Jasper runs Portal and Season 6.

[jasper]

Final Session of Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan
I had to push and rush a lot of things and came down hard on side table talk due to having to take my wife to the Tri-State bicycle thing at 2:45 AM the next morning. So this covers Room 41 on. All the combat was theatre of the mind with me allowing the players to say if they stay at range or close to melee. Again it was a strong group.
The worst combat of the night was outside of room 42 when the fighter with the berserker axe was triggered. He did more damage to the party than any monster. Once the group calmed down the fighter, they removed curse and took the axe away from the fighter till the end of adventure. This was a treasure light session also.
The Couatl was fun. I did a DC 15 Con save on the poison but did not tell the group the effects except for shortness of breath and tunnel vision. It is a good monologue room. I had to pause and look up turning rules on the mummy centaur since it was the first time anyone tried turning in my AL career.
The various trap rooms I changed a little bit to add some fun. Beware of the Smoking Mirror room as the black mirror is going to cause whining if a person fails their save. One guy lost 800gp.
Summary. If I was to redo the adventure, I would adjust for strong and very strong parties. Some of the magic items are lame, or not helpful in AL. The balance of harmony, mirror of the past, and amulet of protection from turning (I did not even give those out). The various curses which happen, a dm need to keep secret, I announce them to group but told them they did not know about them. This only worked out a little bit. Overall if you are going to AL this be prepare for a lot of tracking of effects. Some totally unfair moments which less mature players are going to lose it. And lots of magic items.

 

[jasper]

The Redemption of Kelvan Started at 609 Finished at 838. So we went long. Part was set up the various maps. Some was due to players taking a lot of time to think their next move. The first encounter was bust as the players were still trying to decide who could see and not. So I let that go. The rays of light was slow since the room was tight and people could not move forward if their buddy ahead of them did not move. Once the trap was trigger it did get interesting. I had one socerer dash through the beams and live, only to zero out later as he tried to exit the room. The mirrors room was made moe effective as one person said they move the mirror slowly and the others turned them. Again the group was slow to move and interact with the room which slowed game time. I suggest if the group drags their feet the hallway dumps into the room and after 6 rounds some damage with saves are given. The chill room was fun as they trigger some of the nets repeatly. Everyone love the clockwork room and I even had one person sitting on the lever to prevent from moving. The group did take a long rest before the chill room. To keep things interesting and cut time on game play clock I suggest only a short rest be allowed. I did have and 6 person average party but when the group ranges from level 5 to level 10 a dm may want to bump one room up to strong. Oh we were running two tables of the same module. I lost some gamers and picked most of the second table to start white plume.

 

[jasper]

Ok, after 3 and a third dungeon. I suggest if the table has 6 players unless they are all below the dungeon level, treat 6+ tables as strong or very strong. psst guess the magic item

 

[jasper]

The white plume mountain first session which only ran 2 hours.
Ok from now on I treating a 6+ table as strong and either bumping the hit pionts to max, and /or adding critters. The group went up the middle. With passive preception and passive investigation both 19+ that blew any gotta you traps like explosive runes etc. The people with alertness, sharp shooter and other feats made toast of most of the encounters. I was giving all monsters advantage on initiative rolls and most were not last a round and a third. I will be double checking the builds against the phb. The Kelpie were the worst of the night. A discussion broke out on their "charmed " abilitty. I said it was charm like and not a real charm. And I blew the effect. I think the sufficiation should start the moment the person turn begins in the water. But I was able to zero out the new player. GRRR. Here is the load out. Fighter 6, assassin 6 + warlock 1, assassian 5, fighter 9, Bard 10, Ranger 5 + assassian 4.
For Spongebob boss, I suggest any misses with missle weapons, and similiar spells do damage to dome. It wasn't to the second round the bard notice the group was underneath the mud. They did wonder why I giggled when they jammed the air lock type doors open.

