Session #37
Hmmm...Where to start, where to start?
Ok...Lake Tahoe was cool. Came back $300 poorer. But that is better than $600 poorer. Dang single-deck blackjack hurt me.
My brother-in-law bought the wife and I the first season DVDs for Lost. Dang show is addictive.
Oh, am I the only one who thinks the new Battlestar Galactica show rules? No one I talk to thinks it is anything better than "Ok". Most haven't even seen it.
Ok, gamewise, this session was just plain cruel. Man...I haven't nearly killed this many PCs since I gave an ultroloth a vorpal sword and Dale cast Evard's Black Tentacles on himself.
Note to all: I am a bribeable DM. I can only be swayed by Gummi-savers. A bag of them buys you one reroll. Keep that in mind...
Now here's the truly saddest thing you will ever read on this blog:
Krieg now has the spell Polymorph Any Object.
Sound harmless?
...heh...sucker
Aaron did some researching through the monsters of the SRD, and picked a few that would be useful to the party.
One in particular was a Leonal. It has some pretty good physical stats; a 27 strength, a 17 dexterity, and a 20 constitution. And it still is a medium creature, so most armors will still work perfectly.
Now you turn one of the party, let's say your friendly neighborhood tank, into one of these. You've basically increased his stats for a week with only a single spell. And the boost will stack with other spells and magic items. And what you have is a giant kitty-cat who can leap into battle with big claws, a big sword, and an attitude.
Now put that spell on someone in this group, and guess what you have?
Thunderclease...sigh...the Thundercat.
(And at 15th level he'll be taking Quickdraw as a feat, so he can jump into battle with a rake attack, and then switch to his greatsword.)
Map
They had returned and rested at the garrison and then resumed their adventuring.
Room N46: They returned to this puzzle room...another room with 2 statues of Death, 2 unlit braziers, and a door with another aspect of Death on it.
Torin investigated the room and came up with nothing. He then lit one brazier and was blasted by a combination Fireball/Shout trap. He made the Fireball save, but failed the Shout one. The damage was negligable with two clerics standing 20' away.
Torin then lit the other brazier...and heard a click from the door.
Room N47: And yet another room with 2 statues, 2 unlit braziers, and a door. Ten minutes into the session and a simple little trap...
Torin started off investigating the room. And he found a trap on one of the statues.
This statue was of the warrior aspect of Death, and the trap was on the scythe.
On his removal attempt he rolled a natural 1, which triggered the trap. And the party was in the room at the time.
And what was worse? The trip was a maximized 18th flame spell that arced from one statue to the other. Everyone was hit for 108 points of fire damage.
Torin saved. He took zero damage.
Krieg saved. He took 54 damage.
Valden failed. This would have killed him outright, so he used his "fate" re-roll. And failed, so he used his clerical domain of luck re-roll. And failed. Three attempts, same result. Valden, for the second time in this dungeon, died.
Thunderclease failed his roll. He should have taken 108 points of damage, but Krieg always casts Shield Other on Thunderclease as a breakfast spell. So Thunderclease took 54 points of damage, and so did Krieg. But Krieg could not survive 54+54 points of damage. So technically, Krieg should have died (woohoo two clerics in one shot). But Justin cashed in his Gummi-savers reroll and saved this time.
Dang Gummi-savers. Delicious and conniving treats.
So the party returned to garrison, raised Valden (after a 15 minute decision by Jeff of whether or not it was worth it), rested, and returned.
Torin lit the 2nd brazier and heard a click (this time the party made sure to not be in the room...they stressed that point quite a bit to me for some reason).
Room N48: This time all they find in the room is a single statue of death, no braziers, and a plain door.
The party tries a few things, but to effect.
They move on.
Room N28: This was another crypt room with lots of pillars, and lots of drab looking crypts. The skeletons inside the crypt didn't have a problem being left alone...but they were bothered.
5 skeletons hordes attacked the party.
