Campaign Results (spoilers)

After introducing (or reintroducing in some cases) my group of friends to 3e D&D with a couple 1st Level Adventures to get them familiar with the rules (and get them up to 2nd level), I've introduced them to the War of the Burning Sky. The party consists of:

Human 2nd Level Fighter
Human 2nd Level Paladin
Human 2nd Level Sorcerer
Dwarf 1st level Fighter / 1st Level Cleric
Elven 2nd Level Scout

All characters are 28 point builds. Equipment was standard at this point, with a few potions of cure light wounds, and a master work weapon or two in the party from previous adventures. There was one item that surprisingly came in handy in this adventure.

The Beginning

The party headed to the rendevous with Torrent. She quickly explained the mission, and the party asked few questions, eager to get on with the mission and out of the city. As the bells quited, the party heard the creaking upstairs and quickly took up positions. The Fighter behind the bar with his Heavy Crossbow ready (he's a tank, but took rapid reload for blasting away). The Paladin covered him, while the Dwarf moved toward the door. The Elf and Torrent guarded the Sorcerer in the back of the room.

Before they could move to investigate the noise upstairs, the thugs broke the door down (natural 20) and tried to storm into the room. The Dwarf standing by the doorway slowed them down (the wanted to avoid AoO). One was dropped with a well placed crossbow shoot from the Fighter, the Elf fired and missed, and the others guarded against the unexpected (Paladin and Torrent).

Then the Bomb hit The building burst into flame and the Rogues come tumbling down the stairs (literarlly ), right next to the parties two biggest fighters The rogues attempted to engage them, while the thugs at the doorway attempt to push their way in. Another one was dropped by the dwarf.

At this point, the Sorcerer decides to make a break for it, and leaves his two guards as he runs for the side door (his inititative was higher than both of them). He opens the door, to the fangs of an attack dog. The dog surprisingly misses it's strike against the sorcerer as does one of the thugs. In fact in the confusion, one of the thugs hit the dog (natural 1 in tight quarter fighting)!

The fight at the front door and the bar continued, with a rogue and thug being dropped. At this point, the sorcerer has had enough and preped color spray. The dog takes an attack of opportunity and hits! But the sorcerer had combat casting, and enough points in concentration to complete the spell, and the two thugs and the dog are quickly unconcious.

At this point, the Elf and Torrent sweep past the sorcerer and out the alley. Their they find Kathor. Kathor seeing his men cut down at the door and the alleyway, calls on the remaining troops to surrender. The party quickly leaves the burning building, not looking back.

Through the City

The party attempts to get to the next location, but the panic in the city causes them numerous delays. At one point they needed to rescue someone from a tall burning building. The party was quickly thinking of what to do, when the fighter say "I'll get out the Spider Silk Net from the last adventure". Everyone looks at him and thinks that's a great plan. Of course previously they had derided him for carrying the silly thing around

Trip to the Bank

Having safely survived the chaos in the city, the party reached they're first objective. Entering the building to meet their contact, they are confused when their contact calls them by the wrong name. Rather than play along and find out what's going on, they call his bluff. He quickly retreats upstairs, in a hail of arrows and crossbow bolts, taking one hit, before escaping out the door. The party follows, but is hindered by the spell on the door and his ally. The enemy quickly climbs to the roof to make his escape, while his ally continually misses the party with his attacks. The enemy attempts to make his escape, but a combination of bad luck (his enhanced jump roll failed miserably, single digits on a d20), and then as he feather falled, the fighter got a Critical Hit with his Heavy Crossbow (even while under the fear affect) . Needless to say no prisoner to question, but plenty of loot.

With the enemy defeated, the party discovers their original contact and are given a clue on where to find the case.

Back to School

The party takes off to the Magic School that the case might be at. But as they travel, an enemy Wyervn Rider crashs on the roof of a nearby building. He quickly climbs down and runs off, with the party in hot pursuit. The discover a path of dead civilians before they finally catch up with him. He gets one hit on the Fighter, before the Paladin and Sorcerer take him out in a combination of Magic Missile and sword swings. The Paladin quickly claims his heavy armor (after cleaning it and removing some insignia).

Having reached the school, the party talks to one of the students their. After a lengthy discussion, they discover who must be leading the effort to get the case. They make a plan to storm her room and capture her, figuring a single wizard wouldn't be that tough. Given that she was fifth level, one would assume that assumption wrong . But as usual, the party gets lucky (or the DM was just very unlucky!) and she fails her concentration check on her first spell, and is quickly grappled and overpowered! The ally that escaped the previous encounter is again worthless, constantly missing the party

With the next piece of the puzzle secured, the party continues after the case (now augmented by a few more scrolls and potions).

