Morrus' SH II - War of the Burning Sky (4e) (updated 21st & 22nd October)

[Dpulse303]

Wingwrath ...now 7th level.

In lieu of an update from Eccles I thought I would update my character for your perusal.


WingWrath Winterhatch, level 7
Dragonborn, Sorcerer
Build: Dragon Sorcerer
Spell Source: Dragon Magic
Dragon Soul: Dragon Soul Cold
Dragon Breath Key Ability: Dragon Breath Strength
Dragon Breath Damage Type: Dragon Breath Cold

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 18, Con 14, Dex 8, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 18.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 15, Con 14, Dex 8, Int 11, Wis 10, Cha 16.


AC: 21 Fort: 20 Reflex: 17 Will: 22
HP: 56 Surges: 8 Surge Value: 16

TRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +9, Diplomacy +12, Intimidate +14, Bluff +12

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +2, Dungeoneering +3, Endurance +5, Heal +3, History +6, Insight +3, Nature +3, Perception +3, Religion +4, Stealth +2, Streetwise +7, Thievery +2, Athletics +7

FEATS
Level 1: Draconic Spellcaster
Feat User Choice: Student of War [gate pass]
Level 2: Armor Proficiency (Leather)
Level 4: Hurl Breath
Level 6: Sorcerous Blade Channeling

POWERS
Sorcerer at-will 1: Dragonfrost
Sorcerer at-will 1: Burning Spray
Sorcerer encounter 1: Frostbind
Sorcerer daily 1: Ice Javelins
Sorcerer utility 2: Elemental Shift
Sorcerer encounter 3: Ice Dragon's Teeth
Sorcerer daily 5: Glacial Armor
Sorcerer utility 6: Sudden Scales
Sorcerer encounter 7: Thunder Wyrm's Jaws

ITEMS
Sunrod (4), Harp, Fine Clothing, Cloak of Resistance +1, Deathcut Leather Armor +1, Wyrmtooth Dagger Dagger +1, Wildrunners (heroic tier), Magic Hand Crossbow +1, Staff of Winter +1, Stag Helm (heroic tier), Wyrmtooth Dagger Dagger +2, Deathcut Leather Armor +2, Amulet of Protection +3


Enjoy

 

[Dr Simon]

At 7th level I assume you're all a bit beyond Gate Pass by now?

 

[Eccles]

Somewhat... We're a book and a bit away from where I left off here. It's weighing heavily on my conscience at the moment!

 

[Eccles]

And I might as well follow suit...

====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======

Tarn Halfelven, level 7
Half-Elf, Paladin
Background: Occupation - Artisan (+2 to Diplomacy)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 13, Con 17, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 19.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 13, Con 14, Dex 10, Int 8, Wis 14, Cha 16.


AC: 24 Fort: 19 Reflex: 18 Will: 20
HP: 73 Surges: 13 Surge Value: 18

TRAINED SKILLS
Religion +7, Endurance +7, Diplomacy +16, Athletics +5, Insight +12

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics, Arcana +2, Bluff +7, Dungeoneering +5, Heal +5, History +2, Intimidate +7, Nature +5, Perception +5, Stealth -1, Streetwise +7, Thievery -1

FEATS
Level 1: Group Defense
Feat User Choice: Mounted Combat
Level 2: Battle Awareness
Level 4: Toughness
Level 6: Focused Expertise (Longsword)

POWERS
Dilettante: Storm Walk
Lay on Hands: Lay on Hands
Paladin at-will 1: Enfeebling Strike
Paladin at-will 1: Virtuous Strike
Paladin encounter 1: Valorous Smite
Paladin daily 1: Majestic Halo
Paladin utility 2: Astral Speech
Paladin encounter 3: Call to Arms
Paladin daily 5: Name of Might (retrained to Unyielding Faith at Level 6)
Paladin utility 6: Call of Challenge
Paladin encounter 7: Astral Thunder