This combat was so 1 sided it was pathetic. Five hordes in 3 rounds by 4 PCs.
The party had cast all of their buff spells and got a combat that was beneath them.
So they did what has worked for them before...charge through to the next room.
Room N29: This room had a bunch of crypts and a pedestal in the center of the room.
Nothing attacked the party, no evil detected, so on they moved.
Room N30: This odd room radiated lots of evil. It had a bunch of bronze/brass plates on the wall. Thunderclease pulled one of the plates off the wall, and out flew a mohrg with a sword that swung at him (and missed). And then all of the other plates fell off the wall and a lot more of the sword wielding mohrgs. In fact enough mohrgs were present to make a horde.
A big horde.
A horde with 1050hp, 30 +1 longswords that as a single attack causes 5d6+35 damage, and a tongue lash attack that requires a DC23 fortitude or be paralyzed for 1d4 minutes.
This fight lasted about 6 rounds:
The horde tried to attack everyone in the room (all but Krieg) and get them to succumb to the paralysis...but everyone kept saving.
Thunderclease and Valden consistently dealt 100 to 150 damage each round. Valden had to cast Heal on himself one round before his buff spells wore off.
Torin attempted used his Spring Attack feat the first round, but was surrounded the 2nd round. (Torin really prefers living, backstabbable, opponents.)
Krieg stay outside of the room and undead hurting spells.
Had anyone failed their saves, this fight would have been more interesting.
But that's ok...the next fight really scared everyone.
The party grabbed the 30 magic longswords. It's pretty sad when you see a magic weapon and think "cha-ching!"
Room N31: Another vaulted room with a 30' tall ceiling. Torin investigated the room, but didn't get very far. Everyone failed their Spot checks...
Near the ceiling were 9 allips. Unseen, insane, and ready; they attacked when the whole of the party entered the room...
Surprise round:
4 allips babbled - each PC has to make 4 saves and only Torin fails.
1 allip casts Prayer
4 allips attack the party, 1 on each PC (more charges drained from the Scarabs of Protection)
Round 1:
Thunderclease whiffs with his attacks.
Torin gets a little drool on his shirt.
Krieg casts Death Ward on himself.
Valden whiffs.
This time the allips that babbled move in to attack while the other 5 babble.
Everyone except Valden fails at least one save.
Did you ever have one of those combats that required you to look at your character sheet in desperation and hope you find something, anything, that can change your near-hopeless situation?
Personally, I love those fights. So long as they don't happen too often, those kind of sessions force you to think hard.
To Jeff, this was one of those times.
While Jeff was making his decision of what to do (I gave him a little more time to think than I usually do), I talked to one of my attention-loving cats, "Hold on. I'm about to kill the party."
Well Jeff made up his mind. Valden was going to cast Heal on Krieg. And if that worked, Krieg would do the same for Thunderclease.
Well Valden had to roll anything but a 1 or 2 on a d20 for his defensive casting check. And as we all know, that almost guarantees that you roll a natural 1.
He got a 17.
Krieg did that same.
Thunderclease now rips into an allip. Well he would have had the thing not been incorporeal.
The allips descend upon the party.
Torin's Scarab of Protection is drained.
Thunderclease's scarab is left with 2 charges.
Krieg doesn't even care if the allips hit him. They don't deal damage, and he's immune to their draining.
Valden gets lucky, he's unprotected from the allips, but the 2 on him miss.
Round 2:
Krieg and Valden cast Death Ward on Torin and Clease.
The rest of the combat is pathetic.
After that, Krieg destroys one with a turn, Cleez finally kills one, and the final nail in that coffin is Valden casting Blade Barrier.
The Blade Barrier ends that combat for me.
Let's see, this session the party gained 30 +1 longswords (2315gp a piece, 1/2 that when sold, equals 34,725gp) but they lost a scarab of protection (38,000gp to buy per the DMG), multiple reroll points were used, Torin gained a level, but Valden lost one.
Conclusion: This isn't even close to getting easier for them.