The party finally discovers the location of the case, but can't deciper the lock. Unfortunately, the Paladin does set off the trap before the Scout can look for it. He makes his saves and is unaffected by the poison, but the residents are now ready for the party. Help comes in the form of an invisible imp, who agrees to tell the party the secret of the lock in exchange for the case. The party makes the deal, offering him the case, but NOT the contents.

With the door open, the party storms the building, and quickly defeats the inhabitants. The Scout is a bit upset fighting Elves, especially after the deal the party has made about the case. The elves are tended and the case is opened (via a scroll recovered earlier). The imp appears and laughing manically grabs the case and disappears.

At this point the party is suspicious of Torrent, given the contents of the case and the appearance of the imp and having to fight elves and their good allies. However, the Paladin doesn't detect any evil, so convinces the party that if someone is using the party as a Cat's Paw, they're using Torrent too.

Given the parties condition, they decide to retire to a safe house and recover before attempting to flee the city.


Comments

The party has enjoyed the pace of the adventure. The appearance of some non-evil creatures as opponents has given them a lot to think on. The higher level encounters (EL4 and 5), haven't been too challenging, due to a combination of luck on their part and LOUSY rolls on the DMs part! There hasn't been one Critical Threat against the party, and numerous single digit attack rolls, against the parties multiple Critical Hits and many successful hits at opportune times (like the casting Wizard).

Given the parties previous adventures, they are almost 3rd at the half way point, but given they wont have a chance now to level up before the end of the adventure, that shouldn't be a problem. Given how they've gotten through the adventure so far, I'm not too concerned about the two higher level encounters at the end.

The one error I did note was that the Shealis tactics indicated she would use flaming sphere, but her spell list didn't have that spell. Instead it had still magic missile. No problem, since she never got to use either one.

Everyone can't wait for next installment of this, and the follow on adventures, so congradulations to the authors.

Cool. I really do appreciate hearing stories like this.

I'm intrigued that the players seem to think that elves can't be evil. (Especially since my players flat out hate all elves because they're "racist Nazi pansies.")

RangerWickett said:

Cool. I really do appreciate hearing stories like this.

I'm intrigued that the players seem to think that elves can't be evil. (Especially since my players flat out hate all elves because they're "racist Nazi pansies.")

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Actually I think its because the Paladin's detect evil hasn't shown the elves as Evil, yet they are acting against the party instead of bending over backwards to help the "good guys". They're confused because things aren't black and white

For the players that use to play D&D (or computer RPGs), they expect that Regular Elves are Good and Dark Elves are Evil, period Having to compete against these non-evil Elves has definetely thrown a wrench in their thinking Which I think is a very good thing, because fleshing out the NPCs with their own agendas which may or may not align with the characters. enhances the world nicely.

I think it will leading to a lot more player thought when encountering NPCs (and it already has them questioning Torrent's motives, especially given the Imps involvement in the latest encounter). The party is strongly suspicious that they're Cat's Paws of the Evil side , and they should actually be helping the Elves! But given the siege, and the fact they attacked and killed the elven spies, they've decided that the short term plan is to get out of the city and figure out who's who later, and then if necessary ask forgiveness of the elves.

Interesting reading, keep up the good work!

I can't wait to see how your super lucky party breezes through "Running the Gauntlet". I had close to a TPK on that one.

ESCAPE FROM GATE PASS

The players, exhausted from recovering the contents of the case (the case having been given over to the Imp), retreat to a safe house for rest. Their travel there is uneventful, with Torrent leading the way.

The party arrives at the safe house, a temple. A large crowd has gathered there, trying to avoid the chaos of the battle raging around the city. While waiting for their contact to appear, when a scuffle breaks out. The fighter, being exhausted goes over to bust it up. Things quickly become heated when he draws a dagger and the crowd gets angry. Only the prompt arrival of their contact, a leading priest calms things down.

The party rests for the night while making their escape plans. After hearing about Elementals attacking from the sewers, and the fighter examining the walls and gates, they are at a loss. They ask Torrent for advice, and she points them to someone who could help. The party quickly makes his acquaintance and gets the help they need to leave the city. They also get a chance to sell some of the equipment they have salvaged from combat and purchase some masterwork weapons. Unfortunately they just missed receiving gifts (missed the Diplomacy Roll by 1, I HAVE to teach these players about Aid Another with Skill Checks  ).

