City of Brass: Author Playtest Notes
- Thread starter bowbe
- Start date
bowbe
First Post
Zach started about midway to the end of the saga when the book was finally in layout and try as we might we didn't get him in to playtesters on time 
This always happens and someone invariably gets missed, be it a contributor you forgot, or a playtester. As you can imagine layout on a project like this is a real beast and involves getting all the artists, cartographers and everything clicking at the same time, and ready to send to the printer many (up to 4 in some cases) months before it shows up on our doorstep. We all do our best to try to get them in somewhere. I did get him in for DCC #46, so that was a bit of a consolation.
As to a "Better philosophy", my main point is that I've been running off and on for 25 years. Back when I ran 1ed AD&D frost giants lair, those guys figured out quick that trying to kill EVERY giant would quickly lead to their doom. So I guess sometimes infiltration, hit and run, and knowing how to pick your fight in an enemy stronghold is vastly superior to trying to take out everything you encounter.
As a side note (and not to start a flamewar or derail the saga at hand) I find it interesting the talk of the 4ed developers about "having to stop and rest because you are out of juice". I really like those guys, but I have to say that line of thought is bubkis. It ignores designed in utilities that have existed now for many many years and in some cases many incarnations of D&D like wands, rods, staves, potions, scrolls, relics, artifacts, feats, and miscelanous magic items that have ALWAYS served the purpose of keeping the adventure going so that the casters can reserve their muscular spells for important encounters. It also stands to reason that the higher level you are the more of this sort of thing you have on hand! Obviously all that cool stuff is worthless. But I digress. As the saga I relate points out, this band of now 13th level characters had no opportunity to rest during their assault on the Pyramid of Set, and didn't just "barely manage." They didn't "Rope Trick or Leo's Hut" to rest because the place would have been even more swarming with enemies when they awoke. They kicked some major butt by using their brains and came up with creative ways to escape desperate situations!
As to FunkBGR's question... yeah they absolutely had a blast. By the time Glandril handed Ard back his ceremonial silver dagger, it looked more like a butter knife worn down to the handle! The guys STILL talk about that and it happened almost 2 years ago.
Case
This always happens and someone invariably gets missed, be it a contributor you forgot, or a playtester. As you can imagine layout on a project like this is a real beast and involves getting all the artists, cartographers and everything clicking at the same time, and ready to send to the printer many (up to 4 in some cases) months before it shows up on our doorstep. We all do our best to try to get them in somewhere. I did get him in for DCC #46, so that was a bit of a consolation.
As to a "Better philosophy", my main point is that I've been running off and on for 25 years. Back when I ran 1ed AD&D frost giants lair, those guys figured out quick that trying to kill EVERY giant would quickly lead to their doom. So I guess sometimes infiltration, hit and run, and knowing how to pick your fight in an enemy stronghold is vastly superior to trying to take out everything you encounter.
As a side note (and not to start a flamewar or derail the saga at hand) I find it interesting the talk of the 4ed developers about "having to stop and rest because you are out of juice". I really like those guys, but I have to say that line of thought is bubkis. It ignores designed in utilities that have existed now for many many years and in some cases many incarnations of D&D like wands, rods, staves, potions, scrolls, relics, artifacts, feats, and miscelanous magic items that have ALWAYS served the purpose of keeping the adventure going so that the casters can reserve their muscular spells for important encounters. It also stands to reason that the higher level you are the more of this sort of thing you have on hand! Obviously all that cool stuff is worthless. But I digress. As the saga I relate points out, this band of now 13th level characters had no opportunity to rest during their assault on the Pyramid of Set, and didn't just "barely manage." They didn't "Rope Trick or Leo's Hut" to rest because the place would have been even more swarming with enemies when they awoke. They kicked some major butt by using their brains and came up with creative ways to escape desperate situations!
As to FunkBGR's question... yeah they absolutely had a blast. By the time Glandril handed Ard back his ceremonial silver dagger, it looked more like a butter knife worn down to the handle! The guys STILL talk about that and it happened almost 2 years ago.
Case
Last edited:
bowbe
First Post
Battling the High Priest of Set
So the PCs take a breather, heal up, use potions do what they have to do, and charge back up the stairs, to the chamber where the statue of Set did them solid damage, and land smack face to face with the priests and black jackals of Set that they had already faced in the mid level.
Flashes of explosive magic, summoned creatures and Death abound... Of course Glandril is still in the thick of things with the silver dagger, The other two fighters continue to grapple, and the psion depletes his psionic energy putting the dogs down once and for all. Elandrin goes about collecting their black ankhs of set, detecting evil on them to determine and so on. Since they are evil, and he is chaotic good, he intends to ritally destroy them in order to please his God. Ard makes fun of him for being such a girl (he isn't) but its a running joke.
They head up the stairs, and Sam Qenton 2 manages to disable a death trap but misses the curse scribed on the ceiling. Woops on that. Everyone makes will saves vs. the Curse of Set and Ard and Rhy end up recieving the black mark, meaning if they die, they become mummy lords! Oh no! Sounds like a great plot hook to get the curse removed, as this is no ordinary curse!
The party pushes into the chamber of Retep Inkusad, Viceroy of Set. Retep rises from his sarcophagi, upon his face is the mask of Ancev, a golden burial mask once worn by the great lich himself.
More SPOILERS!
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Ok... a reviewer noticed some Homages we paid to various favorites of our youthful campaigns such as Fatavdra being a nod to Elclavdra. I like to jack with names a bit when I write, especially if I can pay some homage to a great character, or a person/developer/game creator who inspired my own writing.
Ancev should be pretty obvious as to who or what he is based on right?
Do a little scratching with Retep's name and you will catch another important personage in RPG/D&D history.
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Back to the Fight!
So rather than simply blast the PCs with the might of Set, Retep makes an offer! Hey, you guys wacked our temple pretty good an Set won't be pleased. Listen, Set intends to betray the Sultan, and take over the Brazen Throne Himself. If you guys head back to the Plane of Molten Skies, you will find a plain of glass that two days from now will glow with Stars. It is the portal to the realm of Ycart the destroyer (another name you should take a look at). Once a great servent of Set, this being has devoured almost his entire plane in his mad hunger for power. Head there, retrieve the Crooked Rod of Ancev for me, and I will forgive your slight, petition for you on behalf of Set to remove those marks, and pay you a Million Gold pieces once I take possession of the City of Brass in Set's name!
The PCs humm and haw it over, but Elandril is having none of it and sets forth a pre-emptive attack! Evil is evil and must be purged. OF course the evil members of the party are all "hmm, we're gonna have a problem with this elf chick!" No matter they join in the fray, and a short but intense battle erupts, resulting in Retep being destroyed by force of numbers. The psion bites the dust, having used up most of his psionic powers on the underlings. This suited the player fine, as his wife has decided he already games too many nights a week and he has to pick a game to give up and ours happens to be the one. Bummer dude, maybe next time!
The PCs scour the place for the million GP... and of course dont find it, but they do plunder the gear, and get the Mask of Ancev. They all have a funny feeling that the place is about to plummet to the ground and head for the door. Tarbish is there with a carpet, in disguise and it has already started to rain blood. The clouds of the plane of Molten Skies have taken the shape of the Face of Set and he utters a curse down upon the City. 7 Plagues for 7 days.
It rains snakes, it rains acidic blood, pestilence abounds and its all the PCs fault. The Sultan orders a proclomation that those responsible for the break of his deal with Set be found and punished, and marshal law is ordered. Of course no efreeti will go outside and the markets are closed for a week. Meaning the loot the PCs did find is useless to spend, and the stuff they ordered won't be ready for an additional week! Ain't I a stinker?
Tarbish drops the PCs off at the Freeman's Tower, mentioning it is the typical hive of scum and villany. Since the lower levels are occupied by sick bad gangs and the middle levels are the property of a crazed Druid named Oruk the Horned, the PCs are dropped off on the top level, ruled by 3 elven wizards, who offer them rooms at a decent rate... and a better rate if the PCs would clear out the dirtbags living in the lower levels. Of course these guys are hip to that sort of deal, and since they have a week with no place to go and nothing better to do... why not.
I realise this is a shorter post than most but my game night kicks off in about 2 hours and I need to get ready!
Until the Next installment.
Case
So the PCs take a breather, heal up, use potions do what they have to do, and charge back up the stairs, to the chamber where the statue of Set did them solid damage, and land smack face to face with the priests and black jackals of Set that they had already faced in the mid level.
Flashes of explosive magic, summoned creatures and Death abound... Of course Glandril is still in the thick of things with the silver dagger, The other two fighters continue to grapple, and the psion depletes his psionic energy putting the dogs down once and for all. Elandrin goes about collecting their black ankhs of set, detecting evil on them to determine and so on. Since they are evil, and he is chaotic good, he intends to ritally destroy them in order to please his God. Ard makes fun of him for being such a girl (he isn't) but its a running joke.
