Search results

Run #48 was this past Thursday. First, the quick plot summary: We had just destroyed the beholderesque Wizard Ball and were now hurrying through Lord Tomberlin’s labyrinthine basement, looking simultaneously for both the exit, and for the Lord and his daughter. We discovered a well-concealed...

They arrived back from their excursion into the past, to find that about seven weeks had passed in the "real time" world. During that seven week span, the Spire's divinations indicated that the Company did not exist. But it's a little more complicated than that, since their trip to the past...

If the party's understanding of the Ritual of Seven Stars is correct, Mokad's soul has been annihilated. As far as in-game time goes: four years and four months have elapsed between the party's summons to Abernathy's tower (April 1, 1828), and the Spire meeting described in my last post...

Oh, hell yes he was bluffing. Mokad knew exactly how screwed he was, and was saying anything and everything he could think of to stop the ritual. Pretty much everything he said concerning the ritual, from the moment he was kidnapped, was a lie.

A long update, but probably the last one before the new year. Happy holidays everyone! Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 322 What Rosetta Was Doing It takes just over an hour – and a very busy hour at that -- to reconstruct the ritual chamber. Most of this is spent procuring the backup sets of...

Heh. I had forgotten all about that!

Nope, not a house rule. It's part of the description of ironstorm in Relics & Rituals. If memory serves, when chain lightning is cast near an ironstorm, everything in the area of the latter takes (X+4)d6 damage, where X is the damage the primary target of the chain lightning would have...

Run #47 is in the books. This week’s game featured two distinct encounters, as we continued our exploration of, and escape from, the house of horrors that is Tomberlin Riverlimb’s basement. Among the papers stolen from the desks of Tomberlin and his evil genius daughter, we discovered that one...

In general I take a dim view of "save or die" spells like wail of the banshee or finger of death. Though I've never outright banned them or anything, my players and I do in fact have a kind of unspoken detente. Of course, with the arrival of spells like revivify in the Spell Compendium, I...

Before I describe this fight, I thought I should mention a metagame note that will shed light on some of the details. We no longer use XP in the campaign. Instead, I level the party at a pace that seems right to me, and when they level, each character gets a stash of Action Points equal to...

You mean, like when I have a glorious charge-or-sneak-through-thousands-of-goblins scenario envisioned, and the players instead figure out that Aravis can shapechange into a $#@! Digger and simply tunnel underneath the whole friggin' army? :) For that matter, consider that, originally, I though...

That brings to mind a related thought I've been having. Disjunction is a pretty crappy spell to cast on your players at high level. In 3.5E, the power level of a 20th level party could be game-bustingly altered if a bad guy were to drop a disjunction on them, since magic items make up such a...

I hear what you're saying... but there has to be a limit to the enemy's power, or what's the point, right? I control all the dials. I could have the enemies "win" any time I want, for any reason. My job is to craft a campaign where the enemies don't have the wherewithal to arbitrarily thwart...

First: Hi Wystan! It's always nice to hear from new readers, especially when they feel motivated to read the whole huge thing. Weclome. Second, though you won't be reading it for a long time yet, I did something particularly rat-bastardy to the party last game. I think it left some of my...

Alander was one of the original Archmagi and one of the Spire's founding members. Abernathy was his apprentice, centuries ago. In the "Before They Were Famous" prologue, found on StevenAC's site, you'll see mention of how it was Alander who gave Abernathy a scroll that ultimately chose who...

They couldn't have done these things; that much ambient magic in the vicinity would have screwed up the Ritual of Seven Stars. They had talked about various defenses, like dimensional lock and forbiddance, but they would have disrupted the Ritual. I don't think the party has the spell teleport...

Run #5 (Page 8 of StevenAC's collected Story Hour .pdf): Praska introduced. She's was Dranko's only friend growing up in the Church of Delioch. She sent a letter to Dranko, warning of strange political machinations in the church, particularly regarding Mokad and Califax. Runs #14 & 15 (Page...

I had an advantage: Piratecat and I ran through his kidnapping mission over e-mail, which meant I had plenty of time to think about what the Black Circle would do if Mokad was abducted. And Piratecat's right: the party has taught me plenty about creative ways to get around mind blanks and...

RedTonic: I'm flattered that you'd register just for the story; it's a fine community, and welcome to it! Also, nothing goes to my head faster than being mentioned in the same sentence as Sepulchrave. :) Solarious: Exactly right! Here it is. Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 320 How The Other Half...

First off, thanks to StevenAC for pointing out the 15th anniversary of our campaign. Piratecat even started another thread about it, here. Second, here's the next installment. Sagiro’s Story Hour, Part 319 The Ritual of Seven Stars Dranko Brightmirror, disguised as a Kai Kin commoner...