The Blackened Grove is reeling from their loss of a rather significant node, so the current situation between them and the Empire has dwindled back down to "annoying neighbors". The orcish horde from the east has lost a rather decent amount of army and a couple of their champions (another adventuring party behind the lines), so their offensive has been put on hold; that and their prior conquest of thirty miles inward was never actually undone, so they actually have some real land to use and keep themselves busy (the party forgot about this).
Ultimately, things are looking stable enough for the party, so they're taking a bit of a break before jumping on their personal interests. After a couple weeks of rest, they eventually find a riddle pertaining to Azasaraj the Red Saint, the knowledge stored being about the Red Saint's Prison (unclear as to a prison used by or for the Red Saint). This riddle vexes them for a time, but they eventually solve and are presented with a set of blueprints.
Unsure as to what the blueprints do, they dedicate the next month's coffers from Cast's kingdom towards constructing what it states; an elaborate and expensive room deep underground (they add it to the dungeon wing) filled with arcane circles and names of various celestials (Tow failed the Arcana check to figure it out). After this time is completed, they all enter the room and close the door behind them to complete the 'circuit'. This makes the entire place turn dark and one of the circles on the far wall turns into a passage leading down a set of glowing stairs. They head down.
We now enter a dungeon, where they discover magic circles that emblazon symbols in Classic Celestial onto their flesh when touched; remember that their Common is Celestial, so they all recognize them as ultimately gibberish for the time. I'm figuring the language works in a manner not unlike Inuit (?), in that a word consists of multiple 'mini-words' and powerful suffixes/prefixes that change their meaning; a made up example would be 'Ta' has to do with the act of witnessing, but requires additional parts to tell you whether it's the 'ignoring' kind of witnessing, bystander witnessing, participant witnessing, second-hand retelling witnessing (w/confession connotations that need to be specified here), etc.
While travelling, they run into a human who seems mad to the point of insane gibbering, having declared himself, his mother, and his uncle to all be the Red Saint; all the while pacing his room and drawing stick figures with all the subtlety/skill of a child. The party's current theory is that he's the Red Saint and this is his prison. They also run into several semi-sentient constructs made of nails that seem to be designed to attack intruders, as well as signs that a rust monster may be around, which has Cast scared out of his gourd. A couple more tattoing circles are found, the magic seeming to be arcane in design, but detect magic shows the same kind of aura that you'd find coming out of anything done by a cleric (something I've added to the spell), which doesn't make any sense as even the clerics of the Boccob Expy don't use arcane sigils in their work.
What's interesting is that the party wants almost the exact dimensions described to them for each room/hall they enter, but absolutely refuse to draw so much as a list of which turns they took. I warned them several times on this, so I'm letting them get lost on their own by this point.
Friday, October 26, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
[3.5] Archivist
This is not a class that has sufficient abilities that go beyond level 9, and is thus going to stop here. Many of the abilities this class does get scales with character level, so taking another class afterward isn't going to suffer the multiclassing woes with it like you would experience with a regular spellcaster.
Archivist
Books are the blessed chloroform of the mind...*whack*
Races: Because of their need for books, races that congregate around densely populated regions tend to hold dominance as archivists. For reasons archivists liken to seeing a cow become a burger chef, illumian archivists are shunned by all other archivists.
Starting Gold: Refer to Book (1d12) of Virgil’s Aeneid. Choose three random lines, total the number of vowels in those lines, and multiply it by the number of proper nouns that appear in those same lines.
Staring Age: As a ghostwise Halfling fighter.
Hit Die: d6
Base Attack Bonus: Medium
Saving Throws: Good Fortitude, Poor Reflex, Good Will
Class Skills: The archivist’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Climb (Str), Concentration (Con), Decipher Script (Int), Knowledge (All) (Int), Profession (-), Search (Int), Sense Motive (Wis), Speak Language, Spellcraft (Int), Spot (Wis), Use Magic Device (Cha)
Skill Points per Level: 4 + Intelligence bonus
All of the following are class features of the archivist:
- 1. Speed Reading, Can’t Put it Down (Shillelagh), Thrill of Discovery, Lore, Paper Magic
2. Translator, Vox Imperium
3. Syllable of Power, Copy Protection
4. Enochian Binding
5. Can’t Put it Down (Brambles), Mightier than the Pen
6.
