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Post by venger on Feb 7, 2018 19:16:46 GMT -5
Flanked by impossibly high cliffs, this secreted valley stretches from north to south and has a strangely mild climate for its extreme elevation. A mist-filled ravine cuts through the center of the valley and a bubbling stream runs through it, etching its way into the limestone bedrock.
To the south, the stream ends in a small lake overlooked by a ruined giantish settlement. At the southernmost point of the lake, the water flows into an ominous, partially submerged cave.
To the north, the stream emerges from a cavern and cascades down a waterfall into the ravine.
Invisible aerial surveillance revealed the presence of giant sheep and stone giants. Trekking to the north end of the valley, the party engaged the giants with spells and swords...
After much intense fighting....
The battle with the stone giants rages on above the waterfall. With great effort, both magical and physical, our heroes have managed to break the giants' line and push them back into their cathedral-like cavern. Boulder salvos rain down upon the party from all sides as more giants push toward the fight.
The armor-clad giant, who is named Hurd, wishes to parley. He will offer tribute in the form of treasure and service if the party is willing to cease hostilities.
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Post by Bolo on Feb 7, 2018 20:24:09 GMT -5
A secluded valley with some tribute-paying vassal stone giants and a village of Eustace-worshiping human farmers could be a great home base.
If we could trust them, that is. Zone of Truth, maybe?
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Post by Wolfgar on Feb 11, 2018 10:29:25 GMT -5
Wolfgar is willing to parley. As a show of good faith he will offer to raise the dead giants (assuming they want to be raised). He can do two each long rest provided the giants can come up with the material components (500 gp diamond per spell) and a tithe to his church (250 gp per spell - should I ask for more?). This would be in addition to the tribute they offer. He would also like the giants to send two of their people with us when we go to mine the sand needed to power the Lantern. Furthermore, he would like the giants help in constructing a temple to his god (or provide a structure that can be consecrated). And attend services when he is in the valley. And of course they would have to be willing to let the villagers settle in the valley and provide them support (and protection) until they can become self sufficient.
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Post by Ginger on Feb 12, 2018 19:18:13 GMT -5
That seems a little aggressive, but it’s a good first offer.
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Post by Bolo on Feb 12, 2018 21:30:33 GMT -5
Any giants who went with us to help mine the sand would, of course, not be hostages in any sense of the word. Oh no, not at all.
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Post by Wolfgar on Feb 14, 2018 22:27:04 GMT -5
Hard to hold someone hostage who can just get up and walk away.
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Post by Wolfgar on Feb 14, 2018 22:35:59 GMT -5
I wasn't sure if we were starting the negotiations before the next session. I guess it is kind of hard to have a dialogue on the board. You can take my post as an addendum to any offer of "tribute in the form of treasure and service if the party is willing to cease hostilities." Once we have agreed to this tribute then Wolfgar can offer his services in exchange for additional considerations.
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Post by Bolo on Mar 2, 2018 15:35:10 GMT -5
Someone mentioned it would be good to have a bag of holding or equivalent.
Ren or Eustace could obtain the spell Leomund's Secret Chest (4th level) which can hold 12 cubic feet of stuff in the ethereal plane. It would require 5500gp to make the chest and a tiny replica.
I would consider taking this spell next time Eustace levels up, if the party thinks it's worth while. I would want the cost to come out of party funds, however, not Eustace's personal wallet.
Won't be happening for a while anyway, since we all just leveled up, but something to consider for the future.
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Post by Ginger on Mar 17, 2018 11:25:02 GMT -5
Anyone have any brilliant ideas about how to defeat a mob of frost giants or barbarians?
Since it’s a flat plain, I wall of fire, and to a lesser extent wall of ice, will be crucial to crowd control and funneling bad guys towards our fighters.
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Post by Bolo on Mar 17, 2018 23:38:50 GMT -5
In snow-covered terrain, fire spells will presumably melt snow, which (given time) will then freeze into ice. So with enough time and some Fire Bolt cantrips, Eustace could prepare slippery surfaces in whatever configuration we desire. Is there a way to make that useful? Presumably frost giants are pretty good at not slipping on ice.
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Post by Bolo on Mar 18, 2018 0:12:08 GMT -5
Given 10 minutes, Eustace can cast Rary's Telepathic Bond as a ritual. It lasts 1 hour. If we could arrange to set an ambush, this would let us conceal ourselves however we wanted while remaining in telepathic communication with each other and with Hooter the owl, flying overhead.
Eustace is keen to try out Animate Objects. If he animates 10 coins, or just 10 small stones if they are prevalent in this terrain, they each become a tiny creature with AC 18, 20 hit points, +8 to hit, d4+4 bludgeoning damage, and a 30 flying speed. He can control them as a bonus action out to a distance of 500 feet. Range 120 feet, duration 1 minute, requires concentration.
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Post by Bolo on Mar 20, 2018 9:16:49 GMT -5
Any chance of a recap of Sunday's session for those of us who couldn't be there?
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Post by Ginger on Mar 20, 2018 20:24:36 GMT -5
Our ranger joined the squad, allowing us to traverse the plain without drawing the attention of frost giants. The huge mine shaft was easily descended with a platform elevator. Eustace cast Rory’s telepathic bond and sent Titus, Ren, Ginger and Wulfgar down. At the bottom, there was a lot of evidence of foot traffic. Very helpfully, there were signs for some of the passages. We skipped Essence Extraction and Storage Room, heading straight for “Teleportation Circle and Wizard Labs” It turns out a band of duergar had made that area their fortress. We attempted to sneak in, but ended up doing a loud frontal assault. Oh well. We penetrated several layers of defense, slew an iron golem, and a bunch of evil dwarves. We are ok on spells and HP.
