DDAL Jasper DMs Dungeon of the Mad Mage Spoilers Completed

[jasper]

Dungeon of the Mad Mage Session 11
Wyllowwood Morning of Day 19 to Evening of Day 19 in Maddgoth’s Castle
PC Killed 5 Monsters Killed 354 Villains Captured 12 Villains Escaped 23
Obaya Uday Cash left on hand 6,895 PP
AP 4 TP 4 Renown 1 Downtime 10. That is everyone including the person who had to leave early.
Magic Items unlocked. Potion of Gaseous Form, Potion of Heroes’ feast, potion of invisibility, scroll of cloudkill,
Session 12 will pick up in room 44 the wizard’s armory.
Note to self. Bring all of Season modules and notes. Even you leave them in car. Note to reader. See the note note below.
I ending up with a very strong group of seven. Aukan, Emiya Pendragon (hex blade multiclass), Uriselzar (warlock multiclass), Drew, Rick Sanchatz (Rick has a last name), Valandras (Noble uppity Paladin), and Dausha. Except for playing the monsters mostly smarter than they were I made no adjustments to encounters. Also, it was very loud at the store so information was being lost. Thanks for Emiya for being the monster hit point tracker. I also had ten plus work day where computer stuff was not working correctly.
The time rewinds. Aukan kicks open the door to the evil druid Wyllow lair. Ok it was more like her home and throne room but we all know druids lie! The crystal dust is drifting down. Her crystal throne has a crack down the center and listed to the left. The secret door to the lair of her depths is just closing. From out of the woods come three awaken trees. They attack. While the group is defending itself from bad nature, they here a Tarzan yell from the rear of the lair.
Emiya takes to air with their flying cloak (No capes!) and flies up to the roof. The rest of the group start making fire wood. Look up in the sky, Is a bird? More fire wood is being made as one tree drops. Look from out the sun, is a plane (what you know about planes Emiya)? Two more cords of wood are chopped by the Downtown Drow Town murders. Crissann the displacer beast plays peek a boo with Dausha. Look up at the sky, it is…
Emiya is rudely interrupted by the evil archdruid and his doggie Crissann. “It is my ride!” she proclaims as the last tree falls. She tosses a jalapeno pepper off the roof into the crowd of the good-hearted heroes. It explodes into a fire storm. Yes. Burning down the house. And the forest. And most of the adventures. Well 39 points of damage is not great.
The whole group is covered in a massive shadow. Well a huge shadow. Well really is just a large shadow of a young green dragon Valdemar. Drew casts Dominate Beast. AND IT WORKS. Valdemar becomes Drew’s best friend. Valdemar grabs Drew into a hug.
Valdemar, “You are my best friend. I will call you George. Best friends. Friends for every. George we will get ice cream. Go to beach. We will do each other hair and nails and talk about girls. Best friends. George, Willow and me kissing in a tree. First comes kissing, second comes marriage, third… “Valdemar is slowly squeezing Drew when Rick asks, “What happen to the druid?”
Emiya did not notice the druid shape shifted and got away. Note. DOH! DOH! DOH! Drew readied Dominate Beast (first time casted my game). I opened the book and read Dominate Monster. And the roll was a three. But I went with it.
Valandras ask, “Why is there a long sword stick out of your head?”
After a long friendly conversation Valdemar has not noticed the sword. He is also upset about the mess the party has made in the courtyard and throne room Willow will be very angry. But since they are all friends, Willow will forgive them. He flies off toward his landing platform and lair. Emiya secretly follows and spies a huge mass of treasure. Can you say Greed. I knew you could.
The group comes up with a path. And another and another. And finally agrees to a good plan. GRIPE GRIPE GRIPE. People if you come up with a plan. Once the dm says okay Don’t going changing in mid action before I even tell you a result. It confuses me and slows down the game.
The flying duo gets 200 feet, 160 feet, 120 feet, 90 feet, yes, they going to sneak up on the dragon. BUT not the Long Sword of Sharpness. IT is SOS Tearulai. He tells them it not wise to wake the dragon. The duo retreats. Plan two. Some spells are casted. Some people charge. Some people run. Some people play not fair. Hide in darkness with an oath bow. Emiya takes Valdemar over have his hit points alone in the first round. The second round the sharpshooter Uriselzar misses. Valdemar somersaults off the platform flying low he retreats across the river into the tunnels. Rick dimension doors with Emiya to the entrance of the tunnels. Emiya takes a five-foot step and finishes the beast. Yes, a mean icky nasty adventure took out a dragon ALONE in two rounds.
Ok SOS Tearulai is a long sword of sharpness. It is a story item which means it stays with the group, even the person who was holding it does not show. You know it hates evil and does psychic damage to those. I will also level it as you go along. Since it likes gems. It has absorbed the black pearl of undead detection. Wielder automatically detects dead within 120 feet. As with any detect spell it may be blocked. Page 76 is where the sword is on.
After looting the horde, the group WISELY decide to explore the tunnel they dragon was trying to escape. The group descend a few hundred feet to Maddgoth’s Castle. After avoiding some quick sand, the come to a cliff. Down in the valley is a children’s bouncy castle. All but Drew flew to the castle. As Drew is climbing down the cliff face, the airborne dive on the castle. They disappear within ten feet of it. And only a small fire fly is seen hovering around the castle.
The party splits. Drew approaches the castle and it magically grows. Bigger and Bigger. She enters. A magical whisk broom and pan dusts her off. And tries to take her cloak. She refuses. Exiting the welcoming hall, she quickly kills a demon. Seconds later a flask floats toward face and drops to the floor. It shatters. Drew goes night night.
Note. Note. Below. Ok. I pulled my notes for the fifth and sixth level of the dungeon. But did not think they go to the seventh level. I also missed the tunnel to seventh level. So, I flipping through chapter between both groups. The demon should have been a tougher fight.
The airborne troops find the way into the castle and start kicking in doors and looting. Strangely they don’t notice various coins disappearing into the room as Aukan kicks the door open. They are followed by brooms, mops, buckets which clean up after them. When the door to armory is kicked open two Nycaloth appear to play with the group. The group puts them down in three rounds.

