A summary of our fifth session of our Return to Khazad-dum campaign (there may be slight spoilers to King of the Trollhaunt Warrens, as Kevin is borrowing some things from that adventure):

In attendance:

• Kevin - DM
• Me (Tom) - male dwarf warlord (Durin)
• Dave - male elf ranger (Loric)
• Ed - male human fighter (Grimbold)
• Bob - male Halfling rogue (Aramis Took)
• Matt - male human fighter (Galiator of Gondor)

I have been assimilated. My consciousness has been added to the 4E collective.

Actually, it's probably more of a "how I stopped worrying and learned to like the 4E."

Due to the weather, schedule conflicts and the holidays, it's been almost two months since our last session. There wasn't a lot of action this week.

We spend quite a while catching up. Again, it's mostly because we hadn't met in a while plus Matt's come to the game for the first time in years. Matt's a friend of Dave's who gamed with us for a while in the early days of 3E (when we played both 3E and HackMaster). Matt's has never played 4E (his other group, which Dave is a part of, plays 2E). I'm looking forward to hearing his thoughts on the game. As I'm placing the food order, I overhear Bob telling Matt that 4E is similar to 3E but simpler and better (or words to that effect, I was talking the pizza guy at the time). At least I finally have an idea of which system Bob seems to prefer. This places the count at:

• 3 ½ pro-4E (Kevin, Ed, Bob); Lance = ½
• 1 neutral (Me)
• 1 neutral, running slightly anti-4E (Dave)

Before we start, I mention to the group a house rule I saw on one of the boards allowing you to spend an action point to recharge an encounter power. I want to use this to help eliminate "the grind." Kevin mentions several paragon paths already allow you to do this so there's no need. I get the feeling Kevin wants to play within the rules for a while before adding house rules. I expect that he'll add them as we decide we really need them.


The party decides that wandering the swamp with a crudely drawn map is probably not a good idea. We decide to head back into town to try and get better information. After a night's rest at the inn, the party comes down to find the innkeeper, Champ, in a much better mood and with a more helpful attitude.

Obviously, Kevin has read my previous posts about non-helpful NPCs. This leads to a discussion of who's NPCs are the biggest jerks. Eventually, I think we all reach the consensus that we have never met a helpful NPC in any of our home campaigns.

Champ tells us that trolls have always occasionally attacked the town; that's why they built the troll wall. He also tells us that the trolls have become more aggressive recently. He then re-introduces us to Baccus while asking if there's anything else we want to ask. (Of course, I forgot to ask the obvious question, how'd he get the nickname, Champ). Baccus, deep in his cups despite the earliness of the hour, tells us how his expedition found the main troll warren before his group was slaughtered. The main warren is not too far from a now-abandoned ancient keep built before the river overflowed and created the swamp. He also mentions that the trolls seem to have a king. We are then told that a sage could probably help us locate the keep and we could find one at the mayor's keep. Grimbold and Galiator head off to procure supplies (torches, we need lots of torches) while the rest of us visit the mayor.

At this point, Matt has to leave. We'll have to wait until another time to get his impressions of 4E.

We meet the mayor and explain our desire to help the town with the trolls. He doubts we can help considering that the baron's son failed, but he's not one to stop us and points us to a sage who is an expert in the old ruins of the area. He's actually within the mayor's keep (how convenient). The sage gives us the history of the keep (it was an outpost of an ancient kingdom, the story was more interesting than that but this is just a summary) and gives us directions to it.

Now this is probably the most role-playing we've done at one time in quite a while. Personally, I'm very shy (I'm surprised I post as much to the few D&D boards I follow as I do). A coworker once told me I'm very quiet until I let you into my circle and then I'm quite sociable. Of course, I'm not shy with the guys but I think because of this, I much prefer to describe my characters actions rather than act out what my character saying; i.e. "Durin introduces himself and his companions to the mayor and offers his party's help with the growing troll aggression." I'm not sure if this helps or hurts when it comes to NPC interactions; considering that the DM may find it more useful to get more "direct from the PC's mouth" type of responses to his questions.

As part of out earlier discussion of NPCs, we find it interesting that the majority of the time my character ends up in the 'leader' role (not in the 4E sense). Especially as I tend to play dwarves so I can be direct (which I am in real life). Ed points out that usually what happens in these discussions is that either my character takes something as a perceived insult and flips out or I get impatient and insult the NPC (calling a baron, "hey f**ko" is usually not a good idea). Kevin points out that a lot of times someone, usually Bob, chimes in and derails the conversation. This generally pushes me into the impatient category. Plus, I'm a butt-kicker at heart and look forward to the action.

Despite a couple of hiccups, these conversations went well. Kevin kept asking me if I had anything else to ask, which made me feel like I was missing something (if we are missing something, don't be afraid to drop a hint Kevin). On the whole, these NPC interactions were actually pretty fun.

The group leaves Ninglorien and heads into the swamp. Thanks to the sage's directions, Loric finds a relatively dry trail leading deeper into the fens. Late in the afternoon, the ranger notices a tree giving off some electrical discharge. Before he can shout a warning, it launches a ball of lighting which hits Durin and Grimbold. At the same time three shambling mounds rise from the swamp. The battle goes swiftly (until certain people's turns) and the shambling creatures are destroyed. The warlord starts to take a short rest and it hit by a lightning ball just as Grimbold reminds everyone about the tree. Moving quickly down the path, the party finds a dry place to camp and takes an extended rest.

I enjoyed the combat against the shambling mounds. My powers seemed so much more effective this combat. Not sure if it was good roles or that I've got a better feeling for the powers themselves. Some highlights: using Hammer and Anvil to give Grimbold a basic attack which he then used to take down a mound (he had something that let him substitute powers for basic attacks). Using Lead the Attack to give Loric a +5 attack bonus against one of the creatures which helped him take it out. Rounds went by fairly quickly until we got to Bob. He would take what seemed like for-ever to decide what to do. Kevin was timing us. Dave, Ed and I were taking on average 30 seconds to decide what to do. Bob came in at over 4 minutes. He's still looking for broken ability combinations.


I still am not a big fan of the powers system (at least not in regards to the martial classes). I tend to hoard my dailies and it sure seems like you get too few encounter powers.

At this point, I realized that, for the most part, I'm having enough fun playing 4E. It's got it's frustrations but they're no worse than any prior version of D&D (and may be better in some cases). The guys (including Dave, again for the most part) seem to be enjoying it as well. I got a chance to skim through the APG and Goodman's Dragonborn books; both of which appear to be excellent. Both made feel better about what you can do within the system. Also, I tried out the beta character generator. From what I've tried, it seems to be pretty powerful yet simple (hmm, maybe this will help Bob figure out his powers better). As long as we're having fun, I'm going to roll with whatever system the DM wants to use

I still plan on using the Pathfinder RPG at the start of the next campaign I run. I have a ton of 3E adventures I'd like to run (Rappan Athuk Reloaded, I'm looking at you) and don't want to do the conversion. Plus, I prefer the direction that system is going over 3.5.

In the near future, Dave is going to run some 3.5. It should be interesting to go back to that system.


Any time these are no longer interesting reads let me know and I'll stop posting them. I want to keep posting our experiences as we continue to learn 4E, go back to 3E and try the Pathfinder RPG.

DM's Summary:

After a good night's rest, the fellowship sets about getting a good breakfast at the inn. Durin speaks to the Champ, the innkeeper about the recent problems with the trolls.

"There's been trolls in the fens there long as anyone can remember. Rumor even has it that there was a troll kingdom there ages ago, that was wiped out by floods. Some say that it was the elves that brought up the river to cause the flooding, even sinking the early settlements of men in the area. The rivers have since rescinded, but there is much death and decay in the area, making it a natural refuge for troll kin."

Champ notes Baccus coming down the stair and begins to pour an ale and place it on the bar next to a plate of breads, jams and cheese. The weary warrior grabs the plate and tankard and retreats to a corner with his breakfast.

"Anyhow, there's also talk of powerful magics there. A remnant of the destruction said to be wrought by the elves and the resting of the one ring for an age after Isildur fell there." The portly innkeeper whispers. "For the last year or so, there have been increasing attacks on the outskirts of town. The road North and South has been attacked infrequently, but the eastern trail has been impassable for near a year. No one that left that way has come out of the fens alive. After we lost an emissary from Esgaroth, the Baron sent a handful of men to rout out the evil. Baccus was one of the six that set out with the Baron's son to the fens and the only one that returned."

Durin thanked Champ for being 'extremely helpful' and then turned his attention to the warrior in the corner. Hoping, he could prove as helpful, the dwarf sat down at the table with him. Baccus had little interest in what the dwarf had to say, preferring to drown his troubles in drink this morning. He did tell the dwarf that they had stumbled upon a large warren of Trolls before they were slaughtered and he had to flee. Baccus even gave a general description of a ruin nearby that marked the location of the warrens. Although the details of how to get there elude him. "We had a tracker but he's dead now. I just kept walking until I found the river and then followed that back to town..."

Allorian suggests visiting a sage to find out more about the rumored ruins. "Oh yeah, we'll do that!" Durin proclaims as he heads to the town keep. Grimbold and Galiator head to the market instead to buy some supplies. They are looking for torches and oil in particular. At the keep, they meet the mayor who tells them that he believes they are foolhardy for trying to venture into the fens, where the Baron's son, considered a great hero, fell. The mayor does offer support when it appears he cannot talk the dwarf out of his desire to help. He points them to the sage's office and bids them good luck.

The sage believes he knows what keep Baccus was speaking of, and draws a rough map to the location. Loric studies it briefly and they thank him for his help. After meeting back up with the rest of the fellowship, they decide to purchase foodstuffs and supplies and head out in the morning.

As dawn breaks, Loric finds the east trail and they head off into the wilds. Sensing where to veer off the trail, the elf finds a passable path and breaks north, deeper into the fens. As the morning wears on, Loric's skills provide a relatively safe path. Galiator and Allorian follow well behind the party after having to stop when the lummox of Gondor twisted his ankle on a root jutting out from the ground.

Late in the afternoon, a strange crackling sound comes to the sharpened ears of the elf. Shortly thereafter a flashing in the trees catches everyone's attention. Like bugs to a flame, the party moves steadily towards the strange lights. With a sudden crack, a flash of electricity jumps from the treetops, striking the heavily armored Durin and Grimbold. The bolt is strong enough to be felt by those nearby as well. Stunned from the blast, Loric fails to notice the vegetation itself seems to come to life and tries to engulf the elf. The strange plants, coursing with lightning, surge towards the heroes whipping them with wicked lashes and even jolts of electricity. The hobbit deftly moved among the thickets, jabbing at the vegetation before making a misstep and being engulfed by one of the strange plants. He barely manages to wriggle free before the aberration courses his body with electricity.

Durin barks instructions, rallying his allies to a victory. It seems after several battles with the dwarf, they are beginning to appreciate his tactical skills and moving in response to his orders. The fellowship takes a short rest before continuing on, allowing Galiator and Allorian to catch up. As dusk begins to creep in, Loric spots the rocky outcroppings of the ruins they seek. Feeling a better sense of security against stone, Durin suggests they set up camp there for the night. After a short debate, they reach agreement and start a fire. In the morning, the group decides to scout for the warrens but keep camp at the ruins. Loric, Durin and Aramis set out following the stream downriver. The elf's logic is that even trolls need water so the warrens are likely near the stream.

A little over an hour later, Loric notes that there appear to be more frequent troll tracks along the banks of the stream, a bad sign unless you're looking for trolls. They head back to the ruins and get the rest of the party. As they make their way back they find a well worn path near the water's edge dominated by troll tracks. The heroes continue to follow the trail. The end of the path is blocked by a sturdy gate of thick timbers anchored to the wall of a cave. To the right of the gate, the stream flows sluggishly through the fang like stone pillars, disappearing into the darkness beyond. To the left, they can see a narrow window slit looking down on the approach to the cave mouth.

"This must be it." Durin declares. "Loric, Aramis and I will investigate. Grimbold, Galiator and Allorian will wait here in hiding until I signal." The dwarf and elf start down the path towards the gate before realizing they are missing someone. Looking back at Galiator, Grimbold and Allorian they call out. "Aramis? Aramis?"

The hobbit is nowhere to be found....

Elodan

This is me sort of "thinking out loud."

