Savage Tide: Fleet Invasion; ECL 10 Garrik von Keizer Wizard 10; Second Entry

          Now that the invasion has been dealt with I can get back to my Arch-magi thesis. Which is coming along poorly I'm afraid. There is nothing here I can use, I will have a word with the recruiter that recommended this place. Not to mention he failed to inform me that there was a massive pirate problem that I feel I have been dragged into just to be able to get back safely to the main land.

          However I have come up with a few ideas for my thesis thanks to the Yuan-ti sorcerer and the fiendish brother. I fear I wont be able to research this line of inquiry due to said pirates. I remain optimistic now that I can Teleport my range and independence has increased greatly.  Now assuming something akin to the temple built out of a active volcano is present I could stay behind in a temple to research and decipher old legends.

         I need more books.  

Savage Tide: Fleet Invasion; ECL 10 Garrik von Keizer Wizard 10; First Entry

       

          That bloody snake witch stabbed me! You've got to be kidding me. Here I am prepared to have a proper duel and the witch pulls a dagger and tries to run me through! Fortunately I was clever enough to Shield my self just before hand and the look on her face when her strike deflected off of nothing. Must have upset her though because the second strike stuck, not too bad though. Surly to be a humiliating scar if a college were to see.

          In mine own retaliation I attempted Scorching Ray, as I had in my Evocation classes from decades ago. A poor choice on the witches part to use Illusions on me. I raised my hand and closed my eyes and shouted "Blasenstral!" I can only recount what my companions had seen, but what I am told is that both rays struck true but her damned magic resistance deflected both.

          Fortunately, I suppose (more on this in a bit), just as she had pulled out what we would discover to be a Wand of Fireball the "Graptor Raptor" in the form of a large bat struck her and began what some would consider looking like "Birds of prey in the middle of a mating flight." How ever absurd it was it was effective but a bit too late it seems as I took a highly unexpected Fireball almost full on. Honestly still surprised I managed to evade the full blast, if I hadn't... well the corpse count would have been 45 instead.

          The grapple had her pinned down after the second one was set off. I had removed my self from the area, as I predicted her target was the large bat. I offhandedly offered a chance to surrender, which she promptly declined, not verbally anyway. The Grappler took her to shore, back again as a raptor began ripping her guts out, this was after she was slammed against the rocks a few times. Funny, I wonder how she got her dagger in her own skull.

          Shortly after we heard screams from with in the town. It was our employer being assaulted by some twisted demonic version of her brother apparently. It didnt take me long to become useless as no of my remaining spells were useful or effective against the Demon. This must be rectified.

          That is all I will mark about the encounter. The demon was slain by the Grappler in his usual style.  I underestimated the pirates and was not prepared. It will not happen again.

DM Entry: Multiclass Update and Attendance Policy

A couple of announcements need to be made.

First: I have added an attendance policy to the Aryathan Jiil Campaign Setting.pdf on the google drive. It answers some questions, such as Can I Invite a New Player? Can we use a character's teleport spell who isn't here? Who gets all this loot we just found?

New players obviously begin at the bottom and work their way up the list, so our two new players David and Mark are Fair-Weather Players (the bottom tier) at the moment, but we hope they become regulars.

Regulars have the most say as players, but must attend more often or lose some of those powers.

You can find the current status of players in a new section of this blog on the left column, titled: Attendance.

Thanksgiving: This Sunday does not count against attendance, considering the holiday weekend, but it will contribute to your attended sessions if you do attend.



Second: After much consideration, I have reinstated the -20% XP penalty on multiclassing, as per the rules in the Player's Handbook page 60. We do, however, retain the bonus +1 skill point, +1 hp, or +0.5% XP bonus for each favored class level, and you do still have to choose a certain class for "Any" favored class.

For anyone who actually gains this penalty for multiclassing, you gain a free tweak and (if you are under 11th level) gain a FREE LEVEL UP (happy holidays). Note: If you do level up, set your current XP at the minimum for the new level (although you may go in the hole for HP Buy, reducing that xp level by the appropriate amount for HP-Buy, as normal).

Savage Tide: Fleet Invasion ECL 6 Erimar Neirdre Marshal 1 Truenamer 5: Arrival day 1

     I arrived in the small town of Farshore at the precise location described to me by my colleague in the Paragnostic Assembly, just before he teleported me.

     Upon arrival, I heard the sounds of the battle I was told to expect. Alas, I had not arrived before the start of hostilities and I soon found myself in the midst of combat with flesh golems, whose horrific countenances were far worse than what I had read of them!

