Rhenny
Adventurer
~~Travensburg Campaign – Part 18 – 4/12/14
“The Council of Eight’s Gift”
We played for 3 ½ hours…5 players –– 6th level PCs – Continuing our Campaign
T’rissril Eilsndar the Drow Bard
Fid (the Dwarven Fighter who transformed into a Warforge Fighter)
Fawnsworth the Gnome Illusionist ex-jester
Nalcon the Noble Cleric of Pelor
Darhgel the Tiefling Evoker
Rhaegar the Dragonborn Paladin (Bounty Hunter – Oath of Vengeance Build - Acid)
A new player joined the game with the Dragonborn Paladin, but Nalcon’s player didn’t make it.
The party spent some time with Duke Porter telling him about their assault on The Hidden Guild and Spiro Vangar (a Vampire leader of The Skulls, a secret criminal organization, who the party had slain the night before). Everyone was in good spirits as they realized that The Skulls had been routed and cast out of the City of Freehold. The Duke mentioned that he had met with The Council of Eight, eight of the most prominent nobles of Freehold, who together with the Merchant’s Guild and the Duke, govern in Freehold. The Council had decided to bestow a special gift upon the adventurers to award them for ending The Skulls’ growing power in the city. The Duke told the group that Lord Xexor, one of the members of the Council would be sending an item to the palace the next day so the Duke let the group stay one more night in the palace. In addition, The Duke procured two rooms at the Halfmoon Inn, a fancy Inn near the palace itself. In the future, the adventurers will be able to stay in those rooms as long as they want to stay.
After a few hours, Nalcon had to tend to family matters, so he departed the group for the time being. At that point, Duke Porter introduced the party to Rhaegar, a Dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut. The group spent time sharing stories with the Paladin, and soon he was welcomed into their party. They found that Rhaegar was a holy bounty hunter who had decided to leave his order to further the cause of Bahamut.
That night, the party went to the Halfmoon Inn, and met with the owner, Betsy. Triss and Fawnsworth offered to perform for the crowd, and Betsy took them up on their offer. Triss brought the house down with her performance, and when she took a break (after a 3 hour version of “Freebird”), Fawnsworth juggled balls and turned them into illusionary doves. The others spoke with patrons and enjoyed the show while Rhaegar walked the streets at night looking for a Temple of Bahamut. After hours of searching, Rhaegar found that there were only Temples to Pelor and Torm. The predominately human city of Freehold was a little unsettling for Rhaegar (having had bad experiences with humans in the past) so he made his way back to the Halfmoon Inn before the party made their way back to the palace for the night.
The next morning, the group shared a wonderful breakfast at the palace and they awaited Lord Xexor’s gift. It never arrived. Duke Porter was astonished and worried. He assured the group that Lord Xexor was a responsible and reliable noble. It seemed strange that the gift had not arrived. Fearing the worst, he asked the adventurers to travel to Lord Xexor’s manor house only 30 minutes from the city. The group set out at day break the next day.
When the party approached the grounds surrounding the manor house, they quickly spotted some strange wooden platforms in trees on the left and right of a path that entered the Lord’s estate. Fid walked up close, and he could see that there were some figures in the slightly sheltered platforms, and from out of the brush and trees below the platforms a fearsome foe attacked. The party entered combat with 4 tainted bugbears as 4 tainted hobgoblins fired arrows from the treetop platforms. All of these creatures had red-tinged skin and seemed to be in a rage. The bugbears wielded oversized two handed morning stars, while the hobgoblins used shortbows and longspears. During the battle, a bugbear attacked Rhaegar viciously (first attack against the new player in our group was a crit doing 21 points of damage). Tris took advantage of cover to hide and attack from her hidden position. She casted heat metal on one of the hobgoblin archers and the creature dropped its bow as it hopped up and down in pain. Fawnsworth blasted a bunch of the foes with a fireball. Fid hacked madly with his longsword. Rhaegar spit acid at one bugbear and one hobgoblin. His acid killed the hobgoblin and weakened the platform to the left of the path, which eventually broke, prompting the other hobgoblin on the platform to climb down, taking some damage from falling debris. Darhgel worked his way into the battle and used his lightning bolt spell to take down some foes. The battle continued for a number of rounds, but one of the hobgoblins ran to the north away from the rest of them. Was he fleeing or running to get reinforcements?