I think if the class/power thing was done differently I would really like 4E. I would have preferred talent trees or gain use(s) of abilities at certain levels. It really annoys me that I can only use an encounter power like Hammer and Anvil (my favorite warlord power) once an encounter (hence it being an encounter power). I know it's supposed to represent finding that opening once an encounter but why can't it be more than that. Another example of the top of my head is why can the ranger only do double shot once a day. The powers system feels arbitrary. I still feel Marking is lame.

Not a fan of what I consider to be the arbitrary limitation on magic item powers. If I have 2 items with daily powers why can I only use one of them a day if I'm under 10th level. I know you can get around this via milestones, but what really determines those. Plus, it's something else to track.

The sales model is another turnoff. Before the announcement of 4E, I was planning on taking my campaign back to core (core being the PHB, DMG, MM and Player's Guide to the Realms). Tired of carrying all the books around; checking so I wouldn't introduce 'broken' aspects into the game. Now, core is multiple books. Things are purposely being left out so I have to buy another book if I want druids and barbarians. I may have to pay X dollars a month to get those Faerunian epic destinies I wanted. I know I don't have to buy the books, but it's a lot easier than trying to design druids and barbarians myself.

It seems like it's all about the math instead of making things fun and interesting.


There's a lot of good in 4E. I love the monster/encounter design of 4E. I'd want some minor tweaks (such as casting time) to the ritual system (plus add a whole lot more). I wouldn't mind seeing some spells that are lines or cones. I expect to steal the action type breakdown, critical hits and death and dying rules for which ever system I use.


This is why I think I'm leaning toward Pathfinder. They seem to be making tweaks that move 3.5 more toward some of the better 4E ideas while keeping the classes/powers (abilities) in a system I prefer.

Elodan

A summary of our fourth session of our Return to Khazad-dum campaign.

In attendance:

Kevin - dm
me - male dwarven warlord (Durin)
Dave - male elven ranger (Loric)
Ed - male human fighter (Grimbold)
Murph - male eladrin warlock (Allorian)

It's been two weeks since our last session and it takes quite a while for the table chatter to die down and the session to start.


The party makes it to the town of Ninglorien well after sunset. Since we're on the wrong side of the Anduin, we have to wait for the ferry to take us into town. We get an inn recommendation from the ferryman, go there and get a good night's rest.

In the morning the group is talking with the inn owner who mentions that trolls have been threatening the area. In fact, the local baron's son had recently led an expedition to stop the creatures. Unfortunately, the expedition ended badly. The man's head was tossed over the town's walls and only one man survived. As it happens, the survivor is having breakfast a few tables over. There is some debate amongst the party if we should help the town with its troll problems or continue on our quest to retrieve the item of power. In the end, we decide it would be best to help; otherwise, the town may be destroyed by the time we complete our overall quest.

We ask the innkeeper for an introduction to the survivor which he refused to do. Strange. Especially since it seemed that he was telling us these tales because he wanted our help. Anyway, we introduce ourselves to the man and ask him to tell us what happened as we want to help. The survivor, Bax, tells us what happened. As we make plans to enter the fens, Bax makes a condescending comment and provides us with a rough map of the warrens where his expedition went. I think that this is another instance where Kevin expects us to do or act a certain way but doesn't give us any clues as to what he's looking for. A lot of times it seems that all his NPCs are jerks (I'm not much better, people in glass houses, etc.). It can be a pretty frustrating experience, especially when Murph's attention is wandering and he keeps babbling on (causing us to miss some important details Kevin may give out).

Anyhow, Loric feels he can use the map to get us to the warrens. We're making out way through the fens, when we spot 3 lantern-like lights ahead. Before we know it, Loric is dazed and being dragged toward the lights. A battle ensues.

We end up fighting what I believe are 3 will o' wisps and 3 (possibly 4) large creatures. I forget exactly what these creatures were. Kevin used frog minis for them. I get my ass handed to me and end up using my second wind and dwarven armor's daily power to keep myself up. I feel this is important to do, as I'm the only healing the party has . Again, I find myself treating my powers like spells. I blow through all my encounters in no time. Ed is soon in the same place. I find myself reluctant to use my dailies as this is our first encounter for the day (plus a lot of my dailies are utility powers and not relevant in this battle). This is where the power system really is starting to annoy me. Dailies seem like they need to be rationed carefully. At wills do such a small amount of damage compared to the monster's hit points that the battle becomes a slugfest. Despite our having two strikers, this is what happened here. It's almost like "going through the motions." You know you're going to win but the monsters still have enough HPs to do some damage to the party (I know you can have the monsters run away or such, but it always feels cheap to me).


After the battle we call it a night.

At this point, I'm still not feeling the love for 4E. I think it's the way the classes have been done that really turns me off. Not a fan of the power system.

Sorry for the abruptness and general negativity of this post but I'm kinda tired of wavering between 3E and 4E. With Kevin and Ed loving 4E on one side and Dave loving 3E on the other, it's tough. I want to run something everybody will enjoy.

I wonder if I'm trying to force myself to love 4E and if that's my problem. With 3E, I loved the game from the start and found it very difficult to go back to AD&D. I'm not feeling that with 4E. More and more I find myself leaning toward giving the Pathfinder RPG beta rules a spin.

Of course, I may be putting too much thought into this.

Elodan

A summary of our third session of our Return to Khazad-dum campaign.

In attendance:

Kevin - dm
me - male dwarven warlord (Durin)
Dave - male elven ranger (Loric)
Ed - male human fighter (Grimbold)
Bob - male halfling rogue (Aramis)
Murph - male eladrin warlock (Allorian)

I talked to Kevin during the week and asked if I could change a couple of my powers. He agreed and I swapped out some powers that grant moves to allies for some that do healing and other such things. I think this will be more effective in aiding the party.

It looked like Dave wasn't going to make it but at the last minute was able to escape work. We made it to Kevin's only 15 - 20 minutes later than usual.

The guys have read my blogs and we discuss 4E as we eat. Kevin and Ed are pretty pro-4E, Dave is pretty much pro-3E. I'm ambivalent. Not sure where Bob stands (I think he was busy trying to optimize his character while these discussions were happening). I think Murph will be fine with whatever. The pro-4E folk talk about how much easier the math is. Ed mentions that he really likes the idea that a wizard never runs out of spells. The whole "I shot my spell wad, let me pull out my crossbow" didn't sit well with him. I think he's absolutely right about this. I mention how Pathfinder is attempting to address this. Kevin tells me not to worry, he can add the stuff I think 4E is missing. In fact, I'll be the first to find a cursed item (yay!). I tell him to "wow" me.

Kevin has picked up the King of the Trollhaunt Warrens adventure. He's not going to run it but pick and choose what he wants.

It's takes us a while to get started. First because of our discussions and then because my nephew got gum in his hair (he took the gum instead of the piece of candy he originally showed Kevin he was taking). Murph used WD40 to help get it out (who knew?). I tell Kevin I'm not feeling the "wow" (I still kill me). We'll only get one encounter in tonight.


The heroes awake in the morning to find that Loric has caught up to us. We then spend a quite a bit of time trying to determine which route we want to take to Rhosgobel. Several of us have different ideas on the best route. Eventually, we decide on our path. Kevin asks us several times if we want to pick up additional gear before we move on. None of us do.

Our journey is uneventful until we reach the lands near Ninglorien. In the late afternoon, we come upon several trolls chowing down on a horse carcass. Bob mentions that trolls shouldn't be out in the sunlight. Kevin retorts, "it's cloudy." Even though I love FR (pre-4E, post-4E = not sure yet), I can see why DMs become frustrated with the know-it-all player.

Luckily, the trolls don't notice us. Dwarf, eladrin and halfling move closer to the trolls and dismount. We wait until Grimbold charges in with his horse then move to attack. Loric attacks from the side with his bow. Here we get to see how mounted combat works. Essentially, you and your mount share the actions you can perform on a turn. If you have the feat, you can use any special abilities the mount confers to its rider. In action, it seems to be pretty simple and effective.

Durin is moving up to engage one of the trolls when a creature phases in and blasts us with cold (Durin, Allorian and Grimbold happened to be lined up just right). Since were closest, Grimbold and Durin move to attack the creature. Allorian decides to as well. Next thing we know, Aramis runs over to join us. This leaves Loric all by himself to fight the other 5 trolls. As Bob moves, I say "did we all suddenly forget about the other 5 trolls? We're going to get smacked hard." Bob replies, "we should be ganging up on one at a time." I know he's moved near us so we can set up flanks so he can get his sneak attacks. Of course, the creature phases out and the rest of the trolls take us hard from the side.

We take down the trolls (having 3 strikers helps) but they keep getting back up as they regenerate if they're not damaged by fire or acid. Dave tries lighting his arrows with flint and steel since he doesn't have a torch. The rest of us check our sheets and only Murph has a torch. Guess we should have done a better job gearing up when Kevin asked. It takes several rounds but eventually we take down and burn the trolls.

It's around 11 and Bob leaves for work.

We then notice a wounded human not too far from the horse. I suspect it's the creature. Of course, if I attack it'll be a human and if I don't it'll be the bad guy. I proceed to aid the man. Kevin mentions that the guy seems to be healing much faster than he should be. "Son of a b..." The creature laughs and attacks. It really taunts the party, especially Durin as we battle. We take it down.

It's about 11:30 and I start packing it in. Kevin asks if we want to continue into the town. I decline. He asks if I'm leaving because of the creature's taunting. It has nothing to do with the taunting or having a bad time. I enjoyed myself. For some reason, I'm beat (might be writing up all these summaries at work). If I weren't driving, I probably would have stayed. Plus, Ed looks out of it.


At this point, I had fun but am still ambivalent about 4E. Once Kevin politely told Murph that his idiom was not to run up and hit things with his rod, Murph got the hang of things relatively quickly. Much better than last week. I noticed that was still a lot of dice rolling and addition done, especially when the strikers hit. I guess I just don't get the point about the math being easier.

I'm not sure if it was all the strikers or if Kevin knocked back the bad guys hit points but the combat seemed to neither go by too quickly or turn into a slugfest. I had mentioned seeing the math proved on one of the boards that you could reduce non-minion's hit points by 25 - 30% and still provide challenging encounters. Kevin's response let me to believe he came to the same conclusion. It'll be interesting to see if he did reduce hit points.

On the way home, Dave and I discussed how 4E seems to be missing something. We just can't put our finger on it but it just seems to be lacking something.

I still think I'm going to give the Pathfinder RPG a tryout when it's my turn to DM again. In addition to adapting some of the things I like from 4E, I plan on sticking with the core only plus two books; the Player's Guide to Faerun and Races of Eberron (I really like the races Eberron introduced).

I'm looking forward to the next session.


DM's summary:
After arriving in Edoras, Grimbold meets with the captain of the township guard and informs him of the fallen riders. They are saddened to hear of their loss but grateful for the heroes attempts to save them. They reward them with riding horses for their journey northward.

The morning sun brings a warm autumn afternoon and to the party's surprise, Loric is already in Edoras having tea in the common room when they come down for the morning meal. They tell him about the strange beast they defeated and suggest he get a horse for the ride. Loric politely declines, "I move faster on foot" he declares.

As the sun creeps on into the afternoon, Grimbold, Loric and Durin debate over the best route to take. The journey to Rhosgobel requires crossing several rivers so suitable crossings must be taken. Durin is insistent about staying clear of Fangorn but otherwise not concerned with what trails they follow. Through careful consultation of maps and Loric's knowledge of the area, a satisfactory course is planned. Feeling they possess adequate supplies, the Fellowship eschews purchasing any additional provisions and enjoys some good food an ale before taking to the road again in the morning.

Loric's skills in the wilds have the heroes moving swiftly across the landscape. For several days they follow the trail as planned, leaving the high plains of Rohan far behind. Skirting the edge of Lorien, Allorian recounts tales of his ancestors to help pass the time. Continuing on toward Ninglorien, where they shall make the crossing of the Gladden river, it almost seems the monotony of the road will be the only obstacle to to overcome. The fellowship presses on to reach the town as night falls. Cresting a small hill on the edge of the fens Loric spots a number of foul trolls in the twilight rending the remains of a horse along the road.

Preoccupied fighting over their meal, the trolls fail to notice the heroes moving in to attack. Loric unleashes a hail of arrows as Allorian blasts them with his powerful elven magic. As the trolls stagger back in surprise, Grimbold charges down the hill on horseback followed by Durin and Aramis. The advantage against the trolls is short lived as a burst of cold erupts from out of nowhere and some form of humanoid giant appears next to Allorian. Loric dispatches a troll with a well placed arrow but to his surprise, the creature springs back up to attack again. The battle suddenly focuses on the new adversary as the four of the five heroes head for the newcomer while trolls move in for a better position to strike.

