Rise of the Runelords 4E: Story Hour and Conversion Notes

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Starring Characters:

T'rune - Goliath Fighter

T'rune came to Sandpoint looking for mercenary or guard work. He fgured the vendors at the Swallowtail Festival would be the best place to start. Plus he heard there would be free food!

Toox - Changeling Sorcerer

Unlike other Changelings she's not afraid to show her true form. She's a traveler that is constantly on the move, usually because she's a thief. She doesn't depend on her arcane ways to cause trouble. She only uses her powers to get out of situations that her thievery skills or her mouth can't get her out of. She's at the Swallowtail Festival because she knows there will be a crowd and plenty of pockets to picks.

Marissa Darkma - Drow Rogue

A mysterious, cloaked figure, Marissa came to Sandpoint seeking to establish merchant ties and form her own guild. She's not afraid to get down and a little dirty in her business, but intends to practice through mainly legal means. She came to the Swallowtail Festival to observe and make note of who the movers and shakers are in town.

Swift - Longtooth Shifter Ranger

The consumate wandering adventure-seeker. He came to the Swallowtail Festival because it was the place to be in his new temporary home.

Celeste - Deva Shaman

She is not sure why she's been reincarnated into this life, but she's drawn to the consecration of the new temple. She feels that this event is a starting point in a war between good and evil. She's an interesting site to the locals. She's got gray skin long dark purple and gray hair weaved into one long braid down her back. Her clothes are simple compared to the rest of her looks. The locals usually pay her no mind, since they're usually looking with fear and amazement at her companion that never leaves her side. She calls her companion a "ghost-saber," her purple-hued ghost panther.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

PART ONE: FESTIVAL AND FIRE

The Swallowtail Festival

Our starring characters mostly laid low and listened during the opening ceremonies and speeches. They enjoyed a free lunch provided by the taverns of Sandpoint. All of them were new to town and spent most of the festival people-watching. Marissa took a jaunt through town after her short lunch to "case out" the town. She wanted to get a feel for how the inhabitants of Sandpoint earned their money.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Goblins in the Streets!

Initial Assault

Father Zantus' commencement of the consecration is interrupted by crazed goblins. The catchy, yet disturbing song of the goblins could be heard from all around. The first sign of attack came in the form of a painful yelp of a dog, followed by a dying gurgle. The goblins came in waves, sending the crowd running in panic and leaving our new heroes to defend the town.

This scene was meant to show the chaos of the goblin attack. The sounds of shrill goblin laughter as they merciliessly attacked the town rang out from all directions. The original adventure called for 3 goblin warriors to confront a party of four. I was glad to have the 4E minion rules at this point, because an equally level-appropriate encounter for 5 PCs became 20 goblin cutters. My experience with 4E warned me that 20 goblin cutters against a 1st-level party could spell trouble. So I started the encounter with 4 goblin cutters hiding around the wagon where the dog was killed. I also wanted to emulate the effects of the crowd and incorporate the original adventure's call for a Spot check. So the check became a DC 12 Perception check to determine who was able to act in the surprise round.

The crowd itself was played in the abstract, making the entire map area difficult terrain and providing cover to any non-adjacent target. I also played up the fact that the crowd was surprised by the arrival of the goblins and that they were in danger. I allowed any good plan to try to move the crowd a DC 20 chance at success, allowing any character willing to move the crowd the ability to aid another even though they did not know each other as a group yet. Swift was the only one to try to get people moving towards the nearby Town Hall, but he was not persausive enough. Success would have allowed the crowd to clear out at the end of the surprise round, while failure meant that conditions persisted until the end of the first full round.

The end of the second, third, fourth and fifth rounds saw another wave of goblin cutters. I wanted to incorporate the comical actions that the author suggested the party witness into the combat itself.

The first wave of five additional goblins came into the temple square from the opposite direction as the first. They came in as the majority of the crowd was dispersing. The goblins parted in fear as one townsfolk fled on horseback, but one goblin was too slow and was trampled to death by the horse.

The second wave of five came in through a vendor tent, climbing over his wares and supplies. One slipped and fell headfirst into a rain barrel. When checked on later, the players discovered that the goblin had gotten stuck and drowned.

The third wave of five came climbing over a building dropping down from the rooftop. A townsfolk who was hiding in the bushes near the building ran as the goblins dropped down around him. One of the goblins cackled in glee as he leapt to catch the fleeing man. The party saw the goblin's face contort in horror as it realized it had missed and had leapt head-first from the roof. The goblin landed with a nasty crunch, it's neck snapped instantly.