After defeating the bugbears, taking a little more damage in the process, Fid and Rhaegar ran up to the platform on the right and chopped at the supports. This caused the platform to fall injuring one hobgoblins and killing the other. Fid cut down the last hobgoblin, as Fawnsworth and Rhaegar inspected the red skinned monsters. They determined that these creatures were infected with some sort of disease that seemed to make them more aggressive and more resilient in combat. Before the group could glean any more information, or cast any healing spells, Triss was hit by an arrow from the north. When she looked out into the courtyard, she could see a number of hobgoblins with bows firing at her. The party had another wave of foes to contend with.
Fid charged into battle, and pretty soon, he was engaged by 2 tainted hobgoblin warriors and 2 tainted hobgoblins with long spears. As the party moved forward, they saw a circle of stone pillars to the west and the hobgoblins Fid was fighting to the north. There were a number of bushes and trees scattered throughout the field as well. Fawnsworth created an image of Fid, which distracted one of the hobgoblins who fired at it instead of Fid. Then a few others hit Fid, but his skill with armor all but negated the damage the hobgoblins did. Triss crept up and fired her crossbow killing a wounded foe, while Darhgel popped out of the forest growth to fire a ray of frost at another foe. Rhaegar moved up through the trees to get closer to the action. Then a few more hobgoblins appeared from hiding to attack Fid. Flanked on one side by 4 foes, Fid called for Fawnsworth to hit the enemy with a fireball, as he planned to disengage and move away as soon as the blast went off. Fawnsworth did not disappoint. He fired another fireball and Fid simultaneously disengaged from the enemy as the burst killed a few hobgoblins and wounded some of the warriors. Darhgel moved up and fired his ray of frost at a wounded hobgoblin freezing it in place, and Rhaegar moved up to take on a few of the wounded warriors. Triss crept up and wounded another, and as the fight continued, more and more hobgoblins appeared from hidden locations near the circle of pillars or from out of the brush.
Eventually, the party dispatched the diseased creatures, but as Fid was trying to catch a breath, he heard the loud thumping of something heavy hitting wood in the distance to the north. Every 6 seconds or so, he heard this pounding. As the group contemplated taking a short rest (1 hour), and Rhaegar called upon Bahamut to grant magical healing/aid to himself, Fid and Triss, only Darhgel realized that the heavy thumping sounded like a battering ram. As he shouted that out, Triss hurried forth fearing that the manor house was under siege. With Rhaegar trailing the rest of the party (staying back to use lay on hands to heal back 20 lost hit points), the others saw another force of hobgoblins, 6 of them and a leader. Behind them, at the doors to the manor house, 2 tainted minotaurs rammed their horns against the solid wooden doors of the keep. The doors looked like they were beaten up, yet they were still holding. Triss immediately began to sing her inspiring song, and as the party felt the boon from her song, the hobgoblins turned and attacked. During this battle, Fid was able to dodge the deadly minotaurs as they charged at him. Then, when they attacked with their huge axes, Fid ducked down, dodged and weaved to great success. Triss became a target and suffered a number of wounds. (Evenutally she was down to 6 hit points). Darhgel and Fawnworth used their magic to injure the foes, and Rhaghar and Fid fought valiantly. Ultimately, the party slew the diseased foes, and were able to take a rest.
While resting, Rhaegar noticed that both Fawnsworth and Triss began feeling ill. In fact, their skin started to turn a shade of crimson. It seemed as if they had contracted the same disease that had infected the foes they had just fought. Luckily, Rhaegar could call upon Bahamut to help him use his healing hands to cure the Drow and the Gnome of the strange affliction. Then, the group heard a voice from inside the doorway of the manor house, “get in. It seems as if you are safe now. Quickly.” The adventurers made their way into the manor house. Then they met with Lord Xexor and found out that these hobgoblins were acting out of the ordinary; no doubt the disease they had was the cause. Xexor was pleased that the adventurers had come when they had for fear that the hobgoblins would have breached his front door within moments. After the party rested and spoke with the lord, Xexor called a servant to bring the gift. The servant gave Xexor a 3’ long box, which he opened. Inside the box rested a dull gray warhammer that was inscribed with mystical runes. Lord Xexor told them that this weapon was crafted by Dwarves from long ago. Then he offered it to the adventurers. Fawnsworth took 10 minutes to identify the item and found the following:
“Forge Smite” - This rune etched iron warhammer has a dull gray finish that makes it look quite plebeian, but when it is attuned, it’s true magic shines --- The weapon is a Dwarven Warhammer that can withstand intense heat. It was used by an ancient Dwarven king (King Halahoun) of the Misty Mountains to craft wondrous equipment and to smite foes in battle. It is a +1 weapon that gives the wielder expertise in blacksmithing (x2 proficiency). It also can withstand all natural or magical heat sources. On a critical hit, it will also force any metal construct to make a DC 15 Con check. Failure shatters the construct utterly.
