Post/Author/DateTime	Post
solbergb 10-12-07, 07:21 PM	As my RHOD recap was well received and our second Demonweb pits game starts tomorrow I thought I'd take a stab at this module too, from player perspective. As with the other threads, this will have massive spoilers for Expedition to Demonweb pits. This is part #1. Part 2 can be found here: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=940600 Like RHOD, this game is being played under Living Greyhawk rules. Unlike RHOD, we as a party are I believe stronger than the module expects and it does not really adapt (so far) to the power level as well. Cast of Characters. I don't know most of the exact builds, but will just give a kind of "role" as listing the PRC's doesn't actually show how the character is played. Unlike the RHOD cast, which is mostly Neutral, this party is entirely good and mostly lawful good. Four of the six charactes even have Aura of Good (cleric or paladin levels). Unlike RHOD also, all of us are experienced players and most of us have worked together before, often with these characters. Some of us even played and ran the original Q1 finale to the Giant/Drow/Demonweb 1st edition tournament modules. Olivia -L11 Human (Rhenee) Telekenetic themed Sorceress. She can trace the origin of most of her spells to about 3 (as an example, solid fog is just evards without a surface, according to her). Specializes in moving things around and battlefield control. Can do damage too, properly equipped. Weak on area damage. The only powerful spells she has out of the TK theme are oriented to magical analysis. Kyndiah - L12 Halfling light fighter, who has a strong religious vocation with Avoreen. A very fierce little warrior, she uses a variety of divine tricks to power her attacks and isn't afraid to wrestle with medium sized or smaller enemies. Tuvok - L10 Human "Ninja" - he's very much like an Anime character, (no levels in Ninja though) - very powerful charge+cleave attacks, lots of mobility but somewhat fragile. He makes a lot of use of boots of big stepping+knight's move to surround an enemy with hostile melee types. He will sometimes grapple enemies. Kohan - L10 Dwarf Spike Chain Occult Slayer - He's a rare light armor dwarf. He's better at dealing damage than taking it, using hitpoints as his main defense. Ralin - L10 Dwarf Pelorite Priest - A generalist cleric, preferences are offensive casting, buffing, healing in that order. Heavy armor dwarf. Argent - L7 Human Radiant Servant - Medic/Support style priest, also heavily armored, preferring healing, buffing to other cleric roles. This is a weird party for Olivia, in that four out of five teammates want her oversized, enchanted bolts. Argent because he can cast align weapon on them before she TK's them at demons, the three melees because they're all light enough to toss (along with 11 arrows) at a foe with TK Violent Thrust and all are agile enough to bounce off the enemy and land on their feet. Indeed, as Kyndiah is really light, if she's close enough to one of the others, Olivia can sometimes toss TWO melee at an enemy. The party's only real lack is a Rogue, and Olivia's ability to detect auras plus do remote manipulation cover most of that. Tuvok's good saves, evasion and mettle allow him to spring what she misses fairly safely. Kohan also has auravision and we've got two paladins for detect evil, so we can do a lot of passive "detecting".
solbergb 10-12-07, 07:35 PM	The party assembles to help out elves in a far land, who are under assault by drow - highly unusual on the surface world, but not unheard of in Sterich, where drow-backed giantish invasions have occurred for decades. Olivia's Phantom Steeds ensure rapid transit and the party stops in a Fharlangan (god of travel/roads) rest stop for the night, and is just beginning to set up camp when those still outside of the structure hear the clomp of heavy footsteps approaching. Raising the alarm via Message, various party members peek out in the direction of the Drow, with Kyndiah disguising herself as a helpless human girl, Olivia scooting up onto the roof and Tuvok blending into shadows on the side oppsite Kyndiah. A number of zombie giants are approaching, and those with keener vision spot some drow lurking in the shadows as well. Olivia introduces the drow and one zombie to Evards, while Tuvok and Kyndiah engage the nearer zombies. Other party members pour out of the building and recitation and righteous wrath of the Faithful bolster the party. An unseen enemy tries to dispel the Evards - Olivia activates her dragon mask and sees another invisible drow. That drow is promptly evards as well, but the tentacles are incapable of grasping her. By now the butchery of zombie giants is fully underway, the party warriors under powerful buffs dispatching them with little difficulty. The female drow leader attempts to turn the tables but her spell is interrupted by a readied silence from one of the clerics, and the other hit her with a targeted dispel. Luckily for her, she'd exited the evards. Her attempt cost her the protection of invisibility though, and that allowed Olivia to toss Tuvok and a number of enchanted arrows at her. She did not survive those arrows and his sword. A fairly routine warmup fight we thought....until Olivia scanned them for magic with her arcane sight. The chain shirt of the leader was just brimming with multiple layered auras. "It's worth a fortune!" It also, upon experimentation, proved to be so lightweight and supple that it did not interfere with Arcane Casting. Because Olivia's arrow load was portined out, she could actually spare the weight to wear it. For the first time in her career, she actually has some armor class... Unfortunately, being Drow Female armor, it is not exactly....modest. Luckily Olivia has a hat of disguise.
