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Post by venger on Sept 16, 2012 20:46:16 GMT -5
Ratrudabi, the party's seeming liaison to this place of evil, provided the following information for a modest sum: The Nine Petty Deaths: Chthonic godlings from the Land Beyond the Black Water, Atoda, petty death who takes charge of those who die from old age or unfortunate accidents; Egygddedrol, petty death who claims explorers and knowledge seekers; Emntrix, petty death that claims the soul of soldiers and servants; Ygohl, petty death who claims scholars and philosophers; Heruldos, petty death of murder victims and patron of assassins and poisoners; Ingueas, petty death of priests and funerary rites; Lewl, petty death that claims the souls of nobles and aristocrats; Uddeso, petty death of famine who claims the souls of people who have died unfulfilled; Wihiedro, petty death who claims the souls of the wicked and false. Her Young: (She Who is Many) Monstrous, dangerous. The Three Evils: Kali, the Black Earth-Mother; assassin-priest cult. Very nasty, will pursue vendetta. Powerful high priest. Lu Bueh, far-eastern god, "lord of epidemics" and Ratri, goddess of night. The Nine-Eyed Sage: Occupies the shrine of the dead? god Zolthupax. See receptionist for appointments. Drolb: Lord of mindless hunger, fluidity of shape, gelatinous cubes. Ratrudabi warns the party to be wary of the cubes which dwell in/around the shrine, they're known to devour petitioners of the gods. Sif Muna: God of forbidden arcane lore, seeks magic-user worshippers. Cabal of warlocks, necromancers and demonologists/diabolists. Demogorgon: Prince of Demons, worshipped by many evil beings. Powerful demons in the shrine sometimes swoop down and snatch up folk in the tent city.
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Post by venger on Sept 16, 2012 20:56:33 GMT -5
The tent city holds about 700 people, roughly the same as the Great Oasis. At least half this number are mistreated slaves; kept in pits to be used for sacrifices, forced to fight ghuls and other beasts in the arena or manacled to the Wheel of Woe to press wine for their evil overlords. The rest of those living appear to be followers of evil clerics who abide in the various shrines on the mountain. They're divided into factions, pretty much entirely based on their religious persuasion. The main factions appear to be Kali and her supporting deities, many of whom wear the black sashes which indicate their rank as assassins; Demogorgon and his demonic cult and the worshippers of the Nine Petty Deaths. Sif Muna has a much smaller presence in the tent city than the others. Drolb, Zolthupax and "She Who Is Many don't have following.
Weapons, supplies and fresh slaves are delivered fairly regularly by the Fleshmonger's Guild, which outrages Haddiq, Basmadoos and Azhbar.
These followers of evil appear extremely arrogant, not even considering the possibility that a band of goodly heroes might violate the sanctity of their unholy place. It is assumed anyone who comes to this place is engaged in some foul business or debauched worship. People who don't seem to belong usually end up sacrificed anyway.
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Post by venger on Sept 16, 2012 21:12:25 GMT -5
Charming his way past the attractive young receptionist with the torso of a serpent, Paavo gets the party an audience with the Nine-Eyed Sage.
The bulbous, spherical creature descends from the hole in the ceiling of the first floor of the tower, a crown of eyes atop a huge, cloudy central eye. It wears a strange harness-like apparatus of magnifying lenses that focus these tiny eyes on the party. The larger eye stares vacantly and its tongue lolls from a huge, 6' wide mouth with enormous teeth.
The Nine-Eyed Sage, an expert on magic, gods, immortals and ancient "technology", is willing to repair the disruptor armband-weapon in exchange for all the information the party can provide on the subject of the City of Ulshamaran and the Vault of Elders, no matter how trivial. If one of the party was willing to be be "charmed," that would greatly reassure the sage that the party wasn't lying or withholding information...
The many-eyed creature also claims to have battled aeons ago against the so-called "gods" (Ulsamagarus, Gorm and Madeira) before its' masters were overthrown and is familiar with Lord Zeal, a being it calls a "lowly parasite."
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Post by Ginger on Sept 17, 2012 10:36:23 GMT -5
It looks like Drolb, Zolthupax and "She Who is Many" should be our initial targets. Zolthupax's altar has only dust, according to the Beholder Sage. I suspect we should collect said dust, to be thorough.
What are the pros and cons in telling the sage everything we know about the Vault of the Elders? Obviously he's evil, so we should be skeptical in helping him with anything. However, the Vault dwellers weren't any nicer. Maybe they could destroy each other?