The party leaves their contact’s place and heads toward the way out. Along the way they spot what looks like City Guards shadowing them. The Scout’s eagle eyes sees through their disguises. The party turns to confront them, and combat breaks out. Unfortunately the Fighter and Sorcerer are a bit distracted (wasn’t that a lovely serving wench that just walked by?) and the Sorcerer is knocked out by a pair of well placed Saps. The party quickly rallies and turns the tables on the Guards. They leave them bloodied and bruised where they fall, grab the Sorcerer and retreat.

Shortly thereafter they meet Rantle and listen to the request to take the message to his sister. The party agrees (the Fighter hoping to meet this red headed Sorceress, he does seem to have a one tracked mind…).

The party rests up till dusk, before making their escape from the city. Of course they aren’t to the woods yet…

THE GUANTLET

The next encounter starts off with a pair of bangs, literally . The Scout and the Sorcerer’s horses are spooked, and both start to run headlong down the road. Half the party spins and attacks the two attackers, while the Paladin goes racing down the road.

Three more attackers ride after the Scout and Sorcerer and a running battle ensues. The attacker’s leader continues his pursuit of the Elvish Scout (who even with his decent ride bonus, fails to gain control of his horse). The Scout survives multiple rounds because the enemy constantly rolls minimum damage on his hits (when he does hit)!

So the party is now spread over a few hundred feet. The two horsemen are fighting the Paladin and the Sorcerer. The Fighter/Cleric, Fighter, and Torrent are dealing with the first two attackers, and a few thugs are firing crossbows at everyone. The enemy heavy fighter fails TWO spell casts, which delays his entry by an extra two rounds (which is probably another reason the party didn’t take too much damage from this encounter).

Fighting alone, the Scout’s horse is dropped, and a moment later the Scout joins it, dying. The Fighter and Fighter/Cleric ride up to the Paladin and Sorcerer who have taken care of one sniper and one rider (color spray is just NASTY!). The Paladin goes charging down the road to rescue the Scout, leaving the others to take care of the last rider.

The enemy heavy fighter comes charging down the road, missing the Paladin by 1!!! They exchange blows, before the enemy fighter sees an opportunity to continue to charge, and rides down the road to attack the Fighter. This charge also misses, but his defense spell keep the Fighter (and later the Fighter/Cleric) from hitting him. The Sorcerer learns that his spells are next to useless, and begins firing his crossbow, praying for a lucky hit.

Meanwhile the Paladin rides up and stabilizes the Scout with Lay on Hands. The other enemy moves off to continue to fire his missile weapon at the Paladin, but is still within range of the Sorcerer, who decides to let fly with a Crossbow Bolt. Needless to say, a critical hit after the damage the Scout did, and the Enemy is unconscious.

The remaining enemy attempts to parley, but the Fighters will not hear of it, both having bit hit with the Greatsword by this point. The Paladin is too far down the road, and he misses the shout amidst all the noise. The enemy breaks away, and is pursued. The Fighter/Cleric heals the Fighter and Paladin to keep both in the fray, and the Enemy is eventually defeated.

Net result: Full Expenditure of spells, one character dying (revived by Torrent before the end of combat).

The party retires to the nearby grotto that was the Enemies base camp for the night.

After a night’s rest and a bit of interrogation, they discover the LARGE bounty on their heads. They also discover the dead mage prisoner that the bounty hunters failed to take care of. Feeling that they deserve a similar justice, the party forces them to bury the mage while standing over them with loaded crossbows, before leaving them in the same cage the mage died in. This could make for an interesting reappearance of one or both of these villains, shades of Saving Private Ryan.

The party then continues down the road, until they see a young woman standing in the road….


THE FARM HOUSE

The young woman stops the party and tells them of her desire to flee the Ragesians with her father. However, her father is a stubborn old man and she needs their help. The party volunteers to help and tries to talk the old man into coming along. He’s rude, crude, insulting and just plain old crotchety. The fighter, never one with a lot of patience, decides that the brute force method is necessary and grapples the old man before he can react (1 on the initiative roll). After a few rounds, the old man is pinned (never successfully getting his weapon free, and with insufficient concentration skill to try a spell). The fighter tells the young woman to go pack a few things, they’re leaving.

At this point the party is fairly confident that the encounter is over and they can move on. At that moment they hear a voice yell out, demanding the old man come out. Realizing that the Ragesians are outside, they spend a few moments preparing for combat, when the door flies open and Skeletons pour into the room. The fight lasts for a few round (with the Fighter fleeing into a back room), while the Clerics finally destroy the Undead (four turn attempts using the alternate turn system to do 6 damage, the Clerics just couldn’t roll a high number). At this point the Paladin steps outside to fight the Ragesians soldiers and cleric. He is surprised by a Rogue’s sneak attack, but having no dexterity, but now Heavy Armor, the attack proves fruitless. However, he is now facing four opponents, including a Raging and Enlarged Barbarian!

