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
Tolamaker's Burning Sky
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="Tolamaker" data-source="post: 9130985" data-attributes="member: 7031495"><p><strong>Session 69: A Nice Little Windfall, Then a Wakeup Call</strong></p><p></p><p>The party finds a strange object in the room where the Dark Pyre once burned. It appears like a rug, with a wooden frame, and benches across it. A console has an inset where a gem might rest. The Pyre itself has burned to a dwindle, and Gruz and Mishka inspect it. They don't think it is the Torch, but are unsure. back in the hall, Oller of Clan Millorn runs his hands over the dragon skeleton in awe. Eluriah explores deeper and finds footprints in ashes that lead to a secret door. It leads to a throne room with a man in the fetal position, surrounded by two others in similar garb who look as though they have died recently. She heals his wounds, but is unable to stop his babbling. Surrounding him on the floor and walls are prophecies that he has seen and written in his own blood. Corban writes them down, noting some similarities between some of the visions and their own experiences. They wonder if the trillith have anything to do with it.</p><p></p><p>Above on the ceiling, there is a magical mural that swirls with colors matching where everyone in the room is. When Gruz goes to sit on the throne, he feels a sense of trepidation, but goes forward. When he sits, he is flooded with the sense of belonging, and suddenly the patterns on the ceiling make sense to him as everyone's emotions and thoughts seem to be written upon their faces. Corban also sits down to experience it, but when Aripos tries, he stops short, believing himself unworthy. Mishka and Eluriah also fail to sit upon the throne, leading them to wonder if it only allows those of noble blood to sit upon it.</p><p></p><p>Further in, they find the imperial bedchamber, with very fine bedsheets that have been stabbed and slashed. Corban gathers it up anyway. In the throne room, Mishka loots the ruby-encrusted torches. Gruz finds a wardrobe with many fine clothes, and Aripos finds the motherlode of the treasure room, filled to the brim with coins and magical items. They divvy the loot up with Clan Millorn while Eluriah takes an elixir of <em>greater restoration </em>they found and feeds it to the man on the ground. He comes to, and reveals himself to an inquisitor, part of their martial order dedicated to portecting the emperor. He tells how he was standing on guard when his compatriots throats were cut and he was poisoned, slowly losing his mind as dark elf and half elf assassins took Coaltongue's body away. The last thing he remembers is the surge of fire, "like hat of the Torch", and then he succumbed to the poison. The party leads him to the Dark Pyre, which he says is similar to the Torch, but "twisted."</p><p></p><p>The rattling of chains alerts the party to a group of Shahalesti and Ragesians who enter the floor, and demand that they turn over everything they have found. Darius is confused and calls for parley, but is suspicious that the two forces are working together. When Corban attempts to cast <em>mass suggestion</em>, the elf paladin leading the group calls for battle. The paladin is quickly trapped by a mental prison cast by Gruz, and is killed by an ally who thought they were helping. Atop the dragon skeleton, Oller's form shifts into that of the seela Vuhl, and then a half-orc, and then a mass of writhing tentacles. He raises a black gem and slams it into the skeleton, raising it as a living thing with muscles stitching back together. The dragon goes after Mishka for "defiling grandmother," and "Oller" goes after Gruz.</p><p></p><p>In the ensuing chaos the elves are all killed, and the Ragesians make an ordered retreat. Darius runs to the Pyre room and finds the lever to open the wall, calling for the party to escape. Gruz manages to banish Oller for a time, and as the party backs away, and as Mishka and Gruz fight on their last legs, they manage to fell the dragon, causing it to fall to the ground as a pile of bones once again. They retrieve the black gemstone, and rush to the palanquin, which flashes with light and takes off into the air. Behind them, reinforcements arrive, and Princess Shalosha and her retinue jump into the air, flying after the escaping party.</p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Post Session thoughts</strong></p><p>I went into this session planning on finishing the module, and we hit the 99% mark. It was a bit rushed, but I honestly felt like we hit all of the beats, and it made the ending feel like a real climax. I was very glad how quickly the players caught on that they've dealt with some of Darius' visions, and the treasure trove felt like a well-deserved reward, even before the true final fight began. Different people multiple times made comments about the skeleton coming to life, and I teased them by reading out the section that says that Griiat failed to animate the skeleton. The second Oller slammed the gem in, everyone shouted because they knew what was going to happen. I also made two tokens for Foundry, so that they could see skeleton knit itself back together. The party was actually convinced to start running until I had to say these two terrible words: "It's bloodied." As soon as they knew they had managed to whittle it to half health, I knew they weren't going to run from the fight.