The Skull Survival Trophy Passes Hands... Twice in One Night.

As I mentioned in my last post, our last session was particularly deadly.  Three characters dropped, two of which had been around for almost the entirety of the campaign. 

My group has a tradition: the player whose character has been around the longest gets to possess the Skull.  Sam originally inherited the Skull way back at the start of the campaign when we had a TPK. Well, a near TPK. Sam missed that evening and his PC survived by default (our house rule is if you're not there, neither is your PC).  Ipso facto, he got the Skull.  When Sam's paladin was brought down by spectres in another near TPK, Grim Jim and his ranger, Jocelyn Dawnseeker, inherited the Skull.  Dave the Knave was next in line and has been jonsesing for it for years now.

Well, although Dave's rogue/monk, Plum Blossom (illustrated here: link), was brought to negative HP during the battle with iron golems, she didn't actually die.  She lay incapacitated on the battle field.  Jim's ranger, however, suffered too many full attacks at the hands of said golems and when he dropped, he dropped but good (i.e., way below -10). 

Grim Jim says good-bye to the Skull.

 At that moment, incapacitated or not, Dave seized control of the Skull.   

Dave the Knave finally gets the Skull... but wait....

Unfortunately for him, Plum was left to rot when the rest of the party beat feet out of the death trap.  Sam's wizard, Derbish, was next in line and he now possesses the Skull once again. What a night.

The Skull returns to Sam... they look eerily similar

Videos from the Showdown in the Upper Temple of Orcus

I've been really slacking on posting campaign updates. I hope to do so in depth at some point, but just to catch you up to speed: the party finally finished the Showdown in the Upper Temple of Orcus, explored the dungeon a bit more, and, yes, decided to go down the infamous well (they are still exploring down there).

Back when we first started the Showdown, Rob took a view videos.  I figured I might as well share them.  They aren't the most action packed, and dear lord, do I sound like a tool, but, hey, what the hell?  The party had just entered the temple via a magical secret backdoor.  Dave's Roxxxor the Chaotic Awesome half-orge barbarian was still alive and had taken the platform above the lava.  You can hear his theme music in the background.  For those of you playing along at home, he bit it in the next session, being pushed into said lava. 

The videos start with the party wizard, played by Sam, fireballing some priests of Orcus and their thug guards.  I'm rolling their saves, saying "ash" for those that were incinerated.  I think Sam is the one simulating the screams of the burning priests.  Oh, and you can hear me bemoaning the players working the neutral alignment loophole to the bone (i.e., they avoid a lot of penalties in Rappan Athuk because they aren't goodly aligned). Yeah, hot D&D action at its finest.  Suffice it to say, D&D is much more fun to play than watch.

Oh, I tend to swear a lot when I DM, so be warned.

Showdown in the Upper Temple of Orcus – An Overdue Update

[general Rappan Athuk spoiler warning]

[Update: 9/9/10 12:15 PM] After checking my notes again and conferring with my players, I realized I had a few things wrong. I've noted as such below]

[photos compliments of Dave the Knave]

It has been a long time since I mentioned the ol’ Showdown in the Upper Temple of Orcus scenario going on in my Rappan Athuk campaign. The campaign has been on hiatus for a couple months now, but we are firing it up again tomorrow.  Dice will roll.  Lionshead will be swilled.

Anyhow, here is the second update I promised… back in April. 

So after whipping the cadaver collector’s highly-susceptible-to-rust ass, the party added insult to injury, and used it to block one of the doors to the lower-level, hoping to blockade the seemingly unending freight elevator of death.  The party had previously used stone shape to blockade the other door, so both were corked at this point.  My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I believe the party then healed up, cast buffing spells, and generally prepared for the next wave of baddies.

The party had routed a vampire would-be bad ass last time and he came back with some friends for payback.  Here was the hit list:

• Mr. Vampire Wanna-be Bad Ass,
• his vampire spawn,
• two nightmares serving as their mounts. and
• a Phantasm (from the Tome of Horrors II)

You’ll note that these dudes all could become incorporeal, gaseous, or ethereal, and as such, were able to pass through the party’s blockades.

