[Greyhawk] The Best Laid Plans

[Prak]

Feral template. Since he's gimped himself a bit, I decided he can get abilities based on class hit die.

[fectin]

Cool.

[Prak]

Session 4: Cleaning up the Orchard

So the party has negotiated with the dryad, and okayed it with the village. Out of their gratitude to no longer be facing the complete cessation of their livelihoods, and because people will use any excuse for it, the orchard village throws a party for the, er, party. It's pretty much glossed over, because my players don't do much rp in my games. Anyone with suggestions as to how to encourage more rp, I'm open, because I'm sure it's something I'm doing, but I don't know what.

In the "morning" (read: something like 8 hours after the villagers got up to start their day's work), the villagers roll out 25 barrels of common, but tasty, wine as a personal thanks (the easiest way for me to get the party the proper amount of treasure for the adventure). The party had the village hold onto the barrels for a bit while they trekked up to the liege lord's manor to try to get paid again. The manor which is a day's travel away. And they're starting at noon, so they get there about midnight and start making camp outside his gate. A guard comes over and asks what they're doing, and lets them in. The night staff offer the party a place to sleep in the servants quarters, where they are awoken by the house staff getting the day started at like six in the morning and not worrying about noise because usually everyone's up, or used to sleeping through it, and lord is on the other side of the manor.

Archer starts talking about how he's sitting their eating his gruel, to which I say "and everyone looks at you and wonders where the hell you got gruel from as they're eating biscuits and eggs and sausage gravy."
Druid drags in a snake from outside and starts chowing down as a wolverine, Dwarf is sitting there in his heart boxers, and Soulknife scoops his food onto a mind shield when the kitchen staff start cleaning dishes.

Archer offers to help the staff, who basically look at him and say "you'll just slow us down"

Once the adventurers have eaten pretty much everything that was prepared and not eaten in the first five minutes by the staff, and the lord has had his breakfast a bit later, the butler gathers them up, looking over the rough group, walks off, then comes back with a sudsy bucket and dumps it over the druid, following up with a scrub brush. Once he's satisfied that leading Druid through won't give him more work later, he takes the party to the lord, where Archer, being the bard and, from an out of game perspective, inexplicable face of the party, informs him that the problem in the orchard has been dealt with. ...and asks for payment. Which would be fine if the lord had come to them, but he didn't. He sent word to Greyhawk, and a magister of agriculture who was already aware that something was going on hired them himself. I, at this point, tell the player who I previously had to directly tell "do not roll unless I tell you, or you have asked to roll for something and I said go ahead," since she kept rolling just because when it wasn't even necessary, to roll diplomacy as I figured out the penalty for this sort of faux pas. She rolled an 8. Her bonus was +4. The lord politely asked how they had heard of the orchard's trouble and promised to ensure that Greyhawk paid them the reward they'd surely been promised.

So the party returns to Greyhawk proper via ferry, and Soulknife goes to the inn where he works as a bouncer when not adventuring to offer his boss first refusal on the wine. The inn keeper goes and takes a taste and agrees to buy them for 1500 (market price). Druid and Archer then go to sell the gear they acquired in the orchard (the gear from the warriors that were killed by the dryad's minions) and the Druid meet's Archer's boss, Eridok, former adventurer and owner of Eridok's Expedition Supplies.

Soulknife and Dualblade go off to get their reward from the magister, and Soulknife's player balks when the reward is only 200 total.

And this is a good point to talk about what they got for the adventure. On the advice of a more experienced DM, I made the promised reward 200g--the value of the missing fruit shipments--saying it was all the Magister could get them without taking things higher to the council, who would dick around until the food shortage got worse. In the orchard, the party found that the fruit in the trees had been enchanted, and picked some. Apples were Cure Light Wounds potions, and they picked ten or eleven. Pears were potions of Bane, and they have one or two of those, oranges were remove disease potions, and they have a couple of those, grapefruits were Acid Splash potions, they have one or two of those, and berries were natural Good Berries, and they each have eight. They have close to 2000 gold in "potions" alone. Plus they got the gear of 5 War1s because the dryad has no use for it, and another 1500 gold from the commoners in the form of barrels of wine which they sold for market value. So the party profited 1700 plus another ~1500 in resold gear. And Soulknife is bitching.

Anyway, the last thing I do for the night is have Eridok talk to Archer. He tells Archer that some greenhorns went down into the sewers and haven't come back. They weren't even going down for the standard newbie training mission, just exploring, and it's unlikely they left through another exit. So the next adventure is set up, where the party will fight a babau trying to reawaken the Tanar'ri temple beneath Greyhawk, and might attract the attention of Cultists of Ahm, who will initially seek to help the party, but if they meet with hostility, well, the wizard *does* have Kelgore's Grave Mist and a rod of (ice spell does an extra 2 damage/splv and the area of it becomes difficult terrain metamagic feat) along with generally being actually optimize.

[Prak]

So I was thinking about the characters today.

The druid spends all his time in "animal" form, and spends every combat just flailing away with claws and bite. He casts no spells, and gave up every major Druid ability (animal companion, wildshape, spontaneous casting summons) so that he could be a weak tank.

Clearly the character he wanted to play was a Barbarian. When I asked why he made a druid to effectively be a barbarian, he responded "Except i do cast spells, there just aren't any 1st level spells that are worth it. Additionally, i wreck barbarians of equal level all day long"

Exactly how dickish will it be when I have a feral barbarian call him out and wreck his shit?

In fact, Archer wants to go Arcane Archer, hence the Ranger/Bard build. Now, she's a newb, so it's understandable that she thinks AA is a good class. I mean, it's not, but whatever. But... Fuck, an Elf Wizard could go straight into the class at level 12. Or an Elf WizX/Ftr1 could go Eldritch Knight and then Arcane Archer.

I'm really torn between wrecking the party so that maybe they make more effective characters, and just saying fuck it and going baby mode.

[ubernoob]

//

[Prak]

yeah, maybe I should just talk to them a good bit before we actually start next session. I know that Druid thinks he's awesome, but he's not, and I'm prepared to have an npc challenge him to single honorable alpha combat to prove it. I'm sure Soulknife thinks he's awesome, but within the bound of the class he picked. I don't know exactly what delusions Archer is suffering. Dualblade is probably pretty aware of where he's really at.

[radthemad4]

Perhaps you should do it OoC. Don't have it happen in the campaign as something like that might just lead to them feeling crappy about it. Just have a simple death match or something using their current character sheets against some enemies you stat up to show them that their characters aren't that great (be very clear that this is a hypothetical scenario no way linked to your actual campaign). Then help them respec them. That is, if just talking to them doesn't work.

[TiaC]

You could also just throw in some optimized NPCs that don't actually stand in their way and see if they take the bait. If they do, these guys won't have any reason to kill them.

