Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
EN Publishing
Dying To Reach The Scourge Prison
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Bill T." data-source="post: 9130576" data-attributes="member: 6795693"><p><span style="font-size: 22px"><strong>Dramatis Personae</strong></span></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Basel</strong>, an Innenotdaran (aka grey) elf evoker from Gabal's school with his familiar <strong>Star</strong>, daughter of Naizelasa.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Dämmek</strong>, a brainy and brawny human swordswoman with keen senses and the Torch</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Leon</strong>, a human spellthief wielding a double spear.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Seda</strong>, a spellcasting Seela, with <strong>Blanche</strong>, her sentient siberian tiger companion.</li> </ul><p>After recovering from fighting with the stone golems guarding the entrance to the Needle (the joys of having an army at your back), the heroes used <em>Wind Walk</em> and white clothing to sneak up on the entrance to the Eye. Once they realized that they hadn't been seen and that the fiendish war mammoth was standing well in front of the entrance, they couldn't resist trying to sneak behind it and bypass the outer guard completely. Dämmek, as usual, took the lead, and to discover herself <em>Wind Walk</em>ing no longer as she hit a critical threshold.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I figured they'd try to sneak past, but I didn't have the encounter at the Eye proper ready. I quickly replaced the Invisibility Purge on the Unhallow spells near the garrison with Dispel Magic, and the dice were quite cooperative in keeping the heroes from slipping past Garivus's crew.</em></p><p></p><p>At that point, the battle was on, Most of the heroes' <em>Wind Walk</em> spells were dispelled as they descended (along with several other spells), but Blanche and Star spent some time stuck <em>Wind Walk</em>ing. Volleys of arrows were exchanged, along with various spells, Star took a quick peek inside the eye, got a general sense of the room, but decided not to try to proceed past the sonic <em>Wall of Fire</em>.</p><p></p><p>Things got pretty dicey from there. Basel and Star(!) got trampled by the war mammoth, despite Seda's clear suggestions to the contrary. Basel died from the trampling (but got better thanks to Indomitability's Boon). Star soon died as well. She didn't get better (yet, at least).</p><p></p><p>Leon flew up in front of the war mammoth to attack it and Garivus, but a couple slams from the mammoth's trunk left him hanging unconcious in mid-air right in front of the mammoth. The wyvern riders, caught out of position well above the fight, eventually made it to ground level, and one of them snatched Leon out of the air and dragged him off behind the barracks. The wyvern then killed Leon; however, he too got better, thanks to some contingent spells, and, just <em>Like Lightning</em>, zapped both the wyvern and its rider. That's all the incentive those two needed to flee.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Dämmek, also helping to attack the war mammoth, was grabbed by the other wyvern. Before the wyvern could fly off, Garivus targeted her with a dispelling of his own, meaning there was nothing to prevent the wyvern from flinging her into the tunnel to the Eye, through the sonic <em>Wall of Fire</em> and across the <em>Symbol of Oh-Was-There-A-Symbol-There</em>? That wyvern ended up dead shortly thereafter, as did Garivus and, eventually, the war mammoth. Sadly, Basel died as well — and didn't get back up this time.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Part of the problem they had was that Wind Walk was dispelled on some of the heroes and not others, effectively splitting the party. Seda couldn't dismiss it because it had been cast by Torrent, who the heroes didn't invite along. Of course, the other part of the problem is that the heroes didn't invite any additional muscle along — like oh, say, Torrent.</em></p><p></p><p>After looting the bodies of the fallen (and, in Leon's case, the brain of Garivus, who was unconcious but didn't actually expire), Seda and Dämmek spotted something flying towards them.</p><p></p><p> Seda: Look, up in the sky!</p><p> Dämmek: It's a bird!</p><p> Seda: It's not a bird. I know birds, and that ain't a bird.</p><p> Leon: It's a plane!</p><p> Seda and Dämmek look at Leon with confused expressions.</p><p></p><p>Actually, it was Chæluk, the avoral the heroes had fought at the henge in Ycengled Phurrst, who had decided that he needed to help the heroes rather than dither with the army in the pass.