The Thirsting
The thirsting is a vile disease spread by contact with the black sands. Victims experience increasing thirst and symptoms of dehydration as their bodies are dessicated into sand. It is known to originate from a region of the Great Waste so hostile to water and life that it actively consumes them.
Transmission: Inhaled or Ingested. Extremely contagious, the disease can be caught from a single grain of sand. Any time black sand is handled or moved in its dry form, the disease can be caught.
Save: Fort DC 20 initial and daily. As usual for sickness, an initial save wards off the disease entirely. Thereafter, two successful saves in a row are required to fight off the disease.
Incubation: 1 day.
Effects: Daily save or take 1d4 Con damage. In addition, drink 2n quarts of water above and beyond your daily requirement (where n is the number of days since infection) or suffer the effects of dehydration. Dehydration in this instance:
- Fatigue (-2 Strength and Dexterity, unable to run or charge).
- Vulnerability to heat and fire based effects (1.5x damage).
- After six hours, take 1d6 nonlethal damage per hour.
- If unconscious, take 1d6 lethal damage per hour.
In addition, a victim who has taken any Con damage from the Thirsting periodically coughs out black sand.
A victim who dies from the disease--either through dehydration damage or blood loss--is rapidly consumed by the sand, leaving behind only bones and sand.
Due to the supernatural nature of black sand, this disease is considered magical.
[Further notes obscured due to continuing campaign relevance.]
Saturday, August 25, 2007
The Thirsting
Session 6, 2007-08-25: Cat and Mouse
Session 6: wherein Serpenti spies spread sands, and sneaky singers and sorcerers slaughter snakes.
Players (Characters)
Scott (Filthy Ike)
Jeremy (Flynn Flamm)
Tony (Brother Jakob)
Rachel (Lotus)
Tom (Nathaniel Graythorne)
DM: Catherine
Mary met with the party and some other Kingsmen, outlining the current threat and planned response. "We have learned more about the spies in Waecleft. One of their meeting houses is owned by an old woman named Aleisha. She is old and poor -- and needs the money, so they pay her for silence. With frequent divinations, they would know if she told anyone they met there. Alicia's nephew Jonathan lives with her. She has not told him about the secret midnight meetings, but we gave him a clairaudience device and asked him to spy for us. He has agreed. Based on his information, we know there are three major spies in the city, directing other minor ones. We have identified all three. Their plans are to begin spreading something called 'the thirsting' in Waecleft before departing. The time to strike is now. Tomorrow night, Sarahain will be doing this outside town on farms. We must strike him. Another, James, an ambitious cleric of heironius who recently turned reclusive, will be doing it in the city. He will be a harder target. The third, Sannis, we plan to lure outside." The Kingsmen planned to simultaneously assassinate all three major spies right at midnight, to give them the least opportunity to warn each other of danger. One group of kingsmen would take out Sarahain, while our party would strike James and Sannis.
Nathaniel disguised himself as a yuan-ti operative, and, along with a bard named Eron, met with Sannis. Eron claimed to have important information that he wanted to share on a particular field at midnight. Sannis, who had a spell that would allow him to detect lies, asked Nathaniel "do you trust this guy?" Nathaniel's response was "absolutely." Sannis asked "can I trust him?" and Nathaniel responded "I've never had problems with him." This was enough to convince Sannis to meet with Eron at midnight. Unfortunately for Sannis, Eron brought Jakob, Flynn, Lotus, and Nathaniel to the meeting, and the "information" he had promised was quite painfully administered. Flynn began singing a highly inspirational song while Jakob and Tara dragged Sannis to the ground. Nathaniel rendered Sannis completely helpless, and he was easily slain.
Ike volunteered for the more dangerous mission -- an assassination within Waecleft. This would certainly lead to his exile if he survived, but since he didn't much like the city anyway, this wasn't a great threat to him. He and a paladin named Aaron positioned themselves to attack James. To begin the fight, Aaron tossed an exploding bead over the top of a nearby building, which distracted the local guards. He then stepped forward and stabbed at James, while Ike fired his bow from the shadows. James responded by casting Destruction on Aaron, which killed him but was not enough to destroy his remains. Ike's final few arrows were enough to bring James down, and he carefully snuck away as the guards began to filter in. One of the kingsmen-friendly guards sneakily poured an oil of lingering soul on Aaron's body to allow him to be raised later.
