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Dying To Reach The Scourge Prison
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<blockquote data-quote="Bill T." data-source="post: 9180351" 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>, <s>an Innenotdaran (aka grey) elf evoker from Gabal's school</s> a corpse carefully tucked into a <em>bag of holding</em> with the corpse of his familiar <strong>Star</strong>, daughter of Naizelasa.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Chæluk</strong>, an avoral the heroes first encountered defending the Taranesti henge.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Dämmek</strong>, a brainy and brawny human swordswoman with keen senses and <s>the Torch</s> an invisible spiked gauntlet she retrieved from a dead drow.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Leon</strong>, a human spellthief <s>wielding a double spear</s> who can strike with blasts of earth.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><strong>Seda</strong>, a spellcasting Seela, with <s><strong>Blanche</strong>, her sentient siberian tiger companion.</s> a small twig from the First Tree that functions as a holy symbol.</li> </ul> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Seda had been relying on the living blade to function as her holy symbol, but the "twig tucked into my hair" was clever enough that I gave her it despite having lost much of the gear when they got thrown into the prison.</em></p><p></p><p>Koren teleports Chæluk into one of many cramped cages in a 20-by-25 foot room and then swiftly teleports out of the room. Chæluk says, "oh, bugger" and quickly succumbs to a crisis of confidence that eventually renders him unconscious.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>She used one of the nullifier cages long enough for the charisma loss to render him <span style="font-size: 16px">unconscious</span>, then temporarily disabled the cage so that he wouldn't be turned into one before having him chucked into the prison.</em></p><p></p><p>Dämmek, still under Kreven's control, is ordered to knock Seda unconcious and tie her up. She then pulls Leon from the tentacled monstrosity under the ice sheet, gathers much of their equipment into their <em>bag of holding</em>, and uses a sled to drag Seda and Leon to a fortress just below ground level. She gets a bag put over her head and is instructed by Kreven to "not use any spells or psionic powers, but otherwise she should be herself". The three are then thrown into the prison as well.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>There's a subtle intelligence test here that Dämmek failed (despite still having her headband of intelligence): Because the prison is protected by </em>hallow<em> anyone in it is immune to mental control, so she could have used spells, but she didn't think to try it until much later when Guthwulf suggested she do so.</em></p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>This not-so-small detail affects a couple of the encounters in Act Three: One of my players realized that Agony's </em>power word stun<em> couldn't work (although I suppose that room could be exempt from </em>hallow<em>). Similarly, Koren shouldn't be able to dominate the children in the room with the nullifier cages. I think I'll simply omit the </em>unhallow<em> in the scourge fortress, although I might tack its benefits onto the horde zombies anyhow.</em></p><p></p><p>Chæluk is awakened, unharmed, by someone landing on his head. After a surprising amount of polite conversation, he releases Dämmek and Seda from their bonds, and the three of them manage to return Leon to consciousness. Soon they spot a statue of a bear walking towards them. They stay safely tucked into the chute from above as the golem walks by, but the madman capering behind it rushes them when he sees them and starts clawing at the walls.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>Crazy Harry</strong> Let me out! Let me ouuuut!!</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>Heroes</strong> What's your name?</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>Harry</strong> I just want to get out before the pain starts!</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>Heroes</strong> Have you been here long?</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>Harry, Chæluk, and the bulk of the prison's other inhabitants</strong> <em>AIEEEEE, THE PAIN!!</em></p><p></p><p>After about ten minutes of screaming, the pain finally relents. The heroes question Harry, don't get much in the way of useful answers, and eventually accept his invitation to the party.