. Knowing that known of them were gifted with natural magical talent, he went looking to see if their spellbooks survived. He found a small chest tied under the lead seat, still intact after the fall. Inside, he found four spellbooks hat had become very fragile after a week in the oven level heat, twelve potions identified as Stand the Heat, a wand, and a bag with a mixture of gold and gems. The party retrieved the case, and Bromsby went searching again, retrieving Gattlenik's signet ring, but no other significant things. On the way back up, he realized that the dozens of small candlelight flickers from under the bridge were actually small bats.[INDENT][I]It was amusing to watch the player initially dismiss the bats as anything to worry about because of how small they were with no plans to mention it to the party, until another player joked about flaming swarms. Then his eyes opened wide and he completely changed his stance, urgently telling the party. My players have a strong dislike (they insist it is not a fear) of swarms. [/I][/INDENT] Warning the party that crossing the bridge could awaken a swarm of flaming bats, Bromsby volunteered to cross the bridge first. Moving quietly by himself, he crossed without incident. Following Bromsby's need, the party followed one by one, with Torrent and Dom both removing their to insure their chance of success. Finally, only Krombholz and Bosma remained. Bosma worked to guide the horses over, coaxing them to cross on the narrow stable region, attempting to have them move slowly to avoid disturbing the bats. The bridge creaked and shifted, but he lead Hitcher and Ceilthanus' horse across. While trying to lead Gath's horse across, he failed to guide it well enough, and the bats did erupt as a flaming swarm. The horse attempted to bolt, but spooked by the flaming bats and the swaying bridge, caused another piece of the bridge to collapse, slipping and falling with it. Bosma made it back, and Krombholz raced forward, getting his mount to plow through the swarm and jump the chasm successfully, but causing another portion of the bridge to collapse.[INDENT][I]When I sent this summary out to the party, Bosma replied that "Bosma's handling of the horse was fine. It failed its stealth check then its saving throw. Obviously the horses own fault."[/I] [/INDENT] [I]Scene Four: Devil Looking Over[/I] As the party moved along the road, several people in the party noted a burst of flames behind them and off a bit into the burning forest, like hundreds of chrysanthemums made of fire blossoming and exploding at once. Despite some teasing about being curious cats, the party opted to ignore one more strange aspect of the fire forest, and push on. Nearly half an hour later, as they came to another ravine spanned by a stone bridge, a creature much like a dog with a collar and broken chain got up from the side of the road in the burning brush, and moved slowly onto the road. Holding a femur bone in the center of its mouth, it came to the center of the road, and carefully placed the femur down right in front of the bridge. Ceilthanus identified the creature as a hell hound, and the party halted to see what the creature would do. After putting the bone down, it backed away slowly for about ten feet, observing the party carefully before turning and trotting away into the forest. The party crossed the bridge quickly, and kept a look out for the creature, but found no threats. Something with terribly sharp claws had carefully carved a message on bone in Common: "Leave the case. Cooperate, and we might find an arrangement to spare your lives. Carry this with you if you wish to bargain." After considering for a moment the idea of leaving the travel chest retrieved from the gnome's wagon, the party rejected the notion of turning over the adamantine case. Tossing the femur into the forest, they headed on down the road. [I]Scene Five: Infernal Harrier[/I] About ten minutes after throwing away the bone, two small eruptions of flame both of them like chrysanthemums blossoming, appear in the midst of the party. A devil appeared, with a collar and broken chain around its need connecting in a chain of fire to a hell hound with a broken chain collar as well. As the fire of their arrival dissipated, so did the fiery chain connecting them. The tattered brown cloak whipped around the green scaled body of the devil, its eyes glowing with infernal fire, and its beard wrthing and biting like a nest of vipers. Its left hand has only four fingers, and the scaled, desiccated pinky finger hung on a cord around its neck. Ceilthanus identified it as a bearded devil, and its sudden appearance as a form of teleportation, but did not understand what caused the eruption of elemental fire as part of the arrival. Speaking quickly, the devil greeted the party with a toothy smile. "Smart negotiators always obey the letter of any contract. Unfortunately, I have already signed one. I do so appreciate your spirit.” The hell hound immediately leaped forward to attack, sending his fiery breath to immolate Krombholz, Bromsy, and their mount. Ceilthanus called out a warning about the bearded devil, and prepared himself for a difficult fight, casting Shield to protect himself. Bromsby dismounted away from the hell hound, and moved into position, casting color spray on it, stunning the beast. He called a quick warning to Bosma, that the devil might be more powerful than they can handle. Bosma recalled the rumor Torrent had shared with the party a few days ago, about the last courier arriving via teleportation as burned husk, and wondered if only creatures immune to fire could now teleport, while starting an inspiring stanza to help the party rally against the devil. Crystin attempting to use a magical effect on the devil, but it proved too strong, shrugging off her efforts. Krombholz showed his grit firing a shot at the hell hound that grazed across its skull. The bearded proceeded to lash out with his glaive at the party, striking at Dom and leaving a razor thin cut that continue to bleed, but missing his strike against Ceilthanus because of his magical defenses. Gath closed with the devil, and struck out a with a might blow, which did no harm to the devil. Dom channeled energy to heal himself and his allies, and found that the thin cut by the bearded devil's glaive resisted him; he only barely managed to overcome the infernal power of the wound, with only a trickle of energy to help his allies. Torrent dismounted as well, and called forth an ocean wave to overwhelm the bearded devil, but it broke upon the devil's squat stance and did not move up. Ceilthanus moved up to fight the bearded devil, striking with Meetima Salka. He managed to injure the devil with his black blade, but did not over come all of its damage reduction. Bromsby attempted to use an electrically charged Ear-Piercing Scream on the devil, but it remained unphased by the attack. Crystin focused again on the devil, her eyes flashing eerily for a moment, before a small trickle of ichor flowed from the devil's nose. "You are more powerful than you look, but not enough to save you," the devil told her. Having seen Gath's efforts against the devil, Bosma pulled out his oil of magic weapon and applied it to his spear. Krombholz took another shot on the hell hound, as well as driving his horse to attack the creature, and between his bolts and horses kicks, the hell hound began to show some signs of fatiguing already in the battle. The bearded devil took at step back and called forth a malignant force. Six figures rose up through the ashes, blubbering bodies covered in ash and pus, with dripping tumorous faces. Immediately they struck out, a pair each ineffectually attacking Krombholz and Gath, but doing well against Krombholz horse as well as Dom's mount. Frantically trying to find something effective, Gath drew the alchemical short short he acquired from Flaganus Mortus, the wyvern pilot, and struck the devil a quick blow that it felt, despite its strong defenses. Dom once again healed his allies with a Channel Energy, this time healing much more. Torrent paused, asking Bosma "How do you want to handle this?" "All together, let's take that thing down," Bosma replied. [I]To be Continued[/I] [HR][/HR] [B]Story Deviation & Extra Details[/B] One of the players recently read the post by the Angry GM blogger on how to run combat like a dolphin, and shared it with the group. While we discussed the merits and weaknesses of his approach, we generally agreed that the emphasis on a narrative format helped the flow of the game. I spent some extra effort trying to recap and frame the situation for each player at the start of their action, and it seemed like it might have improved the game slightly, though I still felt a bit awkward with it at times. Practice makes perfect, of course, and the players generally responded in kind. Some of the things I want to do later in the game leverage greater narrative and story involvement for the characters, so I think the effort it worth while. Based on the earlier campaign element that Stand the Heat is a recent innovation shared with Gate Pass by Seaquen, I decided that the gnome wagon was an attempt to take most of the Stand the Heat produced by Gabal's School away from the oncoming Ragesian Scourge. In that case, it would make sense that the characters who had studied at the School of War would recognize these them, even if they had not heard of this before. Plus, given the nature of the old Elfroad, all travel would pass in front of Crystin and Haddin's farmhouse. I had Crystin be aware of one group, the gnomes, but having missed the other group. Durval, I imagined, was attempting to flee the Scourge as well, and hope that things would be clear enough for he and his family to make it through on Endure Elements if they stayed on the road. Since names tend to make places and people more real, I had the names for the gnomes, as well as their human compatriot, ready. As a little bit of additional backstory, Gattlenik was a nephew of Fogo Henning, the Instructor of Illusions at Lyceum Academy, so the signet ring may provide some additional opportunities for the party when they get to Seaquen. I also had the mephit's name in Ignan ("Zzsss'hss Hssthz") and Common, as "Burning Ember" which came up, and for the Hell Hound, Purvotch, which has not yet come up. I have described to the party how fragile the books are after essentially baking in the ravine for a week, and they have decided they will not try to handle them any more while in the fire forest. I will have the hand outs for the spellbooks and formula book ready before next session, though, just in case they decide to risk examining them in the Seela village. Since we ended the session in the middle of a fight, I have attempted to record extra details about the fight for my players, so they can resume with a feel for what was just happening. [B]Tactical