Has anyone else started playing 'Scouring' yet? (Possible Spoilers)

Started the campaign last night. Group consists of:

A Deva Avenger
A Human Barbarian
A Tiefling Artificer
A Human Warlord

We made it through the first scene, with the group making very short work, amidst the flaming ruins of Finner's joint, of the Black Horse mercs who ambushed them. They even managed to take down Kathor, though he nearly killed the barbarian (in hindsight, I should not have left Kathor uninvolved for so long; with his general ambivalence about the attack to begin, and considering the fact that the Apple was ablaze, I decided he would hold off, let his underlings do the work, and clean up/demand surrender as the group exited).

Now, the Barbarian both dished and soaked a lot of damage, blowing through three healing surges during the combat, and the Avenger and the Warlord used their daily powers, but boy did they kick the bejesus out of the thugs/scouts/recruits/dogs.

Gonna be a long night for them, now, though, having burned through a couple dailies, the surges, and still needing to wind their through the city, past at least one inner gate, and into the Depository.

Long story short -- great session.

Paul or any others did you find the first fight was to easy? To Hard? I seem to be getting the easy part from a lot? Did you include the spraying oil and the falling ceiling? I was thinking of leaving Kathor out of it yet, and just have him send the minions in, (maybe adding a couple thugs) and then have him demanding surrendor, or fleeing if it turns against them.

Thoughts?

Talysian said:

Paul or any others did you find the first fight was to easy? To Hard? I seem to be getting the easy part from a lot? Did you include the spraying oil and the falling ceiling? I was thinking of leaving Kathor out of it yet, and just have him send the minions in, (maybe adding a couple thugs) and then have him demanding surrendor, or fleeing if it turns against them.

Thoughts?

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Well, I had only four PCs last night and they moved through the opponents pretty easily. I included the flaming oil (though it did damage only in the first round because I figured the oil only leaked through the slats that one time, then burned debris on the floor at the Xs) and the falling ceiling (it caught no one).

Since I did not include Kathor in the combat early on, I had only four non-minions going against the group. Because the group heard the creaking floorboards above as the scouts moved into position (the Avenger has great perception), they started to move toward the stairs before the ambush was sprung. By chance, the Warlord ended up standing before the front door, so when the thugs and the recruits burst it open, he was standing there blocking the way, and that prevented the thugs and recruits from piling in. This turned out to be a huge advantage for the group because it kept the numbers manageable inside the inn while the warlord held his ground for several rounds. Eventually the recruits scurried around to the alley entrance, but that cost them time.

Looking back, it's clear my PCs benefited from the high perception of the Avenger and the fortuitous positioning of the warlord, otherwise things would have been tougher. Too easy? No. But I think I'd still consider adding another scout to the mix and maybe arming the thugs with something better than handaxes and saps, especially if you've got five players. Or maybe just get Kathor involved sooner (in my case, it might have made sense to have him get involved as soon as he saw the bottleneck at the main entrance). On the other hand, Kathor is very tough with that Trillith True Strike and getting him involved too early could easily tip the combat away from the party.

If you have an experienced 4e group, I'd say it's too easy, especially if they optimize characters. I'd scrap the use of specific exp awards and just follow the divisions in the beginning of the SCouring module. That way you can add a couple more bad guys to the mix. The great thing with the first fight is you can use Kathor's uncertainty to call out his thugs if you feel you've put in too many.

The first fight is a teaser. It will lull the heroes into complacency.

Don't forget that you will have 4 encounters with no breaks before an extended rest. If the party wastes all their dailies and loses healing surges, the last fight (with the errata especially) will be pretty rough. The wisp solon in encounter 3 will also have its righteous glory which affects attack rolls and defense, so things can go downhill fast.

Boregar said:

My party, which I forgot to mention before, -

Human Warden
Human Swordmage
Dragonborn Sorcerer
Deva Ranger
Goliath Barbarian

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I think having no leader will make for some challenging combats. It really makes a difference to the group in my opinion. Sure, everyone can do Second Wind once during the encounter, but it doesn't make up for having a leader who can heal someone as a minor action, do some damage and buff the party in the same round. Good luck!

The group I have running WotBS now is:
Halfling Rogue
Halfling Feypact Warlock
Eladrin TacLord
Genasi Assault Swordmage
Human Fighter (Flail and board)

This is a very melee-heavy group with only limited range options. We only have the one leader, and it's true that Tactical warlords are not as good at pumping out heals as bards or clerics. It shouldn't matter too much - except when I got a crit and took the taclord out on the first round of a tough fight.

That was a bit tricky, with both defenders taking some big hits before the others got the warlord back up again. The swordmage went unconscious, losing his warding spell. I found that because magical healing will bring everyone up to positive no matter how negative they were to start, the battle standard I had given the party was more effective than anticipated. That will help them on the healing front, along with potions. The party won, so it was all good. That was in a fight with river bandits as they were traveling towards Seaquen (a fight I added in myself - I'm doing my own conversion right now).

PaulKemp said:

Because the group heard the creaking floorboards above as the scouts moved into position (the Avenger has great perception), they started to move toward the stairs before the ambush was sprung. By chance, the Warlord ended up standing before the front door, so when the thugs and the recruits burst it open, he was standing there blocking the way, and that prevented the thugs and recruits from piling in. This turned out to be a huge advantage for the group because it kept the numbers manageable inside the inn while the warlord held his ground for several rounds. Eventually the recruits scurried around to the alley entrance, but that cost them time.

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When I ran the fight it went very similarly. The heroes managed to block the stairs down very quickly, and while a bunch of bad guys got in the front door, it too was blocked off in short order. The mercenaries went around back, but as you say, it cost them some time. Kathor waffled about his involvement, and ended up fleeing along with the surviving mercenaries at the end. Nice warm-up though. The group was more effective than I had anticipated, but it was probably only the 2nd or 3rd fight I had ever run in 4E.

Morrus said:

I start my 4E WotBS campaign in full on Thursday night! I've been waiting a long, long time to get chance to actually really run this through!

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Are you going to start a campaign thread a la PC or Rel?

Jack99 said:

Are you going to start a campaign thread a la PC or Rel?

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I am not. Sorry. Simply don't have the time.

My party did pretty well. Torrent mostly stood around guarding the wizard until people started dropping, and then she helped out with some healing. Kathor stayed out of it until someone charged at him, and then he dismounted, knocked the ranger unconscious, and then got back on his horse.

He originally asked the party to surrender when they all got outside, and they politely declined, and then when all his allies except 2 dogs and a scout were dead, he pointed and yelled "You can go." The ranger sneered at him, said "No way!", and then Kathor sighed, said "all right then..." and whistled loudly. The ranger said "Never mind, we'll go".

Apparently, I made my real life Bluff check...

The party started moving away, and as the avenger passed the scout, he killed him, looked at Kathor and said, "I swore I would." and shrugged. Kathor said, "I never liked him anyway."