Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Particle_Man" data-source="post: 1974232" data-attributes="member: 892">The troupe goes South, with 12 White Knights in tow.  The first night, the White Knights all stay up all night, none wanting to admit weakness before the others.  In addition, they talk about initiating Sir Andrew into their ranks.  Lady Leanne actually has to use her minstrel suggestion ability on Sir Andrew to make sure he gets enough sleep!  Then they start the first part of the initiation process, during a watch (it is to be bare-handed fighting, then swords, then lances).  11 of the Knights form a circle around Sir Andrew and the 12th takes him on.  But takes off his gauntlet first to reveal a clawed hand…Yes, that’s right!  The White Knights are, in fact, Wight Knights (I can’t resist a good pun).  This is the real reason they didn’t sleep (this is what we in the DM business call a Clue).  So 8 of them go for Sir Andrew and the other 4 go for other characters.  Much combat ensues.  Since the Knights are wearing armor, they have serious armor check penalties.  This means that they actually only ever his Lady Christine (once) and Sir Andrew 3 times (they needed natural 20’s but would have needed that even without the armor check penalty).  Oh, the Wights also boast that they killed the giant Gotch.After the battle, Hobb helps Lady Christine, and Sir Andrew toughs it out and makes his saves the next day (with an Endurance spell to help out).After that, we are introduced to Sir Arbutus (a one-shot knight I stole right out of the back of the book under NPC knights when a player wanted to try out the game). He is charged by Baron Roderick to help in the quest, and was given the fastest horse to catch up.  And to report to Baron Roderick the events that transpired, of course.He also reports good news and bad.  Sir Mordred apparently showed up and did well at the wedding tournament, winning all three events.  But Baron Ivo passed away.Oh, Sir Anton’s player and Prince Hammoton’s player show up, mid-battle.  King Auberon’s magic misfired, and sent Sir Anton to the Arctic (a natural one followed by the same number on a d8 as sent Lady Leanne there earlier – go figure).  He chops a hole in the ice and calls on the Lady of the Lake.  Some fate points later, he gets back to her, and then she sends him to his friends.The party has more dreams.  Of Auberon talking to Cassandra about the dangerous alliance, segwaying into an attack on Camelot by giants riding dragons, and a sorceress leading a pack of Wights.  Arthur dies, and Camelot falls, in the dream.  Also, the sorceress is seen in another dream talking to the young nun, saying “I am disappointed in you”.  The nun screams.  The sorceress’s face is still not seen (a mirror takes the place of the face).  The voice sounds familiar to Lady Leanne, though she can’t quite place it.The group then travels on the trail of the black knight, and come to a large paved clearing surrounding a tower.  A man in black armor, with a black shield, on a brown horse, introduces himself a Melvin, a bastard son of Baron Ivo, and asks who dares to challenge him.  Sir Arbutus takes up the challenge.  Ladies Leanne and Christine cheat like m…that is, they offer their favors to Sir Arbutus and cast spells to buff him up (while he is blissfully unaware).  They get their horses lined up for a joust, charges, and then…Sir Arbutus’s horse (and he) fall into a 10 x 10 x 80 pit covered up by an illusion.  The Black Knight’s horse flies over and attacks Sir Andrew!  The horse is now revealed as black, with flaming hooves and mane, and the ability to breathe smoke!  Like something out of a Nightmare!Since the horse can fly, this puts the party at a disadvantage.  But Lady Christine casts a fly spell on Sir Andrew’s horse, Rebel.  Meanwhile, the Black Knight has nearly killed Hobb and has wounded Cassandra the druid (basically, I did attacks on the people on the ends of the line the party was in, observing the “joust”.  Cassandra changes into an eagle and gets a devastating Chill Metal off on the Black Knight.Eventually, it is mano-mano between the Black Knight and Sir Andrew, with others contributing arrows, spells, etc.  A Wind Wall helps to dispel the smoke of the Nightmare.Some party members go into the tower to try to rescue people.  Inside the cellar they find a blond woman whom they are suspicious of as being unfamiliar.  She is escorted out and runs to the protection of Sir Arbutus (who is finally out of the pit, being helped by Lady Leanne, a rope, and the horse Justice).  They also find the Nun!  (The young one).  She is in a locked room.  Upstairs, they find a room with 6 ducks, a room with an expensive mantle (like a cloak, but fancier), and a room with Lady Anastasia, younger sister of Baron Roderick.  (The ducks were Anastasia’s and effectively held as hostage to her coming with Melvin, and her good behaviour).  The mantle is made of velvet and covered in jewels.  Fit for a king.“You shall fall” – This is what Sir Andrew says after he has been brought to negative hit points and healed by his shield.  He then rolls 2 natural 20’s in a row – a crit, which knocks the Black Knight unconscious!   I don’t know how he does it, but he consistently pulls this off when the chips are down against the big bad evil guy.  After that, there is the mopping up of the Green Hag (the blond woman) and the Nightmare.  The ladder is taunted by Caius to come to the Tower.  And it flies, disappears, and reappears in the tower!  Then Caius cuts off the dead body of the Black Knight with a lucky blow to the saddle strap.  And he uses a grappling hook and rope to jump out the window.  The Nightmare bites the rope, but Lady Leanne on Justice catches Prince Caius.  The Nightmare decides it has had enough for now, and disappears.The ducks are fine.  Just thought people might be concerned.Then there is the interview of the nun, whom the party distrusts.  She says that she was a prisoner because she was trying to break away from her evil mistress, whom she could not name because of her enchantment.  She had stolen the mantle to try to get it to King Arthur to protect him, but she was caught.  She entreats the party to deliver the mantle to King Arthur to save him from the spells of her mistress. Then, to prove herself truthful, she takes off her ring, and turns into a pile of sand, which blows away in a sudden whirlwind.Things of note:  It is really hard to balance things out.  I went for a 12th level villain (fighter 7/black knight 5), which would have killed the party if less people were there.  As it was, it was a near thing for Sir Andrew.  Sir Toby (the tank of the party) was the only one absent this time, although some people were a bit late.  Also, I was a bit worried that party members that didn’t have anything to do were a bit bored at times.  And it did take a while to prep. the villain.  The party has enough people that leveled up that now we have the prestige classes kicking in.  So we have Red, Blue, Green, White and Purple Knights!  The Spectral Knights live!  Time to throw in some more dragons…Oh, I used the “dreamtime” to power up a lot of the magic items of the party.  Caius got improved evasion and the 3x/day feint as a free action on his sword.  Sir Anton got fire resistance 10 and +1 saves on his armor.  Prince Hammoton’s mace is noble, and allows him to intimidate as a free action 3x/day.  Lady Leanne’s ring allows her to use touch spells as short ranged attacks, 3x/day.  Cassandra has a staff that is in permanent Shillelagh mode.  Oh, and Lady Christine was in fairyland and gambled away her ability to cry, but has gained a 5 point mana stone.  Sir Andrew and Sir Toby are buff enough, thanks (although I did speed up Sir Andrew’s speech to normal, so…that…he…no… longer…talked…slow…all…the…time).  And Lady Christine has her super-weasel for her main “item”.</blockquote>

Verification