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JRGiant
Looking around
(4/14/03 7:09 am)
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The Jolly Red Campaign Log
My RttToEE campaign started last night. It started as a plea from our regular DM claiming burnout at the same time as I was realizing I wanted to run but didn't want to spend a lot of time writing adventures and such. The mod got recommended and here we are.
My campaign is set in the Realms. I removed Verbobonc and replaced it with Neverwinter. In fact, for those of you who've played NWN, it's set just after the events of the single player campaign, with the charecters meeting during the plague and fighting in the war. I've been poking fun at the cliche of "saving the world" a bit...the events of the original ToEE occured in my campaign shortly before the Time of Troubles, so while some people remember them, most don't really care - gods walking the Realms has a bigger impact.
The cast is as follows:
Vahn - Moon-Elf Fighter2/Wizard 2, CN, played by our resident adolecent with a mid-session bedtime.
Ygdal Trueforger, shield dwarf Fighter 4, CG
Aldar Magare, Moon-Elf Wizard 4, CN
Lomar, Human Druid 4, TN
Kellet Aurillian, Human Cleric of Tempus 4, CG
Zane Stormtree, Strongheart Halfling Ranger 1/Rogue 3, TN
The party arrived in Homlett bearing some letters, dispatches about the war's ending from Neverwinter for Burne, a warning that it's still not safe for Helmites in Neverwinter for Y'day and a request for potion componants for Spugnoir. The party got to meet Burne, Y'day, Calmer, Renne and Hauner - some decent meet & greet RP there. They decided to head for the moathouse to take a peek around for Spugnoir.
The party got well and truly paranoid about 'ol Del. I visualized him as a weathered black man. However, since he was half-elven, he came off as drow...so I decided that he had drow lineage but was raised above ground himself. Ygdal went so far as to test his knowledge of Undercommon, which drew a convincing "huh?" from Del.
The party believed Del's story about the dragon and was so engrossed that the clerics never came up. I've decided that the frog in the moat is terrified of Big U and didn't pop up. He also won't take on 6 healthy adventurers, but he'll probably sneak in and kill a horse if they're left unattended.
Back to the story...Zane carefully snuck around in the shadows of the courtyard wall, but Big U spotted the rest of the party.
Ultreshimon flew out into the center of the courtyard. The party was ineffective in the first round, but we did get our first rules dispute. Lomar dropped Barkskin on the adjacent Ygdal, decked out in his mail shirt and beating the concentration check. I ruled that natural armor bonuses stack with armor bonuses - any problems with that anyone?
Vahn foolish...ahem...bravely charged Big U and missed horribly. I looked at the figs and it was too good to pass up. The dragon took a 5' move and let loose a lightning bolt straight through half the party, including Vahn. Vahn tried to bail next round and took a bite that dropped him to -3.
Zane pelted Big U with daggers on a sneak attack...vicious little hobbittssess...itt hurtsss ussss! Ygdal moved up and started bringing the business end of the greataxe. Lomar's healing brought up Vahn. Big U traded blows with Ygdal and Kellet for a few rounds. He suddenly found himself in melee with five PC's and only had 13 hp left. He tried to bail but three AoO's connected and brought him down. No second fight with a smarter dragon...sigh...
The party methodically covered the upper floor of the moathouse, discovering all the treasure and the secret door. The grey ooze was fun "It's immune to cold? Vahn casts burning hands!" lol. Even better was "you hit...make a Reflex save 19 to pull your axe back uneaten" :-)
The party camped and decided to head down the stairs the next morning. No random encounters, but like I mentioned - the frog is cautiously eyeing the horses. :-)
Next session in two weeks.
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SSShadowcat7
Here for a while
(4/14/03 8:10 am)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Quote:
I ruled that natural armor bonuses stack with armor bonuses - any problems with that anyone?
You ruled correctly. They are different named bonuses, thus they stack with each other.
And welcome! Glad to have you here. We all enjoy reading adventure logs of this module, hence the huge amount of them bouncing around. Stay, settle in, get comfortable. It's a long ride, but well worth it.
Quote:
Zane pelted Big U with daggers on a sneak attack...vicious little hobbittssess...itt hurtsss ussss!
Excellent! Love it! Keep 'em coming!
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Grumgarr
Here for a while
(4/14/03 8:10 am)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Cool sesh writeup, and welcome to the Boards.