[Prak]

Authentic Player/DM Interaction!!!

Me: *sigh* this party gets boned hard by incorporeal/etheral opponents, doesn't it?
Druid Player: Currently? Only [Soulknife] can even touch them
Druid Player: Actually, thats not true
Druid Player: I can too, but i have 50% miss chance
Me: you can?
Druid Player: Magic fang can be cast on claws
Me: ok
Druid Player: So yeah... but both the rangers are useless
Me: well, not exactly
Me: I've looked at going two ways with this next adventure, all I'll say is that either way, some money will need to be spent
Druid Player: Ummmm. How exactly is the ranger to do anything against incorporeal things?
Me: um.... there's this spell called Magic Weapon
Druid Player: That isnt on their spell list
Druid Player: None of us get that spell
Me: wow, if only there was some way to benefit from spells one cannot themself cast
Druid Player: Like use magic device? The only person who can do that is [Archer] and i dont think she took ranks in it
Me: ...
Me: well, what with going into the sewer, it's a good thing you guys have access to Remove Disease (note: they have oranges which act as potions of remove disease).
Druid Player: If we buy the 3rd level scroll/potion, yes we do
Me: well, you don't have to go buy one, but...

I can feel the drill slowly creeping through the foot thick skull. This is a guy who thinks he knows everything about D&D backwards and forwards. And he apparently can't think of going and buying Oils of Magic Weapon.
*sigh*

[Prak]

I finally figured out where Soulknife got his mind shield from. For some reason he was looking on PF's srd (probably a general google search, rather than a google search on dndtools), where he found an archetype that gives up a bonus feat at first level for the ability to create a heavy mind shield.

But he didn't give up anything (or ask me about it...)

So after giving him a ton of options today (give up Weapon Focus, give me a moment to write up a 3.5 ACF, use a custom magic item, swap out a feat for a feat that gives the ability to create light shields that I would quickly write up), and trying to find some way to make it work last night (psionatrix of the psywar and psionatrice of force screen. Except I didn't realize psionatrices were 1/day), he finally decided to just give up weapon focus for the PF archetype and take Weapon Focus later.

[Prak]

So I'm going to give the party something akin to Weapons of Legacy in this adventure, I think.

Inspired by a webcomic:

Basically, when they get to the show down with the Babau, if it looks like they're getting their asses kicked, the floor crumbles beneath them, dropping them into a chamber where a dead but incorruptable solar body hangs by hooks through it's flesh. They hear a voice asking them if they will stand against evil, avenge it, etc, and presumably will say yes to the creepy dead solar. The body bursts into glowing dust and feathers which settle on them and enhance their weapons, granting them:

Celestine Equipment

• Gain a daily pool of points equal to character level which can be used to increase any roll or check as a luck bonus (as if they had those three identical feats from the Book of Erectile Dysfunction except more useful)
• Attacks with weapon (Archer's bow, Dualblade's urgrosh, Druid's claws, Soulknife's mind blade) are Sanctified (Good aligned, +1 damage to evil creatures, or 1d4 to evil outsiders and undead)
  Each weapon then has it's own benefits:
• Solar's Bow: Archer
  • +1/3 char level enhancement to atk and dam, generates arrows which can be a material of Archer's choice as the arrow is generated.
  • 5th level: Scorching Ray 3/day (8th: @will)
  • 11th: Sacred
  • 13th: Holy
  • 16th: Sacred Burst
  • 18th: Generate Greater Slaying Arrows @will
• Archon's Blade: Soulknife
  • Detect Evil at will, Binding Strike: 1/encounter, succ. hit against evil creature forces Fort vrs Blind 1d10 rnds.
  • 7th level: @will--dancing lights, flare, light; 1/day--daylight (11th level: @will)
  • 10th level: Greater Dispel Magic 1/day (area and targeted only)
  • 13th level: @will--Greater Dispel Magic; 1/day--Break Enchantment (16th: @will)
  • 16th level: Blur while mind blade is active
  • 17th level: Wielder and adjacent allies gain SR 10+Soulknife level
  • 19th level: Regenerate Character Level in HP each hour
• Leonal's Claws: Druid
  • +1/3 Char Level enhancement to Atk/Dam, Claws considered to be choice of material for overcoming DR
  • 5th level: 1/day--Detect Thoughts (7th: @will)
  • 7th level: 3/day--Fireball (13th: @will)
  • 13th level: 3/day--Hold Person (15th: @will)
  • 15th level: 1/day--Hold Monster (17th: 3/day; 20th: @will)
  • 17th level: 2/day--Wall of Force
  • 20th level: 1/day--Heal
• Bralani's Spear: Dualblade
  • Protective Aura as Angel, +1/3 char level enhancement Atk/Dam
  • 5th level: 1/day--Resist Energy (8th: 3/day; 11th: @will)
  • 10th level: Stun as an Astral Deva's mace
  • 13th level: 1/day--Stoneskin (15th: 3/day; 17th: @will)
  • 15th level: 1/day--Iron Body (17th: 3/day)
  • 17th level: Sacred
  • 19th level: Holy

I'm not using sacrifices like full on Weapons of Legacy, but I will probably use rituals for the 11th-16th and 17th and higher level abilities. In the form of celestials talking to the characters and telling them to do stuff.
How terrible are these?

[ubernoob]

//

[Prak]

Oh, duh. I didn't think about that. I didn't give the Soulknife enhancement or special weapon abilities, because of course his class handles that.

Changed it's base ability (1/enc: blind struck evil creature for 1d10 rnds), and remembered that I wanted to turn his mind blade into a holy avenger, so level 17 gives the SR that a Holy Avenger does, using Slk levels instead of Pal., of course.

[Prak]

So, game this week didn't happen because Dualblade's player's knee was causing him excruciating pain, and Druid's player hates playing with us evil ROLLplayers (me, Soulknife) and the newb. I asked what was up before this revelation, when it was just "If [Dualblade] is out, I'm probably not coming either" since I could tell he was drifting from the game. And of course we got in a big fight about, essentially, ROLL vrs. ROLE-playing.

Apparently my adventures about a dryad taking over an orchard because she feels the plants are being oppressed and newbie adventurers disappearing after going into the sewers for Standard First Tier Adventure don't have enough story for him. Because I bitch about how hard it is to set a proper fucking challenge for a group of tanks when the game says that at will Etheral travel and incorporeal for 10 minutes/day are totally appropriate CR 4 monster abilities. Or when even a bear can wtfpwn them.

So he ragequit. Dualblade's player is going to try to talk him down, but I got a replacement/new player who I can inculcate into the ways of story-generating min maxing.

Here lie walls of text:

Basically Druid Player's advice for adventure writing is:

Before you ever run any adventure, write out the story you want to tell first without opening any dnd book. Determine your antagonist as a person and their motivation and goals before you touch a monster manual.

