4e Campaign - Thunderspire Labyrinth

Session 10

Having reviewed the layout for the beginning of the adventure, it seems like the flow of the module was leading you to an opening encounter with the Bloodreavers, followed by interaction in the Seven Pillared Hall, then more Bloodreavers at the Chamber of Eyes. I determined I'd like to throw another skill challenge in, and I didn't want to use the "labyrinth" theme to early in this adventure. Noticing that the chamber of eyes has an interesting entry room, I decided to place the skill challenge there, instead of at the opening (finding the labyrinth) or in the Seven Pillared Hall, which would mostly be uncovering information that I want the players to have (ie, it does not benefit me for them to "fail" at finding this out). With this in mind, I decided to begin the adventure "in medias res" for the first Bloodreaver encounter. I laid out the first encounter on the dungeon tiles, and I placed all the bad guys (upgraded slightly to a 6th level encounter). I then had the party "dice off" to determine their placement on the board. Those with the highest rolls got to place anywhere on the board, as the rolls went lower, they had a more constrained space to choose from. Finally, the players that rolled a 3 and 1, I placed their characters, specifically in disadvantaged locations (ie, flanked). Initiative! This worked out very well, and was fun to play out. I liked roll-playing the arrogant Warcaster in this room, who taunts the party throughout the challenge. The encounter was made more difficult and threatening because of the setup. This also clearly reinforced to me how CRITICAL space, spacing, and tactical map considerations are in 4e.

The halfling captured by the Bloodreavers leads the party back to the Seven Pillared Hall, and the party moves forward along their "personal" quest lines, gathering information about the module, location, significant npc's, and factions within the module. Almost all of these characters went over well, and I think the writers for the adventure did a particularly good job. This setting is uniquely fantastical, and the npc's the party engages are some real characters, which I think makes the story more engaging. The party has found particular interest in the drow Gendar, Brugg the Ogre, the Mages of Saruun, and the Deepgem Company. That's cool! The party gets all the groundwork laid, in the process, for what mean and nasty guys the duergar are, which will be an easy feeder for the next session.

It becomes clear to the party that the Bloodreavers are an imminent threat, so they party acts to go deal with them.

For the Chamber of Eyes, I've broken this up into as many as three encounters. The first is a skill challenge to "break in" to their stronghold. The second and or third will be encounters with those inside (a level 5 and a level 6 if separate, or a level 9 encounter if the alarm is raised).

First is the skill challenge, which is a level 5, complexity 1 skill challenge using bluff, stealth, thievery, and athletics. Failure results in the level of readiness for the Bloodreavers inside the chamber of eyes. The party begins wisely moving a fighter up the balcony with athletics, followed closely by a ranger with stealth, who sneaks into the Chamber of Eyes to get the first count of villains (two successes). As is common, when the party is going too smooth, I throw in a wrinkle, and indicate the goblins behind the door have "spotted" the party and begin to question them. The fighter tries to bluff. Hysterics ensue, a failure (initial alert). The charismatic warlock moves to pick it up, but completely blows the roll (two failures), the goblins have now spotted the enemy on the balcony and begin to open fire. The mage uses a spell to get a bonus to another attempt at intimidating the goblins to open the door, posing as a Mage of Saruun (success). They are of the impression there is a threat, but that they are also not obeying a powerful overseeing force, and begin to hesitate. It all comes down to the last check (seeking 4 successes before 3 failures). Instead of using thievery, stealth or athletics to position themselves, they go for the bluff, and miss it. The alarm is raised throughout the chamber of eyes, as the guards realize this is a ruse.

The second encounter to the chamber of eyes is a HUGE brawl with goblin sharpshooters, goblin skullcrushers, hobgoblin soldiers, hobgoblin archers, Bugbear warriors, a vicious dire wolf, duergar soldiers, and the hobgoblin chief. In they swarm through two main check points into the entryway. The first was through the double doors, and the second was out the balcony. The mage drops his stinking cloud daily in the double doors hallway. This was devastating. A fighter at the top of the balcony, uses tide of iron to systematically throw each opponent coming down the hall over the rail for additional falling damage. Their tactics were sound, and the fighters did a good job of holding their ground against overwhelming odds and powerful foes. The ability to block line of sight (with the cloud) turned into a big factor. In addition, we got to see the Warlock's daily, Crown of Madness, which is powerful when targeted effectively, which it was. This was still a pitched fight, with several of the players bloodied, but with the positioning of the room, and the tools at their disposal, the players felt in control.

It should be noted that in this level 9 encounter, not everyone used a daily power, and since the party is now fifth level, they have access to more than one daily power now! I've got to think it will be harder to challenge this party, and am genuinely surprised at the proposed string of "lower powered" encounters proposed by the adventure. I may try this with Horned Hold, just to see the difference, and to see if we can accomplish these encounters faster if they are broken down (in number of creatures and actions) more easily.

I have to admit that it was challenging at times keeping track of all the villains, their powers/abilities, who was marked, what effects were up/required saves, which villain powers needed a recharge roll, and hit points.

Overall, the evening went well. We accomplished a couple of bigger combats, a skill challenge, knocked out a major quest, and spent a chunk of time on roleplaying and moving forward the character background stories.