In case you missed it above, this campaign was inspired by Norse sort of stuff, and is coincidentally set in a northern area. Homebrew, so don't worry about spoilers.
Anywhooooo...
SESSION ONEGrak begins his life as a PC freezing his ass off. The game starts with our party caught in a blizzard, surprise surprise. Everyone had the sense to buy winter clothing, so we don't immediately freeze to death. Grak wants to build a shelter and tough it out, but the rest of these sissies don't trust his Survival skill enough to try. Bah! Fine, we continue to wander aimlessly through the storm. Grak can survive these silly Fortitude saves!
Man, what were the chances?[spoiler]
So, we eventually come upon a crummy little hamlet, a figure it's better than being in the open. We enter the tavern, considering the entire place seems to be built around it, and decide to wait out the storm. We all buy rooms and meals, and at this point I notice that we have another member in our party. Grak's confused. Turns out the Warblade hired a patsy to basically run slower than us when we run away from the enemies. Fair 'nuff. We don't have to be faster than the enemy, just faster than the person next to us.
Grak hunches over his food while he eats and glares at everyone in the tavern. While the others ask around and chase wenches, a scraggly old man approaches hisstool and starts talking to him. Grak wonders why the hell anyone would want to talk to him, or even approach him, but the old coot mentions gold, so he listens. Supposedly in this area some long dead bandit king was buried with his riches. The old man explains that he's been searching for said gold for fifty years, and claims to finally know it's location. Problem is, he's looks about thirty lungfuls of air away from death - this guy's ancient.
Bottom line. He wants us to carry his saggy ass to the treasure, and we get to keep it. He just wants his life to have some semblance of meaning. Well, Grak doesn't see any problem with that. Nice man wants to die happy, Grak gets gold. He explains this to the other PCs. They seem wary that the whole thing concerns a long "dead" bandit king. But, the lure of gold catches them. We all decide to leave in the morning, and Grak goes to bed. Unbeknownst to Grak, the Wizard reveals himself to be Chaotic Evil... *sigh*
The Wizard plans to burn down the tavern after his "charm" fails to woo any of the barmaids. Instead he decides to wander the town, knock on doors, and find a lovely lady to seduce. It turns out that this thorp has no shapely, fine-boned ladies! Gosh, what're the chances! There are ten houses in the whole damn place, you think at least one would have a pretty lass waiting to be swept away right? Disgruntled, the Wizard retreats to his room and goes to sleep. Grak senses conflict in the future...[/spoiler]
The group travels farther north for many miles, and the old man seems to be getting lost. Someone decides to ask him just how he knows where to go. He reveals a map that doesn't have the actual location, but details the landmarks surrounding its whereabouts. Fine, as long as we can find the damn thing, Grak doesn't care how. Eventually, the geezer tells us to stop, and claims this should be the area in which we find the entrance. And who else but Grak rolls a natural 20 on his search check to find the trap door buried under the snow? One of the other party members to be exact, and because Grak no smart smart, the guy gets a 21 while I get a 19. Glory to the cleric, anonymity to Grak. You just wait till combat buddy...
Speak "Friend" and Enter[spoiler]
The trap door reveals a ladder, which we promptly climb down, for about 100ft we guess. Immediately the passage splits into three narrow halls. Grak suggests left, but is overpowered by the others ridiculous need to go right for whatever reason, so right it is. The passage soon comes to stairs climbing upwards, and the others deduce it to be another route into the complex. With the cleric leading the way, we come upon a short hall with statues lining the walls in alcoves. Rightly so, the party doesn't trust the alcoves, and because of it no one pays attention to the uninteresting floor.
*CRASH*
The Cleric fails a Reflex save with his mighty -1 modifier, and crumples through a hole in the floor. Luckily, the pit isn't filled with spikes, and the statues don't fill the pit with acid, so he only takes 3d6 falling damage. But, there are other problems. (Side Note: The Cleric decided to persists the spell Ring of Blades [SpC]. While an O.K. spell, with the hindsight we now have, it really isn't one you want to have last all day...) The blades swirling around him bring into question how we will get a rope to him through the blades. Luckily, through a closer reading of the spell, it doesn't say it deals damage to objects, only creatures. Success! Grak carries everyone else across the 15ft expanse with his +18 Jump checks (those wings from being dragonborn come in handy even before I can fly!). Deeper we go into the bandit's cave.[/spoiler]
It begins to get colder, and as we turn the corner, we step into a windswept room filled with snow, with a small tunnel leading out the back. Did I mention enemies? Yeah, Grak turns the corner and finds this room, which holds the snow, the tunnel, and a shitload wolves. Awesome.
