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Monday, November 7, 2011

Neverwinter Nights Higher Ground Pet a Paluzza:

Neverwinter Nights Higher Ground Pet a Paluzza:

Last night I logged onto Higher Ground to start our nightly guild run and had to chuckle out loud as I was greeted by a menagerie of strange creatures standing on the docks of Ascension.  
There was a Balor, Dragon, Dust White, Sanguineous Drinker and an Adaru all hanging out on the docks like a vignette from the Star Wars cantina (Minus the music thankfully).
As I stepped on the docks, immediately I got tells from three different players asking me if I have tried out the new pets! New pets who, what?
Well the HG Dev team is always working on something amazing and this was no exception. Pretty much all the summons at every level, familiars and epic summons have all been reworked to scale up to their master’s level. Add to this that the variety has been drastically increased as well and you have a Pet a Paluzza.
Many regular players on the mod, logged in and began trying out all of these new helpers. I must admit that my Pariah (A class specific to Higher Ground) did join in this mission of discovery, summoning my little pixie to see if her open locks, find traps and other skills had been bumped. And they had! That means that my Pix will be even more useful than usual what a great surprise!
Once we started our run Werehound Silverfang (Who is an HG DM and Dev) was playing a cleric as we ran Stygia (The fifth layer of the Hells). He was having a blast and making us all laugh with the quantity and variety of the summons his cleric was able produce. It was a very fun memorable run as his cleric produced Balors, Pit Fiends, Maryliths, Adaru was well as dominating an Orthon to help out the party.
Thus I would count Higher Ground’s Pet a Paluzza a huge success.
bb.hgweb.org (Come try it out and join the fun)

Bad

Monday, July 4, 2011

Pale Night Special Event

It was the dark of the moon, The Palace of the Sun was still, the perfume of the gardens and the play of the water along the canals adding to a sense of quietude and peace.

A peace that was not shared by the palace’s ruler.

Upon a golden couch the lord of the sun tossed and turned in a restless fevered sleep.

“The Mother, she is the danger” he mutters

“She will take the wand in place of her son”, very faint.

“All the worlds in ruins, the Obyriths returned through the power of the Wand, Noooooo!”

Pelor sat bolt upright, as he was jolted out of a troubled sleep. Old he was and wise, but this night he felt all of his millennia, and looked more like an old man full of angst than the greater god he was.

“Send a Deva to Zerial, the danger is great and time is short. Someone must be found who can prevent what I have just seen from happening.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Through much research and divining, it has been learned that Graz’tz’s mother Pale Night who is an Obyrith, a race so ancient and powerful as to predate Demon kind, will attempt dupe her own son in an attempt to steal the Wand of Orcus from him.

Should she succeed, Pale Night intends to use the wand’s power over undeath to bring back the race of Obyriths in an attempt to once again rule all of the planes of existence.

It has been learned that a party of adventurers seeking the wand's parts, have negotiated a pact with Graz’tz and are close to having all the pieces of the wand in their possession.

Pale Night intends to confront the adventurers, take the wand’s pieces from them before they can reach her son.

Thus the Celestial Council has formulated a very desperate plan.  A group of adventurers of truly extreme power must infiltrate the very heart of Graz’tz domain,  Azzarat Palace.

Shielded buy the powers of good, they will appear to Pale Night as the party that is bringing the wand pieces to Graz’tz for their reward.

It is hoped, that this ruse may draw Pale Night to the party allowing them to find and bring to battle a being that has a form so twisted as to be beyond the ken of mortals and gods alike.

Disclaimer:
This is a Higher Ground extreme event; it is only open to characters that are x5 demi and above. The risk of multiple limbos is very high! You have been warned!

As an Extreme Event the DM’s gloves are off, and no mercy will be shown!
But the rewards will be great as well![/color][/center]

There will be only 2 events, should more than 20 players wish to participate DM staff will roll to determine who gets the spots.

Repeats will only be allowed to fill cores for the event and only at the last minute.

In fairness to those who are not x5 demi but wish to participate. The event will be scheduled 5 weeks out so as to allow those players time to demi and become eligible.

Once again thank you HG DM/ DEV team for making this possible.

Since this event is scheduled 5 weeks out the DM staff has asked me to remind you that a no show without warning will result in the player not being eligible to pre register for events and said player will be allowed to participate in events as a last minute standby only from then on.

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Impressions from the First Ever Hunt for Malcanthet

Impressions from the First Ever Hunt for Malcanthet.
I think it was a mixture of excitement and anticipation that made everything seem so clear and sharp during the hunt.

As we entered the Plane of Portals I could feel a tension in the air akin a held breath waiting to exhale.

From the first spawn, you could tell that something was different, though you could not quite put your finger on it.

