Saturday, January 26, 2013

Session 6

Members

Kilborn Blindshaft - Dwarven Fighter
Solaris - Human Ranger
Tima - Human Monk
Lórien - Elf Wizard
Kylaria Delani - Elf Rogue
Marcellus - Human Cleric

The Adventure

The day started out in the tavern.  Lórien was very interested in a new item that Finn came across in his travels.  The Staff of Ruin.  Try as they may,the party was unsuccessful at bargaining for a lower price, so they cashed in some of the gems in their stock and purchased the staff for 1,000 gp.  Solaris also purchased Finn's stock of fire arrows.  As soon as bonded with his new staff, the party set on their way to the Underground Pass.

They were met at the cave entrance by Koftik, their guide.  Koftik had a special gift for Lórien, Marcillus, and Kylaria.  A rare magic stone that offered the owner a chance to greatly increase their AC for a short time.

Just inside the cave, Kylaria found some rare mushrooms.  Two Milkcap mushrooms (5 temp HP) and three Bloodcap mushrooms (+1 to attack).  These semi-magic mushrooms offer a short term bonus to the one who eats them.

Moving further into the cave, Solaris fell trying to get over a gravel patch, and from that point, everyone used a rope to help them across.  At the end of the entrance cave, there was a drawbridge.  A quick arrow to the rope holding it up, and Kylaria snuck across.  The rest of the party was right on his tail, and they lost the element of surprise as they stumbled upon a room full of minor devils.  Two Spinagons quickly fell, but the remaining six quickly summoned another six.

The imps tried to charm Kylaria, who easily brushed it off, mentioning that their mind tricks would not work on an elf.  Lórien stepped in to lay a stinking cloud over the entire room, and took out everything in it.  The fight was quickly over at that point.  Marcillus was clearly looking for more, he only got one use out of his Spiritual Weapon.  Among the loot was an eight ft. plank.  The party grabbed it.

Further to the south, the party came across a pit.  They easily lassoed some iron spikes in the ceiling and swung across.  Well, everyone but the rogue, who fell through the gravel at the bottom of the pit and landed back in the entrance way.  Kilborn couldn't hold his mirth at the Rogue.  Kylaria quickly caught up with  the party and made it across, to the cheers of Lórien.

This was the first time that someone noticed Koftik talking to himself.  When confronted, Koftik had no idea he was saying anything and denied it.  In passing, a few bats were awakened by the light stone the party was carrying, and swept down to bite the party.  It was quickly decided that running through the hallway would be easier than killing bats.

Both Marcillus and 
Lórien searched their store of religious knowledge, but couldn't place Koftik's actions.  As the party rounded the next corner, they all heard a telepathic message, "I'll swallow your soul."  To this, Koftik replied, "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men."

The next room opened to a large chamber with a 5x5 grid of iron plates on the floor.  Kylaria knew she was in her element.  Lightly stepping on a plate, it opened to a spiked pit.  Kylaria was able to jump back before falling in.  Kylaria moved along, testing he plates, and found a safe route to the other side.  Solaris and Lórien sat back, and discussed the merits of this kind of foolish endeavor, although they were probably happy that someone was taking care of the job (so that they didn't have to do it themselves.)  Towards the end, an impatient Tima went ahead and fell into one of the pits.

At the far side, there was a portcullis and an old mechanism.  Kylaria quickly determined that there was no trap on it, and opened the portcullis.  After the noisy chain, he listened and heard an unearthly moaning coming from further down the hall.

The source of the moaning turned out to be zombies.   
At Solaris' encouragement, Tima took the front line and charged in.  Tima quickly took some serious damage, but was healed by Marcillus.  The zombie fortitude made them much harder to put down for good.  One of them managed to regenerate three times.  Toward the end of the fight, Tima attacked and dropped Koftik.  The unprovoked attack dropped her alignment to Chaotic Neutral.

In the aftermath Lórien and Kylaria make it very clear that they aren't happy about Tima's actions.  Luckily, Koftik was only unconscious and Marcillus was able to revive him.  Koftik proceeds to get progressively worse as he gets deeper and deeper into the cave.

