Nod_Hero
Explorer
Wow that's a fine bit of sucktitude. Sorry to hear it. Hopefully one day that fence can be mended.
WotBS Tolamaker's Burning Sky
- Thread starter Tolamaker
- Start date
Tolamaker
Adventurer
Sessions 100-103: What Dreams May Come
Session 100: Speaking with the dragons, the party is able to trade a good amount of jewelry (secretly transmuted by Metamorphosis from gold) in order to pass into the dream realms. They find themselves in an ethereal cloudy sky, endless and strange. Gruz and Aripos find that if they focus, they can fly, while Mishka is unable to convince her body to become weightless. Eluriah transforms into a drake in order to give Mishka a ride. They see several wondrous sights, including a giant worm (which ate and was then eviscerated by Mishka), a comforting tree, and a tower in the clouds.
They approach the palace and are met by flying automatons, who wear infernal glyphs that read "Gabal." They are taken into the tower where they meet Gabal, who reveals that he and the fire elemental fell through the earth, and came upon the portal. Since discovering this realm, he has become entranced, and only gives cursory acknowledgement to the suffering of Gate Pass and mages under the Scourge. He demonstrates his ability to create wondrous things from the cloudstuff, and offers no real help or hindrance in their search for Trilla other than saying he has not braved the storms of Nightmare off in the distance.
Session 101: The party travels through the air again, passing an impossibly enormous ox, bleeding from wounds it says are from trillith seeking the taste of flesh. The party tries to convince him that there is more to life than being food. It doesn't understand.
The party comes to the storm wall, which is a literal wall that is painted like a mural. Passing through, they are tossed about by the storm, and are thrown to the ground in the nightmarish forest of Ycengled. There, they come across the enormous forms of an angel, a devil, and Coaltongue fighting one another, getting dragged into it. As they defeat each combatant, they fall and their color drains. As the last dies, their bodies form together to create a stony statue of a dragon hatchling, with a missing piece of stone in its forehead.
Session 102: The party comes to an endless ocean, and a drawbridge falls from nothing, and a voice beckons them in. They come into a palace where Freedom tries to convince them to "free themselves" from their mortal bodies. When they refuse, she sics her palace guards on them, and retreats with Deception behind a curtain.
The party fight through several rooms, facing each trap and defenders as they go. When fighting living tapestries, Gruz is able to dominate one, aiding in their assault against cryohydras and treants.
Session 103: The party pushes through a room with nothing in it. There’s nothing in it. There’s nothing in it. But there has to be something, right? How can there be nothing in it? How can there be a door if there’s nothing in it? They start to suffocate, but find their way through.
The next room is a tower, filled with thousands upon thousands of crystal balls, showing all kinds of images. They find a crystal ball with Mishka’s father in it, showing a nightmarish version of his time in the Scourge Prison. Mishka smashes the ball, and the room transforms into the prison. They continue to smash crystal until Eluriah finds a ball that resembles the tower once again, bringing them back to the palace.
The next room is filled with gold, that unfortunately transforms into young gold dragons. After defeating the dragons, they see that there si a map on the wall that shows the palace and the location of every creature. In a central chamber, there are Freedom, Deception, Vigilance, Metamorphosis, and several Nightmare Architects. They surround two other names: Trilla, and Annihilation. The circles have filled in on the curtain, allowing them to pass through the space into the central chamber, where they see Vigilance and Metamorphosis “fed” into the body of a black dragon, intertwined with a gold dragon. The friendly trillith are swallowed up, and the black dragon’s body becomes more solid.
Combat breaks out, and Freedom dodges in and out of the party, able to slip past their attacks. Deception is not so lucky, and while he grapples Mishka and Gruz and changes into their forms, Eluriah’s keen eye is able to keep track of him and mark him so that he can be targeted. Freedom cries out as he dies, and calls for the nightmare architects to join the fight.
Post Session Thoughts
100: Largely an exploratory session, feeling out the strangeness of the dream realm. Lots of fun playing with things that happen in dreams, like moving towards something, but it gets farther away. The players were very distrustful of Gabal, and were convinced he was going to attack them for trying to wake Trilla, but I played him as more dreamily fixated on his own research.
101: I cannot stress how long my players spent trying to figure out what was going on with this ox, and I only included it because I rolled to see which strange and wondrous sight they would see as they traveled. They were very concerned with his wellbeing. They also thought that Trilla's cracked forehead was a puzzle to solve for a moment, but I just meant it as symbolic.
