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The Adventures of the Endhome 6+1. Rebirth of Barakus! (9-27-06, 19 and 20 back up)
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<blockquote data-quote="Scorch" data-source="post: 3071040" data-attributes="member: 1502"><p><strong>Adventure 1: OK I got them to roll up characters. Now what?</strong></p><p></p><p>The night had arrived for my first game as a DM in so many years. After gaming with the others for so long I had a good idea of what tools I would need. I had my three core rulebooks all bookmarked up as well as the Barakus adventure book. For mapping we were using one of those large presentation tablets you can pick up at an office supply store. It had a one-inch grid on it. We had plenty of painted and plastic miniatures.</p><p></p><p>Days before the game I had written up a two-page summary document of what I wanted to happen. The players were hired guards for widow merchant’s caravan heading through Fool’s Pass. She had made the run before and knew it was a tough go but it shaved weeks off of the normal, safer, route. </p><p></p><p>Each of the players had their reasons for going to Endhome but I decided I needed to plant a seed for a possible adventure hook. I told Micca, the cleric, that he was being sent to find out what happened to a fellow priest of Hieronius who ran the local temple chapter in Endhome. He had been missing for a year. The missing priest was the NPC from level 3 of Barakus. Later on I would build on this adventure hook to incorporate in some of the other NPCs who are wandering around Barakus, driven mad by the artifact down there.</p><p></p><p>I also included an NPC fighter as the captain of the caravan guard in case the adventurers got in over their head with some of the freakier encounter table entries for the wilderness. I decided I would start this first adventure by letting the dice fall as they may and see what happens.</p><p></p><p>Sure enough the first encounter in the hills surrounding Fool’s Pass was with four grimlocks. I decided to interpret these encounters in a way that made sense. The four grimlocks were hiding behind rocks on the slopes on either side of the pass and were waiting an opportune moment to ambush the caravan. Scouting by Absinthe, the rogue, alerted the party to what was happening and a bad hide roll by a grimlock initiated combat.</p><p></p><p>This was my first combat so I had my laptop open next to me with an Excel spreadsheet listing names of combatants, initiative, AC, and hit points. I had purchased DMGenie but, frankly, it was a little intimidating to me at the moment. Everyone rolled init, I rolled for the monsters, and I sorted the fields. </p><p></p><p>A little history first: Flashback four years ago when we first had the 3.0 PHB and the Sunless Citadel module. None of us had played DnD in years. Our first combat was with a twig blight and we felt pretty good how the six of us schooled it’s a$$. We had reached the entrance to the Citadel and the paladin, played by Tantra, climbed down a rope to the first room. Where he was promptly taken to pieces by a single dire rat. Since then none of us has really played a first level party in a while and I was well aware how a missed roll could KILL a player at this level. This was running through my head as the players charged into combat.</p><p></p><p>The grimlocks fought in two teams of two. Spells and arrows flew while swords and battle-axes clashed. Things were getting hairy for a moment there as hit points on PCs were whittled down and I thought I may need to bring the NPC fighter in to help things out but then some point was reached when it all came apart for the monsters and they were finished off in one round’s time.</p><p></p><p>Years of playing with the new rules had honed our tactical combat skills on the grid map so the combat had gone off without a hitch. Another aspect of low-level gaming came up at that point: the players are POOR! They stripped the grimlocks down of everything they had. Loot was loot.</p><p></p><p>The party passed the first noted area on the map. Unfortunately this was my first problem I came across with the module. The I and the J on the map look too much alike so what should have been the entrance to Barakus was turned into the Caves of the Dead. When I later found this out I decided to keep it the way I read it. I had the cleric get a feeling of great evil over towards a certain area, secretly hoping they would investigate knowing full well the undead there would probably wipe them out. Instead the party made a note of it and moved on.</p><p></p><p>I knew it would take them four to five days to get to Barakus from where they were at so this was a good test run for me to just through stuff at them and see how they reacted. </p><p></p><p>The next encounter was at night when they camped near the wizard’s tower. Ravenspur and Micca were drawn to it while camp was being set up. I let them figuratively bang their heads against it until they gave up. That night I rolled on the encounter tables and came up with two gnolls. I played it as a father and son coming up to the tower for an adult initiation ritual. Only Keldin, the ranger, spoke gnoll and he was privy to my bad Red Green imitation as I had the father drone on and on about how generations of gnolls had come to the big stone spike to pee on it as a part of their initiation into adulthood. The caravan was camped off a ways so neither they nor the gnolls were aware of each other. The ranger just happened to spot them. Since they were not goblins and obviously not up to any mischief he let them be while observing them hidden.