ITEMS
Adventurer's Kit, Heavy Shield, Javelin, Black Iron Plate Armor +1, Sunblade Longsword +1, Acrobat Boots (heroic tier), Amulet of Protection +1, Magic Longsword +2, Symbol of Hope +1, Viper Belt (heroic tier), Iron Armbands of Power (heroic tier), Keicha's Amulet +2

 

[Eccles]

Back at the safehouse, the group were disappointed to learn that Torrent and Rivereye weren’t back yet. Burron, however, was fulsome in his thanks for the destruction of the nest of enemies within the city.

“The armies of the Ragesians are practically upon us,” said the panicked resistance agent. “Already the council is debating what to do when they arrive in full. Many of them are afraid, it is said that the Raesians have said they will slay the families of any councillor who does not welcome them into the city, and few are prepared to speak against them. Councillor Erdan Menash is one of the few with the courage to speak out against opening the city gates to the Ragesians. If there is a likely target for infiltrators, it will be him.”

Hurt from the conflict in the warehouse, the group rested for several hours, but were awakened from their slumbers by a stony rumbling sound which reverberated through the crypts. A cloud of dust billowed through a closed-off corridor, and screams of panic could be heard from people who fled away from it.

Pausing only to snatch up essential equipment, the group moved to investigate.

.oOo.

A wall had collapsed, leading into an airless dust-covered ancient crypt, where mouldering bones were shuddering into movement with the release of centuries-old curses. The scents of death and decay were heavy in the air, as six or seven dwarven skeletons surrounded by black energies moved to assault them. Tarn’s sword sprang to life with a pure radiance.

Tyr took the first slash, and his skin turned grey and dry around the wound. His counter-attack smashed the brittle skeleton. Others moved forward to take its place. Hissing, one of the skeletal creatures swept up a rune covered hammer and glided through the rubble and drove the hammer into Wingwrath’s side.

It soon emerged that the adventurers faced several different skeletal figures, some of which were very brittle and smashed at the slightest touch. The hammer-wielding undead was a wight; able to leach away health, whilst the other three left lingering necrotic wounds at even the slightest touch of their black-bladed axes.

The wight was soon flanked by Tyr and Tarn, who was unable to lay a blow with the radiant blade which the undead cowered away from. The minions were soon shattered by blasts of cold from Wingwrath, and he and Grusalock were fortunate to escape serious injury when the axe-wielding enemies swung at him.

Tyr, however, was not so lucky. His skin was practically parchment-pale from being struck by the wight as it then glided away; as it did so a dancing raven struck from Tarn’s Holy Symbol to lash at the undead with razor-sharp wings. He followed this up by healing the half-orc and charging the wight – his radiant blade cleaving through its spine and dropping it to the ground.

The remaining three proved to be made of sterner stuff. After much hacking and cleaving, Tyr’s blade chopped through the dried sinews of one of them, and it shuddered. Then it quivered, shook, and exploded in a massive burst of bone shards. These flew in every direction, striking the comrades, blasting into walls and smashing the coffins into shreds. This barrage tore into Tyr, who was already gravely hurt, and then the now reduced skeleton spun and slashed at the half-orc, dropping him to the floor.

At the same moment, Grusalock slumped to the floor, overcome by the draining power of the undead. His spells remained, however, and as one of them faded, another skeleton began to quiver.

The bone shards from its explosion smashed through Tarn and Wingwraths’ armour, and they both fell to their wounds and collapsed before the undead dwarves, which staggered towards them…

 

[Eccles]

Tarn blinked back to wakefulness a few moments later to see Torrent standing over him, chanting healing words over him. Her hand lashed out to fire a spell at one of the corpses, which shudder one last time and fell. At the same time, one of the 2 remaining corpses lumbered forwards, tearing flesh off Grusalock’s prone form and leaving him utterly dead.

