Synopsis

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Synopsis

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Prequel
Potastrophe
Museum
Old McDonald's Farm
Orcs
Unicorn to Dwarven Lord
Future Tense
- Along Came a Spider
- Plains Encounters
- Earth and Wind
- Betrayal
- Heroic to Paragon
Druid Module
Water Attack
Ring of Power
Negotiations
------DM break lasting a few months----------
Held Graveyard
Dragon
- Campsite Spring
- Martial Law
- Dragon
True Evolution
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Synopsis

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Prequel - The origins of Uberminion
The game first started with a prequel. An adventure to test maptools and flex my virtual muscles with the system. It wasn't supposed to be plot relevant, but ended up being just that.
A bunch of kobolds had infiltrated a museum to do mischief. The players found lots of kobolds. One of the kobold minions managed to dodge player attacks in a previous battle for a couple rounds. So he escaped to tell his boss details of the invaders.
They eventually found a kobold chief, a shaman, and more minions. There was some ritual being prepares(not started). A nasty fight ensued. The party ignored most of the minions and focuses on the bigger threats. They killed all but one of the minions and everything else. Then the real fight began. Rolls were made with everything being under 10. Meanwhile, that minion was scoring hit after hit. The fact that he had thp from the chief didn't help it either. This was the same minion the party couldn't hit in the previous fight.
So when someone *finally* managed to hit the minion after 3 rounds of this, and did only 4 damage(1thp and 1hp left), the minion took off.

Thus was born the bbeg of the first 10 levels:
Uberminion
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Synopsis

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Unicorn to Dwarven Lord

Now the first real module began. The job board was brought into being, and the players chose the module to track down green kobolds that had raided the city and left with an unknown orb.
The party set off and found disturbing tracks: their target had met up with a lot of kobolds(a tribe). They arrived at this place fairly quickly, and found an old cave. By searching a dead end, they found the coverings of a tunnel system that led deeper and deeper.
What followed was a loose remake from an old D&D board game. The smaller maps led into a dwarven stronghold. It was here that the party encountered odd kobolds. They often had equipment that was not of this plane. It was as much a problem for the wielders as for their enemies, since there was a misfire chance. Ten percent may not seem like much, but it happened often.
Here's some of w
Most of the kobolds were the standard spear wielders, but...
There were big ones, strong enough to break down walls. They had a device with spinning blades at the end.
There was a shocker kobold. He had on metal-lined gloves that attached to a backpack. Protruding from the top was a metal rod capped with a metallic ball. Lightning would shoot from it to nearby objects and people that the kobold grappled with.
There were also a couple kobolds with a weapon that shot spears. But the party wasn't interested since the backfire happened every time(darn die rolls).
A group of red kobolds were fought here. The party didn't catch on to the different color.
There was a very skinny displacer beast here. It became trapped in a room when it grew too big to leave. He had been feeding off of who-knows-what. The kobolds found it the hard way and lots died. The displacer beast was later discovered by the party(who charged into the room) and trapped it. With thoughts of taming it or freeing it later, the party lured it into a room without an opening enlarged by the party breaking down areas, and shut the door. It's still in the dungeon. Roaming the halls and eating various things.
A gelatinous cube was encountered here. The kobolds had somehow kept it from leaving a certain section of the dungeon. The party found it by walking right into the square before I could type the word stop. The perceptions weren't good enough anyways, but it sure was a fun encounter. Inside the cube was a perfectly preserved corpse of a guy who had suffocated. He hadn't melted because he was wearing a ring of acid protection.
One ooze was encountered. It kept splitting and became several oozes before it was dispatched. A lot of groans were had every time the split happened. Never once did they try to prevent the split though...
There were a few undead kobolds. These were actually made by trying to work with the orb which was stolen, though the party never found out.
A room with a large metal door was found. Several dead kobolds were around with acid and fire burns. One was crushed. The party never gave up searching though. They eventually discovered that the big metal door was false when they found a trigger that slid open the wall beside the big iron door. Untouched treasure was had by all.
At one point, the entire party was magically captured. So began the holiday oneshot module that, again, was not supposed to have an impact(I think it was easter). They were transported to the Pit o' Doom(their name for it). This was an arena with four major pillars, spikes protruding from the arena walls to prevent climbing, and a slippery bridge over a pit of acidic blood(party wanted it). Lots of green kobolds were in the stands. They had a brown kobold announcer(he had been given to the greens as a peace offering). While the party fought increasingly tough battles, the green kobold would insult their poor die rolls. Crits by the monsters were praised as examples of kobolds triumphing over the invaders to their home. The audience would throw rotting vegetables at the party whenever they crit. Whenever someone stepped in a trap, the kobolds would laugh and laugh. The party eventually turned the tides and the ranged members attacked the audience. There was a mass exodus of kobolds from the stands, which left the brown announcer kobold and a couple of guards. The party beat the guards and found a way back. Zanne, however, lost her temper. Before leaving, she decided to get revenge on that announcer. Around and around the they went. Zanne eventually cornering him. She lost her control over the wererat powers, and changed. It became a fight for his life as she attacked him. He managed to grapple her, and they struggled. Both of them were almost falling into the blood pit, but Zanne eventually managed to force him against a wall. She got control of herself and changed back into a human. She told the kobold he could either serve her, or die here. He decided to follow along, and Meepo was made.
Meepo was first tied up and carried. He managed to convince the party to let him walk by himself, and Zanne kept a hold of that rope. Seeing him captured, the brown kobolds repeatedly tried to kill him. Wanting to live, Meepo agreed to help Zanne. Throughout the stronghold, Meepo would try to escape, but Zanne was watching him always.
The last room was magically sealed until the party figured out how to break it. Inside, they found Sam, the monk who had gone after Uberminion! He was changed. Shadows seemed to stream out from his pours. His attacks devastated the party. He forcibly slide the party around the room to where he had the best chance to attack everyone with viscous kicks. As he was beaten down(player amount of hp), he would submit more to the darkness. It eventually made him a being that was hard to hit, and hard to deal with. His kicks first became burst attacks. Then he gained an ability to make his struck opponent attack their friends. The party had a hard time, and half of them dropped under zero hp. Sam was devilish enough to keep attacking downed targets, too. It was a weakened party that finally won the day.
However, there was chanting going on down below. The party decided to press onwards! Short rest? The target was heard chanting. Finally, the party would get revenge! No time to waste!
They went down the spiral stairs and came into a room with four feet of water at the bottom. Pillars that rose to the water's level made a path to the back of the room. A few pillars were also scattered about(with kobold crossbow wielders on them). At the back of the room were some of the captured party members(unconscious). There was also Uberminion and a portal.
There was a wild rush. Kobolds tried to block the party, only to be beaten down. Every turn, Uberminion forced another character into the portal. The party was too late to save any of them. Uberminion was driven back and he escaped into the portal. It started closing while they decided what to do. At the last instant, they jumped in together and found themselves in the next area.

