ECL 6: fate norbard duskblade 6: journal entry 2

As I sat behind the rusty bars of this disgusting jail house I can stop thinking about what that women told that guard. She said that she saw Maavu rideing a horse with clouds as its feet. That sounds familiar to what Norril Demoneye was ridding. His horse what's black and it had black smoke rising from it. Maybe Norril and Maavu are one and the same. I'll keep this in my mind while we are looking for him. I'll also keep in mind that the wizard can shape change also, just like Norril.
        I've never seen Osiris change shape in plain sight so I'm still going to assume that he is Norril and that he has come back to kill the final witness, me.

Shackled City: ECL7 Korinth the Protector Silverbrow Human Human Cloistered Cleric 5/ Radiant Servant of Pelor 2: Entry 11

Journal Entry 5201:

My how things have been quiet.  After so much excitement and adventure underneath the city, we return heroic only to be sent back to our daily lives as if nothing happened.  Gaje is driving me crazy.  He craves action.  It is in his nature to exact what he refers to as the truth of Pelor's will.  I can't really argue with him.  I mean why else would an angel be here?  Unfortunately for him all is well in the city.  This is good for me.  With such a studious nature I enjoy the opportunity to comb through the churches archives learning the religious past of the people of Cauldron.  Having given so much help to the church of St. Cuthbert and the city in general, I am actually afforded special privileges and given limited access to that churches ancient history as well.  I have learned much in these long, quiet days.  But nothing that can point me in the right direction to answer my questions.  All those questions that ran through mine and Gaje's minds after defeating the evil in that dungeon...

DM Entry: New Spell: Reassembling Skeleton (rough draft)

Since we are not gaming this weekend, I thought I might post a new spell I have been working on. This is the initial draft, so any comments will be appreciated.

Reassembling Skeleton

New Spell

Necromancy [Evil]

Level: Cleric 4, Sorcerer 4, Wizard 4

Components: V, S, M, DF

Casting Time: 1 standard action

Range: Touch

Target: One touched skeleton

Duration: Permanent until all triggers have been expended, up to 1 trigger per 3 caster levels

Saving Throw: None

Spell Resistance: No

            You chant evil formulae as you place the gems within the ribcage of the skeleton. At the end of casting, the gems briefly pulse with negative energy and embed themselves into the bone of the skeleton.

            When the skeleton is destroyed, after just a few moments its pieces come back together, reforming the skeleton just as it was before it was destroyed, fully ready to continue combat again. And when it is destroyed again, it reforms once again, and again, and again.

            Reassembling skeleton may only target skeletons that you control or have personally created. Any skeleton may only benefit from a reassembling skeleton spell once, ever.

            When this spell is cast, it remains dormant until triggered. The touched skeleton reassembles itself when it is destroyed. The process of reassembling takes 1 round. Unless the target skeleton has been disintegrated or is inside of an antimagic area, it will be restored to its full normal hit points and function that it had before being destroyed—however it gains a penalty to its maximum hit points equal to the number of times it has been reassembled. This spell triggers 1 time per 3 caster levels—according to your caster level at the time it was originally cast.

            Once reassembling is complete, the skeleton appears standing in the space in which it was destroyed. If this space is occupied, it moves to the nearest legal space and takes 1d6 points of damage per 5-ft square it was forced to move in this way. Any objects the skeleton was wearing or wielding return to it as it was before unless the object became possessed by another creature before it reassembled itself—any armor worn previous to being destroyed is again equipped, any weapon it had been wielding is again in its hands, any worn magic items are again worn in the same places as before, etc.

            A skeleton protected by reassembling skeleton that is inside of an antimagic area 1 round after being destroyed will lose one of its gems (see below) but not reassemble itself. It will attempt to reassemble itself once every round until it either succeeds (outside of an antimagic area) or runs out of onyx gems.

            Material Component: One onyx gemstone worth 25 gp per HD of the target skeleton per trigger. These gems embed themselves inside the ribcage of the skeleton. Each time it reassembles itself, one of the onyx gems disintegrates to powder. These gems become embedded within the bone, barely visible. They are impossible to remove once reassembling skeleton has been cast.

Shackled City: ECL 7 Korinth the Protector Silverbrow Human Cloistered Cleric 5/ Radiant Servant of Pelor 2: Entry 10

Journal Entry 5265

I feel like such a failure.  After several weeks of successful proselyting and bringing many, many people into the light of Pelor; the city still finds itself subject to random attacks by great evil.  Not only am I unable to keep evil at bay, but I can't get a hold of those that would bring evil to the innocent citizens of this city.  The small band of adventurers that I have taken to travelling with seem to fight with all their hearts, but that always leads to the destruction of anyone that could give us the information we need to really get a lock on who or what is trying to introduce the dark into this city.  I fear Gaje has let the excitement get to him as well.  Walking the quite and lonely halls of the temple for so many years has given him something of a death wish.  He says he is the truth and justice, bringing the holy word of Pelor to the world by way of his sword.  I'm not sure that is what Pelor wants but who am I to argue with an angel.  I will try to lead the best that I can, showing all around me the power of the light. 