Following the cave, they come across a series of traps in the wall.  Kylaria manages to disable the first four and Tima set off the last one before Kylaria got to it.  Midway down the trapped cave, there is a forge, kept permanently hot by the lava flow under the cavern.  After the traps, the cave opens to a large room with an alter and a well at the center.  The well radiates arcane magic.  The book describes a set of orbs that control the magical barrier to the deeper caves.  

Exploring the off shooting caves, Kylaria finds an orb to the north, and a pair of trolls to the northwest.  Attacking the trolls, Kylaria's arrows start to shoot off parts of them.  An arm here, a head there.  These animated parts also join the melee and attack.  Near the end of the fight, Tima backs off again to try and grab the orb.  Lórien hit her with a hold person spell from his wand to stop her.  When the spell wears off, Tima grabs the orb.  With the trolls and troll parts attacking, the fight was looking more difficult.  That is, until Kilborn stepped in and pulled a whirlwind attack.  Dropping a troll and taking out a few arms and in one fell swoop.  He wielded Khamalkhad with such force that it stuck in the last head and chopped it in two.

In the southwest cave, the last orb sits atop a flat rock.  Tima makes an attempt to grab it, and gets hit by a large tree trunk trap.  She tries again, and gets hit with a glancing blow.  
Lórien steps in and blows it off the rock, and Tima picked it up, all the while being castigated by Kylaria about barging along and taking damage when the rogue could do the job quite a bit better.  In frustration, Kylaria steps back to the zombie room to investigate the slippery hole there.  It has a slight magic aura, and exits back in the cave, near the portcullis.

As he is investigating, Tima tries to destroy the orbs.  No amount of hitting them seems to cause any damage at all, so she melted them in the forge.  This caused the enchantment on the well to break, and it is now a passage to a deeper level.  After the battles, the party decided that an extended rest is in order, and they camp out in the room.

Loot:

3 Chrysoberyl gems (100 gp each)
81 gp
3 sp

Magic Items:

Wand of Enemy Detection
+2 Arrow of Curing
2 +1 Arrows
1 Magic Eye lens with 5 charges left

XP:

Spinagon Room:  1940
Skill Challenge (the pit): 500
Bats: 60
Skill Challenge (the grid): 600
Zombies: 2200
Trolls: 1600
Total XP: 7400
Per Person: 1233

Total Campaign XP per person: 5983

Friday, January 25, 2013

New Magic Arrows


+2 Arrow of Curing

Property:  This missile is blunt, and inscribed with a holy symbol. When it hits a living creature, it inflicts no damage.  instead, it cures 2d6+4 HP. For example, if a 5 and 3 are rolled for a curing arrow +2, the total points of damage cured are 12.
Requirement:  Must be fired from a bow.
Rarity: Uncommon
GP Value: 500

Acid Arrow

Property:  Found in caches of 1d6, these +1 oddities are highly valued. They transform themselves into a spray of acid when fired, doing 2d6 points of damage to the target, and soaking everything within 15 feet of the point of  impact with acid 1d6 damage and non-magic items must save vs. acid or be destroyed.
Rarity: Uncommon
GP Value: 75

Magic Eye

Magic Eye
Property:  This clear, circular sheet of polished crystal is graven all over with runes.  When magical writing is viewed  through it, it allows all intelligent beings to understand the import and subject of the writing. Command words, glyphs, and the like can be clearly discerned, the eye functioning as a read magic spell. This Magic Eye has five uses.  With each use, the eye dwindles in size, until in the end it vanishes altogether. 
     Each '‘face'’ of a page counts as one use, but a being must  read writings through the eye for it to be activated. Merely laying it upon writings does not unintentionally drain the item of charges. Coded or cryptic inscriptions of a non-magical nature do not activate the magics of  he eye, and therefore do not use charges.
     Non-spell casters can identify (but not use) scroll spells by use of this item. Low level spell casters can infallibly cast or copy spells normally beyond their powers by use of an eye.
     A magic eye does not shield a reader from written curses, nor will it penetrate a secret page. It does, however, reveal the existing secret page spell.
Requirement:  Must be literate (only spellcasting classes can cast spells.)