</p><p></p><p>The next encounter was the rogue scouting ahead and coming across six goblins lounging about a stream that crossed the road, skinning a deer they had brought down. She decided to settle in a watch their reaction to the approaching caravan. Now when I roll encounters I want to role-play it out. These monsters did not just appear out of the ether and charge into combat. There is a reason why they are here doing what they are doing. I decided to think how a band of hunters from a goblin tribe would treat an approaching, well armed, caravan. They heard it from a distance off and skedaddled. </p><p></p><p>The ranger was disappointed when he heard he had missed a chance to fight goblins. He and the rogue went scouting together and I rolled up the two half-orc brothers. Both parties were suspicious of one another and after some cautious conversation parted ways. The module stated their attitude if treated a certain way and I decided to role play it that way.</p><p></p><p>That night I rolled the worse possible roll for the location they were in: double zeroes… the red dragon. I played it like the book recommended I do: as an opportunity to frighten the pants off of the party. Being experienced players who knew what they saw flying in the distance, outlined by the light of the full moon, they got the caravan off of the road into the woods as quickly as they could. The dragon dived into the hills to the north, they saw the brief flash of red flame, and then it rose up again with half of something large clutched in its claws. It flew off into the distance and they decided to camp in the woods for the rest of the night.</p><p></p><p>The rest of the journey to Endhome was pretty uneventful with the exception of an encounter with a monstrous bee that the sorcerer led off with dancing lights. They also encountered the rider-less horse, which they kept.</p><p></p><p>Upon reaching the north gates of Endhome they were paid 50 GP each for their services and given a letter of introduction they could present to Bragger Bondhome, the captain of the city guard. More plot hooks for me to use. I ended the adventure there for the night.</p><p></p><p>Now came the fun part of experience. I calculated up all the CRs for what they fought and won against. I added it all together, divided it by 6 and then halved it. This was keeping with the adventure’s recommendation to slow level progression so that the party was not level 5 by the time they hit the actual dungeon. I wanted to run them through some city and wilderness adventures to get them to level 2 before they hit Barakus.</p><p></p><p>Next Up: What do I run them through now that will not KILL them…</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Scorch, post: 3071040, member: 1502"] [b]Adventure 1: OK I got them to roll up characters. Now what?[/b] The night had arrived for my first game as a DM in so many years. After gaming with the others for so long I had a good idea of what tools I would need. I had my three core rulebooks all bookmarked up as well as the Barakus adventure book. For mapping we were using one of those large presentation tablets you can pick up at an office supply store. It had a one-inch grid on it. We had plenty of painted and plastic miniatures. Days before the game I had written up a two-page summary document of what I wanted to happen. The players were hired guards for widow merchant’s caravan heading through Fool’s Pass. She had made the run before and knew it was a tough go but it shaved weeks off of the normal, safer, route. Each of the players had their reasons for going to Endhome but I decided I needed to plant a seed for a possible adventure hook. I told Micca, the cleric, that he was being sent to find out what happened to a fellow priest of Hieronius who ran the local temple chapter in Endhome. He had been missing for a year. The missing priest was the NPC from level 3 of Barakus. Later on I would build on this adventure hook to incorporate in some of the other NPCs who are wandering around Barakus, driven mad by the artifact down there. I also included an NPC fighter as the captain of the caravan guard in case the adventurers got in over their head with some of the freakier encounter table entries for the wilderness. I decided I would start this first adventure by letting the dice fall as they may and see what happens. Sure enough the first encounter in the hills surrounding Fool’s Pass was with four grimlocks. I decided to interpret these encounters in a way that made sense. The four grimlocks were hiding behind rocks on the slopes on either side of the pass and were waiting an opportune moment to ambush the caravan. Scouting by Absinthe, the rogue, alerted the party to what was happening and a bad hide roll by a grimlock initiated combat. This was my first combat so I had my laptop open next to me with an Excel spreadsheet listing names of combatants, initiative, AC, and hit points. I had purchased DMGenie but, frankly, it was a little intimidating to me at the moment. Everyone rolled init, I rolled for the monsters, and I sorted the fields. A little history first: Flashback four years ago when we first had the 3.0 PHB and the Sunless