61
Legends of the Heroes / Re: Mind Games
« on: October 11, 2021, 03:24:27 PM »
We're partway through the Battle of "Brindol". I'm pretty much ignoring what's in the campaign book by this time. I ran a session earlier about Droam joining the hobgoblins via a portal reawakened in an ancient Dakaani ruin. So now the horde is being reinforced by harpies, a beholder, and a bunch of other more "monstrous" monsters. We'll get to the Battle of Brindol later. In this post, I want to talk about the session before that, in which they learned about Droam joining, found out about the portal, etc.
Luxis (my son's character) wound up in discussions/negotiations with the Twelve about the growing threat to Eberron (and trade) that the Red Hand (and Tiamat) represent. He managed to bargain for them to help him construct a fortress/keep with a Teleportation Circle in it (as part of the network they manage). He had also started using Mind Switch (which I lowered to level 5, to match Magic Jar... because why they hell should wizards get it before Telepaths?) to really great effect. I had his artificer cohort craft a magic item that acted like the "jar" in Magic Jar, and also placed a Word of Recall enchantment on it, and made it so that he could trigger it "mentally" while inside the jar. He was having a blast with this overpowered insanity, and in truth so did I.
They found out that the Red Hand army was amassing at an old Dhakanni ruin, and so set off to find out what they were up to there. He was possessing a troll, which was a member of the Red Hand army, and managed to walk right through a portal and into the chamber where the representatives of the Red Hand were discussing terms with Sora Katra (in Droam). In his boldness, he singlehandedly attacked the whole group of 50+, and actually killed Sora Katra... I gave him a surprise round, and he won initiative and so got two full rounds (plus a 3rd with Anticipatory Strike) before they had a chance to react. Well... with Telekinetic Thrust, he can dish out a truly insane amount of damage in that time. He also has a homebrewed power based on Curse of the Putrid Husk, which has an augment to let him apply it to multiple enemies. So... he was able to incapacitate or kill quite a few enemies in that couple of rounds... Then of course he was quickly incapacitated himself... but because he was in a troll... he wasn't actually killled, but merely knocked unconscious (which was worse for him... as he was trapped and unable to flee to another body or his "jar" to escape).
Since he was enjoying the magic jar stuff so much, I made a decision to make this a "permanent" ability... by letting him level up in (a modified version of) the Stranger with the Burning Eyes, one of my absolute favorite homebrew PrCs. The main requirement is your own body must have been destroyed... So... while he was out attacking the Sisters, I had an "attack squad" led by a greater barghest (enhanced via Tome of Fiends feats which gave it wings and the ability to teleport, and a couple levels of crusader) attack his new keep and destroy it... along with his real body.
While that was happening, Sora Tezzara brought her "sister" back to life, and then eventually hit Luxis' host/troll body with a Greater Dispel Magic. This kicked him out of it, and back into the "jar", and he then triggered his Word of Recall and teleported back to his keep... to find it and his real body destroyed. He of course freaked out at this, and even threatened to quit the game... (rightfully, probably, lol). Then I told him about the prestige class, and he loved the option, and so I leveled him up, andwe stuck with it. (I had ideas about bringing him back if he opted not to go with it, probably involving their druid ally using Reincarnate).
So... he's been having great fun body hopping and causing havoc since then. He went back to the army, which was in the process of destroying Drellin's Ferry (which had been evacuated, thanks to the PCs), and managed to possess Gorodan Ashlord, a fire giant "general" from Droaam...
Luxis (my son's character) wound up in discussions/negotiations with the Twelve about the growing threat to Eberron (and trade) that the Red Hand (and Tiamat) represent. He managed to bargain for them to help him construct a fortress/keep with a Teleportation Circle in it (as part of the network they manage). He had also started using Mind Switch (which I lowered to level 5, to match Magic Jar... because why they hell should wizards get it before Telepaths?) to really great effect. I had his artificer cohort craft a magic item that acted like the "jar" in Magic Jar, and also placed a Word of Recall enchantment on it, and made it so that he could trigger it "mentally" while inside the jar. He was having a blast with this overpowered insanity, and in truth so did I.
They found out that the Red Hand army was amassing at an old Dhakanni ruin, and so set off to find out what they were up to there. He was possessing a troll, which was a member of the Red Hand army, and managed to walk right through a portal and into the chamber where the representatives of the Red Hand were discussing terms with Sora Katra (in Droam). In his boldness, he singlehandedly attacked the whole group of 50+, and actually killed Sora Katra... I gave him a surprise round, and he won initiative and so got two full rounds (plus a 3rd with Anticipatory Strike) before they had a chance to react. Well... with Telekinetic Thrust, he can dish out a truly insane amount of damage in that time. He also has a homebrewed power based on Curse of the Putrid Husk, which has an augment to let him apply it to multiple enemies. So... he was able to incapacitate or kill quite a few enemies in that couple of rounds... Then of course he was quickly incapacitated himself... but because he was in a troll... he wasn't actually killled, but merely knocked unconscious (which was worse for him... as he was trapped and unable to flee to another body or his "jar" to escape).
Since he was enjoying the magic jar stuff so much, I made a decision to make this a "permanent" ability... by letting him level up in (a modified version of) the Stranger with the Burning Eyes, one of my absolute favorite homebrew PrCs. The main requirement is your own body must have been destroyed... So... while he was out attacking the Sisters, I had an "attack squad" led by a greater barghest (enhanced via Tome of Fiends feats which gave it wings and the ability to teleport, and a couple levels of crusader) attack his new keep and destroy it... along with his real body.
While that was happening, Sora Tezzara brought her "sister" back to life, and then eventually hit Luxis' host/troll body with a Greater Dispel Magic. This kicked him out of it, and back into the "jar", and he then triggered his Word of Recall and teleported back to his keep... to find it and his real body destroyed. He of course freaked out at this, and even threatened to quit the game... (rightfully, probably, lol). Then I told him about the prestige class, and he loved the option, and so I leveled him up, andwe stuck with it. (I had ideas about bringing him back if he opted not to go with it, probably involving their druid ally using Reincarnate).
So... he's been having great fun body hopping and causing havoc since then. He went back to the army, which was in the process of destroying Drellin's Ferry (which had been evacuated, thanks to the PCs), and managed to possess Gorodan Ashlord, a fire giant "general" from Droaam...