PlanetADnD.com

A caster can't study/pray for new spells until AFTER they have rested; not before or during the rest.

Oh yeah, sorry, my mistake!

All right, let's go ahead and wrap things up here for this chapter. I've already determined there are no further encounters today, so that makes things easier.

So Locky is praying, what are her new spells?

Babushka is foraging for water and food, or just water?

Jerrard is studying the same spells he had before--it will take him 90 minutes to finish.

Ulster and Thuskar are guarding camp.

NoTrammeling hasn't logged in 6 days and agamotto still hasn't returned yet (it's been over 2 weeks now; I didn't realize he'd be gone this long), so...I guess I'll just have them stay and rest at camp.

What will Imani do?

Same as before, but replace detect evil with cure light.
Thanks

Babushka will look primarily for water, but will keep her eyes open for food, too.

Imani will rest.

Okay, end of chapter. I'll get up XP soon, as well as my notes for the chapter and the summary.

First, some level ups. Quite a few, in fact.

Breila, so close to leveling up! For sure at the end of the next chapter. On the bright side, your henchman did level up, though...and rolled max HP (13)! He's becoming quite the tank.

Thuskar came really close to leveling, too.

Imani is now level 6. Horizon, please roll 1d10 for me to determine new HP. You can choose your new proficiencies once the party has had some downtime.

Same deal with agamotto. Jeremy is now level 6, please roll 1d10 for new HP, and you can pick your proficiencies once we're in downtime.

NoTrammeling, for your character, as he reached level 5 as a fighter, roll 1d10 for his HP, then we'll divide that by half.

Now for my thoughts on the chapter:

Lareth wasn't as fun to play as Aleaha, probably because he was the very definition of a snooty Silvanesti elf. His stats didn't make much sense to me. He is a multi-classed fighter/mage, but his level is 9/5. I don't see how he leveled his fighter class so much higher than his mage class, but that's what the module said. The module also had him as a Red Robed Wizard, but I changed it to white because I could have sworn the Silvanesti banish anyone who dons the black OR red robes. Not sure if I'm misremembering something or the module author made a mistake.

Despite his power, he was fairly useless in the ghoul fight. I didn't realize it until we were in the thick of things, but his spells and weapons are really not geared toward fighting the undead. The ghouls and ghast were a random encounter, though, so maybe the author hadn't considered the possibility.

I thought Fikod's introduction was pretty cool. NoTrammeling obviously puts a lot of thought and work into his posts. I really enjoy reading them. He's been gone a week now, so hopefully he returns soon. The Daergar encounter was already in the module, so it was easy to work him in there despite being a dwarf. (In fact, the Daergar encounter was the only planned encounter in this chapter.)

Speaking of the Daergar, it amazes me how many times I fumbled in that battle. Granted, the more rolls you make, the more likely it will happen, but still. Just how many crossbows jammed in those two fights? I counted six times. That doesn't include melee fumbles, either. Anyway, the ambush was fairly pathetic. And then Jerrard's Web spell ended things pretty quick.

The main battle with the Daergar proved far more troublesome for you all. We nearly TPK'd, but I've already gone over that once, so no need to rehash it again here. But I did start preparing in case the party surrendered and were captured (this would have ended Tree Lords as the party would be taken into the underdark to be sold as slaves in Neraka; presumably they would have, at some point, found a way to escape and free themselves) or had we TPK'd, I was planning on starting a new campaign set a couple of years later in a specific area (which area would depend on how the players voted).

Malika and the animals going missing was a consequence of the party leaving them unattended. Whether they are safe, in danger, or even dead remains unknown (I notice the party seems to feel they're okay, though).

I decided that if the remaining Daergar who survived the battle (the ones that escaped the webbing and were scared off by Jerrard's wand) would come back if I rolled any random encounters while the party was present. I did, so hence their return. One was unconscious, one was wounded, but the rest were at full health.

A pity the party had to give up the treasure they found. They could have fought the Daergar for it, but it would have been a big risk, of course. For those wondering, the potion (that Locky tried pocketing) was a Potion of Extra-Healing. The two jars were Keoghtom’s Ointment. The sack was a Bag of Tricks and the armor was Chain Mail +2 (but not Elven Chainmail, despite being made for elves and being chain). Well, no worries. Plenty more loot to be discovered in this module.

