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Post by brumguvnor on Jun 22, 2020 16:28:31 GMT
Episode 9: sweet demons of the abyss Karl: has something crawled up your arse and died?!
On entering the Summer House, they were led through to the back room by the two ogres - and Nicodemus and Landry saw another two ogres in full plate with a naked greatsword propped over their shoulder, just standing there, waiting for trouble.
They set out into the maze, with Nicodemus seeing through the eyes of his bat, Landry in the bag of holding seeing through the eyes of her spider, and also taking the chance to make notes. Nazir passed the time by crafting with his artifice skill small stink bombs, whose smell would linger and assist them in finding their way back if they had no guides.
After a long and winding path they arrived at a crafted, not natural wall, that blocked off the rear half of a large cavern with a large vault style door. The ogres spun the wheels to enter the combination and they all entered.
Inside was a large room with a strange pentagram in the middle, in the center of which were their two comrades, tied to a large X-shaped cross. Nicodemus tried to cast a spell over the pentagram and received sharp, piercing pain straight into his head for his trouble. Landry looked closely at the pentagram and saw that it was drawn with 4 fine, parallel lines in a purple colour - and looked like nothing (literally) in the world. Landry looked at it very closely, and took notes and make some sketches of it.
Nazir dug into hi bag of holding and produced the results of his latest tinkering - a steel defender. Gambling that this was not sufficiently "of the Clan" to trigger the pentagram, he told it to walk up to the captives and free them. This it did - and then gave them each a healing potion to fortify them for the journey back to the Tower.
The party reasoned that anyone inside a bag of holding would be on a different plane of existence to the pentagram and should therefore be immune to its curse... - and they were proven right. They all got into their bags of holding, and told the ogres that they were done here and returned uneventfully to the surface and straight back to the Tower.
Once there, Trajank volunteered to go into a cell, declaring them all honourable and having fulfilled their bargain to the letter. They took Herrick and Nazra'ck up to the medbay and Nazir once again surprised everyone by crafting a small spider shaped machanism that scuttled over their bodies, sticthing up their chest wounds and binding their broken ribs. The two rescued clan members fell into a deep, healing sleep.
Much later that night, a strange noise from downstairs caught Masvo's attention, and he stumbled downstairs to see what it was.
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Post by zaphodbeebledoc on Jun 24, 2020 16:42:30 GMT
To be pedantic, Masvo, as a warforged, has no gender, but prefers 'she' rather than 'it,' or 'he,' as she has been re-forged to resemble the elven Masvo. It matters not though really.
Before Masvo does anything, she will quietly raise the alarm with the other occupants of the room, then she will almost certainly press the button that seals all the doors in the tower. (Going, naturally by the premise of 'better safe then sorry.' She'd rather cause inconvenience than let something run rampant through the tower.)
As a side note, Masvo intends to make Tannhauser aware of the strange pentagram that can detect the clan mark and cause trouble to those with it. Also, Masvo will mention that the steel defender and the bag of holding as ways around this 'magic.'
This, of course, will wait until the after whatever is downstairs is taken care of.
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Post by brumguvnor on Jun 26, 2020 16:29:16 GMT
Episode 10: who the hell is that knocking at this hour?
Masvo, Nico and Dravid went to investigate the shouting and screaming coming from sickbay, whilst Nazir and Landry faffed about getting their armour on, and Tuo'ka was blissfully unaware, as he was sleeping in the airships captains cabin.
As the entered the sickbay, the door slammed shut behind them, they realised there was no one in the room with them and that the sounds were coming from illusions on the beds. When they went to investigate the door they found that there was a pentagram on the floor, drawn in such a way that the door was over its center. This was very similar to the pentagram they had found beneath the Summer House, except drawn in one line and not four, and in red blood not a purple ink or substance.
Dravid washed away a line of the pentagram with a jet of wine from a skin, and a deep, loud hammering from below was heard. This woke Tuo'ka and he came downstairs at the same time as Landry and Nazir, so everyone was in one place. They went to the second floor and met up with all of the other members of the Clan in the Tower.
