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I like how you handled the solo material. I'm taking notes; that was really cool.
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I like how you handled the solo material. I'm taking notes; that was really cool.
Indeed. Earlier when I offered praise, it was more along the lines of 'That was really cool (but I've been that cool occassionally)'.
However, that has to be the coolest handling of a PC death I've ever encountered, and I'm shamelessly yoinking the whole idea and putting it neatly away in my stockpile of DM tools.
Bravo, indeed.
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Thanks for the kind words. It's been a crazy but fun week with me taking my daughter off camping for a couple days so I've not made the progress I'd have though on catchin up here. But I should have a chance to post something tomorrow at some point.
I note that the thing with Zhomkar raising Zanne kind of fell into my lap. It was one of those moments that I said, "Hmm. I hate that this PC had to die but boy does this work out just perfectly." That character had a quest to meet up with Zhomkar since Night 1 of the campaign so I liked that I was able to accomplish that in the same stroke.
Oh and Piratecat, Sinking City in Opkhar is a bit of an homage to Eversink so thanks goes partly to you for the inspiration.
...With hunger flashing in her eyes (and not the good kind) the woman reached out to King Klo of Opkhar and her arm became a cluster of scarab beetles that began to chew and bite the king before anyone could react. Then pandemonium broke out.
Lord Harrix backed away from the monstrosity and began edging his way toward the door to the kitchen hallway. The Royal Guards closed ranks to protect their king. Astavian climbed onto the table and made a running dive to try and tackle the bug-woman away from the king and knocked her down into Zanne. He and Zanne discovered that the beetles that apparently made up this woman were not limited to biting the king. The bug-woman stood and clapped her hands together with a shout, sending out a wave of pacification that left nearly everyone in the room stunned.
Lord Harrix recovered and dashed out of the room with Eshik close behind. Astavian and Zanne also recovered quickly and focused their attacks on the bug-woman trying to get her to loose her grasp on the king. It took Mialain several rounds to skake off the Stun.
One after the other the Royal Guards fell to the bug-woman's attacks or simply the blanket of scarab beetles that bit anything that got close to her. Zanne and Astavian sent blow after blow into her amorphous form but most seemed to do little harm to her. She suffered more from ignoring the Divine Challenge of Astavian. They did manage to usher the king into the kitchen hallway at one point and slam the door closed, ceasing her attack upon him for a moment.
Meanwhile Eshik chased Lord Harrix down the hall and around a corner. He was followed closely by one of the Royal Guards bent on letting neither Eshik nor Lord Harrix escape. Eshik rounded a corner a few steps ahead of the guard and found himself face to face with Lord Harrix. However a moment later he was staring into his own face as Lord Harrix changed form to look exactly like Eshik and plunged a dagger into his leg. The guard came around the corner to find two identical Dragonborn facing off against each other. However he paused a moment and saw that one was armed only with a dagger while the other held a pair of swords that he'd noted during the dinner. Eshik slowed "Lord Harrix's" escape with his Hunter's Bear Trap and the Royal Guard charged him and felled the changeling with his halberd.
Back outside the dining hall the bug-woman dissolved into a swarm of beetles again and scurried under the door the PC's had closed and resumed her attack on the king. The elderly king was clearly about to succumb to these wounds when Mialain unleashed her Beacon of Hope and provided him some healing. It was not enough however and the bug-woman's next attack dropped the king to the floor, mortally wounded. Zanne, Astavian and the guards unleashed a torrent of damage upon her however, including Zanne focusing on spreading out her Flames of Phlegethos to strike a more diffuse area. They weren't sure if this destroyed her but it did send the remaining beetles scurrying under doorways and down sewer drains.
Mialain shoved her way past the guards and knelt at the king's side. She mustered as much of Melora's power as she could and channelled it all into the king. He drew a ragged breath and opened his green eyes.
As this was happening Eshik was fighting his own battle with death. He wanted the so-called Lord Harrix for questioning and frantically worked to patch the wounds he and the guard had inflicted on the changeling. Just as he was certain the creature was going to die he managed to patch the last of the wounds and stabilize it. It's facial features relaxed and assumed the form of a strange looking female with pale skin and eyes.
