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arcane12 Human (8/24/03 2:46 pm) Reply	Arcane's Sunday game log Hi, this is the first instalment of my Campaign log for a group that I play with on Sundays. It is set in Oerth, with all the standard guff. I converted to 3.5 not long after the group started exploring the CRM, but that I'll talk about later. I started the group at first level and ran them through a couple of adventures, one I got out of a Dungeon magazine, and the other I made myself - it was to lead to a campaign of my own making, but then I saw RttToEE and knew that would be my campaign! One thing to note, about a month after starting this group through the campaign I talked to the group I run a game for on Thursdays and they agreed to run through the adventure too! (Might sound cheap but everyone thinks its fun, and luckily I can trust my players not to talk to the other group and give it away). Now this log will be more of a simple run down of what is happening and how the players have resolved certain events rather that the artfully told stories that others are sharing. There are two reasons for this - 1: I am too lazy to go to the effort to write that much material and I don't know whether I am capable of putting out something comparable. 2: as this log is to help me get the two games sorted out in my mind so I prefer a more 'out of character' run down for a more informational approach. That said here goes! The Party: A male Half orc Barbarian (Grokk) (4) of mighty strength and the nominal party leader. A female Elven Wizard (Illienna) (4) wise in magic, but unlearned of the ways of the world. A female Human Druid (Vandrea) (4) fond of nature (and ferrets), cautious of civilization. A female Human Fighter (Makendra) (4) carefree yet helpful to those she cherishes. NPCS: A male Human Cleric of Olidammara(sp) (3) and a female Human Rogue (3) The party wanders into Hommlett lead here by a link from the previous adventure. Some captured Drow were handed over to the authorities and leaked their interest in a place called Hommlett, and the party was dispatched on the though of 'if the Drow are interested so are we!' They meet some of the locals, and as a first port of call head straight for the local smithy. Next they head to the taverns of gossip and drinks. Grokk returned with stories of 'stuff to be had in the "boat-house" kinda over there' and the others heard of an abandoned temple in an area rife with banditry. So one quick jaunt later and a host of dead hobgoblins. (Quick note due to my incompetence I missed the small reference to the women and children so they did not have that ethical debate) Grokk paid the human prisoner to carry some of his loot back to town. (They gave him all the silver). The one true loss is the NPC rogue who is return to town and raised. She decides to drop out of the group (cut down their dependence on freebie npc's and make them recruit if they want extra biff) At this point sitting nicely on level 5 (4 for the npcs) they decide to go to the moathouse to rescue Spugnoir, with Chatrillion in tow. After bumping into a 'crazed' guy talking about dragons the continued to the moathouse. Lo and behold the dragon attacks! They manage to do some considerable damage, but have to back off and return after a quick rest and Grokk acquiring a 'Blade-stick' (Glaive) they have another go. Well the dragon is ready this time not stupidly going headfirst like last time, but underestimated the Barbarians charge-Whack! One lucky Crit and death from massive damage later (nooo... a 1!) and they are inside looting. Chatrillion decides that it's time for a quick stabbity and run to warn the others but once again that damn Barbarian runs in and minces the bad guy! (Sigh ) So down the steps they go (they are here about two hours before the wagon is supposed to turn up) they kill the first two gnolls, rescue Spugnoir decide that that seems like mission accomplished and head back to town. The wagon arrives shortly after they leave, the cultists clear out, and the party returns the next day to continue exploration. Some undead killing later they have hoovered what little remains, and in a generous moment they find a 'lost' journal. Thanks to advice from Spugnior they find the back entrance but lose the Fighter to a Cockatrice The party finally leave and head out to Verbobonc to find a cure for their lost comrade. Unfortunately they are unable to afford the hefty price for a cure (just having paid to raise the Rogue and not having access to any of the loot the Fighter was carrying) so mourn her loss, while accepting a female Dwarven Fighter/Rogue Hilln Deeperdown into their numbers. The party investigate the flour mill (and get arrested for breaking and entering a crime scene), and finally with the help of the local know-it-all get the clue that points them to the CRM. More to come... Edited by: arcane12 at: 10/13/03 11:29 am
DestyNova1 Faen (8/24/03 6:14 pm) Reply	Statues Just have the fighter stashed in a corner of the temple until they can get the funds. Or have Y'Day restore her as a favor to be called in.
