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
EN Publishing
Rangda's Zeitgeist Campaign (SPOILERS)
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="rangda" data-source="post: 6034398" data-attributes="member: 86125"><p><strong>10/20 Session</strong></p><p></p><p>This session starts with a bang as the conspiracy makes their assassination attempt on Nevard. My players have had a really easy time of it so far so I've raised the difficulty level of this encounter considerably. The “druids” are revealed to be skeletons, some of them head for Nevard while others turn cranks on their carriages (I've got two waves of jaguars, a wave of 6 and a follow up wave of 3). It's about this time the party notices the rusted metal rings on the sides of the carriages which suddenly become active bleak gate portals which spew forth 6 frankenstein jaguars. The Jaguars head straight for the party to engage, the plan being that 3 more will come through as a second wave on round 3-4 to get Nevard while the party is busy. (I figured 9 jaguars would keep the party busy for a while). This was a brutal fight which took about 3 hours with lots of careful strategy. The jaguars were right on the edge of what the players could handle but I rolled 3 critical in the first 2 rounds of combat (including a double crit on poor Laci). In round 3, three of the players were dieing and it was really touch and go. But the absurd level of dice rolling continued as two of the players rolled 20's on their death saves to get right back up. (I think there were around 15 or so 20's rolled on attacks or death saves in this fight, it was insane.) Lots of back and forth swings. The party just barely managed to keep the 3 extra jaguars off Nevard and all he ended up taking was 5 hp of drain from a witch oil zone. Interestingly what saved Nevard wasn't the party (directly anyway) but the 4 bobby's the PC's called in with a favor. Carlie literally threw herself in the way of one of the Jaguars and her heroics inspired the bobby's to do the same. In my game it's 2 hits to kill a minion (first bloodies, second kills) and those 4 extra bodies slowed the jaguars down enough that the party could get to them before they could get to Nevard.</p><p></p><p>With this fight over the players are at an impasse. They've investigated all of their leads and really don't have anything solid that connects Macbannin to what is going on. This is what I thought was the weakest part of the module; that at the end you have sort of handwave the PC's into “Macbannin did it” (unless there is something I missed, the module is complex enough that is entirely possible). I nudged them with a note from Cippiano which read “Follow xxx, yyy, zzz to the man that lives on the top of the hill.” xxx, yyy, zzz were shell companies that the papers were involved in moving supplies around and with some diligent checking on those companies the players get enough facts to pin down that Macbannin is behind them. It makes for a great NCIS exposition seen but my disappointment was with the fact that it was me explaining it to the players rather than the players explaining it to me. (I do recognize that conspiracy modules can be maddeningly hard to pull off as if you leave enough pieces out there for the PC's to figure it out you run the risk of them figuring it out way too early, but I still wish the players could have put it together themselves somehow.)</p><p></p><p>Anyway armed with some reasonably hard evidence that Macbannin is involved the party pulls some strings, gets a search warrant for his grounds, pulls in more favors to get an escort of 4 soldiers & 12(!) bobby's, and heads off to the mansion.</p><p></p><p>This plays out much as you'd expect. Macbannin makes some small talk but he figures out pretty quickly they've got something on him and he goes into his scripted speech. This fight makes for a classic end of movie James Bond battle as there are 22 minions on one side and 16 on the other. I've got the minions in a giant gun fight while the PC's take the battle to Macbannin & his Kell guards. With Carlie working Kell into her background as the gang she turned stoolie on she's got a big hate-on for Kell, she recognizes the bodyguards as being part of Kell's gang. I hit her with a compulsion, attack the bodyguards to the exclusion of all else (unless some poor victim gets into the areas) until they are dead (not unconscious) and get a damage boost for the fight, or spend an action point to resist the compulsion. (This is something else pulled from FATE.) She gives in to her hate and she and the guards go at it. Macbannin uses his area slow/weaken attack to slow the party down as he backpedals, hoping the bodyguards will take them down. But Ford and Laci manage to engage. Those curses Macbannin had are EVIL, really caught my players off guard and that doesn't happen often. But Carlie went plaid on Kell's goons (20's crawling out of the woodwork again) making this fight a foregone conclusion. By the time it even occurred to Macbannin that he should be retreating he was unconscious in custody.</p><p></p><p>My group has enough presence of mind to pull Macbannin out of the giant fight, cuff him, and grab some bobbys to guard him to make sure none of his minions carry him away while everyone is distracted fighting. They then head off in search of Creed. This leads them to the tool shed which leads them to the lab. Because they caught Macbannin outside the fights in the lab are all split up so none of them are particularly hard. The jaguars which gave them so much trouble in Dawn Square go down easy in ones or twos. And even Creed when he fades in from the bleak gate doesn't last long. All of this together with Macbannin would have been a classic fight but such was not meant to be. Probably for the best given the very cramped quarters of the lab. With two technologists in the party with unspent tech points shutting down the machine is relatively easy.