Game Report: The Arcer

With the Traitor’s Lot successfully reforged, Ishtahar felt the pull of the weapon, and the One knew that the longer the artifact was in their house, the more danger they were in. The party decided that it was time to leave, but were kind of hoping that they wouldn’t have to walk.
As luck would have it, the morning they were packing up and saying goodbye to Leroy, they were approached a finely-dressed man who introduced himself as Rasputin Gold and offered them a ride. After some questioning and finding out if he was legit (Rasputin merely asserted that he hoped he would assist them on an errand or two), they decided to take him up on his offer.

It turned out he owned a flying boat called the Arcer, which ran a small crew and was stationed outside. As they walked up to the ship while the captain ran over the finer points of his fine ship, they rounded the corner to find it set upon by a small squadron of air elementals.

The party leapt into action to help defend the ship as the crew members, a small group of bullywogs and some other humanoids, were quickly incapacitated by the elementals. The wizard turns his attention to a rock elemental who was tossing exploding stones into combat and managed to push him off a pier to the sand below. The rest of the party had trouble gaining ground when they were set upon by the cyclones who frequently tossed creatures into the air.
Eventually the party overtook the minions and gained access to the ship, although not without many unfortunate detours upwards. Nari-Kar found herself 20 feet up, but managed to prevent a quick descent by summoning her newly befriended earth mephit familiar directly underneath her feet, a clever trick indeed. They took a long while eating through the elemental’s hit points, but eventually defeated the group.

They set sail shortly after, and was introduced to the crew. Esme, an elf healer, spent a few minutes bringing the slain bullywogs back to life. Rasputin noted that bullywogs were so unnatural that it was easy to take them from death’s door, making for mighty cheap labor. A grumbling deurgar started barking orders at the recently revived bullywogs, and a slim man with ridiculously red hair started hitting on all the female members of the party. Ishtahar felt the need to speak with the bullywogs, only to find them incredibly disgusting. They also discovered that the boat was possessed with an air elemental named Booth who was disliked by his compatriots, explaining the earlier attack.

After sailing for a few hours, they catch a strange sight on the blue desert, a metal man being harried by a group of centaurs. It was Mute, obviously injured, and they quickly jumped off the boat to save him. They seemed to hold their own against the large creatures, able to deflect their massive attacks and stand against their anti-maneuvering abilities. The archers who stood a long ways from the combat were eventually drawn in the warlock, and the large open space proved easy to move in.

After defeating the centaurs, they check on Mute, who seems a little more somber than usual, and offer him a ride to wherever he is going. He accepts, and they continue south towards the Salt City to revisit the warlord’s allies, the Order of Gold.

Lessons Learned: Pretty standard session, a bit of a curfuffle with the maps but otherwise it worked. The crew of the Arcer should be interesting for as long as they remain. I severely nerfed how the crew members acted, as it seemed really unfair to have 10 extra allies in every combat. I also didn’t expect the bullywogs to be given anything but a cursory glance, creatures I could randomly kill whenever I felt the urge, but the warlock’s player interest in them only provided for more comedy, as I handed off the duties of vocalizing the disgusting creatures to the wizard’s player, which lead to a hilarious exchange.

Game Log: Reforged

All was ready to rejoin the two pieces of the Traitor’s Lot, it was just a matter of time. The party took a much needed rest inside the bar at the edge of madness that was Repentant Leroy’s, learning new skills, gaining new abilities, and forging new off-screen friendships. After about a month, they find themselves jolted awake suddenly by a sudden feeling of uneasiness.
They quickly look around their small room to realize that something is amiss. While the majority of them are awake, their cleric friend is still sleeping soundly. Upon examining him, they find that he in fact in no longer their cleric friend, but has been swapped with a dragonborn warlord. The dragonborn relates how he was just in the Salt City, and this appearance is unexpected in the least.

They hold off their examination of this odd turn of events to investigate some odd sounds. The first weirdness they identify is that outside, it appears that the Sandsea isn’t…sand anymore. The ocean is suddenly crashing against the beach, and they quickly surmise that something has happened to make the world return to its previous state. It doesn’t take them much longer to realize that they are in the same inn as former ruffians and alignment-shifted devils.

