D&D 4e Game, Homebrew Setting, Houserules

[Iunnrais]

3x Banshees: 14400
1x Skill Challenge: 4800
Bonus for Keeping the Astral Eye: 5000

Total XP: 24200xp
Split Between 4 Party Members: 6050xp

Recap for Notos:

While returning from your brief stroll with Pendarric, you arrive back at the Dwarven capital just as a sailing ship come crashing into the side of the mountain, seemingly made of gold inside, with all the occupants dead except for one: a bemused sailor that seems to have been pierced (repeatedly and all over) with crystals, which Garron recognized as being broken up bits of a Shardmind. The sailor knew nothing of how he got there, except that he was a Sea Farer, and sailed into a storm. He was not previously pierced by crystals. Garron did his "life story" spell, and determined that the sailor had been messed with by Mileena's sister.

He joins the party, who decide its time to take out the imp before he summons the tarrasque. They head straight for the Pits of Slaagh, when they discover that there is an Incubus sitting at the entrance. The Incubus greeted you in Infernal, saying "From one slave of the Spider Lord to another..."

The incubus then offered the following deal from Arthenmyr: Leave the imp, and thus the tarrasque be. In exchange, the incubus would transport all of you immediately to the location of one of the Necromancer's armies, which has discovered the location of the Astral Eye. Intact. And in addition, once you were done retrieving the Eye and keeping it from the Necromancer, the incubus, or another of Arthenmyr's slaves, would tell them exactly how to kill the Tarrasque (which would then be rampaging about the world).

The party deliberated, but finally agreed. The Necromancer could not be allowed to get his hands on the Astral Eye, and even Arthenmyr seemed to agree on this point.

Via one-way teleport, the party found themselves in the middle of a hard dirt-packed desert, which stretched as far as they could see. Via the stars (and the very fact that the stars were visible, having gone from day to night) the party determined themselves to be located on the other side of the world. Garron's raven was sent out to scout, and eventually determined that the desert was bordered by thick jungle at a very specific, clean line. This line did not form a perfect circle, but rather (after several hours of scouting later) a heart shape-- Eoralla's holy symbol.

The newcomer, the sailor, found that his crystal shards were tugging him in a particular direction-- towards the center of the "heart", but also nearly straight down. So the party dug, and encountered dozens of zombies and other kinds of nasty undead entombed shallowly in the dirt. As they were being excavated so slowly, it was easy to cut them to bits before they could do any harm, but it boded ill.

Eventually, the digging opened up into a massive cavity beneath the heart. The base of the cavity was filled with thousands, if not more, of high-level intelligent undead, seemingly stuck down there for some reason. The air-space of the cavity was filled with the sound of banshees, particularly nasty in that you lacked the means to make them visible-- until it was discovered that the Ethereal Eye could be looked through to see invisible undead.

Flying in on eagleback, the party dispatched the banshees with some difficulty, and then flew to the center of the heart-- a large stone pillar on which rested a large stone ball. Landing on it, the Astral Orb seemed to be entombed within, and so they began excavating. This immediately set the undead army below to climbing up after them... but lo! The undead were being blasted away as they climbed, one by one! And furthermore, the party felt renewed strength! From Eoralla! The Goddess of Love was helping them!

But her power seemed to be waning somehow, and over the many hours it took to excavate to the center of the stone ball, the undead were getting closer and closer before being blasted away. Until at last, they poured onto the ball... but it was too late for them, the party had collected the Eye! They began to fly away...

And Eoralla's blessings were reft from them. Weariness returned-- and more than weariness. Their life energy began to be sucked away. The mystic eagles themselves were dissolving midflight. The party made it out to the desert, but had to land. And soon they would all be drained of consciousness, and lose the Eye. Desperately, they started the teleportation ritual.

But just as they were about to finish the ritual, three beautiful but vaguely insectiod fae approached. They were leading Eoralla on a leash, and discussing amongst themselves if there was any way to force her to drain the party faster. They demanded the Astral Eye, threatening to squish the party like a bug if it was not given.

