Xorian Wars: Alliance and Rebellion

[Anxe]

Originally Throgg was going to do some updates for sessions we've already played, but I have way more free time than him, so we decided I'd do them. Here it comes!

Alliance Session #1/Total Session #2
This session was attended in person by Throgg, Salzar, and Ozymandias. We met at Ozymandias's house. When we meet at his house we usually play Soul Calibur 4, Left 4 Dead (1 or 2), or Dead Rising for an hour or two before starting the D&D.

(A note before we begin. Both campaigns began on June 20th and both are now at around July 20th in game.)

The War Council of the New Alliance met in Phoenix to discuss the newest development of the now three year long war with Xoria. The Xorians have succeeded in building a siege wall around the city of Phoenix. Phoenix is a city ruled by different guilds with the Thieves Guild in charge (The Thieves run a sort of protection racket. The money collected is a lot like a tax.). The other significant guilds are the Mercenaries Guild, the Adventurers Guild (Which is often competing with the Mercenaries for contracts), the Clerics Guild, and the Mages Guild. The Thieves Guild has ceded control of the town to the War Council until the crisis has passed.

The War Council is headed by Arendil, an old noble from one of the Allied cities, Jipangu. The main forces on the council are the Mercenaries Guild and the Adventurers Guild. For a more in depth list of the council members you can check out the important NPCs spoiler in the first post. All of the PCs are also members of the War Council. Amalius is a member because of his father's influence. Torin is a member because he is related to the Hill Dwarf king. Terroc is a member because he is paid to be the on staff professional magician. Preta's backstory isn't set in stone. He's either a member because he's in the Adventurers Guild or because he is an uppity exiled Persian Prince. Or both. Logan is a senior member of the Adventurers Guild, that's why he is on the Council.

Arendil started the council meeting off by asking what should be done about the siege. The city has enough food to last until April if nothing goes wrong. The city is by at the meeting of two rivers, so water isn't a problem. The Alliance also has access to about 2 million in GP that could be used for almost anything (so far its been pretty much a resurrection fund for the party). The Xorians are encamped to the north of the city beyond the siege wall, to the west of the city across the Delain Tribute, and to the south of the city across the Curving Stream. The Xorian army size roughly outnumbers the Alliance's armies within the city by 3 to 1. "What do we do gentlemen?"

(The locations spoken about can be found on the map pretty easily. I'd encourage you to have it open in another tab while reading this.)

General Dainlin of the Hill Dwarves spoke first, "My men are tunneling as we speak. We are attempting to reach beyond the Xorian battlelines. We can either evacuate the city or attack the Xorians from behind once the tunnel is complete."
Amalius said, "How are you keeping the preparations secret? Surely, the Xorians have flying scouts who can see any large holes in the ground that you'd be digging."
"We're not digging outside. We have supplies being brought into the temple of Hephaestus and dirt going out. Hopefully it won't look too suspicious due to the smiths that do their work in there."
Arendil asked, "How far along is the tunnel at this time?"
"We've gotten about halfway to the perimeter of the city walls. We need to extend the tunnel to maybe ten times that length."
"This is good news, but I'd like us to explore some other options until the tunnel is completed. What else does the council have for me?" Arendil said.
Gradorian, the hobgoblin mercenary stood up and spoke, "We should attack the siege wall again. We can take it this time. I've been with my men in tight spots before. Desperate men are good fighters."
Astyanax said, "I agree. The undead beasts would hardly expect an attack. They think we are trapped and scared like rats. We should show them the courage the men of the East have."
At that point there was a long discussion between the players and the other council members about the strengths of the armies, whether the attack should be during the day or the night, and the chances of success. Titandra and Kig were against assaulting the wall. The party thought it might be a good idea eventually, but not yet. Junai brought up the alternate possibility of surrendering, but she was booed for suggesting such a thing.

Eventually, Lamarr spoke up, "What we really need is more troops. We won't find them in the city. We've already drafted every man we can spare. Instead we should look outside of the Alliance. We need more of the city-states of the East to join our fight. I think we should get the people of Mars Oasis on our side."
The party asked, "Why Mars' Oasis?"
"Because they are a town that constantly fights the undead and dragons of the desert. They have experience fighting exactly what we are fighting, draconic undead. They already have a standing army that would help greatly in the fight against the Dragovinians."
Arendil said, "But aren't they busy fighting the undead and dragon threats of the desert? They won't fight our enemies unless we agree to fight theirs first. I fear the people of Mars' Oasis will not join our fight until the Blue Wyrm, Bavastatner, is dead along with the Bane, the lich of the desert."

The players discussed going to whip out the undead, dragons, and the third opponent that threatens Mars' Oasis, Formians, for awhile. Eventually, I decided to interrupt them with the plot hook I actually wanted them to follow.

