Matt4
Paragon
Posts: 3,545
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Post by Matt4 on Jun 13, 2022 10:43:13 GMT -8
I hope the galeb duhr makes further appearances, he was so cute.
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Post by Daos on Jun 13, 2022 12:46:06 GMT -8
It was fun roleplaying the galeb duhr, so you never know. I might find an excuse to bring it back. Anyway, session XP: Bypassing the landslide - 25 XP Rescuing the lost galeb duhr - 25 XP Defeating the perytons (x2) - 180 XP Crossing the broken bridge - 25 XP TOTAL: 255 XP That puts Zinnia at 8,330 XP total, which means she needs another 5,670 to level up. Don't forget update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .
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Post by Daos on Jun 20, 2022 15:16:44 GMT -8
Wyld Times at Affburgh
I meant to post this yesterday, but got busy and forgot. So I'll do it now.
Session 08 - Mother Hunting We left off last time with the party arriving at the cabin, the sound of crashing water nearby. Nemeia checked the cabin for traps, found none, and picked the lock. But when Zinnia tried to enter, she nearly got sliced up by a trap. Fortunately, she made her DEX save.
Inside, they find there's nobody home. But there are plenty of signs that someone was there recently. Dirty clothes on the floor (both men's and women's), food in the pantry, messed up bed, etc. While they poke around, there's another tremor--this one worst than the previous ones, and the party nearly loses their footing. They also find a half finished painting of an underground waterfall pouring into a pool.
Checking outside, they manage to find some footprints leading away from the cabin, toward the sound of rushing water. These prints eventually lead around the bend, to a cave. Stepping inside the cave, they find a large pool and a waterfall crashing into it. There is a set of women's clothing lying on the shore, but no sign of any actual people around. When Zinnia moves closer and kneels down to inspect the clothes, she hears her mother shout out from above. "Look out, it's still down there!" Looking up, she spots her mother (naked, except for a cloak she's using to cover herself), and Xanros. They stand on a small ledge about 50 feet up.
Zinnia calls out to her mother, wanting to know what was going on, but before any answers could come forth, the ground began to shake again. A bullete burst from the ground, attracted to all the noise. Zinnia dropped two fireballs on it (and because it's so slow, it failed its save both times), so consequently, the party managed to make short work of it, but Raeanne got pretty badly beat up in the process. Also, one of those fireballs caused a wild surge that made Zinnia grow 6 inches (15 cm) permanently, so she is now 5'11" (180 cm) instead of 5'5" (165 cm).
With the beast dead, Xanros tosses down a rope and the two climb down to join the others. The others turn away so Arabella can get dressed really quick, then she returns Xanros' cloak. Zinnia (who used her Ring of Chameleon to make herself look whole and the proper height again while her mother climbed down), gives Arabella a fierce hug. Her mother, naturally, returns it. They both have a lot of questions for each other, and they all decide to return to the cabin to talk. As they are walking out, Xanros admits he couldn't believe Zinnia could wield magic like that, and was able to kill the bulette.
Once they're back in the cabin and things have settled down, Arabella explains what happened. After Zinnia left, Arabella tried to busy herself with routine stuff. One day, some strange men in black cloaks approached her. They kept saying weird things about 'the vessel' and 'immortality' so she figured they were some kooky cult. But they seemed only interested in her, and nobody else. They started following her around, even accosting her, until one day in the market they started getting particularly pushy and she called out for help. As it so happened, Xanros was around (having just returned to town recently after some work abroad), and he swooped in to scare them off. The local law enforcement were, naturally, pretty useless so Xanros decided to bring Arabella here, to his old safehouse, to keep an eye on her. (Originally the cabin was a touristy spot, but it was abandoned a long time ago and Xanros has been using it for a hideout for years now. Most people, including the cultists, don't know about it anymore.)
Zinnia thanks Xanros for looking after her mother, and starts trying to interrogate the woman about her past--specifically, about Kyristan and Surrisk, and her life back in Northbank. Arabella brushed it off, claiming it was so long ago she can't really remember too much. But a good insight check from Zinnia revealed that she remembered more than she let on, but was possibly repressing some of her memories due to trauma. Zinnia had the others step outside, then dropped her Disguise Self, which caused Arabella to scream in terror. After that, Arabella seemed withdrawn and quiet, almost shell-shocked.
