G'day!
This afternoon, I ran the sixth session of my campaign's jaunt through Gary Gygax's Necropolis. The PCs have attained the tomb of Rahotep, and this would be their first session of what is like the Tomb of Horrors on Speed.
Weapons of Legacy finally arrived in Ballarat this week, and as I was my normal impecunious self, I couldn't get it. However, Greg could. So, he brought along the book and before the session started we considered whether we should use it.
We decided: yes, absolutely.
Gofa fell in love with Shishi-O, a katana that summoned lions. As Gofa's Ronin was a new addition to the group (after his previous PC made the mistake of serving Set and was killed by the other party members), I saw no problem in just granting him the weapon along with its legacy abilities, to see how it went.
For a 12th level ronin, they were: Charm animal at will; Summon Lion 1/day; +2 katana; Cat leap (+5 jump checks); Summon Dire Lion 1/day; -1 attack, -1 saves, -6 hp.
During the session, he used both the Summon Lion and Summon Dire Lion abilities to good effect - mostly to create flanking situations, but also to distract enemies. The loss of abilities was scarcely noticed.
In Greg's case, it was decided to replace his bow (a +1 composite longbow of frost and shock) that he'd crafted himself with a new legacy item. I quickly used the menu to choose its abilities - it became a +1 composite longbow of frost and shock which also granted +2 Int and +4 Dex. I mucked up on the penalties, though, as I missed the section that said that the penalties should be significant to the wielder. His archer-mage wasn't much discomforted by the -2 skill check penalty and -10 hp penalty.
What they should have been was a -1 attack penalty, 8 hp loss, and loss of a spell slot from 1st through 4th level; though I don't think those penalties are onerous either. (His character is a Ranger 2/Wizard 5/Eldritch Knight 5/Spellsword 1, with spells as a 10th level Wizard).
(I note that this bow would cost slightly under 16000 gp under the legacy rules; the individual parts of the bow total over 38000 gp! The penalties seem well worth it!)
So, onto the adventure.
Preparation
I'd spent about 30 minutes before the adventure preparing an ambush on the PCs. In a previous session, they'd left alive a 13th-level priest of Set. I decided to see exactly what such a priest could do.
He would use Planar Ally to call a Hezrou to his aid, and then use Ethereal Jaunt to go to the dwelling place of the PCs and ambush them there. (Being kind, I didn't do this whilst they were asleep and unarmed - that would be very likely a TPK).
The Hezrou was standard. The Priest was built as follows:
Priest Hu Benti; CR 13
Male human cleric 13
CE Medium humanoid
Init +1; Senses true seeing 120'; Listen +5, Spot +5
Languages: Common, Khemit
--
AC 24 (26 vs. good); touch 13/15; flat-footed 23/25; entropic shield (20% miss chance for arrows)
hp 103 + 26 (13 HD)
Immune death effects (death ward), enchantments (magic circle), fireball, magic missile, lightning bolt, poison
Resist acid 30, cold 30, electricity 30, fire 30 (resist energy x4), Spell Resistance 25
Fort +11, Ref +9, Will +15
--
Spd 30 ft
Melee rod of the viper +14/+9 (1d8+6 + poison DC 14, 1d10 Con/1d10 Con)
Base Atk +8; Grp: +12
Attack Options: Divine Might (+4 dmg); Smite 1/day (+4 atk; +13 dmg)
Special Atk: Rebuke Undead 5/day; spontaneous casting (inflict spells)
Cleric Spells prepared (CL 13th; 14th evil; +12 melee touch; +9 ranged touch)
7th-blasphemy (CL 14); ethereal jaunt*
6th-harm (DC21), planar ally*, heal
5th-spell resistance*, dispel good*, true seeing*, slay living (DC 20)
4th-unholy blight (DC 20); death ward*, spell immunity*, cure critical wounds (4d8+13), neutralise poison*
3rd-animate dead, cure serious wounds x2 (3d8+13), resist energy* x4
2nd-bull's strength*, bear's endurance*, eagle's splendour*, magic circle against good*, cure moderate wounds x2 (2d8+10)
1st-cure light wounds x7 (1d8+5)
Domains: Destruction, Evil (*=already cast)
--
Abilities Str 19, Dex 13, Con 17, Int 13, Wis 21, Cha 18
Feats: Combat Casting, Divine Vigour, Divine Might,
Skills; Concentration +22
Gear: +1 wildwood full plate, +1 heavy wooden shield; +2 bracers of health; +2 periapt of wisdom, +2 ring of protection, rod of the viper
Or something like that. I didn't pay all that much attention to the lower-level spells, and a couple may be misnamed. In any case, he'd precast fourteen spells!