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>There was a session break after the looting. Adding a level of fighter and a bunch of equipment to Chæluk brought him up to the same ECL as the rest of the heroes, letting me drop him in as a temporary replacement for Basel.</em></p><p></p><p>The heroes restored their <em>Fly</em> spells, Seda cast <em>Resist Fire</em> on everyone, and Chæluk and Leon cast <em>True Seeing</em> on himself and Dämmek, respectively (Leon had stolen <em>True Seeing</em> from Garivus's unconcious head). They carefully flew down the tunnel, gritted their teeth as they plowed through the <em>Wall of Fire</em>, and then carefully waiting as Seda, thoroughly unimpressed by the symbol, covered it with the whole-wheat flour Basel had had tucked away in his pack since the original heroes had first fled Gate Pass.</p><p></p><p>A few steps furtrher and they were greeted by Kreven's image giving his wonderful solliloquoy. Meanwhile, Chæluk and Dämmek saw the ambush awaiting them behind the fake walls and Dämmek, always quick to act, hit the cluster hiding near the rear-most column with an empowered <em>Flame Strike</em> from the Torch, which missed Koren, incinerated Magnus, and lightly toasted everyone else.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Magnus, we hardly knew ye....</em></p><p></p><p>One of the frost worms let loose with its trill; no one cared. The other enemies, having expected their ambush to take place on the ice sheet rather than the entryway, had to work their way forward under the heroes' fire. Velkiss slowed that down somewhat by creating a <em>Wall of Ice</em> between Dämmek (who had moved to attack one of the frost worms with the Torch) and the rest of the heroes. Shots were fired, gazes were cast despairingly and ineffectually, spells were flung, but, most importantly, frost worms were killed, and the resulting explosions grievously injured some of the heroes, who quickly beat a retreat behind the wall Velkiss had so thoughtfully created to heal.</p><p></p><p>Leon, in an attempt to stave off further attacks on the injured Dämmek, again demonstrated why we <em>Like Lightning</em>; alas, his electric dash left him near the Eye, and the Lurker took that opportunity to slam him to death with its tentacles and drag away his dead or dying body. Pilus sent an elder elemental to assist, but it was too late: After a decisive blow against the other frost worm (injuring both the heroes and their enemies), Koren hit it with a <em>Hold Monster</em> from which it never recovered.</p><p></p><p>Meanwhile, Kreven decided at this juncture to get nasty and used his most powerful domination spell on Dämmek. He forced her to drop her torch and move into the corner.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>...and, at this point, I nearly wrecked the campaign. I had Velkiss pick up the Torch, and he succeeded in getting it to accept him! I started looking up the consequences to Dämmek and then realized just how big a mess this decision would make and retconned away his picking up the torch.</em></p><p></p><p>Kreven was able to utter a word of power that stunned Seda. Blanche then heroically dragged Seda back to the other side of the <em>Wall of Ice</em> for some urgent healing from Chæluk, and, incidentally, within the range of Chæluk's <em>Magic Circle</em>, giving her the opportunity to cast some healing spells.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Boy howdee, that got complicated. We didn't recall until a couple rounds later that the magic circle existed and would therefore block the Power Word Stun. We then had to retcon the actions she should have been able to take.</em></p><p></p><p>Alas, the wall wasn't quite the defensive barrier that they'd hoped, as Velkiss was able to fly over it and position himself to reach the heroes. At long last, Chæluk decided to accept Velkiss's deal to be <em>dismiss</em>ed without resistance, paid the price, and Seda immediately <em>dismiss</em>ed him with her dismissive whip.</p><p></p><p>With Velkiss out of the way, Seda and Chæluk cleverly flew over to be near Dämmek so that she too could benefit from the <em>Magic Circle</em> while Blanche acted as their vanguard. That worked briefly, but then came the final insult: Koren twirled and cartwheeled around the column they were clustered near, laid a finger on Chæluk, and teleported herself — and Chæluk — away.