Forum: Public Forum

Dear players,

Dragon fight.

I must have said that I had prepared for several scenari; knowing perfectly well that when I plan something you always manage to derail the GM's approach.

I had plans for:

• Having Ghlorofaex fight you outdoor.
• Having Ghlorofaex fight you inside his lair when he was resting.
• Having Ghlorofaex fight you inside his lair, had you managed to sneak in while he was on duty elsewhere in Xin-Shalast.

What I did not expect was for Andrew's character Larken to manage to go through my Dragon's SR thrice in a row, and surely did not expect to roll so low for those saves.

I do not like to cheat as a GM, so I had to find an explanation to keep Ghlorofaex as a proper challenge and actually generate an interesting combat. As I was telling Ian after the game, if the party had had access to some teleporting- or flying-magic or any other way of covering 500ft a round (my Dragon fly speed when double moving) I would have given you more shots at Ghlorofaex who was running slightly below fifty hit-points at the time.

The "story part" was that Ghlorofaex is a key ally of Karzoug and a general to be of the, soon to be, risen armies of Xin-Shalast; so he has friends! As you already know I have already had Most High Ceoptra do some errands in the Lower City; although the text calls for her to be only in the Spires. So it was not really a stretch on the imagination to have Ghlorofaex fly around to find her and be the recipient of a couple of heal spells and others of the cure variety.
However, this must be a one-off because Dragons are particularly proud monsters and having Ghlorofaex show such weakness to Most High Ceoptra has made him particularly hateful of the party. He shall therefore not go back for another dose of healing, not this day in any case as the healer would be running low on high-level spells.
I need to review his treasure treasure hoard to see if he has some healing material stashed there. He has access to dimension door so he could always blink away.

Illusions in the game.

I hope you agree with the way I have handle the Mirage ability of Blue Dragons and other hallucinatory terrain. The dodgy bit about illusion magic is always how to adjudicate the "interacting with" statement. If taken to the letter, the slightest hint of meta-gaming makes illusions utterly worthless in tactical combat situations. If forced upon the players, it can look too much like railroading or deus ex-machina, which always suppresses the fun.

Game page.

As you can see, we played the eighty first session yesterday.
I have updated the game page and also the link to the free player's guide. It now links to the newer version corresponding to the anniversary edition. While we shall not introduce any new PCs - I expect you to resurrect your fallen comrades if any with the stupendous amount of loot you have gathered - you may have a look at the free content anyway.

Laurent,