gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Jan 10, 2020 21:25:40 GMT
Episode 14 - Hags and Drugs and Gnomes and Trolls
The elf maiden introduced herself as Glissandell, and explained that she had been battling Kel Drakkar for a long time. She discovered that he had protected himself by splitting his dark heart into four pieces, which were hidden in orc temples. Only by finding these and re-assembling his heart could there be any hope of defeating the necromancer. As the temples were magically warded against elves, Glissandell entrusted the party with the task, and gave Seijin a magical necklace which could call her, before disappearing through a shining portal.
After resting for a while, the heroes used the remaining power of the wind walk spell to travel to the nearest temple, located in a fell swamp. When they arrived they found a ramshackle hut, and nearby, a copse of withered trees where someone had constructed a makeshift shelter. They materialised nearby, and Tarik and Seijin spoke to the occupant of the shelter, who turned out to be a gnome, dressed in mismatched plate mail. He introduced himself as Sir Giddywingle, or 'Big Tom' (as he was over three and a half feet tall). As the gnome had traveled through the swamp looking for orcs to kill, the party decided to let him tag along.
Inside the hut, they found a wizened old woman and an array of potions and jars filling the shelves of the cramped dwelling. After trading herbs, the crone demanded a troll's eye in exchange for revealing the location of the orc temple. The adventurers turned back to mist form, and nearby Seijin spotted the swamp troll, disguised as a pile of leaves and debris. They reformed and launched attacks on the unsuspecting creature, with Seijin summoning his needle blights again and Rimir making good use of faerie fire. After the hail of missiles, their new friend lopped off the troll's head, and Gragga's fire rage and Rimir's magic prevented it from regenerating.
Back at the hut, the grateful old woman mixed them healing potions, and led them through the swamp with a group of dancing balls of light. She stopped by a tree and announced that the temple was 'below'. Tarik, and Seijin with his blights stood in the spot she indicated, and she then activated a lever, opening a trap door and causing them to fall down into a chamber containing a horrible pit filled with bones and body parts. The woman, revealing herself as a green hag, attacked the gnome, who charged at her. Despite her supernatural strength, he managed to knock her down the hole into the pit. Tarik, using his magic staff, had suspended himself in mid air, and jumped down on top of the crone, impaling her with the staff. Meanwhile, Seijin had avoided harm by turning into a giant spider, and he rallied his blights to join the fight as several creatures emerged from side passages.
This was a shrine to Yurtrus, the orc god of death and disease, and the orcs here were deformed and covered with pestilence. Gragga leaped down to fight them, while Seijin and the blights fought an undead creature covered in worms, and an orc priest. Big Tom also jumped into the pit to fight the hag, while Rimir used his spells from above. As the barbarian killed the orcs, they exploded, showering him in poisonous pus, but his rage and dwarven constitution shielded him from much harm. After a vicious fight in the pit, the old hag was finally defeated by Tarik and Tom. Seijin had used his webs to restrain the undead monster and orc priest, and the blights had managed to deal a lot of damage to them, but eventually only one was left alive. Gragga entered a blood frenzy and chopped through most of the remaining orcs, cutting a path through to the infested undead. He managed to destroy it, but not before a worm had jumped onto him and burrowed into his flesh. The orcs were finally slain by Tarik, Seijin and Rimir, and Tom was helped out of the pit. However, Gragga then fell to the ground, clutching his chest, as the worm began to eat away at his insides. Seijin could do nothing to help him, but Tom placed his hand on him, and healed the infection, the worm being expelled from his body and turning to dust.
The adventurers and the remaining needle blight celebrated their victory with beer once again, and decided to tip away the 'healing potions' the old hag had given them. They investigated the temple, finding some orc scrolls, and a secret room, apparently empty...
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Jan 17, 2020 15:14:33 GMT
Episode 15 - Don't Pay the Ferryman
After searching the temple, Tom found the remains of a Knight of the Scarlet Star, and spent time laying him to rest (PS Kris you should have inspiration for this). Unable to locate the heart, Seijin turned into a wolf, and sniffed it out, discovering a chest with some religious trinkets and a small box. When the box was opened, a rune was triggered, causing Gragga, Rimir and Tarik to suffer a feeling of hopelessness. Inside, they found the piece of the necromancer's heart. After resting overnight in the hag's hut, and looting it for magic items, they burned it to the ground and set off back through the swamp, led by Tom and his clockwork frog. They journeyed to the next temple, located on a hill in the centre of a dismal lake.