The final wave of five came in from the south with torches. They frightened a cowering mother, who clutched her baby tight to her chest and fled. One of the goblins took on a sadistic glare and threw his torch at the fleeing mother, but instead hit one of his allies who immediately caught fire, running around in a small frantic circle before dropping to the ground dead.

Other goblins during the fight became distracted by the food and took the time to climb up on tables to stuff their pockets with salmon.

Adding it up you'll see 24 goblins and I said 20. That's because I didn't count the story element goblins that killed themselves or their comrades in the final total. That's because I made sure they died before the party could waste any actions on them.

The first post-battle thought I had when preparing was: What happens if the party decides to rest after the first encounter? I could be relatively certain that my players, with their heroic attitude (or at least heroic bent for the shadier personalities), would not want to take an extended rest. But I wanted to make the decision of whether to take a short rest mean something. Sounds of battle continued all around them in other parts of town. I decided that if they did take a short rest the next encounter would trigger as it did in the original adventure, with a large plume of fire alerting the group that the goblins had blown something up. If they pressed on without rest, an alarmed townsfolk yells to them, "They've found the fuel for the bonfire!" The PCs then have a chance to stop the goblins from causing more damage by detonating the fuel.

My group decided not to rest and felt rewarded realizing that if they had rested the damage to the town could have been more severe.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Goblin Pyros

The heroes rushed to stop the goblins from causing more carnage. They rounded a corner to see a large group of torch-wielding goblins led by battleaxe-wielding acolyte surrounding the feul for the evening bonfire.

The original adventure called for a goblin warchanter and four goblins. I wanted to continue the swarm theme with lots of goblins, so I used a goblin acolyte with two goblin blackblade bodyguards leading a group of 13 goblin cutters. The group had the most difficulty with this encounter overall for the evening. The goblins got the early jump on them and Swift positioned himself to be half-surrounded by 5 goblin cutters. Not the ideal place for one of the party's strikers to be. He manager to hang on to consciousness, but barely. Toox did succumb to the goblin acolyte's ongoing fire damage, but the rest of the party was able to help put out the flames before she perished.

Again, I wanted to put some variety in the adventure for the party's choice of whether to take a short rest. I decided that if the party were to take the short rest the adventure would proceed as written, with the screams of Aldern Foxglove coming from the White Stag Inn along with his hunting dog's frantic barking. The adventure also provided inspiration for what would happen if the party immediately pressed on. I planned to have Father Zantus approach and offer the party healing support if they were brave enough to press on without a rest. The party smartly decided to take the rest this time. Swift and Toox were dangerously injured and would have made the next encounter very difficult if they pressed on, even with Father Zantus' support.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Die, Dog, Die!

The heroes rushed to the aid of the screaming young nobleman, but were too late to save his prized hunting dog. They arrived just in time to see a scaly rat-like dog ridden by a goblin tear the dog's throat out. They made quick work of the goblins, who were too happy in their mauling of the dog and terrorizing a "long-shank" to notice the group's approach.

The young nobleman graciously thanked the group for saving him from his impending "goblining" and quickly became enamored with the exotic purple-haired Celeste. He invited them to meet him at the Rusty Dragon for a proper reward for saving his life.

The original encounter called for a goblin commando riding a goblin dog, leading 4 goblin warriors. I went big again with two goblin blackblades each riding a goblin dog, leading 14 goblin cutters. I was worried that a Level 1, Level 2, and now a Level 3 encounter might be tto much for a 1st-level party to take with only one short rest, so I followed the advice of the original adventure and gave the group the surprise round. They made such quick work of the goblin dogs they didn't encounter any of the interesting things that make a goblin dog different from a normal dog. I'm going to save that conversion for later as a result, although I give credit to a fellow conversionist on these boards for some inspiration.

The fighting seemed to have subsided. After a quick breather, the group helped the town guard drive the remaining goblins out the North Gate. Some of the crazy little buggers even leapt to their certain deaths from the cliffs to avoid capture. Marrisa had made sure to merely disable the goblins she took out so the guards would have some left to interrogate. They asked the guard if there was more they could do that evening. It was suggested that they see Sheriff Hemlock in the morning.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

PART TWO: LOCAL HEROES

Seemingly overnight word spread about the new group of heroes in town. The breakfast crowd at the Rusty Dragon welcomed them with a cheer. The group took breakfast with young Aldern. He offered them, as a reward for their heroics, a pleasant daytrip into the Tickwood for a boar hunt. The group graciously accepted and set to meet the next afternoon for their trip, allowing Aldern time to buy extra supplies and secure extra horses.