They head up the stairs, and Sam Qenton 2 manages to disable a death trap but misses the curse scribed on the ceiling. Woops on that. Everyone makes will saves vs. the Curse of Set and Ard and Rhy end up recieving the black mark, meaning if they die, they become mummy lords! Oh no! Sounds like a great plot hook to get the curse removed, as this is no ordinary curse!
The party pushes into the chamber of Retep Inkusad, Viceroy of Set. Retep rises from his sarcophagi, upon his face is the mask of Ancev, a golden burial mask once worn by the great lich himself.
More SPOILERS!
>
.
>
>
>
.
>
.
.
.
.
>
.
>
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
>
Ok... a reviewer noticed some Homages we paid to various favorites of our youthful campaigns such as Fatavdra being a nod to Elclavdra. I like to jack with names a bit when I write, especially if I can pay some homage to a great character, or a person/developer/game creator who inspired my own writing.
Ancev should be pretty obvious as to who or what he is based on right?
Do a little scratching with Retep's name and you will catch another important personage in RPG/D&D history.
>
.
>
.
.
>
..
>
>
Back to the Fight!
So rather than simply blast the PCs with the might of Set, Retep makes an offer! Hey, you guys wacked our temple pretty good an Set won't be pleased. Listen, Set intends to betray the Sultan, and take over the Brazen Throne Himself. If you guys head back to the Plane of Molten Skies, you will find a plain of glass that two days from now will glow with Stars. It is the portal to the realm of Ycart the destroyer (another name you should take a look at). Once a great servent of Set, this being has devoured almost his entire plane in his mad hunger for power. Head there, retrieve the Crooked Rod of Ancev for me, and I will forgive your slight, petition for you on behalf of Set to remove those marks, and pay you a Million Gold pieces once I take possession of the City of Brass in Set's name!
The PCs humm and haw it over, but Elandril is having none of it and sets forth a pre-emptive attack! Evil is evil and must be purged. OF course the evil members of the party are all "hmm, we're gonna have a problem with this elf chick!" No matter they join in the fray, and a short but intense battle erupts, resulting in Retep being destroyed by force of numbers. The psion bites the dust, having used up most of his psionic powers on the underlings. This suited the player fine, as his wife has decided he already games too many nights a week and he has to pick a game to give up and ours happens to be the one. Bummer dude, maybe next time!
The PCs scour the place for the million GP... and of course dont find it, but they do plunder the gear, and get the Mask of Ancev. They all have a funny feeling that the place is about to plummet to the ground and head for the door. Tarbish is there with a carpet, in disguise and it has already started to rain blood. The clouds of the plane of Molten Skies have taken the shape of the Face of Set and he utters a curse down upon the City. 7 Plagues for 7 days.
It rains snakes, it rains acidic blood, pestilence abounds and its all the PCs fault. The Sultan orders a proclomation that those responsible for the break of his deal with Set be found and punished, and marshal law is ordered. Of course no efreeti will go outside and the markets are closed for a week. Meaning the loot the PCs did find is useless to spend, and the stuff they ordered won't be ready for an additional week! Ain't I a stinker?
Tarbish drops the PCs off at the Freeman's Tower, mentioning it is the typical hive of scum and villany. Since the lower levels are occupied by sick bad gangs and the middle levels are the property of a crazed Druid named Oruk the Horned, the PCs are dropped off on the top level, ruled by 3 elven wizards, who offer them rooms at a decent rate... and a better rate if the PCs would clear out the dirtbags living in the lower levels. Of course these guys are hip to that sort of deal, and since they have a week with no place to go and nothing better to do... why not.
I realise this is a shorter post than most but my game night kicks off in about 2 hours and I need to get ready!
Until the Next installment.
Case
Voadam
Legend
bowbe said:
Essentially you swapped DR X/silver or X/cold iron for regeneration that can be overcome with silver. I had planned to do that in a Ravenloft game for superhealing weres but the party did not get to the weres before we moved on to a different campaign.
Great game reports, I'm enjoying them.
I thought it a bit odd that your playtest for CoB quickly turned into the Tower of Jedhopar, but campaigns are funny that way.
bowbe
First Post
Freeman's Tower, Demi Plane of Oruk the Horned.
Now I've mentioned that my players are VERY 3.Xed and take full benefit and full advantage of every loophole imaginable, which I have been fine with. I am fine with it because I have confidence in the COB to create challenges and find ways to exploit weaknesses even when there aren't apparently any to be found. Not that I am trying to be a killer DM in this saga, I let the dice fall where they may. I want these guys to have a good time and I am pulling for them because none of them can actually go buy a copy and read up on what I have in store.
That said lets examinethe Freeman's Tower.
In the book, the Freeman's tower gets 2 mentions (once in a Nice Place to Stay) and in its actual description which is pretty raw to say the least. I challenge myself for this particular set of adventures. I intend to put myself into the shoes of the end user... a DM and his players who are going thru a COB campaign. So I take that keyed location and develop it. Only fair right?
In it you have the 3 elf wizards who run the top 3 levels of the tower. In the mid levels you have Oruk the Horned.. a "Mad Druid" but not much else describing him or why he is mad, or what his motivation is. We do have stats tho. In the level below we have gangs of thugs who harrass and feed off the Caravansarie.
I cook up some stats for the thugs in the lower level. I recall that we had put Corpse Orgies between the lower levels in the stair cases, and other horrors reflecting the violence of this flop house.
I dig out my stats for some of these monsters, and take a look at the gang, selecting not just NPC stats to pilfer and re-use, but also monsters I believe would be part of this other planar gang.
I go after Oruk the horned. I come up with the most henious animal companion that a druid of his level could manage, and I come up with multiple stats for this animal companion reflecting how "buffed" it could be if encountered at the peak of its nasty destructiveness. I spend a few hours on this and show up to the next weeks game night loaded for adventure.
The PCs as mentioned, take the deal with the Elves, stay for free if they clear out the lower levels of the tower. The PCs crawl down the staircase, and part way down encounter an advanced chaos beast. Luckily Ard is all rested and healed up, so between himself and Elandrin they manage to light it up pretty quickly and avoid any real threat to anyone else.
Again the party is feeling a little cocky. They wiped the floor with a Mummy Priest of Set, plundered the temple and killed the snake... woops wrong story... sort of.
Anyhow they come to a strange door. Locked, arcane and otherwise, and drawn with druidic symbols that none of them can understand because none of them speaks druish.
A nicely rolled dispel magic, and a successful open locks chest later they crack open the door to find...
A large, steaming sun lit jungle. What the hell? They get a curious feeling as if they aren't in Kansas anymore (note the location of the playtest), and furthermore aren't exactly in the Plane of Molten Skies either. They set foot on the spongy ground beyond and within minutes find themselves attacked by velociraptors.
Of course they make swift work of the pack and head out. I wish i had the terrain pictures for this one, and with luck may be able to find them or find one of the guys who had them next week. Really cool stuff that was at the Black Lyon shop used for war games and 40k.
Exploring a bit they find a couple streems, deep jungle vegetation and a substantial sized cave. They head towards the cave, not seeing any other doors from where they set out, and figuring they will have to use some sort of scrying magic to find their way back out again, since they are now too far from the door they entered to be able to see it.
Getting within a few hundred feet of the cave, they hear a huge roar and out bursts a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Hah! Thats it? Sam Quenton 2 fires an arrow at it, not a bad shot, not a crit, but hey, he's a ways away. Thats his suprise action for being a stealthy bastich.
Then the critter gets BIG. Doubling in size, it was already big, huge even but animal growth does strange things doesn't it? All of a sudden the PCs are charging up with defensive spells... wonder why. Next the creatures skin appears to ripple with muscles...more muscle than it had to begin with, and it starts scratching the floor. Konn Runs at it with his big ol two handed sword (monk speed) Course... his player DMs a lot of 3ed, guess he figured I forgot about things like reach... and the reach getting even BIGGER when your HUGE.
Gulp. Swallowed Whole. Woops.
But wait...glandril takes off at a dwarfish run... clop clop clop. He cant get nearly as close as Konn... and running past some trees.... suddenly wonders why he has taken an AOO from every stinking tree he just ran past... Jungle Treants Baby! Wap Wap Wap
Rhy... same story WAP WAP WAP.
Now Rhy and Glandril have to stop what they are doing to deal with freakin trees!
Ard fires a lightning bolt, now free of the cursed ring (as he realised his folly when none of the Jackalweres were dead that he had certainly crisped in the Pyramid of Set) has had to pay Elandrin to remove his cursed ring. Servant of Devils is NOT happy about that I can tell you. Anyhow he blinks "blink blink" when the T Rex... goes and EVADES his lightning bolt.
