This straightforward session wrapped up the brief adventure known as "Surf Nazi's Must Die", but which is now known as "Audience with Yoogart". After a confidence-shattering run of failures at the challenges last week, the party turned themselves around in fine form, solvng the required mental challenge and a bonus challenge with distinction. Chris earned the Player Of The Night award for being the major contributor to the solution of both challenges. The meeting with Yoogart followed shortly afterwards. He revealed considerable information about Zhat and the Hengis Forges, some of which confirmed information previously revealed by Chastity Marblemill. - Twenty years ago the nation of Zhat was a nothing more than a loose association of fishing villages and subsistence farmers. - Zhat is now run by a group known as the "Kirijata Factor", who appear to be a consortium of "techno-mages". - The Kirijata control a substance known as Hengis - a translucent green glass crystal which can produce a variety of magical effects. - Cities of Zhat are rumoured to employ Hengis crystal machinery, including horseless carriages and self-powered mills and looms. - The Hengis crystals need to be within range of a "Hengis Forge" which is a "power plant" of some type. The crystals can be "tuned" to the Forge. - Zhat is entirely populated by humans. - Building a forge seems to take a year or so. The forges themselves are large buildings based around a large excavation, with a huge crystal inside. They draw some or all of their power from some form of link to the Elemental Plane of Chaos. Little else is known about how they function. The Zhat are building a new forge quite close to the border of Lor. To perform their service, Yoogart despatched the party to go and capture a renegade Tiefling named Dajani who had been harassing a nearby village. This tiefling is believed to have escaped from Zhat and may have useful information. The party tracked the Tiefling down and after a fierce battle managed to intimidate him into submission (although see notes about intimidation below). At the conclusion of the session, the party was tying up Dajani, ready to transport him back to Yoogart. No conversation had yet taken place. Dajani had the following treasure: Boots of Striding (L9) http://www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/item.aspx?id=435
Cape of the Mountebank (L5) http://www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/item.aspx?id=2948
550 GP As a side note, I am really struggling to see why the boots of striding are a L9 magic item. Feel free to give your opinion. XP - After the puzzle challenges and the defeat of the river pirates and Dajani, the party has amassed an additional 900 XP each. This is not enough to reach Level 4 just yet (anoth 600 required). Renown Points: After doing a bit of catchup, and deducting the two cards each I handed out in Session 2/2, here are the standings (with owed bonus cards): Chris - 36 (+1 standard) Pete - 44 (+1 boon) Tina - 20 (+1 boon, -1 standard) Adam - 28 Tom - 26 (+1 boon, +1 standard) INTIMIDATION - alternative proposal.
As you all recall, the party won the battle last night by intimidating the opponent. While this was within the rules (we checked) I still don't like it as it effectively acts as a single attack of massive value. So I've got an alternate idea (just a proposal at this stage). Once you've bloodied an opponent you can announce your intention to intimidate. Roll an intimidate skill against the will of the opponent. If you win this attempt you can count your roll as "intimidate points". You can repeat this process until your "intimidate points" tally exceeds the remaining hit points of your opponent (or the hit point tally drops below). As an example, last night a successful intimidate check of 27 was made when the opponent still had 63 HP. Under the new system as soon as the opponent dropped below 27HP he would have surrendered. Meanwhile the party can attempt to obtain more intimidate points until the intimidate tally exceeded the HP tally. This alternate plan prevents instant intimidation of an opponent who might still has 300 HP left. However it still gives the intimidate roll meaning. Thoughts? Comments?
This is just a bit of housekeeping to conclude the Ice tower adventure (aka "Ostmount Screw's Up") At the conclusion of play the PCs had spent the evening talking to Chastity Marblemill at the home of Margera Draidoch. MAGIC ITEMS: At one point during the evening Chastity disappeared outside and returned with a swag of items. He explained that these were magic items for which he had no use, but that the party might benefit from. In addition to any other items already noted, Chastity gave the party the following items: Belt of Vigorhttp://www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/item.aspx?id=541Level: 2 Price: 520 gp Item Slot: Waist
Property: You gain a +1 item bonus to your healing surge value.
Published in Player's Handbook 1, page(s) 253.
Amulet of Resolutionhttp://www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/item.aspx?id=2925Level: 2
Price: 520 gp
Item Slot: Neck
Enhancement: +1 Fortitude, Reflex, and Will
Power (Daily): No Action. Use this power when you fail a saving throw. Reroll the saving throw, using the second result even if it’s lower.Published in Adventurer's Vault 1, page(s) 149.
