So the order had just finished a major job, leaving crushed enemies and
smoking wreckage across 3 or so countries in their wake. Magnus is fully
engaged with research with House Cannith working to examine the two
ancient schema pieces they've examined so far. This will take quite a
while and it'll lead to the longest downtime for the Order so far (and
with Magnus occupied possibly the quietest).
So other than a few minor personal projects (Nolan hunting through Sharn
for great restaurants and exotic recipes and Jack trying to convince
Magnus to help construct an Alchemy golem using a Manual they found in
the Whitehearth facility) the Order had little plans for the glut of
time they were left with and considering the last time they had time to
kill they ended up causing labor riots...I needed to find something for
them!
So after flipping through the eberron Player's guide I found an option
which allows characters to purchase "shares" in an expedition to Xendrik
and other exotic locales. In exchange for an initial investment they
may roll on a table for a random reward (potentially ending up losing
cash on the deal). So with a few modifications I create an alternative
system. Instead of purchasing shares in an expedition these would be
"mini-adventures" which each character can engage in initially (with the
"purchase cost" representing the price of supplies, transportation and
information). In addition to the standard table (which is for the most
part identical to the one in the player's guide) I included a "risky
venture" option requiring a greater investment but with the possibility
of greater rewards. I'll include both tables at the end of the post.
Each "roll" on the table took about a month of time.
So pretty much everyone in the Order (except Magnus who is otherwise busy) decides to invest in their individual sidequests:
Jack Struck gold, going for the "risky" adventure every time and
always managing to make a profit in the form of cash, valuable spell
components and ancient artifacts. In fact, after 4 or so months Jack has
made enough profit to completely fund the creation of "Nurse" his
alchemical golem (modified to medium size rather than large and
disguised with a heavy robe to resemble a silent warforged).
Glorin had a tendency to collect cursed antiquities or trudging
through diseased swamps. Fortunately his excellent saving throws hold
him in good stead and he manages to avoid any serious issues. However he
makes little profit until he finally gets a big break. A ship he is
sailing on is commandeered by several Brelish soldiers and non-other
than King Boranel's brother. They're pursuing a rogue sorcerer and when
they finally catch up the sorcerer manages to disable the his pursuers
but Glorin manages to overcome his spells and slay him. For saving the
king's brother he's rewarded with a hefty cash reward and an honorary
membership to the Redcloaks (including his own fancy cloak).
Nolan has mixed luck. He unfortunately has several "bad maps" and
at one incident where a noble he was working for was killed by a
bullette. Overall he broke even.
Everyone else had almost universally terrible luck. In fact all together
the team had so many "bad map" results that we had to make it a plot
point...a scummy goblin merchant who set up shop in the Adventurer's
district and starting selling faked (or "used") treasure maps. The Order
decides that they should pay him a visit and ensure that they get a
refund...and that he takes up a new occupation. They show up to find him
packing his bags in the company of two heavily armed bugbear
bodyguards. After attempting to squirm his way out of a refund he sics
the bugbears on the team but an intimidate roll from Glorin and Nolan
makes them hesitate...then Nolan asks just how much they're being paid.
After offering them twice as much to take a break they're left alone
with the merchant...when the true terror strikes.
A high-pitched, reedy voice from outside announces the arrival of Jin
Tamlin, bandit extraordinare! and his faithful sidekick, Gimble! Both
the Order and the goblin merchant begin panicking.
You see they've run into Jin before and while he was deadly the true
danger lies in just how freaking annoying the little bastard was. Jin is
a halfling fighter/Master Thrower with a speciality in darts. In fact
due to an obscene amount of weapon focus, feats and throwing tricks the
little monster was practically a machine-gun...able to toss over a dozen
total darts in a single round and accurate enough to penetrate even
Glorin and Nolan's defenses. This is combined with the support of
Gimble...his gnomish sidekick and "announcer"...a Bard with the perform
(bragging) skill to help enhance Jin (usually while hiding behind
illusions and invisibility himself). Together they create a perfect
storm of deadliness and annoyance.
This time Jin shows up on a flying carpet outside the window while
Gimble shouts from the bridge outside, egging him on. The room is soon
full of broken glass and flying darts. The Order takes some minor wounds
as they dive for cover near the doorway. After a bit of discussion they
decide to charge outside. Unfortunately they find Jin hovering overhead
and Gimble has multiplied himself with a mirror image. The following
battle can be expressed best through Gimble's annoying, high-pitched and
repetitive dialogue:
"Come on then you fools! You stand under the eye of Jin Tamlin...master extraordinare!"
"Ho-ho! Tremble with fear and wet your knickers! Look upon the darts of Jin ye fatty and despair!"
