D&D 4E Running Commentary on Rel's 4e Campaign (Complete 8/2/10)

[Rel]

Ok so I'm going to pick a direction and run with it and we'll see how it goes. On with the bare bones of the story...

So, having dealt with the dragon, the group took some time to marvel at the glory of the "Tree of Life". Some prayers to Melora indicated that this was, in effect, her first new temple since the Mist came. Mialain was instructed to carry the seeds far and wide to literally spread the faith. Late that afternoon Tornear showed back up with the Rat Bastard and they got headed on their way to the dwarven spire of Karak Tor.

As they got close they heard a singing sound that turned out to be Harpies that lured the airship close to the rocks during the night. A fight ensued that saw Tornear and Astavian get drawn overboard by the siren song of the Harpies. Mialain kept control over the ship by power stunting to use the force of the winds to guide the ship where she wanted it to go and they were ultimately victorious. Tornear also managed to survive a fall onto the rocks below that could easily have been fatal.

Arriving at Karak Tor they got accomodations for themselves at the hostel outside the city walls since non-dwarves were not allowed inside except under very rare circumstances. They met a dwarven Warden whom they asked about the curious, purple, metallic powder they had found. He promised to take it to their Artificers to see if they had any insights.

He summoned them back to the gatehouse the following day with the explanation that the powder was Adamantite. He had questions of his own about where they had obtained it. He further explained that Adamantite had dragonslaying properties, which explained why the powder had been effective at damaging Blackbreather when they encountered her. The Warden also told them that the legendary mines far to the east where the Adamantite supposedly came from were long buried in the Mist and furthermore the secrets to working the incredibly hard metal had been lost inside the old fortress (also called Karak Tor) to the north.

It seemed that there was a huge battle fought there long ago, in the days prior to the Mist Cataclysm. On one side were the dwarves and metallic dragons and on the other were the chromatic dragons and dragonborn. Exactly what happened in the depths of Karak Tor is lost in legend but "something bad" happened down there and the dwarves fled into the highlands. And a good thing too with the Mists coming shortly thereafter.

The Warden explained that, with the discovery that there was Adamantite out there, they would be interested in locating the secret to working it again. They asked the party if they would be willing to delve into the ruins of Old Karak Tor to find the lost ritual for working the dragonslaying metal. After some discussion the group agreed and made ready for their journey.

*******

Lots and lots of RP stuff in this section and not much new in the way of mechanics issues. I continue to be happy and impressed with the creative ways the players find to use Power Stunts. I'm also sprinkling in some PHB2 materials and things from other sources. Even though the PC's for this campaign are "PHB Only" I wanted to add some of those other classes, races and so forth so that they are there for later if I run another campaign set in this world.

One thing I've been thinking about from a house-rules standpoint is my Wounds rule. It's working fine but it hasn't come up a whole lot. I'm keeping it for now since it is workable and unobtrusive but I may consider dropping it later if I feel like it is unnecessary.

 

[Rel]

So...

The party began their journey to the north toward Old Karak Tor. The tricky part of this was the fact that Old Karak Tor lies along the western side of the plateau of Hluroth. Hluroth had been an independant kingdom until just a few years ago when the elderly king died and the reign passed to his son. The new king abdicated within a year and the kingdom became part of the expanding Arcanon Confederacy, a growing magocracy to the east.

Part of the way that the Arcanon Confederacy held power was by regulating trade using its series of Linked Portals to instantly transport goods and people from place to place. To maintain this monopoly they banned incoming traffic via airship without special permits. The spire of Karak Tor adjoins the Hluroth plateau but had traditionally not been considered part of the Kingdom of Hluroth proper. However the Arcanon Confederacy has been making overtures to the dwarves in terms of annexation (which the dwarves have roundly refused) and are clearly chafing at the fact that the dwarves allow trade via airship of goods that trickle into Hluroth. Thus, the Arcanon Confederacy keeps a close watch on those entering and leaving the country via the dwarven spire.