Rarity: Uncommon
GP Value: 50 gp

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Stone of Shielding


Stone of Shielding

Property:  This single-use item is a spherical white stone about an inch in diameter. Whenever crushed, it activates its power, and can thus be unintentionally activated by a fall or attack. A stone of shielding causes a sparkling,  inking aura to spring into being around the creature who crushed it. This aura lasts for three rounds, boosting  he armor class of the affected being by a +6 bonus on the first round, a +3 on the second round, and +1 on  the third round, during which it flickers before finally winking out. Therefore, a mage of AC 12 crushes a stone  of shielding and gains an armor class of 18 the next round. This reduces to AC 15 at the end of the following round, and AC 13 after that.  This item stacks with other effects, like magic armor, rings, and spells.
Requirement:  You must fill out your character background
Rarity: Uncommon
GP Value: 500


Sunday, January 20, 2013

House Rules IV


  1. Dropped weapons - If you drop a weapon, it takes an action to pick it up again.  Picking up anything smaller than a dagger is a free action though.
  2. Clerics and spell casting - The rules state that you need a free hand to cast spells, so if you are carrying a weapon and a shield, you can't cast spells.  Since sheathing and drawing a weapon are free actions, it makes no sense to say, "I sheathe my mace, cast a spell and draw it again" every turn.  Go ahead and cast while holding your mace.  If you are carrying a huge load in two hands, you will need to put it down though.
  3. Word of Power - Spells that have the (Word of power) key word are incidental actions, i.e. free to cast, as long as you aren't casting another spell that round.  They can be simultaneously used with a cantrip or other non-spell action.  The list of spells with Word of Power includes:
    • Cure Minor Wounds
    • Bless
    • Cure Light Wounds
    • Sanctuary
    • Shield of Faith
    • Divine Favor
    • Cure Moderate Wounds
    • Cure Serious Wounds
    • Prayer
    • Divine Power
    • Cure Critical Wounds
    • Mass Cure Wounds
    • Holy Word
  4. Breaking up a move - I denied this last session, but after looking into the rules, it is there on p. 12 of 'How to Play'.  You can now move, perform an action, and move again (up to your movement max).  Moving around a monster does not provoke opportunity attacks, but moving out of its range does.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Session 5 - Return to the Temple of Evil Chaos

Members

Kilborn Blindshaft - Dwarven Fighter
Solaris - Human Ranger
Kiln Hearthhome- Human Cleric
Tima - Human monk
Lórien - Elf Wizard

The party began the evening going into the Shunned Cavern to see what evil lived there.  While searching, they stumbled into a Gray Ooze.  Easy pickings, but you know that if there is one ooze, there will be more.  Kilborn leaned down to pick up another coin he found, and after noticing it was a copper, he tossed it back.

Venturing further into the cave, they found a silver piece among the scattered bones.  Seeing the remains of humanoids and corroded weapons in every corner.  To the south, they found the inhabitants.  It seemed at first that there was a single bugbear, but the battle was soon joined by his three mates.

Tima, Kiln and Kilborne headed back to the cave entrance to explore the northern passage, where they found a murky pool.  The air of the room was damp, and they saw and heard water drip all around them.  A few blind, white fish were swimming in the large pool of shallow water on the northern edge of the room.  They didn't notice the two Gelatinous Cubes in the room with them, until one of them engulfed Tima and the other slammed Kilborn.

The rest of the party ran to the room, as Kilborn held off the Oozes.  As the rest of the party joined the fight, two more gray oozes flowed out of the shadows, one almost on top of Solaris.  Kilborn dropped an ooze and a cube, and the tide was turned.  A quick mop up and the party had time to breathe and look around.  Kilborn noticed a jeweled goblet at the bottom of the pool and dove in to get it.

In a feat of magical prowess, Lórien plucked it out of his hands and held on to it.  Kilborn was angered, but let the mage hold the cup.  Kilborn decided to bide his time, and let the mage have his small victories.  After the fight, the party set up camp in the cave and made bugbear stew.  The night passed uneventfully.


In the morning, they headed back to the Temple of Evil Chaos.  Kiln cast aid, and they headed off.  Lórien made three illusionary wizards, all copied of himself holding his new goblet.  The party headed to the north, where they saw two doors.  Kilborn blasted the northern door off its hinges, right into a pack of ghosts.

Kilborn jumped to the front lines with the Mace of Disruption.  Much disruption was done.  The horrifying visages of the ghosts gave everyone a scare, but all were successful in resisting the urge to run away.  Kilborn put up a valiant fight, until a ghost took possession of him.  A thunderwave from Lórien knocked the ghost right out of Kilborn though.