arcane12 Human (8/25/03 5:07 pm) Reply	Re: Statues Yeah, they paid Spugnoir to store her 'for a while' (they threw some money at him and said can you look after her?) It seems a tradition for this party to throw money about, they keep on tipping in GP, even if they are only spending 5 SP for a meal --edit-- Forgot to add: Before the party went to the flour mill they wandered Nulb looking for action, Almost getting hammered by Watt, but eventually took him out, and when they came back to loot a day and a half later found he was back! they cleared the place out and burnt it to the ground! (lucky guess) Next they wandered into the ship, but that didn't phase them too much, and finnaly on their last legs managed to piss Lareth off who yelled at them to get lost while casting web (I decided if he was to be the champion, it would be because his mind finally broke with all the things done to him, plus the isolation making him ripe for picking.) They took him down, but a web + confusion really gave them a run for their money... Grokk was planning on taking his body back to town for looting etc, but I said - hey why don't ya just strip him here... hes quite heavy with all that armour and his body weight... (phew he took the bait - trying to dig up the champions body out of Hommlett's graveyard was gonna be tough) Edited by: arcane12 at: 9/8/03 3:18 pm
arcane12 Faen (9/7/03 8:34 pm) Reply	Second update The temple of All Comsumption So, the party (now mostly 6th level) rolls into Rastor looking for some 'Evil Cultists'TM to bash. suddenly Grokk's eyes light up - Orcs! After a quick chat, realising this is a one horse town, they mosey on over to the Orc camp (Grokk's player with visions of shouting "onward my Orc legion!") The truth being not all it's craked up to be, the party offer that the Orc's join them, and as a reward can live in the CRM's when it is cleared out. The orc's rejoin with a counter offer of "no." The party leaves saddened. So what next? How 'bout a scouting mission? Ok the druid chooses to go as a Bird, and the Wizard with the fly spell. At this point realising what is about to happen, I talk them into sticking together -you know for protection and all that :/ So who decides to venture to the centre first? the druid. one Zap later and she's falling to an ignoble death after her unconcious body hits the water 200 feet below. (note to self it should have been Kentuky Fried Druid as she should have been on the Birds lower con!) Elf mourns and takes off. Party head out on foot to the CRM with a new ranger friend hanging about. They spot the second trail leading into the mines, and after some heated debate considering splitting up attacking from both sides and meeting in the middle (how many time nust I strive to impact on them the scope of the place?) they decide the attack the 'back door'. They knock a few times, wait, and then start to discuss how to go about attacking the place. The gnolls listen incredulously and eventually open fire when they realise that the idiots they are watching actaully mean to do what they talk about. (by this point the bar had been placed on the door) The party fight their way in kill the gaurds and room of gnolls. After a rest they break back in kill a couple of gaurds and under fire manage to pull together and break the brass doors open. A firce fight ensues and they quickly surround the big fighter type guy who promptly whirlwinds them all! (ok I think he only got 4 out of a possible 5 attacks) Unfortunately his hit points are no match for the level of hurt a raging barbarian can output and goes down quickly. as they pull out a Full plate clad figure strides down the corridor followed by a large elemental and casts confusion. At this gastly sight the party flees (with the body of Kellial underarm to loot once they get a break). After some healing, and a trip to the big town the party head out for another go.'Hey I got a good idea" says Grokk "let's go to the other door!". With their previous knowledge of the other door they stoneshape their way through an arrow slit and charge in and attack the gaurds in full force. However these gaurds have a warning system and even though there is less of them one survives long enough to ring the bell. Huge fight ensues, scared witless by the howler, the overcome thier foes anyway. The Ranger goes down, and so does the cleric, but the good guys win and everyone come out alive. "Well", they think, "that sucked, back to the 'easier door'". Once again they stoneshape their way in to find it awfully... quiet. No wait... there goes a gaurd running and shouting for help. Next an elemental comes charging back! The fight with it gives the Cleric time to prepare and they attempt to devastate them with spells and such. The first to go down in the poor little 4th level cleric, and with a hard fight they take down Fachish. Oh no... the pitter patter of little feet as the reinfocements arrive... gnolls, and a 1/2 orc! Grokk and the cleric of Pelor (Lenny) hold rearguard, and actually take out the bad guys, but then a few more warriors turn up and they scarper. The next attempt is a little better as I had Fachish raised ('this is your last chance, kill those damn buggers'). The big fight ensues lasting seconds as the party powers through the dregs of the air temple. Later they return and head north. Apon encountering a Hydra the fireball, lightning bolt and generally hack the catious beast (went down in the first round the only damage dealt was done by AoO of the Barbarian moving in through reach.) Grokk charges off wanting to make use of his rage before it runs out. Almost a minute later he runs into the Orc watchers on the stairs just south of the Western Bridge Complex(yes he ran right past the majority of the orc encampment! Next Sunday the party spends their time being intimidating, then diplomatic and genreally winning the orcs to their