The PC's were all placed in a storeroom for questioning by the Captain of the Royal Guard. Their story checked out however and they had clearly acted to save the king's life when given the chance. Finally they were brought before the king so that he could privately thank them. It was then that they noticed that the king's eyes were not the same color as they were at dinner and were now green. The king told Mialain that "whatever she did to bring him back left him with these new eyes". He wasn't all that happy to have his appearance changed like that but he could hardly complain about her saving his life, no matter the side effects. As he finished thanking them a scream rang out through the New Palace.
They all ran toward its source: The cell where the changeling was being kept. They burst in to find her bloody and partly consumed corpse laying on the floor near the cot. A scarab beetled scurred down the tiny drain in the center of the room as they saw the letters "A C" painted on the wall in blood near the changeling's lifeless hand...
*******
So if you haven't figured it out by now then you've not been reading the Monster Manual. This was a Lamia that I'd de-leveled to be a 7th level Elite Controller. If that sounds like a tough fight for four 2nd level PC's then you are correct. Then consider that Eshik missed nearly the entire thing while chasing Lord Harrix. Mitigating that somewhat was the fact that she was attacking the king nearly the entire time and they also had the help of the Royal Guards. The Guards were effectively 5th level Minions but (although I didn't plan this in advance) they were using reach weapons so they usually stayed out of range of her 5' radius swarm damage.
Another thing that made the fight tough was that Mialain didn't make the save vs. Stun for four rounds. But when she recovered she poured out gobs of healing, especially there at the end with the king. I had ruled that, being an old man, he wasn't all that durable and had only one Death Save he could fail before dying. But Mialain dumped so much healing into him in one round (Melora's Tide + Healing Word + a Heal Check, all under the effects of a Beacon of Hope) that he was nearly at full hit points when she was done with him.
Astavian probably did most of the damage to the Lamia by virtue of her ignoring his Divine Challenge round after round. He got in some nice shots with the greatsword as well but the Lamia reduced those by half. Same with most of Zanne's attacks but she did Power Stunt to turn her Flames of Phlegethos into an area attack spell (that still only hit the Lamia) so it did full damage and sent her fleeing (besides it looked like the king was dead anyway).
Props to Eshik for almost single-handedly defeating the doppelganger and then single-handedly saving her from dying. Eshik is not great at Healing and she was one death save away from biting the dust when he rolled well enough to stabilize her.
A quick note about the doppelganger who had been with the group since the start of the campaign: I had a tougher time than I originally envisioned portraying this NPC. The problem was that I wanted to try and give a few clues as to the fact that "Lord Harrix" was not who he seemed to be without making it blatant. That was tough because during fights I usually had the NPC fade into the background and the PC's seldom talked to the aloof Lord Harrix otherwise (this aloof, "don't talk to me unless necessary" attitude was intentional by the doppelganger who didn't want to get into any lengthy Q&A sessions that could reveal its identity). Thanks go to my friend Speaks With Stone (who isn't playing this campaign) for his idea to have Lord Harrix perform beyond expectations in some fight or other. In the prison mines he managed to down a couple of the Mist Demons that had teleported their way past the party. The PC's chalked that up to the fact that they were wounded anyway and he just "got lucky". But at least I did my due dilligence for planting a seed of doubt. I also think there was a dose of "something isn't quite right with this guy but my character has no reason to suspect him too strongly" roleplaying by the players so kudos for that as well.
The cryptic message in blood on the cell wall could mean a lot of things but most of the group thought it referred to the Arcanon Confederacy, a neighboring, expansionist magocracy. I guess we'll see...
(I'll be posting one more update sometime over the weekend covering the events of last session.)
Yeah there was some confusion over this among the players as well. It appears that the cause of King Klo's eye color change was from the power of Mialain's healing (she worships the nature goddess) that brought him back from the brink of death. Because of the nature of divinity and magic in my campaign world, little stuff like that happens.
I also DM and appreciate this thread. I wanted to let you know I like the way you explain your goals for future sessions and the thought process about setting up the encounters. It has given me a few ideas or my game. Thanks for doing this.
Also, I have a question. How much time do you spend prepping? It seems like you do quite a bit of re-skinning and adjusting the level of the monsters, in addition to all the story and world building. I feel like I put alot of time and effort into my game, but don't do nearly so much monster modification.
