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<blockquote data-quote="Aegeri" data-source="post: 5577455" data-attributes="member: 78116"><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Dark Sun - The Builder's Cry</strong></p><p></p><p>With the city no longer crawling with undead and the harsh light of Athas' sun illuminating the world once more, the PCs could now make up their minds about where to head in the city first. Consulting their map - well at the time my description of the map anyway as I hadn't quite finished it at that time - the PCs chose to head towards the great library of the city. Variya had mentioned the tome she gave the party had come from there and they hoped to learn more about the destruction of the city.</p><p></p><p>But first thing was first: The caravan had been destroyed not too far from where they had arrived. Going back for the caravans supplies would be essential if they were going to continue surviving within the city for a long period of time. Upon arriving at the caravan, the characters saw that another group of little monsters had beat them there: Horrible twisted halflings with bulbous heads filled with twisted teeth! These cruelly sunwarped abominations crawl around the city during the day and command several vicious predatory animals (Kestrekels and Cilops' as examples) as allies.</p><p></p><p>Naturally they weren't giving up the tasty morsels on the bodies and fallen pack animals to a bunch of interlopers without a fight.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/SupplyRaid1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>The bodies around the area of the former caravan had numerous survival days upon them, unfortunately the rotting carcasses already attracted various monsters to the scene.</em></p><p></p><p>In this encounter, I had a couple of different "rules" that made life a bit more difficult for the PCs. The first is that the goal was to get the survival days, requiring different actions to pick up more (or less) with each expended action. So a minor would net you 1 survival day, a move 2 and a standard 3 survival days. All 3 together would take 5 survival days off whatever you were grabbing. To up the stakes, the monsters had extra reinforcement that would begin to trickle into the combat each round after the first - representing their allies picking over other corpses in the caravan coming to their aid. So the PCs could not just wipe the monsters out and leave in peace without a substantial fight (given that two cilops' would eventually arrive, this would be one HELL of a battle even for 6th level characters).</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/SupplyRaid2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>Zephan felt the brunt of the sunwarped wilder halflings ability to deal considerable damage when they have CA. This would not be the last time he would suffer at their hands either...</em></p><p></p><p>The characters gathered some survival days at first, but focused mostly on attacking the enemies until the dreaded sounds of arriving reinforcements drew their attention.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/SupplyRaid3.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>Like most creatures when I use this mechanic, the monsters arrive having only a single action on their turn. This gives the PCs some time to react to the new arrivals presence.</em></p><p></p><p>This bolstered the amount of effort spent getting survival days in a hurry - especially when a Cilops turned up on the scene! A quick poisoned strike on it from Zephan, ensured the beast wouldn't be scuttling over to the characters any time soon and they soon made a hasty exit.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/SupplyRaid4.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>The party met their first Cilops (big centipede like thing over bobs corpse) rather briefly before making a hasty retreat with numerous survival days almost weighing them down.</em></p><p></p><p>The party soon retreated back to the tomb and then continued on towards the library once they regathered their thoughts. There was some debate about going back to the area and trying to get the remaining survival days, but the number of creatures there was just too much (the PCs could see the monsters from where they were - the enemies did not pursue as they had "won" the prize in their mind).</p><p></p><p>Journeying to the library took a considerable amount of time, as it was deep in the city states heart near Dralnu's Ziggurat. On the way, the PCs encountered another fallen caravan - this one somewhat older than their own - half buried within the sands. Suspicious of two large flocks of birds nearby, that seemed to almost be giving away their position the characters took a defensive position upon the rocks before investigating. Shortly after they began rifling through the caravan, the birds descended and several other enemies began to arrive! They had been followed!</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CirclingVultures1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>The large flocks of kestrekels (the birds) lured their cannibalistic sunwarped halfling masters right to the PCs. An especially nasty surprise - that the PCs oddly circumvented rather well at first by getting onto the rocks - was the burrowing anakore...</em></p><p></p><p>Zephan and Eshara got off the rocks to engage the halflings down on the ground, while the rest of the party contended with the mass of squawking birds up high. This created an interesting "3D" combat, with two distinct battles happening on the sandy ground and the desperate battle against the swarms above.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CirclingVultures2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>Most of the party contended with the Kestrekels up on the rocks while Zephan and Eshara fought a desperate battle on the sands below.</em></p><p></p><p>Zephan soon bore the brunt of a brutal critical hit from one of the sunwarped wilden's assaulting his mind. This left him rather bloodied and even after finishing the beast off, it paved the way for the creatures anakore ally waiting in ambush to rush in on the offensive! Eshara pulled the beast out from the sand exposing it to the sunlight, imposing a penalty to its attacks as it recoiled from athas' sun and then Zephan brutally stabbed the beast in the back - bloodying it. On its next turn I was then left with a very interesting choice.