/vx/ - Videogames and Paranormal

"i am Sister Night Shroud, a member of the Shadow Guard, Servant of Pelor, and Practitioner of the Dawn to Dusk and Dusk to Dawn Styles. i'm commonly referred to as the socially awkward younger sister of the local temple." greeted a small; pale; human girl of 5'1" and 90 lbs with long black hair and massive blue eyes. clad in a black elven starweave dress in a minimalist gothic style with stockings, mary janes, a bladeless hilt sheathed a shadowsilk belt, and a blindfold worn like a headband.

"i was initially sent to find the War Wizard Cromar. turns out he wasn't there and most of his possessions weren't there. so i went to the swamp to search. hobgoblins of the red hand were enslaving Saurians or Lizardfolk as they are commonly called." cue the excitable little girl

"the ogres guarding the port die like a breeze in a tunnel. the razorfiends, though dangerous, were only deadly due to the terrain they guarded. and the black dragon adopted cowards tactics till i taunted him to come down by wounding his pride by rubbing myself all over his horde. he acted recklessly and with our combined might he fell. we found Cromar's head in a bag." cue the little girl's pitch getting more cheerful

"we return the ghost lord's phylatery. after several greling trials through his lair. then he transforms into an undead were lion and slauhters several hobgobliins. we capture thier living uncious general. a hobgoblin woman named Uali. we try twice to interrogate her, stormclouds come each time, we take her out the 3rd time."

"on the way to the ghost lord, we convince giants to not consume us, i call another dragon a coward to make it charge recklessly. this dragon retreats, even though it proves she falters before the lion."

"we also returned some recovered artifacts to the elves and got showered with gifts for it. making friends with giant owls."

"and we delivered the gold to the dwarves. to recruit thier services, and bribed bandits to pursue work. the bharghests and dragonspawn we fight during our patrol are deadly, but even scarier, is the small mounted horde of green dragon spawn that got fireballed than sliced to death by the power of the sunblade within this hilt i recovered from the ghost lords lair."

"an ooze dissolved my habit, but i managed to replace it with an elven dress. but tis better than walking around half dressed."

>For the first time in a fucking while and a half, Artorias removes the Platinum Helmet to reveal a middle-aged man with shaggy but short brown hair and piercing green eyes
"Artorias Greenmarsch, cleric in service of the Platinum Dragon and adoptive father of Billie Greenmarsch, the steel wyrmling you see here disguised as a small child. (pats Billie on the head and has her say hi). I've served my church for 22 years, and I served in the armed forces of my home kingdom for 5 before I left. Before they sent me here because of a vision that was woefully sparse on details, I traveled the continent providing help where I could and fighting for just causes when I was asked to."
"Since getting here, I've joined with this group and provided my services to them in defeating this horde of green assholes. Along the way, I've personally struck down a black dragon, securing the support of the Tiri Kitor for you, and helped turn away a white one in the thornwastes. I've also either killed or assisted in the killing of hundreds of servants or spawn of the whore Tiamat, and took part in the raids that killed two of the three dead Red Hand generals."
"I'm also the one responsible for conducting the negotiations between the Ghostlord and, by proxy, all of you and thus convincing him to not continue producing undead for the Red Hand's war efforts. I'm also the one who made sure that that one (pointing at Umbrie) didn't screw up the entire process by doing everything in her power to piss him off or get us all killed along the way. After dealing with him, we interrogated one of the Red Hand generals we captured and got what information we could from her before killing her, and I've been communing with Bahamut daily to patch up the numerous holes in it all."
"Lastly, on the way here, I also assisted in the delivery of your payment to the dwarven mercenaries you hired since the two guards you sent to guard it died along the way. If you want me to expand on anything I've mentioned, just ask; otherwise this is about it for me."
>Artorias returns the helmet to his head and crosses his arms, awaiting any questions from the assembled council about either himself or Billie

>Soranna did recognize the elf, but any description she gave before might be just a little off by now. If for nothing else, then simply because Aral's eyes have changed color since they last met, and he happened to have lost most (if not all) of his hair by this point, as if by an unfortunate Fireball mishap. Not that it bothered him much: No time or reason to care about matters so frivolous when an army of goblins is invading. The actual cause of his irregular appearance was, of course, tapping into an ancient reserve of accumulated power through joining a ritual of druids he had no real business attending - but this information could only be deduced by an expert in either druidic lore, or perhaps of the arcane sciences.
>Noticing the silence after a while, he speaks. It's probably his cue.
"Aral Tel'thuen'slaugh."
"..."
"..."
"The one who found the goblins' map? Yes, yes, that elf. Unfortunately my expertise in goblinoids proved to be of limited help thanks to the Red Hand's diverse resources, but ever since our failed mission to the Dwarf Bridge, I made it a personal goal to understand their greatest assets in the same manner. Dragons of the chromatic variety. Studied their movements. Their abilities. Their weaknesses. Ways to defend against them and hurt them where it matters. I'm happy to report that I can kill a large sized draconic creature in just under 12 seconds."
"The next one won't get away, you have my word. Not between me and Summer Star."
>Aral hold up his relic bow. Not very high, just about eye height, so that she can say a few words and occupy the same general position in space where one's face would be when they talk and happen to be standing upright. Maybe because it seems appropriate. Maybe as an effort to make a talking greatbow feel just a bit more natural in conversation. Alas, the true reason is that he wanted a few seconds when his eyes could dart around the room in a vain effort to search for someone who could save him from this public speaking nightmare. Maybe Soranna! No? Not this time? Ah well.