Gotta love animal companions with Evade.
Elandrin juices up with some more cleric goodness, getting his combat on after seeing the evaded spell, decides juicing himself up and healing the party may be in order. After big Konn got swallowed they are gonna need it. As I said this encounter is about as it 3.xed as it gets.
Rhy and Glandril are forced to chop down trees... lots of them, since the jungle treants animate all the trees around them, and now its a whole forest closing them in... and nicely lining the players up in a big fat line. Sam Q2 has to move because trees are closing him in. But lands another arrow into the T Rex... which is at this point a lot like throwing deck chairs off the Titanic. The T Rex goes into a RAGE and charges the party that is all neatly lined up... using its trample to squish them under talon and scale. Blap, decent damage, I'm a little bit dissapointed but its alright. The Druid makes his appearance at the cavern mouth, from his bleeding forhead protrude a pair of antlers, and his eyes are psycho and lost in murky pools.
Next round, most of the trees are destroyed with lots of cleave attacks, characters get up, Konn has been sawing his way out with a knife, max power attack and pops out of the critters throat, sticky, gory, confused and his sword is now 90 ft away. Sam Q2 fires 3 arrows, again decent damage. Ard, casts magic missile, decent damage. critters lost about 60 pts so far but with its buffs is in the 366 range at the moment. Chomp... Glandril goes into the gargantuan T Rex's gut. Chomp so does Konn, again.
Rhy deals decent damage, Konn and Glandril start cutting themselves out. The critter gets nobbly warty skin as it is barkskinned by the druid. SAMQ2 keeps firing arrows. Elandrin sees 2 guys in its stomach, and casts spiritual hammer instead of moving to attack. No good if the cleric gets swallowed whole. Ard casts Lighting Bolt at the Druid who is now in focus, since the druid isnt about to evade his attack, and scores some good damage. Rhy Gets swallowed, starts sawing his way out.
Konn gets an idea, takes a round fishing in his back.
Druid heals self, thus healing the animal companion, Ard grumps, casts greater dispel magic and shrinks the T Rex back to huge size. Crunch, people inside take more damage as the space gets too small, and the T Rex barfs out Rhy because there isnt enough room for him.
Druid makes his buddy Big again on his turn. Konn finds his bottle of endless water this turn. Waits for it, still searching in his pack, still taking damage faster than he can regenrate it with his mul abilities.
Battle rages on for a bit back and forth like this, i figure 6 rounds of gyser and the t rex is going to be full of water. Konn finds his soap and starts filling its guts with foam, Glandril cuts his way out.
Druid shapeshifts into a giant ape (king kong and the T rex anyone?).
Now out of the gut, glandril starts dealing damage for real, raged, and not wanting to get swallowed again. Rhy gets swallowed again. Now with a stomach filling with water and a monk/fighter. Ard continues to try to kill the druid with his spells, and Elandrin joins in with some of his holy bammies.
Couple rounds go by, and the t rex barfs out Konn and Rhy because its so full of water. Glandril's damage proves too much and the TRex finally goes down for the count, followed in short order by his Driuid/giant ape.
Great battle the guys loved the action and I loved the original ways they came up with to escape being swallowed whole!
The druid has these strange horns in his head, which pop right out in ards hands. Magical relic of some sort. Horns of Curanos. Drive a man mad, and force him to eat sentient flesh (cannibal style) in order to maintain his druidic powers. The exchange is some beefy stat bonuses. Ard pockets these. The PCs search Oruk the Horned's lair and find some decent loot. More importantly, they are now in possession of their own demi plane, a decent place to hide out and rest, albiet a steamy hot jungle, that occassionally produces a random encounter!
THIS is one of those situations/battles where the PCs DO need a rest after one battle. I stacked this one totally 3.x style on them and they came thru it bloodied but alive and tempered from their conflict. Woe be it to whatever swallows them next right?
Mainly we rested because the battle went REALLY long and the setup to get there took some time. They still had plenty of juice and cold have went down into the lower levels to take on the gangs, but not today.
Until next time.
Case
Now I've mentioned that my players are VERY 3.Xed and take full benefit and full advantage of every loophole imaginable, which I have been fine with. I am fine with it because I have confidence in the COB to create challenges and find ways to exploit weaknesses even when there aren't apparently any to be found. Not that I am trying to be a killer DM in this saga, I let the dice fall where they may. I want these guys to have a good time and I am pulling for them because none of them can actually go buy a copy and read up on what I have in store.
That said lets examinethe Freeman's Tower.
In the book, the Freeman's tower gets 2 mentions (once in a Nice Place to Stay) and in its actual description which is pretty raw to say the least. I challenge myself for this particular set of adventures. I intend to put myself into the shoes of the end user... a DM and his players who are going thru a COB campaign. So I take that keyed location and develop it. Only fair right?
In it you have the 3 elf wizards who run the top 3 levels of the tower. In the mid levels you have Oruk the Horned.. a "Mad Druid" but not much else describing him or why he is mad, or what his motivation is. We do have stats tho. In the level below we have gangs of thugs who harrass and feed off the Caravansarie.
I cook up some stats for the thugs in the lower level. I recall that we had put Corpse Orgies between the lower levels in the stair cases, and other horrors reflecting the violence of this flop house.
I dig out my stats for some of these monsters, and take a look at the gang, selecting not just NPC stats to pilfer and re-use, but also monsters I believe would be part of this other planar gang.
I go after Oruk the horned. I come up with the most henious animal companion that a druid of his level could manage, and I come up with multiple stats for this animal companion reflecting how "buffed" it could be if encountered at the peak of its nasty destructiveness. I spend a few hours on this and show up to the next weeks game night loaded for adventure.
The PCs as mentioned, take the deal with the Elves, stay for free if they clear out the lower levels of the tower. The PCs crawl down the staircase, and part way down encounter an advanced chaos beast. Luckily Ard is all rested and healed up, so between himself and Elandrin they manage to light it up pretty quickly and avoid any real threat to anyone else.
Again the party is feeling a little cocky. They wiped the floor with a Mummy Priest of Set, plundered the temple and killed the snake... woops wrong story... sort of.
Anyhow they come to a strange door. Locked, arcane and otherwise, and drawn with druidic symbols that none of them can understand because none of them speaks druish.
A nicely rolled dispel magic, and a successful open locks chest later they crack open the door to find...
A large, steaming sun lit jungle. What the hell? They get a curious feeling as if they aren't in Kansas anymore (note the location of the playtest), and furthermore aren't exactly in the Plane of Molten Skies either. They set foot on the spongy ground beyond and within minutes find themselves attacked by velociraptors.
Of course they make swift work of the pack and head out. I wish i had the terrain pictures for this one, and with luck may be able to find them or find one of the guys who had them next week. Really cool stuff that was at the Black Lyon shop used for war games and 40k.
Exploring a bit they find a couple streems, deep jungle vegetation and a substantial sized cave. They head towards the cave, not seeing any other doors from where they set out, and figuring they will have to use some sort of scrying magic to find their way back out again, since they are now too far from the door they entered to be able to see it.
Getting within a few hundred feet of the cave, they hear a huge roar and out bursts a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Hah! Thats it? Sam Quenton 2 fires an arrow at it, not a bad shot, not a crit, but hey, he's a ways away. Thats his suprise action for being a stealthy bastich.
Then the critter gets BIG. Doubling in size, it was already big, huge even but animal growth does strange things doesn't it? All of a sudden the PCs are charging up with defensive spells... wonder why. Next the creatures skin appears to ripple with muscles...more muscle than it had to begin with, and it starts scratching the floor. Konn Runs at it with his big ol two handed sword (monk speed) Course... his player DMs a lot of 3ed, guess he figured I forgot about things like reach... and the reach getting even BIGGER when your HUGE.
Gulp. Swallowed Whole. Woops.
But wait...glandril takes off at a dwarfish run... clop clop clop. He cant get nearly as close as Konn... and running past some trees.... suddenly wonders why he has taken an AOO from every stinking tree he just ran past... Jungle Treants Baby! Wap Wap Wap
Rhy... same story WAP WAP WAP.
Now Rhy and Glandril have to stop what they are doing to deal with freakin trees!
Ard fires a lightning bolt, now free of the cursed ring (as he realised his folly when none of the Jackalweres were dead that he had certainly crisped in the Pyramid of Set) has had to pay Elandrin to remove his cursed ring. Servant of Devils is NOT happy about that I can tell you. Anyhow he blinks "blink blink" when the T Rex... goes and EVADES his lightning bolt.
Gotta love animal companions with Evade.
Elandrin juices up with some more cleric goodness, getting his combat on after seeing the evaded spell, decides juicing himself up and healing the party may be in order. After big Konn got swallowed they are gonna need it. As I said this encounter is about as it 3.xed as it gets.