102: These fights in the palace are quick and dirty, and I like them. It's a nice way to see how hard high level characters can hit and get hit in just a few rounds. The domination of the tapestry giant was a big help as well, and has made Gruz a target for every enemy as they fight. He has passed every single save, which makes sense, as any damage below 22 is impossible for him to fail.
103: I was caught off guard when they broke the crystal ball, as my inclusion of Mishka's dad was on a whim, but it turned into a fun little excursion.
Changes to the Module
100: So, I was fully prepared to start the Crystal Dragon fight, had the battlemap up and ready, when one of the players asked if they would accept gems in trade. I was about to say no, because the book says they won't, but then I decided on a whim, why not?
I changed Montrezor to Gabal, because I felt like I didn't really want to throw in a random character that doesn't add much to the lore. I had already decided to cut Flight, and so giving an answer to a question no one asked about what happened to Gabal's body. I did make him a tiefling for fun though.
101: I ran the storm pretty by the book, but I then cut some combats, and changed the Jesepha combat. Jesepha is a corrupted planetar in the book, and I decided I was going to keep things focused on this being Trilla's dream realm. So instead of an evil angel, I portrayed the fight as her memory of the creation of the Torch, and the fear she would feel as these powerful creatures fought over her. This is why the creatures were bigger than they should have been, and why I described their attacks as against each other, and only tangentially wounding the players.
102: I brought Deception back for the trillith finale, because I felt like we had to see him one more time, even if it was just for a fight. Got to have a little fun in the heroic back-and-forth where Freedom tells him "You speak the truth."
103: I decided to steal a little from Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings as I fed the trillith into Annihilation. I'm rationalizing it as how Freedom and the rest are crafting Annihilation, giving it all of thee traits to be used for evil.
Next session, we'll see what the players want to do with Trilla!
Session 100: Speaking with the dragons, the party is able to trade a good amount of jewelry (secretly transmuted by Metamorphosis from gold) in order to pass into the dream realms. They find themselves in an ethereal cloudy sky, endless and strange. Gruz and Aripos find that if they focus, they can fly, while Mishka is unable to convince her body to become weightless. Eluriah transforms into a drake in order to give Mishka a ride. They see several wondrous sights, including a giant worm (which ate and was then eviscerated by Mishka), a comforting tree, and a tower in the clouds.
They approach the palace and are met by flying automatons, who wear infernal glyphs that read "Gabal." They are taken into the tower where they meet Gabal, who reveals that he and the fire elemental fell through the earth, and came upon the portal. Since discovering this realm, he has become entranced, and only gives cursory acknowledgement to the suffering of Gate Pass and mages under the Scourge. He demonstrates his ability to create wondrous things from the cloudstuff, and offers no real help or hindrance in their search for Trilla other than saying he has not braved the storms of Nightmare off in the distance.
Session 101: The party travels through the air again, passing an impossibly enormous ox, bleeding from wounds it says are from trillith seeking the taste of flesh. The party tries to convince him that there is more to life than being food. It doesn't understand.
The party comes to the storm wall, which is a literal wall that is painted like a mural. Passing through, they are tossed about by the storm, and are thrown to the ground in the nightmarish forest of Ycengled. There, they come across the enormous forms of an angel, a devil, and Coaltongue fighting one another, getting dragged into it. As they defeat each combatant, they fall and their color drains. As the last dies, their bodies form together to create a stony statue of a dragon hatchling, with a missing piece of stone in its forehead.
Session 102: The party comes to an endless ocean, and a drawbridge falls from nothing, and a voice beckons them in. They come into a palace where Freedom tries to convince them to "free themselves" from their mortal bodies. When they refuse, she sics her palace guards on them, and retreats with Deception behind a curtain.
The party fight through several rooms, facing each trap and defenders as they go. When fighting living tapestries, Gruz is able to dominate one, aiding in their assault against cryohydras and treants.
Session 103: The party pushes through a room with nothing in it. There’s nothing in it. There’s nothing in it. But there has to be something, right? How can there be nothing in it? How can there be a door if there’s nothing in it? They start to suffocate, but find their way through.
The next room is a tower, filled with thousands upon thousands of crystal balls, showing all kinds of images. They find a crystal ball with Mishka’s father in it, showing a nightmarish version of his time in the Scourge Prison. Mishka smashes the ball, and the room transforms into the prison. They continue to smash crystal until Eluriah finds a ball that resembles the tower once again, bringing them back to the palace.
