Late Afternoon, Kelehess 4th
(6 total days survived)
True Heroes
Suffering spear points, shuddering under shields and ripped by claws, harried by hungry maws and stabbed by arrows, the scions returned the hurt in kind. Despite the desperate odds, they delivered on feats of strength, skill and magic that far exceeded their years. One by one the monsters fell before them, dead or dropped twenty feet, though not without group injury.
Seetha's Promise
As her life dwindled, Seetha vowed to take one of the group with her, her anger focused almost entirely on Giers. His goading didn't help matters, but the paladin proved capable of backing his words with pointed, poisoned steel. But Seetha also backed up her words, beginning a hit and run skirmish tactic as she abandoned her hatchet for her deadly bow. Hulda moved to help her brother, even as Seetha went down.
Kill for Mommy
One hyena in Seetha's pack was more ferocious than all the rest. At the Hunt Mistress's behest, it ripped and tore at the half-giant, and gnawed on Giers once he was down. Truly the most loyal (and impressive) pet the group had ever seen, it took a concentrated maul swing from Hulda to finally destroy it and demoralize Nelisha.
Kaylan and Isabella also had their problems with hyenas, flanked and harried by a nasty pair. One took a particular liking to the cleric, but her fiery retribution proved its undoing.
Nelisha's Deadly Aim
The surviving hunt mistress managed to press her deadly aim for Giers before finally fleeing, downing him then dodging the retributive strikes of Isabella. Hulda and the wizard followed her into the final chamber and up the ramp, bloodying her on the way up. Still she escaped, taunting the others up with her, but they wisely stayed.
Portia and The Marauders
Across the battlefield, Portia and Frederick handled two marauders, both of which looked like veteran fighters and struck as such. With some quick wit and gravity play, Portia managed to knock both marauders off the edge of the drop. They crashed to the bottom and were forced to climb all the way back up, giving the rogue-warden duo time enough to brace the door.
Unfortunately, the marauders proved too strong and kicked it in. However Portia was deadlier still, breaking one's neck with her next strike, Frederick following up with a spear through the second, blood-crazed gnoll's eye.
Revived
Kaylan knelt beside the fallen paladin and called on Kalinda, infusing the young ethrey with love, warmth and most importantly life. He leaped up, good as new, with some new scars and another story. His rising provoked a rising of spirits for the others, despite the grim tower. Isabella was MOST relieved, too, to see her boy back, to say nothing of the sigh Hulda released. The urias went right over and hugged Giers close, nearly smothering him in her cool, blue breasts.
Trust
Kaylan made it a point to approach Frederick, off by himself mending his ample wounds. She took the bandages from his hands and helped him heal up, mentioning that he had earned her trust and that his efforts were appreciated. Frederick thanked her for the sentiment, and the two made passing comments about ancestors and their past sins.
Pongwa's Crown
The cleric also found a lapis lazuli crown amidst the loot, an obvious magic she soon uncovered altered luck. It once belonged to the local leader, the king mentioned in The Weeping Stone's distress call, inscribed on the crown interior with the name Pongwa.
The cleric passed on keeping it, instead offering it to the stylish princess. Isabella happily took it, preferring its look and ability to her current antlers. While the Saspian posed and twirled, she passed the antlers off to Green Bean.
Antlers Suit You
Portia agreed to take the antlers from Isabella, plopping them on her head to complete her... eclectic look. Great, bit elk horns curled from the half-goblin's braided head, complemented with dark leather, a strange assortment of nick-knacks and improvised weapons slung over shoulder, stuck in belt or pack, and finished with The Dominatrix's stilettos. Wow.
The group was quick to compliment her on the new look. Leave it to a boggart to redefine fashion.
The Messenger
Their moment of lightheartedness wasn't meant to last, not here in the savage spire, as a single hyena padded down the ramp from the fourth floor with something tied around its neck. The beast wouldn't stop laughing its feral chortle, even when Frederick informed the others and Isabella decided to remove the scroll. Giers quickly took the scroll of something for fear it was a trap, even as the hyena chuckled and padded back up to the fourth. (I can't help picturing Mutly)
Flayed Note
He quickly discovered the scroll was the flayed back flesh of a child, still warm, which nearly made him drop it outright. Scrawled on the inside in Abyssal was a note commending the group for their efforts and welcoming them to the top to work out some sort of accord, or else to come up and try surviving what they had in store. It was signed Scourge.
The group was a mix of shocked, appalled and furious, with no intention of treating with the monster that ruled the rest. They gathered themselves and pressed up to the third.