Surprise takes the intrepid adventurers again as the giant vanishes into thin air. The trolls, in their new positions lay a solid beating on the heroes before they have a chance to strike back.

Durin fells a troll, Grimbold another, while Allorian drops a third but they spring up as quickly as they fall. Loric remembers that trolls are able to heal their wounds unless they are harmed by fire or acid and he frantically flicks his flint on a fallen troll to no effect. Allorian manages to light a torch just as the invisible attacker appears again attacking and disappears again. The group manages to finally bring the trolls down with sword and flame and there is no sign of the giant. Durin spots a wounded rider near the remains of the horse and moves to assist while the others keep watch. He gives the man some healing aid and notices the wounds healing more quickly than usual. The dwarf's suspicions are realized when the rider changes back to its true form as the giant and attacks. It unleashes a wicked blow but Durin comes back with a blow of his own. He is taunted by the giant mercilessly as they trade blow for blow. Grimbold gets to the dwarfs side and provides the first strike that leads to Durin delivering the final blow.

After regrouping and catching their breath, the Fellowship makes the last hour of the journey to the town.

Elodan

A summary of our second session of our Return to Khazad-dum campaign.

In attendance:

Kevin - dm
me - male dwarven warlord (Durin)
Ed - male human fighter (Grimbold)
Bob - male halfling rogue (Aramis)
Murph - male eladrin warlock (Allorian)

This summary is going to be a little rant-y.

After Murph's previous experiences playing wizards, Kevin decides it would probably be best if Tharivold becomes an NPC. Wizards popping in and out of the adventure feel more Tolkienish. Kevin creates an eladrin warlock for Murph to play (it lets him sling spells to blast things, seems like a perfect fit).

After a good night's rest, the wizard tells the party that he has learned that evil is on the rise in Middle Earth and strange creatures have been appearing. This is also causing more evils to rise in Moria. In order to help combat this evil, he asks us to retrieve and object of power. The eladrin warlock is introduced as someone who can help us on our journey, and is cousin to the one we must meet.

We head through the gap of Rohan on our way to Edoras. There we will acquire horses to speed our journey. On the way, we run into a strange creature attacking some Rohirrim (Kevin found fan created version of a behir). Before we can join the battle, the horsemen are slain. Lance's character, Goliator, was with us but not really with us (as an NPC). He had gotten sidetracked and was some time behind us.

This would be our only encounter for the evening. Kevin did his best but this evening's combat was pain-ful (stretch out your pronunciation of the word). Kevin had lent Murph his PHB and told him to read up on his character's abilities. Murph did not do so. Kevin had allowed us to tweak our characters if he made character choices we disagreed with. Bob switched a lot of his abilities (one was taking the feat to let him use d8s instead of d6s for sneak attack damage - I didn't realize that hobbits were that blood thirsty). On average, Bob and Murph took 4 - 5 minutes to perform their actions (Kevin timed it). From what I could tell, Bob kept looking for broken ability combinations. Murph kept looking for what he could do (this is what I was afraid of when we started at 11th level, someone unfamiliar with the rules and so many abilities to figure out). Ed and I averaged 1 - 2 minutes (mostly checking the math or trying to remember what we planned on doing). This meant a single round of combat took 10 - 15 minutes. I don't blame 4E for these long delays. These delays did give me additional time to go through my power list. This is where I realized that most powers are essentially the same. Most powers seem to let you attack and grant someone a move (the warlord's specialty), attack and grant someone a bonus, attack and grant healing or a save). The higher level powers just increase the damage output and possibly increase the move/bonus/heal/save. Once you run out of encounter and daily powers, combats really become a slugfest. Again, my powers are not as useful because of the nature of the combat (still loving Hammer and Anvil). Galiator arrives just in time to help finish off the beast so we can end the session.

From here on, this becomes a little rant-ish.

Since we started a such a high level and Kevin only gave our characters a couple of magic items, he's decided to let us pick an item or two (under a certain GP value) and have Tharivold make them. During the week, I leaf through the magic item section of the PHB. I'm underwhelmed. Magic items seems to be there to give you minor bonuses, an occasional boost and of course, up the damage output. Between the powers and the magic items, I'm starting to feel like 4E is missing something. Then it comes to me. Where's the magic, the sense of wonder? I know the rules don't preclude you from roleplaying, but I think they have effect on how you game. Look at how many people say 3.5 had too many rules preventing them from really enjoying the game when they could have just have easily ignored the rules they didn't like. We did it in 1E and 2E. I see no reason you can't in 3E. In theory, it's true in 4E but I haven't investigated it yet.

Let me give you some examples of what I'm talking about. My memory is a little foggy on some of the details but I'll do my best.

In a AD&D game, our characters were about 7th level (near the glass ceiling ) and we had managed to tick off the local evil wizard and his henchmen. We were staying in an inn on the waterfront. My character happened to looking out the window and noticed a glowing object growing brighter and heading straight for us "it's coming right for us"). We just managed to escape the room before the fireball hit. We met the magic user and his henchmen in battle on the docks. Eventually, all the wizard's men were killed and my compatriots were down. The wizard then trapped me with an Iron Bands of Bollero (sp?) spell. Kevin has an evil grin on his face as he tells me that the wizard is gloating and appears to be preparing another spell. He asks what I'm going to do.

I tell him "bead of force."

"What?"

"I have the beads of force we found in my belt pouch. I reach in, pull one out and flick it at him."

Kevin's surprised but lets me make an attack. It hits and the wizard staggers. "You'll regret that." As he prepares another spell, I toss another bead of force at him and hit. Kevin asks, "how many of those things do you have again?" I respond, "four, and I intend on using every last one of them." The wizard's really upset now. "I am going to make your death slow and painful." "Suck on this!" Another hit and the wizard falls. This is probably one of my all time favorite gaming moments. I'm not sure it would have been as memorable in 4E. Sure I could have been immobilized by some power, but the thing that made this encounter so great was that I wasn't supposed to be able to do anything (immobilized just prevents movement). Plus, no beads of force yet (if ever, or I'll have to invest in another book or a DDI subscription).

In another AD&D game, my fighter found a set of plate mail and put it one. It was armor of missile attraction and I loved having it. Another time, Ed's character found magical boots which turned his character into a woman (hilarity ensued). In a Living Greyhawk game (before the dark times, before the magic marts ) Dave's monk found a Quaal's Feather Token. When he died during a river journey, miles from any civilization, we were able to use it to quickly get us back to a town and have him raised (allowing him to continue the adventure instead of sitting there until the end). Finding a magic item was special (We did loose some of this in 3E where any wizard can make an item). I don't get the same feeling with 4E (especially where the guidelines tell you to make sure the items are useful to your PCs).

At this point, which means today as our next session is this Friday (which I'm looking forward to), I'm still down on 4E. The more I think on it, the more I realize why 4E hasn't grabbed me (yet?). I don't care if the classes are balanced against each other. I play classes I'm interested in, not because they are more powerful than the others. I want my wondrous magic items to be wondrous. Resource management was part of the game (4E has it to some extent but it was much more prevalent in prior editions). Defeating the enemy despite the fact that you started the battle with lingering injuries made it that much sweeter. How cool was it to overcome you're cursed item or a penalty because you're using a weapon you're not proficient with to take out the bad guy. While I like a lot of what 4E brings to the table, I worry that it sacrificed too much in the name of balance (and eliminating penalties).

I think we (as in my group) let the rules of 3E get in the way of our fun (and I am (was) as huge offender). I went back and started looking at 3E again to remember what I liked and didn't like. I also have been looking at the Pathfinder RPG beta rules and the Books of Experimental Might. I'm liking a lot of what I've seen with the Pathfinder RPG beta. It's increasingly likely that the next time I come up in the DM rotation, I'm going to use the Pathfinder RPG rules to run an adventure (at least to start). My 1E / Hackmaster books are also calling.

I plan on keep an open mind as we play 4E (I pointed my group to these posts). I can see 4E becoming my system of choice still. How this campaign goes will have a lot of influence on my acceptance of this system (no pressure). I tried to quickly put together some of my likes / dislikes so far about 4E.

Likes
- monster design
- encounter building
- critical hit system
- death & dying
- action type breakdown (i.e. the utility of the minor action)

Dislikes
- skill challenges (that may change after I give Stalker0' of ENWorld Obsidian system a try)
- "sameness" of powers
- everyone's a wizard
- all spells areas are squares
- magic items
- the sales model


DM's summary:
After stepping through the portal, the fellowship finds itself in the lower basement of Tharilvold's tower in Isengard. The group enjoys a hot meal by a warm fire for the first time in nearly a month. After enjoying some comforts and a good night's rest, the adventurers meet in the morning to assess their situation.

Tharivold has been in contact with other Wizards of the Circle and has learned that the evils stirring deep within Khazad-Dum are a reflection of other evil surfacing all around Middle Earth. Tharivold also needs some time to spend crafting items of power for the intrepid adventurers. To assist in this, he has asked Rualiss, an elf wizard to bring a magical orb back from the far shores. He has arrived from an ancient elven portal deep in the Mistwood to the town of Rhosgobel. Rualiss has sent word to Tharivold that strange creatures have been coming from the woods and that the times are dangerous indeed.

The Blue Wizard asks the fellowship to travel to Rhosgobel to retrieve the orb and bring it back to the tower. In the interim, Tharivold has business with the circle and can craft items of lesser power. To aid them on their journey, Allorian, an elf cousin of Rualiss, has traveled to Isengard and will return with the Fellowship to Rhosgobel. Allorian is an elf who is touched by the ancient powers of his people and can perform great feats of magic naturally.

After another full night's rest, the group makes plans to pass into Rohan, to the town of Edoras, there they will buy horses to make the long journey northward. Loric has fallen ill from the many dark and damp nights in Moria and must take rest in Tharivold's tower. He will catch up to the rest of the heroes once his ailment has subsided. As they enter the Westfold, the fellowship comes upon a handful of Rohirrim fighting a strange dragon-like beast. Unlike a dragon, this creature has no wings but six pairs of legs. It's mouth and scales course with lightning and it stands nearly three times the size of a man. The heroes barely have time to react as the creature seems to burst forth a ball of lightning that fells all four of the riders. Charging forth, the party sets to destroy the strange beast. Unfortunately Galiator is several hundred yards behind trying to shoot a wild turkey with his bow.

A mighty battle ensues with neither party refusing to give ground. Durin flares in anger as blow after blow fails to pierce the thick scaly hide of the beast. Aramis manages to deftly place a short sword strike here and there by dodging and maneuvering around the much larger foe. Grimbold swings his mighty blade but does not seem to be very effective in his attacks. From a safe distance, the newest member of the fellowship blasts the beast repeatedly with mighty ancient elven powers. Just when the heroes feel they are gaining ground, the beast unleashes another wave of deadly lighting. The hobbit barely scampers out of the beasts wicked maw before being swallowed alive. As the beast seemed to intensify its attacks a blood-curdling cry of "Blood, Death, and Vengeance!" booms from over the bluff and Galiator thunders over the hill with his sword held high. His reckless attack catches the creature off guard and the warrior of Gondor lands a mighty blow causing it to lower it's head. Seizing the opening, Durin swings his axe viciously onto the top of the beast's head, dropping it lifeless to the ground.

After the battle the heroes gather up four horses of the fallen Rohirrim and ride into Edoras before nightfall.

Elodan

This is my opportunity to see 4E from the other side of the screen. Here's a summary of the first session of our Return to Khazad-dum campaign.

Remember, all of this is from my perspective.

Kevin - DM
me - male dwarven warlord (Durin the Deathless)
Ed - male human fighter (Grimbold of Rohan)
Bob - male halfling rogue (Aramis Took of the Shire)

Dave is sick. His character is a male elven ranger (Loric). It's considered a bonus if Lance and/or Murph show. No bonus round for us tonight.

