Rappan Athuk #14-15 - The Temple of Orcus
It’s less than two weeks to go for 4E.
I’m ready to play it, though with the trepidation I’ve yammered on about here for the past 9 months or so.
It looks like we’re going to play Keep on the Shadowfell, but not until 4E is actually released. Dale doesn’t get his copy until the core books are released.
The disadvantage is that other groups will be playing it and probably finished it before we even started it.
The advantage is that we could use our own PC’s instead of the pre-generated ones supplied in the module.
Dale will be running it. He should do a good job so long as WotC didn’t make the intro-module difficult to follow and so long as Dale doesn’t tweak the module to match his wants, needs, and perceptions.
The Return to Castle Ravenloft is the perfect example of both of those.
Session #14
All of us were at this session, so replacement PC’s poofed out and main ones poofed in.
It was also day 35 of the campaign, making this the first night of the full moon. Thus Justin’s PC Spotted Dragon would get to show his new lycanthropic side.
Last we stopped with them resting inside Saver’s Rope Trick spell, making for relatively convenient resting in the dungeon.
After their rest they went back down to level 4 to explore some more.
They found an ogre along the way. The poor thing only got one swing in before it was swarmed and brought down. The swing missed.
This particular level is humorous to me. Although it’s not immediately obvious, this level of the dungeon almost a straight line. The PC’s almost had to go in numerical room order to get to the stairs leading to the next level.
And that’s what they did.
Connected to the ogres’ room was a trash-filled cavern. They searched a bit through it, but after getting poked with rusty nail after rusty nail and only 4gp, they stopped searching and moved on; though they always had the feeling as though they were being watched.
The next cavern they found had a passage leading up about 80 degrees. They figure it probably leads up to the ogre room on level 2.
Next was a room filled 4’ high with oily water. Most of the group declines to even enter the room, except for Spot, who dives in and searches around.
He finds a room out of the water and out of sight of the rest of the group, but it only contains mushy and moldy bedding, books, and desk.
The only thing of interest was the faint glow of magic on the door to the room. What the group didn’t know was that it was a silent Alarm spell warning the priests of the Temple of Orcus of the party’s presence.
The next room was a large natural cavern that had been set up as a training ground (combat dummies, archery targets, wood weapons, etc.). They tried to surmise how recently the place had been used, but since none of their 8 classes was listed as ranger, they received no information.
Attached to that room was a sleeping quarters with 6 simple beds with chests at the foot of each.
Giving in to stupidity, they decided that GI, Javier, and Spot would each open a chest simultaneously.
The result was GI getting blasted by a Lightning Bolt, Javier blasting the room with a cold Fireball, and Spot releasing a poison gas (Burnt Othur Fumes) that cost Spot and Javier 1 point of constitution permanently.
Then they decided to open the remaining chests one at a time with spells protecting them.
Ironically the remaining traps were not as bad to the group, though many level 2 spell slots were spent on Lesser Restoration.
The treasure they gained was not something worth the cost, except maybe to GI (an evil favored soul). Each chest contained a cloak and robe with the symbol of Orcus on it, and a simple dagger. One chest had a Book of Vile Darkness (that GI alone could read the title of thanks to his Helm of Comprehend Languages) and a cursed ring that reduces your will saves by 4.
They debated to pause and rest or push on, with pushing on winning.
GI, the leader of the pushing on argument, opened the door and triggered yet another trap.
He failed the will save versus the Feeblemind spell by one.
After reading the spell, I decided that Feeblemind was a bit too harsh, effectively killing a PC. So I had Aaron hand in all of his coupons (13 of them) and called it a made save.
In hindsight, maybe leaving GI brain-dead was a lesser of potential evils.
GI, who had nothing happen to him, pushed on with the group.
The hallway beyond was oddly warm and the door at the end of it had what Dale called “demon porn”. In other words it had carvings of unspeakable acts of evil.
Still they pushed on.
Inside was a large room in the shape of a six-pointed star, with a large golden statue of Orcus in one of the points, and a lava pit with stairs above it in the center of the room.
Nineteen of the cult of Orcus finished their chant as the party opened the door.
