/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

>remember I forgot to check the Complete Champion for affiliation bonuses for charity
>Good domain: +1/500 gp expended
>Lanikar's Kit was worth some 100k
... Well, you guys got a lot of good boi points. I guess your habit to not take loot has paid off...

>>144877
Some of you guys might qualify for sainthood later... You'd need exalted feats though.

>>144878
>sainthood
while that isn't unappealing...
>exalted feats
yeah, that sounds like too much work

>>144879
You already have two: intuitive attack and nemesis

>>144880
oh
I guess I might become a saint then!

>>144881
Hold your ponies, you gotta perform great labors to your deity or become a martyr to become a saint.

>>144882
with how this campaign's gone so far, becoming a martyr won't be hard. Jk, you're doing a good job and PCs just happen to die alot sometimes.

"helloesies, Night Shroud here. i missed a few sessions due to mental health reasons and i'm late to this session. thought i'd say hi."

Whoever wants to type a summary of this session instead of me will gain an extra action point and 100 XP.

Welcome to the Red Hand of Doom: Part 3 Session 1!

>Where we last left our heroes, they were all milling about on Starsong Hill and trying to decide what their next move would be
>Eventually the party decides to take the owls and fly due south from over the Blackfens, taking an otherwise 5-day trip to the Thornwastes and cutting it down to just 3 days.
>!st day: The flight is rather uneventful, all goes well until the party touches down in the Witchwood
>Upon setting up camp, the group is SWATed by a group of forest giants who want to know why all these fucking midgets have set up shop in their territory
>Upon learning of this mistake, Artorias, Umbrie and Pursuer/Killer all do their best to defuse the situation
>A few rounds and some diplomacy checks later, the giants are talked down from shooting anyone
>To seal the deal, Artorias heals the giants' chieftain and nets the party the ability to stay the rest of the long rest at their campsite
>The giants are still kinda paranoid about the normals near them, so they move their own camp to watch the party's camp
>While all this was going on, Billie managed to become fast friends with the giants and their kids
>Unfortunately though, the party must keep moving so Billie says goodbye to her new friends
>2nd day: The party resumes flying unhindered and comes to rest near Talar, camping near-ish to the road behind a hill
>Meanwhile, in the background, Talar is burning and peasants are fleeing in whichever direction they can, though Artorias helpfully directs some of them towards Brindol
>During the resting watch, the party is ambushed by a bunch of invisible hellhounds being assisted by three pyroclastic draconic barghests!
>It's a tough battle, but the party manages to take them all down without too much hardship, and the rest of the night is spent in peace
>3rd day: The party resumes flying and makes it all the way to the edge of the Thornwastes before having to rest again for the owls' sake, so they decide to do so in a small, abandoned human settlement
>inb4 everything's a mimic
>Oh, if only it were that nice...
>No, the party goes for a rest to let the owls recover only for us to get ambushed by a bunch of these lion monkeys that I don't know how to spell the name of
>Artorias and Aral try to set up a plan to catch these things offguard, but nOPE FEAR AURAS HAVE DIFFERENT PLANS
>Artorias, Billie, and both Pursuer and Killer are all collectively taken out of the fight before the first round even starts which would've been fixed had I remembered that action points were a thing, leaving only Aral and Umbrie to fight these asshats
>Unsurprisingly, an encounter that likely would've posed sufficient challenge with an entire party goes fucking horribly when there's only really two people fighting and soon everybody's either on Death's doorstep or being welcomed inside
>The real kicker is that in that time, only one of the fucking nya-ggers ended up dying in return
>Luckily for the party though, the DM had to leave to take care of some IRL things, meaning the encounter was cut short and retconned!
>A valuable lesson in how dangerous the Thornwastes are, or a glaring example of how stupid an encounter can get when fear is thrown around by anyone not aligned with the PCS?
>I know what I think it is, but I'll leave you all to decide this on your own!
>Until next week, fellow adventurers!

>>144888
Such excellent digits

>>144890
>in their territory
Clarification: by what was revealed in part 1, that half of the Witchwood was clearly not their territory. The Red Hand must have pushed them eastwards. Chief Shampoo was just being boastful for the sake of her tribe.
Apparently, Old Warklgnaw was able to convince his grandaughters to join him in one last fight after coming down from the Wyrmsmokes. The battle didn't go so well for them...
>Talar
*Terrelton
>Luckily for the party though, the DM had to leave to take care of some IRL things, meaning the encounter was cut short and retconned!
Ah, yes. The Gambols may have made mincemeat out of you guys had I not needed to leave after DMing for 8 hours straight.
Don't worry though; you haven't seen the last of the blue baboons :3

Me, doing my best to hype the Thornwastes

>>144893
What the party sees in response

>>144912
Accurrate. I'm only sad I didn't get to finish the encounter, since I really like those babooncats and it would feel cringe to just use them again because it would be repeditive.
I guess I could always just make them half-fiend/dragonspawn martial adepts...

>>144940
the one thing that I ask is just please don't use 6 of them at once again until the rest of us reach Aral's level and he's hopefully even higher level.

>>144950
No promises.
Don't worry tho. I'm probably not going to kill you guys with random encounters before you can get to my real, story-defining encounters. You guys haven't even entered the Thornwastes yet.

