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| Halls of the Mountain King - session write-ups & queries |
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| Wolfgang |
 Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2010 11:19 am Post subject: |
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He really should have a name, but I defer to the designer.
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Wolfgang Baur
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sat Jul 03, 2010 11:40 pm Post subject: |
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| Wolfgang wrote: |
| He really should have a name, but I defer to the designer. |
Maybe if Ben is reading this, he can explain what the rationale was?
Looking forward to the PCs reaching the actual Citadel on Monday!
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 1:57 pm Post subject: Session #5: The Sudden Stop |
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Hi,
Here's the write-up from last night's game. Like all non-MM3 brutes, the frost giants weren't as effective in combat as I wanted them to be - at one point three of them surrounded the paladin and none of them could hit him (AC 26). Fun session though and some interesting roleplaying among the refugee camps should occur next session!
As Ella tries in vain to get some information out of Ansgar, Sharden and Bolval examine the book they found in the saboteur’s footlocker. They figure out it’s title (Codex of the Illuminated Brotherhood) and that it’s both a book of rituals and an implement. Saethus is able to find out more by casting comprehend languages – the book contains the rituals brew potion, cure disease, raise dead and speak with dead. Next, Sharden rips off Ansgar’s shirt to reveal many elaborate tattoos depicting fiery pillars, esoteric symbols and, on his back, the recent tattoo of a crypt. Captain Clovis comes below, threatening to throw Ansgar overboard but Ella persuades him to give her another three hours to interrogate the tactiturn dwarf.
When the three hours are up, Ella still hasn’t learned any new information and doesn’t protest when Ansgar is thrown over the side of the airship to his death on the mountainside.
Bolval, feeling unwell, goes to bed, tended by Ella but the ranger is only able to stop the disease from getting any worse. The cleric wakes up with no action points and another 5 points necrotic damage. Brunerius Weitesland (neatness-obsessed airman) and Giroldus Flintknapper (white-haired helmsman) are both showing early symptoms of the plague too.
Later, the Manticore is flying into the icy winds of the storm blowing around Mount Rygar. As the Golden Citadel looms into view through the snow, Clovis calls out that the mooring tower is unmanned! The crew battles to bring the ship down safely as a gang of frost giants starts lobbing boulders at those on deck. Krivinn mans the ship’s ballista and Saethus and Ella attack the giants as Khuma, Bolval and Sharden help the crew keep the airship under control. A boulder strikes Giroldus, killing him, and several more bloody Captain Clovis as Sharden casts herald the storm unleashed to conjure a savage storm cloud which scourges the giants with lightning and thunder.
Despite the party’s best efforts, the Manticore crashes! All the PCs apart from the levitating Saethus lose 2 healing surges and there are many casualties among the crew - only Clovis, Rabscuttle, Vianna, Boso, Sawbones and Matheus survive. 5 tons of cargo are also destroyed. As the PCs get to their feet, the giants move in to attack. Krivinn uses winter’s arrival to step through shadow to the ground to engage his enemies in melee and soon finds himself surrounded by three giants. One of the huge humanoids swings his icy axe at Krivinn but Ella fires a disruptive strike to turn his hit into a miss. This is the closest the giants come to hitting the well-armoured dragonborn but the others have more luck lobbing boulders at Sharden, Saethus and Khuma. Nevertheless, the PCs prove far too strong for their foes, picking them off one by one.
Once the giants are all dead, the gates of the Citadel open and several dozen ragged humans come out. One says “Thank the gods you’ve come. Thank the gods. May they have mercy on you all!” Some of the Citadel-dwellers help the PCs and the dwarves get the Manticore’s cargo inside. Clovis whispers to Ella that the chest of orichalcum should be left buried in the snow for now.
Inside the Great Hall of the Golden Citadel, the PCs and the dwarves are greeted by an obese man wearing a pair of spectacles on the end of his pudgy nose named Halston. This merchant offers to buy the Manticore’s cargo at a premium although he doesn’t seem too keen on Vianna’s request that the payment is made in orichalcum rather than gems and platinum. During the negotiations, Khuma shouts insults and berates Halston, calling out “why are you so fat?” and “why is everyone else here so thin?” but the merchant doesn’t take any notice of him. Ella and Krivinn both suggest giving the food to the refugees for free but Clovis won’t agree. When the negotiations are interrupted by Father Jappe, a priest of Morwyn, trying to get food for the poor, Halston is dismissive, asking the priest where the bodies of the dead are. Father Jappe leaves, the jeers of the crowd ringing in his ears. Bolval and Krivinn go after him, following the priest to the camp where he administers to the sick. The two PCs got a bit confused by Halston’s words and thought they referred to undead wandering the halls. In fact, victims of “greed fever” disappear when they get really ill, heading deeper into the citadel. Father Jappe reveals he has seen Heinsoo - the party’s nemesis arrived on the Drake and was asking around about somewhere called the Library of Thorvir Runeshadow. Somehow, he must have gone down below as the priest hasn’t seen him recently.