solbergb 10-12-07, 07:39 PM	We figured that immediately tracking the attackers to their lair would be a good idea, before those who sent them knew they'd attacked the wrong traveling party. Tracking giant zombies is not a challenge for Tuvok. We entered a cave complex and got involved in a running fight that included: a couple rogues hiding behind a rock that got trapped in an evards and never escaped. A mounted combat guy on a lizard that attempted a Spirited Charge (running on the ceiling) vs a levitating Olivia, only to be foiled by Kyndia ruining it with a successful grapple. A flying insect demon the size of a horse, which shrugged off a Kyndiah and Tuvok plus 10 arrows tossed at it, but succumbed to tanglefoot bag, eventual grappling, a dispel magic and massed melee attacks. Kyndiah then made friends with the lizard, and used it as a mount for most of the rest of the adventure. Searching the area found evidence that these were extradimensional drow, not local underdark drow. Drow from all dimensions were being sent against Oerth! Along with this information was instructions on how to activate a portal. We rested and entered.
solbergb 10-12-07, 07:52 PM	The portal lead to a strange extradimensional nexus, a place where all beings were tolerated and anything could be bought or sold (from fresh babies for the demons to mighty artifacts of good....) We did not choose to tempt the local "police" or otherwise draw attention to ourselves. We did get the armor properly identified (paid for an analyze dwoemer....Olivia intends to take it next level and spent some time talking "shop" with the person who cast it) and bought some other minor items, fencing the drow armor/weapons. While doing this, we spent a while talking to people, trying to pick up rumors on unusual drow movements. Selling their stuff was a good ice-breaker. I do not remember precisely how, but eventually we found ourselves in a tavern frequented by mostly lower planes creatures, with a Marilith bartender. We were not the most inconspicuous bunch, but Olivia's evil drow armor and time in bandit kingdoms served her well and she was able to mingle reasonably well. She picked the one human (looking) person in the bar and chatted him up, and learned that he was a very experienced planar traveller. They swapped plane travel stories for a while and he eventually revealed that he also was a pretty good judge of where things were locally, and how to find the current location of planar rifts. Meanwhile Tuvok got into a conversation with the bartender and asked for the "good stuff". She poured something that looked really nasty and he had the sense to ask if this drink had "moral" consequences. When the Marilith smirked, he gave the drink to a local quasit, who greedily drank the essence of tortured souls, and acted like he'd just gotten a very potent stimulent. The rest of the party got caught up talking to an unusual creature who always spoke in threes. (ie he'd say "the man exited, went outside, escaped" not "the man left the building") The GM did it very well (although I believe he relied heavily on module boxtext) and we had one player that was doing it back to him ad-libbing, which impressed all of us. In any event this creature was had sensed somehow that we were about to challenge the power structure of the Spider Queen. To do so, we needed to fulfill a prophecy...and the first step was to get instructions from the Blinding Eye (of Pelor, I think). So we go into the "good" part of town to see this place, and the guardians fo the temple eventually let us in, although they took inordinate interest in Olivia's chest (they CLAIMED that the armor had a stench of evil on it. Sure. We all know where half-celestials come from). The Pelorites loved the whole thing though, including being in a room with a gigantic eye that shined light that was blinding even with your own eyes shut. It gave another cryptic riddle, something about gathering up two weapons as a first step. We decided to return to the creature who spoke in threes for more guidance.
