So following the events of the ‘collapsing tower’ from our previous session, the party was quite into the campaign and really wanted to get in another session. Normally we game on Saturdays (Fridays being my Iron Kingdoms game), so we discussed the possibility of running a session on Sunday but sadly my girlfriend (the party druid) had prior commitments. Sunday night in a flurry of IMs we found out that we could game late Monday night, so we decided to continue then.

Our last session had ended with the party discovering that Clegg Zincher had been charmed by local Drow. I suppose since my players are enamored with Clegg, they wanted to game ASAP in hopes of saving the poor Crime Lord. Upon starting the session they made directly for the cave in an attempt to defeat the drow and try to free Clegg from their charms.

The sojourn into the cave went rather poorly at first, with the party activating a Glyph of Warding; alerting most of the drow to their presence. After a few rounds of combat with the two guards stationed near the entrance, the Shadow Demon joined the fray. Not having Ghost Touch or a dedicated spell caster (the wizard is more of a fighty spellcaster), the Demon gave them quite a bit of trouble. They went a few rounds with the demon as he engaged, attempted to fear, pulled back, charged back in, though eventually they headed further into the cave complex to continue the fight. At this point the players caught the attention of the Drow Druid and his Gecko, who went to town on the fighter. The Monk hurtled in and grappled the Druid; effectively removing him from combat. Soon after the Gecko and Shadow Demon were killed in lucky hits, and the Druid fell shortly after. With these enemies defeated and more coming, the players decided to do the smart thing and run back to camp.

Now as the DM I had a problem. I wanted the last encounter to be difficult and not a walk in the park. The fact that the PC’s decided to run back to camp presented me with two problems.

• If they rested up and came back, then the encounter would be fairly simple.
• Why wouldn’t the drow leave the island immediately after the attack?

So I decided to tweak the adventure a bit, and had Clegg Zincher not return to camp the following day. Since the players were for some reason devoted to the Crime Boss, they rushed off to the cave once more. Seeing Clegg face first in the water, the party druid rushed forward in wolf form to help him… only to receive a pick in the face. It was only appropriate that Clegg Zincher’s first real attack was a critical with a pick!

The ‘final battle’ started with the heroes rushing out to assist the druid, and the dark elf cleric emerging on the docks onto the water with her water walk spell. The monk wasted no time and jump tackled the drow, knocking her prone on the water while he swam just under her. Then the druid noticed the Orca in the water…

I’ll keep the summary somewhat brief… but the combat involved the Monk single handedly fending off the Orca and the drow priestess, while the rest of the party were forced into combat with Clegg Zincher. Zincher started tearing through the party and dealt quite a bit of damage before he was finally killed by a luck hit from the fighter/wizard. However the battle was just as epic, if not more, than the battle in the collapsing tower!

So for Adventure 3, I’m debating starting with the party madly fleeing the island as Akatas chase after them, or start back in Riddleport with the funeral for Clegg.

Rugult

Yesterday I finished yet another ‘Second Darkness’ session. Right now my party is currently on the second adventure; ‘Children of the Void’ and when the session started they were exploring the abandoned village of Witchlight. The party currently consists of a Monk, a Fighter, a Druid and a Fighter/Wizard planning to go Eldritch Knight.

When they arrived at the village, the party first encountered a group of Void Zombies who they were quick to defeat, though they took some ability damage in the process. Next up they found a group of surviving Cyphermages, as well as their old acquaintance Samaritha holed up in the tower. After a brief meeting the party; who were low on resources from dealing with the zombies and a random encounter with an assassin vine, rested in the tower. The druid rested to regain spells while the other three assisted in fortifying the tower itself, as the Cyphermages described terrible ‘blue beasts’ that attacked them early after their arrival.

With the party monk outside the tower gathering materials, the Akatas (blue four legged old-onesque wolf things) burst out from the woods to attack. The monk was bit twice by the creatures before pushing into the tower just as the heroes closed the door. As they held the entrance and heard the scratching sounds of the creatures outside, the party cauterized their monk’s wounds as two of the party members held him down and the druid used one of her few remaining Produce Flame spells.

Immediately following the cauterization, the creatures had begun to dig their way into the tower; starting with three getting in. A violent combat erupted as the party avoided getting bit, while fighting off more and more creatures that dug their way in. Suddenly everyone was shocked as the tower began to lean to its side!

Pulling up the stairs of the tower, the main fighter of the party held off the oncoming creatures for a short time before the whole tower fell on its side. With the floor now gone, another fourteen of the creatures entered the tower. The fighters and monk held back the creatures while the druid attempting to prevent the tower from rolling with a Gust of Wind spell. The spell gave them a bit of time, and the fighters were able to carve up a few more of the Akatas, but then the tower went into a rolling descent down the nearby cliff.

In the end, the monk and fighter/wizard had successfully escaped while the remaining fighter and druid braced before crashing into the waves below. Luckily for them the sea water acted as acid to the creatures, and the two were able to swim out of the sinking tower. Samaritha made a hasty escape as well, sadly her two fellow Cyphermages were both brutally killed by the fall itself.

Following the fall of the tower and their regrouping, the party had no choice but to go visit the camp of Clegg Zincher. I swear they think he’s the coolest NPC ever designed…

Rugult