Session #68: Lair of the Fangs, Part 3 - Anathema!

This was a short session, which we also had to postpone from the original time due to some absentees.

The entirety of this session consisted of the party's battle against a yuan-ti anathema, a conglomeration of snake swarms around a massive yuan-ti, and a pair of snake swarms. The anathema was created by Vak'shasz the Sly Tongue, the high priest of Zehir and main public point of contact for those looking to hire the Fangs. Amnon managed to interrupt this ritual with a slide, and the anathema was summoned half-finished (causing it to start at bloodied). This turned out to be quite beneficial, as this was a difficult fight for the characters, primarily due to the snake swarms - when the anathema connected, however, it hit HARD, and it was more or less responsible for Vorgym going down. Deckard dropped as well in this encounter, leading to a healthy use of our new injury system.

Eventually, the characters won out, and decided they had to extended rest, so they left the lair and rested in the sewers. Fortunately Deckard was able to prevent their wounds from being infected, but 2 of them woke up feeling not all that well (Vorgym & Amnon) - as such, they are each one healing surge down. In addition, Vorgym now has to roll a saving throw every time he takes damage: if he fails this saving throw, he will begin taking 5 ongoing poison damage (or 10 if this happens while he is bloodied) until he saves, as the poison of the anathema now courses through his blood. Deckard has a less potent version of this, as the snakebites he took cause him to take 5 poison damage the first time he is bloodied in each encounter. We had to stop here, as time had run out for some players.

Session #67: Lair of the Fangs, Part 2 - Grasema & The Bridge

In this session, we finished up the encounter from last session with the characters winning out. They then built themselves a small army using the petrified victims in the statue garden.

Next, they faced off against Grasema, the Oracle of Zehir & leader of the medusas, along with her guardian naga. The fight proved pretty easy at first, and the naga didn't get to do much - until it turned into a bone naga and began dazing and doing heavy damage in a burst around it. Fortunately, the damage was dealt to Grasema as well, and this encounter proved to be fairly easy in the end - though Shivra was petrified as part of the fight.

The characters feasted here, regaining surges and a daily power, and headed to the eastern wing of the lair after shutting off the water flow into the main exchange. There, they had to cross a bridge with a side-winding viper etched onto one side of it, and a group of snaketongue cultists & a yuan-ti on the other. The assassins ambushed them here, as they tried to cross the bridge, which led over two pits of vipers; the bridge proved to be the most difficult part of the fight, as the illusions were difficult to detect and the party didn't figure out the trick at first. Vorgym & Deckard in particular were heavily damaged by the pit's vipers, but in the end the characters made it across. We ended the session there.

Session #66: Lair of the Fangs, Part 1 - The Statue Garden

This session ended up starting an hour late, as Traver was a bit late, and we had some pre-session discussion to have. Just to recap, our subscription to D&D Insider runs out September 26th; we will be splitting the new 1-year subscription 5 ways, so the cost should be $14.28 per person. I will be checking with the group weekly to see where we're all at on this, and once we've got it together I'll renew the sub. Our last session before the expiration is September 23rd, so we need to have the money together by then! Additionally, we talked about what we want to do with getting a new player (or players), and the possibility of starting a new campaign in my custom campaign setting after this adventure is done. I'll be sending out some info on that campaign setting this week so you guys can better make a decision on that.

Now, on to the recap - we started with the party heading toward the yuan-ti abominations after determining this was their only way in. Shivra failed a Stealth check, and as such the abominations knew they were coming, though they couldn't see them in the darkness; we roll initiative. As they approached the abominations, Cyrus set off a footchopper alarm trap, causing an alarm bell to be rung, and a scythe blade to sweep out and chop at Cyrus & Vorgym's ankles. Vorgym managed to avoid the blade, but Cyrus was taken down by it. Thereafter, the party engaged the abominations & their leader, a yuan-ti berserker named Uhlaash. This was a very easy encounter for the group, and Uhlaash never really got to take advantage of his powers due to his being dazed for the duration of the encounter. The party recovered a crank with a square-shaped peg on its non-crank end and headed inside.

Inside they found a large exchange, with raised drawbridges to the east and the west - each drawbridge appeared to be tied to a nearby dais. The dais by the western drawbridge had a square hole in it, so they put the crank's peg in the hole, and lowered the drawbridge. Inside they traveled through hallways of terrified statues (which were implied to be victims of the medusas that no doubt lurked here) until coming upon a larger room, a "statue garden" of sorts, well-lit by sunlight from the grates high above and with a large golden doorway shaped like a female medusa's head serving as its only other exit. The characters were not alone in the statue garden, however - a pair of medusa spirit charmers and four medusa bodyguards awaited them.

