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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: 6966260" data-attributes="member: 6781484"><p><strong>The party</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 9 / Arcane archer 4 </strong></p><p><strong>Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 5 / Incantatrix 8</strong></p><p><strong>Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 5/Divine Crusader 4(variant)</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>NPC</strong></p><p>None at the start of the chapter</p><p></p><p><strong>June 12 continued</strong></p><p></p><p>The party did not want to spend more time than necessary at the camp, so they mounted the horses and rode off. They travelled throughout the evening until they reached the small village at the edge of the firestorm, where they made camp and rested.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: As we are halfway through the campaign I made a short resumé of what had happened in the global setting of the world, just to recap the story, we have been playing for quite a while now, almost 1½ years, so somethings will have been forgotten. I also made a recap of all the deals they have made, quite a few as well, and asked them what they felt about the different parties and how they felt about the deals. They all agreed that Shahalesti and The monks are untrustworthy, and expect to break the deal themselves with these two parties. Killian felt that Ragesia was the greatest threat in the world, while the two elves believed it to be the Shahalesti.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>All in all it was a quite interesting discussion. The party was in agreement about most things, but not all.</em></p><p></p><p><strong>June 13</strong></p><p></p><p>The next morning Shaith readies several polymorph spells as well as a Teleport. He polymorphs the others and himself into small dragons who are immune to fire damage, and teleports to Seaquen, where they are caught in the cell with the teleporting pole underneath the sunken prison.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I decided that Seaquen would ensure its safety by making an antimagic area around the pole, so while it was magic, every other part of the cell was not. And of course set some archers to guard the locked cell. No matter how powerful you are, that is a deathtrap and the players realized and appreciated it – Seaquen’s safety matters to them.</em></p><p></p><p>After a little time they are released and escorted to Lyceum, where they are called into a meeting a in a few hours. They spend the time in between selling loot, and buying new items.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I allowed them to buy single items up to a value of 20.000 gp. I also allowed them to commission items of greater value, but with the timeframe it meant that these items will not be available until the next chapter. I am going to keep scaling up the value at each level, so that approximately 20-25% of their wealth by level is the maximum item value. They should be allowed to have some of the more fun items.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p>At the meeting the council is gathered, Kiernan, Katrina, Haddin and headmaster Simeon. The players are a bit late, the acquisition of new items took longer than they expected. They have all but just arrived when there is a knock on the door. No one in the room expects more company. Outside stands a very correct and rigid man in spotless clothing. He introduces himself as Lieutenant Waxillium Ricky. He is here to help the party on the dangerous journey to the dark forest of Ycengled.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: I made him obnoxiously correct and loud. On top of that I had him arrive before they had told anyone where they were going, so having him come in and announce his intention of joining the on the journey to Ycengled made it all much more interesting.</em></p><p></p><p>The new guy put the party a bit on the edge, both with his awkward stiffness and with his knowledge of their plans. They asked him who he was and how he thought he knew where they were heading. Simultaneously they heard Haddin mumbling in the corner, something along the lines of: “I don’t know who will be in greatest danger, you or them when you swing that metal piece around. “Hrumph… good riddance”.</p><p></p><p>Wax, as he quickly was named, is a Paladin of Pelor and told them that his fiancé had told him that they would be here know, a little late, and that he was to go with them to Ycengled or they would die. When they asked who his fiancé was he proudly answered that she was the honorable Mister Ja-Laffas daughter Crystin.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: The collective groan around the table was priceless. Haddin is not thrilled with the young man, but they know for sure that he will dislike them even more if he dies, and it is nice to be able to say all those positive things about Mister Ja-Laffa watching them try to be diplomatic </em></p><p><em></em></p><p>Also, I wasn’t really sure whether or not they were inclined to talk much about their destination, and I wanted Katrina to know it.</p><p></p><p>Being a Paladin of Pelor cleared Wax of any mistrust about his intentions and about telling the truth. His entrance and outburst opened the topic about the destination pretty fast, although Simeon first asked what they had learned since the last meetin. Kiernan, being the war expert, then asked about what they knew about the area of Ycengled. They told what they knew in general, and Kiernan then asked if they knew the story about Rhuarc. They didn’t and he told them the long and very fascinating story.