Tuo'ka opened a window, and spiraled sown the outside of the Tower and realised that there was one too few life-essences registering to him using his Helm of Telepathy - and that there was nothing at the door of the Tower trying to get in.
The 2 doors that led down from the second floor to the first also had pentagrams around them - but these looked chiseled into the floor and inlaid with a metal: not something that could be washed away with wine. So everyone decided to attach a rope out of the window and climb down that, except for those who can fly. As they were coming down this rope, the door to the Tower exploded, and the Clan iron golem came running out at top speed, with 2 figures on it's back.
They gave chase - and Tuo'ka was able to speed ahead, drop ball bearings that tripped the golem, and then stab through the leg of the ranger that had also fallen to the ground. He then had to stop and hurriedly wrap a bandage around the wound, as it was mortal.
They were able to see the golem come up to the wall around the courtyard of the fortress - and vault straight over it: it then charged down the passageway under the fortress that led to the main gates that faced the ork horde. Landry chased down the passage with Nazir and they both laid into it: however, it utterly ignored them and just concentrated on smashing the gates down - which it looked like it was going to be able to do inside 30 seconds or so.
The rest of the party raced to the door that Nico had seen the sorceress enter through they found it locked and all started to search for ways into the fortress.
At this time, they all heard the roar of an Ork horde preparing its death or glory charge.
Finally getting into the fortress, Tuo'ka stabbed Nazra'ck and hurt her badly - but she kept on charging. Using telepathy Tuo'ka knew she was fixated on the amulet of control for the Empires 2 stone golems.
Mazvo and Nico both aimed ranged attacks at her, and missed badly: Tuo'ka put on a burst of speed and almost caught her, but got hit by a chain lighting spell: he twisted desperately in mid air, and was able to avoid the worst of it - but still hit the floor unconscious. Dravid then burst up the stairs and managed to take her down - right in the open doorway to Sattarians office.
The episode ends with Sattarian facing them with his hand crossbow pointing at Nazra'ck, and him snarling "you'd better make this fuckin' explanation good".
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Post by zaphodbeebledoc on Jul 1, 2020 19:10:05 GMT
Things that spring to mind:
Our rescued clanmates appear to have been brainwashed. Or controlled.
Is there a way to require golems to need two people to issue the same command?
We were allowed to rescue our clan members. Trajank is possibly as much a pawn in all this as we are.
Whose plan was this?
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Post by brumguvnor on Jul 3, 2020 16:15:41 GMT
Episode 11: it's almost as if these wyverns are attacking at the exact same moment they expected the gates to come down...As the party slowly all arrived at the scene outside Sattarian's office, they could see the battle raging outside. The orks were charging en masse and the Empire's Legions were pouring fire onto them with bows, ballistas, scorpions and trebuchets. They were inflicting horrific losses... - but this wasn't called a "horde" for nothing. As they watched the slaughter, all remaining orc wyverns took off from behind the lines, and came straight towards the Governors office. "Ah" said Sattarian, "the decapitation attack. They are far more co-ordinated and strategic than ever before. If we survive this goes straight to the Emperor." Having mere seconds to brace themselves, they quickly decided what to do. Tuo'Ka asked Landry to raise a sphere of darkness which he stepped into - and when it came down again, he had an iron golem by his side... Clearly of Clan manufacture, it was however not in the usual bipedal shape but instead looked like a cross between a spider and a scorpion, with 8 legs that could all double as strikers, and a central cluster of eyes. Landry then raised a telekinetic wall in front of the battlements, in mid-air, precisely where they wyverns would have to fly to land. This wall being invisible was unavoidable by the wyverns and hey all crashed through it - and 3 orks plummeted from their mounts to their doom. The wyverns then landed and began to attack the bars to Sattarian's office with intense, focused viciousness, completely filling the battlements in front of the window. An intense, close quarters battle ensued, but the bars in the window, the iron golem and Sattarian's insanely powerful hand crossbow killed all in front of them, including the orks behinds the wyverns who proved much tougher than the first wyvern riders encountered and who all seemed possessed of evil magic. Bloodied and bruised, they put down the last ork, and had to decide what to do next. Tower ground floor
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Post by brumguvnor on Jul 12, 2020 13:50:57 GMT
Episode 12: The sacking of Skaygen, or "You all saw that: a wyvern got him."
