Exile Empire - An Elemental Interlude
What? Just two weeks between D&D sessions? Inconceivable!
And yet we somehow got together yesterday to pick up from last session's rushed ending, segueing into a quick aside that brought in a few new ideas, showcased an exotic location, and had a half-elf teleport onto the head of a giant demon to stab it in the eye.
Details behind the cut.
Sucked into a planar portal as the White Oubliette collapsed, Kaddik, Rufus, Slaine and Caleb - but not Ballast - regain consciousness in an icy tower, being ministered to by Janda-Shen, a strange woman with purple skin and golden crystals for hair. She tells them that she thought giants would be taller; after all, they came through a planar portal created by giants, albeit one left unattended for 40,000 years.
Janda-Shen is a genasi from the plane of Kythri, the Elemental Chaos - which is where the heroes have emerged, in an ancient giant stronghold now encased in ice. The bad news is that the portal (which Janda-Shen was hoping to use to escape the efreeti pursuing her) has stopped working; the much worse news is that the tower is floating on a great river of electrified lava and is heading for the Abyss, the infinite pit from which all demons spring.
After dealing with a group of angry ice elementals, the heroes find a crumpled letter (that came through the portal with them) to Miraan, leader of the Storm Hammers, from someone in the Liondrake's Roar. Apparently they had a deal to trade monsters ('fell taints') to the Storm Hammers in return for a fortune in dragonshards, and to build the Hammers up as a terrorist threat that only the Liondrake's Roar could defeat, letting the Roar take over from the Iron Watch as Stormreach's elite police force - but the Storm Hammers are breaking their half of the agreement. The letter could be valuable evidence in uncovering the conspiracy and rescuing Kaddik’s master, but that’s not much help right now.
Analysis shows that the portal isn’t functioning because the power source is missing; the records Janda-Shen found in the City of Brass say that the giants imprisoned powerful demons to use as power sources. They hurry down to the basement to find a goristro - a 15-foot-tall bull-headed demon - breaking through the wards that kept it imprisoned in an ‘engine pit’. While weakened by being impaled on power-draining spikes in a deep pit for 40 millennia, the goristro is powerful and tough. While the others distract it, Slaine and Caleb string a rope between two columns in front of the engine pit. Janda-Shen blasts the demon back into the rope with a whirlwind, tripping it into the pit, and Rufus infuriates it into blundering onto one of the spikes. With the power restored, the heroes tear back to the portal and jump through, scant seconds before the tower lurches over the edge of the Abyss and hurtles into oblivion.
Where did they go? What happened to Ballast? And where has Spark been while all this has occurred? Find out next time…
--
After last session’s cliffhanger, I had very little idea of where to go with this session, but started bouncing a few ideas around during the week for a quick, self-contained adventure that would involve new concepts, advance a couple of plot points, and give the guys a really cool fight. The result was a very quick dip into the planes of Eberron, a glimpse of exotic dangers (tweaked to be a survivable challenge for 2nd-level characters) and a chance to buy and bust out a Huge miniature. It was short but punchy, and everyone had a good time - one of my better sessions, on the whole.
One of my goals for the session was to improve my encounter design skills, what with the issues I mentioned in the last write-up. In both encounters (ice warriors / goristro) I spent some time beforehand working out the environment and key features, planning my setup and how things might unfold in play - they didn’t go that way, of course, but it’s good to have a basic plan to use as a foundation. The result was, I think, much smoother and more engaging encounters with more consistent and meaningful environments.
After the last session, I sent out a ‘4E Tactics 101’ file for the group to read, and the ice warrior encounter was basically designed as a chance to put those ideas into action. The guys came through, paying attention to things like focus fire, covering each other’s backs and working as a team. The second encounter with the goristro was a little simpler tactically - one monster, very big, aim for his head - but teamwork was critical and it was only by working together that they took the demon down as fast as they did.
The goristro, for the record, started life as a 13th-level solo, busted down many, many levels to suit the game (but with solid story reasons to back up the change). As a brute, it had low-accuracy, high-damage attacks; as a solo, it had lots of chances to use them. It didn’t end up doing that much damage to the PCs, but it was nonetheless a big scary bastard who could have done a lot more if it had the chance. (I never did get to pull off the stunt where it entangles someone with a chain and then throws them at someone else.)
The bit with the rope was pure genius on the players’ part, and was a great example of both left-field thinking and teamwork; I really hope I see more of that. Rufus’ player O. is a great addition to the group for several reasons, but one is that he looks for ways to use and describe his skills and powers creatively, and I think that’s a good influence on the rest of the group.
Next session is probably a while away, which will give me time to work out what happens when they all get back to the mortal world - and what to do with Janda-Shen, who I found really fun to portray and would like to keep as a recurring NPC ally. I also have to work out what to do about Spark and Ballast. I wonder if a short solo/duo session might be in order. Must run it past the guys.
