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Tukka's Zeitgeist Campaign, Take Two
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<blockquote data-quote="Tukka" data-source="post: 6225170" data-attributes="member: 6668048"><p>A couple of things before the ziggurat.</p><p></p><p>Metagame-wise, the party knew from the start that Asaad is a Vekeshi Mystic, but didn't know anything about the various vekeshi plots he was involved with (although at some point I took him aside for a couple minutes to speak privately, so they were able to tell something was up). Their characters were ignorant of Asaad's vekeshi affiliation at first (it helped that Asaad's player kept forgetting to use his Vekeshi encounter power, heh).</p><p></p><p>Conveniently, the party decided to redistribute the Messenger Wind feathers, and Asaad ended up with one in his possession without having to even ask for it. In an email exchange between sessions, Asaad's player and I worked out his first contact and meeting with Gale. He wanted to meet her in a Seedist temple in Stray River (where one of his contacts is an abbot there), but the wary fey saboteur sent a songbird instead and lead him through a circuitous route out of the city. When Gale expressed reservations about serving as an assassin to the Unseen Court and asked for clarification, Asaad's player seemed unsure how to respond -- perhaps fearful of making a "wrong" choice. He did say that he trusts the Old Stag's judgment, and knows no more of the desires of the Unseen Court than Gale.</p><p></p><p>The next day, the audit was announced. This was greeted with general nervousness by the group -- especially Cyrus, who had just made a deal with Cippiano. Asaad (and his player) seemed blissfully unaware of the implications of the previous night's rendevous with one of Flint's most-wanted. I forgot to have the player make Perception checks against the audit constables, though, so I figured that Gale's paranoia was sufficient to shake any tail Asaad might have had, but was enough to pique some suspicion.</p><p></p><p>The audit would pay off, even though the party hadn't done anything *really* wrong and I didn't go super hard on them -- it was one of the elements of the adventure that I think scared them most, which is saying something.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, the party went down to Bole and then Agate, without doing too much of note in either town. They stocked up on some dungeon-delving gear but didn't think too heavily on the implications of the ziggurat being set in the deep wilderness of a place called the "High Bayou," and therefore didn't think to prepare too much for that environment specifically -- and were caught a little off guard by the giant spiderweb dams. However, the party turned out to be pretty well-equipped for the journey even without any special preparations, and performed well on the skill challenge to navigate the swamp -- they did well enough that I let them get there a bit early, without any complications beyond some lost healing surges.</p><p></p><p>A few party members were hit with Distant Madness when they approached the ziggurat, which increased the tension level nicely. The party decided to go left and solved the rainbow puzzle with a little difficult, though they had the advantage of having one character who can fly at will, and another who can teleport as an encounter power. Somehow I overlooked the button that deactivates all of the barriers and raises all the bridges, which complicated things a bit.</p><p></p><p>Clairette and Alain figured out how to use the map and noted the location of the Mavisha ziggurat. In the false seal room, Clairette used Psychic History on the indentation where the false seal was, and saw some stubby dwarven fingers heaving the seal out of place while a female tiefling looked on.</p><p></p><p>Then they found the actual seal room. Since the party was so cordially suspicious of Xambria upon first meeting her, I decided I'd give them another suspect for the being that the Voice of Rot would later charge them with driving off/destroying. Xambria described the team of specialists that Caius sent as consisting of "three tiefling spellcasters and some human guards." However, in the seal room, there were only two tiefling bodies. The last tiefling, I decided, fell through the portal to the pocket of Apet just before a Gidim warbeast killed him. The party did not dare to investigate beyond the portal, so they surmised that he might have gotten away.</p><p></p><p>Also, since Clairette's vision was of a dwarves accompanying a tiefling, they were able to work out that a second team had been at the temple since the first team that Caius sent, although I think that some of the members of the party forgot this later on, which lead them to believe that Finona had to be the first team's missing tiefling.</p><p></p><p>Cyrus decided to try to repair the wards and seal as best he could. The Big Trap was sprung while he was doing that and the bodies began to rise. They also heard the trickle of water, but weren't too concerned about it. "It will take a while to flood a dungeon this big." They became a lot more concerned when they realized the water was poisonous.