Plenary Sessions Amber Campaign

Dr. Llewellyn Cypher: Now that I’ve had some time to think about it here’s some thoughts about the dragons campaign: • Surveillance: Do the dragons have schedule? Do they hunt at specific times? When are they most active? Which caves to they use the most? Are there young? How many? The more information we can gather the better. (Lew, Lan, and other party members) • Summon the Thunderstorm: This needs to be done well ahead of our assault. Dragons aren’t idiots. If a storm comes up out of nowhere they’ll be suspicious. It would be best if it was already a rainy day. (Lew) • Lure the Dragons Out: It’s a storm. The dragons are not going to want to come out. We need to come up with a sure fire way of getting them out of the caves and into the open air. (Lan, and other party members) • Block their Retreat: We need to make it impossible for them to get back into the caves. We need to keep them out in the open. (Lan, and other party members) • Containment: Next we need to keep them confined to a specific area. (Lan, and other party members) • Endgame - Call Lightning: We unleash the storm on them. (Lew) • Follow Through: We explore the caves and get rid or capture any young. I think this plan has a high probability of success. Everyone involved will have something important to do. Thoughts? This still needs to fleshed out further. How will we lure the dragons? How will we block their retreat? Containment strategy? Let me know what you think. Lan Dramar: Luring the dragons out will be pretty easy. We basically say that we killed her kid and that should do it. Now, I suggest we do the Follow Through part first for one reason: The young. We should Polymorph them. Think about it: If we turn the young into adult steel dragons, the power and intellect disparity will ensure that their personalities change. This solves the problems of any young and gets us a good number of steel dragon compatriots to battle the evil duo. Best of all, the personality switch is irreversible short of divine intervention/wish, and it's so strong that the targets will rationalize anything that disproves them being what they were transformed into. So basically, we take the dragons' kids, polymorph them into child soldiers, use them to kill the mother dragons, and then Lithuania gets any left over steel dragon guardians. Win/win/win. Oh, and you or I could Dig the cave closed once we got them out. Now, at your level, you can pen magical scrolls. Assuming we can get the materials to create them, we could prepare the entire array of spells in scroll form so as to use our spell slots as emergency buttons. Dr. Llewellyn Cypher: I think a confrontation in an confined environment with no information about the layout, especially factoring in the breath weapons, is tantamount to suicide. We want to deal with the dragons in the open air with a strong wind blowing. That way we can can attack from upwind. I don’t think that while the adults are alive we’ll be able to get anywhere near the young. I’ll look into the scrolls. As far as I remember that takes time and some special ingredients. Lan Dramar: I want to run a few experiments regarding what Polymorph actually does (Read: How Al interprets various physical traits and if they are conferred via polymorph). Basically, I would like to prepare a number of wooden stakes, as well as a set of skin covering clothes. I don't care about the comfort level, as long as I can cast spells and see in them without showing ANY skin. Basically, I want to catch a number of small animals and polymorph them into vampires, staking them to subdue them so I can run experiments. The goal is basically to see exactly what vampiric abilities get conferred from polymorphing - specifically, the regeneration, transformation into gaseous form, and weakness to sunlight. I'd also like to test their level drain ability, but only if Lew has level restoration spells or we kidnap a few irrelevant townsfolk for the greater good. This is highly relevant, I swear. The other request I have for Lew is basically to just assist me in this matter so it can progress faster. The other experiment is directly related to the first one. If any of the three benefits mentioned get transferred to the creature being tested, then I would like to Polymorph Self myself into a vampire one night and see if any abilities also get reproduced through Polymorph Self, as well as how the Polymorph physically changes my body. Lew will be standing on site with a stake and all my gear during this as a precaution. Also, we should try and scout the lair if we can. If we can get lucky and find a way into the lair when no dragon or only one dragon is guarding it, the polymorph hatchlings strategy is a great idea. Assuming there are any. Dr. Llewellyn Cypher: Just wanted to comment on an email sent earlier in the week by Lan. Anything you can do to dissuade him from his plan to go into the caves, turn the hatchlings into steel dragons, and then let them loose on the parent, or change the other party members into steel dragons, or change them into anything I’d appreciate. I think the plan is foolish, has little chance of working, and will get almost everyone dead. I say almost everyone in that I’m not going into those caves until the two adult dragons are dead. Confronting two creatures with gas based breath weapons in an enclosed, confined space when the opportunity exists to confront them in the open with a high wind blowing is suicidal. It would be interesting to hear him try to sell his plan to the other party. I think if they have an ounce of common sense they’d reject it in favor of the plan I outlined. By the way, I don’t think polymorph others can turn someone into a vampire. Otherwise it would be a cure for vampirism. You could just turn vampires into living beings. I also don’t think I can create scrolls at the drop of a hat. I’d need time, a facility, and quite a number of very specialized ingredients. Thoughts?

