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| Halls of the Mountain King - session write-ups & queries |
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| richgreen01 |
 Posted: Sat May 14, 2011 12:42 am Post subject: |
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Thanks Dan - that's great!
I'm going to work through the next few encounters today & tomorrow as I'm running again on Monday night. The lower halls area was very atmospheric and the encounter with Carod's ghost was great fun!
One thing worth noting that might help anyone else running the adventure is that I've been bumping up monster damage in line with the rules updates from WotC and this has definitely improved how the encounters have turned out.
EDIT: some updated stat blocks follow this post
Cheers
Richard
Last edited by richgreen01 on Sun May 15, 2011 2:59 am; edited 1 time in total |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 2:55 am Post subject: Tougher version of Bragollach |
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Bragollach, Corrupted Gold Dragon
Level 11 Solo Controller
Large natural magical beast (dragon) XP 2,000
Initiative +7 Senses Perception +12; darkvision
hp 380 Bloodied 190
AC 25 Fortitude 23 Reflex 25 Will 23
Resist 15 fire Saving Throws +5
Speed 8, fly 10 (hover), overland flight 15
Action Points 2
Standard Actions
[mba] Bite (standard; at-will) Fire
Reach 2; +16 vs. AC; 2d8 + 6 damage plus 2d6 fire dmg
[m] Claw (standard; at-will)
Reach 2; +14 vs. AC; 2d6 + 7 damage
[m] Double Attack (standard, at-will) Bragollach makes two claw attacks
[m] Hornblade Charge (standard; usable only when charging; at-will)
Reach 2; +14 vs. AC; 3d6 + 9 damage, and target is impaled (treat as grabbed); an impaled character cannot be targeted by Bragollach’s bite, but otherwise follows the
normal rules for being grabbed
[c] Breath of Molten Gold (standard; recharge on 5, 6) Disease, Fire
Close blast 5; +13 vs. Fortitude; 3d6 + 9 fire damage and ongoing 5 fire damage, and target is slowed (save ends both); this attack counts as exposure to gold fever
Miss—Half damage
[r] Seized by Greed (standard; encounter) Charm
Ranged 5; +13 vs. Will; target is dominated until the end of target’s next turn
Triggered Actions
Bloodied Breath (triggered when first bloodied, encounter)
Effect (free action): breath weapon recharges and the dragon uses it
[m] Armor of the Geldwyrm (immediate reaction, when hit by an adjacent creature; at-will) Poison
+15 vs. Ref; 1d8 + 5 damage, and target takes ongoing 5 poison damage (save ends)
Draconic Resilience
When stunned, Bragollach instead loses its next standard action and grants combat advantage. When dazed, Bragollach instead loses its next minor action and grants combat advantage.
Fatal Bequest
Upon death, Bragollach vomits up 9 gp of cursed gold
Alignment unaligned Languages Common, Draconic
Skills Arcana +8, Athletics +15, Diplomacy +13,
Insight +10, Intimidate +13
Str 23 (+10) Dex 16 (+7) Wis 12 (+5)
Con 15 (+6) Int 8 (+3) Cha 18 (+8 )
Equipment golden draconic plate armor |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 2:58 am Post subject: Tougher Golden Guard captain |
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Longhand Lohengrin, Captain of the Golden Guard
Level 9 Elite Soldier (Leader)
Medium natural humanoid (human) XP 500
Initiative +7 Senses Perception +8
Captain’s Aura aura 3; allies in the aura gain a +1 bonus to hit
hp 170 Bloodied 85
AC 25; Fortitude 22, Reflex 21, Will 20
Saving Throws +2
Speed 5
Action Points 1
[mba] Execution Axe (standard; at-will) Weapon
+16 vs. AC; 2d8 +8 damage, and target is marked until the start of the captain’s next turn
• Power (Daily) free action – target takes -2 to all defenses (save ends)
[m] Leading Strike (standard; at-will) Weapon
The captain makes an execution axe attack, and one ally within 3 squares of him makes a melee basic attack as a free action
[m] Fearsome Blow (standard; usable only while wielding a execution axe, recharge 6
+14 vs Fortitude; 3d6 + 10 damage, and the target is knocked prone (save ends).