</p><p></p><p>The creature had a -2 penalty from its sunlight aversion and a potential -2 penalty from a mark. Attacking Eshara would give only a -2 penalty, but the Anakore would get only a single attack. On the other hand, taking the -4 penalty (and potentially a mind spike) it could attack the executioner who was bloodied twice. This was a difficult decision, but ultimately two attacks and the feeling the creature would want to strike back against the target who inflicted the most damage made me choose Zephan.</p><p></p><p>Bearing in mind the power only targeted bloodied enemies with its two attacks and that Zephan was already damaged, the Anakore struck with considerable fury! What fury it was! The first attack tore into the executioner and did a considerable amount of damage, dropping him to the sand with a terrible blow. Eshara followed that up with a mind spike, but it was not sufficient to down the Anakore. The Anakore then took its second attack - unfortunately this had to be targeted at the downed PC and not the battlemind because the power only targets bloodied enemies - getting a critical hit (of course). This meant the assassin was dead!</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CirclingVultures3.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>Zephan fell to the terrible claws of the anakore, despite Eshara's best attempts and the rest of the party began to run into some trouble with the circling Kestrekels!</em></p><p></p><p>Fighting hard, with numerous characters becoming bloodied, they eventually downed the anakore at last, one Kestrekel flock with a fiery blast and the other began to flee from the encounter. Leaving only one of the halfling wilder's left to hold the battlefield.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CirclingVultures4.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>The wilder soon saw the PCs bloody revenge for their fallen comrade.</em></p><p></p><p>At this point the discussion on resurrection in Dark Sun reoccurred. If you remember back, I actually killed Initiate (the Pyromancer) at the start of the game near the exit to the arena. Oddly enough that was a crit on a downed PC - I must say maptools has quite a considerable amount of bloodlust on this issue. Normally in Dark Sun, I don't allow the raise dead and resurrection rituals to work without some effort. In this case, I hinted to the PCs that the silt oasis might be able to return a character to life (I haven't explained why yet - so I will leave the explanation as to why this is for another day). Inevitably the player decided to remake a new character, trying out the Gloomblade hexblade build from Heroes of Shadow.</p><p></p><p>None the less, while I would have made it a bit harder to get raised from the dead to suit the setting: I don't feel making it impossible would have been particularly interesting (especially because getting raised would be an interesting side quest in itself!). In any event I feel putting the decision in the players hands is the better deal, especially when players spend a lot of time making their characters in maptools (you need to macro lots of powers and such).</p><p></p><p>With a character down the PCs then raided the caravan for its supplies and put Zephan in the back. Thinking quite well, they chose to drag one of the caravan carts around with them, reducing some of their load even if it did turn Eshara/Ka'Cha (who began pulling it) into a bit of pack animal. Eventually the PCs arrived at the "Eyes of Dralnu", a pair of twin towers that oversaw a river going through the original city state. Sadly the river has long since become a quagmire of silt and a long sheer canyon has formed where it used to flow.</p><p></p><p>Naturally the PCs became suspicious: Not because of the towers but because the bridge looked somewhat unstable. This was probably because they were worried I was going to have their cart plunge hundreds of feet into the river below to smash into a thousand pieces. I wouldn't do something terrible like that would I? Possibly as the result of some fascinating skill challenge of some kind? Surely not.</p><p></p><p>In any event, upon getting close enough to the "Eyes" the party observed numerous fine strands, which seemed to glint in the light between the two towers. I didn't give the party a lot of time to admire this before a strange, emaciated looking creature stepped out from hiding in the destroyed tower... carrying a tiny little bell.</p><p></p><p>This foul creature is an <em>iconic</em> Dark Sun monster called a Belgoi. They are humanoid like creatures, which especially like eating the flesh of other intelligent creatures. Normally they strike travelers at night, but this one has a bit of a different trick. In his employ are two large crystal spiders, which have weaved a deadly web between the two towers. When someone comes along of interest, the belgoi lures them into the webs with his bell and causes them to sever themselves apart. Then allows his spiders to finish off any remaining enemies while he eats. This strategy has worked pretty well for him so far, with a relatively mutual relationship between the three monsters proving rather productive.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately for him the PCs had other ideas!</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/TheTwinWebs1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>The two large white objects are the overlapping webs, complete with crystal spider. Eshara paid the price of getting too close, with the Belgoi luring her right into the webs and cutting her up some!</em></p><p></p><p>Incidentally, yes I am obsessed with spiders. Glad you noticed <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>In any event the players handled this encounter pretty well, with the Belgoi largely staying right out of trouble hiding behind the webs. Eventually though the PCs turned the battle against the creature and his spiders, particularly when they destroyed one web. This did actually luck out for the Belgoi, encouraging the creature to move away hiding behind the remaining web - just out of reach of Ka'Cha sneaking around the other side.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/TheTwinWebs2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>With the webs falling and the spiders beginning to get picked off by the party, the Belgoi was not liking how this situation was going.