For those of us who thought that we were there to hunt down a mistress of
the abyss it quickly became apparent that it was we who were the hunted. In this strange barren landscape, we were the outsides and the hosts at Malcanthet’s command came at us in huge waves, surging and Uncontrollable.
The party was composed of seasoned veterans; we worked as a fine tuned machine, each knowing their job and doing it in time with the swirls and eddies of combat.

Over the span of about an hour we made our way thought the different maps
of the plane. With Malcanthet’s minions probing our strengths and our weaknesses at every turn.

Outside the portal to Gaping Maw which leads to the planes ruled by Demogorgon, we thought she would make her stand. The sheer size of the spawn was unnerving to behold. But our killing machine honed through countless hours spent in the abyss went to work; the tanks keeping the huge spawn at bay while casters rained fire and destruction on Malcanthet’s host.

Then just as quickly as we saw her, she was gone, fleeing deeper into Gaping Maw and toward her ex-consort Demogorgon.

We boldly went though the portal hot on her heels. It was in the Screaming Jungle with Malcanthet’s minions mixing with Demogorgon’s, that we began to move more cautiously thus slowing our progress for a time.

Seeing our resolve, it became clear to Malcanthet that we would not relent and return home empty handed, Malcanthet had no choice but to lay her final trap for us.
As we entered the great square of Lemorux the capital of Demogornon’s Realm, a host was arrayed against us of such immense size that I could not even begin to get a sense if their numbers.

Having grown accustomed to victory the group waded into this sea of demons without hesitation. But the sheer press of numbers began to slowly push us back. Succubi, Incubi, Glabrizu, anchored by Balors and Marilliths began to push back the ten stalwarts who dared invade their plane and threaten one of their lords.

For a long time the battle teetered on a knife’s edge. But the enemy’s numbers took their toll and we were pushed all the way back to the entrance of the plaza. Our backs against the wall, we knew that it was now or never.

Maximus our weapon master planted himself in front of the spawn, and basically said to the entire host to here and not an inch further. He was backed up by Sora the ranger, Jaerilla our rogue, Vagrant our Paladin and Trevelyan our indestructible bard as they rallied around him and tried to form a wall that would give the casters room to work.

Wandaerris, one of the two sorcerers in the party began a never ending rain of power word kills on the host. But as quickly as one demon died. three or four would rush in to take the fallen demon’s place.

Chrysalis our druid bravely waded into the host attempting to nature’s balance as many of the demons as he could, only to be brought low by the crushing numbers of the enemy. Estrella our cleric was a blur as she ran thought the swirling chaos
to greater restore and resurrect downed party members.

Retribution our shifter was in beholder shape firing ray after ray at the never ending mob arrayed against us.

It was then, as four of the party were down and the host was starting its final assault on us; I saw her in the crowd. Malcanthet our goal was here and helping direct her minions from the fringes. I suspected that this was really her last attempt to destroy this party of hunters who thought they were a match for her and her minions.

Seeing no alternative, I knew that someone would have to begin to really bring the pain to this huge host, but this could only be done from an unassailable position.

Right behind me was a small alcove between two buildings. Quickly making my way there I used my transmutation epic to wall around myself. This would buy me time.

Setting Evards Black Tenticles, and cold clouds I got ready to take the host head on. There is a kind of zen a caster falls into at such times. Thunder claps flew from my fingers and began to concuss the spawn, I fired one after another cueing them as quickly as I could.

I was floating high above the host in my tiny world of destruction. I could see Max dueling Malcanthet right up against my wall so switched focus to right in front of the epic wall, and continued my shower of destruction upon her and those creatures lapping around the wall.

People were down and resurrecting each other as a final press of 20 or so elite monsters came crashing upon us. For me there was no pause just keep casting. It was then that I looked down and saw that I was down to 5 or 6 spells. My mind was racing, and I began to think that even this effort may not be enough against such overwhelming odds.

Just as I began reaching for a biojuvinator to restore some of my spells, I heard a cheer go up from the party, Malcanthet was down!!

Once again I just wanted to share a small taste of what the Special Events on Higher Ground are like.

www.http://bb.hgweb.org

Sunday, June 26, 2011

The Hunt for Malcanthet Queen of the Succubi

The Plane of Portals is a place of infinite possibilities and infinite danger. Those Adventurers unlucky or foolish enough to spend any time in that perilous place know that danger is always waiting.

Expect the unexpected, watch for the most subtle of signs; the nearly imperceptible tingle of electricity in the air, or even more enticing, the scent of perfume wafting though the plane of portals.

It is rumored that the Plane of Portals is not just the territory of Pazuzu, but that recently a half mad paladin was seen staggering though Zariel’s workshop rambling on about a demoness of such unspeakable beauty that to see her once, was to have her vision seared into your mind’s eye forever.