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: As mentioned in a previous post, I used the story that RangerWickett had posted, with very few modifications. I had Kiernan tell the story in a way that the story ended up being a very powerful and strong story that left the party speechless for a few moments afterwords. It was one of many highlights that session. Gallion, the Taranesti,was left with a sense of doubt about his hero, because he did not really sound like much of a hero in that version.</em></p><p></p><p>The party talked a bit more with and then made an appointment with Kiernan on the 20th, where he will help them teleport. The party then spends a week recuperating, arranging a few practical things like learning spells, writing scrolls and finishing their shopping. They would have liked to spend more time, especially Galion who had ordered a new armor made, but they decided that time was still of the essence. </p><p></p><p><strong>June 20</strong></p><p></p><p>They met up with Kiernan on the morning of their departure, planning to enter the forest in daylight. To their dismay realized that they had forgotten that they had to travel well into the swamp to avoid the teleportation pillar. Several hours later, well past midday they arrive at the outskirts of the Ycengled Phuurst.</p><p></p><p>From the scribblings on the floor in Castle Korstull and with their knowledge of the area and history, they deduce that Phorros Irrendra lies somewhere on the banks of the Nallanthes river. With that knowledge they chose their landing spot close to the river and enter the dark forest.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: I compared the entering of the forest to standing in the shower under the hot water which suddenly turned icy cold. </em></p><p></p><p>The dark, eerie and oppressing darkness clearly makes the party feel uncomfortable. Killian quickly realizes that his connection to Heironious is impeded, and that it takes a lot of effort to produce a lot of his usual powers.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I may have been too harsh in my judgment of the limitation, but in the end they managed well enough, even though he did complain a bit about it. The book states that spells using positive energy is impeded. But what spells, apart from cure spells really are based on positive energy, if one has to make a general ruling. I decided that all spells that had holy, sacred and divine in their description were affected. In hindsight the divine part might have been too much, but as I said, it did work out well enough. I also set the DC a little higher as the party have high stats and high skills, so they would feel impeded.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p>The forest is not only dark and impeding on good, it is also extremely quiet. Not a sound is to be heard in forest, apart from their footsteps and the rattling of chains tied to many trees.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: I used a lot of the small gimmicks from the sidebar Eerie effects to make the experience even more intense. Both the red eyes and the corpse of Shaith that turned into snakes put them on the edge, not knowing what to expect. I did not let them see the chained body before the encounter with the Nightwing. I had message I wanted to deliver to them first, so I changed the order of the encounters.</em></p><p></p><p>As the day turned to night, they started to look for a suitable camp site. Travelling through the forest was slower going than they had hoped. At some point after making camp they hear an otherworldly kind of music and see a soft ghostly light some distance away. They move closer to it and see a procession of ghostly figures.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I used the scene from the Lord of the Rings where the Elves are leaving the world as inspiration for the scene. I reminded them of that scene and told them to imagine the music, but instead of living elves travelling; they saw ghostly elves fleeing from something. They were not fleeing head over heels, but they were refugees.</em></p><p></p><p>A male elf at the edge of the procession looks to the side and his gaze passes over them not noticing them. Then he stops and turns his attention back to them. Galion feels he is looking specifically at him.</p><p></p><p>The elf slowly rises his hand and points, while saying a dark ghostly voice: “Shahalesti traitor. The dead know the truth. The dead know”. Suddenly all the ghosts turn into a swarm of bats gathering into a nightwing.</p><p></p><p>The fight really pushed the party to the limit, but in the end they won a hard fought battle. Galion felt the lack of divine connection as a problem in this fight. Luckily for the party they have a stockpile of potions to use, as their wands won’t work in the forest.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: It was a fun fight and I liked the fact that the undead punished them so hard, especially with the messaged they delivered. As the party does not see their alliance with the Shahalesti as binding in any way they did not really understand that part. Galion mentioned somewhat in a joking note, that if he was a Shahalesti traitor then his backstory was wrong. Well Galion, it isn’t wrong, and the undead did point at you… He will be wiser as to what the undead meant when we come to the trials and the visions. As the elf said: The dead know the truth </em></p><p><em></em></p><p>After the fight they return to camp and try to settle in for the night. Some hours pass and they suddenly hear a gigantic snap some hundred feet from the camp. Expecting the worst, they gear up and get ready. When nothing comes to them, they decide to investigate. They find a gigantic tree that is broken apart, as if something escaped out of it.