Then, once you've written that out, then ou figure out how to make your players the protagonists and what you want them to acheive

then as a very last step, figure out where the physical conflicts in the story are

Once you have done all that, figure out what would be logical for that conflict to involve.

THEN and only then do you draw a map, or stat out a monster

From this, I conclude that his adventures either primarily make use of humanoid antagonists, or his monster antagonists are indistinguishable from people in rubber suits.

I explained that the first adventure I wrote for this campaign, I did by opening up the monster manual to the CR chart and looking for a monster that was CR 3 and something I'd always wanted to use. Of course, I didn't run that adventure for them, because intelligently played thieves guild members and an etheral filcher would slay them.

Druid Player said this was the last step. I imagine his adventures have a lot of monsters placed simply because they're appropriate challenges, not because they make much sense. Like ogres working with elves.

This is why your characters are 1 dimentional and the answer is always just kill it
And why you had problems dealing with us wanting to negotiate with the dryad

The dryad was not one-dimensional. It didn't come up, but she was put up to her bid for control by a demonic patron. I had trouble handling them negotiating with it because she was inflexible. I basically sat there as he bullshitted, completely ignoring the diplomacy rules, for a good fifteen minutes occasionally refuting a bullshit claim he made in character. In the end, I'd decided he'd made a mediocre case, and I wanted this shit done with, so I gave in.

Now, of course, they had more options in dealing with the dryad than "kill it," and his inability to see the options, or why they didn't seem to exist, says a lot more about him than my adventure:

• Ways to handle a militaristic dryad who took over a human orchard
• Kill her.
  This was of course the primary route for the adventure when it was written, but I knew I was writing for two rangers and a shitbarian"druid," so I knew that it might also go-
• Help her.
  Seriously, there was an option of helping the dryad. This didn't come up because the blowhard Druid just walked straight up to her inner grotto and told the Thorn working with her that he wanted to talk to her. As opposed to appealing to her pride, saying "the humans hired us to take care of this, but fuck them" or anything of the sort. If a terrorist takes your family hostage walking up to his men and saying "yo, I wanna talk about this" isn't going to get you anything but shot.
• Negotiate with her.
  This is the route they took, and one I wasn't prepared for because the dryad didn't want to negotiate. She wanted the humans gone and to let the trees return to nature, or at least nature under the guard of a dryad. The person who should be thankful that I didn't take the opportunity to entangle the whole damned party and snipe them with eldritch blasts and sleep arrow sneak attacks is bitching at me because I planned appropriately for a militaristic extremist. *sigh*
• Do nothing.
  Seriously. The minister of agriculture in Greyhawk didn't make them sign anything. They made no promises, and they were only being paid 200g on completion of the task. It was totally an option to wander around picking magic fruit, holding off ineffectual attackers, and then leave when they had 1000+g worth of natural organic potions.

Apparently, this felt like the only option was "kill it." To the Druid's player, anyway. The Soulknife's player saw three options, counting "side with dryad" and "walk away" as the same option. Now, he says that negotiation was the only satisfactory option to the players and group, but there were still three/four options.

tl;dr young blowhard vtm players can suck a barrel of cocks.

Anyway, he ragequit, but Dualblade's player might talk him back. I've found a replacement, so I don't even care.


edit: For contrast, the way I've been writing adventures is "What's a monster I want to use. Ok, what's something they might want, and how will that cause societal problems the adventurers can step in and fix?"

So the first adventure:
CR 3>Etheral Filcher. They steal shiny stuff, not even necessarily valuable stuff, just shiny.
"Ok, so this ethereal filcher who lives in a ruined basement in Greyhawk stole a peasant's heirloom gaudy necklace. She figures it was the thieves guild. The guild has been aware of this thing for a while, since her small time adventurer grandfather first brought it into town from an adventure, and they know it's worthless and not worth their time. Of course that's no reason for the adventurers to not go try to get it back from the guild. Once that's done, they can learn about the filcher (alternatively, they can notice it in the market when they're looking for a novice thief to rough up), and fight it to get the necklace back."
So, yeah, that's pretty linear. And apparently the group wouldn't have even tried to assault the thieves guild. I guess I think too much of how much they think of themselves.

I've got a bunch of other hooks written roughly the same way-

• "So, the weather's been really unusually cold, and winter wolves start showing up on the edges. A goblin druid wants to wreck up the place and is using a staff he found to make the area more hospitable to his winter wolf allies."
• "Hey, the sacrifice rules in BoVD are made of awesome and asymmetrical power grabbing. So some servants of Iuz want a perfect offering to their god to get the biggest fucking reward they possibly can. They've been kidnapping acolytes of St. Cuthbert to sacrifice to Iuz, racking up brownie points. The high priestess is aware of what's going on, and hires some adventurers (since she's got administrative duties), but is getting very close to approaching the Iuzites and bargaining to offer herself willingly, free of duress or control, in exchange for them not killing any more of her students. The Iuzites would fall all fucking over themselves to accept since she'd be the perfect offering."
• "Hmmm... Greyhawk wizard college.... Ok, here we go- so these wizard students form a student cabal, like a study group but wizards, and they start talking over drinks about how wizards should run Greyhawk and shit, and they actually talk themselves into making this coup happen. The problem is, one of the students is an Iuzite, one's a plant from the Scarlet Brotherhood, one a diabolist from the Horned Society, and the whole thing is basically a chessmaster pileup."
• "Never summon anything bigger than your head... this wizard apprentice tried to call up a succubus concubine with his master's books. Unfortunately, he was an idiot, and called up something that broke free and is now rampaging through Greyhawk (this is actually the hook I'm using with the Babau idea that someone gave me in the Annoying Game Questions thread)"
• "So... this really weak, tired peasant staggers into town and collapses. Right in front of the party, because that's how protagonism works. Once they nurse him back to health, he tells them about how his village was taken over by a vampire, who killed or enslaved everyone. Now, of course, the peasant is actually a servant of the vampire himself, who was sent to send more prey his master's way."

Several of those are me spit balling from the list of hooks in the DM's guide.

[Prak]

Between the Sessions
So Dualblade's player talked to Druid's player, but I prepared for the more likely case of Druid not coming back and put out a call on Facebook for a new player. A Facebook-only friend who I'd never actually met yet said she wanted to play, but never had before. So we added a tabletop virgin to the group. And she wound up with a competent character because I helped her make one.

I've found that the greatest service MMOs have done to tabletops is exposing more people to the standard D&D tropes. It's a lot easier to explain tabletop gaming to someone who already knows what a mage and a rogue are, compared to someone with no idea.

So she said she likes to play stealthy, ranged characters, so it was pretty much a lock she'd play a rogue, possibly throwing flasks. I went over the standard races, and she chose halfling. Because every once in a while the universe does decide to throw me a bone. So I walked her through making a Halfing Rogue Sneak Tosser. We got to "Pick a regional feat and buy equipment" and she needed to get some sleep, so with her agreement, I picked a couple regionals she could pick from, and did up her equipment.