Also they did try to destroy a carpet in the throne room but covered up.

 

[jasper]

DDAL08-14 Session
Rescue from Vanrakdoom
AP 4 TP 8 Downtime 10 Renown 1 Obaya Uday Cash left on hand 6,895 PP
Pc Killed 5 Monsters Killed 385 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escaped 23
I had a four-person average group. Terra Ranger Rogue, Candossa cleric, Linnora sorcerer, and Darwin paladin.
Ok I think this is a tier two module with one tier three monster. I don’t think I took down anyone down half their hit points.
The group arrives at Austra Trumaine hovel. She is unkept, unshaven, her hair is a mess. She is a mess from where she was last week, kicking PCS and putting the fear of death into the characters. She pleas with the group to send the Baron Blood a good report. “Last week I was CR 15. I could cast spells. I made people flee to sunny Waterdeep. I could drain an adventurer in 5 rounds. Today. CR 5. VAMPIRE SPAWN. PLEASE DON’T KILL ME! “The group let her cry and moan for a bit. Then demanded to shown the teleportation circle to Vanrakdoom.
The teleportation was easy. But it was dark. Hey vampires don’t need no light. Darwin flame tongue and Candossa light spell sheds some light on the back of Terra. She looks down at her shadow. She is casting one, no two, no three, no four, no five, yes six shadows. After a two and half round fight, Candossa deciphers dwarven frieze. (I gave the group this checkpoint as the Bonus Objective A is unreadable even if you view on screen).
The combat has awoken the vampire spawn in the next room, while they are brushing their teeth; Terra charges into the tower and rips open one of twelve coffins. After a four-round battle, the group steal the pendants from the dust of spawn. They enjoy themselves destroying the coffins.
Leaving coffin central, the enter Seabordt’s office. All but the cleric are amused at the scrying painting. They get glimpses of a machine with a huge purple gem being fed by the blood of Waterdeep, and Skullport captives. The machine spawns vampire spawn.
Suddenly a wall disintegrates, a Beholder Zombie, and two vampire spawn attack the group. The group laughs at Terra. Terra had tried to do a dive behind the desk to hide. But slid across the desk getting a bill of lading stapled to her forehead. The poor Beholder did not get an attack off.
The group spies the prison cell, Terra rushes forward and opens the lock. Terra, “there are twelve prisoners, they get them out”. She tosses the weakest one over her shoulder in a fireman carry. Darwin ties to wake another. Candossa cast Mass healing on six of the prisoners. they all ignore the black fog to east of the cell.
Linnora, “Did you say twelve prisoners Terra?”
Terra, “Yes I counted twelve.”
Linnora, “The Baron Blood said ten prisoners.”
Terra, “He must be mistaken! There are twelve prisoners!”
Vampire Spawn whispers into Terra’s ear, “Actually ten prisoners. And two spawns.!” And bites Terra in the neck. (yes, I cheated. I said Terra was grappled, and the first hit was a bite. So, sue me.)
Four swarms of bats burst from the black fog. Followed by eight giant centipedes And a few rounds later they had taken down the vampire who was hiding in the fog.
Ok. I have major problems with this module. The area is supposed to drain a hit point per hour. Why are the prisoners still alive? A raiding party is not really going to spend an hour in the area unless the are checking everything out. And sweeping up after themselves. A shadow dragon is supposed to appear in and out of the frog but it is just window dressing. And the final battle assumes the group is going to enter the fog for bonus objective B. I would suggest if you run this, you add one vampire/ 8 centipedes per each odd number of players. And no short rests allowed.

