deathdonut
First Post
I had the opportunity to run Raiders of Oakhurst a couple of weeks ago with my normal gaming group to test the waters of 4e rules. Everyone had a great time (despite some bad dice-karma on the part of the rogue), but due to quite a bit of role-playing and snack breaks we never quite got to the Nightscale encounter. Essentially, we ended with the rogue scouting the dragon's room and then calling it a night when he saw the partially digested carcass.
Well, over the next week, they hounded me into agreeing to a follow-up adventure despite the fact that these were only pregenerated characters. I considered running more out of the wonderfully written Raiders of Oakhurst Reloaded, but really wanted to give the players something with appropriate plot structure/flow and play around with the non-combat encounters.
Here's how things played out:
Me: Beaten and exhausted after your fight with the hobgoblins, you decided last week that whatever was eating that carcass in the next room could wait until you had rested.
Hunter: Didn't Meepo mention something about a raiding party being out? Let's make sure we set some watches.
Cleric: And can we move some barricades around? Let's do something with that table...
They set the watch order, sleeping arrangements and I rolling a few dice to make them paranoid. Eventually, they woke up refreshed and broke camp. After much discussion of what had eaten the creature in the next room and a thorough discussion of what the "No longer dragon tender" graffiti might mean, they decided to push forward into Nightscale's (former) breakfast room.
The water ran along-side the path as they approached the room, but it became increasingly dark, oily and acrid as they went. It started to burn the ankles of the warrior who insisted on walking in it and he finally decided to get out as he took some damage. Once the cavern opened before them, they had only a moment to take it in before they were attacked by a pair of cavern chokers and a clever trap left by Nightscale's minions that started the wall cascading into the oily and acidic waters. A fierce battle later, they were able to investigate the room and decided (from the fact that the waterfall of clean water was slowly purifying the room) that they had missed whatever had left the partially digested goat on the island.
They made their way back out of the caves and noticed that the predawn light looked a bit odd. In fact, it didn't even take a roll for the ranger to realize that the sun seemed to be rising in the west. A quick realization later, they were running westward toward the (assumedly burning) town of Oakhurst. And the camping raiding party between them and town.
Much confusion ensued as the running party tripped over sleeping kobold minions and their hobgoblin overseers. The fight was a fierce one as the Kobold Wyrmpriest inspired the horde of minions and the party found that tactics against minions changed greatly once those minions had 10 hit points each. There were no casualties, but healing was completely exhausted by the time they took downed he last of the foes. They noticed a female corpse amongst the chickens and once again recalled the burning town and the notion that this raid might have been worse than the standard chickens and fence-post concern. They grabbed the body and anything that looked valuable and continued their run toward town.
Me: You arrive panting at the outskirts of town and take in the destruction. Chaos and wails of despair surround you! The Priest Elias who sent you on your adventure lies bloody beneath his once-precious statue. Grown men are sobbing over their dead and injured family members, a fire rages amongst local farmhouses surrounding town. Livestock are scattered about town and starting to disperse into the surrounding woods. As if matters couldn't be worse, a disreputable group appears to be grabbing anything they can from the town store and the store owner lies bloodied on the ground in front of the store desperately pleading for them to stop!
Party (in unison): uhh....
Me: Skill Challenge, roll initiative.
Party (in unison): What's a skill challenge??!?!
Me: Don't worry about it yet, roll initiative.
(Initiative is rolled and everyone seems comfortable. Fights are familiar!)
Me (to the Warlock): You collect your thoughts first! What do you want to do?
Warlock: I run up to the looters and yell to them: "Your brothers lie dying around you and all you can think about is your greed? If you wish to behave like demons then I shall treat you as such and banish you to hell!" I throw an eldritch bolt at the feet of the nearest ones. Did that get their attention?!?!?
Me: NICE! Roll intimidate with +2 for the pyrotechnics!
Warlock: 18?
Me: Plenty! TV's...err...Kegs and crates drop to the ground. Several look like they've just realized what is going and seem ashamed of themselves. You notice that a couple are in manacles, but even they seem somewhat abashed.
The Fighter is next on initiative. He's generally pretty quiet in non-combat situations and likes to let the other party members take the lead)
Me (to Fighter): You're up! What are you doing?