The group crossed the border into Hluroth on a road flanked by a pair of distant but imposing guard towers and felt themselves being watched. They continued on to the nearest town and spent the night at an inn. The innkeeper regarded them suspiciously and asked their business. He was told that they were bound to a distant city to the north and were looking for Mialain's missing brother (which they are, just not at that destination).

They continued to be looked askance at along their journey, probably due to the pair of dragonborn who were not common in the area. In the next town they were directly approached by what looked to be a wizard who identified himself as "a Guildmaster". He had with him a bodyguard of several bugbears who looked menacing and he insisted upon asking them a number of questions. It was clear that he was suspicious of them but allowed them to continue their journey. But they were clearly followed as they left town.

In the next town, near where they needed to turn west into the Hlurothi Badlands where Old Karak Tor stood, they spent the night at the inn and awoke in some...intestinal distress. They spent most of the night awake in or near the outhouse. Worried that the food wasn't agreeing with them (either by coincidence or not) they left the inn and camped west of town for a couple days while they recovered. Eating some of the Tree of Life fruit seemed to help considerably in settling their stomachs and recovering their strength.

As they made their way into the badlands along a poorly tended trail, they noticed tracks preceeding them: Those off booted feet accompanied by clawed tracks, roughly the size one would expect from a Bugbear. There was further evidence that another group was ahead of them when they came upon the scene of a fight with some Gnolls where large hyenas were still chewing on the corpses of the Gnolls and a couple of Bugbears. The hyenas attacked but were dispatched fairly easily.

They proceeded to within sight of the Fortress of Karak Tor, a butte that stood in a river canyon with an old, stone bridge from the lip of the canyon to the top of the butte. At the base of the bride was a group of Gnolls, standing around a fire, beating some drums and clearly up to no good. The party approached and engaged them.

They were able to get past the Gnoll Warriors and attack the drummers and the chanting shaman-type who was conducting a ritual. They were continuously under fire from an archer with a powerful bow and took some considerable damage during this fight however. Just as they disrupted the ritual a large, apelike demon clawed its way over the edge of the canyon. It appeared angry at having been summoned and went after the Gnoll shaman.

At about the time the party finished off the Warriors and sent the Archer fleeing, the demon flung the shaman bodily into the deep canyon gorge. The PC's focused their attacks on the beast with Astavian in the lead swinging his newly magical greatsword. They finally killed it and then made their way across the bridge before the distant cackling of hyenas and Gnolls grew any closer.

*******

The journey into Hluroth was handled as a skill challenge. It started off slowly as the players worked a bit to decide exactly how they wanted to proceed in terms of stealth or just acting like they belonged. They finally opted for the latter course with a bit of deception about the exact nature of their business. The challenge moved forward in sections, broken up by social interaction with the innkeeper and later the "Guildmaster". Some failed perception rolls later ended up with them having food poisoning, which resulted in the challenge requiring some Heal checks. They finally made it to their goal (The Badlands) successfully.

The fight with the hyenas was one of those "I know this will be easy but sometimes it is nice to remind the players that this would have been a lot tougher just a short time ago" fights. It was fairly quick, fun and served to underpin the ongoing plot that they were now behind somebody (according to the players, probably that damned Guildmaster and his Bugbear bodyguards).

The fight with the Gnolls at the rim of the canyon was much tougher and more exciting. It had some minions (the drummers) some Claw Fighters, a Huntmaster and even a Demonic Scourge. Then there was the Barlgura of course. It was a fairly tall order for the PC's but they managed to succesfully disrupt the ritual (a mid-fight Milestone) and that mostly took the Demonic Scourge out of the picture. With the warrior types killed and the Huntmaster sent fleeing with about a dozen Hit Points left, they were able to group up on the Barlgura and kill it.

 

[Piratecat]

I'm a big fan of fun, fast fights (and alliteration.) Quick ass-whuppin's help make the dangerous fights that much more exciting in comparison.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Was there (or will there be) any ramification to the party spending a couple of days camping while recovering from the food poisoning? Because if not, it seems that failing part of the skill challenge and losing healing surge(s) really had no effect.

