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Post by brumguvnor on Mar 23, 2020 9:41:51 GMT
So... - anyone else think that this is a fine time to test the magic things we got from the dragon ship?!
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Mar 23, 2020 18:00:15 GMT
Episode 24 - Riddles of the Sphinx
After resting overnight in the druid's hideout, the party decided to investigate the oracle. After walking the path up the 'steps of knowledge', they arrived on a plateau upon which were some deserted ruins. Suddenly, a huge sphinx appeared, and greeted the party. The imposing creature explained that he would answer questions if they could solve his riddles. After managing to correctly answer several, the party discovered information about their future. The sphinx said that they had several tasks to complete before they would reach the lair of the Serpent Queen, which was a pyramid somewhere to the southwest. The Queen's true name was Djethol-amun, which was needed to access the pyramid somehow, from the palace. The creature also prophecised that Tom was alive and they would meet him again, and that Jesus's company were dead or enslaved by the Yuan-ti. The sphinx also told them, that if they wished to endure the Trials of the Sphinx, they could gain in power, but in order to do so they would need to bring him a gift of either Malira's ring, the Spear of Achedis, or the Eye of Jotun. When the sphinx disappeared, and they left the ruins, the adventurers noticed that no time had passed, in fact, they had somehow gained time.
After a short walk, they checked out some ruins where cult activity had been seen. All they found however, was evidence that some kind of summoning ritual may have taken place the previous night. Further onward, they scrambled up a cliff face and entered a small cave, where rumours said a serpent creature lived. Inside, there was a hallway filled with statues. As the party inspected them, they realised with horror that they were the petrified victims of the Medusa Queen, who emerged from the darkness and snaked toward them....
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Mar 24, 2020 23:50:10 GMT
Episode 25 - Take A Look At Me Now
The Medusa Queen caused one of the statues near Rimir to animate, as he conjured a sphere of darkness to slow her advance. Gragga and Jesus tried to attack the statue, but Jesus's blade was ineffective. Tarik sensed that the statues were real petrified people and determined to stop the others damaging them. Seijin conjured a wall of thorns around the creature as she emerged from the eldritch sphere.
Rimir ran forwards to engage the medusa, caught her gaze and began to turn to stone. Tarik ran to his aid with a potion, as Gragga and Jesus were busy with the animated statue. Seijin used his thorn whip to drag the medusa through the piercing thorns, injuring her greatly but incurring attacks from her snake hair and also being held in place by her deadly gaze. Tarik had managed to revive Rimir, and the party were ready to retreat. Nevertheless, Gragga rushed forwards, dealing mighty blows from his axe while the creature was focused on Seijin. Jesus then leapt into the fray, stabbing the queen from behind and finally beheading her just as she turned her gaze upon him.
Seijin was cross with Tarik for safeguarding the statues rather than going all out in the battle, but the monk was adamant that he had done the right thing. The sphere of darkness had partially damaged some statues, and one lost an arm, rather emphasising Tarik's point. Meanwhile, Rimir had secretly looted a ring from the medusa, and also found some magical arrows. In her bedchamber they discovered some gold ornaments as well as one of a pair of matched swords. As Rimir uncovered its magical secrets, the sword spoke, and demanded to be wielded by a worthy warrior. When Jesus held the sword, it introduced itself as Ying, and entreated him to find it's brother...
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Post by brumguvnor on Mar 25, 2020 19:13:14 GMT
I just realised - in our argument last night, Tarik was embodying order and control and I was channeling wildness and passion...
How cool is that? - reflecting our alignments and classes so well, and not even deliberately?
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Mar 25, 2020 22:26:40 GMT
You can both have inspiration for your argument!
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Mar 29, 2020 16:22:17 GMT
Episode 26 - Operation Desert Storm
After the defeat of the medusa queen, the party headed back to Calthazar, and on the way noticed some kind of dark ritual taking place at the ruins they had investigated earlier. Using their familiars to scout ahead, they saw a black knight with a retinue of skeletal servants summoning a Bodak, a powerful undead creature.
Seijin conjured a lightning storm, and began blasting away at the enemies, destroying most of the skeletal warriors before they could attack. Rimir used his magic to dig a trench and barricade, and as the Bodak approached, they set upon it with spells and missile weapons. Although the creature managed to hurt the party with it's aura of annihilation, it was soon destroyed by Tarik's ki-empowered punches.