Fighter: Uh...I look around some more and see what all is going on.
Me: Ok, roll perception.
Fighter: Hell yeah! 25!
Me: You definitely get a much clearer perspective on things! Looking at the farmhouses, you spot a small form crying for help from the second story of one. At another, you see the fire starting to spread to chicken coops surrounding a huge grain silo. There's an old man desperately trying to throw manure on the fire. There's a look of panic to his motions. The looting has mostly stopped, but there are many dead and dying people around.
Fighter: I point out as much as I can to everyone else! Oh god...this place has gone to hell!
Me (to the ranger): And you?
Ranger (another non-combat MIA): Uh...I look around too...a 9?
I assume here that he's going to have to exceed to fighter's roll to count as a success. Thankfully he failed anyway. 2 Successes, 1 failure and I had stocked this as a challenge with 7 successes being necessary and failures after 4 would start causing "bad stuff (tm)".
Cleric: I'm up! Can I use my healing prayers on people?
Me: Definitely! Roll your heal check.
Cleric: 14?
Me: Good enough! You quickly sort through the dead from the dying and apply your healing where it's most needed. By the time you're done, you're covered in blood and the thankful tears of villagers. Many of those that would have died are now resting and a few that were unconscious are starting to get up and look around. It seems that a surprising number of people were mostly uninjured and simply down from shock.
Warlord: I run to the farmhouse! Someone's trapped in it? How High?!?! Are they hurt? Is the fire blocking my view? Can I get inside?!?!
Me: Whoa...slow down! The farmhouse is definitely ablaze, there is a boy around 7 or 8 years old screaming out of an upstairs window. He's only about 8 or 9 feet up, but looks terrified!
Warlord: I tell him to jump and try to catch him!
Me: Roll diplomacy.
Warlord: Uhh...oh...yeah. Umm, I try to look REALLY nice and helpful! 13?
(This from the dragonborn warlord who barks orders like a drill sergeant).
Me: He thinks about it for a second, but eventually breaks down in tears looking at the ground and the big scaly guy so far underneath him.
3 successes, 2 failures and we're now back to the Warlock.
Warlock: I try to get the former rioters and the townspeople to set up a fire brigade to put the farmhouses out. Starting with the one the boy's in!
At this point, everyone's getting really into things and the one's who aren't furiously scanning their skill sets are looking back and forth between me and whoever's talking like they're watching a tennis match, but the urgency in their eyes is amazing! The warlock didn't even bother waiting for me to tell him what to roll, he just tossed out a die. "15?!?!?" He demands.
Me: Whoa...are you barking orders or trying to get them motivated?
Warlock: Barking seems to have worked so far. I keep it up!
Me: Ok...and that 15 is with intimidate?
Warlock: Umm...yeah. Did I mention it was my best skill?
Me: No problem, most are just glad someone is taking charge. A brigade gets started and people start passing out buckets.
Fighter: What's with the chicken coops and the grain silo? What's the guy so panic'd about?!
Me: Roll insight.
Fighter: Oh uh...ok. 18?
Me: It looks like he's more worried about the silo than the chicken coops. Go ahead and roll a history check.
Fighter: uh....8. Sorry.
(I decided not to count that roll against them.)
Me: That's ok, you're not sure why he's worried about the silo, but he's definitely serious about it. He's running out of steam and manure though...
Cleric: Aren't grain silo's explosive?
(The whole table is instantly silent and looks at the cleric and then me)
Me (evil grin): Not your turn yet.
Ranger: Uh....I grab a shovel and start helping to put out the fire at the silo!!!!
Me: Roll athletics. The man looks at you thankfully. You can tell he's exhausted.
Ranger: 12 total.
Me: Looks like with your extra effort you're slowing down the fire but still not able to keep up with the blaze from the silo. To make matters worse, the man collapses on his shovel.
(5 successes, 3 failures)
Cleric: I try to get the bucket line to focus on the silo!
Me: Why?
Cleric: WHY?!?!?! IT'S GOING TO BLOW UP!!!
Me: Roll a history check.
Cleric: History? Huh?