The battle was a lot of fun to DM, with the vampires harrying the party from the skies, the fumes of the nightmares thwarting various heroics, and such.  However, the Phantasm was a bust. It has this cool magic jar-like ability, allowing it to possess people.  But damned if that freaking NPC dwarf fighter, Lady Bombis (known to the group as Lady Marmalade) didn’t make every save to resist it.

I can’t remember too many specifics at this point, but the party eventually brought down the  vampires and their mounts (although one or both of the vampires might have escaped). [The vampire spawn couldn't breach the antipathy zone, so he was kind of screwed from the get-go. His mount had no problem, though. It's been confirmed both vampires lived to fight another day. Reoccuring villians, anyone?] I believe Bonnie’s Hunter of the Dead was lighting up the undead with her Radiant Sphere (from the Magic Item Compendium).  I had a lot of fun, especially with the nightmares. I can’t recall the last time I used that creature in play and I don’t think I ever have in 3rd edition.

There was a rather funny rules debate at one point when Sam tried to make a case for an AC bonus for being prone.  Ha, but his wizard was prone under the flying vampire who was about to toss a shortspear at him, so  technically he could have received a +4 versus missile attacks.  Suffice it to say, DM logic over-ruled by-the-book accuracy at that point. I’m not sure how being spread-eagle beneath a flying opponent warrants an AC bonus. (To clarify, this wasn’t a heated argument, rather Sam tossing out a rule and hoping the DM would go for it. I did not.)

Eventually one of the divine spell-casters, likely Rob’s Shaman, turned the Phantasm, the nightmares were brought down, and the vampires were slain or routed.

Shortly thereafter, a pair of carcasses (from the Creature Collection III) laid siege to both blocked entrances and finally removed the physical barriers to the room.  These things are basically undead transports, being hollowed out giants that carry undead within them.  They sound cooler than they are and are kind of a one-trick pony. It was pretty fun to surprise the players and launch black skeletons out of their bellies, though.  The carcasses did make attempts to envelope some of the PCs but to no avail.  The party made fairly quick work of this assault. [This combat actually just started at the end of the last session, so we'll be picking up with it tomorrow.]

So, there you have it.  This Friday we pick up here.  This whole showdown has been fun, but I’ve vowed to the group that the next session will be the last encounter.  I’ve something special planned for it and have little doubt it will make it a memorable session.  I’m pulling out the stops for this one. 

Damn,  I love this game.

Garhelm - The Map

This is Garhelm:

If you want a better look, trying downloading the PDF: link

Yep, as you can tell from the scan, I banged it out on some old notebook paper.  I make no claims to be a cartographer, so I have no clue if such a landmass is even feasible.  I think it looks pretty cool, though, so I don't really care.  There is no scale as I wasn't really sure what I wanted it to be and figured I'd tackle that as needed.  I just wanted a rough idea of the campaign world so I could place important locations, namely cities and dungeons.  You'll note names from the standard Necromancer Games (NG) heavy hitters (the Stoneheart Mountains from Tomb of Abysthor, Fairhill from the Crucible of Freya, Bard's Gate, the Vault of Larin Karr, and, of course, Rappan Athuk) as well as The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth coming out of retirement. Yep, that is Green Ronin's Freeport way to the south. 

I had big plans for the campaign, but they weren't realized after the deaths in the Vault of Larin Karr.  My general plan was for a sandbox campaign once the party had finished up there. I planned to include a world map with the loot at some point and then let the players have at it. Since I had never shown the map before, I was hoping that would be kind of a neat surprise (i.e., the idea being that few people in Garhelm have much sense of what their world actually looked like). 

