ok, this is why I shouldn't write Actual Play posts. Here's three posts of background. Then I'll get to the actual play.

A little background first:

HISTORY:
This campaign is on it's 11th month, played weekly. This is actually the 38th or 39th session. (I've lost count, but I know we missed one session for Thanksgiving, one for illness, and one for Gen Con). Campaign Birthday is March 22nd.

What is a Rebuild Quest?:
PHB 2 introduced the concept of rebuild quests. For example- the gnome Rogue 5/Wizard 5 started on the Arcane Trickster Class at level 11. But he later discovered, that he only needed 3 levels of rogue. He could have had 1 more level of wizard and two more levels of Arcane Trickster! So how do you go back in time to undo a character class choice like that? The answer is "the rebuild quest".

The other quest is our Psion spent his first level as a Psychic Warrior, before he decided that he would rather have gone straight psion. He would have two more powers, a higher level of powers, and more power points. And a few less hit points and 2 less feats or something. So what does he do? Rebuild quest!

I'm breaking up the exposition into different posts so you can understand this is a fairly complicated campaign.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE!

Player Characters:

• Owyn Glydd: gnome rogue/wizard/arcane trickster
  
• Bernhard: buffoonish human fighter/cleric of Zunail, the fire spirit.
  
• Vork Barkor: human ranger with a background as a sailor
  
• Ganex Firemane: Elan Psychic Warrior/Psion
  
  Non-Player Characters:
  
• Kismet: Elan "girlfriend" of Ganex
  
• Guinevere Vartagnan: aristocratic merchant princess, and somewhat of a girlfriend to Vork.
  

Additional background:

Gods Of note:

• Zunail: the mischievous fire spirit
  
• Zumaloken: the forgotten god of secrecy and greed
  
• Pascion: the Scion of Knowledge
  

Zunail the Fire Spirit- loosely based on a mixture of Prometheus and Loki. A mischievous god who stole  divine fire from the gods and enlightened mortals- the gnomes claim this as a gnomish god, but humans also claim it as a human god. Zunail has aspects of fire (obvious), trickery (obvious) and also knowledge.

Bernhard is a worshipper of Zunail. Owyn the gnome is a follower of Zunail. This becomes important later.

Zumaloken the Greedy: Evil, almost forgotten deity of secrecy, envy and greed. Technically dead, with very few worshippers. An ambitious evil cleric seeks to revive him.

Pascion the Scion of Knowledge - Pascion is my campaign's god of magic and law. He is the also the patron of constructs and construct builders. Pascion codified the original laws of magic, invented the runes, blah blah blah. aspects of magic, knowledge, and law.  

Ganex is an Elan. Elan is a psionic 'energy race' that is not born, but created. They look human, but in reality, the human bodies they inhabit are essentially shells that can be discarded or revitalized. Elan are distrusted in the campaign (considered aliens), and there is a persistent rumor that they are associated with undead. The rumor turns out to be true in some ways, in that the secretive energy-beings maintain a relationship with a powerful ancient wraith queen. They are not themselves undead, though.

Planar Stuff:

The Plane of Shadow is a land of illusions and darkness. The mythical 'Forge of Pascion' is hidden on it.

The Dream Realm - is a sort of plane where dreams become reality. It's a chaotic plane that is highly morphic and chaotic, and very 'psionic influenced'. Hidden somewhere in the dream realm is a place called the "Lathe of Dreams' (yes, stolen from the sci-fi story) that will allow a questor to remake himself in his own dreams image.

At this point, Owyn and Bernhard have managed to open a gateway to the plane of Shadow. There, Owyn hopes to remake himself in the Forge of Pascion, which he has traced to this place.

In mechanical terms, he hopes to change himself from a
Rogue5/Wizard 5/Arcane Trickster 1
to a  more optimized build:
Rogue 3/Wizard 6/Arcane Trickster 2

Now, the deal is: Vork and Ganex's players were out for the holidays, and Ganex was at the end of his own solo adventure where he was completing his own solo quest in the Dream Realm.

So it's just Bernhard and Owyn at first.

AND now the Actual play!

Ok. Owyn and Bernhard make their way to the Plane of Shadow.

