Once again, I am dreadfully behind. Here is quick story summary, just an hour before our next session and the XP details.
The party sends Rhaegar ahead, a Dragonborn to scout Gharash Vren's gang (also a Dragonborn). He manages to at least delay the action and as the action unfolds, Rhaegar uses his leader abilities to convince several of the foes they would have to fight to instead fight the werewolf escaping its prison. Impressively, our level 5 party defeated a level 12 encounter.
Our party then makes it into the inner chambers were not even Gharash Vren's gang lingers long. They find a succubus trapped in a cathedral which they have to fight while simultaneously disarming a trap that summoned demons to fight. Our party, victorious, at Vryellis's encouragement, finds a trap door and a life force splinter of Vrylellis. At this Vyrellis, is positively enamored with the party and Jadis, and has become quite helpful.
To finish out the night, the heroes enter the final room before wrapping around back to their destination. They find that the room was setup quite defensively, for those entering from the other side. Even so, our party has great difficulty overcoming their foes and somehow end up on the defensive. With some well timed heals (and revives) our party eventually vanquishes the foes and takes a now much needed long rest before venturing out into the rest of the pyramid.
Session 13: 908 XP - Shava, Yelsha, Rheagar, Jadis, Varis, & Glyth
Location 12 (G2) - Chamber of Doors: 3450 XP
Location 13 (G3) - Inner Chambers: 2000 XP
Location 11 (G1) - Guard Chamber: 2000 XP
Session 13 Total: 5450 XP
Session 12: 466 XP - Shava, Yelsha, Rhaegar, Jadis, Varis, & Glyth
Session 11: 626 XP (this was stated incorrectly last post as Session 10)
Session 10: 225 XP + 362 XP for Doz (this was omited last post)
Session 9: 342 XP
Session 8: 787 XP
Session 7: 524 XP
Session 6: 562 XP
Session 5: 278 XP
Session 4: 432 XP
Session 3: 321 XP
Session 2: 585 XP + 50 XP for Shava and Yelsha
Session 1: 375 XP
Total Adventure XP so far: 6481 XP
Level 6 = 7500 XP
As always, I appreciate player corrections, and feed back from anyone on embellishing the story as it happened, should of happened, or should happen.
Session 14 is planned for TODAY at 4pm. (June 9th, 2012). Hope to have these notes posted with a week instead of over a month.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Session 12 Adventure Notes
Sorry for the long delay from action to post. Got really busy between Gnomecon, the J-O-B, D&D, and would you believe Ballet? Maybe that should be a different blog.
Given the long space, this post may be a bit more summary than usual. To business!
Our party entered the hermitage and found more Eaters of Knowledge and fought a "assimilation" of Karavakos. After a really tough battle, Karavakos fled. Our intrepid heroes, even after clearing the area, had to navigate through some magical strangling curtains and pick some locks to find an angel statuette worth 250gp, a silver necklace that once belonged to Vyrellis worth 250gp (and who noted she no longer had a neck on which to adorn it), 4 pieces of cut jade worth 100gp each, and 800 gp. The also found an inscription in one of the rooms which Rhaegar was able to read that said, "The key of knowledge shines beneath a ring of holy stars." They also had to work to disable a trap at the guardian statue that failed to fire during combat for some reason.
From the hermitage, being a dead end, they go back through the library, and the hall way, and take the only remaining unexplored hallway down into a flooded room with moving water. The fight some swamp walking Aboreans who utilize a pipe system in the room to be sneaky. These same pipes trapped and damaged a few of our heroes before they were discovered and ultimately utilized to their advantage. After clearing the room of foes, they spent quite some time trying to get up on slipper platform that led to a room. The room had statue with a moonstone in its forehead. At this site, the Head of Vyrellis pipes up asking Jadis to obtain the moonstone for her.
Once retrieved, and the party, specifically Jadis, FEELING STRONGER, the Head of Vyrellis seems quite partial toward your party. She is a bit more talkative now. She reveals that the moonstone contains a part of her life force and that there are two more pieces in the pyramid. With them, she will be more able to help everyone escape, and maybe even reincorporate her physical being.
Your party then searches the remaining entrances and exits from this room, and the Head of Vyrellis starts revealing what she knows about them. Your North and South entrances (you came from the west) circle back to each other and are the home of Gharash Vren's gang. Gharash Vren is a dragonborn criminal and new to the pyramid. He has only just carved himself out his own place. She reveals the entrances to his area will be well guarded and that they keep a potential enemy in their midst.
Your party heads north contemplating the meaning of her words. You discuss methods among fight, diplomacy, and even subterfuge of the enemy in their midst, before you world is sucked to gray and you return to the alternate dimension known as real life.
Encounter H2, Location 15 - The Hermitage - 1050 XP (Karavakos escaped)
Encounter P5, Location 5 - Flooded Chamber - 1750 XP
Session 12: 466 XP - Shava, Yelsha, Rhaegar, Jadis, Varis, & Glyth
Session 11: 626 XP (this was stated incorrectly last post as Session 10)
Session 10: 225 XP + 362 XP for Doz (this was omited last post)
Session 9: 342 XP
Session 8: 787 XP
Session 7: 524 XP
Session 6: 562 XP
Session 5: 278 XP
Session 4: 432 XP
Session 3: 321 XP
Session 2: 585 XP + 50 XP for Shava and Yelsha
Session 1: 375 XP
Total Adventure XP so far: 5523 XP (most should be at Level 5 now, a few just behind)
Level 6 = 7500 XP
As always, I appreciate player corrections, and feed back from anyone on embellishing the story as it happened, should of happened, or should happen.
