WotBS MrPereira's WOTBS D&D 3.5 Campaign (SPOILERS IN THE POSTS)

A short update:

Real life has been taking all my spare time lately, so that is the reason for lack of updates. I have not forgotten about this

We played one time since the last update, and finished chapter 5 and started chapter 6, ending with the party breaking open the main gates to Castle Korstull. They were very close to confronting Pilus, but in the end reason won out and they decided that they would not confront him as long as they needed his help. So I did not get to run Stream's encounter.

I will hopefully get around to making another post or two this year, but workload and not many days off in the coming Holidays will be the problem with that plan.

Mrpereira said:

They were very close to confronting Pilus, but in the end reason won out and they decided that they would not confront him as long as they needed his help. So I did not get to run Stream's encounter.

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Aww...
Now that we're both in the same boat, though, have you been wondering about....
[sblock]Finding some logical way to have the alliance with Pilus come back to bite them in the ass?
I mean, I was just re-reading the campaign's Foreword the other day, and as it states:

From the beginning, though, I decided War of the Burning Sky would eschew cosmic conflicts and classic good-evil dichotomies in favor of a more postmodern perspective, where enemies all have reasons for their actions. Sure, you can play the adventures such that the Ragesians are evil and can be killed without remorse because some of them consort with devils, but I tried to make sure we gave the heroes plenty of opportunities to turn the tide by allying with potential enemies, and more than a few opportunities to damn themselves by taking the easy way out of a difficult situation.

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Choosing to ally with Pilus in spite of mounting evidence he's pretty vile because it's immediately convenient seems like the very definition of taking the easy way out. And yet, as written, there's no karmic backlash for allying with him. I've been trying to figure out what sort of repercussion would be sensible and "fair" ever since. Right now, I have some vague idea about him attacking a would-be ally and tarnishing the party's name along with his own and turning the potential ally into another foe. Not sure of the particulars or the best victim for Pilus's aggression yet, though. Doesn't have to be a large force/group, it'd make more sense in fact if it was a small group. And would be easier to portray as cruel.[/sblock]

I am not sure either, to be honest. They do not trust him at all, and they really want to take him on, but decided against it as long as they had a common interest.

[sblock]One of the players commented: "I don't want to go in there and get the torch just to have him beating us when we get out." Another player replied: If he can beat us with the big artifact, he sure as hell can beat us now without it." And that really settled the argument.

Based on that I have limited options regarding trust, as they have none for him. The first thing they did was to identify and doublecheck the earring he gave them, to make sure that it did not open the wearer to mental control.

What I have considered is to have him promise his support at some point, and then just not show up, leaving them in dire straits. Just how to pull it off, I don't know yet. I do like the idea of him hurting the player's alliances by making a move "for the greater good, of course" - maybe he could hurt the Shahalesti, under the pretense of acting in the name of the Seaquen alliance, which would mean that the potential Allies would be very distrustful and not be willing to side with them - at least not for a while. [/sblock]

I don't know ... but I am thinking.

Finally got around to writing the next part...

The party
Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 9
Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 5 / Incantatrix 4
Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 5

NPC
Deena Rogue llv.5 / Fighter lvl. 4

April 17
Lord Gallo introduced the players to one of his operatives, who at the moment had some spare time, and would love to join the fight against the Ragesians. Her name was Deena the Hyena, she was not known for fighting fair but she got the job done.

DM note: I decided that she should be a Ragesian spy, but at that time I was unsure is she was going to be Leeskas creature, or loyal to the opposing Ragesian faction. It would be an easy way for me to remove her, if it turned out that they did not need her. After chapter 6 she will be gone, they are strong enough as it is.

After a short interview they decide to take her on, and start the journey back to Seaquen

April 22
The Journey is uneventful and they arrive in Seaquen. They notice that the town has been hit by fires again, this time at the prison, but they didn’t pay any attention to it.

DM note: They thought it was just another fire among those that plagued the town last time they were there, even though they did take care of the rats at that time.

Upon arriving they are summoned to Lyceum for a meeting with the leaders of the rebellion. Here they are informed of the latest news of the war. Present at the meeting are of course Katrina and Haddin.

Katrina informs them that they have been investigating the attack on Seaquen, and one of the leads led to the Monastery of the two Winds. They sent a group to investigate, but they have stopped reporting

DM Note: Upon describing them, the players realize that they met them outside the headmaster’s office last time they were here.

The last message they sent was a very strange one, and combined with the sudden silence, the leaders have decided to send another party to investigate; the players.

Here she turns to Three-weeping-Ravens and asks him to be a guide for the players as he knows the way there.

DM Note: Three-Weeping-Ravens (Just denoted Ravens from this point) was known to the players as the Spokesmonk, as he was the only monk speaking to them when they wandered about Seaquen. Since the monks hail from Ycengled Phuurst, I had to make sure that the information was ready at hand about the area. Galion is a Taranesti, so he had a lot of information in his backstory, that he might have thought was pure flavor information, but he will find out later that it has a lot of value. But since Shaith has a lot of knowledge skills and the backstory of Three-weeping-ravens would probably be a part of the travel, I had prepared some knowledge tables to inform the other players of what they knew. Things they won’t need yet, but would add a lot of flavor to the travelling.


Katrina informs them that she has made a deal with the guildmistress of the wayfarers to teleport the party to Yen-Ching, the closest place she knows intimately. From there it is about 110 miles through the mountains.

DM Note: To make sure that the players were not killed for being red dragons or felt too powerful to be apprehended, I had Kiernan invent a mass polymorph with duration of rounds. It will expire just as they arrive, but seconds after the damage hits.

They are to meet at midnight the following day to teleport.

April 23
At midnight the party meets with the leaders again somewhere outside town, and prepare to teleport. They had to be far enough away from the teleportation pillar not to be caught. Kiernan then transform them and then they are away.

Something is clearly wrong; however, as the teleportation seems to be stretching out in time.Finally they arrive at a pillar looking just like the one in Seaquen. They are surrounded by armed soldiers and are forced to surrender their arms after a short discussion with a very adamant woman.

DM Note: Somewhere along the way I decided that Ostalin would have a strong flavor of North Korea in their attitude and their views. This meant they had a very no-nonsense attitude to strangers and a complete and utter faith in their leader and his perfection.

