The Valley #22-23
Here’s a particular danger I’ve fallen into at least twice now: If your group stops their session w/o a chance for a rest, remember that when designing the next session.
You’d think it was a minor thing, but since we’ve been only gaming every other week recently, it’s easy to forget such a minor detail.
Luckily you can just wave your magical DM hand and fix it. Players usually don’t mind.
My players usually don’t mind because I tend to drain them of their resources like it’s my job (it is).
As for getting new players, we’ve not had any luck.
Dale should be returning soon. I’ll probably give his sorcerer a level boost to bring him closer to the group. It would not be fun and would be unfair to him and the group if he was 5 levels behind everyone else and they had to babysit him.
Mike still might return with Kergan for a game or two, but that’s up in the air at the moment.
One thing I, surprisingly, miss writing out on the blog is the combats like I used to. But 4E combats aren’t as easy to write about. So many special powers, movement, healing, and the like are too hard to keep track of. Not to mention that the combats take a lot more time, real time and number of rounds.
More hit points and less damage does not good drama make. (Wow the grammar checker didn’t explode on that last sentence.)
I try to put in as much of the role-playing as I reasonably can while not outright dumping everything that was said. What I do write feels light, but I also don’t want to post giant pointless walls of text that won’t get read.
I’m not a good story writer and never will be. Hell, I can’t even keep the past/present tenses correct in 90% of the sentences I write.
What I think I’m good at is making the game sessions connect and flow well in a fantasy world. When something strange happens in the game the party will say “Hey, that’s strange.” and not say “Here’s another mistake he made.”
At least that’s what I hope they say.
The Valley may not be the most realistic campaign world, but I’m not shooting for that. I want something fun for me and the group. I get to tell my story (stories) and they get to have PC’s that grow in any manner of directions (power, popularity, etc.).
If you think it’s just improbable for all these people to survive in a secluded, giant hole in the ground for 300 years then I will explain it after you explain to me in real world physics how spells are cast, how beholders work, and then you find me a real green dragon living who’s been to the Feywild.
Anyway…
Session 22
Admon (Scott); level 10 human war wizard
Duncan (Justin); level 9 Silverhome dwarven cleric of Moradin
Edward (Aaron); level 10 human paladin of Brekaneth
Kergan had just left the group to their task while he had to hurry off on his own.
He left the Vial of Purity with them and told them that this should be able to delay the total collapse of the undead elf prison now known as Ivellios’s Shame.
The Vial of Purity is actually a powerful artifact, so powerful it decreased the amount of XP the party would get for each fight.
First off it removed the fatigue of the party (free extended rest) and could generate a turn undead power each round as a minor action of the person holding it.
The three party members stepped through the failing shimmering purple “skin” of the prison entryway.
Their knowledge of history and religion (translated = skill checks) told the party that they should find the central heart of the prison and place the Vial there.
The magically cut tomb was freezing and was getting colder with each step they took further away from the exit.
The first room of the tomb had been altered recently with artificial walls being put up around the room.
This was done to make it easier for the banshee to go where she wanted to without being easily pursued.
The banshee and a trio of four-armed skeletons beat the hell out of the party the first round as the DM rolled a lot of 16’s and better.
This went on for a couple of rounds until Duncan used the Vial’s power. Then the combat became manageable for the party (which is surprisingly what the DM expected – a tough fight that balanced out once the Vial was used).
Before the banshee was hacked down she screamed out “They have something that hurts us.”
There were several “doors” of the same shimmering purple skin at each passage, and the party chose to head straight which the undead may have helped them make that decision because the undead were yelling out to one another that the intruders were probably heading to the “heart”.
The next room was no real surprise; a bunch of armored dead bodies laying about the corners of the floor. When the bodies jumped up to attack, no one was surprised.
The fight itself was not so easy though. The chill of this room was even colder on an unnatural level that cause the party’s attack rolls to be at -1 (-2 for the Vial).
The battle-wights were tough and the party had left Admon a bit exposed, so the battle-wights pounced on him for a round.
But after that the party had managed to gain control of the combat, it made the rest of the combat an exercise in rolling d20’s.
The final room was beyond freezing (like -40) and the attack penalties were double the previous room.
This room’s defenders were simple ghouls and ice zombies mixed with the frigid cold of the room and a ramped floor that had ice that made combat a chaos of tripping and painful cold.
But at the end of the room was a barely glowing ruby that flickered with fading power.
Halfway through the combat a wall of cold magic separated the room, and forced the party to pass through it and fight the remaining ice zombies on their terms.
As expected, the party won (their biggest opponent was actually the icy floor).
They place the Vial next to the heart and notice immediate changes.