Third Floor Foulness
The smell grew nauseating, of a den, of blood and rotting meat, of one great unwashed body and offal. The group entered a chamber stocked with food and black wine to feed an elephant. A great wooden door sat at the end of the chamber with a lock large enough for Portia to fit her forearm in. She did so to open it, even as six gnolls across the drop lingered by the ramp up laughing and pointing and waving.
The unsure group scowled, planning to kill them momentarily, but as Portia finally unlocked the door and peeked inside, another problem presented itself.
The Blightwarped Minotaur
A tumorous hand larger than Hulda's grabbed for Portia, but the agile boggart managed to leap back. The hand continued through the door, then ripped it off the hinges. What burst through was beyond hideous, a hulking, heaving minotaur some twelve feet tall. Its body was overwhelmed with leaky tumors, misplaced muscles and cancerous, off-colored flesh. Exposure to Blight had not been kind to this thing, with the warped head of a bull all red and irritated, with two curved horns which seemed the only perfect things on it, black, smooth and shining. With the eye not covered by a skin tag, it scanned the group and released a screaming roar, half-human and which made the air shiver.
From across the drop, the gnolls began to cheer. So began the game.
Rain of Pus
The group, whose blood was already boiled over the flayed note, released their fury against this new monster like a perfect personification of the bestial forces they now fought. Blow for blow, each in the group made the monster pay in one way or another, quickly bringing even the towering mutant to bloodiness.
However after a well-placed blow by Portia, a natural defense programmed into the malformed minotaur triggered and its many, many tumors spewed their off-white pus like a gooey rain over the scions. Hulda managed to avoid the worst of it, but the rest were doused in the icky secretion as it found their eyes, ears, nose... even mouths. Wretching ensued.
As it began to pick on the paralyzed group, Hulda waded in to trade blows with the beast.
Hungry Lusts
Yet once it saw the half-giant, another natural reaction sparked and it grew highly aroused. Between fighting Hulda, the creature pelvis thrusted against poor, tiny Portia, the act like being beaten with a log. The savage minotaur grew more aroused the more Hulda fought, smelling the fear and frustration in the frozen group, and wanting desperately to mate.
Yet this served only to anger the scions and reaffirm their resolve as they pierced, slammed and seered the monster to death through a combination of harsh attacks against its member. The organ eventually fell off completely and the resulting gush of blood and innards dropped it face first. It reached out for Hulda with its last motion, trying to tear her clothes off, trying to ravage her... but it failed.
The gnolls laughed histerically for the grotesque, almost-tragic scene and fled upstairs.
The Grizzly Lair
Savageness was redefined as the group entered the minotaur's lair, a ruined section of ringed floor whose floors, walls and even ceiling were streaked with blood. half-a-hundred faceless, mutilated and groin-bursted women strewn the space. It smelled awful, perhaps the source the the entire tower's greater stench. Claw marks raked even into metal, and bits of hair and tooth and skin marked some of the girls lucky enough to have leaped over the edge to their deaths, but all of it was heinous evidence of the brutality done in this unholy space.
Screaming Armor
Beneath the minotaur's bedding was a hidden healing potion and perhaps the most grizzly thing any of the scions had ever seen. It was a suit of hide armor consisting entirely of womens' faces, twisted in silent screams, and sewn together with meticulous care. The armor emmanated magic, but none dared touch it for the sheer horror of it.
Disgusted, Isabella set the lair on fire, the beds and corpses quickly lighting, though the armor itself remaining unburned. Magic.
Fourth Floor
And after a quick rest, the group forced the third floor horrors out of their minds and continued up, unsure just what they might find on the fourth floor. They came to a wide, wall-less ring with a certain-death drop of sixty feet. On the far side were two ramps each leading to a different level.
Lingering near those ramps was a savanna lion, a muscular large cat the color of golden grass with an overwhelming mane. Beside it was a pale griffon, a lion crossed with a great eagle, with wicked blood-stained talons and a red, hooked beak.
Jengaras the Scourge
Their leader was a white lion of unusual size, bulging with muscle and truly the epitome of the lion species. Black, razor claws sprung from massive paws, brilliant pearl teeth flashed from a giant maw, and its mane was like a pale sunburst that framed a perfect leonine countenance marked with burning amber eyes.
He spoke! Revealing himself to be The Scourge of the previous note, Jengaras sardonically informed the group that he could not allow them to reach any higher.