The Khagan is a very charming and pleasant man, and the meeting puts the players at easy. They are a bit annoyed at not being allowed to leave for 1½ days, but that would be an insult to honored guests if they were not shown the Khagans magnificient hospitality.

While they protest to begin with, they end up enjoying the hospitality with the free use of the harem as one of the benefits.

DM note: I had the girls and men at the harem impart some rumors about the khagan and did my best to make sure that they did not really see Ostalin as a threat. I think it worked.

April 27
After a two days as guests and a two days travelling they finally arrive at the foot of the mountains. They spend the night in a barn in a tiny hamlet and prepare to climb the next morning.

April 29
The first day of climbing goes without incidents and they spend the night being both cold and tired.

DM note: As with the towers I had them play out the first lift/slope to establish a method for their movements, so when the enemy strikes it will be on a common understanding of where the players are and what they are doing.

On the second day, as they arrive at the final lift, they notice that the stairs are all turned to rubble. Ravens inform them that it was like this when he was here last time, which put the players at easy. A few moments later the ease is dispelled, as they are attacked by Ragesians.Even if they are surprised, the players win an easy victory.

Some hours later they arrive at the valey where Eresh lies. To their surprise they see a division of the Ragesian army camped outside the town. The way the soldiers are deployed it looks like a siege but there are no defenders or siege engines in sight. Nor can they see any real activity among the Ragesians. They are quite sure that the lookout has spotted them, as they round the last corner, but no cry goes out, and no one seems to be reacting.

They debate for a while how to go about the situation, before finally coming to the conclusion that they have no other option than to go through the siege. As they come near to the soldiers they are dispassionately asked to go away but no one seems to really care and no one try to stop them.

Quite bewildered they enter Eresh and realize that the citizens don’t really give a damn either. In the town they see both soldiers and citizens walking around ignoring each other.

DM Note: My hope of creating an eerie mood and getting under the skin of the players worked marvelously. They wanted nothing more than to get away from the town, and I wouldn’t let them 

Ravens lead them to an inn, The Peak Shadow, at the foot of the peak in the center of town. The inn is halfway filled with both soldiers and citizens, who seem to be just sitting and drinking, not really talking nor caring. The Innkeeper is also rather uncaring, but slightly less than others. He tells them that there are some free rooms, as the last travelers have not returned or paid their bill. He tells the players that the group was a bit like themselves. They arrived full of questions and were headed towards the monastery. They have been gone for a while now.

Ravens tell the players that while he is here he wants to honor the balance of the world through the elements and will go and pray at the four shrines. The players decide to join him

DM Note: Sometimes I am nice; giving away the little secret of the bonus spells like that.

As they make their rounds in the town it starts snowing a lot, and the winds start blowing with more force. Even if the party really wanted to leave Eresh, it would not be safe walking up the mountains in a blizzard, so they had to stay the night…

April 30
The next morning the winds still blow hard. Galion makes an educated guess that the storm will be done around midday. At some point during breakfast he realises that he and Ravens are the only two seeming to be unaffected by the town. Both Shaith and Killian act strangely indifferent to everything.

DM note: Quite fun actually that the two players with the high will scores failed, while the ranger made his saving throw.

When the storm passes, they head out towards the monastery. On the way out of town they are waved over to a little house by a woman. As they enter she speaks to them from inside, and suddenly a male voice outside finishes the sentence. They are given a warning by a creature they believe is a trillith.

DM Note: At this point they are pretty sure that the town is cursed, and that the trillith is behind it. They are a bit surprised by the fact that it did not try to kill them.

Galion leads them out of town and up the path.

DM note: I decided that the monastery would be a bit further away than in the adventure, so it will take about 2 hours getting there.

Some way outside town the affected players snap out of their trance by reacting extremely emotional.

DM note: I had decided that short exposure would result in some emotional reaction, while longer term exposure would cause effects like being affected by different spells. In this case I had the players roll randomly on a little table I had made. Deena rolled being fearful of everything. Shaith rolled being depressed and Killian rolled being angry. It gave quite a fun scene with Galion standing in the middle of this chaotic scene on a snowy mountainside.

About 2/3 of the way they are attacked by some air elementals that really put some respect in the players. They could have killed at least one or two of the players if they really wanted, but they had orders to retreat when wounded past a certain point, and they did.

Upon arriving at the front door, they are turned away rather impolite. After a few moments of talking they are informed that no one is allowed to enter as long as Eresh is in the current state. The monk (Caela) also tells them that the monastery is not behind whatever is happening, and that is why no one is allowed to enter.

The party move someway off from the front door and discuss the situation. They decide that they need to confront Balance and have it remove its curse. And if that does not work, they will kill Balance. They go back to Eresh and search for Balance without luck. They then decide that they will have to provoke balance to show, by pushing its curse to the limits.

DM Note: And thus the prophecy that Balance made came to happen – their actions would tip the scales.

They have a long discussion whether killing the Ragesians would be murder as they were not reacting to anything or acts of war as they were soldiers and part of the enemy army. In the end they decided to take all the weapons they could to make the army useless, and to force the Lieutenant to make the army leave. Of course that did not work as he did not care about anything, but told them that orders were given to stay. In the end Deena killed him just because she could.

DM note: She did not want the orders given to leave after all, did she now ?

Since the violent approach did not work, Deena convince Killian to give passion a go, and they end up sleeping together, which did not help either. With a bad feeling in their guts they go to sleep once more in the eerie town of Eresh.

May 1
The next morning no one in the party is affected by the curse

DM Note: Balance is weakened, but they do not know this yet.

Outside the inn they witness a scene that makes them wonder what has happened. First they hear sounds of violence and when they run out to see what is happening. In the middle of the street a group of five Ragesians caught up in extreme emotions and seemingly had decided to rape an old man. The party would not stand for this and killed them.

After the fight they are contacted by a monk who leads them to the hospital where Balance is lying. It tells them that it is about to die and it tells them a bit more about the Trillith. The party is surprised to learn that Balance has been in Eresh for many years. It also tells them that it might have been misguided in trying to stop the fighting by keeping all emotions suppressed.

The party decides that they cannot do more here and plan on heading to the valley. At that moment they hear the trumpets of the Ragesian army. The general is back, and his arrival is the final straw that pushes Balance over the edge and it dies.

