The Valley #29-30

Everyone welcome Dan to the group.
Everyone say to goodbye to Dan.

He very much fit into our group, but quickly found out that work + family sometimes doesn’t leave much room for D&D. So rather than linger on as an “I think I can make it” player, he chose to exit in a friendly manner so that he could rejoin us if his schedule can consistently open up.

Given what we’ve seen in this group, we appreciate that a lot.

So thanks for not taking our group for granted Dan.

For Session 30 I decided to try something a little different.
I set up a scaled set of encounters and allowed the party to pick the difficulty on a scale of 1-5.
Difficulty 1 would be a standard, equal level encounter (100% XP for 4 PC’s), while difficulty 5 would be twice as hard (200% XP for 4 PC’s), and the other difficulties would scale.

The higher the difficulty, the more treasure and XP to be given, and the more time it takes to finish the combat. It’s going to take some tweaking to get right, but so far I like it.

The setup will be clarified more in Session 30’s write-up.

Session 29
Admon (Scott); level 11 human war wizard
Edward (Aaron); level 11 human paladin of Brekaneth
Ander (Dale); level 11 halfling sorcerer
Kabret (Dan); level 11 human cleric (it may be Kabert, I have forgotten)

Due to time issues I made Dan’s PC for him since he’d only really played low level 4E games.

Considering that, he did pretty good adapting to a paragon level PC.

Plus he wanted to play a cleric.
That’s a big jump from our usual of “I guess I’ll play a healer (sigh).”

For the time being Kabret is a cleric of Brekaneth under the command of General Songrider. The general decided that Erdrick can be put to better use for his plans so he places his trusted Kabret to support the party for their part in taking back the town of Theven’s Wharf.

We jumped into the action as the party poured into an open section of the town wall. There was more action going on, but to keep things simple (as in no huge numbers of minions on each side that would attack each round) I pitted the PC’s against several dozen orc warriors in a town setting with a lot of buildings near the breached wall.

The plan was to kill the orcs’ leader Bromock, and then lure out the devil Ozim.

The PC’s charged in and had to deal with dozens of orcs throwing spears from behind buildings and from above while dealing with more of the paralyzing ghoul’s teeth.

(After a good chunk of time was wasted dealing with the 4+ dozen orc minions on the table, I decided to just assign a number of attacks each PC would receive a round.)

Once several orc warriors had been killed Bromock and his pair of bloodragers arrived to fight.

The 3 orcs hit maybe 10% of the time, but when they hit they put a hurting on their target. Add the 2-4 attacks per round from the minions, and you have yourself a nice sum of damage each round.

The PC’s won but used half of their healing surges.

The reward choices:
Bromock’s Greataxe (Vicious Greataxe +3)
Bromock’s Attitude Adjustor (Bracers of Mighty Striking – Level 12)
Bromock’s Clawed Feet (Assault Boots)

I believe they went with Bromock’s Clawed Feet.

Now that Bromock is dead, Ozim goes on a rampage and he eventually finds the party.

The general had told them that whoever Ozim goes after, they were to hold him off until the general can join with his crew.

The party rested near the docks until they heard Ozim and his devil horde coming.

The party didn’t quite know what they were up against, so instead of delaying Ozim, they decided to let loose with their most powerful attacks.

When they found out what Ozim could do, they were not happy.

Ozim isn’t your normal bone devil. Instead of the usual Aura of Obedience (which does damage to bloodied devils, but they do more damage, and if they die the bone devil heals 10) he had the ability to absorb the devil minions into him to heal.

With Ozim bloodied in the first couple of rounds, the party was enjoying a series of crits from their dailies.
Then they were not happy when he was back to full health by the time the fourth round came along.

Later the players stated that they didn’t like the way that the combat worked out. But other than maybe limit the number of minions absorbed per round, limit Ozim’s teleporting, and make it clearer that “keep him occupied” means just that, I liked the encounter as it was.

Once the party realized that the minions were mobile healing potions…they still chose to attack Ozim.

What I expected to happen:
The party tries to take him on alone - Check
Ozim heals up - Check
The party’s damage dealers change their focus to the minions - D’oh!
General Marcum Songrider arrives - Check (eventually)
The party achieves a lockdown on the minions as Marcum faces off against Ozim and Marcum’s forces join the party in controlling Ozim’s minions - Check
Ozim is defeated - Check

So what really happened vs. what I thought would happen was not that much different.
It just scared the party.

