Game follow up

[John Arrington]

Hi,

So it won't take long for Tensor to realize that you're stuck in his prison, and then to find Andor who teleported back to the inn in Mageport.  So everyone but Lucius is back in down and can get healed up.

What do you do next?

-John

[Jennifer McGaw]

Heal up (and I'm going to buy another emergency teleport scroll), and then head back to giant city to try to recover Lucius. 

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[Jennifer McGaw]

Also we should probably ask Tensor if he has ever heard of a dragon like this and if there are any tips for hiding from it or killing it. 

[barr...@hotmail.com]

Feelin, the love!

This is great, just don't get ambushed trying to recover me and lose another person.

[John R. Arrington]

* With some help from Andor and/or Tensor, you can easily find a recover Lucius.  Apparently, he was thrown off the cliff for some reason, and his body is in surprisingly nice condition, actually (assuming a ring of feather fall works on a corpse - if not, he's much easier to spot but harder to gather).  He has a couple post-mortum bite marks, but nothing too serious given the quality of his armor, and has most of his equipment (except sword and shield).  Given that he's 1000 feet below all the action, there's no problem popping in, recovering him, and popping back home, even if the ring doesn't work.

[Behind the scenes, in case you're curious, the lesser dragons started looting/eating Lucius, but the wyrm-in-charge smacked them around a bit and knocked Lucius off the ledge because they're in the middle of a siege and shouldn't be wasting their time with such nonsense. This particular 'general' doesn't know who you are, fortunately, and so figures you're sufficiently scared off that he doesn't worry about you coming back. The other dragons were scared off enough that they'll wait till later to loot the body.]

* The dragon was a fang dragon. Judging by its size, it was probably ancient. Andor: "Denizens of the most remote mountain ranges, fang dragons lack the distinctive breath weapon attack of most dragons, yet their bite can drain away life at a horrific rate." Given his age, he will likely be a highly skilled arcane caster as well, making him much more formidable opponent if given time to prepare.

* Just FYI, you had less warning than you normally would have because of some good rolls on my part and a couple bad ones on yours. Some dragons have remarkable perception and even with the size difference can see you almost as well as you can see them, and since they can move at 600+ feet in a round, it doesn't take them long to arrive if you're spotted. Dragons are flying all around and any one within a quarter mile can get to you in 2 rounds; I've been assuming that you don't go out of your way to shoot at ones flying around in the distance, but I probably wasn't clear enough about the situation - at any given time you can see between half-a-dozen and a dozen flying around in the vicinity of the city; more when there's an assault on one of the towers or part of the city.  I assumed that you were walking back from the edge of the cliff, to be a less obvious.  But you didn't do anything beyond that to avoid being seen, and you had killed one of the generals in that place the day before so they knew to keep an eye out. If they had spotted your mansion (which does have a faintly visible door), it really would have been an ambush.

Anyway, I'm not trying to make you paranoid and I certainly don't want to make you spell out every possible precaution you want to take. But I do want to remind you that these dragons are intelligent and organized, and very dangerous if they have time to prepare, so at least general precautions are worth noting. Of course, the 2 blue and 2 green dragons didn't have any time to prepare, and some needed a couple rounds to show up, so the only reason they were anything other than a minor annoyance was that you only had time for one energy protection, and because I rolled '1's about half the time on my breath weapon recharges. The fang dragon took some time to prepare before joining in (and he is most certainly one of the dragons with crazy-enhanced senses).

So if you had taken the path away from the cliff, you would have had a bit more cover (from sight and due to the chains). Similarly, if you had gone out the night before, or set up camp away from the citadel, they wouldn't have had time to set up patrols to keep an eye out for you.  Of course, this isn't always obvious, which is why I wanted to point it out now. I try to avoid running the encounters in a totally fixed way - the bad guys react to what they know (though I try very hard not to use any knowledge they wouldn't have and sometimes they even do something very wrong because of it), so what you guys do (especially in this very open ended situation) will change how the encounters go.

[John R. Arrington]

By the way, let me know if you want to do anything else (scouting, looking for Lucius' stuff, etc...) during your trip to recover the body.

Tensor will get the cleric to raise Lucius, 'on the house'. If you request reincarnation, that will take longer.

[Jennifer McGaw]

Ah ha! Knew we should have done the scouting that night! I think we should look around for at least Lucius' sword since it is valuable. And the bag of holding if it
isn't on his body.