Session 13 is planned for Sunday, April 29, 2012, noon-7pm. Looks to be a pretty full game.
Hope to see you at the Encounters session Wednesday at Morningstar Games on Montgomery Crossroads. This season is coming to its finale, and I think I have heard that the big battle will be this week with a wrap up the week after.
Given the long space, this post may be a bit more summary than usual. To business!
Our party entered the hermitage and found more Eaters of Knowledge and fought a "assimilation" of Karavakos. After a really tough battle, Karavakos fled. Our intrepid heroes, even after clearing the area, had to navigate through some magical strangling curtains and pick some locks to find an angel statuette worth 250gp, a silver necklace that once belonged to Vyrellis worth 250gp (and who noted she no longer had a neck on which to adorn it), 4 pieces of cut jade worth 100gp each, and 800 gp. The also found an inscription in one of the rooms which Rhaegar was able to read that said, "The key of knowledge shines beneath a ring of holy stars." They also had to work to disable a trap at the guardian statue that failed to fire during combat for some reason.
From the hermitage, being a dead end, they go back through the library, and the hall way, and take the only remaining unexplored hallway down into a flooded room with moving water. The fight some swamp walking Aboreans who utilize a pipe system in the room to be sneaky. These same pipes trapped and damaged a few of our heroes before they were discovered and ultimately utilized to their advantage. After clearing the room of foes, they spent quite some time trying to get up on slipper platform that led to a room. The room had statue with a moonstone in its forehead. At this site, the Head of Vyrellis pipes up asking Jadis to obtain the moonstone for her.
Once retrieved, and the party, specifically Jadis, FEELING STRONGER, the Head of Vyrellis seems quite partial toward your party. She is a bit more talkative now. She reveals that the moonstone contains a part of her life force and that there are two more pieces in the pyramid. With them, she will be more able to help everyone escape, and maybe even reincorporate her physical being.
Your party then searches the remaining entrances and exits from this room, and the Head of Vyrellis starts revealing what she knows about them. Your North and South entrances (you came from the west) circle back to each other and are the home of Gharash Vren's gang. Gharash Vren is a dragonborn criminal and new to the pyramid. He has only just carved himself out his own place. She reveals the entrances to his area will be well guarded and that they keep a potential enemy in their midst.
Your party heads north contemplating the meaning of her words. You discuss methods among fight, diplomacy, and even subterfuge of the enemy in their midst, before you world is sucked to gray and you return to the alternate dimension known as real life.
Encounter H2, Location 15 - The Hermitage - 1050 XP (Karavakos escaped)
Encounter P5, Location 5 - Flooded Chamber - 1750 XP
Session 12: 466 XP - Shava, Yelsha, Rhaegar, Jadis, Varis, & Glyth
Session 11: 626 XP (this was stated incorrectly last post as Session 10)
Session 10: 225 XP + 362 XP for Doz (this was omited last post)
Session 9: 342 XP
Session 8: 787 XP
Session 7: 524 XP
Session 6: 562 XP
Session 5: 278 XP
Session 4: 432 XP
Session 3: 321 XP
Session 2: 585 XP + 50 XP for Shava and Yelsha
Session 1: 375 XP
Total Adventure XP so far: 5523 XP (most should be at Level 5 now, a few just behind)
Level 6 = 7500 XP
As always, I appreciate player corrections, and feed back from anyone on embellishing the story as it happened, should of happened, or should happen.
Session 13 is planned for Sunday, April 29, 2012, noon-7pm. Looks to be a pretty full game.
Hope to see you at the Encounters session Wednesday at Morningstar Games on Montgomery Crossroads. This season is coming to its finale, and I think I have heard that the big battle will be this week with a wrap up the week after.
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Session 11 Adventure Notes
It felt like a strong poker game. It was a full house. Seven players, myself as DM, playing eight characters. It worked. The extra bodies were useful considering I pitted our level 3-4 characters against two level 7 encounters and one level 8 encounter.
Our heroes were warped out of the forest last session to land in a pit on top of a pile of bodies. Right as they landed Minron, the minotaur, landed on top of Revots as he caught up to the party in the forest just as they were being magically propelled to this pit. The pile of bodies is 20 feet deep, and its 10 feet to the top, where a two headed giant ettin waits to cleave your heads from your body so he can add them to his trophy case. Your party also notices some movement from under the pile of bodies where two giant carrion crawlers emerge.
Through various means of escape the party teleports, climbs, and jumps its way out of the pit, some taking longer and less graceful methods and others having to be hauled up by a rope. The controllers of the party light the pit on fire with spells such as burning hands and fountain of flames, while the rest of the party discovers that the ettin is almost impossible to hit with standard attacks. Fortunately, several party members have some reflex and will based attacks which prove much more fruitful and the party is victorious.
