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DMs are evil
Human
(4/20/04 11:02 am)
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Adventure Log: The Fight for the Fire Temple
Just thought I would share my party’s exploits within the CRM and especially their disastrous encounter within the fire temple.
First of all a bit of back ground information.
There are six party members, smallest to largest:
Mouse: The street smart, halfling, locksmith and pawn shop owner (Rogue level 8)
Lucius: An elven archer, deadly with his bow (Fighter level 8)
Yakazuki: A blunt, dower elf trained in the martial arts (Monk level 7)
Alton of the Towers: Human gifted in the arts of the Arcane (Sorcerer level 8)
Brother Martin: Both a baker and a Priest of St Erkenwald (Cleric level 8)
Togan Troy: Nobel knight of the sun goddess Mylin who has fallen from grace (Fallen Paladin level 8, Togan desecrated a tome of a high priest to his god in a fit of looting, he has slowly been earning his Paladin hood back)
The party entered the CRM at an average party level of 6.5, so they have wiped out the Main gate, Earth Temple and Air Bridge in quick succession with no casualties. Because of their higher levels and large party size I am pulling no punches and Togan has been nicknamed “The Cat” after being put to –9 hit points no less than 8 time!
I have also convinced the party that I am personally attached to each of the bad guys and arch villains that they fight, going so far as to giving them names and shouting encouragement as I roll their attacks.
Edited by: DMs are evil at: 4/26/04 4:08 am
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DMs are evil
Human
(4/20/04 11:08 am)
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WEEK 1: The Fight for the Fire Temple
This story starts after the party enters the water complex after defeating the Air Bridge in a pitched battle (Yakazuki is absent, his player being away on business);
CRM 190
The large dank caverns walls where slick with moisture and the far side of the large lake lay hidden from view in the darkness, the four-man row boat offered an enticing way across. After a good search for traps and leaks it was decided that Alton the Sorcerer and Lucius the Archer would offer ranged support form the bank while the remaining three characters and the body of “the elf” (she had died fighting the manticore in the gate complex the previous week) crossed in the boat.
Needless to say Guoquog the hag capsized the boat plunging the three into the cold water; thankfully no one failed their saves against weakness. Unfortunately, for me, Lucius shot a readied arrow into her head inflicting a wound that would kill mere mortals (Lucius rolled a natural 20 and successful followed up the critical for 32 points of damage, this despite the fact that I gave her 90% cover because of the boat and the water, I was not amused). All three members sank like stones, mouse laden down with stolen treasure and the other two by weapons and armor. After rearranging her face and waiting for the three to drown a bit, the Hag attacked Togan the Paladin (who was turning purple faced at this point) and promptly died after inflicting minor wounds.
Alton of the Towers, decided to spider climb around the walls to see if he could offer any help to his drowning friends, as he got to the far side the Guards from the next chamber turned up, saw the hag’s body floating in the water and engaged the party in ranged combat. They lasted their usual small amount of time before obligingly spilling their innards all over the floor. Meanwhile Mouse the halfling rogue (who does not need to breath thanks to an ioun stone) has cut Brother Martin out of his armor and all three some how made it to the far bank alive. (The group’s good luck continued to hold with some unbelievable swim checks, Togan was two rounds away from drowning).
After discovering the two captive townsfolk and stabilizing one of the guards for questioning the party decides to retreat back to safety and rest, having almost exhausted their spell repertoire. They chose the Owlbear chamber (CRM 198) despite the obvious stench of beasts and death. The session ends with a group of 6 Human Guards Charging into the chamber while Lucius takes watch and the rest of the party sleeps (A random encounter, which I use when ever they rest).
Edited by: DMs are evil at: 4/20/04 11:36 am
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DMs are evil
Human
(4/20/04 11:31 am)
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WEEK 2: The Fight for the Fire Temple
I rule that neither Lucius or the Humans are surprised as they both have light sources out, the battle is very one sided and I only managed to hit one character who happened to be Brother Martin, the poor guard incinerated him self because Brother Martin had cast flame shield as his first spell). Alton of the Towers managed to sleep through the 3 rounds of combat (I ruled that the DC for a pitch battle was 0, but sleeping characters must take –10 on their rolls).