Their research tells them to find a place called the Forge of Pascion. They must go to the plane of Shadow, locate a place called the Black Spire. Inside is the Forge. Once there, there is no return, unless you find "a key that remains with you permanently".

After borrowing an ancient sarcophagus that acts as a planar gateway, they figured out the proper keys (ruby shards) to open the gateway there, and open up a planar tunnel to a place called the cave of shadows.

Down they go, through the Cave of Shadows. They eventually encounter and defeat a Shadow Hydra (6 headed hydra with the shadow-creature template from Manual of the Planes) in the caves. (ho ho, dungeon). Also some minor adventuring around in the caves.

Once outside the Cave of Shadows, they are in the proper Plane of Shadow.
The sky is white, the moon is black. Everywhere is shadows- like a black and white photo negative.  Soon they reach their destination: a place called the Black Spire. It stands in the middle of a lake of pure darkness. Somewhere in the Spire is the Forge of Pascion. They see strange, unnameable fauna and creatures and poke around the area a bit while they try to think of a way across the lake.

Whilst poking around, they encounter a group of Shadar-Kai (see the Fiend Folio). These are a variety of fey associated with the plane of Shadow. They actually discover the Shadar-Kai trying to observe them secretly. This was a possible combat encounter.

Combat did not occur!

Owyn opts to befriend the Shadar-kai, while Bernhard decides he distrusts them. So together, they go off to the Shadar-Kai village. This part was improvised a bit.  I had no village prepared, but I did have a couple of Shadar names and a statted out mid-level Shadar warrior.

They speak to the Shadar-Kai chieftain and generally make friends. There was some fun roleplaying.  Owyn milks whatever info he can about the spire from the Shadar-Kai. Bernhard plays up some comical 'I distrust these filthy savages' bits. There was some fun roleplaying here.
Then there is a trading session where the Shadar-Kai trade items. Bernhard still distrusts them and is unwilling to part with anything, but Owyn trades for a buckler and some odd alchemical items I came up with. One of the other items was actually in the monster book- they have a liquid substance called 'Night Essence' which creates a patch of darkness when thrown as a grenade. Bernhard was kinda inteersted in that, as he is a cleric of Zunail and could use it for mischief, but eventually he decides he still distrusts them.

Game note: I awarded XP for the Shadar-Kai encounter as if they had defeated it. Because, in a way- they had. Owyn won them over with kindness.

Meanwhile, the Shadar-Kai take a liking to Owyn, and offer to paint him in the traditional body-paints of their people, in preparation for his quest. Owyn eagerly accepts and has symbols of Zunail painted all over him.

Game note: This was an improvised detail based on the picture in the Fiend Folio- The Shadar Kai is covered with like.. tatoos or body art of some kind. I decided it was like some kind of ritual henna-type warpaint. Bernhard buffoonishly insults the Shadar-kai "savages" at every opportunity which was fun for a laugh as well.  

Ok, this was last weeks session.

Next up, last night's session:

Ok, here's the setup for the next session, which went down last night. Ganex and Vork's players are back from vacation.

Ganex's body is 'meditating psionically' in his room, but his energy matrix is questing around in the Dream Realm.

We decided Vork was out carousing with his 'kinda girlfriend' Guinevere Vartagnan.

Owyn and Bernhard are still on the Shadow Plane.

So basicly we have split the party:

Shadow Plane: Owyn and Bernahrd
Dream Realm: Ganex
Home City: Vork


We open on Vork. Vork was supposed to meet his ladyfriend but she hasn't shown up. He searches for her in town, and eventually hears that she was looking for him, and may have gone to meet him at the Guild Hall where they all pretty much live.

So he goes to the guild hall, and hears that she is indeed waiting for him in his room.

He goes up to his room. There she is. But as he enters, he fails a critical spot check. He's walked into an ambush. The party arch enemy, Vincent, an undead cleric of Zumaloken shuts the door. He has with him one of the Lost Servants of Zumaloken.

Ok: more background:

QuoteThe Lost Servants were the final cult of Zumaloken. They were wiped out by a flood, so what's left are these super-zombie guys called Drowned (see Monster manual 3). They can turn on a 'drowning aura' that most adventurers can handle for a few rounds, but civilians pretty much will die of, quickly.