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Post by Friedrich on Sept 17, 2012 11:49:33 GMT -5
Let's just kill the beholder first take his stuff and go on to the next place.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 17, 2012 13:02:24 GMT -5
Let's just kill the beholder first take his stuff and go on to the next place. I don't doubt that we could eventually take him, but I think half of the party would be disintegrated.
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Post by venger on Sept 17, 2012 19:13:09 GMT -5
Let's just kill the beholder first take his stuff and go on to the next place. I guess you aren't suggesting this "in character," in front of the creature. :(
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Post by Wolfgar on Sept 18, 2012 10:54:45 GMT -5
Youssef is waiting to "catch" Colby with a Feather Fall as soon as the creature drops him. He is really excited about the possibility of using a spell for the first time. Let's hope he doesn't flub it.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 18, 2012 11:08:41 GMT -5
Youssef is waiting to "catch" Colby with a Feather Fall as soon as the creature drops him. He is really excited about the possibility of using a spell for the first time. Let's hope he doesn't flub it. Good. Colby assumed that Yussef would be waiting. Did he roll again to learn all of our 1st level spells after leveling up? And he needs to pick a 2nd level spell now, right? I'd suggest another fun elemental one at DM discretion.
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Post by Wolfgar on Sept 18, 2012 11:35:58 GMT -5
While in travel mode there wasn't a chance to roll for 1st level spells.
He will go for another DM choice elemental spell, especially since we have access to all 1st and 2nd level spells in the School. But it will have to wait until he is trained.
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Post by venger on Sept 18, 2012 11:42:46 GMT -5
Upon sleeping 8hrs Youssef will need to choose a spell or allow me to do so. If I'm selecting maybe you want to suggest offensive, defensive or utility
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Post by Wolfgar on Sept 18, 2012 12:11:48 GMT -5
When did we adopt this precedence? IMHO, I think he would learn/research the new spell as part of training for the next level. For the spells learned without training I would think they could wait until you aren't adventuring.
Regardless, he will go for a utility spell. There is enough fire power in the party and he is going to try to stay as far as possible from combat for at least a couple more levels.
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Post by venger on Sept 18, 2012 12:18:22 GMT -5
A magic user gains a new spell every level, not just when training. Same as new hit points, assigning percentiles or thief points so when you go up a level you have to pick a spell at that time. Can't hold the potential spell slot until it is convenient.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 18, 2012 12:24:40 GMT -5
The precedent started after we defeated the efreet. That's why Colby lost his 8th and 9th level spells when he died before writing them.
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Post by venger on Sept 18, 2012 12:41:43 GMT -5
It's a free, spontaneously learned spell upon advancement. If we want to amend the rule to take a d6 (or two) days to "research" the spell while not adventuring then I wouldn't require it be selected immediately. But as it is now it's pretty much "eureka!" new spell.
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Post by Wolfgar on Sept 18, 2012 12:50:37 GMT -5
I would certainly vote for that. I would even add some basic research costs. Maybe (d6 + spell level) days at 100 gp/day.
I guess there is also the difference between getting a new spell and reproducing a previously known (but now lost) spell.
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Post by venger on Sept 18, 2012 13:03:42 GMT -5
Even though I love bleeding money out of the party, I don't think a gold piece expenditure is necessary for this. I would only add the time component because right now there isn't one and that is the root of my objection to a magic-user not immediately having to choose/learn a spell upon advancement.
The new spell is the result of the magic-user synthesizing what they've learned over the course of the experience level into a practical spell. If that happens immediately and spontaneously, then they should have that spell stuck in their memory. If it takes a few days to work out the formulae on a chalkboard, I'm all right with that too.
I don't like the idea of a magic-user gaining a new spell at 4th level, continuing to adventure until 5th level, and then choosing to research two third level spells. That was the reason I made Colby choose his spells upon attaining 8th and 9th level in such a short span. He shouldn't get two 5th level spells because one of them he learned from 7th-8th, before he was capable of 5th level spells.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 18, 2012 13:16:44 GMT -5
Maybe it could be a choice? Either you get your spell right away, at the risk of losing it, or you can choose to take it later, but then you have to spend a few days. I'd rather learn it instantaneously. I feel like casters have ample annoying time sinks as it is.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 18, 2012 13:59:54 GMT -5
Any more thoughts on what we should do going forward? We don't have the usual 2 weeks to ruminate on ideas.