7. Can’t Put it Down (Spikes)
8. Symbolic Language
9. True Lore
Books Around the Globe: For purposes of mechanics, a full book is assumed to be 300 pages in length, taking the character 15 minutes to read. Spellbooks are special mechanics, where spell level counts as a full book for purposes of the archivist's book-activated abilities. As a result, a completely filled spellbook equates to 100 books. Because scrolls are condensed and leave out critical information, each whole spell counts as a book rather than each spell level.
Speed Reading (Ex): Gained at 1st level. The archivist can read twenty times faster, including magical tomes to gain their benefits. For example, it only takes the archivist two and a half hours to read and gain the benefits of a manual of gainful exercise.
- Normal: The normal scholar can read one page per minute with full retention, which means it takes the scholar 5 hours to read a book and the archivist 15 minutes.
Thrill of Discovery: Gained at 1st level. Every time an archivist finishes reading a book he hasn't previously read, he gains a number of temporary hit points equal to four per class level.
Lore: Gained at 1st level. An archivist gains Skill Focus as a bonus feat for any knowledge skill he has at least one rank in. An archivist with Knowledge (history) or (local) is considered to know local knowledge & history of any area with a library, once the archivist spends at a cumulative total of eight hours reading books from the library.
Paper Magic: Gained at 1st level. The Archivist is considered to have every spell on their spell list for purposes of activating scrolls, both arcane and divine.
Vox Imperium (Sp): Gained at 2nd level. The archivist has learned what words people will listen to, and can use command at will, the save DC being 10 + ½ character level + Intelligence modifier.
Translator (Su): Gained at 2nd level. The archivist is considered to be under the constant effects of comprehend languages.
Copy Protection (Sp): Gained at 3rd level. The archivist can inscribe a sepia snake sigil or illusory script in any book that they have read.
Word of Power (Sp): Gained at 3rd level. The archivist can speak any power word they have the spell text of in their hand, so long as the spell level does not equal or exceed their class level.
Enochian Binding (Sp): Gained at 4th level. The archivist is constantly surrounded by a magic circle of every alignment. With a touch attack, a creature failing a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 level + Int mod) is entangled & anchored to their position for 1 hour.
Greater Lore (Ex): Gained at 5th level. An archivist gains the ability to understand magic items, as with the identify spell.
Mightier than the Pen (Sp): Gained at 5th level. The archivist can cast the glyph of warding on any book or scroll that they have read. The archivist and the warded object are immune to the effects of the spell. When using the spell glyph option, they can use any harmful spell of 3rd level or lower that they have on hand. The spell uses the archivist’s class level & Intelligence modifier as the caster level and spellcasting ability respectively.
At level 12, this ability upgrades to greater glyph of warding. It is common to set the triggering condition to when a creature is struck by the book as a weapon.
Symbolic Language (Sp): Gained at 8th level. The archivist can write any symbol they have read before whose spell level does not exceed their class level plus two.
True Lore (Ex): Gained at 9th level. An archivist can use their immense knowledge to gain the effect of the analyze dweomer or legend lore spells. This ability can be used at-will.
Friday, October 19, 2012
Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session XII
They walked down to the myconid village, who respond with fear and hiding. After some rapport spores, they talk and inform the myconids of their mission, demanding to know why they aid the Blackened Grove. Claiming ignorance due to isolation, another 'hard-edge' who knows the best route to the capital of the Mushroom Kingdom is pointed out to be nearby the village, living as a hermit. Once over to the Yoda-like house in the fungus filled swamp, they knock and meed the resident. She is a fit, just shy of middle-age human woman wearing a leather jacket, a single leg set of dress pants, and armed with two pairs of scimitars and daggers. She greets them as Leia of House Achilles. After some conversation, she tells them of the capital location, and asks for a friendly duel with someone. Marshal accepts, receives a very painful slap of subdual damage, then knocks her down in a full-attack on his own.