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: Thank you eerie sidebar </em><img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite6" alt=":cool:" title="Cool :cool:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":cool:" /></p><p></p><p>They find nothing else, no tracks… nothing. Having no other clues as to what to do, they head back to camp and go to sleep. </p><p></p><p><strong>June 21</strong></p><p></p><p>Their dreams are filled with torment and being captured and held against their will. They wake up freezing and drenched in sweat, but not feeling any adverse effects apart from that.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: Having described their gruesome details of their dreams, it was clear that they expected to have some kind of adverse effect placed on them, like not being able to memorize. They looked so surprised when they realized that they were good to go .</em></p><p></p><p>They head deeper into the forest encountering more disturbing scenes. Gallion is breaking the trail for the party and suddenly he notices a young elven boy. As he sees the boy, the boy turns around and runs into the forest. The party decides not to follow.</p><p></p><p>A little while later Gallion again notices the boy staring at him. This time he is at the side of the party, not in front of them. As Gallion sees him, he runs off again. Gallion estimates that it is the same direction as the last time. They discuss whether or not to follow him, but once again decide against it and move on.</p><p></p><p>About 10-15 minuttes later Gallion has the feeling of being watched. He looks around and behind the party he spots the boy once again. This time they decide to follow him.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I thought that one nightwing would be enough so I made the boy reappear until they followed him.</em></p><p></p><p>They follow the boy into a clearing where they are attacked by treants. The fight was oven in a blink of an eye, the trees never stood a chance or saw what hit them.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: To call it a fight would be generous, they didn’t even last one round.</em></p><p></p><p>After the action is over they spot a tree with a boy skeleton chained to it. They deduce that it is the skeleton of the ghost. They give him a decent burial and return on their path towards the hidden city.</p><p></p><p>As day turns into night they once again see the ghosts. This time, however, there is a small boy holding the hand of the elven male. When the elf notices the players he does not point at them this time. Instead he stops and nods respectfully to the party and keeps walking with the boy.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: It is a nice feeling seeing how they got confirmation of having done something good. It was a real feel good moment in a dark disturbing place.</em></p><p></p><p>The night however is not as nice as that moment. Their dreams are still plagued by nightmares.</p><p></p><p><strong>June 22</strong></p><p></p><p>The day passes without anything special to note other than they get closer to the point they expect the city to be</p><p></p><p><strong>June 23</strong></p><p></p><p>A short time after setting off on the day’s journey they find a group of dead Shahlesti soldiers, dead within the last days. They do not find any tracks worth following and instead decide to throw the corpses into the river, hoping that the current will flush the Shahalesti out of the forest. </p><p></p><p><em>DM note: It was a small token gesture, but a sign of their thoughts of the Shahalesti.</em></p><p></p><p>Less than an hour later they see the first living creature so far. A fox steps out of the undergrowth and studies them. Before they can do much, they hear a voice behind them, Fayne; the leader of the surviving Taranesti.</p><p></p><p>They talk to her for a while and her attitude is indifferent. One of the reasons that she is not hostile is that she recognizes Gallion’s facial traits and deduces he must be the son of a former Taranesti that she knew. She does not believe that he is still Taranesti though; he lived far too long in Gate Pass to be a real Taranesti.</p><p></p><p>She confirms that someone is in Phorros Irrestra, but it is not the Taranesti, they live in the forest. In the end she agrees to help them get into the city, if they do something for her first. They have to clear a holy Taranesti circle from its Shahalest infestation and free one of her soldiers. Seeing no other way out of the situation, the party agrees to help. It takes them several days to get to the northern part of the forest.</p><p></p><p><strong>June 26.</strong></p><p></p><p>They arrive at the area with the Stonehenge. Fayne tells them that it is a religious site and only few select Taranesti priests are allowed to set foot in the henge. The Shahalesti are thus both committing sacrilege as well as placing them out of harm’s way from the Taranesti, by making their camp in the henge. </p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I found the description confusing a bit when it came to the henge. Is it in darkness or not? </em></p><p></p><p>The party decides to scout the area first and end up being in a bit of a dilemma. Once again the elves have angelic allies. Gallion believes that they are bound against their will, while the others aren’t convinced. Wax is very disturbed by their presence, if the forces of good are allied with the elves, how come we are allied with their enemies? It took some convincing before Wax accepts the fact that both sides could and most likely are forces for good, even if they are enemies.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: I loved that discussion, both because it emphasized the campaign feeling of things being shades of grey and that it is much more important to talk about friends and foes, rather than just good and evil. The second thing that made it a good discussion is that it turned from just a discussion with the annoying NPC into a discussion of the entire situation and they ended up accepting that the Avoral and Leonal were most likely there as allies, and not bound.