The party runs out trying to rally the citizens to defend the town, and after rounding up some help they head out towards the army. They fight through several waves and finally meet the general. In a short but epic fight Killian dispatches the general. Just as they believe that the battle is won, a couple of air elementals swoop in and kidnap Deena. They try to prevent them getting away, but their attempts fail.

Winds start blowing hard and soon a blizzard has Eresh covered forcing the players to spend the night before heading towards the valley to free Deena and find what is hidden there

DM Note: I gave them too much help from the townspeople. I had not noticed that the eastern monks had scrolls of lightning bolt that decimated the Ragesians too much and too fast. It meant that the battle with the enhanced General ended up being quite anticlimactic. At least he got in a good round on Killian, who only remained upright due to the Diehard feat, before he was slain.

End of session.

I finally got around to making the next update

The party
Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 9 / Arcane archer 1 (I allowed him the feat Sword of the arcane order to qualify for Arcane archer)
Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 5 / Incantatrix 5
Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 5/Divine Champion 1

NPC
Deena – Rogue lvl.5 / Fighter lvl. 5
Three-Weeping Ravens – Monk4/Psychic warrior 6

May 2
The storm blew hard that night and the players had nothing better to do than rest and rememorize (and level up). In the morning the wind stopped and they got out of bed eager to go find Deena and to find out what was going on in the forbidden valley.
They spent a little time boosting themselves severely for the coming trials and then headed out.

DM Note: So far they hadn’t really used their persist spell abilities too much, but they started here for this trip, feeling they would need it… and if I hadn’t made yet another mistake later on, they surely would have died. It is one of those mistakes I am glad I made, but more of this later.

Leaving town they can feel the eyes of a lot of the townspeople following them. No one stops them, they are heroes after all, but they also feel the blame and the unspoken criticism of heading towards the forbidden valley.

They travel for several hours and finally arrive at the edge of the valley. Feeling confident, they head down into the valley, and are taken by surprise by 8 monks who seemingly come out of nowhere. The monks don’t even attempt at any form of communication, the valley is forbidden area, and they attack.

DM Note: In the last encounter I gave them too many townspeople, including monks, and they used them very well. This time I got them back by using their own tactics against them, blasting them thoroughly with the lightning bolts. Their confidence and self-assurance from being boosted took a quite a hit with the first skirmish.

The monks did quite a lot of damage to the party, and while they beat them in relatively short time, they could feel the pain. The last monk spent his last breath calling out for vengeance from above. His call is answered by a strangely mutated or fused creature, part dragon, and part manticore. In the end they defeat it and though they are battered they are alive and feel heartened by the fact that they stood against the assaults.

Further on they run into a group of ettins, who also seem to be some sort of biomancy creatures. This fight is not a big threat and the party prevails easily enough.

Finally after a long day of marching they arrive at what looks like the destination for their journey. In a clearing they spot a tall tower. There is a door at floor level, and they spot a balcony some 60 feet up in the air. Killian and Ravens walk up to the door to knock on it. Meanwhile Galion and Shaith stay back keeping an eye on the surroundings and the balcony.

Suddenly Killian and Ravens disappear is teleporting away, which make Galion and Shaith wary, and they move to investigate. Shaith soon see through the illusion of the hole and the trouble that Ravens and Killian have gotten into. Gallion however simply refuses to believe him and only manage to pierce the illusion at the end of the fight.

DM Note: I was thinking of how to best portray the disappearance of two players who dropped into a hole while being caught in an illusion. Teleporting them away seemed like a logical way to explain it to the players, while secretly telling Killian what really happened.

Meanwhile Ravens and Killian plummeted to the bottom of the hole as two ripe apples dropping from the tree, landing just as gracefully on the spears at the bottom. Here they faced the remnants of the missing party from Seaquen. Ravens had a shining moment of glory dispatching enemies with a vengeance. After the fight they find a set of double doors into the side of one of the walls, and they move to investigate.

They enter to laboratory and are a little taken back at the sheer size of it and the amounts and sizes of the biomancy vats. They haven’t moved very far into the room before they are targeted by the first spell. Killian is targeted by a dispel magic, but luckily for him he has his trusty ring of counterspells for just such an occasion. The enemy spellcaster is nowhere to be seen.

DM Note: This is whare I added Paradigm Dogwood to the mix. When they realized who he was a lot of pieces of the puzzle fell into place for the players. The biomancy happenings in Seaquen combined with the winds, and the nagging feeling that the Ragesians may not have been alone all made sense in that instance, with me having to explain it. It was actually one of those instances where a minor adjustment to the adventure made it all seem like a clear part of the written plot in the campaign. I can only recommend it as an adjustment if he is alive at this point, at least based on my experience.

The party immediately goes into battle mode, and when the invisible caster fires a ray at the party they use the point of origin to help pinpoint where he is. Killian and Raven run straight for the invisible man and try to locate him with their senses

DM Note: When fourth edition came out there was a passage from one of the documents “I grapple the Troll” that they used to explain that some of the mechanics in 3.5 where pretty annoying and that they had changed it. The saying stayed with our group as we continued with 3.5, but recognized the truth of the statement. In this instance one of the players said those exact words, as Killian tried to grapple the invisible caster to take him out of contention. He was a bit surprised by missing a somewhat easy grapple. A few moments later he understood why, Paradigm was polymorhed into a troll, so he had litteraly tried to grapple a troll 

Shaith cast Glitterdust on the spellcaster revealing a troll, which had the same disfigurements as the biomancer from Seaquen, whom they last saw as he was being arrested. Out of the thin air, litteraly, an air-minotaur suddenly appears and charges into the fray, smashing everything on his way and charging through several players in one attack.

Shaith hit the minotaur with a massive ray of enfeeblement taking much of the threat out of him. Meanwhile they kill of Paradigm and the minotaur seems all but defeated. Instead of fighting to his death in a losing batlle the minotaur takes to the air flying towards the study, where he makes sure to land on the carpet just inside the door.

DM Note: I had made an adjustment to the adventure, and one that might have been a bit too tough. I had the carpet function as a major resettable trap, which released a target Greater Dispel Magic on anyone touching it, unless they spoke the words “Master Pilus will set the world free”. I had made it to counter the massively boosted heroes, however Caela turned out to be too big a handful in my optimized version, so I regretted actually having made the trap.

