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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Wizardru's Story Hour (updated 11/21)
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First Post
Down with the Dead Men - Chapter 5
Down with the Dead Men – Chapter 5
OOC Notes:
Exp to be calculated later.
Loot:
Bracers of armor +5
Ring of protection +3
2 +3 unholy daggers
Boots of striding and springing
Periapt of wisdom +4
+3 large acidic burst halberd
+1 large fleshgrinding longspear, slightly used
Breastplate of darkness undeterred
Ring of protection +3
Gauntlets of Vile Fortitude +4
Belt of Giant Strength +4
Chain shirt +4
Cloak of Resistance +3
Ring of Protection +1
Greater Bracers of Archery
+4 unholy crossbow (Ashen Harbinger)
Dancing Rapier +2
Vest of resistance +5
Cloak of Protection +4
Belt of Health +4
Gloves of dexterity +2
Headband of intellect +6
Wand of Lightning 10th level, 33 charges
A recap:
For the convenience of the readers who have gone a while without seeing an update (due to our clashing schedules), here is a brief recap.
The group became aware of some of the recent activities of Dravot’s animus grandfather, Chavram. He was moving through the Underdark and gathering allies but the end was unknown. There was to be a summit of these allies wherein he would be cementing his relationships with them and revealing his plans to them. Much of this information came to the group by way of Dravot’s brother Kaltin, also an animus and not entirely under the control of his grandfather.
Word reached the group of the time and place of the meeting – it would be held at the Deathvent – an underwater tunnel leading to the Underdark. The company moved to attack the meeting, braving underwater hazards and a large naga. They found the Deathvent and a large structure at the opening that seemed to be some kind of living creature grown to serve as a base of operations with several round pods connected by tubes. The group entered the structure and moved through several chambers.
At last they came into a large central dome that was entirely open and had seating like an arena or theatre. Arrayed around the room, a wide array of evil beings listened to the proceedings. Clinging to one wall was a strange tentacled creature that seemed more a mass of protoplasm that shaped itself into a vague semblance of a spider. Inside its translucent body, parts and creatures floated around. Something like that could only come from the Far Realms. Worse, riding it was a Minotaur Death Knight. Dark Stalkers sat on the seats around the room, and more powerful stalkers or shadowdancers were made out by Valanthe or Kayleigh. At the center were six figures. Three were drow, two female and one male. Two were humans and seemed of arcane talents. The last was Chavram, or at least what was supposed to appear to be Chavram. It was in fact Kaltin, disguised and under Chavram’s mental control.
Upon entry, faux-Chavram greeted our heroes immediately and made it plain that this was part of his plan. He was assaulting the various power bases in the Underdark and he intended us to destroy the emissaries here. They would surely attack faux-Chavram now that his treachery was revealed, and that was to serve as the party’s incentive to attack the evil forces.
This Week’s Adventure:
Before me stood what was most likely some of the most powerful representatives of the most hated enemy of my people.
And I… I couldn’t really find it in myself to care. They were not relevant to me. They had bigger troubles, if Chavram was to be believed. And I detest playing into Chavram’s hand by destroying them. Regrettably, I didn’t think they would be quick to see the logic of this position. At least not without some casualties first. The strength of this position was reinforced when it became clear that at least some of them recognized who we were.
I wasn’t going to wait to find out.
I decided it was time to give my new bow a workout, and fired an ice-enchanted arrow at the nearest drow female below. She had some defenses against the icy onslaught but more than a little of it got through and she reeled backwards with the force of the attack. A quick mental command brought the one shield guardian we’d squeezed through the halls into the room and it layered a Mirror Image on me.
Valanthe slipped into the shadows and moved off to deal with the more skilled shadow dancers hidden in the room. Generally I would not suggest sending strength against strength this way, but I was reasonably sure that Valanthe was far more skilled than her opponents. Most of the group could not even register these shadows, and they seemed surprised that Valanthe could find them all, let alone two of us. Dark blades began flickering in deadly exchanges on the edge of perception.