I started the face-to-face campaign in Fairhill, which is the setting of NG's The Crucible of Freya.  I don't own that module (although I did play it as a player under Sam's DMing), but I used the free maps from NG's site [link (you’ll need to scroll down a bit)] and added my own NPCs and descriptions.  That worked out quite well and allowed me to impart the flavor of Garhelm right from the start.  I might write those up if I have a chance (unfortunately, I don't have those as electronic files, so no easy cutting and pasting).  I don't think I used Fairhill for the online campaign, likely because Sam was playing as a character.

Anyhow, here is a key of sorts to help you decipher things (I left off anything I thought was self-explanatory):

• Barbegazi lands: Barbegazi are a neat, semi-evil race ice gnomes from the Tome of Horrors II (and, I just realized, actual Swiss mythology: link).  You can check them out in the ToH II free sample: link
• ToA: Tomb of Abysthor
• Volk: Vault of Larin Karr
• The Pass of Dulane-Far: An underground, underwater tunnel connecting the mainland to a severed peninsula. Tunnels also connected this island to other nearby islands.  I believe I envisioned this pass having been closed off to contain the horrors of the island and the tunnels, but I’m not sure.  I do think it is one of the cooler things on the map.

So, there you have it.  Garhlem.  Some time in the future, I’ll put up my version of Fairhill and perhaps some of the home brew adventures I had for this campaign.

The Survival Trophy

So because I run a freakin’ lethal campaign, I figured some reward - some badge of honor- should be bestowed to the player whose character has lasted the longest.  Once your character bites it, you must hand over the trophy to the next person in line.  When the campaign ends, the last player holding the trophy keeps it for good.

In my first campaign (this is my second Rappan Athuk campaign), the survival trophy was a Magneto bobble head (or, I’m sorry, it was a Magneto Wacky Wobbler, which is clearly MUCH different).  I’m not really sure why I went with it.  Perhaps because:

1. It is vaguely trophy-like
2. It is bizarre

This time around, I went with something more appropriate (albeit less colorful): a styrofoam skull from Macy’s, of all places (it was Halloween at the time).  The trophy is currently in the hands of “Grim” Jim, who runs the party’s ranger (see below).  To his credit, Jim has held onto it for a few years now (and Dave the Knave has been eying it up for just as long). Jim took it from Sam when Sam’s paladin was dropped like a bad habit by an onslaught of spectres.  Jim fled; poor Sam never got the chance.

I never really thought of it until now, but, rather morbidly, this trophy doesn’t come into play until after the first near-TPK (obviously, if it’s a full-fledged TPK, no one gets it). Along those lines, both of the trophies were handed out early on in both campaigns….

The Showdown in the Upper Temple of Orcus continues tonight.  We'll see if Jim retains the trophy.

Showdown in the Upper Temple of Orcus – Part II: Grinding

[general Rappan Athuk spoiler warning]

[photos compliments of Dave the Knave]
  We left our heroes facing down a hezrou demon.  Apart from some pesky green gargoyles, he was the only threat since the party had routed the babau doormen and slaughtered the Orcus priests and their bodyguards.  To clarify something, the party had long ago found the magical backdoor into the Upper Temple of Orcus and used it for this assault.

  Most of the party knew the hezrou had successfully summoned something in the previous round, given his shit-eating grin.  So what had he summoned?  Dretches.  Lots and lots of dretches.  33 to be precise.  Given the party’s fodder count, I figured the hezrou would respond in kind and opt for the dretches rather than another hezrou.

  What followed was a real grinder of a session.  It was fun, but damn if 3.5 D&D combat isn’t as slow as hell.  Thankfully, Sam came packing the tequila to ease the pain….

  Rather than bore you with a lengthy play-by-play, here are the highlights:

   - The dretches’ physical attacks and the hezrou’s unholy blight and chaos hammer abilities thinned out the ranks of the NPC fodder, but the PC heroes were doing fairly well.

  - When the hezrou broke out the ol’ blasphemy, the players started to sweat. All remaining NPCs were paralyzed and a most of the PCs were weakened and dazed.