Meanwhile, in the Great Hall, Clovis and Vianna sell all the Manticore’s cargo to Halston for 150,000 gp, paid in gems and platinum. The PCs spend a bit of time getting their bearings before finding somewhere to rest. Krivinn treats Bolval’s “greed fever”, curing him.
Cheers
Richard
Last edited by richgreen01 on Tue Jul 06, 2010 9:28 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| terraleon |
| Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 2:07 pm Post subject: |
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| Wolfgang wrote: |
| He really should have a name, but I defer to the designer. |
Part of the idea was to lend him a bit of mystery-- "Who was he? I'm not sure...we all just called him 'Journeyman," but also it allowed customization, permitting a GM to make him a villain the group had faced earlier. The level of abstraction gave him enough flexibility to allow the GM some options when using him.
-Ben.
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 2:11 pm Post subject: |
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| terraleon wrote: |
Part of the idea was to lend him a bit of mystery-- "Who was he? I'm not sure...we all just called him 'Journeyman," but also it allowed customization, permitting a GM to make him a villain the group had faced earlier. The level of abstraction gave him enough flexibility to allow the GM some options when using him.
-Ben. |
Thanks for the explanation. I actually do have an enemy that one of the PCs is after from his backstory so might make him The Journeyman!
Another question about something that's not clear from the text - does Vianna transform into a dragon when the cultists perform the ritual on her?
Cheers
Richard |
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| terraleon |
| Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 2:16 pm Post subject: |
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I'll PM that, so as not to spoiler it up. 
-Ben.
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 9:25 pm Post subject: |
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| terraleon wrote: |
I'll PM that, so as not to spoiler it up.
-Ben. |
Thanks - have replied.
There are going to be spoilers in this thread as it goes on so I'll add a warning.
Richard |
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| Wolfgang |
| Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 8:31 am Post subject: |
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I think the spoiler warning is pretty clear in the title: adventure writeups without spoilers would be dull, no?
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Wolfgang Baur
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2010 9:01 am Post subject: |
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While I think of it, I used Paizo's Gamemastery ship flipmat for the Drake and the Manticore. Not a perfect match but good enough. Worked really well!
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 12:16 am Post subject: another question! |
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Hi,
Presumably, the refugees, humans, kobolds etc had set up mining camps of their own on the mountainside but were forced inside by the bad weather?
Is that correct?
Cheers
Richard |
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| terraleon |
| Posted: Sun Jul 11, 2010 5:08 am Post subject: |
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They could have, but by the time the adventure starts, they're all inside.
Honestly though, if I were the dwarves, I'd want to bring them all inside, because I don't want uncontrolled entrances to the mines. If I've got them inside, I can keep them from making new ones.
-Ben.
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 11:58 am Post subject: Session #6 The Great Hall |
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Here's what happened in last night's game. Didn't quite get to finish the chapter! Lots of fun roleplaying as the PCs got to talk to the various NPCs.
The PCs had a few problems with the forsaken but the wizard's wall of fire kept out the howlers. Maybe a bit too easy - the PCs are a bit higher so I might toughen up the next encounter....
15th Quintilis
Although Bolval is now feeling better, Krivinn and Khuma aren’t - both appear to have come down with greed fever. Nevertheless, they’re not ones for malingering and the party ventures forth into the Great Hall of the Golden Citadel in search of information. The first person they talk to, a starving prospector called Ruben, explains a bit about the economics and some of the factions living in the Citadel, and also tells the PCs no one, to his knowledge, has been able to open the great big double doors at the far end of the Great Hall. Leaving Bolval behind casting the traveller’s feast ritual in order to create food for a few of the refugees (even though Khuma tells him it’s pointless), the other PCs go to have a look themselves at the doors. They are made out of adamantine and covered in intricate engravings not dissimilar to those covering Rabscuttle.