After the ghost fight, the party headed east, and found the crypt locked again.  Remembering that there were bad things in there, Lórien and Solaris held actions while the rest of the party searched the sarcophagi.  In the second one, they found a vampire.

The vampire went right for Lórien and he bit him, doing damage and reducing his HP by 10 for the rest of the day.  Kilborn tried to intimidate it, but was only sneered at.  When his attack missed horridly, the vampire almost laughed.  The vampire was quickly reduced to a fading cloud of mist.

Heading back the way they came, the party returned to the Evil Chapel.  Still on the alter were the four cursed vessels, a shallow bowl, a pair of goblets, and a vaselike pitcher.  With a successful spell, Kiln destroyed the demonic curse of the four vessels.  The party felt the energy disperse and knew the world would be better with a little less evil in it.


Heading north, they came across the room that previously held four live acolytes (now four acolyte statues).  It was now occupied by three Wights.  These undead horrors attacked.  Kilborn jumped to the front lines again, and told Lórien to cast Thunderwave even though he was standing in the area it would hit.  Kilborn jumped on the table and let out a whirl wind of strikes, only to lose his balance and fall to the floor, but that last strike was what it took to make the fight end quickly.

Further up to the north, Kilborn destroyed the door to a secret passage, and destroyed the next door as well.  Only to walk in on the newest occupant of the temple, the Chaos Lich.  The party was in close quarters, trying to get through the passage, when the lich opened with a fireball to the center of the group.  Even with a few successful saves, the party was badly damaged, with Lórien down before the fight began.  He was revived by Kiln, and was able to heal a bit and join the fight.

With a successful cast of Hold Person from his wand of binding, Lórien held the lich.  With the Mace of Disruption, Kilborn destroyed the lich beyond hope of regeneration.  Just as it looked like the party would be victorious, two zombies burst through the door to the west.  The party felt a tangible aura of despair, and Solaris was frightened and paralyzed to his core.


Solaris broke the paralysis, and just as the fight ended and he was wiping his brow, Lórien saw more ghosts coming down from the northeastern passage.  The ghosts attacked Lórien, and one was successful in possessing him.  The other three were destroyed, and the party started to open up on Lórien/ghost.  With a command spell, Kiln knocked the ghost out, and Lórien was able to run away.  The ghost did not survive for long after that.

During this fight, Tima stumbled into the Temple of Evil Chaos, and fell under the enchantment of the seductive shapes moving across the western wall.  She uttered few stanzas to the gods of evil chaos.  Having looted the gems from this chamber on a previous occasion, there was not much loot to be found, but on searching the lich's room, they found a set of Efreeti Chain, a healing potion and a few gems.

The threat to the valley gone, and the temple artifacts defiled, the party left victorious.  Now the true celebration could be had back at the keep.

Loot:

690 gp
1 sp
Jeweled goblet (15gp)
2 Jade gems (100gp each)
2 Aquamarine (worth 100gp each)
1 bloodstone (worth 50gp)

Magic Items

3 Potions of healing
Potion of Heroism
2 Scrolls of Protection from Undead
Scroll of Feather Fall
+1 Short sword
Efreeti Chain
Evercool Mug - A mug made of electrum and silver that is always cool to the touch.

XP:

Shunned Cavern: 2300
Shrine of Evil Chaos: 8970
Destroying the evil vessels: 500xp
Quest XP for destroying the Caves of Chaos threat: 450
Total XP: 11770
Per person: 2444

Total Campaign XP per person: 4750
*I didn't think we would hit level 5 this session, but we will just ding it.  For those of you who have your own character, please update your character sheets.  Level 5 is kind of a dead level though, so it is a bit anti climactic.

Monday, January 14, 2013

House Rules III

This isn't really a post about new house rules, but I thought I would keep all talk about rules under this heading.

1.  You can make ranged attacks against targets within your weapon's range.  (HTP pdf, p. 15).  This is something I overlooked, and hadn't realized you could range mobs right next to you, so feel free to in the future.

2.  Using Martial Damage Dice (MDD).  This is probably one of the more confusing aspects to both new and experienced players alike.  Basically, every round, you can use your MDD twice.  Once during your action, and once during your reaction.