Alright, with all of this, today's session will go by a little smoother.
Ngl, I've been feeling a little under the weather since my second shot of covid vaccine yesterday, but I'll still be running.
>>145806
I'm going to give you the benefit of th doubt and give you a chance to correct that you were a bit less open about the operations of the Shadow Guard (the church really doesn't like it when you talk about their secret police). Your master, Lady Treldora Goldenbrow, is right there, and she looks rather glad that you made it back alive (followed by a look of annoyance if you actually namedropped the SS Ninjas and the Shadow Guard).
Tredora (female Aasimar in white robes; Blonde hair and violet eyes; halo blazing), the local high priestess, mostt prominent Cleric of Pelor, and Baker In Chief, does put a good word in for you though, and the Council is visibly impressed. Usually a gentle, soft-speaking, kindhearted person, the recent atrocities of the Red Hand appeared to have stirred some dormant rage in her heart (they don't call the Shadow Guard "The Burning Hate" for nothing); she's become quite fierce and vocal on the subject of Brindol's defenses.
Your Diplomacy check has been modified by your affiliation score with the Shining Light of Pelor, and it has been raised.
...And promptly droppped back down to what it was for associating with undead. Sorry :p
The entire council gasps as you namedrop the local boogeyman (the Ghostlord) who was half-responsible for laying waste to Rhest. They chatter amongst themselves.
"Well, if what you say is true, you are more courageous than I am." Lord Jarmaath acknowledges, humbly
Lord Jarmaath, a Crusader of Pelor himself, instantly seems to take a liking to you, despite your apparant age. He knows that Monks of Pelor start their training young. Perhaps you might have bumped into him, or even known him personally, since the Shadow Guard have some subtle relations with the Lions of Brindol.
Tredora Goldenbrow's relationship with Lord Jarmaath is an open secret in Brindol; no one speaks openly of it, but everyone knows the two are lovers.

You see Immerstal the Red, who had been leaning against the wall with a look of bored skepticism, suddenely jolt to attention as you mention the great War Wizard Cromar, and confirm that he is dead. It appears that this news took him by surprise. An indiscernable expression falls over his face as you mention that you acquired is head.
>>145816
The Coucil is visibly impressed by Artorias, if a bit perturbed by his ruffian demeanor. Some of them seem under some disbelief that you slayed a dragon, but Lord Jarmaath comments with a nostalgic chuckle that someone finally finished off "Little Reggie" in Rhest. You also see Kiliar confirm your accounts in the corner of the room.
The Brindolian Soldiers, particularly Captain Lars Ulverth (The leader of Brindol’s Lion Guard), seem to stare in jealous awe at the lions on your armor; apparently, relics of Rhest are highly prized in Brindol. Your Diplomacy check has been modified by the Ornate quality of your armor.
There is no temple of Bahamut in Brindol, but Lady Tredora assures the council that Bahamut's Order is a just church (if inferior to Pelor's) that raises many paladins, and staunchly opposes the Cult Of The Dragon. She elaborates that this helps to explain the motivations of the Red Hand, answering questions.

Billie (human form, as usual) introduces herself with almost-alarming eloquence, giving a polite curtsie. the council stare at her quizically, before she helps herself to food at the table.
Lady Tredora, who ran an orphanage in her time, fails her bluff check to hide a warm smile, and discretely hands the child a small satchel as Aral begins to speak.
>>145846
The Tiri Kitor Elves have apparently given Aral quite a good word in the past few weeks; Sellyria Starsinger has written and performed several ballads about how he vanquished the Harrowblades. At this point, the Council of Brindol would have been told not only that he's uncontested as the deadliest archer in the vale, but also the second most powerful wizard.
>"Yeah, that's right. He's the real deal!"
^ You hear hear Summer shout loudly before the council in her sonorous voice, a couple of which give a startled gasp. She's grown a bit more uppity and bombastic since you supplied her mana.

In the room, you notice Immerstal The Red: the most powerful Wizard in Elsier Vale. He's been staring directly at you throughout the whole speech, and you notice his eyes glowing with enchantment as he sizes you up. His expression seems skeptical and not-so-friendly, but he's visibly fixated on you.
From the tattoos on his arms and neck, you tell that he is indeed a Red Wizard: a powerful arcane overlord.

>>145806
Night Shrowd, from a passive religion and local check, you will know from your prior relations that Tredora Goldenbrow is a Cleric capable of casting at least 4th level spells (that you've seen), and that she is a Radiant Servant of Pelor. You cannot make out her exact class distribution, nor can you discern her approximate level without a very high Sense Motive check.
Perhaps she'd have higher level spells if she just bought off her LA, and didn't blow a bunch of XP every day to produce healing items for Brindol.
She is also one of the town’s most recognizable faces; as an aasimar, her ethereal beauty has left many worshipers in the throes of a hopeless infatuation.
Depending on how young you were when you entered the church in Brindol, this woman may have practically raised you. I probably should have fleshed that out earlier, but here we are.

>>145873
>blowing XP on making healing items
>not just using spells normally and autistically hoarding XP to make yourself as broken as possible
gotta hand it to those NPCs, it's almost as if they don't have a set of rulebooks telling them exactly how to live their lives to the best effect!

>>145874
Who?

It was more of a sarcastic remark directed at myself about me allowing the PCs to come dangerously close to outleveling the most powerful NPCs in the region by unecessarily scaling-up their encounters up until now, which I'm coming to regret since it might make the next few battles seem a bit too easy... The High Priestess supposed to relatively be a bigger deal than she might seem at the party's current level, but I can't just add extra caster levels to NPCs because that gums up the world balance, so I say that her effective Cleric level has been reduced by XP expenditure, LA, and multiclassing. I also mistakingly implied that she'd be available to offer 5th level Cleric spells earlier in the campaign, which was inacurrate, so perhaps a little in-world explaination involving personal sacrifice could fix that.
It would actually fit the theme I'm going for, because Tredora's demeanor would have changed since Night Shroud last saw her anyway. She's visibly drained by her recent efforts.
Also, I wanted to point to the fact that Tredora Goldenbrow is the producer of most of the spell wafers (cookies) that the party has been consuming up until now. It ties into Night Shrouds backstory, and her flaws, and exemplifies Tredora as a priestess of Pelor, and to a lesser extent as a caretaker.

i guess i wouldn't use the exact terms. or namedrop the Shadow Guard. but would still like to at least share that i'm a servant of pelor and the stealthy unarmed sort.

DAY 30; MORNING
Now begins the downtime period during which the PCs prepare for battle.