DM’s job done – check

Session 30

Dan was unable to make it, so Erdrick rejoined. The way things are looking, Erdrick may be with the party a lot.

Admon (Scott); level 11 human war wizard
Edward (Aaron); level 11 human paladin of Brekaneth
Ander (Dale); level 11 halfling sorcerer
Erdrick (NPC); level 11 human priest (modified cleric)

The day after the town was liberated there was much work going on.

Ander finally met up with a sorcerer from Ander’s cabal. This particular sorcerer had been instructed by Polaris to join up with General Songrider’s army, and it has been the best thing for him. Songrider has given this sorcerer purpose and has done so without prejudice.

At that particular point in time the sorcerer’s job was to simply send up flares into the sky to notify that those hiding at sea that it was safe to return. Ander decided to hang out with him and do some fishing.

Admon spent his time assisting in rebuilding the town. The army supplied the materials required, so Admon was casting a lot of Mend Object rituals.

Edward escorted Kabret to the Valley to report in and to facilitate the eventual arrival of General Songrider to the Valley.

They could only spend a day in the Valley as there were still some residual issues left over from liberating Theven’s Wharf.

While many orcs fled, they were too few in number to be an issue for an army to worry about. But the dragons that escaped could do much more damage, singly or in numbers.

Many of them fled to a nearby dormant volcano, and they were looking for some revenge. If they could reignite the volcano, they could bury Theven’s Wharf under a lava flow.

And we can’t have that now can we?

The general grabbed his best soldiers and were going to strike at as many nests as they simultaneously could.

General Songrider gave the PC’s the option of which nest they could attack.

This was the role-playing excuse I used to allow for the options in difficulty. I gave the party an option of 1-5 with each option representing roughly 100% standard XP for their numbers and level, 125%, 150%, 175%, and 200%.

Difficulty 1
1 Lava Spray (modified level 9 blaster trap from the DMG)
1 Young Red Dragon
2 Red Dragon Wyrmlings
2600XP, 600gp, 600sp, & 1 quartz (500gp)

Difficulty 2
1 Lava Spray
1 Young Red Dragon
4 Red Dragon Wyrmlings
3400XP, 750gp, 750sp, & 2 quartz (500gp each)

Difficulty 3
1 Lava Spray
2 Young Red Dragon
2 Red Dragon Wyrmlings
4000XP, 900gp, 900sp, 2 quartz (500gp each), 1 topaz (500gp), & a 1 level 12 Item

Difficulty 4
1 Lava Spray
2 Young Red Dragon
4 Red Dragon Wyrmlings
5000XP, 1000gp, 1000sp, 2 quartz (500gp each), 2 topazes (500gp), & a 1 level 12-13 Item

Difficulty 5
1 Lava Spray
3 Young Red Dragon
2 Red Dragon Wyrmlings
5600XP, 1200gp, 1200sp, 2 quartz (500gp each), 2 topazes (500gp), & a 1 level 12-14 item

The items to pick from:

Level 12:
The Ascendant Noble’s Cudgel (Resounding Mace +3)
Felix’s Bane (Orb of Indisputable Gravity +3)
Keoghtom’s Ointment

Level 13:
Sill’s Singed Robes (Robe of Defying Flames +3)
Fizzigan’s Third Arm (Force Wand +3)
Nerm’s Failed Hope (Winged Boots)

Level 14:
Sill’s Focus (Bracers of Iron Arcana)
Lavender’s Eyes (Goggles of Night)
Zee’s Oily Amulet (Amulet of Bodily Sanctity +3)

The party chose Difficulty 4, which surprised me a little. I expected them to go with 2 or 3.

The cave they entered was large, with several columns, and the dragons just waking up from the disturbances they were hearing.

The combat didn’t move from where the party started the encounter; the 20’ wide entrance area.

Admon was able to immobilize half the dragons before they were able to get an action off, and that saved the party a lot of trouble as half the dragons had to sit out round 1 and some for even longer.

The party had to arrange themselves just right or they’d give an opening for one of the larger dragons (young reds) to get right in the middle of the party and lay waste.

Admon also gave Edward a buff for 17 points of resistance to fire, but they decided that for future combats that it should go to Ander as he absorbed half the healing that was doled out during combat.

This turned out to be a slugfest with the dragons’ huge amount of hit points and many fiery breath attacks.

