Long, drawn-out loose ends
Sep. 9th, 2003 12:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
terryclothTonight was my D+D game... the party finally got back to Faerun, a little bit in the past but not far enough to notice any real difference, since the realms are incredibly static.
Once again, the party ran from any hint of actual danger, and sleazed their way through by abusing 'rope trick' and 'polymorph other' and 'teleport'.
The party immediately took the dragon teeth to the village, where one of the villagers knew enough about carving to make the tuning fork they'd need to get back to May and Abbey (and Conner)'s home plane. Before it was ready, the village was attacked.
Fortunately, the village had the party there to supplement their home-grown demon hunters. May, Abbey, Conner, and Erdann stood ready to face the approaching metal-scaled orbs, casting various spells on each other to prepare. The actual battle took place in the air, mostly, with the orbs biting at the defenders and occasionally uncurling into flailing 30-foot balls of spiky tentacles.
There was also a giant metal-armored fire demon, but he was Held by May and Coup-de-Graced by Abbey before he could do much more than bluster.
The orbs took longer to take down, and May took a couple lucky hits and was forced to disengage, but they couldn't reliably connect with the people they were fighting, and their flailing exposed their tender insides to the not-so-tender mercies of bear fang and magic mace. Soon all three were dead, their tentacles sprawling across much of the village, ruining various houses and nearly crushing Abbey as they fell from 90 feet up in the air.
Finally, the tuning fork was ready... but Oghma wasn't about to let them get away that easily -- not without retreiving the Light of Knowledge. A divination revealed that, indeed, the shining gem they were told to take with them was the power source for the prismatic sphere shielding the isles from chaos, and that furthermore a 'cataclysm' would occur if it was removed. And that there was another gem that could replace it, holding up the fire snake god's palace...
But no, invading the snake god's place was out of the question. Instead, they cooked up a scheme wherein the villagers would all, over the course of nearly three weeks, be polymorphed into small animals which could be teleported to safety in May's magic backpack once the sphere was collapsed by removing its power souce. Since the villagers were more experienced than normal civilians, because of the constant demon attacks, and were very familiar with magic, they didn't *all* reject the idea out of hand.
A number did, and fled to the lizard isle to cook up a scheme to try to hold various people hostage to demand concessions (and a better plan), but the party simply scried on the first detainee, then teleported in to get him and teleported out before the guards could react.
By then they were almost ready, the timetable having advanced considerably thanks to the absence of half the village, so they scooped the assorted small animals the villagers had been turned into into the bag and teleported to the crystal chamber, grabbed the Light of Knowledge, and teleported back to the village, just in time to see the prismatic sphere rapidly swooping towards them as it contracted! May held the Rod of Cancellation out in front of him, opening a gap in the sphere as it raced past his position... everyone else was either in his backpack, hiding behind him, or sitting on his shoulders in hummingbird form, so none of them were hurt. The rebels on the lizard isle weren't so lucky. For that matter, neither were the lizards.
After narrowly escaping death, the party teleported back to the vicinity of Lantham. There was a strange glow on the horizon, from the East from whence they'd come. May immediately cast a rope trick and leapt inside, just as a prismatic spray raked the countryside -- it dispelled the rope trick, but the party had dodged it.
The fertile farmland was ruined -- parts of it on fire, parts melted by acid, parts turned to stone. Erdann cast a 'plant growth' to make a tangle of blackberry bushes and corn from the few surviving plants, and the survivors of the village -- about 100 of them -- were dispelled back into human form awaiting transfer via plane shift, which would take about a week and, they were warned, scatter them over a thousand miles of countryside.
The first patrol to notice them -- survivors from the city, which had been partially protected by its walls -- was polite and seemed concerned for their safety. The second patrol was from the Black Tower of the temple, and recognized some of the party. They *knew* the party was somehow responsible for the prismatic spray, since they'd last been seen searching for the legendary prismatic wall guarding the shimmering isles, and suddenly reappeared, after about a month, just after the cataclysm.
They couldn't *prove* anything, but then they didn't really care. May refused to come quietly for 'questioning', and the patrol was unwilling to face them in open combat just then. They returned in force soon, but by then the party had moved on a ways and hidden in rope tricks, with more overgrown cornfields left behind as a decoy to waste the searchers' time.
The next day, they found the whole area swarming with searchers... who were still thinly spread. May turned the only one to see them into a slug before he could sound the alarm, then they sent off the day's Plane Shift recipients and went back into rope tricks, right on the same spot.