When standing, she cleans her blades of mud by wiping them on her leg, and does a quick blade sharpen by running it on the inside of her knee. The party realizes that her leg is invincible, and Tow remembers hearing rumours of a fallen house from the Blackened Grove known for their invincibility. She acknowledges that she is of said house, living in exile in the Mushroom Kingdom, and that other members of the family have different traits from her. She also offers a chance to try out an excessively rare mushroom to the party that will expire soon, figuring they could take advantage of it better. The mushroom has a small sign that says "Don't Eat Me" next to it, and when fed to Tow, he begins to speak in tongues and somehow manages to summon a fiend. This is how we introduce a one-shot player, who is playing a 7th level Fiendish Brute (aiming for a mini-glabrezu type), who must serve and protect the party for 3 days and 3 nights.
Travelling for a day with a shortcut, they reach the capital, and seek an audience with an elder. Eventually, they're allowed in, but they cannot speak to the Eldest Circle of Sovereigns unless they earn their trust. For rapidity, they offer to join in a hallucinagenic mind meld (works similar to a vision quest) to prove their non-violent intentions. And so, the crazy dreamscape begins...
Appearing in the middle of the smoking ruins of the Empire of the Sun's capital, they wander for a short time, eventually noticing that Cast has parts of his skin turning into mirrored metal. This is followed by a nearby, broken mirror and its reflection of Cast pouring out, shifting into something similar to T-1000 and altering to appear as a large, mirrored myconid declaring itself as Azasaraj the Red Saint and has declared that Cast must fall. It's a short battle before they smack it down, which causes a blank d6 to roll out of its body. Tow attempts to scan it with detect magic, which reveals ancient Celestial runes that flare like a flash bulb (that only Tow can see), which incinerates Tow into nothing, causing him to awaken.
Confused, the party looks around, only to find themselves inside that old building for the exterminator in the southern continent. The human stands from behind the counter, and asks the party if they're interested in getting rid of rats. While he asked, the glabrezu-lite player attempts to teleport back to where he was, which causes an internal spike of pain and him to vanish into nothing (and to awaken), confusing/worrying Marshal and Cast. Marshal asks the clerk if there's anything else, learning that all he has besides traps/poison for rats and racoons is an old toy; a wind-up clapping monkey with a ninja mask. Looking at it, Marshal asks the price, which is apparently a kingdom; only for suddenly the toy monkey to spit out a wad of spikes that cause his head to explode like an overripe melon (awakening him). Alone, Cast tells the clerk to run while he can, at which point he hears the scampering of feet outside the store. Looking out, there is a veritable sea of rats moving towards him, which burst through the door to both overwhelm and kill Cast, bite by bite, into the waking world.
This seems to convince the locals that they're 'worthy' to speak with the second oldest member of the myconid colony, Red Cap. They are brought before him, a giant of a myconid (12HD), wearing a helmet as an amulet, several rings large enough to fit his stub like fingers, and a bag with a chemical-filled flasks. Attempting to diplomacize, Red Cap speaks of 'state secrets' and their alliance with the Blackened Grove suits the Mushroom Kingdom in their future of conquest and expansion. The party is fazed with this decidedly un-myconid like behavior, & Tow had been maintaining a detect magic to see what kind of items he had. When he saw the helmet on the neck chain, he was amazed to find it covered with a strong aura of enchantment magic on it, which is technically artifact level in the game; this amazement is detected by Red Cap, who demands a better explanation of who they are before judgement is passed. Cast is the only who answers, using a long-winded form of his name and title, in which Red Cap declares himself as Azasaraj the Red Saint.
A fight breaks out, and they kill the elder myconid sovereign. Which prompts them being brought before the remaining Elder Circle of the capital under heavy guard. With some deliberation, good Diplomacy rolls, and having them examine Red Cap's personal chambers. Inside said chambers are many, very expensive circles of binding, banishing, and summoning. This convinces them of Red Cap's madness, so they allow the party to keep his tainted gear, and inform them that their alliance with the Blackened Grove, while still present for trade purposes, will be ended for the node connection.
During all of this, they run into Leia's eldest brother, a man known as White Eyes; an old man with milky white eyes, glad to see the heavier presence of Blackened Grove gone. Out of gratitude, he bestows upon the party his family's boon, a salve that will bestow invulnerability to a single body part. There is a little bit of deliberation, and Marshal gets it applied to his arm.