The battle began, and Cyrus was quick to charge ahead and engage the spirit charmers. The rest of the party dealt with the bodyguards, attacking according to their marks. The spirit charmers began to free their petrified victims and send them against the party, which they did out of fear more than any sort of loyalty or belief that they would be set free. The battle seemed to be going smoothly until a pair of yuan-ti assassins jumped the characters. These proved to be very nasty enemies, capable of dealing vicious strikes to enemies they are hidden from, blinding their targets to enable this vicious strike, and using blinded enemies as human shields against attackers. Matters were complicated by the fact that Cyrus was permanently petrified (at least, as far as the characters know at this point) by the spirit charmers' glare attack, and Vorgym was brought down by an assassin's death strike. Deckard expended life blood harvest, one of his major daily healing powers, to get Vorgym back up, and as it stands, the party has the enemies under control at the moment, thanks to Amnon's visions of avarice spell. Vorgym has managed to take down an assassin, Shivra has managed to take down a spirit charmer, and the tide of battle seems as though it may be turning, but with the ever-present threat of petrification by the spirit charmer, the characters are by no means assured victory...

Session #65: The Arrival in Vulkannen

This was our first session at our new time, Sunday 2-6 Pacific. Sal didn't make it.

We finished up the encounter with the Fangs of Zehir under Tovin & Alesia Gravelstoke's command, with Cyrus riding in on his liondrake, Shir, to help the party as Hefeweizen was spontaneously knocked unconscious. Cyrus informed the group that Lady Millenbras had asked him to come help them, as she thought they may be in danger. Thereafter, the party learned from Shivra that Baroness Valarde wished to see them - as such, they decided to head to Vulkannen, seeing as they'd need to go there to deal with the Fangs anyway.

They were immediately taken to Valarde upon arriving in Vulkannen, and they learned that she had a number of problems in Vulkannen - Dythan's Legion is throwing its weight around; citizens are disappearing from the streets in the Hub, the traveler's district and main entry district into Vulkannen; the Drow Quarter is nearly in open revolt; and now a group of adventurers have come to her city. Valarde admitted she'd been following the party's progress and knew they would be coming to Vulkannen soon, though she didn't seem to explain why she knew that. She also admitted she'd considered destroying them before they could cause any trouble, but decided they would be much more useful as assistants. She refused to explain what jobs she would need them to handle, but instead asked for them to agree to help her - in exchange, she would give them access to the lair of the Fangs of Zehir, allowing them to deal with that problem quickly. They agreed, and Valarde removed Shivra's collar at last.

After this discussion, the party was lead into the sewers by Kiaron, the captain of Vulkannen's guard; he led them near the entry to the Fangs' lair, then headed off as they sized up the entry - two yuan-ti abominations, large serpent-bodied humanoids, stood guard over the entry, wielding nasty-looking bastard swords and large shields. We stopped there.

Ch-ch-changes, Part 2: Speeding Up Combat

Something I've noticed, and something you guys may have noticed as well, is that combat takes a long time in our sessions. Many, if not all, of our combats last upwards of 10 rounds, and our average encounters seem to last a minimum of 2 hours. In my opinion (and maybe you guys will disagree with me here), this is way too long - these numbers are reasonable for major set-piece combats, but not for every single one. To that end, I've come up with some things I'm thinking of implementing at the table to speed things along.

- Timed turns: 90 seconds for each turn, to be exact. I've been doing some research into the matter of lengthy combats in 4th edition, and this seems to be a popular suggestion. I haven't timed the average turns in our games, but I believe they tend to take upwards of 2 minutes - going from memory, oftentimes the first 20-30 seconds of someone's turn seem to be spent in silence as they decide what to do. I think combat would be a lot faster if we set a time limit on turns to cut down on this - it would help us focus on what we're going to be doing, giving us incentive to have a decision made on what to do before our turn comes up. On paper, this might seem like undue stress or pressure to put on everyone, but really this is just a means of encouraging everyone to focus their attention more effectively, and 90 seconds should be more than long enough for this to happen; this is a number we can work with if need be. This is one thing I'm really considering strongly.

- Halve hit points OR double damage on both sides. This is another popular suggestion: you simply halve the hit point totals of both the PCs and the monsters, or alternatively, you leave hit point totals the same, but double all damage results. In both cases, combat will be sped up by the fact that things go down quicker. The drawback here, though, is exactly that: things, including the PCs, go down quicker, and combat is going to be more deadly in this situation. Personally I'm not sure about this one, as I can see a single critical hit from a Brute-type monster taking a character from full hit points into negatives.

- Any ideas you guys might have. I've presented a couple ideas here, but maybe you guys have an idea I haven't considered. If so, please, suggest it! Alternatively, maybe you don't think encounters are taking too long; that's valid as well. Whatever your opinions, I'd like to hear them, so that we can figure out how to go forward on this. Thanks for reading, and see you Sunday.