*brandishing an apparently empty hand* "Foolish...idiots! Now you shall feel the sting of my invisible blade!"
Unfortunately for Jin, Tayin had a clever idea and whipped out a wand of
dispel magic (formerly belonging to peski) and managed with a lucky
roll to dispel his flying carpet. The carpet plummets somewhere into the
depths of Lower Sharn (probably making an excellent piece find for some
poor schlub). Jin is saved by his ring of feather falling and a
grappling hook.
Now, before I relate this next part I should mention that as the night
goes on it becomes easier and easier to persuade me to do very, very
silly things. You see one of Gimble's pieces of equipment is a Bag of
Tricks and he got lucky one turn and rolled "rhino". Unfortunately his
rhino was no match for Glorin and was in the process of being quickly
dispatched. Now...Peski's player had just finished his newest character a
(a Shifter barbarian named Pax) and was itching to be introduced into
play. His impatience was quickly overcoming any desire for a
"reasonable" introduction. So things got...weird.
The rhino began to bulge oddly in the middle and then, in a shower of
gore that nearly made the druid faint it burst apart revealing a huge
barbarian wielding a greatsword. Pax screams "GIMBLE!" and charges at
the gnomish bard.
What follows is blood and screaming and more furry animals being thrown
about (this time without barbarians inside). The fight ends with Jin
Tamlin dead (eliciting a spontaneous cheer from all nearby
buildings...Jin had a reputation) but Gimble escaped, swearing revenge.
The goblin merchant gladly hands over a refund, and then some, to the
brave men and women who had slain Jin.
Pax introduces himself to the Order and (lacking any knowledge of how he
got to Sharn and anywhere to stay) he hangs out with them for a little
while...eventually proving his worth and becoming a full team member. We
never clearly decided on just how he got inside a magically
summoned rhino but I think it involved an accident with a wand of
wonder, some sovereign glue and a plate of spaghetti.
That just about covers the Order's downtime. If you're interested in the charts I used for it you can check them out here: http://z-toast.blogspot.com/2011/12/order-of-magnitude-xxvii-downtime.html
Now the Order was just about ready to tackle the final adventure in the
series, "The Grasp of the Emerald Claw" but before they jumped back on
the plot wagon Glorin had one last thing to take care of...the Elven
Hobo.
Way back when the crew arrived in Sharn Glorin essentially made up a
personal goal...tracking down an individual known only as the Elven
Hobo. Somehow the dwarf was obsessed with this possibly fictional
homeless elf. His exact reasoning was unclear and changed constantly
with each retelling (one night the elven hobo owed him money or a
favor...other times he was a mass murderer who must be brought to
justice) and equally unclear was what exactly Glorin planned to do once
he found the Hobo. Well, just because I'm the sort who loves to mess
with players I not only continually drop hints around that the Elven
Hobo has been nearby or passed through just before the PCs arrived and I
offered a 10,000 xp bounty should Glorin ever find the elusive elf.
Well, now seemed as good a time as any to give him a real chance. The
goblin map-merchant just so happened to have a lead on the Hobo that
Glorin managed to squeeze out of him. Together the Order traveled down
to the lower levels of Sharn, crawling out on a windswept ledge that ran
around the perimeter of the city. There they found a crude "nest" of
twigs, rags and mud simply stuck to the side of the tower like some
giant bird's nest. Glorin rushes inside with the rest of the Order
behind him (except for Jack who was staying behind on the nearest
bridge). When Glorin breaks in he finds nothing at first except some
crudely painted symbols, daubed on the walls with guano. It's not until
the symbols begin to glow and smoke that the dwarf realizes something is
wrong. Glorin is hit with a simultaneous Symbol of Pain and Explosive
Runes spell (fortunately Jack had cast spider climb on him earlier or he
would certainly have been flung from the towar) while a third sigil (in
the form of an elaborate dragonmark) unwinds from the wall and animates
as a flying, animated dragonmark. The Order battles with the magical
construct on the windy ledge when Jack feels a tap on his shoulder.
He turns around to find himself face-to-face with a bald man, clearly
elvish but with the points sliced from his ears. The elf grins, showing a
ragged mouthful of jagged and stained teeth and delivers a mysterious
message "Jack...it is not yet time for Glorin and the rest to find
me...but soon. Very soon. Until then...goooodbyee" and with that he
simply steps off the bridge and falls into the mists below.
Once Glorin and the rest of the Order defeated the animated dragonmark
they returned to the bridge and Jack filled them in. Glorin was furious
but the team still earned that 10,000 xp bounty so no-one complained too
much.