The group decided that Fid should wield “Forge Smite” and in exchange he offered the Paladin coin and he promised to repair Rhaegar’s worn and tattered plate mail armor.
End of session
Comments:
Ok…Fid the warforged fighter had decided to roll for hit points the last 2 levels he gained. He rolled a 10 and a 9. As a result, he has 70 hp and he also decided to take the heavy armor mastery feat instead of ability score increase at level 6. This is making him very difficult to threaten in combat. Traps and spells will be the only way to really threaten him.
The 1 hour rest really made this session work. After each short battle, the group wanted to rest, but they could not spend 1 hour (if short rests were 5 minutes long, they would have taken a short rest and that would have given the minotaurs enough time to break into the manor house, which would have been a disaster). Therefore, they had to keep moving forward. This made everyone (except for Fid) more vulnerable, and even though the casters could unleash their lightning and fire, the group still felt challenged. Of course, Triss did have a nearly full compliment of Cure Wound spells (3 of them), so really the group could have continued on for 3 or 4 more encounters if they needed to do so. I think this session sold me on the 1 hour rest mechanic. I’ve been growing more and more fond of it, and to tell the truth, some of the players are also beginning to say that it is working. I think a lot of the initial resistance to it is because everyone was so used to taking the 5 minute rest in 4e.
I made up the magic item, and the "Taint”, which is a disease that makes the infected being very aggressive and it adds 5 hit points to the creature too. After exposure to the disease, creatures must make a DC 15 Con check. Failure leads to a slow transformation that takes 1 hour. In that time, the creature's skin turns red. If a PC contracts the disease, he or she will become ultra aggressive even attacking allies to gain items or power. Any creature that contracts the disease must make a DC 10 Con check every week. Failure causes immediate death.
It seems as if all the players are happy with their powers/abilities, and now I feel as if I can throw much more at them.
“The Council of Eight’s Gift”
We played for 3 ½ hours…5 players –– 6th level PCs – Continuing our Campaign
T’rissril Eilsndar the Drow Bard
Fid (the Dwarven Fighter who transformed into a Warforge Fighter)
Fawnsworth the Gnome Illusionist ex-jester
Nalcon the Noble Cleric of Pelor
Darhgel the Tiefling Evoker
Rhaegar the Dragonborn Paladin (Bounty Hunter – Oath of Vengeance Build - Acid)
A new player joined the game with the Dragonborn Paladin, but Nalcon’s player didn’t make it.
The party spent some time with Duke Porter telling him about their assault on The Hidden Guild and Spiro Vangar (a Vampire leader of The Skulls, a secret criminal organization, who the party had slain the night before). Everyone was in good spirits as they realized that The Skulls had been routed and cast out of the City of Freehold. The Duke mentioned that he had met with The Council of Eight, eight of the most prominent nobles of Freehold, who together with the Merchant’s Guild and the Duke, govern in Freehold. The Council had decided to bestow a special gift upon the adventurers to award them for ending The Skulls’ growing power in the city. The Duke told the group that Lord Xexor, one of the members of the Council would be sending an item to the palace the next day so the Duke let the group stay one more night in the palace. In addition, The Duke procured two rooms at the Halfmoon Inn, a fancy Inn near the palace itself. In the future, the adventurers will be able to stay in those rooms as long as they want to stay.
After a few hours, Nalcon had to tend to family matters, so he departed the group for the time being. At that point, Duke Porter introduced the party to Rhaegar, a Dragonborn Paladin of Bahamut. The group spent time sharing stories with the Paladin, and soon he was welcomed into their party. They found that Rhaegar was a holy bounty hunter who had decided to leave his order to further the cause of Bahamut.
That night, the party went to the Halfmoon Inn, and met with the owner, Betsy. Triss and Fawnsworth offered to perform for the crowd, and Betsy took them up on their offer. Triss brought the house down with her performance, and when she took a break (after a 3 hour version of “Freebird”), Fawnsworth juggled balls and turned them into illusionary doves. The others spoke with patrons and enjoyed the show while Rhaegar walked the streets at night looking for a Temple of Bahamut. After hours of searching, Rhaegar found that there were only Temples to Pelor and Torm. The predominately human city of Freehold was a little unsettling for Rhaegar (having had bad experiences with humans in the past) so he made his way back to the Halfmoon Inn before the party made their way back to the palace for the night.
