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The Second Age [4e PoL campaign]
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<blockquote data-quote="Jack99" data-source="post: 5115529" data-attributes="member: 53135"><p><strong>Session 1</strong></p><p>So today was the first day of our new campaign. I was very optimistic. I had received 4 very good backgrounds and 1 passable out of 6 possible. Considering its only two or three that bother, it worked dangling the possibility of a magical item. Even better, it was clear that all 5 had taken the time to actually read the stuff on the campaign setting, again, usually its only a couple who do that before the campaign starts, the rest pick it up as we go.</p><p></p><p>Once people were gathered, and questions were answered, it turns out there had been a few minor adjustments to the characters. Nothing much. We had:</p><p></p><p>Lucan, Elf Monk (Centered Breath)</p><p>Garel-kai, Genasi Tactical Warlord (multiclass wizard)</p><p>Tokiel, Dragonborn Dragon Sorcerer</p><p>Kavaki, Goliath Earth Warden</p><p>Velkin, Human Avenger/Invoker (hybrid) of Ioun</p><p>Amul Zur, Halforc Paladin of Kord.</p><p></p><p>While eating, I tried something new. I can't remember where I read it, but someone suggested letting the members introduce themselves, then figure out as a group how they knew each other. I said that they had to know at least one other party-member from earlier on. It went okay. At first, there was some silence and some looking around, but once they got going, we got almost all well involved. One (the one with no background) needed some help, but we managed to make things fit together nicely. I can easily see myself doing this again, next time we start a campaign (hopefully that will be some years).</p><p></p><p>After that little exercise, we got the campaign on the road. They started out at the Alehouse in Fallcrest, having gotten together to form an adventuring band. They were also celebrating the Goliath's birthday, so he was getting quite drunk. They are approached by Amara Azaer, the tiefling who runs the local Azaer Trading House. Incidently, the Dragonborn had written in his background that since he had brokered a trade deal for his tribe to the south, he had already had several meetings with Amara and they had been a bit of flirting (not too sure about the racial issue, but he does have 18 CHA and trained bluff and diplomacy). So when an Azaer caravan had been attacked and the goods stolen, with all the guards being tied up by goblin and kobold attacks, I figured that it wasn't too unrealistic to have her approach Tokiel and his new group of friends. After some haggling, they agreed to some terms, but convinced her it was okay to put things off until the morning, as Kavaki was already borderline roaring drunk.</p><p></p><p>As she left, some Red Riders came in the door. Kavaki, who has a history with the Red Riders (he thinks he killed 3 of them a couple of months ago) tried to hide under the table, but managed instead to turn over the table and make a lot of noise (natural 1 on stealth check). They started looking around, claiming they were searching for a young human man, who had been poaching the land of their Lord. But since he wasn't there, they quickly left again and Kavaki could once again return to his drinking.</p><p></p><p>The next morning, they went and had a talk with the driver who had survived the bandit attack (by playing dead). He said they had been heading east, that they had mentioned something about a castle, and that they had expressed happiness about their job, since they both got pay and got to keep the loot. Immediately, theories of competing merchants trying to hurt House Azaer were conjured, but based on the little knowledge they had, nothing concrete came out of that. They decided to head south via the trail to find the spot where the caravan had been ambushed and go from there.</p><p></p><p>Once at the spot, marked by 3 shallow graves, they quickly found the trail and headed west, into the Silent Forest.</p><p></p><p>This is where my Find-the-way skill challenge started. They failed the first, which led to a random encounter in the form of two Phase Spiders. Ouch. Only a level n+1 combat by the XP, but with 2 level 8 skirmishers against 6 level 1 characters, it was still a rough combat. Lots of people going down due to the poison, and a lot of surges were spent. It wasn't extremely close, but close enough for my players to gain a good deal of respect of the Silent Forest.</p><p></p><p>Just to be fair, I had warned them prior to the campaign starting, that things would be more realistic this time around, with monsters varying greatly in level and such things. They were all okay with that.