The next morning the party revives one of the townsfolk with restoration and he agrees to take his companion back to the safety of Rastor (I roll a random encounter from the wilderness table and get a Wyvern, so with great delight I inform the party that only one of the captives makes it back to safety). Yakazuki questions the guard prisoner and learns that the Water Temple is looking for allies to fight the Fire Temple, but then breaks his neck when the guard insults his god (Yakazuki is Lawful Good, but he is slowly slipping to Lawful Neutral).
Once again the group assembles and crosses the lake, on the far side Mouse is sent to sneak ahead, but he encounters a patrolling Urlurg who easily spots him with his keen sight. After a brief conversation the group agrees to accompany Urlurg to meet the high priestess to discuss an alliance.
In the throne room both Kelashein and Nilbool turn up, Nilbool immediately spots the Sword of Water strapped to Togan the Paladin’s side and demands it back in his bubbling demented way, Togan reluctantly hands over the sword (to my amazement as I expected a fight to break out). Nilbool starts to kiss, lick and hug the sword as he dances around the room singing for joy in Kuo-toan, the group decides that he is a loon and leave him alone.
As this is happening, Lucius, Yakazuki and Mouse are negotiating a pact with Kelashein the high priestess to aid in the attack upon the water temple (I am playing her as a very sharp, loud bully, used to being obeyed and getting her way). Despite their obvious hate of her, the group agrees to combine forces to attack the Fire Temple (the enemy of my enemy is my ally?). They are furnished with water breathing potions and accompany Nilbool and Urlurg through the temple (Room 192) where they encounter the demonic Oomkaan; Nilbool starts to tease him with the sword and as the party leave they can see a scuffle break out. Next stop is the Water temple, where an untrusting Brother Martin uses his own spells of Water Breathing on the group rather than trust the potions.
2 hours later of wandering across the bed of the Stalagos the part arrive at the Earth Bridge, the three sets of guards are bribed and the Salamanders and Hellhound guardians are dispatched with out casualty or raising the alarm. At the temple door, Alton uses a scroll of Dispel Magic to by pass the temple doors and the party find themselves in the heart of the Fire Temple. After spreading out and destroying the Burning Skeletons it is time to read the scroll of Disintegrate (now I like to let the players make important NPC rolls, so Alton’s player attempts the scroll failure roll, required because crazy Nilbool is far to low level to cast the spell). I like to think of this as the point where the groups luck runs out. A roll of a one sees the scroll crumble into dust and the Kuo-toa panic and word of recall back to safety, leaving Urlurg, the mephit and the party behind (I chose for Urlurg to stay as a plot device for when the party goes back to the water temple, I wanted to inject a bit of a dilemma about killing him later on).
It is about now that the party realizes that the temple door is again magically closed and the only exit is through the curtain, they rather bizarrely ignore the altar and religious trappings and head off into Firre’s room (this room grossed the players out and generated good roll playing). A quick search of the room and mouse is the proud holder of the Demon Stone, which he promptly pops into his pocket for safe keeping (Mouse is the worse character to have this item, as he is more than capable of capturing and torturing the whole party, in addition he is a already equipped with two other items that give similar bonuses, but one is moral and the other competence). They continue onwards and encounter Firre happily beavering away at his favorite pass time of torture. Mouse sneaks up and attacks him and this is the key for the rest of the group to move in to attack. Firre manages to survive the surprise round and rolls highest for initiative, so he flees away from the group howling for aid from Tessimon. The pair makes a fighting retreat, more than holding their own in to the temple, slamming the door in their pursuer’s faces and locking them out.
Once inside Tessimon orders Firre to round up the rest of the temple while she takes up position on the altar and waits for the party.
The part pauses to rescue the helpless Jurrikath from the iron maiden.
By the time the party burst back into the temple, both them and her are fully buffed up and the four Rast are present.
(Now it was getting late at this point so I decided that even through enough time had passed for other reinforcements to arrive, they would be held back by Skassik who had chosen this moment as a great opportunity to double cross her).