Next the PCs explore the feast hall and some of the rooms near the entrance. Krivinn blunders straight into a “chickenhead” trap set by some kobold kids who find it hilarious when the dragonborn ends up covered in goop and feathers. Uncharacteristically, the paladin’s reaction is restrained and the party are able to learn a bit of info about how the kobolds came to the Citadel from Zobeck as part of the gold rush. Learning that the kids’ father, Lazy Toe-Belcher, is a regular at the Knucklebone, a tavern set up inside the airship mooring tower, the PCs head there (now joined by Bolval) to find out the word on the street.
Drinks at the Knucklebone are very expensive so the PCs decide not to slake their thirsts. Instead, Krivinn strides boldly past the kobold stair guard and into the presence of Old Ossa, the Squinting King. The venerable kobold insists on proper respect from the party but accepts Krivinn’s dragonborn flourish and Khuma’s stiff salute in lieu of genuine bowing and scraping. A few more bits of information about the situation in the Halls are gleaned including the fact that the chimneys in the Great Hall are cold because the elementals are no longer heating the forges.
Leaving the Knucklebone, Ella spots the dwarf firewood merchant Jorgen Stravbard hiding a piece of cloth hurriedly. After some pressure, he shows her the piece of needlepoint he’s been working on, much to Bolval’s amusement. Talking to Jorgen, the PCs find out that a secretive brotherhood of “Silent Masters” apparently rules the dwarves and that the deep caverns contain strange pale, mutated dwarf-like beings. To Bolval. these sound like the fabled “derro”.
The party decide to visit the dwarf camp next - here the gate guard turns them away but promises to speak to Varden Redfel when they offer to head down below and find out what’s happened to the elementals.
Back in the Great Hall, the PCs spot Rabscuttle at the adamantine doors, muttering to himself. The gearforged knocks several times in an unusual fashion but the doors don’t open. Khuma and Ella memorise the knock for latter reference. As Rabscuttle babbles about the serpent queen and liftgas caverns, the party take him back to their camp to see if Sawbones can “fix” him. Unfortunately, the doc says that Rabscuttle has always been that way! Meanwhile, Clovis has got wind of the fact that the kobolds in the Knucklebone are using airship parts as bar furniture and tries to get the PCs to come with him on a raid to take it back. They aren’t keen.
At that point, a great crash comes from beneath their feet, shaking the whole Great Hall! The PCs rush into the merchant camp and demand that Halston lets them head downstairs (which he does). In the cavern below, the PCs find the dead bodies of several refugees, killed as part of some bizarre cult ritual. Symbols, similar to Ansgar’s tattoos, are daubed on the floor in blood. Ahead, one of three gates leading into the mountain has been smashed asunder.
As the PCs take in the scene, a feeble-looking man looms out of the darkness. This is Ogdred who explains that Vianna was behind the killings and the broken gate - she turned into a dragon after performing her sinister ritual and smashed the door down. Khuma, who’s been behaving increasingly erratically recently anyway, isn’t sure what to think so knocks out Ogdred by bopping him over the head. Then, a horrible howling starts up, coming from the passage beyond the broken gate.
The PCs get ready for battle and Saethus casts wall of fire to make it hard for the enemy to engage the party. A warband of eight derro attacks the PCs but all either get caught in the wall of fire of have to pass through it to attack, getting badly scorched in the process. Nevertheless, the enclosing darkness of the ambushers, the guisarme trip attacks of the soldiers and particularly the bombard cannisters fired by the deathspittle bombardiers cause the PCs quite a bit of trouble - Krivinn and Ella are both dominated and others are poisoned or slowed. In the end, though, the party are too strong and overcome their enemies with Bolval delivering the killing blow to the last soldier.
The PCs can still hear howling from behind the wall of fire.....
Cheers
Richard |
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| terraleon |
| Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 1:48 pm Post subject: |
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Those bombardiers are the best. 
But I'm prejudiced.
I will say though, one of the things I'd be willing to steal away from 4E is the Wall attack form. I think it does a much more intuitive job of handling some attacks.
-Ben.
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 2:17 pm Post subject: |
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| terraleon wrote: |
| I will say though, one of the things I'd be willing to steal away from 4E is the Wall attack form. I think it does a much more intuitive job of handling some attacks. |
It got a bit confusing with the bombardiers' "walls" scrawled in different colours on the battlemat. I had them block line of sight and line of effect - thinking about it now, I think they should have blocked line of sight only.
Cheers
Richard |
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| terraleon |
| Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2010 3:11 pm Post subject: |
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I don't know that I'd have them do either. They're a momentary "wall," a rope-like jet of liquid that sprays an oddly-shaped area for the instant of the attack, rather than creating a constant effect...or at least, that was my intent.
-Ben.
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