</p><p></p><p>The interesting bit here is that my party drained ALL of the witch oil through the down pipe. The module didn't talk about what this would do to the factory on the other side but I'm sure it's not good. That's what the players thought anyway. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> Macbannin is arrested and “kills himself” before trial. I took of vote of how many of my group really believed he killed himself and nobody raised their hand...</p><p></p><p>We still had a bit of time left so we started in on module 3. They got their cutscenes of paper pushing as Saxby ties them to desk duty. I asked them how they chose to interact with the team assigned to their case and they decided to be as helpful as possible. They offered as much help as they could and made themselves available to the other team could pick their brains. In particular the other team has expressed a lot of frustration on how the powers that be seem to keep stonewalling their investigation. Warrants requests get bogged down in the system, requests for backup are always denied, it's like nobody wants this mystery solved. The only people actually being helpful are the PC's. This has given them some camaraderie with the PC's, which will affect how things player out later...</p><p></p><p>The party gets their guard duty assignment, meets with Sgt. Lockheart, and spends some time taking in the fair. I gave my players a handout including a list of the exhibitors; I wanted to provide a map of the fair but giving them a copy of the tactical map would have given too much away. I'm sure finances don't allow, but a plot plan map of the fair grounds would have been a great player handout. My group isn't big on the social RP thing so they don't interact much with anybody they just take in the sights. So at this point they haven't gotten a whif of any of the trouble that's bubbling under the surface. They did, however want to check out Nock's booth as well as the steam powered armor. Which gets them to that part of the fair for “the incident”. </p><p></p><p>The session ends with the party running to investigate the screams from the crowd; stumbling into the weirdest set of creatures they've ever seen, along with someone holding a golden staff. (Note to self: this campaign needs rules for san loss.) Another cliffhanger ending; I'm starting to like these. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>Player objectives for next session:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Kill the weird alien creatures</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't die.</li> </ul></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="rangda, post: 6034398, member: 86125"] [b]10/20 Session[/b] This session starts with a bang as the conspiracy makes their assassination attempt on Nevard. My players have had a really easy time of it so far so I've raised the difficulty level of this encounter considerably. The “druids” are revealed to be skeletons, some of them head for Nevard while others turn cranks on their carriages (I've got two waves of jaguars, a wave of 6 and a follow up wave of 3). It's about this time the party notices the rusted metal rings on the sides of the carriages which suddenly become active bleak gate portals which spew forth 6 frankenstein jaguars. The Jaguars head straight for the party to engage, the plan being that 3 more will come through as a second wave on round 3-4 to get Nevard while the party is busy. (I figured 9 jaguars would keep the party busy for a while). This was a brutal fight which took about 3 hours with lots of careful strategy. The jaguars were right on the edge of what the players could handle but I rolled 3 critical in the first 2 rounds of combat (including a double crit on poor Laci). In round 3, three of the players were dieing and it was really touch and go. But the absurd level of dice rolling continued as two of the players rolled 20's on their death saves to get right back up. (I think there were around 15 or so 20's rolled on attacks or death saves in this fight, it was insane.) Lots of back and forth swings. The party just barely managed to keep the 3 extra jaguars off Nevard and all he ended up taking was 5 hp of drain from a witch oil zone. Interestingly what saved Nevard wasn't the party (directly anyway) but the 4 bobby's the PC's called in with a favor. Carlie literally threw herself in the way of one of the Jaguars and her heroics inspired the bobby's to do the same. In my game it's 2 hits to kill a minion (first bloodies, second kills) and those 4 extra bodies slowed the jaguars down enough that the party could get to them before they could get to Nevard. With this fight over the players are at an impasse. They've investigated all of their leads and really don't have anything solid that connects Macbannin to what is going on. This is what I thought was the weakest part of the module; that at the end you have sort of handwave the PC's into “Macbannin did it” (unless there is something I missed, the module is complex enough that is entirely possible). I nudged them with a note from Cippiano which read “Follow xxx, yyy, zzz to the man that lives on the top of the hill.” xxx, yyy, zzz were shell companies