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, once the spiders dead, the party continued following the tracks. Or rather, they got a bit off track, and ran into a couple of dire stirges (yes, the second skill challenge was failed as well, or rather, the stealth part). Again, two higher level (7) monsters against many low-level players. On paper, not a hard fight (n+0), but in practice, it was very hard. Especially since they (the dire stirges) were constantly sitting on the back of characters, giving them a 26 AC and 23(?) Reflex defense. Both very hard to hit. But eventually the party managed, especially when they figured that attacking fortitude was much more effective than attacking AC and Reflex. It was still touch and go for a couple of characters, but luckily it was the Warden they were attached to (after the monk was dead), right when he had popped his Stone's Endurance. Otherwise 20 ongoing damage hurts most characters a lot. Like, really a lot</p><p></p><p>After fighting the stirges, they were like:"Okay, we better get out of this forest" or "We should have stayed at home. When that is said, they did continue. From here on, following the trail went mostly well, and they walked most of the day through the forest. As it was getting late, they ran into 4 bandits (or rather, were ambushed by them) but those were much easier and died quickly.</p><p></p><p>After a good night's sleep with no interruptions, they followed the trail and made it to Castle Flame. Up there, next to the castle, they found a bandit camp. They tried to ambush it, but failed at being stealthy. Instead they were showered with arrows, but in the end, the 7 bandits and their illusionist leader (7 level 2 skirmishers and a level 4 elite controller = n+3) all died the same. They found some gold and a magic staff, that none of them could identify.</p><p></p><p>Overall it was a decent session. It was fun, without being stellar or anything. I have had worse starts to a campaign, but I have certainly had better as well. It was missing je-ne-sais-quoi... Maybe because it was that the last encounter really didn't push them much, despite it being a n+3 with the monsters having the tactical advantage. On the other hand, I was pleased with the random encounters being rough on the players, making them fear just a little bit what else could be in that forest. I also liked that I got planted both the bandit, kobold and goblin hook, so they will definitely have enough to do for a while. When they return, I will start the undead part and the thieves guild part, so there will be 5 different hooks in action. Although some are of course connected.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jack99, post: 5115529, member: 53135"] [B]Session 1[/B] So today was the first day of our new campaign. I was very optimistic. I had received 4 very good backgrounds and 1 passable out of 6 possible. Considering its only two or three that bother, it worked dangling the possibility of a magical item. Even better, it was clear that all 5 had taken the time to actually read the stuff on the campaign setting, again, usually its only a couple who do that before the campaign starts, the rest pick it up as we go. Once people were gathered, and questions were answered, it turns out there had been a few minor adjustments to the characters. Nothing much. We had: Lucan, Elf Monk (Centered Breath) Garel-kai, Genasi Tactical Warlord (multiclass wizard) Tokiel, Dragonborn Dragon Sorcerer Kavaki, Goliath Earth Warden Velkin, Human Avenger/Invoker (hybrid) of Ioun Amul Zur, Halforc Paladin of Kord. While eating, I tried something new. I can't remember where I read it, but someone suggested letting the members introduce themselves, then figure out as a group how they knew each other. I said that they had to know at least one other party-member from earlier on. It went okay. At first, there was some silence and some looking around, but once they got going, we got almost all well involved. One (the one with no background) needed some help, but we managed to make things fit together nicely. I can easily see myself doing this again, next time we start a campaign (hopefully that will be some years). After that little exercise, we got the campaign on the road. They started out at the Alehouse in Fallcrest, having gotten together to form an adventuring band. They were also celebrating the Goliath's birthday, so he was getting quite drunk. They are approached by Amara Azaer, the tiefling who runs the local Azaer Trading House. Incidently, the Dragonborn had written in his background that since he had brokered a trade deal for his tribe to the south, he had already had several meetings with Amara and they had been a bit of flirting (not too sure about the racial issue, but he does have 18 CHA and trained bluff and diplomacy). So when an Azaer caravan had been attacked and the goods stolen, with