The Brutal Battle for the Bell Tower

The foul legions of the Red Hand of Doom are on the march…few though we may be, we must thrust ourselves valiantly into the gaping maw of the enemy and eviscerate them….

Sir Ector’s Journal Entry Rhest Bell Tower

The dust had just settled from the encounter with Korkulan the Hobgoblin Bladebearer… the party was licking its wounds…Rin was groggily rising to his feet…when the lizardmen struck again. Silently they rose from the murky water in the base of the Bell Tower and launched a volley of poisoned darts at us. With a soft whimper, fair Daresh swooned…falling into gallant Sir Ector’s outstretched arms. Rin whirled and before any could react he put three arrows into three lizardmen…dead…dead…dead! Then we heard them…all around us…swimming in…moving to the walls…climbing up the walls…hordes of lizardmen! Quickly stuffing Daresh into Rin’s Handy Haversack, we dashed to meet the incoming threat.

Django and Sir Ector took up blocking positions on the second floor landing of the interior staircase. Vowing to let none pass—let them come…let them try…ha ha ha! Meanwhile Fraenir, Rin and Hortis made for the rooftop to rain death down upon the lizard hordes. Despite the din of the attack, Rin overheard the arcane whispers of some invisible spellcaster and quickly alerted the group to disperse. We made for each side wall, launching arrows and acid down onto the lizard men below. Then…much to our dismay…the lizardmen began to swiftly climb up the very sides of the Bell Tower…”Lizardmen can’t climb walls we cried incredulously”…These can”, came that weird disembodied voice! Rin rained arrows…Fraenir swooped around the outside of the building and spit acid…and Hortis speared the approaching lizardmen. Deep in the bowels of the building we heard the bellow of Sir Ector’s Kiai Shout which put fear into the hearts of the enemy. As the lizardmen’s main attck neared the rooftop, Django joined us to repel boarders…casting Dispel Magic to hinder their foul advance.

Suddenly, Fraenir was confronted by the shimmering shape of a lizard man emerging from invisibility. Shouting incomprehensibly, the lizardman fired a wand of lightening, shocking our mighty Fraenir. On the rooftop, Rin and Django rained death on the horde of lizardmen as the clambered over the edge of the rooftop. Hortis beautifully angled a fireball and whipped clean an entire flank! But there foul numbers were simply too much…despite our meeting out of death with every blow…the hordes were soon upon us. Hortis, flush with victory, slapped a lizardman across the face with his gauntlet….”Ha ha ha…I laugh at you” he said in his best imitation French accent! Meanwhile, Rin side stepped to fire three more arrows with deadly accuracy. But the lizardmen had an evil plan up their sleeves (do lizardmen have sleeves????). They bull rushed all of us…trying to push us into the gaping opening in the center of the Bell Tower and into the murky waters below. Only the quick thinking Django was able to thwart their plan, fooling the attack with a well timed Mirror Image—which caused his attackers to go flying over the edge with naught in their hands. Rin and Hortis, however, were overwhelmed and pushed over the edge in a swarm of lizardmen.

Our combined defense was now broken up into three solo battles throughout the Bell Tower and the underwater struggle of Hortis and Rin below. On the steps inside, Sir Ector waged a mighty battle against a host of lizardmen. Happy in heat of battle…and humming traditional dwarven war hymns as he worked…Sir Ector slew lizard after lizard. He even goaded them as he swung his mighty axe…”Come you foul beasts…show me what you’ve got!!” Fraenir meanwhile waged a mano on lizard battle with the spellcaster on the dock below…unfortunately, Fraenir couldn’t score a hit to save his life…and he kept getting fried by the lizardman’s lightening bolts as he used up our treasure! Frustrated though he was, he did manage to occupy the spellcaster throughout the battle and keep him out of the greater fight. Alone on the rooftop, Django continued to confound the lizard hordes…tumbling back and forth through them while dealing blow after blow...his Dancing Sword a swirling shimmer of death!

Hortis and Rin were in a race against time as they swirled in the waters below…avoiding lizardmen and other underwater obstacles. Hortis managed to quickly pull himself free and climb atop the landing with Sir Ector. Rin, though he avoided the lizardmen, was slowed and lost precious seconds trying to get free…rather then risk being captured, he cast Speed Swim and vaulted free! By this time, we were clearly gaining the upper hand…Fraenir scored a massive hit on the spellcaster…breaking through his magical shield. Django dealt death blow after death blow...laughing as the lizardmen tried to cut him bad! Ha ha ha ha ha…I have damage reduction…you can’t hurt me!!!!!! Hortis leapt into the midst of the remaining lizardmen in a seeming suicidal act…only to cast Fire Burst and immolate the lot of them.

Finally, we were down to the spellcaster locked in battle with Fraenir. Knowing he was likely to flee, Fraenir leapt on him and grappled…holding him in place. Rin…stepping through the opening…saw his opportunity and fired…critical hit!!!! The spellcaster fell limp in Fraenir’s arms.. his life ebbing swiftly as he realized he would never live to see the victory of the Red Hand fo Doom….

Jessica: home-made d6

This is my niece Jessica, who made a d6 out of a radish.

Fraenir - how to play him

Paul sent me this in an email one week where he couldn't come to give some tactics on your and my favorite Dragon Shaman. Here it is should we need it again later.

Jared,

I think it should be mostly self-explanatory, but here are a couple of
things:

1) Hit points: I have a blank sheet of paper in the stack of pages of
his character sheet that should have his current hit points.  I think
its around 1/2, since I had been using my aura to fast heal.

