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<blockquote data-quote="sim-h" data-source="post: 7580748" data-attributes="member: 6813788"><p>Here's my latest two sessions. Party are level five but hit some major buffers in Omu...luckily the adventure caters for that although I'll have to plan the next session carefully!</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">SESSION 17:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">The session began with the party looking down on the Forbidden City of Omu for the first time. After taking in the major features, they headed down to the nearby ruined gatehouse, which Eddie scouted out. Within, signs of scorching from old campfires were visible, and a wall had been given over to carved and painted graffiti in the common tongue. Various cryptic messages could be made out:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Fear the fangs of Ras Nsi!”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Erik, I’ve gone in search of the nine shrines. V.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“The puzzle cubes are the key.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Beware the frog monster!”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Who is Unkh?”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“All hail the King of Feathers!”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“The snakes are not what they seem.”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">“Kubazan = bravery. Shagambi = wisdom. Moa = ?”</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Moving on, the party descended to the first buildings of the city proper - abandoned two-storey limestone villas overgrown and choked with vines and towering palms. As Eddie scouted out the dank interior a consensus was quickly reached. Rather than spend time searching every building in the city, the party agreed to head straight for the palace in the eastern quarter. The feeling was, if Ras Nsi was anywhere, he would be there, and it would be there that the party would most likely discover the nature of this 'Soulmonger' and the death curse.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Smoke was seen rising from a walled compound nearby however, so the adventurers decided to investigate there first. Peering from the upper floor window of a long-abandoned bathhouse, Eddie spied the signs of a fire or explosion of some kind - charred humanoid remains being scavenged by a pack of wild dogs. They descended to street level and made their way round to the smashed compound gates. Within, Aylbous spoke to the wild dogs, which were solely interested in their food. The party gave them a wide berth, and discovered a grizzly totem pole of snake skulls and inhuman remains, close to a symbol which Eddie recognised as that of Dendar the Night Serpent, a Yuan-Ti deity. It looked like Yuan-Ti snake people had fought a bloody battle with those within the compound in the recent past. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">At that moment, from a nearby collapsed wall came a weak cry..."help me, please!"</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Investigating, the group rescued a buried human - a scholar called Orvex Ocrammus. Exhausted and starving, he was given water and some healing. It turned out he was in the employ of a group of Red Wizards of Thay who had come to Omu also seeking the Soulmonger, no doubt for their own nefarious ends. They had been ambushed by a powerful force of Yuan-Ti, scattering the remnants of their group and leaving Orvex buried beneath a collapsed wall! He was keen to accompany the group through the city, for protection. Orvex was able to translate Old Omuan - the language found in many inscriptions here including at Nangalore, so he had some immediate use and the party agreed. He also referred to the legend of the Nine Trickster Gods of Omu, which he resolved to recount to them in full once he had regained his strength. He confirmed some of the names seen in the graffiti were those of the trickster gods: Unkh, Shagambi, Kubazan and Moa.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Beyond the wall was a ruined shrine with a stagnant walled pool before it. Orvex was keen the adventurers should explore the shrine, having a professional interest in the lost religions of Omu. However, when Eddie scouted closer he noticed a large eyestalk protruding from the pool. Reporting back, Orvex speculated that this was the shrine of Kubazan, the Froghemoth. Such gargantuan monstrosities were capable of swallowing a man whole and were powerful foes indeed. The party had second thoughts about investigating the shrine, and instead gave it a wide berth, heading back across the raised north-to-south causeway in the direction of a fallen tree that appeared to be the best way to cross the water flowing through the city before it plunged into the lava chasm in the south east. Before they reached the causeway, Eddie spotted danger in the form of a shambling mound of sentient vegetation massed against the walls of a nearby building, which the group duly avoided.