Let me give a little history on this campaign. Last fall, Kevin decided he wanted to run an old fashioned dungeon crawl. He decided to base the campaign in Middle Earth and we would attempt to reclaim Khazad-dum. We start this campaign using 3E. My dwarf (favored soul from Complete Divine) has a dream that he is the reincarnation of Durin the Deathless. The elders divine that this is indeed true and his destiny is to reclaim Khazad-dum. Durin leaves Lonely Mountain. In the Mirkwood, he is attacked by giant spiders and the elf Loric (ranger with alternate abilities from Races of Destiny ) helps him. Loric decides to join Durin on his quest. In the meantime, Tharivold the Black (core wizard) has met with Galiator of Gondor (core fighter) and Grimbold of Rohan (core fighter) and sent them to Dol Ghuldor without explanation while he goes to the Shire. When Durin and Loric reach Dol Ghuldor they find the two humans waiting for them. Durin explains his quest and as the two fighting men debate joining him, Tharivold arrives with a hobbit in tow. "These types of expeditions need a burglar," he tell them. "Allow me to present Aramis Took, burglar from the Shire." A lot of discussion and debate follow. Eventually, all decide that Durin's quest is worthy and agree to accompany the dwarf into Moria. The group adventures for some time and gets to about 3rd level before we rotate to another campaign (I think we did one session with Hackmaster characters but we kept falling into a 'my quirk/flaw is X which means I do Y which leads me to punch Z in the stomach. It just snowballs from there. Not the fault of Hackmaster but of us overdoing the quirks and flaws every time. Quirks and flaws are a lot of fun.) Tharivold died at some point and came back as Tharivold the Blau.

For a few months I run my Arcana Evolved/3E hybrid Age of Worms campaign. We finish Encounter at Blackwall Keep and I declare I need at break. We're going to switch to Dave's campaign but he needs some time to put things together. In the meantime, 4E comes out and we decide to play KotS (experiences detailed starting here). Kevin has been reading the 4E books and decides to try that system for his Return to Khazad-dum campaign.


Kevin converts the characters for us. I'm very happy that Kevin made Durin a warlord. It just fits the idea of the character so much better than favored soul (we felt clerics did not fit into Middle Earth). The rest of the characters are converted to their 4E cousins (i.e. ranger = ranger, fighter = fighter, etc.). I'm a little surprised that Kevin made them all 11th level. It's cool that we get to experience some paragon goodness but I'm worried about it being a little overwhelming to figure out the powers and such. Especially where the system is much different from what we're used to. Starting from level one would give us the time to get acclimated to our character's abilities. (During the week, I would go though the warlord powers and I'm fairly happy with Kevin's choices. I have a little quibble in that I might prefer a different 9th level power but we'll see how things play out.)

We exit a corridor to find ourselves on one side of a large cavern split by a crevasse with only a tiny 5 foot wide bridge spanning the gap. From behind come the sounds of orcs hot on our heels. Across the chasm stand a large group of cave trolls (I think Kevin used ogre stats). The warlord decides to hold the bridge and have Grimbold block the passage the party just came through. The hobbit can move back and forth between the two and help whoever needs it. The trolls notice us and start lobbing rocks our way. Durin and Grimbold return fire. It felt weird making a basic ranged attack with my crossbow. It seemed like my ability to shoot things with a crossbow was an afterthought. It's really hard to describe what I'm thinking here, but it just felt off. The plan on holding the bridge didn't last too long. Grimbold had joined Durin as he felt he had some time before the orcs arrived. A troll came over and used an ability to knock Grimbold and Durin prone (I would later realize, that as a dwarf I have the ability to make a save to avoid being knocked prone). A good sized group of the trolls took advantage of this and crossed the bridge over our prone bodies.

The battle begins in earnest (it would take several more rounds of being knocked prone before I saw the save thing). I'm a little disappointed that my powers are not all that useful in this battle. The majority allow my allies movement (generally, they need to be adjacent) but most of the time my allies wouldn't or couldn't move (the word wuss was tossed around). A bigger group would probably solve this. We take out a fair number of cave trolls before the orcs arrive. The majority of the trolls (and orcs) were minions. It never occurred to me that any of the trolls could be minions. It was pretty nice mowing through the creatures like we were (although it was a bit disappointing to push one over the edge of the chasm only to find out he was dead before he went over). About this time I (and I'm guessing the others) realized that only one of the trolls was an elite or solo monster and the rest seemed to be minions. It changed how I managed my powers. It was also about this time that I realized I was managing my powers like I would my spells when playing a spellcaster. I get the feeling all classes will feel this way. Eventually, we defeat our enemies and decide to take an extended rest (we used a lot of dailies taking out the super cave troll). I think by the end of this battle we had a fairly good grasp on our abilities.

We manage to get in an extended rest before we're attacked, two winged devils and a beholder. The beholder is tough. It has a minor action that makes us vulnerable to fire and then hits us with a fire ray. There were a lot of ongoing conditions flying around. I think I went through the whole combat with a least one ongoing condition on me. There's a lot more movement in this battle (most of it forced). Again, I'm a little annoyed that a lot of my powers were not too useful in this battle (I do really like Hammer and Anvil). I'm sure that part of it was that we were spread out as it was three of us versus three of them. Even when it was us against one baddie, more often than not the power required us to be adjacent. Finally, my allies either couldn't or wouldn't want to move. Again, a minor annoyance but it''s not helping me like the system any better. I thought the point was to have cool things to do each round. In both battles, I believe I take the most pounding but was never really in danger of going down. Since it's getting late, Kevin had the rest of the party find us and join the fight. He knew we would win but it would take a while.

In the end, I had fun.

At this point, I'm becoming a little anti-4E. I'm finding too many combats becoming slugfests. I'm not sure the powers system is all that great (again, it seemed like my character wanting to fire a crossbow was a foreign concept). During the week, I start reading the Pathfinder Beta RPG in addition to getting more familiar with my abilities.


Kevin posted this to describe the session above:

The orcs are everywhere, a tremendous fireball erupts through the cavern. Scores of orcs fall dead instantly. The stout Galiator of Gondor stands fast protecting the flank of Tharivold the Blau as he unleashes a hail of magical fury on their enemies. Also taking cover in the warrior's intimidating presence, Loric the elf rains down arrows into the throngs of fell creatures. Across the cavern, Durin the Deathless weaves side by side with Grimbold mowing down orcs as they advance. Scurrying underfoot, Aramis Took searches for an opportunity to strike at the first opening. Suddenly the rock itself begins to tremble. A great elemental creature of stone appears from below attacking orcs and searching for the source of the commotion that has disturbed its' rest.

The cavern floor, turned over by the mighty rock creature gives way and Durin, Grimbold and Aramis slide down the sheer face to rest on an outcropping far below. A dozen orcs also slide but only four survive the fall. Their luck is short lived as Durin immediately decapitates one. Before the head can hit the earth, a rumble of stone from above signals Durin to quickly step aside. Using his keen dwarven senses, he takes shelter under a sturdy stone outcropping as a great wave of stone crumbles down from above, pulverizing the remaining orcs. Grimblold is hit by a few wayward stones but manages to save the hobbit from certain doom with his shield. "Looks like we'll have to find another way back to the others." Durin grumbles as he dusts himself off, picks up his axe and heads out the nearest cavern.

After days of wandering the caverns, the drums of orcs are heard once again. Aramis is the first to notice. "Curse and be bothered these orcs. Do they not sleep or eat, or anything besides kill?"

The trio sets off away from the sounds or drums trying to find a more defensible position that still brings them back up to the others in the fellowship. They come across a great chasm with a stone bridge but to their chagrin a small tribe of cave trolls has taken up residence on the far side.

"If we cross here we're far too exposed." Grimbold declares as he notices an arrow and sends it across the chasm, felling a troll. "True. But if we stay here we'll be wedged in by those orcs chasing us." Durin agrees. "But at least we can funnel the trolls coming across." "Agreed." the soldier of Rohan fires another arrow dropping a second troll.

The leader of the cave troll tribe bursts across the bridge swing his great flail wildly flattening the heroes in his path. The trolls come across en masse just as the orcs emerge from the cave to surround the heroes. The heroes stand firm and manage to survive the onslaught. In all 11 cave trolls and 15 orcs like dead.

The trio takes rest along the chasm ledge but is awakened to find that an evil from the depths below was awakened by the commotion and come up to investigate. Two creatures of fire and shadow under the control of an ancient abomination, a Beholder, Lord of Flame mercilessly attack with flaming greatswords and deadly blasts from the creatures many eyes. The searing heat is unbearable and brings the heroes near death. Some power with central eye seems to make the flames sting even more if that is possible. Just when hope seemed lost as Aramis crumples to the ground and Durin staggers barely holding himself upright, a great cage of thunder and lighting crackles through the cavern engulfing the Beholder.

Tharivold appears on the far side of the chasm, flanked by Galiator and Loric. As the elf lets loose a deadly accurate shot, Galiator charges forth crying "Blood, Death and Vengeance!" as he swings wildly at the Beholder. United once again, the Fellowship dispatches of the creatures in short order.

As the group mends their wounds, they each recount their tales to the other. Tharivold and the others wandered without incident but did stumble upon an ancient trove of knowledge. Tharivold found the keys to the 'Linked Portal' ritual he explains. "I can use this magic to create a portal to my study in my Master's tower in Isengard. But once we leave we cannot return until we find another permanent circle to return to. There was one next to the ritual I found, so if we leave now, we can return there." The wizard then points to some of the ancient runes around the cave. "These caverns are thick with ancient powers and mysteries. If we are careful we should be able to find more portal anchors in our travels deeper into Khazad-Dum."

The wizard then spends 10 minutes tracing sigils on the floor and muttering ancient words in some strange language. As he does a shimmering portal appears and he steps through it. The rest of the Fellowship follows him. The portal then blinks out and the cave is shrouded in darkness once again...

Elodan

Potential spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell herein.

A summary of our 9th and final session exploring the Keep on the Shadowfell. In attendance:

* me - DM
* Kevin - half-elf paladin
* Dave - tiefling warlock
* Ed - human cleric
* Bob - human fighter
* Murph - eladrin wizard

Kevin has drill for the naval reserve this weekend so he wants the session to end by 11:45pm. This gives him a chance to get some sleep before heading up to Maine in the morning. By my reckoning, these last three encounters should flow from one to the next pretty quickly. I'm not sure if it's DM burnout (did I mention I usually burn out fairly quickly) or my growing dissatisfaction with the adventure, but I really want to finish this module up tonight. I push for a start closer to 7pm instead of our usual 8pm one.

I had read over the encounters several times during the week. There's a sidebar telling you to play Kalarel as EE-VIL during the final battle. Do things like taunt the players, tell them how they'll never win, generally be contemptuous of their abilities. I've never been a fan of these types of villains. All of can think of is Jeremy Irons' Profion is the first D&D movie (I admit, I like this movie precisely for this cheesiness but I don't like it in my games). As I've mentioned before, running an NPC is my DM kryptonite. I really wish more adventures would give me better advice than, make him EE-VIL. All I want is 4 information points about an NPC:

1. Appearance
2. Distinguishing mannerisms
3. What does he or she know
4. Motivations

I think the module did a decent job covering these bases (with the exception of motivations) for the townsfolk. I was pretty disappointed with a lack of that type of information for Kalarel, the BBEG (as well as the under-priest of Orcus). I get plenty about their tactics but not much about the why. Oh, except for the 'they're fanatical or underestimate the PCs and will fight to the death' motivations. [I guess I really should start putting these together myself.] This pretty much moves the adventure into the 'do not like' category. I'll admit this may have some influence on how I run this session.


With 5 people in attendance, I don't have to adjust the encounters. I'm actually looking forward to seeing how things play out.

Bob's fighter opens the door. In the room beyond there is a set of stairs leading down on the eastern wall. The middle of the room contains a huge column (for lack of a better term) which is at least 15 feet long on each side. The flickering torchlight also reveals some zombies are in the room. The fighter yells "zombies" and enters the room, sword drawn. Murph has his wizard run into the room right after the fighter. The guys yell "no" while I yell "he took his hand of the mini, it's too late!" (I kill me). We then take a few minutes to explain to Murph that he's a wizard. He's supposed to attack the bad guys behind the protective wall of the defender types. It's interesting that Murph generally wants to play a spell slinger but always has them act like a fighter. Anyway, Murph's wizard delays his actions until the paladin and cleric can move into the room and do their things. He's then able to move into the room behind the defenders and start lobbing spells. The zombies are mostly minions with one or two standard zombies. There's also a clay scout (a homunculus) and a ghoul. The ghoul was a bit disappointing. It pretty much only has melee attacks. It waits until the zombies attack and surround the party. Then it waits for openings to attack. The ghoul has a nasty bite attack but it relies on the victim being immobilized (or stunned or uncouncious) or it can't use it. This means it essentially needs two rounds to use this attack. A first attack with its claw which does damage and immobilizes the victim. Then it can followup with the bite. The clay scout does have a ranged attack (mind blast) that deals damage plus dazes the character. It had taken a few shots (all misses) before it saw which way the battle was going and decided to flee down the stair. This battle was pretty much a cakewalk for the heroes. The terrain of the room with the 'column' in the middle, allowed the PCs to choke these access points, limiting the baddies that can get at them.