Pic related describes what the party saw as they flew near the ruined Terrelton, as the Red Hand marched over it.
A little insight on what the world will look like if they were to fail: a world of fire and darkness, corrupt, violent, and twisted in the image of the Archdevil Tiamat.

Pic of the heirloom Byeshek swords that I forgot to mention back at the end of part 2, dropped by the Bladebearer who didn't last long due to my decision to scale him down since the previous ones kept killing Bro's characters.
They are distinctly purple, and are perhaps the greatest example of gobbo-artifice.
Checks can be rolled if you care about hobgoblin history.

I think three hard encounters is pretty good for a session. Good story progression too.

that touch required the small and cute socially awkward shadowstalker known as "Night Shroud" to flank, and only dealt so much damage because of a lucky roll in assassin's stance. and it was my only way to actually land a good hit. luckily touch AC goes downward on higher challenge ratings.

>>145144
Dragons generally have low touch AC. Few of them have Dex higher than 10.

Which is why I'm second-guessing if the rest of my dragons are appropriately-balanced for Action Point fueled Orb Of Fire Spam...

>>145151
Artorias probably knew, Artorias's player is a known and admitted retard.

>>145154
Nah, I make the same mistake all of the time.

Cromar interacting with and helping the party on behalf of the DM, in the same capacity that every Mary Sue DMPC should:

Part III is actually taking much less time than I expected... I might actually need to make a new thread next month.
Anyways, I'm really glad that this campaign is progressing at a healthy rate. I was afraid that it would last more than a year (ugh), but it's really picked up since we switched to mostly voice chat. Despite the increased speed I've also been able to pack a lot more content (encounters, RP, story progression) into each session too.
You guys have been really great.
Pic unrelated

I may as well post the houserules I've written since the last post here:

>If a Duskblade or Spellsword uses their Channeling Ability to deliver Shocking Grasp, said warrior gains the normal +3 bonus on the melee attack roll if the enemy is wearing metal armor.
>In case it wasn't Clear, Mage Armor, and all the variants/derivatives, counts as an Abjuration spell for the Abjurant Champion.
>Rangers gain Point Blank Shot as a bonus feat at lvl 1.
>Knowledge (Warcraft) is considered to be a class-skill for any class proficient in all martial weapons, as well as for any Martial Adept.
>Rangers who opt to choose a Rival Organization as a favored Enemy may choose the Red Hand, provided that they know of it (the party may explain it to you, if you're new)
>Human Factotums qualify as having the Able Learner feat for the purpose of entering the Chameleon prestige class.
>Blackguards may call Fiendish Drakkensteeds as Servants, and may apply Feindish Servant advancements to Draggonnels gained through the Dragonsteed feat, just as Paladins do.
>In Addition, Evil Paladins and Blackguards may (with explicit DM permission) have access to splatbook spells on the Paladin list so long as those spells lack the [Good] descriptor. If a [Good] Paladin spell has an "Evil version", that spell may be added to the Blackguard list.
>The Keen Intellect feat applies to the Autohypnosis skill, if the character in question has ranks in it.
>Wearing a corset imposes a 5% chance of arcane spell interference unless you are able to cast in light armor.
>Wearing high heels imposes a -2 penalty on reflex saves and balance checks.
>Paladin/Monks with the Unwavering Dedication ACF:
http://srd.dndtools.org/srd/classes/baseCore/monk.html#unwavering-dedication
> -are treated as having Monastic Training for all prerequisites, including qualifying for the Argent Fist Prestige class.
>New players start at lvl 6. This will be consistent throughout the whole game, going for both new players and new characters of players who's PCs died. However, XP is a river, and low level characters introduced later will level up much faster.
>Clerics may use the Intuitive Attack feat with a martial or exotic melee weapon, provided that said weapon is the favored weapon of their patron deity.
>As I stated above, I am flexible with Flavor requirements. As per the Complete Divine, Prestige classes that require worship of certain deities can be refluffed, so long as the PC in question meets similar fluff.