Coincidentally, 'Vincent' is a former PC belonging to Bernhard. After he was killed, became undead, and then subsequently became just way too evil, he was turned over to me to use as a villian. However, the player still gives me tips and direction every once in a while about "What Vincent would do".

Ok, Vincent, and his drowned goon are in the room. Captured Guinevere. Vork is right there.

Vincent taunts Vork a bit. Vork weighs his options. He decides not to fight.

Vincent explains: "I have noticed that nearly everyone is off plane except for you. So naturally I was .. concerned.. heheh. Now, I must know where Mr. Glydd is."

(Vincent wants revenge againmst Owyn Glydd, but even more, he is afraid Owyn will sabotage his plan to revive the cult of Zumaloken. Thats his motivation).

Vork answers honestly "I have no idea where he is."

Vincent bares his teeth and says "care to submit to a spell?"

I did not have Detect thoughts memorized for Vincent, but I did have 'Dominate Person'. I expected Vork to resist, and it to come down to maybe some fast-talk or bluffing or even a will save.  

Surprisingly, he did not resist. "Cast what you like. I am not sure where he is.. let the girl go.."

Vincent casts. Vork doesn't recognize the spell. I offered him a save, but he said "I submit to the spell". His thought was he would pass the brain scan of a detect thoughts with no problem.

Vincent instead cast 'Dominate Person'.

Vincents command: "You will track down Owyn and bring himto me at the docks. My ship is the 'Mother and Country'. I will be taking the girl with me. Do not fail. Do not bother with your friend Ganex in the next room. I have already killed his body..."

Vork goes "aww man!"

Game note: Ganex was 'meditating' next door, but as I said, he is an energy matrix creature, and his real self is on another plane, at the end of his rebuild quest. So Ganex was actually in the process of 'creating a new body' when we last left him.

Vork goes and tries to track down Owyn. Since he missed the session where Owyn started out on his rebuild quest, he actually didn't know OOC where Owyn was. So this was kinda fun.

He goes and tosses Owyn's room, and finds a few clues: the receipt from the jewelers for the ruby shards. Books about the shadow plane, the forge of Pascion, etc. Bernhard's room yields a lot less clues.

He asks around and hears about Owyn & Bernhard going to visit a historian in town and borrowing a mysterious ancient sarcophagus.  

He finds the sarcophagus in the exhibit hall of the Guild. He tracks footprints going in but not coming out.

At this point the dominate person spell wore off. He was still curious where his friends had gone.

We switched to Ganex, finishing up his quest, along with Kismet, his Elan companion. They return from the dream realm in their new bodies. They see that their old bodies have been murdered.

They pass Vork and do not reveal their new identities to him at first, at Kismets insistence. Instead they follow him to the jewelers shop where Owyn bought the ruby shards.  They eavesdrop on Vorks attempt to get information from the jewelers.

The jeweler is not forthcoming with info: Game note: The Jewelers guild is a criminal organization run by a gnomish criminal syndicate of which Owyn is secretly a member. So when Vork comes around asking about him, and he fails his diplomacy-- the jeweler clams up.

After seeing the exchange fail, Ganex decides to help out. He telepathically reveals himself to Vork. "It's me, Ganex. I am wearing a new body..". He then uses psionic charm on the jeweler and gets the info: Two specially made ruby shards were bought. A clue was dropped "but our precious stone supply from Jemro is running low- shipments have stopped coming in, so if you want some like those, it'll cost extra'.

Game-note: Jemro is Owyn's home town-- A gnomish mining town. This is important as a clue because Vincent has actually enslaved the entire town, and the PCs haven't found out yet.

So now I have Ganex, Vork, and (npc) Kismet) together.


next up: back to Bernhard and Owyn.

MEANWHILE, back on the Plane of Shadow:

Bernhard and Owyn are rested up and have a plan for crossing the black lake.

Owyn will cast 'fly' on Bernhard. He will then summon a Celestial Hippogriff as a mount. Bernhard, in turn will let Owyn borrow his ring of feather fall "just in case".

Classic tactics, and great problem solving. I had no set method for crossing the lake in mind, so I like when they come up with a great plan.

