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Against the Giants: Campaign Journal
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<blockquote data-quote="cthulhu42" data-source="post: 7348992" data-attributes="member: 6792361"><p>Session 12</p><p></p><p></p><p>We begin the session with the gang just having ported back to Pellak. First things first, Thoradin, Krote, Sai, Joshua and Selendra head for the temple of Clangadin in search of Restorations to rid them of the exhaustion they've built up during the last fight. The priest there has to charge them this time, although he does so at a considerable discount, given Thoradin's status. </p><p></p><p> Krote stays behind afterwards to have a quick chat with Clangadin, which Black Metal is less than pleased about. Once again, the axe's orcish side demands that Krote embrace his orc self and head back to the Black Bone tribe to claim his rightful place on the orcish throne. Krote declines, and things are tense between barbarian and weapon. </p><p></p><p> On his way back to their inn, though, Krote has an interesting moment when he spies a group of children playing in an ally. They are arguing over who gets to play Krote in their games. An obviously half-orc child claims the right, given his heritage. Soon they spot the real Krote, and they are rightfully awestruck. Krote gives them a bit of heroic advise (stay in school, kids!) while Black Metal whispers in his mind to slay them all. Krote ignores that. </p><p></p><p> Meanwhile, Edran is off doing Edran things. He gets his finger Regenerated again, and then sets off to find something to spend his money on. He wants magical armor, but Temple Urzinine is not in the city at the moment, and the wizard's guild isn't interested in talking to him. So he heads to the seedy part of town and proceeds to throw gold around until he gets the attention of a rotund fellow named, Tiny. The pair become fast friends and Tiny assures Edran that he knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy that has some enchanted studded leather for sale. Only 30,000gp! A price suggested only after Edran assures Tiny that he has 30,000gp. Edran eventually hands over a down payment of 10,000gp and happily watches Tiny disappear with his gold, sure that he will soon have his armor. </p><p></p><p> Once Edran gets back to the inn and explains all this to Krote, and that he needs another twenty thousand, Selendra laughs uproariously and Krote is less than convinced. Edran, still short the final sum, heads out again, first thinking to rob the temple of Clangadin, then the bank of Pellak. He reconsiders both ideas and winds up giving away what gold he has left to street urchins, along with his shoes, cape, and most of his clothes. With no money left, he eventually curls up in the ally next to the Gold Flute and dreams his own weird dreams. </p><p></p><p> Later that night he is awakened by a presence in the ally. It is Joshua, come to find him. Joshua pulls up a bucket to have a chat with Edran, wondering why the boy treats the only people who can really relate to him like such garbage. Edran, of course, denies doing any such thing. Joshua shrugs and tells Edran to come inside, that he has purchased a room for him. Ever obstinate, Edran chooses to spend the rest of the night in the ally. </p><p></p><p> Thoradin, meanwhile, has sought out a dwarven bar and spends the night getting drunk and lucky. Come the following morning, he is in much better spirits, having spent some quality time among his own people. He is in too good a mood to let even Edran's tale of Tiny and armor and ridiculous sums of money get him down. He shrugs and agrees to lend the gold to Edran, and they all head off to find Tiny. </p><p></p><p> Which they do, after a bit of asking around and spreading still more gold around. They find a sleepy Tiny in a back ally apartment. He tells them that it will be a couple of days before the armor can be found but that he needs the gold up front. After a few menacing threats as to what the party will do should Tiny try to screw them, they hand over another 20,000 gold, sure that Edran will have his armor in two days. </p><p></p><p> At last, they are ready to head back into the giant lair. Sai gathers them near and casts his Teleport, zipping them back into the throne room. </p><p> </p><p> The throne room is weirdly quiet and empty. The heroes head back down the secret escape tunnel used by King Snurre, but this time Thoradin spots a footprint disappearing into the solid stone. Soon they find another secret door and follow the revealed tunnel down stairs into Snurre's treasure chamber where they are immediately attacked by a guardian hydra. But at full health and power, the hydra is no match for the party, and two rounds later the beast lays dead. </p><p></p><p> Edran sets to work, checking nearly twenty chest, coffers and trunks, setting off a few traps, managing to poison himself and Sai, and even getting bit by several snakes. And while there is loot to be had, it is obvious that someone has picked through these chests, likely taking the best of the lot. </p><p></p><p> They find yet another secret door that leads into the rear of an armory full of giant sized weapons. Exploring further still, they find a room, it's douple doors open, that must have once been the pen of some sort of monster. Near that room they find another cache of weapons, only this time they find a human sized bow that radiates magic. Selendra realizes with distress that it is her brother's bow. She is newly worried for him and urges the party to make haste. </p><p></p><p> Leaving the armory they find themselves in a wide east/west hallway. Edran takes off to the west and the rest follow until Sai lets out a warning yelp. The rest turn and see the Chimera running toward them.