The minotaur, of course, knew of the trap and ran over the carpet to get rid of the effects of the ray of enfeeblement and the other spells affecting it.

Killian and Raven rush along after the minotaur following him through the doorway, and got hit by the dispel magic trap, that removed most of the boosting spells they both had on them. What made matters worse was that they also spot Caela in the air above them, moving down to enter the fray. They take out the minotaur, while Caela takes out Ravens and Killian. The fight looks desperate for the players. Their ressources are almost used up, and Caela is very competent at avoiding their attacks. Her AC is high and she can deflect some of Galions arrows. Shaith manage to catch her in black tentacle spell, which grapples her, stopping her from being able to deflect the arrows and take away the bonus to her AC from dexterity.

DM Note: And I completely forgot about her cape of the mountebank… so stupid, but as noted earlier it was for the better, as she would have killed the party otherwise. This way they got a major beating, but came through victorious just at the end. I decided that she must have already had used the cape that day, and allowed the players to get it as treasure.

With her mobility gone and caught in the tentacles Gallion managed to kill her, almost execution style by firing arrow after arrow into her until she died. During the fight her speech and the code word for the carpet give the players the information that Pilus is her master and the man behind the plan.

As Caela draws her final breath, the laboratory start to crumble and fall to pieces around them. They find Deena in one of the vats, still alive, but barely. With great regret they leave the place without further investigation. Just as they exit the building, they look up and see a very strange sight in the sky. Some kind of big flying thing with a giant eye looks down on them, but the view is obscured by clouds shortly after. They leave the canyon unscathed and get ready to make camp for the night.

May 3
The return trip is uneventful and they return to Eresh without incidents. The citizens generally avoid the players, knowing full well where they went. In the inn they are met by a monk who has been waiting for them. He brings an invitation to the monastery on behalf of Longinus, brother to Pilus. The party accepts and also accepts the monk as their guide for the trip the following morning

May 4
The monk guides them up the mountainside to de monastery. When the aerial guardians appear he speaks the command word and they fly away. At the monastery they are greeted by the two brothers, one charming and openly, the other silent with his face hidden behind the mask

DM Note: It took a litte while for the players to realize that Longinus was the one with the mask.

They talk to the brothers about the situation in the world, and the brothers both agree that they are against Ragesia and thus on the side of Seaquen. None of the players however can really put aside the images of the ghastly laboratory, the biomancy vats, and the implications to the attack on Seaquen

They don’t mention this during the meeting with the brothers, as they decided that they needed the help to get into castle Korstull, and they would not want to ruin their chances of getting their help.

DM Note: It was so sweet seeing them hate themselves for smiling and being friendly with someone they see as a kind of monster, and potentially and enemy of Seaquen – one or both of the brothers did orchestrate the attack on Seaquen after all.

The brothers agree to creating an item the will allow the players to gain entrance into castle Korstull by holding the firestorm at bay. It will take some time to create the item, and they will let the players know when it is done.

DM Note: I decided that it would take 3-4 weeks, so the timeline would fit with chapter 6 beginning on the first day of the sixth month. The time in between was just fast forwarded as the players took a well-deserved break. Living in Eresh with the peace-loving monks, did feel like a bit of punishment, especially Killian, the warpriest.

May 31
The players received a summons from the brothers that they item was done. They are invited to join the brothers the following day, and they accept.

June 1
The players travel up to the monastery again. On the way they discuss intensively whether or not they should confront Pilus with their evidence. Gallion wants to confront him now, saying he does not feel save leaving a potential enemy behind, especially if it means he can teleport in and take the torch from them when they got it from Castle Korstull. Shaith dryly replied that if he could take the torch from them when they had the most powerful artifact in the world in their possession, what would make him think that they could win a fight against him right now? That argument closed the discussion, even though they were not too happy about it.

The meeting went like the previous one, with a lot of fake smiles, and small talk. They party got an orb from the brothers, which should be able to hold the firestorm at bay. The duration would be at least 50 hours and at most 150 hours, depending on the strength of the magic in the storm.

DM Note: It was a sudden idea to give them the feeling of a time constraint. It will have no impact on the game, other than make them feel under additional pressure and adding to the suspense.

Gallion also got an earring from Pilus so he could contact them. They thanked the brothers and went on their way. The first thing they did upon arriving in Eresh was examining the hell out of the earring to make sure it did not give access to any kind of mental domination. Satisfied that it only gave bonus to some scrying and communication, they decided that Gallion should wear it. They got ready for their trip, but once again got upheld by the bad weather. They were looking forward to leaving Eresh.

End of Chapter

End of chapter musings: This chapter generally went very well. I managed to create quite the eerie atmosphere in Eresh and the players hated having to stay there. They feared what would happen when they woke up the next morning. That gave the entire chapter a lot of life and feeling.

The encounter structure is a bit off, as the players basically have to fight a major fight, then immediately rush off in pursuit of another fight, having spent a lot of resources and actually level up in the meantime. The solution of forcing them to spend a night is a decent compromise, but takes the top of the urgent feeling, unfortunately.

The two big fights as written were not very well balanced, and my attempts at rebalancing them weren’t too successful. The fight with the general was a big disappointment; I thought I had made him a viable threat. He was not. The fight with Caela was closer to a full party wipe than a fun fight; she was too strong in my version. Having Pardigm Dogwood present, however, was a hit. Sure it made the fight tougher, but it fit so well into the story that it actually made the players make connections that they had not made before.

Overall this is not the strongest chapter based on the challenges as written, but the setup can make for quite a good atmosphere and setting and overall I think the players really enjoyed it, especially the big dilemma regarding Pilus. Just too bad they chickened out; I would have loved to see their faces when they realized that pushing Pilus around was a very bad idea.

Sorry I haven't replied to this in months, I've been so busy...

Mrpereira said:

DM Note: To make sure that the players were not killed for being red dragons or felt too powerful to be apprehended, I had Kiernan invent a mass polymorph with duration of rounds. It will expire just as they arrive, but seconds after the damage hits.

Click to expand...