 

[jasper]

DDAL08-15 Session Forge of Fangs
AP 4 TP 8 Downtime 10 Renown 1. Remember Downtime is 5 days every 2 AP. Renown is 1 every 4 AP.
PC Killed 5 Monsters Killed 409 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escaped 24 (wahoo!) Obaya Uday Cash on Hand 6,895 PP.
Magic Item unlocked Ring of Shooting Stars Table H.
I had a five person weak group. John C sorcerer looking for love, Nathan Dark Blood Wizard, Bankshot Warlock fighter with sharpshooter, Candessa (spelling correction), and Ludwig. PS. VAMPIRES HATE DAWN!
(DM remarks. I had a sinus headache which did not help my game play. We started late due me and Ken helping new people create their characters. We did end up with four tables running. Thanks to the two dms who step up and ran tier one. Ken was right on his rule call. I overruled due to the headache. Sorry Ken.)
The Baron Blood smiles knowingly at John C. The Baron had send Austra out for a light lunch. He thanks Candessa for the recovery of the pendants from 08-14.
Baron, “With these pendants, I was able to get some special cloaks created. These cloaks will give you the illusion of being a vampire spawn. Plus saying Batty, Bat, Bat it will polymorph you but not what you carrying into a small bat. Your mission is to sneak into Seabordt’s lair and destroy his vampire factory. Pick up four tiny kegs of smokepowder. NO. Ludwig you can’t take samples and put gun powder into your beer. Don’t push the red button on top of the kegs. It a timer. Could be ten seconds. Could be three minutes. Smokepowder is tricky stuff. You know the location of the teleporting circle. Go pass Seabordt’s office (it is still being repaired). Pass the prison cell. Go North. Turn into bats to slip through the cracks and enter his lair. “
(NOTE the hit point draining effect was not mention in this module.)
The group turn into bats and slip into the lair. No light. Total darkness. Enter a new cell block they transform back into their normal appearance.
John C pulls out his gem of brightness. Only to be yelled at by the two patrolling guards. Quick thinking by Ludwig and with John C playing dumb they bluff the guards into thinking they are new spawn. The spawn tell them to follow and take off.
Entering the second room both guards dive for the floor and cover their bat ears. A huge shrieking clobbers John C and Candessa ears. As the backup guards response and silence the Shrieker, the patrol passes the new meat over to them. John C is tossed a lead box to put the silence rock into. The backup guards Larry, Moe, and Curly run forward leaping over the small amounts of swamp.
Entering the artificial swamp John C, and Candessa start choking. Nathan misty steps to the other side of room where the three guards are giggling. As John C and Candessa are trying to move forward they trip over a stuffed crocodile.
Larry, “Hey Nathan why are those guys choking?”
Moe, “Yea we deadheads don’t need to breathe!”
Curly, “Maybe they are actually alive?”
Nathan, “yes they are. They are new victims I brought for the master. Get them!” and he dashes down the stairs.
Curly and Moe run toward crocodile who has awaken and has decided to snack on John C and Candessa. Bankshot casts Dawn on the entrance getting all these stooges. Nathan spies a hook horror waking up in a side tunnel.
Five rounds later Curly, hooky, and the croc are dead. Larry and Moe have retreated further into the lair. John C and Candessa flash a thumbs up sign of victory. As they go to flash the okay sign both collapse due to no air. (Note. OK mess this one up. The room is a trap with a nitrogen atmosphere. PCS who failed to hold their breath were supposed to be zeroed out in one round plus constitution modifier. I got confused with suffocation rules.)
With the factory floor alerted, the vampire spawn were ready for the party. NOT! (GRR. The module assumes the party has tricked their way in. “DOZENS” of vampire spawn are supposed to be in the room. I just put eight. The map does not match the room description. I just used the four mausoleums as the machine.) One vampire spawn escaped while good use of Dawn and other spells wiped out ten vampire spawns (including Larry and Moe), and two hook horrors. Placing a bomb on each of mausoleums, they follow the spawn through the secret door.
(I had the vampires precast some stuff. And I totally ignored the precast notes except for the swarm of bats.) The group kicks open the door and casts DAWN. (Ok I just read the Dawn spell, player was running the spell wrong as there is not additional effect outside the 30 foot radius. But I also forgot the extra 20 point of damage while the vamps were inside the spell. Offsetting penalties no foul.) And extra fireball from John C took out most of swarm of bats. Curly Joe a Fallen Vampire Paladin was slightly ticked off and tried to slay Candessa. Seabordt and Shemp try to escape the party by flying pass them. Taking some hits Seabordt and Shemp made it back to the factory floor. Curly Joe was able to charm Nathan to helping him.
Arriving on the factory floor, they spy the bombs and go to destroy them. Ludwig tries to stop them. He is able to kill Shemp. With the bombs destroyed and low on hit points Seabordt flees. The party was able to jury rig the smokepowder and destroy the factory.
(Players take note of the correct awards. For story reasons I saying Seabordt escaped but I am giving you the advancement point anyway.)

