Amnon missed the beginning.
Most of this session consisted of the battle with the charnel cinderhouse; most of the monsters were wiped out fairly early, with the skeletal legionaries being mostly non-factors and the vampiric mist (which Ctenmiir was apparently using as a proxy) being destroyed before the party really started to work on the cinderhouse. This proved to be a tough encounter, as the melee-heavy party was faced with an opponent that did large amounts of fire damage to anyone adjacent to it. Every healing power and most second winds were expended; by the end of it all, Cyrus & Shivra were both dying, with Shivra being a few hit points from outright death. The cinderhouse finally fell as a result of the party kiting it to death, working it over with ranged attacks until the horrible thing finally fell, the Doresannic shard within it disintegrating.
After this, the party returned to Falconia, and learned that the guard was being kept largely in Falconia due to the Wintersend Assembly - their odds of receiving help would be slim going forward. They informed Harwick of his wife's fate, Cyrus' Arkohsian delegation was permitted to attend the Wintersend Assembly, and the party learned that Elanath's Tower would be very difficult, if not impossible, to access, though they did not learn the specifics.
Cyrus and Amnon then split from the party; Cyrus to inform his superiors of their granted permission to attend the Wintersend Assembly, and Amnon to head to the Tower of Heiserrah to report to his master, the eladrin Sirilis Starsburden. Sirilis expressed particular interest in examining one of these Doresannic shards, and explained (to Amnon, who was alone) that Elanath's Tower had fallen to darkness as a result of dark experiments performed there. Ctenmiir, she inferred, was the vampiric servant once employed at the tower who had been cursed never to be able to leave it. The tower's builder, Elanath, had relocated to Nogram, the Village of Hermits, and become Elanath the Hermit. Sirilis said that he may know of a way to enter the tower, but that he would be difficult to talk to, as Nogram's inhabitants despise visitors.
We stopped after this, leaving the Falconian contingent of the party's visit to the wizard's guild there for next time. Amnon is on his way back from the Tower of Heiserrah with instructions to recover a Doresannic shard for investigation, and Cyrus has agreed to assist the party further once he has handled his duties with the Arkhosian delegation. Looks like the events of this tier seem to be building to a conclusion...
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Session #41: The Hellhouse
This week the party found that the chapel they took shelter in was full of mutilated corpses, as the survivors who took shelter here had been slaughtered. They also recovered some loot, and found that the priest they'd encountered earlier, Brellac Monsen, had been decapitated. They took an extended rest, and resurrected Cyrus; afterwards, they cleaned up the chapel, and discovered that the ghouls had disappeared from Hampstead, howling and all...or so they thought at least.
Taking this opportunity to try and make it to Falconia, the party found a large procession of ghouls heading toward the farm that Brellac Monsen had mentioned as the home of a particularly troubled individual, Vrikus. The party followed this procession, and found the ghouls being ushered into a large barn. They found no organizer for this, and the only other building on the farm property was the farmhouse - they entered it, finding mad writings scattered within. Upon trying to read this writing, the house's structural integrity returned to an earlier time, the house filled with blood red fog, and the party lost track of eachother. The encounter then began.
It took awhile for the party to figure out what they needed to do; particularly Vorgym, who was confronted with Vrikus all alone early in the encounter. Vrikus made an effort to rip Vorgym in half, and Vorgym was bloodied early in the encounter- but in the end, the party figured out the illusion, though a few of them went insane temporarily in the process, and broke through to fight Vrikus. Once the illusion had been broken, Vrikus went down easily. They learned that Vrikus had been taken to Elanath's Tower, and a shard of bone pulsing with black light had been placed within his chest - a shard which emerged upon his demise. However, this would not be the end of their encounters in Hampstead...
Outside, the party found that Brellac Monsen, who they thought was dead, and a group of skeletal minions had set aflame the ghoul-filled barn. Monsen took the shard from the party, and then revealed himself as Ctenmiir the Cursed, the villain responsible for most everything that had happened to this point. He then threw the bone shard, which he identified as a Doresannic shard (a piece of bone from one of the Ghoul King Doresain's victims), into the barn, which animated into a swirling, burning mass of wood, metal and bone. We ended there, with the threat of more of these shards being used on Falconia looming.
Taking this opportunity to try and make it to Falconia, the party found a large procession of ghouls heading toward the farm that Brellac Monsen had mentioned as the home of a particularly troubled individual, Vrikus. The party followed this procession, and found the ghouls being ushered into a large barn. They found no organizer for this, and the only other building on the farm property was the farmhouse - they entered it, finding mad writings scattered within. Upon trying to read this writing, the house's structural integrity returned to an earlier time, the house filled with blood red fog, and the party lost track of eachother. The encounter then began.
It took awhile for the party to figure out what they needed to do; particularly Vorgym, who was confronted with Vrikus all alone early in the encounter. Vrikus made an effort to rip Vorgym in half, and Vorgym was bloodied early in the encounter- but in the end, the party figured out the illusion, though a few of them went insane temporarily in the process, and broke through to fight Vrikus. Once the illusion had been broken, Vrikus went down easily. They learned that Vrikus had been taken to Elanath's Tower, and a shard of bone pulsing with black light had been placed within his chest - a shard which emerged upon his demise. However, this would not be the end of their encounters in Hampstead...