Experience: 455 each! (3268 total)
Magic: Potion of Healing (Unclaimed), Pongwa's Crown (Isabella); t. Stag Helm (Portia)
Money: 246 gp (41gp each, split with NPC Frederick)
NPCs:
Seetha, Hunt Mistress (dead)
Nelisha, Hunt Mistress
Blightwarped Minotaur (dead)
Jengaras the Scourge, Beastlord Lion
Monsters: Gnoll Hunt Mistresses, Gnoll Marauders, Hyenas, Blightwarped Minotaur, Packrunners, Beastlord Lion, Savanna Lion, Griffon
Places: 2nd Floor, 3rd Floor, 4th Floor
Beastlords: Some of the fey that sprung from Lordanna's last moments reflected the essence of Othyrian animals, primordial incarnations with the ability to reason, speak and use Arcane, Primal or Divine power. Larger and more cunning than normal animals, beastlords usually rise to positions of dominance amidst their mundane kin (who crossed over into The Wild through natural ley lines or unattended gates). They often use their higher intelligence to surpass the ken of the average animal, orchestrating larger, more efficient methods in which to obtain territory, defend territory and achieve whatever goals are best for the lord and its kin.
Pongwa's Lucky Crown
This brightly polished lapis lazuli crown is decorated with carvings of children dancing around the base. It affords the wearer a bit of fey luck and appears to have belonged to some local leader.
Level: 3
Price: 680 gp
Item Slot: Head
Power (Daily): No Action. Use this power when you fail a saving throw. Reroll the saving throw, using the second result even if it’s lower.
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
MAPTOOL!
Seriously, this little program will kick the game up two notches at least. Real time maps, initiative list that dings when it's your turn, health bars, condition reminders, fog of war and light sources, picture tokens, the list goes on and on. MapTool is the premier program for online tabletop gaming, and it's FREE.
But first you need to download it. Head over to this link and make sure you download maptool-1.3.b49. That's b49, not the latest version! Install it and find me during the week so I can put up the server and take you through the rest of the steps. I've already tested it with Portia and it's working spiffy, so I know it does work.
Meantime, submit pictures of your characters that I can convert to tokens for the game. I do have filler tokens for everyone if they can't find one (and they look pretty good in my estimation), but I'm sure you want something you picked yourself.
MAPTOOLS! GET EXCITED!
But first you need to download it. Head over to this link and make sure you download maptool-1.3.b49. That's b49, not the latest version! Install it and find me during the week so I can put up the server and take you through the rest of the steps. I've already tested it with Portia and it's working spiffy, so I know it does work.
Meantime, submit pictures of your characters that I can convert to tokens for the game. I do have filler tokens for everyone if they can't find one (and they look pretty good in my estimation), but I'm sure you want something you picked yourself.
MAPTOOLS! GET EXCITED!
Session 10: Guts and Gears
Afternoon, Kelehess 4th
(6 total days survived)
The Lift
Passing from the hyena den into the tower proper, the group entered the ground floor. They discovered a large main door, shut for the time being, a ramp leading up, and a broken-down lift. Portia did some preliminary examinations on it, deciding she could fix it, but it would take a few hours.
Three Gnolls
Before the group could decide exactly how to proceed, three gnolls moved down the ramp, each of them dragging a headless, disemboweled child. Portia and Isabella were able to hide in time, but the rest were caught. The hyena-men left no room for diplomacy or tricks, attacking outright, though the rogue and wizard managed to get a drop on them first.
The gnolls proved frighteningly quick in combat, and terribly strong, raking with their sharpened claws and ravaging the wizard in retaliation for her first strike. Before long they overwhelmed her. Kaylan and Giers came to Isabella's aid, but she nearly died a second time in the struggle. To say the princess was humbled by the experience was an understatement.
However others fared surprisingly well against the mangy monsters, Portia especially, who felled the first with an impressive series of wrench work. Hulda finished the second with a brutal hammer strike through the chest. And even when the third gnoll ran for reinforcements, making its way through the great doors leading out into The Savanna, Portia came through again with a deadly throw of a wrench.
Hulda dragged the body off the doorstep and shut the door. A tense minute followed, waiting to see if anyone upstairs heard the struggle, or any outside saw the fleeing gnoll. They did not. For the moment, all was well.
A Short Rest
Kaylan tended Isabella's wounds, the rest patching themselves as needed.
Visions of destruction dancing in Portia's head, she designed the preliminaries on a grand schematic out of the broken lift parts to create what she called "The Death Engine". However that too would take far too much time in this hostile and heavily-traveled portion of the tower. Filing her ideas for later, she resigned herself to using the spare parts in jamming the front door. With five minutes work, every hinge was sufficiently broken, stops placed beneath the door's slide, and the passageway generally plugged. No one was coming in through that way (though there was always the hyena den route).