The next room is filled with gold, that unfortunately transforms into young gold dragons. After defeating the dragons, they see that there si a map on the wall that shows the palace and the location of every creature. In a central chamber, there are Freedom, Deception, Vigilance, Metamorphosis, and several Nightmare Architects. They surround two other names: Trilla, and Annihilation. The circles have filled in on the curtain, allowing them to pass through the space into the central chamber, where they see Vigilance and Metamorphosis “fed” into the body of a black dragon, intertwined with a gold dragon. The friendly trillith are swallowed up, and the black dragon’s body becomes more solid.
Combat breaks out, and Freedom dodges in and out of the party, able to slip past their attacks. Deception is not so lucky, and while he grapples Mishka and Gruz and changes into their forms, Eluriah’s keen eye is able to keep track of him and mark him so that he can be targeted. Freedom cries out as he dies, and calls for the nightmare architects to join the fight.
Post Session Thoughts
100: Largely an exploratory session, feeling out the strangeness of the dream realm. Lots of fun playing with things that happen in dreams, like moving towards something, but it gets farther away. The players were very distrustful of Gabal, and were convinced he was going to attack them for trying to wake Trilla, but I played him as more dreamily fixated on his own research.
101: I cannot stress how long my players spent trying to figure out what was going on with this ox, and I only included it because I rolled to see which strange and wondrous sight they would see as they traveled. They were very concerned with his wellbeing. They also thought that Trilla's cracked forehead was a puzzle to solve for a moment, but I just meant it as symbolic.
102: These fights in the palace are quick and dirty, and I like them. It's a nice way to see how hard high level characters can hit and get hit in just a few rounds. The domination of the tapestry giant was a big help as well, and has made Gruz a target for every enemy as they fight. He has passed every single save, which makes sense, as any damage below 22 is impossible for him to fail.
103: I was caught off guard when they broke the crystal ball, as my inclusion of Mishka's dad was on a whim, but it turned into a fun little excursion.
Changes to the Module
100: So, I was fully prepared to start the Crystal Dragon fight, had the battlemap up and ready, when one of the players asked if they would accept gems in trade. I was about to say no, because the book says they won't, but then I decided on a whim, why not?
I changed Montrezor to Gabal, because I felt like I didn't really want to throw in a random character that doesn't add much to the lore. I had already decided to cut Flight, and so giving an answer to a question no one asked about what happened to Gabal's body. I did make him a tiefling for fun though.
101: I ran the storm pretty by the book, but I then cut some combats, and changed the Jesepha combat. Jesepha is a corrupted planetar in the book, and I decided I was going to keep things focused on this being Trilla's dream realm. So instead of an evil angel, I portrayed the fight as her memory of the creation of the Torch, and the fear she would feel as these powerful creatures fought over her. This is why the creatures were bigger than they should have been, and why I described their attacks as against each other, and only tangentially wounding the players.
102: I brought Deception back for the trillith finale, because I felt like we had to see him one more time, even if it was just for a fight. Got to have a little fun in the heroic back-and-forth where Freedom tells him "You speak the truth."
103: I decided to steal a little from Robin Hobb's Realm of the Elderlings as I fed the trillith into Annihilation. I'm rationalizing it as how Freedom and the rest are crafting Annihilation, giving it all of thee traits to be used for evil.
Next session, we'll see what the players want to do with Trilla!
RangerWickett
Legend
Great changes. Yeah, the tiefling in the original adventure was pretty random.
So few people get this far in the campaign, and only like one other GM wrote up a detailed account of this adventure, so thank you a ton for this post.
So few people get this far in the campaign, and only like one other GM wrote up a detailed account of this adventure, so thank you a ton for this post.
Tolamaker
Adventurer
Glad to be of service. I can tell I've been slowing down, writing about as much here for four sessions as I might have for one or two early on.
I forgot to include this in the previous post, but I made a little visual for the players, as I got tired explaining which of the puzzle pieces they had filled in.
When they moved through the map to the other side, I literally told them to close their eyes as I moved their characters through the central chamber. The map doesn't have the most intricate detail there, so it's not like there would have been spoilers, but I liked keeping them in the dark a bit, and they were more than willing to play along.
Tolamaker
Adventurer
Sessions 104, 105: It was All a Dream
Session 104
With the Dream Architects joining in, Freedom is able to dance around the battlefield, whittling the party down while Dream Architects largely focus on dispelling magics. They never quite do well enough to break Gruz's hold on the Tapestry Giant, who walks about smashing the architects.