In a last ditch desperation effort, Garron took the eye and utilized the power of the broken sphere to pull them all into the Astral Realm (or pull the Astral Realm here?). He then attempted to destroy the Eye itself... and effort which only resulted in cracking it...

But cracking the Eye while in the Astral blasted the fae, the goddess, and Garron into a coma filled with nightmares beyond comprehension. Unconscious, Garron was dragged through the now complete teleportation portal, to Northolt.

Garron awoke a day or two later. And swore he would never sleep again. EVER.

But you have the Astral Eye. A cracked and damaged Astral Eye, but the Astral Eye regardless.

[silarion]

On that note, Selfless act extraordinaire.

Don't I get bonus for that kind of awesome?

[Iunnrais]

You know what? Yes. Yes you do.

Garron gets a 1000 xp bonus. I'm also going to hand out a smaller, 100 xp bonus to Pendarric, for maintaining his obsession with the planes (and the orbs).

I'm going to continue handing out bonus XP for actively pursuing your epic destinies.

[bac8434]

Sweet, does that mean I get bonus XP for being a dick to the fae?

[Iunnrais]

Less for merely being a dick, and more for attempting to gather forces against them, oppose their goals, rescue those who are afflicted by them, etc. Actively doing things, as opposed to just hating them.

[bac8434]

Ha, because me actively defying the fae has always gone so well in the past

[silarion]

Well, acting selflessly got me pretty badly deranged. Roleplaying has costs in some instances. For now, the partially rebuilt 4th orb resides with Garron. The other three can be kept by Pendarric.

The party is cash-poor. How much can Garron get for liquidating operations in Belas? He may have lost the guild under the city, but he owns land and property and is not stupid enough to keep all wealth in the same place. Setting up in Northolt was pretty cheap in the sense we just moved into the sewers and rebuilt.

How much can the guild get as it pulls out?
1) Sell all property so long as it isn't a net loss. (Save two bases of operations, a warehouse for unloading future goods and a shop of some sort)
2) Robing people who pissed us off by evicting us blind on our way out.

3) How much per gun?

I plan on dividing the money if it is enough to matter. If not, he will rebuild and upgrade his bag of tricks that has gotten us out of so much trouble.

Also, Garron goes out at night while in Northolt as a bumbling, overdressed noble in the wrong part of town. Shouldn't be too hard to fill up those soul amulets.

Also need to detail purchases with DM. I suggest the whole party do that. We are, on the whole, equipment light. at 15-16 you should have a +4 weapon.

[Iunnrais]

How much can the guild get as it pulls out?
1) Sell all property so long as it isn't a net loss. (Save two bases of operations, a warehouse for unloading future goods and a shop of some sort)

At this time, selling property would be at a loss-- and will likely to continue to be a loss until after the war. If you want, you could probably buy other property in Bellas for dirt cheap, but then, the risk is that it might be seized by whoever conquers the city, not respecting your land titles.

2) Robing people who pissed us off by evicting us blind on our way out.

This is doable, but tricky. There will be losses of personel in the attempt, again, due to war times (and war time security), but I'm sure you can make out with, oh, say, 1d100 x 100 gold worth of money/goods. And 1d100 captured or killed low-level thieves.

3) How much per gun?

In Northolt? ~3000gp per gun. These guns will likely be used by rival gangs, who may or may not actually turn them on you.

[bac8434]

Why sell the guns? Setting up operations in a town run by gang warfare would be a lot easier with firearms, available recruits would be stupid not to flock to us.

[silarion]

Because our dm doesn't give much treasure and much of the party is beginning to have trouble hitting on a 13 an below. I am not selling anything a with those returns or robbing anyone, though the logic behind increased wartime security is flawed. The city would be stripped of competent guards and should be easier to rob. I wasn't going to rob armories, rather noble houses.

As for whether to sell guns, we can discuss that later.