The party has a chance for a short rest. The group just now realizes that they have not taken an extended rest since they started exploring the second floor. They decide now would be a good time to do so. Unfortunately, the clay scout had warned the underpriest of Orcus in the next room to the intruders presence. The heroes were just getting ready to settle down when the door at the bottom of the stairs burst open and two humans, weapons in hand, appear. I had checked the original encounter and saw no tactical advantage that would cause the bad guys to passively wait in the next room while the were those who could possibly spoil their plans were nearby. The human berserkers charge up the stairs while several vampire spawn (minions) come through the door. The guys eyes widen quite a bit when they they saw how much damage one of the berserkers does to Bob's fighter. As the heroes battle these foes, a dark creeper and the underpriest of Orcus enter the fray. The dark creeper is no match for the warlock's dark powers [I had dropped the allies provide cover house rule at the start of the session]. While the rest battle the bekserkers and spawn, the paladin challenges the underpriest. We're still having some issues about who marked who even with Dave breaking out some spare Risk pieces to help people keep track of these things. Of course, the markers get accidentally moved when people move minis. Not really helping the confusion. I'd say the markers worked best for Dave so he could keep track of what enemies his warlock cursed. I stopped using any marking powers monsters may have. Again, the party makes it though a battle with little damage.

At this point, it's 10:30pm and we have one encounter to go. I'm hell-bent on finishing this up tonight. We take a short break to get beverages and use the facilities.

I tell the guys that as they finish a short rest, a tremor shakes the keep and they get a feeling of terrible foreboding coming from below. They feel that if they don't take action now, it'll be too late. Most of the guys have spent their dailies but are down only a couple of surges. I tell them that the paladin and cleric start to glow and this glow jumps to the wizard and fighter. If they don't have an action point, they get one. They also get their daily powers back. This does not affect the number of healing surges they have left. This glow does not cover the warlock. Dave's character worships Asmodeus [pretty cool backstory] and the good deities were not going to aid him. I'm fairly certain he still had an action point.

The party heads down the stairs and into the room beyond. They find several alters covered with blood. This blood forms several small rivers that flow to the center of the room and down into a pit. The cleric peers into the pit and sees a huge chamber. In the chamber is a human chanting in front of a dark portal while standing in a magic circle. He also notices two skeletons that appear to be guarding this human. Blood-covered chains appear to be the only way down. I give the players two options. Make a DC15 athletics check to make it to the bottom of the chamber in one round or take two rounds and make it down safely without checks. The fighter makes it down in one round with the wizard hot on his heels. The cleric and warlock decide to go down safely. The paladin rolls his eyes at the wizard's boldness and flies (as in speedily) down the chain. The chanting human must be Kalarel, the person who sent the note they found. Kalarel is standing at the back end of the magic circle (he has taken up this advantageous position thanks to the clay scout's warning). The edge of the circle is about 20 feet in front of a dark portal (is that darkness moving?). The skeletons stand between Kalarel and the party at the front edge of the circle (front being closest to the chains). This circle grants Kalarel and any undead in it a bonus to defenses and, as long as they start their turn in it, they regain 5 hit points. The defenders move to attack Kalarel but are intercepted by the skeletons. Murph drops a flaming sphere in the exact center of the circle. He attacks and damages one of the skeletons with his party members taking some collateral damage.

The clay scout, that earlier escaped, steps out from behind a pillar on a dais and launches a ranged attack against the wizard. He hits. The wizard is now dazed. In the dazed state, Murph's wizard can only take one action. He chooses to maintain the flaming sphere. He fails his save. Murph would end up in the dazed state for quite a number of rounds. Each time he'd save, the clay golem would again hit him with his ranged attack. The roll would be high enough that his shield utility power could not block the hit. For his action, Murph would decide to maintain the sphere each time. This presented some problems for the rest of the group. The other heroes could not get into a position to attempt to move the undead and Kalarel out of the circle without taking fire damage from the sphere. At one point he did use his action point to cast magic missile while maintaining the sphere. I estimate, that outside of the action point attack, he did nothing but maintain the sphere for 5 - 10 rounds. Kevin said he counted seven. Of course, the round after he let the sphere dissipate, the clay scout missed and he made his save.

While this was going on the cleric and warlock had made it down safely. They soon come under ranged attack from a wight. The foul undead is standing on a dais on the opposite side of the chamber from the clay scout. A ritual on the pillar allows the wight to add 5 squares to its ranged attacks. The warlock attempts to engage the wight. The cleric and paladin work against the skeletons and the fighter goes after Kalarel. The wight hits and immobilizes Dave with its grave bolt attack. The warlock is too far away to retaliate. This ends up being a situation similar to the predicament the wizard found himself in. At least Dave was able to help the rest of the party by attacking Kalarel and his undead guard. When he did get free and in range, the wight successfully used its horrific visage to push him back.

The fighter skirts the edge of the circle to get to Kalarel. He hits Kalarel with a mighty blow but is now standing between the circle and the dark portal. The fighter finds that there is indeed something moving in the darkness as several tentacles emerge and pummel him. Bob gets the feeling that it would be very bad to go through the portal.

In the meantime, the paladin and cleric have defeated one of the skeletons. Their shouts of triumph turn to dismay as some sort of beam emerges from the wight and hits the pile of bones. They reform into the skeleton witch resumes its attacks against them.

Bob realizes that if going through the portal would be very bad for him, it's probably very bad for Kalarel. He starts using his Tide of Iron power to attempt to move him out of the circle and into the portal. Unfortunately, Kalarel is able to move right back into the circle on his turn (it does prevent him from regaining 5 hit points each round). No one else can aid him as the flaming sphere is preventing them from getting into the appropriate position. The attacks from the Kalarel and his minions (not game term minions) start to wear the heroes down. Bob's fighter is first to fall. He soon fails his death saving throws (3 out of 4). He fell between the circle and portal. The tentacles grab the fighter's body and drag it through the portal. None too pleasant sounds emerge from the darkness.

The wizard falls next, quickly followed by the paladin. For all their sacrifices, the heroes have managed to only destroy one skeleton. The warlock manages to eldritch blast Kalarel and he falls. His body is quickly taken into the darkness. The cleric falls to one of the skeletons blows. The warlock manages to make it to the chains and climbs. He manages to make it to the top before the wight blasts him and he falls to his death.

T-P-K.

"At least we went out saving the world."



Kevin sends an email asking what we're running next and mentions ideas for characters for my next campaign. Here's my response (verbatim):

I figured you guys would prefer to not let me DM any more. If the group's still game, I'll run another campaign down the road (just need to work on my urge to kill fictional adventurers). I'd like to do a postmortem of the last campaign to find out the likes/dislikes were (aside from the deaths of your PC. You did go out saving the world.). Maybe during the PC build for play-testing the d20 conversion of [removed as I'm not sure if this can be public knowledge] that Dave plans on running.

I'm not sure if it was the adventure, but after running it and looking over the FRCG and FRPG, I'm a little torn between 3E and 4E. I think that 4E is still pretty complicated (especially marking, tracking conditions and such) and it feels a little half-assed. I know 3E has it's share of problems but I also liked a lot of what it had. I'll play/run whatever the group wants as I don't care enough to stop playing based on which system we use, but I'd like to discuss.

Of course, it doesn't help that there are many good adventures out for 4E. Dave lent me the first books of each of Paizo's adventure paths and there's one that looks pretty cool [they all do but I'm liking Second Darkness]. Unfortunately, it's 3.5. I wouldn't mind trying to run it testing the Paizo's Pathfinder RPG Beta rules. I can always try and convert to 4E if that's what people really want.

Essentially, all that rambling means I want to play a PC for a while. I should then be up for running something (I would like to take a campaign from level one to at least level 15).


I started reading the Pathfinder RPG beta rules and there's a lot to like in there (and some things not to like). Dave got sick and had to postpone his d20 (3E) playtest. Kevin decided to convert his Return to Khazad-dum campaign to 4E. I'm very much looking forward to it. I want a look at 4E from the other side of the screen.

[Kevin has given me permission to 'blog' about his campaign. I'll be posting those soon.]

Elodan

Potential spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell herein.

A summary of our 8th session exploring the Keep on the Shadowfell. In attendance:

* me - DM
* Kevin - half-elf paladin
* Dave - tiefling warlock
* Murph - eladrin wizard

Bob and Ed are not available so I run their characters as an NPCs. Murph attends for the first time in a while. Luckily, the wizard stumbles into his compatriots in the Keep before he ran into anything nasty. It cheesy but it gets the job done. It's one of those things that happens are everyone's table; what to do with the character of the person who's unable to attend. In some cases it easy, I as DM run the character as the player is most likely to be there next session. In other cases, you don't really know when they'll attend. I know one of my weaknesses is NPCs so I'm pretty hesitant to run NPCs that adventure with the party. I usually have those characters leave to do something and luckily, just happen tumble upon the party mid-adventure. In Dave's campaign, I think there are more NPCs who adventure with our party than PCs. Those NPCs are there to cover those situations. Kevin tends to rotate the missing player's character among those attending, switching after each battle.

The party continues to explore the section of the keep they find themselves in. After finding several deserted areas they find, behind a door, a short passage leading to a room. There a hobgoblin stares at them for a second, yells "intruders" and runs around a corner. The fighter enters the room with the wizard quickly following. There are several doors around the room (one on the east. north and west walls). As the rest of the party enters, the fighter opens the east door (it's pretty obvious the hobgoblin went that way). On the other side he finds several hobgoblins waiting for him, battle gear in hand. The fighter steps forth to engage the enemy while the wizard creates a flaming sphere. Flaming sphere is a nice little spell. It deals damage to adjacent characters and as long as the wizard spends a minor action each round it persists (he needs to use a move to move it, and a standard to attack). I'm a big fan of how minor actions are officially in 4E. The action type breakdown is one of my favorite things about 4E. It's simple and effective. I liked the addition of swift and immediate actions in 3E, but by not providing guidelines on how to apply these actions type to the core, they never saw use in my 3E game. The party finds itself in a tough situation as several hobgoblin minions emerge from the north door to attack from the rear. It's here where I realize that the allies provide cover might not be such a good idea. It's affecting my hobgoblin shaman. With his soldiers between him and the enemy all of his ranged attacks are at -2 to hit (I'm forgetting if monsters have different rules for their allies and cover, but this is an instance where I think the monsters and PCs should work the same). I resolve to change that house rule next session. I heroes pretty handily defeat the hobgoblins.

The party moves on and heads down a passage heading toward the south. They proceed through a chamber and then continue through a set of double doors where they find a room containing several statues. A huge statue, sword in hand, stands just off-center (more toward the west) of the room. Two dragon statues are in the corners of the east wall. A small passage with a cherubic figure holding vase over its head in each corner leads to another set of doors. By this point, I'm getting a little tired of sending wave after wave of humanoid baddies at the party. I'm looking forward to seeing 4E traps in action. The statue with the sword swings it in a wide arc when the trap is sprung. The dragons breath a force effect the pushes those within 5 squares. I did rearrange the main room somewhat as the PCs can avoid both traps if they just walk along the western wall. I shrunk the room, and placed the huge statue closer to the west wall so there was no way to avoid the traps. I intended on seeing these things in action. The paladin sets off the huge statue trap so I have everyone roll initiative. Traps now go on an initiative score. Several of the players go before any of the traps. The fighter sees the control panel on the huge statue and attempts to climb up the statue to get to it. He fails. Some characters try and make for the doors on the other side of the room while others head for the eastern wall (and the dragon statues). I get a 7-10 split on the statue's attack. It hit and knocked prone everybody but the paladin and warlock. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your point of view) the paladin had wandered into a dragon statue's range. It then blows him back 5 squares and into the range of the huge statue. The fighter again tries to climb the statue but still has no luck. The statue's next attack is just about as effective as the first. The warlock avoids that attack but runs into the range of of the other dragon statue and it blown back. The fighter, paladin and wizard decide to attack the sword statue while the warlock and cleric flee to short passage to the south. These two find their way block as a wall of force seals them in the passage and the vases start spewing water. The water is about knee high by the time the wizard, paladin and fighter destroy the huge statue. The paladin and wizard attack one statue. The fighter decides to tip over another which destroys it. The water is about waist high when the paladin decides to follow the fighter's example. He topples another statue which destroys it. The trap is deactivated and all are knocked prone by the water rushing out of the passage. We end the session with the characters just having taken a short rest and ready to go through the doors.