solbergb 10-12-07, 07:56 PM	On the way back into the "Evil" area a bunch of officious celestials of Pelor blocked our way. They were spoiling for a fight, but we managed to convince them that we'd just been to the Temple, and we actually turned the table on them, dressing them down for not checking with their superiors. In the end though, we all went back to the temple, where the folks there apologized to us and reprimanded the overeager celestials. Harmless, but wasted our time. Truly the telepathic rats that said not to trust even the gods spoke truly. Finally we get back to the tavern, and the person who speaks in threes identified the weapons. A demon-slaying bow, a demon-chastising sword. Well, those sound useful. The bow was in the Hunting Grounds, the sword less well known. A visit with Olivia's plane-travelling friend and we had directions to a portal that lead to the World Tree, and from there we could get to the Hunting Grounds if we found a guide.
solbergb 10-12-07, 07:59 PM	The World Tree is another dimensional nexus. For those unfamiliar with norse mythology, the demons and giants chew at the roots, while the gods live at the top and midgard (earth) is in the middle. It's a giant tree, with dimensional nexi at the branches. It is also sort of a marketplace, but there isn't much local goods and food that is not nuts/berries/similar tree-stuff is in high demand. So it is not hard to get an intelligent squirrel person to lead us to the hunting grounds.
solbergb 10-12-07, 08:03 PM	The Hunting Grounds is a place with legendary beasts and hunters. The trick is to not be the hunted. We were moving fast on Phantom Steeds, so we pretty much had the choice of when to fight most of the time. There was an archer mounted on a stag chasing some displacer beasts into us that required us to fight (both his prey and the hunter....they did not survive long getting immobilized with evards, pounded by cleric spells and close combat with our fighters) Getting the bow was a non-event. We were polite, went to where it was stashed, asked if it wanted to help kill some demons and it was pretty much like "sure". (it was an intelligent bow). Returning, some foolish druid thought we'd be easy prey. While his entangle did lock down the Steeds (phantom steeds don't have reflex saves. They're kind of magical constructs. we assumed it confused them and they just held still when entangled), it did not stop the druid from being surrounded instantly (boots of big stepping+fighter next to tuvok+knight's move for the flank, followed by a violent-thrusted fighter). Surrounded by three melee, two with full attacks ready, is not where a druid wants to be. His animal companion didn't last much longer than the druid.
solbergb 10-12-07, 08:08 PM	Returning to the World Tree, our guide was not waiting. We were told by a relative of his, that he'd gone to the "bad place" and not returned. There is a place with "Really good nuts" that had become haunted or dangerous somehow. We offered to investigate and rescue or avenge our former guide. We got to the section where the Tree was sick and approached cautiously. Even so, the monster got the drop on us. Out of holes in the branch, sticky tendrils attacked our front line. They did not do much damage, but they tried to draw the warriors into the hole. Attempts to move drew more tendrils. Olivia, wanting to get out of reach, flew up into the air and from that angle identified a creature that was dug into the branch, 40-50' away....it seemed to be extruding the tendrils. With that information, Tuvok brought Kyndiah and Kohan next to the beast with Boots of Big Stepping, after being powered up by divine magic. Again, the beast proved no match for the concentrated power of this party's warriors. It had a rather extensive lair, with many unusual treasures. We determined that our former guide had been eaten by some tatters of his equipment, and returned what was left to his kin.
solbergb 10-12-07, 08:15 PM	The squirril's had word of the sword we were looking for. Some frost giants had wrested it from its former owner, and had entered a portal to some frigid realm in the lower branches. We went to that portal and entered, finding a slowbound land. We left Kyndiah's lizard in the World Tree and proceeded with endure elements, cold weather clothing and phantom steeds providing excellent mobility (waterwalk also works on snow). The terrain did not allow much choice of direction, so we explored and presently came upon a tower perched on a rise, blocking the exit to the valley. Two frost giants were on the roof. Most of the party zoomed up the ramp, which circled around the tower. The speed of the Steeds was such that they could get mostly to the top in one round. Olivia blocked attempts to throw rocks with a wall of force on the roof, and so the giants came down out of the tower onto the road. Highlights of that fight include: Giants piling up at the entrance due to Grease. Kyndiah soloing a giant poking at its ankles with her weapons and proving unhittable. (power attack is bad vs elusive target) A giant jumping then sliding down the mountainside to try to push Kohan off the mountain path (darn that dwarf stability!) Fire spells fizzling on this plane of existance....but Olivia's NONMAGICAL alch fire+oil tossed with TK proved effective (although the wind and cold extinguished it in one round). They killed a phantom steed and dinged up our fighters a bit, but in the end the sword was ours. Quite frankly we were not that impressed with it. While it is evil outsider bane, it can't penetrate DR/evil and its extra cold damage is ignored by most lower planes creatures. However it was part of the prophecy, so we took it with us. Kyndiah ended up holding it (she can only use it when enlarged, but Tuvok and Kohan are both specialized in other weapons)
mearrin69 10-12-07, 08:15 PM	Beautiful. You guys covered a lot of ground for one session! Looking forward to reading more. M Edit: Hope you wanted comments/encouragement.