The group set out across town to see Sheriff Hemlock about the goblin attack. Again, the group was welcomed in the streets by the grateful locals. Marissa and Celeste noted that many young women giggled and blushed in adoration of Swift, but Swift was oblivious to their longing gazes as they made their way to the garrison.

This proved somewhat comical. My players are all male, so it was somewhat odd for me to discover that 3 of the 5 characters made were female. None of us have an issue playing female characters, except for the player of Swift (he even commented such when I noted my amazement over the majority of characters being female this time around). That left me with only two choices for the party's "ladies' man" as suggested by the adventure's author. With the other choice being a big, dumb, ugly goliath, Swift became the "default ladies' man." Others specualted that maybe the girls in town found his canine features to be "puppy-like." I couldn't get the picture of Inuyasha out of my head at this point.

Sheriff Hemlock thanked the heroes for their part in repelling the goblin raid. Marrisa asked if the Sheriff or his men were able to interrogate any of the captured goblins to learn more about the attack. He explained that this kind of attack was highly unusual. That goblins had never attacked the town so openly in its 40-year history. The captured goblins only knew that they were given orders to kill everyone and burn the town to the ground. None of the goblins even remembered their leader's name, only that he was one of "you long-shanks." Some did know that their leader was on a secret mission to the town graveyard, but didn't know what the mission was, because it was secret afterall. The Sheriff told the group that he had summoned Father Zantus to see if he knew anything about activity in the graveyard. He solemnly told the Sheriff that someone had indeed dug up the grave of Ezakien Tobyn, the former priest of the temple who died in the fire that claimed the old temple 5 years ago.

The group paid a visit to the temple. Father Zantus couldn't think of any reason someone would steal Father Tobyn's remains. Marissa asked about rituals that would raise the dead. Father Zantus confirmed that there are indeed such foul rituals, but he still could not think of reasons why someone would steal Father Tobyn's remains in particular for that reason. The group searched the grounds an found goblin-sized footprints and those of a human-sized person leading to and from the outer wall of the graveyard. They also discovered depressions in the ground that looked like ladder legs. They found some similar tracks outside the wall, but the trail quickly went cold as they could tell someone purposefully had covered their tracks once outside the graveyard wall.

Marissa and Toox went out that evening looking for reasons why the goblins attacked or why someone would steal Father Tobyn's remains. They learned that the real expert on goblins met with Sheriff Hemlock on ocassion when she wandered back into town. They also tried to dig up dirt on Father Tobyn. They discovered that he had a daughter. A deva child, much like their friend Celeste. They learned that her childhood in town was rough because other children were jealous of her beauty, while adults hounded here thinking she was blessed by Desna herself. They learned of a sordid affair she had with a Varisian boy that her father grew angered over. Rumor had it that she had gotten pregnant and the boy fled. Her father was so angered over her promiscuity that he locked her away in the temple. Everyone assumes she died in the fire, but many people's remains were not found in the temple due to the intensity of the fire.

Conversion note: I made Devas more like Aasimar in this conversion, so much so that the two races are thought to be one and the same as far as the players are concerned. The player of Celeste had already made this assumption without knowledge when he gave his character hair. Another player still refers to his as "baldy" OOC.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

The Boar Hunt

The group spoke briefly to Aldern as he quickly ate breakfast before rushing off to make his final preparations for their hunt. Ameiko Taijitsu, owner and proprietor of the Rusty Dragon, took a break from her cooking to deliver an envelope that her evening bartender had forgotten to give Swift. The envelope contained an anonymous love letter and a trinket bracelet. Swift, thinking the bracelet a nice gesture, put in on.

The party had a message from Aldern to meet him at the Goblin Squash Stables. On the way the group met local baker Alma Alvertin on her way to make a delivery. She "tsked" at the thin look of Marissa and shoved a loaf of fresh-baked bread into her arms. Marissa thanked her as Alma rushed off to complete her deliveries. Being a highly suspicious personalty, even when, or maybe especially when, people are being friendly, Marissa was wary of trying the bread. She handed the loaf to T'rune to test it for safety, who devoured the loaf in two quick bites.

Throughout the trip to the Tickwood, Aldern shared stories about the high life in Magnimar, but he was more interested in hearing stories from the heroes of Sandpoint, especially Celeste. He stayed close to her and made gentlemanly gestures of his interest in her. She wasn't at all interested, but Aldern was too smitten to either notice or, if he did, to give up trying. The boar hunt was a success and the group agreed to join Aldern for a dinner of boar cooked up by Ameiko that night at the Rusty Dragon. More of the same flirtation without reciprocation contiued between Aldern and Celeste throughout the evening.

