Psion's game day plots

[Nightfall]

First off, NP Psion/Alan. I'm glad I could TRY to help.

If you REALLY want evil outsiders, then I'd suggest using a few blade demons, followed up with Leonine demons as shock troops/front liners. Course since you SAID devils, Legions automatically comes off the top of my head, so probably instead what you SHOULD try is that the Witch of the Damned (the one with the big cabal of witches) is helping out, by having a couple of her high preistesses summoning and calling devils of all stripes. Iron Devils would definately work to your avantage. Still might be something to add. Demons I can do.

My idea, there's a HUGE chuck of ice and snow where locust demons breed, since they don't care for WHERE they hail. They are looking for a way to send their spawn forth and despoil and ravage as much verdant wildlife as they can find. Plus they have some help from a colony of Milicend(sp) (Fungi people), that are looking for better place to settle. Also, the attention Drakar is getting from Hell, also draws the ire of one of the Demon Prince's underlings, Graz'zt shamaness Night Hag who wants to prove her worth to him. So she's been keep taps on the Blood War and of course many different primes. So now she's involved, via some low level operatives, in subverting much of the arcane power of Drakar as possible. That help any?

As for the Animator/Unfailing, yes they are prestige classes from Hollowfaust. (I know I'm pushing this hard my friend but I cannot say ENOUGH good things about Hollowfaust.) But no they aren't. I just created them on the fly, BUT they came into my head rather quickly, so they have life to them, as I picture Rickon as kind matured vetern spellcaster with the qualities of a Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony mixed with a touch of enlightened despotism added in.

I don't get Dungeon, so no I didn't know that. But since you already mentioned that, perhaps the Kobold cannot sustain the rescepticle any more. Thus you might have a wild uncontrolled shield guardian to content with along with uncontrolled automani too.

Anyway, I hope SOME of my ideas take root for you. Good luck tomorrow.

 

[Psion]

If you REALLY want evil outsiders, then I'd suggest using a few blade demons, followed up with Leonine demons as shock troops/front liners.

Hmmm... I hadn''t thought to much about CC2... I might have to dig it out for this. I had forgotten what a nice resource it is for fiends. Mainly because when I was using it a lot, the fiends therein where beyond the abilities of my party (I once faced them with a despair, and it was quite a showstopper.)

That said, there are places for both to get worked in... it's just that the "devil in the wild thing" itself didn't work too well. "Devils: Lackeys" and "Demons: Wild Threats" is the prevailing situation.

My idea, there's a HUGE chuck of ice and snow where locust demons breed, since they don't care for WHERE they hail. They are looking for a way to send their spawn forth and despoil and ravage as much verdant wildlife as they can find.

That could work with my pit of souls thing.

As for the Animator/Unfailing, yes they are prestige classes from Hollowfaust. (I know I'm pushing this hard my friend but I cannot say ENOUGH good things about Hollowfaust.)

Be that as it may, my campaign is in the "undead downswing" segment right now. The players grappled with undead before, and soon will again, but the time isn't quite right yet.

I don't get Dungeon, so no I didn't know that. But since you already mentioned that, perhaps the Kobold cannot sustain the rescepticle any more. Thus you might have a wild uncontrolled shield guardian to content with along with uncontrolled automani too.

Actually, I know I have thrown a lot of elements out here, but the Kobold doesn't have anything to do with the shield guardian. The reason I dimissed you mind flayer is that it was too similar to the shield guardian scenario that I already had in the works.

Basically, this is the situation with the constructs, the kobolds, and the shield guardian.

Drakar has dominated the Asherake and used their flying ships to excavate weapons stored in the flying mountains that once belonged to an ancient pact of wizards called the skylords. They found all of the operational weapons/constructs there, but are looking for more. While there, they discovered two things:
1) They discovered the shield guardian, dominated him, and discovered that he was performing experiments that they could exploit. They put him to work trying to create a means to turn the kaiju into half machines so that they can use it as a means of controlling them if the effort to secure the demonblood ritual from the pit of souls fails, and as a sinister technique they can use even without the kaiju.
2) They discovered evidence that there exists a city of golems that may have more contructs that they can take control of.

