Shackled City: Week Ten

[JoeGKushner]

I figured since Joe has been updating, I would too from time to time. I hope Im not mishandling this thread.
I dont think the thread pretty much qualifies for "story hour" status as it seems we are posting highlights at best. Its still interesting to see how others are handling the same adventure.

Please keep posting by all means! It's interesting to see how different GMs are handling it.

 

[Sunderstone]

Please keep posting by all means! It's interesting to see how different GMs are handling it.

We had to postpone last sundays game, one player is in retail and the xmas season is here. Our next game is a week from this coming sunday .

 

[JoeGKushner]

My group just went through another round. They're well ahead of the curve in terms of power level as three of them are 6th level and two are 5th. One, the ritual warrior, is behind due to using the variant xp table, the other, the rogue, lost a level to the bugbear.

The party managed to thrash the undead chair. To be honest, if I knew that they were so close to finishing off this adventure, I would've had them finish it last week. Ah well, live and learn.

They had one more encounter with some wildlife, in this case, dire bats! They found the vampire's lair, and because they hustled, I allowed them a quick and easy kill as I don't want to punish them for moving cautiously when they'd already beaten the vampire and had suffered a bit at his hands.

As they moved through the rest of the area, they have no trackers, so didn't know that the remaining goblins and mercenaries high tailed it out of there. I don't see the point of trying to widdle their strength down, and the mercenaries aren't stupid.

As they went to the city, they learned about Flood Season. A few of them took part in the drinking games, with an elf of all things coming cloest to winning the game. Others took part in some small skill bits here and there. A few others trained during the down time or created scrolls.

During this time, they hear about another group of rich adventurers who've been badmouthing them across the city. a few 'near' encounters but nothing solid. The ritual warrior for example, worships Kord, and one of the Stormblades, the rival group, also does, so they know each other and already have a friendly rivalry of sorts.

During this time, the rains continue to fall and the priestess of St. Cuthbert receives word that the wands of water control are not coming as the priest has been attacked and was dying, perhaps dead.

The party takes off toward the Lucky Monkey and manage to fight their way through babbons, hill men, and rogues to get to the werebaboon Tongue Eater. The ritual warrior, a stand up style fighter, uses the silvered head masterwork spear they found earlier and dukes it out with Tongue Eater with the rest of the party using wolf pact tactics to take him down. After finishing him off, they rescue the half-drow in the basement and make their return to Cauldron.

There were a few interesting spots here. The rogue, instead of trying to pick open the locks, climbed the roof with a few of the other party members. They used sleep and lots of ranged damage to take out the baboons in the mini-courtyard and then walked in through that back door so to speak. I played out the bandits drunkeness, so the party managed to walk through them pretty easily.

The halfling, instead of riding a horse, has a dog with the track ability, so managed to hunt down one of the raiders that fled and using some interrogation, managed to discover who he was working for, but since the raider didn't know much about his employee, only have a vague idea of where the wands possibly are now.

 

[Bullgrit]

This is not a criticism, just an observation that surprises me: There's a lot of non-core PCs in these games. Looks like core classes count for half or less of all the PCs in y'all's games.

Interesting.

Bullgrit

 

[Psion]

This is not a criticism, just an observation that surprises me: There's a lot of non-core PCs in these games. Looks like core classes count for half or less of all the PCs in y'all's games.

I am usually pretty conservative about new classes, but in my case, my players and I were on the same page. Shaman and Martial Artist are two new core classes that make sense to me and I explicitly allow, and that the players were interested in playing.

 

[JoeGKushner]

This is not a criticism, just an observation that surprises me: There's a lot of non-core PCs in these games. Looks like core classes count for half or less of all the PCs in y'all's games.

Interesting.

Bullgrit

Well, no point in having all these freaky classes if you never use them. I see it as playtesting in some ways. If I feel that the class is overpowered or out of place, I'll work with the PC to replace it.

So far I've found the scout/thug combination interesting and the ritual warrior a nice variant on the fighter whose rituals allow him to make up for his lack of pure bab, much like a psychic warrior.

The elf paragon levels are almost too good. Spellcasting for two of the levels, intelligence bonus boost, weapon focus, and fairly high hit dice (d8) for loss of one spellcasting level. Hmmm... so far though, the player hasn't been any problem, but he does continue to surprise me with his endurance which is higher than normal for an elf, and with the d8 hit dice... more hit points than the standard mage.

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

Hi Joe-

When I put the Elf Wizard together, I purposely put his con up to 18 then took the -2 con hit for being an elf, My Wisdom is 10 as well as my stength, so I think I made a fairly hefty sacrofice to gain a decent con for the Wizard. Believe me, playing a mage is alot of paper work.

Ya, the Drinking game was pretty nifty, though I think it must have been that Lord whatever which was in reality the Beholder who beat me. Oh well.


Scott

Well, no point in having all these freaky classes if you never use them. I see it as playtesting in some ways. If I feel that the class is overpowered or out of place, I'll work with the PC to replace it.

So far I've found the scout/thug combination interesting and the ritual warrior a nice variant on the fighter whose rituals allow him to make up for his lack of pure bab, much like a psychic warrior.

The elf paragon levels are almost too good. Spellcasting for two of the levels, intelligence bonus boost, weapon focus, and fairly high hit dice (d8) for loss of one spellcasting level. Hmmm... so far though, the player hasn't been any problem, but he does continue to surprise me with his endurance which is higher than normal for an elf, and with the d8 hit dice... more hit points than the standard mage.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Hi Joe-

When I put the Elf Wizard together, I purposely put his con up to 18 then took the -2 con hit for being an elf, My Wisdom is 10 as well as my stength, so I think I made a fairly hefty sacrofice to gain a decent con for the Wizard. Believe me, playing a mage is alot of paper work.

Ya, the Drinking game was pretty nifty, though I think it must have been that Lord whatever which was in reality the Beholder who beat me. Oh well.


Scott

bah, you and your paranoia. Thinking that the well known Lord Valhentru is a beholder? Sacrilage!

 

[Frozen DM]

We just had our first party casualty last week. The party was investigating the goblins beneath Cauldron and were ambushed by several goblins and a worg. The battle itself wasn't too hard, but the party's elven warlock chased after a fleeing goblin adept. He managed to kill the creature, but was about 50 or so yards away from the rest of the group when the bugbear vampire in dire wolf form caught him.

The party rushed forward and the ranger tried calming the dire wolf down (not too succesfully I might add), but instead the bugbear ripped out the warlock's throat and took off in the dark. So the party learns that splitting up, even for a short distance, is just a bad idea.

I've already introduced the Stormblades since the party wizard is Zachery Aslaxin II's younger brother. The party rivalry is only being worsened with the addition of sibling rivalry. When the party defeated Kazmojen, several of the slaves that had previously been sold were never rescued. The Stormblades were the ones to penetrate even deeper into the Underdark to rescue some of them, stealing away some of the PC's spotlight. I get to play up this rivalry even more in the upcoming adventure.

 

[JoeGKushner]

We had to postpone last sundays game, one player is in retail and the xmas season is here. Our next game is a week from this coming sunday .

Know how you feel. My normal Tuesday game was on hold this week so no update. That's okay, next week is number eleven and the party will be moving into the halfway mark in Flood Season.