Quill (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} quill18) wrote,@ 2009-07-15 17:02:00 |
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D&D: The Reader's Digest Update
I've been tardy with continuing to document the ongoing D&D campaign, in part because delays tend to snowball into something unmanageable and also because the next few encounters may not be all that interesting to relate in a blog post. As such, I'll try to speed through the next little bit to catch up.
The previous update was here: http://quill18.livejournal.com/346865.h
When we left off, the party had split up to continue their investigation as to the whereabouts of the gnome artificer, Thraxis. Actually, two of the PCs simply went to the docks to watch some boat races: Only Ophelia (Tiefling Artificer) and Khaled (Undead Rogue) actually went to the Bilge and Bulwark to gather information. Furthermore, they actually split up inside the bar so it was more like two independent investigations.
Ophelia approached some service-oriented ad-hoc employement women (i.e. hookers). Slipping one a few gold, she was able to get information that Thraxis had actually visited just a couple days prior. The hooker was able to supply Ophelia with an address. All of it was complete B.S. In her defense, the prostitute figured that people pay her to fake love, so being paid to fake information was fine too.
Meanwhile, Khaled was tossed some gold at the halfling bartender and asked about Thraxis. The bartender happily pocketed the money and then told Khaled that he hadn't seen Thraxis in about six months.
At this point, I feel that I really need to point out that I don't tend to toss jerk NPCs at my party (unlike other DMs). Generally speaking, they are trustworthy -- or at least more straightforward about their desire to screw with the players. But bad rolls, low Sense Motive skills, and a disreputable bar bred an atmosphere that lead to things being difficult. I really felt that the actions of the NPCs made sense within the context of the quick personalities I assigned to them. I didn't help that Ophelia is demon-blooded and that Khaled (since he is undead) must constantly hide behind a mask. There's a limit to how personable they can be.
Khaled, unsatistfied with the information the bartender supplied, continued to press for more using more gold and words to sway the halfling (who continued to take the money and continued to be technically honest, but unhelpful). Unbeknown to the players, the Bilge and Bulwark has a bouncer -- an Ogre mage who likes to polymorph into the form of generic human and blend in with the crowd. When Khaled started to "harass" the bartender, I decided that the bouncer would get close in case a problem occurred. I described to Khaled how people were trying to get close to the crowded bar and were squeezing in right next to him.
Frustrated with having spent money for no gain, Khaled decided to indulge in his vice and pickpocket the closest person and try to recoup some of his money. Due to my decision to move in the bouncer, the closest person to Khaled was the Ogre Mage. Not only did Khaled's pickpocket attempt fail, it failed so much that the bouncer was able to make his spot check and notice the attempted robbery.
And so, Khaled came to fight a pissed off Ogre Mage in the middle of a crowded bar. The only other party member around was Ophelia, and she was trying to lay low because everyone was certain Khaled was screwed and she figured that this was the best way to ensure that she would survive to recover his body.
Astoundingly, this was not necessary. Leaping atop the bar and activating his Rogue Blade's blinking power, Khaled was able to "tank" the beast and dodge most blows (blinking gives you a 50% chance of avoiding any attack, on top of your regular dodge/armor stuff). Even when a blow did land, the ogre mage's sword only did half damage to Khaled due to the fact that he is literally just a skeleton -- he has no blood or internal organs to damage. Furthermore, you aren't able to apply your Dexterity bonus to AC while fighting a blinking opponent, which meant that Khaled was able to do Sneak Attack damage on every attack. Eventually it was the ogre mage who fell, not Khaled. The last blow was subdual damage - Khaled didn't want to kill him (this was unnecessary, if you know about ogre mages, but he doesn't).
At that point, the bartender asked Khaled to get the hell out...and he did.
Once the party was reunited (and discovered that Ophelia's information was no good), they were in a pretty bad spot. Nonetheless, it would turn out that some of their "bad" decisions had actually worked out well for them. First of all, it meant that Astreia and Ember could enter the bar untainted by the previous encounter's outcome (Ophelia was fine too). Secondly, it meant that the bartender was starting to get sick of people bugging him about Thraxis (the Emerald Claw had interrogated him too) and so a successful Diplomacy check by Astreia meant that he was all too happy to send her to the Sea Wyverns' headquarters to bother them instead. Thirdly, all of the ruckus that Khaled caused by looking for Thraxis meant that certain people within the Sea Wyverns were actually looking to contact him, and in a good way!
Long story short: The Sea Wyverns know that where Thraxis is. He's been taken captive by some slavers. In the same mine where Thraxis is, there is a noble's son being held prisoner. The Sea Wyverns have been hired to rescue the noble's son but they need good strong fighters to help get the job done. In a mutually beneficial agreement, the party and the Sea Wyverns band together to infiltrate the slavers' mine. In an adventure that involved stealing a ship, sneaking in to a heavily defended sea fort, orchestrating a prison break, and killing some abominations from Khyber, the party successfully recovered Thraxis. Or, well, his body anyway. Luckily, the body was covered in tattoos which held the information that they would need.