side. (or at least not having to kill them.)The party decide to attack The bridge complex, but after a Dimension door going awry (wizard was fine but managed to teleport the barbarian into a wall, and under 3.0 that had him end up in the Warriors barracks). They slaughter gnolls and feeling happy about themselves wander up meeting a bloodied Grokk (8 suprised warriors no a single hit on the barb) and manage to kill the giant on the bridge. At this point D'Graan pops up and The cleric who was having a look round during the fight, quickly bars the door with his chain to stop the troll getting out. The party beats a hasty retreat barely surviving a 5th level cone of cold and they regroup in town. With a change of plans they decide to get the orcs to let them attack the dwarven temple (wow you killed all the gnolls for us? cool.) Not a lot happens in the Dwarven temple though they seemed a bit scared of doing anything in the first two rooms after the cleric fell in the big hole - I guess no big 'these are loot' signs on the spheres made them not care? (bit of meta-gaming I think what loot could steel spheres be? nothing in the DMG like that) The Golem was fun, though once again not as nasty as it could/should have been (I forgot the slow). We had the halfling Transmuter hanging off the silver chain with the dwarf sphere... but he did not actually touch the thing till much later! I waited with my one last trump of a falling block trap that got missed, but the rogue couldn't unlock the door! (30 yes, 32 no) They Dimension doored in, and as the Wizard only had one got stuck. The other half the party took the Ancestor stone back to Rerrid who used it to dredge up some memories of how to find the key to get the party out of the vault. He also claim all the dwarven artifact treasure, but arranged a Mithral Breastplate to be shipped up for Grokk. At this point that party has some time off waiting for the Dwarven gear to arrive so they go to town. Once back they set out at hit the water bridge area. The stoneskin completely changed how the fight went down but once again the party prevailed. By this point the orcs have left the CRM realising the Air temple is gone. The next game had the party going through the door to the boats at the water bridge area and the Chuul attacks! The Crab-like creature manages to drop two characters in the water before being driven off, but with two fly spells the missing party members are rescued before they drown (the irony was the two dropped people were the ones carrying all the rope, if it wasn't for fly the Cleric in full plate may have had a problem.) Not fazed the party get into the boats and row across the lake. IMC the lightnng towers are not just for air defence (as they would kinda suck if they were, and would be poorly placed to boot) so I had it open up with the party 50ft from the water door. After the first blast I thought they would back off... but no they kept rowing! A small barage later and they are ashore, albeit dragging one unconcious party member along. Now at this point they realise they have no way to open it! the mill about while the spider eaters turn up. Grokk easily starts to shoot them down (what can't a Barbarian do?) and with help from a few lightning bolts the spider eaters leave. Now I think to myself what gets sent first... the assasins don't fly too well so its the Dragon or the invisible stalkers. Dragon ahoy! With all the good sense the party is halfway invisible by this point, and when they see a dagon the size of an Elephant coming the cheese it. The wizard Dimension doors the Barbarian, the Ranger and herself 1/2way accross the fire bridge. the others (invisible) start the slow spider climb to saftely. Grokk decides to get the dragons attention, just in case it spotted the spider climbers, with an arrow at extreme range. The ranger and wizard high tail it to the Bridge complex while Grokk does a little dragon diverting. One breath later and hes running too. But wait the wizard and ranger stop just inside the enterance...the 20 foot wide enterance (i read the description but it didn't seem to click). Grokk runs past and the wizard and Ranger get pasted. (Wizard dead, ranger stabalizes). Grokk gets out the door to the orc caverns, and stops 40 feet away from the door for a bow shot. One last dragon breath and he barely limps away. After a regroup I had Varachan restore the bodies to the party for raising, etc. (a nice way to hint they are not alone) So this Sunday just gone the party decides to attack the Fire bridge. The good news- the more experienced gamers come up with a plan. the bad news - they don't share it with the others (two newbies and someone who has played off and on for a year or so). So lo and behold the experienced people including the barbarian and the cleric hold back while the others run in (thinking like usual the party will be right there with them) and get beat up. The ranger actually dies! (also the wizard and fighter/rogue get knocked out) They do eventually win (they had problems with the Troll until they dispeled the prot. from fire and the Fiend/ogre mage made almost every spell resistance roll until they cut his head off to get Rerrid to help them kill D'Grann - they got a suprise when they found out he was dead by the time they carried the head into town). Ok, I will update you more next week! (now we are up to date I will post weeklyish) --edit-- grr cut and paste from notepad bad! Edited by: arcane12 at: 9/7/03 8:43 pm
smetzger Faen (9/8/03 6:04 am) Reply	Re: Second update heh, heh, the one and only death (so far) for my group was the druid who wild shaped into a bird and flew too close to one of the towers. Everyone got a kick out of it when they later decided to actually talk to some people on Rastor and they talked to the female wizard and she warned them that it was "very dangerous to fly near the towers".