So, because Alchemist's Fire is fucking expensive, the Halfling Rogue instead has:

Flame Pouch
This oiled leather pouch hangs from one shoulder across the body, with a buckle that fastens it in place at the waist if desired. When opened, it produces light as a torch from within.

The wearer may reach into the fiery interior of the bag, feeling only a pleasant warmth, and completely unharmed by the flames that fill it, to pull out an orb of flame. This orb wreathes the hand holding it in fire, and also produces light as a torch. She may set it down, and it will act exactly like a small ball of coherent flame, igniting and heating materials and shedding light like a torch.

The flames primarily are used as weapons, however. If one is used to strike a foe, the wielder makes a melee touch attack which deals 1d6+ fire attack. The orbs may also be thrown, as a ranged touch attack which also deal 1d6+1 fire damage.

Faint Evocation; CL 1st; Craft Wondrous Item, produce flame; Price 2,000 gp.

need to leave, will finish later

I also gave her an item that lets her use a 1 square, 1d6 round entangle so that she can sneak attack more reliably. After those, she still came out with enough money to buy a +1 mithral shirt. I predict that as she picks up the game, she'll start to outshine the other players, but we'll see what happens.

Archer got another rebuild, because even before leveling up she was missing a level's worth of skill points. She wouldn't take my advice on reallocating ability scores or using a different class, but I can only do so much. I pointed out that she actually needed ranks of Perform to use Bardic Music,and made sure she had some, even if it was eventually in the form of "Put fucking ranks into it." Talked to her about Arcane Archer, how it sucks, and how PF's is marginally better, and how both were written by someone who clearly did not know what they were doing when it came to the Imbue Arrow ability.

In addition to all of that, in light of our self-proclaimed Story Whore taking his druid and going home, I decided to try to drive more story and float the idea of using Aspects and Fate Points from Fate. I typed up a page on the wiki about the whole idea, and converted the mechanical stuff over to D&D numbers, and we're going to try it out.

So going into the second adventure, the party now consists of:

• 
  Stormblade M Half Giant Soulknife 4
  • High Concept:Freedom Fighter
  • Trouble: Hunted
  • Background: Experiment
  • Rising Conflict: Burden of Bondage
  • The Story: (pending)
    • Title:
    • Guest Star: Hrethric
  • Guest Star Redux Part 1: (pending)
    • Title:
    • Guest Star:
  • Guest Star Redux Part 2:(pending)
    • Title:
    • Guest Star:
  
  
  Hrethric M Dwarf Ranger 4 (TWF)
  • High Concept: World Traveler
  • Trouble: Arcane Enmity
  • Background: Survivor
  • Rising Conflict: Haunted by Memories
  • The Story: (pending)
    • Title: (pending)
    • Guest Star: (pending)
  • Guest Star Redux Part 1: Elf Friend
    • Title: (pending)
    • Guest Star: Dru
  • Guest Star Redux Part 2:(pending)
    • Title:(pending)
    • Guest Star: (pending)
  Arturus "Mimsy" (of the poor life choices) Yuelimb M Wood Elf Ranger 2 (Archery)/Bard 2
  • High Concept: Lovable Rogue
  • Trouble: Outcast
  • Background: Forlorn of Land*
  • Rising Conflict: Taste for the Strange**
  • The Story: Fatebound the the Servants of Iuz
    • Title:What Else Could Go Wrong?
    • Arturus was born to a typical village of wood elves, where he learned the bow and they attempted to teach him the sword, and everything was good and peaceful. But everything changed when the Fire Nationservants of Iuz attacked. They plundered the women, razed the sheep and raped the village. Arturus was sold into slavery to some merchants, who put him on a ship. Probably as a "cabin boy." But everything changed when the Pirate Vessel attacked. Arturus was rescued from slavery! ...only to find himself on a ship in the middle of the ocean with no coin to buy passage with. So he was sort of enslaved again, except that when they hit another vessel he got a cut. With his facility for the bow, he was put in the crow's nest to keep watch and shoot people who tried to board. Of course everything changed when servants of Iuz attacked. the orcs et al. showed up to fuck with Arturus' life once again, killing his captain and crew. On the other hand, the servants of Iuz were pretty well defeated too. Arturus stood the lone survivor-- except for the inexperienced halfling thief who wandered up on deck once the battle was done, clutching a pouch Arturus had never seen before, and which the halfling had pretty clearly never seen before either.
    • Guest Star: Ryuk
  • Guest Star Redux Part 1:
    • Title: (pending)
    • Guest Star: Ryuk
  • Guest Star Redux Part 2: (pending)
    • Title: (pending)
    • Guest Star: (pending)
  Ryuk f Halfling Rogue 4
  • High Concept: Touched by Pyremius
  • Trouble: Who Died and Made You God?
  • Background: (pending)
  • Rising Conflict: (pending)
  • The Story: (pending)
    • Title: (pending)
    • Guest Star: Arturus
  • Guest Star Redux Part 1: (pending)
    • Title: (pending)
    • Guest Star: Arturus
  • Guest Star Redux Part 2: (pending)
    • Title: (pending)
    • Guest Star: (pending)

* (taken as a child by slavers, sold to merchant ship, rescued by pirates who trained him)
** (the player wants to Kirk her way through D&D. I am going to have so much fun with this.)

So we finally get down to play ...and then I realize I haven't figured out how I'm integrating the new character. So I tell the players to continue talking amongst themselves a bit, maybe do out of character introduction, while I think. After a few minutes thought, I turn to Ryuk's player and say "want to be a member of the thieves' guild? To which she says sure, and I say, "Ok, your guild master has told you that some members have gone missing in the sewers and to go check it out." Yes it's a cop out, but one of the missing adventurers was already a rogue, the thieves' guild is accessible through the sewers, and it puts everyone on the same page.

So the party descends into the sewers, where they find a halfling rogue. After a quick introduction, they team up and Hrethric starts tracking footsteps. He finds them easily enough in the muck and slime of the sewer and starts following them, reasoning them to be the tracks of the most recent adventurers. This brings them to a chamber which sounds... odd. Like, seriously, it's a sewer, it's noisy, but Arturus, being the guide for the "Standard New Adventurer Quest" of Greyhawk, knows the sounds. And this chamber sounds different. They move up to check it out and, well, it's supposed to be an open chamber, not a maze.

Clearly something is up, so Ryuk moves up and starts searching for traps. Each minute she clears ten squares of traps with ridiculously good rolls. I start to think that I won't get to drop anyone down a pit until they get to the first pit and she actually rolls under a 20. People are curious about the little alcove, so they walk in, and the floor collapses under Hrethric and Ryuk, dropping them 60 feet into 20 feet of brackish standing water. Fortunately they both make their Fort saves.

