Building Bhakashal – Session Report

My Thursday group is still split into three parts, each part got a slice of today’s session.

Group 1 – The Raiders

The party Spartan (monk) had joined in with the raiders on the Domino, with the Captain, Emberi Thaumaturge Thurva The Thrice Damned and her Malu Mercenary henchman Kalima Thrine. They were chasing a merchant vessel, the Astrolabe, and last session Thurva used Moonsal’s Ichorous Syphon to funnel up a column of water and used it to drown the Astrolabe’s warlock, Asil Merr the Mirach. A number of sailors on both sides were slain in the exchange of crossbow fire.

The two House Tairn barges that were protecting the Astrolabe turned around last session and approached the Domino, so they were closer. Chilonder Bix, a House Tairn Chitin warlock on Barge 1 had cast Phantasmal Force on the ship and made the illusion of 4 malu boarding the Domino, two at the front near the party Spartan, two near the back. The two near the Spartan attacked but did minor damage. The two at the back attacked two separate Domino sailors and slayed them.

The spartan attacked one of the illusions and hit it solidly on the chest, Bix made it fly over the side to be convincing.

4 of the 1^st level soldiers on B1 that had a shot, sent crossbow bolts at the Domino, slayed one crewmember and hit Thurva’s henchman, but as he has high HP the shot was described as a near miss. Two of the 4^th level mercenaries on B1 (at the front of the barge) shot Thurva, one hit her for minor damage, enough to disrupt her spell.

The 7^th level mercenary on Barge 1, Kostelthorne, shot Kalima and did minor damage. The spell caster on Barge 2, the 4^th level warlock Umi the Chaolite, cast Dalkin’s Mighty Stone, and a shimmering magical sling came into existence, and by using a diamond as the material component of the spell, a glowing sling “stone” shot out and flew towards the Domino, going through the chest of one of her sailors and out the back!

The crew of the Domino returned fire! Taking out 1 soldier on B1 and a sailor on the Astrolabe.

Kalima fired off a crossbow and shot a soldier on Barge 2, slaying him.

The high level mercenary on barge 2, Feegan the Boisterous, shot at the party Spartan, but he blocked the bolt.

SWITCH

 Group 2 - the trainers

The party Mercenary and newly created Conjuror were training, the Mercenary training his new baby wyvern and the Conjuror training on his new Kestram (giant bird) mount, on the way back to the city they had an encounter with a pair of NPCs.

They didn’t know these NPCs were sent to spy on them on behalf of House Magnar, one is a high level Spartan, the other a Mercenary. They were “attacked” by a Purple Liash plant, the party members saw them and rescued them last session.

The party Mercenary had went off with the Spartan NPC in search of their spooked mounts. They returned, and the PCs wanted to destroy the Purple Liash plant, so after a few misstarts managed to throw oil on it and set it on fire.

Fortunately, the weather roll for today had no rain.

The plant burned to the ground, and they looked around it’s’ base and found a gem, a necklace and a Bissandrith’s Sword of Cleaving, which was taken by the Conjuror.

They then bid farewell to the two NPCs, agreeing to meet them back in the city in a week or so, the NPCs have asked to “work off” their favor to owed to the PCs for “saving them”, so we’ll see if they get suspicious in the interim.

SWITCH

 Group 3 - The camp

The party members who stayed at the raider camp, the Spider/Warlock, the Warlock, the Beastial (druid) and the Slayer (ranger/assassin) had woken in the night to see the equivalent of a hurricane blowing around outside of their tents. 9 of the 10 raiders were in the air, flailing around helplessly.

Last session the party warlock cast Laysinath’s Secure Shelter, it worked, but the winds were so strong they blew the spell apart. The Slayer was armoring up, the Beastial preparing as spell and the Spider/Warlock tossed a knife into the maelstrom to see what would happen and it was snatched away as if it were nothing.

The 9 raiders in the air were then shot off in different directions by the wind as if they were rag dolls, this was the first sign that perhaps the wind was not natural. It was, in fact, a 16HD air elemental. Elementals in Bhakashal are VERY powerful, they get a lot of powers not listed in the description. For example, an air elemental could suck all of the air out of targets in the AOE, making them save or go unconscious, or they can neutralize missile fire completely, drive enough dust and dirt to completely blind targets in a large AOE, pick up people and throw them around just like a very powerful wind, etc.

 They all flew high up into the air then came crashing down to their deaths.

The party Warlock attempted to cast Rope Trick, however, by this point the wind was pretty strong near them, dirt was blasting into their faces, and the rope that you hold on to when casting Rope Trick was being pulled and pushed around by the wind. All of this combined to disrupt his casting of the spell, and it was over.

The wind picked up and hit the tents, and the party Warlock and Spider/Warlock were pulled out of the tents, they both had to make a saving throw to grab on to the tents before being flung into the air. The Slayer and Beastial stayed in the tents.

At this point a Garudin Gyre (Gyres use raw magical energy and have a domain, for example, this was a wind Gyre so he has various wind related powers) appears in the air, somehow the maelstrom has carved out a calm spot for him. He has a quiver full of javelins and a censer hanging from his belt, with smoke curling out. He announces himself as Ghanglor Terrik, calls out each of the PCs by name, then tells them that Riyan the Raze says hello, and they are to “give up” on the newly reunited Brass Blade guild to her. Riyan controlled the city branch of the guild before the unification. The party unified the guilds and took control of both away from her by convincing another faction to vote with theirs.