Aldern thanked the heroes for their company and said his goodbyes. He was leaving early the next morning for his family estate. From the sullen look on his face, Celeste could tell that Aldern had finally "gotten it" that she wasn't interested in his advances. She gave him a sly smile and a wink as she retired to her room for the evening just to play hard to get and not close off any future possibility of interest from the young noble.

I made nothing of the boar hunt. A combat seemed pointless. And a skill challenge seemed unwarranted as there was no real reward for success or penalty for failure. This part played out as just a nice roleplaying encounter.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

The Shopkeep's Daughter

The next day the group was approached by Shayliss Vinder. She went straight to Swift and fawned over him as she thanked the group for saving the town. She asked if Swift could come take care of a rat problem in the "wine cellar" of her father's general store. The rest of the group offered to come, but she insisted that it was nothing that Swift couldn't take care of on his own. Her overzealous fawning panned out just as Swift thought it might as Shayliss' bodice slipped off as soon as she had him in the cellar. He politely pushed her advances away as her father, Ven Vinder walked down the cellar stairs, catching Shayliss unaware and exposed. Swift tried to talk his way politlely out of the situation, but Ven would hear none of it. He told Swift to never return to his store. Quite a bit of gossip has arisen from the "ladies' man" hero accosting innocent young Shayliss in her father's cellar.

This was a short, but difficult Skill Challenge. Especially for the "default ladies' man." But since I knew failure only carried a penalty of -2 to Diplomacy and Streetwise checks, two skills the "default ladies' man already severely lacked, I let the difficulty of the encounter stand. Besides, I still award XP for failed Skill Challenges. I mean, Swift did learn something from the whole encounter anyway.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

Monster(s) in the Closet

The Barett family, like most others in town, enjoyed their time at the Swallowtail Festival. Until the goblins attacking their town terrorized them. Young Aeren Barett saw a goblin set a cat on fire and caper around its burning corpse. It's no wonder he awoke over the next few nights, screaming in terror, which caused the family dog, Petal, to bark in response, believing he saw a goblin emerging from his closet. But every time his father Alergast checked, there was no goblin hiding in Aeren's closet. Last night he had had enough, at his wits end due to lack of sleep and his own worries over goblins. He told Aeren that if he didn't learn to "be a man" he was going to make him sleep in the woodshed.

Tonight, he heard his son start to cry again and Petal start to bark. He angrily rose from bed, ready to drag Aeren to the woodshed. Before he reached Aeren's door he heard Petal yelp in pain and Aeren's cries turn shrill. He burst into his son's room to see a gruesome sight. Only the quick arrival of his wife, Amele, snapped him into action. Petal lay dead in a pool of the dog's own blood, while a goblin sat on his son's chest chewing on Aeren's arm like a crazed beast. He knocked the goblin off of Aeren and pulled his son out of bed, pushing him towards his mother, yelling for her to take Aeren and run for help.

Amele knew the garrison was too far, but had heard of the goblin-slaying heroes staying at the nearby Rusty Dragon. She recounted the horrid scene to the heroes and showed them Aeren's arm.

The group arrived to a strangely quiet house. Alergast lay on his stomach, halfway out the closet door, motionless. T'rune pulled him out to find that the father's face and upper torso had been eaten away. Then two of the strongest goblins they had faced yet emerged from a hidden hole at the back of the closet. They were able to eliminate the goblin threat, but were upset that they hadn't done more to see if there had been any remaining goblins after the raid.

Sheriff Hemlock arrived on the scene. He arranged for the rest of the family to stay at the temple for a few days. The heroes learned that Amele's sister came in a couple of days later from Magnimar to bring the family back to live with her.

The original encounter called for a single goblin ranger in a very tight area. Solo humanoids don't work very well, but I wanted this encounter to stay challenging enough, with as few goblins as possible. I went with two goblins, a 4th-level elite martial controller leader and a goblin skullcleaver. The skullcleaver was the one that finally went mad enough with hunger to do something about the situation the two had gotten themselves into when they decided to hide instead of flee Sandpoint at the close of the raid.

 

[Vyvyan Basterd]

******END OF FIRST SESSION******

The players had a great time with the new setting. It was fun to watch them champ at the bit only to realize that the world was not crashing down around their heads. They were the heroes of the goblin raid and life was continuing at its normal pace. It was a different feeling for them to sit back, relax, and enjoy their herodom.

Please feel free to post any questions or comments. Our next session is Friday, April 30th. More updates to come after. - VB