Their leader, a man standing atop the arched stairs above the lava pit did the standard “You have invaded the sanctum of the Temple of Orcus. For that the penalty is death.”
Now looking at the encounter I knew the party would make mincemeat of most of the combat, so I slight altered the encounter to make it more balanced.
Usually I overdo that kind of tweaking, but this time I believe I truly balanced the combat.
First I made all of the cultists gestalt cleric/fighters. Before you think I went overboard, realize that all it did was increase their base attacks by 1-3, increased their hp by 1 per level, and gave some fighter feats.
Then changed the spectre-wizard (level 9) to a spectre-sorcerer (level 7) and tweaked his spells something more to my liking.
And believe it or not, the combat was actually quite balanced, leaving only dice-rolling and combat-decisions.
Early rounds:
Initially it was GI alone in the corridor to the temple, but the rest of the party moved up. Oddly, the combat was mostly within 20’ of the doorway.
Saver nuked every cultist he could see with alternating Fireballs and Coldballs.
Cultists that do not die swarm the party, cast healing spells, or cast offensive clerical spells at the party. One cultist successfully gets a Hold Person on GI, leaving him held for several rounds thanks to Aaron’s horrible dice rolling.
Eventually the cultists begin retreating out of Fireball range and heal up.
Javier spends several rounds trying to dispel the various divine spells being tossed at them. Unfortunately he unintentionally dispels the Death Ward spell on GI while trying to get rid of the Hold Person on him.
Spot mostly fights clean up thanks to the limited fighting area. He saves GI’s life when a cultist attempts a coup de grace but is killed with the attack of opportunity.
The spectre harasses the party with spells like Lightning Bolt, Slow, and Web, before it has to retreat and get healed up by the Fireball-harried cultists.
The high priest does much the same as the rest of the cultists during this time, while marching directly at the party. Once in melee he attempts to cast Finger of Death on Spot, but fails to cast it defensively, twice.
Eventually a vrock demon enters the fray, acting as a kind of reserve force as he summons 17 dretches to replace the lost cultist fodder in melee and swarm around the party.
Eventually GI finally breaks free of the Hold Person spell.
Middle rounds:
Javier is both slowed and stuck in a Web spell, so spend time healing, buffing, and pushing out of the Web.
Saver casts a much needed Haste spell and then must go on the defensive when the vrock teleports behind the party to wreak some havoc.
Spot and GI both wade into the sea of dretches, dropping maybe 2 a round thanks to the dretches’ damage resistance. They both feel relatively safe as the dretches only hit on nat-20’s.
The high priest took a lot of damage from the party, so he flees to heal up, relying on his subordinates to heal him.
Eventually the spectre and Javier face off as the spectre walks through the walls to get into the middle of the party.
Late rounds:
Javier and the spectre spend rounds missing each other. Eventually Javier is able to land two solid hits, removing the spectre as a threat.
Saver, unable to stand toe-to-toe with a vrock, casts Rope Trick and hides in it for a couple rounds healing and buffing up with a Freedom of Movement spell.
The vrock teleports back to the front lines and maneuvers to get into melee with all 5 of his attacks. But Spot and GI keep moving around, making it hard for it to get on more than a swing or two.
GI and Spot continue clearing out the sea of dretches while the dretches tirelessly claw at them.
The remaining cultists move back into melee as the dretches are slowly taken out.
The high priest also moves back into melee, and faces off against the worn-down GI.
Although the dretches could only hit on a nat-20, with the new rules a nat-20 is max damage (5 or 7). After scores of attacks, GI only had 13hp left.
The high priest uses his death touch special ability, killing GI instantly. No save. (Death Touch is a death domain special ability.)
Final rounds:
Saver emerges from the Rope Trick and clears out many of the remaining low-level opponents with a Coldball, leaving only the vrock and high priest.
Javier heals Spot with what little spells he has remaining.
Spot continues clearing away the low-level trash, but eventually has to face the vrock. He deals paltry damage to the vrock.
The vrock returns with his own full attack, ripping Spot a new one with nearly 60 points of damage.