Today on the Red Hand of Doom, shit started off pretty alright and quickly grew fucky! How? Well, I'll tell you, except for names which I forgot over the course of a 4-hour nap!
>The party introduces themselves in the Brindolian war room, and all the important guys and gals ask their questions of us
>The most noteworthy of these is the wizard who replaced Cromar in the court, who asked to see Cromar's remains
>We oblige, he takes the skull and leaves, and we finish answering questions and rolling diplomacy checks to get everyone onboard with our ideas
>After that, we take a small hiatus to get ourselves in order for the next while and continue on
>First order of business is to make sure that wizard isn't doing anything super stupid with the skull since we just remembered that that's where all of Cromar's most powerful spells are
>Along the way, though, we finally meet back up with Jorr and get our horses back! Yay!
>But we continue on, off to the wizard's shop
>When we get there, we're greeted by his Gynosphinx
>She informed us that he's not taking visitors due to working on said skull, so we kill some time by taking care of some shopping while we wait for him to finish
>Artorias in particular wants to know what that ghost lion is doing in his shield besides biting anyone who gets too close, so rolls are made and as it turns out the lion is now also a companion spirit for the party!
>Following this revelation, he needs a name
>We throw around names, and the sphinx suggests Ikelos (I actually had this one written down!), the greek god of nightmares who liked appearing as a lion
>Welcome to the party, Ikelos!
>Maybe Ike for short in the future, we'll see
>However, our shopping takes less time than his wizardry so we go up to speak to him ourselves
>The sphinx, however, blocks us!
>She makes it clear we're not getting past her, but allows us to answer a riddle to at least try
>inb4 children's book of riddles
>Nope, turns out it's that same riddle that's been thrown around since Odysseus!
>featherless biped, take it or leave it
>you may add broad, flat nails if you so choose
>The sphinx seems genuinely surprised that we bodied her riddle so quickly, so we move past while she thinks of better material
>When we get to the wizard, he's trying to lockpick the skull
>After some tries, we get his attention and inform him of what we need to before sticking around because this doesn't seem too safe and when has an adventuring party ever done the smart thing
>Artorias decides that this shit is taking too long and tries to speed it up by removing the curse, but the only thing that happens is we all get sucked into the far realms
>Oh boy, the campaign's gone planar! Fucking excellent!
>Well, it's not like we don't have ways to get home, right?
>Yeah, Artorias has access to planeshift so all we need is time!
>... And a steel tuning fork
>Fuck
>Well, let's try to find some way to take the steel we have and make it into that steel fork
>The only lead we have is tracks leading from where we are to elsewhere, so we follow those tracks
>Along the way, we get jumped by two massive monsters that could only be spawn of this plane
>Motherfuckers literally rose out of the shit on the ground and put themselves together like a reversed video of jello under a blowtorch
>They die, but not before dealing some damage to Aral and Umbrie
>Umbrie then tries to heal Aral after it's all over, and granted, he's healed
>Problem is, he now has a tumor on his arm
>And when the tumor is dug out, it has a face
>Get me the fuck out of here
>Right, we're working on that
>In the meantime, back to following this track
>Until it seems like the entire lovecraftian plane has decided to throw a surprise party for us
>And by surprise party, I mean an ambush
>And by an ambush, I mean a few non-undead bonedrinkers jumped us and then everyone and their mother jumped on the pile too
>I would've been a better help, but at this point I kept getting grappled because touch AC is fucking low
>Bye bye, constitution, I'm gonna miss you
>Eventually though, the tide is stemmed and everything suddenly gets cold enough to make us take nonlethal damage
>AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
>TIME TO MAKE CAMP THEN
>Camp is made, Artorias gets to thinking about how the fuck he's gonna use a shuriken and 20 crossbow bolts to make a tuning fork, and Aral and Umbrie decide to investigate some noises they hear
>Lol ok, have fun dying
>They go out and see a wizard evaporating hordes of the motherfuckers that jumped us, and the wizard also sees them
>Old elven looking guy, weirdly friendly and almost impossible to tell what the fuck is going through his head
>Let's call him Sheogorath until >That Guy reminds me of his actual name when I post this
>Sheogorath turns out to be a friend of Cromar's, and offers us safe passage home as a gift
>Not being stupid, we accept and everybody goes home
>Along the way, we also get some neat powers!
>Umbrie gets some stat buffs, Artorias and Billie get the ability to cast wind wall once a day without using a spell slot, and Aral goes Super Saiyan
>Also, turns out we've been gone for no time at all and the initial wizard is very confused as to why we're suddenly beat the fuck up
>Far Realms, enough said
>Time to take care of what other business we need to deal with!
>Go to the church of Pelor, call in some favors to get put back in good shape, find a lady who helps me make a scroll of revivify
>Umbrie also purchases 12 wands of lesser vigor on my behalf
>Pic related
>After this, everyone splits up to take care of their own last-minute shopping needs before the battle of Brindol begins
>OOC this was just a good stopping point for us all to take care of various things that we'd be doing away from eachother
Next time on the Red Hand of Doom, the party splits up to tackle sidequests in the final stretch before the horde reaches Brindol! Can we get the last few victory points we need to "win" the game, or will saving the veil be the only victory we get? Tune in next week to find out!

>>145881
After looking back through the channels, I have reminded myself that Sheogorath's name is actually Father Llymic, my bad

Highlights from today's session:

>>145883
Ah yes, the entire Special Ed class that jumped us

>>145884
I had a lot more I was going to use, but i was getting tired and you guys ended up making it out the easy way by accepting Llymic's Gifts.
Still, you haven't seen the last of the Cerebrotic Mire, or Father Llymic. It'll always be a part of you, lurking right there in your collection periphery :)

Still, you could count yourselves lucky you decided to visit the Red Magic and Sundries, because if you hadn't been around to be shunted into the Mire on day 30, Immerstal might have been lost instead.

Monster highlights from today's session:
>Bakemono Ninja (x 15)
>Blackspawn Stalker (x1)
>Bluespawn Stoneglider (x 50)
>Greenspawn Zealot (x1)
>Santa Claus(?) (N/A; ambient cerebrotic presence)

>>146205
Variant illustration of a less well-fed blackspawn stalker, which might atually be a bit closer to what appeared in the dining hall.