The Waecleftian guard cast a divination to determine Ike's involvement in the assassination, and gave their guards standing orders to arrest him. Aaron's remains were quickly buried outside of town, and he was secretly raised within the hour, though unable to return to Waecleft due to the town's strict laws regarding murder.
Players (Characters)
Scott (Filthy Ike)
Jeremy (Flynn Flamm)
Tony (Brother Jakob)
Rachel (Lotus)
Tom (Nathaniel Graythorne)
DM: Catherine
Mary met with the party and some other Kingsmen, outlining the current threat and planned response. "We have learned more about the spies in Waecleft. One of their meeting houses is owned by an old woman named Aleisha. She is old and poor -- and needs the money, so they pay her for silence. With frequent divinations, they would know if she told anyone they met there. Alicia's nephew Jonathan lives with her. She has not told him about the secret midnight meetings, but we gave him a clairaudience device and asked him to spy for us. He has agreed. Based on his information, we know there are three major spies in the city, directing other minor ones. We have identified all three. Their plans are to begin spreading something called 'the thirsting' in Waecleft before departing. The time to strike is now. Tomorrow night, Sarahain will be doing this outside town on farms. We must strike him. Another, James, an ambitious cleric of heironius who recently turned reclusive, will be doing it in the city. He will be a harder target. The third, Sannis, we plan to lure outside." The Kingsmen planned to simultaneously assassinate all three major spies right at midnight, to give them the least opportunity to warn each other of danger. One group of kingsmen would take out Sarahain, while our party would strike James and Sannis.
Nathaniel disguised himself as a yuan-ti operative, and, along with a bard named Eron, met with Sannis. Eron claimed to have important information that he wanted to share on a particular field at midnight. Sannis, who had a spell that would allow him to detect lies, asked Nathaniel "do you trust this guy?" Nathaniel's response was "absolutely." Sannis asked "can I trust him?" and Nathaniel responded "I've never had problems with him." This was enough to convince Sannis to meet with Eron at midnight. Unfortunately for Sannis, Eron brought Jakob, Flynn, Lotus, and Nathaniel to the meeting, and the "information" he had promised was quite painfully administered. Flynn began singing a highly inspirational song while Jakob and Tara dragged Sannis to the ground. Nathaniel rendered Sannis completely helpless, and he was easily slain.
Ike volunteered for the more dangerous mission -- an assassination within Waecleft. This would certainly lead to his exile if he survived, but since he didn't much like the city anyway, this wasn't a great threat to him. He and a paladin named Aaron positioned themselves to attack James. To begin the fight, Aaron tossed an exploding bead over the top of a nearby building, which distracted the local guards. He then stepped forward and stabbed at James, while Ike fired his bow from the shadows. James responded by casting Destruction on Aaron, which killed him but was not enough to destroy his remains. Ike's final few arrows were enough to bring James down, and he carefully snuck away as the guards began to filter in. One of the kingsmen-friendly guards sneakily poured an oil of lingering soul on Aaron's body to allow him to be raised later.
The Waecleftian guard cast a divination to determine Ike's involvement in the assassination, and gave their guards standing orders to arrest him. Aaron's remains were quickly buried outside of town, and he was secretly raised within the hour, though unable to return to Waecleft due to the town's strict laws regarding murder.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Session 5, 2007-08-18: Expedition to Nestull's Lair
Session 5: wherein Jakob acquires a pen, a bottle of wine, and an inactive golem.