Me: See if your character has any idea about silo's being explosive.
Cleric: Ugh. Ok. 16!
Me: You scream at the bucket line reminding them of the neighboring town of Hillsdale where an exploding silo killed a score of townsfolk!
You instantly see the situation register in most of their eyes. In moments, buckets of water are heading towards the silo.
Cleric: Whew!
Warlord: Is the boy still ok?
Me: The fire rages around him. You're not even sure how he's still alive.
Warlord: Ok. Forget this asking nicely. I tell him to Jump the hell down here NOW or he's in BIG trouble.
Me: Good call, intimidate?
Warlord: WOOT! Natural 20!
Me: He looks shocked and jumps without even thinking about it.
Warlord: Do I need to roll athletics to catch him?
(I total up 7 successes and 3 failures. The event is a win!)
Me: Nope! He was only a few feet above you anyway.
Warlord: Excellent!
Me: With the help of the fire brigade and your own sweat and muscle, you manage to bring fires and trouble under control without further casualties. Eventually, even the livestock is gathered up and corralled.
Party: Oh yeah...the livestock. Good.
We spent over an hour role-playing as the townspeople and party shared their grief and their victories. Eventually the cleric was bestowed the sun seal formerly belonging to the priest Elias. The party manages to identify some other loot from the raiding party and the fighter is passed out drunk. They gracefully accept the hospitality offered by the owner of the General store.
The next morning, they are awakened by the magistrate. A missing townsperson and a bitter taste to the local stream sends the party following the stream back toward the mountain where the water grows oily and more acidic with each every step. Previous talk of dragons was further cemented when they found dragon scales strongly displayed as part of the kobold Wyrmpriest's staff. At this point, the party is definitely looking toward the skies. This is unfortunate when they come to a dark, acrid-smelling mountain pond fed by a small but seemingly clear waterfall. Before they can discuss this development, the fighter spots the body of a young woman floating in the water near the shore. He sprints to pull her out.
...But not before Nightscale springs her trap...
The black dragon lunges from the water missing a bite attack at the fighter. She moves like lightning towards the rest of the (bunched) party and spends an action point to cover them with her vile breath weapon.
At this point, I hear a nice variety of mumblings:
"Dragon?!"
"From the water?!"
"Action point?!?!?!"
And from the fighter: "Missed me!?"
The fight quickly grows ugly. The dragon calls forth a huge orb of hazy darkness covering the battlefield. The cleric counters with the magic in the sun-god's seal and the dragon is flanked by the fighter and warlord. Missed attacks result in tail swipes that push back one or the other, but movement actions always allow flanking to be recovered before the dragons turn. Sticky OA's from the fighter keep Nightscale pretty well pinned and the cleric/warlord combo keep the fighter up while the ranger/warlock rain dragon-death from range. I began to regret lowering the dragon's defenses by 2 before the fight, but (even so) the fight seemed to last forever until a final blow sent the a dragon corpse tumbling down the mountain.
Everyone cheered! Meepo (previously released) made an appearance as he tried to redeem himself by further slaying the dragon, but was backhanded by the fighter and left bobbing downstream in the water.
I had expected this to be a wonderful climax to their adventure, but in fact it felt a bit empty. I really didn't have to think too long before I realized that the non-combat encounter was BY FAR the most emotionally satisfying part of the night. Everyone was invested in their actions and the state of the townspeople. Combat is fun, but eventually it comes down to a board game with some cinematic spice. Saving a town is well...saving a town and harder to abstract into a strategy game.
Could we have role-played out a burning town? Sure, but the urgency of the initiative system and the fact that EVERYONE is forced to account for their actions (or lack thereof) really adds a lot. It's structure that, while unnecessary, is nice.
Granted, I'm sure many will point out that I cheated. I adjusted DC's based upon the role-played actions. I only occasionally gave out "bonus actions" that had no solid basis in whether it was a "hard" roll. I had intended to run things by the book, but sometimes things just flow. Also, please note that never did I tell my party that I was tracking successes/failures. Not once did I mention a DC to them or whether their roll was "easy", "medium" or "hard".