Anyways, thanks for you help!

 

[Nightfall]

Np Psion. I hope it goes well. I just keep CC2 close by because it's something to keep in mind IF you need a monster that not only your players don't know much about (I've yet to show ANYONE CC1 and CC2 in any real depth. Plus they have horrid short term memories! ) those are the books I use. I'd love though to hear about the Despair. That's one I've yet to use.

 

[Psion]

I'd love though to hear about the Despair. That's one I've yet to use.

Well, there's not too much to tell. I let a cleric summon one. I am used to my party being able to shrug off any barage of spells (or special abilities) that you care to throw at them. However, it seems like will saves are their weak spots. The despair pretty much nullified multiple party members in a fight with some high level NPCs, which almost turned the tide of the battle.

 

[Nightfall]

Well I hope your gaming session went well. Any comments or questions you might have for other sessions? I'd be happy to bounce my ideas off you.

 

[Psion]

Well I hope your gaming session went well. Any comments or questions you might have for other sessions? I'd be happy to bounce my ideas off you.

Well it might be worthwhile to post a micro summary of what actually did happen.

The party boarded the ship, and discovered the letter that planted most of the seeds. One of the slaves on board mentioned a creature near his hometown that could help them with locating some of these ancient lairs.

The party went south through the major mountain range of the setting and one of the lookouts notices a mountain hovering in the air. They go to investigate and notice more of these floating mountains growing out of peaks. They also spot a valley beneath them with a flurry on inhabited floating mountains in it.

The party sends their invisible elven rogue with boots of flying to investigate. She quickly discovers that the Asherake and the Drakarians have pretty well scoured these mountains and this seems to be their base of operations. The rogue retreats.

The party continues bearing south in search of the dwarven keep that they learned of when they used the soul magic in the vault of the high mages in the elven city. They find it, but the Dwarves initially mistake them for Asherake, and are on the defensive. They eventually convince the dwarves they are not allied with the Ahserake and learn that the portal that they seek is, in fact, within an ancient human temple that was carved out of one of the mountain peaks.

They explore the cursed temple, and complete adventure idea 6 as described above. They explore the temple, figure out that there are seven shrines dedicated to various deities, many of which have helpful magic. The paladin has an intelligent sword inspired flashback that relates how the temple was lost -- a paladin slew a lich and took its phylactery, and returned it to the temple as a sign of his deed. However, the lich brought death and mayhem to the temple and corrupted it. The paladin said a prayer to his deity that his mistake would not endanger the world, and embedded his sword in the altar, which became a holy ward that trapped the lich within. The catch was that if the players took the sword, the lich would be released... and it just turns out that this lich is a clerical lich devoted to none other than Idan, the evil deity of Drakar. Letting him get loose would be a bad idea.

The party solved the riddle and did a very good job of making sure that the lich was erradicated (the lich was a 13th level cleric / 4th level warpriest half-fiend lich.) They took out his physical form, but had enough sense to check to see if the magic holding the lich there was still in force... and it was. It turned out that the lich's phylactery was in the hilt of a sword the party found, and he hoped that would be his key to escaping the temple. But they managed to destroy the phylactery.

Anyways, after that, they found that the gate they sought was the arena of the temple, but it required a ritual by a priest of one of the attached shrines to open. This seemed to satisfy them, and they moved on to find such a priest (they didn't think about the fact that this in no way impeded Drakar's intent to use the gate... if they need to transport the kaiju/pantaguron using this gate, they still can.)

After that, they teleported back to the ship, and accompanied the free slaves back to their homeland to see if they can get more information. They parked the ship, and moved on to the village where the kid mentioned the creature that could help them. It was an Amberjuron, an ultra-intelligent owl with a memory like a steel trap; it filled them in on some missing facts about the pit of souls and the Kaiju/Pantaguron

When they went back to the ship, it was gone. One of the remaining crewmembers was on the make (and is, in truth, a Verman Corrupter from Mythic Races) and tried to sell it.