Which proved to be a mistake, as the missing searcher was noticed, and tracked, and then the huge group of villagers were tracked, and a priest was brought in to detect and then dispel the rope tricks. But before he could dispel, Erdann (who with May and Conner had stayed outside) cast a plague of locusts on the whole area, sending the gathered forces scurrying for their lives and ruining the spell. The new rope tricks were abandoned, and the whole gaggle of party and villagers Passed Without Trace through the cornfields, overrunning the searchers and guards rushing towards the commotion and quickly evading pursuit, since most of the would-be pursuers were distracted by the locusts.
They set up camp an hour's hustle away, near a grove of trees whose denizens had been driven insane. Still, it was well-tamed farmland, so the insane animals that attacked them were field mice. There were also passing patrols of kobolds -- obviously chaos forces, judging by the bears and eagles in their ranks -- and guards from the city, and eventually a small battle occured in the trees.
The few surviving guards set up camp too near the rope tricks for comfort, so when it was time to leave, Erdann, who with May and Conner was sitting in a tree every day in bird form, thanks to a spell called 'Feathers', generated a fast, localized rainstorm -- a thick enough downpour that the people inside couldn't see well enough to realize how localized it was. With the guards blinded, the gaggle once again Passed Without Trace away across the countryside.
Before they could find a new stopping place, though, they ran into a small army of kobolds, who attacked on site, figuring that any group of humans moving around in the war zone was an enemy. The kobolds were scattered by an insect plague (and many of them trapped and killed by a Briar Web while they tried to flee in the wrong random directions), while May managed to turn all three of the sylphs directing the battle into slugs before they managed to fireball him *quite* to death. Without their leaders, the surviving kobolds disengaged.
But after that, the rest was uneventful. The last three groups of Plane Shifters were sent off, the last consisting of the party plus the village elder, who'd insisted on staying with most of his demon hunters for his protection.
They arrived safely enough in a farmer's field in a fuedal area of Faerun, in the year 872. It was a week's walk to Baldur's Gate, but there was really nothing to stop them from getting there, and then they spent a month, at long last, selling all their loot and buying new equipment.
Sooner or later it would be time to go out in search of another adventure, but for now they were content to return to an *actual* civilization not run or ruined by the Tximisti.
last session next session
The game was pretty blah... I don't think anyone was really enthusiastic about it, least of all me. It was basically just wrapping things up, without enough barriers thrown in the way to make it tedious. Although the intention was 'interesting'.
Oh, well. Maybe next week'll go better. I'm going to try running 'City of the Spider Queen', since I'm not at all good at making up challenging encounters for a party of this high level.
Once again, the party ran from any hint of actual danger, and sleazed their way through by abusing 'rope trick' and 'polymorph other' and 'teleport'.
The party immediately took the dragon teeth to the village, where one of the villagers knew enough about carving to make the tuning fork they'd need to get back to May and Abbey (and Conner)'s home plane. Before it was ready, the village was attacked.
Fortunately, the village had the party there to supplement their home-grown demon hunters. May, Abbey, Conner, and Erdann stood ready to face the approaching metal-scaled orbs, casting various spells on each other to prepare. The actual battle took place in the air, mostly, with the orbs biting at the defenders and occasionally uncurling into flailing 30-foot balls of spiky tentacles.
There was also a giant metal-armored fire demon, but he was Held by May and Coup-de-Graced by Abbey before he could do much more than bluster.
The orbs took longer to take down, and May took a couple lucky hits and was forced to disengage, but they couldn't reliably connect with the people they were fighting, and their flailing exposed their tender insides to the not-so-tender mercies of bear fang and magic mace. Soon all three were dead, their tentacles sprawling across much of the village, ruining various houses and nearly crushing Abbey as they fell from 90 feet up in the air.
Finally, the tuning fork was ready... but Oghma wasn't about to let them get away that easily -- not without retreiving the Light of Knowledge. A divination revealed that, indeed, the shining gem they were told to take with them was the power source for the prismatic sphere shielding the isles from chaos, and that furthermore a 'cataclysm' would occur if it was removed. And that there was another gem that could replace it, holding up the fire snake god's palace...
But no, invading the snake god's place was out of the question. Instead, they cooked up a scheme wherein the villagers would all, over the course of nearly three weeks, be polymorphed into small animals which could be teleported to safety in May's magic backpack once the sphere was collapsed by removing its power souce. Since the villagers were more experienced than normal civilians, because of the constant demon attacks, and were very familiar with magic, they didn't *all* reject the idea out of hand.
A number did, and fled to the lizard isle to cook up a scheme to try to hold various people hostage to demand concessions (and a better plan), but the party simply scried on the first detainee, then teleported in to get him and teleported out before the guards could react.