The next morning, the group shared a wonderful breakfast at the palace and they awaited Lord Xexor’s gift. It never arrived. Duke Porter was astonished and worried. He assured the group that Lord Xexor was a responsible and reliable noble. It seemed strange that the gift had not arrived. Fearing the worst, he asked the adventurers to travel to Lord Xexor’s manor house only 30 minutes from the city. The group set out at day break the next day.
When the party approached the grounds surrounding the manor house, they quickly spotted some strange wooden platforms in trees on the left and right of a path that entered the Lord’s estate. Fid walked up close, and he could see that there were some figures in the slightly sheltered platforms, and from out of the brush and trees below the platforms a fearsome foe attacked. The party entered combat with 4 tainted bugbears as 4 tainted hobgoblins fired arrows from the treetop platforms. All of these creatures had red-tinged skin and seemed to be in a rage. The bugbears wielded oversized two handed morning stars, while the hobgoblins used shortbows and longspears. During the battle, a bugbear attacked Rhaegar viciously (first attack against the new player in our group was a crit doing 21 points of damage). Tris took advantage of cover to hide and attack from her hidden position. She casted heat metal on one of the hobgoblin archers and the creature dropped its bow as it hopped up and down in pain. Fawnsworth blasted a bunch of the foes with a fireball. Fid hacked madly with his longsword. Rhaegar spit acid at one bugbear and one hobgoblin. His acid killed the hobgoblin and weakened the platform to the left of the path, which eventually broke, prompting the other hobgoblin on the platform to climb down, taking some damage from falling debris. Darhgel worked his way into the battle and used his lightning bolt spell to take down some foes. The battle continued for a number of rounds, but one of the hobgoblins ran to the north away from the rest of them. Was he fleeing or running to get reinforcements?
After defeating the bugbears, taking a little more damage in the process, Fid and Rhaegar ran up to the platform on the right and chopped at the supports. This caused the platform to fall injuring one hobgoblins and killing the other. Fid cut down the last hobgoblin, as Fawnsworth and Rhaegar inspected the red skinned monsters. They determined that these creatures were infected with some sort of disease that seemed to make them more aggressive and more resilient in combat. Before the group could glean any more information, or cast any healing spells, Triss was hit by an arrow from the north. When she looked out into the courtyard, she could see a number of hobgoblins with bows firing at her. The party had another wave of foes to contend with.
Fid charged into battle, and pretty soon, he was engaged by 2 tainted hobgoblin warriors and 2 tainted hobgoblins with long spears. As the party moved forward, they saw a circle of stone pillars to the west and the hobgoblins Fid was fighting to the north. There were a number of bushes and trees scattered throughout the field as well. Fawnsworth created an image of Fid, which distracted one of the hobgoblins who fired at it instead of Fid. Then a few others hit Fid, but his skill with armor all but negated the damage the hobgoblins did. Triss crept up and fired her crossbow killing a wounded foe, while Darhgel popped out of the forest growth to fire a ray of frost at another foe. Rhaegar moved up through the trees to get closer to the action. Then a few more hobgoblins appeared from hiding to attack Fid. Flanked on one side by 4 foes, Fid called for Fawnsworth to hit the enemy with a fireball, as he planned to disengage and move away as soon as the blast went off. Fawnsworth did not disappoint. He fired another fireball and Fid simultaneously disengaged from the enemy as the burst killed a few hobgoblins and wounded some of the warriors. Darhgel moved up and fired his ray of frost at a wounded hobgoblin freezing it in place, and Rhaegar moved up to take on a few of the wounded warriors. Triss crept up and wounded another, and as the fight continued, more and more hobgoblins appeared from hidden locations near the circle of pillars or from out of the brush.