</em></p><p></p><p>After scouting the area with spells they find no trace or sign of a prisoner.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: Yeah… I kinda forgot about the divination limitations in that scene, and so did the players. The Henge just simply must have been an exception to the limitation, since it was a holy place not in the woods as such… or something </em></p><p></p><p>They return to Fayne and tell her that her friend is not there, and that they needed her to be more specific about the deal she offered. Was it primarily to free her friend or to kick the Shahalesti out of the henge. Fayne thinks about it for some time, and end up deciding that the deal is for her friend mostly because her friend has information she does not want the Shahalesti to have. She is, however, not overly happy about the party’s decision of making it a question of one or the other, especially Gallion is clearly proving not to be a real Taranesti in her eyes.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: I decided that her friend meant more to Fayne than ousting some Shahlesti, especially since the henge most likely would be taken back again later. Also, I saw no need for an extra combat that would add nothing to the story, especially since the important part for me was the dilemma of the enemy having good aligned allies.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p>The outcome of the deal is that Fayne will guide the party to the Shahalesti camp in the south of the forest, which turns out to be a 5-day uneventful trek.</p><p></p><p><strong>July 1</strong></p><p></p><p>The party arrive at the Shahalesti camp, which is fortified with wooden walls, and spells. The latter Shaith learned as he tried to fly into the camp invisible and was stopped dead in the air.</p><p></p><p>Before trying that stunt they had staked out the camp and easily found the cage in the middle of the camp with the prisoner. She was under a constant guard of alert soldiers. Shaith quicly deduced that the only real way of getting the prisoner out would be by teleporting, and that it may cost her life, but leaving her prisoner would mean her death anyway. Fayne had no real alternatives to the solution, as she also agreed that leaving her in the cage would mean her death.</p><p></p><p>The party moved crossed their fingers and Shaith tried his invisible penetration attempt, and failed. With the direct option eliminated, he decided to move to the gate. He still had a lot of time left being invisible, so he waited hoping someone would come that had a password. </p><p></p><p><em>DM note: I let the dice decide if they were lucky, and they were.</em></p><p></p><p>A courier arrives and as he nears the gate he stops and puts his hand on the invisible barrier and speaks the words. Shaith hears them and flies back to his original position, speak the words and fly into the camp. He quickly flies to the cage, touches the prisoner and they teleport out of the camp before anyone has a chance to react.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: I made this part pretty easy for them, as they had spent a lot of time roleplaying the situation, so they deserved it. I decided that the ranger had about 20 hps left, and the teleportation damage almost killed her, but she actually got to live, and this part of the story had a happy ending.</em></p><p></p><p>After rescuing the elven prisoner, the party quickly move away from the fortress, and with Fayne’s help easily avoid any pursuers. Fayne is grateful for their help and tell them how to enter the city.</p><p></p><p>This leaves the party with yet another long trek through the forest.</p><p></p><p><strong>July 3</strong></p><p></p><p>On the evening on July 3 the parties arrives at the bank of the Nallanthes again and start looking for a spot to camp. Their task is interrupted by a loud, chilling howl the makes the blood in their veins freeze to ice. The howl is answered by more howls all around them. At the outskirts of their vision they see some undead elfs in wolf clothing as well as 3 big undead wolfs. Shaith immediately starts singing the song of forms, and it is the most hauntingly beautiful thing anyone has ever heard.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: He did roll a natural 20 and reached DC 40, which must be quite the performance.</em></p><p></p><p>The fight starts pretty ok for the party; the spectres in corporeal form aren’t much of a threat, although one of them manages to score a hit. The big wolfs are a different matter; they are a handful. The challenge does not get any easier when a vampire-wolf-hybrid appear in the middle of the party.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: I made him into a real vampire, I have no idea what a Heartsblood vampire is. It is one of the things that I am a bit annoyed about in the adventure, the use of classes I have never heard of, when there is no description of what they do.</em></p><p></p><p>The fight is very tough and involves a lot of level draining. In the end they manage to win and use some spells to restore the lost levels.</p><p></p><p>The vampire gets away in the snakeform. They are expecting him to return any time soon.</p><p></p><p><strong>July 4</strong></p><p></p><p>They continue their journey along the riverbank and finally they arrive at a beach with black sand with a cave mouth close by. </p><p></p><p>They follow the instructions and enter the cave. All in all, the entire journey through is done without many hurdles. The succubi tried to lead them astray with charm spells, and manage to send them back to the start once, by getting Wax to hold up a light in front of him. Other than that, they are no hindrance.</p><p></p><p>The demon appeared to be a big challenge, but he failed his saving throw on a dismissal and was gone before the fight began. As he is sent back, he tells the party that they can find the man they are looking for at the Grove of Fallen Hallow.