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<blockquote data-quote="Tolamaker" data-source="post: 9129674" data-attributes="member: 7031495"><p><strong>Sessions 66, 67, and 68: Up, Down, and All Around</strong></p><p></p><p>A bit of catch-up to do, simply due to getting a bit side tracked the past few weeks!</p><p></p><p>The party fight their way through the devils, finally dispatching the chain devil with a quick beheading. The chains fall silent, and the part make their way cautiously through the halls to a room with a mirror. Staring into it, they soon discern that it is showing a different room, with a terrible flame at the center. Along the walls are other mirrors, with distant images. A robed figure emerges from the flame and observes them curiously. It wears the mask of an Inquisitor. In on of the distant mirrors, Corban sees the Millorn clan being captured by undead, and being taken to the ooze banquet hall. With a dramatic crash, the mirror cracks, and the party rushes down and up again to rescue the gnomes and halflings.</p><p></p><p>In the banquet hall, the undead nobles have not yet restored their defenses, and so the party bursts in just as Oller is swallowed up by the ooze. Battle breaks out, and it soon is apparent that the party will win. The ooze calls for parley, but Aripos is too angry about his cousin being actively eaten, and so kills Gorkov the ooze. The rest of the ghoulish nobles are dispatched, and Oller is rescued from the dispersing ooze. In the throne the ooze had resided, Aripos finds a map of the castle, with instructions on how to ascend the lift without activating traps.</p><p></p><p>Realizing they have cleared out the entire first and second floors, the party decides to make sure they found everything. More searching discovers a +1 crossbow behind a glyph of warding, and a secret room is discovered in a priest's quarters that leads them to a treasure trove of offerings made to the gods. Unable to find the proper entrance to the other side, they take hammers and pickaxes from the siege tunnels and force their way in, where they find a few small coins, and a brightly shining feather. Mishka determines it belonged to a humanoid sized creature, and Aripos believes it belonged to St. Cefrey, the leader of an order in realms long-forgotten who guards against an ancient evil.</p><p></p><p>After running into zombie-servants who still attempt to fulfill their duties, the party takes a final rest before making their way up the elevator shaft with the Millorn clan. They also share a meal from the Coldcreek Culinary (heroe's feast) and Gruz gives a rousing speech. They are tense, but thankfully nothing happens as they noisily ascend to the top of the castle. At the top, they begin to float as they have entered the Astral plane, and are able to rearrange what is up and down with some concentration. Corban rearranges himself to be on the ceiling immediately.</p><p></p><p>As they exit the lift, a glyph explodes underneath Aripos' feet, failing to remove the effect of Heroes' feast. Murder holes open up on either side, and Dark Pyre soldiers light into the party. Gruz turns his gravity sideways and slips through the crowd, and fights along the wall. Escaping the tunnel, the party runs into more Dark Pyre rogues, and soon Gruz is knocked unconscious by skeletal gnomes, bleeding out on the wall. Mishka dispatches the sergeant while Eluriah and Corban heal everyone. As Gruz is about to be knocked out again, Corban polymorphs him into a giant ape, who proceeds to pummel the soldiers into pieces, although only barely able to survive in the small hallways.</p><p></p><p>In the next room is a large golden skeleton of a dragon. Mishka breaks off one of the teeth, which sets off a strange angry howl from behind them, especially spooking Clan Millorn. Before they can figure out what made the noise, the doors on either side of the room open, with skeletons on one side, and a demonic vulture and fire elemental on the other, led by the robed inquisitor from the mirror room.</p><p></p><p>Gruz immediately changes gravity to rush the vrock, failing to banish it with a cleave of his greatsword. Corban slows the enemies, and Mishka and Gruz are able to kill the inquisitor, causing her and the Dark Pyre beyond to explode, destroying the undead soldiers as well. Eluriah's draconic spirit kills the elemental, finally empowering the ring she had taken from the Pyromancer's tomb.</p><p></p><p>Stepping into the pyre room, the party sees a window which shows a line being carved through the firestorm as hundreds of Ragesians, and a handful of Shahalesti, march on the castle.