By then they were almost ready, the timetable having advanced considerably thanks to the absence of half the village, so they scooped the assorted small animals the villagers had been turned into into the bag and teleported to the crystal chamber, grabbed the Light of Knowledge, and teleported back to the village, just in time to see the prismatic sphere rapidly swooping towards them as it contracted! May held the Rod of Cancellation out in front of him, opening a gap in the sphere as it raced past his position... everyone else was either in his backpack, hiding behind him, or sitting on his shoulders in hummingbird form, so none of them were hurt. The rebels on the lizard isle weren't so lucky. For that matter, neither were the lizards.
After narrowly escaping death, the party teleported back to the vicinity of Lantham. There was a strange glow on the horizon, from the East from whence they'd come. May immediately cast a rope trick and leapt inside, just as a prismatic spray raked the countryside -- it dispelled the rope trick, but the party had dodged it.
The fertile farmland was ruined -- parts of it on fire, parts melted by acid, parts turned to stone. Erdann cast a 'plant growth' to make a tangle of blackberry bushes and corn from the few surviving plants, and the survivors of the village -- about 100 of them -- were dispelled back into human form awaiting transfer via plane shift, which would take about a week and, they were warned, scatter them over a thousand miles of countryside.
The first patrol to notice them -- survivors from the city, which had been partially protected by its walls -- was polite and seemed concerned for their safety. The second patrol was from the Black Tower of the temple, and recognized some of the party. They *knew* the party was somehow responsible for the prismatic spray, since they'd last been seen searching for the legendary prismatic wall guarding the shimmering isles, and suddenly reappeared, after about a month, just after the cataclysm.
They couldn't *prove* anything, but then they didn't really care. May refused to come quietly for 'questioning', and the patrol was unwilling to face them in open combat just then. They returned in force soon, but by then the party had moved on a ways and hidden in rope tricks, with more overgrown cornfields left behind as a decoy to waste the searchers' time.
The next day, they found the whole area swarming with searchers... who were still thinly spread. May turned the only one to see them into a slug before he could sound the alarm, then they sent off the day's Plane Shift recipients and went back into rope tricks, right on the same spot.
Which proved to be a mistake, as the missing searcher was noticed, and tracked, and then the huge group of villagers were tracked, and a priest was brought in to detect and then dispel the rope tricks. But before he could dispel, Erdann (who with May and Conner had stayed outside) cast a plague of locusts on the whole area, sending the gathered forces scurrying for their lives and ruining the spell. The new rope tricks were abandoned, and the whole gaggle of party and villagers Passed Without Trace through the cornfields, overrunning the searchers and guards rushing towards the commotion and quickly evading pursuit, since most of the would-be pursuers were distracted by the locusts.
They set up camp an hour's hustle away, near a grove of trees whose denizens had been driven insane. Still, it was well-tamed farmland, so the insane animals that attacked them were field mice. There were also passing patrols of kobolds -- obviously chaos forces, judging by the bears and eagles in their ranks -- and guards from the city, and eventually a small battle occured in the trees.
The few surviving guards set up camp too near the rope tricks for comfort, so when it was time to leave, Erdann, who with May and Conner was sitting in a tree every day in bird form, thanks to a spell called 'Feathers', generated a fast, localized rainstorm -- a thick enough downpour that the people inside couldn't see well enough to realize how localized it was. With the guards blinded, the gaggle once again Passed Without Trace away across the countryside.
Before they could find a new stopping place, though, they ran into a small army of kobolds, who attacked on site, figuring that any group of humans moving around in the war zone was an enemy. The kobolds were scattered by an insect plague (and many of them trapped and killed by a Briar Web while they tried to flee in the wrong random directions), while May managed to turn all three of the sylphs directing the battle into slugs before they managed to fireball him *quite* to death. Without their leaders, the surviving kobolds disengaged.
But after that, the rest was uneventful. The last three groups of Plane Shifters were sent off, the last consisting of the party plus the village elder, who'd insisted on staying with most of his demon hunters for his protection.
They arrived safely enough in a farmer's field in a fuedal area of Faerun, in the year 872. It was a week's walk to Baldur's Gate, but there was really nothing to stop them from getting there, and then they spent a month, at long last, selling all their loot and buying new equipment.
Sooner or later it would be time to go out in search of another adventure, but for now they were content to return to an *actual* civilization not run or ruined by the Tximisti.
last session next session
The game was pretty blah... I don't think anyone was really enthusiastic about it, least of all me. It was basically just wrapping things up, without enough barriers thrown in the way to make it tedious. Although the intention was 'interesting'.
Oh, well. Maybe next week'll go better. I'm going to try running 'City of the Spider Queen', since I'm not at all good at making up challenging encounters for a party of this high level.