However, all is not lost. Torrent steps into the doorway behind him and casts Enlarge. The Ragesian Cleric can’t counter it, having countered a spell from the Cleric. At the same time, the Sorcerer casts Color Spray (again) knocking out the Rogue. And the young woman casts a sleep spell, taking out one soldier. So the Paladin is only facing one soldier, and the Barbarian!

The Dwarf, seeing the front door jammed, runs out the back door, right into a crossbow bolt. Fortunately, he’s not human, so the bolt’s special power doesn’t affect him. He continues to make his way around the building while being shot at.

In the front, the Barbarian can’t seem to hit the Paladin, due to the later’s Half Plate and Shield. The Paladin on the other hand, continues to hit doing heavy damage. The Cleric use’s his Cure Moderate Wounds to get the Barbarian back up to full strength.

The Barbarian hits with his Axe, doing massive damage to the Paladin, but not enough to drop him. The Dwarvish cleric arrives, and casts a healing spell. However the Paladin hits with his sword again, doing massive damage.

The next round, the Barbarian misses, but the Paladin doesn’t. The Barbarian goes down! The Fighter, having shaken off his fear returns, and finally steps out. The Enemy Cleric, not having any range spells, but knowing that the Fire Forest Empowers Flame spells, steps forward. The Attack of Opportunity hits, but he is still able to successfully cast Produce Flame, bringing the Paladin down to single digit Hit Points again!

The Paladin misses the Cleric and the rest of the party maneuver to finish off the remaining guards. The Cleric, seeing a chance to do mass damage, preps Burning Hands. Unfortunately, the Paladin hits again with the Attack of Opportunity and knocks the Cleric OUT! One less damage point, and three characters would’ve gotten hit with an Empowered 4d4 flame attack! And all of them with low Reflex Saves!


So once again the party survives TWO major encounters because the DM rolls were below average.

The party is now leveled up and has recovered as much as they could from the last two encounters. So they have a large supply of healing potions and scrolls, some miscellaneous magic items, and almost everyone has a masterwork weapon.

Of course, they now have the baggage of a really PO’d, tied up Mage. His daughter might prove helpful, but he is going to cause no end of trouble, especially if he can get loose.


It will be interesting to see how the party does in the Fire Forest.

Yet more awesome stuff. I especially liked the clash of the titans with the two enlarged warriors.

If you haven't yet gotten to the fire forest, I suggest giving the players a bit of freedom. Let them venture off the main road, so they don't feel like they're stuck on rails. It should be hard to travel through the mountainous forests if they go through the wilderness, but the adventure should be pretty easy to work regardless of which way they go. I've found a lot of people saying the players disliked being forced to go down the road, though.

RangerWickett said:

Yet more awesome stuff. I especially liked the clash of the titans with the two enlarged warriors.

If you haven't yet gotten to the fire forest, I suggest giving the players a bit of freedom. Let them venture off the main road, so they don't feel like they're stuck on rails. It should be hard to travel through the mountainous forests if they go through the wilderness, but the adventure should be pretty easy to work regardless of which way they go. I've found a lot of people saying the players disliked being forced to go down the road, though.

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Yeah I had read the feedback and was going to let the party decide how to get through the fire forest.

But given the time limit imposed by the Potions that Torrent has (2 or 3 day supply), the party will probably stick to (or close to) the road.

Foret said:

Yeah I had read the feedback and was going to let the party decide how to get through the fire forest.

But given the time limit imposed by the Potions that Torrent has (2 or 3 day supply), the party will probably stick to (or close to) the road.

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Indomitability's boon, if they get it, will remove this problem.

The Fire Forest of Innenotdar

Sorry for the long delay in reporting, but work has been a killer. Most of the details of the combat will be general, since I don't have my notes anymore

The party at this point consists of:
Human 3rd Level Fighter
Human 3rd Level Paladin
Human 3rd Level Sorcerer
Dwarf 1st level Fighter / 2nd Level Cleric
Elven 3nd Level Scout

And the following NPCs:
Torrent 1st Level Fighter / 2nd Level Cleric
Haddin 9th Level Wizard
Crystin 1st Level Sorcerer


The Elfroad

After escaping the Inquisitors sent by the Ragesian Army besieging Gate Pass, the party continues down the road toward Innenotdar. Cresting the last hill before entering the valley, the party sees the Inferno that they are about to travel through. Torrent reassures them that the Stand the Heat potions that she has are enough to get them all safely across, but only if they hurry.