They sneak downstairs and enter the main drinking hall to see a large bruiser known as Big Tony holding a nearly-naked man against the wall while a lowling goes through a sack, proclaiming it a bunch of junk. When they enter, Leroy, who is behind the counter of the bar, says “Who the hell are you people?” When the party attempts to act diplomatic, reminding them that they were given a room last night, Leroy responds by saying, “I apologize for the lack of service. We should have robbed you in the night.” He takes out an intense crossbow and opens fire.

The players engage the bandits lightly, pulling their punches to avoid killing their former friends. They manage to clear out many of the ruffians and severely weaken Big Tony, but are taken by surprise from some street fighters who were positioned in the hallway behind them, who manage to pin in a few of the players. Combined with the general ignored Leroy constantly peppering the party with barbed crossbow bolts, they got in bad shape quickly, but the newly-conscripted warlord offered his help as best he could. They eventually take care of the outliers and corner Leroy, who they manage to intimidate into giving up when he gets him to remember he used to be good.

After Leroy comes back to his senses and the party helps get the bandits back on their feet, they take stock of the situation. The near-naked man made his escape as soon as possible during combat, despite taking a few hits while he ran away, and very little of his possessions were left behind. Everyone is aware that there is a pack of devils in their basement, and so the strongest of the thugs, Big Tony and Leroy, offer to go down with the party and check it out.

When they arrive downstairs, they find that a few fires have been set and a bone devil is standing in the middle of the room, just basically being scary. He and a few bearded devils are watching Liling, the succubus that they rescued from the palace and resident blacksmith, who appeared to be arguing with someone around the corner. The devils aren’t happy about the intruders, and attack.

The party answers the challenge gladly, putting the bone devil in a world of hurt, with the wizard concentrating the majority of his area effects on it. Big Tony proves a bit useless, but Leroy manages a couple of critical hits against the devils. The bearded devils and their minion allies manage to surround a few PCs, but they respond in kind and are able to take out the heavily-armored enemies. Then they get a look at who Liling was arguing with.

It was Il-selk, the pit fiend who leads the One. He seemed inflamed, and moves threateningly towards the party. They quickly realize they have absolutely no chance of defeating him, and decide that grabbing the Traitor’s Lot, which Liling is wielding, is the highest priority.
With the bone devil and a set of cohorts properly partitioned off by one of the wizard’s area effects, the rogue turns invisible and sneaks up on Liling to snatch the weapon. She succeeds, and Ishtahar runs forward to grab the object. Once she does, the devils suddenly seem a little less angry, and everything returns to “normal.”

The Traitor’s Lot actively accepts Ishtahar as its wielder, an argument that the good devils cannot argue with, and so they put out their fires and quickly apologize for their sudden reversion. With the artifact’s mission driving them and the request from the dragonborn to return to his home, the players have nowhere to go but back into the madness.

Lessons Learned: It’s been a long while since we’ve played this campaign, and a lot has happened since then. One of our players left us…again…(I could literally put together a party out of the characters we’ve lost in this campaign), and the release of another corebook made the three arcane characters want to switch around their powers. So, I fixed all these troubles with a little logical timeskip, which I love doing (it makes certain plot points so much more plausible).

The party was in good form, although they are a lot more powerful than I remembered. I liked the encounters this time around, the players seemed to be likely the developments, and really, everything seems fine. My only concern is that I don’t know where to go from here. Luckily, a player actually suggested a plot point, which made it easier, and with the newest Monster Manual in my hands (two words: It’s great), I should be able to create some very interesting adventures. Here’s hoping.

Game Report: Palace Siege

The mission was simple: get into the palace to rescue the away party of the One who had been out of contact. The only thing they knew about the Palace for sure was that it was a main point of contention among the various gangs in the area, but other than that they were unsure, so they approached cautiously.

They came to the front of the building to see there was some hubbub about, as small pockets of people seemed to be entering the building. Trying to blend in with the crowd, they walked up the front steps, only to suddenly be set up by a small troupe of angels; one large Angel of Battle, his bodyguards, and a few lower-level soldiers.