DM Note: This stronghold was tough. The difficulty was upped to alarming rates because of the party tendency to split up at intersections, blindly enter areas without caring about the many traps, and the constant numbers thrown against them. While it wasn't actually *that* bad(the party never used even half their healing surges a fight, and the monsters were always under the level of the party), it was a bit more than people thought. This, coupled with the games taking place during the week, meant that in addition to people dropping to scheduling, they also dropped due to party cohesion and the atmosphere of danger. It was the biggest turnover rate I have ever had. Though there were two players that stuck through. Their characters were Zanne and Ailwin. Also, a band of Red Kobolds(see Snarl) were fought here, but the party didn't catch on that I was only showing black and white pictures, or color pictures of green ones everywhere else.
Also, three choices were given for what was on the other side of the portal. Ravenloft-esque plane? RL life plane? Post apocalyptic plane? They chose the third option.
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Re: Synopsis

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Potastrophe
The party was in a module designed for characters to basically assemble. A game zero so to speak.
It involved the prankster Haer. The tavern the party was dining at had a stew that was always on. It is usually kept at a simmer and whatever was caught for the day would be thrown in. Haer spiked some of the meat and it created a huge sized monster with tentacles and all sorts of fun stuff for the party to play with.
Here is a post on it.
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Re: Synopsis

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Orcs

Here's a big recounting of it.

Here's another part I had typed up for the party at the time:
In the room with the rats was a secret door to the Orc hideout. The trash was next to the door, and those rats were the door guards.
The path led to the necromancer because of the set up. They bring the HANAN necromancer people for turning into those skeletons, and he doesn't kill them.
If you had listened to the riddle door carefully, you would have heard the HANAN talk to his dolls, and he would answer with different voices from each doll.
The dolls names were Jeffarice, Natice, Walliss, and Tobias.
If the dolls had ever gotten to go the next round, they would have combined into megadoll. A level 3 elite defender who hugs enemies into it's stomach.
That necrotic mist you had a hard time seeing though? Any radiant damage dealt in that mist would not do extra damage to undead.
Speaking of the mist, it was coming from the coffin. It's part of the process of making new skeletons.
Another part of the process was draining the life of his skeletons. That's why they died so easy in that first room, and the one didn't even move.
Next session, you would have heard a voice crying in the coffin as the person inside regained consciousness.
That cleric I was asking about in the other thread. That was him.
He was captured by the Orcs when he was with another adventuring party.
They got in by the spells of their wizard.
He also knew where the door was to the orc hideout.
A certain minion we all know and love(Uberminion) is actually visiting the orc hideout to learn how to become stronger.
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Re: Synopsis

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Museum


Here's where Uberminion became a recurring character and Zanne was introduced. Since I already typed this all out, you can find it here.
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Re: Synopsis

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Old McDonald's Farm

Ah, here was a module that the players insisted upon. I had put it in the list of modules as a joke, and they took it. So I had the unenviable task of somehow converting a 3.5 edition wererat module into a 4e one.