Thinking she sees an opening, Freedom activates a violet aura around her blade, and stabs Mishka with it, unleashing a torrent of damage. However, the Living Blade of Innenotdar reacts violently, creating a thorny bark carapace that reflects much of the damage back on Freedom. Her trump card used up, Freedom lashes out franticly until she is defeated, her essence, like Deception's, being sucked up into Annihilation.
The party unlock the sphere around Annihilation and Trilla, and the dragon's bodies descend, opening a portal between their claws. The party steps through, to find a world that has undergone a cataclysm. In the sky, there are no stars, no moon, and the landscape is a barren wasteland. They hear a dreadful roar that shakes them to their bones, and through a canyon comes running an elf, in the same form they saw through Gabal's scrying. She is wounded and frantic, believing the parties to be hallucinations at first. When they convince her they are not, she tells them her name is Trilla, that the world is ending, and it's all her fault.
She tells them how she was tasked with a party to save the world, and they have failed at very turn. Comrades have died in her arms, cities have been swallowed up by the earth, and the moon has disintegrated, crashing down and destroying the landscape. The only living things that are left are her, a gold dragon she feels drawn toward, and a black dragon who is stalking her. The roar sounds again, and the party say they will help her get to the gold dragon.
Session 105
Jumping aboard the last of their dragon scales, the party flies after the gold dragon. Gently prying, they find that Trilla doesn't seem to know that she is a dragon, she only remembers her life in this destroyed world. When they pull out the torch to see if it will point them to the gold dragon, Trilla reacts poorly, and they set it away. Soon, they catch sight of Dragon!Trilla, flying amongst the floating rocks of what is left of the moon after it crashed into the earth. Behind them, Annihilation comes into view, an impossibly large dragon whose wings seem to stretch out to the horizon.
Landing on a large chunk, Trilla approaches the dragon, who seems more animalistic than having true sentience, and attempts to talk to it. The party forms up in a defensive formation, and wait for Annihilations approach.
Annihilation softens them up with a roar, swooping in to attack the Trillas, but the party manage to goad him into attacking them after. When they've dealt enough damage, he comes down to the earth. But rather than being bloodied, he unleases a great beam of red pain out, a reflection of the damage they have done to him. As his wounds heal, the party sees the faces of the Trillith they've defeated swirling around in an angry red mass before being covered up by his scales again. Wheeling up, he grabs another chunk of moon, throwing it down and shattering both floating islands.
Elf!Trilla manages to calm down Dragon!Trilla with Eluriah's help, and presses her forehead into a scar in the dragon's head. A golden light begins to shine, and their bodies start to merge.
The second time Annihilation drops to unleash his beam, Gruz manages to stun him, and the party tears into him. When they do, they target his wounds, tearing his body apart and setting Trillith free. Some are former enemies, some allies, but all are in awe of the Trillas' shining bodies, and go to join them in a massive embrace.
Vigilance thanks the party for keeping watch. Metamorphosis gleefully says this is going to change everything. Agony hugs against her brothers and sisters, crying happy tears for the end of her pain.
Working the fields at the temple, Balance looks up, and smiles at the monk next to them. "I have to go home now." They fade into golden light, and sink into the earth.
In the dream realm, the mass of bodies glow and melt into a single form: a large golden dragon. As she looks down on the party, the world around them begins to crumble. She kneels down. "Come. I awake."
Climbing aboard, they fly out of the nightmare realm, through the disintegrating mural, and out into the golden clouds of the dream realm. As they leave, they see the wondrous things fade away. They see Gabal at the top of his tower, arms outstretched as he strains to hold his island together. Trilla roars, and opens a portal, and in a blink they are high above Morusan. Trilla laughs at the feeling of true wind under her wings.
Post-Session Thoughts
It's been a while, so apologies if I don't remember everything. Now that I've got it all written out, it might have been three sessions, but who knows.
These were good sessions! I forgot about the Living Blade's reflective damage, so I thought for a moment I might actually take down the tank, but it was a good moment when Mishka dropped the reflection. Something to keep in mind the next time I go for massive single damage on her.
Trilla's nightmare was fun because I went almost completely theater of the mind, even for the fight. There was technically a battleboard, because I told the players that I didn't know how to balance the fight otherwise, but it was fun describing Annihilation's impossible size and power, even if he was defeatable. I will say that vibes aside, he was not a huge threat, and I would probably do something to make him a bigger threat for the finale. Annihilation-spawn or some other monster to get rid of the action economy problems.