  - Roxxor the “chaotic awesome” half-ogre barbarian did a great Frazetta painting impression by taking to the central platform over the lava pit and chopping down dretches with ease.  Alas, he was outnumbered, and, once paralyzed by the blasphemy, was shoved into the lava. He quickly became “chaotic ash.”

  - Things looked bleak for the heroes, but here is how they saved their bacon:

 1. The cleric cast magic circle against chaos and consecrate, creating a bubble of protection from which the group could operate.

 2. The shaman (ala Green Ronin’s The Shaman's Handbook) used his rebuking ability to gain control of the dretches that were within the consecrated area.

 3. The shaman sent the dretches into melee with the hezrou, who,so enraged by their insolence, focused his attacks on them rather than the party.

 4. The wizard was able to fire off a caster level 16 (!) dismissal scroll (previously procured from a loot stash in the dungeon’s lower levels) and, wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am,  the hezrou was sent back to the Abyss, cursing the heroes with his middle fingers in the air.

  - On top of that, the dragon shaman’s (ala the Player's Handbook II) vigor aura ability kept many of the disabled NPCs from outright dying, so a few members of the fodder brigade survived the battle.

  The party has seized the temple.  Now the question is: can they hold it for 24 hours?

A Warning to the DMs of Rappan Athuk

The Thrice Damned Tome

The Spell Compendium (SC) is seeing more and more use in my Rappan Athuk campaign.  Sam, the wizard player, first introduced it a while back and has had fun with defenestrating sphere, but once the cleric player, Rob, picked up a copy, boy, did it start to shine. He has found plenty of useful anti-undead spells and the anti-incorporeal undead spells haven been particularly handy.  Quite frankly, with the help of those spells, the party worked over the big, bad wizard spectre, Nadroj, like a kobold punk.  Ghost touch armor and ghost touch weapon, with a dash of life's grace, and Mr. I'm Going to Drain Your Levels Dry became Mr. Oh My Lord They Can Smack Me at Will and I Can't Do Shite."



DMs, be warned.

Anyhow, I really don't a real beef with the SC.  It has a great book and I haven't seen any really unbalancing stuff.  RA is plenty hard, so I really don't worry about the players having an advantage.  They were expecting the spectre battle, so Rob had picked his spells appropriately.  He might not have that kind of insight the next time.  Still, methinks it's time for this DM to adjust a few evil clerics spell choices.  The players aren't the only ones with a copy of the book.

On a side note, I always find the addition of new cleric or druid spells odd, role-playing-wise.  A wizard or sorcerer doesn't learn new spells unless they level up or, in the case of a wizard, find a scroll.  It flows sort of normally to see new spells introduced that way.  In the case of a cleric, the player gets a new book and suddenly, since he can choose any class-appropriate spell at rest time, the character knows new spells literally overnight. 

An incorporeal undead gets schooled thanks to the SC

Semi-Drunk Rant and Post

So, as the title states, I have a bit of a buzz going on. Not so strong that I can't insert a pic or a link or two, but, well, yeah. We consumed a good bit of alcohol at tonight's game. Good ol' Sam brought some Crown Royal (the bag naturally already being used as his dice bag) and Dave White brought some high-octane Belgium beer.

So another great session tonight. The group headed back to Rappan Athuk after a bit of restocking and spell scribing in Bard's Gate. They described to restart from square one (i.e., dungeon level 1) and that allowed me to bring back some of the RA classics, including the Dung Monster and the Green Gargoyles. They also headed to the Red Jester (from Tome of Horrors II), which I use as a substitute for Sacarcek on level 2. That allowed for some great role-playing and lots of laughs.

Anyhow, no real point to this post other than I have a blast gaming. It bothers me that other folks look down on it. They don't realize what they're missing. It's not the game so much as the fun you get from sharing laughs and dice over a table week after week. It's like a poker night, but unlike the poker night, the group is working together. There is camaraderie (thank you spell check for that one).

Any way, damn I like me some D&D.