Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Playtest Campaign: Second Session TPK
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="MortalPlague" data-source="post: 6058341" data-attributes="member: 62721"><p><strong><span style="font-size: 15px">Session Three: Heroic Rampage</span></strong></p><p></p><p>We sat down at the table one short; Mink the monk's player was missing. But we decided to play anyway; we'd just have Mink hanging out at the back of the party, "fighting some additional bad guys". An easy way to handle his absence without having to run his character.</p><p></p><p>The first order of business was to clear out the rest of the kobold lair. The party had only two areas left to check; a large barred door in the middle of the kobold complex had some threatening noises from behind it, while the underground lake (which had the snakes in it) was still mostly unexplored. Dealing with the barred door first, they quickly discovered an ogre locked away, with a healthy pile of well-gnawed adventurer bones. The PCs had the jump on him, and destroyed the ogre before he had a turn. Some good, hefty damage rolls really helped take him down fast.</p><p></p><p><em>Under the hood: Not much to say about this one. The PCs were smart; they unbarred the door stealthily, then gained a surprise round. The ogre rolled low on initiative. So all four PCs plus their NPC got in an attack, then three more attacks occurred before the ogre would have a chance to fight. He's got a lot of HP, but not THAT much HP.</em></p><p></p><p>Some loot was had, including a dead wizard's spellbook. I'm using an old rule from earlier editions, where the wizard doesn't automatically get spells when she levels up. Instead, she has to find a wizard who knows the spell, or find it in a book. Making spells a treasure or quest item can make for some great adventuring.</p><p></p><p>The PCs poked around at the lake, finding a couple of treasures underwater, and they quickly dispatched a bunch of non-aggressive fire beetles. Feeling mighty good about themselves, they decided they would be best served to explore some of the other wings of the dungeon. They jammed a broken pillar into the kobold escape chute (which led to a lower level), and then made their way out into the central cave.</p><p></p><p>The cave offered an opportunity to meet the other adventuring party who had taken the delve, entering at the same time they did. Marissa Cairn, a lady warrior in blue was sitting at a fire, cooking some giant beetle with her two surviving men-at-arms. They told the PCs they'd attempted to raid a place called the Hall of Bells on the second floor, but the undead had slain two of theirs. Marissa provided the PCs with some information on the other wings, so the characters made some decisions. They decided to attempt the goblin caves first, then to explore Refuge.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 15px">The Goblins</span></strong></p><p></p><p>The big defensive feature of the goblin caves is a twenty foot chasm. The far side offers cover for goblins; they post a sentry there, who alerts the others if anyone's coming. The walls are covered in thick foliage, which allows someone to climb along them. But Brelf didn't require it; with Rosco Tealeaf on his shoulders, he made a jump, and with his 18 strength, he covered 18 of 20 feet. He grabbed the far edge with his arms, and used his second action to pull himself up and take cover. Rosco slipped around the cover and spotted the goblin sentry, who he quickly shanked.</p><p></p><p>The sentry hadn't had a chance to sound the alarm.</p><p></p><p>The party then ambushed a goblin patrol, then ambushed a scout sent to check on the noise. Then they forayed deeper into the cavern complex.</p><p></p><p>There was a lot of activity from the goblins; moving feet, barked orders. But the goblins wanted no part of a fight. They asked to parley, and two of the PCs met with Rax, the bugbear who leads the goblins. The PCs noticed that many of the goblin warriors bore wounds from an earlier fight; the bugbear confirmed that a couple of adventurers had been through recently. He offered to pay them to leave them alone. They accepted his terms, and about 250 gp richer, left the goblins alone. Perhaps the most surprising part was that Mariele offered to heal the goblins. When Rax declined, suggesting it would look weak, she left him a healer's kit. The gesture actually moved Rax; in the future, the bugbear may be more of an ally than he would've been otherwise.</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 15px">To Refuge!</span></strong></p><p></p><p>Well, not quite. The party went into the wing of the dungeon that held Refuge, the bandit town. But they were sidetracked. The entrance to that wing passes through a library, which is entirely picked clean except for one book, sitting on a conspicuous pedestal. Correctly realizing it was trapped, they decided to investigate; the book was a very fine spellbook, after all. They determined that the pedestal itself was alive; it was, in fact, a gargoyle. Standing back, the PCs decided to attack. The casters managed to inflict some damage as it emerged, and then the warriors promptly dealt with it.</p><p></p><p><em>Under the hood: A gargoyle is a level 5 monster worth 320 xp. On its own, it should constitute a tough encounter for a 2nd level party of four (280 xp would be the usual budget). Accounting for Drekkis the NPC, the encounter should be really challenging. It began with a roll of initiative and a surprise round. I decided that the gargoyle would have DR of 10 while in stone form (particularly since its body was largely out of view, only its arms were visible). Two arrows struck it, but failed to do enough damage (since gargoyles are resistant to non-magical attacks). The two casters, however, readied actions to blast it when it revealed itself. When its initiative count came up, the gargoyle burst into view, and was blasted for 21 damage between the pair. Gargoyles only have 34 hit points. It made one attack on Brelf and missed it. Then all the PCs smashed it to dust.</em></p><p></p><p>They claimed the spellbook, and set about exploring the rest of the wing. There was a section that led off towards Refuge which they ignored, then a section which housed some undead. A wight made a lair here, with six zombies accompanying it. The undead commander issued a warning not to tresspass, and the party decided to destroy said undead monstrosity. And they did.</p><p></p><p><em>Under the hood: One Wight, Six Zombies is 420 xp. The encounter should have been a real challenge, but here's what happened instead. First, the mage won the initiative. She stepped forward and used ray of frost on the wight. She rolled a critical hit, and dealt 21 damage. Now at 6 hit points remaining, the wight had lower hit points than the zombies (who had 7). The cleric went next; she stepped forward and turned undead. She didn't roll enough to destroy any, but she had enough points to affect the undead. And since it affects undead based on hit points remaining, the wight was immediately forced to flee for a minute. Six zombies didn't stand much of a chance without their leader.</em></p><p></p><p>Examining the wight revealed that his armor would probably fetch a good price based on the amount of metal alone, so they decided to start removing it from him. Drawn by the sounds of battle, an ankheg began to burrow towards the party; the rogue heard it, so he ushered the party into the hallway, dragging the wight's corpse with them. Dragging the corpse wasn't helping matters any, and the brute burrowed up beneath the fighter. Brelf made his dexterity save, and was able to step back to safety. They battled the ankheg, who spit acid at the party, scoring the only real damage all day. Then they took the beast down, and cut it open to find a trove of swallowed gems.</p><p></p><p><em>Under the hood: The ankheg was one of my medium encounters on the random encounter chart, worth 210 xp. His breath weapon actually hit most of the party, and dealt the only damage most party members took all night. And since the DC on the save is 9, everyone made it, taking only 4 acid damage. The creature has an AC of 18, which every single attack managed to hit. It wasn't that the AC was poor, but my party's dice luck was incredible.</em></p><p></p><p>Satisfied with their victory, the adventurers decided to check out the other passage before venturing to Refuge. They explored a few tunnels with some portcullis traps, and found a puzzle door which required an INT check to pass by. They made that, and discovered an alchemist's laboratory, long abandoned, but with plenty of valuable tomes on science and the like. Also, they found some potions, and a the wire-connected skeleton of Hawthorne the Rat, the previous tenant's familiar. Hawthorne's story was carved all over his bones in arcane runes.</p><p></p><p>After some looting, the party found another room with some sarcophagi. Naturally, they decided to open one, and they found the bones of a dead tenant swimming in a gray ooze. The puddle attacked, and three monstrous centipedes emerged from a small crack to join the fight! The party made short work of them.</p><p></p><p><em>Under the hood: Gray Ooze is 150 xp, and I had 3 giant centipedes for a total of 180 xp. So this was meant to be an average fight. Surprisingly, it lasted the longest out of any of the fights, mostly because the PCs didn't want to hit the ooze with weapons (after the NPC got his greatsword damaged). Still, the magic was effective, and the warriors dealt with the centipedes with their usual efficiency. Ultimately, the ooze was slain on an opportunity attack, as it tried to get at the softer, magical targets. The fight may have reached the third round.</em></p><p></p><p>At this point, we wrapped up, with the PCs debating whether to return to town with their treasures (and earn some bracelets from the Church), or to investigate Refuge first. Either way, it should be an excellent session next Tuesday!</p><p></p><p></p><p><strong><span style="font-size: 15px">Observations</span></strong></p><p></p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">When PCs go on a dice rolling hot streak... wow. It wasn't that my dice were cold, my monsters didn't get a chance to act. None of the fights lasted more than 3 rounds.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">D&D Next moves FAST. We got through 5 significant fights (the ogre, the goblins, the wight and zombies, the ankheg, the ooze), had plenty of exploration (they explored two wings of the dungeon), and had some roleplay encounters as well. All this in a four hour session. I nearly ran out of prepared material!</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MortalPlague, post: 6058341, member: 62721"] [B][SIZE=4]Session Three: Heroic Rampage[/SIZE][/B] We sat down at the table one short; Mink the monk's player was missing. But we decided to play anyway; we'd just have Mink hanging out at the back of the party, "fighting some additional bad guys". An easy way to handle his absence without having to run his character. The first order of business was to clear out the rest of the kobold lair. The party had only two areas left to check; a large barred door in the middle of the kobold complex had some threatening noises from behind it, while the underground lake (which had the snakes in it) was still mostly unexplored. Dealing with the barred door first, they quickly discovered an ogre locked away, with a healthy pile of well-gnawed adventurer bones. The PCs had the jump on him, and destroyed the ogre before he had a turn. Some good, hefty damage rolls really helped take him down fast. [I]Under the hood: Not much to say about this one. The PCs were smart; they unbarred the door stealthily, then gained a surprise round. The ogre rolled low on initiative. So all four PCs plus their NPC got in an attack, then three more attacks occurred before the ogre would have a chance to fight. He's got a lot of HP, but not THAT much HP.[/I] Some loot was had, including a dead wizard's spellbook. I'm using an old rule from earlier editions, where the wizard doesn't automatically get spells when she levels up. Instead, she has to find a wizard who knows the spell, or find it in a book. Making spells a treasure or quest item can make for some great adventuring. The PCs poked around at the lake, finding a couple of treasures underwater, and they quickly dispatched a bunch of non-aggressive fire beetles. Feeling mighty good about themselves, they decided they would be best served to explore some of the other wings of the dungeon. They jammed a broken pillar into the kobold escape chute (which led to a lower level), and then made their way out into the central cave. The cave offered an opportunity to meet the other adventuring party who had taken the delve, entering at the same time they did. Marissa Cairn, a lady warrior in blue was sitting at a fire, cooking some giant beetle with her two surviving men-at-arms. They told the PCs they'd attempted to raid a place called the Hall of Bells on the second floor, but the undead had slain two of theirs. Marissa provided the PCs with some information on the other wings, so the characters made some decisions. They decided to attempt the goblin caves first, then to explore Refuge. [B][SIZE=4]The Goblins[/SIZE][/B] The big defensive feature of the goblin caves is a twenty foot chasm. The far side offers cover for goblins; they post a sentry there, who alerts the others if anyone's coming. The walls are covered in thick foliage, which allows someone to climb along them. But Brelf didn't require it; with Rosco Tealeaf on his shoulders, he made a jump, and with his 18 strength, he covered 18 of 20 feet. He grabbed the far edge with his arms, and used his second action to pull himself up and take cover. Rosco slipped around the cover and spotted the goblin sentry, who he quickly shanked. The sentry hadn't had a chance to sound the alarm. The party then ambushed a goblin patrol, then ambushed a scout sent to check on the noise. Then they forayed deeper into the cavern complex. There was a lot of activity from the goblins; moving feet, barked orders. But the goblins wanted no part of a fight. They asked to parley, and two of the PCs met with Rax, the bugbear who leads the goblins. The PCs noticed that many of the goblin warriors bore wounds from an earlier fight; the bugbear confirmed that a couple of adventurers had been through recently. He offered to pay them to leave them alone. They accepted his terms, and about 250 gp richer, left the goblins alone. Perhaps the most surprising part was that Mariele offered to heal the goblins. When Rax declined, suggesting it would look weak, she left him a healer's kit. The gesture actually moved Rax; in the future, the bugbear may be more of an ally than he would've been otherwise. [B][SIZE=4]To Refuge![/SIZE][/B] Well, not quite. The party went into the wing of the dungeon that held Refuge, the bandit town. But they were sidetracked. The entrance to that wing passes through a library, which is entirely picked clean except for one book, sitting on a conspicuous pedestal. Correctly realizing it was trapped, they decided to investigate; the book was a very fine spellbook, after all. They determined that the pedestal itself was alive; it was, in fact, a gargoyle. Standing back, the PCs decided to attack. The casters managed to inflict some damage as it emerged, and then the warriors promptly dealt with it. [I]Under the hood: A gargoyle is a level 5 monster worth 320 xp. On its own, it should constitute a tough encounter for a 2nd level party of four (280 xp would be the usual budget). Accounting for Drekkis the NPC, the encounter should be really challenging. It began with a roll of initiative and a surprise round. I decided that the gargoyle would have DR of 10 while in stone form (particularly since its body was largely out of view, only its arms were visible). Two arrows struck it, but failed to do enough damage (since gargoyles are resistant to non-magical attacks). The two casters, however, readied actions to blast it when it revealed itself. When its initiative count came up, the gargoyle burst into view, and was blasted for 21 damage between the pair. Gargoyles only have 34 hit points. It made one attack on Brelf and missed it. Then all the PCs smashed it to dust.