Magic Item Creation

One of the things you run into during your adventuring career is the need for more and more powerful magic items.

There are essentially three places where you can pick up new magic items:

1. Shops

2. Adventuring, and

3. Item creation.

When you’re buying items at a shop (or commissioning an item to be crafted for you), you’re subject to a maximum item level equal to your character level (or 1 above that if you are willing to pay double).

Discovering items “in the wild” during adventures may or may not be more powerful than what you can find in the shop. But the problem there is that they are essentially random, even more random than that found in shops, and often unlikely to be useful to your character (or anyone else in the party for that matter).

So for those of you who wish to create your own magic items, this document provides some details for you to get the most out of crafting and item creation.

First of all, an item you create or craft yourself is not subject to item level. You can craft or create any item of which you have the talent, time, materials, and experience points.

Note: There is a distinction between the terms “crafting” and “item creation”. Crafting an object uses Craft checks. Item creation, on the other hand, does not, but instead uses feat prerequisites and spellcasting.

An example of something you might craft would be a sword, a suit of armor, alchemical mixtures, or even poison. Crafting turns raw materials into usable objects. Anything that has its own Craft subskill falls under the category of crafting—such as Craft (taxidermy).

An example of item creation is adding magic to existing objects—such as creating a holy avenger which does not require the creation of a sword, instead you add magic to an existing sword.

For more information about crafting items, refer to the Craft skill in the Player’s Handbook.

Before you can begin to create magic items, you will need one of the myriad Item Creation feats. Some of these include: Brew Potion, Craft Construct, Craft Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Rod, Craft Staff, Craft Wand, Craft Wondrous Item, Forge Ring, and Scribe Scroll.

Do I have to be the one who casts the required spell on the item I am creating? No. You can pay someone else to cast it on the item for you, or have one of your friends do it. They only need to be present during the casting of the spell, not the entire creation time. The item is still considered to be crafted by you even if you had someone else cast the required spell on the item.

When do I pay for materials and experience points? You must pay all costs when you begin item creation, regardless of the success or failure of the creation process. There are no skill checks involved in item creation, but the item could be destroyed (in theory) before its complete.

Does the item creation time have to be consecutive? No, you can leave off of creation and come back as many times as you like until the item is complete. The time between creation sessions is irrelevant, you could even pick up the creation of your item years later.

Can I make custom items? No. You can only craft items that have already been published. Refer to the “Index of Magic Items.xlsx” for a list of published magic items. This list has information about book source, market price, creation cost, xp cost, and the time required to create the item.

But the Dungeon Master’s Guide has guidelines for designing customized magic items. This information is for DM’s and is not designed for player characters “in game” creation rules. In fact, these particular guidelines are so ill-suited for designing magic items that existing magic items break these rules more often than they follow them. They are incomplete and leave you with wildly differing prices, either much higher or much lower than what has been published. So these rules are simply not used for players to make custom magic items. (They are hardly even suitable for DMs to adjudicate his own custom magic items, and are more akin to “challenge rating” in the fact that DMs are to do final price adjustments based on what feels right—not exactly a game mechanic for a player).

Where are the rules for creating [some certain magic item]? Refer to each individual Item Creation feat for “in-game” creation rules for your character. Also refer to the general rules for all Item Creation feats, found on page 88 of the Player’s Handbook.

What if I take more than one feat that reduces the cost of creating magic items? Do they stack? No. They overlap. You only use the better value.

For more information about “in-game” general rules for creating magic items, refer to pages 282 and 283 of the Dungeon Master’s Guide under the heading: Creating Magic Items.

Here is an example of the process of creating a magic item.

Joa Bloa wants to create a magic sword, a +1 longsword.

1. First he takes the Craft Magic Arms and Armor feat.

2. Then he finds the market price of a +1 longsword: which is the price of a masterwork longsword plus 2,000 gp—or 2,315 gp.

3. Then he calculates that this will take 8 hours a day for 3 days (1 day per 1,000 in gp value, round up).

4. Then he pays the cost of materials: 1,157 gp and 5 sp (half the full market value) as well as providing a masterwork longsword to work on.

5. Then he also pays 93 xp (1/25^th of the market price, round up—or 2,315 x 0.04).

6. After this is complete, he simply spends in-game time, 8 hours a day for 3 days (not necessarily consecutive days) devoted to fashioning the +1 longsword.

After this time is complete…Joa Bloa is the proud owner of his very own +1 longsword. No checks are required at all—in fact, unlike most other magic items, even spells are not required for creating magic weapons.

Special Note: These rules have always been available. However, considering the recent removal of guilds and also considering that some of you have been asking about this recently, I am allowing retraining of feats for Item Creation feats for a limited time. You may only exchange an existing feat for an Item Creation feat. This option is only available until our next game session.

Shackled CIty: The Dead Book: Entry 7

THE DEAD BOOK

Entry 7. Guilds (DM) An immense monstrosity of impossible proportions collapses under its own weight and fizzles into a stinking spot of ichor.