 

[jasper]

DOH, I had the AP, TP, Downtime, and Renown wrong for 08-14 and 08-15. My inner mean dm was taking points off for a walkover.

 

[jasper]

Dungeon of the Mad Mage Session 12
Day 19 -Day 23 Maddgoth’s Castle
AP 2 TP 2Downtime 5 Renown 0. GP 2,012 SP 5. Remember Downtime is 5 days every 2 AP. Renown is 1 every 4 AP.
PC Killed 5 Monsters Killed 415 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escaped 24 Obaya Uday Cash on Hand 6,090 PP. Trollskull profit for the 10 day 20 GP.
I had a four-member weak group. Joseph the bard was the only returning pc. John C cousin Jon Konaa a warlock, Heskah the sorcerer, and Bolo the barbarian. I also call the game short due to cash.
The merrow statue in the room they broke into did not draw their attention. The magic mirror did with its special message did. It transported them to another level. Well not really, it bounced them back into the room they just left. This activated the roper who morph from being a merrow into its true form. Jon summon lesser demons getting some dretch (Note player needs to get the stats of the demons they can summon). After a quick battle and some shatters, the group was left with two dretches and a team of brooms, and mops following them.
Hearing noises coming from a nearby room. Bolo bashes in the door with his portable battering ram. He then tries to toss at the huge demon. He misses. But quick spell casting from Heskah and the other spell slingers take down the demon. As they are thinking about opening the secret door in the room two floating green bottles enter the room. Joseph having the SOS Tearulai knows two unseen servants are carrying the potions. The potions are dropped with no effect. A large purple dragon enters the room and starts talking with Joseph.
What the rest of group sees is Joseph talking out loud to himself. And the barbarian going into a laughing fit. (Okay someone was being naughty). I can not give you a play by play but SOS Tearulai is now called Grandpa Jimbo. Because SOS Tearulai has convinced by telepathy the barbarian, he is dead grandfather. Ok, everyone was enjoying the various in character conversions until the player running Jon notice when had been doing for twenty minutes. Bolo thinks he has some bad mead and the purple dragon is not real either.
Otto gets the group to destroy Maddgoth’s homunculus. This would have be a good battle but monster went last. And the Bolo Barbarian build did 76 no 72 static hit points of damage on four hits. Yes I did make the player tell how he was getting that. They throw the body of the Homunculus into a nearby magic mirror. (Ok the whole theme of the castle is Otto vs the Homunculus. But there is no way to destroy it. So I made something up.)
After searching the Maddgoth’s study they discover the remains of hundreds of spell books. Twelve which are in good condition. After three days of scribing spells, and 9 downtime days. The group sold the spell books to Obaya Uday for lots of coin. The cut was 2,012 GP and 5 SP.
(Here where I called it. The spells were randomly rolled and random levels. So, we spend the rest of time doing rolls).

 

[jasper]

Tearulai
Neutral Good +1 Long Sword of Sharpness with an emerald blade and precious gems in hilt and pommel. Evil creatures can’t attune and take 20 psychic damage. Sword can’t be teleported without its owner when attuned.
Spells. Hold 6 charges. Gains 1d4 +2 charges daily at dawn. As action by owner the sword can cast Fly (2 charges), polymorph (3 charges), polymorph (3 charges) or transport via plants (4 charges).
Sentience. Intelligence 17, Wisdom 12, Charisma 20. Hearing and Truesight up to 120 feet. Communicates telepathically with owner. Can speak, read, and understand Common, Draconic, Elvish, and Sylvan. Can ascertain true value of gems when within 5 feet.
Personality. Speaks in a gruff voice. Admires great beauty, music, fine art, and poetry. Vain wants to improve it appearance. Any gemstones are absorb if left unclaimed. Longs for the forests of Myth Drannor. If conflict with owner, will try to take control of owner and escape to forests.
Has absorbed a black pearl which detects undead within 120 feet.
Nickname Uncle Jim bow.
**** yes this a place holder for my players
Now I have to research the conflict rules. Any suggestions?