Actions
-Add damage
-Use a maneuver

Reactions
-Parry
-Protect

3.  Wizards can add scrolls to their spell books.  With one hour of concentration and 50 gp for supplies, wizards can gain new spells this way.  (They must of course be spells on their spell list of a level they can cast though).

New Developments

After killing the high priest and looting the Temple of Evil Chaos, the party was given a hero's reception when they arrived back at the Keep on the Borderlands.  For two days, the town celebrated.  On the third day, a ragged dark acolyte stumbled into town ...

He was muttering to himself and asked to talk to Kilborn.  The Sargent of the Guard had him put in chains and thrown in jail.  When the party arrived, Kilborn recognized him as the dark acolyte who escaped.  He was barely intelligible, but managed to inform them that a new threat had arisen.  The old High Priest was back, but someone (or something) had reanimated his corpse turning him into a Lich.  In his new form, he proceeded to populate the halls of the temple with the ghosts of his previous disciples.

Castallan, the commander of the keep, offered the use of Khamalkhad, an ancient battleaxe if the warriors would go back and eliminate the threat entirely.


Khamelkhad: This +1 Battleaxe was created by Maxon, an powerful wizard in a far off land. His sigil is visible on the flat of the blade. It glows when within 100ft of amphibians. Anything larger than a tiny lizard will set this axe glowing. A critical hit with this weapon deals an extra 1d12.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Session 4 - Part 2

The Shrine of Evil Chaos

Two dark acolytes appeared out of the darknesss and were quickly dispatched.  The party did wonder why there were humans in the caves.  They decided to head back to the barred door and avoid being surprised by monsters from the rear.

Opening the door, the party found a large room filled with six sarcophagi.  Dropping their light rock (a rock with the light spell cast on it) on the sarcophagi, they heard a growling sound coming from the far south one.  The growling got louder and the top began to move a bit each time the creature inside pounded to get out.  Kilborn and Steely pried the cover off to find a wight.

This undead horror put up a good fight, and seemed resistant to most weapons.  In a secret compartment at the bottom of the sarcophagus was a tube of leather inscribed with symbols of skulls and capped by a plug of obsidian.  Inside the tube was a rolled up piece of fine vellum that smelled faintly of rot.  The party found a scroll of protection from undead.  Next to it was a bejeweled silver dagger.

At this point, the party decided to return to town for supplies.  The spent the night at the inn, and paid a visit to Finn's Shoppe.  There, they picked up the Mace of Disruption and two potions of healing.  Kilborn wielded the mace and the party headed back to the Cave.

Retracing their steps, they found that part of the cave had been repopulated by another five dark acolytes.  These too were quickly dispatched and the party headed south to the dreary prison cell.  Inside they found a medusa.  They tried in vain to get it to look into a mirror and get petrified by her own gaze, but to no avail.

In the end, they chose to let her out on the condition that she help them.  She had an ulterior motive though, and that was to complete the ritual that the dark priest of the cave was working on and gain more power for herself.  She stayed behind while the party ventured further in.  The first room they came across was a chamber for recent acolytes.  After killing three of them the other two surrendered.  Bound and tied, they were pushed along by the party as they investigated the caves to the south where they were told zombies and skeletons lived.


Steely and Kilborn stood on the front lines as wave after wave of skeletons marched in on them.  Lórien blasted them with a thunderwave and drew the fire of the skeleton's short bows.  Retreating back down the passage, he drank a healing potion and came back to the fight.  It was quickly over by that point.

Venturing further west, they found a room full of zombies.  Kilborn took the four to the north and Steely took the four in the south.  Zombies kept rising from the dead with their zombie fortitude, but in the end, they were vanquished.

From there, the party headed north and found an evil chapel.  An ominous purple glow emanated from the four ancient bronze vessels sitting on the dark alter there.  Wisely, the party decided to avoid that room and head north with the medusa at point.  They came across a door and the medusa went in.  She found four dark acolytes, but turned them to stone.  Upon exiting the room Steely caught a glimpse of her and was turned to stone.

A tense negotiation followed and Kilborn turned over his magic mace for a dose of elixir that would restore Steely.  Steely was back and they headed further down the tunnel.  Searching the room with four petrified acolytes, the party found a trove of evil books and scrolls.  Deciding that the world needed less of this evilness, they destroyed the whole collection.  The reward gained them enough XP to hit level 4.  The party got their stat bonuses and headed north.