>For example: a Cleric of any martial deity may advance as an Ordained Champion so long as they meet the mechanical and alignment prerequisites.
>An Orc Cleric Of Gruumsh may advance as a Stormlord (Talos is an aspect of Gruumsh anyway). Same goes for a priest of any one eyed storm god who uses spears.
>Crusader/Clerics of any kind can be Ruby Knight Vindicators.
>The Ruby Knight Vindictor class is not limited by alignment or patron deity.
>For example, I allowed Aral to build as a knight of mystic fire despite worshipping Corellon Larethian because I consider wizardry to be an Elven tradition, and Mystra doesn't exist in my game. Mystra allows her followers to worship other gods anyway (including evil ones...).
>So, basically, I care more about mechanical requirements than fluff requirements. If you have something you want, as me about it.
>I use Heroes Of Battle in this campaign. The goblins have been using commander auras this whole time, mostly with the Goblin Commander Aura. Inter-party commander auras are my way of balancing multi-level parties.
>I assign commander auras as they come up.
>Elaborating on refluffing Divine content: Since Lathander is just a younger, handsome version of Pelor for FR, content exclusive to Lathander may be used by worshippers of Pelor, or other similar sun gods.
>This includes but is not limited to the Sun Soul Monk feat and class.
>Also, Monastic characters with Lathander's Sun Soul Monk feat are considered to be capable of Turning Undead for the sake of Clergy prerequisites. They may expend uses of Stunning Fist to fuel any devotion feat of a domain granted by Pelor, and even certain Divine feats.
>The Leadership feat is hereby allowed, but I pick and control cohorts.
>I do prestige race altercations, just fyi.
>I use Craft Points:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/craftPoints.htm
>For anyone who is interested in playing w ghost, the ghost class may be available under very limited circumstance:
https://www.realmshelps.net/monsters/templates/ghost.shtml
>Players should consult me in DMs whenever they have questions for what qualifies for becoming a ghost.
>The Tauric Creature template (MMII) is allowed, but I need to double-approve whatever templated monstrosity you guys show me.
>The Firestorm Berserker PrC can use Blazing Berserker to replace all of its prerequisite feats.
>Alternatively, characters who wish to play Firestorm Berserkers may instead reflavor the Frostrager class, and replace any instance of cold with instances of Fire; In this case, the "Freezing Blood" class feature is renamed as "Cauterized Wound", the "Absorb Cold" ability is renamed as "Fire Eating", and the "Frost Rage" feature is renamed as "Burning Rage".
>In addition, any character with levels in Barbarian may have the benefit of gaining Tribal Tattoos, as described in Dragon Magazine.
>The Keen Intellect skill can be used to roll Profession (Astrology) skill.
>And yes, I do fantasy horoscopes. (nobody has told me their sign yet though)
>If you have the Ki Shout feat, you may, at your option, use Wisdom instead of Charisma for the saving throw DC.
>I allow all of the metamagic components listed in UA:
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/UA:Metamagic_Components#Metamagic_Components
>Other power components are listed throughout various books; do your homework if you want to haxximize it. Check the treasure drops, I slip them in every now and then.

>>145179
>Complex Skill checks are acceptable:
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/UA:Complex_Skill_Checks#Hide
>And for the purpose of diminishing redundant weapon profficiencies, you can talk to me about Weapon Groups if you ever want to try it:
https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/UA:Weapon_Group_Feats#Using_Weapon_Groups_With_Racial_Favored_Weapons
>Since Diplomacy is the key skill for the White Raven Discipline, Dvati characters trained in the White Raven can use Diplomacy instead of Perform when flanking for their Echo Attack ability. Like most white Raven Maneuvers, it is fluffed as a series of martial shouts.

If it wasn't obvious, most of my houserules are just official 3.5e variant rules that I announce to let players know I'm using them. I generally prefer not to bend rules because I feel like consistency gives players more room to optimize and get creative within the rules. Most of my houserules are just bonus feats given to all players, or reskinning fluff requirements.

>>145174
Did you miss me?
>I was afraid that it would last more than a year
If I remained, then yes. It's better that I left, really, since it took forever to do shit by text so it became an annoyance over time than a leisure, at first I looked forward to playing it but over time that excitement withered away until it became a chore of a routine. It was a experience that was new to me, the foremost of which being roleplaying horse sex, that was and will be unforgettable. Though I'm sure it made some of you disgusted, which only made it more hilarious, I bet Misty tastes nice in heat.
It was short but sweet, thanks for the memories, gay lords.
Anyways. Dicksword smells of stale tranny vagina and OP is a flaming faggot.

>>145181
Oh hey, Chad. Yeah, I really have missed you. I liked your character, and our time together was good.
>It's better that I left
Awww, don't say that. I was glad to have you there.
>I'm sure it made some of you disgusted
Topkek! Where do you think you are?
>dicksword is gay
True, tbh. I had originally only made it as a means to organize, but voice chat is just so much faster than PbP, and I wanted to meet my standard of at least 4 encounters per day and at least one adventuring day per session.
I considered taking it to Roll20 or Foundry, but all I really wanted was the voice chat, so I didn't bother.

Sometimes I want to reconsider how to run a proper campaign that runs entirely on /mlpol/, but isn't agonizingly slow or unfun. I think that with the right planning it can be attained. Maybe I'll try running GURPS here one of these days.

>>145185
It actually makes me wonder if /mlpol/ could actually use it's own board dedicated to /qst/ and /tg/ related topics, rather than just leaving it on the board that already shares video games and paranormal. The /mlp/ and /pol/ RP communities are actually thriving right now, and it could do the site good to bring some of that energy here to /mlpol/. Most of it is on platforms more accomodating to RP, but anonymous /qst/ games using the right rules/systems could certainly be a thing here. Could be a board for writefags and CYOAs too.

>>145201
Who?
And yeah, I can read. I just think RPGs would be better off with their own board. Having too many topics on one board diminishes discussion of each topic. I see a few RPG threads on /vx/, but next to zero discussion of them, let alone any real importation of the pony RP community.
Also kind of weird how /vx/ has flags and IDs, despit /v/ and /x/ not having any. I guess it was an attempt to emulate /vint/.

>>145202
>>145202
>I think
Very well, we'll wait for a consensus then

>>145203
>consensus
I mean, I could make a thread about it, but it was just a passing though.
Btw, are you a lurker or what? Did you have any interest in playing this game? I can provide the rest of my rules if you want.

The loot goblin getting rich off of all of the party's unclaimed loot.

>>145210
>lot goblin
That's a great idea, I'm stealing it

>>145210
the Secret Superboss™ grows ever stronger for the final encounter

>>145212
The loot goblin is an actual NPC: a rogue/hoardstealer. If you can beat it's stealth, you can try to fight it.
Good luck though. It's got Darkstalker.