First the “doors” strengthen, the cold of the air dissipates, and the prisoners scream in pain and rage.
From one of the bodies a spirit rises and introduces himself as Nilrathal and thanks the party for their deed. He warns them that this won’t be permanent, but has bought some time. He can feel the strength of the Vial beginning to lose its strength already.
He then instructs them that there is an item of magic on his body (simple orb +3) and gives to them in thanks.
As they leave he says “If Thlyria gives you any trouble about taking things from the tomb, tell her that “Uncle Nilrathal says ‘don’t be a silly prat little girl.’”
When that exact that occurrence played out, Thlyria Isara stops in mid-sentence.
Session 23
Admon (Scott); level 10 human war wizard
Duncan (Justin); level 10 Silverhome dwarven cleric of Moradin
Edward (Aaron); level 10 human paladin of Brekaneth
She also hasn’t seen Girvan Torl in quite a while. No one has.
They’re pretty beat up, so they head back to their homes to rest to resume their search for Torl in the morning.
Admon has made much progress at learning from Ivellios’s books, but he’s starting to hit walls when it comes to translating the higher end information.
The three of them regroup and head out to see Polaris and Ajell at Silver Lake to see if they know anything that can help them.
They get to the lake and yell out Polaris’s name. In response a dragon head made of water rises from the lake and talks with them.
The party says something that sounds a little like this, “Valley’s about to be destroyed, blah blah blah, impending doom, blah blah blah, apocalypse, blah blah blah, elves damned us all to hell.”
The watery dragon head responds with “We’ve heard all of this before and are currently dealing with other such issues as well. We implore you, great heroes of the Valley, to solve these problems as best you can.”
They then ask if they can have a sample of their silver dragon blood because they think it might help with the special silver component they need to fix their elf tomb problem.
“Do you know you need it? Dragon’s blood is not exactly weak in nature. We will not hand over something so pure and valuable without guaranteed proof that it will work as intended.”
“Then have you seen Girvan Torl?”
“No.”, and the head drops back into the water with a plash.
When they get back to town, the guards inform the PC’s that the mayor has been looking for them.”
It was a bit late, but the mayor was still in his office.
He asks the party to get him a live specimen of the vine monsters that’s part of the recipe for creating and possibly curing the zombie elixir.
A perception check says that the mayor is holding something back, so they press him for a full answer.
It turns out that someone who was working on the counter-elixir has been killed and his copy of the recipe was stolen.
They mayor wants a live capture for the city, and for the party to destroy any other such vine monsters to prevent anyone not of the city from getting their own sample.
To capture it a live specimen the mayor hands Duncan a small crystal sphere and instructs him to throw it at the base of the vine monster.
He then warns them to be careful, the cave they’re heading to is near Heroes’ Rest, a place known for being a home to monstrous humanoids, ones that are much tougher than goblins.
(The party decides that one day they’ll take back Heroes’ Rest.)
They travel to the location that the mayor gave them and find it protected by some prepared goblins.
The lead goblin says “Your kind aren’t welcome here.”
The party responds with “We don’t give a damn.”
With a lovely exchange like that it’s no surprise that a fight broke out shortly afterwards.
The goblins were able to split the party up, but that’s really about it.
The goblin boss was hard to kill, but was taken down eventually. (Actually he had plenty of hp and defenses, but dealt small damage – so I just made Edward take 50 points of damage spread over several rounds and call the combat over.)
Next they attempted to sneak down the cave opening. Edward, the plate wearer, rolled a nat 1 so Grob and Blog heard them coming easily.
This led to a lovely fight where the three well-powered PC’s faced off against an ettin witch doctor and their pet redspawn firebelcher.
Note: Ettins are bad ass in 4E.
Note: Firebelchers makes fire wizards cry because firebelchers give allies fire resistance.
Tactically I think the party goofed in focusing on the ettin. The ettin had huge defenses (and was wearing +3 armor) and was receiving fire resistance. The party’s wizard has a lot of fire spells. If you drop the belcher, the ettin loses some key protection.
The party was thinking that the ettin’s dual actions made it way too powerful to not focus on. What they didn’t know was that the ettin had triple the belcher’s hit points and was about 10 higher on all defenses but Reflex. The ettin was weak versus the wizard’s Reflex attacks, but those attacks were mostly fire-based.
The party still won, but the party had the holy hell beat out of them.
On the ettin’s corpse was a copy of the recipe for the zombie elixir, written in a nice clean hand, most-definitely not written by an ettin.
Before the party arrived the ettin was working on opening a newly built wall to the cave. The wall appeared to be of dwarven make and had magical runes on it that gave warning of “What is inside must stay inside”.
And we stopped there.