The pyrotechnics then began. Scorch attempted to disintegrate one of the mages below. One of the creatures caused a black cloud to rise in front of us, which seemed somewhat inconvenient and a stalling tactic at best. Dravot stepped around it and let off a Sunburst on the far side of the room that sent most of the dark stalkers reeling. Bolo, seeing how effective it was, repeated the act and most of the dark stalkers were only barely alive after it. One of the stronger stalkers had pulled the darkness around him like a cloak but the twin sunbursts had torn it apart.
[Author’s note: Yes, a dark stalker grabbed the darkness and wrapped it around himself like a cloak. And I wished it had been my turn to act so I could have said “I cast magic missile at the darkness!”]
Some of the stalkers closed in on the exposed Dravot, one of them landed a blade deep in his side. But this seemed insignificant compared to the minotaur. He roared in challenged and seemed thrilled to see a worthy foe. His markings indicated he was a thrall of Baphomet and he was salivating at the chance to fight Aethramyr. He hurled a spear at the paladin and then drew his halberd and charged across the amphitheater.
Dravot was in a bad position, being one of the few of us exposed to view of the most of the room. (The fog of darkness seemed to be helping us more than them.) The senior drow cleric hissed something foul in his direction (translated “Enjoy the kiss of Lloth”) and released a black ray at him. The ray drained a large part of his personal energy and even his sunlight shadow was extinguished.
The other female – the one I had fired at – drank a potion.
How embarrassing. A potion? Is this what we’ve come to?
One of the humans on the dias cast a meteor swarm at us, but overall it had hardly any impact worth noting save to show his power.
Since I was obscured behind the fog, I had to peek up above the edge. So I released a single arrow and with it a Chain Lightning arced across the dias. Alone it wasn’t too bad, but it was intended to simply soften things up for the Acid Ball Scorch followed up with. My target dropped, her black flesh falling off her bones. The others drow were less inconvenienced, but the humans were a bit more burned. The senior drow knew that she would be my next favored target, and attempted to protect herself with an Interposing Hand. The last time I was caught with one of these, it was quite the problem, but I was sure now I could easily shoot around it.
The spider-like thing oozed a mass of caustic webbing at Bolo, snared him and began reeling him in. Bolo shifted to the form of a fire elemental and the webbing quickly fell away – a fine response. Meanwhile his master and Aethramyr exchanged opening spells and barbs, bracing themselves for the physical clash to come.
Another spellcaster entered the room and locked in on Scorch. A giant crushing fist appeared out of the sky and began hammering away at the spot Scorch quickly moved away from. The impact was so severe as to make me worry that it would shatter the dome if left unchecked.
Valanthe continued to exchange blades with the shadowdancers and was clearly having her way with them. She had dropped one of their most powerful number and was carving up another with abandon.
Now that there were some casualties of the battle, perhaps they were ready to be more reasonable. I fired a full volley of arrows at the drow leader to punctuate the point I was about to make. She was still standing but had taken quite a lot of pain and would not stand that punishment a second time.
And in a clear slow voice, I said “Walk. Away. You gain nothing by fighting us. And nothing by dying, save serving Chavram’s whim.”
The drow were first. She spoke to the male near her “The chalk elf is right. We go. But you remain and break your staff.” And she teleported away.
Break the staff. Well that could only mean one or two things, and neither was very good. Dravot said calmly over the link “I’ve got it.” And with that, he calmly Dispelled the staff. It wasn’t permanent of course but it would probably be long enough for us to get Kaltin out of the way.
The drow seemed not to notice Dravot’s spell. He smiled a twisted grin as he brought the staff down on his knee. The grin turned to a pout as nothing happened. It was beautiful.
On the other hand, the minotaur was determined to stand and fight. He swung his halberd not at Aethramyr but at Shatterspike. But the vitaesis blade easily turned aside the blow without so much as a scratch. Aethramyr returned the attacks in kind and Shatterspike cut hard into the dead knight’s flesh. Given the players, I’m sure it would be a pitched battle to the end. I suspect Aethramyr would have won in the end, but I couldn’t be sure of that of course. But the fact remains that Aethramyr had one thing that the minotaur lacked: Friends.
After Aethramyr landed several wide slashes on the minotaur, he simply stopped and stood in a relaxed stance. The minotaur hesitated a moment, not understanding. He did not know what Aethramyr knew – that in another moment, a stream of arrows would come over his shoulder and bury themselves in the minotaur’s chest. And the minotaur could only stare at Aethramyr in the shock of defeat while the paladin waited another moment for his foe’s body to collapse to the floor, vanquished and destroyed.