Old McDonald is one of the multi-farm owners outside the city. He specializes in wheat and other plant products.
I believe it was his corn field under attack. Rats the size of dogs were eating his fields, and he was desperate for help. This came in the form of a small party of adventurers who had just left the museum. The group was still finding their way to working as a team, and the disappearance of their monk friend, Sam, was hitting the party hard.
The group tried to bargain their way into a better reward, but only slightly succeeded. Old McDonald was stingy. They decided to set a trap, and laid in wait. That night, rats came under the leadership of a person playing a pipe. The group fought the rats and found that some of the wounds were healing. The truth eluded the party, and while everyone else managed to resist the disease, Zanne did not. It would later turn out that the rats actually had wererats in their number, and that Zanne was infected by that transformation curse.
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Future Tense

When the party emerged from the portal, they found themselves in a cage with their sleeping companions. There was Uberminion, in the cage with them, but he quickly managed to squeeze through the bars and they were stuck. Kobolds surrounded the cage and were chanting. A quick look around found the cage to be in the center of a large magic circle. The room was just like the one the party had left, but without the flooding. Uberminion laughed at their choice, and explained that they were to be sent to another in exchange for items of power like the ones the party had fought against earlier. Meanwhile, Zanne's group were trying to find out where they were. After several minutes of hurling insults back and forth, the party was transported yet again. However, this did not go as planned.
The group felt a wrenching sensation in mid transport. When they came to, they were in a shallow pit on some dirt. The party immediately drew their weapons. They also noticed that all the unconscious ones, and a few that were part of the group, were missing. Zanne was down to just a few companions. A human wizard named Grunst approached and spoke to them in the pit. He explained that it was his magic that intercepted the teleportation. He grabbed as many as he could and brought them here. He would have gotten them all, but this was not the main hideout, so he was forced to work with what he had.
The group was free to roam about the hideout, or even leave to find their own way back if they so choose. The wizard could send them back, but he would need his ritual books retrieved from the old hideout. It was evacuated quickly because the demon's troops were found close by and heading their way. They were also low on supplies like food and weapons. If the group obtained all that, he would return them to their world.
Also in the hideout were the remainders of the rebels. Their leader was a red tiefling named Tarla. Her second in command was a male elf archer named Ailon. A shardmind psion called 'Dilbert' was the underling of Grunst. There was also a goliath rogue named Grunt, an orc rogue named Malive, a wilden barbarian named Leo, a low level warforged mystic theurge named Cast, a minotaur fighter named Jake, and a human paladin named Fidelias Marcus. They actually all have back stories that were never revealed to the party...
Talking to all the rebels, the party was able to put together what was going on. First, that they had somehow traveled hundreds of years in the future. Second, that an invasion from another plane had happened. Third, the first city to fall was Held. Fourth, written knowledge was targeted so that exact details were forgotten. Last, the people of that plane had not been seen for such a long time, that nobody knew what they looked like.
Determined to go return to their time and prepare, the party agreed to accomplish Grunst's tasks.
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Along Came a Spider
The party had decided to go after Grunst's ritual books. Zanne and her group met up with Ailwin the Ranger and Zeeke the Invoker in their travels. It turns out they too were sent forward in time by Uberminion, but had decided to go their own way after being rescued0 rescued. The group found nothing but despair however. Ailwin's animal companion, a young bear he named Trist, was separated when the group were running away from a “demonic kobold patrol”. Ailwin tried to describe what a demonic kobold looked like, but their appearance made it difficult. The best way to say it was, “a twisted kobold the size of a man.” The party agreed to help, and Ailwin joined up.
The group started getting near their destination when they came across trees that looked like their shapes had be designed by some impressionist artist. Their trunks bent first one way, then another. The branches had sparse leaves, and the leaves themselves were closer to the brown of the trunk than the green of healthy vegetation. Among the branches, and scattered on the floor, were massive spiderwebs. These things were thick where they laid and seemed to cling tenaciously to the boots of whoever walked across them. It wasn't long before the party discovered the source of the webs.
There were monstrous spiders of all types. Not only did they mimic the tiny species of the party's homelands, but the spiders seemed to be coexisting together. From daddy longlegs the size of a horse, to the venomous black widows the size of small dogs, these spiders pounced on the party in an ambush. Thanks to Ailwin, the group managed to see the spiders in time. While the long legged spiders were using their reach to attack from a distance, the black widows would close from behind to poison their enemies. That first fight was brutal, but the party prevailed.
Of course, the party had to proceed deeper into the 'forest', if it could be called such. Another fight seemed to be unavoidable, but again, the spiders should thought and stayed away. The party found the cave to the rebel base. There was evidence of fighting that had happened recently. After the party hopped over a pit, the Zanne and her group were attacked by drow and spiders! They barely managed to defeat the enemy with one of their number dying in the process. It was Zeeke who succumbed to the drow sleeping poison, and was finished off by a lucky strike from one of the dark elves.
The group managed to search the place, and discovered Sigmund the Fighter trussed up in webbing. Sigmund had been out scouting when the cave was first attacked, and came back to find it ransaked. He had been looking for supplies to take with him when the drow showed up. He was tortured for days to get the location the rebels had run off to. Sigmund knew of their last hidey-hole, but did not give these drow the information they wanted. The drow were just getting ready to resume questioning him after the healing when the party arrived. Sigmund knew where Grunst's ritual books were located, and the party was a third of the way to home!
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Re: Synopsis

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Plains encounters
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