First round: Enter the room. Some incredibly pathetic initiative rolls from the PCs gave the Priest the first round. Blasphemy. As 3 PCs actually come from another plane, let's have Will saves... oh look, 2 failed. (Back to Greyhawk!) Everyone else is Dazed and Weakened.
For the next few rounds, we had Greg's character teleporting the PCs back to combat, whilst the priest and hezrou used melee attack (and the hezrou's three blasphemies) to daze and befuddle the PCs. The Stench of the Hezrou also gravely knocked the PCs about.
However, these PCs haven't got where they are by being ineffective. They have ACs from 27-30, and melee attacks were not this pair's strong points. Eventually, they won the battle - although Adam's character managed a natural 1 on his save against the Rod of the Viper. 10 Con damage! Oh my... on his way to the nearest cleric (the PC's cleric having been blasphemed back to Greyhawk on the second iteration and having no quick way back), he failed the second save and the further 7 points of Con loss killed him.
1 PC dead, 2 villains dead. That was fun. Half-an-hour of preparation on my part had translated into a challenging battle of about 60-80 minutes in length (about 10 rounds).
Necropolis
Greg missed the last session due to illness, but with him present, the first challenge of the tomb - finding where the real entrance to the deeper chambers was - proved very simple. He solved it in 10 seconds. (Damn him! All those lovely encounters, skipped!)
Making their way through the room of 12 Sarcophagi, they entered the final resting place of Rahotep - now a mummy-like creature - and bravely dispatched it.
Everyone is really happy with themselves, the loot they've acquired, and the land and titles they expect to gain from Pharoah.
A bit of a pity about the rogue Teralia, once a PC, who is still on the loose after betraying the party. Oh, and an evil spirit which has escaped the tomb...
...perhaps this adventure isn't over yet! ;^)
It's very funny. Gary's suggestions as to fooling the players worked _perfectly_. Everyone is planning new characters for the next campaign (as Necropolis was always planned to end this campaign with). They've all been saying how much they enjoyed the adventure.
I do hope I survive the revelation in the next session that they're not finished. ^_^
Cheers!
Merric
P.S. Yes, Greg's the best player of the group. His character, Lukas, an archer-mage, has yet to die after almost 3 years of this campaign.
This afternoon, I ran the sixth session of my campaign's jaunt through Gary Gygax's Necropolis. The PCs have attained the tomb of Rahotep, and this would be their first session of what is like the Tomb of Horrors on Speed.
Weapons of Legacy finally arrived in Ballarat this week, and as I was my normal impecunious self, I couldn't get it. However, Greg could. So, he brought along the book and before the session started we considered whether we should use it.
We decided: yes, absolutely.
Gofa fell in love with Shishi-O, a katana that summoned lions. As Gofa's Ronin was a new addition to the group (after his previous PC made the mistake of serving Set and was killed by the other party members), I saw no problem in just granting him the weapon along with its legacy abilities, to see how it went.
For a 12th level ronin, they were: Charm animal at will; Summon Lion 1/day; +2 katana; Cat leap (+5 jump checks); Summon Dire Lion 1/day; -1 attack, -1 saves, -6 hp.
During the session, he used both the Summon Lion and Summon Dire Lion abilities to good effect - mostly to create flanking situations, but also to distract enemies. The loss of abilities was scarcely noticed.
In Greg's case, it was decided to replace his bow (a +1 composite longbow of frost and shock) that he'd crafted himself with a new legacy item. I quickly used the menu to choose its abilities - it became a +1 composite longbow of frost and shock which also granted +2 Int and +4 Dex. I mucked up on the penalties, though, as I missed the section that said that the penalties should be significant to the wielder. His archer-mage wasn't much discomforted by the -2 skill check penalty and -10 hp penalty.
What they should have been was a -1 attack penalty, 8 hp loss, and loss of a spell slot from 1st through 4th level; though I don't think those penalties are onerous either. (His character is a Ranger 2/Wizard 5/Eldritch Knight 5/Spellsword 1, with spells as a 10th level Wizard).
(I note that this bow would cost slightly under 16000 gp under the legacy rules; the individual parts of the bow total over 38000 gp! The penalties seem well worth it!)
So, onto the adventure.
Preparation
I'd spent about 30 minutes before the adventure preparing an ambush on the PCs. In a previous session, they'd left alive a 13th-level priest of Set. I decided to see exactly what such a priest could do.
He would use Planar Ally to call a Hezrou to his aid, and then use Ethereal Jaunt to go to the dwelling place of the PCs and ambush them there. (Being kind, I didn't do this whilst they were asleep and unarmed - that would be very likely a TPK).
