Re: NTRPG Con IX (2017)
Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2017 2:32 pm
(continued)
It is true that both DMs died while the entire party survived, but that's only because the dead PCs were resurrected!
The group was armed to the teeth with all the best magic items: Welleran had a sword with 6 wishes, I think Flambeaux had a staff of wizardry, Laura G (not on these forums) had a medallion of ESP, James G (not on these forums) had a ring of X-ray vision, benjoshua had a flying carpet, I think someone had a gem of true-seeing, Byron (not on these forums) had a sword of life-stealing, and I don't know what all else. For reasons that will become clear, this group would become known as "the Ladder Company."
Side Note: Of the 20 or so players, maybe 8 of them were forum members. Several of the players had never even heard of the K&KA forum!
TEMPLE ENTRANCE
The goal was to find the Mystic Cup of Gygax, a magical cup of tremendous power, lost in a magical cave maze under a desecrated temple. The party arrives at the forgotten temple of the Red Priest, which was overrun by forces of chaos and turned into an unholy place. The angelic statues were disfigured, and demonic statues were placed along the walls, 6 on the left, 6 on the right, and 6 on the back wall.
Piper took a look at the demonic statues and was possessed by an evil spirit, causing him to attack the party. The group piled onto Piper to stop him, so the spirit jumped into Byron. Byron slew Piper, since he was in a prone position, before the spirit took enough damage and was driven out. Byron soaked up several heals to get him back into fighting shape.
(It was only later I found out who Piper was. Piper was a good sport and took his death well.) One death, and they hadn't made it out of the first room, things were looking up for Alucard.
The only way forward was through a large round stone, which had 6 wax seals marked by a sinister baboon face. Chainsaw recommended lawful PCs should try breaking the seals (since he knew the seals had especially harmful effects for lawful PCs; chaotic PCs would be unharmed).
I believe Tetramorph was the first to volunteer to remove a seal. His nose became elongated and crooked and lost 2 CHA. Laura G lost 2 levels (she was listed as chaotic neutral, which I took to be Neutral). Bryan (not on these forums, I had suspected he was EOTB's long lost brother, as they struck me as being similar, but apparently he is actually Welleran's brother?) had to save vs death or die. Death erupted out of the ground, attempting to drag Bryan into the grave, but Bryan rolled a natural 20 and kicked dirt into the face of Death before stomping him back into the earth. Someone else permanently lost 1d6 points of strength.
Another person stepped forward to remove a seal, and as he was chaotic, he was unharmed. Seeing this, he removed the final seal, and it was a good thing he was chaotic (I was doing false rolls behind the screen when he broke the seals, and on the last seal, I rolled a 1, which would have been the worst possible result!)
SWORD OF MITRA
The room beyond had a statue that was broken into 7 pieces. Flambeaux, Jeff, and Tetramorph reassemble the pieces, and the statue is magically restored to the image of Mitra. Reassembled, the statue moved forward, revealing a secret compartment containing the great sword of Mitra! Jeff took possession of the sword, a sword of tremendous power. He then went back up and used the sword to resurrect Piper.
3 DEMON DOORS
The third chamber had a demon-woman with 4 arms and a baboon head stapled on, chanting prayers in front of 3 demon doorways. She told the players they could ask each of the doors one yes or no question; one only answered truthfully, another only tells lies, and one is chance. Jeff, emboldened by the high INT/EGO of the sword of Mitra naturally attacked the demon-woman. She screamed, causing blocks to fly out at everybody, but she was easily defeated.
The doorway of truth would put them on the Straight Path (the shortest and easiest path to the cup), the doorway of lies would put them on the Winding Way (the longest and most dangerous path to the cup), and chance would take them to a random location. The party used the gem of true-seeing (man I hate that thing) to find the correct door and moved along.
TEST OF HEROES
They entered a room with a grinning but fake red dragon (really a magic hydra starting with one head). There were two doorways, one marked Retreat, the other marked "A true hero must sacrifice himself."
The players ignored the clue and launched into an all-out assault on the fake dragon. Dishing out damage, they cut off its head, but the head is replaced with two heads as the dragon grew even larger. So the party doubled their efforts and attacked again. Chainsaw casts a web spell on the dragon, trapping the front fighters to the dragon (including Tetramorph).
They keep attacking the dragon, heads are lopped off, and the dragon grows even bigger, breaking the web. The party then decides to attack the body rather than the heads, but the dragon continues to sprout more heads and gain more hit dice.
Chainsaw is calling for someone to offer themselves to the dragon to be eaten (as per the clue, but this is in fact the intentionally wrong tactic and will only serve to get people swallowed whole and killed outright). Fortunately for the party, due to the noise and chaos in the room, I don't think many hear chainsaw's "advice."
The party begins to realize that a frontal assault isn't getting the job done, so Jeff, focusing on the clue, kills himself by stabbing himself with the sword of Mitra. (This wasn't exactly the way to defeat the magic hydra, but we figured it was close enough.) When Jeff died, the hydra dropped dead, too. Jeff was somehow brought back to life, I believe he was raised by a cleric.
