D&D 4E Running Commentary on Rel's 4e Campaign (Complete 8/2/10)
Rel
Liquid Awesome
Well, we've had a bit of a break but we got back to gaming last night and I daresay it was a humdinger! Does anybody say "humdinger" anymore? I guess I do. Yes, I'm calling it a humdinger. That's my official stance.
The PC's recovered quickly from the fight with the Black Moon cultists and this new, strange being that they assumed was a minion of Mayaheine. They fared not quite so well against the tongue lashing they got from Tornear the goblin airship captain who "would have raised his rates if he'd know it was going to mean being beset by the host of enemies the PC's seemed to make everywhere they went." He further questioned his own wisdom in taking his ship anywhere near a DRAGON that they intended to assault. The party calmed Tornears concerns by reminding him that, "at least the dragon doesn't have wings." Tornear kept his thoughts to himself about the fact that, wings or no wings, the dragon killed Zanne last time they met.
The next day they sighted the small plateau where they'd battled Blackbreather before and Tornear set the ship down halfway between the burned out ruin of the bunkhouse and the slowly collapsing ruin of the old tower. It was Astavian who observed and questioned, "Was that tree here the last time?"
Sure enough there was a small tree, some 15 feet tall and maybe as thick as Astavian's arm growing just outside the ruin of the tower. A small ring of wildflowers grew around the base of it. Mialain approached it carefully as Tornear got the Rat Bastard aloft again (he'd promised to check back late that afternoon to see "if they were still alive"). Mialain recognized the spot where the tree grew as the place she's slept on the ground the first night after they had emerged from the Prison Mines of Pelor. She had noted at that time that some tiny flowers had bloomed in the grass but there certainly hadn't been enough time for a tree like this to have grown there in the three weeks that had passed. And yet here it was. Some kind of fruit tree from the look of things.
As she was examining the tree the rest of the party was keeping a sharp eye out for any signs of Blackbreather and it was Eshik who spotted the black reptilian head peeking out of the doorway of the old tower. With a roar, Blackbreather was upon them before they could do anything. And she went straight after Eshik with a ferocity and look in her eye that could best be translated as, "I see that you're wearing the treasure you took from my horde!"
Blackbreather was sharp of tooth and claw but it was quickly obvious that the PC's had honed their skills in the short time since their last encounter. Despite dealing some nasty damage to Astavian with her claws, tail and acid-dripping jaws, Blackbreather was soon bloodied. But she was far from beaten and let loose a torrent of acid that, apart from Eshik, hit everyone in the party...and the tree. Its leaves blackened and curled. Its bark hissed as it was pitted by the acid and, in moments, it stood as a mockery of its former beauty.
Mialain shouted her rage and nocked one of the arrows she'd dipped into that strange metallic purple powder that seemed to hurt the dragon before. It flew true and left a nasty, hissing wound in Blackbreather's side. But she was distracted by her anger and it was Zanne who had to tell her, "Look at your pack!" Mialain saw brilliant light shining from inside her backpack and, as the others continued to rain blows down on Blackbreather to keep her at bay, drew out the Glass Book of Light. It shone like the sun.
Then it exploded.
They were hurled back by the force of the explosion and were also blinded. However they were simultaneously healed of all their wounds and felt somehow...empowered. Zanne was still blind but she could hear the loud, heavy breathing of Blackbreather only inches away from her. She lashed out with her magic in that direction and could feel the flames explode nearby as the dragon screamed like twisting metal. Zanne crawled away as quickly as she could before her vision began to clear and she looked to find that their adversary was regaining her feet...and stretching her wings.
Astavian was blind but somehow he saw. He held his sword up defensively in front of him. He could not see the blade but there in the glare of blindness he could see runes in draconic hovering where his sword should be. They said, "mercy has its place". As he gazed upon these runes he began to see the sword that now bore them and then the dragon beyond it. Blackbreather was no longer black and she had nearly doubled in size. Her head whipped back and forth as she stared in confusion at the wings the color of steel that had sprouted from her scarred shoulders. Her wounds too seemed to be healed.
The Paladin gathered both sword and courage and approached the enormous beast. "Yes, your appearance has changed. But I would know whether you remain our enemy. Do you wish us to finish what we started?"
The dragon glared at him and let loose a small but threatening hiss of air from her nostrils. To her surprise this took the form of a small cloud of smoke that crackled with electricity. She backed away from the dragonborn in confusion before leaping atop the ruin of the tower, her wings flopping awkwardly.
Eshik finally regained his sight and beheld the dragon looming over them. But the view of the tower was partially blocked by the branches of the tree that stood outside it. The dragon wasn't the only thing that had grown in size. The top of the tree was above 40 feet and the trunk was nearly 4 feet thick. From the bushy branches hung apples the width of his palm. Mialain too finally regained her sight and stood staring up at the tree.
