The Valley #11-12
I just realized that I haven’t given WotC a penny since the MM2 came out.
Out of the 8 books I have of this edition, I’ve bought 5 (core 3, PHB2, MM2), and the others are presents.
I have zero reason or interest in buying anything else, which is sad since I was voraciously buying books when 3E came out.
Other players in the group have bought a small variety of books, but nothing much recently. For some of us the reason is that we have no spare money. For others the reason is lack of interest in paying $35 for a book that might have a dozen pages of information we’ll use.
The cruel irony – WotC sold out to Hasbro, but we’re paying the price.
I’m not 100% sure, but I believe the last person in the group to buy a book was Mike. It was the Complete Divine, and I think Justin gets more use out of that book than Mike has.
(Several powers in that book, specifically the cleric powers, look like porn titles too. Hello…Stream of Life, Astral Seal, Moment of Glory, etc.)
For our sessions, I continue doing my best to take the good bits of 4E and use them as best as I can.
Examples:
I use minions as often as I reasonably can.
I try to hand out magic items that have passive abilities or work without interrupting combat flow.
I use monster templates and other modifications to make the standard ones more interesting rather than to use the same base creatures over and over.
I use skill challenges, but not always as written. Sometimes I alter skill challenges to be less of an encounter, but to rather modify an upcoming encounter. This makes sure that all skills will be useful at some point but doesn’t guarantee a giant fail if the party is missing one.
I make sure that I hand out the right amount of treasure without being blatantly predictable on how the party gets it (as in “kill a monster, take its treasure, rinse, repeat”). This vaguely follows the treasure suggestions the core rules give (though I use monster levels instead of party level).
Ok, on to the sessions before I start with the 4E hate yet again.
Session #11
Our cast:
Admon (Scott); level 6 human war wizard
Ander (Dale); level 4 halfling storm sorcerer (slacker XP gain)
Duncan (Justin); level 6 Silverhome dwarven cleric of Moradin
Edward (Aaron); level 6 human paladin of Brekaneth
Kergan (Mike); level 6 Silverhome dwarven rogue
The party returned to town with the Annesius children safely with them, to much fanfare (and some rewards of course).
Several people actually went out of town to grab the dragons’ bodies, threw them on a cart, and paraded them through town.
This made the party a bit uncomfortable, but it certainly helped spread the word of their deeds. Not to mention it may have swayed a couple of the council members to see Duncan and his cause in a better light.
We jumped to 9pm the next night when a robed man showed up at the Silverblade compound, asking to see Admon.
“Admon Silverblade?”
“Yes”
“Come with me”
“Who are you?”
“I am an assistant of Polaris.”
So Admon quickly gathered his gear and followed the robed man while Duncan, Edward, and Kergan joined.
An hour or so later and they’ve all gathered at Silver Lake, plus nearly a dozen sorcerers, including Ander.
While gathering up members for the cabal, Ander unknowingly added a silver dragon to their ranks, specifically, Polaris’s mate. That led him and the rest of the cabal to the current situation.
She explained to the party and cabal that the reasons the dragons attacked last night was because there was an active portal into the Shadowfell and it needed to be closed before anything really dangerous snuck on to this plane.
She and Polaris had scouted out the area of the portal and gathered what information they could, surmising that the Herollus family was possibly behind this.
The dragons and sorcerers were going to distract and destroy the black dragon defenses while the party had their own special job of destroying the defenses directly at the portal and to “calm” the portal with a ritual (skill challenge) to prevent any other creatures from entering this plane from the Shadowfell.
After the battle, the party was to enter the Shadowfell to permanently destroy the portal from that side while the dragons did the same from this side (also using a skill challenge ritual).
“How do we get back?”
At that point Polaris walks out of the water and hands the party several polished black stones with silver streaks.
“When you are calm, hold a stone in your hand and concentrate on me. The stone will bring you to me.”
For the record, “calm” means not in combat or other peril.
Five minutes later and the entire group were landing on the treacherous and rocky area that makes up the walls of the Valley.
Shortly after that the two silver dragons attacked the flight of black dragons, followed up by attacks from nearly a dozen sorcerers who concentrated their fire on one dragon at a time.