Afterwards, they return back to the Empire of the Sun, and Tow takes the time case to research the helmet; because the entire party is assuming that the helmet is the cause for Red Cap's insanity and likely possession by Azas. In his research, he discovers that the Red Saint was a figure of ancient history (~700 years) who attempted to steal power from the Minor Gods in an attempt towards forced ascension to go along with world domination. The helmet itself, with a more careful inspection, seems to be a helm of telepathy with tiny indentations on the inside portion.
When standing, she cleans her blades of mud by wiping them on her leg, and does a quick blade sharpen by running it on the inside of her knee. The party realizes that her leg is invincible, and Tow remembers hearing rumours of a fallen house from the Blackened Grove known for their invincibility. She acknowledges that she is of said house, living in exile in the Mushroom Kingdom, and that other members of the family have different traits from her. She also offers a chance to try out an excessively rare mushroom to the party that will expire soon, figuring they could take advantage of it better. The mushroom has a small sign that says "Don't Eat Me" next to it, and when fed to Tow, he begins to speak in tongues and somehow manages to summon a fiend. This is how we introduce a one-shot player, who is playing a 7th level Fiendish Brute (aiming for a mini-glabrezu type), who must serve and protect the party for 3 days and 3 nights.
Travelling for a day with a shortcut, they reach the capital, and seek an audience with an elder. Eventually, they're allowed in, but they cannot speak to the Eldest Circle of Sovereigns unless they earn their trust. For rapidity, they offer to join in a hallucinagenic mind meld (works similar to a vision quest) to prove their non-violent intentions. And so, the crazy dreamscape begins...
Appearing in the middle of the smoking ruins of the Empire of the Sun's capital, they wander for a short time, eventually noticing that Cast has parts of his skin turning into mirrored metal. This is followed by a nearby, broken mirror and its reflection of Cast pouring out, shifting into something similar to T-1000 and altering to appear as a large, mirrored myconid declaring itself as Azasaraj the Red Saint and has declared that Cast must fall. It's a short battle before they smack it down, which causes a blank d6 to roll out of its body. Tow attempts to scan it with detect magic, which reveals ancient Celestial runes that flare like a flash bulb (that only Tow can see), which incinerates Tow into nothing, causing him to awaken.
Confused, the party looks around, only to find themselves inside that old building for the exterminator in the southern continent. The human stands from behind the counter, and asks the party if they're interested in getting rid of rats. While he asked, the glabrezu-lite player attempts to teleport back to where he was, which causes an internal spike of pain and him to vanish into nothing (and to awaken), confusing/worrying Marshal and Cast. Marshal asks the clerk if there's anything else, learning that all he has besides traps/poison for rats and racoons is an old toy; a wind-up clapping monkey with a ninja mask. Looking at it, Marshal asks the price, which is apparently a kingdom; only for suddenly the toy monkey to spit out a wad of spikes that cause his head to explode like an overripe melon (awakening him). Alone, Cast tells the clerk to run while he can, at which point he hears the scampering of feet outside the store. Looking out, there is a veritable sea of rats moving towards him, which burst through the door to both overwhelm and kill Cast, bite by bite, into the waking world.
This seems to convince the locals that they're 'worthy' to speak with the second oldest member of the myconid colony, Red Cap. They are brought before him, a giant of a myconid (12HD), wearing a helmet as an amulet, several rings large enough to fit his stub like fingers, and a bag with a chemical-filled flasks. Attempting to diplomacize, Red Cap speaks of 'state secrets' and their alliance with the Blackened Grove suits the Mushroom Kingdom in their future of conquest and expansion. The party is fazed with this decidedly un-myconid like behavior, & Tow had been maintaining a detect magic to see what kind of items he had. When he saw the helmet on the neck chain, he was amazed to find it covered with a strong aura of enchantment magic on it, which is technically artifact level in the game; this amazement is detected by Red Cap, who demands a better explanation of who they are before judgement is passed. Cast is the only who answers, using a long-winded form of his name and title, in which Red Cap declares himself as Azasaraj the Red Saint.