While this was an interesting encounter, I came away feeling not too keen on 4E traps. Traps now have several DCs to find various aspects of their trappishness but it feels redundant. A DC to notice the hole in the wall and a different DC to notice the control panel for the arrow trap may seem important on paper but are not all that different in practice. Once the PCs find the thing attached to the lower DC, they know the trap is there. I guess it's good with specific searches but not so great when used in conjunction with passive checks. Also, the rules (or at least the adventure) seems to encourage you to use skill challenges to disable traps. This means X number of successes before Y number of failures. I know this is to encourage everyone to get involved but I don't think disabling traps lends itself well to them. This leads me to this thought. Why can't one class shine once in a while? Does every class need to be equally good at everything? I'm starting to think that the classes have been a bit too homogenized (perhaps I have been spoiled by the multitude of options available to the classes in 3E).

A specific annoyance I have with this encounter is the water trap. After it's sprung a wall of force (or a least something similar) surrounds the area and the water starts flowing. The adventure tells you that one of the ways to disable the trap is to destroy the statues. The statues can only be attacked by those outside the wall or at the corners on the inside of the wall. If I can swing a sword and hit the statue from the inside, shouldn't the water be rushing out through these gaps? What kind of wall of force keeps water in but lets swords pass through; is this a Gungan city?

At this point, I'm getting a little annoyed by the adventure. This is the module that's supposed to make me want to play 4E. As far as I'm concerned it's not doing a very good job. When it tries to explaining things, it lacks clarity. The combats are starting to feel monotonous. You keep fighting the same creatures over and over (in slight, and I mean slight, variations). I'm glad the guys are where they are as they're only a couple of rooms away from the final encounter and never touch this thing again. I'm starting to wonder what to run after this. I'm really loathe to pick up another WotC adventure (especially at the price they're charging). No Necromancer Games 4E releases due to restrictive GSL. Paizo is sticking with 3.5 and developing Pathfinder. Green Ronin doesn't seem to do D&D anymore. Goodman Games had been more miss than hit (again, at this point). Maybe I'll try and convert something

Elodan

Potential spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell herein.

A summary of our 7th session exploring the Keep on the Shadowfell. In attendance:

* me - DM
* Kevin - half-elf paladin
* Dave - tiefling warlock
* Ed - human cleric
* Bob - human fighter

An aside for a personal rant. This session occurred not too long after the release of the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide (FRPG). I wasn't too happy with the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide as it seemed to leave out a lot basic information (the 3E FRCS it one of my all time favorite WotC books so I know I'm biased). For example, in the Luruar section of the FRCS under Settlements and Features it says "Luruar’s major settlements are Silverymoon, Sundabar, and Everlund." There is no information given on Sundabar. This is a major settlement and this is the campaign guide. Why is there not even a paragraph with generalities about the city? I don't need every hamlet detailed but a brief paragraph on a major city would be nice. Then, within a week of the FRPG coming out, the DDI had an article for more Epic Destinies to use in the Realms (Epic Faerun). Finally, the the FRPG had nothing on Returned Abeir (which I thought was one of the selling points of the new version of the Realms). I feel like these were purposely left out to get me to invest in the DDI (or more books). More and more I feel like 4E is incomplete. Want alchemy, buy the Adventurer's Vault. Want X, it's on the DDI. WotC is a business and they want to make profit, I get that. But, you're not endearing me to your new system by nickel and dime-ing me.

I'll admit, at this time I'm starting to sour on 4E a bit because of this.

Last we left off, the group has been discovered as intruders and the hobgoblin guards are attacking. The party is lined up in pairs on the stairs leading into this chamber. Several guards move up to attack while a few others move into a chamber opposite the party. One of the hobgoblin abilities is 'phalanx fighting' and they get pluses to defenses when adjacent to each other. Four of the creatures form a line at the bottom of the stair to prevent the heroes from entering the chamber (and to take full advantage of their ability). The defenders (fighter and paladin) are in front with the striker (warlock) and leader (cleric) in back. There's some discussion as to whether or not corners provide cover. We look it up and find that it does for ranged attacks but not for melee. [It's still a session or two before I drop the allies provide cover so my strikers are -2 to hit the hobgoblins in the first row. Fortunately, because they're on the high ground (the upper end of the stairs) there are a log of other bad guys in the room they can hit without penalties.] The party is having a somewhat difficult time hitting the hobgoblins as their phalanx ability has improved their normal defenses. It's a slugfest. A few rounds into the battle, the group finds out what the hobgoblins who left the room were up to when a deathjump spider joins the fray. The spider has an ability that lets it shift 6 squares (a "jump"). I have it uses this ability to leap onto the wall over the stairs. It manages to take the fighter down before the warlock eventually kills it. The cleric heals the fighter and eventually, the group wins. They explore the area and find some bunking in some side chambers but not much else.

The continue exploring and find a side passage that leads to what appears to be a dining area. As they move down the passage to explore the area, a portcullis drops from the ceiling trapping the fighter and cleric in the room. Hobgoblins emerge from several doors to attack. The hobgoblin soldiers end up closer to the trapped PCs and have initiative so they form a line and attack. Essentially, my minions are stuck in the 2nd row with no means of attacking the heroes. The paladin makes a strength check and jams the portcullis back into the ceiling. The cleric gladly switches places with the paladin. This fight becomes static with both sides whacking at each other. I know combat in 4E is supposed to be dynamic but I see no reason why the hobgoblins would move away from each other and negate their phalanx fighting ability. The PCs didn't want to try and push through the hobgoblins as they might get surrounded; plus the corridor give them the ability to limit the number of enemies they face at once. Eventually, the heroes wear down and defeat the hobgoblins.

Again, not sure if its our 3E thinking or the nature of the battles but, for the most part, our combats haven't been all that dynamic. The defenders have been staking their territory and, for lack of a better term, 'defending' it. The strikers move around to get good position but that's no different than in 3E. It's not like forced movement isn't used in our games, I'm not sure if it's all it seems have been hyped up to be. I think 3E Bull Rush was more fun (not necessarily the math, but you didn't necessarily know what was going to happen). It seems like combats are starting to drag out some. There appears to be a point where you know the PCs are going to win but you're bad guys still have a lot of hit points left. Things become a slugfest. Especially when the PCs are out of encounter and/or daily powers. I guess I could have them run away or double the amount of damage they take with each hit but that feels cheap. Plus, there's still the possibility that my bad guys could do some real damage to the PCs (and I hate to miss out of those opportunities ). Combats in 3E were often too short and it seems like 4E combats might be too long.


At this point, I'm going to continue running KotS as the guys want to finish and we should able to complete it in a couple of more sessions. Plus I want to get a feel for things as the PCs gain levels. I'm not sure if it's my issues with the 4E FR books that are clouding my judgment but I'm starting to think 4E is not a huge improvement on 3E.

Elodan

Potential spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell herein.

A summary of our 6th session exploring the Keep on the Shadowfell. In attendance:

* me - DM
* Kevin - half-elf paladin
* Dave - tiefling warlock
* Ed - human cleric
* Bob - human fighter

It's been a couple of weeks since our last session.

Dave and I discuss his feelings toward 4E. I give him grief reminding him how he's in nerd hell. As he's playing 2E with his other group (which he hates) and 4E with us. He reminds me that he doesn't hate 4E, it's just not his system of choice. Dave really likes the modularity of 3E. He could grab X from source Y and it would essentially fit seamlessly with the existing rules. I agree 100% with him on this. In fact, I did a lot of that sort of thing when building my Arcana Evolved/D&D hybrid.


With Bob's fighter dead, the party decides to return to Winterhaven. The first ritual used in the campaign is to create a Floating Disc to carry the fighter's corpse.

Upon reaching the town the group finds that the gates are locked. The sentries tell the heroes that the town is under siege from undead coming from the local graveyard and ask for their help. The party asks to be let in so their friend can be raised at the local temple while they deal with the undead. I notice that the Raise Dead ritual takes 8 hours. It made no sense for the party to ignore the threat for the time it takes the fighter to be raised so they decide to head to the cemetery after paying for the ritual (at a steep discount). Since we're just beginning the session and the combat may take a while, I decide to speed things up (not really fair to have Bob just sit there while the others battle). As the ritual starts and the party is leaving, I tell them a bright light bathes the temple. The priestess tells the group she's never had this happen during the ritual. I know it didn't end up in the final book but I believe that the 4E previews mentioned that only those who have died that the gods feel have a destiny to fulfill are returned to the living. I really like this idea a lot and am going to use it in my campaigns. I tell Bob that his character hears a voice asking him what deed or destiny he left undone and why he should be returned to life to complete it. Bob gives a good spiel for why his fighter should be raised. I make him sweat it out for a second. Bob's fighter worships Avandra, goddess of luck. I decide to use this. I tell the group that the light grows very bright and then starts to fade. As it fades, Bob's fighter sits up. I tell Bob that a voice whispers to him, "fate is fickle, the next time you may not be able to come back." Essentially, I tell Bob that the goddess raised him immediately but he has a 50/50 chance of not being able to come back the next time he dies.

Here we discover the death penalty. You're pretty much -1 to all rolls until you hit 3 milestones. I like this much better than loosing a level when brought back to life in 3E. Loosing a level sucked. I think I prefer loosing a Con point like in AD&D than a level.

The party arrives at the graveyard. On the opposite side from the entrance they see a magic circle. As they move in to investigate, the dead rise from their graves and attack. During this battle, Ed's cleric makes his first use of the Turn Undead option for the Channel Divinity power. I was not a fan of how Turn Undead used to work which was essentially an encounter killer. 4E's power is similar to the alternate turning rules given in Complete Divine which I was using in my 3E campaign. The monster takes damage and if it doesn't save it's forced away. We also see how creature vulnerabilities work. Pretty simple to apply but a minor pain as I have to keep reminding the guys that no only do they need to tell me what defense they're attacking buy if the power has radiant keyword so I can apply the vulnerability damage.

During the battle a cloaked figure had been attacking them from a distance and had manages to slip away but left behind a note. The note is from someone named Kalarel asking this person to watch for strangers and to eliminate them if they become a threat. It also mentions a ritual for creating a circle for causing the dead to rise from their graves as undead abominations. Finally, it seems to give a pass phrase for safe passage to the second level of the keep.

While they are examining the note, several more undead rise and attack. Ed's cleric now attempts to destroy the circle. Every time he fails his arcana check, I have a couple of minions appear and attack. Technically, nothing supposed to happen once the original undead are eliminated but I felt it was more interesting that the undead would keep rising as long as the circle existed. Eventually, he makes three successful checks and the circle is destroyed.

Based on what's in the note, the party decides to immediately return to the keep.

The group reaches the keep and proceeds to head down a corridor directly opposite the entrance stairs. They find a door and behind it, stairs leading down into darkness. They say the pass phrase aloud and head down the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs the PCs find several corridors leading off into various directions. The one they follow leads to a large chamber filled with zombies. The party makes quick work of these as most were minions. As they finish them off several more zombies emerges from the various passages and attack. The group eliminates these even quicker than the first batch.

The party continues through the chamber and down a short corridor to a crypt with sarcophagi lining the walls. Dim light comes from the far end of the room. As the PCs move to investigate the light, the sarcophagi burst open, skeletons emerge and attack. There a several standard skeletons amongst the minions. This battle gets pretty tense as every round 2 more skeletons (minions) pop out of the sarcophagi. During the battle there's a lot of confusion about marking. I try and have the players keep track but tonight it was pretty frustrating. It seemed that, conveniently, the fighter had the bad guy who shifted marked even though I never heard him declare he was marking anyone. The paladin was a lot more vocal about he marked as his does damage. Plus, the skeletons could mark foes as well and I would forget which one marked who. Did I mention that I hate marking?

Eventually, the party defeats the skeletons and move toward the light. They find that the light is coming from the ceiling in a chamber will two alters dedicated to Bahamut. Bob's fighter pays his respects at one figuring it can't hurt to have as many gods on his side as possible. This chamber also has a set of doors that lead to a tomb containing a single sarcophagus on a raised dais.

