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| Ancestral Avenging | Raising the Dead | Raker Asylum Blues | Thieves in the Temple |
Granted that, it does create immense HTML files for the characters. It is pretty, however. Oh well. Sort of cancels each other out, doesn't it?
However, that night's session (lasting from 21 to 0330 or something like that) also set off a major discussion of where this campaign is going. I'm not quite sure I want to run this campaign much more if this sort of discussion becomes commonplace.
The Sorcere academy (Wizard's Academy) of Ched Dorfei, the only drow
city relatively close to the Citadel of Mirrors, have established an
outpost outside the city's defense perimeter to engage in magical research of
a specific type. As the city's ruling council of drow wizards decide they need
a new weapon in the power struggle with the city's power cabal of drow priestesses,
they grant Obar hous Nilabbar the task of coming up with new magic to counter the spells of the priestesses.
As secrecy is of paramount importance, the new research facility is established outside the
city proper. Incidentally, it is quite close to the Citadel of Mirrors, but this isn't a major
consideration of the ruling council. After all, it's not as if it is an aggressive move - it's just a
research facility, right?
The elf that calls himself Tarriot (an anagram of traitor, of course) finds this enclave. He is also aware of the
drow that are masters of the Citadel of Mirrors, and decide to try a little power play. Confident in his own abilities, he
hangs around an area he knows is frequented with ebon hulks. When drow come to investigate, he plans to help them defeat the ebon
hulks, claim fealty, and then set the Sorcere research facility up as the fall guy for a plot where he in the end kills all of the
drow - both at the facility and at the Citadel of Mirrors. He'll attack the drow when they have come to trust him, at their moment of weakness.
He has done this before, with great success - he is quite confident that he'll pull this off.
Overview:
After having done very preliminary scouting on the new structure that had popped up - the Sorcere Outstation - they decided to charge in with guns blazing. And three of the four drow got themselves killed - very messily. Which again sparked off the discussion. Argument. Whatever you call it, it's not pretty.
Experience:
Details:
Oh well. The roving scouts reported a lone figure in some caverns a small distance away from the citadel proper, and the group promptly set about investigating - reasoning that a lone figure in wild Underdark would be powerful indeed.
Approaching the area where the person was found, one of the party did indeed spot the lone figure - sitting up on a boulder, well away from the cracked cavern floor. Approaching the rather large ravine, the party was suddenly ambushed by a large group of Ebon Hulks!
A few spells and so forth later, when it was quite apparent that the group (despite the valiant? efforts by the Ebon Hulks, to be sure) was winning, the figure suddenly jumped down, drew his greatsword, and cut down the last surviving Ebon Hulk from behind. Removing his helmet,
they saw he was a drow. Saying his name was Tarriot, he then asked the Mirror Lords for a position as a henchman for them. As a token of his sincerety, he would tell them important information for free! Impressed by his job application - he did finish the Ebon Hulk quite handily -
the drow wizards (Thular and Xarr) conferred for a short time, and then agreed to Tarriot's offer. A decision that would cost them their life later on, but they did not know that at that point.
Tarriot informed them that a group of drow had encroached upon the territory of
the Citadel of Mirrors. A structure of some sort had been erected some distance away, in the
direction of Ched Dorfei. It would be safe to assume that these drow had some sort of tie with the drow of that city - perhaps even connections to the Council of Wizards that ostensibly runs the show at Ched Dorfei (in practice it's a bit more complicated
than that, but it's a reasonable simplification).
Tarriot's recommendation? To kill them all! Obviously. And the players didn't need much convincing before their thirst for treasure and battle made them go along with the suggestion. Not any at all, in fact.
Running along to the part of the caves where Tarriot informed them the base was located, the drow came upon the curious structure that the strange drow had built. Basically, it was two cylinders placed adjacent to each other - one shorter and wider than the other, creating a figure-eight effect. The floor around the structure, as well as the
ceiling of the cavern directly above the structure had been magically smoothed, eliminating any possible cover, as well as any weaknesses in the ceiling that could have been an aid when collapsing the ceiling of the cavern upon the structure itself. Only one door was visible in the structure, placed at the side of the squat cylinder farthest away from the taller cylinder.
