ashockney

Demons abound in the well of demons, no big surprise. I combined the first three encounters (all the gnolls) with the possibility for a skill challenge to lesson the impact (two separate, lower level encounters). No such luck, the party jumps straight into the fray, and the gnolls attack. The pack attack ability of the gnolls is devastating at times. At one point in the encounter, one of the party fighters takes three consecutive hits, including one critical. It's enough to take him from "not bloodied" to -14 hit points. The party's reaction was interesting, they were actually disappointed that he wasn't dead. In some ways it felt less austere, and the fact that he was merely "winded" for a second to get "charged" from the cleric seemed a little disappointing. The party must hold the battle on two fronts successfully, and by shifting their resources, and splitting the fighters, they do so well. The ranger used his ability to "shift out of the way" as an immediate interrupt to move behind the fighter and draw more attacks to him. That is so cool.

I skipped the "speak with the dead" skill challenge as I didn't find it very interesting, or tied to the characters, per se. I provided them with the information on their own about the tools they would need to find in the dungeon. They party seemed to react positively to this, and were very interested in finding and using each of the items.

The party recognized the bronze warden room immediately (from playing through a similiar encounter in KoTS). This one was interesting because the party actually had a chance to disarm/disable before they were threatened. That was a cool interaction, that built up the suspense, but rewarded the player's "good play" with a distinct advantage in the room. Getting the implement from the room turned out not to be difficult, and the carnage demons seemed a little weak by themselves.

Demons abound in the mirror room, and the players' interaction with the mirrors was very interesting. Although I like the interesting and compelling room/environment, it's difficult to not coordinate this with the party's ability to walk out of the room with the mirrors for their own use. And what exactly do they have to do with this location, who put them here, and how are they powered. Hmmm....

Discussion with the players after the game compared 4e with 1e and 3e. The analagy that I use is the 4e seems like vanilla ice cream. Really good, Breyer's natural, vanilla ice cream. If you're looking for ice cream, this will be a great experience. You can "add" about anything in the world to it, and it will go together well. Further, it will be good for pretty much everyone. However, I'm used to going to Baskin Robbins. I like all 34 flavors! Vanilla could get bland, over time, in a campaign.

Tonight we had a transition adventure. Having been jumping through the "module" hoops, I wanted to take some time to unpack this adventure, and bring some more meaning and value to the characters. I had most of the characters backgrounds push forward with events in the Seven Pillared Halls. The party got access to some rituals. The rituals from 4th - 6th in the heroic tier can open up some doors and make a party much more independent in operating.

The party got a note from Paldemar (trap!) and went down the Road of Shadows to the ambush. This encounter played very well. The combination of powerful artillery behind an excellent tank worked really well. The warlocks teamed up on the first fighter into the room, and the combination of multiple attacks with the ongoing damage was too much for him. He ultimately ended up retreating from the ambush to find cover and heal. The Warder was powerful, and his ability was excellent when I first used it, however, with several different ways to immobilize an opponent, they prevented it from using rampage again, which turned it into a pretty obvious one-trick pony.

The second encounter was with the gnolls and Bar-lgura (random encounter 10). I was a little disappointed in this encounter. At times, it seems to easy for the PC's to negate the most powerful enemies. Although I did deal over 100 points of damage to the ranger in this combat (who survived), it never seemed like the party was really threatened. The wizard opened with sleep and then froze the front ranks of the gnolls. Both of these reduced their effectiveness. The gnolls and bar-lgura hit like a truck, but against the defender (fighter's) 26 AC, it was not a significant threat. The cleric kept everyone in the fight, and threw a little damage into the mix as well.

Tonight we got to see first hand how powerful the damage over time (continuous damage) can be in the game. I really like how this mechanic works, although I'm not a HUGE fan of all the accounting.

Also, there were concerns expressed about the flow of the story-arc that come with the initial adventures. They don't seem to be pointing to some dark, brooding master villain behind the scenes. I noted that I'd read that in reviews and on the internet, and that we were not alone in his experience.

After tonight's game session, we had an interesting discussion about taking monsters straight from 4e and plugging them into a 3e campaign. Could it work?

Session 11

Tonight's session was a test of the pacing of 4e. I made it clear to the players coming into the evening that I had prepared at least six encounters for us to get through. No skill challenges, limited RP, which fit with the theme of the adventure. I did a 10 min recap at the beginning and we were off on a dark dwarf hunt! I wanted to see how many encounters we could play through, if really focused and engaged, in three hours. My hopes going into this experiment was that we would complete from four to six encounters, and optimally five or six (completing an encounter in an average of around 30 minutes).

