Sean's Campaign - Session #15

Ok, I’ve taken a break from playing my games to get this out ;)

This session was a good one that concluded what I consider to be the first chapter of the campaign.

Allen couldn’t make it because he was in Detroit. I believe it was for some big annual auto-show.
Joy couldn’t make it because she was in Chicago. I believe it was for some kind large drunken catholic thing.
Aaron was late thanks to work and family. I can’t think of anything smartass that would apply here.
Justin was on time. I believe it was because he was broke.

So Ari was played by Dale, Lindo was played by Justin, and Sorra was temporarily played by Brian.

We last stopped with the party being put under arrest by an elf noble that Artemis, Zelast, and Ysilia knew as Jothillian Vornoth.

Artemis knew Jothillian as the one that had him exiled to the human lands, being put to an impossible task simply by being too liked by everyone not loyal to Jothillian’s family.

Zelast and Ysilia knew him as the spoiled son of a noble that saw every non-noble elf as beneath him and felt he could take anything he wanted from them, including Ysilia. Zelast put a stop to Jothillian’s attempted assault on Ysilia, but at the cost of them both having to flee Maratheelia – presumably forever.

And now Jothillian was standing before them all with a retinue of well-armed guards, ready to escort the party to jail for a speedy trial and a nice morning execution.

Of course the party had to weasel some information out of him first. He informed him that their crime was trespassing on the Glade of Kings, a burial ground recently set aside for the nobility only. He denied knowing anything of a talking tree in the glade (note: the tree called out for Jothillian by name last session), and certainly knew nothing of any fiend in there either. Also, his father, Anthillian Vornoth, was now the king of Maratheelia.

Eventually Jothillian grew tired of the party’s delaying tactics, and had his guards ready their bows, so the party surrendered without bloodshed.

They were taken to a very nice jail cell of marble, stone, and wood. During their several hour stay, they struck up a conversation with their guard Dellious.

He was a nice, young guard who thought well of Anthillian and his son. He saw Anthillian as a good and wise man who worked hard to maintain the existence of Maratheelia. The party tried to get through to Dellious, by bringing up things like what happened to the great military of Maratheelia, why had the king done nothing about Ponalim and it’s alliance with the orcs, and so on. But when Trebor brought up the subject of a giant talking tree in the Glade of Kings, Dellious said that it was time for his break and he never returned to chat with the party.

The party thoroughly searched their cell, and found nothing. Though they did hear the sound of children’s laughter outside.

Finally the party was called before King Anthillian, an ancient elf of at least 700 years.

To make a long story short – the king didn’t like the party and only barely listened to Zelast because non-elves can’t be trusted and half-elves only speak in half-truths (though I did keep forgetting to not listen to Sorra).

Anthillian informed Zelast that it was his son, Jothillian, who came up with the idea of setting aside an area for the Glade of Kings and everyone would be allowed to enter the glade for just one day a year – but that would be happening anytime soon.

Zelast told him of the existence of the Tree of Life, but Anthillian denied even knowing of it. He did give Jothillian (and his brothers) permission to enter the glade to search for this special tree, as a sign that he was a just king.

Later, Jothillian returned with news that there was indeed a large tree in the glade that fit the party’s descriptions, but it was just as immobile and quiet as any other tree in the forest.

So Anthillian granted this one last chance to prove their innocence, by taking the court to the Glade of Kings where they would try to get the tree to talk.

Once the court was relocated, the trial continued.

The tree was just as still as any other tree.

Sorra went right up to the tree to taunt it and dared the tree to attack. She was unarmed and unarmored after all. The tree did nothing but sway with the wind.

Artemis walked up and threatened to burn it with a spell, but the tree did nothing.

(These were all the results of failed taunt checks and such.)

Zelast wanted to hack at the tree a couple of times with his sword, but Anthillian denied that request as needless damage done to such a long-lived tree simply to prove his innocence.

Anthillian’s patience was almost gone, so he gave the party one last try before he would be forced to find the party guilty.

So the group did a quick run down of options, including looking through their loot from the previous week. The only item that stood out was the silver horn that was once a tarnished silver horn when worn around the neck of the glabrezu.

Artemis took the horn from the evidence pile, got right next to the tree, took a deep breath, and blew the horn.

Then all hell broke loose.

The tree erupted with a “How dare you?!” and brought its two large branches down on top of Artemis, bringing him to half his hit points. But as the tree did that, it and the glade changed - the leaves brightened and beams of sunlight pushed their way through, bringing light to the area.

The guards moved to protect their king.

Jothillian and his brothers began moving around the party, getting to good positions for attacks.

The party was unsure of what to do to start with. Their magical equipment and all weapons were in a pile that the royal guards and Jothillian’s brothers were blocking. They couldn’t be the first ones to attack because they had been told that elves do not attack elves in Maratheelia. So they waited for someone else to attack them first.

The Tree of Life told the guards to take the current king away from the glade for his own protection, pretty much because it appeared that the party and Jothillian and his brothers were about to collide.

The first few rounds were almost entirely tactical movement by all, none willing to strike first.

The king and all of the royal guards fled the scene as fast as possible.

Lindo grabbed the blanket holding the party’s equipment and placed it near the party. Everyone who needed them grabbed their weapons from the pile.

Ysilia always stayed away from Jothillian, but never far from someone in the party. During the same time as that she cast Bless, Prayer, and healed Artemis.

Ari cast Greater Invisibility on herself.

Before the first swing was taken the party had buffed up and formed up into a tight circle. While usually I would think this a bad tactic in a place with several potential casters with area spells, it actually worked very much to the party’s advantage.