Rhy and Glandril are forced to chop down trees... lots of them, since the jungle treants animate all the trees around them, and now its a whole forest closing them in... and nicely lining the players up in a big fat line. Sam Q2 has to move because trees are closing him in. But lands another arrow into the T Rex... which is at this point a lot like throwing deck chairs off the Titanic. The T Rex goes into a RAGE and charges the party that is all neatly lined up... using its trample to squish them under talon and scale. Blap, decent damage, I'm a little bit dissapointed but its alright. The Druid makes his appearance at the cavern mouth, from his bleeding forhead protrude a pair of antlers, and his eyes are psycho and lost in murky pools.
Next round, most of the trees are destroyed with lots of cleave attacks, characters get up, Konn has been sawing his way out with a knife, max power attack and pops out of the critters throat, sticky, gory, confused and his sword is now 90 ft away. Sam Q2 fires 3 arrows, again decent damage. Ard, casts magic missile, decent damage. critters lost about 60 pts so far but with its buffs is in the 366 range at the moment. Chomp... Glandril goes into the gargantuan T Rex's gut. Chomp so does Konn, again.
Rhy deals decent damage, Konn and Glandril start cutting themselves out. The critter gets nobbly warty skin as it is barkskinned by the druid. SAMQ2 keeps firing arrows. Elandrin sees 2 guys in its stomach, and casts spiritual hammer instead of moving to attack. No good if the cleric gets swallowed whole. Ard casts Lighting Bolt at the Druid who is now in focus, since the druid isnt about to evade his attack, and scores some good damage. Rhy Gets swallowed, starts sawing his way out.
Konn gets an idea, takes a round fishing in his back.
Druid heals self, thus healing the animal companion, Ard grumps, casts greater dispel magic and shrinks the T Rex back to huge size. Crunch, people inside take more damage as the space gets too small, and the T Rex barfs out Rhy because there isnt enough room for him.
Druid makes his buddy Big again on his turn. Konn finds his bottle of endless water this turn. Waits for it, still searching in his pack, still taking damage faster than he can regenrate it with his mul abilities.
Battle rages on for a bit back and forth like this, i figure 6 rounds of gyser and the t rex is going to be full of water. Konn finds his soap and starts filling its guts with foam, Glandril cuts his way out.
Druid shapeshifts into a giant ape (king kong and the T rex anyone?).
Now out of the gut, glandril starts dealing damage for real, raged, and not wanting to get swallowed again. Rhy gets swallowed again. Now with a stomach filling with water and a monk/fighter. Ard continues to try to kill the druid with his spells, and Elandrin joins in with some of his holy bammies.
Couple rounds go by, and the t rex barfs out Konn and Rhy because its so full of water. Glandril's damage proves too much and the TRex finally goes down for the count, followed in short order by his Driuid/giant ape.
Great battle the guys loved the action and I loved the original ways they came up with to escape being swallowed whole!
The druid has these strange horns in his head, which pop right out in ards hands. Magical relic of some sort. Horns of Curanos. Drive a man mad, and force him to eat sentient flesh (cannibal style) in order to maintain his druidic powers. The exchange is some beefy stat bonuses. Ard pockets these. The PCs search Oruk the Horned's lair and find some decent loot. More importantly, they are now in possession of their own demi plane, a decent place to hide out and rest, albiet a steamy hot jungle, that occassionally produces a random encounter!
THIS is one of those situations/battles where the PCs DO need a rest after one battle. I stacked this one totally 3.x style on them and they came thru it bloodied but alive and tempered from their conflict. Woe be it to whatever swallows them next right?
Mainly we rested because the battle went REALLY long and the setup to get there took some time. They still had plenty of juice and cold have went down into the lower levels to take on the gangs, but not today.
Until next time.
Case
bowbe
First Post
Gangs of the Freeman's Tower
As you can see, I sort of mixed things up a bit from the description in the book (if you have it). But that is fine. Remember in these sessions I am playing it just like you do. Changing things to suit my party and their needs. After resting and leveling up (because the Pyramid ALMOST had them leveled, the Dinosaur Druid combo pushed the scales and now most of the party is 14th level and feeling fine!
The levels with the gangs, had human thugs (took random stats from other necro products, or stuff I had worked on for other people) with efreeti Overseers for 2 gangs. For a third gang I brought in some Duerger. I sorta scribbled a map out so that it is set up where the 3 floors are all contested and each floor has blockades and barricaded doorways, or doors sealed with magic to prevent members of the other gangs from getting into their territory. These setups worked nicely as all three gangs had access to their own 3 levels, with the largest gang, (the Duerger Slavers) having the bottom set of the middle floors to themselves. There is a reason for this that will become apparent later.
So the PCs battle an advanced corpse orgy from Tome of Horrors 3 in the stairwell thats glutted with bodies from their various combats which takes the PCs a bit of time to clean out. I'll be honest I forget what I called the gangs back then, it was so long ago, but lets say i called them the Headsmen (efreeti/human), the Outlaws (efreeti/human) and the Chain Gang (Duerger and Giants).
The first section that the PCs enter is run by the Outlaws, who assume the PCs are members of the Headsmen and prepare to attack. The PCs say, naw, we're rent collectors from upstairs, where's this months payment. Hey It worked in the Tower of Jhedophar, why not here right?
Seeing the heavily armed party out-classes them in every way, the Headsmen back down a bit and take them to see their leader, an Efreeti fighter who makes the PCs a deal.. because efreeti like deals. How about you guys help us beat the Headsmen and Chain Gang, and you can take part of their loot as our "rent". Sounds good so they are led to a door that Ard takes down with a knock spell and the PCs burst the gap and its on like Kong, with the members of the Outlaws filling in cleared rooms behind the PCs.
This battle went up and down flights of stairs, with the party taking on armbands of captured or defeated enemies to appear as "allies" of other gang and spread around/thru and over rooms with the PCs sometimes splitting up to chase down gang members. All goes pretty well till they break into the enclave of the Chain Gang.
On kicking down one door Glandril finds himself in a rather large chamber, and face to face with a Jack in Chains (from Tome of Horrors 3). It gets reach on him and clobbers the dwarf to the deck, stunning him with its massive blow. Of course, when he tries to get up, it gets an aoo, and he's on the deck again. Ouch. Rhy is right there with him and tries to get in for an attack but the doorway isnt big enough between the dwarf and the giant for rhy to get past. He stands over Glandril and Pound... he's on the deck too!... This is looking a lot like being eaten by a dinosaur all over again, but a lot worse because the Jack in Chains does a PILE of damage and happens to be able to easily hit Rhy's incredible armor class WITH power attack. Double Ouch!
Our friend Sam Q2 fires arrows... because thats his role in the party, aside from finding traps and taking out doors and evading pretty much any damage... unill the next round!
Elandrin Makes to jog around as he remembers passing a door that must lead to the same chamber on the way here! He comes face to face with Six Duerger. Bah! Crap, so he charges up a flamestrike spell and blasts them. Oddly 3 of the Duerger seem un-moved by this... as if they took no damage at all! Hmm must be fire resistant?
Jack in Chains picks up the Glandril, with his mountain plate, and Woomp... Hurls him at the archer as a "rock" i add a little extra damage from his 320 lbs of weight and Konn, who was planning on helping out at the doorway says screw this and bolts around the corner following Elandrin. His quick movement gets him where he needs to be for the next round.
Rhy Gets up and the AOO misses him this time, so he takes a swing, dealing some decent damage to the Jack.
Glandril gets up but he's too far away to get an attack, and excuses himself from crushing SamQ2.
Rages!
Rawr!
The Duerger charge Elandrin, with 3 rushing past him...towards Konn and 2 of them "hit" each. Elandrin's AOO hits... but he seems to do no damage to the one that ran by. Damage resistance? Curses!
Glandril Rushes the Giant, and gets Wolloped and Dropped again with another AOO from reach. It takes a slam on Rhy, dropping him again too! SamQ uses magical device with a wand of healing to try and help these guys out... Glandril is ok with his rage points but Rhy is beginning to show signs of wear, having gotten blasted for over 100 pts of damage in 3 rounds.
I forgot about Ard. Ard's been using some magic missiles against the giant, and lighning but after Glandril got tossed through the doorway he decides he cant handle that kind of damage, He was going to head off and follow the elf and Konn, but does so a bit later... turning the corner he sees down the T intersection that more Chain Gang members are down there. He ends up getting tied in to fighting them from a distance, also noting that about half of their number seem to take no damage! What the scallop?
Konn goes ginsu with his sword on the Duerger he faces, but is dismayed that his critical hits and big damage are doing ZERO to the ones he is fighting! What poppycock is this?
