Last time they were just in Moonwheat. They promptly introduced themselves to the local lord, accepted his thanks for saving his daughter, agreed to help defeat the Confederate Demon Army surrounding the city and went shopping.
The Highroad where Moonwheat is is like Inner Mongolia, Tibet and the former Silk Road rolled into one, a rough border zone compared to where they came from, the civilised coast of China. This is a game of geopolitics that has been played out before: war in Lakour of some description, Confederacy invades and pillages the Highroad and beyond, sometimes Lacour itself, then when peace is being negotiated they use the Highroad prizes as a bargaining chip.
They bought an extensive list of stuff, from an even bigger list. A sample:
Hector the Adventurer
Sells: wondrous stuff ripped from dead adventurers:
Uncommon:
- Boots of Elvenkind
- Boots of Striding and Springing
- Bracers of Archery
- Brooch of Shielding
- Broom of Flying
- Dust of Dryness
- Immovable Rod
- Figurine of Wondrous Power: Serpentine Owl
- Gauntlets of Ogre Power
- Periapt of Health
- Periapt of Wound Closure
- Ring of Warmth
- Shield +2
- Stone of Good Luck
- Wand of Magic Missiles
Rare:
- +3 Arrow x 3
- Bag of Beans
- +1 Bloody Great Axe (Mass Marker Mass Murderer The Mass)
- Elven Chain
- Folding Boat
- Horn of BLASTING
- Ioun Stone x 2 (random roll)
- Oil of Etherealness
VERY RARE
- Crystal Ball
- Candle of Invocation
They didn't know the axe was cursed, but it was perfect. The Goliath barbarian bought it. The half-Elf fighter who serves as the true ace in the party I was GMPC'ing for a while but the player returned (Caffy) but even she bought a few bits. They hadn't been to a town since December 2020 or before then so it was time.
They spent a whole session, a whole 2 hour + session shopping more or less and interacting with a handful of shopkeepers so that was interesting.
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The next session they were awoken in the middle of the night: the rogue and wizard were handcuffed leg to arm, the barbarian was covered in slippery oil and the fighter-queen-pretender was being stabbed repeatedly by an assassin.
The main draw here for me is when I bought Dynamic Lighting I set up this session - they were going to be stalked anyway by assassins but this was perfect. The Goliath barbarian had no dark vision, so I could set them to have no effective sight.
The half-Elf fighter and Tiefling rogue had darkvision, so were fine. Fighter also has a flametongue longsword so I was able to set that up to emit light too for everyone's benefit.
Fire Genasi Wizard has darkvision but it specifically states its red tinted so I was able to do that! So cool.
The assassin in the little house they were in just wanted to kill one or two of them then make an exit if things got hot. Killing them all would be great. One is fine. Anyway, he stabbed the Queen a bit but had to bail as the rogue freed themselves from the manacles but the wizard was rendered useless as they were unable to move hands. Interesting. The barbarian got a shot in and the assassin fled out a window. They followed via door and window and were shot at by another assassin on the opposite roof!
This guy fired Purple Worm poison at the barbarian for damn near 40 damage. They managed to pin down and kill one assassin and captured the other one despite having a ton of disadvantages. They learned some stuff from him and moved on.
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Sadly, dynamic lighting horrifically slowed down one player's laptop so we had to disable it after this encounter. Honestly that's fine as the main draw of buying plus for me was the extra storage, having maxed myself out around this time. The dynamic lighting was a nice plus but added a lot of extra prep for me and was not 100% perfect all the time. A real nice to have but honestly not pushed on it.
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So after all that they got the barbarian curse removed and did a little more shopping and then they figured out what jobs they wanted to do. They were going to go straight to a nearby detainment camp but realised they could swing west up the hills and disable the mortars up there firing on the city. Roll on the western hills!
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They started climbing and an army of Manes and Dretches appeared behind them. But they didn't know that. Instead they rescued an Aasimar cleric called Sigrid and then went up a bit more and found her paladin sister under a pile of treasure. It turned out to be an obvious trap and a bunch of Barlguras attacked alongside a Vrock.
They performed poorly enough, the barbarian player was not here this time so I ran him and the monsters and made a mistake with the enemies wherein they all got resistance to damage when they didn't or some hits I resisted and others I calculated normally, either way it was a tough battle but they won anyway. The paladin sister was dragged off but they found her later at the farmhouse.