The party has a meal while Xanros entertains them with his more amusing tales and exploits. Afterward, Zinnia steps outside, and Xanros joins her. He reveals that her mother often has nightmares and talks in her sleep, suggesting she is haunted by something. He also tells her he did some digging and learned that the cultists have some kind of base in the forest east of town. While they are alone, she takes the time to call him out on just disappearing one day, breaking her heart, and so forth. He claimed he owed a lot of favors to Augury and made some poor choices, and had no choice but to take off to perform some jobs abroad. He couldn't tell her what he was doing, just that it was for her own safety to not know. Zinnia gives him a kiss on the cheek, then turns away. He grabs her wrist and pulls her back into a full kiss. The two then retreat back to the cave for some alone time. They sneaked back to the cabin hours later, long after nightfall.
The next morning, Zinnia finds some clothing that fits her new frame (she's surprised by how much variety Xanros has in clothing in his safehouse; it includes women's clothing in all sizes, suggesting he uses this place for more than just a safehouse). She then asks Xanros to continue watching over Arabella, while she and the party try to find this cult and learn what they know. Xanros suggests that once it's safe for Arabella to return home, she might be able to open up more about her memories. Zinnia says her goodbyes, then the party heads back down the mountain, returning to town just at sunset. So they retire at her mother's place for the night.
Notes Like many of the monsters I've used recently, Horizons wasn't familiar with the bulette. But I'm sure I've used them before; but it was probably years ago (I can't remember for sure, to be honest). She was quite shocked when I told her how much damage Raeanne was taking from those bite attacks, and that it got a +7 to hit! But still, they took it down pretty quickly thanks to that double fireball. Anyway, that was the cause of all the tremors and why the safe path was in shambles (the landslide, the broken rope bridge, etc.), because this bulette had tunneled up and was causing havoc. That's how Xanros and Arabella got trapped, too. She went in to take a bath, when the bulette attacked, so they climbed up to the ledge and were stuck there for hours before the party came along.
I can't remember the last time Zinnia had a wild surge that wasn't due to Tides of Chaos. This one was interesting, because once I realized what it meant, we quickly learned that we had no idea how tall Zinnia was. Horizon never specified her height or weight. So she decided on the spot, since she was half-elven, that she was 5'5", so her new height was 5'11". She was disappointed to learn the change was permanent. For whatever reason, Horizon isn't fond of playing tall characters. The first ever D&D campaign we played together was an old 2E game where I mandated random height/weight rolls. She wound up with a 6' (183 cm) tall cleric, and was kind of pouty throughout the game about it. I didn't really get it, and still don't, but I remember after that I started allowing players to choose their own height/weight scores as a result.
Xanros, like many other NPCs from Zinnia's backstory, was written by Horizon. He was her first love, a bad boy rebel type, who disappeared one day without a word. Well, at least now she knows why. In fact, Zinnia seemed pretty understanding after learning that Augury was involved, having discovered herself what it's like to have to owe her a 'favor.'
Horizon admitted to me after the session she did not expect to find Arabella yet. But one can only draw these things out for so long. Anyway, perhaps she'll find some answers from this mysterious cult.
I'll try and get XP up tomorrow.
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Post by GravityEmblem on Jun 20, 2022 15:25:44 GMT -8
I've never really thought about height/weight in D&D games before. So I went and looked at the heights of all my characters, and good gosh are they all tiny! Lillian's 5'2", Kori's a statuesque 4'5"--Gordon, a hecking Dwarf, is taller than them! Something fishy is going on. But yeah, I have many memories of choosing my height and weight in your games, only to find that I have no idea of what normal numbers for height and weight are.
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Post by Daos on Jun 20, 2022 15:38:18 GMT -8
Yeah, I never noticed that before. Kori is remarkably tiny, even by elf standards. All of the other elves in the party (Ravarie, Sorrith, Lalora, Zalura) are over 5' high (Lalora is shortest at 5'2" while Zalura is the tallest by far, at 5'10"). As for me, I tend to just use whatever the average height is of that particular race/sex. Daos is an exception; although half-elven, he's 6' tall, because that's my height in real life. Normally, though, unless a character is meant to be particularly short or tall, I just go with whatever the average is.
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Post by HorizonsDream on Jun 20, 2022 18:36:20 GMT -8
I'm only 5'4" in life,, so I tend to make characters are close to my own height. I'm not exactly sure why. I'm not even sure why I have an issue with playing taller than normal characters either.