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tukka, post: 6225170, member: 6668048"] A couple of things before the ziggurat. Metagame-wise, the party knew from the start that Asaad is a Vekeshi Mystic, but didn't know anything about the various vekeshi plots he was involved with (although at some point I took him aside for a couple minutes to speak privately, so they were able to tell something was up). Their characters were ignorant of Asaad's vekeshi affiliation at first (it helped that Asaad's player kept forgetting to use his Vekeshi encounter power, heh). Conveniently, the party decided to redistribute the Messenger Wind feathers, and Asaad ended up with one in his possession without having to even ask for it. In an email exchange between sessions, Asaad's player and I worked out his first contact and meeting with Gale. He wanted to meet her in a Seedist temple in Stray River (where one of his contacts is an abbot there), but the wary fey saboteur sent a songbird instead and lead him through a circuitous route out of the city. When Gale expressed reservations about serving as an assassin to the Unseen Court and asked for clarification, Asaad's player seemed unsure how to respond -- perhaps fearful of making a "wrong" choice. He did say that he trusts the Old Stag's judgment, and knows no more of the desires of the Unseen Court than Gale. The next day, the audit was announced. This was greeted with general nervousness by the group -- especially Cyrus, who had just made a deal with Cippiano. Asaad (and his player) seemed blissfully unaware of the implications of the previous night's rendevous with one of Flint's most-wanted. I forgot to have the player make Perception checks against the audit constables, though, so I figured that Gale's paranoia was sufficient to shake any tail Asaad might have had, but was enough to pique some suspicion. The audit would pay off, even though the party hadn't done anything *really* wrong and I didn't go super hard on them -- it was one of the elements of the adventure that I think scared them most, which is saying something. Anyway, the party went down to Bole and then Agate, without doing too much of note in either town. They stocked up on some dungeon-delving gear but didn't think too heavily on the implications of the ziggurat being set in the deep wilderness of a place called the "High Bayou," and therefore didn't think to prepare too much for that environment specifically -- and were caught a little off guard by the giant spiderweb dams. However, the party turned out to be pretty well-equipped for the journey even without any special preparations, and performed well on the skill challenge to navigate the swamp -- they did well enough that I let them get there a bit early, without any complications beyond some lost healing surges. A few party members were hit with Distant Madness when they approached the ziggurat, which increased the tension level nicely. The party decided to go left and solved the rainbow puzzle with a little difficult, though they had the advantage of having one character who can fly at will, and another who can teleport as an encounter power. Somehow I overlooked the button that deactivates all of the barriers and raises all the bridges, which complicated things a bit. Clairette and Alain figured out how to use the map and noted the location of the Mavisha ziggurat. In the false seal room, Clairette used Psychic History on the indentation where the false seal was, and saw some stubby dwarven fingers heaving the seal out of place while a female tiefling looked on. Then they found the actual seal room. Since the party was so cordially suspicious of Xambria upon first meeting her, I decided I'd give them another suspect for the being that the Voice of Rot would later charge them with driving off/destroying. Xambria described the team of specialists that Caius sent as consisting of "three tiefling spellcasters and some human guards." However, in the seal room, there were only two tiefling bodies. The last tiefling, I decided, fell through the portal to the pocket of Apet just before a Gidim warbeast killed him. The party did not dare to investigate beyond the portal, so they surmised that he might have gotten away. Also, since Clairette's vision was of a dwarves accompanying a tiefling, they were able to work out that a second team had been at the temple since the first team that Caius sent, although I think that some of the members of the party forgot this later on, which lead them to believe that Finona had to be the first team's missing tiefling. Cyrus decided to try to repair the wards and seal as best he could. The Big Trap was sprung while he was doing that and the bodies began to rise. They also heard the trickle of water, but weren't too concerned about it. "It will take a while to flood a dungeon this big." They became a lot more concerned when they realized the water was poisonous. [/QUOTE]
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