S01E07 - The "Final" Battle

We had an extended gaming night last night. Because of the long time since last time we played (only 2 weeks, but felt soooo long), we hung around to make sure we had our fix. Here's what went down.

• After leaving the cozy barracks room the party runs into the high priest known as "Garrett"
• Garrett lets off a stink-bomb and runs around the corner to where his minions are ready to pounce on the party.
• G man quickly exits and the party engages in battle
• As the minions began seeing that they were out matched, they began to flee.
• The party, not used to having survivors, chased them down and butchered them like sheep.
• As the final lizardman dropped to the ground from Graal's prescision shot across the hall, some neighboring explosive barrels blew up the tunnel, collapsing a section of the tunnel.
• Party doubles back to find another way around the rubble.
• Graal gets surprised by some Large Medium frogs which begin biting everyone.
• One of the frogs gets sniped by Lucan, flees, and burrows deep in the muddy room.
• After many unsuccessful attempts to flush out the critically wounded amphibian, Graal give up and follows the party.
• Party finally makes it back to the stairwell leading down to the second floor.
• After proceeding down, they are met by a group of undead, which are dispatched with ease.
• Frogsworth Ribbington takes some collateral damage, but is able to take out the final minion before saying farewell once again.
• The party feels a strange urge to stay towards the right, and as they do so, they come to a deep underground river. 
• Aria after making several pleas to follow the river gets shutdown by the group, and as they were about to leave, Aria notices a hidden door which Kythorn kindly makes short work of.
• A small water vessel is found and Pazus steps up as the only other one brave enough to venture on the waters with Aria.
• And with bravery comes reward, as A&P come across 2 medium chests which they break open and reap the rewards. But because of the weight of the loot they were forced to leave some gold and silver behind for fear of exceeding the boat weight limit.
• After floating back, and alerting the rest of the party what they found, Kythorn quickly jumps on the boat, and shoves Lucan aside.
• Graal steals the gold the Kythorn leaves behind, gets a lung full of troglodyte stank, and immediately throws up a pound full of wine and frogs legs in Kythorn's backpack.
• Kythorn grabs the loot left behind and returns.
• The party enters a room with a corpse laying in the center.
• Graal immediately heads over and begins to pilfer through the pockets of the corpse, and to his surprise he begins to get attacked by the no longer dead corpse.
• Zombie drives Kythorn crazy and easily gets destroyed by the group.
• The party makes it to the "Final" room where they once again come face to face with the mighty "Garrett" and his wight minion.
• After a lengthy battle, and after Garrett's failure to surrender, he ends up hanging by Lucan's arrow  pinned to his gods statue, with his broken legs hanging like reeds due to Graals critical deathblow.
• The group waited for the credits to roll, but they didn't, so the "Final" battle will continue another day.

The "Final" Battle Pics

    Metallic Graal, Kythorn & Arctic wolf Aria continue breaking down Garrett the high priest.

Garrett dies due to Kythorn raging blows

XP Breakdown S01E06

Encounters: 1525xp

-Snake +200xp

-3x Rat Swarm, 2x Dire Rat +575xp

-3x Human Lieutenants +750xp

XP split: 305xp

Per-character xp:

Aria: 2404xp total - Level 3

-Critical Locusts, +65xp

-Implicit participation in torture, +secret points

Graal: 2719xp total

-Critical AE vs Rat swarm +65xp

-Successful Torture +65xp

Kythorn: 1670xp total

-Critical on daily power, +65xp

Lucan: 2254xp total - Level 3

-1x Critical +65xp

-Explicit participation in torture, +secret points

Pazus: 2389xp total - Level 3

-Pazus's soul cries out to his distant deity as he flees the room to avoid witnessing torture, +secret points

S01E06 - Rats, Bloody fingertips, and Scrolls of Identify Oh MY!

Last night was a momentous event as we attained 2. i repeat TWO items of the magical variety. No boots of striding, but still a big step in the right direction!