</p><p></p><p>The final challenge in the tunnel is much more dangerous. The basilisk all but destroyed the entire party. As they realize that they are at the end of the journey they allow themselves to use light. Killian draws his magical sword and the light illuminates the basilisk, thus enabling it’s gaze attack.</p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: Killian is using the sword from the treasure room in Castle Korstull</em></p><p></p><p>The initial Gaze attack petrifies Shaith and Wax. The following round Gallion also fails his saving throw, leaving Killian all alone. Luckily he is quite capable of fighting blindly and defeats the basilisk, thus saving the day.</p><p></p><p><em>DM note: Yeah… I was actually thinking that this was the end of the party, and what a lousy end.</em></p><p></p><p>With the help of scrolls of Break enchantment and a single memorized version of the spell, the entire party is turned back to flesh, and they walk the final few steps towards the light at the end of the tunnel.</p><p></p><p><strong>End of session.</strong></p><p></p><p><em>DM Note: It was a very good session one of the best, if not the best so far in the campaign.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Mrpereira, post: 6966260, member: 6781484"] [B]The party Galion – Elf ranger lvl. 9 / Arcane archer 4 Shaith – Fire elf fire domain wizard lvl. 5 / Incantatrix 8 Killian – Human priest of Heironious lvl. 3 / Church Inquisitor 1 / Ordained champion 5/Divine Crusader 4(variant) NPC[/B] None at the start of the chapter [B]June 12 continued[/B] The party did not want to spend more time than necessary at the camp, so they mounted the horses and rode off. They travelled throughout the evening until they reached the small village at the edge of the firestorm, where they made camp and rested. [I]DM note: As we are halfway through the campaign I made a short resumé of what had happened in the global setting of the world, just to recap the story, we have been playing for quite a while now, almost 1½ years, so somethings will have been forgotten. I also made a recap of all the deals they have made, quite a few as well, and asked them what they felt about the different parties and how they felt about the deals. They all agreed that Shahalesti and The monks are untrustworthy, and expect to break the deal themselves with these two parties. Killian felt that Ragesia was the greatest threat in the world, while the two elves believed it to be the Shahalesti. All in all it was a quite interesting discussion. The party was in agreement about most things, but not all.[/I] [B]June 13[/B] The next morning Shaith readies several polymorph spells as well as a Teleport. He polymorphs the others and himself into small dragons who are immune to fire damage, and teleports to Seaquen, where they are caught in the cell with the teleporting pole underneath the sunken prison. [I]DM Note: I decided that Seaquen would ensure its safety by making an antimagic area around the pole, so while it was magic, every other part of the cell was not. And of course set some archers to guard the locked cell. No matter how powerful you are, that is a deathtrap and the players realized and appreciated it – Seaquen’s safety matters to them.[/I] After a little time they are released and escorted to Lyceum, where they are called into a meeting a in a few hours. They spend the time in between selling loot, and buying new items. [I]DM Note: I allowed them to buy single items up to a value of 20.000 gp. I also allowed them to commission items of greater value, but with the timeframe it meant that these items will not be available until the next chapter. I am going to keep scaling up the value at each level, so that approximately 20-25% of their wealth by level is the maximum item value. They should be allowed to have some of the more fun items. [/I] At the meeting the council is gathered, Kiernan, Katrina, Haddin and headmaster Simeon. The players are a bit late, the acquisition of new items took longer than they expected. They have all but just arrived when there is a knock on the door. No one in the room expects more company. Outside stands a very correct and rigid man in spotless clothing. He introduces himself as Lieutenant Waxillium Ricky. He is here to help the party on the dangerous journey to the dark forest of Ycengled. [I]DM note: I made him obnoxiously correct and loud. On top of that I had him arrive before they had told anyone where they were going, so having him come in and announce his intention of joining the on the journey to Ycengled made it all much more interesting.[/I] The new guy put the party a bit on the edge, both with his awkward stiffness and with his knowledge of their plans. They asked him who he was and how he thought he knew where they were heading. Simultaneously they heard Haddin mumbling in the corner, something along the lines of: “I don’t know who will be in greatest danger, you or them when you swing that metal piece around. “Hrumph… good riddance”. Wax, as he quickly was named, is a Paladin of Pelor and told them that his fiancé had told him that they would be here know, a little late, and that he was to go with them to Ycengled or they would die. When they asked who his fiancé was he proudly answered that she was the honorable Mister Ja-Laffas daughter Crystin. [I]DM note: The collective groan around the table was priceless. Haddin is not thrilled with the young man, but they know for sure that he will dislike them even more if he dies, and it is nice to be able to say all those positive things about Mister Ja-Laffa watching them try to be diplomatic [/I] Also, I wasn’t really sure whether or not they were inclined to talk much about their destination, and I wanted Katrina to know it. Being a Paladin of Pelor cleared Wax of any mistrust about his intentions and about telling the truth. His entrance and outburst opened the topic about the destination pretty fast, although Simeon first asked what they had learned since the last meetin. Kiernan, being the war expert, then asked about what they knew about the area of Ycengled. They told what they knew in general, and Kiernan then asked if they knew the story about Rhuarc. They didn’t and he told them the long and very fascinating story. [I]DM Note: As mentioned in a previous post, I used the story that RangerWickett had posted, with very few modifications. I had Kiernan tell the story in a way that the story ended up being a very powerful and strong story that left the party speechless for a few moments afterwords. It was one of many highlights that session. Gallion, the Taranesti,was left with a sense of doubt about his hero, because he did not really sound like much of a hero in that version.