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MrPereira's WOTBS D&D 3.5 Campaign (SPOILERS IN THE POSTS)
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<blockquote data-quote="Mrpereira" data-source="post: 6826314" data-attributes="member: 6781484"><p>I finally got around to making the next update <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p><strong>The party</strong></p><p><strong>Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 9 / Arcane archer 1 (I allowed him the feat Sword of the arcane order to qualify for Arcane archer)</strong></p><p><strong>Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 5 / Incantatrix 5</strong></p><p><strong>Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 5/Divine Champion 1</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>NPC</strong></p><p><strong>Deena – Rogue lvl.5 / Fighter lvl. 5 </strong></p><p><strong>Three-Weeping Ravens – Monk4/Psychic warrior 6</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>May 2</strong></p><p>The storm blew hard that night and the players had nothing better to do than rest and rememorize (and level up). In the morning the wind stopped and they got out of bed eager to go find Deena and to find out what was going on in the forbidden valley.</p><p>They spent a little time boosting themselves severely for the coming trials and then headed out.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: So far they hadn’t really used their persist spell abilities too much, but they started here for this trip, feeling they would need it… and if I hadn’t made yet another mistake later on, they surely would have died. It is one of those mistakes I am glad I made, but more of this later.</em></p><p></p><p>Leaving town they can feel the eyes of a lot of the townspeople following them. No one stops them, they are heroes after all, but they also feel the blame and the unspoken criticism of heading towards the forbidden valley.</p><p></p><p>They travel for several hours and finally arrive at the edge of the valley. Feeling confident, they head down into the valley, and are taken by surprise by 8 monks who seemingly come out of nowhere. The monks don’t even attempt at any form of communication, the valley is forbidden area, and they attack.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: In the last encounter I gave them too many townspeople, including monks, and they used them very well. This time I got them back by using their own tactics against them, blasting them thoroughly with the lightning bolts. Their confidence and self-assurance from being boosted took a quite a hit with the first skirmish.</em></p><p></p><p>The monks did quite a lot of damage to the party, and while they beat them in relatively short time, they could feel the pain. The last monk spent his last breath calling out for vengeance from above. His call is answered by a strangely mutated or fused creature, part dragon, and part manticore. In the end they defeat it and though they are battered they are alive and feel heartened by the fact that they stood against the assaults.</p><p></p><p>Further on they run into a group of ettins, who also seem to be some sort of biomancy creatures. This fight is not a big threat and the party prevails easily enough.</p><p></p><p>Finally after a long day of marching they arrive at what looks like the destination for their journey. In a clearing they spot a tall tower. There is a door at floor level, and they spot a balcony some 60 feet up in the air. Killian and Ravens walk up to the door to knock on it. Meanwhile Galion and Shaith stay back keeping an eye on the surroundings and the balcony.</p><p></p><p>Suddenly Killian and Ravens disappear is teleporting away, which make Galion and Shaith wary, and they move to investigate. Shaith soon see through the illusion of the hole and the trouble that Ravens and Killian have gotten into. Gallion however simply refuses to believe him and only manage to pierce the illusion at the end of the fight.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I was thinking of how to best portray the disappearance of two players who dropped into a hole while being caught in an illusion. Teleporting them away seemed like a logical way to explain it to the players, while secretly telling Killian what really happened.</em></p><p></p><p>Meanwhile Ravens and Killian plummeted to the bottom of the hole as two ripe apples dropping from the tree, landing just as gracefully on the spears at the bottom. Here they faced the remnants of the missing party from Seaquen. Ravens had a shining moment of glory dispatching enemies with a vengeance. After the fight they find a set of double doors into the side of one of the walls, and they move to investigate.</p><p></p><p>They enter to laboratory and are a little taken back at the sheer size of it and the amounts and sizes of the biomancy vats. They haven’t moved very far into the room before they are targeted by the first spell. Killian is targeted by a dispel magic, but luckily for him he has his trusty ring of counterspells for just such an occasion. The enemy spellcaster is nowhere to be seen.