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I sure wish someone had had a camera handy to capture my maniacally evil grin when I realized that Koren could make her side victorious by abducting Chæluk, and that she had the appropriate knowledge skill to justify it. I had been planning to have her try to abduct Blanche if the tiger had managed to pounce on Koren or Magnus, but this was much crueler. Weirdly enough, Koren's first attempt to teleport had been blocked by the Forbiddance, and her second roll with Chæluk was barely good enough to overcome it.</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bill T., post: 9130576, member: 6795693"] [SIZE=6][B]Dramatis Personae[/B][/SIZE] [LIST] [*][B]Basel[/B], an Innenotdaran (aka grey) elf evoker from Gabal's school with his familiar [B]Star[/B], daughter of Naizelasa. [*][B]Dämmek[/B], a brainy and brawny human swordswoman with keen senses and the Torch [*][B]Leon[/B], a human spellthief wielding a double spear. [*][B]Seda[/B], a spellcasting Seela, with [B]Blanche[/B], her sentient siberian tiger companion. [/LIST] After recovering from fighting with the stone golems guarding the entrance to the Needle (the joys of having an army at your back), the heroes used [I]Wind Walk[/I] and white clothing to sneak up on the entrance to the Eye. Once they realized that they hadn't been seen and that the fiendish war mammoth was standing well in front of the entrance, they couldn't resist trying to sneak behind it and bypass the outer guard completely. Dämmek, as usual, took the lead, and to discover herself [I]Wind Walk[/I]ing no longer as she hit a critical threshold. [INDENT][I]I figured they'd try to sneak past, but I didn't have the encounter at the Eye proper ready. I quickly replaced the Invisibility Purge on the Unhallow spells near the garrison with Dispel Magic, and the dice were quite cooperative in keeping the heroes from slipping past Garivus's crew.[/I][/INDENT] At that point, the battle was on, Most of the heroes' [I]Wind Walk[/I] spells were dispelled as they descended (along with several other spells), but Blanche and Star spent some time stuck [I]Wind Walk[/I]ing. Volleys of arrows were exchanged, along with various spells, Star took a quick peek inside the eye, got a general sense of the room, but decided not to try to proceed past the sonic [I]Wall of Fire[/I]. Things got pretty dicey from there. Basel and Star(!) got trampled by the war mammoth, despite Seda's clear suggestions to the contrary. Basel died from the trampling (but got better thanks to Indomitability's Boon). Star soon died as well. She didn't get better (yet, at least). Leon flew up in front of the war mammoth to attack it and Garivus, but a couple slams from the mammoth's trunk left him hanging unconcious in mid-air right in front of the mammoth. The wyvern riders, caught out of position well above the fight, eventually made it to ground level, and one of them snatched Leon out of the air and dragged him off behind the barracks. The wyvern then killed Leon; however, he too got better, thanks to some contingent spells, and, just [I]Like Lightning[/I], zapped both the wyvern and its rider. That's all the incentive those two needed to flee. Meanwhile, Dämmek, also helping to attack the war mammoth, was grabbed by the other wyvern. Before the wyvern could fly off, Garivus targeted her with a dispelling of his own, meaning there was nothing to prevent the wyvern from flinging her into the tunnel to the Eye, through the sonic [I]Wall of Fire[/I] and across the [I]Symbol of Oh-Was-There-A-Symbol-There[/I]? That wyvern ended up dead shortly thereafter, as did Garivus and, eventually, the war mammoth. Sadly, Basel died as well — and didn't get back up this time. [INDENT][I]Part of the problem they had was that Wind Walk was dispelled on some of the heroes and not others, effectively splitting the party. Seda couldn't dismiss it because it had been cast by Torrent, who the heroes didn't invite along. Of course, the other part of the problem is that the heroes didn't invite any additional muscle along — like oh, say, Torrent.[/I][/INDENT] After looting the bodies of the fallen (and, in Leon's case, the brain of Garivus, who was unconcious but didn't actually expire), Seda and Dämmek spotted something flying towards them. Seda: Look, up in the sky! Dämmek: It's a bird! Seda: It's not a bird. I know birds, and that ain't a bird. Leon: It's a plane! Seda and Dämmek look at Leon with confused expressions. Actually, it was Chæluk, the avoral the heroes had fought at the henge in Ycengled Phurrst, who had decided that he needed to help the heroes rather than dither with the army in the pass. [INDENT][I]There was a session break after the looting. Adding a level of fighter and a bunch of equipment to Chæluk brought him up to the same ECL as the rest of the heroes, letting me drop him in as a temporary replacement for Basel.