This isn't recruitment, this is just realising I kept the logs on d20 but never posted about it here, the home of Tome stuff. So now it's here, whatever was recorded 2-3 years ago, plus anything I happen to remember, and Libertad can fuck off with his "Tome is terrible and nobody plays it, the proof is that the front page of the Trenches doesn't include any games of it" dumb rant, and stick to "You know Mike Mearls is very smart and good at game design because Stranger Things & Critical Role advertise his empty husk of a game".
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This started off as a small thing where the players could play one adventure and call it a day, or could keep going for some more things in the same area and a few things linked together, before discovering an eventual threat and either saving the day and calling it there, or expanding out into planar stuff. The hook was that a small island off the coast was having problems with trade, due to pirates that had even taken over the lighthouse.
Session 1: Two robots, a dog, a ninja turtle and a fox walk into a bar. The bartender says "Is this some kind of joke?"
(The team consists of a robo-planetouched wizard, a Robot Girl (boy) puppeteer, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Shocker Lizard (don't worry it's the PF ninja not any of the ones I made), a Blink Dog using a prestige class created just for blink dogs by some really cool person everyone likes, and a... kitsune "playable from level 1 lich" IIRC who was a caster of sorts.)
The party meets up, agrees to form a team, and goes straight to the lighthouse to take care of the problem. They turn an ogre into a zombie (of sorts), turn actual zombies into unmoving parts, and turn two other ogres into corpses. The captain tries to escape, but fails miserably and is murdered. I don't think the party have actually suffered any injuries so far. Their new plan is to rest a bit, talk to dead (the spell, not just killing time), then go tackle the ship - the Bloody Sails
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Session 2: The party sneak aboard The Bloody Sails, and straight away start a fight, killing the aquatic gargoyle and destroying the ogre zombies. They actually took damage this time, so they healed up, giving the ghasts below time to investigate... but one of them is actually impersonating the (deceased) captain, so they convinced the ghasts to wait in the rowboat.
The players then, armed with knowledge of what to expect (vaguely) thanks to some earlier Speak With Dead, went down and spoke with First Mate Giblet (Ogre Barbarian). And then killed him and his hobgoblin duskblade guards. I think they took a tiny bit of damage again?
After all this, they now have a ship, as well as a pile of treasure. And the mayor still doesn't even know they've accepted the task, let alone completed it. Efficiency!
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Session 3: This session, the party went to the docks in their newly acquired pirate ship, causing the place to lock down in terror. Because last time the inhabitants saw that ship, it meant bad news. But they informed the mayor of their success, and were rewarded in monetary, not magical, ways. After that, they had things to look into:
1. The library is HAUNTED. The librarian has suffered burns in an explosion. The party actually went and healed him, for their singular good deed.
2. There *was* going to be more trade with the goblins on a nearby island, but it seems a bunch of them either vanished or died. Probably the pirates are to blame. Some other heroes went to look for them but also vanished or died. There's so much danger, and yet the Pelorites don't see it as worth sending a new priest out to handle.
3. The Adventurers Guild (TM) want to set the place up as a way for nobles to come and spend a lot of money. Firstly they want to work out some sort of deal for a "Pirate Cove" that's really just a seaside resort, with pirate costumes and rum. Secondly they want to set up basically a safari where rich useless pricks go about thinking they're real adventurers, face no real danger, and then tell everyone at home how brave they are. So the guild needs actual heroes to go and map out a trail, genocide things that are too dangerous, and find other creatures to convince to "act fierce, then run away when they flourish a rapier even though it can't bypass your DR". Their representative arranges for an after-lunch meeting with Zedda the puppeteer (and presumably the others) "tomorrow" at The Vortex, which is more of a high-class establishment. Note: they will be waiting a long time, the party blow them off completely, and who wouldn't?
More importantly, the team checked out the library. Every single door has been fire trapped. Luckily, they have healing, and mage hand, and undead. Sadly their pet ghasts survived the whole thing instead of dying in fire. They encountered wights (one destroyed, the other recruited) and shadows (one destroyed, one commanded for 6 days, the other two recruited) and a wraith (recruited). The undead have been convinced that the best way to go somewhere cold and dark where they can feed on the souls of the living is to be taken deep underwater to wipe out the Sahuagin.
Finally they encountered the cause of all the trouble, a shadow who is a jester. He spoke only in rhyme and was exceedingly annoying, and it was all revenge just because in life he had been banned from the library for making noise. He was sufficiently irritating that the party agreed to destroy him, so a lesson here is that if the party are recruiting too many enemies, just have one talk only in rhyme, they'll choose violence straight away.
After that, they found some relevant information, but also a spellbook: the Book of Shouting.
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Session 4: The party reported their results to the librarian, who spoke to the mayor, who basically bought them each a lesser magic item as a reward. They then hired a couple of sailors to help take their ship to the nearby island where goblins went missing.
This resulted in discovering the goblin town had been wiped out in an attack, and between a map and Speak With Dead, they learned the general had gone mad and split the town into two factions, fighting to increase in strength. Soon enough they found the general had killed all in his own camp, and they fought him to the death (his). But he faded into nothing. They then tracked down the survivors - noncombatants - and suggested they head to the ship.
After this, the party tracked down "The Bad Place" where the general had last visited before going strange, and found the skeleton of someone who was meant to guard the clerics of Pelor. They wandered into the underground wizard bunker, were attacked by clerics, killed the clerics (who also faded into nothing) and then found both a secret door and a trap. There was a corridor of Temporal Stasis, with a Mirror of Opposition at the end, and Caravaggio (ninja Shock Lizard) stepped right on over and was put into stasis. The others dispelled it on him, then went through the secret door and smashed the mirror (the standard thing to do with every mirror), before investigating the rest of the place, including the lab.
They now have all of someone's maps and notes on the area, their plans for the trap, their Staff of Unravelled Secrets, and 50GP worth of silver plates. And it's up to them to decide what they do with the people trapped in stasis. Basically, the wizard who put the thing together was aware that more water was constantly entering the ocean and would eventually flood the coasts. This was less a metaphor for climate change and more a case of there being a giant portal to the plane of water. His grand plan involved using the stasis and mirror combo to make an army of Opposition sahuagin who could fix it.
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Session 5: do you like mass combat?
The party left the priests and adventurers in stasis, but rescued the goblin leader, who is somewhat traumatised to learn what happened. Now all the surviving goblins are in town with somewhere to live, and the party asked the librarian about the Cult of the Crashing Wave. Seems unlikely to be involved, but you never know.
That's when sahuagin attacked and got slaughtered, but the leader survived (barely). They buried him up to his neck and questioned him to find out where the base is, and now they're preparing to go fight all of the Sahuagin and potentially stop the rush of water into the world.
Not as much happened this time probably because mass combat is not as fun as it sounds.
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Session 6:
The party set sail, only to be attacked by a floating mist and a flying aquatic landshark. And it turned out an anguillan stormlord was inside the mist, and a sahuagin war mage levitated out of the ocean to attack. There was combat, and the party emerged victorious before questioning the dead.
They now know an attempted ambush awaits them by the temple, and the Fang of Sekolah (Ophokask) is some kind of divine caster who receives guidance.
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Session 7:
The party descended into the murky caverns of the Sahuagin, where they encountered a wizard who could actually do some harm... until trapped in black tentacles and killed. Various sharks, barracuda and eels were also present.
Next, they entered the temple, and went about killing sahuagin and water elementals, before finally meeting the Fang of Sekolah. The battle did not last long, but he had a few tricks and proved a dangerous combatant for a moment. He was then questioned, then killed so he could be questioned (as a corpse) later. All that lies ahead of them now is the planar gate itself...
Also, when they parked (?) their ship above this area, they left a combination of ghasts and goblins and humans manning it. Sure hope they get back before specifically one of these three groups gets hungry.
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Session 8: The party has dismantled the Planar Leak from the Elemental Plane of Water into the Prime Material Plane! The only problem is, it imploded, sucking them into said Elemental Plane. But that's fine, they found a city, one that has proper magical services for player characters.
Note, around this time the dog can actually Plane Shift the whole party, so they could go "that was fun" and end it there, but decided continuing to adventure is more fun. So now everyone's underwater for future adventures.