You've got a good party mix there - they should do well with a bit of clever play - and some good roleplaying, but it sounds like you've got that covered. 
Natural armour does indeed stack with armour, so good call there (look at Yslansh (sp? - the trog priesty) in the moathouse for scary AC stacking).
Edit - darn, SSShadowcat got in before me 
And Utreshimon died so 'easily'?
Bah! - did you not use U's Hover ability (and the resulting blind party while U's blindsight lets him eat hell out of 'em)?
Oh well, no worries - plenty more dragons to come.
I look forward to hearing how they fare in the catacombs - and what they make of all the spooky priesty paraphanalia.
Grumgarr
Edited by: Grumgarr at: 4/14/03 8:11:53 am
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 Infiniti2000
Still here? Wow.
(4/14/03 8:12 am)
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ezSupporter
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Excellent! Welcome! Sounds like you have a fun group.
"I ruled that natural armor bonuses stack with armor bonuses - any problems with that anyone?"
No problem. Indeed, you ruled correctly. Natural armor does stack with armor and shield. In fact, the module uses the same thing, which you will see shortly on Ysslansh.
IMO, frogs will tend to eat only things they can fit wholly in their mouth (they don't have teeth normally). I'd have it attack the halfling (I did the same). But, without a halfling, gnome, or free-roaming familiar around, I don't think the frog would attack at all.
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JRGiant
Looking around
(4/14/03 12:24 pm)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
I think I may have misinterpreted the Hover ability. I was playing it as an attack action, so when he created the big dust cloud he was done for the round, and when he started the next round the cloud had expired.
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Infiniti2000
Still here? Wow.
(4/14/03 1:28 pm)
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ezSupporter
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Talk about posting at the same time...all three of us?
I guess it's a common confusion on the hover. I ruled it as a move-equivalent action to start hovering, after all it is movement. But thereafter, hovering is a free action so he can then get full attack actions each subsequent round. The dust remains in effect for one round after he stops hovering.
Anyway, keep up the good work, Jolly Red Giant! I'm sure your group didn't see the battle with "Big U" as easy. 
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JRGiant
Looking around
(4/23/03 7:24 am)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Based on my experience with running a Buffy the Vampire Slayer campaign, I've decided to incorporate "cutscenes" before each session. Instead of doing it right before the session, I'm firing e-mails out to the party to whet their appitite for the coming game. Here's my cutscene for the next session...
_______________________________________
It is the morning of Tarsach the 14 at the Temple of Helm in Hommlett. Cannoness Y’Day rises from her position on her knees in front of the alter and places a palm over her fist – obedience to her patron. She turns and walks towards Calmer. “Well?” she says.
“Those mercenaries, the ones who delivered the letter from the Lords of Neverwinter…they have gone to the Moathouse,” he replies.
“Interesting. And Spugnoir?”
“He has not returned. Has the Master given us any knowledge?”
“In his benevolence, he has. Spugnoir is in the Moathouse. He is alive, hurt but not critically. He isn’t trapped, at least not anymore.”
“Well no reason to search for him then I suppose.” Calmer had no desire to search for the brewer anyways. “And Nieriethi? That little gnome has been gone as well.”
“He is not with Spugnoir…that is all I could determine. I also asked about the Evil. Their time has not yet come. We are still safe.”
“There’s nothing to worry about then?” Calmer’s relief was audible. Perhaps he would not have to face the Evil in his lifetime as the Canoness had.
“Not today, Calmer…let us speak of the plans for the next service.”
_____________________
Thoughts?
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Infiniti2000
Still here? Wow.
(4/23/03 7:29 am)
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ezSupporter
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
That's very cool! Keep it up!
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JRGiant
Looking around
(4/28/03 9:23 am)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Played again last night. Good session…two PC deaths though. Parts of it felt less organized than I’d like from an administrative standpoint. I’d downloaded some character stats with everything important on them…except the hit points. Didn’t notice that until mid combat – sigh…
Also, for those who had missed my post about Nierithi, I decided that he had also gotten trapped in the moathouse with the cult and was now working with them.
Anyways, the party had ended up camping a short distance outside the moathouse. I decided the gnolls peeked up at the body of Ultreshimon and summoned up Nierithi and Gren. Obviously the work of adventurers, Yssalanish ordered Gren and Garrick to set up defenses while he and Geynor continued their work.