</em></p><p></p><p>Eventually the Belgoi "wigged out" of the combat, leaving the map and slinking into the destroyed ruin of the city. I hinted very strongly that the PCs will be seeing this creature again. With Three-Fang also implied to be around the city as well, due to the pain within Initiate and Ka'Cha's old wound - this was certainly a place for a reunion! I always feel if an intelligent enemy should have a good reason to flee, then you should do so. For one thing, if the PCs don't stop him it can lead to an encounter with a monster that they have met before. This gives a lot more weight to an encounter and the monsters foreknowledge is a good excuse for having them fight much better.</p><p></p><p>With the Belgoi out of the way, the PCs explored the intact tower and of course, ran into some of its undead inhabitants (who were none too pleased to see them). In this encounter, I wanted to demonstrate to the PCs how during the day some areas have beams of light that can affect the undead monsters within. Basically regions where cracks and similar illuminate areas of the room intensely enough to damage undead within it. This terrain I felt was refreshing for the PCs because it's <em>only</em> positive to them. It can be used to their advantage, but doesn't hurt them in any way - making fighting around light of tactical interest against undead.</p><p></p><p>This also helped make the extremely cramped environment feel more dynamic and interesting - breaking up the tight region somewhat.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CloseQuarters1.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>Although 4E likes some space and such, sometimes a good old fashioned CQC scrap is what you need. Bearing in mind the shadows and wraiths can phase, allowing them to get around the party if required to spread out attacks.</em></p><p></p><p>I think my players really appreciated the chance to turn the tables on the monsters with the beneficial terrain. Normally terrain is either rather neutral (can be used by anyone) or well in the monsters favor (typically because they actually live there). Being able to use it exclusively to their advantage was a pleasing chance of pace, and they did indeed get a fair amount out of the light. The second purpose of the light was to provide the party another option for dealing radiant damage, which can prevent the wraith and shadows insubstantial quality.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CloseQuarters3.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>Skeletons popping up from the basement was always going to make the scene a bit more exciting!</em></p><p></p><p>The undead came from below, they came from above and ultimately had a nice jolly scrap in a tight environment. Bursts and blasts in particular proved to be quite devastating as well, pretty much hitting everything! Overall the combat was quite brutal, but the PCs ultimately prevailed - if battered.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CloseQuarters4.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>This was pretty brutal at the end, with both of the skeletons having got to the main floor and one of the wraiths still alive (He's actually floating just above the mess inside, not outside). Originally I had another wraith in this encounter, but I removed one with Zephan's death. I think the encounter worked better for this actually.</em></p><p></p><p>Once the undead were dispatched, the characters explored the tower and found something odd happening in the basement. Some of the bricks on the floor began to move and then a blast blew them asunder. A strange man crawled forth from underneath the floor and rather testily introduced himself: Sereb, a revenant templar hexblade (Gloom Pact) and former servant of Dralnu! This was the new player character (playing Zephan before his untimely demise) and first hexblade that I had seen in 4E. I actually quite like the Hexblade and was keen to see how it was going to go in a fight, but introductions had to come first.</p><p></p><p>The neat thing with introducing a new character to an ongoing campaign is it doesn't have to be entirely disruptive. In this case, as Sereb is a revenent and has been dead for a while having just crawled forth from - oh wait, I can't say that just yet :O Rest assured, his origin is an important plot point! In any event, being who he is I decided that if his character had memories of the city before it was destroyed, this could allow me to give them additional information in an IC view (without it feeling ham handed). It lets me flesh out Dralnu's personality a bit beyond "This is some random Sorcerer-King who destroyed the city". It also let me give the city a name: Abalach*, which fell to calamity in the distant past and then all memory of it wiped from history by the remaining Sorcerer Kings.</p><p></p><p>Conveniently, in the time between while I was doing this and now, Rodney Thompson released an excellent (and immensely inspiring) article on Kalidnay. In many ways the themes I had intended for this city and what happened to Kalidnay are similar in some ways - making it an incredibly pleasing article to read. The calamity that destroyed Abalach though was considerably different, but none the less I was very inspired and I think the way the plot will develop in this game will benefit greatly from that article!</p><p></p><p>After establishing himself within the group, the PCs spent a cold night at the top of the tower and then continued onwards (with cart) to the great library. I got to emphasize through Sereb just how destroyed the city is now compared to what it was. Upon arriving at the great library, they encountered more of their beloved horrible little halflings. This time they had a Cilops with them and the dreadful beast wasn't having a bar of entering the library whatsoever. One of the other halflings who had attempted to enter earlier, found itself being torn apart by some horrible fiery creature.</p><p></p><p>As always, the PCs interruption of their raiding was not taken very well and a fight promptly occurred. Everything got mixed up quickly, with the Hexblade taking on the halfling shrieker and the cilops getting Eshara's attention. One thing I should note is that I handed Eshara a jagged fullblade some time ago, which has a 19-20 crit range and ongoing 10 damage on a crit. To date, she hasn't managed a crit with it until *this* combat and it had quite an effect. The Cilops copped it early and absorbed the ongoing for most of the encounter - dealing an additional 40 or so damage.