Latency cooperated for the most part during this session. Here's how things went.
The party discovered that the unconscious man was a trader from Hampstead who was on his way back there when he and his trader friend, Alvis, were attacked by the ghouls. Alvis was killed; the man, Janus Harwick, passed out during the attack. The party sent Harwick back to warn Falconia of what was going on, and he asked the party to find his wife, Beth Harwick.
Heading further toward Hampstead, the party emerged from the forest into rolling fields of tall grass, crops, and grain. A powdery white substance began falling from the sky as they moved closer to Hampstead; they discovered this to be powdered bone, though it resembled snow or ash in the way it fell from the sky. A similar powder falls from the sky in the abyssal domain of Doresain, the Ghoul King & one of the prime exarches of the Demon Prince of the Undead, Orcus.
Eventually, the party found a boarded-up farmhouse. They couldn't find anyone inside initially, so they decided to have Cyrus break down the door. He succeeded, and they found a family hiding inside. The noise they had made quickly drew ghouls to the house, and they came under siege. Byron was nearly dragged off in the battle, as the ghouls swarmed the house, but the party managed to save him and drive the ghouls off.
After this battle, the party decided to help the family escape the fields around Hampstead, which were crawling with ghouls using the tall grass for cover. This led to an exceedingly long encounter where the party escorted the family through a field of tall grass while being attacked by a constant stream of ghouls. The grandfather of the family was lost in this battle, but the party managed to get the rest of the family out of the fields and to the relative safety beyond.
The last encounter took us 2, maybe even 3 hours - it was a lengthy affair to be sure, but the party managed to succeed well enough, save for the grandfather's death. See everyone next week!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Session #36: Cyrus Has Joined Your Team
Traver missed the beginning of our makeup session on Saturday, was there for the rest. On to the recap.
Our first session without Sal & Sterling as part of the party started off...inauspiciously. The party spoke to Lady Kesselia Francesca, and were handsomely rewarded for recovering the Silver Mask of Kas. Additionally, she deputized them as delvers in her service, giving them a seal of her house (a purple seal with three black fleur-de-lis symbols on it) to use to open up opportunities previously sealed off to them.
After this, they went looking for work, having no task from Kesselia currently. They were led to the city watch, where they found the commander, Sir-Commander Canis Wolfswift, arguing with a dragonborn named Cyrus: Cyrus wanted permission for diplomats from the reformed Arkhosian empire to attend to the Wintersend Assembly with the dragonborn of the Tarranine Wastes, and Wolfswift refused him permission. Upon noticing the party, Wolfswift asked them to check on an overdue patrol that had been sent toward the farming community of Hampstead, to the northeast of Falconia. They agreed - Cyrus asked to accompany them in the interests of showing that the Arkhosians had interest in helping Titania.
Five characters strong now, the party headed toward Hampstead, and encountered a barricade along the way - a group of guards led by the leader of the overdue patrol, Sergeant Hargrove. The guards claimed a plague had taken Hampstead; however it turned out that these weren't the guards at all. The patrol had been killed, and these "guards" were zombies who had disguised themselves as the guards. This proved a fairly easy fight for the party, and after defeating the guards they continued on toward Hampstead.
Along the way, they found a ravaged campsite, with an unconscious man beneath a fallen tent and a corpse with a large chunk of flesh removed from its back. They were attacked by ghouls and gravehounds suddenly; the fight proved to be simple enough, though, and they defeated these beasts as well. We stopped here, without consulting the unconscious man.
Remember guys, if you need to take care of any item shopping, take care of it ahead of time in the builder and let me know what you got so I can check it and approve it. We may have a new party member joining soon as well.
Our first session without Sal & Sterling as part of the party started off...inauspiciously. The party spoke to Lady Kesselia Francesca, and were handsomely rewarded for recovering the Silver Mask of Kas. Additionally, she deputized them as delvers in her service, giving them a seal of her house (a purple seal with three black fleur-de-lis symbols on it) to use to open up opportunities previously sealed off to them.