This is one of the weakness of multi-day skill challenges, I think: you can't effectively use loss of healing surges as a failure penalty, because the PCs are taking multiple extended rests to regain all their surges anyway.

I have toyed with the idea of saying that during a multi-day skill challenge, the PCs do not regain healing surges regardless of rest -- they can only regain them when the skill challenge is over (succeed or fail) and then after an extended rest. But I think the players would rebel if I put this idea into practice.

 

[Piratecat]

This is one of the weakness of multi-day skill challenges, I think: you can't effectively use loss of healing surges as a failure penalty, because the PCs are taking multiple extended rests to regain all their surges anyway.

Agreed. In fact, using healing surges as a penalty actually encourages players to camp more quickly. I find myself using in-game penalties ("the bad guys will achieve X if they fail") in these sorts of cases.

 

[Rel]

Was there (or will there be) any ramification to the party spending a couple of days camping while recovering from the food poisoning? Because if not, it seems that failing part of the skill challenge and losing healing surge(s) really had no effect.

This will soon become more evident but the answer is "Yes."

 

[Rel]

The group camped on the top of the butte and it was a restless night with the distant cackling of hyenas, Gnolls or both echoing across the Badlands. In the morning after a cold breakfast they made their way the short distance to the entrance to the Fortress. It was down in a pit-like shallow chasm with clear views of archery galleries along the sides. It was obvious on the sandy floor of the chasm that there were recent tracks.

Inside stairs descended to an intersection passages going left, right and straight ahead. They could see some dwarven runes carved onto stylized hammers on the walls down the side passages and they took the time to cast a Comprehend Languages ritual. While Zanne and Mialain focused on this, Eshik noticed that there was not a speck of dust on the floor other than what they had tracked in. Curious but perhaps a sign of habitation. If so there was nobody guarding the door.

The runes turned out to be the names of dwarven heroes. They further saw that the passage on the right ended full of cobwebs and guessed that that must not have been the direction that the group ahead of them went. They went left instead and were several paces up that hallway before they heard a noise and the hammers carved into the walls began to spin. The trap both battered and pushed those caught within it and most of the group escaped with some bruises. Eshik was stuck in the middle of the trap but managed to use his bedroll to jam the mechanism of the hammer closest to him, allowing him to wait for the trap to wind down before charging ahead down the corridor to see what wait in the room beyond.

Instead of ending up in the room he ended up smacking into the translucent side of something Gelatinous. The rest of the group rushed up behind him, hoping to get into the room before the trap reset itself. Zanne teleported behind the Cube into the room and began unleashing her magic on it while Eshik escaped its acidic grasp and Astavian and Mialain got enveloped. The Cube continued to grab new victims as the old ones escaped but they eventually hacked and burned it to the point that it lost cohesion and dissolved into a puddle of goo. Inside they found an enchanted dwarven hammer that they tucked away. The room turned out to be an access to one of the archery galleries that overlooked the entrance chasm and did not lead deeper into the fortress as they'd hoped.

Returning to the intersection, intending on taking the center passage, they found themselves under ambush by a group of arachnid humanoids. Several party members found themselves bound to the spot and then came under attack by axes and thrown javelins. The Ettercaps began a fighting retreat in two directions, down both the right and center passages, that pulled the party into two groups. But in the end the party overwhelmed them and it was the Ettercaps who suffered more from not being in a single group.

The party decided not to pursue the Ettercaps into their presumed lair down the passage full of cobwebs on the right and instead went straight and found themselves in a large room that was clearly a sort of entry hall. Two imposing looking stone doors blocked their way with no apparent method of opening them. The room was otherwise empty except for a 15 foot high statue of a dwarf holding a hammer and shield. However they did discover a circle drawn on the floor in front of one of the doors. Zanne was able to determine that the ritual circle had been used to do some kind of Teleportation magic. This pretty well confirmed to them that some member of the Arcanon Confederacy had gotten inside ahead of them. Very possibly the Guildmaster who had questioned them on their journey.