As usual, time for a recap!
>Party decides not to split up at the last moment
>We actually stick together and do a bit more shopping around and strategizing on what we need to do before the battle
>Aral's making bigass trees to help us fight, Artorias is making a magic mine field around the city, and Umbrie is...
>Well, I'm not too sure what Umbrie's doing
>Probably something with the church of Pelor and how she's some kind of superspy for them, I guess
>Anyway, we decide these things and then it's night, so we all head back to Jarmaath's place to do some other shit
>Said other shit being learning how to meditate for a team skill!
>We all get down to it with Aral taking the lead, when all of the sudden father Llymic comes to visit us
>He informs us that we all now have cerebrosis, and thus are able to do shit focused around the cerebrotic mire
>Well then
>Now that that's over, time to take care of our nightly activities and get some rest
>Well, we would've if that sorceress we met back out in the sticks hadn't finally arrived to meet us!
>Umbrie provides pleasant conversation to distract her while Aral pulls Artorias aside after botching two sense motive rolls
>While he and Artorias are in the closet together, Aral tells Artorias about his true feelings
>No, it's not a confession of love, you homos!
>The two have a back-and-forth about how the sorceress seems kinda sketchy all the time, but how there's still four of us and only one of her, not to mention the level gaps
>In the end, they come to an agreement to ambush her with an interrogation tomorrow when Artorias gets back his zone of truth and commune spells again
>Once the two men come back out of the closet somewhat more relieved than when they went in, they find out that Umbrie and the lady have actually made some extra progress in their conversation, gaining us some new info and an invitation to dinner!
>The extra information is that apparently she's part of a noble family here!
>Very interesting
>On the way out, we make sure to tell Jarmaath where we're going
>He tells us to say hello to the family's matriarch for him, since she hasn't been out in weeks
>Hmmm
>Some shit ain't right
>Well, we're going there now so we'll figure it out soon
>When we get there, sorceress makes us wait outside for a while before letting us in, and while we wait Umbrie hears her go across the building and get into an argument with someone else
>When the argument's resolved (peacefully, I might add), she finally lets us in only to immediately stop in the kitchen and scream
>Time to roll initiative!
>In the kitchen, there's a massive ugly blackspawn stalker!
>Also, suspended from the ceiling around the area are several human-sized cocoons!
>This looks bad
>Umbrie punts the not-drider of the ceiling, but it immediately climbs back up there and bodyslams her for big damage, upon which more than a handful of small spiders come spewing out of everywhere
>The floor? Spiders
>The ceiling? Spiders
>The walls? You guessed it, spiders
>This massive pile of spiders then ensnares all of us as a mob, dealing some damage and leaving us all grappled
>Luckily, Aral's bow Summer Star has the ability to cast fireball at 20th level!
>Everything goes from spiders to fire, and Artorias is caught in the blast with a critfail and gets launched across the room
>The room is now also on fire
>Well, time to kill these things and then leg it!
>Not-drider goes down when Aral runs it through with a volley of arrows, and the smaller spoddlers are wiped by the party's combined efforts
>Notably through all this, the sorceress has been doing fuck-all
>Just sitting there and having a meltdown
>I mean, yeah, her family's dead, but she could at least try to avenge them
>When we get done with the spiders, we all head back out into the entryway to find 15 ninjas, some blackspawn raiders, two enemy clerics, and a greenspawn zealot
>Artorias caves in the zealot's skull, Aral and Umbrie make short work of the clerics and raiders, and everybody starts popping ninjas
>Summer Star at some point also puts up a fire wall, exacerbating the fire problem
>Oh well, we can deal with that later!
>What do you mean, 'later means now'?
>... Oh
>When everything's dead, we grow wise to the fact that the mansion is now burning to the ground and grab the cocoons to drag them to safety
>When everyone's outside, the cocoons are opened to reveal their very dead occupants, the rest of the sorceress's family
>Aral then bravely runs inside the burning building to see if anyone else needs saving while Artorias tells the gathering crowd to get help and wait on standby if Aral finds anyone in need of healing
>Nobody is found though, and even worse, the sorceress has bugged out for some odd reason
>The guard is notified about her and set to watch as well as being informed about how to make sure no more red hand assholes sneak in, and the council is assembled to be informed of these happenings
>After all that is taken care of, we decide to track down the sorceress!
>The owls are called and we collectively make chase with Aral at the lead, following her tracks as she leaves the city
>Her tracks also seem to shift a few times along the way, from losing her heels to gain some speed to starting to run as she realize she's being tracked, to even shapeshifting into a giant spider to run away even faster, and teleporting along the way a couple of times for good measure!
>After a while, we decide that we've been chasing her long enough without seeing anything new
>That's when we remember a scrying shard that we got a while ago!
>Perfect, but I had to do things IRL that forced me to cut the session short
>Leaving it to next week, then!
Next time, the scrying shard! Will it help the party find their missing sorceress, or will it just flop? I don't really know, but that's kind of the point! Anyway, see you all next Saturday!

DAY 31; BEFORE MIDNIGHT
>>146237
Nice recap. Take your action point as usual.

After two freaking weeks of scheduling delays, we should actually be able to play this week.
I anticipated this, so we should still be done with this by July.

Fyi,I only give you guys bonus action points for the recaps because it benefits me to know what parts of a session you guys were able to understand/enjoy/absorb/fixate-on. Player input is encouraged, even if someone else already did a recap.

Hey guys.
It looks like my Discord account has been disabled... I'm going to have to make a new one.

Ugh, I need a new email too..!
Fuck discord.

>Your account posted content that glorifies or promotes physical or sexual violence against individuals or communities.
If this were a fair world, I would be allowed to best jannies to death with a rock.

Anyway, I'll get my setup fixed by next week,but I'm going to need one of you to post the link.

>>147258
Yep....
Same shit happened to me about an hour or so ago.

>>147259
>>147258
>tfw I'm still up despite regularly doing racist shit whenever possible
let's hope 2 doesn't become 3

>>147260
Were you on the aryanne thread server?

>>147261
is that the discord that got shoah'd to catch you both?

I'm in the Aryanne server, but hardly ever post to it. I still got shoah'd though.
If that's the cause maybe Gary's filly fiddling finally caught up to him.

Anyway, can anyone who hasn't been shoahed post the link to my server? I need to start the process of rejoining servers and refriending friends.