Leaping to his feat, Tarn healed Wingwrath, and moved up to confront the lumbering foes, and from over his shoulder lashed a blast of cold.

Torrent’s holy symbol sent both of the dwarf’s corpses stumbling back to the back of the cavern, where a volley of fire from all the surviving comrades made them shatter and die at a safe distance.

There followed a long rest. In a lengthy ceremony, powerful scrolls were obtained from the most sacred areas of the temple. Burron and Torrent read from them, and the massive enchantments contained within brought Tyr and Grusalock back from the Raven Queen’s domain into the land of the living.

.oOo.

That night, a tremendous storm meant that the Ragesian wyverns would be unable to fly, and Gate Pass rested uneasily.

While they waited, Torrent explained what had happened before she had returned to save the companions. She had been looking into rumours about the Wizard’s Academy. Most of the wizards had already fled, though one had remained behind; a Shahalesti named Shialis Amoril, who had stayed to celebrate her elevation to a higher tier of learning. She was researching the recent well-known problems with teleporting. She was known to have a solon familiar (much light the flying light creature the group had slain in the Repository). Given the rarity of the familiar, and her heritage, the cleric believed that she was very likely an agent for the Shahalesti.

Torrent and Rivereye both knew of a halfling sorcerer, who ran a rival school for sorcerers within the town. She and Rivereye went to speak to him to try and enlist his aid to confront the much-more-powerful Shahalesti wizard.

“Alert!” It was Burron, dashing into the chamber. “One of my men has overheard 2 suspected Shahalesti agents talking, and heard tell that the tunnel will be completed within the day! Shialis will leave unless we can stall her!”

The group split – Torrent and Rivereye looking for their sorcerer whilst the others headed to the Wizard’s Academy through the thick drifts of snow.

.oOo.

Once there, they found the gates to be shut firm, and the only way across the moat was along a relatively narrow iron bridge. There was clear sign of people having been here in numbers the previous day, rumours that the wizards might be able to get people out of Gate Pass having been prevalent. A lone wizard stood smoking a long thin cigarette and watching them approach. The snow seemed to fall away from him and any near his feet had melted – presumably due to some spell he had in effect.

“And what,” he asked “brings you here on a warm summer’s day?”

Wingwrath swaggered up towards the gates he had previously been through to study.

“Surely you remember me,” he asked confidently, his massive draconic form easily a head and shoulders over the wizard.

“Nope,” came the smirking reply.

Despite Tarn’s best efforts to break the ice, nothing worked until he happened to mention the death of the solon familiar. That got a smile out of him, and he began to talk about how he wanted to thwart and humiliate Shialis. At the discovery that the adventurers could lead to embarrassment for Shialis, he was quick to open the gate “before the riff-raff arrive”.

The group consulted with him in the academy kitchens for a while, and he mentioned that he could erect a globe of force around Shialis’ cottage – the group agreed to this plan as it might at least delay her until the halfling sorcerer could be brought to confront her. However the group agreed that they should enter her cottage within the globe of force to stop Shialis realising what had been done.

.oOo.

“Enter”, rang out the haughty voice as Tarn knocked on the door. Within lay a generous salon/kitchen with an office just beyond. Many of the papers in the room appeared to have been packed away in preparation for a hurried journey.

Shialis herself was a tall, noble looking woman dressed in shimmering chainmail armour. She spoke without preamble.

“You’re here for the case. I don’t intend to allow it to fall into Ragesian hands.”.

Tarn spoke persuasively – telling Shialis that an agent had given his life and that the contents of the stolen case could save hundreds of lives in Gate Pass. They discussed the history of Gate Pass and its good relations with the Shahalesti empire.

As they spoke, Shialis moved some papers to cover a map on the table. Ever alert, however, Grusalock noticed her actions, and when the Shahalesti turned her back he moved the papers and blinked as he memorised the map of a Shahalesti ghetto.