I also DM and appreciate this thread. I wanted to let you know I like the way you explain your goals for future sessions and the thought process about setting up the encounters. It has given me a few ideas or my game. Thanks for doing this.
Also, I have a question. How much time do you spend prepping? It seems like you do quite a bit of re-skinning and adjusting the level of the monsters, in addition to all the story and world building. I feel like I put alot of time and effort into my game, but don't do nearly so much monster modification.
Hey, thanks for dropping in. I'm really glad you find the thread useful. That is kinda the whole point.
As far as my prep time, there are two broad-brush answers, neither of which is very useful. One is "It varies a lot." and the other is "It depends on what you mean by 'prepping'."
I think about my games quite a bit. In the shower, driving places, when talking to friends in Chat at CM. It's one of the things that I enjoy about running a game that it gives me something interesting to think about. I can't guess at how many hours a week I spend doing that. But I'm not sure I count that as prep time.
In terms of the nuts and bolts of getting the game ready, I spend more time on things like player handouts, writing down magic items on notecards and things of that nature than I do messing with monster stats. I have done a fair bit of reskinning and adjusting stats. But with the Compendium this is really no big deal in my opinion.
When I have an idea for a monster I usually do a quick search for some general term that I think will get me close to my concept. That pulls up a list of baddies. I take a minute or two skimming through them to pick one that I like. Then I simply cut and paste that into Word, edit any parts that I want to change, and print that sucker out. Then I put it in a notebook where I keep all the monsters for my campaign and I'm done. I'd guess that I never spend more than an hour on that part of the prep and it's probably less than 30 minutes most of the time.
Ok so let me see if I can catch up before our session tomorrow...
First, as I think I've mentioned before, I try and take care of a lot of the expositional stuff between sessions by e-mail or in our ENW group. This helps set up the action in the session with minimal delays. Not to say that we try and minimize the roleplaying. Just take care of some of the minor stuff outside the session.
I failed to manage any of that before last session. Very busy work week, cut short by me driving up to DC for the (awesome) DC Game Day. Then I had my daughter all day on Monday so I didn't get any of that stuff out of the way. Hardly the end of the world but I knew it would take a bit of a toll on the pacing.
Anyway, things led off with a meeting with Zhomkar. Turns out that Zhomkar is persona non grata in Opkhar now because his "diversion" took the lives of a couple of the royal guards that he was trying to draw away to let Zanne inside the New Palace to warn the king about the changeling. As a result Zhomkar asked the PC's to introduce him to Tornear because he wanted the goblin airship captain to give him a lift back to Semma. Zhomkar reasoned that, if the real Lord Harrix was killed in Semma and the "gift" substituted for the Lamia then the gift must have been stashed in Semma somewhere. He intended to go find it if possible. In any event he wanted to carry word of recent events back to Vond.
The PC's made the introduction and Zhomkar in turn paid Harrix's remaining debt to Tornear. He also copied down a few rituals to give to Mialain and gave the PC's some money and told them to buy themselves some decent clothes because they'd gotten a summons to come before King Klo at the New Palace. The PC's did this, their old clothes having become quite worn in their various adventures.
King Klo received them warmly and thanked them in front of the court, giving them each a gift of a magic item. Astavian got a Horned Helm, Zanne got some Catstep Boots, Eshik got a Belt of Vigor and Mialain got an Amulet of Health (modified version that protects vs. Mist rather than Poison). Afterwards there was a private reception at which the PC's noticed the gryphon-riding Black Moon guy they had fought on the bridge and learned that his name was Rhazul. The didn't see what precipitated it but the did see him leave in a bit of a hurry. Astavian badly failed a diplomacy check to inquire about Rhazul's possible connection to the Black Moon and came just short of offending the king. The PC's were invited to stay in the New Palace for as long as they were in Opkhar.
That brought up the notion of how long they DID want to stay in Opkhar. It was generally agreed that they wanted to go back to try and confront "Blackbreather" the dragon they had fought. Also of interest was the purple, metallic powder they'd found in the Black Moon outpost. Zhomkar had told them that their best bet for an answer on that would be the Dwarves of Karak Tor to the east. But in order to get to either of those locations they would need aerial transport. Tornear would be their best option for that as he already knew how to get to the dragon plateau. But Tornear was tied up for the moment hoping to profit by helping ferry goods back and forth to Semma since the bridge was out. So they had a bit of time to kill.