After this, they went looking for work, having no task from Kesselia currently. They were led to the city watch, where they found the commander, Sir-Commander Canis Wolfswift, arguing with a dragonborn named Cyrus: Cyrus wanted permission for diplomats from the reformed Arkhosian empire to attend to the Wintersend Assembly with the dragonborn of the Tarranine Wastes, and Wolfswift refused him permission. Upon noticing the party, Wolfswift asked them to check on an overdue patrol that had been sent toward the farming community of Hampstead, to the northeast of Falconia. They agreed - Cyrus asked to accompany them in the interests of showing that the Arkhosians had interest in helping Titania.
Five characters strong now, the party headed toward Hampstead, and encountered a barricade along the way - a group of guards led by the leader of the overdue patrol, Sergeant Hargrove. The guards claimed a plague had taken Hampstead; however it turned out that these weren't the guards at all. The patrol had been killed, and these "guards" were zombies who had disguised themselves as the guards. This proved a fairly easy fight for the party, and after defeating the guards they continued on toward Hampstead.
Along the way, they found a ravaged campsite, with an unconscious man beneath a fallen tent and a corpse with a large chunk of flesh removed from its back. They were attacked by ghouls and gravehounds suddenly; the fight proved to be simple enough, though, and they defeated these beasts as well. We stopped here, without consulting the unconscious man.
Remember guys, if you need to take care of any item shopping, take care of it ahead of time in the builder and let me know what you got so I can check it and approve it. We may have a new party member joining soon as well.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Session #35: End of a Chapter
2 missing people tonight. On to the recap.
We picked back up with the battle with Blazewing. He nearly killed Seamus, bringing him to -31 with an ongoing damage attack that Seamus could not break out of, due to it being based on a grab. In the end, Deckard, Seamus & Vorgym were all down, but the rest of the party managed to bring Blazewing down.
After this, I (unfortunately) railroaded the party a bit, turning them off from taking an alternative route to pursue the Amberforges - I'll get to the reasons for this later, but a significant part of it was me just not having the energy/heart to improvise tonight =\
This alternative route led them to fight Gregor and his spirehorn behemoth mount, along with three dwarf clan guards. This was a long fight, and took us a bit over time, but in the end the party defeated the guards, the behemoth, and Gregor in order. Gregor went down so quickly that he didn't get a chance to unleash the other beast in the room - a young blue dragon =D
At this point, the story is reaching the end of a chapter. The party will have a new face or two next time - I've given people permission to change characters if they like, providing we can maintain the group's integrity. Additionally, Nirreh (played by Sal) will be stepping out for a few months due to school, and Seamus (played by Sterling until ~1 month ago, played by me thereafter) will be retired in order for a new character to be introduced - a dragonborn fighter named Cyrus. If anyone wants to make a new character, please let me know, but be advised that we will need to maintain class integrity - at least one of each role. If necessary I will make a new character in Cyrus' place, but I'll need to have some notice, so let me know.
I apologize for railroading tonight - I should have let the party explore the alternative option, but I wasn't feeling up to it, and I also wanted to make sure we had the current conflict resolved before our party underwent the coming changes. All apologies, players =( Next week, we will be opening a new chapter in the campaign - with the mask in the party's grasp, we will return to Falconia and the next part of the story will begin. Hope you're all looking forward to it as much as I am, and see you next week!
P.S.: Farewell for now, Sal & Sterling =)
We picked back up with the battle with Blazewing. He nearly killed Seamus, bringing him to -31 with an ongoing damage attack that Seamus could not break out of, due to it being based on a grab. In the end, Deckard, Seamus & Vorgym were all down, but the rest of the party managed to bring Blazewing down.
After this, I (unfortunately) railroaded the party a bit, turning them off from taking an alternative route to pursue the Amberforges - I'll get to the reasons for this later, but a significant part of it was me just not having the energy/heart to improvise tonight =\
This alternative route led them to fight Gregor and his spirehorn behemoth mount, along with three dwarf clan guards. This was a long fight, and took us a bit over time, but in the end the party defeated the guards, the behemoth, and Gregor in order. Gregor went down so quickly that he didn't get a chance to unleash the other beast in the room - a young blue dragon =D
At this point, the story is reaching the end of a chapter. The party will have a new face or two next time - I've given people permission to change characters if they like, providing we can maintain the group's integrity. Additionally, Nirreh (played by Sal) will be stepping out for a few months due to school, and Seamus (played by Sterling until ~1 month ago, played by me thereafter) will be retired in order for a new character to be introduced - a dragonborn fighter named Cyrus. If anyone wants to make a new character, please let me know, but be advised that we will need to maintain class integrity - at least one of each role. If necessary I will make a new character in Cyrus' place, but I'll need to have some notice, so let me know.