SWAMI ISLAND
The party finds themselves on an island surrounded by a lake of fire and brimstone. They use the flying carpet to transport themselves into a walled in structure containing the caged 3-legged frog, the dead tree, and the chanting swami with the 3 doors. The frog explains they can only get the swami to open the correct door by telling him something that is neither true nor a lie, and the frog would be happy to tell them what to say if they'll only let him out.
James G solves the riddle and gets the swami to open the correct door, leaving the frog in the cage for now...
CHEATING AT MONKEY CHESS
Next, the party encounters a bunch of baboons with British accents playing chess. The head monkey invites the party to either finish the chess game in progress, or else engage in a game of "monkey chess." Naturally, just about everyone wants to play monkey chess, although a few of the wiser folks there voice their doubts about agreeing to play a game they know nothing about...
Agreeing to meet the monkey chess challenge, the baboons bring forth their monkey chess champion, a giant gorilla named Jack Ass Kong. The party sends forth its nimblest/highest DEX warrior, Laura G (not a good choice, as she had already been level-drained by 2 levels!).
Laura G and Jack Ass Kong face off on a raised circular platform that randomly tilts with spikes springing up (think Flash Gordon movie). The baboons climb a ladder to one platform, stocked with barrels and bananas, and the party climbs a ladder to the other platform, where they may use whatever items and magics they have. The first champion to be knocked off loses!
I was pretty confident in Jack Ass Kong, as he is one bad monkey, but with all of the spells being brought to bare against JAK, the players were on the verge of winning. They were trying things like charming JAK, to get him to jump off, and while he made his saves, it was just a matter of time (meanwhile, the baboons were throwing barrels and bananas at Laura G and the party).
And this is what I had feared about the Straight Path. Being well acquainted with Murphy's Law, I just knew the party would somehow get on the Straight Path, bypassing most of the encounters we had spent so much time designing, and the adventure would be way too easy and short. If they defeated Jack Ass Kong, then they would have completely bypassed the Winding Way and end hours early.
But, what do you know, on the verge of victory, our party of ne'er-do-wells snatches defeat! YES! For some strange reason, perhaps not realizing how close they were to winning, some of the players hop onto the magic carpet and fly down to the platform to help Laura G, which of course, is cheating. "Cheaters!" the baboons shout, as the party's platform opens up, dropping the party into the magic smoke below. The magic smoke forms into a large hand and reaches up, pulling down the PCs on the magic carpet as well.
They are taken to the start of the Winding Way. Back to the beginning with you, hahaha!
(to be continued...)
It is true that both DMs died while the entire party survived, but that's only because the dead PCs were resurrected!
The group was armed to the teeth with all the best magic items: Welleran had a sword with 6 wishes, I think Flambeaux had a staff of wizardry, Laura G (not on these forums) had a medallion of ESP, James G (not on these forums) had a ring of X-ray vision, benjoshua had a flying carpet, I think someone had a gem of true-seeing, Byron (not on these forums) had a sword of life-stealing, and I don't know what all else. For reasons that will become clear, this group would become known as "the Ladder Company."
Side Note: Of the 20 or so players, maybe 8 of them were forum members. Several of the players had never even heard of the K&KA forum!
TEMPLE ENTRANCE
The goal was to find the Mystic Cup of Gygax, a magical cup of tremendous power, lost in a magical cave maze under a desecrated temple. The party arrives at the forgotten temple of the Red Priest, which was overrun by forces of chaos and turned into an unholy place. The angelic statues were disfigured, and demonic statues were placed along the walls, 6 on the left, 6 on the right, and 6 on the back wall.
Piper took a look at the demonic statues and was possessed by an evil spirit, causing him to attack the party. The group piled onto Piper to stop him, so the spirit jumped into Byron. Byron slew Piper, since he was in a prone position, before the spirit took enough damage and was driven out. Byron soaked up several heals to get him back into fighting shape.
(It was only later I found out who Piper was. Piper was a good sport and took his death well.) One death, and they hadn't made it out of the first room, things were looking up for Alucard.
The only way forward was through a large round stone, which had 6 wax seals marked by a sinister baboon face. Chainsaw recommended lawful PCs should try breaking the seals (since he knew the seals had especially harmful effects for lawful PCs; chaotic PCs would be unharmed).
I believe Tetramorph was the first to volunteer to remove a seal. His nose became elongated and crooked and lost 2 CHA. Laura G lost 2 levels (she was listed as chaotic neutral, which I took to be Neutral). Bryan (not on these forums, I had suspected he was EOTB's long lost brother, as they struck me as being similar, but apparently he is actually Welleran's brother?) had to save vs death or die. Death erupted out of the ground, attempting to drag Bryan into the grave, but Bryan rolled a natural 20 and kicked dirt into the face of Death before stomping him back into the earth. Someone else permanently lost 1d6 points of strength.
Another person stepped forward to remove a seal, and as he was chaotic, he was unharmed. Seeing this, he removed the final seal, and it was a good thing he was chaotic (I was doing false rolls behind the screen when he broke the seals, and on the last seal, I rolled a 1, which would have been the worst possible result!)
