Seeking in Earnest
Part 1: Pool Hunters
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In Game |
Out of Character |
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Real Estate
Acquisition Chaugnar tells the rest that they could use this tower as a base, and after some discussion it is agreed. The fifteen remaining cultists do not appear to want to cause any trouble, so their assistance around the place is enlisted. Adran, the priest of the Raven Queen, starts a long term conversion attempt to try to convince these men to follow his mistress instead of the prince of the undead, but it will take longer than they plan to stay. On their second day there, Adran is on the roof surveying the land and sees one of the cultists dive headfirst through the wall of lava near the top floor stairs. They’d already looked through it and seen a shaft going deep into the earth, but do not know where it leads. He questions the remaining cultists, and one tells him that the shaft leads to a one-way portal to the Abyss, and that he’s not sure why the man would have fled. The guardians of the portal (giants and a snake-like creature) will not be happy with anyone who let the Witch King die. In order to make it a better home, the ritually inclined members of the group researched how to create magic circle to use as linked and planar portals. After a little study they found it was possible, but costly. Because the Mines of Bloodstone are only a day’s travel away, they opted to wait before learning the ritual. Seeing the scope of the diversified nature of the
challenges ahead of them, Chaugnar suggests they pool their resources and
take the time to make magic items to aid in the tests. They rack their
collective brains and come up with some ideas, but realize their funds are a
bit low, and so opt to first travel to the pools they believe they can handle
easily. The first of these takes them to the idyllic |
I use “man” and “mankind” a lot throughout this. It is meant as shorthand for “metahumanity” and “sentient humanoids of the prime material plane.” The conversion is done as a level 22 skill challenge, complexity 3. The DC is 29, and he’ll need eight successes before three failures. The primary skills are Diplomacy, Religion, and Insight. With each test representing one day of conversions, sermons, and debate he only has time for one success before they move on. An epic PC’s diplomacy check against a 9th level goob doesn’t even need to be rolled. The cultist told everything he knew with the slightest bit of prompting. He didn’t know enough to let anyone make a knowledge check about the guardians, but they know if they head that way they won’t be dealing with just demons. Adventurer’s Vault is out, and with it a lot of new items for people to peruse. Rather than spend a lot of time doing the accounting work of figuring out how best to spend peoples’ money to pass future pool tests, we opted to say the party had discussed it thoroughly, then do it over email. |
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The Pool of Love Naxis, having traveled to Tranquility before, is not surprised by the reception when they step off of the teleportation circle and into a grassy grove surrounded by trees and small houses. Men and women bearing baskets of fruit and berries make the party welcome and invite them to the festival. Excited to be on a new plane, Chaugnar walks around town and enjoys the festival (which seems to be a permanent fixture here). He studies the differences in the sky and people for hours, then excuses himself to go visit the Pool. The rest also enjoy the festival, but don’t seem as enthusiastic about the experience itself. Coming over a small rise, Chaugnar sees ahead of him a ripple-less blue pool with a small stream running out of it. The stream runs around the hill and curves back into the town, giving them their only water supply. Perched on blankets on the side of the hill is a group of four young men, each no older than eighteen or younger than sixteen. They are all gazing intently at the Pool’s guardian, with mixed faces of excitement, longing, and contentment. The object of their affection is a green-skinned woman lying naked against a tree near the water’s edge. Her foot swirls languidly through the water, as she pretends not to notice the men and the desires of their bodies and hearts. The warlock has a practiced eye though, and he picks up on the subtle sexual signals she is sending. He walks up to her and asks if she is the Keeper of the Pool. “Nobody can keep love. But I am the giver of the waters. What is it that makes you worthy of love?” Chaugnar
explains that he sees love differently than others. He seeks a universal love
of life in all its forms, and believes that the universe itself is a living
entity. Removing his shirt and allowing his otherworldly eyes to extract
themselves from his sockets, he shows his devotion to harmony through the
symbiotic relationships he has with the Sicsipidus, Eyes of Caiphon, and