The combat also took way too long; so long that I had to declare that there would not be any further encounters for the night.

Then the party let go.
They had been holding back some daily powers for the next fight. With that no longer being required, the dragons were shredded fast.

With Ander being a constant beating target, they gave him some protection with Sill’s Singed Robes. Dale protested, stating he had just gotten a magic dagger the previous week. But they insisted that he being better protected would help everyone else since he would need less healing.

And we stopped there.
For the next 3 sessions it is Dale’s campaign, so I may post something else on the blog.

The Valley #27-28

Well we’re back to The Valley for a few sessions, and while session #27 happened almost 2 months ago, it fits best with session #28.

Also, due to our low number of players, we had to cancel two weeks because missing one person now can really hose up the game. But with at least one new player joining us, we shouldn’t have to worry about that too much.

One thing Dale did while his campaign was running was to give us a list of magic items to choose from rather than give us specific items (which leads to a high chance of us not wanting them) or just letting us pick items from of a specific level (which is a giant can of worms by giving too many options to players).

He made 3 lists and asked us to pick one from each list as our magic item treasure from the previous week’s fights. So I stole that idea, modified it, and made it my own.

It’s perfect for allowing me to control what I give to the party while giving them a fair chance at getting a useful item.

First I decide what level item to give out.
Then I trim items off the list I consider broken, too confusing, or not fitting with the campaign.
Then I trim the list down to 3 or so items that fit the flavor of the fight.
Then I give the items names for some role-playing flare.

So far it’s worked out quite well and I feel it adds to the fun and role-playing of the campaign.

Session 27
Admon (Scott); level 11 human war wizard
Edward (Aaron); level 11 human paladin of Brekaneth
Ander (Dale); level 11 halfling sorcerer
Kergan (Mike); level 11 dwarf rogue

We stopped just as the party killed Mayor Xavius Ryan and the devil Stefforri as her giant fire pyramid disappeared leaving only several empty barrels that once held the zombie elixir and the dead bodies of Xavius and Stefforri.

The party makes cleans up the area a bit to prevent accidents with the elixir and then picked up the bodies to begin heading back to town.

Then a hulking figure in full plate armor strode out of the polluted water.

It’s Girvan Torl and he’s angry and believes he’s just caught the party red-handed, having murdered a good friend of his and one of their accomplices in the evil act.

Before Girvan could bring the PC’s to justice, a squad of dwarves arrived.

The Silverhome dwarves still work a bit outside of the city’s control (and Xavius’s eyes), so they were able to create a formula that would neutralize the zombie elixir and they proceeded to dump it in the river and would soon spread it to the rest of the city before morning broke and any accidents could occur. (A “Boil Water Advisory” would be placed in effect as well.)

Admon questioned Girvan how he could survive in the river that had been polluted with the zombie elixir.

“The grace of Brekaneth protected me.”

Amazingly not a single person drank the polluted water, which added some more fame to the party’s already hefty supply of it.

While Admon, Edward, Ander, and Girvan headed to the Grand Temple of Brekaneth, Kergan took off in another direction.

Among the treasure they took from their fight with the mayor was a statue of Stefforri in all her devilish succubus form. So Kergan took the statue and planted it in the mayor’s house (which helped them in proving their innocence later).

When the group arrived at the temple, they found it on alert.

They went to see Father Adrek, and immediately Girvan accused the party of orchestrating the crisis, including murdering the mayor and cavorting with devils.

Father Adrek asked a few questions and believed the party’s story. They’ve done too many good things for the city and Girvan has no proof.

Girvan says “You are weak old man. You have done nothing but lead this church into oblivion.”, and then storms out.

They then tell Father Adrek that they believe Torl is “not well”.
Adrek admits that the man has been through some trauma but the sword he carries would reject him had he fallen from favor with Brekaneth.

He then suggests that everyone in the party get some legal representation. Even though he believes them, if the story of what happened were to be told (spun) in the right manner the party could be in real trouble.

The party did help someone who made deals with devils gain more power in the Valley. And they also killed him and that devil. Who’s to say that the party hadn’t just killed their accomplices? And so on.

So they each get some legal protection and put it to good use. Over the next few weeks each party member is absolved of any wrongdoing and thus all are still the heroes the citizens of the city believe them to be.