As the medusa rounded the corner, she was mesmerized bu the west wall of the Temple of Evil Chaos and began chanting stanzas of a hymn to the gods of chaos and evil.  This chant summoned three zombies from an adjacent chamber, but they were quickly turned to stone just by looking at the medusa.

To their left, a secret door opened and dark priest stepped out into the midst of the party.  He cast inflict moderate wounds on Steely and hit him for over half of his hit points.  The party quickly killed him to find skeletons streaming out of a chamber behind the temple.  Steely and Kilborn headed to the front lines and started hacking, and Lórien blasted them to pieces with a thunderwave.  The bones of five skeletons were blasted against the far wall of the temple.  

With three skeletons still alive, the medusa broke the spell and started to attack the party.  Lórien used the wand of binding to hold her still and with a few hard hits from Steely, and she was dead, eliminating the last threat in the Shrine of Evil Chaos.

Loot:

11pp
11gp
7ep
360sp
806cp
1 Gold flagon (10gp)
9 golden cups (2gp each)
Finely wrought bracelet (20gp)
Gold ring set with a jet gem (520sp)
21 garnets and gems (10gp each)
4 large gems (garnets worth 20gp each)
Jeweled silver dagger(50gp)
Garnet eyes from an idol (25gp each)

Magic Items:

Scroll of Protection from Evil
Oil of etherealness
+1 Banded armor
+1 Mace
Staff of Striking

XP:  2960
Per person: 986  Enough to get the party to 4th level.

Session 4 - Part 1

The Gnoll Lair

Members:
Kilborn Blindshaft - Dwarven Fighter
Lórien - Elven Wizard
Carithis - Halfling Rogue
Steely - Human Fighter

The Adventure

Choosing the evil they knew, the party headed up the south western face to a dark black cave where they had previously noticed signs of gnolls.  A discussion outside the mouth of the cave drew out the three gnolls on guard there.  The approaching gnolls were quickly cut down, and the party delved further into the ominous cavern.

Further in the cave, Lórien sent his familiar ahead where he noticed another guard room to the north.  Heading east, they stumbled on the gnoll common area, and interrupted the gnolls cooking.  A fight broke out and drew the guards, as well as the gnoll leader and his mates.  It was a long and hard fought battle.  The party re-grouped in the leader's quarters for a quick respite.

While searching the quarters, the came across a secret passage.  Inside was the remains of a hapless adventurer.  Among the remains of his rotting leather armor and corroded weapons he had a pouch of gems and boots of elvenkind.  Carithis put on the boots and kept point.

Searching the end of that tunnel, the party found another secret door that led to the back of a store room.  While searching the store room, Lórien was attacked and engulfed by a gelatinous cube.  Blowing one side of it apart with Thunderwave, he escaped, and the party quickly put it down.

Adventuring further into the cave, they noticed a change in the floors.  This cave was nicer and footsteps echoed off into the distance.  Just north of the storage room was a barred door.  Barred from the outside as if to keep something in.  Choosing to avoid that door, the party entered deeper into the cave, when a voice called out in common, "Who goes there!"  

To be continued in Part 2: the Shrine of Evil Chaos

Loot:

36gp
75ep
219sp
273cp
2 silver armbands (30sp each)
5 silver necklaces (20sp each)
Boots of Elvenkind
12 gems (5gp each)

(All party loot is currently updated on the Party Loot page after every session)

XP: 1490

Per person: 372

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Finn's Shop

Finn is a portly merchant who runs a small shop in the Keep on the Borderlands.  He is grateful to the party for getting rescued from the hobgoblin's prison.  Since his rescue, he was able to open his shop again, and now the characters can shop there.

His selection is mostly mundane equipment and armor, but on occasion he comes across a few potions of healing or a magical item.  His shop inventory changes on a regular basis.  You can check the stock here.

Master Finn and his wife Anara look forward to doing business with you.  He also makes his guards, Eddard and Paul, available to haul loot for the party at a cost of 1 silver piece each per day of service.