</p><p></p><p>Technically not done with the module, but this was probably my favorite ending of the campaign, alongside Mad King's Banquet. The Dassen ending wasn't the most difficult of fights, but there was so much story going on, that all the players fully bought into the drama. This fight was much more dire, and even though I thought I might get them to run away, they managed to squeak by into killing Aggression in a way that didn't feel cheap.</p><p></p><p><strong>Changes to the Module</strong></p><p>I probably screwed some things up with regard to Darius' character. I tried to portray him as a noble protector, the first inquisitor the party has met that isn't a devil-dealing blood hungry zealot. I'm afraid that might have led me to making him too helpful, even against the Ragesians, because I couldn't remember how to get them out of the window, so I just said he found a secret lever, even though ten minutes earlier I had said he didn't know the castle, he just went where Coaltongue did. Ah well, it was a roller coaster session, and I'm nit picking an otherwise good time.</p><p></p><p>Similar to how I combined the ambush at the top of the elevator, I knew I wanted the Ragesian/Shahalesti fight to merge with the dragon. Even buffed for the party (+2 to hit, AC, and spell save DC, extra legendary resistance, and +40 hitpoints) I was fairly certain that Aggression would be an easy target to solo. So having Aggression break out in the middle of the other fight, and adding Deception on top of that, I felt like it would be enough of a clue to get the party running. And yet...</p><p></p><p>I don't know whether to call this a naughty word-up or a calculated risk of changing the fight, but because I added Deception (CR 12 on top of the Aggression's CR 17) but I didn't give Aggression the bonuses I mentioned above. I didn't realize this until the killing blow by Mishka. I waffled on correcting before announcing the kill, but with Aggression having used all of its legendary actions already, and three more PCs to go, I figured it was OK. It might have made a bigger difference earlier, but like I said, the fight wasn't easy, and it didn't feel like I was holding their hand. Also, we found out one player was under-reporting damage because they forgot to apply a class feature properly, so it probably balances out roughly.</p><p></p><p>Next time, a chat aboard Coaltongue's <s>sleigh</s> palanquin.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tolamaker, post: 9130985, member: 7031495"] [B]Session 69: A Nice Little Windfall, Then a Wakeup Call[/B] The party finds a strange object in the room where the Dark Pyre once burned. It appears like a rug, with a wooden frame, and benches across it. A console has an inset where a gem might rest. The Pyre itself has burned to a dwindle, and Gruz and Mishka inspect it. They don't think it is the Torch, but are unsure. back in the hall, Oller of Clan Millorn runs his hands over the dragon skeleton in awe. Eluriah explores deeper and finds footprints in ashes that lead to a secret door. It leads to a throne room with a man in the fetal position, surrounded by two others in similar garb who look as though they have died recently. She heals his wounds, but is unable to stop his babbling. Surrounding him on the floor and walls are prophecies that he has seen and written in his own blood. Corban writes them down, noting some similarities between some of the visions and their own experiences. They wonder if the trillith have anything to do with it. Above on the ceiling, there is a magical mural that swirls with colors matching where everyone in the room is. When Gruz goes to sit on the throne, he feels a sense of trepidation, but goes forward. When he sits, he is flooded with the sense of belonging, and suddenly the patterns on the ceiling make sense to him as everyone's emotions and thoughts seem to be written upon their faces. Corban also sits down to experience it, but when Aripos tries, he stops short, believing himself unworthy. Mishka and Eluriah also fail to sit upon the throne, leading them to wonder if it only allows those of noble blood to sit upon it. Further in, they find the imperial bedchamber, with very fine bedsheets that have been stabbed and slashed. Corban gathers it up anyway. In the throne room, Mishka loots the ruby-encrusted torches. Gruz finds a wardrobe with many fine clothes, and Aripos finds the motherlode of the treasure room, filled to the brim with coins and magical items. They divvy the loot up with Clan Millorn while Eluriah takes an elixir of [I]greater restoration [/I]they found and feeds it to the man on the ground. He comes to, and reveals himself to an inquisitor, part of their martial order dedicated to portecting the emperor. He tells how he was standing on guard when his compatriots throats were cut and he was poisoned, slowly losing his mind as dark elf