I do intend to run this weekend, btw.
I can't actually be sure about next weekend, because I've got a trip out of state, but this week I plan to.
But first I need an invite so I can get mutual servers with one of you.

jUW8cq6A
>>147266

>>147277
Thanks Anon.

Okay, I made a new account. I sent friend requests to everyone but Artorias, who happens to not be in the server that was linked.

Okay, it looks like my new account has stopped working too. Or rather, it tells me it needs to ve "verified" and stops working every time I try...

Well, I am feeling pretty demoralized by this, but I'll try to get it together by this weekend.

I'm going to be sending y'all messages here and through mythweavers until I make a new account or find a better platform. I'm going to take one or two days to organize myself.

Okay, looks my i just had some trouble verifying my second account.
However, it looks like Night Shroud has dropped out...

Night Shroud might come back after the ban scare dies down.
But the truth is that I was going to go away for three weeks after the next session. I think no matter how you look at it RHoD is going to be on hiatus for a while...
Happy Pride Month...

>>147277
Are you still alive?

>>147287
Yeah but my account is mostly dead now too.
Three cheers for fucking phone verification.

>>147291
Phone verification doesn't work. I had to make a new email for my alt account that used a phone number just to verify it again.

>>147291
Anyway, whenever you make a new contact, float it to me.

Alright, now that I've wasted enough time, I'll finally write this week's recap.

>Where we left off, we were chasing Mirai through the areas outside Brindol and trying to catch her
>Turns out she wasn't too far off from where we were, given her less-than-stellar stamina, so we find out that she's a were-spider and bring her back to the city with this info in mind
>The guard holds her for the night while we keep watch over her cell until morning comes
>With morning, renewed spell slots and interrogation!
>Artorias casts zone of truth and the party starts asking questions, getting shifty answers at best
>Zone of truth fails again (why do I keep using this!?)
>Oh well, next step is intimidation
>With the help of an angry bow and the stern glares of everyone present, a simple question of "Why not just tell the truth? It'll be much better for all of us." gets us the answers we need
>Turns out Mirai isn't actually a member of this noble family, and was actually a lookalike who wanted to become something
>Also, she was coerced into feeding info to Big Bad Gobbo Man in exchange for help for her sick/dying/dead mother
>The party learns this and we decide to reward her for telling the truth by extending an olive branch to her and letting her actually join the party
>The conditions are that we let her kick boss gobbo while he's down, and also that we try to find a way to bring her mother back
>It was hinted that her mother may have been turned into a spawn of tiamat though, so that may be a problem
>We'll get there when we get there, though!
>For now, it's time to get to the battle of Brindol since everything else is decided
>The gobbos roll up and stand around outside for a day while Artorias taunts them from the top of the wall, causing a few to get all butthurt and yell back
>Ultimately, none break the line though
>After that, they decide to just begin the siege
>Giants roll up to a wall and start hucking rocks at it, causing a surprising amount of damage
>Aral provides DPS and Umbrie and Artorias draw aggro, letting us body all the giants before they finish breaking the wall
>An enemy army starts rolling up on us, but the giant trees Aral made block them off for long enough for us to loot the giants and GTFO
>After this, it turns out the red dragon of the horde has breached another wall and is currently playing the part of edgy arsonist
>Everybody rolls up on it, with Aral providing long-range DPS, Artorias playing the part of party tank, and Umbrie doing her thing with beating the shit out of anything close by
>Mirai tries to make herself useful, but is more surprised that the people she's with just fucking charged a giant fire-breathing lizard with wings
>Billie stays with Artorias and harasses the dragon too, but almost gets eaten and then bodied, so Artorias keeps her safe while bodyblocking as much of the dragon's attacks as he can
>After a few more turns though, the dragon goes down!
>Not down like "I'm just unconscious and am going to run as soon as I can," full on dead!
>Of course, the dragon should've been a harder encounter, but That Guy didn't have him use any spells that he could've used as that would've meant we only would've been able to hit him with crits
>Completely understandable
>However, he did promise us that the next few skirmishes we would take part in would definitely be harder with buffed enemies
>Also understandable
>Anyway, the last thing we end up doing is making a few survival rolls and casting create water a few times to make sure none of the fires the dragon made grow out of control and burn the city
>We pass them, seeing as how everybody's wisdom is better than mine even though I use it the most
Final tally:
-1/1 enemy spies turned to allies
-2/??? fights down
-2/5 dragons dead
-???/5 bigass trees still alive
-???/??? gobbos still alive
-2/5 gobbo generals dead
-???/??? spawns of tiamat still alive
-5/4 party members still alive

See you all on Saturday, assuming nothing gets shoah'd further!

>>147321
forgot the annoying bard, 2/5 generals dead and one more removed from existence entirely

>>147322
There's also Koth, the bugbears Sorcerer that Aral finished off.

I will not actually be leaving for three weeks this month.
However, I'm going to have to leave in the second week of July. I'd really prefer to have the campaign finished before then, even going as far as to open up extra days of the week for sessions. I'm going to feel like an idiot if this campaign stretches past the one year mark.

>>147344
isn't he included in the 2/5? after all, there's him, saarvith and the bard that's dead, and the bard was the one forgotten and re-added via addendum.

>>147525
Ah, yes. He would be included in that.