A fight breaks out, and they kill the elder myconid sovereign. Which prompts them being brought before the remaining Elder Circle of the capital under heavy guard. With some deliberation, good Diplomacy rolls, and having them examine Red Cap's personal chambers. Inside said chambers are many, very expensive circles of binding, banishing, and summoning. This convinces them of Red Cap's madness, so they allow the party to keep his tainted gear, and inform them that their alliance with the Blackened Grove, while still present for trade purposes, will be ended for the node connection.
During all of this, they run into Leia's eldest brother, a man known as White Eyes; an old man with milky white eyes, glad to see the heavier presence of Blackened Grove gone. Out of gratitude, he bestows upon the party his family's boon, a salve that will bestow invulnerability to a single body part. There is a little bit of deliberation, and Marshal gets it applied to his arm.
Afterwards, they return back to the Empire of the Sun, and Tow takes the time case to research the helmet; because the entire party is assuming that the helmet is the cause for Red Cap's insanity and likely possession by Azas. In his research, he discovers that the Red Saint was a figure of ancient history (~700 years) who attempted to steal power from the Minor Gods in an attempt towards forced ascension to go along with world domination. The helmet itself, with a more careful inspection, seems to be a helm of telepathy with tiny indentations on the inside portion.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: XI
Fairly short session. Our potential replacement for the X-37 player ended up with a run of RL preventing him from being able to join in.
They brought Marshal's body to the Emerald Oracle and paid the hag her fee for raising him. I had decided that the level loss would be represented by a permanent negative level penalty (can be removed with the likes of wish), that will go away one at a time with a natural level up (~5450gp was her charge). Meanwhile, Tow brought over his equipment piecemeal via his teleporatation and spent time relaxing at the capital until they rode back there (two weeks long). There was a message left to Marshal by Sarou, but the player didn't seem to pay attention (the other two players did), so he won't discover the contents until later.
Upon returning to the capital of the Empire, they run into Sarou. He had been keeping an ear on the ground and noticed that there have been more than a few peculiar assassination jobs lately. The victims are of random lots in life, the only unifying factor is that they had a single organ of their body expertly excised. No possession would be taken, only killed such that the organ wouldn't be damaged, and then removed post-mortem. The party couldn't get the interest up, and instead looked for a mission from their superior.
While there, they get to go through a short ceremony and are given Imperial medals for their actions in routing the orcish horde of the Hungering Maw. Ensured of their status as first tier nobles in the Empire (second tier nobles are one step relatives).
Their prior superior officier turned out to be dead from one of the attacks from the Blackened Grove. Their new one is named Bunarti, a blonde, beardless dwarf with a Led accent, wearing black & gold cloth. He told them that part of their recent advantage in power was absorbing the Mushroom Kingdom into the fold. Their mission was to find out why or how the Blackened Grove was able to convince the native myconids to accept the alliance, as their culture makes subjugation or even aidful alliance difficult.
The border between the Blackened Grove, while relatively open for travellers, was guarded to prevent egress of the nobility from the Empire of the Sun (read: adventurers). From what they could figure out, they would be suspect for being nobility if they stood out for weirdness or be noticed for their particular combat prowess (Sense Motive to see how good they are in a fight if they ever do something violent) and would likely be subject to cursory magic item scans (adventurers light up like holiday trees). Main roads would be the obviously guarded route, and the Blackened Grove was known for its druids, so moving through the forest beyond the roads would be equally bad when none in the party are familiar with moving through the woods.
After half an hour, they decided to take a boat from Star Cove, captained by a 3rd level warrior aquatic elf (former privateer of another kingdom). The Mushroom Kingdom's on the southern coast of the continent, about 320 miles west of Star Cove. The kingdom is a cold marsh that is like a cross between World of Warcraft's Zangarmarsh and the fungal forest in Nausica of the Valley of the Wind.
While moving along the coast, they can only find a single port, which consists of two seaweed ladened docks near three rundown and seemingly abandoned shanties. For safety, they send Tow out on reconnaisance, so he casts invisibility and begins to teleport around
At one point, he teleports atop one of the roofs, which collapses beneath him. Falling inside, he lands inside a pool of stagnant saltwater and sees a bit of movement below him in the pool. Before he can react properly (lost initiative), he finds himself grappled and pummelled with subdual damage unto unconsciousness (never able to make the Concentration checks).