[c] Captain’s Command (minor; recharge when first bloodied)
Targets two allies; close burst 5; target makes a charge attack as a free action
Captain’s Glory (immediate reaction, when an ally within 5 squares bloodies an enemy; at-will)
The captain gains 5 temporary hp and can shift 1 square as a free action.
Alignment evil Languages Common
Skills Diplomacy +9, Bluff +9, Insight +8, Intimidate +9
Str 19 (+7) Dex 10 (+3) Wis 11 (+3)
Con 14 (+5) Int 18 (+7) Cha 13 (+4)
Equipment +3 terror execution axe, golden plate armor, holy symbol of Mammon |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 3:00 am Post subject: Tougher Redcloak Riders & Golden Guard Templars |
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Redcloak Rider
Small natural humanoid , Kobold
Level 8 Artillery XP 350
Initiative +5 Senses Perception +11
HP 72; Bloodied 36
AC 20; Fortitude 19, Reflex 20, Will 21
Speed 6
Crimson Cutlass (standard, at-will) Weapon
+13 vs AC; 1d6+4 damage.
Ruby Ray (standard, at-will) Implement, Fire
Ranged 20; +11 vs Reflex; 2d8+7 fire damage
Lightning Arc (standard, at-will) Implement, Lightning
Ranged 10; targets one, two, or three creatures; +11 vs Reflex; 2d6 +5 lightning damage.
Scarlet Salvo (standard, recharge 5, 6) Implement
Area burst 1 within 10; +11 vs Reflex; 2d6+5 damage, and the rider slides the target 2 squares.
Shifty (minor; at-will)
The rider shifts 1 square when dismounted
Alignment Evil Languages Common, Draconic, Goblin
Skills Arcana +14, Diplomacy +12, Insight +11, Stealth +12, Thievery +12
Str 11 (+4) Dex 13 (+5) Wis 14 (+6)
Con 18 (+8 ) Int 20 (+9) Cha 17 ( +7 )
Equipment: exotic saddle, red mask & cloak, small cavalry saber, wand
Golden Guard Templar
Level 8 Soldier Medium natural humanoid
XP 350
Initiative +8 Senses Perception +9
hp 69 Bloodied 34
AC 25 Fortitude 20 Reflex 20 Will 20
Speed 5
[mba] Trident (standard; at-will) Weapon. +13 vs. AC; 1d10 + 4 damage
[m] Blazing Shield (immediate interrupt, when hit by melee attack; encounter) Radiant, Weapon. Targets attacker; +11 vs. Fort; 3d6 + 4 damage, and target blinded until the end of target’s next turn.
[r] Hellish Litany (standard; at-will) Psychic Range 10; +11 vs. Will; 1d10 + 4 psychic damage
Esprit de Corps (free; at-will)
The templar grants a +2 bonus to one defense score, attack roll, or saving throw of one adjacent templar.
Alignment evil Languages Common
Skills Religion +11
Str 19 (+7) Dex 16 (+6) Wis 16 (+6) Con 13 (+4) Int 13 (+4) Cha 13 (+4)
Equipment golden plate armor, holy symbol of Mammon, large shield |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Sat May 21, 2011 8:36 am Post subject: |
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Hi,
Here’s what happened in Monday night’s game as the PCs descended to the water-rise and then threw me by ignoring my beautifully drawn battlemat and deciding to go into the Slag Pits rather than straight into Heartsblood Forge!
I couldn't quite work out which wall the grate in HF1 is in or the precise relationship between HF1 and SP1 but managed to wing it. To be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure how a water rise works either!
Dan, if you're reading this - would be good to get clarification!
The party attempt to make sense of the clawed tracks in the Lower Hall which look like they both orginated from, and returned to, the water rise. Before heading down the elevator, the PCs explore the mist-shrouded areas, protected by a guards and wards ritual, leading out of the great chamber, but only come across rusted machinery, jammed gates and dead ends.
Descending the platform to Heartsblood Forge, Khuma spots a grating in the wall at the bottom. He tries to pry it loose with his spear to no avail, but Krivinn soon bashes it open with his flail, revealing a tunnel. The rotund Bolval is sent into the narrow passage first; the dwarf makes his way safely down to a cavern below and the others follow. The PCs are now beneath the forge above – grates stationed at various intervals allow them to hear the sounds of machinery and the voices of the inhabitants above. As they explore the lava tubes, the adventurers are ambushed by a choker matriarch (the Widow of the Caves) and her chittering goldveined children. Krivinn is dominated and then grabbed by the Widow as the other chokers surround Bolval and Khuma. It doesn’t take long for the PCs to slay most of the simian beasts but the Widow herself escapes into the darkness.
