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Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log
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<blockquote data-quote="J-H" data-source="post: 8952423" data-attributes="member: 7020951"><p><strong>Session 16: 8/28/2021</strong></p><p>Dmitri’s player wasn’t here, but we had someone run the character anyway. We opened with 8 formorians raining from the sky, catching Teador the paladin at the bottom. He Misty Steps out of the bottom of the pile, and the fomorians stand up, spot what looks like food, and the fighting begins. Their psychic-damage evil eye is pretty effective (except on Teador with his +14 Charisma save and Dmitri with his immunity to psychic damage from Ssword). Note that the Evil Eye Curse does take effect on a failed save, even if the damage doesn’t hit. Dmitri and Malamir end up cursed. Malamir snags two of the Fomorians in a Web that lasts the entire battle (DC 20 vs a +0 Dex save and a +6 strength check…they never rolled well enough to escape).</p><p></p><p>All 8 Fomorians get killed off, although they do some clobbering in the meantime. If they were smart and coordinated instead of disoriented and confused, they could probably have brought down one or two characters by focus fire. Two are killed while being trapped by Web, and 3 others while trying to run away.</p><p>The battle is a bit loud.</p><p></p><p>The party heals up a bit, then heads on down the next passage, which shows signs of regular mining/digging at some point in the past, then down another very long ramp down farther underground. Near the bottom of the ramp, they hear someone counting down in Giantish “6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…go!” They book it back up the hall, leaving the fomorian ambush out of range.</p><p></p><p>A couple of arrows with Light on them are shot down the hall, and they can hear someone going “what is it?” in Giantish. Ratel the Monk heads down solo, with Teador following at ~120’ (Darkvision/Message range). He walks up slowly with no weapons drawn and manages to establish basic communication. The fomorians are very wary, especially when he mentions that there are others. They just heard all these scary sounds from above, and now here’s this little person who’s completely unworried and talking about “friends” and “surface” and “Aarakocra” and all sorts of other weird things.</p><p></p><p>He goes to the village alone and talks to a couple of their leaders, and eventually they figure out that he’s there looking for ways to be stronger. An exchange of gifts is determined. The party spends a couple of days using Fabricate to turn the big iron grating into several sets of giant-sized iron tools, to replace the bone tools the Fomorians have been using (the Fomorians have a couple of big mushroom farms and an Underdark-connected lake that they fish in extensively). They also do a bit of instruction on metal care, better tanning for fish hide, etc. They consider trying to get the Formorians to go to the surface, but realize they have 8 giant-sized bodies to hide... that part doesn't go so well. They do eventually Stone Shape away the recurring Symbol of Fear at the base of the elevator, so eventually there's nothing stopping the giants except a 200' vertical climb.</p><p></p><p>This takes 3 days. The Fomorians bring them a small (for them) container with a glowing blue liquid in it, saying it’s from the Fountain of Blessing that makes them tough. Nobody blinks at drinking a “this made us tough” liquid from some deformed giants. There’s enough for 3 doses.</p><p> </p><p>Ratel the monk immediately chugs it and falls asleep. Teador the Paladin follows up by doing the same, and his player, who’s running Dmitri the Barbarian, says Dmitri would do so as well. They sleep for 8 hours, and the other 2 party members decide not to disturb their rest. The “Fountain of Blessing” has 3 effects, two beneficial and one negative. The +2 Constitution is fixed, and the others were a “roll to see what happens.” Here are the results:</p><p></p><p>Ratel (monk):</p><p>Constitution +2 (incl raising max)</p><p>Intelligence -2</p><p>Resistant to radiant damage, 20% of skin covered by jet black patches</p><p>Teador (Paladin):</p><p>Constitution +2 (incl max up)</p><p>Cha -2</p><p>Resistant to poison damage, 20% of skin covered with brown and yellow dots</p><p></p><p>Dmitri (Barbarian):</p><p>Constitution +2 (incl raising max)</p><p>Cha -2</p><p>Resistant to fire damage, burnt orange patches on 20% of skin</p><p></p><p>Ratel has a Headband of Intellect, so the downside on this doesn’t impact him at all. Radiant resistance is pretty good considering some of the enemies the party faces, too. Teador’s loss of Charisma hurts (reduced from 18 to 16), and Dmitri the paladin’s charisma is now down to only 6, but he’s got a LOT of hit points. Dmitri used to wear a Breastplate of Fire Resistance, so I’m pretty sure he’ll be happy with this. </p><p></p><p><strong>Session 17: 9/12/2021</strong></p><p></p><p>Two people felt sick, so we did this via discord.