Until next week.
Ok...Lake Tahoe was cool. Came back $300 poorer. But that is better than $600 poorer. Dang single-deck blackjack hurt me.
My brother-in-law bought the wife and I the first season DVDs for Lost. Dang show is addictive.
Oh, am I the only one who thinks the new Battlestar Galactica show rules? No one I talk to thinks it is anything better than "Ok". Most haven't even seen it.
Ok, gamewise, this session was just plain cruel. Man...I haven't nearly killed this many PCs since I gave an ultroloth a vorpal sword and Dale cast Evard's Black Tentacles on himself.
Note to all: I am a bribeable DM. I can only be swayed by Gummi-savers. A bag of them buys you one reroll. Keep that in mind...
Now here's the truly saddest thing you will ever read on this blog:
Krieg now has the spell Polymorph Any Object.
Sound harmless?
...heh...sucker
Aaron did some researching through the monsters of the SRD, and picked a few that would be useful to the party.
One in particular was a Leonal. It has some pretty good physical stats; a 27 strength, a 17 dexterity, and a 20 constitution. And it still is a medium creature, so most armors will still work perfectly.
Now you turn one of the party, let's say your friendly neighborhood tank, into one of these. You've basically increased his stats for a week with only a single spell. And the boost will stack with other spells and magic items. And what you have is a giant kitty-cat who can leap into battle with big claws, a big sword, and an attitude.
Now put that spell on someone in this group, and guess what you have?
Thunderclease...sigh...the Thundercat.
(And at 15th level he'll be taking Quickdraw as a feat, so he can jump into battle with a rake attack, and then switch to his greatsword.)
Map
They had returned and rested at the garrison and then resumed their adventuring.
Room N46: They returned to this puzzle room...another room with 2 statues of Death, 2 unlit braziers, and a door with another aspect of Death on it.
Torin investigated the room and came up with nothing. He then lit one brazier and was blasted by a combination Fireball/Shout trap. He made the Fireball save, but failed the Shout one. The damage was negligable with two clerics standing 20' away.
Torin then lit the other brazier...and heard a click from the door.
Room N47: And yet another room with 2 statues, 2 unlit braziers, and a door. Ten minutes into the session and a simple little trap...
Torin started off investigating the room. And he found a trap on one of the statues.
This statue was of the warrior aspect of Death, and the trap was on the scythe.
On his removal attempt he rolled a natural 1, which triggered the trap. And the party was in the room at the time.
And what was worse? The trip was a maximized 18th flame spell that arced from one statue to the other. Everyone was hit for 108 points of fire damage.
Torin saved. He took zero damage.
Krieg saved. He took 54 damage.
Valden failed. This would have killed him outright, so he used his "fate" re-roll. And failed, so he used his clerical domain of luck re-roll. And failed. Three attempts, same result. Valden, for the second time in this dungeon, died.
Thunderclease failed his roll. He should have taken 108 points of damage, but Krieg always casts Shield Other on Thunderclease as a breakfast spell. So Thunderclease took 54 points of damage, and so did Krieg. But Krieg could not survive 54+54 points of damage. So technically, Krieg should have died (woohoo two clerics in one shot). But Justin cashed in his Gummi-savers reroll and saved this time.
Dang Gummi-savers. Delicious and conniving treats.
So the party returned to garrison, raised Valden (after a 15 minute decision by Jeff of whether or not it was worth it), rested, and returned.
Torin lit the 2nd brazier and heard a click (this time the party made sure to not be in the room...they stressed that point quite a bit to me for some reason).
Room N48: This time all they find in the room is a single statue of death, no braziers, and a plain door.
The party tries a few things, but to effect.
They move on.
Room N28: This was another crypt room with lots of pillars, and lots of drab looking crypts. The skeletons inside the crypt didn't have a problem being left alone...but they were bothered.
5 skeletons hordes attacked the party.
This combat was so 1 sided it was pathetic. Five hordes in 3 rounds by 4 PCs.
The party had cast all of their buff spells and got a combat that was beneath them.
So they did what has worked for them before...charge through to the next room.
Room N29: This room had a bunch of crypts and a pedestal in the center of the room.
Nothing attacked the party, no evil detected, so on they moved.
Room N30: This odd room radiated lots of evil. It had a bunch of bronze/brass plates on the wall. Thunderclease pulled one of the plates off the wall, and out flew a mohrg with a sword that swung at him (and missed). And then all of the other plates fell off the wall and a lot more of the sword wielding mohrgs. In fact enough mohrgs were present to make a horde.
A big horde.
A horde with 1050hp, 30 +1 longswords that as a single attack causes 5d6+35 damage, and a tongue lash attack that requires a DC23 fortitude or be paralyzed for 1d4 minutes.
This fight lasted about 6 rounds:
The horde tried to attack everyone in the room (all but Krieg) and get them to succumb to the paralysis...but everyone kept saving.
Thunderclease and Valden consistently dealt 100 to 150 damage each round. Valden had to cast Heal on himself one round before his buff spells wore off.
Torin attempted used his Spring Attack feat the first round, but was surrounded the 2nd round. (Torin really prefers living, backstabbable, opponents.)
Krieg stay outside of the room and undead hurting spells.
Had anyone failed their saves, this fight would have been more interesting.
But that's ok...the next fight really scared everyone.
The party grabbed the 30 magic longswords. It's pretty sad when you see a magic weapon and think "cha-ching!"
Room N31: Another vaulted room with a 30' tall ceiling. Torin investigated the room, but didn't get very far. Everyone failed their Spot checks...
Near the ceiling were 9 allips. Unseen, insane, and ready; they attacked when the whole of the party entered the room...
Surprise round:
4 allips babbled - each PC has to make 4 saves and only Torin fails.
1 allip casts Prayer
4 allips attack the party, 1 on each PC (more charges drained from the Scarabs of Protection)
Round 1:
Thunderclease whiffs with his attacks.
Torin gets a little drool on his shirt.
Krieg casts Death Ward on himself.
Valden whiffs.
This time the allips that babbled move in to attack while the other 5 babble.
Everyone except Valden fails at least one save.
Did you ever have one of those combats that required you to look at your character sheet in desperation and hope you find something, anything, that can change your near-hopeless situation?
Personally, I love those fights. So long as they don't happen too often, those kind of sessions force you to think hard.
To Jeff, this was one of those times.
While Jeff was making his decision of what to do (I gave him a little more time to think than I usually do), I talked to one of my attention-loving cats, "Hold on. I'm about to kill the party."
Well Jeff made up his mind. Valden was going to cast Heal on Krieg. And if that worked, Krieg would do the same for Thunderclease.
Well Valden had to roll anything but a 1 or 2 on a d20 for his defensive casting check. And as we all know, that almost guarantees that you roll a natural 1.
He got a 17.
Krieg did that same.
Thunderclease now rips into an allip. Well he would have had the thing not been incorporeal.
The allips descend upon the party.
Torin's Scarab of Protection is drained.
Thunderclease's scarab is left with 2 charges.
Krieg doesn't even care if the allips hit him. They don't deal damage, and he's immune to their draining.
Valden gets lucky, he's unprotected from the allips, but the 2 on him miss.
Round 2:
Krieg and Valden cast Death Ward on Torin and Clease.
The rest of the combat is pathetic.
After that, Krieg destroys one with a turn, Cleez finally kills one, and the final nail in that coffin is Valden casting Blade Barrier.
The Blade Barrier ends that combat for me.
Let's see, this session the party gained 30 +1 longswords (2315gp a piece, 1/2 that when sold, equals 34,725gp) but they lost a scarab of protection (38,000gp to buy per the DMG), multiple reroll points were used, Torin gained a level, but Valden lost one.
Conclusion: This isn't even close to getting easier for them.
Until next week.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 9:21 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home