all the guards being tied up by goblin and kobold attacks, I figured that it wasn't too unrealistic to have her approach Tokiel and his new group of friends. After some haggling, they agreed to some terms, but convinced her it was okay to put things off until the morning, as Kavaki was already borderline roaring drunk. As she left, some Red Riders came in the door. Kavaki, who has a history with the Red Riders (he thinks he killed 3 of them a couple of months ago) tried to hide under the table, but managed instead to turn over the table and make a lot of noise (natural 1 on stealth check). They started looking around, claiming they were searching for a young human man, who had been poaching the land of their Lord. But since he wasn't there, they quickly left again and Kavaki could once again return to his drinking. The next morning, they went and had a talk with the driver who had survived the bandit attack (by playing dead). He said they had been heading east, that they had mentioned something about a castle, and that they had expressed happiness about their job, since they both got pay and got to keep the loot. Immediately, theories of competing merchants trying to hurt House Azaer were conjured, but based on the little knowledge they had, nothing concrete came out of that. They decided to head south via the trail to find the spot where the caravan had been ambushed and go from there. Once at the spot, marked by 3 shallow graves, they quickly found the trail and headed west, into the Silent Forest. This is where my Find-the-way skill challenge started. They failed the first, which led to a random encounter in the form of two Phase Spiders. Ouch. Only a level n+1 combat by the XP, but with 2 level 8 skirmishers against 6 level 1 characters, it was still a rough combat. Lots of people going down due to the poison, and a lot of surges were spent. It wasn't extremely close, but close enough for my players to gain a good deal of respect of the Silent Forest. Just to be fair, I had warned them prior to the campaign starting, that things would be more realistic this time around, with monsters varying greatly in level and such things. They were all okay with that. Anyway, once the spiders dead, the party continued following the tracks. Or rather, they got a bit off track, and ran into a couple of dire stirges (yes, the second skill challenge was failed as well, or rather, the stealth part). Again, two higher level (7) monsters against many low-level players. On paper, not a hard fight (n+0), but in practice, it was very hard. Especially since they (the dire stirges) were constantly sitting on the back of characters, giving them a 26 AC and 23(?) Reflex defense. Both very hard to hit. But eventually the party managed, especially when they figured that attacking fortitude was much more effective than attacking AC and Reflex. It was still touch and go for a couple of characters, but luckily it was the Warden they were attached to (after the monk was dead), right when he had popped his Stone's Endurance. Otherwise 20 ongoing damage hurts most characters a lot. Like, really a lot After fighting the stirges, they were like:"Okay, we better get out of this forest" or "We should have stayed at home. When that is said, they did continue. From here on, following the trail went mostly well, and they walked most of the day through the forest. As it was getting late, they ran into 4 bandits (or rather, were ambushed by them) but those were much easier and died quickly. After a good night's sleep with no interruptions, they followed the trail and made it to Castle Flame. Up there, next to the castle, they found a bandit camp. They tried to ambush it, but failed at being stealthy. Instead they were showered with arrows, but in the end, the 7 bandits and their illusionist leader (7 level 2 skirmishers and a level 4 elite controller = n+3) all died the same. They found some gold and a magic staff, that none of them could identify. Overall it was a decent session. It was fun, without being stellar or anything. I have had worse starts to a campaign, but I have certainly had better as well. It was missing je-ne-sais-quoi... Maybe because it was that the last encounter really didn't push them much, despite it being a n+3 with the monsters having the tactical advantage. On the other hand, I was pleased with the random encounters being rough on the players, making them fear just a little bit what else could be in that forest. I also liked that I got planted both the bandit, kobold and goblin hook, so they will definitely have enough to do for a while. When they return, I will start the undead part and the thieves guild part, so there will be 5 different hooks in action. Although some are of course connected. [/QUOTE]
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