WotBS [Spoilers included] Half WotBS diary, half GM asking questions

[Mrpereira]

My players were too suspicious of an unknown drug to try it - one probably ought to be proud of them on a moral level, even if they skipped the entire encounter that way

As Bill wrote, the spell is a cleric spell, so any priest in the Group should be able to memorize it if need be. So unless you want to make it an issue that they are really under time pressure, just remind them about that fact once the potions run low - if they run low that is.

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

Thanks guys for the feedback, mucho helpfulo!

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

So, in Session 3, the party spoke to councilman Menash, who handed them the papers for Captain Herreman. When the bounty hunters approached them dressed as town guards, the party actually fought them. To stop the bloodbath I had the procession with the caged ragesian soldiers show up in after a round or two. The party, despite my trying to play hard on the suspicious behaviour of the false guards, never worked out what had happend there, but that's quite ok. Not all mysteries need to be resolved.

They met Randle as well (the party's rogue identified him for the party) and they agreed to deliver the message to his sister.
In the end they made it out of the city just fine.

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

In the fourth Session the party made it through the gauntlet with relative ease. Yes, the cleric's horse spooked and ran off with her when the Thunderstones went off, and the wizard's horse followed when it was hit with a crossbow bolt. But between the recklessly charging halfling barbarian and the ranger's longbow the bounty hunters were sadly understaffed.
At least the heroes heeded the defeated enemies' cries for mercy, which was a bit of a relief. So far, the group has shown a tendency to mercilessly slaughter anything standing in their way (the elves in the hide-out were an exception); a bit like (you're forced to) in a computer RPG. Nice to see that this might now be changed. Especially with an eye on the upcoming moral challenges in the Burning Forest.

Haddin and Crystin were (and remain) a bit of a challenge to me as the GM. I find it hard to portrait Crystin's behaviour as under her father's spell. I can't quite get a grip on Haddin's personality either. Old, grumpy, stubborn, haughty yet relatively frail...tricky,
Either way, the party entered the farm and I triggered the inquisitor's attack soon after. The fight was the toughest so far, with "Smiley" enlarged and enraged. As only the parties Barbarian entered the fray and was soon in a tough spot fired at by the goblins as well, I had Haddin use his dominate person spell on Smiley sucessfully. Good fight tough, with Boreus finding his end on a critical hit from the little barbarian.

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

Q:
Would Haddin's enchantment over Crystin show up on a Detect Magic? I'm assuming yes, but so far played it as a no.

I'm unsure as how to proceed with Haddin. He should really become more of a thorn in the parties side, but I'm not sure how. I will probably have him be attacked by some of the Lemures when Kazyk strikes and then maybe Charm Person someone into protecting him. Though, I'm not dead happy about that, as it's a bit very in-your-face.

Plus, as by the end of Book 2 there is a fair chance that Tiljann would join the party I kind of don't want to create just too much of a "following" for the heroes. Maybe I'll find a way to get Haddin's hold over Crystin dispelled and then she can split from the party after the forest to discover life and the world while Haddin drags himself off to someplace to die.

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

Session 5 saw the party enter the burning forest of Innenotdar. I hope I managed to instill in them the awesomness of the setting, at least I'm trying.
The first noticable blip on the radar was the Mephit and bat fight, where the group's ranger got a sudden urge to befriend the Mephit. This came to a sudden end when the outsider gleefully urinated on the corpse of the defeated bat before flying off.
They recovered the loot from the gnome cart with the rogue fighting for his life against the swarm while the cleric rained "Created Water" on the swarm and the wizard added Magic Missiles.

We ended the session at the bridge after the hellhound dropped off Kazyk's message, which the party will apparently not heed (they don't want to give up the case but bring the bone along).

I'm glad to see skills other than Perception to come into play. The wizard has already declared to put at least 1 rank into every knowledge skill with the next level- up to "unlock" them. I'm afraid the ranger came a bit short in action today, but I forsee more work for her when we come to the end of the "railroad" by the time we get into the elven village.

 

[The_Furious_Puffin]

I had Haddin get killed in the attack on the hunt because he doesn't seem to add measurably value to subsequent events and the game already has a ton of NPCs kicking around.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Stand the Heat is a cleric/druid spell, just remember it has a material cost. I made sure the party knew about it and let them stock up on some components before leaving. (Started them at level 3, so they skipped almost all of chapter 1 except meeting Councilman Menash onwards, the rest I just made "recaps")

I had Haddin get killed in the attack on the hunt because he doesn't seem to add measurably value to subsequent events and the game already has a ton of NPCs kicking around.

I had Crystin get killed off (which basically means just having something attack her, given her hp and AC) and Haddin ran off in the middle of the night swearing vengeance on the party, to become a recurring villain. There's just way too many NPCs early on. The two of them, Torrent, Tiljann, then another likely NPC add-on early in the next chapter... At least once they reach Seaquen you can dump them all off there, but it sure is a slog before that if they actually retain all of the NPCs.

 

[RangerWickett]

Clearly you've never had to evacuate for a hurricane, and been forced to fit your brother's girlfriend and her mom into your car along with three cats, then sit in traffic in Texas summer heat for 6 hours. In this campaign you get to dump the unwanted hangers-on right before the hurricane hits!

 

[thom_likes_gaming]

Clearly you've never had to evacuate for a hurricane, and been forced to fit your brother's girlfriend and her mom into your car along with three cats, then sit in traffic in Texas summer heat for 6 hours. In this campaign you get to dump the unwanted hangers-on right before the hurricane hits!

That's a pretty interesting take on it. I'll see if and how I can play on that in the next session.
Thank you