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Post by Daos on Jun 22, 2022 13:35:43 GMT -8
Whoops, almost forgot this too. Session XP: Finding the waterfall - 25 XP Defeating the bulette - 360 XP Learning Arabella's story - 25 XP Learning Xanros' story - 25 XP Revealing Zinnia's true form - 25 XP Reunion with Xanros - 25 XP Completion of adventure - 270 XP TOTAL: 755 XP That puts Zinnia at 9,085 XP total, which means she needs another 4,915 to level up. Don't forget update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .
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Post by Daos on Jul 4, 2022 15:34:33 GMT -8
Wyld Times at AffburghWe wound up skipping the session last week, mostly because of the garbage fire decisions going on in this country really killed the mood, but we played on Saturday, so here's the summary. Session 09 - The Lost WoodsWe picked up the following day, with the party waking up after spending the night at Arabella's house again. I asked if they wanted to pick up any extra supplies while in town. Horizon couldn't think of any, but she did remember that Morelia's cabin was in the forest and decided to make a quick pit stop there to stock up on potions again. So, without further ado, the party set off toward the forest. At Morelia's cabin, the wood witch recognized Zinnia, but also noted she had clearly gone through some physical changes and worried that maybe one of her potions had gone wrong again. Zinnia assured her that wasn't the case, and while the party shopped a bit (buying a round of potions of greater healing and picking up a potion of fire breath), she asked Morelia about any undead sightings. Morelia confirmed there has been a large uptick in undead seen in the woods, as well as strange corruptions of the land. Although the cabin was safe (and warded), it was rather dangerous to enter the woods now, as things far more threatening than shinwacks now roamed about. She also knew about the cultists, saying they seemed to have an obsession with undeath. It was pretty easy to connect the two. The party knew from Xanros that the cult's headquarters were somewhere in the heart of the forest, so they pressed on deeper, heading eastward. Zinnia could immediately tell that the forest seemed different than the last time she was here, it was darker, somehow, spookier. There was a low fog on the ground and a chill in the air, despite it being the middle of summer. Zinnia has Kelra use her Eyes of the Grave ability, to determine if any undead are in the area. The cleric confirms that there are. Not too long after they proceed, a zombie shambles out of the shrubbery and moves to attack them. The party fairly easily dispatches it, but it keeps getting back up before they can put it down for good. The corpse seems to have once belonged to some local farmer, based on his dress. After about half an hour of travel, they come across a clearing filled with a bright red field of some kind of plant, maybe 20-30 feet wide and long. As it turns out, nobody has any proficiency with nature, so the party can't determine much about it. But it does strike them as unnatural, somehow. Moving closer, Zinnia sees several dead animals entangled in the red vines in various states of decay. Seeing that as a bad sign, she decides they should just go around it. However, three zombies shamble out of the brush toward them, essentially cornering them toward the field. The party is able to take them down (although Raeanne gets pummeled with a couple of crits), and Kelra incinerates two of them with her Sacred Flame. The final corpse they check, and it looks like it was once a merchant or trader of some kind, based on her dress. Moving carefully around the field, they push on. After an hour or so, they start to smell something foul. It reminds Zinnia of the aftermath of a battle, a stench of sweat, blood and decay. They follow the odor until they come across a woodland spring, about ten feet wide. But the water is black and viscous, almost like some kind of mud. It seems to be the source of the terrible smell. Zinnia found a stick and stuck it into the stream, then removed it. The stick was now covered in the stuff. Zinnia looked around for a possible crossing. She saw a couple of stones that the party could conceivably hop on, but decided it was too risky. So instead opted to travel northward, upstream, hoping to find something better. After another half hour or so, they found an old, decaying tree that could be cut down to make a bridge, but the party had no axes. It was that point Zinnia had another idea. Using her Robe of Useful Items, she pulled off a ladder patch, then used the ladder to make a sort of bridge. Zinnia went first. I had her do a fairly easy acrobatics check, and she got a natural 1. She then used Tides of Chaos...and rolled another natural 1. So she fell in. The