Elandril drops one of his duerger. Subsequently one of the Duerger on Konn vanishes! Illusions! These tricky buggers!
the shout goes out, ard uses Evards Tentacles to tie up the dwarves that are about to get him. SamQheals, Glandril Gets up, hits, goes back down and the theme repeats itself.
Finishing the Duerger they kick in the back door to the chamber. Rhy is down below zero again, the sword animates again and does its etheral sword dance routine with the elf girl... which he misses again. Thing is, keeping him alive is now a priority. He DOES have the black mark of set on him afterall and no way to get the curse removed! It is no normal curse afterall...
Elandrin has had enough of this nonsense and uses a mess of turning checks to heighten up some kinda holy bammy spell out of the Complete Divine or Spell Compendium. Its a broken spell, but I dont care remember? Failed save (or is there a save in any of those Complete Compendium products?) Save or die spells are great if your the player using them against the DM, but evidently suck if your the DM using them on players. Have to look into that further.
Jack in chains is a mudhole!
Hooray. A few rooms later the PCs take out the Duerger boss and turn to the Efreeti boss who has managed to show up with his whole outlaw gang and goes, ok, time to pay the rent.
Efreeti and his gang laugh... knowing the PCs have depleted a lot of HP, healing, and bam spells taking out the jack and the duerger and plan to butcher the PCs. Bad plan. Its like Beerfest "We aren't that Drunk". And the PCs annhilate most of the gang in about 5 rounds. A few escape. The PCs head down to the black scorpion gangs lair after healing up some more.
Once there, they find the place deserted. Once word got to the Black Scorpions that powerful heroes had whiped out the gangs of the mid levels, the Black Scorpions have decided to move their base somewhere less hostile.
Heading back upstairs, the elves greet the PCs as "Landlords" and pay the PCs their first months rent. They see the writing on the walls and the PCs now have their own base of operations that they took by their own hands! Nothing like a stronghold for High level guys to make it oldschool fun!
Decent loot and Decent XPs. Nobody died.
A few more days pass. The fire giant guards in the city kill off most of the vipers of set by strapping tower shields to their shoes and squishing them. The plagues end and the rain stops. Martial law is lifted, as the Sultans cronies declare that the prince of the Bayt Al Joom was responsible not only for the assassination of he Fire Giant dignitary, but also for the attack on the pyramid of set! Rejoice as he will be punished for eternity in the Minaret of Screams!
Tarbish arrives and gives the PCs some more news. Basically there is a way to weaken the Sultan greatly. The team of burning dervishes that had been sent to capture Sulymon before the Ascendency never returned. Somehow they were ambushed and the power of Anumon blocks the Sultan's ability to locate the flask! Although the Sultan is powerful, he is not yet Anumon's equal. A great scrying bell within the Great Repository shows whatever the viewer would seek, so perhaps the flask may be found before the Sultan's forces can locate it!
Problem: The Repository is only accessed by switching bodies with one of the librarians, and the bell is off limits even to they. Likewise switching has its own problems.
Solution: The prince of the Bayt al Joom's Father is a well known scholar, and none too popular with the Sultan PRIOR to the son being framed for crimes against the Throne of Brass.
Rescuing the son, would put the father in the PCs debt. He may know an alternative path into the repository that would not require switching bodies!
Problem: The prince of the Bayt al Joom is in the Minaret of Screams, a place so feared that its guards are said to be deafened to avoid madness from its gurgling cry! Those who tarry too close to its walls have been known to perish at the sound of its screams, so it is heavily avoided!
Decisions decisions.
Until next time.
Case
As you can see, I sort of mixed things up a bit from the description in the book (if you have it). But that is fine. Remember in these sessions I am playing it just like you do. Changing things to suit my party and their needs. After resting and leveling up (because the Pyramid ALMOST had them leveled, the Dinosaur Druid combo pushed the scales and now most of the party is 14th level and feeling fine!
The levels with the gangs, had human thugs (took random stats from other necro products, or stuff I had worked on for other people) with efreeti Overseers for 2 gangs. For a third gang I brought in some Duerger. I sorta scribbled a map out so that it is set up where the 3 floors are all contested and each floor has blockades and barricaded doorways, or doors sealed with magic to prevent members of the other gangs from getting into their territory. These setups worked nicely as all three gangs had access to their own 3 levels, with the largest gang, (the Duerger Slavers) having the bottom set of the middle floors to themselves. There is a reason for this that will become apparent later.
So the PCs battle an advanced corpse orgy from Tome of Horrors 3 in the stairwell thats glutted with bodies from their various combats which takes the PCs a bit of time to clean out. I'll be honest I forget what I called the gangs back then, it was so long ago, but lets say i called them the Headsmen (efreeti/human), the Outlaws (efreeti/human) and the Chain Gang (Duerger and Giants).
The first section that the PCs enter is run by the Outlaws, who assume the PCs are members of the Headsmen and prepare to attack. The PCs say, naw, we're rent collectors from upstairs, where's this months payment. Hey It worked in the Tower of Jhedophar, why not here right?
Seeing the heavily armed party out-classes them in every way, the Headsmen back down a bit and take them to see their leader, an Efreeti fighter who makes the PCs a deal.. because efreeti like deals. How about you guys help us beat the Headsmen and Chain Gang, and you can take part of their loot as our "rent". Sounds good so they are led to a door that Ard takes down with a knock spell and the PCs burst the gap and its on like Kong, with the members of the Outlaws filling in cleared rooms behind the PCs.
This battle went up and down flights of stairs, with the party taking on armbands of captured or defeated enemies to appear as "allies" of other gang and spread around/thru and over rooms with the PCs sometimes splitting up to chase down gang members. All goes pretty well till they break into the enclave of the Chain Gang.
On kicking down one door Glandril finds himself in a rather large chamber, and face to face with a Jack in Chains (from Tome of Horrors 3). It gets reach on him and clobbers the dwarf to the deck, stunning him with its massive blow. Of course, when he tries to get up, it gets an aoo, and he's on the deck again. Ouch. Rhy is right there with him and tries to get in for an attack but the doorway isnt big enough between the dwarf and the giant for rhy to get past. He stands over Glandril and Pound... he's on the deck too!... This is looking a lot like being eaten by a dinosaur all over again, but a lot worse because the Jack in Chains does a PILE of damage and happens to be able to easily hit Rhy's incredible armor class WITH power attack. Double Ouch!
Our friend Sam Q2 fires arrows... because thats his role in the party, aside from finding traps and taking out doors and evading pretty much any damage... unill the next round!
Elandrin Makes to jog around as he remembers passing a door that must lead to the same chamber on the way here! He comes face to face with Six Duerger. Bah! Crap, so he charges up a flamestrike spell and blasts them. Oddly 3 of the Duerger seem un-moved by this... as if they took no damage at all! Hmm must be fire resistant?
Jack in Chains picks up the Glandril, with his mountain plate, and Woomp... Hurls him at the archer as a "rock" i add a little extra damage from his 320 lbs of weight and Konn, who was planning on helping out at the doorway says screw this and bolts around the corner following Elandrin. His quick movement gets him where he needs to be for the next round.
Rhy Gets up and the AOO misses him this time, so he takes a swing, dealing some decent damage to the Jack.
Glandril gets up but he's too far away to get an attack, and excuses himself from crushing SamQ2.
Rages!
Rawr!
The Duerger charge Elandrin, with 3 rushing past him...towards Konn and 2 of them "hit" each. Elandrin's AOO hits... but he seems to do no damage to the one that ran by. Damage resistance? Curses!
Glandril Rushes the Giant, and gets Wolloped and Dropped again with another AOO from reach. It takes a slam on Rhy, dropping him again too! SamQ uses magical device with a wand of healing to try and help these guys out... Glandril is ok with his rage points but Rhy is beginning to show signs of wear, having gotten blasted for over 100 pts of damage in 3 rounds.
I forgot about Ard. Ard's been using some magic missiles against the giant, and lighning but after Glandril got tossed through the doorway he decides he cant handle that kind of damage, He was going to head off and follow the elf and Konn, but does so a bit later... turning the corner he sees down the T intersection that more Chain Gang members are down there. He ends up getting tied in to fighting them from a distance, also noting that about half of their number seem to take no damage! What the scallop?
Konn goes ginsu with his sword on the Duerger he faces, but is dismayed that his critical hits and big damage are doing ZERO to the ones he is fighting! What poppycock is this?
Elandril drops one of his duerger. Subsequently one of the Duerger on Konn vanishes! Illusions! These tricky buggers!
the shout goes out, ard uses Evards Tentacles to tie up the dwarves that are about to get him. SamQheals, Glandril Gets up, hits, goes back down and the theme repeats itself.
Finishing the Duerger they kick in the back door to the chamber. Rhy is down below zero again, the sword animates again and does its etheral sword dance routine with the elf girl... which he misses again. Thing is, keeping him alive is now a priority. He DOES have the black mark of set on him afterall and no way to get the curse removed! It is no normal curse afterall...