Ch-ch-changes, Part 1: The Injury System

Okay guys, this post is to inform you about two things: the injury system I discussed implementing, and a discussion about speeding up combat. I'll be breaking this up into two posts for easier reading.

First of all, the injury system. Here are some of the main points:

- There are two types of injuries: minor injuries, and major injuries.
   * Minor injuries can be inflicted when the character is reduced to a negative hit point value, and, while they do hamper the character, they do not impose a major handicap on their capabilities. When the circumstances required for a minor injury to be sustained are met, the player rolls a saving throw: on a success, no injury is sustained, but on a failure, a minor injury is sustained. If a character succeeds on this saving throw, but meets the requirements for an injury to be sustained a second time, they roll another saving throw, this time with a -2 penalty. If these circumstances are met a third time, the character sustains a minor injury, and is not allowed a saving throw.
   * Major injuries are inflicted when the character fails 3 death saving throws, or is reduced to their bloodied value in negative hit points. These injuries impose major handicaps on a character's capabilities. When the circumstances required for a major injury to be sustained are met, the injury is sustained; the player is not allowed a saving throw.

- A character can have multiple injuries at once, but can only sustain one type of injury in each encounter. The type of injury sustained will be either determined randomly (in most cases) or assigned (in cases where it would be the only injury to make sense).

- The process for recovering from an injury depends on the type of injury. If it is a minor injury, the character must make an Endurance check during an extended rest; if the check is a success, the injury is healed, and if the check is a failure, the injury remains. Major injuries are more difficult to recover from, and the character must succeed on a more difficult Endurance check to reduce the injury to a minor injury, and another for the minor injury during their next extended rest. Optionally, a single ally trained in Heal can make a Heal check in place of this Endurance check; such an activity requires constant vigilance on the ally's part, therefore this particular ally can only do this for one of their allies per extended rest.

- Though this injury system will be used in most cases, it will not entirely replace death. A character whom an opponent moves specifically to kill, by delivering a coup de grace for example, is dead. Situations a character would not be able to survive, such as being melted, disintegrated, etc. will still kill the character.

My intent with implementing this system is twofold. One, it will add an element of realism to encounters by inflicting demonstrable damage to characters in a way more significant than simple Hit Point loss. Two, it will greatly reduce (though not eliminate, as stated above) the possibility of character death, while still making the prospect of dropping into negative hit points, failing too many death saves or hitting negative bloodied value a palpable threat.

Please let me know what you think when we come together on Sunday.

Session #64: The Fangs Return

In this session, the characters each resolved their respective trips - Amnon to the Tower of Heiserrah, Shivra to the Thieves' Guild in Vulkannen, and the rest of the group back to Falconia. Amnon reported on Orcus' death and the origin of the Doresannic shards to his master, the Archmage Sirilis Starsburden, who didn't seem interested, much to Amnon's chagrin. She seemed quite distracted with her research into the shard, and remarked that she was close to a breakthrough. She advised Amnon to continue looking for the other members of the Clawed Gauntlet.

Shivra, hoping to have her collar removed, went to pay her debt, only to learn that Baroness Valarde herself had requested they hold off on removing the collar. Shivra went to see the Baroness, and learned that she has need of the party's services - in exchange, she promises to remove Shivra's collar, as well as make her leader of the Thieves' Guild.

Vorgym, Deckard & Hefeweizen reported back to Sir-Commander Wolfswift, and learned that while they had been gone, Lady Francesca's manor had been attacked. She was badly burned in the attack, with her right eye & left hand completely bandaged, with burnt areas and other areas of her body bandaged as well. She told them that the Fangs of Zehir had attacked the manor, and that they knew Amnon was alive. She urged them to head after him immediately. Hefeweizen, who had headed to see his sister at Lady Millenbras' estate, told the Lady of what had happened at the steading, and of Orcus' demise. Concerned, she remarked that she would need to leave immediately to consult with a friend at the Tower of Heiserrah. Stefan was taken off to be bound to the knife ritual, and Sangria remained at the estate - her attraction to Vorgym becoming all the more evident.

The party all came back together on the road, where they were ambushed by the Fangs of Zehir - they had been waiting to ambush the group in the hopes that they would be able to confirm that all of them were, in fact, alive. This group, a squad of medusa assassins, was led by two more members of the Gravelstoke family, Alesia & Tovin. We had to stop midway through his encounter, as time ran out.

Remember guys, D&D is Sunday 2-6 Pacific/4-8 Central/5-9 Eastern this week. See you then.

Sessions #62 & 63: Steading of the Hill Giants, Finale

Two session recaps this week, since there was a short window between Sessions 62 & 63. Sal missed half of the second session.