They prepare spells and get ready to cross, but Bernhard pulls out an artifact he had stolen earlier called the Flame of Zunail. "My character is nervous, so I'm going to pull that out as we cross, even though OOC, I know it attracts danger.."

So I roll up on my 25% encounter table that I had made. I got a 17. I had a few prepared encounters in this area so I chose one at random: a modified version of the Mooncalf (see monster manual 2).
 
The Mooncalf is like a large-sized tentacled cephalopod with wings- it's like a giant flying squid. It can cast spells- notably call lightning. It can grapple and constrict.  And it does a lot of damage. I had already modified it a bit down in hit dice, took away some of it's extra attacks and adjusted the CR accordingly. I left it with a unique 30' (!) reach.

Ok, so they're flying across the lake towards the Spire, when the mooncalf attacks, bursting out of the lake. (I thought that was cool). Bernhard switched directions and charged it, trying to take advantage of it being flat-footed. He rammed it, and he's flying around it, chopping with his axe.

Meanwhile Owyn feather falls back to the shore, and sends the Hippogriff into battle.

Pretty soon, Bernhard gets grappled and is suffering mightily. Meanwhile, the thing is casting call lightning spells down on Owyn, who is dodging them and making reflex saves. He has evasion and that saves him from any damage.

Ironically, Evasion is one of the abilities he will be giving up once he reaches the Forge.

But little by little, Bernhard manages to cast "Freedom of Movement" by making a tough concentration roll.  That ungrapples him. Owyn unloads a scorching ray spell on the beastie, and follows up with several lesser scorching rays from a wand. He manages to evade several lightning bolts. the hippogriff isn't so lucky, and gets nailed a couple of times.

A few rounds later, they brought it down. Bernhard is seriously injured, but otherwise ok, and managed not to waste too many spells, since he used his axe. He uses a healing wand to get himself back to max hit points. He also heals the hippogriff. Owyn is unscathed, but has blown through one his best spells. This will return to haunt him later.

(to be continued)

Still Owyn and Bernhard:

Ok, they reach the spire, and fly to the spiraling staircase.

They get to the door- a massive back stone portal with a symbol of the all-seeing eye of Pascion on it. Owyn searches and finds a trap: a spell-turret.

Disarm check. Fail. Cone of Cold.

Hippogriff is gone at this point. Bernhard saves, but is still damaged. Owyn evades again. No damage.  

"Sorry about that, Bernie.."

Owyn takes a second stab at the Disarm and nails it on the second try. Portal slides open.

They enter the Spire and poke a round a bit. (It's a dungeon, hah!) finally they reach the room of the Guardian. This is right before the final Forge.

They are scanned for alignment and found wanting. Owyn has chosen a lawfully aligned rebuild-quest! But both he and Bernhard are chaotic to the core.

The guardian appears in a shaft of light. A large sized gear-driven construct- damaged by countless adventurers and worn down by time.  "You shall not pass"

Owyn laughs "we'll take the Forge from pascion just as Zunail stole knowledge from Pascion!"

Pretty good line!

The construct attacks!

game note: The Guardian was a modified Runic Guardian from Monster Manual 2. I had added Spell resistance (SR 23), and reduced the DR from 30/+3 (this is a 3.0 beastie) to DR 15/Adamantine. The spells I had chosen were true-strike, scorching ray, fly, cone of cold (15d6!!!), hold person.. and touch of idiocy. Touch of Idiocy actually ended up being kinda funny.  

Ok, so the construct was actually a bit slow, but it packed a whallop. Bernhard went in fast and hard, while Owyn dropped back and used spells to probe for weaknesses.

Bernhard's axe did little damage at first (average of 18 points of damage per hit- thats 3 once you get past the DR), so he switched to power attacks. His main goal was keeping the big bot busy while Owyn brought the artillery to bear.  

Owyn meanwhile started hitting it with spells. The first few fizzled on impact- Owyn missed his Spell Resistance penetration rolls. Then he switched to his lesser orbs which were not affected by SR.

Soon they were pounding the thing, but Bernhard was getting his ass beat down in the process. The construct used a true-strike and nailed Bernie for around 40 damage per round. When Bernie backed off for a breather, the bot turned and nailed Owyn with a pair of Scorching Rays he could not evade.