And yet we somehow got together yesterday to pick up from last session's rushed ending, segueing into a quick aside that brought in a few new ideas, showcased an exotic location, and had a half-elf teleport onto the head of a giant demon to stab it in the eye.
Details behind the cut.
Sucked into a planar portal as the White Oubliette collapsed, Kaddik, Rufus, Slaine and Caleb - but not Ballast - regain consciousness in an icy tower, being ministered to by Janda-Shen, a strange woman with purple skin and golden crystals for hair. She tells them that she thought giants would be taller; after all, they came through a planar portal created by giants, albeit one left unattended for 40,000 years.
Janda-Shen is a genasi from the plane of Kythri, the Elemental Chaos - which is where the heroes have emerged, in an ancient giant stronghold now encased in ice. The bad news is that the portal (which Janda-Shen was hoping to use to escape the efreeti pursuing her) has stopped working; the much worse news is that the tower is floating on a great river of electrified lava and is heading for the Abyss, the infinite pit from which all demons spring.
After dealing with a group of angry ice elementals, the heroes find a crumpled letter (that came through the portal with them) to Miraan, leader of the Storm Hammers, from someone in the Liondrake's Roar. Apparently they had a deal to trade monsters ('fell taints') to the Storm Hammers in return for a fortune in dragonshards, and to build the Hammers up as a terrorist threat that only the Liondrake's Roar could defeat, letting the Roar take over from the Iron Watch as Stormreach's elite police force - but the Storm Hammers are breaking their half of the agreement. The letter could be valuable evidence in uncovering the conspiracy and rescuing Kaddik’s master, but that’s not much help right now.
Analysis shows that the portal isn’t functioning because the power source is missing; the records Janda-Shen found in the City of Brass say that the giants imprisoned powerful demons to use as power sources. They hurry down to the basement to find a goristro - a 15-foot-tall bull-headed demon - breaking through the wards that kept it imprisoned in an ‘engine pit’. While weakened by being impaled on power-draining spikes in a deep pit for 40 millennia, the goristro is powerful and tough. While the others distract it, Slaine and Caleb string a rope between two columns in front of the engine pit. Janda-Shen blasts the demon back into the rope with a whirlwind, tripping it into the pit, and Rufus infuriates it into blundering onto one of the spikes. With the power restored, the heroes tear back to the portal and jump through, scant seconds before the tower lurches over the edge of the Abyss and hurtles into oblivion.
Where did they go? What happened to Ballast? And where has Spark been while all this has occurred? Find out next time…
--
After last session’s cliffhanger, I had very little idea of where to go with this session, but started bouncing a few ideas around during the week for a quick, self-contained adventure that would involve new concepts, advance a couple of plot points, and give the guys a really cool fight. The result was a very quick dip into the planes of Eberron, a glimpse of exotic dangers (tweaked to be a survivable challenge for 2nd-level characters) and a chance to buy and bust out a Huge miniature. It was short but punchy, and everyone had a good time - one of my better sessions, on the whole.
One of my goals for the session was to improve my encounter design skills, what with the issues I mentioned in the last write-up. In both encounters (ice warriors / goristro) I spent some time beforehand working out the environment and key features, planning my setup and how things might unfold in play - they didn’t go that way, of course, but it’s good to have a basic plan to use as a foundation. The result was, I think, much smoother and more engaging encounters with more consistent and meaningful environments.
After the last session, I sent out a ‘4E Tactics 101’ file for the group to read, and the ice warrior encounter was basically designed as a chance to put those ideas into action. The guys came through, paying attention to things like focus fire, covering each other’s backs and working as a team. The second encounter with the goristro was a little simpler tactically - one monster, very big, aim for his head - but teamwork was critical and it was only by working together that they took the demon down as fast as they did.
The goristro, for the record, started life as a 13th-level solo, busted down many, many levels to suit the game (but with solid story reasons to back up the change). As a brute, it had low-accuracy, high-damage attacks; as a solo, it had lots of chances to use them. It didn’t end up doing that much damage to the PCs, but it was nonetheless a big scary bastard who could have done a lot more if it had the chance. (I never did get to pull off the stunt where it entangles someone with a chain and then throws them at someone else.)
The bit with the rope was pure genius on the players’ part, and was a great example of both left-field thinking and teamwork; I really hope I see more of that. Rufus’ player O. is a great addition to the group for several reasons, but one is that he looks for ways to use and describe his skills and powers creatively, and I think that’s a good influence on the rest of the group.
Next session is probably a while away, which will give me time to work out what happens when they all get back to the mortal world - and what to do with Janda-Shen, who I found really fun to portray and would like to keep as a recurring NPC ally. I also have to work out what to do about Spark and Ballast. I wonder if a short solo/duo session might be in order. Must run it past the guys.