Maybe it was just that the newness of the system took the gamers out of the game or perhaps this was just one of the really amazing encounters that every GM hopes for where the PC's are truly challenged on an emotional and intellectual level. Whatever the reason, it was truly the highlight of the evening and I really look forward to reproducing it.
(editted due for gramer/typose)
Well, over the next week, they hounded me into agreeing to a follow-up adventure despite the fact that these were only pregenerated characters. I considered running more out of the wonderfully written Raiders of Oakhurst Reloaded, but really wanted to give the players something with appropriate plot structure/flow and play around with the non-combat encounters.
Here's how things played out:
Me: Beaten and exhausted after your fight with the hobgoblins, you decided last week that whatever was eating that carcass in the next room could wait until you had rested.
Hunter: Didn't Meepo mention something about a raiding party being out? Let's make sure we set some watches.
Cleric: And can we move some barricades around? Let's do something with that table...
They set the watch order, sleeping arrangements and I rolling a few dice to make them paranoid. Eventually, they woke up refreshed and broke camp. After much discussion of what had eaten the creature in the next room and a thorough discussion of what the "No longer dragon tender" graffiti might mean, they decided to push forward into Nightscale's (former) breakfast room.
The water ran along-side the path as they approached the room, but it became increasingly dark, oily and acrid as they went. It started to burn the ankles of the warrior who insisted on walking in it and he finally decided to get out as he took some damage. Once the cavern opened before them, they had only a moment to take it in before they were attacked by a pair of cavern chokers and a clever trap left by Nightscale's minions that started the wall cascading into the oily and acidic waters. A fierce battle later, they were able to investigate the room and decided (from the fact that the waterfall of clean water was slowly purifying the room) that they had missed whatever had left the partially digested goat on the island.
They made their way back out of the caves and noticed that the predawn light looked a bit odd. In fact, it didn't even take a roll for the ranger to realize that the sun seemed to be rising in the west. A quick realization later, they were running westward toward the (assumedly burning) town of Oakhurst. And the camping raiding party between them and town.
Much confusion ensued as the running party tripped over sleeping kobold minions and their hobgoblin overseers. The fight was a fierce one as the Kobold Wyrmpriest inspired the horde of minions and the party found that tactics against minions changed greatly once those minions had 10 hit points each. There were no casualties, but healing was completely exhausted by the time they took downed he last of the foes. They noticed a female corpse amongst the chickens and once again recalled the burning town and the notion that this raid might have been worse than the standard chickens and fence-post concern. They grabbed the body and anything that looked valuable and continued their run toward town.
Me: You arrive panting at the outskirts of town and take in the destruction. Chaos and wails of despair surround you! The Priest Elias who sent you on your adventure lies bloody beneath his once-precious statue. Grown men are sobbing over their dead and injured family members, a fire rages amongst local farmhouses surrounding town. Livestock are scattered about town and starting to disperse into the surrounding woods. As if matters couldn't be worse, a disreputable group appears to be grabbing anything they can from the town store and the store owner lies bloodied on the ground in front of the store desperately pleading for them to stop!
Party (in unison): uhh....
Me: Skill Challenge, roll initiative.
Party (in unison): What's a skill challenge??!?!
Me: Don't worry about it yet, roll initiative.
(Initiative is rolled and everyone seems comfortable. Fights are familiar!)
Me (to the Warlock): You collect your thoughts first! What do you want to do?
Warlock: I run up to the looters and yell to them: "Your brothers lie dying around you and all you can think about is your greed? If you wish to behave like demons then I shall treat you as such and banish you to hell!" I throw an eldritch bolt at the feet of the nearest ones. Did that get their attention?!?!?
Me: NICE! Roll intimidate with +2 for the pyrotechnics!
Warlock: 18?
Me: Plenty! TV's...err...Kegs and crates drop to the ground. Several look like they've just realized what is going and seem ashamed of themselves. You notice that a couple are in manacles, but even they seem somewhat abashed.
The Fighter is next on initiative. He's generally pretty quiet in non-combat situations and likes to let the other party members take the lead)
Me (to Fighter): You're up! What are you doing?
Fighter: Uh...I look around some more and see what all is going on.
Me: Ok, roll perception.
Fighter: Hell yeah! 25!