I still wasn't sure on the polymorph gaining subtypes and qualities, so I didn't even use that idea. Honestly, if you stack protection from energy with resist energy 30, the fire has pretty much no chance of killing anyone (and anyone who has Indom's Boon can't die from it anyway!), so the precautions are a bit overblown, IMO. I actually really hate the mechanics of the burning sky, they work the opposite of the fluff. Single super long 'ports quickly hit the damage cap, while multiple “short” (~100 miles per) 'ports (what you'd expect is safer) will freaking kill you dead. But, I digress...

Mrpereira said:

DM Note: Somewhere along the way I decided that Ostalin would have a strong flavor of North Korea in their attitude and their views. This meant they had a very no-nonsense attitude to strangers and a complete and utter faith in their leader and his perfection.

Click to expand...

Interesting. I viewed them like the Mongols or other light cavalry-focused steppe warriors. But for the Khagan I was searching through South Korean plastic surgery pics (supposedly it's even bigger there than in the U.S.) to try to find a suitably artificially beautiful man to use for his token...ended up finding a good fantasy pic, though.

Mrpereira said:

Even if they are surprised, the players win an easy victory.

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Heh. I found some Ragesian archers in the enemy list, rebuilt them w/ favored enemy human, and included some in this force. It was the exact opposite for my party; Torrent actually died and got reincarnated as a gnome... Only party death since Chapter 1. I didn't intend it to be *deadly*, but I did want to use the chapter to establish the Ragesian army as the dangerous threat they're billed as. (And to make them a bit more hesitant to attack the upcoming Ragesian camp...my party really hates them)

Mrpereira said:

DM Note: My hope of creating an eerie mood and getting under the skin of the players worked marvelously. They wanted nothing more than to get away from the town, and I wouldn’t let them 

Click to expand...

For me, the thing that seemed to weird them out the most was a random comment about some Ragesian soldiers playing volleyball. For some reason, that stuck w/ the party as especially surreal. Also, this music helped me set the mood well, it's just...perfect for Eresh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsj5xjoLXtE

Mrpereira said:

DM Note: Sometimes I am nice; giving away the little secret of the bonus spells like that.

Click to expand...

I limited them to benefiting from only one shrine at a time. I'm less nice.
Quick note on Thash...the bartender guy. There's no way mechanically he should have resisted for so long. He actually spurred me to adjust the DC for “the calm”based on factors such as the last time the character got angry or was in a fight, and how far his alignment was from neutral. That plus some will save boosting helped rig things to make it believable. I care about this stuff!

Mrpereira said:

DM note: I decided that the monastery would be a bit further away than in the adventure, so it will take about 2 hours getting there.
…................................................................................
DM note: I had decided that short exposure would result in some emotional reaction, while longer term exposure would cause effects like being affected by different spells. In this case I had the players roll randomly on a little table I had made. Deena rolled being fearful of everything. Shaith rolled being depressed and Killian rolled being angry. It gave quite a fun scene with Galion standing in the middle of this chaotic scene on a snowy mountainside.

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Similarly, I made it an hour-long trip. The plot makes more sense w/ it a significant distance away.
And yeah, I made a list of various emotional effects and used those for when the calm wore off, with a duration for the random emotion based on how long the character was calmed (thus why later on the town's in chaos for hours). In any case, the best emotion by far was “unnatural lust,” lol.

Mrpereira said:

DM Note: And thus the prophecy that Balance made came to happen – their actions would tip the scales.

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NICE! I also had the players be (unwittingly) responsible for tipping the scales, but in my case I had reinforcements arrive from Duke Gallo that assaulted the Ragesians and drove them off. But you got them to kill Balance by their own volition! That's some A+ guilt tripping for later!
As for taking weapons...I made sure the Ragesians still had their weapons on their side and made clear trying to take them would be an aggressive action, and possibly break the calming, because I knew they'd want to do that, and it seemed silly if they could.

Mrpereira said:

DM Note: I gave them too much help from the townspeople. I had not noticed that the eastern monks had scrolls of lightning bolt that decimated the Ragesians too much and too fast. It meant that the battle with the enhanced General ended up being quite anticlimactic. At least he got in a good round on Killian, who only remained upright due to the Diehard feat, before he was slain.

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Huh. I found the monks horribly underpowered and buffed them like crazy, but got rid of those scrolls. But for the fights against Ragesia they only had a west wind monk helping them. It would be later on that they'd taste the pain of an Energy Substitution (Electricity) Combust spell from the East Wind monks, CL buffed with Practiced Spellcaster...
I used a team of Invisible Stalkers w/ some rogue levels and the Air Elementals (who showed up mid-fight to help the party, only to turn on them once the general was defeated). The stalkers brought the surprise pounding; but needed the elementals to actually carry off Torrent (in my case...she had a rough chapter 5....) at a fast enough speed that they couldn't easily be chased down.

Mrpereira said:

Finally after a long day of marching they arrive at what looks like the destination for their journey. In a clearing they spot a tall tower.

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So, when my party reached it, they were suspicious. One player had put a level in Sorcerer w/ the previous day's level up and got a cute little rat familiar. At first, the player was thinking of having the rat go climb up to the door on the balcony, and I kept thinking to myself, “oh god, please don't make me kill off your little pet right after you got it!” I would've felt so awful... Thankfully the centaur fighter ended up going up first and plummeting instead. Just thought I'd share...

Mrpereira said:

DM Note: This is whare I added Paradigm Dogwood to the mix. When they realized who he was a lot of pieces of the puzzle fell into place for the players. The biomancy happenings in Seaquen combined with the winds, and the nagging feeling that the Ragesians may not have been alone all made sense in that instance, with me having to explain it. It was actually one of those instances where a minor adjustment to the adventure made it all seem like a clear part of the written plot in the campaign. I can only recommend it as an adjustment if he is alive at this point, at least based on my experience.

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Glad it worked out for you! I'm glad I made him a part of the chapter to tie the plot together, too. In my game, I had him just normal invisible w/ a major image to greet the party (and waste some of their fire). He bitterly recalled having to flee his own shop after being attacked and how “he's not alone now” (cue Aurus), and used his time invisible to buff up some more and polymorph into a big, bad, brute, shouting “who's laughing now?!” and such. I also had him mention jealousy towards Torrent and how after they ruined his business he first went to Lee and wanted them dead, but Lee was “soft” and “still fond of Torrent” so he declined and thus Paradim had to leave town. Hence also tying in why she got kidnapped and how he knew they were coming. Very fun fight, and he actually got to Wayfayer's Step to the ceiling and escape, the party too banged up to risk chasing after him. So he shall return for a 3rd battle in the future!
(In my game, he started off Polymorphed as an Annis Hag, then when that was dispelled he used Troll Shape...so he was a troll in my game, too)

Mrpereira said:

Instead of fighting to his death in a losing batlle the minotaur takes to the air flying towards the study, where he makes sure to land on the carpet just inside the door.