The shadowdancers had their fill of their own blood being spilled and began retreating, as did other spellcasters by whatever means they had available. This left only the spider-thing, who seemed immune to reason. It lashed out tentacles at Bolo, and even though a fire elemental, the blows left him reeling and he collapsed to the floor and reverted to elven form. What was disguised as an elemental was clear as an elf – the blows were fatal, and Bolo was dead.
Even now, I’m not sure whether to be pleased or disturbed. Pleased that we can fix it fairly readily. Disturbed that it ever be treated as something so minor. Aethramyr was quick to exact vengeance on the spider, and between us we laid the beast open, and with that the battle was ours.
Dravot walked onto the dias. The drow male was pointing the raw ends of the staff at him, waiting for them to do… well… something. The suppression wouldn’t last long, but Scorch had seen to it. An invisible force barrier sprung up around the drow, but he didn’t see it. Dravot stood calmly in front of him and waited, and a few seconds later there was a “Whumpf” sound…
I’ll spare the details and just say that there was nothing inside the barrier left save a blue-black mist. It wasn’t pretty.
Chavram was still in control of Kaltin. He clucked. “Tsk tsk. Well I must say I am disappointed. But it’s all fine I suppose. My giant and undead forces have by now crushed the Underdark forces, and broken the spines of the powers below. And in the process the undead have surely been destroyed as well.”
He said as an aside “Never rely on the undead as a power base grandson. They are very unreliable.”
“But never mind that. Lest you think me ungrateful, I will give you two gifts. First is your brother – keep him safe. Continue to satisfy my goals and I will return to you your brother and your father. That is only if you continue to accrue the power necessary. I should mention there are demons of significant power residing on the Prime that would threaten your security and peace. You should cleanse them and remove their taints.”
“Wait didn’t whats-her-name say the same thing?” Valanthe piped up.
“Rhyxali,” I added. I wasn’t sure it was smart to mention that to Chavram, but it was done and seemed inconsequential.
Chavram nodded. “The task remains, grandson. You should cleanse them. If you are to assume godhood, you must fulfill your duties. Do not be like your father – recalcitrant, foolish, overly dedicated to the wrong ideals. He did not wish you to know the truth of your older brother. I told you I would return your father and your brother to you – I didn’t mean this one – I’m giving you him now as a gift. Did you honestly believe he was slain as you were told? Examine the records in your own household. I left enough clues for you in the manuals and yet you are… uncurious.”
Dravot was unamused. “I’m not uncurious. I’m overly distracted by you.”
Chavram feigned shock. “But I haven’t spoken to you in months! How could I distract you?”
He continued. “There are other distractions on the Prime, I know. I’ve even solved some of them for you. I solved the giant problem. I’m solving the drow problem. Perhaps I’ll even solve the Brotherhood problem for you too. But some things you must do for yourself if you are to become a god.”
Kaltin started convulsing and seemed to return to himself. His forehead changed slightly though in the process and a drop of blood started welling up from a small cut. When he recovered his senses, he spoke with two voices.
One was his. The other claimed to be that of a Prince.
It didn’t take long to guess. “What is your name, Prince?”
“I am Prince Farhud ibn Auda,” he said.
“You are the Binder of Illusion,” I replied. “Chavram has given us a binder?!?”
The Prince had no reply. I said “Prince Farhud, we will do our best to get you out of there. Prince Sumez and Prince Tupal have already been freed.” He simply nodded.
I turned to Dravot with a simple question. “Now what?”
Down with the Dead Men – Chapter 5
OOC Notes:
Exp to be calculated later.
Loot:
Bracers of armor +5
Ring of protection +3
2 +3 unholy daggers
Boots of striding and springing
Periapt of wisdom +4
+3 large acidic burst halberd
+1 large fleshgrinding longspear, slightly used
Breastplate of darkness undeterred
Ring of protection +3
Gauntlets of Vile Fortitude +4
Belt of Giant Strength +4
Chain shirt +4
Cloak of Resistance +3
Ring of Protection +1
Greater Bracers of Archery
+4 unholy crossbow (Ashen Harbinger)
Dancing Rapier +2
Vest of resistance +5
Cloak of Protection +4
Belt of Health +4
Gloves of dexterity +2
Headband of intellect +6
Wand of Lightning 10th level, 33 charges
A recap:
For the convenience of the readers who have gone a while without seeing an update (due to our clashing schedules), here is a brief recap.