Giers examined the bodies, especially the spear-like object wrapped in hides and dropped by one of the gnolls when the battle began. From what the scions had seen of gnolls, many preferred the spear over other weapons. And lo and behold, this wrapped object was a spear. Not just any spear, either, but magic, a Snakefang Spear. The paladin happily claimed it, waiting by the bottom of the ramp in anticipation of testing it out.
Splat
Just as the group was moving for the ramp, a deep and menacing roar echoed over even the hum of Blight and then a shriek. In a few seconds time, a screaming gnoll crashed onto the ground floor, having been hurled from one of the upper tiers. He exploded in a rain of limbs and gore. And with that the group headed up...
Guard Room
Giers in the lead, loud as ever in his plate, the group made its way to the first chamber of the second floor. From the looks of it, this was a guard room. Among the items found were three maps, which Portia quickly took. However they were written in a language she could not read, prompting Isabella to offer her services (thanks to the power of her magic glasses). And later on they would indeed examine these three maps, one of a village, one of The Savanna, and one of a green mountain.
Given the unusual nature of the tower floors, and former use of a lift, each level lacked an interior wall. Thus every room could see something of the next room. Giving a look see, the scions found large contingents of gnoll guardians and hyena pets. However the guards in the next room over looked to all be asleep, aside from the occasionally antsy hyenas.
Portia, Assassin
Quiet work was deemed best and Portia drew The Dominatrix's magic dagger and slipped into the room. She slit the throats of the three hyenas before any of them happened to wake. During that time, she also noticed an identical contingent of gnolls and hyenas in the next chamber, guarding the ramp up to the third floor. It seemed this tower wasn't any sort of place to live, but more of a military outpost, a building with a very specific purpose. From the looks of the guards and guard rooms, it likely had something to do with protecting Blight and Al'kek'uma.
Portia slipped over to the largest of the sleeping gnolls, took a deep breath, and plunged her dagger into his throat. However the monster survived the jugular sever, leaping up and waking the others with his wet bark.
Scions vs. The Second Floor
The resulting fight pitted the scions against the entire second floor, a mass that first encompassed the gushing marauder, his identical brother-in-arms and their hunt mistress. The hunt mistress, which one of the group might have heard called Seetha amidst the barking and Abyssal, looked heartbroken over the death of her pets, and more so the first marauder when he was finally taken down. It seemed there was something going on there, perhaps hunt mistresses doubling as pack mothers.
The scions held their own against the remainder of the room, but the other chamber's guardians soon spilled in after them. Huge, spear-and-shield wielding marauders, deadly-aim hunt mistresses, and a trio of ravenous hyenas tear into the group even now, their resources dwindling along with their health.
Truly dire straights...
Experience: 245 each (2813 total)
Magic: Snakefang Spear (Giers)
Loot: Gears, wrench and a hyena head (Portia), 3 Maps in Abyssal (Isabella)
Money: None
NPCs:
Hunt Mistress Seetha (the broken-hearted lover)
Hunt Mistress Nelisha (the archer across the drop)
Monsters: Gnoll Claw Fighters, Gnoll Marauders, Gnoll Huntmasters, Hyenas
Places: Ground Floor, Second Floor
Snakefang Spear
This wicked-looking spear has a bluish tint, with a snake's head blade and a coiled shaft. Its bite delivers debilitating poison that saps vitality and strength.
Level: 5
Price: 1000 gp
Weapon: Spear
Enhancement: +1 attack rolls and damage rolls
Critical: +1d6 poison damage
Power (Daily • Poison): Free Action. Use this power when you hit with the weapon. The target takes ongoing 5 poison damage and is weakened (save ends both).
Weakened: Attacks deal half damage.
(6 total days survived)
The Lift
Passing from the hyena den into the tower proper, the group entered the ground floor. They discovered a large main door, shut for the time being, a ramp leading up, and a broken-down lift. Portia did some preliminary examinations on it, deciding she could fix it, but it would take a few hours.
Three Gnolls
Before the group could decide exactly how to proceed, three gnolls moved down the ramp, each of them dragging a headless, disemboweled child. Portia and Isabella were able to hide in time, but the rest were caught. The hyena-men left no room for diplomacy or tricks, attacking outright, though the rogue and wizard managed to get a drop on them first.
The gnolls proved frighteningly quick in combat, and terribly strong, raking with their sharpened claws and ravaging the wizard in retaliation for her first strike. Before long they overwhelmed her. Kaylan and Giers came to Isabella's aid, but she nearly died a second time in the struggle. To say the princess was humbled by the experience was an understatement.