and half elf assassins took Coaltongue's body away. The last thing he remembers is the surge of fire, "like hat of the Torch", and then he succumbed to the poison. The party leads him to the Dark Pyre, which he says is similar to the Torch, but "twisted." The rattling of chains alerts the party to a group of Shahalesti and Ragesians who enter the floor, and demand that they turn over everything they have found. Darius is confused and calls for parley, but is suspicious that the two forces are working together. When Corban attempts to cast [I]mass suggestion[/I], the elf paladin leading the group calls for battle. The paladin is quickly trapped by a mental prison cast by Gruz, and is killed by an ally who thought they were helping. Atop the dragon skeleton, Oller's form shifts into that of the seela Vuhl, and then a half-orc, and then a mass of writhing tentacles. He raises a black gem and slams it into the skeleton, raising it as a living thing with muscles stitching back together. The dragon goes after Mishka for "defiling grandmother," and "Oller" goes after Gruz. In the ensuing chaos the elves are all killed, and the Ragesians make an ordered retreat. Darius runs to the Pyre room and finds the lever to open the wall, calling for the party to escape. Gruz manages to banish Oller for a time, and as the party backs away, and as Mishka and Gruz fight on their last legs, they manage to fell the dragon, causing it to fall to the ground as a pile of bones once again. They retrieve the black gemstone, and rush to the palanquin, which flashes with light and takes off into the air. Behind them, reinforcements arrive, and Princess Shalosha and her retinue jump into the air, flying after the escaping party. [B] Post Session thoughts[/B] I went into this session planning on finishing the module, and we hit the 99% mark. It was a bit rushed, but I honestly felt like we hit all of the beats, and it made the ending feel like a real climax. I was very glad how quickly the players caught on that they've dealt with some of Darius' visions, and the treasure trove felt like a well-deserved reward, even before the true final fight began. Different people multiple times made comments about the skeleton coming to life, and I teased them by reading out the section that says that Griiat failed to animate the skeleton. The second Oller slammed the gem in, everyone shouted because they knew what was going to happen. I also made two tokens for Foundry, so that they could see skeleton knit itself back together. The party was actually convinced to start running until I had to say these two terrible words: "It's bloodied." As soon as they knew they had managed to whittle it to half health, I knew they weren't going to run from the fight. Technically not done with the module, but this was probably my favorite ending of the campaign, alongside Mad King's Banquet. The Dassen ending wasn't the most difficult of fights, but there was so much story going on, that all the players fully bought into the drama. This fight was much more dire, and even though I thought I might get them to run away, they managed to squeak by into killing Aggression in a way that didn't feel cheap. [B]Changes to the Module[/B] I probably screwed some things up with regard to Darius' character. I tried to portray him as a noble protector, the first inquisitor the party has met that isn't a devil-dealing blood hungry zealot. I'm afraid that might have led me to making him too helpful, even against the Ragesians, because I couldn't remember how to get them out of the window, so I just said he found a secret lever, even though ten minutes earlier I had said he didn't know the castle, he just went where Coaltongue did. Ah well, it was a roller coaster session, and I'm nit picking an otherwise good time. Similar to how I combined the ambush at the top of the elevator, I knew I wanted the Ragesian/Shahalesti fight to merge with the dragon. Even buffed for the party (+2 to hit, AC, and spell save DC, extra legendary resistance, and +40 hitpoints) I was fairly certain that Aggression would be an easy target to solo. So having Aggression break out in the middle of the other fight, and adding Deception on top of that, I felt like it would be enough of a clue to get the party running. And yet... I don't know whether to call this a naughty word-up or a calculated risk of changing the fight, but because I added Deception (CR 12 on top of the Aggression's CR 17) but I didn't give Aggression the bonuses I mentioned above. I didn't realize this until the killing blow by Mishka. I waffled on correcting before announcing the kill, but with Aggression having used all of its legendary actions already, and three more PCs to go, I figured it was OK. It might have made a bigger difference earlier, but like I said, the fight wasn't easy, and it didn't feel like I was holding their hand. Also, we found out one player was under-reporting damage because they forgot to apply a class feature properly, so it probably balances out roughly. Next time, a chat aboard Coaltongue's [S]sleigh[/S] palanquin. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
EN Publishing
Tolamaker's Burning Sky
Top