Players (Characters)
Scott (Filthy Ike)
Jeremy (Flynn Flamm)
Tony (Brother Jakob)
Rachel (Lotus)
Tom (Nathaniel Graythorne)
DM: Catherine
A local elven wizard named Kelialin summoned the party to his tower, and offered to pay them a moderate sum of money to retrieve a clay golem manual from a cottage outside Nestull's lair. Mary agreed this would be a worthwhile expedition, particularly if the party could retrieve any of Nestull's spells for controlling constructs. The party set off on the road, and quickly encountered a swarm of tiny needletooth dinosaurs. Ike fired several arrows into the pack, skewering dozens of little dinos while Flynn encouraged him. Lotus destroyed the remaining beasts with a quick blast of lightning, and the party continued onward. A green dragon passed overhead, and Ike nearly drew its attention with a flurry of arrows, but Nate managed to distract him with something shiny.
When the party stopped for a quick meal, Ike began cooking his freshly skewered dinosaur snacks. Soon, a pack of wolves approached, and one tried to steal one of the roasted dinos. Ike screamed out "bitch, get off my food", and soon had a wolf to go with his dinosaurs. Jakob broke another wolf's neck, and the rest quickly scattered, recognizing this group would not make easy prey. As the party continued on, they encountered a small group of forest trolls. Lotus cast a spell of Entangle, and Ike began picking off the helpless trolls one by one. The party retrieved a few construct-related scrolls from the corpses.
The next morning, the party approached Nestull's lair. A swarm of animated books charged toward the party, intent on bludgeoning everyone. Jakob grabbed one and broke its spine, while Ike pinned several others to nearby trees. Lotus burned a few more to end the threat. A short distance beyond, the party came upon a pit. Suddenly, a dinosaur skeleton leaped out of the pit and attacked. Jakob began pummeling it while Lotus hit it with various elemental effects. Nate and Ike sat back and watched, virtually useless in such a combat. Flynn's inspiration gave Jakob the strength he needed to crush the dino's bones.
The party's next encounter was with a manifestation of magic -- a living spell. The sphere of magical energy flew up to Jakob and dispelled his mage armor. Luckily, the spell was physically weak and easily dissipated. Shortly thereafter, the party encountered a living spell of suppress command, which was chasing after a clay golem. Soon, the golem was completely inactive, and the spell wandered away. Jakob began dragging the inactive golem behind him, hoping it would be of some value to Kelialin.
The door of the cottage outlying Nestull's stronghold was guarded by a massive and powerful stone golem. Not wanting to face it directly, Nathaniel used a scroll of hide from constructs to make the party invisible, and then distracted the golem with an illusion of a man passing by the cottage. Inside the cottage, most of the furniture appeared to be animated, including a hat rack that was dancing around in the main room. The party moved carefully between rooms, making sure to close doors behind them to limit the number of constructs that could attack if Nathaniel's spell ended. When the party opened a bedroom door, a tapestry flew past and attached itself to a nearby wall. Jakob narrowly avoided contact with the tapestry, which likely would have resulted in every construct in the room becoming aggressive. One supply room held only a single animated pen, which Jakob captured under a barrel and then dropped into his bag. The party easily retrieved a clay golem manual and several scrolls from the supply room, and then snuck past the stone golem guardian with yet another illusion. Heading back home, the party encountered a swarm of wine bottles. As the bottles attacked, Jakob caught and smashed each one in succession, until he simply caught and captured the final one. Nathaniel would reprogram the pen and the bottle when he had the opportunity.
The next morning, the party encountered a few more forest trolls, which were easily defeated. Mary sent a message for the party to hurry back, but didn't give any specific details. Once the party reached the main road, they were able to move more quickly. Soon, they noticed a cow standing by the side of the road drinking extremely large amounts of water. Flynn and Nathaniel spoke with the farmer who owned the cow, and found that both he and the cow had been feeling somewhat ill and drinking excess amounts of water. Both had encountered a strange black sand earlier in the week. Lotus cast remove disease to cure the farmer of this "thirsting" disease, and the party killed and buried the cow to keep it from spreading the disease, paying the farmer a few gold pieces to cover his loss.
Back in Waecleft, Kelialin paid the party generously for both the golem manual and the inactive golem. Mary promised the party a runestaff with each of the spells they'd retrieved for controlling constructs.