Changes to the module:
I think the biggest change I made was the big trillith pile-on at the end? Most everything else was in the book, with minor tweaks by me. I know the book says that there are some trillith left at the end of the module, but they didn't really feel like an impactful factor later on, so I decided to lay them to rest.
I will say, that if I had put more thought into the nightmare crafted to annihilate Trilla, I think I would have had the player's actions with her trillith influence the nightmare more. Maybe have her recognize them, or have vague memories of their actions, and not know how she knows them. Maybe have the party she was with feel like dark reflections of the PC party. Trilla herself has not been around, but the trillith are an huge touchstone in the campaign, and I feel like I could have tied their trillith interactions, good and bad, back into her interactions with them to make her seem more lke a character who has been around for a good while.
Post Module Thoughts
I really enjoyed this module! It was very different from the rest, tonally and mechanically. I think the dreaminess of the adventure could have gotten samey, but having three distinct locations (Clouds, Palace, Nightmare) allows for different dream tropes without being overdone. I skipped a few fights, but mostly because i felt like the adventure didn't really need them. The castle was a fun quick dungeon, and the chase and finale in the nightmare were great, even if Annihilation could have been a bit more difficult.
We're a good way into a heavily modified modules 11/12, so I'll hopefully have one up again soon!
Session 104
With the Dream Architects joining in, Freedom is able to dance around the battlefield, whittling the party down while Dream Architects largely focus on dispelling magics. They never quite do well enough to break Gruz's hold on the Tapestry Giant, who walks about smashing the architects.
Thinking she sees an opening, Freedom activates a violet aura around her blade, and stabs Mishka with it, unleashing a torrent of damage. However, the Living Blade of Innenotdar reacts violently, creating a thorny bark carapace that reflects much of the damage back on Freedom. Her trump card used up, Freedom lashes out franticly until she is defeated, her essence, like Deception's, being sucked up into Annihilation.
The party unlock the sphere around Annihilation and Trilla, and the dragon's bodies descend, opening a portal between their claws. The party steps through, to find a world that has undergone a cataclysm. In the sky, there are no stars, no moon, and the landscape is a barren wasteland. They hear a dreadful roar that shakes them to their bones, and through a canyon comes running an elf, in the same form they saw through Gabal's scrying. She is wounded and frantic, believing the parties to be hallucinations at first. When they convince her they are not, she tells them her name is Trilla, that the world is ending, and it's all her fault.
She tells them how she was tasked with a party to save the world, and they have failed at very turn. Comrades have died in her arms, cities have been swallowed up by the earth, and the moon has disintegrated, crashing down and destroying the landscape. The only living things that are left are her, a gold dragon she feels drawn toward, and a black dragon who is stalking her. The roar sounds again, and the party say they will help her get to the gold dragon.
Session 105
Jumping aboard the last of their dragon scales, the party flies after the gold dragon. Gently prying, they find that Trilla doesn't seem to know that she is a dragon, she only remembers her life in this destroyed world. When they pull out the torch to see if it will point them to the gold dragon, Trilla reacts poorly, and they set it away. Soon, they catch sight of Dragon!Trilla, flying amongst the floating rocks of what is left of the moon after it crashed into the earth. Behind them, Annihilation comes into view, an impossibly large dragon whose wings seem to stretch out to the horizon.
Landing on a large chunk, Trilla approaches the dragon, who seems more animalistic than having true sentience, and attempts to talk to it. The party forms up in a defensive formation, and wait for Annihilations approach.
Annihilation softens them up with a roar, swooping in to attack the Trillas, but the party manage to goad him into attacking them after. When they've dealt enough damage, he comes down to the earth. But rather than being bloodied, he unleases a great beam of red pain out, a reflection of the damage they have done to him. As his wounds heal, the party sees the faces of the Trillith they've defeated swirling around in an angry red mass before being covered up by his scales again. Wheeling up, he grabs another chunk of moon, throwing it down and shattering both floating islands.
Elf!Trilla manages to calm down Dragon!Trilla with Eluriah's help, and presses her forehead into a scar in the dragon's head. A golden light begins to shine, and their bodies start to merge.
The second time Annihilation drops to unleash his beam, Gruz manages to stun him, and the party tears into him. When they do, they target his wounds, tearing his body apart and setting Trillith free. Some are former enemies, some allies, but all are in awe of the Trillas' shining bodies, and go to join them in a massive embrace.