The Gyre took out a Javelin of Lightning and threw it, it struck the ground right in front of the two PCs, spraying dirt on them and, “making the hair on your arms stand up” it was so close. Then he had the air elemental blow freezing cold air at the two PCs, treated like a breath weapon that did 6d6 damage, save for half.

Ghanglor Terrik called out his warning a second time, “Give up on the guild, or you will be challenged and slain!” At that point he flew off.

In Bhakashal a House Warlock like Riyan the Raze would normally challenge the PCs to a duel for control of the guild, but she wants them to vote the control over to her in this case, so she had them intimidated rather than killed. To have an agent of hers kill them without a formal challenge would be dishonorable, so she just wanted to show the PCs that they are “touchable”.

SWITCH

 

Back to the ships.

The party Spartan struck out at another illusion, this time he delivered a powerful kick to the illusion’s “head”, this would normally have caused him to be stunned, or at least knocked over, but this time the caster, Chilonder Bix, could not see the hit so did not make the illusion react properly, and the Spartan got suspicious that this was not real.

He made a disbelief save and realized that these were illusions.

He shouted out to the sailors on the Domino that these were phantasms, they all got saves at +4 and disbelieved the illusion together. When Bix heard the Spartan shout he laughed and pointed at him, winking, letting the illusions dissolve into smoke. He then looked at the Domino, spoke the words, “Dveře Otevřené” and a shimmering vermillion door appeared in front of the warlock, he walked through and appeared on the deck of the Domino, just behind one of the masts.

This spell, called Doljain’s Portal of Planar Passage, is Bhakashal’s version of Dimension Door.

4 of the soldiers on barge 2 had clear shots at the sailors nearest to Chilonder Bix, slaying them both.

Thurva saw Bix arrive on the Domino and took out a scroll, quickly casting Cijam the Rust’s Brilliant Beguilement (Bhakashal’s Charm Person) hoping to take him out fast, but the warlock made his save, shrugging off the charm.

4 barge 1 mid level mercenaries shot crossbows, two hit one sailor, removing another one near Bix, and one hit Kalima. Kostelthorne, the 7^th level mercenary on Barge 1 shot at the part Spartan but he again blocked the bolt with his ability.

The mid-level mercenaries on B2 took out two more Malu sailors on the Domino with crossbow fire.

The Domino crew shot back and took out 2 barge soldiers (low-levels) with their harpoons.

Feegan the Boisterous, the 7^th level Mercenary from barge 2 shot at the Spartan and he blocked it again! The party Spartan absolutely LOVES this class ability, and it has come in extremely handy. To be fair he was on fire with the dice today, making every save, but nonetheless, it was very cool in combat.

A mid-level mercenaries on B1 got their shot at another Domino sailor, slaying him and leaving Chilonder Bix completely free of anyone around him on the Domino.

Umi the Chaolite used Dalkin’s Mighty Stone again and shot at the Spartan, who blocked the missile from the spell. The spell shoots a gemstone from a magical sling, we discussed whether or not the Spartan’s ability to block would work against a magically propelled stone, and decided it would. He then cast Morshoggols Magnificent Mount to summon a giant amphibious snake, mounted it, and headed towards the ship.

Finaly, Kalima, Thurva’s Malue mercenary henchman used his Boots of Striding and Springing to jump from the Domino to barge 2.

I normally run theatre of the mind, but this time I pulled out the markers and set up the combat environment (seen above and below, this shot was at the end of the fight) with the two ships in black, the two barges in green (barge 1 on the left, barge 2 on the right), the spell caster on barge 2, the tall orange counter, is the Chitin Umi the Chaolite, the high level warriors on the barges were tall green counters, the low level mercenaries were flat counters in green and orange, the mid-level mercenaries were red counters. The tall orange counter on Barge 2 with the blue mark on it is Kalima, who jumped there at the end of the round.  

The Domino, the raider ship, is on the bottom, the orange tall counter at the front it Thurva, the tall yellow counter is the party Spartan, the blue flat counters are the crew, the yellow flat counter is a mid-level crew member, and the tall orange counter behind the dice cannister (one of the masts) is Chilonder Bix, who transported himself to the ship. The yellow flat counters on the top ship, the Astrolabe, are the sailors, their captain is on top of the dice box.

So much going on this session, the lads at the raider camp now know that Riyan the Raze has it in for them, and they have to decide to meet it head on, challenge her directly, or to work against her subtly, knowing that Ghanglor Terrik can strike at any time. Elemental magic in Bhakashal is VERY POWERFUL, so they definitely have to be careful there.

The lads heading out on the Kestram (giant bird) have no idea they have been made by two NPCs working for House Magnar, and they will be meeting up with  them when they return to the city, thinking that they are just NPCs grateful  that the PCs saved them that may want to join the party as henchmen.

As for the party Spartan and the House Tairn patrols that’s still very much up in the air, the crew of the Domino has been decimated, when the barges reach the ship they will outnumber them significantly. Chilonder Bix is on board already, Umi the Chaolite is still untouched, Kalima is on the barge and so is the high-level House Tairn warrior (tall green counter) Feegan the Boisterous. Thurva has no idea the raiders who stayed back at camp have been mostly slain, so she has lost almost all of her crew in this fight. She may get desperate and use one of her high level scroll spells. No matter what, they need to step it up as there are a pair of 7^th level mercenaries, a pair of 4^th level warlocks, about 14 low level mercenaries, and 8 mid-level mercenaries coming after them.

Large groups of foes, no matter their level, are always a threat.

Super-exciting session, all three of the player groups got some action, and they are juggling multiple dangerous situations.

Bring it on.