• Party plans to continue clearing the current dungeon level before moving downstairs
• More sailing across no longer croc-infested waters
• More empty cavernous rooms
• Pesky little snake meets an early grave.
• The Rat King releases his minions to attack the party.
• Graal finally hits his swinging axe thing and rats go flying.
• Scorched rat kebobs all around.
• More door busting.
• Encounter with 3 humans ends up in a massacre and an episode of 24 meets dark knight.
• Party takes first prisoner
• For some reason party trusts Graal to interrogate prisoner
• Lucan provides Graal w/ dagger to help cauterize the wounds from the chopped off fingers
• Party learns of
• A reptile God
• "Garret" the high priest
• Prisoner dies from lack of blood
• Party finds some magical loots
• Pazus - +1 light shield
• Lucan - +1 short sword
• The elves form a pact and begin tossing the rooms
• Treasure chest found and Lucan fails to disarm a trap and gets "flashed"
• Aria loots a scroll of identify
• Party barricades in room and rests while Lucan snaps out of his ailment

S01E06 Pics

Party beating down some minions

Pazus (Phil) & Graal (Andrew)

Group shot. Evil characters being evil

Awesomely designed cards by Cardine

XP Breakdown S01E05

Encounters: 1250xp

-2x Troglodyte +250xp

-Giant Weasel +500xp

-4x Troglodyte +500xp

Xp split: 250xp

Per-character xp:

Aria: 1984xp total

-Critical hits x2 +100xp

-Cornfield production and deployment(or maybe good use of abilities, I don't know) +50xp

Graal: 2284xp total - Level 3

-Comedy dive immediately after becoming unstunned to start off the session right +50xp -Critical rolls x3, with super bonus for 2 of them being in a row +200xp -Come see the softer side of Graal, where all creatures live and let live - until coins are spotted on the lair floor(or at least this was my favorite part about how that played out) +50xp

Kythorn: 1300xp total - Level 2

-Welcome to Skinfest, where we find monsters that smell so bad they make us wretch, and make clothes out of them +50xp -..and use what's left as rough missiles, and weasel harnesses, and place more value on the location of our precious skin than the survival of other party members +50xp

Lucan: 1884xp total

-Murderous intentions towards wildlife with unprovoked arrow shot at cute furry weasels +50xp -I wrote 'Trap - Suckas!' with regard to carelessly triggering a trap and making someone else pay the price. Well done! +50xp

Pazus: 2084xp total

-Critical hit, even though it was on an ability where a crit doesn't help +50xp -Establishing profit model for clerical services +50xp

S01E05 – Mr. Whisker’s Wild Ride

Last time we left our heroes they had just broken through a door and had come face to face with 2 lizard type men.

• Graal still knocked out from being used as a battering ram 
• Fight begins and shit gets blown up 
• After coming to, Graal’s dungeoneering skill rises to an infinite amount and lets the party know that they were fighting Troglodytes.
• Kythorn (played by Fumes) decides to create a Troglodyte suit from one of the dead carcasses. 
• Party hears commotion from behind another door, but decides to explore the rest of the area first.
• The dwarf finally told everyone how to pronounce his name “Pa-Zeus”. 
• Party finds a large room littered with gold doubloons, and a giant medium-large weasel (proving predictions from episode 2). 
• After failed attempts at intimidating the beast by throwing Trog legs at it, a fight breaks out. 
• Kythorn attempts to blind the beast by jumping on its back and wrapping his skin suit around its eyes. 
• After many rounds of fighting and multiple crits and many more 1 rolls. Whiskers #2 drops dead 
• Party loots dirty money Aria gets a new fur coat and Kythorn finally finishes his skin suit from the mangled Trog legs laying in the room 
• Party goes back to original Trog room to try opening the door where they heard commotion. 
• The realization that weapons could be used to open doors falls on the party, and minds were blown. 
• Door leads to more Trogs, Traps and unlimited spears thrown at Graals face. 
• Party enjoyed playing in Arias corn maze. 
• A door leading downstairs is found, but the party chooses to rest before proceeeding
• Party finds a place to lay for the night and wakes up refreshed.

XP Breakdown S01E04

Encounters: 775xp

-Harpy +250xp

-3x Crocodiles +525xp

Thorough exploration bonus: 625xp

XP split: 280xp

Per-character xp:

Aria: 1584xp total

Graal: 1734xp total

Kythorn: 950xp total

-Rope trick part 1, points for originality +50xp -Rope trick part 2, with critical hit to make up for my sense of diminishing returns on clever things +50xp

Lucan: 1534xp total

Pazus: 1784xp total

-I forget what happened exactly, but I have 'crit of mercy' written down here, maybe this is when he kept Aria from dying? +100xp

S01E04 – The Good, The Bad, and The Fugly

Last time we left our heroes they were cleaning up mountains of bodies from within the depths of the halls of the mind erasing swamp cultists.