muck was disgusting and she even swallowed a bit, which made her retch. But the worst part was something in the stream started grabbing at her. Fortunately, she managed to pull away and grab hold of the ladder, while two zombies (covered in the stuff) emerged. One went to the east side, toward the ladder, while the other went toward the rest of the party on the west side of shore. The one on the east side grabbed the ladder and essentially pulled Zinnia toward it, then started hitting her while she was prone. The other one started attacking the rest of the party. Fortunately, the party was able to fight them off successfully. Zinnia replaced the ladder for the others to cross. Except for Nemeia, who got a natural 20 (and therefore didn't even get any muck on her boots!), every single one of them fell in (either partially or entirely, like Zinnia). Once they were all on the other side, Zinnia used her Decanter of Endless Water to hose everyone off. That helped, but the stench was still present (albeit muted) in their hair and clothes. They continue on their journey for some time, before finally coming to their destination--a large clearing, in which sits a large and ancient looking stone temple. From the treeline, they hide and watch. They saw three guards standing guard at the front gate, all wearing black cloaks. But two wore scimitars on their hips while the third appeared to not be armed at all. Zinnia sent Nemeia to scout the perimeter, and she returned to say there were no other visible entrances. The windows were all arrow slits, so one could not squeeze through them. After a bit of thought, Zinnia decided to try the diplomatic approach. She boldly approached the cultists, along with the party, and proclaimed she was Zinnia Ballana. Oddly, the cultists did not seem to recognize her given name, but they did recognize her family name, as the mother of the Vessel. Zinnia proclaimed she was the Vessel, which seemed to both confuse and frighten them a bit. Why would Kyristan send the Vessel to speak with Cornelius? Zinnia claimed she had an important message from Kyristan. One cultist went inside to speak with their leader. He later returned and agreed to escort the party inside. The gate was opened and they stepped into darkness, the door closing behind them... NotesI was pleased Horizon remembered Morelia and her cabin. I had in my notes an (optional) bit about what she knew and what she was selling if Horizon remembered her, so I'm glad that paid off. Granted, it's only been about four months since we last saw her, but I'm pretty accustomed to players not remembering that sort of thing. The crimson vine field was inspired by the blight from Horizon Forbidden West. Had the party tried walking through it, they would have had their HP slowly drained each round spent in the field. The black river wasn't actually dangerous, per se. I mean, you obviously wouldn't want to swallow the water, but the only danger of walking through it was the zombies hiding inside, and it was super gross. Which is why it was pretty hilarious that with the exception of Nemeia, every single person failed a simple DC 10 acrobatics check to balance on a ladder. I decided if you fail the check, you make a DEX save. If you pass, you fall in partially (like an arm or a leg) and if you fail, you fall in entirely. Zinnia and Vicavor both fell in entirely, and Raeanne and Kelra both fell in partially. So ironically, they could have just walked through it for all the good it did any of them (except for Nemeia, that is). Using the ladder was a pretty bright idea, though. It turned out to be exactly 10 feet long, which is just what was needed. Although another possibility was to have had someone strong make an athletics check to try and push the decaying tree down. I described it as old and rotten, so it's possible. The DC to cross would have been lowered to 5 then, but that means Zinnia still would have fallen in anyway. Despite remembering Morelia, Horizon did forget Cornelius, at least at first. But after a deep dive into her notes, she found the name. Cornelius was one of Kyristan's three apprentices (the others being Darwin and Surrisk, the latter of which she already dealt with). So once again, we ended up at a bit of a cliffhanger. I don't time these things like that on purpose, but it is strange how that keeps happening. I'll try and get XP up tomorrow.
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Post by Daos on Jul 5, 2022 11:29:50 GMT -8
Now for the XP. Session XP: Visiting Morelia - 25 XP Avoiding the blight - 25 XP Crossing the black river - 25 XP Defeating Zombies (x6) - 60 XP Persuading the cultists to let her in - 100 XP TOTAL: 235 XP That puts Zinnia at 9,320 XP total, which means she needs another 4,680 to level up. Don't forget update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .
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Post by Daos on Jul 18, 2022 15:40:30 GMT -8
Wyld Times at AffburghThere was no session last Saturday, as Horizon canceled, but we had one this most recent Saturday, so here is the summary: Session 10 - ImmortalityWe picked up where we left off, with Zinnia and her group entering the temple after asking for an audience with Cornelius. The fanatic led them into a room with a mosaic on the floor that resembled a raven perched o a skull, the emblem of Neconilis. They are led to an ascending staircase, where they can hear chanting. From there, they enter a long hallway where another fanatic, eight cultists and four zombies are all standing guard. As they walk, Zinnia tries to converse with the fanatic leading them, but he's pretty taciturn, only explaining they were having a religious ceremony of some kind when the party arrived. The door at the end of the hallway brings them into a large and luxurious looking bedroom. But instead of a bed, there is an elaborate sarcophagus and all of the windows are covered with thick, black curtains that allow in no sunlight at all (the room is lit with some candlelight, though). A very pale man dressed in black robes with a cloak emerges from the sarcophagus and introduces himself as Cornelius, and demands to know why Kyristan has sent the vessel here. Zinnia says she is investigating the cult's interest in her mother. Cornelius explains that he has discovered a form of immortality, and even has the ability to 'share' this gift with others. His plan was to embrace Arabella, making her immortal, and then presenting her to Kyristan as a gift. "Well, that's stupid," Zinnia says. Except...she didn't. Or rather, her mouth opened and made the words, but not by her own will. It was like someone else was speaking through her. "You idiot, Cornelius, what use would I have for a woman in my current state? I have no flesh or blood; I am above those baser urges. A weakness you always suffered from!" Zinnia's companions look at her askew, but Cornelius realizes what is happening and apologizes to 'Lord Kyristan.' But "Zinnia" continues. "What's worse, you're raising a ruckus, drawing attention to yourself, which in turn draws attention to me. I won't have it. Therefore, I've sent the vessel here to destroy you all. Farewell." At this point, Zinnia regains control of her body, but the damage is done. Cornelius and the fanatic move forward to attack, and the party must defend themselves. A pitched battle breaks out, and the party ultimately wins by the skin of their teeth, but here are some highlights: The party quickly discovers that Cornelius can regenerate each round, Zinnia has two wild surges (one from Tides of Chaos and the other from a natural 1 on her wild surge roll) and consequently spends one round as a potted plant and for the second surge actually gets Mirror Image cast on herself, but by then the fight was pretty much over. At one point Zinnia downed the potion of fire breathing she bought from Morelia, but only used it once and then forgot about it. At another point, Kelra grabbed the curtains to one of the windows and dramatically pulled them aside to reveal...the windows were boarded up. After the fight, they searched the room and found a bag of gold (180), Cornelius' journal, a number of books (anatomy, necromancy and even some trashy harlequin romance novels), a partially written letter instruction someone to bring kidnapped people to the temple for payment, and a dresser filled with black robes and cloaks and one very revealing woman's dress that was clearly meant for Arabella. At this point, Cornelius' minions begin banging on the door, and the party seeks escape. They start prying open the boards on the window, and the noise causes the remaining cultists to start coming inside. They start throwing themselves at the party, so Zinnia begins using Thunderwave spells to hold them off while everyone else, one by one, slips out the window and down a rope. They then make a break for the treeline as search parties emerge from the temple. They try and hide, but aside from Raeanne and Nemeia, nobody breaks double digits with their stealth check, so four cultists quickly find them. But the party quickly dispatches them and they then manage to make it back to town safely by nightfall. Not wishing to risk the cultists following them back to Arabella's house, they get rooms at the inn. Nice ones, in fact; Zinnia splurges and everyone gets a full bath and everything (much needed, as they all just waded through the black river on the way back). Once she had settle down, Zinnia started paging through Cornelius' journal. It was mostly melodramatic, edgelord tripe. But she did gleam a few interesting details from it. Something about how the vessel can drain life energy around it to essentially be immortal, but the downside is that each time this happens, the vessel becomes closer to an undead like state, making it easier for necromancers or anyone else who can control undead to control the vessel. Apparently, Darwin (the third and final apprentice of Kyristan) had a means to reverse the process, but his last known whereabouts were Glimmer Lake, which was quite a distance from Affburgh. But at least she had a lead. And now she understood why Kyristan was able to speak through her. The more times she 'dies' the more undead-like she becomes, which will give Kyristan greater and greater control over her, especially with that cursed necklace still on her. For now, she would need to plan her next move. NotesI wasn't expecting Zinnia to just ask to see Cornelius. Skipping the entire dungeon to go straight to the boss is usually not a great idea; unless you have a foolproof escape plan, anyway. Because instead of fighting your way in, you have to fight your way out, which is much harder, as you have nowhere to retreat from the inside. Plus, instead of fighting the encounters piecemeal, one by one, you wind up fighting everyone all at once. So consequently, the battle was much harder than I meant it to be. Horizon immediately pieced together she was dealing with a vampire as soon as I mentioned the sarcophagus, but the covered windows only confirmed it for her. However, she wasn't really sure what that meant in 5E, or D&D in general, really, since I don't use vampires very often. In this case, though, a real vampire would have been far too much for her, so I made Cornelius a mere vampire spawn instead. During her first wild surge, I ruled that specifically, Zinnia became a potted zinnia flower. Seemed fitting. I'll try and get XP up tomorrow.