Seeing no other way inside for the moment they backtracked and decided to try the right passage in the hopes that there was another entrance through the Ettercap lair. Zanne burned away the spider webs that blocked the passage as they went and they suddenly found themselves looking into a large room, similar to where they had fought the Gelatinous Cube. In it were a pair of Ettercaps standing beneath a HUGE spider with legs at least ten feet long with her bloated abdomen supported by webs affixed to the ceiling.

The Ettercaps hissed and charged forward to defend their queen...

 

[Rel]

So some commentary on mechanics from the session above...

This was the first time I had used a trap in 4e and I had a lot of fun with it. The "damage + push" effect was kinda neat and I liked the creative solution by Eshik. I think it also bred a sort of determination by the players that "if this trap is trying to keep us out of that chamber up ahead then we definitely need to get in there!" As it turned out there was nothing critical in that area.

There WAS a Gelatinous Cube however! Such a fun monster. So silly and yet so dangerous. At one point they were considering trying to push it into the trap to see if it would set it off, which might have been fun. But it sucking in a party member or two each round for 10 points of ongoing Acid damage kept things plenty exciting regardless.

Here we saw evidence that the group ahead of them had successfully gotten past the doors blocking their passage further into the fortress. This was the effective "penalty" (complication might be a better word) for failures in the earlier aspects of the skill challenge that had them travelling across Hluroth.

The battle with the Ettercaps was interesting in that it kind of ended up as a battle on two fronts with different PC's getting locked down by web immobilization each round. It split the party as they struggled their way towards the enemy. But I think it ended up hurting the Ettercaps more than the PC's though (although one did land a NASTY crit with a battleaxe on Eshik).

I'll be writing one more update to get us caught up with the present.

 

[Sytonis]

So some commentary on mechanics from the session above...

This was the first time I had used a trap in 4e and I had a lot of fun with it. The "damage + push" effect was kinda neat and I liked the creative solution by Eshik. I think it also bred a sort of determination by the players that "if this trap is trying to keep us out of that chamber up ahead then we definitely need to get in there!" As it turned out there was nothing critical in that area.

One of the things I am enjoying at the moment is just how many things are surprising me in 4e. In particular there's been traps that didn't just shout hit point bumps and a custom made hazard (inspired by the Dark Sun Hazzards Dragon article) described as heather that I didn't even realise was a hazard at the time.

They also seem like they would work particularly well during combats as the senario your described above, even without minatures or board to mark the players positions which we never do.

Our group is really trying to embrace the rituals too, which up until recently have been balked at because of the long casting times. I like how Rel's PC's took the time to learn what the dwarven runes were.


Sytonis

 

[Rel]

(we played again last night so now I've got two sessions to catch up on)

The PC's initially pulled back from the entrance to the room to make sure that if the Spider Queen had any nasty tricks that they would be out of line of sight. The Ettercaps charged forward and met them in the hallway. It turned out that the Spider Queen DID have some nasty tricks. One was to grasp the husk of an enwebbed Gnoll body hanging nearby and rip it open, revealing the newly hatched form of an Ettercap that dropped to the floor with a sickening "squish". Taking only a moment to instinctively grasp that its queen was in trouble, it charged forward to fight the intruders.

This went on for several rounds with the PC's inflicting some damage on the "adult" Ettercaps and generally able to destroy the newly hatched minions before they did too much damage. Finally they dispatched them all and rushed into the room to confront the Spider Queen herself. After the first few attacks on her landed, one of Zanne's fire spells burned through most of the webs supporting the huge egg-sac/abdomen and it fell to the stone floor and ruptured. The Spider Queen hissed in pain as thousands of tiny spiders poured out of the sac and swarmed toward the PC's.

Astavian was grabbed, poisoned and webbed to the ceiling during the battle and it was only Mialain's Melora's Tide that kept him alive. But he made a grand reappearance when he cut himself loose from the ceiling and dropped onto the Queen's back, driving his greatsword all the way through her body. It took several more tense moments of blasting at the swarm of baby spiders before it was dispersed and the PC's could catch their breath.