The Hezrou was standard. The Priest was built as follows:
Priest Hu Benti; CR 13
Male human cleric 13
CE Medium humanoid
Init +1; Senses true seeing 120'; Listen +5, Spot +5
Languages: Common, Khemit
--
AC 24 (26 vs. good); touch 13/15; flat-footed 23/25; entropic shield (20% miss chance for arrows)
hp 103 + 26 (13 HD)
Immune death effects (death ward), enchantments (magic circle), fireball, magic missile, lightning bolt, poison
Resist acid 30, cold 30, electricity 30, fire 30 (resist energy x4), Spell Resistance 25
Fort +11, Ref +9, Will +15
--
Spd 30 ft
Melee rod of the viper +14/+9 (1d8+6 + poison DC 14, 1d10 Con/1d10 Con)
Base Atk +8; Grp: +12
Attack Options: Divine Might (+4 dmg); Smite 1/day (+4 atk; +13 dmg)
Special Atk: Rebuke Undead 5/day; spontaneous casting (inflict spells)
Cleric Spells prepared (CL 13th; 14th evil; +12 melee touch; +9 ranged touch)
7th-blasphemy (CL 14); ethereal jaunt*
6th-harm (DC21), planar ally*, heal
5th-spell resistance*, dispel good*, true seeing*, slay living (DC 20)
4th-unholy blight (DC 20); death ward*, spell immunity*, cure critical wounds (4d8+13), neutralise poison*
3rd-animate dead, cure serious wounds x2 (3d8+13), resist energy* x4
2nd-bull's strength*, bear's endurance*, eagle's splendour*, magic circle against good*, cure moderate wounds x2 (2d8+10)
1st-cure light wounds x7 (1d8+5)
Domains: Destruction, Evil (*=already cast)
--
Abilities Str 19, Dex 13, Con 17, Int 13, Wis 21, Cha 18
Feats: Combat Casting, Divine Vigour, Divine Might,
Skills; Concentration +22
Gear: +1 wildwood full plate, +1 heavy wooden shield; +2 bracers of health; +2 periapt of wisdom, +2 ring of protection, rod of the viper
Or something like that. I didn't pay all that much attention to the lower-level spells, and a couple may be misnamed. In any case, he'd precast fourteen spells!
First round: Enter the room. Some incredibly pathetic initiative rolls from the PCs gave the Priest the first round. Blasphemy. As 3 PCs actually come from another plane, let's have Will saves... oh look, 2 failed. (Back to Greyhawk!) Everyone else is Dazed and Weakened.
For the next few rounds, we had Greg's character teleporting the PCs back to combat, whilst the priest and hezrou used melee attack (and the hezrou's three blasphemies) to daze and befuddle the PCs. The Stench of the Hezrou also gravely knocked the PCs about.
However, these PCs haven't got where they are by being ineffective. They have ACs from 27-30, and melee attacks were not this pair's strong points. Eventually, they won the battle - although Adam's character managed a natural 1 on his save against the Rod of the Viper. 10 Con damage! Oh my... on his way to the nearest cleric (the PC's cleric having been blasphemed back to Greyhawk on the second iteration and having no quick way back), he failed the second save and the further 7 points of Con loss killed him.
1 PC dead, 2 villains dead. That was fun. Half-an-hour of preparation on my part had translated into a challenging battle of about 60-80 minutes in length (about 10 rounds).
Necropolis
Greg missed the last session due to illness, but with him present, the first challenge of the tomb - finding where the real entrance to the deeper chambers was - proved very simple. He solved it in 10 seconds. (Damn him! All those lovely encounters, skipped!)
Making their way through the room of 12 Sarcophagi, they entered the final resting place of Rahotep - now a mummy-like creature - and bravely dispatched it.
Everyone is really happy with themselves, the loot they've acquired, and the land and titles they expect to gain from Pharoah.
A bit of a pity about the rogue Teralia, once a PC, who is still on the loose after betraying the party. Oh, and an evil spirit which has escaped the tomb...
...perhaps this adventure isn't over yet! ;^)
It's very funny. Gary's suggestions as to fooling the players worked _perfectly_. Everyone is planning new characters for the next campaign (as Necropolis was always planned to end this campaign with). They've all been saying how much they enjoyed the adventure.
I do hope I survive the revelation in the next session that they're not finished. ^_^
Cheers!
Merric
P.S. Yes, Greg's the best player of the group. His character, Lukas, an archer-mage, has yet to die after almost 3 years of this campaign.