However others fared surprisingly well against the mangy monsters, Portia especially, who felled the first with an impressive series of wrench work. Hulda finished the second with a brutal hammer strike through the chest. And even when the third gnoll ran for reinforcements, making its way through the great doors leading out into The Savanna, Portia came through again with a deadly throw of a wrench.
Hulda dragged the body off the doorstep and shut the door. A tense minute followed, waiting to see if anyone upstairs heard the struggle, or any outside saw the fleeing gnoll. They did not. For the moment, all was well.
A Short Rest
Kaylan tended Isabella's wounds, the rest patching themselves as needed.
Visions of destruction dancing in Portia's head, she designed the preliminaries on a grand schematic out of the broken lift parts to create what she called "The Death Engine". However that too would take far too much time in this hostile and heavily-traveled portion of the tower. Filing her ideas for later, she resigned herself to using the spare parts in jamming the front door. With five minutes work, every hinge was sufficiently broken, stops placed beneath the door's slide, and the passageway generally plugged. No one was coming in through that way (though there was always the hyena den route).
Giers examined the bodies, especially the spear-like object wrapped in hides and dropped by one of the gnolls when the battle began. From what the scions had seen of gnolls, many preferred the spear over other weapons. And lo and behold, this wrapped object was a spear. Not just any spear, either, but magic, a Snakefang Spear. The paladin happily claimed it, waiting by the bottom of the ramp in anticipation of testing it out.
Splat
Just as the group was moving for the ramp, a deep and menacing roar echoed over even the hum of Blight and then a shriek. In a few seconds time, a screaming gnoll crashed onto the ground floor, having been hurled from one of the upper tiers. He exploded in a rain of limbs and gore. And with that the group headed up...
Guard Room
Giers in the lead, loud as ever in his plate, the group made its way to the first chamber of the second floor. From the looks of it, this was a guard room. Among the items found were three maps, which Portia quickly took. However they were written in a language she could not read, prompting Isabella to offer her services (thanks to the power of her magic glasses). And later on they would indeed examine these three maps, one of a village, one of The Savanna, and one of a green mountain.
Given the unusual nature of the tower floors, and former use of a lift, each level lacked an interior wall. Thus every room could see something of the next room. Giving a look see, the scions found large contingents of gnoll guardians and hyena pets. However the guards in the next room over looked to all be asleep, aside from the occasionally antsy hyenas.
Portia, Assassin
Quiet work was deemed best and Portia drew The Dominatrix's magic dagger and slipped into the room. She slit the throats of the three hyenas before any of them happened to wake. During that time, she also noticed an identical contingent of gnolls and hyenas in the next chamber, guarding the ramp up to the third floor. It seemed this tower wasn't any sort of place to live, but more of a military outpost, a building with a very specific purpose. From the looks of the guards and guard rooms, it likely had something to do with protecting Blight and Al'kek'uma.
Portia slipped over to the largest of the sleeping gnolls, took a deep breath, and plunged her dagger into his throat. However the monster survived the jugular sever, leaping up and waking the others with his wet bark.
Scions vs. The Second Floor
The resulting fight pitted the scions against the entire second floor, a mass that first encompassed the gushing marauder, his identical brother-in-arms and their hunt mistress. The hunt mistress, which one of the group might have heard called Seetha amidst the barking and Abyssal, looked heartbroken over the death of her pets, and more so the first marauder when he was finally taken down. It seemed there was something going on there, perhaps hunt mistresses doubling as pack mothers.
The scions held their own against the remainder of the room, but the other chamber's guardians soon spilled in after them. Huge, spear-and-shield wielding marauders, deadly-aim hunt mistresses, and a trio of ravenous hyenas tear into the group even now, their resources dwindling along with their health.
Truly dire straights...
Experience: 245 each (2813 total)
Magic: Snakefang Spear (Giers)
Loot: Gears, wrench and a hyena head (Portia), 3 Maps in Abyssal (Isabella)
Money: None
NPCs:
Hunt Mistress Seetha (the broken-hearted lover)
Hunt Mistress Nelisha (the archer across the drop)
Monsters: Gnoll Claw Fighters, Gnoll Marauders, Gnoll Huntmasters, Hyenas
Places: Ground Floor, Second Floor
Snakefang Spear
This wicked-looking spear has a bluish tint, with a snake's head blade and a coiled shaft. Its bite delivers debilitating poison that saps vitality and strength.
Level: 5
Price: 1000 gp
Weapon: Spear
Enhancement: +1 attack rolls and damage rolls
Critical: +1d6 poison damage
Power (Daily • Poison): Free Action. Use this power when you hit with the weapon. The target takes ongoing 5 poison damage and is weakened (save ends both).
Weakened: Attacks deal half damage.
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