A course of action suggested itself in the form of the High Priest of the Dweller, the state religion of Opkhar. He came to Mialain and asked her about the glass book she carried that glowed so brightly sometimes. There was a place in the nearby coal mines that had been discovered long ago that came to be known as "The Maw of the Dweller". It was a tunnel that led deeper into the plateau but none who had ever ventured there had returned to tell the tale. But their holy book said that "only those who walk in the light of the sun will be spared" or something like that (the exact translation was a bit unclear). Turned out that some of the coal miners had gone missing in that part of the mines recently and now all of the coal miners were effectively "on strike", fearing to venture into the mines. King Klo finally ordered some of his royal guards into the mines to discover what was causing the miners to disappear. They had not returned either. The PC's offered to go in and check things out.
They were given directions and found a pulley lift that could lower them down into the shaft that was clearly labelled significantly in words the PC's couldn't understand. Down they went. The bottom was not only dark but...wrong somehow. A feeling similar to that inside the desecrated Temple of Pelor lingered there. This malignance began to settle into the PC's as soon as they got there. Mialain drew out the Book of Glass and it glowed as bright as the sun, banishing the darkness and evil. They found a dirty stream flowing with sludgy water full of coal dust. Following it they discovered an underground lake.
Eshik spotted something in the water that turned out to be an iron ring with a chain extending from it. But before he could fully examine it a cold hand shot from the water to grab him on the wrist. Zombies began to emerge from the lake in a wide arc and the battle was joined. They came wave after wave and, during the fight, a pair of bounding ghouls moved in to flank them. When the dust settled they had destroyed over a dozen of the zombies and sent the ghouls fleeing.
But something grabbed Zanne's attention about the ghouls. They seemed familiar somehow and she finally made the connection that they were the same pair of male slaves they had rescued from the dragon plateau. Last the party knew those men had planned to get jobs working in the coal mines. They followed where the ghouls had fled and discovered a cave some 30 feet off the floor. Yelling from below they managed to coax one of them to the cave entrance. All it would say was "The taste. Once you taste that taste..."
And that's where we wrapped up the session last week.
From a mechanics standpoint there isn't a whole lot to comment on this session except to say that 4e REALLY supports my typical encounter design style, which could best be described as "throw the PC's in over their head, certain that they will figure out a way to overcome terrible odds". I threw 14 level 2 zombies and 2 level 5 ghouls at a party of 4 3rd level PC's. And they did fine! Nobody even used a Second Wind! I was impressed.
More exploration of these caves coming up this week.
Actually I was reading another thread and there IS another bit of mechanics that this last session brought to mind: Treasure Parcels. I don't really use them.
As part of my "game-think" each week I rotate through a variety of topics. Plot, Character Goals, Encounters, PC Abilities, Treasure. Probably a few others.
When I get around to "Treasure" I do a rundown of when was the last time they got some cash, how much cash in general do they have and is it enough for them to do the kinds of things I want them to be able to do. So far this campaign the PC's have stayed pretty poor. That's fine since they haven't needed to buy a whole lot of stuff but I am mindful that they could use a bit more in the way of monetary awards.
Magic Items are similar. I have a general idea of how much gear I want them to have at different points in the game. I don't do "wish lists" but I'm pretty tuned in to the sorts of items that would be useful for the different PC's. In past (non 4e) campaigns I would mostly think to myself, "Well the fighter needs a new sword. So I should make sure that they run into a bad guy with that kind of sword soon." I'm pretty big on the bad guys using whatever resources they have available to fight the PC's.
4e has moved away from this idea and so have I. But not necessarily for the same reasons. The big departure here is that I have items "spontaneously enchant" in my game now. The sword you critted the dragon with might end up as a "Dragonslayer" sword after the battle. The second thing that makes me worry less about magical treasure is how much easier magic item crafting is, with it being a single ritual* rather than multiple feats. And the third thing that makes me not worry about them having to fight a bad guy with the sword the fighter wants is situations like that with King Klo. He gave them items, each appropriate to the PC in question, as rewards. I haven't done that a lot historically so I'm trying to add that in a bit more. I've already had one patron screw them over (Harrix) and I don't want to make that too much of a habit.