The party was divided by a steep set of stairs, and while the ranged warriors tried to manage the soldiers around them, the swordmage was struggling to hold her own around the Angel of Battle. After a long and drawn-out battle, they managed to cut down the majority of the soldiers and severely wounded the Angel of Battle, and were able to stop an escaping angel, but it attracted the attention of some of the roving fighters in the area. The party quickly ducked into the Palace and into a nearby hallway.

The building noticeably shakes as they walk down the hallway, looking for a passageway into the basement. They easily find a stairway going down into a poorly-lit room, where they eventually discover a room with a guy playing with a knife. The rogue decided to try to get the jump on him, and throws a shuriken at him and steps into the room. Unfortunately, she failed to notice two vicious drakes in the room as well, who immediately surround her. The rest of the party streams into the room to see that there’s a huge glass dome against the wall, which seemed to contain some psychic feedback.

The man with the knife drops it and instead hits the party with a few stunning fists, while the drakes use their teleport ability to put any weak-willed party members into the dome. Anyone in the dome took some mild brain damage whenever they started there, and couldn’t interact with the world outside of it. When another monk and a psychic showed up, the party knew it had a fight on its hands, and struggled to take down the guards. They screwed at one point when they realized that all teleports with diverted into the dome, and accidently put two of their own party members into harm’s way. However, clever use of an Orb of Farseeing and general hard hits eventually killed all the guards, including a classic trick of setting a table on fire and closing the door.

The party finds among the remains a glass orb, which they break to cause the dome to melt away. Behind they find a short passageway with an occasional hole through the side. The party rightly guessed that they are slits leading to a trap, so they place an illusionary wall to cover one side of the hallway. This act managed to completely break the encounter, as half the enemies needed those slits to join the encounter. They eventually courageously march forward to attract the attention of the slaad, who is quickly brought below half health in under a round. They also discover a hidden room behind the wall, in which a firebelcher roams, and the swordmage teleports in to skewer the beast. With the other pair of enemies unable to get past the illusionary wall, the party easily sneaks through to the next room, where they find the missing cell of the One.

They ask the devils if they are alright, and if they happen to have a blacksmith among them. The devil hesitate, and say that their leader and the only one with the knowledge they seek has been taken captive. So, they have one more stop before they leave the palace.

The party heads back upstairs to see that it’s a bit more chaotic upstairs than before. They see groups of clergy in funny hats running around, and even manage to attract the attention of some of the invaders and defenders, soundly defeating the hammersmiths and Clerics of Bane that confront them in the hallway. After some more muddled wandering around, they manage to get upstairs to the ruined second story and come across a room where they hear muffled cries.

They pick in to find some clergy muscle sitting around playing cards, after the rogue lets loose another sneak attack, they all wandering into the room, only to find that the muscle is exceptionally strong and they have a wizard friend, who shows up to launch elemental bolts and stunbeams at them.

The party still holds, however, and shortly after a pale, mildly vampiric man wearing only boxer shorts steps out of a nearby room, he uses his kukris to rip apart the party, and with the ability of the muscle to knock them flat, they have a hard time maneuvering. Eventually the wizard gets into the room the dhampyr came out of, to find a succubus tied to a bed. They try to untie her and provide her with some minor healing, but the dhampyr quickly returns after his allies fall, and kicks over a pot to cause part of the floor to burst into flames. After a few failed attempts on the villain’s part to kill the succubus, he uses his fading ability to escape through the walls.

The succubus is revived and released, and as the building continues to shake, they run out, passing many panicked enemies who are running from something they only call “The Crusher.” They easily make it through the streets back to the docks.

Lessons Learned: This adventure actually spanned three sessions, and we only made it through one session every two weeks, with various distractions and a second game interfering. The first session took over long, because for some reason the first encounter ate up over three hours of time, which made me realized I needed to make sure things were moving at a decent pace. The second session was ran better, but the encounter killing event should have been more avoidable. The third session also ran quickly and fine, although at this point I had already forgotten just what I was thinking with each encounter that even I was a bit incredulous with each new development. There wasn't a extended rest at all, which gives me a good sign of how long the party can survive without taking a nap. However, now that the party is finally out of the Palace and with the necessary plot coupons, I have a few weeks to come up with the next grand arc of the campaign.