You’d think it was a minor thing, but since we’ve been only gaming every other week recently, it’s easy to forget such a minor detail.
Luckily you can just wave your magical DM hand and fix it. Players usually don’t mind.
My players usually don’t mind because I tend to drain them of their resources like it’s my job (it is).
As for getting new players, we’ve not had any luck.
Dale should be returning soon. I’ll probably give his sorcerer a level boost to bring him closer to the group. It would not be fun and would be unfair to him and the group if he was 5 levels behind everyone else and they had to babysit him.
Mike still might return with Kergan for a game or two, but that’s up in the air at the moment.
One thing I, surprisingly, miss writing out on the blog is the combats like I used to. But 4E combats aren’t as easy to write about. So many special powers, movement, healing, and the like are too hard to keep track of. Not to mention that the combats take a lot more time, real time and number of rounds.
More hit points and less damage does not good drama make. (Wow the grammar checker didn’t explode on that last sentence.)
I try to put in as much of the role-playing as I reasonably can while not outright dumping everything that was said. What I do write feels light, but I also don’t want to post giant pointless walls of text that won’t get read.
I’m not a good story writer and never will be. Hell, I can’t even keep the past/present tenses correct in 90% of the sentences I write.
What I think I’m good at is making the game sessions connect and flow well in a fantasy world. When something strange happens in the game the party will say “Hey, that’s strange.” and not say “Here’s another mistake he made.”
At least that’s what I hope they say.
The Valley may not be the most realistic campaign world, but I’m not shooting for that. I want something fun for me and the group. I get to tell my story (stories) and they get to have PC’s that grow in any manner of directions (power, popularity, etc.).
If you think it’s just improbable for all these people to survive in a secluded, giant hole in the ground for 300 years then I will explain it after you explain to me in real world physics how spells are cast, how beholders work, and then you find me a real green dragon living who’s been to the Feywild.
Anyway…
Session 22
Admon (Scott); level 10 human war wizard
Duncan (Justin); level 9 Silverhome dwarven cleric of Moradin
Edward (Aaron); level 10 human paladin of Brekaneth
Kergan had just left the group to their task while he had to hurry off on his own.
He left the Vial of Purity with them and told them that this should be able to delay the total collapse of the undead elf prison now known as Ivellios’s Shame.
The Vial of Purity is actually a powerful artifact, so powerful it decreased the amount of XP the party would get for each fight.
First off it removed the fatigue of the party (free extended rest) and could generate a turn undead power each round as a minor action of the person holding it.
The three party members stepped through the failing shimmering purple “skin” of the prison entryway.
Their knowledge of history and religion (translated = skill checks) told the party that they should find the central heart of the prison and place the Vial there.
The magically cut tomb was freezing and was getting colder with each step they took further away from the exit.
The first room of the tomb had been altered recently with artificial walls being put up around the room.
This was done to make it easier for the banshee to go where she wanted to without being easily pursued.
The banshee and a trio of four-armed skeletons beat the hell out of the party the first round as the DM rolled a lot of 16’s and better.
This went on for a couple of rounds until Duncan used the Vial’s power. Then the combat became manageable for the party (which is surprisingly what the DM expected – a tough fight that balanced out once the Vial was used).
Before the banshee was hacked down she screamed out “They have something that hurts us.”
There were several “doors” of the same shimmering purple skin at each passage, and the party chose to head straight which the undead may have helped them make that decision because the undead were yelling out to one another that the intruders were probably heading to the “heart”.
The next room was no real surprise; a bunch of armored dead bodies laying about the corners of the floor. When the bodies jumped up to attack, no one was surprised.
The fight itself was not so easy though. The chill of this room was even colder on an unnatural level that cause the party’s attack rolls to be at -1 (-2 for the Vial).
The battle-wights were tough and the party had left Admon a bit exposed, so the battle-wights pounced on him for a round.
But after that the party had managed to gain control of the combat, it made the rest of the combat an exercise in rolling d20’s.
The final room was beyond freezing (like -40) and the attack penalties were double the previous room.
This room’s defenders were simple ghouls and ice zombies mixed with the frigid cold of the room and a ramped floor that had ice that made combat a chaos of tripping and painful cold.
But at the end of the room was a barely glowing ruby that flickered with fading power.
Halfway through the combat a wall of cold magic separated the room, and forced the party to pass through it and fight the remaining ice zombies on their terms.
As expected, the party won (their biggest opponent was actually the icy floor).
They place the Vial next to the heart and notice immediate changes.
First the “doors” strengthen, the cold of the air dissipates, and the prisoners scream in pain and rage.
