For the first session, the party travelled for a time away from the city before stopping. Once they did so, as dawn was breaking, Audrius was awakened by his eye sentry by significant movement from the south. He awoke and borrowed Jorn's spyglass and saw what seemed to be four people in bone white full-plate & tower shields with scraps of grey funeral shrouds trailing behind them, riding skeletal horses in similar barding in full gallop towards the party.
Not certain if these were hostile, the party went into hiding except for Antric, who awaited their arrival. Because they were in full gallop without slowing, this was not a long wait. Just as they were seconds away, they each reached behind them and pulled out lances, the head seeming to be obsidian that emitted smoke constantly. They rode by in columns past Antric, two of them surpassing the defenses of his shields and gravely wounding him.
As the party realized they were hostile, they lept from hiding and began to unleash their attacks, with Audrius hurling magic to gum up their steeds and Jorn using the nearby dune to duck behind between shots and disappear without anyone even being able to tell where the arrows came from. Honestly, Jorn did the lion's share of the damage here, one-shotting each horse to deprive them of their steeds and ultimately one-shotting the knights because the party softened them up by the time he got to them.
Once defeated, the party saw the armor & weapons degrade in quality and discovered that it was skeletons beneath the helmets. Audrius recognized what these were to be Pale Riders, dark warriors sent out to slay the enemy, ever tireless in their pursuit and able to move their spirits into any nearby corpse if ever defeated.
Knowing they would return eventually, Audrius planned out a binding circle to capture their spirits as soon as they left the next set of bodies to ensure that they don't repossess a corpse.
Unsure of how far the corpses would be to be animated (that stage takes an hour) with the travel time to reach them, they returned to sleep with Audrius's eye on watch. An hour later, he was awoken to the sight of the Pale Riders coming from the same direction towards them. This time, they knew them to be hostile, so Jorn used his sniper like skills to kill each horse as they galloped before even reaching the party. Meanwhile, Audrius and Flynn worked together to draw the binding circle.
Jorn wasn't confident with striking the Pale Riders themselves at these distances, so he waited, and observed them slowly regrouping and eventually skewering one of their slain steeds in unison, raising it up, and marching towards the party with the horse corpse as a shield.
Just before the Pale Riders got within charging distance, they began to howl and scream and shake, and then collapsed into a pile of lifeless bones and armor pieces. The party waited for five minutes before getting any closer to examine what happened, and as soon as Jorn touched one of the bones, they all flew back together into the four Pale Riders and stabbed with their lances. There was a bit of damage, but the party had an easier time this time since they didn't have to worry about them being mounted or having the opportunity to charge.
Slaying the Pale Riders, their spirits were captured in the prepared vessels, at which point the party deduced the animated corpses they were using must just be over the sand dune in the distance to arrive so quickly. With haste, they mounted up and rode over to see what was over the dune, discovering a full dozen Pale Riders surrounding a decorative and demonic box which Audrius theorized to be the phylactery for the Pale Riders. Cautiously, they attacked the soldiers from a great distance, and discovered they were only mindless skeletons (prepared vessels for the Pale Riders) and made quick work with them.
They rechecked the box to verify it as the repository for the spirits of the four Pale Riders, sundered it, and went back to sleep.
Afterwards, they travelled further until they found a cave to hide in, asking the dreamthief (been hiding Between the Veils while combat occured) to take them into Audrius's dreams in order to seek out this flower that the Black Lotus Eaters.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Ferrous Fortune Hunters: Session XVII
Good game here, though technically a bit long on the exposition and short on the interactive scenes, but this is where we closed a plot hook I gave the party on the first session. I need to give Pat's character, Kagemane, more opportunity to shine since he's actually been a bit short on the offense due to circumstance. Jon's arcanist is getting downright intimidating now that his cursed rolling seems to have left him. Oh, and I finally had a chance to give each player a unique magic item to call their own.
Kagemane and Flynn begin their trek to the opposite side of the city, bringing most of their camp with them just in case they need to leave quickly. As they travel, Flynn notices that the non-ruined part of the city has disappeared from view and realizes that the ruins are entangled in a jungle oasis. He doesn't consider this exceedingly out of the ordinary, and continues to follow Kagemane (who appears to be expertly striding around the trees and the like without worry). Eventually, they find the rest of the party, at which point Flynn comments as to whether they should be worried about the sound of drums he's hearing.
No other party member seems to be able to hear the drums surrounding the party, but they trust Flynn's word and everyone except Antric disappear behind cover. The drumming gets closer, followed by a nine-foot hulking frog man with a goblin sitting on his back, using a pair of drums in a pattern for war. The creature swipes at Flynn, where the rest of the party only sees Flynn leaping from his hiding place with wounds appearing ex nihilo. As he tries to fight, Audrius figures out that he's deeply embedded in a glamer, and creates another glamer in his mind of an ally similar to that of Jorn. Because this illusion is in the mind of Flynn, it is able to interact with the illusion of the slaad (frog man). A few more passes in combat, and the illusion is vanquished, with one of the goblin's drums actually fading into reality while the rest of the illusion is disbelieved away so that Flynn realizes it's just a sand covered ruin.
They gather their wits and descend into the dungeon, with Audrius having taken note of which passages he saw the original sorcerer adventurer take as the safest route. A couple traps are bypassed, a particularly vicious trap is dealt with that has the walls violently slam together. Shortly, they enter the chamber with the large dragon bleeding into the well, and contemplate the manner in which to free it. Remembering the favor the Melnibonean asked of them what seemed like so long ago, they activated the feather and sent a message stating that they found the source of Ino's bindings.
This conversation is interrupted by Ino, who had started to develop wrinkles and several streaks of white hair, who suddenly reverted to her child form. A sorcerer adventurer holding a gilded & runed amulet enters the room from one of the doors and thanks the group for bringing 'their' property back, and now they only need to have her original binding sigil. Flynn bluffs him, holding a piece of random paper and bolts down the hallway they came from.
The leader orders two of his spider adventurers to chase him and offers a cart full of gold and gems to the rest of the party if they help. Jorn lies and goes after Flynn, pulling out his bow to help kill the two sorcerer adventurers out of sight. It's only a few moments for Kagemane, waiting for an open moment after Jorn leaves, before he's charing at the leader with his weapon drawn. Expecting this, a wall of energy was formed around Kagemane, and called forth two more adventurers from the shadows to attack. These assassins horribly wound both Antric and Audrius, especially when the leader pulls out another spell and mind controls Antric.
In a desperation move, Audrius pulls out a massive enchantment spell and mind controls both assassins and Antric, then sends them at the leading arcanist. The arcanist pulls out the stops and hurls two bolts of power, one at Audrius and another at Antric, though the one at Audrius misses (would've killed him otherwise). The assassins converge, and Kagemane cuts his way out of the cage of energy (Tool of the Mender strikes again!).
