The party, along with the three men from Joff, quickly made their way through the forest to arrive at the kobold lair, the entrance to which is a small cave cut into the rocky face of a hill. The kobold clan, or what is left of it, is all standing outside the cave entrance, arranged to fight.
However, as the party walks into the clearing in front of the cave, their priest steps forward and drops to one knee in front of Kava, who was in front of the party. He addresses her in flattering Draconic and asks if they found a small orb after their battle. She says yes, and he proposes a deal - if they will return the orb, the kobolds will never attack the town of Joff again. He swears on the blood and breath of Tubaloth that they will keep their oath.
A short but heated discussion ensues among the party and the humans to decide what to do. They are not sure if they can trust the kobolds, but Jaden tells them that an oath sworn on the blood and breath of a dragon is basically the most serious oath a kobold can take, and it is pretty unlikely that they will break it. Rougi is loath to just hand over treasure with no immediate gain, but the Dragonborns have grown a soft spot for the kobolds, and urge the party to take the deal. Kriv even tries to snatch the orb away and give it back to them, but she is not stealthy enough.
In the end, Bard agrees that there will be some monetary reward for the party when they return to town, so they return to the orb to the kobolds. The priest, good as his word, leads his clan back into their cave (though two kobolds do wait to guard the entrance until the party leaves). The party and the humans return to Joff to a hero's welcome and a grand feat. The party sleeps that night (free of charge of course) in the inn, enjoying a well-deserved rest for their adventures.
The next morning, the party awakens to a town that is still paying them honors but have lives and a harvest to return to. The party goes to the mayor (Jaden reluctantly giving up a bath for this) to collect their reward. The mayor is friendly and political, but also a no-nonsense type; he doesn't bring up their reward, but when Rougi asks about it, he readily gives them the gold and sends them on their way.
The party, refreshed and emboldened, travels towards Summercrest for two more days, reaching it around noon on the third. Once there, they waste no time searching for Erevan. He is not hard to locate; it is well-known where his mansion is, but the people of the town seem wary of him, calling him odd, and that he doesn't fit in. The party themselves are a little unsure of what to expect; they don't know if this visit is going to be yet another stepping stone in finding Vondal's enemies, or if Erevan himself will be one of the people they need to capture. They decide to proceed with caution and wait till night to approach the house.
That evening, long after darkness has fallen, they sneak up to the house. It is build on the edge of a cliff; the back of the house sits at the brink of a precipice that falls over a hundred feet down into a river. The party decides to divide and conquer; Kava, Kriv, and Jaden sneak off to various corners of the house to keep a lookout and do some snooping while Rougi approaches the main door, hoping that as an Eladrin and a rogue he would be able to build some rapport with Erevan.
He knocked on the door and a male gnome opened it. He looks suspicious of Rougi and acts impatient with his presence there, so Rougi mentions that he would be interested in meeting a friend of Qualion's. At this, the gnome invites him in. He is shown into a large room with high ceilings and tall windows overlooking the cliff and the river below. The gnome says "his master" is a little busy at the moment, but will be with him shortly. The gnome then leaves Rougi alone in the room.
Rougi searches around the room, a little suspicious of traps or whatnot, but can find nothing. There are some large bookshelves on the wall, and he looks through them and decides to pocket a few of the books on them. Then, impatient for something to happen, he overturns one of them with a loud crash.
Suddenly, a ball of fire crashes into him, and the floor around him disintegrates into ash. He finds himself falling, 50 feet down into a cavern below the room. Due to his catstep boots, he is mostly unhurt by the fall. Due to his low-light vision he can still see a little bit of what's around him, but it isn't encouraging; he's in a small, damp cave and while there is a tunnel leading out, who knows if he'll be able to get back to the surface.
Outside, the rest of the party is oblivious to all of this. However, Kava and Kriv have grown restless, and so they decide to go up to the front door themselves. They knock, and no one answers. They knock again, and the gnome returns. He is irritable and dismissive, but Kriv quickly spins a story about how they thought this was an inn, and her religious diplomacy soothes his nerves. He invites them in, and says he will go find his master. He leaves them in the foyer and walks out. Kava, apparently only half-aware of what's going on, starts playing with the pseudodragons.
Jaden, a few minutes later, also becomes a bit restless. She hasn't been to able to glean anything from her scouting around the one side of the house, so she decides to sneak back to the front. However, once she gets there and sees that the Dragonborns are gone, she becomes a bit worried. She sneaks up to peer in one of the windows, and sees a deserted corridor. She tries to sneak in through the window, but in the process of breaking it she makes a lot of noise, and she quickly gives up, hightailing it into the trees around the house. The gnome rushes to the window to see what happened, and catches a glimpse of her running into the trees, but loses her after that. After a few seconds, he leaves the window, apparently in a hurry to be somewhere else.