Then it was time to get back to the real plot. Magnus's research with
house Cannith had revealed two important pieces of information so far:
*First: The schema that they had discovered (2 so far) were definitely
ancient, from the Age of Giants, and they were definitely involved in
the creation of Warforged. The first schema, recovered beneath Sharn in
the old Cannith lab, detailed the basic processes of creation and
animation. The second schema, the one found in the Whitehearth lab, was
more advanced and provided information on modifying the basic principles
to non-humanoid shapes and specialized structures. In fact, Magnus even
learned that it was these schema that were the basis of Cannith's
warforged research...and that they were apparently part of a larger
"set" that was discovered in Xendrik.
*Second: With his dedication to the research Magnus eventually earned
the trust of Merrix D'Cannith himself and soon discovered that Merrix
had a functioning creation forge in the heart of Cannith Tower where he
slowly created new warforged in defiance of the Treaty of Thronehold.
Merrix wanted to preserve the construct race against extinction. Even
with their indefinite lifespan the race would die out if new members
were ever created. With the schema Merrix hoped to perfect the creation
process and allow warforged to step forward and take their rightful
places with the other sentient races as equals. Magnus was totally up
for that.
After half a year of progress the Cannith labs had successfully
duplicated the two schema and Elaydrin sent a summons to the Order so
that they could retrieve their schema from her home...and discuss
another job offer.
So, that night the group sets off for Elaydrin's home in upper Sharn
(after successfully pulling off the retrieval of the Whitehearth Schema
Elaydrin's position in Cannith had risen considerably). However, when
they arrive they find the door has been smashed in and bodies are strewn
about the entryway. They rush into the room to find Elaydrin pinned
down by a squad of 3 armored zombies and a huge black hound. Elaydrin is
holding some kind of stone tablet above her which is projecting a
multi-colored shell of light that seems to be protecting her...but her
guards are dead and there's no one else to help defend her if her shield
fails.
The Order leaps into action, engaging the zombies....their unusual skill
and their clear cunning shows that they are advanced, Karnathi zombies
and they give the Order a good fight. However the real danger is the
dog...a Hound of Karnath (a Fiendish, Vampiric, Mage-Bred Wolf). The hound tears into the Order, sending Nolan
to the ground the first round and inflicting several Negative Levels.
Pax wades in but he too is sent flying and after a couple of rounds is
only one more hit away from dying from level drain. By the time the
three zombie warriors have fallen half the Order is fighting the Hound
and the beast is hardly injured at all...it's hide is barely injured by
their weapons and what damage it suffers it quickly heals with every
energy-draining attack. Eventually the hound flees into the night and
vanishes but it leaves the Order ragged.
Elaydrin regains her footing and surveys the ruins of her home before
flying into a sudden panic. She hurriedly explains the situation to the
Order: her home was attacked by a larger group...a pale woman all in
black with an Emerald Claw sigil, the zombies, hound and a huge
warforged with an axe for an arm. They killed her servants and looted
her home...taking both schema that she was keeping as well as a set of
notes. The notes detailed the location of the ancient Giant temple where
the schema were originally found...and which still contains one of the
schema as well as the original creation pattern which would allow all
the schema to work together to form a greater magical pattern.
Elaydrin was intending to offer the Order a job to head to Xendrik and
retrieve this schema from the Giant ruins. However, now the Claw has the
information they need to find the ruins as well and even worse,
Cannith's intelligence indicates that the fourth schema piece was in
their hands. Now with this theft they have 3 and they only need to get
the 4th in Xendrik to complete the set. Neither Elaydrin nor Magnus are
sure what the completed pattern would do but it's certainly not
something they would want the Claw to get their hands on.
So Elaydrin quickly makes copies of the notes from memory, offering the
Order an impressive fortune to immediately purchase passage to Xendrik
and retrieve the final schema before the Claw can. The Order eagerly
accepts and the race is on...
So, what's a DM to do when his players are about to embark on a major
journey, taking them to another continent for what will likely be
several months of adventuring and will likely return with vast wealth,
powerful magic items and several new levels...but he's got several plot
threads still dangling and enemies made by the PCs who simply won't be
that impressive after an adventure in a dangerous, untamed continent?
Well, the obvious answer is to have all those enemies gang up and assault the party before they have a chance to leave town.
When we last left the Order they were racing the secure passage to
Xendrik with pocket-fulls of House Cannith gold. Elaydrin's description
leaves little doubt that the woman leading the Emerald Claw forces is
the wizardress Malvora and the last time they tangled with her she
escaped on an airship, the Jade Fury. That means if they have any hope
of reaching Xendrik before the Claw has already been and gone then
they'll have to invest in an airship of their own. They manage to track
down an adventurous captain and a ship, The Beginner's Luck, and pour
enough cash in his lap to convince him to get ready to sail immediately.