Meanwhile, Flynn remembered the crushing wall trap, & rearms it as he runs by. He taunts the chasing sorcerer adventurers into walking without caution, and the two are grievously injured by the crushing walls; then finished off by Flynn who flips over their head and strikes them both in the back. Jorn takes this as a sign Flynn is fine by himself, and sprints back down the hallway just in time to slaughter the arcane leader of the Brotherhood of the Spider.
As they catch their breath and deal with the two mind-controlled sorcerer adventurers, the party takes note that several of the warding sigils inside the cavern are glowing hot enough to start making the surrounding rock itself glow. Audrius and Flynn pool their collective knowledge of sigils to safely remove the anti-teleportation wards, and the Melnibonean arcanist.
He thanks the party for showing what happened, gives them a talisman to break the scapegoat spell, and offers to take the innocence demon under his ward to help heal her wounds. The party agrees, and are thankfully warned that they should leave the presence of the dragon within half an hour, because there will be two millenia of continual mortal wounds applied all at once back to the dragon (read: BOOM). He wishes the party luck in the upcoming shield contest, and takes his leave with Ino.
The dragon thanks the party for freeing him once he regains consciousness, bestows a magical shield of ice to Antric and water that can be formed & reformed into steel-hard ice, which Flynn plans on using for upgrading his clockwork golem.
With this, the party tells the dragon good luck on his travels, and high tails it out of the dungeon and away from Quarzhasaat as fast as possible. There is a purplish explosion that sets their teeth on edge twenty minutes later, and any chance of pursuit is destroyed in that blast.
Kagemane and Flynn begin their trek to the opposite side of the city, bringing most of their camp with them just in case they need to leave quickly. As they travel, Flynn notices that the non-ruined part of the city has disappeared from view and realizes that the ruins are entangled in a jungle oasis. He doesn't consider this exceedingly out of the ordinary, and continues to follow Kagemane (who appears to be expertly striding around the trees and the like without worry). Eventually, they find the rest of the party, at which point Flynn comments as to whether they should be worried about the sound of drums he's hearing.
No other party member seems to be able to hear the drums surrounding the party, but they trust Flynn's word and everyone except Antric disappear behind cover. The drumming gets closer, followed by a nine-foot hulking frog man with a goblin sitting on his back, using a pair of drums in a pattern for war. The creature swipes at Flynn, where the rest of the party only sees Flynn leaping from his hiding place with wounds appearing ex nihilo. As he tries to fight, Audrius figures out that he's deeply embedded in a glamer, and creates another glamer in his mind of an ally similar to that of Jorn. Because this illusion is in the mind of Flynn, it is able to interact with the illusion of the slaad (frog man). A few more passes in combat, and the illusion is vanquished, with one of the goblin's drums actually fading into reality while the rest of the illusion is disbelieved away so that Flynn realizes it's just a sand covered ruin.
They gather their wits and descend into the dungeon, with Audrius having taken note of which passages he saw the original sorcerer adventurer take as the safest route. A couple traps are bypassed, a particularly vicious trap is dealt with that has the walls violently slam together. Shortly, they enter the chamber with the large dragon bleeding into the well, and contemplate the manner in which to free it. Remembering the favor the Melnibonean asked of them what seemed like so long ago, they activated the feather and sent a message stating that they found the source of Ino's bindings.
This conversation is interrupted by Ino, who had started to develop wrinkles and several streaks of white hair, who suddenly reverted to her child form. A sorcerer adventurer holding a gilded & runed amulet enters the room from one of the doors and thanks the group for bringing 'their' property back, and now they only need to have her original binding sigil. Flynn bluffs him, holding a piece of random paper and bolts down the hallway they came from.
The leader orders two of his spider adventurers to chase him and offers a cart full of gold and gems to the rest of the party if they help. Jorn lies and goes after Flynn, pulling out his bow to help kill the two sorcerer adventurers out of sight. It's only a few moments for Kagemane, waiting for an open moment after Jorn leaves, before he's charing at the leader with his weapon drawn. Expecting this, a wall of energy was formed around Kagemane, and called forth two more adventurers from the shadows to attack. These assassins horribly wound both Antric and Audrius, especially when the leader pulls out another spell and mind controls Antric.
In a desperation move, Audrius pulls out a massive enchantment spell and mind controls both assassins and Antric, then sends them at the leading arcanist. The arcanist pulls out the stops and hurls two bolts of power, one at Audrius and another at Antric, though the one at Audrius misses (would've killed him otherwise). The assassins converge, and Kagemane cuts his way out of the cage of energy (Tool of the Mender strikes again!).
Meanwhile, Flynn remembered the crushing wall trap, & rearms it as he runs by. He taunts the chasing sorcerer adventurers into walking without caution, and the two are grievously injured by the crushing walls; then finished off by Flynn who flips over their head and strikes them both in the back. Jorn takes this as a sign Flynn is fine by himself, and sprints back down the hallway just in time to slaughter the arcane leader of the Brotherhood of the Spider.
As they catch their breath and deal with the two mind-controlled sorcerer adventurers, the party takes note that several of the warding sigils inside the cavern are glowing hot enough to start making the surrounding rock itself glow. Audrius and Flynn pool their collective knowledge of sigils to safely remove the anti-teleportation wards, and the Melnibonean arcanist.
He thanks the party for showing what happened, gives them a talisman to break the scapegoat spell, and offers to take the innocence demon under his ward to help heal her wounds. The party agrees, and are thankfully warned that they should leave the presence of the dragon within half an hour, because there will be two millenia of continual mortal wounds applied all at once back to the dragon (read: BOOM). He wishes the party luck in the upcoming shield contest, and takes his leave with Ino.
The dragon thanks the party for freeing him once he regains consciousness, bestows a magical shield of ice to Antric and water that can be formed & reformed into steel-hard ice, which Flynn plans on using for upgrading his clockwork golem.
With this, the party tells the dragon good luck on his travels, and high tails it out of the dungeon and away from Quarzhasaat as fast as possible. There is a purplish explosion that sets their teeth on edge twenty minutes later, and any chance of pursuit is destroyed in that blast.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Ferrous Fortune Hunters: Session XVI
Good session this time around. While the party did get sidetracked here and there, we actually got a fair bit accomplished in spite of it all. I'm a little bit annoyed with myself that we didn't do more with Kagemane, but he does tend to be a wallflower without much emotion (Captain Obvious gave me a thumbs up for that one :P). I'm surprised at Jon's ability to get Audrius (the arcanist) to be quite useful at this point, which stems from both boldness with magic AND being able to roll higher than a 6.
I forgot to mention, but two sessions ago, one of my players (Slater, character's name is Flynn) had some work scheduling conflict. We thought he would be gone for a month or two, so I started altering the plot so that his character's absence wouldn't cause undue pressure, which is why you didn't see him around last session. However, he got the issue resolved, so he only actually missed a single session. The rest of the group went out to grab some fast food, so Slater & I did a one-on-one to catch him up and redirect him back to the party in a way that fit the plot.