The group became aware of some of the recent activities of Dravot’s animus grandfather, Chavram. He was moving through the Underdark and gathering allies but the end was unknown. There was to be a summit of these allies wherein he would be cementing his relationships with them and revealing his plans to them. Much of this information came to the group by way of Dravot’s brother Kaltin, also an animus and not entirely under the control of his grandfather.
Word reached the group of the time and place of the meeting – it would be held at the Deathvent – an underwater tunnel leading to the Underdark. The company moved to attack the meeting, braving underwater hazards and a large naga. They found the Deathvent and a large structure at the opening that seemed to be some kind of living creature grown to serve as a base of operations with several round pods connected by tubes. The group entered the structure and moved through several chambers.
At last they came into a large central dome that was entirely open and had seating like an arena or theatre. Arrayed around the room, a wide array of evil beings listened to the proceedings. Clinging to one wall was a strange tentacled creature that seemed more a mass of protoplasm that shaped itself into a vague semblance of a spider. Inside its translucent body, parts and creatures floated around. Something like that could only come from the Far Realms. Worse, riding it was a Minotaur Death Knight. Dark Stalkers sat on the seats around the room, and more powerful stalkers or shadowdancers were made out by Valanthe or Kayleigh. At the center were six figures. Three were drow, two female and one male. Two were humans and seemed of arcane talents. The last was Chavram, or at least what was supposed to appear to be Chavram. It was in fact Kaltin, disguised and under Chavram’s mental control.
Upon entry, faux-Chavram greeted our heroes immediately and made it plain that this was part of his plan. He was assaulting the various power bases in the Underdark and he intended us to destroy the emissaries here. They would surely attack faux-Chavram now that his treachery was revealed, and that was to serve as the party’s incentive to attack the evil forces.
This Week’s Adventure:
Before me stood what was most likely some of the most powerful representatives of the most hated enemy of my people.
And I… I couldn’t really find it in myself to care. They were not relevant to me. They had bigger troubles, if Chavram was to be believed. And I detest playing into Chavram’s hand by destroying them. Regrettably, I didn’t think they would be quick to see the logic of this position. At least not without some casualties first. The strength of this position was reinforced when it became clear that at least some of them recognized who we were.
I wasn’t going to wait to find out.
I decided it was time to give my new bow a workout, and fired an ice-enchanted arrow at the nearest drow female below. She had some defenses against the icy onslaught but more than a little of it got through and she reeled backwards with the force of the attack. A quick mental command brought the one shield guardian we’d squeezed through the halls into the room and it layered a Mirror Image on me.
Valanthe slipped into the shadows and moved off to deal with the more skilled shadow dancers hidden in the room. Generally I would not suggest sending strength against strength this way, but I was reasonably sure that Valanthe was far more skilled than her opponents. Most of the group could not even register these shadows, and they seemed surprised that Valanthe could find them all, let alone two of us. Dark blades began flickering in deadly exchanges on the edge of perception.
The pyrotechnics then began. Scorch attempted to disintegrate one of the mages below. One of the creatures caused a black cloud to rise in front of us, which seemed somewhat inconvenient and a stalling tactic at best. Dravot stepped around it and let off a Sunburst on the far side of the room that sent most of the dark stalkers reeling. Bolo, seeing how effective it was, repeated the act and most of the dark stalkers were only barely alive after it. One of the stronger stalkers had pulled the darkness around him like a cloak but the twin sunbursts had torn it apart.
[Author’s note: Yes, a dark stalker grabbed the darkness and wrapped it around himself like a cloak. And I wished it had been my turn to act so I could have said “I cast magic missile at the darkness!”]
Some of the stalkers closed in on the exposed Dravot, one of them landed a blade deep in his side. But this seemed insignificant compared to the minotaur. He roared in challenged and seemed thrilled to see a worthy foe. His markings indicated he was a thrall of Baphomet and he was salivating at the chance to fight Aethramyr. He hurled a spear at the paladin and then drew his halberd and charged across the amphitheater.