>>145213
>The loot goblin is an actual NPC
Hell yeah he is

Where we last left the party...
>beat the shit out of a dragon after covering the entire thornwastes in less than a day
>time to raid the ghostlord's temple!
>Everybody manages to get in through a secret passage, avoiding entering more combat immediately after driving off the white dragon and her reinforcements, letting us explore the temple almost completely unhindered
>First stop: a room that looks like it's where the white dragon was nested in. Aral finds a secret door, the party proceeds inwards further after finding not much of note in the room itself
>Traversing the hallway, the party's ambushed by three ghost lions that really just prove to be an annoyance before dying
>Second stop: a room almost completely filled with fog
>Like to the point that there was more fog than air
>Oh, and did I mention that it was dark as shit too?
>People wander around blindly for a while, but everyone manages to find something
>Billie and Artorias find a door, Aral finds another door, and Umbrie finds a staircase!
>Behind Aral's door is a laboratory bearing all sorts of surgical equipment, presumably where the ghostlord does everything related to making undead monstrosities or learning how to make other undead monstrosities
>A "trapdoor" is also found in one corner of it!
>After judging how deep down it goes, Artorias deduces that it's probably a corpse chute and that nobody should go in it
>Umbrie has other ideas though, and suggests that Aral goes down and checks it out
>Aral does this while Artorias crosses his arms and counts down from 10 in his head
>As soon as the one fades from his mind, he hears Aral scream up from below like something's attacking him!
>fuckingknewit.scryingorb
>After pushing away his bad memories of serving as a field medic for the royal tard guard back in his home kingdom, he jumps down the chute after Umbrie
>Once down there, the threat is revealed in full- a gray ooze!
>The ooze has already gotten Aral stuck between a pseudopod and a hard place in the short time he's been down there, so everybody rushes in to save him
>One battle and several dissolved pieces of equipment later, the party is freed from the ooze and allowed to return to the surface
>Before he departs back up to it though, Artorias makes it clear to Umbrie that she's not allowed to make decisions anymore
pic 1, Artorias's fw Umbrie keeps complaining about her ruined gear
>Now back in the foggy room, the party decides to head up into the temple's second floor
>While up there, they encounter three gobbo monks and try to take one hostage
>Unfortunately, the one hostage they managed to take was an absolute loony who thought it would be a good idea to impale his own forehead on Artorias's helmet trying to headbutt him
>The retard is temporarily held off from receiving his darwin award in hopes that he might actually cooperate if worn down, but the madlad broke out of his bindings and was promptly executed by Aral
>Well, that plan's a bust
>Back down we go!
>Third stop: a big room with a yellow pool of mustardgas water in it
>Artorias understandibly is leading the way with his extra thicc AC, so he's the one ambushed by the six bonedrinkers in the room already
>Oh well, time to go Ultra Instinct again
>Well... not quite
>Artorias does his job as party tank, but he ends up actually taking some damage this time
>No biggie though, the bonedrinkers are dealt with quickly enough
>Fourth stop: a room with a big undead tree and six gobbo corpses in it
>Another ghost lion pops out of the tree, but it's killed in a single turn
>The party moves on to the fifth stop without much ceremony though, and this happens to be the ghostlord's obligatory room of shinies!
>Artorias, not wanting to provoke the ghostlord on this diplomatic mission, decides to move on
>However, while I was in the bathroom, Aral and Umbrie decided to loot everything not nailed down
>Artorias was understandibly not happy, and made this clear
pic 2 related, it's the royal guard all over again
>Umbrie was able to sneak an uncharged sunblade past him, though
>After this, the sixth stop is a big room with a big ball of necrotic metal
>Something something heart of the lion
>And Umbrie tries to break it!
>Artorias immediately restrains her and reminds her through gritted teeth and death glare that she's not allowed to make decisions anymore, and she thankfully capitulates
pic 3 related
>Final stop incoming!
>The last major room, the actual room that the ghostlord is in!
>Right before the party enters, a scroll is popped that lets them get better charisma for diplomacy reasons
>The ghostlord hovers over to us at the speed of fast, demanding to know who we are and why we're on his property
>Artorias goes to hand him the phylactery, but it's not in the bag
>Instead, Billie (bless her little week-old retard heart) has decided to try EATING IT
pic 4 related
>Artorias manages to snatch it back from her before that happens though, and actually gives it to the ghostlord
>The ghostlord is soon swayed to the party's virtue and allows them to live as he goes off to deal with the other intruders in his temple
>How he does this?
>Oh, he just casually transforms into a zombie werelion and beats the shit out of every goblin in sight
>The party are close behind him, but still too late to actually see him do anything he did except for finish off the leader of the gobbos inside his temple
>After they've been dealt with, the ghostlord turns back into his lichy self and tells the party to fuck off
>Artorias asks one question before leaving though, if he'd be willing to help the party finish off the red hand
>"Mmm, no."
>Well
>Artorias bids the ghostlord a good day and stabilizes the barely alive gobbo general that was left to bleed out, thinking she'd be good for some more information
>During this, Aral and Umbrie sweep the barracks they're in and find not much of note besides an opera written by the general who just so happens to be a bard

>>145217
One final note: I personally am choosing to think that the ghost lion now residing within Artorias's shield is a token of appreciation from the ghostlord for giving him back his phylactery. Whether that's the case or not is up to the GM to decide, but I believe that it's his way of giving us at least a little bit of help going forward.