Flynn heard of the nation of Kasheen, a kingdom renowned for its master clockwork engineers. Since he didn't have a terribly deep connection with the party, he decided to explore this new dimension on his own towards a more interesting location and left about a week before the rest of the party embarked on their quest to the lost city to the north. Kasheen lay to the east a fair distance, but it was over terrain that was much easier to cross than a desolate desert, so he could survive fine on his own.
About four days into the journey, he comes across a vast army that fielded a sizeable portion of undead minions at the front. Amidst the undead horde were a smattering of very heavily armoured humans astride equally barded steeds and carrying both a shield and large banner showing the sign of the Black Lotus Eaters, and seemed to be the herders of the undead. Deeper within the army was a large contingent of adequetly equipped, normal human soldiers with some kind of badge showing their alleigance. At the heart of the army were two siege towers and a particularly larger siege tower, which seemed to almost be a mobile fortress. Surrounding the bases and atop the ramparts of each siege tower were numerous, heavily armoured individuals that all wore black cloaks with a ruby hint. There were also several tracker demons, as seen from last session, scattered at various locations in the army that slither between the ranks in an attempt to keep a low profile. In the sky around the army were at least half a dozen vrocks (previously encountered vulture demons) patrolling the area as the army moved.
Flynn went out of their immediate path, and found a safe spot to watch from, and barely noticed the vrock that snuck up behind him. It inquired as to who would be so foolish as to stay in sight of such an army, and it could sense a feeling of competence that told the vrock that perhaps Flynn would consider it prudent to speak with the master. Not wanting to cause trouble, he acquiesced and was carried to one of the smaller towers. There, he spoke with the arcanist in charge of one of the smaller siege towers, and gave him alot of information regarding the party. However, he bluffed the arcanist and informed him that the party plans on staying for at least another four months in the city and then plans on going to the south for a shield contest (where they're actually leaving in three days to the north into a vast desert).
At this point, the arcanist offers Flynn an offer of employment that will also save his life. In exchange for finding his 'wayward companions', he offered him access to a stipend that will last the rest of his days, access to the Black Lotus Eater's troves of arcane lore, as well as several knowledge demons bound to his service. Flynn agreed to this, taking a sending lizard (anything physically done to it is also done to its mate, and it regenerates fairly fast) and a larval tracker demon (only good for finding the party) with him and planning on being careful since he saw through the lies given tohim by the arcanist. As they walked outside to a demon that would be provided to him, the arcanist cocked his head as if hearing something for but a moment.
Flynn was brought before a flaming horse with iron hooves and molten breath, and recognized it as a high-quality demon of traveling (twice as fast as any mortal horse, able to run across water, through the air for short jumps, and potentially between planes). The arcanist told him that once he mounted the creature, it required a soul for him to dismount, but some animal they pass should cover it (bold-faced lie, it takes the rider's soul once he dismounts unless a human soul is given at the start of the journey). Flynn accepted this, jumped onto the horse in one motion, yet continued to spin and jumped off and landed with his gauntlets on the arcanist's shoulders. Holding himself up for a moment, he grabbed and twisted the arcanist's head until it snapped, and leapt off the falling body onto the horse again (who accepted the escaping soul). He stirred it to move swiftly away from the edge of the army and towards the party. Mechanics-wise, stunts with double sneak attacks do wonders for dealing ~73 damage in a single round.
We now fast forward to the party, a day out from the Silver Flower Oasis along the Red Road towards the 'lost' city of Quarzhasaat. They see off in the distance, a black figure coming towards them supernaturally fast. In short order, they see that it's a fatigued and exhausted Flynn astride a healthy looking horse of demonic power. He jumps off of it, pats it on the flank and waves it goodbye. After chugging a gallon of water, he tells the party what he just escaped from.
The party informs Flynn of what has been happening on their end of things, and invite him along on their journey to Quarzhasaat. While they travel, they speak with the dreamthief to better understand his craft, who gives some detail but unable to properly word the method of his profession due to both secrecy and the training/background required. Under some request, he agrees to keep an eye out in the dreamscape in case the Black Lotus Eaters make a move he can notice; and agrees to take a dream from Flynn (nicest one to enter) so that they may try out a stolen dream.
They camp for the night and resume their journey, eventually seeing the filled city of Quarzhasaat. At this point, the dreamthief began to inform the party of some of the rules as he was aware last time he left...
* No container is to be pure wood or skin; a metal or clay/ceramic is required
* All stoppers must be airtight, no cork
* All consumption and/or trade of water must be conducted such that no party is in direct contact with the sun
* None are to disturb the public fountains
* The sale of containers for water must be on the northern side of town, with windows open from the east, and certified by the Water Watch (local police force with a dedicated purpose)
* The minimum punishment for all infractions is flogging
* Updates and/or changes to these rules are announced once a week in town square at the 7th hour after the sun has set
* Changes to the system of announcing updates/changes will only be announced on an even hour on the NE corner of Sunny Sundries
There were a few other rules, but the party got the gist of the situation they were entering; especially after being told that the Water Watch had domesticated achthu (anteater-badger hybrid that can smell water). Before planning too much, a group of what seemed to be desert nomads came to them, all wearing the same robes of black silk. Their eyelids and wrists were densely and intricately tattooed as if a veil was placed over them. They greeted and welcomed the party to the most wonderful city of Quarzshaat, and told them they will without trouble with bringing their demon within the walls of the city. After a bit more pleasentries, Jorn and Flynn could tell they had their eyes set on Ino from the beginning, and would probably attack if the party decided to just leave without going into the city.
The dreamthief, after the group left, told the party that was the Brotherhood of the Moth, a clan from the Sorcerer Adventurers who are all beholden to the whims of the nobles of this city. Ino asserted that he was correct, but didn't like to speak of them much (woman form by now), and warned the party to beware of the Brotherhood of the Spider.
Parking their camels a distance from the city itself, Kagemane and Jorn went into the area to get an idea of what was necessary to procure containers that were up to code; as they had brought about a hundred gallons for emergencies (only to discover that their skills at surviving in the outdoors were sufficient to go out there naked, practically).
Inside the city itself, which literally had gold paving the aqueducts, but the party could tell there was an undercurrent of stress at every corner because of the numerous & obscure water laws. There even seemed to be some code spoken between a trader & noble even they, with their trained social senses, couldn't understand. After a close call when Jorn took out his non-code canteen in the light of the sun before a container salesman, they managed to find a member of the Water Watch to exchange said canteen for a water token (safer means of exchange, subject to same rules). They had to do this, because Jorn's bag of a hundred pieces of gold might have gotten him a thimble of water.
The entire time, Ino (innocence demon) was acting morose, having shifted to woman form and began to accrue white streaks when Jorn & Kagemane started getting near the upper-class part of town.
Once they had this business settled, they asked around for information regarding the ruins their journal/map spoke of, and found out there's a haunted section of the city that was walled off shortly after the cataclysm left in ruins and on the other side of the city from where the party was camped. They left behind Kagemane and Flynn to watch the camp while the rest of them went into the ruins to investigate (Jorn, Antric, Audrius).