Spot has only 5hp remaining and still has a few swarming dretches to worry about.
Javier continues to heal Spot, but the vrock take Spot down anyway.
Javier heals Spot back to consciousness, and Spot does some healing of his own. But he once again knocked back down by the vrock.
A cultist ends the up and conflict by casting Death Knell on Spot, killing him.
Saver casts Magic Missile at the high priest, but the high priest is immune to the spell.
That’s enough for Saver. The following round he casts Improved Invisibility and flees combat.
Javier attempts to do the same, but he doesn’t have the Freedom of Movement that Saver had and has a Web spell to deal with.
Things look even worse for him when the vrock teleports to block the escape route, and we write off Javier’s existence.
Only Saver survived of the party.
Only the vrock, a single cultist, and the high priest survived of the cultists.
Session #15
Since we had just had a near TPK, and the campaign is winding down, I allowed everyone to bring in their new PC with the same XP from their last PC.
Plus I gave everyone something decent for a magic item.
I boosted Saver’s AC with an Amulet of Natural Armor +3 and gave him a Pearl of Power for level 3 spells.
Karth, Brian’s fighter/favored soul, was given an intelligent greatclub and some minor magic boosts on his armor.
Justin brought back Skwee and he was given a Cloak of Resistance +2 and a Rod of Lesser Maximize (those are always nice).
And finally Brad, Aaron’s new half-orc fighter/rogue, was given a +1 Keen/+1 Keen orc double-axe.
This session was not much more than a repeat of session #14.
We started the session with Saver running away from last week’s combat, all the way back to the room with the locked stone door.
He had just finished climbing into his new Rope Trick spell when the three new PC’s burst through the stone door, running in terror from something behind them.
He recognized them from town and after a very brief chat he allowed them inside to rest.
He told them what happened, and they told him that they had just had a run-in with an illusory demon that tricked them into killing their cleric. When they fled to the great cavern, a purple worm blocked their path forcing them to return.
After resting, they went back to the Temple of Orcus for some revenge.
(Remember, this is Rappan Athuk and our last hurrah for 3E. Our reasons don’t have to make sense.)
Now the cultists of Orcus knew they needed some back up, so they hired a few goons from town for some quick defense (or early warning) with an eye to take out the remaining defiler of their temple (Saver).
Waiting to ambush the party in the acolyte bedroom (see session #14) was a squad of five level six gestalts:
Grobbog, half-orc barbarian/rogue whose job was to deal melee damage
Victor, fighter/ranger dual-wielding short swords whose intent was to get flanking and slice-n-dice the opposition
Ailes, favored soul/sorcerer whose job was anti-magic and utility
Vreen, ranger/scout using a composite bow to take out irritants, like rogues and mages
Mallel, scout/sorcerer specializing in ray spells
Grobbog died on round 1.
Victor died on round 2.
The rest died shortly thereafter.
That was with a surprise round against the party.
It was a good thing I didn’t expect to do much more than suck up some resources.
The party healed up and moved on (the Feeblemind door was open).
Now the priests of Orcus did loot the bodies of the dead PC’s and used the items appropriately, or destroyed them, sold them, etc. (the same thing PC’s do).
I also leveled the high priest to level 10 and the sole surviving priest to level 6. They hid in the walls of the temple using the Meld to Stone spell once they heard fighting.
The other priests had been brought back as ghasts or replaced with ghasts, and dressed in robes imitating the same set up as last week.
Revenge was sweet though as the party had been able to appropriately prepare.
Karth made mince meat of the ghasts, taking out 5 in one round on his first swing thanks to Power Attack and Great Cleave.
Aaron didn’t have to worry about Hold Person spells this week. He was buffed with a Freedom of Movement spell.
The vrock demon got lucky and was able to gate in a second vrock. Too bad for them the party had prepped up their weapons with the Align Weapon spell.
The combat looked good and scary, even though the ghasts dropped like flies.
The vrocks killed Karth, but they couldn’t stand up to a Brad who deals minimum 40 damage per hit, an (greater) invisible Saver who kept moving and casting spells, and a mobile Skwee.
The combat took less than half the time as session #14.