solbergb 10-12-07, 08:28 PM	We returned to the marketplace nexus with our treasures, intending to talk to the "man who speaks in threes" about next steps. However, while entering the "Bad part of town" again, we are ambushed by a bunch of "liths" (nyacolith, messolith, some others)....neutral evil extraplanar mercenaries. One thing about this nexus is that planar magic doesn't work (dim door, blink, etc). The fight opened with two cloudkills dropped on us, killing Kyndiah's lizard friend and draining constitution from all of us. A Nyacolith (flying creature with big axe and many claws) flew next to Olivia, immune to the poison, while other eyeless creatures struck unerringly through the fog with paralyzing tongues. There was a bit of confusion at first, as people tried to move, got zapped by tongues that also grappled and in one case gripped a cleric. Ralin managed to dispel one of the cloudkills, and by the time Olivia got to go, the party was neatly lined up. She took a hit from the Nyacolith flying into position, then cast "gust of wind", sweeping the poisonous vapors away from the party. At this point the party started to recover from the shock. The melees were near the eyeless creatures, and made short work of them. One Mezzolith attempted to dispel the gust of wind (so the cloudkill would roll over the party) but failed. The other dropped a second cloudkill on the one unprotected party member, and waited for the gust of wind to drop. Unfortunately for them, Olivia is a sorcerer and one with sculpt spell. No longer having to move, she cast a sculpted gust of wind, clearing away all of the gas. That allowed Tuvok to leap and climb up to the roof and threaten one Mezzolith, while Kyndiah finished off the last eyeless creature and Khoran threatened the Nyacolith with his spiked chain, but could do little because the creature was protected by many mirror images. While Tuvok was battling one Mezzolith on the roof, he saw the Quasit from the bar cheering the mercenaries on "You take all the loot...I just want the sword". Meanwhile on the ground, Olivia and Kohan coordinated their attacks. Deciding to risk another cloudkill, Olivia tossed a whirling blade at the Nyacolith, stripping it of mirror images. That allowed Kohan to open up on his spell-using foe, with his sacred spiked chain. He struck with power and accuracy, and the beast was nearly slain when Kyndiah bounced up and got the killing blow. As the final Mezzolith watched his brother be carved up by Tuvok, it decided to flee. Unfortunatley for it, Olivia's Phantom Steed was right where she left it and there was no way it could outrun that. Its path was blocked by solid fog....and when that was dispelled, sufficient walls of force to trap it until her warrior friends caught up.
solbergb 10-12-07, 08:31 PM	After making it back to the tavern and finding out that our path now went to the lower levels of the nexus (where we were warned never to go earlier) this session ended. As I said, we have had it all our way so far, only really being challenged when the mercenaries attacked. We avoided some conflicts with diplomacy and with party composition (we'd have been very stupid to be fighting celestials, even though they were itching for a fight). The GM has warned us that next time we will be challenged more. For one thing, this chapter had lots of isolated encounters, separated by days. Anyone with X/day abilities is going to be stronger and we all have some of them, plus three primary casters. If we get a string of encounters with no chance to rest, we'll certainly be challenged more. Comments are of course welcome. Right now we seem to be doing very well. We'll see if that holds up in part 2. In part 2, Olivia is now level 12 and it is possible one or two of the others have also leveled. For Olivia, level 12 is a fairly large power jump, as her greater magic weapon goes to +3, she can "chain" it, and she's now got the combination of rapid metamagic and quicken spell (so she can do things like put up the gust of wind AND strip the demon of mirror images) and she gets 5 more top tier spell slots (four L6, one L5). That power comes at a cost of very rapid slot burn though, and even a sorcerer can't do that casually. We're going to attempt all of the second part tomorrow, starting at 8AM and playing for 12-16 hours. (scheduling is hard, so we make the most of when we can play). The first part we did in two sessions - everything up to the World Tree in the first session in a 6 hour session, and the rest in an 8 hour sesson two days later.
lakeith79 10-18-07, 12:27 PM	Nice, I am working on writing up my recap for pretty much the same encounters. (My players just defeated the Wild Hunter)