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness2.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>Turns out today was not a good day for saving throws against ongoing damage. The shrieker had a piece of Sereb before dying horribly at least.</em></p><p></p><p>The Cilops had his brutal revenge though, tearing apart Eshara with its terrible mandibles and then running around on a rampage! I must admit that the Cilops is an <em>hilarious</em> elite monster. For one thing, they have a power that basically gives them permanent CA and their bite attack triggers extra damage when it has CA. This combines pretty well. Then you can throw on dazing antenna for another minor action attack AND a move action rampage that sees them scuttling over everyone for more damage! Overall a single cilops can deal an <em>insane</em> amount of damage against grouped up characters. I think this will make them rightly feared by the party.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness3.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>The Cilops makes up for his failure to save against anything by simply dealing out what he takes.</em></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p> <p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness4.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>Free from the shackles of his battlemind defender oppressor, he went for a little stroll and said hello to Alek.</em></p><p></p><p>Eventually the PCs killed the remaining enemies except the Cilops, who was firmly upset with them at this point. Even with penalties to his attack and being constrained by the party, it had a good chomp of a couple of characters before the ongoing damage (applied right at the start) finally saw to the creatures downfall.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness6.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>The Cilops finally died, but not before he took a good chunk out of the party. Most of that damage there was his doing!</em></p><p></p><p>Taking whatever meager riches they good from the sunwarped halflings, they entered the library to have a look for the precious books. Well, at least some of the party thought they were precious and others distinctly didn't see the point of this "words" nonsense. This happened to upset the creature that was guarding the place from the previous haflings - a spectral librarian!</p><p></p><p>This guy is a bit of an exception to the rule as far as undead go. This beast, called an ash wraith, is an undead creature that actually has a strong affinity with both the sun and fire. Unlike other undead, it's not actually vulnerable to radiant energy and instead is vulnerable to cold. This provides a bit of a mix up in energy types and provides a kind of undead that only appears during the day. Ash Wraiths are much more powerful than normal undead, but are very uncommon as they are produced under very unusual circumstances. As such, they are creatures to be considerably feared when the PCs happen to stumble across them.</p><p></p><p>Ash Wraiths are not the most reasonable lot and when he discovered that Initiate had a tome stolen from his library (confirming that this is indeed a place Variya had visited), he flew into a rage. Summoning his might, he activated ritual contingencies he had prepared and created an immense animated golem created from a swarm of damaged books, pieces of masonry and rock. Him and his pet golem then took to the characters with considerable fury! Noting that I put an interesting variation on the way the Ash Wraith here worked. Due to his obsession with the tome the party carried, he was utterly immune to any mark from a character NOT carrying the book. So in short, he would go right for initiate! I also roleplayed the monster in this manner as well, with it utterly ignoring anyone who wasn't carrying the book. The PCs used this to their advantage, quickly throwing it to the defender who then took all the creatures attention for the rest of the combat.</p><p></p><p>Here I feel the Hexblade paid quite a lot of dividends for the party. Firstly, the hexblade has some nice control effects, which the party has rather lacked with the pyromancer being more of a blaster wizard. Secondly, Assassin's bane was very effective at preventing the ash wraith operating how it would please, making life much easier for the characters (as it could not turn invisible).</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness7.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>That's one hell of a lot of status effects on that Ash Wraith.</em></p><p></p><p>Even with the initial advantage though, the giant swarm of books began to run rampant over the characters. This is actually an older solo that I used in a previous campaign and 're-envisioned' for this battle. Effectively it randomly changes its damage types when hit by an attack, representing how magically unstable the thing is. This dictates what damage types it is resistant and vulnerable to, as well as adding different ongoing damage riders onto its main attacks. Further, it can pelt PCs with magical energy and automatically impose different effects based on what kind of magical energy imbues it. For example, if it gains necrotic power an enemy cannot regain HP (save ends). Or if it gains radiant power an enemy is blinded (save ends).</p><p></p><p>The first time I ran this monster my players commented that it was really fun and the second go proved just as entertaining. Especially when they discovered it was almost as dangerous to its creator as it was to them (due to not being very focused on ally friendly effects, save its aura).</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness9.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>This creature just makes stuff absolutely everywhere, as you can tell.</em></p><p></p><p>The characters wore down both the ash wraith and the golem over time, with burst attacks dealing the most damage. Ongoing damage and automatic damage zones/auras began to take their toll on the party, with Eshara having to leave the situation on chronically few HP.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness10.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"><em>A wise retreat from a fairly dangerous situation, especially while both creatures were dazed.