Me: You definitely get a much clearer perspective on things! Looking at the farmhouses, you spot a small form crying for help from the second story of one. At another, you see the fire starting to spread to chicken coops surrounding a huge grain silo. There's an old man desperately trying to throw manure on the fire. There's a look of panic to his motions. The looting has mostly stopped, but there are many dead and dying people around.
Fighter: I point out as much as I can to everyone else! Oh god...this place has gone to hell!
Me (to the ranger): And you?
Ranger (another non-combat MIA): Uh...I look around too...a 9?
I assume here that he's going to have to exceed to fighter's roll to count as a success. Thankfully he failed anyway. 2 Successes, 1 failure and I had stocked this as a challenge with 7 successes being necessary and failures after 4 would start causing "bad stuff (tm)".
Cleric: I'm up! Can I use my healing prayers on people?
Me: Definitely! Roll your heal check.
Cleric: 14?
Me: Good enough! You quickly sort through the dead from the dying and apply your healing where it's most needed. By the time you're done, you're covered in blood and the thankful tears of villagers. Many of those that would have died are now resting and a few that were unconscious are starting to get up and look around. It seems that a surprising number of people were mostly uninjured and simply down from shock.
Warlord: I run to the farmhouse! Someone's trapped in it? How High?!?! Are they hurt? Is the fire blocking my view? Can I get inside?!?!
Me: Whoa...slow down! The farmhouse is definitely ablaze, there is a boy around 7 or 8 years old screaming out of an upstairs window. He's only about 8 or 9 feet up, but looks terrified!
Warlord: I tell him to jump and try to catch him!
Me: Roll diplomacy.
Warlord: Uhh...oh...yeah. Umm, I try to look REALLY nice and helpful! 13?
(This from the dragonborn warlord who barks orders like a drill sergeant).
Me: He thinks about it for a second, but eventually breaks down in tears looking at the ground and the big scaly guy so far underneath him.
3 successes, 2 failures and we're now back to the Warlock.
Warlock: I try to get the former rioters and the townspeople to set up a fire brigade to put the farmhouses out. Starting with the one the boy's in!
At this point, everyone's getting really into things and the one's who aren't furiously scanning their skill sets are looking back and forth between me and whoever's talking like they're watching a tennis match, but the urgency in their eyes is amazing! The warlock didn't even bother waiting for me to tell him what to roll, he just tossed out a die. "15?!?!?" He demands.
Me: Whoa...are you barking orders or trying to get them motivated?
Warlock: Barking seems to have worked so far. I keep it up!
Me: Ok...and that 15 is with intimidate?
Warlock: Umm...yeah. Did I mention it was my best skill?
Me: No problem, most are just glad someone is taking charge. A brigade gets started and people start passing out buckets.
Fighter: What's with the chicken coops and the grain silo? What's the guy so panic'd about?!
Me: Roll insight.
Fighter: Oh uh...ok. 18?
Me: It looks like he's more worried about the silo than the chicken coops. Go ahead and roll a history check.
Fighter: uh....8. Sorry.
(I decided not to count that roll against them.)
Me: That's ok, you're not sure why he's worried about the silo, but he's definitely serious about it. He's running out of steam and manure though...
Cleric: Aren't grain silo's explosive?
(The whole table is instantly silent and looks at the cleric and then me)
Me (evil grin): Not your turn yet.
Ranger: Uh....I grab a shovel and start helping to put out the fire at the silo!!!!
Me: Roll athletics. The man looks at you thankfully. You can tell he's exhausted.
Ranger: 12 total.
Me: Looks like with your extra effort you're slowing down the fire but still not able to keep up with the blaze from the silo. To make matters worse, the man collapses on his shovel.
(5 successes, 3 failures)
Cleric: I try to get the bucket line to focus on the silo!
Me: Why?
Cleric: WHY?!?!?! IT'S GOING TO BLOW UP!!!
Me: Roll a history check.
Cleric: History? Huh?
Me: See if your character has any idea about silo's being explosive.
Cleric: Ugh. Ok. 16!
Me: You scream at the bucket line reminding them of the neighboring town of Hillsdale where an exploding silo killed a score of townsfolk!
