RangerWickett
Legend
naughty word if I know, you naughty word eating ass hole bitch.
WotBS Tolamaker's Burning Sky
- Thread starter Tolamaker
- Start date
RangerWickett
Legend
Sorry, lol. I assumed it would censor all that. Obviously I'm just playing around.
W'rkncacnter
Hero
i don't think so, since it seems to directly edit the message as it uploads.
Tolamaker
Adventurer
Well, some real life issues put a bit of a damper on the end of the module, but we are continuing. One of our players ghosted us, after three years playing together. At first we weren't sure if it was a Discord glitch when they weren't a part of the server anymore, but it appears to have been deliberate. The only plus side is that it got us to realize that we all met online and Discord is our only messaging option, so we traded some info so that IF discord ever kicks the bucket unexpectedly, we'll still be able to figure out how to play together.
Carrying on...
Session 97: Disarming Ragesians
Making their way into the main square of Gate Pass, General Danava of the Ragesian Legion comes forth bering a white flag. He insists that he will act honorably and his men will leave the city. He hints that he would like to do more, but he cannot. The players, distrusting, negotiate for the Ragesians to turn in their arms before departing, an even more humiliating retreat. Reluctantly, Danava agrees, and as they go to shake hands a sword swings down and slices off his arm at the elbow, leaving Mishka with a hand in her hand. An inquisitor and his nightmarish retinue have teleported in: Legate Kolvus, the new commander of the Legion.
Battle breaks out, with General Danava clutching his stump on the ground. Gruz and Mishka duel with a marilith, a six-armed, six-bladed fiend. Corban manages to effectively counterspell the Legate long enough for Eluriah and Aripos to finish him off and his nightmare trillith.
With surrender secured, the Ragesians are escorted to the central district to drop off their weapons. Battered Gate Passers turn the spears and bows into a bonfire, and the city decides to finally celebrate the Festival of Dreams. Urns are opened, wishes are read, and the city begins to hope again. Renard and Shalosha, holding hands, find a priest and get married, immediately sending Eluriah into conniptions at the thought of how Shaaladel will react.
But among the revelers, a hand falls on Mishka's shoulder, and she turns to see Vigilance, his head on a swivel, looking worried. "I've never felt this kind of energy on the surface. All of these dreams, all these wishes, all of these desires..."
And then Coaltongue's statue glows with fiery light, and steps off his plinth.
Session 98: Coaltongue's Final Destruction
Coaltongue's statue comes to life as a horde of trillith leap from the crowd to give it energy. An armored trillith disappears into its head, and the statue's torch begins to burn as he swings it down in attack. The party leaps into action (with Aripos and Gruz drunk from partying), and begin to counter attack. However, their weapons are unable to pierce the metal hide, save for one well-placed bolt by Aripos. Also of danger is the trillith Desire, pulling at their emotions to her own whims.
Metamorphosis offers her help, and the party asks her to try and change Coaltongue's metal soft. She stretches her arms out, and the legs of Coaltongue buckle slightly. Though she is unable to melt him, it does weaken the metal enough that they are finally able to damage it. Coaltongue's torch is active, and he is able to burn his attackers, as well as teleporting Eluriah into his hand to throw her, and then Gruz to eat him. Gruz finds himself in a dark void, surrounded by the chattering anger of hundreds of trillith.
Mishka begins to climb Coaltongue, and is able to damage it enough for Gruz to pull himself out of a hole in the metal. Aripos is able to damage the torch long enough for the party to regroup, and they are able to brink Coaltongue to his knees and finish him off.
Session 99: Picking up the Pieces
In the week that follows, the party helps around Gate Pass (While Aripos fails to pull off a heist against Ragesian collaborators). Eluriah goes about healing, followed by Metamorphosis, who is fascinated by the sight of skin stitching back together. Gruz attempts to research the Opaline Wastes, only finding that those brave enough to enter it rarely return, and those who make it back never attempt a second expedition. A black rain, not unlike Castle Korstull's fireblood rain, covers the land, leaving no fertile ground. Mishka spends the time with her mother, assuring her she will do her best to stay safe. Corban wishes to also connect with his newly found mother, and help Gate Pass recover, and so passes on the Torch to Gruz.
In a council of the newly expanded Alliance, Vigilance reveals the trilliths' plan to transform the world, likely killing all beings of the material realm. Clanleader Millorn congratulates Shaaladel on the marriage, and he responds shortly that "You are mistaken. No congratulations are warranted."