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">From the causeway, they spotted another shrine-like building to the south east on this side of the river, and decided to approach the rear of the building and investigate to see if there were any powerful guardians at that one, too. Eddie sneaked up towards a broken cart out back of the shrine, but was out-stealthed by a pair of kamadans (jaguars with snakes protruding from their upper bodies) which ambushed him and used their sleep breath to render him unconscious. Somehow, the mauling kamadans failed to damage him as the rest of the party approached. After a short battle, in which Elhorn used his mage hand to rouse the slumbering Eddie, Both Kamadans were vanquished and the party circled round to the front of the shrine, where Orvex was able to translate an inscription that read “Shagambi teaches us to fight evil with honor.” Orvex was excited this confirmed this to be the shrine of Shagambi, trickster god of Omu, who is represented by a kamadan.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Inside was chamber steps descended into a fifteen-foot-high, moss-covered room. Four statues of Omuan warriors stood in alcoves to either side, overlooking a barred gladiatorial pit in the floor. Each statue seemed meant to be holding a spear, but the weapons were missing. On the far side of the chamber, a stone pedestal stood conspicuously bare. A relief on the wall behind it showed a monstrous jaguar with six snakes protruding from its shoulders, fighting off a squat, frog-like humanoid armed with a spear (a grung). To the left of the relief a narrow tunnel with stairs led down.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">After releasing some poison gas attempting to tamper with some sort of hatch atop the stone pedestal (which rendered Orvex unconscious needing Veitar to revive him), the group descended the steps into the gladiatorial pit. No sooner had Eddie stepped onto the pit floor than a pressure plate released four clay warriors from the far side of the pit, storming into the room to assail the party! Aylbous immediately retreated upstairs, whilst Veitar stood back and Lana boldly engaged the foes. The clay gladiators were tough, and had multiple attacks. Eddie and Elhorn fought a fighting retreat as Aylbous conjured two tigers to fight the gladiators. Lana bore the brunt of a dozen or more attacks, being sent to ground not once, not twice but three times - only to be roused each time almost immediately by Veitar, using his Preserve Life and healing words.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">As we ended the session, only one of the clay gladiators had been felled. Lana was trapped in the middle of the pit surrounded by the other three, as Elhorn and Veitar beat hasty retreats to the upper level. Up above the pit grille, Aylbous controlled a flaming sphere, whilst Eddie stood ready to fire with his crossbow. But it seemed highly unlikely Lana would last out the next wave of attacks from the gladiators...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">SESSION 18:</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">The session began with Lana invoking her gift of Invulnerability, bestowed by Saja N'baza, and plugging away at the gladiator she faced. She scored two critical hits in a row, but simply wasn't doing enough damage to overly trouble the clay construct. Eddie missed his sneak attack from above, but shouted advice down to those below - urging Elhorn to use his powers of invisibility on himself and Lana to allow them to get out of there.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Elhorn duly complied, casting Invisibility at Level 3 with Distant Spell meta-magic as he turned and ran. The gladiators in the pit suddenly had no enemies in sight - but knowing others were fleeing and already above them, all three surged into the corridor - not fancying the flaming sphere that blocked their route directly up from the pit. The first one ran into the back of the invisible Elhorn, and hacked away with its spear, wounding him to near unconsciousness despite his invisibility.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Meanwhile Veitar took up a position in the upper chamber to attack any gladiators that entered, and Eddie hit and readied a shot on the emerging gladiators also.