>>145218
It could indeed be a token of appreciation, or perhaps it may be a memento from one of the noble lions of Rhest. Only time will tell.

>played for 8 hours straight
>6 encounters (arguably 8)
>finished an entire dungeon
>All of the encounters were challenging, some near-deadly
>Party forced to expend their resources, cooperate, buff eachother, saving eachother's lives
>despite that, encounters still give PCs chance to feel powerful
>Everyone got to use their class features and racial abilities
>Enemies got to use their special powers too
>Major story developments
>Non-combat challenges
>Ad Hoc story completion
>Dialogue and jokes between encounters
>I didn't even feel exhuasted/miserable by the end of it
>Was really fun
Now that is what I call a splendid session. You guys were incredible, exceeding my expectations yet again.
Too bad plague couldn't be here. It's his birthday, so I'll let them level up anyway. I'll just say they were busy defending the mounts from undead sphinxes.

This part of the adventure was short and sweet. Now, off to Brindol, where the real battle shall unfold.

END OF PART III

>>145216
It's sad I didn't get to use Uwali Stormcaller this encounter, since the Ghostlord kicked her ass. Her powers and tactics would have made her the most challenging enemy yet. You'll get to interrogate her next session though. Consider what you'll ask her.

Hmmm, Aral didn't get any class specific permanent loot this part..
Oh well, he's already got the Summer Star and basically completed the essentials of his kit in Part II, so I guess the magical ammunition and the Mithral Mist shirt should be good enough for him this session.
Night Shroud got some decent Monk Nun items, from my Doom fist Monks, who turned out to be just as tough as I wanted them to be. She also got her hands on a certain massively cursed historic condition piece of Rhestian culture that the Ghostlord claimed as a trophy a century ago, one that I think will serve her well. Perhaps she could bring it back to the church in Brindol and have it appraised.
Artorias also seems to have had his shield haunted upgraded, as a curse parting gift from one of the dire lions. I think it's nice for him. Also a bunch of divine scrolls he can use.

I did remember to include Bro's birthday present, even though Killer and Pursuer (Plague) didn't participate in this crawl. He didn't ask for much anyway.

Some of the ebin lewts from this encounter (not the best loot in the pile, but the prettiest):
>Haunted(?) Rhestian Lion's Shield
>Blade of Black Sun, unawakened
>Shadowsilk Blindfold Of True Darkness (What? you thought you'd escape Goblin Slayer references in the goblin slaying campaign?)
>Shadowsilk Monk's Belt
>Mithral Mist Shirt
Also several stat-enhancement items, utility gear, potions, scrolls, wands, Skull Talismans, armor bracers, a fuckton of gold, a wicked-looking kukri, an ioun stone, and not one but three dwenomered Dragon Scales (The Fanged Ring, the Opalescent Amulet, and the Sonorous Scale), which I am disappointed to find out lack official illustrations...

>>145227
>encounter
*Session.

>>145210
I just had another idea: What if the loot goblin is actually a Red Hand agent gathering up all the leftover resources the party doesn't take to feed it back into their war efforts?

>>145256
I mean, that's just as likely. If you leave a bunch of masterwork weapons and magic items in the middle of a field, somebody is going to take them.

Anyways, I think I'm going to hold off until after next session before I decide if I want to make a thread for Part IV. I can't actually be sure you guys will go straight to Brindol. There's actually a lot of stuff left to do across the vale, and there's actually a few different directions the story could take right now that might be equally critical to your success or failure in the next part.

>>145284
When the adventure's over will you do a "behind the scenes" bit where you talk about what went into this and inspired things?

>>145286
Wow, hadn't checked this thread in a while.
I could certainly do that, but what is it that you're curious about?

>>145222
>[...] Wyrmlord Ulwai Stormcaller is strangely attractive for a hobgoblin, something that has been both a blessing and a curse for the stormsinger. Other hobgoblins accused her of having human or even elf blood in her veins. [...]
>[...] Ulwai has red hair woven into numerous braids and fitted with tiny bits of metal and ivory. Her eyes are a bright shade of blue, highly uncommon for hobgoblins. She wears numerous pieces of beautiful lightning-themed mithral jewelry. [...]
... Thank's a lot, Dick and James...

Anyway, I'm only bringing it up because it's an observable fact about this prisoner. The now-naked hobgoblin woman's eyes were still wide open when the ghostlord paralyzed her, and you could tell that they are brilliant azure blue, and that she's especially beautiful (for a goblin).
All of these traits allow a passive Arcana check (using Aral's modifier; he won the check) that "Ulwai" is a Sunscorched hobgoblin: a rare variety of hobgoblin with an ancestral connection to blue dragons. Sunscorched hobgoblins were known for posessing exceptional cunning and patience; they do not have the same charisma penalty that typical hobgoblins suffer, but often share the vanity of blue dragons. They have a natural love of power: when a sunscorch hobgoblin isn't leading a warband or tribe, he (or she) is likely the voice of wisdom behind its leader.
From her race, her jewelry, and what you know of the Blood of Morume, you can assume that this hobgoblin is one of the higher ranking officers of the Red Hand.

