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Planeswanderers (Magic multiverse setting; updated May 17)
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<blockquote data-quote="fissionessence" data-source="post: 4792061" data-attributes="member: 63357"><p>* * * * *</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Part 1: Keep on the Æthark</strong></span> — Session 3</p><p></p><p>The players go further and further into the ruins, searching buildings and rubble, but finding nothing that hasn't been scavenged or eroded in the last one hundred years since the city was destroyed. Eventually they come to a point where they can hear some kind of chanting or spell casting up ahead; it's a single voice.</p><p></p><p>Grrda sneaks up while the rest of the group hangs back, waiting for the news. Hiding behind the remnants of a wall, Grrda spies an old frail wizardly man performing some kind of ritual. Atop a surprisingly non-destroyed building are Ninaran and Palreah—whose hair has returned to white—apparently overseeing the ritual. Grrda gets in only a couple moments of observation before Ninaran spots her, and calls out, asking what she's doing here. </p><p></p><p>Grrda says she's just wandering, and Ninaran asks where her companions are. She says they're all wandering around; they're actually still behind other rubble a ways back, listening in to the conversation basically being yelled across about fifty feet. Ninaran naturally asks why they didn't go to the keep, and Grrda says they just wanted to come here first. She says she's going to go find her group and awkwardly retreats.</p><p></p><p>She slyly rejoins her friends, and the five of them attempt to figure out what the heck they want to do at this point. Eventually they emerge together, and casually approach the man performing the ritual and the elves atop the other building. Ninaran waves absently.</p><p></p><p>The group asks the wizard what kind of ritual he's performing. He distractedly replies that he's breaking the seals; they have to be broken so the spirits can be free. The players wonder, wasn't he coming to check on the seals? He says he was, but Ninaran helped him understand that they need to be broken, so he's breaking them. Well why would you want to make sure they stay in place? The seals keep the gate closed, but the souls have to be released. The man seems guilty about these souls somehow as he explains that they must be released.</p><p></p><p>Figuring this must be Douven Staul, they tell him they've delivered his parcel. He tells them thanks, and that they can just leave it at his tower in town, and that he has to finish his ritual . . . which, indeed seems to be reaching a crescendo. Somewhat offended at how passively the wizard disregards their delivery of his package and their day-long journey to do so, the players nonetheless continue their inquiry about the ritual.</p><p></p><p>They ask what is this gate that he's now unlocking, and he tells them that many demons came through it one hundred years ago and destroyed this city. He was one of the wizards who used the souls of the dead citizenry to fuel a ritual that would bind the gate. But Ninaran helped him understand that the souls need to be freed. When the characters ask what will happen when the demon portal is opened, the absent-minded and guilt-ridden Douven Staul just reiterates that the souls need to be freed. Ninaran smiles atop his perch.</p><p></p><p>The players move to pull Douven away from his ritual and end it, but this apparently doesn't please the city's bound souls, who then animate several more corpses which pull themselves out of the ground to attack the heroes and stop them from ending the ritual.</p><p></p><p>[For this encounter I used Interlude Three: The Dead Walk from pages 60-61 of <em>Keep on the Shadowfell</em>. I also added an additional monster, described below.]</p><p></p><p>The players begin slicing through the skeletons, which have bound souls as in the previous encounter. Ninaran fires some arrows at them to aid the characters, while Palreah stands idly at his side watching. After a few rounds, Ninaran turns on them, and announces to his sister that she is free to feed. She reacts gleefully, changing into a ghostly form and swooping down directly at Tars. Her long white hair wraps around him and drains much of his blood, causing her hair to return to its crimson color. Having taken some damage previously in the fight, Tars now falls unconscious, slightly dessicated . . . just as the poor man in the merchant caravan the day before. Ninaran is now standing atop the building, firing arrows at the heroes instead of the skeletons, while Douven Staul's ritual seems to be nearing completion.</p><p></p><p>[Palreah is not an elf, but actually a pale reaver masquerading as an elf and serving as Ninaran's companion. Statistics for the pale reaver are on page 176-177 of <em>Open Grave</em>.]</p><p></p><p>The heroes focus their fire on Palreah, and Tars is soon resuscitated. Palreah is soon defeated and disappears with an echoing undead scream, while Ninaran seems to disregard the loss of his companion, continuing to fire arrows and calling out that the characters will go to the keep, even if he has to carry them himself.