You instantly see the situation register in most of their eyes. In moments, buckets of water are heading towards the silo.
Cleric: Whew!
Warlord: Is the boy still ok?
Me: The fire rages around him. You're not even sure how he's still alive.
Warlord: Ok. Forget this asking nicely. I tell him to Jump the hell down here NOW or he's in BIG trouble.
Me: Good call, intimidate?
Warlord: WOOT! Natural 20!
Me: He looks shocked and jumps without even thinking about it.
Warlord: Do I need to roll athletics to catch him?
(I total up 7 successes and 3 failures. The event is a win!)
Me: Nope! He was only a few feet above you anyway.
Warlord: Excellent!
Me: With the help of the fire brigade and your own sweat and muscle, you manage to bring fires and trouble under control without further casualties. Eventually, even the livestock is gathered up and corralled.
Party: Oh yeah...the livestock. Good.
We spent over an hour role-playing as the townspeople and party shared their grief and their victories. Eventually the cleric was bestowed the sun seal formerly belonging to the priest Elias. The party manages to identify some other loot from the raiding party and the fighter is passed out drunk. They gracefully accept the hospitality offered by the owner of the General store.
The next morning, they are awakened by the magistrate. A missing townsperson and a bitter taste to the local stream sends the party following the stream back toward the mountain where the water grows oily and more acidic with each every step. Previous talk of dragons was further cemented when they found dragon scales strongly displayed as part of the kobold Wyrmpriest's staff. At this point, the party is definitely looking toward the skies. This is unfortunate when they come to a dark, acrid-smelling mountain pond fed by a small but seemingly clear waterfall. Before they can discuss this development, the fighter spots the body of a young woman floating in the water near the shore. He sprints to pull her out.
...But not before Nightscale springs her trap...
The black dragon lunges from the water missing a bite attack at the fighter. She moves like lightning towards the rest of the (bunched) party and spends an action point to cover them with her vile breath weapon.
At this point, I hear a nice variety of mumblings:
"Dragon?!"
"From the water?!"
"Action point?!?!?!"
And from the fighter: "Missed me!?"
The fight quickly grows ugly. The dragon calls forth a huge orb of hazy darkness covering the battlefield. The cleric counters with the magic in the sun-god's seal and the dragon is flanked by the fighter and warlord. Missed attacks result in tail swipes that push back one or the other, but movement actions always allow flanking to be recovered before the dragons turn. Sticky OA's from the fighter keep Nightscale pretty well pinned and the cleric/warlord combo keep the fighter up while the ranger/warlock rain dragon-death from range. I began to regret lowering the dragon's defenses by 2 before the fight, but (even so) the fight seemed to last forever until a final blow sent the a dragon corpse tumbling down the mountain.
Everyone cheered! Meepo (previously released) made an appearance as he tried to redeem himself by further slaying the dragon, but was backhanded by the fighter and left bobbing downstream in the water.
I had expected this to be a wonderful climax to their adventure, but in fact it felt a bit empty. I really didn't have to think too long before I realized that the non-combat encounter was BY FAR the most emotionally satisfying part of the night. Everyone was invested in their actions and the state of the townspeople. Combat is fun, but eventually it comes down to a board game with some cinematic spice. Saving a town is well...saving a town and harder to abstract into a strategy game.
Could we have role-played out a burning town? Sure, but the urgency of the initiative system and the fact that EVERYONE is forced to account for their actions (or lack thereof) really adds a lot. It's structure that, while unnecessary, is nice.
Granted, I'm sure many will point out that I cheated. I adjusted DC's based upon the role-played actions. I only occasionally gave out "bonus actions" that had no solid basis in whether it was a "hard" roll. I had intended to run things by the book, but sometimes things just flow. Also, please note that never did I tell my party that I was tracking successes/failures. Not once did I mention a DC to them or whether their roll was "easy", "medium" or "hard".
Maybe it was just that the newness of the system took the gamers out of the game or perhaps this was just one of the really amazing encounters that every GM hopes for where the PC's are truly challenged on an emotional and intellectual level. Whatever the reason, it was truly the highlight of the evening and I really look forward to reproducing it.
(editted due for gramer/typose)
Last edited:
