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My game "session" notes (Dark Sun, Eberron, Gamma World and PoL)
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<blockquote data-quote="Aegeri" data-source="post: 5406354" data-attributes="member: 78116"><p style="text-align: center"><strong>Dark Sun: Builder's Cry</strong></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p><p></p><p>So we began with our heroes awaiting their trip into the under arena of Tyr, attempting to escape out through the dangerous tunnels without any issue. Of course this didn't happen that way, as the PCs soon found out that the whole commotion upstairs had rattled up the inhabitants downstairs as well. With an unnatural creature snuffing out their light, plunging them into darkness near a crossroads - incidentally <em>they haven't seen the last of this unknown creature</em> - they lit the place back up to discover <em>zombies</em>.</p><p></p><p>Now if there is something I like in Dungeons and Dragons now and again, it's a good honest to god encounter with monsters that don't do a lot special. The zombies do grab PCs, but overall they are stupid and they find the nearest character to tear them limb from limb. This I felt was a suitable "contrast" in intelligence to the Ssurrans and other arena monsters the PCs have been facing up to this point. It was also an encounter that the controller Othagal would appreciate: None of the minions (16 in total in fact) had any tricks or similar (neither did the zombies). So bursts and blasts would be perfectly effective.</p><p></p><p>Of course there were four entrances into the cistern area so the zombies were spread out by that, but they were tightly clustered at the start. The only notable terrain was salty, almost quagmire like water with a deadly fog over it. This is the product of a powerful defiler who slew an unnamed beast down here. His magic poisoned the water and the well had to be cut off from the rest of Tyrs water supply (lest it all become contaminated). This means the water is obscenely dangerous to drink, with anyone who does so losing a healing surge. Worse, the deadly fog that surrounds the water also drains the life of anyone in it - reducing the benefits of a healing surge by half. This is important information to bear in mind, as this effect becomes really significant in a later battle.</p><p></p><p>One little trick to this encounter and it's something I love to do, is to "hold" monsters back. They are either invisible, they arrive later in the combat or something else. It's not something I do all the time, but it can be a nasty and unexpected surprise for the PCs. In this case, there was some loose masonry and one of the walls hadn't been patched up well. A group of zombies were waiting within the wall ready to pounce!</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/Turn2Ambush.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p><p></p><p>Conveniently on the first round, the thief just happened to move right next to it on his turn. This was incredibly fortuitous as the zombies wouldn't need to go far for a snack whatsoever.</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/SURPRISE.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p><p></p><p>Zephan is the parties thief and he's the unfortunate fellow right next to the wall with zombies behind it. The players reaction was rather priceless when they burst out. Unfortunately for the zombies, Othagal was well on top of things and very much enjoying himself, blasting all the zombies into pieces. He did however manage to get a nasty bite from one of the salt zombies, contracting salt madness. If you remember about the deadly water you might wonder "Why bother ever drinking it?" Well, this is where this disease that a PC could pick up comes in:</p><p></p><p><strong>Salt Madness</strong></p><p><em>Dry crystals of salt seem to stick to your skin, draining you of fluids and making you thirst for water - any water - no matter where it is...</em></p><p>Level 1 Disease</p><p>Stage 0: The target recovers from the disease.</p><p>Stage 1: The target must resist a level + 3 vs. Will attack whenever it starts its turn within 2 squares of a source of water. Should it fail, the target moves towards the water source (if possible) and drinks as much as possible. The target can take no actions except drink until the attack fails.</p><p>Stage 2: The target takes a -2 penalty to fortitude.</p><p>Stage 3: The target dies and raises as a salt zombie within 24 hours.</p><p>Endurance DC 7 or less = The stage of the disease advances by 1</p><p>Endurance DC 8-11 = No change</p><p>Endurance DC 12+ = The stage of the disease decreases by 1.</p><p></p><p>Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on if you are Othagal) the disease did not take hold and the PCs handled the encounter fairly easily. Albeit thoughts soon turned to the rampant silk wyrm they heard had escaped into the tunnels. Perhaps it could be hiding somewhere in the tunnels too? Surely not... Surely not...</p><p></p><p>The second encounter was also a considerable contrast to the first. Once again, there were more zombies in the underground near a fetid lake of poisonous defiled water. This time hidden deep within the fog was a nasty surprise: Two cistern wraiths! Now in this encounter I wanted to have a different kind of set up, with monsters of very different 'intelligence' for the PCs to fight. The zombies were as stupid as ever, clustering up and attacking whoever managed to get close enough to them. The wraiths however had a full "awareness" of their surroundings. Unlike the zombies they would attack vulnerable characters, set ambushes and use their insubstantial quality plus ability to hide to their advantage. </p><p></p><p>Like the first encounter, I also made the decision to hold the wraiths back a turn and let the PCs get 'bogged down' in the zombies before bringing in the wraiths straight into the vulnerable backline. The wraiths were also a test of the monster vault, because I was curious how they would go. It's worth noting I had deleveled the wraiths to 3 and adjusted their invisibility bonus damage down. This was because 4d6+<strong>14</strong> felt a bit much for a level 2 party. Albeit the wraiths could still do a not <em>insubstantial</em> 27 points of damage with this attack if they crit with the damage I did give them - 2d8+9.</p><p></p><p>The zombies were dispatched pretty easily but the wraiths were soon causing trouble, teleporting around and generally being a pain. To further infuriate the PCs, the Wraiths were canny enough to ready attacks; waiting until a PC that was adjacent to them <strong>moved</strong> to make an attack. This meant that even if the PC they wanted to hurt wasn't around, they could use their attack on another character rather than potentially waste their readied action. This was because when a wraith turns invisible they are unable to attack until the end of their next turn. So readying an action was a viable way of getting their attack in before their next round. Again, this showed a clear difference in intelligence and tactics between the mindless zombies and the spiteful but cunning wraiths.</p><p></p><p>One such effect of this was one of the wraiths critically hitting and pummeling the shaman down right into negative HPs in a single mighty blow <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite9" alt=":eek:" title="Eek! :eek:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":eek:" /></p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/WraithCrit.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p><p></p><p>That was a cold dead grip right to the heart! Fortunately it is worth noting that the MV wraiths are brilliant for numerous reasons. For one, most of the party and their NPC ally Elana had force damage. This meant they could get through the insubstantial and inflict some damage on the wraiths on a reliable basis. Secondly, wraiths no longer weaken on an attack - honestly combining weakening with insubstantial was just mean spirited. Lastly, the wraiths needed time to set up their attacks, either with readied actions or needing to become invisible - so the PCs had time to react to their high damage. Overall the wraiths were finished off and the PCs victorious, if badly injured.</p><p></p><p>This left onto the last run out past the former glorious Pillared Hall of Kalak in the under-arena and then freedom at last! Unfortunately for the PCs, there was one last obstacle in their way: The dreaded silk wyrm. Gorged on easy prey and safe from the zombies where it could hide in the ceilings numerous cracks and crevices, the silk wyrm had expanded in size quite considerably. But like most of these encounters, he hid back in the ceiling waiting until the PCs got drawn out of position a bit by three final salt zombies (who were in fact recent victims of the Wyrm). This was again a general theme for the session - holding back elements of the encounter in one way or another.</p><p></p><p>Either way, the Silk Wyrm was back into action and greedily moved to assault the PCs. The thief moved out of the way and maneuvered behind a pillar - while the remaining PCs attacked it. Here came the event that shook the entire combat: Othagal stepped into the water and used burning hands, failing to account for the single square of movement the Wyrm gets on its reaction silk strands attack. This meant he got restrained within the life draining fog and then failed his saving throw against it. I was commanding the parties Shaman, who hadn't been able to come that session and then decided to throw him a healing spirit. After some debate, Othagal refused this healing due to the fogs effect and I gave it to the Battlemind instead.</p><p></p><p>The Wyrm them got his next turn and it proved to be a doozy. He shifted into the water using his movement power and then used his minor action burst. This power overachieved like crazy, hitting nearly all the party except for the Thief. He punted the battlemind away and downed Othagal with this attack, while heavily damaging the remaining characters. This chaos proved to be quite a game changer as now the Silk Wyrm had 3 PCs (all slowed, with -2 penalty to all defenses), the NPC and himself in the middle of the difficult terrain water with the healing surge penalty effect.</p><p></p><p>The next turn saw the Battlemind come back into the battle in the deadly fog. Remember, it penalizes healing surges by 1/2, so it's not an idea place to fight and the water is difficult terrain so squishy characters couldn't exit without drawing an OA. Before continuing this is where terrain is so important to a solo: Here the solo could dictate terms to the party and was able to swing the combat into an exciting tactical fight, instead of a static beatdown or "grind". </p><p></p><p>I must concede that here I hold some responsibility for what was to happen next, because I made a tactical mistake on the Shaman's turn. I started the turn by foolishly moving the spirit adjacent to the silk wyrm and then flailing at it with an AP to use twin panthers (unsuccessfully I might add, reflex attacks were cursed for the entire session). Taking the offensive option, I used the minor action to dragonbreath the silk wyrm to try to inflict some extra damage (this was a terrible idea). I then used the Shaman's daily, <em>Spirit of the Healing Flood</em> to try to give some healing. Unfortunately it's more a single target damage attack with a neat regen effect, but regeneration doesn't work on downed characters. I was going to use healing spirit, but ironically the player of the wizard Othagal corrected me - I had indeed used all my actions (moving the spirit).</p><p></p><p>The next wyrm turn was exceptionally dramatic. He started off recharging his burst power and I immediately used it. This hit nearly all of the party this time, although the thief was missed by a narrow margin so avoided getting pulled towards the beast. On counting the hits I noticed something immediately: <em>The wyrm critically hit the downed wizard</em>. This inflicted enough damage to drop him to negative bloodied! <em>I had just killed my first PC in this campaign</em>. In addition to this, Hadithi ended up in the drink as well and so the shaman was down, the Thri-Kreen monk Ka'Cha was mauled and the wizard Othagal was now dead. I actually don't think it totally registered to him that he was dead for a short while either. </p><p></p><p>On the final turn of the combat the encounter looked a little like this and was precariously balanced:</p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/Ohsnap.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p><p></p><p>Zephan is in the corner there (away from everything), Eshara is near the top right of the wyrm and Ka'Cha is right next to her (just look for the Thri-Kreen <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />). The silk wyrm was in the middle of the deadly pool of water and liking his chances for 6 new meals :O. Elana is the NPC with the party they met in the previous session, who is just below the wyrm and *almost dead*. Hadithi is unconscious and nearly dead just next to her and Othagal was adjacent to Hadithi (that's where he bit it). The power of a burst five power!</p><p></p><p>The best move before this turn was the battlemind, who made a brilliant decision in giving the entire party 14 temp HP using one of his powers (forget what it is called). Although temp HP does not get characters back up from dead, it is still a buffer to your HP even on negative hit points - making it considerably more difficult to kill you. It's worth noting this act saved the shaman's life, because he would have <em>also</em> died if it wasn't for this decision. Additionally the Battlemind also struck the wyrm with a power that meant it would do 4 damage to itself each time it hit one of his allies.</p><p></p><p>Predictably on the next turn, the wyrm again recharged his burst and went for it: Unfortunately this time the temp HP absorbed all the damage, plus the conductive defenses 4 damage slew the wyrm outright! The party earned their third magical item - a suit of scorpion scale armor, which prevents a creature with tremorsense from seeing you unless it has line of sight - quite useful for things coming up :O. At this point of course there was a debate on what to do with Othagal. The player didn't want to die and had invested a lot into his background, plus at this point with their escape the games "prologue" was now over.</p><p></p><p>I decided that allies of Othagal - who I was going to have meet them outside the arena anyway - took him away and managed to find a way of bringing him back from the dead. This would explain a change in certain aspects of the character - including theme to elemental priest. At this point as well I have given the PCs an entire <em>year</em> to wander around before the resumption of the campaign. This helps to explain changes in character, themes, abilities and whatever else they may want before the first real module of the campaign. A few of the players are taking the opportunity to change some things around and the thief might even be an executioner by the time I write my next report! It was quite handy to have the death when it occurred, because there is ample time to logically write in new characters, changes or even how someone might come back from the dead.</p><p></p><p>Before finishing it's worth discussing something that I think changed that combats dynamic quite a lot. It seemed like a relatively innocuous change at the time, but altering the silk wyrm from medium to large size had a big impact on the battle. For one thing, the wyrm was able to get a much bigger coverage of its recharge power and hold all the PCs adjacent to it once it succeeded much more easily. </p><p></p><p style="text-align: center"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/Size.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p> <p style="text-align: center"></p><p></p><p>You can see here that the large size makes a small - but significant impact on the number of overall squares the creature effects. This makes it harder to stay out of the burst in the tight tunnel environment. Albeit while most of the characters would have been in range either way, it does make for a somewhat interesting difference on the overall way the combat played out.</p><p></p><p>Either way I am very much looking forward to the next module and where the story really will start to pick up. A classic caravan guard duty that goes wrong - it may be an old classic Dark Sun chestnut, but it's one certainly worth exploring.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aegeri, post: 5406354, member: 78116"] [CENTER][B]Dark Sun: Builder's Cry[/B] [/CENTER] So we began with our heroes awaiting their trip into the under arena of Tyr, attempting to escape out through the dangerous tunnels without any issue. Of course this didn't happen that way, as the PCs soon found out that the whole commotion upstairs had rattled up the inhabitants downstairs as well. With an unnatural creature snuffing out their light, plunging them into darkness near a crossroads - incidentally [I]they haven't seen the last of this unknown creature[/I] - they lit the place back up to discover [I]zombies[/I]. Now if there is something I like in Dungeons and Dragons now and again, it's a good honest to god encounter with monsters that don't do a lot special. The zombies do grab PCs, but overall they are stupid and they find the nearest character to tear them limb from limb. This I felt was a suitable "contrast" in intelligence to the Ssurrans and other arena monsters the PCs have been facing up to this point. It was also an encounter that the controller Othagal would appreciate: None of the minions (16 in total in fact) had any tricks or similar (neither did the zombies). So bursts and blasts would be perfectly effective. Of course there were four entrances into the cistern area so the zombies were spread out by that, but they were tightly clustered at the start. The only notable terrain was salty, almost quagmire like water with a deadly fog over it. This is the product of a powerful defiler who slew an unnamed beast down here. His magic poisoned the water and the well had to be cut off from the rest of Tyrs water supply (lest it all become contaminated). This means the water is obscenely dangerous to drink, with anyone who does so losing a healing surge. Worse, the deadly fog that surrounds the water also drains the life of anyone in it - reducing the benefits of a healing surge by half. This is important information to bear in mind, as this effect becomes really significant in a later battle. One little trick to this encounter and it's something I love to do, is to "hold" monsters back. They are either invisible, they arrive later in the combat or something else. It's not something I do all the time, but it can be a nasty and unexpected surprise for the PCs. In this case, there was some loose masonry and one of the walls hadn't been patched up well. A group of zombies were waiting within the wall ready to pounce! [CENTER][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/Turn2Ambush.jpg[/IMG] [/CENTER] Conveniently on the first round, the thief just happened to move right next to it on his turn. This was incredibly fortuitous as the zombies wouldn't need to go far for a snack whatsoever. [CENTER][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/SURPRISE.jpg[/IMG] [/CENTER] Zephan is the parties thief and he's the unfortunate fellow right next to the wall with zombies behind it. The players reaction was rather priceless when they burst out. Unfortunately for the zombies, Othagal was well on top of things and very much enjoying himself, blasting all the zombies into pieces. He did however manage to get a nasty bite from one of the salt zombies, contracting salt madness. If you remember about the deadly water you might wonder "Why bother ever drinking it?" Well, this is where this disease that a PC could pick up comes in: [B]Salt Madness[/B] [I]Dry crystals of salt seem to stick to your skin, draining you of fluids and making you thirst for water - any water - no matter where it is...[/I] Level 1 Disease Stage 0: The target recovers from the disease. Stage 1: The target must resist a level + 3 vs. Will attack whenever it starts its turn within 2 squares of a source of water. Should it fail, the target moves towards the water source (if possible) and drinks as much as possible. The target can take no actions except drink until the attack fails. Stage 2: The target takes a -2 penalty to fortitude. Stage 3: The target dies and raises as a salt zombie within 24 hours. Endurance DC 7 or less = The stage of the disease advances by 1 Endurance DC 8-11 = No change Endurance DC 12+ = The stage of the disease decreases by 1. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on if you are Othagal) the disease did not take hold and the PCs handled the encounter fairly easily. Albeit thoughts soon turned to the rampant silk wyrm they heard had escaped into the tunnels. Perhaps it could be hiding somewhere in the tunnels too? Surely not... Surely not... The second encounter was also a considerable contrast to the first. Once again, there were more zombies in the underground near a fetid lake of poisonous defiled water. This time hidden deep within the fog was a nasty surprise: Two cistern wraiths! Now in this encounter I wanted to have a different kind of set up, with monsters of very different 'intelligence' for the PCs to fight. The zombies were as stupid as ever, clustering up and attacking whoever managed to get close enough to them. The wraiths however had a full "awareness" of their surroundings. Unlike the zombies they would attack vulnerable characters, set ambushes and use their insubstantial quality plus ability to hide to their advantage. Like the first encounter, I also made the decision to hold the wraiths back a turn and let the PCs get 'bogged down' in the zombies before bringing in the wraiths straight into the vulnerable backline. The wraiths were also a test of the monster vault, because I was curious how they would go. It's worth noting I had deleveled the wraiths to 3 and adjusted their invisibility bonus damage down. This was because 4d6+[B]14[/B] felt a bit much for a level 2 party. Albeit the wraiths could still do a not [I]insubstantial[/I] 27 points of damage with this attack if they crit with the damage I did give them - 2d8+9. The zombies were dispatched pretty easily but the wraiths were soon causing trouble, teleporting around and generally being a pain. To further infuriate the PCs, the Wraiths were canny enough to ready attacks; waiting until a PC that was adjacent to them [B]moved[/B] to make an attack. This meant that even if the PC they wanted to hurt wasn't around, they could use their attack on another character rather than potentially waste their readied action. This was because when a wraith turns invisible they are unable to attack until the end of their next turn. So readying an action was a viable way of getting their attack in before their next round. Again, this showed a clear difference in intelligence and tactics between the mindless zombies and the spiteful but cunning wraiths. One such effect of this was one of the wraiths critically hitting and pummeling the shaman down right into negative HPs in a single mighty blow :eek: [CENTER][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/WraithCrit.jpg[/IMG] [/CENTER] That was a cold dead grip right to the heart! Fortunately it is worth noting that the MV wraiths are brilliant for numerous reasons. For one, most of the party and their NPC ally Elana had force damage. This meant they could get through the insubstantial and inflict some damage on the wraiths on a reliable basis. Secondly, wraiths no longer weaken on an attack - honestly combining weakening with insubstantial was just mean spirited. Lastly, the wraiths needed time to set up their attacks, either with readied actions or needing to become invisible - so the PCs had time to react to their high damage. Overall the wraiths were finished off and the PCs victorious, if badly injured. This left onto the last run out past the former glorious Pillared Hall of Kalak in the under-arena and then freedom at last! Unfortunately for the PCs, there was one last obstacle in their way: The dreaded silk wyrm. Gorged on easy prey and safe from the zombies where it could hide in the ceilings numerous cracks and crevices, the silk wyrm had expanded in size quite considerably. But like most of these encounters, he hid back in the ceiling waiting until the PCs got drawn out of position a bit by three final salt zombies (who were in fact recent victims of the Wyrm). This was again a general theme for the session - holding back elements of the encounter in one way or another. Either way, the Silk Wyrm was back into action and greedily moved to assault the PCs. The thief moved out of the way and maneuvered behind a pillar - while the remaining PCs attacked it. Here came the event that shook the entire combat: Othagal stepped into the water and used burning hands, failing to account for the single square of movement the Wyrm gets on its reaction silk strands attack. This meant he got restrained within the life draining fog and then failed his saving throw against it. I was commanding the parties Shaman, who hadn't been able to come that session and then decided to throw him a healing spirit. After some debate, Othagal refused this healing due to the fogs effect and I gave it to the Battlemind instead. The Wyrm them got his next turn and it proved to be a doozy. He shifted into the water using his movement power and then used his minor action burst. This power overachieved like crazy, hitting nearly all the party except for the Thief. He punted the battlemind away and downed Othagal with this attack, while heavily damaging the remaining characters. This chaos proved to be quite a game changer as now the Silk Wyrm had 3 PCs (all slowed, with -2 penalty to all defenses), the NPC and himself in the middle of the difficult terrain water with the healing surge penalty effect. The next turn saw the Battlemind come back into the battle in the deadly fog. Remember, it penalizes healing surges by 1/2, so it's not an idea place to fight and the water is difficult terrain so squishy characters couldn't exit without drawing an OA. Before continuing this is where terrain is so important to a solo: Here the solo could dictate terms to the party and was able to swing the combat into an exciting tactical fight, instead of a static beatdown or "grind". I must concede that here I hold some responsibility for what was to happen next, because I made a tactical mistake on the Shaman's turn. I started the turn by foolishly moving the spirit adjacent to the silk wyrm and then flailing at it with an AP to use twin panthers (unsuccessfully I might add, reflex attacks were cursed for the entire session). Taking the offensive option, I used the minor action to dragonbreath the silk wyrm to try to inflict some extra damage (this was a terrible idea). I then used the Shaman's daily, [I]Spirit of the Healing Flood[/I] to try to give some healing. Unfortunately it's more a single target damage attack with a neat regen effect, but regeneration doesn't work on downed characters. I was going to use healing spirit, but ironically the player of the wizard Othagal corrected me - I had indeed used all my actions (moving the spirit). The next wyrm turn was exceptionally dramatic. He started off recharging his burst power and I immediately used it. This hit nearly all of the party this time, although the thief was missed by a narrow margin so avoided getting pulled towards the beast. On counting the hits I noticed something immediately: [I]The wyrm critically hit the downed wizard[/I]. This inflicted enough damage to drop him to negative bloodied! [I]I had just killed my first PC in this campaign[/I]. In addition to this, Hadithi ended up in the drink as well and so the shaman was down, the Thri-Kreen monk Ka'Cha was mauled and the wizard Othagal was now dead. I actually don't think it totally registered to him that he was dead for a short while either. On the final turn of the combat the encounter looked a little like this and was precariously balanced: [CENTER][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/Ohsnap.jpg[/IMG] [/CENTER] Zephan is in the corner there (away from everything), Eshara is near the top right of the wyrm and Ka'Cha is right next to her (just look for the Thri-Kreen ;)). The silk wyrm was in the middle of the deadly pool of water and liking his chances for 6 new meals :O. Elana is the NPC with the party they met in the previous session, who is just below the wyrm and *almost dead*. Hadithi is unconscious and nearly dead just next to her and Othagal was adjacent to Hadithi (that's where he bit it). The power of a burst five power! The best move before this turn was the battlemind, who made a brilliant decision in giving the entire party 14 temp HP using one of his powers (forget what it is called). Although temp HP does not get characters back up from dead, it is still a buffer to your HP even on negative hit points - making it considerably more difficult to kill you. It's worth noting this act saved the shaman's life, because he would have [I]also[/I] died if it wasn't for this decision. Additionally the Battlemind also struck the wyrm with a power that meant it would do 4 damage to itself each time it hit one of his allies. Predictably on the next turn, the wyrm again recharged his burst and went for it: Unfortunately this time the temp HP absorbed all the damage, plus the conductive defenses 4 damage slew the wyrm outright! The party earned their third magical item - a suit of scorpion scale armor, which prevents a creature with tremorsense from seeing you unless it has line of sight - quite useful for things coming up :O. At this point of course there was a debate on what to do with Othagal. The player didn't want to die and had invested a lot into his background, plus at this point with their escape the games "prologue" was now over. I decided that allies of Othagal - who I was going to have meet them outside the arena anyway - took him away and managed to find a way of bringing him back from the dead. This would explain a change in certain aspects of the character - including theme to elemental priest. At this point as well I have given the PCs an entire [I]year[/I] to wander around before the resumption of the campaign. This helps to explain changes in character, themes, abilities and whatever else they may want before the first real module of the campaign. A few of the players are taking the opportunity to change some things around and the thief might even be an executioner by the time I write my next report! It was quite handy to have the death when it occurred, because there is ample time to logically write in new characters, changes or even how someone might come back from the dead. Before finishing it's worth discussing something that I think changed that combats dynamic quite a lot. It seemed like a relatively innocuous change at the time, but altering the silk wyrm from medium to large size had a big impact on the battle. For one thing, the wyrm was able to get a much bigger coverage of its recharge power and hold all the PCs adjacent to it once it succeeded much more easily. [CENTER][IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v305/Aegeri/Size.jpg[/IMG] [/CENTER] You can see here that the large size makes a small - but significant impact on the number of overall squares the creature effects. This makes it harder to stay out of the burst in the tight tunnel environment. Albeit while most of the characters would have been in range either way, it does make for a somewhat interesting difference on the overall way the combat played out. Either way I am very much looking forward to the next module and where the story really will start to pick up. A classic caravan guard duty that goes wrong - it may be an old classic Dark Sun chestnut, but it's one certainly worth exploring. [/QUOTE]
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