 

[jasper]

Dungeon of the Mad Mage Session 13
Day 24-28 Maddgoth’s Castle and Slitherswamp Or I too Rexy for the swamp
AP 4 TP 4 Downtime 10 Renown 1. GP 15,225.
Magic Items unlocked Candle of Invocation, headband of Intellect.
Magic item given out Heward’s Handy Haversack.
PC Killed 6 Monsters Killed 484 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escaped 24 Obaya Uday Cash on Hand None. She is broke and when home with a candle and sword.
I had a four-person group which was weak but made no changes Joseph Bard, Rick Wizard, Drew Sorcerer all level 10. And Mr. Crowley Warlock Paladin 5. Most of the group is doing no progression to keep from leveling out of the section.
Otto the huge purple faire dragon is pushing the group out of front door of the castle so he can clean up, aka loot the castle. The group climbs the cliff to the east and meets the stone giant sculpture. Speleosa is busy working on another Halaster statue. She is slightly upset her work is being interrupted. But is wants them leave quietly. So, she gives the tiny one, Joseph a halfling an 80 pound “P” as their pass key. She tells the disappearing forest is to the east. Pointing to the blank east wall. Rick summons an ugly monkey (demon) to carry the P. As they walk around to find a way east, they discover two twin guys carving on the cave wall. Not wanting the giants to attack the demon, Rick makes the demon morph into a horse. This impresses the giants and they show the group to the down tunnel to level 8. Maybe the disappearing forest is that way. Or get that demon horse out of workshop.
Rick uses the demon to scout out the first part of the Slitherswamp. It is attack by Bullywugs; one tries to flee but the demon makes short work of them. The demon spies an honor guard of Bullywugs at a medium side temple. The honor guard attack the demon, and get their gills handed to them. Some retreat to the temple, followed by the demon who is leading the party. The group nearly wipes out most Bullywugs only losing the demon in combat. Since Mr. Crowley is offended by the statues of Narthex and mad, he has not killed anything, he pees on the statue.
Which ticks off the two high priests and the assassin guard. The Yuan-ti Abominations light the candle in both cases. They light a candle of invocation, and light a candle of whup ass on the party. Even two Dawn spells did not help the party. At the end of the combat only Rick had more than a third of his hit points. Drew was bleeding out. Mr. Crowley was recovering from his second time being TKO’ed. Joseph was dead. So, the group limped back to Trollskull Manor. Mr. Crowley did blast the last Yaun-ti to death.
Note, I went from not being able to hit anything to killing Joseph with two natural twenties on an advantage roll. Before I killed Joseph, I did offer to swap his life for Mr. Crowley but the group did not buy into that. Also, I stopped the fight and got their input as dms. They all agreed a dead PC in the tail is worth more than two later. As the candle of invocation really changed the dynamics of the fight. It gave the bad guys advantage through the fight.
Taking their dead friend to cleric for raising was a chore but the little halfling did have cash stored away. Obaya Uday offered each person the 15,225 gold pieces for the candle and Tearulai. This cashed her out. So, no more GP except for maybe story items.
After resting enough to recover from the raise dead, and a three-day shopping trip; the group returns to the swamp. They discover a smaller temple to the south of the main one. One small problem, it ghosted Mr. Crowley. Mr. Crowley has a ghost of Yuan-ti OOOPS. Yes Yes. Mr. Crowley has been ghosted by the spirt naga Yoastal. Yoastal wants the Bullywugs gone. She gives the information on the various layouts and lairs to the group. Next starts the To Rexy for the Swamp battle.
Joseph having a small chip on his shoulder about dying, polymorphs into a T-rex. The group sweeps from the top of the north west of the map to the north east. Eating, tail smacking, cloud killing, fireballing, and cantripping their way through the Bullywug army. Just once is Joseph knocked out his T-rex form. That was by Kuketh the death slaad. After a quick dose of superior healing potion, the t-rex came back.
Oops I flipped the Yuan-ti with a spirt naga in the ghost of Mr. Crowley.
The group will start next time at Room 21A mid afternoon of day 28.