</p><p> Already around a corner to the west, Edran sees a fire giant, and the fire giant sees Edran. </p><p> </p><p> Krote and Edran take on the fire giant while the rest fall back to deal with the chimera, but soon Edran realizes that he is still poisoned from a chest trap and is unable to sneak attack. </p><p> </p><p> Meanwhile, two more fire giants and two more of their servants round the corner, following the chimera and the fight goes from manageable to deadly very quickly. In short order Selendra and Joshua are both taken down. Sai piles on Ice Storms and Thoradin follows them with devastating spells of his own. Edran races back to Thoradin, yelling at him to get rid of the poison in him, which Thoradin does. Edran happily jumps back into the fray... only to find that he is STILL unable to sneak attack. Something is terribly wrong! </p><p></p><p> A hasted Krote finishes off the first fire giant and charges at the remaining giants as Sai unleashes a maxed, 6th level Lightning Bolt through them, doing terrible damage. </p><p></p><p> Back and forth the battle rages until the final giant falls. Thoradin quickly casts Mass Heal, but Selendra does not move. Thoradin is forced to use a Revivify to save her before she crosses over to the other side for good. She is grateful, thanking the dwarf for saving her life a second time. </p><p></p><p> Battered and bruised, but not yet ready to retreat, they gather for more healing (except Edran, who runs off down the south tunnel. </p><p></p><p> That's where we broke. </p><p> </p><p> It is Harvester 13, roughly 9:00am</p><p></p><p>Post session notes: A bit of bad news for our group: Ryan, Sai's player, got a new job that has him working on our game night. He's trying to figure a work around or tinker with his work schedule, and we can but hope for the best. For now, I am running Sai as an NPC while taking input on what hhis actions might be from the other players. It works, but obviously it would be better to have him at the table. </p><p></p><p>A bit of a milestone was reached in this session. When we played AtG 3.5 so long ago it was in Snurre's treasure room where we met our collective end. Fortunately this group survived it. </p><p></p><p>I've been a bit perplexed over the course of this module about my players general lack of tactics. Up until this adventure the campaign has seen it's share of tough encounters, but I made a conscious decision to ratchet things up considerably with these giants. I've seen plenty of ENWorld forum comments advising not to be afraid to throw very hard encounters at high level PC's; that they are way tougher than most DM's think they are. With that in mind, I've been running the giants as strategically as possible, not to mention maxing out every creature's hit points. </p><p></p><p>The advice on the boards is, I think, generally correct. This party has faced some extremely robust foes who generally strike from ambush, and have survived thus far. </p><p></p><p>But... it's no thanks to their own tactics. Every session I sit behind the screen, bemused, as they hurl themselves, headlong, into yet another giant ambush. Given how hard this module has been I'd have thought by now that they'd start to come at it with a little more forethought. After all, they have a powerful wizard and one of the sneakiest beings on the planet with them. I keep waiting for Edran to have Sai turn him invisible so he can go running through the lairs, mapping the whole thing out, noting points of ambush, and giving the party the info they need to either catch the giants flat footed, or circumvent them entirely. Instead, they are fighting tooth and nail through every inch of this thing. </p><p></p><p>Which is fine. And to be fair, while they are actually in combat, their tactics are pretty good, with the obvious exception of Edran. And that might be the issue: maybe they all just assume Edran is such a loose cannon that they don't even suggest that he recon the place. </p><p></p><p>I'm at a bit of a quandary regarding this because of Selendra. She is a knight, a professional soldier. Discipline, tactics, and smart combat are her meat and drink, and it's silly to think that she wouldn't suggest such. But still, she's an NPC, and I want the PC's to come to smart conclusions on their own. Having her suggest too much feels a bit like spoon feeding, and at least two of these players have played this game way too long to need a spoon. </p><p></p><p>I suppose as long as they get through it, it's their choice as to how to do so. For now I'll arbitrate and watch. </p><p></p><p>On another note, Edran had a dream while in Pellak wherein he was visited by Mad Malexi, a witch of considerable power with whom he is under magical contract. Long story short: she saved his life at one point, and now he owes her. And she is ready to collect. </p><p></p><p>This whole campaign has revolved around the collection of nine of Tiamat's teeth with which their patron wizard, Annabelle Zane, will construct a scrying artifact that has the ability to scry anyone, anywhere, regardless of magical protections, and can even glimpse the future. Currently the party is in search of the final tooth, which lies somewhere in the giant's lair. Malexi, one of Annabelle's rivals, wants the last tooth, and has commanded Edran to get it for her once they find it or suffer dire and final consequences. It'll be interesting to see what he does.