The party moved back into the courtyard. Nierithi had bribed some rats with lemon candy to watching the two stairs. I picked up my d20 and smirked as I rolled the rats +18 hide check…until it came up 2. Sigh…Zane spotted easily as it ran back down the stairs. Plus, they found the secret door open (so the rat could see out) which made them suspicious. Aldar, the wizard, hit his listen and spellcraft checks to hear someone casting Invisibility down the stairs.
This freaked out the party and they decided to slam the secret door shut and drop some of the rubble from the courtyard in front of the door. They then went down the other staircase. Zane went first and immediately spotted the two gnolls hiding on the side of the stairs…they didn’t spot him. He whipped off some daggers and took out one with ease. As the party moved down, the ghast and his band charged in. This group was mostly ineffective but frightened the players a bit. They did discover that the door leading towards Gren’s room was opened (to make it easier for them to hear the party coming).
The party moved up to Gren’s room. Through the door they saw a very large, fully plate-mailed evil looking cleric and a bunch of skeletons, with some gnolls in the corners. A bottleneck ensued at the doorway as the skeletons moved in to attack. Crunchy, my name for the ogre skeleton, was good to go with Mage Armor on him and a Shield of Faith cast on him in round 2 by Gren. The two sides wailed ineffectively until good ‘ole Vahn charged into an opening. Unfortunately, Gren was in that opening and getting ready to heal Crunchy. I made them both make dex checks and ruled that Gren got pushed back by the burly Vahn. She cursed him in the name of the Dark God. Lomar dropped a Summon Swarm on Crunchy…which I knew was going to cause problems later when he moved it…and Nierithi dropped the illusion which was being duly ignored and cast Mirror Image.
Aldar, feeling cocky with a high roll on Cats Grace earlier, ran into the room. Nierithi popped out and blinded Vahn and Kellet with a Color Spray…him and his 5 images. (Good roll). The problems started when Lomar sent the swarm in and tagged an image, then guessed the right gnome on his second try. Meanwhile, Zane ducked into the room and got behind Gren, now visible. He didn’t miss his saves and she went down soon after. Nierithi got Invisible again, but they hit his square and finished him off. Crunchy was finished by a blind Burning Hands from Vahn and the rest was mop up. One gnoll popped the secret door but couldn’t get away in time.
Some comedy came up next. The party went back to search things out and spotted Spug’s familiar, who snuck out to see what the commotion was. Zane had his fill of familiars now and chucked a dagger at it. However, Spugs had used his Shield wand on himself and shared it with Fluffy, who put the shield behind him. Meanwhile, Spugs came out and blasted Zane good with his last Magic Missile, then gestured menacingly at the “cultist” with his wand. They got things worked out and let bygones be bygones. Spugs went with him and the party gave him Nierithi’s wand to use…which turned out clutch later!
So here comes the trouble. As the party continues, a gnoll stood as bait. (FYI, the following ambush was shamelessly stolen – thanks!) He runs away screaming and the party shoots him down. Another one shows up and starts screaming “they’re coming!!!” in gnoll. Vahn charges…that’s one and Lomar moves up. “NOW!” he yells and the portcullis is dropped. It clips Lomar hard on his way through good and everything goes bad for the party.
Lomar casts an Obscuring Mist to cover the party. Kellet, he and Ygdal ready to move to try to lift the gate. Aldar and Vahn dump the gnolls with Sleep spells. Ysslanish, Garrick and Geynor come around as well. Yss pops a pseudonatural rat up on the other side which Spugs blasts apart with the MM wand. Garrick and Geynor move up to engage Vahn. Geynor takes some hurting from Vahn and steps back. The party gives up on lifting the gate when Ysslanish’s stench saps the strength from Kellet and Lomar. Instead, they switch to trying to shoot down the cultists through both the gate and the Obscuring Mist. Vahn gets his hp whittled down low, then gets dropped to -13 by a max dmg crit from Garrick. Ysslanish berates Garrick about the loss of the sacrifice. Lomar charms Garrick and tells him to open the portcullis, but Garrick is distracted by Ysslanish turning on him and those two go at it. Unfortunately, the last gnoll gets a max dmg crit on Lomar and drops him to -17.
Ysslanish is finished by magic missiles and the last gnoll is killed by Garrick, who opens the portcullis and then mourns the loss of “his only human friend.” The party tells him to find a good place to bury Lomar, then Zane backstabs him. “He was my only gnoll friend…sigh.”