Sunamsilautir As he strides into the pool, contentment fills him. When his head goes under he feels a connection to the universe itself, and gazes up to see the cool blue sky replaced with a single gigantic eye. This is not the purple orb of his otherworldly Lord Caiphon, but something else entirely. The eye stares back at him for uncountable moments, then seems to blink. But where lids would close, instead the sky and clouds return, dimmer than before as twilight approaches. Back in Tranquility the rest of the group enjoys the party. For reasons they do not discuss, neither the artificer Artesano nor the half-giant Arik wish to bare their souls to Love. But Adran is not in doubt of his worthiness, and he excuses himself to head to the pool. As he crests the hill, the sun touches the horizon and the men watching the dryad increase the intensity of their gazes and eagerly watch the horizon. “Welcome, seeker. How is it you are worthy of Love?” The priest replies, “Through my love for my queen, and the true death she brings. Love can only truly be found in death.” “But does not death separate loved ones?” “They meet together again in death.” “Even if they go to different afterlives?” The priest seems momentarily daunted, but his faith and his dogma are strong. “death brings them together under the Raven Queen.” The dryad looks into his eyes, seeming to look into his heart. A long minute later she waves her arm toward the pool, beckoning him to it. “I do not agree with your beliefs, but it is plain to see that your faith and your love are strong. Bathe, seeker, and rejoice.” Adran wades down into the pool as the sun sets, and he sees the men strolling (and sometimes skipping) down the hill towards the dryad. His bath is as connected as Chaugnar’s was, but there is no giant eye gazing upon him. When he comes out, drenched and dripping peace, he sees the four young men and the dryad enjoying one another’s company in a very personal way. Back
in town, as the sun goes down the loving petting amongst couples becomes more
urgent, and when the sun has fully slipped below the horizon the town of |
This section only involves one die roll, and very few mechanics.
This group of players went to the pool of love in the last campaign as well. But that time the artificer’s player was running a samurai, and he answered the pool’s question with an extemporaneous haiku. The cleric’s player was running an amoral halfling sorcerer, and tried to give an answer about the love of power. When that failed he came back later and killed the guardians. His Time Stop and Delayed Blast Fireball assault also got him killed. She wasn’t convinced, so he rolled Religion to prove his love for his Queen and her ideals. He had to use two of his Divine (a.k.a. Deadly) Trickster rerolls, but got well over a 30 and she was convinced. Bathing in the pool, and passing the test, was worth 2,500xp for the two characters. They also gained a +3 pool bonus to Insight and Diplomacy, as well as the ability to Lay on Hands as a paladin once per day. No battle was fought, but I was ready just in case. The pool’s guardians were the Steadfast Guardian of Love, representing Agape’s eternal strength, and the Lustful Guardian of Love, representing Eros’s strong pull on the body, heart, and mind. |
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The Pool of Life Next on the agenda is the Pool of Life. Artesano has been there before, and draws out a diagram of its portal for Naxis. The test of the pool was in two parts. First was survival in the plane itself. Nestled in the heart of the positive material plane, the pool of life is surrounded by so much abundant energy that the body can’t survive it. It fills up with life, overflows, and explodes. Chaugnar’s connection to the eye of Caiphon protects him against radiant energy, and he casts Resistance on Naxis, giving him a much greater chance of survival. Artesano has been here before, and is partially steeled against the forces. Adran covers them all in Divine Armor, granting a small amount of protection to himself, while Naxis casts Stoneskin on Arik, protecting him as well. Girded as well as they can be, the seekers step into the realm of shining light. They float through an ivory white and gold void, tensed constantly against the pressures. While nobody is overwhelmed, Artesano, Naxis, and Adran all have a rough time of it and come out the other side tired from the strain. In the heart of the plane is a shining golden sphere, the Pool of Life. Around it are three 8’ diameter balls of negative space. Each of these creatures has four equally black tentacles. Energons known as Xeg-yi, these creatures normally hail from the negative material plane, and must be under powerful protections to not be instantly annihilated by the radiance of the plane. Jumping forward with alarming alacrity, the xeg-yi surround the party and flail continually with all of their tentacles, each hit draining life energy. Arik and Artesano are hit three times each and left weakened and dazed. Adran suffers the full brunt of the attack, taking four hits and being stunned, weakened, and dazed. Artesano wraps himself in a matrix of lightning, failing to damage the enemy but setting them up to be disoriented themselves if they remain too close to him. Naxis calls forth a maelstrom of chaos, tearing into two of the creatures and teleporting them next to Arik’s axe and Artesano’s matrix. Adran shakes off the effects of the xeg-yi’s tentacles while Chaugnar moves away and calls down tentacles from the Far Realms. He attempts to mislead one of the creatures with a phantasm from the Far Realms, but fails and gives a bit of himself to Caiphon to be granted