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Against the Giants: Campaign Journal
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<blockquote data-quote="cthulhu42" data-source="post: 7373482" data-attributes="member: 6792361"><p>Session 16</p><p></p><p>We begin the session with Edran about to make his wish. In fine Edran fashion, Chris makes a list of possible wishes and then rolls randomly to see which one he selects. And his wish is: To be free of all debts!</p><p> </p><p> Thoradin, to whom Edran owes a large sum of gold, is stunned, not only that he now no longer wishes to collect from Edran, but also that Edran would, in his estimation, waste such a valuable thing as a wish on something so trivial. </p><p></p><p> Edran, for his part, doesn't seem fazed by the loss of Rufus, and immediately begins to restart the summoning ritual all over again! This is too much for Thoradin and he makes as if to stalk out of the temple. Krote is still reeling from the loss of Rufus. Selendra is still quite mad, Joshua is trying to help her, and Jef is cowering in a corner. Farrah is watching all of this play out, bemused. </p><p> </p><p> But before Thoradin can turn to go, from another entrance storms nearly three dozen gnolls, lining up with their longbows in the eastern portion of the temple. Arrows and spells begin to fly as a pair of drow (a mage and an elite warrior) join the gnolls. The party is outnumbered, but how difficult can a group of gnolls and a couple of drow be?</p><p> </p><p> Pretty hard, it turns out, especially given the fact that the party has largely neglected to heal up. Clouds of arrows take Edran, then Krote down!</p><p></p><p> Things go from bad to worse as six trolls charge in behind them, swarming Joshua. </p><p></p><p> Sai goes down! Thoradin is surrounded by trolls! </p><p></p><p> And then things go from worse to truly horrific. The remaining giants from this level, led by the disgraced Baldo, Snurre's lieutenant, now given a second chance to prove himself by wiping out the intruders, come in behind the trolls! Two frost giants, two cloud giants, and Baldo himself. </p><p></p><p> Farrah takes off running for Sai. Once she reaches him, she pours a potion of healing down his throat, grabs his satchel full of potions, and races for Krote. After reviving the barbarian, she does the same for Edran. Unfortunately, all three are woefully low on health, and after another couple of rounds, only Sai is still standing. With a frost giant bearing down on him, Sai gambles and casts, hitting the giant with a Polymorph. It works! The giant transforms into a turtle, and Sai sprints away to live another turn. </p><p></p><p> Things look grim indeed. The trolls are beating hell out of Joshua and Thoradin. Thoradin is out of his most powerful spells, and everyone is out of range of his healing. Hemmed in as he is, all he can do is fight back with all he's got. </p><p></p><p> And then... Laurali arrives! Charging in behind the giants, clad in frost giant armor and wielding the headman's axe, she smashes into a frost giant, hacking into him! What is she doing here? How did she find them? Certainly these are vexing questions, but one thing is sure, she is doing her best to give Krote a fighting chance. </p><p></p><p> Sai is backed into a corner with trolls closing in. He Misty Steps past them and races for Krote, getting a potion into the half orc. Krote staggers to his feet even as Edran finishes the summoning ritual on the altar. He rings the gigantic triangle and shouts with victory!</p><p></p><p> And nothing happens. </p><p></p><p> And then Joshua drops, followed closely by Thoradin. </p><p></p><p> The enemy is being thinned out. The gnolls all lie dead. Laurali manages to kill a frost giant. Several of the trolls are burnt by Sai's incessant Fireballs. But they are far from out of the game. </p><p></p><p> Edran is knocked out again. And again, Farrah gets a potion into him, and then flees for her life. </p><p></p><p> The drow mage is already dead, but the warrior stands between Krote and the exit. With only a handful of hit points, the barbarian staggers toward him. The drow swings... and fumbles! Tripping and falling to the ground, he is easy prey for Krote, and soon Black Metal bites deep, killing the dark elf. </p><p></p><p> Laurali has been using her lighting strike ability, piling on damage to one of the cloud giants and Baldo. But it isn't enough. Between the remaining trolls and the giants, they take the giantess down. She falls like a tree. </p><p></p><p> With a battle cry, Krote plows into the giants and trolls, but instead of attacking, he fights defensively, doing his best to give Edran sneak attack opportunities. It is a surprisingly effective strategy, and round after round passes as the enemy cannot seem to get past his defenses. </p><p></p><p> Meanwhile, Edran is closing in, pelting away with his bow as Sai uses every last spell slot to rain fire upon the enemy. Even Jef, unable to go toward the altar for his fear of it, is able to fight a little bit, and does so as best he can. In the end, he is at least one more attack that doesn't target a PC, and he buys them valuable time. </p><p></p><p> And