Outside, the party found that Brellac Monsen, who they thought was dead, and a group of skeletal minions had set aflame the ghoul-filled barn. Monsen took the shard from the party, and then revealed himself as Ctenmiir the Cursed, the villain responsible for most everything that had happened to this point. He then threw the bone shard, which he identified as a Doresannic shard (a piece of bone from one of the Ghoul King Doresain's victims), into the barn, which animated into a swirling, burning mass of wood, metal and bone. We ended there, with the threat of more of these shards being used on Falconia looming.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Session #40: Flirting with Death
Had everyone for tonight's session, some AFKs here and there but the main problem was lag. On to the recap.
We picked right up where we left off with the encounter in the wizard's tower; the howling ghouls unleashed their screaming terror attacks, nasty push attacks which tore through the party and left all but one person bloodied. Despite Deckard & Amnon being knocked out the windows, the party managed to overcome the ghouls and drove them off. Amnon discovered what his new robes did, and they decided to depart the tower after a short rest.
The party then headed toward the chapel - their trail through the ruins ended up leading into another pack of ghouls. They had to fight through them, then they managed to arrive at the chapel proper. They were quickly set upon by ghouls, and cornered at the side of the chapel for quite a long time. Unfortunately, I had to railroad them a little by insinuating the chapel was the most secure building they'd be able to find in the area. After this, they made for the chapel doors - this is when things started to go downhill. After having their surges chewed through by the previous two encounters, the party started to drop - the worst was endured by Cyrus, who was actually dead at the end of the encounter.
Fleeing toward the doors, the party locked themselves in the courtyard and tried to escape inside - the ghouls made it difficult for them, however, by grabbing Cyrus (who had gone down) and leaping from the roof to attack. The party managed to escape, however, and entered the chapel (which had quite an odor coming from inside it) to find a horrifying spectacle inside...which I decided to hold off on describing until next session, because we had gone way over.
Hope everyone enjoyed the session - see you guys next week!
We picked right up where we left off with the encounter in the wizard's tower; the howling ghouls unleashed their screaming terror attacks, nasty push attacks which tore through the party and left all but one person bloodied. Despite Deckard & Amnon being knocked out the windows, the party managed to overcome the ghouls and drove them off. Amnon discovered what his new robes did, and they decided to depart the tower after a short rest.
The party then headed toward the chapel - their trail through the ruins ended up leading into another pack of ghouls. They had to fight through them, then they managed to arrive at the chapel proper. They were quickly set upon by ghouls, and cornered at the side of the chapel for quite a long time. Unfortunately, I had to railroad them a little by insinuating the chapel was the most secure building they'd be able to find in the area. After this, they made for the chapel doors - this is when things started to go downhill. After having their surges chewed through by the previous two encounters, the party started to drop - the worst was endured by Cyrus, who was actually dead at the end of the encounter.
Fleeing toward the doors, the party locked themselves in the courtyard and tried to escape inside - the ghouls made it difficult for them, however, by grabbing Cyrus (who had gone down) and leaping from the roof to attack. The party managed to escape, however, and entered the chapel (which had quite an odor coming from inside it) to find a horrifying spectacle inside...which I decided to hold off on describing until next session, because we had gone way over.
Hope everyone enjoyed the session - see you guys next week!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Session #39: Another Long Encounter
Had Traver missing for much of the first part of this session.
The session started with the party waking to the words of a priest dressed in robes made from human flesh. The priest, referring to the characters as "lost sheep", requested that they surrender themselves to the ghoul hordes and join them. He claimed their flesh was sacred, whether it be used to feed the ghouls, or converted and made one of them. He had an army of ghouls with him to enforce his will if he so desired, but he did not. Instead he offered the party a peaceful chance to surrender to them. When they did not respond, he took is as a refusal, and stated that this would be his last peaceful offer. He withdrew his ghouls, and the party set out again.
First they went to the Harwicks' home; it didn't take them long to find Beth Harwick, converted to a raging ghoul and locked in the home's cellar. Down there with her was a doomspinner spider she referred to as her "child"; the party did not find out about this until Deckard was knocked down into the cellar. The encounter started out simply enough, but eventually Beth managed to get Deckard, Vorgym & Shivra down into the cellar, while ghouls above ravaged Cyrus & Amnon. The party was victorious in the end, but not without taking a beating. This encounter proved to be quite long.
The party managed to recover some valuables from Beth Harwick, including a wedding ring by which she could likely be identified; they took it and then decided they should go back to the western side of Hampstead and check for clues. In the west, they headed to the wizard's tower they'd seen, arriving without much incident. They recovered a chess set on the first floor, then headed to the second, where they found a rune-inscribed cloth robe, a potion of healing, and an intricate golden sphere. The sphere turned out to be an arcane recording device of some sort; it activated while they investigated it, and the loud volume of the sphere drew a number of ghouls, including a very large, hulking, green-skinned ghoul who droned out a cry for meat which made the party feel as if their skin were being "tenderized". The ghouls moved to attack, and we stopped here, just as the encounter was beginning.