DAY 24 EVENING
I need to get a better note-taking system...

>>145293
Nothing in particular, was just wondering about the writing of the campaign. I've never seen any roleplay go this well before.

>Where we last left off...
>Collect prisoner from ghostlord's temple, GTFO
>Get back out of thornwastes, wait for spells to regen so that they can be used for interrogation
>Make sure the prisoner's tied up firmly, cast zone of truth, and ready interrogation!
>Ask her a bunch of questions about tactics, force size and whereabouts, other miscellaneous nonsense as it pops into our heads
>She answers, saving her opera from the ever-hungry mouth of the steel dragon toddler nearby
>When we run out of questions, time to seal the deal!
>Ring up mah nigga Bahamut and ask him about if she actually told the truth
>Answer Unclear; Try Again Later
>Thisbitch.bmp
>Turns out she's also free of her bindings and is running the fuck away!
>Welp, time to feed her opera to Billie!
>Aral and Umbrie give pursuit while Artorias sits back and makes sure every single heretical paper is eaten by his adoptive daughter, Billie happily obliges
>Umbrie fucking decks this woman, but not before she's able to summon a tornado that we all have to deal with
>fuck
>Tornado rampages around the battlefield, nearly killing us all
>Well, at least the prisoner isn't dead
>Retie her up, get her just healed enough so that we can perform a quadruple amputation without killing her
>She shoots awake, plants us all firmly with a song
>Unfortunately, because of stupid fucking bard magic, nobody can do shit to salvage things while the exact same scene plays out again
>This time though, there's not going to be a prisoner
>After the second tornado clears, Umbrie drains enough of her energy to melt her flesh off her bones, Aral turns her skull into a pincushion, and Artorias makes sure there's not even a skeleton to bury
>Nah, this bitch has effectively been cremated at room temperature
>Just in time too, a fuckload of other green knife-eared dickeaters come stampeding out of the nearby forest!
>Everybody either naruto runs or flies back to the owls, and we escape unharmed (well, more unharmed than we would've if we had actually fought there)
>Well, now we have some faulty information, but it's all we have to go on right now, so it'll have to work until tomorrow
>Owls start flying northeast towards Giantshield mountains, maybe there's a macguffin there that we can steal from some other goblin assholes to get the help of an eldritch giant?
>Maybe, but on the road below we see a bunch of gobbos looting an overturned carriage with two ettins overseeing them
>Time to do some murdering!
>Ettins are tanky, but they go down like anything else
>Goblins are peons in every sense of the word, so they literally splatter underfoot for us
Soon enough, everything we can see has been killed once
>Once
>Shit starts reanimating across the battlefield, and it's not pretty
>Those ettins are now even tankier, the goblins are back to being minor annoyances, and these land goblin sharks are swimming around in the dirt below us and doing their best to make us corpses too
>They fail, though
>It's an annoying fight, but the party succeeds and we collect the fat stacks that the goblinoids were trying to pilfer from this carriage
>Turns out this was meant as payment towards a merc group currently working in Brindol
>Well, let's finish the delivery then!
>Deliver stuff to dorfs, they at first are hostile but quickly change their tune when they learn that not only are we not gobbos, but we also have money
>Give them the dosh, make some trades for some new flashy bitz, and go back to Dauth nearby
>Tool around there for a while, help some peasants, make a new sorceror friend who will meet us at brindol, ask B-Hams some more questions (turned out the bardic whore made by the horny module writers was an ENORMOUS liar, literally one thing she said turned out to be true), and ventured out to the surrounding villages to make sure people are evac'ing and not being stubborn (((merchants)))
>Run into a group of murderhobos while out
>Turns out they're part of some gang, but that doesn't matter
>They're still idiots refusing to evac!
>Give them a good yelling, eventually convince them to go out and target gobbos instead of people by paying them off and telling them Brindol would probably pardon them for the help
>New mercenaries acquired!(?)
>Who knows, they could've just taken the gems we offered them and ran off to piss away their lives as rich fucks
>Eh, we're kinda swimming in money as is, so does it really matter?
>No, no it doesn't
>Anyway, walk continues and we eventually start heading back
>Along the way, find some dudes tied up by an ogre and some hobgoblins!
>Activate righteous might, grow to absolute unit sizes, and start the fight!
>Umbrie and Aral start working on the hobgoblins while Artorias takes on the ogre, damage isn't as big as before since the weapon crystal has been changed, a meaty thwack from a mace is still something to be feared
>Until some more barghests show up, that is
>Barghests melt their allies in breath attacks targeting us, but we are mostly unharmed
>From here, the session falls apart because I stop feeling good and Mr. That Guy has to go do IRL things
>Until next week!

>>145331
Ah, now that's a recap. Take your extra Action Point as usual.
I think yesterday's session was fun, if a bit clumsy. 4-6 encounters, and two PCs got to level up.

>>145331
>land goblin sharks
It's called a Krathbairn, a kind of fiend originally created by subjecting the eggs of brown dragons to horrible magic. Their burrow speed, regeneration, enchantment abilities, and at-will animate dead makes them a rather deadly addition to the battlefield.
I'm glad I got to use them this campaign: I'm not even halfway done with the published Spawn of Tiamat.

>>145331
>Barghests
Don't forget the four Blackspawn Raiders that have currently surrounded the party. The session will begin again on their turn.