After talking with various NPCs, they discover there are a few things they can address:
"something is causing people to lose their memories" (current guess is the river Styx or Lethe breaching into the Water Plane, "but maybe a monster or caster is behind it")
"I can't sell my valuable sponges, all my stocks of it are destroyed."
"There are patches of water that seem to be aligned, like Holy Water just spawning in the water, which is fine and all except you don't want a friendly Celestial swimming along and suddenly being in Unholy Water."
"WHAT IS THAT CONSTANT BASHING NOISE IN THE DISTANCE?"
More on the next post. I am aware I have been speeding through events and not putting it across in a very entertaining way, and this mostly exists as a lesson about recording stuff in more depth and reporting on things in a timely manner.
A game I ran: It's Wet Outside (Tome)
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A game I ran: It's Wet Outside (Tome)
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Re: A game I ran: It's Wet Outside (Tome)
Session 9: Now it's REALLY wet outside
Dog and Caravaggio went to find the source of forgetfulness, and encountered some Kuo Toa and a Skulvyn that had all lost their memories and become friendly. Eventually they discovered a kelp forest, in which there were giant oysters. It turns out the memory loss is from a Sirine that is protecting the oysters, so they all agreed they'd tell people it's a localised Styx leak and just to stay away from it. And there I was thinking they'd only be friendly and talk nicely with undead!
(Speaking of undead, I wonder how their ship is doing...)
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Session 10:
The party have saved the day, figuring out what was destroying the sponge farm. They killed some aquatic carrion crawlers, some seryulin (giant slugs), and... THE NUCKALAVEE! Funny thing about the Nuckelavee in Scottish lore: it couldn't go far from the ocean. It lived in fucking Scotland, that's not a drawback. It basically had free reign over the entire UK with that sort of restriction.
Okay so it ended up casting Blasphemy - I figured it's fine, the worst it can do is Daze + Weaken at that Caster Level, to only some of the party (actually to only one - the two other non-Evil party members were afflicted by fear). Except if you're not on your home plane, it also has a chance of Banishment. So now Dog has been Banished back to the Prime. I think I also had it specifically declare some kind of "back in Medieval times this counted as blasphemy" statement for casting the spell, such as "Livestock can accept communion and ascend to heaven" or "Jesus was begat by mortal means".
It's fine, the others will get Dog back in time for next session. The important thing is they have solved the problem! And also turned the Nuckalavee into a pumpkin-headed skeleton.
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Session 11:
The party checked out the source of noise: a sea serpent (Sea Drake) is bashing rocks together to draw people towards it for the city it wants to set up. So naturally, they just convinced it to go join the actual city, and probably try to take it over. Yes, "drum up a customer base, literally" was its grant scheme. Not every dragon is a genius.
Next they investigated the sources of aligned water. Someone has been making special magic items that just conjure alignment-themed stuff without input and leaving them out there. They create the aligned water and also summon Outsiders. The party have helped two succubi understand the situation and directed them back to the city, and then explained the situation to a deva, who just teleported out. So it's a matter of time before they find the modron/inevitable/formian and the slaad, right? Also there will never be any kind of problem caused by just letting powerful interplanar monsters wander into town, everything will be okay.
Oh also the dog briefly visited town again on the Prime, when Banished, and I believe scrounged around for chips at the tavern. And yes, their ship now is crewed entirely by ghasts. Due to, uh, reasons.
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Session 12:
The party found the cause of the trouble, a Triton Wizard. They kicked his ass, and now the problem is solved. They have a collection of magic rods, they levelled to nine, and they went back to town... to discover there is a commotion! Actually there are two commotions. Firstly there is a bar fight, and also there is panic due to a giant sea drake showing up. What kind of asshole could have caused all this?
The party stopped the bar fight instantly. Obviously a succubus started it, but with a single casting of Illusory Feast, that was dealt with long enough for conversation, and cooler heads to prevail. Next they brokered a deal between the sea drake and the council.
The party had a week of downtime, before being told of a problem outside a neighbouring town: somebody dumped an entire tower from another plane, and it radiates dread, so nobody has the willpower to remove it.
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Session 13: the sinking feeling
The party have entered the tower via Blinking. In this session, they have made it about halfway through - yes, the tower is lined in lead, and warns people to keep away. Malakar (the robo-planetouched wizard) assumed it contains a lich phylactery, and this was later confirmed to be the case.
To start with they killed some boneclaws (BONES FOR DOG), and found some rather standard stuff that a lich might want, like crushed jade, onix chunks, ink and preservatives. Then they encountered some basilisks, which their golem squished, and found a giant jar that functions as a Bag of Tricks. Malakar said it's useless and to move on, and the others believed him.
After this, they encountered a Gloom Dragon, who is doing somewhere between "the minimum" and "actually less than the minimum, this will be brought up at your performance review" of guarding, waiting for someone to crack the wall open so he can leave. They also found a ring of acid resistance inside a bowl of acid (which will never not be funny to me), some potions of inflict wounds, and a weird jar that seems to create electricity out of liquid mixtures (a battery).
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Session 14:
The party have now cleared out the Sinking Feeling - they killed a cloaker lord, knocked one cloaker out, and convinced another one not to fight. They looted the place wholesale. They met a hell hound (a Nessian Warhound), who was delighted to meet a fellow good dog, and wanted BONES TO CRUNCH, so a fight was averted that way. They discovered that the lich was big on electricity generation. And finally, an Ethergaunt couldn't really affect them, so they dispelled the protective magics (in doing so freeing a Dark Naga - there was a lot of attempted protection going on by the lich who was not present for this) and might need to do something about the phylactery, now that it's unprotected.
There was a great collection of spellbooks, too - like a back-up reserve for if the lich ever was destroyed and had to reform there.
"Divinations for knowing when to fight"
"Protective Magics for preparing for a fight"
"Destructive Magics for casting during a fight"
and "Retributive Magics for if you are beaten in a fight"
The latter was merely filled with Explosive Runes, Sepia Snake Sigils etc.
They have killed everything in the tower, and demolished the tower, and moved the phylactery away, and had a zombie destroy the phylactery. Also the gloom dragon is now a zombie puppet and will be part of the group for the rest of the campaign, with an AoE "save or don't get any actions for the rest of your life" attack.
But already they have learned of an assassination plot against them! Is it the Sahuagin? Is it the lich already? Is it one of their many murder victims, returned from the dead and unwilling to try a second direct fight? Maybe we'll find out next time!
Also, Maeshi (kitsune) wandered off to do research, but now, Veiss, a goblin gadgeteer in a mech, has joined the party! Same player, changing characters.
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Session 15:
The party made a lot of preparations for the attack against them and others. This included a mountain of explosive runes, and curse-warding all of the floor. Three very weak assassins died instantly when they tried entering, and then the party decided they'd just Scry&Die the actual assassins. This involved killing four assassins in short order, and getting into a fight with a Retriever that failed to hit anything. Yes, the preparations and crafty schemes were way more fun than any of the actual battles.
After this, they looted the place, questioned the one survivor, and realised that they are the only targets, with someone paying to have them killed, and the Guild Master is an unknown variable. However, thanks to detect thoughts, they now know *where* the Guild Master is. But surely it is well defended...
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Session 16:
Malakar has a new body, having Soul Jarred an Astral Stalker. Other than this, the party checked to make sure the town is safe, and then went to attack the Wet Works assassin guild of the plane of water (the guild were very proud of their name). They randomly chose a place to enter, and found the "secret ledger and water murder" room that all buildings have. They were ambushed by a CR 15 waterveiled assassin, which you'd think would be very scary given its CR and their level, but it did a little damage to most of them then died horribly.
They also found a soul and disabled a trap, and discovered that "Arch-Fang Sarentus" (unknown) had commissioned the hit against them. After this, it was a trek through the upper level, before dropping back down to the mid floor and killing a Death Slaad. Except he raised the alarm, and now there are TWO VROCKS (actually eighteen because Mirror Image, but I mean, sixteen of those get erased with a single touch each and can't actually provide any offensive output).
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Session 17: the Assassins are now Assassout
The party have now finished clearing out the Wet Works. They killed the Vrock and its summoned minion (the other vrock). A shadow demon and a rakshasa escaped. Wow, all these things that make great assassins, except many of them know which way the tides are going and decide they want no part of it. They killed two sorcerers and two others basically surrendered. They killed an Ulgurstasta. And they looted the place, naturally.
