So the day finally came and we played.
I didn't have a companion character ready for them because we found a fifth player who would take on the role of Fighter, only to cancel literally three minutes before go-time. Nice.
Still, we managed to play without any problems so far.
Everyone was very enthusiastic about the game session and experience as a whole. The one player who was somewhat reluctant to make the change to D&D (my wife, half-ling rogue) arguably had the most fun of them all: when we concluded the session *at 2.30 AM!* she suggested we all got some sleep and resumed playing the next day!
At first everyone was a bit overwhelmed by all the new variables during encounters and the lack of structure outside of them. But I was very surprised by the amount of creativity these newcomers would bring to the table.
When I started this adventure, I made the beginning very basic and with lots of invisible handholding to make sure they would get where they were supposed to go. But as always, the players managed to totally mess up the seven or so scenarios I had planned which forced me to quickly make up a lot of stuff. Ofcourse this is half the fun for a DM.
As I shared with you guys before, the adventure started out with the players meeting a Half-Elf Rogue named Valek who had some information for them regarding the Kobold Hall. They could get this info (a map) by either agreeing with the proposal: 75% of found loot. This was to be a very fragile conversation as insulting or trying to intimidate him would cause him to bolt.
Instead of joining Valek at the bar right away, the players would immediately start discussing how much this potential information was worth to them followed by cooking up different strategies of getting this info from him some other way. Torture was mentioned. After about 20 mins of around-the-table discussion the players made their very first D&D decision;
Orion, the Human Ranger sat in the corner of the tavern near the entrance eyeballing the situation from the background. I had him make a stealth check.
Genisius, the Eladrin Wizard leaned against the side of the staircase with some wine. I had him make a Bluff check to see if he was as inconspicuous as he thought he was.
Eillynn the Halfling Rogue never entered the tavern. She stood outside the window behind Valek.
Bobliath the Dwarf Warlord actually joined Valek and started the conversation. The players figured she would be the best bet as she had the most CHA.
They had Valek completly locked down without him knowing it. He couldnt run for the door, Orion would stop him in an instant. He couldn't "go and get the map from his room" only to climb out of the window as Genisius had the stairs. And jumping out of the window behind him would have Eilynn grab his ankles and drop him prone.
To make matters worse - and I swear these guys never read any of the rulebooks - they had this idea where Bobliath would lead him on. When Valek mentioned the 75% she scoffed and banged her fist on the table out of amazement. This was actually a diversion technique as Eillynn was steathily hanging into the tavern from the window and pick his pockets. They essentially did a Thievery check with an Aid Another, and nailed it.
Bobliath then said she had to think about it, Valek said he had other buyers so it was now or never and then left the tavern as a dramatic statement.
The party rejoined inside and inspected the lifted map.
So much for the urban chase encounter. To be honest this made me feel a lot better about the game then it would if everything went according to *my* plan.
The party set out for the Hall. But not without the Warlord enquiring what time it was. This was important to them as the woods got exponentially more dangerous after sunset. This was just a little thing I dropped during the intro speech and they actually acted upon in an intelligent manner.
They had no idea how far away this Kobold Hall was - the map was very imprecise - so they asked Orion the Ranger if he would be able to find a safe place to sleep might the need arise. A well prepared party and all that.
Once they got to the location where they thought the map told them to go into the woods Orion used both his Perception and Nature skills to look for danger or things out of place; "I'm checking to see if there are any branches that broke in an unnatural fashion, like by human hands or some beast stomping on them". Genisius was eager to use his History skill to see if he ever read about this place during his studies and what he could remember of it. He remembered there used to be a revered Lord of these lands who is now long dead, and his ruined mansion was supposed to be somewhere around these parts. This prompted Orion to make a Monster Knowledge Nature check (ofcourse he didn't use these terms but that was what it ultimately meant) to find out about Kobold behaviour and dwellings. Using these facts they decided to look for the mansion as this would surely be the kobold stronghold.
Everyone decided Orion should take the lead because if anyone would be able to find ruins in these woods it would be him. I had him make a Nature check for Tracking, and the entire party an Endurance check to see how long it would take them to get there. They all aced it so my Kobolds + Grey Wolf encounter was avoided.
When they found the Hall they saw two kobold guards on either side of the front door (I improvised this bit as they managed to avoid my planned encounters and I didn't want them to go in without any combat experience).
Instead of attacking them, Genisius used Ghost Sound to make a sound somewhere else in the woods in hoped the guards would leave their stations. Well, one of them did. Then they all hid (e.g. Eillynn the Rogue rolled a natural 20) and Genisius conjured up a shimmer a few feet away from them to lure out the other guard, which worked.
Too bad Orion made a very bad Stealth check and the Kobold began to scream and drew the attention of the other Kobold. The other three heroes were still hidden so after the kobolds jabbed their spears towards Orion - one miss and one hit - they all jumped out and had a surprise round. Eillynn the Rogue acted first and rolled a natural 20. She did about 23 damage and killed the Kobold in one blow. Bobliath swung her hammer and bashed the other Kobold's skull in. He was still alive but barely standing when the Magic Missle hit.
There was much rejoicing at the table.
They went inside the mansion and opened the trap door in the floor which would bring them to the (in)famous first actual Kobold Hall encounter. Before actually going down though, Eilwynn - who was getting the hang of it it seems - looked down the stairs and deduced by the size of the floor tiles that the room(s?) below were of substantial size. (A well used Dungeoneering check).
The following encounter went by as one would expect it would. Blows were traded, curses were thrown, kobolds died. The player controlling the wizard kind of lost confidence in his character's abilities as none of his well placed Scorching Bursts hit. This was not the fault of the Kobolds Reflexes, but simply because he wasn't able to roll higher than a 6 for the entire encounter. The player controlling the warlord however received a great boost in personal confidence when she found out that most if not all of her powers would directly influence her party members, including granting 2 hit points when someone would use an action point.
The ranger made great friends with his Twin Strike power and Hunter's Quarry feature, eating through the kobold's hitpoints after a crit. He also pulled out a notebook at the table and wrote about 3 pages worth of notes, including maps of the surroundings.
And the rogue would be the only one to use an Encounter power - King's Castle - to tactically position herself and doing a great deal of damage.
Amusing mininterpretation of surroundings; the party never went deep enough into the room to actually see the portcullis but they did hear it slam shut. As they were charged by the Kobolds the party read this as the Kobolds fleeing from some unseen danger in a blind panic and locking it in using a metal gate.
We concluded the session after this encounter. Everyone's dying to find out what the metal sound was and what other dangers lurk inside the hall.
An open invitation to me I reckon
While we're far from fluent in the gamemechanics - either from the player's side as the DM's - a great time was had by all and I personally can't wait for the players to unknowingly muck up my plans as the parts which I had to pull out of a hat on site (the guards outside the hall, for instance) we're the parts I enjoyed DMing the most.
Expect another writeup after we played our next session. Probably with some questions from me to you guys regarding whatever problems came up