If you guys wanted an image of what my Pyroclastic Bargheists looked like, think of large, winged goblinoid-wereworgs, with ashen fur and patches of black, scaly, dragon-like skin full of cracks that expose molten flesh. These monsters are the result of an unholy pact with Tiamat that liberates them from Gehenna by turning them into dragonspawn and makes them closer to Hellhounds. They share similarities with the Pyroclastic Dragons of Gehenna, and are immune to fire, not fearing banishment through flame. They're deadly melee juggernaughts, and fearsome spellcasters.

You can roll your relevant knowledge skills (planes, arcana, religion) if you want to know more.

Truth be told, I gave you guys too much XP for the last time you fought them, since I used their lesser equivalants, didn't make them fly, didn't use their items, and forgot about half of their spells (big brainfart that session...). Thus, I reserve the right to reuse them Xp. You can expect these motherfuckers to be much, much, much more difficult.

I will probably make a new thread the session after the next session.

>>145286
Sure, I could go over it. It would be easier to answer your questions one by one though.
Red Hand of Doom is a classic d&d module that I've always personally wanted to play, but never found a DM for, and thus took it upon myself to run it for somebody else. I've modified the adventure with the help of some friends to try to make it more suitable for online campaigns. I also took some creative license in quite a few places, but I've generally stuck to its main structure.
The module is well-written, and surprisingly adaptable. I was pretty close to running it in Equestria with ponyfinder rules, but I figured I'd stick with the system and setting I knew.

At the rate we're covering, we'll be over in just a few months, which puts us on track to have completed the game in less than a year. I was worried it would be a run-on campaign at first, but progress has been great. The party is getting an average of four-to-six encounters per adventuring day and more than one adventuing day per session. PCs have been leveling up smoothly (once every 2-4 sessions), while I've made efforts to keep the game challenging. The players have all been great so far and lovely to play with, although not all of them were able to play through the whole thing.
I'm actually considering running another game after this, perhaps at higher level, and maybe a bit shorter in game length. It's just food for thought though. It depends if I have time and how many players are interested. Perhaps I can work out a system to encourage board participation while running combat in voice chat.

>>145321
The writing of Red Hand of Doom is ultimately based on a "Countdown to Destruction", where a massive army of hobgoblins storms across the vale to conquer every settlement in the region. PCs at their level have no hope of defeating the entire army by themselves, so their quests revolve around rallying allies, learning secrets, hindering the army, and thwarting enemy plots in every way they can. Of course, they're not required to do any of the quests or sidequests in any particular order; in fact, nearly all of the quests are optional. I have used pre-written and adapted flowcharts to calculate the consequences of the party's participation, ommission, success, and failure in any particular element of the game. The enemies are mostly intelligent humanoids, and brilliant tacticians to boot: their tactics and plans will change in response to the party's actions.

Red Hand of Doom is at its core a war game, and is structured like one, with elements from Heroes Of Battle. I've already spoiled that I use Hero Victory points to calculate the party's success: the PCs are the heroes of the story, even if they're not fighting all of the goblins themselves. The PCs victories in various miniquests across the game increase the likelihood of the "good guys"'s success against the goblinoids. Certain quests may delay the advancement of the hoard, buying the people more chances to flee and prepare for the inevitable final battle. Every warband, leader or monster defeated is subtracted from the Red Hand's forces, meaning that PCs help their allies by killing powerful/important monsters and NPCs, wherever they do so. PCs can also use their non-combat abilities to thwart the enemy: stealth and intelligence gathering is valuable; diplomacy and social skills help to rally allies (the elves, for example); divination and insight can help to clear up information (Nice job with that Commune to back up the zone of truth, Artorias); utility and support abilities passively speed up travel time (Aral's survival checks); even personal character motivations and backgrounds may be valuable (Night Shroud has a rather high affiliation score with the Shining Light of Pelor) as many elements from across the setting are subtly included; even simple acts of kindness, selflessness or generosity can go a long way. The Victory Point system isn't so stringent that it necessitates particpation in every quest, but it's not a walk in the park either: at this point, PCs are on a good path, but they'll need to struggle if the forces of Brindol are to be victorious with only what they'e accomplished so far. Their preparations before the battle will also effect how difficult their future battles will be, so they're questing for their own survival just as much as anything else. The game might not necessaily be completely over if PCs lose in Brindol... but they're going to want to do everything they can if they want to save the rest of the world and avoid further tragedy. The Red Hand grows stronger with every victory.
So, basically, it's an open-world game that PCs can play in as if it were a sandbox, but the progress of the hoard, and the way PCs respond to it, ties the whole plot together. I keep record of everything the party does and how

Red Hand Of Doom is very adaptable, and can include quite a bit of original content. The book refers to other 3.5e books that may be useful in making the game more colorful, like Heroes Of Battle, Dragon Magic, or the Monster Manuals 4 and 5. It also makes an effort to use many generic-looking monsters that can easily be represented with common minis, and provides no shortage of ways to replace them with more exotic ones. It's can be easily adapted too: for example, goblinoids could be replaced with humans, the Red Hand with Zhentarim, and Tiamat with Bane. I've seen logs of it being run in Oriental Adventures, Grayhawk, Eberron, Forgotten Realms, and even in Equestria. I've personally added-to and adapted quite a bit of it, to make the game more personalized and interesting.