The party makes their preparations, and begin to make their descent through the earth with Eluriah and Metamorphosis making tunnels. They make their way to deep caverns, where they see strange squirming lights crawling among the stalactites. Vigilance says they are trillith making their way to the surface, about to discover who they are.
They come to a glittering cavern, with a pillar of light, guarded by crystalline dragon statues. However, as they near, the statues begin to move, and stalk towards them...
Post Session Thoughts
97: The Legate Kolvus fight probably could have been a bit better fought by me, and I definitely underutilized the nightmare trillith abilities, but that doesn't change the fact that my players basically never rolled under a 15 on the die. So long Legate Kolvus, we barely knew ye.
I really enjoyed the reveal of Coaltongue for a number of reasons, but one of them was the sheer shock by the players that the celebration after liberating Gate Pass wasn't the end of the module. I offered to let Aripos and Gruz' drunkness be flavor, but they both agreed to take the disadvantage. Gruz had Foresight cancel it out for normal attacks, and Aripos' rogue abilities did the same.
98: This session was marred by Corban's disappearance, but this fight was suitably epic. The fact that Mishka, the party's usual damage dealer, only hurt Coaltongue once over two turns was a real wake up call. I kept Metamorphosis' offer of help nebulous, so the players could have some choice of how it worked, and I used her softening the metal to lower the damage threshold. While Aripos focused on the torch, the rest of the players were rather scattershot, which means that until his legs were taken out, Coaltongue generally had all of his abilities. I ended the fight by having Metamorphosis use her death ability to turn Aripos big, only because Coaltongue had about 20 hit points, and I wanted them to have an epic end to the fight as well.
99: This was largely a down-time session.
Changes to the Module
97: When I narrated Rantle and Shalosha's wedding, after the session the players asked if that was actually in the book, and I assured them it was, because I remembered reading it. Then the thought was stuck in the back of my mind, and I went looking and couldn't find it. I found notes of their romance, but nothing about the wedding I could have sworn I read about. Ah well, it led to some fun moments, and also let me more strongly establish Shaaladel's elven concept of the long game. He sees Shalosha's marriage as a youthful mistake that will solve itself when the relationship ends either through racial differences or Rantle's inevitable death.
98: As mentioned, I changed Metamorphosis' part in the fight, but I also combined the Desire fight into this. Gruz is the one who killed her, and I decided it was more fun to give her Charisma bonus to him, because it fits with the normal trillith boon rules. So now I have a Warlock with a 22 in Charisma.
99: The book has a very short bit about powerful elemental spirits that lead them to Trilla's dream realm. It didn't really grab me, so I went with the straightforward "dig through the earth" tactic. Eluriah's player had already swapped out for earth spells, so I figured I would reward the roleplay as well. The "trillith making their way to the surface" was a mild adaptation on the huddles of trillith hiding in caverns as they descend.
Next week, finally, Crystal Dragons, and hopefully entering the dream realm.
Carrying on...
Session 97: Disarming Ragesians
Making their way into the main square of Gate Pass, General Danava of the Ragesian Legion comes forth bering a white flag. He insists that he will act honorably and his men will leave the city. He hints that he would like to do more, but he cannot. The players, distrusting, negotiate for the Ragesians to turn in their arms before departing, an even more humiliating retreat. Reluctantly, Danava agrees, and as they go to shake hands a sword swings down and slices off his arm at the elbow, leaving Mishka with a hand in her hand. An inquisitor and his nightmarish retinue have teleported in: Legate Kolvus, the new commander of the Legion.
Battle breaks out, with General Danava clutching his stump on the ground. Gruz and Mishka duel with a marilith, a six-armed, six-bladed fiend. Corban manages to effectively counterspell the Legate long enough for Eluriah and Aripos to finish him off and his nightmare trillith.
With surrender secured, the Ragesians are escorted to the central district to drop off their weapons. Battered Gate Passers turn the spears and bows into a bonfire, and the city decides to finally celebrate the Festival of Dreams. Urns are opened, wishes are read, and the city begins to hope again. Renard and Shalosha, holding hands, find a priest and get married, immediately sending Eluriah into conniptions at the thought of how Shaaladel will react.
But among the revelers, a hand falls on Mishka's shoulder, and she turns to see Vigilance, his head on a swivel, looking worried. "I've never felt this kind of energy on the surface. All of these dreams, all these wishes, all of these desires..."
And then Coaltongue's statue glows with fiery light, and steps off his plinth.