</p><p></p><p>The party headed towards Oztalun the aboleth to see about getting scrying-blockers. On the way, they explore and find an old mine-turned-living-space where something came out of a mirror and apparently killed everyone there several months ago. The place had been thoroughly looted.</p><p></p><p>They continue to explore and found a fog-covered valley inhabited by some druids. One of the druids spots a scrying sensor and kills it for them. They decide to leave to avoid bringing trouble down, and start discussing item-making, missing the chance to talk to the druids more and realize that the valley contains portals to the elemental planes.</p><p></p><p>I have the artificer roll an arcana check (22) and provide a link to the Amulet of Protection from Detection and Location. We start discussing special components to craft the amulets, and Nondetection only takes powdered gemstones, so…they’re crafted pretty fast.</p><p></p><p>They go on to assault the Temple of Tezcatlipoca, the god of death and cold. On the way, we hit day 100, and they see a big beam of light from the sun down towards the direction of the Aarakocra capital city that persists for about 30 minutes. The potential fight at the high temple of Huitzopochtli has gotten its first upgrade, as the flow of sacrifices has not been interrupted at all. There’s a continuing additive process going on in the background on the calendar.</p><p></p><p>The party decides to strike at noon. Ratel the monk flies up on his broom, keeping himself between the sun and town, and at about noon, drops 20 alchemist’s fires on the garrison, air-skiffs, and town, then drops himself down (Skyfall Boots), shattering one of the small barracks buildings. The rest of the party, meanwhile, approaches from the north and goes up to the top of the temple to enter through the skylight-type opening. Monks are fast, so with everyone moving around and in position, Ratel is delayed by 6 rounds.</p><p></p><p>The party drops down into a room full of magical darkness – but Teador the Paladin has a magic eye, Reybella the cleric uses True Sight, and Malamir the artificer has mounted his Gem of Seeing on his power armor. Dmitri the paladin can use Ssword’s divine sense as blindsight against enemies.</p><p></p><p>What followed was a long and massive battle with incredible carnage. The High Priest arrived late (round 3? Round 4?), having been alerted by his god only when the party was very close. The party fought a total of:</p><p>1 high priest, who cast Power Word Kill twice, Danse Macabre, and then got into melee with spirit shroud and 4 attacks per round, which went well until he got critted and shredded.</p><p>3 senior priests (2 escaped via Word of Recall), who put out 2 or 3 Cones of Cold, about a half-dozen Blights, 3 Harms, and I don’t recall what else.</p><p>4 acolytes who landed a Bane and a Hold Person but otherwise mostly didn’t have high enough DCs (2 escaped). By the time they had stuff to Counterspell, they were mostly dead.</p><p>5 shadow cats (1 dead, 4 escaped at <40hp via shadow stepping and mirror walking)</p><p>7 spellcasting skeletons (CR2, +6 to hit was not very useful)</p><p>5 regular skeletons raised by danse macabre</p><p>1 altar that casts Finger of Death every round on initiative count 20.</p><p></p><p>There were, if I recall correctly, four player character deaths, plus Dmitri the zealot spending most of the fight at 0hp and accumulating failed death saves, plus 2 PCs Banished and two or 3 PCs held at various times (usually briefly)</p><p></p><p>Around round 3 or 4, he had the bright idea of stabbing Ssword into the altar. This was one of the few ways of damaging the altar (nobody ever did a “hey, what would work?” question that would have triggered a moderately easy Religion check). This left Dmitri at disadvantage in the dark, as he lost his blindsight. He gamely swung away anyway, Recklessly attacking and taking quite a few hits.</p><p></p><p>Over the next 3-4 rounds, the altar had a 50% chance to fail to cast Finger of Death. At initiative count 20 on the 4th round, the altar exploded, dealing 8d6 (24) necrotic damage to all priests in the room, and dropping the shroud of darkness in the entire temple. </p><p></p><p>Ssword wanted to be stabbed into the high priest’s heart after the high priest got killed by Teador the Paladin. Now Ssword can cast Inflict Wounds on hit twice per day, and Cure Wounds (2d8+4) twice per day.</p><p></p><p>This whole time they have been fighting in one room. We end at a bit after midnight, and rather than choose to stay and take on the rest of the temple, the party will retreat (almost), leaving a dead high priest and shattered altar behind, but the rest of the temple intact.