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">There followed a good 30 seconds of cat and mouse, as Veitar was cut down only to immediately roll back to his feet (death save of 20) and proceeded to dodge and weave, keeping one of the gladiators at bay whilst Eddie hid in a niche alongside one of the spear-less statues. Lana and Elhorn fought on. Both were taken down and healed using Healing Word, although Lana soon went down again. Aylbous wildshaped into an ape and descended the rope back into the pit, giving one of the gladiators the runaround. After Eddie vacated the premises, leaving one gladiator with a critical sneak attack parting shot, Ape-Aylbous (now back up top) even finished said gladiator off with a hurled rock to the head. But the clay gladiator disappeared before their eyes and this time did not leave its spear behind!</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Eventually it all proved too much for the party, as a new gladiator emerged from the far corridor below into the pit. Aylbous the Ape was caught and forced to wildshape into a tiny spider to escape the building, as Eddie dragged Lana free and Elhorn, invisible once more, dragged Veitar out of the shrine to join Orvex and Eddie.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">The gladiators did not pursue, and left the pit floor to head back down their corridor. Eddie snuck back in and attached the dropped spear to the rope, ready to haul it up later if they so desired, before they decided to set up camp for at least a brief hour's rest outside the shrine, behind the cover of the courtyard walls. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">Sadly, things were about to get much worse for the badly damaged party, as five yuan-ti malisons in snake form sneaked into the perimeter of their camp and shapeshifted into view, calling out Suggestions for the party to drop their weapons and come with them! With precious little resources at their disposal, the group had little chance. Resisting the Suggestions, they put up a brave fight, but Lana and Veitar first went down on the right flank. Over on the left, Aylbous called lightning and Elhorn shot Scorching Rays, but it was no good. Aylbous and Eddie surrendered at the behest of the Yuan-Ti, and Elhorn followed suit, coming out of invisibility rather than abandon his allies.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 10px">And so it was that the five party members and Orvex were captured by the Yuan-Ti, who implanted as many Suggestions as they could for the group not to resist, before binding them with vines and their own rope and leading them towards the ruined palace in the east of the city...</span></p><p></p><p>*******</p><p></p><p>So I am in a quandary with what to do next session - either they will become prisoners of the Yuan-Ti as per Chapter 4, or else Zagmira and her thugs will ambush the group and take down the Yuan-Ti before freeing them - giving them a chance to form the uneasy alliance also suggested by the book - along with the truth about the Soulmonger, the Tomb of the Nine Gods and the puzzle cubes. Any thoughts? I feel the group being taken prisoner is a TPK risk, as they will try to escape. But the ambush by Zagmira might feel like too much of a Get Out Of Jail Free card (which it kind of is!) with all the puzzle cube/tomb info given to the players on a plate.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="sim-h, post: 7580748, member: 6813788"] Here's my latest two sessions. Party are level five but hit some major buffers in Omu...luckily the adventure caters for that although I'll have to plan the next session carefully! [SIZE=2]SESSION 17: The session began with the party looking down on the Forbidden City of Omu for the first time. After taking in the major features, they headed down to the nearby ruined gatehouse, which Eddie scouted out. Within, signs of scorching from old campfires were visible, and a wall had been given over to carved and painted graffiti in the common tongue. Various cryptic messages could be made out: “Fear the fangs of Ras Nsi!” “Erik, I’ve gone in search of the nine shrines. V.” “The puzzle cubes are the key.” “Beware the frog monster!” “Who is Unkh?” “All hail the King of Feathers!” “The snakes are not what they seem.” “Kubazan = bravery. Shagambi = wisdom. Moa = ?” Moving on, the party descended to the first buildings of the city proper - abandoned two-storey limestone villas overgrown and choked with vines and towering palms. As Eddie scouted out the dank interior a consensus was quickly reached. Rather than spend time searching every building in the city, the party agreed to head straight for the palace in the eastern quarter. The feeling was, if Ras Nsi was anywhere, he would be there, and it would be there that the party would most likely discover the nature of this 'Soulmonger' and the death curse. Smoke was seen rising from a walled compound nearby however, so the adventurers decided to investigate there first. Peering from the upper floor window of a long-abandoned