Next session, another new level of the dungeon.
I’m ready to play it, though with the trepidation I’ve yammered on about here for the past 9 months or so.
It looks like we’re going to play Keep on the Shadowfell, but not until 4E is actually released. Dale doesn’t get his copy until the core books are released.
The disadvantage is that other groups will be playing it and probably finished it before we even started it.
The advantage is that we could use our own PC’s instead of the pre-generated ones supplied in the module.
Dale will be running it. He should do a good job so long as WotC didn’t make the intro-module difficult to follow and so long as Dale doesn’t tweak the module to match his wants, needs, and perceptions.
The Return to Castle Ravenloft is the perfect example of both of those.
Session #14
All of us were at this session, so replacement PC’s poofed out and main ones poofed in.
It was also day 35 of the campaign, making this the first night of the full moon. Thus Justin’s PC Spotted Dragon would get to show his new lycanthropic side.
Last we stopped with them resting inside Saver’s Rope Trick spell, making for relatively convenient resting in the dungeon.
After their rest they went back down to level 4 to explore some more.
They found an ogre along the way. The poor thing only got one swing in before it was swarmed and brought down. The swing missed.
This particular level is humorous to me. Although it’s not immediately obvious, this level of the dungeon almost a straight line. The PC’s almost had to go in numerical room order to get to the stairs leading to the next level.
And that’s what they did.
Connected to the ogres’ room was a trash-filled cavern. They searched a bit through it, but after getting poked with rusty nail after rusty nail and only 4gp, they stopped searching and moved on; though they always had the feeling as though they were being watched.
The next cavern they found had a passage leading up about 80 degrees. They figure it probably leads up to the ogre room on level 2.
Next was a room filled 4’ high with oily water. Most of the group declines to even enter the room, except for Spot, who dives in and searches around.
He finds a room out of the water and out of sight of the rest of the group, but it only contains mushy and moldy bedding, books, and desk.
The only thing of interest was the faint glow of magic on the door to the room. What the group didn’t know was that it was a silent Alarm spell warning the priests of the Temple of Orcus of the party’s presence.
The next room was a large natural cavern that had been set up as a training ground (combat dummies, archery targets, wood weapons, etc.). They tried to surmise how recently the place had been used, but since none of their 8 classes was listed as ranger, they received no information.
Attached to that room was a sleeping quarters with 6 simple beds with chests at the foot of each.
Giving in to stupidity, they decided that GI, Javier, and Spot would each open a chest simultaneously.
The result was GI getting blasted by a Lightning Bolt, Javier blasting the room with a cold Fireball, and Spot releasing a poison gas (Burnt Othur Fumes) that cost Spot and Javier 1 point of constitution permanently.
Then they decided to open the remaining chests one at a time with spells protecting them.
Ironically the remaining traps were not as bad to the group, though many level 2 spell slots were spent on Lesser Restoration.
The treasure they gained was not something worth the cost, except maybe to GI (an evil favored soul). Each chest contained a cloak and robe with the symbol of Orcus on it, and a simple dagger. One chest had a Book of Vile Darkness (that GI alone could read the title of thanks to his Helm of Comprehend Languages) and a cursed ring that reduces your will saves by 4.
They debated to pause and rest or push on, with pushing on winning.
GI, the leader of the pushing on argument, opened the door and triggered yet another trap.
He failed the will save versus the Feeblemind spell by one.
After reading the spell, I decided that Feeblemind was a bit too harsh, effectively killing a PC. So I had Aaron hand in all of his coupons (13 of them) and called it a made save.
In hindsight, maybe leaving GI brain-dead was a lesser of potential evils.
GI, who had nothing happen to him, pushed on with the group.
The hallway beyond was oddly warm and the door at the end of it had what Dale called “demon porn”. In other words it had carvings of unspeakable acts of evil.
Still they pushed on.
Inside was a large room in the shape of a six-pointed star, with a large golden statue of Orcus in one of the points, and a lava pit with stairs above it in the center of the room.
Nineteen of the cult of Orcus finished their chant as the party opened the door.