Rimir disguised himself as an orc and tried to intimidate the ferryman in to free passage, but this failed to work as none of the rest of the party looked like orcs. Seijin decided to cross first, and was attacked halfway by the ferryman, who was a hag covered by an illusion. She exclaimed 'You killed my sister!' and turned her death gaze upon the druid. Seijin resisted the effects, and pulled the creature into the water with a thorn whip. The hag swam back and leapt onto the boat as Seijin turned into a wolf again and tore at her, pinning her down. She responded by clawing at him, but eventually the wolf's jaws prevailed and the hag turned to ash. Meanwhile, Tarik and Rimir had attempted to enter the water to aid Seijin, but had been attacked by ghouls from the depths and gave it up as a bad idea. The adventurers used the boat to cross the lake and rested at the bottom of the hill before approaching the temple.
Seijin once again summoned the needle blights, who poured into the stone building towards an orc priest and a mummy he had apparently raised from the dead. Two orc warriors emerged from the shadows, however, and hacked half of the blights to pieces. Rimir conjured a circle of eldritch darkness, and they barred the door. When it went quiet, the door was opened, and one of the swordsman charged out, only to be cut down by a barrage of attacks from the party. The other warrior emerged, followed by the mummy, and the priest conjured a spectral spear to attack Tom. Gragga charged in with his axe, bursting into firey rage, and Tom jumped onto Seijin's back (as he had turned into a wolf again). Rimir sniped with spells, while Tarik beset the enemies with his staff and fists. Although the creatures were tough to kill, they were no match for the party, and once again the heroes were victorious.
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Post by brumguvnor on Jan 17, 2020 16:18:10 GMT
Yeah - I can totally see the "heavily armed and armoured gnome paladin charging into battle on the back of the druid who's wildshaped into a dire wolf" becoming a standard tactic... - cos' it's fecking awesome!!
Tomorrow morning - or whenever we get some time free for sparring, it's gonna be: "Tom! - get your arse over here and get on my back: it's me and you versus Tarik and Gragga!"
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Post by Karrgos on Jan 17, 2020 18:42:04 GMT
Tarik cracks his knuckles. Yar on.
Slight amendment. Tarik didn't give up and swim back to shore. Tarik shot out like a "Dwarven speedboat" to get to Seijin. Arrived kust after the hag had been killed and helped Seijin row back, all while swearing to fuck about how we shouldn't trust loan humans in huts!
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Jan 31, 2020 18:13:58 GMT
Episode 16 - They don't know that we know that they know that we're coming.
Rimir searched the temple for magic and found a shield on the wall. After cleaning the crude orc design off it, it was revealed to belong to the Order of the Scarlet Star, so Tom carried with him. Tarrik punched the altar and reduced it to rubble, discovering a niche containing a box. He took it away from the others and opened it, triggering a glyph which caused him to run away in terror. Rimir managed to pick up the box and delighted in terrorising the others with it. While he was holding the box, he received a vision of what Kel-Drakkar was doing. He saw him handing over some ore crystals to a creature with an exposed brain surrounded by writhing tentacles. In return, the creature gave him some fake crystals, and their conversation hinted at some dark betrayal. Rimir chose not to share this information with the rest of the party.
The party hurried along the river road towards the next temple. Rimir conjured some bats and an owl to scout ahead and discovered the temple in the valley ahead. The bats scouted out the cave system, which was empty save for some orcish 'love nests'. The owl spotted the orcs hiding in the trees outside the temple - they appeared to have been alerted that the party would be approaching. The adventurers formulated a plan to surprise the orcs. Seijin transformed into spider form and Rimir made him invisible, so he was able to sneak past them and hide in the caves, where he summoned the troop of needle blights. Meanwhile, the rest of the party approached the orcs, and fired missiles and spells at the nearest 'Claw of Luthic'.
As the battle commenced, the orc claw fell, but not before it had hit Gragga with a bolt of darkness. The barbarian engaged the other claw, who had conjured a group of fiendish guardians, along with an orc werewolf. Tom and Tarrik cut down two orcs, then engaged the orogs, who were heavily armoured. Rimir used his magic to aid them, while the needle blights emerged from the cave to engage an old man, who the monk had correctly guessed was another disguised hag.
Despite his rage, the barbarian had taken a lot of damage and was overcome by the onslaught from the werewolf and the Claw, although his fire aura had dispelled the fiendish guardians. Tarrik used a new tactic to push the orog back and hit it with a thunderous attack, which eventually killed it. Tom took a break from his fight to heal Gragga, his armour protecting him from most attacks. Eventually the three fighters managed to kill the orog, the claw and the werewolf, aided by some eldritch blasts from Rimir.