</p><p></p><p>Teador the paladin explicitly picked up the high priest’s corpse to take with them. In addition to taking the loot, they are going to do what they can to prevent resurrection.</p><p></p><p>Ratel the monk gets on his flying broom and is going to charge the garrison in town, then drop into town and wreak some carnage before trying to run away to meet up with the party. I will have to run the numbers, but I think he may get himself killed doing this. It depends on how many casters are with the patrols present and if any of them can land a Hold Person.</p><p></p><p>It was actually really convenient to do this on Discord, as I had a map spreadsheet available to move enemies outside the room around on, and could use Excel to do my math for me.</p><p></p><p>Loot:</p><p>Breastplate +1</p><p> Shield +1 </p><p>Spear +2 </p><p>Ring of Spell Turning</p><p><strong>Nightcloak</strong></p><p>Rare, requires attunement</p><p>This black cape has faint grey spots, like those of a hunting cat. The wearer is immune to the Blinded condition. In darkness or dim light, the wearer can turn Invisible (as the spell, but without Concentration required) as an action.</p><p></p><p><strong>Session 17b: 9/20-9/22/2021</strong></p><p>We did this over Discord chat.</p><p></p><p>Ratel the monk’s player decided to not go “assassin mode” by charging the village, but instead to run due east, stopping and setting fires every so often. I tracked movement round by round until it became pointless. A 60’ move speed monk (dash 120’) vs 50’ move speed Aarakocra (dash 100’) makes for a big difference over time.</p><p></p><p>It has been about 2 minutes since his dynamic landing.</p><p></p><p>Approximately 200 civilians are flying around in the village at low altitude. </p><p></p><p>All Aarakocra troops are out and about, but some are still fastening on armor. The guards at the prison are on high alert.</p><p>Both air-skiffs have lifted off.</p><p>Daytime forces of 40 Aarakocra:</p><p>20 Guardsmen</p><p>10 subcommanders</p><p>5 Champions</p><p>3 sun acolytes</p><p>2 war priests</p><p>1 senior priest</p><p></p><p>Ratel heads due east setting fires and firing arrows. A patrol in a nearby (eastern ish) hex is vectored on to him by Sending and/or the scryers from the temple (they can't scry him, but can scry friendlies). It has been about 2 minutes since his dynamic landing.</p><p></p><p>Approximately 200 civilians are flying around in the village at low altitude. </p><p></p><p>All Aarakocra troops are out and about, but some are still fastening on armor. The guards at the prison are on high alert.</p><p>Both air-skiffs have lifted off.</p><p>Daytime forces of 40 Aarakocra:</p><p>20 Guardsmen</p><p>10 subcommanders</p><p>5 Champions</p><p>3 sun acolytes</p><p>2 war priests</p><p>1 senior priest</p><p></p><p>Ratel heads due east setting fires and firing arrows. He continually pulls slightly away from the Aarakocra by dashing. A patrol in a nearby (eastern-ish) hex is vectored on to him by Sending and/or the scryers from the temple (they can't scry him, but can scry friendlies).</p><p>Patrol difficulty:</p><p>1-2 Pat 1</p><p>3-5 Pat 2</p><p>5-8 Pat 3</p><p>9-10 Pat 4</p><p>(roll) 6</p><p></p><p>Time for appearing is 2d10 minutes (16), which would be near the edge of the hex.</p><p>Patrol 3:</p><p>2 guards: stay with air-skiff</p><p>4 subcommanders 1 stays with air-skiff</p><p>So total is.</p><p>3 subcommanders hp 48</p><p>3 champions hp 96</p><p>1 wizard </p><p>1 senior priest {Tez}</p><p>Tactics: No heal, just disable/kill. They’re mad and focused on killing enemies.</p><p></p><p>I have him roll perception to see how far away the inbound hostiles are in front of him when he spots them. With his Cragtop bow, his long range is 1200’. The enemies close at 100’/rd (dashing) towards him, while he’s either dashing (120’) or going normal speed (60’) plus firing.</p><p>I used average damage for his bow shots at long range to speed things up.</p><p></p><p>Round 1:</p><p>Front Distance 1200', close by 160'</p><p>Pursuit Distance 1200', close by 40'</p><p>1 champion hit for 12+12=24 damage</p><p></p><p>Round 2:</p><p>Front Distance 1040', close by 160'</p><p>Pursuit Distance 1160', close by 40'</p><p>same target hit 1x for 12 damage, 1 miss</p><p></p><p>Round 3:</p><p>Front Distance 880', close by 160'</p><p>Pursuit Distance 1120', close by 40'</p><p>Different target hit 2x for 24 damage</p><p></p><p></p><p>Round 4:</p><p>Front Distance 720', close by 160'</p><p>Pursuit Distance 1080', close by 40'</p><p>2x misses</p><p></p><p>Round 5:</p><p>Front Distance 560', close by 160'</p><p>Pursuit Distance 1040', close by 40'</p><p>2 hits for 24 damage to one target</p><p></p><p>Round 6:</p><p>Front Distance 400', close by 160'</p><p>Pursuit Distance 1000', close by 40'</p><p>1 hit/1 miss against a different target.