The black knight leapt the trench and began to set about the party with a vicious axe. Being heavily armoured, he was difficult to hurt, but Tarik managed to stun him and he was then defeated by concentrated attacks from the heroes. After looting the body, the victorious adventurers continued back to the city.
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Mar 30, 2020 21:09:48 GMT
Episode 27 - "If we're taking on a dragon, I'm gonna need a tattoo"
Back in the city, after resting overnight, the adventurers went to Philander's to see what items they could swap the black knight's gear for. They particularly asked him to look out for a magic carpet they could use. They also asked if he could help them return the petrified creatures to life, but he suggested that the oracle would be the only one with such power. Philander could not decipher the hieroglyphs, and said they were an ancient code. Later, they found the centaur family and gave them the location of their son, and they left to find him. Rimir disguised himself as a mercenary and looked for work, discovering more centaurs who were having trouble with a monster that was attacking their watering hole. The party determined to help, for money, and discovered that the creature was a dragon. Tarik swapped the knight's axe for a powerful magical tattoo to help him fight the dragon.
Travelling by camel to the watering hole, they spoke with the centaurs and determined that the dragon was blue and could breathe lightning. They searched out its lair to the south, and found a cave entrance high on a cliff face. Jesus and Seijin used their familiars to scout out the cave, but as they did so, the dragon emerged from it's hiding place under the sand and attacked.
Rimir conjured an illusion to befuddle the dragon, which distracted it. Nevertheless, it blasted the party with lightning, injuring Gragga and Jesus and leaving Seijin moments from death. Gragga made a mighty bound and struck the dragon with his axe, while Tarik used his tattoo power to extend the reach of his fists and pummel the creature, eventually injuring it's wing. With the dragon grounded, the party concentrated their attacks, and Jesus was able to strike the killing blow. Seijin recovered, having missed the fight, and they contemplated what riches they would find in the dragon's hoard....
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Apr 3, 2020 0:06:41 GMT
Episode 28 - "I hate sand, it gets everywhere..."
The dragon's lair contained a huge hoard of treasure, including the other sword for Jesus's matched pair, an elephant figurine and a powerful magical book. After much discussion, the party stripped the dragon for parts and used some of these to make a sled, with which they carted everything back to the city.
The next day, at Philander's, they purchased a Bag of Holding, and haggled over a flying carpet. They then travelled to the watering hole and presented the dragon's head to the centaurs. There was much rejoicing, and the party was rewarded with a magical horn that could summon centaur spirits. Back at Calthazar, they slept overnight and in the morning Rimir purchased a rod from Philander. They then set off to the final place of interest on the map.
Using the stone key they had obtained from the black knight, they opened an ancient tomb, filled with traps. In the first hallway, darts fired from the walls at anyone touching the floor. Tarik ran quickly through, avoiding most of the darts and catching the others. At the far end, a floating skull caused a fear effect, which he resisted. Seijin followed in spider form, and constructed a web bridge, which Rimir then used to cross the hall, conjuring a floating disk for Jesus and Gragga to cross safely. The adventurers opened a stone door and went down into a small room, and as they did so the door swung shut and sand began to rapidly fill the room. The exit door had three combination dials on it, but the panicked adventurers ignored this and proceeded to attack the entrance door with a combination of crowbars, punches and spells. After successfully smashing the door open, and breaking a perfectly good dungeon, they moved the sand aside to look at the dials and Seijin quickly solved the puzzle, opening the door. As the sand drained away, they headed in to the next room, where the floor was divided into squares inlaid with hieroglyphs....
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Post by brumguvnor on Apr 3, 2020 15:54:52 GMT
"Breaking a perfectly good dungeon" forsooth!
And: this makes it sound like we didn't get much done... - but despite that, I had a blast!
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Apr 8, 2020 1:18:26 GMT
Episode 29 - Breaking and Entering
Jesus discovered, to the cost of his eyebrows, that the tiled room of hieroglyphs was protected by jets of fire. By using his unseen servant, Rimir was able to determine the correct sequence of tiles and the party crossed safely. In the room beyond, the ceiling moved downwards, but Tarik used his staff to buy time while he solved the puzzle to open the door.