The party didn't know what was up. They headed to the local city, something which I did not expect them to do. They saw two airships (one which looked suspiciously like their own, but they didn't make the connection) moored floating next to a tower on cliffs overlooking the city. They started to look to see if they could find a priest that would help them, and ran into a Drakarian guard in town who recognized him. They chased him down and got some information out of him.

So they teleported to the ship and where surprised to see one of their former crewmember talking to a robed man holding a staff with two fairies improsoned in a container on the top. The paladin detected evil on the robed man and his staff, so the party charged him. The former crewmember turned around and stabbed the guard.

(The robed man was a biomancer, a prestige class with a penchant for using living creatures as components; he was carrying a staff of frost that used frost faeries as fuel. I meant to make this class but didn't have time; it turned out not to matter as they aced him before he could act.)

They where suspicious of their former crewmember (and rightly so). The plopped him on their rug of truth that they found in the shrine of a god of honor and questioned him. He explained that after they left, the Drakarians arrived and took over the ship; he played along for his survival. The party bought it.

In truth, the crewman (as I mentioned) is a Verman and was offering to sell the ship to the biomancers; he made his save versus the zone of truth effect. The other ship the party saw their WAS a Drakarian / Asherake ship, but the Biomancers rebuked their advances (unbeknownst to the party.) But the other ship had since departed.

The party gathered a crew and headed towards the pit of souls. That's about where we put up.

I'm thinking when they get to the pit of souls, I'll try to make it a race against a similar Drakarian team to get the books from the pit of souls, somewhat like Indiana Jones in the Raiders of the Lost Arc trying to get the arc before the Nazis did. I was going to rob some encounters from the Demon God's Fane (considering my distaste for time travel, I will never run it as it) and throw your Demon Locust idea in for encounters.

If they party is unlucky, they may even run into one of the three imprisoned demon lords that live there. After beating a lich, I get the idea that I am going easy on them.

 

[Nightfall]

Yeah... I'm a little suprised that Lich didn't at LEAST take down a party member or two. A regular lich probably not...but THAT one.

Well what you could for the imprisoned demon lords, could be a major servant of Orcus, thus maybe a Death Knight might be in order. (I admit, I like the present version of Death Knight though Scott's one for Necromancy was pretty good too) Just make sure to have blackguard/divine champion and maybe even toss half fiend for kicks.

I'm glad you liked my Demon Locust idea. I do wish Armies of the Abyss was out. I think then you'd have a better resource for Demons. At least IMHO.

 

[Psion]

Yeah... I'm a little suprised that Lich didn't at LEAST take down a party member or two. A regular lich probably not...but THAT one.

Yeah... the party had to bash down a wall to get to him, and he was able to get shield of faith, divine rainment, and unholy aura off. He did get a horrid wilting off, and cast a mass suggestion that almost had one member of the party grabbing the sword that would release him. Fortunately, the party rogue was thinking on her feet that night and made an illusion of the sword to quickly defuse the situation.

Well what you could for the imprisoned demon lords, could be a major servant of Orcus, thus maybe a Death Knight might be in order.

Actually, I already know who they serve (or rather, served, as the demon was disperse long ago), but originally, death knights where servants of Demogorgon.

(I admit, I like the present version of Death Knight though Scott's one for Necromancy was pretty good too)

I like the one in the LGJ, though I have my own version made to be usable at lower levels that I am pretty fond of.

I do wish Armies of the Abyss was out.

Oh, so do I.

 

[Nightfall]

I'm very aware that the orginal Death Knights of Oerth served Demogorgon. I just know a few though that have some ties to Orcus. But you are right, the LGJ version done by Darrin Drader was pretty sweet. I'd love to see your version though. It sounds pretty neat.