Audrius thought he saw movement near the border of the ruins as they approached, but they were all distracted when the image of the unruined city began to fade and the trees of an oasis began to superimpose around the ruins, with a bit of concentration from the feeling of pressure in their heads, the images faded away.
Cautiously, they approached the ruins, watching for trouble, and eventually came upon what seemed to be the original markings that the mapmaker came upon. As they examined them, Jorn heard footsteps and alerted the other two. Jorn and Audrius moved close to Antric's armored side, which saved their hides, as a trio of scimitar-wielding Sorcerer Adventurers jumped out of...something...and hit Antric's shields.
They told the party to hand over the demon, which was theirs by right, and would take it by force. Jorn warned them that force was a bad idea, and they weren't giving up Ino; at which point, our warriors attacked as usual and two were slaughtered within 10 seconds. The third chopped at the air and stepped between it, disappearing from sight.
After a few moments, Audrius casts a scrying spell and begins to follow the surviving assassin. He turns out to be in an underground passage, moving swiftly into a large room with a massive water fountain against the wall. There are arcane sigils strewn across the cavern (Audrius recognizes to be various warding and binding sigils). Immediately above the well is an oriental dragon with ocean-blue scales, literally pinned to the wall on massive iron spikes. It's lifeblood, pure water, continuously flows out into the well and into gold-lined aqueducts.
One of the sigils begins to glow, and the scryed sorcerer pulls out some dust and throws it on the sigil, where it begins to burn and the smoke follows the scrying enchantment. Audrius cancels the effect, calls for the rest of the party to convene, and thus begins our first dungeon crawl in the campaign!
I forgot to mention, but two sessions ago, one of my players (Slater, character's name is Flynn) had some work scheduling conflict. We thought he would be gone for a month or two, so I started altering the plot so that his character's absence wouldn't cause undue pressure, which is why you didn't see him around last session. However, he got the issue resolved, so he only actually missed a single session. The rest of the group went out to grab some fast food, so Slater & I did a one-on-one to catch him up and redirect him back to the party in a way that fit the plot.
Flynn heard of the nation of Kasheen, a kingdom renowned for its master clockwork engineers. Since he didn't have a terribly deep connection with the party, he decided to explore this new dimension on his own towards a more interesting location and left about a week before the rest of the party embarked on their quest to the lost city to the north. Kasheen lay to the east a fair distance, but it was over terrain that was much easier to cross than a desolate desert, so he could survive fine on his own.
About four days into the journey, he comes across a vast army that fielded a sizeable portion of undead minions at the front. Amidst the undead horde were a smattering of very heavily armoured humans astride equally barded steeds and carrying both a shield and large banner showing the sign of the Black Lotus Eaters, and seemed to be the herders of the undead. Deeper within the army was a large contingent of adequetly equipped, normal human soldiers with some kind of badge showing their alleigance. At the heart of the army were two siege towers and a particularly larger siege tower, which seemed to almost be a mobile fortress. Surrounding the bases and atop the ramparts of each siege tower were numerous, heavily armoured individuals that all wore black cloaks with a ruby hint. There were also several tracker demons, as seen from last session, scattered at various locations in the army that slither between the ranks in an attempt to keep a low profile. In the sky around the army were at least half a dozen vrocks (previously encountered vulture demons) patrolling the area as the army moved.
Flynn went out of their immediate path, and found a safe spot to watch from, and barely noticed the vrock that snuck up behind him. It inquired as to who would be so foolish as to stay in sight of such an army, and it could sense a feeling of competence that told the vrock that perhaps Flynn would consider it prudent to speak with the master. Not wanting to cause trouble, he acquiesced and was carried to one of the smaller towers. There, he spoke with the arcanist in charge of one of the smaller siege towers, and gave him alot of information regarding the party. However, he bluffed the arcanist and informed him that the party plans on staying for at least another four months in the city and then plans on going to the south for a shield contest (where they're actually leaving in three days to the north into a vast desert).
At this point, the arcanist offers Flynn an offer of employment that will also save his life. In exchange for finding his 'wayward companions', he offered him access to a stipend that will last the rest of his days, access to the Black Lotus Eater's troves of arcane lore, as well as several knowledge demons bound to his service. Flynn agreed to this, taking a sending lizard (anything physically done to it is also done to its mate, and it regenerates fairly fast) and a larval tracker demon (only good for finding the party) with him and planning on being careful since he saw through the lies given tohim by the arcanist. As they walked outside to a demon that would be provided to him, the arcanist cocked his head as if hearing something for but a moment.
Flynn was brought before a flaming horse with iron hooves and molten breath, and recognized it as a high-quality demon of traveling (twice as fast as any mortal horse, able to run across water, through the air for short jumps, and potentially between planes). The arcanist told him that once he mounted the creature, it required a soul for him to dismount, but some animal they pass should cover it (bold-faced lie, it takes the rider's soul once he dismounts unless a human soul is given at the start of the journey). Flynn accepted this, jumped onto the horse in one motion, yet continued to spin and jumped off and landed with his gauntlets on the arcanist's shoulders. Holding himself up for a moment, he grabbed and twisted the arcanist's head until it snapped, and leapt off the falling body onto the horse again (who accepted the escaping soul). He stirred it to move swiftly away from the edge of the army and towards the party. Mechanics-wise, stunts with double sneak attacks do wonders for dealing ~73 damage in a single round.
We now fast forward to the party, a day out from the Silver Flower Oasis along the Red Road towards the 'lost' city of Quarzhasaat. They see off in the distance, a black figure coming towards them supernaturally fast. In short order, they see that it's a fatigued and exhausted Flynn astride a healthy looking horse of demonic power. He jumps off of it, pats it on the flank and waves it goodbye. After chugging a gallon of water, he tells the party what he just escaped from.
The party informs Flynn of what has been happening on their end of things, and invite him along on their journey to Quarzhasaat. While they travel, they speak with the dreamthief to better understand his craft, who gives some detail but unable to properly word the method of his profession due to both secrecy and the training/background required. Under some request, he agrees to keep an eye out in the dreamscape in case the Black Lotus Eaters make a move he can notice; and agrees to take a dream from Flynn (nicest one to enter) so that they may try out a stolen dream.
They camp for the night and resume their journey, eventually seeing the filled city of Quarzhasaat. At this point, the dreamthief began to inform the party of some of the rules as he was aware last time he left...
* No container is to be pure wood or skin; a metal or clay/ceramic is required
* All stoppers must be airtight, no cork
* All consumption and/or trade of water must be conducted such that no party is in direct contact with the sun
* None are to disturb the public fountains
* The sale of containers for water must be on the northern side of town, with windows open from the east, and certified by the Water Watch (local police force with a dedicated purpose)
* The minimum punishment for all infractions is flogging
* Updates and/or changes to these rules are announced once a week in town square at the 7th hour after the sun has set
* Changes to the system of announcing updates/changes will only be announced on an even hour on the NE corner of Sunny Sundries
There were a few other rules, but the party got the gist of the situation they were entering; especially after being told that the Water Watch had domesticated achthu (anteater-badger hybrid that can smell water). Before planning too much, a group of what seemed to be desert nomads came to them, all wearing the same robes of black silk. Their eyelids and wrists were densely and intricately tattooed as if a veil was placed over them. They greeted and welcomed the party to the most wonderful city of Quarzshaat, and told them they will without trouble with bringing their demon within the walls of the city. After a bit more pleasentries, Jorn and Flynn could tell they had their eyes set on Ino from the beginning, and would probably attack if the party decided to just leave without going into the city.
