61st session
Tuesdays session started off very slowly. The party talked and talked and talked. Torn is sure that Asmodeus is playing some sort of double entente, that he will double-cross them and things won't turn out as they say. There were many things. Why did Asmodeus show himself in the guise of a demon? More specifically, did the fact that he shows up as a Raavasta, a demon known for it's ability to lie and BS have any significance. Could he be trusted. Did they even have a choice? I mean, we are talking about *the* master manipulator of all times. Maybe they should just do as he wants?
In particular, Torn and Carric are leery about the ritual. What will happen once they are inside? What will happen to the target? And a host of other questions. Obviously the very long talk didn't result in an actual decision, since they do not feel they have enough information to base a decisive decision on. On the other hand, they did end up deciding to check out the City of Brass, and find out how hard it was going to be to get to the Chamber of Rituals.
They also realized that they will have to bring the bitch (thats what they call the drow high-priestess lover of Grazz't they have locked up in the "basement") to the City of Brass. And that from what they know, the City of Brass is not on the mortal world (okay, they did know that!) and does not have the same limits for gods and arch-demons as Sigil. Ie the real Grazz't (whom they have banished from the mortal world for 101 years when they slew his aspect recently) might show up and claim his love. Not something they were looking forward to.
Before leaving, they had just a couple of things to take care of. Gnoguh and the 3 potential wifes, and a gold dragon looking for information. Torn handled the gold dragon, researching the information the gold dragon wanted about a lich and ways to defeat it. For that he was paid 500.000 gold pieces, money he decided to split with the party, which surprised me a lot. Meanwhile, the others went on a small trip to meet those who wished to add Gnoguh to their family.
First up was Queen Azimella, a proud and independent queen from the land of Tudar far to the west, who wanted Gnoguh to marry her and lead her 450.000 men into conquest of the world. She offered him a Rimefire Griffon as wedding gift, should he accept.
Next was Drahomir Zulfur, merchant prince of the Auran Empire and probably one of the 3 richest men in the mortal world. He wanted Gnoguh to marry his only daughter, Isabella. She would take care of the business, because she was able and raised to handle it, but she needed a strong husband who could take care of the private army that protected the thousands of ships in the merchant fleet. Also, men were the only ones allowed to own companies and land, so she couldn't do it on her own. He offered Gnoguh a pair of very powerful magical gauntlets, should he accept to marry his daughter.
Last was King Hjanko, King of Fredia, a kingdom to the east. Hjanko needed a strong man to marry his grand-daughter (everyone else in the family was dead) and to run the country after he was gone. He needed someone who could take up the fight against the Ebon Empire (Which is run by Bane, exarch of the Keeper). This was perhaps the most tempting offer, not because it came with 500.000 gold pieces in dowry, but because the idea of fighting against the Ebon Empire appealed to Gnoguh.
But in the end, he declined all three offers and the Swords took off.
I am still thinking about if the refusals should have some consequences. I actually thought he might take one, grab the "loot" and then split, but as it turns out, he didn't.
Arriving to the City of Brass, they found themselves waiting outside, looking up on the Elemental Chaos. There was a long line of people entering the city, and the wait took some time. At a point, they watched a man being take from the line and executed - apparently, he had been bad-mouthing the Sultan.
Once inside the city, they went exploring a bit, soaking up the flavor of the city. Slowly they were making their way towards the Great Repository, allegedly the greatest library in existence.
On the way to the Great Repository, they were suddenly facing some angry efreets who were claiming Torn was a thief. Not waiting for anyone to clear up the charges, battle followed. The people on the marketplace spread out, enough for the Swords of Drahar to have some room to fight the efreets.
Let me just say that 6 players and 9 lvl 22 efreets once again gave a fight that was way too long. Due a decent amount of fire resist, the fight never really got as challenging as I had hoped, and it is probably the first indication of "grind" we have had. Fairly soon in the fight, it was pretty obvious that the players would win, but it took forever to kill the monsters. Not that it took many rounds, but each round seemed to drag on forever. A couple of things contributed to this.