>Where we last left off, we just killed a red dragon
>Now, the brindol defense force tells us to go and defend a breakin that just happened in the wall
>So far it's just some hobgobbos and a few manticores to ruin some guards' days
>Simple enough, we take them down with minimal damages
>Next wave comes, and it's a bunch of bugbears
>Umbrie goes in and tries to knock one down immediately, gets fucking dunked on
>She actually fucking dies
>To make matters worse, Aral gets cornered and Artorias almost dies due to massive damage
>Panic.jpg
>Don't worry, I can get there in time and get her up so things aren't so tense!
>Fail a jump check into the negatives to hop over a barrier
>Nevermind!
>Well, it's a good thing Billie can get there in time and she still has that contingency scroll!
>Billie weaves her way past the bugbears, only getting hit once along the way, and uses the scroll to bring Umbrie back!
>After that, Artorias uses Electric Judgement (read Turn Evil) to vaporize a few of the bugbears
>A few more of them go down as more are plinked/punched/vaporized, and that's the end of wave 2
>In the small intermission between this and wave 3, Artorias heals everyone up a little
>Not enough to really help, but you know
>So then these big blue electro-rhino-lizards come storming over and Aral hits them with a firewall
>These motherfuckers are unfazed and they shatter the barrier or something, because four of them are now harassing the guards, Umbrie, and Artorias
>We have to roll with the punches for a while, dancing at low health until Artorias decides fuck it and blows a charge on his Staff of Life to make sure Umbrie doesn't get messed up too badly
>Umbrie takes the full heal and goes off, killing two of them while Aral takes down a few more and Artorias goes the fuck down too
>Luckily, Billie is still up and kicking so she gives him a heal
>Artorias is back up and uses another turn to fry the remaining of the four lizzers and the gobbos of the two who haven't crossed the firewall, so they piss themselves and run off
>Artorias's face when this entire battle
>But hey, we all made it out alive and thanks to the massive pile of wands that I have we all made it back to full HP
>Next, lord Jarmaath tells us to go over to the church courtyard for a job well done or something but cuts out halfway through
>Something's fucky
>Go investigate, and as it turns out he's on the fucking ground with a bunch of the other bigwigs
>Aral manages to find a sniper in a building but gets shot before anything else can happen, revealing that the arrows are poison tipped!
>Umbrie also gets nailed with an arrow and Artorias just barely misses catching the one that hit him with the wind wall he deployed
>Everybody fails fortitude saves, poison starts taking effect and everyone loses strength
>However, Aral has delay poison which can buy us a few hours!
>Good, let's do that!
>And, without further ado, Artorias burns a scroll of mass flying to have the party chase down the bastard that did this!
>Next time on Red Hand of Doom: Will the party be able to stop Lee Harvey Oswald and save the officials of Brindol, or will the Red Hand forces cinch the decisive strike necessary to cripple the city's defenses for the rest of the battle?
>Tune in next time to find out!
Also, unrelated but Umbrie's player managed to shut down conversation twice through bad puns and butterscotch pudding
just thought y'all should know

>>147990
Nice recap. Take your bonus action point as usual.

This was a lovely session, if I do say so myself.
I'm particularly satisfied with the Blood Ghost Berserkers. Replacing one of their Barbarian levels with a Warblade level made the wave much more interesting, and fulfilled the expectations I wanted. Battle Jump is quite the feat when used in conjunction with Sudden Leap, Battle Leader's Charge and the Leading the Charge Stance, when Charging with a Greataxe and -4
Power Attack.

You have managed to hold off the enemy shocktroopers on the Dawn Way and prevented the Red Hand from camping in the market, which has forced Kharn to reevaluate his strategy. It seems as though he has a few tricks left up his sleeve.

New monster from today's session: the Bluespawn Thunderlizards.
It was a good thing you guys succeeded in holding the line, because just two of these bad Bois can lay waste to entire armies. There's still two left out there somewhere though, perhaps you'll see them again.

Today was a pretty satisfying session if I say so myself. We only got through one encounter, but it was a good one.
Since Skather gave you guys such a hard time, it would be natural to wait for Night Shroud for the Final Battle of Brindol. I want Night Shroud to be there to defend the Cathedral anyway.

The barbarians are at the gate. General Kharn is closing in to personally cockslap the heroes that have annoyed him for so long. The next encounter may decide the fate of the city, and all of the Vale.

Shoutout to Aral for giving me the quick rundown on what happened while my power was out for the first hour of today's session!
>Where we last left off, we were getting shot at by some asshole in a coffin shop and he had just finished poisoning us all and running inside, shitting and giggling the whole way
>Artorias doesn't actually burn the mass flight scroll since it wasn't used, and Artorias Umbrie stays behind to tend to the wounded because we were both out at some point and retcons happened
>Along the way though, we meet a tiefling that makes sure we know he's not going to fight us and he joins our cause!
>However, during this time Lee Harvey Ass-wald takes the time to try to nail everyone with some more arrows
>However, just in the nick of time, Aral throws up a windwall and saves us all from suffering any further damage from this cunt!
>The windwall manages to come through in that it blocks off the other arrows that were coming at us as we make our way in through the door too, so that's nice
And now's right around where I come back from a power outage
>Some hobgobbos are in the bottom floor, and one of them summons some hellhounds to protect him and whoever else is around
>It doesn't really do much though, given the two level 11s and the well made 6 that we now have!
>Gobbos and hounds alike fall, and we make our way up to the next level
>And here we find the sniper himself
>How does he introduce himself to us?
>By impaling me with 95 damage over the course of one round, dropping me from full to -4 through my 26 AC
>To add insult to injury though, when initiative is rolled I roll a nat 1
>fffffFFFFFFFFF.png
>Aral starts doing his thing, the sniper starts being a shitter again
>The tiefling, whose name I learn is Morthos, does what he can to avoid getting eviscerated even harder than the party tank and whips out the biggest bluff check I've seen yet in this game to trick the guy into thinking he's on his side
>It works until Morthos has to give a password, tries to get around it, and discreetly tells Skather the monster "fuck you"
>While all this happens, Billie heals Artorias, Artorias Electric Judgements everything in the vicinity, and Artorias pulls his face out of the pool of his own blood on the floor
>In that order
>Either way, a bunch of other miscellaneous guys around the area were dealt with before they became a problem
>Sadly, asshole wasn't one of them
>Oh well
>Aral catches him in a wall of fire and exchanges some thinly veiled innuendos with the jerk before pincushioning him a bit, Ikelos gets some bites in and takes some chunks off in the process, and little by little he's taken from full HP down to nothing
>However, once he starts getting low, he decides to run away
>Skather the guy melts a hole in the floor which Aral jumps through while Artorias and Morthos take the stairs
>By this point, the building's on fire
>Taking all bets on whether Abithriax or the PCs set more fires during this fight!
>Everyone senses that now's a good time to start leaving, but the PCs (at least Aral and Artorias) decide that this fucker's not getting away
>Anyway, Asshat jumps out a window and Artorias clotheslines him with the head of his mace, bringing him close to zero
>Billie casts magic missile, bringing him down to exactly zero some distance away
>Artorias gives Aral a buff, and Aral looses a single arrow that runs through the guy and drops him outright
>We win and killed a guy that would've come back to bite us in the ass later!
>Victory points all around, we get some XP, and we loot a fuckload of poisons off the guy
That Guy also accidentally namedrops Skather twice, but once combat's over it's revealed that Mihai actually knew who he was before we turned him into an alligator skin rug so we did actually get to in-character learn his name
>Well, now that that's over, time to heal up and check how the bigwigs are doing before taking a long rest and moving on to the next day of fighting!
>... Is what I thought would happen, but apparently Kharn is so bootybothered by our chadly might that he's decided to come down and face us early
>All this from the guard captain, what'shisname
>Well, this is unexpected
>It's also unwelcome
>*sigh*
>And thus the rest of the session was spent discussing things and doing some minor RP while I figure out ways to potentially get Kharn to let us take a long rest between now and our showdown!
So far the current plan is to take advantage of the fact that we're both massive religious nerds to try to get him to not be immediately hostile and then work it up to the idea of an epic duel between him and four others of his choice versus us, the five members of the party (maybe six if Mihai actually wants to take part in it and not just watch from the sidelines like I fully expect her to, given how we're punching far above her weight by this point.) All this is yet to be seen though, so next week everything will be settled and RHoD part IV will conclude either with grand success or with a party wipe! Stay tuned for more, and hopefully everyone can make it for the next session!