then Farrah is back, slipping out of the shadows to slip her dagger into Baldo! She stabs the giant leader a good shot, but Baldo turns and lays her out with a single sword swing. </p><p></p><p> Sai's Fireballs finally do in the last of the trolls, and he empties his wand of magic missiles into the last cloud giant, killing it. </p><p></p><p> Baldo is now alone, and Krote commands him to flee. But the giant will fight to the death. He swings at Krote, and finally connects. Krote falls a third time. Then Baldo is charging toward Edran. Edran fires off arrows and desperately falls back, trying to stay out of the enraged giants range. His own ridiculous movement is hampered by his wounds, but he manages to get back enough that Baldo cannot quite get to him and attack. </p><p> </p><p> Only three remain. Baldo, Sai, and Edran. Krote is unconscious. Thoradin is down. Selendra has been taken down by trolls, and so has Joshua. Farrah also lies, bleeding out. Sai is down to six hit points and cantrips. Edran is one hit away from being knocked out as well. He can't get a sneak attack on the giant, and he can't outpace him. Edran draws his rapier and steps in, thrusting with all his might. </p><p></p><p> He strikes true, and the already severely wounded Baldo looks down at the yard of steel buried into him. His face contorted into a mask of hate, he falls. Dead. </p><p></p><p> Quickly, they administer aide to Krote and Farrah, bringing them back from the brink. But when Sai checks on Thoradin, his face goes ashen. Their cleric, their stalwart friend, the seemingly invincible Thoradin, is dead. </p><p></p><p> Joshua and Selendra are also dead. Laurali is dead. </p><p></p><p> In a state of shock, they know they must rest. Sai heads for the plush drow quarters and begins his ritual casting of the Tiny Hut. Edran grabs the turtle and limps towards the smithy where he tosses the giant/turtle into the lava pool. There is much thrashing as the giant returns to his true form, but he cannot make it to the edge of the pool before succumbing to the lava. He dies screaming. </p><p></p><p> Krote carries the bodies of the dead to the hut and then returns to regard the lifeless body of Laurali. He takes grim stock of the fallen. Thoradin is dead. Selendra and Joshua are dead. Laurali, his giantess friend, is dead. But he knows that perhaps all is not lost. The dead can be risen! But then he remembers Rufus. Their dog is gone. Dragged to the nether world. Lost for all time. </p><p></p><p> And that's where we broke. </p><p></p><p> Inspiration has been rolled for, with the exception of Thoradin. Ron swears that Thoradin is not coming back. </p><p></p><p> It is Harvester 15, roughly 4:30pm. </p><p> </p><p> Post game notes: Well, this was a rough one on several levels. </p><p></p><p> The drow mage, invisibly, had been keeping an eye on the party, and when they went into the temple he rejoined the remaining forces of giants, trolls, gnolls, and drow mage in a nearby chamber. They then made their way to the temple for a surprise attack. Baldo, once imprisoned by Snurre for insubordination, had been given one final chance to redeem himself by his king, and the fire giant lieutenant swore that he would not fail. </p><p></p><p>He almost didn't. </p><p> </p><p>For reasons unknown to me, the PC's had failed to heal between fights, so when the enemy came, they were flat footed. Krote went down the first time without even laying a hit on a single bad guy. All in all, it was an example of egregious PC hubris or just plain oversight. Either way, they were sitting ducks, especially with Selendra insane and useless, and Sai already down 78 hit points from the temple's symbol effect. </p><p></p><p>I had planned, if the battle was going badly against them, to have Laurali, the storm giantess, show up. It turns out she was much needed, but even she couldn't survive the onslaught. She did probably tip the balance in the PC's favor though. </p><p></p><p>At one point every single player controlled PC was down and it was up to the NPC's from there. For a moment I thought to have Farrah run for her life, but there were too many enemy for her to even make it to an exit, so she went on potion duty, which was another huge help. </p><p></p><p>My ultimate plan was to have any survivors wake up in cells, prisoner's of the giants and drow. But as it was, they managed to win the day. But only just. </p><p></p><p>And the cost was severe! Three dead NPCs and one dead PC. Thoradin was a tank, with a 23 armor class, but even he was no match for the giants, and once he was down, he failed three death saves in a row! Brutal!</p><p></p><p>And Ron swears that Thoradin is not coming back. This is definitely a problem, as he is invaluable as a healer. But apparently Thoradin is so fed up with Edran that he'd rather stay dead than to deal with him anymore. To add insult to injury, their only means of resurrection at the moment is a scroll that Edran has been hanging on to. The idea of Edran bringing Thoradin back to life is more than the dwarf's pride can stand. </p><p></p><p>Hard to blame him, really. </p><p></p><p>But! And this is a big, “but”, as we were wrapping for the night, and Ron had already left, Chris remembered that I allow the expenditure of all remaining Hero Points to immediately stabilize! I had totally forgotten that rule, and that might make a huge difference. At this point, I don't know if Thoradin had any Hero Points to spend. If he did, there may well be a ret conned death. </p><p></p><p>Personally, I hope he does.