Here they find the ghost of Sir Keegan. Sir Keegan challenges the party to prove that they are not grave robbers and are indeed heroes worthy of completing the job he could not so long ago. I explain to the guys that this is a skill challenge and that they will need to convince Sir Keegan of their noble intentions. Maybe, its the way I presented it or the was it was presented in the adventure but skill challenges feel really artificial. They also seem to be stacked against the players. The DCs are pretty high for the character levels. Plus, you need a relatively high number of successes compared to failures in order to "win." As recommended, I make sure and involve the whole party in the challenge. I apply bonuses and penalties to their roles based on what their characters say Only Kevin's paladin and Ed's cleric makes their rolls. Dave and Bob both fail. Bob immediately tries to salvage his response and fails on the follow up check, so we have the 3 failures needed to "fail" this challenge. The price of this failure is that Sir Keegan attacks the party. I'm really not in the mood to run another combat, so I give Kevin's paladin a chance to make an argument that puts a better spin on the others responses. He explains that Bob and Dave are his lackeys and while not really heroes have their uses. He makes his roll. Sir Keegan gifts the party with his sword and some statues of Bahamut and wishes them luck. Based on this experience, not a fan on skill challenges as presented in the book. It feels pretty artificial and breaks the mood of the game. I did find an alternate skill challenge system on ENWorld that seems to incorporate skill challenges more naturally into the game. I plan on trying it the next time a skill challenge comes into play. (Since this session, errata came out about the DCs but I still think I prefer to try the alternate system next time.)

The party leaves the crypt and enters the maze of corridors. They find a strange symbol on the floor. Ed tries to leap over it but doesn't quite clear it. The sets off an ear piercing shriek and causes the cleric to run in fear. Since there's no mention of how long the fear affect lasts I give it a duration of 1 round. Lame. (Looking back I probably should have had it be a Save Ends situation). We then try and determine if setting off the glyph causes it to disappear. I can't find anything in either the adventure or the DMG. I guess I'm still thinking in 3E as I think a little guidance on this would be nice. My inclination is to have in remain but it's getting late and I want the game to conclude at a certain point so I have it disappear. (Again, looking back I should have used a skill challenge to remove it but I wasn't thrilled with those at the time).

Finally, the group comes to a set of stairs leading down. Heading down, they run into a couple of hobgoblins guarding the way. They give the pass phrase. One of the bugbears yells, "Intruders! They've killed Nimran! Kill them!" With that I call it a night.


Again, I poll the guys to see if they want to keep going and they do.

Elodan

Potential spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell herein.

We had a couple of weeks where we didn't meet. We return for our 5th session exploring the Keep on the Shadowfell. In attendance:

* me - DM
* Kevin - half-elf paladin
* Dave - tiefling warlock
* Ed - human cleric
* Bob - human fighter

Dave and I cover several topics on the way to Kevin's. Dave feels that 4E lends itself to meta-gaming. When in combat he finds himself planning his actions based on his abilities rather than what his character would do. I thought this was an interesting comment as I feel that Dave meta-games the hell out of attacks of opportunity in 3E. I suspect he's right. I'll need to watch the others as we play.

Dave is a collector. I think that, part of the reason Dave was predisposed to not liking 4E is that he doesn't want to collect (or recollect) the 4E books. He has a huge collection of 3E stuff (as well as AD&D). He tells me he has no plans on buying any more books than the first core ones. I too, built up a fairly large 3E collection (thank you eBay). I'm also reluctant to go back down that path. I kept adding one thing from this book and another thing from another book to my campaign rules. It was starting to become unwieldy. I tell Dave my plan is to stick to the first core plus the FRPG. Realistically, I expect to add either the PHB 2 or the Advanced Players Guide to get 4E versions of the barbarian, bard and druid (my game feels incomplete without them). I personally have no intention of picking up anything else (monster books and adventures don't count).

Dave's final 3E vs 4E point is that he feels that the skills have been too streamlined in 4E. This makes characters too similar when it comes to skills. Instead of a rogue being good at certain rogue skills (say open locks) and weak in others (say pick pockets) whereas another rogue would be week and strong in the opposite skills (pick pockets and open locks respectively). It makes all rogues equally (roughly) skilled. I was streamlining some of the 3E skills but I'm thinking that 4E took it a little too far. I'm going to stick to the rules as is for a while before tweaking.



The group leaves the dug up room, lights a torch and heads down a set of stairs they previously passed. At the bottom they find a natural cave where in certain areas stalagmites and stalactites make movement difficult. Bob moves away from the rest of the party. The giant rats living in the cave decide to make a meal of him and attack. The rest of the party moves in to fend off the vermin. The sound of battle attracts an ochre jelly. "What the hell is that?" I have the those who want make a Nature check to determine what the creature is. Several bad rolls later, Kevin's paladin shouts to the others, "It's an ooze, we probably disturbed it as it's not intelligent enough to want to hurt us for malicious reasons." I know knowledge checks to know monster information was introduced in 3E but the lore you glean in 4E seems more interesting. A big plus is that you do not get the specific strengths and weaknesses of the creature. I'm a little surprised there wasn't a check to determine the type of ooze you're dealing with. I figure you make the minimum check you know the ooze your dealing with. We all enjoyed the "oh sh@@" moment when the ocher jelly became bloodied and split in two. I made the two halves medium sized. It would have been good to get a guideline of the post-split size of the creature. The threat is soon eliminated and the party takes a short rest. (I later read how these monster checks are supposed to tell you the specific strengths and weakness of the creatures not just the lore in the MM. I think I'm going to stick with given the players just the lore while giving them hints about its strength and weaknesses if they role the appropriate number.)

The group explores the caves and finds a set of double doors. Beyond are stairs leading down to a mostly flooded room. The PCs notice a small island covered with coins and other things. The fighter jumps across. He is quite surprised when a blue slime emerges from the brackish water and sprays everyone with acid. This fight was most enjoyable. I rolled really well on the recharge power. I kept finding a power I missed initially which I would use on the next round. It was a rough battle but the party won.

I never checked the rules for ongoing damage when hit by multiple attacks. I had some of the PCs taking 10 ongoing acid for a round or two. I did give them the choice of rolling one save for all the damage or two which each one reducing the damage by 5. (I would later discover that ongoing effects don't stack; that you use only the highest amount.)

The blue slime sprayed everyone with acid during its death throws (one of its abilities) which took out the cleric (and Bob's fighter). Kevin's paladin and Dave's warlock go to aid Ed's cleric. Bob chimes in, "what happens when you're at 0 hit points?" We tell him he's dying. I have him make a death save as the rest of the party was focused on the cleric (he's in the negatives but stable). He fails. We continue in initiative order. Dave jumps across and Kevin attempts to swim to the island. Dave fails his healing check and Kevin fails his swim check. Bob fails he 2nd death save. Dave again fails his healing check while Kevin tries to jump across and fails. Bob fails his third death save and his fighter dies. The party settles in for an extended rest and we call it a night.



At the end of the session I put it out there to see if the group wants to continue with 4E (I want to see if I should invest in the FRCG). Basically, do they want me to continue run a 4E campaign? Both Kevin and Ed enthusiastically say yes. I didn't catch what Bob said and I knew Dave's answer.

At this point it looks like I'll be running 4E for the foreseeable future. During my talks with Dave, I realize I'm going to try and keep the books I use in any campaign I run to a minimum. In the event I go back to 3E to run a campaign (instead of 3E the Pathfinder RPG is more likely), its going to be core + Player's Guide to Faerun only (with some house rules stolen from 4E).

Elodan

Warning: There may be spoilers to some of the more recent FR plots herein.


I plan on buying both the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide and the Player's Guide when they are released (with the judicious use of coupons at B&N).

My experience with the Forgotten Realms started with reading the novels during the 2E days. During 3E, I started to run a campaign which I based in the Realms. This is was when I started collecting the RPG materials. I have picked up and read every 3E sourcebook (exceptions: Lords of Darkness, Dragons of Faerun, Power of Faerun and The Grand History of Faerun; own, still need to read).

I was attracted to the lore of the world (I'm a big campaign setting fan). In addition, I liked the medieval feel of the world and the 'kitchen sink' approach to the world. If I wanted a campaign based around the plots of the nobility and the monarchy I could use Cormyr. If I wanted an Arabian Nights thing I had Calimshan. I enjoyed running my campaign there but I was about to abandon FR for another setting before the 4E announcement.

One of the biggest reasons I liked the Realms is the meta-plot. The world kept moving no matter what my PCs did. While the PCs could stop a Zhent plot in Secomber, the demon-fey could escape Hellgate Keep and cause havoc for Evereska. It made the world feel alive. This blessing was also a curse. The sheer number of recent Realms Shaking Events (RSEs) was getting to be too much. By the time you caught up on one, two more had taking place. By the time I had read about the return of Shade and figured out how to adapt it to my world, the dragon rage happens.

I have the option of ignoring those events but the problem is that later source books build upon these events. Eventually, these books become relatively useless to me. What's the point of using a living world if I'm diverging so far from existing canon I might as well use something like Eberron with a static time-line but has novels I can steal ideas or moving the world forward using the events they describe.


That said, I was pretty angry about the changes that were coming to the Realms with 4E. I told my players I was going to switch campaign worlds. I started a search for a new world to use. Eventually, I decided to come back to the Realms and give the 4E changes a chance. Here are some of my reasons:

Richard Baker
This guy took (and still takes) a hell of a beating on the WotC forums, but I think he did a very good job explaining the reasoning behind the changes. Most of his posts had me thinking, "Oh I never thought of it that way, that makes some sense" or "that would make an interesting adventure."

New Lore
The setting went through some pretty big changes. While some of the changes seem heavy-handed or hackneyed, there are stories behind them. This gives me the opportunity to learn these stories. I can even change the ones I don’t like without having to worry about a later sourcebook overwriting them.

More Focused Pantheon
I for one was not overwhelmed by the number of deities in FR but it was causing some confusion for my players. It was really difficult to explain the need for different deities whose profiles will so similar. While I'm not happy that the racial pantheons are going, I do like the idea of a smaller more focused pantheon. I like the idea of those deities that are not becoming part of the smaller pantheon are either aspects of the gods or will become a patron saint/demigod (unless they were killed).

Brian R James's Cormyr Article
This is what pushed me off the fence and into the "will buy" territory. While a fair number of the FR excerpts have been fairly bland, this article was extremely well done and demonstrated that while things were changing, not every change was going to destroy the Realms as I knew them. Brian proved that there are people writing for WotC who can take good care of the Realms.

Number of Sourcebooks
Finally, I do like that there will (supposedly) only be 2 RPG books released for the setting. It gives me a living world that I can move forward with the novels as I choose without those novels forcing their lore upon my world (i.e. later source books).


While I'm not thrilled with all the changes, I will be picking up these books and giving them a chance in my 4E campaign (worst comes to worst, I go back to 1372 DR).

Elodan

Possible spoilers to Keep on the Shadowfell herein.

A summary of our fourth session of 4E. In attendance were:

• me - DM
• Kevin - half-elf paladin (new)
• Dave - tiefling warlock
• Ed - human cleric
• Bob - human fighter
• Lance - dwarven fighter (new)

Before we started the game I brought up how much I was surprised that Kevin and Lance didn't like 3E. Neither had given any indication of their dislike. Both felt that 3E becomes too math dependent and 4E takes us back to the AD&D days but with smoother/simpler play.

During the week Kevin mentioned that he was originally going to make a paladin, but Bob showed up with his dragonborn one the first session. He asked if he could make one now and let Murph play his wizard. They would split the XP earned previously between the two characters. I had no problems with that. I want people to try the various options and play want they want so we judge the game on its merits, not some hidden bias.

I warn the guys that I'll be checking the rules a little more as we get a feel for things. Bob asks me to check his math as last week he kept combining Power Attack and Sure Strike. I questioned why he kept doing it as my reading was that he would end up with a +0 to attack and a +2 to damage. Considering his character has a 18 strength it didn't seem like a good combo. Once in a while Bob tends to read character options and find only the benefits but not the drawbacks. His numbers are in order except for one at-will power where he put the additional damage equal to his constitution score instead of the modifier. We just laughed and shook our heads.


We resume with the heroes back in Winterhaven. The wizard is off doing research. We do the 'I see you have no mage' scene from The Gamers to introduce the paladin and his dwarven fighter buddy since we wanted to get back to testing the rules as quickly as possible (again, probably a mistake).

The party enters the keep. They manage to surprise the goblin on watch so I give them their one free action. All they do is alert the goblins in the area to their presence. The room is square with a corridor in each wall in addition to the stairs they just came down. I use Passive Perception checks for everyone to see if they notice that there is pit trap in the center of the room. No one does. I like idea of passive checks so you don't alert the players. The only problem I see is that the same PCs have a good chance of noticing something while the others don't. I think there needs to be some randomization added in here, but I'm not sure what.