*I modified the base rules for the Enchant Magic Item ritual in a couple ways. The biggie is that it costs 150% of normal cost to enchant a given magic item. BUT you can also find a ritual specific to a certain magic item that makes that particular item cost 75% of normal cost. Finally I also include ritual ingredients that might modify this cost. For example they might find a chunk of "starsteel" that can be used as Alchemical Reagents worth 300gp. But if used to create a magic weapon or armor that is mostly metal then it might be worth double that toward those costs.
The big departure here is that I have items "spontaneously enchant" in my game now. The sword you critted the dragon with might end up as a "Dragonslayer" sword after the battle.
One of my favorite little things about 4e is that it now explicitly supports this notion -- see Adventurer's Vault, near the end, in the section about enchanting items.
Like I said, it's a little thing, but it makes me happy that the designers are saying, "Hey, go for it!" to ideas like this.
I just wanted to pop in here a sec to make one observation for anyone reading.
When King Klo gave Astavian a Horned Helm, I (the player) didn't have any idea what a "Horned Helm" is, if anything. I got handed a card that told me what it did and was happy for it, but the icing on this cake is that Rel described it as a samurai-type helmet with a large crescent on the front, ala kabuto.
I had mentioned a few times while creating the character that Astavian was, in my thinking, a brand of samurai in his actions--incorporating the Dragonborn behavior and the 2h sword with no shield thing. This made this helmet custom-cool even though the effects were the same in any case.
So now, Astavian has some +1 armor and a magic hat, but to me, he has a made-by-a-king's-smiths custom-fit helm of a Dragonborn and magic plate armor blessed by Ryukaar (the Pelor symbol got changed in battle, another awesome thing). It makes it all the more cool at no cost mechanics-wise.
__________________ Im in ur helmet, Daddy, collectin ur bownteez
I've been reading the DMG quite a bit recently - it stays under the coffee table, a first for a DND DMG - and noticed on the Treasure Parcels system that it gives Monetary Treasure at each level in the heading. Nice as a guide line, and the magic item distribution is straight forward formula too.
I think 'spontaneous' magic items are a great idea and have my Dragonborn players sword ear marked for an upgrade. I've also dropped in a heroic/paragon Artifact into the players hands. At the moment it is a +2 Vicious Dagger, but it will soon activate and it will be thoroughly evil!
__________________ Pablo El Vagabundo
"Mercy!? You want MERCY? I'M CHAOTIC NEUTRAL!!!"
Last edited by vagabundo; 24th March 2009 at 01:33 PM..
Reason: thoroughly?!?
Grrr...Computer crash ate my post! I will retype it as best I can.
Anyway, I can't speak for the players but I had a lot of fun last night. The session was choc full of RBDM goodness without any of the ugly downside.
The PC's couldn't find any easy way up after the Ghouls and decided that, for the moment at least, they weren't any real threat. So they went back to the chain attached to the iron ring that Eshik had found and it was attached to a rowboat. They could just barely make out the outlines of an island in the middle of the lake and they rowed out there. As they went it seemed that the evil darkness around them was intensifying, held at bay only by the Glass Book of Light that Mialain carried.
The island turned out to be only about 40 feet across and was steeply conical, like a tiny volcano, complete with a hole in the middle that seemed to go "a LONG way down". As they peered into the dark hole, a voice spoke in Primordial, "Destroy it." Moments later a trio of large ghostly hounds burst out of the hole and went right after Mialain.
Two of them nipped at her flanks while a third kept trying to grab the book in its jaws. But the agile Elf kept it from the beasts grasp. Still she was sustaining a terrible amount of damage from the other two and was barely standing by the time the rest of the party managed to destroy the spectral dogs. They were taking a moment to catch their breath when they heard the voice from the Maw say, "Rise."
They looked at one another in alarm and considered fleeing. But the only thing worse than having to fight the ghost hounds again would be fighting them in a boat on the lake. The voice below repeated, "Rise." Zanne tried to reason with it, calling down the hole, "We have no quarrel with you. We were sent by High Priest Dhalim to find the missing miners!" The voice spoke back, "You are all but insects to me...Rise." With that they heard the baying of the hounds once more and quickly arranged themselves to protect Mialain as best they could.