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JRGiant
A song from the sixties
(5/18/03 9:44 pm)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
After our normal 1 week hiatus for the other DM's Wheel of Time campaign and a week off for Mother's Day, RttToEE returns to our gaming table. Cast change as Vahn is retired and is replaced by Kromlech, scimitar wielding dwarven fighter 4.
Short session, heavy on roleplaying. The party returns to Hommlet, licking their wounds. Lomar is to be raised and Vahn is buried. Upon hearing of another follower of Silvanus to be raised, "Jaroo" takes interest. They sell off some treasure and meet up with Kromlech, whom they had worked with before in Neverwinter. Kromlech has already been befriended by Chat.
Reldithor served some comic relief...Kromlech replaced him on stage and managed a 16 DC storytelling that was better than the bard. Zane also picked his pocket and stole his recorder. :-)
The party has dinner that night with Rufus, Burne, Y'day, Elmo and Jaroo. The elders are disinterested but encourage the party to continue investigations on their own, citing that dead cultists are an excellent source of loot. Y'day leaves early, citing an early ritual she'll need to cast to raise Lomar. Jaroo is very friendly and does his best to ingratiate himself to the party.
Later at the Inn, Chat is told that the moathouse is chock full of dead cultists. He convinces Ygdal to tell him the whole battle story. The party, already 6 strong, cites not wanting to divy out another share of the treasure as a reason to leave him behind. Since Chat A) had been using the cover of a greedy adventurer who was not going to work for free and B) already knew that Thaque, Geynor, Y'sslanish and Gren were already dead, decides to let them go alone and try to warn the wagon team.
The wagon team, however, snuck around town and carefully entered the courtyard of the moathouse. The party discovered them in the courtyard and battle ensued - total NPC kill without any damage to the party.
They continued down to discover Geynor's journal, eliciting a great deal of sudden hatred for Chat. They moved on to fight a pack of ghouls in the sarcophagus room. It was cute in that Zane got caught between two ghouls in one of the fingers, but he didn't get badly hurt before the ghouls went down. That's where we called it a night.
I'll need to figure out what Chatrilon's next plan is. He missed the wagon team. Would he head to the moathouse, alone or with Chenashi or Maridosian perhaps? Or head back to the ToAC to report what's happened. He doesn't know his cover's been blown yet.
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Infiniti2000
A guitar
(5/19/03 7:14 am)
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ezSupporter
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Despite the easy defeat of the wagon team, your party could use a good morale boost. I would send Chat to the moathouse alone and have him attempt to capture a straggling PC (use paralyzation instead of death). If successful, the PC would be in the mill house basement with Dunrat, et al, being questioned on the party's purpose in Hommlet. If unsuccessful, the party will hate Chat that much more and might kill or capture him. If they kill/capture him, they will be in high spirits and will be very happy (a good thing). If Chat gets away, they will really hate him and will desire his death (another good thing). It's win-win for you.
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JRGiant
A song from the sixties
(5/19/03 7:49 am)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Infiniti...I like it a lot...I let you know how it goes next session. (This Sunday).
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JRGiant
A song from the sixties
(5/26/03 12:14 am)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Great session tonight. We started with a lovely barbeque dinner before playing, putting everyone in a good mood.
When last the Chaos Dragon Slayers left off (party seems to have stuck with that as a name), they had battled the ghouls in the alcove room. They moved into the warrens and found the hidden shrine. They looted the column and did the first step to activate the altar, but they didn’t do anything to move onto the second step, thankfully.
The party headed back north to clear the wing they missed…where the gnoll barracks and the door that pops the portcullis is. On the way Zane, who was scouting ahead, was spotted and attacked by Chat. Chat’s plan was to paralyze Zane, make both of them invisible with his wand, then boogie back up to the surface with the halfling.
That was the plan, but Zane hit his Fort save just fine. The two squared off and Chat went invisible, but was caught and killed before he could escape. Just as Infinity predicted, the groups’ interest level jumped a few notches right there…Zane left some daggers in Chat’s eyes as a token, and kicked him every time he passed by him for the rest of the session.
The party explored a bit more and mined their way through the wall of stone. They had a close call with one of the cockatrices, but suffered no stonings. They discovered faux-Lareth but haven’t had a chance to piece together even whose body that’s supposed to be.
The party rested by the portcullis after sealing it shut.
