TSR [Let's Read] Polyhedron/Dungeon

Well, that didn't go too badly. 7 people applied, 4 of which showed up for the first session plus one who said they'd double booked but would be there next week. It was a decidedly motley crew. A duthka'gith spellthief who is nominally in charge, but currently very fragile due to the ECL modifier, so they badly need protecting by the others. A priestess of Loviatar specialising in bloodwhip shenanigans. A permanently enlarged orc who has levels in 5 different classes already. And a mongrelfolk chameleon pretending to be a baby red dragon. They were just one of the many advance teams assembled by the lich-queen to gather information and secure the resources of Pharagos in preparation for the big invasion.

As usual, I didn't get as much chance to prepare as I'd like, but since this was regular D&D it didn't matter as much as the other minigames, as I could select a dozen adventures from Dungeon that looked like they wouldn't be ruined by the PC's slaughtering "friendly" NPC's, put them on a rough map and let the players pick which one they wanted from the sandbox with clues based on the type of magical energy most prevalent in the adventure. They voted for Enchantment. Since they might be reading this and only got about halfway through the adventure I won't spoil what adventure that is, but their odd combination of powers has made short work of the challenges so far. Hopefully I'll be able to do some more worldbuilding this week and gradually reduce the amount of prefab elements as the campaign continues.

Waiting for the surprise twist where the group morphs into a rock band and it becomes a Hijinx adventure. The mongrelman/red dragon is already covering the Scooby Doo/Jabberjaw/mascot role, right?

Things actually went smoothly for a change. All 5 players showed up on time. We didn't manage to finish the adventure yet, but did get through 3 combats over the course of 3 hours, plus a few investigation bits in between before someone had to leave. The number of technical hitches was definitely fewer than last time and everyone seemed to have a clear idea of what they were doing with their powers. If this keeps up, they might actually start to feel like a proper team soon.

Knew it was too good to last. 3 people cancelled due to other engagements this sunday, so the session is off. Since they did that in advance rather than simply no-showing I have some faith that this campaign might still continue next week. We shall see.

Looks like we've managed to bounce back this time. One player cancelled in advance, but the other 4 showed up on time and put in a full 3 hours play, doing a bit of backtracking to clear out the rooms missed earlier, and then getting all the way to the room just before the final boss before someone had to go, which is slightly irksome because it means we didn't get to neatly resolve the adventure, level up in downtime and start a new one next session, but oh well, things could be going a lot worse.

Another pretty good session. The player of the Duthka'gith dropped out due to work changing their schedule, but with the 4 established players plus a couple of new ones turning up on time it still seems like we have a pretty decent party. They made short work of the big boss, collected all the remaining treasure from the area and headed back to the astral plane, where they levelled up, had the character we lost "reassigned" and the two new ones introduced. These are a kobold rogue/soulknife who serves a dragon, sent in their place to avoid the lich-queen's draft and a human with the feral template. A lot of the session was used up by levelling up and introducing the new players to the established ones, but they did eventually get around to reporting to their superiors. Some of the options they had last time were removed from the map (IC, because another team had done them, OOC, because they've levelled out of the range where they would be a challenge) and some new ones were added. Since the last mission had turned out pretty low on treasure this time they decided to chase up a big supply of silver detected in the mountains close to the previous mission. The color portal popped them out on top of a hill, where they promptly used their multiple fliers to sequence break the "intended" order of the adventure. But how will they fare against a couple of disgruntled stone giants? Hopefully we'll find out same time next week.

Still managing a stable party where everyone turns up on time, which is very gratifying. The party split up, with some of them going down the tunnel leading to the valley from the outside, while two of the flyers watched from above. The feral human was not the best choice for a negotiator and went straight for the obey or die option. The giants obviously weren't going to take nonsense like that from a shortarse and threw a rock at her. She responded by turning invisible and the fight was on. They did manage to get at least one decent hit in, which is better than anything from the last session, but after a couple of rounds, the male giant was reduced to negative hit points, at which point they tried negotiating again. At this point I can reveal that I was using Flesh to Stone from issue 85. After finding out the backstory, they gave them just enough healing to keep him alive, got the giants to turn the gnomes back, took the silver that they'd mined so far, and set them working for the greater glory of the lich-queen with the giants as overseers.