• · Found kitchen with weirdly placed oven & restocked food 
• · Travelled through many corridors of empty rooms (so we were told) 
• · Ran into a Harpy who put most of the low intelligence folk into a trance-like state forcing them to do faceplants into mud 
• · Kythorn (played by Norton) was reliving his rodeo days and roped and tried to hog tie the harpy wench. 
• · Found play jewelry 
• · Cavernous rooms of emptiness 
• · Pazus almost drowns in croc infested waters 
• · Giant crocs emerge and try to beat everyone down 
• · Kowboy Kythorn tries his luck at roping a croc and fails many times 
• · Aria hits the brink of death once again 
• · All crocs die but one who is left unconscious. 
• · Group split on keeping croc as a pet or putting him down. 
• · Croc gets put down. RIP 
• · Group explores more emptiness. 
• · Barred door found. Team decides to try to break it down. 
• · Aria uses Graal as a battering ram and knocks him unconscious 
• · Kythorn & Aria continue running into door w/ no help from the midget with +str modifiers. 
• · Door finally opens and heroes come face to face with 2 lizard type men

XP Breakdown S01E03

Encounters: 2100xp
-Stirges in the swamp(aka mosquitos) +500xp -Entry guards +500xp -Unsuspecting females +300xp -Horde of guys who woke up and attacked +800xp

Adventure stage completed: Travel to lair(it really is split up like this in the module even though this part seems short) +500xp

Xp split: 520xp

Per-character xp:
Aria: 1304xp total - Level 2

Graal: 1454xp total - Level 2
-Wrestling self to ground +50xp

Kythorn: 570xp total
-Very angry, even at doors +50xp

Lucan: 1254xp total - Level 2

Pazus: 1404xp total - Level 2
-Pazus finally finds himself, has an entire evening of non-sucky rolls, even gets a 20 +100xp

S01E03 - The Blue Fairy

Last we left our heroes they were sleeping in the forest

• Party wakes up to a strange blue, glowing, floating being, and a deadish looking half-orc at her feet.
• Blue fairy leaves after being offended by Aria. (Aria doesn't like competition)
• Kythorn joins the party.
• Giant Bees attack the party
• Graal misses a tackle and wrassles with one on the ground
• Lucan makes bug juice
• Party finds a small dyke which Graal jumps on.
• Party finds an entrance to an underground bunker in the middle of the swamp
• Aria, Kythorn, Graal falls down 10 flights of stairs and encounter a group of men sitting in the dark.
• Party destroys boring men in record time.
• Kythorn decapitates one of the carcasses and throws it over his shoulder.
• After walking around for a minute or 2 the group hears some chattering behind a door, and Kythorn throws his severed head in and closes the door.
• Party walks into the room and sees a group of woman. Fully clothed, and begins to massacre them.
• As the group was kicking some female ass, a shitton of neighboring humanoids begin filling the hallway outside.
• Aria barricades door as party finishes their deeds with the unsuspecting woman.
• Room cleared and Kythorn jumps through the door critting the group behind it.
• Party destroys all once again and begin hiding the bodies.

Kythorn Appears

Note: This post is back-dated to fit in sequence with the rest.

As you prepare to break camp, two figures suddenly appear close by. One is a half-orc warrior, apparently unconscious on the ground, and the other is a blue-skinned female, floating in the air. She holds up her hand and speaks in a monotone voice: 'I am Vaer.' She pauses for a moment. 'I am not here to aid you, however you have been granted a new resource from the Library.' She gestures towards the unconscious half-orc.

'The Library eagerly awaits your return. The Library does not approve of sending its guests into harm's way, but that is the will of its Master. I must return now, before I am missed.' She holds up a silvery device before her, then disappears.

XP Breakdown S01E02

Encounters: 1175xp

-Zombies, inn cellar +375xp

-Snake, inn cellar +200xp

-Bear(encounter averted) +200xp

-Skeletons +400xp

Xp split: 294xp

Per-character xp/awards:

Aria: 394xp total
-Used class skills outside of combat(bear encounter)  +100xp

Graal: 294xp total

  

Lucan: 294xp total

Pazus: 294xp total

 Note: This and the first xp breakdown were split apart from one tally, so the numbers won't look right. 

S01E02 - To Flee or Not To Flee?

