Stormonu
NeoGrognard
After getting my hands on HS1 - The Slaying Stone and MM3, I'm giving 4E another attempt.
Right now, my group consists of my eldest son (9), whose playing a Minotaur Paladin named TombBringer, my wife whose playing a deva psion named Shara, and my youngest son (6) whose is playing the dwarven fighter Bruno.
I ran a "meeting" game to introduce everyone to the game and as a precursor to the HS1 module.
The game opened with TombBringer being sent from his home village of HarkenThurr to the nearby Nightshade Forest in search of a pair of twin statues. Back in his home town, the mayor's daughter Eurius had been kidnapped by a pack of gnoll raiders. The two statues (in an old ruin in the forest) had the magical power of divination and could reveal where the girl had been taken. Unfortunately, one of the two statues always lies, while the other always tells the truth...
As TombBringer came within the sight of the ruins, he heard some squabbling voices up ahead at the crossroad. As he cautiously approached, it turned out the voices were a group of goblins looking to waylay anyone they came across. Their leader, armed with a crossbow, called out to the approaching TombBringer "Give us all yer money and maybe we'll let you live."
TombBringer did not kindly take to the threat, and leveled his axe at the leader, roaring out a challenge. Three goblins, armed with short swords and daggers, pounced at TombBringer before he could charge forward. One of the goblins scored a lucky hit and left a gash on the minotaur's leg. While the minotaur was distracted by the pain of the blow, The goblin on the minotaur's opposite side made a grab for the minotaur's money pouch. It turned out to be a mistake, and TombBringer flattened the goblin with a titanic blow from his battleaxe. The mighty blow must have rattle the goblin leader, because his shot went wild, bouncing off one of the other goblin's helmets (he rolled a 1, of course).
While the nearly-perforated goblin shouted for his commander to "watch where he was a-shooting", the minotaur reeled back for another blow and messily dispatched the distracted goblin. TombBringer then began to lumber after the crossbow-wielding leader, the last goblin trooper stumbling to try and lure the minotaur away.
With single-minded precision, TombBringer strode after the goblin sharpshooter, who retreated and attempt to pump crossbow bolt after crossbow bolt into the rampaging minotaur, forcing the minotaur to quaff no less than 3 healing potions in his pursuit. The poor goblin swordsman was effortlyless backhanded after the former tried to put himself between the sharpshooter and the minotaur.
Finally, no longer delayed by the goblin, TombBringer charged the retreating goblin (who by now was down to about 3 bolts and getting rather panicked). TombBringer's goring charge lifted the goblin up into the air, where the cretin landed with a heavy thud, his remaining bolts scattering through the woods. Stumbling to his feet, the goblin groveled for the minotaur to have mercy. Grunting in derision, TombBringer took the goblin's crossbow, stuffed it into his belt, and squatting down to the goblin's eye level, uttered one word. "Run" The goblin didn't need to be told twice. Screaming at the top of its lungs, it took its remaining 1 hit point and disappeared into the woods, yelling "It's gonna eat me!"
When silence finally befell the woods again, TombBringer heard another set of faint voices talking nearby. Moving to investigate, he found a tent in which a surly dwarf and a strange women had watched most of the fight. After a short discussion, TombBringer discovered that the deva, Shara, had come to the woods to seek wisdom from the same statues TombBringer was questing for. The dwarf, who was obviously the deva's bodyguard, seemed to form a fast, friendly bond with the minotaur.
The trio quickly resumed their trek to the nearby ruins. As the neared, the dwarf could hear something moving within the ruins. As the psion carefully started to maneuver about the ruins to discover the source, TombBringer moved up to the main entrance and simply glanced in. There, in the remains of a pillared hall of the ruins, a horse-headed humanoid skeleton dressed in heavy armor stood guard with two nearby flanking skeletal archers.
With the enemy revealed, the psion attempted to blast the equine skeleton, but failed. TombBringer rushed to the attack, calling upon divine forces to call the equine skeleton to attack him; as he did, an axe of shining force appeared above the skeleton, daring it to ignore the paladin. TombBringer crashed against the skeleton, and his battle axe ripped into the skeleton, damaging it, but not destroying it.
Bruno, the dwarf, rushed forward to help, flanking the skeleton, but failing to hit the creature as it put its shield between him and the fighter. As the trio swung and maneuvered, the two skeletal archers fired into the fray, with one of the arrows finding their mark and lodging into the dwarf's armor.
