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benhamtroll
Here quite a while
(4/28/03 7:51 pm)
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Benhamtroll's Campaign Log (pretty long)
Well, I thought I'd share a few of the occurences in my campaign . . .
Last session the party delved into the Earth Temple, leaving a swath of destruction in their wake, but leaving no one alive to pass on the word. They made good time, taking out the manticore in something like 2.5 rounds, due to a well placed critical whack from the party tank. They then moved into the temple proper and laid the smack down on the worshippers. A well placed fireball wiped out most of them, although the Xorn did some nasty things to the afforementioned tank. If it hadn't been for the Potion of Aid he'd drunk earlier, he'd have been truly dead . . .
After some funny business with the mage spider climbing up the back wall to attack Snearak from above while the Xorn pursued him through the wall, and then the mage dropping from the ceiling to knock Snearak out of combat, the party cleaned up. They captured Snearak and questioned him, intimidating him into a quivering mass. They then tied a rope around the altar and all pulled to break it free. The dwarven mage got pummelled by debris as he greedily searched the rubble, but managed to survive.
The party then drug the thoroughly broken Snearak down to see Uskathoth, having him call the high priest out. A battle ensued and the party managed to defeat him. Thus ended that session . . .
In today's session, they searched Uskathoth's chamber, and the rogue put on the amulet. They were puzzled by the note, but thought nothing more of it for the time being. They checked the rest of the lower temple area (finding the ring of sustenance), but then decided to head out to Rastor and recover, since they used virtually ALL of their resources vs. the temple. They didn't bother to head up into the prison area, so they will find some dead prisoners when they return, I guess. The cleric won't be happy.
After arriving in town, the rogue went to get his fix from Tal. Tal tried to get him (Brickle, by name) to spy on his companions. About this time, Thandain came by and Brickle hid. Thandain delivered a message that the party was staying that evening at the Gray Lodge, and Tal delivered the cryptic message "You know what you need to do . . ." Brickle confronted him about this after she left, but Tal was successfully evasive. He then discovered that the party was going to head to Verbobonc, so he gave Brickle a message to deliver to an 'herbalist' there by the name of Bartomeus. [DM Note: that was pulled out of my tuckus to give Tal some background. It made for some fun in V. though, as you'll see later] He agrees to give Brickle a 3-week supply of Tanbrosh to see him to V. and back.
Meanwhile, back at the Lodge, Juuda (the BardBarian) gave the most amazing performance the little town had ever seen, getting a 31 on his perform check. He is then offered free room and board anytime he stays there as long as he performs in the common room. Brickle comes in during the performance, clinking and clanking from his stash, and his companions eye him funnily. Thandain enters shortly, and is seen eyeing the party. Glognus (Dwarven ftr/mage) thinks she's coming on to him, and uses his 8 charisma to it's full advantage. He misconstrues her shame at being in Tal's thrall as disgust with him. Maybe he's not THAT far off . . .
Anyway, they all head up to bed, Markum (Human Clr2/Ftr5), drunk as a sailor. When they awake the next morning, Markum finds his magic bastard sword and shield missing. He goes ape poop, and begins tearing the inn apart. He questions the serving women, who say the only other person they saw heading upstairs was Thandain, but she would never do anything like that. He take Brickle and goes to visit her anyway. Through successful intimidation they get her admit to taking it, and with additional prodding they find out why. Markum is moved by her story and tells her that if she can get a weeks supply of Tanbrosh, they'll take her to Verbobonc and see about freeing her. She's uncertain, but agrees to try, concocting a story of needing to get out a town until the party gives up their search for the thief. Brickle acts innocent through all this.
She successfully gets the Tanbrosh from Tal, and the party loads up in their wagon and heads out for the Big V. After arriving, Markum takes Brickle and Thandain to the temple of Kord. The priest is pleased with Markum for fighting evil and being really strong, and agrees to cast neutralize poison on the two addicts. Bam, problem solved for them. He also directs them to an alchemist who might be able to help them with the others back in Rastor. He is intrigued by the problem, and after getting a sample of Tanbrosh from Brickle's stash sets to work on an antidote, telling them to come back tomorrow. For some reason, he sounds like Squiggy. . . .
Meanwhile, Juuda has approached his father, a prominent local merchant, to see about brokering the sale of their goods, hopefully for a better price. He agrees, getting them an extra 10% on arms and armor. He also gives Juuda a magical item that he had received in trade a while back: a minor circlet of blasting. Juuda is happy.
They sell a whole boat load of stuff, including the statue from Rarkus' chamber in the ruined temple. Crazy party . . . Amongst the items they decide to sell is Uskathoth's Amulet of Inescapable Location, which they believe is an amulet of Proof Against blahblahblah. This creates a small problem for me, as the cursed item has a value of 1000gp, while the other has a value of 35,000gp. I rule that since they don't know, and the only way for anyone ELSE to know is when it fails, which is going to be difficult to discern. THEREFORE, they get 19,000gp in sale, but with a 10% chance that it has been discovered everytime they return to V. We'll see how THAT works out.