Bernhard went back in, determined not to let his little gnome pal get hit again, and took the brunt of three heavy hits, and one Touch of Idiocy. At one point the construct was knocked down to just 1 hit point, but kept fast-healing. It managed to get back to around 24 over the course of the next 3 rounds.

Finally, Bernhard was knocked to -3. Owyn was all alone. And he was running out of spells. He had only one left- and it was on scroll.

And that turned out to be the one he needed! He made his spell penetration roll, and got in a good damage roll, dropping the construct to -2. It shattered.

Owyn ran over, forced a healing potion down Bernies throat and brought him back. Bernhard was still affected by the Touch of Idiocy, and he's the kid of player who likes to roleplay such things. So this was a fun roleplaying scene as they were healing back up.

Next up, in the Forge of Pascion.

Still Owyn and Bernhard:

Another shaft of light appears, and they enter. They are teleported to a room at the top of the Black Spire. There is a blinding white light in the center of the room.

A ancient looking human warden is standing there. He is the Aspect of Pascion, Pascion's representative on the plane.

They do some roleplaying, with Owyn asking thoughtful questions about the forge, how to return to his home plane, etc. Bernhard is roleplaying the effects of the Touch of Idiocy to the hilt. At one point he threatens to attack the Aspect of Pascion, but Owyn restrains him. He pulls out his Flame of Zunail and taunts Pascion. We were all having a great time with Bernhard's comedic performance.

Pascion points out "You can never leave this place by the Cave of Shadows without a key. A key that will stay with you permanently.. I note that you, Owyn, carry two keys. But you Bernhard, carry none.."

I had just decided tha the stuff they picked up from the Shadar-Kai counted as planar keys. Owyn figured it out. He suddenly offered Bernhard the buckler he had bartered from the Shadar-Kai. Bernhard refuses "I DONT TRUST THOSE GUYS!"

Pascion is generally amenable, though. His only purpose is to explain the forge. "You have earned the right to the rebuild quest by defeating the Runic Guardian."

Bernhard suddenly charges into the forge! Pascion doesn't stop him and Owyn says "I just watch"

Are you sure you want to do that? Yes. I just run right in. What happens?

Ok, Game note: the way the rebuild quest works is you can change any or all of the following: race, class, stats (re-doing point buy), or personal history.

So I had it already set up that if a PC accidentally or maliciously enters the Forge of Pascion it changes your race randomly. I had a little table and everything. The races were the standard ones, with 'orc' and 'goblin' tacked on at the end.

So Bernhard is in the forge and I ask him what he wants changed, if anything. He was like "I dunno, I had no idea what was going to happen. I'll switch some feats around maybe?". So then I had him roll randomly:

He was transformed into a goblin, and spat out back on the shores of the shadowy lake. He did switch his feats! He lost one for not being human anymore, and he transformed a few of his other feats around. He took Monkey Grip for one of them so he could still use his old weapon.

So Bernhard is suddenly reborn as a goblin! And he STILL lacks a key. And he has to dump his armor which he could no longer wear or carry. He leaves it on the wet bank of the lake. He decided he transforms into a sort of twisted Golumn-like creature, and he was going to take his revenge against the Sahadar-Kai by stealing a key.

Pascion has reversed a prank back on a cleric of Zunail! This is almost mythical.

We'll catch up with him later. The player started working on the character sheet. I turned to Owyn and he made a significant change to his plan.

"Pascion? Can I really change my history?"

"yes you can."

as it turns out, one of the major enemies of the campaign is a fallen angel that was summoned when Owyn participated in a cruel sacrifice of one a hated enemy. It was an act that drove him from Chaotic Good to Chaotic neutral, and it had happened something like 20 sessions ago. Owyn helped the former party member Vincent (not the party arch-villian) perform the sacrifice and actually held the blade.

"I've always regretted that.."

Pascion smiles and tells him "it can be undone."

So Owyn goes into the Forge after explaining his needs: drop two levels of rogue, picking up an extra level of wizard and a level of Arcane Trickster.

He appears on the bank of the lake. he finds the discarded armor. He sees goblin footprints.