A pitched battle follows. Yakazuki leaps onto the platform and disarms Tessimon of the Tentacle Rod, he then looks straight into a Rast's eyes and is pushed Paralyzed into the fire pit, where he starts to burn to death.
Lucius rains down arrows on the Rasts and Tessimon, Brother Martin is the only one protected from fire and it falls to him to rescue the Monk from a char grilled death. Togan finishes off the remaining two Rasts.
Meanwhile, an invisible, hasted and spider climbing Mouse has taken position next to the illusionary ceiling area and under the cover of a stinking cloud cast by Alton he feather falls onto the altar platform. Tessimon raises the platform out of the fog, only to be stabbed and killed by mouse.
As no one else can see this I chose this moment to end the session. (I also wanted to check if mouse could have sneak attacked Tessimon, it only mattered for the amount of times he would have had to hit her and take damage form her Fire Shield).
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LordTenser
Human
(4/20/04 11:52 am)
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Re: WEEK 2: The Fight for the Fire Temple
Very entertaining  Looks like your group is easily corrupted...a fallen paladin, a hot-headed monk, and a very roguelike halfling with a demon stone.
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DMs are evil
Human
(4/21/04 9:20 am)
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Between sessions WEEK 2.5
The last session was finished as Mouse struck the killing blow upon
Tessimon, mid week I had spoken to Mouse and explained that because of the fog offering concealment prior to his attack, I was allowing sneak attacks and therefore he had taken two blows to kill her and received 25 points of damage from her fire shield (this left him on less than ten hit
points, regardless of this he would of attacked her a third time if necessary and risked death, very heroic of the little guy).
I also told Togan that he suddenly felt his contact with his God renewed and the power of her holiness flowing into him as his Paladin abilities returned (Togan had done enough fighting of evil by now to have served his punishment and the ad-hoc point system I was using had finally reached positive points, as each high priest was worth 2 points).
I also went out of my way to berate the other players for beating up my beautiful super hard high priestess, they where feeling very smug with them selves, even through they had deduced that Firre had gone for help. I spent time getting initiative cards ready with every villain in the Fire Temple on them and worked out on what round of combat they would
enter and from which direction.
Finally I drew up the fire Temple on 1' squared A0 paper.
Edited by: DMs are evil at: 4/26/04 4:08 am
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DMs are evil
Human
(4/26/04 4:13 am)
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WEEK 3
WEEK 3
As Tessimon sank to the floor a lifeless corpse, the party used a round to get Yakazuki back on his feet out side of the Fire pit, Togan finally reached the platform after running through the fire and levitating (potion) up to it, the others drank some of the ever bountiful potions of curing, courtesy of the Human Guard cannon fodder. This left the part very spread out, with Alton the Sorcerer clinging to a wall near the curtain to Firre's room, Lucius the Elven Archer was near by. Togan the Paladin and Mouse the Rogue stood on the alter platform. Yakazuki and Brother Martin had made it to the far side of the chamber near to the burning skeletons old home.
Round 7 started with the door bursting open and Skassik, Arlainth, Firre and the four Elven Guards bursting through unleasing all manner of spells and missiles. A fireball was unleased by Arlainth that caught both Lucius and Alton (Alton made his save and was still left on 1hp). The fire temple automatically protected the villians from Alton's returning Fireball and no took damage (I ruled that the fire protection was 20 points, I could not find any errata on this site to say other wise, but 10 points would not protect against the fire pits 2d6).
Round 8. The Parties haste ended.
Round 9. The second wave consisting of Zert (Incidently Zert is known as Orm the Worm in my Campaign and was a petty bandit leader who harrassed the party all the way through the return to the keep on the borderlands), the human guards and a hell hound entered through the curtain right next to Lucuis and 4 Mephits entered throught the main doors. Mouse and Togan where engaged with Skassik on the platform, Togan went down under a particularly nasty round of attacks and lay unconscious on the floor.
Round 10. Mouse failed to kill Skassik, leaving him on 4 hit points, Skassick returned the attacks and hit all three times, the second blow left Mouse on 0 hit points, so unfortunately the third blow almost cleaved him in half and left him very dead, Skassik was instantly cut down by a hail of arrows from a vengeful Lucius.