The equine skeleton hissed at TombBringer, bringing its own weapon up and smashing the minotaur with all its might. Though the blow landed squarely, TombBringer merely harrumphed, and with a holy smite backed with the divine strength of his diety, send the skeleton back to the depths of the Shadowfell.
With the skeletal warrior felled, Shara found her mark and blasted one of the skeletal archers, as Bruno turned and dispatched the other. After the group paused to heal its wounds, they turned their attention to two nearby rooms just off from the pillared hall. In each stood a massive statue, worn by time but still intact.
A quick examination of the two statues revealed at one time they had some sort of plaque engraved at their base, but time had worn the letters away. Taking the lead once again, TombBringer found an indentation in each the shape of a hand. Placing his hand in the depression on the one to the the group's left, he was not surprised when the eyes of the statue suddenly flashed open and it boomed "Ask your question".
Thinking hard, TombBringer asked the statue "Are you one who honors truth?"
"Yes," the statue curtly replied. TombBringer furrowed his brow, and stepped to the other, repeating placing his hand into the statue's indentation and asking the same question when the statue flickered to life. Again, he recieved the same answer.
"There was a trick to this," Shara told TombBringer, "A doctor once showed me how to defeat this riddle, but I'm afraid I've forgotten the answer," she shrugged.
As TombBringer contemplated, then asked again another question he thought might work, the dwarf Bruno moved to the back of the statues and began examining them in earnest. The answers did not help. With one question left, TombBringer thought long and hard before asking. When the statue's answers to TombBringer's questions did not turn out to be helpful, the dwarf noticed some runes cut in the statues back.
"This one says 'Liar'," the dwarf pointed out as TombBringer pondered his last question. Quickly checking the other, they found that someone had likewise carved "Truth" into an well-concealed spot on the back of the other.
"Wish I'd seen that earlier," TombBringer stated exasperated. He moved to the statue marked "Truth" and asked about the location of the mayor's daughter. The statue did not answer.
"It doesn't know?" TombBringer grunted.
Shara shook her head. "I think we've used up the magic. Let's find a place to rest, and we'll ask again in the morning." The others agreed, and noticing a side building among the ruins with it's roof still intact, the trio settled down for the night.
---------------------
So, that's the long version of what happened, but I'm really, really happy about it. Lots of good roleplaying, plenty of (quick) combat and everyone had a blast - most especially me. Hopefully, I will be picking up the adventures of TombBringer and his crew the coming weekend.
Right now, my group consists of my eldest son (9), whose playing a Minotaur Paladin named TombBringer, my wife whose playing a deva psion named Shara, and my youngest son (6) whose is playing the dwarven fighter Bruno.
I ran a "meeting" game to introduce everyone to the game and as a precursor to the HS1 module.
The game opened with TombBringer being sent from his home village of HarkenThurr to the nearby Nightshade Forest in search of a pair of twin statues. Back in his home town, the mayor's daughter Eurius had been kidnapped by a pack of gnoll raiders. The two statues (in an old ruin in the forest) had the magical power of divination and could reveal where the girl had been taken. Unfortunately, one of the two statues always lies, while the other always tells the truth...
As TombBringer came within the sight of the ruins, he heard some squabbling voices up ahead at the crossroad. As he cautiously approached, it turned out the voices were a group of goblins looking to waylay anyone they came across. Their leader, armed with a crossbow, called out to the approaching TombBringer "Give us all yer money and maybe we'll let you live."
TombBringer did not kindly take to the threat, and leveled his axe at the leader, roaring out a challenge. Three goblins, armed with short swords and daggers, pounced at TombBringer before he could charge forward. One of the goblins scored a lucky hit and left a gash on the minotaur's leg. While the minotaur was distracted by the pain of the blow, The goblin on the minotaur's opposite side made a grab for the minotaur's money pouch. It turned out to be a mistake, and TombBringer flattened the goblin with a titanic blow from his battleaxe. The mighty blow must have rattle the goblin leader, because his shot went wild, bouncing off one of the other goblin's helmets (he rolled a 1, of course).
While the nearly-perforated goblin shouted for his commander to "watch where he was a-shooting", the minotaur reeled back for another blow and messily dispatched the distracted goblin. TombBringer then began to lumber after the crossbow-wielding leader, the last goblin trooper stumbling to try and lure the minotaur away.
With single-minded precision, TombBringer strode after the goblin sharpshooter, who retreated and attempt to pump crossbow bolt after crossbow bolt into the rampaging minotaur, forcing the minotaur to quaff no less than 3 healing potions in his pursuit. The poor goblin swordsman was effortlyless backhanded after the former tried to put himself between the sharpshooter and the minotaur.