Walking (and Slaughtering) in a Winter Wonderland[spoiler]
So, combat begins, and the Wizard (with his Improved Initiative, hummingbird familiar, and high Dex) goes first. He drops a Glitterdust on four of 'em, blinding three. He also identifies one of the to be a Winter Wolf, while two others a Worgs. Thankfully, the Winter Wolf and one the Worgs are now blind as bats, so the Wizard is satisfied. However, the wolves aren't so happy about it, and they move forward to attack. The room is pretty small, the Cleric can't even fit in with his blades. The Warblade figures he can handle the blinded Winter Wolf with his 10ft reach, so Grak charges the not-blind Worg who stepped out of the sparkly cloud. The Worg then proceeds to die after Grak criticals him with one of his claws and finishs up with two others.
The Winter Wolf isn't so keen on being blind, so he hits the Warblade and the Wizard with his breath weapon for some damage, but beyond that can't do much. Grak charges the other Worg and slays it even as the Warblade trips the Winter Wolf and proceeds to make it his bitch. Beyond this it's the cleanup of a few remaining wolves, none of which have the audacity to roll high enough to hit Grak's AC.[/spoiler]
Grak forges his way into the tunnel beyond, only to be halted by the large amounts of snow filling it. Deciding it's pointless to continue, Grak heads back and tells the others it's blocked off. Yet again, we seem to have another member in our party, and Grak has to wonder how he does not notice these things. But the Cleric explains he's animated one of the Worgs into a zombie so it can lead the way and soak up damage from traps. Alright, as long as Grak doesn't have to deal with the traps, he's fine with it. We tie a rope around it and drag it across the pit, and make our way back to the three passageways. It's left this time, and left again as the hallway splits into two even narrower ones (we're all squeezing now). The cleric and his zombie pal turn the corner into a 10ftx10ft room and get ambushed by what? Why none other than a Gibbering Mouther of course!
Foes can be the Greatest Friends[spoiler]
This by far was my favorite combat, though I didn't even get to fight the blob. The wizard starts but is in the back and can't really do much of anything. The cleric rolls well, and his blades begin to slice into the thing, and his wolf as well... But they don't do much, considering each has DR 5/Bludgeoning. Come the Gibbering Mouther, and it starts to gibber (really what else would it do?). This is where it gets fun, DC 13 Will saves all around! Grak stands around muttering insanely, the Warblade's henchman runs for his life. I believe the Wizard surprisingly enough ran as well, though I don't recall...
Anyways, didn't matter, because the Gibbering Mouther rolls surprisingly well against the cleric's AC and proceeds to engulf the poor bastard. Now, the SRD provides a different description from the one in the Monster Manual, this thing's a lot more deadly than one would think. After hitting with a bite, it grapples on a free action, if it wins the grapple check, the person take bite damage again and 1 point of Constitution damage. If three or more mouths hit (it has 6), the person takes a DC 14 Reflex save or becomes engulfed, allowing for 12 bite attacks a round while they can't retaliate in any coherent fashion. Did I mention the six bites attacks on the outside become free to attack and engulf another person while the mouths on the inside can still tear apart the poor soul inside? Yeesh, the Cleric is fucked.
The Zombie Worg continues to nip away at the mouther while the Warblade steps up to attack. The Wizard and henchman sheepishly return, while Grak fails another Will save and continues to babble like a moron. The old man cowers, even though he passed his save fine, but he's old so it makes sense. The Warblade can't do much to trip the aberration, and the spiked chain does piercing damage, so again, not much happens to the Gibbering Mouther. The Warblade then pretty much lies down and accepts death as he rolls terribly on his grapple checks (the GB only has a +3 modifier, geez!). So, it looks like it's time for Grak to step up and save the day, like my characters always do.
After failing his Will save for the third time, Grak gets mad, and attacks the person nearest to him. This just so happens to be the 90 year old man. Grak takes a 5ft step towards him and prepares to full attack, but he doesn't even need more than one. Roll the die, natural 20. Roll to confirm... I really don't even have to do I? Grak tears the poor bastard completely in half. So much for his dreams of seeing the treasure...
