Topic: Tower of the Stargazer play report [warning: mad spoilers]

I ran Tower of the Stargazer yesterday for five players, and the outcome was unexpected, to say the least. It was awesome, and my players were smart, if foolhardy. The three highlights:

* Someone actually opened the corpse in the workshop to see what was up with it. The party was nearly destroyed by the flailing intestines, which threw them into walls and choked them. Only by pinning down both ends did they manage to slay it.

* And then, even though he was very hurt, one of our clerics decides to look in one of the obviously magic mirrors. He fails his save, his reflection grins and steps out and then slits our cleric's throat. The reflection looks at the party and says, "What?" After a tense minute, everyone shrugs and lets the reflection join the party.

* The wizard managed to fool our specialist into looking through the telescope with the Star Crystal in it by convincing the specialist that he would see the wizard's treasure that way. (I played the wizard as angry at first, but then as sly, as he split up the party and told them lies.) Pissed that the wizard killed one of their own, the party makes a plan. They bring the telescope's large main lens down the levitation shaft and shatter it in front of the wizard. Stunned for a second, they surprise him with a full-bore attack. Since you can't cast a spell if you've already been hurt in the round, they manage to kill him, which amazed me. One unlucky initiative roll, and they'd have been toast, but they went three rounds winning initiative and wrecked him. It goes to show that the most powerful wizard is vulnerable if he gets in a melee.

Re: Tower of the Stargazer play report [warning: mad spoilers]

Fantastic report Clinton. Can't wait to run this one myself.

How many characters per player did you have and what sort of levels?

It's not the years, it's the mileage.

Re: Tower of the Stargazer play report [warning: mad spoilers]

We had 5 first level characters: 1 fighter, 1 magic-user, 2 clerics, and a specialist. There was one hireling, a level 0 fighter, that the specialist player played after the specialist was killed by looking through the telescope.

Re: Tower of the Stargazer play report [warning: mad spoilers]

It sounds like a blast. Whilst I was reading the scenario I couldn't help wondering how things would play out. I can't imagine my players walking past the wizard and exploring the rest of the tower... I'll find out what they do soon enough though.

It's not the years, it's the mileage.

Re: Tower of the Stargazer play report [warning: mad spoilers]

My players dispatched the gutmonster readily enough. Their doom came at the hands of the wizard himself. For reasons that I still can't figure out, after meeting with him, determining he was bad news, and exploring the rest of his tower, they decided to return to his room and start shooting. TPK.

Before that, a PC managed to lose his soul to a ghost in a game of Liar's Dice (please excuse my pit-stains and my inability to say the word "dissipate").

Last edited by bradiation (2010-08-24 23:43:51)

Re: Tower of the Stargazer play report [warning: mad spoilers]

What level were those hapless wanderers Bradiation?

It's not the years, it's the mileage.

Re: Tower of the Stargazer play report [warning: mad spoilers]

First.