Fomor: Session Two Writeup (Part 1)

This session ended about two and a half hours ago. I only recorded about half of it before my phone died, so towards the end it's going based off my notes and my memory alone. Also, I'm rushing to get this up so it's a pretty bare-bones writeup without too much reminiscing about the party's antics. There were plenty of them, but most didn't make it into today's post. I may revise this tomorrow, but no promises.


The adventure begins with Kheldar, Salma, and Garath approaching Bicka after their victory in Ghet. They each receive another prophetic dream the night before they arrive:

Kheldar dreamed of a tree that, as soon as it began to grow fruit, was overshadowed by other trees and choked with a vine.

Garath dreamed of the same anteater growing as tall as a mountain and being very destructive. His ring shocked him when he touched it in the morning.

Salma dreamed of gravity reversing as she fell upward. She felt capital-G Good after she woke.

Salma continues feeling faintly Good for the rest of the adventure. Garath cast Detect Magic and detected a very faint aura of Goodness around her. She feels as though her celestial nature is returning to her. So far it hasn't had any actual effect. Garath's ring is now magical.

Garath's electric spells now have a secondary effect to stun their target if they hit. The target makes a Fortitude save that is somewhat easy to pass to keep thing balanced.

As the party approaches, they see that Bicka is under siege. After a knowledge check, Kheldar realizes that this is not an uncommon thing to happen, especially to Bicka. They identify the sieging army as belonging to Baron Karen Adál-Abel. They also know that she is obsessed with firearms, and the party can see cannons firing at the city. None of the army has rifles, since Salma invented them. 
The session begins with a skills challenge. Kheldar immediately attempts to Stealth off and find the commander's tent for the siege. Salma uses her Survival to concoct a poison. Garath Bluffs the soldiers into thinking that he is their smith. Kheldar is seen pretty readily though the other two succeed. Salma uses Perception to find where the food stores are. Garath starts using his Intimidate to get soldiers to leave the tent instead of getting new weapons. Kheldar begins failing at absolutely everything. He is caught by soldiers and uses his Escape Artist and stumbles into the commander's tent. Salma uses her Heal skill to intentionally harm the injured soldiers so they can't fight ever again. Garath then starts using his Smithing to sabotage their weapons.
With the party having succeeded the skills challenge, they then jump into a combat. Kheldar also sees one other person chained up in the captain's tent, having recently been taken prisoner. He opens up with a shuriken critting the captain. Salma attempts to blast him through the tent once she hears combat, but misses. Garath proceeds to ignore the fight since he is keeping his bluff up. The captain bolts as Kheldar is surrounded by guards, and the prisoner escapes and attempts to tackle the captain. The prisoner misses, and Salma blows the captain's head off. She discovers that he is wearing a magical belt for his firearms, and she takes it for herself.

This is a Beneficial Bandolier. The reloading mechanic for her rifle was too annoying for me to keep track of.

After the fight, Garath steps in and rolls a natural 20 to convince the soldiers that, with the commander's death, he is now the commander of this army. In the confusion, Bicka launches their counterattack - the army spills out of the silly right as a series of lightning bolts strike the cannons from the sky. The party sees a Dark Elf dancing through the battle casually cutting people in half with a vicious sickle. Above the cacophony of the battle, the party can clearly hear his laugh no matter how far away they are. 
Kheldar decides to shoot this warrior with his crossbow since he is convinced that he will turn on them soon. Garath is still trying to be the new commander, and the party is convinced that this warrior will kill them all very quickly. Unfortunately for him, Kell Deathsickle is capable of grabbing arrows out of the air. He casually strolls up to the party, laughs when they try to talk to him, and walks off to more carnage. Dul Bilderbottom apparates in front of the party and demands the letter that Garath opened in the last session. 
Garath tentatively hands him the letter, and Dul instructs the party to meet with him the next day. While he is reading, the gnome sometimes blasts the enemy army with lightning, as though he were casually swatting a fly.

I like when NPCs have very identifiable personalities. Kell Deathsickle is a care-free bodybuilder who loves violence. He's friendly towards the party and doesn't care for the boring details. Dul Bilderbottom is a surly gnome with a scraggly voice that interrupts them often to ask very pointed questions. He is also quite demanding. It also gave the party a very real sense of fear - either one of these NPCs could very easily squash them like a bug without even noticing. 

The battle is over and Garath's army is destroyed. The party enters Bicka, now joined by Strider the Cleric who was the same prisoner that was rescued from the commander's tent.

I hate introducing new PCs to the party. Strider is played by Garath's brother, who wanted to join and the party needed a healer. So this was my way of introducing him. It wasn't very clean nor was it pretty, and the party barely even introduced themselves before he just joined them unquestioningly. His background is very sparse and there's not really a whole lot to work with.

The party has a day to kill before their meeting with Dul. Kheldar goes and inspects his apples, and then tries to ingratiate himself with the criminal life. He preserves the goods in his warehouse successfully. He convinces a dealer of contraband to part with his wares with a Bluff check, but his Appraise skill is lacking and he has no idea what he actually got. Salma went and inquired about nearby events that pertain to her backstory, and learned two pertinent facts:

• New star formations are appearing in the night sky.
• Trade caravans from the south have stopped coming north.
• The timetable for both of these events roughly corresponds to when her fathers left her.

Garath investigates the strange symbol they have been seeing. Nobody answers his questions, but one insane person screams something unintelligible about "looking to the stars." Strider sits in an inn and contemplates the events in his life that have landed him here in this place.
The party rests, and then sets out to speak with Dul Bilderbottom, the wizard who almost single-handedly obliterated an army.