DM Name: Nerylos!
Participants:
Roka, level 7 Foxkin Ranger/Deepwood Sniper
Rhine, level 6 Human Crusader
Telsia, level 5 Bunnygirl Wizard
Voss, level 5 Duerger Demolition Ex…er, Beguiler
Jenner, level 5 Wolfen Barbarian
Octavi, level 4 Human Druid - Disappeared before things even got going
Challenges:
1 Arrow Harassment Rogue, CR2, considered undefeated since things are already pretty good, and it got away.
1 Thoon Infiltrator, CR5
3 Duerger Berzerking Level 4 Barbarians, CR 5 each, CR 9 total
1 Stormcloud of Thoon, CR 5
1 Thoon Soldier, CR8
Experience:
This might seem a little wonky. Please see the Notes.
Bonus XP was awarded for generally just being an awesome group
Roka 1250
Rhine 2920
Telsia 3500
Voss 3500
Jenner 1600
Rewards:
Same as the Exp
Roka 5,400gp
Rhine 10,000gp
Telsia 10,000gp
Voss 10,000gp
Jenner 5,400gp
DM Notes:
It was meant to be a 4-6 Quest, however I allowed Roka to hop in because he was here, wanted to play…and it allowed me to make the encounter even more difficult ^^. Well, when the party walked in to the building, they numbered 6, and faced an Infiltrator and his 3 Duerger bodyguards as a good start. Octavi disappeared without a goodbye after doing 4 damage, so I've written him out of the rewards in interest of fairness. The remaining 5 managed to down 2 of the Duerger and half-kill the third, as well as disabling the Infiltrator before the BBEGs entered the scene (see summary coughvoss). As the BBEGs arrived (at the time more may have arrived to make things even more interesting, however!) Roka got too tired to play, and a round later Gids began feeling too ill to participate, and also had to go.
So this left Rhine, Voss, and the Bunnymage to down half of a VERY resilient CR5 berzerk duerger, a CR8 with 2 +14 attacks, and a CR5 that can lightening bolt by taking 10 damage to itself. They did so at the cost of 75% of Rhine current HP, and things may have been worse had Voss not Blinded the CR8, causing it to miss it next 6 attacks while the Bunnygirl took out the enemy caster. The group was great, I had a blast DMing for the first time, and I hope the rewards represent just how awesome everything was. Now, on to the story!
Summary:
People have been disappearing in Therafim's northwestern Dock District. At first just a couple here, a couple there, and when reported, they usually turned out to be member's of the city low-life thug population. To the guard this was laughable. But then they started to increase. Over time crime and the murder rate have gone up, and a number of 'shadowy dealings' in the middle of the night involving unknown figures have been reported. The Guards looked for the source of the problem, but after a couple hundred man-hours, all they managed to come up with is a long list of suspicious locations, and no hard leads.
That is, until today. A guard on routine patrol failed to check in after his shift, and not long after a concerned citizen reported they had seen him being dragged into a warehouse. The party was sent to the location, where they found a non-descrip warehouse. Having heard something screaming for it's life inside, Rhine kicked in the door, where they found a Duerger shipping magistrate and his 3 bodyguards. Accused of slavery, the Duerger denied it, but couldn't really allow an inspection of the premesis because of what was upstairs, and foolheartedly tried to charm Rhine hoping to get the little troupe out of his warehouse. This failed, and the whole thing got started.
The infiltrator promptly went down to Rhine's constant attacks as he tried to flee, having been intimidated into shitting himself, although his fast healing 5 meant in 2 rounds he could try spitting poison darts at the party. This, however, never came to be. Jenner, Rhine and Roka promptly got a face full of Duerger bodyguard, and in the first round Roka took over 40 damage from a charging Duerger. Greulingly, they whittled away at the over 200 HP of nasty unwashed flesh before them. All the while, Voss was invisible scouting out the area, where he got a look at what was in the crates and also noticed there was something else creeping in the back of the warehouse, allowing him to alert the party. A rogue appeared soon after, having scaled the crates, and began to take pot-shots at the Bunnygirl trying to run interference.
Voss made his way to the back of the warehouse, where he found a Thoon Stormcloud was coming down the stairs (Originally there were going to be 1-2, depending on how the party handled things and if time allowed). In the next round, as the party dispatched two of the Duerger and the Stormcloud was about to turn back, Voss decided to take things into his own hands. He threw a feather token of Tree Goes Here Now into the stairwell, blowing the top off the Warehouse and causing the office where the BBEGs resided to come crashing down from the rafters as the Illithid made a hasty escape out of a window.
The collapse of part of the roof knocked Roka out, and as the dust cleared, the party found themselves joined by A Thoon Soldier and the aformentioned Stormcloud. In the next round the Stormcloud picked up Jenner and tossed him into a wall, having smelled Quintessence in him, in an attempt to knock him out, which worked.
The party now faced down a pissed off Duerger, resigned to die because his master willed it, A Stormcloud, and a Soldier. Unknown to them, the Illithid had been watching from his office loft, and should they have gone up the stairs, his Soldier minion was under orders to charge the stalwart crusader while his stormcloud(s?) burned the rest of the party down with a hail of lightening. The Soldier, having fallen into the action, promptly set about accomplishing this task. Between the three of them and with some serious teamwork, they manged to down everything, thanks in part of Rhine's impressive HP and more impressive AC, Voss' cunning blinding of the Soldier, and the Bunnygirl's love of setting shit on fire.
In the wreck they found a safe, which held the front company's funds and private documents. They'll find a nice pile of gold inside, as well as a number of documents that show the Illithids have set up shop in town, and they're shipping things around, namely all sorts of strange metal parts and a smaller number of various unidentified crystals. They also found a large pile of decaying corpses, which included the missing guard, who had been screaming when they arrived as he was being made a nice last meal for the mindflayer before he got out of dodge. Many of the disappearances seem to have been linked directly to his taste for brains, as every single one of the corpses had their brain sucked out. As for the Infiltrator, he was about to spit a poison dart when a roof fell on him. Having seen him twitching still at the end, the Bunnygirl stabbed him again, but failed the DC25 spot check to kill the parasite for good. Will it return? Who knows. And of the Illithid they never got a look at? Also in the wind.
One warehouse? Fukkin' Condemned! With a Fukkin' Tree Sticking Out of it! One Illithid Sleeper Cell? FUKKIN' VANQUISHED!!! (yes that's an Oglaf reference)
XP awarded by Lisa_J. Sunday, May 8th 2011