I think we should make some deal with the Beholder to get access to the altar here. Then, we go up and challenge the gelatinous cubes. I have no idea how sentient they are. I suspect their lair will have a lot of corridors that are 10x10 so we can't sneak around them. We'll want a long pole or something to detect hiding cubes.
Her Young/She Who Is Many sounds like lots of monstrous things. We'll just have to slog through the beasties.
For the others, some type of plan is important. We could try subterfuge to convince the assassins that one of the other groups affronted them in some way and take advantage of the combat.
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Post by Wolfgar on Sept 19, 2012 22:06:47 GMT -5
Vault ( 1 ) yuan-ti armband (shorted) Oops!
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Post by Wolfgar on Sept 19, 2012 22:30:34 GMT -5
I don't have any great ideas on how to proceed.
I assume each of these temples has a high priest. High priests of minor gods are typically limited to 5th level spells but I don't think we should count on that. We could be facing flame strike, insect plague, slay living, blade barriers, harm, gate, unholy word, symbol. Paavo can be turned as if he were a ghost. No one wants to see our PfE 10'/Magic Resistance/Holy Avenger sent packing.
Desecrating temples is certain to cause retribution. I don't like the idea of being chased across the desert by 1 let alone 9 evil priesthoods. If stealing the offerings was an option I would suggest that. But I don't see how we sneak into these places. And once they discover the theft they are just as likely to hunt us down. So wiping out the high priesthood seems the best way to prevent immediate reprisal. Once we give the offerings to Fizzi hopefully they will concentrate on him.
We could strike at a couple of them and then high tail it out of here. Then we could come back in a month or two when things have settled down. But they would likely beef up security once they hear that the other temples were robbed. I guess surprise is on our side since they don't expect a party of good characters to march into their temple and start killing.
If these places are expecting pilgrims maybe some of us could pose as such in order to case the places before we go in force. I wonder if the temples have any precautions/protections against good characters entering. Maybe someone could sneak around invisibly to do some scouting. We could make Colby an invisible bird and he could fly around the mountain.
Some thoughts: -Magic missile is great against clerics, they have no shield spell, it goes on segment one and you can split fire. Youssef will definitely try to learn that before we attempt to sack anything. -Silence 15' is a good way to prevent spell casting but they could do likewise -Hold Person could be a real problem for us since they will have more clerics than we do -who sticks close to Paavo to get the benefit of the 50% MR - fighters, clerics or magic users -I hate to bring it up again, but someone other than Nordel should use the box with the green gem. Nordel is better using his bow while one of the lower level characters uses the box. Likewise with Bolo and the lightning rod. -We should make sure all of the healing is distributed among the party. Last I checked we still had 9 potions in the qbox. We will also want the waterskins of holy water. -When we do attack a temple, Dan will use his bead of lesser summoning. This is supposed to bring some sort of angel. Hopefully he will fight for us or at least protect us. -I wonder if we can use the qbox to help with the smash and grab. It supposed to be able to hold any single object. Could we use it to grab an altar or a temple or a mountain? Or what if we took a huge boulder, stored it in the qbox, then opened the qbox above a temple at a height of 100'. -Paavo has Angvmar which can be used to create a Symbol of Pain. I still haven't figured out how that can be useful without hurting us. I have only used it twice, both times in a rearguard maneuver. Any suggestions?
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Post by venger on Sept 20, 2012 9:40:11 GMT -5
Vault ( 1 ) yuan-ti armband (shorted) Oops! !!!!!!!!! -I wonder if we can use the qbox to help with the smash and grab. It supposed to be able to hold any single object. Could we use it to grab an altar or a temple or a mountain? Or what if we took a huge boulder, stored it in the qbox, then opened the qbox above a temple at a height of 100'. You have to be able to move the object into the box or in some way get the box fully around the object... it won't dig through stone and a mountain is waaaay too large.
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Post by Wolfgar on Sept 20, 2012 9:55:57 GMT -5
You have to be able to move the object into the box or in some way get the box fully around the object... it won't dig through stone and a mountain is waaaay too large. This is something I never really understood about the qbox. I didn't think it opened into a physical box into which things were placed. I thought it worked to "capture" some object (of any size?). When opened it disgorged the object previously inside it. Can you describe the actions of the quantum box more specifically? Also when we first opened it there were 2 phase spiders in it. One we killed, the other we recaptured with the quantum box. Is there a mechanism for using the quantum box against an unwilling individual? Can it be used in combat? Furthermore, how do you get two phase spiders in a quantum box that only holds a single object? Will it hold a group of objects if they are all touching? For instance, if everyone was standing on a large carpet could you snare them all in the qbox?