The dreamthief, after the group left, told the party that was the Brotherhood of the Moth, a clan from the Sorcerer Adventurers who are all beholden to the whims of the nobles of this city. Ino asserted that he was correct, but didn't like to speak of them much (woman form by now), and warned the party to beware of the Brotherhood of the Spider.
Parking their camels a distance from the city itself, Kagemane and Jorn went into the area to get an idea of what was necessary to procure containers that were up to code; as they had brought about a hundred gallons for emergencies (only to discover that their skills at surviving in the outdoors were sufficient to go out there naked, practically).
Inside the city itself, which literally had gold paving the aqueducts, but the party could tell there was an undercurrent of stress at every corner because of the numerous & obscure water laws. There even seemed to be some code spoken between a trader & noble even they, with their trained social senses, couldn't understand. After a close call when Jorn took out his non-code canteen in the light of the sun before a container salesman, they managed to find a member of the Water Watch to exchange said canteen for a water token (safer means of exchange, subject to same rules). They had to do this, because Jorn's bag of a hundred pieces of gold might have gotten him a thimble of water.
The entire time, Ino (innocence demon) was acting morose, having shifted to woman form and began to accrue white streaks when Jorn & Kagemane started getting near the upper-class part of town.
Once they had this business settled, they asked around for information regarding the ruins their journal/map spoke of, and found out there's a haunted section of the city that was walled off shortly after the cataclysm left in ruins and on the other side of the city from where the party was camped. They left behind Kagemane and Flynn to watch the camp while the rest of them went into the ruins to investigate (Jorn, Antric, Audrius).
Audrius thought he saw movement near the border of the ruins as they approached, but they were all distracted when the image of the unruined city began to fade and the trees of an oasis began to superimpose around the ruins, with a bit of concentration from the feeling of pressure in their heads, the images faded away.
Cautiously, they approached the ruins, watching for trouble, and eventually came upon what seemed to be the original markings that the mapmaker came upon. As they examined them, Jorn heard footsteps and alerted the other two. Jorn and Audrius moved close to Antric's armored side, which saved their hides, as a trio of scimitar-wielding Sorcerer Adventurers jumped out of...something...and hit Antric's shields.
They told the party to hand over the demon, which was theirs by right, and would take it by force. Jorn warned them that force was a bad idea, and they weren't giving up Ino; at which point, our warriors attacked as usual and two were slaughtered within 10 seconds. The third chopped at the air and stepped between it, disappearing from sight.
After a few moments, Audrius casts a scrying spell and begins to follow the surviving assassin. He turns out to be in an underground passage, moving swiftly into a large room with a massive water fountain against the wall. There are arcane sigils strewn across the cavern (Audrius recognizes to be various warding and binding sigils). Immediately above the well is an oriental dragon with ocean-blue scales, literally pinned to the wall on massive iron spikes. It's lifeblood, pure water, continuously flows out into the well and into gold-lined aqueducts.
One of the sigils begins to glow, and the scryed sorcerer pulls out some dust and throws it on the sigil, where it begins to burn and the smoke follows the scrying enchantment. Audrius cancels the effect, calls for the rest of the party to convene, and thus begins our first dungeon crawl in the campaign!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Ninja Spy
One of my players was wanting to play the ninja spy PrC from Oriental Adventures, and was wanting to tweak it a bit because it's for a Pathfinder game. I saw this as a prime opportunity to give him a buff that might not be rejected and offered to do it for him.
Ninja Spy
Prerequisites: Evasion class ability, Dodge feat, Stealth 7 ranks
Hit Die: d8
Base Attack Bonus: Medium
Saving Throws: Poor Fortitude, Good Reflex, Good Will
Class Skills: Acrobatics, Bluff, Climb, Diplomacy, Disguise, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Perception, Sleight of Hand, Stealth, Use Magic Device
Skill Points per Level: 6+Int modifier
Weapon & Armor Proficiency: A ninja spy gains proficiency in the blowgun, hand crossbow, chijiriki, fukimi-bari, kusari-gama, nekode, ninja-to, shikomi-zue, shuriken, and war fan. A ninja spy who wears medium or heavy armor cannot use the following special class features: Acrobatics, Evasion, & Infiltrate.
Class Abilities
Acrobatics: Gained at 1st level. A ninja spy gains a +10 competence bonus on Balance, Climb, and Acrobatics checks. In addition, a ninja can always choose to take 10 on a Balance, Climb, or Acrobatics check even when circumstances would normally prevent him from doing so. This increases to +15 at 5th level.
Thousand Faces (Su): Gained at 1st level. A ninja spy gains the ability to change his appearance at will, as if using the spell disguise self.
Poison Use: Gained at 2nd level. Ninja spies are trained in the use of poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves when applying poison to a blade.
Poison Resilience: Gained at 2nd level. The ninja spy gains a +4 circumstance bonus on saves against poison.
Sneak Attack: +1d6 at 2nd and 4th level.
Hide in Plain Sight (Su): Gained at 3rd level. A ninja spy can use the Hide skill even while being observed. As long as he is within 10 feet of some sort of shadow, a ninja spy can hide himself from view in the open without anything to actually hide behind. A ninja spy cannot, however, hide in his own shadow.
Improved Evasion: Gained at 4th level. A ninja spy can avoid even magical and unusual attacks with great agility. If the ninja makes a successful Reflex saving throw against an attack that normally deals half damage on a successful save, he instead takes no damage. Even if he fails his saving throw, he takes only half damage from the attack. The ninja can only use improved evasion if he is wearing light armor or no armor.
Henshin No Jutsu (Sp): Gained at 5th level. A ninja spy can use tree shape at will, but can turn into any Large inanimate object.
Infiltrate (Su): Gained at 5th level and usable at will. A ninja spy can very briefly ripple through the Ethereal Plane in order to step through solid objects. As a swift action, for the round, the ninja spy can walk through any object up to 1 foot in thickness. If the ninja spy attempts to perform this through a material thicker than 1 foot, the ninja spy is shunted back to his original position and takes 1d6 damage.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Rules vs Roles
Look at 99% of your RPGs. Compare the combat simulator to the rest of the system, and you'll notice that the book is dominated in terms of size. This is in the psychology of the gamer as well.
I don't know if it was the chicken or the egg, but gamers associate rules with combat, and just don't mix with them well. If you care about the rules, you only care about combat. If you don't care for combat, you very likely loathe codified rules.