Yeah well Armies is just one of MANY books I've love to have in my collection just now. Unfortunately being broke doesn't provide well for fixing up a collection. Oh well.

 

[Psion]

I'd love to see your version though. It sounds pretty neat.

Well, when I conceived it, it was to make lower level Death Knight villains playable, inspired by an old (2e) Dragon article:

DEATH KNIGHT (template)

The death knight is a thankfully rare form of undead. It is said that the mantle of the death knight is an enticement and a curse used by great powers of chaos and evil (demon princes and evil deities) in the corruption of bastions of virtue such as paladins, and rewards for their most trusted thanes.

The death knight appears as a gaunt skeletal form – not unlike a lich – though such a creature is almost always clad in the armor it owned in life, save that the armor is almost always black, as if blasted and charred by some great heat. The eyes of the death knight gleam from within its helmed skull like glowing orange embers.

CREATING A DEATH KNIGHT

"Death Knight" is a template that can be added to any humanoid ex-paladin (fallen) or blackguard of at least 5th level (referred to hereafter as the "character"). The character's type changes to "undead." It uses all the character's statistics and abilities except as noted here.

Hit Dice: Increase to d12
Speed: Same as the character.
AC: The death knight has +5 to its natural armor bonus.

Special Attacks: A death knight retains all the character's special attacks and also gains those listed below. Saves have a DC of 10 + 1/2 death knight's HD + death knight's Charisma modifier unless noted otherwise.

Fear Aura (Su): A death knight continuously radiates fear in a 5-foot radius; anyone coming within this radius must make a Will save or be affected as though by fear as cast by a sorcerer of the death knight's level. Once a creature makes a saving throw versus this effect, they cannot be affected by it again for 24 hours.

Spell-Like Abilities (Sp): A death knight with an intelligence or wisdom of 8 or better gains a number of spell like abilities, according to its hit dice or level. Abilities are cumulative. All abilities are as if cast by a sorcerer of level equal to the Death Knight's level/HD, and are usable once per day except as noted below.

Level: Abilities:
5-6 Dispel magic (2/day)
7-8 Fireball
9-10 Wall of Ice
11-12 Power Word Stun
13-14 Power Word Blind
15-16 Symbol (pain or fear only)
17-18 Power Word Kill
19+ Summon Monster IX (fiends only)

Rebuke Undead: If the death knight could channel positive or negative energy in life (including as an ex-paladin), they have the ability to rebuke (and command) undead at the same level that they turned or rebuked undead in life.

Special Qualities: A death knight retains all the character's special qualities and gains those listed below, and also gains the undead type (see page 6, Monster Manual).

Detection (Su): A death knight can see invisibility and detect magic continuously.

Darkvision (Ex): Range 60 feet.

Turn Resistance (Ex): A death knight has +4 turn resistance.

Spell Resistance (Ex): A death knight gains SR equal 12 + its level/HD. If the level check to penetrate this spell resistance fails by 10 or more, or a natural 1 is rolled on the dice for the check, the spell is turned as if affected by spell turning spell.

Nightmare Steed: If the character has sufficient paladin level to have the special mount ability, or sufficient blackguard level to have the fiendish servant ability, the death knight may use the ability to call a nightmare instead.

Saves: Same as the character

Abilities: A death knight gains a +4 to Strength and a +2 to Wisdom and Charisma, but being undead, has no Constitution score.

Skills: Death knights gain a +8 racial bonus to Intimidate, Sense Motive, and Spot checks. Otherwise same as the character.

Feats: Same as the character
Climate/Terrain: Any land and underground
Organization: Solitary, Gang (2-5), or Retinue (1-2 Death Knights, plus 11-20 skeletons, zombies, ghouls, ghasts, or wights)
Challenge Rating: Same as the character +2
Treasure: None
Alignment: Always chaotic evil
Advancement: By character class

I was thinking about redoing it taking some of the LGJ's version of the template into account.