Astavian continued to keep himself between the dragon and the others. As he watched, the dragon tried once more to take flight and fell gracelessly to the ground next to the tower. The Paladin lowered his blade to his side and strode toward the creature as it hissed and regained its feet, "I am Astavian, Claw of Ryukaar! Whether you are my friend or foe I would have your name!"
The dragon turned on him and brought its massive jaws to within inches of the dragonborn's face. It suddenly lashed out with its left foreclaw and Astavian looked down to see that his greatsword was four inches shorter than it had been and now ended in a chisel point. The dragon looked down at its own claw and back at Astavain before hissing out in broken draconic, "Steelsli-cer."
It whirled and with a powerful lunge climbed unsteadily into the air. They all watched in silence as it disappeared into the distance.
TO BE CONTINUED...
The PC's recovered quickly from the fight with the Black Moon cultists and this new, strange being that they assumed was a minion of Mayaheine. They fared not quite so well against the tongue lashing they got from Tornear the goblin airship captain who "would have raised his rates if he'd know it was going to mean being beset by the host of enemies the PC's seemed to make everywhere they went." He further questioned his own wisdom in taking his ship anywhere near a DRAGON that they intended to assault. The party calmed Tornears concerns by reminding him that, "at least the dragon doesn't have wings." Tornear kept his thoughts to himself about the fact that, wings or no wings, the dragon killed Zanne last time they met.
The next day they sighted the small plateau where they'd battled Blackbreather before and Tornear set the ship down halfway between the burned out ruin of the bunkhouse and the slowly collapsing ruin of the old tower. It was Astavian who observed and questioned, "Was that tree here the last time?"
Sure enough there was a small tree, some 15 feet tall and maybe as thick as Astavian's arm growing just outside the ruin of the tower. A small ring of wildflowers grew around the base of it. Mialain approached it carefully as Tornear got the Rat Bastard aloft again (he'd promised to check back late that afternoon to see "if they were still alive"). Mialain recognized the spot where the tree grew as the place she's slept on the ground the first night after they had emerged from the Prison Mines of Pelor. She had noted at that time that some tiny flowers had bloomed in the grass but there certainly hadn't been enough time for a tree like this to have grown there in the three weeks that had passed. And yet here it was. Some kind of fruit tree from the look of things.
As she was examining the tree the rest of the party was keeping a sharp eye out for any signs of Blackbreather and it was Eshik who spotted the black reptilian head peeking out of the doorway of the old tower. With a roar, Blackbreather was upon them before they could do anything. And she went straight after Eshik with a ferocity and look in her eye that could best be translated as, "I see that you're wearing the treasure you took from my horde!"
Blackbreather was sharp of tooth and claw but it was quickly obvious that the PC's had honed their skills in the short time since their last encounter. Despite dealing some nasty damage to Astavian with her claws, tail and acid-dripping jaws, Blackbreather was soon bloodied. But she was far from beaten and let loose a torrent of acid that, apart from Eshik, hit everyone in the party...and the tree. Its leaves blackened and curled. Its bark hissed as it was pitted by the acid and, in moments, it stood as a mockery of its former beauty.
Mialain shouted her rage and nocked one of the arrows she'd dipped into that strange metallic purple powder that seemed to hurt the dragon before. It flew true and left a nasty, hissing wound in Blackbreather's side. But she was distracted by her anger and it was Zanne who had to tell her, "Look at your pack!" Mialain saw brilliant light shining from inside her backpack and, as the others continued to rain blows down on Blackbreather to keep her at bay, drew out the Glass Book of Light. It shone like the sun.
Then it exploded.
They were hurled back by the force of the explosion and were also blinded. However they were simultaneously healed of all their wounds and felt somehow...empowered. Zanne was still blind but she could hear the loud, heavy breathing of Blackbreather only inches away from her. She lashed out with her magic in that direction and could feel the flames explode nearby as the dragon screamed like twisting metal. Zanne crawled away as quickly as she could before her vision began to clear and she looked to find that their adversary was regaining her feet...and stretching her wings.
Astavian was blind but somehow he saw. He held his sword up defensively in front of him. He could not see the blade but there in the glare of blindness he could see runes in draconic hovering where his sword should be. They said, "mercy has its place". As he gazed upon these runes he began to see the sword that now bore them and then the dragon beyond it. Blackbreather was no longer black and she had nearly doubled in size. Her head whipped back and forth as she stared in confusion at the wings the color of steel that had sprouted from her scarred shoulders. Her wounds too seemed to be healed.
The Paladin gathered both sword and courage and approached the enormous beast. "Yes, your appearance has changed. But I would know whether you remain our enemy. Do you wish us to finish what we started?"