Zelast and Jothillian were trading insults while both were ready to strike one another.

Jothillian’s brothers had surrounded the party as well, looking to single out someone in the party to focus on first and take down.

Seeing that this was going nowhere, as no one was willing to strike first, Zelast walked away.

This infuriated Jothillian, so he took a free swing on Zelast, and combat officially began.

The brothers knew how dangerous Artemis was so they went after him first, but their attack was halted after Sorra issued her fighting challenge that forced them all to make a DC13 Will save or focus their attacks on her. All but Jothillian failed that save, which kind of scared Aaron a bit because it rarely works at all much less against three combatants at once. Luckily for Sorra, my rolls were pathetic at the start of combat.

After that, Artemis did his usual ranged pot-shots at anyone he could get a clear shot at with an orb spell or cast Magic Missile if he couldn’t.

Jothillian and Zelast traded attacks, but Jothillian had the upper hand with better equipment and a higher level. Then when he hit Zelast with a Vampiric Touch through his sword (he’s a duskblade too), it made things a little tougher.

But Zelast had numbers and teamwork on his side. His attacks on Jothillian were misses or minor scratches at this point, but since Jothillian’s brothers were concentrating and Sorra it gave Lindo a chance to help.

Lindo moved into flanking and tripped Jothillian, and then Ari followed that up with a Ray of Enfeeblement that reduced him to a mere strength of 4.

Jothillian used his actions then to leave the scene by turning invisible, cast Swift Fly (a level 2 quickened spell that allows you to fly for only 1 round), and flying straight up.

The party thought that he might have teleported away, but wanted to make sure so he cast See Invisible and looked around. But since he didn’t bother looking up and rolled poorly on his spot check, Zelast did not see Jothillian almost directly above him.

A mere strength of 4 ruined Jothillian. He was wearing a breastplate, holding a shield, and wielding a longsword. He had to continuously cast Swift Fly to be able to move at all. As he did that he prepared his and his brothers’ escapes.

The Vornoth brothers were in a worse condition than Jothillian. They could not bring down any of the party, and Sorra forced them to attack her away from the party. With only Sorra in danger, Artemis cast Evard’s Black Tentacles. Between that spell, the nuking spells, and the front-line fighters getting their swings in on those at the edge of the tentacle spell two of them were in bad shape and one was dead.

Jothillian cast a Regroup spell that brought his two living brothers near him, while he tried to escape.

The Tree of Life would not allow that.

“Jothillian Vornoth, you have been found guilty of crimes against the elves of Maratheelia; including cavorting with fiends.”

With that the shape of the glade changed, preventing escape and now giving the brothers nothing to lose. Their dead brother was slowly pulled underground by roots from below.

So the fight began anew. Jothillian charged the now flying Zelast (thanks to Ari). His two brother charged Trebor and Lindo and both targets were successfully frozen in place with Ghoul Touch spells.

(Both Trebor and Lindo were played by Justin, who whined because now he had nothing to do. I say “Go cry it to your mommy.” Jothillian had been royally screwed over by a simple level 1 spell.)

The remaining brothers were dead soon after as Sorra snared them both again with a fighting challenge allowing the party to take shots at them. Sorra led them near the Tree of Life, hoping that she would pound the brothers to goo. The tree did not comply, but it did not matter. Soon they were dead by attacks from the party and being pulled under by roots as well.

Zelast and Jothillian were trading hit points back and forth with a string of Vampiric Touch spells cast through their swords. Jothillian was close to finishing off Zelast, but Ysilia barely hit him with her super healing ray (Cure Serious Wound augmented with the Ranged Touch Spell feat, then further augmented with a Sudden Maximize and Sudden Empower – for 57 points of healing).

That signaled the end of Jothillian’s days.

“I will not die to the likes of you!” he growled.

But he did. I do not remember if he was finally brought down with a Magic Missile spell from Zelast, a Magic Missile from a wand by Ari, or through a sword strike by Zelast, but he was definitely killed by one of them.

He then fell to the ground to be pulled into the soil as well.

The tree introduced herself as Maratheelia and she owed them a debt of many lifetimes and told them that she would gladly repay them in any way she could.

First they asked for the Vornoth equipment, and she told them that they could have it back once the bodies became soil (a few weeks time).

Then they asked if she knew anything about the prophecy of the six flames. She recalled no such thing, but would meditate upon it when she had the time.

She then informed the group that the king and his entourage was returning, and opened up the glade for them while many of the bushes began sprouting flowers and similar things of beauty.

Anthillian strode in as best he could and looked around. Seeing no sign of his sons he asked, “Where is Jothillian.”

The party and Maratheelia informed him of what happened.

Shaking in “old man anger” he threatened to destroy the tree and so on. At which point Artemis declared him to be under arrest.

Anthillian fled through teleportation. By the next dawn all of the inhabitants of house Vornoth, and all of its treasures, had disappeared.

Over the next few months, the spirit of the elves returned and the party remained with them for three months time.

The true heir to the elven kingdom returned; the young elf boy the party had helped return to the refugee elves months ago. In fact, all of the elves returned from Endrin during that time.

The party was rewarded with thanks of the elves and gifts from them.

Zelast’s family, who had been nearly ruined by Jothillian, was returned to their original status.

Artemis trained any able elf that was interested in the ways of the warmage. His nearly impossible task of forging a relationship with Talinaar’s Arms Trading Company was somewhat successful after all, though the shipments were only through wizardly teleportation between Maratheelia and Endrin.

I suspect the beginning of next week’s game with be a big paperwork week.

Thus ends the first chapter of the campaign.