During the week the following is determined/discovered/revealed:
- Only the soft bits (wooden) of the Roaring Bull Inn were hurt. It is being rebuilt. Some of the party give Bull some money to help him in the rebuilding.
- Nothing more can be gleaned from Ivellios’s tomes. They now have permanent spot in Admon’s slowly growing book collection.
- Kergan is sent a note. “You’re a dead man traitor.” It is presumed to be from the Thieves’ Guild.
- Each PC is sent a letter. “Well done! Amazingly well! Exceedingly well! I had not expected this outcome, but it did happen. Luckily I have contingency plans.” Signed “XR”
- The city council is debating whether to remove the position of mayor from the government and thus may reduce the number of city council members to an odd number again.
- Duncan’s political career is either in jeopardy or potentially booming thanks to his friendship with Xavius Ryan.
- Ander gets back in contact with Bobby McDonaldson. He had to “disappear” for a while. He confirms that many sorcerers have disappeared and promises to help Ander find out what’s going on with them.
- Edward researches as much as he can about dragons (role-playing for the Dragonslayer paragon path).
- Kergan’s contact with the Thieves’ Guild, who never was his contact, has disappeared.

One day, about a month after the defeat of the mayor, each PC was going about their usual, mundane activities that we just glaze over (because role-playing every single detail of someone’s life would be more tedious than reality), when several dragon shapes flew overhead, blocking out the sun.

That is when 2 dozen red dragons attacked the city.

Each PC prepared to join in the fight, but then they noticed a smaller group of fliers heading to the center of the city.

The red dragons were a diversion to draw the city’s defenses away from the real target, the city’s teleporter.

The teleporter is a 10’x10’ stage that was created by members of the Magus Sanctus organization. For 100gp a person or parcels can be teleported to and from an identical teleporter in the port town of Theven’s Wharf. (The fee is for funding the Magus Sanctus’s other humanitarian activities.)

Theven’s Wharf had just been attacked by devils, red dragons, and orcs from Sordimar. But that town was not the real target, the Valley was.

A smaller group of dragons, abishais, and bloodfire harpies snuck to the teleporter to perform a ritual to remove need to pay 100gp each.

The aura of the harpies prevented most people from helping (5 fire damage per round), leaving only heroes able to help.

When the PC’s arrived on the scene, the ritual was almost complete as any of the fiery attackers could make a successful arcana check to convert one of the four pads on the teleporter. But PC’s (Admon) believed the damage could be undone just as easily.

The rules of the fight – once the harpies were dead the PC’s could call for aid from a city guard as a minor action (Bluff/Diplomacy check with DC = 15 + number of dead guard – the current combat round). Guards are a minion with a simple short sword or crossbow attack (3 damage)

The PC’s made quick work of the harpies, forcing the red dragons to finish the ritual.
This gave the party a chance to regroup thanks to the party’s lack of dedicated healing (Edward has Lay on Hands, but it is very limited in use).
When the dragons finished the ritual, up to 4 orc warriors appeared every round.

The PC’s were starting to feel a bit overwhelmed when suddenly the dragons just up and left. The dragons had been contracted for a job (distraction) and they weren’t about to stick around to die for the pay.

After that it didn’t take much to kill off the abishais, play whack-a-mole with incoming orcs, and return the teleporter to normal.

Of course this added much to the fame of the party, so Edward couldn’t help but try to get a dig in about Girvan Torl.

“Where’s Girvan?”
“He killed a dragon single-handed.”
“D’oh!”

The city was saved (again), but as of now the Valley is cut off from the outside world (again).

Session #28

This session was meant to be a mostly combat session.
Sometimes you have to do that to get the ball rolling.

Weeks have gone by in the Valley since the previous session and things are getting desperate.

Supplies are getting low and there is talk of returning to the old ways, where the town guards were just as apt to protect the city from goblins and to put down food riots.

The Church of Brekaneth has asked for volunteers to scout into Theven’s Wharf.
Now this had been tried previously in the past few weeks, but each time the scout never returned, and are presumed dead.

There even seems to be magic that protects the town from being scryed.

It is believed now that anyone attempting to scout must have a good means of escape. So each volunteer will be given a special enchantment upon them that will allow them to teleport to a possible safe spot outside of Theven’s Wharf (coming back to the Valley is too far for this kind of magic). All they have to do is say “Velserrad” (free action, must be able to speak).

Edward chooses to go for his church and the people of the Valley.
Admon chooses to go because this is hurting his family greatly.
Ander chooses to go because he hears rumors that his sorcerous allies have hidden nearby.
Erdrick chooses to go because it is the right thing to do.