At length, the group reached an agreement with Shialis. She named a Shahalesti wizard who would act as a point of contact, and told us where we should meet. Although this seemed perfectly reasonable and made sense in the circumstances, Grusalock’s phenomenal elven instincts told him that Shialis would not make good on her promise.

He only mentioned this on the way out of the wizard’s enclave, however…

 

[Morrus]

Woohoo!

 

[Eccles]

On the way out of the enclave, the four adventurers met up with Torrent and the diminutive ‘Ferris’, the sorcerer she had gone looking for. They looked surprised to see the four already leaving, but Ferris agreed to delay Shialis whilst the others headed to the elven ghetto.

On the way, Grusalock was frequently distracted by a raven which flittered from rooftop to rooftop, head twitching and moving to follow them.

.oOo.

Passing through a secret door into the ghetto, the four adventurers found themselves in a quiet square, where some Shahalesti elves were intent on repairs off to one side. Tyr approached one of them, a youngster, and tried to find out about any newcomers. A coin changed hands, and the young elf pointed over towards a building which was seemingly made out of doors. A door on its side hung outside the building on which was painted “Portalmaker”.

Grusalock (this time distracted by a rat behaving unnaturally down an alley) directed them to a single one of the doors which opened into the building, once they had deciphered the complicated lock on its front. As Tarn was opening the door, a hissing voice came from behind them. “Psst, do you want some help?”

A very young Shahalesti elf rounded the corner, talking to something she referred to as her ‘guardian angel’, which the others could not see. As Tarn stepped into the portalmaker’s, she announced loudly “my angel says he won’t alert the elves if he can have the case”.

There was a blur of sound and movement. Swords were being drawn within the building, and Tarn stepped in. Behind him, Wingwrath roared at the child who screamed in fright, and was then abruptly pulled, screaming all the louder, around the corner of the building.

Inside, 2 feywild badgers were surging towards Tarn, whilst bowmen stepped up to a landing overlooking the main room. Arrows and claws scraped off his heavy armour, and Grusalock charged into the room, calling lightning down onto one of the badgers. Torrent was the next to join them, as another Shahalesti dashed down the stairs whilst drawing his sword.

The battle was quick and bloody, one of the badgers dying when it bit into Wingwrath’s vengeful armour. Once the sword-wielding Shahalesti had been dispatched, the two bowmen surrendered. Learning that they knew nothing of the bigger picture, the group tied them loosely, then left them to free themselves.

.oOo.

Seeing the unnatural ‘raven’ once again on their way back to the temple, once there Tyr spent some time with his tools and managed to break into the case. Inside was a book written in Infernal which none of the group could understand. There were also lots of maps and drawings, which appeared to be plans for something.

Burron, wide eyed, explained that the Inquisitors had spoken to the Western Gates, and had demanded that they be opened by the end of the day. There followed a discussion about how best to leave the city. The agreed best course of action was to speak to Councillor Menash, and they therefore walked across the city to his garishly coloured green, yellow and purple three storey town house. Admitted by guards dressed in equally garish uniforms, they were allowed into the building, whose walls were festooned with an exotic collection of weapons. The councillor himself was not in, but the group was invited to wait.

.oOo.

Somewhat later, complaining about his fellow councillors in a whining voice, Urdan Menash arrived. “Those damn nincompoops are going to let in the Inquisitors,” he exclaimed, before even asking who the adventurers were. Once introductions were done, he agreed that the case should be taken from Gate Pass and on to Seaquen, where qualified experts could examine them and perhaps interpret what the plans were. Menash gave the group several items to help them in their journey. Enchanted (but hideously patterned) cloaks and weapons, together with a note for a Captain Herriman with instructions to aid them in their exit of Gate Pass. Finally, a mysterious package of dwarven origin marked “DIANOEM Mk IV”, with instructions that Dougan Ranbausen of the Lyceum (Seaquen’s magical stronghold) would probably be able to aid in their understanding of the artefact.