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="cthulhu42, post: 7373482, member: 6792361"] Session 16 We begin the session with Edran about to make his wish. In fine Edran fashion, Chris makes a list of possible wishes and then rolls randomly to see which one he selects. And his wish is: To be free of all debts! Thoradin, to whom Edran owes a large sum of gold, is stunned, not only that he now no longer wishes to collect from Edran, but also that Edran would, in his estimation, waste such a valuable thing as a wish on something so trivial. Edran, for his part, doesn't seem fazed by the loss of Rufus, and immediately begins to restart the summoning ritual all over again! This is too much for Thoradin and he makes as if to stalk out of the temple. Krote is still reeling from the loss of Rufus. Selendra is still quite mad, Joshua is trying to help her, and Jef is cowering in a corner. Farrah is watching all of this play out, bemused. But before Thoradin can turn to go, from another entrance storms nearly three dozen gnolls, lining up with their longbows in the eastern portion of the temple. Arrows and spells begin to fly as a pair of drow (a mage and an elite warrior) join the gnolls. The party is outnumbered, but how difficult can a group of gnolls and a couple of drow be? Pretty hard, it turns out, especially given the fact that the party has largely neglected to heal up. Clouds of arrows take Edran, then Krote down! Things go from bad to worse as six trolls charge in behind them, swarming Joshua. Sai goes down! Thoradin is surrounded by trolls! And then things go from worse to truly horrific. The remaining giants from this level, led by the disgraced Baldo, Snurre's lieutenant, now given a second chance to prove himself by wiping out the intruders, come in behind the trolls! Two frost giants, two cloud giants, and Baldo himself. Farrah takes off running for Sai. Once she reaches him, she pours a potion of healing down his throat, grabs his satchel full of potions, and races for Krote. After reviving the barbarian, she does the same for Edran. Unfortunately, all three are woefully low on health, and after another couple of rounds, only Sai is still standing. With a frost giant bearing down on him, Sai gambles and casts, hitting the giant with a Polymorph. It works! The giant transforms into a turtle, and Sai sprints away to live another turn. Things look grim indeed. The trolls are beating hell out of Joshua and Thoradin. Thoradin is out of his most powerful spells, and everyone is out of range of his healing. Hemmed in as he is, all he can do is fight back with all he's got. And then... Laurali arrives! Charging in behind the giants, clad in frost giant armor and wielding the headman's axe, she smashes into a frost giant, hacking into him! What is she doing here? How did she find them? Certainly these are vexing questions, but one thing is sure, she is doing her best to give Krote a fighting chance. Sai is backed into a corner with trolls closing in. He Misty Steps past them and races for Krote, getting a potion into the half orc. Krote staggers to his feet even as Edran finishes the summoning ritual on the altar. He rings the gigantic triangle and shouts with victory! And nothing happens. And then Joshua drops, followed closely by Thoradin. The enemy is being thinned out. The gnolls all lie dead. Laurali manages to kill a frost giant. Several of the trolls are burnt by Sai's incessant Fireballs. But they are far from out of the game. Edran is knocked out again. And again, Farrah gets a potion into him, and then flees for her life. The drow mage is already dead, but the warrior stands between Krote and the exit. With only a handful of hit points, the barbarian staggers toward him. The drow swings... and fumbles! Tripping and falling to the ground, he is easy prey for Krote, and soon Black Metal bites deep, killing the dark elf. Laurali has been using her lighting strike ability, piling on damage to one of the cloud giants and Baldo. But it isn't enough. Between the remaining trolls and the giants, they take the giantess down. She falls like a tree. With a battle cry, Krote plows into the giants and trolls, but instead of attacking, he fights defensively, doing his best to give Edran sneak attack opportunities. It is a surprisingly effective strategy, and round after round passes as the enemy cannot seem to get past his defenses. Meanwhile, Edran is closing in, pelting away with his bow as Sai uses every last spell slot to rain fire upon the enemy. Even Jef, unable to go toward the altar for his fear of it, is able to fight a little bit, and does so as best he can. In the end, he is at least one more attack that doesn't target a PC, and he buys them valuable time. And then Farrah is back, slipping out of the shadows to slip her dagger into Baldo! She