Ok, the player are started into their third adventure. This is one of my longer adventures called "Throne of the Phantom King". Ive made a few changes to shorten it up a bit, but the characters are about to meet with Jaspina, the steward of Garthraike to recieve their mission.
The Trip to Garthraike, though the entire way was by Royal coach, still wasn't always a smooth ride. In the home stretch of the trip, the coach was beset upon by 10 Highwaymen (ftr2/rog4 CR 6) and the party out classed them and took out half of the bandits before they could retreat.

Lady Dark got her Half Elf/Human Bard lvl 8 to play, and she's apparently thrilled with it. Indeed the bard, Trilian, is an excellent addition to the list of character for her Diplomatic Badassery, not to mention her feminine wiles and deadly use of an adamentine long sword!

If you wish to join in the fun, create a lvl 8 character using core 3.5 rules for classes and races or just request me to make one for you.

The adventure continues......Tonight at 7:30 PM (Central time).

The session went well. The party received their mission from Jaspina and were sent off on a long journey to the temple of Weejas. They traveled on horse back for the first day to the foot hills of Mt Haurak. There they were ambushed by gnolls. They defeated the gnolls and found the prisoners, Talen disabled a trap meant to kill the prisoners if they tried to escape, and freed them. The party made there way to the fork that leads either to the Temple or the hamlet of Branchbough. They Decided to head immediately to the Temple.......

Gaming went well. there was a lot of good role play.

Upon entering the temple, they began searching things and came upon two arcane books. One was trapped with a Symbol of Death, which Trilian set off and resulted in her death and some serious damage to Talen as well.

The Shaman leader of Branchbough, Jemotep, raised Trilian in an ancient ritual and she had to R&R for a full week in the sun. Otherwise she would have become weak.

The party has had to make a couple of back and forth trips from Branchbough to the Temple, all the while role playing well along the way. They are now in the living quarters area and about to meet up with some orcs.

We didn't battle this session but at least it wasn't boring. the next session should open with a battle.

Slow game tonight, the wifey honey dos didn't help much. The party really gave searching the store room, where they first met Seriph, and the two secret rooms their undivided attention but were nervous about taking any gold from the alms room. lol

They finally moved on through a large hole in the wall, and fought some orcs. Hopefully we will make better progress next week. I have something special for them coming up!

The game was very interesting. A new character (whom I hope to see next week) joined in for the whole session. Gerald Defay (Lokee)decided it was a good Idea to dare the new character to step on a discovered hidden pressure plate, which was the most dangerous one to step on out of five pressure plates in the room. This released a collection of dangerous creatures including a monstrous spider (gargantuan) and a monstrous scorpion (huge). Lady Dark's character suffered a bite from the spider doing significant strength damage which cannot be cured until a restoration potion is administered or until the party can find a cleric.

The party dove into the room previously occupied by the Spider before the doors closed 1d4 rounds after they were activated, so at the moment the party are resting and planning their next move. The dangers are still present.

Awesome battle consumed 90% of the session tonight as the party plugged away at the two humongous arachnids til death came to one side or the other. The entire party lived Im happy to say, and King Mezneok's remains were found.

I say as a hint to any players that might read this, don't leave this chamber without investigating the door to the immediate east of the king's remains, otherwise you will be cheatint yourselves and may die needlessly in the future. Let's just say diplomacy will carry the party far from here on out.

Can't wait for next week.

It's a good thing Tril's got Diplomatic Badassery down to an art form

you mat be the best at diplomacy, but we need to work together. Even Lokee and his spectacular bluntness.

We are almost to the end of the present adventure!

Don't forget that the game has an open and revolving door policy: anyone can join or lurk. Anyone can join as a regular or pick an open character to play for only one session. I can and will make a character from core rules for anyone that cannot find their preferred character type.

I am willing to make a character for anyone up till 10:00pm central time. Any time after that, you may lurk or pick from the character list to join in. Hope to see a furthered interest in the chat games. I may start a longer adventure now that I have a group of regulars.