[/I] They claimed the spellbook, and set about exploring the rest of the wing. There was a section that led off towards Refuge which they ignored, then a section which housed some undead. A wight made a lair here, with six zombies accompanying it. The undead commander issued a warning not to tresspass, and the party decided to destroy said undead monstrosity. And they did. [I]Under the hood: One Wight, Six Zombies is 420 xp. The encounter should have been a real challenge, but here's what happened instead. First, the mage won the initiative. She stepped forward and used ray of frost on the wight. She rolled a critical hit, and dealt 21 damage. Now at 6 hit points remaining, the wight had lower hit points than the zombies (who had 7). The cleric went next; she stepped forward and turned undead. She didn't roll enough to destroy any, but she had enough points to affect the undead. And since it affects undead based on hit points remaining, the wight was immediately forced to flee for a minute. Six zombies didn't stand much of a chance without their leader.[/I] Examining the wight revealed that his armor would probably fetch a good price based on the amount of metal alone, so they decided to start removing it from him. Drawn by the sounds of battle, an ankheg began to burrow towards the party; the rogue heard it, so he ushered the party into the hallway, dragging the wight's corpse with them. Dragging the corpse wasn't helping matters any, and the brute burrowed up beneath the fighter. Brelf made his dexterity save, and was able to step back to safety. They battled the ankheg, who spit acid at the party, scoring the only real damage all day. Then they took the beast down, and cut it open to find a trove of swallowed gems. [I]Under the hood: The ankheg was one of my medium encounters on the random encounter chart, worth 210 xp. His breath weapon actually hit most of the party, and dealt the only damage most party members took all night. And since the DC on the save is 9, everyone made it, taking only 4 acid damage. The creature has an AC of 18, which every single attack managed to hit. It wasn't that the AC was poor, but my party's dice luck was incredible.[/I] Satisfied with their victory, the adventurers decided to check out the other passage before venturing to Refuge. They explored a few tunnels with some portcullis traps, and found a puzzle door which required an INT check to pass by. They made that, and discovered an alchemist's laboratory, long abandoned, but with plenty of valuable tomes on science and the like. Also, they found some potions, and a the wire-connected skeleton of Hawthorne the Rat, the previous tenant's familiar. Hawthorne's story was carved all over his bones in arcane runes. After some looting, the party found another room with some sarcophagi. Naturally, they decided to open one, and they found the bones of a dead tenant swimming in a gray ooze. The puddle attacked, and three monstrous centipedes emerged from a small crack to join the fight! The party made short work of them. [I]Under the hood: Gray Ooze is 150 xp, and I had 3 giant centipedes for a total of 180 xp. So this was meant to be an average fight. Surprisingly, it lasted the longest out of any of the fights, mostly because the PCs didn't want to hit the ooze with weapons (after the NPC got his greatsword damaged). Still, the magic was effective, and the warriors dealt with the centipedes with their usual efficiency. Ultimately, the ooze was slain on an opportunity attack, as it tried to get at the softer, magical targets. The fight may have reached the third round.[/I] At this point, we wrapped up, with the PCs debating whether to return to town with their treasures (and earn some bracelets from the Church), or to investigate Refuge first. Either way, it should be an excellent session next Tuesday! [B][SIZE=4]Observations[/SIZE][/B] [LIST] [*]When PCs go on a dice rolling hot streak... wow. It wasn't that my dice were cold, my monsters didn't get a chance to act. None of the fights lasted more than 3 rounds. [*]D&D Next moves FAST. We got through 5 significant fights (the ogre, the goblins, the wight and zombies, the ankheg, the ooze), had plenty of exploration (they explored two wings of the dungeon), and had some roleplay encounters as well. All this in a four hour session. I nearly ran out of prepared material! [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Playtest Campaign: Second Session TPK
Top