The PCs continue their exploration, listening to the voices of a giant and two dwarves of Trollheim in what sounds like a kitchen above their heads. They approach a lava pool cautiously – Krivinn uses winter’s arrival and his bag of holding to transport himself and Khuma over to where they have spotted treasure and a mysterious coffin of dark wood. Opening the coffin, there is only dirt inside – suspecting vampires, the pair throw it into the lava, grab the loot and return the way they came.
On the shores of a second, bigger lava pool, the PCs are attacked by two large pyroclastic xorn and beat a hasty retreat when the creatures advance, flinging lava at the party. They decide to return to the forge above, heading past the cloudspore mushrooms to the gates beyond. Here, the way forward is guarded by a two-headed boar-devil and two redcloaked kobolds mounted on murreymount dogmoles. The PCs move up to attack, the devil blows his horn and battle is joined!
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 10:38 pm Post subject: The Gates of Heartsblood Forge |
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Hi,
Here’s what happened in Monday's game in which I rolled 4 crits against poor old Krivinn in the same combat. The thing that amused me most about this session was how annoyed the PCs got by the wall of unarmed dwarven shieldbearers standing in a line doing nothing while they fought Bragollach. They got more and more irate about the dwarves and couldn't resist throwing the occasional attack their way while a bloody great dragon stood in front of them, breathing molten gold! Weird.
25th Quintilis (contd.)
As the PCs battle Ghrysigor the two-boar-headed diabolic gatekeeper and his kobold sorcerer sidekicks, steam whistles can be heard going off further inside the complex. The alarm has been raised, bringing four Golden Guard templars to reinforce the Mammonites. Bolval’s spiritual weapon continues to pummel the devil, the devil pummels, then dominates Krivinn, and Khuma rages, turning into his new badass polar bear-headed form and charging the gatekeeper. Once Ghrysigor has been slain, the guards set off flame jet blasters as the paladin bears down on them. The tide has turned by now, however, and only one guardsman escapes with his life. The PCs have only time for a short rest though – something big is heading their way....
Heading out into the main corridor, the party sees a well-drilled platoon of dwarven shieldbearers in gold armour advancing from the left, while the deranged form of Bragollach the gold dragon appears from the right, clad in golden armour bristling with spikes and blades and marked with infernal runes. Krivinn tries to reason with her, and manages to remove some of the corrupting armour but Bragollach breathes molten gold on him over and over again, exposing the dragonborn to gold fever. Bolval and Khuma are also attacked and after a while the PCs realise they are not going to get through to the former Vianna. The bear shaman uses spirit of the healing flood to wipe out most of the annoying dwarves, and the cleric takes out Bragollach using lance of faith to knock her unconscious. The PCs dispatch the last two dwarves and then strip the golden armour from the dragon, waiting for her to come round.
Bragollach comes to her senses and tells the PCs that the cult of Mammon is building a big idol out of corrupted gold in the Prime Forge; there are many devils as well as humans, tieflings, imps and even a female vampire among the cultists. The PCs go back up the water-rise with the dragon to rest. Khuma dozes off on watch. When he wakes up, the dragon has gone.
26th Quintilis
Krivinn recovers from gold fever.
Cheers
Richard |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Wed Jun 22, 2011 11:02 am Post subject: |
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Hi,
Here's what happened in Monday night's game. I reckon we are two or three sessions away from finishing the whole adventure!
Returning back down the water-rise to Heartsblood Forge, the PCs unlock the door to the doorkeeper's chamber. Inside, an ancient-looking forge hammer is locked between the stone lips of a hideous stone face on the wall, and a grotesque gold devil statue lies on the floor amongst the detritus. Krivinn and Bolval smash the gold statue, then the paladin turns his attention to the stone face. When he approaches the banshee carving sprays him with acid twice – the dragonborn smashes this too and the hammer falls to the floor. Bolval picks it up and is surprised when the hammer addresses him. The weapon is Masterstroke, once wielded by Grajava herself and now sworn to destroy the servants of Mammon.