a second chance. Arik calls out a challenge, drawing the beasts to him and his hungry axe. The xeg-yi attack again, but their fury seems to have subsided somewhat. The two who are inside the artificer’s matrix twitch from the energy. Artesano fires a burrowing arrow at a xeg-yi, barely hurting it. He also uses his restorative infusion to heal everyone (kinda). As Adran heals, red leeches appear around the wound, pulling the energy from them and carrying it to Chaugnar. Naxis’s form turns blurry and he locks one of the xeg-yi in place with a mesmeric glance. Arik unleashes Devestation’s Wake and uses a momentary glimpse into the future to ensure it hits. He tries to follow it up with a cleaving blow but misses. All of the xeg-yi attack Arik, and because they need only touch him, they do not have to contend with his armor and so easily hit. Each hit drains his life force and transfers it to them. Artesano fires a skipping shot, but his patented bad luck causes him to miss all three. He also heals Arik. Naxis unleashes a blast of cold but misses all three of them. In a heroic effort he also tries to lock one into an icy tomb, but seems to have momentarily contracted the artificer’s luck. Adran utters a word and heals himself, and also wraps the combatants in a mantle of glory, healing the fighter and the artificer. Extreme effort gets past the defenses of one of the xeg-yi, but the others don’t seem to care. Unfortunately the intense concentration he puts towards seeing a favorable outcome leaves him confused when one of the xeg-yi is not hit. Chaungnar’s tentacles slam into one of the creatures with incredible strength, but his enforced glimpse of the Far Realm has no effect. Arik drops into an avalanche stance, activates his new belt of titan strength and his stormwarden cloak, then swings a mighty blow. . . which misses. Taking real damage for the first time since the start of the fight, the two trapped inside the tentacles and matrix unleash a flurry of tentacles on Artesano, and the third also charges him after shifting around the field. The onslaught drops the artificer instantly. Artesano slips closer to death and a wave of fatigue settles across the crowd. Naxis calls forth another maelstrom of chaos and teleports the unwounded xeg-yi into the reach of the tentacles, while the dazed cleric pushes through the pain to heal the artificer and pronounce the doom of the xeg-yi closest to Arik. Chaugnar wreaths the thing in cold and darkness, and Arik’s axe strikes true. As the energons dies the magic protecting it unravels and its negative energy mixes with the plane’s positive energy with explosive results. Though one of the xeg-yi is practically unhurt, without
the ability to focus massive strikes on a single target, their doom is
sealed. They get the last word with their explosive deaths, but it’s not
enough to stop the party from bathing and using a planar portal to return to
the |
Getting to the pool is a level 24 personal skill challenge. The only primary skill available is Endurance, and each participant needs four successes before they get three failures. The DC is 29, but every five points of Radiant Resistance will give the character +2 to the checks. Each failure costs the character a healing surge, and complete failure means that when they come out the other side they’ll have lost all of their healing surges in the effort to withstand the rigors of the plane. Radiant Ones (which Chaugnar is) have resitance to radiant damage high enough that he cannot fail the checks. Resistance gives Naxis +10. Stoneskin and Artesano’s radiant resistance 10 both grant a +4. Adran only gets +2 from his Divine Armor’s Resist All 5. The artificer fails twice, as does the wizard. The priest only fails once. Some of them are forced to go slower than they would have alone, as they make their four successes before others but don’t want to reach the pool before the rest and have to fight alone. Stats for the three elite skirmishers. There was a lot of worry that the four attacks were standard for the Xeg-yi. We’re a pretty rules savvy group, and with most of us GMing (And therefore having read at least parts of the Monster Manual), being able to surprise them with something was fun. Sacrifice to Caiphon (Dragon #366) is an excellent feat, especially at epic. You pay one hit point per power level when you miss with an encounter power, and the ability isn’t expended. At these levels 7 – 12 hit points is nothing. Chaugnar did the only damage to himself, and I don’t think he went through his temporary hit points. Come and Get Some is also beastly, easily locking down several opponents with a single standard action. There was much sighing when they didn’t attack four times this round. :) Lightning Matrix didn’t do a lot of damage (5 per round) but combined with the fighter’s combat challenge it effectively locked two of the xeg-yi down. On the turns they weren’t immobilized by the Tendrils of Thuban, they were dazed. There was no point in them using their only action to provoke an OA from the fighter and have their movement canceled. They could have shifted away, but would not have been able to heal that round, and didn’t know what sorts of teleports and pulls could put them back in jeopardy. Attacks vs. reflex are swiftly becoming the fighter’s bane. His high fortitude and AC leave him