Session 98: Coaltongue's Final Destruction
Coaltongue's statue comes to life as a horde of trillith leap from the crowd to give it energy. An armored trillith disappears into its head, and the statue's torch begins to burn as he swings it down in attack. The party leaps into action (with Aripos and Gruz drunk from partying), and begin to counter attack. However, their weapons are unable to pierce the metal hide, save for one well-placed bolt by Aripos. Also of danger is the trillith Desire, pulling at their emotions to her own whims.
Metamorphosis offers her help, and the party asks her to try and change Coaltongue's metal soft. She stretches her arms out, and the legs of Coaltongue buckle slightly. Though she is unable to melt him, it does weaken the metal enough that they are finally able to damage it. Coaltongue's torch is active, and he is able to burn his attackers, as well as teleporting Eluriah into his hand to throw her, and then Gruz to eat him. Gruz finds himself in a dark void, surrounded by the chattering anger of hundreds of trillith.
Mishka begins to climb Coaltongue, and is able to damage it enough for Gruz to pull himself out of a hole in the metal. Aripos is able to damage the torch long enough for the party to regroup, and they are able to brink Coaltongue to his knees and finish him off.
Session 99: Picking up the Pieces
In the week that follows, the party helps around Gate Pass (While Aripos fails to pull off a heist against Ragesian collaborators). Eluriah goes about healing, followed by Metamorphosis, who is fascinated by the sight of skin stitching back together. Gruz attempts to research the Opaline Wastes, only finding that those brave enough to enter it rarely return, and those who make it back never attempt a second expedition. A black rain, not unlike Castle Korstull's fireblood rain, covers the land, leaving no fertile ground. Mishka spends the time with her mother, assuring her she will do her best to stay safe. Corban wishes to also connect with his newly found mother, and help Gate Pass recover, and so passes on the Torch to Gruz.
In a council of the newly expanded Alliance, Vigilance reveals the trilliths' plan to transform the world, likely killing all beings of the material realm. Clanleader Millorn congratulates Shaaladel on the marriage, and he responds shortly that "You are mistaken. No congratulations are warranted."
The party makes their preparations, and begin to make their descent through the earth with Eluriah and Metamorphosis making tunnels. They make their way to deep caverns, where they see strange squirming lights crawling among the stalactites. Vigilance says they are trillith making their way to the surface, about to discover who they are.
They come to a glittering cavern, with a pillar of light, guarded by crystalline dragon statues. However, as they near, the statues begin to move, and stalk towards them...
Post Session Thoughts
97: The Legate Kolvus fight probably could have been a bit better fought by me, and I definitely underutilized the nightmare trillith abilities, but that doesn't change the fact that my players basically never rolled under a 15 on the die. So long Legate Kolvus, we barely knew ye.
I really enjoyed the reveal of Coaltongue for a number of reasons, but one of them was the sheer shock by the players that the celebration after liberating Gate Pass wasn't the end of the module. I offered to let Aripos and Gruz' drunkness be flavor, but they both agreed to take the disadvantage. Gruz had Foresight cancel it out for normal attacks, and Aripos' rogue abilities did the same.
98: This session was marred by Corban's disappearance, but this fight was suitably epic. The fact that Mishka, the party's usual damage dealer, only hurt Coaltongue once over two turns was a real wake up call. I kept Metamorphosis' offer of help nebulous, so the players could have some choice of how it worked, and I used her softening the metal to lower the damage threshold. While Aripos focused on the torch, the rest of the players were rather scattershot, which means that until his legs were taken out, Coaltongue generally had all of his abilities. I ended the fight by having Metamorphosis use her death ability to turn Aripos big, only because Coaltongue had about 20 hit points, and I wanted them to have an epic end to the fight as well.
99: This was largely a down-time session.
Changes to the Module
97: When I narrated Rantle and Shalosha's wedding, after the session the players asked if that was actually in the book, and I assured them it was, because I remembered reading it. Then the thought was stuck in the back of my mind, and I went looking and couldn't find it. I found notes of their romance, but nothing about the wedding I could have sworn I read about. Ah well, it led to some fun moments, and also let me more strongly establish Shaaladel's elven concept of the long game. He sees Shalosha's marriage as a youthful mistake that will solve itself when the relationship ends either through racial differences or Rantle's inevitable death.
98: As mentioned, I changed Metamorphosis' part in the fight, but I also combined the Desire fight into this. Gruz is the one who killed her, and I decided it was more fun to give her Charisma bonus to him, because it fits with the normal trillith boon rules. So now I have a Warlock with a 22 in Charisma.