SWORD OF MITRA
The room beyond had a statue that was broken into 7 pieces. Flambeaux, Jeff, and Tetramorph reassemble the pieces, and the statue is magically restored to the image of Mitra. Reassembled, the statue moved forward, revealing a secret compartment containing the great sword of Mitra! Jeff took possession of the sword, a sword of tremendous power. He then went back up and used the sword to resurrect Piper.
3 DEMON DOORS
The third chamber had a demon-woman with 4 arms and a baboon head stapled on, chanting prayers in front of 3 demon doorways. She told the players they could ask each of the doors one yes or no question; one only answered truthfully, another only tells lies, and one is chance. Jeff, emboldened by the high INT/EGO of the sword of Mitra naturally attacked the demon-woman. She screamed, causing blocks to fly out at everybody, but she was easily defeated.
The doorway of truth would put them on the Straight Path (the shortest and easiest path to the cup), the doorway of lies would put them on the Winding Way (the longest and most dangerous path to the cup), and chance would take them to a random location. The party used the gem of true-seeing (man I hate that thing) to find the correct door and moved along.
TEST OF HEROES
They entered a room with a grinning but fake red dragon (really a magic hydra starting with one head). There were two doorways, one marked Retreat, the other marked "A true hero must sacrifice himself."
The players ignored the clue and launched into an all-out assault on the fake dragon. Dishing out damage, they cut off its head, but the head is replaced with two heads as the dragon grew even larger. So the party doubled their efforts and attacked again. Chainsaw casts a web spell on the dragon, trapping the front fighters to the dragon (including Tetramorph).
They keep attacking the dragon, heads are lopped off, and the dragon grows even bigger, breaking the web. The party then decides to attack the body rather than the heads, but the dragon continues to sprout more heads and gain more hit dice.
Chainsaw is calling for someone to offer themselves to the dragon to be eaten (as per the clue, but this is in fact the intentionally wrong tactic and will only serve to get people swallowed whole and killed outright). Fortunately for the party, due to the noise and chaos in the room, I don't think many hear chainsaw's "advice."
The party begins to realize that a frontal assault isn't getting the job done, so Jeff, focusing on the clue, kills himself by stabbing himself with the sword of Mitra. (This wasn't exactly the way to defeat the magic hydra, but we figured it was close enough.) When Jeff died, the hydra dropped dead, too. Jeff was somehow brought back to life, I believe he was raised by a cleric.
SWAMI ISLAND
The party finds themselves on an island surrounded by a lake of fire and brimstone. They use the flying carpet to transport themselves into a walled in structure containing the caged 3-legged frog, the dead tree, and the chanting swami with the 3 doors. The frog explains they can only get the swami to open the correct door by telling him something that is neither true nor a lie, and the frog would be happy to tell them what to say if they'll only let him out.
James G solves the riddle and gets the swami to open the correct door, leaving the frog in the cage for now...
CHEATING AT MONKEY CHESS
Next, the party encounters a bunch of baboons with British accents playing chess. The head monkey invites the party to either finish the chess game in progress, or else engage in a game of "monkey chess." Naturally, just about everyone wants to play monkey chess, although a few of the wiser folks there voice their doubts about agreeing to play a game they know nothing about...
Agreeing to meet the monkey chess challenge, the baboons bring forth their monkey chess champion, a giant gorilla named Jack Ass Kong. The party sends forth its nimblest/highest DEX warrior, Laura G (not a good choice, as she had already been level-drained by 2 levels!).
Laura G and Jack Ass Kong face off on a raised circular platform that randomly tilts with spikes springing up (think Flash Gordon movie). The baboons climb a ladder to one platform, stocked with barrels and bananas, and the party climbs a ladder to the other platform, where they may use whatever items and magics they have. The first champion to be knocked off loses!
I was pretty confident in Jack Ass Kong, as he is one bad monkey, but with all of the spells being brought to bare against JAK, the players were on the verge of winning. They were trying things like charming JAK, to get him to jump off, and while he made his saves, it was just a matter of time (meanwhile, the baboons were throwing barrels and bananas at Laura G and the party).
And this is what I had feared about the Straight Path. Being well acquainted with Murphy's Law, I just knew the party would somehow get on the Straight Path, bypassing most of the encounters we had spent so much time designing, and the adventure would be way too easy and short. If they defeated Jack Ass Kong, then they would have completely bypassed the Winding Way and end hours early.
But, what do you know, on the verge of victory, our party of ne'er-do-wells snatches defeat! YES! For some strange reason, perhaps not realizing how close they were to winning, some of the players hop onto the magic carpet and fly down to the platform to help Laura G, which of course, is cheating. "Cheaters!" the baboons shout, as the party's platform opens up, dropping the party into the magic smoke below. The magic smoke forms into a large hand and reaches up, pulling down the PCs on the magic carpet as well.
They are taken to the start of the Winding Way. Back to the beginning with you, hahaha!
(to be continued...)