unhurt much of the time, but he’s very easy to touch. With 7 attacks between them, the artificer and wizard both managed to miss every time. The Divine Oracle ability to roll twice when making a Will attack has caused a lot of hits, but the drawback opf being dazed if you miss has hurt, even with the cleric having four rerolls available from Elven Accuracy and Deadly Trickster. When bloodied their flurry recharges, and they combined the attacks on the guy that wasn’t wreathed in thunder and lightning (just lightning). The wave of fatigue is the realization that the artificer’s healing infusion doesn’t heal everyone in the burst. Some of them retroactively lost the healing they’d been given earlier. Prophecy of doom strikes again. :) Bathing gives them a +5 bonus to their healing surge value and resist radiant 10. |
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The Search for Secrets Chaugnar has bathed in the Pool of Secrets before, but can’t remember where it is. He knows how he and his friends found it, and so the party starts a multi-planar, multi-national search for information. With many friends and a demonically stocked library
available to them in the Artesano, being a historian, heads directly to the royal
university, where nobles and merchant lords send their children to be educated.
He easily proves himself scholarly enough to be admitted, and searches the
stacks for signs of the pool’s past. Finally he learns that it stayed for a
long time in Naxis’s home realm, the City of Though not a metropolis, Tranquility is populated by beings from all over the multiverse, which makes it an excellent spot to find knowledge. Chaugnar looks around town, trying to find good individuals to talk to, or people who might be paying an inordinate amount of attention to their search. He finds a man who knows a man, and introduces the priest. Adran talks the talk, and gets Naxis in the door so he can walk the walk. The trail of the supposed seeker is cold, but they find that the pool made an appearance in the Free City of Greyhawk shortly before Rary the Traitor killed Otiluke and Tenser in an effort to prolong the Greyhawk Wars. So they head to the Flaenaess. In the Free City Artesano studies the past. While visiting
the renowned sage Arkalan Sammal, brother to Rary the Traitor, he finds signs
that the Pool itself may not just be drawn to great secrets,
it may actually create them by causing strife. It seems that the Circle of
Eight had found the pool shortly before the end of the Wars, and Rary spent
much of his time under the Citadel of Eight gazing into it, trying to discern
where the world should go next. Arkalan felt that it might have been the Pool
that urged Rary to create his conspiracy and try to keep the world at war. To
find out more they head to the Concerned about the dangers of the city, Adran avoids his
customary diplomatic efforts and instead attempts to use insight and
psychology to find the best and most trustworthy historians. He finds one,
and while going in to meet the man, sees a familiar face. It’s not until he
is inside and speaking with the historian that he realizes he met the man
already in Tranquility, having been introduced by Chaugnar. The man is gone
though, and shortly thereafter Naxis is returning with information. Rary had
indeed been drawn to the pool, and within it had learned how to hide himself
and his needs while learning those of others. He had used that knowledge on
his own though, not at the urging of the pool. Shortly after the end of the
Greyhawk Wars, the pool moved again. Artesano again stretches his historical
knowledge and searches for great secrets. Armed with the knowledge that the
pool hunts secrets, they move on to the biggest one he can finds:
the fabled city of Under the cliffs of Abbor Alz, a great cavern holds the Their next stop is off the trail, but Arik is keen on
visiting the Pool of Faith, which Adran has told them is always at the home
of the Seeker’s deity. So they head to Nirvana, and the |
Finding the pool of secrets is a level 25 skill challenge, complexity 4. The DC is 30 and they need ten successes before three failures. Primary skills are Arcana, History, and Religion. Diplmacy can also be used to “grease the wheels,” costing 2,500gp per use and granting a +2 bonus to the next Religion, History, or Arcana check. Each success or failure represents following all of the leads in a single metropolis, and means traveling to a new one to gain more knowledge. The historical and geographical information is being added at this point. At the table we rushed through it by going around and making the rolls and asking where to travel to next. I had thought up the mechanics for the challenge but hadn’t thought up the flavor text side of it. I also didn’t have a Greyhawk map with me, so other than Calimshan, the metropolises being visited on Oerth are also added in this narrative. The total time taken is almost a year of searching, and they end up spending 17,170gp in travel costs and another 7,500gp in “diplomatic fees.” The checks themselves were pretty easy, and only one failure out of eleven rolls occurred. It could have turned out worse though, as there were some good rolls happening. The wizard’s inability to fail an arcana check while being aided was a huge benefit, as was the artificer’s huge bonus with history.