99: The book has a very short bit about powerful elemental spirits that lead them to Trilla's dream realm. It didn't really grab me, so I went with the straightforward "dig through the earth" tactic. Eluriah's player had already swapped out for earth spells, so I figured I would reward the roleplay as well. The "trillith making their way to the surface" was a mild adaptation on the huddles of trillith hiding in caverns as they descend.
Next week, finally, Crystal Dragons, and hopefully entering the dream realm.
lykkenthrope
Explorer
oh the wedding is mentioned on page 25 of the campaign guide as part of the extended campaign ideas! (I just added that to my long term map ideas!)
RangerWickett
Legend
I ran the inspiration for WotBS back in 2003/04, and Rantle's player started his 'courtship' of Shalosha in the equivalent of adventure 3 when she showed up in Seaquen. She found him uncouth but appealing in a Han Solo sort of way.
Then in the equivalent of adventure 6, the PCs were captured by the Ragesians and Shahalesti at Castle Korstull. During interrogation, Shalosha protected most of the party from the predations of the inquisitor, though Diogenes got carted off because he was clearly a wizard. In the jail interactions with Shalosha, Rantle was defiant but flirty, which flustered Shalosha. She was trying to get them to join her father, and he was trying to get her to join them and ditch her father.
Meanwhile, the inquisitor tortured Diogenes and lopped off his leg when he refused to answer his questions - a plot beat that got reworked into adventure 4 with the knee surgery. But that led to a fun session where I had Diogenes's player keep his wizard, but everyone else took the role of a member of Clan Millorn, who'd hidden in the walls. They rescued Diogenes, then had him help them spring the rest of the party from jail so they could make a break for it.
The Ragesians eventually caught up with the party because Diogenes was using a crutch and slowing them down. Shalosha joined the retrieval group, but was trying to get the Ragesians to take everyone alive. Rantle tried to grapple her to keep her from casting spells so the rest of the party could escape, and she responded with an opportunity attack that crit.
Her sword plunged through his belly, leaving him at exactly 0 hit points.
Rantle's player asked if, as his last action before passing out, he could slide forward along the length of the blade to kiss her.
He collapsed, and after her shock wore off, she administered a healing potion, then switched sides to help the party finish off the Ragesians. And then she joined the team.
And yes, many many sessions later, Rantle finally went to ask Shaaladel for his blessing on their marriage. Shaaladel responded with disdain and mockery and insults and implications that Shaaladel would make sure Rantle's sister Katrina was executed as a traitor, Rantle attacked his future father-in-law. And got his ass arrested again. And only escaped execution (alongside his sister) when the trillith attacked en masse.
Then in the equivalent of adventure 6, the PCs were captured by the Ragesians and Shahalesti at Castle Korstull. During interrogation, Shalosha protected most of the party from the predations of the inquisitor, though Diogenes got carted off because he was clearly a wizard. In the jail interactions with Shalosha, Rantle was defiant but flirty, which flustered Shalosha. She was trying to get them to join her father, and he was trying to get her to join them and ditch her father.
Meanwhile, the inquisitor tortured Diogenes and lopped off his leg when he refused to answer his questions - a plot beat that got reworked into adventure 4 with the knee surgery. But that led to a fun session where I had Diogenes's player keep his wizard, but everyone else took the role of a member of Clan Millorn, who'd hidden in the walls. They rescued Diogenes, then had him help them spring the rest of the party from jail so they could make a break for it.
The Ragesians eventually caught up with the party because Diogenes was using a crutch and slowing them down. Shalosha joined the retrieval group, but was trying to get the Ragesians to take everyone alive. Rantle tried to grapple her to keep her from casting spells so the rest of the party could escape, and she responded with an opportunity attack that crit.
Her sword plunged through his belly, leaving him at exactly 0 hit points.
Rantle's player asked if, as his last action before passing out, he could slide forward along the length of the blade to kiss her.
He collapsed, and after her shock wore off, she administered a healing potion, then switched sides to help the party finish off the Ragesians. And then she joined the team.
And yes, many many sessions later, Rantle finally went to ask Shaaladel for his blessing on their marriage. Shaaladel responded with disdain and mockery and insults and implications that Shaaladel would make sure Rantle's sister Katrina was executed as a traitor, Rantle attacked his future father-in-law. And got his ass arrested again. And only escaped execution (alongside his sister) when the trillith attacked en masse.
Tolamaker
Adventurer
Just realized I never gave a proper send-off to the module, so here goes.