Overall, very good module. I can see why it's such a classic.
That's everything I can reveal without spoiling things any further than my dumbass self has already.

Next session may or may not be cancelled due to Night Shroud's mom having found the piss drawer.
Also I have a lot on my plate this weekend. We'll see how it goes.

>>145364
>piss drawer
I'm gonna need a quick rundown on that

>>145365
Literally who?

Quick rundown is that the swordsage had her laptop confiscated, and we left off in the middle of a hig-crunch encounter that is outright unbeatable with only two players. It depends if I can get Plague online.

It's come to my knowledge that Plague is no longer with us, after missing the last two sessions.
I was going to have them reenter on the backs of two thunderlizards, but we've all got our personal schedules.

We'll play as soon as the Ranger and Cleric show up.
Pic unrelated

I will be making a new thread shortly.

>>145495
Who?

It means whenever I feel like it, between today and tomorrow.
Or next week, who knows.

>throw literal army at the party
>they burn/cleave through it in one round
>One part due to Aral's Empowered Fireballs
>But mostly due to Night Shroud's absurd swordsmanship
I may need to reconsider the Red Hand's tactics if I want to keep scaring you guys...

>>145579
eh, just throw something really big and tanky at us or something. You know, like have one of the handler-less dragons (or both) be sent on a mission to kill us or something. Not saying you should, but that would probably scare the willies out of us.

>>145581
Oh no, don't worry. General Kharn has a lot worse than a couple Draconic Barghests in store for you guys. It's only a question of when and how I use them.

>>145582
Also, do you want us to post recaps for this session in this thread or the next one?

>>145585
You can go ahead and post it here.

>>145581
There will be plenty of tanky things to kill when the horde reaches Brindol.
Giants, Dragons, Dragonspawn, Warhounds, Devils, Barghests, high-level hobgoblins/bugbears/goblins, and much more.

Some visuals of the monsters from yesterday's session:

And of course, a shot of two of the guys who made our juggernaught of an Int-based Ranger suddenly regret dumping Con.

>>145631
Fair enough

>Squaring off against the party is the aforementioned barghests and some blackspawn raiders
>Artorias and Umbrie up at the front, with Aral watching it all go down and picking off other targets in the back some ways away
>Artorias does what he can to soak damage, but these guys hit hard and I forget to take damage reductions into account
>Either way, the targets all start going down 1 by 1
>Well, until we realize that one of them is currently pinning Aral to the ground
>Everybody runs over to help, Aral is helped
>All of a sudden, a large pile of tiamat spawn come charging us down at full speed out of the woods!
>Aral fireballs, Artorias recitations, and Umbrie eviscerates the entire horde the instant they get within spitting distance
>Spend some time cleaning up the leftovers and looting, nothing else comes by in the meantime
>We find a scroll of revivify though!
>Alright, time to save the guy that we were here to save!
>... Oh, he's already dead?
>Well shit
>At least we can bury him
>Bury the guy, head back into town
>Meet back up with the sorceress friend, she talks with us some more and expand more on what we both know
>Take care of the miscellaneous nonsense and get back on the road after ringing up the Platinum Ass-kicker himself and asking some more questions
>Gobbo horde will arrive between 7 and 14 days from now, also around 3-4 thousand strong
>Also, we've been scried
>Nervous!
>Encounter some suspicious looking cloud on the way there, so try to give it some distance as we pass
>Turns out the wyverns and gobbos insode the cloud don't like that, so the fight's on!
>Owls take some damage and Umbrie and Aral's owls are forced to the ground
>Artorias remains flying, but goes to ground too and puts a wind wall between the wyverns and the party
>Wyverns take the bait and follow us down to ground level with their gobbos, party begins making mincemeat of wyverns
>Except Aral's having trouble again
>Well, he had trouble
>What I'm saying is, he died
>... Shit
>Well, it's a good thing we took that revivify scroll!
>He's back up with nothing majorly wrong, wyvern completely misses that fact and lets Aral pincushion it next round
>Wyverns are all kill, time to splatter goblins!
>Goblins splattered, owls come back, time to get on the road again
>Heal the owls first though, just in case
>Now that everything's back in working order, we fly!
>Until we're stopped by some familiar elven faces
>Turns out they were sent to find us by the Brindol officials!
>Well, doubletime then!
>Arrive in the city as it preps for siege warfare, get taken to the makeshift war room they're all in
>Meet the head honchos of the city, start telling them what's what and who we are
>Mr. That Guy didn't want us to get this far though, so we're asked if we can cut it there so he could prep some more and we all agree
>Next session: Politics and planning as the goblin pile plods closer to pillaging the pleading peasantry of the city!

>>145788
>Small Horde of Green Dragonspawn
>Small horde
>Small
There were 50 of them. Lmao.
Freaking Swordsages.

considering how large armies were and how large the Mongolian hordes were. a Horde of 50 while definitely large numbers to face for the small skirmish unit that is a party of adventurers, is small on the horde spectrum. a small but elite horde. but horde makes me think starship troopers, Samurai Jack or the Xenomorphs.

>>145791
Alright. Next time you'll get 200.

that actually feels closer to a horde. though the party is already prioritizing surviving to the detriment of RP or side content.

>>145793
Well, you can expect a couple thousand at the Battle of Brindol. How many you'll personally face is still to be determined.