DM Note: I had made an adjustment to the adventure, and one that might have been a bit too tough. I had the carpet function as a major resettable trap, which released a target Greater Dispel Magic on anyone touching it, unless they spoke the words “Master Pilus will set the world free”. I had made it to counter the massively boosted heroes, however Caela turned out to be too big a handful in my optimized version, so I regretted actually having made the trap.

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I also modified the trap to be a swift action remote trigger and not just to trigger upon pressure on it. I did that mainly because I had Torrent's equipment in that area (I figured I needed some reason to get the players to venture in there; Torrent herself was in a vat slowly being transformed) and wanted to give them a chance to equip her and heal her up before the boss fight. I already made the Aurus fight much harder w/ Paradim there, I decided there was no way I wanted to have the two fights blend together, that'd be a TPK.
Ironically you underestimated Caela.... I buffed her significantly and underestimated her...she was meant to be more defensive than offensive so never endangering a PC was fine...but she still lost in only 5 rounds to boot. I did remember the cape, but a PC actually thwarted her attempt to teleport. I can't recall how exactly at the moment, though... Some sort of readied action...

Mrpereira said:

DM Note: It was so sweet seeing them hate themselves for smiling and being friendly with someone they see as a kind of monster, and potentially and enemy of Seaquen – one or both of the brothers did orchestrate the attack on Seaquen after all.

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Aww...so you didn't get to use my idea, either.

Mrpereira said:

DM Note: I decided that it would take 3-4 weeks, so the timeline would fit with chapter 6 beginning on the first day of the sixth month.

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I hand wave the time line with travel times and crafting their gear when in Seaquen, generally. I actually noted that the orb was already nearly finished and the brothers had been debating who it should be given to, as a way to let them know they didn't *need* Pilus if they really didn't want to ally with him. If you don't make that relatively clear, they'll think they have no choice at all. Still, my party put aside their qualms and made the alliance, too.

Mrpereira said:

DM Note: It was a sudden idea to give them the feeling of a time constraint. It will have no impact on the game, other than make them feel under additional pressure and adding to the suspense.

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Actually, at the start of Chapter 6, Longinus is supposed to inform the party it will last anywhere from a few days to a week, at most. So...good call.
On the note of chapter 6, and Longinus's cryptic divination...if your party is even remotely “with it,” I'd advise changing one of the words in it. I'm sure you know the one I mean. It's just too obvious... For my game, I changed it to:
[sblock]”blinded”
Which is technically a synonym and a rather fitting reference to a boss from Zelda: A Link to the Past and how he's eventually encountered[/sblock]

Mrpereira said:

The encounter structure is a bit off, as the players basically have to fight a major fight, then immediately rush off in pursuit of another fight, having spent a lot of resources and actually level up in the meantime. The solution of forcing them to spend a night is a decent compromise, but takes the top of the urgent feeling, unfortunately.

The two big fights as written were not very well balanced, and my attempts at rebalancing them weren’t too successful. The fight with the general was a big disappointment; I thought I had made him a viable threat. He was not. The fight with Caela was closer to a full party wipe than a fun fight; she was too strong in my version. Having Pardigm Dogwood present, however, was a hit. Sure it made the fight tougher, but it fit so well into the story that it actually made the players make connections that they had not made before.

Overall this is not the strongest chapter based on the challenges as written, but the setup can make for quite a good atmosphere and setting and overall I think the players really enjoyed it, especially the big dilemma regarding Pilus. Just too bad they chickened out; I would have loved to see their faces when they realized that pushing Pilus around was a very bad idea.[/I]

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Yeah, not just the encounter structure. The entire timeline of events in the chapter is very shaky, and I did my best to rail road stuff happening in quick succession to avoid giving the players enough time to stop and think about it that much. It worked and they enjoyed the chapter, but it could have easily gone wrong.
And I actually had them level up mid-day just before the battle against Ragesia, just so the entirety of their time as level 10 characters wasn't spent on a single day adventuring in the Valley of Storms (and maybe confronting Pilus).
Again, glad Paradim was a hit and sad they didn't poke the bear.

The party

Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 9 / Arcane archer 2 (I allowed him the feat Sword of the arcane order to qualify for Arcane archer)
Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 5 / Incantatrix 6
Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 5/Divine Crusader 2 (variant)

NPC
Deena – Rogue lvl.6 / Fighter lvl. 5

June 1 continued
After ending the meeting, the players travel down to Eresh again with the orb in their possession. The winds are once again blowing up leading to another day of frustrating delay for the players. Especially Killian is feeling the need to get away from the extreme calm and serenity of the monks.

June 2-4
Around midday the winds calm enough for the players to risk their journey down from the mountains. The trip is uneventful and takes a few days.

June 4
The party reaches the foot of the mountains in the late afternoon and after another hour of travel they reach a village, where they spend the night. They spend the evening talking a little with the townspeople trying to get an idea of the lay of the land and how the population is feeling in general.
They conclude that while most people have no love for the Ragesians they also have little fighting spirit in terms of taking up arms in rebellion. Those who did have the spirit left long ago for a distant Sea town where the resistance is gathering.

DM note: I wanted to let them get a feel for the Sindarese people and their plight. I portrayed them more as an occupied country that as a vassal state, as that is how I interpreted the story.

June 5-9
The next morning the party sets out towards Castle Korstull, a journey that will take several days. For the most part their trek takes them through the countryside as they decided to avoid most settlements and running into the Ragesian army. As they travel closer to Castle Korstull they find the signs of a lot of people having travelled away from the area. Settlements and farms are generally abandoned as they get closer to the edge of the firestorm, which is something they have been able to see in the horizon for several days.

June 9
As they were not willing to travel blindly through the night, they camped a few miles away from the edge of the firestorm, planning on using a full days march through it to reach the castle, so as not to waste too much of the precious duration of the orb.

