Week 44 - War! War! Cry “Havoc!”, and let loose the dogs of; and: some important plot points.
Spring is in the air! Down here in oz, the imported deciduous trees thrust forth new verdant life, the magpies are giving passers-by the hairy eye (I haven’t been swooped yet), and daylight savings time starts this weekend. This week we had remote Lazaroo and proxy Mend. I actually wrote down a bit of what happened as it happened, so hopefully my description will be a trifle more complete than is has been. We begin with another enormous chunk of cutscene text to be read out. Module designers reading this: I understand that writing fantasy exposition is part of the fun of writing adventures, but sitting there reading this stuff out while the players fidget is a bit of a drag. There has to be some way to convey plot info without having to do this. I’m not sure what, though.
Our heroes drink, and are assailed with memories - not all of them their own. There is a sensation of spinning through blackness, and of rematerialising … somewhere else. They stand on open ground, the sounds of war in the air. Before them are four familiar-looking druids: the wild watchers of the Library of Last Resort, but fully human. Beyond those are a small crowd of other druids, maneuvering something big in a crate. The lead druid, whom they recognise as Tylanthros, speaks.
“The heroes of prophecy. Your timing is perfect. We can hold them no longer, but we have been successful in our task.” The man indicates the dozen or so druids who stand behind him. These druids cluster around a large package, a strange container with its sides carved in the shapes of leering demonic and draconic faces. “Dragotha’s phylactery is ours, yet at a great price. His minions even now come for us to reclaim it, and soon he himself shall learn of its theft. We must hide it forever from his reach, for I fear its destruction at this juncture would only drive him to an unstoppable frenzy. But if we can take it from this land, he will sense its loss. He will abandon the army of Kyuss and they will be lost, without leadership. You must hold off the spawn that even now scramble at the edges of the cliffs around us. Our trusted ally will stall his aerial forces while you must hold off the rest of his spawn long enough for us to transport the phylactery.”
As the druid mentions an ally, a familiar figure steps forward, a young and vivacious woman dressed in ornate silver armor who can be none other than Lashonna, her eyes bright and burning with determination. She speaks to you, but there is no sense of recognition in her eyes. “I shall engage Dragotha and his children myself, but I cannot defend against his Swords. They come too, scrambling up to our location even now, along with — something else. Something most unnatural — an abomination. You must hold them off, for all is lost if you fail.”
With that final pronouncement, Lashonna spreads wide her arms and transforms into a magnificent silver dragon. With a single tremendous beat of her wings, she launches into the air and soars off toward the distant dracolich. As she wings away, Tylanthros speaks again. “We go now, to hide the phylactery within its cradle in Kongen-Thulnir. Save us from the Swords of Kyuss, or the Age of Worms shall doom us all!”On such tiny things do the fates of nations turn! If Lashonna had delayed for barely a moment, she would have heard Tylanthros carelessly mention the name of the secret resting-place of Dragotha’s phylactery. But then again, had she done so, it would have caused a nasty time paradox, and riven the world into tiny, tiny bits.
But no matter! All around is war. Hordes of the terrible undead the party met in the Spire of Long Shadows - not just one or two, but armies of them. Skeletal soldiers that radiate fear, enormous beetles, centipedes, scorpions and other vermin. In the sky monstrous things led by the dracolich Dragotha battle flights of noble dragons — a sight seen only once or twice in the entire history of Eberron — and everywhere, everywhere Kyuss worms. The party stand on an 80-ft high bluff. It is not a sheer cliff, but a 60-ft wide slope. The arctan of 4/3 being around 60, this makes it a 60-degree slope. A climb, but not a difficult one.
I screwed this up, decreeing a DC 15 balance check to remain upright. I should have used the climb rules for an easy climb. I did make it difficult terrain, however.
A cohort of ten swords of Kyuss are even now climbing the slope, one or two almost at the lip. The party’s mission is simple - hold them back!
I was surprised that the party managed this without appreciable hurt. But they handled it in textbook fashion - wall of X spells, zaps for the ones that through the walls, and Gauthakan on point to clobber anything that made it any further. The soldiers of Kyuss are not stupid, but their mission was to secure the phylactery at any cost. They had no time to lose, and little choice but to advance though the walls.
But the best move was Frith’s - a spell that Bevis has wanted to use ever since Frith hit level 15.
Oh - in order to make Flash the Beguiler useful against undead (which are immune to mind-affecting spells), Andrew has used the “Recaster” PrC. A recaster - aparrently - can learn a limited number of spells from any spell list, and Andrew has chosen Bolt of Glory. I’m cool with this, as it means that Flash will not reach level 20 in Beguiler, which has an utterly cheesy ability at 20th level. The game effect of it is to turn flash into artillery vs undead.
The Swords of Kyuss struggle with their footing, but one makes it up to the ledge and Flash zaps it. Lazaroo’s Chain Lightning, unfortunately, does nothing. A moment later, Frith completes his own spell and casts — Earthquake.
Well. This alters things a bit. The 80’ high bluff gives way, and the nine remaining Swords of Kyuss are buried under rubble. While not killed, they are wearing armour and it will take them a few minutes to claw their way out. There is another wave coming, but as they have to clamber over a long slope of scree, the party now has a few moments to prepare. They buff, and Mend lays down an enormous Wall of Fire with his staff.
Five soldiers of the second wave come through the Wall of Fire, their undead flesh singeing and smoking. Having stepped through, Frith catches them in a Wall of Blades and shreds them. Then Lazaroo unleashes an Explosive Cascade, which is enough to take down four of them. Flash zaps the last one.