So, while the Cleric and Warblade have their lives sucked away, while the Zombie continues to stand in the Ring of Blades and nip at the Gibbering Mouther. To everyone surprise and relief, it dies. The Zombie's bite attack does bludgeoning damage, so it basically won the entire encounter. Foes certainly can be the greatest friends.[/spoiler]
The Cleric and Warblade are both suffering from some pretty debilitating Con damage, so we... decide to press on? Alright, Grak's untouched, so on we go. There's a narrow passage leading out of the room, and Cleric decides to head through it with his Zombie, even though we had decided to go back to the plit in the passage and see what was on the right. He passes through two swinging axe traps with his zombie, to find a door at the end of the passage. Unfortunately, it's been painted there, and it was all for naught. The Cleric heals up and starts to head back through, as the Warblade readies action to sunder the traps as they go off.
To the right was a small room with nothing in it except a frozen floor with a man trapped within it. We dig him out, but there's nothing on him except average stuff. We suddenly become wary of why there's a man in the ice, and decide to search the room. But nothing is found, and we decide this is as good a place as any to take a rest. The cleric animates the frozen guy too. The next day, we head back to the beginning of the dungeon and take the middle path, seeing as that's the only other way we haven't gone. After some stair climbing and ducking under spears that shoot out of more statues (never trust statues!), we open a door to find what? Why more foes of course! Time for Grak to shine once again.
Seriously, Grak's a Blue Whirlwind[spoiler]
These wolves just never end! Two more worgs, a bunch of wolves, and a barghest (which we later learn was a greater barghest) to top it off! Alright, time to dance. But not before the Wizard drops a Web on the whole damn bunch. Every single one except one of the wolves and the barghest is immobilized. Way to single handedly win the encounter Wizard! But it isn't so, as the barghest Dimension Doors out of there and proceeds to attack. The Warblade attempts a trip, but with the barghest's strength, size, and quadrupedness, he fails. Grak, being the simple man that he is, decides raging and charging is the best option, and does so (hitting with every attack I might add). He does 50 something damage to the thing, and is content knowing that it will die next turn.
Everyone else tries to damage the barghest, but they can't get past it's DR 10/Magic. The barghest tries a Crushing Despair on us all, but rolls terribly on his concentration check. The Warblade shows his worth and trips the thing, and at this point the battle's over. Grak curb stomps the greater barghest, and whips out his bow to start picking off the worgs and wolves. The Warblade can reach with his chain, and there's nothing the wolves can do to make the DC 20 Str checks to break free. The Cleric doesn't do much of anything at all, I think he now sees that persisting Ring of Blades might not be worth it.
[/spoiler]
At this point we decide to stop, as people have work in the morning, and it's late. I'm looking forward to session two.
THINGS THAT WORKED: Girallon Arms are the shit, but you all already knew that. Wormtail Belt was actually quite useful. I never took one point of damage the entire session, and the +2 Natural Armor factored into that. Rage Claws are nice, but I'm wondering if I even really need them, considering I already have so much health as it is. Still, it's a comfort. Being a Dragonborn Water Orc is great, though I do want more attacks... I did out the math, and with the stats I have, I'd be doing an average of 8 more damage if I were a Skarn. But I like the extra HP and 26 Strength when I rage. I can always alter self into a Skarn later on, though Troglodyte is looking more tempting at the moment. Oh, and having wings is handy, I can't wait until I can fully utilize them.
THINGS THAT NEED WORK: Will save, will save, will save. I gotta get a way to boost that, because a +2 isn't all that much. Also, I need to work on not killing old defenseless men. The bow is nice, but Manticore Belt does seem the better option. I'm thinking I might switch out Rage Claws for Blink Shirt, and Dragon Tail for somethin' else if the DM shoots it down.
QUESTIONS: 1. Can you change what chakra you have bound at any given time, or does that stick once you've done it at the beginning of the day?
2. What's a Gibbering Mouthe doing living with a bunch of wolves?
3. Was the formatting confusing? I tried to make it easy on the eyes.
4. Lastly, was this diary entry too long? I feel like it might have been...
Session two will be posted once the DM gets around to making more of his game. Probably within the next week.