Elandrin has had enough of this nonsense and uses a mess of turning checks to heighten up some kinda holy bammy spell out of the Complete Divine or Spell Compendium. Its a broken spell, but I dont care remember? Failed save (or is there a save in any of those Complete Compendium products?) Save or die spells are great if your the player using them against the DM, but evidently suck if your the DM using them on players. Have to look into that further.
Jack in chains is a mudhole!
Hooray. A few rooms later the PCs take out the Duerger boss and turn to the Efreeti boss who has managed to show up with his whole outlaw gang and goes, ok, time to pay the rent.
Efreeti and his gang laugh... knowing the PCs have depleted a lot of HP, healing, and bam spells taking out the jack and the duerger and plan to butcher the PCs. Bad plan. Its like Beerfest "We aren't that Drunk". And the PCs annhilate most of the gang in about 5 rounds. A few escape. The PCs head down to the black scorpion gangs lair after healing up some more.
Once there, they find the place deserted. Once word got to the Black Scorpions that powerful heroes had whiped out the gangs of the mid levels, the Black Scorpions have decided to move their base somewhere less hostile.
Heading back upstairs, the elves greet the PCs as "Landlords" and pay the PCs their first months rent. They see the writing on the walls and the PCs now have their own base of operations that they took by their own hands! Nothing like a stronghold for High level guys to make it oldschool fun!
Decent loot and Decent XPs. Nobody died.
A few more days pass. The fire giant guards in the city kill off most of the vipers of set by strapping tower shields to their shoes and squishing them. The plagues end and the rain stops. Martial law is lifted, as the Sultans cronies declare that the prince of the Bayt Al Joom was responsible not only for the assassination of he Fire Giant dignitary, but also for the attack on the pyramid of set! Rejoice as he will be punished for eternity in the Minaret of Screams!
Tarbish arrives and gives the PCs some more news. Basically there is a way to weaken the Sultan greatly. The team of burning dervishes that had been sent to capture Sulymon before the Ascendency never returned. Somehow they were ambushed and the power of Anumon blocks the Sultan's ability to locate the flask! Although the Sultan is powerful, he is not yet Anumon's equal. A great scrying bell within the Great Repository shows whatever the viewer would seek, so perhaps the flask may be found before the Sultan's forces can locate it!
Problem: The Repository is only accessed by switching bodies with one of the librarians, and the bell is off limits even to they. Likewise switching has its own problems.
Solution: The prince of the Bayt al Joom's Father is a well known scholar, and none too popular with the Sultan PRIOR to the son being framed for crimes against the Throne of Brass.
Rescuing the son, would put the father in the PCs debt. He may know an alternative path into the repository that would not require switching bodies!
Problem: The prince of the Bayt al Joom is in the Minaret of Screams, a place so feared that its guards are said to be deafened to avoid madness from its gurgling cry! Those who tarry too close to its walls have been known to perish at the sound of its screams, so it is heavily avoided!
Decisions decisions.
Until next time.
Case
bowbe
First Post
The Minaret of Screams: Part 1 The Gullet of the Beast
This session begins with the return of the Psion. One of his other games broke up, so his wife let him come back (for now). The PCs had chucked his corpse into a bag of holding after the mission he had died in so its no large manner to get him raised and ready to go.
The PCs seeing that the coast is mostly clear, again don a different disguise and take a flying carpet to the minaret, timing their travel across the city to a point shortly after the scream... which is an accepted call to prayer for the Sultan's Faithful.
They land on the platform at the top level of the tower and make like Luke and Han escourting chewbacca into the prison section of the Death Star.
Upon entering they note the near darkness, and the spongy floor, finding the whole place rather damp and uninviting. From their light sources they note figures shambling on the tiers below them and that the platform that extended outside appears to go straight to the center of the chamber. (See the photographs of the terrain I built of the area for further reference in the other COB thread if you haven't seen them already).
Its a narrow stretch, about PCs wide, and at the end of the pathway are 3 burning dervishes who take one look at the PCs, note that they are not fire giants, or burning dervishes...or efreeti, and attack.
The battle is pretty quick but with one side effect, the burning dervishes use bullrush and overbear attacks to shove the PCs off the main path and down into the rings below... which are filled with cannabalistic madmen, driven insane by the shrieks of the minaret. These madmen happen to have "escaped" confinement in the lower levels and crawled up the gullet to come out here.
That said, overall burning dervishes aren't terribly tough unless they have piles of class levels so the party finishes them off, and has to crawl/rescue their allies who were knocked into the terraces below.. which are spiked slippery, coated with a caustic material that slowly dissolved metal! Yum!
A search of the bodies notes that these burning dervishes are wearing rubber hip waiders and carrying vials of a minty smelling pink fluid... Obviously some potion. I added this bit in on the fly as a nod to what was to come. The vials give dr -5 over acid. 3 of the PCs don the waiders, they being the Sam Q2, Konn, and Ard... since the waiders wont fit over the armor that the rest of the troupe is wearing, and since the psion doesn't have anything of any real value other than some bracers, rings, amulets, and normal psion "what not".
Konn hops down the hole in the center of the room, after pouring the pink lotion on himself while the other PCs finish off the rest of he madmen. Rhy, the Elandril and the Psion are down on the terraces at this time.
Slurping his way down the esophageal passage he gets squirted out into a rubbery room and is confronted by 3 more burning dervishes all by himself! Woops!
Glandril hops down the hole. I have him role a base attack roll... which he of course succeeds and he lands plop onto Konn, crushing him due to his 350 lbs of weight, and spiked mountain plate armor. Damage dealt. Ouch!
The burning dervishes wirlwind attack both of them and they take some hits and some damage, because their AC isn't as crazy as Rhy's.
The rest of the party has no idea what is going on because I've moved them to a 2nd table since they arent in the gullet chamber anymore.
Next down the hole is SamQ2 who also makes his Base Attack and hits...landing on top of Konn, further damaging him as he gets more deeply skewered to Glandril, and of course SamQ2 takes some damage, Glandril takes some more damage... its getting just wrong.
They get up and spend the round extricating themselves from each other and get wirlwind attacked again by the burning dervishes.
The chamber is REALLY small, like maybe big enough for the 3 of them, and the burning dervishes are stabbing into the room with spears! A dark, dank, wet pinkish yellow corridor is seen beyond.
PCs topside continue to finish off the madmen and crawl towards the hole so they too can hop down.
Ard is next. He misses and is covered in the pink lotion, so no crush damage to him and he manages NOT to land on the other guys by missing his Base attack. The guys in the chamber fight back, managing to kill a burning dervish this round.
Then Elandrin jumps down... wop, right on top of Ard. and Elandrin is wearing plate armor, so damage due. Ard has stoneskin going and scratches some damage off for that but is annoyed at being knocked prone.
3 in the doorway start the push into the hall to make room for everyone else.
The psion hops in, lands on top of ard/elandrin... more damage and more laughs! Plop Plop Plop. They get up, but have nowhere to go because the hallway/doorway is blocked.
The burning dervishes retreat a bit and someother figures can be seen coming from both directions.
The original 3 move into the hallway but are kinda lined up... thats when the newcomers hit them from both sides with crossing blade barrier spells. One of wich manages to enter the small entrance chamber. Of course Konn and SamQ evade. No such luck for the others, tho a few make their reflex saves instead so take half damage x2 blade barriers. Glandril misses one, and makes one, he's raged and has 250 or some crazy hit points now, but the damage he's already taken plus the 2 blade barriers have him down to about 180 already. WOah!
Then Rhy jumps down the hole, makes his base attack roll (of course) and I roll random... he lands on the Psion. They both take fat damage... with the psion taking much fatter damage of course... 4d6 or something. I dont remember but its whatever something falling on you says in the DMG... we looked it up. Rhy gets himself some big damage from the blade barrier in the room to top off his fall.
The newcomers are Silaal... N'gathau reconfigured genie with virtually no soul and a penchante for inflicting a lot of pain. Two more arrive, and now we have 2 more blade barriers as these guys just kick back and laugh. SamQ2 fails a save vs. Dominate Monster, because he is raged, Glandril makes his. SamQ is instructed to sneak attack the nearest PC... which happens to be Ard... and his sneak attack is INSANE.
Ard takes fat damage, and his contingency dealio goes off. He dimension doors away from danger... but not so much because dimension door away from danger puts him closer to Silaal and burning dervishes. Glandril says screw it to the damage and charges THROUGH a blade barrier... taking the damage and power attack/rage attacks a silaal, nearly killing it in one blow!
Elandrin casts a dispel magic. It manages to dispel an area big enough for them to get out of the entrance chamber. The Psion heals himself with some psionic power because he's about dead.