This gave the party to sneak into an exposed half-cave where a thin violet film shimmered in the background guarded by a floating and flaming skull and giant zombie that was swarming with rats.
As combat began, all the rats poured out of the zombie, making two swarms that the party just loves to deal with.
The party was doing quite well when a specter walked out of the portal and began harassing them.
When Admon was finally able to begin the ritual, the portal appeared to become more frantic in its shimmering, and another specter appeared.
In the end, 3 specters had appeared before the ritual was complete and the portal became calm.
At that point several of the party went to help the rest of their combatants (read as I allowed good-aligned party members to sacrifice up to two healing surges for 25XP each).
Once the dust settled and the party rested up, it was time for them to enter the portal.
They entered into a very dark room where they could barely half as well as usual (half normal vision, and everything had normal concealment), and walking around felt like they were swimming through mud.
Unfortunately, the change in the portal was seen on both sides, so several shadar-kai were ready for the party and attacked them upon entry. They also recognized Admon Silverblade immediately, and occasionally paid special attention to him.
But as usual, the party dealt with them and continued about their business.
As Admon was going about permanently closing the portal, the rest of the party could hear fighting going on somewhere else in the building they were in.
Moments after the ritual had been finished, several humans rushed into the room.
They wanted to know what happened to portal, and were very upset about it being closed as it was the only way they were going to be able to get back home to the real world.
These humans were at one time employed by the Herollus family and quit after a time, but were refused access to the main portal the family had. This left them stranded in the Shadowfell, and they were forced into hiding and banditry when they could (not everything is dark and evil in the Shadowfell, just most of it), eventually taking on aspects of the realm (the shadowborn stalker template).
They had heard that this small fort had a new portal opened and they intended upon using it, only to find the party had just destroyed it.
Since the silver stones only transfer one person, the party could not in good conscious (well some of the party) leave these people stranded.
So after much role-playing, and an opportunity to hurt the Herollus family added to the till for Admon, the party came up with a plan.
Session #12
Our cast:
Admon (Scott); level 6 human war wizard
Ander (NPC); around for appearances only
Duncan (Justin); level 6 Silverhome dwarven cleric of Moradin
Edward (Aaron); level 6 human paladin of Brekaneth
Kergan (Mike); level 6 Silverhome dwarven rogue
Using uniforms from other, now deceased, ex-employees of the family, the party dressed up as those ex-employees (even Ander).
Except for Ander, he was “captured” and would be turned over to the Herollus family and be allowed to return home.
But the real plan was for the party to distract the household and the “guardian of the portal” long enough for their new allies and themselves to escape through the portal in the basement of the mansion.
The walk from the fort to the mansion was short, not even a quarter-mile, but they couldn’t clearly see the place until they were almost upon it.
It was your standard gothic-style mansion, with a dim, stationary blue bubble surrounding it.
This “bubble” was to keep the Shadowfell and it’s effects out, allowing the mansion and its residents to continue on with business as normal.
The leader of the exiles chatted with the lead guard on duty. Once Admon’s face was shown, the guard went to immediately get his boss, Pehr’All Herollus.
Pehr’All gave an evil smile, and agreed to let the exiles return to their home plane when morning came, while a pair of guards followed Pehr’All back to his study with Admon in tow.
The exiled guards and the employed guards began chatting with one another, several of them still friendly with each other apparently. Ander and a couple of other exiles snuck off to scout around. And the rest of the party began discussing potential strategies.
First was the idea that the center of the protective bubble surrounding the mansion could be destroyed and the ensuing chaos would be a good distraction to escape under.
Then we jumped to Admon and Pehr’All having a nice chat in the study.
Pehr’All makes it known that he knows the party’s intent, but that’s okay, he’s willing to let them go if Admon is willing to cooperate.
He gives the standard spiel of the quick and painless death or the long slow death, but then adds another deal – no death.
But that particular plan is unpalatable as it requires Admon to give Pehr’All every last detail of his family, and to not intervene as the Herollus family destroys every shred of the Silverblade family.
Admon declines and says, “Don’t underestimate me, my friends, or my family.”