The rest of the party sits for fifteen minutes before getting worried and docking to looking for Tow; unsure of exactly where he went because they couldn't tell if he fell through the bit of roof that collapsed in (as he had been invisible at the time). When they check the inside, they notice an open pit of stagnant water filled with seaweed at the center of the shantie, below the open hole. One other building also has an open pit, and all of them are filled with mold and bits are growing over with moss, the signs of civilzation being shelves of hollowed out mushrooms filled with various herbs.
They decided that Tow likely fell in and never came out, so Cast takes off his armor, ties himself to a fair bit of rope, and dives in. After a few rounds of looking around, he finds and goes down a tunnel to the side, popping up a hole. Inside are seven more humanoid looking skum that seem to be using a seaweed base, Tow in a corner unconscious. The creatures don't seem to speak his language, so he attempts to mime that he wants the tiefling, and they seem to mime that they don't want to give him up. He pauses for a round, then jerks at the rope as he dives for Tow to grab him. The whole lot of skum begin to bite and claw at him, attempting to subdue him at first as he starts getting dragged back into the water (holding Tows mouth/nose shut to prevent water getting in). About 10' from the surface, the skum did enough damage to knock Cast unconscious and then cut the rope. At which point, they swiftly dragged both bodies back to their lair, leaving Marshal with a surprised look and cut rope.
There's some time deliberating by Marshal with Tenoc as to what to do, because he's no idea what's going on below to cause all this, and his defensive capability is severely compromised without the armor (and very much not swimming with it on). After awhile, they realize that the captain is a sea elf who's likely fast enough to quick check and get back before getting caught. Reluctantly, Marshal allows this and gets the basic gist of what's where. From the lay of the land, he figures out that he can likely walk down the tunnel and climb up to the hole while wearing his armor. At which point, he does so and ends up killing most of them on the way due to their surprisingly weak battle prowess. After half an hour, Tow and Cast awaken (sleeping spores were used), and they search through the room to find a secret passage. Further down the tunnel, they reach the exit and find themselves in a fungal forest with myconids working the 'fields' within sight.
They brought Marshal's body to the Emerald Oracle and paid the hag her fee for raising him. I had decided that the level loss would be represented by a permanent negative level penalty (can be removed with the likes of wish), that will go away one at a time with a natural level up (~5450gp was her charge). Meanwhile, Tow brought over his equipment piecemeal via his teleporatation and spent time relaxing at the capital until they rode back there (two weeks long). There was a message left to Marshal by Sarou, but the player didn't seem to pay attention (the other two players did), so he won't discover the contents until later.
Upon returning to the capital of the Empire, they run into Sarou. He had been keeping an ear on the ground and noticed that there have been more than a few peculiar assassination jobs lately. The victims are of random lots in life, the only unifying factor is that they had a single organ of their body expertly excised. No possession would be taken, only killed such that the organ wouldn't be damaged, and then removed post-mortem. The party couldn't get the interest up, and instead looked for a mission from their superior.
While there, they get to go through a short ceremony and are given Imperial medals for their actions in routing the orcish horde of the Hungering Maw. Ensured of their status as first tier nobles in the Empire (second tier nobles are one step relatives).
Their prior superior officier turned out to be dead from one of the attacks from the Blackened Grove. Their new one is named Bunarti, a blonde, beardless dwarf with a Led accent, wearing black & gold cloth. He told them that part of their recent advantage in power was absorbing the Mushroom Kingdom into the fold. Their mission was to find out why or how the Blackened Grove was able to convince the native myconids to accept the alliance, as their culture makes subjugation or even aidful alliance difficult.
The border between the Blackened Grove, while relatively open for travellers, was guarded to prevent egress of the nobility from the Empire of the Sun (read: adventurers). From what they could figure out, they would be suspect for being nobility if they stood out for weirdness or be noticed for their particular combat prowess (Sense Motive to see how good they are in a fight if they ever do something violent) and would likely be subject to cursory magic item scans (adventurers light up like holiday trees). Main roads would be the obviously guarded route, and the Blackened Grove was known for its druids, so moving through the forest beyond the roads would be equally bad when none in the party are familiar with moving through the woods.