The phantoms came at her again and this time it was obvious that, not having been able to rest, she could not withstand their attacks. Astavian reached out to her and said, "Give the book to me!" Mialian did as he asked and the hounds immediately turn on him. While better able to withstand the damage, the Paladin was less agile than the Elf and more than once one of the hounds got its jaws on the book. But Astavian was also very strong and he kept a tight grip on it. Only once did a hound pull it away from him but he seized it right back an instant later.
Finally they sent the last of the destroyed hounds back down to their master and they immediately jumped into the boat. During the battle they had seen a light flicker to life on a shore closer than the one they had originally come from and they rowed in that direction with all their might. As they paddled away from the island they heard the Maw speak once more, "Rise."
As they approached the shore the stench of carrion filled the air and the boat scraped over dead bodies clustered at the edge of the lake. They had no time to react before they were set upon by a large, wormlike creature with waving tentacles around its toothsome mouth. Still having been unable to rest themselves they leapt upon it, chopping at it in desperation. The creature was no match for their combined attacks and, although it struck back a couple of times, it fell quickly to their blades and magic. As this fight took place, they saw a figure holding a lantern on a stone balcony overlooking the narrow, rocky beach. It retreated into a hallway cut into the stone of the cavern wall. They could also see a passage at ground level that went only a dozen feet before ending in a wooden portcullis.
They scurried out of the boat and fell to the ground beneath this balcony, gasping for breath. Moments after they had regained their composure and bandaged the worst of the bite wounds from the ghost hounds, a grunt came from above and a stone the size of a pumpkin was hurled into their boat, cracking the bottom and rendering it useless. A voice followed, "If you surrender now, some of you might one day walk in the light above again."
Astavian stepped from beneath the balcony to address Rhazul. "If you wish to parlay with us then we are willing. If you wish our surrender then you'll not have it." Rhazul smiled and said, "I know what you have seen and there is no reason for you to leave here alive." With that he and his pair of followers attacked. Rhazul dropped a cloud of fearful darkness at the base of the balcony that left Mialain dazed as the other two hurled their chakrams at Astavian, inflicting some vicious cuts.
Eshik ducked around into the passage with the portcullis to discover a pair of Black Moon initiates with crossbows guarding it. He ducked back out of the way before taking more than a scratch. For his part, Astavian desperately wanted to bring retribution to his enemies but there was a portcullis between him and their lair. He decided to fix that.
Bolstering himself with Divine Strength, he lowered his Horned Helm and charged directly at the wooden barrier. He burst through it entirely, falling to the ground in a tangle with the Black Moon Initiates. The rest of the party charged through behind him with Eshik cutting down both of the Initiates as they stood and fired their crossbows at Astavian.
Beyond this passage the found a larger room where more Initiates were preparing for battle. Astavian strode into the room and roared at them to surrender. Instead they fled the room into a smaller room adjacent. There they met the furious Rhazul who was able to bolster their morale (or at least make them more afraid of him than they were of Astavian). They turned and sent a hail of crossbow bolts at the Dragonborn. The burly henchmen at Rhazul's sides dashed forward, disassembling their chakrams into a pair of curved daggers and struck Astavian multiple times, dropping him to the floor.
But the rest of the party was right behind the Paladin and they unleashed a fearsome barrage of attacks that slew most of the Initiates in moments. Eshik charged into a group of them and lay all about him with his blades as Zanne hurled a Scorching Burst into their midst and Mialain finished a couple more with her Divine Glow. Although another group of Initiates with a chakram weilding leader joined the fray, in just a few seconds Rhazul stood by himself.
By that time Astavian was back on his feet thanks to Mialain and they all hurried after the fleeing Rhazul. He made it into his private chamber where one wall stood open, covered by a layer of vines and lineas with open sky beyond that. His griffon stood tethered, eating something meaty from a bucket. As Rhazul tried to leap upon his steed and escape yet again, Eshik dealt him a cut with his scimitar that dropped the Black Moon Cultist to the floor. His faithful steed snapped its tether and began clawing its way to Rhazul through Zanne. But Mialain went to its side and her affinity for Nature soothed the savage beast.
Bloodied but triumphant the PC's saw a large crystal pillar at one side of the room light up as the faint image of a female form appeared within and her voice spoke directly into their minds. "You have slain those charged with doing my bidding. Whether you become my friend or foe depends on if you take up the task of cleansing my brother. Seek me out upon my peak by the starlight of the dark of the moon." The crystal flickered and went dark again.