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: This is whare I added Paradigm Dogwood to the mix. When they realized who he was a lot of pieces of the puzzle fell into place for the players. The biomancy happenings in Seaquen combined with the winds, and the nagging feeling that the Ragesians may not have been alone all made sense in that instance, with me having to explain it. It was actually one of those instances where a minor adjustment to the adventure made it all seem like a clear part of the written plot in the campaign. I can only recommend it as an adjustment if he is alive at this point, at least based on my experience.</em></p><p></p><p>The party immediately goes into battle mode, and when the invisible caster fires a ray at the party they use the point of origin to help pinpoint where he is. Killian and Raven run straight for the invisible man and try to locate him with their senses</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: When fourth edition came out there was a passage from one of the documents “I grapple the Troll” that they used to explain that some of the mechanics in 3.5 where pretty annoying and that they had changed it. The saying stayed with our group as we continued with 3.5, but recognized the truth of the statement. In this instance one of the players said those exact words, as Killian tried to grapple the invisible caster to take him out of contention. He was a bit surprised by missing a somewhat easy grapple. A few moments later he understood why, Paradigm was polymorhed into a troll, so he had litteraly tried to grapple a troll </em></p><p></p><p>Shaith cast Glitterdust on the spellcaster revealing a troll, which had the same disfigurements as the biomancer from Seaquen, whom they last saw as he was being arrested. Out of the thin air, litteraly, an air-minotaur suddenly appears and charges into the fray, smashing everything on his way and charging through several players in one attack.</p><p></p><p>Shaith hit the minotaur with a massive ray of enfeeblement taking much of the threat out of him. Meanwhile they kill of Paradigm and the minotaur seems all but defeated. Instead of fighting to his death in a losing batlle the minotaur takes to the air flying towards the study, where he makes sure to land on the carpet just inside the door.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I had made an adjustment to the adventure, and one that might have been a bit too tough. I had the carpet function as a major resettable trap, which released a target Greater Dispel Magic on anyone touching it, unless they spoke the words “Master Pilus will set the world free”. I had made it to counter the massively boosted heroes, however Caela turned out to be too big a handful in my optimized version, so I regretted actually having made the trap. </em></p><p></p><p>The minotaur, of course, knew of the trap and ran over the carpet to get rid of the effects of the ray of enfeeblement and the other spells affecting it.</p><p></p><p>Killian and Raven rush along after the minotaur following him through the doorway, and got hit by the dispel magic trap, that removed most of the boosting spells they both had on them. What made matters worse was that they also spot Caela in the air above them, moving down to enter the fray. They take out the minotaur, while Caela takes out Ravens and Killian. The fight looks desperate for the players. Their ressources are almost used up, and Caela is very competent at avoiding their attacks. Her AC is high and she can deflect some of Galions arrows. Shaith manage to catch her in black tentacle spell, which grapples her, stopping her from being able to deflect the arrows and take away the bonus to her AC from dexterity.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: And I completely forgot about her cape of the mountebank… so stupid, but as noted earlier it was for the better, as she would have killed the party otherwise. This way they got a major beating, but came through victorious just at the end. I decided that she must have already had used the cape that day, and allowed the players to get it as treasure.</em></p><p></p><p>With her mobility gone and caught in the tentacles Gallion managed to kill her, almost execution style by firing arrow after arrow into her until she died. During the fight her speech and the code word for the carpet give the players the information that Pilus is her master and the man behind the plan.