2) Breath weapon: every 1d4 rounds, its 3d6, with a DC of 18, I think
(on the sheet)  I can also cut the damage in half and entangle people.
Its a feat called "entangling exhalation" and it might be in races of
the dragon

3) Flying: I can only fly Con bonus rounds at a time, but I can glide
in between (20 feet forward for every 5 feet down) so I can be up for
a long time.  I can also do a dive attack while flying and get 2x
damage (it works like a charge, otherwise)

4) Healing. I haven't used my healing touch yet.  Its 2xdragon shaman
levelxCHA bonus points per day, distributed however.  With the cloak
of charisma I got from Django, its up to 2x6x3=36 points of instant
healing.

5) Auras: the most useful tonight would probably either be the DR
2/magic (especially against snipers) or the Acid resistance 10 (useful
against the razorfiends or if we fight a black or green dragon)

6) Morningstar: I get up to CON bonus acid surges per day that do an
additional 2d6.  Obviously may not make sense against dragons or
razorfiends.  I haven't used any of them yet.

-Paul

11/01/07 - A world of darkness and short sword-edness

In a world of darkness and short-sword-edness, one hobgoblin was going to show the Blue Hand Group, I mean, the Copper Tones, the meaning of terror. His name? Karkulan. His weapons? Two short swords. His target? The Copper Tones. His goals? Unsuccessful!

Our story begins with Sir Ector (the Magnificent) and Rincarvornon rowing madly through the lake to catch up with their friends at the tower. Three lizardmen fired darts at Rin, felling him instantly with a plot-paralysis that even his elven resistance could not block. Sir Ector scared them away with two kiai shouts. Once Sir Ector made it to the tower, he hurled Rincarvornon over his shoulder and proclaimed, “Never fear, my small-bottomed, elven companion! Dwarves make light of burdens.”

In the meantime, Django and Fraenir – with an invisibility spell’s cloak to hide them from their enemies piercing eyes – went to investigate the bell tower in the center of the lake. It was guarded by two ferocious ettins. Their armor was thick and their shields were broad. They have many javelins to hurl at our copper-hued heroes. While exploring, Dan rolled a 6 on a Spot check and – quite brazenly – claimed it as a cocked dice. When he re-rolled? A 1. I think we all learned an important lesson that day.

However, our two spellcasters – who usually make light work of massive numbers of foes – were in the fight for their lives against the vicious Karkulan, a two short sword-wielding hobgoblin under a flight spell. He hacked and slashed at Hordis, under a levitate spell, dropping him to -10 hit points. Hordis, a noble figure, hung there suspended in the air under the levitate spell’s influence, unable to drop, his blood floating like from those Klingons in “Star Trek VI” when the gravity goes out. A terrified Daresh ran down the tower stairs to avoid becoming Karkulan’s next victim.

But Sir Ector – who had contributed precious little to this portion of the campaign – moved into fully inspiring, marshal mode and uttered some words of encouragement that boosted Hordis’s endurance by 3 hit points. The warmage was spared a dusty death at a hobgoblin’s hands. “The blood of 1,000 hobgoblins is on my boots, Karkulan!” Ector said. “I aim to make it 1,001 today!”

Incensed, Karkulan flew into Sir Ector. After a might exchange of blows, Karkulan struck the dwarf with two critical hits in the same round. 45 points of damage! The two short swords penetrated up under Sir Ector’s armor and bit into his corpulent flesh. “Your blood will flow like a flountain, dwarf,” Karkulan sneered, and spat in Sir Ector’s face. Sir Ector, with only six hit points, responded with a mighty blow --- that utterly missed.

Rincarvornon lay there helplessly, paralyzed…playing dead his only defense. If Sir Ector fell, there would be none to save the elf.

But then(!) appearing as a flash of arcane might and stunning southern-continental Asiatic beauty, Daresh emerged from the first floor of the tower and blasted Karkulan with a scorching ray. With the extra +1 from her Point Blank Shot just barely enabling her to strike Karkulan’s touch AC, she destroyed him – saving Ector, Rin, and Hordis. Truly, Daresh was the hero of the day. (Of course, if Mark gave all of us magic items worth 180,000 GP, we’d probably be doing OK too. I’m just saying.)

However, our heroes’ respite was a brief one. Twenty lizard-folk emerged from the water and surrounded the weakened warriors. Even though Django appeared and administered some emergency healing, Ector, Hordis, and Daresh had about 15 hit points between the three of them.

The lizardfolk were led by a mighty, plate-mail garbed warrior – whom a cunning Hordis instantly deciphered as an illusion, indicating that some fell spellcaster gives aid to our enemies. It appeared that the hammer would strike hard at our heroes when Fraenir screamed through the air like a flash of invisible, copper-hued lightning to heal Ector back to max hit points just in time.

The lizards moved to attack! Hordis wiped out half of them with a fireball. Daresh brought the other half to within an inch of death with another. Some quick sword play (including two virtually wasted natural 20s in a row from Ector) dispatched them quickly.

But hark! In the distance, Fraenir sensed the approach of greenspawn razorfiends! And 40 more lizardfolk! And a black dragon!

The Copper Tones withdrew into the tower, hoping that this would not be their last stand and that they might yet escape and save the lands from the Red Hand of Doom. Luckily, they had earned enough exThe Copper Tones withdrew into the tower, hoping that this would not be their last stand and that they might yet escape and save the lands from the Red Hand of Doom. Luckily, they had earned enough experience to level up. Would that be enough power to withstand the coming assault?

Surely. Their enemies will crash upon them like water on rock.