Seijin, meanwhile, had conjured a moonbeam to shine on the man, who was revealed as an Annis Hag, a deformed giant with vicious claws. She produced a cloud of thick fog, but the needle blights were able to sense through this and continued to pepper her with needles. Nevertheless, she tore at the blights, and soon shredded all eight. Wounded by the moonbeam, she pursued Seijin into the caves, producing more fog as she went. The others followed, but the fog was so dense they could not find the hag. Rimir used his bats to locate her, and attacked her with blasts of eldritch power. This gave away his position however, and the hideous hag charged and grabbed the warlock in a deadly crushing hug. Fortunately, Rimir had protected himself with an armour of frost, and the hag was frozen in place and destroyed.
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Post by brumguvnor on Feb 7, 2020 8:46:18 GMT
Dang - I thought we were toast there! - ninja orc martial art masters attacking from total magical darkness no less!!
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Feb 8, 2020 13:40:50 GMT
Episode 17 - Into Darkness
After discovering some orc love potions and a star amulet, the battered party fortified the orc caves and rested. Rimir had a nightmare of a hideous black hag, but he was woken before it caused him too much harm. In the early hours of the next day they discovered the third piece of heart buried in a secret underground room. After Tarrik had once again braved the effects of the glyph, they set off towards the next temple, on horses they had found in the valley. On the way, Tarrik received a vision of Kel-Drakkar. The necromancer was seen meeting a Serpent Queen in the desert and exchanging a box for a tooth. The party also heard from Meldar: the dwarves were planning to attack at noon, despite the arrival of a Frost Giant from the north.
The next temple was located in a mountain cave, and Seijin used Rook to scout it out, discovering the Night Hag lurking in the cave, along with three giant bats. With the needle blights once again boosting their numbers, the party assailed the hag, wounding her severely and causing her to turn ethereal and flee. The bats seemed passive, so they pressed on deeper into the temple.
Several interconnecting passages formed a crypt, and as the adventurers slowly advanced they were attacked by darts thrown with deadly accuracy from areas of impenetrable darkness, wounding Gragga. A needle blight sent ahead was quickly slaughtered, and when Tarrik entered the darkness he too was badly injured. Seijin cleverly used a thunderwave spell to knock one of the assailants back, and Tarrik managed to finish it off. It was revealed to be a Red Fang of Shargaas - an orc assassin. Rimir used his bats to locate the other two, and eventually the party were victorious, despite being badly injured by the orcs.
Once through the crypt, steps led down into a chamber from which chanting could be heard. They found an orc high priest and his two acolytes who had completed a ritual to release a Tanarukk, a vicious orc demon....
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Feb 11, 2020 17:45:31 GMT
Episode 18 - Heart of Darkness
The Tanarukk charged and was met by Tarrik, Tom Gragga and Seijin, with the needle blights firing at it from range. Tarrik impaled it with his glaive, but as the demon was able to attack anyone who hit it, it caused a lot of damage before it was eventually destroyed.
Rimir conjured a sphere of darkness, which injured the orc high priest and hampered the approach of the acolytes. Nevertheless, the high priest emerged from the sphere and the party was assailed by his fiendish guardians, as well as a spectral guard he had conjured. He impaled Gragga with his spear and drained his life, leaving the barbarian seconds from death. Rimir soon revived him however, only for him to be knocked down again soon after. Seijin distracted the priest with a flaming sphere, dispelling his guardians, and a barrage of attacks from the party injured him severely. He tried to stab Tom with his spear, but the gnome's armour protected him. Attempting to flee, by turning into a cloud of mist, the priest was caught by Tarrik's glaive and cut in half. His two acolytes, injured by the eldritch sphere, were soon dispatched.
Tom recovered the symbol of the Scarlet Star from the orc's armour, and Rimir found scrolls and spell components in a room beyond. By transforming into a wolf, Seijin used his senses to unearth the final piece of heart buried in a storeroom. After enduring agonising pain from the glyph, they finally had all four parts. After resting for a while, Rimir identified some magic items, and then they destroyed the altar before leaving.
Outside the temple, Seijin called for Glissandell. Before she arrived, the party were assailed by a ghost, who had been sent by Kel-Drakkar to recover the heart. The ghost failed to possess Seijin, and was attacked by the party and nearly destroyed, despite frightening Tom with it's horrifying visage. It managed to possess Gragga, and caused him to attack Tarrik. It then made the barbarian leap off the ledge, but Seijin quickly caught him with a thorn whip and pulled him back. Rimir dug a pit to trap him, and Tarrik held him in place with his staff. Suddenly, Glissandell arrived through a magic portal, and used her holy symbol to force out the ghost, which turned out to be her sister, killed by Kel-Drakkar and forced to be his undead servant.