In Sattarians office, Livus came out from hiding when the fighting was all over, and Sattarian caually raised his hand crossbow and put a bolt between his eyes.
"You all saw that" he said, "a wyvern got him."
By now the first tier of battlements had been fired, as the Orks had reached the wall and were beginning to scale it.
The party then decide to go down and retrieve the Clan golem, just behind the main gate to the passageway through the fortress. The were taken to a large room above the passageway where all of the murderholes - and indeed, the murder-magic, traps, hot oil, alchemical pyrotechnics and sharp pointy things - were operated from. Landry raised a sphere of darkness, and unseen by the rest of the party retrieved the deactivated golem, and came back, somehow managing to conceal a 2 ton spider-scorpion iron golem...
The party then got the hell out of the fortress and were traveling down the main road, when Tuo'Ka managed to spot the faintest of scuff marks where the body of the ranger had lain, and followed the track into a filthy alleyway, to a large iron door. The iron golem made short work of this and inside the found the rangers corpse and a couple of other bodies. Pausing only briefly, they confirmed he was dead, stashed his corpse in a nag of holding and left.
Resuming their hurried retreat, Masvo spotted a large group of heavily armoured ogres leaving the Summerhouse, with - something - floating in the middle of them: at first glance, it looked a lot like a beholder, but with some subtle differences... - but, not wanting to take the time to follow them or get incolved, the party let the group move off towards the fortress.
They hurriedly stripped the Tower of anything of value, spiked all of the guns, shut down all magic they could - and in the middle of it all Vornzen was extremely interested in the description of the original pentagram that enclosed the two Clan "comrades" and even more so in the "beholder." Not wanting to stop and discus too much, they all left and went up to the airship.
There they met the Arokocra tribe that Tuo'Ka had made contact with the day before, and offered a short term alliance of mutual interest - said interest being "get the fuck out of here". The Arokocra loaded their old, young and wounded into the main hold of the airship and took up formation on deck and in the air. They had several air elemental summoned due to a racial feat.
At this moment they spotted a mushroom cloud spreading into the sky, with its base the center of the fortress.
Tuo'Ka piloted them straight up initially, but then they spotted that the House of Blue Lights had several of their ladies on the roof, putting up a surprisingly effective resistance to the Orks. They swooped down and took them on board, with the welcome assistance of the arokocra's air elementals, and then left for Spyre.
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Post by brumguvnor on Jul 17, 2020 16:09:55 GMT
Episode 13: The lost city of the mages...Finally getting underway from Skaygen, the party first docked at the Enclave - which is the collection of Conclave buildings on a small peak, off to one side of the Spyre. There they allowed the Arokocra and the whores to disembark, and then flew into the main caldera. They went down to the undercroft and met Tannhauser, who as soon as he heard what they were discussing, called in the Archmage. The Archmage questioned them closely - concurring with them that something was seriously wrong if a Clan member could be subverted, and yet still be able to operate a Clan iron-golem control amulet. The two things should be impossible to do together. The Archmage asked them in immense detail about the pentagram around the two captives in the dungeon, and also about the beholder-type monster they had seen: he conjured an illusion of each and kept on adjusting them until they were as close as possible to what you had seen. At this point he went quiet and said "what I am about to tell you does not leave this room." He revealed how the only time in his life he had seen anything even remotely close to what they had seen, was when he was an apprentice in the City of Mages. [which is news to everyone else - the City of Mages is a legend akin to that of Atlantis or Eldorado in our world - a mythical place of riches, power and beauty. It was destroyed in the Godwar... - which was over a thousand years ago]. He said he was an apprentice to the High Mage there, and saw references in the personal, secret library of his master. When the Godwar happened he was on an errand for his master and was not within a thousand miles of the place - and yet the titanic cataclysm woke him even so. The Godwar raged for a single day, and in it the god of magic was killed and the city of mages was covered by many hundreds of feet of lava from a volcano unleashed by the gods. He tells you all the the Tower of the Stars is the way in - it is the tallest tower in the city - and you need to get to the High Mages manse and raid his library. He provides a map of the city as it was before the Godwar. You cannot take an airship of your own - you will need to be dropped off and call for pickup. You can take: - 1 item from the common or uncommon magic item list- 1 item from the rare magic item list- 1 standard healing potion each - a +1 weapon or +1 armour item each - 1 bag of holding each - 1 tin of 10 goodberries each - which are in stasis and whose timer does not start until the tin is opened - 1 spell in your clanmark of up to 3rd level from the wizard spell list. It is of top priority that no one else sees you sneak in or that you are from the Clan: the thought of some of the artefacts and creatures from the City getting out is just terrifying. Attachments:
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Post by gilboyoungling on Jul 27, 2020 23:33:43 GMT
How come your clerics are only first level Dave?