The dragon glared at him and let loose a small but threatening hiss of air from her nostrils. To her surprise this took the form of a small cloud of smoke that crackled with electricity. She backed away from the dragonborn in confusion before leaping atop the ruin of the tower, her wings flopping awkwardly.
Eshik finally regained his sight and beheld the dragon looming over them. But the view of the tower was partially blocked by the branches of the tree that stood outside it. The dragon wasn't the only thing that had grown in size. The top of the tree was above 40 feet and the trunk was nearly 4 feet thick. From the bushy branches hung apples the width of his palm. Mialain too finally regained her sight and stood staring up at the tree.
Astavian continued to keep himself between the dragon and the others. As he watched, the dragon tried once more to take flight and fell gracelessly to the ground next to the tower. The Paladin lowered his blade to his side and strode toward the creature as it hissed and regained its feet, "I am Astavian, Claw of Ryukaar! Whether you are my friend or foe I would have your name!"
The dragon turned on him and brought its massive jaws to within inches of the dragonborn's face. It suddenly lashed out with its left foreclaw and Astavian looked down to see that his greatsword was four inches shorter than it had been and now ended in a chisel point. The dragon looked down at its own claw and back at Astavain before hissing out in broken draconic, "Steelsli-cer."
It whirled and with a powerful lunge climbed unsteadily into the air. They all watched in silence as it disappeared into the distance.
TO BE CONTINUED...
Rel
Liquid Awesome
Heh. Well possibly.
I got part of the remainder of that session written up and then along came the NC Game Day, the preparations and participation of which ate up all of last week and the weekend.
However in addition I'm having a bit of an internal conflict about the continuation of this thread. As I say at the very beginning of it, it is not intended to be a Story Hour. Rather it is supposed to primarily be about the emergent features of 4e and comments from myself and the players about how the system works for campaign play. But more and more I find myself writing it as a narrative.
There is nothing terrible about that. I've done a (LENGTHY) Story Hour before. And I think that certain explanations of the story elements are probably needed for purposes of continuity for the reader. But again, that isn't the point of this exercise. So I'm trying to get some mental clarity about how I wish to proceed with this thread, whether I wish to proceed with this thread and where to proceed with this thread.
Any comments on this matter are welcome.
Joshua Randall
Legend
Either,
(1) admit that you can't resist writing a story hour because you get off on the adulation of your many fans
or
(2) force yourself to give much less story-related detail and much more game mechanical detail.
(1) admit that you can't resist writing a story hour because you get off on the adulation of your many fans
or
(2) force yourself to give much less story-related detail and much more game mechanical detail.
I must admit to liking this as both a story hour and an exercise in dealing with 4e mechanics.
I'm curious as to whether the skill rolls system has made enough of a difference to warrant the change? Also I have told my DM of the spontaneous magic imbued which fits our post apoc dark sun like setting, but have yet to see the need for stunts as the play has yet to need that extra spice in combat.
I'm curious as to whether the skill rolls system has made enough of a difference to warrant the change? Also I have told my DM of the spontaneous magic imbued which fits our post apoc dark sun like setting, but have yet to see the need for stunts as the play has yet to need that extra spice in combat.
Rel
Liquid Awesome
Either,
(1) admit that you can't resist writing a story hour because you get off on the adulation of your many fans
or
(2) force yourself to give much less story-related detail and much more game mechanical detail.
These would indeed appear to be my options. I think that I'm going to try for the latter since it's easier (and I'm lazy + busy). If the players want to fill in more of the details about the story then they are welcome to, but I'm going to stick more to the crunch.
Rel
Liquid Awesome
At first I thought it was likely that we'd drop this as an unnecessary complication. And yet it has turned out to be probably the favorite house rule to the players, running neck in neck with the Power Stunts.
There is just something about exploding dice that grabs the attention of everyone at the table. Rattling that handful of dice (rather than a single d20) and then, as soon as they land, everybody is looking to see if there are any 6's. It also makes for the rare extremely huge roll when there are runs of 6's in a row. I think the high skill check so far is a 48 and this makes everybody grin.
One thing I'll say for sure is that it seems to add an extra little spark of interest in Skill Challenges and gives me an excuse to give them a little extra push/bit of info when the get huge successes (if they get double the DC of the skill roll I count that as two successes toward completion of the challenge).
Derulbaskul
Adventurer
I hope you just keep posting the same way. I love abbreviated story hours because I can read them quickly and the inclusion of game mechanics from time to time really helps me think about how I would apply certain things in my game.
So my vote is... don't change.
Yes, I know you're not asking for votes.
So my vote is... don't change.
Yes, I know you're not asking for votes.