</p><p></p><p><strong>Changes to the module</strong></p><p></p><p>It's been a while, but I'll do my best. I had the Millorn clan captured by the nobles, because I wanted something that would make the players rush back, and it did the trick. It's not clear where Gorquith keeps the instructions/map, so I figured his throne was a good compromise. Because they killed him, they didn't find any of the healing items. Cefrey was Eluriah's PC from our Strahd campaign, the second of the five old-PC items I have scattered throughout this campaign. I figured making the old cleric become a saint made sense. </p><p></p><p>I let the players change their gravity as a free action, because it seemed more fun that way. Not technically a change, because I'm not sure if the book specified if it was an action or not.</p><p></p><p>The fight at the top level was more difficult than intended, because I ran the first two waves practically simultaneously. I felt like I had too, because it felt like the first wave was going to go down too easily. This led to a near-death experience, but ultimately turned out OK. I probably would instead split the Dark Pyre Swarmers up between the first and third waves instead if I were to run it again, just to give both other encounters some more oomph. The final fight felt a little anticlimactic after the near-thing from the first two waves. I think this is the first time I changed the challenge of a fight significantly in this module, and I would say it was to mixed success.</p><p></p><p><strong>Post Session thoughts</strong></p><p></p><p>There were a lot of great moments in these sessions. I was very straightforward with the group that they had cleared all the levels up to the elevator, so basically sped through checking other rooms for loot. They had abysmal Investigation rolls, so a bit of loot was left behind. i decided that the relic-feather was placed there by a particularly doddering Sindairese priest taken in by the mist, and was going to be retrieved, but then Coaltongue was assassinated.</p><p></p><p>Even though they found the instructions for the lift, I decided to read off to them what <em>didn't </em>happen, and that was quite fun. I already do this with loot they miss at the end of a module, but it was fun to do in the clattering ride up to build tension. The gravity changing was also a blast, even if only two players really played around with it. If I had the cash or the skill, I have a killer illustration in mind from the Griiat fight with Corban on the ceiling, and Gruz on the wall fighting an elemental and inquisitor while a draconic spirit fights the vrock.</p><p></p><p>The next session is tonight, and I'm hoping to finish the module as well! That will put us at 11 sessions for the adventure, which I'm happy with.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tolamaker, post: 9129674, member: 7031495"] [B]Sessions 66, 67, and 68: Up, Down, and All Around[/B] A bit of catch-up to do, simply due to getting a bit side tracked the past few weeks! The party fight their way through the devils, finally dispatching the chain devil with a quick beheading. The chains fall silent, and the part make their way cautiously through the halls to a room with a mirror. Staring into it, they soon discern that it is showing a different room, with a terrible flame at the center. Along the walls are other mirrors, with distant images. A robed figure emerges from the flame and observes them curiously. It wears the mask of an Inquisitor. In on of the distant mirrors, Corban sees the Millorn clan being captured by undead, and being taken to the ooze banquet hall. With a dramatic crash, the mirror cracks, and the party rushes down and up again to rescue the gnomes and halflings. In the banquet hall, the undead nobles have not yet restored their defenses, and so the party bursts in just as Oller is swallowed up by the ooze. Battle breaks out, and it soon is apparent that the party will win. The ooze calls for parley, but Aripos is too angry about his cousin being actively eaten, and so kills Gorkov the ooze. The rest of the ghoulish nobles are dispatched, and Oller is rescued from the dispersing ooze. In the throne the ooze had resided, Aripos finds a map of the castle, with instructions on how to ascend the lift without activating traps. Realizing they have cleared out the entire first and second floors, the party decides to make sure they found everything. More searching discovers a +1 crossbow behind a glyph of warding, and a secret room is discovered in a priest's quarters that leads them to a treasure trove of offerings made to the gods. Unable to find the proper entrance to the other side, they take hammers and pickaxes from the siege tunnels and force their way in, where they find a few small coins, and a brightly shining feather. Mishka determines it belonged to a humanoid sized creature, and Aripos believes it belonged to St. Cefrey, the leader of an order in realms long-forgotten who guards against an ancient evil. After running into zombie-servants who still attempt to fulfill their duties, the