This is of particular note in the realm of player advocacy and game design. When a designer wishes for greater participation and direction from the players, then vague & disassociated mechanics will be brought front and center. Even in extant systems, the players who desire greater influence will advocate for the abdication of rules in favour of free-form events and causes.
Part of this is Pavlovian association due to poor design. The skill system of 3.X breaks down at mid-to-high levels, the only social system in D&D that had a chance was 2E's reaction tables, Shadowrun's rigging/hacking have serious flaws, etc. When you wish to do something other than violently disagree with another's right-to-life opinion, the rules have almost invariably failed, leaving Rule Zero to pick up the pieces. I have noticed that when the rules function well, players are more inclined to use them, such as the d20 skill system at low levels.
Gamers who enjoy rules to advance their role's agenda are an isolated breed. Amongst those who enjoy the story beyond combat, they are looked down upon as munchkins, rules lawyers, or gamists (GNS is only a way to insult people). In the eyes of gamers who enshrine the DM's role of narrator, it is an attack on their authority with their own system; rules-lite system giving them even greater power thanks to permission required. And with the gamer who's only engaged when swords are swinging and bullets are flying, their eyes glaze over all the more.
I can only hope to find a system with well designed noncombat rules, the social system specifically being the holy grail of RPGs. 3.X's skill system had its good points, so long as you stick to the first six levels or so, as does Shadowrun once you ignore hacking and rigging.
I don't know if it was the chicken or the egg, but gamers associate rules with combat, and just don't mix with them well. If you care about the rules, you only care about combat. If you don't care for combat, you very likely loathe codified rules.
This is of particular note in the realm of player advocacy and game design. When a designer wishes for greater participation and direction from the players, then vague & disassociated mechanics will be brought front and center. Even in extant systems, the players who desire greater influence will advocate for the abdication of rules in favour of free-form events and causes.
Part of this is Pavlovian association due to poor design. The skill system of 3.X breaks down at mid-to-high levels, the only social system in D&D that had a chance was 2E's reaction tables, Shadowrun's rigging/hacking have serious flaws, etc. When you wish to do something other than violently disagree with another's right-to-life opinion, the rules have almost invariably failed, leaving Rule Zero to pick up the pieces. I have noticed that when the rules function well, players are more inclined to use them, such as the d20 skill system at low levels.
Gamers who enjoy rules to advance their role's agenda are an isolated breed. Amongst those who enjoy the story beyond combat, they are looked down upon as munchkins, rules lawyers, or gamists (GNS is only a way to insult people). In the eyes of gamers who enshrine the DM's role of narrator, it is an attack on their authority with their own system; rules-lite system giving them even greater power thanks to permission required. And with the gamer who's only engaged when swords are swinging and bullets are flying, their eyes glaze over all the more.
I can only hope to find a system with well designed noncombat rules, the social system specifically being the holy grail of RPGs. 3.X's skill system had its good points, so long as you stick to the first six levels or so, as does Shadowrun once you ignore hacking and rigging.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Ferrous Fortune-Hunters: Session XV
Fairly short session, mainly because we got highly distracted with off-game talk. I need to start discussing with my players about this, because it's starting to get on Adam's (Jorn) nerves too.
This is also the session where I begin my great experiment of ridding the system of iterative attacks, replacing it with a medium bonus to damage (half level to all attacks). This is partially for simplification. This will lower the potential maximum significantly while only lowering the statistical average slightly (except for Kagemane's, which will be drastically lowered, but his output with a full-round action is...sickening), and create what I like to call 'a normalization of damage output'. It also creates, forcefully, the option of various tactical options available to the party to actually be viable options; because before, the iterative attack was this giant monster that made everyone ignore all other tactical options in favor of it.
I am aware of the debate that the other combat options should be uplifted to be of equal value to higher to raw damage. For those who want to use Iron Heroes yourself, Save-or-Die effects are marginalized for players and should be for monsters as well (pro-tip, keep pure-caster monsters to a minimum), which makes the urgency of having damage potential swing so high less. It is most certainly an experiment, and if the party proves to be hindered to the point they can no longer reliably defeat monsters expected for their level. Please be aware of this process should you attempt it yourself, as it may be necessary to give a larger bonus to damage.
As the party began their quest out of the city, Jorn spied some movement about 700' away in the trees, and had Audrius send his eye golem over to see what it was. As it turned out, it was a buffalo-sized fihyr that was invisible and out in the middle of the day, watching the party. Giving a good idea of where it was, Jorn plugged it with three arrows and began to get closer. The fihyr simply went behind the trees and began to fly up and away from the party, but not before causing incredible fear upon Audrius when he tried to get his eye golem closer for visual inspection (he vomitted and ran away screaming for about half a minute, then had trouble talking straight for two hours after that).
Since it never really showed any hostile actions, and wasn't actually following the party, and they found themselves unable to actually harm it a third of a kilometer in the air with the only person able to shoot at it having to use guesswork since it was invisible to him (hard to describe its position when it's 'up there'), they decided to leave it alone and get back on their trek.
There destination was deep into the desert, more or less straight north the entire way. They entered and traversed the Sighing Desert, a massive territory filled with rolling sand dunes and the occasional monumentally sized rocky spikes of blood-red shale. There is always a constant breeze rolling over the desert that created a sound eerily like the moaning of the dead.
After three days of this fun-filled land, they spied a caravan following them from the south. Waiting a bit for them to catch up, it turned out to be a caravan of the nomad people native to the desert, having fled the city the party just departed from. From what the nomads saw, it was a massive army, fueled by foul sorcery from the Black Lotus Eaters, tearing the entire place down to its foundations (made at least Jorn cough and look away innocently). The party gave the nomads their condolences for being forced to break camp and leave early in the wake of such destruction.
They also noticed Analee. She was disguised to look like someone else, but they could see through her methods. The party then asked to join the caravan for them to join for general manpower, and assured that they create minimal strain on their foodstuffs (being 'just' barely skilled enough to feed themselves indefinitely in this inhospitable land O_o). While traveling, they got a few moments alone with Analee and asked what she was doing there. She said she was posing as a simple peasent refugee that convinced the nomads to take her in, and that the Yellow Night clan was forced to scatter for the time being in the face of such destruction from the Black Lotus Eaters. After a bit of cojoling, she revealed to the party that the Black Lotus Eaters had actually send out several peaceful diplomats to offer rewards to the party for what could be the flower they sought after, and Jorn's own statements revealed that he would possibly be open to such an idea. Since the Yellow Night Clan did not want to go through the dangerous effort of forcefully taking whatever the party had, they secretly killed the peaceful representatives to look like they were killed by the party, which caused the Black Lotus Eaters to escalate their actions until they summoned Saireen and then massed an army to hunt them down.
Jorn gave her a scolding, wished her well with the guilt for being the cause of such death and suffering out of a petty rivalry, and walked off. The party, in their typical fashion, went wordlessly behind Jorn without much of an opinion on the situation (during or after).