Rougi decides to try his luck with the tunnel leading out of the cave he is in. It narrows to a crawlspace pretty quick so he spends a good ten minutes crawling on his elbows till he reaches an opening into another larger cavern. Before crawling out, though, he peers out to see if there are any monster or enemies there. While he can't see anything, he hears a creature moving out there, and a large one at that. He eventually decides to head back to the first cavern and take his chances that the rest of his party will help him out.
Meanwhile, the gnome returns to Kava and Kriv. Looking a little harried, he leads them into the room with large windows, an overturned bookcase and the hole in the floor. Kriv is puzzled, but the gnome won't answer her questions directly, and soon rushes out, whispering a magic word as he passes through the door. Kriv looks around, trying to figure out what is going on. Kava continues to play with the pseudodragons.
Jaden, feeling a bit frustrated with her current predicament, decides to sneak around to the side of the house opposite of the one she was originally on, hoping to find some answers to what is going on around here. However, her search if fruitless, and she soon turns to try a front-side window again. However, as she rounds the corner of the house, the window behind her bursts open and the gnome comes tumbling out. (He wasn't nearly as nimble as he thought, and landed on his face actually.) Leaping up, he shouted a challenge to Jaden and attacked.
Down in the cavern, Rougi has returned to his original entry point, and starts yelling, hoping the party is close enough to hear him. Even though Kava and Kriv are standing right above him (and at one point, even trying to peer down into the darkness) they can't hear him. He tries jumping and reaching a low ledge so he can climb out, but his gear doesn't allow him to jump high enough.
Up in the room, Kava tires of the pseudodragons at least long enough to light upon the idea of throwing a sun rod down into the pit to see if there is anything down there. She pulls one out and tosses it down. It lands close to Rougi, and its brilliant light easily illuminates him.
In the same moment that they see him, Kriv hears a noise behind them, like a swish of cloth. She whirls around to see a tall, grim Eladrin wizard holding a tall staff, standing right behind her. Before she can react, he reaches forwards and pushes both of them over the edge! They tumble into the cavern, crashing to the ground near Rougi. The falls injure both of them pretty badly.
Rougi stares up at the figure now staring down into the cavern at them. "Tell me your names and I will tell you mine!" he shouts. They identify themselves, and Rougi tries to reason with him. Erevan responds with a curt answer and a slur about Rougi being a "despicable excuse for an Eladrin." He then drags some large object over the hole, plunging the group into darkness once more.
Out in front of the house, Jaden and the gnome fight a short, intense battle. Jaden tries to reason with him as well, but he repeatedly shouts that she and her friends are enemies of his master. Jaden is able to strike him down, but then binds him and brings him back to consciousness. She then proceeds to interrogate him. So fearsome is she that the gnome is soon cowering and blubbering on the ground, blurting out everything he knows. Unfortunately he doesn't know a lot that is useful; he serves his master, his master gave him orders, his master is awesome, he doesn't know what his master is up to, he just serves his master, and his master is awesome.
He does tell her about the dungeon under the house though, and how her party has been thrown into it. He says that no one can escape from it, that dangerous creatures live there, and that the the only way out is a door in the basement of the house. He tells her how to reach this door, but then won't say anything else. She punches him to get him talking again, but this only knocks him unconcious again.
Down in the dungeon, the party spends some healing surges and then heads back down the tunnel Rougi tried earlier. They emerge into another cave room; they figure the creature Rougi detected before is still here, but figure the only way they're going to get out of here is to confront it. They are not disappointed; as they stand up in the new room, they are attacked from above by two huge bats. Their battle with them is pretty quick though; soon both vermin lie in bloody heaps on the cave floor. None too worse for the wear, the party heads down another tunnel, moving deeper into the dungeon.
Jaden sneaks into the house through the window the gnome emerged from. She is none too sneaky or agile at it herself though, and as she gets up off the floor in the corridor, she turns to see Erevan standing there, staff in hand, his face deeply unamused. Jaden tries to convince him to listen to her, but he attacks instead. An intense magic battle follows, battering both opponents to their limits. Jaden begins to gain the upper hand though, and Erevan retreats by going invisible. Jaden is suspicious, but decides to make for the door the gnome told her about. She gets to it though, and finds that it has been magically locked and her powers are not enough to make it through.
At that moment, Erevan returns to resume their battle. Jaden fights back valiantly against his spells, and after one particularly fierce hit, he decides to exit the battle for good. Drawing a dimension door in front of him, he disappears once more.