In the obelisk room, they got jumped by a tough ghast who paralyzed half the party before going down. The party tried a few times to push him down the pit before resorting to more conventional methods of eliminating him.
They moved down the first platform and got duly freaked by the obelisk. When half the party had moved over, the grell struck. He didn’t paralyze anyone, but Zane stopped on the obelisk long enough to suck down some Strength damage. I then had the grell fall on Kellet, who narrowly avoided tumbling off the platform with the grell.
All of this had alerted Festrath. I ruled that in the several days since the start of the adventure, he’d fully healed. Festrath drank his potion of flying, summoned a pseudonatural crocodile and flew up into the air. There was a tense moment when Kellet targeted dispel magic at the fly…but he missed his check. Festrath did hit Aldar with a Wrack spell dropping him. Ygdal moved to defend Aldar, and Festrath tried unsuccessfully to Command Ygdal, axe in hand, to “attack”…which would have seriously hurt or killed Aldar. They brought down Festrath with missile attacks and then started to explore the obelisk chamber.
Many of the party members were really freaked out by this room, especially Ygdal. Alder and Kellet went to examine the grell portal, but weren’t foolish enough to touch it. Ygdal searched the pool and discovered its contamination the hard way, but made his save with ease.
Zane climbed up the pillar and snatched at the gem in the obelisk. He teleported away, heard the voice, received the fruit (a purple grape) and reappeared. He then snatched at the gem again without eating the fruit and was rather horrified at the 2 point Constitution loss. The party did end up summoning another grell which fell to Ygdal’s axe. Zane later ate the grape and received a +1 to Dex.
The party then moved straight back to the mill in town. Without so much as a word to the guards, the moved in on it right away. I grabbed a Heroclix map to use for the mill. In one door came Ygdal and Lomar, to face Chenashi and Toridan. The other door saw the rest of the party to face Grune and Dunrat. Vacra spent her first round casting levitate…the shield spells and Vacra’s invisibility were cast early.
Grune is held by Kellet quickly, so Dunrat backs up and chucks his bead of force at the door for good damage…killing Grune in the splash. Vacra opened up with magic missles on Aldar (shield spell) and Kellet. Toridan dropped a scary shot on Ygdal, who backed up to get a CLW from Lomar and a potion. Chenashi had also dropped her Inflict on him, with the smite. (I saw no reason they couldn’t be stacked.)
In short order they’d dealt with all but Dunrat, who had held Kromlech and then later dropped Tharzidan’s Touch in Zane. He also hit Kellet with a big Inflict spell, but was eventually brought down due to being seriously outnumbered.
Lomar had spent his time stabilizing wounds on Chenashi and Toridan, so the party will have captives. The town guard showed up at the end of the fight, demanded surrender, and we faded to black.
Incidently, I started using some spreadsheets with notes I took for every encounter, and this greatly sped up combat. The players seemed to have really enjoyed this one, as did I. Next session in two weeks.
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JRedGiant
A song from the sixties
(6/8/03 10:14 pm)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Now that was fun!!!!!!
Tonight’s session began with the party in the mill, having just killed off Dunrat’s group. The guards showed up, wondering what the hubbub was about, and they determined that the party was in the right when they discovered the dead bodies of the miller and his wife. They stayed in town for a few days to identify magic items (spell has an EIGHT HOUR casting time – really hope they change this in 3.5).
During this time, the party has a meeting with Y’Day, Rufus, Burne, Jaroo and Elmo again to discuss their findings in the Moathouse. Some information about Rastor is given, location, that it sprung up to serve a dwarven mining colony that was never heard from, and that the mines are excessively deadly. Elmo says that the prisoners (Chenashi and Toridan) claimed to be from these mines, known as the Temple of all Consumption.
The party decided before they’d head out there, they’d hit Nulb and then coast over to the ToEE for a look. After all, everyone told them the Moathouse was empty, so why should they believe that Nulb is filled with evil spirits and the ToEE hobgoblins. Y’day caught wind of their travel plans and is planning on memorizing a LOT of Restorations to correspond with their return.
Lomar, the druid, went looking for an animal companion and found himself a 5HD wolf while outside of town. He also ran into Yundi, whom the party was looking for anyways. told him that Jaroo has been acting oddly, ordering him to cast spells that Jaroo should be more proficient at. So they went to challenge Jaroo.