As Arturus is trying and failing hard to tie rope to Stormblade's arm, a group of four obese, misshapen, lumpy creatures the size of children walk up on the other side of the pit-Manes. They gibber and jabber and don't really respond to questions. With a decent initiative, they go after Arturus and Stormblade. Arturus readies an action to shoot them, waiting for a cue from Stormblade. ...apparently that cue is popping blade and armour. What's cautiousness for one person, is apparently a kill order from another. Arturus shoots a mane and drops it in one. Another moves up and has a grimy, bloody grappling hook passed up to it, which it throws at Ryuk. It glances off her armour. Ryuk tries to start climbing up the rope but fails, and Hrethric is up next. He grabs the rope and gives it a sharp tug--pulling the mane off the ledge. ....and right onto Ryuk, killing the mane from the fall and knocking Ryuk unconscious. He dives down to retrieve her body. Arturus makes short work of another mane, and the last one runs off.

The battle over, Arturus continues trying to tie the rope and grappling hook together and failing as Hrethric takes 20 to lob the grappling hook up. With the party back together once more, we end the night, because we wasted a good two hours at the start of the session.

[Prak]

In addition to finishing the post yesterday, I started posting the portraits I've been drawing to that last post.

[Ikeren]

Lots of things I like in there, but "Yes it's a cop out," --- nah, I don't think so. Things are allowed to be straightforward and easy sometimes, and to run the game the players just need to work together. So you do what you have to.

[Prak]

The Demon's Sewers
Session 2

Unfortunately, Hrethric's player could not make it to this session, so Hrethric was basically switched to NPC mode, with AI set to "Follow and Defend."

The group picks up at the pit trap, Hrethric having pulled Ryuk and himself out. They spend a bit of time with Arturus on a diagonally adjacent ledge, poking Ryuk with a cure light wounds wand so she's back up to full, and Hrethric gets some of the good touch as well.

But, that leaves them with a 20 foot wide, 60 foot deep pit between them and the rest of the little maze the Babau set up. I take pity on them and say that there's a 2" ledge along the pit, allowing Ryuk to balance across it, and secure a rope on the other side to make it easier for the others. Stormblade, being a half giant, knows better than to even try to creep across the ledge (given that it's roughly large enough for one toe), and gives a jump a try, ready to invoke his "Hunted" aspect if needed, on the rationale that he's used to having to make desperate jumps across large chasms. He makes it without using the point, fortunately.

Ryuk keeps creeping through the maze searching for traps, and is lucky enough to catch the second pit in front of the exit and disable it. However, as she's searching for traps in the wide hallway just past the exit, she's rushed by a raging goliath barbarian with a big, deep red skinned left arm, swinging a pair of axes. The demon-tainted barbarian connects with the battle axe and misses with the handaxe, and is followed by a red-skinned whisper gnome rogue, an elf evoker whose robe is torn open at the shoulder revealing a leering demonic face, and a cleric whose armour has had a hole burned through the Pelor holy symbol on the chest, with a large bull head-shaped symbol scarred in her chest. The rogue moves to flank Ryuk, as the evoker and cleric hang back, the evoker throwing a fell weakening electric jolt at Stormblade.

• Arturus has her Adventurer Midwife aspect invoke, and recognizes the evoker as the son of Archmage Nailesh, guildmaster of the Arcanists and council member of Greyhawk--because she had played quest master to him about a week ago.
• Stormblade manages a good Knowledge Religion check, and recognizes the symbol burned into the Cleric's chest as that of the Demon Lord Baphomet.
• Ryuk recognizes the rogue as a member of her guild, one of the thieves she'd been sent to check on.

The party is pretty worried as the barbarian and rogue are doing their thing, until Stormblade's player realizes that this is a novice party. The Cleric moves up on the first normal round and casts enlarge person on the barbarian, but two turns is about all the corrupted greenhorns can handle, and the last desperate act of the newbies is the evoker casting Seething Eyebane on the unconscious barbarian to hit as many of the heroes with acid spray as possible.

Once the augmented amateurs are rendered unconscious, Hrethric pulls out rope and Arturus ties them up. DM VOICE activates, and points out that to their knowledge, they've completed the specific task given them (People went missing, go find them) and don't know the nature of the threats they're facing, and so, once they get back to the main tunnel of the sewer, they turnback to pull the newbies out and get them some help for the apparent demonic corruption they've suffered. They call over some guards who reluctantly respond (I work on the idea that the guards of a big adventurer city leave the adventurers alone unless they're directly threatening civvies, since adventurers rapidly outclass city guards), and after a bit of obstinateness from the guards, they go and grab a wagon to help the party take the newbies to a temple, specifically the temple of PholtusRao (I mixed them up at the time), where they were greeted by a fatherly, kind priest who looked the unconscious newbies over and confirmed they did seem to be tainted by demonic energy in some way, but was unsure of the specific nature of the taint. He has some acolytes come and take the newbies away to be tended to, and as they do so, a woman with a dire flail with horned heads and mystical runes scribed along the shaft strapped across her back (length-wise across the shoulders, so the two large, conical ends hang down like the cups of a scale) emerges from the temple, greeting the cleric by name and commenting on the unconscious demon-tainted cleric. She introduces herself, and asks about what the party ran into in the sewers. She invites the party to look her and her party up at the tavern where they're staying for more information on what they face.

And I awarded the party xp sufficient to put them half way to fifth level.

[Prak]

The Demon's Sewers Session 3
The party picks up outside the temple of Rao, and ducks in to get some healing before going and looking up the party that the woman, Elazah, invited them to come ask questions.

The npc party (The Rubricans--they don't call themselves that, it's an OOC name I use for them) are a Suloise Wizard, Oeridian Duskblade, Whisper Gnome Beguiler and Aasimar Cleric who are all members of the Black Cut of Ahm, so they know about demons and are interested in knowing more. Oh, and they have minor artifacts, Rubrics of [Demon Type] (not as interesting as it sounds. The Black Scrolls are some of the weakest artifacts in the books).

The party gets an infodump along the lines of "those were manes you fought, there may be dretches, the newbies you fought may have been victims of a Demonic Graft Machine, like one which might exist in the Tanar'ri temple that's beneath Greyhawk. It can grab people and pull them in," and a request for them to bring back the corpses of any interesting demons they fight when they go back down.

On the way out, Hrethric recognizes the cleric's holy symbol, and displays amazingly obscure religious knowledge. The symbol is that of an ancient nature spirit who represents balance through opposed extremes, named Baphomet. He's part of a group of nature spirits with few followers, which most people who know about them believe to be dead, though established gods tend to react to known cults of with extreme, violent prejudice. Those who know about these spirits and prone to theological grumblings have interesting theories about the connection between this spirit and the demon lord Baphomet.