</p><p></p><p>Round 7:</p><p>Front Distance 240', close by 160'</p><p>Pursuit Distance 960', close by 40'</p><p>2 arrows fired at wizard, blocked by Shield</p><p></p><p>Round 8:</p><p>Front Distance 80', close by 160'</p><p>Pursuit Distance 920', close by 40'</p><p>2 arrows fired, killed wizard with purple worm-poison laden arrows.</p><p></p><p>Round 9:</p><p>Front Distance 30', close by 50' as they descend</p><p>Pursuit Distance 920', close by 40'</p><p>Subcommanders 6x atl-atl at +8 for 1d8+4+1d6, 5 misses, 1 deflected</p><p>Champion 6x javelin +9 to hit for 2d6+4, 4 misses, 2 hit for 28</p><p>Tezcatlipoca priest casts Cone of Cold, 31 damage</p><p>Ratel Dashes 120'</p><p></p><p>Round 10:</p><p>Front Distance 90', close by 50' to 40' range; no more plunging fire</p><p>Pursuit Distance 940', pull away by 20'</p><p>Subcommanders 6x atl-atl at +6 for 1d8+4 1 hit deflected, rest miss</p><p>Champion 6x javelin +7 to hit for 1d6+4 all miss</p><p>Tezcatlipoca priest casts Hold Person, save failed. Uses Diamond Soul to succeed.</p><p>Ratel dashes 120'</p><p></p><p>Round 11:</p><p>Front group Distance 210', close by 50' to 160' range, except Champions close by 100' to 110'range</p><p>Pursuit Distance 960', pull away by 20'</p><p>Ratel dashes 120'. Out of range of clerics and champions, atl-atl users can't reliably hit enough to overcome deflection.</p><p></p><p>After just 11 rounds, he’s zoomed past them, and is pulling away!</p><p></p><p>In retrospect, I could have used the chase rule from the DMG of dashing 3+CON times and then having to make a DC 10 Con save to avoid exhaustion. However, this would have applied equally to the monk and the Aarakocra, so he still would have pulled away. What about the incoming patrol that intercepted him from the front? I already had them heading back at maximum speed (dashing) as well.</p><p>At most, it would have added one round of time-on-target for them. Ratel as a high-level wood elf monk was still faster.</p><p></p><p>This is a nice case that shows why white-room optimization doesn’t cover all the bases. The only other ways I can think of for a character to keep up such a high ground speed for an entire hour are:</p><p>1) A shapeshifted druid</p><p>2) Ann arcane caster stacking Longstrider (+10’ speed) and Expeditious Retreat (granting dash as a bonus action for up to 10 minutes per casting) to triple dash for 120’rd until the caster runs out of spell slots or loses concentration</p><p>3) A rogue triple-dashing (90’, 105’ wood elf, 120’ tabaxi).</p><p></p><p>I found it a bit ridiculous but also awesome.</p><p></p><p>He travels for 2 hours in the Cursed Forest (dim light, difficult terrain, lots of spooky and dead plants) without stealth. Random encounter rolls, he picks up a Shadow Cat that just decides to follow him. </p><p></p><p>He stops to survey the terrain with his spyglass. Roll: Shadow Cat gets a natural 20 on its Wisdom check to not attack.</p><p>Ratel’s perception was 9+4 to spot the shadow cat while he was stopped</p><p>Shadow cat natural 20 + 13 to stay hidden and spying.</p><p>Ratel then stealthily proceeds into the jungle, and I roll for random encounters. He gets a troop of monkeys and a low roll to not spot them until he's in the middle of the group. He slowly backs out and away, which is a good response that does not provoke the monkeys into a poo-flinging loud riot that could draw attention.</p><p>I roll more random encounter dice and get another troop of monkeys and a couple of "nothing" responses, so he then settles in at the north end of the hex to await the party that evening….</p><p>But he still has a Shadow Cat tailing him, so the party will get attacked.</p><p></p><p>The next attack force would either be an adventuring-party configuration of Aarakocra elites (a monk, barbarian, sorcerer, etc.) or would be one where they get a Helm of Teleportation if they fight off their attackers. I don't want to keep them from exploring north, so I'll hold off on this and have the Shadow Cat pace them at a distance using its high move speed (50'/rd + 30' shadow to shadow teleport). It's a fiend, so it doesn't tire.</p><p>Of course, Ssword pings on Shadow Cats, so when the party meets up with Ratel, they may notice it, if it strays too close. I'll roll dice throughout the next session to see if they spot it.</p><p></p><p>If not, it'll follow them for a few days until I feel the time is right for an Aarakocra party using the Helm of Teleportation to bamf in and attack them. At this point, access to teleportation doesn’t exist only because their only primary caster is a cleric, and clerics don’t have anything good for same-plane transportation.