In which there is a very scary dog...and holy Noltus!
It seems like these entries just get harder and harder to write, but I feel like I can't stop now when things are just getting bigger and crazier and awesome-er.
Do we all remember the Pelorian missionary who was out in the jungle trying to convert the natives and who hadn't been heard from in some time? Well, Jakara found a letter from him during a patrol into the interior. Seems good ol' Noltus came to the island because of a stone disc that he found in the Amedio jungle which depicted a trio of Olman gods--Quetzalcoatl, Tonatiuh, and Tezcatlipoca--who were seemingly working together. At the center was some sort of bow, a weapon presumably of artifact level power. A. Those three gods generally do not work together. B. Bliz *saw* this bow being wielded by one of the Olman in the war party that took down Golismorga. Mysterious Olman was one of the two who returned to the surface (Xochiquetzal and Tezcatlipoca remained behind, if you recall). So...stone disc=important in some fashion. Noltus was headed up to the plateau for various reasons and requested aid in his mission. Ballsy motherfucker, ain't he?
So, the party plus Jakara and Skald heads north overland, towards the plateau--which, for the record, is taboo to the Olman. Having reached it, they follow a hidden path and discover a very hidden camp of lizardfolk who are following Noltus. Seems Noltus left with a smaller party in search of a village whose people he was going to help, and hasn't been back in several days. We settle in for the evening when...lo and behold, Noltus and company return, somewhat worse for wear. Turns out they ran into a party of Skinwalkers (these Olman warrior types who wear some sort of skins that become part of them and who've been attacking villages recently) while trying to find a way across the lake to the island at the center of the plateau. We chat it up with Noltus for a while, his bloodhound comes over to make friendly with Bliz, but Coriander growls at him. Noltus goes to get some notes and...all hell breaks loose.
You saw this coming, right?
His dog turns into this massive horrible monster that Jo's tribe used to scare the children with. The party Noltus came back with turn into Skinwalkers. Noltus disappears. In the suprise round, the monster does over 50 damage to Bliz. Here is Oh Shit Moment #1. Jo goes after it first, the Skinwalkers do for many of the good lizardfolk and their leader tries to feeblemind Adamant...and fails. Adamant returns the favor and succeeds. Jo and Bliz (who throws a fireball at the skinwalkers before they can close with our party) work on taking down the big nasty and do so in a few rounds. The leader attacks Adamant who freaks out slightly and calls for Jo to help. Four skinwalkers go after Jakara, and the lizardfolk cleric helps him. With Bliz and Urol on hand to help with the skinwalkers, and Skald to take shots where needed, Jo pounces to attack the leader and help Adamant...and promptly drops her rapier, discovering that this guy is damn hard to hit. Meanwhile, un-Noltus is busy raising dead lizardfolk to come and attack us. Eventually, there are five of them around me, plus the leader. Bliz goes invis, trying to find un-Noltus. Adamant switches places with one of the undead and casts See Invis on Jo, and tells her to go get the un-Noltus and he'll take care of these guys. The other skinwalkers are doing a number on Jakara, and things are getting a bit desperate. He goes down to some of the poison they're using (Oh Shit Moment #2: Skinwalker Boogaloo), and Urol thankfully is on hand to bring him back.
With a worried look at Adamant, who tells her again to go, Jo runs to un-Noltus and gets an attack or two in on him. Then he goes to town on her...and she fails her Fort save. Paralysed. (cue Oh Shit Moment #3: Omygodi'mfucked McGee). Two more undead come over to join the fun. A skinwalker sees an opening and moves to charge Ye Olde Helpless Jo, but Jakara interrupts his charge with an attack of opportunity--from prone, no less. Despite still being above 100 hp, Jo is facing death squarely in the face. Adamant, meanwhile, starts screaming in abyssal at the demon un-Noltus, threatening horrible, painful violence if the thing so much as touches Jo...and Goes To Town with some spell action, taking out most of the undead around him in one round. Then Urol jaunts over and casts Freedom of Movement in the nick of time. Again.
Jo does the only thing she can...attacks the demon again with her cutlass (did I mention that she has a sacred scabbard for it now, so she has a Bless Weapon in effect, confirming all crits?). She scores a hit, and then miss and then...a crit. Draw from the crit deck for slashing...
Decapitation. Fort save against DC 38 (my attack roll). Snickersnack, bitches. Srsly, I had tears in my eyes when I saw that card. It's never come up before, and I didn't really expect it to ever come up. Dude wasn't even bloodied, and he would have retreated in the next round or two and gone back to the Main Bad Guy to await our arrival at the end of the module. The D&D gods were smiling on me. Jo went from facing certain death to pulling off the nearly-impossible in one round. I don't know how much more my heart can take. ;)
So, we still had the remaining skinwalkers to deal with, including their leader. Tenacious fuckers, but we eventually took them all down. Did I mention that the skins they were wearing had claws that also got to attack in addition to their normal attacks? Oh yeah, and Adamant, seeing the last skinwalker still fighting, walked over and grabbed it and promptly disappeared. (He later claimed that he threw it in Zotzilaha's volcano.) It was a couple hours of intensity for the players and not even 10 rounds of insanity for the characters.
Upon looting the bodies, we found a few nice bits. Also, the big nasty monster was wearing a ring.
A ring of Freedom of Movement. (cue choirs of angels singing hallelujah) After that little close call, Jo isn't going to *let* anyone else try to claim that ring. Word. Not invincible, but what a damn good magic item.