</em></p><p></p><p>Finally however they eliminated the ash wraith and then the golem - after it had one final swing at the party of course. Once it was destroyed the beast collapsed back into inert (and frequently burnt) books and rubble. Its energy rapidly flowing from it and right towards the tome that they acquired earlier.</p><p></p><p>And that is where I stopped the session! So they had to wait until the next week to find out what exactly was the deal with why that happened... and how important it was :O</p><p></p><p>*I am aware this is an actual canon City State, but I felt like using the name because I liked it. I would have used Kalidnay, but ironically in this case I had already chose not to use established ruins on the map. The fit would be perfect though!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aegeri, post: 5577455, member: 78116"] [center][b]Dark Sun - The Builder's Cry[/b][/center] With the city no longer crawling with undead and the harsh light of Athas' sun illuminating the world once more, the PCs could now make up their minds about where to head in the city first. Consulting their map - well at the time my description of the map anyway as I hadn't quite finished it at that time - the PCs chose to head towards the great library of the city. Variya had mentioned the tome she gave the party had come from there and they hoped to learn more about the destruction of the city. But first thing was first: The caravan had been destroyed not too far from where they had arrived. Going back for the caravans supplies would be essential if they were going to continue surviving within the city for a long period of time. Upon arriving at the caravan, the characters saw that another group of little monsters had beat them there: Horrible twisted halflings with bulbous heads filled with twisted teeth! These cruelly sunwarped abominations crawl around the city during the day and command several vicious predatory animals (Kestrekels and Cilops' as examples) as allies. Naturally they weren't giving up the tasty morsels on the bodies and fallen pack animals to a bunch of interlopers without a fight. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/SupplyRaid1.jpg[/IMG] [i]The bodies around the area of the former caravan had numerous survival days upon them, unfortunately the rotting carcasses already attracted various monsters to the scene.[/i][/center] In this encounter, I had a couple of different "rules" that made life a bit more difficult for the PCs. The first is that the goal was to get the survival days, requiring different actions to pick up more (or less) with each expended action. So a minor would net you 1 survival day, a move 2 and a standard 3 survival days. All 3 together would take 5 survival days off whatever you were grabbing. To up the stakes, the monsters had extra reinforcement that would begin to trickle into the combat each round after the first - representing their allies picking over other corpses in the caravan coming to their aid. So the PCs could not just wipe the monsters out and leave in peace without a substantial fight (given that two cilops' would eventually arrive, this would be one HELL of a battle even for 6th level characters). [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/SupplyRaid2.jpg[/IMG] [i]Zephan felt the brunt of the sunwarped wilder halflings ability to deal considerable damage when they have CA. This would not be the last time he would suffer at their hands either...[/i][/center] The characters gathered some survival days at first, but focused mostly on attacking the enemies until the dreaded sounds of arriving reinforcements drew their attention. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/SupplyRaid3.jpg[/IMG] [i]Like most creatures when I use this mechanic, the monsters arrive having only a single action on their turn. This gives the PCs some time to react to the new arrivals presence.[/i][/center] This bolstered the amount of effort spent getting survival days in a hurry - especially when a Cilops turned up on the scene! A quick poisoned strike on it from Zephan, ensured the beast wouldn't be scuttling over to the characters any time soon and they soon made a hasty exit. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/SupplyRaid4.jpg[/IMG] [i]The party met their first Cilops (big centipede like thing over bobs corpse) rather briefly before making a hasty retreat with numerous survival days almost weighing them down.[/i][/center] The party soon retreated back to the tomb and then continued on towards the library once they regathered their thoughts. There was some debate about going back to the area and trying to get the remaining survival days, but the number of creatures there was just too much (the PCs could see the monsters from where they were - the enemies did not pursue as they had "won" the prize in their mind). Journeying to the library took a considerable amount of time, as it was deep in the city states heart near Dralnu's Ziggurat. On the way, the PCs encountered another fallen caravan - this one somewhat older than their own - half buried within the sands. Suspicious of two large flocks of birds nearby, that seemed to almost be giving away their position the characters took a defensive position upon the rocks before investigating. Shortly after they began rifling through the caravan, the birds descended and several other enemies began to arrive! They had been followed! [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CirclingVultures1.jpg[/IMG] [i]The large flocks of kestrekels (the birds) lured their cannibalistic sunwarped halfling masters right to the PCs. An especially nasty surprise - that the PCs oddly circumvented rather well at first by getting onto the rocks - was the burrowing anakore...[/i][/center] Zephan and Eshara got off the rocks to engage the halflings down on the ground, while the rest of the party contended with the mass of squawking birds up high. This created an interesting "3D" combat, with two distinct battles happening on the sandy ground and the desperate battle against the swarms above. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CirclingVultures2.jpg[/IMG] [i]Most of the party contended with the Kestrekels up on the rocks while Zephan and Eshara fought a desperate battle on the sands below.