Zane went to talk with Jaroo with the rest of the party in an Invisibility Sphere nearby. Jaroo bested Zane at the verbal sparring and Zane left, but Kromlech spotted Jaroo looking right at him. Jaroo realized the gig was up, sprouted some wings with his Alter Self ability (I saw nothing in the description that made it different from the standard Alter Self spell) and flew out of town…he’ll probably reenter as a spy with some other cover. Advice would be great…perhaps Renne?
When they found Jaroo’s body, Elmo got REALLY pissed and has offered a 1,000 gp bounty on the head of that doppelganger. I’ll have to check if Y’day can raise Jaroo.
So off they go to Nulb. They planned well and hit Nulb during the day, rather than at night. I gave everyone a smidge extra XP for dodging some wandering wraiths this way. (Wraiths are powerless in sunlight and flee from it.)
They enter the inn and I leave the warning I decided on. An adventurer type, dead on the ground with a VERY accurate stab wound in the back on the neck. Then Wat materialized in front of Kromlech and stabbed him in the chest. The death attack save was no problem and the damage was low, but I carefully asked everyone their actions. It appeared that everyone turned towards Wat, so Fort saves all around. Ydgal and Lomar blow it and take stat drain. Wat attempts to possess Ygdal, fails and goes incorporeal as a move action after taking beatdown. (Despite his incorporeal, he still took a heap of damage.) He popped back up and missed Zane, tried again to possess and failed, and his third appearance cost him his unlife to some Magic Missles from Aldar.
Then they went upstairs and had a very tough fight with Dala, who babbled away Kellet and Ygdal and got stat drains on Lomar, Kromlech and Zane. Lomar did a lot of damage with a critical hit on a charged up Cure Moderate on Dala (he cast before he lost his XP.) At this point the party will need 9 Restorations from Y’day.
Then they moved up the street to Lareth. This was beautiful. Lareth’s out on the porch, affable as can be except when he slips into a fugue about the coming apocalypse. They pass him some cash and start to grill him…he gives out some info about the ToAC, the EEE/Tharzidan relationship, etc…what I’m really geeked about here is when they asked him about the obelisk in the moathouse. I decided that Lareth knew all about it and has received Tharzidan’s gift. So he told them about it. And that’s when all eyes fell on Zane.
Aldar was downright hostile about Zane having talked with an evil god and not telling the party. A heated debate ensued between the two characters, with the rest of the party throwing in shots on Zane as well. Lareth was loving this and made taunting comments at Zane the whole way. Zane finally lost his cool and chucked a dagger at Lareth.
This was where I cut off for the night…just before combat begins. With the massive stat drains from the earlier undead (i.e. the druid can no longer cast even 1st level spells) I think they’re in serious trouble. But they think it’s even worse than I do. There’s an opaque jar next to Lareth with the Damning Darkness (BoVD tie in – thanks Andorax although I’m also giving him Devil’s Eye) in it that he only needs to kick over. But they think the jar is the phylactery of Lich-Lareth. CRACKS ME UP!!!!
Three weeks til next session, next Sunday we start a different campaign with the other DM (Ygdal’s player) and the week after both DM’s are on vacation. What do I do after accidentally convincing the party that Lareth’s a lich? I’m going to Disneyland!
Questions, comments and even flames are welcomed and appreciated.
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Trithereon
A robot with powers
(6/8/03 11:57 pm)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
When they found Jaroo’s body, Elmo got REALLY pissed and has offered a 1,000 gp bounty on the head of that doppelganger. I’ll have to check if Y’day can raise Jaroo.
I doubt it. Raise Dead (the spell she has access to) has a limit of days per level. I'd suspect that Jaroo has been dead too long. Even if she could I have doubts that she would. The Church of St. Cuthbert has a long history of animosity with the "Old Faith" which in the original adventure was the druidic worship of Obed-Hai. It seems that back in the day the Cuthbertians were slowly edging out the worship of the Old Faith and this was a serious point of friction among the residents of Hommlet. Even if she were willing to do it the question would become does Jaroo's spirit want to be returned by the cleric of St. Cuthbert? You can not raise/resurrect the unwilling.
So off they go to Nulb. They planned well and hit Nulb during the day, rather than at night. I gave everyone a smidge extra XP for dodging some wandering wraiths this way. (Wraiths are powerless in sunlight and flee from it.)
Nulb is described in the adventure as always cloudy. I don't take that as partly cloudy or mostly cloudy but cloudy - a blanket of clouds from horizon to horizon. There'd be no direct sunlight, just diffuse "cloud light". I don't believe that wraiths are powerless under anything but direct sunlight.