Last we left our heroes, they just destroyed the lives of many of the townsfolk and were now trying to figure out what to do next.

• Lucan discovers a hidden trap door in the room as Aria tries to get back to feeling normal after being poisoned.
• Graal pigs out in the kitchen and stocks up on grub.
• Party retreats into the cellar of the tavern and chases rats through the caverns
• Graal was actually using wisdom when engaging non-party members. 
• Pazuz needs to invest in a 1d100 in order to hit anything over a 6. 
• Party finds and destroys some zombies
• Party runs into a giant ivory statue of a snake woman. Graal breaks the head off.
• After entering a giant cavernous room, Graal decides to smash the pillar holding up the ceiling, misses, and instead gets surprised by a giant snake.
• Party finally leaves the cellar 
• Party leaves town with Mr. Whiskers who begins leading them to the cultists head quarters.
• Aria uses her nature senses and averts an encounter with a large bear
• Party rests and runs into some random forest skeletons.
• Mr. Frogsworth Ribbington (Arias Pet) kicks asses and takes names. 
• Lui Kang (Lucan) is OP. 
• Mr. Whiskers (we believe) is the end boss, but right now he’s leading us into a trap.

XP Breakdown S01E01

Encounters: 561xp

-Slaughter at the inn +561xp 

Xp split: 561xp

Per-character xp/awards:

Aria: 140xp total

Graal: 340xp total

-Flowerbed incident, in-character +100xp, but uncooperative with party goals -100xp -'You!' incident +100xp -Barging into hermit's home and demanding to know what they are doing there +100xp

  

Lucan: 190xp total

-Useful critical hit +50xp

Pazus: 240xp total

-Mindful of healing opportunities +100xp

Note: This and the second xp breakdown were split apart from one tally, so the numbers won't look right.

S01E01 - A Brave New World

• 4 adventurers get thrown into a strange world, strangers to each other. 
• Graal sees some bodies and loots and defiles them (NSFW) 
• Party finds town, and makes enemies fast as Graal proceeds to trample flowerbeds. 
• Party knocks on may doors and figures out there is strangeness happening in town. 
• After talking to the Mayor the party seeks out the town hermit.
• Party finds Mr. Bojangles the hermit and Mr. Whiskers his pet weasel
• Graal fails numerous attempts at intimidating Mr. Bojangles and party learns about the wierdness of the town. And that they should check out the local bar.
•  While at the bar, the dwarf gets mocked by strangers, and Graal comes to his rescue.
• Strange man leaves the room and proceeds upstairs out of sight of party.
• Graal tries to follow but gets stopped by barkeep and convinces Graal to get some rooms for the night.
• Party goes upstairs and breaks into first locked room where stranger was taking a rest.
• Inn goes into an uproar and everyone gets slain, except for 1 person who was able to run away and alert authorities
• Many loots found.
• Chest found in back room and Aria opens it and gets poisoned.

Startup Text

Note: This post is back-dated so that it is in the proper sequence with the rest.

You feel leaden, as if awakening from a long sleep. As you slowly become aware of your surroundings, you make out many figures standing around you in the dim light. As you try to take a step, you realize you cannot control your limbs, but instead remain standing in place.

A voice breaks the silence. 'You assembled here have come from many places, many times. Whatever your life was before, it is lost to you, forever. I have taken an interest in you, as participants in a great cause.'

'Should you search for it, you will find a stone in your body, near your heart. It is a mark, a mark that you are mine. I will use this stone to send you to places of interest to me, and my cause. It is very simple, really.. you will be provided with a period of time to complete a task, and should you succeed, you will continue on to the next. Those who fail will not last long.'

'Oh, and don't bother thinking of removing it, for unless you can find a deity personally interested in your plight, you will surely die.'

The light fades from the room, and it feels as though your senses disappear into the void once more.

An indeterminate amount of time later, you slowly regain consciousness again, with only a few other figures present, in a much smaller room. A robed figure stands before you. The same voice as before echoes through your mind. 'A young band of treasure-seekers has left the city of Hochoch bound for the village of Orlane. Rumor has it that dark forces are at work.. stories say a many headed creature steals children in the night, or that the well water has been poisoned with a powerful drug. Our young friends feel that they will become heroes should they find the cause and rescue the village. Unfortunately, they will never arrive. You are to take their place.'

'Whatever the cause, you will find it, and collect for me a vial of its essence.' A metal potion flask drops at your feet.