</p><p></p><p>As Caela draws her final breath, the laboratory start to crumble and fall to pieces around them. They find Deena in one of the vats, still alive, but barely. With great regret they leave the place without further investigation. Just as they exit the building, they look up and see a very strange sight in the sky. Some kind of big flying thing with a giant eye looks down on them, but the view is obscured by clouds shortly after. They leave the canyon unscathed and get ready to make camp for the night. </p><p></p><p><strong>May 3</strong></p><p>The return trip is uneventful and they return to Eresh without incidents. The citizens generally avoid the players, knowing full well where they went. In the inn they are met by a monk who has been waiting for them. He brings an invitation to the monastery on behalf of Longinus, brother to Pilus. The party accepts and also accepts the monk as their guide for the trip the following morning</p><p></p><p><strong>May 4</strong></p><p>The monk guides them up the mountainside to de monastery. When the aerial guardians appear he speaks the command word and they fly away. At the monastery they are greeted by the two brothers, one charming and openly, the other silent with his face hidden behind the mask</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: It took a litte while for the players to realize that Longinus was the one with the mask. </em></p><p></p><p>They talk to the brothers about the situation in the world, and the brothers both agree that they are against Ragesia and thus on the side of Seaquen. None of the players however can really put aside the images of the ghastly laboratory, the biomancy vats, and the implications to the attack on Seaquen</p><p></p><p>They don’t mention this during the meeting with the brothers, as they decided that they needed the help to get into castle Korstull, and they would not want to ruin their chances of getting their help.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: It was so sweet seeing them hate themselves for smiling and being friendly with someone they see as a kind of monster, and potentially and enemy of Seaquen – one or both of the brothers did orchestrate the attack on Seaquen after all.</em></p><p></p><p>The brothers agree to creating an item the will allow the players to gain entrance into castle Korstull by holding the firestorm at bay. It will take some time to create the item, and they will let the players know when it is done.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I decided that it would take 3-4 weeks, so the timeline would fit with chapter 6 beginning on the first day of the sixth month. The time in between was just fast forwarded as the players took a well-deserved break. Living in Eresh with the peace-loving monks, did feel like a bit of punishment, especially Killian, the warpriest.</em></p><p></p><p><strong>May 31</strong></p><p>The players received a summons from the brothers that they item was done. They are invited to join the brothers the following day, and they accept.</p><p></p><p><strong>June 1</strong></p><p>The players travel up to the monastery again. On the way they discuss intensively whether or not they should confront Pilus with their evidence. Gallion wants to confront him now, saying he does not feel save leaving a potential enemy behind, especially if it means he can teleport in and take the torch from them when they got it from Castle Korstull. Shaith dryly replied that if he could take the torch from them when they had the most powerful artifact in the world in their possession, what would make him think that they could win a fight against him right now? That argument closed the discussion, even though they were not too happy about it. </p><p></p><p>The meeting went like the previous one, with a lot of fake smiles, and small talk. They party got an orb from the brothers, which should be able to hold the firestorm at bay. The duration would be at least 50 hours and at most 150 hours, depending on the strength of the magic in the storm.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: It was a sudden idea to give them the feeling of a time constraint. It will have no impact on the game, other than make them feel under additional pressure and adding to the suspense.</em></p><p></p><p>Gallion also got an earring from Pilus so he could contact them. They thanked the brothers and went on their way. The first thing they did upon arriving in Eresh was examining the hell out of the earring to make sure it did not give access to any kind of mental domination. Satisfied that it only gave bonus to some scrying and communication, they decided that Gallion should wear it. They got ready for their trip, but once again got upheld by the bad weather. They were looking forward to leaving Eresh.</p><p></p><p><strong>End of Chapter</strong></p><p></p><p><em>End of chapter musings: This chapter generally went very well. I managed to create quite the eerie atmosphere in Eresh and the players hated having to stay there. They feared what would happen when they woke up the next morning. That gave the entire chapter a lot of life and feeling.</em></p><p> <em></em></p><p><em>The encounter structure is a bit off, as the players basically have to fight a major fight, then immediately rush off in pursuit of another fight, having spent a lot of resources and actually level up in the meantime. The solution of forcing them to spend a night is a decent compromise, but takes the top of the urgent feeling, unfortunately.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>The two big fights as written were not very well balanced, and my attempts at rebalancing them weren’t too successful. The fight with the general was a big disappointment; I thought I had made him a viable threat. He was not. The fight with Caela was closer to a full party wipe than a fun fight; she was too strong in my version. Having Pardigm Dogwood present, however, was a hit. Sure it made the fight tougher, but it fit so well into the story that it actually made the players make connections that they had not made before.