Durn's War of Fire and Ice Campaign Discussion

[Daern]

Session 14: Traveling in the Kingdom of Dassen

Today's session was long on RP and long foreshadows. We played through a loose narration of the heroes' travels through the various Duchies of Dassen. They learned of how much the Lords differed from one to the other, both in policies and attitudes towards each other and towards the outside world. Some were welcoming, while some merely wanted their hard won gold.

Lady Timor is a sorceress. Lord Rego is bitter, and a little naive. Lady Namin is vain and fatuous. Lord Iz is a serious and honorable highlander. Lord Megadon is a fascist and a blowhard. Lady Dene is pleasant but un mindful of suffering. The met only Rego and Iz. The others were unavailable even to big spending heroes.

The players picked up on this and started asking questions, having been tipped that there is a war council coming in the spring. Still, news of the war in the north is woeful weeks out of date. No one knows if the City of Gate Pass still stands free.

This session should really bear fruition after the events in Seaquen unfold, when the party is sent back north. I dig this because it means they will be looking forward to it for awhile. But it also means I need to breeze through "Shelter" so it doesn't get too distant. I'm realizing that because of real life, the ideal culmination of the campaign will be with "Banquet", so I want there to be momentum.

The heroes reached Vidor and traded their horses for a rowboat. They delved into the swamp and were accosted by the Three Witches. One escaped and they tracked her back to her lair, where there was a battle royal with the restless dead.

Katrina was rescued and many bloody crystal globes were found along with incriminating papers. Katrina warned them that the sisters' were waiting for the Ragesians to come to pick up the 'Tears' so they had better hurry. Of course, this lead them right into the path of the Wyvern Riders. We ended there, with the heroes tired and out of dailies, hearing the screech of a wyvern such as they had not heard since first level (they are now 8th)

I ran the Witches encounters entirely by the book, and I was pretty stoked on it. The monsters were interesting though maybe the witches were a little too complicated. The undead boneswarms and skeletal husks were great. So was having one witch left to direct the undead.

My advice for this section is to play up the creepyness of the swamp and then have some theatrical introduction of the sisters. Perhaps pre-write a short dialogue that the characters hear before they see light of the boat.

"Fire fire toil and trouble, the blood of innocents fills my bubbles... tears of blood, tears of the torrent, tears for storms and weather abhorrent..."

I've been glossing over the skill challenges, mostly announcing them as a sort of invitation for my players to do some dice guided story-telling. I want to the story to move along, not to get them lost in the swamp.

Next session, they will FINALLY get to Seaquen, bearing precious cargo, and also hints of new, nefarious plots from the far-flung Ragesians!

 

[Daern]