Unfortunately, during the randomly generated downtime adventures several
of the PCs had managed to make a few randomly generated enemies. Some
had already been dealt with (Jack had to exterminate a trio of wraiths
that showed up chasing some cursed gold he picked up) but not all. Nolan
sold the story of his disastrous stint as a bodyguard to the Korranberg
Chronicle while Shara had a whirlwind affair with the scion of a noble
house and ended up spurning him, leaving him seeking retribution. Thus
it was that when the Beginner's Luck was pulling away from the docking
tower a whole flock of halflings mounted on giant eagles swoops down,
readying crossbows to cut down Shara. At almost the same moment a
shadowy vortex opens on the deck and a ghostly figure appears,
announcing that he represents the Guild of Bleeding Twilight and that he
has been hired to ensure the death of Nolan. From the vortex a giant,
lobster-shelled abomination heaves its way into the world.
And of course, Malvora knew that Elaydren would send someone
after them so she dispatched a small squad of Emerald claw warriors
mounted on Skaevlings (giant, undead bats) and a the vampiric wolf that
the Order failed to dispatch in their last battle.
So, the Order proceeds to engage the different attackers while making
sure that they don't kill their freshly hired airship crew. Tayin
transforms into a dragon-hawk and, along with her eagle companion and a
summoned griffin, engages the halflings in the air. Meanwhile Magnus
manages to dispel the portal (but not before two of the creatures,
chuuls, get through) and Jack uses his magic and Nurse to deal with the
abominations. That left the rest of the Order free to take on the
Emerald Claw. Unfortunately the Hound proved just as deadly as it had
before, quickly overrunning Pax and knocking him to the ground (and
knocking a couple of levels off as well) while the bat-mounted warriors
swooped low and used their mount's screech abilities to stun the ship's
crew. Nolan managed a leap to grab one midair and killed the bat,
bringing both down to the deck, and Glorin and Shara use their bows to
engage the remaining airborne attackers.
The highlight of the fight was when Magnus realized that the ship was
equipped with a ballista. Desperate to get his hands on the biggest
weapon available he begins to load the ballista to take down some of the
flying enemies. At this point one of the halflings ditches his badly
wounded mount and leaps down, landing on top of the ballista and
attacking Magnus. Magnus has winched back the bowstring but not loaded
the weapon yet so he yanks the trigger hoping to catch the halfling's
legs with the cord. I figure that the halfling could still easily leap
off and avoid any trouble but to be fair I give him a low Reflex Save
(DC 12 or so) which I figure he'll make easily (as a rogue). The halfling rolls a natural one and is snagged by the
bowstring and sent flying. Magnus asks if he can try and hit someone
else with the halfling "bolt". I give him a roll (hefty penalties of
course, not expecting anything to come of it). Magnus rolls a 20. Then a
second 20. Magnus critically hits one of the halfling's giant owl
mounts with a halfling fired from a ballista. Rider, mount and the
unfortunate improvised ammunition all fall from the sky.
Fortunately the summoned chuul were quickly dealt with and Tayin managed
to kill enough halflings that they retreated. The Claw fought to the
death however (which didn't take long once Tayin was able to provide
airborne assistance and Nurse begin firing alchemical bombs). The one
holdout was the Hound who was still tearing into Pax and Glorin with a
vengeance. The Order proceeded to gang up on the undead, demonic wolf
and eventually forced it to retreat in gaseous form.
With the attacker's defeated the Order sets out on their long journey
across the ocean to Xendrik. Along the way they have a brief altercation
with a pair of Rocs, who they manage to drive off, and Magnus begins
working on some silversheen in case they run into more hounds (The
Hound's DR against silver was one of the primary reasons for their
difficulty). However, just when land was in sight the ship runs afoul of
a storm cloud...quite literally in that it disgorges several Storm
Elementals that immediately attack. The Order fights bravely and manages
to disperse several of the elementals (although Glorin is knocked
overboard and ends up clinging to the railing) but the rest home in on
the ship's elemental ring and damage it. The Beginner's Luck begins to
fall from the sky (fortunately airships fall slowly) and lands in
Stormreach's harbor with a mighty splash (especially for poor Glorin).
All of the Order and most of the crew survive but the airship is
crippled and is no use to their mission anymore. They pay the captain
the rest of what they owe and immediately get ready to explore the place
and locate a river boat to transport them deeper into Xendrik to find
the ancient giant ruins that they and the Claw seek.
This is when the Order of Magnitude recordings finally begin!
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