</p><p></p><p>Also, I roll 4d6 for random encounters while the party rests and they get nothing, so they're going to level up to 16. They're a bit short by XP, but I use milestone leveling, and they passed the minimum requirements (destroy altar & kill high priest).</p><p></p><p>In theory, they could move very quickly with surgical strikes and finish out the campaign in a few battles. In reality, none of the other temples are nearly as easy to reach - all of them are in the middle of larger cities, with the exception of the main temple of Huitzopochtli, which backs up to a lake. I'm kind of hoping they sneak up to that one underwater when the time comes, because it's a really cool moment to create, and totally possible (especially if they get the rest of the Panoply of the Shark).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="J-H, post: 8952423, member: 7020951"] [B]Session 16: 8/28/2021[/B] Dmitri’s player wasn’t here, but we had someone run the character anyway. We opened with 8 formorians raining from the sky, catching Teador the paladin at the bottom. He Misty Steps out of the bottom of the pile, and the fomorians stand up, spot what looks like food, and the fighting begins. Their psychic-damage evil eye is pretty effective (except on Teador with his +14 Charisma save and Dmitri with his immunity to psychic damage from Ssword). Note that the Evil Eye Curse does take effect on a failed save, even if the damage doesn’t hit. Dmitri and Malamir end up cursed. Malamir snags two of the Fomorians in a Web that lasts the entire battle (DC 20 vs a +0 Dex save and a +6 strength check…they never rolled well enough to escape). All 8 Fomorians get killed off, although they do some clobbering in the meantime. If they were smart and coordinated instead of disoriented and confused, they could probably have brought down one or two characters by focus fire. Two are killed while being trapped by Web, and 3 others while trying to run away. The battle is a bit loud. The party heals up a bit, then heads on down the next passage, which shows signs of regular mining/digging at some point in the past, then down another very long ramp down farther underground. Near the bottom of the ramp, they hear someone counting down in Giantish “6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…go!” They book it back up the hall, leaving the fomorian ambush out of range. A couple of arrows with Light on them are shot down the hall, and they can hear someone going “what is it?” in Giantish. Ratel the Monk heads down solo, with Teador following at ~120’ (Darkvision/Message range). He walks up slowly with no weapons drawn and manages to establish basic communication. The fomorians are very wary, especially when he mentions that there are others. They just heard all these scary sounds from above, and now here’s this little person who’s completely unworried and talking about “friends” and “surface” and “Aarakocra” and all sorts of other weird things. He goes to the village alone and talks to a couple of their leaders, and eventually they figure out that he’s there looking for ways to be stronger. An exchange of gifts is determined. The party spends a couple of days using Fabricate to turn the big iron grating into several sets of giant-sized iron tools, to replace the bone tools the Fomorians have been using (the Fomorians have a couple of big mushroom farms and an Underdark-connected lake that they fish in extensively). They also do a bit of instruction on metal care, better tanning for fish hide, etc. They consider trying to get the Formorians to go to the surface, but realize they have 8 giant-sized bodies to hide... that part doesn't go so well. They do eventually Stone Shape away the recurring Symbol of Fear at the base of the elevator, so eventually there's nothing stopping the giants except a 200' vertical climb. This takes 3 days. The Fomorians bring them a small (for them) container with a glowing blue liquid in it, saying it’s from the Fountain of Blessing that makes them tough. Nobody blinks at drinking a “this made us tough” liquid from some deformed giants. There’s enough for 3 doses. Ratel the monk immediately chugs it and falls asleep. Teador the Paladin follows up by doing the same, and his player, who’s running Dmitri the Barbarian, says Dmitri would do so as well. They sleep for 8 hours, and the other 2 party members decide not to disturb their rest. The “Fountain of Blessing” has 3 effects, two beneficial and one negative. The +2 Constitution is fixed, and the others were a “roll to see what happens.” Here are the results: Ratel (monk): Constitution +2 (incl raising max) Intelligence -2 Resistant to radiant damage, 20% of skin covered by jet black patches Teador (Paladin): Constitution +2 (incl max up) Cha -2 Resistant to poison damage, 20% of skin covered with brown and yellow dots Dmitri (Barbarian): Constitution +2 (incl raising