[/I] The party talked a bit more with and then made an appointment with Kiernan on the 20th, where he will help them teleport. The party then spends a week recuperating, arranging a few practical things like learning spells, writing scrolls and finishing their shopping. They would have liked to spend more time, especially Galion who had ordered a new armor made, but they decided that time was still of the essence. [B]June 20[/B] They met up with Kiernan on the morning of their departure, planning to enter the forest in daylight. To their dismay realized that they had forgotten that they had to travel well into the swamp to avoid the teleportation pillar. Several hours later, well past midday they arrive at the outskirts of the Ycengled Phuurst. From the scribblings on the floor in Castle Korstull and with their knowledge of the area and history, they deduce that Phorros Irrendra lies somewhere on the banks of the Nallanthes river. With that knowledge they chose their landing spot close to the river and enter the dark forest. [I]DM note: I compared the entering of the forest to standing in the shower under the hot water which suddenly turned icy cold. [/I] The dark, eerie and oppressing darkness clearly makes the party feel uncomfortable. Killian quickly realizes that his connection to Heironious is impeded, and that it takes a lot of effort to produce a lot of his usual powers. [I]DM Note: I may have been too harsh in my judgment of the limitation, but in the end they managed well enough, even though he did complain a bit about it. The book states that spells using positive energy is impeded. But what spells, apart from cure spells really are based on positive energy, if one has to make a general ruling. I decided that all spells that had holy, sacred and divine in their description were affected. In hindsight the divine part might have been too much, but as I said, it did work out well enough. I also set the DC a little higher as the party have high stats and high skills, so they would feel impeded. [/I] The forest is not only dark and impeding on good, it is also extremely quiet. Not a sound is to be heard in forest, apart from their footsteps and the rattling of chains tied to many trees. [I]DM note: I used a lot of the small gimmicks from the sidebar Eerie effects to make the experience even more intense. Both the red eyes and the corpse of Shaith that turned into snakes put them on the edge, not knowing what to expect. I did not let them see the chained body before the encounter with the Nightwing. I had message I wanted to deliver to them first, so I changed the order of the encounters.[/I] As the day turned to night, they started to look for a suitable camp site. Travelling through the forest was slower going than they had hoped. At some point after making camp they hear an otherworldly kind of music and see a soft ghostly light some distance away. They move closer to it and see a procession of ghostly figures. [I]DM Note: I used the scene from the Lord of the Rings where the Elves are leaving the world as inspiration for the scene. I reminded them of that scene and told them to imagine the music, but instead of living elves travelling; they saw ghostly elves fleeing from something. They were not fleeing head over heels, but they were refugees.[/I] A male elf at the edge of the procession looks to the side and his gaze passes over them not noticing them. Then he stops and turns his attention back to them. Galion feels he is looking specifically at him. The elf slowly rises his hand and points, while saying a dark ghostly voice: “Shahalesti traitor. The dead know the truth. The dead know”. Suddenly all the ghosts turn into a swarm of bats gathering into a nightwing. The fight really pushed the party to the limit, but in the end they won a hard fought battle. Galion felt the lack of divine connection as a problem in this fight. Luckily for the party they have a stockpile of potions to use, as their wands won’t work in the forest. [I]DM note: It was a fun fight and I liked the fact that the undead punished them so hard, especially with the messaged they delivered. As the party does not see their alliance with the Shahalesti as binding in any way they did not really understand that part. Galion mentioned somewhat in a joking note, that if he was a Shahalesti traitor then his backstory was wrong. Well Galion, it isn’t wrong, and the undead did point at you… He will be wiser as to what the undead meant when we come to the trials and the visions. As the elf said: The dead know the truth [/I] After the fight they return to camp and try to settle in for the night. Some hours pass and they suddenly hear a gigantic snap some hundred feet from the camp. Expecting the worst, they gear up and get ready. When nothing comes to them, they decide to investigate. They find a gigantic tree that is broken apart, as if something escaped out of it. [I]DM note: Thank you eerie sidebar [/I]:cool: They find nothing else, no tracks… nothing. Having no other clues as to what to do, they head back to camp and go to sleep. [B]June 21[/B] Their dreams are filled with torment and being captured and held against their will. They wake up freezing and drenched in sweat, but not feeling any adverse effects apart from that. [I]DM note: Having described their gruesome details of their dreams, it was clear that they expected to have some kind of adverse effect placed on them, like not being able to memorize. They looked so surprised when they realized that they were good to go .