Dobhyst Wasteland campaign

[ooc: Here here, just 2 more to go!]

The member 'Onions' has done the following action : Dice Roll

#1 'd6' : 5

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#2 'd6' : 4

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#3 'd6' : 5

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#4 'd6' : 6

[ooc: Ok here is the last one... I think.]

The member 'Onions' has done the following action : Dice Roll

#1 'd6' : 2

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#2 'd6' : 2

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#3 'd6' : 6

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#4 'd6' : 1

[ooc: Ok, quick question now that those are rolled. Do you reroll 1's?]

I'm just going to point out that while the dice rolling thing here isn't necessarily fabulous, it's a little better than that :P

The member 'Quark' has done the following action : Dice Roll

#1 'd6' : 1, 3, 6, 4

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#2 'd6' : 2, 1, 2, 1

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#3 'd6' : 4, 2, 3, 6

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#4 'd6' : 1, 2, 5, 2

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#5 'd6' : 5, 6, 3, 2

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#6 'd6' : 5, 6, 6, 1

You can get something like that, for example.
Which is actually a really silly set of rolls :P
13, 5 , 14, 8, 14, 17. Pick the right race and you can start with 1 in an ability score :P

[ooc: Hehe still kinda figuring out the controls here. *prepares for takeoff* How do eject in case I crash in the side of this here imaginary bui /end transmission]

Psst, Veggies. Try the chat box. It's seeing a lot of use at the moment :P

After an unreasonably long wait (University's busy, who'd have known?), I've finally prepped up the rewards you managed to collect/steal/extort after your spelunking through the crypt of a long dead, disgraced dwarf.

Quibbler: After spending a night in heavy debate with Chassiana (the drow) about the culture, customs and history of a particular clan of secretive dwarves; the rubbings of a large anumber of historical steles and discussion with an indeterminate form of undead contemporary with the period, Quibbler gains 2 ranks in Lore (Dwarven History (Dobhyst)) and 1 rank in Lore (Drow History). He is presented a rather nice looking braclet, inlaid with runes, by the chieftain (who's still mostly beardless).

Markus: After schmoozing the head dwarf back at Repashsk, Markus managed to get his hands on an, admittedly lusterless, shortsword. Exquisitely balanced, this blackened steel blade is inlaid with various dwarven runes and has a very sharp edge that simply will not blunt.

Ikiit: By returning with a successful expedition, Ikiit is no longer looked on with suspicion by the local dwarves, though they watch where he keeps his hands (paws? claws?) all the same. He also saw his alchemy skills tested and found wanting and has had a sudden burst of inspiration. Ikiit may add 3 1st level extracts to his formula list.

Mr S (We seriously still don't have a proper name?): After infusing himself with such an excessive amount of energy over the course of only half an hour, Mr. S's senses have perked up considerably. He can now feel the wind and predict it's effects far better than any mere human ever could. He gains Weather Savvy as a bonus trait. A young dwarf hands him a small axe, claiming he made it just for the airy sorcerer to keep him on the ground. Mr. S is given a single silver handaxe.

Jedediah: After only just meeting the party, Jedediah has only just begun to prove himself as a competent warrior. He is awarded a well wrought and lightweight breastplate by the chief smith of Repahsk as recompense for his assistance. Also, Jed at some stage notices his pack is quite a bit heavier than usual and notices a large sum of gold, (500 pieces in all), that he can't for the life of him remember putting there.

In addition to the gear they individually collected, the party found (excluding junk items):
8 doses of drow poison
6 rapiers
4 hand crossbows
5 daggers
1 greatsword
1 Masterwork Light Pick
4 bucklers
26 bolts
3 onyx crystals
2 scrolls, one written in flowing ink on sheepskin, the other in hard paint on a rough slice of pale leather
And 6 unidentified bottles of coloured liquid.

Please remember that at this point the campaign is character driven, not plot-driven, so I'll need a lot of player involvement to run this smoothly. Don't worry though, I'll start rail-roading you soon enough.

Unidentified bottles of liquid? This sounds like a job for... Quibbler's Exploratory Tongue!

Perception Checks:

...Or alternatively I just do the conventional detect magic with a +11 bonus.

Spellcraft Checks:

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Ahem. Now. What were we doing again? Did anyone have anything in particular they wanted to do/buy here still? I've been really terrible with my downtime, sorry. Might spend a while talking to NPCs or something live (But the lore ranks help cover a lot of the questions I would have asked probably, so thanks for that).

At this point it's really up to the party. There's known settlements to the south, east and north. Talking with a local tracker might get you some other intel on the area.

(Ikiit would like to appraise the Onyx crystals and pocket them regardless of price, also pocketing the poison cause they are dangerous and Ikiit likes the poisons.)

+9 appraise

The member 'The Sunbound' has done the following action : Dice Roll

'd20' : 1, 10, 16

Aaaaand the results of the various spellcraft checks on items are...?

(Also read magic on the scrolls since apparently I forgot them)

2 potions of CLW, 1 of CMW, one of invisibility and two fail to be identified.
The bracelet definitely gives off an faint aura of abjuration, but otherwise are not identifiable.
The scrolls come.up as a cl 3 invisibility and a cl 5 resist energy.