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>Overall this is not the strongest chapter based on the challenges as written, but the setup can make for quite a good atmosphere and setting and overall I think the players really enjoyed it, especially the big dilemma regarding Pilus. Just too bad they chickened out; I would have loved to see their faces when they realized that pushing Pilus around was a very bad idea.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mrpereira, post: 6826314, member: 6781484"] I finally got around to making the next update :) [B]The party Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 9 / Arcane archer 1 (I allowed him the feat Sword of the arcane order to qualify for Arcane archer) Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 5 / Incantatrix 5 Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 5/Divine Champion 1 NPC Deena – Rogue lvl.5 / Fighter lvl. 5 Three-Weeping Ravens – Monk4/Psychic warrior 6 May 2[/B] The storm blew hard that night and the players had nothing better to do than rest and rememorize (and level up). In the morning the wind stopped and they got out of bed eager to go find Deena and to find out what was going on in the forbidden valley. They spent a little time boosting themselves severely for the coming trials and then headed out. [I]DM Note: So far they hadn’t really used their persist spell abilities too much, but they started here for this trip, feeling they would need it… and if I hadn’t made yet another mistake later on, they surely would have died. It is one of those mistakes I am glad I made, but more of this later.[/I] Leaving town they can feel the eyes of a lot of the townspeople following them. No one stops them, they are heroes after all, but they also feel the blame and the unspoken criticism of heading towards the forbidden valley. They travel for several hours and finally arrive at the edge of the valley. Feeling confident, they head down into the valley, and are taken by surprise by 8 monks who seemingly come out of nowhere. The monks don’t even attempt at any form of communication, the valley is forbidden area, and they attack. [I]DM Note: In the last encounter I gave them too many townspeople, including monks, and they used them very well. This time I got them back by using their own tactics against them, blasting them thoroughly with the lightning bolts. Their confidence and self-assurance from being boosted took a quite a hit with the first skirmish.[/I] The monks did quite a lot of damage to the party, and while they beat them in relatively short time, they could feel the pain. The last monk spent his last breath calling out for vengeance from above. His call is answered by a strangely mutated or fused creature, part dragon, and part manticore. In the end they defeat it and though they are battered they are alive and feel heartened by the fact that they stood against the assaults. Further on they run into a group of ettins, who also seem to be some sort of biomancy creatures. This fight is not a big threat and the party prevails easily enough. Finally after a long day of marching they arrive at what looks like the destination for their journey. In a clearing they spot a tall tower. There is a door at floor level, and they spot a balcony some 60 feet up in the air. Killian and Ravens walk up to the door to knock on it. Meanwhile Galion and Shaith stay back keeping an eye on the surroundings and the balcony. Suddenly Killian and Ravens disappear is teleporting away, which make Galion and Shaith wary, and they move to investigate. Shaith soon see through the illusion of the hole and the trouble that Ravens and Killian have gotten into. Gallion however simply refuses to believe him and only manage to pierce the illusion at the end of the fight. [I]DM Note: I was thinking of how to best portray the disappearance of two players who dropped into a hole while being caught in an illusion. Teleporting them away seemed like a logical way to explain it to the players, while secretly telling Killian what really happened.[/I] Meanwhile Ravens and Killian plummeted to the bottom of the hole as two ripe apples dropping from the tree, landing just as gracefully on the spears at the bottom. Here they faced the remnants of the missing party from Seaquen. Ravens had a shining moment of glory dispatching enemies with a vengeance. After the fight they find a set of double doors into the side of one of the walls, and they move to investigate. They enter to laboratory and are a little taken back at the sheer size of it and the amounts and sizes of the biomancy vats. They haven’t moved very far into the room before they are targeted by the first spell. Killian is targeted by a dispel magic, but luckily for him he has his trusty ring of counterspells for just such an occasion. The enemy spellcaster is nowhere to be seen. [I]DM Note: This is whare I added Paradigm Dogwood to the mix. When they realized who he was a lot of pieces of the puzzle fell into place for the players. The biomancy happenings in Seaquen combined with the winds, and the nagging feeling that the Ragesians may not have been alone all made sense in that instance, with me having to explain it. It was actually one of those instances where a minor adjustment to the adventure made it all seem like a clear part of the written plot in the campaign. I can only recommend it as an adjustment if he is alive at this point, at least based on my experience.