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Arik’s Faith Proven Before they race to it, Arik visits the One modron turns a new face and tells him that there are
many temples in the City of In the center of Erathis’s tower, on the 25th floor, Arik is lead to a massive empty chamber. An articulated arm glides out of the ceiling holding a simple metal chair. On the chair sits Erathis, God of Civilization and Technology. “You are a believer in the ned for civilization, and the progress of Man?” “Yes.” “Do you understand the state of the universe as it currently stands.” “Uh… No?” “Ah. The universe is changing. Soon many of us will step down, and others will stand in our place. The worlds will change. It is an opportunity and a danger. Would you like to see civilization prosper in the new times?” “Yes.” Arik is a man of few words. Erathis gestures to the half-giant’s arms and legs. “Those could go far towards forwarding mankind in the next cycle. Will you leave them here to study?” Without hesitation the half-giant agrees. A moment later he inquires about new arms and legs and is assured that there are priests who can regenerate them. Arik is taken past foundries and libraries, to a clean room where a group of dwarves carefully remove his cybernetic limbs. A few hours later priests have replaced his limbs and he is ushered backinto the chamber of Erathis. The floor of the room slides open and a “pool” is revealed. This pool is unlike any other, actually being an interlocking system of pulleys, cables, cogs, and platforms. Arik stands on a platform and rides through the gears. As he does he sees that the technological marvel around him is a metaphor for the interconnectivity of civilized man and machine and how cultural progress is tied to technological progress. As man’s need for physical labor decreases, he is given more time for thought and less temptation to plunder. While magic puts the power in the hands of a few, technology can be used by anyone, and so brings people together. When he emerges from the pool, it is with a deeper understanding of the way things are and the way they ought to be. He is thereafter never alone, as a small, almost electrical, hum in the back of his head tells him that Erathis is near. |
To prove his faith Arik must give his technological arms and legs to the future. In effect he trades Battlestrider Greaves and Gauntlets of the Ram for 5,000xp and the ability to spend a minor action once per day to regain a divine encounter power he has used. There was no rolling in this subquest.