From one of the bodies a spirit rises and introduces himself as Nilrathal and thanks the party for their deed. He warns them that this won’t be permanent, but has bought some time. He can feel the strength of the Vial beginning to lose its strength already.
He then instructs them that there is an item of magic on his body (simple orb +3) and gives to them in thanks.
As they leave he says “If Thlyria gives you any trouble about taking things from the tomb, tell her that “Uncle Nilrathal says ‘don’t be a silly prat little girl.’”
When that exact that occurrence played out, Thlyria Isara stops in mid-sentence.
Session 23
Admon (Scott); level 10 human war wizard
Duncan (Justin); level 10 Silverhome dwarven cleric of Moradin
Edward (Aaron); level 10 human paladin of Brekaneth
She also hasn’t seen Girvan Torl in quite a while. No one has.
They’re pretty beat up, so they head back to their homes to rest to resume their search for Torl in the morning.
Admon has made much progress at learning from Ivellios’s books, but he’s starting to hit walls when it comes to translating the higher end information.
The three of them regroup and head out to see Polaris and Ajell at Silver Lake to see if they know anything that can help them.
They get to the lake and yell out Polaris’s name. In response a dragon head made of water rises from the lake and talks with them.
The party says something that sounds a little like this, “Valley’s about to be destroyed, blah blah blah, impending doom, blah blah blah, apocalypse, blah blah blah, elves damned us all to hell.”
The watery dragon head responds with “We’ve heard all of this before and are currently dealing with other such issues as well. We implore you, great heroes of the Valley, to solve these problems as best you can.”
They then ask if they can have a sample of their silver dragon blood because they think it might help with the special silver component they need to fix their elf tomb problem.
“Do you know you need it? Dragon’s blood is not exactly weak in nature. We will not hand over something so pure and valuable without guaranteed proof that it will work as intended.”
“Then have you seen Girvan Torl?”
“No.”, and the head drops back into the water with a plash.
When they get back to town, the guards inform the PC’s that the mayor has been looking for them.”
It was a bit late, but the mayor was still in his office.
He asks the party to get him a live specimen of the vine monsters that’s part of the recipe for creating and possibly curing the zombie elixir.
A perception check says that the mayor is holding something back, so they press him for a full answer.
It turns out that someone who was working on the counter-elixir has been killed and his copy of the recipe was stolen.
They mayor wants a live capture for the city, and for the party to destroy any other such vine monsters to prevent anyone not of the city from getting their own sample.
To capture it a live specimen the mayor hands Duncan a small crystal sphere and instructs him to throw it at the base of the vine monster.
He then warns them to be careful, the cave they’re heading to is near Heroes’ Rest, a place known for being a home to monstrous humanoids, ones that are much tougher than goblins.
(The party decides that one day they’ll take back Heroes’ Rest.)
They travel to the location that the mayor gave them and find it protected by some prepared goblins.
The lead goblin says “Your kind aren’t welcome here.”
The party responds with “We don’t give a damn.”
With a lovely exchange like that it’s no surprise that a fight broke out shortly afterwards.
The goblins were able to split the party up, but that’s really about it.
The goblin boss was hard to kill, but was taken down eventually. (Actually he had plenty of hp and defenses, but dealt small damage – so I just made Edward take 50 points of damage spread over several rounds and call the combat over.)
Next they attempted to sneak down the cave opening. Edward, the plate wearer, rolled a nat 1 so Grob and Blog heard them coming easily.
This led to a lovely fight where the three well-powered PC’s faced off against an ettin witch doctor and their pet redspawn firebelcher.
Note: Ettins are bad ass in 4E.
Note: Firebelchers makes fire wizards cry because firebelchers give allies fire resistance.
Tactically I think the party goofed in focusing on the ettin. The ettin had huge defenses (and was wearing +3 armor) and was receiving fire resistance. The party’s wizard has a lot of fire spells. If you drop the belcher, the ettin loses some key protection.
The party was thinking that the ettin’s dual actions made it way too powerful to not focus on. What they didn’t know was that the ettin had triple the belcher’s hit points and was about 10 higher on all defenses but Reflex. The ettin was weak versus the wizard’s Reflex attacks, but those attacks were mostly fire-based.
The party still won, but the party had the holy hell beat out of them.
On the ettin’s corpse was a copy of the recipe for the zombie elixir, written in a nice clean hand, most-definitely not written by an ettin.
Before the party arrived the ettin was working on opening a newly built wall to the cave. The wall appeared to be of dwarven make and had magical runes on it that gave warning of “What is inside must stay inside”.
And we stopped there.
posted by BlueBlackRed at 12:40 PM
2 Comments:
Good stuff on here, been puttering around. Looking forward to reading more!
Thanks :)
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