[/I] The party immediately goes into battle mode, and when the invisible caster fires a ray at the party they use the point of origin to help pinpoint where he is. Killian and Raven run straight for the invisible man and try to locate him with their senses [I]DM Note: When fourth edition came out there was a passage from one of the documents “I grapple the Troll” that they used to explain that some of the mechanics in 3.5 where pretty annoying and that they had changed it. The saying stayed with our group as we continued with 3.5, but recognized the truth of the statement. In this instance one of the players said those exact words, as Killian tried to grapple the invisible caster to take him out of contention. He was a bit surprised by missing a somewhat easy grapple. A few moments later he understood why, Paradigm was polymorhed into a troll, so he had litteraly tried to grapple a troll [/I] Shaith cast Glitterdust on the spellcaster revealing a troll, which had the same disfigurements as the biomancer from Seaquen, whom they last saw as he was being arrested. Out of the thin air, litteraly, an air-minotaur suddenly appears and charges into the fray, smashing everything on his way and charging through several players in one attack. Shaith hit the minotaur with a massive ray of enfeeblement taking much of the threat out of him. Meanwhile they kill of Paradigm and the minotaur seems all but defeated. Instead of fighting to his death in a losing batlle the minotaur takes to the air flying towards the study, where he makes sure to land on the carpet just inside the door. [I]DM Note: I had made an adjustment to the adventure, and one that might have been a bit too tough. I had the carpet function as a major resettable trap, which released a target Greater Dispel Magic on anyone touching it, unless they spoke the words “Master Pilus will set the world free”. I had made it to counter the massively boosted heroes, however Caela turned out to be too big a handful in my optimized version, so I regretted actually having made the trap. [/I] The minotaur, of course, knew of the trap and ran over the carpet to get rid of the effects of the ray of enfeeblement and the other spells affecting it. Killian and Raven rush along after the minotaur following him through the doorway, and got hit by the dispel magic trap, that removed most of the boosting spells they both had on them. What made matters worse was that they also spot Caela in the air above them, moving down to enter the fray. They take out the minotaur, while Caela takes out Ravens and Killian. The fight looks desperate for the players. Their ressources are almost used up, and Caela is very competent at avoiding their attacks. Her AC is high and she can deflect some of Galions arrows. Shaith manage to catch her in black tentacle spell, which grapples her, stopping her from being able to deflect the arrows and take away the bonus to her AC from dexterity. [I]DM Note: And I completely forgot about her cape of the mountebank… so stupid, but as noted earlier it was for the better, as she would have killed the party otherwise. This way they got a major beating, but came through victorious just at the end. I decided that she must have already had used the cape that day, and allowed the players to get it as treasure.[/I] With her mobility gone and caught in the tentacles Gallion managed to kill her, almost execution style by firing arrow after arrow into her until she died. During the fight her speech and the code word for the carpet give the players the information that Pilus is her master and the man behind the plan. As Caela draws her final breath, the laboratory start to crumble and fall to pieces around them. They find Deena in one of the vats, still alive, but barely. With great regret they leave the place without further investigation. Just as they exit the building, they look up and see a very strange sight in the sky. Some kind of big flying thing with a giant eye looks down on them, but the view is obscured by clouds shortly after. They leave the canyon unscathed and get ready to make camp for the night. [B]May 3[/B] The return trip is uneventful and they return to Eresh without incidents. The citizens generally avoid the players, knowing full well where they went. In the inn they are met by a monk who has been waiting for them. He brings an invitation to the monastery on behalf of Longinus, brother to Pilus. The party accepts and also accepts the monk as their guide for the trip the following morning [B]May 4[/B] The monk guides them up the mountainside to de monastery. When the aerial guardians appear he