In the first session, the party successfully negotiated an end to the war with the hill giants, convincing the Earth Titan to end the war and prioritize the Clawed Gauntlet. Nosnra, the Hill Giant Chief, offered to give the characters a peace offering, and led them down to his treasury - where he proceeded to ambush them with the help of his pet purple worm. They defeated him and his worm, collecting the treasure in the process (along with a map which pointed to 3 locations: the hill giant steading, a location marked with a blue X labeled as "The Great Rift", and an unlabeled location marked with a red X which seemed to be around the area of Kinsfort), and learned that Nosnra was both working at the behest of the Fire Giant King, Snurre Iron-Belly, against Falconia, and working for the Clawed Gauntlet to allow one of the death knights to kill the Earth Titan in exchange for becoming the Earth Titan himself. Boulderfist, the Earth Titan, punished Nosnra by turning him to stone, then set off to speak with the other titans, as he knew the fire & frost giants meant to start their own war soon.

The first session ended with the primary events of the second session - the introduction of the Red Rider of Wrath, Sir Eoric Cairnstone, and the party's fight with him and his hell knights. They managed to defeat them after a battle which took up the entirety of the session's time, and learned from Cairnstone in a vision that Orcus, the Demon Prince of the Undead and a very powerful demon lord, had been killed by the Clawed Gauntlet and their true leader, Doresain, the King of Ghouls, someone previously thought to be one of Orcus' loyal servants. After being given this vision, Amnon set off quickly for the Tower of Heiserrah, ostensibly to speak with the archmages there, though he traveled with an unusual sense of anger the Red Rider of Wrath had bestowed upon him. Shivra set off for Vulkannen to pay off her debt and get her collar removed; the rest of the party went to return to Falconia so that they could report on these new developments to the Wolfswifts (as well as escort the recovered prisoners back).

Session #61: Steading of the Hill Giants, Part 3

Phil didn't show up, Sal had to leave early, Bibart's power went out causing him to miss the end.

The party decided to check out the guards' room in the guest quarters, and there they found a staircase which led down into the dungeon. In the dungeon they found survivors of Orcbane Keep, including a familiar face (Steve, the lone survivor of the soldiers outside with the adventurers), being tortured by a pair of chain devils and a wrath devil interrogator. The party surprise-attacked, which drew the jailer, a hideous, deformed hill giant known as the Keeper, and his pets, a pair of displacer beasts named "Stalka" and "Gnasha", but managed to prevail in the end.

Afterward, they learned that Steve and the others had been brought here and interrogated for answers the giants didn't seem to care about - they were being tortured for the sake of torture, it seemed. They convinced Steve not to take bloody vengeance on the giants, retrieved his gear, and helped escort the prisoners from the steading. After that, they did a little bit of exploring, and decided they needed to find the hill giant chief - Steve was able to tell them that the chief spends most of his time in the great hall, the large room in the center of the steading. They opened the door, and did indeed find Chief Nosnra, along with emissaries from the frost giants and the fire giants, as well as an unexpected guest who may complicate things severely...

Session #60: Steading of the Hill Giants, Part 2

Sal had to leave halfway through the 1st encounter, but managed to come back for the 2nd encounter.

In this session the party recovered treasure from the guardhouse by the courtyard and checked out a number of rooms in the main building, discovering the northern bedroom area full of young hill giants, a central great hall where the sounds of revelry could be heard, and a southern area where the kitchen and the guest quarters are found. They explored the southern area in this session.

First, the party fought the hill giant cooks and their slaves in the kitchen, defeating them without too much trouble. Then, the party headed over into the guest quarters area, where they found an emissary of the Clawed Gauntlet, the master vampire Zeras. He had with him two bodyguards, large undead constructs known as boneclaws. Engaging the vampire, the party was faced with the boneclaws and a number of ogre guards who came out of a room behind them when the party attacked.

This encounter proved to be more difficult, but in the end the party beat Zeras, preventing his escape, and easily scattering the ogres. Afterward, the party recovered some treasure from a chest in the guest quarters and a letter which confirmed what Canis had suspected - the Clawed Gauntlet had used zombies in Falconian livery to attack the hill giants and bait them into going to war with Falconia. The letter also stated that the fire and frost giants would be ready to aid "us" (the "us" being undefined) soon. The letter had not been addressed, as the party interrupted Zeras while he was writing it. We stopped here.

Session #59: Steading of the Hill Giants, Part 1

Extra-long session this week.

The party returned, having rescued Sangria, and learned that she had been used for an "Elemental Messenger" ritual - that is to say, she was used to communicate with the king of the fire giants, Snurre Iron-Belly. She could not remember what message she communicated, but she did note that she felt the presence of another dwarf - Seamus - being used to communicate with the frost giant leader.

