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.

Showdown in the Temple of Orcus – Update 1

Two sessions have passed since my last campaign update.  This is an update of the first of those two sessions. I can be a bit lazy with campaign posts simply because they are more time-consuming than other posts and, quite frankly, I always wonder if folks really read them.

The grinding continues. After the battle with the hezrou demon and his dretch minions, the party was left without the majority of its NPC fodder. The hezrou’s blasphemy spell had wiped out all but two of them.  I had to ret-con that due to some poor math on my part at the end of that session. I had told the party that those 3rd level NPCs were paralyzed, but when I was calculating XP between sessions, I realized that they were flat-out dead. Since that did not change the outcome of the immediate situation, I thought it fair to enforce the ruling.  I tend to let “ties go to the runner… er… player,” and if I mess up a ruling in favor of the players, I usually let it ride. However, considering the power of the hezrou, I thought it best to play this one by the book.  So, apart from some secondary PCs, the party was now down to two NPC dwarf fighters.

Ok, blah blah blah, here are the highlights in more or less chronological order.

• The PCs gathered up their dead, eight total (sans Roxxxor, who had been consumed by the lava), and used a gemgate (a magic item from Relics & Rituals that opens a temporary, teleportation portal. Think those magic red portals from the He-Man cartoon) to take the bodies back to a dwarven temple in Bard’s Gate. It was sort of a weird pop-in “Here are some dead guys!” pop-out move.  The players were mainly concerned that the unholy magic of the Orcus temple might cause the dead to rise.  Their initial plan was to throw the bodies into the lava pit, but after seeing the NPC dwarves weeping and performing last rites, it dawned on the players “oh yeah, we might want to at least role-play some respect for the fodder.”

• Snaggletooth, the party’s resident fairie dragon, cast stone shape to form a wall in front of each door (although, notably, the party forgot about the magic backdoor they themselves used to enter the temple)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

• A spectre (who I described as looking like me) started peeking through the blocked doors and, after a magic arrow to his face, battle was commenced.

• A Vampire Warrior that appeared badass entered through the magic backdoor (so badass that I broke out my Warduke miniature for him), the spectre came through one of the regular doors, and a loud pounding was heard at the other door.

• The spectre was dispatched fairly quickly and the “oh, I’m a big, bad Vampire Warrior” was put in his place almost immediately by a turn check (unfortunately for him, he had arrived in a consecrated area and, well, the DM forgot his inherent turn resistance.  As I said, if I botch things, I tend to let them slide).

• The pounding continued and eventually the door and wall blocking the one entrance gave way to reveal a cadaver collector.

• The party was rather concerned at this point: the vampire, while not doing squat, was still there.  The cadaver collector was trampling the party again… and again… again. (Yeah, he has other attacks, but was being pretty effective just rolling over the PCs).

• Then the party said, “hmm, the collector is made out of a lot of metal, right?” and broke out two freakin’ magic items, both of which they had acquired in Rappan Athuk itself:
• a gauntlet of rust
• a shield covered with rust monster scales

• Both of these items work via touch attacks (I had to make this ruling for the shield since it wasn’t detailed in the RA material, but I figured as long as the PC wasn’t trying to actually bash with it, the rules for the gauntlet should apply to it as well).

• Before long, the already ineffective Vampire Warrior was without armor (bye bye +3 chain shirt) and fled.

• Although the cadaver collector was putting the hurt on the PCs, before long, he was a pile of rust.  Yeah, an AC of 29 is great… but not so great when your touch AC is frickin’ 9.

• Suffice it to say, the players found the Achilles' heel and worked it like a $2 whore.

• After combat was over, the wizard successfully cast antipathy versus Chaotic Evil off a caster level 16 scroll and the cleric began his hallow spell.

• Well-played.  

The Skull Trophy Abides

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?

The Showdown continues...

[general Rappan Athuk spoiler warning]

The Showdown in the Upper Temple of Orcus continues tonight.  Last time, the players spent a decent amount of session time prepping for the battle, so we didn't get too far into it.  However, they did make it into the temple with their army of NPC fodder.  Since this is the party's second assault on the temple, its inhabitants have changed.  A sizable portion of clerics and Orcus thugs were quickly wiped out by the party's wizard's well-placed, and empowered, fireball.  Some Green Gargoyles did manage to get the jump on the party's rogue (who took to the air via a potion of flying).

Also...a Type II demon (a.k.a. a Hezrou) was waiting for them and appears to have successfully summoned something.... the party finds out what tonight.

Showdown in the Upper Temple of Orcus

[general Rappan Athuk spoiler warning]

Tonight’s session promises to be a great one.

The History:  A long time ago, the party cleared out the Upper Temple of Orcus.  Due to clever preparation and brilliant tactics, the party handled the temple like pros.  However, they got cocky. Shortly after the temple battle, and before the party could sanctify it permanently, a group of specters nearly wiped out the entire party. Only two characters survived.

Now, after a long time of strengthening new characters and amassing loot and supplies, the party aims to clean out that temple once and for all. They plan on freeing a mass of adventurers they found who were turned to stone by basilisks.  What is the price for being freed?  The adventurers “get” to help cleanse the temple. "Army" might be a better term than "party" at this point. 

The Problem: The only way to sanctify the temple for good is to cast hallow on it. Hallow takes a day to cast.  That’s right, the party has to hold the temple for 24 hours.

This is going to be one for the record books.