party takes a final rest before making their way up the elevator shaft with the Millorn clan. They also share a meal from the Coldcreek Culinary (heroe's feast) and Gruz gives a rousing speech. They are tense, but thankfully nothing happens as they noisily ascend to the top of the castle. At the top, they begin to float as they have entered the Astral plane, and are able to rearrange what is up and down with some concentration. Corban rearranges himself to be on the ceiling immediately. As they exit the lift, a glyph explodes underneath Aripos' feet, failing to remove the effect of Heroes' feast. Murder holes open up on either side, and Dark Pyre soldiers light into the party. Gruz turns his gravity sideways and slips through the crowd, and fights along the wall. Escaping the tunnel, the party runs into more Dark Pyre rogues, and soon Gruz is knocked unconscious by skeletal gnomes, bleeding out on the wall. Mishka dispatches the sergeant while Eluriah and Corban heal everyone. As Gruz is about to be knocked out again, Corban polymorphs him into a giant ape, who proceeds to pummel the soldiers into pieces, although only barely able to survive in the small hallways. In the next room is a large golden skeleton of a dragon. Mishka breaks off one of the teeth, which sets off a strange angry howl from behind them, especially spooking Clan Millorn. Before they can figure out what made the noise, the doors on either side of the room open, with skeletons on one side, and a demonic vulture and fire elemental on the other, led by the robed inquisitor from the mirror room. Gruz immediately changes gravity to rush the vrock, failing to banish it with a cleave of his greatsword. Corban slows the enemies, and Mishka and Gruz are able to kill the inquisitor, causing her and the Dark Pyre beyond to explode, destroying the undead soldiers as well. Eluriah's draconic spirit kills the elemental, finally empowering the ring she had taken from the Pyromancer's tomb. Stepping into the pyre room, the party sees a window which shows a line being carved through the firestorm as hundreds of Ragesians, and a handful of Shahalesti, march on the castle. [B]Changes to the module[/B] It's been a while, but I'll do my best. I had the Millorn clan captured by the nobles, because I wanted something that would make the players rush back, and it did the trick. It's not clear where Gorquith keeps the instructions/map, so I figured his throne was a good compromise. Because they killed him, they didn't find any of the healing items. Cefrey was Eluriah's PC from our Strahd campaign, the second of the five old-PC items I have scattered throughout this campaign. I figured making the old cleric become a saint made sense. I let the players change their gravity as a free action, because it seemed more fun that way. Not technically a change, because I'm not sure if the book specified if it was an action or not. The fight at the top level was more difficult than intended, because I ran the first two waves practically simultaneously. I felt like I had too, because it felt like the first wave was going to go down too easily. This led to a near-death experience, but ultimately turned out OK. I probably would instead split the Dark Pyre Swarmers up between the first and third waves instead if I were to run it again, just to give both other encounters some more oomph. The final fight felt a little anticlimactic after the near-thing from the first two waves. I think this is the first time I changed the challenge of a fight significantly in this module, and I would say it was to mixed success. [B]Post Session thoughts[/B] There were a lot of great moments in these sessions. I was very straightforward with the group that they had cleared all the levels up to the elevator, so basically sped through checking other rooms for loot. They had abysmal Investigation rolls, so a bit of loot was left behind. i decided that the relic-feather was placed there by a particularly doddering Sindairese priest taken in by the mist, and was going to be retrieved, but then Coaltongue was assassinated. Even though they found the instructions for the lift, I decided to read off to them what [I]didn't [/I]happen, and that was quite fun. I already do this with loot they miss at the end of a module, but it was fun to do in the clattering ride up to build tension. The gravity changing was also a blast, even if only two players really played around with it. If I had the cash or the skill, I have a killer illustration in mind from the Griiat fight with Corban on the ceiling, and Gruz on the wall fighting an elemental and inquisitor while a draconic spirit fights the vrock. The next session is tonight, and I'm hoping to finish the module as well! That will put us at 11 sessions for the adventure, which I'm happy with. [/QUOTE]
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