So in disgust, Pehr’All tells his guards to take Admon back to his friends; presumably to wait for their execution.
About that time Ander came back with some scouting news and confirmed some things the party had speculated on. He had found the room where he believes the shield is being emitted from (but it’s locked), and the news from the around the house is that the guardian of the portal is being held prisoner by that same shield and the shield gets some of its energy from the guardian. So if the shield is destroyed, chaos will erupt as the Shadowfell will no longer be held at bay, and the guardian may want to get some revenge for its captivity.
Thus several of the guards, exiles, and Ander created a diversion while the party snuck off to the shield room.
On their way they ran into the guards and Admon, and were able to get him away from them (not a combat, just a convenient and fast way to get Admon back with the main group for a fight).
First the party had to get the door to the room unlocked, requiring 3 successful skill checks to get it open, with each fail giving the guardians of the shield room a round to prepare.
The room was large with a bridge in the center. Under the bridge was dark blackness the oozed evil and the party just knew that falling into that meant instant death. On the bridge was a pedestal, and on the pedestal was a brightly glowing gem.
Floating about the room was three more flaming skulls.
What the party didn’t know was that each round, one of the skulls had to spend an action to maintain the shield by blasting it with some of its own energy. If this didn’t happen, the shield would become unstable and if this happened five times, the shield would collapse.
Also, a skull could spend an action and turn on the shield’s other defenses, specifically a ray that struck two random enemy targets every round (merely +6 vs. Reflex, but for 2d8+3 damage), and some runes that appeared on the floor (that the party avoided). And when I say random, I mean that Admon and Kergan took 75% of those attacks (my d4’s kept rolling 2’s and 3’)s.
In spite of all that, the party did most of the damage to themselves. If someone attacked the gem on the pedestal in any way, they would be automatically hit by 1d8+10 necrotic damage and 10 more ongoing necrotic damage (save ends).
As each flaming skull died, the remaining ones would get more defensive.
But eventually the skulls were destroyed and the shield became obviously unstable, appearing as though it were going to explode.
So the party fled the room before that happened, and closed the door, only to hear a barely audible pop and the sound of stone cracking.
They returned to the room to find the bridge and everything on it had collapsed into the blackness below.
And, of course, all hell began to break loose, initiate by a loud growl from beneath the mansion, followed by panic spreading throughout the place.
The party rushed to the basement hoping to get as many people out of the place as fast as possible.
But the basement was crowded:
- All four PC’s, plus 1 exile that each player controlled and acted right after the PC
- Pehr’All Herollus and shield guardian
- Pehr’All two sons (no names, and it doesn’t matter – they die) – both human mages
- 4 human guards
- 12 flunkies (minions)
- and 12 humans that sought to escape, with more coming each round. One third of these human were helpful to the party (offering flanking and could be moved through), one third was hurtful to the party (accounts as flanking against the party, and can not be moved through), and one third that were neutral (cannot be moved through)
- The guardian, a Thief of Life, a.k.a. a vampiric dragon
Each time an escaping human made it through the portal, the party got 10XP, even a hurtful one.
Pehr’All was quite aware of the party’s presence but he was preoccupied by the guardian.
“All life will pay for the pain you’ve inflicted upon me.”
That comment didn’t settle well with the party, so they did what they could to clear a path to the portal while steering clear of the two titans fighting one another.
The party was tearing through their main focus of enemies and the dragon was putting a hurt on the shield guardian.
Pehr’All could not hurt the dragon, and the dragon could barely hurt Pehr’All as they both had very good regeneration. So Pehr’All occasionally tossed one of his powers to hurt the party (such as a 5x5 field that does 10 damage a round and slows movement).
Once the shield guardian dropped the dragon attacked Pehr’All directly and in spite of his regeneration, it became obvious to all that he was a lich and he couldn’t take on the dragon directly. Sor Pehr’All searched on the ground for his phylactery (the gem in the shield room), and fled through the portal.
Now the party did take a couple of shots at the dragon and the lich, but when a rolled 18 missed they decided not to push their luck and fled through the portal as soon as everyone else was out of the room.
In moments they were all back on the Prime Material Plane and finding themselves surrounded by a multitude of people that would be best described as friendly, with Pehr’All nowhere in sight.