speaks the command word and they fly away. At the monastery they are greeted by the two brothers, one charming and openly, the other silent with his face hidden behind the mask [I]DM Note: It took a litte while for the players to realize that Longinus was the one with the mask. [/I] They talk to the brothers about the situation in the world, and the brothers both agree that they are against Ragesia and thus on the side of Seaquen. None of the players however can really put aside the images of the ghastly laboratory, the biomancy vats, and the implications to the attack on Seaquen They don’t mention this during the meeting with the brothers, as they decided that they needed the help to get into castle Korstull, and they would not want to ruin their chances of getting their help. [I]DM Note: It was so sweet seeing them hate themselves for smiling and being friendly with someone they see as a kind of monster, and potentially and enemy of Seaquen – one or both of the brothers did orchestrate the attack on Seaquen after all.[/I] The brothers agree to creating an item the will allow the players to gain entrance into castle Korstull by holding the firestorm at bay. It will take some time to create the item, and they will let the players know when it is done. [I]DM Note: I decided that it would take 3-4 weeks, so the timeline would fit with chapter 6 beginning on the first day of the sixth month. The time in between was just fast forwarded as the players took a well-deserved break. Living in Eresh with the peace-loving monks, did feel like a bit of punishment, especially Killian, the warpriest.[/I] [B]May 31[/B] The players received a summons from the brothers that they item was done. They are invited to join the brothers the following day, and they accept. [B]June 1[/B] The players travel up to the monastery again. On the way they discuss intensively whether or not they should confront Pilus with their evidence. Gallion wants to confront him now, saying he does not feel save leaving a potential enemy behind, especially if it means he can teleport in and take the torch from them when they got it from Castle Korstull. Shaith dryly replied that if he could take the torch from them when they had the most powerful artifact in the world in their possession, what would make him think that they could win a fight against him right now? That argument closed the discussion, even though they were not too happy about it. The meeting went like the previous one, with a lot of fake smiles, and small talk. They party got an orb from the brothers, which should be able to hold the firestorm at bay. The duration would be at least 50 hours and at most 150 hours, depending on the strength of the magic in the storm. [I]DM Note: It was a sudden idea to give them the feeling of a time constraint. It will have no impact on the game, other than make them feel under additional pressure and adding to the suspense.[/I] Gallion also got an earring from Pilus so he could contact them. They thanked the brothers and went on their way. The first thing they did upon arriving in Eresh was examining the hell out of the earring to make sure it did not give access to any kind of mental domination. Satisfied that it only gave bonus to some scrying and communication, they decided that Gallion should wear it. They got ready for their trip, but once again got upheld by the bad weather. They were looking forward to leaving Eresh. [B]End of Chapter[/B] [I]End of chapter musings: This chapter generally went very well. I managed to create quite the eerie atmosphere in Eresh and the players hated having to stay there. They feared what would happen when they woke up the next morning. That gave the entire chapter a lot of life and feeling. The encounter structure is a bit off, as the players basically have to fight a major fight, then immediately rush off in pursuit of another fight, having spent a lot of resources and actually level up in the meantime. The solution of forcing them to spend a night is a decent compromise, but takes the top of the urgent feeling, unfortunately. The two big fights as written were not very well balanced, and my attempts at rebalancing them weren’t too successful. The fight with the general was a big disappointment; I thought I had made him a viable threat. He was not. The fight with Caela was closer to a full party wipe than a fun fight; she was too strong in my version. Having Pardigm Dogwood present, however, was a hit. Sure it made the fight tougher, but it fit so well into the story that it actually made the players make connections that they had not made before. Overall this is not the strongest chapter based on the challenges as written, but the setup can make for quite a good atmosphere and setting and overall I think the players really enjoyed it, especially the big dilemma regarding Pilus. Just too bad they chickened out; I would have loved to see their faces when they realized that pushing Pilus around was a very bad idea.[/I] [/QUOTE]
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MrPereira's WOTBS D&D 3.5 Campaign (SPOILERS IN THE POSTS)
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