arcane12 Faen (9/8/03 3:11 pm) Reply	Re: Second update About the same happened here. It is interesting to note that the Thursday group I run talked to the Wizard in town first (Also they have dealt with Tal and his drugs which the other party hasn't done) and knew to not risk it - not that they can fly I was reading your campaign log too (your party is a little ahead of mine) and it seems that your players are abusing the Augury spell a bit - it is only supposed to give info 30 mins into the future whereas commune or divination is used for further reaching info. ( I see they are using divination for this ) What is interesting also is neither of my parties are using any sort of divinations... just charge and hope! Nice go with the conversion of Lareth - these guys just killed him (Lareth got bored of them told them to leave and they wouldn't, so Lareth lost his temper) Quick update on party level/load out: A male Half orc Barbarian/Cleric of Kord (Grokk) (7/1) A female Elven Wizard (Illienna) (7) A female ? ? (?) (7) (new character in the making) A female Dwarven Fighter/Rogue (Hlin Deeperdown) (2/6) A male Human Cleric of Pelor (Lenny) (7) A male Halfling Transmuter (Tarquin) (7) (The Wizard and Cleric are close to leveling after getting 2,100 xp from the last game! 5 hours long :/ ) -- edit -- Quick request for comments: Due to the unfortunate incident at the end of the last session I am considering ways to deal with it- I am not happy that the experienced roleplayers are taking over the game and excluding/getting killed the people I put this group together for. I did want an experienced roleplayer to help guide them, but I think I let it get too far. The Cleric was added to the group to bring the players up to five so it would not be a problem if one, or maybe even two could not make it to any one game (perhaps I should have kept the NPC's on and had the experienced roleplayer (Grokk) run them :/ ) However when he joined the group I also kinda let his flatmate, another friend of mine, join as well. Now these three, (Grokk, Lenny, and Tarquin) who all live together, are taking the game over, when it really was for the girls. What do I do?? I plan on rewarding the girls some extra XP from the last game to make up for what the guys put them through (Lenny, a problem player actually helped them out so I want to give him a small reward too), but I am wondering what I can do to stop them breaking up into two groups girls vrs boys. I guess if there was one less guy it might work... sigh Edited by: arcane12 at: 9/8/03 3:43 pm
Infiniti2000 Verrik (9/8/03 8:23 pm) Reply ezSupporter	Re: Second update It seems like y'all are in college (likely in the UK given the term 'flatmate')? Not that that matters, though, just curious. I would take the 3 guys aside, either early next session or in between (maybe hope over to their flat) and talk to them. Let them know that you set up the game primarily for the girls. Chances are they will respond: 1. Get upset and [quit] en masse. No big deal here as you can probably easily get one more players. Otherwise, you should be able to handle it with just the girls, and you will undoubtedly have a more enjoyable time without all the intraparty conflict. 2. They will realize what asses they have been, apologize, and become determined to make the game fun for everyone. Edit: quick instead of quit...didn't make sense. Edited by: Infiniti2000 at: 9/9/03 5:59 am
Killiak Litorian (9/9/03 2:36 am) Reply	Re: Second update For the record: Wildshaping into something with a lower con does NOT diminish your Hit Points, only your fortitude and skill checks!
arcane12 Faen (9/9/03 3:17 am) Reply	Re: Second update phew! that make me feel better for forgetting it then! Hmm a little wishy washy over these two sentances: page 40; (those approaching the doors without a key are slain) page 39 - Dealing with the temple; If the PC's sre simply exploring the aerial route to the fanes, these towers should deal just enough damage to drive them off Oh, and new note: Ranger is now a Dwarven Fighter (7) with whirlwind attack, fullplate, dwarven waraxe and sheild. I talked to the guys and it seems they may pull their act in, though they don't see it as much of a problem as I do. :/ The girls also aren't that worried yet, but I am worried of an early burn out due to personality clashes. infiniti2000: the group ranges from 21(wizard) to 38ish(new figther) with most being about 25. Two do go to University, and most of us have just come out. UK was a closish guess... New Zealand actually (we still have kinda English roots)
smetzger Faen (9/9/03 5:59 am) Reply	Re: Second update Yeah I noticed my mistake about Augery and the player knows it won't happen again.
arcane12 Faen (9/20/03 3:22 pm) Reply	Continued log Ok, this on is a little late (game in three hours) but not much to report: The party valilently charged in to the fire bridge to find - nothing. The wandered in to check the various rooms out, and found the Dire wolf munching on a gnoll. Rather than back off when it growled they continued on in, so it charged in - trip attack is so handy! Nor much to tell - they cut it down in a couple of rounds. I added 500gp to the giant's loot from when it attavked the party when the ettin was on duty - I thought D'grann would pay it an extra 500 for 'above and beyond the call of duty' just in case he needs to be called in while off duty. With a continuation of their search they found the rust monster, which had come with the ettin. They also found the halfling, who was about half a day from starving/dehydrating to death. The party umm'd and arr'd about handing the bag of holding over to the halfling after she siad it was hers, but eventually did it (a couple of nice points for them at least). They also found the giant's bpdy dragged up to the main corrior, with his throat slit and a message on the wall in blood in giant:"Taken money, getting trolls, back soon" in reference to the 3K of gold left by the dead party memebers that is being used by one of the fighter trolls to hire more help. The rest of the inhabitants had also feld, and will be encountered again in other areas. The party trugged on through the natural caverns avoiding every side passage! Wandered up the tracks, and took the stairs between track near the main gate. The greens slime was alittle hard to figure out, as it is mentioned extreme heat, cold, or daylight kills it - but how much? how hot? I let them pour oil over the poor cleric (Who had already lost six con from my first roll!) and light it, killing the slime (and doing some damage to him too). I managed (for right or wrong) to disuade him from running away as he poured oil on himself (so someone else could light it before the slime ate him to death, and so the fire didnt finish the job the slime started). finally they got to the main gate area and took down the spider. I now have two medium elementals (speed bumps) and an average xzorn waiting for them gaurding the enterance. (I imagined they could have summoned and extra xzorn by now for gaurd purposes, and the temple could have sent some planar allys to help out until normal gaurds are recuited - no poit in stocking a door with weak bad guys who wont stop anything until you can be made sure they have decent backup to provide a challenge). I am pretty sure Terrinygit survived (stabalised) so I might have him wandering the earth temple complex helping out until more gaurds can be recruited for him to lead - it has been a few weeks, but I think he will need something bigger than gnolls to help.