Vigilance thanks the party for keeping watch. Metamorphosis gleefully says this is going to change everything. Agony hugs against her brothers and sisters, crying happy tears for the end of her pain.
Working the fields at the temple, Balance looks up, and smiles at the monk next to them. "I have to go home now." They fade into golden light, and sink into the earth.
In the dream realm, the mass of bodies glow and melt into a single form: a large golden dragon. As she looks down on the party, the world around them begins to crumble. She kneels down. "Come. I awake."
Climbing aboard, they fly out of the nightmare realm, through the disintegrating mural, and out into the golden clouds of the dream realm. As they leave, they see the wondrous things fade away. They see Gabal at the top of his tower, arms outstretched as he strains to hold his island together. Trilla roars, and opens a portal, and in a blink they are high above Morusan. Trilla laughs at the feeling of true wind under her wings.
Post-Session Thoughts
It's been a while, so apologies if I don't remember everything. Now that I've got it all written out, it might have been three sessions, but who knows.
These were good sessions! I forgot about the Living Blade's reflective damage, so I thought for a moment I might actually take down the tank, but it was a good moment when Mishka dropped the reflection. Something to keep in mind the next time I go for massive single damage on her.
Trilla's nightmare was fun because I went almost completely theater of the mind, even for the fight. There was technically a battleboard, because I told the players that I didn't know how to balance the fight otherwise, but it was fun describing Annihilation's impossible size and power, even if he was defeatable. I will say that vibes aside, he was not a huge threat, and I would probably do something to make him a bigger threat for the finale. Annihilation-spawn or some other monster to get rid of the action economy problems.
Changes to the module:
I think the biggest change I made was the big trillith pile-on at the end? Most everything else was in the book, with minor tweaks by me. I know the book says that there are some trillith left at the end of the module, but they didn't really feel like an impactful factor later on, so I decided to lay them to rest.
I will say, that if I had put more thought into the nightmare crafted to annihilate Trilla, I think I would have had the player's actions with her trillith influence the nightmare more. Maybe have her recognize them, or have vague memories of their actions, and not know how she knows them. Maybe have the party she was with feel like dark reflections of the PC party. Trilla herself has not been around, but the trillith are an huge touchstone in the campaign, and I feel like I could have tied their trillith interactions, good and bad, back into her interactions with them to make her seem more lke a character who has been around for a good while.
Post Module Thoughts
I really enjoyed this module! It was very different from the rest, tonally and mechanically. I think the dreaminess of the adventure could have gotten samey, but having three distinct locations (Clouds, Palace, Nightmare) allows for different dream tropes without being overdone. I skipped a few fights, but mostly because i felt like the adventure didn't really need them. The castle was a fun quick dungeon, and the chase and finale in the nightmare were great, even if Annihilation could have been a bit more difficult.
We're a good way into a heavily modified modules 11/12, so I'll hopefully have one up again soon!
Tolamaker
Adventurer
Sessions 106-108: What sits under the Mask
106
The party lands among Innenotdar, where they are greeted by the Taranesti of the forest rebuilding their village. Trilla remembers some of the elves among them as those who helped hide her, and pledges to protect them. The party thinks this is a good idea, because of the delicate situation with Shaaladel's eye on the formerly burning forest.
Talking with the elves, the party discovers they were in the dream realm for six months, and that the war has stagnated along the borders of the Alliance and Ragesia, with Alliance forces largely returning to their own countries. After a visit to Mishka's mother in Gate Pass, the party decides that Seaquen is the best place to regroup and decide what to do next.
In Seaquen, they meet with a tired and worn out Simeon, who is happy to see them. He confirms the state of the war as a deadlock. "Without the power of the Torch, we are simply two large combatants hacking away at each other. Small victories mean nothing, as moving troops from one place means enemy reinforcements will try to exploit the now defenseless area."
Simeon outlines the state of the war and the pressure points he sees. Gallo's Fend has been captured by Ragesia, and Dassen's new king is eager to take his old castle back. Shaaladel has a large battleline along his northern river. Sindaire is performing its own insurgency against occupying forces. Ostalin is one of the few places that has largely expelled the Ragesians, but other than their airship providing supply support, they have not ventured out to help the other Allies. Simeon says that the only Ostaliners outside of their country are here at Seaquen, a set of East and West Wind Monks who are establishing a new temple where the fighting pits once were. The party decides to investigate.