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They cleared the farmhouse and encountered a shield guardian. It was just standing there so they ignored it and got a short rest. This was all part of my plan to use of their 'resources' a bit to see how they did. A unicorn revealed himself to the party as an ally for the ogre fight coming up. They were residing in the farm and hunting his kind.
Ogres returned, 4 ogres, a chain ogre, a skull ogre, some zombie ogres and an oni who controlled the shield guardian. Even though it was one spell level too high for the shield guardian to store I had it cast cone of cold in an attempt to knock out the half-elf fighter who is vulnerable to cold. It didn't work as hoped! The oni did his as well and no joy. They won with little damage, but there was a fun moment where the ogre they had following them for a few sessions at the start and died in the major monastery battle returned as a headless, impaled ogre zombie using his own rotting head on a stick as a morning star. They managed to kill it without letting the barbarian player know, who was attached to the ogre known as KERS somewhat.
The half-elf fighter who is literally chaotic evil and playing as such proceeded to cut off the hoof of a dead unicorn and traumatise the living unicorn ally they had so it alignment shifted into a nightmare. Don't ask. I figured they needed all the help they could get for the upcoming demon battle as the army surrounded the farmhouse and awaited for nightfall, they had a long rest. The last thing they did that session I asked 'how do you want to fight them' and they concocted a plan involving tons of fire and the barn.
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The battle begun and it was a bit slow as they had to wait for the demon army to slowly dash up to the barn and farmhouse in general. The fighter placed a bonfire spell at the main entrance which was super effective, the hordes suicidally charged into it. The majority of the demons went into the farmhouse, kited in there by the rogue who then proceeded to taunt and take hits from the tanarukk orc demons leading the charge. They managed to duck and dive out with invisibility as fire consumed the barn.
The rest of the party watched on as the demons stumbled into the firey trenches the shield guardian dug while they rested. The fighter did get up in their faces but then the air force arrived, a bunch of Chasme, Vrocks and Quasit. She retreated back and the airforce struck the main defenders at the back of the farmhouse.
Chasme are brutal. Their probiscus is terrifying; I had to downgrade them to just roll in, hit and run. Quasits dropped a bomb each. The two Vrocks were there to stay and run properly this time, but were still a nuisance. As of this writing, one is still alive (23/May/2021) but the second half of fight is tonight so we'll see!
The final part of that session, part 1 of the battle, they saw more weak demons break in, the back gate get broken down by a Hezrou, some Tanarukks and some Armanites (my other faves alongside Chasme) and a Cambion on a rooftop nearby. But behind the Cambion was an old friend, an Aarakocra Rogue from the first handful of sessions!
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Part 2 they managed to dismantle the remaining forces, from exploding the remaining explosive barrels set up, to casting Sunburst with the combined Crystals of Powers. They managed to defeat the big bois and even killed the Ogre Mage Oni who came back for revenege. Only a cambion escaped, retreating to the nearby mortarhouse at the top of the hill.
They levelled to 8 and received a ton of letters and post from the Aarakocra who is now a courier. The barbarian got a letter and gift from his tribe, the fighter got a love letter/marriage proposal, the wizard got a sending stone for a call from his masters and the tiefling rogue/bard got served papers. Fun! They also all got invited to the 150th regional championships... lots to do after they dismantle the demon army in the coming sessions.
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So that about does her for the minute. While I have immensely enjoyed my year with Roll20 I am close to thinking maybe I'll just sink 50 into Foundry and mess around with that.
I'm very excited about what they have achieved and what is to come. It's finally reaching a point where there are little callbacks and recurring characters from the past. The plot came slowly but surely and though still light and combat heavy, it's a lot of fun.
Here are their kills per session and experience points added:
They've done well! Pardon some of the choppy-ness here I had to hide the next session for now.
Here is the party composition timeline and leveling:
So at most they've spent 6 sessions at levels 7 and 5 which is fine. There have been some experience point awards here and there for quests completed but not too many to note. Finding the first and second crystals in session 8 and 14 respectively netted flat experience awards to the tune of around 1000 each. Cathy's fighter wininng the prestigious duels twice at local and provincial level netted her a small bonus to her experience so she is in the lead by like 50 XP only.