arcane12 Faen (9/24/03 6:19 pm) Reply	21 September 2003 After the characters had a 1 hour lunch break, and talked to the rescued Descritad for info, gave her healing etc, they set out again. The two medium elementals and average xorn that were gaurding the front door did little to slow the party apart from one nasty bite on the elf as it slid out of the wall. The watch trogs of course saw this and reported back (I have one run off when things go bad for the gaurds, and the other follows when anyone goes past the corridor to Terryngit's room - if the normal gaurds can stop them these two wouldn't either - I see them as advance scouts). The party took the low road and ran into a prepared swordmaster, an elemental, two clerics, a rogue, and the warriors. Grokk moves forward threatingly (begining an intimadate action) but someone else opens fire puting paid to those plans. The tranmuter walks around the corner in troll form, while everyone else get ready for a fight. Suddenly the dwarven fighter/rogue decides to test out her web from her cloak of the Arachnid (taken from Lareth's cold, dead hands). She puts it down perfectly webbing all but the swordmaster, one of the warriors, and the rogue who had already invisibly snuck past the party and was lining up a backstab on the elven wizard. Two of the warriors are taken down while the webs up, as well as the rogue (not before she dropped the wizard) and after healing the elf the party cleric decided to dispel the web. This freed up the clerics and elemental to fight back while they could and the began to throw around dispels, since the party used the web time to buff. With most of their haste down, and the halfling transmuter no longer a troll, the party cautiously attacked the two remaining clerics. One managed to pull off a inflift wounds before she went down, and Terryngit managed to stabalize on -4 and was taken away by the party (poor guy, taken down twice by these guys). The party retreated back to town, but the transmuter decided to stay by himself (invisible) to loot. (could not talk the others to help him loot. He managed to get through the traps without too much difficulty - bad rolls by me, luck ones by him) and carried the chest out (invisibled it too). He suffered a bit from some poison, but as it is 1d4 dex damage i think he lost a total of 2 dex from 4 hits! The party identified some of the stuff they took of the bodies, but I noticed no-one took the chitin armor! (as soon as they heard chitin they said next, not bothering to inspect - I love you Monte for puting in cool things that the party will discard )
arcane12 Memunite (9/28/03 5:06 pm) Reply	28th September 2003 Another week another victory for the party. They sallied forth into the depths of the Earth temple, this time checking all the side corridors on their way. The halfling chose not to speak up when the cleric started into the trapped cave leading to the first clerics chambers. Fortunately his huge fort save, and AC 26 made it near impossible for the traps to worry him. It was quite amusing watching him attempt to search the room, though he did manage to find the key for the already looted and picked chest The Manticore was kinda fun, as I had it hang back and fire it's spikes, while the party attempted to negotiate the rubble. It was doing quite well with just over 50% HP, until Grokk flew over (with the transmuters fly spell) and power attacked for 7 doing a total of 36 damage! After this the party went back to searching the room (random desicion before they even knew there was a monster here) and found the severed hand with the rings! Once the party hit the mephits they stopped taking side tunnels and chased the mephits right into the heart of the temple. (at this point they were getting cocky talking about ringing bells to get the attention of any guards - save walking) The description of the temple got a few shocked gasps but it did not seem to phase the stout Barbarian. Being the first in the room I decided the Xorn and Trog Zombies (thank you Infiniti2000 ) would focus on him. The transmuter, Tarquin, cast a haste that netted over half of the party, missing Grokk, Hilln and Illiena. The fight went swimmingly for them from here with the Cleric taking out the zombies (the unhallow actually didn't help as the -4 on turn checks menat that his lowest check of 4HD would work, and his level being 8th meant that he would destroy any he turned), the tranmuter fireballed all the other trogs (burning the Torg clerics scroll when I rolled a natural 1 on his save :/) and then the fighters pureed the Xorn and the Trog cleric. (the transmuter Polymorphed into a troll again, but was frustrated by the high AC of the combatants. It did not take long for the last survivors to go down, and then the mop up ensued. Tarquin, still in troll form, went invisible and scouted out the area. He found the prisoners (and told the party so they could free them) and looked down the skipped corridor. One look at the bugs and he scuttled back to the party who collected up their loot and left. This leaves the head cleric alive, and I will have to decide what he will do - he could commandeer the air bridge troops (who have had their temple cleaned out by the party), or even take safe haven there, as alone he could not take them on, or the other idea I had was to 'toughen' him up - perhaps even in a way to explain why he did not hear/join in when the rest of the troops were getting slaughtered in the attack (he was about 200 feet away from the combat, and he would expect some activity from the ritual - it only took the party 6 rounds to take everyone down!)