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Ambushed! Back in Calimshan, the group splits up again to see if they can find a way into the palace, and to verify that the pool truly is there. Unbeknownst to them, the man Adran saw twice was shadowing them across the planes along with other members of his guild. A group calling themselves the SSS (Secret Seeker Seekers) has agents in several major cities across the planes, and has found the party. Determined to learn the whereabouts of the pools they’ve been in, they find someone who knows about the group and their powers, and use that knowledge to set up ambushes tailored to negate the adventurer’s strongest abilities and target their weaknesses. |
All of these battles were done simultaneously, but I’m splitting them up to make things easier to read. Each PC faced five opponents: 4 17th level creatures recruited for their ability to negate or hamper that PC’s strengths or target their weaknesses, and one NPC: a member of the SSS. |
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Artesano in the
Labs In a basement laboratory, the artificer pours through old tomes and experimental records, seeking more knowledge about the pool itself. He is interrupted by footsteps coming down the stairs as three large boulders with legs burst through the walls and attached bookshelves. This battle was over very quickly. Though he wasn’t surprised by the four Galeb Duhr who come smashing through the wall, he is not fast enough to stop them. Four of the things rumble a deep toned song and the ground beneath his feet responds by cracking and breaking. Tables fall over and beakers break, spilling strange alchemical materials everywhere. A hand of solid stone comes through the ground and grabs him. A beautiful young woman steps opens the door to the lab and sends out a psychic wave that scrambles his mind and leaves him stunned. A few short moments later he is beaten into unconsciousness. |
Destructive Salutation (a Blood Mage paragon power) does psychic damage and stuns. The restrained condition and difficult terrain created by the Galeb Duhr Rockcallers did not matter, as in the course of three or so rounds, the eladrin never made the saving throw against the stunned effect and so never got a chance to teleport away. |
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Naxis in the Library Naxis sits at a desk in a large library on the top floor of the Calimshan Wizard’s Guild and hears the familiar clanking of full plate coming up the stairs. He turns in time to see a drow woman wearing a symbol of Lolth lead four Githzerai to the top of the stairs. The woman moves forward and calls out a prayer to Lolth in Deep Speech, coating the walls and floor in a cloying darkness which Naxis recognizes as an unhallowing. One of the gith traces his hands through the air before him and utters an incantation of probability in supernal. The other three surround the wizard and while one slams a stunning fist into his temple, the other two focus on inflicting as much harm as they can. Now locked in the midst of a flurry of fists and feet, Naxis soon falls to Malice Do’Urden’s scourge. |
Githzerai Cenobites have a stunning fist attack, and with four of them in the room he never had a chance to do anything. Their ability to Trace Chance for +5 to the next attacker’s roll didn’t hurt either.
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Chaugnar in the
Toilet Suffering from colonic woes, Chaugnar sits in a tavern restroom gripping the helper bar attached to the wall. Two hands holding a pair of glowing shackles come through the wall behind him and lock his hand to the bar. More wraiths poke through the walls as well, attacking blindly but to good effect, and sapping the strength from him. The warlock responds by first protecting himself from the necrotic touch of the wraiths, and then summoning forth the familiar pale white and jet black tentacles from beyond. A huge man in full plate, his face covered completely in a helm, squeezes his way down the hallway and issues a divine challenge to the warlock, declaring his doom. Chaugnar sees two pool auras on the man. One is the familiar grey sheen over the eyes caused by the Pool of Secrets. The other is unrecognized, and the warlock does not have time for study. The other manifests as a translucent chest, revealing a blackened orb in place of the man’s heart. Now unable to truly hurt the man, the wraiths focus on keeping him weakened, making it more difficult for him to hurt their master or extricate himself from the situation. He drive a phantasm of the Far Realms into the paladin’s mind, but is counterattacked by the helm the man wears, which bursts forth with stinging and blinding light. His tendrils of Thuban miss, and Iuz shouts to his minions to get the hell out of his way. The wraith in front of Chaugnar slides through the wall, and their swords flail wildly. Unable to see the warlock now, they all miss. Chaugnar sends out a wave of thunder which fails to push the man in plate, but does blow the door off of its hinges and crack the walls. The paladin swings a valiant strike and hits hard. The wraiths attack again, this time hitting. They cannot hurt the warlock, but they continue to keep him weak. Chaugnar blasts the wall apart, but gives the apaldin a chance to land another blow. Iuz follows it with a painful strike as the sword wraiths flail away. Though sorely hurt, Chaugnar’s last blast freed the bar from the wall and collapsed the wall, giving him the chance to turn invisible and fly far, far away. He wanders the streets, a glowing shackle trailing behind him, and seeks out a safehouse before trying to contact the others. |
Knowing he’s a teleporter, the SSS opens by trapping Chaugnar in dimensional shackles. Between that and the constant weakening he’s hard pressed to push out the massive damage he usually does.