After half an hour, they decided to take a boat from Star Cove, captained by a 3rd level warrior aquatic elf (former privateer of another kingdom). The Mushroom Kingdom's on the southern coast of the continent, about 320 miles west of Star Cove. The kingdom is a cold marsh that is like a cross between World of Warcraft's Zangarmarsh and the fungal forest in Nausica of the Valley of the Wind.
While moving along the coast, they can only find a single port, which consists of two seaweed ladened docks near three rundown and seemingly abandoned shanties. For safety, they send Tow out on reconnaisance, so he casts invisibility and begins to teleport around
At one point, he teleports atop one of the roofs, which collapses beneath him. Falling inside, he lands inside a pool of stagnant saltwater and sees a bit of movement below him in the pool. Before he can react properly (lost initiative), he finds himself grappled and pummelled with subdual damage unto unconsciousness (never able to make the Concentration checks).
The rest of the party sits for fifteen minutes before getting worried and docking to looking for Tow; unsure of exactly where he went because they couldn't tell if he fell through the bit of roof that collapsed in (as he had been invisible at the time). When they check the inside, they notice an open pit of stagnant water filled with seaweed at the center of the shantie, below the open hole. One other building also has an open pit, and all of them are filled with mold and bits are growing over with moss, the signs of civilzation being shelves of hollowed out mushrooms filled with various herbs.
They decided that Tow likely fell in and never came out, so Cast takes off his armor, ties himself to a fair bit of rope, and dives in. After a few rounds of looking around, he finds and goes down a tunnel to the side, popping up a hole. Inside are seven more humanoid looking skum that seem to be using a seaweed base, Tow in a corner unconscious. The creatures don't seem to speak his language, so he attempts to mime that he wants the tiefling, and they seem to mime that they don't want to give him up. He pauses for a round, then jerks at the rope as he dives for Tow to grab him. The whole lot of skum begin to bite and claw at him, attempting to subdue him at first as he starts getting dragged back into the water (holding Tows mouth/nose shut to prevent water getting in). About 10' from the surface, the skum did enough damage to knock Cast unconscious and then cut the rope. At which point, they swiftly dragged both bodies back to their lair, leaving Marshal with a surprised look and cut rope.
There's some time deliberating by Marshal with Tenoc as to what to do, because he's no idea what's going on below to cause all this, and his defensive capability is severely compromised without the armor (and very much not swimming with it on). After awhile, they realize that the captain is a sea elf who's likely fast enough to quick check and get back before getting caught. Reluctantly, Marshal allows this and gets the basic gist of what's where. From the lay of the land, he figures out that he can likely walk down the tunnel and climb up to the hole while wearing his armor. At which point, he does so and ends up killing most of them on the way due to their surprisingly weak battle prowess. After half an hour, Tow and Cast awaken (sleeping spores were used), and they search through the room to find a secret passage. Further down the tunnel, they reach the exit and find themselves in a fungal forest with myconids working the 'fields' within sight.
Friday, October 5, 2012
Warriors of the Empire of the Sun: Session X
After entirely too much time wasted, waiting for all of my players to be able to get together again, we seem to be able to begin again. Next week, we have a new player come in to fil the void left by X37's player.
They flip the hidden switch inside the crypt spoken of by the priest, then travel down the sloping hallway for hundreds of feet past many doors on the left side and alcoves with running fountains. While walking, one three of the fountains begin releasing a large water elemental. The three elementals speak of the node being damaged and must be protected. They attack, and are taken out over a few rounds without doing much to the party (fire mage & beguiler hide behind illusions).
After a time, the right side finally has an opening, leading up a 100' of stairs behind a large waterfall. At the peak is a warded door, where Tow speaks the password. Inside is a 20' square chapel in honor to the element of water. At this point, a trap is set off; closing the door and casting raise water on the low level of water in the room. Surprised, they try to hold their breath and Marshal dispels the effect. After half a minute, Tow figures out that six rounds after at least 10 tons weigh on the floor a pit trap opens up. Disabling the trap, they enter the pit w/slide.
