A Monk, a Wizard, and a Swordmage Walk into a Fallcrest; a 4e Story Now game

[Grendel_Khan]

LIEF waves his hands at the stag. "No!" he says in Primordial. But he knows it's pointless—he's already moving. He crouches, feeling the ache in his legs, and vaults up the slope. He lands next to Starn and grabs his shoulder, wheeling him around roughly. "There!" he yells, pointing at the portal, close enough to the wizard that he can see down Lief's finger. "Do something—now!"

The stag is gone. Lief wonders if it'll come back. He's betrayed its trust. But didn't it betray his first, trying to call some power among them instead of, just this once, actually confiding in Lief? The damn stag never talks to him. It watches, it scolds with its eyes. It judges. Well damn you, Lief shouts in his mind. These are my friends. What the hell are you?

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Intent: Warn Starn in time for him to do something about the portal.

Secondary: Athletics. Autosuccess vs Easy DC 12. @AbdulAlhazred gets +2 to his Primary skill roll
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THE ROAD TO THE UNKNOWN: Complexity 3 SC, Level 9 (DCs 12/17/25)
Goal: Journey to ruined Fastormel.
7/8 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/1 Secondary Skills Available/1 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: Nature, Arcana, Insight, Perception

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Starn realizes that no time is to be lost if things are not going to go very badly. Handing the reigns of Hat Eater to Lief, he approaches the incipient gate, unslinging his pack as he goes. Working rapidly he begins to sketch out a circle in the earth around the spot. He's building a magic circle. Whether it will contain whatever appears is hard to say.

Magic Circle ritual. Arcana check value roll 8 +17 = 25. This should hold back creatures of up to level 15 of a primal nature.

THE ROAD TO THE UNKNOWN: Complexity 3 SC, Level 9 (DCs 12/17/25)
Goal: Journey to ruined Fastormel.
8/8 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/1 Secondary Skills Available/1 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: Nature, Arcana, Insight, Perception COMPLETE.

 

[Manbearcat]

XP/LOOT

* 1200/3 = 400 xp apiece.

* 1 x gem worth 500 coin.

* 1 PC gains a magic item level 7 or below or 1 PC trades out a current magic item level 7 or 8 for a level 9. Lief takes Boots of the Fencing Master.

* Lief loses the Totemic Ally as a Companion Character for now and gains a Primal Boon equivalent of:

A powerful gale suddenly takes Lief in full, bringing him off his feet momentarily as his hair blows wild and his hands are instinctively brought up to protect his face. A spirit of extraordinary magnitude enters his flesh. A voice stirs within that only Lief can detect:

"Very well. I watched you for so long. That is my role; to Watch. The hour is nigh so I have broken my eternal claim of Watcher among the Elders. I have acted. I will act no more. You may have doomed your world by not cutting out the infection in your midst. You will make up for this...alone...and I will again watch...watch your triumph...or your doom...through your very eyes."

---

As the sun descends slowly toward the horizon, Lief confronts the simultaneous absence and...presence alone...inward. Nimozaran rides atop Hat Eater as the group crests the long, shallow rise to where Fastormel lay in waste. The land flattens and the long grass gives way to scrub as cold, frigid wind blows southward off of the vast Lake Nen.

The Ruins of Fastormel come into view...one bit of scenery expected...the others surely not:

* Structural remains lie in half-broken or fully-razed states, living like time capsules from a bygone era. Snow and ice that only partially thaws in the warmer months cling like cobwebs or so much glue.

* The legendary Mistborn Tower, confirmed by scouts to have survived the siege from decades ago still yet stands amongst the ruin-scape. The Lord Mage, the most powerful wizard in Nentir Vale one hundred years ago, shrouded his tower in a powerful spell that made it impervious to the invasion. As the Bloodspear Orcs slaughtered the Fastormel citizenry and sacked the town, the silver mist that never dissipates protected the tower and The Lord Mage within.

Perhaps it is a prison for him because the enchantment lies unbroken and he must still reside within...dead or alive.

* No orcs...but gnolls...fifteen by head count lie prostrate around a vast crater in the center of the ruins. One stands. Known for their demon worship, these gnolls venerate something_else_entirely. The Pack Lord stands before a large looming object of perfect darkness...aloft on nothingness, it looks almost exactly like the Singularities in Winterhaven as reported by Starn; a huge Sphere of Annihilation. The gnoll presents a goat. With awful screaming, the gnoll tears the creatures neck and sucks from it. Accompanied by the backdrop of chilling howls from its prostrate pack, the Packlord offers the goat to the Sphere.