Finally, no longer delayed by the goblin, TombBringer charged the retreating goblin (who by now was down to about 3 bolts and getting rather panicked). TombBringer's goring charge lifted the goblin up into the air, where the cretin landed with a heavy thud, his remaining bolts scattering through the woods. Stumbling to his feet, the goblin groveled for the minotaur to have mercy. Grunting in derision, TombBringer took the goblin's crossbow, stuffed it into his belt, and squatting down to the goblin's eye level, uttered one word. "Run" The goblin didn't need to be told twice. Screaming at the top of its lungs, it took its remaining 1 hit point and disappeared into the woods, yelling "It's gonna eat me!"
When silence finally befell the woods again, TombBringer heard another set of faint voices talking nearby. Moving to investigate, he found a tent in which a surly dwarf and a strange women had watched most of the fight. After a short discussion, TombBringer discovered that the deva, Shara, had come to the woods to seek wisdom from the same statues TombBringer was questing for. The dwarf, who was obviously the deva's bodyguard, seemed to form a fast, friendly bond with the minotaur.
The trio quickly resumed their trek to the nearby ruins. As the neared, the dwarf could hear something moving within the ruins. As the psion carefully started to maneuver about the ruins to discover the source, TombBringer moved up to the main entrance and simply glanced in. There, in the remains of a pillared hall of the ruins, a horse-headed humanoid skeleton dressed in heavy armor stood guard with two nearby flanking skeletal archers.
With the enemy revealed, the psion attempted to blast the equine skeleton, but failed. TombBringer rushed to the attack, calling upon divine forces to call the equine skeleton to attack him; as he did, an axe of shining force appeared above the skeleton, daring it to ignore the paladin. TombBringer crashed against the skeleton, and his battle axe ripped into the skeleton, damaging it, but not destroying it.
Bruno, the dwarf, rushed forward to help, flanking the skeleton, but failing to hit the creature as it put its shield between him and the fighter. As the trio swung and maneuvered, the two skeletal archers fired into the fray, with one of the arrows finding their mark and lodging into the dwarf's armor.
The equine skeleton hissed at TombBringer, bringing its own weapon up and smashing the minotaur with all its might. Though the blow landed squarely, TombBringer merely harrumphed, and with a holy smite backed with the divine strength of his diety, send the skeleton back to the depths of the Shadowfell.
With the skeletal warrior felled, Shara found her mark and blasted one of the skeletal archers, as Bruno turned and dispatched the other. After the group paused to heal its wounds, they turned their attention to two nearby rooms just off from the pillared hall. In each stood a massive statue, worn by time but still intact.
A quick examination of the two statues revealed at one time they had some sort of plaque engraved at their base, but time had worn the letters away. Taking the lead once again, TombBringer found an indentation in each the shape of a hand. Placing his hand in the depression on the one to the the group's left, he was not surprised when the eyes of the statue suddenly flashed open and it boomed "Ask your question".
Thinking hard, TombBringer asked the statue "Are you one who honors truth?"
"Yes," the statue curtly replied. TombBringer furrowed his brow, and stepped to the other, repeating placing his hand into the statue's indentation and asking the same question when the statue flickered to life. Again, he recieved the same answer.
"There was a trick to this," Shara told TombBringer, "A doctor once showed me how to defeat this riddle, but I'm afraid I've forgotten the answer," she shrugged.
As TombBringer contemplated, then asked again another question he thought might work, the dwarf Bruno moved to the back of the statues and began examining them in earnest. The answers did not help. With one question left, TombBringer thought long and hard before asking. When the statue's answers to TombBringer's questions did not turn out to be helpful, the dwarf noticed some runes cut in the statues back.
"This one says 'Liar'," the dwarf pointed out as TombBringer pondered his last question. Quickly checking the other, they found that someone had likewise carved "Truth" into an well-concealed spot on the back of the other.
"Wish I'd seen that earlier," TombBringer stated exasperated. He moved to the statue marked "Truth" and asked about the location of the mayor's daughter. The statue did not answer.
"It doesn't know?" TombBringer grunted.
Shara shook her head. "I think we've used up the magic. Let's find a place to rest, and we'll ask again in the morning." The others agreed, and noticing a side building among the ruins with it's roof still intact, the trio settled down for the night.
---------------------
So, that's the long version of what happened, but I'm really, really happy about it. Lots of good roleplaying, plenty of (quick) combat and everyone had a blast - most especially me. Hopefully, I will be picking up the adventures of TombBringer and his crew the coming weekend.
hope the first real game i host will be this good!
).