While the Arcane Trickster did some very preliminary scouting (without telling the rest of the party), the principal wizards of the group (the two drow wizards Thular and Xarr) held a war council. In the end, they decided to advance somewhat closer to the structure, then dimension door into the structure, and kill everyone in sight. Neither Tarriot, nor the duergar defender had any
objections to that plan. Which then was immediately put into effect. The party advanced somewhat toward the structure, one of the wizards cast dimension door, and the group quickly used the extra-dimensional doorway to step into the base of the taller cylinder.
Meanwhile, the Arcane Trickster wasn't really doing anything interesting. Suddenly, the door opens and a goblin runs out with a bucket containing something semi-liquid and foul-smelling. The trickster freezes, merely observing what is going on (while invisible, as well as polymorphed, as is his habit).
The goblin, his chore done (obviously, this was Peshk), rushes inside the structure again. And promptly locks it. After all, it's dangerous outside! The trickster sneaks down, and examines the door - and curses to himself! There is no real lock on this side of the door! Apparently, the designer of the door
came to the conclusion that the easiest way to defeat those of a roguish inclination, would be to design a door that locked only from one side! And it works beautifully against the trickster's lockpicking skills. Much gnashing of teeth.
The rest of the party steps out of the extra-dimensional gateway, into a circular room with a strange, obviously magical circular portal in the floor. Four rune structures are positioned around it, quite similar in fact to one of the free downloads that [Skeleton Key Games] offer on their website. Strangely enough.
A ringing alarm is faintly audible, and there are but two obvious exits from the room (excepting, of course, the swirling-but-deactivated portal on the floor) - one stone stairway going up, and a door leading into the squat cylinder.
Some sneaking about ensues, and after a while - as one of the characters approach the stone stairs - a quavering voice can be heard from above: "Don't come up here! I have a wand, and I'm not afraid to use it!"
Toothy grins all around the group indicates that this is exactly what they'll do. The duergar defender activates his boots of jumping and whatnots, while the wizards cast another dimension door to step up to the next level. As the player characters leave the room in their separate, quite spectacular ways, the door leading into the squat cylinder bursts open, and a drow clad in robes but wielding a long and a short sword jumps into the room, shouting "ha haaaa!" To a room rapidly emptying of people.
The expression on the sword-wielding drow's face clearly indicates that that wasn't exactly what he was expecting...
The party (all except the trickster, of course) enters the room above - a room with a summoning circle. Again, suspiciously similar to one of the downloads from the aforementioned website of Skeleton Key Games. Strange that. There are really only two items of interest in the room - one shadowy figure wavering directly in the summoning circle (which, incidentally, looks like a lava field), and a large chest standing in one corner. The party, at a loss to what they're supposed to do, starts investigating the room very cautiously.
Suddenly, the drow wizard with see invisibility up and running, sees an invisible drow come strolling - quite casually - up the stairs. About to alert everyone to the new - though so far quite unseen - threat, he is interrupted by a drow that comes bounding up the stairs in huge leaps, courtesy to his expeditious retreat spell. This drow, however, wields a rapier. The invisible drow is the same drow as the one that burst through the door wielding two swords. He has had an invisibility spell cast on him by Arjun, one of the other students at the Sorcere Outstation.
The drow with the rapier would be Zithen - fully buffed, of course. For some reason he hasn't cast invisibility on himself, but has all the other buffs up and running.
A short battle ensues. When both drow go down, Obar himself pops up from the chest as a sorcerous jack-in-the-box, and starts to cast spells with a vengeance. Though usually quite timid and interested in talking things over, he has just witnessed the slaughter of two of his prize students, Zithen and Kaht. Zithen was even his cousin, for crying out loud! The party quickly tastes a repeated fireball, as well as a couple of chain lightnings and a delayed blast fireball. Trying to activate his passwall spell to escape from the death trap his summoning chamber had turned into, he is disintegrated by Xarr before he can escape. Nothing escapes the disintegration, except one of his rings - the ring of protection +2.
Silence reigns in the summoning chamber, the chamber shockingly silent after much shouted spells and clattering of steel. After looting the cooling bodies of the two sword-wielding drow, the party decides to investigate the other structure as well.
Meanwhile, the trickster has decided to try and bypass the door using cunning rather than skills. He tries the good ol' knock-on-the-door-while-invisible trick, but the goblin doesn't really fall for it as he merely opens a hatch similar to a periscope, and peers through it to see who's knocking. It's even got indirect vision through mirrors, so that most gaze attacks are inefficient. This door was obviously designed by someone that was very acquainted with the more common roguish tricks - as is befitting a door for the Sorcere research outpost.