Players (Characters)
Scott (Filthy Ike)
Jeremy (Flynn Flamm)
Tony (Brother Jakob)
Rachel (Lotus)
Tom (Nathaniel Graythorne)
DM: Catherine
A local elven wizard named Kelialin summoned the party to his tower, and offered to pay them a moderate sum of money to retrieve a clay golem manual from a cottage outside Nestull's lair. Mary agreed this would be a worthwhile expedition, particularly if the party could retrieve any of Nestull's spells for controlling constructs. The party set off on the road, and quickly encountered a swarm of tiny needletooth dinosaurs. Ike fired several arrows into the pack, skewering dozens of little dinos while Flynn encouraged him. Lotus destroyed the remaining beasts with a quick blast of lightning, and the party continued onward. A green dragon passed overhead, and Ike nearly drew its attention with a flurry of arrows, but Nate managed to distract him with something shiny.
When the party stopped for a quick meal, Ike began cooking his freshly skewered dinosaur snacks. Soon, a pack of wolves approached, and one tried to steal one of the roasted dinos. Ike screamed out "bitch, get off my food", and soon had a wolf to go with his dinosaurs. Jakob broke another wolf's neck, and the rest quickly scattered, recognizing this group would not make easy prey. As the party continued on, they encountered a small group of forest trolls. Lotus cast a spell of Entangle, and Ike began picking off the helpless trolls one by one. The party retrieved a few construct-related scrolls from the corpses.
The next morning, the party approached Nestull's lair. A swarm of animated books charged toward the party, intent on bludgeoning everyone. Jakob grabbed one and broke its spine, while Ike pinned several others to nearby trees. Lotus burned a few more to end the threat. A short distance beyond, the party came upon a pit. Suddenly, a dinosaur skeleton leaped out of the pit and attacked. Jakob began pummeling it while Lotus hit it with various elemental effects. Nate and Ike sat back and watched, virtually useless in such a combat. Flynn's inspiration gave Jakob the strength he needed to crush the dino's bones.
The party's next encounter was with a manifestation of magic -- a living spell. The sphere of magical energy flew up to Jakob and dispelled his mage armor. Luckily, the spell was physically weak and easily dissipated. Shortly thereafter, the party encountered a living spell of suppress command, which was chasing after a clay golem. Soon, the golem was completely inactive, and the spell wandered away. Jakob began dragging the inactive golem behind him, hoping it would be of some value to Kelialin.
The door of the cottage outlying Nestull's stronghold was guarded by a massive and powerful stone golem. Not wanting to face it directly, Nathaniel used a scroll of hide from constructs to make the party invisible, and then distracted the golem with an illusion of a man passing by the cottage. Inside the cottage, most of the furniture appeared to be animated, including a hat rack that was dancing around in the main room. The party moved carefully between rooms, making sure to close doors behind them to limit the number of constructs that could attack if Nathaniel's spell ended. When the party opened a bedroom door, a tapestry flew past and attached itself to a nearby wall. Jakob narrowly avoided contact with the tapestry, which likely would have resulted in every construct in the room becoming aggressive. One supply room held only a single animated pen, which Jakob captured under a barrel and then dropped into his bag. The party easily retrieved a clay golem manual and several scrolls from the supply room, and then snuck past the stone golem guardian with yet another illusion. Heading back home, the party encountered a swarm of wine bottles. As the bottles attacked, Jakob caught and smashed each one in succession, until he simply caught and captured the final one. Nathaniel would reprogram the pen and the bottle when he had the opportunity.
The next morning, the party encountered a few more forest trolls, which were easily defeated. Mary sent a message for the party to hurry back, but didn't give any specific details. Once the party reached the main road, they were able to move more quickly. Soon, they noticed a cow standing by the side of the road drinking extremely large amounts of water. Flynn and Nathaniel spoke with the farmer who owned the cow, and found that both he and the cow had been feeling somewhat ill and drinking excess amounts of water. Both had encountered a strange black sand earlier in the week. Lotus cast remove disease to cure the farmer of this "thirsting" disease, and the party killed and buried the cow to keep it from spreading the disease, paying the farmer a few gold pieces to cover his loss.