Session 15: Spies, Imperialism, and the End of the World

The Brotherhood of Aquiline Mercy has traveled through Fire and Ice, across many leagues, battling every step of the way to finally arrive at the famed Lyceum of Seaquen, the only Free City brave enough to stand up to the Ragesian Empire. Finally their duty will be discharged: a briefcase, stained, burnt and battered, delivered to the Headmasters of the School. It is a heroic occasion, one of relief and trepidation for what would come next. Even as one chapter seems to be closing, yet more trials appear on the horizon.
While still in the Shrieking Mire, Ragasian spies were encountered, venturing far from their borders to collect the TideReaver Tears from the twisted sisters of the swamp. The weary heroes happened upon the group and slew them all in a fit of rage. They inhaled the fumes of an entire sack full of glass "tears" even as the wyvern unleashed the electrical charge of its fearsome scream. All glowed purple for a moment and felt a strange sensation...
After a final night huddled in the cold and drizzling swamp, protected by the wards and spells of the druid and bard, the group found the road that emerged from the bog on its way to town.
Walking, they encountered a party of Elven Knights, well armed with lances and writs of marquee, a delegation from the self-proclaimed protectors of the seas, the Dragon Throne of the Shahalesti. The elves were impressed by the candor of the Paladin of Dreams traveling with the party and also with the evidence of the Ragesians they had slain. The Brotherhood discovered that the Eladrin had instituted a naval blockade around Seaquen in order to ensure cooperation. It seemed that all was not well in Seaquen.
Finally arriving at the fabled Quen-by-the-Seas, the heroes felt great pride and relief, but it was tempered some by the sea of Refugee camps that seemed to hold the city under siege. The town was overrun with visitors, filled to bursting, every inn full, and the Militia was obliged to clear the streets with regular shield charges down the main roads.
Ahleena of the Torrents lead the group immediately across town to the Gates of the Lyceum Campus. After some discussion with the militia captain Xavious Foebane (who invited them to dinner), the heroes arrived at the offices of the Headmaster and were finally granted an informal audience with the Lyceum Council to whom they presented the secrets of the Ragesian empire.
It seemed that the book was written by the Second Inquisitor Kevran and although written in a crude cypher it was immediately apparent that the "Scourge" was much more than a political act. Further study was warranted. The group were promised bunks in the student quarters returned for their dinner date with the Dwarf Xavious. More questions would have to wait til morning.
All in all a fun session with lots of new plot twists and campaign continuity. It is great to bring the Rags back and have another wyvern fight (not that tough) and the players now have a solid sense of the Shahalesti diplomatic style as well as the Ragesian threat. Everyone was stoked to get to Seaquen, and I am stoked to offload the Torrent NPC as I have grown tired of the character's presence in the party. Unfortunately I was dead tired and had not "studied up" the night before so I did not present the town as well as I could have.
The module does not have any "entering the city" boxed text, and I was wishing it did, or at least that I'd written my own.
What does the Seaquen skyline look like? I said old white stone walls and white stone towers mixed with crazy ramshackle towers built by wizards and gnomes. A variety of architecture. I also described the refugees and the tension in the city. I need to really get my head around the town and what all the options are and pad out some descriptions and ideas.
I haven't used the 2nd rag combat, so I may transpose that into a fish market, rat hunt, spies discovered sequence. Then I plan to let the characters mess around in town for a session before moving things along.

How did the other DMs out there organize the "Tales of Seaquen"?

 

[Daern]

Session 16: Urban Adventure, of the Rails and into the Sandbox

Well this one required some quick thinking for the old DM. The party's second day in Seaquen followed a dinner party with Xavious Foebane who gave them the lay of the land, caught them up on war news and invited them to the morning militia muster. It was a muddy morning at muster in the rain at dawn. The bard played some drums to cheer everyone up. Then it was off to follow up whatever thread they felt like grabbing. There were alot. The town kept dropping hooks every step they took; jobs offered, people to meet, people wanting to meet them, sages to consult, taverns to visit, mysteries to unlock...
I was a bit lost. There are many possible skill challenges for the party to take up as well as alot of exposition and npcs and stuff. I spent a lot of prep time just getting the NPCs straight in my head but then realized that I hadn't closely studied the skill challenges, and that furthermore, the SCs didn't have much info for context. These skill challenge write ups seem to be a very obfuscating way to present information to the DM...
They decided to visit the magistrate who sent them off looking for Ragasian arsonists. This lead to a couple of mansions along the coastline where it was discerned that the source of the fires seemed to be rats from the sewers. There turned out to be an aqueduct beneath the city, which they followed to a cross roads. They chose to follow a low roaring sound instead of a rhythmic plop. This brought them to a wall of fire crossing the tunnel where swarms of fiery rats seemed to congregate. Attacking the rats revealed more than initially thought as rats poured through the wall. They were followed by a fire archon! These foes were defeated and the rash warriors amongst the party decided to hurl themselves through the wall of flame, burning themselves horribly in the process.
At this point I was just making stuff up. The whole fiery rats in the pyromancer's tomb doesn't jibe well to me with the "biomantic seacreatures". I don't get it myself. Why would the trail of fire rats lead to a temple of mutant fish? So I made stuff up and put up a wall of fire guarded by an emissary from the City of Brass. I figured the rats were accustomed to fire because of the tomb but that the burning sky has made some of those wards increase in intensity, causing the rats to mutate and catch fire in the vicinity of this wall of flame. I described the water as briney and oily. Maybe the squids and skum are secreting some flamable mucus or something. (I'm imagining the whole seacreature aspect of the scenario as a cult of Dagon rather than science experiments)
We stopped with most of the party on one side of the wall of fire and the bard and Katrina holding out on their side. Now I need to figure out how to proceed. Do I make this a dungeon that connects to the prison/tomb of the pyro, the submerged temple, the White Wyrm safehouse, the Lyceum and maybe the Royale? Do I block off the tunnel? (I tried to warn them party of how hot the fire wall was, hoping they'd turn back but they jumped right through... I kinda want them to be really screwed.)
I think at this point I do need to make it a big interconnected dungeon so at least I have a sense of where everything is and I don't have to wing it quite so much...
anyways, good times with another really complicated WOTBS module.