More of this shenannigans goes on with multiple blade barriers, dominated PCs, Ard in thoroogh danger for his life... goes on. Glandril ends up with his back to a wall slicing away at silaal that are near him... when the wall tries to engulf him. Glop. He's pinned till Rhy can cut him free. Rhy turns to face enemies and Konn gets dominated. Turning on Elandrin and hitting him for some good damage! Elandrin casts another dispel to free Konn of his curse. Ard casts dispel on SamQ to free him of his. The PCs take down another 2 silaal, when 2 more appear... along with a 3rd figure.. Rylon the Cruel, a flayer devil bearing a psionic sword that allows him to Coup De Grace as a standard action rather than a full round.
Needless to say, once people get freed of mind control/ away from the various blade barriers, the Silaal finally go down and the PCs gang up on the devil, which tears them up pretty good but by itself cannot survive the onslaught of this fully operational battle station!
The Psion has no idea that its a psionic sword, so they toss it in the pack and proceed to free prisoners who are engulfed in the walls of the various chambers, eventually freeing Abdul al Azul, the son of the Sheik of the Bayt al Joom (House of Stars). Freeing him, he offers to show them a way into the Repository that his father told him about... though it involves delving deeper into the Minaret of Screams.
They proceed deeper finding the barracks area of the Burning Dervishes, and the Burning Dervish warden. A quick fight erupts and the PCs are victorious. Taking more of the pink lotion from the Burning Dervishes they hop down the next Esophageal passage and into the unknown... but take their time passing through so as not to all land on each other this time... they hope!
Until the next installment!
Case
This session begins with the return of the Psion. One of his other games broke up, so his wife let him come back (for now). The PCs had chucked his corpse into a bag of holding after the mission he had died in so its no large manner to get him raised and ready to go.
The PCs seeing that the coast is mostly clear, again don a different disguise and take a flying carpet to the minaret, timing their travel across the city to a point shortly after the scream... which is an accepted call to prayer for the Sultan's Faithful.
They land on the platform at the top level of the tower and make like Luke and Han escourting chewbacca into the prison section of the Death Star.
Upon entering they note the near darkness, and the spongy floor, finding the whole place rather damp and uninviting. From their light sources they note figures shambling on the tiers below them and that the platform that extended outside appears to go straight to the center of the chamber. (See the photographs of the terrain I built of the area for further reference in the other COB thread if you haven't seen them already).
Its a narrow stretch, about PCs wide, and at the end of the pathway are 3 burning dervishes who take one look at the PCs, note that they are not fire giants, or burning dervishes...or efreeti, and attack.
The battle is pretty quick but with one side effect, the burning dervishes use bullrush and overbear attacks to shove the PCs off the main path and down into the rings below... which are filled with cannabalistic madmen, driven insane by the shrieks of the minaret. These madmen happen to have "escaped" confinement in the lower levels and crawled up the gullet to come out here.
That said, overall burning dervishes aren't terribly tough unless they have piles of class levels so the party finishes them off, and has to crawl/rescue their allies who were knocked into the terraces below.. which are spiked slippery, coated with a caustic material that slowly dissolved metal! Yum!
A search of the bodies notes that these burning dervishes are wearing rubber hip waiders and carrying vials of a minty smelling pink fluid... Obviously some potion. I added this bit in on the fly as a nod to what was to come. The vials give dr -5 over acid. 3 of the PCs don the waiders, they being the Sam Q2, Konn, and Ard... since the waiders wont fit over the armor that the rest of the troupe is wearing, and since the psion doesn't have anything of any real value other than some bracers, rings, amulets, and normal psion "what not".
Konn hops down the hole in the center of the room, after pouring the pink lotion on himself while the other PCs finish off the rest of he madmen. Rhy, the Elandril and the Psion are down on the terraces at this time.
Slurping his way down the esophageal passage he gets squirted out into a rubbery room and is confronted by 3 more burning dervishes all by himself! Woops!
Glandril hops down the hole. I have him role a base attack roll... which he of course succeeds and he lands plop onto Konn, crushing him due to his 350 lbs of weight, and spiked mountain plate armor. Damage dealt. Ouch!
The burning dervishes wirlwind attack both of them and they take some hits and some damage, because their AC isn't as crazy as Rhy's.
The rest of the party has no idea what is going on because I've moved them to a 2nd table since they arent in the gullet chamber anymore.
Next down the hole is SamQ2 who also makes his Base Attack and hits...landing on top of Konn, further damaging him as he gets more deeply skewered to Glandril, and of course SamQ2 takes some damage, Glandril takes some more damage... its getting just wrong.
They get up and spend the round extricating themselves from each other and get wirlwind attacked again by the burning dervishes.
The chamber is REALLY small, like maybe big enough for the 3 of them, and the burning dervishes are stabbing into the room with spears! A dark, dank, wet pinkish yellow corridor is seen beyond.
PCs topside continue to finish off the madmen and crawl towards the hole so they too can hop down.
Ard is next. He misses and is covered in the pink lotion, so no crush damage to him and he manages NOT to land on the other guys by missing his Base attack. The guys in the chamber fight back, managing to kill a burning dervish this round.
Then Elandrin jumps down... wop, right on top of Ard. and Elandrin is wearing plate armor, so damage due. Ard has stoneskin going and scratches some damage off for that but is annoyed at being knocked prone.
3 in the doorway start the push into the hall to make room for everyone else.
The psion hops in, lands on top of ard/elandrin... more damage and more laughs! Plop Plop Plop. They get up, but have nowhere to go because the hallway/doorway is blocked.
The burning dervishes retreat a bit and someother figures can be seen coming from both directions.
The original 3 move into the hallway but are kinda lined up... thats when the newcomers hit them from both sides with crossing blade barrier spells. One of wich manages to enter the small entrance chamber. Of course Konn and SamQ evade. No such luck for the others, tho a few make their reflex saves instead so take half damage x2 blade barriers. Glandril misses one, and makes one, he's raged and has 250 or some crazy hit points now, but the damage he's already taken plus the 2 blade barriers have him down to about 180 already. WOah!
Then Rhy jumps down the hole, makes his base attack roll (of course) and I roll random... he lands on the Psion. They both take fat damage... with the psion taking much fatter damage of course... 4d6 or something. I dont remember but its whatever something falling on you says in the DMG... we looked it up. Rhy gets himself some big damage from the blade barrier in the room to top off his fall.
The newcomers are Silaal... N'gathau reconfigured genie with virtually no soul and a penchante for inflicting a lot of pain. Two more arrive, and now we have 2 more blade barriers as these guys just kick back and laugh. SamQ2 fails a save vs. Dominate Monster, because he is raged, Glandril makes his. SamQ is instructed to sneak attack the nearest PC... which happens to be Ard... and his sneak attack is INSANE.
Ard takes fat damage, and his contingency dealio goes off. He dimension doors away from danger... but not so much because dimension door away from danger puts him closer to Silaal and burning dervishes. Glandril says screw it to the damage and charges THROUGH a blade barrier... taking the damage and power attack/rage attacks a silaal, nearly killing it in one blow!
Elandrin casts a dispel magic. It manages to dispel an area big enough for them to get out of the entrance chamber. The Psion heals himself with some psionic power because he's about dead.
More of this shenannigans goes on with multiple blade barriers, dominated PCs, Ard in thoroogh danger for his life... goes on. Glandril ends up with his back to a wall slicing away at silaal that are near him... when the wall tries to engulf him. Glop. He's pinned till Rhy can cut him free. Rhy turns to face enemies and Konn gets dominated. Turning on Elandrin and hitting him for some good damage! Elandrin casts another dispel to free Konn of his curse. Ard casts dispel on SamQ to free him of his. The PCs take down another 2 silaal, when 2 more appear... along with a 3rd figure.. Rylon the Cruel, a flayer devil bearing a psionic sword that allows him to Coup De Grace as a standard action rather than a full round.
Needless to say, once people get freed of mind control/ away from the various blade barriers, the Silaal finally go down and the PCs gang up on the devil, which tears them up pretty good but by itself cannot survive the onslaught of this fully operational battle station!
The Psion has no idea that its a psionic sword, so they toss it in the pack and proceed to free prisoners who are engulfed in the walls of the various chambers, eventually freeing Abdul al Azul, the son of the Sheik of the Bayt al Joom (House of Stars). Freeing him, he offers to show them a way into the Repository that his father told him about... though it involves delving deeper into the Minaret of Screams.
They proceed deeper finding the barracks area of the Burning Dervishes, and the Burning Dervish warden. A quick fight erupts and the PCs are victorious. Taking more of the pink lotion from the Burning Dervishes they hop down the next Esophageal passage and into the unknown... but take their time passing through so as not to all land on each other this time... they hope!
Until the next installment!
Case
Varianor Abroad
Explorer
"fat damage"
ROFL!