However, as they start to travel towards the edge of the firestorm, they see and hear signs of trouble in a nearby settlement, which obviously hasn’t been abandoned.
They spot a group of Ragesian knights having a “conversation” with a farmer. Even from a distance of roughly 400 feet Galion manages to understand what they are saying

DM Note: My players tend to maximize a few of their skills, leaving most at the bare nothing. Those skills that are maximized are at a ridiculously high level, meaning that they can accomplish some pretty impressive DCs. Shaith, the Incantatrix, has a spellcraft check around +36 for instance. In this case it was Galion, who “only” has a +20 on his check, but rolled a 20.

The conversation turned out to be about the Ragesian knights telling the man to move away from the firestorm and abandon his home. They told him to travel lightly and leave behind everything he didn’t need to survive, his daughters and wife for instance. This naturally upsets Galion as he pretty much realizes that the conversation, which already included a few fists and booted feet, would end up with a dead man and his family violated.

He reacted by pulling out his bow and started firing arrows taking his own friends by surprise too. The fight was tougher than expected, especially the leader turned out to be a handful, as he could turn invisible due to a magic weapon.

In the end the party prevailed. The man is lying dead, as one of the knights decided to use his first action to kill him before taking on the party. To make matters worse, in the farmstead they find the bodies of a woman and two girls at the age of 10 and 12. It is clear that the mother thought all hope was gone and decided that death would be a kinder fate than the one they would have had at the hands of the Ragesians.

DM note: I like to portray the world in a gritty and dark way, especially in this adventure where the moral dilemmas will force the players into siding with people that they don’t’ really like or see eye to eye with. In this case they really dislike the Ragesian army, not knowing that some of them actually are not allied with Leeska and later may be allies.

They spend the night at the farm, having spent a lot of resources fighting the soldiers. They decide that they would rather be 100% fit for fight when they activate the orb and start the timer on the duration.

The remaining few citizens at the tiny hamlet tell the players that soldiers were trying to get them to move away, as the edges of the firestorm have been coming closer and soon the hamlet will be inside the fiery edges of the storm. They also spend some time learning a little about the castle, even if it is quite a bit away, the locals do know a little about it.

June 10
They buff up with quite the arsenal of spells and head out towards the castle. It is a long trek of about 8 hours before they reach their destination. The orb is doing the job it should making it possible for the party to travel unhindered.

As they reach the castle the storm parts a little and they notice something that looks like a window, some 300 feet up in the air. They have the feeling that they are being watched. The storm closes around the window again and a lightning strikes down in the middle of a large amount of skeletons.

The first thing they notice is that there are 3 wagons on the other side of the pile of skeletons, with halflings and gnomes in and around them. They are just as shocked as the players are to see someone else here. Before they can react to this discovery the skeletons come alive and start attacking the two groups.

After the fight the two groups start talking and the players learn that the other party, Clan Millorn, are treasure hunters. At first they agree to some friendly competition, where each group goes its own ways and keep what they find. With regards to the treasure room they agree to share it 70-30 with 70% going to the party who manages to get there first.

The party, however, decide that they need to come clean because they have a hard time seeing how to divide an invaluable artifact, so they tell that they are here for the torch. It is not a surprise for Clan Millorn, who have no interest in the torch.

DM Note: It would be too much trouble to keep with all the interested parties and too hard to sell anyway for them – if the buyers wouldn’t just kill them for it. So the clan is quite happy to make this deal.

They agree to sharing the treasure room 90-10, where the players get 10% and the torch, the rest goes to Clan Millorn.

DM Note: Gallion especially is having a hard time with that deal, in his mind it is a lot of treasure that they have bartered away. He is basically hoping that Clan Millorn won’t make it out alive, so that they can keep it all 

They also decide who goes left and who goes right before entering the castle, with Clan Millorn getting their wish fulfilled. They head up to the main doors and defeat the guardians and break open the doors.

Inside the players decide to head upstairs first, but the door is barred and they head down instead. The party have decided that their aim is to head upstairs as fast as possible, they won’t leave it to chance and clan Millorns honesty with respect to finding the torch and keeping the deal.

DM note: This sequence gave me to ideas that I decided to live out later on in the chapter. First I decided to let them ride the elevator unprepared as a premonition, so I would get to play out the deathtrap and secondly I decided that Deception at some point would have to live up to its nature and deceive one of the innocent clan members to go into the shrine and his death. Deception being what deception is, and it might give the party a hint about something being wrong – it is after all the same entity that convinced another NPC to take her own life.

They find the elevator pretty soon, but are taken by surprise by the undead in the elevator. Deenas soul is captured and Gallion has his strength drained to almost nothing. In the end Shaith and Killian manage to take care of it.

They soon realize that the elevator is not working, it simply isn’t powered up. Much to their annoyance they now have to spend more time on the ground floor finding out to turn on the power, and maybe even powering up the traps. Suddenly they hear some sounds that indicate that something has been turned on. From ahead of them they see Clan Millorn walking out from the pump room. They have started the pumps, but there is not much water, the flow seems to be blocked somehow.

The party is clearly annoyed with being second to the clan in reaching the pump room and they head towards barracks. They have figured out that the underground river must be passing through the western quarter of the castle. Here they fight the knights and defeat them and restore the flow of the river.
Having done this they head towards the guest quarters and defeat the skeletons and the bulette. At this point they have all but used their resources and decide to call it a day. They choose one of the guest quarters for their night camp and go to sleep, with one person keeping watch.

During the night they are suddenly rushed by a group of skeletons. Shaith has the watch and wake the others with shouts. The confined space of the rooms combined with Reddengot coming through the walls turn out to be a bigger challenge than anyone could have expected. To make matters worse, one of the sergeants manage to hit Killian with a critical hit with his axe. The blow is fatal and Killian dies. Just as things are looking very dire Grellfin arrives and turn the tide. He saw a lot of skeletons heading into the castle and on hios way he saw a wraith singing to himself heading towards the elevator.

DM Note: The outcome of the fight that night took me by surprise, I had not expected to kill one of the party members. They were in such dire straits that I had to let Reddengot go away or they would all have been dead, or close to it. I decided that he was so arrogant in his victory that he went upstairs to report his victory prematurely.

After the fight the group retreats outside where clan Millorn is camped. The clan had some luck during the day and had actually found some nice treasure, including a Scroll of True resurrection.