I apologize for railroading tonight - I should have let the party explore the alternative option, but I wasn't feeling up to it, and I also wanted to make sure we had the current conflict resolved before our party underwent the coming changes. All apologies, players =( Next week, we will be opening a new chapter in the campaign - with the mask in the party's grasp, we will return to Falconia and the next part of the story will begin. Hope you're all looking forward to it as much as I am, and see you next week!
P.S.: Farewell for now, Sal & Sterling =)
Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Session #34: Entering the Manor
No Sterling again. No Phil either. On to recap.
The party Stealthed through the menagerie and found a number of dwarves in the main hall above. They managed to kill one without alerting the others, but decided that they may as well just engage in combat with them. They took out the dwarf warriors rather easily, and the dwarf clan guards didn't prove to be much trouble. The trained owlbear was a bit difficult, but it was focused and thus went down quickly. The party, specifically Vorgym, found their biggest issue with the dwarf captain who led the guards. He had a power which allowed him to mark two of his foes for the duration of the encounter; he did this to Vorgym & Shivra, the two damage dealers. He also had a nasty power which allowed him to counterattack any attack made by someone he had marked, and he used this on Vorgym twice. Eventually, he went down; the party short rested thereafter.
Next, the party explored the rooms downstairs, finding two fancy bedrooms. They found a diary in one which stated that the password to the manor's vault, where they figured their treasure would be, had been recently changed to "something that was different, and yet the same, in all the bedrooms." (Note: I went ahead and retconned this - the original message had said "something that was the same in all three rooms", but to prevent confusion I have adjusted the message accordingly.)
After exploring these rooms and finding nothing else of real interest, the party headed into the big double doors one of the guards who had attempted to escape had unlocked. Inside they found a library, along with Gregor Amberforge, his father Thanos Amberforge, and their personal bodyguard, Mullas Stonefist. Thanos & Mullas left to attend a wedding; Gregor was to stay behind and deal with the intruders, which he sought to accomplish by setting loose a young red dragon, "Blazewing", and another dwarf captain on them. The fight is roughly in the home stretch at this point - the captain has been taken down, and Blazewing has been bloodied; his immediate recharge and usage of his fiery breath weapon (which is much hotter & much stronger now that he is bloodied) has sent Deckard into dying, and both Vorgym & Seamus into bloodied. We will have to see how this turns out next week!
The party Stealthed through the menagerie and found a number of dwarves in the main hall above. They managed to kill one without alerting the others, but decided that they may as well just engage in combat with them. They took out the dwarf warriors rather easily, and the dwarf clan guards didn't prove to be much trouble. The trained owlbear was a bit difficult, but it was focused and thus went down quickly. The party, specifically Vorgym, found their biggest issue with the dwarf captain who led the guards. He had a power which allowed him to mark two of his foes for the duration of the encounter; he did this to Vorgym & Shivra, the two damage dealers. He also had a nasty power which allowed him to counterattack any attack made by someone he had marked, and he used this on Vorgym twice. Eventually, he went down; the party short rested thereafter.
Next, the party explored the rooms downstairs, finding two fancy bedrooms. They found a diary in one which stated that the password to the manor's vault, where they figured their treasure would be, had been recently changed to "something that was different, and yet the same, in all the bedrooms." (Note: I went ahead and retconned this - the original message had said "something that was the same in all three rooms", but to prevent confusion I have adjusted the message accordingly.)
After exploring these rooms and finding nothing else of real interest, the party headed into the big double doors one of the guards who had attempted to escape had unlocked. Inside they found a library, along with Gregor Amberforge, his father Thanos Amberforge, and their personal bodyguard, Mullas Stonefist. Thanos & Mullas left to attend a wedding; Gregor was to stay behind and deal with the intruders, which he sought to accomplish by setting loose a young red dragon, "Blazewing", and another dwarf captain on them. The fight is roughly in the home stretch at this point - the captain has been taken down, and Blazewing has been bloodied; his immediate recharge and usage of his fiery breath weapon (which is much hotter & much stronger now that he is bloodied) has sent Deckard into dying, and both Vorgym & Seamus into bloodied. We will have to see how this turns out next week!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)