arcane12 Memunite (10/6/03 2:43 pm) Reply	5th October 2003 I had the cleric attack them before they left to tidy up the lose end. I think this was for the best. The party at this point took a week off to rest, etc. The Transmuter spotted Varachan's Scrying on them, in fact I had the scry hop to him as soon as he started to wear the amulet of inescapable location. They quickly worked out the item wasn't working out the way they thought it should and quickly got rid of it. (not knowing who is scrying but assumed the evil cleric would be, though were extremely worried when the duration was a hour long ) ) The party, in their infinite wisdom, decided to do a complete turnaround and explore the tunnels south of the main enterance (they have taken out both gates, the air temple, earth temple, water bridge, fire bridge, and the orc/dwarven temple). I thought, easy! walkover! They killed the basilisk almost without a scratch (two players metagamed when the first character had to make saves as soon as he rounded the corner and charged it, they decided to sit it out - XP penalty better than being turned to stone). I was worried about the dragon, but they took it down only a little worse for wear, and then they came to the loot. I would like to point out that the dragon had spider climbed (wasn't thinking, and used it mostly out the back of the book, with a few references to the 3.5 DMG) and suprised the party by hanging over them as they entered the cave. Becuase of this placement, Varnthis was unable to set off the trap. The 1/2 orc was cutting off the head of the dragon, the cleric investigation the copper, and the other milling, when the 1/2ling investigated the loot. I was quite desciptive about the item which rung alarm bells for him. He did his best to look at it, but with nothing better to do, and having done a lot of looting on his own as the party usually runs off to town straight after fights without looting monster lairs, he touched it. The 4 armed monstrosity did NOT manage to take his head off, before he cast defensively and went invisible. The cleric and the dawrven fighter charged in, and took it down with the help of the Wizard, the Transmuter, the fighter/rogue, and Grokk all at once! But not before it had take out the cleric and the new dwarven figther. A quick check found Lenny to have been saved on -23 with a con of 14! (I am using the longer dying rules so you have a chnace to stabalise from -1 to -con, and then bleed for 10 more rounds then die) But a check found the Fighter (who's player had already had to leave) 2 points past death We (all 4 present players and I) decided that rather that have this new to DnD player lose her 3rd character in as many months, she would 'just be hanging in' and saved. (I don't like killing PC's when they are not there, my mistake in asking another player to play her for me). The biggest thing I can say is: Don't underestimate the power of rend! (each time I had two claw hits which mean auto-rend, the thing that most characters die of) --edit-- Forgot to mention that after the party left the Earth temple they fired Descritad (In fact some of them had not realised they were agreeing to give her a full share of party loot, not listening then jumping in with "Everyone gets a full share" ) So once she was fired (with a not quite full share but close to) I had her hang around for a few hours, then steal a Trog necklace, plus all the rose quartz (I figure she has a hankering for shiney jewels). They also did not hire the Elven Figther (this please me as she would have gotten killed real fast, but I could not really play her as anything but angry and wanting to get back at the temple). Edited by: arcane12 at: 10/7/03 1:28 pm
arcane12 Memunite (10/13/03 12:11 pm) Reply	12th October 2003 Well, well, you know when your players are trying to keep you on your toes. After the run in with the assassin (who climbed in the cleric window, but got heard, snuck out with the cleric on his tale, paralysed him with the death attack, left a sinister message and left) the party decided to scale the crater and go straight to the earth bridge. With two cloaks of the Arachnida, a fly spell, and a couple of good climbers it was a pretty easy mission to get over the side of the ridge. As per standard tactics the Elf dimension doored herself, Grokk and Tarquin (it was her worried about getting people trapped on the astral plane, not realising the spell had changed in 3.5 - Grokk did not seem to be worried even though it was him that got mis-ported last time). Luckily the doors were wide so there was no problem. The startled gaurds drank their potions and got ice stormed. The last guy (saved by purely being next to the teleporting characters so couldnt join his fellows in a defensive line) surrendered to the party and is now kinda leading them to the bad guys. The party smashes in the arcane locked door, but as there was enough time to prepare they did not see the wererat. With the room desription they were quite mortified about entering, but when the rats attacked by command from the Sorcerer, Grokk stepped in and laid to waste. Eridik snuck out, and was heard, but no-one seemed to care much. Grokk spotted the chest, but as he saw it was locked got the rogue to check it out. Missing the search DC by 2 she failed to spot the trap, and when she opened it was turned to stone! (second time for that player, luckily the others can easily afford to heal her - and they are more than motivated - the rogue carried the majority of the party loot in her sack of holding! They opened up Tac's room (who is shadowing them) next finding nothing there and then discussing what to do next. Meanwhile the wererat had run off to grab the troll closeby to have him attack the party. We stopped with the troll clomping up on the party, and the halfling sticking his head around the corner to see a troll about 30 feet away! So it is not boring for the player who is stoned (hur hur) I have asker her is she wants to play Tac She is interested, but was worried about roleplying the character right and I warned her not to kill the party