On Mon 24/08/15 10:52 AM , "John R. Arrington" joh...@gmail.com sent:

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[Daniel Kobel]

John,

May I switch out one of my spells known for dispel magic? With how fast the dragons are, no point to me worrying about ranged weapons and that's a good first round action for Swifty. Dispel magic is on the vigilante spell list.

I thought I recovered the bag of holding?

[Andrew Byczek]

While we are at Tensor's I would like to do some research, preferably with Andor's or Tensor's help. Specifically I want to find out if their is any linkage between the stone giant temple and the ancient druids. I will be focusing on the time period immediately following our 'flashback' army battle. I'm looking for any details about the phylactery, obviously the druids stored it somewhere, was it with the giants? I would also like to try to dig up some details on what happened to the stone giants. They are all gone, where did they go? Do we have some sort of ancient guardian situation going on here ala Indiana Jones? If so we could perhaps magically search for stone giants in the area which might lead us to more information.

---

Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2015 13:10:20 -0500
Subject: Re: Game follow up
From: daniel...@gmail.com
To: joh...@gmail.com
CC: johnca...@googlegroups.com

John,

May I switch out one of my spells known for dispel magic? With how fast the dragons are, no point to me worrying about ranged weapons and that's a good first round action for Swifty. Dispel magic is on the vigilante spell list.

I thought I recovered the bag of holding?

[John R. Arrington]

Jen: Swifty managed to grab the bag of holding just before you teleported out.  If you're *careful* and prepared some stealth-type magic (I'll assume so), you can sneak up to where the fight occurred and find Lucius' shield in the rubble of a collapsed building (and probably some other misc. stuff that was dropped/knocked off in the fight). You do not find his sword.

Dan: Yes, you can swap out something for dispel magic. Following Matt's lead, I tend to be reasonably flexible with swapping out spells for classes that only get a limited #/spells of (generally) limited combat usefulness.

Andrew: You know that the stone giants built the city, sometime before the battle you flashed back to.  It appears from what you saw that the citadel was built with some help from the druids based on the way the stone was shaped. There are rumors that the city holds/defends a great treasure, but there is only speculation as to what it may be (and most of this information didn't exist a couple weeks ago).  You think it's likely that the citadel is the hiding place of the phylactery itself and/or some key to finding it (information on where it is, an actual key, etc....) 

[Jennifer McGaw]

I'm not sure if Andrew or Barry were told that information started reappearing, mostly in context to the draggotha and the last wormy battle, after we left the storm
island. The information trapped away there escaped to be restored into the world. That's how we know to go to the city of the giants in the first place.

On Mon 24/08/15 3:29 PM , "John R. Arrington" joh...@gmail.com sent:

> Jen: Swifty managed to grab the bag of holding just before you
> teleported out.  If you're *careful* and prepared some
> stealth-type magic (I'll assume so), you can sneak up to where
> the fight occurred and find Lucius' shield in the rubble of a
> collapsed building (and probably some other misc. stuff that was
> dropped/knocked off in the fight). You do not find his sword.
>
> Dan: Yes, you can swap out something for dispel magic. Following
> Matt's lead, I tend to be reasonably flexible with swapping out
> spells for classes that only get a limited #/spells of (generally)
> limited combat usefulness.
> Andrew: You know that the stone giants built the city, sometime
> before the battle you flashed back to.  It appears from what you saw
> that the citadel was built with some help from the druids based on the
> way the stone was shaped. There are rumors that the city holds/defends
> a great treasure, but there is only speculation as to what it may be
> (and most of this information didn't exist a couple weeks ago). 
> You think it's likely that the citadel is the hiding place of the
> phylactery itself and/or some key to finding it (information on where
> it is, an actual key, etc....) 

> On Mon, Aug 24, 2015 at 2:10 PM, Andrew Byczek wrote:
> While we are at Tensor's I would like to do some research,
> preferably with Andor's or Tensor's help. Specifically I want
> to find out if their is any linkage between the stone giant temple and
> the ancient druids. I will be focusing on the time period immediately
> following our 'flashback' army battle. I'm looking for
> any details about the phylactery, obviously the druids stored it
> somewhere, was it with the giants? I would also like to try to dig up
> some details on what happened to the stone giants. They are all gone,
> where did they go? Do we have some sort of ancient guardian situation
> going on here ala Indiana Jones? If so we could perhaps magically
> search for stone giants in the area which might lead us to more
> information.