"Oh no, what has Bernhard done now.."

(There's still more!)

Haha, back to Ganex, Vork (and Kismet). This is back in their home city of Roan.

Ganex and Vork have been searching for Owyn and Bernhard, but can't locate them off plane. They switch to tracking down Vincent since the bad guy has Vork's girlfriend Guinevere.

They locate Vincents ship- an oared galley. They also note that it has been cloaked in illusion to appear as a trading vessel. It's really an Orcish slaver galley.

Ganex returns to the Guild Hall to dig up some more clues and try to contact Owyn and Bernhard through an alternate means. Kismet is left with Vork. I decide she telepathically scans Vork. Soon she is sending a psionic transmission back to Ganex.

"He has betrayed us. We must kill him."

Ganex calms Kismet down, and gathers the materials to create a communications crystal.

Vork and Kismet keep Vincent and his ship under surveillance. The ship is holding several slaves- all gnomes (GM note: another clue- theyre all from Owyns hometown!).  The evil Vincent also has Guinevere dressed in a "Leia at the Hutt Palace" outfit brought on board in chains. There are four or five of those Drowned super-zombie guys.

It looks dire. Even if they had a chance in fighting Vincent, one of those Drowned could turn on it's drowning aura and kill all the slaves plus Vorks girlfriend.

So anyhow, I had Kismet taunt Vork for a while. She's a mean 'girlfriend' character. She considers non-Elan to be 'gross mortals'. She also desires revenge against Vincent for some bad stuff he did to her once. haha.

She says "You know Vork, Ganex wanted to kill you, but I convinced him not to.."

heh.

We had some roleplaying scenes there with telepathic contacts to Ganex, and Ganex trying to get more clues. And Kismet being a bitch.

(there's still more)

Ok, Bernhard skulks into the Shadar-Kai village. he wants to steal that 'night essence' stuff he passed on earlier. Anything to leave this accursed plane.

He's playing up his new 'goblin persona'

He sneaks in safely, and manages to break into the area where the Shadar-Kai keep their alchemical stores. He snatches a jug of Night Essence.

Four Shadar-Kai suddenly round a corner.

Bernhard the goblin goes feral! "MINE! Its MINE! It's MINE!"

He attacks, and basicly whoops some ass on the low-level Shadar-Kai.

Owyn catches up as he is mopping up on the last warrior. Bernhard starts to come to his senses, just as the village is roused and the higher level warriors are geting ready to attack.

Owyn and Bernhard run for it, hightailing back to the Cave of Shadows.

Ok, now remember "you must have a key that stays with you permanently"?

At the end of the tunnel they pass through a nimbus of energy ("The Rubicon") that burns the key into them. So with Bernhard, we decided he spilled some of the night essence on himself and was turned jet-black.

With Owyn, he had the body paint and tattoos given to him by the Shadar-Kai permanently burned into his skin.

Permanent! Rebuild quests are not to be undertaken lightly!

There's still more. I have to go home now!

(Ok, there's more)

Bernhard (as a goblin), and Owyn return to their home city through the planar tunnel. They are imediately contacted by Ganex through the communication crystal.

"Meet us down by the docks.. we have Vincent there on a ship. Look for the green ray of light..."

So up until this point every one of these scenes had been done by shifting back and forth between Ganex and Vork to Owyn and Bernhard. Finally I had them all together on the same plane.

I didn't know what Ganex meant by a green ray of light.

So Bernhard and Owyn head down to the docks. Ganex, Vork and Kismet are hiding out atop a dockside warehouse surveilling Vincents slave-galley. It starts to make sail, and they delayed it a bit by using a psionic retrieve power on the ships wheel. Vincent fashions a new one out of a mending spell.

As the ship casts off ropes, Ganex (who has recently completeed his rebuild quest) hits the main mast with 'disintegrate'- ah yes, a green ray. It lights up the night. Owyn and Bernhard are pushing through the crowd as the mast cracks and falls.

The galley of course, "runs out the sweeps"- putting oars in the water. The galley is leaving.

FINALLY I got the group reunited. And that was the end of the 39th session.

So I guess this took me like 9 posts. And two posts of exposition so you understood a bit about our pantheon of gods and planar stuff.