Reading Spectacleshttp://www.wizards.com/dndinsider/compendium/item.aspx?id=2872Level: 2
Price: 520 gp
Item Slot: Head
Property: You can read any language while wearing this item.
Published in Adventurer's Vault 1, page(s) 14
Gold and treasure: Although the party has not yet returned to Nerris, to save hassle here is the tally of gold received as reward, (combined with treasure recovered from the adventure itself.):Base - all players have a base of 520GP. Adam, Tina and Pete have an additional 100GP, comprising 30GP in coin and one of the 70GP vials of residuum. (This bonus is to compensate for the XP they effectively lost when I regraded everyone to the same XP level.)
Session 6 was a packed evening featuring an exploration of the emptied tower and the discovery of the source of the abnormal winter. Prior to play there was some housekeeping, mainly to do with sorting out the magic items that have been gathered. One change of interest - up until now I have been using the temporary title of "The Mighty Ducks". After this session the 'official adventure title' can now be revealed: "Ostmount's Screw-up". The evening commenced at the conclusion of the previous week’s battle. After a short rest the party began to explore the tower. The lowest level included a room with two corpses, elderly people who had been frozen to death. A kitchen and storeroom were also found. The second level was devoted to a large laboratory. Although there were numerous bookshelves there were no books of real interest to be found. Close examination of the laboratory benches turned up three vials of residuum worth 70GP each. A strange levitating disk was discovered on the second floor. After considerable investigation the party determined that it was an elevator of some kind, responding to the commands “UP”, “DOWN”, “STOP” and “COME”. The party (accompanied by the duck) then made their way to the third floor. The third floor appeared to be the living quarters. A corpse wearing an elegant red robe and carrying a symbol of Zhat was found on the floor. Although long since frozen solid, examination indicated the corpse had been bludgeoned to death, and the injuries matched the dimensions of the ice clubs used by the ice warriors the party recently defeated. Nearby the corpse was a tapestry that concealed a door. This door appeared to have been originally designed to be secret, but it had long since been broken and opened easily. Inside the room was a writing desk and another floating elevator disk. The desk contained an unsent letter and a research journal, both authored by Zhatfer Ostmount. These documents ( viewable here) describe how Zhatfer was engaged in research on how to “extend the range of Hengis Crystals”. This research went horribly wrong and apparently resulted in the arrival of the ice and ice warriors. The research journal entries ended after alluding to the arrival of ice elementals. The party then ascended to the roof of the tower where they discovered a bright green triangular crystal floating in the air, which was shooting a stream of frost into the sky. After triggering the crystal the final guardian emerged. In a dazzling stroke of ingenuity (which earned him the POTN award), Pete used a special powerand teleported the creature off the edge of the tower, and it took two further rounds for the (now enraged) beast to get back to the roof. In the interim the party did considerable damage to the crystal, which they had deduced was inextricably linked to the ice beast. In the interim the crystal kept firing off blasts of ice at the party. The angry Ice Beast eventually made it back to the roof, and despite being blinded it engulfed the party in a blast of cold. This did considerable damage and knocked affected players prone. The beast fired off this attack again when bloodied and then managed to recharge and use it again, leaving the party considerably worse for wear. Pete was reduced to unconsciousness, but clever use of a divine luck card combined with a Potion of Living got him back into the fray. In a first for this campaign, play was suspended mid-battle. The beast was recently bloodied and all of the players were conscious. Only Pete had used his second wind thus far, although a few action points had been burned. XP – as the encounter had not concluded, no XP are being awarded at this time. XP scores are unchanged from last week. For renown points, Chris has acquired an impressive 17 points in one go (2 attendance, 5 miniature, 10 character background). Pete acquired 14 points (2 attendance, 2 POTN, 10 character background) Pete/Tina/Adam - 1600
Chris/Tom/Xu - 1100
Renown
Chris - 24 (+4, +B)
Pete - 34 (+3)
Tina - 16 (+1)
Adam - 22 (+B)
Tom - 8
Xu - 6
Session Five was a great reminder of how encounters can go in any direction. The party managed to combine two encounters into one, making the night quite a combat fest for both them and their companion duck.
The session started at the front door to the tower and the party using some brute force to bash their way in. They immediately found themselves in an entry hall. A large double staircase (leading up) was ahead of them and there were entryway at the left and right that led to a dining hall and a sitting room. All of the walls and floors were covered in a dusting of ice, and all of the furniture was frozen. The entire place was remarkably well preserved.