</p><p></p><p>The heroes spot Ugar and company looting other prisoners. The prisoners see Seda, demand something from her, and get a lightning bolt in the chest for their efforts. Ugar survives the blast, but at least one of his henchman dies. Ugar, seeing a possible change in the prison hierarchy, grudgingly follows Seda at her request.</p><p></p><p>They run into some people trying to sound out the words of a song. Seda's able to piece together that they're attempting the Song of Forms and, with a little prodding, sings it for them.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I wasn't planning to have the encounter with the choir, but one of the players asked something about songs and I felt compelled to run it after all. Although, now that I think about it, compulsions aren't suppose to work in that part of the prison. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite30" alt=":geek:" title="Geek :geek:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":geek:" /></em></p><p></p><p>The heroes again start following Harry to the party, only to shortly see a woman in a beautiful, red and surprisingly clean dress. "Oh, look, it's Katrina, the traitor we fought at the Temple of Echoed Souls. Did Leska send you down here because you betrayed her too?"</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>I was a bit surprised at how nicely they treated Katrina. They didn't even threaten to kill her. How disappointing!</em></p><p></p><p>With little effort, Katrina convinces the heroes to meet someone. Harry throws a fit, because he wants them to go to the party, but they convince him they're on the way to pick up more partiers. That said, as soon as they get to the hallway leading to Guthwulf's lair, someone whispers something in Harry's ear that sends him fleeing.</p><p></p><p>They easily overcome the traps in the hallway, but, before they see anyone, Seda hears the Song of Forms and picks up the song on her own in response. This provokes Gus to peek around the corner, which provokes him to tell Guthwulf to look around the corner. They're amazed by what they see, stare sternly, but soon break out laughing.</p><p></p><p>Conversation ensues (except for Seda, who continues singing the Song to give Etinifi a break),</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>Yup, she figured out it was Etinifi pretty quickly. I'd dropped a hint in the previous chapter that he's still alive and singing.</em></p><p></p><p>which ultimately culminates in them agreeing to Guthwulf's plan to break through the whisper hole and fight Agony. They rush in, dispel the magical barrier containing Agony, and attack it. The heroes and their allies all remain standing throughout the battle, in large part because Guthwulf burns through all his healing spells. Gus has a lot of fun, as Agony's attacks keep healing him instead of hurting, but, on the other hand, he's hard pressed to land a blow on the trillith. Both Chæluk and Katrina are able to attack Agony without taking any damage themselves, so they bombard it with energy even after Dämmek slams it into a wall and knocks it to the floor. Eventually, one of Leon's sneak attacks disables it, at which point he proceeds to steal all its remaining spell-like abilites.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>That was a pretty challenging fight. The </em>harm<em> SLA was striking fear in the heroes' hearts despite the fact they kept making their saves. I deliberately played Agony as <span style="font-size: 16px">unintelligently</span> as his stats indicated, so he kept trying to do things to Gus that either didn't work or actually benefited him, which kept me entertained.</em></p><p></p><p>He then uses his warmage strike to free Etinifi, who says something cryptic and rhyming.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><em>They didn't engage with Etinifi much at all. Unless they do something about that in the next session or two, they're going to be going up against Leska without some important information. That said, they did learn that Leska was immortal and encouraged to think back on what they've learned about "killing" immortals.</em></p><p></p><p>While the heroes start to discuss next steps, Pilus mentions he sees a woman teleport in above the scourge fortress. He says she's wearing primitive charms, a skeletal mask, and crimson robes. Seda realizes, and Katrina confirms, that it must be Leska. Etinifi indicates that he wants Leska dead. No one objects, so Pilus, after encouraging the heroes to find a room with a strong ceiling, lets loose with...something, causing the whole prison to shake. Sadly, he doesn't think that whatever he did reached Leska.