Terroc, who had remained silent for most of the meeting, finally decided to speak, "Mars' Oasis is not the answer my friends. We must look closer to find allies. The people of Shalerton would help us if only they had a trained army. I have found a ritual in some old books that will allow us to train the people of Shalerton quickly."
Astyanax said, "Tell us how this ritual works, Terroc."
"I did not find the ritual itself. Only a reference to it in another book. The ritual is contained within the Tome of Agamemnon, which is kept underneath your own city of Bradel Fields, brave Astyanax."
"The Tome of Agamemnon? That thing is buried under the city for a reason! It is evil!"
"Yes, but some evils are necessary in war. The magics in the Tome of Agamemnon can quickly train the people of Shalerton into a force to be reckoned with, just as Agamemnon trained his Argives and conquered all of Greece. The reference spoke of combining the ritual with a sacred fountain of water. There is no such fountain in Shalerton, but I know of another to the northwest, the Geyser of Talos." (The players went on a mission to the Geyser of Talos in a previous campaign. They know it is guarded by a giant bronze golem, Talos. Check him out on wikipedia.)
Torin said, "But that still leaves the problem of the fountain being here," Salzar pointed to the map we had out, "and Shalerton being all the way over here. How can they drink from the fountain?"
Terroc answered, "With Ring Gates. A ring gate is normally a small thing that allows for a few pounds to pass through it each day. I propose that we construct a huge one, perhaps six feet in diameter. The ring gate should be able to transport all the water of the Geyser of Talos to Shalerton. Then we can perform the ritual of Agamemnon in Shalerton and have a trained army in no time."
Amalius said, "Great. Have you begun construction of the ring gates?"
"Unfortunately, no. I am missing a key spell component. Normally, ring gates are constructed with giants' hearts which are easy enough to acquire. However, for a gate this large I need a correspondingly large giant heart. There are none available in Phoenix."
The members of the War Council looked sad.
"Don't worry! I've heard word through the Mages Guild that a Geriviar was spotted in Danar's Swamp to the west just two weeks ago. Geriviars move on pretty quickly, so to catch this one we must act fast. I propose that a few members of the War Council teleport with me to Danar's Swamp. From there we can track the giant, kill it, and take out its heart."
The party of course volunteered to be the members of the War Council to get the Geriviar's heart. (For those of you who don't know what a Geriviar is, its a monster in the MM3. An image can be found here. The monster is CR19 and is immune to a ton of ****. the basic idea of the monster's build is for destroying buildings. I do routinely throw CRs at my players that are way beyond their levels. They usually pull through somehow.) The party researched the monster and learned that it was immune to fire damage and hated buildings.

The next day the party teleported off to Danar's Swamp. The party consisted of:
Torin with his original fighter build
Erick, Torin's cleric cohort until Torin's build changed.
Preta whose build has not changed
Shez, Preta's cohort.
Amalius with his original diplomacizer build.
Terroc, who was an NPC run by me. He was basically there to teleport people.
Aldarian, Amalius's cohort, sat this adventure out.

The party quickly found the Geriviar's tracks and followed them. They found that the tracks often doubled back on each other. It seemed that the giant was wandering in circles looking for something. After three days the party had gotten within a day of the Geriviar, but were unable to bridge the gap. Amalius decided he would create an illusionary tower on a hill above the swamp. Hopefully, the tower would attract the building hating Geriviar.
The tower did attract a monster, but it wasn't the Geriviar. A Grey Render showed up. Preta fireballed it and it ran off.
The party spent another three days tracking the giant, but didn't get any closer. They did were ambushed by a group of three medusas. Preta's quick reflexes and a cone of cold turned the medusas into popsicles. Amalius got mad at Preta for killing the medusas so quickly. Amalius insisted that the medusas could have guided the party to the Geriviar.
On the seventh day in the swamp the players finally realized that Terroc can cast phantom steed. When asked why he hadn't cast it before his only response was, "You didn't ask." (Terroc is not meant to solve problems for the players, even if his 30 INT should let him do so. It wouldn't be fun if I did everything in my own adventures. The players know and accept this, I think...)

The phantom steeds allowed the party to catch up to the Geriviar very quickly. It ran from them upon seeing them, but they still chased it down. Amalius was continually trying to talk it into stopping for a conversation with the party. Preta shot a lightning bolt off at it, but did not succeed in killing it. The Geriviar turned and threw two nodules at Preta (Nodules are basically fireballs that grow on the Geriviar's back). The nodules killed Preta. Torin landed to do hand-to-hand battle with the Geriviar. Amalius rolled an intimidate to say that Torin was a renowned Giant-Slayer and that the Geriviar had better watch himself. Amalius won. The Geriviar was cowed and now willing to talk to the party.

The Geriviar revealed that his name was Bill and that he was looking through the swamp for his lost dog, Scruffy. Bill lives in the mountains to the west of Danar's Swamp, but Scruffy went missing about three weeks ago. Amalius succeeded on a bluff check to convince Bill that the Xorians had kidnapped Scruffy. Bill led the party to the Xorian town to the south to get revenge (The town's name is Jevanicia, but on the map you want to look for Tectoctar. For why the name's are different you should check out the world's history).

Somewhere in here, Terroc teleported back to Phoenix with Preta's body. In my world, there is a house rule that you do not lose a level if you are reincarnated, only if you are raised. I also have my own reincarnate table. Preta went for a reincarnate instead of a raise dead. He came back as a Cervidal, which is a type of outsider that looks like a satyr. It's one of the better things you can come back as.

At Jevanicia, Bill destroyed everything. No one there was high enough level to threaten him. Not even the small Dragovinian population party stood a chance, especially with the buffs the party gave Bill. The characters learned that Dragovinians are vulnerable to the divine cold damage of a fire shield spell. Bill didn't kill everyone in the town, but he killed damn near everyone he could get his hands on. The civilians of the town fled to the south.

Spoiler: Large Image

Show

Scruffy was not in the town. Terroc scried for Scruffy and found him dead in the swamp. He teleported there with Amalius. Amalius used disguise to make Scruffy look like he'd been killed by a Xorian spear. They teleported back to Jevanicia and showed the body they'd "just found" to Bill. Bill flew into a rage and beat the stone buildings of the town into dust and the wood buildings into tiny splinters.

The party asked if Bill wanted to get more revenge on the Xorians. He said yes. They told him to wait three days at the ruins of the town. The party teleported back to Phoenix and called a War Council meeting. They proposed an attack on the siege wall in three days with Bill and an army backing Bill up.

The session ended there.