Shava finds an alcove with heads on hooks displayed like trophies. One hook has a heavy bag on, which a female eladrin voice was calling out "We can help each other!". After waiting for his party to discuss the precautions, over what seemed like hours, Shava opens the bag and begins a dialogue with what turns out to the head of Vryellis. Vyrellis offers information and guidance on escaping the Pyramid of Shadows. if you your party would carry her with you. She seems to be more partial toward elves, and since Shava is already carrying a very powerful artifact with him, he passes the head to Jadis, the elf mizard.
Your party the has to decide on the direction to travel from here. All four cardinal points are available. To the east is a T intersection. To the south, some bushes can be made out. To the west, is a bridge descending over water onto a platform with more bridges. To the north is a hallway with an opening to the east, doors to the west, and doors to the north. The Head of Vryellis' only guidance is that you need to explore the Pyramid and get to know its inhabitants and ways. Your party chooses to head North.
Checking each direction in that north hallway, you smell a dirt like smell coming from the west doors, the east hallway seems to descend to a body of running water, and the north door is quiet. Opening the west door with Jadis' mage hand you see piles of bones and another set of doors in the room heading north. Still, in the hallway, another application of mage hand opens the north doors and an avalanche of bones pours out, causing 16 charnal rats to appear out of the various piles of bones. They rush at the party.
The party has some difficulty planning their entrance into the room through a narrow passage way with 9 characters (including Yelsha's summoned wolf, Revots). Using lots of blast spells several rats are dropped, and Doz creates a cordon of bones zone at a choke point. The clever rats head toward the walls to help get around it, but still made for easy pickings by your party. A few of them got close enough to make you lose health due to their aura of rot, but it ended up being a pretty easy encounter.
The only feature of interest in this room was that there was a rat size hole in the room that the north doors contained that lead straight up. Varis, summoned an invisible spirit companion who could travel up there and report on what it saw. It went up two stories, and found a crypt room with sarcophagi along the walls and around a center structure. That is all it could tell.
The party, reluctantly lead by Shava with Minron close behind, goes back to the main hallway peaks into the north doors. The sites and Vryellis confirm that this is a library. At its center is grass and a status of Vryellis as she appeared in life. Vryellis seemed like she was looking for something in the room she did not find, and that bothered her. All the books and scrolls in the library were whispering alluringly to the party. As the whole party spilled into the room. Two Eaters of Knowledge became visible on top of the book cases surrounding the walls carrying long bows. As the party engaged, two more Eaters of Knowledge appeared wielding scimitars, and ultimately, as Shava rounded a book case, some sort of Eaters of Knowledge mage appeared. Their screams frequently dazed the party, and while they made pretty short work of the mage and sword fighters, the position of the archers made it quite difficult to end the encounter. Finally, enough party members got up on the book shelves via climbs, jumps, and ladders that they were surrounded and forced to fight with their own, less skilled, swords and ultimately succumbed to the injuries the party inflicted.
The mages of the party searched the books and scrolls, finding many of them blank, probably some sort of damage from the Eaters of Knowledge. However, Doz found a bone case with a scroll of RAideJadis found a scroll of Consult Mystic Sages. The books also seemed valuable (roughly 5-10gp each, but they weighed 2 lbs each). Some party members starting stuffing their sacks with what they could carry. Hmph, as if they are going to live to profit from it.
On top of the book cases that surrounded the library, there was a set of doors in the North. The party opened those doors, and saw a room made of several small rooms, with a statue of an angel in the front room. And that is where we ended...
Encounter P1, Location 1 - Entrance Pit - 1714 XP
Encounter P2, Location 2 - Chamber of Rats - 1500 XP
Encounter H1, Location 14 - Library of Whispers - 1800 XP
Session 10: 5014 / 8 PC = 626 XP ea
Session 9: 342 XP
Session 8: 787 XP
Session 7: 524 XP
Session 6: 562 XP
Session 5: 278 XP
Session 4: 432 XP
Session 3: 321 XP
Session 2: 585 XP + 50 XP for Shava and Yelsha
Session 1: 375 XP
Total so far: 5057 XP + 50 XP for Shava and Yelsha
Level 5 = 5500 XP
As always, I appreciate player corrections, and feed back from anyone on embellishing the story as it happened, should of happened, or should happen.
Session 12 is planned for Saturday, April 14, 2012 4pm-11pm. I believe we have had heard that Doz and Minron may not be able to make it.
Session 13 is planned for Sunday, April 29, 2012, noon-7pm. I haven't heard of can't make it's so far.
Hope to see you at the Encounters session Wednesday at Morningstar Games on Montgomery Crossroads. This season is really shaping up to be a good one.
Our heroes were warped out of the forest last session to land in a pit on top of a pile of bodies. Right as they landed Minron, the minotaur, landed on top of Revots as he caught up to the party in the forest just as they were being magically propelled to this pit. The pile of bodies is 20 feet deep, and its 10 feet to the top, where a two headed giant ettin waits to cleave your heads from your body so he can add them to his trophy case. Your party also notices some movement from under the pile of bodies where two giant carrion crawlers emerge.