     We located and dispatched the leader of the fleet, some Yaun-ti sorceress names V'sesslin, and scuttled the ship. No sooner had we returned to shore to bolster the town's defenses when we saw Mistress Lavinia Vanderboren being attacked by a fiend that turned out to be none other than her very brother, Vanthus! We rushed to defeat the fiend, having determined he was in fact the greatest threat to the town. (In doing this we were not able to save a group of women and children from a trio of Vrok demons; an act that constantly haunts me.)
     All in all, 41 souls were lost in the conflict, but the campaign to stem the Savage Tide has succeeded in this town. We found a shadow pearl in Vanthus' possession and knew that calamity had been narrowly averted.
      We now know there are more shadow pearls out there and, using the 2 pirate ships we captured, we have a new destination to investigate...The Isle of Dread

Savage Tide: ECL 9 Angron gryphon (monster class) 9: Entry 2

Day 951




After the resulting pirate Invasion i grown to know this small colony much better. In the resulting time after tending to my wounds using my newly acquired assets i have with great effort  enhanced the necklace that i found within the volcano. The Items collected from vanthus are and their new ownership is currently disputed.

DM Entry: Intro to "The Lightless Depths"

Having survived the wrath of the Crimson Fleet, the people of Farshore are slowly putting their lives back together.

You are free to take this opportunity to indulge in some well-deserved rest, do some magical crafting, ingratiate yourselves with the locals by helping in the colony's reconstruction, wrap up some unfinished Farshore improvements, or perhaps even reclaim and repair the Foniko.

In the weeks that follow, rumors begin to spread questioning Lavinia's right to lead the people of the colony. Whispers suggest a hidden fiendish taint in her soul and even ties to the Crimson Fleet.

Sixty days after the Crimson Fleet attack, Lavinia requests your presence at a morning meal...

DM Entry: Victory over the Crimson Fleet Invasion

The Crimson Fleet pirates are defeated with moderate damage and loss of life to Farshore and its allies. Two unscuttled enemy ships are captured and taken as prizes (Brine Harlot and Stygian Shark), the other three ships escape. Farshore's population is reduced from 240 to 199. Farshore's assets improve by +5,000 gp (to 27,600 gp).

The next few days in Farshore are filled with celebration marred only by funerals for those who fell to the assault. The colonists have grown stronger by surviving the ordeal, and each of you are held as local heroes.

Lavinia Vanderboren wins election as the mayor of Farshore.

Lavinia puts on a brave face during these days, but the revelation of her brother's fate (Vanthus Vanderboren) has given her much to ponder. With your support, she soon recovers and is stronger than before, bolstered by the knowledge that Vanthus can no longer cause pain to her and her friends and eager to get on with her life.

Vanthus' body is buried in Farshore cemetery, in a lonely plot to the south marked only by a simple wooden stake carved with the Vanderboren family crest--Lavinia's sole concession to any remaining shred of humanity that might have lingered in her brother's corrupted soul.

It takes several days to sort through the loot captured from the pirates, but papers recovered from the Brine Harlot indicate that the Crimson Fleet has been to the Isle of Dread before, to meet in a cove on the northern coast with a group referred to as the "Lords of Dread." Further investigation reveals something even more chilling--it seems that there are more shadow pearls out there...

Savage Tide: ECL 10 Aconitum Bane: The Grappler: Entry 5

So the problem... dealing with that spell caster on the boat controlling the flesh bags! I was busy pinning one down and trying to rip it apart while I had two other ones focusing its attacks on me!. The other members of the group were fighting one of them and our mages took off in the air after the boat and the spell caster.

I was able to rip one apart and tackle another one to the ground and rip it apart in short time. Thankfully my anarchistic days of breaking things allowed me to pinpoint a few weaknesses in the flesh golems. As I was able to rip apart the second one, the other members were able to dismantle the third one.... it left one more to go.

I looked at the other members and judged weather they could take out the last one without my help. The other members around were looking in rough shape, and our mage was out of sight. I couldn't wait any longer deciding what to do, so I shape changed into a hunting bat and took off for my prey at full flight. When I landed on the boat I immediately shifted back into my favored raptor form and tried to take out the pirates on the boat. I could see the snakelike spell caster but the other pirates kept getting in my way.

One after another I kept trying to claw at them, but something about being on a boat made me not fight to my full potential. I ended up hurting myself more than they were hurting me it felt like! I reached out to bite one of them and they quickly slammed into me knocking me off the boat. However, I made sure to take him with me too. He meet a Davy Jones shortly after we landed in the water.