stabs the giant leader a good shot, but Baldo turns and lays her out with a single sword swing. Sai's Fireballs finally do in the last of the trolls, and he empties his wand of magic missiles into the last cloud giant, killing it. Baldo is now alone, and Krote commands him to flee. But the giant will fight to the death. He swings at Krote, and finally connects. Krote falls a third time. Then Baldo is charging toward Edran. Edran fires off arrows and desperately falls back, trying to stay out of the enraged giants range. His own ridiculous movement is hampered by his wounds, but he manages to get back enough that Baldo cannot quite get to him and attack. Only three remain. Baldo, Sai, and Edran. Krote is unconscious. Thoradin is down. Selendra has been taken down by trolls, and so has Joshua. Farrah also lies, bleeding out. Sai is down to six hit points and cantrips. Edran is one hit away from being knocked out as well. He can't get a sneak attack on the giant, and he can't outpace him. Edran draws his rapier and steps in, thrusting with all his might. He strikes true, and the already severely wounded Baldo looks down at the yard of steel buried into him. His face contorted into a mask of hate, he falls. Dead. Quickly, they administer aide to Krote and Farrah, bringing them back from the brink. But when Sai checks on Thoradin, his face goes ashen. Their cleric, their stalwart friend, the seemingly invincible Thoradin, is dead. Joshua and Selendra are also dead. Laurali is dead. In a state of shock, they know they must rest. Sai heads for the plush drow quarters and begins his ritual casting of the Tiny Hut. Edran grabs the turtle and limps towards the smithy where he tosses the giant/turtle into the lava pool. There is much thrashing as the giant returns to his true form, but he cannot make it to the edge of the pool before succumbing to the lava. He dies screaming. Krote carries the bodies of the dead to the hut and then returns to regard the lifeless body of Laurali. He takes grim stock of the fallen. Thoradin is dead. Selendra and Joshua are dead. Laurali, his giantess friend, is dead. But he knows that perhaps all is not lost. The dead can be risen! But then he remembers Rufus. Their dog is gone. Dragged to the nether world. Lost for all time. And that's where we broke. Inspiration has been rolled for, with the exception of Thoradin. Ron swears that Thoradin is not coming back. It is Harvester 15, roughly 4:30pm. Post game notes: Well, this was a rough one on several levels. The drow mage, invisibly, had been keeping an eye on the party, and when they went into the temple he rejoined the remaining forces of giants, trolls, gnolls, and drow mage in a nearby chamber. They then made their way to the temple for a surprise attack. Baldo, once imprisoned by Snurre for insubordination, had been given one final chance to redeem himself by his king, and the fire giant lieutenant swore that he would not fail. He almost didn't. For reasons unknown to me, the PC's had failed to heal between fights, so when the enemy came, they were flat footed. Krote went down the first time without even laying a hit on a single bad guy. All in all, it was an example of egregious PC hubris or just plain oversight. Either way, they were sitting ducks, especially with Selendra insane and useless, and Sai already down 78 hit points from the temple's symbol effect. I had planned, if the battle was going badly against them, to have Laurali, the storm giantess, show up. It turns out she was much needed, but even she couldn't survive the onslaught. She did probably tip the balance in the PC's favor though. At one point every single player controlled PC was down and it was up to the NPC's from there. For a moment I thought to have Farrah run for her life, but there were too many enemy for her to even make it to an exit, so she went on potion duty, which was another huge help. My ultimate plan was to have any survivors wake up in cells, prisoner's of the giants and drow. But as it was, they managed to win the day. But only just. And the cost was severe! Three dead NPCs and one dead PC. Thoradin was a tank, with a 23 armor class, but even he was no match for the giants, and once he was down, he failed three death saves in a row! Brutal! And Ron swears that Thoradin is not coming back. This is definitely a problem, as he is invaluable as a healer. But apparently Thoradin is so fed up with Edran that he'd rather stay dead than to deal with him anymore. To add insult to injury, their only means of resurrection at the moment is a scroll that Edran has been hanging on to. The idea of Edran bringing Thoradin back to life is more than the dwarf's pride can stand. Hard to blame him, really. But! And this is a big, “but”, as we were wrapping for the night, and Ron had already left, Chris remembered that I allow the expenditure of all remaining Hero Points to immediately stabilize! I had totally forgotten that rule, and that might make a huge difference. At this point, I don't know if Thoradin had any Hero Points to spend. If he did, there may well be a ret conned death. Personally, I hope he does. [/QUOTE]
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