The party check the next door along. In this room is another gold frog-devil statue but this one is a tithe eater, an infernal construct, which starts to swallow Krivinn. Khuma and Bolval rush to help their comrade and are able to drive the statue back to Hell. Freed from the construct's jaws, Krivinn destroys the unholy symbols hanging on the walls and sets fire to the diabolic bibles.
Masterstroke is able to give the PCs an idea of the layout of the Forge and the PCs decide to head west and into the smelting chamber. Here, a kyton lurks in the chains hanging above the floor – first the devil catches the party in a scalding blast from a steam pipe, then tangles up Bolval and drops a torrent of molten gold on his head! Khuma rescues the hapless dwarf as Krivinn climbs up the chains to confront the devil. As the paladin finishes off the devil, redcloaked kobolds rush into the room and throw gears and cogs at Khuma, Khuma's bear spirit and Bolval. The kobolds try and steal magic items from the cleric and the shaman but the PCs are able to kill the little buggers before they can run off with their ill-gotten gains. Four of them do escape though – the PCs don't fancy pursuing them into their narrow tunnels. The party search the room – Khuma is most taken by the pair of fancy steam punk-style goggles he's found – and then disable as many of the machines as they can.
The vandalism continues in the next chamber where thirty Rabscuttle-like constructs stand silently, and in the storeroom beyond (but only after the PCs have replenished their supplies).
Next, the PCs come to the mess hall they'd heard voices in while down below in the Slag Pits. Inside the room an imp sits on top of a stone giant (who is doing the washing up) while two Trollheim dwarves sit around, chewing on griffon steaks. The dwarf berserkers leap to their feet and charge Khuma and Bolval while Krivinn rushes the stone giant. Unfortunately the paladin ends up stunned by the giant's earth shock power and Khuma falls unconscious....
Cheers
Richard |
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| Dan Voyce |
| Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 1:06 am Post subject: |
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Sounds likea thumping good session last time!
Sorry, missed your post about the grate and water-rise. It works pretty much like you improvised. The grate to SP1 is (I think, not got the book to hand) right under the entrance corridor at the base of the water-rise.
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 9:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Dan Voyce wrote: |
Sounds likea thumping good session last time!
Sorry, missed your post about the grate and water-rise. It works pretty much like you improvised. The grate to SP1 is (I think, not got the book to hand) right under the entrance corridor at the base of the water-rise. |
Cheers! |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2011 10:06 pm Post subject: Penultimate session (?) The Prime Forge |
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Hi,
Here's what happened in last night's game in which Saethus returned and our brave heroes finally confront Mammon in the Prime Forge.
As the fight in the cultists' kitchens continues, the second dwarf is killed by Khuma and Krivinn battles on against the stone giant washer-upper and his imp master. Then, reinforcements arrive to bolster the forces of Mammon – a human captain in golden plate armour leads a platoon of goldveined dwarves. Saethus' well-timed fireball gets rid of most of the minions as they charge forward; meanwhile the captain and Bolval go into melee (after Masterstroke berates the cleric for hanging back) and the imp vanishes after being bloodied by Khuma with his longspear. The disappearance of the little gremlin causes the giant to go into the fetal position and start muttering apologies and pathetic appeals for mercy. These fall on deaf ears initially as the berserk Khuma thrusts his spear into the giant but Krivinn persuades his comrade to stop attacking. The captain also tries to surrender but the PCs refuse to accept it and press the attack, killing him. The fight over, Krivinn tries to persuade Anak the giant to join the party; instead he decides to leave the forge for good. The paladin isn't too upset, however – he has a brand new execution axe, "Bahamut's Jaw".
Heading north into the Hall of Apprentices, Krivinn tests out his new axe on three Rabscuttle-shaped constructs after Khuma has examined them with his new goggles. Next, the PCs go south and east where they come to a defiled statue of Grajava opposite a pair of imposing doors with six locks. Khuma examines the doors, declaring them trapped. The party spend an hour or so removing the trappings of Mammon from the shrine to the shield maiden of Korak, then Bolval puts Masterstroke into the hands of the statue.