In three hours, we were able to complete...three encounters. Almost exactly. For a fifth level party, these were an EL 6, EL 6, and EL5. The battles were pitched, and provided an "appropriate" level of threat, without being overwhelming. They required consistent use of encounter powers, action points, and a couple of daily powers. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed. One of my players pointed out, however, that the pacing of the action in 4e is different. It rarely if ever feels like you're waiting "a long time" for your next turn, and that the action is consistent and well paced. Each encounter typically lasted for 6 or more rounds, so that's averaging a round about every ten minutes, with six players and five to eleven villains all taking turns. In conclusion, the pacing is very different than previous editions of the game, and there are few, if any, quick combats or quick encounters. With the limited actions, reduced damage/attack, and the elimination of "insta-kill", most encounters will need to be played out fully for five or more rounds to determine the outcome.

The first encounter tonight led the party to the trading post in the Seven Pillared Hall of Clan Grimmerzhul. Having completed an extended rest following the Chamber of Eyes, the party was ready to find the missing slaves, and punish responsible. The encounters with the duergar were fun. Their abilities were interesting (compared to kobolds, goblins, and hobgoblins). The Theurge's abilities were powerful, and caused the party to stop and take notice. Notably, these encounters held no minions, so there was a pitched battle at every turn for the party. Some unlucky player dice, and some EXTREMELY hot dice for the DM made the trading post encounter closer than it should have been. Everyone survived, but second winds, healing words, and a whole bunch of healing surges were blown. My favorite moment was running a duergar out one of the windows of the trading post, which surprised several party members that were staying out of the fray and casting from just outside the door.

The party quickly proceeded to the Horned Hold. I broke the hold down into three encounter areas. North Tower, South Tower, and West Tower. The north tower held orc berserkers, duergar scouts, and the master smith. I LOVED the re-charge invisibility on the scouts. The healing on the bloodied orc berserkers put an interesting twist on these brutes. The master smith's "heat metal" encounter power was a very cool, and was an elegant interpretation of this power. What an interesting and unique way to flavor this npc. The smith's power also pleasantly didn't have a "standalone" sub-system of things to track, along with who was affected, who was holding what type of weapon, etc! My players began to see the emerging theme of the dwarves, and their historical "in-game" abilities: invis, poison, warhammers, psionic blast. On one hand, they were jealous, "why can't I get that spell/power???" On the other hand, they noticed and appreciated how each type of villain they fought added a unique, flavorful and memorable punch to the encounter. One player even wondered aloud, what will their enlarge be like?

The south tower held Rundarr, the Duergar Champion, two more Duergar Scouts, and two Duergar guards. I LOVED the build on Rundarr, and it was an awesome moment when as an immediate reaction he polymorphed into a size large creature. Just awesome! I had the primary fighter at the time down below bloodied, and the tables were suddenly turned! Both the fighter and a nearby warlock found themselves "based" to this beast, and bloodied! Of course, we got to see that the cleric ALSO got a new daily power, which came in very handy here to help heal, while the other party fighter jumped in to take the lead with Rundarr.

At this point, we had exhausted our three hours. We played through three good encounters, but they took every bit of three hours to run back-to-back. We decided to press on and complete this part of the adventure for the evening, and so I skipped the two encounters I'd prepared for the western tower (Ogre/Wights/Orcs and Duergar Thuerge/Guards). Instead we jumped to the finale, an EL 9 scenario with two elite bosses. I had combined the final two encounters (H7/H8) with two elites, two devils, two Duergar shock troops and two Duergar guards. This was a very, very tough fight. The party used their stealth to reach Murkelmor's inner sanctum. Positioned in the foyer (room 27) they heard the activity in both rooms 26 and 28. The warlock/thief came up with the action on the spot to use his thievery to bar/lock the door to room 26. Their hope was to prevent one group of opponents from engaging them, while they dealt with the others. The fighters charged into room 28 and confronted Murkelmor and his shock troops. The elite boss used his action point at the top of the combat with devastating effectiveness. When one of the shock troops went through the secret door adjoining the rooms, the party was SHOCKED. This was a great "in game" moment, and was a very nice complement to the designers of the adventure! The mage cast his stinking cloud into the room to discover the Duergar resistance to poison made it far less effective than it was in the Chamber of Eyes. The stinking cloud was then moved into the adjoining room through the secret door, in an effort to prevent those opponents from entering the melee. The elite caster came through from room 27, however, and used an action point to drop two very well placed AoE effects (fire and poison) on the entire party. Several lucky rolls later, and the party was seriously injured, and outgunned. Further compounding their problems, another lucky roll on the part of the villains led to them bursting down the blocked door, and the party was suddenly surrounded. Things looked dire, and I noticed the players noticeably slowing down and offering each other advice on optimal moves to position, obtain combat advantage, or use their daily and encounter abilities to maximum effect. One player commented that two elites, might have been too much. There was tension around the table at the prospect of a TPK. Dailies were flying, action points were all used. Several lucky critical attacks (one from a fighter daily power) turned the tide. As a strategy, one defender fighter tanked both of the elites, pinning the caster to either provoke OA's or not cast, while Murkelmor failed to strike his phenomenal AC. The other fighter quickly positioned himself to protect the casters in the back. Combined with the warlock's aura, and the wizard's stinking cloud, they made quick work of the guards and devils swooping in from behind. The ranger, cleric, and fighter in the front were able to hold their ground on the elites and shock troops, although almost all the players were in bloodied condition. One shock trooper finally fell, and then the other. Ganging up on the elites, the fighters were re-united, and now outnumbered, even two elites were outmatched by the consistent thrum of the player's damage machine. This was an excellent encounter. It was extremely challenging and demanded effective gameplay to survive. The players really had an opportunity to show off their "high end" powers, and also required teamwork to get every advantage they could use to position themselves to succeed.