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Post by Bolo on Mar 21, 2018 0:19:42 GMT -5
Thanks. Sounds good.
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Post by Wolfgar on Mar 21, 2018 9:06:23 GMT -5
Additional info: - the group of frost giants was a raiding party: 10 giants, 4 mastodons and a number of chained, captured barbarians - following the raiding party were a couple of barbarian scouts - following the scouts were some wolves - the mine shaft is thousands of feet deep - the elevator automatically retracts after some amount of time - we haven't located the mechanism to control it from below - we eschewed going directly for the Essence and decided labs and teleport circle were more important - the fortress is across a bridge over a lava filled cavern - Ren used wall of ice along the bridge in a zigzag pattern to great effect. dealing damage as well as preventing their reinforcements from crossing. a couple of fireballs finished them off except for the golem. Titus used wind wall to prevent the golem from breathing poison gas on us. Ginger attempted to trip and intimidate the golem to no effect but still wailed on it while the rest of us hit it from a safe distance.
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Post by Bolo on Mar 21, 2018 9:43:31 GMT -5
- the mine shaft is thousands of feet deep - the elevator automatically retracts after some amount of time - we haven't located the mechanism to control it from below It is perhaps good, then, that Eustace remained at the surface and is in telepathic contact with the rest of the group. Glad he could be useful even in my absence. Are we thinking of rescuing some barbarians on our way back? Or just teleporting straight to the lantern? Or am I counting unhatched chickens?
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Post by Wolfgar on Mar 21, 2018 16:43:56 GMT -5
No plans to rescue barbarians or storm the frost giant lair. Main goals are to retrieve the sand needed to power the Lantern and locate the teleport circle in case we need to come back.
Here is a thought. What if I could use Locate Object from a couple of locations in order to triangulate the location of the teleport circle. Then use Clairvoyance to view it and get the coordinates for the magic users. Then we could teleport there directly - possibly surprising the duergar. Avoiding the whole frontal assault on the fortress.
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Post by Ginger on Mar 21, 2018 17:52:20 GMT -5
Genius! That’s two mid level spells that could give us a huge advantage. It will also let us gather any other PCs easily.
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Post by Bolo on Mar 21, 2018 21:01:22 GMT -5
Teleport there directly how? You mean bail on this place for the moment, travel back to one of the other teleport circles we know, and then all show up back here at once? We don't have Teleport (it's a 7th level spell) and Dimension Door can only teleport the caster and one other creature.
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Post by Wolfgar on Mar 22, 2018 11:18:37 GMT -5
You don't need to start from a teleport circle. You just need to know the sigils for the one you are teleporting to.
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Post by Bolo on Mar 23, 2018 20:23:44 GMT -5
But to do that without starting at a teleportation circle, don't you need to cast the spell Teleportation Circle? Eustace, at least, does not know that spell.
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Post by Ginger on Mar 25, 2018 11:00:31 GMT -5
Ren does have the spell, so once we reunite we could do it.
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Post by Bolo on Mar 26, 2018 9:35:25 GMT -5
Ren does have the spell, so once we reunite we could do it. Excellent. That fixes that then. I suppose Eustace should learn it from him.
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Post by Ren on Mar 29, 2018 14:33:55 GMT -5
Yeah, Ren learned teleportation circle when he leveled last. Seemed way too useful to pass, especially since we found a circle in the lantern. Eustace is welcome to copy it. I REALLY like the idea of jumping into the fortress and surprising them, but it’s worth noting that Ren only gets 1 per day. It’s a one way trip, so we damn well better win if we do it!
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Post by Ginger on Mar 29, 2018 14:44:30 GMT -5
If Eustace joins, we'd get another shot at it.
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Post by Ren on Mar 29, 2018 17:13:00 GMT -5
Takes time to learn though. Don’t know if we want to give them that much time to reorganize.
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Post by Ginger on Mar 30, 2018 12:03:56 GMT -5
Seems like they would be regrouping in the opposite direction of where we would sneak attack, assuming our plan works. We should try a clairvoyance right away in any case to see their defensive set up. I wonder if you can do passwall on the bronze door.
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Ren
New Member
Posts: 40
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Post by Ren on Mar 30, 2018 14:37:01 GMT -5
Passwall would be Eustace’s call. Ren doesn’t have it and wouldn’t like the idea of charging the gate dodging lightning and crossbow bolts. The circle seems like a great idea, pending scry findings.
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Post by Bolo on Mar 30, 2018 20:32:04 GMT -5
I believe Passwall only works on wood, plaster, and stone.
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Post by Bolo on Apr 23, 2018 15:33:52 GMT -5
From the notes we got off the corpse of the commissar we didn't bother interrogating, do we have an estimate of how many adversaries are still alive in this place?
Or rather, do we have an estimate of how many were here before we started killing them? From which we could subtract:
(a) Whatever you guys killed at last month's session -- N dwarves, an iron golem, what else? (b) The guys who were in the room when we teleported into it, minus the spellcaster who got away -- i.e. 4(?) dwarves, 2 devils, and 4 imps (c) The first group who responded to the alarm -- 10 dwarves, I think? (d) The second ditto -- ditto, I think? (e) The 2 imps in the lab
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