So now, the guild may start again one day, but for now, it is temporarily closed. And it won't be going after this party again, that's a bad idea. And the party have reached level 11.
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Sessions 18-20: the rain of terror
The party decided to check if a Marid was going to attack. And yes, a Marid was going to attack. I can't remember why they suspected this and checked, but I doubt they just randomly did this on the grounds of "it seems bound to happen here". So they scouted out, and intercepted the head of the raiding force, a legion of merfolk and water mephits. This force really thought people would kneel and welcome them, so the party just annihilated them with AoE attacks. I basically used the Mob template here to have "you are attacked by fifty dudes" without literally moving fifty people around, and it's better than the alternative but still not great.
The invasion continues, and this time the party splits up so it can cause more damage or something. Dog and Caravaggio saw the Sea Drake fighting off a Swamp Landwyrm, so they went to its assistance and absolutely saved its life. It still claims 68% of the credit for the victory. I believe there were negotiations about the percentage of credit.
Meanwhile, Malakar and Zeddo destroyed a pair of Coral Golems, only to them face a GIANT ENEMY CRAB. It was a siege crab, being piloted by a weak genasi, and so with some clever thinking, Malakar infiltrated inside the crew compartment and took the pilot out. But it's not over yet, they need to stop this war for good, and that means facing the Marid, RRRRRRRRRRRRAINMAKER!
Yes, that's a reference to "Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada, formerly leader of the Chaos faction in NJPW and annoyingly longest ever single reign as IWGP Heavyweight Champion, and now doing something in AEW.
Anyway, they do indeed destroy the Rainmaker. And so, the party have ended the Rain of Terror. Veiss managed to restore the AT-Field to the liberated Siege Crab, and they all found the invasion vessel the Marid was using, a manta-shaped... thing. Dog blinked them all into the control room, and they killed the Rainmaker straight away. Everyone else except a sorcerer accepted the party as their new leaders, so the sorcerer sadly passed away. After this, they swept through, and everyone in the vessel just accepted them as the new leaders. Even the guards took a view of "Well, you *were* intruders but *now* you're the new boss". So they have ended the siege.
There were various rewards, but perhaps more importantly, the party have been approached by a man called Teclis, who saw how effective they were in dealing with the assassin's guild and so researched them to learn more. He wants their help protecting another plane, this time protecting it from DEMONS! The plane is a little thing called the Nine Hells of Baator, and Teclis is actually Asmodeus, Lord of the Ninth. They weren't too surprised, nor were they particularly opposed to this.
More in the next post, as this brings us out of the "everything is wet" arc and into the high-level "do adventuring in other more dangerous planes for a while, have fun" arc.
Dog and Caravaggio went to find the source of forgetfulness, and encountered some Kuo Toa and a Skulvyn that had all lost their memories and become friendly. Eventually they discovered a kelp forest, in which there were giant oysters. It turns out the memory loss is from a Sirine that is protecting the oysters, so they all agreed they'd tell people it's a localised Styx leak and just to stay away from it. And there I was thinking they'd only be friendly and talk nicely with undead!
(Speaking of undead, I wonder how their ship is doing...)
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Session 10:
The party have saved the day, figuring out what was destroying the sponge farm. They killed some aquatic carrion crawlers, some seryulin (giant slugs), and... THE NUCKALAVEE! Funny thing about the Nuckelavee in Scottish lore: it couldn't go far from the ocean. It lived in fucking Scotland, that's not a drawback. It basically had free reign over the entire UK with that sort of restriction.
Okay so it ended up casting Blasphemy - I figured it's fine, the worst it can do is Daze + Weaken at that Caster Level, to only some of the party (actually to only one - the two other non-Evil party members were afflicted by fear). Except if you're not on your home plane, it also has a chance of Banishment. So now Dog has been Banished back to the Prime. I think I also had it specifically declare some kind of "back in Medieval times this counted as blasphemy" statement for casting the spell, such as "Livestock can accept communion and ascend to heaven" or "Jesus was begat by mortal means".
It's fine, the others will get Dog back in time for next session. The important thing is they have solved the problem! And also turned the Nuckalavee into a pumpkin-headed skeleton.
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Session 11:
The party checked out the source of noise: a sea serpent (Sea Drake) is bashing rocks together to draw people towards it for the city it wants to set up. So naturally, they just convinced it to go join the actual city, and probably try to take it over. Yes, "drum up a customer base, literally" was its grant scheme. Not every dragon is a genius.
Next they investigated the sources of aligned water. Someone has been making special magic items that just conjure alignment-themed stuff without input and leaving them out there. They create the aligned water and also summon Outsiders. The party have helped two succubi understand the situation and directed them back to the city, and then explained the situation to a deva, who just teleported out. So it's a matter of time before they find the modron/inevitable/formian and the slaad, right? Also there will never be any kind of problem caused by just letting powerful interplanar monsters wander into town, everything will be okay.
Oh also the dog briefly visited town again on the Prime, when Banished, and I believe scrounged around for chips at the tavern. And yes, their ship now is crewed entirely by ghasts. Due to, uh, reasons.
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Session 12:
The party found the cause of the trouble, a Triton Wizard. They kicked his ass, and now the problem is solved. They have a collection of magic rods, they levelled to nine, and they went back to town... to discover there is a commotion! Actually there are two commotions. Firstly there is a bar fight, and also there is panic due to a giant sea drake showing up. What kind of asshole could have caused all this?
The party stopped the bar fight instantly. Obviously a succubus started it, but with a single casting of Illusory Feast, that was dealt with long enough for conversation, and cooler heads to prevail. Next they brokered a deal between the sea drake and the council.
The party had a week of downtime, before being told of a problem outside a neighbouring town: somebody dumped an entire tower from another plane, and it radiates dread, so nobody has the willpower to remove it.
-
Session 13: the sinking feeling
The party have entered the tower via Blinking. In this session, they have made it about halfway through - yes, the tower is lined in lead, and warns people to keep away. Malakar (the robo-planetouched wizard) assumed it contains a lich phylactery, and this was later confirmed to be the case.
To start with they killed some boneclaws (BONES FOR DOG), and found some rather standard stuff that a lich might want, like crushed jade, onix chunks, ink and preservatives. Then they encountered some basilisks, which their golem squished, and found a giant jar that functions as a Bag of Tricks. Malakar said it's useless and to move on, and the others believed him.
After this, they encountered a Gloom Dragon, who is doing somewhere between "the minimum" and "actually less than the minimum, this will be brought up at your performance review" of guarding, waiting for someone to crack the wall open so he can leave. They also found a ring of acid resistance inside a bowl of acid (which will never not be funny to me), some potions of inflict wounds, and a weird jar that seems to create electricity out of liquid mixtures (a battery).
-
Session 14:
The party have now cleared out the Sinking Feeling - they killed a cloaker lord, knocked one cloaker out, and convinced another one not to fight. They looted the place wholesale. They met a hell hound (a Nessian Warhound), who was delighted to meet a fellow good dog, and wanted BONES TO CRUNCH, so a fight was averted that way. They discovered that the lich was big on electricity generation. And finally, an Ethergaunt couldn't really affect them, so they dispelled the protective magics (in doing so freeing a Dark Naga - there was a lot of attempted protection going on by the lich who was not present for this) and might need to do something about the phylactery, now that it's unprotected.
There was a great collection of spellbooks, too - like a back-up reserve for if the lich ever was destroyed and had to reform there.
"Divinations for knowing when to fight"
"Protective Magics for preparing for a fight"
"Destructive Magics for casting during a fight"
and "Retributive Magics for if you are beaten in a fight"
The latter was merely filled with Explosive Runes, Sepia Snake Sigils etc.
They have killed everything in the tower, and demolished the tower, and moved the phylactery away, and had a zombie destroy the phylactery. Also the gloom dragon is now a zombie puppet and will be part of the group for the rest of the campaign, with an AoE "save or don't get any actions for the rest of your life" attack.
But already they have learned of an assassination plot against them! Is it the Sahuagin? Is it the lich already? Is it one of their many murder victims, returned from the dead and unwilling to try a second direct fight? Maybe we'll find out next time!
Also, Maeshi (kitsune) wandered off to do research, but now, Veiss, a goblin gadgeteer in a mech, has joined the party! Same player, changing characters.