Down in the cavern, the tunnel Rougi Kriv and Kava are following comes to an iron door. Rougi is able to pick the lock and they emerge into a cavern with an underground lake. They make their way around the edge of the lake to the exit tunnel, which is another crawlspace. Rougi goes first, then Kava, and finally Kriv.
Rewards
Jaden: 500 XP, 440 gp
Kriv: 300 XP, 245 gp
Kava: 300 XP, 245 gp
Rougi: 350 XP, 245 gp. Two of the books you palmed are histories of magic (worth only a few gp each), one is a ritual book with the rituals Water Walk, Silence, and Secret Page written in, and the rest of the pages blank
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Interlude: Magic Gathers
There is a key element of the game that we have been neglecting, and that is magic! Now I know that Jaden and Kriv use magical attacks in combat, but magic is far more prevalent and useful than that in the D&D world! In 4th edition, the magic system is based on rituals.
Rituals are "complex ceremonies that create magic effects"; in another setting you would call them spells. The player's handbook goes into significant detail about them starting on p. 296; I'm going to attempt to condense two and half pages of mechanics explanation into a few paragraphs. The descriptions of all the rituals start on p. 300; you may find it handy to reference one of them as you read this explanation.
Rituals are written, and come in two forms: on scrolls, and in books. Scrolls contain a single ritual that can only be used once and can't be copied. They can be bought (for the listed marked price), sold (typically for half the market price), or found (as treasure/rewards). Books can contain multiple rituals and once committed to the book can be used anytime. Ritual books can also be also be found (and they could be empty, partial, or full) or bought (empty). Rituals can be added to a book by copying them from another book (but not a scroll) and occupy as many pages as the level of the ritual (a book is 128 pages exactly). You must be at or above the level of the ritual to copy it in, and it costs the market price of the ritual to copy it in. Rituals can be copied out of a book into scroll form, but it requires effectively casting the ritual on the scroll itself, and requires all the performance elements listed below (plus it takes twice as long).
Performing a ritual requires several elements.
We'll go over this stuff more when we play Saturday. Hope everyone's week is going well!
Rituals are "complex ceremonies that create magic effects"; in another setting you would call them spells. The player's handbook goes into significant detail about them starting on p. 296; I'm going to attempt to condense two and half pages of mechanics explanation into a few paragraphs. The descriptions of all the rituals start on p. 300; you may find it handy to reference one of them as you read this explanation.
Rituals are written, and come in two forms: on scrolls, and in books. Scrolls contain a single ritual that can only be used once and can't be copied. They can be bought (for the listed marked price), sold (typically for half the market price), or found (as treasure/rewards). Books can contain multiple rituals and once committed to the book can be used anytime. Ritual books can also be also be found (and they could be empty, partial, or full) or bought (empty). Rituals can be added to a book by copying them from another book (but not a scroll) and occupy as many pages as the level of the ritual (a book is 128 pages exactly). You must be at or above the level of the ritual to copy it in, and it costs the market price of the ritual to copy it in. Rituals can be copied out of a book into scroll form, but it requires effectively casting the ritual on the scroll itself, and requires all the performance elements listed below (plus it takes twice as long).
Performing a ritual requires several elements.
- Each ritual has a level, and you must be at or above that level to cast it.
- Rituals take a certain amount of time, anywhere from 5-10 minutes for simple ones, and hours for more complex ones (so these aren't something you'll be casting during combat). Rituals on scrolls take half as long to cast as ones in books (thus half the time listed in the description).
- Rituals require spell components (eye of newt, alchemical agents, that sort of thing) that you have to buy special, so there is a monetary cost involved. These can be stocked up on, it's not like you always have to buy them ad hoc.
- Some rituals require a skill check, which usually determines how effective the spell is. Allies can help you with this roll (if they're within 5 squares).
- Anyone can cast a ritual from a scroll, but a ritual in a book requires the Ritual Casting feat and must be studied for 8 hours before the first time you cast it (unless you get the ritual as part of your class, then you don't need to study it first).
We'll go over this stuff more when we play Saturday. Hope everyone's week is going well!
Recap: Sessions 1-5
Since we got started in late November, and the story has taken some interesting twists and turns since then I thought a recap might be in order.
The party meets in a bar in Zaimier, a dwarf city situated where the Great Forest of Tryn and the Mountains of Tryn meet. Hearing about a gladiatorial contest being put on in the town, they enter, and soundly defeat a team of Amazons. Due to some creative use of the locals in temporary inflating their party size, they are able to walk away from this contest with some serious money.