Game session update:

the party was not too keen on freeing Seriph and his elven fighters. In fact Trilian's cruel mischievous streak moved her to tease and torment the near naked prince. The discovery of a holy symbol of Gruumsh distracted much of the party enough to stop the torment and interrogation of the chained captives, leading to another battle with a ballista armed group of 12 orcs. All the while Talen freed the prisoners.

Now the two parties have combined and are heading into another unknown chamber and towards the final battle. Hope they are ready. The party should take stock of what they have at their disposal and use it. Look at your feats, know what your characters can do. It may mean the difference between life and death.

Canceled. sorry but Im not feeling good at all.

Hope this doesn't become a habit. The game crapped out because we are at the cusp of the conclusion of this adventure and a major battle is to unfold. A battle I would like to have all players available for. the NPCs can only be meat shields for so long before .......well you know.

So I'll be sending out PMs to see if another day this week is good for the players so we don't have to wait another week to wrap this adventure up.

The adventure concluded, but not so much as the module intended. Hey, it happens lol. Trilian died again. As a bard, maybe she'll learn to use Detect Magic on powerful items from now on.

Takley wasnt able to stick around due to net problems.

CONTINUANCE OF UPDATE:
I was a bit tired when I typed the above so with a rested mind, I continue.

The group followed Seriph, whom they treated as a thorn in their side and an inconvenience to their mission, to a large chamber that turned out to be a Beholder's lair. As soon as someone went for the horde containing the Elven Hilt of Wondrous Blades, a.k.a. King Boriff's Scepter, the beholder swooped down and attacked, taking out 3 of Seriph's guards with eye rays. The party did well in felling the aberration.

This is where things went awry. The group wanted to take the Hilt for themselves. Seriph complied and handed the Hilt over to Trilian. Seriph, knowing that only one of King Boriff's line could activate the Hilt's many blades, goaded Trilian to activate it and run him through with it, for "If I cannot accomplish my mission as I see fit, I might as well die in failure."

Trilian rashly activated the Hilt, but it was trapped with a security feature in the form of the spell Disintegration. The inscription on the Hilt was never read before activation. The only clue at the time was Seriph's comment about an apparent connection with the dragon ring he wore and the Hilt's dragon design on the hand guard disk.

Needless to say, Tril disintegrated into ashes.

Gargash avenged Tril, even though she could be resurected, and killed Seriph. After Seriph's death Gargash retrieved the Hilt and found an inscription: "Woe doth this Hilt bring, to he who wears not my ring."

They then returned to Garthraike with proof of King Mezneok's death and the Elven Hilt, and received their reward. Unfortunately the party did not take the ring. Tril could have used it majorly in the future. It protects the wearer from the following spells: Disintegrate, Finger of Death, and Flesh to stone. For this reason, Jaspina died as well trying to use the Hilt to see if its power lived up to its reputation. So the party had to duck out as quick as they could after resurecting Trilian.

DMs note: The entire party missed leveling by a range of 10-50 xp. Also because Talon wasn't there the Beholder was dumbed down. Its attacks were full beholder attacks including the eye rays, and the hp. All other stats came from the "Gauth" entry in the Monster Manual, thereby making the Beholder still dangerous but at the same time easy to hit and damage.

...that I find it truly awesome and inspiring that Tiamat and his intrepid group have been able to keep these chat games going. Always nice to pop in and see the chatrooms being used for some good ol' RP.

Kudos!

*under his breath* stupid internet.*normal voice* what did we face?

@ Eol

It's great to see Im not the only one commenting in here. Players, or those interested in playing, lurkers and spectators alike are welcome to comment here. And, If any players have suggestions on how I might improve the playing experience or my DMing, my mind is open to critiques as well as praise. Thanks for popping in Eol!

@ Takley

the main boss was a Beholder. See the update above for more info.

Next adventure: Diabolic Genesis: Origins of Evil