[/i][/center] Zephan soon bore the brunt of a brutal critical hit from one of the sunwarped wilden's assaulting his mind. This left him rather bloodied and even after finishing the beast off, it paved the way for the creatures anakore ally waiting in ambush to rush in on the offensive! Eshara pulled the beast out from the sand exposing it to the sunlight, imposing a penalty to its attacks as it recoiled from athas' sun and then Zephan brutally stabbed the beast in the back - bloodying it. On its next turn I was then left with a very interesting choice. The creature had a -2 penalty from its sunlight aversion and a potential -2 penalty from a mark. Attacking Eshara would give only a -2 penalty, but the Anakore would get only a single attack. On the other hand, taking the -4 penalty (and potentially a mind spike) it could attack the executioner who was bloodied twice. This was a difficult decision, but ultimately two attacks and the feeling the creature would want to strike back against the target who inflicted the most damage made me choose Zephan. Bearing in mind the power only targeted bloodied enemies with its two attacks and that Zephan was already damaged, the Anakore struck with considerable fury! What fury it was! The first attack tore into the executioner and did a considerable amount of damage, dropping him to the sand with a terrible blow. Eshara followed that up with a mind spike, but it was not sufficient to down the Anakore. The Anakore then took its second attack - unfortunately this had to be targeted at the downed PC and not the battlemind because the power only targets bloodied enemies - getting a critical hit (of course). This meant the assassin was dead! [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CirclingVultures3.jpg[/IMG] [i]Zephan fell to the terrible claws of the anakore, despite Eshara's best attempts and the rest of the party began to run into some trouble with the circling Kestrekels![/i][/center] Fighting hard, with numerous characters becoming bloodied, they eventually downed the anakore at last, one Kestrekel flock with a fiery blast and the other began to flee from the encounter. Leaving only one of the halfling wilder's left to hold the battlefield. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CirclingVultures4.jpg[/IMG] [i]The wilder soon saw the PCs bloody revenge for their fallen comrade.[/i][/center] At this point the discussion on resurrection in Dark Sun reoccurred. If you remember back, I actually killed Initiate (the Pyromancer) at the start of the game near the exit to the arena. Oddly enough that was a crit on a downed PC - I must say maptools has quite a considerable amount of bloodlust on this issue. Normally in Dark Sun, I don't allow the raise dead and resurrection rituals to work without some effort. In this case, I hinted to the PCs that the silt oasis might be able to return a character to life (I haven't explained why yet - so I will leave the explanation as to why this is for another day). Inevitably the player decided to remake a new character, trying out the Gloomblade hexblade build from Heroes of Shadow. None the less, while I would have made it a bit harder to get raised from the dead to suit the setting: I don't feel making it impossible would have been particularly interesting (especially because getting raised would be an interesting side quest in itself!). In any event I feel putting the decision in the players hands is the better deal, especially when players spend a lot of time making their characters in maptools (you need to macro lots of powers and such). With a character down the PCs then raided the caravan for its supplies and put Zephan in the back. Thinking quite well, they chose to drag one of the caravan carts around with them, reducing some of their load even if it did turn Eshara/Ka'Cha (who began pulling it) into a bit of pack animal. Eventually the PCs arrived at the "Eyes of Dralnu", a pair of twin towers that oversaw a river going through the original city state. Sadly the river has long since become a quagmire of silt and a long sheer canyon has formed where it used to flow. Naturally the PCs became suspicious: Not because of the towers but because the bridge looked somewhat unstable. This was probably because they were worried I was going to have their cart plunge hundreds of feet into the river below to smash into a thousand pieces. I wouldn't do something terrible like that would I? Possibly as the result of some fascinating skill challenge of some kind? Surely not. In any event, upon getting close enough to the "Eyes" the party observed numerous fine strands, which seemed to glint in the light between the two towers. I didn't give the party a lot of time to admire this before a strange, emaciated looking creature stepped out from hiding in the destroyed tower... carrying a tiny little bell. This foul creature is an [i]iconic[/i] Dark Sun monster called a Belgoi. They are humanoid like creatures, which especially like eating the flesh of other intelligent creatures. Normally they strike travelers at night, but this one has a bit of a different trick. In his employ are two large crystal spiders, which have weaved a deadly web between the two towers. When someone comes along of interest, the belgoi lures them into the webs with his bell and causes them to sever themselves apart. Then allows his spiders to finish off any remaining enemies while he eats. This strategy has worked pretty well for him so far, with a relatively mutual relationship between the three monsters proving rather productive. Unfortunately for him the PCs had other ideas! [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/TheTwinWebs1.jpg[/IMG] [i]The two large white objects are the overlapping webs, complete with crystal spider. Eshara paid the price of getting too close, with the Belgoi luring her right into the webs and cutting her up some![/i][/center] Incidentally, yes I am obsessed with spiders. Glad you noticed ;) In any event the players handled this encounter pretty well, with the Belgoi largely staying right out of trouble hiding behind the webs. Eventually though the PCs turned the battle against the creature and his spiders, particularly when they destroyed one web. This did actually luck out for the Belgoi, encouraging the creature to move away hiding behind the remaining web - just out of reach of Ka'Cha sneaking around the other side. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/TheTwinWebs2.jpg[/IMG] [i]With the webs falling and the spiders beginning to get picked off by the party, the Belgoi was not liking how this situation was going.