The party were then faced with a pit, which was easily jumped, but as they walked up the long passage past it, a huge stone rolled down towards them, wounding all the party except Rimir who was adept at running away. By jamming the stone with his staff and then breaking it apart, Tarik was able to disable the trap. The next room had three sets of swinging blades, which Tarik again disabled by dismantling the stonework and jamming the mechanism.
The next obstacle was a chasm, where the gravity was reversed. Seijin was able to traverse this in spider form, then spin web ropes for the others to cross. The final guardian was a clay golem, holding the key to the tomb. Despite being resistant to magic and packing a serious punch, a combination of Jesus's whirlwind of flaming blades, Tarik's staff, Gragga's axe, Seijin's entrapping webs and Rimir's eldritch blasts soon reduced it to rubble.
The tomb held a body dressed in fine armour, holding a spear. When Seijin opened the chest at it's feet this set off a fire trap, burning him severely and damaging the rest of the party. Nevertheless, the druid was revived and the party continued with their grave robbing....
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Apr 10, 2020 13:58:04 GMT
Episode 30 - Tying up loose ends
After travelling back to Calthazar and resting for the night, the party once more ventured to the oracle and spoke with the sphinx. He congratulated them on finding all three of the items, which the party were a little confused about, as Rimir had still not revealed the ring, but they handed over the spear and were allowed to take the trials. Having passed through a magical archway, and been subjected to the Sphinx's tests, they left and went back to the city.
They investigated the final rumour, that of the Warlock of Ankh collecting purple crystals. Having discovered his location, Rimir sent an urchin to secure a meeting. This done, Jesus noticed a figure spying on them from the shadows. Later, they all went to the house and spoke with the warlock, who was only interested in intact purple crystals and was rather curt. Rimir scouted the house with his familiar and discovered a lab with an alien artefact and a purple crystal. They left, having agreed to a trade with larger crystals.
Back at the hideout, they scouted the house again to find the warlock missing. He had followed them to the hideout, and attacked by hurling a fire elemental into their midst. Tarik attacked it, and damaged it, despite receiving severe burns. Rimir used his faerie fire to locate the warlock, who was hiding in the passageway. The warlock exploded a fireball in the room, damaging all the party, but was then mobbed by Rimir, Gragga and Jesus, who leapt on him and beat him to the ground. As Seijin destroyed the elemental by summoning rain to douse it, the cunning warlock teleported away from Jesus's grasp. Gragga, however, charged and hurled his axe, incapacitating him, and the battle was won.
With the warlock bound and gagged with one of Tarik's socks, with his head in the mouth of a dire wolf, Rimir was able to extract all of his secrets. He had obtained two purple crystals from a powerful man he killed. Later, he had traded one crystal for the alien weapon with a man he suspected was disguised in some way. The creature said he would return to the market at the next New Moon. The warlock also confirmed that Donfornos was not what he seemed, and there was a way into the Serpent Queen's lair through the palace, where choice captives were taken to be slaves. Having decapitated him, the party went to his house to loot the spoils....
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Post by brumguvnor on Apr 12, 2020 11:41:52 GMT
Everyone completed their Sphinx trials? - mine was a blast!
I spent resources like a drunken sailor just got into port: all 3 wildshape uses, both L3 spells, my once a day hail of thorns from my shortbow and a hellish rebuke that Dave cast into my ring of spell storing!
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Apr 13, 2020 12:15:27 GMT
Episode 31 - The Calm Before the Storm
After looting the warlock's abode, the party decided to spend some time preparing for their assault on the palace. Tarik read the magical tome and Seijin used the lab to brew potions. The others scouted the palace and gathered information. Using the Eye of Jotun, Gragga determined that Donfornos was a rakshasa, an evil fiend with the head of a tiger. Further research yielded little more information. While Gragga spent time at the brothel and inn, Rimir found a merchant and studied him with a view to impersonating him, while Jesus got a job as a guard in the palace.