-
Session 15:
The party made a lot of preparations for the attack against them and others. This included a mountain of explosive runes, and curse-warding all of the floor. Three very weak assassins died instantly when they tried entering, and then the party decided they'd just Scry&Die the actual assassins. This involved killing four assassins in short order, and getting into a fight with a Retriever that failed to hit anything. Yes, the preparations and crafty schemes were way more fun than any of the actual battles.
After this, they looted the place, questioned the one survivor, and realised that they are the only targets, with someone paying to have them killed, and the Guild Master is an unknown variable. However, thanks to detect thoughts, they now know *where* the Guild Master is. But surely it is well defended...
-
Session 16:
Malakar has a new body, having Soul Jarred an Astral Stalker. Other than this, the party checked to make sure the town is safe, and then went to attack the Wet Works assassin guild of the plane of water (the guild were very proud of their name). They randomly chose a place to enter, and found the "secret ledger and water murder" room that all buildings have. They were ambushed by a CR 15 waterveiled assassin, which you'd think would be very scary given its CR and their level, but it did a little damage to most of them then died horribly.
They also found a soul and disabled a trap, and discovered that "Arch-Fang Sarentus" (unknown) had commissioned the hit against them. After this, it was a trek through the upper level, before dropping back down to the mid floor and killing a Death Slaad. Except he raised the alarm, and now there are TWO VROCKS (actually eighteen because Mirror Image, but I mean, sixteen of those get erased with a single touch each and can't actually provide any offensive output).
-
Session 17: the Assassins are now Assassout
The party have now finished clearing out the Wet Works. They killed the Vrock and its summoned minion (the other vrock). A shadow demon and a rakshasa escaped. Wow, all these things that make great assassins, except many of them know which way the tides are going and decide they want no part of it. They killed two sorcerers and two others basically surrendered. They killed an Ulgurstasta. And they looted the place, naturally.
So now, the guild may start again one day, but for now, it is temporarily closed. And it won't be going after this party again, that's a bad idea. And the party have reached level 11.
-
Sessions 18-20: the rain of terror
The party decided to check if a Marid was going to attack. And yes, a Marid was going to attack. I can't remember why they suspected this and checked, but I doubt they just randomly did this on the grounds of "it seems bound to happen here". So they scouted out, and intercepted the head of the raiding force, a legion of merfolk and water mephits. This force really thought people would kneel and welcome them, so the party just annihilated them with AoE attacks. I basically used the Mob template here to have "you are attacked by fifty dudes" without literally moving fifty people around, and it's better than the alternative but still not great.
The invasion continues, and this time the party splits up so it can cause more damage or something. Dog and Caravaggio saw the Sea Drake fighting off a Swamp Landwyrm, so they went to its assistance and absolutely saved its life. It still claims 68% of the credit for the victory. I believe there were negotiations about the percentage of credit.
Meanwhile, Malakar and Zeddo destroyed a pair of Coral Golems, only to them face a GIANT ENEMY CRAB. It was a siege crab, being piloted by a weak genasi, and so with some clever thinking, Malakar infiltrated inside the crew compartment and took the pilot out. But it's not over yet, they need to stop this war for good, and that means facing the Marid, RRRRRRRRRRRRAINMAKER!
Yes, that's a reference to "Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada, formerly leader of the Chaos faction in NJPW and annoyingly longest ever single reign as IWGP Heavyweight Champion, and now doing something in AEW.
Anyway, they do indeed destroy the Rainmaker. And so, the party have ended the Rain of Terror. Veiss managed to restore the AT-Field to the liberated Siege Crab, and they all found the invasion vessel the Marid was using, a manta-shaped... thing. Dog blinked them all into the control room, and they killed the Rainmaker straight away. Everyone else except a sorcerer accepted the party as their new leaders, so the sorcerer sadly passed away. After this, they swept through, and everyone in the vessel just accepted them as the new leaders. Even the guards took a view of "Well, you *were* intruders but *now* you're the new boss". So they have ended the siege.
There were various rewards, but perhaps more importantly, the party have been approached by a man called Teclis, who saw how effective they were in dealing with the assassin's guild and so researched them to learn more. He wants their help protecting another plane, this time protecting it from DEMONS! The plane is a little thing called the Nine Hells of Baator, and Teclis is actually Asmodeus, Lord of the Ninth. They weren't too surprised, nor were they particularly opposed to this.
More in the next post, as this brings us out of the "everything is wet" arc and into the high-level "do adventuring in other more dangerous planes for a while, have fun" arc.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Re: A game I ran: It's Wet Outside (Tome)
Still thinking about the ghasts on that ship. Oh also the Adventurers' Guild (TM).
Session 21:
The party have visited Baator, and been informed by Asmodeus of their task ahead - or rather, their opportunity to solve a problem. Essentially, as the biggest of the devils, he uses Manager speak - "there are no problems, merely opportunities". They agreed on a reward (one Moderate Magic Item each), and have gone to the coastal town where a shipyard is supposed to be built - but workers keep wandering off, sometimes killing each other.
They did some investigation, and it seems to coincide with the mists approaching from the Styx. Allegedly Styx mist doesn't work like Styx water though. After Communing a whole bunch, they learned the time, and figured out the mist isn't causing the memory loss, stupor and violence.
So eventually the mists arrived. And a group of demons inside it. The ensuing battle lasted quite a while, but eventually the party prevailed, killing most of the demons but capturing two of them for questioning.
Also, I can't remember which session this came up, but they discovered the true meaning of Lawful Evil in a tavern: a drink might cost 1 silver. But you have a 1 copper sales tax, except it's 2 coppers in the case of imported alcohols, there is a further 2 copper poison tax, a half-silver "insurance premium for damage caused by irresponsible activities thanks to drinking", and eventually it ends up costing somewhere in the 2-3 silver range, and you can't be fucked dealing with the maths so you just hand them a gold coin and tell them to keep the change. They swindle you through your laziness.
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Session 22:
The party have completed their opportunity, building good military defences for the shipyard-to-be and then tracking down the encampment used by the demonic attackers. Six hellfire missiles later, and the entire demon base is reduced to cinders and ash.
Their new opportunity involved carrying a fake magic item, acting as bait for raiders who didn't use the Styx and could strike seemingly from anywhere! So they did that, then in the space of one round defeated the combination of Glabrezu, Marraenoloth, and Boatman of the Styx. The party has been rewarded for this, and gained a level, and also Asmodeus learned that the raiders have been actually destroying magic items to gain power, so obliterated them (the raiders, not the PCs) with some kind of spell.
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Session 23:
The latest job is simply a case of sending the players out on recruitment across the lower and transitive planes, where presumably there will be at least one regulation level-appropriate battle per location. Yes it's mostly random fetch quest stuff but hopefully made bearable by also being a sightseeing journey. The options are the Astral Plane (for a chunk of a dead god), the Plane of Shadow (for a rare soul promised by Null), Acheron (for Blood Golems owed by Hextor), the Garden of Malice (in Carceri, for evil acorns), and Gehenna (for pyroclastic dragon eggs).
The party went with Acheron, and of course, Hextor welcomed them and offered them a refreshing fight to help relax after the long voyage of... casting teleport. There were many achaierai, there was one trap, there were two bladelings, there was a spiker... there was enough violence to keep Hextor happy. Presumably if ever any of them should become a god in future, they're welcome to return and challenge him... to WARGAMES.
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Session 24: in the Garden of Malice, baby, I don't know the rest of the lyrics
The party went to the Garden of Malice in Carceri, where they were met by poppy leshys, really cheerful little fellows. They really liked the map token I used for them, I think I ended up using it a bunch more in other things just because of that. Such a cheerful thing. There was also an ancient night twist making horrible noises, and an alraune there who was happy to chat. And then Caravaggio stole some acorns off the night twist, and that meant a fight happened.
The greenvise in the area was the biggest pain ever, but the night twist did some damage of its own. Many of the leshys died, the night twist eventually died, and the alraune was teleported away by dog. The rusalka in the area was eventually knocked out, and the greenvise died horribly when it was eaten by a spell.
After this, they decided it was important to bind a Planetar to resurrect the night twist and all the leshys (this bit makes sense, they're happy little dudes), and reported the success.
