New player, new campaign, new adventure!

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 4:10 am

Started a new campaign a month or so ago, with a new player joining in. Got 3 PCs now...a human priest of Horus (which makes him a paladin/cleric), a gray elf wizard, and a gray elf ranger (all three are 10th level). Got the party climbing into the mountains searching for the source of a recent invasion of undead who are kidnapping villagers and digging up graves.

Unbeknownst to them, there is a nasty lich behind it all, building an undead army. Well, they got up the mountain today and made a bit too much noise and so the zombie lord inhabiting the upper level of the castle ambushed the PCs with a shitload of zombies, ghouls, and ju-jus. Turning failed due to the evil power of the castle area (the lich has opened a gate to the Negative Material Plane to empower his army) and so they had to retreat. God, was it fun watching them sweat out an almost certain death. Got out by the skin of their teeth. Quite a shock since they've had it relatively easy so far in the adventure.

It really sucks to have 18 ghouls, 11 zombies, and 8 ju-ju zombies led by a zombie lord facing you, laughing at your attempt to turn them, and realizing you've been ambushed and surrounded. Had the cleric not made his saving throw vs. paralyzation from the ghouls, it might have been a TPK.

Post by **Tarrax Ironwolf** » Sun Dec 22, 2013 3:20 pm

Awesome! While it is fun doing a TPK (or is this the Killer DM side of me talking here), it is far more fun when the players make it out just by the thin silver strand of their mortal coil. It gives rise to 'this DM ain't messing!' and then the players start second guessing things they want to try. Nothing like keeping players on their toes when they are lulled into a 'false sense of security'.

Post by **Beowulf** » Tue Dec 24, 2013 11:58 pm

Cool! I would like to get a new group going, too.

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Mon Dec 30, 2013 8:01 pm

Looks like tomorrow is the next session. Oh, when they enter the dungeon...

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Wed Jan 22, 2014 3:45 am

Wow, this castle is loaded with undead, and the players just keep getting unlucky with tons of wandering undead. And when I roll the number appearing, it's always large numbers.

Did good though, they cleared all of Level 1 of the castle, found a cube of force (they're gonna need it!), and some books (journals) giving clues to what's really going on.

Damned zombie lord ended up crawling into a fountain that was filled with brown mold. When one of the PCs cast flame strike to destroy a cluster of undead, it hit the fountain as well, making the mold grow 8 times its size. The zombie lord grabbed a giant chunk and was going to hurl it at the PCs, but they managed to summon an earth elemental to destroy the fountain and the zombie lord, keeping a safe distance. Someone would have died had the zombie lord been able to throw that mold at them.

This whole adventure so far has been down and dirty fighting for every inch of ground. Gonna get a lot harder once they get below ground. The first floor of the castle had lots of broken down walls and easy ways to retreat and re-group, and a few rooms suited for holing up and resting. Not so much on the underground layers. Should be fun!

Post by **Halaster Blackcloak** » Fri Feb 28, 2014 2:43 am

Tonight's game was intense! Ran into a massive 13+ HD juggernaut. Remember, we have 3 party members - (now) 11th level wizard, 10th level priest of Horus (thus a priest/paladin) and a 10th level ranger.

So my priest of Horus is trying to protect his team mates (having the most hit points and seeing how the ranger is a female elf) and the juggernaut ran over him. It does 10d10 damage, plus I rolled a 20, which we use as double damage. So I rolled 62 points of damage, doubled to 124. My character has 91 hp.

I was about to start rolling to see what magic items were destroyed when the player declared he did not realized he had a dig spell memorized and could have dug a pit to intercept the juggernaut.

Since there's only one other player right now and he's new to the game (and trying to juggle 2 PCs), I was very lenient and allowed us to back up the game and re-do the scenario. Both the wizard and the juggernaut had a 1 initiative (and it was moving full speed) so I ruled that it slammed into my PC and smashed the shit out of him before falling into the pit (dig spell). So I took the 62 pts damage, since it didn't quite roll over him, just ran into him as the pit opened beneath it.

Eh. It was better than leaving the other two for dead (they would never make it out alive without a priest most likely) and having to start a new campaign. But at least now he knows I won't coddle my own character, since I was about to roll to see how much stuff got destroyed.

Aside from that, we're doing ok. They THINK they defeated villain behind it all. Oh, that damned lich is sneaky! It was a skeletal servant with spell abilities. Bwahaha! Wait till they find out they failed. Hell, wait till they figure out they gotta go back and find the real lair they overlooked! HAHAHA!!

Post by **Beowulf** » Sun Mar 02, 2014 5:43 am

Cool! It's awesome to get a new group together. Once I finally finish school (well, get my bachelor's at least) then I would love to "get the band back together" again.