Having thoroughly scouted the palace, Jesus secured a rope on the balcony, and distracted the other nearby guard. Rimir arrived, disguised as the silk merchant, and Seijin crept in as a cockroach. Gragga and Tarik approached from the side and accidentally ran into the only guard. Failing to persuade him that they were guests, Tarik subdued him, and they left him tied up in the bushes. They then climbed the rope that Jesus had left, descended the stairs and joined the others. Eventually, the whole party congregated in the shrine room without arousing any suspicion.
Jesus picked the lock and they moved through into the snake shrine. Tarik studied the stonework and eventually discovered the mechanism that opened the secret door. They found an empty chamber with a circle on the floor inscribed with hieroglyphs. When Tarik touched one, the room filled with poison gas. A second attempt also released the gas, and caused the centre to glow red hot. The party pondered, and reviewed all the hieroglyphs they had found on their recent adventures....
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Apr 18, 2020 20:37:16 GMT
Episode 32 - "Elephant in the room!"
Entering the Serpent Queen's true name in hieroglyphs transported the party to the pyramid temple of the Yuan-ti. As the alarm had been raised, a group of purebloods were waiting for them, and they attacked, poisoning Rimir. The Yuan-ti had the power of suggestion, which they used to cause Gragga and Jesus to surrender, nevertheless the four guards were killed by the swift actions of the rest of the party.
Scouting ahead with familiars, they discovered a large central area, full of Yuan-ti, slaves and a 'Pit Master', who seemed to be in charge. The party hung back in a side chamber, and managed to kill three more purebloods before the others retreated. Seijin then hurled the elephant figurine in to the central chamber and the party followed. As the elephant trampled the Yuan-ti on the lower levels, and occupied many of the archers, Tarik searched for the Pit Master. On the lower level, one of the slaves, a priest, had spotted him, and he helped Tarik locate him. The Pit Master engaged Gragga and Jesus, as Seijin and Rimir took on a group of archers. The priest attacked the Pit Master with two scimitars, as he attempted to magically put the party to sleep, succeeding with Gragga and one of the summoned wolves. As the elephant finally succumbed to the attacks from the snake folk, Jesus unleashed a barrage of attacks, killing the Pit Master and more minions. With the main threat gone, the remaining purebloods were killed by blasts from Rimir.
The priest retrieved his belongings, and introduced himself as Ramas Ibn Aoth, a follower of Set. He explained that the more powerful Yuan-ti, including the Serpent Queen herself, resided on the upper levels of the temple...
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gilbo
2019 Group
Posts: 1,446
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Post by gilbo on Apr 19, 2020 23:38:47 GMT
Episode 33 - Snakes, snakes and more snakes...
After some rapid looting, the adventurers went up to a temple area, where there were three pureblood guards, two broodguards and two Yuan-ti priests: a Nightmare Speaker, with the body of a snake, and a Mind-Whisperer, with a snake head. The Mind-Whisperer befuddled Tarik with a hypnotic pattern, while Gragga hacked at it with his axe and Ramas conjured spectral guardians to attack the enemies. The Nightmare Speaker beset Seijin with his greatest fears, causing the wolf to cower, but the summoned wolves continued to fight and Jesus's whirling blades took down some Yuan-ti. Rimir blasted the Nightmare Speaker, ending the vision for Seijin and allowing him to tear at the creature. Tarik was freed by Ramas, and was eventually able to defeat both priests after they had taken a lot of damage from the others. The wolves did not survive the battle, but soon all the enemies were dead and the altars were duly defiled.
Heading upstairs once more, the party were confronted with two Abominations, wielding magical scimitars. Seijin hurled in a ball of fire and called up the needle blights to fight, Gragga charged in, Jesus, grown to giant size, moved unnaturally quickly, and Ramas and Tarik unleashed multiple attacks. Boosted by potions and Rimir's magic, the Yuan-ti monsters fell in seconds. A door blocked their way, which Jesus punched until it broke, Ramas picked up the two scimitars, and they headed quickly upstairs.
As they climbed the stairs they overheard the Serpent Queen conversing with a floating sphere, within which could be seen the face of a hobgoblin archmage, who she addressed as Mordreth. He congratulated her on sending so many crystals to him (nearly as many as Kel-Drakkar). The Queen beseeched him to bring her through a portal, saying that 'As you foresaw, they have defeated my guards and are nearly upon me!' but Mordreth disappeared, leaving her (and her three remaining malison warriors) to deal with the party...
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