At the bottom of the slide they find themselves on the shore of a vast underground lake, near a skiff. Kast hears faint chanting away from the shore. A bonfire is made to better illuminate, showing an ashworm resting on an island. Upon the center of the island is an open ceiling temple made of solid water and a teal beam of light in the center, flickering into the color of salt.
They ride the skiff towards the center and try to stop the Dark Knight of the Thirsting Dune (level 8 orc ghoul knight) from attuning the node towards the Hungering Maw. He was guarded by a water mephit and an advanced dessicator (large size). It was a fairly long fight, with the mephit taken out quickly through miser's envy (taking the salt crystal focus for the ritual). The dessicator was killed first, the ashworm mount was frightened from Marshal's terrible shout ability. Finally, Marshal was killed by the knight's melee attack due to two consecutive rounds of not getting hit (Marshal being his challenge).
Before they could figure out what to do, the mephit returned long enough to throw and shatter the salt crystal near the pillar of light. This released all of the energy being focused from the node, which shifted toward the Hungering Maw for a few moments before resorting back to the Empire of the Sun. Because it was so short, it instead went towards the ashworm (a spawn from the maw), which began to mutate it. It grew to the edge of gargantuan before burrowing out of sight, its scales lengthened and darkened into almost quill-like things, its teeth increased in number then transformed into rubbery arms, and deep in the center of its mouth an eye began to form with a most terrible gaze.
Not sure what to do, they took the corpse of Marshal and made their way to the Emerald Oracle to ask for aid from Auzrha in raising him. We leave off here, as there's a chance that the player for Marshal might decide to let himself stay dead and try a new character. Also, they assumed that I would let the rules for level loss remain with raise dead and similar.
They flip the hidden switch inside the crypt spoken of by the priest, then travel down the sloping hallway for hundreds of feet past many doors on the left side and alcoves with running fountains. While walking, one three of the fountains begin releasing a large water elemental. The three elementals speak of the node being damaged and must be protected. They attack, and are taken out over a few rounds without doing much to the party (fire mage & beguiler hide behind illusions).
After a time, the right side finally has an opening, leading up a 100' of stairs behind a large waterfall. At the peak is a warded door, where Tow speaks the password. Inside is a 20' square chapel in honor to the element of water. At this point, a trap is set off; closing the door and casting raise water on the low level of water in the room. Surprised, they try to hold their breath and Marshal dispels the effect. After half a minute, Tow figures out that six rounds after at least 10 tons weigh on the floor a pit trap opens up. Disabling the trap, they enter the pit w/slide.
At the bottom of the slide they find themselves on the shore of a vast underground lake, near a skiff. Kast hears faint chanting away from the shore. A bonfire is made to better illuminate, showing an ashworm resting on an island. Upon the center of the island is an open ceiling temple made of solid water and a teal beam of light in the center, flickering into the color of salt.
They ride the skiff towards the center and try to stop the Dark Knight of the Thirsting Dune (level 8 orc ghoul knight) from attuning the node towards the Hungering Maw. He was guarded by a water mephit and an advanced dessicator (large size). It was a fairly long fight, with the mephit taken out quickly through miser's envy (taking the salt crystal focus for the ritual). The dessicator was killed first, the ashworm mount was frightened from Marshal's terrible shout ability. Finally, Marshal was killed by the knight's melee attack due to two consecutive rounds of not getting hit (Marshal being his challenge).
Before they could figure out what to do, the mephit returned long enough to throw and shatter the salt crystal near the pillar of light. This released all of the energy being focused from the node, which shifted toward the Hungering Maw for a few moments before resorting back to the Empire of the Sun. Because it was so short, it instead went towards the ashworm (a spawn from the maw), which began to mutate it. It grew to the edge of gargantuan before burrowing out of sight, its scales lengthened and darkened into almost quill-like things, its teeth increased in number then transformed into rubbery arms, and deep in the center of its mouth an eye began to form with a most terrible gaze.
Not sure what to do, they took the corpse of Marshal and made their way to the Emerald Oracle to ask for aid from Auzrha in raising him. We leave off here, as there's a chance that the player for Marshal might decide to let himself stay dead and try a new character. Also, they assumed that I would let the rules for level loss remain with raise dead and similar.
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