After the Rubricans, the party heads over to Eridok's to try to wheedle payment out of him (I swear, this party is worse than a stereotype of a certain religious group). Now that they know what they're dealing with, they know what they need to fight it. Eridok won't give them money (because he just told his already sort-of employee "hey, you should check out the sewers for the missing newbs," he didn't hire the party), but he will give them some coldiron oil for their weapons that will last for one combat. They split up so that Ryuk can report back to her guild (which lends her a pair of coldiron shortswords), and Hrethric and Stormblade debate which person who doesn't trust arcanists has to go tell Archmage Nailesh at the Grey College about his son.

Archmage Nailesh is the headmaster of the Grey College, a member of the Directing Oligarchy, and the guildmaster of the Arcanist's guild of Greyhawk. His son is a novice adventurer, but a grown man with his own life, so Nailesh is used to not hearing from his son for several days at a time. He didn't realize his son had gone missing. He's obviously concerned to hear that his son was found in the sewers with a demonic graft and had to be subdued. But he also trusts the temple to know it's busines. He gives the party a voucher for a temple to give them some potions, and the name of a student who sells the arcane equivalent of adderall--necklaces with one-day only, five charge beads of Divine Insight, Demoncall and Scholar's Touch. The administration and the student each pretend that the business is completely unknown the the administration. Hrethric goes and tracks down the student, and tells him what's going on. In enlightened self interest, he gives Hrethric a freebie, since if demons swarm up from the sewers and destroy the city, he's out of business, if not dead. Hrethric stops by the shrine of Beory (his god, which is unique in that she never sends her followers to attack cults of nature spirits like Baphomet), and picks up some cure and restoration potions.

The party heads back down into the sewers, and investigate more of the main tunnel, coming to a broken 10' grate and a lightly sloped floor which leads to a large reservoir room, 100' on a side, a 10' wide catwalk 30' up, and a 40' pool in the middle, fed by fast flowing water coming from a sewer grate on a wall. As Ryuk starts checking the ladder up to the catwalk for traps, five long, serpentine necks rise out of the water, followed by a massive body and two legs pulling it out onto the ledge.

And a fight with a five headed hydra commences. Between my bad rolls, and Hrethric using Demoncall to learn more about fighting hydras (where the demons ask how much he wants to know and he says "everything I can to help us win," and tell him "have the rogue seal the neck stumps with her fire after you slice off heads"), the fight is actually surprisingly easy. Of course, afterwards I realized I really should have used grappling, but oh well.

As the headless body slumps to the ground and starts to fall into the pool, Hrethric and Stormblad grab the legs and heave it back onto the ledge, so they can slice the body open to look for treasure. ...because they think I'm not going to make sure they get the right amount of treasure at the end? Whatever, any party that slices open a hydra to poke around in it's stomach is one I'll throw some treasure at. They get 10 gold and a wand of detect magic with 22 charges.

And we end it there because the store's closing in ten minutes. I give them some xp for the hydra fight because they impressed me, plus a bit for the rp and letting me insert the Rubricans, the Black Cult, the hook for the next adventure (Nailesh will invite them to a fancy party in gratitude for saving his son) and my hipster Neitzsche "demons are corrupted nature spirits" stuff.

[Prak]

The Demon's Sewers Session 4
This week I'm watching my aunt and uncle's dogs and house, so we got to play in an actual house, at a nice sized kitchen counter. Stormblade's player picked take and bake pizza, and long story short, I really need a god damned job because it was refreshing to be able to play in a space I controlled and had no limits on.

Anyway. We picked up after the hydra fight. The whole party was here this week, and Arturus took the opportunity to slice off a 10# piece of dead hydra meat on the basis of survivalism. While they're under a city, with plenty of money. Whatever. She figures they'll wind up in the wilderness soon. I have no plans for such, and I have at least one more adventure concept thought up, which definitely won't put them in the wilderness (unless you consider lavish manor gardens to be wilderness).

They continue into the sewers, spending a good while trying to lift the portcullis on the other end of the chamber because their rolls sucked. Well, except for Ryuk the Amazing Halfling who, though she couldn't get near lifting it, did reliably succeed on her aid another. She also managed to slip under the portcullis when they got a 24 and lifted it about a foot. Eventually they lifted it and jammed the track with a dagger.

A little ways down the tunnel, they found a pair of secret doors, one on either side, and start following one in the opposite direction of where they need to be headed. They are headed towards the secret temples of Incabulos and the Cult of the Shriven Sickle, broadly speaking, but they're basically wandering through tunnels I have on my Greyhawk maps, but haven't fleshed out. After a bunch of trap searches come up with nothing, they change order and just start running through, with the highest Ref. save up front, and decide to head back and check out the other secret door they found at the start. It loops around, dipping at the middle (to get under a sewer pipe) and lets them out on the other side of the hydra chamber (with another secret door on the other side again). They head back to the jammed portcullis and Hrethric decides to look for tracks. The Demoncall item is the best thing I've thought of so far in this game, I can just have demons talk to him whenever I want. Like when I need the tracker with no Kn. the Planes to recognize Babau tracks so the party doesn't continue wandering throughout the entire sewer system of Greyhawk. MTP can be useful like that.

So they find tracks, and Hrethric gets an infodump from the demons (because he actually rolled high enough on a demoncall aided Kn Planes check) and the demon voices say "we can just lead you to the tanar'ri temple, if you want" and he says sure. They get lead through the sewers and secret tunnels, and come out of two large secret doors into a chamber 20' wide, widening in the middle, with another set of large doors, emblazoned with a generic demon head, and in front of them, a large rib cage-like structure on a podium, with a dead, limp body in it.

The room is full of slime, mold, fungus, and filth, and the rogue begins checking for traps. As soon as she's halfway down, some of the mold and fungus forms up into a human-sized mushroom with a toothy mouth all the way around the cap, and spike-ended tentacles lashing out (Half-fiend Violet Fungus) and attacks her. Missing. The rest of the party takes position- Arturus moving, firing and missing, Stormblade moving and tossing a mind blade at it, and missing. Ryuk moves aside, and readies an action, waiting for- Hrethric charges across from Ryuk's new position, slashing at it, and dealing a small amount of damage. Ryuk smacks it with a flame-shrouded fist, sneak attacking so she can overcome it's fire resistance. The demonic fungus takes it's turn and misses a lot, and this goes on like this for a few rounds, Arturus not doing enough damage to overcome DR, Stormblade does actually hit, and overcomes DR, Hrethric and Ryuk smack it up close doing enough to overcome damage, and it misses a bunch. Oh, it does however use it's spore ability (because desecration and darkness didn't make much sense) once, which does a bit of no save no hit damage. At the end of the battle they start trying to find a way to neutralize the spores. I double check the Vrock's spore ability, and the demons in Hrethric's head pipe up, telling him that the holy water he has in a tank pack attached to an aspergillum should help, so the dwarf ranger starts dancing around sprinkling holy water on everyone. Oh, but this was after Arturus wasted her skin full of potable water trying to wash the spores off.