At this point, the party had two of the three keys: Thraxis' body would allow them access to the tomb. The journal provided them with directions to reach the tomb. However, the journal references numerous landmarks on a largely unexplored island. Without a map of the island, the party would have no idea where to even start looking to follow the journal's directions. After conferring with the captain of the Sea Wyverns, they discovered that only one person in the Lhazaar Principalities would have maps of the haunted island: The Pirate Prince Ryger. A literal prince. Ryger is the legitimate ruler of the Lhazaar Principalities and is by all accounts a good ruler. He just happened to be a pirate (though since coming to power he doesn't have much time to do piracy).
With that information, the party sailed to Regalport (the region's capital). Once they arrived they were faced with an important initial decision: Would they take some downtime. They'd leveled up since their last break and had accumulated many riches. Each player had an extensive shopping list of goods that they wanted Ophelia to craft for them (I have a houserule that anyone can supply the XP for item creation, so Ophelia can equip the party without level-draining herself). Having the artificer make the items would allow them to effectively more than double their gold supply (she has the XP and gold cost reduction feats). A big part of the party's ability to overpower many encounters has been because of their better than average equipment for their level. Even if Ophelia did nothing directly in combat, her party contribution is tremendous.
However, crafting magic items is a slow process -- to take care of everything on the party's shopping list would require over three months of crafting time. The players were quite concerned about the fact that the last people to receive aberrant dragonmarks like they did...were dead within a few months. Furthermore, they knew that the Emerald Claw (and their masters in the Blood of Vol) were also in pursuit of the Dragon's Eye -- something that was still just a MacGuffin at this point but might ultimately be connected to their fate. They didn't want the Emerald Claw to get ahead of them. Plus, the cultists were fond of ambushing the players and they figured that it would be a hard 3 months.
And so, the players decided to shelve their magic item creation projects and rush forward with the adventure. This decision would have great consequences.
Finding Prince Ryger was not difficult, since while in port he spent most evenings at a higher class (though still piraty) tavern on the docks. Over the course of an evening that involved feats of strength and dexterity and much diplomacy, the players were actually able to impress themselves on the prince and he gave them permission to board his docked vessel and make a copy of the map. (The adventure module also had full support for attempts to sneak in or storm the boat...oh well, maybe next time!)
Finally armed with all three pieces of the puzzle, the players finally set out for the haunted island of Trebaz Sinara to find a tomb that might hold the key for surviving their aberrant dragonmarks and also discovering what and where the Dragon's Eye is.
I've been tardy with continuing to document the ongoing D&D campaign, in part because delays tend to snowball into something unmanageable and also because the next few encounters may not be all that interesting to relate in a blog post. As such, I'll try to speed through the next little bit to catch up.
The previous update was here: http://quill18.livejournal.com/346865.h
When we left off, the party had split up to continue their investigation as to the whereabouts of the gnome artificer, Thraxis. Actually, two of the PCs simply went to the docks to watch some boat races: Only Ophelia (Tiefling Artificer) and Khaled (Undead Rogue) actually went to the Bilge and Bulwark to gather information. Furthermore, they actually split up inside the bar so it was more like two independent investigations.
Ophelia approached some service-oriented ad-hoc employement women (i.e. hookers). Slipping one a few gold, she was able to get information that Thraxis had actually visited just a couple days prior. The hooker was able to supply Ophelia with an address. All of it was complete B.S. In her defense, the prostitute figured that people pay her to fake love, so being paid to fake information was fine too.
Meanwhile, Khaled was tossed some gold at the halfling bartender and asked about Thraxis. The bartender happily pocketed the money and then told Khaled that he hadn't seen Thraxis in about six months.
At this point, I feel that I really need to point out that I don't tend to toss jerk NPCs at my party (unlike other DMs). Generally speaking, they are trustworthy -- or at least more straightforward about their desire to screw with the players. But bad rolls, low Sense Motive skills, and a disreputable bar bred an atmosphere that lead to things being difficult. I really felt that the actions of the NPCs made sense within the context of the quick personalities I assigned to them. I didn't help that Ophelia is demon-blooded and that Khaled (since he is undead) must constantly hide behind a mask. There's a limit to how personable they can be.
Khaled, unsatistfied with the information the bartender supplied, continued to press for more using more gold and words to sway the halfling (who continued to take the money and continued to be technically honest, but unhelpful). Unbeknown to the players, the Bilge and Bulwark has a bouncer -- an Ogre mage who likes to polymorph into the form of generic human and blend in with the crowd. When Khaled started to "harass" the bartender, I decided that the bouncer would get close in case a problem occurred. I described to Khaled how people were trying to get close to the crowded bar and were squeezing in right next to him.
Frustrated with having spent money for no gain, Khaled decided to indulge in his vice and pickpocket the closest person and try to recoup some of his money. Due to my decision to move in the bouncer, the closest person to Khaled was the Ogre Mage. Not only did Khaled's pickpocket attempt fail, it failed so much that the bouncer was able to make his spot check and notice the attempted robbery.