Everyone seems to be having fun, except Zane, so keep up the good work!
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JRedGiant
A song from the sixties
(6/9/03 5:35 am)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Some sort of persistant control weather effect that would keep it completely sunless seems a little overpowered for Nulb for me. After checking travel times, their pace put them in Nulb just after sundown, and several of the players said "Uh, no. No ghost towns after sundown. Nay." I felt that deserved some reward.
Also, this is a FR campaign, so rather than the St. Cuthbert/Obed Hai, you have Helm/Silvanus. I think the two would be more willing to cooperate, especially since IMC the Gods stand fairly united in opposition to Tharzidan, even the evil ones.
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Infiniti2000
A guitar
(6/9/03 6:36 am)
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ezSupporter
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Sounds like a fun campaign, JRedGiant. I like the plan with Lareth. Your group is in for a world of hurt. Start off with confusion, then drop the darkness....ouch.
"Lomar did a lot of damage with a critical hit on a charged up Cure Moderate on Dala (he cast before he lost his XP.)"
I'm not sure I understand it. (1) How did Lomar lose XP (or did you mean stat points)? (2) You can't critical undead, even with cure spells.
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JRedGiant
A song from the sixties
(6/9/03 9:50 am)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Well, the XP was supposed to be Wisdom lost...that was a typo.
The Crit was a big oops...my bad. It's especially my fault because it went like this.
Lomar rolls 20 to hit.
Lomar rolls 15 to check for incorporeal (odd is a miss).
DM (me) interjects - No, the 15 is a confirmed crit. Roll for incorporeal.
Lomar rolls 6 for incorporeal and then dishes out damage.
I was hoping for a PC break at this point because Dala was tearing them up worse then Wat did...complete whoopsie on my part and I'll send a reminder to the players that this was a rules violation by the DM and I'll try to avoid it in the future.
As for Lareth, he already threw Damning Darkness on a stone in the jar before the players arrived...I'd rule that kicking the jar next to him should be a free or at most a move action. So then he'll drop Confusion in the first round and follow with Devil's Eye.
The worst part is Ygdal's player already said "If you fight this guy, I'm not helping." He may bail right off the bat.
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JRedGiant
Faen
(6/29/03 10:47 pm)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Have to sum this session up with what Zane¡¦s player told me afterword¡Kthat was the best D&D fight since high school. For us, that¡¦s almost 15 years.
Zane got initiative and tagged Lareth with a sneak attack dagger, intending to follow with two Beads of Force. There had been some thought that Lareth may be a lich, so he didn¡¦t want to rely too much on sneak attacks in round one that might not work. It turned out they wouldn¡¦t.
Lareth¡¦s readied action was ¡§If I take damage, smash the jar in front of me and 5¡¦step.¡¨ He did so, exposing the stone which caught the whole party in Damning Darkness.
I ruled that concealment could still effect a Bead of Force thrown to a square. In essence, the miss chance means he doesn¡¦t smash the bead hard enough to cause detonation. One bead got through and one missed, so Lareth had taken decent damage.
The fighters tried to shoot arrows to get a gut shot on Lareth and missed. Kellet swung his battle axe and almost tripped a Glyph on the right fence. Lomar and his wolf charged in, Lomar shifting into a wolf himself, tracking Lareth with scent. And Aldar cast Haste, Fly and shot 90¡¦ up.
The party discovers what I meant by ¡§unholy cold¡¨ at the end of the round as Lomar, his wolf, Kellet and Zane all take damage.
Lareth scrambles up the wall onto the roof (Cloak of Arachnidia) and casts Devils Eye. IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP!!! This combo with the Damning Darkness is REALLY, REALLY MEAN!!!! I don¡¦t recommend it except for major fights (Lareth, Heddy, possibly the battle with Imix.)
The party figures out where he¡¦s at but can¡¦t do much about it this round. They all bail into one nice tight little cluster outside the sphere¡K.except for Aldar who¡¦s skyward and trying to bracket with Magic Missiles. The wolves know where he¡¦s at, but can¡¦t tell the party of course, so they leave the sphere too. Lareth pops off his first delaying tactic¡KConfusion¡Kand catches Ygdal, Kellet, Lomar-wolf and wolf-wolf.