Their leader, a man standing atop the arched stairs above the lava pit did the standard “You have invaded the sanctum of the Temple of Orcus. For that the penalty is death.”
Now looking at the encounter I knew the party would make mincemeat of most of the combat, so I slight altered the encounter to make it more balanced.
Usually I overdo that kind of tweaking, but this time I believe I truly balanced the combat.
First I made all of the cultists gestalt cleric/fighters. Before you think I went overboard, realize that all it did was increase their base attacks by 1-3, increased their hp by 1 per level, and gave some fighter feats.
Then changed the spectre-wizard (level 9) to a spectre-sorcerer (level 7) and tweaked his spells something more to my liking.
And believe it or not, the combat was actually quite balanced, leaving only dice-rolling and combat-decisions.
Early rounds:
Initially it was GI alone in the corridor to the temple, but the rest of the party moved up. Oddly, the combat was mostly within 20’ of the doorway.
Saver nuked every cultist he could see with alternating Fireballs and Coldballs.
Cultists that do not die swarm the party, cast healing spells, or cast offensive clerical spells at the party. One cultist successfully gets a Hold Person on GI, leaving him held for several rounds thanks to Aaron’s horrible dice rolling.
Eventually the cultists begin retreating out of Fireball range and heal up.
Javier spends several rounds trying to dispel the various divine spells being tossed at them. Unfortunately he unintentionally dispels the Death Ward spell on GI while trying to get rid of the Hold Person on him.
Spot mostly fights clean up thanks to the limited fighting area. He saves GI’s life when a cultist attempts a coup de grace but is killed with the attack of opportunity.
The spectre harasses the party with spells like Lightning Bolt, Slow, and Web, before it has to retreat and get healed up by the Fireball-harried cultists.
The high priest does much the same as the rest of the cultists during this time, while marching directly at the party. Once in melee he attempts to cast Finger of Death on Spot, but fails to cast it defensively, twice.
Eventually a vrock demon enters the fray, acting as a kind of reserve force as he summons 17 dretches to replace the lost cultist fodder in melee and swarm around the party.
Eventually GI finally breaks free of the Hold Person spell.
Middle rounds:
Javier is both slowed and stuck in a Web spell, so spend time healing, buffing, and pushing out of the Web.
Saver casts a much needed Haste spell and then must go on the defensive when the vrock teleports behind the party to wreak some havoc.
Spot and GI both wade into the sea of dretches, dropping maybe 2 a round thanks to the dretches’ damage resistance. They both feel relatively safe as the dretches only hit on nat-20’s.
The high priest took a lot of damage from the party, so he flees to heal up, relying on his subordinates to heal him.
Eventually the spectre and Javier face off as the spectre walks through the walls to get into the middle of the party.
Late rounds:
Javier and the spectre spend rounds missing each other. Eventually Javier is able to land two solid hits, removing the spectre as a threat.
Saver, unable to stand toe-to-toe with a vrock, casts Rope Trick and hides in it for a couple rounds healing and buffing up with a Freedom of Movement spell.
The vrock teleports back to the front lines and maneuvers to get into melee with all 5 of his attacks. But Spot and GI keep moving around, making it hard for it to get on more than a swing or two.
GI and Spot continue clearing out the sea of dretches while the dretches tirelessly claw at them.
The remaining cultists move back into melee as the dretches are slowly taken out.
The high priest also moves back into melee, and faces off against the worn-down GI.
Although the dretches could only hit on a nat-20, with the new rules a nat-20 is max damage (5 or 7). After scores of attacks, GI only had 13hp left.
The high priest uses his death touch special ability, killing GI instantly. No save. (Death Touch is a death domain special ability.)
Final rounds:
Saver emerges from the Rope Trick and clears out many of the remaining low-level opponents with a Coldball, leaving only the vrock and high priest.
Javier heals Spot with what little spells he has remaining.
Spot continues clearing away the low-level trash, but eventually has to face the vrock. He deals paltry damage to the vrock.
The vrock returns with his own full attack, ripping Spot a new one with nearly 60 points of damage.
Spot has only 5hp remaining and still has a few swarming dretches to worry about.