And so, Khaled came to fight a pissed off Ogre Mage in the middle of a crowded bar. The only other party member around was Ophelia, and she was trying to lay low because everyone was certain Khaled was screwed and she figured that this was the best way to ensure that she would survive to recover his body.
Astoundingly, this was not necessary. Leaping atop the bar and activating his Rogue Blade's blinking power, Khaled was able to "tank" the beast and dodge most blows (blinking gives you a 50% chance of avoiding any attack, on top of your regular dodge/armor stuff). Even when a blow did land, the ogre mage's sword only did half damage to Khaled due to the fact that he is literally just a skeleton -- he has no blood or internal organs to damage. Furthermore, you aren't able to apply your Dexterity bonus to AC while fighting a blinking opponent, which meant that Khaled was able to do Sneak Attack damage on every attack. Eventually it was the ogre mage who fell, not Khaled. The last blow was subdual damage - Khaled didn't want to kill him (this was unnecessary, if you know about ogre mages, but he doesn't).
At that point, the bartender asked Khaled to get the hell out...and he did.
Once the party was reunited (and discovered that Ophelia's information was no good), they were in a pretty bad spot. Nonetheless, it would turn out that some of their "bad" decisions had actually worked out well for them. First of all, it meant that Astreia and Ember could enter the bar untainted by the previous encounter's outcome (Ophelia was fine too). Secondly, it meant that the bartender was starting to get sick of people bugging him about Thraxis (the Emerald Claw had interrogated him too) and so a successful Diplomacy check by Astreia meant that he was all too happy to send her to the Sea Wyverns' headquarters to bother them instead. Thirdly, all of the ruckus that Khaled caused by looking for Thraxis meant that certain people within the Sea Wyverns were actually looking to contact him, and in a good way!
Long story short: The Sea Wyverns know that where Thraxis is. He's been taken captive by some slavers. In the same mine where Thraxis is, there is a noble's son being held prisoner. The Sea Wyverns have been hired to rescue the noble's son but they need good strong fighters to help get the job done. In a mutually beneficial agreement, the party and the Sea Wyverns band together to infiltrate the slavers' mine. In an adventure that involved stealing a ship, sneaking in to a heavily defended sea fort, orchestrating a prison break, and killing some abominations from Khyber, the party successfully recovered Thraxis. Or, well, his body anyway. Luckily, the body was covered in tattoos which held the information that they would need.
At this point, the party had two of the three keys: Thraxis' body would allow them access to the tomb. The journal provided them with directions to reach the tomb. However, the journal references numerous landmarks on a largely unexplored island. Without a map of the island, the party would have no idea where to even start looking to follow the journal's directions. After conferring with the captain of the Sea Wyverns, they discovered that only one person in the Lhazaar Principalities would have maps of the haunted island: The Pirate Prince Ryger. A literal prince. Ryger is the legitimate ruler of the Lhazaar Principalities and is by all accounts a good ruler. He just happened to be a pirate (though since coming to power he doesn't have much time to do piracy).
With that information, the party sailed to Regalport (the region's capital). Once they arrived they were faced with an important initial decision: Would they take some downtime. They'd leveled up since their last break and had accumulated many riches. Each player had an extensive shopping list of goods that they wanted Ophelia to craft for them (I have a houserule that anyone can supply the XP for item creation, so Ophelia can equip the party without level-draining herself). Having the artificer make the items would allow them to effectively more than double their gold supply (she has the XP and gold cost reduction feats). A big part of the party's ability to overpower many encounters has been because of their better than average equipment for their level. Even if Ophelia did nothing directly in combat, her party contribution is tremendous.
However, crafting magic items is a slow process -- to take care of everything on the party's shopping list would require over three months of crafting time. The players were quite concerned about the fact that the last people to receive aberrant dragonmarks like they did...were dead within a few months. Furthermore, they knew that the Emerald Claw (and their masters in the Blood of Vol) were also in pursuit of the Dragon's Eye -- something that was still just a MacGuffin at this point but might ultimately be connected to their fate. They didn't want the Emerald Claw to get ahead of them. Plus, the cultists were fond of ambushing the players and they figured that it would be a hard 3 months.
And so, the players decided to shelve their magic item creation projects and rush forward with the adventure. This decision would have great consequences.
Finding Prince Ryger was not difficult, since while in port he spent most evenings at a higher class (though still piraty) tavern on the docks. Over the course of an evening that involved feats of strength and dexterity and much diplomacy, the players were actually able to impress themselves on the prince and he gave them permission to board his docked vessel and make a copy of the map. (The adventure module also had full support for attempts to sneak in or storm the boat...oh well, maybe next time!)
Finally armed with all three pieces of the puzzle, the players finally set out for the haunted island of Trebaz Sinara to find a tomb that might hold the key for surviving their aberrant dragonmarks and also discovering what and where the Dragon's Eye is.