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Post by Daos on Jul 19, 2022 11:55:44 GMT -8
Now for the XP. Session XP: Meeting Cornelius - 25 XP Defeating Fanatic - 90 XP Defeating Cornelius - 360 XP Defeating Cultists (x6) - 30 XP Completion of Adventure - 305 XP TOTAL: 810 XP That puts Zinnia at 10,130 XP total, which means she needs another 3,870 to level up. Don't forget update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .
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Post by Daos on Aug 8, 2022 16:24:27 GMT -8
Wyld Times at Affburgh
It's been a couple of weeks since the last session. Horizon had a wedding to attend one weekend, and the heatwave kind of killed it for the other, but we met up again on the 6th, so here's that summary:
Session 11 - Downtime The session opens on the 9th day since Zinnia first returned to Affburgh. She and the party meet in the common room of the local inn for breakfast and to discuss their next move. Raiann is worried about that black dragon, Vespera, in the nearby swamp that controlled her before. What if it tries again? But Zinnia feels they are not ready to face an adult dragon. Kelra wants to visit her father at the temple. The others are down for anything. Zinnia decides to first go deal with the remaining cultists, but as they step out of the inn, they hear a commotion and see a black plume of smoke in the distance. Hurrying over, they find that the cultists are already here, and have set Arabella's house on fire.
A big fight breaks out, with Zinnia, her party and a couple of guards on one side, and on the other two zombies, two fanatics and six cultists (essentially, everyone who was left over when the party fled the temple). With the use of some AoE spells like Web and Fireball, and some surprisingly great crits from the two guards, the party was victorious with almost no injury at all. Unfortunately, they weren't able to save the house. By the time the bucket brigade arrived, it was already too damaged to salvage. Searching through the rubble, Zinnia did find her old stuffed unicorn intact, and cleaned it off with a cantrip.
Now with great irony, Zinnia could retrieve her mother from the safe house, but had no home to return her to. She sent Kelra to visit her own family, and the rest of the group trekked back up to the safe house. The path was easier now, as the landslide had been cleared up and the rope bridge fixed. They found Xanros alone at the safe house and filled him on what happened, and he agreed to watch over Arabella for awhile longer. Arabella was in the waterfall cave, having just finished a bath. Zinnia went in to see her alone, and pushed her to remember details of her past. But it was clear Arabella was suffering from some kind of trauma and had repressed her memories for the sake of her own sanity, and Zinnia constantly prodding her was only hurting her.
The party spent the night at the cabin again, and the following morning (day 10), they set off back to Affburgh, arriving that evening. She started looking into buying a house, but one large enough to accommodate herself, her mother, and her four party members was far too expensive, especially as she wanted it in a 'comfortable' neighborhood. Even with the diamond she got from the galeb duhr, she fell far short. Instead, she managed to find a place for rent. She paid for a year's lease, and since rent was 63 gold a month (for all of them, collectively; 10.5 gold per person), she went ahead and paid for the entire year (756 gold pieces) so she wouldn't have to worry about being evicted while she was off adventuring. Everyone moved in that night, and she sent word to Xanros to bring her mother back, as well.
The following week after that (Day 11-18), Zinnia decided to go blow off some steam and went carousing. Fortunately, there were no complications, but she did make a contact. One of the mayor's advisors, a minor wizard named Narlon. She may call upon him for a favor at some point in the future.
The week after that (Day 19-26), Zinnia and Vicavor spent researching her collar at the Affburg library. With the wizard's help, she discovered two things. First, those who wear the collar find it difficult to attack the collar's master, as the collar will actively inhibit them from doing so. Perhaps another reason to have it removed. The second thing she learned, unfortunately, was that the only way to remove it (without the master removing it himself) is to destroy the master (i.e., kill Kyristan) or with a Wish spell. It was also worth nothing that they found nothing at all that suggested the collar should be able to allow Kyristan to control her, only see through her eyes. This suggests there is something more at work there.