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Session 25:
The party went to Gehenna, and located the crawling city via magic. Upon getting there, they were shown directions to a pyroclastic dragon, who resisted a spell and managed to take some temporary HP away from Malakar, but didn't do anything cool with its breath of destruction. At this point I called it a victory when the party had to use Immediate Actions to counter stuff. They killed it and stole the eggs, as well as a brooch with an inscription, and they dedicated their lives to tracking down "Amarathea", who it was apparently to be gifted to.
My failings will forever remain etched in my soul, that I said "Oh yeah Amarathea has been driven into rage by loss long ago, and now casts Disjunction on everyone she meets out of spite" rather than jumping at the opportunity for something the players showed interest in. Like in retrospect I really should have gone with that.
Next they went to the Plane of Shadow, where they disabled some Sharites who were invading the temple of Null, basically being immune to most things, and so they were rewarded with the soulstone they were after.
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Session 26:
They went to Tu'narath, in the Astral Plane, which is a giant city built on a dead god. After harassing the local githyanki a bit they approached the skull, at which point the guards attacked. Some samurai, some single hit die warriors, an antipaladin, and also a red dragon. And naturally, the party won. We briefly saw an alternate reality where Zeddo was almost killed by a crit, before remembering that doesn't actually apply. (I can't remember if that was "Wait no I'm immune to Crits" or was a reactive activation of an ability to not be hit.)
And then the party stole an eye from the god's head, returned to Asmodeus, and not only were rewarded, they were also praised and flattered. And now hit level fourteen. So finally, this big mission is over.
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Session 27-28: They found beauty!
Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There, there's the legally mandated eye of the beholder joke. That fruit hangs so low you step on it, but it has to be done.
The party had some free time to sniff around for side quests, and so they encountered:
Rakshasa being shifty and up to no good, but I mean they're rakshasa, what do you expect?
and the trail of the CIRCUS that Caravaggio hates because it enslaved him, Zeddo hates because it enslaved his friend Caravaggio, and Malakar hates because it's a circus.
That trail led them into caves, and in those caves there are beholders being assholes, but I mean they're beholders, what do you expect? Also they have allegedly cunning traps, these beholders do. Anyway, two of them died in short order, and their captives aren't much either. But there is still one floor to go...
Also, this created the interesting situation of "Malakar, who is still possessing an otherworldly being via Magic Jar, cannot under any circumstances step within the Antimagic area of beholders". Because that would mean everyone has to stop while we figure out exactly what that entails, and probably it means he's temporarily kicked out of the body? Possibly means the original creature has control of its body regardless of what happened to its soul? Thankfully for all of us, Malakar took special care not to let it happen, and that made this area more interesting as a result.
The party cleared out the beholder caves, drowning the hive mother and even rescuing their captives despite not caring. Like, very specifically not caring. They had some clever defences and of course the usual strong offences, so the most clever plans of the beholders (who didn't have all the info) could not save them from being splattered like Cacodemons in Doom 2. Also the boss chamber had a bunch of mirrors set up just thanks to the map-making software, but I was quick to state "I am aware they can't use these for trick shots, I know it doesn't work like that". The mirrors still were smashed for reasons established in the first post.
The party found useless gold, useful TNT, and soulfire (major magic item material). But most importantly was the friends they made along the way. Just kidding, it's the soulfire, and also the XP and generally the murder, and the character-specific resolution.
Speaking of resolution, they found the former captives of the (now enslaved) circus, letting terrible things happen to the enlaved-then-freed-into-captivity circus team at the hands of their former captives, and helping the captives find new homes.
They even tracked down the non-monstrous captives who had been sold to devils - seemingly being lured into selling each other out as part of the corruption process, because not every condemned soul has to be a paladin. And they wiped the floor with the devils and saved the humanoids, before sending them to the nice island that the campaign started on - remember that? Back when "some ogres and zombies on a boat" was a threat.
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Session 29:
The party picked a fight with the Rakshasa mentioned before, then used some thought detection and speaking with dead to learn that orders were sent by the Rajadhiraja in the form of Dominated slaves who then killed themselves for security. They were in the process of converting people - ideally other fiends, who could be transformed, but mortals were accepted as slaves.
This investigation led the party straight to the Rakshasa base in Nessus, the lowest layer, where they understood the Rajadhiraja to be. They encountered a Naztharune who recognised them, formerly working for the Wet Works assassins in the Plane of Water. They then barged in on a pair of Rakshasa, only for a fight to start, and to discover that one of them wasn't a Rakshasa but was instead an Erinyes who had assumed their form. After questioning the corpses they learned that essentially, she was a recruitment specialist of Asmodeus who had intercepted a Rakshasa plot to subvert followers and overthrow the Nine Hells, and had managed to assume leadership, only for things to get out of hand. It was 50-50 "becoming the mask" and "being a hostage, unable to act due to being under careful watch of alleged underlings". So I guess technically this is all solved.
Asmodeus then had an opportunity regarding Ice Devils in Cania, so the party have gone there to question them. On the way, Malakar swapped his body out for that of a pit fiend. That's a side-note.
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Session 30:
The gelugons explained how their delivery of frozen souls appears to have been waylaid, and were berated for not using teleportation. Fair enough on that count. The party then went searching, and were attacked by a white dragon that they defeated, though it did solid damage to Zeddo's friend dragon. Oh also the voicebot interprets HP as Hydrogen Phosphate. That's a new one.
After this, obviously they tracked its lair, bypassing a Frost Worm completely, to get a bunch of assorted bizarre items including a pipe organ. Then they encountered Remorhaz that weren't really in a position to fight them due to the whole "being on the ground" thing, so Dog spoke to them and got info - it turns out that yes, they ate many of the petitioners carting the ice around, though not the devils (what with Ice Devils on the Ice Layer being immune to Fire, not Ice), and actually the problem is a raiding party of frost giants.
The session ended with them approaching the mountain that the giants call home, and offering wine.
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Session 31:
They did some negotiating with the jarl of the frost giants, and eventually agreed on a fight. So a fight was what happened. It did technically last two rounds, but the giants were all taken out of action pretty quickly, and they agreed to accept Caravaggio as their new jarl after that.
The party have since been rewarded, and now the lich Sertorr has sent his ogre zombie minion to invite them to a fight in his tomb in the negative energy plane - he's the lich who they annoyed before, destroying his phylactery and stealing his dragon. They destroyed the zombie, despite it very clearly bearing instructions not to do so, and then set out to smash Sertorr into pieces and steal all of his stuff a second time.
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Session 32:
The party have truly begun their quest for... avoiding vengeance? Finishing what they started?
At any rate, they began clearing out the Tomb of Sertorr, facing a fake trap, a frumious bandersnatch, a pile of undead, a cabal of mages who all died without realising there was even a fight, a mummy who just wanted to be left alone, and then a trio of nalfeshnees. Upon realising they were no match for the party, yet resilient enough to survive long enough to make that decision, the nalfeshnees surrendered, willing to offer up various secrets in exchange for their lives. The information wasn't that tasty, to be honest.
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Session 33:
They criticised the interior design of the place, and cleared more minions out. Also a hex dragon spent time in a maze, then swallowed Malakar, only to have its soul stolen because in doing so it "accepted" the gem that acted as the focus for the soul trap. That wouldn't work for a plain old "bite and swallow whole", it was specifically "I offer myself up to be devoured, do you accept?" situation.
They then found the secret treasure room!
The party bypassed a Void Oni and the Grundle*, they defeated a Garnath, creation of Erythnul, and then they threw a bunch of doors open all at once so were faced with a lich and a pile of minions and an antimagic monster, all at once. And still won, but there was a brief "Uh oh" kind of moment. Most notably, Malakar immediately offered the rest of the party up as slaves, "as is", and he accepted. "As is" includes all items including the "Trap the Soul" gems on them that had his name, so they stole his soul. Now he has no phylactery but he kind of IS a phylactery (and nothing more). Crazy times.
*Possibly the Grendel
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Session 34:
In exchange for an introduction to Asmodeus' daughter Glasya* and also joint control of Stygia, the party have agreed to the latest (and final) opportunity - putting a stop to the demons that are exceptionally powerful and exceptionally real - more real than their surroundings.
