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Slonk
Ebon Hand Cultist
(2/8/04 9:04 am)
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Slonk's Campaign - The Band of the Badger
Figured I might as well join the campaign log party. First some background. I'm a fairly novice GM running RttToEE as a sequel to both the [i]Crucible of Freya[/i] and [i]Forge of Fury[/i]. This is a 3rdE campaign set loosely in Magnamund, the world of Joe Dever's Lone Wolf. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
My (overly large) party is as follows:
Lessa: Hafling Mnk5
Zifen Bolobembisian: Gnome Sor4
Chara Blackriver: Half-Elf Ftr4
Daviellen Margan: Half-Elf Rgr5 Chip the Badger companion
Origein Darkmont: Human Clr4 of St. Cuthbert
Ian O'Malley: Human Ftr5 (the "archer")
Tagrat: Half-Orc Rog5
Phil (NPC): Human Com1/War1 - Tagrat's hireling (porter)
They call themselves the Band of the Badger after Chip, Daviellan's animal companion (I'm using the Necromancer Games ranger rules, so she gets spells earlier). After FoF, they were sent to Hommlet by Origein's superior (~2000 mile overland trek) to talk to Y'day about the apparent source of a plague that could potentially wipe out everyone. An agent of the Cener Druids was captured bearing a vaccine against the plague, and he was traced back to the swamp-country of Ruel, conveniently located fairly close (southeast) of Hommlet. Upon arriving in Hommlet, the party found that the government of Palmyrion (Hommlet's country) had just dispatched an army into Ruel to deal with the threat. Somewhat miffed about traveling 2k miles for apparently nothing, the party is casting about for something to do...
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Slonk
Ebon Hand Cultist
(2/8/04 9:24 am)
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Session1
This session was very abbreviated, coming after playing out the journey to Hommlet. The Band, looking for a decent meal, make their way to the Wench after their meeting with Y'day. There they run into Red, Chet, Quesstin Himble, and Maridosen. Elmo wanders through and they make snide comments about "a red muppet in chainmail." After talking with Red, they decide that the moathouse is the place to go. Chet hears them talking and tries to dissuade them, suggesting the old Temple instead. They're having none of it, and Origien surreptitiously casts Detect Evil. Now they know Chet's evil. Great. This leads to Tagrat trying to break into Chet's room the next day and failing miserably, and almost being discovered by Vesta.
That day, they head out toward the moathouse without asking any more about it of anyone. The fact that the awful bard suggested it, and the evil guy tells them it's empty seems to be plenty enough reason to go. They run into Del on the road, and they actually believe him when he mentions the dragon (something I get is kind of rare from reading the boards). They also find out about the priests wandering about, but don't bother to ask about the gnolls.
Once they get to the moathouse, they decide that Tagrat will sneak in to scout the place out. They are extremely cautious at this point, since the last dragon they faced (Nightscale from FoF) mauled them severely. Zifen casts a spider climb on him, and Tag goes over the wall and along the courtyard wall. He's peering into the Great hall through a hole in the ceiling, when suddenly, BigU is looking right back at him. Tagrat jumps down and takes off running, getting a lightning blast up the yazoo for his trouble. Tag describes what he sees to the party outside (Big! Big Dragon! Big Dragon chase me!), and the party decides to back off and mull their options. And thus the session ended.
In e-mail conversations since, they've decided to grow some and have the cleric buff them up and fight the dragon. We'll see how that goes next time...
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Frost the Chaotic 
Ebon Hand Cultist
(2/8/04 11:21 am)
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Re: Session1
Just to chime in, I was one of Slonk's player. I say was, because due to a recent move, I can no longer play! 
I used to play Tagrat, the half-orc Thief ("rogue" my as$  ).
Anyway, don't let Slonk fool you, he is a hell of a DM and I'm a bit depressed that I won't be able to go through RttToEE under his DMing...
Anyway, keep up the good work, Slonk!
Frost
"...he was a wondering mercenary, roistering, brawling, guzzling, adventuring, with no thought of the morrow, and no desire save sparkling ale, red lips, and a keen sword to swing on all the battlefields of the world." - The Hour of the Dragon, Robert E. Howard
The Mausoleum of Frost - Character Sheets and other evil treats.
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Slonk
(2/23/04 6:54 pm)
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Session 2 - The BigU and More
After some debate, the party decided that it would
return to the moathouse the next day, after resting up
and preparing appropriate spells. Returning to
Hommlet, they ended up back at the Wench. While
several of the party bellied up to the bar, Ian and
Zyfin went looking for Spugnoir's shop. In the
meantime, Tagrat won over the dour barkeep,
Maridossen, by getting (paying) Reddithor to shut up. Also,
Maridossen expressed some interest in the dragon
story. Some excitement for Hommlet at last! After
ingesting some mighty fine (and potent) liquer, Phil,
Tag and Ian (who by this time had returned) were
blind, stinkin' drunk. Rest of party drags drunkards
to dreamland.
The next morning, before heading back to the
moathouse, they all headed over to Spugnoir's potion
shop, where they found Renee, worried over Spugnoir. Back
to the moathouse!
About 3/4 of the way there, their buddy Chet rode up
and offered to help fight the dragon. With much
suspision, the party allowed him to join up. Getting to the
moathouse, the sorcerer turned Tagrat and Lessa
invisible, and those two scouted the exterior. The giant frog is not listed as having the scent feat, and it failed both spot and listen checks, so they weren't attacked.