Round 12. Firre and Arlainth held the platform and together they dragged the stable Togan onto the top of the altar, which immediately started changing (I was feeling particularly evil this night and wanted to give the party a taste of their own medicine).
Round 13, the rear doors opened and the final reinforcements of Virith, 4 Guards and two Mephits entered the fray. This was too much for the party who started to shout for retreat.
Round 14. By this point the party where in bad ways, Both Yakazuki and Lucuis had been on the floor twice each, both times they had been revived by the intervention of timely curing, Alton of the towers lay dead in a pool of blood after being cut down by a guard as his unconscious body was dragged away by the resourceful Brother Martin (protected verse fire and by a flame shield with an impressive AC of 26 due to an ever growing list of spells).
Round 15. Despite countless chances to escape, the three survivors where still present when the Eye appeared, in an attempt to limit the looming TPK, I made all mortal creatures present make the will save. Brother Martin took 1 point of Wisdom permanent damage, Yakazuki saved and Lucius lost 2 points of constitution. The major casualty on the villains side was poor little Firre who died (I ruled that he mouldered away to dust in true Big T style), Zert also died this round having take constitution damage, which meant he failed his save verses a stunning blow from the Monk by 1 (talk about bad luck) and was promptly sneak attacked by Lucius (Lucius has levels of the old 3.0 version of the Order of the Bow).
Round 16. The party where still valiantly trying to retrieve their last alive comrade Togan, this plan was abandoned when a huge Tentacle erupted from the altar seized his prone form and dragged it inside. The group lost all hope then, leaving the corpse of Mouse behind, they fled back the way they had entered, the 3 sets of Guards where bribed with no less than 5000 in gold and Gems. The Fire temple broke off pursuit to conserve what little resources where left.
Fire Temple survivors:
Arlainth with his newly acquired Iron Horn of Valhalla (When Togan was sacrificed, Firre had been asking for an item to bring back Tessimon, alive well and unharmed, with Firre’s demise, Arlainth became the only mortal creature on the platform, he panicked and asked for allies. Hence the horn arrived).
Virith survived unharmed, she also failed to hurt anybody
4 Fire Elements
3 Salamanders, summoned by the Altar
4 assorted guards
5 Mephits
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DMs are evil
Human
(4/26/04 4:20 am)
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In Between Weeks 3.5
A busy week, I decided that I would allow the party to retreat to Homlet, where with the correct evidence and diplomacy rolls Y’dey would raise Alton of the Towers.
After long chats with Togan’s player, it was decided that Togan had a twin brother called Deux. We came up with a long story about Deux holding vigil and having a vision of his brothers death, not knowing if it was premonition or not his brother continued with his training and then set off with his mentor the NPC Sir Torin the Golden to his last known location, Homlet
For your information, I operate a Mentor and Apprentice system with all Paladins. The Paladins are Knight Errants until they reach 5th level, then they must return to their chapter house and under go a series of trials, if they pass they are knighted and may call upon their Warhorse, this means all low level groups that contain a Paladin also have a high level NPC Knight travelling with them as a guide and mentor, this is similar to the Jedi padowan system in the latest Star Wars films.
Additional information, Togan had a mentor travelling with him called Sir Robin, a very old chap, who likes his wine almost as much as he likes his women. Sir Robin has heart problems and is prone to collapsing during stressful moments, he was left behind ill and being looked after by a widower in Rastor, after the group was drummed out of town by the addicts, Sir Robin was abducted and is now a “guest” of the temple, I am going to replace Vista the Paladin with him.
My self and Mouse conducted our whole conversation by text messages to simulate the “speak with dead” spell that the resurrected Tessimon cast on his corpse. She convinced him that his companions had left him behind and watched as the Paladin had died. She reasoned that she would bring him back for a small cost, all she wanted was for him to lead the party away from the fire temples and attack her rivals. Mouse agreed and gave his word, Tessimon knew that his word was useless, but she also knew he had the Demon Stone and was likely to fall under its influence. I put Mouse in the main entrance and equipped him with Master Durats ring of mind shielding and a big collar that radiated evil (Dunrat would cast Protection from Good on it before any encounter). In addition to these two, I restocked the human warriors, made the howler into a skeleton replaced the Gnolls with Orcs and included the only other survivor of the Mill house Chenashi.