> -------------------------

> Date: Mon, 24 Aug 2015 13:10:20 -0500
> Subject: Re: Game follow up

> From: daniel...@gmail.com [2]
> To: joh...@gmail.com [3]
> CC: johnca...@googlegroups.com [4]

> John,
>
> May I switch out one of my spells known for dispel magic? With how
> fast the dragons are, no point to me worrying about ranged weapons
> and that's a good first round action for Swifty. Dispel magic is
> on the vigilante spell list.
>
> I thought I recovered the bag of holding?
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[John R. Arrington]

Thanks! 

[John R. Arrington]

So after recovering Lucius and all of his equipment except his sword, I assume you come back to get him raised.  What's next?  I assume you're returning, but it would be useful to know what your plan is an if you make special purchases/preparations. 

I'd like to do the initial planning and return by email, since we won't play for a couple weeks.

[Jennifer McGaw]

Woah, woah that's quite the assumption! What about our zombie butler goal?

On Tue 25/08/15 9:15 AM , "John R. Arrington" joh...@gmail.com sent:

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[John R. Arrington]

What makes you think that Zombie Lucius would be a better butler than Cleric Lucius was a healer?

[Daniel Kobel]

Yeah, but swordless Divine Champion Lucius may be the most useless Lucius.

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[John R. Arrington]

We're so *mean* to Barry.

[barr...@hotmail.com]

Argh.... Lucius would definitely have his will / party contract signed to be resurrected, when possible...  and to Stay human!

[barr...@hotmail.com]

Hey guys, what happened....
sorry I couldn't make it.

[John R. Arrington]

Short version, you went into Citadel and were taken to meet the 2nd in command (Bram - Fire Giant). He was generally loud and suspicious of outsiders. Your Hill Giant escort (Fred, who you met at the front gate and chatted with) told him how you had defeated one of the dragon generals, but he still wasn't sure. When you said that you wanted to chase down the one that got away, he said that you should do so, and if you returned with his head, he would call you an ally.  You said that you wanted help, maybe a guide, and he told the Hill Giant to take you; Fred was not terribly happy with this plan.  You went back down and asked about a safe place to rest.  Fred suggested that just outside of the citadel should be fairly safe.

Next day, you woke, took the bridge back to the city, and were attacked by a pair of blue dragons (one large, one huge).  During the combat, 2huge  green dragons heard the battle and came running up behind, and later the massive fang dragon.  The 4 blue/green dragons didn't pose much of a challenge for you, though they did get pretty lucky getting in some breath weapons before you were protected or rolling well enough to do some non-trivial damage.  When the fang dragon emerged, he hit most of the party with Evard's black tenticles; Andor was the only person seriously hurt and he mazed himself to get away, Adrien and Swifty were on one side of the tenticles, and you and Monty were on the other (with the dragon).  He critted you with his bite and got in several other good hits, which were enough to take you down.  The party fled, and the teleport scroll couldn't take everyone so they dumped you but took the bag of holding.  You don't remember that last bit :)

[Jennifer McGaw]

There was no game this week. Too many people were out.

On Fri 28/08/15 8:56 AM , barr...@hotmail.com sent:

> Hey guys, what happened....
> sorry I couldn't make it.

> On Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 12:41 PM -0700, wrote:
> Argh.... Lucius would definitely have his will / party contract
> signed to be resurrected, when possible... and to Stay human!

> On Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 8:23 AM -0700, "John R. Arrington" wrote:
> We're so *mean* to Barry.

> On Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 9:37 AM, Daniel Kobel wrote:
> Yeah, but swordless Divine Champion Lucius may be the most useless

> Lucius. On Aug 25, 2015 9:24 AM, "John R. Arrington" wrote:
> What makes you think that Zombie Lucius would be a better
> butler than Cleric Lucius was a healer?

> On Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 9:12 AM, Jennifer McGaw wrote:
> Woah, woah that's quite the assumption! What about our zombie
> butler goal?

> On Tue 25/08/15 9:15 AM , "John R. Arrington" joh...@gmail.com [6]

> sent:
> > So after recovering Lucius and all of his equipment except his
> sword,
> > I assume you come back to get him raised. What's next? I
> > assume you're returning, but it would be useful to know what your
> > plan is an if you make special purchases/preparations.
> >
> > I'd like to do the initial planning and return by email, since we
> > won't play for a couple weeks.
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[John R. Arrington]

A few reminders:

1) No game this week, We're still in Toronto till Friday.  No game next week as well, unfortunately. [Matt, I'm not here for this Wednesday, but should be here next wednesday]

2) You figure that the phylactary is in the citadel, being guarded by the giants (and perhaps other things).  You also assume that it is warded against scrying, or the dragons would have found it and mounted a more focused assault. 