Through various means of escape the party teleports, climbs, and jumps its way out of the pit, some taking longer and less graceful methods and others having to be hauled up by a rope. The controllers of the party light the pit on fire with spells such as burning hands and fountain of flames, while the rest of the party discovers that the ettin is almost impossible to hit with standard attacks. Fortunately, several party members have some reflex and will based attacks which prove much more fruitful and the party is victorious.
Shava finds an alcove with heads on hooks displayed like trophies. One hook has a heavy bag on, which a female eladrin voice was calling out "We can help each other!". After waiting for his party to discuss the precautions, over what seemed like hours, Shava opens the bag and begins a dialogue with what turns out to the head of Vryellis. Vyrellis offers information and guidance on escaping the Pyramid of Shadows. if you your party would carry her with you. She seems to be more partial toward elves, and since Shava is already carrying a very powerful artifact with him, he passes the head to Jadis, the elf mizard.
Your party the has to decide on the direction to travel from here. All four cardinal points are available. To the east is a T intersection. To the south, some bushes can be made out. To the west, is a bridge descending over water onto a platform with more bridges. To the north is a hallway with an opening to the east, doors to the west, and doors to the north. The Head of Vryellis' only guidance is that you need to explore the Pyramid and get to know its inhabitants and ways. Your party chooses to head North.
Checking each direction in that north hallway, you smell a dirt like smell coming from the west doors, the east hallway seems to descend to a body of running water, and the north door is quiet. Opening the west door with Jadis' mage hand you see piles of bones and another set of doors in the room heading north. Still, in the hallway, another application of mage hand opens the north doors and an avalanche of bones pours out, causing 16 charnal rats to appear out of the various piles of bones. They rush at the party.
The party has some difficulty planning their entrance into the room through a narrow passage way with 9 characters (including Yelsha's summoned wolf, Revots). Using lots of blast spells several rats are dropped, and Doz creates a cordon of bones zone at a choke point. The clever rats head toward the walls to help get around it, but still made for easy pickings by your party. A few of them got close enough to make you lose health due to their aura of rot, but it ended up being a pretty easy encounter.
The only feature of interest in this room was that there was a rat size hole in the room that the north doors contained that lead straight up. Varis, summoned an invisible spirit companion who could travel up there and report on what it saw. It went up two stories, and found a crypt room with sarcophagi along the walls and around a center structure. That is all it could tell.
The party, reluctantly lead by Shava with Minron close behind, goes back to the main hallway peaks into the north doors. The sites and Vryellis confirm that this is a library. At its center is grass and a status of Vryellis as she appeared in life. Vryellis seemed like she was looking for something in the room she did not find, and that bothered her. All the books and scrolls in the library were whispering alluringly to the party. As the whole party spilled into the room. Two Eaters of Knowledge became visible on top of the book cases surrounding the walls carrying long bows. As the party engaged, two more Eaters of Knowledge appeared wielding scimitars, and ultimately, as Shava rounded a book case, some sort of Eaters of Knowledge mage appeared. Their screams frequently dazed the party, and while they made pretty short work of the mage and sword fighters, the position of the archers made it quite difficult to end the encounter. Finally, enough party members got up on the book shelves via climbs, jumps, and ladders that they were surrounded and forced to fight with their own, less skilled, swords and ultimately succumbed to the injuries the party inflicted.
The mages of the party searched the books and scrolls, finding many of them blank, probably some sort of damage from the Eaters of Knowledge. However, Doz found a bone case with a scroll of RAideJadis found a scroll of Consult Mystic Sages. The books also seemed valuable (roughly 5-10gp each, but they weighed 2 lbs each). Some party members starting stuffing their sacks with what they could carry. Hmph, as if they are going to live to profit from it.
On top of the book cases that surrounded the library, there was a set of doors in the North. The party opened those doors, and saw a room made of several small rooms, with a statue of an angel in the front room. And that is where we ended...
Encounter P1, Location 1 - Entrance Pit - 1714 XP
Encounter P2, Location 2 - Chamber of Rats - 1500 XP
Encounter H1, Location 14 - Library of Whispers - 1800 XP
Session 10: 5014 / 8 PC = 626 XP ea
Session 9: 342 XP
Session 8: 787 XP
Session 7: 524 XP
Session 6: 562 XP
Session 5: 278 XP
Session 4: 432 XP
Session 3: 321 XP
Session 2: 585 XP + 50 XP for Shava and Yelsha
Session 1: 375 XP
Total so far: 5057 XP + 50 XP for Shava and Yelsha
Level 5 = 5500 XP
As always, I appreciate player corrections, and feed back from anyone on embellishing the story as it happened, should of happened, or should happen.
Session 12 is planned for Saturday, April 14, 2012 4pm-11pm. I believe we have had heard that Doz and Minron may not be able to make it.
Session 13 is planned for Sunday, April 29, 2012, noon-7pm. I haven't heard of can't make it's so far.
Hope to see you at the Encounters session Wednesday at Morningstar Games on Montgomery Crossroads. This season is really shaping up to be a good one.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Current Happenings
A lot of new leaves turned up this week. Let's see, I can think of three things worth mentioning here.