107
With Mishka and Gruz distracting, Eluriah and Aripos sneak into the quarters of Su-Ilgon. They find nothing of interest, but when Su Ilgon returns, they hide, (as a spider and invisible respectively), and see the masked master's form shift and warp into that of a gray, featureless humanoid. He then retrieves a hidden sending stone and sends a message relaying progress on "the gate." The party enters and subdues the creature, but before they can get information from him, the other monks attack. IN a fight that has the party and monks breaking through walls and blocking off pathways, the party prevails, defeating the monks and capturing the one impersonating Su-Ilgon. When they kill combatnats, they turn into a strange goo, which both Mishka and Gruz recognize as the smell of biomantic fluid. They believe the gate referred to be the portal to the plane of fire below Seaquen. Simeon confirms that the monks had been spending time down there, allegedly to find another power source to strengthen The Tempest.
108
Delving back into the dungeon, they face more gray monks, as well as a pair of strange tentacled beasts that radiate necrotic energy. They find the real Su-Ilgon, a heavily aged man without his mask, and investigate the portal. They find that the gray beings were altering the portal in a way, changing out arcane Ignan runes with a different alien script. Whatever they were doing was unfinished. As best as they can tell with Simeon's aid, the gray monks were attempting to change the end location of the portal to another location or plane. Among the gray monks' belongings, they find a scroll of teleportation, that will bring them onto the Tempest as long as they are within a few miles. Su-Ilgon says that even after all that he has learned, he cannot act against his brother. However, he urges the party to do what they must. Until they can find more evidence that Su-Pli is working against the Alliance, the party decides to head to Gallo's Fend to help the Dasseni.
Post Session Thoughts
106: I forgot Ycengled had been freed, and so had Trilla set up shop in Innenotdar. I feel like it still worked thematically for her coming back and finding a new home. Returning to Seaquen, I had thought I was just laying hints to keep an eye out on the temple, but my players have better memories and noses for plots than I gave them credit for, because they immediately remembered the tomb and the portal. I was planning 0n having changes happen to Seaquen in between missions, but they went straight for it, so good for them as I scrambled to get the encounters ready.
107: The map I found for this had very tight hallways, so I decided that this old fighting arena had weak walls, allowing for the monks to open up walls with their shatter spells. That led to the players breaking their own walls and then throwing up magical walls for some fun positional choices.
108: I remembered a bit late that I had the temple map set up for Roll20, not Foundry, and had to fix it up quick at the start of the session. I don't know if I didn't know how to run the gray monks well, or if they were undertuned, but their fight was grindy, but very easy. Two CR 16 Star Spawn Larva Mages, with their abilities reskinned as radiation, were also too easy, so they were a good gauge for CR in the future.
Changes to the Module
This is the first time I'm pulling almost entirely away from the provided adventure. I had been feeling like I needed a bit more connective tissue between adventures 11 and 12, and decided that I wanted to draw out Pilus' betrayal a bit longer. So, I scrambled 11 and 12 together a bit, with the plan being to have the airship dungeon happen closer to Ragos or the Opaline Wastes. I also set up mini-dungeon plans for each area, allowing the players to pick where they would be most effective as we approach the end. Players also made requests for monsters and other D&D experiences they wanted to have before we finish the game. I'll point them out as they come along.
That said, these sessions were largely played straight. What's funny is that I had originally planned to change some things about the conspiracy encounters, to fill out the old dungeon a bit better, but then they ran straight to it so I played it mostly as written. I kind of twisted the idea of harnessing power of the plane of fire to fit with the future Star Spawn/Pilus lore I came up with from Gruz's requests. Basically, I plan on working in some sort of eldritch angle, to fit in with the body horror of his biomantic final form.
106
The party lands among Innenotdar, where they are greeted by the Taranesti of the forest rebuilding their village. Trilla remembers some of the elves among them as those who helped hide her, and pledges to protect them. The party thinks this is a good idea, because of the delicate situation with Shaaladel's eye on the formerly burning forest.
Talking with the elves, the party discovers they were in the dream realm for six months, and that the war has stagnated along the borders of the Alliance and Ragesia, with Alliance forces largely returning to their own countries. After a visit to Mishka's mother in Gate Pass, the party decides that Seaquen is the best place to regroup and decide what to do next.