Back in Waecleft, Kelialin paid the party generously for both the golem manual and the inactive golem. Mary promised the party a runestaff with each of the spells they'd retrieved for controlling constructs.
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Session 4, 2007-08-04: Destruction of a Yuan-ti outpost
Session 4: wherein a messenger gets ninja'd, and an outpost does too
Players (Characters)
Scott (Filthy Ike)
Jeremy (Flynn Flamm)
Tony (Brother Jakob)
Rachel (Lotus)
Tom (Nathaniel Graythorne)
DM: Catherine
Lotus found a rat nearby and used Speak with Animals to convince it to walk through the outpost. She then cast Chain of Eyes, and watched the world through the eyes of the rat scout. From this and outside observation, the party guessed there were about half a dozen yuan-ti inside, along with a marruspawn. The party sent word to Mary that they'd located a major outpost. Mary responded to hang tight and wait for help, that Kasvim was en route. The party decided not to attack any of the enemies unless they were clearly leaving the outpost -- those who stepped out to urinate were left alone. When the original messenger left, the party tailed him and killed him a short distance away from the outpost, quickly returning to their observation point.
Soon, a yuan-ti messenger approached the camp from the north. Nathaniel disguised himself as a half-blood yuan-ti and called out "halt!" The messenger seemed confused -- "who are you and what are you doing here? I wasn't expecting anyone." "What kind of crap intel do you guys run out north? You didn't get the memo? Get inside and read over the new security protocols." As the messenger rounded the corner of the rock, his face came into contact with Jakob's stunning fist. Nate successfully cast Hold Person to freeze him. Ike fired an arrow from atop the rocky outcropping and directly through the messenger's head, and thus, he was neutralized in three different ways.
When Kasvim the Silver Dragon arrived (in human guise), Nate used one of the recently acquired scrolls to scan the golem's programming:
1. Remain within thirty feet of the cave mouth.
2. Remain at ease while peaceful Yuan-Ti are present.
3. Destroy all living creatures.
4. Sound the alarm if attacking or being attacked.
Nate immediately took on the persona of Nessun Grisseth, a yuan-ti warrior. The party walked right past the stone golem and into the main room of the outpost. One of the yuan-ti clerics saw the party approached and asked "what's going on here? What is this?" Immediately, Flynn, who was standing invisibly in the entry tunnel, began singing of the demise of the yuan-ti. Jakob and Tara ran at the enemies and started tripping them, while Kasvim took dragon form and bit the marruspawn. Nate, Lotus, and the remaining yuan-ti traded a few spells while Ike steadily cut them down with several arrows. Icy breath from Kasvim killed the marruspawn he held in his mouth and seriously wounded the remaining yuan-ti, who proved to be only a minor challenge.
Nate ran to grab the important-looking papers that sat on a table off to the side, not thinking to check for defenses. A fireball ignited, burning the papers and seriously injuring Nate. A search of the camp revealed an eternal wand of mage hand, which would have proven useful for moving papers onto and off of the table without setting off the fireball. Disappointed with his mistake, Nate brooded as the party headed back toward Waecleft, wondering about the strange vial of black sand they'd found on one of the spies.
As the party headed home, they noticed a dead troll covered in red flowers. Flynn recognized the flowers as dread blossoms, calling out a warning as they began to attack. Lotus lit the flowers on fire while Jakob stomped all over them, quickly subduing the evil flowers. As the party neared the road, a great thunderstorm started up, leading them to seek shelter in a small cave. As the storm was letting up, Lotus heard a group of trolls approaching from on top of the cave. Jakob reached out and pulled one of the trolls down, and Ike and Tara brought it down. Jakob and Tara held their ground against the other three trolls while Flynn sang, Ike fired his bow, and Lotus unleashed the fury of mother nature.