The side rooms each contained a curious fireplace where a cold blue flame “burned”. Arcana checks indicated that these were portals to an Elemental plane. Opting for more brute force the party began bashing the flames, which triggered the tower’s internal defences.
Within short order the party was doing battle with a large group of Elemental Ice humanoid creatures, including a leader, two warriors and two icicle hurlers who came down the staircase. Also joining the fray were some halfling-sized minions that emerged from the fireplaces.
The battle was fierce, and the party soon discovered that as soon as a minion was killed another replacement could emerge from the fireplace (at a random interval). They also discovered that there were two more fireplaces on the ground level. Fortunately the party figured out they could eventually destroy the fireplaces by hammering them.
The minions guarding the upper level showed no signs of descending, and the party had an opportunity to take a short rest before tackling the second group of opponents. However this was not to be and the second level encounter was commenced when Pete ran up the stairs while the first battle was in its final stages. Here the party discovered four more fireplaces and a second Ice Warrior leader. The Ice Warrior leader had emerged from a fist-sized triangular crystal located on a stand within a large pentagram. The crystal glowed with a sickly green light.
More battle and a bruised but unbeaten party eventually emerged victorious. The session concluded without any further investigation of the room.
Treasure – one of the Ice Warrior leaders was carrying a Point Blank Bow.
Point Blank Bow: The wielder of this weapon need not fear wading into melee.
Level: 3 -- Price: 680 gp -- Enhancement: +1 attack rolls and damage rolls -- Critical: +1d6 damage
Property: Gain a +2 item bonus to AC against opportunity attacks provoked by making a ranged attack with this weapon.
Power (Encounter): Free Action. Use this power when you make a ranged attack with this weapon; the attack does not provoke opportunity attacks.
XP - Total XP for the encounter was 1300 (all combat), or 325 each. Furthermore I have adjusted some other scores to ensure Chris and Xu are now at second level.
Pete/Tina/Adam - 1600
Chris/Tom/Xu - 1100
Renown -
Chris - 7
Pete - 20
Tina - 14
Adam - 19
Tom - 8
Xu - 4
This evening’s play included a welcome guest appearance from Canberra’s Meredith. Play resumed with the party looking for somewhere to rest after the battle with the tower’s defenders the previous session. After some scouting they found a semi-sheltered area in the trees that offered some protection against the wind. With night falling they made camp. However barely an hour had gone by when a trio of frost beetles arrived. Despite their fatigue and battered status the party made very light work of these critters and the encounter was over swiftly. As the battle ended the party heard the irate voice of an angry goblin shouting. A few moments later the chief of the frost goblin tribe came into view, holding two adolsecent goblins by the ear. The party listened in while the chief castigated the youngsters for disobeying him and for wasting trained beetles against a strong opponent. T Soon the chief turned to address the party. Although the frost goblin chief was angry they party had invaded his lands and had slain a number of his warriors (session 2), he also appreciated the fact that the party had slain the white dragon that had been harassing them by demanding constant food and tribute (session 1). Hence the chief had a proposal – the party could choose to get rid of the so-called “blizzard bird” which had recently taken up residence nearby (and was demanding treasure and sacrifices), or they could face the goblin chief and the sixty or so warriors he had brought to the discussion. The party quickly saw the wisdom of tackling the beast. The goblins were required to deliver a sacrifice the following day, so the party took up the chief’s offer of shelter for the night. With Timmy the Thief polymorphed to resemble a goblin female and seemingly tied to the sacrifial pole near the blizzard bird’s cave, the party took up an ambush position. When the beast (which resembled a horse-sized eagle made of ice), arrived they unleashed their attacks, however the beast soon retaliated with a vicious frost blast and the ability to teleport at will. A very tough battle ensued but the party was ultimately victorious. Treasure of 475 GP and 2 potions of healing was discovered, along with items sacred to the goblins (which they retrieved and took away). Finally there is a set of (cloth) Feedback Armor. Feedback Armor - Crackling psychic energy cascades around you, flaring outward when you make a mental assault on a foe.
Level: 4 - Price: 840 gp - Armor: Cloth, Leather - Enhancement: +1 AC
Power (Daily * Augmentable, Psychic): Free Action. Trigger: You use a psychic power. Effect: Each creature adjacent to you takes 1d6 psychic damage and is pushed 1 square. Augment 2: The psychic damage increases to 2d6. Augment 4: The psychic damage increases to 3d6.
Published in Player's Handbook 3, page(s) 199.