max) Cha -2 Resistant to fire damage, burnt orange patches on 20% of skin Ratel has a Headband of Intellect, so the downside on this doesn’t impact him at all. Radiant resistance is pretty good considering some of the enemies the party faces, too. Teador’s loss of Charisma hurts (reduced from 18 to 16), and Dmitri the paladin’s charisma is now down to only 6, but he’s got a LOT of hit points. Dmitri used to wear a Breastplate of Fire Resistance, so I’m pretty sure he’ll be happy with this. [B]Session 17: 9/12/2021[/B] Two people felt sick, so we did this via discord. The party headed towards Oztalun the aboleth to see about getting scrying-blockers. On the way, they explore and find an old mine-turned-living-space where something came out of a mirror and apparently killed everyone there several months ago. The place had been thoroughly looted. They continue to explore and found a fog-covered valley inhabited by some druids. One of the druids spots a scrying sensor and kills it for them. They decide to leave to avoid bringing trouble down, and start discussing item-making, missing the chance to talk to the druids more and realize that the valley contains portals to the elemental planes. I have the artificer roll an arcana check (22) and provide a link to the Amulet of Protection from Detection and Location. We start discussing special components to craft the amulets, and Nondetection only takes powdered gemstones, so…they’re crafted pretty fast. They go on to assault the Temple of Tezcatlipoca, the god of death and cold. On the way, we hit day 100, and they see a big beam of light from the sun down towards the direction of the Aarakocra capital city that persists for about 30 minutes. The potential fight at the high temple of Huitzopochtli has gotten its first upgrade, as the flow of sacrifices has not been interrupted at all. There’s a continuing additive process going on in the background on the calendar. The party decides to strike at noon. Ratel the monk flies up on his broom, keeping himself between the sun and town, and at about noon, drops 20 alchemist’s fires on the garrison, air-skiffs, and town, then drops himself down (Skyfall Boots), shattering one of the small barracks buildings. The rest of the party, meanwhile, approaches from the north and goes up to the top of the temple to enter through the skylight-type opening. Monks are fast, so with everyone moving around and in position, Ratel is delayed by 6 rounds. The party drops down into a room full of magical darkness – but Teador the Paladin has a magic eye, Reybella the cleric uses True Sight, and Malamir the artificer has mounted his Gem of Seeing on his power armor. Dmitri the paladin can use Ssword’s divine sense as blindsight against enemies. What followed was a long and massive battle with incredible carnage. The High Priest arrived late (round 3? Round 4?), having been alerted by his god only when the party was very close. The party fought a total of: 1 high priest, who cast Power Word Kill twice, Danse Macabre, and then got into melee with spirit shroud and 4 attacks per round, which went well until he got critted and shredded. 3 senior priests (2 escaped via Word of Recall), who put out 2 or 3 Cones of Cold, about a half-dozen Blights, 3 Harms, and I don’t recall what else. 4 acolytes who landed a Bane and a Hold Person but otherwise mostly didn’t have high enough DCs (2 escaped). By the time they had stuff to Counterspell, they were mostly dead. 5 shadow cats (1 dead, 4 escaped at <40hp via shadow stepping and mirror walking) 7 spellcasting skeletons (CR2, +6 to hit was not very useful) 5 regular skeletons raised by danse macabre 1 altar that casts Finger of Death every round on initiative count 20. There were, if I recall correctly, four player character deaths, plus Dmitri the zealot spending most of the fight at 0hp and accumulating failed death saves, plus 2 PCs Banished and two or 3 PCs held at various times (usually briefly) Around round 3 or 4, he had the bright idea of stabbing Ssword into the altar. This was one of the few ways of damaging the altar (nobody ever did a “hey, what would work?” question that would have triggered a moderately easy Religion check). This left Dmitri at disadvantage in the dark, as he lost his blindsight. He gamely swung away anyway, Recklessly attacking and taking quite a few hits. Over the next 3-4 rounds, the altar had a 50% chance to fail to cast Finger of Death. At initiative count 20 on the 4th round, the altar exploded, dealing 8d6 (24) necrotic damage to all priests in the room, and dropping the shroud of darkness in the entire temple. Ssword wanted to be stabbed into the high priest’s heart after the high priest got killed by Teador the Paladin. Now Ssword can cast Inflict Wounds on hit twice per day, and Cure Wounds (2d8+4) twice per day. This whole