A day or two later, the nomads asked the party to scout out ahead for a bit to check for danger while the caravan began to break camp. Going under the shade of a particularly large spike, they spied what seemed to be a moving clout of smoke and flies coming towards them. There was also the ever-increasing scent of burning kitchen waste. Wasting no time, Jorn scampered up the side of the rock spike, and seconds later, half a dozen crocodile-sized beetles the color of pale human skin and covered with oily patches on their carapace erupted from the sands and surrounded the rest of the party. The exposure to the open air also caused the oil patches to erupt in flame, filling the nostrils of the party with a smell akin to rotting carcasses set aflame.
Audrius & Kagemane were brutually injured before they did what they could to start scampering up the rock face themselves to get out of the smoke, and the onrush of flies (scavengers that feed on leftovers from what these 'firebeetles' eat) did little to make the experience pleasant. It was a round or two later before Antric began to cry for aid with the vicious attacks presented that were now focused solely on him. Eventually, all but two of the beetles were taken out by Jorn and Kagemane throwing flasks of acid and daggers respectively into their heads with deadly precision (Audrius did his part eventually, but was hindered by trying to keep out of reach). Audrius himself was almost killed when a firebeetle scampered up after the party and bit at the closest target.
The remaining two firebeetles were herded away by the now arriving nomads, who were experienced with them, but had not expected them to attack (tend to avoid human sized creatures), as it wasn't their mating season at this time. Audrius noticed from the carcasses that they had large ticks between their shells that are primarily used for injecting potions over long periods of time.
The party then rejoined the nomads and travelled for the day, eventually setting up camp again and sleeping. It was by this time that Audrius's eye golem spotted movement and alerted him of the danger. Looking through it, it seemed to be a large, rainbow scaled serpent with human-like arms with vicious talons and a particularly large, unhinged jaw. From the jaw swung an enormous tongue that sweeped from side to side when it left it's mouth. Audrius recognized it as a tracker demon that can smell through time itself in its hunt for the quarry.
The party was awakened and they jumped into formation, suddenly unable to actually see the demon who had shifted its scales to blend perfectly with its environment. It appeared out of nowhere over Jorn, who had been screaming to wake up the rest of the camp, but didn't get a solid hit in. By this point, Audrius did something I hadn't see him do in a long time; use his illusions creatively. He chose the worst possible smell he could imagine, and created the illusion of that, centered on the demon. This overwhelmed the creature long enough for the party to strike it down. They couldn't do much to the corpse, as it was dissolving into nothingness in short order, but this was a reminder that the Black Lotus Eaters are still very much after them.
Eventually, after two weeks of travel, they reach the capital of the nomads; the Silver Flower Oasis. There, they resupply and try to ask a few questions about the city Quarzhasaat, but got only insulted glares and comments about 'fahseen'. While asking someone in a tavern, a stranger interjected, telling them that 'fahseen' is a term that roughly translates as a hell, which the locals believe Quarzhasaat to be. He carries a strangely decorated sheperd's crook and introduces himself as a dreamthief passing through and is surprisingly aware of the current troubles facing the party, saying that many dreams are focused on them right now.
He offers to be the party's guide through Quarzhasaat, as this city of riches is dangerous and their water laws are strange and draconian, and to consider this to be a favour that the party owes him.
This is also the session where I begin my great experiment of ridding the system of iterative attacks, replacing it with a medium bonus to damage (half level to all attacks). This is partially for simplification. This will lower the potential maximum significantly while only lowering the statistical average slightly (except for Kagemane's, which will be drastically lowered, but his output with a full-round action is...sickening), and create what I like to call 'a normalization of damage output'. It also creates, forcefully, the option of various tactical options available to the party to actually be viable options; because before, the iterative attack was this giant monster that made everyone ignore all other tactical options in favor of it.
I am aware of the debate that the other combat options should be uplifted to be of equal value to higher to raw damage. For those who want to use Iron Heroes yourself, Save-or-Die effects are marginalized for players and should be for monsters as well (pro-tip, keep pure-caster monsters to a minimum), which makes the urgency of having damage potential swing so high less. It is most certainly an experiment, and if the party proves to be hindered to the point they can no longer reliably defeat monsters expected for their level. Please be aware of this process should you attempt it yourself, as it may be necessary to give a larger bonus to damage.
As the party began their quest out of the city, Jorn spied some movement about 700' away in the trees, and had Audrius send his eye golem over to see what it was. As it turned out, it was a buffalo-sized fihyr that was invisible and out in the middle of the day, watching the party. Giving a good idea of where it was, Jorn plugged it with three arrows and began to get closer. The fihyr simply went behind the trees and began to fly up and away from the party, but not before causing incredible fear upon Audrius when he tried to get his eye golem closer for visual inspection (he vomitted and ran away screaming for about half a minute, then had trouble talking straight for two hours after that).
Since it never really showed any hostile actions, and wasn't actually following the party, and they found themselves unable to actually harm it a third of a kilometer in the air with the only person able to shoot at it having to use guesswork since it was invisible to him (hard to describe its position when it's 'up there'), they decided to leave it alone and get back on their trek.
There destination was deep into the desert, more or less straight north the entire way. They entered and traversed the Sighing Desert, a massive territory filled with rolling sand dunes and the occasional monumentally sized rocky spikes of blood-red shale. There is always a constant breeze rolling over the desert that created a sound eerily like the moaning of the dead.
After three days of this fun-filled land, they spied a caravan following them from the south. Waiting a bit for them to catch up, it turned out to be a caravan of the nomad people native to the desert, having fled the city the party just departed from. From what the nomads saw, it was a massive army, fueled by foul sorcery from the Black Lotus Eaters, tearing the entire place down to its foundations (made at least Jorn cough and look away innocently). The party gave the nomads their condolences for being forced to break camp and leave early in the wake of such destruction.
They also noticed Analee. She was disguised to look like someone else, but they could see through her methods. The party then asked to join the caravan for them to join for general manpower, and assured that they create minimal strain on their foodstuffs (being 'just' barely skilled enough to feed themselves indefinitely in this inhospitable land O_o). While traveling, they got a few moments alone with Analee and asked what she was doing there. She said she was posing as a simple peasent refugee that convinced the nomads to take her in, and that the Yellow Night clan was forced to scatter for the time being in the face of such destruction from the Black Lotus Eaters. After a bit of cojoling, she revealed to the party that the Black Lotus Eaters had actually send out several peaceful diplomats to offer rewards to the party for what could be the flower they sought after, and Jorn's own statements revealed that he would possibly be open to such an idea. Since the Yellow Night Clan did not want to go through the dangerous effort of forcefully taking whatever the party had, they secretly killed the peaceful representatives to look like they were killed by the party, which caused the Black Lotus Eaters to escalate their actions until they summoned Saireen and then massed an army to hunt them down.
Jorn gave her a scolding, wished her well with the guilt for being the cause of such death and suffering out of a petty rivalry, and walked off. The party, in their typical fashion, went wordlessly behind Jorn without much of an opinion on the situation (during or after).