Five more Swords step through the flame and stop before advancing through the wall of blades, followed by an enormous pile of animate bones which leaves a battlefield ominously clean of corpses in its wake. It advances though the fire and the blades, heading to the party. Gauthakan squares up, getting ready to finally hit something. Lazaroo blasts it with a Polar Ray, which does nothing. And then Flash hits it with a Maximised Bolt of Glory. 60 + 60 + 14d12(maximised) points of damage is enough to take most things down, and the boneyard goes down, dissolving into a mere pile of bones.
Then the five Swords of Kyuss which advanced through the fire but stopped short of the blades strike. Invoking the power of the worm, one targets Lazaroo (who is levitating high in the air), one targets Flash and Mend, and the other three target Frith and Gauthakan. Ouch. Gauthakan is wearing a Ring of Evasion and manages fine. But Frith takes 35d6 negative energy damage, his resistance to spells of no effect against its supernatural power.
Lazaroo targets two of the creatures with a Maximized Fireball, and the one that saved and is only nearly dead gets a Bolt of Glory, taking it the rest of the way. On the other side of the field, Frith is sorely wounded and targeted by three Swords of Kyuss. He casts Mass Heal. One of the Swords resists the effect, but combined with the damage it took stepping through the wall of flames, it is still more than enough to take it down. The other two, which did not save, had no chance.
And so, the party have held off two waves of ten Swords of Kyuss and taken down a Boneyard (Libris Mortis, I think). There’s still an innumerable army of undead out there, but two things happen. In the distance, Dragotha lands a killing blow on Lashonna and the pair fall to earth. And just behind the party, the chanting of the druids reaches a crescendo, and there is a boom of air as the whole lot of them teleport out.
Steve got boned, as his character’s big guns - Chain Lightning and Polar Ray had no effect on these undead. And Gathakan had an extremely easy time of it, as the spellcasters handled all of the enemy. But there you go.
The party find themselves back on Tilagos Island. Was it all a dream? Probably yes and no, for the world is changed. The spellcasters sense that they are no longer in the pocket plane, but truly back on prime. But the island they arrive at is not the island they left - a barren rock surrounded by a maelestrom of storm. Instead, the isle is verdant with life - although without that extra zing of positive energy trapped in the pocket plane. The Portal of Storms is aged and weathered as though it had been there for over a millenium. They have no loot. Only a name: Kongen-Thulnir.
They debate what to do. Frith wants to go to Diamond Lake, to check on his Owlbear. Mend wants to abide by his promise to the Orcs on the beach, to repair their ship. And everyone is curious about where - or what - “Kongen-Thulnir” might be.
So first to the orcs. They have repaired and recovered as much as they can by mundane means. Mend Fabricates a new keel and a storm mast. Now that the maelstrom is gone, the Orcs will have no trouble getting to port. They are probably pirates, but that’s business as usual here in the Lhazzar Principalities, and who are the party to judge? In any case - they have more pressing concerns. Frith invites Elvis, the reincarnated Roc King to join them and he accepts. They teleport to Diamond Lake.
BAMF!
Screechy the Owlbear is doing fine, and Frith decides that he might be ready to accompany them. Alustan, also, is well. He is still repairing his home after Illthane’s destruction of it, and assisting the town. Flash, taking a punt, decides to ask him about the nome “Kongen Thulnir”.
“Kongen-Thulnir”? How odd … it sounds dwarvish, but a dialect so ancient it could almost be giantish. “Earth-wound-battleaxe”, approximately, although there are probably shades of meaning there that are beyond me.
You know … there is one place that immediately comes to mind: the Goradra Gap. Fits the description perfectly. Of course, it’s possible that the name refers to a place on the lost continent or somewhere else, but if you want my best guess, then that would be it.
As good a guess as any. It transpires that the unlocking of the Library of Last Resort has had a strange effect. All through the world, people are rediscovering lost knowledge. Books that people thought they knew forwards and backwards … it’s as though new pages had been inserted in them, or had been stuck together for years and years and the owners had never noticed. Mend even finds in his Big Book of Items some new stuff - forgotten magic from Dragon magazine issue 342. They have a little time, but not much. Although they may be the only ones in the world who know the whereabouts of Dragotha’s phylactery, that state of affairs will not last long.
They do some shopping and stuff and take a couple of days break from constantly being in each other’s heads via Rary’s Telepathic Bond. Mend spends some time in his private pocket plane where time flows much more quickly, and crafts one or two items which are simply not available anywhere on Eberron. Then they teleport out to the Goradra Gap - a few miles back from the actual gap itself.
BAMF!
Oh my.
The land is broken and hilly. But as they head out towards the gap itself they see a sight which, in Eberron, is rare. As many as four of them in the space of barely ten minutes or so. Flying high to and from the direction of the gap.
Mostly to.
Dragons.
Well! Dragons, eh? Looks like someone has managed to divine the location of his phylactery, now that the Library of Last Resort has been reopened. I’m going to need more minis.
Frith is not a druid and does not qualify for an animal companion. There are a couple of ways we can do Screechy and Elvis. He could just use Handle Animal, but they really don’t have enough HD to cope with what’s coming. So I have suggested that he take leadership. We will give Screechy levels of Barbarian which with his Owlbear HD will bring him up to a correct level to be Frith’s cohort. Elvis can also have a few levels of something appropriate, and he can stand in for all of the followers that Frith would otherwise get. We might also treat them as having been subject to an Awaken spell.
Next week: breath weapons!