By the time we were done, it was very late (an hour and a half to run the finale). Tallying up the XP, I commented that I find it interesting that although we're not hitting all the encounters in the book, it certainly seems like we're pacing ourselves to hit the appropriate XP thresholds required to level. I would hope to level about every other time that we game. Adding up the xp from the three encounters last week (Blood Reavers + Chamber of Eyes) and the four encounters this week (Trading Post + Horned Hold), we had enough "out of the book" XP for every member of the party to achieve sixth level! That pacing certainly matches my expectations. So, like many other things that are different from previous editions of the game, the pacing is not necessarily "worse" simply because it's different. If the player experience is such that it is more "action oriented" and "fast paced" and we are accomplishing the DM's goals for character development and pacing, then the system seems to be working as it was intended.

Session 10

Having reviewed the layout for the beginning of the adventure, it seems like the flow of the module was leading you to an opening encounter with the Bloodreavers, followed by interaction in the Seven Pillared Hall, then more Bloodreavers at the Chamber of Eyes. I determined I'd like to throw another skill challenge in, and I didn't want to use the "labyrinth" theme to early in this adventure. Noticing that the chamber of eyes has an interesting entry room, I decided to place the skill challenge there, instead of at the opening (finding the labyrinth) or in the Seven Pillared Hall, which would mostly be uncovering information that I want the players to have (ie, it does not benefit me for them to "fail" at finding this out). With this in mind, I decided to begin the adventure "in medias res" for the first Bloodreaver encounter. I laid out the first encounter on the dungeon tiles, and I placed all the bad guys (upgraded slightly to a 6th level encounter). I then had the party "dice off" to determine their placement on the board. Those with the highest rolls got to place anywhere on the board, as the rolls went lower, they had a more constrained space to choose from. Finally, the players that rolled a 3 and 1, I placed their characters, specifically in disadvantaged locations (ie, flanked). Initiative! This worked out very well, and was fun to play out. I liked roll-playing the arrogant Warcaster in this room, who taunts the party throughout the challenge. The encounter was made more difficult and threatening because of the setup. This also clearly reinforced to me how CRITICAL space, spacing, and tactical map considerations are in 4e.

The halfling captured by the Bloodreavers leads the party back to the Seven Pillared Hall, and the party moves forward along their "personal" quest lines, gathering information about the module, location, significant npc's, and factions within the module. Almost all of these characters went over well, and I think the writers for the adventure did a particularly good job. This setting is uniquely fantastical, and the npc's the party engages are some real characters, which I think makes the story more engaging. The party has found particular interest in the drow Gendar, Brugg the Ogre, the Mages of Saruun, and the Deepgem Company. That's cool! The party gets all the groundwork laid, in the process, for what mean and nasty guys the duergar are, which will be an easy feeder for the next session.

It becomes clear to the party that the Bloodreavers are an imminent threat, so they party acts to go deal with them.

For the Chamber of Eyes, I've broken this up into as many as three encounters. The first is a skill challenge to "break in" to their stronghold. The second and or third will be encounters with those inside (a level 5 and a level 6 if separate, or a level 9 encounter if the alarm is raised).

First is the skill challenge, which is a level 5, complexity 1 skill challenge using bluff, stealth, thievery, and athletics. Failure results in the level of readiness for the Bloodreavers inside the chamber of eyes. The party begins wisely moving a fighter up the balcony with athletics, followed closely by a ranger with stealth, who sneaks into the Chamber of Eyes to get the first count of villains (two successes). As is common, when the party is going too smooth, I throw in a wrinkle, and indicate the goblins behind the door have "spotted" the party and begin to question them. The fighter tries to bluff. Hysterics ensue, a failure (initial alert). The charismatic warlock moves to pick it up, but completely blows the roll (two failures), the goblins have now spotted the enemy on the balcony and begin to open fire. The mage uses a spell to get a bonus to another attempt at intimidating the goblins to open the door, posing as a Mage of Saruun (success). They are of the impression there is a threat, but that they are also not obeying a powerful overseeing force, and begin to hesitate. It all comes down to the last check (seeking 4 successes before 3 failures). Instead of using thievery, stealth or athletics to position themselves, they go for the bluff, and miss it. The alarm is raised throughout the chamber of eyes, as the guards realize this is a ruse.