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Post by pericles on Jul 28, 2020 16:57:15 GMT
The instruction was 5 levels of cleric so I created a mixed unit of two types of cleric. The unit are designed to work as a close ranked wall in a W formation.
They are weak against area attacks but strong against other foes.
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Post by gilboyoungling on Jul 28, 2020 19:35:23 GMT
I can only see 2 on D&D Beyond though, which is why I was confused. Are some of them duplicates?
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Post by pericles on Jul 28, 2020 20:18:55 GMT
Making more than two was just too many options. Image running 5 sets of options rather than two. I still have to run 5 actions plus potential for bonus actions and reactions. Worst case scenario 15 actions per round.
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Post by Karrgos on Aug 1, 2020 16:53:17 GMT
Introducing the new "Dad Joke" rule.
If any PC makes a pun that qualifies as a dad joke, every creature that is capable of understanding the joke must take 1d4 psychic damage. Any PC may make a pun of their own to redirect damage to creature of their choosing. In the event of a very good dad joke, the DM may rule that the joke was so bad, it transcends language. In this case, any creature that heard the joke takes 1d4 psychic damage regardless of if they understand it.
An example. The party are fighting NPC druids/treants. The fighter shoves a treant over a cliff and says "Shame you can't stick around." Each creature is assigned 1d4 psychic damage. The bard says "It's a shame they had to split." and is able to redirect their 1d4 damage at NPC druid no 3. The rouge says "Least they didn't leaf you hanging." and redirects the damage at the PC barbarian. The barbarian says "They were boring anyway. Their bark is worse than their bite." and redirects the total of 2d4 psychic damage to NPC druid no 3. All other creatures take 1d4 psychic damage. The fighter, bard, rouge and barbarian take no damage and NPC druid no 3 takes a total of 4d4 psychic damage and falls unconscious. (1d4 from the original joke, 1d4 from the bard and 2d4 from the barbarian.)
Dose that make sense?
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Post by brumguvnor on Aug 1, 2020 17:54:24 GMT
well - I am happy to roll with that... - but it could prove quite deadly to party members if they're not able to deflect it...
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Post by Karrgos on Aug 1, 2020 18:17:34 GMT
It's a party call if we use it.
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Post by pericles on Aug 2, 2020 0:59:17 GMT
well - I am happy to roll with that... - but it could prove quite deadly to party members if they're not able to deflect it... Using dad jokes gives the characters of pun people i.e. people who are good at punning the vicious mockery cantrip on steroids. Vicious Mockery is a Bard exclusive cantrip requiring an action on a failed wisdom save doing d4 per tier and imposing disadvantage on the next attack to a single target within 60ft. Dad Pun is a free action cantrip for all characters of pun people doing d4 per deflection to all PCs and NPCs within listening/shouting distance with no save. Being a fan of Bards and not being a pun person, give me a week and I may just may be able to think of a decent reply, I am against damaging puns. I like puns in game and enjoy the punning contests players engage in. I am opposed to pun damage.
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