Hope everyone enjoyed the session, see you all next week.
The session started with the party waking to the words of a priest dressed in robes made from human flesh. The priest, referring to the characters as "lost sheep", requested that they surrender themselves to the ghoul hordes and join them. He claimed their flesh was sacred, whether it be used to feed the ghouls, or converted and made one of them. He had an army of ghouls with him to enforce his will if he so desired, but he did not. Instead he offered the party a peaceful chance to surrender to them. When they did not respond, he took is as a refusal, and stated that this would be his last peaceful offer. He withdrew his ghouls, and the party set out again.
First they went to the Harwicks' home; it didn't take them long to find Beth Harwick, converted to a raging ghoul and locked in the home's cellar. Down there with her was a doomspinner spider she referred to as her "child"; the party did not find out about this until Deckard was knocked down into the cellar. The encounter started out simply enough, but eventually Beth managed to get Deckard, Vorgym & Shivra down into the cellar, while ghouls above ravaged Cyrus & Amnon. The party was victorious in the end, but not without taking a beating. This encounter proved to be quite long.
The party managed to recover some valuables from Beth Harwick, including a wedding ring by which she could likely be identified; they took it and then decided they should go back to the western side of Hampstead and check for clues. In the west, they headed to the wizard's tower they'd seen, arriving without much incident. They recovered a chess set on the first floor, then headed to the second, where they found a rune-inscribed cloth robe, a potion of healing, and an intricate golden sphere. The sphere turned out to be an arcane recording device of some sort; it activated while they investigated it, and the loud volume of the sphere drew a number of ghouls, including a very large, hulking, green-skinned ghoul who droned out a cry for meat which made the party feel as if their skin were being "tenderized". The ghouls moved to attack, and we stopped here, just as the encounter was beginning.
Hope everyone enjoyed the session, see you all next week.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Session #38: The Ruins of Hampstead
In this outing, the party made their way to Hampstead, finding a destroyed ruin infested with ghouls. I used a new approach to skill challenges, treating them more as prolonged, roleplay-style sequences of skill checks. They set out to head to the river and find Mr. Harwick's wife on the other side. Along the way, they discovered a pair of landmarks in western Hampstead - a wizard's tower, and a chapel with a number of spires. Their trip through the ruins resulted in them nearly navigating through them without incident, but Vorgym failed a Streetwise check and led the party right into a pack of hungry ghouls.
This encounter was fairly quick; the party had to escape the ghouls, as the sounds of battle drew more and more ghouls to the scene. Cyrus absorbed most of the damage the ghouls dished out, but had to use a number of healing surges to get his health back up; this would be important later.
Arriving at the river, the party looked to cross the bridge and engage a small group of ghouls. It seemed easy enough at first, then a number of aquatic ghouls known as lacedons infiltrated the party's lines and began to attack them. They tried to drag a number of characters into the water, nearly sending Cyrus over; Amnon was actually dragged into the water, and only managed to escape thanks to ranged coverage from the rest of the party.
Between the healing surges lost in traversing the ruins and the healing surges the lacedons took from the party, healing surge economy ended up being a serious problem in this encounter, and the session in general. Cyrus ran out of surges, and ended up at -21/70 hit points by the end of the encounter. The party eventually managed to escape the ghouls and cross the bridge, but were very beat - Vorgym's bold gambit to rescue Cyrus left him weakened, and Cyrus was left unconscious.
The party had to again navigate the ruins; they lost a few more healing surges along the way, and managed to find a house which they could fortify for an extended rest. The party did their extended rest here, and we ended the session for the night. See everyone next week!
This encounter was fairly quick; the party had to escape the ghouls, as the sounds of battle drew more and more ghouls to the scene. Cyrus absorbed most of the damage the ghouls dished out, but had to use a number of healing surges to get his health back up; this would be important later.
Arriving at the river, the party looked to cross the bridge and engage a small group of ghouls. It seemed easy enough at first, then a number of aquatic ghouls known as lacedons infiltrated the party's lines and began to attack them. They tried to drag a number of characters into the water, nearly sending Cyrus over; Amnon was actually dragged into the water, and only managed to escape thanks to ranged coverage from the rest of the party.
Between the healing surges lost in traversing the ruins and the healing surges the lacedons took from the party, healing surge economy ended up being a serious problem in this encounter, and the session in general. Cyrus ran out of surges, and ended up at -21/70 hit points by the end of the encounter. The party eventually managed to escape the ghouls and cross the bridge, but were very beat - Vorgym's bold gambit to rescue Cyrus left him weakened, and Cyrus was left unconscious.
The party had to again navigate the ruins; they lost a few more healing surges along the way, and managed to find a house which they could fortify for an extended rest. The party did their extended rest here, and we ended the session for the night. See everyone next week!
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