What little could be gleaned from his disjointed account, is that this was no mere demoness, but a Lord of the Abyss, her fearsome power and cruelty akin to that of Graz’tz or Demogorgon.

Those traveling though the Plane, should be warned against following a sweet seductive scent that is this Demon Lord’s sirens song and calling card.

It was only after Zariel consulted with the Sage of Ascension, and auguries were cast, that a new threat facing the known Universe was made apparent.

It was made clear, that Demogorgon in aspiring to claim the Wand of Orcus for himself, and become the
Prince of Demons. Is attempting to enlist the aid of Malcanthet ruler of the 570th plane of the abyss and the mother of his offspring Arendagrost.

Emissaries have arranged a meeting between the two, but the auguries are not clear on the exact timing of the event. It is believed that there are two possible times at which this alliance could be consummated.

In the hope of preventing the alliance, Zariel has sent out a call for a group of adventurers, with immense power, and hopefully fortuitous timing, who would brave the dangers of the Plane of Portals, defeat Malcanthet and her guardians, thus preventing this meeting, and ending this new threat to the universe.

The auguries have also hinted, that Malcanthet may be carrying on her person an item so rare and powerful as to be the first of its kind to be found in the known universe.

This is a Special Event Brought to you by the Hard Working Dev & DM team of Higher Ground.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Obox-Ob Defeated as Prince of Demons Last Night

The thud heard round the Universe, (Obox-ob as Prince has fallen)

Last night’s Obox-Ob as prince of demon’s fight was an impressive testament to team work and everyone knowing their jobs.

I have found that huge endgame runs such as this really seem to bring the group together, and the sum becomes greater than the individual parts.

The key to a Demon Prince is on everyone focusing their fire power on him. Though that is not really enough, everything must happen in the correct order with each class knowing what to do when.

Thus one of your arcanes starts the spawn with Death of Magic, initiating the fight so that the rest of the Prince spawn appears without buffs etc.

Then a well timed Immutable Force is key, this gives the group a much needed 30 seconds of invulnerability. The druid then needs to use Natures Frailty, to bring down the Prince’s spell resistance as fast as possible, if this is followed up with several Natures’ Balance spells, then this allows the arcanes to get to work.

It is the Tanks job to be on the Prince applying pressure and keeping his regeneration in check. If they have used a Constitution enhancing artifact and have Breath of the Beast available, this is the time to use it and inflict the prince with fire vulnerability for a short time.

The cleric needs to get Blade Barrier under the Prince and being using mass heals on the party to keep us fighting.

Our Bard must Curse quick and use taunt on the Prince to bring his ac down thus giving the tanks an opening to do their jobs. Healing spirit and healing circle are his next priorities. As well as a quick song for anyone who goes down.

Just as Immute is about to go down it is up to the leader to time and call for Starfires (this Epic spell does a large amount of magic damage in a large area and inflicts magic vulnerability for a short time.) If the Starfires are well timed, this also provides another few seconds breathing room.

Once all this is in place; then it finally comes down to who wants it most, and how much heart your party has. As people go down and are resurrected only to go down again. This is when people start thinking about limbo; this is when parties break as one then two then most begin hiding in Greater Sanctuary looking for a way out of the crushing spawn.

 These epic battles are the forge fires for true heroes, they are the test and temper of their will to fight and these fires burn bright every night on Higher Ground.

Just want to share a tiny taste of a Demon Prince Fight.

http://bb.hgweb.org

Friday, June 24, 2011

Tonights Main Event Obox-ob

Obox-ob Prince fight tonight

Tonight for the 3rd time in Higher ground History, our group of insane hmm I mean intrepid adventurers will take on Obox-Ob as Prince of Demons.

This is going to be a battle for the ages with the fate of the universe hanging in the balance. Nearly a month worth of abyss runs will culminate in this showdown between good and evil.

I love Higher Ground for these epic endgame battles, huge spawns backing up some of the deadliest foes known to Dungeons and Dragons. What better way to spend an evening with friends than on this epic quest. The suspense building  with each passing night as you get closer and closer to this one night and this major challenge.

As I write this, I am thinking about the changes and updates coming to HG very soon. Limbo the mysterious plane and Paragon area, and the 66th layer of the abyss and facing down Lolth* in her true goddess form, then finally the Elder Evils; wow that is going to be some amazing content.

When I first heard about the Elder Evils and the Paragon areas in the pipeline I knew it was time for us to plan and build for the future. Now we are almost ready, the guild has 9 players able to field level 80 paragons to defend the universe against this new peril.