The second encounter to the chamber of eyes is a HUGE brawl with goblin sharpshooters, goblin skullcrushers, hobgoblin soldiers, hobgoblin archers, Bugbear warriors, a vicious dire wolf, duergar soldiers, and the hobgoblin chief. In they swarm through two main check points into the entryway. The first was through the double doors, and the second was out the balcony. The mage drops his stinking cloud daily in the double doors hallway. This was devastating. A fighter at the top of the balcony, uses tide of iron to systematically throw each opponent coming down the hall over the rail for additional falling damage. Their tactics were sound, and the fighters did a good job of holding their ground against overwhelming odds and powerful foes. The ability to block line of sight (with the cloud) turned into a big factor. In addition, we got to see the Warlock's daily, Crown of Madness, which is powerful when targeted effectively, which it was. This was still a pitched fight, with several of the players bloodied, but with the positioning of the room, and the tools at their disposal, the players felt in control.

It should be noted that in this level 9 encounter, not everyone used a daily power, and since the party is now fifth level, they have access to more than one daily power now! I've got to think it will be harder to challenge this party, and am genuinely surprised at the proposed string of "lower powered" encounters proposed by the adventure. I may try this with Horned Hold, just to see the difference, and to see if we can accomplish these encounters faster if they are broken down (in number of creatures and actions) more easily.

I have to admit that it was challenging at times keeping track of all the villains, their powers/abilities, who was marked, what effects were up/required saves, which villain powers needed a recharge roll, and hit points.

Overall, the evening went well. We accomplished a couple of bigger combats, a skill challenge, knocked out a major quest, and spent a chunk of time on roleplaying and moving forward the character background stories.

Session 8

The grand finale to the KoTS. Tonight's session consisted primarily of the last two battles at the end of the Keep on the Shadowfell adventure. We picked up tonight's adventure from where we left off last week. It was interesting that it's much easier to "pick up where we left off" than in previous editions of the game. Previously, there were a number of sub-systems and game elements (such as spells or hit points) with limited uses, and little to no rhyme or reason to their condition or storage. 4e presumes a few things, you are likely at maximum effectiveness in each encounter, can use most of your abilities, and have access to almost everything. The only things that were really variable were daily powers (including magic items), and healing surges. That was pretty minimal in terms of bookkeeping, and the use of daily powers was much easier to recall, because their effects were so significant.

The first encounter is the Citadel of Shadows, which turned out to be a tough fight. I had read others indicate that they had a tough time, and I believe the players on the D&D podcast (actual play) got owned in this fight. I made one minor shift in the fight, which was replace the undead minions with Dark Creepers. The party spread out at the very beginning of the fight, thinking at first sight that the priest must be Kalarel. Interestingly, what turned out to be so difficult was that the party was so spread out, and the villains could then easily "group" on individuals who were not "front line fighter" defenders. They took down the warlock, then the mage (both ended up succeeding in death saves). The barbarian ability to take an immediate attack action with bonus to hit and damage was devastating, especially combined with a few lucky rolls. I believe the party was trading blows for survival over a few rounds. Once the party regrouped with the fighters leading the attacks, and marking targets, it all became much smoother for them to turn the tide and finish the battle.

The final battle with Kalarel turned out to be much funnier than we had anticipated. In the beginning, I laid out the details about the blood and the difficulty of getting around in it. The party then proceeded to move easily around the blood with little to no distraction. The villains (namely the wight and a skeleton) proceeded to fail on at least three attempts to move into or across the blood. It almost became a little like the keystone cops. Kalarel's movement over to the portal was a scary moment for the party, however, when both fighters and the ranger were able to triple team him, as well as use tide of iron to knock him out of the magic circle, it was a dramatic shift in favor of the party. It was downhill from there. The reanimation was a cool ability, and one I hope to see more often.

The party returned to town and were celebrated as heroes. They obtained 5th level, and are now ready for the Thunderspire Labyrinth. I planted several seeds for the module in the last few adventures, and the party has really liked them. We seem to be playing a bit "ahead" of the curve, but only approximately a level at this point (5th vs. 4th).

I am continuing my "mash up" theme and have placed the Thunderspire Labyrinth in Draigdurroch Tower, outside of Loudwater in the Dire Wood.