They walk up to the doors.

The Tanar'ri Temple requires a sacrifice to unlock the doors, hence the limp, dead body in the ribs. Which Ryuk loots. I quickly roll up the race and class of the body and, appropriately enough given the discussion of who the party would sacrifice if the doors weren't opened, it's a neutral evil human bard. They find 160 gold, MW rapier and longbow, and a lyre.

After stepping through the door, we call it for the night.

---

I want to start tempting Hrethric with the demon voices. I'm not sure how to do that.

[Avoraciopoctules]

Figure out what Hrethic wants, figure out what the demon headvoices want, and then see if the two are compatible.

Alternatively, tell Hrethic's player that the demon headvoices want to tempt his PC into ruin, and ask what some pitches his character would find interesting might be.

[Prak]

Well, I'm fortunate, in that the player who has the item is also the player who gave me the most character write up at the start of the game.

So what I'm thinking of is that they'll try to get information out of him (to justify them having information on him) about the druid. Character left the group, no harm no foul using him as a plot piece.

The information the demons have about Hrethric is how he lost his family. And they'll offer him his family back. Easy enough deal, they just tell him about Pazuzu, and how to summon him for a free wish. Then he can choose to use it to get his family back, or for power. And it lets me use a demon lord I really like.

I'm going to try to tempt Arturus with the ability to qualify for Acolyte of the Skin, or something along those lines. Of course, this could lead to some interesting debates if they get the celestial boons.

[Prak]

The Demon's Sewers Session 5
Alternate Title: Jesus Fucking Christ Guys, aren't you done yet?

This week we try a new location- Starbucks. Awesome to me, because it means I have a steady stream of iced coffee. It worked out ok, really, though it could have been better.

They find themselves in a ten foot wide, 70 foot long corridor of crude brick work painted a flat, dirty brown colour. Dried blood. We pause a moment as the fucking last player I would expect makes a reference to JTHM and I point out that Gentle Repose would have solved all Nny's problems.

The rogue starts checking for traps and I start thinking "jesus h tits I need to use more traps." They decide to start with one of the doors flanking the entrance of the corridor, but turn back from the steps behind it. Moving down to the door halfway down the corridor, they find a room that was used as a workspace by the long forgotten demon cultists with large tables, torture racks, iron maidens, shelves, etc. Oh, and three dretches scampering towards them. They do pretty well. Because dretches are pathetic and totally not CR 2. Hell, I figured what should be an EL 4, and added one more because I knew it wouldn't be. After the dretches were dispatched, I decided it was time to start winding this up. A patch of the room centered on Arturus goes dark. A moment later, and a bolt pierces the back of Stormblade's head and they're back in combat rounds. The babau is scampering around the ceiling with a crossbow, cloak of climbing and goggles of devil's eye (because Babaus are another monster that was shitty written so it can't actually do what they need to do).

Stormblade moves to join Hrethric outside the darkness, and slams into the table in front of him. So he lifts it up and spins around behind. They're getting slammed pretty hard, what with the demon who is sticking to the ceiling, can use Darkness at will, and can sneak attack... I point out that they can always retreat because I need a good reason to not fucking kill them then and there beyond just not wanting to. They do so, Arturus leading the charge out since he can barely do anything. Stormblade lifts the table to cover him and Hrethric as they run out, and pulls it behind them to block the door.

They stop and make a good plan. Ryuk drank a potion of Devil's Sight during the fight and has another, which she gives to Arturus. Stormblade will be distraction, and Hrethric is back up, and they go back into the room to find that the Babau has already moved on.

They continue through the room and through the door on the other side, coming out into a large chamber, ringed with a balcony, with a large altar and throne fit for a huge creature behind it. Hrethric notices that the floor in the room is weak, and starts trying to figure out how weak. The party is under the impression that the floor will crumble out from beneath them as soon as they step on it, so I give him a wisdom check aided by the demons in his head and tell him that it's "Dramatically weak," meaning it will crumble when dramatically appropriate, not just because they're running around on it. As Stormblade starts to check out one of the ramps up to the balcony, the babau jumps down from the balcony and uses darkness on Stormblade's boot.

They actually do quite well, but at one point I have to decide to make the babau move such that it can't full attack Ryuk, because the average damage would drop her to 2 hp. Arturus heals her and the tanks continue beating, Stormblade managing to grapple it and Hrethric trying to smash it over the head with a keg of holy water which I ad hoc as trying to sunder it, meaning opposed attacks, and the Babau manages to kick the barrel away. With Hrethric and Stormblade hovering around half hp, Ryuk nearly dropped and, most importantly to me the babau at one-third and having a hard time teleporting away, the floor crumbles.

(We call it there and I do the next bit on Facebook chat)

As you fall, you notice that there's no sound. The rocks and debris fall and clash together, but make no sound. The incorruptible body of the tortured celestial displayed on hooks and spikes, it's glowing silver blood casting an eerie light on the walls and dispelling the demonic darkness as it trickles down into a silver pool below it. You all fall in a great crashing heap, that nonetheless does not harm you, and you hear in your heads a serene, but sorrowful voice "Will you all avenge me?" as you gaze on it.
"Blood and ashes..." Hrethric mutters.

Ryuk, however, sees something more-

You hear another voice in your head, and in fact see a large flame, vaguely humanoid and winged in shape, standing below the celestial, a charred skeleton suspended in the flame. "Well, child of Pyremius, this is interesting."

"I see something below the body, guys, and it just spoke to me," Ryuk says

"No no, don't tell them about this, you wouldn't want to anger your benefactor"
"I'm listening," Ryuk says.

"Oh? What do you have there, lass?" Hrethric asks.
"I'm loony, guys. I don't know what I'm talking about. I mean I'm all bloodied; don't listen to me." Ryuk bluffs as Hrethric glares suspiciously.
"Under the circumstances, I'm at least as willing to consider whatever possible hallucinations you may be witnessing as any advice from the guy with demons in his head...no offense, Hrethric." Stormblade allows.
"None taken," the dwarf grumbles.

