Return to Khazad-dum (4E) - Session 1

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...