After dealing with Sangria the party received their monetary reward from Lady Heathlana, and learned a number of things. First, she sent them after the Coterie because she is a follower of the Raven Queen, and the Coterie had attacked a church of the Raven Queen - for that she had them destroyed. Second, Cyrus has been brought back by the Raven Queen as a form of undead called a revenant; he maintains his personality, more or less, but he realizes that he only lives so long as it takes for him to fulfill the purpose vested in him by the Raven Queen, and the experience of dying has changed him considerably. Third, Lukash is performing some sort of ritual to enable him to provide the party with a way of reinforcing themselves in a pinch (OOC: to temporarily replace party members who are unavailable).

Also, the party was given a new task by Sir-Commander Canis Wolfswift and his father, the Duke-General Theron Wolfswift. They have found a way of ending the stalemate with the hill giants - by having the party, the only people strong enough and clever enough to handle this situation, infiltrate the steading and either make peace with or destroy the hill giants' chief, Nosnra.

The party set out on a many-days journey to the steading, and spent quite awhile staking out the place to figure out the best method of entry. After retiring to a cave and fighting a group of hill giants and bugbears who'd followed their tracks, they finally decided to sneak in the next night by climbing up the steading and moving across it. They jumped down into a courtyard, and were soon attacked by trained bulettes and their hill giant masters. The battle proved difficult, but the characters prevailed in the end, and this is where we stopped for the night.

Sessions #57 & 58: The Ritual

Two-part recap this time since my post for Session #57 didn't show up.

The party headed to Gravestone Hill Abbey, where they found a priest, Father Dameron, in disguise - the priest turned out to be a follower of Vecna in disguise, with two doppelganger assistants. The party defeated them then headed down and found a dwarf paladin being subjected to a ritual by another follower of Vecna - they freed the dwarf, despite their mistrust of dwarves in general, and defeated the follower, Lis the Vile, and his skeletal minions. They learned that the dwarf, Hefeweizen, was here looking for his sister, who had gone missing.

Heading deeper into the secret tunnels below the abbey, the party was subjected to a powerful sleep spell which trapped them all in a nightmare. They each had to navigate the nightmare and the dangers within to escape - Deckard was confronted by a room of unusual shadows which attacked him, Hefeweizen was trapped in a pit full of snakes and spiders, Vorgym was forced to navigate a cave full of swarming bats, Amnon had to contend with a haunted house full of ghosts, and Shivra was pursued around a field by a scarecrow.

One by one, the party escaped their nightmares and found themselves in a cave. Sangria was being subjected to a ritual by a lich, accompanied by a brain in a jar they recognized - Lazlow Dirgwyn, back for a third time. Sangria seemed to be possessed by some sort of fiery disposition, her eyes burning like flame, her hair flickering in the air as if it were fire, and her mouth moving as if she spoke wordlessly to something. The party attacked Lazlow, and were confronted by a number of nightmare incarnations corresponding to what they'd fought in the shadows. The battle proved immensely difficult, and by the end they were nearly defeated, but Lazlow's lich form was shattered, the nightmare incarnations were dispersed, and the brain in the jar was crushed. The brain in a jar turned out to be the lich's phylactery, its destruction destroying the lich for all time, it would seem.

The party managed to rescue the unconscious Sangria, upon which the hold of the strange ritual was broken, and we stopped there for the night. The Coterie is defeated - what will be next for the "Heroes of the North" and their new dwarven companion?

Session #56: Faked Deaths (or, the Rigamarole)

Traver did not show, nor did Sal for his first session.

The delvers of House Millenbras attacked the party, capturing most of them - Amnon went invisible and managed to escape. Once in the estate of House Millenbras, the party learned that the delvers had sought to fake their deaths - it hadn't been meant to turn into such a mess, but Amnon's invisibility trick led to the delvers choosing not to take any more chances. Meanwhile, Amnon returned to House Francesca, seeking to find a way to rescue the party - they didn't have many ways to help him, unfortunately.

They learned from Lady Heathlana that Lady Kesselia had been amassing powerful artifacts only, rather than powerful ones as well as valuable or beautiful ones - and that she was hoarding them rather than exchanging them as most of the other noble houses do. Heathlana admitted she was unsure what Kesselia was up to, but she suspected something. She stated that she needed their help with something major, but that first she would need to gain their trust - by having them deal with the Coterie, the organization which sent the Fangs of Zehir after them, allowing them to accomplish something they already wanted to accomplish anyhow. They are using the sewers to travel, so that their faked deaths are not revealed - they fought a group of chuuls in the sewers, which they quickly defeated, and we stopped there.

Hopefully more people show up next week - Sal's character may have to sit out for a bit while the party gets to the proper introduction point, however.

Session #55: The End of House Trannyth

Technical problems abound in this session - as such, we only had time for a single encounter.

The party discovered that Dorian had killed his parents and returned his family to noble status, using disguised monsters to impersonate his family members. He had hired the Fangs of Zehir to kill the party because an organization known as the Coterie, a group with ties to the Clawed Gauntlet, wanted them dead so that their interference with the plans of the two organizations would cease. The fight then began.