A day or two later, the nomads asked the party to scout out ahead for a bit to check for danger while the caravan began to break camp. Going under the shade of a particularly large spike, they spied what seemed to be a moving clout of smoke and flies coming towards them. There was also the ever-increasing scent of burning kitchen waste. Wasting no time, Jorn scampered up the side of the rock spike, and seconds later, half a dozen crocodile-sized beetles the color of pale human skin and covered with oily patches on their carapace erupted from the sands and surrounded the rest of the party. The exposure to the open air also caused the oil patches to erupt in flame, filling the nostrils of the party with a smell akin to rotting carcasses set aflame.
Audrius & Kagemane were brutually injured before they did what they could to start scampering up the rock face themselves to get out of the smoke, and the onrush of flies (scavengers that feed on leftovers from what these 'firebeetles' eat) did little to make the experience pleasant. It was a round or two later before Antric began to cry for aid with the vicious attacks presented that were now focused solely on him. Eventually, all but two of the beetles were taken out by Jorn and Kagemane throwing flasks of acid and daggers respectively into their heads with deadly precision (Audrius did his part eventually, but was hindered by trying to keep out of reach). Audrius himself was almost killed when a firebeetle scampered up after the party and bit at the closest target.
The remaining two firebeetles were herded away by the now arriving nomads, who were experienced with them, but had not expected them to attack (tend to avoid human sized creatures), as it wasn't their mating season at this time. Audrius noticed from the carcasses that they had large ticks between their shells that are primarily used for injecting potions over long periods of time.
The party then rejoined the nomads and travelled for the day, eventually setting up camp again and sleeping. It was by this time that Audrius's eye golem spotted movement and alerted him of the danger. Looking through it, it seemed to be a large, rainbow scaled serpent with human-like arms with vicious talons and a particularly large, unhinged jaw. From the jaw swung an enormous tongue that sweeped from side to side when it left it's mouth. Audrius recognized it as a tracker demon that can smell through time itself in its hunt for the quarry.
The party was awakened and they jumped into formation, suddenly unable to actually see the demon who had shifted its scales to blend perfectly with its environment. It appeared out of nowhere over Jorn, who had been screaming to wake up the rest of the camp, but didn't get a solid hit in. By this point, Audrius did something I hadn't see him do in a long time; use his illusions creatively. He chose the worst possible smell he could imagine, and created the illusion of that, centered on the demon. This overwhelmed the creature long enough for the party to strike it down. They couldn't do much to the corpse, as it was dissolving into nothingness in short order, but this was a reminder that the Black Lotus Eaters are still very much after them.
Eventually, after two weeks of travel, they reach the capital of the nomads; the Silver Flower Oasis. There, they resupply and try to ask a few questions about the city Quarzhasaat, but got only insulted glares and comments about 'fahseen'. While asking someone in a tavern, a stranger interjected, telling them that 'fahseen' is a term that roughly translates as a hell, which the locals believe Quarzhasaat to be. He carries a strangely decorated sheperd's crook and introduces himself as a dreamthief passing through and is surprisingly aware of the current troubles facing the party, saying that many dreams are focused on them right now.
He offers to be the party's guide through Quarzhasaat, as this city of riches is dangerous and their water laws are strange and draconian, and to consider this to be a favour that the party owes him.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
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Ferrous Fortune-Hunters: Session XIV
Well folks, another exciting day before us, and as it turns out, not much exciting happened with the party. They did their thing, which I will detail before you, but it was an overall slow session. While I didn't throw them any overpowered fights, it was because they had no fighting in general. I was probably misguided in trying to get them to come up with the impetus to RP on their own, though I even offered to give them some pure RP scenes, which they denied.
They cleaned up, then planned to sneak into Vorgen's (villainous arcanist who stole the writer's work and copied it) tower while he ate at a nearby tavern. Flynn & Antric went to the tavern to distract Vorgen with in-depth discussion of academia (mainly Flynn, Antric was the muscle).
Meanwhile, Jorn, Audrius, & Kagemane went to sneak into the mansion under the cover of darkness. They managed to distract the guards long enough despite a close call to get inside. Once inside, Audrius plays the "if I was an evil arcanist who wanted to hide something valuable" game (tee hee), and found the original manuscript that was plagairized. They snuck out with a handful of valuables, and implicated Vorgen enough to be investigated by the proper authorities.
Last they heard, his belongings were auctioned off and he was shipped off for slavery.
The local tavern the party had their fight with Saireen was purchased, so they relocated, and spent two months in down-time. Audrius researched the applications for his philosopher's stone, Flynn studied and helped with Antric on upgrading his armor spikes, Jorn worked as a professional ranger to provide living expenses to the party, & Kagemane researched their treasure map.
Kagemane discovered there was a secret page he wasn't able to notice until now, spent a week in search of the solvent required to reveal it without damaging the paper, and found further details. The book is actually binding Ino (the innocence demon) to the owner, who is Kagemane, and Audrius informed the binding would be very difficult to break (either death or overly difficult ritual, not told to Kagemane). It was also revealed some of the symptoms when Ino is getting close to killing people.
Once they finished their stuff, two months later, they also heard word that a very large contest for the provision of the world's greatest shields from a country to the south, with a grand prize of some obscene amount of money. They have about five months, so they decided to mess with it after they dealt with the treasure map to the lost kingdom.
They cleaned up, then planned to sneak into Vorgen's (villainous arcanist who stole the writer's work and copied it) tower while he ate at a nearby tavern. Flynn & Antric went to the tavern to distract Vorgen with in-depth discussion of academia (mainly Flynn, Antric was the muscle).
Meanwhile, Jorn, Audrius, & Kagemane went to sneak into the mansion under the cover of darkness. They managed to distract the guards long enough despite a close call to get inside. Once inside, Audrius plays the "if I was an evil arcanist who wanted to hide something valuable" game (tee hee), and found the original manuscript that was plagairized. They snuck out with a handful of valuables, and implicated Vorgen enough to be investigated by the proper authorities.
Last they heard, his belongings were auctioned off and he was shipped off for slavery.
The local tavern the party had their fight with Saireen was purchased, so they relocated, and spent two months in down-time. Audrius researched the applications for his philosopher's stone, Flynn studied and helped with Antric on upgrading his armor spikes, Jorn worked as a professional ranger to provide living expenses to the party, & Kagemane researched their treasure map.
Kagemane discovered there was a secret page he wasn't able to notice until now, spent a week in search of the solvent required to reveal it without damaging the paper, and found further details. The book is actually binding Ino (the innocence demon) to the owner, who is Kagemane, and Audrius informed the binding would be very difficult to break (either death or overly difficult ritual, not told to Kagemane). It was also revealed some of the symptoms when Ino is getting close to killing people.
Once they finished their stuff, two months later, they also heard word that a very large contest for the provision of the world's greatest shields from a country to the south, with a grand prize of some obscene amount of money. They have about five months, so they decided to mess with it after they dealt with the treasure map to the lost kingdom.
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