First, my daughter and I were able to make it to a Shadowrun 3.0 game this Friday with some new friends (thank for the invite!). The game involves some similar ability scores to D&D 4e but all the skills seem ad hoc to fit the story. Also the game runs entirely on d6. You get to roll more d6 the higher your level of a particular skill is (including your various fighting skills). All in all, I did not enjoy the game as much as D&D 4e, but I also know better than to judge a whole gaming system on a single encounter. If you want to learn more about Shadowrun, I found the wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun a great overview on not to many pages.
In this encounter, my daughter got to roll a bunch of important skill checks, while my friend and I got lost and had to find our way back. I do look forward to giving it another go someday. I also wanted to commend the GM. He ran the whole campaign from his mind, never referencing a book or story. He reviewed what he wanted pregame and just made it work. Our part was essentially on three different action paths though we were in the same area and he kept us in turn and engaged. He also created a father-daughter team in game for us with the requisite skills to survive the encounter. I have a few things to learn.
In case any of my new friends are reading this, thanks for a great game, I really enjoyed the role playing, and hope to be able to make it back soon.
Second thing of interest this week was a continuation of one of my conversation regarding D&D 4e at Gnomecon. They don't have a game going yet, and with greater participation of conference attendees than expected already registered, they haven't had a chance to organize a D&D 4e game. I had already volunteered to run a game or two for them, but now I am also going to contact Wizards of the Coast and see if we can get a sanctioned game going. Either way, it will be a blast and I encourage you to come join us.
I think I wanted to try to write an appropriately timed adventure involving gnomes and HumanCon. I have only had a hand at writing "Thank you, but our princess is in another castle!" which feels like I have barely begun so far. At least the Gnomecon game can be smaller in scope and hopefully easier to write.
Lastly, a friend of mine and I are looking at starting a small business providing some custom tools for table top RPG gaming. I would love any thoughts on this. There are so many things I wish I could customize for my DMing or playing, but honestly don't always have the time or skill to do. If I could pay a nominal fee for someone else to customize a DM Screen for me, for example, it would be worth to me. Lots of other ideas going on, and I need to get some more experience with other game systems as well.
First, my daughter and I were able to make it to a Shadowrun 3.0 game this Friday with some new friends (thank for the invite!). The game involves some similar ability scores to D&D 4e but all the skills seem ad hoc to fit the story. Also the game runs entirely on d6. You get to roll more d6 the higher your level of a particular skill is (including your various fighting skills). All in all, I did not enjoy the game as much as D&D 4e, but I also know better than to judge a whole gaming system on a single encounter. If you want to learn more about Shadowrun, I found the wiki at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun a great overview on not to many pages.
In this encounter, my daughter got to roll a bunch of important skill checks, while my friend and I got lost and had to find our way back. I do look forward to giving it another go someday. I also wanted to commend the GM. He ran the whole campaign from his mind, never referencing a book or story. He reviewed what he wanted pregame and just made it work. Our part was essentially on three different action paths though we were in the same area and he kept us in turn and engaged. He also created a father-daughter team in game for us with the requisite skills to survive the encounter. I have a few things to learn.
In case any of my new friends are reading this, thanks for a great game, I really enjoyed the role playing, and hope to be able to make it back soon.
Second thing of interest this week was a continuation of one of my conversation regarding D&D 4e at Gnomecon. They don't have a game going yet, and with greater participation of conference attendees than expected already registered, they haven't had a chance to organize a D&D 4e game. I had already volunteered to run a game or two for them, but now I am also going to contact Wizards of the Coast and see if we can get a sanctioned game going. Either way, it will be a blast and I encourage you to come join us.
I think I wanted to try to write an appropriately timed adventure involving gnomes and HumanCon. I have only had a hand at writing "Thank you, but our princess is in another castle!" which feels like I have barely begun so far. At least the Gnomecon game can be smaller in scope and hopefully easier to write.
Lastly, a friend of mine and I are looking at starting a small business providing some custom tools for table top RPG gaming. I would love any thoughts on this. There are so many things I wish I could customize for my DMing or playing, but honestly don't always have the time or skill to do. If I could pay a nominal fee for someone else to customize a DM Screen for me, for example, it would be worth to me. Lots of other ideas going on, and I need to get some more experience with other game systems as well.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Session 10 Adventure Notes
It's hard to believe that we are already at Session Ten and yet we have been playing for four months now. It's also hard to imagine that we have had yet another unique session, so different than all the rest. To summarize the oddness, we only had one combat encounter at the very end, and our heroes have opened up three more minor quests and ignored the major quest while in the very castle they were supposed to go for the quest.
Some other interesting session numbers:
10 sessions
4 months
~2 lbs of Swedish fish (that surprisingly don't taste like fish)
4 pizzas
1 potato chip bag of bring your own strength to open it
and a "golden sack"
Here is our per player XP so far, before we get to the story:
Session 9: 342 XP
Session 8: 787 XP
Session 7: 524 XP
Session 6: 562 XP
Session 5: 278 XP
Session 4: 432 XP
Session 3: 321 XP
Session 2: 585 XP + 50 XP for Shava and Yelsha
Session 1: 375 XP
Total so far: 4206 XP
We opened on our party late in the morning of Day 12 walking out of the Ye Olde Shop of Magic empty handed. Rhaegar buys a few miscellaneous items and the decide to see what they can find at the Dog's Wag, before sunset.