The discovers three bodies along the road and are shocked when they find that one is still alive! He begs for release from his burning suffering, and the Dwarf grants it. Slightly shaken by this encounter, the party continues.

Flaming Hunt

As the party continues through the smoke and flame, a Fire Mephit comes flying out of the forest, being hunted by a Dire Bat! The Mephit takes cover behind the Paladin and the Fire Bat attempts to reach it's prey. The Paladin ends up with a few scorch marks before the Bat is put down. In a burst of flames in comes back to life, but is quickly put down again.

The Mephit thanked the party and warns them to beware of the creatures of the forest, who now have been infused with magical flame.

Bridge Crossing

The party reaches an old stone bridge over a gorge. The bridge has obviously seen better days, with party of the railing destroyed and obvious weak spots throughout. The dwarf proceeds to examine the bridge from the road, point out what he things are the weakest spots. The Elf, having the best reactions, wraps a rope around his waste, and leads the way.

The local inhabitants are disturbed by the Elf, and a swarm of bats flies out from under the bridge. The swarm is quite large, and the party has some difficulty dealing with it (since they don't have the proper weapons to fight a swarm), but eventually the bats are driven off.

Dog Day

The party continues, pushing to get as many miles under their feet the first day (since they only have enough potions for two days in the forest).

A pitch black dog steps out on the road in front of the party. It seems uneffected by the heat and sits their waiting. The party readies for an attack, but is surprised when the dog drops the hip bone it was carrying and backs off.

After the Paladin Detects Evil the party realizes that the beast is a Hell Hound and attacks to drive it off. The Hell Hound prepares to use it's fire breath on the party, but it is a bit slow and a Critical Hit from the Fighter drops it!

The party reads the message engraved on the bone and continues down the road, expecting more trouble....

A Devil and a Death

As the party continued down the road the Devil Kazyk appeared. His offer to stop the Inquisitors pursuit in exchange for the book they carried (having previously opened the case and given the case to the Imp while still in Gate Pass), was soundly rejected by the party. Summoning Lemures to keep the party busy, he attacked.

Unfortunately the party couldn't remember that Devils are vulnerable to silver. The Lemures threatened the sorceers and wizards, so most of the party attempted to cover them. This left the Paladin to face Kazyk alone.

Fortunately, the Paladin was wearing heavy armor and it took Kazyk a couple rounds to hit him. This allowed the party to get a few hits on the Lemures, but the Lemures were damaging the party in return.

Seeing that the Paladin was suffering from his Infernal Wound, Kazyk stepped past him, easily avoiding the AoO. The next closest party member was Haddin, who had successfully avoided the Lemures, leaving his daughter and the other sorcerer to their mercy. Unfortunately for him, Kazyk was able to reach him, and rolled a critical hit! With Haddin's low hit points and the immense damage that Kazyk's critical hit did, Haddin was slain (+10 to -12 in one blow!).

The party began to panic, now realizing that the devil and his minions would be able to quickly overpower them. However Kayzk saluted them and disappeared. Leaving them to deal with the Lemures. Finally realizing that they had a few silver weapons, the party was finally able to take care of the Lemures.

Crystin was shocked at the loss of her father, but their was nothing to be done for him, so the party quickly buried him in the forest. Exhausted, they pushed on, knowing that they were on a very tight schedule and if they failed, they would all end up joining Haddin shortly.

Fire Fight

Crystin's scream of warning scared the party as a lance of fire erupted. Trees fell to block the road and a wall of flame appeared behind the party. They were trapped, and the worst was yet to come!

Three Fire Stags jumped the burning road block and charged the party. At the same time, the wall of fire behind them began to advance. The party formed a defensive line, protecting the two sorcerers, both of whom were exhausted.

The melee was vicious with the advancing wall of fire threating the party. The fighters were able to screen one side, which allowed the sorcerers and the scout to get away from the wall of fire. The fighters inched away, but stayed in contact to avoid AoO.

The dwarf had to choose between standing and being engulfed or attacking. Being a dwarf, he stood his ground! His blow slew the fire fire elemental stag, thus halting the wall of flames for a round. Another couple tense rounds followed, as the party worked to slay the elementals before the wall engulfed them. With the last attack they succeeded!

At this point Indomitability made his Offer. After many questions, the party agreed to free him, not realizing the choices that this would force them to make in the future....