Unfortunately, the way I worded it "You know how when somebody casts certain illusions, if you know it's an illusion, you can see and feel how it is less real than the surroundings, but you still know it's there? Well these demons... these are MORE real than their surroundings. More real than real life." The players and their characters latched firmly onto the "illusions" part and decided that meant their foe here was the infamous Gnome Illusionist build from some 20 years ago, that had Shadow spells that were more than 100% real. I still don't know if I was right to hold course, or should have gone straight to "yes, that! Exactly, you got it!" and made it about the illusionist. As it was, I "borrowed" from the computer game version of Wrath of the Righteous (I don't think this is part of the regular tabletop version).
The party have found where the extra real demons originate from and entered the cave on the island. They have encountered a Bebilith that gets two turns per round and can cast Time Stop, Prismatic Sphere and Force Cage! That doesn't sound like a Bebilith! Worst of all, it alleges that it is not actually a spider, it is a metaphor... for spiders.
Well they slaughtered it, so all's well that ends well.
*"I know it is traditional for a ruler to offer their son or daughter's hand in marriage, but believe me, the only way I could give you her hand is by cutting it off, she won't listen to advice, suggestions, threats or demands, what have the Nine Hells come to when arch devils don't listen to their own father?"
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Session 35:
The party have moved further, and even managed to extract some information from their victims this time. They know Baphomet is in charge (not Bahamut - there was a big misunderstanding about this for a short while), and that he is empowering demons to be more powerful than they are supposed to be. So now they know their plans: defeat Baphomet (not Bahamut), (ideally stealing his soul/body/brain), then detonate the entire island.
Most of the monsters they face have some kind of weird thing going on rather than being "monster, maybe with added hit dice or racial prestige class". I make liberal use of the Mythic Rules from Pathfinder for this, I also slap the dumb Paragon epic template on one or two things. I mean there's a paragon mimic at one point, which only exists to be annoying.
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Session 36:
Finally, they got to the bottom of things - both figuratively and literally, by making their way to the deepest depths of the strange island. When they ambushed a den of mariliths, they finally learned what the situation was: Baphomet (still not Bahamut) was spawning demons from their larvae in the nahyndrian crystals that make up that island, all the congealed blood of a dead demon lord.
So they have an island made of powerful stuff, and they have a nuclear bomb (I should have mentioned that Veiss crafted one of those as an actual class feature. A sort of "fuck this city, I don't want to do any of the encounters related to this area" ability that costs "You can't Wish for it" materials to make so chances are you only ever get one). They also have a portal to Baphomet's realm (not Bahamut's realm). Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion!
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Session 37: the best solutions
The players nuked the nahyndrian island. Literally, they used a 50MT warhead.
And they stepped through the portal into Baphomet's (not Bahamut's) maze realm. The timing of this is more that they stepped through first, rather than being inside the island they nuked.
Combat was both long and annoying, but when it was clear the party were going to win eventually, they did the sensible thing and tricked him into having his soul trapped in a gem. I was more than happy to go along with this because it was just a shortcut to what was going to happen anyway, and cut out the middleman. Baphomet (not Bahamut... possibly also Bahamut, I don't know) has some annoyingly impressive defensive stats, but can't actually output much offensive power against real player characters who invest in standard defensive things.
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Epilogue:
The obliteration of the island in a towering firestorm - shattering every part that wasn't instantly vaporised, before pulling a giant volume of evaporated Styx in a massive column - almost went unnoticed in the Planes. After all, few knew of the secret island and the project. Its absence was mostly felt in Baator, due to the powerful Demons no longer being spawned.
The "destruction" of Baphomet, on the other hand, was a lot more of a big deal. Cultists found their prayers going unanswered. Minions ceased receiving orders so just went about doing "whatever they thought would work best". Disorder and in-fighting came naturally to the forces, of course, but the Abyss was home to such things anyway. There were rumours of Baphomet being seen later, having "gone rogue", and given he had once served and betrayed Asmodeus before becoming a demon prince, that could very well be believable.
Speaking of which, when Asmodeus was made aware of who inhabited the body, he found it most amusing that "the prodigal son returns". Regardless, he showed the adventurers an entire realm, the promised reward: Stygia in its entirety. Layers had had dual-rulership before, but not rule-by-committee, so this would be an interesting experiment. They found that, by group consent, the realm did indeed morph to suit their whims, and as such they all had their own personal heaven, albeit in hell. And an army of devils, a supply of souls (and thus, power), and a responsibility. But it was practically a responsibility to keep doing what they were already doing: winning.
As for the other part of the promise... Asmodeus did indeed make an introduction between all of them and his daughter Glasya. He openly praised their strengths, abilities and (subjective) virtues, while at the same time mentioning everything she brought to the table. Clearly, he saw no problems with forming some kind of union or alliance that would then mean a collection of adventurers and also his daughter would, between them, run two layers.
"For the record Malakar is going to live on his own personal demiplane instead of a hell plane and wants nothing to do with asmodeus's girl or whatever"
"Dog doesn't want to rule a region. He'll just occasionally planeshift around to check on the other party members and/or any NPCs we encountered that acted positively towards him and see if they need a flanking buddy or a greater planeshift to somewhere or some other kind of help, and/or occasionally raid their kitchens"
"Veiss would absolutely be down to rule a layer of hell"
"I think it would be extremely funny if we all noped out except Carvaggio and Veiss and then the two of them disagreed about everything and the Hell Plane could never be changed"
"Just a big ass line down the middle of the plane like when flatmates can't get along"
"That would be very funny
"OH that plane of hell, that's the plane of sex and boxing matches but you can't have sex in the boxing match zone or fight in the sex zone.""
"Zeddo is probably tempted to request Glasya's hand in marriage (since a romantic companion would be the only kind of friend he can't make with enough electricity) but if there's too much political infighting among the rest of the party he'll instead just ask for a nice layer or two to settle down with his fleshy friends instead."
"I was gonna say Caravaggio is too young to settle down on a dream plane and would return to the good ole prime material, but he’d actually probably accept and then get bored and leave/ghost Asmodeus. Definitely not interested in marriage. Ew yuck."
And that's how it ended.
Session 21:
The party have visited Baator, and been informed by Asmodeus of their task ahead - or rather, their opportunity to solve a problem. Essentially, as the biggest of the devils, he uses Manager speak - "there are no problems, merely opportunities". They agreed on a reward (one Moderate Magic Item each), and have gone to the coastal town where a shipyard is supposed to be built - but workers keep wandering off, sometimes killing each other.
They did some investigation, and it seems to coincide with the mists approaching from the Styx. Allegedly Styx mist doesn't work like Styx water though. After Communing a whole bunch, they learned the time, and figured out the mist isn't causing the memory loss, stupor and violence.
So eventually the mists arrived. And a group of demons inside it. The ensuing battle lasted quite a while, but eventually the party prevailed, killing most of the demons but capturing two of them for questioning.
Also, I can't remember which session this came up, but they discovered the true meaning of Lawful Evil in a tavern: a drink might cost 1 silver. But you have a 1 copper sales tax, except it's 2 coppers in the case of imported alcohols, there is a further 2 copper poison tax, a half-silver "insurance premium for damage caused by irresponsible activities thanks to drinking", and eventually it ends up costing somewhere in the 2-3 silver range, and you can't be fucked dealing with the maths so you just hand them a gold coin and tell them to keep the change. They swindle you through your laziness.
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Session 22:
The party have completed their opportunity, building good military defences for the shipyard-to-be and then tracking down the encampment used by the demonic attackers. Six hellfire missiles later, and the entire demon base is reduced to cinders and ash.
Their new opportunity involved carrying a fake magic item, acting as bait for raiders who didn't use the Styx and could strike seemingly from anywhere! So they did that, then in the space of one round defeated the combination of Glabrezu, Marraenoloth, and Boatman of the Styx. The party has been rewarded for this, and gained a level, and also Asmodeus learned that the raiders have been actually destroying magic items to gain power, so obliterated them (the raiders, not the PCs) with some kind of spell.
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Session 23:
The latest job is simply a case of sending the players out on recruitment across the lower and transitive planes, where presumably there will be at least one regulation level-appropriate battle per location. Yes it's mostly random fetch quest stuff but hopefully made bearable by also being a sightseeing journey. The options are the Astral Plane (for a chunk of a dead god), the Plane of Shadow (for a rare soul promised by Null), Acheron (for Blood Golems owed by Hextor), the Garden of Malice (in Carceri, for evil acorns), and Gehenna (for pyroclastic dragon eggs).