This relatively quick and easy assignment completed, they headed back to Tu'narath, where the silver was swiftly put to the purpose of ramping up silver sword production. They then decided to go for the second most popular vote last time and check out the source of powerful alteration magic. This turned out to be a lot further north than the last two missions, in snowy mountains. They decided to try a little harder at the diplomatic approach this time when approaching the nearest settlement. A good roll later and I could reveal that they've been dropped into the middle of Armstice. Of course, upon hearing rumours about imprisoned lycanthropes, they immediately started scheming about how to control them and infect more people to use as a lycanthropic vanguard in their invasion, which is obviously not the solution the writer intended to the scenario, but could definitely be entertaining. Hopefully we shall see if they succeed or just wind up killing them instead next week.

One absence this week, but they apologised well in advance and the other 5 turned up on time so the game once again went ahead fairly smoothly. Having got through the exposition, the team headed straight for mount Arreis where the werewolves were rumoured to be imprisoned. A distinct lack of random encounters later they made it to the base, where they followed the obvious trail up. The first cave had a family of yeti in, and they made short work of the parents before taking the cowering baby yeti along with them. Getting impatient, one of them decided to forgo any subtlety and howl into the night, which alerted but did not fool the pack of winter werewolves. Seeing this mismatched gang of dragons, gith, yeti & giant orc, they decided the PC's obviously weren't an easy lunch, but surrounded them while one assumed human form to talk. They soon got to hear their side of the story, how they were imprisoned in magic crystals 200 years ago, but recently some were released, forced to obey the Bezhumni soldiers because the rest of their pack is still imprisoned. Entirely sympathetic to that predicament, the team said they'd release the rest of the werewolves if they'd join them in the lich-queen's service and help TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!!! (of course!) Since that would involve lots of bloodshed, the werewolves signed up enthusiastically.

After spending the night in another of the mountain caves, they continued up the mountain. It gradually got steeper until they got to the final spire. Rather than the series of climb checks the adventure intended at this point, since 4 out of 6 PC's can fly, they simply carried the other two up the rest of the way with them, leaving the werewolves behind. After some brief talking where the PC's demanded the soldiers guarding the top release the werewolves, which they predictably refused knowing they'd probably be dead anyway if they agreed, this turned into our biggest fight scene yet, spanning all the way across the mountaintop and with the flying PC's using the chasm to engage the enemies further in before the first room was cleared. The regular soldiers fell fairly quickly, but lots of them to get through, plus a cleric leading from the rear and spamming summons including a celestial hippogriff, lantern archon and celestial giant bee, the fight still continued for a full 9 rounds before we ran out of time, with the two strongest NPC's still standing. Looks like the adventure will probably be resolved next session, but what will the long-term consequences be? Will the werewolves prove to be valuable allies, or will there be future betrayals to deal with? Let's hope the story will continue next week.

My turn to let everybody down as my main computer died overnight. Ordered a new one, but it'll take several days to arrive and in the meantime this old backup doesn't have nearly enough power to run roll20 without choking, plus my notes were on the other one. Hopefully they won't hold that against me and we'll be able to get our momentum back next sunday.

2 people apologised for their absence in advance this time thanks to Canadian thanksgiving, demonstrating all that reputation for niceness is definitely repressing something, but the other 4 turned up punctually and managed to carry the session. Even without the heaviest hitter using all his powers as intelligently as before, they soon managed to clear the mountaintop. They triggered the portentious programmed message from centuries past warning them about the dire fate if the werewolves were released, shrugged, and took the gems. (after the comical faff of finding they were no longer in the chest but on the body of the cleric guarding it) They then spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out anything about the wizard who imprisoned the werewolves in the first place, which wasn't particularly fruitful since they're not from this planet and the werewolves don't have any academic knowledge. They decided to head back the way they came and ask the villagers before heading back to the portal they came in by. (and hopefully finding someone who could free the werewolves still trapped in gems back on the astral)

However, things weren't going to be a cut and dried as the first couple of missions. The first stop was uneventful, allowing them to find out that the wizard used to teach at Greymalkin Academy, giving them an easy lead on another adventure. (once they find out where that is) But before that, they found the next encampment had been destroyed by something else, leaving a massive set of tracks heading down the mountain pass. This allowed me to neatly segue into Beast of Burden if they chose to follow it. They decided that following a possibly time-limited lead was indeed more important than punctuality, and headed after it. A day and a bit of chase later and they caught up with it just as it was stopping for a bath in the lake. They decided to go for the stealthy approach and have been successful so far, getting into the back-right howdah and finishing off the gnolls on each of the levels before they could take any actions. But of course all it takes is one unlucky round for the alarm to be raised. Will their luck continue to hold up next week, or will things turn into an actually dangerous fight for them?