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Against the Idol of the Sun: A 5e high-level campaign log
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<blockquote data-quote="J-H" data-source="post: 8968807" data-attributes="member: 7020951"><p><strong>Session 40: 3/18/2023</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Ratel and Troudar took the Epic Boon of Undetectability (+10 Stealth, immune to scrying/divination). This frees up an attunement slot and gives them two spare Amulets of Protection from Detection and Location. Teador takes the Boon of Recovery, so he can heal half his HP as a bonus action once per day. Saqwam takes an extra Mystic Arcanum and takes Circle of Death.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>After some discussion, the party Teleports to the stone where the Crystal Sword had been. They then fly west to the largest Giant city. Teador rides his griffon with 1 passenger (speed 80’) while Saqwam, still a Planetar, uses his fly speed of 120’ and carries the other PC. They make good time overland. As they travel, Saqwam the temporary Planetar and Teador the 20th-level Paladin who can sprout wings bicker over who is actually more Good and holy.</p><p></p><p>Troudar, as a Goliath, knows the pass-phrases to unlock one of the concealed stone doors.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>This city is partly segregated based on size, for the safety of all the Goliaths who are only knee-high to the Giants. Troudar leads the group to a Goliath bar and gets some beer and asks some questions. They look for someone who’s interested in adventure, and get referred to a young Golitath named Fui-Fui, who works at a fletcher’s, at least for now. The general mood they get is that nobody is very worried at this point.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Saqwam, still a planetar with wings, waited outside because he was too big, and because Teador declined to Dispel the True Polymorph when asked earlier. A Stone Giant named Ha’aheo approaches him and pokes his wing, and asks how he got them. I ran this straight off the two-sentence description in the city listing, with Ha’aheo being obsessed with getting wings and being able to fly. Saqwam said something about learning magic to fly or get wings, with the Giant responding that he was told he didn’t have any talent for learning magic. I don’t precisely recall how the conversation went, but one line was something to the effect of: “How can I learn the magic that you learned, when I’m not good at learning magic and you said you didn’t learn your magic by studying, but learned it without learning it?”</p><p></p><p>By the end of the conversation, Ha’aheo is planning to head east to find Oztalun and make a deal to become a warlock, and has directions for how to do so. Saqwam lets Oztalun know to be on the lookout for him.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The others leave the bar, and Teador dispels the True Polymorph after Saqwam has successfully recruited someone to his Aboleth cult.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Instead of seeking out Fui-Fui, the group decides to approach the city leaders. I briefly recap what they know about the government structure and how the leadership is consensus-based and very slow moving. They get to the government area, and I run it similar to a City Council, where they have to sign in, indicate what they wish to speak about, and then wait for their turn.</p><p></p><p>Hours pass. The discussions are very boring.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Eventually, it’s their turn, and they get called up to discuss getting the giants to go to war, which hasn’t happened in 1500 years.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>They make an initial pitch and say they have evidence. A cloud giant named Pono is tasked with taking and reviewing their evidence to make a report. I used the XGTE name tables as recommended in the Demographics section a lot this time! Pono calls in some experts, including a Goliath sage who questions the group, and a cloud giant Lore Bard named Fef, who has a big magnifying glass for small documents. After doing his review, he points out that these are mostly personal letters, and that there’s something there, but not much in conclusive evidence. He can learn more with Legend Lore, but isn’t prepared to cast it today.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Teador opens his pack and pulls out a scroll of Legend Lore, handing it to the giant. I don’t even have in my notes when they got it, but it’s been a while! Fef casts the spell, and once he’s done, looks very worried. The wording on Legend Lore is pretty clear that it can reveal secrets and unknown things, and especially if you start from a position of high information, you get good unknown details. He consults with Pono, and messages are sent to ask sages and others with access to appropriate magic to try to double-check this, so that a consensus report can be presented rather than that of a single loremaster. The party is informed that this will take days.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>When they meet with Fef the next day, he mentions having pulled out and read a couple of books on war the previous night – as they have been free of major organized war for 1,500 years, or a few generations. How, exactly, does the party propose to maintain a “supply chain” (whatever magic item that is, it’s not defined), and how do they expect the giants to travel 200 miles overland without being detected and bombarded from the sky?</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The party starts discussing options, along with the duration and size limits of Teleport, Teleport Circle, Wind Walk, Transport Via Plants, etc. Ssword volunteers that there may still be a hidden Teleport Circle under the High Temple in the main Aarakocra city. However, it’s in a basement behind a thick stone wall, and only connects to a tunnel that goes out into the nearby lake. It’s not viable to bring Giants in that way.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>They continue noodling on the problem, and Saqwam decides to ask his patron. Warlock-Patron communication is very much a grey area, but Aboleths seem telepathic-ish, and he’s a 20th level Warlock, so it makes sense that they can talk. Oztalun says it will get back to Saqwam the next day.