The party went with Acheron, and of course, Hextor welcomed them and offered them a refreshing fight to help relax after the long voyage of... casting teleport. There were many achaierai, there was one trap, there were two bladelings, there was a spiker... there was enough violence to keep Hextor happy. Presumably if ever any of them should become a god in future, they're welcome to return and challenge him... to WARGAMES.
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Session 24: in the Garden of Malice, baby, I don't know the rest of the lyrics
The party went to the Garden of Malice in Carceri, where they were met by poppy leshys, really cheerful little fellows. They really liked the map token I used for them, I think I ended up using it a bunch more in other things just because of that. Such a cheerful thing. There was also an ancient night twist making horrible noises, and an alraune there who was happy to chat. And then Caravaggio stole some acorns off the night twist, and that meant a fight happened.
The greenvise in the area was the biggest pain ever, but the night twist did some damage of its own. Many of the leshys died, the night twist eventually died, and the alraune was teleported away by dog. The rusalka in the area was eventually knocked out, and the greenvise died horribly when it was eaten by a spell.
After this, they decided it was important to bind a Planetar to resurrect the night twist and all the leshys (this bit makes sense, they're happy little dudes), and reported the success.
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Session 25:
The party went to Gehenna, and located the crawling city via magic. Upon getting there, they were shown directions to a pyroclastic dragon, who resisted a spell and managed to take some temporary HP away from Malakar, but didn't do anything cool with its breath of destruction. At this point I called it a victory when the party had to use Immediate Actions to counter stuff. They killed it and stole the eggs, as well as a brooch with an inscription, and they dedicated their lives to tracking down "Amarathea", who it was apparently to be gifted to.
My failings will forever remain etched in my soul, that I said "Oh yeah Amarathea has been driven into rage by loss long ago, and now casts Disjunction on everyone she meets out of spite" rather than jumping at the opportunity for something the players showed interest in. Like in retrospect I really should have gone with that.
Next they went to the Plane of Shadow, where they disabled some Sharites who were invading the temple of Null, basically being immune to most things, and so they were rewarded with the soulstone they were after.
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Session 26:
They went to Tu'narath, in the Astral Plane, which is a giant city built on a dead god. After harassing the local githyanki a bit they approached the skull, at which point the guards attacked. Some samurai, some single hit die warriors, an antipaladin, and also a red dragon. And naturally, the party won. We briefly saw an alternate reality where Zeddo was almost killed by a crit, before remembering that doesn't actually apply. (I can't remember if that was "Wait no I'm immune to Crits" or was a reactive activation of an ability to not be hit.)
And then the party stole an eye from the god's head, returned to Asmodeus, and not only were rewarded, they were also praised and flattered. And now hit level fourteen. So finally, this big mission is over.
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Session 27-28: They found beauty!
Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There, there's the legally mandated eye of the beholder joke. That fruit hangs so low you step on it, but it has to be done.
The party had some free time to sniff around for side quests, and so they encountered:
Rakshasa being shifty and up to no good, but I mean they're rakshasa, what do you expect?
and the trail of the CIRCUS that Caravaggio hates because it enslaved him, Zeddo hates because it enslaved his friend Caravaggio, and Malakar hates because it's a circus.
That trail led them into caves, and in those caves there are beholders being assholes, but I mean they're beholders, what do you expect? Also they have allegedly cunning traps, these beholders do. Anyway, two of them died in short order, and their captives aren't much either. But there is still one floor to go...
Also, this created the interesting situation of "Malakar, who is still possessing an otherworldly being via Magic Jar, cannot under any circumstances step within the Antimagic area of beholders". Because that would mean everyone has to stop while we figure out exactly what that entails, and probably it means he's temporarily kicked out of the body? Possibly means the original creature has control of its body regardless of what happened to its soul? Thankfully for all of us, Malakar took special care not to let it happen, and that made this area more interesting as a result.
The party cleared out the beholder caves, drowning the hive mother and even rescuing their captives despite not caring. Like, very specifically not caring. They had some clever defences and of course the usual strong offences, so the most clever plans of the beholders (who didn't have all the info) could not save them from being splattered like Cacodemons in Doom 2. Also the boss chamber had a bunch of mirrors set up just thanks to the map-making software, but I was quick to state "I am aware they can't use these for trick shots, I know it doesn't work like that". The mirrors still were smashed for reasons established in the first post.
The party found useless gold, useful TNT, and soulfire (major magic item material). But most importantly was the friends they made along the way. Just kidding, it's the soulfire, and also the XP and generally the murder, and the character-specific resolution.
Speaking of resolution, they found the former captives of the (now enslaved) circus, letting terrible things happen to the enlaved-then-freed-into-captivity circus team at the hands of their former captives, and helping the captives find new homes.
They even tracked down the non-monstrous captives who had been sold to devils - seemingly being lured into selling each other out as part of the corruption process, because not every condemned soul has to be a paladin. And they wiped the floor with the devils and saved the humanoids, before sending them to the nice island that the campaign started on - remember that? Back when "some ogres and zombies on a boat" was a threat.
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Session 29:
The party picked a fight with the Rakshasa mentioned before, then used some thought detection and speaking with dead to learn that orders were sent by the Rajadhiraja in the form of Dominated slaves who then killed themselves for security. They were in the process of converting people - ideally other fiends, who could be transformed, but mortals were accepted as slaves.
This investigation led the party straight to the Rakshasa base in Nessus, the lowest layer, where they understood the Rajadhiraja to be. They encountered a Naztharune who recognised them, formerly working for the Wet Works assassins in the Plane of Water. They then barged in on a pair of Rakshasa, only for a fight to start, and to discover that one of them wasn't a Rakshasa but was instead an Erinyes who had assumed their form. After questioning the corpses they learned that essentially, she was a recruitment specialist of Asmodeus who had intercepted a Rakshasa plot to subvert followers and overthrow the Nine Hells, and had managed to assume leadership, only for things to get out of hand. It was 50-50 "becoming the mask" and "being a hostage, unable to act due to being under careful watch of alleged underlings". So I guess technically this is all solved.
Asmodeus then had an opportunity regarding Ice Devils in Cania, so the party have gone there to question them. On the way, Malakar swapped his body out for that of a pit fiend. That's a side-note.
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Session 30:
The gelugons explained how their delivery of frozen souls appears to have been waylaid, and were berated for not using teleportation. Fair enough on that count. The party then went searching, and were attacked by a white dragon that they defeated, though it did solid damage to Zeddo's friend dragon. Oh also the voicebot interprets HP as Hydrogen Phosphate. That's a new one.
After this, obviously they tracked its lair, bypassing a Frost Worm completely, to get a bunch of assorted bizarre items including a pipe organ. Then they encountered Remorhaz that weren't really in a position to fight them due to the whole "being on the ground" thing, so Dog spoke to them and got info - it turns out that yes, they ate many of the petitioners carting the ice around, though not the devils (what with Ice Devils on the Ice Layer being immune to Fire, not Ice), and actually the problem is a raiding party of frost giants.
The session ended with them approaching the mountain that the giants call home, and offering wine.
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Session 31:
They did some negotiating with the jarl of the frost giants, and eventually agreed on a fight. So a fight was what happened. It did technically last two rounds, but the giants were all taken out of action pretty quickly, and they agreed to accept Caravaggio as their new jarl after that.
The party have since been rewarded, and now the lich Sertorr has sent his ogre zombie minion to invite them to a fight in his tomb in the negative energy plane - he's the lich who they annoyed before, destroying his phylactery and stealing his dragon. They destroyed the zombie, despite it very clearly bearing instructions not to do so, and then set out to smash Sertorr into pieces and steal all of his stuff a second time.
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Session 32:
The party have truly begun their quest for... avoiding vengeance? Finishing what they started?
At any rate, they began clearing out the Tomb of Sertorr, facing a fake trap, a frumious bandersnatch, a pile of undead, a cabal of mages who all died without realising there was even a fight, a mummy who just wanted to be left alone, and then a trio of nalfeshnees. Upon realising they were no match for the party, yet resilient enough to survive long enough to make that decision, the nalfeshnees surrendered, willing to offer up various secrets in exchange for their lives. The information wasn't that tasty, to be honest.