Brickle takes the note from Tal, which he opened to discover it was telling Tal's friend to keep an eye on the party. Brickle decided to forge a new note asking for the ingredients to make Tanbrosh. He forges it badly. He goes to visit Bartomeus, who it turns out runs an ugly little shop that deals in unpleasant concoctions, including poisions. He gives the not to Bart, who immediately sees through the poor forgery, as well as the fact that all the ingredients Tal needs are only available in that area. He pulls a hand crossbow and shoots at Brickle, whose dex is good enough to dodge. A chase ensues, and the gnomish rogue kille Bart in the backroom of his shop before he can escape. He then empties the register and take a few vials of poison.
After getting Glognus to enchant their stuff, and picking up a large supply of Tanbrosh antidote, they decide to head back. At this point, they've been in town for 3 weeks, staying with Juuda's family.
After an uneventful trip back to Rastor, they approach Rerrid about Tal. He's troubled, especially after hearing Thandain's account of her addiction. He deputizes them and asks them to bring Tal in. Other than wanting him to have the ability to brew more Tanbrosh, he's not all that concerned about his condition.
So, invisibility on Glognus and Markum, and Brickle knocks on Tal's door. After a moment Tal opens the door and is astonished to find Brickle alive. After all, he only had 3 weeks of drug, and was gone for over a month . . . Markum then bellows and charges Tal, knocking him back into the room and Brickle tumbles in and saps him into unconsciousness. A quick rope work and a CLW later and Tal is conscious and quite frightened. He tries to be tough, but Markum makes him wet himself with descriptions of what will happen to him if he doesn't cooperate. To give him a little motivation, they crank his mouth open and poor a vial of Tanbrosh down his throat. Tal is not happy. Tal tries to lie about his relationship to the temple, so Brickle kicks him, which drops him unconscious again, and Brickle then cuts off his pinky just because he's pissed.
They drag Tal back to Rerrid, who takes chanrge of him and thanks them for their help, and agrees to oversee the detox of the addicts. They then decide it's back to the mines for a little combat after almost an entire session of RP type stuff.
They arrive at the main gate to find the doors closed, when they specifically left them open. They are more cautios this time, but not by much. Markum pounds on the door and then opens it. He gets challenged to ID himself, and yells something about coming to smite evil. Battle ensues. The bad guys start coming down the hall (3 gnolls, 10 human warriors), and Glognus lets fly a fireball and kills them all. Much easier this time around . . .
Just to throw the DM a curveball, they decide to head SOUTH this time. <grumble, grumble>
They hop in an ore cart and head out. They stop and fight some Thoqquas, and then stop again and get simed. They decide to continue on anyway, with the BardBarian down 1 Con point, and Markum down 5. They stop AGAIN to check out the side passage to Vranthis' lair, and lo and behold he's there. The look on their faces is priceless, especially when Glognus' player says "You're s@@@in me!" fully expecting that I was. I just smiled . . .  Vranthis asks them what they are doing there, and who they are, and they hem and haw. Glognus tries whispering to Brickle, which pisses Vranthis off, who scolds them for their rudeness. Brickle pokes himself with an invisibility wand in a panic, which gets Glognus and Markum to raise shields. Vranthis then goes after them. He breathes his breath weapon, doing some NASTY damage to Juuda and Markum, and then casts Mage Armor on himself. Glognus casts Ice Storm, pummeling the dragon a bit. Long story short, there are a few potions drunk, and the party surrounds the dragon. Glognus gets beaten nearly senseless by a high quantity of the dragon's attack, but Markum crits and does some major damage, dropping Vranthis really low. Vranthis decides on one more breath weapon and then to run. His breath weapon is a bit less effective, and Markum gets a luck whack that slays the dragon where he stands. So much for THAT. They then move to inspect the nest, and Brickle attempts to disarm the floating pyramid, thinking it's trapped despite not finding anything. As soon as he touches it it starts to fall, but he adroitly snatches it from before it hits the ground. They then loot the nest, and call it a night.
I'd appreciate any comments about this session, or any advice on how could have run things better/could run them better in the future. . .
There's no business like gnoll business |
SSShadowcat7
Here for a while
(4/28/03 8:17 pm)
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Re: Benhamtroll's Campaign Log (pretty long)
Heck, sounds pretty darn good to me!
I like your decision about the amulet of inescapable location. Just be sure to remember that chance of it being discovered and coming back to haunt the party. They got a huge benefit of the extra money for it. They shouldn't get off scott free in the long run. Maybe they'll have to pay it back eventually...
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benhamtroll
Here quite a while
(4/28/03 9:01 pm)
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Re: Benhamtroll's Campaign Log (pretty long)
Yeah, that was my thought. It'll be hard to determine if it's working or not, though. We tried to figure out if there was anyway of judging it's reliability other than trying to scry at it (I told them it was cursed after they committed to sell it, since there are a number of more experienced DMs in the group), but couldn't come up with anything. That's why I only gave it a non-cumulative 10% chance. Since Juuda's dad brokered the sale, though, there will be some heavy fallout if it is discovered. I decided that they would need to pay back the full market value, even though they only received half. That's a hafty hunk of change, even at the higher levels.
There's no business like gnoll business |
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