 

[jasper]

DDAL08-16 Change of Address Session
AP 6 TP 12 Renown 1 Downtime 10
PC Killed 6 Monsters Killed 522 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escaped 24
Magic Item Unlocked Plate Armor of Etherealness. Magic found Potion of Fire Giant Strength, Scroll of Lesser Restoration * 3
I had a table of six with an average rating. Bobo ranger rouge, Alice wizard, Lister druid divine soul cleric, The Shrouder rogue, Dolan the Just life cleric, and Shinbi fighter ranger. This is a combat heavy module and we were trying to get all six hours in. So, on some of puzzle, little roleplaying, and speed bump encounters I just fast forward. Start time was six pm and we finish around 10:20. I didn’t even finish my soda.
Helpful load outs. Lister would conjure animals and assign one to each pc to do the help action. Alice was only running with one Simulacrum and a Homunculus. This lighten my load and kept the table clear. Lowest passive perception was 18. Highest passive Investigation was 22. Highest AC 25. Highest Spell save 22. This made most of traps and stuff a gimme.
The Baron of Blood summon six strangers into his audience. They had never met each other. (None of the pcs had played season 8 content. This would lead to some take backs as I forgot to tell them which spells the Mad Mage suppresses.) The Baron is moving into new digs and the party is there to evict the current squatters. Lister states something about not doing unless the paperwork was in order. The baron produces a beautiful signed, stamp, embossed, authorization. Gem clipped to it was a hastily drawn notice signed by the Skullport council. He draws a vial from his pouch, cuts his wrist and fills the vial. You may want to check in with the hob (trademark alert) um with the halfling Ollie and Will. They may have some maps to help you.
The gang of eight (yes, I just counted) wanders down and around Skullport bumping into things and people. Five humans and one elf and no one thought to bring torches. Alice has sent his Homunculus to scout. The pc minion spies a Githyanki Gish and five Githyanki warriors (oops should been a knight) shaking down the two halflings. The group listen to Alice’s running commentary. Until two warriors had escorted Will to a certain section of the store. Will pulls out two maps from a dusty stack. Dolan walks talking nonsense. Well mostly nonsense since only the Gish understands common. Dolan weakly tries to pull the hand of warrior off of Will’s shoulder. The Gish orders, “take the map. Kill the humans!” And the map chase begins. (Yes, I broke the rules a little to get in the chase, other wise it would be a one round fight.) They recover the map. And the Githyanki skill gets towed by police.
They got to teleportation circle and pour blood into the runes. (At the beginning of the game I had pass out an Elder Runes card to each player face down. This now came into play.) They are teleported to the Shadowdusk Fort. Poor Shrouder lost all his Gp. (This really is harsh on non-season 8 created pcs). Everyone else got a boon. They have reached Berlain hall of statues. Please ignore her bad poetry. (The DCs in the adventure are low. This was a 11.) Please ignore the two undead Beholders and three shadow assassins. (Lowest passive perception was 18). Ten seconds later, the group moves on.
They enter a long hallway when three sheets of fire blaze across the hallway. They dispel the first one. And notice the door on the west wall. (Ok with their abilities I skipped scene b mostly). They open a door to combination laboratory torture room and prison. Since the prisoners are in cells along the walls, no area of effect spells. They have to rescue the prisoners alive. (Ok this was mash up of scene c and bonus objective b so lots of monsters. Also, this where my new note system failed as I would add the two monsters I first noticed, then spy another monster on the next page.) Everyone agreed the Star Spawn Larva mage was a great minor boss fight. A short rest later.
Due to time and being speed bumps, The Throne and Gate were skipped. I just did some cut scene information.
They are in the Far Far Far Realm in a gaming table long long ok a few hours ago. They arrive in the center of a room. The first thing they notice is they feet are wet. The room is roughly fifty in diameter. About forty feet high. With three hallways. Three death slaadi. And needs a few pictures to make it homely. Except for poor Shrouder tripping one of the hallway traps, they make short work of the slaadi. Good use of conjure snakes and augury gets them to the safest route. (the hallway traps are hit once then the solution is common sense. Also being that it was pass 930 PM and how well the group was done. I just change the rules to kill the boss and the other monsters go away).
Pass through the automatic skeleton making machine was interesting. The machine was trying to make skeletons but they fell apart two steps pass the assembly line. Shrouder had fun drawing mustaches on the skulls. But the group continued on.
To the small fissure room. Most of the group enter the room to explore when the cousins of the star spawn ambushed five of the pcs. The group countered ambushed and most left the room. Except Shinbi, who survived twelve attacks and only losing a third of his hit points.
The boss battle with the lich took longer to set up than play. Between Shrouder taking the lich’s hit point down by a third, and Alice’s power word kill it was a cake walk. Ok I forgot the Lair action but I think 50 points damage would have not killed anyone.
Ken has a better explanation on what Chris was talking about it. I was doing double average damage on a crit. Ken said double it and the subtract the + in the (). So, 9(2d6+2) would 18 minus the +2 equals 16.
Due how low CR a lot of the monsters were; if I would run this again, I would give some monsters a bonus +2 to hit and dc save.
The Chris player rubs me the wrong way. Bitching about an "extra" plus four of damage. Which was nothing, since I had declared all my spells were going to do average damage too.