I'm Lan btw. Side Notes: 1) The Polymorph plan would be nice IF WE COULD PULL IT OFF. I do not recommend blindly rushing into the caves - that's a dumb idea no matter what we set up. However, it is a safe assumption that at least one dragon will periodically leave to hunt, at least for itself or themselves. On the offchance the caves are left unguarded AND there is a small amount of young, I think the Polymorph plan is a good one. 2) Really, I'm just testing the vampirism thing to see if a) it's possible, and b) if I/we can derive any dragon-fighting benefits out of it like regeneration or at-will gaseous form or potentially even the life drain. I don't expect it to work (or Al to give it to us) but it's a nice experiment. 3) We should maybe experiment with the idea of illusions. Dragons, especially not superhumanly bright ones like the ones we're facing, do not automatically see through illusions. Make it convincing enough, and they'll believe it. Moreover, the illusionary damage will bring their "unconsciousness bar" up, so if we can knock them out and they pass their system shock checks we can get a few good hits in while they're recovering. This tactic is extra-nice because even the low level people can try and help out. 4) This is to the "chumps". Frankly, I really foresee only 3 things you can effectively do: help us scout so that if an emergency happens me and Lew are ready to fight and at full capacity, act as pseudo-artillery and/or equipment mules and/or magical utility mules, and - this last one is loaded with risks to you, and really only open to you non-elves due to the high likelihood of death somewhere along the way (we have Raise Dead, but ironically we're both elves; we die, we're dead) - willingly subjecting yourselves to Polymorph Other to become combat decent. The risks include: death by system shock turning into the monster, having your personality subsumed basically irreversibly into that of the monster you have polymorphed into, and death by system shock turning back to your original form. Not to mention probably dying to the dragons to begin with. I suppose you melee fighters can try and fight, but the only thing you're really going to accomplish is being distractions for the dragon. Very quick-to-die distractions.

To: Lan Dramar Fr: Ana Re: Fighters One of the fighters can do up to 100 HP of damage if he rolls right, granted the odds of him getting that are slim, but I would advise you never to doubt the power of a drunken suicidal dwarf armed with a magic trident taken from a Lizard King.

To: Ana Fr: Vlad the Inhaler Re: Dwarf fighters Let me "prepare" Ragnar for the fight, I have stuff that will get him so blasted he will not notice death.

To: Vladimir V. Putin Fr. Jondo Tew Re: Intoxication and battle Mix three parts Slivovitska, two parts Milk of the Poppy, add the seed bracts from 10,000 Cannabis Indicus, let stand for three weeks in a cool place well protected from open flame, a Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster!

And that my friends, is how to plan. I’m Kelyn and I will be the one holding your beers Sunday night ;-) . Seriously though, thank you for helping us with the dragons. When Farion, Arcanon and I went up against Voriliath, we definitely bit off more than we could chew. We were very luck that Farion and Brinely got in some very good hits. Hopefully we can be as lucky against his mother and her friend. I am pretty sure Ragnar, Knuckles, Ravi and Egandrol are all looking forward to testing their mettle against the dragons. Syllvanus knows they have been bragging enough about how they are going to defeat the dragons. Please try to not get them killed. I’m not sure how much help I can be. I’m not a fighter nor very powerful. But I will try. Just let me know what you need of me and if it is in my power I will do my best. At the moment, I have access to 1 third and 5 first and second level Druid spells per day. Some of the spells which I think might be helpful are: Call Lightning, Spike Growth, Plant Growth, Shape Wood, Shape Stone, Obsurement, Animal Spy, Bless, Entangle, Invisibility to Animals, Locate Plant & Animal, and Puffball. BTW, I do not want to know about Lan’s plan to experiment on small animals. If I do, I will try to stop him – probably not very effectively but I will try.

<--- the drunken, suicidal dwarf. My plan is very simple... Step 1 : Approach Target Step 2 : Hit Target Step 3 : Repeat Step 2 Until Target Is Dead Step 4 : ??? Step 5 : Get Exp and Loot And for clarification on the trident, because I'm sure my own party is curious as well, it is a huge trident we got from the Lizard King in the caverns under the marsh after I charged at him through five of his elite body guards in order to prevent him from retreating. This beauty of a weapon (in hindsight it could have one shot me) does a flat 3d6 damage to all size creatures, when my attack roll is 5 higher than the enemy's armor class I get to do double damage with a minimum of 30 pending the 3d6 roll. If I clear the armor class by more than 5 and crit as well, it can do quadruple damage with a minimum of 60 damage pending the 3d6 roll. It is a very fun weapon to use, though I am not proficient, specialized nor level 7 so its basically a one swing a round type deal and hope I hit lol. Now I haven't actually crit with it yet, so I'm not sure if I get the crit table in there as well or if the passive ability just over-rides that, but it can do between 60-100 damage on a critical hit.