>>148238
>captain, what'shisname
Captain Lars Ulverth.
Pic related illustrates how his (remaining) soldiers described Kharn:

>looking back on this campaign
>remember the time I wanted to add a Blackspawn Corrupter witch to the Rhest arc, to add a hag master behind the Greenspawn Razorfiends
>Made Blackspawn Corrupter Sorcerer two weeks in advance
>Lose the statblock the day of the session
>Can't find Corrupter stats online because WotC has been torpedoing the old 3.5e web archives (so much lost content, smh)
And so, the Ruins of Rhest arc was witch-less...

Oh wait...
I just found it...
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070307b
I guess I'm just a retard...
Anyway, between the lizard army and the advanced black dragon, the arc was hard enough.

Huh, I guess all of those Red Hand Sergeants who dropped three potions of Cure Moderate Wounds apiece were posers.
Enjoy the maggot pit, lol.

So it begins...

And so ends the tale of Hravak Kharn, Crimson Scourge of Tiamat.

>big deciding Battle: Cairne of the Red hand storms the grand cathedral of brindol
> exchange of Dialogue, Artorias requests both sidees rest before the fight to prepare for a duiel of pride. Cairne refuses
>Artorias turns down Test of Will and Morthos fails to shake the hobgoblin. the hobgoblin dispatching Morthos with his powerful chain tripping madness.
>Nightshroud Chunks cairne with 2 unarmed attacks for 74 damage each. he still endures.2 massive damage rolls. next round, nightshroud is downed
>morthos is dead again, aral dies, nightshroud is dragged out, aral is downed and revived, billy saves nightshroud
>aral plays dead, nightshroud uses strategic dead play to recover manuevers
>artorias smites carn's self healing ass to death after 2 centipedes die and cairne has the 34 strength of a raging dire goose
>after artorias gets killing smite, recap of victory points, brindol is saved, huge celebration, Nightshroud gets information from her nun apprentices.
everybody levels up. Nightshroud becomes squishier but more mobile, more accurate, and scarier with 3 ways to pounce.
>leader of the red hand will be devastated by night shroud's manic bliss at the sweet embrace of a near death experience. she is officially renamngher blade "sunset bliss"

>>148813
Good to see you post. Take a bonus action point.