bathhouse, Eddie spied the signs of a fire or explosion of some kind - charred humanoid remains being scavenged by a pack of wild dogs. They descended to street level and made their way round to the smashed compound gates. Within, Aylbous spoke to the wild dogs, which were solely interested in their food. The party gave them a wide berth, and discovered a grizzly totem pole of snake skulls and inhuman remains, close to a symbol which Eddie recognised as that of Dendar the Night Serpent, a Yuan-Ti deity. It looked like Yuan-Ti snake people had fought a bloody battle with those within the compound in the recent past. At that moment, from a nearby collapsed wall came a weak cry..."help me, please!" Investigating, the group rescued a buried human - a scholar called Orvex Ocrammus. Exhausted and starving, he was given water and some healing. It turned out he was in the employ of a group of Red Wizards of Thay who had come to Omu also seeking the Soulmonger, no doubt for their own nefarious ends. They had been ambushed by a powerful force of Yuan-Ti, scattering the remnants of their group and leaving Orvex buried beneath a collapsed wall! He was keen to accompany the group through the city, for protection. Orvex was able to translate Old Omuan - the language found in many inscriptions here including at Nangalore, so he had some immediate use and the party agreed. He also referred to the legend of the Nine Trickster Gods of Omu, which he resolved to recount to them in full once he had regained his strength. He confirmed some of the names seen in the graffiti were those of the trickster gods: Unkh, Shagambi, Kubazan and Moa. Beyond the wall was a ruined shrine with a stagnant walled pool before it. Orvex was keen the adventurers should explore the shrine, having a professional interest in the lost religions of Omu. However, when Eddie scouted closer he noticed a large eyestalk protruding from the pool. Reporting back, Orvex speculated that this was the shrine of Kubazan, the Froghemoth. Such gargantuan monstrosities were capable of swallowing a man whole and were powerful foes indeed. The party had second thoughts about investigating the shrine, and instead gave it a wide berth, heading back across the raised north-to-south causeway in the direction of a fallen tree that appeared to be the best way to cross the water flowing through the city before it plunged into the lava chasm in the south east. Before they reached the causeway, Eddie spotted danger in the form of a shambling mound of sentient vegetation massed against the walls of a nearby building, which the group duly avoided. From the causeway, they spotted another shrine-like building to the south east on this side of the river, and decided to approach the rear of the building and investigate to see if there were any powerful guardians at that one, too. Eddie sneaked up towards a broken cart out back of the shrine, but was out-stealthed by a pair of kamadans (jaguars with snakes protruding from their upper bodies) which ambushed him and used their sleep breath to render him unconscious. Somehow, the mauling kamadans failed to damage him as the rest of the party approached. After a short battle, in which Elhorn used his mage hand to rouse the slumbering Eddie, Both Kamadans were vanquished and the party circled round to the front of the shrine, where Orvex was able to translate an inscription that read “Shagambi teaches us to fight evil with honor.” Orvex was excited this confirmed this to be the shrine of Shagambi, trickster god of Omu, who is represented by a kamadan. Inside was chamber steps descended into a fifteen-foot-high, moss-covered room. Four statues of Omuan warriors stood in alcoves to either side, overlooking a barred gladiatorial pit in the floor. Each statue seemed meant to be holding a spear, but the weapons were missing. On the far side of the chamber, a stone pedestal stood conspicuously bare. A relief on the wall behind it showed a monstrous jaguar with six snakes protruding from its shoulders, fighting off a squat, frog-like humanoid armed with a spear (a grung). To the left of the relief a narrow tunnel with stairs led down. After releasing some poison gas attempting to tamper with some sort of hatch atop the stone pedestal (which rendered Orvex unconscious needing Veitar to revive him), the group descended the steps into the gladiatorial pit. No sooner had Eddie stepped onto the pit floor than a pressure plate released four clay warriors from the far side of the pit, storming into the room to assail the party! Aylbous immediately retreated upstairs, whilst Veitar stood back and Lana boldly engaged the foes. The clay gladiators were tough, and had multiple attacks. Eddie and Elhorn fought a fighting retreat as Aylbous conjured two tigers to fight the gladiators. Lana bore the brunt of a dozen or