3) Let me know if you want to make any additional preparations.  You'll have one evening at Tensors, then go back for Lucius the next day and have the following afternoon as well. So you'll have 2 partial days in town unless you decide to stay longer.

[barr...@hotmail.com]

Hey,

I am going back to Scotland for 2 weeks on sunday, since we aren't playing this week. I'll see you all when I get back, approx 18th of Sep.

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[John R. Arrington]

Hi all,

So Barry is out this week.  What about everyone else?

-John

[Jennifer McGaw]

I'm around for a game. 

[Daniel Kobel]

I can play.

[Matthew Kirkpatrick]

I'm available

[Andrew Byczek]

Would be an hourish late but otherwise yes.

---

Date: Tue, 15 Sep 2015 13:39:50 -0500

Subject: Re: Game follow up

From: joh...@gmail.com
To: johnca...@googlegroups.com

[Daniel Kobel]

Eep, I would need to leave a little early. I'm interviewing an officer at 0600 the next morning.

[John R. Arrington]

That still gives us from 3-4 players at any given point, so let's go ahead an play!

[barr...@hotmail.com]

I'm actually back, so I'm in for tomorrow.

[Daniel Kobel]

I'm stuck at work until at least 6. I'll try to be there before 7-7:30. John, you have the most recent iteration of Swifty, right?

[John R. Arrington]

Yes, I'm pretty sure I have an up-to-date Swifty.

Just as a reminder, with Barry's change of plans we'll have a full house at peak, so game on even if someone has a change of plans.  I'll be semi out-of-touch for some of the afternoon, so just a reminder.

[Andrew Byczek]

Running later than expected, going to go ahead all say I won't be able to make it. Don't die horribly in my absence.

---

Date: Thu, 17 Sep 2015 13:24:57 -0500

Subject: Re: Game follow up

From: daniel...@gmail.com
To: barr...@hotmail.com
CC: johnca...@googlegroups.com; joh...@gmail.com

[Jennifer McGaw]

Okay this one I actually do mean to send to the group.  Quick summary for those who were not there:

Monty and Swifty are alive although a bit injured (Monty more so since he's bad at dodging blade barriers).  We decided to skip dealing with the dragons and go straight for stealthily searching for the phylactery in the citadel.  Obviously we screwed that up (who knew dragon slaying giants would have a thing against pseudodragons!?) and ended up killing the two boss fire giants instead.  Monty and Lucius went to town on one and Swifty got two crits with sneak attack and devastated the other after Andor stunned it with "Andor's creepy hand of tickling."  Adrien accomplished little besides being a minor annoyance to the giants. 
Anyhow, the leader had a stone key around his neck and had mentioned that the citadel has a vault to Adrien.  So the fearless group trooped downstairs to search for the vault and at an intersection had a blade barrier appear on them.  Sensing danger, Lucius immediately sacrificed trueseeing to become righteous mighted again while the others used see invisibility (Swifty and Andor) or trueseeing (Adrien) to locate the attacker.  But while see invisibility showed nothing, Adrien let out a girlish shriek, waving "It's over there" in a general direction, and hid around the corner.  After Lucius valiantly charged forward to find nothing to attack, the party got blade barriered a few more times, gave up on the endeavour, and Lucius word of recalled half the party away. 
After everyone regrouped safely away, Adrien then described what he saw in a quick chalk drawn depiction of what appears to be a face hugger with boobs.  Upon further interpretation through Andor the drawing/attacker has been determined to actually be a Marilith.  So we can all rejoice that we don't have to fight face hugging boobs.... oh wait...

[John R. Arrington]

So I assume you're back at the Inn in Mageport.  What is your plan at this point?

-Rest up and return by teleport? If so, where will you arrive

-Anything to do in town first?

It would be good to think about any spells you want to change so we don't lose too much time on the spell memorization phase.

[Matthew Kirkpatrick]

Now that we have an idea of what we're fighting, we might be able to actually kill it.  Some dispel magics and a true seeing should take care of the polymorph.  Assuming Lucius doesn't crunch it, a Greater Spell immunity on a few of us (that don't have evasion) would easily solve the blade barrier issue.  Then it's just a matter of pummeling it to death.
So, if Lucius wanted to memorize some greater spell immunity spells for the blade barrier, Adrien and I can take care of the true seeing and polymorph.  I'm not sure what else it can do, but that's a start at least. 

[Daniel Kobel]

I can dimensional anchor to stop teleporting and whatnot but what about it summoning allies?