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The next day, it does send him a message with an area to check on the map, mentioning an old document where someone had copied runes related to teleportation on a drawing… and the document eventually came to him. Aboleths remember everything.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It’s in one of the areas the party hasn’t been to, so they teleport in a couple of hexes away and travel there. There’s some joking about never getting random encounters, and this time when I roll the d8s, they get one. Saqwam’s player specifically jokes about the giant snakes and… I roll the giant snake.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>It bites him out of the air and swallows him in a surprise round. The fight commences, and on his turn, Saqwam declares that he True Polymorphs into an Ancient Brass Dragon. Had he gone with a Large dragon, the snake would have still had him in its belly. A gargantuan dragon in a gargantuan snake? That’s too much. The snake is declared dead.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>They find a 20’ diameter adamantium ring, marked with arcane runes related to planar travel, specifically to the Ethereal Plane. It’s ¾ buried. The solution to “how do you dig it out?” is that Teador’s Quake Plate allows him to cast Move Earth once per day. That dug it out.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Moving it is a bit harder. It’s too big to teleport, and too bulky and heavy to carry unless Saqwam wants to fly as a dragon for 150 miles. Ultimately, they use the Anyspell Tome to cast Reduce on it, which shrinks it to 10’ across, and Teleport it to Oztalun’s lair. It will take two weeks to prepare.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>They then teleport out to visit a Yuan-ti village in 15.09 to try to get the sigil sequence for the hidden Teleport Circle under the temple.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><em>DM note: That was about 2 ½ hours at the table, with ½ round of combat. Further battles aside from random encounters are mostly at their discretion, as they are invisible to scrying and move about too much to be easily attacked. Since they’ve been concealing their location so well, the Aarakocra don’t even have much to go on in terms of going after the Yuan-ti or other supporting groups, aside from getting lucky – which I am reluctant to have happen too often.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p> <em></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>They actually got TWO random encounters. The second one is some Shadow Cats stalking them at night and reporting their position back so they can be attacked. The Cats managed to stay hidden, but the party solved the problem so quickly that the attack force never got a chance to form up and reach them. With several “teleport and kill” teams having failed, this one would have been 10+ air-skiffs and about 400 soldiers, including a newly-inducted High Priest of Tezcatlipoca able to cast Power Word: Kill.</em></p><p><em></em></p><p> <em></em></p><p><em></em></p><p><em>At this point, the duration of the campaign is entirely up to what firepower and forces they want to have show up at the same time as them for the final battle in the city. We’ve discussed that these will be handled ‘off-screen’ rather than rolled in the fight, but will determine enemy response times, forces and reinforcements available, alertness, etc. They want to stack the deck on this fight, and I think that will also serve them well in terms of preparing for the question of “what happens after we win?”</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="J-H, post: 8968807, member: 7020951"] [B]Session 40: 3/18/2023[/B] Ratel and Troudar took the Epic Boon of Undetectability (+10 Stealth, immune to scrying/divination). This frees up an attunement slot and gives them two spare Amulets of Protection from Detection and Location. Teador takes the Boon of Recovery, so he can heal half his HP as a bonus action once per day. Saqwam takes an extra Mystic Arcanum and takes Circle of Death. After some discussion, the party Teleports to the stone where the Crystal Sword had been. They then fly west to the largest Giant city. Teador rides his griffon with 1 passenger (speed 80’) while Saqwam, still a Planetar, uses his fly speed of 120’ and carries the other PC. They make good time overland. As they travel, Saqwam the temporary Planetar and Teador the 20th-level Paladin who can sprout wings bicker over who is actually more Good and holy. Troudar, as a Goliath, knows the pass-phrases to unlock one of the concealed stone doors. This city is partly segregated based on size, for the safety of all the Goliaths who are only knee-high to the Giants. Troudar leads the group to a Goliath bar and gets some beer and asks some questions. They look for someone who’s interested in adventure, and get referred to a young Golitath named Fui-Fui, who works at a fletcher’s, at least for now. The general mood they get is that nobody is very worried at this point. Saqwam, still a planetar with wings, waited outside because he was too big, and because Teador declined to Dispel the True Polymorph when asked earlier. A Stone Giant named Ha’aheo[I] [/I]approaches him and pokes his wing, and asks how he got them. I ran this straight off the two-sentence description in the city listing, with Ha’aheo being obsessed with getting wings and being able to fly. Saqwam said something about learning magic to fly or get wings, with the Giant responding that he was told he didn’t have any talent for learning magic. I don’t precisely recall how the conversation went, but one line was something to the effect of: “How can I learn the magic that you learned, when I’m not good at learning magic and you said you didn’t learn your magic by studying, but learned it without learning it?” By the end of the conversation, Ha’aheo is planning to head east to find Oztalun and make a deal to become a warlock, and has directions for how to do so. Saqwam lets Oztalun know to be on the lookout for him. The