more attacks, being sent to ground not once, not twice but three times - only to be roused each time almost immediately by Veitar, using his Preserve Life and healing words. As we ended the session, only one of the clay gladiators had been felled. Lana was trapped in the middle of the pit surrounded by the other three, as Elhorn and Veitar beat hasty retreats to the upper level. Up above the pit grille, Aylbous controlled a flaming sphere, whilst Eddie stood ready to fire with his crossbow. But it seemed highly unlikely Lana would last out the next wave of attacks from the gladiators... SESSION 18: The session began with Lana invoking her gift of Invulnerability, bestowed by Saja N'baza, and plugging away at the gladiator she faced. She scored two critical hits in a row, but simply wasn't doing enough damage to overly trouble the clay construct. Eddie missed his sneak attack from above, but shouted advice down to those below - urging Elhorn to use his powers of invisibility on himself and Lana to allow them to get out of there. Elhorn duly complied, casting Invisibility at Level 3 with Distant Spell meta-magic as he turned and ran. The gladiators in the pit suddenly had no enemies in sight - but knowing others were fleeing and already above them, all three surged into the corridor - not fancying the flaming sphere that blocked their route directly up from the pit. The first one ran into the back of the invisible Elhorn, and hacked away with its spear, wounding him to near unconsciousness despite his invisibility. Meanwhile Veitar took up a position in the upper chamber to attack any gladiators that entered, and Eddie hit and readied a shot on the emerging gladiators also. There followed a good 30 seconds of cat and mouse, as Veitar was cut down only to immediately roll back to his feet (death save of 20) and proceeded to dodge and weave, keeping one of the gladiators at bay whilst Eddie hid in a niche alongside one of the spear-less statues. Lana and Elhorn fought on. Both were taken down and healed using Healing Word, although Lana soon went down again. Aylbous wildshaped into an ape and descended the rope back into the pit, giving one of the gladiators the runaround. After Eddie vacated the premises, leaving one gladiator with a critical sneak attack parting shot, Ape-Aylbous (now back up top) even finished said gladiator off with a hurled rock to the head. But the clay gladiator disappeared before their eyes and this time did not leave its spear behind! Eventually it all proved too much for the party, as a new gladiator emerged from the far corridor below into the pit. Aylbous the Ape was caught and forced to wildshape into a tiny spider to escape the building, as Eddie dragged Lana free and Elhorn, invisible once more, dragged Veitar out of the shrine to join Orvex and Eddie. The gladiators did not pursue, and left the pit floor to head back down their corridor. Eddie snuck back in and attached the dropped spear to the rope, ready to haul it up later if they so desired, before they decided to set up camp for at least a brief hour's rest outside the shrine, behind the cover of the courtyard walls. Sadly, things were about to get much worse for the badly damaged party, as five yuan-ti malisons in snake form sneaked into the perimeter of their camp and shapeshifted into view, calling out Suggestions for the party to drop their weapons and come with them! With precious little resources at their disposal, the group had little chance. Resisting the Suggestions, they put up a brave fight, but Lana and Veitar first went down on the right flank. Over on the left, Aylbous called lightning and Elhorn shot Scorching Rays, but it was no good. Aylbous and Eddie surrendered at the behest of the Yuan-Ti, and Elhorn followed suit, coming out of invisibility rather than abandon his allies. And so it was that the five party members and Orvex were captured by the Yuan-Ti, who implanted as many Suggestions as they could for the group not to resist, before binding them with vines and their own rope and leading them towards the ruined palace in the east of the city...[/SIZE] ******* So I am in a quandary with what to do next session - either they will become prisoners of the Yuan-Ti as per Chapter 4, or else Zagmira and her thugs will ambush the group and take down the Yuan-Ti before freeing them - giving them a chance to form the uneasy alliance also suggested by the book - along with the truth about the Soulmonger, the Tomb of the Nine Gods and the puzzle cubes. Any thoughts? I feel the group being taken prisoner is a TPK risk, as they will try to escape. But the ambush by Zagmira might feel like too much of a Get Out Of Jail Free card (which it kind of is!) with all the puzzle cube/tomb info given to the players on a plate. [/QUOTE]
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