[/I][/INDENT] The heroes restored their [I]Fly[/I] spells, Seda cast [I]Resist Fire[/I] on everyone, and Chæluk and Leon cast [I]True Seeing[/I] on himself and Dämmek, respectively (Leon had stolen [I]True Seeing[/I] from Garivus's unconcious head). They carefully flew down the tunnel, gritted their teeth as they plowed through the [I]Wall of Fire[/I], and then carefully waiting as Seda, thoroughly unimpressed by the symbol, covered it with the whole-wheat flour Basel had had tucked away in his pack since the original heroes had first fled Gate Pass. A few steps furtrher and they were greeted by Kreven's image giving his wonderful solliloquoy. Meanwhile, Chæluk and Dämmek saw the ambush awaiting them behind the fake walls and Dämmek, always quick to act, hit the cluster hiding near the rear-most column with an empowered [I]Flame Strike[/I] from the Torch, which missed Koren, incinerated Magnus, and lightly toasted everyone else. [INDENT][I]Magnus, we hardly knew ye....[/I][/INDENT] One of the frost worms let loose with its trill; no one cared. The other enemies, having expected their ambush to take place on the ice sheet rather than the entryway, had to work their way forward under the heroes' fire. Velkiss slowed that down somewhat by creating a [I]Wall of Ice[/I] between Dämmek (who had moved to attack one of the frost worms with the Torch) and the rest of the heroes. Shots were fired, gazes were cast despairingly and ineffectually, spells were flung, but, most importantly, frost worms were killed, and the resulting explosions grievously injured some of the heroes, who quickly beat a retreat behind the wall Velkiss had so thoughtfully created to heal. Leon, in an attempt to stave off further attacks on the injured Dämmek, again demonstrated why we [I]Like Lightning[/I]; alas, his electric dash left him near the Eye, and the Lurker took that opportunity to slam him to death with its tentacles and drag away his dead or dying body. Pilus sent an elder elemental to assist, but it was too late: After a decisive blow against the other frost worm (injuring both the heroes and their enemies), Koren hit it with a [I]Hold Monster[/I] from which it never recovered. Meanwhile, Kreven decided at this juncture to get nasty and used his most powerful domination spell on Dämmek. He forced her to drop her torch and move into the corner. [INDENT][I]...and, at this point, I nearly wrecked the campaign. I had Velkiss pick up the Torch, and he succeeded in getting it to accept him! I started looking up the consequences to Dämmek and then realized just how big a mess this decision would make and retconned away his picking up the torch.[/I][/INDENT] Kreven was able to utter a word of power that stunned Seda. Blanche then heroically dragged Seda back to the other side of the [I]Wall of Ice[/I] for some urgent healing from Chæluk, and, incidentally, within the range of Chæluk's [I]Magic Circle[/I], giving her the opportunity to cast some healing spells. [INDENT][I]Boy howdee, that got complicated. We didn't recall until a couple rounds later that the magic circle existed and would therefore block the Power Word Stun. We then had to retcon the actions she should have been able to take.[/I][/INDENT] Alas, the wall wasn't quite the defensive barrier that they'd hoped, as Velkiss was able to fly over it and position himself to reach the heroes. At long last, Chæluk decided to accept Velkiss's deal to be [I]dismiss[/I]ed without resistance, paid the price, and Seda immediately [I]dismiss[/I]ed him with her dismissive whip. With Velkiss out of the way, Seda and Chæluk cleverly flew over to be near Dämmek so that she too could benefit from the [I]Magic Circle[/I] while Blanche acted as their vanguard. That worked briefly, but then came the final insult: Koren twirled and cartwheeled around the column they were clustered near, laid a finger on Chæluk, and teleported herself — and Chæluk — away. [INDENT][I]I sure wish someone had had a camera handy to capture my maniacally evil grin when I realized that Koren could make her side victorious by abducting Chæluk, and that she had the appropriate knowledge skill to justify it. I had been planning to have her try to abduct Blanche if the tiger had managed to pounce on Koren or Magnus, but this was much crueler. Weirdly enough, Koren's first attempt to teleport had been blocked by the Forbiddance, and her second roll with Chæluk was barely good enough to overcome it.[/I][/INDENT] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
EN Publishing
Dying To Reach The Scourge Prison
Top