It was a brutal encounter, and in the end, Cyrus lay dead. Due to the technical problems we really only had this encounter to get done, and after that we had to stop due to time constraints. The party is down to 4 characters as it stands - Cyrus' resurrection is in great jeopardy due to the warning he received from the Raven Queen about the return of his soul from the Shadowfell as many times as it has causing too much of a disturbance - and they have Dorian as their prisoner, ostensibly to interrogate.

Big things are about to go down...the characters have all but destroyed a Falconian noble house, and such an action is sure to carry consequences. We'll have to see what happens to them next time...

Session #54: Their True Nature

Some issues with the port number we've been using for all this time caused us to have to start quite late. Traver had to leave an hour before the end.

In this session, the party descended into the basement, sneaking past the guard patrols, and confronted Une Trannyth, who was summoning a blood demon. In the first part of the fight, the party faced Une, her dretch lackeys, and the summoned blood demon. They went down quite easily - the encounter took off in difficulty when Une revealed her true form, that of a night hag.

Une herself didn't prove to be very difficult, and the blood demon, once defeated, gave the party use of a healing surge - the vrocks that Une summoned, however, were quite a challenge, tearing into the party with their sharp talons and nearly killing Cyrus several times. In the end, the party defeated them, however.

After, they discovered that the Trannyths, aside from Dorian, had been killed - impostors, it seemed, stood in their places. They also discovered that House Millenbras would be coming to meet the Trannyths tonight to give them the Hand of Vecna. The party learned of the last hiding place where the Trannyths could be found, and headed down...it is here that we stopped for the night, saving the confrontation with the Trannyths for next time.

Session #53: Krista's Seduction

Phil never made it, so Amnon was played by Jordan in this session.

Looking to escape the patrols, the party headed into the manor, which, curiously, the trolls didn't seem to check. They went to hide the bodies first, concealing them in the brush by the wall. They found in the manor house a library, where they found several books on summoning - pages on summoning a blood demon and a vrock were found missing from one of the books. They also found two stairwells - one leading upstairs, where a woman could be heard singing, and downstairs, where they found a door.

After investigating the library, the party heard barking off toward the gate they'd entered through - the patrols had found the unconscious guards they'd hidden. They decided to head upstairs first, and there they found Dame Krista Trannyth, the daughter of House Trannyth's Lord Tramorn, singing a song about a princess who had been captured and was being kept prisoner in a tower. They took her hostage, and after assuring her that they meant no harm, they asked her about the Trannyths' plan to assassinate them. She told them she knew nothing of it, and urged them to stop her mother, who had gone mad and was summoning a powerful demon in the basement. She provided them with a key to to the basement, and asked one of them to stay with her - Vorgym volunteered, and he remained with her while the rest of the party headed back downstairs.

Once the party had left, Krista moved to seduce Vorgym, seeking to "repay" him for being her daring rescuer. Despite his trepidation, he gave in - and when Krista kissed him, she placed some sort of bewitchment upon him. She ordered her guards to attack the party down below while keeping Vorgym with her. Once the party defeated the guards below, nearly drawing the attention of another patrol, they headed up and confronted Krista and Vorgym. Vorgym was convinced by Amnon to let the party deal with Krista, though he was (and is still) unable to raise a hand against her in violence. The rest of the party attacked Krista, and she attacked back, showing that she was more than just a mere frightened girl. She escaped when the party bloodied her, to the sound of beating wings - afterward, the party heard the sound of a door opening and closing underneath them.

We stopped here; the party is now level 12, and everyone should be leveled up by this Wednesday. I will cover loot from this encounter before next week's session.

Session #52: Visiting the Trannyths

Traver left about an hour before the end of this session; didn't seem like we got much done but them's the breaks.

The party began the night by figuring out what they wanted to do - which was more difficult than it sounded. Admittedly all they really had to go on was that the Fangs of Zehir had been contracted to kill them, and that House Trannyth, a Falconian noble house, were the ones putting the contract on them. They headed to talk to the Trannyths, but were accosted by more assassins, led by another member of the Gravelstoke family. They defeated these assassins rather handily.

After the assassins had been dealt with, the party realized that they didn't really have a plan of action. They did some research about the family, learning of their recent past - they had been disgraced for conspiring with Albacoran pirates, and they had recently been reinstated as a noble house by Archduke Graeme; rumor had it that this reinstatement had been secured through the family's use of the dark arts. They also spoke with Iankul Glimmergaunt, House Kesselia's retainer, and learned something about each member of the family: Baron Tramorn Trannyth, head of the house, is rumored to be a great swordsman and very much of a recluse; the Baroness Une, as they had already heard, is rumored to be a witch, even among the nobles; Dame Krista is a flirtacious woman who has many suitors but has refused all of them; and Sir Dorian is the most public, relatively speaking, member of the house, handling most of its business and being the one who primarily leaves the house. The family is a reclusive lot, and only leave their estate for very important matters - even Sir Dorian only leaves every few weeks.