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="cthulhu42, post: 7348992, member: 6792361"] Session 12 We begin the session with the gang just having ported back to Pellak. First things first, Thoradin, Krote, Sai, Joshua and Selendra head for the temple of Clangadin in search of Restorations to rid them of the exhaustion they've built up during the last fight. The priest there has to charge them this time, although he does so at a considerable discount, given Thoradin's status. Krote stays behind afterwards to have a quick chat with Clangadin, which Black Metal is less than pleased about. Once again, the axe's orcish side demands that Krote embrace his orc self and head back to the Black Bone tribe to claim his rightful place on the orcish throne. Krote declines, and things are tense between barbarian and weapon. On his way back to their inn, though, Krote has an interesting moment when he spies a group of children playing in an ally. They are arguing over who gets to play Krote in their games. An obviously half-orc child claims the right, given his heritage. Soon they spot the real Krote, and they are rightfully awestruck. Krote gives them a bit of heroic advise (stay in school, kids!) while Black Metal whispers in his mind to slay them all. Krote ignores that. Meanwhile, Edran is off doing Edran things. He gets his finger Regenerated again, and then sets off to find something to spend his money on. He wants magical armor, but Temple Urzinine is not in the city at the moment, and the wizard's guild isn't interested in talking to him. So he heads to the seedy part of town and proceeds to throw gold around until he gets the attention of a rotund fellow named, Tiny. The pair become fast friends and Tiny assures Edran that he knows a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy that has some enchanted studded leather for sale. Only 30,000gp! A price suggested only after Edran assures Tiny that he has 30,000gp. Edran eventually hands over a down payment of 10,000gp and happily watches Tiny disappear with his gold, sure that he will soon have his armor. Once Edran gets back to the inn and explains all this to Krote, and that he needs another twenty thousand, Selendra laughs uproariously and Krote is less than convinced. Edran, still short the final sum, heads out again, first thinking to rob the temple of Clangadin, then the bank of Pellak. He reconsiders both ideas and winds up giving away what gold he has left to street urchins, along with his shoes, cape, and most of his clothes. With no money left, he eventually curls up in the ally next to the Gold Flute and dreams his own weird dreams. Later that night he is awakened by a presence in the ally. It is Joshua, come to find him. Joshua pulls up a bucket to have a chat with Edran, wondering why the boy treats the only people who can really relate to him like such garbage. Edran, of course, denies doing any such thing. Joshua shrugs and tells Edran to come inside, that he has purchased a room for him. Ever obstinate, Edran chooses to spend the rest of the night in the ally. Thoradin, meanwhile, has sought out a dwarven bar and spends the night getting drunk and lucky. Come the following morning, he is in much better spirits, having spent some quality time among his own people. He is in too good a mood to let even Edran's tale of Tiny and armor and ridiculous sums of money get him down. He shrugs and agrees to lend the gold to Edran, and they all head off to find Tiny. Which they do, after a bit of asking around and spreading still more gold around. They find a sleepy Tiny in a back ally apartment. He tells them that it will be a couple of days before the armor can be found but that he needs the gold up front. After a few menacing threats as to what the party will do should Tiny try to screw them, they hand over another 20,000 gold, sure that Edran will have his armor in two days. At last, they are ready to head back into the giant lair. Sai gathers them near and casts his Teleport, zipping them back into the throne room. The throne room is weirdly quiet and empty. The heroes head back down the secret escape tunnel used by King Snurre, but this time Thoradin spots a footprint disappearing into the solid stone. Soon they find another secret door and follow the revealed tunnel down stairs into Snurre's treasure chamber where they are immediately attacked by a guardian hydra. But at full health and power, the hydra is no match for the party, and two rounds later the beast lays dead. Edran sets to work, checking nearly twenty chest, coffers and trunks, setting off a few traps, managing to poison himself and Sai, and even getting bit by several snakes. And while there is loot to be had, it is obvious that someone has picked through these chests, likely taking the best of the lot. They find yet another secret door that leads into the rear of an armory full of giant sized weapons. Exploring further still, they find a room, it's douple doors open, that must have once been the pen of some sort of monster. Near that room they find another cache of weapons, only this time they find a human sized bow that radiates magic. Selendra realizes with distress that it is her brother's bow. She is newly