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Post by Ginger on Sept 20, 2012 10:36:43 GMT -5
Dan's magic resistance armor should be maximally helpful here. If we fight a group of low level clerics all casting hold person, he'll have a 45% chance of resisting them outright and a save on top of it.
A 5' radius is so small that it'll be tough to use it to protect casters unless they all just plant themselves in one place. Paavo should probably run around fighting, so it's best if the fighters stick together. Note that when we fight Demogorgon's guys, it's the PfE that's most important so I suggest the healers stick with him to avoid demons.
Colby plans to max out his magic protections and use a bunch of magic missiles to neutralize casters. Nordel, Bolo and Azhbar will take advantage of good reaction adjustments to shoot spell casters and disrupt their spells. I recommend firing on multiple targets as often as possible.
When fighting assassins, I'm not really sure what to recommend, other than a bunch of PfNM spells to prevent instakills from darts or crossbow bolts.
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Post by venger on Sept 20, 2012 10:42:48 GMT -5
This is something I never really understood about the qbox. I didn't think it opened into a physical box into which things were placed. I thought it worked to "capture" some object (of any size?). When opened it disgorged the object previously inside it. It doesn't capture things. It works the same way a portable hole works except it has no weight limit. Can you describe the actions of the quantum box more specifically? Not really... it's a strange silvery box that unfolds into a one?-dimensional filament? The crux of it is the person with the opened box has to be able to close it on the object. Conceivably a giant would be able to close it on a larger object than a human, but for all intents and purposes it has to be an object whose height/width doesn't exceed arms-reach. Also when we first opened it there were 2 phase spiders in it. One we killed, the other we recaptured with the quantum box. Is there a mechanism for using the quantum box against an unwilling individual? Can it be used in combat? It would be the same as trying to put a sack over an unwilling individual. That sort of thing would work on a spider or an animal but probably not a humanoid. Furthermore, how do you get two phase spiders in a quantum box that only holds a single object? You've got a bunch of items in the box right now... Also maybe consider the possibility that phase spiders may wander into the box to nest and lay eggs... Will it hold a group of objects if they are all touching? Technically the objects have to be "in" the other objects. Spiders in a web. Yes. Men on a carpet? No. Men in a cart? Yes. For instance, if everyone was standing on a large carpet could you snare them all in the qbox? See above.
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Post by Wolfgar on Sept 20, 2012 11:04:55 GMT -5
Mirror Image is also a good thing to have against assassins. Slow in many ways is better than Fireball. If you can get it off before the fighters engage the enemy, it is devastating.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 20, 2012 11:16:20 GMT -5
I'll cast Alacrity so I get a segment shaved off my casting times. Slow will go on segment 2, which basically guarantees it goes off before fighters will be in the area of effect.
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Post by Ginger on Sept 24, 2012 14:19:42 GMT -5
It's slightly awkward summarizing the last session, since we're sort of still in the middle of it. Paavo has two gelatinous cubes fighting over him, each with a belly already full of party members. Paavo can very likely take out one of them with his first attack of the next round. Then the remaining one will have a shot at him (and damage everyone its currently digesting). If Paavo is hit and fails his save, we're in big trouble, but that's not especially likely. He's then very likely to kill the remaining one without it getting to hit back.
Once everyone gets functioning, and makes it down to the roof we're on, we can assault the building. Next we'll make our way to the altar room and take what we need.
After some rest, we can tackle Her Young's temple.
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Post by venger on Sept 24, 2012 14:32:19 GMT -5
Welcome to the gelatinous tesseract:
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Post by Bolo on Sept 24, 2012 16:14:42 GMT -5
If Paavo is hit and fails his save, we're in big trouble, but that's not especially likely. We should assume Paavo won't save the day, no matter how unlikely, because if he doesn't, there's not much spare time to mount a backup plan before some of the jellified folk start dying. Does anyone in the top half of the party have a way of getting down the shaft without simultaneously getting dead? Gabul's rope is in the Qbox, which I believe is with Paavo. And as Gabul is currently at 6 HP, he probably wouldn't be conscious when he arrived, if he just jumped. Where is Nordel's hawk? In the room with Nordel? Nordel is currently unable to give it commands, so what does it do? Or can Gareth determine that? Does anyone upstairs have a rope, or a Fly spell, or a Feather Fall spell? Is Mamnoon with us or is he back with the camels? A flying scimitar specialist would be real useful right about now.
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