Notes I didn't actually know if Horizon was going to go after the rest of the cultists or not, so I decided they would come to her. But either way, at least that particular storyline is now wrapped up.
Most of the session was spent in downtime. I used Xanathar's Guide for the carousing and the research, and the Domestic Adventurer's Handbook for the renting of a home.
Afterward, Horizon and I spoke on what Zinnia wants to do now. Go after that dragon? Track down Darwin? Or just do some odd jobs to build up XP/money? She decided on the last one. So I'm going to come up with a few sidequests and see if we can't at least get her to level 6.
I'll try and get XP up tomorrow.
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Post by Daos on Aug 9, 2022 13:11:46 GMT -8
Session XP: Defeating Fanatics (x2) - 129 XP Defeating Zombies (x2) - 14 XP Defeating Cultists (x6) - 21 XP Visiting her mother - 25 XP Finding a new home - 25 XP Carousing - 25 XP Research - 25 XP TOTAL: 264 XP That puts Zinnia at 10,394 XP total, which means she needs another 3,606 to level up. Don't forget update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .
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Post by Daos on Aug 22, 2022 17:30:58 GMT -8
Wyld Times at AffburghNo session the previous week, as Horizon had some mandatory overtime at work. But it at least gave me a chance to prep more. Here's the summary: Session 12 - Love StinksAfter two weeks of downtime (carousing and research) we find ourselves on Day 27, almost a month since Zinnia first arrived in Affburgh. She and the party are eating the breakfast Arabella made them in the kitchen, talking lightly, when there is a knock at the door. It is a courier who delivers a letter to Zinnia from Morelia. The letter is light on details, but says Morelia is in dire need of the party's help. The party hits the market first, stocking up on ammunition (arrows, bolts, sling stones, etc.) and a few spell scrolls for Vicavor, then heads for the forest. As they walk, Raiann teases Vicavor about snoring so loud the rest can hear from their own rooms, which he insists is not true, and the others jump in for some gentle ribbing--except for Kelra. Zinnia notices she seems a million miles away, so she pulls her aside and asks what's up. Kelra explains that her father has been pestering her lately about finally getting married and settling down, and producing him some grandchildren. She wasn't sure how to feel about that, or what she should do, as it's not something she ever really thought about. Zinnia suggests they both head down to the matchmaker later and set up a double-date. Kelra agrees to the idea. When the party arrives at Morelia's cabin, they discover a crowd of people outside her front door of various ages, races and backgrounds. She notes many hold flowers or letters and seem to be desperately trying to catch a glimpse of someone or something inside, but the door is locked and the windows all covered. One burly half-orc takes offense to the party's arrival, claiming he was there first. Zinnia has no idea what they are on about, but a white cat (which Zinnia recognizes as Morelia's familiar) darts out of the catdoor and tugs on the hem of her robe to head inside. Morelia opens the door for the party and quickly ushers them in, then locks it back up. Morelia explains she screwed up. She decided to get back into love potions again, as they are such a popular seller, but that last batch went awry. And now everyone who drank one has fallen in love with her, instead of their intended target. She can brew up an antidote, but she requires a special plant (Pixie's Tongue Ivy) and doesn't have any on hand. It grows in caves at the base of the western mountains, but she cannot leave to get any without being mobbed by her admirers. So she offers to make a potion of any kind the party wants if they can retrieve some for her (except love potions, she's done with those). The party agrees. And so, once again, the party heads for the western mountains. Not to climb, this time. Just to reach the base of them. Along the way, Zinnia hears a strange sound off the path, like a bird tweeting, but with a strangely hollow and mechanical aspect to it. She wanders off the path, toward a big oak tree, and behind it, among the roots, she discovers a clockwork sparrow, damaged. It appears it was struck, hard, with some bludgeoning force. Inspecting it closer, she finds some print on the breast of the sparrow, that reads, "Summerpike's Quill and Compass." Vicavor recognizes the name as a small map shop in town. He examines the sparrow and realizes it's not purely mechanical, but magical, as well. This allows him to turn it off, so it stops twitching and tweeting. Zinnia decides to deal with it later, and pockets it for now. When they reach the base of the mountains, they start searching for caves. They eventually find a large one with some of the ivy growing in the back. They quickly start gathering it up. While doing so, Zinnia