In Seaquen, they meet with a tired and worn out Simeon, who is happy to see them. He confirms the state of the war as a deadlock. "Without the power of the Torch, we are simply two large combatants hacking away at each other. Small victories mean nothing, as moving troops from one place means enemy reinforcements will try to exploit the now defenseless area."
Simeon outlines the state of the war and the pressure points he sees. Gallo's Fend has been captured by Ragesia, and Dassen's new king is eager to take his old castle back. Shaaladel has a large battleline along his northern river. Sindaire is performing its own insurgency against occupying forces. Ostalin is one of the few places that has largely expelled the Ragesians, but other than their airship providing supply support, they have not ventured out to help the other Allies. Simeon says that the only Ostaliners outside of their country are here at Seaquen, a set of East and West Wind Monks who are establishing a new temple where the fighting pits once were. The party decides to investigate.
107
With Mishka and Gruz distracting, Eluriah and Aripos sneak into the quarters of Su-Ilgon. They find nothing of interest, but when Su Ilgon returns, they hide, (as a spider and invisible respectively), and see the masked master's form shift and warp into that of a gray, featureless humanoid. He then retrieves a hidden sending stone and sends a message relaying progress on "the gate." The party enters and subdues the creature, but before they can get information from him, the other monks attack. IN a fight that has the party and monks breaking through walls and blocking off pathways, the party prevails, defeating the monks and capturing the one impersonating Su-Ilgon. When they kill combatnats, they turn into a strange goo, which both Mishka and Gruz recognize as the smell of biomantic fluid. They believe the gate referred to be the portal to the plane of fire below Seaquen. Simeon confirms that the monks had been spending time down there, allegedly to find another power source to strengthen The Tempest.
108
Delving back into the dungeon, they face more gray monks, as well as a pair of strange tentacled beasts that radiate necrotic energy. They find the real Su-Ilgon, a heavily aged man without his mask, and investigate the portal. They find that the gray beings were altering the portal in a way, changing out arcane Ignan runes with a different alien script. Whatever they were doing was unfinished. As best as they can tell with Simeon's aid, the gray monks were attempting to change the end location of the portal to another location or plane. Among the gray monks' belongings, they find a scroll of teleportation, that will bring them onto the Tempest as long as they are within a few miles. Su-Ilgon says that even after all that he has learned, he cannot act against his brother. However, he urges the party to do what they must. Until they can find more evidence that Su-Pli is working against the Alliance, the party decides to head to Gallo's Fend to help the Dasseni.
Post Session Thoughts
106: I forgot Ycengled had been freed, and so had Trilla set up shop in Innenotdar. I feel like it still worked thematically for her coming back and finding a new home. Returning to Seaquen, I had thought I was just laying hints to keep an eye out on the temple, but my players have better memories and noses for plots than I gave them credit for, because they immediately remembered the tomb and the portal. I was planning 0n having changes happen to Seaquen in between missions, but they went straight for it, so good for them as I scrambled to get the encounters ready.
107: The map I found for this had very tight hallways, so I decided that this old fighting arena had weak walls, allowing for the monks to open up walls with their shatter spells. That led to the players breaking their own walls and then throwing up magical walls for some fun positional choices.
108: I remembered a bit late that I had the temple map set up for Roll20, not Foundry, and had to fix it up quick at the start of the session. I don't know if I didn't know how to run the gray monks well, or if they were undertuned, but their fight was grindy, but very easy. Two CR 16 Star Spawn Larva Mages, with their abilities reskinned as radiation, were also too easy, so they were a good gauge for CR in the future.
Changes to the Module
This is the first time I'm pulling almost entirely away from the provided adventure. I had been feeling like I needed a bit more connective tissue between adventures 11 and 12, and decided that I wanted to draw out Pilus' betrayal a bit longer. So, I scrambled 11 and 12 together a bit, with the plan being to have the airship dungeon happen closer to Ragos or the Opaline Wastes. I also set up mini-dungeon plans for each area, allowing the players to pick where they would be most effective as we approach the end. Players also made requests for monsters and other D&D experiences they wanted to have before we finish the game. I'll point them out as they come along.
That said, these sessions were largely played straight. What's funny is that I had originally planned to change some things about the conspiracy encounters, to fill out the old dungeon a bit better, but then they ran straight to it so I played it mostly as written. I kind of twisted the idea of harnessing power of the plane of fire to fit with the future Star Spawn/Pilus lore I came up with from Gruz's requests. Basically, I plan on working in some sort of eldritch angle, to fit in with the body horror of his biomantic final form.