Eventually, the party dispatched the diseased creatures, but as Fid was trying to catch a breath, he heard the loud thumping of something heavy hitting wood in the distance to the north. Every 6 seconds or so, he heard this pounding. As the group contemplated taking a short rest (1 hour), and Rhaegar called upon Bahamut to grant magical healing/aid to himself, Fid and Triss, only Darhgel realized that the heavy thumping sounded like a battering ram. As he shouted that out, Triss hurried forth fearing that the manor house was under siege. With Rhaegar trailing the rest of the party (staying back to use lay on hands to heal back 20 lost hit points), the others saw another force of hobgoblins, 6 of them and a leader. Behind them, at the doors to the manor house, 2 tainted minotaurs rammed their horns against the solid wooden doors of the keep. The doors looked like they were beaten up, yet they were still holding. Triss immediately began to sing her inspiring song, and as the party felt the boon from her song, the hobgoblins turned and attacked. During this battle, Fid was able to dodge the deadly minotaurs as they charged at him. Then, when they attacked with their huge axes, Fid ducked down, dodged and weaved to great success. Triss became a target and suffered a number of wounds. (Evenutally she was down to 6 hit points). Darhgel and Fawnworth used their magic to injure the foes, and Rhaghar and Fid fought valiantly. Ultimately, the party slew the diseased foes, and were able to take a rest.
While resting, Rhaegar noticed that both Fawnsworth and Triss began feeling ill. In fact, their skin started to turn a shade of crimson. It seemed as if they had contracted the same disease that had infected the foes they had just fought. Luckily, Rhaegar could call upon Bahamut to help him use his healing hands to cure the Drow and the Gnome of the strange affliction. Then, the group heard a voice from inside the doorway of the manor house, “get in. It seems as if you are safe now. Quickly.” The adventurers made their way into the manor house. Then they met with Lord Xexor and found out that these hobgoblins were acting out of the ordinary; no doubt the disease they had was the cause. Xexor was pleased that the adventurers had come when they had for fear that the hobgoblins would have breached his front door within moments. After the party rested and spoke with the lord, Xexor called a servant to bring the gift. The servant gave Xexor a 3’ long box, which he opened. Inside the box rested a dull gray warhammer that was inscribed with mystical runes. Lord Xexor told them that this weapon was crafted by Dwarves from long ago. Then he offered it to the adventurers. Fawnsworth took 10 minutes to identify the item and found the following:
“Forge Smite” - This rune etched iron warhammer has a dull gray finish that makes it look quite plebeian, but when it is attuned, it’s true magic shines --- The weapon is a Dwarven Warhammer that can withstand intense heat. It was used by an ancient Dwarven king (King Halahoun) of the Misty Mountains to craft wondrous equipment and to smite foes in battle. It is a +1 weapon that gives the wielder expertise in blacksmithing (x2 proficiency). It also can withstand all natural or magical heat sources. On a critical hit, it will also force any metal construct to make a DC 15 Con check. Failure shatters the construct utterly.
The group decided that Fid should wield “Forge Smite” and in exchange he offered the Paladin coin and he promised to repair Rhaegar’s worn and tattered plate mail armor.
End of session
Comments:
Ok…Fid the warforged fighter had decided to roll for hit points the last 2 levels he gained. He rolled a 10 and a 9. As a result, he has 70 hp and he also decided to take the heavy armor mastery feat instead of ability score increase at level 6. This is making him very difficult to threaten in combat. Traps and spells will be the only way to really threaten him.
The 1 hour rest really made this session work. After each short battle, the group wanted to rest, but they could not spend 1 hour (if short rests were 5 minutes long, they would have taken a short rest and that would have given the minotaurs enough time to break into the manor house, which would have been a disaster). Therefore, they had to keep moving forward. This made everyone (except for Fid) more vulnerable, and even though the casters could unleash their lightning and fire, the group still felt challenged. Of course, Triss did have a nearly full compliment of Cure Wound spells (3 of them), so really the group could have continued on for 3 or 4 more encounters if they needed to do so. I think this session sold me on the 1 hour rest mechanic. I’ve been growing more and more fond of it, and to tell the truth, some of the players are also beginning to say that it is working. I think a lot of the initial resistance to it is because everyone was so used to taking the 5 minute rest in 4e.
I made up the magic item, and the "Taint”, which is a disease that makes the infected being very aggressive and it adds 5 hit points to the creature too. After exposure to the disease, creatures must make a DC 15 Con check. Failure leads to a slow transformation that takes 1 hour. In that time, the creature's skin turns red. If a PC contracts the disease, he or she will become ultra aggressive even attacking allies to gain items or power. Any creature that contracts the disease must make a DC 10 Con check every week. Failure causes immediate death.
It seems as if all the players are happy with their powers/abilities, and now I feel as if I can throw much more at them.