The Sphere takes the goat, gravitationally pulling it from the hands of the humanoid, demon-dog. Up it goes, seemingly suspended in time as it becomes one with the Sphere, redshifting slowly out of view.

The Sphere grows very marginally...but it grows.

Even from afar, you can hear the barking Packlord speak to it. Its barks smooth out into another language...the same you have heard Nimozaran's lips imbued with. In fact, Nimozaran's lips give way to the same utterances you now hear from the Packlord. Bizarrely, they speak in unison. Unnerved, Hat Eater scratches the earth with a great hoof.

Something is wrong. The Sphere is not sated.

The Pack Lord protests. It tries to run.

The Sphere tears the gnoll from the poor creature's feet, accelerating it into the empty-full circumference of the floating orb.

The Sphere subtly grows.

The rest of the gnolls remain prostrate, whimpering in obeisance.

---

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Starn mutters, "perhaps the circle should be placed around you, eh master?" Nimozaran probably couldn't hear that, and gives no sign in any case.

Turning his gaze towards the tower, Starn extends his magical senses. Perhaps he can get an idea of what this magic is.

Arcana check, roll 11 + 17 = 28.

 

[Manbearcat]

Clarification from @AbdulAlhazred on what exactly Starn is looking for with his Identify Magical Phenomenon move above (which passes the required Hard DC for level 8):

* Starn is looking for aberrant magical effects around the tower.

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Starn is able to identify that there are a pair of magical effects coming from the tower:

* The first is an Abjuration effect which has decayed considerably but is still in place. That is the protection they can see with the silvery mist. With its current state and his assessment of its rate of decay, it surely dates to the time of The Bloodspear War when the orcs razed Fastormel nearly a century ago. Clearly, the Lord Mage protected his tower and himself...therefore abandoning Fastormel to its fate.

* The second is a powerful Summoning effect which is relatively recent. Its orientation is that from the tower to the celestial fabric...out into the Alien Far Realm beyond. Cleary, this Sphere of Annihilation (aberrant) was summoned here by the tower denizen(s).

---

Conversation with players:
Please clarify the conflict goal when you can as it looks like you have :

* Scatter the gnolls so they don’t become food for the Sphere and empower it.
or

* Convince the gnolls to renounce their misplaced faith and join you in destroying their perverse former master.
Either conflict will be Complexity 1, but the latter will be considerably more difficult (level 11) than the former (level 8). However, success on the latter means you’ll gain allies to help you in the coming conflict. Regardless of your choice, any micro-failures accrued will cost you going into the immediate follow-on combat with the Sphere of Annihilation.

The players have landed on the latter. Go ahead and make an initial move given the situation-state depicted above:

Complexity 1 SC, Level 11 (DCs 13/19)
Goal: Convince the gnolls to renounce their misplaced faith and join you in destroying their perverse (former) master.
0/4 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/1 Secondary Skills Available/0 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted:

 

[Grendel_Khan]

LIEF scans the gnolls out of habit, looking for anything he can exploit in a surprise attack. He sees the fetishes dangling from their necks and weapons—rough-hewn faces of some spirit or god, but definitely faces. Ram's faces. Something isn't lining up here. Gnolls are typically demon worshippers, aren't they? Whatever's happening here doesn't seem demonic, or if it is, it's weirdly faceless and impersonal.

They've been tricked. Maybe by the gnoll who just died, or maybe someone else. But this is ritual is a perversion, even to them. Lief's no expert, but judging by the skull he'd bet they're worshippers of Orcus himself, Abyssal Prince of the Undead. The shifter relays this in a hissing whisper to Starn and Vorn.

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Intent: Find something we can exploit in convincing these gnolls to give up their worship of this horrible orb.

Secondary: Perception. r(13)+15 = 28 vs Medium DC 19. Success.
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Complexity 1 SC, Level 11 (DCs 13/19)
Goal: Convince the gnolls to renounce their misplaced faith and join you in destroying their perverse (former) master.
1/4 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/1 Secondary Skills Available/0 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: Perception

 

[hawkeyefan]

Vorn jumps atop a rocky outcropping overlooking the scene. He draws and fires several arrows into the group, but intentionally missing. "Here, demon dogs!" he cries as he fires. A couple turn to him, snarling and angry. He fires again and again, at different parts of the crowd. "Come on, you filthy mongrels!"