After a moment of mourning, Glissandell explained that the orcs had already attacked the dwarves, and were winning the battle, particularly as the invulnerable orc necromancer was raising the dead against them. After healing the party, she conjured another portal, and they all passed through. At Crag Crorgar, the dwarves were just about holding out against the orc army, an ogre and a troll, as well their own fallen comrades raised as zombies. Furthermore, they were been pelted with boulders from the giant and attacked by the necromancer on his black dragon. Glissandell took out the reassembled heart and impaled it with her dagger. Clutching his chest, Kel-Drakkar sneered and pronounced that he had known what the party was doing, having the Dark Sisterhood to spy for him, and had replaced the final heart piece and hidden the real part where no-one would find it. Black tendrils erupted from the heart, enveloping Glissandell, and a white tooth pierced her, poisoning her and causing her to fall to the ground. Her pegasus caught her before she suffered more damage from the fall, and stood protectively next to her limp body. Kel-Drakkar ordered his forces to 'finish them', before disappearing through another dark portal.
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Post by brumguvnor on Feb 11, 2020 20:40:48 GMT
Right then lads: for all of Tarriks claims to want to just rescue the Elf lady, I know for damn sure he ain't ever gonna leave a man behind him... - and leaving an entire Dwarven army to be slaughtered by orcs, undead, and ogre and a troll? - just not happening. So: here is my plan: 1 I use the ultimate power of my staff and summon a wall of thorns in a U shape, with us in the bottom of the U, and the open ends pointing towards the biggest group of enemies. You all open up with every missile weapon you have but DO NOT charge. 2 Rimmir then uses mold earth to erect an earthwork defense in front of us - and I cast spike growth in front of that. We then taunt the monsters to come and get us - and they get slowed by the spike growth and we shoot at them from cover behind the earthwork. 3 Whilst we are doing this, Rimmir uses mold earth to put up earthworks all around us, as the wall of thorns will only last 10 minutes. We keep shooting the shit out of them all this time. 4 We keep shooting from behind full cover until they're all dead. What do you think? Also: mold earth is apparently a druid cantrip too... - I'm having it!
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Post by Kristian on Feb 11, 2020 21:08:40 GMT
I think mold earth creates more of a 'spoil heap*' than an 'earth wall' (and it only works on 'loose earth' - so if we'll need to make sure we're off any kind of packed earth road or stony floor). But every little helps (I think the 'ditch' will be the main obstacle though). *I could be imagining it wrong though. The DM might rule that it's more like a minecraft cube
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Post by pericles on Feb 11, 2020 21:44:13 GMT
I think mold earth creates more of a 'spoil heap*' than an 'earth wall' (and it only works on 'loose earth' - so if we'll need to make sure we're off any kind of packed earth road or stony floor). But every little helps (I think the 'ditch' will be the main obstacle though). *I could be imagining it wrong though. The DM might rule that it's more like a minecraft cube That was the question the other day when I asked Steve to rule on the text. I dont have official text just what I can get from the web.
The first usage was at the Orc Love temple, essentially a cave and in my imagination the ground was stone or at best packed earth.
The next usage was on Monday coming out the ninja orc temple to place a barrier between the cliff edge and Graggar.
To be honest I was pleasantly surprised it worked both times. A 5ft cube is a rather large amount of earth. While building ramparts as some have claimed is over powered for a cantrip producing some degree of cover does not seem too unreasonable.
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Post by Kristian on Feb 11, 2020 21:55:15 GMT
Worse case scenario we could jump in a trench for cover (well, the taller folks could )
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Post by Kristian on Feb 11, 2020 22:15:03 GMT
...I was pleasantly surprised it worked both times Going off the description, it probably shouldn't have - but I won't tell if you don't (it doesn't really matter though - I only just looked it up for the first time today ...to see what we could do with it next week ...up until that point I just assumed it was in the PHB).
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Feb 11, 2020 22:51:03 GMT
Probably shouldn't have worked so well on the mountain top, but it does say you can make it into 'difficult terrain'.
You can definitely use it to make ditches and banks.
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Post by brumguvnor on Feb 12, 2020 8:53:33 GMT
another factor in favour of digging in and not trying to flee immediately: can you honestly see this group of enemies not chasing us relentlessly? - I say force the fight on our own terms. And don't forget about the Dwarf army: I am not sure how close we are to them and so whether or not it would be feasible to link up with them... - but even if we can't, they're not going to just sit there and do nothing.
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