[/i][/center] Eventually the Belgoi "wigged out" of the combat, leaving the map and slinking into the destroyed ruin of the city. I hinted very strongly that the PCs will be seeing this creature again. With Three-Fang also implied to be around the city as well, due to the pain within Initiate and Ka'Cha's old wound - this was certainly a place for a reunion! I always feel if an intelligent enemy should have a good reason to flee, then you should do so. For one thing, if the PCs don't stop him it can lead to an encounter with a monster that they have met before. This gives a lot more weight to an encounter and the monsters foreknowledge is a good excuse for having them fight much better. With the Belgoi out of the way, the PCs explored the intact tower and of course, ran into some of its undead inhabitants (who were none too pleased to see them). In this encounter, I wanted to demonstrate to the PCs how during the day some areas have beams of light that can affect the undead monsters within. Basically regions where cracks and similar illuminate areas of the room intensely enough to damage undead within it. This terrain I felt was refreshing for the PCs because it's [i]only[/i] positive to them. It can be used to their advantage, but doesn't hurt them in any way - making fighting around light of tactical interest against undead. This also helped make the extremely cramped environment feel more dynamic and interesting - breaking up the tight region somewhat. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CloseQuarters1.jpg[/IMG] [i]Although 4E likes some space and such, sometimes a good old fashioned CQC scrap is what you need. Bearing in mind the shadows and wraiths can phase, allowing them to get around the party if required to spread out attacks.[/i][/center] I think my players really appreciated the chance to turn the tables on the monsters with the beneficial terrain. Normally terrain is either rather neutral (can be used by anyone) or well in the monsters favor (typically because they actually live there). Being able to use it exclusively to their advantage was a pleasing chance of pace, and they did indeed get a fair amount out of the light. The second purpose of the light was to provide the party another option for dealing radiant damage, which can prevent the wraith and shadows insubstantial quality. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CloseQuarters3.jpg[/IMG] [i]Skeletons popping up from the basement was always going to make the scene a bit more exciting![/i][/center] The undead came from below, they came from above and ultimately had a nice jolly scrap in a tight environment. Bursts and blasts in particular proved to be quite devastating as well, pretty much hitting everything! Overall the combat was quite brutal, but the PCs ultimately prevailed - if battered. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/CloseQuarters4.jpg[/IMG] [i]This was pretty brutal at the end, with both of the skeletons having got to the main floor and one of the wraiths still alive (He's actually floating just above the mess inside, not outside). Originally I had another wraith in this encounter, but I removed one with Zephan's death. I think the encounter worked better for this actually.[/i][/center] Once the undead were dispatched, the characters explored the tower and found something odd happening in the basement. Some of the bricks on the floor began to move and then a blast blew them asunder. A strange man crawled forth from underneath the floor and rather testily introduced himself: Sereb, a revenant templar hexblade (Gloom Pact) and former servant of Dralnu! This was the new player character (playing Zephan before his untimely demise) and first hexblade that I had seen in 4E. I actually quite like the Hexblade and was keen to see how it was going to go in a fight, but introductions had to come first. The neat thing with introducing a new character to an ongoing campaign is it doesn't have to be entirely disruptive. In this case, as Sereb is a revenent and has been dead for a while having just crawled forth from - oh wait, I can't say that just yet :O Rest assured, his origin is an important plot point! In any event, being who he is I decided that if his character had memories of the city before it was destroyed, this could allow me to give them additional information in an IC view (without it feeling ham handed). It lets me flesh out Dralnu's personality a bit beyond "This is some random Sorcerer-King who destroyed the city". It also let me give the city a name: Abalach*, which fell to calamity in the distant past and then all memory of it wiped from history by the remaining Sorcerer Kings. Conveniently, in the time between while I was doing this and now, Rodney Thompson released an excellent (and immensely inspiring) article on Kalidnay. In many ways the themes I had intended for this city and what happened to Kalidnay are similar in some ways - making it an incredibly pleasing article to read. The calamity that destroyed Abalach though was considerably different, but none the less I was very inspired and I think the way the plot will develop in this game will benefit greatly from that article! After establishing himself within the group, the PCs spent a cold night at the top of the tower and then continued onwards (with cart) to the great library. I got to emphasize through Sereb just how destroyed the city is now compared to what it was. Upon arriving at the great library, they encountered more of their beloved horrible little halflings. This time they had a Cilops with them and the dreadful beast wasn't having a bar of entering the library whatsoever. One of the other halflings who had attempted to enter earlier, found itself being torn apart by some horrible fiery creature. As always, the PCs interruption of their raiding was not taken very well and a fight promptly occurred. Everything got mixed up quickly, with the Hexblade taking on the halfling shrieker and the cilops getting Eshara's attention. One thing I should note is that I handed Eshara a jagged fullblade some time ago, which has a 19-20 crit range and ongoing 10 damage on a crit. To date, she hasn't managed a crit with it until *this* combat and it had quite an effect. The Cilops copped it early and absorbed the ongoing for most of the encounter - dealing an additional 40 or so damage. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness2.jpg[/IMG] [i]Turns out today was not a good day for saving throws against ongoing damage. The shrieker had a piece of Sereb before dying horribly at least.