What book is that in?
ROFL!
What book is that in?
Voadam
Legend
A little constructive criticism with after the fact not at the table 20x20 hindsight. I think a better mechanic for whether sliding down the tunnels results in collisions would be for the characters below to make reflex saves rather than have the characters coming down make attack rolls using their BAB. The heroes are not trying to hit their companions after all and having fighters in full plate more likely to crash into companions than clerics in full plate does not quite jibe.
bowbe
First Post
Voadam, you are quite right. I'll be honest, I think I probably did give the PCs a reflex save to avoid being landed on and the BAB seemed the most sure way to figure things out... "At that time" in game. If I ran it all now I would probably have done it differently, but no matter. It was one of those rare occassions you get as a DM where nobody really complains about a ruling because everyone was having so much fun!
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On with the Adventure
So the PCs squeeze downt he next passageway and come into a chamber thats a little bit less chaotic looking and a bit larger than the others. However, the floor here is wetter, and spongier than it was in the Upper Gut.
Within a few rounds the PCs are beset with a Dun Pudding and an enhanced Ocre Jelly.
Elandril, The Psion, and Ard finish these beasties off, and the PCs proceed up the corridor with openings on either side every 30 or 40 ft. As they start moving they realize that the chambers that they pass are completely full of oozes, jellies and slimes. Not wanting any part of this caustic armor and flesh eating goodness Ard strikes a marvelous plan. Casting 2 walls of force he seals the passages on either side of the hallway and thus protects the party from attacks from the sides or from behind once they get where they are going.
The PCs make it to the last chamber, a much larger chamber than the others that they had seen previously and astride a Saddle of Ooze riding and the largest black pudding any of the PCs have ever faced sits Samiij the Unclean, a prisoner of the Tower, and Insane minion of Juiblex!
The battle doesn't last as long as I would like. Rhy, Glandril, Elandrin, Konn, the Psion,Abdul al Azul, and SamQ2 = 8 attackers per round vs. 1 spell from Samij, and 1 attack from the ooze just don't cut it, no matter how big your ooze is. But hey, this is why you have playtest sessions. I realize now that the encounter is a bit of a cake walk unless you have your spells picked perfectly, and even then coked out barbarian "rage saves" for will and dwarf saves "vs magic" that stack up are about as wrong as wrong gets! Hahaha. Good news is Konn loses his big sword, and is forced to use the psionic blade (and he isnt psionic) instead.
Bad news is... losing the sword starts to become the beginning of the end for Konn's player. The guy likes to min max. He likes his gear, and if losing the gear, he likes to get MUCH better gear (x2 better) in exchange. I find out some time later that this is pretty much the way this guy plays, and that he spends most times DMing ultra high level games where it takes 3 hours to make your character, only to have it wiped out in 20 minutes. Nothing against the dude, I consider him a friend and a great guy, but we begin to see a difference in playstyle here. No matter, for now everything is "basically" cool and we proceed after they wrest the saddle of ooze riding from Samiij's cold dead corpse.
Another passage leads down... to what some consider the most disgusting portion of the minaret. With the Efreeti noble leading the way they descend into the Bowel.
More acidic, more rubbery, and with an undulating sickness that they have a hard time (as Players) with... they enter the twisting turning chute. Along the way they find passages that descend left and right. After visiting one of these and encountering a pack of Dhergodaemons they decide NOT to enter more of these chambers and use various magic spells to seal the bowel crypts prior to any engagement in combat. Smart move there, but they don't seal every one of the crypts (so don't manage to kill the creature whose intestinal tract they are traveling thru). Abdul Al Azul reaches a crypt where a Charonodaemon awaits, and pays the fellow to take him out of the crypt, figuring hades a descent place to hide from the Sultan's watchful eye, until he can make it to a neutral plane such as the Plane of Earth to reside as an exile. He points the PCs down to the last part of the bowel and tells them that through that passage they will find a way into the Great Repository and out of the Minaret of Screams. From the repository they should seek out any knowledge that would teach them the "truth" about the Sultan, and how he managed to convert the mostly lawful neutral efreeti into a subjugated race worshipping the sultans cult of personality.
For their aid Abdul grants the PCs one wish, which they use to wish themselves healed of injury and full up on spells so that they need not take a rest once they have crossed out of the body of Nyalz, the minaret of Screams.
He tells them of a great iron bound tome in the repository which his father uses as a passage into the library... thus a way to escape the cursed repository and find their way back into the city again. Abdul was a stand up efreeti, and helped give the PCs a diff
Bidding them blessings in the name of Anumon he steps aboard his boat and is gone forever (or is he?).
At XP time they figure that they will be leveling, but to their consternation realize that a very large 7 person party, is splitting xps pretty thinly. This problem exists for a bit of the early levels of COB but works itself out a few months down the road.
To be Continued.
Case
>
>
On with the Adventure
So the PCs squeeze downt he next passageway and come into a chamber thats a little bit less chaotic looking and a bit larger than the others. However, the floor here is wetter, and spongier than it was in the Upper Gut.
Within a few rounds the PCs are beset with a Dun Pudding and an enhanced Ocre Jelly.
Elandril, The Psion, and Ard finish these beasties off, and the PCs proceed up the corridor with openings on either side every 30 or 40 ft. As they start moving they realize that the chambers that they pass are completely full of oozes, jellies and slimes. Not wanting any part of this caustic armor and flesh eating goodness Ard strikes a marvelous plan. Casting 2 walls of force he seals the passages on either side of the hallway and thus protects the party from attacks from the sides or from behind once they get where they are going.
The PCs make it to the last chamber, a much larger chamber than the others that they had seen previously and astride a Saddle of Ooze riding and the largest black pudding any of the PCs have ever faced sits Samiij the Unclean, a prisoner of the Tower, and Insane minion of Juiblex!
The battle doesn't last as long as I would like. Rhy, Glandril, Elandrin, Konn, the Psion,Abdul al Azul, and SamQ2 = 8 attackers per round vs. 1 spell from Samij, and 1 attack from the ooze just don't cut it, no matter how big your ooze is. But hey, this is why you have playtest sessions. I realize now that the encounter is a bit of a cake walk unless you have your spells picked perfectly, and even then coked out barbarian "rage saves" for will and dwarf saves "vs magic" that stack up are about as wrong as wrong gets! Hahaha. Good news is Konn loses his big sword, and is forced to use the psionic blade (and he isnt psionic) instead.
Bad news is... losing the sword starts to become the beginning of the end for Konn's player. The guy likes to min max. He likes his gear, and if losing the gear, he likes to get MUCH better gear (x2 better) in exchange. I find out some time later that this is pretty much the way this guy plays, and that he spends most times DMing ultra high level games where it takes 3 hours to make your character, only to have it wiped out in 20 minutes. Nothing against the dude, I consider him a friend and a great guy, but we begin to see a difference in playstyle here. No matter, for now everything is "basically" cool and we proceed after they wrest the saddle of ooze riding from Samiij's cold dead corpse.
Another passage leads down... to what some consider the most disgusting portion of the minaret. With the Efreeti noble leading the way they descend into the Bowel.
More acidic, more rubbery, and with an undulating sickness that they have a hard time (as Players) with... they enter the twisting turning chute. Along the way they find passages that descend left and right. After visiting one of these and encountering a pack of Dhergodaemons they decide NOT to enter more of these chambers and use various magic spells to seal the bowel crypts prior to any engagement in combat. Smart move there, but they don't seal every one of the crypts (so don't manage to kill the creature whose intestinal tract they are traveling thru). Abdul Al Azul reaches a crypt where a Charonodaemon awaits, and pays the fellow to take him out of the crypt, figuring hades a descent place to hide from the Sultan's watchful eye, until he can make it to a neutral plane such as the Plane of Earth to reside as an exile. He points the PCs down to the last part of the bowel and tells them that through that passage they will find a way into the Great Repository and out of the Minaret of Screams. From the repository they should seek out any knowledge that would teach them the "truth" about the Sultan, and how he managed to convert the mostly lawful neutral efreeti into a subjugated race worshipping the sultans cult of personality.
For their aid Abdul grants the PCs one wish, which they use to wish themselves healed of injury and full up on spells so that they need not take a rest once they have crossed out of the body of Nyalz, the minaret of Screams.
He tells them of a great iron bound tome in the repository which his father uses as a passage into the library... thus a way to escape the cursed repository and find their way back into the city again. Abdul was a stand up efreeti, and helped give the PCs a diff
Bidding them blessings in the name of Anumon he steps aboard his boat and is gone forever (or is he?).
At XP time they figure that they will be leveling, but to their consternation realize that a very large 7 person party, is splitting xps pretty thinly. This problem exists for a bit of the early levels of COB but works itself out a few months down the road.
To be Continued.
Case
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