Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="LostSoul" data-source="post: 4617580" data-attributes="member: 386">Just got back from the game.  It went well, though not as I expected.  Gotta love that.The PCs were facing down the duergar and Malchior had just fallen.  Healing Surges were low, Dailies spent, and there was no time for a short rest.We started with the Skill Challenge I posted above.  The PCs made a dash for it.  Wexley the Fighter picked up Malchior.  Armok had the layout of the labyrinth in his head and directed where they had to fly to.  As they were fleeing the spined devils showered them with spikes, but Jace fired off an Eldritch Blast to knock down some rubble at just the right time to give them cover.One success.They kept running but the spined devils were catching up with them.  Thinking quick, Bren the Bold came up with a plan: a quick trap.  Armok used his knowledge of the devils to lure them in a specific direction using Ghost Sound, Wexley loosened a stone brick, and Bren tied some ropes to it - making sure they were at the right height for the devils to hit.  Then they ran.The devils came flying into the room through the entrance the PCs wanted them to and set off the trap.  The PCs heard their devilish cries as the block of stone crashed on them.Two successes, and the devils were removed from the encounter.They had some breathing room now.  Malchior used his knowledge of history to come up with a plan for ambush.  Jace would lie in the open, feigning a broken ankle while the others hid.  Everyone was able to hide and get the jump on the duergar, who easily fell for Jace's ruse, everyone except Wexley.Three successes, and we went to combat.  The PCs had rolled a success, giving them the short rest they wanted (I had pre-decided that 3 successes meant a short rest) and they were able to set up the encounter layout.The scouts were the first to enter, but they came around to flank the PCs.  Not as expected.  The other duergar entered through the main entrance and that's when the PCs sprung their trap.Things went well in the first couple rounds - except for Jace, who ended up flanked and sneak attacked to unconciousness by the twin duergar scouts.  Then things started to look bad for the PCs.  Healing surges were going down, and even Wexley was on his last legs.Luckily some good use of tactics, a timely-placed colour spray, Wexley's Shield Push feat, and the fact that I couldn't hit with Murkelmor carried the day for the PCs.  The scouts were able to retreat but the Theurge was captured.I have a much more detailed write-up which I'll post later on.The PCs needed a place to rest.  They chose the Chamber of Eyes.  Getting there was no problem, but there was a random encounter waiting within.The PCs heard cries - "Help me!  Help me!"  It seems someone was trapped in a web.  Things seemed very fishy, and they were.  So the PCs decided to flank.This turned out to be a bad decision.Armok the Wizard opened the door and saw an ettercap waiting there.  Bren stepped out to sneak attack him, and did, but two of the three ghouls in the room jumped him.  Soon he was down and out.Armok tried to retreat but was immobilized when he drew an OA; then he was stunned and dropped unconcious.  Meanwhile Wexley and Jace were tanging with the other ghoul while the ettercap blocked off that path with a tangle of webs.Malchior had come around to get Armok and Bren back on their feet but he ran face-to-face with the two ghouls who put them down.  Seeing as he only had 7 HP left at this point, he figured he was screwed.  But luckily he was able to flee and hold a door shut.Wexley and Jace were able to take care of the ghoul and Malchior ran around into the main chamber, close enough to get Bren and Armok back on their feet.Armok, with only 1 HP mind you, decided to face the two ghouls himself.  Now since they had just been through two encounters (the skill challenge and the duergar), they had an AP to spend.  He used this to immobilize the ghouls while he blasted them.The ettercap fell in short order and the ghouls still hadn't done anything.  I decided to call it for the PCs as the ghouls were about to get smacked down.Exhausting, but the PCs pulled it off.Malchior got a Sending from Orontar: "We need to talk.  Come back to the Hall and turn yourselves in."  Malchior replied: "No.  Meet us at the Chamber of Eyes.  Come alone."Orontar did not come alone.  He had over a dozen men with him, including an arcane ballista.  But it turns out all he wanted was a public trial where he could banish the PCs, so they parted ways - the PCs knowing that if they return, they would face death.Well, we'll see about that!Now we played through an interrogation with the captured duergar Theurge.  He spilled his guts and I showed the PCs the map of the Horned Hold.  They quickly came up with a plan - get across the chasm to the battlements - but they needed a rope of some kind.While a Rope of Climbing was outside Armok's ability to craft, they decided to try and make a 1-shot magic rope.  We ran a skill challenge.Armok gathered all the rope and started chanting over it, trying to infuse it with arcane power while Malchior made an arcane circle to keep out unwanted arcane energies.  They succeeded.Then Armok called animals to him using Animal Messenger.  A bird, a snake, and a spider were sacrificed, boiled and smashed into an arcane paste.  He applied this to the rope and it sprang to life!It coiled around him, attacking him, trying to choke him to death.  Wexley pried it off him.  Jace used his devilish powers of command to force it into submission, but failed.When Armok gave it the final words of the ritual, it obeyed him and coiled itself, crawling into his bag.  But little did he know it had a will of its own... (Failed roll.)They made it to the Horned Hold and started climbing up to the battlement.  Armok commanded the rope to knot itself on the ledge and it did.  But Bren failed to notice that its knot was weak and could slip at any moment.  When Malchior climbed it, it loosed itself and he fell, just barely grabbing onto the side of the cliff.  Wexley quickly climbed up to help him and manhandled the rope into submission, at which point they all made it up to the battlement.That's where we called it.Now that last skill challenge deserves some explanation.   I was thinking that it would just be about making the rope, but they started talking about going to the Horned Hold.  Which I let them do, no problem, so there was a plot hole there. I'm reasonably pleased with the results of the magical ritual - now they have a cursed rope of climbing.  It's got a will of its own, a devilish spirit, and it craves blood.  We'll see how that plays out.The PCs should be able to wipe out the Horned Hold next session.  They know who's where thanks to the Theurge's info, Murkelmor is dead, they have surprise, and they are on the edge of level 7.  It'll be good to run through some easy battles after all the really hard-fought ones they've been having lately.A good game!</blockquote>

Verification