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Session 33:
They criticised the interior design of the place, and cleared more minions out. Also a hex dragon spent time in a maze, then swallowed Malakar, only to have its soul stolen because in doing so it "accepted" the gem that acted as the focus for the soul trap. That wouldn't work for a plain old "bite and swallow whole", it was specifically "I offer myself up to be devoured, do you accept?" situation.
They then found the secret treasure room!
The party bypassed a Void Oni and the Grundle*, they defeated a Garnath, creation of Erythnul, and then they threw a bunch of doors open all at once so were faced with a lich and a pile of minions and an antimagic monster, all at once. And still won, but there was a brief "Uh oh" kind of moment. Most notably, Malakar immediately offered the rest of the party up as slaves, "as is", and he accepted. "As is" includes all items including the "Trap the Soul" gems on them that had his name, so they stole his soul. Now he has no phylactery but he kind of IS a phylactery (and nothing more). Crazy times.
*Possibly the Grendel
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Session 34:
In exchange for an introduction to Asmodeus' daughter Glasya* and also joint control of Stygia, the party have agreed to the latest (and final) opportunity - putting a stop to the demons that are exceptionally powerful and exceptionally real - more real than their surroundings.
Unfortunately, the way I worded it "You know how when somebody casts certain illusions, if you know it's an illusion, you can see and feel how it is less real than the surroundings, but you still know it's there? Well these demons... these are MORE real than their surroundings. More real than real life." The players and their characters latched firmly onto the "illusions" part and decided that meant their foe here was the infamous Gnome Illusionist build from some 20 years ago, that had Shadow spells that were more than 100% real. I still don't know if I was right to hold course, or should have gone straight to "yes, that! Exactly, you got it!" and made it about the illusionist. As it was, I "borrowed" from the computer game version of Wrath of the Righteous (I don't think this is part of the regular tabletop version).
The party have found where the extra real demons originate from and entered the cave on the island. They have encountered a Bebilith that gets two turns per round and can cast Time Stop, Prismatic Sphere and Force Cage! That doesn't sound like a Bebilith! Worst of all, it alleges that it is not actually a spider, it is a metaphor... for spiders.
Well they slaughtered it, so all's well that ends well.
*"I know it is traditional for a ruler to offer their son or daughter's hand in marriage, but believe me, the only way I could give you her hand is by cutting it off, she won't listen to advice, suggestions, threats or demands, what have the Nine Hells come to when arch devils don't listen to their own father?"
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Session 35:
The party have moved further, and even managed to extract some information from their victims this time. They know Baphomet is in charge (not Bahamut - there was a big misunderstanding about this for a short while), and that he is empowering demons to be more powerful than they are supposed to be. So now they know their plans: defeat Baphomet (not Bahamut), (ideally stealing his soul/body/brain), then detonate the entire island.
Most of the monsters they face have some kind of weird thing going on rather than being "monster, maybe with added hit dice or racial prestige class". I make liberal use of the Mythic Rules from Pathfinder for this, I also slap the dumb Paragon epic template on one or two things. I mean there's a paragon mimic at one point, which only exists to be annoying.
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Session 36:
Finally, they got to the bottom of things - both figuratively and literally, by making their way to the deepest depths of the strange island. When they ambushed a den of mariliths, they finally learned what the situation was: Baphomet (still not Bahamut) was spawning demons from their larvae in the nahyndrian crystals that make up that island, all the congealed blood of a dead demon lord.
So they have an island made of powerful stuff, and they have a nuclear bomb (I should have mentioned that Veiss crafted one of those as an actual class feature. A sort of "fuck this city, I don't want to do any of the encounters related to this area" ability that costs "You can't Wish for it" materials to make so chances are you only ever get one). They also have a portal to Baphomet's realm (not Bahamut's realm). Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion!
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Session 37: the best solutions
The players nuked the nahyndrian island. Literally, they used a 50MT warhead.
And they stepped through the portal into Baphomet's (not Bahamut's) maze realm. The timing of this is more that they stepped through first, rather than being inside the island they nuked.
Combat was both long and annoying, but when it was clear the party were going to win eventually, they did the sensible thing and tricked him into having his soul trapped in a gem. I was more than happy to go along with this because it was just a shortcut to what was going to happen anyway, and cut out the middleman. Baphomet (not Bahamut... possibly also Bahamut, I don't know) has some annoyingly impressive defensive stats, but can't actually output much offensive power against real player characters who invest in standard defensive things.
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Epilogue:
The obliteration of the island in a towering firestorm - shattering every part that wasn't instantly vaporised, before pulling a giant volume of evaporated Styx in a massive column - almost went unnoticed in the Planes. After all, few knew of the secret island and the project. Its absence was mostly felt in Baator, due to the powerful Demons no longer being spawned.
The "destruction" of Baphomet, on the other hand, was a lot more of a big deal. Cultists found their prayers going unanswered. Minions ceased receiving orders so just went about doing "whatever they thought would work best". Disorder and in-fighting came naturally to the forces, of course, but the Abyss was home to such things anyway. There were rumours of Baphomet being seen later, having "gone rogue", and given he had once served and betrayed Asmodeus before becoming a demon prince, that could very well be believable.
Speaking of which, when Asmodeus was made aware of who inhabited the body, he found it most amusing that "the prodigal son returns". Regardless, he showed the adventurers an entire realm, the promised reward: Stygia in its entirety. Layers had had dual-rulership before, but not rule-by-committee, so this would be an interesting experiment. They found that, by group consent, the realm did indeed morph to suit their whims, and as such they all had their own personal heaven, albeit in hell. And an army of devils, a supply of souls (and thus, power), and a responsibility. But it was practically a responsibility to keep doing what they were already doing: winning.
As for the other part of the promise... Asmodeus did indeed make an introduction between all of them and his daughter Glasya. He openly praised their strengths, abilities and (subjective) virtues, while at the same time mentioning everything she brought to the table. Clearly, he saw no problems with forming some kind of union or alliance that would then mean a collection of adventurers and also his daughter would, between them, run two layers.
"For the record Malakar is going to live on his own personal demiplane instead of a hell plane and wants nothing to do with asmodeus's girl or whatever"
"Dog doesn't want to rule a region. He'll just occasionally planeshift around to check on the other party members and/or any NPCs we encountered that acted positively towards him and see if they need a flanking buddy or a greater planeshift to somewhere or some other kind of help, and/or occasionally raid their kitchens"
"Veiss would absolutely be down to rule a layer of hell"
"I think it would be extremely funny if we all noped out except Carvaggio and Veiss and then the two of them disagreed about everything and the Hell Plane could never be changed"
"Just a big ass line down the middle of the plane like when flatmates can't get along"
"That would be very funny
"OH that plane of hell, that's the plane of sex and boxing matches but you can't have sex in the boxing match zone or fight in the sex zone.""
"Zeddo is probably tempted to request Glasya's hand in marriage (since a romantic companion would be the only kind of friend he can't make with enough electricity) but if there's too much political infighting among the rest of the party he'll instead just ask for a nice layer or two to settle down with his fleshy friends instead."
"I was gonna say Caravaggio is too young to settle down on a dream plane and would return to the good ole prime material, but he’d actually probably accept and then get bored and leave/ghost Asmodeus. Definitely not interested in marriage. Ew yuck."
And that's how it ended.
Count Arioch the 28th wrote:There is NOTHING better than lesbians. Lesbians make everything better.
Re: A game I ran: It's Wet Outside (Tome)
You absolutely CANNOT trust Kaelik with the 8th level spell Trap The Soul and the name of ANY NPC.
I believe I had gems with the name of every single person we knew the names of, including that random person who hired assassins, and also Asmodeus and his daughter, and also each of the PCs. You never know when you need to offer someone a Wedding Ring (Will Trap Your Soul) or who you will need to offer it to, so the solution is being prepared for every eventuallity.
I believe I had gems with the name of every single person we knew the names of, including that random person who hired assassins, and also Asmodeus and his daughter, and also each of the PCs. You never know when you need to offer someone a Wedding Ring (Will Trap Your Soul) or who you will need to offer it to, so the solution is being prepared for every eventuallity.
Unrestricted Diplomat 5314 wrote:Accept this truth, as the wisdom of the Crafted: when the oppressors and abusers have won, when the boot of the callous has already trampled you flat, you should always, always take your swing."