Grajava's statue comes to life and swings the hammer at the doors, smashing them open before collapsing in a pile of rubble; Bolval is able to grab Masterstroke from the wreckage. Inside the Prime Forge a giant golden statue of a grinning infernal dwarf towers over the room, flanked by two tiefling preachers. In the centre are four dwarves and the gilded devil Mr Purse. Mammon speaks, his voice coming from the mouth of the statue and trying to tempt the PCs into joining the forces of Hell. Our heroes are made of strong moral fibre though, and refuse to give the devil his due.
Saethus casts storm cage, wiping out the dwarves and then blur to make himself invisible. Krivinn, taking care not to lose his new axe after Mammon's threat about the first weapon to strike him, fires his trusty Forsaken crossbow at the statue. On the second attempt he hits and his crossbow explodes into smithereens! Next, Khuma and Krivinn kill Mr Purse and Saethus finishes off the tieflings. Mammon moves forward to attack Bolval with plutokinesis but Krivinn uses knightly intercession to pull the devil towards him and take the damage himself. Mammon turns the power back on the paladin, inflicting 87 hp damage on the dragonborn and sliding him towards the hole in the floor leading down to the lava (and xorn!) beneath. Fortunately Krivinn is able to catch himself before the drop.
Mammon strikes at Krivinn again and again with his mighty fists, precious stones flying everywhere as he does so, but his blows bounce off the paladin's armour and Bolval's shield of faith. Meanwhile, the PCs are having more luck in hitting the statue and eventually their attacks sunder the construct which transforms into a twisted elemental creature (the Corrupted Shard), and a humanoid body built of coins, gems and jewels (Mammon's Will).
A few points to note from the session:
- Anak the giant found it almost impossible to hit the PCs' ACs so needs to go up two to three levels
- Mammon also struggled to hit with bejwelling blow. With magic plate armour, Grajava's blessing granting +2 to all defenses and the cleric's shield of faith, both Bolval and Krivinn were AC 32 & AC 34! I'm going to give the Shard and the Will slightly higher attack bonuses as the party are not being bashed around enough for a final encounter. There are 4 PCs between 11th & 13th level.
- Krivinn was on less than 10hp when he saved to stop himself falling into the slag pits below. Phew!
- Curse of the Purloined Power wasn't that clear - I had Mammon turn the power back on his attacker straight away. Was that right?
All in all, a great session!
Cheers
Richard |
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| Dan Voyce |
| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 8:20 am Post subject: |
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Great to see that we're into the big fight scene! Shame they're not being kicked about more -- but still, at least I almost dropped someone into lava 
Lets see... Anak probably suffers a lot from being a Blind Brute (him flailing around blindly was the idea - but no so ineffectually that PCs get blasé). Mammon is probably a bad combination of issues: My general tendency to hold back a bit too much when doing publishing monsters (I'm pretty ruthlessly unfair at home), the lot of tinkering with Mammon's stats across both editions of the adventure, and PCs' fiendish dedication to not getting hurt. Yeah, get 'em whacked up!
I hoped PCs looked suitably perturbed when he split in two. I love an "oh crap" moment in a boss fight!
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| James Thomas |
| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 9:40 am Post subject: |
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 It'd be great to have this out for Pathfinder! Is that within the realm of possibility? I'd be happy to help with the conversion. |
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| Wolfgang |
| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 10:27 am Post subject: |
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Well, it already exists for 3.5 D&D, so the conversion wouldn't be difficult.
However, it is also the last of the limited-edition projects, so.... Unlikely that we'll do an update.
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 10:59 am Post subject: |
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| Dan Voyce wrote: |
I hoped PCs looked suitably perturbed when he split in two. I love an "oh crap" moment in a boss fight! |
Oh yes, especially when the Will appeared next to the rather isolated cleric....
Rich |
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| richgreen01 |
| Posted: Wed Jul 06, 2011 11:03 am Post subject: |
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| Wolfgang wrote: |
Well, it already exists for 3.5 D&D, so the conversion wouldn't be difficult.
However, it is also the last of the limited-edition projects, so.... Unlikely that we'll do an update. |
I don't know much about the Pathfinder rules but I wouldn't imagine running it as is would be any harder than using a 1e D&D module in a 2e campaign.
The 4e conversion has been a blast to run but I've had to do a fair bit of tweaking here and there, mostly increasing monster damage and upping the difficulty for a smaller but slightly higher level party, and tweaking treasure to fit the motley crew of PCs I've got.
We've been playing the adventure for a year now and it's been great!
Cheers
Richard |
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