(Erdrick is a player controlled NPC, designed to be relatively simple to run while still being useful to the party.)

The party’s tasks; scout the forces of the orcs, harms as many orcs as possible, and return safely home.

Admon (Scott); level 11 human war wizard
Edward (Aaron); level 11 human paladin dragonslayer of Brekaneth
Ander (Dale); level 11 halfling storm sorcerer
Erdrick (NPC); level 10 human priest (modified cleric)

The party finds out pretty fast why the previous scouts didn’t last very long.
Small white pellets on the ground release a toxin that acts very similar to a ghoul’s bite, paralyzing the person who stepped on them. You can choose to walk carefully through the area, or to not move much, but in a combat that’s almost as bad.

Once that begins, the orcs start to pour in. They are later joined by the orc chieftain Bromock, his bodyguards, and eventually a bone devil named Ozim. Those are in addition to 2d12 more orc warriors every round.

The party did a poor job of sticking together, forcing them to use their escape enchantments several rounds sooner than the DM expected.

The next thing the party knows is that their in a shaded nook in the middle of a hot, dry place, the badlands bordering Theven’s Wharf.

After resting and tending to their wounds they scout out their new location.

First they realize that they’re at the bottom edge of a cliff face.
Then they notice there are 2 armies about to engage in the distance. One army they can’t make out due the distance (and poor rolls). The other army has red dragons on its side.
Next they notice some cavalry getting ready to flank against the army with dragons.
And finally they notice five trolls laying in ambush for the cavalry.

Taking a small risk, they decide to help the unknown army by killing the trolls.
This goes exactly as planned. The trolls were heavily outmatched (even though 4 level 11 PC’s vs 5 level 9 monsters is a fair fight).

The cavalry rides up to the party and quickly thanks them. They have no time to explain what’s going on, but if they’re willing to join in their crusade to expel the orcs from Theven’s Wharf, Lieutenant Brand will buy the party a round of drinks later.

At this time they finally notice the symbol of Brekaneth on Lt. Brand’s shield.
That’s all the convincing it took to get the party on board.

There were no extra horses, but the party can be dropped off at an opportune time to raise as much hell as possible inside the flanks of the orc army.

This fight is pretty straight-forward with a small twist.
The combat map was very flat and the combatants are 4 orc warriors, a bearded devil, and a hellstinger scorpion.
But each round 1d4 more orc warriors will appear on each side of the map.
But on each corner of the map is an “x” and on each side of the map are two other “x”’s.
If the party does a single point of damage to an “x”, it will go away (all defenses 15).
If not a single “x” is on a side or corner, that side will stop creating its 1d4 orc warriors.
The combat ends when the devil and scorpion die.

Now this party claims to not be set up for clearing out minions.
My response to that is BS.
Not everyone in the group has to have minion clearing powers, but they do have to adapt.
My expectation of the combat was for Edward to occupy the devil and scorpion, Admon to clear out any nearby orcs, and Ander to blast each “x” away (all while Erdrick buffed and healed).

What the party did instead was to focus on removing each “x” they could as fast as possible, while dealing with orcs as they came to them.

In the end it didn’t matter. The party won. It just took longer and was more painful.

Afterwards the party joined the whole army as it gave no orc, devil, or dragon a chance to flee.
They saw the leader of the army, General Marcum Songrider, lead his troops and use his hammer to great effect on the heads of his enemies.

When the battle was over and the military-style celebrations begun, General Songrider admonished Lt. Brand for his near ambush, and praised the party and Brekaneth for their aid.

He felt he must reward the party for their deeds, as to not do so would be an insult to Brekaneth.

The reward was a gold ring with a symbol of Brekaneth, a Potion of Vitality, and a magic item from this list:

Faith’s Shielding Links
Chain Armor of Cleansing +3

Anan’s Folly
Luckblade Dagger +3

Brekaneth’s Saving Hand
Symbol of Hope +3

Brekaneth’s Wall
Shield of Protection

Brekaneth’s Grace
Cloak of the Chirurgeon +3

The party chose Anan’s Folly for Dale, since Dale does a wonderful job of missing important attack rolls.

General Songrider tells them to eat and prepare for tomorrow, because he intends to take back Theven’s Wharf and visit the Grand Temple of Brekaneth in the Valley.