 

[jasper]

DDAL 06-01 Second Run
Last Saturday I reran A Thousand Tiny Cuts. I had a full table with 2 old timers. One running a 4th Wizard the other a first level druid. I had 1 newish player I think this was his 7th session. And a family of four running all first level pcs and it was their first time in 5E. They either used pregens or point buy. The family normally plays 3.5 E.
Even with 7 players, I downgraded the boss fighter to weak. Again the group trigger the alarm so the kobolds knew they were coming. I did reuse the map of rooms. Room C was used for E with just a minor adjustment. I did mess up the mud trap. I just gave damage and saves to all and reduce their movement. No rests were taken. Not even the two old timers ask for a short rest.
The boss battle was interesting. I did kill one pc and had a lot of yo-yoing on some pcs. The movement penalty and me remembering this time the scale was one square equal 10 feet did change the combat. I had three different styles of play. The Wizard playing backup for the new people. The druid eat the dirt after his every attack. And the newbies running around in circles.
I was an evil dm. I had spy and scout be invisible before combat. Once they attacked, they always tried to double team a pc, and were going for kills on zeroed out pcs. But the dice loved most of group. I only rolled 4 nat 20s all day and one of those were initiative. One nat 20 did double damage for the kill.
So how tough this module is depends on the group and dice. Oh I did forget to give the new pcs free potions of healing for the Bounty Hunter quest of AL DM quest. But I gave those out after the fact.
It took about 3 hours and 45 minutes to run this for various reasons. This include bathroom breaks, map setup, and bs.

 

[jasper]

White Plume Mountain Second Session West Ward we slide.
Since I had another 7 person table this was strong group. I gave all monsters max hit points. The group decide to take the western side this time. The heating hallway was easy on most of group due to lack of metal or fire resistance. The ghouls were a cake walk even with the max hp.
However (evil dm laugh) their short rest was neither short nor restful. I had each player roll a d12. So their first short rest was interrupted by bugbears and second one by the invisible stalker. When ask the reason of where the monster come from, I just said like video games they just spawn.
The kayak room was not really explored. But the fish tank room took over an hour to game out. I moved my monsters out of order (each one had a separate init) which both helped and hurt the party. I lost track of which monster was taking damage also. They survived some just barely. (Man I hate flare and cutting word some times).
I ended the night at the end of combat and did not let the group take an automatic short or long rest due to the location and the 400 shatter spells they cast. There was one or two gripes about this.

 

[jasper]

Final Session of White Plume 6 players strong party. AND another first dice started rolling at 607 and magic item and xp were being given out at 1007. An exact 4 hour game.
FLASH FLASH FLASH ALL STATIONS WARNING WARNING WARNING
BLACKRAZOR IS ON THE LOOSE IN THE GENERAL POPULATION. The criminal Bard Plebius is the guilty party. Break his strings at once.
Wandering Monster checks will hurt a short rest and long rest. After two encounters I suggest the dm drop them for the day. Did have a rule fix. I was allowing flare at 1 per level not 1 per wisdom mod.
I was also rushing through the dungeon and making the group make snap decision since I going to Magic City Comic con in Birmingham Al this weekend.
Room 27 Qesnef I changed two ways. One he attuned Blackrazor and I also made him look like a barbarian. I thought they were going to find him after just a short rest but the bard wanted to talk him down and not fight. This is after I said he only had 2 weeks to the end of his sentence. So with a 27 persuasion Qesnef walked out with Blackrazor. I did ask twice before he walked out.
Rule wise Their was some debate on if the Bard would have notice blackrazor in the sheath and other stuff. But they were happy not to fight.
Room 24 Bluto and Kayak room. The group back track to kayak and went for a little boat ride. Again for the first round I threw initiate out the window and only did in marching order. So as they came out of the wall I gave the choice of staying in the stream or bailing. On a bail it was a dex check. The tempest cleric rolled a 1 so I ruled that she capsized her kayak and would be back around on round 4. The group took down Bluto and half his men before the Bard tried talking them down. With Bluto down and only 3 or 4 men left the npc decided to book feet and left the party with the key. As the group was resting the Bard remember Bluto was worth 10K.
The Riddle if you change the riddle don't use a gaming type riddle. However make sure you time the group.
The Hidden slime I gave it a hide of 20 and had the two people in front roll perception. So they were able to avoid it. I forget how I let them destroy it.
Room 5. Rule mistake here which both help and hurt the group. For some reason I thought flesh golems were large. So I redrew the room larger. I also changed the order of the numbers. For some strange reason, the players stacked their minis in front of their choice or did not make a choice. So the correct people were hugged by George and the rest fought large flesh golems.
Back to Room 4. Don't cast shatter in the room it ticks off the monsters but this was more of a confusing combat than worrying combat.
The mud room with mud geysers was easily counter with the bard's fly spell from his magic items .
Room 8. An Italian Dwarf Vampire He was fun to play and I had fun insulting the pcs. Once his legendary saves went away he was down in three rounds. I did attend Whelm to him but it didn't help.
The dice were all over the place for both sides. But my dice turned against me more than not.
I will upload the pictures later.