Javier continues to heal Spot, but the vrock take Spot down anyway.
Javier heals Spot back to consciousness, and Spot does some healing of his own. But he once again knocked back down by the vrock.
A cultist ends the up and conflict by casting Death Knell on Spot, killing him.
Saver casts Magic Missile at the high priest, but the high priest is immune to the spell.
That’s enough for Saver. The following round he casts Improved Invisibility and flees combat.
Javier attempts to do the same, but he doesn’t have the Freedom of Movement that Saver had and has a Web spell to deal with.
Things look even worse for him when the vrock teleports to block the escape route, and we write off Javier’s existence.
Only Saver survived of the party.
Only the vrock, a single cultist, and the high priest survived of the cultists.
Session #15
Since we had just had a near TPK, and the campaign is winding down, I allowed everyone to bring in their new PC with the same XP from their last PC.
Plus I gave everyone something decent for a magic item.
I boosted Saver’s AC with an Amulet of Natural Armor +3 and gave him a Pearl of Power for level 3 spells.
Karth, Brian’s fighter/favored soul, was given an intelligent greatclub and some minor magic boosts on his armor.
Justin brought back Skwee and he was given a Cloak of Resistance +2 and a Rod of Lesser Maximize (those are always nice).
And finally Brad, Aaron’s new half-orc fighter/rogue, was given a +1 Keen/+1 Keen orc double-axe.
This session was not much more than a repeat of session #14.
We started the session with Saver running away from last week’s combat, all the way back to the room with the locked stone door.
He had just finished climbing into his new Rope Trick spell when the three new PC’s burst through the stone door, running in terror from something behind them.
He recognized them from town and after a very brief chat he allowed them inside to rest.
He told them what happened, and they told him that they had just had a run-in with an illusory demon that tricked them into killing their cleric. When they fled to the great cavern, a purple worm blocked their path forcing them to return.
After resting, they went back to the Temple of Orcus for some revenge.
(Remember, this is Rappan Athuk and our last hurrah for 3E. Our reasons don’t have to make sense.)
Now the cultists of Orcus knew they needed some back up, so they hired a few goons from town for some quick defense (or early warning) with an eye to take out the remaining defiler of their temple (Saver).
Waiting to ambush the party in the acolyte bedroom (see session #14) was a squad of five level six gestalts:
Grobbog, half-orc barbarian/rogue whose job was to deal melee damage
Victor, fighter/ranger dual-wielding short swords whose intent was to get flanking and slice-n-dice the opposition
Ailes, favored soul/sorcerer whose job was anti-magic and utility
Vreen, ranger/scout using a composite bow to take out irritants, like rogues and mages
Mallel, scout/sorcerer specializing in ray spells
Grobbog died on round 1.
Victor died on round 2.
The rest died shortly thereafter.
That was with a surprise round against the party.
It was a good thing I didn’t expect to do much more than suck up some resources.
The party healed up and moved on (the Feeblemind door was open).
Now the priests of Orcus did loot the bodies of the dead PC’s and used the items appropriately, or destroyed them, sold them, etc. (the same thing PC’s do).
I also leveled the high priest to level 10 and the sole surviving priest to level 6. They hid in the walls of the temple using the Meld to Stone spell once they heard fighting.
The other priests had been brought back as ghasts or replaced with ghasts, and dressed in robes imitating the same set up as last week.
Revenge was sweet though as the party had been able to appropriately prepare.
Karth made mince meat of the ghasts, taking out 5 in one round on his first swing thanks to Power Attack and Great Cleave.
Aaron didn’t have to worry about Hold Person spells this week. He was buffed with a Freedom of Movement spell.
The vrock demon got lucky and was able to gate in a second vrock. Too bad for them the party had prepped up their weapons with the Align Weapon spell.
The combat looked good and scary, even though the ghasts dropped like flies.
The vrocks killed Karth, but they couldn’t stand up to a Brad who deals minimum 40 damage per hit, an (greater) invisible Saver who kept moving and casting spells, and a mobile Skwee.
The combat took less than half the time as session #14.
Next session, another new level of the dungeon.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 8:13 PM
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