Both fighters move around the edges of the room toward the goblin warrior. I have them use minor actions to make Perception checks to see if anything is in the side corridor. The cleric stops just before the pit. WTF, is the possibility of a trap that obvious? That question is answered quickly as Kevin's paladin attempts to charge the goblin and falls into the pit. In the adventure there's no mention that the trap needs to attack a player's defense.

At this point there some discussion as to whether or not Kevin should get a save to not fall into the pit. I rule that the passive check was his chance to avoid falling in. Again, I don't check my books and neither does anyone else. I wonder if it's some sort of reaction to the amount of rules arguments and look ups we did in 3E. I remind myself to remind everyone when I post XP that they can make active checks; otherwise, I'll be using their passive ones. I would later see a similar trap in the DMG which required an attack role versus Reflex. It's just annoying that the adventure meant to introduce you to 4E has these types of inconsistencies compared to the actual rules.

In the pit is a rat swarm. Swarms seems to be as nasty in 4E as they were in 3E. Even better, they have an aura that usually damages a player if he's in it. This represents that swarming nature of the swarm. Somehow, the paladin managed to escape the pit with no injuries. I saw a climb speed for the rats and had them climb out of the pit after some tasty flesh (there may be some truth to the rumors that I'm a killer DM, but those rats were hungry). At the same time the other goblin warrior attacked from a side corridor (he was around another corner when the fighters checked those). The battle became really hectic with pockets of fighting happening in different places. I do rely on the players to know who they've marked/challenged/cursed and I felt this combat ran smoothly. There were a couple of times someone claimed to have marked an enemy (conveniently when it was most advantageous for them) when I don't recall them saying anything to that effect. Not a fan of marking (it really feels artificial).

The cleric, paladin and warlock fought the swarm while the fighters took on the warriors.

Bob had a question about Opportunity Attacks and Kevin looked them up and said that leaving a square adjacent to the enemy caused one. This lead to the rat swarm's Swarm Attack (aura 1) being really effective against the cleric as Ed's character was next to the swarm and was now afraid to move. We mentioned shifting but he still wouldn't move. He used most of his healing on himself. He even used the dwarven chain's daily power. Get healing without spending a surge. Nice little power. It was only the fact that the paladin challenged the swarm and it continued to make its Swarm Attack against others that hurt it.

Lance used Reaping Strike a lot. It lets him do strength damage on a miss (he's using a two-handed weapon). I'm not thrilled by the ability to do damage on a miss. Kevin and Lance say it's like he missed with the maul but then hit the guy with an elbow. Thinking of the power this way makes it easier to believe.

The goblin sharpshooters were really effective. One of the them was able to escape because of his Sniper ability (on a miss, their still considered to be hiding (or in sneak mode). The battle was quite chaotic (thanks to the rat swarm) and only two characters were actually hit by crossbows (only two may have been hit but a +9 to attack made sure the goblins hit them often). I had the sharpshooters move around a lot and since they were at the end of a corridor away from the main battle it was difficult for the players to know how many there were.

At this point Bob had to leave for work so I took over his fighter. I noticed it was around 11pm. We took a couple of minutes to grab some drinks and such and then continued.

The party moves down one of the side corridors. There they run into several goblin sharpshooters and their guard drakes who are ready for them (this was the same way the escaped sharpshooter went). The fighters moved up to attack the drakes while the rest of the party and the sharpshooters exchanged ranged attacks. By this point I think the guys had a good idea of how to work together and it showed. I also thought the combat might become static because of the nature of the room they were fighting in (this one has been all dug up with planks between the high ground), but there was a fair amount of movement.

I checked the clock and it was a little after 12am. It took us a little over an hour to run a combat of 5 PCs versus 4 goblin sharpshooters and 2 guard drakes. The rounds went by quickly.

At this point, I'm enjoying running 4E. There a some minor annoyances but the system as a whole seems fine.

Elodan

Potential spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell herein.

After last week's near TPK, we moved on to our 3rd session exploring the Keep on the Shadowfell. In attendance:

• me - DM
• Dave - tiefling warlock (new character)
• Ed - human cleric
• Bob - human fighter (new)

This week we made the trek to Ed's to play. Kevin and Murph had other obligations. Lance called to say he was held up at work and wouldn't be able to make it. During the conversation Lance mentioned how much he doesn't care for 3E and that he really liked what he's seen of 4E so far. Over the past few years he rarely made our games, but I always thought it was because of work demands (He has been showing more frequently since we started playing 4E).

I decide to use Kevin's wizard as a NPC to help tie what happened the week before with the absent/new characters.

I finally started working through the DMG. I discover that the encounter system expects a party's size to be 5, not 4 like previously. With this information in hand and because of last session's near TPK, I decide to scale back the encounter. I have to say this was incredibly easy, I just looked at the table in the DMG, determined the XP difference between four and five PCs, then removed a number of monsters equal to that value. I have to say this is a huge positive for 4E.

The fight outside the kobold lair goes well. Dave keeps getting temporary HP for the deaths of his cursed foes. I think he had 16 by the time the fight was over (he took the feat that gave him +3 bonus temp HPs). We kept saying how that warlock ability seemed really powerful. Dave saw nothing in the class section about any limits and for some reason I refused to look at any of the PHB rules in game.

We move on to the lair itself. The party is doing well when the second wave hits. While Bob's fighter engages Irontooth, Dave uses his Flames of Phlegethos daily power to take the wyrmpriest down to 1 hp before he can enter the fray. Technically he should have died at the start of his turn because of ongoing damage but I gave him the Eff You power to hurl one orb at Dave before he died. This was pretty much our first experience with a striker doing a lot of damage, it was kind of a wow thing after the relatively low damage other PCs have been doing.

The minions were incredibly effective during this fight. One minion was able to outlast all the other baddies except Irontooth. The fact that they attack at the same rate as the other monsters of their level is really nice. The only thing I have concerns about is the fixed damage output. It makes it easy for the players to meta-game. "Oh, he's only doing X damage must be a minion." On the ride home Dave and I discussed ways to hide minions; such as rolling damage dice but using the fixed amount. Maybe giving them +1 damage if I roll max on the dice. (Since then, I roll dice for damage but use the fixed amount. I also double the damage dealt on a crit; 4 becomes 8).

The fight was a real challenge. The fighter was taken down and the cleric was out of healing. He used the Heal skill on Bob's PC to bring him up while the warlock and the wizard distracted Irontooth. I do like that healing starts at zero. Not a fan of being healed only to still be in the negatives. Eventually, the heroes emerge victorious. The cleric ends up with the first magic item found, +1 dwarven chain. Looking forward to seeing magic items in action.

The characters return to Winterhaven and do some research on the Keep. By this point, Bob has to go to work. In about 3 hours we ran two encounters and did some role playing in town before and after the encounters. Everyone seems to have fun.

The next day, I look into the various rules I had questions about. I find that temporary hit points don't stack. I post to our Yahoo group what I found and warn them I'm going to be taking the time to check the rules as the system is new to us.

At this point, based on the group's (mostly) positive reaction to 4E I plan on sticking with it for my campaign. For me the bigger worry is good adventure support. I just hope to see some 3pp adventures as I'm not thrilled with the story for KotS (plus the price for the material is a rip off) and WotC's track record for adventures is not that great.

Elodan

Potential spoilers for Keep on the Shadowfell herein.

A summary of our second session exploring the Keep on the Shadowfell. In attendance:

• me - DM
• Kevin - eladrin wizard
• Dave - elf ranger
• Lance - dwarven fighter
• Murph - half elf cleric

So this week Ed and Bob couldn't make it but Lance and Murph (our more casual players could). I'm hosting.

After the last session I'm pretty worried that it's going to be difficult to hurt or kill the characters. I'm pretty interested to see if the party goes after the kobolds as the encounter inside the lair is a level 6 encounter.

Murph and Lance use characters that come with the adventure. Ed's cleric is tied up at the local temple and the dragonborn's head exploded while experimenting with ways to make his breath weapon more deadly. We decided to go role-playing light as we get a feel for the system (this was probably somewhat of a mistake, because this pretty much ends up being where the majority of role-playing in the adventure actually happens).

They do some socializing at the local tavern and eventually are offered a mission to rid the surrounding area of the kobold scourge by the local lord which the party accepts. I'm looking forward to this as we'll see what happens when my party gets to the kobold lair.

Thanks to a rough map given them by the lord the PCs easily find the lair. The party and a group of kobolds guarding the entrance to the lair (the lair is in a cave under a waterfall) notice each other at the same time. Kobolds go first and move into position to attack the party. Murph is the first PC to act. He runs up to "whack the kobold with his mace." What? Uh, Murph remember these powers we discussed? Check out the at-will ones. You can attack from a distance. Plus, you can usually do more damage with these powers than your basic attack. He still uses his basic attack. We'll have to guide him a bit.

Eventually, Murph starts using his powers (including his daily) and the party easily handles the kobolds. The ranger takes the last one down as he attempted to warn those in the cave. Those in the cave have not noticed the PCs.

There is some debate as to whether or not to take an extended rest as a couple of the guys used their dailies. They decide to have the ranger scout the cave at the top of the waterfall and make a final decision based on the situation. Dave manages to sneak to the entrance and sees a lot of kobolds moving about inside the cave. Unfortunately, he fails his check when attempting to sneak away. I say, "As he starts to climb down, the ranger finds that the rocks give way beneath him. He manages to catch himself, but the noise has alerted the kobolds to his presence."

The party realizes that the kobolds know they are there and the ranger is at the top of the waterfall. Kevin's wizard BAMFs himself to the cave entrance and drops a sleep spell. The others climb up to join the ranger and wizard. The battle is going in the party's favor. It looks like it might be another cake-walk.

Fourth round, the reinforcements arrive. The second wave consists of two kobold soldiers, a wyrmpriest and Irontooth. Irontooth is an elite monster. This is our first fight involving a non-standard or minion monster. Lance is loving his powers and his dwarf has waded into the thick of the kobolds. He's taking down the minions left and right. I asked and the players preferred not knowing which baddies are minions. I've found that minions may go down easily but they can be very effective. It reminds me of the 1E days where you'd fight some goblins or kobolds where the list of HP would be 8, 7, 7, 6, 2, 1, 1. Slowly my minions whittle away the dwarf's hit points. Irontooth battles both the ranger and wizard while the wyrmpriest takes on the cleric.

The dwarf eventually is taken down. The cleric had used his healing word power twice (once on the wizard). The kobolds are between the cleric and the fighter. Lance fails his first death save. Murph uses his Healing Strike power but misses. Lance makes his 2nd death save. He's all happy. Not so fast my friend. You're not stable just yet. You need to be healed or roll a 20 before you fail your death save 3 times or your dead. "You b@@tard," he replies while laughing. "I like." The wyrmpriest and his goons are preventing Murph from getting to Lance and attempt a skill check. Lance fails a death save for the second time. At this point, the cleric is taken down. Lance fails his third save. The fighter is dead.

While this is happening, the other two are taking a beating from Irontooth. The ranger falls. The wizard's next attack pushes Irontooth into the bloodied state. Once bloodied Irontooth goes into a frenzy and proceeds to attack the creatures nearest him, which happen to be some kobolds. While he has a chance to stabilize the ranger, the wizard decides that the wyrmpriest is too much of a threat and heads for an exit. He manages to escape just as the ranger and cleric fail their 3rd death saves.

I'm a little surprised how deadly things can get once you're in the dying state. I don't know if it was bad rolls or what but each of the characters who died made no more than 4 rolls before they expired. I'm feeling better that 4E combat can be deadly and challenging. I actually really like the death save mechanic. I expect to use a modified version if my campaign goes back to 3E.

Get the group's reaction. Lance loved the tactical aspect of combat and can't wait to play again. After the first combat, Murph seemed to get the hang of the game and was willing to play again. So far, it seems to be fairly easy to get the hang of the game. Rest of the group wants to continue KotS.

At this point, I'm now seriously considering making my campaign a 4E one. I've enjoyed running 4E. I've found it no more difficult than running previous editions. While I really like my AE/D&D hybrid, it's too much work to convert adventures. I don't have the time to make my own. I was debating going back to core D&D only before we started this campaign (not sure what Pathfinder will bring yet). We'll see what the next few sessions hold.


We just ran our 5th session on Friday. I have most of sessions 3 and 4 written up. I'll should post those in the next few days.

Elodan