Post-Module Thoughts
I enjoyed this module, and the players had fun, but I think what was lacking was proper motivation in the various fights. The push through the Mage College tower and the fight to take the walls were fun because they were fight scenes that had goals beyond simply killing everyone. This isn't always necessary, but when there's such a fight-heavy module with only a ltitle connective tissue between each fight, it started to wear over time. The negotiations with Shaaladel were a real highlight, and a welcome break from the battle, and the surprise of the Trillith at the end of the module was a fun reveal and a great setpiece as well.
Post-Module Thoughts
I enjoyed this module, and the players had fun, but I think what was lacking was proper motivation in the various fights. The push through the Mage College tower and the fight to take the walls were fun because they were fight scenes that had goals beyond simply killing everyone. This isn't always necessary, but when there's such a fight-heavy module with only a ltitle connective tissue between each fight, it started to wear over time. The negotiations with Shaaladel were a real highlight, and a welcome break from the battle, and the surprise of the Trillith at the end of the module was a fun reveal and a great setpiece as well.
Tolamaker
Adventurer
Out of curiosity, @RangerWickett, who were the original PCs, and are there any other player cameos throughout the adventures?
RangerWickett
Legend
The original party was Diogenes, Rantle, Rivereye, and Kathor.
Rivereye ended up getting murdered when he tried to assassinate Shaaladel, and the player tried out a couple new characters but none of them survive in my memory 20 years later. At some point a new player joined as Fayne (in adventure 8), who had a really interesting backstory she REFUSED to share with the rest of the party. That might have either been before or after Diogenes left (because the player moved). At about the same time, another friend joined and created Guthwulf, the nicest torturer you've ever met.
And if you ever played ZEITGEIST, Rantle's player was also the creator of Dr. Wolfgang von Recklinghausen; Rivereye's player was Alloquicious (who basically only has a cameo as a halfling trying to design a mecha suit, though in the game I ran he was on par with Tinker Oddcog); and Guthwulf's player was somewhat similar to the arsonist brothers (except he modeled himself on the Hammer Brothers from Super Mario).
It was very different from the adventure path, though, since the party in session 3 defected and ran away with the magic items they looted from Asrabey. They proceeded to become pirates and kinda had to be dragged kicking and screaming into any real plot. This is why the adventure path very explicitly tells GMs to ensure the players buy in to being members of the RHC who want to solve mysteries.
Rivereye ended up getting murdered when he tried to assassinate Shaaladel, and the player tried out a couple new characters but none of them survive in my memory 20 years later. At some point a new player joined as Fayne (in adventure 8), who had a really interesting backstory she REFUSED to share with the rest of the party. That might have either been before or after Diogenes left (because the player moved). At about the same time, another friend joined and created Guthwulf, the nicest torturer you've ever met.
And if you ever played ZEITGEIST, Rantle's player was also the creator of Dr. Wolfgang von Recklinghausen; Rivereye's player was Alloquicious (who basically only has a cameo as a halfling trying to design a mecha suit, though in the game I ran he was on par with Tinker Oddcog); and Guthwulf's player was somewhat similar to the arsonist brothers (except he modeled himself on the Hammer Brothers from Super Mario).
It was very different from the adventure path, though, since the party in session 3 defected and ran away with the magic items they looted from Asrabey. They proceeded to become pirates and kinda had to be dragged kicking and screaming into any real plot. This is why the adventure path very explicitly tells GMs to ensure the players buy in to being members of the RHC who want to solve mysteries.
RangerWickett
Legend
Oh, and a few years before I ran the inspiration for WotBS, I ran my first ever 3rd edition campaign as a freshman in college, which covered events of Coaltongue and Shaaladel linking up and toppling the predecessor Seren Empire.
PCs there included Rhuarc and 41 (played by the same players who were Kathor and Guthwulf), plus Aurana (Shaaladel's wizard ally). Other PCs who did not make the cut were Stah-lin, a weretiger who revealed that the original 3e rules for lycanthropes were super busted (same player as Rivereye), and Stanely Deadtree, an 8 Intelligence fighter who believed he was a paladin of Zorok, the Three-Headed Chicken God of Everything (same player as Diogenes).
PCs there included Rhuarc and 41 (played by the same players who were Kathor and Guthwulf), plus Aurana (Shaaladel's wizard ally). Other PCs who did not make the cut were Stah-lin, a weretiger who revealed that the original 3e rules for lycanthropes were super busted (same player as Rivereye), and Stanely Deadtree, an 8 Intelligence fighter who believed he was a paladin of Zorok, the Three-Headed Chicken God of Everything (same player as Diogenes).