1) I was really tired, and often forgot to enforce our 20 sec rule.
2) For some reason, I chose to give each monster an individual initiative - that wont ever happen again for sure.
3) the high amount of players and monsters. 15+ actions per round is a lot and takes time, naturally.
As soon as the fight was about to end (1 bloodied efreet left) a host of archon guards arrive, wanting to arrest the Swords for attacking and killing efreets. Some attempts at bluff and diplomacy was made, but nothing helped. The Archons were firmly determined to have them arrested and executed or serving as slaves for many many years. Luckily for the Swords, their exploits had drawn the attention of Lord Zural, one of the lords of the 17 noble efreet houses.
He vouched that they had acted in self-defense and that had no choice. While the archon had little choice, he was clearly not happy at the prospect of having to let the players go. After having settled their little problem, he invited them to diner in his mansion to spend the night and talk.
As you probably have guessed, Lord Zural was the one who hired the lower-caste efreets to attack the Swords of Drahar. The encounter had two purposes. On one hand, I wanted the players to get an idea of the law in the City of Brass, to show that while they might be big in Drahar, here they would have to consider their actions. I also wanted them to get a contact in the town, one that might be able to guide them towards certain things. Last but not least, I wanted them to owe Lord Zural a favor, or at least an ear. I have a feeling that the campaign might return to the City of Brass later on, towards the end of the epic tier, just before it all goes to hell and they have to kill all the current gods. At that point (assuming it does happen), I am thinking that the Sultan himself might have to be killed or something. In which case Zural will be the trigger.
After a good night of sleep, the Swords headed back towards the Great Repository. What they found was definitely not what they had expected. A 1600 ft tall purple tower with blood coming out the doors. Inside was filled with small canals of blood and pieces of flesh and the stench of rotting corpses. Naked obese servants wandering around amongst the petitioners with sacrificial daggers, just waiting to exact the price of knowledge. Small questions are paid with blood and pain, but the big questions are paid with either an eye or your soul. In case of the soul, you have to soul-swap with a inhabitant of the tower while your questions are researched.
Oddly, Torn agreed to swap his soul without asking around or thinking about the consequences. What he didnt know was the most soul-swapping end badly, because the researcher, who has been locked up in the Repository for an eternity cant handle the freedom, goes berserk, often ending up using the possessed body to do great harm, which in turn gets the body killed by the guards. Or sentences to an eternity of slavery. Luckily for Torn, his friends were a bit smarter than him. They let the researcher go wild for a night, drinking and whoring himself into a stupor, then bound him and tossed him into a cell until the time was up and the soul of Torn found its way back into his body.
While Torn was in locked in the Repository and the others were guarding his body, Truxas had a little run in with his infernal patron. Yep, he has two pacts, and has had that ever since it was possible (I believe around 11th level iirc). The twist is that his infernal patron is none other than Asmodeus, the very same person/devil/exarch that they are working for. He was told that Asmodeus had great plans for him, and that he was very happy with the way things were progressing. He was given a word of power (daily, on a critical, Truxas can retain the power he just used), which I think will buy his silence on the matter. We will see about that. It was definitely a big WTF moment for Truxas' player. I think he is beginning to realize that he might be pitted against his party at some point.
Overall I was happy with a lot during this session, there was a lot of good roleplaying, a lot of exploring the world and a lot of fun stuff (Torn's player playing the guy in his body who just went nuts in booze and whores was very descriptive and funny) but the slowness of the combat really annoyed me. From what I gathered, the players were more or less okay with it, but still, it was way too long.
I need to focus when I make the encounters. Not too many creatures, and not too many different creatures. Which is kinda funny. A lot of people blame solos and elites for long combats, but often, it is not true. Multiple non-minion creatures create their own problems, not because of high AC or whatnot, but because its harder to focus fire and a lot more damage is wasted. Like this session, where twice criticals of 100+ damage were dealt to creatures which had less than 15 hit points left. I am also working on cutting down the number of powers, so that on any given turn, I do not have to make 34 different choices.
I am atm considering running a little intermezzo to push the story along. Just to see how players respond to it.