notices something shiny glimmer in the corner. Examining it she finds a cache of treasure--copper, silver, gold and even platinum, and several bits of jewelry and art. It's at that point that the wyvern who dwells in that cave came home. There is a big battle, but the party easily wins with teamwork--Raiann tanking, Kelra and Vicavor buffing, Nemeia using her bow and Zinnia blasting with her spells. The wyvern goes down quickly and the only person wounded is Raiann, which is largely mitigated thanks to Kelra and Vicavor. The party then collects the treasure (which basically totals 2800 GP altogether) and heads back to the forest. Once they return, it's getting late. They find that Morelia's admirers have built a sort of tent town on her front lawn. One of them offers to spend hundreds of gold pieces if the party hands over the vines to him instead, so he can deliver them. He even offers his own wedding ring, which distresses Zinnia. Inside the cabin, Morelia accepts the vines and begins brewing an antidote right away. She offers to let the party crash on her floor (she only has one bed) and in the meantime, gives them a potion of their choice. Zinnia chooses a Potion of Stone Giant Strength for Raiann. The following morning is Day 28. The party wakes up and finds Morelia is still brewing. Her admirers have largely fallen asleep after trying to stay awake all night, so the party easily slips past them and heads back to town. They sell some of their loot, and then in the afternoon make for the map store. Summerpike's Quill and Compass is run by one Francis Summerpike, a gnomish woman with short blonde hair. She is at the front desk, trying to draw a map with an arm in a sling. Zinnia returns to the clockwork sparrow, which Francis is elated to see again. She calls it Atlas and explains she sends it out to explore and report back so she can draw maps without having to actually go out into the world, but something must have happened to it, because it never returned. She offers the party a free map of their choice, and Zinnia chooses a map of Glimmer Lake. She then asks if the party would be willing to do her a favor, for pay. The area Atlas was supposed to explore, and clearly never made it to, was an area in the western mountains, beyond the waterfall lake. She offers the party 60 GP if they head to that area, explore it, and report back what they find. Zinnia asks why she is interested in that area, and Francis explains that the city commissioned a map because they are considering reopening the tourist attraction up there, and want to make sure it's safe. Zinnia finds that amusing, as it means Xanros is going to lose one of his safe houses. Zinnia agrees, but as there is no particular time limit, she decides it can wait a bit. Instead, she takes Kelra back home to help doll her up (and herself, although mostly with illusions) for a meeting with the matchmaker. Kelra doesn't have much experience with things like dresses or makeup, having always focused on first her studies and then her work as a priestess. She's got scars and usually just wears her hair up in a simple ponytail, so Zinnia spends quite a bit of time painting her face and such. When they are done, she decides to test their new look on Vicavor, who is reading a book in his room. I had them both roll CHA checks, and they were 18 (Kelra) and 23 (Zinnia) (or something like that, I don't remember the exact numbers), so I had his jaw drop and his face redden, and Zinnia took that as meaning they were ready. The pair then headed for the temple to meet with the matchmaker. NotesI actually hadn't anticipated Horizon taking such a hands-on approach to Kelra's problem. My assumption is she would give some advice, either 'You should do what your father wants' or 'You shouldn't listen to him.' I hadn't prepared any scenes with the matchmaker, so that's why I went ahead and called the session there. I'll have something ready to go for that next time. Only a single battle this time, with the wyvern. That was intentional. I was curious to test out the CR system of this edition. So I put them up against a wyvern, which is CR 6. They easily took it out with minimal damage. So I'm going to slowly increase the CR of their opponents, until they start to struggle, just to see where that point might be. Call it an experiment--for science! The scene with Vicavor at the end was pretty relatable to me. I had a pair of friends back in high school who once ran into me randomly at the mall, so they decided to drag me with them to go bikini shopping. They had me sit by the dressing room, and would come out and model swimsuits for me, and would judge how good they looked based on how red my face would turn. So I felt a little targeted during that scene. I'll try and get XP up tomorrow.
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Post by GravityEmblem on Aug 23, 2022 2:23:27 GMT -8
Boy, that’s messed up! Sorry you had that experience!
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