Through conversation with the barmaid, Helga, and the games master, her husband, Bastrad, they learn that Carric, the Cavalier that was sacrificed at the altar of Vecna, had frequented this establishment, drinking and gambling between jobs. They also learned that the cloaked figure had not been seen before he met with Carric, but has been back fairly often around sunset, and doesn't ever buy anything, to Helga's dismay.
The whole party, except for Varis sent down to enjoy some dice and card games at the Dog's Wag. Jadis was the first to break the ice with some play at Roman's Dice and then Chuck-a-Luck. Eventually others joined him, starting with Yelsha, and then everyone but Varis (who kept watch) playing Three Dragon Ante Emporer's Gambit. Overall the party did well at the games adding about 100gp to their coffers before realizing the sun was settings as they were cashing out their chips back to gold.
As they were, Varis noticed that a cloaked figure opened the door into the Dog's walk, seemed troubled at seeing Shava, Yelsha, Jadis, Glyth, and Varis, and closed the door and hurried off. The party followed outside and began to track the figure. They could tell he was running fast, and despite enthusiasm by Shava, they decided not to run after the trail grew cold.
The party felt that the cloaked figure was most likely gathering forces, so they rented a few rooms at the end in strategic outlooks locations, they had Yelsha and Jadis sneak around the back so the barmaid wouldn't know they were here (in case she was interrogated), and Doz waited down stairs while chatting up a Minotaur patron. Those upstairs (sharing some rooms) took turns sleeping and keeping watch. Around three hours in, the cloaked figure indeed returned, but alone, and Doz overheard him talking to Helga. He simply asked what she knew about the adventurers that were in earlier (he did show that we felt superior to the barmaid), and having learned little left. Having been alerted to his presence by a mage hand from Doz, Rhaegar and Jadis moved into a vacant room and caught his return path. The cloaked figure had headed into the castle, and was not stopped or questioned by the guards.
From then, our heroes decided to take a long rest if nothing more than to prevent from being tired later. During the night Shava, again had difficulty sleeping, and as he later reported to the party, his dreams are becoming more clear and compelling. He is being called by Pelor, to a pyramid in the midst of a clearing in a thick forest to the north west. After they woke on the morning of Day 13, our party decided to send Doz, someone that the cloaked figure did not seem to recognize and was not with them at the arena (they assumed that based on who the cloaked figure noticed this figure must have been at the arena), to the castle to seek an audience with King Helgon. Yes, they just split the party.
Doz, who later confesses he expected death on this errand, comes to the guards at the castle entrance. The guards stop him stating that only those on the King's business may enter. Doz attempts a diplomatic approach with the guards and convinces them to let him pass so that he may offer the king his services to gain his favor.
As he is escorted into the throne room where King Helgon sits, he notices that the cloaked figure is standing behind the left shoulder of the king. Doz appeals to the king in speech by seeking a homestead and safe passage through his land, in exchange for whatever service the King wishes. The King offers him a quest to seek out his missing powerful mage. Helgon had sent the Mage to the Maze of Madness, west from the North Gate of Hilliana through a pass called Tock's Crack in the mountain range to the west. The mage was to retrieve a "trinket" for him and he has asked Doz to retrieve the trinket with or without the mage.
Doz accepted the quest and after stating that he would gather six other adventures for the task, had a page draw up mission documents that would be proof the party was on the king's business while travelling.
Doz reported back to the party, still at the Dog's Wag, and they were excited to hear about the safe passage. They didn't, however, seem interested in the new quest, and on their way to the north gate of Hilliana stopped by to see the Eladrin at the Religious Center to see how her research was going.
She was excited to see them as she indeed has found something. Here is what she shared:
Adventure Experience: 4206 XP + 225 XP = 4431 XP + 50 XP for Shava/Yelsha, & 362 XP for Doz
Level 5 at 5500 XP
DM Ruling: I awarded the XP for Encounter 27 to Doz only. Had it not been for a lucky Diplomacy role, he could have well triggered a combat encounter by himself and died before his party could assist. Give that Doz is also behind in experience points, I doubly felt this was fair for everyone.
Some other interesting session numbers:
10 sessions
4 months
~2 lbs of Swedish fish (that surprisingly don't taste like fish)
4 pizzas
1 potato chip bag of bring your own strength to open it
and a "golden sack"
Here is our per player XP so far, before we get to the story:
Session 9: 342 XP
Session 8: 787 XP
Session 7: 524 XP
Session 6: 562 XP
Session 5: 278 XP
Session 4: 432 XP
Session 3: 321 XP
Session 2: 585 XP + 50 XP for Shava and Yelsha
Session 1: 375 XP
Total so far: 4206 XP
We opened on our party late in the morning of Day 12 walking out of the Ye Olde Shop of Magic empty handed. Rhaegar buys a few miscellaneous items and the decide to see what they can find at the Dog's Wag, before sunset.
Through conversation with the barmaid, Helga, and the games master, her husband, Bastrad, they learn that Carric, the Cavalier that was sacrificed at the altar of Vecna, had frequented this establishment, drinking and gambling between jobs. They also learned that the cloaked figure had not been seen before he met with Carric, but has been back fairly often around sunset, and doesn't ever buy anything, to Helga's dismay.