Right after Obox-ob we will again face Demogorgon and his offspring Arendagrost** in the last demon prince fight for quite a while as our next step will be a grand cycle of the hells which will include 5 demigod tags for those who are up to the challenge.

We are doing this in final preparation for the elder evils and paragon areas yet to be released. It is a time to learn and a time to teach as we get ready for the future.

*According to the Forgotten Realms storyline, Lolth began as an intermediary goddess abiding in the sixty-sixth layer of the Abyss, the Demonweb Pits. Through the events that transpired in War of the Spider Queen series, she transformed herself into a greater goddess as she is depicted now in 4th edition, the Demonweb Pits becoming its own plane.

**According to accounts at the time, "The beast vaguely resembled an immense wingless dragon of gargantuan size. Instead of legs, it moved upon a sea of tentacles. In place of scales, it was covered in coarse black fur and had three heads that resembled monstrous horned fiends that breathed bloody acid, fire, and frost. Its six-fold eyes offered instant death to anyone catching their hideous gaze..."

Sunday, June 19, 2011

The Deepest Abyss (1 click away from disaster)

The Deepest Abyss (1 click away from disaster)


Most of us live on a razor’s edge every day.  Since a well balanced and brilliantly conceived persistent world like higher ground tends to be an excellent mirror of an alternate world/life the risks and dangers on higher ground tend to be magnified and force the player to really appreciate the fine line between victory and disaster.

Last night we attempted to take on Orcus Lord of the Undead in his frigid abode of Thanatos. Orcus is never an easy run. He is well defended by legions of Undead as well as a very elaborate system of keys and phylacteries.

Of course, getting to Orcus is the relatively easy, if time consuming part of the adventure. It is fighting Orcus in the citadel of his power while attended by a huge host of his minions were you really begin to appreciate the tiny margin for error that a party of adventurers really has.

Last night all went well as we got ready to set up for the final confrontation with Orcus. When getting ready to take on an Abyssal Lord, positioning can often make the difference between win or wipe. So not wanting to take chances we opted to set up behind his throne, which is a highly defensible area that should afford us an extra 15-30 seconds of safety in which to focus all of our abilities on bringing down Orcus before his summons begin to appear.

But, mischance is fickle, thus last night one of our players miss-clicked on Orcus while trying to get into position. This miss-click began the fight immediately with the party in absolute disarray.

Hoping to salvage the situation, I gave the order for everyone to focus on Orcus in an effort to bring him down fast.

Using Epic Wall around myself I set up toward the north east corner of the room and began trying to take out blood winds using greater ruins which would enable me to open up and use evards black tentacles, incendiary cloud and delayed blast fireballs on the spawn.

I knew that I was taking some big risks here, surrounded by epic wall and with several kick back mobs still in the spawn I would need to watch my health like a hawk. Blocking all this out I began to cast and cast, there is almost a Zen like feeling to watching your casting queue fill up as you go through an arcane casters formula of destruction. Evards, evards, cloud, dbf, dbf, dbf each cast is 3 seconds 20 seconds in I can see the Balors making their way around the main spawn and Orcus to get to the party. Ok now Starfire (A high damage epic spell usable only once per day) and Orcus is Injured.

Things are on target and we may be able to recover. 30 seconds in immute (Immutable Force a druid epic which makes the party invulnerable for approximately 30 seconds) is down and Orcus is beginning to summon, the artaglith in the back of the spawn is summoning zombies at an exponential rate. The zombies kick back is beginning to get past my resists. I have used my 2 ruins on blood winds at the start of the fight.

I bio (Bios are magical pots that restore a casters spells, but are only usable every 5 minutes.) ok ruin the artaglith, precious seconds tick by as I carefully target on the atratglith within a writhing mass of creatures at the far end of the spawn.

The ruin hits but the artaglith does not go down, ok keeping my fingers crossed as I attempt to use my second and last greater ruin. My targeting if good and he goes down. But as I re-focus on the main spawn the room is literally awash with abyssal zombies and several blood winds.

Being out of ruins my only hope is that our cleric is able to implode the blood winds fast enough for me to bring the pain to Orcus. I queue fire orbs which are a targeted spell to at least keep his regeneration to a minimum as I wait on the cleric to clear the blood winds.

Roughly 50 seconds into the spawn, my epics wall is breached. The very experienced tanks in the party react quickly to close the breach with their bodies buying me a few more seconds in which to Starfire Orcus again. The whole massive spawn seems to wilt under the huge wave of magic energy I unleash. I can see my life bar plummet as I take massive kick back from the spawn.

A slight smile plays across my lips as I see Orcus at Badly Injured even as my character dies under a full press of monsters and overwhelming kick back.

I hope this gives you a bit of an intro to the very challenging end game areas that are available on Higher Ground.