Jumping across the moat, the two stealthy folks found an
entrance that only the halfling could fit through.
Squeezing through she saw an empty room, and decided
to head back. Good thing, as she narrowly avoided the
grey ooze.
Tag pulled a face-plant trying to jump back over the
moat, which made enough noise to alert the dragon.
Getting back, the party decides to cross into the
courtyard and send the invisible folk to see where the
dragon is. Good plan, except for the fact that blue
dragons have blindsight. Lessa and Tag peer in to see... Lessa manages to dodge the ensuing blast, but Tagrat gets caught pretty good (again). Then the Big U flew out and
started hovering up a big 'ol dust cloud, blinding
nearly everyone... Except Tagrat, who after healing
up, tries a leaping mount of the dragon.
Unfortunately for him, his superfly impression left
something to be desired, and he ended up in the dirt,
at Big U's feet. and Tagrat's
down to 4. In the meantime, Origein is busy buffing
Chara, out on the drawbridge (outside the hover effect) who charges in and crits the Big U (33 in one shot!).
After some more blind and frustrating moments, the
party finally manages to wound the beast enough that
it flies off, though not before taking a bite out of
the gnome. Another 16 from the fighter, 12 from the archer, and 10 from a magic missile + some other misc. damage, and U's down to 20hp in four rounds. He breathes at the fighter who carved it up (she makes the save AND has resist elements on her- ohh 6 damage!), sees it has little effect, and decides discretion is the better part of cowardice and flys off.
I have to give the party credit here. Immediately after being caught in the hover, all the nimble members climbed up on top of the wall, out of the effect (even with the -4 penalty). Chara was brutal with her 21 STR and +1 bastard sword (and Blind-fight), and the rest of the party spread out enough and commenced ranging poor U. I had him cut out at 20 hp to lick his wounds and further plague the party.
Entering the moathouse proper, they found the remains of
two unfortunate dragon victims. Some looting later, Tag
has new armor, Chara has a new bow, and Phil has a
magic mace. Chet at this point describes the interior
layout of the moathouse to the party (he nerfed a DC10 will save against Tagrat's eye of charming). While this is
going on, Big U contents himself with burning the
drawbridge. Ian wings him again, and he takes off.
The party explores, and finds the interior much as
Chet described, except for the secret door to a down
staircase. Alerted by Byrd's cry of "Incoming," the
party rushed to arrowslits to defend the courtyard
from Big U. Instead of coming in, though, he kills
all the mounts. While looking through the arrow
slits, Tagrat and Zyfin inadvertantly turn their back
on the grey ooze, which engulfs the poor gnome.
Battling ensues, and everyone (including Chet) joins
in and saves Zyfin, though he loses a scroll and a
wand of magic missile. After some more verbal abuse,
Chet decides he's had enough and walks away. Once out
of sight of everyone but Phil and Origein, he used his wand and turned invisible. Daviellen managed to
deduce from looking at his tracks that he had gone
back out through the courtyard, but lost his trail there. In retrospect, he should have gone to warn the clerics, but I thought that he'd have enough of this party.
Next, the party decides to go down the secret
stairway and head east. They find secret doors galore, and the portcullis trap. An impatient Tagrat starts opening the doors south of the gnoll barraks without checking for traps, and sets off the portcullis. It doesn't fall, as Ian and Chara had jammed it with a piton, but it did cause a squaling noise, which alerted the mooks to the north, as well as some Gren and co. behind the unopened secret door. Ian, Daviellen, and Origein run off towards the portcullis, while the rest of the
party stays put. Essentially, two fights break out at
the same time. (oh, boy! Split party!) In the trap room, Zyfin very effectively uses his sleep spell, cutting the attacking force in half (sleep's almost as bad as fireball against mooks).
After knocking out 3 (subsequently CDG'd), and killing two others, the third gnoll surrenders. Lo and behold, the party
doesn't slay him out of hand! This is especially
amazing as the two good members of the party are in
the other combat. Some interrogation (welcome to club nueve!) yields the name of the gnolls' leader. Not being the most subtle interrogator, Tagrat causes the gnoll to lose
consciousness.
At the other end of the corridor, Ian pincushions a
surprised gnoll, whose buddies soon come to
investigate. Ian and Daviellen ambush some skeletons,
while Origein s the rest, though not before Ian
is forced to flee from Gren's command. Another gnoll is
dispatched, but the Gren gets away, closing the secret door behind her.
The party finds the cleric barraks, but decides to regroup in the gnoll room before proceeding further. Tagrat tries to open the box, fails, gets frustrated, and hurls the box against the wall, shattering the potions inside. Phil then bashes open the box, and gets an acid spray in the face for his
troubles.
And there we ended. Not a ton of progress for 4 1/2 hours of game time. The party is thinking about resting up in the gnoll barraks. This should prove to be a valuable lesson in not resting before clearing out an area, but I don't want it to be a TPK. This is the first series of encounters, for cripes sake. Gren has grabbed the relics and taken off, telling the gnolls in 18 to guard the door, backed by the undead. I figure she scoots down the pillar to alert Ysslansh and Geynor, and they eventually find Garrik. Now the cult has 3 clerics, Garrik, 2 ghasts, 7 ghouls, and 3 gnolls available, and the party has cooped themselves up in a room with no escape hatch. Any suggestions? I'm also torn about what Chat will do. Circle back while invisible and death attack, or run to warn Dunrat. Decisions, decisions.
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