"Kekeke much thanks, much thanks Quibbler friend, will add to book, become invisible now."

Ikiit will in his time drink an Identify Extract and attempt to identify Quibblers Bracelet if he allows such.

And a Perception check to stick his little rat nose in the unidentified potions

Perception roll followed by Spellcraft
(Percep +7, spellcraft +20 with identify)

The member 'The Sunbound' has done the following action : Dice Roll

#1 'd20' : 3

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#2 'd20' : 6

I am glad I have that bonus on Spellcraft....

Go nuts. Not like it matters much; I can just try again 'tomorrow'

With a spellcraft bonus that high, Ikiit won't be failing any time soon...

He identifies the bracer as a stylised form of assisting glove.

The wearer of this simple glove can speak a command word to transform it into a glowing disembodied hand. As a swift action, the wearer can have the glove assist him with a task as if using the aid another action; the glove uses the wearer's base attack bonus or skill ranks when making the check to see if aid another is successful (it does not gain the benefit of the wearer's ability scores or other bonuses). The hand remains until it has attempted one action or until 1 minute passes, whichever comes first, at which time it becomes a nonmagical lambskin glove.

While all of this is going on, Quibbler notices a loose piece of parchment lodged in Aumrauth's spellbook.




The light whistle of the wind outside begins to fade briefly as a cacophony begins to sound out among the peaks. The winds become unbearably loud, incomprehensibly cold and snow kicks up in such volume as to completely block out the setting sun and obscure the vision of any person. The remaining dwarves outside rush in just in time to avoid being flung into the air. No reasonable person would even begin to consider travelling in this blizzard and a madman would be forced to consider his position. Some of the watch-dwarves draw a heavy piece of canvas across the entrance and secure it with chains to some deeply driven pitons in the hard stone wall, blocking what little of the snow-storm could be seen from inside the cavern.

In thanks for the party's efforts, the locals have lit lanterns in many of the corridors.

Downtime time...

The session began in the marketplace of Surgo. After being separated from society for so long, the party leaped at the opportunity to spend some of their (admittedly sparse) wealth.

Kharz (Mr. S HAS A NAME NOW!) went to the town square to attempt to put on a show for the locals with his skills in manipulating the wind. For making such a fool of himself, he managed a small pittance. Jedediah watched on, perplexed at Kharz' insanity while inwardly wishing he could move that fast.

Ikiit made a run for it, for reasons unknown even to him and Markus took chase. After the waste of several minutes, dice rolls and skill checks, Markus caught Ikiit.

Quibbler remained in the archives pawing through books related to the Thassilonian influence on the region.

They all then met up in a bar, the Bandied Word, where Markus brought everyone up to speed about the work on offer up at the castle. After one round of drinks there was a colossal explosion from the vicinity of the castle. Looking out the window, the party saw one of the watch towers in a state of collapse. Intent on investigating this peculiar event, they ran into trouble pretty quickly.

With a crash, several figures forced their way through a steel storm-water grate and jumped on several of the panicking townsfolk. The party quickly intervened and made short work of the first batch of sewer-zombies killing 7 of them but not before 3 civilian deaths. After following the road a little further, the inevitable occurred; a bigger zombie crushed it's way through a building, flinging another steel bar (this one penetrated and killed a man), and bursting into the road. He then proceeded to crush another 2 civilians before the party could even react. Ikiit took the initiative and began lobbing explosives. Jedediah moved up to attack, Markus closed for the sneak-attack and Kharz stuck to flinging small balls of lightning.
During this particular fight, Markus was incapacitated, Jedediah took quite a heavy hit and the others remained uninjured.

After turning onto the main road leading to the fortress gates the party was ambushed by a cluster of Sinspawn; 3 wrathspawn and 3 pridespawn. After a lengthy melee the party struck down their enemies and entered the fortress through the open gates. There they found several spawn locked in heavy combat with guardsmen. A shieldwall had been erected and appeared to be holding off the encroachment of further foes. With a little help from the PCs the courtyard was cleared and the source of the spawn became apparent, a hidden passage concealed underneath the collapsed tower.

As the party descended into the catacombs, the smell of combustion and explosive residue lined all walls. A small storage area was found at the end of the tunnel, next to a recently blown out barrier. Without further ado, our heroes set forth into the darkness. After a short walk they came across a small room with a large circular structure built in the centre, filled with water. The bodies of several guards lay next to the bodies of spawn; all dead. Across the room stood a hooded and masked figure. Markus stole the initiative and ran up to stab this figure. They responded with a spell. 6 seconds later a ball of sentient fire erupted in the center of the room.

After 3 round of furious combat, the magical figure lay dead and their elemental charge dismissed. Using the last ounce of willpower, they let off a large explosion dealing damage to all in the room (except Markus (evasion)).

With nothing more to fight, and the fighting in the streets over, the party were led for a meeting with the commandant. They were then offered some semblance of reward and offered paid roles in the upcoming expedition. The organizers needed bodies to replace the ones lost in this attack after all.


There the session ends 2 days before the expedition is set to leave.