[/I] They head deeper into the forest encountering more disturbing scenes. Gallion is breaking the trail for the party and suddenly he notices a young elven boy. As he sees the boy, the boy turns around and runs into the forest. The party decides not to follow. A little while later Gallion again notices the boy staring at him. This time he is at the side of the party, not in front of them. As Gallion sees him, he runs off again. Gallion estimates that it is the same direction as the last time. They discuss whether or not to follow him, but once again decide against it and move on. About 10-15 minuttes later Gallion has the feeling of being watched. He looks around and behind the party he spots the boy once again. This time they decide to follow him. [I]DM Note: I thought that one nightwing would be enough so I made the boy reappear until they followed him.[/I] They follow the boy into a clearing where they are attacked by treants. The fight was oven in a blink of an eye, the trees never stood a chance or saw what hit them. [I]DM note: To call it a fight would be generous, they didn’t even last one round.[/I] After the action is over they spot a tree with a boy skeleton chained to it. They deduce that it is the skeleton of the ghost. They give him a decent burial and return on their path towards the hidden city. As day turns into night they once again see the ghosts. This time, however, there is a small boy holding the hand of the elven male. When the elf notices the players he does not point at them this time. Instead he stops and nods respectfully to the party and keeps walking with the boy. [I]DM note: It is a nice feeling seeing how they got confirmation of having done something good. It was a real feel good moment in a dark disturbing place.[/I] The night however is not as nice as that moment. Their dreams are still plagued by nightmares. [B]June 22[/B] The day passes without anything special to note other than they get closer to the point they expect the city to be [B]June 23[/B] A short time after setting off on the day’s journey they find a group of dead Shahlesti soldiers, dead within the last days. They do not find any tracks worth following and instead decide to throw the corpses into the river, hoping that the current will flush the Shahalesti out of the forest. [I]DM note: It was a small token gesture, but a sign of their thoughts of the Shahalesti.[/I] Less than an hour later they see the first living creature so far. A fox steps out of the undergrowth and studies them. Before they can do much, they hear a voice behind them, Fayne; the leader of the surviving Taranesti. They talk to her for a while and her attitude is indifferent. One of the reasons that she is not hostile is that she recognizes Gallion’s facial traits and deduces he must be the son of a former Taranesti that she knew. She does not believe that he is still Taranesti though; he lived far too long in Gate Pass to be a real Taranesti. She confirms that someone is in Phorros Irrestra, but it is not the Taranesti, they live in the forest. In the end she agrees to help them get into the city, if they do something for her first. They have to clear a holy Taranesti circle from its Shahalest infestation and free one of her soldiers. Seeing no other way out of the situation, the party agrees to help. It takes them several days to get to the northern part of the forest. [B]June 26.[/B] They arrive at the area with the Stonehenge. Fayne tells them that it is a religious site and only few select Taranesti priests are allowed to set foot in the henge. The Shahalesti are thus both committing sacrilege as well as placing them out of harm’s way from the Taranesti, by making their camp in the henge. [I]DM Note: I found the description confusing a bit when it came to the henge. Is it in darkness or not? [/I] The party decides to scout the area first and end up being in a bit of a dilemma. Once again the elves have angelic allies. Gallion believes that they are bound against their will, while the others aren’t convinced. Wax is very disturbed by their presence, if the forces of good are allied with the elves, how come we are allied with their enemies? It took some convincing before Wax accepts the fact that both sides could and most likely are forces for good, even if they are enemies. [I]DM Note: I loved that discussion, both because it emphasized the campaign feeling of things being shades of grey and that it is much more important to talk about friends and foes, rather than just good and evil. The second thing that made it a good discussion is that it turned from just a discussion with the annoying NPC into a discussion of the entire situation and they ended up accepting that the Avoral and Leonal were most likely there as allies, and not bound.