</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"> <em>This was my excuse to have Pilus use </em>Tempest<em> to lay waste to the fortress and things adjacent.</em></p><p></p><p>Guthwulf explains that the <em>forbiddance</em> is no longer active and suggests that he can make it possible for Chæluk to teleport the heroes out of the prison. That'll be the first thing they do next session.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Bill T., post: 9180351, member: 6795693"] [SIZE=6][B]Dramatis Personae[/B][/SIZE] [LIST] [*][B]Basel[/B], [S]an Innenotdaran (aka grey) elf evoker from Gabal's school[/S] a corpse carefully tucked into a [I]bag of holding[/I] with the corpse of his familiar [B]Star[/B], daughter of Naizelasa. [*][B]Chæluk[/B], an avoral the heroes first encountered defending the Taranesti henge. [*][B]Dämmek[/B], a brainy and brawny human swordswoman with keen senses and [S]the Torch[/S] an invisible spiked gauntlet she retrieved from a dead drow. [*][B]Leon[/B], a human spellthief [S]wielding a double spear[/S] who can strike with blasts of earth. [*][B]Seda[/B], a spellcasting Seela, with [S][B]Blanche[/B], her sentient siberian tiger companion.[/S] a small twig from the First Tree that functions as a holy symbol. [/LIST] [INDENT][I]Seda had been relying on the living blade to function as her holy symbol, but the "twig tucked into my hair" was clever enough that I gave her it despite having lost much of the gear when they got thrown into the prison.[/I][/INDENT] Koren teleports Chæluk into one of many cramped cages in a 20-by-25 foot room and then swiftly teleports out of the room. Chæluk says, "oh, bugger" and quickly succumbs to a crisis of confidence that eventually renders him unconscious. [INDENT][I]She used one of the nullifier cages long enough for the charisma loss to render him [SIZE=16px]unconscious[/SIZE], then temporarily disabled the cage so that he wouldn't be turned into one before having him chucked into the prison.[/I][/INDENT] Dämmek, still under Kreven's control, is ordered to knock Seda unconcious and tie her up. She then pulls Leon from the tentacled monstrosity under the ice sheet, gathers much of their equipment into their [I]bag of holding[/I], and uses a sled to drag Seda and Leon to a fortress just below ground level. She gets a bag put over her head and is instructed by Kreven to "not use any spells or psionic powers, but otherwise she should be herself". The three are then thrown into the prison as well. [INDENT][I]There's a subtle intelligence test here that Dämmek failed (despite still having her headband of intelligence): Because the prison is protected by [/I]hallow[I] anyone in it is immune to mental control, so she could have used spells, but she didn't think to try it until much later when Guthwulf suggested she do so.[/I][/INDENT] [INDENT][I]This not-so-small detail affects a couple of the encounters in Act Three: One of my players realized that Agony's [/I]power word stun[I] couldn't work (although I suppose that room could be exempt from [/I]hallow[I]). Similarly, Koren shouldn't be able to dominate the children in the room with the nullifier cages. I think I'll simply omit the [/I]unhallow[I] in the scourge fortress, although I might tack its benefits onto the horde zombies anyhow.[/I][/INDENT] Chæluk is awakened, unharmed, by someone landing on his head. After a surprising amount of polite conversation, he releases Dämmek and Seda from their bonds, and the three of them manage to return Leon to consciousness. Soon they spot a statue of a bear walking towards them. They stay safely tucked into the chute from above as the golem walks by, but the madman capering behind it rushes them when he sees them and starts clawing at the walls. [INDENT][B]Crazy Harry[/B] Let me out! Let me ouuuut!![/INDENT] [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT][B]Heroes[/B] What's your name?[/INDENT] [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT][B]Harry[/B] I just want to get out before the pain starts![/INDENT] [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT][B]Heroes[/B] Have you been here long?