In the back ground I restocked most of the Fire Temple, where possible I raised the dead, Skassik being an outsider was gone for good, but in a bout of extreme evil I decided that the Big T sent the corrupted soul of Togan back to serve in the temple. I sneakily took a copy of Togans stats and and tweaked his feats so I could apply two level of black guard to him. I thought this would make for some excellent roleplay when the group made it back to the fire temple, mwhahahahaha.
I also had another Xorn called to the earth temple and instructed to follow and kill any body trying to enter the water temple.
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DMs are evil
Human
(4/26/04 4:23 am)
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WEEK
WEEK 4
Right at the start Mouse rolled his save verses the Demon Stone, rolling a 9 he got a total of 14 and fell under its influence, I took him aside and explained what this entailed, the look of horror on his face was priceless.
Meanwhile the rest of the group made it back to Hommlet, this was a heavy on the role play session. They had to prove to Y’dey that the Temple represented a threat, gaining a bonus or penalty to a diplomacy check of DC20 at the end based on their story and evidence. They succeded at the roll and Y’dey agreed to consult her god on this matter, while the party retired to the inn, she cast speak with dead on Altons corpse and questioned him, after extracting a promise that he would dedicate his second chance at life to the forces of good she brought him back to life.
Meanwhile in the inn, the rest of the party where drowning their sorrows when two dusty travelers entered and crossed to the bar, Xaod walked (staggered) up to them and had a conversation, it was then that the Monk noticed that one of them was Togan (Deux). The monk ran up and challenged him for having Togans face and so the group met Sir Deux, Togans brother and his mentor Sir Turin the Golden. The monk has 8 charisma and plays it well, so when Duex asked for information on his brother, Yakazuki the monk replied “he’s dead, got sacrificed on an evil altar”, talk about breaking the news gently.
Of no particular information to the campaign journal, but it may come up later, the Kingdom the players are in is called Dunador and worships the God Neheod, the one who is many. All of the saints, including Cuthbert, are saints of this religion. Neheod also has a Paladin order dedicated to him called the Knight Templers. Togan and Duex worship the sun Goddess Mylin and hail from the neighbouring kingdom, know as the Old Empire. The Old Empire and Dunador are currently on the brink of war, both Paladin organisations are officially backing their respective lands, unofficially they are still aligned and are working to prevent full scale war from breaking out. This does mean that Duex and Torin could be caught and tried as spies.
After a weeks role playing the group had a funeral service for their two lost comrades and agreed to return to the CRM, Y’dey, Burne and Rufus agreed aid and a small task force was sent to the outskirts of Rastor to provide a base camp. Torin decided to take the law to the lawless and went to go to Rastor to enlighten them (He is a 10th level paladin).
The group (and Duex who they allowed to join them, but had taken a disliking to) returned to the main gate. They observed that it was occupied again and formulated this plan. Alton the sorcerer would send his weasel familiar in through an arrow slot, invisible, bull strengthened, hasted and spider climbing (I kid you not!) The weasel with it’s 7 strength would then lift the counterweight bar on the main door, meanwhile the rest of the group, also hasted and invisible would wait for the mages empathic link from the familiar to tell them to charge in.
The plan worked apart from the weasel encountering the howler, which can see invisibility, despite being badly wounded the door was opened and battle was joined.
The party got the jump on the bad guys and Mouse failed his second will save in a row and became held after one sneak attack on Deux, he failed another two to shake it off and so the combat went with out serious loss to the group.
Mouse was examined and the collar removed, at this point mouse pretended to come out of his trance, a detect evil revealed lingering traces on the collar, but noting on mouse (thanks to Dunrat’s ring). His cover story was that he remembered nothing until the collar was taken off, even through Duex did not believe or trust him, the rest of the group welcomed him back with open arms (suckers).
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