Back at Mary's outpost, Flynn attempted to magically identify the black sand. The identification failed. Nate opened up the container and accidentally inhaled a tiny bit of the sand. The party poured it into a bucket and poured some water on top of it, and found that it fizzed and bubbled and increased in volume. Several speculations as to the nature of the sand were made, but none proved to be as bad as the reality the party would later learn.
Players (Characters)
Scott (Filthy Ike)
Jeremy (Flynn Flamm)
Tony (Brother Jakob)
Rachel (Lotus)
Tom (Nathaniel Graythorne)
DM: Catherine
Lotus found a rat nearby and used Speak with Animals to convince it to walk through the outpost. She then cast Chain of Eyes, and watched the world through the eyes of the rat scout. From this and outside observation, the party guessed there were about half a dozen yuan-ti inside, along with a marruspawn. The party sent word to Mary that they'd located a major outpost. Mary responded to hang tight and wait for help, that Kasvim was en route. The party decided not to attack any of the enemies unless they were clearly leaving the outpost -- those who stepped out to urinate were left alone. When the original messenger left, the party tailed him and killed him a short distance away from the outpost, quickly returning to their observation point.
Soon, a yuan-ti messenger approached the camp from the north. Nathaniel disguised himself as a half-blood yuan-ti and called out "halt!" The messenger seemed confused -- "who are you and what are you doing here? I wasn't expecting anyone." "What kind of crap intel do you guys run out north? You didn't get the memo? Get inside and read over the new security protocols." As the messenger rounded the corner of the rock, his face came into contact with Jakob's stunning fist. Nate successfully cast Hold Person to freeze him. Ike fired an arrow from atop the rocky outcropping and directly through the messenger's head, and thus, he was neutralized in three different ways.
When Kasvim the Silver Dragon arrived (in human guise), Nate used one of the recently acquired scrolls to scan the golem's programming:
1. Remain within thirty feet of the cave mouth.
2. Remain at ease while peaceful Yuan-Ti are present.
3. Destroy all living creatures.
4. Sound the alarm if attacking or being attacked.
Nate immediately took on the persona of Nessun Grisseth, a yuan-ti warrior. The party walked right past the stone golem and into the main room of the outpost. One of the yuan-ti clerics saw the party approached and asked "what's going on here? What is this?" Immediately, Flynn, who was standing invisibly in the entry tunnel, began singing of the demise of the yuan-ti. Jakob and Tara ran at the enemies and started tripping them, while Kasvim took dragon form and bit the marruspawn. Nate, Lotus, and the remaining yuan-ti traded a few spells while Ike steadily cut them down with several arrows. Icy breath from Kasvim killed the marruspawn he held in his mouth and seriously wounded the remaining yuan-ti, who proved to be only a minor challenge.
Nate ran to grab the important-looking papers that sat on a table off to the side, not thinking to check for defenses. A fireball ignited, burning the papers and seriously injuring Nate. A search of the camp revealed an eternal wand of mage hand, which would have proven useful for moving papers onto and off of the table without setting off the fireball. Disappointed with his mistake, Nate brooded as the party headed back toward Waecleft, wondering about the strange vial of black sand they'd found on one of the spies.
As the party headed home, they noticed a dead troll covered in red flowers. Flynn recognized the flowers as dread blossoms, calling out a warning as they began to attack. Lotus lit the flowers on fire while Jakob stomped all over them, quickly subduing the evil flowers. As the party neared the road, a great thunderstorm started up, leading them to seek shelter in a small cave. As the storm was letting up, Lotus heard a group of trolls approaching from on top of the cave. Jakob reached out and pulled one of the trolls down, and Ike and Tara brought it down. Jakob and Tara held their ground against the other three trolls while Flynn sang, Ike fired his bow, and Lotus unleashed the fury of mother nature.
Back at Mary's outpost, Flynn attempted to magically identify the black sand. The identification failed. Nate opened up the container and accidentally inhaled a tiny bit of the sand. The party poured it into a bucket and poured some water on top of it, and found that it fizzed and bubbled and increased in volume. Several speculations as to the nature of the sand were made, but none proved to be as bad as the reality the party would later learn.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)