They eventually decided that they needed to go directly to the Trannyths, and to that end they attempted to break into the estate by enchanting one of the guards - they discovered that the guards were themselves enchanted, and when Amnon's enchantment failed, the guards attacked. The party took some licks, but managed to knock all of the guards unconscious. Once inside, they noticed that a number of guard patrols were moving along the grounds. We stopped here.

Session #51: Elanath's End

The party started where they had left off, heading to the Jolly Knave to seek answers on Elanath's whereabouts. There they found a group of pirates, and pretended to be assassins asking the captain for payment. The pirates turned out to be forced into silence by a hermit mage, one of Elanath's apprentices, who attacked once the characters' ruse started to show holes. This proved to be an easy encounter, as once the hermit mage was defeated, the pirates surrendered. They directed the party to Elanath's location, a secret cave inside the cliff wall, and offered their help should the party require it.

Inside the cave, they found Elanath and Sejuk, the apparent leader of the group of Fangs of Zehir sent after them, talking with a group of people from the entourage of House Millenbras. They looked to be exchanging the Hand of Vecna, and were arguing over price. The party tried to sneak up and steal the hand, but failed, and combat began. The House Millenbras entourage fled, and the party was left to fight Elanath, Sejuk, and a pair of bronze warders. They had a fairly easy time with this encounter, all things considered - there was one death at the end, the result of Elanath using an encounter power that was lethal on a failed saving throw on Vorgym.

Recovering what loot they could, the party returned to Kesselia's manor and gave her the Hand of Vecna; she seemed distressed that House Millenbras had apparently been after the Hand as well, and did not seem to understand why House Trannyth, who had placed a seal on the assassins' contract given to Sejuk, would want the characters dead. We stopped here, after the characters were given some information on House Trannyth: they had lost their status as a noble house for conspiring with Albacoran pirates, but had recently been reinstated by Archduke Graeme for reasons unknown. Rumors are abound that the family regained their influence through use of the dark arts, and some even say that the house lady, Baroness Une Trannyth, is a witch...

Session #50: The Wintersend Assembly

This session began with the party finding out from Lukash that Elanath had most likely fled the tower with the Hand of Vecna. They returned to Falconia to inform Prince-Commander Wolfswift of their success in defeating Ctenmiir, and as a reward, he granted them permission to attend the Wintersend Assembly. He also gave them dire wolf mounts - Vorgym claimed a black one named Fury, Shivra claimed a white one named Whitewind, Amnon claimed a white one named Landes (which he renamed Akmenos) and Deckard claimed a light gray one named Karren.

The party then attended the Wintersend Assembly, where they found nearly all of Titania's major players in attendance: the noble houses of Falconia (House Wolfswift, House Urthadar, House Trannyth, House Millenbras & House Francesca); the ruler of Highroad, Count Adrith Loyalar; the master of the Tower of Heiserrah, Archmage Desehr; the ruler of the Tarranine Dragonborn, Ataxaxes Ironscale; the general, or "legatus", of the recently-arrived Dythan's Legion, Legatus Darius Dythan; the Arkhosian dignitary Cyrus works for, Zanuss Atraxas; the ruler of Vulkannen, Baroness Valarde, and her personal bodyguard, Andrei "The Bastard" Blackgate; and dwarves from the Amberforge, Blackhammer & Redbeard Clans. Additionally, the Archduke Graeme Hawklane and his family, Princess Terina Hawklane (his daughter) and Countess Daran Hawklane (his sister) presided over the assembly.

Things at the assembly ended up being quite eventful: the dwarves (apparently at the behest of the Amberforge Clan) broke their ties with the rest of the assembly, stating that they would stand on their own from now on, since they now had a king for their queen. Count Adrith, noticing his sister's absence, questioned why Archduchess Lyriana was not in attendance; when Graeme attempted to avoid the question, Baroness Valarde surmised that Lyriana had been kidnapped, which sent the assembly into an uproar.

This uproar was interrupted, however, by the Earth Titan, an ancient being made of the stuff of the earth who has long ruled over the hill giants as one of the last remaining titans on Titania, only known about through tomes written by the most intrepid of explorers. The Earth Titan claimed that the Titans had long tolerated mortals on Titania, but would do so no longer, because Falconian soldiers had apparently killed several hill giants in cold blood. The Earth Titan and the hill giants responded by destroying Orcbane Keep, providing evidence of this to the assembly by dropping Marshal Rendon's broken body into the middle of the assembly floor. The Earth Titan and its subjects then left, stating that they were now at war with the mortals.