 

[jasper]

DDAL08-17 Session
The Tower of Ahghairon or Alice goes Fey Wild.
PC Killed 6 Monsters Killed 552 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escaped 24. 3 rooms totally trashed. Hey Rooms to Go are happy with your sell’s technique.
AP 5 TP 10 Downtime 10 Renown 1
Magic Item unlocked Cubic Gate Table I, Chest of Preserving TP 2, Spell book with Contact Other Plane and Demiplane.
Thanks to Ken for taking over and tracking the monsters HP and AC. For those who don’t play with me, I keep those out in the open. Prevents players from asking about how healthy the monsters are.
I had a six-person strong group, the only adjustment I made was to change some monsters hit points to max. Alice she was the wizard level 19. Tuk’n Rol Sorcerer Wizard level 20. Bobo Range Rogue level 18. Linnora sorcerer level 17. Shinbi ranger fighter level 17 and Wolfgang bard level 19. The people who could see in the dark, the robe of eyes, two simulacra, and some various other magic items really change the battles. I would say I should had treated the group as very strong.
The group is given the door key to Ahghairon’s tower by the Baron of Blood. Various prep spells are cast with Hero’s feast being a good one. The group enters the main tower only to be confronted by a smaller tower inside it. Rift magic pings the spell caster. Entering Foyer, they see four other doors, four mirrors, and four chests, one which is open. Alice and Bobo make short work of the magical traps on two chests. This causes the boggles in the open chest to loudly declare their chest is totally empty. Yep nothing to see in this chest. They open the basement door and Alice’s homunculus scouts ahead.
In the basement are three Deathlock Masterminds playing keep away with Inina a ghost child. They will not let her have her my little pony. Shinbi goes to make short work of the three um six Deathlock Masterminds. The combat takes a few rounds with the masterminds fighting in both the basement and foyer. However, all this noise wakes the death tyrant. Which is surprised to die with four blows from Shinbi. Inina grabs her pony and goes to the subbasement to grab her dolly. (Okay that was a nice warm up combat. Also had the final two players arrive during the combat.)
Climbing the stairs, a ripple of rift magic rolls down, muting the flames of the continual flame spell. Tuk’n Rol knows all fire base spells will not work. (I added an arcana check about the flame spells, those spells not working should had been bolded in the module.) Sam an apprentice stops the group and asks their business. Alice is rude with him demanding to see his master. Sam says the master is sleeping and you don’t wake the master from his nap. Old men need their nappy time. Alice and the group follow Sam to library. Alice again demands to see Ahghairon,
Sam tells the old beep um fart to shut up or he fart in her direction. Alice is rude again. Sam turns into a Death salad, um death salsa, oh Death Slaad and cloudkill the group. Gee that didn’t work. The group is immune to poison damage. This combat becomes a slug fest with Death, Gray, and Green Slaad trying to kill the group and five will-o’-wisp providing light. Linnora did dominate the death slaad most of the combat. Wolfgang was least valuable player. He sat out combat and read a book. (I did drop one monster The Angry. It was just hit point sponge. Also, the module needs editing two of the rooms have the same letter). After breaking into the office and stealing a spell book, the group decides to check out the garden patio.
Did I say patio, how about the fey wild? The wild is mostly peaceful. Linnora and Wolfgang drink from a fountain. Oops this ticks off some pixies who feeling mischievous try to turn them into frogs. Alice goes wild and so does Bobo. They attack the pixies. By the time Wolfgang calms both sides down; Alice is a wide mouth frog. Alice’s simulacrum had been dispelled. Two pixies are death. The pixies, the group, the angry wide mouth frog all agree to talk with Debby dryad. While the Dryad is talking to the wide mouth frog in her hand, Tuk’n Roll dispels the polymorph. Alice casts mass suggestion and tells the beep um Dryad and friends they can deal with their own evil. (bravo to the group. They passed on an AP and TP just to mess with pixies.) I forget who casts wizard lock on the patio door as they passed through. Great another room trashed.
The group arrives to the top floor of the tower and enter the workshop. Two Star Spawn Seer ask their business. Since the Spawn know they group is not the hired help, they trick Alice to talk to them in a corner and try to beat her down. The combat was fun in some ways. You had Wolfgang the invisible adult bronze dragon, Linnora casting earthquake. The Star Spawn Hulk smacking each other to give psychic damage to nearby people. The Manglers and mage mostly out of combat due to not being able to match Alice’s DC 22 spell ability. (Star spawn have some interesting splash damage, reactions, and other abilities. I think I did an okay job of running them.)
Everyone was having great fun trashing the third room until the noise woke up Ahghairon who put a stop to all. (that sounds better than closing time at the store).
Story Award Ahghairon’s Secret. You know the dude is alive. You call in a favor from him. Or sell this knowledge.