Conclusion: The party had returned to the goblin cave and were restoring themselves (ie. extended rest) before going back to tackle the tower. ________________________________________________________________ XP: Total XP for this encounter was 375+875 (combat), 250 (bonus) and 250 (story) Total 1750 or 350 for each of the five players. - Chris: 925 (bumped to 1000)
- Pete: 1275
- Tina: 1275
- Adam: 1275
- Tom: 1085
- Xu: 190, Meredith 350
Renown points: Several players were able to cash in their bonus points, so the scores have jumped quite a bit in some cases. The vote for "Player of the Night" was inconclusive, so I gave it to Adam for good gameplay, although Tom was a close second (IMO).- Chris - 7
- Pete - 18
- Tina - 12
- Adam - 17
- Tom - 8
- Xu - 2
The third session was the first with a replacement player, with Xu filling in for the (apparently deathly ill) Tom. Chris will be absent for the next 2-3 weeks so Xu will be probably also be filling in during that time. Game mechanics issue: My treasure designs are geared towards the classes in PHB1 (eg the Rod of Reaving is optimal for a Warlock) and as far as I can tell no-one is playing a PHB1 character. Could all players send me (via email or via comment below) their class and race, along with a brief summary of powers being employed. This will influence my encounter and treasure design. I also expect that most players will be second level by the end of the next session, so please give some thought to levelling up. Session summary: Things picked up right where the second session concluded, with the interrogation of the Goblin Hexer. The Hexer's name was Grak and he revealed the following: - There is a camp nearby with "many hands" of goblins living in it.
- The emblem around his neck was a prize taken from a dead "Red robe" (he did not disclose how the "red robe" died)
The party was able to identify the emblem as being the symbol of the Zhat Nation. Bliiy Blagg (Pete) insisted on releasing the goblin hexer, overruling to far more malevolent Lube (Chris) who advocated brutal extermination. Whether this will have consequences remains to be seen. A short walk over a small hill brought the party to the entrance to the tower. The tower was encased in a cone of shimmering ice that was several feet thick. The cone rose all the way to beyond the top of the tower and resembled a "frost volcano". A plume of cold was erupting from the top of the cone - clearly the source of the bad weather affecting the region. The party found the double doors that marked the entrance to the tower, located near rows of many gargoyle statues. After hacking away at the ice for a few minutes they managed to get through the ice, however the moment they actually touched the tower a wave of arcane energy flowed around them, awakening the tower guardians. Four of the gargoyle statues transformed into Iron Defenders and two clay scouts emerged from the doors. Despite a shaky start the party were able to despatch the magical defenders, with Tina being particularly effective. A quick check of the door indicated it was now magically locked, and the party has yet to investigate how to reopen it. However with Pete in pretty bad shape the party felt that an extended rest was in order, and the session concluded with the party starting to scout for somewhere to rest. The howling winds, constant snows and potentially a horde of angry goblins suggests that an extended rest might not be easily achieved... ______________________________________________________________________________________________ XP - total experience earned for the encounter was 750 combat, 100 skill challenge, 100 story. Total 950, or 190 each.
- Chris: 735 + 190 = 925
- Pete: 735 + 190 = 925
- Tina: 735 + 190 = 925
- Adam: 735 + 190 = 925
- Tom: 735
- Xu: 190
Renown points: Most people got their first card during this session. (You get a card for every 4 points). Just about every player has missed out on points they are entitled to, but it's not my job to remind them about how points are awarded. Thus far we have not had "Player of the Night" awards, but for tonight I gave it to Tina (2 points). TIna and Pete both get a new card at the start of the next session
- Chris - 7
- Pete - 9
- Tina - 8
- Adam - 6
- Tom - 6
- Xu - 2
After being interrupted by my trip to Turkey, the campaign resumed tonight with great success. Players are still arguing about which character they should play and have not yet finalised their party make-up. As a result I've make an amazingly generous ruling allowing each player until level 2 to alter their characters in any way without penalty. This won't be an ongoing thing for my campaign by the way. However I'm sympathetic to the idea of wanting to find a character that the players can "bond" with in the long term, and we've been stuck with using pre-gens for so long that having all this freedom can be daunting at first. To the evening's play: After a recap we resumed at the conclusion of the battle with the White Dragon. The treasure was allocated (see previous session report) and Adam got the Amulet of Protection. Searching the cave turned up the stripped corpse of a messenger who carried a note reading "M. Keep your head down. I'll be there soon. C.M."After camping in the shelter of the cave for the night the players awoke to find they had been joined by a bright yellow duck which refused any attempt to communicate and which could not be captured. An arcana check indicated the duck was magical in some way, but no other useful knowledge was obtained, despite the party spending a remarkable amount of time on the task. After (eventually) giving up on duck-related investigations, the party set out eastwards, with the duck quietly waddling along behind them. After successfully negotiating a blizzard the party found their way to within sight of the tower. As they approached the tower they encountered a very large group of goblins, led by a robed goblin hexer. This encounter was made additionally challenging when the DM inadvertently printed out (and used) the monster stats for 8 Goblin Warriors (29 HP, 100 XP) instead of the 8 Goblin Cutters (1 HP minions, 25 XP) that he had originally designed the encounter with. This turned a basic level 2 encounter into a very hard level 6 encounter. Despite getting beaten up, the party was still victorious, and the encounter ended when they subdued the goblin leader. Wrap-up and Treasure: The session concluded immediately upon the subdual of the goblin leader and hence no questioning has taken place as of yet. Although not actually mentioned during gameplay, it can be reported that treasure was discovered on the goblin hexer, to the effect of 50GP, 2 potions of healing and a Rod of Reaving +1. None of the other goblins had any treasure or items of worth. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ XP - total experience earned for the encounter was 1500 combat, 400 skill challenge, 100 story and 150 bonus. Total 2150, or 430 each.