The whole party, except for Varis sent down to enjoy some dice and card games at the Dog's Wag. Jadis was the first to break the ice with some play at Roman's Dice and then Chuck-a-Luck. Eventually others joined him, starting with Yelsha, and then everyone but Varis (who kept watch) playing Three Dragon Ante Emporer's Gambit. Overall the party did well at the games adding about 100gp to their coffers before realizing the sun was settings as they were cashing out their chips back to gold.
As they were, Varis noticed that a cloaked figure opened the door into the Dog's walk, seemed troubled at seeing Shava, Yelsha, Jadis, Glyth, and Varis, and closed the door and hurried off. The party followed outside and began to track the figure. They could tell he was running fast, and despite enthusiasm by Shava, they decided not to run after the trail grew cold.
The party felt that the cloaked figure was most likely gathering forces, so they rented a few rooms at the end in strategic outlooks locations, they had Yelsha and Jadis sneak around the back so the barmaid wouldn't know they were here (in case she was interrogated), and Doz waited down stairs while chatting up a Minotaur patron. Those upstairs (sharing some rooms) took turns sleeping and keeping watch. Around three hours in, the cloaked figure indeed returned, but alone, and Doz overheard him talking to Helga. He simply asked what she knew about the adventurers that were in earlier (he did show that we felt superior to the barmaid), and having learned little left. Having been alerted to his presence by a mage hand from Doz, Rhaegar and Jadis moved into a vacant room and caught his return path. The cloaked figure had headed into the castle, and was not stopped or questioned by the guards.
Doz, who later confesses he expected death on this errand, comes to the guards at the castle entrance. The guards stop him stating that only those on the King's business may enter. Doz attempts a diplomatic approach with the guards and convinces them to let him pass so that he may offer the king his services to gain his favor.
As he is escorted into the throne room where King Helgon sits, he notices that the cloaked figure is standing behind the left shoulder of the king. Doz appeals to the king in speech by seeking a homestead and safe passage through his land, in exchange for whatever service the King wishes. The King offers him a quest to seek out his missing powerful mage. Helgon had sent the Mage to the Maze of Madness, west from the North Gate of Hilliana through a pass called Tock's Crack in the mountain range to the west. The mage was to retrieve a "trinket" for him and he has asked Doz to retrieve the trinket with or without the mage.
Doz accepted the quest and after stating that he would gather six other adventures for the task, had a page draw up mission documents that would be proof the party was on the king's business while travelling.
Doz reported back to the party, still at the Dog's Wag, and they were excited to hear about the safe passage. They didn't, however, seem interested in the new quest, and on their way to the north gate of Hilliana stopped by to see the Eladrin at the Religious Center to see how her research was going.
She was excited to see them as she indeed has found something. Here is what she shared:
“I believe I have found something, though obscure. I found a reference to both an artifact and Vecna in a tome regarding the goddess Melora. I found it so quickly as our center had recently researched Melora on an errand from one of the King’s pages. Melora is the goddess of the wilderness and the sea. She is not known to be good or evil and tends to want nature to be untamed and unfettered with. Sometimes her acts can seem cruel to humans, but she is the closest thing to what some ancient tribes called ‘Mother Earth’.
“What I found in the tome is that there was once a cult, that one reference called them The Ancient Ones. The Ancient Ones performed some form of dark ritual and/or quest that allowed them to steal power from the gods. It is written that they were able to channel the power of several gods into a single artifact.
“This tome describes the powers of Melora, Gruumsh, Sehanine, Moradin, Tiamat, and Vecna. I can’t tell if that is all the gods trifled with or gather much more than that from this text on Melora, except that there was a new cult formed in the aftermath that were called ‘Light Seekers’ who found a way to destroy the artifact.
“This is the part that excites me as a student of tomes and proud sister. My sister, Meriele, has been studying the rise and fall of the ancient ‘Light Seekers’, at the Abbey for the Religious Arts on the Isle of Fire. I haven’t had word from her in a few months with all the road blocks around Hilliana.
“Would you mind carrying her this package along with this tome of Melora? The book has a note in it to help her see what references I am talking about for you. We usually send each other little pleasantries every few months, and it’s been dreadful not hearing from her. Also, and I hate to ask you this, but these books are invaluable and I am already breaking protocol loaning this to you. Would you be willing to place a 10gp deposit so I can at least fall back on that, if my superiors come complaining? I will hold it here for you safely on your return of the tome.”
The party asked where the Isle of Fire was. “Oh, I’m sorry; you must be new in this region. Most take a ship from the docks at Palancia. Weather permitting, it’s about two days sail south east to the isle. They call it the Isle of Fire, because the mountains that make up the isle are frequently throwing smoke into the air.”
Before departing, they had Meriele's sister draw them a map of the northern regions of Hilliana, which was mostly nondescript hill country and the mountain range to the west wrapping around to the north and ending in a dense forest. It also showed a road heading North from the Hilliana and the splitting into a West and East road. The west road heads into the mountains through Tock's Crack, and the east road heads closer to the river going east and past the docks that server Hilliana.