They camped in the upper gallery after finding a hidden ladder beneath the staircase. Nothing bothered them while they camped although they could hear more cackling of Gnolls in the distance and the beat of far off drums. Rested, they descended the ladder.

It went down for a hundred feet with Astavian in the lead. Zanne was just behind him and was the one who spotted the ancient runes that triggered the guard constructs to attack. Astavian was beset by three of them by the time the others climbed down into the room. Their magic-powered clockwork bodies seemed to have deteriorated over the years but they still packed a wallop. However, once the whole group was in the room and was able to focus their attacks, they destroyed these old guardians one by one.

There was only one exit from the guard room and it led them into the back of what appeared to be an old tailoring shop. There were moldy remnants of cloth laying about with a heavy layer of dust on the floor. There were some small, three-toed footprints amid the dust but no creatures in sight.

Exiting the front of the shop they found themselves in a large underground street that spiraled up to the left and down to the right. Knowing that what they sought likely lay deeper inside the mountain, they went right. Eventually they came to a large side passage and explored it to find light coming from up ahead and their way blocked by a rusty portcullis. They located the workings for the portcullis in the upstairs of another nearby shop but they were so rusted that they wouldn't budge.

Continuing the downward spiral they noticed that there was a thin blanket of Mist forming on the ground and they paused to apply some of the "Mist Milk" they had prepared via a ritual. Hopefully it would protect them from the corrupting powers of the Mist.

They located another large side passage and Mialain's cartography skills indicated that it likely ran beneath the former one they had discovered. This one was also blocked by a portcullis but this gate had a couple of the bars bent out of the way such that they could potentially squeeze through. Eshik knelt down as he noticed some tracks and some strange, sharp quills laying on the ground. A moment later he was struck by similar quills that caught fire in mid air.

The spiny Mist Demons surged out of the Mist ahead and flung volley after volley of these poisoned quills at the group. Astavian and Eshik squeezed through the gap in the bars to challenge them up close while Zanne and Mialain kept up a stream of attacks and healing from behind the portcullis. Although their poisoned spines did considerable damage to the Paladin and Ranger, the Mist Demons had little room to maneuver and were soon brought low by the combined attacks.

Exploring further up the passage, the PC's were surprised to emerge on a broad ledge on the side of the butte. They could not see how high up they were as the ground was obscured in the Mist. But they saw the rotted remains of a catapult on the ledge as well as a bony nest, likely the lair of the spined Mist Demons. Eshik noticed something shiny protruding from the bottom of it and discovered an enchanted dwarven belt, with each link looking like a round shield. Zanne examined it and determined that it would help protect the wearer from weapon attacks.

They rested for a few more minutes before heading back inside the butte to delve deeper into its depths...

*****

So the spider fight was pretty fun IMO. It was a long fight (took about an hour and a half I think) but it had lots of components and was supposed to be a rather grand affair. The Ettercaps, bolstered by the added Ettercap minions put a dent in the PC's before they got to the Queen. But I thought that the players did a good job of noticing that she was largely immobile and thus it was wise of them to stand back out of her reach and view while fighting her guardians. I especially loved Astavian's stunt to turn his fall from the ceiling into a Charge attack. I also liked how the tactics of the fight changed completely with the introduction of the swarm. These different phases of the battle kept things interesting and continued to change the powers that were appropriate for the different foes.

As they explored, Eshik, Zanne and Mialain all got to use their "background skills" to notice things about the stonework, cloth/dye shop and layout of the fortress respectively. I try to incorporate those skills whenever I can because it validates those player choices and provides some cool added flavor.

The fight with the spined devils was fairly well handled by the players. The melee types got right up on them to limit their ability to fire the quills with impunity while Zanne and Mialain did their work from behind the portcullis. This was a fairly standard fight at close to their level and they executed it well. Its primary purpose from a GM standpoint was to provide a little peak in the action toward the end of the session and to also remind them that, while below the Mistline, things are dangerous. Plus Astavian's player totally digs it anytime he gets to smite a Mist Demon.