Dravot was in a bad position, being one of the few of us exposed to view of the most of the room. (The fog of darkness seemed to be helping us more than them.) The senior drow cleric hissed something foul in his direction (translated “Enjoy the kiss of Lloth”) and released a black ray at him. The ray drained a large part of his personal energy and even his sunlight shadow was extinguished.
The other female – the one I had fired at – drank a potion.
How embarrassing. A potion? Is this what we’ve come to?
One of the humans on the dias cast a meteor swarm at us, but overall it had hardly any impact worth noting save to show his power.
Since I was obscured behind the fog, I had to peek up above the edge. So I released a single arrow and with it a Chain Lightning arced across the dias. Alone it wasn’t too bad, but it was intended to simply soften things up for the Acid Ball Scorch followed up with. My target dropped, her black flesh falling off her bones. The others drow were less inconvenienced, but the humans were a bit more burned. The senior drow knew that she would be my next favored target, and attempted to protect herself with an Interposing Hand. The last time I was caught with one of these, it was quite the problem, but I was sure now I could easily shoot around it.
The spider-like thing oozed a mass of caustic webbing at Bolo, snared him and began reeling him in. Bolo shifted to the form of a fire elemental and the webbing quickly fell away – a fine response. Meanwhile his master and Aethramyr exchanged opening spells and barbs, bracing themselves for the physical clash to come.
Another spellcaster entered the room and locked in on Scorch. A giant crushing fist appeared out of the sky and began hammering away at the spot Scorch quickly moved away from. The impact was so severe as to make me worry that it would shatter the dome if left unchecked.
Valanthe continued to exchange blades with the shadowdancers and was clearly having her way with them. She had dropped one of their most powerful number and was carving up another with abandon.
Now that there were some casualties of the battle, perhaps they were ready to be more reasonable. I fired a full volley of arrows at the drow leader to punctuate the point I was about to make. She was still standing but had taken quite a lot of pain and would not stand that punishment a second time.
And in a clear slow voice, I said “Walk. Away. You gain nothing by fighting us. And nothing by dying, save serving Chavram’s whim.”
The drow were first. She spoke to the male near her “The chalk elf is right. We go. But you remain and break your staff.” And she teleported away.
Break the staff. Well that could only mean one or two things, and neither was very good. Dravot said calmly over the link “I’ve got it.” And with that, he calmly Dispelled the staff. It wasn’t permanent of course but it would probably be long enough for us to get Kaltin out of the way.
The drow seemed not to notice Dravot’s spell. He smiled a twisted grin as he brought the staff down on his knee. The grin turned to a pout as nothing happened. It was beautiful.
On the other hand, the minotaur was determined to stand and fight. He swung his halberd not at Aethramyr but at Shatterspike. But the vitaesis blade easily turned aside the blow without so much as a scratch. Aethramyr returned the attacks in kind and Shatterspike cut hard into the dead knight’s flesh. Given the players, I’m sure it would be a pitched battle to the end. I suspect Aethramyr would have won in the end, but I couldn’t be sure of that of course. But the fact remains that Aethramyr had one thing that the minotaur lacked: Friends.
After Aethramyr landed several wide slashes on the minotaur, he simply stopped and stood in a relaxed stance. The minotaur hesitated a moment, not understanding. He did not know what Aethramyr knew – that in another moment, a stream of arrows would come over his shoulder and bury themselves in the minotaur’s chest. And the minotaur could only stare at Aethramyr in the shock of defeat while the paladin waited another moment for his foe’s body to collapse to the floor, vanquished and destroyed.
The shadowdancers had their fill of their own blood being spilled and began retreating, as did other spellcasters by whatever means they had available. This left only the spider-thing, who seemed immune to reason. It lashed out tentacles at Bolo, and even though a fire elemental, the blows left him reeling and he collapsed to the floor and reverted to elven form. What was disguised as an elemental was clear as an elf – the blows were fatal, and Bolo was dead.
Even now, I’m not sure whether to be pleased or disturbed. Pleased that we can fix it fairly readily. Disturbed that it ever be treated as something so minor. Aethramyr was quick to exact vengeance on the spider, and between us we laid the beast open, and with that the battle was ours.