[/INDENT] [INDENT][/INDENT] [INDENT][B]Harry, Chæluk, and the bulk of the prison's other inhabitants[/B] [I]AIEEEEE, THE PAIN!![/I][/INDENT] After about ten minutes of screaming, the pain finally relents. The heroes question Harry, don't get much in the way of useful answers, and eventually accept his invitation to the party. The heroes spot Ugar and company looting other prisoners. The prisoners see Seda, demand something from her, and get a lightning bolt in the chest for their efforts. Ugar survives the blast, but at least one of his henchman dies. Ugar, seeing a possible change in the prison hierarchy, grudgingly follows Seda at her request. They run into some people trying to sound out the words of a song. Seda's able to piece together that they're attempting the Song of Forms and, with a little prodding, sings it for them. [INDENT][I]I wasn't planning to have the encounter with the choir, but one of the players asked something about songs and I felt compelled to run it after all. Although, now that I think about it, compulsions aren't suppose to work in that part of the prison. :geek:[/I][/INDENT] The heroes again start following Harry to the party, only to shortly see a woman in a beautiful, red and surprisingly clean dress. "Oh, look, it's Katrina, the traitor we fought at the Temple of Echoed Souls. Did Leska send you down here because you betrayed her too?" [INDENT][I]I was a bit surprised at how nicely they treated Katrina. They didn't even threaten to kill her. How disappointing![/I][/INDENT] With little effort, Katrina convinces the heroes to meet someone. Harry throws a fit, because he wants them to go to the party, but they convince him they're on the way to pick up more partiers. That said, as soon as they get to the hallway leading to Guthwulf's lair, someone whispers something in Harry's ear that sends him fleeing. They easily overcome the traps in the hallway, but, before they see anyone, Seda hears the Song of Forms and picks up the song on her own in response. This provokes Gus to peek around the corner, which provokes him to tell Guthwulf to look around the corner. They're amazed by what they see, stare sternly, but soon break out laughing. Conversation ensues (except for Seda, who continues singing the Song to give Etinifi a break), [INDENT][I]Yup, she figured out it was Etinifi pretty quickly. I'd dropped a hint in the previous chapter that he's still alive and singing.[/I][/INDENT] which ultimately culminates in them agreeing to Guthwulf's plan to break through the whisper hole and fight Agony. They rush in, dispel the magical barrier containing Agony, and attack it. The heroes and their allies all remain standing throughout the battle, in large part because Guthwulf burns through all his healing spells. Gus has a lot of fun, as Agony's attacks keep healing him instead of hurting, but, on the other hand, he's hard pressed to land a blow on the trillith. Both Chæluk and Katrina are able to attack Agony without taking any damage themselves, so they bombard it with energy even after Dämmek slams it into a wall and knocks it to the floor. Eventually, one of Leon's sneak attacks disables it, at which point he proceeds to steal all its remaining spell-like abilites. [INDENT][I]That was a pretty challenging fight. The [/I]harm[I] SLA was striking fear in the heroes' hearts despite the fact they kept making their saves. I deliberately played Agony as [SIZE=16px]unintelligently[/SIZE] as his stats indicated, so he kept trying to do things to Gus that either didn't work or actually benefited him, which kept me entertained.[/I][/INDENT] He then uses his warmage strike to free Etinifi, who says something cryptic and rhyming. [INDENT][I]They didn't engage with Etinifi much at all. Unless they do something about that in the next session or two, they're going to be going up against Leska without some important information. That said, they did learn that Leska was immortal and encouraged to think back on what they've learned about "killing" immortals.[/I][/INDENT] While the heroes start to discuss next steps, Pilus mentions he sees a woman teleport in above the scourge fortress. He says she's wearing primitive charms, a skeletal mask, and crimson robes. Seda realizes, and Katrina confirms, that it must be Leska. Etinifi indicates that he wants Leska dead. No one objects, so Pilus, after encouraging the heroes to find a room with a strong ceiling, lets loose with...something, causing the whole prison to shake. Sadly, he doesn't think that whatever he did reached Leska. [INDENT] [I]This was my excuse to have Pilus use [/I]Tempest[I] to lay waste to the fortress and things adjacent.[/I][/INDENT] Guthwulf explains that the [I]forbiddance[/I] is no longer active and suggests that he can make it possible for Chæluk to teleport the heroes out of the prison. That'll be the first thing they do next session. [/QUOTE]
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