 

[Daern]

Session 17: Lost in the Dungeons of Fishy Lava

The players liked getting back into an old fashioned dungeon after all this free form stuff. I didn't realize it but that more or less what Shelter is, an urban dungeon. After last session's quick thinking, I drew up a map that that connected most of the encounter sites in the module via the aqueduct network of the ancient ruined city that Seaquen is built upon. This turned out to be a dungeon with a twin theme of fire/lava/portals to the Plane of Fire on one side, and fishy/aquatic/Esoteric Order of Dagon on the other. So this time I was ready with an array of options if they decided to turn right left or turn back. I made options for escaping out of a cistern, finding stairs to the White Wyrms safehouse, and coming up under the Royale through the garbage pit...
Unfortunately they were obliged to make a quick decision as the first encounter with a Living Napalm ooze resulted in a Cave-in that required the party to choose a direction before they were trapped between the rock fall and a wall of fire.
I had a set of high level encounters prepared without a chance to rest and they were feeling the heat as they were lost and out of surges and attempted to rest in the "aquatic wing" of the dungeon only to be ambushed by a Crazed Carrion Crawler.
Exploring further, the party discovered the "Shrine" from the Entifini side quest, which I described as a temple of worship that connected to a violent sea cave. The on coming tide brought the mutant sea life to the fight. This sea cave is connected to Sidoneth's house. I don't think they're going to take that route, but I'm sure they'll make the connection to his pet giant squid later on.
At the moment the party is still trapped in the place, but they should be able to get back to town next session. I plan to run the Council of War immediately and move on to the climax. At this point I think they are well primed for the Pyromancer's Tomb. Also, an encounter with Ahleena will be interesting as they have made the connection with her Kraken Worship.
Running a dungeon of this sort was great because I didn't know where they would go and their decisions closed off other options, illuminating the dark cult aspect of the town but getting them no better picture of the Ragesian spy situation. Classic stuff.

 

[Daern]

Session 18: Death and Old Friends

I have to say that although I was wary of this module, the urban sandbox has been really fun to play with. The players are following multiple plot strands at once I am DMing by the seat of my pants to keep up with it.
The party started still lost in the aqueducts below Seaquen, and proceeded to sketch a map from memory and get themselves even more lost. (and I was having a hard time keeping straight the map I had drawn) So they slogged through water, swam through water grates, doubled back, realized they'd made a circle, and finally ended up at a dead end with water pouring down a trough (presumably out to sea), a blocked well shaft up, and a door that "bulged outward as if some great weight is behind it."
Of course they climbed the shaft and dislodged the debris, which fell on them, but revealed an exit to the surface. Scorning such an easy escape, they decided to open the door, which of course exploded on them with all sorts of junk, but when the dust cleared there was a stairs up. They went up this staircase and found a basement room full of debris, broken statuary of the ancient Bael Turath empire and tombstones and old nautical equipment. This of course all coallesced into a "Tombstone Golem" which, even de-leveled to 15 managed to kill the paladin and force the party to flee for their lives.
Finally returning to town, they met up with an old friend (the paladin player's original character, which he reintroduced), and then proceeded with investigations. These heroes won't rest! They learned a bit about the various Dionems and Tears and evil books they had accumulated and were invited to the upcoming War Council.
Then they remembered that someone was looking for them. This lead the White Wyrms hideout (I didn't have the heart to run the skill challenge as it was late in the session.) They captured the Storm Mage, but Jezyk stayed out of sight. I think I'll have her team up with Damius for an ambush next session.
Next we'll run the Council, which I am still planning to run by handing NPCs outlines to each player (ambassadors and local officials, I'll keep some key NPCs to myself.). They will probably go to the Royale as well and look for Nelebekus. I may cut the Wayfarer play to run straight into the tomb.
Anyways, its been a blast. The players heads are spinning with all the different factions and small plots that keep popping up, and I think when events lead to their natural conclusion they will get a lot of a-ha moments.