Saturday, January 5, 2013

Session 3

Members:

Solaris Winterblade - Human Fighter (Ranger)
Kilborn Blindshaft - Dwarven Fighter
Suw Mitak - Elven Wizard
Later joined by Shadrag the Bugbear

The Adventure

Tonight's group was made up of a mage, a fighter, and a ranger.  Again a bit smaller than last time, but some timely help from rescued slaves helped them overcome the Bugbear Lair

The party headed back to the Goblin Lair to clear out the goblins and hobgoblins.  Starting in the Hobgoblin Quarters, they marched through the lair and found a prison.  The whip cracks and screams of the prisoners gave the location away.  The two hobgoblin jailers were surprised and quickly dealt with.


The party found a local merchant who was in a stupor, but his wife Anara convinced the party to help them escape with their two guards Eddard and Paul.  The party also freed an orc who made a run for the exit.  They killed a crazed gnoll though, putting it out of its tortured misery.

They moved on and found the common room, and some hobgoblins were preparing for a feast, while others were questioning captured goblins.  Demanding to know why they had attacked.  The hadn't actually attacked, but the previous adventurers had set them up and framed them for the initial attack.


On the way out the party was ambushed by another mixed group of goblins and hobgoblins.  It was a hard fought fight, but they came through in the end.  They headed into town to escort the merchant and his group.  Finn rewarded the party with a small leather sack of 100gp.  He also guaranteed price breaks on any adventuring gear for an entire year.

From there, the party found four more cave entrances.  Two of them were obvious monster lairs, one inhabited by Bugbears and one by Gnolls.  The other two were dark and sinister   The happy message written on a shield and nailed to a tree outside the bugbear lair drew in the adventurers:
Safety, security, and repose for all who enter—welcome!
Come in, and report to the first guard on the left for a hot
meal and bed assignment.”
Tuw cast an illusion and drew out the bugbears waiting in the guard room.  The party quickly dispatched them as they ran by, but not in time to keep them from warning the guards waiting to the southeast, where five more were waiting.  With a whopping Thunderwave, the tide turned and the party pulled through again.  Kilborn was nearly defeated though.  He had to heal for both of his hit dice after the encounter.

The party could hear calls of, "HELP!!" and see an arm waving through a barred and padlocked door.  Searching the guards, the party quickly found the keys and, after some discussion, was split on freeing the slaves.  Kilborn went ahead and released the captive dwarf, and the rest of the party released the two captive humans and elves.  They armed themselves with the weapons of the fallen bugbears and offered to help the party.  They left the three kobolds and the goblin in the room though, to be dealt with later.

To the east, they could hear a growling noise.  Looking through a grate in the door, they saw three more hobgoblins, a gnoll, Shadrag, and a crazed human named Ragnar.  Shadrag looked run down, but was sincere in his desire to help the party.  He is a rebel bugbear who hates the rest of the denizens of the lair.  He joined the growing group for an assault on the bugbear common room.

The party fought valiantly, Shadrag at the front lines.  Both humans, an elf, and Shadrag fell unconscious.  After the fighting, Shadrag, the elf, and one of the humans pulled through, and were able to do some healing.  The party wanted to head back to the keep for a rest, but Shadrag convinced them to deal with the Bugbear Leader.  They found the leader and his mate, and made quick work of the mate, but the leader escaped through a secret passage to the west.  The party finally found the mechanism to open the door, but the leader was long gone.

Peering through the door, into a dark and rough cavern, they saw the numerous dots of light coming off the glow glands of fire beetles.  They quickly shut the door, looted the spoils room and headed back to the keep for a well deserved rest.

Loot:

117 gp611 sp
2 potions of healing
+1 Shield
Keg with about 20 flasks of oil

Items sold after the encounter:
6 Pieces of silk(20sp each)

Ivory statue of Hruggek the bugbear god (10lbs; 200sp)
Silver Urn (275sp)
Pewter dishes (35sp)
Trade goods worth about 30gp

Total: 1440 XP
Quest XP: 129
523 XP per player, just barely enough to hit level 3

Current party holdings:

2 pp
1250 gp
121 ep
2 sp
9 cp
A chunk of hard cheese
Keg with about 20 flasks of oil
1 Frenzy Bomb - When thrown, allies in the area gain advantage on melee attack rolls until the player’s next turn.