Our heroes accepted the package and proceeded out the North Gate. When they get to the end of the north road before it heads east and west, they ask Shava for directions who feels that heading due northeast is the proper course. They walk through the hilly country for over two days before coming to the edge of a dense forest at the morning of Day 15. Shava again leads the way northeast through the dense forest. Around midday of Day 15, they come to a clearing in the woods with pile of rumble in the middle. Some arcana checks, which Yelsha ultimately succeeds in shows immense magic flowing from the rubble.
During their inspection, three dwarves, two humans, and a drake spring from the trees surprising all but Varis. Midfight, a dwarf asks, "What have you done with our leader?" to Varis. Varis answers, "We ate him!" The dwarf was surprised by the answer. Our heroes killed all their foes except the dwarf who asked about his leader, who they knocked unconscious for interrogation. As they revived the dwarf, he burst into ashes and a spectral image of a tiefling appeared over the pile of rubble.
The image of the male tiefling asked "What do you seek in the Pyramid of Shadows?" and Shava immediately answered "The answer to my dreams!" The image responds, "So shall it be! Welcome the Pyramid of Shadows. The only way to win your freedom is to kill us - three times." and the world went black then returned with the absence of the smell of a forest and the stench of too many animals in too small a space in its place. I think I heard Glyth say, "Shava, what have you gotten us into this time?!?"
And this is where we ended Session 10. What is the Pyramid of Shadows and what did he mean by kill us three times? What will happen to the other gazillion quests our party has collected? Stay tuned; we may have some more answers next session.
Players: feel free to correct and update the story in the comments. Anyone is welcome to make story suggestions and comments as well. We actually just transitioned into a pre-made module called Pyramid of Shadows. Another new and very different session awaits.
Also, we are tentatively schedule to reconvene on Saturday, March 24th, at 4pm. This is not as firm as we usually have when leaving a session, but a few folks had to do some more thorough calendar checking. Let me know!
Games of Chance - 175 XP
Encounter 25 - Chasing Shadows - 0 XP
Encounter 26 - Fighting Shadows - 0 XP
Encounter 27 - Hilliana Castle Gate - 362 XP - Doz only
King Helgon - Safe Passage
Encounter A1 - Forest Clearing - 1400 XP
Session Experience: 1575 XP / 7 PCs = 225 XP + 362 XP for DozEncounter 25 - Chasing Shadows - 0 XP
Encounter 26 - Fighting Shadows - 0 XP
Encounter 27 - Hilliana Castle Gate - 362 XP - Doz only
King Helgon - Safe Passage
Encounter A1 - Forest Clearing - 1400 XP
Adventure Experience: 4206 XP + 225 XP = 4431 XP + 50 XP for Shava/Yelsha, & 362 XP for Doz
Level 5 at 5500 XP
DM Ruling: I awarded the XP for Encounter 27 to Doz only. Had it not been for a lucky Diplomacy role, he could have well triggered a combat encounter by himself and died before his party could assist. Give that Doz is also behind in experience points, I doubly felt this was fair for everyone.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Encounters New Season
Last week, we met at Morningstar Games for a new twist on an Encounters session. We got together to build our characters for the upcoming adventure starting this coming Wednesday. I also have decided not to DM Encounter this session so I can have a change to play along side my daughter as opposed to opposed to her (pun intended).
We have two new DMs for this season, one of which was my first DM, and another who I can't wait to see her style of DMing. Should be interesting.
This new season, lots of Dwarves and Elemental themes. The Elder Elemental Eye is the name of the Adventure and you can read more about it at http://wizards.com/dnd/Event.aspx?x=dnd/4new/event/dndencounters.
Hope to see you there. Feel free to RSVP so we can make sure we have seats and tables enough for everyone to enjoy.
We have two new DMs for this season, one of which was my first DM, and another who I can't wait to see her style of DMing. Should be interesting.
This new season, lots of Dwarves and Elemental themes. The Elder Elemental Eye is the name of the Adventure and you can read more about it at http://wizards.com/dnd/Event.aspx?x=dnd/4new/event/dndencounters.
Hope to see you there. Feel free to RSVP so we can make sure we have seats and tables enough for everyone to enjoy.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Encounters Session 13 - The Finale
It is done. Our party slayed Soryth, whom had just completed stealing all of Caerwyn's sould, releasing the trapped soul back into the crypt that contained Porpherio and Caerwyn. As soon as that concluded, all the fey creatures that were barred from entering the Palace of Spires came and in turn called forth their Fey Lords. All were allowed to drink from the Fountain Heal All without the curse of being trapped on the island forever and be granted one wish each. Juliana and Orlando were wished back to their realm to live happily ever after and our heroes were celebrated in the three cities. A heroes reception waited for them Sybar where they were rewarded from completing the Count's Task. From their, our adventuring heroes broke apart and went their separate ways, to find the results of their wishes waiting for them (and we heard fame, glory, and power among a few of the wishes).
The End.
I hope to have some announcements for you shortly regarding the next adventure and what we will be up to this coming Wednesday at Morningstar Games on Montgomery Crossroads.
The End.
I hope to have some announcements for you shortly regarding the next adventure and what we will be up to this coming Wednesday at Morningstar Games on Montgomery Crossroads.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)