I changed forms back into the bat to get back to the boat and after the spell caster. Just as I started to fly up out of the water I could see the other pirate with his bow waiting for me to break the surface of the water. I couldn't wait and had to take the shot. But just as I started to emerge from the water, with a thunderous crash, the body of the pirate was slammed into the water by the full speed dive of the griffon. That pirate didn't even see it coming.

As I lifted myself out of the water into the air, I could see the multiple images of the spell caster trying to attack our mage who too had multiple images swirling around him.  It looked like a mirror match. The griffon was able to swing back around and only managed to swing at the false images, allowing me to pinpoint the true image of the spell caster. I immediately scooped up the spell caster in my talons and held his body motionless. The caster was so desperate to escape my death lock that it launched fireballs from his wand on himself to catch me in the blast. I flew back to the rock and landed and started ripping out the gullet of the snake caster. His body laid there motionless.

Next thing form nearby, a scream I once heard... it was Lavinia. We rushed over to her manner where a demonic looking figure stood in front of her. We stood for as if time stood still as she drew her sword to strike him, but then she stopped motionless. His gaze pierced her and she just dropped to her knees. I was furious and dove down at him trying to grab him. He evaded a few of my attempts until I finally grabbed his tail and wrapped my wings around him holding him. He struggled around shouting. It almost seemed like his words were in my head demanding me to let him go, but I would not have any of his trickery. The ranger in the group tried to put some arrows into him, but looked like they did little damage. The griffon was able to try and his attacks did little.

I was able to then pin him to the ground so he couldn't move. Every so often I could hear his words in my head, then he suddenly shouted to the griffon to defend him?! The griffon started trying to attack me now! He must have fallen to his charms. Lavinia then snapped out of it and with a fit of rage was able to put her rapier deep into his flesh. She started to fill him holes, one attack after another. The ranger caught on and drew her sword and charge at him as the party mage enlarged her in size like he did for me at the start of the fight. He weapon was bouncing off him, but she was still dealing him some wounds. I blessed her weapon, allowing it to strike deep into his demonic flesh. With all the wounds to him, his life left this realm for another.

Lavinia explained that that figure used to be her brother, who died to her when here parents died. With the pirate ship scuttled and their leader dead, the chaos came to an end. 41 people of the town lost their lives defending the town, and Lavinia was able to put her brother's body to rest. So there are a few loose ends we need to do, like get our ship back, that I think will keep the group occupied until the town is stabilized. Until then, I'm going for a bath.

Savage Tide: ECL 9 Aconium Bane: The Grappler: Entry 4

So our final task... we approached a large volcano. One of the members who picked up a golden bat idol some time ago started to notice that it was vibrating and had a draw to the mountain. We followed it into a small cavern, a small room next to an open lava pit and a strange alter. the idol had a strange magnetic draw and snapped into place. Instantly a large bat like demon appeared.... and I was ready for the fight... but that was not what happened. Instead he rewarded us for returning the idol to his shrine. One at a time he allowed our party to pick from a pike of items... I had no idea what to grab so I just go a simple silver ring. Others grabbed for other items letting their greed I think get the best of them lol. One of the members examined each of the items for us... what some junk some people got lol. But I on the other hand... ring of invisibility... that might come in handy later.
So as soon as we each get the items, the stupid place starts to erupt... and I got the heck out of there! With a little bit of time until the pirate invasion starts, we rested and decided to teleport back to town... strange magics that the wizard learned. He was able to even plan it right with us shrinking in size to teleport us back home to Sasurine!
Ah how I missed the hustle and bustle of this town. We have been away for so long now. Our once nice home was torn apart and vagrants have moved into the place! I might as well give up on this town as a home. But the biggest part of me coming back to town.... spending some money! I had accumulated so much money that I needed to buy some gear for the upcoming invasion. I sold some of the worthless items to me and bought some new things. Some boots and magic items were in order for sure.
We didn't stay long as we still had things to do for the last week before the pirates. So the next morning we went back. Thankfully the wizard knew what he was doing and we managed to safely get back. And when we returned we did some last minute preps and waited.
Right on que, the siege started. We were not able to get everything needed ready for the invasion, but we are much better off than a few months ago. As soon as we exited our hut, chaos erupted. About a half dozen pirates started to attack. We quickly dispatched them... but that was nothing. Emerging from the water four large flesh golems started their rampage into the city. The one wizard I gave one of my wands to enlarged me to rival the mounds of flesh. I had already wildshaped into a raptor and now became larger, I charged at one of the constructs. I pounced on it and slammed it to the ground, pinning it below me as I started tearing it apart. The only problem I have is that now it caught the attention of the other golem and it started to attack me while I was grappling the other foe. Thankfully I was able to dodge the attacks so far in the chaos. I don't know how the other members are doing in this fight right now... but I think they are after the controller.... seeing that a lightning bolt just shot from a ship in the bay. I was quick to dodge the bolt, but it repaired the construct it looks like.... this is going to be a challenging fight if we don't take out that caster!

