The ramblings of a Boston area gamer
Return to Khazad-dum (4E) - Session 4
Posted 1st December 2008 at 07:54 PM by 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.
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.
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Comments
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Pathfinder's a great system. It makes me excited to make core class characters again. Give it a try. Worst case, you're out some time. Best case, you find the magic again.Posted 3rd December 2008 at 06:41 PM by Einan
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