arcane12 Memunite (10/19/03 7:04 pm) Reply	19th October 2003 Once again Sunday rolled around, this time there was mostly combat, so not to boor you too much with a blow by blow desciption I will drop down a summary, and you can tell me if I was too generous I had Tac and three trolls roll in (buffed trolls) and set to. My fiancee played Tac while her character sat there being stoned. It all went swimmingly, except for the fact that with Tac using his standard tactics he turns out to be quite a killer, taking out both the wizards with nary a scratch (hmm lightning bolts and touch attacks you say? oh dear...) while the Bull's strength and hasted trolls got lucky with one or two rends and took down both the dwarf figther and the half-orc barbarian. Eddiric sat at the back invisible and blasted a couple of lightning bolts through a downed troll (if it lived he could sort it out later ) and then switched to magic missiles on the cleric to reduce the possiblility of error. The last standing troll wandered down to help out Tac, who was having troubles with a polymorphed-into-troll cleric who was healing everyone. During this time Grokk bled to death (actually the Rend killed him, but I gave him an extra 3 rounds as his player wasn't there). The revived Wizards took down the trolls (another had gotten up) and hurt Tac and Eddirick(who had come foward to see what was happening) with an Ice Storm and Holy Smite. With that over they quickly threw out a few more spells (two bull's strengths which would have been useful earlier if Tac hadn't have checked the mages, and a fly) and ran away at top speed - with ALL in tow (I ruled the bulls strength flying troll cleric would be strong enough to carry the dwarven statue - I couldn't remeber the exact weight so went with x4. ) Some loot selling in a big city and they had one restored Orc and Rogue. So, the big Q is : should I have gone harsher? Coup de Graces, Tac staying around to make sure the job is done rather than going off after another target, NOT releasing the Bebilith (I looked it up... killer!) and not bringing more gaurds in (had the Trog and last troll turn up as they climbed/flew out to give them a sense of they just made it (in fact the cleric was gonna be stupid again and try to finish the trolls, which would have meant his certain doom, plus they would not have gotten the rogue out :/ )
arcane12 Memunite (10/28/03 1:45 pm) Reply	26th October 2003 This update will be a little late as I pitched the idea to the party of having them have a hand in the weekly logs. I hope this will help them as much is it helps me - a bit of expression while they do the hack and slash of the CRM might be nice.
Infiniti2000 Cherub (10/28/03 2:02 pm) Reply ezSupporter	Re: 26th October 2003 Give them a small XP bonus if they do it in character. Check out my last few logs to see how my players did it. I don't expect anymore, so I gave them 200XP each for it.
arcane12 Memunite (11/2/03 12:55 pm) Reply	Re: 26th October 2003 I got a journal, so I will post it below. (I have deleted my log, but will keep my comments here.) A bit of background info: IMC the party travels through mountain passes (until winter hits) and trades in the closer city of Enstad in the Kingdom of Celene. Rastor, in the Free Republic of the Kron Hills, has been chosen by Veluna as a good place to put up a watch tower to monitor the area as it sits nicely between Celene and the Dutchy of Ulek. Victor will be the commander, sent from Veluna, and has been assigned more men than is usual due to his temporary promotion (usually only allowed 6 followers at his level). His followers are squad leaders, with the other 30 men (not counting Victor, or Dion his trusty Luitenant) making up the bulk of his force. These men are trianed millitary men that also have some craft skills, and will therefore be building the fortifications (and will slowly become Victor's Followers). Now I just have to try to get this across to the player who insists on calling Dion 'Sarge'. :P ---edit--- ekk! Celene is an elven nation! oops Oh well. The guys were a little stunned when I told them Edited by: arcane12 at: 11/9/03 4:21 pm
arcane12 Memunite (11/9/03 4:23 pm) Reply	26th October 2003 Journal of Tarquin of Verbobonc - 24 day of Patchwall Finally the village of Rastor draws near, after our eventful trip to the town of Enstad, where we parted with quite a large sum of gold in order to revive our two fallen party members, shortly thereafter that The Half-Orc Grok left our number, somewhat depressed at his recent death I expect. The trip back is almost interminable, I long for a quite night to study the new spells I purchased in town, if my might in magic continues to increase at this rate soon I will be powerful enough to... well thoughts for another time perhaps. This morning we encountered a sizable force of armed men milling around at the trail junction south of Rastor, they seemed to be deciding between continuing on to Rastor and following the mine trail. After I convinced both sides that killing each other right now was probably in no ones best interests, It was suggested that Captain Victor accompany us to a nearby portion of the temple to see its evil residents for himself. It seems our arrival was not unexpected, upon breaching the doors we faced off against three troll, one of whom stood a full head taller than his companions and was warded by Half- plate armor and wielding a two-bladed sword to match his size. After disposing of (and setting fire to) the two smaller trolls the larger troll ran down a passage to the north, Lenny and Gunloader hot on his heels. Shouted warnings to our more foolish companions went unheeded and Lenny and Gunloader charged straight into an ambush prepared by four new trolls, one or whom showed some small skill with the Art!!! Moving to aid our beleaguered companions the four new trolls were quickly disposed of and the larger troll barricaded himself into a room at the end of the corridor, so Lenny burnt down the door. As the Troll moved to confront us Lenny and Gunloader charged in again, noticing how quickly they were badly hurt I trapped the troll with in a sphere of energy, granting us time to heal, and surround him with weapons ready, thus prepared the larger troll was quickly dispatched. As we headed Back to Rastor Captain Victor informed us that he was setting up a keep north of Rastor and we offered out aid in stabilizing the area. ---edit--- replaced Hommlet with Rastor :/ Edited by: arcane12 at: 11/10/03 11:00 am