Notes and Conversions[/B] After looking at Occult Adventures, I decided not to use the psychic class for Cyrstin, and instead stay with sorcerer. However, I did decide to change her to the Psychic Bloodline from Occult Adventures, giving her spells a very different look and feel, but not introducing too many new mechanics. I wrestled a bit with how to make Kazyk a viable challenge for my over-sized party. I could not give him level or hit dice as that would move him outside the range of Lesser Planar Ally. Inspired by the image I found for a hell hound with a collar and broken chain that alludes back to back to the collar that Kazyk wears, I made this a magic item that allows an outsider to transport another outsider along with it when using its Greater Teleport ability. When Kazyk teleports, he can bring Purvotch the hell hound along with him. I considering give him a magic weapon as well, with a slightly different history, but decided against that for the initial encounter. [B]Mechanics Issues[/B] We started using the Wound Threshold optional rules, but applied only to Wound Points. This was always the intent in the campaign, but all of the optional rules turned out to be a bit much to swallow in the first adventure as my players adjusted, so this one was delayed. It has emphasized that wounds are dangerous issues for characters, and something to be avoided. In play this time, it did not come up as no one really hit the point of wounds, but they all commented on it and are aware of it. To cross the bridge, I used the stealth check for the individual characters. To lead a horse across and make it try to be stealthy I had them make a handle animal check to push the animal for a trick it didn't know, effectively "walk softly." After we were halfway through leading the horses over one by one, I realized that the horses drastically exceeded the weight limit on the bridge, but having already allowed one across, I continue with the same mechanic. They lost a horse anyway, and are slowed down enough that they are worried but, already having the extra potions from the same area made them feel confident enough that they could make it through. Except that they feel like it is risky to go back know with their horses, which I feel works well for the adventure. The final fight is proving interesting in the opening rounds, as the Armor as Damage Reduction rules make the stacking damage reduction of this natural armor and normal damage reduction essentially impossible to overcome at all, without using either magic or silver. Chris was fairly distracted with some work calls and emails during the game, and has completely forgotten that he has the Soul Shroud which would obviously help dramatically in this encounter. Some of the players are worried that they cannot win this fight; I am pretty sure they will without too much trouble, but having the concern at the start of the encounter is good. [B]Notable player reactions[/B] The player summary does not emphasize enough the role play that is going on with Ceilthanus and his sword. He is playing up the interactions with this sword, and how disappointed he is that, after all the family legends of the brilliant advisor the sword was, he find is to so... average. Also, a nice little bit on his reluctance to oil the blade inside of a fire forest, while the sword observing that it would not be burned by the fire. Meanwhile, Gath's reaction was expressed as "Your sword talks to you. In your head. And only you can hear it. Sure..." I was really unsure how the group would respond to Dulvar. Turns out that all the damage done on him was done by Bosma, making for some interesting reactions for that character. He now has killed two people he is not really sure he should have, and it weighs on him. I am very much looking forward to how they respond to [s]Incompatibility's Offer[/s] Indomitability's Offer, and what they do in response. The more things came up, the more the party's discussion turned to "how do we get through this in time," and I suspect they will try to rush through the exploration of things, feeling trapped by the fire. [B]Props, music, images, supporting handouts, etc[/B] Music for this session was: * Victor Frankenstein by Craig Armstrong * Backdraft by Hans Zimmer * Batman Begins by Hanz Zimmer & James Newton Howard * The Bourne Identify by John Powell * Casino Royale by Nicholas Dodd * Oblivion by M83 * Prestige by David Julyan This play list, at 6 1/2 hours, was way longer than the session, which we typically play for about 3 hours. I may end up using the same list for the next session. I definitely was aiming for more of a moody mix, less action driven than the past several sessions. I printed out the map for Trial by Fire from the 4E version, and had it ready in case the party got there, with the intention to share the general Trail by Fire location map with the party when they got through the encounter. However, we did not get that far in this session, and I didn't print out any other map locations, instead using our traditional vinyl battle mat. I used a pintrest image for a burning zombie to show for Durval, and another image gathered from deviantart to show for the hell hound. [I]Edits: 2017-01-17: Fixed a humerous spell correction that a reread would have caught. Left it as strikethrough for others to enjoy. Fixed duplicate word, and character name spelling. [/I] [/QUOTE]
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