Sewer Zombies? Would that make them smell better or worse than usual? Hm, that makes me wonder...

Eau de Sewer Zombie
School Illusion (phantasm) [mind-affecting, poison]; Level Sorcerer/Wizard 3, Witch 3, Mesmerist 3
Casting time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft/level)
Area 20 ft. radius emanation
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Will disbelief, then Fortitude partial; see text Spell Resistance yes

Description
This spell creates the illusion of the most horrendously disgusting smell imaginable by anyone within the target area (It doesn't actually create it because that would be gross). Creatures receive an initial saving throw to disbelieve the illusion; success on this saving throw makes the target immune to this casting of Eau de Sewer Zombie. Creatures must then make a Fortitude save against the spell; failure causes a creature to be nauseated for as long as it remains in the area of effect and for 1d4+1 rounds thereafter. Even on a successful save, the creature is sickened for the same duration, and must make additional fortitude saves against the effect each round it remains in the area.

Balancing considerations:

Downtime Complete!

So, uh, yes. Things are happening. Obviously. Might I request more information on this dig site? What are we expecting again? Also, I have completely forgotten what that note was supposed to say (I'll add it to my notes though)

The contents of that letter are known only to Markus, and anyone he lets in on it. I'll let Michael deal with that.

At this point, to your knowledge, this little dig will entail the discovery of a large quantity of treasure and artifacts (maybe) along with spelunking, traps, denizens etc. You can expect to collectively gain 3/4 of the value of all the items you uncover and the full value of any coinage you recover; along with the customary level or two.

Well, I'm good to go when you are. Might as well continue online in lieu of physical sessions. Most of my downtime is long gone doing mundane things like making weapons/designing spells/transcribing spells.

In the optimistic hope that stuff will happen if I post here:

Session Summary: Quibbler turned up and started helping explore the ruin. Squished stuff, helped a Barbarian Trapper add to his zoo (a stirge), and otherwise crawled around in dark depths.

From our current location, there's an illusionary wall to the north, the way we came + 'piano trap' to the west, a closed door to the south and a closed door to the east, with another piano trap in front of it.

Markus! Yes, walk through that wall. I want to know what's on the other side.

"I don't think so, if I am correct that just leads us back to the other end... or there is a massive pit. I would prefer to go east."

Tut tut, Markus. I sigh. I haven't noticed you taking measurements along the way to be sure. Besides, there might be more secret doors there. Or creatures lying in wait, watching for us. We've just been lucky so far things further in haven't heard us. Mother says that for some reason monsters don't seem to be able to open doors easily, so the rooms we haven't opened should be safe for now, so do the wall!

"I will have a look, but I will go no further than 20 feet."

Markus approaches the apparent stone wall and sizes it up. Upon noticing nothing unusual about it, save a very slight flicker, he proceeds to walk through the image. His vision cannot penetrate the darkness behind and he collides with a wall-like object about a foot later.

Moving on, Markus moves to the east passageway. Carefully tiptoeing to avoid shredded feet, Markus successfully evades the majority of the piano floor. He now stands before a locked, petrified ash door. Locked, as usual. A set of oily footprints approach the door and stop abruptly, and you detect no traps.

Ehhhehehe Petrified wood door from look, very old wood, very very old-old wood, or very new wood and basilisk-thing on other side? Can Basilisk-thing turn wood to stone, maybe door was ent. Interesting, interesting theories yes yes.

Enough talkies to self. Markus, is openable or can door be opened by sneaky-theify tools?

Ikkit will roll perception to check anything around the door including were the footprints come from and disappear.

Perception +9

The member 'The Sunbound' has done the following action : Dice Roll

'd20' : 9

Disable device check +13

The member 'UnsavouryCharlot' has done the following action : Dice Roll

'd20' : 7

What's that, Markus? You can't see through the darkness? So use your ioun torch to brighten it up! Just leave it in there for a little bit.

Upon noticing that's starting to try to pick another lock, I make the usual sort of choking sound and dive for cover.

Rolling DD check again +13

The member 'UnsavouryCharlot' has done the following action : Dice Roll

'd20' : 11

There must be something about this door which hates you... You do not succeed in opening the lock.

I sigh. You should really take 20 on this, Markus. Can't stand around outside rolling dice forever. Try rolling a bunch at a time at least.

It takes Markus a grand total of 120 seconds to pick the lock. A loud click rings out and the lock yields.

Hah, I know how this works. It's not safe until Markus has actually opened it an gone through!

[aside] One day, they'll make traps that leave the finder unharmed but hit everyone else [/aside]

Markus goes through the door

Markus may roll a fortitude save.

(For some reason I've only just gotten notifications that this was going.)

+4 fortitude

The member 'UnsavouryCharlot' has done the following action : Dice Roll

'd20' : 17

(Annoyingly, a similar post to this one failed a few days ago. Attempting to put as much of it's info into this one)

Markus passes his fortitude save as he sees a great big pair of yellow eyes glowing in the corner of the room. They have a feeling of burrowing into his soul causing a great feeling of unease as though it was a stone gaze which failed...

Markus gets a surprise round followed by a roll for initiative.

While we're at it, everyone roll for initiative.