arcane12 Memunite (11/9/03 4:25 pm) Reply	2nd November 2003 Journal of Tarquin of Verbobonc - 24 day of Patchwall -Continued Shesh, another boring afternoon in moldy ol'Rastor. Spending a little quite time at the back of the common room with the ol�spell books, scorching ray will come in handy for any more trolls, now there�s an idea, will have to mention that to the companions. Damnation, still being scried by evildoers, I hate that. Well they can get bored, watching me being bored, in very, very boring Rastor. Gods above Rastor is boring. What�s this?!? One of Quaal�s Feather tokens if I�m not mistaken, with a message to bear no less. They're sending more assassins after us tonight, How to tell the others in a manor not to alarm those watching me? Oh, their gone. Here Lenny, read this. Calling on our new good friend Captain Victor we headed out to the site of his camp to set up our Lemond�s Ultrasecure Hovel (Conjuration sucks!). Surrounded by armed men we should get a decent night sleep. Trusting these armed man as I do, I felt it wise to sleep under the table, surprisingly enough this did not engender the usually comments from my over tall companions, must be slipping. I awoke under Hiln�s shaking, we were indeed under attack this night, and with out proper rest Illena and myself lacked the spells necessary to repel them effectively, fortunately I am rarely without a trick or two available, I awoke Captain Victor who immediately began to shout the alarm to his men. I rushed outside as the men around the campfire rushed to defend them selves, seeing two, large four legged creatures lopping towards Victor�s men I hastily cast a lightning bolt at them, the first yelped in pain as the energy burned into it, the second came on, ignoring the arcs for electricity playing over its flesh. Two more of these creatures came around the other side of our hovel, fiendish dire tigers if my training serves me rightly, and all four pounced on Victor�s men. As my companions rushed out of the hut to confront these alarmingly resilient creatures I cast a quick spell and took to the air, I had to find there master as my few remaining spells were to precious to waste on fiendish beasts that could shrug them off at will, they were a problem our fighters would have to deal with. As a rose into the night air I heard a faint chanting coming form the south west, our foe had revealed himself casting a mere Bear�s Endurance spell, and I meant to capitalize on his mistake. A quick review of the spells and items available to me allowed me nothing I could afford to drop on him blindly, I needed line of sight. As I rounded the corner I spotted him creeping near the hut, his dark cloak made it almost impossible to distinguish his race and as I tried he spotted me and turned to cast, I felt the magic I had summoned falter as his dispel washed over me, quite a worrying prospect forty feet above the ground, even for one of my talents, my will held to faltering magic together and I remained aloft. A glance showed me that Victor�s warriors, with aid from my companions had the fiendish dire tigers beaten back, although they were still fighting for now. Casting invisibility on myself to foil any further attempts to strike at me I flew in close. As our mysterious foe moved to aid his beasts I cast a mere cantrip, light infused our foes form, marking him as an easy target in the night, Lenny added to his problems by charging in with his mace and delivering a heavy blow. Noticing that our forces had dispatched his pets our foe tried to run, but even with his prestigious speed his glowing form made an easy target for my Ice Storm. Journal of Tarquin of Verbobonc - 25 day of Patchwall Convincing my fellow adventurers to wait a day before showing the temple we weren�t cowering after there attack was tricky, but we needed our spells to prove our point. Journal of Tarquin of Verbobonc - 26 day of Patchwall Heading back to the Temple to make our presence felt, I have a bad feeling about this. Traveling into a previously unexplored area of the outer temple we happened across a large spike lined pit, apparently a gladiator pit run by an unusually large gargoyle and his kin, our fighter type politely declined to enter, but we my come back tomorrow to watch a fight or two. Venturing further in we happened across a room sporting dwarven murals, defaced with graffiti and iron spikes, two of which bore dark cloaks. As Hiln moved towards to the cloaks a deep moan resounded around the room freezing many of us in place and the two cloakers moved off the wall to attack, the first enveloped Lenny and the other gave a more high pitched moan that sent most the un-paralyzed members of our party running in panic, Victor proved his worth as he moved forward to strike at the cloaker that was covering Lenny, once Illena broke the paralysis she fried one of the cloakers with a fire ball, Victor dispatched the cloaker on Lenny before it could chew through his armor. Another afternoon to spend in Rastor, capital of boring... ---edit--- Replaced Hommlet with Rastor :/ Edited by: arcane12 at: 11/10/03 11:02 am