[/i][/center] The Cilops had his brutal revenge though, tearing apart Eshara with its terrible mandibles and then running around on a rampage! I must admit that the Cilops is an [i]hilarious[/i] elite monster. For one thing, they have a power that basically gives them permanent CA and their bite attack triggers extra damage when it has CA. This combines pretty well. Then you can throw on dazing antenna for another minor action attack AND a move action rampage that sees them scuttling over everyone for more damage! Overall a single cilops can deal an [i]insane[/i] amount of damage against grouped up characters. I think this will make them rightly feared by the party. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness3.jpg[/IMG] [i]The Cilops makes up for his failure to save against anything by simply dealing out what he takes.[/i] [IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness4.jpg[/IMG] [i]Free from the shackles of his battlemind defender oppressor, he went for a little stroll and said hello to Alek.[/i][/center] Eventually the PCs killed the remaining enemies except the Cilops, who was firmly upset with them at this point. Even with penalties to his attack and being constrained by the party, it had a good chomp of a couple of characters before the ongoing damage (applied right at the start) finally saw to the creatures downfall. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness6.jpg[/IMG] [i]The Cilops finally died, but not before he took a good chunk out of the party. Most of that damage there was his doing![/i][/center] Taking whatever meager riches they good from the sunwarped halflings, they entered the library to have a look for the precious books. Well, at least some of the party thought they were precious and others distinctly didn't see the point of this "words" nonsense. This happened to upset the creature that was guarding the place from the previous haflings - a spectral librarian! This guy is a bit of an exception to the rule as far as undead go. This beast, called an ash wraith, is an undead creature that actually has a strong affinity with both the sun and fire. Unlike other undead, it's not actually vulnerable to radiant energy and instead is vulnerable to cold. This provides a bit of a mix up in energy types and provides a kind of undead that only appears during the day. Ash Wraiths are much more powerful than normal undead, but are very uncommon as they are produced under very unusual circumstances. As such, they are creatures to be considerably feared when the PCs happen to stumble across them. Ash Wraiths are not the most reasonable lot and when he discovered that Initiate had a tome stolen from his library (confirming that this is indeed a place Variya had visited), he flew into a rage. Summoning his might, he activated ritual contingencies he had prepared and created an immense animated golem created from a swarm of damaged books, pieces of masonry and rock. Him and his pet golem then took to the characters with considerable fury! Noting that I put an interesting variation on the way the Ash Wraith here worked. Due to his obsession with the tome the party carried, he was utterly immune to any mark from a character NOT carrying the book. So in short, he would go right for initiate! I also roleplayed the monster in this manner as well, with it utterly ignoring anyone who wasn't carrying the book. The PCs used this to their advantage, quickly throwing it to the defender who then took all the creatures attention for the rest of the combat. Here I feel the Hexblade paid quite a lot of dividends for the party. Firstly, the hexblade has some nice control effects, which the party has rather lacked with the pyromancer being more of a blaster wizard. Secondly, Assassin's bane was very effective at preventing the ash wraith operating how it would please, making life much easier for the characters (as it could not turn invisible). [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness7.jpg[/IMG] [i]That's one hell of a lot of status effects on that Ash Wraith.[/i][/center] Even with the initial advantage though, the giant swarm of books began to run rampant over the characters. This is actually an older solo that I used in a previous campaign and 're-envisioned' for this battle. Effectively it randomly changes its damage types when hit by an attack, representing how magically unstable the thing is. This dictates what damage types it is resistant and vulnerable to, as well as adding different ongoing damage riders onto its main attacks. Further, it can pelt PCs with magical energy and automatically impose different effects based on what kind of magical energy imbues it. For example, if it gains necrotic power an enemy cannot regain HP (save ends). Or if it gains radiant power an enemy is blinded (save ends). The first time I ran this monster my players commented that it was really fun and the second go proved just as entertaining. Especially when they discovered it was almost as dangerous to its creator as it was to them (due to not being very focused on ally friendly effects, save its aura). [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness9.jpg[/IMG] [i]This creature just makes stuff absolutely everywhere, as you can tell.[/i][/center] The characters wore down both the ash wraith and the golem over time, with burst attacks dealing the most damage. Ongoing damage and automatic damage zones/auras began to take their toll on the party, with Eshara having to leave the situation on chronically few HP. [center][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/LibraryMadness10.jpg[/IMG] [i]A wise retreat from a fairly dangerous situation, especially while both creatures were dazed.[/i][/center] Finally however they eliminated the ash wraith and then the golem - after it had one final swing at the party of course. Once it was destroyed the beast collapsed back into inert (and frequently burnt) books and rubble. Its energy rapidly flowing from it and right towards the tome that they acquired earlier. And that is where I stopped the session! So they had to wait until the next week to find out what exactly was the deal with why that happened... and how important it was :O *I am aware this is an actual canon City State, but I felt like using the name because I liked it. I would have used Kalidnay, but ironically in this case I had already chose not to use established ruins on the map. The fit would be perfect though! [/QUOTE]
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