Astavian flexed his hand and turned to Eshik and Rhazul. "I hope he still lives. I have some questions."
******
To me there was some really interesting stuff at play here. First I got to see how things went when the PC's had to effectively fight three encounters in a row without being able to take a short rest. I was impressed not only by how well they managed to hold up but also by how they didn't seem to have to resort to using At Will powers over and over again in a way that grew dull. Even at level 3 they seem to have enough depth to their abilities that the fight stayed interesting.
Also I LOVED the dynamics of the fight with the ghost hounds (those were just some Phantom Warriors with different flavor text and some minor modifications btw). There were some really cool moments in there like when Zanne used her Etherial Stride and power stunted that to teleport Mialain out of their grasp in the first fight. And the bit where Astavian took the book from her, holding it tightly and going Total Defense was very cinematic. It was a TENSE moment for me (and everybody else I think) when he was nearly Bull Rushed over the edge of the pit with the book in his arms. It was a grim reminder of Zanne dying from a fall when she was tossed down that pit by the dragon.
Anyway, having to fight the Carrion Crawler without being able to rest after that was just insult to injury but they killed that thing in a hurry. Pretty impressive to see what kind of damage they can deal out against a single target. It helped that Zanne had some of her good Encounter Powers left that hit an area because she couldn't use them without hitting allies in the close quarters of the hound fights.
Bringing back Rhazul who has been tantalizingly out of reach for the past couple sessions was a sure winner. And I had him in a fantasticly defensive position that could be used to make the party pay for coming after him. That power stunt by Astavian, busting through the portcullis like that was, without a doubt, the highlight of the session for me. That move alone justifies me making that house rule. Just watching the intensity of the players faces as he added up his strength bonuses and then rolling a 19 on the die for the Str Check when they burst into cheers around the table, that's what gaming is all about for me. Awesome.
Finally the fight inside the Black Moon lair was their chance to deal with some tangible bad guys that were more level-appropriate than a lot of the nasty stuff they have had to fight recently. Also I used the exact same stats as the bad guys they fought in the first encounter of the campaign (the fight on the bridge) so it helped to point out how they have grown in power over the last couple levels. Killing gobs of bad guys is always fun and having a real hate-on for them makes it even better. Again, the intensity of their desire not to let Rhazul escape on his griffon again was palpable. It was good to see them succeed with that. Should be interesting to see how that interrogation goes...
Well I may as well get caught up now since last session was pretty short and hopefully we won't be playing this coming week since UNC will be in the NCAA Men's Basketball Final game, right?
So the PC's did a lengthy Q&A with Rhazul. They never tortured him and didn't have to intimidate him much either. Rhazul seemed to answer their questions truthfully if rather haughtily. The general gist of it was that the Black Moon had a base down here to pursue their ongoing quest to "cleanse" The Dweller of the taint of the Mist. Apparently this task was given to them generations ago by the lady who appeared in the dark crystal. Her name is Mayaheine.
After a bit of discussion amongst themselves they determined that they had no interest in furthering Mayaheine's quest to cleanse The Dweller, even if it meant that she became their enemy. They also agreed that they needed to destroy the Ghouls they'd encountered earlier and turn Rhazul over to King Klo. As they departed Rhazul's quarters there was a flash of light and a *CRACK*. Astavian ducked back into the room to find the dark crystal in pieces on the floor. They didn't know quite what to make of that but it probably wasn't good.
They took the boat they found inside the Black Moon quarters (theirs had been destroyed in the previous battle) and quietly paddled back across the lake, giving wide berth to the island in the center where they'd fought the spectral hounds. It took some doing but they managed to climb their way up to the cave where the Ghouls hid and dispatched them methodically (I just docked them each two healing surges and expositioned this because there was really no chance of them losing that encounter while at full strength).
They returned to King Klo with Rhazul in chains and told of his involvement with the Black Moon. King Klo seemed lenient and mentioned that rumors of various parties being involved with this notorious but (from his perspective) relatively harmless cult flew around his court all the time. But it was when the PC's explained that Rhazul was the one who destroyed the bridge to Semma that the King seemed to really bring down his royal wrath. THAT was an unforgivable sin (the bridge to Semma is the only link that Opkhar has to anyplace else that doesn't require air travel and it being destroyed is causing MAJOR economic hardship in his kingdom). King Klo ordered Rhazul taken to the dungeon to await his execution.