 

[Daern]

Session 19 & 20: The Perfect Storm

Last session the heroes did some investigation and enjoyed some downtime. The druid purchased a bookload of rituals from Sidoneth and had a positive interaction. The Bard snooped around and managed to identifying Nelebekus at the Royale (he also tried out the "Best Joke Ever" on the bartender, ie Hideous Laughter, 9th lvl daily), but he was unable to eavesdrop. The group returned to the Royale the next day and the barbarian challenged for supremacy in the arena. He just barely managed to slay the champion, earning a bronze cup and two large pigs. On the way back to town they were ambushed in the driving rain. Ragesian archers, Inquisitor Damius, and Jezyk the assassin devil. They fairly easily drove them off and Damius escaped. Jezyk did not. They never made the connection that she was following them about. Perhaps I should have given her some dialogue.
Finally, they were invited to the War Council. I gave each player a cutout of the Ambassador descriptions from the module and told them they were going to play them. The scene went well. The players got into it and i think it built upon the already fairly thorough knowledge of the politics of the campaign. It reaffirmed Dassen's ambivalence about fighting the Ragesians.
It was certainly better than me performing the whole scene. As it was, I did a lot of text reading.
The Giorgio thing fell flat, but I had already decided that the pace of the adventure required that the storm climax soon. No play, though I can see it being a great scene.
The arrival of the Shahalesti was great. The players were totally unsurprised by the over the top demands of the Elven Nation, but they made comments like, "Maybe they think they're doing the right thing but the way it comes out is by taking control of everything."
The council broke up in pandemonium of course, and I had Sidoneth slip out quickly. Two characters followed him to his house and more or less realized that he had jumped into the sea, possibly in the form of a sea creature.
Then the hurricane hit! Towers and trees fell, people were blown away, and the heroes walked nonchalantly through gale winds. They were the only hope! The druid had been consulting ancient maps and scrolls to discover the drowned Tomb of the Pyromancer and when the storm hit was able to aim towards its eye.
The party entered the prison and fought a horde of Burning Bones skeletons. The session ended with the discover of a "force tube leading down through the water."

So, I'm really happy with the way this mod has turned out. It has provided an opportunity for players to process and interact with alot of the campaign info they've been hearing for so long. It was fairly sandboxy in that they were able to follow leads and abandon them and try others. They strongly suspect Sidoneth and won't be too surprised I think when the denouement features the hairless druid and an Emissary of Dagon.
My plan is to wrap up the Tomb in 3 encounters... the trapped tomb itself, showdown with Damius and his soldiers at the fire bridge (plus a fire elemental I think!), and finally Sidoneth on the roof with the sea itself an adversary.
Then we will move on to the War Council of Dassen. I think I will provide a bit of awesome by making the Dionem available for use in taming a clutch of griffons for use in traveling to Steppengard's Castle. I will have to think on how flight will complicate the entry into the castle encounters. The castle will certainly have ballistae!

 

[Daern]

Session 21: Put Him in the Iron Maiden!

After last session's storytelling and roleplay, this session was pure hack and slash. The party descended into the Pyromancer's Tomb through an "energetic" tube that kept water from flowing onto the hot magma. The bard lowered himself down and tripped the alarm. Settling themselves in the steam tunnel they overheard the Inquisitor in conversation. He spoke of the uselessness of using devils, of the expected devastation to be caused by the hurricane (Dagon's Call), and left with orders to his men to sell their lives dearly.