Out of the 8 books I have of this edition, I’ve bought 5 (core 3, PHB2, MM2), and the others are presents.
I have zero reason or interest in buying anything else, which is sad since I was voraciously buying books when 3E came out.
Other players in the group have bought a small variety of books, but nothing much recently. For some of us the reason is that we have no spare money. For others the reason is lack of interest in paying $35 for a book that might have a dozen pages of information we’ll use.
The cruel irony – WotC sold out to Hasbro, but we’re paying the price.
I’m not 100% sure, but I believe the last person in the group to buy a book was Mike. It was the Complete Divine, and I think Justin gets more use out of that book than Mike has.
(Several powers in that book, specifically the cleric powers, look like porn titles too. Hello…Stream of Life, Astral Seal, Moment of Glory, etc.)
For our sessions, I continue doing my best to take the good bits of 4E and use them as best as I can.
Examples:
I use minions as often as I reasonably can.
I try to hand out magic items that have passive abilities or work without interrupting combat flow.
I use monster templates and other modifications to make the standard ones more interesting rather than to use the same base creatures over and over.
I use skill challenges, but not always as written. Sometimes I alter skill challenges to be less of an encounter, but to rather modify an upcoming encounter. This makes sure that all skills will be useful at some point but doesn’t guarantee a giant fail if the party is missing one.
I make sure that I hand out the right amount of treasure without being blatantly predictable on how the party gets it (as in “kill a monster, take its treasure, rinse, repeat”). This vaguely follows the treasure suggestions the core rules give (though I use monster levels instead of party level).
Ok, on to the sessions before I start with the 4E hate yet again.
Session #11
Our cast:
Admon (Scott); level 6 human war wizard
Ander (Dale); level 4 halfling storm sorcerer (slacker XP gain)
Duncan (Justin); level 6 Silverhome dwarven cleric of Moradin
Edward (Aaron); level 6 human paladin of Brekaneth
Kergan (Mike); level 6 Silverhome dwarven rogue
The party returned to town with the Annesius children safely with them, to much fanfare (and some rewards of course).
Several people actually went out of town to grab the dragons’ bodies, threw them on a cart, and paraded them through town.
This made the party a bit uncomfortable, but it certainly helped spread the word of their deeds. Not to mention it may have swayed a couple of the council members to see Duncan and his cause in a better light.
We jumped to 9pm the next night when a robed man showed up at the Silverblade compound, asking to see Admon.
“Admon Silverblade?”
“Yes”
“Come with me”
“Who are you?”
“I am an assistant of Polaris.”
So Admon quickly gathered his gear and followed the robed man while Duncan, Edward, and Kergan joined.
An hour or so later and they’ve all gathered at Silver Lake, plus nearly a dozen sorcerers, including Ander.
While gathering up members for the cabal, Ander unknowingly added a silver dragon to their ranks, specifically, Polaris’s mate. That led him and the rest of the cabal to the current situation.
She explained to the party and cabal that the reasons the dragons attacked last night was because there was an active portal into the Shadowfell and it needed to be closed before anything really dangerous snuck on to this plane.
She and Polaris had scouted out the area of the portal and gathered what information they could, surmising that the Herollus family was possibly behind this.
The dragons and sorcerers were going to distract and destroy the black dragon defenses while the party had their own special job of destroying the defenses directly at the portal and to “calm” the portal with a ritual (skill challenge) to prevent any other creatures from entering this plane from the Shadowfell.
After the battle, the party was to enter the Shadowfell to permanently destroy the portal from that side while the dragons did the same from this side (also using a skill challenge ritual).
“How do we get back?”
At that point Polaris walks out of the water and hands the party several polished black stones with silver streaks.
“When you are calm, hold a stone in your hand and concentrate on me. The stone will bring you to me.”
For the record, “calm” means not in combat or other peril.
Five minutes later and the entire group were landing on the treacherous and rocky area that makes up the walls of the Valley.
Shortly after that the two silver dragons attacked the flight of black dragons, followed up by attacks from nearly a dozen sorcerers who concentrated their fire on one dragon at a time.