The party took a couple days to rest and recover, located some equipment that they needed and replenished their stocks of ritual ingredients. All of this was much easier since they had seized Rhazul's personal treasury and were also gifted with 2000 GP of gold and jewels by King Klo for getting the coal mines working again. They sent word that they wanted to purchase passage again from Tornear. The goblin airship captain drove a hard bargain but the PC's had little choice but to pay it. They bid their goodbyes to King Klo who welcomed them back anytime and departed Opkhar for the tiny plateau where they'd fought Blackbreather the dragon.
As night fell they took in some of the fresh air up on the deck of the ship (also the hold was still crawling with rats). Suddenly bolts of lightning streaked out of the night and struck Astavian and Mialain. A griffon rider landed on the deck of the ship, his glowing eyes standing out against his blue skin. Another griffon bearing a pair of riders in the black leathers of The Black Moon flew up to apparently land on top of the balloon that held the airship aloft.
The battle on deck was vicious as the blue-skinned warrior hurled attacks filled with thunder and lightning at them. One of the goblin deckhands was hurled over the side to his death and Zanne and Astavian were pushed right up against the railing. The warrior's glowing eyes seemed detached and he never flinched from the damage the party was unleashing upon him, right up until the moment he was defeated and exploded in a ball of light that left them momentarily blinded.
Astavian was already climbing the rigging up to the top of the balloon when that happened because by that point it was obvious that the cultists up there were cutting loose the ropes that held the balloon to the gondola below. Mialain managed to use her affinity with nature to calm the blue warrior's griffon mount and rode it up to the top of the balloon as well. There they did battle with the pair of cultists and their griffon at the edge of great peril. Finally they dispatched the pair of cultists however and managed to shoo the griffons away into the night.
And we ended our session there a bit early due to one of the players having some difficulty with their kids at home.
*****
One of the things that I have come to really like about 4e, which I didn't like at all when I first heard about them, are healing surges. I think they work well for their basic purpose of PC's recovering Hit Points in chunks but also they are neat as a narrative tool.
I knew that the fight with the Ghouls was likely to be difficult in the sense that climbing the cliff to get at them while being attacked would be tough. But I also knew that once the PC's got there it was a foregone conclusion of victory. After all they'd already fought these Ghouls before, successfully, while simultaneously doing battle with 14 zombies! I wanted to handwave this fight and get to the more important stuff ahead. And Healing Surges were the perfect answer. I explained to the players that the fight was an ugly one but the outcome was never in doubt as they grimly dispatched the undead slaves that they had only recently rescued. They paid the Healing Surges as proof that it was no cakewalk and we got on to the audience with King Klo.
I had considered making that a Skill Challenge but it really came down to the fact that Rhazul's crime of destroying the bridge was really egregious and even if he had a mind to be lenient about it (and there was no real indication of that) King Klo could not fail to punish him from a political standpoint. So instead I just had this come down to a couple of Diplomacy rolls and we got straight to the point: Rhazul was basically a terrorist and needed to die. The players seemed really pleased with that since they felt sure that, as a member of the court, Rhazul would get a slap on the wrist and be let go.
The fight on the airship was really fun for several reasons. First, I made this blimp model years ago for one of my Sky Galleons of Mars games and I got to bring that out for the fight on top of the balloon. But also I got to play around with some PHB2 stuff by bringing in the Deva Invoker.
I "cheated" here by making this guy with the Character Builder rather than as an NPC. I definitely wouldn't want to do that all the time because there were a lot of abilities to juggle. This aspect makes me appreciate the 4e design philosophy of "Bad Guys don't have to use the same rules as Good Guys". But still it was a change of pace that I'd certainly be willing to do again because it gave a very different dynamic to the battle. The players later said, "We kept waiting for that guy to run out of tricks and he never did!" I did boost his HP a bit so he wasn't such a glass cannon but he still had far fewer than other monsters of his level normally would.
He served his purpose well however in providing a distraction for the PC's while his minions were cutting the lines up above. And his attacks that push people around were SCARY, what with them fighting on the cramped deck of the airship where one failed save could send you over the edge to certain doom.
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