time they have been fighting in one room. We end at a bit after midnight, and rather than choose to stay and take on the rest of the temple, the party will retreat (almost), leaving a dead high priest and shattered altar behind, but the rest of the temple intact. Teador the paladin explicitly picked up the high priest’s corpse to take with them. In addition to taking the loot, they are going to do what they can to prevent resurrection. Ratel the monk gets on his flying broom and is going to charge the garrison in town, then drop into town and wreak some carnage before trying to run away to meet up with the party. I will have to run the numbers, but I think he may get himself killed doing this. It depends on how many casters are with the patrols present and if any of them can land a Hold Person. It was actually really convenient to do this on Discord, as I had a map spreadsheet available to move enemies outside the room around on, and could use Excel to do my math for me. Loot: Breastplate +1 Shield +1 Spear +2 Ring of Spell Turning [B]Nightcloak[/B] Rare, requires attunement This black cape has faint grey spots, like those of a hunting cat. The wearer is immune to the Blinded condition. In darkness or dim light, the wearer can turn Invisible (as the spell, but without Concentration required) as an action. [B]Session 17b: 9/20-9/22/2021[/B] We did this over Discord chat. Ratel the monk’s player decided to not go “assassin mode” by charging the village, but instead to run due east, stopping and setting fires every so often. I tracked movement round by round until it became pointless. A 60’ move speed monk (dash 120’) vs 50’ move speed Aarakocra (dash 100’) makes for a big difference over time. It has been about 2 minutes since his dynamic landing. Approximately 200 civilians are flying around in the village at low altitude. All Aarakocra troops are out and about, but some are still fastening on armor. The guards at the prison are on high alert. Both air-skiffs have lifted off. Daytime forces of 40 Aarakocra: 20 Guardsmen 10 subcommanders 5 Champions 3 sun acolytes 2 war priests 1 senior priest Ratel heads due east setting fires and firing arrows. A patrol in a nearby (eastern ish) hex is vectored on to him by Sending and/or the scryers from the temple (they can't scry him, but can scry friendlies). It has been about 2 minutes since his dynamic landing. Approximately 200 civilians are flying around in the village at low altitude. All Aarakocra troops are out and about, but some are still fastening on armor. The guards at the prison are on high alert. Both air-skiffs have lifted off. Daytime forces of 40 Aarakocra: 20 Guardsmen 10 subcommanders 5 Champions 3 sun acolytes 2 war priests 1 senior priest Ratel heads due east setting fires and firing arrows. He continually pulls slightly away from the Aarakocra by dashing. A patrol in a nearby (eastern-ish) hex is vectored on to him by Sending and/or the scryers from the temple (they can't scry him, but can scry friendlies). Patrol difficulty: 1-2 Pat 1 3-5 Pat 2 5-8 Pat 3 9-10 Pat 4 (roll) 6 Time for appearing is 2d10 minutes (16), which would be near the edge of the hex. Patrol 3: 2 guards: stay with air-skiff 4 subcommanders 1 stays with air-skiff So total is. 3 subcommanders hp 48 3 champions hp 96 1 wizard 1 senior priest {Tez} Tactics: No heal, just disable/kill. They’re mad and focused on killing enemies. I have him roll perception to see how far away the inbound hostiles are in front of him when he spots them. With his Cragtop bow, his long range is 1200’. The enemies close at 100’/rd (dashing) towards him, while he’s either dashing (120’) or going normal speed (60’) plus firing. I used average damage for his bow shots at long range to speed things up. Round 1: Front Distance 1200', close by 160' Pursuit Distance 1200', close by 40' 1 champion hit for 12+12=24 damage Round 2: Front Distance 1040', close by 160' Pursuit Distance 1160', close by 40' same target hit 1x for 12 damage, 1 miss Round 3: Front Distance 880', close by 160' Pursuit Distance 1120', close by 40' Different target hit 2x for 24 damage Round 4: Front Distance 720', close by 160' Pursuit Distance 1080', close by 40' 2x misses Round 5: Front Distance 560', close by 160' Pursuit Distance 1040', close by 40' 2 hits for 24 damage to one target Round 6: Front Distance 400', close by 160' Pursuit Distance 1000', close by 40' 1 hit/1 miss against a different target. Round 7: Front Distance 240', close by 160' Pursuit Distance 960', close by 40' 2 arrows fired at wizard, blocked by Shield Round 8: Front Distance 80', close by 160' Pursuit Distance 920', close by 40' 2 arrows fired, killed wizard with purple worm-poison laden arrows. Round 9: Front Distance 30', close by 50' as they descend Pursuit Distance 920', close by 40' Subcommanders 6x atl-atl at +8 