This gave the party to sneak into an exposed half-cave where a thin violet film shimmered in the background guarded by a floating and flaming skull and giant zombie that was swarming with rats.
As combat began, all the rats poured out of the zombie, making two swarms that the party just loves to deal with.
The party was doing quite well when a specter walked out of the portal and began harassing them.
When Admon was finally able to begin the ritual, the portal appeared to become more frantic in its shimmering, and another specter appeared.
In the end, 3 specters had appeared before the ritual was complete and the portal became calm.
At that point several of the party went to help the rest of their combatants (read as I allowed good-aligned party members to sacrifice up to two healing surges for 25XP each).
Once the dust settled and the party rested up, it was time for them to enter the portal.
They entered into a very dark room where they could barely half as well as usual (half normal vision, and everything had normal concealment), and walking around felt like they were swimming through mud.
Unfortunately, the change in the portal was seen on both sides, so several shadar-kai were ready for the party and attacked them upon entry. They also recognized Admon Silverblade immediately, and occasionally paid special attention to him.
But as usual, the party dealt with them and continued about their business.
As Admon was going about permanently closing the portal, the rest of the party could hear fighting going on somewhere else in the building they were in.
Moments after the ritual had been finished, several humans rushed into the room.
They wanted to know what happened to portal, and were very upset about it being closed as it was the only way they were going to be able to get back home to the real world.
These humans were at one time employed by the Herollus family and quit after a time, but were refused access to the main portal the family had. This left them stranded in the Shadowfell, and they were forced into hiding and banditry when they could (not everything is dark and evil in the Shadowfell, just most of it), eventually taking on aspects of the realm (the shadowborn stalker template).
They had heard that this small fort had a new portal opened and they intended upon using it, only to find the party had just destroyed it.
Since the silver stones only transfer one person, the party could not in good conscious (well some of the party) leave these people stranded.
So after much role-playing, and an opportunity to hurt the Herollus family added to the till for Admon, the party came up with a plan.
Session #12
Our cast:
Admon (Scott); level 6 human war wizard
Ander (NPC); around for appearances only
Duncan (Justin); level 6 Silverhome dwarven cleric of Moradin
Edward (Aaron); level 6 human paladin of Brekaneth
Kergan (Mike); level 6 Silverhome dwarven rogue
Using uniforms from other, now deceased, ex-employees of the family, the party dressed up as those ex-employees (even Ander).
Except for Ander, he was “captured” and would be turned over to the Herollus family and be allowed to return home.
But the real plan was for the party to distract the household and the “guardian of the portal” long enough for their new allies and themselves to escape through the portal in the basement of the mansion.
The walk from the fort to the mansion was short, not even a quarter-mile, but they couldn’t clearly see the place until they were almost upon it.
It was your standard gothic-style mansion, with a dim, stationary blue bubble surrounding it.
This “bubble” was to keep the Shadowfell and it’s effects out, allowing the mansion and its residents to continue on with business as normal.
The leader of the exiles chatted with the lead guard on duty. Once Admon’s face was shown, the guard went to immediately get his boss, Pehr’All Herollus.
Pehr’All gave an evil smile, and agreed to let the exiles return to their home plane when morning came, while a pair of guards followed Pehr’All back to his study with Admon in tow.
The exiled guards and the employed guards began chatting with one another, several of them still friendly with each other apparently. Ander and a couple of other exiles snuck off to scout around. And the rest of the party began discussing potential strategies.
First was the idea that the center of the protective bubble surrounding the mansion could be destroyed and the ensuing chaos would be a good distraction to escape under.
Then we jumped to Admon and Pehr’All having a nice chat in the study.
Pehr’All makes it known that he knows the party’s intent, but that’s okay, he’s willing to let them go if Admon is willing to cooperate.
He gives the standard spiel of the quick and painless death or the long slow death, but then adds another deal – no death.
But that particular plan is unpalatable as it requires Admon to give Pehr’All every last detail of his family, and to not intervene as the Herollus family destroys every shred of the Silverblade family.
Admon declines and says, “Don’t underestimate me, my friends, or my family.”
So in disgust, Pehr’All tells his guards to take Admon back to his friends; presumably to wait for their execution.