[/I] After scouting the area with spells they find no trace or sign of a prisoner. [I]DM Note: Yeah… I kinda forgot about the divination limitations in that scene, and so did the players. The Henge just simply must have been an exception to the limitation, since it was a holy place not in the woods as such… or something [/I] They return to Fayne and tell her that her friend is not there, and that they needed her to be more specific about the deal she offered. Was it primarily to free her friend or to kick the Shahalesti out of the henge. Fayne thinks about it for some time, and end up deciding that the deal is for her friend mostly because her friend has information she does not want the Shahalesti to have. She is, however, not overly happy about the party’s decision of making it a question of one or the other, especially Gallion is clearly proving not to be a real Taranesti in her eyes. [I]DM note: I decided that her friend meant more to Fayne than ousting some Shahlesti, especially since the henge most likely would be taken back again later. Also, I saw no need for an extra combat that would add nothing to the story, especially since the important part for me was the dilemma of the enemy having good aligned allies. [/I] The outcome of the deal is that Fayne will guide the party to the Shahalesti camp in the south of the forest, which turns out to be a 5-day uneventful trek. [B]July 1[/B] The party arrive at the Shahalesti camp, which is fortified with wooden walls, and spells. The latter Shaith learned as he tried to fly into the camp invisible and was stopped dead in the air. Before trying that stunt they had staked out the camp and easily found the cage in the middle of the camp with the prisoner. She was under a constant guard of alert soldiers. Shaith quicly deduced that the only real way of getting the prisoner out would be by teleporting, and that it may cost her life, but leaving her prisoner would mean her death anyway. Fayne had no real alternatives to the solution, as she also agreed that leaving her in the cage would mean her death. The party moved crossed their fingers and Shaith tried his invisible penetration attempt, and failed. With the direct option eliminated, he decided to move to the gate. He still had a lot of time left being invisible, so he waited hoping someone would come that had a password. [I]DM note: I let the dice decide if they were lucky, and they were.[/I] A courier arrives and as he nears the gate he stops and puts his hand on the invisible barrier and speaks the words. Shaith hears them and flies back to his original position, speak the words and fly into the camp. He quickly flies to the cage, touches the prisoner and they teleport out of the camp before anyone has a chance to react. [I]DM note: I made this part pretty easy for them, as they had spent a lot of time roleplaying the situation, so they deserved it. I decided that the ranger had about 20 hps left, and the teleportation damage almost killed her, but she actually got to live, and this part of the story had a happy ending.[/I] After rescuing the elven prisoner, the party quickly move away from the fortress, and with Fayne’s help easily avoid any pursuers. Fayne is grateful for their help and tell them how to enter the city. This leaves the party with yet another long trek through the forest. [B]July 3[/B] On the evening on July 3 the parties arrives at the bank of the Nallanthes again and start looking for a spot to camp. Their task is interrupted by a loud, chilling howl the makes the blood in their veins freeze to ice. The howl is answered by more howls all around them. At the outskirts of their vision they see some undead elfs in wolf clothing as well as 3 big undead wolfs. Shaith immediately starts singing the song of forms, and it is the most hauntingly beautiful thing anyone has ever heard. [I]DM Note: He did roll a natural 20 and reached DC 40, which must be quite the performance.[/I] The fight starts pretty ok for the party; the spectres in corporeal form aren’t much of a threat, although one of them manages to score a hit. The big wolfs are a different matter; they are a handful. The challenge does not get any easier when a vampire-wolf-hybrid appear in the middle of the party. [I]DM note: I made him into a real vampire, I have no idea what a Heartsblood vampire is. It is one of the things that I am a bit annoyed about in the adventure, the use of classes I have never heard of, when there is no description of what they do.[/I] The fight is very tough and involves a lot of level draining. In the end they manage to win and use some spells to restore the lost levels. The vampire gets away in the snakeform. They are expecting him to return any time soon. [B]July 4[/B] They continue their journey along the riverbank and finally they arrive at a beach with black sand with a cave mouth close by. They follow the instructions and enter the cave. All in all, the entire journey through is done without many hurdles. The succubi tried to lead them astray with charm spells, and manage to send them back to the start once, by getting Wax to hold up a light in front of him. Other than that, they are no hindrance. The demon appeared to be a big challenge, but he failed his saving throw on a dismissal and was gone before the fight began. As he is sent back, he tells the party that they can find the man they are looking for at the Grove of Fallen Hallow. The final challenge in the tunnel is much more dangerous. The basilisk all but destroyed the entire party. As they realize that they are at the end of the journey they allow themselves to use light. Killian draws his magical sword and the light illuminates the basilisk, thus enabling it’s gaze attack. [I]DM Note: Killian is using the sword from the treasure room in Castle Korstull[/I] The initial Gaze attack petrifies Shaith and Wax. The following round Gallion also fails his saving throw, leaving Killian all alone. Luckily he is quite capable of fighting blindly and defeats the basilisk, thus saving the day. [I]DM note: Yeah… I was actually thinking that this was the end of the party, and what a lousy end.[/I] With the help of scrolls of Break enchantment and a single memorized version of the spell, the entire party is turned back to flesh, and they walk the final few steps towards the light at the end of the tunnel. [B]End of session.[/B] [I]DM Note: It was a very good session one of the best, if not the best so far in the campaign.[/I] [/QUOTE]
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MrPereira's WOTBS D&D 3.5 Campaign (SPOILERS IN THE POSTS)
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