Gilimans prototypes

   Gilimans Prototype’s

Gilimans tools

Minor Artifact

A bent and obtuse set of adamantine tools that were used by the mad craftsman Giliman

If used by a humanoid they must make a Dc 25 will save or become insane if they fail this save they gain the Gilman’s legacy feat

Stake Driver   melee weapon      (Damage is for medium creatures)

1d4 20    x2    pds 4.5                    type b

1d6 19-20 X3       pds 5                 type p

1d10 17-20 x2    pds 5                   type p

Load

as a move action that provkes and attack of opernunity you can load 1 ounce of gunpowder changing the damage to

1d10 you can load up to 5 ounces. for every ounce of gunpowder loaded above 1 it will add 1d10 and there is a cumultive 15% chance it will explode and backfire dealing the damage to you instead. when the attack hits the stake mounted is projected into the targets flesh removal of the stake is a dc(15) heal check otherwise it causes 1d6 damage. and must be reloaded as a standered action that provokes and attack of oppertunity.if a wooden stake is loaded anything more then 1 once is loaded it will shatter and only deal 1d6 blunt.

Stakes

Wood 5cp

Steel 20sp

Silver 5gd

Cold iron 5gd

Adamantine 25gd

Created by the Mad Craftsman Giliman For a vampire slayer during its first use it backfired killing its user. undelayed by this giliman went to improve this contraption reinforcing it with heavy steel and adamantine resulting in its current form.  Requires a dc 20 craft weapons and Gilimans legacy 5000gp

Steam plate

Heavy armor

Ac+4 med 300 pds

Acp -16

Arcane spell failure 60%

Speed quarter, cannot run

A suit of armor made by giliman when he was almost killed by an workshop disaster that killed hundreds He created this armor afterward

A suit of half plate ridden with tubes and cogs with a large water tank on the back spouting multiple arms with shields at the end.

When the tank is filled with 5 gallons of water it activates the armor adding bonuses for  1 hour per gallon. +8 ac and halving the acp when worn when active it only acts as if it was 50 pounds but to outside forces it is still 300 pounds you move at 3/4th speed and run at x3, when you are hit by an attack piecing or slashing there is a 1/100 chance that the boiler will be punctured and explode dealing 2d10 fire damage per gallon of water.

Craft dc 30 armorsmithing Gilimans legacy 20000gp

The Thunder hawk

Ranged weapon

15 pds

3d12 damage 16-20x4             pierce and blunt

200 ft. range increments

 An impossibly long rifle with near pinpoint accuracy made to destroy golem’s firing adamantine round balls from massive distance. Reloading is 2 consecutive full round actions that provoke attacks of opportunity. Firing is a standard action and you cannot move during the turn you plan to shoot. The weapon ignores damage resistances and hardness and can pierce up to 3 medium creatures in a line taking a consecutive – 3 to damage after the first pierce.

Craft dc 25 weaponsmithing dc 20 7000gd

Harrowing blade

Melee weapon

1d6 19-20x2 type s

One handed

A horrifying contraption detailing the horror trapped within Gilimans mind. Slender serrated blade teeth intersecting at random angles on a successful attack the teeth are lodged within the foes flesh on an attack the blade is ripped out of the wound causing massive internal damage rending flesh from bone dealing 2 bleed that builds on consecutive attacks if the enemy is blooded when under the effect of this weapon they are shaken and take a will dc 15 save or panic.

Craft dc 20 weaponsmithing Gilimans legacy 8000gd

Hateful mace

Melee weapon

2d6 damage 20x4 blunt

Two handed

Minor Artifact

A massive dragon bone mace made from the femur of a red dragon with the core of the mace head made of Thinaun that contains the soul of the dragon that died with hatred corrupting its very soul due to the unproducible nature of the weapon giliman planted it above his mantle and retired it until his death where it lays to this day. On a miss the weapon invigorates the wieldier with its hate of life allowing them to reroll a single attack.