About that time Ander came back with some scouting news and confirmed some things the party had speculated on. He had found the room where he believes the shield is being emitted from (but it’s locked), and the news from the around the house is that the guardian of the portal is being held prisoner by that same shield and the shield gets some of its energy from the guardian. So if the shield is destroyed, chaos will erupt as the Shadowfell will no longer be held at bay, and the guardian may want to get some revenge for its captivity.
Thus several of the guards, exiles, and Ander created a diversion while the party snuck off to the shield room.
On their way they ran into the guards and Admon, and were able to get him away from them (not a combat, just a convenient and fast way to get Admon back with the main group for a fight).
First the party had to get the door to the room unlocked, requiring 3 successful skill checks to get it open, with each fail giving the guardians of the shield room a round to prepare.
The room was large with a bridge in the center. Under the bridge was dark blackness the oozed evil and the party just knew that falling into that meant instant death. On the bridge was a pedestal, and on the pedestal was a brightly glowing gem.
Floating about the room was three more flaming skulls.
What the party didn’t know was that each round, one of the skulls had to spend an action to maintain the shield by blasting it with some of its own energy. If this didn’t happen, the shield would become unstable and if this happened five times, the shield would collapse.
Also, a skull could spend an action and turn on the shield’s other defenses, specifically a ray that struck two random enemy targets every round (merely +6 vs. Reflex, but for 2d8+3 damage), and some runes that appeared on the floor (that the party avoided). And when I say random, I mean that Admon and Kergan took 75% of those attacks (my d4’s kept rolling 2’s and 3’)s.
In spite of all that, the party did most of the damage to themselves. If someone attacked the gem on the pedestal in any way, they would be automatically hit by 1d8+10 necrotic damage and 10 more ongoing necrotic damage (save ends).
As each flaming skull died, the remaining ones would get more defensive.
But eventually the skulls were destroyed and the shield became obviously unstable, appearing as though it were going to explode.
So the party fled the room before that happened, and closed the door, only to hear a barely audible pop and the sound of stone cracking.
They returned to the room to find the bridge and everything on it had collapsed into the blackness below.
And, of course, all hell began to break loose, initiate by a loud growl from beneath the mansion, followed by panic spreading throughout the place.
The party rushed to the basement hoping to get as many people out of the place as fast as possible.
But the basement was crowded:
- All four PC’s, plus 1 exile that each player controlled and acted right after the PC
- Pehr’All Herollus and shield guardian
- Pehr’All two sons (no names, and it doesn’t matter – they die) – both human mages
- 4 human guards
- 12 flunkies (minions)
- and 12 humans that sought to escape, with more coming each round. One third of these human were helpful to the party (offering flanking and could be moved through), one third was hurtful to the party (accounts as flanking against the party, and can not be moved through), and one third that were neutral (cannot be moved through)
- The guardian, a Thief of Life, a.k.a. a vampiric dragon
Each time an escaping human made it through the portal, the party got 10XP, even a hurtful one.
Pehr’All was quite aware of the party’s presence but he was preoccupied by the guardian.
“All life will pay for the pain you’ve inflicted upon me.”
That comment didn’t settle well with the party, so they did what they could to clear a path to the portal while steering clear of the two titans fighting one another.
The party was tearing through their main focus of enemies and the dragon was putting a hurt on the shield guardian.
Pehr’All could not hurt the dragon, and the dragon could barely hurt Pehr’All as they both had very good regeneration. So Pehr’All occasionally tossed one of his powers to hurt the party (such as a 5x5 field that does 10 damage a round and slows movement).
Once the shield guardian dropped the dragon attacked Pehr’All directly and in spite of his regeneration, it became obvious to all that he was a lich and he couldn’t take on the dragon directly. Sor Pehr’All searched on the ground for his phylactery (the gem in the shield room), and fled through the portal.
Now the party did take a couple of shots at the dragon and the lich, but when a rolled 18 missed they decided not to push their luck and fled through the portal as soon as everyone else was out of the room.
In moments they were all back on the Prime Material Plane and finding themselves surrounded by a multitude of people that would be best described as friendly, with Pehr’All nowhere in sight.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 6:55 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home