 

[jasper]

DDAL08-18 Session
AP 6 TP 12 Downtime 10 Renown 1
PC Killed 6 Monster Killed 562 Villains Captured 13 Villains Escaped 28
Magic Item unlocked Rod of resurrection Table I
This was supposed to be a combat only module but I made some encounters social encounters because I was bored. I had a very strong group of six so I gave all the monsters max hp and add a few. Tuk’n Rol wizard sorcerer with simulacrum, Alice wizard with simulacrum, Bobo Ranger Rogue, Salairan Rhintae Paladin of the ancients, Detric Champion Fighter, Candessa Cleric of Mystra. Due to various auras, hero feast, and other spells most spell damage was automatically half. So sometimes the spell damage was as low as seven hit points on a successful save.
The Baron of Blood was talking about how the weave the was broken and hurting the arcana spell casters. He quietly ignored Salairan mumbles about slaying the thirty or so vampires and their spawn in the room. Detric agree to be the pack mule and carry Artor in lead line coffin to Shadowdusk realm. They all agree to perform the ceremony to attune Artor to the weave.
As they teleport into foyer, they are jumped by a star spawn larva mage and a few hulks, making short work of them. The group opens the door to hallway of Berlain wing. (Ok I really hate one solution things at tier 4.) One room has dozens of frozen hearts encased in thick ice. Chisel in the ice are love poems. Salairan rips off a quick love poem and a silver key appears in his hand. In the next room, the floor is cover about an inch thick in sand. A waltz starts for the four-foot speakers imbed in the walls, two figures appear and start to dance. Tuk’n Rol cuts in and is rewarded a gold key. Using the keys, the group opens the door to the shine of Berlain. The Demilich Andras is singing off key love songs about her when the group interrupts. Andras is not happy but the group are here to worship Berlain too. In fact, the paladin lays down a sob story and talks Andras out of locket they need for the ritual. (Ok this was to be a combat encounter but I allowed a DC 30 persuasion to bypass combat).
Returning to the foyer the walk down the hallway of headaches. (At this time, I passed out runes clue and set up the four rooms. This gave them extra time to figure out the clue.) The hall of headaches wimps out as due the various precast spells and paladin’s aura everyone passed their saves. Tuk’n was the first to figure out the pass code. (I gave the group about three minutes on the clock before the next save. After that I was just going to pass them on. The first four people chose their room. The last two just rolled a d4).
A far realm entity had placed them in four rooms. Something was missing from each room. The players had to guest what was missing. I did have fun giving the clues, and doing a few lines of crazy talk. Alice was the big loser as she got the room of pain. I think this was most damage dealt to a pc. Once the pc gave the entity a good answer, it transports them to the Mad Queen Berlain.
In the interest of time I skipped the Mad Queen Berlain encounter. This is ONLY social encounter written in the module.
Leaving the mad queen, they enter the maze of madness. Inky ribbons of the far realm are floating in this room making the group trying to squeeze through the room to exit. (This were the entrance to the Demilich was suppose to be. I changed the rules to room. DEX save DC 17 to avoid the first two walls. Then for wisdom saves which increase. Detric missed one. I dropped the short-term madness on the first failure. And only used the three-strike rule. I don’t think the short-term madness would made a difference in the upcoming fight.)
(What do you mean my monsters go first? It was the first time in five weeks the most of monsters went first.) The boss fight was over quickly Alice was smart and upcasted Banishment taking out all the Boneclaws. The Death Knight was dominated for eight rounds. Between the ready actions going off, and three tanks tanking the death knight it was only able to get off the hellfire orb before being put down.
Detric tossing the coffin into the ritual circle ignoring the muffled complaints from Baron. They gather in a line and speak the ritual below.
In the Darkest night, On the brightness beach, so the ice cream never melts, we summon COOKIE MONSTER, COOKIE MONSTER, COOKIE MONSTER to seal the breach.
With the weave fix, the group is transported back to Skullport and into the Tempted Paladin. Edward Entity has snuck a ride on Alice’s boot. Edward is very happy, and in a burst of joy , joy, oh did that hurt, you hurt the ones you love, destroy destroy break main ah shucks. The Tempted Paladin explodes as Edward Entity jumps into the nearby river. The tide wave destroys most of Skullport.
The group drawn down on Edward Entity. The Entity was able to swallow Alice and her simulacrum, which took them out of combat. Edward was the last in the initiative. Even with his legendary actions he did not last but a round and a quarter.
Things I would do differently. Bump some the environmental saves up. Give advantage to some of the monsters on initiative