The finale of Part IV!
>Where we last left our heroes...
>Kharn is on his way, and he's fucking babyraging at us
>Artorias is running on fumes and wants that long rest
>We just picked up a lvl 6 Tiefling named Morthos
>And the DM slips me two lvl 6 spells under the table since I leveled up that day and hadn't used those two slots I got fresh out of respect for the long rest
>Rosenclick.mp3
>Well, no time like the present to put my plan into action
>Try to drag Kharn's attention with discussion bait over our respective artifacts
>nope
>Try to appeal to him with a speech that I wrote between sessions
>His reaction? Pic related
>Oh well, I tried
>At least my proposition gets Kharn to take us on solo, so that's something
>Anyway, he creates a massive ring of fire to serve as our combat arena and fights start to break out between the remaining defenders and the entourage that Kharn brought with him
My battle music of choice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYAPgPH9hsI
And set it to loop for the proper effect
>Morthos gets to go first, followed by Kharn, then Umbrie, then Artorias, then Aral
>Morthos uses his turn to try to intimidate the seven-foot tall hobgoblin built like Senator Armstrong if he ate Chris Redfield with some vague words, and nobody's surprised when Chad Kharn turns him into red paste as soon as his turn's over
>For his first turn, Kharn trips literally everyone else and starts chipping our health away at somewhat alarming rates
>Also, he has a special ability to suck the souls of people he kills for extra strength and temporary HP!
>So Morthos gave him his first boost
>Umbrie uses her turn to get up and put the hurt on Kharn, which she does very well, causing him to think "Hm, I should target this annoying child"
>Artorias ineffectually slaps Kharn around with a mace that feels more like a pool noodle right then while Billie sneaks behind him to pick up Morthos with the second contingency scroll I had
>Finally, Aral's turn consists of taking a bunch of arrows and then flinging them in Kharn's direction and hoping they don't plink off his 30+ fucking AC
>Everybody quickly realizes that this isn't a good place to be, so new strategies are formed!
>Umbrie stays in Kharn's flank, trying to dish out as much damage as she can to put him on the ground, Aral keeps doing the same but at better distances, and Artorias and Billie set up shop in one of the spots within the circle that won't be touched by Kharn's whip this turn
>Also, Artorias summons in two new faces to help out from the Cerebrotic Mire: Beavis and Butthead, the twin Kaortic Hulks!
>Beavis and Butthead go off and help harass Kharn, doing damage where they can and generally being the big helpful centipedes I intended them to be
>And Morthos tries to Eldritch Blast Kharn, but unfortunately the guy's got massive buffs up that make it stupid hard for spells to hit him
>Oh well, between Beavis and Butthead holding Kharn down and Umbrie kidneypunching him whenever she can, Kharn's down to 0 hitpoints fast
>However, here's where things get fucky!
>Kharn activates two abilities that immediately put everybody in fear while using his scum tactics of tripping to take down everybody around him
>Morthos is cowering, Aral and Umbrie are dead and dying respectively, Beavis and Butthead get punted back into their own dimension, and Billie's crying in Artorias's arms about the big scary goblin
>shit.png
>Artorias gives Billie a hug and tells her everything'll be alright to bring her back to him (read: Umbrie's player reminded the GM that dragons don't feel fear) before setting her down and telling her to make sure Umbrie's okay while Artorias took care of resing Aral
>Artorias brings Aral up and alive at 11 hit points, Billie makes sure Umbrie's up at however many hit points she could get from Billie's limited remaining spell pool
>And then instead of working on a coherent attack as a team, they both pretend to be dead still while Kharn slow-walks towards Artorias with intent to kill
>So, Artorias digs deep within himself to find any last strength he has in this fight, and finds an extra smite bestowed upon him from Bahamut Himself in this trying time!
>Channeling this smite and charging into Kharn's flank, Artorias finds the busted-to-shit part of Kharn's armor where Umbrie kept kidneypunching him and uses it to cave in the hobgoblin's torso and then sear his insides with holy light to end it all
Hope nobody minds me adding flavor to what otherwise would've been a lot of arguing about how certain mechanics work and then the DM just giving me a free smite to use since nobody could agree on anything!
>Kharn is dead
>Artorias got the final blow, and with it, accomplished part of his reason for being there in the backstory that never got brought up because reasons
>And miraculously, nobody died (permanently)!
>The wall of fire dissolves, showing the stunned horde that their fearsome leader, the only one keeping them held together now that almost everything they've tried to gain a foothold in Brindol failed, is now dead on the floor by the hand of the one man in the city whose religion has it out for them like no other
>Understandably, they collectively shit themselves and flee the city before turning to petty squabbles to decide the new leader and pretty much just become fodder for the remaining guard
>All of Brindol's bigwigs survived, and there's a bigass Star Wars style medal ceremony and celebration the following day with all of us being hailed as heroes!
>However, Lord Jarmaath pulls us aside sometime later to reveal something massive
>Kharn was just the figurehead, the real leader is sitting in a temple and summoning a big fuckoff demon army to take over the world and we're all badass enough dudes to stop him!
In the next thread, Red Hand of Doom part V: will the party be able to get the other scroll that they need to make the teleport, since we have more than just 4 people? Will Kharn decompose before Mihai gets to kick him? Tune in to find out, and as always, see ya there!

>>148819
Corrections:
>>Oh well, I tried
>>At least my proposition gets Kharn to take us on solo, so that's something
I would like to point out that you successfully taunted Kharn into fighting you himself while his giants and goblins wrought havok on the armies of Brindol. It denied you the chance to gain lions as reinforcements, but also reduced the number of enemies you personally fought. Kharn is actually more dangerous when he has a couple more lvl 1-4 mooks to sweep, because his Combat Reflexes and Great Cleave multiply his attacks per round exponentially, and he gains +2 Str and +1 CL with every kill because of his consumptive field.
>>And Morthos tries to Eldritch Blast Kharn, but unfortunately the guy's got massive buffs up that make it stupid hard for spells to hit him
His spell hit, but he tried to weave a Bestow Curse into his Eldritch blast. Kharn was damaged by the blast, but saved against the spell, which activated his Spell Eater ability that healed him enough to turn the tide of battle with his Never Outnumbered skill trick combined with Imperious command to make you all piss yourselves.
RIP Morthos. Close, but no cigar.
>Umbrie's player reminded the GM that dragons don't feel fear
Incorrect. They are only immune to the frightful presence of other dragons. Kharn's fearmongering is 100% organic.
>>nobody died (permanently)!
I mean, except for Morthos... He will be missed.
>finds an extra smite bestowed upon him from Bahamut Himself in this trying time!
I gave you guys action points for a reason, although now that I think of it you shouldn't have needed it because between the Crusader Cleric feature and initiate of Bahamut you still should have had one left.
It's still gonnsa be used up tho, lol.
>>And then instead of working on a coherent attack as a team, they both pretend to be dead still
Ngl, if either of them provoked AoOs that round by standing up, casting a spell, moving or attacking, Kharn absolutely would have cleaved the fuck out of all of you and the fight would have ended in a TPK. Sometimes true teamwork means taking a breather when someone else has the spotlight.
However, the unmentioned teamwork you guys displayed earlier in the fight cannot be understated. By remaining in Kharn's melee range instead of retreating, you kept the pressure on him and prevented him from casting more spells in combat, most importantly Dispel Magic, which he could have used to kill you all instantly by dispelling your Delay Poison and subjecting you to dozens of dice of ability damage and acid damage from all of the doses of poisons that you built up between him and Skather.

Great job. This fight was amazing. So close, so deadly, so unpredictable, so wild. I am quite satisfied with how it went.

we won. even if the Tiefling wasn't very focused and tried to throw a DC 19 save against an opponent with an easy +15 or more. closer to +20something. multiclassing boosts saving throws quite a bit.

i will forgive the tiefling for being new and likely overwhelmed by entering a high level campaign.

Kharn when his Str score finally exceeded Night Shroud's goose analogies:

don't worry Elena-Chan the Kawaii Sidhe Scholar. you and your delusional overgrown boa constrictor will one day see play. Lyrio just needs to wait patiently.

>>148825
We'll do another game some time, although I welcome you to use night shroud again if you want.

Nightshroud might actually exploit her new forms of pseudopouncing so that she doesn't have to restrict herself to attacking once on the move. though she will likely have snap kick and better charisma by level 12.

END OF PART 4

I will make a new thread for Part 5, but it might be a while so feel free to post here anyway.

Red Hand of Doom is now officially on hiatus for the rest of July.
I really wanted to get part finished this month, because no 6 level campaign should take more than a year to finish, but between travel and research I simply don't have the time this month.
I'll start Part 5 in August, and hopefully resolve it within one month after that.