By the way, no experience for killing the whisper spider, I'm afraid. Aside from the fact it was quite wounded already, the party was in no danger from it as they attacked it from a safe distance. Plenty of XP for the Daergar, though (and the ghouls, of course).

In any case, things are looking difficult for the party ahead. They are without their animals (which held most of their food and water), they have no kirath guiding them, and the next chapter is bound to be even harder than the two before it. Good luck!

Any thoughts, questions, opinions, feedback? Feel free to ask.

I'll get the next chapter up a little bit later today.

Yes, There is no way he'd be a red robed mage, that's the reason Dalamar got thrown out! And Larenth was a real arse!

Ah, Dalamar. Perhaps that is the story I'm half-remembering. So yeah, if the Silvanesti boot anyone out who takes the Red Robes, even, then it must be a mistake in the module.

And yeah, 'arse' is what I was going for with Lareth. Although for the most part, everyone was unfailingly polite toward him, so he didn't come off nearly as bad as he might have otherwise.

Jerrard was being nice to get some new spells I believe. And because he is a higher level mage, or so I am told.

The daergar encounters were difficult for me. Babushka walked into the first ambush because I didn't understand from the description that following the tracks would lead her into the open.
Giant spiders are her species enemy, so I thought seeing one close to killing allies would impair her reasoning, leading her to a direct attack instead of surrounding hte place and see who might be lying in ambush.
And having gone to send Ulster and Thuskar to help turn the battle, I thought it better to risk the animals and Malika going away than to wait for friends that never return... At least this time, she approached from behind, and could help avoid a TPK.

It was challenging play, hopefully the constellations are better now. We have a leader now to organise us, and hopefully Babushka's wisdom will not be impaired as much.

Jenara wrote:Jerrard was being nice to get some new spells I believe. And because he is a higher level mage, or so I am told.

Yes, he was wise to follow Aleaha's advice and treat Lareth respectfully. Otherwise, he would have charged Jerrard twice as much for any spells.

Breila wrote:The daergar encounters were difficult for me. Babushka walked into the first ambush because I didn't understand from the description that following the tracks would lead her into the open.

I'll try and work on better descriptions in the future, although in this case I was simply quoting from the module directly.

Breila wrote:Giant spiders are her species enemy, so I thought seeing one close to killing allies would impair her reasoning, leading her to a direct attack instead of surrounding hte place and see who might be lying in ambush.

The whole thing was something of a catch-22, I admit. Had the party been more cautious and carefully scoped the place out, both elves would have died. Moving quicker could have saved them both, but then the party walks into a trap. Devious blackguards, those Daergar.

Breila wrote:And having gone to send Ulster and Thuskar to help turn the battle, I thought it better to risk the animals and Malika going away than to wait for friends that never return... At least this time, she approached from behind, and could help avoid a TPK.

It was a dilemma, to be sure. And making the choice that she did, did save the party (most likely). But now they have little supplies and no transportation. One wonders if she saved the party from a quick death only to doom them to a slow one! But hopefully the party is resourceful enough to find a way out of this mess, which wouldn't be possible if they were all dead. As long as there is life, there is hope.

Breila wrote:It was challenging play, hopefully the constellations are better now. We have a leader now to organise us, and hopefully Babushka's wisdom will not be impaired as much.

Good. I like challenging my players as much as I like them challenging me. Keeps us all on our toes.

I've been enjoying the game so far, it was most definitely a spot of fun and frustration (which is good). Hopefully once Fikod starts to feel more comfortable in the group we can get some good RP in too! I am still here, but my posts will be piecemeal/nonexistent until early July.

All that sweet sweet loot ;_;

Rolled some HP: http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/4102178/

Don't fret much about the loot. Plenty more of that in this module. There was more gold than steel anyway, and gold is worthless in this world.

Okay, so I've added 5 HP to Imani's max total and 2 HP to Fikod's max total. If agamotto hasn't returned in a week, I'll go ahead and roll for Jeremy's HP for him.