Time for adventure - The Ellenhorn brothers... and Elmo

This one is already cleared out temple dungeon 1 and 2, tonight I'll start clearing DL3. First, backstory. Then another post for the best moments so far.


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Garret Ellenhorn was a Bard by trade. He chose a carefree lifestyle in part to forget the trauma of once having a much loved older brother, named Tobias vanish in the forest never to be seen again. He was in Hommlet, singing merry songs in the Welcome Wench and a little tipsy when much to his astonishment, a ghostly figure comes in... It.... it looked like Tobias!!!

But he was... different. His eyes were like an animal's. He walked right up to Garret and just said... "Hi... brother"

Garret was astounded! But crying with joy!

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When he entered the Welcome Wench, Tobias was not alone, Garret noted. With him was a girl that could not be older than 13 years. He asked about her and while Tobias remained dead silent, the girl spoke:

"I am Kiara sir. Kiara Madi. I was a part of the monastery where your brother stayed. Actually, your brother got struck by that bear because he was trying to protect me. I was 3 years old and I was abandoned in the woods. HE found me and then the bear found us. Even hurt, he managed to take me along with him and we found the monastery. That's been our home for the last 10 years."

And that was the story behind them. The girl was like a little sister to him, and she had a natural talent for magic. Now, the two... or three siblings were together and ready to follow the druid's mission.

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Tobias Ellenhorn: Monk/Ranger (the wildling build)
Gallet Ellenhorn: Bard (enchantment focused)
Kiara Madi: Monk/Sorcerer

 

More context:

Tobias is a Monk/Ranger with 5 CHA. The time in the monastery was frequently accompanied by long vows of silence. That left Tobias with little in common with the average person and a not very talkative personality. Kiara did almost all the talking for him. Tobias was only really capable of barely holding a conversation with Kiara and now, Gallet.

He is a dual kukri user and a longbow user. Using both with quick draw to best fit the situation.

He is currently lvl 10 (3 Monk/7 Ranger) that will aquire the ability to craft amulets of natural armor at lvl 18.

Gallet is currently a lvl 10 Bard with all focus on enchantment (Spell penetrations and focuses) that just learned how to craft boots of speed.

Kiara is currently a monk 2/ sorcerer with evocation focus. She will craft the keen/bursting kukris when she reaches lvl 12. For now, due to weapon limitations, Tobias is a better archer than Melee'r.


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Now, bullet points so far:


After running some errands that Garret had pending in Hommlet, the trio went to the moathouse and scouted the whole place. It was a tough fight and they decided to hire some muscle to help them. Capt. Renton spoke of Otis back in Hommlet, so they went to Nulb after fetching Lareth's Diary and hired Otis.

Back in Hommlet, Otis smash. Otis Kills. He basically carried the group through Emidry Meadows, the moathouse and Imedrys Run. During witch the party gained maybe....4 levels? and he himself only amassed a 1000 XP points. Must have been boring for old Otis.

He was vital in the Nulb house ambush but then Gallet was already a super charming machine and the group was not so dependant on him.

In Imedrys Run Otis managed to get a 6 consecutive hits with 4 kills in a cleaving/AoO sequence on the hag and her buddies. It was WAH WAS SOME! hehe


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A more detailed summary of the temple:


Reaching the temple, for some reason we needed to get back to Nulb. And Otis left the group, never to return. We were at a loss without him and needed some extra muscle. So, back in Hommlet we got the drunk brother version of Otis to come with us. And I actually think that now (Elmo is lvl 9) he is better than Otis ever were. Don't know why thou.

On DL1, Earth Temple, the newly refreshed band took careful steps and cleared all the non Earth Temple rooms (Harpies, Ogre, ghouls, gnolls, goblins, snake, bats) and then spoke to the man himself. Romag.

Romag asked for the snake's head. It was delivered. Then, he asked for a courier job. Well... Rentsch was no longer so we took up the job of ending 2 apprentices lives.

DL2 was the usual. A job here, a job there. Trying to milk all the XP from everyone before ending their miserable evil lives. Here, Kiara started to shine when she finally got fireball.


There was one memorable fight, witch is in another thread already, but I'll retell it here:

This fight alone (Smigmal and the Ogres) rendered 54000 XP according to the logbook. (I was maybe lvl 6 or 7 by then?) I did not have to hit smigmal (althou I did just to make sure) because when you charm her, combat starts and if she dies. It's on you. Also, her body goes back to her room, so you don't even have to face the ogres to get the loot. Even if she dies facing falrinth, it's worth it. You just have to be able to sneak past the assassins if your are too weak to face them.

That's more XP than the Nulb ambush. And with a charm person spell and some luck, could theoretically be accomplished at very low levels since she does not have a great will save.



Aaaand, that's about it. DL2 was eventually all cleared out and everyone is lvl 10 but Elmo, who is lvl 9.

Garret is sometimes wonderful, sometimes useless. He took only mage feats, so he is really only good for that and using a crossbow without any obstacles on the way. But when he useful, he is DECISIVE.

Tobias is the most fun char I ever played. I never (in my lifetime, swear) played any RPG game without a rogue in my party. This is a first for me and the nimbleness of the unarmored ranger fits my playstyle nicely. Also , I fell in love with the concept of the build. And it works as intended.

Kiara is a nimble sorc. and does wonders as well.

Elmo is the pillar of the party specially since Tobias is still a lot better with a bow than with the kukris (that is, until I can craft him the Keen/bursting ones).
I took a wrong turn and took CWI at lvl 9 with Kiara instead of CMWaA. So now I'll have to wait until lvl 12 (lvl 10 sorc) to craft it all at once instead of being able to have a +2 keen kukri now. So that's part of why the build is working best with a bow so far.

Later tonight, at least some of DL3 will perish...


EDIT: I got somewhat derailed by wine and cupcakes today and there will be no ToEE drunk playing. That leads to dead parties and grudges. See ya another day.

 

Today:

The tale of the mighty Elmo and the never ending song.

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DL3 is usually a dangerous place. Not so much for a party of 4 lvl 10 adventurers, but still, it could be deadly.


The band advances from the secret passageway and faces its most difficult fight in the entire level head on. Greater Temple Bugbears are hiding in the rooms. So we charm Scorpp and havi HIM do the tanking for us.

'Twas GREAT - Elmo

From then on... something amazing happened. It seems that the forces of heaven itself descended upon Garret the bard. He started playing a MEAN mandolin solo right in the middle of battle. I mean... it was like nothing anyone had ever heard! Freaky and virtuoso style.

Garret was on fire and Elmo, being the true enthusiastic character that he is, got also really excited. I mean... truly.

He gained the ability to simply... not die... at all. He faced ettins, ogres, trolls, groaning spirits, jackaleres, leucrottas, shadows and hill giants. Every single enemy on that damned dungeon. And escaped... without a single scratch.

The party just stood back and saved arrows while garret continued to play his mandolin. Ocasionally Kiara would toss some fireballs right in the middle of the fight with Elmo there. It did not seem to affect him in any way...



It seems mysterious things happened today. And they soon realized, that it should be used with caution and moderation, this new power...

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What actually happened was that the inspire courage song simply kept activating itself anew every round on top of adding like 4 inspire courage flags right from the start. So it was like elmo had 5 stoneskins stacked on him and they renewed themselves automatically.

I reported this bug but now I have a powerful potentially game spoiling tool in my hands.

But we'll move on anyways.