 

[jasper]

Ok. I ran A thousand tiny cuts 4 times at Magic City Con in Birmingham AL this year. Only note I really have is if I am going to do maps ahead of time do all the maps. Pack more gift dice. Oh it is jolly good form on seeing a friend and his family which you have not seen in a decade, go ahead and kill his son's first AL pc.
Dead in Thay first session.
I typed up an info dump which summarized the dm info. Here it is.
Gate House Entry Points
Area 1 Abyssal Prisons Open
Area 23 Blood Pens Closed
Area 33 Masters Domain Closed
Area 38 Far Cysts Closed
Area 49 Forests of Slaughter Closed
Area 61 Ooze Grottos Closed
Area 77 Predator Pools Closed

ALERT LEVEL. ? Currently at 2.

Glyph Keys are Crystal Pendant on bronze chain. Keys can have multiple attunements. Keys can be attuned to another key by Arcana 15 DC as an action by owner. Attunement is by zone or area. If checks FAILS by 5 key is destroyed. Keys will open areas they are attuned to. Anyone can use a key or try to rekey(attuned) a key.

Keys Owned. Key 0 . Abyssal Prisons. Key 2 Abyssal Prisons, Temple of Chaos. Key 5 Temple of Chaos. Keys are numbered by the room they are discovered in. this was after game play

Common Features. Atmosphere Dry. Detect magic reveals faint aura everywhere. Room Ceilings 20 to 30 feet. Corridors 20 feet.
Doors. Player knowledge not pc.
Locked DC 15 Dexterity check or DC 20 strength
Secret Doors DC 20 Wisdom Perception
False Doors DC 20 intelligence Investigation
Pit Traps DC 20 passive perception. DC 15 Perception if actively searching. DC 15 Dexterity to jam.

Ok. RANT MAPS RANT MAPS RANT MAPS RANT MAPS. RANT RANT RANT. Even copying and increasing individual section maps. The Maps suck.
Rant Darn Car key gnomes have branched out and stole my new pencil sharper, gift dice. grrr.
The group only cleared about 6 rooms. They were very surprise of the lack of combat in the first two encounters. They really didn't believe the monsters would buy into their sight seeing tour excuse but it worked. They discover how the pit traps work and learned not to trust strange women. I have already ranted about the maps. But this was slow moving night. I only did one wandering monster check but they had locked the doors various ways in room 5.
****
Thread drift. I have been updating/changing my game loadout bags and how I pack. I can now pack with a little bit of tightness everything I need to include most props, the grids, minis, etc. Now to get use to how I organize the bag.

 

[Pauper]

FLASH FLASH FLASH ALL STATIONS WARNING WARNING WARNING
BLACKRAZOR IS ON THE LOOSE IN THE GENERAL POPULATION. The criminal Bard Plebius is the guilty party. Break his strings at once....

Room 27 Qesnef I changed two ways. One he attuned Blackrazor and I also made him look like a barbarian. I thought they were going to find him after just a short rest but the bard wanted to talk him down and not fight. This is after I said he only had 2 weeks to the end of his sentence. So with a 27 persuasion Qesnef walked out with Blackrazor. I did ask twice before he walked out.

Nice play on the bard's part, but did you inform the player that his character would be retired as long as he possesses Blackrazor?

"The worst part, however, is that any characters who choose to retain ownership of one or more of the weapons are too busy running and hiding from the forces that pursue it, or simply spending all their time being dead. Such characters are retired from Adventurers League play. Characters should be made well aware of the repercussions of their treachery before they commit to the decision." (FAQ 6.1, p.10)

I feel bad for the player if he thought he could just sneak Blackrazor out of the dungeon and keep on going about his normal life.

--
Pauper

 

[jasper]

Nice play on the bard's part, but did you inform the player that his character would be retired as long as he possesses Blackrazor?

"....I feel bad for the player if he thought he could just sneak Blackrazor out of the dungeon and keep on going about his normal life.

--
Pauper

The bard with a 27 persuasion roll talked Qesnef out of fighting and said Qesnef could leave. So Qesnef, not the bard, walked out with Blackrazor. I allowed this because there was not guidance on how to allow non combat options.
The player still wanted to fight the Halfling with Blackrazor ( he read the novel). I told I changed the Halfling to a barbarian. And he was still slow on his uptake.