DM Note: I know the book states that the skeletons came from the outside, but it was just easier and made more sense that they had their camp with their wagons. I could simply not see any reason or logical explanation for someone to suddenly appear at Castle Korstull, so unless they were going to play a man short for quite some time, I had to let them be able to resurrect Killian.

The party buys the scroll from the clan at market value, paying in some of their own heave loot. A deal both parties are happy with. The party got rid of some heavy gear that were close to slowing them down and the clan got a lot of items that are easier to sell than an expensive scroll.

Killian is resurrected and is very grateful towards the Clan, his attitude clearly improved. With that issue out of the way the rest of the night passes without incident.

June 11
The next morning they head inside the castle, the elevator is fully powered and ready to go. They party enters the elevator together with the three heroes from Clan Millorn.

DM Note: This is of course the premonition I mentioned earlier, as the elevator wouldn’t be powered up yet. My twisted mind gave me the idea of letting Pilus be the sender of the premonition, help from an unwanted source just felt right.

During the trip in the elevator I had to turn up the difficulty of the traps to the extreme, just to be able to drop one of the players. I got to kill two of the clan heroes, but the players were all but impossible to slay. I had them reach the 6th floor before someone dropped, and that being with a lot deadlier elevator than originally written. When the first dropped I paraphrased the rest of the trip ending with them being killed, squashed against the ceiling and then waking up outside the castle.

The elevator trip is one big, long trap ending with the death of the players and they wake up from their sleep in the camp outside the castle. The whole scene is clearly some kind of premonition, and Gallion can feel some something emanating from the earring that Pilus gave them. They realize that Pilus gave them a warning/premonition; they are not ready to go upstairs yet. They have to figure out how to use the elevator.

End of session.

The party

Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 9 / Arcane archer 3 (I allowed him the feat Sword of the arcane order to qualify for Arcane archer)
Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 5 / Incantatrix 7
Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 5/Divine Crusader 3(variant)

NPC
Deena – Rogue lvl.7 / Fighter lvl. 5

June 11 - continued

DM Note: This session was cut very short as Shaith became ill. His kids had both been ill all week, and the day we played it was his turn. After a few hours he had to give up and call it a day. This entry will therefore be quite short.

As they party head into the castle the next morning they roll for Listen checks. Gallion rolls in the high 30s and no one hears anything, which was the point – they cannot hear the pump working.

DM note: I like to sometimes pull these odd reverse rolls, like listen to notice that there is no sound to be heard. It was fun to see their faces as I told them that they didn’t hear anything  and then I explained that it was what the roll was about.

It makes sense to the players that those in the castle most likely didn’t want someone going upstairs, so they turned off the pump. Heading towards the pump room they head into a trap.

DM Note: I decided that since they turned off the pump they would also expect the party to try and turn it on again. So I made it into a trap. I had a group of skeletons hiding behind the secret door, and when the party headed towards the pump they would attack them. Once engaged the party would most likely turn around with Killian in front and Shaith and Gallion in the back. At this point the door to the pump room would open and they would have a two-front fight. It worked very well and turned out to be quite a fun encounter, where the party had to adapt to the new enemies.

After a long fight, where both Shaith and Killian are very happy that they have ring of counterspells with dispel magic, as it saved them from losing a lot of spells, they kill the last enemy and turn on the pump again. Clan Millorn volunteer to keep watch in the pump room, while the players go looking for the instructions to the elevator.

The party head upstairs and find the door to the banquet hall, which is also barricaded. They hear the sounds of singing and partying from the inside. They are not able to open the door, and search the other areas where they find a secret entrance to the throne room. Here they find themselves in a fight as the ghouls all look hungry; it is, however, an ill-fated choice for the ghouls. By the time it is Lord Gorquith turn in the initiative order the fight is basically over.

DM Note: It was very impressive display of power from the party. Gallion was first and he killed Findle with his bow, before he manages to react. Then the others went on to kill 8 ghouls and deal about 70 damage to Lord Gorquith before he even had his turn.

Lord Gorquith calls for a a seize fire and the party accepts as he turns out to have something interesting to tell. He talks with a deep raspy voice and is very arrogant and bitter. He offers the party a deal, they turn him human again and he will give them the instructions to the elevator.

DM Note: My throat actually hurt from speaking that way 

Lord Gorquith is extatic to be told that Coaltongue is dead, calling it the best day in his life. The party have no doubts that Lord Gorquith gladly would do anything to help them against the Ragesians. He tells them the story of his death and that of his followers and how they woke up again in the undead state.

DM Note: The story fit well into the gritty tone and they players actually looked a bit uncomfortable with the story of how they minstel was killed and how the other nobles were forced to eat bits of him.

Lord Gorquith tells them were they can find a scroll of resurrection and that they can keep anything else they find. After having finished talking with him, the party head towards the chapel. As they arrive in the Great Foyer they hear the sounds of feet running down the staircase. It is the mute Halfling from Clan Millorn who looks scared witless. He points upstairs and makes motions of stirring in a pot and pats himself on the stomach as if having eaten something. The party deciphers his signs as someone captured his friends and they are eating them, to which he nods. They send him off to the pump room and the rest of the clan and head upstairs.

DM Note: Yeah, Deception really is a bastard, isn’t he?  He persuaded one of the others to take of the door and head inside, why wouldn’t they be able to find treasure – no one was probably inside… right? It cost the life of one of the poor halflings.

The party runs upstairs and into the chapel, which is now open. The hall of the pantheons is a strange experience for them, as half the party feels like donating money to the gods.

DM note: I upped the DC, they ought to pay tribute to the gods 

They head into the main chapel where they fight against several devils, including Kazyk who this time have no chance against the players. The devils use the wall of Ice to try and keep Shaith and Gallion out of the fight, but in the end it makes no difference and the party defeats them all, including the imp.

DM note: at this point I didn’t want the imp around them, and as the fight was looking to go the devils way in the beginning it did not change sides.

This is where we ended the session, almost in the middle of the fight.

End of session

And we are actually up to date, next session we play will take up the story from this point.

Man, this brings back memories. I haven't read that adventure in years, and I'd forgotten about some of the stuff.

I do recall not being sure how deadly to make the elevator, because it's hard to guess how healthy the PCs will be when they tackle it.