others leave the bar, and Teador dispels the True Polymorph after Saqwam has successfully recruited someone to his Aboleth cult. Instead of seeking out Fui-Fui, the group decides to approach the city leaders. I briefly recap what they know about the government structure and how the leadership is consensus-based and very slow moving. They get to the government area, and I run it similar to a City Council, where they have to sign in, indicate what they wish to speak about, and then wait for their turn. Hours pass. The discussions are very boring. Eventually, it’s their turn, and they get called up to discuss getting the giants to go to war, which hasn’t happened in 1500 years. They make an initial pitch and say they have evidence. A cloud giant named Pono is tasked with taking and reviewing their evidence to make a report. I used the XGTE name tables as recommended in the Demographics section a lot this time! Pono calls in some experts, including a Goliath sage who questions the group, and a cloud giant Lore Bard named Fef, who has a big magnifying glass for small documents. After doing his review, he points out that these are mostly personal letters, and that there’s something there, but not much in conclusive evidence. He can learn more with Legend Lore, but isn’t prepared to cast it today. Teador opens his pack and pulls out a scroll of Legend Lore, handing it to the giant. I don’t even have in my notes when they got it, but it’s been a while! Fef casts the spell, and once he’s done, looks very worried. The wording on Legend Lore is pretty clear that it can reveal secrets and unknown things, and especially if you start from a position of high information, you get good unknown details. He consults with Pono, and messages are sent to ask sages and others with access to appropriate magic to try to double-check this, so that a consensus report can be presented rather than that of a single loremaster. The party is informed that this will take days. When they meet with Fef the next day, he mentions having pulled out and read a couple of books on war the previous night – as they have been free of major organized war for 1,500 years, or a few generations. How, exactly, does the party propose to maintain a “supply chain” (whatever magic item that is, it’s not defined), and how do they expect the giants to travel 200 miles overland without being detected and bombarded from the sky? The party starts discussing options, along with the duration and size limits of Teleport, Teleport Circle, Wind Walk, Transport Via Plants, etc. Ssword volunteers that there may still be a hidden Teleport Circle under the High Temple in the main Aarakocra city. However, it’s in a basement behind a thick stone wall, and only connects to a tunnel that goes out into the nearby lake. It’s not viable to bring Giants in that way. They continue noodling on the problem, and Saqwam decides to ask his patron. Warlock-Patron communication is very much a grey area, but Aboleths seem telepathic-ish, and he’s a 20th level Warlock, so it makes sense that they can talk. Oztalun says it will get back to Saqwam the next day. The next day, it does send him a message with an area to check on the map, mentioning an old document where someone had copied runes related to teleportation on a drawing… and the document eventually came to him. Aboleths remember everything. It’s in one of the areas the party hasn’t been to, so they teleport in a couple of hexes away and travel there. There’s some joking about never getting random encounters, and this time when I roll the d8s, they get one. Saqwam’s player specifically jokes about the giant snakes and… I roll the giant snake. It bites him out of the air and swallows him in a surprise round. The fight commences, and on his turn, Saqwam declares that he True Polymorphs into an Ancient Brass Dragon. Had he gone with a Large dragon, the snake would have still had him in its belly. A gargantuan dragon in a gargantuan snake? That’s too much. The snake is declared dead. They find a 20’ diameter adamantium ring, marked with arcane runes related to planar travel, specifically to the Ethereal Plane. It’s ¾ buried. The solution to “how do you dig it out?” is that Teador’s Quake Plate allows him to cast Move Earth once per day. That dug it out. Moving it is a bit harder. It’s too big to teleport, and too bulky and heavy to carry unless Saqwam wants to fly as a dragon for 150 miles. Ultimately, they use the Anyspell Tome to cast Reduce on it, which shrinks it to 10’ across, and Teleport it to Oztalun’s lair. It will take two weeks to prepare. They then teleport out to visit a Yuan-ti village in 15.09 to try to get the sigil sequence for the hidden Teleport Circle under the temple. [I]DM note: That was about 2 ½ hours at the table, with ½ round of combat. Further battles aside from random encounters are mostly at their discretion, as they are invisible to scrying and move about too much to be easily attacked. Since they’ve been concealing their location so well, the Aarakocra don’t even have much to go on in terms of going after the Yuan-ti or other supporting groups, aside from getting lucky – which I am reluctant to have happen too often. They actually got TWO random encounters. The second one is some Shadow Cats stalking them at night and reporting their position back so they can be attacked. The Cats managed to stay hidden, but the party solved the problem so quickly that the attack force never got a chance to form up and reach them. With several “teleport and kill” teams having failed, this one would have been 10+ air-skiffs and about 400 soldiers, including a newly-inducted High Priest of Tezcatlipoca able to cast Power Word: Kill. At this point, the duration of the campaign is entirely up to what firepower and forces they want to have show up at the same time as them for the final battle in the city. We’ve discussed that these will be handled ‘off-screen’ rather than rolled in the fight, but will determine enemy response times, forces and reinforcements available, alertness, etc. They want to stack the deck on this fight, and I think that will also serve them well in terms of preparing for the question of “what happens after we win?”[/I] [/QUOTE]
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