Finally, the trickster uses melf's acid arrow to burn a hole through the door, and enters through the use of his polymorph self spell that's still up and running. Polymorphing into a large spider (and still quite invisible, of course), he scuttles after the very distraught goblin that keeps running back and forth while muttering to himself.
Entering the main room of the squat cylinder, the trickster can see one human figure clad in simple, ordinary clothes, a female drow wearing the holy symbol of Lloth, as well as her male drow bodyguards. They have positioned themselves for an ambush on whomever that comes through the door - all, that is, except for the human
that stands in the background, casually leaning himself to one of the book shelves lining this room, observing the whole scene. And he follows the invisible, polymorphed trickster with his eyes!
Unnerved, the trickster tries various tricks to make the human think he's harmless. He tries scuttling to other places in the room (in case it was a freak coincidence that the human looked right at where he was), and has no such luck. He tries to do cute, spidery things - still no luck. The human merely observes him, an infuriating half-smile on his face - as if he's thinking of a joke only he understands.
The rest of the party then bursts through the door, making short work of Mysh and Bakh - the drow warriors assigned to protecting Tikoni. Tikoni immediately decides that discretion is the better part of valor - and
runs like hell, her expeditious retreat spell helping her to achieve a truly astounding speed out of there. The human still stands there, watching everyone and noone; that half-smile still on his face.
Unsure what to make of him, and not willing to initiate hostilities with the character (that a character doesn't initiate hostilities usually means that he's either very tough or a pushover - in my campaigns. Or so the players think. In truth, it's a bit random which one it is), they try and talk to him. Not earth-shattering news or anything, but hey! it was a new and novel idea.
A few cryptic answers later on, the trickster gets bored, and tries to sneak up on the human - for some unfathomable reason. He makes his move silently and hide rolls - and then decides that the best place to be would be to crawl around to the shoulder area of the human.
The reaction is quite immediate - and violent. Tearing off the offending 'spider' with his hand, the man throws it to the ground and stomps on it. Hard. He roars something to the effect of "don't you ever try something like that again!", and glares at the spider. The party, deciding that the trickster deserved that, then tries to continue their conversation after this little interruption.
Whereupon the trickster - still in spider form - declares: "I'll try and skitter around him, getting behind his back". Enraged, the ogre mage triggers his sequenced contingency - which triggers a delayed blast fireball with ground zero where the ogre mage stands, and teleports away before the spell goes off, quickly abandoning his human guise... so that the characters see a glimpse of his true form - that of a tall, muscular, blue-skinned humanoid.
And then Tarriot shows his true colors when he tears off his helmet and roars "Filthy drow! I'll kill you all!" and promptly cuts down Xarr - who was severely injured. A short but fierce combat ensues. Due in part to my bad luck with the dice and a total ignoring of the duergar fighter on the part of Tarriot, he is defeated - but not before Thular is dead as well, and the trickster is saved by the proverbial bell. When Tarriot is within striking distance of the drow trickster,
the duergar defender happens to be one (!) initiative count before Tarriot - and cuts him down with a series of good rolls. Tarriot dies still trying to claw his way to the trickster, but dies dramatically while still trying to reach the trickster.
The duergar and the drow trickster loots the bodies, then picks up the bodies of their - well, friends might be too big a word, associates might be better in the case of the drow trickster - and sets off back to the Citadel... completely ignoring the still-unexplored library level of the Sorcere Outstation! Oh well. It was about time to finish at any rate.
Before the session was halted, though, the trickster looted one of the dead drow wizards' headbands granting a +6 Intelligence bonus, as well as grabbing their tomes. The dirty looks the players of the drow wizards shot the player of the trickster might have tipped the trickster's player off to the fact that this wasn't a very good move - considering future survivability, at any rate.
Background:
Furthermore, I've always felt that I've usually let the PCs off to easy when
it came to resurrections and their like. (They didn't want their residing cleric
to handle the honors, you see, as the only spell he has access to that can do
this is raise dead, and that implied a loss of one level. Boo-fscking-hoo.)
Not this time, though. Duranok and his nasty Contract of Resurrection was
born. Not only was this an excellent opportunity to squeeze the player characters a bit - it also
segued nicely into the two adventure hooks I had been thinking about. But more
on that later.