- Chris: 305 + 430 = 735
- Pete: 305 + 430 = 735
- Tina: 305 + 430 = 735
- Adam: 305 + 430 = 735
- Tom: 305 + 430 = 735
Renown points: In future the points for blog comments will be awarded in the next report. Hence Pete gets his point here (Tom doesn't as it was already awarded last time). I will actually have cards ready to hand out next week as everyone is entitled to one now.
- Chris - 5 (2 basic)
- Pete - 7 (2 basic, 1 for blog comment on previous report)
- Tina - 4
- Adam - 4
- Tom - 5 - (2 basic, 0 for a blog comment as was awarded last week.)
So tonight the campaign got under way. I had budgeted an hour for character creation but this was clearly insufficient. It was certainly a bit chaotic, but things will improve as people learn their characters and gain a greater sense of familiarity and ownership. Because of the rush around character creation I'm allowing wholesale changes of characters until we reach second level, although this only applies to this adventure and is not going to be a general rule. Also as a general rule it will be the PCs job to track the important clues and plot points. However, because this was the first session (and there was so much chaos around character creation etc) I'm going to provide a summary of the plot points and pieces of information presented. Adventure summary: The players arrived in Nerris as per the background (see the Adventures page). They quickly learned of the bizarre wintry weather occurring in midsummer which has been going on for three years and is getting increasingly worse.. Reasons for this included the bartender's insistence it was caused by "dark fairies" (also responsible for his bunions). More reliable sources suggest that it was the work of a warlock named Draidoch who used to live in a tower some 30 miles away on the other side of the Deepwood Forest, in the foothills of the Krystaliron Mountains. There are also reports of strange blue-skinned goblins. After meeting the civic leader (the half-elf Lady Alessa), the local Wizard Curuvar and the local priest of Oen the party set out for the tower by following the Liffey River south along the edge of the forest. After nearly a day's uneventful travel the party encountered an elderly lady living in a stone cottage. This was Margera Draidoch, the wife of the warlock. She reported that Draidoch died some ten years previously and could not be responsible for the bad weather (which only started three years ago).. The news of Draidoch's death was relayed to Margera by the eccentric wizard Chastity Marblemill, who still visits her every year. Draidoch apparently died at the hands of a "demon" on the faraway continent of Meshia. The party shelters in Margera's cabin for the night and set out the next morning. After a few hours they reached the foothills of the mountains and turned east to find the tower. Ahead they could see that the weather was noticeably worse, with fog and snow flurries. After journeying a bit further they found there was a thin layer of snow on the ground. After spying a trio of blue-skinned goblins dragging a deer to a cave they launched a surprise attack. Three more goblins and a (to the party's surprise) a small white dragon joined the fray and a tough battled ensued, although the party was ultimately victorious. At the close of play the party were taking shelter in the cave. They had also found their first treasure - the petite hoard of the very young white dragon. (80 GP, 120 SP, five small gems worth 10GP each and a +1 amulet of protection). __________________________________________________________________________________________ XP - total experience earned for the encounter was 850 combat, 250 story and 425 bonus: - Chris - 305
- Pete - 305
- Tina - 305
- Adam - 305
- Tom - 305
Renown points: - Chris - 3 (2 basic, 1 for snacks)
- Pete - 4 (2 basic, 2 for D&D purchases)
- Tina - 2
- Adam - 2
- Tom - 3 - (2 basic, 1 for a blog comment)
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