I forgot to mention this part during the battle, but with no time to study the paladin, it wouldn’t have changed anything. They had already figured out that this had to do with people wanting them for their pool knowledge. However, it’s not enough to stop him from smashing a wooden wall (30hp), and once clear he easily escapes. |
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Adran in the Graveyard Adran is taking the day off from being a Seeker to be a priest. Part of the duties of all priests of the Raven Queen is to ensure that buried bodies are kept safe from being animated as undead until they’re too decomposed to be dangerous. The priesthood pays for the materials, and the priests use Gentle Repose every five months. Adran is assigned a block of graves and goes to work. From across the graveyard he sees five humanoids moving towards him at incredible speeds. He looks up from the grave and the oracular vision to see that it is true. Four troglodytes in threadbare robes and a huge man in full plate are running towards him inhumanly fast. They’re almost as fast as the elven cleric. The man in plate charges forward and slams a flail into Adran, screaming “You will fall to Warduke!” The chains wrap around his legs, hampering his movement greatly. Adran holds his ground and waits for them all to get into range of his Enthralling prayer. Unfortunately they turn out to be artillery, and only one moves close enough to chant a curse at him, filling his veins with necrotic energy and slowing his legs. The other three trogs fire rays of poison at him. Warduke swings another blow with Indomitable Strength, slamming the priest to the ground. Adran stands, heals himself, and fills the area with fire. His elven accuracy ensures that everyone is hit. The chanters burn, and another one curses the priest while two more rays of poison hit home. Ignoring the flames, Warduke slams a reaping strike home, again crushing the priest, who responds by purifying himself of the curses and poison, and calling down holy fire from the sky on the troglodytes. The chanters, unaware that he is no longer slowed, send out only rays of poison this time. With a familiar maneuver, Warduke swings his flail around in a devastating wake, but misses horribly. Adran enthralls those nearest to him and activates his ring of flight, disappearing to the top of the common mausoleum where he has a momentary respite. The curse chanters use their tunneling grace to escape the area of the fire storm, and a healing chant to repair their open wounds. Seeing that he won’t be able to kill them if they’re capable of healing themselves and are not inside the fire storm, the elf flees. His incredible speed make it impossible for them to find him before he gets away. As he runs he hears Warduke shouting at the troglodytes that they have failed him. One trog lets out a scream of rage which is cut short, and the fighter tells the rest they had better not fail him again. |
Divine Oracles can’t be surprised, so he saw them in a vision moments before he saw them in real life. The Troglodyte Curse Chanter has a minor ability that gives all of its allies +5 speed until the end of its next turn, so they’re walking towards him at speed 10, compared to his speed 11. Chains of Sorrow crits for 72 damage and a -6 to his defenses. Curse chanters can cause ongoing damage and slow a target with an ability that recharges on a 3+. With four of them there it’s unlikely they will ever fail. Their other attack is a ray of weakening poison. An Iron Vanguard, Warduke does an extra 8 damage when he knocks someone down. The chanters have low religion scores, and do not realize that he has freed himself from the slow effect with a prayer, giving him the opportunity to use his great speed.
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Arik in the Alleyway Arik walks down the street, returning to their inn. As he passes an alley he hears unfamiliar words being whispered from the sewer grates. Though he can’t understand the words, he does understand their meaning: “go into the alley.” Unable to resist the call of the Yuan-ti Malison Disciples of Zehir, he turns and walks into the alley. In the alley he is surrounded by a stream of daggers being thrown by a man on the roof of a nearby warehouse. Again the whispers come, this time forcing the warrior to drop his magical backpack where he stores his axe. Seeing he cannot escape, the warrior surrenders and is quickly knocked unconscious by a returning dagger from the roof. |
Yuan-ti Malison Disciples of Zehir have a recharge 3 ability to dominate a target. Combined with the rogue on the roof’s Feinting Flurry (a sustainable penalty to defenses), there is little chance of Arik escaping.
With no weapon and repeatable domination attacks that will only hit miss on a one, Arik’s player declares the fight over to speed up the rest of the evening. |
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Aftermath Artesano the artificer, Naxis the wizard, and Arik the fighter have been captured by the SSS. Adran the priest and Chaugnar the warlock escaped. What happens next is anyone’s guess. Will they find their friends in time? Will the captives figure out a way to escape? |
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