After this, we skipped a month of story time - Amnon returned the Doresannic shard he had taken from Elanath's Tower to his master Sirilis Starsburden, informing her of the events which had transpired; Shivra returned to Vulkannen to deliver her money to the thieves' guildmaster, Vielia, personally, discovering along the way that Dythan's Legion had cultivated a heavy presence in the area. Cyrus was allowed to remain in Falconia and aid in the war effort, his friend Zanuss remaining with him to assist in whatever ways he could. After waiting for Kesselia's informants to drudge up some information, the party finally found that Elanath had come to, of all places, Falconia - they headed to the Tracts, the slummy section of the city, to speak with the informant. Amnon & Shivra briefly had their coin purses stolen before they killed the bandit and recovered them. The informant, Norros, agreed under duress to lead them to where he had last seen Elanath, but was quite concerned for his life due to the fact that he believed others were tailing him.

Norros' suspicions proved to be correct, and he was killed by yuan-ti assassins who then turned their weapons on the party. The assassins were led by a human man in a black coat of studded leather, Vincent Gravelstoke. After a healthy fight, the party defeated the assassins and recovered a note from Vincent stating that they should head to the Jolly Knave, a ship docked in the harbor at a pier indicated within the note. They also heard some about a group of assassins known as the Fangs of Zehir, and the "Great Fang" in taunts thrown at them by Vincent. We stopped here for the night.

Session #49: The Vampire in the Tower, Finale

This was the final session of Elanath's Tower, and of the heroic tier in general. The party was faced with Ctenmiir the Cursed and his minions, and it was a hard battle (with 2 PC deaths), but in the end they were victorious.

They began by opening the way to the observatory, an enclosed dome with a slot for the telescope (closed at the start of the fight) - within, they saw Ctenmiir conversing with five distinctly-styled death knights, their images presented by large scrying pools. The death knights appeared to be the leaders of the Clawed Gauntlet, or at least higher-ranking members. There was a male of a humanoid race in red armor with a bull-horned full helm and black cloak; a female eladrin with solid violet eyes and white armor, face covered by a silver visor; a male drow in gray armor with a black hood shrouding most of his face; a male dwarf in gold armor, wearing a full helm with a visor patterned like a skull and a red crest; and their apparent leader, a male humanoid in black armor wearing a full helm with sharply-pointed horns, his eyes glowing green. Two of these death knights were referred to by name: the eladrin was referred to as Inastara, the eladrin princess who established the mixed elven/eladrin community of Silvershade in Whitebough Forest, and the apparent leader was referred to as Kas. They dismissed Ctenmiir from the Clawed Gauntlet, much to his chagrin as they had apparently promised to remove the curse that prevented him from leaving the tower, and left him to die at the hands of the party.

This proved to be a very difficult battle; Ctenmiir wielded a legendary dwarven warhammer known as Whelm, and he wielded it to great effect, crushing the party members with its every swing. To boot, his dread zombie knights proved to be un-killable (at least by any means the party discovered), returning to life nearly as soon as they had been put down. This battle took nearly the entire session, as Ctenmiir regenerated constantly, and had a very high Armor Class - 31, to be exact. Laz's Brain in a Jar was brought out to help the party about halfway through, but once it was in danger of being destroyed, it fled - its location is currently unknown. Cyrus was brought down despite all manner of healing effort being expended by Deckard, then killed outright when Ctenmiir's attempt to force the party's surrender was rejected - both Shivra & Vorgym went into dying twice, and Shivra failed 3 straight death saves to become the 2nd death of the encounter.

With Cyrus and Shivra both dead and Vorgym dying, the encounter was left to Deckard & Amnon. At this point, I threw them a bone and pointed out something that they had failed to notice to this point - this observatory, windowless and lit only by the magic of the scrying pools, had a slot in its wall for the large telescope within to look out of. This telescope had a switch on it which allowed them to open the slot and expose the room to sunlight - the great weakness of any vampire. Deckard rushed for the switch, flipping it and opening the slot - but the sunlight did not reach Deckard. Ctenmiir, confident in his victory, laughed and prepared to finish them off, when Amnon broke away from the dread zombie knight engaging him and used his beguiling strands power to push Ctenmiir into the light. Real fear crossed Ctenmiir's face for the first time as the sunlight incinerated him, wiping out what little health he had left.

With the battle over, the party took two consecutive extended rests to use Deckard's restore life power on Cyrus & Shivra, keeping the current party intact despite Ctenmiir's best efforts. Cyrus now wields Whelm, a weapon which is outside the spear style he learned to fight with and will take him some training time to get used to - perhaps a time skip is in order...

With the heroic tier finished and all of the party now at level 11, we are now looking at the beginning of paragon tier. There will be some story situations to resolve once the party sets out again; thereafter, I am currently unsure where we will go. We'll be discussing sometime before or after the one-off on Sunday what we want to do going forward.