We bury the dead and camp out there for the night. All in all, a fabulous session. And of course, it just keeps getting crazier from here. I can't wait.
Do we all remember the Pelorian missionary who was out in the jungle trying to convert the natives and who hadn't been heard from in some time? Well, Jakara found a letter from him during a patrol into the interior. Seems good ol' Noltus came to the island because of a stone disc that he found in the Amedio jungle which depicted a trio of Olman gods--Quetzalcoatl, Tonatiuh, and Tezcatlipoca--who were seemingly working together. At the center was some sort of bow, a weapon presumably of artifact level power. A. Those three gods generally do not work together. B. Bliz *saw* this bow being wielded by one of the Olman in the war party that took down Golismorga. Mysterious Olman was one of the two who returned to the surface (Xochiquetzal and Tezcatlipoca remained behind, if you recall). So...stone disc=important in some fashion. Noltus was headed up to the plateau for various reasons and requested aid in his mission. Ballsy motherfucker, ain't he?
So, the party plus Jakara and Skald heads north overland, towards the plateau--which, for the record, is taboo to the Olman. Having reached it, they follow a hidden path and discover a very hidden camp of lizardfolk who are following Noltus. Seems Noltus left with a smaller party in search of a village whose people he was going to help, and hasn't been back in several days. We settle in for the evening when...lo and behold, Noltus and company return, somewhat worse for wear. Turns out they ran into a party of Skinwalkers (these Olman warrior types who wear some sort of skins that become part of them and who've been attacking villages recently) while trying to find a way across the lake to the island at the center of the plateau. We chat it up with Noltus for a while, his bloodhound comes over to make friendly with Bliz, but Coriander growls at him. Noltus goes to get some notes and...all hell breaks loose.
You saw this coming, right?
His dog turns into this massive horrible monster that Jo's tribe used to scare the children with. The party Noltus came back with turn into Skinwalkers. Noltus disappears. In the suprise round, the monster does over 50 damage to Bliz. Here is Oh Shit Moment #1. Jo goes after it first, the Skinwalkers do for many of the good lizardfolk and their leader tries to feeblemind Adamant...and fails. Adamant returns the favor and succeeds. Jo and Bliz (who throws a fireball at the skinwalkers before they can close with our party) work on taking down the big nasty and do so in a few rounds. The leader attacks Adamant who freaks out slightly and calls for Jo to help. Four skinwalkers go after Jakara, and the lizardfolk cleric helps him. With Bliz and Urol on hand to help with the skinwalkers, and Skald to take shots where needed, Jo pounces to attack the leader and help Adamant...and promptly drops her rapier, discovering that this guy is damn hard to hit. Meanwhile, un-Noltus is busy raising dead lizardfolk to come and attack us. Eventually, there are five of them around me, plus the leader. Bliz goes invis, trying to find un-Noltus. Adamant switches places with one of the undead and casts See Invis on Jo, and tells her to go get the un-Noltus and he'll take care of these guys. The other skinwalkers are doing a number on Jakara, and things are getting a bit desperate. He goes down to some of the poison they're using (Oh Shit Moment #2: Skinwalker Boogaloo), and Urol thankfully is on hand to bring him back.
With a worried look at Adamant, who tells her again to go, Jo runs to un-Noltus and gets an attack or two in on him. Then he goes to town on her...and she fails her Fort save. Paralysed. (cue Oh Shit Moment #3: Omygodi'mfucked McGee). Two more undead come over to join the fun. A skinwalker sees an opening and moves to charge Ye Olde Helpless Jo, but Jakara interrupts his charge with an attack of opportunity--from prone, no less. Despite still being above 100 hp, Jo is facing death squarely in the face. Adamant, meanwhile, starts screaming in abyssal at the demon un-Noltus, threatening horrible, painful violence if the thing so much as touches Jo...and Goes To Town with some spell action, taking out most of the undead around him in one round. Then Urol jaunts over and casts Freedom of Movement in the nick of time. Again.
Jo does the only thing she can...attacks the demon again with her cutlass (did I mention that she has a sacred scabbard for it now, so she has a Bless Weapon in effect, confirming all crits?). She scores a hit, and then miss and then...a crit. Draw from the crit deck for slashing...
Decapitation. Fort save against DC 38 (my attack roll). Snickersnack, bitches. Srsly, I had tears in my eyes when I saw that card. It's never come up before, and I didn't really expect it to ever come up. Dude wasn't even bloodied, and he would have retreated in the next round or two and gone back to the Main Bad Guy to await our arrival at the end of the module. The D&D gods were smiling on me. Jo went from facing certain death to pulling off the nearly-impossible in one round. I don't know how much more my heart can take. ;)
So, we still had the remaining skinwalkers to deal with, including their leader. Tenacious fuckers, but we eventually took them all down. Did I mention that the skins they were wearing had claws that also got to attack in addition to their normal attacks? Oh yeah, and Adamant, seeing the last skinwalker still fighting, walked over and grabbed it and promptly disappeared. (He later claimed that he threw it in Zotzilaha's volcano.) It was a couple hours of intensity for the players and not even 10 rounds of insanity for the characters.
Upon looting the bodies, we found a few nice bits. Also, the big nasty monster was wearing a ring.
A ring of Freedom of Movement. (cue choirs of angels singing hallelujah) After that little close call, Jo isn't going to *let* anyone else try to claim that ring. Word. Not invincible, but what a damn good magic item.
We bury the dead and camp out there for the night. All in all, a fabulous session. And of course, it just keeps getting crazier from here. I can't wait.