This leads to typical Confusion Keystone Kops impressions. At one point two characters on opposite sides of Kromlech had to attack him so one actually got a flanking bonus. ļ
The wolf-wolf got an ¡§act normally¡¨ and charged in, so Lareth took out the staff and gave the party their first taste of spikes. Then Lareth climbed out of his reach, so the wolf wandered away, ended up attacking Kellet and as Ygdal¡¦s player put it ¡§Tempus dissed Silvanus¡¨¡KKellet finished the mutt.
Aldar was desperately trying to bracket so he landed on the roof near Lareth and double blasted with Magic Missles. Lareth took a move action to climb up and nailed Aldar with Stop Heart from the BoVD. Aldar blew his save and left the room for a LONG time.
Then Lareth threw up a Sanctuary and started with the buffs¡KShield of Faith and Divine Favor. He managed to tag Ygdal with a Tharizdun¡¦s Touch, backed away and caught Lomar with a Wrack just after Confusion ended. Then it was Rage and time to go into beatdown.
Here¡¦s the thing about Lareth. You can cast all the tie-up spells you want, go to town with Spikes, Rage, Bulls Strength and Divine Favor and even mess around with the hideous Damning Darkness/Devil¡¦s Eye combo. But eventually he¡¦s gonna melee and even with Shield of Faith will only have an AC of 16. Overall, this was a perfect fight for what I wanted. I terrified the players and punished them brutally for starting a fight with this guy, especially after taking lots of ability damage from Dala and Wat last session. But the final body count wasn¡¦t too bad. One PC dead, another (Ygdal) below 0 and an animal companion splattered.
I did a fiat because I knew that there would be no more fights in Nulb¡KEVER. I decided that Lareth had long since gotten past the wraiths and jelly and took the pirate treasure for himself.
On the way back to Homlett, I think I managed to ingratiate the Temple of Helm (read: Y¡¦day) to the party. Terjon, Spugnoir and Xaod caught the party riding hard from Homlett. A Commune by Y¡¦day had revealed that Lareth¡¦s true location, now in question based on info the party gave her from the Moathouse, was alive and living the low life in Nulb. They got some free Restorations from her since Lareth is kind of an arch-foe for her as well as a letter of introduction to a high-priest of Tyr in Neverwinter¡Khigh enough to True Resurrect Aldar, although we pegged the cost at about 6,500 gp. Also, the Temple of Helm now has possession and guardianship of Lareth¡¦s corpse. This means that some day in the future, when the identity of the Champion of Elemental Evil is discovered, Y¡¦day, Calmer or Terjon will probably meet a grim fate as the cult steals back the body.
Ygdal met Joline d¡¦Amphere while in Neverwinter, who said that she had heard rumors that the Chaos Dragonslayers were taking on the cult of Elemental Evil. She offered a ¡§handsome reward¡¨ for information about Thrommel and his two brothers (see the wonderful Memoirs of the First by sfaron on the BoB.) Thought I¡¦d through in that hook now although it won¡¦t pay water for a while even in campaign time.
Zane has had a change of faith and is abandoning Mask and possibly even shifting to good. The battle with Lareth was apparently such a moving event for his character that he¡¦s completely shifted away from evil.
The party is planning on hitting the original Temple of Elemental Evil on the way back to Homlett. I think after this last fight, they¡¦ll enjoy the good old fashioned slaughter of humanoids.
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Offgall Fizziwigg
Faen
(6/30/03 8:03 am)
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Re: The Jolly Red Campaign Log
Good campaign Jolly. I have one question, though. Mind you, I don't have any answer for it. Can you contain a darkness spell in something transparent? Can you contain it in a glass jar?
I guess a DM can do what he wants! I like the image though. A jar filled with blackness. Cool visually.
It was a great fight. Your's was more of a challenge than mine. It all depends on who gets the first move. I had Lareth beefed till he was bursting at the seams. His average damage with his staff was like 19. I scared the group with that, but Lareth failed his concentration check on his first spell. It was all downhill from there. It was good that you got a chance to use some of his spells. I liked the used of spells from BoVD. Those were nasty. 
Edited by: Offgall Fizziwigg at: 6/30/03 8:16 am
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JRedGiant
Faen
(6/30/03 11:23 am)
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The Jar
The jar was actually opaque, not transparant. It was also open and flipped over, so he could either strike it as a standard action to smash the jar or pick it up as a move action...either of which would have shut off the lights.
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