worried for him and urges the party to make haste. Leaving the armory they find themselves in a wide east/west hallway. Edran takes off to the west and the rest follow until Sai lets out a warning yelp. The rest turn and see the Chimera running toward them. Already around a corner to the west, Edran sees a fire giant, and the fire giant sees Edran. Krote and Edran take on the fire giant while the rest fall back to deal with the chimera, but soon Edran realizes that he is still poisoned from a chest trap and is unable to sneak attack. Meanwhile, two more fire giants and two more of their servants round the corner, following the chimera and the fight goes from manageable to deadly very quickly. In short order Selendra and Joshua are both taken down. Sai piles on Ice Storms and Thoradin follows them with devastating spells of his own. Edran races back to Thoradin, yelling at him to get rid of the poison in him, which Thoradin does. Edran happily jumps back into the fray... only to find that he is STILL unable to sneak attack. Something is terribly wrong! A hasted Krote finishes off the first fire giant and charges at the remaining giants as Sai unleashes a maxed, 6th level Lightning Bolt through them, doing terrible damage. Back and forth the battle rages until the final giant falls. Thoradin quickly casts Mass Heal, but Selendra does not move. Thoradin is forced to use a Revivify to save her before she crosses over to the other side for good. She is grateful, thanking the dwarf for saving her life a second time. Battered and bruised, but not yet ready to retreat, they gather for more healing (except Edran, who runs off down the south tunnel. That's where we broke. It is Harvester 13, roughly 9:00am Post session notes: A bit of bad news for our group: Ryan, Sai's player, got a new job that has him working on our game night. He's trying to figure a work around or tinker with his work schedule, and we can but hope for the best. For now, I am running Sai as an NPC while taking input on what hhis actions might be from the other players. It works, but obviously it would be better to have him at the table. A bit of a milestone was reached in this session. When we played AtG 3.5 so long ago it was in Snurre's treasure room where we met our collective end. Fortunately this group survived it. I've been a bit perplexed over the course of this module about my players general lack of tactics. Up until this adventure the campaign has seen it's share of tough encounters, but I made a conscious decision to ratchet things up considerably with these giants. I've seen plenty of ENWorld forum comments advising not to be afraid to throw very hard encounters at high level PC's; that they are way tougher than most DM's think they are. With that in mind, I've been running the giants as strategically as possible, not to mention maxing out every creature's hit points. The advice on the boards is, I think, generally correct. This party has faced some extremely robust foes who generally strike from ambush, and have survived thus far. But... it's no thanks to their own tactics. Every session I sit behind the screen, bemused, as they hurl themselves, headlong, into yet another giant ambush. Given how hard this module has been I'd have thought by now that they'd start to come at it with a little more forethought. After all, they have a powerful wizard and one of the sneakiest beings on the planet with them. I keep waiting for Edran to have Sai turn him invisible so he can go running through the lairs, mapping the whole thing out, noting points of ambush, and giving the party the info they need to either catch the giants flat footed, or circumvent them entirely. Instead, they are fighting tooth and nail through every inch of this thing. Which is fine. And to be fair, while they are actually in combat, their tactics are pretty good, with the obvious exception of Edran. And that might be the issue: maybe they all just assume Edran is such a loose cannon that they don't even suggest that he recon the place. I'm at a bit of a quandary regarding this because of Selendra. She is a knight, a professional soldier. Discipline, tactics, and smart combat are her meat and drink, and it's silly to think that she wouldn't suggest such. But still, she's an NPC, and I want the PC's to come to smart conclusions on their own. Having her suggest too much feels a bit like spoon feeding, and at least two of these players have played this game way too long to need a spoon. I suppose as long as they get through it, it's their choice as to how to do so. For now I'll arbitrate and watch. On another note, Edran had a dream while in Pellak wherein he was visited by Mad Malexi, a witch of considerable power with whom he is under magical contract. Long story short: she saved his life at one point, and now he owes her. And she is ready to collect. This whole campaign has revolved around the collection of nine of Tiamat's teeth with which their patron wizard, Annabelle Zane, will construct a scrying artifact that has the ability to scry anyone, anywhere, regardless of magical protections, and can even glimpse the future. Currently the party is in search of the final tooth, which lies somewhere in the giant's lair. Malexi, one of Annabelle's rivals, wants the last tooth, and has commanded Edran to get it for her once they find it or suffer dire and final consequences. It'll be interesting to see what he does. [/QUOTE]
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