</p><p></p><p>At one point in this combat, Murgatroid uses her <em>rune of mystery</em> to mark one of the gravehounds. When it attacks someone other than her, she forces it to move, provoking an opportunity attack from Tars . . . he rolls a critical hit and the gravehound immediately explodes in a burst of flesh due to its <em>zombie weakness</em> ability.</p><p></p><p>Finally, the earth in the distance seems to rumble. The spirits of the remaining skeletons, plus from all across the ruins, are freed and escape into the sky and into the great beyond, for their final rest. However, without the souls to fuel the binding of the portal at the keep, the rumbling results in a shadowy eruption, not unlike a volcano. A pillar of darkness erupts from where the characters expect must be the keep. </p><p></p><p>In the confusion, Ninaran escapes into the ruins, despite a futile chase from Murgatroid.</p><p></p><p>Douven Staul has fallen unconscious, and, as it's still fairly early in the day, the characters begin their journey back to Winterhaven. As they will be taking the road instead of trekking through the forest, they should return by nightfall.</p><p></p><p>They carry Douven along the way until he wakes up. Then, as they walk, they ask him to explain some of what has occurred. His old age and reclusivity have surely reduced his capacity to hold a coherent conversation, but the characters are still able to garner some information. </p><p></p><p>About one hundred years ago demons flooded through a portal from a cave mouth, and peoples from nearby gathered to defeat them. They were unsuccessful. Tibearest, the ruins that the characters had just been visiting, was the first city to fall, and the last. Despite the mortals' military attempts to battle the demons, it was a group of wizards who formulated the ritual that would use the killed citizens of Tibearest as fuel to bind the portal. Once it was sealed, the armies were able to destroy the lingering demons and all was well. Tibearest remained as ruins, as the bound souls were restless and often animated themselves as various corpses. Thus, the city was left alone, and Winterhaven was built nearby to replace it, though Winterhaven never reached the size or grandeur of Tibearest. Also, a keep was built atop the sealed portal. Its best defenses are not from outer threats, but rather it serves as a way for mortal armies to corner and bottleneck the demons if the portal is ever to open again . . . and indeed it does seem to be open, as the pillar of shadow looms in the distance, and frequent quakes shake the area. </p><p></p><p>When the players ask about a way to stop the demons from coming through, Douven suggests the portal is most likely not fully open yet, but that there might be only a short window before it's open. Despite admitting that there may soon be demons flooding into the land, Douven Staul seems entirely pleased with what he's accomplished; apparently Ninaran has convinced him well.</p><p></p><p>* * * * *</p><p></p><p>~</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="fissionessence, post: 4792061, member: 63357"] * * * * * [SIZE=4][B]Part 1: Keep on the Æthark[/B][/SIZE] — Session 3 The players go further and further into the ruins, searching buildings and rubble, but finding nothing that hasn't been scavenged or eroded in the last one hundred years since the city was destroyed. Eventually they come to a point where they can hear some kind of chanting or spell casting up ahead; it's a single voice. Grrda sneaks up while the rest of the group hangs back, waiting for the news. Hiding behind the remnants of a wall, Grrda spies an old frail wizardly man performing some kind of ritual. Atop a surprisingly non-destroyed building are Ninaran and Palreah—whose hair has returned to white—apparently overseeing the ritual. Grrda gets in only a couple moments of observation before Ninaran spots her, and calls out, asking what she's doing here. Grrda says she's just wandering, and Ninaran asks where her companions are. She says they're all wandering around; they're actually still behind other rubble a ways back, listening in to the conversation basically being yelled across about fifty feet. Ninaran naturally asks why they didn't go to the keep, and Grrda says they just wanted to come here first. She says she's going to go find her group and awkwardly retreats. She slyly rejoins her friends, and the five of them attempt to figure out what the heck they want to do at this point. Eventually they emerge together, and casually approach the man performing the ritual and the elves atop the other building. Ninaran waves absently. The group asks the wizard what kind of ritual he's performing. He distractedly replies that he's breaking the seals; they have to be broken so the spirits can be free. The players wonder, wasn't he coming to check on the seals? He says he was, but Ninaran helped him understand that they need to be broken, so he's breaking them. Well why would you want to make sure they stay in place? The seals keep the gate closed, but the souls have to be released. The man seems guilty about these souls somehow as he explains that they must be released. Figuring this must be Douven Staul, they tell him they've delivered his parcel. He tells them thanks, and that they can just leave it at his tower in town, and that he has to finish his ritual . . . which, indeed seems to be reaching a crescendo. Somewhat offended at how passively the wizard disregards