(at this point I feel like a lot of explanation is needed. The players have been fed all kinds of bits and scraps of info during this adventure and campaign, some of it from the modules and some of it made up on the spot, and the want it strung together a bit. Hence the villain soliloquy.)

Entering the cavern the heroes confronted an old enemy, Kazyk the Perfidious Devil summoned once again. He greeted them and gladly held the bridge while ragasian artillery bombarded the heroes. Two soldiers fled, but one was captured. A diplomacy challenge managed to turn the half-orc soldier away from his cause, but not to give him courage to fight the inquisitor. At this point the party included Torrent and Katrina along with this new addition. NPCs abound.

Noone was interested in the dragon's maw entrance to the Tomb itself. There was some investigation of the laboratory. It revealed some treasure, including an evil tomb, the "Dagonomicon" written by a mad Sindairian. This was a spur of the moment invention but its inclusion made everything click into place. Why did Sidoneth betray his city and colleagues? Because they offered the Dagonomicon!

There was a torture room fight featuring Damius and a quartet of de-leveled slaughter wights. This fight was made memorable by the inevitable iron maiden, which was duly opened and Damius shoved inside.

Afterwards, the prisoners warn of the unleashed power of the Hurrican Orb and Dagon's Call. There is no time, Sidoneth must be stopped!

At this point I've run them through 3 hard combats in a row. They have twice thought they had reached the day's conclusion. Nay. I will offer them the chance to sacrifice magical items to the Omphalite to regain surges, but no long rest is available.

Lurking above? The mad druid and the Wrath of Dagon!

in terms of where this campaign will go next in my limited time left, I'm thinking to allow some off screen downtime, then send them off to the Dassen Council where they will be involved in a spot of royal madness before engaging in a final battle against the Ragasians. I may scrap much of Banquet and use something like the Siege of Overlook from Dungeon or something like that. I like the idea of a Duke of Dassen having the Torch... or maybe the drow...

 

[RangerWickett]

Sounds pretty fun. It's always interesting to see how GMs take the modules and tweak them to fit their groups. I'm rather amused by the 'Dagonomicon.'

 

[Daern]

Yeah, the Dagonomicon was a flash. We were all pretty stoked. I haven't been describing much biomancy, so Dagon has taken the place of psuedo-science. But, yeah this has been a great campaign. It has been really amazing to have all these long threads pulling through the whole storyline. The campaign has hit a stride now where the players are really tuned in to alot of the peripheral of the campaign world. To bad it has to end, leaving town and all that.

 

[Daern]

Heavy Weather: Planning the finale

The party will be well worn by the time they reach the ultimate battle with Sidoneth. It will be their 4th encounter without a long rest. I haven't stretched their resources often in this campaign so it should be touchy. I've redesigned Sidoneth and replaced "Lula" with a modified "Wrath of Dagon" monster much like a Froghemoth (foreshadowed in earlier sessions). The battle will be on the prison roof, but I am thinking I will add some extra randomness, A Weather Table, rolled at the start of each round:

1: On shore wind rips through the battle, DC 18 Athletics; targets are Pushed 1d4 squares inland.
2: Off shore wind roars out to sea, DC 18 Athletics; targets Pushed d4 squares toward the cliff.
3: Rogue wave crashes over the seawall: All areas within three squares of the seawall suffer an attack +15 vs Fortitude; 1d12+5 damage and slide 3 squares (1d8 for direction)
4: Rising tide, a surge of water brings 1d4 Fish-man minions in to the fray.
5-6: Nothing.

Any character swept over the wall into the sea gets a Saving Throw to hang on, and another to cling to the Seawall 15ft below(1d10 dmg). Athletics and acrobatics checks are required to get back up. Failure results in being swept out to sea...

Any other ideas? Maybe lightning strikes and a crumbling roof are too much, maybe not.