A few more turn toward him, and they begin to instinctively gather behind the largest, clearly the alpha now that the pack leader has been obliterated.

"That's right," Vorn calls. "Come and die at the hands of a man! Die in battle rather than becoming a meal for the void! Don't die like your pack leader! Like a coward!"

He fires another arrow, but realizes at this point, that he has their attention. They've all risen, and although a glance is spared here and there at the hanging sphere, they're facing Vorn. They bark at each other in their guttural tongue, and the new leader gestures at Vorn.

____
Intent: to try and pull the gnolls' attention away from the sphere and toward us. To get them to move in our direction, away from the sphere.

Primary: Intimidate r(13) + 9 = 22 vs. Medium DC 19. SUCCESS.
_______

Complexity 1 SC, Level 11 (DCs 13/19)
Goal: Convince the gnolls to renounce their misplaced faith and join you in destroying their perverse (former) master.
2/4 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/1 Secondary Skills Available/0 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: Perception, Intimidate

 

[Grendel_Khan]

LIEF descends the hill as the gnolls ascend it, giving them a wide berth, hoping their attention stays focused on Vorn. As he goes, he keeps his eyes off that looming black shape. Nothing about it makes sense to him. There's a natural order to the world, and to the worlds beyond. Where does something made of nothing fit into that? He can't fight it, can't rage against it. Only avoid it.

He's flanking the gnolls now, below them with stalking close. When they're still a fair distance from Vorn—far enough that the archer can loose a couple arrows if this doesn't work—Lief tosses a pebble at the leader's back. His muzzle swings around, and he chuffs at the rest, who scramble into defensive lines and alternate being yips and growls.

When the leader locks eyes with Lief, the shifter points up past the gnolls, at the wizard.

Everyone's too busy to notice, but behind Lief the orb is gradually getting bigger. Or is it just closer? Given the situation, perspective is useless—reason, too.

-----------------------------
Intent: Flank the gnolls, and let them know he has, to make them pause away—from the orb, and long enough for Starn to make his case to them.

Secondary: Stealth. r(12)+18 = 30 vs Medium DC 19. Success.
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Complexity 1 SC, Level 11 (DCs 13/19)
Goal: Convince the gnolls to renounce their misplaced faith and join you in destroying their perverse (former) master.
3/4 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/1 Secondary Skills Available/0 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: Perception, Intimidate, Stealth

 

[Manbearcat]

Complexity 1 SC, Level 11 (DCs 13/19)
Goal: Convince the gnolls to renounce their misplaced faith and join you in destroying their perverse (former) master.
3/4 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/1 Secondary Skills Available/0 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: Perception, Intimidate, Stealth

The new leader plucks one of Vorn's arrows from the earth and holds it out to show Vorn, then to the flanking Lief, finally to the wizard that Lief demanded the gnoll regard.

He holds the arrow above his head with both hands.

He breaks it in half, slowly and dramatically pulling the rent shaft apart.

He locks gazes with the Wizard, a piece of broken shaft in either hand.

The gnoll takes the two pieces and slowly pantomimes connecting them back together again.

The pack stirs at this gesture.

---

What do you do, Starn? MEDIUM DC.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Starn comes forward and admonished the gnolls. "You have sunk low since the day, a century ago, when your mighty horde stood atop the burning ruins of Nerath! What is this foul thing you serve? Even I, follower of the gods that I am, would join the standard of demon lord rather than this... Aberration. Look at how little its concern for you is. At least in the service of Yeenoghu your lives are spent for something. This, this is nothing! Tomorrow we may be enemies, you might eat our flesh, but today we are all called to a different task, one in which we must unite! Down with the aberrations!"

Starn employs his Arcane Mutterings power to turn this Diplomacy task into an Arcana check. Roll is 13 +17=30 vs Medium DC 19, Success.

Complexity 1 SC, Level 11 (DCs 13/19)
Goal: Convince the gnolls to renounce their misplaced faith and join you in destroying their perverse (former) master.
4/4 Successes/0 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/1 Secondary Skills Available/0 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: Perception, Intimidate, Stealth, Diplomacy

The gnoll pack leader turns and barks at the others, most cringe, but one large female leaps to attack, only to be almost instantly cut down with an expert spear-thrust. The rest begin to howl and bare their throats to their new leader. She looks at Starn and says"Well, meat, do you fight, or just whine like a male? The enemy is upon us!"

The sphere approaches rapidly...