for 1d8+4+1d6, 5 misses, 1 deflected Champion 6x javelin +9 to hit for 2d6+4, 4 misses, 2 hit for 28 Tezcatlipoca priest casts Cone of Cold, 31 damage Ratel Dashes 120' Round 10: Front Distance 90', close by 50' to 40' range; no more plunging fire Pursuit Distance 940', pull away by 20' Subcommanders 6x atl-atl at +6 for 1d8+4 1 hit deflected, rest miss Champion 6x javelin +7 to hit for 1d6+4 all miss Tezcatlipoca priest casts Hold Person, save failed. Uses Diamond Soul to succeed. Ratel dashes 120' Round 11: Front group Distance 210', close by 50' to 160' range, except Champions close by 100' to 110'range Pursuit Distance 960', pull away by 20' Ratel dashes 120'. Out of range of clerics and champions, atl-atl users can't reliably hit enough to overcome deflection. After just 11 rounds, he’s zoomed past them, and is pulling away! In retrospect, I could have used the chase rule from the DMG of dashing 3+CON times and then having to make a DC 10 Con save to avoid exhaustion. However, this would have applied equally to the monk and the Aarakocra, so he still would have pulled away. What about the incoming patrol that intercepted him from the front? I already had them heading back at maximum speed (dashing) as well. At most, it would have added one round of time-on-target for them. Ratel as a high-level wood elf monk was still faster. This is a nice case that shows why white-room optimization doesn’t cover all the bases. The only other ways I can think of for a character to keep up such a high ground speed for an entire hour are: 1) A shapeshifted druid 2) Ann arcane caster stacking Longstrider (+10’ speed) and Expeditious Retreat (granting dash as a bonus action for up to 10 minutes per casting) to triple dash for 120’rd until the caster runs out of spell slots or loses concentration 3) A rogue triple-dashing (90’, 105’ wood elf, 120’ tabaxi). I found it a bit ridiculous but also awesome. He travels for 2 hours in the Cursed Forest (dim light, difficult terrain, lots of spooky and dead plants) without stealth. Random encounter rolls, he picks up a Shadow Cat that just decides to follow him. He stops to survey the terrain with his spyglass. Roll: Shadow Cat gets a natural 20 on its Wisdom check to not attack. Ratel’s perception was 9+4 to spot the shadow cat while he was stopped Shadow cat natural 20 + 13 to stay hidden and spying. Ratel then stealthily proceeds into the jungle, and I roll for random encounters. He gets a troop of monkeys and a low roll to not spot them until he's in the middle of the group. He slowly backs out and away, which is a good response that does not provoke the monkeys into a poo-flinging loud riot that could draw attention. I roll more random encounter dice and get another troop of monkeys and a couple of "nothing" responses, so he then settles in at the north end of the hex to await the party that evening…. But he still has a Shadow Cat tailing him, so the party will get attacked. The next attack force would either be an adventuring-party configuration of Aarakocra elites (a monk, barbarian, sorcerer, etc.) or would be one where they get a Helm of Teleportation if they fight off their attackers. I don't want to keep them from exploring north, so I'll hold off on this and have the Shadow Cat pace them at a distance using its high move speed (50'/rd + 30' shadow to shadow teleport). It's a fiend, so it doesn't tire. Of course, Ssword pings on Shadow Cats, so when the party meets up with Ratel, they may notice it, if it strays too close. I'll roll dice throughout the next session to see if they spot it. If not, it'll follow them for a few days until I feel the time is right for an Aarakocra party using the Helm of Teleportation to bamf in and attack them. At this point, access to teleportation doesn’t exist only because their only primary caster is a cleric, and clerics don’t have anything good for same-plane transportation. Also, I roll 4d6 for random encounters while the party rests and they get nothing, so they're going to level up to 16. They're a bit short by XP, but I use milestone leveling, and they passed the minimum requirements (destroy altar & kill high priest). In theory, they could move very quickly with surgical strikes and finish out the campaign in a few battles. In reality, none of the other temples are nearly as easy to reach - all of them are in the middle of larger cities, with the exception of the main temple of Huitzopochtli, which backs up to a lake. I'm kind of hoping they sneak up to that one underwater when the time comes, because it's a really cool moment to create, and totally possible (especially if they get the rest of the Panoply of the Shark). [/QUOTE]
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Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log
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