that the papers were involved in moving supplies around and with some diligent checking on those companies the players get enough facts to pin down that Macbannin is behind them. It makes for a great NCIS exposition seen but my disappointment was with the fact that it was me explaining it to the players rather than the players explaining it to me. (I do recognize that conspiracy modules can be maddeningly hard to pull off as if you leave enough pieces out there for the PC's to figure it out you run the risk of them figuring it out way too early, but I still wish the players could have put it together themselves somehow.) Anyway armed with some reasonably hard evidence that Macbannin is involved the party pulls some strings, gets a search warrant for his grounds, pulls in more favors to get an escort of 4 soldiers & 12(!) bobby's, and heads off to the mansion. This plays out much as you'd expect. Macbannin makes some small talk but he figures out pretty quickly they've got something on him and he goes into his scripted speech. This fight makes for a classic end of movie James Bond battle as there are 22 minions on one side and 16 on the other. I've got the minions in a giant gun fight while the PC's take the battle to Macbannin & his Kell guards. With Carlie working Kell into her background as the gang she turned stoolie on she's got a big hate-on for Kell, she recognizes the bodyguards as being part of Kell's gang. I hit her with a compulsion, attack the bodyguards to the exclusion of all else (unless some poor victim gets into the areas) until they are dead (not unconscious) and get a damage boost for the fight, or spend an action point to resist the compulsion. (This is something else pulled from FATE.) She gives in to her hate and she and the guards go at it. Macbannin uses his area slow/weaken attack to slow the party down as he backpedals, hoping the bodyguards will take them down. But Ford and Laci manage to engage. Those curses Macbannin had are EVIL, really caught my players off guard and that doesn't happen often. But Carlie went plaid on Kell's goons (20's crawling out of the woodwork again) making this fight a foregone conclusion. By the time it even occurred to Macbannin that he should be retreating he was unconscious in custody. My group has enough presence of mind to pull Macbannin out of the giant fight, cuff him, and grab some bobbys to guard him to make sure none of his minions carry him away while everyone is distracted fighting. They then head off in search of Creed. This leads them to the tool shed which leads them to the lab. Because they caught Macbannin outside the fights in the lab are all split up so none of them are particularly hard. The jaguars which gave them so much trouble in Dawn Square go down easy in ones or twos. And even Creed when he fades in from the bleak gate doesn't last long. All of this together with Macbannin would have been a classic fight but such was not meant to be. Probably for the best given the very cramped quarters of the lab. With two technologists in the party with unspent tech points shutting down the machine is relatively easy. The interesting bit here is that my party drained ALL of the witch oil through the down pipe. The module didn't talk about what this would do to the factory on the other side but I'm sure it's not good. That's what the players thought anyway. :) Macbannin is arrested and “kills himself” before trial. I took of vote of how many of my group really believed he killed himself and nobody raised their hand... We still had a bit of time left so we started in on module 3. They got their cutscenes of paper pushing as Saxby ties them to desk duty. I asked them how they chose to interact with the team assigned to their case and they decided to be as helpful as possible. They offered as much help as they could and made themselves available to the other team could pick their brains. In particular the other team has expressed a lot of frustration on how the powers that be seem to keep stonewalling their investigation. Warrants requests get bogged down in the system, requests for backup are always denied, it's like nobody wants this mystery solved. The only people actually being helpful are the PC's. This has given them some camaraderie with the PC's, which will affect how things player out later... The party gets their guard duty assignment, meets with Sgt. Lockheart, and spends some time taking in the fair. I gave my players a handout including a list of the exhibitors; I wanted to provide a map of the fair but giving them a copy of the tactical map would have given too much away. I'm sure finances don't allow, but a plot plan map of the fair grounds would have been a great player handout. My group isn't big on the social RP thing so they don't interact much with anybody they just take in the sights. So at this point they haven't gotten a whif of any of the trouble that's bubbling under the surface. They did, however want to check out Nock's booth as well as the steam powered armor. Which gets them to that part of the fair for “the incident”. The session ends with the party running to investigate the screams from the crowd; stumbling into the weirdest set of creatures they've ever seen, along with someone holding a golden staff. (Note to self: this campaign needs rules for san loss.) Another cliffhanger ending; I'm starting to like these. :) Player objectives for next session: [LIST] [*]Kill the weird alien creatures [*]Don't die. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
EN Publishing
Rangda's Zeitgeist Campaign (SPOILERS)
Top