"Pyremius has other gifts he will grant you, and he doesn't ask for vengeance"
"What would you have of me?"
"Pyremius would enjoy a temple beneath Greyhawk. All he asks is that your reclaim this temple for him."
"If that is what you wish. Will you grant me permission to speak to my fellow adventurers? So they may aid me in restoring the temple?"
"Pyremius believes it is better if you were to do this more covertly. All that is needed is for you to light a flame for him in it's heart. Within the altar-" it gestures upward, and you see that the floor around the altar didn't crumble, but there is a core of some strange, darker material beneath it "-would suffice. You could return and do it. He merely requests your pledge, and that you allow his gift to be bestowed, in place of whatever the celestial grants. And that you not tell your party"
"It would be my pleasure. Thank you, my lord."
It gives the impression of grinning, "I am but his servant as well. Giving him a temple is a good sign of your thanks, however. You should play along with your party, though." The fire creature nods it's head and disappears

The voice sounds in your heads again, "If you will avenge me, I will grant you the remaining potency of this form"
"Is that the only possibility of your release from...this?" Hrethric asks, gesturing.
"This form is ruined, and all that remains is an echo of celestial power."
"If freedom is not an option, than avenging you upon those who treated you thus is just," Stormblade says.
"either way, the world is better without the effects of this kind of...competition" Hrethric replies, "so we should free its essence and be done with it"
"I'm on board," Ryuk says warily.
""We need to sever the temples connection to the demons somehow, but I have no experience in this area. Any ideas?" Hrethric asks.
"The altar is built around a core of a demon's heart embedded in abyssal jet, remove it, and destroy it, and the connection will be broken."

The celestial's blood and feathers leave it's body and flow towards you all, attaching to your arms and weapons as appropriate.
Ryuk's pouch of fire becomes a glowing orb of fire and floats up to be absorbed into her chest
Feathers join to Arturus' quiver, forming a folded wing that attaches to his back, opening a hole in his armour to accomodate it, and feathers join to his bow, the arms resembling stylized thin wings, five hand-length feathers extending from just below the grip.
The blade of Hrethric's urgrosh takes on the appearance of a silvery-blue metal wing, the spear point changing to resemble a large feather
Silver blood flows up Stormblade's arms, tracing tattoos of angelic runes into his flesh.
The celestial's body slowly becomes a glowing light, and the motes disperse, leaving behind one last thing, something like a leather bucket or shoulder bag with the appearance of supple silver bone, seemingly filled with the celestial's blood (can be used to deal acid damage to non-celestial creatures. Any of you can reach in and throw it like gathering a handful of water to deal 1d4, or you can take a standard action to fill a flask, which will deal 1d8 damage to a struck target).

Ryuk's deal with Pyremius gives her enhanced basic access to the Pyre and Death Spheres, the Mortalbane feat, and everyone got something like Disciple of Darkness/Servant of Heavens/etc.

[Prak]

It's looking like the next adventure is going to start with Psi-Hawks hunting down Stormblade, center around the "vermin are bioengineered war platforms" idea from Tome and the origins of Stormblade, and end with an epic fight with a Tauric Thri Kreen/Giant Mantis Mind Blade using Psychic Warrior.

[Prak]

The Demon's Sewers Session 6
Alternate Title: Goddamnit. If You Guys Hadn't Bullshitted So Much, We Could have Finished Tonight.

So the group starts in the Celestial Chamber, and start figuring out what all's there. 2600 gold in assorted coins, a mundane backpack, MW manacles, MW thieves tools, a Hvy Darkwood Shield, and three large pieces of art on the walls that didn't have bloody angels hung on them- a painting of travelers discovering a thin enchantress standing in the road over a frail, hexed queen lying in the dirt, a tapestry of a young squire, standing in a garden holding a banner, changing to a demonic visage, and an engraving of a beautiful sorceress in a form-fitting dress and a scaled cloak. They figure out the last two depict Iggwilv, and that they could fetch more than the ~1000g they're worth if sold to the right person. Then they try to toss a grappling hook up, and I discover that the rules for securing a grappling hook were written by a troll, and I approve.

Hrethric first has to climb up on Stormblade's shoulders, because apparently grappling hooks have a 10' range increment, and so they can't be thrown more than 50', and they're in a 60' pit. Then he tosses it up onto the altar above and.... well, it catches, and he starts climbing up. A couple rounds of failing to make progress, and then he gets 10' up, only for the hook to slip and him to fall and be smacked in the head by the hook. Arturus gives it a shot, and it slips off before he even makes progress. Eventually they make it catch properly and climb up, save for Stormblade who clings to the rope and starts tossing mind blades at the 2' cube of abyssal jet they were told to destroy.


...the hardness 10, 360 hp cube of abyssal jet.

Hrethric pokes around at the altar to make sure it's not going to crumble if the core is destroyed, and Ryuk and Arturus climb up the steps to the balcony where they find the immense flesh-and-machine Demonic Graft Engine. Ryuk goes up to check it out and avoids the grasping tongue that tries to pull her in, but is easily persuaded by the voice of the fire necromental that climbing into the machine could be awesome before anyone else can make it up. She survives the first round, to my relief, and in the second round has a muscular red arm with long claws and is healed for more hp than she took damage, and actually brought up to full hp. She pops out behind it, admiring her new arm.

Hrethric is still just poking around the altar, and decides to go sit in the Huge throne behind it. His dwarven sensibilities are quite satisfied with the craftsmanship, and the demons in his head tell him that it could be his throne. After a bit of prodding and considering, he idly thinks about going and jumping in the machine, and I look at his aspects, invoking World Traveler and Survivor to convince him, so he trots up the stairs and dives in as Arturus ineffectually firing arrows into the thing's side. Hrethric takes "barely" any damage (comparatively), and has a sinewy arm rolled up which gives him a weak claw and a -2 on melee attacks made with it, but Magic Missile (CL5) 1/day. Stormblade's player asks about using a fate point to get a choice rather than a random roll, I allow it, and Hrethric chooses the strength boosting arm instead, while Ryuk chooses to get the +10' speed/+5 climb and jump legs.

I take another look at the aspects, because I know Arturus' player sort of wants, but really doesn't want to go through, and I invoke "Taste for the Strange," get denied, and then watch as she leaves it to a dice roll, and then ultimately still finally decides to go through. I decide to give them the whole Fiend Folio chart (minus the 120,000gp eyes) to choose from, and she picks Demonic Familiar. So Arturus comes out with an evil little face on his neck that is the demon graft equivalent of the crooning Singing Sword trope with it's 6 charisma.

Down below, Stormblade is chipping away at the core, and I remind Ryuk's player about the task given her by Pyremius (lighting a fire for him in the altar's hollow), so she slides down and basically steals the "kill" from Stormblade because I'm dumb and didn't think about encouraging her to wait till the core was shattered, telling the party she was going to use the "celestial's" fire to purify the space, and having Pyremius' fire ignite the lingering evil. Stormblade's player is a bit pissed, but I guess it's ultimately not a huge deal, since he seems to accept the fact that I just fucked up in how I handled things, and explained why it happened after the game.

They all climb back up and start wailing on the engine to destroy that, and the session is pretty close to a close for the night, so I let them get the door behind the throne opened, and see the mass of Dretches and Manes surging out of pits on either side of a hallway/walkway to attack them.

---

On a side note, what would be an acceptable number of dretches and manes to throw at a party of (4) 5th level characters?