The contest was being put on by a dwarf aristocrat named Vondal Terisnock. He takes the party aside after their victory, and asks them to take on a quest (for more money of course). Years ago he was robbed for almost all he had. He'd like the party to track down the culprits and bring them back to face 'justice.' It won't be easy, seeing as all he knows about them is that they had this certain symbol on their clothing. The party considers for an evening, then accepts.
Inquries around Zaimier lead them to believe that the best place to start their search is in Elslein, an Eladrin city three days to the east. They make their way through the forest, but the trip nearly ends in tragedy. In the woods they are attacked by a band of ghouls, and Kava and Rougi are both killed. Kriv and Jaden are only saved when a dwarf cleric named Artin happens by and chases off the ghouls.
Artin shepherds them the rest of the way to Elslein, and when there, she resurrects Rougi and Kava. Once restored, the party searches through the city and finds a tavern with the symbol on the wall. Further detective work leads them to the grave of Qualion, who once owned the tavern. Artin is employed once again to Speak With Dead, and Qualion reveals that her old gang, Dayman, Erevan, Soveliss, and Maivera, are the party's quarry now. Qualion's living relatives tell them that Erevan and Soveliss moved to Summercrest, a human city two weeks to the south, many years before.
The party does battle with both fire beetles and goblins before leaving the city with the thanks of the clerics of Moradin (of which Artin was one) and heading for Summercrest. Their trip through the forest passes slowly and dully, until the ninth day, when, in search of some water, the party happens upon a gaggle of psuedo-dragons, which they fight and eventually capture. A tangle with an ochre jelly caught them off guard, but led them to discover that Soveliss is now dead, a victim of the jelly.
The party was growing very bored by the time they arrived at the human town of Joff near the edge of the forest. They found Joff a tense place, nervous about another attack from a nearby clan of kobolds. The party joined the town's guard to fight the clan, and after a signficant battle in the forest, Kava learned that this clan were worshippers of a legendary dragon named Tubaloth. A mysterious prophet had come to the clan some years before to announce Tubaloth's return, and now the clan muraduers for Tubaloth's glory. The humans, on learning this, decide the clan must be wiped out.
The party meets in a bar in Zaimier, a dwarf city situated where the Great Forest of Tryn and the Mountains of Tryn meet. Hearing about a gladiatorial contest being put on in the town, they enter, and soundly defeat a team of Amazons. Due to some creative use of the locals in temporary inflating their party size, they are able to walk away from this contest with some serious money.
The contest was being put on by a dwarf aristocrat named Vondal Terisnock. He takes the party aside after their victory, and asks them to take on a quest (for more money of course). Years ago he was robbed for almost all he had. He'd like the party to track down the culprits and bring them back to face 'justice.' It won't be easy, seeing as all he knows about them is that they had this certain symbol on their clothing. The party considers for an evening, then accepts.
Inquries around Zaimier lead them to believe that the best place to start their search is in Elslein, an Eladrin city three days to the east. They make their way through the forest, but the trip nearly ends in tragedy. In the woods they are attacked by a band of ghouls, and Kava and Rougi are both killed. Kriv and Jaden are only saved when a dwarf cleric named Artin happens by and chases off the ghouls.
Artin shepherds them the rest of the way to Elslein, and when there, she resurrects Rougi and Kava. Once restored, the party searches through the city and finds a tavern with the symbol on the wall. Further detective work leads them to the grave of Qualion, who once owned the tavern. Artin is employed once again to Speak With Dead, and Qualion reveals that her old gang, Dayman, Erevan, Soveliss, and Maivera, are the party's quarry now. Qualion's living relatives tell them that Erevan and Soveliss moved to Summercrest, a human city two weeks to the south, many years before.
The party does battle with both fire beetles and goblins before leaving the city with the thanks of the clerics of Moradin (of which Artin was one) and heading for Summercrest. Their trip through the forest passes slowly and dully, until the ninth day, when, in search of some water, the party happens upon a gaggle of psuedo-dragons, which they fight and eventually capture. A tangle with an ochre jelly caught them off guard, but led them to discover that Soveliss is now dead, a victim of the jelly.
The party was growing very bored by the time they arrived at the human town of Joff near the edge of the forest. They found Joff a tense place, nervous about another attack from a nearby clan of kobolds. The party joined the town's guard to fight the clan, and after a signficant battle in the forest, Kava learned that this clan were worshippers of a legendary dragon named Tubaloth. A mysterious prophet had come to the clan some years before to announce Tubaloth's return, and now the clan muraduers for Tubaloth's glory. The humans, on learning this, decide the clan must be wiped out.
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