Entry 6. Ethyl (ECL 6, Theo) A perfectly innocent inspection of an altar that had been previously used in the creation of "spawns of Kyuss" left her feeling...a little funny. The application of holy water to her hands and antitoxin for her bowels didn't stop her from curling up her toes and collapsing dead on the floor only moments later.
Entry 5. Krolor (ECL 3, Brian) After succumbing to the overwhelming whim of the bugbear vampire, the old necromancer druid fired his beams of negative energy at the party from his high perch on the rope bridge. When they fired back, it was from this very perch that he fell unconscious to his death, suffering a broken neck upon impact with the ground. In the underdark he was left, without funeral and without burial.
Entry 4. Grim (ECL 4, Dan) After a failed attempt to murder Osiris under the compulsion of a vampire, the party debated long and hard about the fate of Grim. At last, as Grim lay unconscious on the ground, Osiris slit his throat. 
Entry 3. Vrabel (ECL 3, Kenneth) The party began to look around for Vrabel. Has anyone seen Vrabel? Looking around they discovered a goblin medicine man standing over the collapsed body of Vrabel. After the party dispatched the medicine man, Osiris examined their fallen comrade. "He's been burned to death," came the report.
Entry 2. Kracken (ECL 3, Dan) It was the beard! The bald under-dwarf with the beard. All fear the beard.
Entry 1. Sirkus (ECL 3, Kenneth) After fearlessly mowing down several enemies in hand to hand combat while defending his party from a brood of hobgoblin archers, a fateful arrow pierced his heart, killing him instantly.

ECL 6: Fate Norbard human duskblade 6: Journal entry 1

       Looking around at these people that i'm following, I notice no one is wearing the armor that Norril Demoneye was wearing. But then again he could of sold his armor and changed his shape. I've seen someone do that before, in fact his name was Gilk Shimf. He was a Dwarf that could change shape, he was a wanted criminal in my town. The city guard hired me to kill him. He was difficult to find, because he could change into anything he wished to be. LIke the wizard in this group of people. Osiris he calls himself, He might be Norril Demoneye, i'm going to keep a close eye on him.
       No one else in the party seems to be able to change shape like Osiris. He could be changing shape behind everyone's back so that no one knows his true identity. 
       Death shall come creep up behind Norril Demoneye and drag his soul back to hell where it belongs. 

Shackled City: ECL 6 Korinth the Protector Silverbrow Human Cloistered Cleric 5/ Radiant Servant of Pelor 1: Entry 9

What! How can this be?!  We defeat a paladin that worships Hextor; destroy spawns of Kyuss and the infernal alter used to make them; and a Huceuva that worshiped Arythnul.  And nothing to indicate what would cause these beings to be here.  Where is their leader?  Who brought this evil together?  It is fortunate that we were able to find enough wands to stop the floods and save the city, but we are left with just too many questions.  I will stay with Korinth as he continues to secure his link to Pelor.

Shackled City: ECL 6 Osiris Eloah Elf Generalist Wizard: Entry 13

At long last, for the most part, the Shackled City has been spared. The wands of controlling water have been returned to the priestess but I fear there still maybe something left uncovered from the ruins down below. No matter, a long reprieve is exactly what this party needs and quite frankly deserves, to many friends have already lost their lives. During this three month hiatus, I will continue to master my magic and grow in strength and be ready for any encounter that threatens my team, for a prepared wizard is a most dangerous opponent indeed.

Shackled City: The Dead Book: Entry 6

THE DEAD BOOK

Entry 6. Ethyl (ECL 6, Theo) A perfectly innocent inspection of an altar that had been previously used in the creation of "spawns of Kyuss" left her feeling...a little funny. The application of holy water to her hands and antitoxin for her bowels didn't stop her from curling up her toes and collapsing dead on the floor only moments later.
Entry 5. Krolor (ECL 3, Brian) After succumbing to the overwhelming whim of the bugbear vampire, the old necromancer druid fired his beams of negative energy at the party from his high perch on the rope bridge. When they fired back, it was from this very perch that he fell unconscious to his death, suffering a broken neck upon impact with the ground. In the underdark he was left, without funeral and without burial.
Entry 4. Grim (ECL 4, Dan) After a failed attempt to murder Osiris under the compulsion of a vampire, the party debated long and hard about the fate of Grim. At last, as Grim lay unconscious on the ground, Osiris slit his throat. 
Entry 3. Vrabel (ECL 3, Kenneth) The party began to look around for Vrabel. Has anyone seen Vrabel? Looking around they discovered a goblin medicine man standing over the collapsed body of Vrabel. After the party dispatched the medicine man, Osiris examined their fallen comrade. "He's been burned to death," came the report.
Entry 2. Kracken (ECL 3, Dan) It was the beard! The bald under-dwarf with the beard. All fear the beard.
Entry 1. Sirkus (ECL 3, Kenneth) After fearlessly mowing down several enemies in hand to hand combat while defending his party from a brood of hobgoblin archers, a fateful arrow pierced his heart, killing him instantly.