Dravot walked onto the dias. The drow male was pointing the raw ends of the staff at him, waiting for them to do… well… something. The suppression wouldn’t last long, but Scorch had seen to it. An invisible force barrier sprung up around the drow, but he didn’t see it. Dravot stood calmly in front of him and waited, and a few seconds later there was a “Whumpf” sound…
I’ll spare the details and just say that there was nothing inside the barrier left save a blue-black mist. It wasn’t pretty.
Chavram was still in control of Kaltin. He clucked. “Tsk tsk. Well I must say I am disappointed. But it’s all fine I suppose. My giant and undead forces have by now crushed the Underdark forces, and broken the spines of the powers below. And in the process the undead have surely been destroyed as well.”
He said as an aside “Never rely on the undead as a power base grandson. They are very unreliable.”
“But never mind that. Lest you think me ungrateful, I will give you two gifts. First is your brother – keep him safe. Continue to satisfy my goals and I will return to you your brother and your father. That is only if you continue to accrue the power necessary. I should mention there are demons of significant power residing on the Prime that would threaten your security and peace. You should cleanse them and remove their taints.”
“Wait didn’t whats-her-name say the same thing?” Valanthe piped up.
“Rhyxali,” I added. I wasn’t sure it was smart to mention that to Chavram, but it was done and seemed inconsequential.
Chavram nodded. “The task remains, grandson. You should cleanse them. If you are to assume godhood, you must fulfill your duties. Do not be like your father – recalcitrant, foolish, overly dedicated to the wrong ideals. He did not wish you to know the truth of your older brother. I told you I would return your father and your brother to you – I didn’t mean this one – I’m giving you him now as a gift. Did you honestly believe he was slain as you were told? Examine the records in your own household. I left enough clues for you in the manuals and yet you are… uncurious.”
Dravot was unamused. “I’m not uncurious. I’m overly distracted by you.”
Chavram feigned shock. “But I haven’t spoken to you in months! How could I distract you?”
He continued. “There are other distractions on the Prime, I know. I’ve even solved some of them for you. I solved the giant problem. I’m solving the drow problem. Perhaps I’ll even solve the Brotherhood problem for you too. But some things you must do for yourself if you are to become a god.”
Kaltin started convulsing and seemed to return to himself. His forehead changed slightly though in the process and a drop of blood started welling up from a small cut. When he recovered his senses, he spoke with two voices.
One was his. The other claimed to be that of a Prince.
It didn’t take long to guess. “What is your name, Prince?”
“I am Prince Farhud ibn Auda,” he said.
“You are the Binder of Illusion,” I replied. “Chavram has given us a binder?!?”
The Prince had no reply. I said “Prince Farhud, we will do our best to get you out of there. Prince Sumez and Prince Tupal have already been freed.” He simply nodded.
I turned to Dravot with a simple question. “Now what?”
Last edited:
dravot
First Post
A couple of game notes about the fight:
Dravot cast repulsion , which affected all of the yard trash, but, unfortunately none of the main opponents. It did give us some breathing room, however, and helped the drow decide to bug out.
Both Bolo and Dravot rolled horribly on most of our spell penetration attempts, or the fight would have turned out differently. Dravot was doing his best to keep an eye on Bolo, and healing him was the next item on Dravot's list. Next time, you'll be a higher priority, I promise.
Dravot was hit with Energy Drain, and lost 5 levels, including all of his 9th level spells, which was teh suck.
And the best: Scorch wrapped the remaining drow with the broken staff in a solid force cube. We all imagined in vivid detail what that would look like. Eeeew.
Dravot cast repulsion , which affected all of the yard trash, but, unfortunately none of the main opponents. It did give us some breathing room, however, and helped the drow decide to bug out.
Both Bolo and Dravot rolled horribly on most of our spell penetration attempts, or the fight would have turned out differently. Dravot was doing his best to keep an eye on Bolo, and healing him was the next item on Dravot's list. Next time, you'll be a higher priority, I promise.
Dravot was hit with Energy Drain, and lost 5 levels, including all of his 9th level spells, which was teh suck.
And the best: Scorch wrapped the remaining drow with the broken staff in a solid force cube. We all imagined in vivid detail what that would look like. Eeeew.