Overview:
The second part of this session concerned first finding, and then bargaining
with a high priest powerful enough to cast true resurrection on the drow - in a duergar city.
I had already foreshadowed that the Hammer of the Maker would be an excellent bargaining chip - and considering
that the material component alone of just one true resurrection spell cost 5 000 gp, the duergar defender
understood that this would be difficult to pull off.
Uncommonly loyal that he is, though, he managed to pull this off. More or less. He also
agreed to do a mission for Duranok (though he had his misgivings about the entire thing - and well he should, because things
are seldom exactly as they are presented), because of the cash flow problems house Noquar experience at this time.
Experience:
Details:
The players of the wizarding twins quickly made it known that a simple raise dead
spell was out of the question. First of all, it made you lose an entire level! Oh yeah, and it
didn't work on drow anyways. So a true resurrection (or divine intervention of that magnitude) was
required. But where might such a powerful high priest be found?
While the trickster - polymorphed to a very large spider (about the size of a pony, to be exact) so as
to better carry the bodies of the life-impaired part of the party - did most of the carrying, the duergar defender
did some serious thinking.
A powerful high priest would reside in some large city or other. There are two
large cities fairly close to the Citadel of Mirrors - Ched Dorfei and Thorbarkel.
Of those two, only Thorbarkel was a real option - all the drow (the trickster included) were outcasts from
Ched Dorfei, and though Ched Dorfei might house a priest or two powerful enough to cast true resurrection, the
chances of a drow high priest to do so were only slightly higher than the chance that Lloth herself might suddenly appear
and resurrect the dead drow. Or perhaps even lower than that - Lloth is notoriously unpredictable, after all.
With all the thinking done, the duergar mentioned that he did know of one very
powerful high priest in Thorbarkel - called Duranok.
Background:
Overview:
Experience:
Details:
Background:
Overview:
Experience:
Details:
Ancestral Avenging
Background:
One of my Dragon magazines - more specifically, Dragon Magazine 279 - featured a prestige
class called the Ancestral Avenger. It is an elven class, specifically made
for those elves driven by personal tragedy or intense hate that hunt the drow. I decided to use that
prestige class as the class of an NPC that would try and ambush the player characters at the most
opportune moment.
Most of the session was used to put in place a couple of foreshadowing hints I
later on didn't need - the party had put themselves in a very vulnerable spot,
and I decided Tarriot couldn't wait any longer. I should have waited. Oh well.
Basically, a one-nighter, but with some story bonuses. About 1 500 xp for the survivors (the duergar, the arcane trickster drow).
Running around, trying to get up to speed, the beginning of the session was very
confused. However, in the end a sort of semblance of order was established, and the following salient points were discovered:
Raising the Dead
It was, of course, necessary to resurrect the dead drow - both the wizard twins
and the fallen Divine Devoted of Selvetarm, Z'toyhr. However, the player of
Z'toyhr has a thing about resurrection - for some reason he considers that as
cheating - and he therefore decided to play a mad mage. Literally,
considering that he created a drow wizard/alienist, where the alienist is a
prestige class from Tome and Blood. Quite an interesting prestige class,
as well.
The first part of this session - though this session segued over into the
beginning of [Raker Asylum Blues] - was pure
transportation. The dead bodies were in the Wilds - the region outside control
of either Ched Dorfei or the Citadel of Mirrors - and they had to get from
there and over to Thorbarkel. Furthermore, the trickster hadn't been to
Thorbarkel earlier, so though he was able to cast a teleport spell,
he had nowhere to teleport to. An overland journey (or, perhaps, subterranean journey)
was in order. On their way, they meet the alienist, and he sort of tags along
to the chagrin of the duergar.
Specific experience was awarded for this part of the session, though (obviously)
the two wizarding twins wasn't awarded any. A miracle is award enough,
in my opinion.
The first obstacle in the way of any successful resurrection of their fallen
comrades was the location. The bodies - one burnt more or less to a crisp, the
two others neatly sliced open by a very sharp Greatsword - were in the
Wilds, i.e. a region of the Underdark not claimed by the Citadel of Mirrors or
claimed by anyone else. The chances of getting a high priest of some sort to go there to
cast anything were about, well... zero, to be perfectly honest.
Raker Asylum Blues
Thieves in the Temple