658 “gp” (actually copper coins with a wash of gold)

*All money except the fake gp is kept on deposit at the Loan Bank in the keep

Magic Items:

6 +1 arrows (Currently held by the Solaris Winterblade - Human Fighter)
+1 Shield (Kilborn laid claim to this item)
3 Potions of healing
Potion of invisibility
Wand of binding (Not attuned to anyone)


Thursday, January 3, 2013

House Rules Part II

1.  Players win on a tie.  That means that if a monster rolls a 17 for attack, and you have 17AC, it is a miss, while if you roll a 17 attack on a monster's 17AC, it is a hit.  No real reason for doing it this way, but it makes it easier to deal with.

2.  Rapid shot can hit the same target twice if it is large or giant sized.

3.  Party holdings are kept on deposit at the Loan Bank in the keep.  Copper, silver, and gold are used frequently, and can easily be exchanged (10 cp to an sp, and so on).  Electrum and platinum are used far less frequently.  The local banker charges a 10% fee to convert electrum or platinum, but he will take it as a deposit if it is left for at least one month.  From the playtest packet:
The electrum piece (ep) and the platinum piece (pp) originate from fallen empires and lost kingdoms, and they arouse suspicion and skepticism when used in transactions. An electrum piece is worth five silver pieces, while a platinum piece is worth ten gold pieces.
4.  Mundane items in good quality can be sold for 50% of the price listed in the Equipment section of the packet.  Most items used by monsters are not of high enough quality that anyone in the keep would buy them.

Session 2


Session 2

Members:

Arkhir Wonsur - Human Cleric
Solaris Winterblade - Human Fighter (Ranger)
Kilborn Blindshaft - Dwarven Fighter
Reb Marduke - Halfling Wizard

The Adventure

Tonight's group was made up of a mage, a fighter, a cleric, and a ranger.  Smaller than the last group, but way more effective.  Reb cleaned up when he hit.

Waking up in the Kobold lair, the party headed back to the goblin lair to clear them out.  They were not surprised by the goblin ambush set up outside their cave, and quickly dispatched the waiting goblins.

The party headed into the Goblin Lair and killed off more goblins.  While in there, they were searching the goblin store room when a group of hobgoblins opened a secret door and stumbled onto the party.  It was a challenging fight, but the party pulled through.  They chose to head back to the keep on the borderlands for a rest and to sell off some goods (the loot from the previous session).

After a good night's rest at the inn in the keep, the party headed back to the Goblin lair to clear them out.  They decided to challenge the ogre that they had fooled earlier.  With some incredible attacks, they put him down, and advanced to level 2.

From there, they killed off the goblin leader and headed for the Hobgoblin Lair.  Reb's familiar did not survive the battle, and as Reb was in the middle of the ritual to revive it, the Hobgoblin leader and his guards attacked.  The battle was hard fought and they killed the hobgoblin leader.

They headed to the next room and found the armory.  Dispatching the guards quickly, they looted the armory and returned to the keep.

Loot:

2 pp
99 gp
99 ep
586 sp
3121 cp

ring (5gp)
bracelet (5gp)
necklace (5gp)
keg of brandy (10gp)
3 casks of wine (2gp each)
keg of beer (5gp)

6 +1 arrows
Potion of healing
Potion of invisibility
Wand of binding

Sold items to the store on the first visit to the keep: 85gp (60 javelins, 1 Necklace with a gem (25 gp), 1 Silver chain  embedded with semiprecious stones (15 gp), 1 bold to silk (15 sp))

Items sold after the encounter:

5 suits of chainmail
7 suits of leather armor
11 shields
6 daggers
1 battleaxe
4 maces
3 longswords
2 shortbows
1 longbow
13 light crossbows
206 arrows
14 silver-headed arrows
180 crossbow bolts
51 spears
9 halberds
(including ring, bracelet, necklace and alcohol listed above)

The shop keepers drive a hard bargain, and offered 674 gp and 8 sp for the lot.

Total: 1090 XP
272.5 XP per player (523 XP until level 3)

Current party holdings:

2 pp
1002 gp
121 ep
1 sp
9 cp
A chunk of hard cheese

658 “gp” (actually copper coins with a wash of gold)


* All money except the fake gp is kept on deposit at the Loan Bank in the keep
*Includes 5 sp from performing and 1 gp cost of room rent at the keep

Magic Items:

6 +1 arrows (Currently held by the Human Fighter (ranger guy)
Potion of healing
Potion of invisibility
Wand of binding (Not attuned to anyone)