 

[wardrake]

Ill met in Seaquen ...

Here is one of the newer recruits to the group; Farokai Spiritsinger


====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
Farokai Spiritsinger, level 7
Human, Shaman
Build: Bear Shaman
Companion Spirit: Protector Spirit
Background: Birth - Omen (+2 to History)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 15, Dex 10, Int 11, Wis 21, Cha 8.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 14, Dex 10, Int 11, Wis 18, Cha 8.

AC: 17 Fort: 17 Reflex: 14 Will: 20
HP: 57 Surges: 9 Surge Value: 14

TRAINED SKILLS
Religion +8, Nature +13, Heal +13, History +10, Arcana +8

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +3, Bluff +2, Diplomacy +2, Dungeoneering +8, Endurance +5, Insight +8, Intimidate +2, Perception +8, Stealth +3, Streetwise +2, Thievery +3, Athletics +3

FEATS
Human: Spirit Speaker
Level 1: Ritual Caster
Level 2: Implement Expertise (totem)
Level 4: Shared Healing Spirit
Level 6: Restful Healing

POWERS
Bonus At-Will Power: Wrath of Winter
Shaman at-will 1: Defending Strike
Shaman encounter 1: Thunder Bear's Warding
Shaman daily 1: Wrath of the Spirit World
Shaman utility 2: Spirit Call
Shaman encounter 3: Spring Renewal Strike
Shaman daily 5: Earthrage Spirit
Shaman utility 6: Sudden Restoration
Shaman encounter 7: Winter Wind Spirit

ITEMS
Adventurer's Kit, Ritual Book, Hungry Spirits Totem +2, Rat Form Leather Armor +2, Dynamic Mace +2, Cloak of the Chirurgeon +2

RITUALS
Speak with Dead, Commune With Nature, Seek Rumor, Knock, Enchant Magic Item, Unseen Servant, Traveler's Chant, Gentle Repose, Brew Potion

BACKSTORY
I am Farokai. This is my birth name – given to me by the Spiritspeakers of our tribe. In the language of my people my name meant “Vessel”. Today other Spiritspeakers call me “Vashtar” which means “Abomination”. I have earned both.

I was happy once. Husband to a beautiful wife and father to twins who I thought were destined to follow me as Spiritspeakers, so strong were their links to the spirits. The Ragesians ended this dream the day they made an example of the Firebear Tribe. Long had we refused to bend to the Ragesian demand for tribute. Many counselled that the Ragesians would not touch us, so far away and hardly worth the trouble of punishment were we. The day they came I was fasting in the wilderness. The old Spiritspeaker of our tribe had sent me there to find my destiny and purpose. When the spirits warned me I returned as quickly as I could, but not quick enough to join my tribe in death.

All were slain. Before death no woman had been left undishonoured, no man with his manhood, no child with hands or feet. Long I wept over the bodies, the voices of my people ringing around me as their unquiet spirits cried for vengeance. It was then that I found the destiny I was sent to seek and committed the greatest sin known to my people.

It is taboo for a Spiritspeaker to bind the spirit of the recently dead. They are too close to life to truly let go of their desires. They hunger again for life and can be dangerous. To bind even a single soul is a great wrong. Yet the souls of my people cried for blood and who was I to deny them their thirst. Swearing a bloodoath to seek the Ragesian God-Emperor Coaltongue and slay him I bound the spirits of my tribe to me. In my rage and grief I harnessed them all and committed a sacrilege so profound no Spiritspeaker can comprehend it.

Outcast I wander the lands seeking the destiny of the Firebear tribe, for I am all they now are and they are all that I am also. My name is Farokai and I am Vashtar.

 

[Morrus]

Great backstory!

(Just a note for those reading - although Farokai has just joined the group, he won't appear in this story hour for some time. The story hour covers about 2/3 of the first adventure so far, and Farokai joins near the start of the third).