their delivery of his package and their day-long journey to do so, the players nonetheless continue their inquiry about the ritual. They ask what is this gate that he's now unlocking, and he tells them that many demons came through it one hundred years ago and destroyed this city. He was one of the wizards who used the souls of the dead citizenry to fuel a ritual that would bind the gate. But Ninaran helped him understand that the souls need to be freed. When the characters ask what will happen when the demon portal is opened, the absent-minded and guilt-ridden Douven Staul just reiterates that the souls need to be freed. Ninaran smiles atop his perch. The players move to pull Douven away from his ritual and end it, but this apparently doesn't please the city's bound souls, who then animate several more corpses which pull themselves out of the ground to attack the heroes and stop them from ending the ritual. [For this encounter I used Interlude Three: The Dead Walk from pages 60-61 of [I]Keep on the Shadowfell[/I]. I also added an additional monster, described below.] The players begin slicing through the skeletons, which have bound souls as in the previous encounter. Ninaran fires some arrows at them to aid the characters, while Palreah stands idly at his side watching. After a few rounds, Ninaran turns on them, and announces to his sister that she is free to feed. She reacts gleefully, changing into a ghostly form and swooping down directly at Tars. Her long white hair wraps around him and drains much of his blood, causing her hair to return to its crimson color. Having taken some damage previously in the fight, Tars now falls unconscious, slightly dessicated . . . just as the poor man in the merchant caravan the day before. Ninaran is now standing atop the building, firing arrows at the heroes instead of the skeletons, while Douven Staul's ritual seems to be nearing completion. [Palreah is not an elf, but actually a pale reaver masquerading as an elf and serving as Ninaran's companion. Statistics for the pale reaver are on page 176-177 of [I]Open Grave[/I].] The heroes focus their fire on Palreah, and Tars is soon resuscitated. Palreah is soon defeated and disappears with an echoing undead scream, while Ninaran seems to disregard the loss of his companion, continuing to fire arrows and calling out that the characters will go to the keep, even if he has to carry them himself. At one point in this combat, Murgatroid uses her [I]rune of mystery[/I] to mark one of the gravehounds. When it attacks someone other than her, she forces it to move, provoking an opportunity attack from Tars . . . he rolls a critical hit and the gravehound immediately explodes in a burst of flesh due to its [I]zombie weakness[/I] ability. Finally, the earth in the distance seems to rumble. The spirits of the remaining skeletons, plus from all across the ruins, are freed and escape into the sky and into the great beyond, for their final rest. However, without the souls to fuel the binding of the portal at the keep, the rumbling results in a shadowy eruption, not unlike a volcano. A pillar of darkness erupts from where the characters expect must be the keep. In the confusion, Ninaran escapes into the ruins, despite a futile chase from Murgatroid. Douven Staul has fallen unconscious, and, as it's still fairly early in the day, the characters begin their journey back to Winterhaven. As they will be taking the road instead of trekking through the forest, they should return by nightfall. They carry Douven along the way until he wakes up. Then, as they walk, they ask him to explain some of what has occurred. His old age and reclusivity have surely reduced his capacity to hold a coherent conversation, but the characters are still able to garner some information. About one hundred years ago demons flooded through a portal from a cave mouth, and peoples from nearby gathered to defeat them. They were unsuccessful. Tibearest, the ruins that the characters had just been visiting, was the first city to fall, and the last. Despite the mortals' military attempts to battle the demons, it was a group of wizards who formulated the ritual that would use the killed citizens of Tibearest as fuel to bind the portal. Once it was sealed, the armies were able to destroy the lingering demons and all was well. Tibearest remained as ruins, as the bound souls were restless and often animated themselves as various corpses. Thus, the city was left alone, and Winterhaven was built nearby to replace it, though Winterhaven never reached the size or grandeur of Tibearest. Also, a keep was built atop the sealed portal. Its best defenses are not from outer threats, but rather it serves as a way for mortal armies to corner and bottleneck the demons if the portal is ever to open again . . . and indeed it does seem to be open, as the pillar of shadow looms in the distance, and frequent quakes shake the area. When the players ask about a way to stop the demons from coming through, Douven suggests the portal is most likely not fully open yet, but that there might be only a short window before it's open. Despite admitting that there may soon be demons flooding into the land, Douven Staul seems entirely pleased with what he's accomplished; apparently Ninaran has convinced him well. * * * * * ~ [/QUOTE]
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