Last edited:
WizarDru
Adventurer
Some additional notes:
Valanthe was a terror to the shadow stalkers. Blightknife Prime couldn't see Val as he ran right past her. One massive damage save later, she had completely gutted him. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Aethramyr's displacement allowed him to 'not be there' for 6 separate attacks, including two criticals. Irritation doesn't describe it.
The staff in question (and the topic of much debate) was a Staff of Power. There had been speculation that it was a staff of the magi, but no such luck. The players were generally underwhelmed at it's capabilities, regardless, and had it survived, Val probably would have chucked it in her keep-until-the-DM-forgets-I-have-it bag, to produce at an inconvienent time, later.
The best loot escaped. I say this as a petty revenge.
Bolo will be reincarnated, as per his wishes, by a 9th-level variant of the Reincarnate spell that incurs no level loss, and uses....a different table of possible forms. I'm keeping that knowledge from him. The Horror. The Horror. (and no, the spell isn't learnable or approved by the SSOM spell-approval sub-committee).
The Senate, as we call it, was an awesome thing of beauty. If time can be found by Valanthe or myself, look for some battle pictures later today.
Valanthe was a terror to the shadow stalkers. Blightknife Prime couldn't see Val as he ran right past her. One massive damage save later, she had completely gutted him. Wash, rinse, repeat.
Aethramyr's displacement allowed him to 'not be there' for 6 separate attacks, including two criticals. Irritation doesn't describe it.
The staff in question (and the topic of much debate) was a Staff of Power. There had been speculation that it was a staff of the magi, but no such luck. The players were generally underwhelmed at it's capabilities, regardless, and had it survived, Val probably would have chucked it in her keep-until-the-DM-forgets-I-have-it bag, to produce at an inconvienent time, later.
The best loot escaped. I say this as a petty revenge.
Bolo will be reincarnated, as per his wishes, by a 9th-level variant of the Reincarnate spell that incurs no level loss, and uses....a different table of possible forms. I'm keeping that knowledge from him. The Horror. The Horror. (and no, the spell isn't learnable or approved by the SSOM spell-approval sub-committee).
The Senate, as we call it, was an awesome thing of beauty. If time can be found by Valanthe or myself, look for some battle pictures later today.
Argent Silvermage
First Post
At least Bolo got a good amount of shadowstalkers before he went down.
Let me tell you Holy Word rocks!
Let me tell you Holy Word rocks!
Zad
First Post
Oh we'll happily approve it provided that a) it's not learnable by Bolo and b) it turns Bolo into unfortunate things. The committee only worries itself about things that can come from Bolo's little wiggling fingertips - things that happen to him are just fine by us.
/giggles madly
"Let's see...[roll]....67.... A dire carp!"
Argent Silvermage
First Post
Zad said:
AAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
/deep breath
AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LordVyreth
First Post
Zad said:
Hehe, brilliant. I had a similar moment a few games ago when we were attacked by a CR 30 abomination the DM made that he simply told us was darkness. Of course that forced me to later say "I attack the darkness."
So, on a similar note, when can we expect a report on Valenthe stealing somebody's pants? Not that she wants the pants; she just wants to see if she could take them. Though I imagine by now it won't even require a die roll.
LordVyreth
First Post
WizarDru said:
SSOM spell-approval sub-committee? Tell me more.
Incidentally, I have a fairly complicated house rule on resurrection/reincarnation if the party's getting disappointed with the way raising the dead currently works. You might have to tweak it for high level play, though. Let me know if you're interested in looking at it.
Zad
First Post
Well, it works like this. Bolo has a way of digging up obscure spells. And then springing them on everyone, and not necessarily with the intended effect. This is especially true of many of the more questionable spells in Masters of the Wild. The most notable occasion was when he tried to use Mandragorra.
I don't have the specifics in front of me, but in short, it will deafen those who fail the save, and grant true seeing to those who make the save. This includes your allies.
All the bad guys made their save, and Aethramyr I recall specifically failed his save and was deafened. It was at this time we determined that all new spells must be vetted by the Spell Approval Sub-committee to be reviewed for usefulness, danger to the party, and general munchkinism.
Yes, this was entirely a joke. But a joke we still whip out. If you adventured with Bolo, you would too.
- Status