Citadel module. None of us had played DnD in years. Our first combat was with a twig blight and we felt pretty good how the six of us schooled it’s a$$. We had reached the entrance to the Citadel and the paladin, played by Tantra, climbed down a rope to the first room. Where he was promptly taken to pieces by a single dire rat. Since then none of us has really played a first level party in a while and I was well aware how a missed roll could KILL a player at this level. This was running through my head as the players charged into combat. The grimlocks fought in two teams of two. Spells and arrows flew while swords and battle-axes clashed. Things were getting hairy for a moment there as hit points on PCs were whittled down and I thought I may need to bring the NPC fighter in to help things out but then some point was reached when it all came apart for the monsters and they were finished off in one round’s time. Years of playing with the new rules had honed our tactical combat skills on the grid map so the combat had gone off without a hitch. Another aspect of low-level gaming came up at that point: the players are POOR! They stripped the grimlocks down of everything they had. Loot was loot. The party passed the first noted area on the map. Unfortunately this was my first problem I came across with the module. The I and the J on the map look too much alike so what should have been the entrance to Barakus was turned into the Caves of the Dead. When I later found this out I decided to keep it the way I read it. I had the cleric get a feeling of great evil over towards a certain area, secretly hoping they would investigate knowing full well the undead there would probably wipe them out. Instead the party made a note of it and moved on. I knew it would take them four to five days to get to Barakus from where they were at so this was a good test run for me to just through stuff at them and see how they reacted. The next encounter was at night when they camped near the wizard’s tower. Ravenspur and Micca were drawn to it while camp was being set up. I let them figuratively bang their heads against it until they gave up. That night I rolled on the encounter tables and came up with two gnolls. I played it as a father and son coming up to the tower for an adult initiation ritual. Only Keldin, the ranger, spoke gnoll and he was privy to my bad Red Green imitation as I had the father drone on and on about how generations of gnolls had come to the big stone spike to pee on it as a part of their initiation into adulthood. The caravan was camped off a ways so neither they nor the gnolls were aware of each other. The ranger just happened to spot them. Since they were not goblins and obviously not up to any mischief he let them be while observing them hidden. The next encounter was the rogue scouting ahead and coming across six goblins lounging about a stream that crossed the road, skinning a deer they had brought down. She decided to settle in a watch their reaction to the approaching caravan. Now when I roll encounters I want to role-play it out. These monsters did not just appear out of the ether and charge into combat. There is a reason why they are here doing what they are doing. I decided to think how a band of hunters from a goblin tribe would treat an approaching, well armed, caravan. They heard it from a distance off and skedaddled. The ranger was disappointed when he heard he had missed a chance to fight goblins. He and the rogue went scouting together and I rolled up the two half-orc brothers. Both parties were suspicious of one another and after some cautious conversation parted ways. The module stated their attitude if treated a certain way and I decided to role play it that way. That night I rolled the worse possible roll for the location they were in: double zeroes… the red dragon. I played it like the book recommended I do: as an opportunity to frighten the pants off of the party. Being experienced players who knew what they saw flying in the distance, outlined by the light of the full moon, they got the caravan off of the road into the woods as quickly as they could. The dragon dived into the hills to the north, they saw the brief flash of red flame, and then it rose up again with half of something large clutched in its claws. It flew off into the distance and they decided to camp in the woods for the rest of the night. The rest of the journey to Endhome was pretty uneventful with the exception of an encounter with a monstrous bee that the sorcerer led off with dancing lights. They also encountered the rider-less horse, which they kept. Upon reaching the north gates of Endhome they were paid 50 GP each for their services and given a letter of introduction they could present to Bragger Bondhome, the captain of the city guard. More plot hooks for me to use. I ended the adventure there for the night. Now came the fun part of experience. I calculated up all the CRs for what they fought and won against. I added it all together, divided it by 6 and then halved it. This was keeping with the adventure’s recommendation to slow level progression so that the party was not level 5 by the time they hit the actual dungeon. I wanted to run them through some city and wilderness adventures to get them to level 2 before they hit Barakus. Next Up: What do I run them through now that will not KILL them… [/QUOTE]
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